Anna Aden Writes

Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read this. This post is going to be about my upcoming black love and African American contemporary romance release, which I think tentatively will be late this year or early 2024. It will be a six-part serialised novel, and I'll reveal the date nearer the time. It has been five years since my last black love romance novel. I have two novellas published on Amazon, and I'm  pleased to finally say, I'm about to publish again. It's been a long time.  I planned to release this book in February 2019, but after a long writer's block and other things, it had taken me this long to complete it.  If you follow this blog on and off, I've spoken about it a lot over the years. I'm thinking maybe I should relabel those blog posts as a series of how it developed.  The Story Description The names have changed well from Angelica to Pippa but it's fine.  Everyone wants someone special but PIPPA MILLER thinks not her. She...

Save the Date Free Promotion. For 5 days from the 22th to 24th September 2023 , I shall be running a free promotion for Another Chance. So save the date and grab yourself a copy.  Amazon UK:   http://amzn.eu/g79tgiL Amazon US:   http://a.co/8Imgwnr GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41033579-another-chance?from_search=true

I'm working on a pre-release campaign and it isn't going how I'd like it. However if you have being reading me on and off, you'll know I've been writing some novels-in-progress for the longest times!  I stopped writing about it because it just got EMBARRASSING especially when I planned to release this book in 2019. Yes, five years ago! But it's nearly there.  Leyton & Pippa The heroine started off being called Angelica but I kept on misspelling it so I changed it to Pippa. If you look under the label Angelica & Leyton a lot will come up.  Anyway I'm exciting to say, I'm getting reading for publication soon.  Its going to be a six-part serialised instalment, and I'll have details nearer the time.  Maybe A Six Months Countdown I'm planning between three to six months, however when the details are clear, I'll write a post. I'm also doing an extended blog posts on another blog but I'll keep it short and simple here. 

Discovered Hatchards - London's oldest bookstore Yes, shame on me for not knowing about this bookstore but please, I do go to Waterstones, Foyles, Daunts - back in the day Dillon and I don't live in Green Park or Mayfair *sniff, sniff* only kidding but it was nice to discover this.  So let's get on with my blog narrative.  I was walking down Green Park, and discovered Hatchards, an old bookshop or booksellers as the UK bookshops have rebranded themselves. Normally when I go to Green Park and walk towards Piccadilly Circus, I normally just go to the posh Waterstones, or I'm rushing to the underground or running some errand.  I've never really looked at any of the shops but it was a pleasant discovery.  I probably just noticed it because I was walking slowly,  taking my time, looking for interesting stuff for my Saturday - My London Hood posts.  I think it's owned by Waterstones - well Waterstones has taken it over, only because it ha...

This is editing day where I catch up on all my writing drama. It's how the daily blogging began until I found another project Synopsis of Leyton & Angelica I've got a few of these but decided this for today. Note the book is in 3rd person POV. LEYTON THOMAS is one beautiful, fine-looking man. Simply irresistible but comes with warnings. I've had a one night stand with a parole thug, now I'm sleeping with a billionaire CEO. I'm falling for him fast . But I have secrets in my past that can destroyed this if it gets serious. Will destroy this. Maybe I should just stay in my own lane and leave the past alone. But it will mean losing Leyton.... Catch up on week three Completing last week's lesson was challenging for many reasons - first it was tedious, second I had a lot on off-line and third I was trying to do the blog plan. I realised I've missed out quite a few scenes, there are lots of jumps, and it's messy. I also made a big mi...

Planning my Blog Inspired by my writing friend, Raven Black , I'm thinking of planning my blog.  Check out her blog . Not sure because I'm not a planner. I purposely chose a career where I needed to do little planning. Planning makes me feel constricted but it does have it's benefits. But where do I start? Normally when I plan, I either get stuck in the planning stages or by the time I'm completely I lose interest. No harm in trying. She said it took her a week to plan her blog. I guess my biggest takeaway from reading Raven's blog was finding out my goal. Her was to improve her social media presence by being consistent, and it has worked. I tend to flirt with social media - that includes blogging. The benefit of this is having a more rounded blog....not just me moaning about  writing or colds or editing.  I guess my biggest goal would be to promote my writing but I don't think blogging does that. However I do have different creative outlets - dr...

Up and About - went outside I went outside for the first time in a week. Yes, it's being that long.. It was wet and cold but I needed to get weighed. I don't have a pair of weighing scales at home so I use the gym. I was slightly unsteady but that was a gushing wind. Then I went looking for a loaf of fresh bread but the shop bakeries hadn't started yet, I think it's because it was a Sunday. Normally on a week day or Saturday the shops would smell of freshly baked bread so I just bought some milk. Later on, in the evening,  I needed to get some revision cards for my next  editing assignment so I popped into my local Waitrose. Quite an expensive shop but I didn't have the emery to walk to the main stationary shop on the main road. I managed to avoid the obstacle course of sweets and treats.  I don't tend to buy them, the problem with shop-made-baked products is that they don't taste as good as they look. Treats at the shop My urban lit Afri...

Feeling a lot better but still in bed I think the worse is over but I probably shouldn't overdo it. The problem is mostly not resting. Being online, even though it's just surfing and catching up on social media is still like work. I might as well be at a desk. So reducing that has been very difficult because of the Fear of Missing Out. Also not working means just more time for social media but I'm revising that stance. As I said with this nasty series of colds, my focus for this year shall be looking after myself and surroundings. Normally illnesses give us time to reflect but with social media we are still working in a way. There is no break from the outer world. Grocery care packages drop off from family Food package from family My family dropped off lots of stuff for me. Fruits, vitamin C , orange juice, avocados, soups. For the first two days my mother took charge, then yesterday my sister dropped off a massive shop from Waitrose. Big Momma did combinat...

Bad Cold so in bed This is my third cold in the three weeks, so I'm not sure why I'm rundown. Okay, I know but three bad colds? This is the worst. Anyway, I'm drinking hot fluids and staying in bed. The sore throat is very sore. I'm just really irritable at the moment. Progress on editing: Schedule for editing and publishing my urban lit African American romance - Leyton and Angelica This lesson is a lot more tedious and boring than the first. I'm not really sure what I'm doing but I'm sure at some point it will make sense. It's about promises made to the reader  and I'm making a note as I go along. I'm going to work as much as I can to keep within the time schedule. Rough Schedule  Lessons 1 to 8 are about learning to  diagnose and triage a novel. Due completion 23rd March 2019 Lesssons 9 to 17 is about major novel surgery - what ever that is. Due completion 25th May 2019 Lessons 18 - 22 is the actual rewrite and revising the n...

I'm about to begin lesson two where I need to discover according to Holly Lisle's website. Don't what to make of it but I'm working out the promises I've made. So yeah.... IN LESSON TWO: You’ll discover your promises. I’ll bet you didn’t realize you were making promises while you were telling your story, but from your very first word on your very first page, you started making them. And then you kept some. And you broke some. There are three kinds of promises in every book ever written. They are: The promises ALL writers MUST make (and most writers usually break)... The promises you intended to make (though you probably didn’t think of them as promises)... And the promises you made by accident. I'll let you know how it goes as I work through it. Slightly more complicated than last week but it will keep me busy. Leyton & Angelica publication date I'm looking at late summer. I'm pretty nervous because as a person, I don't tend to plan ...

Why I write African American urban street lit fiction It's a form of escapism for me. I get away from my environment and travel to a different place in my writing. It's also influenced by my interest in hip hop pop culture, larger than life characters and the life style. I also get to write the types of books, I'd like to read in the genre. Because I'm a big fan but at times I'm not sure what I can read. So I write it for myself and then clean up and share with others.  Why Self-publishing route? Lots of reasons but it's mainly because I'm writing urban fiction. I don't write to market so its not commercial. Also it's my slant or take on urban fiction so there is a lot of politics behind.  No real market in the UK unless it's a crossover I write for escapism so I don't deal with certain issues that I have no knowledge of. I write what I know but set in my fictional county. It is expensive to self-publish but at least my stor...

YES! Completed stage one of reviewing my urban lit African American romance  - Leyton and Angelica Photo by  bruce mars  from  Pexels I'm so excited! So far so good and I completed before schedule so now I just need to wait for the second lesson - I get them weekly. From her site this was what lesson one was suppose to do When you work your way through this first lesson, the most important thing you are learning is how to recognize and save every bit of wonderful you put into your book. I really liked the story I read. There is plenty to be worked on. Lots and lots but overall I enjoyed reading it so I hope readers will find it good, provided it stays. I'm so excited about this! Because of the way the lessons were structured, I enjoyed doing the lesson as well. However I don't drill into lessons that deeply, like she gave a full length demo but nah, I wasn't going to read all that before starting on mine. I gave it a brief glance to get the gi...

Editing Update my urban lit African American romance  - Leyton and Angelica I'm pleased with my progress but though I have a schedule with writing, I work in a storm, a zone, I just get lost. This is because  its my escapism and pretty my the only thing I have control over - sometimes. So more often than not I do a little more. However I do have a timer to tell me when its timeout. I'm probably not following the Holly Lisle How to Edit Your Novel lesson one as strictly as I should, like I'm not heading for perfections but note I've been on a lot of courses so I do what I can.  I'm doing with broad strokes but her tasks instilled me with confidence. So far, I've rediscovered a lot of good things and treasures about my story which I hope the reader will enjoy - if I get to keep them. Not there are also a lot of bits that suck!  Remember this is only lesson one. There are also parts that suck. There is a fair bit of emotion. And using Holly Lisle's m...

Bad Cold, stayed in bed My second cold in two weeks. I took time off last week because I was trying to shrug off a cold, only to feel worse for wear. Yesterday, I finally got to the work but came back home. Now, I'm self medicating with lemsips,  pastilles and home-made remedy. Two people suggested hot toddies but I'm not sure whisky is a good idea. Anyway, I'm drinking lemon, honey and hot water. Then the pastilles and lemsip. Not a good time to be ill since I'm rounding up at work, but I've been run down for various reasons - yes writing a blog and my novel is escapism.  Editing my urban lit African American romance - Leyton and Angelica Nothing as yet. Still doing the course but I reckon an hour everyday with a bit on weekends will help. The great thing about the assignments is that with my hour slot, I can time how much I can do then then estimate how long it will take me. For example reading my manuscript with the tasks outlined in Holl...

EDITING Mistakes! Wrong way! Not following instructions! So got the editing lesson and of course I messed up. Got it wrong. At first glance it seemed easy  but I soon realised there was a lot more going on. Then half way though my hour - like 30 minutes in, I found out I was doing something WRONG. Anyway, I assessed the risk of correcting myself continuing or starting again. I'm not starting again because it will be BORING. And boring sucks! It's demotivating. So I've decided to cut my losses, forget about I've done wrong - leave it wrong but do right....Complicated? I'm a fairly complicated person. Given I have about twenty more lessons to look forward, I don't think making mistakes in the first lesson is such a big deal. Let's talk about positive things! Edit so far: my urban lit African American romance - Leyton and Angelica According to Holly's website lesson one is suppose to IN LESSON ONE: You’ll learn how to create your targe...

Excited about starting the course! So you all know I was pretty desperate and couldn't see where I was going, so basically I went looking for a course and decided on Holly Lisle course. Mainly because I've seen it knocking about online for a while. I know she's a reliable brand because I bought some of her ebooks back in the day, I know someone on my online writing workshop who spoke highly of course so all in all it's good to go. My commitment will be trying to do as much as I can.  So I've got the first lesson and have printed off the instructions, and I plan to work on it an hour a day. I'm excited about it. I'm not affiliated so I'll  let you know what I think as I go along. So far, it's made me optimistic, when I did the Curtis Brown Creative Edit and Pitch Your Novel and first saw the editing material I was unimpressed (the pitching part is excellent). It was something I could get out of a book. Looking though Holly Lisle's first we...

Stressed: Facing the truth about editing Photo by  Nathan Cowley  from  Pexels I finally accepted my editing was going nowhere. I was slow and I could not see the end of it. I just didn't know how to approach it - I had no structure. Sure, I've completed the first Act but I still wasn't sure how to measure. I was at the end of my titter. At the end. Stressed, overeating and frustrated. I just couldn't get it together so I decided needed to take action. I also wanted to complete the book by a certain time  so I could publish and make good an implicit promise to my readers. Desperation: The search for a writing and editing course Photo by  Nick Demou  from  Pexels In desperation, I went looking for a course. I had done an editing course before -  Online Edit and Pitch your novel - from Curtis Brown Creative but to be honest I found the editing part to be an money grab. It's worth doing for the Pitching part but the Editing part you c...

So the story is roughly divided into four parts or eight parts, the technically of it doesn't matter so much. And some some people do three. Whatever works! I roughly use Alexandra Sokoloff's method.   http://www.screenwritingtricks.com/2010/02/three-act-eight-sequence-structure.html   I do it in a very loose way and it really depends on if the story works that way. Not all stories will work.  NEVER FORCE A STORY INTO A STRUCTURE. The structure is to help the story not the other way around. This is way I'm considering whether I'm doing a two part Act 1 or a one part Art 1. Complicated? Not really, I just need to figure out a few bits and then roll with it. Recap of Part One. So Angelica is having problems at home. Her friends persuade her to go partying to forget all her problem. There she meets a hot super-sexy thug, and they have a steamy lust-filled one-night stand. In the morning Angelica and the thug part ways. Angelica catches up with her girls about t...

The Morning After is the next scene I've got to tackle. I've done bits of that but I need to write it up and see how it goes. I've also made some fundamental changes so hopefully that will make it seem better. At least it will be easier for me to write in some ways, and perhaps more pleasurable for the reader to read. 5 stars on Good Reads! I got my first five star on GoodReads, I'm feeling so good about it! So pleased!

 my urban lit African American romance - Leyton and Angelica Stuck on Sexy Thugged-out Lust Scene! Yes, I'm stuck on the dirty filthy lust scene. It's not a love scene, it's pure LUST but I'm stuck. Maybe I should just move on. You know the thug in my synopsis? Search under synopsis. An all thugged-out LUST scene! Maybe it's not to happen and I should shut the door in the reader's face. Closed door policy. No sex here please. So moving on from that scene and jumping into the morning after. I'll revise in the next draft pass.