Essex Author Day!

On Saturday, I was lucky enough to be invited to be a part of Essex Author Day as part of the Essex Book Festival. And what better way to spend a Saturday than to be surrounded by other writers?

It's incredible to be in a room full of like-minded people. In this case, book lovers! There were loads of different workshops, talks, and readings for people to go to, as well as stands to visit. It was great to see so many book people!

I signed books, had a reading, and spoke to many, many people about the ZA and ZA! Gotta get people ZA ready somehow.

Thanks for having me! Sending out so much love and luck to my fellow Essex Authors! Hope we can do it again next year!




Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Instagram / Pinterest / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

Build Your World Brick By Boring Brick

World building is similar to creating characters but more complex. If you're anything like me, this means it takes a while longer to create a believable world than it does to create a believable character. The more you work at this world, the more detail you can go into. The more detail you go into, the more people will want to live there. And that's exactly what you want. You think Harry Potter would've been so successful if JK Rowling didn't know the wizarding world inside out?

You need to think of everything, but here are a few things that are essential: What's different from our world? What's the same? What's important to the people who live there? What do they hate? What do they love? How is society run? How is the class system set up? What are the cultural norms? What is the collective aim? What sort of education do the people have? What sort of jobs do they do? What are the roles of the family?

The structure of your world is the basic form you can work off to create everything else.

The details will likely come to you in rushes and drips, impossible to predict. In order to speed up, you can live in your world. Immerse yourself everywhere you go, and the details will start flowing. Whenever I'm bored, I do this. I'm usually walking somewhere or in the car.

Basing things off the real world is fine too. While I was writing the beginning of Fire and Ice, I was on holiday, and I used the complex we were staying on to shape the world of Shards and Flares. The very basic structure of the buildings let me breathe life to the Training Centre. Sometimes starting with a blank page is too scary. Letting your real world influence you is a powerful thing.

Once you're in and you know your world inside out, you need to be aware that the reader doesn't need to know everything you do. They need to know the basics and what's important to your story, but don't bombard them with detail. 

World building takes time and patience, but you'll be infinitely glad that you took the time once everyone's wishing to be a part of your world. *cue The Little Mermaid music*

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

You Can Do This! Let's Talk About Writing Motivation

Writing isn't difficult. Wait, come back! I didn't mean it like that. Of course writing is difficult, but it's also easy. Sometimes you can look up and be three-thousand words up. Sometimes it's just three.

What's equally bi-polar is the little voice inside your head. This is amazing. This is terrible. Everyone will want to read this. No one will want to read this. This is what truly holds me back, and I know others are the same.

This is why being a writer is such a crazy thing. That and all the people walking around in your head.

Sometimes that voice is your inner editor trying to make something perfect. But what it can't come to grips with is that nothing is perfect. That's when it becomes your inner demon and tries whatever it can to put you down.

I'm here to tell you to almost never listen to your inner demon.

But how do you slay that particular dragon? How do you carry on when you've had eight awful days in a row battling through every word?

There are many ways to do this, but the two I've found most helpful in my writing career so far are to just keep on going, powering through like a mad person, and finding solace in others.

I know that 'just keep on going' might not be the most helpful thing I've ever said, but I stand by it. If you write every day, you get better at writing every day. All of a sudden, it's easy to reach that word count. All at once you feel like you're doing it. You're actually doing it. You're a superhero!

That's how you should feel all the time. You're a writer, and that's incredible.

If you finish your project and stop writing, it'll be harder and harder to write every day once you start something up again. Write every day. Believe me, I know how difficult this is, and I would be lying if I said I'd mastered writing every single day of the year, but all us writers should. Write blog posts and short stories and flash fiction. It doesn't matter how terrible, these things are flexing your writing muscles. You'll thank yourself for it later.

My favourite thing to do is take a character from one of my novels and write something from their perspective. I tend to show no one these pieces of writing and sometimes they're all over the shop, but it doesn't matter. Whatever keeps me writing keeps me happy.

Just as important, is finding solace in others. Writers, you are not alone. Whether you like it or not, there are thousands of us out there, and we all suffer from the same issues. Instead of struggling on and letting doubt weave itself into your head, go and find some like-minded people. Writing websites are a terrific, beautiful places that have made me feel infinitely better about my work. Facebook has loads of groups. Twitter has so many authors to confide in. NaNoWriMo gets hundreds of thousands of writers together every November. And of course, Movellas, my writing home, has made me confident and more of the writer I want to be.

Go check these things out. There's so much out there, and you should use what you can to motivate yourself.

Who am I to motivate you? I only know how it works for me.

So I implore you to go in search of your muse, and when you find it, grab hold and never let go.

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

Happy Birthday Molten Publishing!

Thank you to everyone who's worked with us in the past year. I've loved every minute of it - almost - and although we've had our ups and downs, I wouldn't change it for the world. I have learnt so much more in the past year than I ever have before, and I love it!

And waking up on a Monday morning and actually wanting to get started with your work is a feeling like no other.

I am changed for the better, and I can't wait to see what the next year brings. It's going to be bigger and brighter, just you wait!

To celebrate our birthday, we can finally announce that our website is up and running! Go visit us there! 

Thanks for all the love and support. I don't know where I'd be without it.

Molly :)

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

The Thing About Dreams Is . . .

Now I've written many blog posts in the past to do with my self-published books and recently one to announce ZA and it's arrival in the world, and it's got me thinking about how dreams warp and change as we do.

When I first started writing, my dream was to finish a book. Then a trilogy. Write five books. Write ten. Now I'm not sure I'll hit another goal until I've written twenty-five, fifty, a hundred. What I do know is that I won't stop setting them.

I'm one of those people who loves to set huge goals and then race towards them with little time for celebration once the end has been reached. I might have a tiny celebratory whoop with my hands in the air before I move straight onto the next thing. When I was fifteen and I wrote the final full stop of my first novel, I mourned for a few days and then asked myself, so what should I write next? The answer to that was, a book's not challenging enough, let's write a trilogy.

Then when I was in the midst of doing that, I decided the next thing was to get published. Of course, I got rejected over and over (who doesn't?), and now with that beautiful thing called hindsight, I know my books weren't ready. But that didn't stop me ploughing towards my goal. I self-published all three of the trilogy, which was exhausting and stressful and . . . well, either you know the joy and pain of the self-publishing world or you don't. Let's just say I had mixed feelings.

Boom, another dream realised.

So why wasn't I satisfied?

Here I am typing this now, co-director and editor-in-chief of Molten Publishing, and I think maybe I'm getting somewhere. Sharing my knowledge with people and going around talking about books seems to be giving me much more joy than these stupid targets ever did.

Don't get me wrong, writing is my ultimate passion, and there's nothing like writing--and finishing--a book, but now I'm a little older and a little wiser, and I know that dreams aren't always what they seem.

I have officially landed in the publishing world, and I'm so excited to see what everyone thinks of Zane and ZA. And this time, I'm making the most of it.

Here's hoping my little whoops get louder. Maybe next time you'll hear them . . .


ZA will be back in stock on Amazon in September! Watch this space! :) #ZAReady

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

I Am ZA Ready

ZA has always had a special place in my heart, and over four years since starting Zane's journey, it's more true now than ever.

ZA is special to me for a million different reasons, but one of the big ones is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Now those of you who know me will know how much of a huge deal NaNoWriMo is in my life. I've participated every year since I discovered it in 2011, and it's become a huge part of who I am as a writer. ZA was my very first NaNo novel, and I had never believed I could write so much in such a short space of time. Nothing encourages me as much as NaNo, and ZA was my first stepping stone in discovering the phenomenal world I now throw myself into once a year.

Another reason is of course, zombies. My dad and my brother and I have always been fans of zombie movies. In 2012 we took part in the very first Zombie Run up in Lincoln. I'm also proud to say that I read Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth before anyone even knew what it was. Conversations and discussions in my house directly inspired me to write ZA. I'd be lying if I said that certain phrases and events in ZA weren't based on something real. The phrase itself - "ZA Ready" - was coined in my house. And the character of Jay is somewhat based on the fourteen-year-old version of my own brother.

So yeah, this book means a lot to me.

The original 2011 version of ZA up until last year had been available on Kindle, but as this story means so much to me, it wasn't good enough. I released it on Kindle in 2013 thinking that would be enough, but there was something about Zane's story that kept calling to me.

Original cover design by James Terry - jrterry95@gmail.com

So in 2015 during NaNoWriMo'15, I re-wrote the entire thing after the brilliant Kimberly Ito gave me some phenomenal editing critique. I agreed with every single tiny thing she told me and officially worship her editing talent. I managed to almost double the word count, adding suspense, gore, and of course, a load more zombies.

One of the reasons for doing this was Molten Publishing, the publishing company my dad and I set up in 2015. From then on, writing was not enough. From then on, I lived and breathed and inhaled all things books and publishing.

And that led us to the immensely talented Chris Kemp from CK Creative who designed this awesome cover! Every time my inbox flashed up with an email from Chris, I was excited to open it and see what he'd come up with next.

Cover by Chris Kemp - ckcreative@outlook.com

Of course I can't go any longer without mentioning my second home, Movellas. The Movellas community have supported and encouraged me every step of the way and even helped Chris and I decide on a final cover design.

They also agreed to run a ZA competition, which is still open! Participants have a chance to win a signed copy of ZA and critique from me! The competition is the perfect way to get into the zombie genre if you're new to it.

It's only a little creepy that I have a picture of my sixteen-year-old self standing like Zane . . .

After the cover, I was a buzz of energy (and stress), fiddling with typesetting and blurbs and proofreads.

So yeah, sue me if I'm a little proud.

Okay, a lot proud.

And get ready for the Zombie Armageddon . . .


Like ZA on Facebook!

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

Week Five (and six) - 'After' Book Three

All right, I'm going to level with you here. I'm not going to write during week six (at least that's what I'm saying now). I am unbelievably busy with a little book called ZA, which has been my entire life for the past six months.

You can like ZA on Facebook by the way. And read the first three chapters here.

Anyway, in comparison to how huge ZA is in my life right now, After book three just really isn't up there on the scale of important things. Don't get me wrong, I'm not stopping. I just need a week to sort out my exceedingly long to-do list!

Okay, back to week five.

I wrote almost 11,000 words, which is pretty much the same as last week. Steady is my friend at the moment. I'm sure once I reach the climax I'll be throwing 4k and 5k days around--at least I hope that's what's going to happen.

Unfortunately, I'm falling out of love with the book again. I don't know whether it's because I'm so in love with ZA that nothing can compare or just because I can't give it the love and attention it deserves.

I guess only the read through once I'm done will let me know.

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

Say Goodbye to the Old World . . .

It's time to get #ZAReady!

I'm so thrilled to announce that ZA will be released on Friday 13th May 2016 by Molten Publishing! 

I can't wait to share this story with you! If I had to wait any longer I might burst!

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

ZA: An Apocalyptic Writing Competition

Exciting news! I have teamed up with amazing writing site, Movellas, to bring you a Zombie Armageddon themed writing competition!

Enter to win a signed copy of ZA and feedback from me!

Here are some more details but visit the competition page on Movellas for everything you need to know.


How to Participate

1. Write a fanfiction or regular story about the Zombie Armageddon, or where the world is ravaged by another type of apocalypse. This can either the outbreak or years later.

2. Write a fanfiction or regular story where a group of people must band together. Whether they're in a desperate situation or not is up to you!

3. Design an alternate cover for the book (after reading the extract of course) or an alternate trailer.


The Prizes

1st place will receive a signed copy ZA and feedback on their entry from Molly.

2nd & 3rd place will also receive a signed copy of ZA.

Best cover/trailer will receive a signed copy of ZA.

ENTER NOW!

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

So Long 2015!

Well 2015 has been a huge year! This year I've learnt more from my failure than my successes and I have been braver than I ever have been before (and than I ever thought I could be).


But let's start off with the most important shall we? Books!

I only read 28 books this year which sounds like a lot but not when you compare it to my 32 from last year and 34 from the year before. I was 7 off my target of 35 and perhaps I'll drop my target down to 30 next year. I've got to say, when you're running your own business, there's a lot less time for reading. But that shouldn't be an excuse so next year I'll aim for 30!

I read some incredible books this year but here are the top ten in the order I read them:

Haze - Paula Weston
Anna Dressed in Blood - Kendare Blake
The Passage - Justin Cronin
Just One Day - Gayle Forman
The Rise of Nine - Pittacus Lore
An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
Shimmer - Paula Weston
Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green and David Levithan
Burn - Paula Weston
Sinner - Maggie Stiefvater

I knew my favourite of 2015 was going to be Burn by Paula Weston even before it came out. I adored the Rephiam Series which I read books 2, 3, and 4 of this year. It is just an outstanding read and anyone who loves YA should go and read it straight away!

Special shout out also to Pittacus Lore whose Lorien Legacies series I picked up this year. I read the first four and can't wait to pick up book five and six next year!

This year I also put three books down without finishing them for the first time ever. What can I say, life is really getting going for me and I don't have time for bad books! No more terrible reads for me! Be afraid, be very afraid.

Now moving onto the blog. . .

I wrote 33 book reviews this year which is something to do with having books from 2014 left over that I hadn't reviewed yet back in January! This is blog 52 of the year so I have again succeeded in blogging once a week! Go me!

My three favourite posts are definitely My Definitive List of Disney Classics , Books Nobody's Reading That Everybody Should Be Reading for #IreadYA , and  NaNoWriMo Pep Talk 2015 so if you want to go back and read something I suggest one of these.

However my most popular post this year was my Insanity for Imprint post which isn't surprising seeing as I posted the link to it everywhere! In fact, it was my most popular post ever!

This year also saw the mark of my 100th Post! which is just insanity.


Now blogging isn't my entire life - shocking, I know - I also do some writing sometimes!

I won some in 2015 (Shortlisted for the Wicked Young Writers Award 2015) and I lost some in 2015 (only wrote 1 book this year.) but I learnt a hell of a lot about writing and about myself.

My NaNo project, Imprint, crashed and burned and I couldn't be more glad. Three days into NaNo I decided enough was enough and threw the thing away. This let me concentrate on what I really wanted to be working on, ZA. (By the way it stands for Zombie Armageddon.) Some of you might recognise the title from 2013 and yes, it's the same novel in essence but I'm revamping it. More drama, more chaos, more gore. It'll be beautiful and shiny and even more terrifying in 2016 so thank you so much Imprint for being so terrible! (Come 'like' ZA on Facebook for all the news!)

I also wrote Hereafter, book two in my After trilogy which I'm super excited about! I wrote Hereafter in just 23 days and loved every word. The After trilogy is causing so much excitement I can barely contain it but at the moment Hereafter is being kept under lock and key until I can give it my full attention.

Thereafter, book one in the After trilogy, is doing fantastically on my favourite writing website in the world, Movellas. This year Thereafter reached 10,000 reads on Movellas which is a fantastic sign for the rest of the trilogy. I'm counting on all the movellians buying it when I get round to releasing it!

Oh and I also released Chancing the Truth, the third book in my Immorality of Immortality trilogy. Gosh I have been busy!

But I swear to you, I've been hard at work too!

One of the reasons 2015 has been so incredible is because I started my very own publishing company: Molten Publishing (you can come and join us on Twitter here!). We are a dynamic publishing house passionate about phenomenal young adult fiction - what else! - and our first release, ZA, will be out next year!

I also opened my editing and critiquing, social media services, and mentoring pages!

I wonder what's around the corner for next year . . .

Next year will of course bring ZA and the zombie armageddon and I'm so excited for that I could burst!

As well as that I'm going to write book three in the After trilogy and get round to polishing Thereafter and editing Hereafter.

There are so many books still on my shelf but I'm looking forward to The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness and of course more Lorien Legacies books!

And who knows, Molten Publishing might even open for submissions. Definitely stick around for our author events and creative writing workshops though!

Thank you to everyone who reads my blog. Here's to sticking around for 2016!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the most fantastic new year imaginable,

Molly :)

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

Insanity for Imprint: a NaNo Challenge

Most of you know how nutty I am about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - writing 50,000 - or a novel, really - in 30 days). It's my favourite writing event of the year and is the reason I average two books a year. One at a leisurely pace in the summer and then a crazy one month sprint in November. However, NaNo fever gets stronger in me each and every single November and that caused my leisurely pace to become 23 days this year without the pressure of NaNo.

Am I crazy? I don't know. But one thing's for certain, it's getting too easy. 

50,000 goal reached: Day 29 (2011), Day 21 (2012), Day 22 (2013), Day 12 (2014).

Time to kick it up a notch. 

 (Note: Futurama references are always welcome.)

And how you ask? How will I make the craziest writing event even harder? Well, with a little something I'm calling Insanity for Imprint.

Imprint is the (current) title for my NaNo '15 project and as this is my fifth year of NaNo, I knew I'd have to do something great.

When I was small, I used to hate the number five for some reason. I have a feeling I'm going to hate it even more this November. I'm pledging right here, right now, to write:

5,000 WORDS A DAY

Wait, can I take it back? Whoops, too late.

My writing friend and NaNo nemesis Midnight Rogue has challenged me to a ten day NaNo and after she beat me by about 12 hours last year, I am not settling for second place again.

To sum up, NaNo - for normal people - looks like this:

Last year for me it looked like this:

And this year it's going to look like this:

To encourage me in this, quite frankly, ridiculous target, please donate to NaNoWriMo via my stay classy fundraising page, IMPRINT - NaNo'15. NaNoWriMo is a fantastic cause because stories matter. So I'm making sure the world is full of them.

Be ready, November. I'm coming to get you.

Molly - Wrimo

Want to be NaNo buddies? Me too! I'll add everyone. NaNo is more fun with friends. 

Click here to view my profile and add me as a NaNo buddy.

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

The Immorality of Immortality: Chancing the Truth

You made it! Here is the fourth and final post in my Immorality of Immortality blog post series. If you've missed the three before it, go and read the introduction so you know what's going on.
And here are the Playing with Reality and Gambling a Fairytale posts from last week and the week before.
This week it's Chancing the Truth, my absolute favourite for so many reasons! And I can't wait to share it with the world!

“We’ll never be free.  Only the end can release us.”

“Forget Adelina, Stephan’s the real god of this castle.  You disobey and you get punished.  You’re plunged into hell and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Unless of course he goes too far.  Unless of course you’re given something to live for.  Unless of course you’re strong enough to fight.

I wasn’t a year ago.

I am now.

I am Felix Hesper and I am in control."

Through the eyes of Felix, Damien and Lilya, the newest addition to the Senate, Chancing the Truth takes you on a journey to the heart wrenching finale of the Immorality of Immorality trilogy.

A Lot of Background

*You should know before I begin that I changed quite a lot of this to save you from too many spoilers.

Well ‘Chancing the Truth’, enter Lilya. What else can I start with? This new character changes everything and I am more excited about seeing what everyone thinks of her than I am about what everyone thinks of the plot.

I thought up the plot of CTT while still writing ‘Playing with Reality’. It essentially just continued from ‘Gambling a Fairytale’, which wrote itself in my head at the same time. The two seemed to come to me instantaneously. It may not seem like it, but I had to decide where one ended and the next begun. But of course that divide would be Lilya shaped.

I outlined the plot much the same as I did for GAF except there was a lot more of it meaning a lot more notes. I scribbled all over these pages. Well, let’s face it; I had a lot to cover. And no, I never thought it would ever be 500 pages long.

CTT was the most hands-on I think – note wise. I have notes for everything. But I did have a lot to do. I had chambers and clothes and back stories and all sorts. You see more of the Senate than ever before, which meant I had to walk around the corridors of the Senate with my eyes and my notebook open. Basically sitting at my desk with my eyes shut talking to Felix, Lilya and Damien (or myself if you want to be like that).

Not only this but I had to outline to myself in the greatest of detail the pasts of Stephan Hunter and Hugo Sharpe. I knew them – of course – but I needed every gory detail. That was a fun week I can tell you. Up to my eyeballs in Renaissance and Dark Ages research is always great.

More fun still was seeing how Damien coped not being Felix’s number one concern. This I found very interesting, and at points I felt I was the only one who loved him even through his stupidity.

Something new that came out while writing CTT was that I loved being girly with Lilya. You’ll notice she talks about her clothes more than the others. I loved imagining and describing her outfits, but in such a way that wasn’t girly. I loved that. I'd not really been able to do that before. I loved Lilya’s whole attitude.

I just adore Lilya.

Her chapters essentially wrote themselves. It was a job to keep up to be honest. And in comparison to this, writing Felix chapters always felt so much slower. I love Lilya’s chattiness. The way she speaks to the reader, she’s not just telling them a story, she’s holding a conversation. She's asking your opinion and imploring you to understand. That style is great fun to write.

The editing process for CTT was the most involved I’ve ever been in making my work perfect.The final draft of CTT is 60 pages and 15,000 words shorter than my first draft and it is so much better to read because of it. Everything means something and leads you somewhere, without missing any of the personality of the narrators.

After me and my reading team had spent a good seven weeks going through it, I was more confident than ever in my trilogy.

So in 2014 at 20 years old, I published ‘Chancing the Truth’, by myself this time, and at last, the ‘Immorality of Immortality trilogy’ was complete. *

*I know it's not out yet but it's coming. I swear. Before Christmas!

So now you know some of what I went through when I sat and decided yes, I wanted to write a book about vampires. Not only that, I wanted to prove that I could achieve anything. To this day, I've written four books since finishing 'Chancing the Truth' and it's still perfect in my eyes. That's saying something pretty powerful. CTT, like all the others, changed me as a writer. Maybe it'll change you as the reader. Just you wait and see.

Molly Looby
Author of the Immorality of Immortality trilogy
molly.looby@hotmail.com
Immorality of Immortality Facebook page

The Immorality of Immortality: Gambling a Fairytale

Welcome back and thank you for joining me in this continuation of my descriptions of what it was like to write the Immorality of Immortality trilogy. Too long an intro? Whatever. This week it's book two: Gambling a Fairytale! Like Playing with Reality, Gambling a Fairytale can now be found on Kindle for 77p! It is also in paperback.

Here's a link to last week's blog post (Playing with Reality) if you missed it:

And here's the introductory blog post if you missed that too. If you did, where have you been?

“Life just isn’t fair.  And death is no exception.”

“The unknown is filled with darkness and darkness is where nightmares become reality.

Sometimes you awake from nightmares.  But sometimes you’re not so lucky."

Through the eyes of both Felix and Damien, Gambling a Fairytale leaves you breathless as the trilogy continues.

A Lot of Background

So after ‘Playing with Reality’ there was a lot of work to do.  In the process of writing PWR, Felix and Damien fed me information about what happened next: ‘Gambling a Fairytale’ and ‘Chancing the Truth’.  I knew straight away that GAF was going to be very difficult to write as it was going to break my heart in places.

I had to write the plot out in bullet points with gaps between so when I got round to it I could fill in the spaces.  Now this page has arrows everywhere as with GAF one thing really does lead to another.

The thing that was most certain was that I’d have to introduce Damien as a narrator.  Now this was something I was very excited about.  Not only do you get to know things that Felix doesn’t know (you gotta love dramatic irony) but you also get to know Damien personally.  Maybe his mind works a little differently than you expected, or perhaps you hit the nail on the head and he’s everything you’d thought he’d be.  Either way, Damien’s point of view is vital for the progression of the story.  And as you can image, he was chatty in my head.  His chapters were always faster to write that Felix’s.  Damien talks more and thinks less.  But less about what you already know.

The experience was very different from PWR because I wasn’t waiting for pieces of plot.  I had everything, I just had to fit it altogether.  This did frustrate me eventually and I stopped writing it about twenty-per-cent of the way in.  After a couple of months however, I got over myself and created James* to push me in the right direction.

The reason for this character, as well as the little nudge to finish off this story, was that my boyfriend was appalled that he hadn’t had a character named after him.  How could I not oblige?  He is my illustrator after all.

*Luckily for me, James made the plot make a lot more sense!

I’ve never been more glad that I stuck to it, because once I’d started again, that was it.  I couldn’t stop.  For anything.  I fell in love again and cried when my characters did.  It was emotional for all of us, GAF, I can tell you that.  I felt like a part of me died when I’d finished it.

Phew.  A breather was needed.

So I wrote a zombie book: ‘ZA’.*

Yep, between finishing GAF in October 2011 and starting CTT in January 2012, I wrote a novel.  If I was going to be accurate I wrote it between the first and the twenty-ninth of November.  This is was, of course, NaNoWriMo. (National Novel Writing Month) 2011 was my first wrimo and I've done it every year since. It's too rewarding not to!

*ZA can now be found on Kindle for 77p and the first few chapters are on Movellas.

After a very painful and long editing process (which took me until 2013!) I was absolutely certain that GAF was ready and that both Damien and Felix were looking their best.  It was then I published GAF in February 2013.



So that's Gambling a Fairytale, a book that improved my writing in a remarkable way. I learnt to stick with it and write and carry on regardless. I must've taught myself something because it's never taken me as long to write a book than it took to write GAF. GAF was a lesson I had to learn and I realised, even more, how much I wanted to be an author.

Next week's the exciting one. Chancing the Truth (still coming soon Autumn 2014)


Molly Looby
Author of the Immorality of Immortality trilogy

The Immorality of Immortality: Playing with Reality

So last week I introduced you to my appalling website for the Immorality of Immortality trilogy. If you want to read last week's post click here. I promised I would share with you the only thing I would miss if the website disappeared off the face of the planet: my descriptions of what it was like to write the trilogy. So I thought I'd start of with book one, Playing with Reality which you can now get for your kindle for 77p! Yay! 

If you want a taster, the first three chapters are on Movellas.

Before we go into it be prepared, I wrote the A Lot of Background section when I was sixteen and when I read it over I was shocked to find how juvenile it sounded. I hope you enjoy my enthusiasm and peppiness. 

“Life’s Just a Horror Story”

“A week ago I’d been an average girl.

I hadn’t realised that life could change so quickly, without warning.

And now what?

What do I do next?

My life was turning upside down around me and I couldn’t even explain why.  I was lost in my own body, my own mind.  What was I supposed to do?

And with the thirst growing stronger and more irresistible by the day, life – or should I say ‘death’ – was becoming a nightmare.”

Through Felix’s eyes, Playing with Reality opens your own to discover how wonderful and frightening life can be.

A Lot of Background

'Playing with Reality' was an exploration into what vampires should really be like.  I, personally, though I loved Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’*, didn’t think her vampire anatomy made sense.  I mean, glittering?  Why?  So I sat myself down and really thought about it.  I created my favourite spider diagram which still to this day has everything that makes my vampires what they are, including hearts beating, sunlight, blood, strength, immortality – all of that and more.

*I was young. Sorry for the Twilight love, don't be distracted. I mean, it doesn't matter what made me write, right? The point is it did make me write. Please read on :) 

So then all I needed was a start, that’s where Felix comes in.  You hear authors say this all the time, but she really did just walk right on into my head, just like that.  She was shortly followed by her sister April and an unnamed vampire who attacks her – who became Elektra.

With all of them safely walking around in my head – yes that’s what it’s like – I began to write and the story came out as though I wasn’t the author, but just the writer.  It was Felix’s story and it was as though she was telling me what happened and I just wrote it down.

I should mention at this point that various characters in PWR are named after my cousins:

Jake – Jacob James Taylor (April’s boyfriend) is named after both my cousin Jacob and my brother James.

Lottie – Charlotte Emmy Ford (A Senate Follower) is named after my twin cousins Charlotte and Emmy.

Emmie – (Evie’s youngest sister) is named after the same Emmy as above to make up for the fact that she was only a middle name.

Now here’s the weird part.  My Auntie had a baby girl and named her Evie, having no idea I’d used that name as one of Felix’s best friends.  So now I had only one cousin I’d missed out, poor Libby.

So then waltzed into my head was the amazing Libby and the plot (still in Sanfolk at this point) really jumped forward and then the Senate came to me.

Shortly after this, Damien and Lucas – always a pair – came knocking on the door to my head and I fell immediately in love with Damien as I hear so do women who read PWR, but not so much men.

That’s how it all happened.  As you can tell, PWR is a character driven novel, not a plot one.  The characters come into my head holding part of the plot in their hands like a gift.  It’s magical, I can assure you of that.

At the very end of December 2011, I published PWR with AuthorHouse and let Felix loose on the world!



So there you have it. That's what it was like to write such an ambitious novel with so little writing experience. If I, like my vampires, only had to sleep for three hours a day, I would definitely go back and re-write PWR. It's a story I love and hold so close to my heart I just want to make it perfect. I was such a new writer when I wrote it that it actually astounds me. I had no idea while I was writing this that it was going to steal every corner of my heart.

Tune in next week for book two, Gambling a Fairytale.

Molly Looby
Author of the Immorality of Immortality trilogy

The Immorality of Immortality: The Blog Posts

As a mere mortal when it comes to technology, I've reached my limit with what I can achieve with my website. It was extremely stressful to make and it's infuriating that I don't think anyone's ever visited it.

Here's the link if you were wondering: http://theimmoralityofimmortalitytrilogy.yolasite.com/

And here's a little screen shot for you to enjoy.

It's so much easier for me to just run my Facebook page instead of the website because I know what I'm doing with Facebook.

Again, here's a link to the Immorality of Immortality Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/1cpMwEc

I don't mind that much because the website doesn't really have much to offer anyone apart from my descriptions of each book in the trilogy and what it was like to write them. I was reading them a few weeks ago and it really is a shame that no one's really read them. I mean, I'd completely forgotten they existed so how would anyone else know?

They're actually really interesting, as hilarious as that is coming from me. But I really can't remember writing Playing with Reality as well as myself in the past can, so it's brilliant that I spent the time to write it down, if only for me to wonder at it a couple of years later.

So, editing them a bit and cutting out the spoilers I seemed to have written in for Chancing the Truth for some reason, I have decided to share them with you on here where, let's face it, not many people come, but it's more than my website by a long shot.

I hope you enjoy the next few weeks of stepping into my writing process and hearing all about what it was like to write a trilogy before the age of eighteen.

Molly Looby

Author of the Immorality of Immortality Trilogy

ZA - Molly Looby

So I've just finished reading my novel 'ZA' for the final time before its release on Monday.  I didn't think it'd be fair to do a review so I'll just promote it instead.

Here is the front cover:

Created for me by the brilliant James Terry who can be contacted for art and graphics tuition, if you want his artistic ability, or if you are interested in his other art work.  You can contact him on jrterry95@gmail.com

So 'ZA' has only taken up two years of my life - almost.  I started 'ZA' for NaNoWriMo in 2011 and succeeded in writing the 50,000 words in 30 days.  The story of 'ZA' speaks to me because I've always loved zombie stories.  (If you also love zombie stories you have to check out 'The Forest of Hands and Teeth' by Carrie Ryan, who is also a Wrimo.)  I love zombie stories not only because of the gore and the violence, but also because of the social problems and changes.  I was especially interested in how relationships would form and change in a Zombie Armageddon.

Not to toot my own horn or anything but I think the pace of 'ZA' will be just what you readers are looking for.  There isn't much faff in 'ZA' at all, thanks to it being written in 30 days.  It is a quick and easy read.  Here's your proof.  I've had to read 'ZA' over maybe half a dozen or so times for it to be ready for others to read and I'm still not sick of it.  And that's not because I wrote it.  God knows I got sick and tired of 'Gambling a Fairytale' before it's release date, I was happy to send it off in the world. 

With 'ZA' I do so with a hint of sadness.  'ZA' is a story I wrote because myself, my brother and my dad are obsessed with zombies.  We even did a zombie photo shoot and the first ever UK Zombie Run (a run where you face obstacles and  zombies.)

See:

This was the first Zombie Run UK which took place in Lincoln, it was a long drive for us living down in Essex.  We dressed up as ZA survivors - of course.

Me, my boyfriend who is the amazing artist James Terry, Gemma - one of my brother's best friends, my brother James.

This medal means I survived the Zombie Run.  Not to brag or anything but I still had all my life tags at the end.

Me, my dad, my brother James.

This was our family photo shoot in 2010.  Of course we had to do some ZA ready ones.

The character of Jai in 'ZA' is my brother James through and through.  There's even a direct quote from him that features in the book: "You know what would be awesome? . . . If I could have a machete."

So as you can see, the idea of killing zombies was a familiar concept to me.  The phrase "ZA ready" was coined in my household, it means "to be prepared for the Zombie Armageddon" and the conversations I've had with my dad and my brother directly inspired me to write about zombies.

I will let 'ZA' go though.  It deserves a bigger audience than just my family and friends.  Who knows, it might help you become ZA ready.

'ZA' will be released into the world for all you readers on Monday and as a gift from me because I think everyone should read zombie stories - it's free on Amazon's Kindle.

I would love to hear what you all think next week!  Don't hesitate to leave reviews and ask questions!

While you're waiting, here's the 'ZA' Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ZAzombiearmageddon?ref=hl

But for now, "Get supplies.  Stay hidden.  If they come, run.  Fast."

Molly Looby

ZA ready/ Wrimo / Author / Editor / Reviewer / Writing Coach

Contact me about books, writing, zombies, vampires, werewolves and the like: molly.looby@hotmail.com