I'm still here! :)

OMG! I have been quiet for an insanely long amount of time!!

I am so sorry...

My life has been pretty hectic these past few months, but I'll try and summarize it all for you :)

First of all, I am sick.

I've been sick for almost a year now and the doctors don't know what I have. I'm still waiting to hear from some tests and waiting to pass some more... I'm telling you this just so you know that, like everything else, it has been eating up at my time.

Professionally, things have been moving at quite a fast pace.

Since I've decided on an indie career, I have spent most of my days writing and working on my career (I work an average of 10 hours a day). What came out of it?

1) I've managed to finish The Lighthouse Keeper and publish it on June 10th! It is now available for purchase!!! ^_^

You can look for it at your favorite major ebook retailer or you can follow this link for a list  of retailers and direct links to my book on those sites.

After a terrible even, Jonah wakes up in a strange house owned by an even stranger man named "Sticks". A new reality sets in: he is stranded on an island in the middle of the Atlantic!
Waiting for a boat to come rescue him, Jonah takes part into the island's everyday routine, but odd occurrences start to pile up and the truth becomes undeniable: this is no ordinary island.
And what started as a surreal dream will soon turn into an all-too-real nightmare...

"What would you do at the edge of the world?"

2) I've started a Wattpad story, the first book of my Winged Sonata Trilogy entitled Arias in the Silence. The book is undergoing some minor changes, but the next chapter should be published this Friday September 9th, and then see a new chapter published every Mondays and Fridays after that. You can read it all HERE.

Snow Harper is not like every teenage girl her age.
Branded a pariah at an early age, she accepts her fate: her only interest in life is music anyway. Snow wishes to become a professional musician. Unfortunately, the family situation doesn't allow for any kind of musical studies.
Soon to graduate from high school, Snow can't think of a way to reach her dream...
...until those mysterious melodies enter her life.
Along with a young man named Rudy.

3) Nellie IV is done! The first draft is written and I don't expect much rewriting! Yay!
I will reread it as soon as I am done writing my second English novel...

4) My second English novel is a paranormal mystery entitled The Words Left Behind. I expect it to be released somewhere in October-November. 

Now when you look at the cover, you probably wonder who the heck is Noreen Spencer. She is, obviously, the main character of this story, but I also want her to be a recurring main character in different paranormal mysteries. Some kind of Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes type of character (in the recurring fashion only). I've already got a second story scheduled for her, but that won't be written until some time next year. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for my novel's preorder announcement! ^_^

When her estranged father sends her a letter after years of silence, Noreen Spencer expects mostly anything except to discover what looks like a suicide note. Traveling to the odd little town of Middle Haven, Noreen finds out that her father has left everything in her care, including a lost family member. Searching for clues and answers, Noreen only bumps into more questions as she begins to realize that the only person holding the key to all this now lives in a mental institution.

"I've only ever wished for a normal family..."

5) I now have a Patreon page too!
Patreon is a little bit like crowdfunding, but instead of funding a project, you help your favorite artists have a steady income. You can pledge a donation that will get repeated each months. Donations run as low as $1 a month :)
Plus, you always get a little something back because every pledge tier has its own special rewards! Come check it out! ^_^

That's about it for now. :)
If you wanna be SURE not to miss anything in the future, you can always visit my website and/or sign up for my newsletter.
That way, even if I stay quiet here for another 8 months, you'll still know what's up! ;)

New bit of text!

I know it's been quite a while since I came 'round here. Quite honestly, I've come to a decision: later this year, this blog will be closed (as will its French equivalent). The reason is simple: I lack the time to keep writing long, meaningful blog posts.

Instead, all of my websites will have a blog directly implemented in them with posts related to the subject of that website (i,e. my Ravenscroft website will have blog entries about my English writing career.) Just like my Facebook pages which, I think, will allow me to keep things better sorted and avoid my readers about my painting career and vice versa!

Anyway, I will let you know more about it as I go.
For now, I just wanted to let you: I've begun writing again! ^_^ And it feels really good.
This time, I intend to see my novel through to the end. I've dusted an old story of mine back again: The Lighthouse Keeper.
I'm now at 14,010 words in and I don't wanna quit! ^_^

I wanted to share the joy of it with you guys. And perhaps, a little excerpt hihi.
Here is the full prologue to The Lighthouse Keeper. I hope you'll enjoy it and don't hesitate to comment!

Happy reading! :)

-------------------------------------------------------

(Novel excerpt)

The old man squinted, studied the horizon. The icy wind bit his skin under his long coat. He shivered and breathed some warmth into his hands, folding his hood tighter. In order to fight the cold, the old man grabbed the pole standing in the crook of his elbow and gave a push. His boat dragged on the freezing waters in silence. This eternal silence. This place had never known anything else.

A thick fog rose from the river. As always. He squinted once more, peering through the darkness and the clouds until a bare shore appeared straight ahead. Wait: a bare shore? He frowned.

One more push on the pole brought him closer and any doubt he had vanished: the shore was indeed denuded of all presence. This was unprecedented. Something was happening... Something unnatural. Even the black waters were lacking their usual undulations. The worst could be feared.

The old man landed on the sand, and with agility beyond his years jumped off of his little boat. With long paces, he surveyed the white beach. Nothing. No one. Not a soul in sight!

He extended his survey to the nearby cave entrance.

The quiet calm inside the cave clashed against the strength of nature’s wrath. Outside, the sky was gray, gales were blowing in all directions and waves were crashing with violence against the rocks. Dark clouds were massing above, spewing cold rain and threatening of more.

The old man held on to his hood and was about to turn back when a shape caught his attention in the corner of his eye: something had landed on the beach out there. Forgetting everything else, the old man braved the fury of the storm and ran on the wet sand, holding firm to the stone walls when a wave swept the beach. He was making good progress towards the inanimate lump when a sudden realization stopped him in his track: the lump was a young man!

Lightning cracked above head, jolting the old man to life again. He rushed to the poor soul’s help and bent over it; perhaps his clothes were stuck somewhere. The old man knew better than to mess with a sea victim; the drowned had best be returned to the ocean that had claimed them. He was looking around, trying to find how it was that this dead man was not drifting away. That was when he saw it, something rather unusual in dead bodies: the young man’s hands were clutching a small boulder on the beach. The boatman’s eyes opened wide.

“He’s alive!”

A wave came crashing, dragging the old man back out at sea. With all the strength his years had left him with, he fought the elements: he had to save that young man! Soon, the miserable little rock that poor guy was holding onto with his last breaths would be drowned into the tide. He had no hope for life aside from the old man!

The boatman swam and kicked, prayed and swore and eventually, the sea spat him back out on the beach. Without a single thought, he ran to young man’s help and dragged him against the storm’s fury to the safety of the cave.

Inside, the old man noticed the shore had filled again with presences as it should but in this instant, he cared very little: the young man in his arms was alive!

The old man sighed.

“Finally.” 

Now on Society6!!

Hey everyone!
Guess what? :D Yup! I now have my very own little private shop on Society6 where you can purchase my art as giclee, high quality prints! :D

Come by and have a look-see if you want! ^_^
There are only 5 different art so far but you know me: there's more on the way!
Happy visiting!

New Home

Here we are at my new home ^_^

Just a short post to welcome all of you once again and let you know about the few changes that happened around here.

Firstly, well, there's the address so done to fit my Twitter, Instagram and Society6 accounts where everything is posted under the name Valerie L. (Also fits my new pen name: Valerie L. Ravenscroft)

Secondly, this blog will become a bit more than just a blog about writing; it will now be a haven for all of my creations (books and paintings, short stories and drawings, and maybe even music someday! You probably noticed the tabs at the top of the page... ^_^) I got tired of managing accounts for every different thing I do (one for writing, one for painting, etc.); it's enough I gotta manage two of my websites and of my blogs for French and English. I said I was going to simplify this year and so I did :)

Thirdly, although this is not a change on this blog, I can now say that my visual creations have got their own Facebook home right HERE. I hope to see you there! ^_^

There you have it! Little changes make for big adventures.
And I feel like I'm well on my way to one...