Saturday Update!

This Saturday Update is a bit all over the place today. My apologies.

1. Avengers: Age of Ultron: I happen to be one of the few that still eagerly awaits a new episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. every week. (Seriously, much like Buffy, AoS found itself near the end of the first season. It's an excellent hour of television with some fantastic female characters.) So when it was announced that the Age of Ultron trailer would be attached to next week's episode, I was a bit giddy. And then I realized that week of waiting would be hell. And then a day or two later, the trailer had found it's way online, and it was all sorts of amazing. Again, I'm a huge Marvel fan (and comic book fan in general), so I've been in total fangirl mode since. If you follow me on Tumblr, I apologize for all of the AoU related reblogs. I'm just a bit too excited at the possibility of them touching on Natasha's origin story (ballerinas were in the trailer, I'm expecting her back story!), at the possibility of Carol Danvers being in the movie, and well? Pretty much all of it, really.

2. Writing Playlists: I meant to share my playlists for both Arabella and Stouthearted a while back, but I honestly forget, so here you go:

3. What I've Been Reading: I'm (still) reading Seeker, mainly because I haven't been able to find time to finish it. I'm really enjoying it, I just need time to sit down and read. I've also been trying to get through my stack of comics I need to catch-up on. Comics I've read recently that I would recommend picking up? Edge of Spider-Verse: Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman (I love everything about this one-shot*), the Bob's Burgers comics (they are just as great as the show), Ms. Marvel (the last issue wasn't my favorite, but this is a solid series), Captain Marvel (like with Ms. Marvel, the last issue I read wasn't my favorite, but this series is worth following), She-Hulk (this is actually getting canceled come January, but Soule's run is fantastic even if you don't care for the art), and Moon Knight (this is a violent comic, but the storytelling is excellent).

*It's worth noting that the excellent response to Edge of Spider-Verse: Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman has led to Gwen getting her own solo series as Spider-Woman in 2015.

4. New Paperbacks: My new copy of Deprogrammed came in along with my copy of Stouthearted. I love these covers. I have some amazing cover designers.

I don't have any writing updates this week because I haven't made much progress on anything. I've been working on As We Fall at every chance possible, but until I hit the halfway point on that one, I won't be sharing any teasers. As for The Untold Stories and The Program Manual, those should be available in December. I don't have a set release date yet, but I'm hoping I will soon.

There's one last thing that I wanted to touch on. It's a question I'm often asked... Do I plan on attending any conventions as an author? There's a reason I haven't done this yet. It isn't because I don't want to, trust me, I do. It's just not that simple. I suffer from severe anxiety. It's to the point where just thinking about being around a ton of people makes me physically ill. (I'm barely able to handle going to conventions as a guest because the crowding makes me incredibly uncomfortable.) I'm a quiet person that suffers from perma bitch face, sadly. I promise, I'm nice, I just don't know how to act in social situations when I don't know someone. And then there's also the factor of money. Going to a convention as an author is a heck of a lot more than just attending as a guest. I barely make enough money to pay my bills, so when I want to go somewhere? It takes a lot of pre-planning to make it financially work, and so far? I haven't been able to. It also doesn't help that I don't sell a lot of books.
I work full-time because I can't survive on what I make writing. (I'm not going to get into numbers, but let's just say I should probably stop publishing, like yesterday.) The amount of money I spend on book covers, editing, etc? It is a lotttttt. And when I'm not making even a tiny portion of that money back? It's hard to even consider blowing a little under a grand to attend a convention. I would love to meet my readers, honestly. That is one thing I would REALLY love to do. (Although, I'd end up being insanely awkward.) It just isn't possible right now.

Now to try and get some reading & writing done.
<3 Nicole