Kristina Atkins
What’s Up Wednesday: The Finished Book Edition

Strangely, nothing right now. I’m waiting on a few books from my library, namely Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, and The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride. It’s really weird not reading a book, and if it takes much longer for my books to come in, I might re-read Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison. I read it back in high school and laughed. my. butt. off. SUCH a funny book. I want to read it again and see if it’s as funny as I remember it being. Anyone else ever read it?
WHAT I’M WRITING
Well, you probably guessed from my post title that FRACTURED RADIANCE is DONE!!!!!!!! Wahoo!!! So, my goal was to finish it by the 30th, aka when I left on my two-week Alaska trip. Sadly, that didn’t happen, but I did finish it a week later while driving from Homer to Anchorage. I was SO. FREAKING. HAPPY. (As I’m sure you can understand and have experienced) and gave like a bajillion high-fives to the Mister. I asked my little sister to give it a quick read to make sure everything holds up plot-wise, and then next week I’ll start revisions. Oh, did I mention that the final word count is only 47k? So, I had the muse with me super strong until I got to the end of editing my existing material and started writing the end. And then it left me and getting any words was a struggle. So, many scenes ended up being little more than summary. BUT the important thing is, as far as the plot goes, the book is down on the page. Now I just need to flesh all those scenes out!
Until I start revisions next week, I’m working on world building for my next novel, which I’m planning on writing for NaNo. I forgot how hard world building is! And while I’m putting that world together, ideas are coming to me for my one-day YA high fantasy. I think my mind grapes are starting to make juice again.
WHAT INSPIRES ME
All the research I’m doing! Oh, man, I love wiki. And I’m naming characters for my NaNo novel. Am I the only one who adores naming characters? So much fun. And I spend too much time looking for pictures of my characters on Pinterest because that’s important, right? 🙂
WHAT ELSE I’M UP TO
Just recovering from my Alaskan adventure! We went for two weeks and got back early on Saturday morning (aka, 5 am). We did Denali, Seward, Homer, Anchorage, Kodiak, and a tiny village on Kodiak. I saw sea lions, puffins, bald eagles, belugas(!), humpback whales (also !), seals, sea otters, moose, (the bottom of) Denali, glaciers, lots and lots of waterfalls, the northern lights(!), and NO BEARS. Not for lack of trying. I ate lots and lots of seafood, flew in a teeny, tiny plane, caught Alaskan salmon, rode on boats, stayed in a hotel on a sand spit in the middle of a big bay, and spent hours and hours in the car. (Alaska is A LOT of driving.) It was such a blast! (Also, very stressful at times traveling with a 10 month old.) Here’s a picture of one of the whales!

Oh, you know, just a humpback whale swimming RIGHT NEXT TO MY BOAT. No biggie.
What have you been up to?