Category: Writing
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I Haven’t Left the House in 9 Days

What I miss is walking. Up until last Friday, I walked every single day. Making my steps was important to me, so I made sure I made them. Then my kid woke up sick. Last Sunday, while I’d been up since before dawn to write, the house had been quiet. I’d expected just another day,…
Yolandie Horak
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Tales from Self-Isolation

Honestly, as someone who spends the greater part of her day typing away in the basement and avoids going out as far as possible, this isn’t much different than business as usual for me. Sure, my kid isn’t going to school, so I can now get up at odd hours to write and pass out…
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Fangirling

You know the writing is at that intense stage when I can’t sleep in on a weekend. For the third morning in a row, I was up at 5. On Friday and Saturday, I tried (in vain) to fall asleep again, and finally got up at 7. This morning, I held out until 6, then…
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Rot – An Illness Based on the Bubonic Plague

A major plot arc in A Study of Ash & Smoke is about a mysterious plague that breaks out in the kingdom of Aelland. Under normal circumstances, it shouldn’t be strange that an unknown illness spreads to a new kingdom, except Aelland is closed off from the rest of the world by an impenetrable forcefield,…
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This Post Comes to You in Four Parts

Totally paraphrasing John Green there. 🙂 DFTBA, people. Anyway. Part One – Writing By last Tuesday, I had five complete chapters written for Book 3. By last Friday, I’d rewritten all five. That’s all fine and dandy, but now I’m stuck on chapter 6, which I’ve rewritten no less than three times, and poor chapter…
Yolandie Horak
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A Study of Ash & Smoke – 7th Annual WD Self-Pub e-Book Awards

Sometime around September last year, I got an email about the Writer’s Digest Self-Published e-Book Awards (I’m subscribed to WD’s newsletters). I made the mistake of opening this email in front of my husband, who was immediately of the opinion that I should enter. I didn’t want to. My feelings of inadequacy make these kinds…
Yolandie Horak
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Five Easy Ways to Combat Writer’s Block

Ah, writer’s block. The bane of many a writer’s existence. It’s that feeling of shock and having no direction when the inspiration suddenly runs out. It happens to all of us at one point or another, so we all know it’s real. Personally, I just don’t believe in it. Yes, having no inspiration is a…
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A Trial of Sparks & Kindling Cover Reveal

I should probably have waited with this until a bit closer to publishing day, but hey, who cares. I can haz cover, and it is glorious. That glorious, BTW, sounds in my head as Varvatos Vex would say it. For the design of this cover, I once again teamed up with the endlessly talented and…
Yolandie Horak
A Study of Ash & Smoke, A Trial of Sparks & Kindling, Book 2, Book Talk, Coming Soon, Cover Dersign, Cover Designers, Cover Reveal, Covers by Tallulah, Fall of the Mantle, Fall of the Mantle Book 1, Fall of the Mantle Book 2, Gaslamp Fantasy, Indie Authors, Indie Writers, New Adult, New Book, Sequel, Sequels, Steampunk, Upcoming, Upcoming Novel -
We Want Spoilers! A Trial of Sparks & Kindling Edition

So, recently, quite a few folks have been asking me for anything I can tell them about my upcoming novel, A Trial of Sparks & Kindling. Anything at all. And this is where it gets super tricky, because there are literally spoilers from the first chapter. Now, since I don’t want to put a bullet…
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On Perspective

Just the other day, my fellow blogger and author, SM Mitchell, asked me for my thoughts on impostor syndrome for a blog post. This is the quote she included from yours truly: “No critic can tell you how much is wrong with what I’ve written better than I can. It’s so hard for me to…
