Alex.J.Cobalt

This month has been something of a month of change. New blog layout, new approach to my projects and writing. Here is what has been happening the world of Alix.

What’s in a name?

That’s right, I’m trying out a new pen name – Alix.C.Jay instead of A.C.Jay.

Not a huge difference, and yet at the same time a whole amount of difference. I originally chose letters back when I was a young teenager, on the idea that it would make me sound more mysterious and less feminine, especially if I wanted to write in the fantasy genre which at that time, was more heavily weighted to male authors than female ones.

But when I was looking through the Amazon e-book catalogue for inspiration and to understand what I was getting myself involved in by trying to sell a book online, I stopped myself and thought why do I want to hide my femininity? There are such a breadth of authors now, and so many more female ones, why can’t I just use my name?

So this is a me trying on a new pen-name for size. I have a sneaky feeling it might stick, but we’ll have to wait and see. For now, you’ll notice my name on Instagram has been changed to reflect this, and my name on here too.

Let’s smash the words – Nanowrimo 2018

Nanowrimo has always been on my radar as A Thing Writers Do. And it’s been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember, but there has always been a reason why I can’t do it – back in school it was exams, then it was work was too busy, or life just got in the way.

But this year, along with some encouragement from my fiancé, I’m going to give it a go. I’m not sure if I’ll win with the 50,000 words, but even if I wrote 20,000 that would be a success in my book – the most I’d have ever written in any month ever.

I think I’ll be able to do a good shot at it though. I’m going to be working on my current book – “Assassins (Book 1)” – a working title until I can think of something more catchy! The story is fun, its growing in size considerably, and the characters seems to have more vibrancy and fun about them than those I’ve written in a while. It’s also giving me a chance to try and give the story some more sub-plots and build a better main arc from them. So far, I’m sitting at c. 15,000 words, but the story is only just really getting started. I expect this one to be pushing 70-80k, if not more, by the time I’m done with the first draft.

I’m over on the nanowrimo website as alix-jay – come say hi! Let’s smash this 50k wordcount!