Author: Kassandra Carrillo

Kassandra Carrillo received her B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Houston. She enjoys writing dark paranormal fiction. However, she has dabbled in writing fantasy as well, science fiction, western, short stories, poetry, and scriptwriting, but she prefers writing novels. When she's not writing, Kassandra likes to crochet, practice her art, and stream video games.
Posted in Writing

A Whirlwind

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

It’s been a whirlwind of events since my last post. I’ve definitely been kept busy every day.

Cats

To start off, both of my cats needed a vet visit. Turns out my oldest, Princess, had IBD (inflammatory Bowel Disease). Giving her medicine and changing her diet hasn’t been easy. It was by far the most expensive visit.

The second cat, Olive, started wheezing. I’m here thinking she might have a hairball and doesn’t know how to expel it. However, this continued for a few days and she started hiding. She had also started eating less so that was concerning. After the vet visit, it turns out she has asthma. Not sure how it suddenly appeared since it was the first time it happened. Needless to say, she also gained weight (1 lb.) so I think it’s time I play with her a bit more. Hopefully, that helps.

Training

Due to work, I had two days of training for new math curriculum. While it was very informative, I found myself falling asleep more often than not. It was good information but the presentation was a bit dry. At least, I wasn’t in the classroom for two days. Not only that, I have a week left before going on Spring Break.

Queries

The biggest thing since last post was possibly getting more rejections on my queries. So far, there’s been two waves of query letters sent out. On the second wave, I did tweak my query a bit to see if that helped.

There are three agents I’m waiting to hear back from so maybe there will be good news there. But I know I can’t wait forever. I’m planning on send out the third wave of queries next week.

I’m really liking how almost all the agents I’ve queried use Query Manager. I feel like it’s less stressful for me than sending an email. Plus, you also go back and look at your submission. Most of the time, I don’t because it makes me more nervous.

Writing

On a different note, I have finally figured out how to end the third and last book of the Vampire Prince series on Wattpad. For a long time, I struggled with how to finish up the book and somehow, it finally clicked. I sat at my desk and started planning the next few chapters and kept going until I got to the end.

Sadly, there are some scenes that I want to add but they won’t happen until further down the timeline. I’m thinking of adding extra chapters to the end of the story as a way to remedy that.

What’s more exciting is that I also thought up of a second series (maybe) that is set in the same world. I don’t have any plans for that series yet until I’m done with the first series. At least it’s good to know that I do have more series planned.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, I feel like I’m making progressed. I started drawing (doodling) again and definitely writing more every day. I’m proud of myself.

Posted in Writing

Older and Wiser

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Since my last post, I’ve kept busy though not as much as I would like. I might have even overwhelmed myself with the amount of projects I’ve wanted to work on. As soon as I realized that, I took a step back from a few of them. Before, I’m not sure I would have been able to do that, but now, I have a better idea on how to take care of myself.

I’m still working on the sequel to Clan of Ash (the novel I’m trying to publish). Although I made progress on it, I’ve come to realize that I don’t like it very much. The way I written it doesn’t work with what I’m trying to do. Instead of starting from scratch, I’m still continuing it. I’ve made notes for myself on how to change the beginning once I start editing the draft.

It was difficult to continue to write. I think I’ve always restarted the draft because I didn’t like it. But now I know that I shouldn’t. I’m not sure how I managed to write anything in the past. Maybe it was a fear of rejection that kept me from unable to finish my drafts. I’m glad I’ve stepped away from that habit.

Needless to say, there has been some news on my query letters. It also the news I expected. My query letter has been rejected two more times. While I’m disappointed, I didn’t let it get to me. Rejection is expectation. That’s the mentally I’m adopting.

Saying this, I not disillusioned. I’ve been finding more agents to query for the second wave. That hasn’t been very easy. YA Paranormal is hard to find right now. While there is a romantic element, it’s not the forefront of the book so I don’t feel comfortable using YA Paranormal Romance. I feel like it would be misleading.

Good news though is that the website I use is undergoing maintenance and an update in four days from this post. While I’m still using twitter to search for agents in the meantime, I think waiting for the update might be a good idea. It will decreased, hopefully, the amount of time it takes to search for agents.

Until then, I’ll keep offering updates. All I can do is keep going.

Posted in query, Writing

My First Rejection

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

It’s been a few weeks since the beginning of the new year. While some goals are proceeding better than other, there is still progress.

It has been difficult to return to work after a long break, but I’ve gotten used to it again. If I think about, this month has gone by really fast. We’re almost in February. It definitely feels like I’m busy every day.

Luckily, I’ve had to time to work on my current novel – currently named – Clan of Blood. It’s the sequel of the story I’m currently try to publish. I tend to write every day even though it might be a paragraph or two at a time. I do need to get better at setting a writing time for me, but I’m going to focus on the positive notes: I’m writing every day.

One of my goals this year was to start query again. I’m happy to announce that I started querying a novel I’ve called Clan of Ash. It was a bit tough researching the agents that fit my genre. Not only that writing the synopsis was super tough too. It did feel like a hassle mostly because I needed to decided what was most important. I must have written the query letter ten times before I was satisfied.

At times it felt like every version of the query sounded the same but I kept powering through. Clicking send on the emails and on Query Manager was nerve wrecking. I didn’t think I was ready. But to be quite honest, once I did, it was a relief. I took the first step and that’s what matters.

I didn’t send out as many queries as I wanted to but it was close to ten so, I call that a win.

There was an agent I queried on 18th of this month (they were closed through 17th) and guess what?

I got a reply back!

It was so quick.

Back when I had tried to query before, I didn’t get many replies. Usually that meant the agent wasn’t interested in your work so receiving a reply is huge.

With baited breath I opened the email and read it.

I was rejected.

Honestly, I didn’t feel bad. Maybe deep down I knew I was going to be rejected. I feel that being rejected is to be expected. Anything else than that is amazing and great. .

This is probably the first rejection out of many and all I can do now, is hope for the best and keep trying.

Posted in Uncategorized

A New Year (2023)

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

It’s been a month or so since I stopped writing on the blog. Everything got away from me this past month. I hadn’t been able to properly manage my time. However, I want to start the new year with goals. Why not a resolution?

I think of a resolution like a decision. You decide to do or not to do something. In the grand scheme of things, it’s great but it hasn’t worked for me. Maybe I didn’t put too much effort into it. Saying this, a goal is something I can work toward. They can be measured.

Some of my goals are aimed at creative writing, and some are aimed toward daily life, etc.

For Creative Writing:

  • I want to write more on the blog. If not weekly then bi-weekly at least.
  • I want to finish the first draft of my second novel (in a series)
  • Start sending out queries for the first book in a series
  • Become more active on social media e.g. more daily posts (3 or 4 a day)

For Daily Life:

  • I want to be healthier which means exercising a bit and eating healthier e.g. choosing yogurt over a donut
  • Manage household chores a little better

Creativeness:

  • Continue drawing
  • Keep learning digital art
  • Crochet and finish more projects

The best thing to remember is to break it down into manageable steps for each goal. That way, I won’t become overwhelmed with everything I want to accomplish in the new year. But, first and foremost, enjoy the little successes.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing

NaNoWriMo 2022

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

We’re on the sixth day of National Novel Writing Month 2022, and I’ve only just caught up to 10k words. It’s definitely been a struggle to write almost 2k words every day. Most days, I’m exhausted from work. This past week, I had to take a day off for some self-care. I take small victories where I can take them. If I manage to write 500 words or a thousand then, I’m proud of myself for it. Stressing about NaNoWriMo this month won’t do me any good.

Luckily, I got the day off tomorrow, and on Thursday, I’m visiting NASA, so, I’m looking forward to a relaxing week.