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Posts Tagged ‘paranormal romance’

Starting Is The Hardest Part

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 8, 2013| 2 Comments »

Sometimes I feel like I have a split personality. I’m working on so many different things at the same time (well, not at the some minute, but you know what I mean). And that doesn’t even count, you know, my ordinary life.

Querying MAGE STORM, trying to promote both FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD IS THICKER, getting feedback on DESERT ROSE (MAGIC AND POWER), and trying to write the first draft of my Weird Oz Story (no title, yet).

I wonder if that’s why I’m having a hard time getting started on Weird Oz. I’m only on Chapter 3. (Here’s a teaser, Chapter 3 is titled “Pixie Spiders”.)

Could be that, or it could be that this is a bit of a departure for me. It’s the first novel I’m attempteing in first-person point of view. I’ve written a couple of shorter pieces (“Heart of Oak” and “Becoming Lioness”) in first person, but never a novel. It’s also a very different story to what I’ve been writing recently.

Maybe it’s because I haven’t completely built this world in my own mind yet. I’m a discovery writer (somewhat modified), so I’m generally okay with that. I can fix anything in revision (except the empty page I’m staring at right now). And sometimes the only way the ideas will start to come is when I start to write.

It’s also occurred to me that this may turn out to be a middle grade story instead of young adult, as I’ve currently envisioned. Well, I can fix that, too. But only if I get the story down first.

Well, once I get it well and truly started, hopefully it will start flowing better. Forward, ho!

In other news: Check out Clean Romance Reviews on Tuesday, September 10th for my first ever author interview. I’ll try to post a direct link on Wednesday. She did a very nice review of FIRE AND EARTH.Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

Also, a new chapter of BLOOD IS THICKER is up on wattpad. Or, you could just buy the book.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

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Moving Forward

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It’s much better than moving backward, in general.

Joking aside, this seems to be a week for making decisions. I decided earlier in the week to go for a blog tour for BLOOD IS THICKER.  There are still a couple of things I need to take care of before I attempt to finalize that.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

This morning, I decided to go ahead and send THE BARD’S GIFT to a small publisher (as in, not an imprint of one of the big six–or is it five, now. I’ve lost count.) I thought of one I trusted and that could be right for it. (With smaller publishers, you have to weed out the well-intentioned start-ups that might not be around long enough, the ones that are already on shaky ground, and the ones that are just thinly disquised rip-offs. There are good small publishers out there, but you’ve got to do the research. This particular press has published titles and authors I recognize and is listed as a qualifying market for SFWA. Good enough for me.)

So, that’s what I’ve been doing this morning before I got around to blogging.

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Blog Tour

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 1, 2013| 4 Comments »

I’ve just about made up my mind to do a blog tour in November for BLOOD IS THICKER. There are a couple of reasons for this:

Blood Is Thicker Cover

  1. I need to learn and get comfortable with more forms of promotion for my book launch. As my father would have said, “I’m not going to do it any younger.”
  2. It seems to fit this book. I’m actually trying to promote both books, BLOOD WILL TELL and BLOOD IS THICKER. A blog tour will give me a better platform for this.
  3. Frankly, trying to find potential reviewers for the second book in a series is hard and it’s making me crazy and affecting my ability to write the next story–which is always the most important thing. I really want to be able to concentrate on my weird Oz story, now.
  4. It’ll also give me a great venue for a giveaway of the combined ebook.
  5. It’ll also give me a chance to switch some of my effort back to promoting FIRE AND EARTH, which deserves more than I’ve given it so far.

Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

I’ll also do a Goodreads giveaway of both books. (I just ordered the copies this morning.) And I’m considering doing a special Goodreads forum.

Meanwhile, another chapter of BLOOD IS THICKER is available on wattpad. This one threatens my dragon characters (who cannot lie under oath) with the possibility of having to testify in a criminal trial. More fun. Which is what these stories are all about, really.

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Miscellany

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 25, 2013| 6 Comments »

A little of this and a little of that, today.

I have started  looking for potential reviewers for BLOOD IS THICKER. Not nearly enough yet, but sometimes just getting started breaks the log jam. It’s certainly the first step.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

I got my proofs for the paperback version. I might make one change before launch, but I haven’t decided, yet.

Meanwhile, my first review for FIRE AND EARTH went live. Check it out, here. There’ll be a giveaway on that site next week and an author interview in early September.

Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

In other news, I’m extremely excited that my middle grade fantasy, MAGE STORM, got second place in the pitch+250 contest on Adventures in YA Publishing. I’ve just started querying this and I find this a very auspicious beginning. Besides, I get a critique from one of the judges. Who knows?

I’m almost finished with the paragraph-by-paragraph rewrite of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. If nothing else, this has been a great learning experience. I’m confident this story will see the light of day one way or another before too long.

As always on Sundays, a new chapter of BLOOD IS THICKER is up on wattpad for free. This one is one of my favorites. What if a couple of dragons in disguise arrived in our world just before Christmas, and had to go shopping for clothes? Well, take a look and find out. Or, of course, you could just buy the book. (Click on the pretty picture of the cover above.)

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Procrastination

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on August 21, 2013| 2 Comments »

It runs in the family. Dad was a champion at it.

Promotion is outside my comfort zone and it’s so easy to just keep working on things I enjoy more–like writing–and push off the promotion stuff until tomorrow. It’s always tomorrow.

But that’s the point. I have to reach the point where I’m reasonably comfortable with promotion. It’s not optional. Writing without some promotion is just shouting into the wind. Not very many people will hear you.

Last week, I had an excuse. WriteOnCon. And that was definitely not time wasted. But that was last week.

As of yesterday, the official launch of BLOOD IS THICKER is three months away. Time to get serious.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

I need to start dedicating an hour or so a day to this–whether I want to or not.

In other news, I got the proof of the paperback version. And, you can read the first eight chapters of BLOOD IS THICKER free on wattpad. (The next chapter coming up is a fun one.)

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Taking Stock

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 18, 2013| 4 Comments »

It’s time to take a step back and figure out what I want to do next with THE BARD’S GIFT. This is a tough one.

When I first sat down to write TBG, I had a choice to make. I could either write the story as straight up second-world fantasy or I could do a lot of research and write it as historical fantasy or alternate history. I chose to stretch myself as a writer and go with the historical–a story with fantasy elements set in 14th-century Greenland.

On some levels, this may have been a mistake, but I’m not sorry I did it. I really like the way it turned out. And, frankly, some elements of the story would have been different–maybe not as good–if I hadn’t done that research.

However, it looks like a young adult story set in 14th-century Greenland is a tough sell, at least to agents. Since the very first book I queried, I’ve never had so little response to a query.

It’s odd, though. I’ve had half a dozen or so of those repsonses queriers will tell you that you never get–personalized rejections. These rejections from agents who read a part of the beginning along with the query have complemented the writing, the main character, what they know of the plot–and then gone on to say that they just can’t take it on. I have to conclude that it’s the historical setting.

So, here are my choices:

  1. I could shelve it. But my gut and those peronalized rejections are telling me that’s not what I need to do.
  2. I could rewrite it as a second-world fantasy and try again. See if that gets any better response. I’m thinking about this one, but it doesn’t quite feel right.
  3. I could try sending it directly to some small and medium presses that accept unsolicited manuscripts and see if I get the same response from editors, but–wow that could take a very long time. Unlike agents, editors generally want exclusive submissions. And they may take months to get around to reading an unsolicited manuscript.
  4. Or, in today’s digital marketplace, I could just go ahead and epublish it myself. I’m leaning towards this one.

Meanwhile, following WriteOnCon, I’m ready to start querying MAGE STORM. Hopefully, this second-world middle grade fantasy will get a better response.

And, of course, I have to really dig in and start to prepare for the launch of BLOOD IS THICKER.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

Also, Chapter 8 is now available free on wattpad.

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Update

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’ll be “at” WriteOnCon all day tomorrow, learning a lot (as usual) so I’m posting a bit early. And I’m going to keep it short.

I discovered something new this week. I prepared the combined manuscript for Blood Will Tell and Blood Is Thicker (for that promotion I want to do around the launch of Blood Is Thicker).

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image10567743

(I’m starting to really love that cover.) I went to upload the file to Smashwords and guess what? They have a new function, still in beta, that allows you to set the launch date. The book will appear for preorder on several of the sites Smashwords distributes to. Readers will be able to download a sample. But it won’t actually be available until (approximately) the date I set. Woohoo! Love this.

Also, you can read the first seven chapters of Blood is Thicker free on wattpad.

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Bundling

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 11, 2013| 3 Comments »

Part of my plan for the launch of BLOOD IS THICKER is to offer a bundle of both BLOOD WILL TELL and BLOOD IS THICKER at a discounted price. This will be helpful with some reviewers, too.

First thing I need is a cover. Here’s a sneak peak at what I’ve got now:

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image10567743

It’s kind of a mash up of the two covers.

That’s the progress on launch preparations for now. I’ve also been working on my rewrite of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, although my forward motion on that slowed down a little last week.

Next week is WriteOnCon. If you write, or even think you might want to write, middle grade, young adult, or new adult you really should check this out. It’s online and it’s free. I’ll be hoping to attract some attention for MAGE STORM, so wish me luck.

The first seven chapters of BLOOD IS THICKER are now available on wattpad.

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Lucky Sevens

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 21, 2013| 2 Comments »

Both @Sheena Dabel Boekweg and @Melanie Sweat Crouse have tagged me in this meme on Facebook.

Unfortunately, I’m not actually doing Facebook right now, other than to share these posts. (It’s not just that Facebook can be a huge time-suck. My computer and Facebook aren’t getting along well at the moment. Probably something to do with my older operating system (Windows XP) or my layers of anti-virus/malware software. But I haven’t had a chance to sort it out, so I mainly just go onto Facebook long enough to share these posts.)

The rules:

The rules… Go to page 7, 70, or 170 of a current work in progress or a recently published work and choose either the first complete paragraph or 7 lines of dialogue to share. Paste it to FB and tag 7 other authors to do the same.

All right then. From page 7 of MAGIC AND POWER:

“So? Did you ask her?” Cergio asked as he and Savyon led their horses into the palace stables.

Savyon scowled. “No. You let the others get through too soon. I didn’t have time.”

“How much time does it take? It’s a simple yes-or-no question, isn’t it?”

Savyon’s posture stiffened. “You can’t just blurt out a question like that without a little . . . preparation.”

Cergio shrugged. “No, you mean you can’t. I mean, if you’d’ve been doing this right, the proposal shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to her.”

Savyon’s ears turned pink.

Cergio choked back a laugh. “Oh, no. You’ve still been going on as if you’re just childhood friends, haven’t you? Have you even tried to kiss her?”

For good measure, from page 70 of BLOOD IS THICKER (which is available before formal release on October 21 at Smashwords):

“Be more careful, Cristel,” Rolf said, shaking his head. “You and Vallie. Neither of you know when to quit.”

Vallie smirked. “Oh, and you do. How many days did you spend pouring strength into me in the hospital to keep me alive?”

Rolf rustled his wings. “That was different.” Under Vallie’s level stare he added more softly, “Sort of.”

Cristel turned toward the bronze egg. “Did it work?”

The egg was unmistakably brighter. Rolf put his hand on it, sensing something Cristel couldn’t see.

“Yes, it seems to have,” Rolf said. “But don’t hold on so long next time. Just a little bit at a time.”

Cristel nodded. “I understand.”

“See that you do. After all, we won’t be here to stop you. And you can’t stand up for our eggs if you can’t stand up.”

Since I’m not actually on Facebook as I type this, if you’re a writer and you feel so inclined, consider yourself tagged.

Also, the first four chapters of BLOOD IS THICKER are now available free on wattpad.

 

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At Loose Ends

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 17, 2013| 2 Comments »

Well, not really. There’s plenty for me to be working on. But . . . but I’ve finished most of the revisions I was planning to carry me into next month.

  • BLOOD IS THICKER is done and already available on Smashwords. (By the way, my other published stories are on sale on Smashwords through the end of the month. Some are even free. Check them out here and remember to use the coupon code listed right below the price.) You can also read the first three chapters of BLOOD IS THICKER free on wattpad.
  • MAGE STORM is basically done, although I’m still waiting for feedback from a couple of beta readers. I still need to work on the query and pitches some more. The synopsis could probably stand a bit of polish, too.
  • And, surprisingly, I feel like the third draft of MAGIC AND POWER is probably just about the final draft–at least until I can get it in front of a few beta readers. After the last pass, there’s just one more thing I think I need to take a look at. I suspect my characters do a lot of taking deep breaths and breathing out. Using a physical response to show emotion is good, but I probably need to introduce a little more variety there.

So, it looks like I may be starting that weird Oz story about a month sooner than I’d planned. I’m going to have to spend a little time getting myself into the right frame of mind. This one will be in first person and my character has (I hope) a distinct voice. But I don’t like taking more than a few days without doing some actual writing. Gotta keep those writing muscles in shape.

Of course, I also need to continue preparing to officially launch BLOOD IS THICKER (October 20). And continue trying to promote FIRE AND EARTH, mostly by trying to line up reviewers.

Maybe I’m not at such loose ends, after all.

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