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Posts Tagged ‘paranormal romance’

Step One

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The first steps to planning the publication of BLOOD IS THICKER are under way.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

Blood Is Thicker Cover

The tentative official publication will be in the middle of October. Specific date to be announced.

And BLOOD IS THICKER is already available on Smashwords. (I’ve actually already sold one there and it only went up last night with no fanfare.) This makes it possible for me to start trying to line up reviewers for around the official release.

In getting it up on Smashwords, I needed a pitch.

In the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL, the newlyweds, Rolf and Valeriah, face a new crisis.

Born half-werewolf, Valeriah’s life has never been simple. Her recent marriage to a dragon has led to a transformation–Valeriah is now a dragon, too. But, taking the form and knowing how to actually be a dragon is not the same thing. Her life has even more complications than ever. So many, in fact, that she doesn’t recognize the signs of her own pregnancy until Rolf rushes her to the Hatching Grounds to lay their eggs.

But then things only get worse, because something’s wrong on the Hatching Grounds. The underground source of heat that sustains the eggs is slowly dying. Valeriah and Rolf have to scramble to discover what’s gone wrong and find a way to fix it before their eggs die.

Meanwhile, the first three chapters of BLOOD IS THICKER are available free on wattpad.

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Publication Planning

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Sorry to be late blogging today. I got sidelined by a power outage.

I have a final draft of BLOOD IS THICKER and a cover. Now the real work starts. I mean to do a better job of it this time. Promotion is where I’m weakest. So, I need to make a list.

  1.  Pick a publication date. Right now, I’m leaning towards mid-October, roughly three months out.
  2. Now would probably be a good time to get a decent blurb and pitch worked out, too.
  3. Line up some fellow bloggers for a formal cover reveal, announcing that publication date.
  4. Go through the Smashwords formatting process so I can have e-copies for potential reviewers. I can turn off further distribution until just before the publication date (if I choose). But, at least this will be done and setting it to go live beyond Smashwords will be trivial.
  5. Start lining up reviewers. This time, try to work it so the reviews will coincide roughly with the release.
  6. Tricky part. I want to make a two-for-one deal available. Buy either BLOOD WILL TELL or BLOOD IS THICKER and get the other free for a limited time (say, oh, I don’t know, through Christmas). But the only way I can see to make this generally available (as opposed to available only to people who have some contact with me on Facebook, through one of my writers’ forums, or through my blog) is to create a sort of omnibus edition of both books and price it the same. That way it’ll be available everywhere. Plus, it’ll be available for reviewers who want to start with the first book. (Some do.) That’s another formatting chore. Plus, I need another cover. Stumped on that one right now.
  7. Bite the bullet and try to set up a blog tour. Introvert me believes this will kill me, but I think I can survive it.
  8. Go through the formatting for print on demand, too. That way I can schedule a Goodreads giveaway along with the release. (Both books? Or the Omnibus edition?) Decisions, decisions.
  9. What else? What else? I’m sure there’s more I need to do that I haven’t figured out yet. 

 Argh! And while I’m at it, I need to order some more copies of FIRE AND EARTH to send out to reviewers, too.

You can read the first two chapters of BLOOD IS THICKER for free on wattpad.

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Final Draft

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on July 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’m currently about half way through what I hope will be the final draft of BLOOD IS THICKER.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

Blood Is Thicker Cover

(Shh! There’ll be a formal cover reveal later. This is a sneak peak.) Then planning for the launch really starts.

Here’s another sneak peak. The first page:

“Rolf?” Valeriah pronounced his name carefully, even though it didn’t have any of the soft ess sounds that were so difficult for a dragon’s tongue and throat to produce without hissing.

“Hmm?” Rolf answered, opening one eye. He lay stretched out on the beach, dozing and digesting the cow they’d shared for lunch.

“How long iss thiss going to take?” Damn, those esses were hard.

“Which this is that, sweetheart?”

Show off. He didn’t have any trouble with his esses. Then again, he’d been a dragon from birth. He’d had a lot more time to practice. “Learning to be a dragon.”

Rolf stretched out his huge golden wing to embrace her and reached out with his long neck to rub his chin along her back.

Signs he knew she wasn’t going to like the answer. She felt herself tensing, subconsciously balancing her weight in preparation for a fight. As if she could fight a kitten, clumsy as she was in this unfamiliar body. That was another source of frustration. She’d been athletic in her human form. Not anymore.

“Most dragons take about ten years to master a new form,” Rolf said.

“Ten yearss!” She jerked upright, half unfolding her wings in outrage, and clunked Rolf’s jaw with the top of her head. It likely didn’t seem that long to him. Rolf was two-hundred-and-fifty years old, give or take. Valeriah would be twenty-six next month and ten years seemed like an impossibly long time to her.

You can read the first two chapters of BLOOD IS THICKER on wattpad.

 

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Ahead of Schedule

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 3, 2013| 1 Comment »

First, my books and stories are part of Smashwords’s Summer/Winter Sale this month. All of my shorter stories: “Heart of Oak“, “The Music Box“, and “Becoming Lioness” are free. BLOOD WILL TELL is 75% off, just in time for the launch of the sequel, BLOOD IS THICKER this fall. FIRE AND EARTH is 50% off. If you ever wanted to read one of my stories, here’s your opportunity. If you want to make an author happy, don’t forget to leave a review where it will count, like Amazon or Goodreads.

I’m currently working through the second draft of MAGIC AND POWER–and I’m way ahead of schedule. I expected to get through about chapter 9 this week. I’m now working on chapter 23 (of 26). I might even finish the second draft this week. Now, the second draft is a long way from a finished draft, especially for a modified discovery writer, like me. But it’s really good progress and I’m pleased.

Then I need to do some additional work on the query and pitches for MAGE STORM. My goal for MAGE STORM is still to have it ready for WriteOnCon. I’m still waiting for some of the critiques on that one, though, so I’ll probably switch back to trying to finish and polish up BLOOD IS THICKER. A finished manuscript would allow me to start taking steps to line up reviews and maybe a blog tour in advance of the launch, for a change. I need to create, at a minimum, an e-book version that I can distribute to reviewers. It would also allow me to set a publication date about three months out. Both good things.

Sometime after that, I’ll be ready to start on my next new project–my weird Oz story. For some reason, August and September do tend to be my most productive period for first drafts. I have no idea why, but I’ll just go with it.

BLOOD IS THICKER is being serialized on wattpad, but since it’s not complete, I’m only updating once a week. You can read the first chapter here.

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What I’ve Learned (So Far)

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 30, 2013| 4 Comments »

Well, not surprisingly, I’ve done things backwards, again. Typical.

What I’ve learned so far from my experience with FIRE AND EARTH:

Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

I need to start planning and taking action much earlier. I planned a month in advance with FIRE AND EARTH. Most of that went into formatting and cover art, though, so I hadn’t done a lot of preparation for a launch. With BLOOD IS THICKER, I’m going to start a minimum of three months in advance.

So, I won’t know the date until I have a finished, polished manuscript in hand. Then I’ll pick a date at least three months out from that. I’ll need to go ahead and do the formatting, for Smashwords at a minimum, and then start approaching potential reviewers in the hope that some of the reviews will be up at about the launch date (or even a little earlier).

I also need to do more in the way of a blog tour, cover art reveal, etc. Introvert me has resisted this, but I’m going to have to push myself out of my comfort zone. Well, what else is new? I knew that’d be part of learning this promotion thing, didn’t I? And that was part of the point. Beyond wanting to get my stories out there, I want to start learning the other side of this business that I’ll need no matter what path my writing takes from here.

I still have to figure out how to do my two-for-one offer of BLOOD WILL TELL and BLOOD IS THICKER together. I have a couple of ideas, but nothing’s final yet. I want it to be everywhere, not just one bookseller. And I want it to be wider than just my writing communities. For that, I may have to create an omnibus edition which can temporarily be priced the same as either book separately.

Meanwhile, I have started serializing BLOOD IS THICKER over on wattpad. If you want to see how the story starts (or continues, since this is the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL), you can check it out for free over there.

 

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Early Launch Preparations

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 26, 2013| 2 Comments »

Sometime this fall, I’ll be e-publishing BLOOD IS THICKER, the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL. I haven’t picked the exact date yet. This time, I’m really determined to do a better job of preparing for the launch. This is a learning process for me

There’s a lot to do.

  1. The final draft would be a good thing to have, I think. Actually, I’m almost there. In the past, though, I’ve always had the final draft essentially burning a hole in my . . . my storage drive, I guess . . . and it’s made me the thing out a little too fast. Like I said, it’s a learning process.
  2. I still have to write a blurb and a pitch, which I haven’t even started.
  3. I have to finalize the cover art. This is what I have so far:
    Provisional Blood Is Thicker Cover

    Provisional Blood Is Thicker Cover

    There’ll be a formal cover reveal when I’ve settled on the final cover. What do you think?

  4. I’ll need to start working soon on things like a blog tour and lining up reviewers much earlier than I’ve done for FIRE AND EARTH.
  5. Mostly, I’m still trying to figure out how to do what I really want to do–offer a short-term two-for-one deal. Buy either BLOOD WILL TELL or BLOOD IS THICKER and get the other free. I know other people have done something similar. I just need to figure out how to make it work.

Meanwhile, I’m still lining up reviewers for FIRE AND EARTH. Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)Yeah, should have done that sooner. Oh, and answering questions for an author interview to go along with one of those reviews. That’s new for me, too.

The last chapter of BLOOD WILL TELL is now available on wattpad. I’ll start the sequel, BLOOD IS THICKER, on Sunday, hoping to get some people interested in advance. This one, I think I’ll update once a week.

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Looking Ahead

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Well, we’re about half-way through the year and I guess it’s time to look ahead to my plans for the rest of the year.

I’ve got a number of revisions under way.

  1. MAGIC AND POWER: I’ve just started the second draft. It’ll take at least one or two more drafts and some beta readers before I decide what I’ll ultimately do with it. It’ll need a new title, at the least. This is the story that grew from a planned novelette into 75,000 words.
  2. BLOOD IS THICKER: This is the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL. I’ve just completed a revision on this. I’m finally happy with the story. (Did I mention lately that sequels are hard?) It needs at least one more pass. I plan to start serializing it on wattpad as soon as BLOOD WILL TELL is complete there. (Next Sunday, in fact.) And I need to start planning a launch for this for sometime this fall. Note: This time I do actually intend to plan about three months ahead. Guess I’d better get started.
  3. MAGE STORM: I’m just beginning to get feedback from my beta readers on the newly revised version. I’m excited about this one. It’s my middle grade fantasy and I want it to be ready to pitch at WriteOnCon in August. That means I need to rework the query and synopsis, too.

Hopefully about the time I finish these revisions, I’ll be ready to start writing my “weird Oz” story. I’m getting excited about that one, too. It’s likely to be the first novel-length work I’ll attempt in first person. At a minimum, that’ll be an interesting adventure.

Meanwhile, at least until MAGE STORM is ready, I’ll continue querying THE BARD’S GIFT.

Eh, when I put it all down like that, it’s no wonder the house is a mess.

The next-to-last chapter of BLOOD WILL TELL is up now on wattpad. Final chapter to come on Wednesday.

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Series Can Just Go On Too Long

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 19, 2013| 1 Comment »

 This is the last in my series of blog posts about the problems with series. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good series–up to a point. But some series just keep going on . . . and on . . . and on. And at some point, they go on too long. This post is about endurance–the reader’s–and knowing when to stop.

I’m quite sure that the endurance level varies widely by reader. My own experience suggests that mine is somewhere between five and nine books in a series, depending on several factors. After that, I just don’t really care enough about the characters or the story to continue. This probably helps to explain my strong preference for either series that are already complete–and I can tell how many books are involved–or for series in which each book represents its own story, allowing me to stop at any point that I get tired of it.

HARRY POTTER certainly held my interest for all seven books. Though, even then, I confess that I enjoyed the earlier ones more, I think. WHEEL OF TIME lost me somewhere around book nine. It is certainly possible for a series that doesn’t give any intermediate resolutions to go on far too long for me. I can only think of one “series” where I read more than nine books–and that one was more a collection of series within the same world but with different collections of characters and problems. Even then, I reached a point where the stories just couldn’t hold my interest anymore.

I understand the temptation. You’ve spent hours, days, maybe months, building up this world. More, readers seem to like it. Why wouldn’t you want to keep writing stories about it? But, I think wisdom is to be found in knowing when to say enough and go build some other world.

 The final chapter of FIRE AND EARTH (actually the epilogue) is now up on wattpad, along with a new chapter of BLOOD WILL TELL.

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The Big Problem with Sequels–Reintroducing

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 16, 2013| 2 Comments »

For a writer, there’s very little more difficult than starting a sequel. You have all these characters, settings, and issues that have already been introduced to the reader–probably over the course of a couple of hundred pages. Now you have to reintroduce them at the start of the sequel, with at least enough information for the reader not to get lost.

It’s risky to assume that your reader already knows these things because they’ve read the first book. Ultimately, you can put Book 2 on the cover in pulsing red letters and someone will still pick up the sequel first. You have no control over that. And you don’t want that reader to be so lost that they put your book down and decide that they don’t want to read anything else by you. So you want to supply enough information for that reader to be able to grasp who everyone is and what’s going on. But how?

Probably the easiest thing is to write a short synopsis of the first book, providing the necessary information. Unfortunately, most readers will just skip that, anyway. The next option is to try to introduce the information as it’s needed, but without making it seem like an info dump. Easier said than done.

In BLOOD IS THICKER, at least I only have to start with two of the characters and add the others as the story goes on. I got lucky. That’s the natural starting place of that story. The start of the sequel to MAGE STORM won’t be too bad, I think, though there will probably be more than two characters. In THE IGNORED PROPHECY, sequel to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE (assuming I ever get back to rewriting those), well, there are a dozen or so characters all in the same place. I’ll have to find some way of introducing each of them, and the setting, while trying to get the story started. Yikes.

It’s a delicate balancing act–enough information without slowing things down to a standstill and boring the reader before the story even gets off the ground. I have to say, I haven’t seen an example I can hold up as the absolute gold standard. At least, not yet. Have you?

Also, new chapters of FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD WILL TELL are available on wattpad. (Only one more chapter to go in FIRE AND EARTH.)

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The Problem of the Middle Book

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 12, 2013| 3 Comments »

Did you ever notice that the middle book (or movie) in a series is usually the least exciting? It just feels like there’s something missing. I have a theory about that.

This applies to all lengths of series in which there’s some overall conflict tying the whole series together, but, for the sake of brevity, let’s use the trilogy.

In the first book, we, as readers, meet the characters for the first time. We “see” the setting for the first time. Hopefully (so that we’ll want to continue the series) we fall in love. If it’s a fantasy, we also learn about the magic system, about any strange and wonderful creatures that inhabit this world. It’s all new and sparkling and full of wonder.

In the third book, we have the big bang, the ultimate confrontation between the hero and the villain. The villain gets his come-uppance. The hero emerges victorious. We get the resolution, the satisfaction, of finding out how the story ends.

The poor middle book doesn’t have either one of these. Hopefully, it’s at least a decent story in its own right, but not always. I’ve read series in which the middle book doesn’t even come out to a story, in the sense of having a smaller problem recognized in the beginning and resolved at the end. It’s just a bridge between the first and third books. I have to really love the characters to want to come back for more in those cases.

This is something I’m really struggling with right now with BLOOD IS THICKER, which is the middle book of my CHIMERIA trilogy. The three books are each meant to stand alone, but they also build on each other and there is something of an overarching problem. BLOOD IS THICKER suffers from middle-book syndrome. And I’m not quite sure how to fix it. Yet.

Now, I want to mention one series that spectacularly beat the middle-book blues–J. K. Rowling’s HARRY POTTER series. And I think I know why. She parcels out that sense of wonder all through the books, especially the early ones. In SORCERER’S STONE we learn about the wizarding world, Diagon Alley, Hogwarts, Quidditch, baby dragons, unicorns, and centaurs. But in CHAMBER OF SECRETS we get the flying car, the whomping willow, giant spiders, a “talking” diary, a phoenix, and the basilisk. In PRISONER OF AZKABAN we get dementors, hippogriffs, werewolves, time-turners, the Marauders’ Map, and the patronus charm. Do I even have to go into GOBLET OF FIRE?

Now, if I could just figure out how to apply that to BLOOD IS THICKER. I think I have a better chance with the sequels to MAGE STORM.

Also, new chapters of FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD WILL TELL are available on wattpad.

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