Young Adult | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘Young Adult’

Tie-In Shorts and Reviews

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, Multiple Projects, reviews, Romance, sequels, series, short stories, world building, writing, Young Adult on October 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’ve received (some time ago, actually) a three-star review for “Becoming Lioness”. The story is perma-free, so it’s not like this review has a major effect on sales. However, the reason “Becoming Lioness” is free is to provide an easy introduction into the world of the Dual Magics series. There will be more short stories (also, hopefully, free) in this series between releases of the novels. In fact, I’ve got one that will hopefully be ready in November and two more on deck.

The review complains of inconsistencies between “Becoming Lioness” and THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. They tell you to never respond to a review–good or bad. And they’re right. So this isn’t a response. This reader’s experience is perfectly valid and right for them. It’s just not–from my point of view–complete. But, then, you see, there are things I know about this world that readers don’t–yet.

What this reader sees as inconsistencies come from two sources, I think.

The first is just that this is a short story. In order to make that work without bogging the story down, some things are simplified. Characters who would normally be present, aren’t there because each additional character adds approximately 1,000 words. In a short story that should be in the range of 7,500 words, that comes with quite a premium. (“Becoming Lioness” is technically a novelette and closer to 11,000 words.) So this plot is narrowed down to just the two characters who matter for this story. Some of the finer points of the magic system that don’t really matter for the plot are reduced, too, for the sake of brevity.

But the main “inconsistencies” I think come from the fact that the events of “Becoming Lioness” take place in the time frame of the fourth (as-yet untitled) book in the series. So, for example, Kiara is aged 7 – 10 in THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. She’ll be several years older–about 17–by the time we get to Book 4. That alone accounts for some significant differences.

So, I hope you do enjoy “Becoming Lioness”–and “Modgud Gold” when it becomes available. If you’ve read THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, “Modgud Gold” takes place in the same time frame and focuses on what Arcas was doing while Vatar was an apprentice blacksmith.

Speaking of bargains, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and FIRE AND EARTH will both be part of Clean Indie Reads Fall Sale from October 5^th thru the 11^th. They’ll both be $0.99.

Read Full Post »

Writer Brain vs. Editor Brain

Posted in writing, tagged Contests, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, revisions, sequels, series, writing, Young Adult on September 10, 2014| 1 Comment »

I’m back at work on Book 3 of the DUAL MAGICS series (currently titled BEYOND THE PROPHECY, but nothing’s set in stone). But I’m not fully back in first draft mode.

I’ve decided that’s part of my problem in really getting this one rolling. After all, I know the characters and the world. I laid down a rough outline of at least the high points of what’s going to happen. So what’s holding me back from making better progress?

Answer, I haven’t yet managed to disengage my editor brain. Writing (a first draft) and revising an existing draft are two very different things, calling not just for different skills, but a whole different mind set. Editor brain worries about what should be shown better and what should be cut, not about telling the story in the first place. Editor brain worries about whether that was precisely the right word.

I realized this yesterday when I wrote a new scene, and immediately thought that I should delete it. Well, there’s a good chance that it will be deleted and the information in it worked in with just a few sentences. It doesn’t really merit two pages. But that’s a decision for the second or third draft, not the first. The first draft only goes forward.

First drafts aren’t supposed to be good writing. Their purpose is to get the story out in the open so it can be revised into good writing. And I’ve been revising for quite a while, now. Both THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY had already been written before.

(Not well, but that’s what revision is for.) The plot lines didn’t really change as I reworked them, just tightened up.

And before that, I revised and polished DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING, which I’m currently querying. It made the top 25 in the Pitch Plus 5 contest. You can see the pitch and first chapter (which just happens to be about five pages long) here. It’s been a while since I was in first draft mode.

It may take a few more days to switch over to the correct frame of mind, but it will happen. And then this draft will start to really move.

Read Full Post »

Miscellaneous Stuff

Posted in writing, tagged Contests, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, first pages, Multiple Projects, Pitches, queries, revisions, sequels, series, writing, Young Adult on September 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

A few weeks ago, I entered the Pitch Plus 5 Contest over at Adventures in YA Publishing. Then, life being what it is, I lost track of when the first round of results were due. Apparently it was yesterday. Now, the way this contest works is that the first 50 entries make it into the contest. (Actually, the first 25 at an impossibly early–for the West Coast–entry window and the first 25 for a window 12 hours later.) Then, those entries are judged on a standard form by respected book bloggers on a standard scorecard. Based on those scores, the top 25 entries make it to the next round.

This time, entrants also get a short critique from that first judge. Email being what it is (newest on top), I read that critique before the announcement of who got in to the next round. The first sentence is “The opening didn’t hook me.” So, naturally, I thought that I wasn’t going any further this time. Then I get down to the list–and DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING is on it.

Here’s the initial entry, by the way.

So, now I have two days to make revisions and also do a little work on the query and get it in by midnight (9 p.m. my time) tomorrow night for the next round, judged by authors.

Yeah, that means that the first draft of BEYOND THE PROPHECY (book 3 of the DUAL MAGICS series) will be put on hold until Tuesday. (I have written a new first chapter for it, that does a better job of telegraphing the kind of story it will be.)

Meanwhile, I’m in the middle (exactly) of painting the final wall in what will be my new writing space.

What I want to know is: who had the bright idea for all those louvers?

Going to be a busy couple of days.

Read Full Post »

Tie-Ins and What I’m Working on Now

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, Multiple Projects, sequels, series, short stories, writing, Young Adult on August 3, 2014| 2 Comments »

I finished the “first draft” of the rewrite of THE IGNORED PROPHECY last week. I put first draft in quotes because it’s a rewrite, so the story was basically all already there, though it needed considerable cleanup and improvement in style. TIP is the sequel to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, which is still doing pretty well, even after the price went up on August 1st.

While I let that draft cool just a little before the next pass, I’m working on a tie-in short story. “Modgud Gold”. Again, a good part of this is already done, because it’s built around scenes (and chapters) that were cut from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. This one centers around a side character–Vatar’s cousin Arcas.

I’m not sure how much the tie-in short story “Becoming Lioness” helped to pave the way for THE SHAMAN’S CURSE to do so well, but it’s certainly worth repeating in preparation for THE IGNORED PROPHECY. I’ll have at least one more short story, this time about one of the more neglected cultures of this world, before this series ends.

Meanwhile, I’ve purchased some mapping software to see if I can turn out a passable map of this world to include in the next book. If so, I’ll go back and put it in THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, too. One of the advantages of digital publishing. But it’ll have to be significantly better than the hand drawn one, I shared before.

Pathetic, right?

I also need to start spending a little time on cover art again, for both “Modgud Gold” and THE IGNORED PROPHECY.

And I can’t let TIP cool too long. I need to go through it again before turning it over to my writers’ group in September.

Okay, I’ve just convinced myself I need to get back to work right now.

Read Full Post »

Cover Art

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, Multiple Projects, rewrites, series, writing, Young Adult on May 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’m targeting early July (maybe 7/7/14) for the launch of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.

For the stories I choose to epublish myself, for whatever reason, I do my own cover art. Most often I use images from Dreamstime, although there are other, similar sources out there. I just usually have better luck finding the kind of images I’m looking for there. And very often, I can find one perfect or nearly perfect image, like the ones I used for FIRE AND EARTH and THE BARD’S GIFT.

Or one that needs just a little additional tweak, like the one I used for BLOOD WILL TELL. (I had to add the dragon.)

But TSC is causing me no end of trouble. It’s not a lack of images, exactly. I have any number of them filed away in my lightbox on Dreamstime. But no one of them is quite exactly right for this story. Or, there’s one that’s pretty close to a scene from my story. If this was a stand-alone novel, I’d probably use that one. But it’s not. TSC is the first book in the DUAL MAGICS series (planned to be four books).

That’s part of the problem. I need to come up with something that will tie the covers of all four books together. Not the same image, necessarily. Though a single common element could work. Or a similar feel.

For the Chimeria series (BLOOD WILL TELL, BLOOD IS THICKER, and, eventually, BLOOD STAINS) I’m using dramatic, magical skies and the same dragon silhouettes.

I haven’t come up with any inspiration quite that simple for this series. Not that will work, anyway.

Of course, I’ve gone to amazon to look at covers of somewhat similar books (sword and sorcery, more or less–although TSC is more spear and sorcery). That’s given me some templates to try to work with. If I can just muster enough skill to make any of them work. So far, that’s also been part of the challenge.

One of the many challenges I’m wrestling with is coming up with some image or combination of images that conveys something about the story while at the same time giving sufficient clues that this is a fantasy story which will involve magic. Not, for example, a western or a historical romance. (One image, which is nearly perfect otherwise, just screams that the title should be something like “How to Tame Your Highlander”.)

I’ve got to come as close to perfection as reasonably possible. The cover is perhaps the most important part of the marketing. I’ll get there eventually.

Read Full Post »

Wrapping Up Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, Multiple Projects, Real Life, revisions, Romance, writing, Young Adult on May 14, 2014| 2 Comments »

Blogging a little bit late today because life got crazy yesterday–and that’s aside from the current heat wave, here. It’s been in the 90’s all week.

Right now, I’m about to wrap up the revisions on MAGIC AND POWER (or whatever title I finally decide on). Strengthening a couple of characters, mostly. There’s one section I still need to trim, but I’m probably going to have to seek some help with that. Someone else will be able to see what’s expendable than I am at this point.

It’ll soon be time to start working on the query and a dreaded synopsis for this one.

Keep your head down. Don’t draw attention. Don’t make waves. Be invisible as much as possible. Above all, don’t make yourself a target. Those are the rules seventeen-year-old Ailsa has lived by for as long as she can remember. She’s used to that. It just goes with being the daughter of the disgraced ex-king and living next to his more-than-slightly paranoid replacement.

With very few friends and no prospects of marriage, Ailsa focuses her energy on her chance to study at the Institute of Magical Arts. Her great hope is that she’ll prove to have a kind of magic that will enable her to save her homeland from the new king’s restrictive policies toward mages. But nothing is ever that simple for Ailsa. A completely unexpected proposal–from Crown Prince Savyon, no less–threatens to derail all her plans.

Political intrigue, powerful magic, and a handsome study partner with a maddening taste for placing them both at the center of attention force Ailsa to rethink her view of the world. Perhaps the answer isn’t to shrink until she fits in somebody’s pre-arranged slot after all. Maybe she can make her own place–and change the world for the better in the process.

The only question remaining is which of the young men who claim to love her is willing to help her in that battle.

GREEN MAGIC is a 96,000-word young adult fantasy romance and potentially the first of a series.

Thank you for your time.

Except, of course, it’s nearer to 97,000 words and I still have some more to add.

After that, I want to make a final pass through THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, preparing that one for this summer sometime. Then complete a first pass through the rewrite of the sequel, THE IGNORED PROPHECY. (The DUAL MAGICS series.)

And then I have plenty more things in the pipeline after that. The rewrite of DREAMER’S ROSE. First drafts of the sequel to MAGIC AND POWER and the third book in the DUAL MAGICS series (probably to be titled TROUBLED COUNSELS). And there’s still that weird Oz story hanging out on the edges, waiting for me to figure it out.

Yeah, I expect I can keep busy.

Read Full Post »

Mother’s Day

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, inspiration, marketing, paranormal romance, Real Life, revisions, Romance, series, writing, Young Adult on May 11, 2014| 2 Comments »

This is my first Mother’s Day without Mom. I miss her, not so much the way she was at the end, when, frankly, she didn’t really know who I was anyway. (Alzheimer’s disease is a far worse villain than anything I can come up with.) I miss her the way we were back in this photo, which is just an ordinary picnic. After Dad retired, they took up the habit of going on picnics once a week, usually on Tuesdays. If the weather didn’t cooperate, they’d still go for a drive and stop to eat somewhere. It didn’t take long before they knew all the best places–indoors or out–within a three-hour drive in any direction. (Well, not west. You can’t drive three hours to the west from here without a boat. ) Whenever I felt I needed a break, I could just throw my name in and join them for a day.

I’m planning to keep myself busy. There’s a lot that needs doing around here and I’m about two-thirds through revisions to MAGIC AND POWER.

Don’t forget the Mother’s Day Book Bash. Nine great books for bargain prices.

And, just to tie the two parts of this post together, Mom was part of the inspiration for Valeriah in the Chimeria series. Not Vallie’s aggressiveness or her fighting prowess, that wasn’t Mom at all. Though, she wasn’t afraid to make her opinion known. No, the part of Valeriah that comes from Mom was the petite ball of fire aspect. Mom was barely five feet tall on a good day, but she sure was a firecracker.

Read Full Post »

Mother’s Day Book Bash

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, Romance, Special Events, writing, Young Adult on May 4, 2014| 2 Comments »

To help decide which books might best suit those you gift on Mother’s Day, all week during the Book Bash, we’re going to be posting tidbits about these books–excerpts, deleted scenes, etc.–on our Facebook event page

Eye on Orion by Laura Bastian

Sale Price: $.99, regularly $3.99 Amazon

Genre: YA Fantasy

Falling in love with your gorgeous new neighbor isn’t a bad thing, but when he turns out to be the bodyguard of a princess from a planet nine billion light-years away, life gets complicated.

Seventeen-year-old stargazer Holly Adams never imagined she’d find herself trying to prevent the overthrow of an alien government. When Jai and his sister Amira move into the house down the street, Holly is immediately drawn to them. Jai acts suspicious of her from the start, making Holly more curious about their oddities. When Holly learns they are from a different planet, she does what she can to help protect Amira from Shander, a man who wants to marry her by force in order to take over the kingdom her father rules.

Mistaken identity, a botched kidnapping, and a first kiss that bonds Holly and Jai for life are hard enough, but when Shander believes Holly to be the princess, things get even more dangerous.

Arms Wide Open, a novella by Juli Caldwell

Price: $.99 Amazon

Genre: Romance

Lauren Brooks is in a rut, and her roomie is determined to yank her out of it by convincing her to participate in a local coffee shop’s 5-in-5 speed dating event. Once she agrees, it takes her about 30 seconds to realize if there’s an oddball out there looking for love, he’ll find her. And creep her out. She confronts one weirdo after another until someone she used to know winds up in the same place, and she has to decide what she wants more: to make a break for it, or embrace the possibilities of another chance.

Not So Easy by Sherry Gammon

Sale Price: $2.99, regularly $4.25 Amazon

Genre: YA Fantasy

Senior Max Sanchez has it all.

He’s the star pitcher for Port Fare High’s baseball team. He’s dating the head cheerleader, Emma McKay, and he has a great group of friends.

Junior JD Miller’s life is Not So Easy.

Unlike Max, JD struggles with making friends. He’s a social misfit, and he’s being bullied at every turn. He’s also barely surviving.

A tragedy forces these two together. Now Max must face the hardest challenge of his life as he works to help JD. A tragic accident changes everything, merging their lives together, and Max soon learns that life is not so easy for everyone. Max works to the point of exhaustion trying to help JD survive the chaos that is his life, and his eyes are opened to a world he had no idea even existed.

Not so Easy is a story about hope, surviving, and never giving up. Download a free sample and start reading now!

Adrenaline Rush by Cindy Hogan

Sale Price: 1.99, regularly 3.99 Amazon

Genre: YA romantic suspense

A madman with a mission is kidnapping groups of thrill-seeking high school seniors across the country, and it’s up to Christy to stop him. To do so, she must take on a fearless alter ego and infiltrate a group of adrenaline junkies bent on pushing life to the limit. Death-defying stunts are only the beginning: two groups fit the profile, and Christy must discover the real target before it’s too late.

If she chooses the wrong group, more people will disappear. But choosing right puts her as the prime target—with no guarantee that she’ll get out alive.

Rising Book 1: Resistance by Laura Josephsen

Sale Price: $.99, regularly $3.99 Amazon

Genre: Science Fiction

All Alphonse wants is a quiet summer at home before his final months at university. What he gets is a half-dead stranger on his doorstep and the task of delivering a package to the leader of his home country. Not long after he boards a train toward the capital, he’s attacked by knights, elite soldiers of the neighboring king.

Alphonse is temporarily rescued by Mairwyn, a mechanic with a haunted past and a deep hatred of knights. Together, they attempt to carry out Alphonse’s urgent errand, only to learn that if they fail, countless people will die.

And even if they succeed, they may not be able to prevent the war that lurks on the horizon. (Book 1 of 2)

Chimeria Omnibus Edition – Blood Will Tell and Blood is Thicker

by Meredith Mansfield

Sale Price: $.99, regularly $4.75 Amazon

Genre: Portal Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

Blood Will Tell

A half-werewolf and a dragon in disguise join forces to rescue an innocent woman from an unknown attacker. Without knowing who or why, each tries to solve the mystery in their own way. But a decades-old crime and the dragon’s true identity may destroy their collaboration–and their growing attraction to one another–just when their enemy has found their hide out.

Blood Is Thicker

Rolf and Valeriah are back. Even while Valeriah struggles to adapt to her new life, a new crisis arises. If they can’t figure out why the dragons’ hatching grounds are suddenly going cold, a generation of dragons may never hatch–including their own eggs.

How to Have Peace When You’re Fall to Pieces by Rebecca Rode

Sale Price: $.99, regularly $4.61 Amazon

Genre: Nonfiction

You haven’t seen your kids’ bedroom floor in weeks, your schedule is overflowing, and the drive-thru lady knows you by name. But even when life feels chaotic, peace is possible. Packed with poems, quotes, and inspirational stories, this book gives a fresh perspective on a mother’s work and helps restore calm to a hectic world–starting at home.

“Charming . . . full of wit, humor, and great ideas.” ~Sandra Covey

A Change of Plans by Donna K. Weaver

Sale Price: $.99, regularly $3.99 Amazon

(If you get the Kindle book, you can add the audiobook for only $1.99)

Genre: Clean New Adult Adventure Romance

When Lyn sets off on her supposedly uncomplicated and unromantic cruise, she never dreams it will include pirates. All the 25-year-old Colorado high school teacher wants is to forget that her dead fiancé was a cheating scumbag. What she plans is a vacation diversion; what fate provides is Braedon, an intriguing surgeon. She finds herself drawn to him: his gentle humor, his love of music, and even his willingness to let her take him down during morning karate practices. Against the backdrop of the ship’s make-believe world and its temporary friendships, her emotions come alive.

However, fear is an emotion, too. Unaware of the sensitive waters he navigates, Braedon moves to take their relationship beyond friendship—on the very anniversary Lyn came on the cruise to forget. But Lyn’s painful memories are too powerful, and she runs off in a panic.

Things are bad enough when the pair finds themselves on one of the cruise’s snorkeling excursions in American Samoa. However, paradise turns to piracy when their party is kidnapped. Lyn’s fear of a fairytale turns grim. Now she must fight alongside the man she rejected, first for their freedom and then against storms, sharks, and shipwreck.

All the Finer Things by Stephanie Connelley Worlton

Sale Price: $.99, regularly $2.99 Amazon

Genre: Romance

Married to one of the most lucrative and sought after plastic surgeons in SoCal, Megan Hamilton has it all. Her posh life, designer clothes, and stunning penthouse leave her wanting for nothing… or do they? Controlled by his obsessive pursuit of perfection, Doctor Matthew Hamilton will stop nothing short of breaking his young, spirited bride into a subservient trophy wife. But when parenthood enters their picture, the entire game changes. How far will Megan have to go to escape Matt’s obsessive control and abuse? And how much will she have to lose before she gets there?

Read Full Post »

Miscellany

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, Free Titles, marketing, Multiple Projects, Romance, Special Events, writing, Young Adult on April 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’m just going to announce a few things today:

“Becoming Lioness” is now free everywhere (yes, even Amazon). It contains an excerpt from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, which will come out sometime this summer.

“Wyreth’s Flame”, with a substantial excerpt from THE BARD’S GIFT, is free everywhere but Amazon. If you’d like to help with that, feel free to report the lower price at Apple (or Barnes and Noble). The link is just below the product details on Amazon’s product page.

And, finally, a bunch of great authors are doing a Mother’s Day Book Bash next week (May 5th thru the 12th). Among the other titles that will be a great bargain that week, my Chimeria Omnibus, containing both BLOOD WILL TELL and BLOOD IS THICKER, will be only 99 cents that week. There’ll be a bunch of other fun things during the week, too–excerpts, deleted scenes, character interviews. So come join the fun on Facebook.

Read Full Post »

Revising Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged characters, fantasy, first drafts, Learning, revisions, Romance, writing, Young Adult on April 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

By far the longest part of writing is revisions. First drafts are allowed to be bad. Some would even say they’re supposed to be bad. Really, the first draft is just to get the story down. My rule on first drafts is never look back. There is only one direction–forward. If I go down a rabbit trail, well, I just cut that part in the next draft. There are going to be things I have to cut. There are going to be things I have to add–settings and emotions I skipped over in the first draft, foreshadowing of things I discovered as I went along. Sometimes, there are just going to be things I got wrong.

Sometimes, in the process, I create even more problems.

I’m currently working on what I hope will be the last revision of MAGIC AND POWER (working title). This one has taken a more circuitous path than usual. When I started it, I expected it to be a novella. Yeah. Right. It’s 95,000 words now and likely to get a bit longer. Not a novella. Some reworking was necessary when I realized that. The conflict that will sustain a novella isn’t necessarily big enough to make a novel work. So the political background of the love story had to grow and take a bigger role in the story.

I intended it to be a love story between just two characters–until a third character popped up and turned out to be a better match. My first love triangle. And, on the first and second pass, I botched it. Knowing which character was going to win in the end, I didn’t make the other enough of a possibility. In this revision, I need to make that character a plausible love interest–better, stronger, less desperate.

Not content with that, in the process of creating a little more tension with the other love interest, I messed him up too. I want him to have some goals and methods that are annoying to the main character, so that their attraction to each other is derailed a few times before things work out for them. I took it too far. Now he comes off as pushing too hard.

Sometimes the writing process is two steps forward and one step back. Oh well, as long as the momentum is still forward.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »