16 Feb 2015

Cover Update

by | posted in: cover reveals, progress updates | 2

I’ve been contemplating updating the covers of my books for quite a while. I liked the covers, but I wanted something simpler, more streamlined, and a style that would be easier to carry across the series, uniting all the books visually.  Well, it was time to really start thinking about the cover of the third book, which meant it was also a perfect time to think about updating.  So, without further adieu, here are the new covers:

E cover e2cover

The cover of Book Three, which is entitled Eden, is also done, though I may end up tweaking it a bit here and there before I release it.  The writing is moving along— sometimes faster and sometimes slower.  Yesterday, for instance, I didn’t get any writing done because I was working on book covers.  But today the writing will resume.  We’re about halfway there.  The first chapter has gone to my editor and come back with only a few bits of red pen, yay!  And we are shooting for release somewhere around June.

14 Feb 2015

Indie Love Blog Hop:

by | posted in: Uncategorized | 8

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!  I hope you are having a spectacular day celebrating the joy of love, whether you have found that special someone or whether you’re still waiting.  Or, hell, whether you’re popping balloons, scoffing at roses, and telling people to stick their chocolate bars up their you-know-wheres.  (We’ve all been there, right?)

An appropriate little snippet for you from Book Three in the E series, currently in progress:

“Whoa!”  Apollon is now choking on his rum.  When he manages to swallow whatever is stuck in his throat, he says, quite seriously, “Not going to happen.  You should know better.  I don’t do love.”
My eyebrows climb a notch higher.
He shrugs helplessly.  “I don’t.”
“That’s really fucking cynical for a guy who goes around spouting poetry all the time, you know.”
“I’m not cynical,” he protests.  “I believe in love.  I just don’t do it.”
“Why not?”
He frowns for a moment, thinking.  He’s really contemplating this answer.  Finally, he says, “Because I’m happy the way I am.  I like the freedom of just being me.  And love— it wrecks you.”

Anyway, in honor of Valentine’s Day, today I’m participating in the Indie Love Blog Hop, in which we are spreading love around the internet for our fellow Indies.  We’re like a bunch of slap-happy cupids, I tell you.  I personally recommend just staying inside.

The challenge for this blog hop was to write a post about “your favorite” Indie author.  But I have a good handful of favorites to share with you.  Being part of the Indie community means that yes, I know these people, and yes, they are friends/acquaintances.  That is *not* why I am including the recommendations below.  I’ve read a lot of Indie books, and I’m recommending some of my favorites:

Jane Dougherty:  I looked Jane up on Goodreads after reading an impressive review of one of her books on a blogger’s review site.  Jane kindly gifted me the first book in her Green Woman series, The Dark Citadel.  I’ve been a Jane Dougherty fan ever since!  I absolutely love this series, which is perfectly dark and disturbing, while pulling in classic fantasy elements, plenty of mythology, and a lot of interesting characters.  Jane has done a collaboration (with Ali Isaac) of short stories– retellings of Irish myths– for Valentine’s Day.  Perfect, right?  Gra Mo Chroi: Love Stories from Irish Myth  I have not read these yet, but do I plan on it?  You bet your booty!

H. L. Burke:  I started following Heidi’s blog through another blog hop last year.  I really enjoyed all her ramblingProduct Detailss about writing, but I was pretty busy and never picked up one of her books until recently.  A while back, Heidi put the first book of her The Dragon and The Scholar series on a free promo on Amazon.  So I was like… yeah, I’ll give it a try… but I wasn’t sure I’d like it.  Within the next two weeks I had bought all the rest of the books in the series.  These books are sweet, light fantasy, and they are adorable.  I’m still reading the last one– I slowed down major-time because I’ve been *busy*, but yeah, I would recommend these if you like a fairytale-style fantasy romp.

Product DetailsDavid Estes:  This guy has written *tons* of books, and I haven’t read most of them.  I picked up a copy of Brew, one of his latest, and ended up loving it.  It took a while for the magic to sink in– I wasn’t convinced at first– but yeah, great book.  It’s about the witch apocalypse.  Yep.  The witch apocalypse.  Witch-slaying + book blogger + cool dog = fun.

 

N. S. Dorrington:  And if you love YA fantasy with a good dose of romance, look no further than my fellow Rock the Book chick, Nicola, who has put together a lovely little modern spin on the King Arthur myths.  The Last Knight is a tale of prep schools and sorcery.  I mean, we all knew Lancelot would look great in a leather jacket, right?  😉

So there you have it, a handful of awesome Indie books.  *Shoots arrows all over hell and gone*

dystopian novelIf you haven’t read my (*refrains from saying “awesome”*) Indie book yet, you can enter to win an e-copy in the Rafflecopter giveaway below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Many thanks to Debdatta over at http://www.b00kr3vi3ws.in for hosting this blog hop!

31 Jan 2015

N. S. Dorrington’s The Last Knight is free right now

by | posted in: Uncategorized | 0

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to share with you that my friend’s book is free on Kindle right now!  Download yourself a free copy of The Last Knight by Nicola Dorrington.  This is a YA book that is a modern take on the King Arthur stories.  Lots of adventure, a touch of romance, knights, mythical creatures, and high school.  🙂  Check it out!

…And while I’m here… yes, I’m still writing.  Book Three in the E series is starting to take shape.  But the more I talk atcha here, the less *real* writing I do, so off I go….

🙂

21 Jan 2015

Writing progress

by | posted in: progress updates | 2

I finished writing the rough draft of the prequel a few days ago, and now it’s on to the third book.  I’ve carried the writing momentum forward, but unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of time right now.  If it was up to me, I’d sit down and write all day every day, and it would probably be written in a few weeks.  But alas.  There is this thing called “real life”.  So realistically, it’s going to be a while.

At this point, I’m aiming for release during the early summer, but we will see how that pans out.  The good news is… the prequel will not be far behind the third book.

I’m going to take a moment and do the happy author dance over finishing the prequel.  It’s always so good to write those last words and know that another piece of the story is coming together.  But I have to say, I enjoyed writing this one so much that it just flashed by before I knew it, and I’m really sad to be done with it.  It has definitely been my favorite book to write so far.

I think this book captures a good dose of the poetic vibe that a lot of readers loved in E, and, even though most of my readers will have an idea about the story itself, there are a few surprises.  Of course, I’m dying to share some quotes, but as of yet I am resisting the temptation.  Probably better to wait until we’re closer to release.  We’ll see.

In the meantime, I hope you are all well and enjoying life.  Have a great week, everyone!

10 Jan 2015

A thousand twisted paths…

by | posted in: on writing | 3

The past few weeks, I’ve been working like crazy on the prequel to the E series.  I’ve written approximately 90,000 words, and I’m coming to the ending.  I’m at a bit of a stopping point, where I need to figure out a couple of things before I move on.  But as I stop to think about this ending, which I mostly already have the answers to, I can’t help but think about the ending.  You know.  The big one.  And really, I’m not sure where that will end up.

Some writers seem to know exactly where their endings will be, from the moment they start writing.  They know that their characters will eventually get their happily ever after, or not.  They know where the characters will be in the end.  I, on the other hand, have more and more trouble committing to an end.  For one, when I decide “Right, this is how it’s going to be,” I lose some of the excitement of the finding-out.  I prefer to be in the story with my characters.  They don’t know.  I don’t know.  It’s easier to be immersed in the writing, to be immediate.  In the moment.

I cannot, however, help but play with the endings, batting them around in my mind like a cat with a mouse.  There are so many delicious endings.  How do you choose?  Sometimes I wonder, is one more real than the others?  More right?  Do I try to please my readers?  Please myself?  There are so many questions.  And really, all the endings seem right, because changing the tiniest detail in the story will change the outcome.  It could happen in so many ways.  So for me, the thousand twisted paths lead to a thousand true endings.  I experience them all.  But for my readers, there can be only one.

I don’t believe in tossing out alternate endings.  As a reader, I have never appreciated them.  I have always wanted the author to tell me which one is true.  So I guess my job is to find the one true ending.  And yes, I think there really must be.  Because, when I think back on the books that I’ve loved, some of them have had the right ending, and some of them– favorite books or not– have failed to satisfy me in the end.  The ones with the most impact had the right ending.  An ending I could believe in.  An ending that made everything else more potent.  That brought meaning to it all.  So yes, that’s the ending I’m looking for.

Along the way, I’ll try out a thousand more.  And while, yes, I do know some important things about where it all ends, the most important are yet to be discovered.  I’ll mostly try to keep my eyes closed— to avoid peeking too much— so that when the ending does get here, it will be as exciting and new to me as it is to you.

 

1 Jan 2015

Happy New Year!

by | posted in: Uncategorized | 2

fireworks-574739_1280

Happy New Year, Everyone!!!

Just a quick post to wish you all the best in the new year….

I have to say, 2014 was a good year for me, and I’m a little sad to see it go.  But the future is always an adventure.  I’m hoping to get a few more books out in 2015.  I’m currently at 75K words on the prequel, which, for those of you who don’t speak in word count, is around 3/4 done.  I’ve been zooming along with it, which is my excuse for neglecting everything else, blog included.  I absolutely admit to being the worst blogger in the world.  But hey, would you rather hear me ramble about writing, or get the next installment in the E series?  Yeah.  That’s what I thought.  Let’s face it.  Word count reports don’t really compare to semi-evil overlords.  Simple.  Fact.

So anyway… have an absolutely wonderful year.  May it be filled with friends and family, full of adventure tempered by quiet warm-and-fuzzy moments…. health, happiness, and dreams-come-true.  Happy New Year!  🙂

21 Dec 2014

An awesome book for only 99 cents…

by | posted in: Uncategorized | 1

The Dark Citadel

Just a quick one to let you know about a Countdown Deal on Jane Dougherty’s book, The Dark Citadel.  Jane and I became friends on Goodreads after I read a review of her book, and, being wholly impressed, decided I just had to read it.  Well, the review didn’t do it justice, as far as I’m concerned.  I absolutely loved this book.  It is entirely it’s own thing.  If you want, you can check out my review on Rock the Book.

Well, The Dark Citadel is 99¢ for a few days only.  I would encourage you all to give it a try.  It’s a beautiful blending of dark dystopian and classic fantasy.  Like me, Jane is an Indie author, and could definitely use all your love and support.  Grab your copy now if you think you’d like to give it a chance.  I really don’t think you will be disappointed!

11 Dec 2014

Evolution is in print!

by | posted in: Uncategorized | 0

I’ve been pretty bad about keeping up with the blog, but I’m still here.  Hopefully I will get back to more regular posting soon.  There’s just so much to do at this time of year, and I’m always on a time crunch anyway.

So the big news is… Evolution is now available in print.  It should be appearing on Amazon within the next few days.  You can get it now from CreateSpace for $7.99 plus shipping.

In writing news….  I know I said I was going to work on editing my other series in an attempt to try to have it ready for publication, but turns out I have been working on writing the prequel for the E series instead.  I’m a bit out of order, but I just felt like this was where I needed to be right now.  And I don’t really like to argue with my muse, so….

For those of you interested in the publishing industry, check out this very interesting blog post by my writer friend, Nicola S. Dorrington.

And that’s about it for now.  Hope you are all doing well and having a great holiday season!