tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83685488404916003552024-03-08T15:29:09.052-05:00Indie Writers ZoneUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-70604086340823717072013-01-11T11:38:00.000-05:002013-01-11T11:38:13.014-05:00Amazing Indie Success Story!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><img alt="" class="alignleft" height="71" src="http://www.novelpublicity.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/black-ducky.png" width="44" />Please enjoy this interview with Bella Andre, New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of the contemporary romance series, <em>The Sullivans</em><i>.</i> Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including special romantic swag baskets for each book, an iPad Mini, Kindle Fire, Nook Color, and Kobo eReader, and Amazon and iTunes gift cards!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><h1 style="text-align: center;">
Interview with Bella Andre</h1>
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about her writing habits and success</h1>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>1. Tell us about writing and publishing your very first novel. What were your expectations when you first waded into the self-publishing pond? Is there anything you would do differently if given another chance?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I honestly had no expectations other than some of my loyal readers would finally get a chance to read my book - and that was enough for me. Meeting so many new readers and fans has been icing on a cake I had no idea was being served.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>2. You're an icon in the indie publishing community. Your success is something we all aspire to. What do you believe has been the greatest contributing factor to the success of your novels?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Thank you, that's lovely to hear. I've so enjoyed self-publishing these past couple of years, and I've been lucky to have the most wonderful fans with me every step of the way. There are so many things that go into success, but I think my focus and determination - along with the best readers in the world - have been the biggest factors.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>3. What was your reaction when you first found out you broke onto the New York Times and USA Today best-sellers' lists? How did you celebrate?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Actually, it's kind of a funny story. I was on my way to the RWA National conference last summer and was sitting in the airport in Albany, New York when I found out I had three books on the USA Today bestsellers list. I called my husband and we had a mini celebration on the phone. I flew into Atlanta where I was switching planes for Anaheim, and when we landed I turned on my phone and checked my email. An agent (not mine, I was agentless at the time) had emailed me with the title "CONGRATULATIONS, New York Times!" That was when I found out I also had three books on the New York Times bestseller list…and I started crying. On the airplane. With a very conservative woman sitting next to me. She must have thought I was losing it, because she promptly turned her back on me. :) Of course I called my husband and cried happy tears some more. That night when I got into Anaheim, all of my closest writing friends came up to my room and we celebrated. It was AWESOME!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>4. You've recently shared some very exciting news—Harlequin MIRA has optioned the print rights for <em>The Sullivans</em> in a record-breaking seven-figure deal. Congratulations! How did this transpire? And how does it affect your writing and publishing plans?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Thank you, I'm beyond thrilled about it and Harlequin have been a dream to work with. They are so incredibly enthusiastic about putting <em>The Sullivans</em> out in paperback in English all over the world, with a simultaneous launch in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia starting this June and going back-to-back each month with the first eight books through April 2014.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My ebook sales numbers for the self-published Sullivan series had been growing bigger and bigger in the year since I'd started publishing the series, and I knew a print-only deal was going to happen soon. When so many Sullivans hit the New York Times and USA Today all at once, that was when the publishers started calling and making offers. I truly feel that Harlequin is the *perfect* publisher for my sexy, emotional contemporary romance Sullivan series.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Because I retained all of my ebook, audiobook, foreign translation and film/TV rights, I am continuing to put out my Sullivans, and other future books, as self-published ebooks and audio books. I have released seven Sullivan ebooks so far and the eighth (ALWAYS ON MY MIND, Lori Sullivan's story) will be out this spring…and I have a great idea for a brand new series that I hope to start writing this year as well. I have licensed the series in Brazil, France and Portugal so far, and the first two books are already big bestsellers in Brazil, which is very exciting.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>5. You write fast! Not only do you produce several novels per year, you produce several well written, polished novels per year. What is your writing process like? Do you have any advice for other wordsmiths struggling with productivity?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Thanks for the great compliment. I work so hard on my stories to make sure they're emotional and fun and sexy and that they take my readers out of their lives for a little while. I write every day, everywhere, no matter what. I don't wait for inspiration or a muse to come calling. Fortunately, my favorite thing is writing. In fact, today as I was sniffling over my keyboard during a really emotional scene between my hero and heroine, I was thinking how very happy it made me to be able to write books all day…and to know that I have the best fans in the world waiting to read them!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>6. In the early days, what did you do to market your books? Would you recommend these strategies to writers in today's market?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I took a really personal approach. Because I had started digital publishing in response to my readers who had emailed asking me for books, whenever I released a book, I individually emailed each and every single reader to let them know about it. Now, thanks to Facebook and Twitter, I can interact with my readers in other ways that let me spend more time on actually writing, and I recommend doing anything that puts you in touch with your readers.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>7. How has making it big changed your approach to writing and marketing your work? Has it changed your approach?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I truly believe that my fans want me to spend more time writing and less time gabbing. :) So I always err on the side of writing…and then once I've met my page count goals for the day, I go onto twitter and Facebook and answer emails.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>8. You've connected with a large international fan base. Do readers abroad respond differently to your novels than those in the USA? Which countries in particular have fallen in love with your work?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I'm having a love affair with my Brazilian readers, and I also love love love my Australia/New Zealand, UK and Canadian readers as well! They're so passionate and supportive of <em>The Sullivans</em> - but I've been really fortunate to find readers everywhere have been kind and amazing.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>9. You attend a lot of conferences. Recently, you delivered the keynote address at the 2012 Book Expo America. How have conferences contributed to your writing career?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Conferences are an amazing opportunity to stay abreast of what's happening in the business. I get incredible value out of networking in the lounge and hearing what people are up to and what ideas they have. The thing is, I truly love this business and everyone I've met had been wonderful…so it's really not work at all for me. In fact, going to a conference and meeting with people is always such fun.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>10. My, you are a busy bee! How do you find balance between writing, publishing, and promoting your books and the rest of your life? Any tips for the rest of us?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Give up sleep and sanity…and have an awesome husband who is happy to take care of absolutely everything non-book-related in your life! :) But seriously - get a good team behind you. I have a team of beta readers, editors, proofers and digital file producers, I work with great bloggers, and I also have the love and support of my family. Everyone thinks "indie publishing" means being independent, but it's not the case at all. While you get to be charge of your own career and your own vision, you also work with tons of great people to put your book out there!</span></div>
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<strong><a href="http://www.novelpublicity.com/the-sullivans/"></a></strong></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Sullivans are on tour with Novel Publicity. Follow along for your chance to win amazing prizes. We've got special romantic swag baskets for each book, an iPad Mini, Kindle Fire, Nook Color, and Kobo eReader, and Amazon and iTunes gift cards. WOW!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You'll also get introduced to this amazing contemporary romance series via excerpts as well as interviews with and guest posts from New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, Bella Andre. You'll definitely want to learn more about the family that has captured the world's heart.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All the info you need to join the fun and enter to win amazing prizes is <a href="http://www.novelpublicity.com/the-sullivans/" target="_blank">RIGHT HERE</a>. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>To Win the Prizes:</strong></span></div>
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<li>Purchase any of the Sullivan ebooks by Bella Andre<em> </em>for just $4.99 <em>(optional)</em></li>
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<li>Enter the Rafflecopter contest on Novel Publicity (<a href="http://www.novelpublicity.com/the-sullivans/" target="_blank">go here</a>)</li>
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<li>Visit today’s featured social media event <em>(that's where the HUGE prizes are)</em></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>About <em>The Sullivans</em>: </strong>In this sexy, emotional and funny contemporary romance series, each member of the Sullivan family will eventually find true love...usually where he or she least expects it.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Get the eBooks via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=bella+andre+sullivans&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Abella+andre+sullivans" target="_blank">Amazon US</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=bella+andre+the+sullivans" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/bella-andre-the-sullivans?dref=2207&keyword=bella+andre+the+sullivans&view=list" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/bella-andre/id358470275?mt=11" target="_blank">the iBookStore</a>, or <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=bella+andre+the+sullivans&t=all&f=keyword&p=1&s=&g=both&l=en&a=Established" target="_blank">the Kobo Store</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Audiobooks are also available for the first five in the series (with more coming soon). Plus, keep an eye out for paperback editions coming from Harlequin Romance starting Summer 2013.</span></div>
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<img alt="All Sullivan Covers" class="aligncenter wp-image-13199" height="408" src="http://www.novelpublicity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/All-Sullivan-Covers.png" width="554" /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong><img alt="Bella Andre_1" class=" wp-image-13200 alignleft" height="180" src="http://www.novelpublicity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Bella-Andre_1-257x300.jpg" width="154" />About the Author: </strong>New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Bella Andre has always been a writer. Songs came first, and then non-fiction books, but as soon as she started writing her first romance novel, she knew she'd found her perfect career. Known for "sensual, empowered stories enveloped in heady romance" (Publishers Weekly) about sizzling alpha heroes and the strong women they'll love forever, nearly all of her novels have appeared on Top 10 lists at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple and Kobo.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Her books have been Cosmopolitan Magazine "Red Hot Reads" twice and have been translated into nine languages. Winner of the Award of Excellence, The Washington Post has called her "One of the top digital writers in America" and she has been featured by NPR, USA Today, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. She has given the keynote speech at Book Expo America on her self-publishing success and has sold more than one million books.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If not behind her computer, you can find her reading her favorite authors, hiking, swimming or laughing. Married with two children, Bella splits her time between the Northern California wine country and a 100 year old log cabin in the Adirondacks.</span></div>
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<li>Sign up for Bella's newsletter at <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.eepurl.com/eXj22" target="_blank">www.eepurl.com/eXj22</a></li>
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<li>Visit Bella's website at <a href="http://www.bellaandre.com/" target="_blank">www.BellaAndre.com</a></li>
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<li>Follow Bella on twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/bellaandre" target="_blank">www.twitter.com/bellaandre</a></li>
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<li>Join Bella on Faceboook at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/bellaandre" target="_blank">www.facebook.com/bellaandrefan</a>s</li>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-24664973307145098332013-01-04T11:37:00.001-05:002013-01-04T11:37:39.341-05:00Magic Systems<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My Take on Magic Systems</h1>
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by Melissa McPhail</h1>
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One of the most enticing aspects of writing fantasy is developing a magic system. The author’s magic system is inextricably woven into their world and contributes greatly to the reader’s vision of the world overall. The way a system is created either makes the world seem real or unreal, depending on how well the author has grounded the system with laws and limitations.<br />
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For example, scientists in our own world have defined laws—inertia, gravity, the periodic table—that describe the physical limitations and properties of energy. We don’t expect a stone to rise upwards when we throw it, but we might believe it could float if it were somehow made of helium. Likewise in a fantasy world, it’s important to codify the system with laws and rules (and to stick to those rules once established), to set boundaries for what the magician can and cannot do with magic, and to establish consequences for and ramifications of magical misuse.<br />
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This all shows that magic systems require significant thought and research on the author’s part to develop realistically. Yet for all of this, the manner in which one might design and describe the magical process is potentially limitless—there are as many magical systems as there are fantasy novels, and equally as many readers eager to pontificate on their pros and cons and/or to organize the systems into categories and types.<br />
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The one thing most magic systems have in common, however, is that they all handle energy. Whether that energy is spiritual, omnipotent, corporeal, or derives from physical objects or living things, the working of arcane arts surrounds the manipulation of energy.<br />
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I designed the magic in <i>Cephrael’s Hand</i> based on scientists’ existing understanding of electrical fields. The process of thought has been scientifically proven to produce energy, and human bodies are known to generate electrical fields. For the magic in Alorin, I proposed that all living things produce a metaphysical energy which is formless but which flows across the world in natural currents. This energy is called <i>elae. </i>This is the energy a magician of Alorin uses to produce arcane workings. <i>How </i>he does this is the creative part.<br />
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In <i>Cephrael’s Hand</i>, all things are formed of patterns. A single leaf derives its pattern from the larger pattern of its motherly oak. The snowflake harbors the pattern of a storm. Rivers form patterns that mimic the pattern of the world, and a living man harbors within him the pattern of his immortality. These inherent patterns collect and compel energy (<i>elae</i>) toward a certain purpose—growth, action, states of change.<br />
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To compel energy, a magician of Alorin (called a <i>wielder</i>) must learn to first identify and then usurp control over the pattern of a thing in order to command it. This is a laborious process requiring a lifetime of study.<br />
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Unlike wielders, the <i>Adepts </i>in <i>Cephrael’s Hand</i> are born with the ability to manipulate certain patterns. Adept Healers can see creation patterns (life patterns) and mend them where they’ve become frayed. Truthreaders can hear certain thoughts and read minds to see what a man saw versus what he <i>says </i>he saw. Nodefinders have the ability to move long distances with a single step by traveling on the pattern of the world. And Wildlings tap into a variant aspect of the lifeforce called <i>elae </i>to shapeshift or even skip through time, among other intriguing talents. The last type of Adept can sense the patterns of nonliving things—stone, air, water, fire, etc.—and use those patterns to compel the elements themselves.<br />
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Adepts are limited by nature of their birth—they can only inherently work one category of patterns. They are limited by their training, their inherent intelligence, talent and ability. And of course, like us in real life, they are limited by their own vision of their capabilities.<br />
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Above all of these limitations, we find Adepts limited by “Balance.” The concept of Balance draws from my studies of Eastern philosophies. It is the high governing force, the yen and yang, karma, cause and effect, fate. It’s as esoteric and arcane as these concepts imply. How far can the Balance be pushed in one direction without lashing back at the wielder? Which actions stretch it and which ones defy it? Balance is a complex and complicated subject—as difficult to define as our own world’s myriad competing religions. The only real agreement on the subject of Balance is that all magical workings stretch the Balance to some degree. Understanding how far they can be stretched without snapping is central to survival in the arcane arts.<br />
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The concept of Balance provides, well, the “balancing” force to all magical workings in <i>Cephrael’s Hand </i>and is central to its plot. You see, the entire realm of Alorin is out of Balance and magic is dying—and the Adept race dies along with it.<br />
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<strong>About <em>Cephrael's Hand</em>: </strong>Two brothers find themselves on opposite sides of a great battle, neither knowing the other is alive... A traitor works in exile while preparing for the disaster only he knows is coming... A race of beings from beyond the fringe of the universe begin unmaking the world from within... And all across the land, magic is dying.<b> </b><em>Cephrael's Hand</em> is the first novel in the award-winning series <em>A Pattern of Shadow and Light.</em><b> </b><br />
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<strong>About the author: </strong>Melissa McPhail is a classically trained pianist, violinist and composer, a Vinyasa yoga instructor, and an avid Fantasy reader. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, their twin daughters and two very large cats.<br />
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<strong><em><strong>Visit Melissa on <a href="http://melissamcphail.com/" target="_blank">her website</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/melissagmcphail" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/cephraelshand" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, or <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4414232.Melissa_McPhail" target="_blank">GoodReads</a>.</strong></em></strong>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-33409954064967957792012-10-11T12:44:00.000-04:002012-10-11T12:45:41.055-04:00Indie Insider - Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><img alt="" class="alignleft" height="71" src="http://www.novelpublicity.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/black-ducky.png" width="44" />Please enjoy this interview with Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar, author of the heart-breaking multicultural romance, <em>Love Comes Later</em>. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including a Kindle Fire, $550 in Amazon gift cards, 5 autographed copies of <em>Love Comes Later</em>, and 5 copies of its companion, <em>From Dunes to Dior</em>.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>1.<em> Love Comes Later</em> tells the story of Abdulla’s arranged marriage to his cousin Hind. Neither is excited about the prospect—Abdulla because he is still recovering from the untimely death of his former wife and unborn child; Hind because she is a thoroughly modern girl who does not appreciate the prospect of being anyone’s second option. How did the inspiration for this story surface, particularly for the characters of Abdulla and Hind?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In conversations with people in Qatar, expat or Qatari, the subject of love inevitably came up. For women, the main issue involved the small pool of people they felt they had to choose from. My surprise and revelation came, however, when my male friends expressed similar sentiments. We often think men have all the power in male-dominated societies but from these discussions I began to realize how society limits both male and female aspirations with universal social expectations like marriage. The story began to form there: what would make a man unlikely to marry? And why? What would he do in order to keep his freedom?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>2. You met your husband in Qatar although you are both American-raised and come from Asian heritage (you South Indian, and your husband of Laotian descent). How did the two of you meet? This sounds like such a magical love story!</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We met at work, believe it or not, and at first the entire possibility of forging a lasting bond with someone I’d just met seemed as foreign to me as the desert landscape outside. I had my mind set on my career and wasn’t looking for a relationship; people were throwing dire warnings my way not to take anything starting overseas very seriously. But over time, I was impressed by the strength of my husband’s character and realized, despite the naysayers, I had never met anyone else like him. The desert is a great place to find out what someone is really about because you can’t rely on the busyness of life at home--work, family, friends--to hide behind. It’s just you, in a foreign setting, and that can be like a pressure cooker for most expats. What’s inside eventually comes out. Lucky for me, I listened to my gut, and six years of marriage later, I’m more and more grateful.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>3. In <em>Love Comes Later</em>, how do the characters of Hind, Fatima, and Luluwa embody the modern Qatari (or Arab) woman?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">They’re each their own personalities and have characteristics of different parts of Qatari society. Each of them occupies a space that demonstrates the changes in society as increasingly Qatar become open to the rest of the world. While Fatima was live, she was probably the most conservative of the three, which makes sense because she is also the oldest. She wanted to get married, and though she had a job outside the home, was much more excited about the birth of her first child. Hind has been allowed to study abroad without a family member, and during the story that causes her to become increasingly liberal-minded. Luluwa is very young at the time of this story, and she represents those in the next generation, who have even more choices facing them about tradition and society.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Arabian Gulf is different from the Middle East, partly because of the oil revenues that drive the economy, but also because of the gender segregation that is very visible and preserved by the local community. While the female characters may have a lot in common with other Muslim women from the Arab world in terms of personal aspirations, their circumstances and context are unique to Qatar.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>4. Based on your experiences, what is the one thing you believe Westerners would be the most surprised to learn about the city of Doha?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You can make relationships here that will last for a lifetime a lot more easily than you can at home. Part of the reason is that we are all in the same boat--expats and locals alike--everyone is searching for ways to make contribute to the rapid growth and development of the nation so that means you are engaged in meaningful work. Most people here are interested in cultural exchange and open about the world in general around them. This, plus the fact that the country is such a melting pot means that you and your children (if you have any) are more likely to have friends of different faiths and nationalities than many other places in the world.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>5. What made you decide to relocate to Doha in particular, and what has motivated you to stay for so long (7 years)? Do you plan to move back to the U.S. one day, or might you set-up your permanent homestead in Qatar?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I don’t know of anywhere else that is investing as much in education as the Arabian Gulf at the present moment in time. I came to work at an American university, took some time to consult at the national university, and then worked for a newly established publishing company. They were all fairly big name organizations in their own right and the ability to contribute significantly on the programmatic level as I’ve done at a fairly young age would be difficult to replicate anywhere else.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Sorry, my academic side took over for a second! I am a scholar and this is a wonderful place to have the resources--perhaps most importantly time--to work on research and writing. And because I am a writer, I can’t remember another place I’ve lived that has so inspired me with subject matter--unless it was inside my own head as a teenage immigrant.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We agree in our house that we’ll stay as long as we’re having fun. And that doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>6. In your memoir <em>From Dunes to Dior</em>, you note that your American upbringing combined with your South Indian heritage, doctoral education, and femininity mean you’re a rather unique mixture of social identities in Qatar. How hard is it for you to reconcile all these sides of yourself while trying to fit in to this new society and take pride in all that makes you <em>you</em>?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Depends on the context; when I’m in traffic, it’s not unusual for me to return stares from men elbowing each other to have a look at me driving while they’re sitting in buses going back to their accommodation. In the classroom some students are taken aback for the first few sessions but eventually I grow on them. In instances where I have one on one interaction--or people hear my Western accent--I don’t have that much difficulty. It’s when I’m in places where judgments are made by skin color--the mall or first time meetings--that I have slightly more difficulty but in general these smooth out over time.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>7. You’ve published six ebooks within the space of a year. How on earth do you manage to be so productive? Do you plan to keep this pace up, or are you just sprinting to get started?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I had the luxury of a backlist of manuscripts that had been politely declined by a number of agents over the years. Each time I stalled, I would go on and write another. I decided to give all of them a home on e-readers as a way of reaching readers. I have two more to go as part of the original list of 8. And of course there are ideas for new stories that keep coming up--even the possibilities of two more books with characters from <em>Love Comes Later</em>--but I think I’ll take a more relaxed approach after December!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>8. You chose to pursue indie publishing even though your PhD in English Literature would make you a prime candidate for the traditional publishing model? Why indie, and if given the choice to do it all over again, would you still choose this path?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I came to indie publishing because I put a lot of time and effort into my academic books and no one--not even my mother--ever read them. That’s a long time for them to just waste away in the library. I kept hearing the indie drumbeat at conferences I attended and decided these manuscripts that weren’t being picked up didn’t need to be rejected 60 times in order to make it into the hands of readers. I don’t regret going indie. I wish I had done it sooner in the sense that it would have been fun to work on a single book, release it, and then start another book, instead of this wild and creative space I’m in right now where I’m revising one book, researching for another, and promoting others.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>9. As a writer, what is the message you are trying to get out to the world? Who are you trying to reach, and what do you want to tell them? Are your books more entertainment/ informational driven, or is there a deeper resonance you are trying to achieve?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I want to take readers to places they’d like to go but can’t physically get to because of time or financial considerations. A book is the oldest form of technology we have, and though we’ve put them on tablets and found ways to make them enticing through video or graphics, we haven’t actually changed what a book does which is transport us to worlds other than our own. I want my stories to capture the essence and wonder of storytelling for the reader who will enter a world unfamiliar and yet see something of him/herself in the characters, dilemmas, and settings.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>10. What can readers expect next from MohaDoha?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I am working on other titles… the very next one is a coming of age story, set in the U.S., told from the perspective of a young female protagonist, Sita, who we’ll root for to grow up into an empowered woman despite those who have other plans for her life.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I love interacting with readers. The more feedback I get, the better content I feel that I create. So the door is open--tell me what you loved or what was confusing--and I’ll keep you posted on the release date for <em>An Unlikely Goddess</em>!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>About <em>Love Comes Later</em>: </strong> What if pursuing your happiness also meant your best friend's disgrace? In <em>Love Comes Later </em>Sangita, Abdulla and Hind must chose between loyalty and love, traditional values and a future they each long to explore. Get it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008I4JJES/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008I4JJES&linkCode=as2&tag=novelpubli-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>About <em>From Dunes to Dior</em>: </strong> I moved East, back towards my roots, only to discover how much of the West I brought with me. <em>From Dunes to Dior</em> is the story of my life as an expat South Asian woman in the heart of the Middle East. Get it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083AJ294/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0083AJ294&linkCode=as2&tag=novelpubli-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><em><strong></strong></em> <strong>About the Author: </strong>Six eBooks ago, Mohana joined the e-book revolution and now she dreams in plot lines. Visit Mohana on <a href="http://www.mohanalakshmi.com/" target="_blank">her website</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/moha_doha" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/themohadoha" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, or <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3012741.Mohanalakshmi_Rajakumar" target="_blank">GoodReads</a>.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-88841452033196731632012-09-28T11:54:00.002-04:002012-09-28T11:54:57.136-04:00Indie Insider - Richard Long<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><strong>1. Tell us about the spark of inspiration that eventually grew into <em>The Book of Paul</em>.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The initial inspiration for <em>The Book of Paul</em> came when I wrote the first line of the first chapter called <em>Exercises</em>: “He practiced smiling.” I wanted to explore a character who had been so damaged by childhood trauma that he could no longer feel compassion, joy, affection, and had, accordingly, committed all kinds of horrible acts. I wondered if such a person could ever regain his emotional capacity and be redeemed by love.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>2. What was the research process like for this book (which can at times deal with some pretty heady and—frankly—grotesque goings-on)? Any horror stories to share?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There are many aspects to the story, so the research was really extensive. I love doing the research almost as much as the writing, so it’s a joy for me to read and learn so many new things. The creation mythology literally goes back to square one and builds from there, tracing the history of Hermetic and Gnostic philosophy, alchemy, druidism and pagan mythology--particularly Egyptian, Greek and Celtic traditions. There’s also a strong science fiction element involving quantum physics, artificial intelligence, life extension and what’s known as The Singularity. Other lines of exploration involved Irish genealogy and what I call the pain culture: tattoos, elaborate piercings and body modifications.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I made some gruesome discoveries along the way. The most disturbing was the Extreme Body Modification website I stumbled upon, which is one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever seen. I first saw it in the early days of the Internet, which is pretty amazing in itself. I checked recently and it’s still there, though I didn’t have the stomach to peek inside again. I’m actually as squeamish as some of my readers about certain things, which is probably why the horror comes across so vividly. If something scares the hell out of me, it’s easy for me to convey that fear and revulsion.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>3. Tell us about Paul. Who is he and what is his book about?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Book is a 4th century codex, the only one of it’s kind. How and why it was made and what it contains is one of the central mysteries of the series, so I’m not going to spill those beans. Paul is every bit as mysterious. When he is first introduced you might think he’s a serial killer involved with the occult in some way. As the story progresses you discover some really unexpected things about him. One thing is clear from the outset – he is one very nasty piece of work. I’ve always felt that any horror novel or thriller is only as good as the villain. I definitely aimed for the fences with Paul.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>4. There is a strong tarot undercurrent to this novel. The protagonist even makes his living by reading the cards. Why did you decide to work it into <em>The Book of Paul</em>, and how does it surface throughout the course of the story?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I actually did tarot and numerology readings when I lived in the East Village many years ago. The tarot led me to a lot of dark occult explorations, which are mirrored in William’s journey. I was lucky enough to pull out of that nosedive and hop over to the Buddhist side of the fence. William is not so fortunate. The reader gets drawn into William’s world through his first person narration as he talks about becoming a collector of ancient occult manuscripts, which leads him to the tarot. Then he gradually reveals more through his journal entries, which contain the meat of the mythology and all the Hermetic and Gnostic lore. Finally, he discovers that the tarot is actually related to an apocalyptic prophecy, which Paul is determined to fulfill by any means necessary, which is very bad news for Billy.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>5. At almost 500 pages, this is not a short novel. From start to finish, how long did it take you to write, revise, and ready for publication?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I’ve written over 2,000 pages for <em>The Book of Paul</em> and the series. The first draft of this volume was close to a thousand pages long. I cut out eight characters and their storylines in the second draft, which netted my first agent. She wanted a lower page count, so many of the narrator’s interior musings were cut. Those were actually some of my favorite sections. Then I moved to another agent and he wanted more of the mythology put back in, so it grew close to this size. After six months he hadn’t sold it, so I got sick of the whole process, wrote it the way I wanted, and published it.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>6. The concept of synchronicity plays heavily in this novel. What attracts you to it, and has it proven a heavy influence in your own life?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I’ve always been a spiritual seeker. I was raised as a Catholic, but the nuns effectively beat those beliefs out of me quickly. Even as a kid, I couldn’t accept the idea of God as the big guy in the sky with the white beard. Science and mythology and my own imagination showed me all kind of possibilities. I first noticed synchronicity when the number eleven kept showing up for me all over the place--addresses, hotel rooms, etc. Someone suggested I get a book on numerology and I discovered that eleven was my “name number” and also a power number. I started noticing all kinds of things after that, coincidences that were just too weird to brush away. Then I read some Jung, and when I got into quantum physics that sealed the deal. Synchronicity for me now is the manifestation of interconnectedness in the universe. There is nothing you can perceive that isn’t connected to you. As the Buddhists say, “no separate self.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>7. Paul is... scary (we’ll leave it at that). How were you able to effectively become this deranged character, and how did you hang on to your own humanity after the fact?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I would imagine it’s much the same as when Anthony Hopkins played Hannibal Lecter. He was very disdainful of method actors who got all caught up in identifying with their characters. There’s a famous story about Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man. Hoffman was a method actor and he stayed up all night before their torture scene together and Olivier said something like, “Why don’t you try acting, dear boy?”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That being said, I’m not immune to being disturbed by these things. When I wrote the traumatic scenes of him and Martin--well, I cried when I wrote them and they stayed with me for days. So maybe the method is working for me too.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Paul is great to write because it’s like letting my Id out of a cage. I get to play out my most evil imaginings and nobody gets hurt. I also had to find Paul’s humanity to make him really interesting for me. I didn’t want him to be some cartoon monster. Paul is also in a lot of pain; he was traumatized as a boy and his life was changed forever. By the end of the story you get to see many other sides of him. And of course, there’s a lot more to come.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>8. Irish mythology is woven into <em>The Book of Paul</em>, and at one point, Paul even makes a sarcastic quip about the luck of the Irish. Why Irish, and how all does its culture influence the story?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When I’m writing, I go into a daydream state where I imagine the character and what he or she looks like and where they are and what they’re doing. No outline usually. I sit back and watch and listen. If it’s great the way I imagine it, then writing the dialog is like taking dictation. When I wrote the first chapters with Paul, I was surprised because I kept hearing him speak with an Irish brogue, but his accent went in and out – sometimes really thick, sometimes a little lilt, sometimes no accent at all. So I’m thinking, what’s that about?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I come from Irish American stock, but my parents told me absolutely nothing about their parents other than to say they were cruel. So that’s the starting point with Paul. He’s the ultimate bad dad. The more I explored Paul, the deeper it led me into Celtic mythology, Irish genealogy and history. I suppose I’m trying to find the missing links of my own heritage. My grandmother was born in Ireland, so I have dual citizenship, even though I haven’t been there yet. I’m thinking I’ll go next year when I’m writing the third sequel.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>9. <em>The Book of Paul</em> is unlike anything I’ve ever read before, and in that way, it can be difficult to classify. So tell us, who <em>is</em> your target audience for this novel?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Given the fact that there are some rough episodes in the story, you might think that the so-called target audience would be men who are into horror, thrills and mayhem. But women actually seem to be my biggest, or at least, my most vocal fans. I’ve been getting some really enthusiastic reviews from men, but even more so from women, who surprisingly seem less squeamish than some of the male reviewers.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><em>The Book of Paul</em> doesn’t fit into any neat, tidy genre. It’s very complex and like you say, unlike anything I’ve read before either. There’s a <em>Pulp Fiction</em> element to it, with quirky characters in a seedy environment. There’s a major religious/mythological mystery for the Dan Brown crowd. It’s very funny, but incredibly poignant. It’s very disturbing, but there are lots of fast-paced action scenes. There’s romance and kinky sex. Something for everybody.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>10. Why did you decide to self-publish <em>The Book of Paul</em>, and how has the journey been so far?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Read above. The traditional publishing industry in general is like a boxer on the ropes in the tenth round. For fiction it’s even worse. Add first-time novelist to the list and sprinkle on an unclassifiable genre for a little seasoning. I had two agents who were well known and successful, and very enthusiastic about the book. But the editors they reached wouldn’t take a chance on it. I could have kept trying, but frankly, I ran out of patience.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">How has it been so far? The book is out in the world and it’s just the way I wanted it. I have complete control over everything I do, including the cover art, which is also exactly how I want it. The marketing is a lot of hard work, particularly the social marketing, which I had never done before. But that’s turned out to be a lot of fun too. I’m meeting so many great people--other authors and readers--and getting such a strong response on the book that it feels like a vindication. See? I told you so. Nyah! Nyah! Nyah!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-tour/paul/"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-12557" height="572" src="http://www.novelpublicity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Book-of-Paul-Tour-Badge.png" title="Book of Paul Tour Badge" width="235" /></a>As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the <em>Book of Paul </em>eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. <em><strong>The prizes include a Kindle Fire, $300 in Amazon gift cards, 5 autographed copies of the book, and a look into your future through a free tarot reading performed by the author.</strong></em></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is <a href="http://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-tour/paul/" target="_blank">RIGHT HERE</a>. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>To win the prizes:</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088QYXGA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0088QYXGA&linkCode=as2&tag=novelpubli-20" target="_blank">Purchase your copy of <em>The Book of Paul </em>for just 99 cents</a></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>
<li><a href="http://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-tour/paul/" target="_blank">Enter the Rafflecopter contest on Novel Publicity</a></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>
<li>Visit today’s featured social media event</li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>About <em>The Book of Paul</em>: </strong>A cross-genre thriller that combines the brooding horror of Silence of the Lambs with the biting humor of Pulp Fiction. <em><strong>Get it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088QYXGA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0088QYXGA&linkCode=as2&tag=novelpubli-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a> or <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-book-of-paul-richard-long/1111400572?ean=2940014753159&itm=1&usri=book+of+paul" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a>.</strong></em></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><em><strong></strong></em><strong>About the author: </strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Richard Long is the author of <em>The Book of Paul</em> and the forthcoming young-adult fantasy series <em>The Dream Palace</em>. He lives in Manhattan with his wonderful wife, two amazing children and wicked black cat, Merlin. <strong><em><strong>Visit Richard on <a href="http://www.thebookofpaul.com/" target="_blank">his website</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/RichardLongNYC" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RichardLongAuthor" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, or <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6426921.Richard_Long" target="_blank">GoodReads</a>.</strong></em></strong></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-45648494306643924302012-09-12T11:49:00.000-04:002012-09-12T11:49:03.950-04:00Indie Insider - Sheryl Steines<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-indent: 21.6px;"><strong>1. When you start a book do you know how it will end or do you create the ending as you go along?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I have a rough idea of what the book will be about and I have some scene ideas and a rough ending. When I wrote <em>The Day of First Sun</em>, I knew that a high profile, non-magical person was going to be murdered by magic. I wrote out a paragraph of things that I wanted to see in the story and began writing. I didn’t look at the paragraph again until after the book was published and realized that I didn’t keep to my original thoughts at all. I tend to work without an outline because I feel tied to the story as if I’m trying to make everything fit. I prefer to let it flow and change. I like the freedom and the discovery. Sometimes I’m wildly surprised.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>2. Do your book characters ever visit you in your dreams?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Yes and no. Not as much when I’m sleeping, but I daydream about them all the time. It’s how I work out characters and storylines. It’s almost as if a movie is playing in my head and I can change and add to storylines.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>3. What are your favorite authors as either an adult or a child?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When I was a kid, I loved Nancy Drew. I read every one of them, but I didn’t just want to read them, I wished I had wrote them and started to write my own detective stories when I was seven. As I grew older, I read Judy Blume and Stephen King. Both made me feel something and from that I wanted to keep writing. I still read Stephen King and was very inspired by his autobiography <em>On Writing</em>. It was J.K. Rowling though, that reminded me of what I loved to read and that’s what inspired me to write my own fantasy novel.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>4. How do you go about finishing a chapter when you can’t get it right?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I skip it…Just kidding. No, actually I’m not. Sometimes, I make a note in all caps reminding me I haven’t finished the chapter and other notes that I might be thinking about for the chapter and start the next one. Sometimes you just need to move on. The answer will eventually hit you upside the head when you least expect it.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>5. Describe your reaction when you saw and held your first book?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I think I was numb when <em>The Day of First Sun</em> was published. Almost as if I had only done it to satisfy a selfish desire. It didn’t seem real. It was when I held <em>She Wulf</em> in my hands for the first time that I was overcome with emotion. This book consumed me for so long and I was so amazed by the final product and it seemed more than just a fantasy.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>6. What is your biggest achievement to date?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Writing my first book. I always wanted to and never gave myself the opportunity. One day I decided it was time. It changed my life, gave me confidence. I lost the extra baby weight, changed my wardrobe, straightened my hair and gave my girls a role model, an example of taking control of one’s life and being the best person you can be.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>7. What’s your favorite color?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Pink. I’ve always been a girly girl. As much as I’d like to be a sporty girl, I’m just not. It’s all about the pink, purses and shoes.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>8. Favorite sound?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I love the sound of rain on the roof. Not during the sunlight hours, but early in the morning when it’s still dark out. I snuggle under the covers. It makes me happy.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>9. If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">An interior decorator. I love being creative and crafty and picking paint colors and getting lost in a fabric store. It’s almost as good as getting lost in a bookstore.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>10. Worst fear?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I fear the alligators under the bed. Since I was a kid I can’t sleep without something covering my feet incase they come and get me. Don’t laugh, Stephen King admitted the same thing in an interview once.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-12448" height="572" src="http://www.novelpublicity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/She-Wulf-Tour-Badge.png" title="She Wulf Tour Badge" width="235" />As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the<em> She Wulf </em>eBook edition is just 99 cents this week--and so is the price of its companion, <em>The Day of First Sun</em>. What’s more, by purchasing either of these fantastic books at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. <em><strong>The prizes include a Kindle Fire, $550 in Amazon gift cards, and 5 autographed copies of the book.</strong></em></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is <a href="http://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-tour/she-wulf/" target="_blank">RIGHT HERE</a>. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>To win the prizes:</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008K8870O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008K8870O&linkCode=as2&tag=novelpubli-20" target="_blank">Purchase your copy of <em>She Wulf </em>for just 99 cents</a></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004P8JP7C/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004P8JP7C&linkCode=as2&tag=novelpubli-20" target="_blank">Purchase your copy of Day of First Sun for just 99 cents</a></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>
<li><a href="http://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-tour/she-wulf/" target="_blank">Enter the Rafflecopter contest on Novel Publicity</a></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>
<li>Visit today’s featured social media event</li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>About <em>She Wulf</em>: </strong> Annie is sent through an ancient time portal with only a prophecy to guide her; she struggles with a new destiny as she tries to figure out a way to destroy an un-killable demon and return home. <em><strong>Get it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008K8870O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008K8870O&linkCode=as2&tag=novelpubli-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</strong></em></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>About <em>The Day of First Sun</em>: </strong> A vampire, a rogue wizard and an army of soulless zombies are par for the course for Annie Pearce and Bobby “Cham” Chamsky of the Wizard’s Guard. But when the non-magical princess, Amelie of Amborix, is murdered by magical means, a deeper plot unfolds. <em><strong>Get it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004P8JP7C/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004P8JP7C&linkCode=as2&tag=novelpubli-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</strong></em></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>About the author: </strong>Behind the wheel of her ’66 Mustang Convertible, Sheryl is a constant surprise, using her sense of humor and relatable style make her books something everyone can enjoy. <strong><em><strong>Visit Sheryl on <a href="http://www.sherylsteines.com/" target="_blank">her website</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/AnnieLovesCham" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TheAnnieLovesChamSeries" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, or <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4525660.Sheryl_Steines" target="_blank">GoodReads</a>.</strong></em></strong></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-24331629459560798302012-07-01T10:42:00.001-04:002012-07-01T10:42:28.339-04:00Indie author success in today’s market.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
By M. Todd Gallowglas <br />
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I’d like to thank the Indie Writers Zone for having me stop by during my launch of a little project I call, the Genre Underground. Today I’m here to talk about being successful as an Indie author in today’s market.<br />
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I used to have this saying I’d say, a mantra I’d repeat, when things looked grim when I first started out. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” I believed that, and saying it kept me from bludgeoning myself into unconsciousness on my keyboard when the threat of failing in this harsh world of Indie publishing. Then came Tough Mudder, and my entire philosophy changed.<br />
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<a href="http://www.toughmudder.com/">www.toughmudder.com</a><br />
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In a nutshell, Tough Mudder is a 10 - 12 mile run, with twenty-five obstacles designed by British Special Forces. It’s not a race, but a challenge. While it is possible to complete the course as an individual, it’s easier – so much easier – in teams. They encourage teams. I have signed up to do this event on Sept 29th in Northern California, if anyone wants to join myself and the rest of Team Red Hand, contact me and I’ll give you the team info. It’s also a fund raiser for the Wounded Warrior Project.<br />
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This is what being an Indie writer is. It’s like participating in a never ending series of Tough Mudder events. The Indie world is full of obstacles and challenges that will kick your teeth right down into your guts. It’s possible to make it on your own, but so much easier if you have a team. Some teammates will be better at promotion. Some will be better at helping beta read your books and make sure all those grammar and spelling things are taken care of. Some teammates are just really good at getting your spirits back up when you’re spitting your teeth out of your mouth after you’ve puked them back up. (This isn’t likely to literally happen, but it feels like it – last week Amazon dropped me from one of the best seller lists I was on. Gone. Poof. AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! Condition red!!!!) Every step of the way, it helps you to have a team.<br />
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And, as more and more Indie writer groups get going, it’s not enough just to be on any team. You have to pick the right team. There’s a lot of choices out there: Independent Authors Network, Indie Book Collective, and the World Literary Café to name a few. I’ve worked with other groups and found they weren’t ultimately for me, because our focuses were different. As more and more writers start trying out this Indie thing, I believe that the Indie cross-promotion teams are going to need to be more and more specialized, because they are going to have to focus on the fan base and readership of specific genres. Science Fiction and fantasy readers tend to be much different than Thriller readers, who are much different than Romance readers, who are in turn different than the Young Adult crowd. Now, I’m most familiar with the Science Fiction/Fantasy community. It’s what I write, and a lot of what I read, and that particular community is awesome and completely different than most readerships of the other genres. I decided it was time to build a team and dive into the community of people who love to read the kind of stuff I write.<br />
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The Genre Underground is my team. I started it with several other like-minded Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror writers. Our mission statement: “Fitting the book to the reader. Bringing you the most innovative Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror that you want to read.” We are completely reader focused, because we understand that not every book is for every reader. We’ll ask about what other things someone likes to read, and give them recommendations based on that. We’re working together to build up Indie Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror within the fan community.<br />
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Writing is a solitary activity. Publishing is not. Publishing means being able to put your book, whether a print copy or and electronic copy, in front of someone who will buy it and read it. Self-published authors try to do everything themselves, and they can succeed…eventually. Traditional writers have a publishing house. Indie writers, we’ve figured out that having a team is going to help all of us get the word out. The Genre Underground is my team. What’s yours?<br />
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Welcome to the revolution!<br />
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<a href="http://about.me/mtoddgallowglas">Learn more about M. Todd Gallowglas</a><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-5613190354728786892012-06-25T15:05:00.000-04:002012-06-25T15:05:07.755-04:00The Story Behind Moa by Tricia Stewart Shiu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Story Behind Moa
by Tricia Stewart Shiu</h1>
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I've always loved Hawaii and was thrilled when my husband booked a visit for us to see his relatives in Honolulu, Hawaii in October of 2006. We packed light and brought our daughter, who was three-years-old at the time.
Our condo was close to parks and monuments that oozed history. We enjoyed wandering around and indulging in the local cuisine. I even tried poi and liked it!<br />
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The morning after we arrived, I rose early to push my daughter’s stroller through the quiet, cool morning air. It felt like such a gift to experience Honolulu before the rest of the island was up.
After a hearty island breakfast, we headed out for a morning at our favorite sandy reprieve, Kuhio Beach. The water was calm and protected by a breakwater. Our daughter enjoyed digging and splashing and my husband and I sat sit nearby without worrying about the strong current.
Afterward, we headed back to our condominium, ate a light lunch, and took a luxurious siesta. Although I'm not usually a mid-day napper, the fresh sea air and sun lulled me into a light sleep—the kind where I felt like I was awake, but I was actually deeply asleep.<br />
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I heard a voice say my name and a part of me awoke. I use the word “part” because I could definitely feel my body touching the soft material on the couch. And yet, another part was keenly aware of a young woman with dark hair standing over me. It felt real, but dream-like, so I decided to go with it and ask her her name.
She pronounced a long Hawaiian string of letters, which seemed to go on for minutes. After repeating the name three or four times, she told me to call her “Moa.” Through my exhausted, sleepy haze, I remember being skeptical. If this was, indeed, a dream, I would ask as many questions as possible. So I did.
<em>Why was she here? Where did she come from? How could I be sure she was who she claimed to be?</em>
Instead of any answers, she flashed a mental picture of a woman and said that she was a long lost friend of my husband’s. She told me her name and explained that my husband’s family and she had lost touch 15 years before and had been orbiting around one another trying to reconnect.
I awoke from that nap, slightly groggy. That was an indication that I was definitely asleep. Perhaps it was just my creativity kicking into overdrive, I reasoned, and decided to go on with my day.<br />
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We walked to a park with my daughter and began playing. Suddenly, there was a squeal and my husband and I turned to see the woman from my dream charging toward us with her arms stretched out wide. As she spoke, I tried to gather my wits. Here was the same woman from my dream, someone I’d only seen a mental picture of, and she was standing on the grass right in front of me.
She and my husband exchanged numbers and promised to keep in touch.<br />
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For the next few hours, I tried to make sense of what happened. I had never had an experience like this before, but there was no denying that I saw a picture in a dream before I met someone and then they showed up in real life.
When I went to sleep that evening, Moa visited again. She answered the other questions I’d asked earlier that afternoon and wanted me to know that I was protected and should share my experience with the world. Since this was definitely my first metaphysical encounter, I had no idea how to form the correct words to share what had happened. <em>How on earth,</em> I asked Moa, <em>am I supposed to convey such undocumented, unsubstantiated, unusual information?</em>
She said that our world exists on many levels which all play simultaneously. Her analogy was of a DVR. Several shows can be playing at the same time but are on different tuners. That, she said, is where she existed.<br />
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When I awoke, I began writing and continued to do so. The story evolved into “Moa,” then the sequel, “Statue of Ku.” My daughter, now seven, took the cover photo and illustrated, as well. The photo was taken a few years ago on the North Shore as we played on the beach. The artwork has been compiled over the last two years.
Since my visit with Moa, I began an extensive and sometimes circuitous search to explain my metaphysical experience. I took classes on mediumship, Huna, energy work and through my education, I learned to create healing essential oils and elixir sprays and incorporated that information in the book. Not only did my experience with Moa inspire me and guide me through four-and-a-half of the most challenging years of my life, I also believe that writing about those events and including information I received about that inspiration and guidance, brought my own deep physical, mental, emotional and spiritual transformation and healing.<br />
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Writing, editing and publishing <em>Moa</em> has opened doors to a new way of understanding myself, those around me and the energy we share.
Whatever your belief or understanding of the metaphysical world, I believe that if one person is transformed through learning, then we are all transformed. I truly believe the Moa I met came through in this work and, just as I connected with her as I wrote, those who read the book will experience her as well.
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9K_yScmTpZg/T-i1lmbQ5cI/AAAAAAAAAi4/ka4oo2a0lMQ/s1600/Moa+Tour+Badge.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9K_yScmTpZg/T-i1lmbQ5cI/AAAAAAAAAi4/ka4oo2a0lMQ/s320/Moa+Tour+Badge.png" width="131" /></a></div>
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As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the<em> Moa </em>and<em> Statue of Ku </em>eBook editions have both been dropped to just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing either of these fantastic books at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. <em><strong>The prizes include $600 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of each book.</strong></em>
All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is <a href="http://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-recruitment/moa/" target="_blank">RIGHT HERE</a>. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win!
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<strong>About Moa: </strong>Eighteen-year-old, Hillary, anticipates adventure as she embarks for trip to Honolulu, but gets more than she bargained for when Moa, an ancient Hawaiian spirit, pays her an unexpected visit. Get it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005TBU83O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=novelpubli-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005TBU83O" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.
<strong>About Statue of Ku</strong>: The second book in the Moa Book Series, "The Statue of Ku" follows Hillary and Moa as they jet to Egypt on the Prince’s private plane to reclaim Moa’s family heirloom, the inimitable statue of Ku. Get it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0082COUC2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=novelpubli-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0082COUC2" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.
<strong>About the author: </strong>Tricia Stewart Shiu combines her addiction to the written word with her avid interest in the healing arts and all things metaphysical in her novels <em>Moa</em> and <em>Statue of Ku</em> and looks forward to finding new ways to unite her two loves. Visit Tricia on her <a href="http://tstewartshiu.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">website</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/tstewartshiu" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MoaBook" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, or <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5260590.Tricia_Stewart_Shiu" target="_blank">GoodReads</a>. <br />
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-62688247392137490372012-06-12T08:46:00.000-04:002012-06-12T08:46:05.812-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Someone is brutally murdering innocent women in downtown Toronto. Sassy Detective Sydney Granger and her playful partner Mike Stanza are on the case. With no witnesses, prints, or clues connecting any of the crime scenes, apprehending the vicious killer seems remote. Then, Sydney makes a chilling discovery that blows the case wide open.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"This book was a fast paced mystery that honestly I read in an evening and left me wanting more."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee;">***FREE on </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #ffd966;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sydney-Granger-Murder-Mystery-ebook/dp/B006GGGC0Y/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #ffd966;">Amazon</span></a> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee;">until June 15t</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; line-height: 22px;">h!***</span></div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-3674442185548355692012-06-11T13:08:00.000-04:002012-06-11T13:08:12.408-04:00Zombie Candy!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><img alt="" class="alignleft" height="71" src="http://www.novelpublicity.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/black-ducky.png" width="44" />Please enjoy this interview with Frederick Lee Brooke, author of the genre-bending mystery <em>Zombie Candy</em>. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including $550 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>1. What was the inspiration behind your novel, <em>Zombie Candy</em>?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There was a famous golfer whose wife chased him out of the house with a golf club in the middle of the night a couple of years ago. It was funny that she attacked her husband with his own weapon of choice. I got to thinking what must be going through a woman's mind in that situation? I thought it would be interesting to explore the thought processes of a woman who discovers that her husband is a serial cheater. After the denial comes anger, but there is also a phase of grief. There's guilt. Maybe she blames herself, rightly or wrongly. Candace oscillates between wanting revenge and wanting her husband back, and as the novel winds up she makes discoveries about herself that I thought a woman in her situation would be likely to make.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>2. Do you think <em>Zombie Candy</em> will appeal to true zombie fans?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What's a true zombie fan? I don't want to give anything away, but any active zombie fan who participates in zombie walks, goes to festivals, etc. will love <em>Zombie Candy</em>. That being said, this is a book that has elements of mystery, horror and romance all in one. It had quite a few early readers, fans of all different genres, and the consensus is that it really works.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>3. The book contains some of Candace's favorite recipes. Why?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I confess, I love to cook, and it's such an important part of my life, it just felt natural to have Candace want to share her recipes. We are all vulnerable to being attacked through our taste buds. I like reading about cooking, and I love watching cooking shows on TV. I feel like I'm learning something and tasting it at the same time. It felt right for this to be really important for Candace. At the same time, her husband Larry is so incredibly lacking in appreciation of her talents, not just the cooking itself, but organizing complex meals and directing the preparation of them by her class of twelve people. These are amazing skills, and Larry is blind to them. I thought marriages are sometimes like that, where people get to a point where they are totally ignorant of what their partner is great at.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>4. There is a no-cilantro label on the back cover of the book. What is the significance of it?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Candace is a gourmet cook, and her cheating husband Larry insists on covering all his food with cilantro. This is one of those minor points of contention in a marriage that flares up and becomes important, like a trigger. I thought it was funny. And it seems a lot of people really do have strong feelings about cilantro, either for or against. When I was searching for a good graphic I came across pages on the internet like <a href="http://ihatecilantro.com/" target="_blank" title="ihatecilantro.com">ihatecilantro.com</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-HATE-CILANTRO/54754722016" target="_blank">facebook.com/i-hate-cilantro</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>5. After starting out in Chicago, why did you decide to set the story in Tuscany?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I've been fortunate enough to travel to Italy forty or fifty times in my life, sometimes for a two-week vacation, sometimes just for a very short trip. I absolutely love it there, from the food to the language to the beauty of the countryside and the architecture. In <em>Zombie Candy</em>, Candace realizes at a certain point that she has to get Larry out of his comfort zone. This is a guy who travelled all over the country every week for his work, and cheated on Candace with waitresses, flight attendants, whoever. He can adapt just about anywhere. But in Tuscany Larry discovers two things: 1) it's not so easy to find a willing waitress or flight attendant to spend the night with him; and 2) there are zombies here.</span></div>
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<strong>6. How would you describe the way you work as a writer?</strong></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I guess I'm a bit of a chameleon, able to adapt pretty well to circumstances around me. My wife and I have three boys and they are not quiet. I can do most revision with significant background noise and interruptions. Only when I'm writing a first draft or doing some serious planning work do I need peace and quiet. Then I'll often take a walk in the forest anyway. It helps a lot to be adaptable. If I had to put off writing every time someone asked me to cook dinner or help them with their homework, my book would never have been finished. For me, being able to jump right back in has been the key to being able to finish big projects.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>7. Did you always want to be a writer?</strong></span></div>
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<div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 21.6px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was an early reader and this led to curiosity about writing stories. My sister and I wrote stories during long car trips. In high school and then in college I dreamed of writing novels, but I only started writing short stories after graduating from college. That writing phase lasted about five years, and I learned a lot about writing, but life got in the way, with marriage and job and career and kids. Only when my kids were halfway grown and my career reached a certain level of success did I find a way to return to writing. Now I'm fulfilling a lifelong dream.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>8. What process do you go through to define your characters?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I start with an image of them as basically good or basically evil, and put them into a context or a situation, and then just basically make sure there is plenty of conflict. My characters are never perfectly white or black. I think we're drawn to weaknesses. We want to watch them mess up, and see how they'll extricate themselves. Of course, sometimes all my planning goes out the window. It's a cliche to say that characters surprise you with their actions, but they do. They're defined by what they do and what they say. I did some acting in high school and have always loved the theater, and knowing what it means to be in character helps me be in character when I'm writing dialogue. My books are fairly dialogue-driven. What the characters say reveals what they are thinking and feeling.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>9. What writing advice did you receive that was most beneficial to you?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I had to learn to love conflict. The conflict is the story. The conflict shows the true colors of your characters. I grew up in the suburbs in a family where we avoided conflict at all costs. We talked like diplomats. So embracing conflict has been something I had to learn.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>10. You're an indie author. Any thoughts on the divide between independent publishing and traditional publishing?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I think the market will sort itself out, but it's going to take time. Good books will find their way into readers' hands somehow, whether in printed or electronic form. We need our stories every day. We can't live without stories. For me personally, independent publishing has been the perfect solution. I found an excellent editor who professionally edited my manuscript. I like the idea that I can control the timing of the publication of my books. If my first book, <em>Doing Max Vinyl</em>, had been traditionally published in April 2011 instead of the way I did it, it probably would have hit the remainder tables by Thanksgiving, and it would be out of print now. I think <em>Zombie Candy</em> might spark some interest in <em>Doing Max Vinyl</em>, so it's a benefit to readers as well as to me that it continues to be available, rather than going out of print and being forgotten. E-books are clearly here to stay, because the consumers (readers) and providers (authors) are the big winners. The only losers are the bookstores, publishing companies, agents and others who refuse to adapt.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-11681" height="572" src="http://www.novelpublicity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/zombiecandy.png" title="zombiecandy" width="235" />As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the<em> Zombie Candy </em>eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. <em><strong>The prizes include $550 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.</strong></em></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>About the book: </strong> Weaving elements of mystery, horror and romance in a hilarious romp that starts in Chicago and ends in a quaint medieval town in sun-drenched Tuscany, <em>Zombie Candy</em> is a genre-hopping knee-slapper of a novel. <em><strong>Get it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00819Q254/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=novelpubli-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00819Q254" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</strong></em></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><strong>About the author: </strong>Frederick Lee Brooke has worked as an English teacher, language school manager and small business owner and has travelled extensively in Tuscany, the setting of part of <em>Zombie Candy. <strong>V</strong></em><em><strong>isit Fred on his <a href="http://www.frederickleebrooke.com/" target="_blank">website</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/frederickbrooke" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/FrederickLeeBrooke" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, or <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4856232.Frederick_Lee_Brooke" target="_blank">GoodReads</a>.</strong></em></span></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-90449178118894572782012-04-14T09:38:00.000-04:002012-04-14T09:57:48.152-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-16086700019768974362012-04-02T13:58:00.001-04:002012-04-02T13:58:44.133-04:00Indie Insider - Ey Wade<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JKbGe1fxcdo/T3nnXVMn-aI/AAAAAAAAAeA/Rv3lZsqzM4U/s1600/FINALFTCOV.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JKbGe1fxcdo/T3nnXVMn-aI/AAAAAAAAAeA/Rv3lZsqzM4U/s320/FINALFTCOV.JPG" width="237" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Have you tried Amazon’s KDP Select program yet? Why or why not?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> No, I haven’t tried KDP. After reading an article on the <i>Writer Beware Site, </i>it caused me to really read through the KDP Select contract. After seeing Amazon would have the power to stop my ability to ever self-publish again, or make a profit I decided not to get involved.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What is your greatest challenge as an author?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My greatest challenge is the marketing. Trying to get the books in front of an audience has been a bit of a trial and error, hit or miss kind of thing. Just haven’t been able to find the right door, yet..</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Do you think that people judge a book by it’s cover? Who makes yours? </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Yes, I’m sure they do. The bad thing is, sometimes the covers can be misleading. I design my own book covers. I get a particular thought in mind and it translates into the cover. A very deep thinking process, lol.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">How much time do you spend on social media per day?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I spend at least four to six hours off and on. <b>What do you concentrate on?</b> It depends on the time of day. Very early in the morning, I’m just catching up with the FB groups. The rest of the time I am blogging, twittering, sharing info on the books and learning the ropes of all the other areas.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What is you favorite part of the whole process? (Besides receiving a check or 5 star review!) </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The writing is my favorite. I really get a kick out of the conversations with the characters that are running through my head, deciding the course of their lives. Being the all knowing over whether they succeed or not. The process makes me feel omniscient.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What do you do when you get writers block?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I close my eyes, I take a deep breath and try to place myself in the character’s mindset and before I know it, I’ve figured out my next step.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Do you need to decide on your genre first or write the book and then decide?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I start of with one genre in mind and almost always end up bound inside another.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Where do you get your ebooks formatted? </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I format them myself. At first it was a process and now it is almost as easy as breathing.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Which is the most important social media platform and why? </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I can’t give any more value than the other because I seem to have different audiences on each site. So basically it’s a draw of the straw.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What are three unique web sites or blogs that you follow on a regular basis? </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AtLastWriterBewareBlogsAcCrispinAndVictoriaStraussRevealAll/~3/aVUo1-_BlpM/when-writing-contest-has-hidden-agenda.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Writer Beware</span></a>, <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AtLastWriterBewareBlogsAcCrispinAndVictoriaStraussRevealAll/~3/aVUo1-_BlpM/when-writing-contest-has-hidden-agenda.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Marketing Tips for Authors</span></a>, and <span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://writerunboxed.com/">Writer Unboxed</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Is there anything else you would like to share?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well, maybe a little about me. I consider myself to be a caged in frustrated author and self-publisher of thought provoking, mind bending books, an occasional step-in (foster) parent, a fountain of knowledge, and ready to share. I can be found no farther than the click of your mouse. My books can be found at: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Ey%20Wade"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Amazon-U.K.</span></a> <a href="http://amzn.to/wade-inbooks"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Kindle</span></a><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/writerswrite"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">, Smashwords</span></a> , <a href="http://ebookstore.sony.com/author/ey-wade_158980"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Sony</span></a> or <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=Ey+Wade&t=none&f=author&p=1&s=averagerating&g=both"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Kobo</span></a>, <a href="http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?SRT=R&WRD=ey+wade&STORE=EBOOK&SZE=100"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Nook</span></a> and<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ey-wade/id371316894?mt=11"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"> iTunes</span></a><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-perfect-solution/id371318494?mt=11"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">.</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Feel free to visit my webpage: <a href="http://bit.ly/wade-in"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Into the Deep</span></a> , and my blog <a href="http://wade-inpublishing.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">http://wade-inpublishing.blogspot.com</span></a> Checkout the <a href="http://wade-intobookreviews.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">books I review</span></a>, Watch <a href="http://wade-inbooktrailers.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Videos</span></a>, and have conversations <a href="http://theinterviewedcharacter.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">with my characters</span></a>. Oh, if you like trailing behind you can follow me on twitter @<a href="http://twitter.com/jumpouttheboat"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">jumpouttheboat </span></a>or <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/EyWade"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">@ eywade </span></a>and I'll probably follow you in return. To be even more social I can be found on the biggest spaces on the planet: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000471033561#%21/"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Facebook</span></a>, <a href="https://plus.google.com/111996705890298062663/about"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Google Plus,</span></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5360597-ey"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Goodreads</span></a>, and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ey-wade/31/164/283"><span style="color: #072ff2; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Linkedin</span></a> So, that's it you don't have to look for me any further....I'm easy to find.</span><span style="font: 10.0px 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-61023024712501088372012-03-26T15:38:00.000-04:002012-03-26T15:38:04.461-04:00Indie Insider - A.C. Ellis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">How many words do you do write a day? Where do you do it?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I try to write between 1,500 and 2,000 words per day, but quite often don't do that. Life quite often steps in and re-arranges my schedule. Get the car fixed, baby sit the grand-daughter, you know, that kind of thing. Oh well....</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I write on my laptop at home, and also download whatever I'm working on to my Nook Color to write when I'm out. Coffee shops, book stores with coffee shops. That sort of thing.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Do you think that people judge a book by it’s cover? Who makes yours?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Yes, readers do judge a book by its cover. I have done some of my own covers, and I have had others done by professional artists. My favorite cover was produced for my mystery/suspense novel, <b><i>In Pursuit of the Enemy</i></b>, by an unknown artist at Infinity Publishing for release in May, 2007. I had described what I wanted to my contact at Infinity, and when I opened the envelope containing the first copy, I literally gasped. They'd hit the nail on the head. I love that cover.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I also very much like the cover produced by iUniverse for the 2007 edition of my science fiction novel, <b><i>Worldmaker</i></b>, although it is just a bit less successful in execution than the Infinity published book. I'd told them I wanted the disembodied hands coming out of deep space and grasping planet Earth, but told them I wanted the planet divided up like a Rubik's Cube (that's a major element in the plot.) They didn't do that last part. But it is still an extremely good cover. Much more so than the one I did for the eBook version of the novel. But even that one isn't bad.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The covers for my two Booklocker produced books, <b><i>Soldier of 'Tween</i></b> and <b><i>Shadow Run</i></b>, were done by me. They're not bad at all, and I don't think they have hurt sales.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I did the cover for my short story collection, <b><i>Spaceships & Brass Knuckles</i></b>, as well. It was recently released as an eBook only. It's very tongue-in-cheek, and I think just right for the collection.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In short, I like the covers for all my books, and I think they have helped sales.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">What do you do when you get writers block?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I don't believe in writer's block. We all make a conscious decision to either write, or not to write. Sometimes I don't write, but that is a decision I make, either because something else has to be done, or I'm feeling lazy, or whatever. No matter what, I decided not to write. I'll own up to it.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">How much time do you spend on social media per day? What do you concentrate on?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I probably spend more time than I should on social media. I do probably three or four hours a day. I know a writer in today's world must do some of that, especially if he concentrates on eBooks, as I do. But I have to be careful that it doesn't cut in to the time we should be dedicating to writing. Remember, the best promotion you can do is to produce more books.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I concentrate on Twitter. I have it set up so that everything I do there goes to Facebook. There are a few blogs I check in on, on a pretty much regular basis. And I do half an hour to an hour a day on the Kindle Boards. Let's face it, that's where most of the eBooks are being sold.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Of course, that's on top of keeping my own blogs current. I don't do as good a job at that as I should, but I try.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Which narrative form and tense do you think is the most difficult and why?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I don't think I've ever used a tense other than past. I don't think I ever will. As for the use of first or third person, the project dictates which I use. I'm just as comfortable using either.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Do you use a professional editor, critique partners, or beta readers? What is your process?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Again, it depends on the project. I have used all three. My work is usually pretty clean; For many years I was the editor for a large technical writing group. I do pretty well in that area. It's simply a matter of separating myself from my work.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">How important is it for an indie author to use a professional editor?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">See above. Errors slip through. Errors slip through in the best traditional publishing houses, and they definitely have professional editors. Our job is to make sure it doesn't happen more often that at the traditional houses. Nothing's perfect, but we want to make it as close to perfect as we possibly can.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">How long does it take you to create a book from start to finish?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Again, this depends on the project. I've written a novel in less than a month. I've also taken a couple years to finish a novel. It all depends on what else is going on in my life. During the break-up of my marriage and through the divorce, I got very little done. Let's face it, life happens. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Please list three unique blogs or web sites for writers that you read on a regular basis. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Lawrence Block's blog (LB's BLOG - Telling Lies for Fun and Profit)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/">https://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/</a></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Lawrence Block is my all-time favorite mystery/suspense writer. His novels rock! In particular, his Matthew Scudder books.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">John Locke's blog (JOHN LOCKE BLOG)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://donovancreed.com/">http://donovancreed.com/</a></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">John Locke sold more than 1,720,000 eBooks for the Kindle in 2011. Definitely doing something right. Probably more than one something.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Dean Wesley Smith's blog (The writings and opinions of Dean Wesley Smith)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/">http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/</a></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Dean Wesley Smith has written more than ninety popular novels and well over 100 published short stories. He has become one of the leading gurus on the world of indie publishing.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Is there anything else you would like to share?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Indie publishing is much more fun than the traditional publishing I did for many years. There are better opportunity for the writer to get closer to readers. There is more interaction between reader and writer. That's healthy.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Link to my Books on Amazon.com:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://amzn.to/wOVQn6">http://amzn.to/wOVQn6</a></span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-11532466589335183342012-03-20T12:55:00.002-04:002012-03-20T12:55:22.036-04:00Strong Female Characters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Strong Female Characters</h3>
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By Sheryl Steines</div>
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I am always amazed to hear that, in the year 2012, women are <em>still</em> talking about strong female characters. It’s funny that we’re always surprised when one comes along. Even in Hollywood, actresses still can’t find roles to sink their teeth into. As a reader, I look for characters that I can relate to in some way; a character who is more than a damsel in distress but less than an unfeeling, mean, witch. I’m putting it gently, but I’m looking for someone, who when facing a problem, doesn’t necessarily need a man to bail her out--a woman who can take care of herself in spite of her vulnerabilities. Because in reality, women are multi-layered and complex. We don’t fall to one end of an extreme or the other.<br />
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When I was younger, I started reading Danielle Steele, but I couldn't read her for long. Her female characters were far too needy and always put themselves in a position of requiring a savior. Even as a child, I couldn't help but wonder why these characters always needed a man to improve their lives. Why couldn’t they simply take care of themselves? It seemed as though female characters fell into two camps, and only two. They were either villains, witches, someone to be hated and despised, or they were weak, pathetic, your classic damsels in distress. Why is fiction lacking <em>real</em> women, women who can simply be human and celebrate all that they are?<br />
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As I got older, I found myself drawn to shows like <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em>. I saw in Buffy a strong character. Yes, she could kick ass, kill the vampires and fight the demons. She also had a brain, could plan, and could save the world each week. But she wasn't uni-dimensional. She also has a side that liked clothes, shoes and boys, a side that was feminine, a little vulnerable; a side that, okay, sometimes needed to be saved. She was a complex female character, real and human, a character with whom I could definitely relate.<br />
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The strong female character isn’t a caricature or stereotype. She’s not a total wimp like Snow White, and she’s not a total monster like the evil queen. She falls somewhere in the middle. She’s reactive, emotional, human, sexual, confident and sometimes unsure of herself.<br />
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When I originally wrote my character Annie Pearce in <em>The Day of First</em> <em>Sun</em>, I wrote her as a no-nonsense person, strong and smart, the girl who could survive on her own. But she didn’t feel genuine. As the story unfolded and changed, I rewrote her, gave her friends and family with whom she could interact. I gave her feelings, gave her stress. I let the other characters take charge once in awhile and offer some support. I melded two halves into one woman--a strong woman, who can take care of herself and ask for help when necessary. We’re not perfect, so why should our characters be? Instead, why can’t we make them simply authentic?<br />
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Charlize Theron made a really compelling comment regarding her character in the movie <em>Young Adult</em>. She said, "Women are usually either really good prostitutes or really good mothers. Maybe women are finally getting the chance to play more honest characters," Theron said. "We usually don't get to play bad hookers or bad mothers -- or anything in between."
Maybe it’s time to be a little more real and a little more honest.
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0CRI5Lp64Kg/T2i0izHPcxI/AAAAAAAAAdg/3NdXR9G4nkU/s1600/Sheryl+Steines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0CRI5Lp64Kg/T2i0izHPcxI/AAAAAAAAAdg/3NdXR9G4nkU/s320/Sheryl+Steines.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"></span>Please enjoy this guest post by Sheryl Steines, author of the urban fantasy novel, <em>The Day of First Sun</em>. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including $450 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book. <br />
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As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the<em> Day of First Sun </em>eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. <em><strong>The prizes include $450 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.</strong></em>
All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is <a href="http://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-recruitment/first-sun/" target="_blank">RIGHT HERE</a>. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win!
<strong>To win the prizes:</strong>
<br />
<ol start="1">
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004P8JP7C/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=novelpubli-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004P8JP7C" target="_blank">Purchase your copy of <em>The Day of First Sun </em>for just 99 cents</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-recruitment/first-sun/" target="_blank">Fill-out the simple form on Novel Publicity</a></li>
<li>Visit today’s featured social media event</li>
</ol>
<strong>Help my blog win:</strong>
The tour blogger who receives the most votes in the traffic-breaker poll will win a $100 gift card. When you visit Novel Publicity’s site to fill-out the contest entry form, don’t forget to VOTE FOR ME.<br />
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<strong>About the book: </strong>A vampire, a rogue wizard and an army of soulless zombies are par for the course for Annie Pearce and Bobby “Cham” Chamsky of the Wizard’s Guard. But when the non-magical princess, Amelie of Amborix, is murdered by magical means, a deeper plot unfolds.<br />
<em><strong><br /></strong></em><br />
<em><strong>Get it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004P8JP7C/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=novelpubli-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004P8JP7C" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</strong></em><br />
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<strong>About the author: </strong>Behind the wheel of her ’66 Mustang Convertible, Sheryl is a constant surprise, using her sense of humor and relatable style make her books something everyone can enjoy.<br />
<em><strong><br /></strong></em><br />
<em><strong>Visit Sheryl on <a href="http://www.sherylsteines.com/" target="_blank">her website</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/AnnieLovesCham" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TheAnnieLovesChamSeries" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, or <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4525660.Sheryl_Steines" target="_blank">GoodReads</a>.</strong></em>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-61090837279663429192012-03-06T09:58:00.001-05:002012-03-06T09:58:58.052-05:00Indie Insider - A B Potts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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How long does it take you to create a book from start to finish on average?<br />
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That's not an easy question to answer. Imperfect Weapon is the first full-length book that I've published and it's taken years to get right, but I think that was because the story has been with me since I was six years old and it has grown and evolved over those years. I tried to write it about ten years ago—in fact, I did—but it wasn't very good. It was too disjointed so I shelved it in despair. Then, nearly two years ago, it suddenly all made sense to me. I knew what was to happen when and where, and that's when I seriously started to write it. It's taken the best part of those two years to finish and publish but I'm happy with the quality and content now. The sequel, though, Black Dog, has only taken about six months and a third book is also underway, so I seem to be getting faster with each book. I think that's due to the fact that my grammar, spelling and methods have tightened up over the years.<br />
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How many hours a day do you spend writing? Editing? Procrastinating?<br />
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Ah! Now that depends on the writer's block! If I'm on a roll, then I spend anywhere between an hour and four writing each evening. I'll also quite happily spend the entire weekend tapping away at the keyboard, given half a chance. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I have a partner and really drag myself away from the laptop to give him the time he deserves. Editing is a chore that is a continuous project. I'll wake up in the middle of the night realising that a chapter bothers me—it doesn't quite work—and then I know it'll need changing. The amendments come to me and the pen and pad come out along with a torch. At three o'clock in the morning, you can find me huddled under the bedclothes scribbling away and then, come the morning, I'm trying to type them up before going off to work and before I can no longer decipher my writing! As for procrastinating, I never procrastinate about writing, only marketing!<br />
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How are your book covers designed?<br />
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From a very early age, I learnt that if I wanted something 'just so' I'd have to do it myself. I am dreadfully independent and very demanding. In order for something to meet my exacting standards, I usually have to tweak and fiddle with it to the point that I annoy those around me. That's not fair on the creators so now I tend to do my own covers. I have some graphic design experience and I have the right software, so I put that to work. The downside is that I have to spend hours shuffling through thousands and thousands of images, looking for the right one. I know I'll find it eventually. I just need to be patient.<br />
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What do you do when you get writers block?<br />
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Do something else! I am a self-employed bookkeeper and I have a home and family that need time dedicated to them, as well as writing. There is always something else to do so I don't worry about it. I know it'll come soon enough—and, lo, I'll be lying in bed at night and I'll start to daydream when suddenly the next part of the story comes to me. Then—yes, you got it—out comes the pen, pad and torch. I bury myself under the bedclothes and scribble like mad, hoping not to wake Dave. And if it gets really bad, I get up, come down stairs and fire up the laptop.<br />
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Which narrative form and tense do you use and why?<br />
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I always write in the third person, past tense simply because that's what comes naturally to me. I've never even considered writing in any other way and I don't think I could.<br />
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Where do you get your ebooks formatted?<br />
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I do it myself. I'm very particular about formatting. Presentation is of paramount importance, be it a book or a Balance Sheet. I'm very fussy and have found that only I can tolerate my high demands and fulfil my exacting standards.<br />
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Do you use a professional editor, critique partners, or beta readers? Briefly describe your process.<br />
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I am really lucky. I have a fantastic team behind me. After the book has been written and I have my first draft, I put it away for a few weeks. That's really hard to do, but I need to distance myself from it a little bit before I can do my first proof. That's the stage when things get tweaked or completely rewritten. If it doesn't feel right, if it doesn't read right, if I find a fatal flaw... all those things must be addressed.<br />
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A second proof starts to focus on grammar and spelling and often there's usually a third proof after that. In between times, things get mini-proofed too. Only when I'm happy with the product does it go to my independent proofreader, Willber G Force. He's a great guy and we share a sense of humour. He makes his suggestions, which I then consider. We don't always agree on things, but we rarely disagree.<br />
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After that comes the beta-reading. This is the toughest hurdle of all because my partner, Dave, does this. He's a big Stephen King fan so if I can entertain him, well, that means a hell of a lot to me.
Finally, after that and if I'm happy with everything, I'll publish.<br />
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Which is the most important social media platform and why? Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Google+, LinkedIn, or any other one you use.<br />
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I can be found on FaceBook and Twitter. I love FaceBook as it's kept me in touch with friends and family from when I was in junior school. You can have extended conversations with friends, family and other authors, too. Twitter is also great because it is better at allowing you to expand the circle of people you interact electronically with, although the 140-character tweet limit can be a bit challenging! I'm also available at Goodreads, but suspect I don't use that as much as I should.
As far as Google+ and LinkedIn are concerned, I don't have a presence there yet as I need to leave time to write.<br />
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What are three unique web sites or blogs that you follow on a regular basis? (related to writing etc.)<br />
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Just three?!<br />
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The Indie Writer Zone (of course)— <a href="http://www.indiewriterszone.com/">http://www.indiewriterszone.com</a><br />
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Readers' Retreat—<a href="http://readersretreat.com/">http://readersretreat.com</a>
and I spend a lot of time on the Amazon forums, in particular, trying to promote eReaders and eBooks.<br />
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Is there anything else you would like to share?<br />
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When I was at school, I was told that you should map out the entire story before starting to write it. I don't and I can't. As I write, the story unfolds before me. It's like the story is being told to me and I'm just writing it down. Things happen and I think: blimey—I didn't see that coming! I then wonder how the main character is going to 'get out of that one' and, somehow, he always does. It never ceases to amaze me and the pleasure it brings is phenomenal. If my readers get half the pleasure I do out of my stories, then my work is done and I'm a happy bunny.<br />
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Contact Links for A B Potts:<br />
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<a href="http://www.abpotts.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.abpotts.co.uk/ </a><br />
Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/ABPotts">https://twitter.com/#!/ABPotts</a><br />
FaceBook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/ABPotts">http://www.facebook.com/ABPotts</a><br />
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Imperfect Weapon available from:<br />
Amazon UK: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0066TLG9I">www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0066TLG9I</a><br />
Amazon: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0066TLG9I">www.amazon.com/dp/B0066TLG9I</a><br />
Smashwords: <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/104432">https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/104432</a><br />
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-74834597542862604222012-02-17T12:40:00.000-05:002012-02-17T12:40:38.046-05:00Indie Insider - Marc Nash<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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What is the best way to create tension?<br />
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I like unreliable narrators, so that the reader is never quite sure whether they can trust the person guiding them through the story, which sets up an inherent tension between reader and character, but also establishes a relationship between the two so that the reader has a genuine stake in the character's fate. For me the authorial duty is why the lead character is unreliable, there has to be a good fictional reason, not just used as a device. In "Not In My Name" there is a very good reason for the lead character deliberately misleading both the other main character and the reader, as he is operating online and deliberately concealing his true identity as he looks to steal that of others <br />
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Do people judge a book by it’s cover? Who makes yours?<br />
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I think they certainly used to, but with thumbnails on AmazonKindle now I'm not so sure. I have a couple of designers I've never met in person who do mine, such is the wonderful interconnectivity of the modern world! Esther Harding and Craig Slade<br />
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What are the best ways to ‘show’ and not ‘tell’?<br />
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Through the use of metaphor, the suggestion of something in terms of something else. It provides a layer of distance. Having said that, often in my novels the main character addresses the reader directly, so that it's like a conversation, which inevitably makes it appear that I'm 'telling', but their language is quite poetic, so that it's also 'showing' at the same time<br />
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How many books do you produce a year? Are you meeting your goal?<br />
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It varies. I'm a momentum writer. I published 3 this year, and wrote another for NaNoWriMo. As to goals, I let my books take as long as they need to be written, so I'm not hard and fast about goals.<br />
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How many words do you produce a day? Do you have a daily quota to fill?<br />
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No. When I get an idea I let it seethe away in my unconscious for 6 months, maybe make some notes. When I'm ready to write, I go flat out, all day and much of the night until that first draft is written. So I can write several thousand words a day during that spell. When I do retire to bed for some sleep, my mind is usually still whirring with the book and I actually get loads more words as I'm lying there with my eyes shut!<br />
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What is your greatest challenge as an author?<br />
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There are so many. Developing a readership. Finding sufficient time to realise all the ideas and voices in my head demanding their liberation. Putting into practise my ideas on the form of the novel, for instance I want to write a non-linear novel and involve designers and typographers. In "Not In My Name" there is some non-linearity as the second section is written as online scrolling forum chats, so that you get the last post up on the page first and the narrative order is subverted<br />
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Do you use a professional editor, critique partners, or beta readers? Briefly describe your process.<br />
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I don't, simply because I haven't found the beta readers. My process is as stated above, once I have the main voice and the central metaphor, then I sit on the idea for 6 months or so letting it stew in my subconscious. When I'm ready to write it, I do it all at once. That first draft for me is totally about fun, it's like playing with clay. Then the hard work really happens with all the subsequent editing to knock it into readable shape. I don't have a set number of re-edits. I just know when it's ready<br />
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What is you favorite part of the whole process? (Besides receiving a check or 5 star review!)<br />
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I love the plasticity and play element of the whole first draft. The other thing I love is when you chat with readers on Twitter and they take you through their process of buying your book, while they're reading it and then having read it what they thought. That is just mind-blowing to me, to follow every part of their process as it happens<br />
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What are three web sites or blogs that you can recommend?<br />
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<a href="http://madutopia.com/blog/fridayflash">http://madutopia.com/blog/fridayflash</a>/ is a great site for reading flash fiction from all round the world and of all genres and since the stories are tagged by genre you can sift through for your preferences.<br />
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<a href="http://www.youwriteon.com/">http://www.youwriteon.com/</a> is a good peer review site for writers to display 7000 words of their work and get fellow writers to crit it. The forums are very good for advice on marketing, though they can also have heated debates on all things literary.<br />
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<a href="http://www.fictionaut.com/">http://www.fictionaut.com/</a> is a site that displays exceptional writing, though has less social interaction than most writer sites. it reminds me of a library in its seriousness!<br />
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Is there anything else you would like to share?<br />
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The beauty of independent publishing is that you have no constraints, you can really experiment or offer up things that would never see the light of day in the commercial publishing world. I love that freedom to create<br />
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Amazon US <a href="http://amzn.to/qBs2N4">http://amzn.to/qBs2N4</a><br />
Amazon US <a href="http://amzn.to/nu5q8P">http://amzn.to/nu5q8P</a><br />
Website on "Not In My Name" <a href="http://marcnashNIMN.weebly.com/">http://marcnashNIMN.weebly.com</a><br />
Blog <a href="http://www.sulcicollective.blogspot.com/">http://www.sulcicollective.blogspot.com</a><br />
Trailer <a href="http://www.blazingtrailers.com/show.php?title=1678">http://www.blazingtrailers.com/show.php?title=1678</a><br />
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-28745983031201614922012-02-12T14:35:00.000-05:002012-02-12T14:35:14.340-05:00Indie Insider - Steve Reeder<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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How many words do you do write a day? Where do you do it?<br />
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That depends on a number of things: I’m busy setting up a publishing firm as well as marketing my own book, which mean trips to Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban to talk to people, give speeches on writing, publishing and of course on my book. So, when I’m at home I write for an hour a day while knowing that I should be doing a lot more, especially since I’m actually busy with 2 manuscripts and have two more ready to start with.<br />
<br />
<br />
Do you think that people judge a book by it’s cover? Who makes yours?<br />
<br />
I think the cover of a novel will be the first thing that draws someone to picking it up and reading the back cover blurb, perhaps reading the first few pages, so yes, I do think that, initially, that’s true. Hopefully though, it won’t be the deciding factor. After all, you know what they say about judging a book by its cover! <br />
<br />
<br />
What do you do when you get writers block?<br />
<br />
I can honestly say that I’ve never had writers block. If anything, the reverse is true. There are times when I find myself writing a chapter and then getting side-tracked and writing either the start of another book, or a chapter that will only appear later in the book; the scenes come to me and I write then down and then work out how the book will get to that scene! Sometimes the book seems to write itself while I sleep and I wake up and type madly before I forget. Naturally, this does lead to an awful lot of deleting and editing.<br />
<br />
<br />
How much time do you spend on social media per day? What do you concentrate on?<br />
<br />
I do. I have friends and family scattered around the world and Face Book is the best way to keep in touch and let each other know what’s going on in our respective lives. But it’s an important method of promoting yourself and your work. These days practically every business has an identity on Face Book and there are groups for everything including authors. I find it to be very helpful.<br />
<br />
<br />
Do you use a professional editor, critique partners, or beta readers? What is your process?<br />
<br />
Once my manuscripts are finished I send them to contacts of mine to read and comment on. I take in what they say and then read the story again and try to see it from their point of view and I may make some small changes. Then I send it to a firm in London – professional editors and critique people – and that will come back in four to five months’ time. I then go over their comments, correct the spelling, punctuation and grammar – there is always lots to correct there – and then think about their suggestions and criticisms. Usually this will result in changing a word here or there, but in the book Adrenalin Rush I did rewrite half a chapter in the middle of the book and they were correct, it did read better. <br />
<br />
<br />
How important is it for an indie author to use a professional editor?<br />
<br />
Very important. The last thing we can afford, as indie authors, is to look amateurish and have mistakes, bad grammar and punctuation will kill your book. Not to mention that the pros are very good at fine-tuning not your story, which is your own and should remain so, but making it just that little bit more readable; making your writing flow more smoothly so as not to distract the reader from the story.<br />
<br />
<br />
How long does it take you to create a book from start to finish?<br />
<br />
Once again this is a difficult question to answer. I wrote the first draught of Adrenalin Rush in six months working three hours a night (usually between 11pm<br />
And 3am) but if I had worked flat or it may have taken two months. Bu then again I believe that a story needs to flow out of you at a space that is comfortable and not forced. I put the book aside for two months after I had finished it before reading it from start to finish as a way of critiquing it myself. That first book was a major learning experience for me and although it took three years to get it into print, in the professionally written and edited way it is now, I could, knowing what I now know, do it all in a year.<br />
<br />
<br />
Please list three unique blogs or web sites for writers that you read on a regular basis. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.braxtonacosbygodson.com/">http://www.braxtonacosbygodson.com/</a> who is one of Bill Cosby’s family. He started following me on Twitter and I began to read his tweets.<br />
http://twitter.com/#!/Jack_Hanger. James is a local author of the book Jack Hanger<br />
http://twitter.com/#!/RonBarakAuthor. Ron is an American author of political novels<br />
http://twitter.com/#!/VanHaywood. Actress, model and friend<br />
<br />
I also have joined the Face Book groups: Authors, Agents, and Aspiring Writers as well as Uncensored Writing - All Genres Welcome.<br />
<br />
<br />
Is there anything else you would like to share?<br />
<br />
I believe that as an author, the first prize is a huge publishing deal with one of the Random House or Penguin or so on firms. They throw lots of money at you and you can go about your business writing the next two novels that your contact demands while they spend serious money marketing your book. You get very small amounts of money from each sale, but there will be, hopefully, lots of sales. These sorts of deals are getting more and more difficult to get though. One in a thousand manuscripts submitted to a publishing house or an agent will ever get published and make money! There are all sorts of reasons for this that I won’t go into now.<br />
<br />
However, these days there a growing number of ‘vanity press’ publishing firms (they are so called because most of the books they publish are so that the author can see themselves in print) or more recently ‘Subsidized’ publishers, where you pay most of the costs and they promise to help market your book around the world. I know several authors who have gone this route and none of them are happy, so I not keen on the idea.<br />
<br />
I believe that with the technology and social media available to us today we can self-publish in a very professional way, so long as you use the out-sourced professionals mentioned above. The only problem then is the marketing one. How do you get your book in front of millions of potential buyers so that you can sale a hundred thousand books? Social media help quite a bit here. This is a question of profit and the numbers add up differently depending on the way you go about it.<br />
<br />
My books are stocked in shops – I have a distributor in Cape Town – and when a book sells I take a profit, deduct the cost of printing (you MUST print large numbers and have a top printing firm do it) and end up with the equivalent of $2.00. So I need to sell many thousands of books that way to live. If I had gone through one of the traditional publishing firms, and two of the local branches made me an offer, but told me that this wouldn’t help get an international deal, then my income per book would be half that.<br />
<br />
The big advantage of self-publishing, in the absence of one of those mega dollar deals, is that I hold book signings around the country and bank $17.37 per book AFTER print costs. And that means that for every 1000 copies I sell, I make as much money as someone like Wilbur Smith when 9 000 copies of his books sell. I’d still like to be in his shoes, but I’m a lot happier being self-published that either not being published at all, or have one of the vanity-press or subsidized deals. <br />
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-45241383015973834382012-02-11T13:13:00.000-05:002012-02-11T13:13:15.469-05:00Indie Insider - Gordon Bonnet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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How many words do you do write a day? Where do you do it?<br />
<br />
It varies a good deal, but on the average, I’d say around 2,000. I have a science/skeptical thinking blog that I post to every day, and I’m always working on some fiction project or another. I’m a bit of a compulsive writer, really.<br />
<br />
As far as where I write, that never varies – my computer, in our den. Usually with a cup of coffee at my side, the space heater on, and a snoring dog at my feet. I always type rather than writing long-hand – for one thing, I’m a fast and fairly accurate typist, and for another, my handwriting looks a little like the Elvish script from Lord of the Rings. As written by a rather dimwitted Elf with a severe disorder of the central nervous system. I can barely read my own handwriting – what anyone else would do with it, I don’t know.<br />
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Do you think that people judge a book by its cover? Who makes yours?<br />
<br />
Absolutely. It’s the first thing anyone sees about a book. I’ve been known to buy books solely because the cover intrigued me (which has, on occasion, prompted me to buy a book that was truly atrocious). I tend to like intriguing, eye-grabbing covers, so mine also tend in that direction. I have thus far designed my own covers, with the help of my wife, who is a computer whiz, and several friends who are photographers.<br />
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<br />
What do you do when you get writers block?<br />
<br />
It doesn’t happen often, but when it has, I’ve found that working on something other than the bit I’m stuck on often frees the stuck part. When I’ve become stymied, it’s usually over some twisty plot point that I can’t make work – so I go on to something else, either a different scene from the same story, or something else entirely. And because of the byzantine way my brain works, I often find that a solution will pop into my head suddenly, while I’m doing something unrelated, like taking a shower. When I’m having trouble writing, I take lots of showers.<br />
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<br />
How much time do you spend on social media per day? What do you concentrate on?<br />
<br />
I’m on Twitter and Facebook, and maybe spend an hour or so a day on it. Self-promotion is one of my weaknesses, and I find it awkward at best to bombard my friends and contacts with messages saying, “Oh please oh please buy my book!” I know that there are a lot of indie writers who have made social media work for them – I’m just beginning to figure it all out.<br />
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Which narrative form and tense do you think is the most difficult and why?<br />
<br />
I’ve written in both first and third person, and used a variety of different approaches to point of view. In my experience, first person is the hardest, because you can only show what your main character sees/hears/thinks – anything outside of that realm literally doesn’t exist. The character becomes a lens through which the entire story has to be viewed. That said, if you can make it work, it works brilliantly, because the reader in some sense becomes the character. I’ve only written two novels in first person – the Icelandic historical fiction Kári the Lucky, and a paranormal story set during the Black Death in England during the 14th century, We All Fall Down. <br />
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One point-of-view technique I never use is omniscient – where the reader is literally inside everyone’s, and no one’s, head. For me, stories are all about characters, and having a couple of characters whose thoughts you witness is plenty. Both my most recently released book, Signal to Noise, and my current work-in-progress, Poison the Well, have three point of view characters, and chapters alternate between them. I find this an intriguing way to write a story, because in both cases the point of view characters are extremely different from each other, and the reader gets to see the same events as witnessed, and interpreted, by radically different minds. <br />
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<br />
Do you use a professional editor, critique partners, or beta readers? What is your process?<br />
<br />
I belong to a writers’ group, and it’s been invaluable. Several of the members of my group have incredibly sharp eyes for detail, and have caught things I never would have. I have also used beta readers, and have found the same thing. It’s hard, when you’re up close to a story, to see the problems – a set of fresh eyes can discern the parts that don’t work. <br />
<br />
I haven’t used professional editors for the simple reason that I can’t afford them. I think that if you can, however, they can be wonderful. However, it’s a fine line – letting someone edit your work for structure and consistency can easily slip into letting someone else alter your own voice as a writer, and that’s a pity when it happens. If you use an editor, or even if you just rely on critique partners and beta readers – make sure to retain your authentic voice. It may be the most important thing of all.<br />
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<br />
How long does it take you to create a book from start to finish?<br />
<br />
It has varied a lot, largely because I’ve put some books aside for a while. I wrote the first few chapters of House of Mirrors, and then it vanished into my desk drawer (a.k.a. the Black Hole of Calcutta) for ten years. I was digging through my old papers, and found it, and thought, “Oh, yeah, that!” And I reworked the old chapters, kept going, and had the whole thing done about eight months later. But if I write through – I think my record, for “starting word to final edit” was six months, with Adam’s Fall. But that’s also one of my shortest novels, so bear that in mind.<br />
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<br />
Please list three unique blogs or web sites for writers that you read on a regular basis. <br />
<br />
Here are three of my favorites:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.traceyhansen.com/">http://www.traceyhansen.com/</a><br />
<a href="http://thewritingnetwork.com/">http://thewritingnetwork.com/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.justbreathenovel.com/">http://www.justbreathenovel.com/</a><br />
<br />
These are all sites maintained by writer friends of mine, and I find them to be unfailingly inspirational, funny, and provocative.<br />
<br />
<br />
Is there anything else you would like to share?<br />
<br />
Just my personal view: I write because I have to, because it is my truest way to express who I am. If you’d like to know me better, read what I write – then you’ll know me.<br />
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<br />
Here are links to my sites:<br />
<br />
Skeptophilia (my science/skeptical thinking blog): <a href="http://skeptophilia.blogspot.com/">http://skeptophilia.blogspot.com</a><br />
Tales of Whoa (my fiction blog): <a href="http://gbfiction.blogspot.com/">http://gbfiction.blogspot.com</a><br />
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-67784109174923202042012-02-10T10:35:00.000-05:002012-02-10T10:35:00.358-05:00Indie Insider - Ty Johnston<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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How many words do you do write a day? Where do you do it?<br />
<br />
My word count is all over the place. Some days I only write 500 words. Other days I write 5,000. If I had to guess, I probably average about 2,000 words a day. I’m usually slower at the beginning of a project, and then again right at the end. The middle section of a novel is where I seem to write the fastest. In the beginning, I’m feeling things out, the characters and environments and plots, etc. Towards the end, I’m not wanting to let go of the story, so I hold onto it for a while.<br />
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As to where I write, again, it varies. I probably do most of my writing at home in my bedroom, but at least a couple of days a week I take a laptop out to a book store or coffee shop and spend a few hours writing. I can write in public easy enough, but I can’t edit because there are so many distractions, so I tend to do my rewriting and editing at home.<br />
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<br />
Do you think that people judge a book by it’s cover? Who makes yours?<br />
<br />
Covers are a funny thing. You ask a hundred readers if they are influenced by a cover, and probably 80 of them will pull out the old individualistic argument that “of course not because I think for myself.” Then you look at the top sellers and realize pretty much all of them have solid covers.<br />
<br />
I’m not sure a great cover is enough to get a reader to buy a book or e-book, but I do think great covers help to draw readers’ attention.<br />
<br />
I do my own covers. I worked in the newspaper industry as an editor and graphic designer for nearly 20 years, so I feel fairly capable of churning out decent covers. Great covers? No. Why? Because I’ve found there’s a difference between good newspaper design and book design, and I’m still learning to some extent, though with each novel I feel it has a better cover than the one before.<br />
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<br />
What do you do when you get writers block?<br />
<br />
Oh, gosh. I have a looooong story about writers block, but I’ll try to keep it short as possible. I spent the late ‘80s and much of the ‘90s writing short stories, then it finally dried up on me about ‘97 or so. I hit a wall. At the time I didn’t know what it was, but looking back I realize it was fear. Fear of success. Fear that I was a lousy writer. Probably some other, lesser fears mixed in. I went five years without writing hardly a word of fiction.<br />
<br />
Then about 2002 I read a book on screenwriting by Syd Field. It was a rather dry book, but it broke storytelling down into a format that to me was almost like simple math. A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and within those structures are lesser events which need to occur. Just for kicks, I decided to try to write my own screenplay.<br />
<br />
Two months later, I had finished it, then when on to write another. It was quite freeing. Screenwriting really breaks storytelling down to its most basic elements, and I could focus upon those without having to worry about whether or not I was spewing forth great prose. By the time I had finished my second screenplay, I had found my writers block had vanished. I then returned to prose writing and have been doing so ever since. I might someday write more screenplays, but for now I’m having fun churning out novels.<br />
<br />
That’s how I dealt with writer’s block. As far as what I could advise others, I always say: Allow yourself to write badly. Yes, I realize how that sounds, but it’s the truth. If you want to break through writers block, stop thinking every word you write has to be golden. A lot of what one writes isn’t going to be very good, but some of it will. Eventually, with experience, there will be more good than bad.<br />
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<br />
How much time do you spend on social media per day? What do you concentrate on?<br />
<br />
How much? Way too much! On an average day, I probably spend two hours on social media, but I’m including blogging. I use Facebook mainly for friends and peers, but I turn to Twitter pretty much only for promotions. I tend to focus more on blogging, on my own blog and guest blogging on others’ sites, because I feel I’ve had more success there, and I get to meet a lot of people I otherwise might never know.<br />
<br />
<br />
Which narrative form and tense do you think is the most difficult and why?<br />
<br />
I personally tend to think a first person omniscient narration is the most difficult to write because there is so much that could be covered. The narrator, or narrative voice, knows everything, and deciding what and what not to reflect upon can be difficult.<br />
<br />
I prefer to write from a third person limited perspective, and I’m willing to jump around in novels to show different characters’ points of view. Some readers don’t like that jumping around, but others seem to enjoy it or at least don’t mind.<br />
<br />
As for tense, I find present tense more difficult to write, at least for novel-length projects. I can keep up present tense in a short story pretty easily, but I find it more difficult in longer works. Present tense offers a notion of immediacy, and I find that drains away in longer works. In other words, how can something be immediate if it’s going to take me a week or longer to read it?<br />
<br />
<br />
Do you use a professional editor, critique partners, or beta readers? What is your process?<br />
<br />
This is another one that’s both yes and no. I do not hire out a professional editor for my novels, but I’m fortunate enough to have enough friends who are or have been professional book editors or professional newspaper editors. They are my beta readers. I return the favor when I can.<br />
<br />
As for my process, I complete the first draft without any major editing. During that draft, I try to do as little editing as possible, but it seems I’m always noticing some little error whenever I look back to check some facts or some such. After the first draft, I try to set a manuscript aside for a while to give myself a little perspective. Six months would be perfect, but it’s usually more like a week. Then I go through that first draft and do a rewrite on areas I feel need it, as well as some editing.<br />
<br />
After that, I do one more run through the manuscript, usually only cleaning up minor mistakes and the like. After that, I e-mail off the novel to my beta readers. Usually within two weeks to a month, I begin receiving feedback. Once I’ve heard from at least a couple of people, I start back in on the manuscript again, fixing what I think needs fixing, changing what I think needs changing. After that, I usually give the novel one last read, a final hunt for minor errors. Then it’s publishing time.<br />
<br />
That being said, with today’s technology, it’s easier than ever to make corrections. More than once I’ve gone back to a novel and found an error, or I’ve had a reader point something out to me. I always make corrections, and within a day or so the corrected version is available online.<br />
<br />
<br />
How important is it for an indie author to use a professional editor?<br />
<br />
More than important. It’s an absolute necessity. Never trust your own eyes, because I promise you will glaze over your own mistakes. Friends and relatives are nice to have as beta readers, but often they will be leery of pointing out errors. If one can’t afford to hire a professional editor, then I suggest getting as many beta readers as possible, and looking over one’s own manuscript at least a dozen times. And then some.<br />
<br />
Start making friends online with editors and publishers and other writers. Don’t push your novels on them, but after you’ve known some of these folks for a while, I’m sure some of them would be willing to read your work and offer advice. But not me. I’m busy. Sorry. ;-)<br />
<br />
<br />
How long does it take you to create a book from start to finish?<br />
<br />
No longer than six months. I’ve finished one novel in as little as two months, but I think that was a fluke. I’d say I average about four months. Three months to get the first draft down, then a month for editing and to hear back from my beta readers.<br />
<br />
<br />
Please list three unique blogs or web sites for writers that you read on a regular basis.<br />
<br />
Blog of Dean Wesley Smith: <a href="http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/">http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/ </a><br />
<br />
A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: <a href="http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/">http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ </a><br />
<br />
Razored Zen: <a href="http://charlesgramlich.blogspot.com/">http://charlesgramlich.blogspot.com/ </a><br />
<br />
<br />
Is there anything else you would like to share?<br />
<br />
Though I am probably best known (among my three fans) as a fantasy writer, specifically epic fantasy, my interests as a writer are much broader. Right now I do tend to focus upon fantasy, but I’ve also penned some horror tales and one more literary novel that contains no speculative elements. I don’t wish to be one of these writers who only writes one type of novel or only writes one series, though there’s nothing wrong with that if one wants to do it. It’s just not for me.<br />
<br />
By stating this openly, I’m hoping readers will come away with the idea that I am not a writer of just one genre or type of novel. Yes, I write fantasy and horror, but I also plan to write thrillers, dramas, more literary works, maybe even some science fiction. I might even pen something off the wall, maybe comedy. It really depends upon my mood and thought processes at any given time.<br />
<br />
Finding me online:<br />
<br />
Blog: <a href="http://tyjohnston.blogspot.com/">http://tyjohnston.blogspot.com/ </a><br />
<br />
Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/htjohnston">https://www.facebook.com/htjohnston </a><br />
<br />
Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/HTJohnston">https://twitter.com/#!/HTJohnston</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Where to find my e-books:<br />
<br />
Amazon: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ty-Johnston/e/B002MCBQRU/">http://www.amazon.com/Ty-Johnston/e/B002MCBQRU/</a><br />
<br />
Barnes & Noble: <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Ty-Johnston">http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Ty-Johnston</a><br />
<br />
Smashwords: <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/darkbow">http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/darkbow</a><br />
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-37788525343037641132012-02-10T07:38:00.000-05:002012-02-10T07:38:51.538-05:00Indie Insider - Carl Hitchens<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C86CdeZKoLw/TzEdANsnT3I/AAAAAAAAAcQ/uYhN8E22RIA/s1600/Sitting_with_Warrior_bkcov.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C86CdeZKoLw/TzEdANsnT3I/AAAAAAAAAcQ/uYhN8E22RIA/s320/Sitting_with_Warrior_bkcov.jpg" width="204" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>How long does it take you to create a book from start to finish on average?<br />
<br />
It’s hard to answer that. If you consider the entire creative process from jotting down thoughts and ideas to that first dawning of inspiration that those random impressions could be, perhaps should be a book, it could take years. Not to mention life situations interrupting the creative flow. Also, there is a difference from the notion of a book taking form and that moment of getting serious about turning out something to share with the world.<br />
<br />
I have a poetry manuscript that became a book, when the thought seized me that all of these separate poems I had written over a number of years could be collected up into one volume. This was followed by the practical sense of organizing them into a theme for a poetry book contest. (That hadn’t occurred to me. I was still caught up in the genuineness of “spontaneous creation,” and didn’t want to tamper with the purity of content and order of universal creative-intelligence using me as its instrument.) From the moment of deciding on a thematic charge to author renown, it took about a month of revising, rewriting, and ordering poems according to theme movement to a submission-ready manuscript.<br />
<br />
This present work, Sitting with Warrior, began as mostly a short story memoir and then took on a life of its own. Personal revelations beyond my ken became a protagonist mythical ancestor dwelling in another dimension of existence. Stanzas from an epic poem became introductory poems for each chapter of the book. Before I knew it, I had a multi-genre tale combining memoir, myth and history. From that point of organic coalescence—start to finish— it took four years. Four years that went by like a bolt of lightning streaking from the sky. During this period of time, I moved four times, putting my muse into suspended animation. But after each time, we restarted our creative engines. In the end, Warrior made himself known to the world. <br />
<br />
<br />
How many hours a day do you spend writing? Editing? Procrastinating?<br />
<br />
I am an obsessional, spontaneous combustion writer. When I am combusting, I write all day and all night, barely stopping for food and biological imperatives. My writing habits are just that—habits. They appear to the outside observer as an extreme form of self-discipline. In reality, I am a writing ascetic, driven not by extraordinary discipline, as much as by ruthless self-compulsion to break the inhibiting chains of time, space, and matter. <br />
<br />
To some degree, I edit as I write, going back to clean up after a page or two. When done with a chapter, I review it and make editing changes and revisions. I really don’t set times for writing and editing, per se. I’ve never looked at how much time I might spend procrastinating. If I were to guess a percentage, I would say 10–15 percent of my writing time. But even that is divided between pure wasting of time and needed relief from bodily and mental battery. When I’m in a creative flow, everything else, no matter how essential, feels like interference. <br />
<br />
<br />
How are your book covers designed?<br />
<br />
I’m actually new to publishing. I’ve spent more than half of my lived years writing, but, other than having a few poems and a short story submitted and published, I’ve been the publishing world’s best-kept secret.<br />
<br />
Sitting with Warrior’s cover was found on the stock photo site, fotosearch.com. I didn’t like the image that my POD publisher, iUniverse suggested from another stock photo site that they use principally. Their image, though accurately portraying Native American culture, was not a appropriate for my story line. Warrior, during his earthly life was not a western plains Indian, but an eastern, coastal-woodlands Indian. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-__uA066IVuo/TzEdBr9CdII/AAAAAAAAAcY/o68FMwSOSKU/s1600/Carl_Hitchens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-__uA066IVuo/TzEdBr9CdII/AAAAAAAAAcY/o68FMwSOSKU/s1600/Carl_Hitchens.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><br />
What do you do when you get writers block?<br />
<br />
My first instinct is to soldier on and not capitulate to the clogging up of the creative flow. I usually make little real progress in bending creativity to my will, though. When I accept the futility of this, I get away from my desk, my office, and seek diversion. I’ll exercise, do yoga, or water the garden. If I’m unable to shift my mind away from writer’s agitation, I just get out of the house and find some activity: hiking, running an errand, eating out, etc. <br />
<br />
<br />
Which narrative form and tense do you use and why?<br />
<br />
I have fallen into writing from an instinctual grounding, rather than academic. Because of this, I don’t experiment for experiment’s sake, when it comes to this voice or that voice, or this form or that form. I do what comes natural, and, if need be, connect the dots after the fact.<br />
<br />
It will say that I love story telling. I love essay. I love lyrical narrative. I find myself naturally weaving the elements of story telling and lyrical expression even into my essays. I guess that means I use narrative story telling and narrative essay. Even my poems seem to have a beginning, middle, and ending “plot,” if you will. <br />
<br />
Naturally, it gets tricky with narrative when the story alternates between present and past. I had to really labor over proper tense selection in Sitting with Warrior. The other thing that I spent a lot of editing and revision time on was unfolding the plot with a realistic exchange between Warrior and narrator. Since the dialogue between Grandfather Warrior and grandson (writer) carried the perspective voice of the story, there was a constant shifting of these two characters in and out of first, second, or third person. <br />
<br />
<br />
Where do you get your ebooks formatted?<br />
<br />
I have only one e-book to date, the e-book version of Sitting with Warrior, formatted by the publisher, iUniverse. But I am looking at e-book publication very seriously for future writing endeavors. With the increasing popularity of electronic books and readers, combined with lower publishing overhead and higher royalty percentages, authors have to embrace e-books as the wave of the future. <br />
<br />
<br />
Do you use a professional editor, critique partners, or beta readers? Briefly describe your process.<br />
<br />
I edit my manuscripts as I go along. Then comes the process of rewriting and revising. When I am finally satisfied that the manuscript is “perfect,” I turn It over to a professional editor. If one is an exceptionally good self-proofer, it may be that a good copyeditor will suffice. I actually paid for a line editor, via iUniverse, to comb through my book line by line. Afterwards, I took two months to review the editing suggestions and decide if, where, when, and how to revise the manuscript. <br />
<br />
<br />
Which is the most important social media platform and why? Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Google+, LinkedIn, or any other one you use.<br />
<br />
Thus far, I use Facebook and LinkedIn, and haven’t had any great success with either in driving readers to my author’s website or in book sales. Many, however, are sold on these social networking sites being advantageous to their promotion efforts.<br />
<br />
<br />
What are three unique web sites or blogs that you follow on a regular basis?<br />
<br />
I don’t follow any blog or website religiously, but I have the highest respect for the writing wisdom and talent of Kate Robinson, a friend:<br />
<a href="http://jellyfishday.blogspot.com/">http://jellyfishday.blogspot.com/</a><br />
<br />
Then there’s the author of one of my favorite books, The Journey of Crazy Horse: <a href="http://josephmarshall.com/">http://josephmarshall.com/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Is there anything else you would like to share?<br />
<br />
“True glory comes of itself. It cannot be tarnished. It is either present or not. It is not formed by events but revealed by them. It is not darkened by circumstances but shines above them. It is not soiled by conditions but purifies them. It is the exaltation of light calling forth the true nature of existence. Understand?”<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
<div>Carl Hitchens' website with reading trailer:</div><div><span class="yiv657329408Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.drumtalk-hitch.com/Sitting_with_Warrior/Sitting_with_Warrior.html" rel="nofollow" style="color: #234786; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">http://www.drumtalk-hitch.com/Sitting_with_Warrior/Sitting_with_Warrior.html</a></span></div><div><div><span class="yiv657329408Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div>Amazon:</div><div><span class="yiv657329408Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=Sitting+with+Warrior&x=0&y=0" rel="nofollow" style="color: #234786; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Sitting+with+Warrior&x=0&y=0</a></span></div></div><div><br />
</div><div>Facebook:</div><div><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carl-Hitchens/288179261200404" rel="nofollow" style="color: #234786; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carl-Hitchens/288179261200404</a></div><div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-14865249315709570172012-02-07T07:15:00.000-05:002012-02-07T07:15:29.413-05:00Indie Insider - E. W. Saloka<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XhNYpl_WFec/TuThMa0R0zI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/J1HqGlAAjWc/s1600/cover1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XhNYpl_WFec/TuThMa0R0zI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/J1HqGlAAjWc/s320/cover1.jpg" width="231" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>What is the best way to create tension?<br />
<br />
We like to create subtle tension, a raised eyebrow, muscles in the jaw twitching and .realistic dialogue within the action scenes. By shortening the words and sentences you also increase tension, short sentences make the scene more suspenseful. <br />
<br />
<br />
Do people judge a book by it’s cover? Who makes yours?<br />
<br />
I believe you should be able to have an idea about the story by looking at the cover. The author has done his job well if his potential reader is already interested. Our son Ian did the cover for this book. His illustrative style and color pallet sets the tone in the readers’ “minds-eye”. <br />
<br />
<br />
What are the best ways to ‘show’ and not ‘tell’?<br />
<br />
By providing emotional language and descriptive details, you bring the story to life. Once you provide this the reader experiences, what the writer intended when envisioning the story. Engaging all the senses truly brings the reader into the author’s world and that connection is vital.<br />
<br />
<br />
How many books do you produce a year? Are you meeting your goal? <br />
<br />
This is our first book in the series, released August 2011. As we’re finishing the second book in the series, there are a few children’s books we want to publish in the next year. With our busy family and time, issues I would say were just about where we should be.<br />
<br />
<br />
How many words do you produce a day? Do you have a daily quota to fill?<br />
<br />
The creative process for us is something we cannot put a number to, we’re either writing or brainstorming, then we come together. It is probably more complicated this way as we have two different viewpoints. We have to blend our two styles and this takes time. The finished result can be surprising giving thus a fresh twist to our working process.<br />
<br />
<br />
What is your greatest challenge as an author?<br />
<br />
We are finding that the writer needs to be quite savvy in all things technical, also marketing has it’s challenges with the time and research required.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f1WzIcXIy_w/TuThVit-hwI/AAAAAAAAAWY/I9fWkyGb2X0/s1600/E.W.Saloka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f1WzIcXIy_w/TuThVit-hwI/AAAAAAAAAWY/I9fWkyGb2X0/s1600/E.W.Saloka.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><br />
Do you use a professional editor, critique partners, or beta readers? Briefly describe your process.<br />
<br />
W. is the proof reader , he easily takes on this job and critiques every word we write I have a beta reader for the next book in our series. It just seems like this would be good too, although I cannot imagine anyone being tougher than W. He’s brutal!<br />
<br />
<br />
What is you favorite part of the whole process? (Besides receiving a check or 5 star review!)<br />
<br />
We like putting our characters out there and giving them to the world, its fun and frightening at the same time. We hope readers will find a place for them in their hearts and that will bring it all full circle.<br />
<br />
<br />
What are three web sites or blogs that you can recommend? (related to writing etc.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.thecreativepenn.com/">http://www.thecreativepenn.com/</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/">http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles">http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Is there anything else you would like to share?<br />
<br />
W. and I really enjoyed writing our first book. It was such a joy bringing our characters to life in our story. My husband is quite an accomplished sculptor and we have a great collectible line to accompany our book. It really brings you into living our kingdom. This is a little new for us but we have risen to the challenge of being indie authors by learning all that we can from the seasoned authors that have taken the plunge before us. I love their stories and their attitudes and I am inclined to believe that we just may have the stuff to make it through the long haul, thick skins and all that.<br />
<br />
Every day brings something new for both of us. At this time instead of reading much fiction I have been reading writing blogs and belong to a few writing groups but it’s still a thrill to find a great book and immerse myself in that world for just a while. <br />
<br />
Thanks for letting us visit, we appreciate the opportunity..<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Volumes-Silver-Leaf-ebook/dp/B005I5W4PQ">http://www.amazon.com/Volumes-Silver-Leaf-ebook/dp/B005I5W4PQ</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/EWSaloka">http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/EWSaloka</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://ewsaloka.com/">http://ewsaloka.com</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/EW-Saloka/128373993926004">http://www.facebook.com/pages/EW-Saloka/128373993926004</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/silverleaf02">http://twitter.com/#!/silverleaf02</a><br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-24399477360512063902012-02-02T10:33:00.000-05:002012-02-02T10:33:26.890-05:00Bestseller For A Day - 8 Hearts Beat As One!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Beat-As-One-ebook/dp/B00740OSX4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328196207&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nGjSS-CuIZY/Tyqp05GpMyI/AAAAAAAAAb0/DgjyX6O9TNc/s320/8+Hearts+Final+copy.jpg" width="238" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Beat-As-One-ebook/dp/B00740OSX4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328196207&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: magenta;">8 Hearts Beat As One</span></a></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div></div>“This Valentine’s Anthology has everything! A romance to make you laugh, cry and grip the edge of your seat. Satisfied all of our reading needs!”<br />
~Your Need To Read<br />
<br />
~~~~<br />
Eight tantalizing stories under one cover:<br />
<br />
A bomb raid isn’t exactly the romantic proposal he had planned, but if they survive, he’ll make her happy ‘til the end of time.<br />
<br />
A cupid trying to shave off a few years of her sentence. Oops, speed dating is a disaster.<br />
<br />
All she wants is a second date. Too bad her mouth gets in the way.<br />
<br />
Can a haunted guitar bring two damaged souls together or will fate stop the music?<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: magenta;">Each story will weave its way into your heart!</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Beat-As-One-ebook/dp/B00740OSX4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328196207&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KMUw2D4ihdg/TyqqAe1K1SI/AAAAAAAAAb8/V5m0U2jqmrk/s320/BFAD-8Hearts.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><br />
What are reviewers saying about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Beat-As-One-ebook/dp/B00740OSX4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328196207&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: magenta;">8 Hearts Beat As One</span></a>? See for yourself:<br />
<br />
"This Valentine’s Anthology has everything! A romance to make you laugh, cry and grip the edge of your seat. Satisfied all of our reading needs!”<br />
<b>~Your Need To Read, Reviewer</b><br />
<br />
"An amazing compilation of breathtaking romance stories that will leave you wanting more. We look forward to the stories that held promises of a sequel."<br />
<b>~ParaYourNormal, Reviewer</b><br />
<br />
This February, to celebrate our 1st Birthday we are offering 8 Hearts Beat As One for <b>FREE</b>. Eight Valentine’s Day themed reads ranging from action packed to sigh out loud romance.<br />
<br />
Just grab <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: magenta;">“8 Hearts Beat As One”</span> at the free promotional price, send a friend who you know would love finding a fun, fast-paced read for free and grab the <b>4 Free Bonus Reads</b> that are the perfect companion to this Valentine’s Day themed anthology.<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-89057925239276322742012-01-27T13:44:00.000-05:002012-01-27T13:44:27.442-05:00Last Day To Get Loaded!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z5pMbsc3s_w/TyLshuNXo1I/AAAAAAAAAbk/jKq3DmF1O14/s1600/secrets-guardian-trilogy-liz-schulte1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z5pMbsc3s_w/TyLshuNXo1I/AAAAAAAAAbk/jKq3DmF1O14/s1600/secrets-guardian-trilogy-liz-schulte1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>It’s Day 5 and the last day of the <a href="http://www.indiebookcollective.com/">Indie Book Collective's </a>Blog Tour de Force GET LOADED tour!<br />
<br />
Did you have a blast at Sherry Roberts’ blog? We certainly did! Although we’re sad this is the last day of the your, you shouldn’t be. Each day gets you one step closer to winning a BRAND NEW Kindle!<br />
<br />
Have you gotten all the previous clues for the Scavenger Hunt? If not, they’ll be here all weekend for you to get caught up.<br />
<br />
Each correct answer gets you another entry into the #FREE Kindle drawing! So keep hunting!<br />
<br />
Now let’s load up that Kindle with another awesome book!<br />
<br />
Today’s stop is with paranormal romance author, <a href="http://www.lizschulte.com/">Liz Schulte</a>.<br />
<br />
Her book, Secrets (Guardian Trilogy: Book 1) is a beautifully constructed masterpiece that will keep your heart pumping until the very last word.<br />
<br />
Secrets is the story of Olivia Martin who observes life through her camera and discovers mysterious men follow her around, people close to her are dying, and her dreams are no longer her own as she falls head over heels for a perfect stranger.<br />
<br />
Stop by<a href="http://www.lizschulte.com/"> Liz’s blog</a> today to learn more about Secrets and the rest of the Guardian Triology! Comment and get an entry into our Kindle drawing and a chance to win some really cool prizes.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here’s our lineup this week. Visit all five authors to score some incredible books!<br />
<br />
January 23 A Hustler’s Promise by Jackie Chanel<br />
<br />
January 24 Neiko’s Five Land Adventure by AK Taylor<br />
<br />
January 25 ANEW by Chelsea Fine<br />
<br />
January 26 Book of Mercy by <a href="http://sherry-roberts.com/">Sherry Roberts</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MrzwkpF4aGI/TyLsjE3FzaI/AAAAAAAAAbs/N8GpCy3Iq34/s1600/bookofmercy-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MrzwkpF4aGI/TyLsjE3FzaI/AAAAAAAAAbs/N8GpCy3Iq34/s1600/bookofmercy-cover.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<br />
January 27 Secrets (Guardian Trilogy: Book 1) by Liz Schulte<br />
<br />
<br />
Today’s Clues…<br />
<br />
What’s the name of Liz Schulte’s first book?<br />
What would Liz’s fortune telling alias be?<br />
What are the two things Liz loves most about the television show Justified.<br />
What is the main character in Secret’s name?<br />
What is the first line of the Secrets book trailer? <br />
Remember to keep track of the clues and email your answers at the end of the tour to blogtourdeforce@gmail.com to get additional Kindle give away entries.<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-18964575976811056322012-01-24T11:52:00.000-05:002012-01-24T11:52:13.111-05:00Get Loaded Day Two!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ogaoNfPn5aQ/Tx7gam8tXBI/AAAAAAAAAbU/_rbYkwKdGU4/s1600/neikosfivelandadventure-aktaylor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ogaoNfPn5aQ/Tx7gam8tXBI/AAAAAAAAAbU/_rbYkwKdGU4/s1600/neikosfivelandadventure-aktaylor.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>It’s Day 2 of our GET LOADED tour!<br />
<br />
Hope you had fun yesterday at Jackie Chanel’s blog. Don’t forget to check back here every day this week for the Scavenger Hunt clues.<br />
<br />
Each correct answer gets you another entry into the #FREE Kindle drawing!<br />
<br />
Now it’s time to Get loaded!<br />
<br />
Today's stop will take you on a fantasy ride with YA Fantasy author, <a href="http://backwoodsauthor.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">AK Taylor.</a><br />
<br />
Her debut novel, Neiko's Five Land Adventure is a spine-chilling adventure-packed tale that will have you turning page after page!<br />
<br />
Neiko finds out that a land she thought she had only imagined is actually real and contains a legendary and otherworldly evil within it. Not only that, she becomes trapped there and must escape the world, the people within it, and the sinister evil within. Sounds good, doesn’t it?<br />
<br />
Stop by AK Taylor's <a href="http://backwoodsauthor.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">blog</a> today! Comment and get an entry into our Kindle drawing and a chance to win some really cool prizes.<br />
<br />
<br />
Load up your Kindle with books from our dynamic authors this week:<br />
<br />
January 23 A Hustler’s Promise by <a href="http://www.jackie-chanel.com/">Jackie Chanel</a><br />
<br />
January 24 Neiko’s Five Land Adventure by <a href="http://backwoodsauthor.wordpress.com/">AK Taylor</a><br />
<br />
January 25 ANEW by Chelsea Fine<br />
<br />
January 26 Book of Mercy by Sherry Roberts<br />
<br />
January 27 Secrets (Guardian Trilogy: Book 1) by Liz Schulte<br />
<br />
<br />
Today’s Clues…<br />
<br />
What occupation gives AK Taylor a ‘buzz’?<br />
In the interview with UL Harper, at what age did AK Taylor begin writing Neiko’s Five Land Adventure?<br />
What local newspaper did AK Taylor make front page news?<br />
What book reviewer gave Neiko’s Five Land Adventure an Award for being great for kids or adults who are big kids?<br />
For what age groups does AK Taylor write to?<br />
Remember to keep track of the clues and email your answers at the end of the tour to blogtourdeforce@gmail.com to get additional Kindle give away entries.<br />
<br />
<br />
Read an Indie Insider with AK Taylor <a href="http://www.indiewriterszone.com/2011/10/indie-insider-k-taylor.html">here.</a><br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8368548840491600355.post-64232449737886932302012-01-23T09:45:00.001-05:002012-01-23T09:51:11.256-05:00Blog Tour de Force - Get Loaded!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>BLOG TOUR DE FORCE is back!<br />
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It’s time to Get loaded!<br />
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Amazon sold a ka-jillion Kindles this holiday season and the Indie Book Collective is going to help you fill yours up!<br />
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You’ve waited months for this, and if you didn’t get a Kindle for Christmas…here’s your chance to WIN one!<br />
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How so?<br />
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Easy! You’ll get to meet five awesome authors, dig around on their blogs, read reviews of their books…PLUS every day, you’ll get clues to win a #FREEKINDLE.<br />
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Plus, these five authors are giving away Free (there’s that word again) copies of their books and super awesome PRIZES!<br />
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Be sure to check the <a href="http://indiebookcollective.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Indie Book Collective blog</a> daily for info and clues beginning today!<br />
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First up is <a href="http://www.jackie-chanel.com/" target="_blank">Jackie Chanel</a>, self certified word ninja with an affliction for #RealLifeRomance.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RHsijJnfto0/Tx1wtP6ygxI/AAAAAAAAAa4/zuVNYlKKlEc/s1600/a-hustlers-promise-final-600x900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RHsijJnfto0/Tx1wtP6ygxI/AAAAAAAAAa4/zuVNYlKKlEc/s1600/a-hustlers-promise-final-600x900.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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Her new release, A Hustler’s Promise is a drama filled, action packed novel about of two street hustlers, bound together by a simple promise who take to the streets as a modern day Bonnie and Clyde. The mean streets are calling as they protect their love, their family, and the promises they made to each other.<br />
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During Blog Tour de Force, there’s never a dull moment at <a href="http://www.jackie-chanel.com/" target="_blank">Jackie Chanel’s place.</a> Not only is she giving away free copies of A Hustler’s Promise, but she has a FABULOUS goodie bag for one lucky person.<br />
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All you have to do is stop by and leave a comment. Plus each comment gets you an entry into our Kindle giveaway.<br />
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Wait! There’s more!<br />
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Remember we said that you get to dig around the author’s blogs…yeah, we know you’re #nosy. Nosy is a good thing because each author has provided clues here that will help you win that Kindle. Every correct answer gets you another entry into the Kindle drawing!<br />
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Don’t worry. We did the math for you. That’s 25 additional entries! All you have to do is keep track of the clues and answers and email them indiebookibc@gmail.com at the end of the tour.<br />
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Simple right? Better yet…how fun is that?<br />
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Doesn’t get much easier.<br />
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We want YOU to read great books, learn about fabulous, fresh authors, and win FREE stuff!<br />
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It’s time to GET LOADED!<br />
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Visit all of our dynamic authors as follows:<br />
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January 23 A Hustler’s Promise by Jackie Chanel<br />
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January 24 Neiko’s Five Land Adventure by AK Taylor<br />
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January 25 ANEW by Chelsea Fine<br />
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January 26 Book of Mercy by Sherry Roberts<br />
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January 27 Secrets (Guardian Trilogy: Book 1) by Liz Schulte<br />
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Today’s Clues…<br />
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What are the three languages that Jackie Chanel is fluent in?<br />
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What is the name of Jackie’s next book?<br />
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What musician inspired the story of Untitled?<br />
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Jackie did a blog interview on October 16, 2011. What was the name of the blog?<br />
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What was the subject of Jackie Collin’s tweet to Jackie Chanel?<br />
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Remember to keep track of the clues and email your answers at the end of the tour to <a href="mailto:blogtourdeforce@gmail.com">blogtourdeforce@gmail.com</a> to get additional Kindle give away entries.<br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0