Lucky Sevens on Friday the 13th

I'm back! And I have good news! My husband Pat got a job! :D In other good news it's spring and I have the windows open. The breeze is blowing fresh air in and airing out my stuffy house. My kids are behaving themselves and it's Friday! Who could ask for anything more?

Well I probably could, but I'd be pressing my luck. A lot has gone on since I posted last. But before I get into that, let me take a moment to thank Rachel Sasseen (@stellamortis) for prompting me to get my blog back up and running. Monday Rachel tagged me and six other authors in a cool Twitter game called Lucky 7s. Here's how the game works:

Lucky Sevens

- Open the document for your current MS/WIP

- Go to page 7 or to page 77

- Go to line 7

- Copy the next 7 lines (sentences or paragraphs) and post them exactly as they are written. No changing or cheating!

- Tag 7 authors and let them know.

This sounded like fun, so I came to my blog to post it...and realized I hadn't posted here in four months, and I didn't really want to point people here when it was so neglected. So in-between my other projects this week I've slowly been getting my blog up to speed and now I think it's as good as it's going to get, for the moment. Getting back to the game, here are my results from page 7 of Mark of the Essence.

Solomon slammed his hand down on his wrench trying to get the last bolt to budge. But the heat in the store was making his palms sweaty and his hand slipped past the handle and slammed into the floor of the compartment. “Fate touched! That hurt!”

He rubbed his soar hand for a moment then glared at the offending wrench. He grabbed the handle and reefed on it as hard as he could, ignoring the pain from the exertion. The bolt started to budge and Solomon smiled. “Ha! That’ll teach you, you crappy malfunctioning piece of shit!”

You can (and should) read Rachel's results here. Hers are funny than mine.

What else has been going on? Oh!


In February we launched the First Annual Fantasy-Faction Anthology Writing Contest! Next year (2013), Fantasy-Faction will be publishing its first short story fantasy anthology. It will contain six to eight short stories by famous published authors + six stories by unknown authors. These six people will be our contest winners! And in addition to winning a spot in the anthology, the top three places also get a monetary prize as well! You can check out the rules and contest details here.

Speaking of contests, this month's Fantasy-Faction writing challenge is poetry.


Check it out here.

I've also officially signed up to go to Balticon and BookExpo America. I'm going to be going to NY Comic Con again this year, but I'm still waiting for the press pass option to open up.

There are a few more reviews in my review section. I'll be adding at least one more by the end of the month. I'm actually reading two books at the moment, so we'll have to see which one wins out.

There's probably more going on, but I can't think of anything else right this second. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Writing! :)

Title image by kameronelisabeth.

Back Again

I can't believe it's been almost a whole month since I last posted. Well I have good news. I finally finished the review for Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) I was working on! Yeah I know it took forever, but it's not because I wasn't working on it. I just couldn't get it right for some reason. But rather than explain it twice, I'll let you read it for yourselves.

On a ship in the ocean, bound for a faraway place, in search of an ancient magical gateway, a group of adventurers fight off a band of evil pirates and encounter a creature too terrible to exist in our world or theirs. In the ensuing battle with said beasty, an ancient tome is stolen and our heroes go boldly off to reclaim it! Well maybe not boldly, but they do go.

Who are these adventurers you ask? Well our heroic group consists of Lenk a young swordsman and the leader of the group, Kataria the elf-like shict an expert archer and tracker, Asper a priestess of Talanas the Healer, Dreadaeleon the wizard, Denaos a thief, and rounding out the party is Gariath the dragonman.

This might sound to you like a typical sword and sorcery novel or possibly even the plot of a Dungeons and Dragons one-shot campaign; however, nothing could be further from the truth.

If you’ve read any of my past reviews, you’ll notice that this one has a different format then the others. In my normal reviews, I try to write a three to four paragraph summary of the plot, roughly equivalent to what I would expect to see on the back of the book, then move on to how I liked or disliked the story. But this book stumped me. I couldn’t do a straight summary of the plot. All the ones I started looked just like the first couple of paragraphs above and made the story sound dull and flat. For weeks, I would go back and retry, looking at different angles, using different formats, but nothing sounded as good as the story actually was.

I’m happy to say I’ve finally figured out why. The story in Tome of the Undergates is not unique. The setup, the main plot, and even the villains’ motivations, are what you would call standard fantasy fare. Trying to make it sound otherwise just didn’t work. So what is it about this book that sets it apart and makes it something I would fully recommend you read? It’s the voices.

Both the author’s prose and the characters themselves have, without a doubt, some of the most unique voices I’ve ever read. The prose of the story is in one breath comical and humorous and in the next deep and solemn. And where the story may seem to be a rather typical adventure it is really a journey of lost souls, seeking meaning in a world where none of them truly belong. The plot of this book is really just a steady current that carries our heroes through their turbulent lives; forcing them to either go with the flow or stand against it, choosing their own fates instead of letting them be decided by others. There are also a lot of pee jokes. Hey, I said it was unique.

Each character while being a very typical trope was also a real person (or creature), not just a cardboard cutout glued flat to the page. Lenk, the fighter, is a true adventurer following wherever his path takes him and haunted (literally) by a past that set him on that path. Kataria is what the rest of the world would call a savage, yet she follows Lenk, partly to discover what it is about humans that make them so hated by her people and partly for reasons she doesn’t understand. Asper is trying to be true to her faith even while doubts of its validity continually bombard her. Gariath is an enigma and probably the deepest character in the story, but I don’t want to spoil too much and I think you get the idea. By the end of the story, each character is a fully fleshed out person (or humanoid) with just enough of their personal story left untold that you want to keep reading after the book is finished.

So the characters are all troubled souls, clinging to each other for support, right? No actually, they hate each other. They fight constantly, verbally and physically. Most don’t care if the rest live or die, as long as the others’ deaths don’t affect them personally. The dialog between them is one of my favorite parts of the book. Their snarkiness reminds me of the days all my guy friends invade my house and verbally beat on one another while playing games over chips and highly caffeinated soda.

For me this book works on so many different levels, it’s just too hard to explain it without giving too much away. And now I’m sure I’m beginning to sound little fangirlish, so let me step back and tell you what I didn’t like about the book. I could tell even before I finished, that this story would not be for everyone. I do think the beginning was a bit slow, and if you don’t like the fact that the characters are constantly arguing then the first part might be hard to get through. I also didn’t like the fact that the point of view switched back and forth between characters without any warning. That made it a little hard to follow in a couple spots, but once you get the feel of the writing, it does get easier to keep track of whose point of view you’re in.

Okay, so what do I think overall? Well, overall, I think the book was excellent. It really had everything I look for in a fantasy novel: a good (if simple) story, excellent characters, funny dialog, great prose, and a lot more heart than you’d expect from a book with this many fart jokes. And I as soon as I can get my hands on the sequel I am definitely picking it up.

Sam Sykes’s Tome of the Undergates and its sequel Black Halo are available now. The third installment of The Aeons’ Gate series, The Skybound Sea, is still in the works. (There was a progress chart on his blog, but it was too complex for me to decipher.) ;)

For disclosure purposes, I won a copy of Tome of the Undergates from the author in a Twitter contest, but chose to review it on my own. Winning the book did not influence my opinion in this review.

I also finished editing my story, again. This time I really like how it came out. I fixed the part at the beginning that was bugging me and did a couple other tweaks that made a big difference. I still haven't started my synopsis, but it's been a bit crazed here lately. Mostly due to my husband still being out of work and the fact that NY Comic Con is rapidly approaching.

Did I tell you I was going to Comic Con yet? Well, I'm going to Comic Con, as press! I can't wait! This will be my first geek con. I went to a couple gift shows when I managed a candle/gift shop at the mall and went to a food show while I was going to school to be a chef. Never got to go as press before though, so it should be a blast! I'll do another post about this next week, when I have all the details set up.

Also lots of writerly things happening on Fantasy-Faction. We have a spooky forest short story contest going among other things. Check out my article about it here!


Right I think that's it for the moment. I'll try not to disappear for so long this time.

Happy Writing! And Happy Reading!

Catching Up

Well a bunch of stuff happened recently and of course I didn't post about it. But as part of my new plan to organize my life better, I'm going to start blogging once a week. I'm even writing it on my calender!

So what did you miss?

Well first of all, I finished reading and reviewing the ARC of Hard Spell that I won from Angry Robot Books. Good, fun read!

Stan Markowski is a detective in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Like many normal detectives he has a partner, drives an unmarked car, and carries a gun. A gun loaded with silver bullets blessed by a priest. Okay maybe that’s where the similarities end. You see, Detective Markowski works in the Occult Crime Unit. Not that such a thing is unusual these days. After all, the undead are people too. And werewolves and witches have the same rights as everyone else, it’s just their cases sometimes need to be handled a bit…differently.

When an ancient magical tome is stolen, different is just what the town of Scranton gets. A serial killer is on the loose! A serial killer who just happens to be offing vampires. Are the two crimes related? Could the thief possibly be trying to revive some great evil and end the world as we know it using the missing book?

The facts point to probably, but the supernatural community is scared, and the answers to Stan’s questions seem harder to find than a witch at Christmas mass. And while tracking vampire killers, demon summoners, possessed women, and radical cult members is in the job description, generally Stan isn’t called on to do all of them at once. But with the help of his new partner Karl and a shady-looking gentleman named Vollman, Stan attempts to unwind the mystery and stop the killer before he (or she) can accomplish their evil task. Hopefully without getting himself killed in the process.

* * * * * * * * * *
Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis is the first book in the Occult Crimes Unit Investigation series. Its first person narrative follows Detective Stan Markowski as he and his partner Karl Renfer try to solve a series of gruesome murders.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book as I knew nothing about it until I received it in the mail (I won it in a contest done by the publisher, Angry Robot Books). The back blurb reminded me of the old cop series my sister and I used to watch on TV growing up and the story itself did not disappoint.

The setting for the story is an alternate version of present day. In the book’s altered history, supernatural elements from Europe (i.e. werewolves, vampires, and ghouls) were brought back to the States after World War II. While initially despised, supernaturals, or supes, were eventually granted equal rights with humans during the American Civil Rights movement. Now supes are everywhere, and just like humans some are law-abiding citizens and some are, well, less law-abiding.

Stan Markowski is the typical hard-boiled detective whose job is working on cases where either the suspect or the victim is a supe. He’s good at his job and bad at dealing with his family. He has skeletons in his closet, but is trying to do the right things in life. He’s not a super-genius but he is very streetwise and always knows when he’s in over his head, even if it’s too late to do anything about it. And in this world were goblins do meth and True Blood is a documentary, Stan is just trying to keep his town safe and do his best to keep his partner and himself alive one more night.

This was a really fun story to read. It wasn’t very deep and if you ever seriously watched cop shows on TV there won’t be a lot of surprises. But the whole concept of a world where you call 911 in case of emergency and 666 in case of a supernatural emergency is just cool in my mind. My favorite thing about this story is its flavor. Unlike some of the other urban fantasy I’ve read, this is a place where otherworldly things are no longer mystical and seeing a werewolf at the grocery store is something that most people take for granted. Overall it was an interesting take on the genre and fun read if you like cop/detective serials. And for myself, I will definitely be picking up book two!

Hard Spell is due out in the US on July 26th and is available now in the UK and in ebook format. The sequel, Evil Dark, will be available in April 2012.

For disclosure purposes, I won an ARC copy of Hard Spell from the publisher in a giveaway contest, but chose to review it on my own. Winning the book did not influence my opinion in this review.

What else? Oh!

I did a guest post on Amy Saunders' (@amy_saunders on Twitter) blog Amy & The Pen, about how writing changes the way you read. It was the first time I ever guest blogged for someone, and it was a lot of fun! You can see the blog post here. :)

Also there's a lot of stuff going on at Fantasy-Faction! There's a new writing challenge for July, which I may or may not have posted about already. This month's theme is freedom.


We have a bunch of entries so far. I'm still trying to decided what I want to write. I will probably end up rushing around on the last day trying to get something together again. I'm not very good at planning ahead (see the needing to get organized bit above).

There is also a new writing group on the forums called the 500 Word Club. Basically you pledge to write 500 words a day of your novel starting on August 1st. If you can keep it up for the whole year, then next summer you will have a completed your first draft! Here's the article our esteemed Overlord wrote up about it. And here is the thread where we will be egging each other on!

And last but not least, the site owner Marc Aplin (Overlord on Fantasy-Faction and @FantasyFaction on Twitter) has finally announced the soon to be implemented site overhaul! Lots of cool things coming including a podcast, YouTube site, and a Fantasy-Faction anthology! There are also two new members of the Fantasy-Faction staff: Paul Wiseall (@PaulWiseall on Twitter) who will be helping Marc run the site and create new content (such as the podcast) and myself (Autumn2May almost everywhere) who will be the new assistant-editor! We are all very excited about the new things to come and are very happy with how the website has grown in only the last 8 months. Hopefully it will continue to grow and we will be able to bring you even more awesome fantasy content!

Hmm...I thought there was one more thing...

Oh yeah! I won another book in a Twitter contest! I will soon be receiving Sam Sykes' (@SamSykesSwears on Twitter) Tome of the Undergates in the mail, which has been getting rave reviews on Fantasy-Faction! I can't wait to read it!

That's it for now. Promise I'll have another post up next week, which hopefully will include a review of Shadow Fox by Ashley Barnard (@wckdwriter on Twitter)!

Happy Writing! :)

Fine Art Print by irenesuchocki

New Books! :D

This has been a good book month! I have so far won three contests for free books! :D I won two ebooks from Lindsay Buroker (@GoblinWriter on Twitter): The Emperor’s Edge & Dark Currents! I won an ebook of Soul Born by Kevin James Breaux (@KevinBreaux on Twitter) in the Fantasy-Faction forums!

And also I won an ARC of Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis in an Angry Robot Books contest! Which is great because my husband stole my Kindle to read the Dresden Files.

My new shiny book!

On top of that, Ashley Barnard (@wckdwriter on Twitter) was kind enough to send me an ecopy of her book Shadow Fox to review!

I am a happy book monkey! Now I just have to find time to read and review them all. Looks like I'm going to have a very busy July! :)

Oops!

I almost forgot! In and amongst all the bad news I had a bit of good news! I won the April Writing Challenge on Fantasy Faction! :D The theme was spring inspired. The story also had to include themes of hope and warmth. The story I entered is actually based in the world I'm writing my books in, but is set hundreds of years earlier. You can see all the entries here. And here's the piece I entered.

Mela stood on the edge of the massive plateau staring out at the dark horizon. The ground far below appeared flat and even, but the sound of breaking waves in the distance broke the illusion. The sun would rise soon over the water and send its golden light into world once again. And Mela would be there to see it. Mela had to see it.

The cold wind whipped past her into the ancient forest at her back. The first birds were already awake and gracing the trees with their sweet songs. Mela heard something scurry into a bush at her side, but she didn’t turn to investigate. The sky fey, Sunil, had told her to watch as he left and to continue watching until the first rays of sun breached the surface of the ocean. Mela had been standing rooted to her spot for hours, determined to finish the last wish of her former master.

Another gust of wind blew up from the Flatlands brushing a tear from her eye and tossing her dark hair about her shoulders. The wind didn’t seem to care that the fey were gone. Neither did the forest or the birds. Mela brushed the cold tear from her cheek and added a ragged sigh to the twisting breeze.

“No one cares,” Mela said still staring at the horizon, “that’s why they left. People think they have no use for essence magic; they’d rather rely on technology to save them. But wild, untended magic is a dangerous thing, and the only beings who knew its secrets have finally abandoned humanity. We are lost, and yet the wind continues to blow and the birds continue to sing, as if nothing has changed; as if we can carry on without them.”

Sunil hadn’t told Mela why she must watch the sunrise. He hadn’t told her where the fey were going or what she was to do now that they’d left. Part of her hoped the sun’s light would cut through her body like Sunil’s last words had done. That the first light of spring would be the last she’d ever see, and that her spirit would stay forever watching the horizon and waiting for the fey to return.

The thought sent a shiver down her spine. Mela shifted her feet and felt the frost covered grass crunch under her boots. It was cold and her mind’s wanderings weren’t helping her repel the icy air. She rubbed her arms to warm herself, but the wind bit through her shirt as if trying to thwart her efforts.

The sky was starting to lighten and Mela could just make out the waves of the sea crashing against the sandy shore. She had thought that she would be too far off to smell the salt air, but even at this great distance she could hear the rhythmic crashing of the waves and the smell of the ocean drifting up the side of the plateau, giving the forest an otherworldly feel. It seemed the lighter the sky became the more clearly she could sense the ocean. The sounds and smells of the sea mixed with the deep earthy tones of the forest were tossed together by the ever present breeze. Mela had the urge to close her eyes and take in the sensations without the distraction of the view. But Sunil had given her an order and she could not tarnish his memory by disobeying him. So she waited; for the sun, for spring, and to complete her final task.

“How can I go on without my master? Without the essence?” Mela thought, as another tear rolled down her cheek. “My whole life was learning the balance and understanding the ways of magic and the fey and how to use it to help my people. Now I have nothing. Nothing but the sunrise and the wind.”

As if in answer, the wind blew straight up from the cliff face, startling Mela from her thoughts. She almost looked down to see where the wind had come from, but stopped herself just in time.

“You won’t distract me from my task,” Mela said to the breeze. “You are a trickster, but I won’t be fooled by you. The essence of the wind has no power over me. Go bother someone else!”

One last gust of wind blew past Mela into the woods and then the breeze fell silent. The whole world suddenly seemed tense as if the forest itself was holding its breath. Then a small bit of the horizon sprung to life and the golden rays of spring’s first sun leapt up from the sea into the sky. The light was blinding and Mela had to concentrate to keep from blinking. She took a single step forward and recited the verse Sunil had taught her.

“The sun has risen from the depths and touched the sea and sky. And with this I give one last breath and bid the fey goodbye. We stand alone to keep the day and push away the night. Grant us one last boon oh sun and bless us with your light.”

With that Mela closed her eyes, letting the warmth of the sun cover her face and chase all traces of winter from the air around her. She realized quickly that the warmth she was feeling was far greater than it should have been. And that the heat seemed to be coming not from the sun before her but from inside her very being! She opened her eyes and saw the world covered in the glow of magic; essence floating out of the forest and into the sky before her carried by the playful breeze. Sunil had not abandoned her completely; he’d given her a parting gift. He’d given her the gift of magic!

Mela took one last look at the rising sun, and then collapsed to her knees with a great sigh of relief. She would continue in her master’s footsteps and would save her people from the world and themselves. She again had a purpose, a link to the essence, and more importantly she again had hope. Smiling Mela picked up a dried leaf and let the wind carry it from her hand, watching as the blue-green essence magic blew it off into the distance, over Flatlands and into the sea beyond.

There were some really great entries in April, so I was happily surprised that I won. I'm thinking of entering this month's contest as well. This month's theme is storms! You can check out the specifics here if you're interested in entering. This months contest runs till June 30th. All you need to enter is a Fantasy-Faction account, and if you don't have one, it's free to sign up!

Well that's it for now! I'll try to remember to be back soon! ;)

Have a great day! :)

My First Review!

Once again I have come to this input screen without re-reading my previous posts. Apparently I have no long or short term memory to speak of. Anyway, if I mentioned this before, just pretend you didn't hear it yet.

I belong to a fantasy website called Fantasy-Faction. They have an awesome forum and do article and book reviews on all things fantasy. At the beginning of February the man in charge put out a call for people to write up reviews and articles for the site, so he didn't have to do all of it himself. I was one of the people lucky enough to get picked! So now, once a month or so, I'll be writing a book review for the site. And my first review just went live today! I reviewed Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher.

A single grain of sand can tip the scale. A single beat of a butterfly’s wings can add just enough wind to create a tempest. And the single action of one boy can change the fate of his homeland forever. Of course, that’s not what Tavi was thinking about when he shirked off his responsibilities for the evening to collect flowers at the request of the most beautiful girl in Bernardholt. But even as the ‘yes’ left his lips, the wheels of fate were already turning, propelling him forward towards a greater adventure then he could ever have imagined.

Tavi’s grandest hope for his future was simply to attend The Academy and make something of himself using his brains and wits. No one in Calderon Valley thought he would ever amount to anything. He was fifteen years old and still had no furies of his own. His aunt had a water fury and his uncle had both a wood and an earth fury. Even their simpleton slave Fade had a metal fury and some capacity to use it. But he would show them he could do great things even without an elemental fury helping him, if only he was given the chance.

However, there are consequences for every action, and his uncle’s anger for this one irresponsible act could ruin Tavi’s chances of ever leaving the valley. But how could Tavi have known the trouble that finding the sheep the next day would cause? How could he have known the great plans he was about to disrupt and the powerful eyes that would soon be focusing in on only him?

No one was supposed to be that deep in the pine hallows that day. No one was supposed to see the single Marat warrior that had crossed through the pass into the valley. And no one should have been able to escape him even if they had. However, as Tavi was about to learn, the simplest choices can have far reaching effects, and even a simple ‘yes’ can change history.

* * * * *
This was an interesting book. The plot, while not complicated, was good and the world was typical high fantasy, with just enough uniqueness to make it interesting. But the thing that made this story so hard to put down was the characters. Each person, no matter how small their roll seemed at first, had a greater purpose and their own unique challenges to overcome. They struggled through their normal lives, then when trouble came they faced danger and hardship as best they could, striving to rise above the everyday and reach their goals no matter the odds. And while most stories focus on some highly talented or gifted person destined to bring about great change in their world, the main character in this story was just the opposite.

Not only was Tavi young and inexperienced, he was also the only person in remembered history to not have an elemental fury companion. He was, as far as everyone around him was concerned, completely helpless, someone to be pitied and protected. Definitely not the type of person who normally sets off on a quest to save his homeland, or at least not the type that does so and returns to tell the tale. But it’s always more fun to root for the underdog. While he doesn’t possess the same gifts as everyone else, he still shows time and time again how a little courage and some thinking on your feet can make up for a lot in life. And unlike other books where the main character starts off magicless then awakens during story, Tavi stays furyless for the whole book. That somehow makes him even more appealing as a main character, because it’s easier to relate to him and makes his triumphs that much more triumphant!

The magic system in the story is also very interesting. It consists of spirits called furies, elemental beings of earth, fire, water, air, wood, and metal. They can affect objects of their specific element, giving the owners of air furies the ability of flight or the owners of earth furies the abilities to shape and move stone. Everyone at some point in their early teens or younger becomes bonded with at least one of these other-worldly creatures. Well, every human does anyway. The warrior tribes of the Marat that live just outside the Calderon valley do not have furies. They instead have animal totems, great beasts that they commune and speak with as brothers and sisters. They are not really human, and as such are treated like wild savages by the people of the valley, who drove them out just over fifteen years before the story begins. It is this tension between the Marat and the humans that threatens to erupt the entire valley into war.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars, mostly because of the wonderful characters and how easy it was to keep reading about them. They could grab you enough to keep reading in just a few short sentences and not let you go again for chapters and chapters. But by the end of the story it still had not reached 5 star status, simply because not a lot happened in this book. Sure it was 500+ pages long and I would have kept reading past that if it had been longer. And there was plenty going on, lots of danger and intrigue, but the plot portion of the book was very short and you get to the end of the book with a lot of, well, loose ends left. Now granted, this is the first in a series and I am definitely going to read the rest of it, but as a stand-alone book it’s just a little light on plot. But I think if you like character-driven stories and high fantasy; this would be a good book to try. I also have it on good authority that the next few books in the series are just as good, if not better then the first, but that’s a story for another day.

I'm not sure what I'm going to review next, but I'll let you know when I've decided. You can see my review on Fantasy-Faction here. There are also a bunch of other amazingly cool articles on the site, and I suggest you check them out!

In other news, I didn't make it to the second round in the Amazon contest. I was bummed at first, but I'm cool with it now. There were so many other amazing entries with ridiculously good pitches that I'm not really surprised I didn't make it. And since all they looked at was my pitch it didn't really upset me as much as if they had rejected my actual story.

Since I'm now on my own again as it were, I've started re-editing my first book. I just can't seem to leave well enough alone. I have ulterior motives this time though. I wanted to re-read it to get back into the flow of writing and even out my prose a bit (still too many adverbs).

And I still don't know how the whole story ends, but I have decided to keep the two books separate for the moment. I only split them originally because of the word limit in the contest, but I really do like the way the first book ends and the way the second book begins. So unless the story ends much sooner then I think it will, I'm going to keep them separate. The way it's looking at the moment I'm going to be running this story into a third book anyway.

That's my life at present. I have to make a decision in the near future as to what exactly I'm doing with these books when they're done. Self-publish? Submit some queries? I have no idea. Any of my readers out there have any experience and/or suggestions on the matter? All help would by much appreciated!

Have a great day! :)

Well That Would Have Been Nice To Know...

If read my last post you'll know that I stayed up till ungodly hours of the morning formatting and editing my story so I could enter it in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. I was and am very happy I got it done on time. However, it turns out that after you submitted your work you can still edit your document until the contest submission period closes. So really, I didn't have to rush like a crazy person to get it done. I had two more weeks to play with it once it was entered.

::sigh::

Oh well, if I had waited and given myself more time then the contest would probably have filled up then I would have been really annoyed!

The nice part about this realization was since I was able to go back and edit it, I was able to do one last leisurely readthrough. Now I thought I'd taken out a lot of adverbs and unnecessary words during the first edit, but apparently not. My husband has jokingly dubbed me the Queen of Adverbs and Monarch of Commas. I think I reduced my document by over 100 words just be removing slightlys and quietlys!

I am now REALLY glad I got to do one last edit as I'm sure this story would NOT have made it past the second cut with all those adverbs! And now that I know I add them too often, I can be more careful when I'm working on the second book.

I read an article someone posted on Twitter, which I unfortunately didn't save, about how every author has one thing they repeat in their writing that they shouldn't. The article's author's problem was repeating lists of three things, like "It was old, gold, and cold." I now know that no matter how good it sounds in my head, adding slightly to almost every verb is NOT the way to go.

Do you have a quirk that you've noticed in your writing that you usually end up cutting out come editing time? Let me know in the comments.

Have a great day! :)

Comma Print by papergangsterprints

Done!

Phew! I finished! Between my husband and I, we got my first book done and edited in time to enter the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest! And I only had to stay up till 3:30 in the morning last night to get it done! In other news I am VERY tired this morning.

I don't know if I'll win, but I hope I at least past the first cut. If you're not familiar with the contest, it has four parts. The contest starts with 10,000 entries: 5,000 in general fiction and 5,000 in YA fiction. For the first stage the only thing the judges look at is your 300 word (or less) pitch. In the second stage they only get to see a 3,000 to 5,000 word excerpt from the beginning of the book. And if you make it to stage three, they read your whole novel. I'd love to get to round three, but I'd be happy with making it through round one.

I had a whole bunch of people help me with my pitch. And without their help I would not have been able to enter at all. So a giant thank you to all my Twitter buddies, with a special shout out to BethHautala for sending me some really in depth critiques. Also my NaNoWriMo friends on the Central Jersey forum, and everyone on the Amazon Breakthrough Novel boards who were willing to give my pitch a look see. Thanks everyone! Here's the pitch I submitted for the contest:

All Genevieve wanted that night was to make a quick trip to the grocer’s and have a nice quiet dinner at home. Equipped with coupons, she made her way to a new store, intent on picking up some cheap produce.

What she got instead was a trip into another dimension.

In this bleak, futuristic world, each person's fate is determined at birth and marked on their skin for all to see. But as strange as this new world seems, Genevieve feels oddly connected to it. And the more answers she unravels the more questions arise. When she finds herself caught in the center of the kingdom’s biggest mystery, the questions of ‘how did I get here’ and ‘how do I get home’ take a back seat to her own survival.

The Essence Heart, the kingdom’s missing royal mystic, has been sighted almost twenty-six years after she first disappeared. Both the King and a secretive organization known as the Resistance are rushing to locate her, for whoever controls the Essence Heart controls the kingdom. Although Genevieve’s birthmark does resemble the missing woman’s, she can’t imagine how a girl from the real world could have anything to do with this place of mystery and magic. But whether this is a case of mistaken identity or not, both groups seem intent on trying to capture her.

She enlists the help of a seedy shopkeeper and his fortune-telling sister to help her discover the answers she seeks. But can she stay free long enough to find a way home? And when she finds it, will she really want to leave?

MARK OF THE ESSENCE HEART is a 98,000-word epic fantasy novel set in a world of magic and high technology.

I also posted the first chapter of my story here if you're interested in reading it.

Anyway, it's going to be a long wait to see if I make the first cut. Well, not that long, but it will seem long. So I'll be using that time to finish up the second half of the story (book two) which is half done at present.

And here I need to devote a separate paragraph to my husband, who actually went to work yesterday so he could sit in the quiet office and edit my store the whole day! I love you honey, you're the best!

Good luck to everyone who entered and thanks a million to everyone who helped me out!

Also if this entry seems to float around a bit, it's because I'm running on 3-1/2 hours of sleep. I promise I'll be more coherent next time. ;)

Cat Fine Art Print by eringarrisondesign

I Swear I'm Going To Finish This!

Only four more days until I need to be done with this story!

I did decide to split the story into two books. There was no way I would be able to edit it down to 150K words AND finish writing it in time. Now I just have to finish editing it, write my pitch and maybe figure out a title for it.

The pitch is hard. I didn't really expect that. But I did get a lot of awesome feedback from some of my Twitter friends. I'll post the finished pitch once it's, well, finished.

The thing that is really giving me trouble, and kind of came out of left field, is the title. Why can't I think of a good title for this book? I know the story, I know the themes, but I can't come up with a good title to save my life! My husband likes my working title, which is Tattoo. In the story everyone in the world is born with a tattoo that dictates what their future role in society will be. It's not a bad title, but since this is now two books instead of one, I have no idea what I would call the second one. Anyone else have this problem with their stories? It seems so silly that I wrote a whole book and now I'm having trouble naming it.

I guess I better get back to editing. My husband is going through and tracking changes, then I'm going back and fixing them. We are done with two chapters and have eighteen to go. This is going to be cutting it close!

Wish me luck! :)

Punctuation Earrings by nerdgoddess

Getting Nervous!

I don't think I mentioned this yet, but I am hoping to enter the novel I'm working on in a contest. There are only 5,000 entries accepted and the first day to submit is January 24th. The problem is I haven't finished the book yet! So I essentially have exactly two weeks to finish my story if I want to be absolutely sure I can enter this year! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Sorry, I'm better now.

Back in November when I started writing I figured I would be done with the story by the middle of December. Well, that didn't happen. I think I can do it, but it's going to be close!

And just finishing the story isn't really my only problem here. The other problem is to enter the contest it has to be less the 150K words. My story, if you noticed from my last post, is getting extremely close to that mark, and will be well over it by the time it's done. I think what I'm going to do for the contest is split the book into two books and just submit the first half. I'd rather not go that route, but I don't think I really have a choice in the matter. I do have a good place to split the story, but that does mean the first book in the series would end on kind of a cliffhanger. As a reader that would annoy me, but it would get me to buy the next book, so it might be a good thing as far as a publishing company is concerned, right?

We'll see how this whole thing ends up working out. :) I have no idea if I chance of winning or not, but I at least want to try. Wish me luck!


Word Count 135,440

Hard Drive Clock by TECOART