Storm of Blood on Amazon and a whole lot of links

Storm of Blood is on Amazon.com for 99c. This introductory offer will last for all of May, and then the price will go up.

Also, just a reminder that Storm of Blood can also be downloaded from Smashwords for free using the coupon code EA42K on check out. The coupon expires at the end of May.

The first several chapters are also available to read for free on Goodreads. Check it out if you’re not sure if you want to commit to a purchase. You can also read excerpts on Amazon and Smashwords before purchasing.

Currently Storm Front and The Archive of Lost Dreams are available for free on Smashwords and for 99c on Amazon. I am trying to make them available for free on Amazon as well, but the process and not easy and I beg for your patience in the matter. You can help by visiting their Amazon pages, scrolling down a bit to ‘tell us about a lower price’, and reporting they are available for free on some of the bigger sellers like Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Sony and Diesel. Here, I’ll even make it super easy by providing all the links:

Storm Front:

Amazon - currently 99c.

Free on:

Smashwords
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Diesel
Kobo

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The Archive of Lost Dreams:

Amazon - currently 99c.

Free on:

Smashwords
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Sony

As usual, The Edge of Darkness is 99c on Smashwords and Amazon.

Oops, I’ve Done It Again

Well, not so much ‘oops’ as ‘Hey there, loyal readers, would you like a new book?”

Today I hit ‘publish’ on both Amazon and Smashwords for my new young adult urban fantasy/paranormal novel ‘Storm of Blood’. As you may or may not know, it is the first full-length novel starring Tina Storm, my Australian teenage demon hunter who also appeared in the short story collection ‘Storm Front’ (available for free on Smashwords and hopefully soon to be free on Amazon)

Smashwords is available immediately, of course. Amazon will take about a day to show up on, and a bit longer for the international sites. Smashwords sites like Barnes and Noble and Diesel will be available in a few weeks. I’ll let you know when it’s available in your favourite format.

Here’s the link to the Smashwords site for Storm of Blood.

Also, Storm of Blood will be free on Smashwords until the end of May if you enter the following coupon during check-out:

EA42K

The coupon expires on May 31 2013, so if you’ve been waiting patiently for this novel now’s your chance to grab it in .mobi, Word, epub or whatever your favourite format is.

 

Storm of Blood Cover Reveal

Once upon a time I was contacted by a just starting out artist named Cameo Anderson who wanted to draw me some fan art of Tina Storm. I obliged, and you can see this work on art on my Fun Stuff page. After I saw what Cameo could do, I asked her to draw me some more artwork for use as covers.

Today, I am revealing the finished art work.

Ladies and gentlemen and kittens of all ages, I present to you:

Storm Front (Storm Force short stories)

 

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and

Storm of Blood (Storm Force #1)

Both of these covers are drawn by Cameo. Please support her by visiting:

http://www.wytheria.com/Cameo/ - Illustration portfolio
http://www.wytheria.com/sporepalace/ - writer’s blog/website
https://www.facebook.com/sporepalace?fref=ts - Facebook

Storm of Blood is on Goodreads!

Storm of Blood is on Goodreads!

Add it here.

Add iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!

I haven’t put the cover up yet because it’s not final. Also, I put the book on Goodreads because I have been tossing back and forth on whether or not I really want to publish it. Even after paying for custom cover art and editing. Why? Because I’m not sure I want to do this self-publishing thing anymore.

This way I HAVE to publish it. Because one of the things I hate is when self-published authors put their books on Goodreads then never publish them (for whatever reason ).

I will not be one of those people.

Storm of Blood is coming. Soon.

My Experience of Working with a Professional Copy Editor

• They will not change your voice.
• They will not improve the overall general standard of writing.
• What I mean by that is they will not comb through each sentence and rewrite it for you. If your writing is shit, it will still be shit. it will just be readable shit.
• They will catch the majority of typos and grammatical errors.
• They will fix your punctuation according to the accepted style.
• They will tell you when your sentence just sounds stupid.
• They will check to see how colloquial your slang is and if it is understandable.
• They will tell you to rewrite, but will not rewrite it for you.
• They will make sure you don’t use stupid speech tags (SORRY, K!).
• They will research the correct terminology and make sure you’re not saying something stupid and/or incorrect.
• They will laugh at unintended innuendos.
• They will tell you when you’re being cheesy.
• They will tell you when they want it to be better.
• They will teach you about your own weaknesses, but this does not mean that you won’t need an editor ever again.
• They will not be offended when you do not accept a change. After all, they are only advising you. You have the final say on your own product.

The Edge of Darkness Price Drop

I suppose now is as good a time as any to announce that The Edge of Darkness, my deep-space cyberpunk, has dropped to 99c across the board, on Smashwords and thus Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Sony, Diesel, and also on Amazon. It will be available at the cheaper price on the other Amazon stores sometime soon.

This price drop is permanent.

Unless of course, I change my mind.

Enjoy!

The Future

The future of this blog is uncertain. I haven’t blogged since November, and I simply don’t feel like blogging on it anymore. I don’t want to talk about my private life because I know there are creepy people stalking me out there who will use it against me, and let’s face it, I don’t find myself that interesting, anyway.

And I don’t want to talk about my writing, because after Storm of Blood comes out later this year and maybe gets a sequel, I won’t ever publish under this name again.

Why?

1) I hate that I’ve been naive enough to publish using my real name. I had no idea how hostile my little corner of the Internet would become.

2) There is always the possibility, as has happened in the past, that I will be ‘punished’ through my book’s ratings, for whatever reason (still trying to work that one out TBH).

3) I am going to take some time off to write several books I’ve been dying to get done. I may self-publish them, or I might seek an agent for traditional publishing, seeing as how my handful of queries in 2011 got me several requests for a previous manuscript.

4) Writing takes time and effort, and I don’t want to suddenly go, ‘How long has it been since I last blogged? What interesting crap can I come up with this time?’ I don’t want to be forced to blog just to keep an audience.

5) That previous story won’t ever be published, not even under a different name. It’s too easily identified and I’ve queried it in public contests. No, that series will stay just for me and my friends (and my craft).

Related articles

• On Never, Ever, Giving Up (chasingthecrazies.wordpress.com)

 

And Then It Happened

Well, that’s my NaNoWriMo over for the year.

My computer has died and there’s nothing I can do but wait until it can be fixed. It’s under warranty, but even so, this has definitely put an end to any writing aspirations I’ve had this month.

This may even push back my publishing deadline for Storm of Blood, especially if the computer doesn’t return to me quickly.

To the rest of you: good luck! I’ll be thinking of you as I see your word counts climb and cross the finish line.

Adios.

NaNoWriMo: Day 11

Day Eleven? Hah. Technically. This is only the second time I’ve sat down and actively written anything. The second time I have opened my veins and bled.

I miss it sometimes. I hate it sometimes. I don’t miss it when I’m not writing and when I am I love everything about it. All the ideas that come out of my head and flow past that (metaphorical) paper (as I write on a computer, not by hand). Some of the ideas catch, like twigs in a fast-flowing river. Others go on and are forgotten or dismissed to join up in some vast ocean of abandoned ideas.

What I liked best about my writing ‘session’ today is the secrets I unearthed about a secondary character. Things that I don’t know yet and my main character doesn’t know yet, but the seeds of the secrets, the promises that it will mean something further down the line.

I write to a plan, but only a very basic one. I have to see how the book will end – not necessarily the climax: I don’t have one yet, though I am rolling ideas around in my head. The climax for Storm of Blood did not come to me until well over half the book was written. I know how this book will end, so my job is to fill in all the other bits. Some of those bits are written down for guidance: basic ideas for fight scenes, some light romance, the overarching three-act plot. But it’s the little things that come out during the actual writing that I get excited about. The stuff you don’t plan.

My secondary character lives in a huge drab mansion that is grey and uninspiring on the outside and splashed with every colour paint on the inside. This character is obsessed with colour. Every room has a different colour theme, and the hallways leading to each room look like there’s been a paintball match held there. I don’t know why this character feels the need to decorate her house this way: I will find out later. In the meantime, my main character’s bedroom is just white. There’s no colour in there at all. That stands for her ‘blank slate’ of being, as she’s just moved to this city. If this was a film, maybe we’d get a montage of my character adding various decorations to the room to make it more colourful. Maybe my character is the kind of person who, because she feels she will only be there for a short time, she won’t decorate at all. I’ll find out later. The important thing is that I’ve set the seeds for these revelations. These unplanned tidbits will morph into something relevant, given time and attention and, hopefully, skill.

This is the beauty of writing. I don’t expect anyone to get as excited about it as I do, but that’s why I write.

NaNoWriMo Day Two: Just Do It

I can think of a million different reasons why I didn’t want to do NaNoWriMo this year. Well, not a million. Three at most.

1. My cat had to be put down literally only a few days ago. Big whoop, I know, she’s just an animal, blah blah blah. Actually, she was a member of my family that has been my sister for twenty years. I’ve cried every day. I didn’t want to write, but it’s a very good distraction. When I get thinking about my cat I just want to do nothing, and that’s not very productive, is it?

2. I don’t have a municipal liaison. My former liaison was a kick-ass firebrand who got us all working and winning the North-West English word wars my very first time. I don’t have that kind of support this year because I’m in Australia: Elsewhere.

3. I’m starting a new, more demanding job halfway through NaNoWriMo. But hey, that’s just another challenge, right? If I can get 50K words down in a month while holding a more difficult, time-consuming job, that makes my achievement greater, right?

So yes. Yesterday I didn’t write anything. But today, as many intelligent people have stated, there’s nothing to it. Just sit down at your typewriter/notepad/keyboard and open up a vein.

I’ve written 1265 words today. I may write more later. I may not. I am not feeling the pressure this month to keep to the word count. I am in love with the process itself, gently re-discovering my love of words after an enforced hiatus.