Wednesday, June 4, 2014

CHOOSING WISELY, I hope!!


Yes, I have been bad about both blogging and tweeting lately. I deserve 20 lashes with a wet noodle. I know.




Okay, okay 40 then! 


Anway, I have just been going a little cross-eyed with other things (family, end of school year for the kids, my son’s big trip to Europe at the end of July, et cetera, et cetara) Not to mention all kinds of writing, editing, research and creating covers. Oh and speaking of that, this article is PRICELESS, absolutely PRICELESS.


Wonderful amazing advice and technical help that allowed me to create two GORGEOUS covers I am totally proud of, all for zip. Nada. ZILCH!!!

Here's another good site for the whole cover images thing, they give 20 free credits up front and that was enough for me to get images to make both my new covers.


After the freebies, you can pay in $20 increments to get images. 

I also recommend DEVIANT ART, which can be pricey but a lot of their artists will give you permission to use their stuff for free(just credit them, of course), or you can find artists you like under another site with a free creative commons. 

I particularly love dreadpiratefluffy's work, AWESOME!!

Also I learned how to download and install fonts this week! Yay!!


And I had to make some choices.

HARD choices.

Ahhh, decisions, decision, DECISIONS.

Meh.

See I have two books near and dear to my heart that are both only about 2 weeks from being completed. 



The first, and the one I have been hyping more is PHOENIX RISING, a PNR novella about Kelsey, a paranormal psychic with a broken past and an incredibly powerful French vampire, Miles de Rousseau. Kesley and Miles are ex-lovers brought back together by a string of gruesome murders and forced to deal with the betrayal that tore them apart a decade ago. And face a psychopathic killer who is gunning for one of them. I love this story, I love the darkness and fury of it and getting to write about Paris, of course.



The other is the full-length novel, SMOKE IN MOONLIGHT, which also leans heavily PNR . The start of a trilogy seeped in Celtic mythology, this first installment deals with a dark curse gone wrong and lives tangled up in a web woven by ancient gods and magic. 

I love everything about this book, from the fact I get to write about Ireland and Celtic myth, both of which have been an obsession of mine since WAY before I first read the books of Morgan Llewellyn-he just made my obsession grow exponentially!-not to mention the entire cast of characters are some of my faves. 

Ronan Fitzpatrick, a man who bears a terrible curse and his amazingly wonderful family. Lacey Ryan, a laid-back, go-with-the-flow kind of woman who finally takes a chance on a life-long dream and gets waaa-ay more than she bargained for. This book also introduces, Aidan O’Neill. Aidan is....well, Aidan is simply the best character I have ever created. Viscous, loyal, sexy as hell and a little unhinged. A vampire prince who turns his back on his title and who harbors a burning desire that just may send the whole world straight to hell.

Not to mention Aine, a scheming, petulant Celtic goddess and all her crazy, sexy, violent kith and kin. It is a wild Irish ride.

But…

Which to choose?

I was going with PHOENIX because honestly, I figured it would be easier and quicker to get out, but I finally decided to go with S.I.M first.


Why? Part of it’s a gut thing, I think I need to make a stand and show what I am capable of  outside shorts and novellas (90% of the feedback I got from SHIVERS was that the shorts were too...SHORT. People wanted more, more, MORE!) 

So I am going to oblige. ;) And hope it is the right call. What do you all think?

I will have a firm release date for SMOKE IN MOONLIGHT by end of next week or so, stay tuned!!


And PR will def still be coming out, likely in July, maybe early August. And we will see what we see from there. *crossing fingers and toes*

Now back to the editing room--oh and SPEAKING of that--what is the thing that super cheap me would actually recommend you blow your epublishing budget on?

PROOF READING!!


This is the number one thing that separates self-pub from the biggies, other than editing, of course, which is a whole 'nother kettle of worms. (yes, I did that on purpose, a good editor would know that, see!!)

Oh, I hear the murmurs already---, hey,  I am a WRITER, I ACED English, I don't need no proof reader.

Bullcrap.

So did I, you know. A+++ in English, and English Comp. And I still don't make a LOT of spelling or grammar errors, except for me, maintaining tenses can be a slight weak spot.

However, every one of those pesky little mistakes will make you ILL when you find them after your book is already out. Sometimes we just look at our stuff over and over soooooo much, it blends and our eyes just skim right over little mistakes. 

I would def put proof reading as the number #1 place to put your $$$.

I like this lady's site, and will use try her services out when I get the moola and let you know what I think. 


And NOW--

let's get to writing, allons-y!!!

NEXT time--research, languages, and more details.