Friday, May 31, 2013

Feature Follow Friday



Q:What blogger would you most like to meet in real life?
A:I haven't given this any thought at all before now.  I guess I would have to say Nathan Bransford, a former agent with Curtis Brown.  I've been following his blog for a really long time.  He knows a lot about the publishing world.  He's funny, smart, and also a writer.  We'd have a lot to talk about.

Would you like to join Feature Follow and meet new friends and get more followers for your blog?


Then go here and read the rules and sign up:  http://parajunkee.com/2013/05/feature-follow-151.html

Increase Blog Followers

YA Indie Carnival: Book Length

This is a question long debated by writers, publishers, and agents:  How long should a book be?

Personally, I think it depends on several different factors.  See if you agree or disagree with me.

1.  Genre:  Fantasy is allowed to be a lot longer than a contemporary romance, for instance.  My newest release Bait is Urban Fantasy and clocked in at 123,000 words.  WHAT???  I know.  It's long, but it had to be that long for the story to be told.  So many thing happen.  If I'd tried to tell the story in my usual 80,000 words, people would have been complaining they felt like they'd been hit by a train afterwards.  There wouldn't be time for a reader to relax and get to know the characters between all that action.

2.  Publisher:  The book length also depends on where you want to publish it.  If you want to keep complete control like me and do it yourself, you can write it as long as the story needs to be.  If you want to go traditional, you need to find out what the publishers are looking for and give it to them.

3.  The Story:  How long do you need to tell the story well?  If you make it too short, readers will feel cheated.  If it is too long, you risk losing their interest.

There are probably other factors to consider, but I can't think of any at the moment.

Can you?  If you can, please use the comment section and let us know.  Thank you.

1.Laura A. H. Elliott2.Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series
3.T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series4.Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga
5.Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog6.K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed
7.Gwenn Wright, author of Filter8.Liz Long | Just another writer on the loose.
9.Ella James10.Maureen Murrish
11.YA Sci Fi Author's Ramblings12.A Little Bit of R&R
13.Melissa Pearl14.Terah Edun - YA Fantasy
15.Heather Sutherlin - YA Fantasy16.Melika Dannese Lux, author of Corcitura and City of Lights

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Book Release!!! Suzy Turner's The Temporal Stone is available. Don't Miss Out!!!



Release Date: May 16th

Synopsis

It's been a couple of months since Emma and Lana entered the Praxos Academy and life has been hectic ever since. What with regular A level classes combined with learning all about the supernatural world, control classes, self defence and fight night, the girls are constantly busy.

But when their world seems to stop right in front of them, they and their fellow Watchers, have a huge mystery to solve. A mystery which leads them on a long road trip across south west England where they meet all kinds of strange creatures, some intent on causing harm and others desperate to put a stop to the problem.

The Temporal Stone is the second full length novel in The Morgan Sisters series. The first book is entitled The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw. There is also a free novella, Daisy Madigan's Paradise.

Links:




(other sites and paperback coming soon)

Author Bio

Suzy Turner has worked as a journalist, assistant editor, features editor and magazine editor. Early in 2010 however, she began writing full time and has since completed a trilogy for young adults, The Raven Saga, as well as several books in The Morgan Sisters series.

Although Suzy is a Yorkshire lass at heart, she left her home town of Rotherham, UK, to move to Portugal with her family when she was ten.

The Algarve continues to be her home, where she lives with her childhood sweetheart and husband of 15 years, Michael.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Author Spotlight Heather Sutherlin

Today, the YA Author Club is exited to Spotlight our very own Heather Sutherlin. She's an amazing person and a phenomenal YA Author Club contributor who writes young adult fantasy adventures when she's not spending time with her family.


Author Bio


1999 – B.A. in Elementary Education from Harding University
2011 - 1st Place White County Creative Writers’ Conference First Chapter Contest
2012 – Debut novel, A Light in the Darkness, is released along with its sequel, To Light the Path.
2013 – Seen and Wandering, two books in a new YA fantasy series, will be released in the spring.
President - Fiction Writers of Central Arkansas
Featured Author – Arkansas Literary Festival


About the Author

Heather Sutherlin lives in Arkansas with her husband and three children. She is the author of A Light In The Darkness and Seen  both fantasy adventures for young adults. She loves all things creative and enjoys the worlds she dreams up, longing to live the adventure alongside her characters. When she’s not at her writing desk, she is busy exploring and learning with her children or cooking big, elaborate meals in the kitchen with her husband.

You can see more of Heather at her website, HeatherSutherlin.com
Or, email her at HSutherlin@gmail.com
See behind the scenes of her indie life by following her on Facebook.
You can also follow Heather on Twitter and see what inspires her on Pinterest.


Books by Heather Sutherlin:


Merrilyn’s life is quiet and predictable. An apprentice to the royal healer, she spends her days helping in the village or up to mischief with her best friend who happens to be the handsome younger son of the king. But when a mysterious archer shows up in the forest and shoots their escort, Merrilyn’s life is forever changed. Caught in a battle between two forgotten gods, she must embrace her destiny and fight the very powers of darkness before it’s too late.










Prince Jarrod and his men have been missing for months and still Merrilyn has no idea where they are hidden. Now the king of Zinder is missing, too, and his children seem to think Merrilyn’s the key to finding him. Along with Aiden and Prince Justan, she travels to Zinder looking for clues in the king’s journals. When a mysterious man begins whispering in her dreams, tempting her to reconsider all that she believes, she must face both her fears and her desires. Merrilyn may be a light in the darkness, but she’ll have to trust Loian to light their path as they travel through foreign lands and face new enemies in their search for the missing men.






Rory has no idea what’s going on in the woods behind her house, but it’s driving her crazy. On the last day of her senior year she finds herself caught up once again in the curious happenings of the forest and walks away without any of the answers she was hoping to find. To make matters worse, she is sent to visit a sick neighbor and instead finds the hottest guy she’s ever seen. When she discovers his brother’s incredible secret she falls further into her own chaos and into a fate she never could have imagined.

Jaron is just counting the days until the summer is over and he can get back to his real life. Stuck with his little brother on a tiny farm in rural Oklahoma is not exactly his idea of fun. But when Rory shows up on his doorstep with an armload of pie, he knows his summer has just taken a sharp turn into new territory. He never expected the adventure they would discovernext or the quest that would change their lives forever.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Dream Casts on Pinterest

I have found a new advantage to using Pinterest.  As a writer you can create a board for your books and add pics of the actors you see as your characters, pics of settiing, etc.  I've made a board for the Order of the Spirit Realm series and one for Crushed.  Here are the links if you want to take a look at the casts:

Vampires Rule:  http://pinterest.com/kasiblake/vampires-rule/

Order of the Spirit Realm: http://pinterest.com/kasiblake/order-of-thespirit-realm-series/

Even if no one else cares about looking at them, I think they are awesome.  I can go in and look any time I feel the need for inspiration.  If you are a writer, try it out.  It's pretty cool.

Friday, May 17, 2013

YA Indie Carnival: Categorizing Books

How do you pick the right categories for your books?  If you pick wrong, do you lose sales?  Good questions.  I have no idea.  My books have been called Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy Paranormal, Juvenile Fiction, YA.  Take your pick.  Some kids as young as twelve have written to say they loved my book(s).  Most of my readers have turned out to be adult women like myself.  It's all good.

Check the other Indies and see what they have to say.  Maybe they have a better handle on this whole thing.

 Laura A. H. Elliott author of Winnemucca & 13 on Halloween, Book 1 in the Teen Halloween Series
2. Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series
3. Heather Self
4. T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series
5. Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga
6. Cheri Schmidt, author of the Fateful Trilogy
7. Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog
8. K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed
9. Patti Larsen, The Hunted series and The Hayle Coven series
10. Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy
11. Fisher Amelie, author of The Understorey
12. Gwenn Wright, author of Filter
13. Melissa Pearl, Author of The Time Spirit Trilogy
14. Heather M. White, author of The Destiny Saga
15. Courtney Cole Writes
16. Liz Long | Just another writer on the loose.
17. Ella James
18. Maureen Murrish
19. Valerie Sloan
20. YA Sci Fi Author's Ramblings
21. Terah Edun, author of Red Madrassa and An Amlah's Diary

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

How to Write a Novel Using Scrivener

If you haven't heard of Scrivener, it's a program for writers, and in my opinion it's better than any of the rest. I was reluctant to try it.  You can download a free trial.  So I did.  I didn't know how to use it.  There's a tutorial, but it was too hard to follow.  I decided to pass because I couldn't figure out how to write a novel on it.  Then I kept hearing writers gushing over it.  I met someone on FB who told me they figured it out by reading a book on it.  David Hewson wrote a book called Writing a Novel with Scrivener.

I read the book and purchased the download, including a disc should anything happen to my computer.  After using it for a week I am totally in love.  How did I ever get along without you Scrivener?

Here are the reasons I love it:

1. Virtual Index Cards:  I usually write ideas on index cards and stick them on a bulky cork-board that I have to keep against the wall beside my desk.  Now I can get rid of it.  Scrivener has a virtual cork-board and the cutest index cards.  You can color code your cards.  You can mark them as To Do, First Draft, Final Draft, etc.  And the best thing is you can attach a scene to each card.  Later, when revising the manuscript, I can move the cards around without a problem and my scenes will move with them.

2.  Keywords:  David Hewson explains the keywords in his book.  He likes to use POV characters as keywords, also places, other characters, and plot points.  Then you can drag them to each scene they are involved with.  This helps later if you are like me and want to see how many scenes each character has POV in or which ones have a certain setting.

3.  Status:  Like I already said, you can label your scenes as To Do, First Draft, etc.  This will help later when you are rewriting.  Once you have a scene to your liking, you can mark it as Final Draft.  Then you will be able to see at a glance how much more you have to do.

4.  Labeling:  You can choose labels for your index cards like Character makes them red, ideas make them brown, and choosing Scenes makes them blue.  Chapters are green.  It is a very cool set-up.

5.  Compiling:  After you are through you can press the Compile button and Scrivener puts the book together for you.  Supposedly it can also make them into ebooks, but I haven't gotten to that point yet.  If this program can keep me from having to format for three days, it is worth my weight in gold.

6.  Including Pictures:  I always have actors in mind when I am writing characters.  This program gives you the option of adding a picture to each card.  Then you can see your characters at a glance.  Awesome.

This program does a lot of other things too, but I don't want to be here all day.  It's a wonderful writing tool. I highly recommend it.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Indie or Self-Pubbed? What's the Diff?

Some people can be so irritating.  They raise their hackles if you aren't politically correct.  They will argue over which form of a word or punctuation mark is correct until they are blue in the face.  Now we have people arguing over what Indie means.

First of all, I thought Indie meant Independent just like the Indie directors out there making movies without Hollywood big-shots backing them up.  When I first decided to skip the publisher and do it on my own, I was told I was an Indie Author.  That was exciting to me.  A self-published author has such a negative ring to it because in the past some people have shelled out a ton of money, bought an enormous amount of books, and put them in their garage or a warehouse, unable to get rid of them to anyone other than close friends and family.  I had one woman hand me on when I was in college after we met because she had 'so many' she didn't know what to do with them.

Small publishers apparently are calling themselves 'independent publishers' now so maybe that is throwing everyone off.

I first discovered this little debate when I was searching for bloggers to read my first independently published book.  A few said they would be okay with reviewing for Indie authors but not self-published ones.  That took me aback.  What's the difference?  I thought Indie meant they'd published the books themselves.  Then someone told me I was self-pubbed and not an Indie. What????

Then why don't we call Independent Filmmakers self-filmed?


Feature Follow Friday again

 




Q: Happy Mother’s Day! Who is your favorite mom from fiction?

and find out how and read the rest of the Feature Follow post.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Blog Tour



Black Lion Tours is hosting me and my book from June 5th to June 15th, and they need interested bloggers to sign up for it.  If you would like to host me on your blog for a guest post or an interview, or maybe you just want to review my book, sign up here:  http://www.blackliontours.com/#%21bait-by-kc-blake/cnnh

Isn't the above banner gorgeous?

They do great work at Black Lion Tours.

This is a tour separate from MY summer long blog tour, in case you are confused.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Excerpt from BAIT


The knowledge she was no longer alone in bed should have scared the crap out of Bay-Lee and normally it would have, but she was still floating on the fragments of a blissful dream.  The soft whisper of a lover’s hands surfaced with her consciousness.  She’d been dreaming about being in love, the kind that inspired people to die for each other, the Romeo and Juliet sort of love.  Beyond that nothing seemed real to her. 
An odd smell pierced the veil of sleep, and she wrinkled her nose.  Jack Daniels?
The next thing to grab her attention was the feel of a hard body crowding her on the narrow mattress. 
Warm breath lightly blew a trail down her face from forehead to mouth like the soft wings of a butterfly brushing against her skin.  Fingers slid up one arm to curve around her shoulder.  Her eyelids fluttered, and she smiled up at the gorgeous stranger.  Fantasy wove a complicated tapestry with reality, and she decided she was still dreaming.
The dark-haired boy’s gaze settled on her lips.  She could practically read his mind.  He wanted to kiss her until neither of them could breathe.  Still living on the leftover residue of an imagined love, she was going to allow it.  A tingling sense of anticipation had her nearly breathless already. 
She closed her eyes again, mentally preparing for the kiss.
She waited.
The bed creaked as he leaned in to give her what she desired most.  His hot breath teased her lips, and the smell of whiskey intoxicated her.  She clenched her hands into tight fists, grabbing and holding bunched up bedding, silently willing him to hurry before she came to her senses.  Outside of this moment nothing existed, not school, not her boyfriend, not the troubling circumstances that forced her to constantly move from state to state, nothing.
When her lips remained cool and untouched, she opened her eyes to find the boy staring down at her with pure contempt.  A menacing light emanated from his eyes.  He parted his lips on a soft growl, reminding her of a werewolf, and her blood turned to ice. 
“You ruined my life,” he whispered in a semi-harsh tone, accusing.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Friday Feature Follow


Want more followers?  Go here Parajunkee to find the rules.  Every Friday there is a new question for everyone to answer.  Follow as many blogs as you want to follow and in return, maybe they will follow you back.

Question:  Give us a sneak! What are you reading? Tell us about a fun or fail scene in your current read.

I am currently reading Endure by Carrie Jones, the last book in the Need series.  I guess a 'fun' scene would be when Zara is told to go to her room.  Astley, the pixie king, flies up to her window and she leaves with him on a secret mission to rescue her boyfriend, a werewolf named Nick.  Personally I think she should forget about the wolf and stay with Astley.  At least he loves her for herself.  Nick is constantly getting mad at her because she doesn't act like he wants her to act.  What a jerk!  If she winds up with him, I am going to be extremely disappointed.


Book Club for BAIT and Bait Excerpt #3

Look to your right.  See the widget from Goodreads?  If you are going to read Bait within the next few months, click on the group link and join us.  We will be discussing Bait, and I will answer any and all questions.  Now when do you get an offer like that?  :)