Saturday, January 31, 2015

TRADING CARDS


I got this idea after looking at another author's swag.  This is an awesome idea.  Character trading cards.  These are just the digital copies.  I have physical ones on the way to my home as we speak.  How do you get your hands on them?  Well, you would have to show up at one of my book signings or win a giveaway that I participate in.  I may also occasionally give away a pair to people who buy autographed copies of my books when I offer them.  Once in a while I have a few leftover copies after a signing and I offer to sell them to the first people who contact me.  If you want to be a part of this, follow me on FB, join my emailing list (by contacting me and giving me your email), follow me at @kasiblake on Twitter, or check in to my author page once in a while.  You can go to kasiblake.com and click on the FB button at the top of the page.  That's the easiest way to do it.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Hello! My name is Kasi Blake


When I introduce myself as an author, I get varied reactions, most of them pretty funny in retrospect.  What people don't understand is how hard it is for me to do this in the first place.  For years I felt awkward about telling people.  I felt like a fraud.  Even after publishing with Harlequin, it just felt weird to say.  My tongue would tie up in knots, and part of me expected people to call me out on it.  "You aren't an author!"  I would nod.  "Yes, I am."  "Oh really," they would say.  "What awards have you won?  How much money did you make last year?  Are you on the NY Times Bestseller List?"

Then I read a book about 'owning' it and forcing myself to introduce myself as a writer.  So, I do it when I can.  It's gotten easier, but some of the reactions are priceless.

Some people don't even blink.  They don't care.  A wary look comes into their eyes like they're afraid you're going to 'bore' them with details of your latest masterpiece.

Some people ask what I've written.  When I tell them I write YA Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy, their are two possible reactions.  Half of them get excited because they love those kind of books.  The other half take on a disdainful expression as if they wouldn't be caught dead reading 'those' kind of books.

Some people get excited because they want to tell me about their idea for a book.  I try to tell them they should write the book if they love the idea so much, but that is usually met with the response, "I can't write, but if you want to use it..."  I don't.  Even if the idea is awesome, I have too many of my own to make room for someone else's.

I've had people roll their eyes at me, quickly change the subject, and flat out tell me they don't care.

By some reactions you would think I just told them I kick puppies for fun.

There have been a few people over the years who are just so delighted to hear that I write, they make it worthwhile.  I love to talk to them about their favorite books.  Sometimes I even find a new series to read when discussing books with strangers.

If you write, don't be afraid to tell people.  Get used to it.  Someday you might even make a living at it.  Then you'll be glad you had all that practice saying it.  :)

Monday, January 19, 2015

Big Problem

WRONG BOOK AT KOBO


In an experiment gone awry I tried to do a pre-order launch for WIZARDS RULE at Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, etc.  Well, in order to do it, they want you to upload your manuscript early.  Problem was, my manuscript wasn't even finished yet.  So I put up SHIFTERS RULE in its place as a temporary place holder, you know?  I didn't see any harm in it as long as I got the right one on their before it was time for the books to go out.  Well--guess what?

The wrong book is still on Kobo.  People are upset, and I don't blame them.  Someone finally told me about the problem so I contacted Smashwords.  Hopefully they will get the right one sent to Kobo ASAP.

If you bought the book from Kobo and got the wrong one, please write to them and ask them for the most recent edition.  They should have it soon.  Thank you for your understanding and your patience.  I will never try to do a pre-order again.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Bloopers, Mistakes, and Screw-ups

Third Rock from the Sun

This is one of my favorite shows.  I have all the seasons on DVD, and I'm watching a Third Rock marathon right now.  I've noticed a few odd things.

1. Did Sally pick her own body or was she forced to be 'the woman?'  At the beginning of the series Sally complains several times that they made her be the woman.  Then later they talk about picking their bodies from a catalog and they act like she wanted to be the woman.

2.  Dennis Rodman makes an appearance.  The famed basketball star runs into the gang at a hardware store.  When he sees them he calls them by name, but later it is stated that they chose their names on purpose to blend in.  Tom, Dick, and Harry.  Get it?

3.  Is Dick Canadian?  At one point they mention Dick is from Canada (at least that is what his papers say, the papers put together by Tommy), but at another point they are laughing about other people being from Canada.

4.  A fake high commander takes over and replaces the real high commander.  How does this guy know everything about the world and how it works when the rest of them had to learn?  Did someone make him a cheat sheet?

5.  Why do they forget what music and dancing are?  When they first arrive on Earth, a song is playing on the car radio and they are bopping along to it.  But later when Harry joins a CD club, they act stunned when they start dancing around the room and don't know what it is or why they are doing it.

6.  What happens after Nina finds the alien curling iron that vaporizes things?  She finds it at the end of one season, but there is no mention it at the beginning of the next.

There are more, but I can't think of them right now.  Is anyone else a fan of the show?

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Top Ten

TOP TEN REASONS TO READ BAIT (and the other Order of the Spirit Realm Novels)


1. Nick Gallos is a rock star slash vampire hunter.  I mean, come on, how cool is that?

2.  Bay-Lee is a Van Helsing.  Also awesome.

3.  Sometimes they cross over to the Spirit Realm to fight monsters.

4.  There is a banshee living among them.

5.  A dark prophecy is hanging over their heads.

6.  Mock Battles are epic!  Participating students fight each other, teachers, and sometimes even real monsters.

7.  Nick fights a Border Monster.

8.  A little girl says a monster is in her closet, and it isn't her imagination.

9.  Nick and Bay-Lee share a forbidden romance.

10. Wraiths are killing students on their birthdays.

You can find Bait here on Amazon.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

EXCITING NEWS!!!

Crushed is being published by Clean Teen Publishing.  If you wanted to read it but haven't, you'll have to wait now until it comes out next year.  It is getting a new cover, more editing, and some much needed marketing.

Sometimes good books slip through the cracks.  I focused most of my marketing energy on Vampires Rule and Bait (both of those series), and I didn't have time for Crushed.  But I always felt this book series-- teen witches using their powers to play dangerous games at school-- deserved better than what I gave it.

I'll keep you up to date on what is happening with it.  Just wanted to let you know.  :)

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Interview with Sasha Leigh


1. Give us a brief description of your book.
Alyssa Frank dies during a brutal attack brought on by students from a neighboring school. She wakes up in an "in-between" and soon learns that second chances exist. Sent back to relive the last week of her life, she tries to turn the week from hell into the very best days of her life. But when she learns of what she failed to see the first time around, her easy-go-lucky ambition turns into a fight to make things right.
Fate’s Exchange is a story of right and wrong, love, friendship, and the consequences that every decision you make reveals. Being marked by Death leads to only one outcome: dying. But when the Sisters of Fate have other plans, tasking angels to protect Alyssa, anything is possible.
2. Where did the idea come from?
A few years ago, I wrote a synopsis for a book like this. I think the initial idea came from a dream I’d had—or that state in between being asleep and waking up. When I decided to start writing it, I couldn’t find the synopsis, but the idea was still quite clear. Initially, it was a way to get my head out of another series, but "pantsing" my way through, the story developed as I wrote it, and eventually became the series it is now.
3. Who was the hardest character to write for and why?
Mr. Tinsley was difficult to write about, not so much in what he does, but who he is and how others view him. To get away with what he’s done for so long he has to be charismatic and unassuming while in the public eye, but then he also has to have the Creep Factor that makes Alyssa suspicious. There were a lot of rewrites and fine-tuning to his character i.e. what he says, how he says it, and the way he carries himself.
4. When did you decide you wanted to write?
Writing definitely wasn’t something I thought about seriously growing up. I always had my nose in a book, and members of my family have some notable accomplishments for writing, but I was more into writing poetry and drawing than stories. Before really sitting down to write, I penned two novels that found the delete button just so I could get the story out of my head.
Going back to university changed things for me, I think, though not right away. After a lot of humming and hawing, and then a lot of research (about writing fiction, plots, characters, etc.), I started to really start writing approximately a year ago.
5. What are you working on now?
I am simultaneously writing the fifth novel for Twisted Fate, Fate’s Disguise, and the third novel for Cast from Power, Casting Light. My day job and daughter take up most of my time, but when I’m not writing or working, I am blogging, updating my website, or figuring out marketing for Fate’s Exchange by methods of trial-and-error—does anyone ever get that down pat?
6. Where can readers find you online?

All of my information, including links to Author Central and Goodreads, can be found on my blog: http://www.MythicWords.blogspot.ca