Katharina Gerlach's Blog, page 19

Indecisive Me needs help

In the last few weeks, I got quite a lot of negative reviews on my story “Swordplay”. While I still love the world, the characters and the setting, this got me thinking. After coming back out of my self-induced misery, I understood a couple of things:

1. The reviewers might have been the wrong choice of readers seeing that most of them are romance readers.

2. A genre mix like this is harder to sell than plain crime or plain fantasy or plain romance.

3. I should write more than this series so readers can choose.

So I decided to write in three different series this year. The first one (1) will still be my Gendarmerie Magique series (I like the world too much). The second one (2) is a middle grade time travel series, and the last one (3) a single-genre fantasy series. And this is where I need your help. Of the bat, I can think of three stories I can turn into a series, but with some more brainstorming I can use them all. So, please tell me:

Which story shall I expand into a series?

Welche Geschichte soll ich zu einer Serie ausbauen?



Amadi
Scotland’s Guardians / Schottlands Wächter
Paralan’s Children / Paralans Kinder
Urchin King

Poll Maker

 

If you haven’t read the stories (yet), you can look at their descriptions by clicking on the mini-covers on the right or on the titles in the poll (vor voting please click on the white circle).

A few more informations on what I’ll do once I choose my third series:

Since I don’t like cliffhanger endings, you can expect all three to be linked stand-alones (meaning each book stands on its own but is linked in sequential order to the other books of the series). The books will be slightly shorter than the initial stories (maybe around 50,000 words for series 1 and 3 and 25,000 words for series 2) or I won’t be able to write them all this year.

Thank you for your help.

Smashwords’ Super Saver Week

Smashwords starts its annual Read an eBook Week again, and I entered all the books I published with them. Some are discounted, others are completely free. The coupon codes are valid from midnight on March 2nd till 11:59pm on March 8th Pacific time. You will find them directly on the book description page. They are exclusive to Smashwords.com and will not work anywhere else.

Here are the direct links to my titles. The banner picture will take you to my Smashwords author page. Beware that not all books I published are available through Smashwords.

Swordplay (YA Urban Fantasy)

Gifts for Holly (homage for Holly Lisle)

Flesh & Blood (two Horror shorts)

Urchin King (YA Historical Fantasy)

Amadi (full Trilogy)

    Amadi & the Phoenix (part 1)

    Amadi & the Sphinx (part 2)

    Amadi & the Djinn (part 3)

Am I weird?

I was lucky to get two places on a Goodreads group’s R4R (read for review) in close succession. So, I offered my newest release “Swordplay” and “Urchin King”. Surprisingly, the copies of “Urchin King” went fast while the ones for “Swordplay” have still not all be claimed. This got me thinking.

Is my Stress-O-Meter stuck at:
“going crazy”?

Don’t get me wrong, I like “Urchin King” but I like “Swordplay” better. The world is much cooler, and the characters leave more room to grow over the series (that’s one reason why I decided to make a series out if it). Also, there are so many lovely sidekicks that can have a cameo in the next volumes. But if the R4R is representative for my readers, I might be wrong.

Am I still the weird one out? I know I was when I was a kid, always reading, loving school, living in the middle of a forest with no interest in shopping or make-up. I was never one to fit in easily. But does this apply to my books too? Are they too much out of sync with the rest of the world? Is that the reason why I’m not making a living from my books (yet) despite the fact that I have seven well written (according to my editors) books out there (plus short stories and one audiobook)?

If you’ve read even one of my stories, please let me know what you think. Especially if you’ve read “Swordplay” (or even just the sample on amazon), please tell me if I’m right or wrong to turn this into a series.

I don’t get this discouraged often, but when it hits, it hits me hard. Please help.

Winners!

Here are the winners for my giveaway. I picked a few more simply because I could.

Thank you for helping me make my blog tour a success.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Finish…

Now, the last part of the blot tour is over and the two final days of the giveaway have started. You can find the two last posts here (interview) and here (guest post on marketing). If you want to gain a few more points, click here. If you want to read the different blog posts again, will find links to all (German and English) on this page.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting at my PC, tired but happy, and write my next story. This time, it’s a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” set in a steampunk world. I love the genre. If you’ve never tried it I advise you to watch the film “Wild Wild West” with Will Smith or read the free online-Comic “Girl Genius” (highly recommended but quite long by now).

Next Saturday (Sunday at the latest) I’m going to draw the winners of the giveaway. Please be patient until then. And finally, I’d like to thank all the wonderful people who helped to make this tour a success for me. Hugs to all.

The second to last day

Look here for infos about the book and the giveaway and here for the Blog Tour schedule.

There are a couple more posts for you to explore. For one, my good friend Andra from Romania put up a mini-story about the main character in “Swordplay” (and she already started reading the book, obviously liking it, although she begs her readers not to tell me ). The next is a spotlight on the blog of my cover artist Corona.

I’m most pleased to know that the first review is up too (on German amazon). It’s a great 3 star review (although it should have been 4, after all 3.5 normally gets rounded up, but I won’t be nitpicky).

So, if you’ve read the book already, please leave a review on amazon and/or any other platform. If you haven’t, enter my giveaway, it’s your last chance. And please remember that writing reviews is the best way to support authors (Indie and others).

Arranged Marriage – what would I chose?

My friend Crystal Collier’s first novel “Moonless” will be released in print, and she’s holding her first ever blogfest. For those who come to this site through Crystal’s blogfest, I’m currently running a blog tour where you can win my newest release “Swordplay”. Look here for infos about the book and the giveaway and here for the Blog Tour schedule.

Her AMAZING co-hosts are Pk Hrezo, Tammy Theriault, and Michael Di Gesu (I know two of the three, and ‘amazing’ fits quite well). To make the blogfest more fun for all, Crystal asked her friends to post the answer to the following question on their blogs today:

If you lived in a society where arranged marriages were a la mode, who would you beg your parents to set you up with? (Literary characters and celebrities welcomed.) Who and why?

But first, let me tell you something about her most amazing book (I already read the sample, bought it, and will be reading it on my trip to Texas in March. I’ll post a review when I’m done).

About the Book

YA Historical Fantasy

 

In the English society of 1768 where women are bred to marry, unattractive Alexia, just sixteen, believes she will end up alone. But on the county doorstep of a neighbor’s estate, she meets a man straight out of her nightmares, one whose blue eyes threaten to consume her whole world—especially later when she discovers him standing over her murdered host in the middle of the night.

Her nightmares become reality: a dead baron, red-eyed wraiths, and forbidden love with a man hunted by these creatures. After an attack close to home, Alexia realizes she cannot keep one foot in her old life and one in this new world. To protect her family she must either be sold into a loveless marriage, or escape with her beloved and risk becoming one of the Soulless.

***Coupon Alert*** Crystal’s publisher is offering a $2.00 coupon until February 14th!!  To take advantage of this awesome offer, click the link below and use the coupon code!

 

Book link: https://www.createspace.com/4550104
Coupon code: LQJM3F84

Now, for my answer

At first, I thought it’d be difficult to pick my dream match, but as it turned out, it was the easiest thing in the world. Of course, I would beg my parents to marry me off to my ex-boyfriend, ex-fiancée, and now husband. We’ve been an item for close to 30 years already and there’s no one in the world who can compete with him (despite us both getting old and crinkly).

However, I don’t think that was what Crystal had in mind when she asked. After all, being madly in love with your own husband is rather boring, right? So I though for a while who else would suit me, and I really found one. A single character out of a myriad of people (fictional and real) … does that tell you something about me? OK, I’m not going to keep you on tenderhooks. The guy that might, with a lot of luck, tempt me is:

Crowley

He’s the humanized demon from “Good Omens – The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch” by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet, one of my all time favorite novels. What I like about him is his way to see the world. He realized that humans are their own worst enemy and that demons aren’t really necessary to bring about our own downfall. At the same time, he doesn’t want that to happen. Also, he’s the best (only) friend of an angel and despite being a demon, he’s very, very human. But since I haven’t finished reading Moonless yet, there’s still a chance that Crystal’s romantic lead might make me change my mind. Now, go and get Moonless form Amazon or read the answers to Crystal’s question on the other blogs. Here’s the list:

 

just a few more days…

As always, here are the links to the blog tour schedule and to the giveaway.

Yesterday, another excerpt went life on Karin Rita Gastreich’s blog. It was nice to meet yet another person with a surname originating in the German language.

And I’d like to apologize. I had meant to post yesterday but completely forgot to schedule it. I couldn’t do it in real time either because I had the house full with birthday guests. We celebrated the 19th birthday of my eldest daughter and I didn’t have much time for online stuff. Thus, the post comes now, and it’ll highlight one of the most important people involved in this novel: the cover artist.

Corona Zschüsschen

Corona Zschüsschen, Dutch illustrator and graphic designer

Corona comes from Enschede (if you like her art, she’s available for international freelance work and her prices are reasonable). I stumbled over some of her art when I was looking for things to pin to my Pinterest boards, and I immediately liked her drawing style. Since I was having major trouble getting a shutterstock picture to work that I had originally planned on using (but the resolution was crap, every detail looked pixelated), I contacted her. She was lovely to work with. So here she is in her own words.

Why did you become an artist? Was it a childhood dream?

My first childhood dream was to start a cat-shelter. I even wrote a letter to my 20-year old self when I was 10, outlining my plans and ideas! While I really love cats (and I have 3), that never happened. I moved around a lot when I was young. Drawing was something I could do anywhere, anytime. I had always loved illustrating, but I never thought I could become an actual artist. Sometimes I still can’t believe I am. I have to remind myself.

What’s your greatest obstacle in creating?

It’s me. Illustrating can be very mood and inspiration depended. I think it must be the same when you’re a writer. Sometimes inspiration comes at the most impossible of times. Or I can make a lot of different versions of something knowing they simply won’t work. It can be very frustrating! But all the different versions are still part of the journey. As long as I like the destination, it’s all worth it!

What makes your art different?

I don’t know how different I am… though of course no artist is the same. I have found artists whose style looks similar to mine, or sometimes the subjects or thoughts behind an illustration can be the same. I’m not bothered by that. I tend to branch out to a lot of different styles, because I like to adjust my art to the subject. What works for one book cover may not work at all for another. I also like to know as much as possible before I start illustrating. For example, with designing characters, I want to not only know how they look, but also their motivation and background story.

What was the most exciting thing happening when you are creative?

You mean for me as an illustrator? It was about 4 weeks ago when I found out one of my illustrations is going to be used for for very VERY big ‘thing’. But I can’t say anything about it. I’m contractually obligated to be silent about it. I can’t even show the illustrations. I want to shout it from the roofs, hahaha! Also, every time I receive an e-mail from a potential client my hart rate spikes. I can’t sit still before I answer the mail.

What was the biggest challenge with my cover?

The best thing about working with a writer is that they often know exactly what they want, even if they don’t! So the challenge was to get the idea that was in your head onto the cover. Being able to read some chapters of the book really helped. You were very specific and I really like that. You knew what you wanted. I hope I have fulfilled your book cover wishes

Who is your favorite Indie artist?

I guess any artist that’s not affiliated with a publisher could be considered independent. But most are a combination of both. One of my favorite contemporary illustrators is Loish (Lois van Baarle). I’m so jealous of her skills. Her character designs are stunning and magical. Her illustrations are incredibly pretty. Another illustrator I really like is Yasmin (chubbytentacle.com), her style is so much fun. I can’t help but smile when I see her illustrations.

Who is your favorite traditional artist?

I really like John William Waterhouse. I can stare at those paintings for a long time. I also enjoy the work of Berthe Morisot, a female impressionist painter. I have a lot of respect for the female painters in history. Often their pursuit of art wasn’t taken very seriously. Though I can’t identify with the era they lived in. There have been people in my life who don’t see how being an illustrator can be a actual job.

If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?

I can only pick one? I am quite happy with my life as it is now. I just wish it hadn’t taken me so long to get here.

More great posts, imho.

As always, here are the links to the blog tour schedule and to the giveaway.

Yesterday, Mathew Reuther, a fantasy crime writer using considerable more gore than I do, posted an excerpt from my novel on his homepage. Also, one of the most successful Indie authors from Germany published my guest post on Mixing and Balancing Genres on his site (German only).

Today, German book-blogger Katja posted my guest post “Developing Swordplay” in German on her site (this has also been posted in English). She read the book and liked it a lot, so she’ll be writing a review in a few days.

For my English readers, author L. Blankenship posted a funny interview with my characters on her blog (the German version is available here).

I hope you’re enjoying the tour. Don’t forget to spread the word. By doing so you can earn more entries in my giveaway.

hickup…

Like with everything, a blog-tour has also times when things don’t go as planned. Thus, the post planned for yesterday on author Roy Huff’s homepage went missing and I don’t know why. As soon as it shows up, I’ll let you know.

As always, here are the links to the blog tour schedule and to the giveaway.

Yesterday, I got the first review for Swordplay (German), and I’m glad that Katie enjoyed the story despite a few, minor points of criticism. Today, Elsa Rieger interviewed me (German). Also, author Masha A. Moore published my guestpost (English) about balancing genres in a novel.

Don’t forget to participate in the giveaway. Some options can be repeated every day to increase your chances to win.