Debra L. Martin's Blog, page 297

Blog tour: CURSED HEROES by William D Ollivierre

Cursed Heroes, The Beginnings
Cursed by God himself theses poor souls must forever wonder the universe in bodies that are
forever aging. However, they have turned their curse into their strength, as they fight against
every power in this universe to protect those that cannot protect themselves.
Fighting with everything they have, single handedly taking on vast armies, even if it means they will be beaten to a bloody wreck they will still stand and fight. They shake planets to their very cores, darken the stars, and moving
entire star systems, all for the protection of the universe, they are The Brothers Will, and they never back down. Now come join the fight as you learn how it all began.



Purchase on Kindle / Paperback



Get the first in the series Cursed Heroes, The Ones Called Hackers (Volume 1)



Follow William D. Ollivierre Twitter / Facebook  

3 Unexpected Places Writers Can Find Inspiration by Katheryn Rivas

Latching onto
inspiration in an unexpected moment or place is an art of creative awareness.
To begin drawing inspiration from your everyday experiences, you need only be
armed with an instinct for storytelling and a pen and paper (or the
technological equivalent).




Finding
inspiration in the unexpected is often the exact opposite of what you may think
of as exciting or surprising. It is an active search to overturn the boulders,
stones and pebbles of your life; searching for the interesting tidbits that
have been left in the shadows.




The Office

Even if your
office is relatively drama-free, keep your eyes and ears open for any signs of
conflict or romance. If there’s a lack of both, you can usually churn out some
comedic dialogue or character sketches using your co-workers as a reference.
Comic relief is an essential part of fiction that is very often overlooked by
creative writing instructors.




Every office
has a villain, but the heroes are often so much harder to identify. Consider
how you respond to other people and what dynamics are in play. The political
dynamics of an office can be rife with unspoken tension, fears, insecurities
and agendas.




Delving into
the facts of what’s actually happening in your office may prove dangerous, so
proceed with caution. Use your imagination to fill in the blanks of your
suspicions and take measures to transform real-life people into fictional
characters. You don’t want to be sued for libel.




Idea: Write a poem about a mundane task you perform. Use
hyperbolic and reverent language to make it as melodramatic as possible. Share
it with your co-workers for a laugh.




Public Transportation / Public
Places

When I
travel, I find that my best writing comes from observing others in their
day-to-day lives. There is something about public transportation that always
lends the feeling of tourism, even on the subway ride home. For the writer,
public transportation is a potential goldmine of inspiration. It illuminates
the very essence of coincidence.




Imagine, in
each subway car, individuals who are starkly alienated from one another come
together in a brief moment of loose community. Where are they going? Where have
they been? What small, barely perceptible dynamics are driving the social interaction?
The same questions can be asked when observing people in public places.




Idea: Write a series of character sketches based on the strangers
you encounter during your day.




Restaurants

One of my
favorite “games” to play while at restaurants and cafes is to study the body
language of the people around me. 
Restaurants and cafes merge the intimate with the public, allowing
complete strangers to observe relationships and overhear conversations. Here,
couples and friends join together, making for a great opportunity to observe
dialogue and mini-dramas of social interplay. Perhaps even more interesting is
the study of a single individual. Loners are much more mysterious than groups,
and the clues we gather from them are much more important.




Idea: Study a loner and develop a flash fiction piece based on
his (or her) behavior. 

--

Author bio:

Katheryn
Rivas is a freelance writer and resident blogger at www.onlineuniversities.com, a site
dedicated to distance higher education.  

During
college, my professors drilled a single concept into my brain. “Write what you
know,” they said.




Well, I knew
a lot about literary theory and Russian and American literature – but I didn’t
know it in my bones. I couldn’t write about it on instinct.




I realized I
just simply wasn’t paying attention to my everyday life. Today, my world is
filled with unexpected surprises. Some beneficial, some tragic – but the
unexpected is almost always good material for a story.




She welcomes
your comments at katherynrivas87@gmail.com.

 

Interview with Jade Kerrion + Giveaway

Can you
give us a brief overview of your latest book?

PERFECTION UNLEASHED is a dystopian/science-fiction novel that
offers a “fascinating and compelling view” into a possible future.




The Genetic Revolution has transformed the world, giving
rise to human derivatives—clones, in-vitros, and mutants—that are arguably better than humans. Toss Galahad, the
“perfect” human being, into the mix, and the volatile environment explodes.




PERFECTION UNLEASHED is loaded with fast-paced action and
character growth—it is a journey of self-discovery for Danyael Sabre, an alpha
empath, who learns that he was used as Galahad’s physical template—but
underlying the novel are questions that society has wrestled with for
centuries. What does equality mean in the face of unequal talents? How does
society deal with people who are different from the norm? What does
“perfection” in a human being really mean?




How are
your story ideas born?

From movies in my mind! Several reviewers of PERFECTION UNLEASHED
have enjoyed its highly visual scenes and compared the novel to an action
movie, anime, and graphic novel. Their feedback thrilled me because that’s
actually what happens behind the scenes. I describe and write the movie I see
in my mind. As the movie’s director and producer (and scriptwriter), I manage
all elements of the story—its pace, its perspectives and points of view, when
and where tension crests, and of course, its characters. I’ve found that
thinking about the novel as a movie helps eliminate the slow scenes or
interludes that some authors tend to write into the novels but that two-hour
movies on a tight budget cannot afford to do. When I watch my mental movie,
I’ll sometimes think, “I need a cut scene there,” or “That scene doesn’t work.
It needs something…else.” And that’s how story ideas are born: What do I need
to do to make this movie in my mind a tension-packed blockbuster?




Do you
have a favorite line or scene from your latest release?

In a pivotal scene, Jason Rakehell, president of Purest
Human (a pro-humanist organization), points a handgun at Galahad, the perfect
human being, and Danyael Sabre, the physical template for Galahad. Jason then
demands that his father, Roland Rakehell and creator of Galahad, to choose
between Galahad and Danyael. The issue isn’t that Roland can’t tell Galahad and
Danyael apart—he can. The question is whether Roland will choose his precious
creation, Galahad, over Danyael Sabre, the son whom he believed died many years
prior…




What
factors influenced your decision to self-publish to Amazon?

For a few months, I dabbled with the traditional publication
process (querying agents, etc.) Three agents were intrigued enough to ask for
the full manuscript. Two eventually turned it down. The third one has probably
not read it yet (and I sent it to her in September 2011.) Enough said. Time
doesn’t stand still while the wheels of traditional publishing slowly turn. I
researched my options in self-publication and found that Amazon (and its
subsidiaries, Createspace and Kindle Direct Publishing) have really made the
publication effort as seamless and easy as humanly possible. Furthermore,
Amazon is the gorilla in the room and the largest single generator of sales for
most self-published novels. For me, Amazon was the natural choice.




What is
your writing process?

I can usually complete a first draft in three months. I
don’t work off a detailed outline but I typically have a sense of the overall
story, the large arcs and plotlines, before I start. I also know where I want
the story to end up. Once the first draft is done, I turn it over to my
husband, my most trusted beta reader, to tell me what doesn’t work. With his
input, I typically get to a second draft by the fourth month. From there, I
start self-editing for sentence flow, missing punctuation, style, etc. Other
beta readers typically get a third draft, which is the same version I send to
my editor.




Did you
hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing?

Yes, I do. I work with Bobbie Christmas from Zebra
Communications. She is expensive, but I’ve learned so much from working through
her edits. With her help, my style has improved tremendously between PERFECTION
UNLEASHED and PERFECT WEAPON (Book 3). I’m planning to send PERFECT WEAPON to
her shortly for editing, and I hope it will come back much less red than PERFECTION
UNLEASHED did… J




What have
you learned during your self-publishing journey?

Anyone can self-publish, but it is best suited for the
organized control-freak (like me.) To actually have a successful,
self-published novel that is generating healthy sales, one must manage a dozen
steps and myriad details that extend far beyond just having a completed
manuscript. It’s a journey that fortunately offers many partners (e.g., Amazon,
other authors, book bloggers.) It’s all about finding friends to accompany you
down that (increasingly crowded) road.




Do you
find it difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and
writing your next book?

Oh, yes! I recently started getting active on Twitter. Has
there ever been a larger killer of productive writing time than Twitter? (Even
Facebook is a distant second.) I’m also busy with a blog tour for my September
2012 promotion of PERFECTION UNLEASHED. I try to carve out dedicated chunks of time
for writing and marketing. I find that it doesn’t help to fluctuate between activities
within a single hour. I get almost nothing done that way.




What’s
next for you?

PERFECT BETRAYAL and PERFECT WEAPON, books two and three in
the Double Helix series, will be released in late November 2012, and I’m
planning a large promotional event in December to launch those novels.
Meanwhile, I’m working on the next novels in the series, including a YA/crossover
spin-off. You can check out my website here at: http://www.jadekerrion.com




Be sure to click on giveaway for a chance to win!



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Review: THE MASKS OF THE LOST KINGS by Tom Bane

3 of 5 stars


This book started out great, but got bogged down in too much exposition. While I enjoyed learning about ancient Egypt, I did not want the whole book to be a history lesson. I found myself skipping page after page of descriptions until I got back to the action.



The story revolves around Oxford Ph.D. student, Suzy da Silva, as she researches the link between Tutankhamun and Christianity for her thesis. Her travel to Egypt is financed by the Horus Corporation who also sends a martial-arts-trained bodyguard, Getsu, with her. Suzy manages to give the bodyguard the slip and goes off exploring on her own. That's when all the action starts. Her research takes her from Egypt to Israel to Mexico. Along the way she's attacked by assassins, but manages to escape. She doesn't know who attacked her or why. Could it be Getsu? Or is she getting too close to a closely-guarded secret?



I had to suspend belief on some of the fight scenes because they seemed a little over-the-top with Suzy besting every assailant who attacked her.  That didn't seem plausible. Once the book moved onto Mexico and the Mayans, I lost my enthusiasm for the book. Once again, too much exposition on the history of the ancient Mayans. The constant changing of POV was also distracting. First we are in Suzy's head, then Tom's head, then Getsu, all in the same chapter. It was hard to keep everyone straight. The book was building to a "secret" climax that would change the world, but when it was finally revealed, I was disappointed in the ending. It certainly didn't live up to all the hype about it throughout the book.



I received this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Interview with Joshua Johnson

Can you give us a brief overview of your latest book?


The Cerberus Rebellion
is a fantasy novel set in my Griffins & Gunpowder Universe. It is the first
novel of a planned six in its series. The Griffins & Gunpowder Universe
differs from traditional fantasy in that it's Gunpowder Fantasy. It blends
traditional elements of Epic Fantasy with rifles and railroads without going
into steampunk.




The Cerberus Rebellion
tells the story of a rebellion that rips apart the nation of Ansgar. It follows
four main characters who have different perspectives on the war and why it is
being fought.




Did you try the
traditional route to publishing, i.e. querying agents/publishers?

Not with The Cerberus
Rebellion. This novel was planned and built from the ground-up with
Self-Publishing in mind. I had previously submitted other works to agents but
aside from one personalized note, all I got out of that was a stack of form
rejections.




Do you belong to a
critique group? Have they helped improve your writing?

I'm a new member of Scribophile which has already helped me
in the short time that I've been there by pointing out some of the larger scale
aspects of my writing that I need to improve on.




What factors influenced your decision to self-publish to Amazon?

Previous experience with the traditional publishing model
was definitely one aspect. About 5 years ago I looked into self-publishing but
that was back when you had to buy massive runs of your work and weren't sure
that anyone would buy it anyways. With Amazon's KDP, after cover and editing
there's no inventory to manage.




Did you hire an
editor to review your manuscript before publishing?

Absolutely. Nick over at Everything-Indie.com went over
Cerberus several times, providing valuable feedback that I used to improve the
novel.




What have you learned during your self-publishing journey?

Not everything goes according to plan; I expected to publish
my novel in early September but thanks to a new laptop, I was able to get it on
the market by the beginning of July.




Besides Amazon, are
there any other sites where your books are for sale?

Right now, The
Cerberus Rebellion is only available via Amazon because I'm enrolled in the
KDP Select program. I intend to let it go for one more cycle in Select because
I plan on having Book 2, The Hydra
Offensive, available by the end of the year and want to use Cerberus as a
springboard. I do have three short stories, The
Gathering Storm, The Sithean Betrayal and The Red Dragon's Gold that are available on Kobo and Barnes &
Noble.




What kinds of
marketing [twitter, facebook, blog, forums] are you involved with for promoting
your book(s)?

I have a blog at www.gunpowderfantasy.com
and I'm a member of Guild of Dreams (fantasycollective.wordpress.com). I've
very active on Twitter (@authorjkjohnson) and participate in about half a dozen
forums to promote my work.




Do you find it
difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and writing
your next book?

I have a pretty set schedule where I write; I do a lot of
on-the-go marketing via my smartphone and tablet




What advice would you
give a new author just entering into the self-publishing arena?

Keep writing. Like most everything else, you get better with
practice and the more titles that you have on the shelf the more visibility you
have.




What’s next for you?

I've got a novella set in the Griffins & Gunpowder
universe sitting on the shelf, waiting for me to go back over it after a hold
period. I'm currently working on the sequel to The Cerberus Rebellion: The Hydra Offensive.

Tracing the cultural flow of Symbols by Michelle Snyder

World of Symbols

Michelle
Snyder, M. Phil, Symbolist

www.whiteknightstudio.com

http://whiteknightstudio.blogspot.com/









Symbols flow like rivers through cultures: They migrate with people, and
as they are used, adopted, and adapted they pick up layers of meaning, like
water picks up elements from the ground over which it travels. Tracing the
origination of symbols is not unlike tracing the roots of words. We can follow
the similarities in the appearance of the symbols and their general meaning through the various cultures,
and based on the context of their use, can track their etymology. This etymology is evident in the visual aspect of a
symbol as well as in the concept it communicates.




Palimpsest and astatize come into play with the study of symbols. Palimpsest is the practice of scraping
ink from old papyrus in order to reuse it for new information. Shadows of the
old ink remain, as do shadows of the old significance of symbols. Astatize is best explained by watching
trees in the wind. The branches grow to disperse wind into different
directions. Like tree branches, symbols also astatize, growing from and merging
with one another, sometimes crossing paths many times. Sometimes the appearance
of the image evolves, sometimes only the conceptual message, sometimes both.




One can
learn much by comparing the use and meaning of similar images in different
cultures. As with mythologies, Faerie
tales, and legends, symbols often spread far beyond their place of origin.  Some symbols tell us what their makers
cherished, produced, traded, or feared. The development in the meanings of
symbols over time reflects the migration and changes in cultures. Legends
associated with symbols have roots in ancient cultures; here we can discover a
treasury of history, bringing deeper and clearer understanding of both the
stories and the people. With some symbols, the visual aspects of the symbol
have not changed or evolved as much as the associations attached to them. 




All cultures produce symbols. America is a place where many cultures
merge, and with that come a variety of symbols to enjoy. Contemporary artisans
use symbolism as decoration, or to create an association with a particular
symbol system. Painters, weavers, sculptors, and photographers all use visual
language to enrich their craft. The “Firefly Moon” gift store in Arlington offers
an eclectic variety of items. Beautiful mermaids in the window and on the
bookshelf wait for the right person to claim them. Wind chimes, handmade bags,
soap, and many other unique items surround the shopper with colors, shapes, and
symbols from a variety of cultures. Even the Man in the Moon makes an
appearance on the Grandfather Clock, “watching” all that come and go.




What are we layering onto the world of symbols? In our mass-production
culture finding something unique is difficult. Yet colorful handmade artwork, delicate
glass figurines, tapestries, quilts, or ceramic vases can enrich our homes as
an expression of our personalities; they help create a certain “feel” to the
space they are in. The shapes, colors, and patterns we choose are part of the
language of symbols; they speak to our family, friends, and visitors as surely
as we would with words. This visual record will preserve the character of our
generation, inherited by our children’s children. Just as we look at the images
familiar to our grandparents and think them odd, the pictures and symbols of
our generation will seem peculiar to our descendants. But in them will be a
treasure of information about the heritage of those that created them. 




Michelle Snyder, MPhil., author of Symbology:
Decoding Classic Images. For other books and articles by Michelle, visit
her website and blog at www.whiteknightstudio.com.





 

Remembering 9/11

We shall never forget
We shall keep this day,
We shall keep the events and the tears
In our minds, our memory and our hearts
and take them with us as we carry on.







 









UA 93's flight path on September 11, 2001, from Newark, New Jersey, to Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Interview with Nicole Bradley

Can you give us a brief overview of your latest book?

Wounded Heart is about Charity Parris going home after ending her five-year abusive
marriage and losing her baby.  Once
home she takes a position with her father's police force where she is partnered
with her teenage crush, Josh Muldoon, and who is also her brother Brian's best
friend. Sparks begin to fly between the two while they are working together to
bring down a killer who has an obsession with Charity.




Did you try the traditional route to publishing, i.e. querying
agents/publishers?

Yes I
did. I was originally with a publishing company, but found them not to be who I
wanted to be with at the time.




How are your story ideas born?

I am a
avid reader and I started reading Nora Roberts. Her first book I read was Night Shield and it sparked the idea of
two officers working closely together and falling in love.




Do you belong to a critique group? Have they helped improve your writing?


At the
moment I'm not. But would love to be a part of one.




What’s your favorite part of the writing process?

Discovering
new and interesting things about my characters. I love when they decide to take
the story in a different direction then I had in mind. 





What factors influenced your decision to self-publish to Amazon?

The idea
that I would have total control over how my books were written and promoted
where a big influence for me to self-publish.




What is your writing process?

I will
sit down and write a rough draft of a story. Then I will go back and pick it
apart and add or take out what doesn't flow with the story. I will then take it
all and put it together into a final draft. And then hours and hours of
editing.




How long did it take to write your latest release?

I
believe it took me six months to write Wounded
Heart.




Do you have a favorite line or scene from your latest release?

My
favorite scene from Wounded Heart is
when Charity shows up at Josh's apartment about two a.m wearing nothing but a
leather jacket. She then strips it away and tells him she wants his hands on
her.




Did you hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing?

No I
didn't. My friend Sandy is my editor so to speak. She is my second pair of
eyes.




Whats up next for you?


I am currently editing
my second release Arrested Heart and
hope to have it released by the first of the year.

Review: SHINING IN CRIMSON by Robert S Wilson

4 of 5 stars





SHINING IN CRIMSON is a nice departure
from the usual vampire books. This one has a unique storyline, one that I
enjoyed. The story revolves around Hank Evans who is sentenced to
death. Death under the New Empire rules is to be sentenced to
Necropolis, the former Las Vegas, now inhabited by vampires. The
vampires take care of the criminals and the Empire doesn't waste money
on prisons.



Hank doesn't want to die; he has a son who depends on him. Through an unusual event Hank manages to survive those first crucial hours and all he can think about is getting back to Toby, but the very fact that he has survived has now put him in the sight line of both the Emperor and the ruling vampires.



This is an inventive story with characters who are well-fleshed out and will make you care about them - both human and vampire alike. It's a fast read that will keep you guessing as to what happens next. My only criticism is that none of the story lines are wrapped up at the end of the book. It is definitely a cliff hanger.  If you're looking for a engrossing post-apocalyptic tale, you'll not go wrong picking up this one.

Blog tour: DARK SUMMER by Lizzy Ford

Dark Summer (Book I, Witchling Trilogy)
A girl with a broken past and a dark secret. A boy with a twisted future and no second chances. When they meet, it just might cost them their souls.

Sixteen-year-old Summer doesn’t expect the new boarding school to be any different than the rest: a temporary stay where everyone will turn against her after a few weeks. Until she meets the rest of the students at this special school and realizes she’s not the only one with magic in her blood. Accustomed to the concrete jungle of LA, she gets lost one night in the
forests of the Rocky Mountains and meets Decker, the boy who will become the Master of Night and Fire on his eighteenth birthday. Their connection is instant and dangerous, for both will be forced to choose between Light
and Dark, life and death, love – and their souls.

One choice. One soul. One price.

 



Kindle / Paperback

We're having a party to celebrate the release of Dark Summer HERE Sept 6 1pm - 4pm EST !Join the Event to chit chat with Lizzy, win prizes, and have a lot of FUN!



The author is working with Promotional Book Tours for a contest for a KINDLE FIRE and autographed copy of the book!! Fill out the form to Enter to win! Open to US for Kindle & Book or International for GC and Ebook
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