Linda Acaster's Blog, page 39
January 2, 2011
Torc of Moonlight - Trials & Tribulations
Was that a fast week, or what? Not got half accomplished that I wanted. I can see my TBDone list becoming as long as my TBRead list! And BookChickCity has just invited me to join in their 'read 100 books in 2011'. Aw shucks. I'd love to, really I would, but I have a novel to write, too, The Bull At The Gate the second in the trilogy, which may well have a change of trilogy name. Loooong story, starting with a banner advert. This is the sort of thing writers have to do these days. Once upon a time we only wrote.
Across on Kindleboards I am up for a banner ad of Torc of Moonlight on 05 January, so I had to make one. As Indiana Jones once famously said when left to fly a plane "How hard can it be?" Producing a picture and producing an eye-catching picture are two different things, but I got there in the end.
Along the way I realised that Book One in the North York Moors Trilogy hardly gives an insight into what the reader can expect. Especially with a big full moon on the cover. A werewolf novel, a la "American Werewolf in London"? Tsch, tsch. Worse, a vampire novel? This is what happens when an author is focused on writing a novel; that's all that writer sees. Whereas a casual reader has a much wider field of vision, and interpretation of words and images.
So the upshot is that the torc and moon stays, but the wording is Book One in the Celtic Goddess Trilogy: shorter, snappier and more focused to the reader's expectations.
Of course, none of this is getting Book Two written.
If you want to sample some of Torc of Moonlight there's another #SampleSunday excerpt running today. Be my guest.
Across on Kindleboards I am up for a banner ad of Torc of Moonlight on 05 January, so I had to make one. As Indiana Jones once famously said when left to fly a plane "How hard can it be?" Producing a picture and producing an eye-catching picture are two different things, but I got there in the end.
Along the way I realised that Book One in the North York Moors Trilogy hardly gives an insight into what the reader can expect. Especially with a big full moon on the cover. A werewolf novel, a la "American Werewolf in London"? Tsch, tsch. Worse, a vampire novel? This is what happens when an author is focused on writing a novel; that's all that writer sees. Whereas a casual reader has a much wider field of vision, and interpretation of words and images.
So the upshot is that the torc and moon stays, but the wording is Book One in the Celtic Goddess Trilogy: shorter, snappier and more focused to the reader's expectations.
Of course, none of this is getting Book Two written.
If you want to sample some of Torc of Moonlight there's another #SampleSunday excerpt running today. Be my guest.
December 26, 2010
#SampleSunday
Three weeks ago across on Kindle Author, David Wisehart started an experiment, tweeting #SampleSunday, where participating authors uploaded a sample of their work to their blog and Tweeted to let the world know.
Week 1 I participated with an excerpt from my short fiction collection 'Contribution to Mankind and other stories of the Dark'. Week 2 I moved onto the Prologue of 'Torc of Moonlight Special Edition', and this week it is half of a quite long Chapter One.
If you'd like to take a shuftie please pop across to http://lindaacaster.blogspot.com a>. You might be pleasantly surprised.
And then, if you are a Tweeter, search #SampleSunday for a full list of this week's participating authors.
I'm off to read the instructions on my new Kindle. Catch you later.
Week 1 I participated with an excerpt from my short fiction collection 'Contribution to Mankind and other stories of the Dark'. Week 2 I moved onto the Prologue of 'Torc of Moonlight Special Edition', and this week it is half of a quite long Chapter One.
If you'd like to take a shuftie please pop across to http://lindaacaster.blogspot.com a>. You might be pleasantly surprised.
And then, if you are a Tweeter, search #SampleSunday for a full list of this week's participating authors.
I'm off to read the instructions on my new Kindle. Catch you later.
December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas and Hello!
Christmas Day seems an odd day to start my Goodreads blog, but it's been an odd sort of week. The 'great rush' is finally over and this should be a period for putting my feet up and taking some time out, but I really don't feel like doing that (I may change my mind tomorrow after a sleep). I feel like "author housekeeping", so thought I'd try to put my Goodreads page into some sort of order. I don't find it particularly intuitive, but perhaps I'm just being a bit dim.
For instance, I'm still trying to find a way of shifting my own books about on their shelf, so my newest are on page 1, and the out of print on page 2. If anyone would like to take me by the hand I'd be grateful.
I also tried to link my blogspot blog a> to this blog, but indented paragraphing seems to disappear, making garbage of my blogspot posts. So I think I'll just drop a note here when post.
So is there any book news for Christmas? I've been gifted the audio 'The Greatest Knight' by Elizabeth Chadwick, which will be great while I commute, though I'm not entirely sure yet if I can put this on my shelves.
And the BIG news is that I've got a Kindle, which I'm really looking forward to using.
Good grief, here in the UK it's already Boxing Day, or what should be Boxing Day if it wasn't Sunday, so I shall say goodnight and do a bit more tomorrow.
For instance, I'm still trying to find a way of shifting my own books about on their shelf, so my newest are on page 1, and the out of print on page 2. If anyone would like to take me by the hand I'd be grateful.
I also tried to link my blogspot blog a> to this blog, but indented paragraphing seems to disappear, making garbage of my blogspot posts. So I think I'll just drop a note here when post.
So is there any book news for Christmas? I've been gifted the audio 'The Greatest Knight' by Elizabeth Chadwick, which will be great while I commute, though I'm not entirely sure yet if I can put this on my shelves.
And the BIG news is that I've got a Kindle, which I'm really looking forward to using.
Good grief, here in the UK it's already Boxing Day, or what should be Boxing Day if it wasn't Sunday, so I shall say goodnight and do a bit more tomorrow.
