Tabitha Barret's Blog, page 2

Author Spotlight: SL Shelton, "Waking Wolfe" (Scott Wolfe Series Book 1)

When I heard about SL Shelton and his "Scott Wolfe Series," I was intrigued by the idea of a man running halfway around the world to save his girlfriend from terrorists.  I purchased "Waking Wolfe", and "Unexpected Gaines" and was immediately hooked on the series. Wanting to learn more about the force behind the "Scott Wolfe Series", I contacted SL Shelton to find out what inspired him to create this engaging five book series.



Book Title:  Waking WolfeBook Genre:Thriller (Political, Espionage, Technothriller, Conspiracy)Book Audience: 17 and up, not suitable for middle school. Violence, Sexual Situations, explicit torture in some cases with vivid descriptions from the tortured character's point of view.
Book Description:  This is the first volume in S.L. Shelton's unfolding story of corporate corruption in the

Scott Wolfe is a talented computer and electronics security specialist and an avid rock climber. He's a pretty typical twenty-something; he likes to party, he's bad at relationships, and he is a bit more adventurous than common sense would dictate.

He does have one trait that makes him atypical, though. That gift is the secret to his professional success—and it comes in quite handy when a rash decision turns his life upside down.

How much responsibility does a man have for the life of an ex-girlfriend? That's the question Scott had to ask himself when Barb Whitney, her father (a State Department Attorney) and twenty eight other diplomats and their families, were supposedly killed in a terrorist attack in Amsterdam.

When Scott gets a text message from Barb's phone after the explosion, he is propelled into an adrenaline charged operation, worthy of the intelligence agencies he is trying to avoid.

Dodging killers, organized crime, mercenaries, and the CIA, he struggles against a clock that even he doesn't know is ticking.world's governments and the adventures of a young Scott Wolfe, who is unknowingly swept into a secret war of massive proportions.
How did you become involved in writing stories/books?  What was your motivation to become a published author? I've always loved spinning stories. Since I was a kid I excelled at it. Unfortunately, I wasn't a good student, so the idea of sitting down to write anything other than a few paragraphs was not palatable. When I was in a young man in the military, at a time of great upheaval in my life, I had a dream...a very vivid dream that stays with me in amazing detail to this day. In this dream, my grandfather came to New England to visit me despite having passed several years earlier. In this dream, he took me in his car (which turned out to be someone else's car) to a book store in the town I lived in at the time. He showed me a stack of books on the display table, leading me to believe he wanted me to buy a particular book. But when I looked more closely at the cover, I saw that I was the author. When I asked him what it meant, without speaking, he led me back to the car and I proceeded to get down low in the back seat, for fear of being seen by guards at a checkpoint (I have no idea why). After driving for some time, he stopped in front of a house, got out without a word and joined another older man before disappearing around the corner. 
The dream ends there. At no time did he ever say a word to me and at no time did I discover why I was "hiding" from authorities.  My grandmother later described the car, the house and the other man I had seen after I had given a very vague description of the car...I started writing my first book after that. Sadly, it was horrible. Over the years, I had started many first and second chapters, but never finished any until I retired from the tech industry after selling my company. Three months after retiring, I began writing the Scott Wolfe Series. 
What inspired you to create your main character Scott Wolfe?  When you wrote the first book “Waking Wolfe,” did you have a master plan for creating the series, or were you compelled to write more about Scott once you finished? Scott Wolfe is a combination of personalities; I'm in there a lot, as is my son, who I must say is often more laid back than I was at the same age. Physically, Scott's adventures are beyond me. But emotionally, I've been through the entire range, so when constructing a character like Scott, I have a lot of experience and observation to draw on. 
When writing the first novel, I had no idea it would be a series until I was almost half way through the first draft. But I realized there was too much character depth and pent up emotion not to let it spill into more books. I'm glad it worked out that way and the story arc for the series was very easy to outline once I decided to carry it forward.
You have a technical background in computers, which you have imparted upon Scott.  How much of his technical expertise comes from your experiences, and how much of it is based on research? The basic technical premise of data organization, flow charting, and the can-do attitude of  "yeah, I can get there from here", is all mine. But my practical experience in hacking, system security, viruses and fancy spy gadgets is nearly nonexistent. I wasn't that kind of programmer. And by the time my tech company had grown to need that sort of expertise, I had hired others to do the heavy lifting. The running joke in my firm was that "your code better pass QA or Shelton would take a look at it...he'll find the problem but it will take three times longer than it took you to write it." So, yes. I had the technical background to do most of it, but I was so excruciatingly slow at anything other than design, the techs would hide their work from me when I walked by. I did, however, over my long career, learn plausible "geek speak" to answer questions from clients and staff when asked silly or demanding questions. Sounding confident in your tech jargon usually is enough to shut down more penetrating questions and often gives you the appearance of a wizard, imparting grand mystical secrets that they couldn't hope to understand...usually with a reply from them of "Oh! Okay then. Thanks for that."
Scott and his CIA colleagues inevitably find themselves in the middle of dangerous situations, whether by choice, or accidentally due to the nature of their missions.  What are some of the difficulties in writing an action sequence or a fight scene?  I've never found it difficult to write action or fight scenes. Like much of my "design" success, I am able to visualize in great detail. In my younger years, I also studied various fighting styles ( some are mentioned in the books) and at one brief period in my life, I was prone to fights...okay, maybe not brief, maybe it was most of my young life...Okay, I was a fighter from an early age and continued to fight well into my twenties...maybe my early thirties.  Alright, alright, I'm a bruiser and like to kick ass...okay, are you satisfied? ;)
With the release of your fifth book, “Harbinger,” do you look back on your previous books to see how you have grown as a writer and a storyteller?  How is this book different from the previous ones from a writing aspect? YES! Oh my God! I'm almost embarrassed by my first release of Waking Wolfe (Then it was called "A Lamb in Wolfe's Clothing") I've taken on a ritual of going back and revising each novel as I release a new one. I'm still very much developing as an author and since I did so poorly in school, am not the most educated writer. I'm very happy with the stories themselves, but the writing style has been updated in the early books a couple times...including recently with the release of Harbinger.
I look back at some early changes and cringe. For example;  I was once given advice from an author friend I respect, who told me that dialog tags could be more than just said or replied, so I went back and updated to exchange nearly all occurrences of "said" and "replied" with other, more flowery tags.  MISTAKE!  It made the dialog (something I'm usually very strong at writing) difficult to read through, clumsy and forced. I've scrapped that whole premise and have rewritten all novels in my original style of dialog.
Some readers have commented on the fact that you write in both first person and third person throughout the books.  It seems to confuse some readers while others adapt quickly to it.  What made you decide to use both points of view?  That was a tough choice and I agonized over it for a long time. I initially had intended for the stories to be multi third person POV. But when I started to put Scott alone and with his "voice", I decided the flow would be much better if the camera was lodged directly in his skull. After rewriting the first few chapters in that style, my early beta readers liked the change of perspective. Unfortunately, I also had much back story in the form of other characters that I wanted to include in the stories. I've tried to keep the separation clear and given plenty of warning to the reader when they start a new section from another point of view, i.e. "NICK HORIATIS slammed his fist into the..."
I have to say, I'm much happier with the story that way and have come to look at it as simply "bonus footage" of events outside Scott's line of sight.
Looking ahead to the future of the Scott Wolfe Series, what can we expect to see?  Are there more books planned, or is “Harbinger” the end of the series?  What do you hope readers take away with them after reading your series? There are a few more books in the current Wolfe incarnation. I haven't decided if I will take the series further than the "epic" conclusion of Scott's first year in his new life, but I foresee two or three more books in the current Arc. As for what my reader takes from the series, I hope they are, first, entertained, and second, inspired to examine the world around them more closely, looking at all the subtle, hidden meanings in life and becoming curious enough to question them and pry further. But mostly to be entertained. :)
Books in the series:Waking Wolfe, Unexpected Gaines, Danger Close, Wolfe Trap, and Harbinger (released May 2015)
Start the Series Now!  Purchase "Waking Wolfe" at Amazon.com (exclusively)
Check out my 4.5 Star Review of "Waking Wolfe" (Scott Wolfe Series Book 1)
Check out my 5 Star Review of "Unexpected Gaines" (Scott Wolfe Series Book 2)  Author Biography: S.L. Shelton is a passionate, fact spouting former techie and soldier who is constantly at odds with his need to kick the legs out from under those who abuse their power (Political, Economic or Super). He lives on a tiny little farm on the banks of a tiny little river in the northwestern part of Virginia, where his semi-secret identity is somewhat protected on three sides. Despite deep misgivings about writing on subjects close to his own life, he has penned a series of books about a similarly broken, similarly gifted young man who similarly doesn't have a clue when to stop and re-evaluate life decisions.

Before building his career in the computer field for nearly two decades as a developer, designer, trainer, and a CEO, he had the honor of serving in the US Armed Forces in several roles, most involving explosives of some sort. After selling his successful micro empire in 2011, Shelton retired to his study which he hasn't left since. On most days he writes, but when left alone and to his own devices, breaks his troll like existence long enough to sneak into the sunlight and fire a weapon or two, snap a few pictures or pick some vegetables from his wife's prized organic garden beds.

Though his climbing days are behind him due to injuries (several to the head), he was an avid rock climber, having climbed for decades since his teen years. His three children are grown and living very adventurous lives of their own.

Waking Wolfe is his first published novel and the first novel in the Scott Wolfe Series, followed by Unexpected Gaines, Danger Close, Wolfe Trap and Harbinger. Predator's Game is scheduled for release near the end of 2015 

To learn more about SL Shelton's "Scott Wolfe Series"
follow him on the following sites: 
https://www.facebook.com/SLShelton.Author
https://twitter.com/SLSheltonAuthor
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7545162.S_L_Shelton
Website: http://www.boldsteps.com
Blog: https://wolfeauthor.wordpress.com/

 

Author Spotlight: Erin S. Riley, "Odin's Shadow" (Sons of Odin Series Book 1)

I recently had the opportunity to read and review an ARC copy of Erin S. Riley's book, "Odin's Shadow", which is the first book in her "Sons of Odin" Series.  With the second book, "A Flame Put Out" due for release in August 2015, I wanted to take the time to learn more about Erin and her phenomenal series. 


Book Title: Odin's Shadow Book Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance, Viking Era Book Audience: Mature Audiences due to Violence and Sexual Situations
Book Description: Selia is a girl on the verge of womanhood, frustrated by the confines of her gender and resentful of the freedom her brother boasts of. Intelligent and resourceful in a time when neither is valued in a female, she longs for an escape from her sheltered existence. Fascinated by the tales of Viking raids told by her maidservant, her hunger for independence is fed through the stories of heathen ferocity she hears at the woman’s knee.

A decision to sneak to the city’s harbor to view the Viking longships leads to an encounter with Alrik Ragnarson, a charismatic Viking warlord whose outward beauty masks a dark and tortured mind. With the knowledge that her father is about to announce her betrothal to a man she doesn’t love, Selia marries Alrik and within a day is on the longship bound for Norway and a new life.

While Selia’s relationship with her new husband grows, her friendship with his brother Ulfrik grows as well. And as Alrik’s character flaws come to light and tension mounts between the two brothers, Selia begins to have misgivings about her hasty marriage . . . especially when a secret from the past is revealed, one that threatens to destroy them all.

What made you decide to become an Author and write a book series?I have a very active imagination and I’ve always written stories in my head. But other than creative writing projects I did at school, I never wrote any of it down. I have an unusual ability to make up stories on the fly, so I had a lot of fun with this when my kids were little. Stories about the tooth fairy (my daughter) and Bigfoot (my son) were frequent requests on long car trips! I think I would have been a traveling storyteller if I lived in the days of old. 
I had surgery in 2010, and my surgeon told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to be still for 8 weeks. I’m not a person accustomed to being still! So I decided to write a book to keep myself occupied. The story had been written in my head for a few years by that point, so it was just a matter of getting it all written down on the computer.  The first draft of Odin’s Shadow was written in those eight weeks. 
The three books in the series are a continuation of the same storyline begun in Odin’s Shadow. After the main three books are completed, I plan to write 7-8 additional Viking books featuring other characters introduced in the first three.
Why did you choose to write a Historical Romance and what are some of the difficulties associated with the genre? I don’t consider Odin’s Shadow to be a typical historical romance. I like to think of it as historical fiction with romantic elements. Although the relationship between the main characters is the overarching focus, there is so much more going on in the book than just romance. 
I’m a very eclectic reader, and I find I enjoy just about any genre as long as the book is well written. But I know many readers of historical romance prefer a more formulaic novel than the books I write. That’s why I market my books as both historical romance and historical fiction, so people know what they’re getting in to!
What is your favorite part of “Odin’s Shadow?”  What was the hardest part to write?My favorite part is near the end, when Selia grows a backbone and finally decides what she wants. She tells off several people who have presumed to make decisions for her. All she’s wanted from the beginning of the book is to be her own person and not be under anyone’s thumb. It felt good for Selia to just let it out and basically tell her brother and Ulfrik to go to hell. However, being that Selia is very young and has been sheltered for most of her life, she doesn’t have the life experience to know what a good decision actually is. So, although she makes a decision for herself at the end, she will end up dealing with the ramifications of this decision for the next two books.
The hardest part to write is when I’m in Alrik’s POV. Alrik is easy to write when his behavior is described from another POV, but to actually get in his head is exhausting. Writing him feels like holding on to a time bomb.
Your main character Alrik is a dangerous Viking leader with a brutal nature.  What were some of the problems in creating such a dark character?  Where there times when you thought he was too dark?My characters come to me fully developed, like flesh and blood people, rather than me making them up bit by bit until I get something I like. Alrik Ragnarson is dark, yes.  But that’s who he is and I can’t change him into something more palatable. He has a mental illness in an age when there was no treatment or medication, so he tries to self-medicate with alcohol and various ways of intense physical release. Many of the things he’s done are blood-chillingly awful. Yet he’s not a one-dimensional villain, either--he has some redeeming qualities, too. Selia tells him she loves the good in him more than she hates the bad. If he was all bad, the book would be so much less interesting!
Readers may argue that Selia is making the wrong choice by loving Alrik because he is a tyrant.  What do you say to readers who may question this type of complex relationship?  What drives these characters to fight for their relationship, despite all of the challenges that they must face?My answer to that is:  remember there are two more books in this series! The story of Selia, Alrik and Ulfrik is far from over. These characters are very complex. Everyone brings “baggage” from childhood and early relationships, and my fictional characters are no exception.  Selia is eighteen years old in book one and she still has some growing up to do. She thinks she made the right choice, and she thinks she can help Alrik be a better person. She feels that she herself is as broken as Alrik is, and perhaps by loving him unconditionally she thinks she will be worthy of unconditional love in return. Those readers who have “been there, done that” in an unhealthy relationship might have a different take on her decision. But again, this is book one. There is much more to come.
Looking ahead to the next book, “A Flame Put Out,” what should your fans expect to see from their favorite characters?  What kinds of trials will they have to endure and will their relationship continue to be tested?A Flame Put Out reveals the fallout of the decisions that were made in Odin’s Shadow. Selia will be dealing with huge ramifications of her ultimatum to Muirin. We learn a little more about what happened with their father on the day of Selia and Ainnileas’ birth. Ulfrik makes a reappearance, now in the war band of the last person you would expect to see him with. Alrik is dealt a blow that sends him deeper into the darkness. Selia is a mother now, and has her children to think of. Her relationship with Alrik sorely tested, will her desire to keep her children safe outweigh her original decision to stand by her man?
  Check out my 5 Star Review of "Odin's Shadow"
Click to purchase a copy of "Odin's Shadow" on Amazon.com

Author Biography: Erin S. Riley has an undergraduate degree in psychology and a graduate degree in clinical counseling. She is also a board certified lactation consultant and has had extensive training in maternal-child health. Since Erin was a child, she has been fascinated with human nature and what motivates behavior. Erin's books feature complicated, imperfect characters who love deeply, make reckless decisions, and try again until they get it right.
A lifelong lover of books, Erin taught herself to read at the age of four and hasn’t been without a book since. She is an equal-opportunity reader of fiction and non-fiction, and her shelves are filled with books on psychology, archeology, anthropology, and general history. The social history of women and their place in society across the ages is a favorite reading topic of Erin’s.

Erin is drawn to any creative pursuit, from making hand-stitched quilts to producing mini-movies for family and friends from home videos. But writing has always been her passion. When Erin isn't writing, she enjoys spending time with her two wonderful children, reading anything she can get her hands on, watching football, and renovating her house with her husband of 17 years. 

To learn more about Erin S. Riley's "Sons of Odin's Series"
follow her on the following sites: 


https://www.facebook.com/erinsrileyauthor
https://erinsriley.wordpress.com/  https://twitter.com/erinsriley1
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20527200-odin-s-shadow 

Why You Need a Giveaway or Contest to Promote Your Books

Should you run a Giveaway or Contest to promote your book?  If you want to gain the attention of potential readers, then yes, you want to host a Giveaway or Contest.  Unfortunately, this can be a sore subject with authors.  There are always complaints about giving away the book that the author has spent countless months or years working on.  Why should the author have to give their work away for free, or spend money to promote a contest?  It’s a tough problem to consider, but once you realize that giving a book away, or offering a reward will gain the attention of more readers, then it outweighs keeping extra copies of your book in a box under your desk collecting dust.
FREE FREE FREE - Consumers have become accustomed to getting something for nothing, even if it’s something small.  This is why extreme coupon clipping has become a sport.  The time spent on collecting the coupons may not be worth the $0.35 off a frozen dinner, but it’s the satisfaction that you save money on something.  Giving discounts or freebies warms the heart of a consumer and will grab their attention faster than a beautiful book cover will.  Sadly, the author has to give something up, but hopefully the reward of gaining new readers will be worth it.
In my everyday life, I have sold promotional giveaways and walked through tradeshows.  I will tell you that interesting toys or giveaways will bring people to your booth at a tradeshow.  The more interesting or unique the giveaway, the more people will line up.  Will you sell every person who walks into your booth?  No, but they will remember you every time they look at the giveaway stamped with your business name on it.  Personally, if the booth had candy in it, I was the first one there, but even candy can be imprinted.  In the case of the author, giving away their beloved book can be a good way to get a review in return.  A good review can definitely outweigh the price of a printed copy if it helps to sell more books, or raises your book in the ranks of book selling sites.
The best way to think about it is to consider the exposure that your book can garner when a giveaway is done the right way.  Goodreads.com is an excellent place to host a giveaway.  They are a social media site where readers exchange their ideas on books.  Their site will regulate the giveaway and promote it on their site.  You will need to define the giveaway, but they will only allow hard copies of books to be given away at this time.  You can offer up as many copies as you want.  You will set the time period for the contest and write the description.  Once approved and the giveaway goes live, there is a page dedicated to all of their giveaways.  It will be up to you to drive additional readers to the site.  The nice thing about Goodreads is their giveaway app.  You can copy the HTML into your website, or blog and it will link the giveaway in seconds.
The Cupie Doll Goes to the Boy in the Blue Shirt - Hosting a contest is another way of attracting the attention of potential readers.  Here, the prize doesn’t have to be your book, as long as the contest references the book in some way.  You can give away a gift card or some kind of merchandise associated with your book.  When you run a contest, you can ask for something in exchange for the chance of winning.  In this case, you may ask for LIKES on your Facebook account, or Email addresses that can be used to build your email campaign to promote future book releases.
The key is to offer something enticing, which won’t break your piggybank, in exchange for something you find of value.  I have seen contests where the site will talk about the book and then offer an interview by the author.  To enter the contest the reader has to answer a question such as, “What was your favorite part of the author’s interview?”, or “What was your favorite comment about their book?”  I assume that they will later use these comments in marketing campaigns or on their websites as testimonials.
The Structure of a Contest - If you decide to run a contest, you will need to decide on your objects, your platform for the contest, the rules, what you are willing to offer, and how can someone win.
Objective: Before you even decide to run a contest, decide why you need one?  Are you selling something?  Are you promoting something?  These are necessarily the same objectives.  Selling implies that you want a direct purchase from your contest.  Promoting is selling the concept of your book.
Do you want to sell more books? - This is Direct Sales.  A giveaway would be more suited for a direct sales approach.  A giveaway will expose potential readers to your book for the first time.  There is an instant gratification upon seeing the cover, or reading the blurb.  They may enter the giveaway for a signed copy, but if they are interested in the book, they may buy an ebook.
Do you want to gain more visitors to your website?  Do you want more LIKES on Facebook? - These are Promoting Strategies.  They are long term investments if you have a series that you need to build a following for.  You want people to bookmark your site for future events and news, or LIKE your Facebook to stay up to date on your posts.  Contests can be geared to help you achieve both of these objectives.
Platform for the Contest - You will need to be realistic in your expectations.  The bigger the prize, the more people will run to your site, but you may not want every person looking for a gift card to enter.  This is where the platform becomes important.  If you want people to LIKE your Facebook, then you will have to host it there and drive people to the Facebook page.  The same goes for promoting your new website.  These contests may have to be a little more creative.  You may not want to offer something large, but perhaps something related to the book.  To enter the contest, require an email so that you can contact them if they win, and ask the contestants to tell you their favorite book or favorite genre when they enter.  You can search through the answers to find readers that may have an interest in your book.  Those are the people that you want to put on your mailing list.
You can also make the contest part of a book release.  If you are creative, or make your own book covers, then host a contest to pick between different versions of the cover.  The winner can be pulled from those contestants that picked the winning cover.  You can use a gift card to entice them to enter, but make them part of the book launching process.  You could also have them choose the opening sentence for the book, or vote on a favorite excerpt, based on three choices.  These are ways of getting people interested in the book and make them feel like they are a part of the experience of creating a book.  People love to have an opinion!  Use their feedback to understand how readers view your writing.  This can be very valuable, especially when writing a series.
Rules of the Contest- Be sure to state very clearly what the rules are before the reader enters the contest.
- Define what the prize or prizes are.
- State the time period of the contest.
- State the restrictions of 18+ since it is a contest, but you may include other restrictions based on state and federal regulations.  You may want to exclude certain groups of people, like employees of a publishing company, or anyone that shouldn’t enter the contest depending on what type of contest it is.
- State how many people can potentially win, but that not everyone will win.
- State how the winner will be chosen.  Randomly is preferable.
- State how any information obtained through the contest will be treated.  Will their information be sold to a third party (hopefully not), will it be used for future marketing campaigns, will it be used in any other manner, or will it not be used at all?  People want to know how their information is handled; otherwise, they might not enter the contest.
- State how they will be contacted if they won, and how they can obtain their prize, or find out if they won.  Will the winner be clearly shown on Facebook, the website, etc.?  Will the prize be mailed or emailed?
These are some of the things that need to be taken into consideration before running a contest.  It’s always best to find out what kind of state and federal laws, such as taxes and restrictions, apply in your state.  There are different types of apps on Facebook that can assist in running contests.  Contests for websites will have to be more carefully researched.
As painful as it may be to offer up a free book, or a gift card, the exposure can be invaluable.  If no one knows that your book is out there in the sea of millions of other books, how can readers be expected to find it?  Make your book stand out but be creative about it.  The most popular booths at my local Health and Wellness Fair weren’t the booths with the cool banners or the ones with the video monitors, they were the booths that interacted with people and offered them something worthy of their attention.  While you may not be able to offer face painting, give them a chance to win something exciting.

A Different Approach to Book Press Releases

After you complete your book and are ready to publish, there are a million things to take care of before the book goes live.  One of those things is to write a Press Release.  A press release is a news piece that is sent to newspapers and online news sources.  It details who you are, what your book is about, and why someone will want to buy your book.  Once you have it written, you have to submit it to different media outlets.  The problem comes when no one picks up your release.  You might wonder, “why didn’t they post my story?”  Probably because there are millions of other authors who are doing exactly the same time, but what can you do?
Launching a book for a self-published author is an uphill battle.  No one knows you; no one wants to give your book a chance, because are not backed by a big name publisher, so sometimes a self-published author has to start small.  Yes, you have a submitted your book to Amazon.com and Smashwords, but they are large sites and you are just one person.  You have to build your own audience and then drive them to large book sites or you will never succeed, one way to do that it to start small and focus on your hometown.
Extra Extra Read All About It - Instead of shooting for the stars and sending your press release to every major news outlet, start by submitting to your local papers.  Every town and community has a few papers that will run local news articles.  Gain the support of your neighbors and community, while working your major social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter.  The key to submitting a press release to local media and community sites is to make the local community care about you, as a person, not a writer, or an author of the “next great American novel.”
Local Man Does Something Amazing - Create your press release by talking about yourself from a community aspect.  What makes you stand out as a person and as a writer?  Talk about your struggles in writing your book.  Make the press release interesting to local readers.  This is an opportunity to humanize yourself and be spotlighted as more than just a writer behind a keyboard.  Mention the book and give a brief description of it, but think of the rest of the article as a human interest story.  If you already have ties to the community, then talk about that as well.  People like reading about individuals who have struggled to achieve something.  Find an aspect of your life than can be highlighted to make people relate to you and care about you.  They are more likely to support you by telling others about you.  They may not read your book, but they will talk about you and help spread your name.  
Dear Editor, Please Post My Story - When submitting your press release to local papers, remember to be polite to them.  Most local sites don’t have a press release submission procedure, so you will have to send a general email to them asking them to run your article.  They are people in your community, show them respect.  They might not be lead reports at a huge metro paper, but they are the people you want to be nice to.  They have to review your submission and decide if they will publish it, but they are also members of the community.  If they are interested in your article, they will tell others.  If you are disrespectful and don’t thank them for their time, they will remember it the next time you ask them to post a news article and may pass on your submission.  
In Other News - Once the local papers have started to accept and publish your article, you will need to rewrite your press release for the other media outlets.  This release will focus on you as a writer and why someone should read your book, but it will have to appeal to a larger audience.  This is the “go big, or go home” article.  Take the basic elements of your original article and enhance them to stand out against the millions of other press releases.  Keep in mind that you must be truthful in your article and don’t over promise something you can’t deliver.  Always make the article creative, but realistic, and gear it toward your target audience.  If you write children’s books, appeal to the parents who will buy it for their children.  If you write romance novels, appeal to the women and men who love a good romantic story line.  Write your article for your reader, not the other portion of the population who has no interest in reading, or who only care about actual live news.  Jazz up your release with creative words and interesting facts about you and your book, but keep it grounded in reality.
Before you start your press release, Google “how to write a press release” for the basic layout and structure.  There are plenty of sites that can help.  The release date of the book will need to be posted at the top, or label it for Immediate Release.  Then create a cover letter for the review sites that only offer an email address for submission and don't forget to attached your book cover and/or author photo.  Most of all, have patience in submitting the press release.  Not every news outlet will post the article for different reasons, so it may have to be submitted again after some revisions, or during a slower news cycle.
For an example of my “local” press release, click here.

Why You Should Create an Author Q&A for Your Site

The first time I told someone that I was writing a book, I received a curious look and a nod, though the person didn’t ask too many questions beyond what the book was about.  They tuned out when they heard Romance, or Paranormal Romance.  They didn’t ask too many questions beyond the premise or the genre.  When I told people that I had published a book, suddenly their interest level grew.  When they had the hard copy of the book in their hands, it was a completely different reaction.  They were surprised that I had published a book and started asking all kinds of questions.  Most people said they had never personally known anyone who had written a book.  They looked at me differently.  They were excited for me, but it was beyond that, it was like they were excited that they had met a real live author.  It was strange since I hadn’t changed and I had been writing my series secretly for over three years, so I didn’t understand their reaction.  That’s when I realized that I had accomplished something that not everyone had done; I had made my dream a reality.  
Oh My God, You Wrote a Book, How Cool!  While I wasn’t prepared for the new way that they looked at me, I wasn’t prepared for their questions either.  Now, the questions were more about how I had accomplished this goal and what had inspired me to write a book.  I had never thought about these questions before, since I had always wanted to write a book, and had actually written a few that I wasn’t happy with as far back as high school.  To me, it was a fact that I wanted to write and I had found a way to do it.  I couldn’t figure out why people suddenly cared about these kinds of answers.  It took some time for me to understand that they were interested because it was something that they either thought was an impossible task, or had always wanted to do, but never had the chance.  People are always interested in others who do something they think is impossible, or that they would never be able to do.  I had to accept that they wanted to know more about me and that I had to tell them something.
I had spent so much time thinking of ways to promote my book.  I had never given a thought to promoting myself.  I didn’t have an interesting bio line for my book because I didn’t think I was all that interesting.  It dawned on me that authors could be as interesting as their book.  People want to know how you accomplished your dream.  They want to know how you managed to do something they have never done before.  That’s where the Author Question & Answer becomes important. 
Wow!  How Did You Ever Manage to Write a Book?  Taking the time to create questions that people might be interested in and crafting an honest and interesting answer is important for writers to do.  Our books go off into the world and we never interact with most of the people reading them.  One way to interact with them is set up a Q&A on your blog, or your website so that people can learn more about you, especially if you are creating a series and want readers to become more familiar with you and your work.  
I started off with basic questions for my Q&A, questions that I had been asked by people I knew.
“What inspired you to write a book?”“Why did you decide to write this genre?”“How long have you been writing?”“How did you manage to find time to write a book and publish it?”“How did you come with the idea for the book?”
These are just some examples of questions that seemed to come up over and over again.  At first, I really didn’t have an answer for them because I never dwelled on it.  After I thought about the questions, I still didn’t know what to say because I had always been quiet about my writing.  I never thought I would have to plaster my life story on a billboard. I could talk all day long about my characters and my story, but I’m just the shy girl sitting in front of her computer writing down the stories in her imagination.  Who cares about me and what I do aside from writing?  I realized that by learning about me, as the author, they might glean some insight into how they might accomplish their own goals.  “If she could do it, I could do it!”  Other people were just surprised that they didn’t know me as well as they had thought.
Talking about yourself can be tough for some people, so it’s best to have some kind of a prepared answer so that you don’t come off sounding like a babbling moron.  You are a writer, for goodness sake, so sound like you know how to string two sentences together.  Think about these questions and be prepared to give people a glimpse into your world and your imagination.  Your answer doesn’t have to be long, but it should give the reader something to take away with them.
How Did You Create That Character?  Once you have down the basic answers about you and why you are writing, you will need to tackle more difficult questions for your Q&A.  You will have to answer questions about your books, but in reference to you writing about the books.  You have already given your book blurb and your readers already know the plot and the fact that the villain dies, but now they want to know what it was like to write their favorite book, or their favorite scene, or their favorite character.  Now you have the write the Book Q&A.
The Book Q&A isn’t about the how your main character is destined to end the world; it’s about how you came up with the concept.  What made you write about her?  Your readers are curious about your writing process and why you made certain decisions.  These questions can be difficult to tackle because most likely you were writing and the idea came to you and wrote it down.  Now you have to explain your decisions and satisfy the reader’s curiosity about the story you wrote.  
Here are some basic questions:
What was the hardest scene to write?What’s your favorite part of the book?What was the motivation for your main character to (do whatever he did)?Who is your favorite character to write for?How did you come up with these characters?How do you give each character their own personality and voice?
To answer these questions, think about them from the reader’s perspective.  They love your characters, or hate the bad guys.  They want to know how their love story was created, or if you knew someone like him or her.  Are any of the characters based on someone you know?  When readers have an emotional response to your book or characters, they want to know more about them.  They want to feel closer to them and make them more real, beyond the pages of the book.  There are even role-playing sites set for books and characters.  Just because you wrote the characters doesn’t mean they will stay yours forever.  Readers will want to experience them in different kinds of way.  Give them what they want and make them fall in love with your stories.
I’m So Excited for the Next Book!  If you are planning to write a series, or already have one in the works, don’t let your readers down.  Give them a taste of what is to come.  If they fell in love with your book, then odds are they are clamoring for information about the next one.  Will their favorite character live or die?  Who will the main character chose the farmhand or the rich lawyer?  Will they get married?  Teaser Q&As are even more important because they whet the appetite of your insatiable reader and give them something to look forward to.  Give them just enough information that they will mark the date on their phone so that they can preorder the next book the moment it’s available.Teaser questions will be more tailored to your book, but leave your answers vague or open ended, with just enough information to drive the reader nuts.  The questions are specific to your plot line, but answer them as the writer.
Q: Will she finally make a decision on who she will chose?  A: “Annie” has a lot of things she needs to consider when it comes to these two guys.  One loves her with all his heart, but has his flaws, the other is the better man for her, but can she love him?  Annie will have to tough road ahead of her in the “Title of the next book”.  (You don’t have to tell the reader whether or not the decision will be made until book 3, but you can help progress the story)
Q: He was captured/injured/missing, will they find him/will he die in this book?A: The last we saw of “Derick” he was in bad shape.  We will see more of him the “Title of the next book”, but he will face a lot of challenges.  He will have to bargain for his life, if he decides that he wants to live.  (Tease them with possible scenarios, or give them a vague description of what will happen to Derick, but leave enough room for readers to worry about him.  Make them HAVE to read the next book to make sure that their favorite character lives or dies.) 
Teaser questions can make or break the excitement of the pending book, so work on it until there is enough suspense for readers to want to dive into the next book.
What Do You Find Interesting about My Book?  If you don’t know what to ask, then let your readers decide what to ask.  Ask for feedback and open the floor up to them.  Create a form for them to ask the questions they are dying to know.  Use a forum like Goodreads.com where you can allow readers to ask their questions through the site.  You can direct them there and set the questions for daily, weekly, or for a specific time.  You can answer just the questions you want or ignore strange ones.  Once you have your questions, you can repost them on your own sites.
Creating and answering these questions will take time, but they are worth it in the end.  They are yet another way of promoting your books, especially when you can’t be there personally to answer the questions.  Read through your answers from a reader’s perspective to make sure that your answers are interesting, but still leave something to their imagination.  Go back and change up the questions once the next book comes out so that there is always fresh information for your readers to absorb.  Have fun with the answers, but give them something that they will share with their friends who also love your book!
Click here to see how I handled my Q&A's on my site. 

Book Covers - "Do It Yourself" or "Professional Cover"

I recently had a number of conversations with other authors regarding their book covers.  The question always comes up about whether to DIY (Do It Yourself) or buy a professional book cover.  New authors face this problem all the time due to money restrictions or lack of knowledge on how to find good covers.  The issue comes down to, how badly do you want to sell your book?  Most authors are so engrossed in writing and worrying about publishing that they are sometimes too close to the problem.  Covers can become the bane of their existence, yet authors need their covers to speak for them when they aren’t there to promote their works.  So which option is the best?
Do It Yourself - If you decide on the DIY method, there are programs out there that can help you design your cover beyond Photoshop.  My suggestion, if you decide to go this path, it to have reasonable expectations.  Are you a graphic designer or have some artistic abilities?  If so, you can make the DIY option work, but if not, you will need to have a great concept and way of making it visually pleasing.  
Choosing stock art or stock photos can be more cost effective than buying a cover, but you still need to have a basic understanding of layout and fonts.  If you can’t figure out how center a photo or add a text overlay, stop now.  You run the risk of failing before you even begin.  Picking a legible, but interesting font can be an even tougher challenge than finding the right photo.  The reader needs to be able to read the title of the book, even when it's a tiny thumbnail on sites like Amazon!  Don’t forget to make sure that your photo is size properly; otherwise, it will be distorted.  I saw a book cover that used a selfie from a camera phone and they stretched the photo instead of resizing it.  The cover turned out looking like a drunk person’s view of a woman.  I doubt that was the intended idea based on the title.
If you are using stock photos, find the right photo.  You want readers to be engaged by your cover, not confused by what you are trying to accomplish.  The main idea of the story, the main location, or the main character should be the focus of your cover.  If you lose sight of the main idea of your book or don’t properly represent it, readers will walk or scroll right past your cover.  Don’t be vague or understated.  This is your only shot of grabbing the reader’s attention.  Make them want to stop to read your description or blurb.  
Take the time to think about what theme you want readers to associate with your book.  If the tale is about dragons, don’t use a field of grass with a mountain range in the back, without a dragon.  People like reading about dragons! Give them a dragon to use as a model while they are reading.  If the book is about hot guys, don’t use a random cityscape.  Put the hot guy front and center on your cover and your female readers will line up just to see the cover.  Make sure that the cover wordlessly invokes your blurb or gives the reader the genre/tone of the book.  Express magic and light for fantasy books and outer space for sci-fi.  Tie the cover to the book.  Don’t pick a pretty picture you fell in love with when it has nothing to do with the book.  
Personally, I tried the DIY route, but I just couldn’t make it work.  The fonts were wrong and I had trouble the sizing the photo to fit the requirements for ebooks.  I had created multiple websites over the years as a hobby, but even I had a tough time with it.  I was honest with myself and admitted defeat.  Though I have seen some amazing DIY covers, you need a truly amazing cover that will stand up to professional covers.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to be unique.
Buying a Cover - If you decide to purchase a cover from stock cover sites, or through professional sites, perfecting a cover can still be a challenge.  There are varying levels of “professional” cover artists out there and they may not always have the answers either.  Graphic artists and authors have different ideas on art.  Authors want to visually explore the world that they are creating.  Graphic artists choose one part of this world to capture, but it might not be the right part.  Even graphic artists may have a limit to their abilities.  Again, you have to be realistic in your expectations.  They are worried about color and light, you are worried that the main character doesn’t perfectly match the person that you dreamed up in your head.  Odds are, the person you envision is prettier, or uglier, or thinner, or greener than the artist’s rendition.  Compromise will be important.  The model has brown eyes, but your dream guy has blue, but he is handsome and has an amazing smile.  You may have to allow some details to fall to the side, as long as the image captures the essence of what you are trying to accomplish.  Also, trust the graphic artist if he tells you certain colors will clash or if some details will feel out of place if you try to incorporate them.  They usually know what they are talking about.
Choosing a Premade Cover - If you find a cover from an online premade cover site that you are happy with, you may want to contact them to see if they can make minor changes to their cover if something is out of place.  Sometimes choosing a premade cover feels like a compromise.  It’s less expensive than a custom cover, and typically better than a DIY, but it may not be exactly what you are looking for.  Many of the graphic artists are willing to make changes for a small fee.  They can also add the fonts to the cover and may take suggestions if you have a font that you have used before.  See if they are willing to work with you.  If they want to make a sale, they should be willing to put in some extra work.
Personally, I went this route for both of my covers.  For my first book, I had a hard time finding exactly what I wanted, because I didn’t know what I wanted.  I scrolled through literally 3000 covers and bookmarked only three or so that I sort of liked.  In the end, the one I chose started to grow on me, but I still wasn’t happy.  (You can see the cover on the upper left side of my blog.)  The artist wanted to use red font, so I requested that he give me the artwork without the title and did the font myself.  The original photo had a deep blue filter that overpowered the photo.  I used Photoshop and toned down the blue.  What I found surprised me.  The blue receded and brightened the background giving the water and the lightning a chance to shine.  I’ve received a number of complements from strangers on how beautiful the cover is, which lets me know that I made a good choice.  
Premade doesn’t have to mean limited.  When searching for my second cover, which is still being worked on, I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, so I took my own path.  I found two different covers that interested me, each capturing one part of the cover that I wanted, and I merged them together.  Thankfully, both covers were designed by the same graphic artist and she was willing to work with me to combine the two covers.  They layout of both covers helped make my vision work.  The left half of cover one had the guy I wanted, and the right half of cover had the background I wanted.  A little cutting, pasting, a minimal fee, and I got the cover that I wanted.  
Turn Clichéd Covers into Exciting Covers - “A picture is worth a thousand words,” so use those words wisely and avoid covers that say the exact same thing as the next book.  Avoid using the same image that everyone else uses for the same genre.  Pick something unique to show the readers.  Grab their attention in some way.  Every vampire story has sharp teeth on the cover or a powerful woman ready to slay it.  Find a way to make your cover stand out.  Research the main idea or the genre of your book and look at all the covers that come up.  Find a new angle and make people stop to look at your cover.
I will cite an example.  I have seen many book covers with a muscled guy wearing a hoodie.  In the search for my cover, I tripped over a bunch of them.  It’s a known image, but it can be changed into something unique.  When I saw Lisa Medley’s“Reaper Series,” I saw the hooded jacket guy, but her covers made me stop and look.  She took a known image and used bright colors and interesting backgrounds to stand out.  She employed visually pleasing, and interesting font to express her titles and her names.  In a sea of Twitter posts, these images captured my attention.
 Check out the Reaper Series on Amazon
Find a Test Audience- Regardless of the method used to make your book cover, all of this effort will be wasted if readers don’t like the cover or don’t understand what you are going for.  It was suggested to me by another author to have multiple people look at the cover and give their opinion.  I’m not talking about your mom and your boyfriend; I’m talking about people from different cultures, different background, and different age groups.  It’s important to find out how different demographics will interpret your cover.  A 20 something male will likely have a different opinion than a 50 something female.  Decide who your main demographic is and make sure they like the cover.
After finding the cover I wanted, I took it to my test group.  I was interested in seeing their reactions.  While the men nodded their heads and understood that my book was a romance novel, they didn’t have much to say, just as I expected.  When I showed the cover to my 20, 30, and 50 year old female demographic, 4 out of 5 of them had the intended reaction.  Their mouths dropped on the ground and they stared delightfully at my Angel of Death.  Most were speechless for a few seconds, followed by, “WOW!”  Their responses ranged from, “now that will sell books” to “where do I get one like him?”  I knew I had a winner.  As one woman said, “the guy on the cover gives me a person to imagine while reading.”  That’s the response you want!
If you don’t have a test audience, post your cover ideas on your Facebook or Twitter accounts for feedback.  You can also run a contest for people to vote on their favorite cover and choose between two covers.  If you still aren’t sure, reach out to other authors for suggestions on author sites.  Other authors are usually good at giving you their honest opinion and advice since they have been in the same spot as you.
There’s Always a Second Chance During a Reprint - First time authors learn a lot about readers and promoting their books after their first book launch.  Even if you have a team of promoters and publishers, sometimes a cover just doesn’t work out the way you thought.  After speaking to readers and getting feedback from reviewers and critics, there is always the opportunity to change a cover during a second or third reprinting of the book.  Figure out what was missing from the first cover and incorporate the suggestions and new ideas.  If you couldn’t afford a professional cover, hopefully, you will be able to work with a graphic artist the next time around.  Don’t be afraid to try something new.  In speaking to Lisa Medley about her “Reaper Series,” I found out that the hooded reaper was not her original cover.  While there is nothing wrong with the original cover, the second one is more visually interesting.  See the original cover and the reprint cover below.                             Another conversation with author Erin S. Riley, author of the “Sons of Odin Series,” revealed that she too had a second chance to change her original cover.  The first cover was made from a photo that she took on her phone.  While the first photo is fine, it doesn’t convey much about the story.  Her second cover, however, makes a bold statement about the book.  The new cover clearly states that there will be romance and hot Vikings.  Her two pending covers continue the theme of the new cover and promises more romance.  Below are the original cover and the new cover.

                   

Check out Odin's Shadow on Amazon
At the end of the day, the decision is yours on how best to create your cover, but be honest with yourself regarding your talents versus your expectations.  Be willing to listen to feedback, criticism, and praise.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  The best covers are ones that readers remember.  Even if they are simple, they need to express some aspect of your story.

Author or Social Media Wizard

This post is geared toward self-published, indie authors who self-promote, or established authors looking to expand their social presence.
When an author writes a book, they think, “Wow.  I’m done now.  I can sit back and watch the magic happen.  I will get paid and be happy.”  Well, unless you have a publicist and entire team working to promote your book, the work has just begun.  Even if you have this team working for you, there is no guarantee that they are doing the right things to promote your book.  You might have to help yourself and learn a few tricks to succeed.
Please keep in mind that I am writing a book series, and am working to finish my second book before I explore every option available to writers.  I am using my first book as a learning experience so that I can understand the industry and find out what is involved.  I’m not running out and screaming to the world that I’m an author.  I’m taking my time to figure out what is involved and what works.
Self-promotion and marketing can be a fun, though a challenging experience.  I’m still in the beginning phase, which is the hardest part.  Personally, I had to piece together a media plan based on what I learned from different advice sites, or by trial and error.  I wanted to help enlighten fledgling authors on the uphill battle ahead of them so that they are prepared for the long journey.  These suggestions are based on things that I have tried, though I am always learning and happy to hear suggestions from other authors.  Please feel free to add comments about your experiences, good or bad, with your promotions.  I will add to this post once I tackle other avenues.
Let’s take a look at all of the steps needed to start the process.  When I told a family member about all the things I had done to start promoting, she laughed and said that she had trouble reading her email let alone embarking on an online campaign to search for readers.  It made me realize how much I had done in such a short period of time.  So, let’s begin.
Load your book to an ebook site, and/or have it printed.  If you don’t have a publisher, you need a platform for people to find and purchase your book.
Amazon.com is a great place to start.  You need to load your book to their site, but you MUST have a well-formatted Word (.doc/.docx) file.  Forget editing at this point, (that should have been done long ago) but you need to review your actual formatting.  Are your margins consistent?  Are the paragraphs tabbed correctly?  Are the paragraphs spaced properly?  Most importantly, does your Table of Contents link to the correct chapters?  Forget about page numbers because Amazon uses locations, which mean nothing to the writer.  Once loaded, REVIEW THE FILE TO MAKE SURE IT LOOKS CORRECT!!!  I can’t stress that enough.  Remove extra carriage returns, etc.!  Check Amazon’s submission guides before uploading to review their suggestions and acceptable formats. 
Smashwords.com is another platform to sell your book.  I have to warn you, the formatting MUST be done correctly.  Smashwords loads to different ereaders and will turn your words into a flowing river that will expand and contract based on the ereader’s requirements, so their formatting guide MUST be followed.  I read through the 117 page Formatting Guide and nearly cried.  You will have to rip apart all of your formatting and start over.  There are people and companies that will do this for you, for a fee, but it will save you time.  
Lulu.com and Createspace.com are sites where you can print copies of your book for a surprisingly low fee.  I was shocked that I could print one copy and not pay a crazy amount.  It was somewhere around $10.00 for a 250 page book plus shipping.  It’s not the printing presses of old where you needed to print 100,000 copies to turn a profit.  Since I’m still testing the waters of my self-promotion in print, I have only used this to print a few copies, but I plan to use it to sell print copies as well.  Sadly, I only have so many hours in the day to investigate all the ins and outs of every site or program.  (More to come on this once I devote my attention to it.)
Bring in the reviewers.  You can have the best book in the world, but without feedback and reviews, you will have a hard time convincing the world to read your book.  Think about how you purchase things online.  Last week I wanted a rice cooker.  I went to Amazon and what was the first thing I did?  I scrolled down to the reviews.  We all know that we have to take reviews with a grain of salt because there are tons of people online that LOVE to HATE, but you can usually get a good idea about the product.  If there are more 4-5 stars than 1-3 stars, then it’s probably a good rice cooker.  This is the same mentality that readers will use when looking at your book.  Why do they want to pay for a book that no one else has bothered to review? 
It’s time to throw your book in the murky waters of book reviewing.  You will need to find online reviewers who are willing to review your book.  Yes, you can ask every family member to go online and write a review, but people will start to notice that independent reviewers aren’t amongst your 5 star reviews.  Do you need professional reviews?  Unless you market a different way or already have a huge social media campaign that is working for you, it can’t hurt. 
Putting yourself out there to professional reviewers is probably the scariest thing you will ever do, but it needs to be done.  Personally, I stumbled on to a reviewer during a normal conversation on Twitter and it turned out to be one of the top 500 reviewers on Amazon who LOVES books.  I was nice to her and she somehow decided she liked me and wanted to review my book.  It doesn’t usually happen like that, but being nice pays off.  It turned out that she LOVED my book and gave me 5 stars.  I nearly fainted, literally!  I will forever love her.
The key to submitting a review is finding the right reviewer for you.  Search their genre, their likes, and dislikes.  Most reviewers state very clearly what they will read and what they won’t read.  Don’t send a sci-fi book to a romance reviewer or the results could be disastrous.  You wrote your book with a type of reader in mind.  Reviewers are no different.  They love books, but they too have preferences.  Pay attention to their requirements and ALWAYS be kind.  Even if they don’t like the book, use it as a learning experience.  Not everyone will fall in love with your book.  Thank them for their time.  Listen to their feedback and be willing to make changes if different reviewers are saying the same thing.
Build your website.  Readers want to know more about their favorite authors and books.  They will search to see if there are other books in your catalog, or look for more information about the book.  Give them what they want.  If they can’t find you on a Google search on multiple sites, you are dead in the water.  As an amateur web designer, I used to create sites for my husband’s side business.  I learned Photoshop and Frontpage (the only way of doing things back then) and had to teach myself how to do everything.  Over the years, I became really good at it, but it was time consuming.  Now, you can find sites that will help you build a page in a few hours, if you want more than just a page or two of basic info. 
I use wix.com and it is a thousand times easier than finding a template and reshaping it into what you want.  What once took me days or weeks to perfect, Wix helped me in a few hours.  Updating is simple, which is imperative because I’m always adding content or linking to some other media site that I found.
On your site, talk about the book, add links to buy it, and tell the audience about yourself.  The more interesting your site is, the longer they will look through your books.
Social Media time!  Reviews are vital to a book, but even the reviews are just a stepping-stone.  It doesn’t matter if you have written the book of the century if no one knows about it.  What you need now are actual readers!  Yes, you can make a Facebook page, a Twitter user name, etc., but you still have to speak to people to gain their attention.  You have to interact with people.  Find other authors or people interested in your genre and talk to them.  Retweet their posts.  Don’t just throw Tweets at people without taking the time to speak to them.  Some people are only interested in promoting their own works, but others understand the importance of communication.  Social Media has become less social and more one sided like a billboard ad.  Put “social” into your tweets and see what kind of feedback you get. 
I have met interesting and amazing authors along the way and I have learned something from all of them.  Don’t miss out on the opportunity of making a friend or an ally.  It will take you a long way.  Also, for the love of all that is holy DON’T DIRECT MESSAGE PEOPLE YOUR BOOK LINK!  Personally, if I have an interest, I will come to you.  I have already downloaded interesting books that I’ve seen and tried sample pages from Amazon when I find something unique.  I don’t need you slamming me with it.  At least buy me a drink and take me to a movie before you try to get something from me.
Be interesting!  Readers like a multimedia experience, as do other authors.  Start a blog and talk about something, anything!  You are a writer, so write!  Talk about something interesting or entertaining.  It can’t be all about your book.  I started this blog as a way of talking about my experiences writing a novel/series, including the highs, the lows, and the problems associated with being a writer.  I wanted other writers to know that they weren’t the only ones dealing with these issues.  Now that I’m beyond the writing phase, I have made my blog into advice about writing and promoting.  Who knows what I will write about next year.  The point is, I’m trying to, as one follower on Twitter called it, “give back to the writing community”.  Everyone needs help and advice, so share your experiences.  Be funny, or helpful, or whatever, just be something.
Claim your book and your identity!  As a part of your social media campaign, you will need to “claim” your book or your “identity” on some sites.  Most people don’t know about this aspect of self-promotion, but it shouldn’t be overlooked.  The first place you want to go is www.authorcentral.amazon.com to set your Author Page on Amazon.  This author page is associated with your online book site.  It’s a separate site, but you can load your twitter feed, blog feed, photos, and appearances.  There is a section where you can add your bio.  You can even see all of your Amazon reviews in one place.
Next is Goodreads.com and Shelfari.com where you can search for your book and submit yourself as the author.  Once they accept you as the author, you can add details to your book, and add your blog or twitter feed.  A separate author page is where you can add your bio and other fun details.  Once you are set up, you can add your friends, make new friends, or join groups with similar interests.  Regardless of how you interact with people, DON’T SHOVE YOUR BOOK IN THEIR FACE.  Get to the know them.  Find out what they like.  They might be just cool people.  Learn more about what they want in a book or genre.
Promoting at a price.  You will have to decide which paid sites you want to advertise with.  There are tons of Twitter sites and online promoters that will blast your book, but you will have to decide on how much to spend.  Promoting takes money, so you need to invest wisely.  Will you do a Book Tour?  Will you do a Giveaway?  Will you promote Free books?  There are many different ways to promote, but the bottom line is how much are you willing to spend?
There is an excellent article written by Lisa Medly, author of “The Reaper Series” who wrote about her experiences funding her promotion campaign called, “The cost of self-publishing one book: By the numbers”.  The article is well worth the read to find out about the stark reality of promotion expenses.
Learn from other writers and authors.  The most helpful information I have found is from other authors.  Sign up for sites where writers interact or give advice.  Penbuzz.com is a newer site where budding authors can ask questions or write blog entries.  Anyone can answer and give advice.  Bookblog.com is another site where you can interact with authors and readers.  Don’t be afraid to ask for advice or find out how another author started.  Again, interaction is the point of being on these sites.  Put yourself out there and see what comes of it. 
Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter if you use a publishing company, or self-publish, there is no guarantee that your book will sell.  It’s up to you to write a quality book and take the time to understand how best to promote it.  You need to put in the effort to sell your book.  Talk about it to whoever is interested.  Highlight the points, don’t oversell.  Tease the reader to gain their interest.  Have your 30-second pitch ready.  Talk about you as an author, not just about your book.  The amount of time and effort you put into your promotion will show and hopefully people will be excited enough to read your master tome.

Editing Your Book - A Loathsome Task or An Opportunity to Make YourBook Shine?

You've just finished your first draft of the most amazing thing you have ever written and now it's time to edit.  You think, "this can't be hard, I'm a talented writer who knows what they are doing".  Then you start reading your work of art only to realize that your fast typing fingers have made weird mistakes that spell check didn't catch and there seems to be a few words missing that are important to the sentences.  That's when you realize, "Crap, now I have to pay attention to every letter on the screen to make sure that this book makes sense."  Welcome to editing your own book.

Editing is torture for most writers and not just because we see our errors or have to take time away from writing the next great tome, but because it is very difficult to review your own work.  You know the story, you know the dialog, you may have even acted out some of the scenes in your car or in the shower, and that is the problem.  You know what the story is "supposed to say", but your reader doesn't.  The reader has to rely on your sentence structure, your descriptive words, your story lines, and your plot twists to know what's going on.  If any of these elements have mistakes, the reader will be lost and confused, and ultimately give up on reading your masterpiece.  (We won't even mention the reviewers who will not be kind to your work of art.)

While it's suggested that you find a reliable editor, the reader still needs to review their own work before sending it off to someone else.  Even the editor needs to understand your objectives and goals.  They aren't miracle workers with crystal balls who can figure out what you "meant" to say versus what is written.

A book should go through at least three drafts according to time old traditions.  Personally, I edit and edit, until I'm happy with it.

1) Start with the first draft, where you write with wild abandon and let "future you" worry about the errors.  Creativity flows and the muses bow to your whim as you invent amazing lands and fantastical creatures.  No one in the history of time has ever written something this amazing!

2) Then comes the dreaded second draft, where "future you" kicks herself because your writing is riddled with problems.  You think, "Was I actually awake when I wrote this part?"  "It sounded so much better in my head."  "Was my brain impaired when I wrote, "The Quick Brown Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Dog" in the middle of the fight scene that I stayed up all night writing?"

You question "past you", who wrote with wild abandon.  "Why didn't you have spell check running the whole time?"  "Why didn't you pay attention to the grammar check when speeding through your action sequences?"  "Why in the world did your brain translate "don't" into "do", or forget that "your" and "you're" are two completely different words?"  It's frustrating to see these errors, but you must accept them and move on. 

The second draft is where you fix the structure sentence problems, the bad spelling, and the incorrectly used words, but most importantly, you have to deal with content of your story.  If you only edit using spell check and grammar suggestions, you are cutting out a crucial step. You need to ask, "Does the story make sense?" 

If you were smart when you started writing, you used an outline to set up your plot, your characters, your story lines, and your twists and turns, but even when using an outline, you tend to get caught up in the moment and write about too many extraneous details.  The problem is, while these bits are fun or entertaining, you have to ask, "do they enhance the plot and move the story along"?  If not, then these extraneous details need to be left behind.  The second draft is always the hardest because writers have to cut out parts of the story that slow down the pace, or take too much time away from the main idea.  This is the time make hard decisions.  You have to ask, "Does this paragraph match the tone of the scene?  Does it make sense or does it serve no purpose, even though it's funny?"  Writers complain all the time that they to chop their book apart but unfortunately, it's a necessary evil. 

Here are my suggestions for when it's time to make the hard decisions and remove content:

- NEVER enter this phase when you are tired, upset, or unfocused, because the results will be disastrous.  This is the book that you love.  When editing with unkind eyes, you may remove important details just because you are angry that you have to cut something. You may be frustrated with the process and chop out too much. Think of a rose garden.  Gardens need to be pruned to take away the dead leaves and branches so that the garden can bloom and live up to its fullest potential.  Gardeners take away anything that will harm the garden or keep it from being beautiful.  If they started hacking away at it without regard for the blossoms or the lush greenery, they will be left with a dead mass of thorns.  You wrote this wonderful tome; make it the best version possible, and edit with care.  Read the story paragraph by paragraph to see if its transitions properly.  If a paragraph doesn't fit or doesn't further the story, remove it or reshape it.  You want the best from your work, so take the time to cultivate your sentence structure, and review your story lines for timing and pace so that one part doesn't drag.  Make sure there is a flow that keeps the reader moving through the story.

- When deciding if a chapter is working and progressing the story properly, read it through and think of it like stepping stones.  Start the chapter and see where each paragraph takes you.  Does each point of the story connect, or did the information fall off somewhere, leaving you stranded?  When a chapter isn't living up to its potential, it's time to re-evaluate.  Decide what information needs to be given and what points need to be highlighted.  There may be certain dialog that is critical or major character interactions the need to happen, but the structure isn't as tight as you wanted.  Maybe you've had too much fun with the dialog and things got sloppy.  I suggest using One Note, Word, or paper and pencil to jot down the objectives of the scene.  What needs to be said?  What needs to be done?  What critical plot points need to happen here?  Jot down only your important ideas.  Now, review them and rearrange them, if needed.  Change the order to create a better flow, or condense some of the ideas into the same paragraph, rather than taking multiple paragraphs and dragging out the information.  Once you have your structure, then add the fun bits back in.  It's doesn't have to be dry just because it's been reordered.

Example:  My Angel of Death wakes up to meet a boy whom he has never met before.  He has been captured and has lost hope.  The boy turns out to be more than just a kid off the street.  He has some knowledge of Death and knows more than he should about Death's world.  Personally, I had way too much fun with this scene.  Death is snarky and fun, and has some of the best lines.  My problem was, I couldn't convey all the information I wanted in a concise manner because I was having way too much fun watching these characters interact.  I finally had to sit down and reorganize my thoughts.  I had to state the key facts needed to progress the story and explain critical plot points while still having fun with the interaction between the characters.  It felt like a jumbled up mess, but once I came at it from a different perspective, I was able to get a handle on it and fix my mistakes.

3)  Finally, you have the third draft, where you are confident in your story line and have fixed most major pitfalls and mistakes.  The third draft is the polishing stage.  This is where you want your story to shine.  You need to do a final read through to eliminate any more sentence problems, or missing words.  When looking for the mistakes, give yourself time to improve on a word or a description.  During the first draft, you were were so concerned with your characters battling the giant monster, that you forgot to mention the color of the creature, or what it smelled like.  Clothing options, drape color, weather conditions, are small things that can enhance the reader's experience so that they can imagine exactly what you see in your head.  This would be an excellent time to pull out, or load, a Thesaurus.  Let your creativity from the first draft come through and "paint" your final creation with vivid colors and details.

Once the final draft is complete, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, have someone, or multiple someones, edit your work.  No writer will catch every error.  We are too close to it.  We will still complete the sentence in our heads without realizing that there is a missing "to, for, a, and the" in the sentence.  You need someone who knows more about grammar than you do, or who loves to read and understands the qualities of a good book.  Find a editor who is experienced in your genre.  Not every editor is the right editor for your book.  Find someone who will give you a God's honest opinion, but no matter what any of these people say, you have to be willing to listen to advise.  Again, as writers, we are too close to the story.  We have blind spots for our beloved works and sometimes we have to accept that something isn't working and be willing to deal with it.

After I went through MULTIPLE edits on my first book, I knew deep down the beginning wasn't as powerful as the rest of the book, for multiple reasons, mostly because the dangerous characters hasn't been introduced yet.  My friend, who is an AVID book reader, with strong opinions, read my story and the first thing she mentioned was the problem with the opening chapters.  I sat down with her and talked through her thoughts.  Some thoughts were her personal opinion, which I knew wouldn't detract from the book, but the parts that I felt shaky about, she agreed needed help.  After she left, I went straight to my computer and rewrote the beginning.  While the plot stayed the same, I changed the tone of the characters and tightened up a few things.  I took out some of the "fun" aspects that I loved, and made the hard decision to reshape the section.  I let it sit for months.  I wasn't ready to review it.  Finally, when I was in the right frame of mind to tackle it, I ran through it again and felt more confident about it.  I rounded out the tone by adding a short introduction of the one of the dark characters and stated very clearly to the reader what the main plot was, without giving away any details.  I felt much more confident about it in the end and was grateful for my friend's suggestions.

In the end, you have to be happy with what you wrote and be confident that readers will see the book through your eyes.  If you have doubts, ask for help.  Reach out to other writers for advise, or do more research on what you are having trouble with.  Find readers, reviewers, and editors that you trust to help you on your journey and be willing to accept that not everyone writes an award worthy story on their first draft.  It takes time, patience, and the willingness to change what isn't working.

Editing Your Book - A Lothesome Task or An Opportunity to Make Your Book Shine?

You've just finished your first draft of the most amazing thing you have ever written and now it's time to edit.  You think, "this can't be hard, I'm a talented writer who knows what their doing".  Then you start reading your work of art only to realize that your fast typing fingers have made weird mistakes that spell check didn't catch and there seems to be a few words missing that are important to the sentences.  That's when you realize, "Crap, now I have to pay attention to every letter on the screen to make sure that this book makes sense."  Welcome to editing your own book.

Editing is torture for most writers and not just because we see our errors or have to take time away from writing the next great tome, but because it is very difficult to review your own work.  You know the story, you know the dialog, you may have even acted out some of the scenes in your car or in the shower, and that is the problem.  You know what the story is "supposed to say", but your reader doesn't.  The reader has to rely on your sentence structure, your descriptive words, your story lines, and your plot twists to know what's going on.  If any of these elements have mistakes, the reader will be lost and confused, and ultimately give up on reading your masterpiece.  (We won't even mention the reviewers who will not be kind to your work of art.)

While it's suggested that you find a reliable editor, the reader still needs to review their own work before sending it off to someone else.  Even the editor needs to understand your objectives and goals.  They aren't miracle workers with crystal balls who can figure out what you "meant" to say versus what is written.

A book should go through at least three drafts according to time old traditions.  Personally, I edit and edit, until I'm happy with it.

1) Start with the first draft, where you write with wild abandon and let "future you" worry about the errors.  Creativity flows and the muses bow to your whim as you invent amazing lands and fantastical creatures.  No one in the history of time has ever written something this amazing!

2) Then comes the dreaded second draft, where "future you" kicks herself because your writing is riddled with problems.  You think, "Was I actually awake when I wrote this part?"  "It sounded so much better in my head."  "Was my brain impaired when I wrote, "The Quick Brown Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Dog" in the middle of the fight scene that I stayed up all night writing?"

You question "past you", who wrote with wild abandon.  "Why didn't you have spell check running the whole time?"  "Why didn't you pay attention to the grammar check when speeding through your action sequences?"  "Why in the world did your brain translate "don't" into "do", or forget that "your" and "you're" are two completely different words?"  It's frustrating to see these errors, but you must accept them and move on. 

The second draft is where you fix the structure sentence problems, the bad spelling, and the incorrectly used words, but most importantly, you have to deal with content of your story.  If you only edit using spell check and grammar suggestions, you are cutting out a crucial step. You need to ask, "Does the story make sense?" 

If you were smart when you started writing, you used an outline to set up your plot, your characters, your story lines, and your twists and turns, but even when using an outline, you tend to get caught up in the moment and write about too many extraneous details.  The problem is, while these bits are fun or entertaining, you have to ask, "do they enhance the plot and move the story along"?  If not, then these extraneous details need to be left behind.  The second draft is always the hardest because writers have to cut out parts of the story that slow down the pace, or take too much time away from the main idea.  This is the time make hard decisions.  You have to ask, "Does this paragraph match the tone of the scene?  Does it make sense or does it serve no purpose, even though it's funny?"  Writers complain all the time that they to chop their book apart but unfortunately, it's a necessary evil. 

Here are my suggestions for when it's time to make the hard decisions and remove content:

- NEVER enter this phase when you are tired, upset, or unfocused, because the results will be disastrous.  This is the book that you love.  When editing with unkind eyes, you may remove important details just because you are angry that you have to cut something. You may be frustrated with the process and chop out too much. Think of a rose garden.  Gardens need to be pruned to take away the dead leaves and branches so that the garden can bloom and live up to its fullest potential.  Gardeners take away anything that will harm the garden or keep it from being beautiful.  If they started hacking away at it without regard for the blossoms or the lush greenery, they will be left with a dead mass of thorns.  You wrote this wonderful tome; make it the best version possible, and edit with care.  Read the story paragraph by paragraph to see if its transitions properly.  If a paragraph doesn't fit or doesn't further the story, remove it or reshape it.  You want the best from your work, so take the time to cultivate your sentence structure, and review your story lines for timing and pace so that one part doesn't drag.  Make sure there is a flow that keeps the reader moving through the story.

- When deciding if a chapter is working and progressing the story properly, read it through and think of it like stepping stones.  Start the chapter and see where each paragraph takes you.  Does each point of the story connect, or did the information fall off somewhere, leaving you stranded?  When a chapter isn't living up to its potential, it's time to re-evaluate.  Decide what information needs to be given and what points need to be highlighted.  There may be certain dialog that is critical or major character interactions the need to happen, but the structure isn't as tight as you wanted.  Maybe you've had too much fun with the dialog and things got sloppy.  I suggest using One Note, Word, or paper and pencil to jot down the objectives of the scene.  What needs to be said?  What needs to be done?  What critical plot points need to happen here?  Jot down only your important ideas.  Now, review them and rearrange them, if needed.  Change the order to create a better flow, or condense some of the ideas into the same paragraph, rather than taking multiple paragraphs and dragging out the information.  Once you have your structure, then add the fun bits back in.  It's doesn't have to be dry just because it's been reordered.

Example:  My Angel of Death wakes up to meet a boy whom he has never met before.  He has been captured and has lost hope.  The boy turns out to be more than just a kid off the street.  He has some knowledge of Death and knows more than he should about Death's world.  Personally, I had way too much fun with this scene.  Death is snarky and fun, and has some of the best lines.  My problem was, I couldn't convey all the information I wanted in a concise manner because I was having way too much fun watching these characters interact.  I finally had to sit down and reorganize my thoughts.  I had to state the key facts needed to progress the story and explain critical plot points while still having fun with the interaction between the characters.  It felt like a jumbled up mess, but once I came at it from a different perspective, I was able to get a handle on it and fix my mistakes.

3)  Finally, you have the third draft, where you are confident in your story line and have fixed most major pitfalls and mistakes.  The third draft is the polishing stage.  This is where you want your story to shine.  You need to do a final read through to eliminate any more sentence problems, or missing words.  When looking for the mistakes, give yourself time to improve on a word or a description.  During the first draft, you were were so concerned with your characters battling the giant monster, that you forgot to mention the color of the creature, or what it smelled like.  Clothing options, drape color, weather conditions, are small things that can enhance the reader's experience so that they can imagine exactly what you see in your head.  This would be an excellent time to pull out, or load, a Thesaurus.  Let your creativity from the first draft come through and "paint" your final creation with vivid colors and details.

Once the final draft is complete, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, have someone, or multiple someones, edit your work.  No writer will catch every error.  We are too close to it.  We will still complete the sentence in our heads without realizing that there is a missing "to, for, a, and the" in the sentence.  You need someone who knows more about grammar than you do, or who loves to read and understands the qualities of a good book.  Find a editor who is experienced in your genre.  Not every editor is the right editor for your book.  Find someone who will give you a God's honest opinion, but no matter what any of these people say, you have to be willing to listen to advise.  Again, as writers, we are too close to the story.  We have blind spots for our beloved works and sometimes we have to accept that something isn't working and be willing to deal with it.

After I went through MULTIPLE edits on my first book, I knew deep down the beginning wasn't as powerful as the rest of the book, for multiple reasons, mostly because the dangerous characters hasn't been introduced yet.  My friend, who is an AVID book reader, with strong opinions, read my story and the first thing she mentioned was the problem with the opening chapters.  I sat down with her and talked through her thoughts.  Some thoughts were her personal opinion, which I knew wouldn't detract from the book, but the parts that I felt shaky about, she agreed needed help.  After she left, I went straight to my computer and rewrote the beginning.  While the plot stayed the same, I changed the tone of the characters and tightened up a few things.  I took out some of the "fun" aspects that I loved, and made the hard decision to reshape the section.  I let it sit for months.  I wasn't ready to review it.  Finally, when I was in the right frame of mind to tackle it, I ran through it again and felt more confident about it.  I rounded out the tone by adding a short introduction of the one of the dark characters and stated very clearly to the reader what the main plot was, without giving away any details.  I felt much more confident about it in the end and was grateful for my friend's suggestions.

In the end, you have to be happy with what you wrote and be confident that readers will see the book through your eyes.  If you have doubts, ask for help.  Reach out to other writers for advise, or do more research on what you are having trouble with.  Find readers, reviewers, and editors that you trust to help you on your journey and be willing to accept that not everyone writes an award worthy story on their first draft.  It takes time, patience, and the willingness to change what isn't working.

Creating Unique Character Names

Writing a book takes a lot of imagination and creativity, but even the best writer needs to look outside of their minds for inspiration.  A good writer knows their limitations and how to work around them.

Over the years, I have found three sites that I have helped me immensely, though they are very different from each other.  The first one is Baby Name websites.  While I am usually good at creating character names, there are times when I want a name to start with a certain letter so that I avoid having too many A characters or C characters.  Usually I search the name databases when I want an ethnic sounding name.  Anyone can come up with John and Peter, but for ancient angels, I needed something more diverse.  Sometimes I will use a unique spelling of a common name to distinguish the character.  The baby name sites have given me Calin, Derick, Sacha, Rayan, Viktor, Pax, Brend, Serena, Bayard, and Edric, to name a few.  I'm particular partial to sites that categorize the names by ethnicity.  It's easier to narrow down to Russian, Romanian, or Polish names.

There are a number of good baby name sites, but it's always interesting to use the ones that tell you the meaning or the origin of the name.  While I don't always go that route, it's sometimes nice to add that extra touch to make the character stand out.  My main heroine is Anjali, which means "gift from God".  This particular character is literary a gift from God to the Archangel Gabriel.  While I wouldn't expect most people to know that, it's an added layer of detail.

When dealing with historical books, look for the baby name lists from specific decades or years.  There are certain sites that will list popular names from the 1800's or 1950, depending on when the story takes place.  The decade sites will give the top 10-20 popular names from that time period. 

The second site that I have used on more than one occasion is Google Translate.  This tool is tremendously helpful when writing Fantasy or Paranormal stories.  There are so many myths and legends and vampire stories out there that certain words or ideas have become tired and worn out.  How many stories are there about monsters and evil creatures?  Vampires, werewolves, and zombies are in every corner of the bookshelves.  There are plenty of creatures that herald the coming of the apocalypse and tons of Harbingers.  Instead of using the same characters, I decided to create my own. 

Using Google Translate, I begin with the phrase or description of the creature I want.  For example, I needed a creature that eats souls, but didn't want to call them "soul eaters".  I translated soul eaters into Hindi and created the Bhakṣaka who prowl the Caves of Darkness in Hell and keep the prisoners from escaping.  When coupled with a scary description such as, "tall, lanky creatures with long claw-like fingers.  They had sharp, pointed teeth, which were easily seen through the remnants of their lips that appeared to have been chewed off.  Their black tattered robes were covered in blood and they smelled like death," you have a new terrifying name to fit a creature as old as time.  
By using Google Translate, I have created the Predznak, who are Harbingers to the Bringer of the Apocalypse.  Xiphos Warriors, or "sword" warriors, and the Veteres, or the "original" creatures created by God, are also examples of what can come from everyday words translated into Romanian, Greek, or Polish.  The program does require patience because it can be hard to find a good phrase to translate or the right language to translate into since sometimes the translation is very similar to the original word, but given time to play with, it is a valuable tool. 

The best part about Google Translate is the save feature.  When trying out different ideas, the writer can log into a Google account and save the translations.  It's also helpful to save the translations to listen to the pronunciations and remember how to say the name of the new creature.

The last helpful websites I use are quote finders.  I don't necessarily use the quotes in my writing, but I will use them for the opening of the book.  Not every book starts with an opening quote, but when done right it can push the reader in the right direction and set them up for what is to come.  If the writer is planning to use a quote, it should be relevant to the book in some way.  My books are setup to follow the journey of one main character who is burden by some type of sin.  Once I have my main idea, I will search for quotes that fit the particular sin I am dealing with.  One of the sins I deal with is death, either through murder or suicide.  Since I am writing Paranormal Romance, I do have to stay within the confides of love.  I managed to find a quote about how love doesn't die a natural death.  The quote goes on to explain the different reasons why love can die.  It fits perfectly into my theme because the Angel of Death waited for Anjali to come for him, but she didn't and he gave up hope.  The reasons for becoming the Angel of Death and wanting to join with his Master were lost and he became bitter.  His love for God and his sense of duty diminished and withered away.  

For my first book, I used part of a suicide note from a famous author that is quoted often.  My main character commits suicide because she hears a voice that compels her to take her own life to be with the voice.  The quote at the beginning of the book stands as her suicide note because she didn't write one before she succumbed to the voice.  It was a small way for me to give her loved ones a reason for her death before the darkness took her.

Bonus helpful website:  There is one more website that I find helpful, though doesn't isn't exactly fit in with my theme of word play.  I'm a firm believer that a photo is worth a thousand words, but unfortunately, I don't write books with photos in them.  Instead, I have to describe the image I have in my mind.  The problem comes when I can't imagine something.  In my case, I have trouble describing clothing.  I am terrible with fashion and don't know Prada from Pizza Hut.  I find that searching through Pinterest helps me to narrow down the infinite clothing choices, especially for men, and makes me focus on specific looks.  If it were up to me, all of my characters would wear black pants and black shirts with no further description.  Perusing the models on Pinterest makes me excited to think about clothing.  Seeing a man in a well fitted suit and a crisp shirt definitely gets my attention, and makes me want to rethink the bland clothing descriptions I have.  It still doesn't mean that I will talk about Prada, but I can learn to appreciate it and describe my characters in a more interesting way.  Forget about the clever cakes on Pinterest that look like Easter Baskets, and search for male or female clothing.  Pinterest offers a quick glance at some fabulous and attractive outfits without have to search every designer website looking for the right style to fit the character's personality.