Sheritta Bitikofer's Blog, page 23

“Escape” Available for FREE! Limited Time Only

I’m having my newest ebook novel, “Escape” available for FREE.

When? – Wednesday, May 27th – Sunday, May 31st

Where? – On Kindle at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XTIFCHQ

Why? – Because I love my readers and FREE is awesome!

Don’t miss out on this limited time offer of an awesome paranormal romance. When this promotion is over, the price will go back to $1.49.

“Escape” is now published and live for purchase!

So after busting my butt for a little over a week and having two other people bust their butts to help edit it, “Escape” is finally on the market for Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook. I’ve ordered the print proof and once I’ve received it and I’m satisfied with the layout, I’ll be getting that available for readers in the paperback form.

This story is not near as long as my first novel “The Princess and Her Rogue”, but it has come a long way from where it was. Originally, it started off as a “short story” I wrote back in my senior year of high school as an assignment. It was 9 chapters long and a whopping 40 pages total. I’ve expanded on it to be 11 chapters and over 100 pages. When I was first going through and reading it, I wished I had a time machine to go back to 2011 and slap my 12th-grade-self silly for writing such a corny story. The character interactions were not realistic and I didn’t feel connected with the characters at all. It was written probably in 2 months so that had a lot to do with it. I went through, added a ton more descriptions to the setting and characters, as well as created a few more scenes that were not in the original cut. I added in some pixies, gnomes and elves. I had debated on adding a wise oracle gryphon but I simply couldn’t find a good place to put it, so I abandoned that idea. I also changed the ending. The original story had absolutely no explanation as to what actually happened and that annoyed me. I won’t be giving any spoilers away, but I’m much happier with this new ending. I also developed the characters a lot further than before, adding more realistic emotions behind their conversations and behavior. What I didn’t expect was one character in particular becoming a favorite among my helpful editors. I made Sir Jedalf the comic relief, but I’m afraid that he may become a favorite with readers rather than the main protagonists, Connor and Amelia. Oh well. And both my editors have

Sir Jedalf

suggested building upon this universe of Somniatis that I’ve created and come out with more stories taking place there, especially creating backstories for the supporting characters. I don’t know about all that, but it’s an idea for the future.

It was a hard, stressful few weeks, but I’m relieved that it’s finally out and I’ve received some good feedback so far. So, go check it out and let me know what you think!

Sneak Peek into my newest novel “Escape”

I’m almost done with the initial editing stages for this novel and I’ve very excited. It’s grown from a mere 40 pages and 23k words to over 80 page with all the improvements. This scene is a big improvement I worked at the other night.

“You mentioned this being a nightmare.”

She knew that he meant that as a question and to explain her choice of words.

“This isn’t real. It can’t be. Nothing makes sense about this place or you or anyone else. This is all just a nightmare and I’m going to wake up any minute now. Monsters don’t exist.”

Connor looked over his shoulder to her, frustration mounting in his tone. “So, you don’t think I’m real?”

“Nope, not one bit,” Amelia said cuttingly.

“And you don’t think I’m scary, either, huh?” Connor’s upper lip rose a bit to reveal one of his sharp fangs.

“Nope. You’re just a result of a bad mixing of garlic powder and minced onion.” Amelia felt it was her turn to slur his existence like he had slurred her race. What could he possibly do to her anyway? This was just a nightmare.

In the fraction of a second, Amelia found herself pinned against a tree trunk alongside the path. The box fell from her hand with a loud thud, plunging into the mist along the ground.

Connor’s body was stiffly pressed against hers, his face just inches from her own. She could feel every contour of his strong demon muscles, immobilizing her against the rough bark of the tree.

She didn’t even have time to scream as one of his hands gripped her neck, cutting off much of her air supply. His sharp nails dug into her skin, sending a searing pain along her nerves. Amelia’s hands wrapped vainly around his wrist, pushing with all her might against him, but she might as well have been trying to move the statue of liberty with her bare hands.

Connor’s eyes glowed a bloody crimson and his canine teeth grew longer than she had seen before, baring them in a menacing growl. The skin on his face grew dark and almost leathery, revealing his true demon self under his human façade. His ears morphed into tall points and hair stiffened into spikes all over his head.

Amelia choked for air, whimpering as she felt warm blood ooze from the puncture holes he was driving into her flesh. Connor opened his mouth wide as a roar bellowed forth and a slimy forked tongue slipped over his bottom lip.

She watched with horror as he leaned into her neck and licked the blood away. Amelia shivered at the sensation of his saliva lingering over her skin. Every part of her shuddered and shook with the desperate need for air and safety. She had never felt so close to death in her life and she doubted that she would ever be this close again.

Connor’s lips grazed the sensitive outside of her ear.

“Is this real enough for you?” he whispered, his voice throaty and deeper than before. His fiery hot breath made beads of sweat roll down her neck and back.

Amelia’s mouth opened to answer, but no sound would come out besides the crackled noises of a girl who couldn’t breathe.

His grip tightened and she could just barely see his glare from the corner of her narrowing sight. “Is it?”

Amelia’s head quickly bobbled in an affirmative nod, but his hold upon her neck didn’t loosen right away.

Connor pulled away so their eyes met. She knew that he could see the utter fear in her eyes. There was no hiding it this time. And he would forever know that he could scare her greater than anything else in this world, which she was beginning to realize was quite real. This was no nightmare. This was all real, too real.

Keeping Perspective

I just had to take a moment to tell about what I’ve been thinking about for most of the week. It’s about keeping perspective as a writer and a published author.

I published my first novel about a month ago on Amazon Kindle. You can find a link to it on its book page on this blog or on my website. Ever since it became live and available for purchase, much of my thoughts have been consumed by promoting the book and finding new ways to make sure everyone knows about it and they are telling everyone they know. I’ve spent evenings watching tutorial videos, doing research and thinking about how it’s doing – sales wise. In that time, I’ve had new ideas for books and I’ve worked at developing them too, along with thinking about editing my novella “Escape”. I’m also in the process of editing “The Rose” which was the first novel I completed and half of it will need to be re-written. Anyway, apart from all of this, I realized something that upset me.

It happened when I was writing an email to my grandmother about my published book. Before “The Princess and Her Rogue” was published, I sent her a few chapters of it to read and she was the first person to read anything of the novel besides myself. In the email, I kept saying “When I have the time I’m going to…” and “When I can get around to it, I’ll…” and an even more frightening thing I said was “When things settle down around here, I’ll…”. I stopped writing when the thought hit me. When will I have time? When will things settle down? When will I get around to doing this? Most of it pertained to writing and editing, not just household duties. Which, by the way, I have been focusing on a lot after this big move we had. The house is pretty much in order too, except for the fact that my husband needs to hang the curtains, but I digress.

So, it occurred to me that I was spending so much time focusing on promoting the book and planning the other books, that I have forgotten about my other goals. Promoting the book I’ve published is a good idea. After all, I want it to sell and get people to read my story. And yes, planning out more books is great because then I’ll never be without something to write (I’ve got over 60 stories in the making at the moment). But what about “Escape”? I want to edit it so I can publish it and get more books out there. “Escape” is a slightly different genre than “The Princess…” and it could reach a wider audience so I could become more noticed. And what about “The Rose” and “Enigma”? I need to get the ball rolling on those editing projects too because they too, are very different than the previously mentioned novels. But I’ve been so worked up about getting the word out about “The Princess…” that I’ve all but forgotten about the other things.

Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I’ll totally drop the campaign of getting this first book on the charts. But it made me realize how important it is to keep perspective. If I keep focusing on the one book, I’ll never move onto the next. My stories are my children. I’ve heard many artists say that about their work and I think that applies to me as well. Think of “PR” as one of my children and “Escape”, “Enigma”, “The Rose”, “Clouds” and all the others as children as well. I’m spending so much time with “PR” and pampering it, spoiling it, talking it up over my other novels, that it will become a case of child abuse to just completely ignore the others. “Sorry ‘Escape’, I can’t play with you today because I need to take ‘PR’ to practice so it will become a famous book someday. But I’ll play with you tomorrow” and then tomorrow never comes.

I don’t think I’ll be able to have a sharp turn around in my actions, but my thinking is there as far as making sure I’m keeping a good balance of promoting the published works and working towards getting more books published. It’s like sending one kid off to college at a time. I hope I’ll have an empty house one of these days.

Support: Need it or forget about it

So now that I’m all done moving in, I finally have some time to focus on writing. During the move and in the first couple of weeks of my first book being published, I was noticing something interesting. In my whole writing career, the biggest mental obstacle I struggled with was the need or desire for support.

How it’s good: When I published my first book on Amazon Kindle, I was a bit of a nervous wreck. It didn’t hit me until right after I clicked the “Save and Publish” button of the magnitude of my actions. It changed the way I have thought and how I spend my time these last few weeks and I highly doubt things will ever go back to the way they were. It’s exciting, but also terrifying. Like I said, when I clicked that button, my whole world started spinning and I couldn’t take a good grasp on what to do next. I made the mistake of doing this late at night so I hardly got any sleep. I had been sitting on that book for 3 years and never did anything more with it than read and edit. Letting go of it and releasing it into the world for anyone to read was a very big deal. If I didn’t have the support of my husband, Jared, I probably would have had something close to a nervous breakdown. Jared has always been there for me and supported me in my writings, even when I didn’t want it. He discovered long before I even realized it that writing was a coping mechanism for me. Working my imagination and creating these stories had a calming and hormone-stablizing affect on me. When I took my hiatus from writing for 3 years, he was livid. Only recently have I learned how protective he is over me and my work to the point that it’s probably the only thing we ever really argue about anymore. When I published “The Princess and Her Rogue”, he was there to keep me from emotionally crashing. He held me and told me it would all be ok and then started talking about how I’d sell a million copies by the end of the year. I don’t know how that will happen, but just knowing that he believes in me is encouraging enough. And the funniest part is that he’s never even read the book! But he says that he knows me and he knows my skill and he doesn’t have to read it to know that it’s good.

I’ve also learned the hard way why support for a writer is so important. When I published the book, I had only read through and edited the book once. I did read and edit it right after writing, but that was when I had completed it back 4 years ago now. A relative of mine, who also happens to be a writer, bought the book and told me that she enjoyed the story, but there were a ton of typos. I knew there would be the occasional word here and there like it should have been “he” and I wrote “she”, that sort of thing. It was going to cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars to get someone to edit it and I don’t have that kind of capital. But I didn’t know the extent of all those typos until she sent me a document where the mistakes are noted and corrected on. I was shocked, but then very grateful that she pointed them out to me so I could go back and fix them. I’ve since made those corrections and re-published it to Amazon, but I know I’ll be going over it with a fine-toothed comb again before setting to making the paperback versions. So, having other authors, writers or even just avid readers go over your work before publishing is not a waste of time. When I write something and then read over it again, I may be reading a word that actually says “exited” when it should really be “excited”. Because I knew what exactly I meant, I don’t think that it’s a mistake and keep on going. Just one of the many ways that the mind betrays you. Having a second, third, or even forth pair of eyes to catch those mistakes that we don’t intend is a fantastic idea.

So, I’ve talked about why support is important, but there’s a big point here I’m going to try to make of why support, or more specifically people’s opinions, don’t matter when it comes to writing.

I’m going to give one big example I have come across. When I first published the book, I set the price at $5 even. I was thinking primarily because of the length of the book, not necessarily the quality. However, while thinking on it, I realized that not even I would buy an ebook from an unknown author that doesn’t have any ratings or reviews for $5. It’s just not a reasonable investment unless I personally knew the author. So, in order to attract buyers, I lowered the price to $1.99. You will not believe the chewing-out I got from my husband and in-laws about it. They all took the stand on the point that when someone is skimming through the list and sees an author price their book that low, the person will think that the author doesn’t value their piece of art and therefore on a moral standpoint, the person will not buy the book because they will think it’s of poor quality. My mind was reeling on how this would even cross anyone’s mind. I certainly don’t think that when I’m browsing for books. I’m thinking of how much is in my bank account and if the story sounds interesting enough. It’s horrible to say, but we live in a society where people are going to be more concerned about what the cost of the item is before the need. If it’s cheap and looks attractive, they will get it. If it’s cheap and they don’t really need it, but are intrigued, they are more likely to buy it. If it’s expensive and they don’t need it, they won’t buy it. If it’s expensive and they really need it, or they know for a fact that the product is good, they will buy it despite the price. This last point is what I’d aim for in my writing career as a whole, but right now I’m just not there yet.

I won’t lie. It did upset me that they all thought this way and so strongly argued against me about it. It reminded me of when I told my mom I wanted to go to school for creative writing. She was adamant that it wasn’t going to be a fruitful career and getting a degree in it would be a waste of time and money. But, she let me do it anyway because I need to make my own decisions/mistakes. And that is my other point. No matter what people say, think or do, the choice is ultimately yours. It sounds corny, but if your heart is telling you to do something or your gut tells you it’s the right thing, then go for it and forget what anyone else says. I didn’t do this when I took my hiatus from writing. I let my whole world get shattered by one lady’s rushed opinions of my stories and it shouldn’t have even mattered. Really, if something matters to you that much, nothing that anybody says should change your mind. Having that firm foundation of “this is what I’m going to do, this is what I love, this is my life” is so important for writers and any artist for that matter. And the feedback I have gotten from my novel has been so flattering. Everyone – so far – have said that they enjoy the book. I never thought anyone would besides myself.

I used to be terrified of these horror stories about writers getting 40 rejection letters before publishing their first book with a publishing company. I thought “there’s no way I’m going to sacrifice one of my babies on the altar like that.”. But I was looking at it wrong. Yeah, they got a ton of rejections. But they got just one acceptance and now they’re as infamous as JK Rolling or Stephen King or JRR Tolkien. They kept trying and didn’t let it discourage them. And to answer the question of “Well, why did you self-publish instead of submitting to a publisher with the risk of getting a rejection slip”: My books are WAY too long to submit to a publisher. “The Princess and Her Rogue” is over 200k words and publishers and literary agents only accept manuscripts for under 100k words. When I complete a book that is less than that, then I will totally try submitting to a publisher. And I’ll do it knowing I have a great support team behind me.

“Off with his head!” – A Creative Blurb

First, I’d like to make the statement that this is in no way something that I would do. This is simply the product of a very humorous conversation my husband and I had while getting dinner tonight and it kind of snowballed into this. And even though I’d never do this, it’d be funny to stage it :D

The little conference room was packed with reporters, publishers and editors, all pushing and shoving to get a premium spot near the front podium. The dull roar of voices all murmuring and cussing to one another. At the podium stood a woman in professional attire and smiling pleasantly to the crowd that had formed for her press conference. Her book had just been announced New York’s top seller for the tenth consecutive time and everyone wanted her thoughts on the matter.

Reports waved and tried to make themselves stand out against the rest as she began taking their questions. She answered humbly and politely to each one while still giving them a hint of humor with her responses. They all adored her and she couldn’t help but like the attention.

The conference was slowly drawing to a close when one reporter elbowed his way forward.

“Yes, you in the green sweater vest,” her attendant called out, pointing to the bold reporter.

“Mrs. Montgomery, in some of your lesser known reviews, the comment was made that some of your plots were very predictable and lacked suspense for the genre they were categorized in. Would you care to comment on that?” The reported poised his pen at the ready for her answer.

She blinked a few times and then her lips slowly curved into a sweet smile. “What’s your name?” she asked.

“Joe. Joe Rider,” he replied a little sheepishly.

She nodded in recognition and then turned to glance at the side door of the conference room. She raised her hand and made a beckoning motion. The door opened and three men entered the hall. The heads of everyone in the room pivoted to this trio dressed in full Viking armor and garb of leather, fur and tattered linen. Two bore no weapon, but the tall warrior in the middle wielded a long, razor sharp sword that required two hands to hold it.

The reporters in the vicinity of the door pressed against their neighbors to give the Vikings the room they so rightly deserved. The eyes of these men were trained upon the author at the podium.

With one calm gesture, she singled out Mr. Rider and said, “Off with his head,” she demanded with such a cool smile that put the queen of hearts to shame.

Some of the attendees chuckled at the absurdity of the whole scene, but their laughter was cut short when the three Vikings set their sights upon Mr. Rider and rushed towards him with a ferocity that startled the crowd. Bodies fell over each other as they tried to clear the way for the raiders.

Joe Rider hardly knew what to do. Before he could find an avenue of escape, two of the Vikings seized him by the arms and dragged him easily to the front of the room where the author stood waiting.

Trembling and stuttering, Joe was faced with his executioner. The Viking with the long sword stood before him, sword gripped tightly between his massive hands.

“Kneel,” the Viking demanded.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Joe cried.

“Kneel!”

The two warriors at Joe’s side forcibly pushed him down to his knees. Joe whimpered as his weak knees hit hard against the tile floor. Sweat dripped down his temples and his eyes were wide with fear and disbelief.

The Viking raised his sword high above his head and a few screams could be heard across the hall as the blade came singing down towards the reporter’s neck.

Just as the blade was about to connect with skin, the author who still maintained her pleasant grin raised her hand. “Stop,” she said softly, but not too softly that the Viking didn’t hear her order. “I shall spare your life.”

As soon as the words left her lips, the two Vikings quickly let go of their captive and followed the executioner out through the door from whence they came. The crowd was deathly silent with incredulity, all staring at the mad woman at the podium.

With all the charm and elegance that she was known for, she leaned against the oak so as to see the dilated pupils of her reporter.

“Is that enough suspense for you, Mr. Rider?”

Coming Full Circle

So, my husband and I are in the process of moving across town and I can’t lie. It’s been pretty stressful. I tried to be smart about it by packing three months ahead of time, slowly packing one room up at a time. Today we just moved all of the boxes into the new garage. While my husband and father-in-law were taking the packed/overloaded trailer to the house, I volunteered to go grab lunch at the McDonalds on that side of town. It was then that I realized something pretty significant about this move. It’s brought me full circle in my writing career.

Let me start from the beginning. This house we’re moving into is actually my mom’s. She built it when I was in 3rd-4th grade and she still owns it. We moved away to Oregon at the end of my ninth grade year because she was getting married to my step father that lives up there. I practically grew up in that house. It’s perfect to me. It has a fireplace, an in-ground pool in the backyard, a huge kitchen, an office perfect for crafts and most importantly it has so many memories. If walls could talk, you’d be laughing, crying and pretty disturbed by what they could tell. The townhome my husband and I live in right now is far too small for us and we’ve outgrown it. My mom’s house was being rented out and was to become available in April so we jumped on the chance to live there. She worked out a deal for us that we could have it for the same rent we have now and I can’t put into words how excited I am to live there. Did I mention it’s right around the corner from the library?

Anyway, what I realized today is not only did I grow up in that house, but it was in that house that I became serious about writing. I started my first book in that house. And everything around that house (the library, the school, the Winn Dixie, the Mexican restaurant and so much more) had a vital role in the creation and planning of that first book. Half of “Enigma” takes place in the very same high school I went to and the characters go to all those places I mentioned. The way the town is set up, all of this is on the north side of town and we currently live on the south side of town. I never had to go north unless it was to visit with the in-laws. Where we’re moving to is laden with so many memories and every street, every building has such a weight to it that at one time it was overwhelming.

When I stopped writing cold-turkey, I absolutely HATED going on the north side of town. I remember one time driving past the high school and actually weeping because of all the things it meant to me. It reminded me of a happier time in my life that I thought I would never go back to. I didn’t want to because I felt it would be too painful to open those wounds again. However, now that I’m writing again, those wounds have healed and the nostalgia that comes with seeing that brick building and bulldog statue doesn’t sting me like it used to. Driving past the library doesn’t hurt anymore. When I walked around in the house during the inspection, I didn’t feel that punch in the gut. I felt peace and excitement knowing that I would be coming back to where it all started. My old bedroom where I used to write is going to be my writing room and I’m sure I’ll post pictures of it in a later blog.

The old stigma of “you can’t go home again” is totally bogus to me. Home is where I’ll find myself again and continue what I started so long ago. Sure, some memories are a little painful still, but I’ll be too busy making new ones to even care. It’s almost like I’ll be gaining a part of myself back that I left behind seven years ago when I moved away from this town. It’s laughable how back then I wanted to get away so badly and see the world. Now all I want to do is go home because the world just isn’t appealing to me anymore. Who needs the world when all I need is my imagination to take me places a passport can’t?

I’m an author!

So, I’ve finally hopped on the band wagon with this whole blogging thing. Main reason, because I just published my first book. Woo hoo! So excited, but terrified too. Anyway, I’m working on my social media campaign to get the word out about my awesome book, “The Princess and Her Rogue”. It’s available through Amazon Kindle in an eBook. Check it out!

  http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Her-Rogue-Sheritta-Bitikofer-ebook/dp/B00VDTG32Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428022353&sr=8-1&keywords=Sheritta+Bitikofer

So, I’ll be using this blog site to blog about writing, books I’ve read and give sneak peaks into upcoming book projects. There’s also a basic website in the making that I’ll blog about later.

Keep up with me here and on my facebook! The link is to the right.