Sam Edens's Blog, page 2

Cover Art

A big thank you to Alisha Giroux for designing my cover. I feel it captures the essence of the book.

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Update and Book Trailer

Okay! It’s been a crazy few months but here we are. My book tried on a couple names as we edited but none quite fit the story. Right before I sent it,working title and all, off to beta readers it hit me. 

Ash, Blood and Bone

Covers all of my major characters and fits the tone I was aiming for.Now for the nitty gritty:

Ash, Blood and Bone releases on February 15th, 2017. It will be available through most online retailers as both print and ebook . I am doing my best to convince local bookstores to order a few hard copies in, as I am making it available through Ingram. So, if online ordering is out of the question I will make the ISBN available and hound your local bookstore to bring it in for you.

As promised here is the trailer for Ash, Blood and Bone

YouTube Link to Trailer

Now join me in my happy dance as this is finally coming to life!

Oh, and I am already working on the second book in the series…

Spring must be on its way…

Spring is in the air. My customers know it, all of my matted puppies are crawling out of their warm houses to get their spring shave. Work and preparing to move have been keeping me quite busy but work on Awakening is coming along. Almost done the edits, still hate the title so far.

Here’s a cutie, very nice little Wheaton Terrier.

My baby, Marquis, chilling. He likes to watch all of the action at the shop. Also, the staff give him lots of treats so that helps.

I am trying to keep up with blogging while the spring rush hits. Probably going to end up with a lot of dog photos.

 

Editing

Editing is like hunting for dust bunnies. Just when you think you’ve cleaned them all you look under the couch and back away very, very scared…

Keeping my New Year’s Resolution

Finish what you started. This was my New Year’s Resolution this year.  I made this image and set it as my wallpaper on my laptop, tablet and phone so I would have to look at it every time I logged in. Nothing fancy, no elaborate goals or hard to achieve targets. Just put one foot in front of the other and go.

I have a major problem with starting projects and abandoning them. I am easily distracted and prone to epic bouts of procrastination.  So this simple task was a challenge, to say the least.

I stuck to it though and this year I completed two tasks that I have been proud of:

I completed my high school education as an adult and;

I finished my debut novel.

Completing my education was important to me. I had to drop out after grade eleven for a variety or reasons, mainly to work. I worked my way through grooming school and have spent the last eight years as a Pet Groomer. I love working with animals and find grooming a rewarding career.  I finished my school for myself. I worked hard and finished my education as an Honour Roll student six months ahead of schedule.

My novel, Awakening, has been an epic work in progress. I wrote the first few chapters and put them on hold while I took every English and Creative Writing courses offered by the Ontario curriculum. As an adult, I can say I got a hell of a lot more out of them now than I did as a teenager. I figured that I was going to school anyways so I might as well use the experience as a huge refresher on grammar and writing techniques. I finished the remainder of Awakening consistently over the past six months. Now I am midway through the second pass of revisions before I send the draft over to my editor.

 

 

Inspiration

Music is the most inspiring element for me while writing. In the spirit of sharing inspiration I would like to share my Spotify playlist for my current work in progress. This has been my go-to list for writing this novel. I have chosen songs that exaggerate the themes that keep popping up in my work.

I hope you enjoy this list as much as I have. Bonus for early followers: the current working title for this novel is Awakening. I will be working on the novel summary in the next week, so we shall see if that title sticks.

 

The Quickening

My latest short story is currently enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program. Kindle Unlimited is pretty much Netflix for books. I am running a Free Promo for The Quickening from August 2nd to August 7 2015, so snag it while it’s free! Let me know in the comments section what you think.

All of my book covers are hand painted by myself and digitally edited to add text and small effects.

Click on the image below to be redirected to Amazon.com. Free promo is from August 2-7 2015.

The Quickening

Road trip to Kingston

Road Trip to Kingston

We recently took a road trip to Kingston. I have a very old Panasonic Lumix that had died due to a dead battery.  Thankfully Amazon exists and I was able to revive the beast.

We took the old highway 2 to Kingston following the 1000 Island Parkway. The historic towns along the way provide for some interesting photos.

Thousand Island Cruise Ship, dry-docked for the winter.

Clockwise from left: Ocean liner passing through Iroquois locks, Art Gallery in Gananoque, HIstoric house in Brockville, Lighthouse in Ganaoque. 

We had excellent timing passing through the Iroquois locks. Just as we arrived an Ocean liner was passing though. My son was vibrating with excitement. Munchie and I are standing next to the tiny lighthouse for scale.

Gateman

After a few weeks of intense scrambling to complete my Portfolio for school, I thought it would be nice to share a short story from my upcoming anthology. 

Gateman

Six years ago I was a fresh graduate. Bright eyed and eager to change this world. I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. Six years at the hospital has changed me. The youthful exuberance I once felt has dissipated into the harshness of reality. I trudged about my daily tasks nonplussed to the abnormal, strange and obscure. In nursing I had seen it all, that is, until I moved to the hospice floor and met Mr. Gateman.

My move to the hospice floor had been entirely accidental. You see, my friend Shelly had begged me to swap shifts for the week so she could attend some wedding on the east coast. I was not thrilled at the switch, but she had begged and promised it would be easy work. Which, considering the nature of the patients seemed reasonably valid compared to working the ER. The first few days passed uneventfully until the third night.

I walked down the darkened corridors of the fourth floor. The sound of snoring patients echoed through the corridor. As I walk past a darkened doorway at the end of the hall a voice called out to me,

“Please, mercy…does anyone care what I want? What I need?” sobbed the voice.

I crept into the dark room to see an older man huddled up on the bed sobbing into his hands.

“What is it that you want, Mr…,” I fumble through his chart, “Gateman?”

I flip through the chart and interpret the codes. Terminal illness. Maximum painkillers have been prescribed. Patient constantly complaining of pain. Hospice level treatment. Prognosis: less than 3 months.

I twist the auburn hair that has slipped out of my ponytail around my index finger. In the ER people often die, but it is while we are actively trying to bring them back. It made me uncomfortable to be surrounded by people with expiry dates on their foreheads. They know why they are here and they know that they will not be leaving.

Gateman interrupts my thoughts and looks up at me with a dead-eyed stare that shakes my resolve.

“I want to die.”

“Umm… You can’t want that?” I stammer out nervously. “Can I get you anything to make you more comfortable?” I sounded foolish, even to myself as I noted that he had been given his allotment of painkillers earlier on in the night. I could not give him anything else until the end of my shift.

“I want the same dignity afforded to an animal, Miss.” Gateman spoke out through laboured breaths, still hunched over.

“I once had a dog, Miss, she was my light. She came down with a terrible sickness and she fought it. She fought it tough but in the end I saw the fight had taken its toll on her poor body. She looked at me and you could see it in her eyes Miss, you could see that she could fight no more.”

Gateman looked up at me, his tear stained face lit up in the pale green glow of the monitors hooked up to his body. He had fresh tears in his eyes.

“It tore me up inside Miss, but I did what needed to be done. Sometimes you just need to do what is right.”

“Are you sure it is what you want?” I asked gingerly.

“I could not be more certain Miss. I. want. to. die.” His chest heaved and he lay back on the bed, his frail body no longer able to support his weight.

“Relax, Mr. Gateman.” I whispered as I injected more morphine into his IV. I watched his furrowed brows soften as he drifted into a deep slumber.

In the morning Gateman was gone. I felt relieved for the man that had been in my life for a few hours, yet I now carry his presence with me daily.

Sometimes you just do what needs to be done, sometimes you just need to do what is right.

Sam Edens

©Sam Edens 2015