Jacque Stevens's Blog, page 2

Winter Falls: Cover Reveal

I’m doing this one on my own folks, and one of the things I was most worried about was finding a cover as beautiful as the last one. I lucked out majorly. The first week I started to look, I found an artist who I liked, but quickly discovered she was filled up and not taking any new commissions for the year. Then I looked through her premade covers, and THERE WAS KATIE. I contacted the artist, requested a few tweaks, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Thank you,Rebecca Frank. I love it.Now on to the official blurb:After the Winter Queen took Shay, I became determined to watch Winter fall.Seventeen-year-old Katie Graham does not believe in fairytales or happy endings.Alienated from her family and abandoned by the boy she loves, Katie jumps off a bridge in the dead of winter expecting death. Instead, she enters a snowy netherworld.The trapped souls of this realm take on animal form, living out their baser instincts and core emotions in an eternal fairytale. Katie might have accepted this fate for herself, but when she discovers that her former love has been imprisoned by the Winter Queen, Katie becomes determined to rescue him. To gain the strength and light needed to confront Winter, Katie must travel through the lands of all the seasonal fairies—physical representations of the emotional scars of her past—before she and Shay are forever trapped.WINTER FALLS is based on the fairytale, The Snow Queen, and split between two timelines—showing Katie’s home in postindustrial-era Riverside and her journey through Winter’s realm.Young Adult/Teen novel with themes in mental health, it will appeal to those who enjoy traditional fantasies along the lines of C.S. Lewis and Shannon Hale.SAMPLE CHAPTERS ONWATTPADCAN’T WAIT? PLEASECONTACT MEIF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN RECEIVING AN EARLY COPY FOR REVIEW.

Stone Bearers: Mordin

​Chapter 36"A wave of fire swept through his veins and his eyes flashed open. He lay flat on his back, rain spilling over him. He turned to his side. The blue-glassed bottle lay capsized on the grass. He pushed it away with a mumbled curse, the picture of a passed-out drunk on the ground. A drunk who had freed a demon."Stone Bearers reached 80 reviews onAmazonthis weekend, so as promised, I am going to share some early sketches of Mordin. Here he is in all his princely glory.Mordin’s name is a combination of Aladdin and Merlin. The Aladdin reference should be obvious to anyone who has read the prologue of Stone Bearers or even just looked at the picture of this post. The Merlin reference not so much. That’s because it actually has nothing to do with the story anymore. After I finished my first Stone Bearers book (currently unpublished), I was trying DESPERATELY to write a completely separate standalone. One idea was to do a King Arthur story with Merlin being a sort of djinni character—the original Mordin. But as the ideas progressed, I ended up pairing him with Ashira and moving them into my Stone Bearers world. So basically, I failed. :PBut Mordin also has another name.(Advert your eyes if you haven’t read Stone Bearers and don’t want the mid-point spoiled).-----​​Jin.This name is given to Mordin by Ashira after he becomes a djinni and loses his memory. It fits as a shortened form of djinni, but also ended up building into another aspect of Mordin’s character. He’s a drunk, and he becomes Jin in a bottle because I am JUST that clever/cheesy.Anyways, as a drunk, Mordin is a more cynical character. He doesn’t think much of magic or love before getting trapped. His motive for becoming the djinni is to free his brother from a “love spell.”  He learns a bit more as time goes on, along with his perfect foil—Ashira.Want my pics of her? Well, I have some.I’ll share them with the world when we get to the 90s. :)

My favorite series (aka how I started loving elves):

Well, now that I have some reviews on here, I guess I would be remiss if I didn’t also post my favorite series of all time.I suppose this should be a hard question to answer because I enjoy so many books, but it actually isn’t. I DO have a favorite series, a fantasy series written by Tracey Hickman and Margret Weis called Death Gate. I was a teenager when I first read it. I had actually just finished their Dragonlance series and requested them for my birthday. My well-meaning mother had no idea which of their many books I meant (and even I had no idea they were so prolific) so she gave me the first book of this series, Dragon Wing.But I was perfectly willing to be flexible and dive into this new series!It seemed a bit harder read than their Dragonlance series, but I was quickly hooked. The characters were familiar (elves and dwarves, princes, and assassins), but richly developed and presented differently than any I had seen. The dwarves were kicked around. The elves were flying space ships. The world was broken and floating around as lumps of rock. It was SO cool. And then, when I got to the ending of the series, I felt something—something I was used to feeling in church when someone bears a testimony or sings a heart-filled song. Yes, there are Christian themes in Death Gate, in a fantasy, and it made it something I never wanted to forget.Like many new writers, once finding my favorite series, I wanted to do something “just like that.” I didn’t start loving elves because of Tolkien (though he certainly has some cool elves), I started loving them and the idea that I could put my own twist on the traditional after reading Death Gate and that is when I started writing my first book.But as Amazon got to be more popular I looked up my favorite series and found a review that was mostly positive, but it said it had to “forgive” Death Gate for its Christian themes that became so clear at the end of the series.The part of the series that made it stick with me all those years had to be “forgiven” to beconsidered a masterpiece of fantasy.I rejected the idea then, but I guess that message stuck with me because when I got my first review pointing out some of the Christian themes in my book, I panicked a little. And it wasn’t even a bad review! It was a review written by my loving aunt saying she LIKED the Christian themes. I had even posted on my blog a quote in Mere Christianity as part of my book’s inspiration, so it’s not like I didn’t know those Christian themes were there! I put those themes there, and now someone was just pointing them out, so why was I panicking?I guess there is an assumption even inside me that if something is Christian, it is lazy or not as polished. That it rests on the fact that just because Christianity is good, everything written with that intent is also good. Or its writers are so focused on the “message” that they twist plots and characters in unnatural ways, using “God” or the “spirit” as an overly convenient plot devise. Or they just show a rosy-colored look on the world that feels disingenuous. These things might be true in a lot of Christian novels.Was it true in mine?I have no idea. I hope not. Because the fact is, I have written six books and all of them, almost in spite of myself, ended up with a clear message/theme and it seems to be the only thing that inspires me—to keep writing even when it is hard. I sometimes envy my friends who can write books that steers clear of sensitive issues, keeping things fun and able to fit with most world views. I love a lot of books like that, but it just doesn’t seem to be me.I can apologize for poor writing and try to improve, but I hope I never apologize for being a Christian writer who has Christian-themed books. I certainly wouldn’t expect an Atheist to apologize for writing about their own life experience. That is what all authors do. And readers learn to read what they like and pass on what they don’t.As part of my discovery of what it means to market well, I felt the message loud and clear. If I really wanted to sell my books, I also have to sell myself to a certain extent. I can’t hide any part of me if I want my books not only to entertain, but to really resonate and speak to someone else. I have to share myself and this is who I am.I am a nurse, I am an author, and I am a Christian. And by admitting that, I feel I can fully embrace those that stick around after. It won’t remove all the fear, but it will remove some of it. So, yes, there are Christian themes in Stone Bearers and there may very well be Christian themes in all the books I write. They are all listed in myWIPtap, and now I even added Winter Falls, the book I wrote at the same time as Stone Bearers, battling with depression and channeling all my own struggles with faith. I often called Stone Bearers my Hobbit, and its companion series my Lord of the Rings, so I suppose this is my The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe, my Narina.And it will have its Cover Reveal in two weeks. :)

Review Round Up: Aug 2016

THE WIZARD’S HEIR:I got this one free from the author as part of a contest. This one had a brisk pace in the beginning that drew me in. I liked the different magic systems and the larger mystery with the king. Cool world building and concept.Things got a little muddied for me in the second half where they seemed to be running back and forth a lot. I also never really cared for the leading lady.Still a fun book though and I would recommend it.THE FAERIE GUARDIAN:I listened to this as an audio book, and it was really good at making a long car ride fly by. I love fairy books! This one had a great heroine, fun magic and action, and it just zipped along.There were some predictable aspects of it, but I didn’t mind too much. It’s one of those books that can be read in an evening/weekend without any pause.I’d love to finish the series and see how things develop next time I have a hole in my reading list!MASTER OF LIES:I really like the concept of the emrys here—creatures made up of light. Another thing I really liked was that the hero was pregnant because I think it added another layer of drama that other books don’t have. There were some great character moments and it was an enjoyable read.What I struggled with were drawn out passages of internal thought, and I couldn’t get the math to work in a way that made me comfortable with a love triangle involving a mother, daughter and the same guy—even with fantasy/immortal elements in play. Didn’t like it in Twilight. Don’t like it here.It was a clean read though, with a nice premise. It will be interesting to see what else this author does.All my Reviews are all up onGoodreads.

Stone Bearers: Scrufflings

Chapter 30[“]There were flowers running around here on their roots last week. Flowers.”“They’re called scrufflings. The sprites made them, and they’re ever so cute, but they throw axes at them. They do!”Scrufflings!!!Okay, so this isn’t technically fan art. This is “creator” art.Now some of you might assume that means I drew it. You would be wrong. You see, I first started writing about my elves way back in high school. So I stuck my elves in my forest and turned to my younger sister and said, “Bethany, what kind of fairy creatures should I have in my forest with my elves?”And my sister immediately replied “scrufflings” and described flowers that ran around and caused all sorts of trouble. We fleshed out a few more details. They were enchanted by the forest sprites and only active at night. They looked like normal flowers during the day, healing and regenerating themselves through a modified version of photosynthesis. They run on their roots and use a beak of two petals as a mouth. Though they don’t eat, they are fascinated by food and will steal it from other creatures. They mostly were made to amuse the sprites and they have the most in common with them.Now having talking, dancing flowers is probably a younger concept than the ultimate tone of the series ended up being, but I enjoyed that creation process so much, I had to keep them if only as an Easter egg for those in the know. And that’s basically what they are in every Stone Bearer book I have written so far . . .  they are mentioned once or twice in the elf chapters of the first book as part of the argument between the elves and their guards. In the next book . . . well, you will have to search for them, but I promise they will be there. And they will be glorious. After all, I snuck them past my editor once, so they are story canon now and we are all stuck with them now!One last tid-bit. We have no idea where the name scrufflings comes from, so a running joke that might appear in the later series is that the elves and other more intelligent fairy creatures have no idea where the name comes from either. The scrufflings came up for the name themselves and if you’ve ever tried to have a conversation with a scruffling, you would know that most of their reasons behind the things they do and say are a little hard to follow.I have more creator art I can share until more fan art rolls in if there is interest—ones actually drawn by me. Believe me, it won’t be all that good (I’m not an artist) but it could be fun. Maybe we can do it as a promotion. Stone Bearers is at 70ish reviews onAmazonright now. If all you guys that read it are willing/able to give me an honest review and get that number to 80, I’ll “release” my own pic of Jin. And then we can shoot for Ashira at 90. And I’ll show you my map with all the bearers/guardians/stones at 100. And so on until I run out of stuff to share.And I will share fan art and fan pics at any time I get it (with their creator’s permission of course).Sound good?And here is my niece’s pic of Kit the dragonet if you areinterested.And the “fan pics” I posted on the facebook page. I highly recommend the album from my reunion trip for some laughs:https://www.facebook.com/stonebearers/It is so much fun pretending to be popular!!!

Reviews: Summer Book Trek Part 3 (Bonus Round)

I set a goal for six novels for the summer reading trek, and I’m happy to report that I read nine—most from the sponsored reading list.Hereare the final three:AMA’S WATCHThis was a different sort of read for me! I started it once, but then I put it down because the beginning had block style description and dialogue that made me think it might be a chore to read—signs of a less experienced writer. But I soon realized that while unconventional, James has a voice all his own. I have met a few authors now, but I don’t always hear the author’s voice dripping from the book so much as I did here. I could just see how much fun he was having through his characters’ slap stick actions and forays into philosophy and it's hard not to get swept in and carried along for ride.If he ever does decide to make aspects of his writing more approachable with a more modern style and depth to the side characters/world building, I could easily see James writing a masterpiece of literature. As it is, this debut was fun and thought provoking. I look forward to more.BUXTON PEAKI got this book for free after making a connection with the author in a beta group. I downloaded it and read it in about 2-3 hours. It’s a super quick read! The story is a nice escape, a modern Cinderella story. It was cute and I really enjoyed it.There is something to be said of a simple story that gives you a fun escape, but I would have liked a bit more substance at times—depth to the characters and a stronger conflict.It seems to be leading to a sequel where I would love to see a bit more growth beyond the fairytale set-up!THE GIRL WHO HEARD DEMONSOkay, I loved this one. It has to be my favorite of the trek because it had both a compelling style and a well-executed premise. The girl hears demons in her school and they are so believable—creepy believable. And while that’s a great fantasy aspect which first caught my attention, what I liked more was that it didn’t overwhelm the story, it was simply a catalyst. You also got great characters and a mystery to solve that kept the plot moving.The ending was a bit rushed to me, but there were so many aspects of this book I liked! It was thought-provoking, it was funny, it had moments of tense action and it had a real ending. This is my first time reading something from this author and it won’t be the last.I had so much fun discovering these new authors and I hope you enjoyed my efforts to review them. My reviews might be more spaced out as life continues, but I promise there will be more.  :)

Reviews: Summer Book Trek Part 2

Yay, round two! Here are my reviews for the second half of the Summer Book Trek. As before, I will be placing them here on my new and improved blog and also onGoodreads.​BORROWED MAGICI love high fantasy and this seemed to have a neat hook so I snatched it up. I looked at the earlier reviews before I got it, and it’s a good thing I did. There is actually a free prequel/novella that comes before it. It gives a lot of the history of the characters—something you do get in the flashbacks in the novel as the story goes along, but I really appreciated getting beforehand. I think it made me enjoy the book so much more. The story here starts out as being fairly familiar, but the writing here is really clever, and the emotional conflict sucks you in and gives a fresh light to everything.The only real negative I have is that some of the plot started to get repetitive and I wished we could understand how more of the magic works, but since the main character doesn’t use much magic herself, I guess it would make sense that it should be a bit vague.This novel stands alone well (something I’m getting increasingly grateful for in first-of-the series books), but I would LOVE to see more from this author.I AM SLEEPLESS: SIM 299After filling my list with so much “girl” fantasy, I picked this one as a nice change of pace. It’s sort of a YA dystopian with some elements of Ender’s Game, but even with those two pieces, there were so many original and cool world-building details in this book! I love that every chapter started with a neat drawing of the fantasy creatures and a blurb where you get more of the history. At the end, there is a guide to the power system too, which gave you all sorts of extra details. I really could see it fitting a lot of the current trends that it’s intended audience (pre-teens?) would just devour.What I struggled with here was how much the narration bounced around—I never was quite sure whose head we were in and wished it could have been a bit more focused on just a few characters. I think it just started to get a bit jumbled for me. But then, I do tend to me a more character-focused reader, and someone looking more for action and cool images probably wouldn’t struggle with that piece at all. :)I loved the potential of this world and look forward to it really hitting its stride in whatever comes out next!BEYOND THE RISING TIDELast but not least, I was so excited to read this book, that when I got my first Summer Trek win, I requested it in hard copy. And I am so glad I did, it’s a book I would love to pass to my friends and keep on my shelf. It’s a romance with a paranormal twist and had such a neat atmosphere to it. It’s one of those immersive books where you just feel like you’re on the beach, in the chocolate shop, and even a glimpse of how a soul might spend their time before completely moving on. The characters were unique and really well drawn. I liked them all. And it also has a lot of heart as it works through heavier emotions of survivor’s guilt and redemption.I think the ending could have been a bit stronger. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the final conclusion, but I wished they had found another path to get there. It just seemed that the main characters had accepted different directions for themselves, then suddenly all the obstacles and consequences were ripped away as the agonist (not really a villain) sort of shrugged his shoulders, or perhaps even set up the circumstances in which the main characters got their happy ending. I think it would have had a bit more impact if the main characters had figured out how to get their happy ending themselves and worked hard for it, even had a few lingering consequences they had to accept or work through. But with the initial premise, I could see this book being a VERY difficult one to craft the perfect ending for, so I might just be splitting hairs.It’s beautiful, it’s well written and I would recommend it highly as a light read on a Sunday afternoon.You might think my summer book trek is at an end, but you would be wrong! Through some other fortuitous channels, I gained two other free books on the list. I finished one in a few hours and the other I’m now halfway through. Heck, at the rate I am going, I might even be able to squeeze out a ninth book for the month, so expect my special “bonus round” reviews soon!

Reviews: Summer Book Trek Part 1

Staring out with my first three reviews for the summer trek! I'm posting them here and on Goodreads and I'm linking the cover photos to their Amazon pages so you can take a look. These ones are all Indie books and a lot of them are discounted for the trek, so yay!Witch Ways:I was initially drawn to this book because I loved Sabrina the Teenage Witch growing up and it just sounded like a fun, quick read. I wasn’t disappointed. It’s clean, it’s fun, and the characters were interesting. What I especially liked here was that it took time to develop a friendship between the main character and her best gal friend. Also with her uncle and other kooky characters around the town. So many Young Adult books get so romance focused that other relationships are quickly pushed aside or completely un-addressed and it was SUCH a nice change in pace.I think I just wanted a bit more from the main character. She had tons of potential, but it often seemed to be tugged by the other characters so it was unclear what the main goal was. I know it was supposed to be about her using her magic and solving a murder (both good things), but it didn’t seem like the main character ever embraced those goals for herself, she just happened to be around while it was happening. I think that made the plot wander a bit, but we all got back on track by the end.I would be interested in reading the next books to see how things progress!First Light:I LOVE mixed up fairytales so much! This one had elements of Sleeping Beauty mostly and a few other minor references. What I really liked about this one was that it was how it showed how much the curse on the princess effected the kingdom around her. Instead of just focusing on the royalty, we got a good feel for her life on the farm and her time in the kitchen and just got to peek into the lives of characters that don’t always have such a starring role. I loved seeing all those little details and how it brought together some of the other fairytale references! The fairies were interesting and I loved the added element of the main character's adopted sister and the evil queen’s son.One thing I would have liked to see developed more is the magic system and the main character’s talents. A lot of times, the magic would be used before it was explained or rely so much on faith/belief that it seemed a little arbitrary or convenient. If some clearer rules were set up from the beginning, I think it would have had a stronger impact overall.This was a great, quick read though and would be great for anyone who likes fairytale novels like Princess Ben or Dealing with Dragons or something by Jessica George.Obsidian:I LOVED the idea behind this book. It’s sort of a magical-realistic feel because the dragons seem to be the only fantasy element added to the world . . . everything else is just like earth. That is SO cool. I love when people can take familiar fantasy elements and present them with a fresh, new feel. The plot line is interesting, the cover and interior elements are beautiful, it’s a very attractive package overall. It just started my imagination going where I could feel like I was out hiking the mountains and finding dragons on my own.One thing that caught me by surprise here is the level of mature content featured here—several short flashbacks of a rape, a character covering herself with sheets to come out of a romantic’s interest bedroom, other smaller innuendos . . . It isn’t graphic, but it did end up being a bit of a turn off to me. But that may just be because it went hand in hand with a heavier dose of romance than I would prefer, overwhelming the cool dragons and everything else that initially caught my attention in a few places.If you can handle that, it’s an easy read that can certainly get you thinking. :)I am having SO much fun on the Summer Reading trek and am more than ready to dive into the next three on my list! Especially since that by recording what I read and posting reviews, I WON one of the next books so I can read it in glorious paperback.Yay!

Summer Book Trek 2016: Reading List

I am so excited to be part of the Summer Trek reading challenge and I am going to winALL THE BOOKS. . . Except for Stone Bearers and Daemarkin because I already read them several hundred times. But you can play and try to win those ones if you haven’t read them yet!(Why haven’t you read them yet??)Here is my reading list in no particular order! Behold all the pretty covers!

Writing Tips: So you want to publish your book . . .

Okay, so you have a book that you edited and worked hard on, what do you do with it? That is a very good question. When I first entered into this category myself, everyone praised the traditional route. They wanted the agent and the big publishing house that could whisk them away to fame and movie deals and the coveted slot on the Barns and Noble shelf. Spoiler alert, things have changed. Amazon changed them. Less people go to physical book stores and it’s a lot easier for an individual to get a digital book to the masses. And this change has come in faster than I think most in the publishing biz were prepared for (I mean, I’m not even old and I can talk about “the good old days” a little here). So now there are three tracks and subtracks and lots of things in between if you want to publish your book.Traditional-If you want a bigger publisher, you still have to do it the older way. You have to get an agent. How do you get one? Well, I might not be the best one to ask because I don’t have one, but from what I have seen and what I have been told, you have to write a good query and/or find some other acceptable way to snag their attention such as a blog or twitter contest. Sometimes agents will go to conferences and you can pitch in person. Research the agents on sites such as Query Tracker to find out who would be a good fit. Try to follow their guidelines in writing a query letter. Be polite. Be prepared for rejection.Stone Bearers, then called Demon Prince, was the first of my books I actually looked into publishing and it was queried to agents. It was also featured in blog contests. Some agents showed interest, some did not, but ultimately I think it failed at this route because I was learning by trial and error and by the time I figured at least part of that out, I had exhausted a lot of options I saw in this area available to me. So I moved on and found my personal break-in with a small press.So yeah, that is how far my experience with the traditional route goes. You get an agent and they pitch to larger presses and work out the contract for you (in exchange for sharing some of the profits).Some advantages of this route-Bigger exposure. More experienced feedback to get your book to really shine. They will front the bill for a lot of the editors and cover art and promotion and everything else along the way (assuming they are doing their job right).Some disadvantages-It’s REALLY hard for a new writer to break in this way and it gets harder all the time as publishing changes. Also, if you go this route, you will lose some of your control. Some of this comes in the form of good and helpful feedback, other comes in the form of those who would encourage you to write to certain topics or formulas that they prefer or seem to sell well. Which, again, they could be right about, but some of the more free-spirited among us might have a harder time settling there. You will also share a lot of your profits with the agent and the publisher. They helped give you the platform you’re standing on, so it is only fair.Semi-traditional-There are publishers who do not require an agent. These are the smaller presses. You pitch to them as you would pitch to an agent (but please don’t try to pitch to both and leverage the two against each other—they both hate it). Research them and find out what would be a good fit for your book.Some advantages of this route-Really varied here, but you’ll get some of the same pros as complete traditional. Smaller presses are smaller, so sometimes you can talk more directly to all the people on your publishing team and get more of your opinions heard.Some disadvantages-Again, smaller presses are by definition, smaller, so a lot of times they are still learning with you what works, trying to build up their own base and visibility. They will also have their own opinions they will add to your book for good or ill.Self-publishing/Indie-Okay, this route it getting traction and getting bigger all the time. These are those free spirits that wish to do everything themselves. Or people who struck out on the first two routes and are GOING to get their books out no matter what. Or a combination there of. And I think that’s great. I have lots of friends that have gone this route—even considering it myself for some of my future projects. Just realize this is NOT a short cut and NOT for the faint of heart. To do this route well, you will need to assemble your own editors, artists, marketing specialists, and everything else to make things work. The market is so cluttered in this area now that making your stuff stand out can be really difficult, but if you really just want a book out there, it really can be as easy as uploading a pdf to Amazon.Some advantages of this route-You will have full control of your story. No one can tell you nothing. You call all the shots. You own the world. You own everything.Some disadvantages-You have to do EVERYTHING and figure out how to reach your audience. You also have no gatepost person to help you gage when your work is “ready.” You have to know yourself.ALL. BY. YOURSELF.Okay, so you figured out your personal path to publishing. What comes after that? Honestly, I am still working on that part. For example, I never did much with marketing before, but I'm researching and once I formed enough of my own ideas on that enough not just to be parroting my sources, I will share. For now, maybe people smarter than me can start filling in the gaps and we will all learn together. :)This is the current end of my “So you want to write a book series” (part 1 and 2 here). If there are specific questions or I learn something awesome, I will try to add to it. Feel free to drop me a line and let me know what would be helpful!