C.J. Perry's Blog, page 4

Breakers of the Dawn, by Zachariah Wahrer

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Life in the Akked Galaxy will never be the same again…






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Art of the Arcane will use the information you provide on this form to be in touch with you and to provide updates and marketing. We will only email you up to two times a month.

GDPC Compliance

Art of the Arcane has begun changes to become GDPC compliant starting May 1st.

What that means for authors and Art of the Arcane:

If you had a landing page, it has been deleted in preparation to provide compliant landing pages. We are sorry for any inconvenience.
The new landing ‘pages’ will be temporary blog posts here on Art of the Arcane. These posts will be deleted once the giveaway is over and the book files purged from our Google Drive and Dropbox accounts. The temporary nature of these pages may change once we have more space and can afford to upgrade all of our services.
The new landing pages will state the purpose of collecting subscriber emails, and how to unsubscribe from the lists.
Mailchimp or Mailerlite integration will be required for new landing pages. We will no longer redistribute emails after the giveaway is over. This way, readers can get opt-in confirmation straight from the author in a timely fashion. This makes consent to receiving emails much more likely.
Subscribing to author newsletters will still be required for receiving free copies of the authors’ books. New subscribers will be added only as ‘pending’ on mailchimp. We recommend enabling double opt-ins.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, please contact us through the Contact Us/Privacy Statement Page.

Here is an example of one:

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What if your only friend was evil…?






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You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us though our contact page. We will treat your information with respect. For more information about our privacy practices please visit our contact us/privacy statement page. By clicking below, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

Art of the Arcane will use the information you provide on this form to be in touch with you and to provide updates and marketing. We will only email you up to two times a month.

NEW SERVICE: Paperback Giveaways!

Due to some larger sites now charging a lot of money to do paperback giveaways, the demand for a free paperback giveaway service has gone up. So, we are introducing FREE Paperback Giveaways. Here are the details:

The Giveaways will be powered by KingSumo.com.

For now, we will have to make each giveaway by hand, so slots in each paperback giveaway will be limited. There will be a waiting list if necessary.


Authors may offer one paperback to give away.

For a sliding fee, authors may giveaway up to 10 copies.


Authors will receive subscribers.

Consent to author and Art of the Arcane emails will follow GDPR guidelines.
Double Opt-ins highly recommended.


We will keep a record of all your giveaways for 1 year in case your mail service company asks for proof of consent by your subscribers.
Authors may choose premium add-ons for a fee:

Facebook Likes
Instagram Follows
Twitter Follows
Podcast Subscribes
YouTube Subscribes


The giveaway page will look just like the ebook giveaway pages. The only difference is that when the book cover is clicked on, the reader is taken to the paperback giveaway page.

Be sure to sign up for them on the giveaway signup page.

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Dark Communion, by CJ Perry

After 200 years of slavery, one girl will trade her soul for a chance to break the curse that keeps her people in chains.






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April Giveaways & Contests

Starting April 1st Art of the Arcane will be jam-packed with free books. But between now and then, we will be updating the site. So please be patient with us. It will be worth the wait. Included in the updates will be…

Member Profiles
Member Accounts
A way for readers to interact with giveaway authors
New Art of the Arcane landing pages for giveaway books
More streamlined functionality on the site

In  addition to the four giveaways below, we are also going to be running multiple contests. To enter all you have to do is choose an author to connect with via their newsletter. There will be lots of bonus entries for liking or following your favorite authors on social media.

Only members get access to the hundreds of free books. But even though the giveaway pages aren’t open yet, be sure and register. This way you will get a reminder to come back when they do open. Membership, like the books and everything else on Art of the Arcane, is totally FREE.

It’s all part of our efforts to bring readers and authors together…

SciFi, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal Romance, and New Adult genres all come together in our first genre mashup giveaway 

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For the first time, Art of the Arcane is letting authors turn up the heat in our romance giveaways. (Age verification will be required)

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Another first: Horror. Just scrolling through these authors Facebook haunts was scary… we cant wait to see what their books bring to the site! Think you can handle it?

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Our March Mystery & Thriller was a huge success! From Cozy Mysteries, to Serial Killer Thrillers… we’ve got it all.

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Changes Coming to Art of the Arcane Giveaways in April and May

Upgrading to Cognito from Google Forms: 

Authors who have been with us for a while probably noticed that we upgraded to Cognito Forms from Google Forms. Google Forms did not handle things like edits and deleted entries in a predictable manner, causing no end of problems with my Integromat Scenarios. Also, Google Forms’ response validation did not allow me to limit responses in important fields, like dates. The upgrade means less errors, and a more streamlined experience for everybody.


New Option: Getting a FREE AotA Landing Page, or Linking to Somewhere Else:  

The New AotA Landing Pages: Authors can now get a landing page through ArtoftheArcane.com, and we hope more people will choose this option as time goes on. Outside links have pushed our bounce rate north of 75%. By keeping readers on the site to claim books, that number will come down.

Authors can choose to upload PDF, EPUB, and/or MOBI files.
When a reader enters their email and requests a copy, they are emailed a dropbox download link for their chosen file type.
iPhone/ipad users will need to download the dropbox app. We are working on sending the files via attachment to bypass this requirement. Hopefully attachment sends will be implemented by May.
Authors with an AotA landing page will be able to claim their subscribers at the end of each giveaway.
In May, we will offer the option to integrate mailerlite or mailchimp lists to have subscribers automatically added. It will require your API Key and List ID.




Linking to Somewhere Else: There are now only three approved sites authors can link to from our giveaways. In time we hope to phase these out completely, except for Amazon. This is to limit submission errors. 

Instafreebie
Bookfunnel
Amazon




New Membership Requirement for Giveaway Access

Most sections of the site will still be accessible to both authors and readers. However, starting in April, all visitors (including authors) will have to sign in to access giveaways. To make it easy we have included a “Continue with Facebook” button. For those who do not have Facebook, there is a form.


Affiliate Program: We are working on creating an affiliate program for AotA. Authors will be rewarded with credit toward featured promotion slots in giveaways or in the biweekly AotA Newsletter. More information will be available on this is a future update.

#Worldbuilding Dojo – Relationships (In Dialogue)

 

Tech Talks

See what I did there again? Yeah, you saw it. So clever.

Let’s get into context clues buried within technobabble so we can talk future stuff and not lose our audience. First, let’s take this snippet of dialogue from Star Trek, they love this stuff. Let’s see how they did it:

DATA: “It appears to be a highly focused aperture in the space-time continuum. Its energy signature matches that of the temporal fragments we observed earlier. However, it is approximately one point two million times as intense. I believe this may be the origin of the temporal fragmentation.”

So, big hole in space-time, got that. It’s the same hole we already saw, but it’s a million times stronger. It’s not that complicated at all, doesn’t impede our understanding, and still sounds like it takes several degrees to understand the science behind it.

Like I said in the video as it pertained to ancient speech, I suggest arriving at the feeling first and the words, in plain English. Then, alter the dialogue to match how it needs to sound, sprinkle in keywords surrounded by context clues, and you’ve got it. Easy, peasy, cadmium-hued citrus product squeezie.

The biggest DON’T with technobabble is to try and make you, the author, sound clever. We get it, you did your research. Hell, you got your 12 degrees to actually explain to me what Data was talking about up there. If it doesn’t serve the story, if it doesn’t sound natural, or if it’s a wall of text, it goes. Worse yet, if it’s in your dialogue and directed at a character that can’t understand it, cut it. Even worse still, if you have to explain it again three sentences later, you’re giving me a ‘In English, Doc!’, and we can’t have that.

Science doesn’t even have to be real to sound real. That’s right, your science doesn’t have to be science at all. Give me a technological explanation for magic in your world. Make vampirism a virus. As long as the explanation sounds good, and you can walk me through it like a layman, that works. Just…please don’t give me midichlorians. That is all I ask.

Now you know when to keep and when to cut. Now have fun, and get crafting.

#Worldbuilding Dojo – Let’s Time Travel

Plotting Time Travel

The key to plotting satisfying time travel stories is to make sure you keep them grounded in satisfying story arcs. For all its complication, Interstellar is a story of one father’s love for his daughter. Groundhog Day is about making the most of a day, and finding what’s important. Back to the Future follows science-based MacGuffin action-adventure plotline, and so on.

Once you have a framework in place for the story you want to tell, search for logical paradoxes. Remember, motivation is a key factor in whether you cause a paradox in even the most grounded of stories. You can also embrace the ‘many worlds’ theory and accept that the new timeline takes place in another universe. Either way, once the coast is clear, you want to explain your system, but always show, don’t tell. Like we mentioned about Back to the Future, burying the explanation in the dialogue is a great way to keep things moving along without losing your audience, but don’t spoon-feed walls of text, either. Less is always more, and KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) are your buddies here.

Armed with that knowledge, do yourself a huge favor and chart out a timeline. This will help you to stay on track and spot paradoxes as they crop up. The more complex the timeline, the more you need to hand-hold your audience and walk them through it (re-watch Back to the Future 2 with this in mind and you’ll see it in the dialogue.)

Now, have fun and get crafting.

 

Guest Author Andy Peloquin explains “Why Newsletters Matter”

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Why Newsletters Matter

Hi, I’m Andy Peloquin, and I’m a bookaholic. It has been five minutes since my last hit of fantasy fiction, and I’m already jonesing for my next one!

I’ve been reading fantasy for close to two decades (not a long time compared to some, but it’s still most of my life), and I’ve found that there are so many wonderful worlds to explore. More often than not, the best worlds are the ones I would never have heard about on my own. After all, I don’t spend anywhere near as much time in bookstores as I’d like, and I can’t spend all my time browsing Amazon shelves for new authors. So that means I’m either only looking for authors I’m familiar with (like the big-name, traditionally published authors), or I rely on word of mouth to find out about new reads.

My current favorite book/series—The Gentlemen Bastards by Scott Lynch—was recommended to me by a friend. As was my second favorite series, The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson. Heck, aside from The Chronicles of Narnia and Warlord of Mars, all of my favorite books and series have been recommended to me by a fellow fantasy reader or an author I trust.

As an author myself, I like to know what other awesome fantasy novels are out there—not only so I can enjoy reading them, but so I can find ways to do things better than everyone else (yes, I’m a tad competitive). Thanks to author newsletters, I can find out what my favorite authors are doing, as well as receive recommendations from them on other new books and authors worth my time. It’s the best sort of word of mouth out there—I know that I like one author’s book, so his recommendation of another author probably is going to carry some weight.

 

If you’re a reader like me, you’re probably always on the lookout for that next amazing series or your next “hit” of fantasy fiction. Author newsletters are an amazing way to do that. Not only can you find out what your current favorites are up to, but you’ll be able to follow their recommendations to find new books to feed your addiction.

I know it can be overwhelming to get a lot of emails in your inbox, but I’ve found it’s so worth it to take the time to read the emails. I find out what sort of magic my favorite authors have in store for me, and I get to see the recommendations of other books. The result: more fantasy awesomeness!

Books By Andy Peloquin

Ilanna, Master of the Night Guild, has waged a war for eight years to cleanse her city of the rival criminal organization that nearly destroyed it. When she uncovers a ring of slavers trafficking young girls for sexual servitude around the continent, she is forced to venture into the city of Voramis, the seat of her enemy’s power, to hunt down the true culprit and put an end to the enslavement of innocents.

But her enemies will not be so easily eliminated. She must turn to the one man certain to get the job done: the Hunter, legendary assassin of Voramis.

The Hunter willingly accepts a fortune in gold to kill one of the richest men in his city. A mansion fortress and a private army should prove no match for his inhuman abilities.

But as he stalks his target, he unmasks a bloodthirsty conspiracy in the guise of a holy mission. If he doesn’t stop the men responsible, the gruesome murders will continue and people—including those he has sworn to protect—will die.

Fans of Brent Weeks, Brandon Sanderson, and Joe Abercrombie will devour Traitors’ Fate!

“I am Ilanna, Journeyman of House Hawk… and vengeance will be mine.”

Ilanna has lost everything: her friends, her home, her family, her dreams of freedom.

All that remains is a burning desire to find the bastards who burned down her city and tried to kill her.

But a traitor hides among the ranks of the Night Guild, poisoning her friends and allies with lies.

Cast out and condemned to death, Ilanna has no choice but to turn to old enemies to save not only her life, but her Guild and city in the process.

Read the breathtaking, heart-stopping conclusion to the Queen of Thieves series!

Fans of Sarah J. Maas and Scott Lynch will love Queen of Thieves…

 

Guest Author Stephanie Barr’s characters discuss, ‘How to Find Your Perfect Hero.’

 

How to Find Your Perfect Hero

starring Dante da Silva and Roxell the Tarot Queen

 

Dante: Tell me again how we got roped into this. Scruffy was behind it, wasn’t he? Trying to reform my image. Well, what do we know about finding heroes?

Roxell: I don’t see why we couldn’t discuss this topic as well as anyone. I did find you.

Dante: Ha! As if I qualify as a hero. And as for you, staying in the same cottage at the top of an inaccessible mountain for four hundred years until your “hero” wanders in through a locked door doesn’t sound like particularly useful advice.

Roxell: You told me that door was unlocked!

Dante: Did I?

Roxell: My point isn’t so much the mechanism for finding your hero, but what characteristics you should be looking for in a hero.

Dante: This isn’t about looks, is it? Because, if it is, I’m gone. People who equate beauty with merit are the most irksome and easily used of all.

Roxell: No nor charm either. If that’s all you had–and we all know you have both–you still wouldn’t be a hero.

Dante: [scratching the chin of the ugliest cat ever] I am not a hero.

Roxell: [rolls eyes] Right, just like don’t have a cat.

Dante: I don’t have a cat. We just happen to be in the same area once in a while.

Roxell: For how many years? Or a dog.

Lucky: Woof!

Dante: That is not my dog.

Lucky: Woof!

Dante: Besides you’re the one that named them.

Roxell: Anyway, back to the subject at hand. What do you think a hero is?

Dante: [contemplating the glowing red tattoos on his pale skin] Someone who isn’t actively possessed with a worthless sex demon.

Roxell: I really don’t think that has anything to do with…

Dante: Someone who hasn’t lived a life of dissipation. Someone who isn’t ruthless. Someone who isn’t dangerous.

Roxell: This isn’t about what a hero isn’t nor will giving me a list of your own characteristics make you less the hero. I don’t want a list of what a hero isn’t. A want to tell the readers what a hero is.

Dante: A hero has no business having a tainted past.

Roxell: A hero isn’t about what one has done or who one used to be, well it can be if it’s a reflection of your core personality. It’s about who you really are and what you are willing to be.

Dante: If you’re so smart–and I know you are–tell me what a hero is and convince me I fit.

Roxell: A hero doesn’t have to be ready to save the world or do nothing but good. He can, but he doesn’t have to. What he does have to do is care about someone or something, enough he’d risk his life, whether a child, a pet, or a lover. Maybe a principle or group of people. Something beyond himself.

He has to be willing to grow and learn, be willing to do things he would never normally do. He can be ruthless, but he shouldn’t be needlessly sadistic, taking pleasure in hurting innocent people unnecessarily. He doesn’t have to be kind to everyone, but he should be kind to those he cares about. Wait, are you blushing?

Dante: I am not. It’s hot in here.

Roxell: You’re a fire demon.

Dante: Are you done?

Roxell: No. He should be capable, not so capable that you’re basically just an accessory, but capable enough that he’s helping solve the problems that come your way instead of making them. I personally favor smart heroes. Brawn is nice and all but you want to have a partner you can have real conversations with, who challenges you to do better yourself and to help you grow.

They don’t have to be adventurous but they can’t be boring or your life will drag along. But what one person needs in a partner or a companion isn’t always the same. Different people need different partners. Maybe someone that’s a little too hard could use one that can tell jokes and help her relax now and again. Maybe one that’s a little inexperienced…

Dante: A little– darling, you’d never even stepped foot outside that cabin for four centuries.

Roxell: I held my own.

Dante: Yeah, yeah you did. I pick really kickass heroines. So, why is this only about the men?

Roxell: It doesn’t have to be a man. I could be talking about heroines, too. Everything I said applies there as well. And there’s no saying that you don’t have two heroes together or two heroines. Or two friends. Or six friends for that matter. But, especially for romance, a hero needs to care about more than himself. Otherwise, he’s a jerk.

Dante: [laughs] Tell us how you really feel. You know I never did anything I didn’t want to do. I don’t think I qualify.

Roxell: Like getting arrested as a deserter and taken back to the capital?

Dante: I knew you’d think of something.

Roxell: Or taking a crowd of freed slaves to safe haven?

Dante: That turned out to be a shortcut.

Roxell: You fulfilled the wish of that innkeeper that summoned you. You’re not going to tell me you would have done it without me being at risk, that you wanted to.

Dante: No, no I can’t say I would have.

Roxell: And all because you treasure me. That’s my hero. Yeah, you can be ruthless but on my behalf, which works out just fine. And you take such good care of Gus and Lucky, too.

Dante: I do not. We just have an understanding. And Lucky got into my good graces when I realized he’d go after the balls of anyone who threatened you.

Roxell: So, I guess that makes Lucky a hero, too. And Gus, as well.

Lucky: Woof!

[Gus rises, affronted, stuck up his matted tail and proceeds to ignore Roxell.]

Dante: You can’t go calling everyone a hero. He’s a cat, a really mangy one.

Roxell: It’s who you are that makes someone a hero, even if they never wanted to be, not what. [Brightly] So, that’s all we have time for today. I hope we’ve helped you in determining hero material when you see it.

Dante: [rolls eyes]

Dante da Silva, Roxell, Lucky and Gus can be found in Tarot Queen.

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Stephanie Barr is the author of Tarot Queen, Curse of the Jenri, Beast Within, Nine Lives, Saving Tessa and two anthologies of other science fiction/fantasy short stories (and a book of poetry) with more on the way. When she isn’t writing, she is working her day job as a rocket scientist, keeping tabs on her three kids (single mother) and contemplating more relationship advice which she hands out despite her two failed marriages.

You can find her at:

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