Janette Rallison's Blog, page 26
September 14, 2014
My son does a very funny author tell-all
Turn it up loud, because for some reason the volume it low.
September 6, 2014
The top ten reasons to love paper books
My middle daughter has gone off to college, and she took her ereader with her. As I had downloaded quite a few books on it, I had no choice but to buy my own ereader so I didn’t lose one of my libraries. Don’t get me wrong. There are things I love about my ereader. For example, it’s lightweight for traveling, and I can read in the dark. And I can buy books without my husband really realizing how many I have. All good things. But I feel like I need to remind everyone the virtues of paper books.
1) They don’t turn off if you ignore them for too long.
2) Should you be hit by an electromagnetic pulse or be stuck in a zombie apocalypse where recharging devices is impossible, ereaders will be useless.
3) Your children don’t download games on your paper books and then run off with said books.
4) Paper books still look cooler on the shelf.
5) You don’t have to keep constant vigilance watching your paper book for fear thieves will steal it. (Usually. Thieves might steal Janette Rallison book, so watch those.)
6) Flight attendants don’t make you turn paper books off right when you’re at the good part.
7) You can read paper books in the bathtub without worrying that if you drop one, you’ll lose a substantial investment.
8) When you touch a page on a paper book, it doesn’t accidentally turn to the next page or tell you what the definition of the word you touched is.
9) The smell and feel of new paper. Mmmm. Just as good as that new car smell.
10) Authors can’t sign ebooks.
Which reminds me—I’ll be having an official book launch at Changing Hands for Son of War, Daughter of Chaos within a couple months. You really want a signed paper book. (See last ten reasons.) I’ll let you know when I have a date.
August 24, 2014
What Title Should the Third Fairy Godmother Book Have?
As I’m waiting for my beta readers to finish and to comment on the story, I’ve also been pondering the title. The first two books are My Fair Godmother, and My Unfair Godmother–titles which only makes sense if you’ve seen the cover. Here is the second cover
: So I can’t really think of any more titles that use the word “Fair”.
Oh, and here is the awesome picture that will be on the cover:
Maureen Higham, one of my intrepid fans, suggested a few. Which is your favorite (or feel free to suggest your own clever title)
A World Resparkled
It’s a Wanderful Life (This one could have Wonderful crossed out.)
Wand Warfare
Cleaning Up All that Glitters
Magical Mayhem
The Magic of Love
Other suggestions?
August 17, 2014
Taking a page from Paul Coelho’s playbook
I just read the Wall Street Journal’s explanation for author Paul Coelho’s success in selling 165 million books:
“Mr. Coelho didn’t get to the top of the digital pyramid by accident … He connects daily with readers, sending private messages of encouragement and comfort, while updating his blog and public feeds with snapshots from his life and aphorisms from his books. Fans describe being profoundly moved by his online affirmations, professing their love for him in retweets and comments.”
I think I could learn something from Mr. Coelho.
I bet you think I’m going to say that I’ll be blogging more, or sending you all private messages. (Actually I do send you private messages using my psychic powers. Is it my fault you’re not picking them up?)
However, I still have to finish painting my kitchen cabinets and–oh yeah–write the third Slayers book, so I doubt I’ll be blogging more than once a week. But I did decide to post some touching aphorisms from my books:
From Son of War, Daughter of Chaos: If you see flesh-eating scarabs flying at you; duck, swat, and carry a can of Raid.
(Okay, that quote might not actually be in the book, but then again it might. You’ll never know if you don’t read the story.)
From My Fair Godmother: Never trust a fairy godmother. What do they know about real life?
(No one might have said this, but several people thought it.)
From Erasing Time: No one should travel to the future. Human nature doesn’t change, but people come up with more technologically advanced ways to kill you.
(Again, not actually a line in the story, but still a theme.)
I hope you all feel affirmed now, or whatever Paul Coelho’s fans feel when they go out and by 165 million copies of his books. Feel free to retweet my touching quotes.
August 11, 2014
Dragon sightings in DC
My niece just sent me this photo. Clearly, the DC area is suffering from a dragon infestation, and it’s time for me to write the next Slayers. I’ll be in DC for a couple of days next month and will be looking around for good places that the dragons can destroy. You can thank me later, DC.
August 3, 2014
Grammar Gremlins
I no longer believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, but I’m convinced that grammar gremlins visit my manuscripts during the night and insert mistakes. Seriously, how else would apostrophes change into quotation marks? Where do all of those missing words roam off to? I’m sure I wrote them into their sentences, but later when I reread the manuscript *POOF* they’re gone.
Of course, a lot of the mistakes really are my fault. Some of the finer points of grammar escape me.
Here are grammar facts I learned during the editing of Son of War, Daughter of Chaos.
Little League is capitalized.
You capitalize the name of class courses, but not subjects. So World History class is capitalized, but if you’re just talking about algebra in general, it’s not.
I will never, ever, understand when to use lay and lie in their past, present and future incarnations, so I shouldn’t even try. This is one of those times that–as the sage Al Yankovich advises– I need to hire some cunning linguist to help me distinguish what is proper English.
And in case you haven’t heard his song, Word Crimes, (I can’t remember if song titles are supposed to be in italics or are in quotation marks–but I think italics looks better) you really should listen to it.
The best benefit: You can listen to the song without visions of that horrifying Miley Cyrus performance coming to mind. Ahh, that’s much better. Thanks, Al.
July 22, 2014
Why authors should never read their own books
It probably doesn’t surprise you to hear that after a book is published, I never want to read it again. I’ve wrestled with writing it and rewriting it so many times, I’m sick of it.
I recently got the rights back to Just One Wish, and knew there were some mistakes to fix. (I had my character leave on a Wednesday when she should have left on Tuesday. Etc) And of course, I wanted to add in those two lines that my editor made me take out.
But of course I found a zillion other things to change. And right off I have to tell all of you people who loved the printed book–thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for overlooking all of the little problems. I used the phrase “There was a long pause” too much. I also overused the word “expression”. No one ever pointed that out in any of the reviews–which just shows me that readers are a forgiving bunch.
Anyway, the cool thing about ebooks is that you can go back and fix all of those things that bug you later. (Yay ebooks!)
That said, now I worry that with all of the changes I made, I added some typos. If you find any, let me know–because with ebooks, you can fix your typos. (Again, yay ebooks!)
And the two lines I put back in . . .
In the scene where Annika is on the set as a nun extra:
The director held up one hand in the air. “And don’t look so angry,” he yelled as though I were tormenting him. “You’re a nun, for heaven’s sake!”
Yes, well, I supposed that was the reason most nuns went into the profession.
My editor had me take out “Yes, well, I suppose that was the reason most nuns went into the profession. He said nuns went into the profession for Christ’s sake, not heaven’s. I thought that was splitting hairs, but at that point I was tired of fighting about it.
And the second line he made me take out . . . hmmm . . . maybe I’ll let you find that one yourself.
Also, if you’ve already read the book, can you please go leave a review? My 53 reviews aren’t transferring over from the print book. Thanks!!
We have bad news about your stuffed animal
It now is a bunch of fluff.
July 15, 2014
Son of War, Daughter of Chaos release day
What can I say? When it rains it pours. At least for two days. I will not be announcing another new release this week. But today I present: Son of War, Daughter of Chaos. (Cover by the very talented Devon Dorrity.)
This book has been a work in progress for about five years, so I’m super excited that it’s finally out–and happy that I can offer it to readers at 4.99 instead of the higher prices my publishers always slap on ebooks. (Trial of the heart is 9.99 for the ebook. I mean, come on publisher.)
Best blurb ever: Of all my books, it’s my mom’s favorite. Here’s the description:
Aislynn is accustomed to watching for the enemy. Her parents instructed her from the time she was young to look for people with the signs: greater than normal strength, eyes that can glow green, and the ability to jump long distances. Over the years, Aislynn has come to view her parents’ fears as quirks—things that get in the way of having a normal high school life.
When Aislynn’s mother dies under suspicious conditions, her father doubles his restrictions. But all his precautions can’t stop the boy with glowing green eyes from finding Aislynn. She realizes too late she’s been drafted into an ancient Egyptian war, whether she’s prepared or not.
Also, in a few months, I’ll do some sort of book giveaway for those people who have reviewed the book. (In the past, I’ve randomly chosen one out of every five reviews and given them one of my other books.) So be sure to review the book too.
Once the book is typeset, I’ll have a print edition available. (It will be more expensive, although I’m not sure how much more expensive.) And I will also have a book launch at Changing Hands. More info on that later.
Happy reading!
July 14, 2014
Summer in New York release day
Good news, clean romance readers! Now you can read six awesome novellas from your favorite authors. Well, at least we should be your favorite authors because we shine brighter than vampires on a sunny day. If you wondered why I was asking about the seedy under life of New York City on recent facebook posts, wonder no further. It was all research. I wasn’t actually planning on becoming a lady of the night–although the pay is probably better than writers get, so you know, it’s always an option. Anyway . . . here’s the link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Collection-Timeless-Romance-Anthology-ebook/dp/B00LS153XO/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1405393579&sr=8-16&keywords=janette+rallison
Enjoy!
