Cate Masters's Blog, page 65

SSS: Snow thaw, a flood, and loss

Thanks so much for visiting! If you're a dad, Happy Father's Day! Otherwise, just give your dad a big hug. :)

Here's another six from Orion Rising, my literary family saga - today's the last day to snag your free copy from Amazon, so go get yours now! :) The father in this story was a bit of a dreamer, with his head in the stars.


The footfalls of Persephone, our father had always called it: the slow, steady patter of rain across the roof; the spring rains that, like Persephone, awoke the sleeping bulbs in the earth, the buds on the trees, unfurling, petal by petal, a world of color and life.  Persephone’s glad return to Earth from the dark depths of the shadowy, lifeless underworld of Hades signaled the beginning of a season of rebirth. I listened to the soft footfalls across the roof, wide-eyed, hoping to catch a glimpse of the fair maiden. She was more real to me than Santa Claus, whose gifts were only for one night; Persephone’s gifts changed the dreary winter world to spring.But this spring was different. After a particularly long winter, a foot of snow remained on the ground for what seemed forever.
Don't forget to visit the other Six Sentence Sunday authors. I'll catch up to everyone later, after my grandson's birthday party. :) Have a great week! [image error]

Supernatural Saturday!

It's today! I'll be at the Holly Inn in Mount Holly with lots of fantastic authors and excellent sessions.  If you can't join us today, I'll try to snap as many pics as I can, and provide some highlights next week.

You can find more info about this event, and all of the events planned by the Mechanicsburg Mystery Book Shop, on its web site. There's always something cool going on. :) [image error]

Orion Rising's free starting today!

Today begins the Amazon free days for Orion Rising, my literary family saga spanning the Sixties through the Nineties.

I hope you'll download a copy! It's very special to me, and I'd love to hear what you think of it.

You can find the blurb, excerpt, book video and more here.

Thanks so much for your support! [image error]

PW reports on self-publishing

A recent Publishers’ Weekly article provided some interesting statistics on self-publishing from BookExpo America:
In 2011, authors released 211,269 self-published titles (based on ISBNs). Compare that to 2010, when 133,036 self-pubbed titles released.
Wow. Quite an increase.
I was surprised that, on average, a self-pubbed fiction book costs $6.94 (none of mine cost more than $3.99 – a bargain!).
With all those other titles flooding the market, no wonder my books are like droplets in the ocean. But readers in the U.S., U.K. and even Germany are finding my books, and I'm getting wonderful feedback. I'm so grateful to you all.
Other news
It will be a slow blogging week. On Wednesday, I'll provide the link and a gentle urging for you to download Orion Rising during its free run on Amazon.

I'm excited that Dancing With the Devil's now available on Smashwords, and will soon trickle out to the affiliate sites like B&N and Sony, etc. It's no longer under the exclusive Amazon deal.
Unless I receive news on one of the subs currently out there, I probably won't have a Friday post. I may be taking a hiatus soon. I haven't been able to come up with interesting news for posts, and always feel like I'm blogging on the fly with my crazy schedule. Or I may recycle some older popular posts. I'm kind of in a bleh place right now and don't want to drag anyone along with me.
Saturday I'll be part of the Supernatural Saturday event at the Holly Inn, and I'll be focusing on preparations this week.
Busy busy! But I'll catch up with you at some point. :) [image error]

SSS: Mary's story begins

Yay, another Six Sentence Sunday. Thanks so much for visiting, and especially for your comments. You guys rock.

Here's another look at my literary novel, Orion Rising. I hope you'll grab a copy from Amazon - it will be free Wednesday through next Sunday.
 
Our Victorian home sat at the very end of Buttonwood Street, perched between civilization and wilderness, at the edge of a field lined with patches of buttonwood and birch trees. Beyond, the Orion River endlessly flowed. I’d always considered our house to be the beginning of the world rather than the end of the street.
From within the attic observatory my father built, space seemed to begin, with the heavens stretching away into infinity. Above our little world, slowly rotating within the heavens, were the figures of heroes and maidens and beasts that seemed like old friends. My father had given life to these celestial stick figures by filling our heads with their fantastic myths.
Sounds almost idyllic? Too bad it doesn't last. 
Check out the fantastic super-authors of Six Sentence Sunday, and have a great week! (And don't forget to mark your calendar so you can grab a copy of  Orion Rising this week!) [image error]

YA Blurb Fest at TBR

This weekend, TBR celebrates Young Adult reads with a YA Blurb Fest!

If you know any YA authors, please encourage them to participate. And if you're a YA author, please come over and share your blurb. The blurb fests have attracted a good number of visitors, so you may find a few new readers. [image error]

Casting Call: Orion Rising

The cast of characters of Orion Rising has lived in my head so long, it's wonderful to be able to finally share them

The story spans three decades, so I'll focus on the Byrne family after the children have grown. I've told it through each of the three perspectives of Percy, Allie, and Mary. It always felt more like Mary's story, so her POV is in first person, but I also wanted the others to have a chance to tell their story, too, because the loss of their youngest sibling affects each in a distinctly different way.

Mary was closest in age to Aurie. Because they never found his body, Mary holds out hope the longest that someday Aurie will return.

Naomi Watts is one of those actors who's a chameleon - she can play poignant, complex roles with seeming ease. She's not your typical Hollywood beauty, which makes her all the more appealing.

Naomi would be perfect as Mary.


As a kid, Jack Ellis looked for trouble, and if he couldn't find any, he caused it. Always in a fight, he had rough edges that smoothed only a little as he grew into a man.

Clive Owen has that look about him - scrappy, handsome in a regular-guy kind of way.

He'd be great as Jack, and he and Naomi would make a nice couple. :)

Percy's the eldest Byrne, the only boy in the family after Aurie disappears. He and Aurie had never gotten along, maybe because Aurie was too young for Percy to relate to, but Aurie's disappearance haunts Percy into adulthood.

I've always imagined Percy as Owen Wilson - again, not your traditional "handsome" guy, but someone you might run into on the street. Owen's known for his goofy roles, but after seeing him in a few serious movies, he's more than capable of giving life to Percy - haunted by loss, floundering in relationships, but searching for redemption.


Allie's the middle child, but boy does she exhibit the qualities of a first-born. Intelligent to a fault, she's driven by demons as much as ambition, though she'd never admit to the former. She strives for success, and perfection, and when it doesn't come... well, you'll have to read the book to find out. :)

Amy Adams has a brittle quality about her that makes her perfect as Allie. She may look wide-eyed and innocent, but don't get too close, or you'll feel her claws.


Daniel Byrne is their father, raised by a dad who loved astronomy, the constellations and their myths, and he passes that passion down to his own kids. First by naming them after constellations, and then through their family outings to the banks of the Orion River, where he shares those age-old tales of adventure, romance, danger and tragedy. Little does he know how close to reality those tales are, but he finds out first hand.

Robert Redford has the same sensitive, intelligent, thoughtful, caring qualities as Daniel.

Celeste Byrne is the mom, wife to Daniel. She once had artistic aspirations, but after marrying, settled for raising their kids and satisfying her love of music by giving piano lessons to local kids. Things affect her deeply, and when tragedy strikes her family, she's not quite equipped to deal with it without a crutch.

Katharine Ross has the same haunting beauty as Celeste, and her artistic sensibilities and intelligence.


Obviously, with a book spanning three decades, there are many more characters than these few, but you've seen the major players.

Pick up a copy of Orion Rising and the rest will come to life for you!


View the book video, Casting Call,reviews and more here.

Insecure Writers: How can I shed the cloak of invisibility?

From what I’ve read about the “new world” of publishing, visibility seems to be one of the most important factors in sales. I don’t mean this as a rant against Amazon, but they certainly aren’t making things any easier for small-pubbed and indie authors.
Here’s a great post by Russell Blake, who understands Amazon’s new system of weighting better than I ever will.
In essence, they’re skewing the visibility factor toward bigger publishers who price their books higher. That way, Amazon will see greater profits because they’ll rake in greater percentages from those bigger pubs.
Did someone toll the death bell for big publishers? Seems to have been premature. They’re adapting to the new market, with the assistance of distributors like Amazon.
It’s discouraging. Just when I thought the playing fields were leveling out, they’ve padded the other half, the one with the goal. Like Russell Blake, I’ve jumped on the KDP Select bandwagon, held free days and rode the crazy roller coaster of seeing thousands of downloads. The after-bump sales held for awhile, which was also fantastic. But if Amazon has weighted their system against indie pubs, what’s the use?
I’d love to get this @&!! cloak of invisibility off my books. And then a little alchemy to get them to spontaneously combust and light sales on fire would be great, ha.
Any industry news you can share that’s in a similar vein? I try to keep up but Blake’s article surprised me.
Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for launching the Insecure Writers group!

A kick in the butt

I came across this video last week. A bit long, at 19+ minutes, but I'm glad I watched. I think you will be, too.



If you don't have time, here are a few of Neil's points:
When you start out in a career in the arts, you have no idea what you’re doing. If you don’t know it’s impossible, it’s easier to do. And because no one’s done it before, they haven’t made up rules to stop anyone from doing it again.
If you have an idea of what you were put here to do, just go and do that.
Imagine your goal as a mountain, a distant mountain, and he knew that if he kept aiming for the mountain, he’d be all right. Sometimes he had to stop and consider whether he was walking toward the mountain or away from it, and passed up proper jobs with proper pay because it would have taken him away from the mountain.
Be thick-skinned. Not every project will survive.
Don’t write books just for the money. You’ll still have the work.
The things he did because he was excited and wanted to see them exist in reality never let him down.
Whatever terrible things happen to you in life, make good art.

Neil ignored a piece of advice from Stephen King years ago, but says it was the best advice he ever got. When Neil was writing The Sandman, King said: “This is really good. You should enjoy it.” Neil didn’t; instead, he worried about things going wrong. In this video, he advises students: Let go and enjoy the ride.
Things have been hard these past few years. But when it all comes down to it, I’m still writing, still doing what I love, and people are buying it, reading it, and send me wonderful messages about how much they love it.
So thanks, Neil. Reminders like this are exactly the kick in the butt I need. I’m off to write now, something that’s been exciting me for awhile.

SSS: First peek at Orion Rising

Hey Sixers! Thanks so much for visiting, and thanks especially for your comments. 
I've taken a leap with my latest release - backward, actually, about ten years when I wrote this literary novel. I decided to self-pub it this year under my other pen name, C.A. Masterson. So here's the opener of Orion Rising, a family saga spanning the Sixties through the Nineties, with mythology of the constellations, love and loss, rock and roll, drugs and heartache, written from the multiple POVs of three siblings:
In every face, I looked for his. I knew in my heart it wouldn’t be him. Logic said that after twenty-five years, he’d no longer be a boy. But logic couldn’t stop my heart from breaking, again and again. Yet I never stopped looking.I couldn’t.
I'll be making it a freebie on Amazon at some point, so I hope you'll grab a copy when I do.
Check out the fantastic Six Sentence authors here. Have a great week! [image error]