Selina Fenech's Blog, page 20

Super Spoiler Q&A Time

This here post is strictly for those who've finished reading Memory's Wake. We're going to have some fun talking about the story, the twists, and also some fun references and easter eggs I've placed throughout the novel! If you haven't read Memory's Wake yet, you probably should read no further. It's time for those who've read the book to ask any and all questions you want to about the story. Ask me whatever you want, and I'll do my best to reveal. I'm happy to clear up any questions related directly to Memory's Wake. Anything that will be a spoiler for the coming books, I'm going to remain close-lipped about So what questions do you have about the story? Did you work out who Memory was before it was revealed? Maybe you want to know more about Will's relationship to Mina. And who is the hooded figure who sacrificed baby Mem? Do you have any theories about what's going to happen next? Which characters do you want to see some more romantic action between? Did you work out Roen's "curse"? Whatever you want to ask- Go for it! Now for my fun- Did you notice…? Throughout the book I wrote in a few, sometimes very vague or obscure, references to things that amuse me. I like to amuse myself like this (and I might be the only one they actually amuse… heh). I wanted to list some of them here and see if anyone picked them up as they were reading! At one point, Memory quotes "David after Dentist" http://www.davidafterdentist.com/ Memory squinted to see if it really was her savage guardian, and shook off a wave of nausea. "Ugh, is this real life?" A reference to a rather inappropriate character name from "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire" is used. I won't reveal the full joke, it's just for those who love some Krod. "You won't have to walk far. Just down the hill from here is the Draper's farm. Good folk, lots of daughters. I know them well enough that they might lend us some horses." Did you notice this mistake? In Chapter 18, the illustration of the wagon shows the wagon driver to be a bearded man. The wagon driver was changed to a woman in the last draft, after the illustrations were finished. Can you recognise any of the symbols included in the Maellan crest, shown in Chapter 4? Fairy tales, fairy tales, fairy tales. I included as many subtle fairy tale references as I could in Memory's Wake. There's sleeping beauty, the frog prince, snow white and others hinted at. Did you spot them all? She frowned, seeing the fading black and pink color of her hair clearly for the first time. Of course it was dyed! And then there were the bruises. Despite having a pretty dress on, she still felt far from fairest of them all. And here's the big one… Did you work out Memory's "real" name from her life in our...

Book Spotlight- "The Overtaking" by Victorine E. Lieske

High school senior Shayne Bartlet has been kidnapped, his powers disabled and his memory altered. He's having a bad day…and he doesn't even know it. Shayne thinks he's a typical teenager at a college prep boarding school on Earth. He couldn't be more wrong. The girl he likes is keeping secrets–which doesn't work too well when Shayne begins to hear her thoughts. Danielle knows she can't fall for Shayne. It would never work out between them. For one thing, she's lying to him about who she is. She's responsible for his kidnapping. That tends to cramp a relationship. Besides, she's leaving his planet in a few weeks. At least, that was the plan… My Review I recently read The Overtaking on ebook and thoroughly enjoyed it. The concept and settings were quite unique. The setting is sci-fi without any heavier sci-fi elements. It reads more like a contemporary super hero story than distant future alien settings, which I enjoyed and think others who are more keen on fantasy than hard core sci-fi will too. The story deals with two cultures at war- the Dykens and the Maslonians- only, neither side seem to know the truth of what is really going on. It's in discovering the hidden truths that the beauty of this story lies. The super-powered Maslonian race is being kidnapped and "resequenced" so they don't remember the conflict. That is until Shayne, an exceptionally powerful Maslonian, starts getting his powers back… It's Shayne, and his female counterpart and love interest Danielle that make this story for me. Their romance is at odds right from the beginning, and faces set back after set back as their lives are manipulated (whether by each other, or outside forces). The way they re-approach their relationship each time is wonderful to watch. It's a very sweet romance that feels realistic and heartwarming. On the technical side, The Overtaking is tightly written with some great turns of phrase and a few moments that made me chuckle. The plot is solid and compelling, and even with fine pointed implements I struggle to find holes in the plot to poke at.  The ending is a little open, but there will be a sequel. The storyline wraps up, but leaves the characters in a rough place that makes you wonder what they can possibly do next. Overall, I highly recommend The Overtaking for all ages and anyone who enjoys a sweet romance with a bit of action and intrigue. Check out the Amazon page for samples to read, ebook and paperback versions. An interview with Victorine Selina- What, in your mind, is the major theme of The Overtaking? Victorine- To me, the major theme of the book is hidden potential. In the book it's more literal, the people in the book have powers that have been taken away. Their memories have been altered so they don't know who they are. To me this parallels our own hidden potential. When we don't know who we are, we are powerless....

Swearing in Young Adult Novels

"Young Adult" is my favourite genre to read, as well as what I like to write. I think of it not so much a genre as a style- normally fast paced, a bit angsty, with characters of a teenage range who are dealing with changing from a child to an adult. Young Adult spans many sub-genres, like fantasy, chick-lit, romance, sci-fi, mystery, etc, and is generally considered to be written for the ages of 12-18 (but myself and many others a lot older love reading it anyway!). In terms of content, YA books vary greatly. Some are good, clean, wholesome, whimsical fun. Some are as dark as can be, dealing with drug use, abuse, torture, suicide, politics, sex, death, incest, you name it. While book descriptions sometimes will note "For older teens", I've never seen any real content warnings. Personally, I like it this way. You can generally tell from a book cover and blurb if a book is going to be light or dark, and believe both ends of the spectrum and all greys in between have their place. I've never been one for censorship, nor did I grow up being censored (Thanks Mum and Dad!). I didn't grow up desensitised to violence. I don't swear. I didn't have an accidental teenage pregnancy or eating disorder and I've never done drugs. Yet these are all the things that those who want to censor YA books say will happen if children and teens are exposed to these darker issues in their reading. Just look at THIS Wall Street Journal article, an article which sparked off a massive campaign on twitter by readers and writers of YA books defending the darkness in them (Look up #YASaves), where people shared stories of how reading about the darker parts of life in YA books helped them survive the dark moments in their own lives. I watched YASaves happen on twitter. It was so moving I spent most of the day crying and still tear up thinking about it. YA does save, and for that, I don't think it should be censored. YA can be dark and depraved, but I've never seen it be so gratuitously. It's probably why I read it compared to Adult books, which are happy to be gratuitous with swearing, violence and sex. All have their place, but should be there for a reason, not just for shock value. In YA, good YA, nothing happens without a reason, and characters learn, grow and lessons are taught by these sometimes horrible elements. I also believe children and teenagers will read what they want. If a parent tries to stop them, it will no doubt only make them want to read it more. Lots of teenagers admit to sneakily reading things their parents don't want them to. Some people argue that it's a wonderful thing that teenagers WANT to read so badly, does it matter what they are reading? Others argue that it should be a parent's choice in how their child...

Competition- Massive Book Launch Prize Draw *Closed*

I wanted to have a massive competition for the launch of my book, so I've put together some awesome prize packs of Memory's Wake merchandise, with five major prize packs up for grabs, plus 5 runner up prizes, and one special Bonus Prize! Prizes will be won by random ticket draw, with lots of different ways that you can get yourself tickets in the draw! The competition runs for two weeks, so you've got plenty of time to get involved. How to get your prize draw "tickets"- You can do any, or all of these. The more you do, the more "tickets" you have in the draw (not actual tickets, just your number of chances to win) Post a link to www.memoryswake.com on your facebook, twitter, or other "short status update" page, then leave a comment here with the link to your post- 1 ticket per post Buy a paperback pack direct from myself (either here or through FairiesandFantasy.com)- 2 tickets Write a post on your blog about Memory's Wake then leave a comment here with the link to your post- 5 tickets Getting an ebook? Fast reader? Post an honest review of Memory's Wake on Amazon (paperback or kindle), Goodreads, Smashwords or Barnes and Noble, then leave a comment here with the link to your review- 10 tickets per review + 2 for each place it's posted And the good part- the PRIZES! First Prize Original sketch from the Memory's Wake illustrations Signed Hardcover of Memory's Wake Memory's Wake "Broken Heart" T-Shirt in your size A Memory's Wake shoulderbag A Memory's Wake silk pouch for keeping your hardcover in Memory's Wake Mousepad 2 Memory's Wake bookmarks 1 Memory's Wake bookplate A poster of "My Sweet Pet" illustration A poster of the cover art A poster of "Happily Ever After?" illustration Second Prize Original sketch from the Memory's Wake illustrations Signed Hardcover of Memory's Wake A Memory's Wake silk pouch for keeping your hardcover in 2 Memory's Wake bookmarks 1 Memory's Wake bookplate A poster of "My Sweet Pet" illustration A poster of the cover art Third Prize Original sketch from the Memory's Wake illustrations Signed Paperback of Memory's Wake 2 Memory's Wake bookmarks 1 Memory's Wake bookplate A poster of the cover art Fourth Prize Signed Paperback of Memory's Wake A Memory's Wake shoulderbag 2 Memory's Wake bookmarks 1 Memory's Wake bookplate A poster of "My Sweet Pet" illustration Fifth Prize Signed Paperback of Memory's Wake Memory's Wake Mousepad 2 Memory's Wake bookmarks 1 Memory's Wake bookplate A poster of "My Sweet Pet" illustration Runners Up x5 A voucher for free download of the Memory's Wake ebook from Smashwords Bonus PRIZE Amazon Kindle 3 WiFi eReader + black silicone cover + free Kindle ebook copy of Memory's Wake This is a special celebratory prize that will be given away only if I reach my sales target during this official launch week. There are lots of average figures out there as to how many copies of a book a self published...

Launch Wrap Up

For better or for worse, Memory's Wake has been released into the wild. The official release has been pretty intense from my point of view. Terrifying, exciting, surprising, satisfying, and generally great. I'm actually looking forward to leaving it alone for a while now and recovering my nerves. Releasing a book is like putting a handmade baby up on display and waiting to see what people think- Ok, handmade baby is a weird frankenstein concept, but a book is an author's baby, but one where every part has been hand crafted with their skills and choices and ideas. All praise and fault lies with them, unlike the basic baby metaphor of birthing something you only have a little control over. I've been blown away by reviews so far from those who've received and read their copies already. You can see some of them at http://memoryswake.com/reviews/ I'm more grateful than I can say. There's a lot of insecurity that goes along with the handmade frankenstein book baby (I probably need to lose that metaphor…). My husband tells me it's a great story. So does my mum. We all know they are bias. The authors critique group I joined generally said positive things which feels like a better judging point. And now readers are enjoying it. And still… there's always a little voice inside that tells me it's no good, that people are just being nice. This is why the BEST reviews, the ones that make me happy and bouncy all day, are the ones that GET the story. When I read a review where someone understands how hard I worked to create the interesting and believable twists in the story, or sees the characters for being both flawed and strong in the ways I tried to show them to be, that is what makes everything worth it. Knowing that I wrote the story well enough that readers understand it. It sounds silly, but in my mind, that's the best way for me to judge the quality of what I've written, that readers are getting out of the story what I tried to put in. I know not everyone will, but that's ok too. Not everyone will like everything. In a few weeks time when more people have received their copies and have had a chance to read, I'm going to have some fun, super-spoiler Q&A time for anyone who has questions from the story (which will no doubt also talk a bit about what's going to happen to the characters next!). I will also post about a bunch of "easter eggs" and funny references I placed through the book. They might only be funny to me, but they are there! For now, the launch event is over, sales prices have ended, and the Massive Book Launch Prize Draw has been drawn and winners announced. Also, I sold a great big stack of books, which is really pretty cool. I'm going on holiday in a few weeks time, to lie beside a pool and...

Old and Unused Illustrations

While putting together the artwork for Memory's Wake there have been a number of images that didn't make the final cut. Some where only ever temporary sketches, and some were from much earlier versions of the story and characters. Below is a small collection of artworks that for one reason or another didn't make it into the final version. "Lost Soul" Memory- I finished my first draft of Memory's Wake not long before Christmas 2010. I wanted to print a few copies for friends and family, but didn't have any artwork ready for it yet. So I went through my collection of existing images to try and find something suitable for a cover. The closest I found was my artwork "Lost Soul", in which the gown reminded me a little of the gown Memory wears to the masquerade ball in the book. I did a bit of photoshop work to turn what was a long haired ghostly figure into my character Memory, and it became the temporary cover for my Christmas copies. Various Sketches- I drew this dragon for the illustration for Chapter 21, but it never looked right for me. I ended up drawing a new dragon design for the opening of this chapter. A sketch that was meant for Chapter 25, I decided that I wanted something much bigger and nicer for this scene and ended up doing a full page illustration version of this image which is now in the book instead. This is a very old image, from back when I had plans to have Memory's Wake be a comic book. The original story started quite differently, but the character in silhouette here has always been much the same. A rough sketch of Roen I started, but abandoned because it never felt like Roen to me, it just didn't capture and character his look properly. A very old character sketch from my original version of Memory's Wake. The wild forest man has remained pretty much the same, except, ah, he wears pants now (loin cloths are SO outdated!). Another very old character sketch of Eloryn. This is from back when the story was a much more generic sword and sorcery tale, as were the settings and costumes.

Map of Avall

The novel is set in a land called Avall. I've had the land mapped out for some time, to help me work out locations of and distances between the places that appear in the novel. I actually have a much more detailed map than this (more place names), but this is my "pretty version". I chose not to include this as one of the illustrations in the first book while readers are getting to know the new world alongside Memory. But here I will now present, the land of Avall. You will see there's not much to it. The how and why of it all will be explored further in the second and third books. You can see Maerranton on the map, which is where most of the action in Memory's Wake takes place, in it's city and surrounding hills, rivers and forests.

Book release- First Week Wrap Up

It's been a big week! I'm totally humbled already with the response Memory's Wake is getting. We were shipping stacks of paperbacks from my Fairies and Fantasy studio every day, and sales from other online stores have also been good. I hope as word of mouth also spreads things will snowball from there! Things I did last week- I posted an FAQ page with info about the story, writing and publishing. I made a video of me talking about the story, and did some spiffy editing to make it all purdy (and it really needed it too, I'm totally awkward and camera shy!). You can see it here- http://memoryswake.com/the-book/ I added a Free Downloads page, with wallpapers and such of the Memory's Wake artworks (lots of eye candy of the male characters!) I also released another illustration from the novel, probably the most detailed artwork I've ever done. I learned some new tricks, and have now included all of the illustrations also in the ebook versions, so no matter what version of Memory's Wake you buy, you'll get the pictures too! I chewed my nails a lot, and spent far too long checking sales numbers and customer reviews. Everyone likes it so far, score!   And there's a lot more fun stuff coming up next week! And more good news! I will absolutely be giving away a Kindle Ereader device for free to a winner of my Massive Book Launch Prize Draw! Have you entered yet? It's super easy. And here it is, all boxed and sealed from Amazon, waiting to go to it's new home. The sealed box is like a red flag to a bull for me. I so badly want to crack it open and… ah… check that it's all in functioning order for whoever wins… yes, that. I've seen the Kindle ereaders in store, and love how their screens almost look like real paper. I'm going to be very jealous of the winner, I don't even have one of these myself, I do my Kindle ebook reading on my teeny iphone. The Kindle up for grabs will also come with a protective silicone case, and, of course, a coupon to get Memory's Wake to read on it. And now I have to say a special thank you to everyone who has bought the book so far, has shown so much enthusiasm commenting here on the site, to those who read and finished the book the day they got it, and those who've let me know what they think. It all means so much to me, and re-affirms that I did the right thing getting my book out to you all now by self publishing it. Thank you!

Official Launch Date and Launch Event Schedule

The books have arrived! Which basically means one big thing- It's book launch time! Thunderbirds are go! Memory's Wake will be officially launched this Saturday the 16th (Aussie time, which means more like the 15th for some of you!) The most exciting part of the whole thing is to finally be sharing my story with you all. The excitement is now overtaking the fear, and I'm feeling very positive about the whole thing (my first 5 star review from an unaffiliated book reviewer has helped a lot! http://seeingnight.blogspot.com/2011/...). Even the two proof copies I had thought missing in the mail finally showed up. Everything is right and ready to go. And I've got a whole bunch of fun things planned for a week long launch promotion! Starting, of course, with making the book available through all sales channels, the book will be available at a reduced price during launch week, then return to it's standard pricing after the 23rd. I'm going to post a video or two of me talking about the book and showing what the paperback and hardcover books look like in real life. AWESOME competitions! I've been hoarding stockpiles of Memory's Wake merch, putting together some brilliant prize packs. If my book launch goes well, I'll also be giving away an Amazon Kindle eReader at the end of the week! More art from the book to be released. Want a t-shirt just like Memory's? The Memory's Wake merchandise store will be unveiled. A free downloads gallery added to the site. To be more specific, here is the new, complete schedule- Saturday 16th – Make Memory's Wake available and announce competitions Sunday 17th – Let's write an FAQ- Questions. Monday 18th – Ebook, Paperback, or Hardcover? Version comparison Tuesday 19th – Video of me talking about the story Wednesday 20th – Let's write an FAQ- Answers Thursday 21st – Artwork release Friday 22nd – Free Downloads (Wallpapers, etc) Saturday 23rd – Launch update, competition update Sunday 24th – 1st draft vs final draft comparison Monday 25th – Memory's Wake Merchandise store reveal Tuesday 26th – Unused and Old art reveal Wednesday 27th – My favourite Memory's Wake Quotes Thursday 28th – A map of Avall Friday 29th – Launch wrap up Saturday 30th- Competition drawings It's a shame champagne is off the menu at the moment  I hope you'll all still come and party with me for the Memory's Wake Book Launch Week! How else should we celebrate?

Illustration- Group Portrait

I just had to share this artwork from the book. I'm really proud of this one, it took FOREVER, and, as you can see, has a lot of detail! Through most of the novel, I tried to illustrate actual scenes and events from the story based on the details in the story (setting, costumes, even where characters stood in relation to each other based on the story itself). For this artwork, I let myself just have fun and do a bit of a "group portrait" that isn't really from any scene in the novel. I just wanted to put the girls in fancy Avall style dresses and have all the characters together at once in a pretty setting I hope you like it! Those who have the illustrated paperback or hardcover might now be playing "spot the obvious difference", but shh, there be spoilers…