Susan Trombley's Blog, page 4

Free Books?

Oops, I forgot to put this out there earlier so that you could be prepared. For today and Saturday only, The Scorpion’s Mate and Into the Dead Fall two book set is available absolutely free! If you’ve been wanting to check it out, now your best chance to get it for free to add to your library!

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It’s Alive!!!

Okay, that might have been a bit overdramatic ;), but my tenth published book, Key to the Dead Fall, is now available on Amazon!

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Yes, that’s a gray alien, and yes, he is in a romance novel as one of the heroes and not just a creepy facilitator of other people’s romances. I know, it’s risky right? I think by now, it’s fair to say that I don’t shy away from doing something different with my alien heroes ;). In this case, it came about because I see the grays appear occasionally in romance as abductors or helpers or serving in some other capacity and I couldn’t help asking myself why they’re never the ones involved in the romance.

I have some theories on that, given that they are focused entirely on cerebral pursuits to the extent that their bodies are designed to ignore physical considerations altogether. And that’s pretty much where Gray was at when we met him in Into the Dead Fall as the Looge. But then he meets Evie, and I’ll let you discover what happens next.

Now, Evie has a fated mate, and Gray knows this better than anyone. In fact, he’s the one determined to facilitate their meeting (serving the usual role of the grays, amirite?

Update on Key to the Dead Fall

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One of these days, I’m going to get back to blogging, but lately, I’ve been so caught up with working on my WIPs that I just don’t have the time to write a long post, so must confine myself to quick updates to let you all know that I’m still here.

Hi! *waves* I’m still here.

Scorpion’s Mate Gets 100 Reviews!

So, I’ve been sick as a dog the past few days, but not so sick that I didn’t notice that The Scorpion’s Mate hit the 100 review mark on Amazon. I am so thrilled to hit this milestone with one of my books, and I want to thank everyone who took the time to leave a review. You guys have made my week!

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The Kraken’s Mate is Live!

I have released the kraken, folks! (C’mon, you knew that was going to be in there somewhere

Quick Update

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Since it has been over a week since my last post, I wanted to add an update. I still don’t have a firm date for The Kraken’s Mate release, but all the edits are complete! Yay! Now, I’m waiting for the designer to finish my cover, and finalizing the blurbs, etc. for launch. Once I have an idea on the completion date of the cover, I can give a hard date for release. Plus, sneak peeks of the cover maybe.

Nemon’s Point of View

Once again, I feel short on time, so I won’t spend a lot of it on this blog, as I’m working on the final edits for The Kraken’s Mate. Therefore, instead of writing a post, I’ll share one more excerpt from the book, which is the first encounter with Joanie from Nemon’s point of view.

This is just a little side note, but I did want to add that I know that octopuses don’t have tentacles, they have “arms.” I use the word tentacle because it is widely understood and arms would get too confusing given that Nemon also has humanoid arms on his upper body. Of course, Nemon is not actually an octopus. ;P He’s an alien version of the legendary kraken.

The Kraken’s Mate Update

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I’ve been really busy lately, working on two different manuscripts to get them ready for publishing, so I haven’t had much time to blog, but I feel bad for being so neglectful.

Thrax—The Scorpion’s Mate

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So, it’s been a busy couple of weeks for me, and I haven’t had much time to blog, since I’ve been working on the sequel to Into the Dead Fall. (the bonus book I added to The Scorpion’s Mate). I’ve made significant changes to the original story, and reworked a lot of scenes, but I’m happier with where it’s going now.

I have also been waiting to publish this particular blog.

Normally, I like for readers to be able to imagine my characters as they see them, rather than me giving them a canon image to hold in their mind while they read. This is because I often prefer to read this way myself, imagining the characters as I would see them, rather than what the author might have intended ;). This works great with human characters, but gets a little more complicated with aliens, since even the most detailed description can’t always capture what you are intending to convey like a simple image can.

I know I often struggle to picture alien characters when reading the work of other authors, so I’m not the least bit surprised that some of my readers have left feedback that they were having a difficult time picturing Thrax. How I would love to be able to feature him on the cover, but there are limitations to that, since covers are usually created using stock imagery. I could have commissioned a full-color illustration, but there was no telling how long that would take to complete, given how complex Thrax’s appearance is, so instead, I commissioned a character illustration from the artist, Mike Alvear, who has done previous work for me, including my avatar, which is an illustration of Balfor.

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Mike sketched the original concept art that I started from ages ago when I first decided to turn my monster into a romance hero. Thrax started off as an antagonist, and he went through many physical and mental changes before he ended up where he is at now.

No Time to Blog?

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Dancing and an Art Deco aesthetic appear frequently in my latest manuscript.

So much has been going on in my life that I haven’t had much time to blog (as in—no time to blog