Angela Verdenius's Blog, page 11

Happy New Year & some other things

Hi all

wanted to wish you all a very blessed and Happy New Year. Hope it's your best yet! Mum, the furries and I are having a quiet day. Mum is watching one of her DVDs while I'm doing some catch-up on the internet for an hour or two.

So, a couple of things:

1. I've put out another box set - this one is Heart & Soul Science Fiction Romance box set bks 5-8. For anyone interested, the links are on my website.

2. Heart & Soul Science Fiction Romance box set bks 1 - 4 is free for a short time! Links again on my website.

3. Now, for something a little different - some might think it odd while others might agree. My first romance story - Heart of an Outlaw (sci-fi, BTW) that I wrote many years ago (no, I am NOT going to say how many years!!! LOL), the heroine was rather er...young. Okay, 16 yrs old to be precise. Back then it wasn't an issue, but I've noticed in the last couple of years that some readers have had huge issues with the age and it has both offended and stopped them reading further. I know there has been a change in the acceptance of book contents, and in consideration of this I have revised the story-line and made the heroine a couple of years older.

4. New Years Resolution - well, I don't do them. *gasp!*shock!*horror!* I never keep them so why waste time making them? LOL I'm being honest, people, it's what I do! Or don't do, actually. So I just keep plodding on doing the best I can and trying to go with the ebb and flow of what happens around me, and if I make it to the end of the year in one piece and smiling I reckon that's a great achievement!

Catch you very soon - I'm going to finish off my emails and stuff and then hit the sofa to read!!

cheers!

Checking In!

So, just checking in with everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, whether it was busy with family and friends, or quiet and restful. Mum and I and the furries had a quiet Christmas - ate too much, watched TV & DVDs, read, went for a couple of walks. Very restful!

Can I just add, for those who have a DVD or book at the bottom of the TBR pile, that that book or DVD may just turn out to be awesome? I had pushed The Chronicles of Shannarah TV series to the bottom of the TBWatched DVD pile and pulled it out in a fit of not-knowing-what-to-watch, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This has happened to me with books I've shoved to the bottom of the TBR pile only to find, when I've finally picked it up to read, that's it's the Best Book Ever and I've had to go and gradually buy the back-list! So just a little hint, my dear friends.

So saying, I'm having a wonderful time reading the Tomes of Bill. Also spending some of my holidays playing with new program concepts for book covers, playing with box set covers, cruising the internet looking at weird and wonderful things (especially on You Tube) and thinking about TWD S7 which is coming in the New Year. About Oct. Long way away. Okay, not wanting to think about that so much anymore ;-)

Anyway, hope you're all feeling rested after Christmas!

cheers!!

NEW RELEASE! AARON'S BOOK IS OUT NOW!

Yep, rather than do a pre-order and make you all wait, I thought it'd be a nice little Christmas present to release the book immediately.

The Wells Brothers: Aaron is available at Amazon.com, All Romance eBooks and Smashwords, also in print at Lulu.com.

Kobo, Barnes & Noble (Nook) and iBook links will be available as they come.

All buying links are on my website www.angelaverdenius.com as well as the excerpt.

Whoo!!!! Can't believe it's all done!!! *jig*jig*jig*

Contest to Win 60+ SciFi romances and Kindle Fire!

So remember I said I had some exciting news coming up? Well, this is it!

I’ve teamed up with more than 60 fantastic science fiction romance authors to give away a huge collection of novels, PLUS a Kindle Fire to one lucky winner! 

You can win my novel Soul of a Hunter, plus books from authors like Susan Grant and Patti O'Shea.

Enter the giveaway by going to my wesbite and clicking on the link! www.angelaverdenius.com

Good luck!

(Eligibility: Open to North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand)

Aaron, blurb up, website overhaul, new contest coming

So I've being spending a few days doing some different things. So here are the things:

1. The blurb for Aaron's book is up on my website www.angelaverdenius.com

2. I've overhauled my website and it looks *hot*. Learned a few things over the lats few days as I've played with it and discovered new things to do.

3. Watch this space - in a couple of days there'll be a contest for sci-fi romances with freebies! The link will be on my website - there are some awesome authors taking part. I'll let you know when it's a go!

4. Hope to have Aaron's excerpt up soon.

5. Hope to have a release date soon.

That's it! I'm hyped-up on Diet Coke! Gonna go and check out some books while I'm buzzing! LOL

Aaron's Story is Finished!

Yes! Just wanted to share a big yahoo! with you all! Tonight I wrote the last page of Aaron's story. Burned the midnight oil, burned the candle at both ends, burned up the keyboard, and got it done.

Of course, there is more to do - I'm now doing a re-read to check for plot errors as well as editing, then I do another round of editing.

I don't have an exact release date just yet, but it WILL be December (next month) sometime.

Meanwhile, I have his cover up on my website www.angelaverdenius.com I've had his cover stuck up above my desk where he's been contemplating as he's been watching me work...and I've been drooling a little watching him while I work ;-)

Blurb and excerpt still to come, but enoy the cover meanwhile!

Writing & Hot Flushes

Writing and hot flushes...and if you thought that meant I was writing steamy sex scenes, you'd be wrong. (and I thought I was the only one with a dirty mind!)

Okay, you'd maybe be right >:-) but let's just split that title in two.

Writing - going well. Burning down the home run, getting ready to leap down the last few steps, call it what you will. I'm on the downward journey - meaning I reckon give it another two to four chapters and I MIGHT be finished Aaron's story!! Then, of course, once I do that it'll be re-reading and editing, but still...

It's cool tonight, 7:38pm Down Under in WA, not hot, not cold, got Sam Smith playing "I'm Not the Only One" and other love songs on the computer, (think Like I'm Gonna Lose You sung by Travis Atreo and War Paint sung by Kelly Clarkson and you get the idea of the playlist I'm writing to). Diet Coke on the desk, all is quiet outside, got the weekend off to write - perfect writing time.

Now the hot flushes. Peri menopause, anyone? Oh Lordy, the hot flushes! And the cold flushes! I kid you not - at night I get the full body hot flushes and spend all night throwing the one blanket on and off, the window sliding open and shut, the cats getting annoyed with me and shooting me glares over their furry shoulders in a silent WILL YOU FREAKIN' STAY STILL!!! To make it worse, during the day I get the hot flushes from the top of my head to my neck, combined sometimes with a cold flush down my arms that produces goosebumps big enough to use as speed humps, and my ears burn. So you get the (unattractive) picture of me.

I was told to try Promensil and assured by some workmates that it works wonders, but takes about 4 weeks to hit the system. I've had one packet and the flushes are burning me up. True, it has only been about 2 weeks. So I was at the chemist today about to buy the 30 tablet packet and happened to catch sight of a big-a***d packet of 90 tablets. So you guessed it - I went for the big-a***d packet.

Here's hoping!

So Aaron is coming along...kicking and screaming...

So Aaron is coming along nicely, albeit kicking and screaming.

Wait, that'd be me. Let's start again.

Aaron's story is coming along! Just started chapter 5. If you'd asked me a week ago if I'd get this far, I'd have replied (quite rightly) I have no freakin' idea! But yes, we are up to chapter 5 and I haven't killed him off yet, so all's good!

Can I just say he's a little...intense? I'm up to a - wait, can't tell you. That'd be a spoiler (insert smirk - I mean big grin - I mean sympathetic and very kind smile here)

Day off tomorrow, I'll be hitting the book. I mean keyboard. I'll be hitting the keyboard with my fingers. I mean, I'll be writing. (Geez, it sounded good in my head...)

Express Post - Oops!

I've done some dumb things in my life (I can't even begin to list them all, there's not enough paper in the world), but this took the cake. It happened last weekend.

I'd watched this DVD, which turned out not to be as good as some films I've watched, nor as bad as others, and as it featured robots and lots of blowing up, I thought my brother just might like it. So, being a lovely Saturday morning, I took the 20 minute walk to the little newsagent come post office and posted it express post, just so he'd get it quick. Then the 20 minute walk back home.

Feeling supremely self-satisfied - walkies and good deed all in one hit, you know? - I proceeded to ready myself for The Walking Dead season 6 DVD marathon back-to-back weekend I had planned, complete with garlic & cheese pizza.

This would have gone well, except when I went to put the first disc in I found another disc sitting in there. On closer inspection, I found that it was the disc that belonged to the cover I'd just express posted to my brother.

Yes, people, I express posted the EMPTY DVD COVER to my brother!

This morning Mum express posted the DVD itself. I think he'll find it much more interesting than just the cover!

The freakin' postage cost more than the )&%@! DVD!

I rang my brother to warn him he'd get the empty cover first, followed by the DVD - he laughed like a hyena. His sympathy warmed the cockles of my heart, it really did...

Case of the Writing ARGHS!!!

So I should be writing instead of playing around on the internet. So why aren't I? Because my stupid *&$! characters are giving me the *^#! whoopsies, that's why!

As usual, my writing is full of ups and downs - hope one second, elation as it comes together, total despair as it flounders and I come to a halt screaming - WHAT? WHAT!? Are you kidding me? Why? Why why WHY?

I have the keys from the keyboard imprinted in my forehead and I've drunk a gallon of Diet Coke trying to write this book. ARGH! Aaron, you're killing me! I've started it so many times, and I'm ... ARGH! It's right there in my grasp, then flicks away.

ARGH!!!!

Did I mention - ARGH!?

Not that I'm giving up. If I'd been going to do that, none of my books would ever have been written.

I've had people say to me - it's easy to write a book. You just sit and bang it out, don't you?

No, I sit and bang the keyboard. With my forehead. Many times. Over and over again. The desk gets its share of my forehead, too.

So why do I torture myself, you might ask? The answer is because I love writing, I love my characters, but there are definitely times when the writing isn't smooth going. There are times when the pages roll, the keyboard clacks merrily, and I slurp Diet Coke happily as the story unfolds. Then there are times when it kicks, starts and stops, nothing seems right, and I slurp Diet Coke sadly as the story does NOT unfold.

Alas...such is the life of a writer... But never fear, I've had my break and whine, I'm going back to shake Aaron around by his shirt front! (If I'm lucky, I'll rip it off). Oops, did I say that out loud?