Rachel Aaron's Blog, page 30

SPIRIT WAR RAFFLE - Day 4 Winner!

All new entries have been added in, and the winner for Day 3 is...Sam Baskin!! I congratulate you with my current favorite thing in the world...



So,  Sam Baskin, if you would please contact me with all your details like where you live, whom you want the book made out to, and which book, omnibus or Spirit War, you would prefer, I'll get you shipped off!

For everyone else, don't worry! There are still 3 days and the grand prize left to go! And please don't forget to tell people about the contest! The more word we spread, the better it is for everyone. Post your entries on the original thread (rules are there too) to make sure they get counted!

Congrats again, and thanks so much for spreading the word! See you all tomorrow for the next winner!

SPIRIT WAR RAFFLE - Day 3 Winner!

All new entries have been added in, and the winner for Day 3 is....Dustin!!


Dustin, if you would please contact me with all your details like where you live, whom you want the book made out to, and which book, omnibus or Spirit War, you would prefer, I'll get you shipped off!

For everyone else, don't worry! There are still 4 days and the grand prize left to go! And please don't forget to tell people about the contest! The more word we spread, the better it is for everyone. Post your entries on the original thread (rules are there too) to make sure they get counted!

Congrats again, and thanks so much for spreading the word! See you all tomorrow for the next winner!

SPIRIT WAR RAFFLE - Day 2 Winner!

All the names were entered into the pot, and the winner for Day 2 is....

So, 
For everyone else, don't worry! There are still 5 days and the grand prize left to go! And please don't forget to tell people about the contest! The more word we spread, the better it is for everyone. Post your entries on the original thread (rules are there too) to make sure they get counted!

Congrats again, and thanks so much for spreading the word! See you all tomorrow for the next winner!

SPIRIT WAR RAFFLE - Day 1 Winner!

Woo! We had some awesome entries! Have I mentioned how amazing you guys are? AMAZINGSAUCE!

I've entered all the entries for yesterday into my magic spreadsheet and, the randomly selected winner for Day 1 is.... The Superhero Princess!! HOORAY! I will now use your name as an excuse to post a picture of Thor!


Hey Chris, come play Josef, would you?

AHEM, so, The Superhero Princess, if you would please contact me with all your details like where you live, whom you want the book made out to, and which book, omnibus or Spirit War, you would prefer, I'll get you shipped off!

For everyone else, don't worry! There are still 6 days and the grand prize left to go! Today is a fresh day, so feel free to repost and get your name in the hat again for more chances to win. Also, everyone who posted yesterday is still in the pot for the rest of the prizes! Don't forget to post your entries on the original thread (rules are there too) to make sure they get counted!

Congrats again, and thanks so much for spreading the word! See you all tomorrow for the next winner!

The Spirit War Give Away!

THE TIME LONG FORETOLD IS UPON US... The Spirit War is finally here!


And it looks so nice next to the omnibus!


Isn't it lovely? Don't you want one?! Well, you're in luck, because Orbit sent me a big old box of these lovelies to give away to you fabulous people!

A pile of Elis! 
Now, since the last give away contest I did for the omnibus was such a huge success, we're going to do it again! I am happy to announce the...
Official Spirit War Pre-Release Raffle!
The Prizes!
You've waited patiently for so long. Now, you can win the book before it hits shelves! I'm giving away 7 personalized signed copies of THE SPIRIT WAR (or the Eli Monpress Omnibus if for some crazy reason you haven't read that yet, your choice!), one for each day until Thursday, May 17! Also, at the end of the contest, I'll combine all the entries to pick one grand prize winner who will get signed copies of both THE LEGEND OF ELI MONPRESS Omnibus and THE SPIRIT WAR, plus a $50 Amazon.com gift card to spend on the books of your choice!

How to Enter
Unlike my last contest, there's no reviews to move this time, so that means the rules are even simpler. All you have to do is spread the word that THE SPIRIT WAR is coming out on July 5! Post about Eli on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, your blog, or any other social platform of your choice and then drop me a note in the comments below letting me know what you did and I'll enter you into the pot.

This is a raffle, that means you can enter multiple times. Every time you spread the word somewhere on the internet (or even in real life! I'll totally count putting up a flyer if you roll old school!) put it in the comments below with a link. Pin the cover, post on Twitter, and mention the book on your blog? That's 3 entries! Tell me so and I'll enter your name 3 times.

I'll be drawing from the comments on this post every day, including today, so the sooner you enter, the more chances you have to win. You can also keep promoting the book every day to increase your chances ever further. Winners will be announced the morning of the day after they win, so today's winner will be announced tomorrow morning, etc.

The grand prize drawing will be on  Thursday, May 17th at 12:00 PM, east coast US time (EST). After this, entries will be closed and I'll be mailing out a lot of books!

Boring Rules Stuff
This contest to open to everyone in the US, Canada, and the UK. Only one entry per social network per day (so no posting it a million times on Twitter for a million entries :P). Readers who win one of the earlier signed copies are still eligible for the grand prize at the end, but since they already have a book coming to them, I'll pick a new winner to get the extra copy.

If you have any questions about the contest, the rules, or the books, please contact me! If you want to read a sample of the book you'll be winning, you can do that here.

Good Luck!
And please spread the word of the contest around. If I get a lot of people, I'll just give away more books to keep the chances even.

Rachel enters the internet

So yesterday I finally decided to go see what all the fuss was about and made a Pinterest account. I'm not normally a big social network person, I've never really liked facebook, I kind of suck at blogging, and I've only half way got Twitter. I figured Pinterest would be the same.... and then I realized I'd been "just checking it out" for almost 3 hours.
Yeah, addiction time.
But it's not all bandwagon hopping. The visual nature of Pinterest gave me a pretty fun idea. See, my absolute favorite part of my books are the quips. Dialogue is my favorite thing to write, but it's the hardest thing to promo in a book since it requires someone to actually, you know, read the thing. But then I thought hey, wouldn't it be cool if I could make pretty dialogue pictures of the best Eli quotes?


That's some win right there.
I love this idea because I really hate back of book blurbs, and covers just don't give you a real feel. But awesome quotes? That will make you pick up a book! Plus they're pretty to look at. Of course, I had to have a place for all these quotes to live... so I made a Tumblr to hold them all, and thus Monpressive was born.
So that's 2 new social platforms in one day. Welcome to the 21st Century, Rachel! I'll be adding my pinterest and tumblr links to my website, please come follow me! I think this is some social networking I can actually do! 
Also, if you have a favorite Eli quote you want to see on Monpressive, or if you want to make some quote art of your own, let me know in the comments or on my contact page! Looking forward to it!

Illustrated Review - The Spirit Rebellion

The lovely Sita, she of the awesome illustrated review for The Spirit Thief, has done it again! This time with a very clever review of The Spirit Rebellion, which she translated into English for me! BEHOLD!

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Again, HUGE thanks to Sita (@BookwormSita) both for the review and the translation! Be sure to check out her awesome illustrated review site, sorcelleries.net (it's in French, but it is still awesome to look at!).

Rachel the Reader vs Rachel the Writer

I've been doing a lot of interviews/general talking as the Spirit War's release date gets closer (SO EXCITED!), and the question of "what are your favorite books?" has come up a lot, as it does. For the record, my favorite book changes all the time, but perennial favorites include The Last Unicorn, Dune, The Deed of Paksenarrion, 1984, The World Without Us, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. 
As I was answering all these questions, though, I began to think why I choose the books I do and more, why there are certain books I can't seem to enjoy no matter how hard I try or how good I know they are. For example, confession time, I can not get into Game of Thrones. I have tried four times in the last ten years to read the first book and I've never made it past the first hundred pages. 
This infuriates me, because I know I'm missing out. All my friends love the series, but I just can't get into it. Same with The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern). I've heard nothing but amazing things about this book, and while I got a good half way through, I just never really cared enough to finish it. 
I actually have a very long and impressive list of books other people loved but I could never get into, including several genre classics I feel I should read as a writer. But no matter how hard I try, I just can't make myself finish them. 
I think this is in part because Rachel the Writer and Rachel the Reader approach books differently. Rachel the Reader is far, far crueler than Rachel the Writer. When I'm reading, my tolerance for slow starts or gentle build up is next to zero. Sometimes I just hate characters, other time there's something in the book that I find distasteful to the point where I don't want to read any more about them. And sometimes I just don't care enough to keep going.
This incredibly picky, irrational way of judging books horrifies Rachel the Writer, most of all because it's so arbitrary. Like, I can see as a writer that something is good, but the reader part of me just does not care. It's one thing to understand that not everyone will like every book and quite another to see it in yourself, especially when it's so easy to start seeing reasons a reader could hate my work. Undermining doesn't even begin to describe it.
Some writers talk about their internal editor. Me? I fear my internal reader. I'm constantly scared the bitch will zero in on something and that will be that. I've actually put down whole, perfectly good novels because the reader half of me wasn't on board, and while that's probably a good thing, I still can't tell you why the book didn't work. As someone who likes to be scientific and specific, it drives me NUTS. 
So, have you ever had a novel you knew you should have love but didn't? Do you let fear of reader expectations cloud your writing? Do you notice a difference between your writer mind and your reader mind? I'm really curious!
- Rachel

Getting closer!

The end of April is nearly upon us, and you know what that means...
THE SPIRIT WAR comes out in a little over a month! GASP!
After a year and a half, Eli's story finally continues, and boy, is he in for it this time! I won't post the blurb here since it's a little spoilery if you haven't read the first three books, but you can spoil yourself silly (and preorder ;) ) over on Amazon or the bookseller of your choice. And if you really can't wait, you can read the first three chapters on my site!
I'm going to be doing promotional stuff all month, including some big give aways, so keep your eyes peeled! I'll be announcing everything on Facebook and Twitter, so if you don't follow me there already, come say hi and get in the know to win some awesome stuff.
Are you excited? Because I am excessively pumped to finally get to share this book with you guys! Yay!

5 Signs Your Idea Would Make A Good Novel

First up, a little house cleaning! Here's what's new in the world of Rachel since last week:

The ever lovely Book Chick City reviews the audio version of The Spirit Eater!Fantasy Book Cafe read the Spirit Rebellion and liked it with reservations. I hope you'll stick it out for the third one, Kristen!And finally, I did an interview with Fantasy Book Review and had a great time! Yet another link for the "I Talk A Lot" box!Ok, now that's out of the way, let's talk writing.
In my post on plotting, I gave a lot of time to the idea of making sure you're writing the right book. I thought this was a pretty obvious step, but a lot of people wrote to ask how you can tell if an idea is strong enough to carry a book. My usual answer to this question was the vague and hand-wavy "you just can!" but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this response is a) stupid and b) wrong. 
True, I can usually just feel when an idea is right, but this isn't some magical writer-fairy intuition, it's experience. I've been writing for about 8 years now. In that time, I've started a lot of books, way more than I've finished. By this point, I've tripped up enough that I can get a pretty good feel for whether or not an idea is book-worthy as soon as I start the planning process.
Now, there's no reason you should have to go through eight years of false starts to build your own sense of whether or not a book will fly. The whole point of my writing posts has always been to save other people from my mistake. So, with that in mind, I sat down and had a good long think about how I actually know if an idea can hold up all the way through a novel. As it turns out, there are a few signs all my ideas that made it to finished books had in common, and now, without further ado, here they are.
5 Signs Your Idea Would Make A Good Novel
1. You can not stop thinking about itYou know how sometimes you get an idea that your brain will simply not shut up about? You think about it all the time, talk people's ears off about it, and get bouncing up and down excited at the possibilities the story/world/character throws at you. These are the marks of a really good idea. You know when book blurbs say "a story to capture the imagination?" Yeah, that's what just happened to you. Your imagination was captured. This is gooooood. 
An idea that can capture you so fully is an idea worth exploring. Maybe it's not a full novel yet, maybe it's just a world or a magical system or even a character. Whatever it is, save it. You've got a winner. Think of it as a spark, a flavor you can build a cake on or use in combination with other winning ingredients. 
Don't make the mistake of thinking every one of these ideas has to be its own book. The Eli books are actually a combination of several could-not-stop-thinking-about-it ideas. What you have is a hook, don't be afraid to blend it together with other favorite ideas until you have a concoction of pure win. 
You'll know it's ready when it starts writing itself, which leads us to...
2. It writes itselfThis is part and partner with the can't-stop-thinking-about-it idea. Often, I'll know a story is a keeper when I start writing scenes in my head without really trying. When you've got characters talking on their own or dramatic events unfolding right before your eyes, that's a good sign. 
If these characters or events don't have a home yet, sit down and start figuring out where they come from. Or, better yet, try putting them into one of those settings you couldn't stop thinking about. Remember, you're just playing around. Nothing is final yet. See what mad alchemy you can create. Often, a little bit of world building is all it takes to cement the scenes that write themselves into the corner stones of a great novel. 
3. World building is fun, not workThis is more of a warning flag than a sign. Say you have an idea you're really excited about, but as you start putting down the basics, you start getting bored. Danger, Will Robinson! You are the author, you are god, if a god is bored with her creation, then something is very, very wrong. 
This isn't necessarily the death of your idea, though. After all, you were excited about the idea at one point. If you find yourself getting bored while world building, stop and try to figure out why. Are you working on a part of the novel that doesn't actually matter, or is there a fundamental flaw in your idea? 
World building is pure creation, and while it's not always manic writing excitement, it should always be fun. If you're not having fun, that can be the sign this idea isn't all you thought it was. However, if you're having such a great time you catch yourself going off and writing up things just for the fun of it, that's a great sign and a good indicator that this idea is worthy of being a book.
4. You can see the finished productLots of times when I am super excited about a book, I can already see the finished product in my mind. I can see the sort of cover I want, where it would sit in the bookstore, even the reviews. Most of this is wishful thinking of course (Why, Mr. Gaiman, I'm so delighted you liked my book!), but hey, I'm a fantasy author. Wishful thinking is my biz! 
The important part of this step is the idea of completion. It's easy to get lost in exciting ideas and characters who write themselves, but the most important deciding factor for me of whether or not a book can actually stand is whether or not I can hold the whole of the final product in my mind. Can I see the sweep of the series? Do I know what the next book is going to be about? Is this a stand alone? 
For example, I knew almost from the beginning that Eli was going to be a 5 book series. I didn't know what the plot of each book was, but I knew there would be one for each character. I could see the arc of the story, see roughly where my meta plot would need to start really coming in. If you can look at your idea and see roughly what it will be when you finish, even if you turn out to be completely wrong, that is a good sign that you've got a fully fledged story.
5. You can easily list why other people would want to read your bookThis one is the trickiest and most subjective, but it's also the most commercial of the signs. When you try to sell a book to a publisher, an agent, or directly to the public, you're asking someone to spend their money (because remember, time is money) on your idea. You're saying "my book is worth your reading," and if you're going to make that kind of bold statement, you have to believe it yourself, and more, you have to know exactly why your book is worth reading.
If you can look at your potential story and immediately see what is good, unique, compelling, exciting, and fresh about it, without lying to yourself (First Rule of Thievery, the only person you have to be honest with is yourself), then you can safely say you've got a real winner on your hands. Go write that book!

There, I hope that's a better answer to the question. Thanks as always for reading!- Rachel