C.D. Verhoff's Blog, page 9

Glory Alley and the Star Riders

Glory Alley and the Star Riders Now available as a paperback! The sale price will never go lower, so grab it while you still can.
Click Here To Purchase
A girl rock collector risks everything for the chance at a better life. 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION: Glory Alley's life is out of control. Her siblings are in trouble with the law. Classmates make fun of her hand-me-down clothes. A foreclosure notice hangs on the front door. The future looks bleak for the Alleys, but Glory has a plan, she'll strike it rich in Queen's Mesa, saving the house and their reputations. Then one fateful morning it finally happens, she finds a rock beyond compare, but three otherworldly guardians arrive to spoil the party. They say moving the rock has thrown magic-based worlds into chaos. In order to set things right again, she must give up the stone, sealing her family's fate. Surely, there's another option, but can she find it before everything falls apart? 

5 STARS from Ebook Reviews: "This story line may not appeal to every reader with its sci-fi/fantasy base, but it definitely has to be at the top of the list of Sci-Fi and Fantasy books. The author draws you into a realistic dramatic family life with a little fantasy on the side. This crazy family will make you appreciate your own." 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: This story was inspired by a question. If intelligent life forms exist on other worlds, what kind of relationship do they have with God? Glory's world is a modern one, much like Earth today, but the prophets have fallen into obscurity, and there's no knowledge of Jesus Christ. On the day Glory discovers the mystical rock at the bottom of Queen's Mesa, the Incarnation hasn't even taken place on Earth yet. Naturally, she's not aware of the enormity of her find, that the rock is a physical manifestation of God in her world, a precursor to The Word Made Flesh. None of this is spoken of "on the page", it's all hidden, leaving readers free to focus only on the adventure or to make their own interpretations.


Paperback available here: Barnes and Noble, Amazon(also available as an eBook)

Doing The Happy Dance!

Glory Alley and the Star Riders Now available as a paperback! The sale price will never go lower, so grab it while you still can.
Click Here To Purchase
A girl rock collector risks everything for the chance at a better life. 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION: Glory Alley's life is out of control. Her siblings are in trouble with the law. Classmates make fun of her hand-me-down clothes. A foreclosure notice hangs on the front door. The future looks bleak for the Alleys, but Glory has a plan, she'll strike it rich in Queen's Mesa, saving the house and their reputations. Then one fateful morning it finally happens, she finds a rock beyond compare, but three otherworldly guardians arrive to spoil the party. They say moving the rock has thrown magic-based worlds into chaos. In order to set things right again, she must give up the stone, sealing her family's fate. Surely, there's another option, but can she find it before everything falls apart? 

5 STARS from Ebook Reviews: "This story line may not appeal to every reader with its sci-fi/fantasy base, but it definitely has to be at the top of the list of Sci-Fi and Fantasy books. The author draws you into a realistic dramatic family life with a little fantasy on the side. This crazy family will make you appreciate your own." 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: This story was inspired by a question. If intelligent life forms exist on other worlds, what kind of relationship do they have with God? Glory's world is a modern one, much like Earth today, but the prophets have fallen into obscurity, and there's no knowledge of Jesus Christ. On the day Glory discovers the mystical rock at the bottom of Queen's Mesa, the Incarnation hasn't even taken place on Earth yet. Naturally, she's not aware of the enormity of her find, that the rock is a physical manifestation of God in her world, a precursor to The Word Made Flesh. None of this is spoken of "on the page", it's all hidden, leaving readers free to focus only on the adventure or to make their own interpretations.

Click Here To Purchase

If you count 'round' as a shape, I'm totally buff!

I've seen this going around the internet, thought I'd share. 


"Sage" Medical Advice
Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true? 
A: Heart only good for so many beats, and that it... Don't waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speeding up heart not make you live longer; it like saying you extend life of car by driving faster. Want to live longer? Take nap. 

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake? 
A: Oh no. Wine made from fruit. Brandy distilled wine, that mean they take water out of fruity bit so you get even more of goodness that way. Beer also made of grain. Bottom up! 

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio? 
A: Well, if you have body and you have fat, your ratio one to one. If you have two body, your ratio two to one. 

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program? 
A: Can't think of single one, sorry. My philosophy: No pain...good! 

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you? 
A: YOU NOT LISTENING! Food fried in vegetable oil. How getting more vegetable be bad? 

Q : Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle? 
A: Oh no! When you exercise muscle, it get bigger. You should only be doing sit-up if you want bigger stomach. 

Q: Is chocolate bad for me? 
A: You crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa bean! Another vegetable! It best feel-good food around! 

Q: Is swimming good for your figure? 
A: If swimming good for figure, explain whale to me.

Q: Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle? 
A: Hey! 'Round' is shape!

Free eBook With Coupon, Limited Time Only

Currently, a top 10 best seller in both fantasy and science fiction!

Enter Code GP78E for 100% Off Coupon, Expires 10-24-2012. Redeemable only at Smashwords.
Wakeland's War, Reg. $3.99 
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My Experience With Booktango

“Booktango is the latest e-book publishing innovation from Author Solutions—the world leader in indie book publishing…” 
The ad caught my eye, so did the generous royalty structure, so I decided to give it a whirl, for my book, Wakeland’s War. I kept a journal. Keep in mind, these are merely the fallible observations and opinions of the author. Here are some entries:
Monday night, September 10th, I push the publish button. On the 12th, It said the status was TITLE LIVE, but it wasn’t showing up anywhere, not even on booktangos bookstore. When I talked to booktango customer service, they said Live meant Complete, not . . . er, uh, Live. They said it would be another 24 before it showed up in their store and another 2-4 weeks before it made its way to their distributors. Okay, I can live with that.
On that same day the site went down from ~3:00 pm to ?????
I checked in on the 13th. My my book was up at booktango’s bookstore, but nowhere else. That was fine. I know these things took time.
September 14th, I noticed my bio was missing a word. I also decided to change a word in my book’s description. I went into the “Details” section, made the changes, but when I tried to save the, I repeatedly got the message:
“Something went wrong while you were trying to save. Please, try again, and thank you for your patience. For additional assistance, our reps are standing by on Live Chat.”
I pressed the Live Chat button (awesome feature). Customer Service was prompt as usual. I inquired about the message. Customer service explained that too many people were using the system at the same time. This was on a Friday morning, 9:50 a.m. EST. I asked why there was so much traffic at that time. She said people are logging into booktango all around the world and they recently had a large influx of new users do to their promotion. Their Windmill promotion looks like a sweet deal. The winner gets all kinds of expensive service, from book covers to an author video, plus promotions, all for FREE. I’d love to win, but I’m not holding my breath. It is sure to make someone a very happy author.
Anyway, an hour passed, but I still couldn't save any of my changes. The system eventually timed me out, and my edits were lost. That irked me off.
Saturday afternoon, September 15th. I kept getting the same message. I couldn’t save any changes to the details, the cover, or the manuscript. Can you say frustrated? On September 17th (Monday), I tried again. I was able to input changes to my cover, interior files, book details and submit the changes. The book was inaccessible for several days as it went through the submission process. That’s expected though, so no big deal.

September 19th, I was able to access the book again, but the changes haven’t gone through. The old cover is still there today (the 22nd), mocking me. Bwah ha ha, it seems to say.
September 21th(Friday). I realized that I was missing information on my copyright page. I dreaded “going in” again, but I had no choice. This time I decided to try out their online edit feature. See, one of the cool features booktango brags about is the fact that you can make changes directly to your manuscript without having to download it again. On the surface, that sounds wonderful, but in hindsight it’s nothing special. First, most authors aren't going to leave a mistake in their manuscript if they can help it, so they're going to edit the manuscript anyway. I went ahead and made the addition via booktango as well, just because I wanted to test out this intriguing new feature. I went to my dashboard, where the entire manuscript was on display and available for editing. I made the change, tried to save it and . . . can you guess what happened? I got that stupid message again!
“Something went wrong while you were trying to save. Please, try again, and thank you for your patience. For additional assistance, our reps are standing by on Live Chat.”Whahhh!
This was the same issue I had last weekend. My changes could not be saved and were eventually lost. Something else that came to light furthered my frustration.
I talked to customer service. Their representative informed me that every time I make a change it’s like starting over. This means from the date of the change, it will be another 4-6 weeks until my book goes out to distributors. All this time I thought the system would look at my original publish date of September 10th, but if I was told correctly, that’s not the case. Knowing me, I’ll find something else that’s begging to be changed inside my book. I suppose the best thing to do would be to hold off making any changes until it gets to the other distributors. In hindsight, since my book wasn't at the other distributors yet, every time I made a change, I was pushing it back to the starting line. Every single change put it into the re-submission process again and the 4-6 week began anew.
The question hanging in my mind is this . . . once it's available on iTunes (or Kobo, Sony, etc.) how long will it take for an edit to go through?
Also, be aware, if you decide to remove your book from booktango, you must request a special form from them. It must be signed by hand and mailed to them. If you’d prefer, you can fill it out, scan it, and then download the image to them. It's not like they're asking us to climb Mount Everest, but it's still a hassle.
My book hasn’t gotten to any of their distributors yet, so hopefully taking it down will be a simple process. I have the form and emailed it to them yesterday afternoon. As slow as they are about everything else, I hope my book hasn’t gone out to the distributors by the time they address it. I know what to do though. I’ll make a change to the book and that will buy me another 4-6 weeks.
I focused on the negative here, but honestly, there’s much that is good with booktango. Their royalty structure is hard to beat. Uploading the manuscript is a relatively painless process. Their selection of book covers is abysmal, but most authors use their own artwork anyway. If you have a picture you want to use, you can add your title and name to it through their program. It's easy and fun, but I uploaded my own cover that had the title on it already. If you're a patient person, receiving a larger percentage of the royalties will surely offset the delay in getting my book out to the distributors. Their LIVE CHAT feature is dependable and amazingly helpful. They’re always there 24/7. I think it could be a great option for more experienced authors, or for any author who submits a manuscript, and is able to keep his or her grubs off of it until it lands on the bookshelves of all the distributors. 
Unfortunately, I have never been able to work that way. I’m never satisfied with my writing. I’m constantly fussing over the details until the last minute. My obsessive-compulsive editing doesn’t mesh well with booktango’s methodology, but I think other authors would be perfectly happy with it.
I published to Smashwords and my book was up there almost immediately, but I'm already missing booktango's Live Chat feature. It takes at least ten days to get any sort of response from Smashwords and I really needed to talk to them. Within an hour of going live on Smashwords, I sold a large number of books. As much as I'd like to think that my awesome writing inspired so many purchases, I smell a scam. I've tried to find a better way to get a hold of someone at Smashwords, so they can investigate the situation in a timely manner, but I was forced to communicate with them through that one cumbersome way. Meanwhile, my URGENT!!! e-mail awaits one of their ticket numbers.
In the end, no eBook publisher is perfect. Each author must weigh the pros and cons to decide what features are most important to him or her. In the end, apparently not. Personally, I'm pleased to see other companies get in the game. Competition between them can only help Indie Authors.
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Wakeland's War, click to purchase: Amazon, Smashwords, Booktango

Insidious: Free Flash Fiction

John Swamp leaned against the wall at the back of church, trying to look nonchalant. He had worked as the groundkeeper here for one month before getting fired. Could he help it that his car broke down and he missed three days of work in row? Weren’t religious people supposed to be understanding and forgiving, especially pastors? People walked past him as if he were invisible and took their seats in the pew.
Nobody suspected the insidious plan brewing inside his head. He despised all religions, but thesequixotic Christians were the worst. Their conservative ideas were an infestation on humanity, responsible for everything that had gone wrong in the world. He listened as the pastor gave a banal sermon about loving your enemies. A smug grin curled the edge of his lips as he fingered the gun inside of his jacket. “After I'm through, everybody here ought to love me." He savored the thought of sending each and every one of them to the celestial choir.
Two years later, John sat in his cell, watching the newscast. The reporter was interviewing survivors of Bayside's Bloody Sunday. A young couple stood in front of the church. 
The husband spoke first, “We were reciting the Our Father when the gunman attacked. I remember him shouting,'Burn in Hell all ye hypocrites'.” 
The woman added tearfully, “I tried to shield our little boy, but it happened so fast. He died in my arms.”
The reporter paused as the camera panned in on the couple’s interlaced hands.
“What do you think of the killer being given the death penalty?” the reporter asked.
The couple shook their heads, and the husband responded. “The first weeks after the senseless rampage, I wanted to administer the death penalty myself, but the more I prayed about it, the more I realized that it wouldn’t bring my son back, or solve anything. John Swamp needs to stay in prison so he can’t hurt anyone else, but I wish him no harm. In fact, I’m praying for his conversion.”
“And you?” the reporter turns to the wife. “This man killed your little boy, how can you possibly forgive him?”
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others,” she said. “I am a sinner. How can I not forgive him?”
John had been expecting them to cry out for his blood. This lackluster reaction was a total let down. He sat on his cot, scratching his head, perplexed by the entire interview. 


______________________________________
The above flash fiction was inspired by my local writing group. We get together once a month to schmooze over our craft. Before we conclude each meeting, a piece of paper is passed around and each person writes down a word. For the next meeting, anyone with the inclination, shares a short story that includes all the words from the list. It's strictly voluntary and just for fun. 

These were the words that had to be worked into the story:


INSIDIOUS, INFESTATION, BANAL,SURVIVOR, QUIXOTIC, CONSERVATIVE, CELESTIAL     NONCHALANT

The Weird Hat Club

My kids informed me the other day that there's 100 shopping days left until Christmas. As I'm writing this (9-19-2012), it's now 97 shopping days until Christmas. Oh, boy, where does the time go (and the money)? It's easy to buy for my nieces and nephews--gift cards!  I prefer to spread out the holiday's expenses over the course of the year, but I'm having trouble figuring out what to buy ahead. I have no idea what the HOT ticket items of 2012 is going to be. Sure, the newest iPhone, but my kids will definitely not be getting one of those. Often times I have to veto items on the list because they're not age appropriate or they're too expensive. This year it looks like I'm going to be hitting the stores during the "official" shopping season. I hate that.

The one thing already on the list for this year is this crazy-looking hat. It's the coveted Stony Purple Laplander (see photo below) from Spencer's Gifts. As a kid I wouldn't have been caught dead in something like that, but styles change. Last school year when I picked up the kids from school I noticed all kinds of wild hats bopping around the school grounds--from bears to sock monkeys, from Sponge Bob to Angry Birds. I did find it amusing, but I never expected my kids to join the Weird Hat Club. They're going to look back at those hats someday and cringe. Then again, maybe it will give them a good laugh.

Wakeland's War - Finally!

Wakeland's War started out as an entry for a short story competition. It made semi-finalist, but didn't win. 
From its conception I thought the story was begging to be fleshed out into an entire novel, but my children were very little at the time, so I never quite found the time. Fast forward five or six years, when I'm no longer restrained by word limits and the kids are now in school, the tale it was meant to be has finally come to life.  

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Now Available in eBook form from these online stores*:


Wakeland's War - C. Deanna Verhoff: Amazon


*Additional retailers will be added soon. Paperback version available later this month.

Back To School Nostalgia

The smell of a fresh markers linger in the air. The sound of the school bus roars down the lane. Mom shouts, "Get your shoes on it's almost here!" She looks down at two pairs of bare feet. "Where's your socks! "  
Yep, school is in session again. As a kid I LOVED summer vacation, but I secretly looked forward to that first week of school. Like my bag of new school supplies, it was a chance to start fresh, a symbol of change and new experiences. My own children enjoy shopping for supplies and can't wait to get home to permanent marker their names onto everything. This year my daughter decided to permanent marker her name onto all her brother's supplies as well. Needless to say, that didn't go over very well.
The kids are now back and class and come home full of stories about their day. It's interesting to listen to their perspective on things ranging from the quality of the school's chicken nuggets, to tectonic plates and the Civil War, and how so-and-so picks his nose. 
I remember elementary school as a happy place--mostly. Preparing for re-entry meant an exciting trip to the local Ayr-Way (which is now a Target Store). I'd come home with brand new school supplies in anticipation of a new year. There were erasers, No. 2 pencils, glue, binders, book bags and the way cool supply box. In my day the supply box was always made of cardboard and came wallpapered in a dizzying array of styles. Choosing the design was the highlight of my school supply shopping experience. Often the lid was torn off my month three. 
Nowadays the essential supply box is made of tougher stuff. So is the curriculum, which is both good and bad. I like to see kids learn. Keyboarding wasn't offered in my day, it was something secretaries needed, and that was pretty much it. Now it's a rudimentary requirement of modern survival. Don't get me started on the homework . . . up until the 6th grade I didn't have it, but my kids are drowning it. I'll save that topic for another post, In the meantime, how about a box of crayons with new and pointy tips? Lovely! 

What Do Cows Think About?

The other day I was trading amusing stories about our kids with a friend. A conversation I had with my son sprang to mind. 
I had just dropped off his sister at school and was pulling away from the curb when he started telling me about his big adventure with Dad the night before. They had visited a dairy farm to pick up a load of manure. I’ll fast forward to the funny part, which is pretty much word-for-word.
He says, "And the cows, they were looking at me, and they were thinking, 'We haven't seen that kid before, he sure looks cute!'"
I ask, "How do you know they weren't thinking, 'He sure looks ornery!'?"
"Mommy," he replies, shaking his head as if my ignorance makes him sad. "Cows don’t know that word."

He was four-years-old at the time. Now he's a 3rd grader, but he still says the darndest things. Kids, they make you gray, but they keep you young. How is that possible?