Karin Cox's Blog, page 2

Blog Hop Winners & Cover Reveal

First things first, I’m delighted to let you all know that the fabulous Eden Crane has finished the cover for Cruxim’s sequel, Creche (left). I’m thrilled with it and just had to share it with you early. The beautiful Cruxim lady on the front is Skylar, who will play a large role in the series.

I’m still hoping to release the sequel by July at the latest … so watch this space because I’ll be sharing some snippets with you from time to time on the blog here too. (No spoilers)

Apologies to all of those who have been waiting with bated breath for the results of the Heroes & Villains Blog Hop competition. I’ve been toddler wrangling the past few days and haven’t been well. But I have now entered you all in the relevant hats and the winners are … drum roll…

The lovely silver cross goes to: Elizabeth Bevins (Congratulations)

The $10 Amazon gift card to Liz Ziolkowski (Enjoy!).

Signed print book copies go to: Magen Hasken and Mint Martijin Bkk (Please let me know in the comments if you have any special signing request)

Ebooks to: Kathy Cohoon, Paula Loftig and Tobi Helton (If you want them signed, please use http://www.authorgraph.com).

Bellybutton ring to Shadow Kohler.

Thanks for entering everyone. Winners, I will try to locate your emails via my blog or message via Facebook to  let you all know in person and grab your address/email details.

Those of you who missed out, my apologies. However, Cruxim is on sale on Amazon.com for a few days at 99c, if you wanted to pick up an ebook version. Once again, thanks for entering. It’s been fun.

Heroes & Villains & other brouhahhah

Have I told you all how much I love blog tours? Once upon time, authors had to actually get dressed (okay, so I do have *some* clothes on, don’t worry) and leave the house to interact with readers—unless those readers were stalkers, but that is a villainous topic for another day. Now, we just go on tour virtually, linking up with the blogs of other “Authorpreneurs” who have had the nous to self-publish their works. That creates a huge network of authors and readers and maximises our opportunities for getting our books read and your opportunities for getting cool free stuff—all while we’re sitting at home wearing whatever the hell we like and hammering out our next masterpiece while sucking down a bowl of ramen noodles (the author dietary supplement of choice, for financial reasons).

Recently, I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in Martin Bolton’s stupendous Heroes and Villains Blog Hop, running from 3-6 May 2013 on twenty-eight awesome author blogs. As well as writing a piece on the villains in Cruxim and how I came to make them so dastardly, I’m also giving away stacks of great swag, including books, an Amazon gift card, and jewellery (which you can check out down there *insert downward arrows dammit* at the bottom of the post). Better yet, every one of the 28 fantasy, science fiction and historical fiction authors on the tour is also giving away fabulous prizes for readers, so make sure you hop along to all of the blogs listed at the end of this post, check out their books, and enter their competitions too.

So here goes … my little post filling you in on the evil workings of my own noggin.

The Characters you Love to Hate

As an editor by trade, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve told authors that they have weak villains.  When writing villains, authors have to ensure that not only is their badass just as memorable as the protagonist, but that his or her motivations are just as clear and grounded in aspects of the villain’s past and his or her personal and psychological development. In real life, sometimes it seems that we see people (hopefully from behind the safety or a TV screen, or simply in a newspaper, rather than in real life) who seem to be just straight-out plain evil monsters. We’ve all seen the news stories that made us shudder at the depths of human depravity. Sometimes, it seems like there is no rhyme or reason to such cruelty, but dig a little deeper and there is often a profile to such killers: a number of factors (not causes, let’s not make excuses for it) that might lead to the kind of evil that serial killers or psychopaths indulge in.

If you’re an author like me, you’re probably a little bit fascinated by the psychology behind killers. What makes them do it? How can they live with themselves? How did they get away with it? When I was writing Cruxim, I wanted Amedeo to be faced with villains who weren’t just out to get him for the hell of it, but who actually had chips in the game. It would have been easy for my Vampire villain, Beltran, to just hate Amedeo because he is a Cruxim—after all, Cruxim eat Vampires. I’m pretty sure gazelles are not too fond of lions: same dynamic. But I wanted Beltran, who is also the primary Villain in the ongoing saga and appears in later novels, to have a real reason to hate Amedeo aside from the sheer circumstance of the supernatural food chain.

That reason became Joslyn—primarily Beltran’s love for the mortal-turned-vampire, and her enduring love for Amedeo, even as he forsakes her. I drilled down to what I thought were the major psychological issues Beltran had to deal with (and again, readers will find out more about some of Beltran’s background issues in book II in the series, Creche, which I hope to have out by July. So if you don’t want to read a very slight *spoiler* look away now). Abandoned by his father as a young boy, Beltran turned his feelings of helplessness into a craving for power. At first, it was just the power to defend himself and those he loved, such as his sister Evedra. But in his longing for it, power became a kind of lust for him. When he became a vampire and finally had that power, he was unable to control either the power or the lust. It manifested as a need to dominate others, particularly women, physically. But when he meets Joslyn, he falls in love with her innocence. He hates Amedeo not only because Ame truly represents the kind of pure, honorable power Beltran once craved, but also because Joslyn loves Amedeo for that sense of honor and hates Beltran for the perverted way he abuses his own power.

The other major villain in Cruxim is Dr. Claus Gandler, who I’ve found has given many readers shivers even more than Beltran. When I was stripping down his character to the bare bones (which is not a bad analogy for Gandler, given his predilection for torture and amputation), I revisited the biographies of some of the most heinous real-life villains in human history. Seriously, you couldn’t make up the kind of horrors these men inflicted on innocents. I wish I could scrub some of the things I read while researching Gandler’s character right out of my head. Among these beasts was Josef Mengele, the abhorrent, seriously depraved physician of the Nazi’s Auschwitz concentration camp, a man known as the Angel of Death. Not only did he personally order jews and those of other ethnic minorities to the gas chambers, Mengele also conducted appalling experiments into heredity upon twins and on others he considered abnormalities of nature, such as those who suffered from dwarfism or heredity conditions. Not even children were spared Mengele’s terrors. I also spent some time studying the hateful practice of travelling “freak shows” in the 18th and 19th centuries. As an Aussie author, I’d read a bit about them before, because unfortunately many Australian Aborigines were taken to Europe and exploited at such shows and “world fairs”, incorrectly portrayed as cannibals or imbecile savages.

I also considered how in real life those who come into close conflict with certain afflictions sometimes come to hate others who suffer from them, and I posited how Gandler might feel if he had a child who suffered from a “freakish” disorder. What if his only son, Fritz, was killed directly as a result of having that disorder: a rare blood condition in which he produced too much blood, making him a target for vampires? Would Dr Gandler understand other “freaks” (and I use the inverted commas because I recognise that these were simply unlucky people who suffered from medical conditions), or would he hate them and use them to try to get to the bottom of vampirism, would he exploit them for his own ends? I decided to make him hate the other “freaks” he collects for all that they represent—his inability to protect his son Fritz, his hatred of hereditary imperfections. That hatred of freaks, and his desire to understand how to correct/avoid such conditions and how to end Vampirism, leads to the horrible acts of torture and “experiments” he carries out. It is only when faced with his own imminent death that Gandler makes the decision which will eventually lead to his downfall. To my mind, Gandler is a particularly evil character because of the clinical way he goes about collecting and dissecting his freaks. His is a controlled, careful kind of insanity, and sometimes that is more dangerous than all-out “batshit crazy” (a phrase which I suppose applies to Beltran in some ways).

So did I achieve what I wanted to do with these villains? Yes and no. In retrospect, I wish I had spent more time letting Amedeo vanquish his foes. But in the heat of a battle, there is not really time to stop and crow over victories, however large or small; all of that must come after, and will to a certain extent in Creche. And as for Beltran … well, you’ll all just have to tune in to the next episode to see what happens to Beltran’s perverted power, and to find out how he gained such a power in the first place.

You’ve hung in this far, AWESOME. So, here’s what am I giving away?

* Two signed, personally addressed paperback copies of Cruxim.

* Three ebook copies of Cruxim (which the lucky recipients can have signed at http://www.authorgraph.com/authors/Authorandeditor).

* A $10 Amazon gift card.

* The adorable sterling silver cross below right (a little larger than in the pic, which is not to scale).

* And one of the beautiful angel wing bellybutton rings (far right, also not to scale.)

All you have to do is like my page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KarinCox.Author and leave a message on the Heroes and Villains Blog Hop thread there to tell me which prize you’re most after.

OR, Follow me on twitter @Authorandeditor.com and either tweet about the #villainsandheroes blog hop or RT my tweet about the #villainsandheroes blog hop.

Leave a message on the comments below, to let me know you have entered. Every one of these actions constitutes one entry for each of the prizes. So if you like my page, tweet, and comment, that is three entries. The more entries, the better your chances to win.

Also, make SURE you pop past the blogs of these other 27 incredible indie-published authors, like their pages and enter their competitions too! And lastly, thanks again for joining me. I hope you’ve enjoyed the hop.

Martin Bolton

Mike Cooley

Jolea M Harrison

Tinney Sue Heath

K. Scott Lewis

Paula Lofting

Liz Long

Peter Lukes

Mark McClelland

M.Edward McNally

Sue Millard

Rhiannon Douglas

Ginger Myrick

David Pilling

Kim Rendfeld

Tara West

Keith Yatsuhashi

Fun Ways to Promote

As any author will tell you, the writing (or the finishing writing) is just the beginning. The true grind really comes with promotion. Lately, I’ve been looking at ways to promote but still have a blast doing it. Part of that means coming up with some lovely visuals to promote some of my words and poetry from Growth, Cage Life, and Cruxim.

I made some fun and fancy little JPEGs, like the one at right, for Cruxim, and had such a wonderful, creative time doing it that I put some of them all together with music as a kind of “quasi-trailer” (which I call a teaser) and posted it as a youtube video with some lovely eerie music, so you can check that out here. 

Will these things help my sales? Who knows? But they’re a heck of a lot more inspiring and interesting than stressing about sales or running around shouting “Buy my book.” With Cruxim having been free this past week, I’ve had just about enough of that for now, even if all of you lovely downloaders helped me get to #1 in my categories and #6 overall in the free Kindle Store (which was simply amazing). If you downloaded it, or have already bought it, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

So I hope you enjoy watching my little “teaser” as much as  I enjoyed making it, and please do stop by and tell me your favourite fun ways to get the word out about your novels and works in progress. I’d love to hear what you’re doing to make publicity and promotion as enjoyable and creative a task as writing can be. 

Cheers

Karin 

 

More Inspirational Indie Chicks: Tonya Kappes

Okay, so my Write Like You Mean It ethos has fallen by the wayside the past week. I’ve had a teething toddler, so my days have been spent administering baby panadol, cooing, soothing and cuddling and all of those “mummy things” that take precedence over my quietly simmering inner “writer” life. Hopefully, the pumpkin will feel better tomorrow for her kindergarten day and I will be more productive. I have a whole stack of posts for this blog planned and all I need is the time to write them. I would like to focus on things like understanding rhythm and poesy in writing, flashbacks, and structure, and, of course, more editing tips. Hopefully, I will find a window of opportunity to jump out of write those soon.

I am also adding regular author features to help me keep on the straight and narrow with this blogging gig, and to help introduce you guys to some of the incredibly talented ladies I share blogging responsibilities with over at Indie Chicks Cafe. If you haven’t stopped by the cafe for a quick shot of Awesome yet, I’d strongly suggest you do so today. Indie Chicks Cafe is the brainchild of a great writer but an even greater friend, Cheryl Shireman, and is a place where more than 30 super-talented, bestselling and award-winning indie authors hang out and talk about all things “chick.” Sometimes, that’s writing, but more often than not it is just about being a woman in this crazy world, and about our day-to-day lives and observations. It really is a better place to while away a half hour than Facebook. Truly. Far more productive. I promise.

Indie Chicks Cafe is also where I met the fabulously talented and popular Tonya Kappes. If you haven’t heard of Tonya, well, it might be time to change rocks. Seriously, get out more! ;-p  She has been taking the indie world by storm with her fun and funky Magical Cures Mystery Series, and her latest release A Charming Wish has, of course, been just as well received. And she does all this with a day job and a family. Tonya has stopped by and consented to share some of her secrets of success with little old me (and you!) so make sure you thank her by picking up one of her books today.

Straight to the good stuff:  You talk about advising other authors on marketing. What are your top marketing secrets? 

I get this one a Lot! Start marketing and promoting NOW! Do not wait until you have a book out. You have to get your name out there and create buzz. I joined a group blog (grog) two years before my first novel was published. The grog consisted of two established/traditional authors and two no-names (me being one). Not only did I have access to all of their readers, I gained my own following and had a couple thousand readers along for the journey and ready to buy my book when it came out.

There are several ways for authors to do this, not just a grog. I have outlined all of this in my non-fiction novel, The Tricked Out Toolbox~Marketing and Promotional Tools Every Writer Needs.

Who would you credit for helping you along the way in your writing journey?

My family first and foremost. They have been so supportive in giving me time to work, seeing me at all their games with a pen in my hand, and put up with talking to myself in public places. Jane Porter taught me how to connect with readers. She is amazing with giving back. I try to do it tenfold!

So, your street team? Tell us about that. 

Readers ( I don’t use the word FAN….I don’t like that word) emailed me all the time about books, news, and other stuff and it just got too big for me to keep up with. I thought it would be a great idea if I had all of them in one place. SO….originally I sent them all an email about a yahoo group, but that was time consuming. We all have Facebook accounts and I opened a TONYA KAPPES STREET TEAM group. We gather there every morning to say hello, wish happy birthdays, congrats on news they may have. It’s not just about me. I do weekly giveaways to thank them for supporting me. I still can’t believe that ONE person would buy my novel in today’s crazy society, not to mention sit down and read it! It’s my way to give back to them.

On the STREET TEAM page I host my online book releases. I have over 100 authors who donate their novels to me as a giveaway, it’s GREAT! When one of my novels is released, they tweet it and Facebook it plus send messages to friends and family. They spread the word. Without them…..I don’t know where I’d be and don’t want to imagine it!

Tell us a bit more about your Magical Mystery Cure series and your plans for it. 

I absolutely love this series! I have never made up a magical, cozy town that isn’t tooooo paranormal. I write with humor, and I wanted to make sure my readers fell in love with Whispering Falls (the town in my Magical Mystery Series).  The series follow June Heal on her journey from being a commoner to finding a community with magical powers and realize she is one of them. It’s a fun journey with talking crystal balls, animals, genies and lots of fun potion making. Think I Dream of Jeannie crosses Bewitched.

There are six books planned in the series. But there could be more

What’s your favorite Tonya Kappes novel?

Seriously??? I have four teenage boys and it’s like asking me which one I love best….

Okay, good point. I find it hard enough to state a favourite book, let alone a favourite book I’ve written.

Huge thanks to Tonya for being such a good sport and stopping by my little blog, even though she’s a huge superstar and I’m just a little scribbler. I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know her a little, and please do stop by Tonya Kappe’s Blog too.

What Makes Single Dads So Darned Sexy? by Donna Fasano

Fellow “Indie Chick” and bestselling romance author Donna Fasano has popped by today to chat about a phenomenon I’ve noticed myself, why men who have children are sexier than singletons.

Donna has been writing romance novels for over twenty years. Harlequin Books published her first book in 1999, and she went on to write 32 novels for the company under the pen name Donna Clayton. In 2010, Donna acquired the publishing rights to eleven of her novels. She’s been updating and expanding the books and is publishing them under her real name. Donna’s books have won awards and have made best-seller lists. Her books have sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide, and I feel extremely honoured to have her drop by and chat about her Single Dad’s Series.

So why are dads the new heart-throbs? Here’s Donna to explain…

Come on. You have to admit it. When you’re out at the mall or the playground, and you see a dad alone with his child, your heartstrings get a good, hard tug. You pause, your eyes follow him, you watch him smile down at his kid…and you get tingly all over.

What is it that makes bachelor dads so sexy?

You might be too young to remember the movie Three Men and a Baby, but when a man automatically picks up a crying baby, or races to rescue a toddler who’s fallen, or stops what he’s doing to comfort a child, a complicated chemical reaction takes place in a woman’s brain that makes her think … mmmm, now that’s sexy.

Let’s break it down:

A single dad who puts his kids needs before his own will, more than likely, put his woman’s needs before his own too. (Sexy!)

A single dad who raises happy, well-adjusted kids has proven he’s responsible, mature, and strong. (Sexy!)

A single dad who dedicates himself to his children has shown that he’s a good and caring provider, and the selfless love he exhibits shows he’s willing to sacrifice for his family. (Sexy!)

Raising kids takes patience, discipline, kindness, tenderness. (Sexy, sexy, sexy, and sexy!)

The simple answer would be human nature; procreation is a basic human instinct, and, as women, we are attracted to men who show signs of being good mates and excellent fathers. Now, that doesn’t mean we’re willing to “be fruitful and multiply” with the bachelor dads we meet…but is does help explain why seeing a father hug his baby makes us think, awwww, that’s so sweet…and sexy!

Donna’s offering an awesome box set of The Single Daddy Club series at the moment. So snap up these heart-warming romances. The first in the series is Derrick and the blurb is below.

The Single Dad:

Ex-military man Derrick Richmond. Solitary and satisfied…until little Timmy was dropped into his lap and Derrick had to learn to be somebody’s daddy.

The Single Woman:

Schoolteacher Anna Maxwell. Fate might have denied her a family of her own, but Anna still had plenty of love to give, if only someone would notice.

The Solution:

Anna would teach Derrick all he needed to know about kids. Father and son would give Anna some precious memories. Then the schoolteacher and the single dad would go their separate ways. Unless one little boy figured out a way to make Miss Maxwell become his mom! 

Grab a copy today for:

Kindle

Nook

Kobo

Ipad or Iphone/iBooks

And check out Donna Fasano’s excellent author blog too. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.  Thanks so much, Donna, for stopping by. You’re a true inspiration. 

Write like you mean it…

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made the New Year’s Resolution to lose weight—or rather I can, because I’ve been making it every year since 2007. And yet, somehow, I’ve still found myself making the same resolution the following year, and the year after that. You can take this as irrefutable proof that New Year’s Resolutions don’t work, or that I am a lazy sod who sits in front of a computer for most of her day and wears a groove her favourite armchair, and you’d be right on both counts. But my point here is that sometimes, despite our best resolve, we’re all talk. A lot of us are always “gonna do” something, and yet we never do.

In few spheres is “gonna-do-itis” as prevalent as it is in the world of writing. Just about everyone I’ve ever met has admitted to having “a book inside of them,” which sounds remarkably uncomfortable if you ask me. Yet so few of them ever manage to extract that book from their … wherever it is … and actually put it out there where readers can enjoy it (or otherwise). Why is this so? I’ll tell you why: because we make excuses.

I’m too busy. I’ve got kids. I’ve got a fulltime job. I’ve got kids. I’ve got a disease (tip: gonna-do-itis is not a real disease). I’ve got kids. I’ve got books to edit (I use this one a lot, partly because it is true, but who keeps accepting the jobs? That damn editor in me is boycotting my writing dreams). I’ve got kids. I’ve got scissors for hands. [Okay, Edward Scissorhands, I grant that it might be harder for you, and I’m very sorry for your affliction. As you were.] I’ve got kids. I’ve got fleas. I’ve got piles of washing. I’ve got piles and I can’t sit for long on wet concrete writing with the nub of a blue crayon on the back of margarine lid—or however or wherever else you find yourself most creative. I find an armchair good, which is why I’m a fatty boomballa. You might prefer a treadmill. Whatever! Go to!

My point is—I have a point!—writers who suffer from gonna-do-itis make a multitude of excuses to explain away dismal word counts. I do it. I’ve been doing it for years. “I was too busy today,” I tell myself. And yet, I somehow managed to maintain a lengthy repartee about monkey’s uncles in a Facebook group. Ah, well, that was time well spent.

The truth of the matter is that we just don’t find the time to put our bums in the seat (or on the concrete) to write. We plot, we plan, we talk about writing, we read books about

writing, we edit what we’ve already written, we hang out in groups of writers hoping some of the starshine of successful authors will rub off on us and make us glow with writerly brilliance, we write blog posts about Edward Scissorhands, but we don’t actually find the time to write. So, this year, my New Year’s Resolution was to “Write like I mean it.” And by that, I mean to stop calling myself a fiction writer and start being a fiction writer. To follow Cruxim up with its sequel, Creche, this year (not in four years’ time). To stop half-finishing

manuscripts, and to stop having gonna-do-itis. To put actual words on actual (okay, so Scrivener is virtual, don’t be so pedantic!) paper. One word at a time. One minute at a time. And so far, it’s working. Kind of. But I’m gonna do it, I swear it!

Oh, and Cruxim got a cover facelift this week too from the fabulous Eden at Eden Crane Designs, just in time for its first free run on Amazon from the 1st of March to the 3rd of March, so be sure to snag yourself a free copy, because that sequel WILL be along any moment you know. [Disclaimer: By "any moment," the author wishes to advise that she means early April ]

So, you wanna be a writer?

Some practical advice that doesn’t mention adverbs…

Beginner writers are often bombarded with advice—some helpful, some not so helpful. The best advice I can give is to take all advice with a grain of salt. A lot of writers repeat “rules” they have heard elsewhere without providing any background, which leads to a kind of “writers’ Chinese Whispers” when conventions have been taken out of content or are incorrect. So, aside from being particular about whose advice you subscribe to, the most practical advice I can give to beginning writers, without delving into grammatical discourse, is:

Read. Read, read, and then read some more. Read books in your genre that you love, and then read books that you really didn’t like. Figure out why. What was it about the books you loved that resonated with you as a reader? What about the books you didn’t enjoy made you to struggle to finish them. What made certain books bestsellers? Did the bestsellers have a unique or intriguing premise? Did they have amazing, realistic characters? Did they have an original authorial voice? Beautiful prose? A twist ending? A love triangle? Did they appeal to an otherwise untapped audience? Maybe they had all of these things. Make a list of writing pros and cons that apply to you as a reader and pin it up in your writing space.

Learn. Some authors insist that reading books about writing or attending writing conventions or festivals is a waste of time and money. Such writers insist that doing so will cramp your burgeoning writing style. I vehemently disagree. Everything I have learned about writing, editing, and marketing, I learned from others (and by subsequent trial and error while following those teachings). I learned from teachers, from mentors, from books and style manuals, from analysing manuscripts, from proofreading following other editors’ mark-ups, and from attending conferences and conventions to network with successful authors and publishing industry professionals.

The idea that good writers are born and not made is pure nonsense. Sure, some people have a natural affinity for writing. Some have a natural sense of rhythm. Some authors seem to have unlimited original ideas. Some have a way of thinking that produces incredible metaphor or simile. But just like dancing or painting, or any other activity, writers can improve with practice and with lifelong learning.

Invest. Another truly rubbish piece of advice for beginner writers is: “All money should flow toward the writer.” I know this was designed to prevent writers from being scammed by unscrupulous service providers, but that’s not what I’m talking about. If you’re serious about writing and you want to make a business out of your writing, you’ll need some capital. You need to invest in yourself as a writer, which might mean buying programs like Scrivener or Write or Die or Antisocial to keep you writing rather than procrastinating. It might mean reading books by successful writers. If you’re a self-published author, you’ll want to invest not only in knowledge (by way of conventions or books about writing) but also in editing, cover design, advertising, promotion, and publicity.

As always, be careful about which businesses you choose to spend your money with. Ask for referrals, check service providers out thoroughly, and ensure they have a good reputation for being ethical and delivering on what they promise. There are a lot of scammers out there who target writers, so make sure your investment will be a sound one. When writing is your profession, or you run a small business, you can claim these investments as tax deductions. Like any business, don’t expect to start turning a profit immediately. Expect to inject some capital into your business for the first year at least. 

Grow. By grow I mean continue to live your life. Most writers draw inspiration from the world around them, so don’t forget to stop and sit in a café people-watching on occasion. Growing also means accepting change. As you change, your writing voice may change and the things you want to write about might change. Be flexible in your approach to writing. Try new things.

So far, I’ve self-published Cage Life, a book of short stories; Growth, a book of poetry; two children’s picture books, Hey, Little Sister and Pancakes on Sunday; and now Cruxim—a paranormal romance. Yet I have a non-fiction background with more than 25 titles under my belt, and I have literary fiction, young adult novels, and romance novels all half-finished on my hard-drive. Why? Because I write what I feel like writing.

So you’ve always written romance, but you get a feeling you’d be good at writing for young adults—give it a shot (even if you do it under a pen name in case it doesn’t work). You’re not getting any traction with your book and you’re worried it is the cover, change it up and see. Be flexible when it comes to price, too. If you want to self-publish, try it. If you want to query publishers, go for it. You can do both. There is no one single path to success. Growth and change are positives for writers, and being flexible will help you survive in a publishing world that is highly variable at present.

Harden up. Yep, that’s my final piece of practical advice for writers. Drink a cup of concrete—figuratively, that is. No matter what you write, or how you write it, there will be some people who just don’t “get” your work. It doesn’t matter if you have three hundred five-star reviews; those three one-stars are the ones that will play on your mind.

“Why did they hate ‘me’?” you ask (because we writers have a habit of making it personal). When you put your work out there, you invite criticism, constructive or otherwise. To stay happy, you’ll need to develop skin thicker than a rhinoceros’s (even if you secretly whine and moan about bad reviews in private).

I’m not saying you shouldn’t learn from criticism where you can, because you most certainly should. If your critics are saying your book was full of errors, by all means, sort it out. If they’re insisting there are plot loopholes, you might want to stitch those shut. But resign yourself to the fact that no matter what you do, sometimes “haters gonna hate.” Don’t let negative feedback undermine your need to keep on writing, keep on learning, keep on growing, and keep on developing the carapace you’re going to need if you want to write for a living. 

Cruxim: The Next Big Thing?

A friend, Nia Trevisa, tagged my in her post, and an editor colleague of mine, Belinda Pollard from Small Blue

Cruxim is now available on Amazon.com at smarturl.it/cruxim

Dog Publishing, tagged me in her post, about the Next Big Thing chain blog (or blog tiggy, if you like). Nia’s NEXT BIG THING Novel is her work in progress, Eye Diving, which sounds like it is going to be an incredible read:

“Cari Campbell is a young, overwhelmed psychotherapist in modern-day Baltimore who doesn’t yet know that she is an empath. Her search for relief from her own mental heath symptoms leads her to an alternative healing clinic where mind-bending encounters with mediums, aura readers, telepaths and precogs turn her cherished scientific paradigm on its head, leading to a crisis of identity that nearly takes her life.” 

Some months ago, I also had the pleasure of beta reading Belinda’s debut novel Poison Bay (a breathtakingly fast-paced and original eco/wilderness thriller, which is still with a publisher, fingers crossed for her).

The idea is that each blogger answers some questions about one of their books, either already published or a work in progress, and then links to several more authors who are also writing or promoting novels that just might be “The Next Big Thing.” Each blogger links to the author who “tagged” them and the authors they “tagged” thus creating a chain of author awesomeness that can never be broken.

I’ve decided to use it to tell you all a little bit about my latest release, Cruxim, and to link to some incredible indie chicks, who, believe me, are fabulous writers and are well on their way to already being The Next Big Thing!

Amedeo is Cruxim — an immortal dark angel who knows neither his purpose nor his past, save but to feed on the supernatural beings that plague the earth. When his one weakness, the girl and novice nun Joslyn, is taken and turned by his enemies, Amedeo vows never to rest until evil is expunged from his world — even if that means killing Joslyn along with her vampire brethren.

On his quest, he meets Sabine: a guardian. Half-woman, half-lioness, she is a Sphinx who has been protecting humans from vampires since the dawn of time. But when she fails in her task of protecting a young boy, she is relentlessly pursued by her evil employer, Dr. Claus Gandler, a scientist collecting a sideshow of freaks.

What is the title of your new book?

Cruxim, which is apparently an anglicised version of a Baltic mythological character, the Kresnik, or “dark angel.”

Where did the idea for the book come from?

A few years ago, I invested in a writing workshop at the Byron Bay Writer’s festival. It was run by Stephen Lang, author of An Accidental Terrorist, and in it he showed us all a photographic of a gothic tower and asked us to describe it using all of the senses. I wrote the first few paragraphs of this story, which sat there for several years until I found it scribbled in a notebook and considered expanding on it. I had the idea of making the person in the tower an angel, but I also love mythology, so I wanted to make his love interest something a little unusual. I settled upon a Sphinx, a creature represented in the mythology of many cultures as having the head and breast of the a woman, the wings of an eagle and the body of a lion.

As I was searching through mythological creatures, I read about Kresniks and decided to explore making my hero that: an angel whose mission was to kill vampires. But what if someone dear to him became one, how would he handle that when his mission is to kill them all? And the rest of the story sort of just fell into place.

What genre does your book fall under?

I would say gothic paranormal romance. Romance is a big part of the story, and the protagonist Amedeo is constantly torn between two women, Sabine and Joslyn, but he is also conflicted about what is morally expected of him and about his mission in life. He spends a lot of time exploring the fine line between man and beast, and what it means to have principles. I like my men just as I like my novels: dark and impossibly conflicted—and Amedeo is certainly that.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

I haven’t really given too much thought to actors.  I do have “pin ups” that I’ve stuck on my Scrivener corkboard, but most of them are models. I would say maybe Johnny Depp for Amedeo the Cruxim or Jason Momoa (but that is just because I totally have the hots for him); neither of them seem quite right. I found a male model Gil Soares who kind of looks the part. Amanda Heard for blonde, leonine Sabine, and Odette Justman (with blue contacts) or Emily DiDonato for dark-haired blue-eyed Joslyn.

Will your book be self published or do you have an agent/publisher?

Cruxim is self-published only because I am terribly impatient and waiting the 18+ months it usually takes for a publisher to get a book on the shelves (or kindles) drives me  little nuts.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Ummm. Years. I think I wrote the first chapter in 2006, and I am just about to complete it … so … way too long. But I am so close to finishing it and I’m really proud that I was able to take this little snippet and grow it into something much bigger.

What other books would you compare your book to within the genre?

I kind of see it as being an antithesis to the sparkly vampire genre, and while it would be hubris for me to compare myself to some of these authors, I hope it lives up to gothic romances such as Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire series or Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, or even Stoker’s Dracula.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Byron Bay Writer’s Festival … it just took a little while to grow into what it is today. But I also showed some to an editor friend of mine who is a big fan of Charlaine Harris, and she really liked what she read of it, so that gave me the impetus to keep going. Having a baby also inspired me to stop making excuses and finish it, because every mother knows that mums have no time to procrastinate!

What else about the book might pique a reader’s interest?

At one point, my winged Cruxim and Sabine, his Sphinx lady-friend, are captured by Dr. Gandler, who runs a freakshow. So as well as a cast of Cruxim, Sphinx, love-struck vampires and evil torturers, I have a fat lady, conjoined twins, a dwarf and a wolfman. There are also some fantastic locations, such as Paris, Provins and the Ile de Re in France, Meteora in Greece, and Barcelona, Spain. I’m aiming for a December release, all going well. But you can add it to your To Be Read list on Goodreads before then, and check out the first chapter in the Indie Chicks 50 First Chapters Anthology, or visit www.cruxim.com

And now, I’d like to introduce you to some of the other Next Big Thing authors…

US author Cheryl Shireman sold more than 10,000 copies of her debut novel Life is But a Dream: On the Lake in its first year on Amazon and has followed it up with three more wonderful novels, Life is But a Dream: In the Mountains, Broken Resolutions and Cooper Moon: The Calling. She is also the author of the Curious Toddler range of books and the founder of Indie Chicks Cafe, where amazing indie authors congregate and share their thoughts and stories. I can say, without hesitation, that if you haven’t read any of Cheryl’s work yet, do so today! She is currently working on the second book in the four-part Cooper Moon series, Cooper Moon: Temptation, about a flawed but lovable womanizer who finds the faith to change, and to change others in the small town of Timber Lake, Michigan. She’ll tell you more about his irresistible brand of down-to-earth optimism next week on her blog.

Award-winning Irish author Gerry McCullogh never sleeps (or at least I don’t think so)! She has published numerous poems, short stories and articles in magazines and anthologies in Ireland and the UK, writes a literary blog and regularly contributes to a plethora of others, and is a prolific novel writer and the bestselling Amazon author of titles including Belfast Girls, Angel in Flight: an Angel Murphy thriller, The Seanachie: Tales of Old Seamus, Danger, Danger, and Lady Molly and the Snapper. And of course, she’s working on another that is destined to be the Next Big Thing and she’ll tell you all about it over at her blog Gerry’s Books.

Kate Shay is a mysterious US-based author of young adult paranormal historical fiction that is spooky, cool, and sure to fly off the virtual shelves. She’s currently working on publishing Kiss me, Curse me and on finishing writing its sequel Kiss me, Save me. Kate will tell you all about series and how it’s set to become the Next Big Thing on her blog.

And not before time…

 

I know it has now been an age since I last posted on here, but there is a reason … and here it is: I finally managed to finish my gothic paranormal romance novel, Cruxim, and to go through the rounds of betas and edits to whip it into shape. It is now available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. It is a strange feeling. When I self-published my poetry, short stories and kids’ books on Amazon last year, my expectations were relatively low. I did it largely as an experiment. Publishing a novel feels both exhilarating and a little terrifying. I hope it does well, but I also know that this is such a hit-and-miss kind of an industry. All I can really do is let my little novel fly and see how it goes.

My goal now is to finish writing the sequel before mid-year, and to spend less time on the computer and more time out in the open with the kid and family this year. That’s not a resolution exactly, just something I hope will happen. I”m scaling back my editing to do some more writing and some more living. I wish you all a very Happy 2013. May all of your publishing dreams come true this year too.

Cruxim: The Next Big Thing?

An editor colleague of mine, Belinda Pollard from Small Blue Dog Publishing, tagged me last week in her post about the Next Big Thing chain blog (or blog tiggy, if you like). Some months ago, I had the pleasure of beta reading Belinda’s debut novel Poison Bay (a breathtakingly fast-paced and original eco/wilderness thriller, which is still with a publisher, fingers crossed for her). To get back at me for that, it seems Belinda has tagged me in this. Thanks, Bel!

The idea is that each blogger answers some questions about one of their books, either already published or a work in progress, and then links to several more authors who are also writing or promoting novels that just might be “The Next Big Thing.” Each blogger links to the author who “tagged” them and the authors they “tagged” thus creating a chain of author awesomeness that can never be broken.

I’ve decided to use it to tell you all a little bit about my current work in progress, Cruxim, and to link to some incredible indie chicks, who, believe me, are fabulous writers and are well on their way to already being The Next Big Thing!

Amedeo is Cruxim — an immortal dark angel who knows neither his purpose nor his past, save but to feed on the supernatural beings that plague the earth. When his one weakness, the girl and novice nun Joslyn, is taken and turned by his enemies, Amedeo vows never to rest until evil is expunged from his world — even if that means killing Joslyn along with her vampire brethren.

On his quest, he meets Sabine: a guardian. Half-woman, half-lioness, she is a Sphinx who has been protecting humans from vampires since the dawn of time. But when she fails in her task of protecting a young boy, she is relentlessly pursued by her evil employer, Dr. Claus Gandler, a scientist collecting a sideshow of freaks.

What is the title of your new book?

Cruxim, which is apparently an anglicised version of a Baltic mythological character, the Kresnik, or “dark angel.”

Where did the idea for the book come from?

A few years ago, I invested in a writing workshop at the Byron Bay Writer’s festival. It was run by Stephen Lang, author of An Accidental Terrorist, and in it he showed us all a photographic of a gothic tower and asked us to describe it using all of the senses. I wrote the first few paragraphs of this story, which sat there for several years until I found it scribbled in a notebook and considered expanding on it. I had the idea of making the person in the tower an angel, but I also love mythology, so I wanted to make his love interest something a little unusual. I settled upon a Sphinx, a creature represented in the mythology of many cultures as having the head and breast of the a woman, the wings of an eagle and the body of a lion.

As I was searching through mythological creatures, I read about Kresniks and decided to explore making my hero that: an angel whose mission was to kill vampires. But what if someone dear to him became one, how would he handle that when his mission is to kill them all? And the rest of the story sort of just fell into place.

What genre does your book fall under?

I would say gothic paranormal romance. Romance is a big part of the story, and the protagonist Amedeo is constantly torn between two women, Sabine and Joslyn, but he is also conflicted about what is morally expected of him and about his mission in life. He spends a lot of time exploring the fine line between man and beast, and what it means to have principles. I like my men just as I like my novels: dark and impossibly conflicted—and Amedeo is certainly that.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

I haven’t really given too much thought to actors.  I do have “pin ups” that I’ve stuck on my Scrivener corkboard, but most of them are models. I would say maybe Johnny Depp for Amedeo the Cruxim, although he doesn’t seem quite right. I found a male model Gil Soares who really looks the part. Amanda Heard for blonde, leonine Sabine, and Odette Justman (with blue contacts) or Emily DiDonato for dark-haired blue-eyed Joslyn.

Will your book be self published or do you have an agent/publisher?

I’m still deciding that, but at present I’m leaning towards self-publishing, if only because I am terribly impatient and waiting the 18+ months it usually takes for a publisher to get a book on the shelves (or kindles) drives me  little nuts.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Ummm. Years. I think I wrote the first chapter in 2006, and I am just about to complete it … so … way too long. But I am so close to finishing it and I’m really proud that I was able to take this little snippet and grow it into something much bigger.

What other books would you compare your book to within the genre?

I kind of see it as being an antithesis to the sparkly vampire genre, and while it would be hubris for me to compare myself to some of these authors, I hope it lives up to gothic romances such as Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire series or Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, or even Stoker’s Dracula.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Byron Bay Writer’s Festival … it just took a little while to grow into what it is today. But I also showed some to an editor friend of mine who is a big fan of Charlaine Harris, and she really liked what she read of it, so that gave me the impetus to keep going. Having a baby also inspired me to stop making excuses and finish it, because every mother knows that mums have no time to procrastinate!

What else about the book might pique a reader’s interest?

At one point, my winged Cruxim and Sabine, his Sphinx lady-friend, are captured by Dr. Gandler, who runs a freakshow. So as well as a cast of Cruxim, Sphinx, love-struck vampires and evil torturers, I have a fat lady, conjoined twins, a dwarf and a wolfman. There are also some fantastic locations, such as Paris, Provins and the Ile de Re in France, Meteora in Greece, and Barcelona, Spain. I’m aiming for a December release, all going well. But you can add it to your To Be Read list on Goodreads before then, and check out the first chapter in the Indie Chicks 50 First Chapters Anthology, or visit www.cruxim.com

And now, I’d like to introduce you to some of the other Next Big Thing authors…

US author Cheryl Shireman sold more than 10,000 copies of her debut novel Life is But a Dream: On the Lake in its first year on Amazon and has followed it up with three more wonderful novels, Life is But a Dream: In the Mountains, Broken Resolutions and Cooper Moon: The Calling. She is also the author of the Curious Toddler range of books and the founder of Indie Chicks Cafe, where amazing indie authors congregate and share their thoughts and stories. I can say, without hesitation, that if you haven’t read any of Cheryl’s work yet, do so today! She is currently working on the second book in the four-part Cooper Moon series, Cooper Moon: Temptation, about a flawed but lovable womanizer who finds the faith to change, and to change others in the small town of Timber Lake, Michigan. She’ll tell you more about his irresistible brand of down-to-earth optimism next week on her blog.

Award-winning Irish author Gerry McCullogh never sleeps (or at least I don’t think so)! She has published numerous poems, short stories and articles in magazines and anthologies in Ireland and the UK, writes a literary blog and regularly contributes to a plethora of others, and is a prolific novel writer and the bestselling Amazon author of titles including Belfast Girls, Angel in Flight: an Angel Murphy thriller, The Seanachie: Tales of Old Seamus, Danger, Danger, and Lady Molly and the Snapper. And of course, she’s working on another that is destined to be the Next Big Thing and she’ll tell you all about it over at her blog Gerry’s Books.

Kate Shay is a mysterious US-based author of young adult paranormal historical fiction that is spooky, cool, and sure to fly off the virtual shelves. She’s currently working on publishing Kiss me, Curse me and on finishing writing its sequel Kiss me, Save me. Kate will tell you all about series and how it’s set to become the Next Big Thing on her blog.