Ania Ahlborn's Blog, page 15

Photofile: The Great Belgian Bowie Search

Just recently I had the pleasure of spending ten days with a Belgian boy I've known for years and years. He lives off of waffles and dark chocolate courses through his veins. Say hello to Lorenzo.

"Hello, Lorenzo!"

(That's how the Dutch say 'hi'.)

Lorenzo is more than a little obsessed with David Bowie, so when he arrived he didn't even bother to say 'hi'. All he said was 'take me to Bowie' and locked himself in the guest bedroom.

So, what does one do when a crazy foreigner locks himself in his t...

The Neighbors: Sample Three

Read Sample Two

The day Andrew's dad didn't come home was the day Julianne Morrison began to transform. Julie had been born and raised in Creekside, and while most people ran from the little Kansas town dead-center in the middle of the state, she had always loved it like a kid loves Disneyland—unconditionally; the happiest place on Earth. She had grown up in the same house Andrew was raised in; a two-story ranch-style home with a charming wrap-around porch and a bench swing that hung just...

The Neighbors: Sample Two

Read Sample One

Red and Harlow Ward looked good for their age. In their late fifties, time had treated them well. Red was a fan of golf, and the yard work kept him in shape. Harlow had suggested he buy one of those fancy self-propelled lawn mowers, but Red settled on an old fashioned reel mower he had to push up and down the property for hours. He liked the workout, the way the exposed blades glinted in the sun and hissed against the grass. Harlow, on the other hand, hated nothing more than...

The Neighbors: Sample One

Andrew Morrison sat in his father's beat-up pickup and scowled. This was nothing like what he had imagined. Drew didn't know Mickey well; he never had. That alone made this entire thing a crazy idea—something that normal people backed out of at the last second. Run, run as fast as you can. But the people who ran always had a place to run to; that was the exact thing Andrew lacked. Place. Somewhere to go. This is it, he told himself. This is freedom.

Freedom wasn't as pretty as he had hoped...

The Last House On The Block

[image error]It was cold that night, way colder than any Halloween should have been;  so cold that my mom and her best friend, Melinda, didn't bother to get out of the car while my best friend and I stomped the sidewalk. I don't remember what we had dressed up as, just that my breath puffed out ahead of me and I could hear gravel crunch beneath the tires of my mom's puke-yellow hatchback. It was 1985, maybe '86, and Ruidoso New Mexico looked much the same as it does today–a tiny mountain town tucked...

Blood In The Water: An Indie vs. New York City

We indies have a lot of dreams. From the simple goals of finishing and editing our novels to the stars in our eyes of becoming 'the next big thing', we're a determined bunch. We're a hands-on bunch. We're a defiant bunch who have torn away our blindfolds and, hallelujah, we can see. But despite our aggressively independent nature, there's still a trace of that ever-fading dream–the dream that offers us the luxury of a literary agent, the opulence of a publishing powerhouse backing our name.

I'...

Photofile: Eastern State Penitentiary

I've recently come home from a trip to the Washington DC/Philadelphia area, and one of our stops was the Eastern State Pen. I didn't really know much about the place other than the conditions were brutal and that it was featured on one of my guilty pleasures, Ghost Adventures. Naturally, when I caught wind the place was in Philly, I had to go.

This place is the stuff of nightmares, from the peeling paint to the abandoned items you can see through cracks in the cell doors. When you walk...

The Night I Was Possessed By The Devil

It was New Years Eve and I was nine or ten. That afternoon, my mom made a big announcement: she and dad would be going to a New Years Eve party. My kid brother would be spending the evening at grandma's house… but my cousin and I, we insisted we wanted to spend our New Year's Eve home alone, like big kids; it would be my parents first party in over a decade, and it would be my first night alone in the dark.

That afternoon, my mom drove my cousin and I to the local video store. We wanted to...

Publishing Your E-Book: A Quick How-To

So, I've decided to kick things up a notch and tell you what you need to know about epublishing in a single post rather than in multiple broken-up posts for two reasons: one, it'll be easier for you to keep everything straight and two, I'm getting tired of writing about epublishing. I know, how dare I? Trust me, when all you do all day is think about ebooks and writing and sales numbers, you'll know what I mean. But I made a promise, and I'm not one to break my word. I said I'd tell you...

How To Publish Your Ebook, Pt. 3: The Mysterious ISBN

Read Part Two

Hi everyone! Welcome back! As we trudge into part 3 of How To Publish Your Ebook, we're getting into the nitty gritty–unfortunately, some of this stuff is going to be boring. Like today's post. Hurray!

So why bother posting about something boring, right? Because you need this information; because without it, you may end up wasting a lot of money you could later invest into something you need, like a killer book cover.

When I was wading through all of this ebook publishing stuff on ...