Marissa De Luna's Blog, page 2

Mia Culpa!

 It's my fault I haven't blogged in yonks. If you scroll back far enough on this blog, you will see from my social media in a nutshell post that you must blog little and often.... clearly I don't practice what I preach. But let's not dwell on the past. This is about today, the present and what I'm doing.  Being lazy that is what I have been doing. I have plodded on with my new thriller - Splinter, up to 30,000 and I am happier about the shape that it currently is in. I am glad...

I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something...

I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged. Erica Jung




I was looking for a quote for today's blog post and I came across this beauty. It's not really relevant to my post but I love it and I am sure it will resonate with writers out there.




So what is new? Poison in the Water is out and the paperback is beautiful. There is something hugely satisfying in putting your hands on a copy of your latest book - how are the sales going? I'm n...

Writer's Block or just a bad story

I am excited. In less than a week So Vain Books will be releasing my latest novel 'Poison in the Water.' I am thrilled about this book and hope that readers will like it. Watch this space on how sales are going and the tricks I am going to use to promote it. It is helpful that I have built up a bit of a base ( I don't feel famous enough to say Fan Base) of people who will buy the book and get it started so I am pretty grateful for that.


I have also started writing two new books. Jackpot...

Author Interview - Poison in the Water

Take a look at my author interview about my new novel – Poison in the Water


 
 Tell us in a couple of lines what the book is about.
Fashion designer Celeste Renshaw is living her dream amidst Hong Kong’s glitterati. But the sparkle on her glamorous lifestyle soon begins to fade when she stumbles on a dark secret her husband has been keeping.  

An exotic location. Tell us a little more.
There are a couple of key locations in the book. The protagonist Celeste takes a career...

A new book and a view on reviews!

It has been a while since I last blogged but I have been busy. Busy critiquing books by other fabulous writers in my writers group and promoting Under the Coconut Tree – which I might add has suddenly started selling well. You see, these things take time so 8 months after release it has taken off. I am hoping more reviews will follow and sales will increase. I had priced it at 99p with a view to increasing the price to 1.44 (the magic price that shot GT to no.1 bestseller on Amazon) on the 1...

Looking for Inspiration?

Looking for inspiration
So I have started reading the Guardian and whilst I was on there the other day, I was struck by how many news stories or ‘opinion’ articles out there that would make great starting points/ideas for short stories or novels. I always find that as I start completing one novel, ideas for new books come at me from nowhere. Especially when I am driving or in the bath – my two inspirational sources. At the moment I have so many ideas for Chupplejeep I think I’ll have materia...

The Body in the Bath: A Chupplejeep Mystery

So here it is people the front cover for the next book in the Chupplejeep series, The Body in the Bath.

I hope you like it! The blurb is as follows:


As the International Film Festival of India draws to a close and the celebrations of Christmas descend upon Goa, actress, Subrina Basi, is found dead in the bath of her hotel room.
At first sight, Subrina appears to have committed suicide, but closer inspection suggests foul play. Subrina’s best friend - the flamboyant artist, Advani...

Knowing your FOMO from your MOMO

So I had planned to do a blog post on the new rules of social media. With a new book coming out soon... Yes, Poison in the Water should be released  by the end of April, I thought I would look at my social media tactics and perhaps give them a bit of a refresh because we all know that Social Media is here to stay and we need to raise our profiles and brand awareness as authors (blah blah blah ... yes, we rather be writing). And of course I thought I would share this information with...

Embracing your inner geek!

I have to admit I'm a geek. For a long while (when younger) I tried to hide the fact that I was a geek because, quite frankly, geeks were uncool. Now they are pretty popular and to be fair the older I get the less I care whether something is cool or not. That's the beauty of getting older - you just care less.

To be honest I didn't hide my geekyness as well as I could have because I probably didn't realise I was a geek and living in Goa pretty much everyone is a little geeky. 

Before wri...

Judging a book by its cover

Judging a book by its cover.

This last week has been trying. Why? Because I am trying to finalise the front cover for The Body in the Bath - The second book in the Chupplejeep Mysteries. The book is not finished - it's a long way from completion. If I'm lucky I'll get it out in time for Christmas but I wanted the cover for my website and I also wanted to deal with the stress of agreeing the front cover now...instead of during the publication process when I am stressed out! See, that's a good...