Clare C. Marshall's Blog, page 17
October 14, 2012
Violet Fox Release: A SUCCESS!
Yesterday, The Violet Fox launched in MonkeyShines Children’s Bookstore in Marda Loop, Calgary. It was a beautiful sunny day and so there were a number of people coming and going in the bookshop. I sold some copies, talked to a lot of people, gave away some stickers and buttons (I know. I don’t have bookmarks yet. I am a bad author) and so I consider the whole event a success! People were very impressed with the quality and the feel of the book (yay French flaps and deckled edge paper!) and also with the story synopsis.
My head looks super big in the bottom picture, probably because of the wide-angle shot. My head is not this huge in real life. 
Or is it?
Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!
It isn’t.
Anyway! If you are in Calgary, Alberta, you can now buy my books from MonkeyShine’s Childrens Books! ^_^
October 11, 2012
Blog Tour Stop: WHITE PICKUPS
Larry Kollar is one of my Twitter friends and today I’m helping to spread the word about his new book, White Pickups.
At summer’s end, mysterious white pickup trucks take to the roads and compel nearly everyone to “drive off.” Some of those who remain gather in a suburban Atlanta subdivision, and struggle to cope with a world whose infrastructure is rapidly crumbling. One of the few who are mentally and emotionally prepared for the end of the world is Cody Sifko, a youth who quickly becomes the inspiration for the others. When a strange homeless woman names him “Father of Nations,” is she seeing his future or her own delusions? As winter and a hate group try to destroy Laurel Hills, can Cody overcome personal tragedy and seize his destiny?
Love, hate, survival, and an apocalypse like no other—White Pickups is ready to take you on the ride of your life!
Guest Post
While White Pickups is my first novel available as an eBook, I’ve made a decent living from writing for 30 years, and 15 million copies of my work are out there.
Okay, I write technical documentation for a living. Some of those 15 million manuals—lots of them—likely were never opened. Some of my work turned out to be inadvertent fiction. Some of it was the equivalent of blurbs or back-cover synopses, but most was about the nuts and bolts of getting stuff done.
The business of fiction may have changed a lot in the last few years, but technical writing has changed even faster, over a longer period of time. Outside of the largest companies, writing documentation has been much like self-publishing for ten or fifteen years. I’ve had to work with many facets of publishing, from page layout, to both sides of the editing process, to electronic typesetting. In short, I’m used to doing it all myself.
But, there were horror stories as well. On occasion, I’d be asked to write marketing literature as a side-job. While I loathed it, everyone said I was good at it (probably so they wouldn’t have to do it). Now, I find it was good practice for writing my own blurbs!
One thing fiction writers won’t see often: edits with howling grammatical errors. On two occasions, I was asked to “put this change in exactly as worded” when the change went something like “the XXX will containing the YYY.” May your editors always have a better clue than this.
Larry has a great giveaway for you all! Myself and a few of my other author friends have put our heads together and are giving away copies of our own backlist. Use the Rafflecopter below to enter to win.
Violet Fox Blog Tour Grand Giveaway
As part of The Violet Fox blog tour, I’m doing a HUGE giveaway, my biggest yet in fact. One lucky winner will receive…
A signed copy of THE VIOLET FOX! If you haven’t seen the pictures, you should look at them, the book looks amazing!
an eBook copy of The Violet Fox (PDF, Mobi, or ePub)
A HANDMADE violet journal. This was made by my sister, she’s an art student at NSCAD in Halifax. I don’t have pictures of it yet, but the interior paper is of very high quality. It would retail for $35.
Faery Ink Press SWAG!
Also stay tuned for updates to the Rafflecopter…as there are many activities happening during the tour!
The Violet Fox has Arrived!
Look at the pretty, pretty pictures!! The Violet Fox arrived tonight in 16 boxes, weighing down Dave’s car with awesome. Now they are safely stored away in the basement office, waiting for loves.
Pre-orders will begin shipping tomorrow! Remember that you can save 25% if you order before October 13.
October 9, 2012
Only a Few Days Left
Only a few days left until The Violet Fox comes out! I’m anxiously waiting for the books to arrive from the printer. In the mean time, I’m finishing up guest posts for the blog tour, as well as other activities that will be going on next week. Hurray!
It has been a long but otherwise fairly smooth road to publication for the Violet Fox. It was over a year ago that I decided to tackle The Violet Fox, develop it, and publish it myself. It’s one of those stories that’s been in my idea folder for a long time, and I’m really excited to see it out there in the world. I’m also excited because I can do a lot more with this book. I can try and get more traditional distribution, and more readily sell it to people since I’ll have copies on hand, and it will be eligible for awards. Ooooo, ahhhh!
Yes, the future does look bright. And I am very grateful to my family, friends, and book bloggers who have made this possible!
Now you all just have to go out there and buy a copy. Right? Remember that you can save $5 by pre-ordering before the release day, and also get a free eBook copy. Hurray!
September 20, 2012
Within + Local Halifax Jewelry Giveaway!
Hey everyone! Time for a super cool giveaway.
Faery Ink Press is partnering with DeniseZilla designs to bring you cool stuff for you to WIN!
Because the anniversary for Within is coming up on November 13, I thought it would be great to re-introduce it to people who might not have heard of it before.
Trinity Hartell’s life changed after the accident. Left with irreversible brain damage, she becomes a burden to her mother, a cause for heartbreak for her boyfriend Zack, and a flattened obstacle for her jealous best friend, Ellie.
But then she starts writing. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that the psychotic, murderous protagonist of her novel bears a striking similarity to the charming Wiley Dalton, a mayoral candidate in the upcoming election.
Or, perhaps not . . .
Add to Goodreads! | Browse on Faery Ink Press
And because Within is set in Halifax, I thought it would be fun to promote a local artisan and a friend of mine, Denise
Take a look at her pretties!
See more on her etsy shop.
The lucky winner of this giveaway will receive an eBook copy of Within and one item from DeniseZilla’s store. This contest is open INTERNATIONALLY and will close October 11, 2012, EST.
Good luck!
September 14, 2012
Why You Should Pre-Order The Violet Fox
Click on the picture to pre-order.
This took a little longer than I wanted to make, but it was fun using Dave’s tablet. Drawing those hands was not fun. Usually I just give everyone kitty paws. I wish I had actual pictures of the book to show, but they don’t arrive for a few weeks. It’s all very exciting.
September 10, 2012
Written Confessions Blog Hop
One of my Twitter friends is running this blog hop–where authors confess their dirty writing secrets. I was super intrigued so I decided to participate. And then forgot about it. And then remembered! And then posted. So here’s my dirty confession:
My confession: I want to do it all.
Yep. I’ve decided to play life on hard mode. Sure, I could wait for publishers to pick up my books. Sure, I could have a 9-5 office job. Sure, I could be performing in large concert halls (okay, maybe not now, but I could work up to that, haha). I want to build my own little empire. I want my children or my other descended blood relatives or my adopted robots to look back and say, “Wow Mom/Auntie/Master, thanks for making this for us.”
All this stems from (one of my)prime internal conflicts: my fear of my own mortality. I don’t want to wait for things to happen. I don’t want to waste my time doing jobs that will get me nowhere. I don’t want to spend 5 years getting valuable experience just so I can get an entry level job. (That’s another rant unto itself). What if I died tomorrow? Okay, I know I’m not going to die tomorrow. But what if I did? What if I die next year, or the year after? All of my stories would be lost. Sure, I could state in a will that I’d like someone else to write them if they were so inclined, but then I wouldn’t have the pleasure of writing them myself.
I’m 24 years old. I know I probably have a lot of time left on the clock before I’m gone. But you can never be too sure.
Make every day count. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Saturday or a Sunday or Canada Day or Christmas, or some other special ordained day–holidays are a human construct, and to the universe, today is just another day we’re journeying around the sun. The holiday I look forward to the most is my birthday, because I like to compare my progress in life to where I was at on my previous birthdays.
It’s hard for me to relax when I think this way.
So I keep a to-do list. Some of the things on the to-do list get done. Some of them get forgotten. And I apologize to the people to whom I’ve promised to do things, but haven’t gotten around to doing yet. Prime example of my agreeing to do things and then forgetting about them is this blog hop. Thanks to Angela, though, I remembered and hastily poured my heart out here. But even while I’m writing this up, I’m also composing an email to a distributor. I jump around and do a few different things at once because I feel like my brain works two or three times faster than my body. If I could clone myself, I would. I’d remove all the fear from the Me Clone and have her do sales and marketing for my book, all the time. Not sure what Dave would have to say about that, but oh well.
But, crossing things off that to-do list does make me relax. Recently, I’ve made a rule with myself: do at least THREE things on the to-do list. If I can’t get to the rest, it’s okay. And they don’t have to be big things. Just important things. Like I just emailed interview questions to a indie author I’ll be interviewing next month on YA Fantasy Book Reviews. I emailed a distributor while I was writing this. That’s two things. This is the third thing. Now, I can see if I can do four, five or six things before the next meal.
Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m pretty proud of the things I’ve accomplished in the 24 years I’ve lived. I’m a somewhat accomplished musician (been playing the fiddle for 16 years), I’ve completed a journalism/psych honours degree, and a publishing post-grad program too, at two great schools. I’ve published my first book and about to publish my second. I’ve made lots of friends. I’ve lived in three provinces. I’ve travelled around Europe (briefly!). I wrote two three-day novels, and several other manuscripts. I’ve performed for thousands of people. I manage to scrape by with the freelancing I do.
Sometimes I have to remind myself of all the things I’ve done so that I feel better about suddenly dying.
I will close this article with a story. Someone please tell me what the source of this faery tale is, so that I can read it in full again:
There once was a princess. She is visited on her birthday that marks her as a young woman by a creature. The creature says, you have to make a choice. You can choose hardship now, or you can choose hardship in your old age. She chooses hardship now. The next day, her family loses everything, and she is forced to work to regain what she had. Year after year, her life looks bleak. Like she’ll never make it. But she eventually ends up building something that she can be proud of, and when she is old, she is grateful that she has her health, and her family, and is even grateful to the creature that put her through the hardship.
I think about this story because I know that someday, I will have the things that I want, and I can enjoy them thoroughly with the time I have, if I just spend time now working for it.
Next to our health, time is the most precious thing we have. And it’s ticking away as you read this.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
August 31, 2012
Not Doing the 3 Day Novel Contest
I really, really, wanted to do it this year.
But I can’t.
I was really, seriously considering it earlier this week too. I thought, no big deal, I’m awesome, I can write 30,000 words and also finish the last-minute details of formatting The Violet Fox and also email the book bloggers participating in my blog tour.
Then I thought, maybe I’ll just participate by writing 30,000 words on something I already have, or just write as many words as I can on the multitude of projects I have going on. I’m going to try and do that, since I’ve got a ton of scenes for The Silver Spear running around in my brain, and also two short stories that I’d like to complete & submit for two upcoming anthologies.
I’ve participated in the 3 Day Novel Contest for the past two years and it’s a great experience! I love being part of the Twitter community. I met a lot of great people who are of great support. It doesn’t even matter if you win or not–in my mind, you win if you complete the 100+ pages of story. Within was my first 3-Day Novel, which I later expanded and published. I haven’t really touched the one I wrote last year, Kidnapped!, but I’d like to completely revise it.
Sigh. Publishing is lots of work. Less than a week until The Violet Fox goes to press, and lots of little details to take care of. Pulling my hair out over here, but when this week is over, I’ll be able to focus more on marketing and writing.
Six more weeks until release. Almost there. Almost there.
**EDIT**: After re-reading this post, this makes me want to do the contest even more. Sigh. Gotta focus, and repeat my mantra of the month: I’m only one woman.
August 5, 2012
Facebook Giveaways!
GIVEAWAY TIME!!
It’s time to start the weekly giveaways on the Faery Ink Press facebook page. Prizes will range from cute buttons & stickers to bookmarks to…well, you’ll see
To enter, all you have to do is answer a question on the Giveaway tab on the Facebook Page! All giveaways are powered by Rafflecopter. Open internationally!
Giveaways will start every Monday and finish on Sunday night. Winners will be announced on Mondays.
What are you waiting for? Free things await you! Go here to enter!
