D.D. Chant's Blog, page 6

Reviews!!!

First Broken City and Broken Truce reviews from the book tour! 

5* for Broken City and 4* for Broken Truce!

Broken City Series by D.D. Chant | Paranormal Romance and Authors That Rock

Broken City Series Blog Tour

Hi everyone!

So I'm very excited to announce that the Broken City Series Book tour will be starting in the 22nd of February to the 23rd of March.

Yay!!!

There will be excerpts, interviews, reviews, this or thats and much, much more! I'm really excited.

If you are interested in being a part of the tour there is still time! Just click on the link bellow to sign up!

Broken City Series Book Tour

In the mean time, have a lovely day!

DeeDee  xxx

Broken Truce Is LIVE!!!

It's finally that time!

Broken Truce (Broken City, 2#) is live!!!

Here is the blurb:

Life isn't turning out the way that Deeta thought it would. With the Lewises defeated and peace between the tribes, she had believed that the dark times were a thing of the past. 
But troubles between the tribes continue, and the Andak council have selected Tom as their ambassador and spokesman to the other tribes. 
Deeta knows that there is still much resentment against the Andak, and that Tom is in danger every time he leaves the safety of Andak City. 
Struggling with her own complicated feelings against the tribe that she is now a part of, Deeta tries to ignore the changing attitudes growing within her. 
But when Tom is betrayed and they are thrown into great danger, Deeta finds that reality can't be ignored forever...

Just click on the link below to check it out on amazon.

Broken Truce (Broken City) eBook: D.D. Chant, Kate Lacey: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

DeeDee  :-)

DeeDee's Interview On Just Judy's Jumbles!!!

Just had an interview go live on Just Judy's Jumbles!!!

Check it out to discover all you could possible want to know about me!!! (and probably more!) ;-P

Feel free to ask me any questions about my stories, up coming or available! 

Just Judy's Jumbles D.D. Chant Interview

Also to day is the day my sister and I ( Gentian) are co-hosting Riviera FM! If you'd like to tune in, the link is below, it starts at 8:00pm (England). 
Live streaming over the internetweb available! ;-P
Jackson Cooper's Riviera Showcase
Thanks!
DeeDee.  xxx

My Guilty Obsession: Broken Truce Cover/Synopsis Reveal!!!

Hi everyone.

Today my first Broken Truce cover/synopsis reveal went live! A big thank you to Ali kindlemom for hosting the reveal.

Check it out here.

DeeDee xxx

It's All In 'The Kiss'!!!

Okay, so today I was writing a Kissy Kissy scene and I always find them EXTREMELY hard.

*The kiss* is one of the highlights of a romance book, it's the moment your hero and heroine finally show how in to each other they are. It's a BIG DEAL! The reader has probably waited 200 odd pages for this moment. 

Now when I'm writing 'the kiss' I have to constantly fight the desire to simply state: 'they kissed' and move swiftly on.

When I'm reading, I feel cheated if I don't get a bit more info than that! On the other hand, I don't really find an explanation of the mechanics of the thing very 'romantic'. In fact a lot of kiss scenes leave me gagging!

So I got to thinking: what IS it that I like to read?

After a bit of thought I came up with a list of what I like: I want to know how this moment makes them feel closer, not just physically but emotionally as well.I want to see their relationship change. The kiss showed the truth about how they felt for each other, lets not kill the moment with a: it was *just* a kiss, remark. I like anticipation before my kiss, please don't hand it to me in the first few chapters. I like to work for my dose of kissy kissy; if I've had to wait, I'm more invested when it finally happens! (The second/third/etc book in a series can ignore this rule! ;-P)Sweet gestures!!! The hero gets bonus points for gently caressing the heroines cheek or lifting her chin!Build up! Not just throughout the book, but also in this moment. Holding hands, hugging, reassuring each other about something that has happened, it doesn't really matter. Just get me to question whether this will be 'The' moment.When the heroine is embarrassed and the hero helps her to get over her nerves.Non aggressive touchy feely. (Not to be confused with grabbing at bits and bobs!) This is 'the kiss', you're supposed to be proving that your love is pure! ;-P
And what I don't:If I'm still reading, I already know the hero is hot, please don't feel the need to remind me at this delicate moment, it just makes the heroine look like a shallow bimbo.Please, please, please don't mention tongues: It's as much of a mood killer as mentioning spit!!! Please don't throw this beautiful moment of trust in to the middle of an argument! I've waited forever for this, I want it to mean something! 'The kiss' is a gesture of affection, not an underhanded way to win an argument!If the hero is kissing her, yet there are unresolved issues about whether or not they are free to do so. (i.e. do they have a not quite ex?)No fighting! Either the hero is a rapist, or the kiss is by mutual consent.Endless staring at each others mouths... this just gets creepy after a while.Kissing a random person to make the hero/heroine jealous. Congratulations: your hero/heroine is a douchebag!Do NOT tell me how innocent the heroine is and then turn her into an expert. I do not buy it!Stop eating each other, if you're hungry get take out!
So, now it's your turn! What do you like? What don't you like? Comment below and tell me!

In the mean time, here are some of my favourite kiss/romantic scenes:













DeeDee. xxx 

Broken Truce: The Finished Cover!!!

So here it is at last!!!
The cover for the next book in my Broken City series: Broken Truce!!!
I would love to hear your thoughts (and/or questions!) on the cover! I'm hoping those of you who have read Broken City will be intrigued.  ;-P 
Also if there is anyone out there looking for an illustrator and you like the cover for Broken Truce, my illustrator is available for commission. Just drop a note at the bottom of the page and I'll send you her info!

The next book in the Broken City series!

Getting Back To Editing!

I'm not sure how many of you remember that when I started my 3 book challenge this year, it was with the intention of editing Broken Truce while writing The Vow.

It turned out that I couldn't do it; Broken Truce is written in the first person present tense, and The Vow in the third person past tense. Going back and forth between the two was driving me NUTS!!!

Now I'm half way through Severance, and I'm trying again! So far it seems to be going well, I've just passed the 30.000 word mark in the first edit. For those of you who haven't studied my writing habits (why haven't you?!?!?) I always write my first draft by hand, and use my first edit to copy the manuscript over on to the computer...

O.O

Yes. 100.000 words. BY. HAND!!!  ;-P

I'm not sure why but I'm more comfortable with a pen and paper, filling up a blank page with my untidy scrawl elegant copperplate, than typing away on the computer. There is something about staring at a blank computer screen that sucks the ideas clean out of my head!

But I digress...

I really got stuck in to Broken Truce last night and managed to do a fair bit of editing.  As I was writing I couldn't help thinking about how readers would react to certain parts of the story. I'm so excited with wondering what people who read Broken City are going to make of Broken Truce!!!

There is this one scene that I've just edited and I know it's going to cause SUCH an uproar when people read it (I hope so anyway!!!) I have a friend, Claire, who I met through Broken City (she read it, friended me and the rest, as they say, is history!!!). She's my first fan girl, and a without her I might never have decided to turn Broken City in to a series. She's been HUGELY supportive and has taken on the role of head cheer leader!

I'm digressing again, aren't I???

Anyway: I just know that at various points in the book I'm going to be receiving an irate email from her, demanding to know what the heck I think I'm doing!

I cannot TELL you how encouraging that is!!! The idea that someone enjoys your book as much as you do, that they care about the characters, that they want to TALK about them!!! It's incredible! It's what keeps me going through the good, the bad, and the down right ugly!!!

Broken Truce has taken me by surprise, I think it's quite different from the first book in the series; not so hopeful, a bit darker and you see the City from more peoples points of view. Deeta has grown up a lot, and she's wiser than before.

I've had soooo much fun with the characters in this book. Yes, Deeta and Tom remain the focus of the story, but they share the limelight with Tom's brothers, most especially Jayden. (For those of you who don't remember who Jayden is: he's the twin that Nova tipped orange juice over in Broken City.) You really get to know Jayden in this book, his faults as well as his strengths, he's very much a fish out of water. I really enjoyed writing him, he has such an attitude on him, but at the same time you can't help liking him (I hope!)

I had a blast with some of the secondary characters this time round as well, the first story is quite insular, focused the the group of people that Deeta loves and cares about most. Broken Truce introduces you to a lot of new characters, some good and some bad.

These side characters were some of my favourites to write; Ian, a scout from the Brownly tribe, Julian, Max, Ned and Linus, I can't really tell you who these are without being too spoilerish, but they were sooooo much fun! Wren, Falcon, Raven and Peregrine, siblings from a tribe known as The Birds, and so much more!

I'm hoping to knuckle down and have the manuscript ready to go live in January...

Contrebutions to the cause in the form of brownies and fluffy pillows are very much appreciated! ;-P


DeeDee.

It's Almost Ready!!!

Broken Truce's book cover, that is!

I have an artist friend who very kindly took on the job of designing the art word for the 2nd book in the Broken City series. I've always loved her work so I'm MEGA excited!

I wanted to keep the theme from the first book, but I wanted to incorporate some thing new and, if you've read the first story, something unexpected. 

Are you curious yet???

Broken Truce has some major new elements to the story, the biggest difference for me as the writer is that, unlike the first book, only a third of the story is narrated by Deeta. The remaining two thirds follow other lead characters. Because of these diferent point of view chapters, you start to see different sides of the world that Deeta inhabits.

I also had a lot of fun introducing new tribes into the mix, as well as new characters that become very important as the book, and the series, goes on.

Now I just have to finish editing the manuscript...  ;-P



DeeDee

It's Almost Ready!!!

Broken Truce's book cover, that is!

I have an artist friend who very kindly took on the job of designing the art word for the 2nd book in the Broken City series. I've always loved her work so I'm MEGA excited!

I wanted to keep the theme from the first book, but I wanted to incorporate some thing new and, if you've read the first story, something unexpected.

Are you curious yet???

Broken Truce has some major new elements to the story, the biggest difference for me as the writer is that, unlike the first book, only a third of the story is narrated by Deeta. The remaining two thirds follow other lead characters. Because of these diferent point of view chapters, you start to see different sides of the world that Deeta inhabits.

I also had a lot of fun introducing new tribes into the mix, as well as new characters that become very important as the book, and the series, goes on.

Now I just have to finish editing the manuscript...