Lori Devoti's Blog, page 20

Demon High Now Available in Print!

Demon High, my young adult, urban fantasy novel is now available in print!



Demon High

Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy

Release Date: January, 2011

Buy:

Digital Version:

Amazon

Amazon U.K.

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Print Version (5.25″ x 8″ Trade Paperback, 311 pages)

Back Cover Copy:

Lucinda Dent never planned to call demons. She wasn't stupid, after all. She saw what the addiction did to her mother. But her mother has been gone for ten years, sucked into hell by a demon, and all Lucinda has left is her grandmother and the house she grew up in. Who could blame her for using the only thing her mother gave her, a talent for demon calling, to save them?

Lucinda teams up with an old friend and together they set up business, calling demons. But soon things go terribly wrong.

Demons are loose in Caldera High, and not only is Lucinda responsible, she just might be in love with one of them. Can love conquer all or is Lucinda about to lose everything–her home, her new love, and her soul?

March Madness Sale! $.99 ebooks

After much deliberating and wavering back and forth, I've decided to have a March Madness sale on my self-pubbed fiction. ALL of my self-published fiction (which includes: Love is All Around, Lost, Found, AND my newest release, Demon High) are $.99! (digital versions only) To get this pricing at Smashwords, use coupon code MD28J.

My plan for now is to run this special through March. I may decide to run it longer or I may have some mental freak out and stop it sooner, but for now all of those books are $.99.

Also, coming soon will be a print copy of Demon High. I'm waiting on the final proof of it now. Unfortunately, I can't price it at $.99.

Oh and Found, 2nd in the Lost series is out! Get it at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Also, bonus, both Lost and Found actually include BOTH stories. So, if you haven't read Lost yet, you can purchase either file and get both stories at once. Or if you have read Lost and purchase Found, you can reread Lost before moving on to the second story. I know a number of readers felt Lost was too short, so I hope this addresses that concern. The total length of the two stories combined is 25,000 words, or a novella's length. And yes, there will be at least one more story to come in the series…Found is the brother Dorian and the friend Nancy's story. Although Cameron is also in the story and some of his story is resolved, I do want to return to him and Rachel…plus there are some new adversaries who turn up in Found that the brothers need to take care of….

And a big shout out to the beta readers who gave me feedback on Found. It was invaluable! Thank you so much!

Special Pricing on Love is All Around!

I have lowered the price of my full length romantic comedy Love is All Around to $.99 at B&N and Amazon!

I'm not sure how long I will keep it at this price. I do know it won't be getting any cheaper! (Because it can't!) So if you were thinking of buying it, now is definitely the time.

Catching up…

I was out of town for a week, unfortunately not for a fun reason. My grandmother died. She was 93 so this wasn't a shocking death, but she was one of my last connections to my home town so a passing for me in more than one way.

Still, it was nice to get home and spend some actual time there. I also got to see relatives I haven't seen in over 20 years. That is when you realize you are old—when you can say things like that.

You also realize you are old when your sister is constantly bumping into people and exchanging grandchildren stories. Or seeing "old people" walk into a restaurant and realize you might have gone to high school with them.

Yep, old.

Still, like I said, it was really great to get home and see people and despite the sad occasion I am glad I had the chance.

Unfortunately, it put me behind on life though.

I am, however, catching up and if you volunteered to be a beta reader you should find a copy of Found, 2nd in the Lost series, in your inbox.

Next on the writing agenda is a full length vampire romance that I started a long time ago, but was advised not to write by my then agent because "vampires were out."

Uh, yeah.

The book needs a LOT of work, but it has a fun, bad female vampire and a sexy disillusioned male vampire and then the actual heroine and hero. She is human, and he is a dhamphir. I also did some flashbacks, so that is different for me and fun to write.

It's been a while since I had time to work on it and I'm really excited that soon I'll have time!

How about you? What have you all been up to?

The Pricing Dilemma

One thing about putting stories out on your own, you have to think about a ton of things you never had to think about before. Most of this is good. For example I get the option of pricing a short story or even a book for $.99 (no lower than that because that is the minimum most retailers will let you price something).

But as I get ready to put Found (second in the Lost short story series) up for sale, I'm facing a bit of a pricing quandry. Lost is priced at $.99 (as I said the minimum). My original idea was to price Found the same, but I also considered just bundling the pair for $.99. However, I don't want people who read Lost and want to read Found to think they are being ripped off.  So while I would like to offer more value for the same price…it doesn't quite seem fair either.

Most likely I am TOTALLY over thinking this. It tends to be something I do. :)

So, for now my plan is to keep Lost out there at $.99 and add Found as a separate buy at $.99 and then also offer a bundle of the two for $1.29. Does this seem fair? I would also add to the product descriptions that these other options were available.

Does this seem like a fair plan? Or should I just go ahead and bundle them? Thoughts?

(Found is, btw, 33% longer than Lost, so a better value, if you base value on length.)

Want to read my stuff for free? Looking for a few good Beta Readers.

That's right, I want you.

I have never been a writer who had great luck with critique partners. They either thought everything I wrote was FAB (so no real advice) or they so obviously didn't get me that I knew they pretty much thought I should ball up the manuscript and use it to light a fire. And, honestly, neither of these is a ton of help.

Because of this and time constraints (darn those deadlines) many of my books were seen by me and me alone before being shipped off to my editors.

But, now that I am publishing some things myself, I have more time to play, tweak, etc. And I'd love to get input from people who read my books already, or read in my genres—which is why I'm asking for your help.

Here's the way it will work. When I have a project that is in need of some Beta reading, I'll post the deets here. You can then reply here or email me directly if you are interested in reading the project and giving me feedback.

What I ask from you is 1.) you either like my writing in general OR read in the genre of that particular project. 2.) you don't post or pass along the project to anyone else. 3.) you give me within a reasonable time (a few weeks, depending of course on the length of the project) your thoughts on the work. This could be general "I hate the heroine." type stuff to "you are missing a comma." Whatever you noticed good or bad.

In return you get (of course) to read the work for free, acknowledgement in the front of the book/story, and once the project is done and polished, a copy in your choice of format. I will also send you the project as whatever type of digital file you prefer.

And, if things go well, I may add other rewards—as I think of them.

So, that's it. Questions? Comments? Any interest?

Another guest blog!

And I forgot! I'm at Julie Ortolon's blog today too! (Busy, aren't I?) There I have my ebook formatter hat on. If you are a writer thinking of publishing your own digital book, stop by for my thoughts on table of contents.

Win a book or swag!

I'm at Kristi Cook's blog today giving away either a download of Demon High or a necklace featuring Amazon Queen's cover. Stop by! Contest is running for a week, I think.

Demon High Live around the Web

First, The Circle has changed. Thanks in great part to the feedback I received from all of you it has a new title and a new, much nicer IMO cover.

What do you think? Better, right?

Here's the back cover copy:

Lucinda Dent never planned to call demons. She wasn't stupid, after all. She'd seen what the addiction had done to her mother. But her mother has been gone for ten years, sucked into hell by a demon, and all Lucinda has left is her grandmother and the house she grew up in. Who could blame her for using the only thing her mother gave her, a talent for demon calling, to save them?

Lucinda teams up with an old friend and together they set up business, calling demons. But soon things go terribly wrong.

Demons are loose in Caldera High, and not only is Lucinda responsible, she just might be in love with one of them. Can love conquer all or is Lucinda about to lose everything–her home, her new love, and her soul?

It is live now at three online sites. Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Smashwords. It will take it a little longer to get to Apple, Kobo, etc.

It is also only available as an ebook right now–or a PDF through Smashwords. A paperback copy may come later this year. You can though download free apps at both Barnes and Noble and Amazon to read on your computer, phone, etc.

First Chapter Young Adult Novel

I'm wondering if you all can help me. This is the first chapter of my young adult novel The Circle. This is not the original first chapter, this is the chapter after some input by editors who thought I needed to show the relationship between my protagonist and her grandmother more.

I've had a couple of friends read it. One liked the change; one thought this chapter was confusing.

What do you think? Is it confusing? Do you like it? What?

Oh, and how about the cover? What would you expect from a book with this cover?

Chapter 1 

 

The envelope had arrived open. I wouldn't have read the page inside otherwise, wouldn't have thought to, honestly.

And I wouldn't have known I was about to lose my home. The only home I'd ever known.

Letter still in hand, I went where I always went when I needed to think, the hall closet. It was a big for a closet but cram-packed with old comforters, wool coats and the scent of my grandmother's perfume. The space had got me through a lot of bad, scary and lonely times.

As I pulled open the door, the hinges creaked. As I tugged the heavy door closed the knob rattled and came loose in my hand. A line in the letter came back to me…"due to disrepair and continued devaluation of the property."

This was what the bank executive whose name was scribbled across the bottom of the letter had been talking about. This and the peeling paint, rotting windows and cracked sidewalk. The tree branch that had crashed through our front porch during a summer storm probably hadn't helped either.

I settled myself on the floor and stared at Nana's green wool coat—the one with the real fur collar. The collar had bald spots. What I'd once thought of as luxurious was just old and worn out.

I hadn't noticed before.

I glanced around the closet's interior, taking in cracked plastered walls and the worn oak floors. Even the old heat vent was rusty.

The front door flew open, smacked into the other side of the wall beside me.

"Lucinda?"

Nana back from the store.

Still holding the letter, I waited for her to hobble away before burrowing deeper into the closet. I shoved aside a stack of embroidered pillow cases that hid the floor board I had loosened when I was eight. Under it was a cloth-covered box, my storage place for things I didn't want my grandmother to find.

Memories of my mother, mainly. Pictures, some of her books.

Old report cards were stashed there too. The ones with notes about how I didn't talk, seemed withdrawn, and one letter suggesting that my grandmother come in for a meeting.

I stared at the stack of papers and odd objects, my secret life of not having a life tucked away under once-crisp cotton linens.

My fingers brushed over the leather top of one of Mum's books. A shiver shot through me.

I tried not to touch my mother's things. I just kept them stored away where Nana wouldn't find them and throw them out.

Today, though, I paused. There were no words on the book's cover, but I knew what was inside.

"Lucinda?" Nana stomped away from the door, heading toward the kitchen.

My fingers wiggled. The letter fell from my hand and floated into the box. It landed on the book.

I hadn't touched the book since I'd put it in this box. I didn't touch anything once it was in the box. The box made things go away. At least that's what mother had told me when she'd given it to me. She'd had me write down my nightmares and place them inside.  

And she'd been right. Those nightmares had gone away, but then she had too.

"Lucinda!"

Nana was getting angry. There was a thump, her cane hitting the floor. If I didn't appear soon, she'd get suspicious.

I slid the lid onto the box and shoved it back under the floorboard. Then I reached for a striped stocking cap. Before pulling it onto my head, I glanced back at the floorboard and book hidden beneath it.

I hesitated.

The door flew open. "What are you doing in there?"

I held up the hat. "I was cold."

Nana leaned to the right, putting her weight onto her cane. Her gaze darted behind me, over the contents of the stuffed closet. Apparently not seeing anything suspicious, she looked back at me and the hat. She wrinkled her nose. "Not that cold."  

I glanced at the cap. It was gold and green with a tassel on the tip. I jerked it down over my ears.

Shaking her head, Nana tromped toward the kitchen. "Dinner's soup, from a can. Tomato or chicken noodle. Your choice."

She pushed open the swinging door to the kitchen then one foot in the kitchen, the other in the dining room, she paused.

 "Nana?" I asked.

She tilted her head, waiting.

"The Baxters moved. Do you know why?"

Her cane rose an inch, then slowly settled back onto the floor. "Spent too much on cruises and big screen TVs. Bank foreclosed."

"Really?" I'd already known that, but I'd hoped bringing it up would get Nana to come clean about our own situation.

"Really. Now what do you want for dinner?"

"But we own this house, right?" She'd always said we did. It was one of the reasons the letter had been such a shock.

She stood straighter, her gaze shooting across the room and locking onto me like a spotlight on an escaping convict. "I'm not making payments to anybody on anything. You know that."

Buy what you can afford and nothing more. It was the mantra I'd been raised with.

Nana didn't borrow money. The letter had to be a mistake.

But still as I followed her into the kitchen, I couldn't let it go, couldn't put the letter or what it would mean to my grandmother and me, if it was true, out of my mind. But I couldn't bring it up either, couldn't ask her if we were at risk of losing our home.

This house had been in our family for generations. It was where I'd grown up; it was my entire history.

But it was more than that. It was where my mother had disappeared, where she would reappear…if she could.

Fiddling with a stray strand of yarn that dangled from the side of the hat, I pulled open the silverware drawer and picked out two spoons.

"Do we have savings?" I asked, hoping I was being casual.

Nana, busy sliding a can of tomato soup under the can opener's blade, stilled. "We have the house. That's enough."

"But what if…?"

She plopped the open can onto the counter and turned. The lid slipped into the can and soup slopped onto her hand. "What's going on, Lucinda? Why are you asking me this?"

I couldn't tell her about the letter. She would have known I'd been snooping. "Someone called, from the bank."

"The bank…" She shook her head and reached for a towel. "It's nothing."

I swallowed. "They said we owed taxes and that the house was getting run down. They said they could take it from us if we didn't take care of things."

She waved the towel in the air, but not before I caught the flash of worry in her eyes. "Nonsense. They can't do that." She turned back to the can and poked her finger into the soup to retrieve the lid.

Her hands were shaking. "Forget about the bank and get bowls. Get yourself a TV tray too. You can eat in front of the TV."

We never ate in front of the TV.

"Where are you eating?" I asked.

Busy dumping the soup into a saucepan, she looked up. "I'll eat later. There's something I need to do. Something I forgot at the store."

After turning the burner to medium, she hobbled from the room. A few minutes later she had on her coat and was headed out the front door. She didn't say anything as she left and I didn't either.

Nana and I had a long history of pretending bad things didn't happen.

Unfortunately, pretending never made them go away. Not really.