R.E. Washington's Blog, page 3

Years of Progress and Sketchfu

Yesterday, my sister was showing me wonderful art sites. I've been trying to draw for a while off and on, but my writing always takes over my life after a bit.It's a sorry excuse, but I'm sticking to it. Still, I've always been impressed with what artist can do. Now she got me addicted to this site called sketchfu where you can actually sit and watch the art process.  My favorite is this Mario brother sketch, watching someone do digital art is amazing. You can look at the process here ---> Mario sketch not by me
After spending countless hours not writing and instead surfing sketchfu, my sister sent me a link to some DA memes. While I was looking at a link I came across the progress summaries through the years. I always love to see them, because it's amazing to see how far someone has come throughout the years. If you ever think, "I can never get good." Well these art progress can give you hope. All these people have worked hard and have become amazing artist, just from practicing and never giving up. So here are a few I would like to share. 
Progress Charts
2004 - 2009
2004 - 2010 (this artist started when they were 12) 
2003 - 2007
another 2004 - 2009 (started when she was 14)
2000 - 2011  (this person started when they were 18) 
It's never too late  or too early to start practicing or to make a change in your life for the better. :) 

Release Sale Almost Over!

Just a reminder to those who keep track. The New Release sale for Burnt Children and Stone Bearers will be over soon. On January 15th, the books will be going up to their normal prices of 1.99 and 3.99 respectively. So if you still want to get Stone Bearers: The Gift at .99 and Burnt Children for 2.99, now and Saturday is the best time to do it. :)

Here are some links for your browsing pleasure.

Stone Bearers: The Gift (Middle Grade Urban Fantasy - $0.99) Amazon| Smashwords | Barnes and Noble

Burnt Children (YA Epic Fantasy - $2.99) Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes and Noble

Progress Bars and Unpacking

I've added new progress bars thanks to http://www.licketyknit.com/progressbars.html. Now you can see my progress while I work on my books for those who are interested.

Today I spent some time going to my writers group and working on outlines. Fun stuff. I even managed to make a list of writing projects for the year. Those who know me, know about my unhealthy obsessions with lists. It was wonderful and my favorite type of procrastination. Mhmm, lists. Yes, I am weird, but you already knew that.

Honestly, I should be unpacking right now. There are several boxes waiting for me to finish the deed, but here I am, writing a blog post that isn't even that interesting. Bear with me. I'll come up with something interesting. Um....

2012...Zombie Apocalypse...Monster Truck and a shotgun... Hey, it brings a smile to my face.

Stone Bearers: The Gift Book Review

I've gotten some great book reviews, but I wanted to share one I recently got from a book blogger. I was pretty happy to see this. It certainly made my day.

http://tana-someofmyfavoritebooks.blogspot.com/2011/12/stone-bearers-by-r.html

A New Year and a Life

Recently, someone a co-worker stared at me in disbelief and said, "You're so young. How can you possibly have done so much."
I blinked in surprise. Had I really done a lot? Maybe it seems that way to some people, but to me, I feel like there is so much I haven't done. With that in mind, I thought I'll do a brief overview of my life.
1980s - I was born in Detroit, Michigan. The same year I was born, my family was shipped to Germany where we stayed off the army base. Every day for five years my Mom climbed the big gray steps of the library with me in tow. Those gray steps are my first memory. No wonder I became such a books worm. From there, siblings were born and we returned to the US and lived in Washington (the state and to this day one of the most beautiful places I've lived in) for a year before returning back to Michigan. Throughout that time I wrote several stories. My first story was about me living in the rain forest and saving all the animals and trees. I also went through several career options, which were being a vet and writing on the side, being an assassin and writing on the side, and being a chemist and writing on the side. 
1990s - I went through my emo period where I wrote stories about girls getting hit by cars while their friends made heartfelt speeches about life and love. I also wrote horror, before I began to realize that the thing I liked most about horror was the magic and supernatural. This eventually led me to my love affair with fantasy. Then I graduated high school and settled on the idea of being a heart surgeon while writing on the side. Are you starting to see a pattern here?
I went to a school with affiliations with Princeton and discovered myself as a poor person in a rich person's world. Now here I would insert about how I bravely overcame the world of the rich and beautiful and became a surgeon, but that was not to be. I ended up hating chemistry and left the pre-med program. Around that time, I started to realize, hey, maybe I should be a writer. But there's no security in being a writer, so I went ahead and did a double major in Psychology and English. I volunteered at a home for unwed mothers, which was an amazing experience. I also finished my very first book. It was the first in an epic trilogy that is currently sitting in a drawer.
2000s - Time to bask in the beauty of a new millennium! Alas, for me this meant no more money, a time where my grades were less than beautiful, and eventually my break from college. I decided I needed to live life a little more. With that thought in mine, I got a job as a proofreader. That was where I learned about a form of discrimination called ageism. So not fun. After that, I went to work at the Grad Rapids library, which was wonderful, but I wasn't happy. Depressed and ill, returned home where I managed to get out of my depression and salvaged life.
I went back to school and admitted to myself I wanted to be a writer. That's it. I managed to skip through some of the introduction creative writing class, by going to the head of the English department. She said I could skip the courses if I could convince the professor. So I went to the professor and explained why I should be in the advance course. His answer was, "Send me something you wrote." So I did and sent him the first book in my epic fantasy. Unknown to me, it's usually not recommended to send in genre work for creative writing courses. Luckily, I didn't realize that. He wrote me back and told me I was in the class.
From there it was wonderful. I wrote, improved, and got my very first story published. I graduated with my BA in English and had plans, but plans often get changed. My changed ended up with me moving to Orlando and starting a job at the Orlando Sentinel working in Obituaries and Legal Ads. It was... not what I was planning to happening. But one of the things I learned while there was that life was short, too short to be doing something that doesn't make you happen. With tat thought in mind, I set off on a new plan. The new plan was pulled even tighter together when I was scouted by a fortune 500 company and hired. The company was awesome, but still not what I wanted to be, but with the salary they were giving me I managed to go to graduate school to get my MFA in Creative Writing, where I discovered that I loved writing young adult/middle grade books.
2010s - After a decade, I was now an MFA graduate with several short stories published, and had managed to save up enough money to take a year off.  So in August of 2010, I quit my high paying job while in the midst of a recession. It was one of the best decisions of my life.
I took a trip to Europe, which was amazing. One of the places I went to was Leiden, which inspired the setting to my book, Arthur the Alchemist. While I was there I worked on Arthur and took in the differences between Europe and the States. I returned home to discover an email from a publisher of a book I sent out. It was accepted. From there I signed contracts and discovered it was slated for release in June 2011.
2011It was not perfect after that. The publisher went under and my book was orphaned. I fought with indecision. Did I want to keep agent/publisher hunting? Or should I try going the indie route. I did research and made new friends. Some with very strong opinions on how traditional publishing was the only way to go, while other stated that self-publishing was the route to the future. I discovered a wonderful writing group as well as a wonderful spiritual group. Life was wonderful, but money was running low. So I had to get a new job, but I wanted something that was low-stress in order to write. After research and thoughts about what I wanted to do with my life, I finally decided to go the Indie route. I wanted to do a double release, so I settled on doing one YA book and one Middle Grade book. Both were released on Dec. 15th. It's an exciting time and I'm looking forward to seeing what 2012. 

Thank You and Kindle for Kids

A big thank you to everyone! So many people have been supportive in my self-publishing endeavor, even strangers. People have encouraged me, beta for me, friends did editing and cover art. Yet, the thing that has been the best is when people read my book. Whether the bought it or got it from a giveaway, being read is one of the best things I can ask for. I even got some nice reviews out of it, which is even better. For those reader that have time and really enjoyed the book, I'm always grateful if you leave a review on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. :)

Now I want to introduce you all to this very cool site (and not just because my book is on there). It's called Kindle for Kids and it's a site with a listing of digital books for kids aged 6-13. It's a new site, but already it has several books in multiple categories listed. I suggest checking it out.

Winners of the Book Giveaway!

I put the three people who have joined the book giveaway names into my bowler hat.  Drum roll please!!!

The first up is Burnt Children. The winner is... Rachel!

Next up is Stone Bearers.  The winner is... Sheri!

Congratulations to you both and thanks for entering the giveaway. I will email your copies of the book today. But there is more! Since only three people have entered the giveaway, I will be offering all three of you a free copy of Monster Heart. It's the first book in a YA paranormal romance/mystery series.  If you would like a free copy sent to you in the future, please jet let me know and I will send it to you in your prefer format the day before it officially comes out.

Thanks for participating!  Here is a little bit blurb about Monster Heart.


Nikki Danes knows that monsters are real. Ten years ago her little sister was kidnapped by monsters and no one believed her. Now she has made it her job to learn as much as she can about the supernatural and investigate any strange occurrences she can find, but Detroit is a large city and she hasn't found any clues, that is until the disappearances.

One by one, sixteen-year-olds in her high school begin disappearing just like her sister did all those years ago. The same week of the first disappearances a strange mismatched family with antique weapons in their trunk moves in next door and she meets Myles who seems to know too much and screams dangerous, but she can't seem to stay away from. At the same time, the almost ethereally gorgeous Kellen transfers into Nikki's class and saves her during an attack in the woods. Suddenly, Nikki finds herself searching for answer while trying to juggle her growing attraction to two of the top suspects. But that becomes the least of her worries when her lost sister appears on her doorstep holding more mysteries than answers.

Last Day to Sign Up For Book Giveaway!

Tomorrow at midnight EST will end the opportunity to enter the drawing for the book giveaway. If you're planning to sign up, make sure to do so  ASAP!  You can sign up at this post here.

In the meantime, feel free to click on the tabs above to read an excerpt from each book. The books are also available on B&N, Amazon and Smashwords. Enjoy!

Burnt Children and Stone Bearers Book Giveaway!

I'll be giving away one free copy of Burnt Children and Stone Bearers: The Gift in the following week. You have until Dec. 22nd at midnight EST to enter in this giveaway. Entering is easy. Just post a comment in this post with your username, email, the book you want and the format. Yes, you can try for both. After 12 EST on midnight, I will collect the names, do a drawing and send out the books.

The formats offered are epub, mobi, and pdf.

If you do not want to post your email on the blog, just email it to me at rewbooks [at] gmail [dot] com, but you still have to post in this blog (minus your email address) for the entry to count. Enjoy!

Double Book Release Today and Giveaway!

Today is the official book release of my YA epic fantasy, Burnt Children and my upper middle grade urban fantasy series, Stone Bearers: The Gift.



There's a war going on and humanity is the prize.

Caught in a battle between two supernatural forces, five junior high students are killed. But Constance, Jonathan Avery, Maria, and Danielle return from the dead -- and they've changed.

They each carry a piece of a soul stone and with it they have extraordinary powers. Now they can summon weapons from thin air and even start fires with their minds. With these powers comes a connection they never wanted, and coming back from the dead hasn't wiped away the grudges between them. When one of them loses themselves to the power, they are soon caught in a battle against themselves and an enemy that wants to make sure that this time they stay dead.

This ebook can be found at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and SmashWords for the promotional price of 0.99. It will return to it's regular price of 2.99 in January.





In Meli, if you're born with the wrong magic the Purifiers rip it out. They'll etch a black flame into your skin, labeling you a Burnt Child. Elaria is one of those Burnt Children. 
She's not allowed to handle magical items and the only thing she can do is work with dangerous rokas stones that are likely to explode at any moment. But Elaria has a secret. She can see magic.
This rare ability draws Elaria to a strange locket that holds a dangerous mystery surrounding the leader of the Purifiers and a conspiracy that could change all of Meli. Soon, Elaria is hunted by Purifiers, befriended by a murderer, and haunted by the ghost of the very woman who doomed the Burnt Children fifty years ago.
All Elaria wants is to find a place to belong. But with a strange power growing inside of her, Elaria realizes she must choose between saving herself or saving the world.
This ebook can be found at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and SmashWords for the promotional price of 2.99. It will return to it's regular price of 4.99 in January. 
I hope you check them out! 
I'll be hosting a giveaway at 7pm EST so watch out for that!