S.C. Mitchell's Blog, page 42

Blogging today at SMP Author site.

I have a new blog up about IDEAS on the Soul Mate Author Group site. Stop by and check it out at http://smpauthors.wordpress.com/

When the voices stop.

My characters speak to me constantly, and sometimes at the most inconvenient times. It’s nothing that I’m worried about. In fact, it’s something that I count on to draw me through the story I’m writing. When I’m writing, I’m living in the world of my characters, and communicating with them.

There are times when my characters drive me from a comfortable bed, interrupt a meal, or keep me from the next chapter in that wonderful Soul Mate romance I’ve been reading. They can be quite irritating, but they are completely essential to my storytelling, so I let them get away with it, because the only thing worse than my characters jabbering at me…is my characters NOT jabbering at me.

It happened last week. I’ve been working on my sequel to Son of Thunder. Nott, the Norse Goddess of the Night, and Tyr the God of Courage (minor characters from SoT) had been dragging me along through their story ever since Christmas. Suddenly, their voices just went silent. Nott has wondered off to take a nap, and Tyr just looks at me and shrugs. I seriously didn’t know what to do with them.

The silence in my head was deafening.

I took a few days off, played around with some ideas, but they never started talking to me. In the silence, though, I heard a cry. A cry from another galaxy…another time.

A novel I’d started last year, set in the far flung future, suddenly hyper-jumped front and center in my mind. Rigel, the galactic bounty hunter, and the beautiful Phoebe, his bounty in more ways than one, are suddenly filling my ears with their story.

“You promised you’d get back to us.” And I had. Things can only remain on the back burner so long before the pot melts. So I’m leaving the Norse gods behind, and rocketing off to another galaxy, at least for the next few weeks.

Wish me luck.

Steve

Son of Thunder – The Cover!

I received a wonderful gift in my email yesterday. The cover art for my upcoming novel, Son of Thunder.

Enjoy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is doing everything right, doing everything wrong?

Well, the Adopt a werewolf campaign is over, and we found homes for over 500 new copies of There’s no such thing as Werewolves. Hopefully some new readers will discover my writing which, of course, is the reason behind the give away.

This time of year is a time of looking back, and looking ahead. I looked back on my giveaways last year, and at one point I gave away over 5,000 copies in a 5 day promotion. So this promotion hit only about 1/10 of what the same promotion did less than a year ago, and it made me wonder: Is doing everything right, doing everything wrong?

Let me explain. There’s a kind of “Here’s how you do it”  list of things you ‘need’ to do if you’re a new author. Have a blog and a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and as many other social networking sites as possible. You have to have a PLATFORM. Then, if your query letters to agents and publishers fall on deaf ears, you self-publish, and use free promotions to get your work out there to build a reader base. It worked. It worked for me last year. The 5,000 free books generated sales of my other books. sure, it seems to have worked much better for some of the authors before me, but I got my foot in the door.

On the other side of things, I’ve done my share of picking up and reading promotional (free) books. Some were good, some just okay and many were really bad. The gatekeepers are gone. It’s easy to see that the bar for entry has been lowered to the ground, and the field is overflowing. I hit the point where I just stopped picking up free books, and trying out new authors. I’ve gone back to reading trusted authors, taking suggestions from friends, and buying books from publishers. In short, I’ve gone back to the gatekeepers. My reading time is precious, so I want something good. I think a lot of people are doing the same thing. Thus we see the rise of the boutique publishers, the new gatekeepers.

Having just gone through the editing process on Son of Thunder, I realize that there is a good chance my self-published books are not all that good, they may even be crap, I’m certainly no fair judge of my own work. I like them, and I’m proud of my books, but I avoided the gatekeepers, and jumped into the muddy pool, just to get something ‘out there.’ They’re certainly not as good as they could have been with an professional editor and publisher behind them.

It seems to have worked for me, though. I have an editor and a publisher now. I’ve made it past the gatekeepers. I still have a long way to go. But I wonder about new authors, jumping into that muddy pool. The industry is changing so fast, what worked last year, doesn’t work as well as it used to, and maybe it doesn’t work at all. I think I got in at a good time, maybe hitting the tail end of the big self-publishing boom.

I don’t have much advice for new authors. I wish I did. I wish I could say, just do what I did (not that I’m all that successful). But what worked last year, doesn’t work as well right now, and may be completely worthless in the future. The list of things you need to do as an author grew out of the success stories of such authors as Amanda Hocking and E. L. James, but they broke new ground. Those that followed them, doing all the “right” things, had less success. So doing everything right, may just be doing everything wrong. Then again, who knows. Maybe with luck, skill, persistence, and a bit of crazy, you might find the new right way to do things. I know I’m going to keep my eyes open.

Until next time,

Steve

Adopt a Werewolf is back!

The cages in my basement are overflowing, and quite frankly the howling is keeping me up nights. I swear the little monsters breed like rabbits. So, its time once again for an Adopt A Werewolf campaign.

In honor of the release of Seeds of Immortality we are giving away the Kindle version of There’s no such thing as Werewolves.

  That’s right, for the next five days, you can get There’s no such thing as Werewolves absolutely FREE!

Yup, $0.00/ no cost/ just go get it…here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007KAE45A

Find out how the Demons Rising Saga all began.

Remember, Werewolves, with their big, glowing red eyes, razor sharp fangs, and blood drenched talons, slice, dice and make wonderful Julianne fries. They are something you can take with you on your Kindle or Kindle app device, wherever you go.

If you haven’t discovered the hottest, most romantic series of paranormal tales I’ve ever published, now is a great time to jump in. Adopt a Werewolf today! It’s FREE!

Seeds of Immortality is now available!

The eBook version of Seeds of Immortality just became available on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AU5OZS8

The print version is coming soon.

End of year project cleanup and writing resolutions.

Well 1012 has been a good year for me and my writing. I published my first book, and got a contract for the publication of my first novel. I started the year with a pledge to myself to ‘throw everything I had at the publishing wall, just to see what would stick,’ and it looks like quite a bit of it did. By years end I will have five published works (4 self published novellas and a professionally published short story). Okay I hear you, I currently only have 3 novellas published, but this morning I put up the files for Seeds of Immortality on Amazon and Createspace, and if things go like they usually do, will have it available before the end of the year.

It’s one more project off my plate. With the release of Seeds of Immortality, I plan on bowing out of the self publishing platform, at least for now, to concentrate on producing novels for my new publisher, Soul Mate Publishing. Earlier this week I finished the final edits on Son of Thunder, and am anxiously looking forward to the cover and release date.

As I move into 2013, it’s nice to have these projects off my plate, so I can move into the new year with a fairly clean slate. At the current time I have only two open projects, both of them books I am co-authoring with other romance authors. they are fun, exciting projects I will continue to move forward with in the coming year. On top of those I have three novels slated for the coming year:

1. Daughter of Darkness – The sequel to Son of Thunder.

2. Hearts in Orbit – A stand-alone romance novel set in outer space in the far future.

3. A NaNoWriMo novel – I am really going to try and do NaNoWriMo this next year. (We’ll see)

Of course, everything is subject to change…and probably will.

Until next time…when I announce that Seeds of Immortality is available!!!!

Steve

The Next Big Thing blog tour

I’ve had the pleasure of being tagged for “The Next Big Thing” Blog tour by two of my writer friends:

Helen C. Johannes: http://helencjohannes.blogspot.com/

Her new book is entitled Bloodstone, and it sounds like a great Fantasy Romance.

 

Connie Rhinehart : www.connierhinehart.wordpress.com

One of my Soul Mate sisters and author of Daughter of Phalon, a really cool cross-genre SF/Paranormal romance coming out this winter from Soul Mate Publishing.

 

So be sure to check out their websites to see their Next Big Thing posts after reading mine.  Now, I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on.

 

Ten Interview Questions for “The Next Big Thing”:

What is your working title of your book?

 

Seeds of Immortality

 

 

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Seeds is the third novella in my Demons Rising series. It’s drawn from characters and events in the first two books: There’s no such thing as Werewolves and The Forsaken Templar

What genre does your book fall under?

Paranormal Romance

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

 

Ryan Chamberlain, my serious minded Templar Knight, would be played by Ryan Reynolds.

 

 

 

 

Mila Kunis is my pick to play the exotically sexy sorceress, Salina Frye.

 

 

Admit it. These two in an action/romance would be hot.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Two mortal enemies must learn to work together to save the world.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

This will (hopefully) be my last self-published title, at least for now. Seeds of Immortality completes the Demon’s rising saga. After I publish it, I plan to concentrate on novels for my new publisher, Soul Mate Publishing.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

This one has taken me about four months, but I’ve also been working on other writing projects during that time as well.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

In my romance stories I have always tried to emulate the style and tone of Sherrilyn Kenyon and her Dark Hunter series.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

The world I created, when I started writing Templar (Yeah, the 2nd book was the first one I wrote) continues to draw me in. Even though Seeds of Immortality will be the last book in the Demon’s Rising Saga, it will certainly not be the last book set in this world.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Well, I expect to have Seeds of Immortality out and available in the next few days, hopefully before Christmas. The trilogy, while exciting and sexy stories in their own right, sets the stage for a dark future world filled with fun challenges for the Arcanists and the Templars. Seeds of Immortality is just the end of the beginning…

 

Now that I’ve had all the fun talking about my book, I’m passing the torch to two of my Soul Mate sisters.  Please visit their blogs and see what “The Next Big Thing” is coming from them:

Sandra Ireland: http://sandra-awaywithwords.blogspot.co.uk/

Raven Raye: http://www.ravenraye.com/ravens-blog.html

Ladies, you can consider yourselves tagged.

A Requiem for Poseidon

It’s a small step for the publishing industry, but a giant leap for this author. Yesterday Like a Coming Wave was released from Circlet Press.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Included in this anthology of romantic undersea tales is my story, A Requiem for Poseidon. This marks my first published piece that is not self-published.

Set in the same world as Son of Thunder, A Requiem for Poseidon is the story of the Inuit sea goddess, Sedna, and the Norse world serpent, Jormungandr, as they struggle to fight off the evil forces that threaten the undersea world.

The book is now available from:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AEH0D3S/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00AEH0D3S&linkCode=as2&tag=callmebliss-20

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/259334?ref=callmebliss

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/like-a-coming-wave-andrea-trask/1113857950?ean=2940015804782

Circlet Press: http://www.circlet.com/?p=4468#more-4468

It’s also available from Kobo, Apple’s iBookstore, and many independent booksellers via Google ebooks, as well as specialty ebookstores like All Romance eBooks, and Weightless Ebooks, to name just a few!

Wow! I feel so legitimate all of a sudden.

Okay, I’m not on the shelf at Barnes & Noble or Walmart (yet), but this sure feels good. It’s a step, and the next big step will be when Son of Thunder is released this coming spring from Soul Mate Publishing.

There’s a long, fun-filled journey ahead of me, but I feel I’m on my way.

Until next time,

Steve

Seeds of Immortality – the cover

Well, Seeds of Immortality is done, pre-edited, and off to my beta readers. So I took a bit of time to work on the cover, and here it is:

Here is the back cover blurb:

With the demon lords stepping up their bid for world domination, Templar commander Ryan Chamberlain knows that the Templars and Arcanists will have to learn to work together. But thousands of years of animosity are not easy to wipe away in just a few months. In a bid to smooth over the transition from enemies to allies, Ryan agrees to partner with Salina Fry, one of the most powerful Arcanists. But it only takes one mission to convince him that the sexy sorceress might just be the death of him.

Salina knows she can’t trust the Templars. Especially their leader, Ryan Chamberlain, no matter how good looking the man is and if that pompous wind-bag thinks he gets to run everything in their new little partnership, he’s got another thing coming. Maybe batting those dreamy eyes at other women gets Ryan what he wants, but if he gets in Salina’s way, she just might have to kill him.

The war escalates as the demons rise to power, and just when mankind needs them most, Gaia and the High Lord have gone missing. Only the Seeds of Immortality hold any hope for mankind, but can Ryan and Salina put aside their differences long enough for the Seeds to blossom?

Seeds of Immortality is the third book in the Demons Rising Saga. It’s a tale of love, tragedy and triumph in a very dangerous world.

 

I’m pretty excited about this book. it completes the Demons Rising Saga and sets up a whole new dark future for me to adventure around in. You can rest assured I’ll be returning to the story line, though I’m not sure when my writing schedule will allow me.

Coming up next? Edits on Son of Thunder, and diving into the sequel, Daughter of Darkness.

Until next time,

Steve