M.S. Watson's Blog, page 10

A general update.

Due to my car registration being due in September, I have taken up a second job. This has resulted in me working every single day except for Mondays. I still don't know what kind of impact this will have on the writing of Frost but I'm hoping to write as much as possible in the limited time I have.

Ice

Ice by nereyda1003 featuring a clear crystal bib necklace

TFNC fit and flare dress
$76 - houseoffraser.co.uk

Betsey Johnson heeled sandals
zappos.com

Wet Seal rhinestone bangle bracelet
wetseal.com

Reception clear crystal bib necklace
modcloth.com

Forever New clear stone ring
$12 - forevernew.com.au

Sports jewelry
modcloth.com

(Spoiler Alert: Ice.) Over 3,000+ blog views and a little something I just found...

    Okay, so I'm getting back into my online writing courses after being horribly disorganised and constantly finding things to procrastinate. But no more! As I was recounting through my different assignments I found a small, third-person short-short story that I wrote about the Glass Girls from the Poseidon's Girls trilogy. Now, it felt rather weird. Maybe because I am now writing in first person. Maybe because it has something to do with what happens later in the book. Maybe even if it's because I wrote it long before Ice came to fruition! There may be some inaccuracies due to the roughness of this short-short story (I haven't read it again just yet. Just found it thought, 'Something to share!' and putting it straight up) and received the following comment from my teacher, 'Great start. Intriguing characters create mystery and hook the reader in.'
So as a celebration to the fact I have now received over 3,000+ blog views and over 4,000+ downloads of Ice since May, I would like to reveal this unedited, pre-Ice age (haha! Get it?) short-short story that I wrote to my teacher for my romance writing course, June Colbert in February, 2014.

Please note: The short story I have included in this post is especially a piece that readers who love the intrigue of Iris x Xanthias will love to bits! Lots of intrigue. Some kissing. Lots of toned muscle!

The following is taken from June Colbert's Amazon page:

I am a former teacher and published author of four previous young adult novels (through Hachette Livre/Lothian.) I was born in the North of England but moved with my family to Australia, where I studied at Sydney University before becoming a high school teacher. I've also had acting experience and for many years wrote engineering contracts and tenders.Being an odd, strange and quite peculiar person, with a taste for the steampunk and the gothic, I began writing novels and short stories instead of contracts and tenders.Watching young people gazing silently at their phones, ignoring everything and everyone around them but that tiny mesmerizing screen, gave me the idea for 'The Silencing - Text Me', my fifth novel.My sixth book for young people, out now on Amazon Kindle, is a mega-easy to read diary style novel called 'Trout Pouts and Fake Bakes.' It's teen angst with added Botox.'Vampyre Idol' is American idol with added fangs. The X Factor for the Undead.'Drowning World' is climate change with added water, and nasty things in that water.For younger readers, 'Fangface: The Wheelchair Werewolf'
and 'Nerd Boy and the Zombie Toe of Terror' have both now gone live on Amazon Kindle.

Without further ado, I present...Tides of LoveA Poseidon's Girls Short-Short Storyby M.S. Watson© 2014 Iris couldn't really determine who she was.Her family weren't all they were cracked out to be – literally, they weren't even of blood relation. She and her sister, Lainie, grew up knowing hardly anything was amiss. Now, everything changed.Did you love this story?Would you like to hear more?Head to Smashwords to download Ice for free. Glass Bones is currently a paperback giveaway for AU residents only (due to astronomical postage costs). Frost is set for release on the 1st of September. Tempest will be released in 2014, too.Forward this to your friends and family, spread the love around. Comment on what you'd like to see more of in the future books and short stories. I have some plans for Starden. That's all I can reveal right now. In the meantime, any smaller updates will be accessible at www.facebook.com/officialmswatson and @MissaBooks on Twitter.

Ice Submission: Sent to Harlequin for consideration.

A small little update about Ice: I went through last night and spent a couple of hours preparing it, modifying the layout and putting together all the tips and tricks I needed to. I sent it in the early hours of this morning so it's currently off, and now it's a process of waiting to see if Ice is accepted or not by Harlequin Publishing. Wish me luck!

Add It To Your Calendar!

FROST IS COMING! I've decided that the only way I'm going to be able to make my book, 'Frost,' available any time soon is to create a deadline that I will try my hardest to stick to. So many things are happening in my life right now that writing will be a great escape and I can't wait to get started on 'Tempest.'DRUM ROLL PLEASE!'Frost' currently has an expected release date of the 1st of September, coinciding with the closing date for my giveaway of 'Glass Bones' in paperback on Goodreads. I am excited to finally have 'Frost' out and I'm trying to install a countdown timer for the release on my blog.So add it to your calendar, write it in your diary and scour my facebook, twitter, Goodreads page and blog for more information, and join the giveaway of 'Glass Bones.' (Available only for AU.)

GIVEAWAY ALERT!

Win this in paperback! AU only.Giveaway alert! I have one copy of Glass Bones in paperback available to give away on Goodreads. It's currently in verification but as soon as it's available it will show up here.
The winning member will win a SIGNED copy of my debut novel, Glass Bones, which was released in December, plus a code to download the eBook for free, a letter of thanks, a custom made bookmark by the author and some copies of the covers to the Poseidon's Girls trilogy to decorate your walls! Don't forget to download Ice as it's free from Smashwords, iBookstore and other retailers.
The giveaway - due to lack of ability to pay for overseas shipping - is only open to Australian residents of all Australian states and territories. 
In the distant future if there are enough purchases of my books, I may run another giveaway for international members as well.
One day, if I raise enough money from purchases of my novels, I will potentially run a giveaway of a massive collection of my works. Firstly, though, I must unfortunately start out small and work my way up!

An update of awesomeness and a cover release!

Copyright of Andrey Kiselev - Fotolia.com.I feel really silly. The reason being that my download count that I've been going off recently only caters for downloads of 'Ice' and 'Glass Bones' on the Smashwords website. With further research I have found that in the past week alone my book 'Ice' has gained a whopping 1,270 downloads on iBookstore!
OH MY GOSH!Over the past 30 days alone there has been a grand total (including Smashwords and affiliates) of 3,001 downloads of 'Ice!' That is staggering! I couldn't believe it at all! That is huge! Every morning now I immediately wake up, open up Smashwords and look up the total download count. To think that there are so many downloads occurring of a book that I wrote, that is simply phenomenal to me!In addition, as part of an earlier promise I made that has since become way overdue, I am now releasing the cover of the final book of the Poseidon's Girls trilogy, 'Tempest.' I now see that it is a bit early considering that 'Frost' isn't even out yet but hey, I'm too excited for suspense!Once again featuring the model of the first two covers, 'Ice' and 'Frost', the third cover is designed slightly darker with some effects I used online. The image is copyright of Andrey Kiselev - Fotolia.com and I am just amazed by their photography! The text and some extra editing I did was made possible by Pixlr.com and Photoshop 7. I couldn't stand how dark it was in comparison to the other covers and it didn't fit. So I went through and added some light in the corners, some sparkle and the text. I would have preferred to keep it the way the photo was originally but it simply didn't fit.Fun Fact!I love love love LOVE Lifehouse and listen to them every time I write. It doesn't matter if it's a sad or happy or horrible scene, no matter what I'm feeling, I always listen to Lifehouse. I love their songs, especially 'First Time,' 'You and Me' and 'Beneath The Raindrops.'

A surprise & the official playlist of 'Ice'!

I recently completed a playlist on 8Tracks that compiles the main few songs I listened to during the creation of my book 'Ice'. I continue to listen to some of them now, as I write 'Frost' but I will also make sure to create a second playlist at the completion of the novel for viewer and reader enjoyment. The tracks for 'Ice' are as follows:

You and Me by Lifehouse.Between the Raindrops by Lifehouse ft. Natasha Bedingfield.Lying to the Mirror by Gabrielle Aplin.Shelter by The XX.Angels by The XX.Pompeii by Bastille.Flaws (Acoustic) by Bastille.Broken Strings by Nelly Furtado and James Morrison.Eclipse by Metric.A tenth track that wasn't available on 8Tracks is Deeper Water by Deadstar, a song that I used to listen to when I was a little girl living on the coast. I miss the coast, so the nostalgia is strong when I listen to it. It's a bit 'old school' as far as music goes for my generation but I love it and all I do is imagine I'm five years old again, driving with my family down the Central Coast.SURPRISE TIME!As part of a new project I've been planning recently to keep my creativity fresh while writing 'Frost', I have been making a new trilogy! It's only a couple of days old (about 3 to be precise) and it is third person. It has a kind of twist which makes it kind of like some works by my favourite authors, combined to make one awesome trilogy. I haven't read anything like it in any of the genres it's inspired by so I'm fairly sure it'll be unique in the Young Adult area. That's as much as I'm going to reveal for now. I'm simply giving everyone a little bit of a cliffhanger to look forward to whilst waiting for the release of 'Frost.'

An idea.

Recently I've been toying around with the idea of joining up with an author - I don't know who yet - and writing a combined novel, as inspired by 'These Broken Stars' by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. I am now opening up the idea for you, the readers and writers of the present.
For anyone willing to give it a go with me, comment on this post. I've never done it before so this is as much of a new experience to me as a baby walking for the first time.
I'm also asking for ideas or feedback, from you all. I would love to hear your thoughts on this little, new endeavour of mine and whoever else decides to join me along the way!

A general update.

Hello everyone!Okay, so I don't think I've been writing enough to update and tell you all just what has been happening with writing, life and my future books.
The total download count for 'Ice' currently: 841!'Frost' has been difficult to write recently. I won't hide that fact. I have no planned release date for it because every time I get into writing, so many other things pop up that are 'must do' items. I also have a funny little habit of taking horrible reviews to heart, which also takes its toll on the fluency of my writing.
In addition, I recently met an author that was travelling around the local libraries. Her name is Angela Kirin, a wonderful woman who wrote 'Dr Elbows and the Diamond of Yunxi.' She is well-travelled and certainly an inspiration, as well as a book reviewer and young adult public speaker. It was a pleasure to meet her and I hope to keep in touch with her.
Furthermore, I can't wait to finish the Poseidon's Girls trilogy as I have so many more stories to write!