Roxanne Crouse's Blog, page 35
August 27, 2012
First Cover Attempt For ‘Believe’ Book One in The Otherworld Series
Interview with Into The Shade Author Sharon Poffinberger
As NYT exposes paid reviews, Bing Liu claims one third of online consumer reviews are fake
August 26, 2012
Roxanne Crouse Review’s= How I Sold 1 Million Ebooks in 5 Months
August 25, 2012
My Free Pick For Saturday Death Whispers by Tamara Rose Blodgett
August 24, 2012
Free Book For Friday!!! This one seems pretty popular.
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Déjà Vu (The Saskia Brandt Series Book One)
Ian Hocking (Author)
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Length: 312 pages (Contains Real Page Numbers)
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Book Description
Publication Date: March 6, 2011
** Winner of the 2011 Red Adept Reviews Indie Award for Science Fiction **
It is 2023. Scientist David Proctor is running for his life. On his trail is Saskia Brandt, a detective with the European FIB. She has questions. Questions about a bomb that exploded back in 2003. But someone is hunting her too. The clues are in the shattered memories of her previous life.
Déjà Vu takes the reader on a startling journey through a possible future, though digital minds, and through the consequences of the choices we make. It is the debut novel by Ian Hocking.
‘You’ve never read anything like Déjà Vu before.’ — SFX
‘A crisply-written, fast-paced thriller that makes assured use of cutting-edge science fiction ideas.’ — Ken MacLeod.
‘Very cool and stylish. A new voice in British SF.’ — Forbidden Planet International
‘Handled with casual panache. It’s gripping, fascinating, and powerful, and really well written, with wonderful pace.’ — Ian Watson, screenwriter ‘Artificial Intelligence: AI’
‘[Hocking's] layering of the narrative is thoughtful and the way he makes events from different decades mirror each other shows quiet skill. This is a small-press publication; as such, it probably won’t get the exposure it deserves. Larger publishers may want to take note.’ — Jon Courtenay Grimwood, writing in The Guardian
‘A multi-threaded, thought-provoking sci-fi thriller. It is always a nice surprise to see a debut novel such as Déjà Vu. Thoroughly recommended.’ — SciFi.uk.com
‘Excellent…crisp and professional. This book bodes well for the future.’ — Grumpy Old Bookman
‘Breaks new ground.’ — Stephen Gallagher
‘Shows mature confidence.’ — Stan Nicholls
‘Inventive and witty.’ — The Alien Online
‘Get ready to have a mind-blowing experience.’ — POD Girl
‘Science fiction in the tradition of such fine exponents as Baxter and Clarke.’ — The Eternal Night
‘Clever and satisfying.’ — Tregolwyn Book Reviews
Where Did My Writing Desire Disappear to?
Two weeks ago before I left for vacation I was on fire. Reading. Blogging. Writing. Then I come home from the beach and I just want to lay around in my pajamas cuddled in a blanket watching movies. What happened?
Right now, I’m forcing myself to write this post hoping it will ignite the writing fire again, or at least make me feel like I’m making progress on something. I make no guarantees on how interesting a read this post will be, but I’m sure every writer has experienced this problem at some point. It’s not writer’s block. I have plenty of ideas swirling in my head. I can only call it laziness.
Yes laziness. I look around my messy, cluttered house and I feel hopeless, like nothing I do will make a difference so why bother. This feeling, unfortunately, has spilled over into my writing world. So today I spent the day throwing out anything that hasn’t moved in six months and had an inch thick layer of dust. I am feeling better, but what to do with all these trash bags?
Hopefully, forcing myself to write this post will help me get through the three book reviews I plan to write, one interview I need to post, and a post about contracts for those still thinking of following the publisher route.
I also need to work on The Otherworld series I’ve been writing since 2009. Hum. I feel like I’ll never see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The three books I plan to review are How I Sold 1 Million Ebooks in 5 Months by John Locke, The Fallen Star by Jessica Sorensen, and The Gift Of The Brass Bell by C.D. Loken. Now that I’ve put that out to the world I’ll have to get to it, no more lying around in pajamas.
The interview is with Into the Shade’s author Sharon Poffinberger. As soon as I’m done writing this, I’ll pop open her file and read her answers to my questions. Maybe she’ll inspire me to get off my lazy butt and do something.
I better go make dinner now. It’s getting late and my 16-year-old will be out here any minute demanding food for him and his friend, who is spending the night.
I’m sending this wish out to all you writers! May you never lose your fire to write, may you never be tempted to laze around in your pajamas and not write.
August 20, 2012
Interview With Moonlight Dancer Author Deb Atwood
I’m back from vacation a ready to get back into the swing of things. I have a great interview for you from author Deb Atwood. I reviewed her book Moonlight Dancer which is now available for purchase. You can read the review here.
1. Where did the idea for Moonlight Dancer come from?
The idea grew out of my first (as-yet-to-be-published) novel The Circle Line. The protagonist Kendra is the child of the main characters in that book. When I decided I wanted to try my hand at paranormal romance, I found myself really drawn to Kendra, and I wanted to explore her story. I also wanted to highlight a strong Korean woman.
2. Your novel has Korean history as a part of its plot. I’m a fan of Asian culture myself. What drew you to it and what kind of research did you need to do?
My husband was born in Busan, and I’ve been interested in Korean culture and history for as long as I’ve known him (a really long time). My research was quite extensive. First, I studied Korean for five years. It’s amazing how much culture you can learn through language alone. For instance, in English we have one word for brother, but Koreans have a separate word specifically for older brother, hyung-nim, which speaks to their respect for age and maleness. I have consulted numerous books, traveled throughout the southwestern Korean countryside, visited historic sites and museums, and talked with local experts. Once, I was taking notes in the Folk Museum in Seoul, and a docent approached me and took me on a guided tour of the entire department. I was exceedingly grateful and made use of much of his information.
3. What about an outline? Do you map your way through a story or go by the seat of your pants?
As I began Moonlight Dancer, I had the good fortune to attend one of Martha Alderson’s plotting workshops. We used 6 foot lengths of butcher paper and drew in rising action, crisis, climax, resolution as well as character growth and thematic significance. I highly recommend her workshops, phone consultations, Blockbuster Plots books, and her blog: http://plotwhisperer.blogspot.com/.
4. What was the most important thing you learned while writing Moonlight Dancer? What have you learned in general about writing?
The most important thing I learned is to trust the work. I set out to write a paranormal romance, but the manuscript kept straying outside the boundaries until Moonlight Dancer emerged as a hybrid time-travel/ghost/romance/literary narrative. No matter how I tried to shove it into the romance slot, the result is a novel too literary to be romance, and too romantic to be literary. I finally trusted that the novel would find its own home in the genre known as women’s fiction. And I hope some readers (like me) enjoy literary style with a happy ending.
What I’ve learned about writing in general is that listening to feedback from a writers group is crucial, even better is to find a writing buddy who “gets” your stuff and then meet regularly for critiques.
5. Is anything in your story based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?
Small details—both my daughters were runners as is Kendra. I did once live in a wooden cottage (shack, really) in the middle of a field in an unincorporated area called Cherryland as Hiro does, and one night in bed I looked up to see three mice gazing down at me from the light fixture. When Hiro had this same experience, he adopted the big black cat Nitro.
6. Did you try traditional publishing before self-publishing? What happened? What made you decide to self-publish?
I did. I set a goal of 100 agent rejections before turning to indie publishing. I had racked up 25 when my husband convinced me to go out on my own. The query process takes so long both in drafting individualized letters and waiting for responses, and the odds of landing an agent seemed so small that self-publishing became an attractive option. After all, one wants to write.
7. How do you market Moonlight Dancer? What avenues have you found to work best for your genre?
I just released the novel a couple of days ago, so I have no track record to share. My marketing plans include garnering reviews, participating in author interviews, chatting on forums such as Goodreads and the Stainless Steel Droppings R.I.P. challenge, and hosting giveaways.
8. Are there any other self-published authors that have grasped your interest or inspired you to self-publish?
I take inspiration from Roz Morris. I read her book My Memories of a Future Life, and I follow her blog www.nailyournovel.wordpress.com. I also like the accessible tips in Bob Baker’s self-published book 55 Ways to Promote & Sell Your Book on the Internet.
9. Would you take a publishing deal if you were offered one? Why?
I would certainly consider a traditional deal. I don’t like the divisiveness I see these days about the “evil” publishing empire vs. the “desperate” indie authors. Instead, we should celebrate the fact that authors have choices and understand that each choice carries advantages and disadvantages—sort of the difference between Aunt Vera making your wedding gown and Vera Wang doing it. Both are good for different reasons.
The mentoring aspect of a good author/agent relationship has great appeal for me, as does the expert team approach to publishing.
10. What new projects are you working on now?
I am working on a ya novel Poseidon and Me about a teen with a life-threatening allergy who acquires a service dog (Poseidon) and is thus able to attend high school. All does not go as planned…
I am also working on The Circle Line, a prequel to Moonlight Dancer that follows Kendra’s biracial father from a Korean orphanage to an American suburb where he struggles with issues of adoption and identity.
11. Is there anything about writing you find particularly challenging?
The vision I have for a piece vs. the reality of the finished product. I saw an interview with Dave Eggers in which he said he hated to read his work to an audience because he always wanted to rewrite stuff in the middle of his reading. Sigh. I get that.
12. Who came up with the cover design and where did the art come from?
Matt Hinrichs (designer@scrubbles.net) did the artwork. Joel Friedlander puts on a monthly e-cover contest (http://www.thebookdesigner.com). I viewed some fantastic covers and found a few that reflected my vision including one submitted by Matt, and we hooked up from there.
13. Did you hire anyone to help you edit? Why?
Yes, for about a third of the book. I wanted the benefit of expertise from someone in the industry.
14. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? Your best compliment?
I entered the first 30 pages of Moonlight Dancer in a romance contest. The judges said that Hiro was not a hero. That made me sad but also gave me my first hint that my novel did not conform exactly to the romance genre. Of course, it would take a few more “hints” before I finally admitted that Moonlight Dancer actually belonged in women’s fiction.
My best compliment was from poet Alejandro Murguia about an excerpt of The Circle Line: “A finely crafted story of subtle grace…details heightened to luminous clarity, an ending that resonates like a Buddhist bell.”
15. Do you have any advice for other writers?
Give the work as much time as it takes. This probably means one more re-write than you planned on, one more conference to attend to practice craft or learn industry guidelines, etc. Don’t rush to publication because you want it to be ready if the manuscript or your beta readers tell you otherwise.
16. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Thank you for reading! As they say in the airline industry, you have a lot of choices when it comes to (in this case) reading. And if you love ghost fiction as much as I do, I hope you check out my blog www.peninherhand.wordpress.com where I review ghost novels.
17. How can fans who enjoyed Moonlight Dancer find out more about you and what you have coming out in the future?
I would love people to visit me in these places:
www.peninherhand.wordpress.com
@deb_atwood (twitter)
August 9, 2012
Available FREE today! Where Darkness Dwells by Glen Krisch
Where Darkness Dwells, a Great Depression horror novel
Glen Krisch (Author), Kealan Burke (Illustrator)
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Length: 287 pages (estimated)
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Book Description
Publication Date: March 3, 2011
Summer, 1934. Two boys, searching for a local legend, stumble upon the Underground, a network of uncharted caverns. Time holds no sway there; people no longer age and their wounds heal as if by magic.
By morning, one boy is murdered, while the other never returns. Below a town ravaged by the Great Depression, an immortal society thrives, built on the backs of slavery and pervasive immorality.
August 4, 2012
Interview with A Fairy for Bin Laden Author Stephen M Holak
A Fairy for Bin Laden
Read the review HERE.
1. Pairing Bin Laden with a Fairy is an odd combination. Where did the idea to pair Bin Laden and a Fairy come from?
A: Two things germinated the story. I was so sick of the glut of paranormal romance / vampire stories out there–I was determined to bring a different spin to the between-species romance thriller, at least in a short story format. Two or three years ago, before the CIA ran Bin Laden down, I read a news item on the Bin Laden search and the use of drone aircraft, and the idea of a sci-fi sort of surveillance story popped into my head, followed pretty quickly by the idea of a fairy. The search at the time was in the hill and cave country out there, and the thought of a fairy trained for black ops seemed like a good weapon for rooting him out. Bang: CIA fairy romance. I made a few half-hearted stabs at the project and shelved it. When Bin Laden was taken down last year, and I read the account of the operation, everything came together and I hammered out the story in a half-dozen sittings.
2. Did you do any research for A Fairy for Bin Laden?
A: I read all the online news articles on the search timeline and operation, and ultimately the Wikipedia resource for Operation Neptune Spear–the SEAL’s code name for the assault on Bin Laden’s compound–became the structure for the last third of the story. The news clippings that I used for epigraphs in some parts are true events, and actually took longer to research; I wanted to intersect Belle’s timeline with actual terrorist take-outs by drones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of them fit like a glove right into the timelines of the story, but it took me a while to track them down.
3. What about an outline? Do you map your way through a story or go by the seat of your pants?
A: You caught me. Normally I’m a meticulous outliner–Act by Act, chapter by chapter, scene by scene. This story, however, just burst out of me in a linear word-dump. I woke up at the keyboard, stared at my fingers in wonder, and went right out and bought a PowerBall.
4. What was the most important thing you learned while writing A fairy for Bin Laden? What have you learned in general?
A: I usually shake my head at most decisions made down there in D.C., but I had to take my hat off to President Obama (who I am not a big fan of), for having the balls to make a very gutsy decision. I read a lot about the debates behind the scenes on what to do once they thought Bin Laden was in that compound in Pakistan. He listened to a lot of options and opinions, but he took the burden of the call on himself, and when he did, there was no vacillation. That operation had a very good chance of going pear-shaped. (I’m old enough to remember President Carter’s cluster of an attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages in 1979.) He took responsibility, showed leadership, and made it happen. Way to lead from the front. Now, let’s talk about the economy, Barack . . .
5. Is anything in your story based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?
A: Obviously, the terrorist takeouts and Bin Laden search and the assault on the compound are factual. Major Kincaid was a caricature of someone I knew in the Navy. Belle . . . Belle grabbed the keyboard and wrote herself, so it’s difficult to say if she was a product of my imagination or not. The Navy SEALS . . . well. I was stationed in the Navy near the major SEAL base in Coronado, CA, and some of my best drinking buds were SEALS, so I know the type and mindset well. One thing I learned hanging out with them: leave before they did, because whoever looked at them funny in the parking lot when they stumbled out was . . . unfortunate. I’m not one to gawk at train wrecks.
6. Did you try traditional publishing before self-publishing? What happened? What made you decide to self-publish?
A: I went through the circle of the SF / F Writers sanctioned magazines: Clarkesworld, Apex, Bull Spec, etc. I got pulled from the slush pile and had some serious consideration from a few, but ultimately, it came down to the usual “fit” for the magazine. I decided my “fit” was with the readers I knew I could connect with. I knew I had a good story. ”Fairy” was a dry run on Kindle Direct Publishing in advance of the publication of an epic fantasy that I’ve been working on for a few years. Needed to get a handle on the process, formatting, marketing, etc.
7. How do you market A Fairy for Bin Laden? What avenues have you found to work best for your genre?
A: I took out a Facebook ad, promoted myself through my FB fan page, dropped stuff on some online fan forum boards, BestIndieBooks.com, Goodreads, blogged, and reached out to bloggers and reviewers like you to get exposure and build an audience. No one can quit their day job on the strength of a few novella sales, but I’m interested in getting my name out there, gaining exposure, displaying my chops as a writer. ”Fairy” (and the second novella I published last month), have been a good experience, and I have a small base now. I know how wide and deep to go when I launch the big Kahuna in a few months. I’m ready.
8. Are there any other self-published authors that have grasped your interest or inspired you to self-publish?
A: J.A. Konrath. He’s a thriller writer–not my genre or cup of tea–but a huge evangelist for the self-pubbed author. He turned his back on the Big Six publishing houses (BS) and he’s making a ton of money as an Indie. I encourage everyone to check out his blogs and go through his archives: he predicted the shift to eBooks and the impact of self-publishing them years before the actual wave broke.
9. Would you take a publishing deal if you were offered one? Why?
A: Probably not. Why would I wait 18 months to two years for a limited shelf-space print run, about 17% royalties (vs 35 or 70% on Amazon), and an eternal battle for the rights to the work that I sweated out of my body, when I can push a button and start getting read immediately? It would have to be a huge offer, and maintaining control of eBook rights would have to be on the table. (See Konrath’s blog for more on that.)
10. What new projects are you working on now?
A: My big project is an epic fantasy trilogy in the spirit of Stephen Donaldson’s “Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.” I’m pushing 100,000 words in the first volume, and it feels about 70% done. I see myself committing a half-million words to the tale. I’m still working on the tagline (and title), but: “A wealthy North Carolina aristocrat investigating the mysterious disappearance of his pregnant wife discovers that his family is central to a magical realm’s ancient prophecy.”
11. Is there anything about writing you find particularly challenging?
A: finding the time. I steal time on my train ride, lunch time and evenings. I have challenging full time job, and I teach scuba on weekends.
12. Who came up with the cover design and where did the art come from?
A: My friend Jerry Branch. I’ve known him for years from back when he ran the graphics section of the marketing department of a company we both worked for. Very talented guy, with reasonable friend and family rates.
13. Did you hire anyone to help you edit? Why?
A: I’m a pretty good (and compulsive) copy editor, and I edited the hell out of “Fairy”, but I will definitely hire one for the longer works. No one can see all the flaws in his or her own stuff. I look at it as a necessary investment in my career.
14. Do you have any advice for other writers?
A: Write, re-write and publish. There are no more gate keepers. No excuses not to write. Find the time or make the time. Stop reading books and blogs (except Roxanne’s, mine, and Konrath’s) on writing and sit down and write. The Big Six (BS) and their poor judgement no longer stand between you and your audience, so there is no one to crush your dreams when your stuff is ready for publication. If you write a good story, compose a good blurb, get a catchy cover done, hire an editor, and get your work out there, it will be judged by the only people who matter: readers.
15. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
A: I’m here for you. Reviews are greatly appreciated. I write for myself, and primarily for you. I’m a reader too; I enjoy a good story, and as an author I want to publish the best story I can. Read my blog, read my stuff, and above all, give me feedback so I can forge myself into the best writer I can, and I can deliver the kind of story you’ll enjoy.
16. How can fans who enjoyed A Fairy for Bin Laden find out more about you and what you have coming out in the future?
A: Please Like my Fan Page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/StephenMHolak), and subscribe to my blog: http://stephenmholak.blogspot.com/
