C.D. Loken's Blog, page 40

Help designing Book cover

Returning to this topic because after emailing the gal from Amazon- she gave me permission to post her many hours of research to my blog to help other authors create the most fabulous covers ever! Below you will find the links she offers for both software to design and free and purchase pictures to use for the design. She also offers bits and pieces of advice-which can be most helpful! A Kindle ebook cover should be in a JPEG or TIFF (think of it as a photograph) format. The size requirement of the JPEG has changed over the last few months, I use 1800 x 2400 pixels. The resolution (term used to describe the number of dots, or pixels, used to display an image) should be between 72 - 300. I always create my covers at 300 resolution. Simply because higher resolutions mean that more pixels were used to make the image. This results in the image being crisper and sharper. Here is a list of links for FREE sites to research FREE images to use for your covers. Did I mention they were FREE!< http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/top-images.phphttp://www.arspublik.com/http://picdrome.com/http://www.freephotogaleries.com/http://www.freestockphotos.biz/http://www.photoshopsupport.com/resources/stock-photos/nasa-planets.htmlhttp://publicphoto.org/http://totallyfreeimages.com/ (Great for Real historical images) http://www.dotgovwatch.com/?/archives/8-The-Best-Copyright-Free-Photo-Libraries.htmlhttp://freerangestock.comhttp://www.everystockphoto.com/http://www.morguefile.com/ (Don’t freak out about the name, it’s not a bunch of dead people images.) http://www.cgtextures.com/index.phphttp://www.stockvault.net/ Here is a list of links for images you will need to pay for. An image can be purchased for $2 - $30, it all depends on the site, the size and the license. For your ebook cover a standard license is good enough. Unless you sell over 500,000 copies, then you need to go back and buy the extended license. But, if you’re selling that many books, I’m sure you won’t mind ; http://www.bigstockphoto.comhttp://www.dreamstime.comhttp://www.istockphoto.com/http://www.123rf.com/http://www.shutterstock.com/http://www.corbisimages.com/http://www.gettyimages.com/http://www.thinkstockphotos.com/http://www.veer.com/products/images/?s_kwcid=veer&gclid=CK_u_fbZ2rACFUFo4AodYydl2Qhttp://us.fotolia.com/http://www.canstockphoto.com/http://www.jupiterimages.com/http://www.fotosearch.com/ So what do you do when you find the perfect picture? Doesn’t everybody have Photoshop? Before you jump on me, I am kidding. We all can’t take from our children’s college fund or remortgage our homes to buy PhotoShop. HOWEVER, let me tell you how I did buy it. If you are a TEACHER or STUDENT or ANYONE WORKING IN AN EDUCATIONAL faculty (Yes, I am screaming) you can purchase Photoshop for a lower price. I bought it for less than $300. You do need to prove that you are in school, or your child is in school, or you work in a school. Fortunately there are other ways to edit your images. Here’s a list of links to FREE (yep, I’m yelling again) editing sites: http://www.gimp.org/ http://inkscape.org/http://pixlr.com/editor/http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.phphttp://picasa.google.com/http://fotoflexer.com/http://www.getpaint.net/

Cover Design help!

Returning to this topic because after emailing the gal from Amazon- she gave me permission to post her many hours of research to my blog to help other authors create the most fabulous covers ever! Below you will find the links she offers for both software to design and free and purchase pictures to use for the design. She also offers bits and pieces of advice-which can be most helpful! A Kindle ebook cover should be in a JPEG or TIFF (think of it as a photograph) format. The size requirement of the JPEG has changed over the last few months, I use 1800 x 2400 pixels. The resolution (term used to describe the number of dots, or pixels, used to display an image) should be between 72 - 300. I always create my covers at 300 resolution. Simply because higher resolutions mean that more pixels were used to make the image. This results in the image being crisper and sharper. Here is a list of links for FREE sites to research FREE images to use for your covers. Did I mention they were FREE!< http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/top-images.phphttp://www.arspublik.com/http://picdrome.com/http://www.freephotogaleries.com/http://www.freestockphotos.biz/http://www.photoshopsupport.com/resources/stock-photos/nasa-planets.htmlhttp://publicphoto.org/http://totallyfreeimages.com/ (Great for Real historical images) http://www.dotgovwatch.com/?/archives/8-The-Best-Copyright-Free-Photo-Libraries.htmlhttp://freerangestock.comhttp://www.everystockphoto.com/http://www.morguefile.com/ (Don’t freak out about the name, it’s not a bunch of dead people images.) http://www.cgtextures.com/index.phphttp://www.stockvault.net/ Here is a list of links for images you will need to pay for. An image can be purchased for $2 - $30, it all depends on the site, the size and the license. For your ebook cover a standard license is good enough. Unless you sell over 500,000 copies, then you need to go back and buy the extended license. But, if you’re selling that many books, I’m sure you won’t mind ; http://www.bigstockphoto.comhttp://www.dreamstime.comhttp://www.istockphoto.com/http://www.123rf.com/http://www.shutterstock.com/http://www.corbisimages.com/http://www.gettyimages.com/http://www.thinkstockphotos.com/http://www.veer.com/products/images/?s_kwcid=veer&gclid=CK_u_fbZ2rACFUFo4AodYydl2Qhttp://us.fotolia.com/http://www.canstockphoto.com/http://www.jupiterimages.com/http://www.fotosearch.com/ So what do you do when you find the perfect picture? Doesn’t everybody have Photoshop? Before you jump on me, I am kidding. We all can’t take from our children’s college fund or remortgage our homes to buy PhotoShop. HOWEVER, let me tell you how I did buy it. If you are a TEACHER or STUDENT or ANYONE WORKING IN AN EDUCATIONAL faculty (Yes, I am screaming) you can purchase Photoshop for a lower price. I bought it for less than $300. You do need to prove that you are in school, or your child is in school, or you work in a school. Fortunately there are other ways to edit your images. Here’s a list of links to FREE (yep, I’m yelling again) editing sites: http://www.gimp.org/ http://inkscape.org/http://pixlr.com/editor/http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.phphttp://picasa.google.com/http://fotoflexer.com/http://www.getpaint.net/

Book Cover design

Returning to this topic because after emailing the gal from Amazon- she gave me permission to post her many hours of research to my blog to help other authors create the most fabulous covers ever! Below you will find the links she offers for both software to design and free and purchase pictures to use for the design. She also offers bits and pieces of advice-which can be most helpful! A Kindle ebook cover should be in a JPEG or TIFF (think of it as a photograph) format. The size requirement of the JPEG has changed over the last few months, I use 1800 x 2400 pixels. The resolution (term used to describe the number of dots, or pixels, used to display an image) should be between 72 - 300. I always create my covers at 300 resolution. Simply because higher resolutions mean that more pixels were used to make the image. This results in the image being crisper and sharper. Here is a list of links for FREE sites to research FREE images to use for your covers. Did I mention they were FREE! Here is a list of links for images you will need to pay for. An image can be purchased for $2 - $30, it all depends on the site, the size and the license. For your ebook cover a standard license is good enough. Unless you sell over 500,000 copies, then you need to go back and buy the extended license. But, if you’re selling that many books, I’m sure you won’t mind ;) http://www.bigstockphoto.com http://www.dreamstime.comhttp://www.istockphoto.com/ http://www.123rf.com/ http://www.shutterstock.com/ http://www.corbisimages.com/ http://www.gettyimages.com/ http://www.thinkstockphotos.com/ http://www.veer.com/products/images/?... http://us.fotolia.com/ http://www.canstockphoto.com/ http://www.jupiterimages.com/ http://www.fotosearch.com/ So what do you do when you find the perfect picture? Doesn’t everybody have Photoshop? Before you jump on me, I am kidding. We all can’t take from our children’s college fund or remortgage our homes to buy PhotoShop. HOWEVER, let me tell you how I did buy it. If you are a TEACHER or STUDENT or ANYONE WORKING IN AN EDUCATIONAL faculty (Yes, I am screaming) you can purchase Photoshop for a lower price. I bought it for less than $300. You do need to prove that you are in school, or your child is in school, or you work in a school. Fortunately there are other ways to edit your images. Here’s a list of links to FREE (yep, I’m yelling again) editing sites: http://www.gimp.org/ http://inkscape.org/ http://pixlr.com/editor/ http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php http://picasa.google.com/ http://fotoflexer.com/ http://www.getpaint.net/

Reviewing books

I've decided to do book reviews in my spare time (joke). I've had a lot of compliments on my fair and impartial reviews of several authors and I've decided to post them on my blog. At times I would like to feature an author and possibly do an interview. I am so grateful to the this world of writing and to all the people who have helped, and continue to help along the way. I want to give something back. My first read is going to be Marti Talbott's "The highlander series- Ana, Rachel and Charlet. I've read many posts from Marti on Amazon's author forum. She is always such a great person to go to for advice and she is VERY successful. She has published eighteen books! So my review will be coming shortly-and I hope she won't mind if I brag about her just a bit on my blog.

Cover Design

Here I sit at the dining room table (hahaha) beginning my research on the third book's cover, when lo and behold I check out one of my author blogs and this post comes up. Can you imagine my amazement and having all the research I was just about to spend hours on...already done for me. I love blogs and forums. There is so MUCH information out there on how to do things, but I'm not going to complain about someone else doing all the work. I spend enough time researching for the book, and now since the cover is pretty well set-I can do just that. **Note- If your an author and you need SOLID, honest advice, and your not going to freak out when someone offers it...go to Amazon's author forum. There are hundreds of people out there who will offer advice. I found the post there with a lot of detail on links etc. If your interested blog me and I'll give you more info- also if your interested in a cover designer she did list her site, http://krizteen1227.deviantart.com/ I haven't checked it out myself yet but she said she charges $50.00 per cover and $5 for revisions, which is an awesome price.

A Huge Thank you!

So the second book is finally completed after all this time. I seriously wondered if I would ever get to this point. Now it's off to the beta readers-with whom I'm trusting my life's dream to. I am so grateful for their honest, forthright opinions, and their expertise at the English language and dealing with all the grammar issues I'm sure they will find within my story. I never said I was perfect, and God help me if I ever am able to a write a book without producing an array of horrific issues with running sentences, and punctuation faults. If I write like I speak, they are in for a treat, that's for sure. I'm so excited to get this next book published. After all the drama I had with it, I'm hoping it reaches a much "bigger" audience. God bless to all- and happy writing!

Saying Goodbye

I wonder at times if other authors feel as I do when they have to say "goodbye" to a character. Today as I finished my second book I had to do just that. Tears poured down my face as I wrote, putting the final touches on my story. I never thought I would feel so much emotion, but I did. Some of these characters have been a part of the story from inception. I created them in my imagination, and they are totally fictional characters, and yet they are a part of me. I hope that my readers "feel" the emotion that I do...I hope that they connect with each character and see something- anything within their lives that mirrors what they read. To do so would be an amazing feat.

Final Excerpt from "For Richer or for poorer."

Feeling the burn of the alcohol as it went down his throat and into his belly, exhilarated him. ‘Nothing like a shot of vodka to get the old heart pumping, Right Dad?’  Oh what his father would do if he knew he was drinking and driving.  What he would do if he knew just last night, only hours after their ‘big’ discussion, that he’d had his way with Louise, the house maid.  Nathan burst into laughter, taking another swig off his flask.  Oh yes, sweet, luscious Louise.  It’d been her lucky day, when he'd come out of the shower.  There she was, bent over his bed, pulling the covers back so nicely.  What a good servant, preparing the bed so he could screw her brains out!  She had turned to him then, surprise showing on her face.  ‘I’m so sorry, Master Nathan, ez just that I…am running late.” He loved when she called him that in her thick French accent.  It made him hard every time.  Even now, as he remembered her moving slowly towards the door, her skirt ‘swishing’ as she shook her round ass, he could feel his pants expand.
‘No problem, Louise, why don’t you stay awhile and have a cocktail with me?”  He didn’t need an excuse to do her.  He could have whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.  She wouldn’t have dared fight him, but he was in the mood for civility, so, he thought he’d be a gentleman. 
She had smiled; her face even more beautiful as she did so.  “Wi’ Master Nathan, I would like that veery much, but…well I must finish.”
Taking her arm, he brushed against her large breasts and thought he would explode right then.  “It can wait until later.  Come…sit down.”  He had watched her meekly take the drink he offered, sipping it slowly; her eyes never wavering from his.  “You are very beautiful Louise, but I’m sure you know that.”
“Merci!”  She blushed, innocently and glanced at the bed.
Nathan poured himself another drink, and with her back to him, slipped quietly out of his towel.  Swallowing the entire contents, he placed the glass on the bar, and walked to stand behind her.  He knew the moment she felt his hardness against her bottom.  She didn’t fight him, she didn’t even speak.  Like any good woman, she simply unbuttoned her white cotton blouse, and slipped out of her tight black skirt, allowing him full access to remove her lacy underwear and bra in his own sweet time.
Louise was no virgin, not like the bitch he was about to pick up now.  She had known exactly what he needed to forget the horrible events of the day.  There was no crying, or pleading, just a soft moan as she took his full length in her mouth.  Over and over she had brought him to the brink of orgasm, before pulling him back once again.  He was crazed with the need for release, beyond control of thought, when he finally raised her to sit atop him. She rode him then like an animal, digging her nails into his chest, her enormous breasts heaving, and when she screamed in her native tongue, and he felt the tightness of her gripping his manhood, and he could do nothing but allow his seed to spill into the dark depths of her heat.  He slaked his lust on her two times more before the sun had risen that morning.

Technically Challenged

In this day an age where everything is going mobile, and everyone walks around with an ipod, ipad, notebook, phone, whatever-it's kind of hard being me.  When I first wrote my three book series it was on paper.  I didn't type it-oh no...all done by hand.  I put it away in a nice little box and kept telling myself..someday.  Well someday came and because I finally had a computer-that ran decently and had quite a bit of memory.  (Won it in a sales challenge at work) At first I was scared to put it on a device I knew little about.  With all the hacking scares, I thought what if someone "steals" my work.  So I went and got the best virus protection money could buy and began typing my fingers to the bone.  After finally getting the entirety of my book entered, I left it sit for another three years.  Lo and behold one day my husband said, "Hey, are you ever going to publish that book?"  "Oh ya" was my response.  So I went searching for my files-forgetting of course that I'd been sneaking when I saved them.  No dummy here, oh no.  I figured someone might get nosy and want to read my work before I was ready.  So I split the book up into little sections.  Titled them oddly-files names no one would ever look at- and patted myself on the back.  Well in hindsight that wasn't such a good idea.  After many hours of trying to find my complete series-I realized that sometime along the way, when I needed more memory, or I was sick of my computer bogging every time I tried to do something, that I had indeed deleted some of my work.  UGH!-I couldn't possibly admit this to my husband, or anyone else.  I was a moron!  So...I started to research how if at all I could get those deleted files back.  It took a long time- but I was able to get some of it, and you can bet I put everything on a hard drive and locked that puppy away for safe keeping.  It was time than to edit and rewrite my first book and finally in November 2011 I was able to publish that.  After seeing its success, it was time to work on the second...uh oh-yep you guessed it- couldn't find the damn hard drive.  I am some kind of winner aren't I?  Oh well eventually I found it, but as I said earlier some of the file was never recovered, so  that's what I've been doing all this time.  RECOVERING!  I have to say (if you can count on my memory) that the new version is much better.  So to end this post I'll tell you right now I am not the "conventional" kind of writer.  My desk is my dining room table.  Do I have a room in this enormous house for an office?  YES.  Could I set up a desk and a nice comfy chair and write to my hearts content in the peaceful quiet? YES- Will I? WHO KNOWS!-here I sit-listening to the refrigerator make ice cubes, the dog chew his toy-I can see the dishes in the sink that I haven't quite got to yet, and the coffee maker is spitting and sputtering as it chokes out another pot for me.  Distractions?  YES, do they affect my ability to concentrate?  Sometimes-do they affect my work?  Well, that's for you to decide.  To all my fellow writers-"HERE's To another day without technology!"

Shades of Grey

Several weeks ago a reader emailed me her review.  I was grateful at the time that it was not posted on Amazon as I was hard pressed to find an an answer to some of her questions without a great deal of thought and reflection.  After a few days I did send her back an email but sadly did not receive a response to my answers.  I'll share with you now one of her questions and ask that you remember my answer is my opinion only.  Her question:  If you reference one of the places in your story as Heaven, why then do you not call our Creator by his name...GOD?  Why do you pay him such disrespect by calling him King?  Are you not a Christian?
First of all -Yes I am a Christian.  I grew up in a very small community.  Going to church was expected.  I attended Sunday school every Sunday, and sat through many, many sermons, most I did not understand.  But I did it.  I also went to Bible School in the summer for a week, and am a confirmed Lutheran.  Oh yes and at six years of age when I moved to the US I was also baptized.  Now...with all my religious history out of the way I will answer the REAL question.  Why did I call "GOD" King?  When I first started writing the series I had no intention of standing on my soap box and sharing my religious views.  Nor did I even consider it to be a religious genre.  My "idea" came from a terrible tragedy.  A young girl dying suddenly in the prime of her life.  After hearing about her life here on Earth I couldn't believe that it would just end-that is when my mind began to spin.  What does happen when we die?  My "fantasy" began because so many of us believe at one time or another someone is watching over us.  It could be at any time, but somehow we just "feel" another presence and we are grateful.  My fantasy soon grew into a "belief" that our lives may end on earth, but they don't end!  As my story began to grow, bits and pieces of religion (one I was raised strictly to believe) were suddenly questioned by me.  Like, why do people "question" our "Creator" existence?  Why are there so many who doubt he created all we see and have?  Why is there so much time and effort put into proving that he didn't?  The truth is, our "Creator" has lost a whole LOT of respect.  People may still go to church, but do all of them go because it is to worship his greatness?  Or is it merely to sit in the front row and be seen by others as a "good" person? In a society like we have today, there is little to believe in, even less to look up to, and more and more struggles to survive from.  We are pounded with torrential rain, flooding, tornadoes, hurricane, all kinds of natural disasters, never mind religious uproars, wars and famine.  People are starving, sick and dying, and it all looks hopeless.  And yet when the royalty of England appears on national TV because one of their own is getting married- the WHOLE world watches.  When the President has a speech, everyone listens.  Does anyone listen when our Creator speaks?  When an angel brushes her wing against your face-silently offering his/her comfort, protection do you feel it?  My thought was that few really do.  And so that is why I chose to call our Creator-KING- that TITLE MEANS something in this day and age.  It inspires romance, and fantasy.  A King has POWER, and has earned respect.  Look at how newsworthy the Queen's jubilee was.  Everyone, even myself thought it so amazing that she had remained her countries leader for over 50 years!  How remarkable.  And yet our Creator has been our leader-for more centuries then I can even count.GOD is a title that for far too long has been ignored and disrespected- But it is really only a title.  Who he is, and what he means to you...is in your soul.  When you call out to him you don't have to call him by name.  He'll hear you...regardless.  So short story long...I called him King because he is.  He is King of all things...it's a term people can associate with, a term that doesn't make them feel pressured to believe, or uncomfortable that they don't-if my books do anything it will stretch my readers beliefs and cause them to wonder..what if?  I don't go to church every Sunday.  I don't follow the "Christian" way, but I do believe. When I pray, I know I'm heard, and when something terrible happens, I know I'm not alone.  There's a thin "GREY" line somewhere in all of us.  To believe or not?  That should have been the REAL question!