J.A. Andrews's Blog, page 3
March 22, 2019
Hello again! I’m petless.
Hello strangers!
I’ve just poked my head out of my writing cave after an extended (read: panicked) endeavor to get book 3 of my Keeper Chronicles to my editor.
I’m so very happy to say the book is out of my exhausted hands, and is in the capable hands of my editor who will have to deal with problems like the fact that that even though I know the difference between “its” and “it’s”, my fingers type “it’s” every time.
Every. Single. Time. (You’re welcome, editor Karen.) 
February 27, 2019
WHERE IS SPRING???
To be honest, I usually like winter. I think snow is beautiful and cold weather just means fires and warm sweaters.
But this year I’m not so sanguine about it. Turns out I have a limit on my cold tolerance. Here in northern Montana it’s been stupid cold for a month. STUPID cold. Like half the days “highs” have been negative numbers.
At what point do they stop calling -3 a High? Can we call it “Least Low” or something?
Anyway, I’m looking for signs of spring. And since imaginary worlds are always more fun than our own, I came up with ways to tell that spring is coming – fantasy style.
For me, I can tell spring is coming because the elves are smelling the lollygagging leprechauns!
The post WHERE IS SPRING??? appeared first on JA Andrews.
February 22, 2019
Reviews – Friend or Foe?
It appears to be Friday again.
(Note: none of these guinea pigs are my guinea pigs. I don’t have any guinea pigs. I just think memes about them are adorable.)
Today I thought it would be fun to talk about reviews.
The rise of the Customer Review section on websites has really changed things, hasn’t it?
Show of hands, who’s old enough to have shopped before the internet existed?
Me too.
Picking a book involved taking my babysitting money, getting my mom to drive me to the mall, then sitting on the floor in the Sci-fi/Fantasy aisle of Waldenbooks browsing through the new Dragonlance books or seeing if David Eddings had put out another volume in the Mallorean yet.
The guy who ran the checkout counter was a font of knowledge about fantasy books, but beyond his sage recommendations, I just bought books based on the author. Or, more often than I’d like to admit, the cover art.
Fast forward to today, and in the comfort of my own home, wearing pajama pants, I can browse literally millions of books and read more reviews than I can handle about any book I choose.
From that, it’s obvious that people like to leave reviews.
My question is, how much stock do buyers put in reviews?
And I don’t really know the answer. I read reviews. -ish.
I often skim the negative ones and the titles of the positive ones.
WAIT.
I can’t talk about this without a little side trip.
Have you ever seen the reviews for this book?
This book, published in 1993, has over 1400 reviews. It is, apparently, a serious book with actual advice for owners of small, private boats about avoiding the sort of dangerous situation (read: certain death) associated with any sort of entanglement with the huge ships on the water. I can see that being a problem for little boats.
But the reviews…
It makes me so incredibly happy to share a few of my favorites with you:
WHY NO KINDLE EDITION?????
Given that there is a huge ship bearing down on me RIGHT NOW I am extremely disappointed that I cannot get inst—
-Jim Henley, 1 star
A Parent’s Review
As the father of two teenagers, I found this book invaluable. I’m sure other parents here can empathize when I say I shudder at the thought of the increasing presence of huge ships in the lives my children.
-Noel D. Hill, 5 stars
A Book of Hate Speech Posing as Advice.
As a huge ship myself, I’m hurt and offended that the author of this disreputable tract would suggest that I be avoided. Life is difficult enough as a huge ship in a world of sailboats, but now to be vilified like this is more than anyone should have to bear.
-John Petty, 1 star
Fight the real enemy
…NO SPOILERS here, but on closer examination, I can’t help but think this is simply another attempt of the Anti-Huge Ship movement to promote their extremist agenda…
-Citizen John, 1 star
Hee hee. You’re welcome.
Since we’ve been talking about the first book in my series lately, I thought I’d share with you my very favorite 1-star review for A Threat of Shadows, my epic fantasy novel:
Not a horror story…
Thought I was getting a horror story. This was way off – not my thing. Next.
-Lesli, 1 star
I’m sorry, Lesli. I hope you find something scary to read.
My question to you is:
Do you read reviews for books? Do they influence whether or not you buy a particular title?
The post Reviews – Friend or Foe? appeared first on JA Andrews.
February 8, 2019
Who ARE the Keepers?
Today I thought I’d give you a little background on who exactly the Keepers in the Keeper Chronicles are.
To answer that, we’ll turn to an enigmatic old man named Flibbet the Peddler, who is famous for being exceedingly old, curiously elusive, and an odd cross between whimsical and wise.
His books are easily recognized by his love of writing in multiple colors and doodling excessively in the margins.
In Flibbet’s book, Notable Peoples of Queensland and Whether They’re Worth Finding, he gives the following description:
Thank you, dear Flibbet.
That’s wordy enough for this time. Next week I’ll introduce you to the first Keeper of the series, Alaric. A troubled man, but a well-meaning one.
The post Who ARE the Keepers? appeared first on JA Andrews.
February 1, 2019
How series are born. (Well, how this series was born…)
Since I’m getting ready to publish the final book in my Keeper Chronicles series this spring, I wanted to share some things about the series and the characters.
Maybe I’ll go crazy and chat about my writing process (hint: it needs quiet mornings and coffee).
Maybe I’ll tell you who my favorite characters are and which ones I wanted to sell to gypsies. (And which ones I actually did sell to gypsies!)
Maybe I’ll give sneak peaks at book 3…
You never know! (Mostly because I don’t know yet.)
Regardless, it’s bound to be full of things that are bookish.
For starters, today I thought I’d share with you about the birth of this series.
Like humans, some stories are birthed quickly and smoothly with minimal screaming and no pain killers.
This is not one of those stories.
Book 1, A Threat of Shadows, actually started its ridiculously extended birthing process in 2008. My husband was working out of town for a month and he was bored out of his mind.
I started writing him a scene each day to give him something entertaining to read at night. There was no goal beyond, “Write something entertaining. Make fun characters. Then leave him on a horrible cliff hanger every night.” *cue maniacal laughter*
Honestly, I’m not sure whether this little project made me a nice wife or a mean one.
But what came out of that month was the first ten(ish) chapters of A Threat of Shadows and some characters that I fell in love with.
Once my husband came back home, the story was dropped and mostly ignored for the next half dozen years.
Because babies kept being birthed instead of books.
But I had developed such a fondness for the characters that I couldn’t quite forget them.
After a few writing classes and discovering that indie publishing was becoming more viable and more interesting all the time, I put on my big girl pants and decided to try to wrangle the story into a book.
Wrangling those early scenes into the beginning of a novel was a lot like wrangling hyper children hopped up on birthday cake at a rock and roll party.
Finishing the story into something satisfying was infinitely harder.
It turns out I had a LOT to learn about stories (I still do), but around 2014 I began the (incredibly slow) process of writing. And learning and editing and rewriting and wailing in despair and editing again.
In July of 2016, with great fear and trembling, I clicked “publish” on A Threat of Shadows.
Of course, I had no idea what I was doing, so aside from my mom and a few loyal friends, no one bought it.
But I’d discovered something.
I could write a book.
And it was fun.
And I wanted to write another.
And that’s how an innocent little project meant to stave off boredom turned into the beginnings of a career.
Did you have anything that started out as an innocent little project and turned into some big hobby? Or career? Or even a big disaster?
The post How series are born. (Well, how this series was born…) appeared first on JA Andrews.
December 29, 2018
December 28, 2018
New Years Resolutions – Yay or Nay?
Hello dearest reader,
Yes, it’s true. You are my dearest reader. (Don’t tell the others I said so.)
It’s almost New Years Day. Are you one for making resolutions?
I usually don’t.
I do, however, find a new clean calendar to be an excellent time to make fresh starts at things. (Is that like a resolution? Maybe? I’m gonna go with ‘no’.)
Anyway, what is going to get a fresh start in 2019 is MY BLOG AND NEWSLETTER.
More conversations with you!
More chances for you to tell me what you’d like to hear about!
More guinea pigs!
Wait, why guinea pigs?
First because it is a really hard word to spell and I need practice. But secondly because you would not believe the number of people who dress up guinea pigs and take pictures. And they make me laugh.
Like this:
I know. How cute is that?
How about you? Are you making resolutions? Resolving to NOT make resolutions? Do you always follow through on them? Never follow through? Give me the scoop!
Also, I had the chance to be interviewed by Michael Baker this week on his blog.
We talked about the hardest part of writing and what my favorite part was to write.
The post New Years Resolutions – Yay or Nay? appeared first on JA Andrews.
November 30, 2018
Jolabokaflod – Yule Book Flood
Have you heard of the awesome tradition in Iceland called Jolabokaflod?
It literally means “Yule Book Flood”, and the tradition involves giving gifts of books on Christmas Eve and then spending the evening reading.
Best. Tradition. Ever.
And it’s one we’re adopting at my house this year.
We’re officially becoming Icelanders. Icelandians? Icelandinos?
I’m already excited to shop for books for my family, and sit together and read.
How about you? Is this a tradition you’d like to start this year? Or do you have another interesting Christmas Eve tradition?
The post Jolabokaflod – Yule Book Flood appeared first on JA Andrews.
November 16, 2018
Did you grow up among a lot of books?
A study was done asking people ages 25 to 65 to estimate how many books were in their homes when they were 16.
Turns out that growing up with few books in the home resulted in below average literacy levels later in adulthood. Having 80 books in the house boosted the levels to average, “and literacy continued to improve until (home) libraries reached about 350 books, at which point the literacy rates leveled off.”
The same sorts of trends, although not as strongly, were found in the subjects mathematical skills and ability to use technology to communicate.
The study found that someone who grew up with a large home library, but only had nine years of schooling had a similar literacy level to someone who grew up with hardly any books, but went on to obtain a degree from a university.
“So, literacy-wise, bookish adolescence makes up for a good deal of educational advantage,” the study authors write.
Like all studies, a lot more research needs to be done, and I would say off the top of my head that it seems like households that have larger libraries would generally be households who value an education more strongly, so l don’t know that I attribute all this to home library size. But I did find it interesting that books and reading in adolescents gives a good advantage throughout life.
Did you grow up around a lot of books? How do you think it affected you?
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October 6, 2018
Make Libraries Great Again
It’s a dream around my house to have a lovely library, and there’s things libraries should have. Lots of books feels like an obvious part. I’d also prefer dark, tall shelves, nooks for reading, comfy chairs.
And I’ve run across something that will be included.
Fairy Book Houses.
(I’m going to apologize right now that some of these photos don’t have links to whomever the amazing person is who made them. We’ve been without internet in my town for what seems like a decade, but has in fact only been about 36 hours. I’ve cobbled together a hotspot with my phone to grab some images, but it’s working about as quickly as a sloth swimming through molasses. Turns out my limit on conscientious crediting of images maxes out at around a dozen pages not loading.)
Or how amazing is this?
I’m pretty sure I also need some of these:
Because a tiny library inside my library?
Perfect.
What sorts of things do you want in your imaginary amazing library?Beyond a jillion books obviously.
Interesting book ends? One of a kind art? Fairy book houses?
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