Alison Stanley's Blog, page 7

Trust me twice – cover revealed!

I am so excited to show you the cover for my new book, Trust Me Twice. I hope you like it Genre: Teen & Young Adult Christian Romance Synopsis: From the day they were born, Alana and Zac were best friends,  … Continue reading →

Lesson 4 – Forgetting your hook (Amateur Writing Mistakes)

If you’ve followed my blog, you’ll know I’m neck-deep in editing the manuscript for my new book. Today I’d like to focus on the importance on creating a hook for your story. What is it? A hook is something that … Continue reading →

Before you self-publish your first e-book

You have finally finished your first novel. It’s an exhilarating feeling. You did it!! But … before you click the ‘self-publish’ button and send your work out to the world, here is a list of things you should probably do first. … Continue reading →

Why editing is … and isn’t … like icing a cake

It was 12:05am and I collapsed into bed, feeling on a high after a particularly productive editing session.

“I like editing,” I told my husband.

“Why?” he asked (he was probably thinking why does she always start conversations like this after midnight?)

“Editing is like icing a cake. When you write a novel, it’s like baking a cake. Its a little rough around the edges and has a few holes in it. Then you put the icing on and the cake looks all glossy and nice.”

“But, you’re not really fixing  the cake. You are just covering over all the holes. It is still dodgy underneath.”

“Oh … maybe editing isn’t like icing a cake then …”

Interview with author Joi Copeland

Today I am privileged to introduce you to one of my new favourite Christian authors, Joi Copeland.

Me: Hi Joi. First of all, can you tell me how you came to be a writer?

Joi: Since I was little, I’ve always loved writing. I can remember writing stories when I was in 4th grade and then it carried over to writing for my junior high newspaper.

I wrote short stories in high school/college, but then, one night after my sister, brother-in-law and husband told me I needed to write a novel, I woke up the next morning with my first one dancing in my head.

Me: You have written a few books since then. Where does the inspiration for your stories come from?

Joi: Mostly from the Lord. I ask what I should write about, and then the ideas come. There are times when someone will tell me something and I will pray about whether or not I should write about it.

Me: Out of all the characters you have read or written about, who would have to be your favourite?

Joi: There are so many characters! I really enjoyed writing about Rayne and Justin. But when I read other people’s stories, I get so caught up in the stories. I love/hate some characters. I’m really enjoying Lisa T. Bergren.

Me: I loved reading about Rayne and Justin in your book, Christmas Rayne, and thanks for the tip about Lisa T. Bergren – I’ll have to check out some of her books. Could you us tell more about Christmas Rayne and any other books you’ve been working on recently?

Joi: You bet! Christmas Rayne was just released in December 2012. It’s about a girl who comes face to face with the past. She struggles with what happened and learns how to deal with it. My second novella, Sheriff’s Bride, Rob’s Story, has also just been released. It’s the fourth book in a series about four sisters who are sheriff in the town of Waterhole.

Me: That sounds like a lot of fun! I really enjoyed Christmas Rayne and I look forward to reading Rob’s story. Okay, now for my final question… If you had five dollars to spend on just yourself, what would you buy?

Joi: Probably a venti non-fat decaf peppermint mocha, extra hot with one shot and no whipped cream   Then, I’d take my laptop and write, write, write!

Me: Ha ha, whenever I ask that question the answer has generally got something to do with coffee or chocolate Thanks so much for telling us about yourself, Joi.

Joi: Thanks for having me! It’s been a pleasure!

If would like to check out any of Joi’s books, you can find them on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

And now the fun begins…

After a very productive Christmas and New Year, I have finally completed my manuscript for ‘Trust Me Twice’!  I didn’t expect it to take me nearly a year to complete, but during that time I have grown to know my characters well and I hope this is reflected in my writing.

I have emailed my manuscript to my beta readers tonight. I am looking forward to their comments, although I’m sure there will be a lot of editing to do.

Here is a cartoon I found a few months ago that I thought you might enjoy…

Copyright Debbie Ridpath Ohi 2012

My readers have finally found me!

I am a strong believer that there is a reader out there for every book, it’s just a matter of finding them! I can’t say that I have ‘found’ my readers, but somehow they have found me. For the past five days I have received a whole stack of 4 and 5 star reviews on my e-book Second Chances. I have been so overwhelmed by some of the comments and they have encouraged me to keep writing. Thank you!!

I’m looking forward to announcing a release date soon for my next novel ‘Trust Me Twice’ and giving you a sneak peek of the front cover design (I am very excited about my new cover). If you want to stay informed of future book releases and giveaways, you can now subscribe to my quarterly newsletter by clicking the link on the left hand side of my blog.

Thanks for the love, people.

Five things that made me smile this week

I’ve heard a lot of bad news this week. Nothing affecting me directly, but lots of people I know are going through some tough times. It makes me all the more grateful for all the blessings God has given me. Here are some things that made me smile this week:

1. Working beside my husband for 5 hours re-arranging furniture in the house and creating a wonderful living space to relax in

2. Seeing the delight on the faces of my daughters as we put up the Christmas tree and opened the box of decorations

3. The funny things kids say – “Mummy. Eating popcorn on a leaf is tasty. Its tastes nicer than pudding,” and ”Chloe is a magical skunk dressed up as Chloe.”

4. Reflecting on memories of my grandparents as I put together a photo book for them for Christmas

5. Receiving a couple of messages from people who have read my book and took time out of their day to encourage me.

I’d love to hear about what made you smile this week?

You can’t please everyone

I recently started offering my book Second Chances for free on Amazon. The main reason was to build up some interest in my writing before I released my next book. I was also hoping that some of the readers might leave a review to let me know what they thought of my first book.

Well, since listing my book for free about 2 weeks ago, close to 2,500 people have downloaded my book on Amazon … AND I got my first negative review. 2 stars

I knew it would come. So many writers have warned me that to be an author you need to have thick skin because you can’t please everyone, but I have to admit that it has shaken my confidence somewhat.

Since I began my writing journey, I’ve always said that even if I bring joy to just one person through my books, it will mean that it’s been worth it. I know of at least a handful of women who have been encouraged by characters in my books, so I just have to keep reminding myself of this and not let the negative comments eat at me.

I’m interested in hearing from some of you other writers out there who have also received negative reviews – how did it make you feel, and what kept you going?

Lesson 3 – Bad grammer and speling (Amateur Writing Mistakes)

Welcome to lesson 3 in my blog series on common amateur writing mistakes. The topic I am focusing on today is ‘Bad grammar and spelling’.

When I wrote my first book, I did the edits myself. I scoured each line looking for things that shouldn’t be there. I then had a couple of friends read over my manuscript and guess what? They found errors.

Here are a few common mistakes to look out for:

- Questions that do not finish with a question mark, eg What did you buy at the shops.

- Sentences that don’t finish with a full stop or exclamation mark

- Overuse of exclamation marks in dialogue!, eg “I haven’t seen you in so long! You look great! I’m so excited to see you!”

- Inconsistent character names/using the wrong character name in a sentence/inconsistent spelling of character names.

- Putting full stops and commas in the wrong side of quotation marks, eg using “. and “, instead of .” and ,”

- Not capitalising proper nouns, eg dad could be Dad if it is being used to refer to a particular person.

- Mixing up words with the same pronunciation, but different spelling (heterographs)- eg too and two, here and hear (spellcheck won’t pick this up).

- Typos! A misplaced letter can change the meaning of a word. Recently in our Church newsletter there was an advertisement asking if somebody could provide an indoor bowels set for our seniors group. Oops. Don’t just rely on spellcheck – these kind of errors don’t get picked up.

What can you do about it?

Here are my tips for avoiding spelling and grammar errors.

1. Download a style guide and follow it to the letter – for more info, try this site http://www.winepressofwords.com/2012/08/which-style-guide-should-i-use/

2. Use the Find tool (Ctrl F) in Microsoft Word to your advantage. I have invented a few searches to try to pick up errors that I know I make. Quotation marks are an issue for me, so I use Ctrl F to search for quotation marks and check each piece of dialogue to make sure the punctuation is correct. I also search for my character names to make sure I have not used them in the wrong scene.

3. Pay for a copy-edit if you can afford it. If not, get at least five people to read through your manuscript and look for any typos or mistakes (English teacher friends are awesome proof readers).

I’ve never read a review on Amazon that said – “This book was typo free and had proper use of grammar”, but I’ve seen plenty of negative reviews complaining about bad grammar and spelling errors. It’s definitely worth putting in the time to get it right.

What techniques do you use for improving the professionalism of your writing?