Demelza Carlton's Blog, page 42
October 30, 2013
Horrible News for a Happy Halloween
October 28, 2013
Nothing Beats Seeing Your Name in an Old-School Print Newspaper
October 26, 2013
Men Should Never Go Lingerie Shopping – Seven #SexySnippets on #MySexySaturday
October 24, 2013
The Tastiest Transgender Fish in the Sea
October 21, 2013
Meg Cabot, Demelza Carlton and Marian Keyes – or How My Books Became Bestsellers Again
October 19, 2013
Debbie Does the Houtman Abrolhos – Seven #SexySnippets
Joe’s settling in for his first night in a fishing shack at the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, checking out his entertainment options:
They all seemed to be holiday videos, from someone called Debbie who went to the US. I stuck one of them in the VCR, hit play and opened up the fridge.
I could hear weird noises.
Hell, it sounds like the neighbours are having sex, so loud I can hear it next door.
I went outside to see if I could work out who my noisy neighbours were, but I couldn’t hear anything from out there. I went back in.
I looked around and the little TV screen caught my eye. It looked like while Debbie was in Dallas, she saw more action than I ever got.
Seven sentences from Ocean’s Gift for The Nuthouse Scribblers: Sexy Snippets.
Ocean’s Gift is available available through Apple, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Kobo, Sony and Smashwords.
October 17, 2013
Good Girls Don’t Drink Whisky Straight
Good girls don’t…hahaha…even saying that line in the video had me cracking up. Good girls can get away with drinking whatever they like and they make it look good, too.
For those who don’t know, I spend a fair bit of time doing background research for all of my books, down to drinking whatever the characters do. In Water and Fire, it’s Limeburner’s Single Malt Whisky, from the only whisky distillery in Western Australia, the Great Southern Distilling Company. It’s in Albany, five hours’ drive south of Perth, but that’s where the book’s set, so I did the driving and spent some time down there. Did I get a lot of research done? Hell yes. Did I drink a lot, too? Well…
I made my way from my accommodation to the Great Southern Distilling Company and waited to do a tasting.
Now, the funny thing is that the blokes in the group in front of me were eager and ready, while the women kind of hung back when the cellar door manager asked, “So, do you like single malt whisky?”
The screwed-up noses as the women mumbled their negative answers said it all. “No, I don’t like whisky much,” one woman admitted.
The cellar door manager…well, she just smiled as she poured tasting glasses for the blokes. It took a few seconds of sipping before one bloke said, “Ohhh…you should have a taste, love.”
His reluctant love took a taste of the amber fluid in his glass.
Fifteen minutes later, they bought a lovely bottle of single malt whisky at her insistence and headed for the couches to wait for the meal they’d ordered.
Yeah, when cheap whisky costs $20 or $30 a bottle and that’s all you’ve ever had…it’s quite a difference to taste the real stuff, traditionally distilled.
I was lucky enough to get a private tour of the Great Southern Distilling Company’s distillery…and a tasting afterward.
So yes, now I know more than my characters – I know how their award-winning whisky is made. If you’d like to know, too…that’s what’s in the little video I put together below.
Water and Fire is available from Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Diesel, Kobo and Smashwords.
October 14, 2013
Dean Koontz, Demelza Carlton and Stephen King
It’s not a likely listing – especially with me in the middle of those two highly successful horror suspense authors, but it happened. On Amazon’s Top 100 Bestseller List. In real life.
I could be cryptic and incoherent (admittedly, I probably was on Sunday morning when I discovered it), but I took a couple of screenshots, just to make sure.
Nightmares of Caitlin Lockyer hit the Amazon Top 100 Bestseller Horror Suspense list, debuting at No. 55. I was thrilled. I mean, I took screenshots. Blurted it out on Facebook. Otherwise, who’d believe me? I barely did. I figured it couldn’t last.
It did, at least for a little while. That ranking just crept higher and higher until Nightmares of Caitlin Lockyer, my little book, reached No. 39. Of course I took more screenshots.
Now, getting a million reads on Wattpad on the draft of Nightmares of Caitlin Lockyer was pretty thrilling for an author from Perth, Western Australia. But this was just incredible. So, yes, I did feel I needed to share it with you. Hey, what are the chances? Yet it happened.
October 10, 2013
The Mysterious Midwife – Belinda from Water and Fire
Some characters stay with you forever – and some you wish you could forget. Some slowly grow on you as you get to know them.
As a reader, my favourite characters are those who do grow on me as their story progresses. I never expected it to be the same with my characters.
Now, I must make it clear that I don’t construct my characters. I’m told there are authors who can play god and create people with whole personalities. I’m not one of them. My characters are their own people – from the day they invade my head to the day they leave. I haven’t managed to get any of them to leave yet. I’m privileged to be able to view their lives through their heads as it happens and write it down – which is where my books come from.
So, when I say that a character puzzled me and I wasn’t sure I liked her, it’s the same as meeting a new, real person – for Belinda was a stranger to me at first. She seems so calm, collected and clear at first sight…but she’s more complex than I’d realised, as she’s hiding a lot under that composed exterior.
Once I knew her secrets, Belinda became one of my favourite female characters – and one I’d really love to give a happily ever after, if only she’ll let me do it.
For a little more on Belinda – including background on her family and past that isn’t included in Water and Fire – I’ve put together a character profile video, which you can view here:
Water and Fire is available from Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Diesel, Kobo and Smashwords.
October 9, 2013
Revelations: Authors Who Design Their Own Covers
Authors should never design their own covers, just like they can’t ever single-handedly edit their own work.
I learned this one a year ago with Ocean’s Gift. If you want the full, shameful story (it’s called Big Boys Like Pink), it’s in a guest post I did for Tome Tender Book Blog. It even has lobsters in it.
It comes as a revelation to some that they aren’t as artistic as they think, but I guess I always knew. I was the only person in a high school art class who got a D that semester.
Once I have the initial design idea, though, that’s different – it’s about assembly, like furniture from Ikea. I’m good at assembling bookcases, so how hard could it be?
…
A year of playing with the software. Two manuals I had to order from the UK and the US, respectively. Countless online tutorials that were always for the wrong version of the software. It was as hard as putting together a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle when you have the complete picture in miniature on the box. The best part is that once you’ve done one…it gets easier.
So, if you’re after revelations of the religious kind, sorry, you probably won’t find them on my blog. Cover revelations, though…I’ve been working on turning my ebooks into paperback format books. That means not just formatting the inside book, but making a perfectly-proportioned cover graphic, too.
So without further ado, I will now admit to being an author who has designed my own covers for four paperback books. I’ve been inspired by many and advised by even more, but, sadly, the penguin had to go.
So…what do people think? Any thoughts, comments, criticisms?
