Heather James's Blog, page 47

Sorry!

I have just realised that it has been over a month since I last posted something, for which I am very sorry! But a lot has happened in that month: I have got married, although I am still going to be writing as Heather James, to keep things less complicated. I have also moved house and am currently living out of cardboard boxes; an Ikea-trip away from having all of my furniture! I have also changed day-jobs and have become a secondary school librarian (which provides a wonderful combination of lots of books and long holidays to write in!). Summer holidays started today and I have finally found a spare moment for the blog. Hopefully it will be followed soon with lots of updates for Water. 
I had hoped to have ARCs ready by now, but I'm not 100% happy with the manuscript yet, so you are going to have to wait a little longer for the release date and cover reveal, as well as all of the exciting extras and new character introductions I have been planning. Don't forget though - the opening was posted during my blog tour for Fire, so check back through the posts for a sneak peak. 
In the meantime, I have been rather hurriedly working on my submission for this year's Young Writers Prize competition, organised by Hot Key Books and Kobo. If you haven't heard about this competition before, you should definitely check it out. I entered last year and will hopefully be entering again this year (if I can get everything in on time!) Its brilliant to see a Publishing company supporting young writers. 
Once my competition entry is sent off, Elements of Power will become my sole focus again (well, in between more house business, my ever-growing reading list and my desire to get back onto Wattpad and Figment before my accounts become completely dormant...) 
So the upshot of all this is: expect lots of exciting stuff, coming very soon, just please bear with me as I get back into the flow of things after what has been the most chaotic, yet exciting, month of my life! 

The All Authors Blog Blitz

Event two for June is the All Authors Blog Blitz. This is a promotion being run by the Self-Published/Indie Author's Support Group over on Goodreads. Over the course of today, around 80 bloggers (you can find them all here) will be posting about each other's books. Fire is being featured by Valeri Beatrix, author of The Irony of Vengeance. Here blog can be found here. Meanwhile, my blog is hosting romance writer, AJ Williams. Williams' latest book, Bounty for Love, was only released on Wednesday 12 June, but it's already getting some great reviews over on Goodreads. 
Synopsis: Alek Kairis is a man on a mission to keep those around him safe from the dangers of a lurking dirty cop. But, before he can protect everyone, Alek learns of a deep secret that could not just change his life, but change his ability to protect those around him. 

Tess Michaels only wanted her brother’s safety; she did not realize that she too would be placed in danger. Yet, the danger that is following her is not the only threat she faces. When she learns the truth of who her son’s father is, not only will her life change, but so will her child’s. 

Once the truth comes out, there is no going back for Alek or Tess. What’s worse is that their ever-growing attraction is a distraction that neither of them need. Can Tess and Alek work together, or will danger and secrets tear them apart forever?
Intrigued? You can buy Bounty for Love from the following places: 
Amazon - Barnes and Noble - All Romance Books - Smashwords
You can find out more about Williams and her writing by following these links:Website - Blog - Goodreads - Twitter - Facebook 

And the Winners are...

The Fire Giveaway has come to an end. A list of the winners can be found here. If you're name is on the list, check your email (and your junk emails, just in case!) as you should have an email from me explaining how to download your free copy. 
Thank you to every one for entering. If you didn't win, head over to Anahera Reads where another giveaway is taking place, and try your luck there. 

One day left!

There is only one day left to enter to win one of 10 e-copies of Fire. All you have to do to be in with a chance, is follow the blog via one of the many options to the right, then click here to enter. It will take you less than a minute, so make sure you follow and enter now, before it's too late.

Indie-Self Published Author Event

So I mentioned this briefly in yesterday's post, but since Fire's first feature was posted today, I felt that I ought to elaborate. 
The Indie-Self Published Author Event is being run by Say It With Books. Throughout June, lots of lovely bloggers will be promoting books by indie and self published authors on their blogs. Check out Say It With Books' blog for more information and a list of the bloggers taking part. I have been incredibly lucky and Fire is being featured on three blogs:
Anahera Reads
Amy Bookworm
Diary of a Book Maniac
Ana posted her review of Fire today, so make sure that you check it out and keep an eye on the other blogs for their features too. 
I am really pleased to be a part of this promotion - the success I have had so far with Fire is entirely down to all of the amazing bloggers who have been willing to give the novel a chance. Events like this are invaluable; without them, no one would ever hear about Fire, let alone read it. 

Brizan Style

This post comes at the request of @Amy_Bookworm who asked me about it on Twitter. She runs the UK YA blog Amy Bookworm and will be reviewing Fire this month for the Say It With Books Indie-Self Published Book event. I am really excited to be taking part in the Say It With Books event and will post more about it later in the month. 
The images below were found on Pinterest and I have linked each back to the page Pinterest saved as the source.
Brizan protectors wear long, flowing dresses in blues and white: think fabrics that flow like water.

 
This is a Polyvore creation which epitomizes my love of blue hair. I can definitely imagine Lori in this outfit. 

Brizan Blue by heatherf-james

Normal Brizans dress more practically - they spend most of their time at sea, where flowing fabrics would get in the way. Instead, they dress more like pirates - in black or blue shirts, dark trousers and all important pirate boots.

Positioned between the Helian and Arcan Realms, the Eastern Islands are cool and breezy, while the Western Isles are warm, with tropical beaches and idyllic waters. The Brizans' clothing reflects this geographical divide and they will wear wet-suits or bikinis as the weather requires.

Weapons

I have read a few comments on Fire along the lines of 'why do they have modern tech but use rudimentary weapons; it doesn't make any sense'. This surprised me as an issue because, to me, it makes perfect sense, so I wanted to explain my reasoning here.
'Fire' arms makes me think fire - the only realm who, in my eyes, would produce anything like a gun, or an explosion, would be the Helian Realm. However, the people tasked with protecting the realms are the Protectors and they already have their own, literal, fire arms. Why would they carry a gun when a ball of fire has just as deadly an effect, without the need to draw a weapon? And they definitely wouldn't want to give that power to non-Protectors. They are a very elitist Realm, you've got to remember. They don't want ordinary Helians to have the same power as them.
The only character I can think off who might quite like something like a gun would be Roxy's mother, Seraphina, because she isn't a Protector. However she's not in power yet, and thus isn't in a position to do anything about her lack of fire. Plus, I'm not sure that she would be clever enough to think up the concept - she would just order lower ranking Protectors to do her dirty work.
Helian Protectors do still make use of things like knives, but that's because they are useful - they're something they can't utilise their powers for.
You might ask why the other Realms haven't come up with anything like a gun, to fight against the Helians, but there are two issues with this. First, the Arcan and Sephan Realms are fundamentally Realms of peace - they wouldn't want to create weapons like that. The Sephan do use knives, and bows and arrows, for hunting, but they are also technologically behind the other Realms and guns wouldn't fit in with their 'green' ethos. Arcans, on the other hand, just aren't interested in warfare.
Secondly, there's the fire issue again. Modern weapons are all about the fire power. The only realm who may want a more sophisticated form of weaponry would be the Brizan Realm; they feel quite vulnerable following the Helian Occupation. But they definitely wouldn't create a weapon remotely resembling a gun. Maybe a water cannon? They believe that their water is the best defence against the Helians' heat.
I hope that this post makes the world's lack of modern weaponry seem less anachronistic -  it is something I've put a lot of thought into!

Bank Holiday in the Sun

Hi all,

I'm sorry that I haven't updated recently; I have been very busy! Today, for example, I have been cutting out hundreds of paper hearts for place cards for my wedding in June. Since it's a bank holiday though, I have time to get you caught up.

Water

I'm at a bit of a standstill with Water while it's being edited, which is a shame as I can't wait for people to start reading it. But I do want to make sure that it's perfect first and I am certain that it will be worth the wait.

Fire

I'm having a promotional blitz with Fire, trying to keep the momentum up following the tour. If you would like a review copy, or are interested in running a feature on your blog then please email me at heatherf.james@gmail.com. I managed to get a few more reviews lined up yesterday, which I will post links to when they are up.

The first promotional post can be found at the Afternoon Bookery.

Writing

While I'm not working on Elements of Power currently I am still writing, a lot. I'm really, really excited about my current project but I don't want to share anything yet - especially not since I won't be pursuing it full time until after Water and Air are published. I will give you these three, rather vague, facts though:

1. It is not a fantasy story.
2. It is set in London
3. There will not be a love triangle in it (I promise)

Right now, I'm sat out in my garden, since it's the first sunny bank holiday the UK has had, well, ever and as soon as I hit post, I'm going to re-open Scrivener (a recent addiction - I'm finding it extremely compatible with my need to keep everything super organised) and return to a frosty January morning in Trafalgar Square...

Update

The Fire blog tour is over, but don't forget about the giveaway still going on right here on the blog. You can enter to win here.

Water
I'm about a third of the way through editing Water, and I can't wait to share it with you all! At the moment, I'm waiting on someone else who is going through it for me, which is why things aren't progressing perhaps as quickly as I might like, but I'm currently aiming for a summer release.

Air
Since there not a lot I can do currently with Water, I am spending most of my time going through my initial draft of Air, which (luckily) isn't as awful as it could have been given it was written under the pressure of NaNoWriMo. In fact, I'm pretty pleased with what I have so far and I don't think I'll be keeping you all waiting for it for too long after Water is released. Especially not when I've already started working on my next series idea...

This is the first place I will post any news or updates, so make sure you follow for more info on the Elements of Power series.

Day Twenty One: Starlight Book Reviews

Today is the final day of the tour. I've had a lot of fun visiting so many different blogs over the past three weeks and I hope that lots of new readers have been introduced to Fire (and that they love it as much as I do). 
I really couldn't have asked for a better end - Reena at Starlight Book Reviews has given Fire a five star review! You can check out her review here, and while you're reading that, you can also take a look at a guest post written by me and enter a final giveaway. 
Thank you to everyone who has hosted a Fire tour stop. I hope that you have enjoyed discovering the series and that you're looking forward to Water (which I am hard at work on currently).