Michelle Proulx's Blog, page 13
November 21, 2014
NaNoWriMo Update
More than two thirds of the way through November — seems like the perfect time for a NaNoWriMo update!
I’m failing miserably.
First, I started re-writing a fantasy story I’ve been playing around with for the past six years. I got 15k words in, and realized I was writing Star Wars Episode 1 when I should have been writing Episode 4. Dang. Switched over to my original plan — Book 3 of the Imminent Danger series — and got the first two chapters tapped out with relative ease. Then started daydreaming in the shower about the fantasy story, except this time Episode 4 instead of Episode 1. Lost all interest in Imminent Danger Book 3. This morning, was randomly inspired in the shower again and now am eager to get back to work on Imminent Danger Book 3 again.
My muse is wildly unreliable, and she’s driving me nuts. Also, she only seems to come to me in the shower, which means I now shower for about 45 minutes a day. My roommates have learned to take their showers either before me, or an hour after me, otherwise they get no hot water. Sigh.
In related news, my IndieGoGo campaign is still going on, and tragically we’re $50 short of the goal. Nooooooes! So if you’re interested in snatching up a signed copy of the shiny new Imminent Danger, complete with revised text and gorgeous cover art, pop over to the campaign and claim your copy today! The campaign ends around Dec 9, but the sooner we hit the goal, the sooner I can start coming up with awesome stretch goal prizes to give all the awesome people who’ve donated.
How go your NaNoWriMo attempts? Or if you’re boycotting NaNoWriMo, how go your non-NaNoWriMo-writing attempts?
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/zjCCYRR
November 16, 2014
Imminent Danger cover card!
Nina J Lux is one of the lucky recipients of an Imminent Danger cover art card! Woo! Check out the awesome picture she sent me :D
Originally posted on Nina J. Lux:
Check out what came in the post for me today – funky cover card (with the new cover!) and book mark from Michelle Proulx, author of Imminent Danger and How to Fly Straight Into it! Aren’t they lovely? Thanks, Michelle!
xoxo N.
November 15, 2014
Chasing Nonconformity Cover Art Situation
You may not be aware of this, but the cover art for my sequel, Chasing Nonconformity, is actually ready and raring to go! The only thing we need now is a good opportunity to reveal said cover.
And I have hit upon the perfect opportunity!
As you know, I am running an IndieGoGo campaign. It’s going pretty well — we’re only $50 away from hitting the initial funding goal! So in order to encourage that last little leap, I declare this now:
I shall reveal the cover art for Chasing Nonconformity once I hit my funding goal!
So if you’ve ever dreamed of owning a signed copy of Imminent Danger, this campaign is the best chance you’re going to get to acquire one. You want the $25 “Sign ‘Er Up, Captain!” perk, which nets you the signed book, plus whatever other goodies I throw in. Obviously the book can also be purchased once I re-publish it via Createspace in December/January, but that won’t be signed, and how will you eventually sell the book for millions of dollars in a few years if it isn’t signed? HMM?
Well, that’s enough promotion from me for today. Thanks for listening to me ramble!
Unrelated media of the day:
Might have shared this already, but it’s just so gosh-darned cute.
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/8tUf7dg
November 12, 2014
Check out a new self-pubbed book! The Tale of the Golden Pirate (by Anthony Renfro)
Fellow blogger and self-published author Anthony Renfro has released a new book, and it sounds pretty darn cool! Check out the summary:
An Action-Adventure tale about pirates, ghosts, buried treasure, doomed love affairs, double crosses, drug deals, and creatures made of slime. An eclectic tale combining the world of Jimmy Buffett and Stephen King. Follow Parson’s journey as he is pushed into endless peril, and asked to do things most people are rarely asked to do. Does he get his buried treasure? Does he get that easy life so many of us dream about? The answers lie within the pages.
Here’s the cover:
And here some links to where you can buy the book!
UK = http://goo.gl/ztF8zB
USA = http://goo.gl/7RzIh7
Australia = http://goo.gl/MzoXnC
Canada = http://goo.gl/kAgZjU
Spain = http://goo.gl/jEyOQr
Germany = http://goo.gl/E5h8qR
France = http://goo.gl/c90oA5
Italy = http://goo.gl/XGuPPa
Mexico = http://goo.gl/R2iO9i
Brazil = http://goo.gl/isj0GG
Japan = http://goo.gl/f0fgIF
India = http://goo.gl/1Vwkgl
Phew! Anyway, happy Wednesday everyone, and good luck to everyone neck-deep in NaNoWriMo! Ah yes, and if you’ve ever dreamed of owning a signed copy of my novel, Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It, click this link and your dream shall be one step closer to coming true! (hint: you want perk #3)
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/dhDpk8u
November 10, 2014
IndieGoGo Campaign — Day 1 Results
It has now officially been one day since the launch of my IndieGoGo campaign to help pay back the cover design costs for my novel, Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It. Woo!
Day 1 was awesome, and exceeded all expectations. Thanks to the generous contributions of friends, I’m already at 45% of my funding goal. And a ton of wonderful people have helped share the campaign on their own social networks, so hopefully that percentage will continue to grow. Thank you to everyone who’s helped out so far, and thank you in advance to everyone who is planning on, but has not yet had a chance to, contribute!
An interesting thing I’ve noticed, from browsing assorted book campaigns on crowdfunding sites, is that I set my goal ridiculously low. Most of the projects are looking for several thousand dollars of funding at the very least, with some going up into the tens of thousands. I guess it’s a difference in mindset — I’m trying to pay back the cover design cost, which I’ve already paid for, so at this point literally any funds I can drum up are more than I could have hoped for! Whereas other projects are more along the lines of, “If this campaign succeeds, I will be able to: hire an editor ; upgrade my website ; take off work for a year and write”, etc. This isn’t a commentary on the efficacy of one crowdfunding approach over the other — it’s just interesting to note.
And for everyone wondering about my $500 goal, here’s the reasoning: that’s the lowest goal you can set. If I don’t make the goal, oh well, since I wouldn’t have had a chance of making an even higher goal anyway (thus, no opportunity lost). If I do make the goal, awesome! Cover design paid for, hope renewed that one day I’ll actually be able to start making money off my writing. And if I surpass my goal … well, I’ll get to that if it happens, but basically I’d get to have lots of fun coming up with stretch goal rewards for all my backers, not to mention I could put the extra money toward helping drag my book out of obscurity.
Well, that’s enough rambling from me for today! If you haven’t check out the campaign yet, here’s the link again. And even if donating money isn’t in the cards, please consider donating your time and social media connections by sharing the campaign. I shall not rest until every person on the planet has seen this campaign! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Unrelated media of the day:
It’s not the most vocally spectacular parody cover in existence, but the theme is fun and the lyrics made me laugh a couple of times.
November 9, 2014
My IndieGoGo Campaign for Imminent Danger is now LIVE!
After two years of struggling with iUniverse, I have broken away and will be re-publishing my YA sci-fi novel, Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It, with a shiny new cover. As if that’s not exciting enough, I’m also running an IndieGoGo campaign! It will be running from today until December 9th (i.e., 30 days), and if all goes well I’ll be able to start shipping some of the perks out in time for Christmas.
The purpose of the campaign is threefold:
To raise funds to pay back the costs of the cover design.
To increase awareness and visibility of my book. (It’s hard to buy a book if you don’t know it exists!)
To provide awesome Imminent Danger themed swag for all you wonderful people.
The perks you can buy include, but are not limited to:
A copy of the eBook
A signed copy of the print book
Assorted flat swag that can fit into an envelope
Assorted 3D swag that can fit into a box (including an 8-bit Imminent Danger-themed coaster!)
A chance to get your name into the Acknowledgements section
A chance to name a character in a future sequel
Now comes the part where you take action! If you’ve got a few dollars to spare, please hop over to the campaign page, pick your favorite perk, and snatch ‘er up!
And I’m also hoping everyone who sees this post will be able to take a few minutes to share the campaign with friends/family. Re-blog this post, put the link up on Facebook or Twitter, etc. Thank you so much in advance for your help, and stay awesome!
Totally related media:
Here’s my campaign vlog again, in case you missed it yesterday:
November 8, 2014
My IndieGoGo Campaign Starts Tomorrow! Get Psyched!
I’ve been talking about it for weeks. And it’s finally happening! Tomorrow I launch my IndieGoGo campaign for Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It. Woo!
Obviously I’ll put up a post tomorrow with all the details — how long the campaign will run, what perks are up for grabs, how you can help spread the word, etc. But for tonight, I’ll leave you with this promo video I recorded to grace the campaign page:
Get psyched for tomorrow!
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/LwPeG
November 5, 2014
It’s official! I’ve cancelled my iUniverse contract!
Ladies and gentlemen, the day I’ve been babbling on and on about for the past year has finally arrived. That’s right — not four hours ago, I officially sent in my cancellation form to iUniverse. Once they process it, Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It will officially be a free agent!
Woooooooooooo!
Okay, I might be a bit excited. And terrified. But mostly excited.
So, what’s next? Well, it will take iUniverse a few days to take the book down off their website. Then they have to send out the message to Amazon, B&N, Chapters, etc. It will take them 30-45 business days to take down the book. And once the book is officially down from all those sites, I can put the new version up on Amazon/KDP!
In the meantime, I get to play around with something that I think’s going to be a lot of fun for everyone involved — my IndieGoGo campaign. I’ve mostly got it set up — basically, I’m trying to raise a few hundred dollars to repay the costs of the new cover design. And then the prizes range from eBook copies of Imminent Danger to cover art cards to bookmarks to print copies with the new cover (my personal favorite), and then lots more fun stuff.
I’m hoping to start up the campaign in the next week or so (gasp!), so keep an eye out for that. And until then, live long, prosper, celebrate my emancipation from iUniverse, and enjoy the unrelated media!
Unrelated media of the day:
November 3, 2014
Best Laid NaNoWriMo Plans …
So this year, I was all set to do NaNoWriMo. I knew what I was writing — book 3 of the Imminent Danger series — I knew the plot, I knew the characters, I knew everything. I was completely prepared to knock that 50k out of the park.
Then I sat down on Saturday, fired up my word processor, and started typing something completely different.
I am now 6k words into a re-write of a fantasy book I wrote a few years ago that suffered from extreme “lack of plot” syndrome. I have totally revamped the characters, the plot, the setting, and the magic system. It’s going really well. It’s just not at all what I intended to write.
They say part of being a writer is being able to sit down and work on a project every day, even if some days you’re not quite feeling it. But I say, if your muse pulls you in a different direction, listen. It’s all well and good to say “writing is my job”, but jobs are dreary, and writing should be fun. So the next time you’re wading through chapter sixteen of your WIP and get the sudden urge to write a short story about underwater unicorns, do it!
Unrelated link of the day:
You know how “Tom Marvolo Riddle” is an anagram for “I am Lord Voldemort”? So when they translated Harry Potter to other languages, they had to make sure that anagram still worked … meaning Voldemort has a different (and oft-times hilarious) name in each language. Check it out:
Unrelated promo of the day:
Don’t forget to check out my new short story, The Dusk Bugs, available free of charge from Smashwords!
October 31, 2014
Cover Reveal for the New Imminent Danger!
After tormenting you for months with “I’m going to re-publish Imminent Danger soon”, it’s finally time to reveal the cover that will grace the entirely self-published, no-iUniverse-involvement version of Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It.
Ready?
Steady?
Go!
Don’t you just absolutely love it???!!!
This cover was created by the wonderful Ravven, who’s pretty well known amongst self-publishers due to her gorgeous covers. As a matter of fact, another of her covers belongs to A Vengeance of Angels by Andrew Toynbee, which is going live today on Amazon! So hop over to Mr. Toynbee’s blog and check out that shizzle.
Important note:
The new version of Imminent Danger is NOT live yet. I repeat, it is not live. The version currently for sale is the iUniverse version. That’s because I still have a few things to do on the ebook and print versions, not to mention I haven’t cancelled my iUniverse contract yet. But that should be happening in the very near future — and rest assured you’ll hear all about it when that does go down! So until then hang tight, enjoy the cover, and prepare yourselves for the newly revamped Imminent Danger!
And now … the giveaway!
It’s a cover reveal — of course there’s a giveaway! Since I don’t have the new book to give away yet, the prize for this giveaway will be … drum roll …
Cover Art Cards!!!
Wooooo! Talk about exciting!!! For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s essentially the book cover printed on a postcard. They’re super classy, and awesome collectibles for any indie book enthusiast. And you just know I’m going to be JK Rowling levels of famous one day, so best to start collecting your memorabilia now! (ha)
So all you need to do in order to win one of these cover art cards is leave a comment on this post. You could also re-blog this cover reveal on your own blog, but that’s totally above and beyond the call of duty. Not that I wouldn’t appreciate it if you were to do so! Anyway, what are you waiting for? Start commenting!
Special thanks to …
… all the awesome bloggers who helped me out with this cover reveal:
Chris Graham (The Story Reading Ape!)
