R.S. Carter's Blog, page 2

A Zombie Book for Women

Days of Love and Blood by R.S. Carter

Days of Love and Blood:  A zombie book for women has a brand new look.  The cover has been changed!  Here is a glimpse of the new cover which should be up on all sites (Amazon, B&N) fairly soon. It’s getting excellent reviews so far!

Zombie fan?  Enjoy a little romance as well?  This book is multi-genre and crosses paths with sci-fi, romance, post-apocalyptic and fantasy.  For women and guys!

Read more on Days of Love and Blood here:

Days of Love and Blood

A Ball of Light in my Hand

My fortune cookie gave me an interesting note this evening.

I guess I could read this in many different ways, if I was superstitious.  And right now, I choose to be superstitious.

I see a beautiful moon high in the sky as I look out my window at this very moment.  I wish I could reach out and grab it.  Then I would surely have a ball of light in my hands.  Too literal?  Probably.

I’m keeping this timely scrap of paper to see where it takes me.

My New Novel Is Finally Published

I realize I haven’t posted a blog in a while.  I’ve been busy.  A little too busy!  My latest novel, Days of Love and Blood is published and on Amazon in ebook and paperback.  Beginning on January 23rd through the 24th, there will be a FREE promotion.  For two days, you can get the book for free on Kindle.

So, get it.  Download it.  Add it to your GoodReads to-read list, read it, and review it.

Days of Love and Blood by R.C. Carter

I had originally entitled it LINE.  But my agent suggested a new title and we tossed around tons of ideas.  I also changed the cover image, which I made I might add.  I was pretty happy with the new image and how it came out.  I designed it on Photoshop.  A few people said it looked like clip art after showing it around for some feedback.  Others said it looked like Native American art.  What do you think?

It isn’t clip art.  I made the image myself and it took days.  I wasn’t going for a Native American feel, but now I can see it!  Oh well.  I will probably work on changing it yet again.

Okay, good night!  Back to posting on a regular basis I hope!

Currently Reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

I was given this book months ago as a gift and I’m about halfway through.  The writing is beautiful but it is a rather slow-moving story.  Thus far The Story of Edgar Sawtelle appears to be a coming-of-age story for a mute boy who raises dogs in the family business.  Some chapters are written from the perspective of Almondine, the family dog – reminding me of The Art of Racing in the Rain.

It’s a long book – so it will take me a while to finish.  But I really do like the long ones because sometimes I just don’t want a book to end.

Maine Earthquake Yesterday 10/16/2012

Maine Earthquake October 2012

Maine Earthquake October 2012

So, we had an earthquake yesterday.  Earthquakes are rare in New England, but they happen from time to time.  We felt one two years ago that lasted for only a second with a thunderous BOOM.  This one rattled us for fifteen seconds.

I was in my daughter’s room, changing her on the changing table by the window.  My husband was in the living room with our son.  When the window began to rattle and the floorboards underneath me shook, I lifted up the window shade.  There was a low growling, deep in sound but very loud – like a plane was landing in our back yard.  I looked up and around outside through the window – looking for a tractor-trailer or a plane.  My husband yelled to me that it was an earthquake and told me to get to the door frame.

For a second, I thought ‘Nooooo.  It’s too loud!’  (I’m not experienced with too many earthquakes having only been in a handful of smaller ones.)  I thought it must have been something outside, perhaps even an explosion.  But the thought left me a second later when the shaking increased as well as the noise.  I picked my naked little girl up and walked to the door frame.  A few seconds later, all was quiet.

My computer was still on and open only steps away so I walked over and typed ‘earthquake?’ on my personal Facebook profile.  Less than a second later was the response from someone miles away in Vermont who also felt it:  YES!  A few more seconds later and my post was riddled with expletives and excitement from local New Englanders.

Normally, New Hampshire doesn’t get this much excitement, so when it happens – people go a little crazy.  Facebook was  a sudden rave party.

At first, the news reported a 4.5 magnitude quake with an epicenter in Hollis, Maine – about 45 minutes away from us.  This was upgraded moments later to a 4.6, and then downgraded to a 4.0 about an hour later.  One reason for the initial higher magnitude rating, according to local geologists, is the fact that earthquakes in New England feel 10X stronger than those of quakes on the west coast because of the area’s geology.  That possibly explains why we were rocking and rolling 45 minutes away from the epicenter, and people as far away as Vermont and south of Boston felt and heard it.

The excitement soon led to laughter and a lot of inspirational photos.

Currently Reading Ocean-Born Mary by Jeremy D’Entremont

Ocean-Born Mary by Jeremy D’Etremont

I’ve been wanting to read this non-fiction book for a while.  Mr. D’Entremont is a local New England historian who does a lot of digging up on historical facts surrounding New England fixtures, especially lighthouses.  Ocean-Born Mary is New Hampshire’s most famous ghost story which surrounds possibly true events about Mary – the infant who saved the lives of all aboard a small passenger ship from Ireland to America.  As the legend goes, the pirate who boarded the ship heard the baby’s cries and went below deck to find a woman who had just given birth.  He was so touched by the little baby girl that he decided to let everyone live if the mother named her Mary.  The ship safely docked in New England and Mary lived a long life in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

This same story has been enlarged over the decades to include ghosts and pirate treasure.  Jeremy D’Entremont put together this book to separate fact from fiction in the Ocean-Born Mary legend.  I’m about halfway through right now and as a New Hampshire resident, I’m proud to have this one on my bookshelf.

Currently Reading The Chocolate Money by Ashley Prentice Norton

I couldn’t resist picking this new book up – a first book from Ashley Prentice Norton.  From the tidbits and summaries I’ve read, a portion of this novel revolves around Phillips Exeter Academy, a private boarding school in coastal New Hampshire.  And since this is where I reside, in a town only minutes away from Exeter, I really felt the need to read a little dirt from my neck of the woods.  Personal milieu is always so tantalizing.

I’m only one chapter into The Chocolate Money, which is written in first-person, present tense.  And so far – smashing.  I had to sneak away to read the first chapter (since it wasn’t my reading time) and it hooked me – right away.  A non-science-fiction book hooked me.

Sweet.

The Friday Author’s Wish – Silence

I love my family.  I love all of them with every molecule in my flesh and bones.  My heart bends when I think about them.  And they are always with me.  Always.

This leaves me with very little time for peace and quiet.  I love hearing the pitter-patter of my children’s feet as they run from room to room and I relish the sounds of their childlike cries and coos while they chase each other around.  But for a writer, silence is necessary.  As I am writing this simple blog, my son is running around in circles behind me screaming, “Nananan-bobo!” in the loudest voice he can muster.

Not only do I rarely have silence, I also rarely have alone time.  One would think that shutting the bathroom door would automatically mean that I am entitled to five minutes of private time – at the minimum.  As the matriarch of a household, this is untrue.  Wherever I go, the children must follow.  If I’m in the shower, both of the children will be in the bathroom within minutes as if the running water is a call-to-arms and suddenly the bathroom has become the playroom where enemies must be vanquished.  I shut the door this morning for my shower but when I turned the shower off and slid back the curtains, my son was standing on the toilet, reciting the alphabet as loud as he could and my daughter was on the floor, pouring shampoo onto the linoleum.

I have learned how to tune the sounds of my happy family out from time-to-time, so that I can get the bare minimum accomplished.  I laugh when I come across Facebook postings or tweets about the inattentive parents who let their children fly free in a store or restaurant.  These people don’t have children.  They don’t get it.  It isn’t that we are inattentive parents.  We merely have developed a natural way to silence the noise and protect our sanity for just a few minutes here and there – especially if we need to get something done.  Sometimes we do it just to garner enough time to shovel some food into our mouths.  Sometimes we do it because our brains need a break.  But trust me when I say we can all snap back to immediate attention with the tiniest sense of danger.

Late evening and early morning is the only time when I can enjoy that peace and quiet I need.  But by then I’m so terribly tired, I don’t always get to enjoy it.

These are the marathon years.

I’m going to have to learn how to install locks.

Currently Reading One Hundred Names For Love by Diane Ackerman

One Hundred Names For Love:  A Stroke, A Marriage and The Language of Healing is a memoir by world-renown author Diane Ackerman.  Diane and her older husband are both a member of the elite literary genius.  Together they built a loving relationship revolving around their passion for words.  They are both writers, both artists who wield pens.  When her husband suffers a massive stroke, Diane suffers too.  Her husband loses the ability to both understand words and speak them.

We chose this novel for my book club.  At first I rolled my eyes.  Sad memoirs are not what I typically enjoy reading.  I am about six or seven chapters in and I find myself sympathizing with Diane, as I knew I would.  Her writing is beautiful.  Her words are poetic and brilliant.  One sentence can make you throw your head back and laugh while the next can move you to tears.

I knew I was going to like this book and I knew it would make me emotional – which is why I didn’t want to read it.  And now I am glad to be reading it – I knew that was going to happen too.

Now Represented By The Castiglia Agency

I am THRILLED to announce that I am now represented by Winifred Golden from the Castiglia Agency.  She is a super literary agent and responsible for the sale of a recent popular sci-fi series – The Jason Wander Series by Robert Buettner, among many, many others.  I am so excited to have her working her magic on Line.  I can hardly contain myself!

Until then, we will be working hard at it – getting it ready to submit to publishers.  I’m sure it will take some time.  As I said before she is a ‘super-agent’ and already has a heavy client load to contend with.

I was lucky enough to receive several other offers.  But after speaking with Winifred over the phone I realized that I would work well with her.  She is direct, she gets to the point and she knows what she is talking about.  She is a long-term veteran of the literary world and has an established list of publishing contacts.  And she really connected with the character emotion that I want a reader to feel when s/he reads Line.

I can’t wait to start this project with her!