Amanda M. Lyons's Blog: Inner Voices, page 12

Marketing Tips to Build Steam Locally

 

Talk to Your Local Bookstore:

·        You ask them to carry copies of your book (some will order them from your printer while others may necessitate you buying the books to sell, keep that in mind).

·         They’re a great place to ask about doing signings, leaving promotional materials like bookmarks and posters.

·        A good place to find out about other authors in the area. They can also be a source of info about local promotional and networking opportunities like writer’s groups and artists’ gatherings that could net you great feedback and ways to get the word out.

Visit Your Local Library: Never underestimate the power of the library!

·        Donate two copies (or more if they have a few branches and/or bookmobiles) to them for promotion, getting new readers and reviews.

·         Set up signings, meet the author gatherings and if you have a relevant topic that locals might be interested in you can build a presentation that you can utilize to introduce yourself and your work to readers.

·        You can also ask to leave bookmarks, flyers about signings and posters to promote your work.

·        Talking to librarians (especially the ladies in charge of community gatherings and such at the library) and Friends of the Library programs and offering to take part in those library programs can earn you some recommendations from these folks, some Friends of the Library programs even buy books from authors that the library itself may not.

Talk to Newspapers, Radio Stations and Local Businesses: You may not always be successful in getting them interested in your promotion, but many of these services have no problem promoting local success stories and encouraging the area to buy local writer’s work. Here’s a few things to ask about:

·        Interviews/Features: Radio stations and newspapers sometimes do promotions for area businesses and as I said before local success stories are a good way to fill empty air time and space in the paper. It never hurts to ask if your book or an author interview might be acceptable. If you do well enough it may lead to continuing interviews or features and opportunities. Be sure to tell that local bookstore about the feature and consider setting up a signing shortly after it so you can mention it during the feature to set both off and garner more interest. You can also mention you’ll do a blurb for the bookstore as a bonus bit of back-patting.

·        Articles: Another way to get your name out there is through writing articles of interest to your area at the end of which you can write a one or two sentence blurb for your book. Even better if you can manage to cover a topic that relates to your book in some way or  a regular column that does this too.

·        Posting Flyers/Buying Ads: Putting an ad in the paper or on the radio is another way to promote your work. If you don’t have the cash for this (and most of us don’t) the other route would be making up flyers, bookmarks and other promotional materials and seeing if local businesses will allow you to post them somewhere in a window , on a bulletin board  or some other high traffic area. This works best when you choose a place that caters to people who will be interested in your work. A zomb-poc author might do well at survivalist and gun shows or even a gun shop for instance. Romance authors might do well at ladies night out events or grocery stores.

Make Friends and Share Promotion Space:

·        Go to Writer’s Groups: The more you know about what works in your own area the better and there’s a lot of writing info that can be gained from other authors as well. Go, network, absorb.

·        Share a Signing/Interview/Ad Space: If you know other authors that work with your press or who share your genre this is a great way to save money and help each other out. It also means the combined effort can net you more ideas, more readers and somebody to entertain you while you wait for people to walk up to your table. 

Eyes Like Blue Fire: New Cover and Upcoming Re-release

Now that I have a new home in JEA, I've become an editor there and Wendy Won't Go has made its way onto Kindle I think it's time I announce the re-release of my first book Eyes Like Blue Fire!  I don't have a definitive release date yet (we're editing it up and making sure you get a great copy of the book) but I am proud to present the lovely new cover made for me by Marla Ringling Rhysen. I'm so happy to have a cover that really seems to catch some of the atmosphere of the book! This scene is where Katja first walks up on Raven in the cemetery and anyone who's read the book will know that is a very pivotal scene. I hope you all like it and that you agree about it fitting my novel :) Please feel free to tell me what you think and keep an eye out for its release in the coming months!

Under Twisted Moon Will be Free January 18th!!!!!

On of my favorite authors is having a free day for her novel Under a Twisted Moon this Saturday  January 18th! It's a really great PNR/Urban Fantasy novel and I hope you'll take a look! Here's my review of it if you want an idea of what it's about: 
Under a Twisted Moon by Susan Simone
4 of 5 stars
Recommended for: fans of Rose Madder, werewolves, drama and romance
Read from May 17 to 26, 2013 — I own a copy, read count: 1

Amelie is trapped in more ways than one. 

A long time ago when she was a young girl she was forced to hide away a part of herself that she did not yet understand. She changed to make her parents happy and for a time things stopped being so hard. Eventually she grew up and now she's the wife of Rick McConnell a soldier in a secret branch of the military. It's a life she knows and understands, she loves being a teacher and while things aren't always the best she thinks she's got a handle on her life.

Nothing is out of the ordinary until the day that one of her students gets lost in the woods and the part of herself she thought she'd left in her past comes back. 

Hounded by the police, reporters and her abusive husband Amelie feels like everything is falling apart. She never wanted for the monster inside her to ever get out again and now all of the things she thought were so simple are becoming far more complex. What will she do to adapt?

Amelie is a heroine that grows over the course of her ordeal. After years of abuse she's learned a rhythm that can help her avoid her husband's wrath and when it can't the ways that she can deal with the least amount of punishment. When her past is revealed however, it becomes harder and harder to hide from what she is and what she must do to have a life. She must begin to see her inner strengths and accept that she can change the place where she's been held prisoner all these years. While she's aided by some unexpected allies it is SHE who must make the changes she needs in her life. 

Under a Twisted Moon is my favorite book by Simone so far because it manages to do so much with it's 490 pages. Amelie could easily have been another PNR heroine or hallmark lady of tragedy. Instead she's a real person dealing with very real problems and not all of them were generated by her husband.This sense of realism offers you a chance to see into an abusive relationship and how it destroys both people from the inside out, especially when the root of that relationship is founded in two different pasts. We never know if Rick's abusive personality comes from his top secret military service but it does seem to have increased as the violence of that role has escalated. Amelie is in a relationship with Rick because he was an escape from her abusive parents but we often seek out that same sort of relationship when we try to set out on our own. 

Amelie is confronted by the monster within. A part of herself that was villianized by her parents and hidden away by Amelie to stop their abuse. This inner monster then becomes Amelie's salvation when she finds that it's one of the many things that could have offered her strength if she had held on to it instead of locking it away. The monster then is really her freedom, her sense of independence and confidence. Her parents push this side of her away and effectively neuter her spirit, making her a victim who can then be victimized by her spouse when he comes along. The cycle of abuse not only makes people into victims of the abuser it sets the scene for other abusers to take on that same role for the victim and later the potential children born of that relationship.

Amelie's inner monster is at first broken and flawed, it has been marred by her abuse and because of this she fears it as much for the pain it causes her to address it. Over time and with the guidance of others she is able to repair the abuse and it's revealed that it was the way she chose to mangle and hide away the monster that made it hurt her. 

Real life victims of abuse face the same sort of flawed outlook and rationalization for their staying in the relationship. They see the parts of themselves that could be their strengths as weaknesses, things to be avoided and buried inside, they become damaged for lack of that element of their spirit and only they can bring it back to the surface and reassemble it in a healthy way. 

Clearly Simone's message here is that abuse can only crush a spirit if it is unwilling to see the strengths hidden within and wield them to gain back control of self. Amelie was always strong she only needed to see it.

Wendy Won't Go Available on Kindle

Oh wow, it's been so crazy I actually forgot to tell you guys that Wendy Won't Go is out on Amazon! It came out Dec 16th and I would be very happy if you could give it a look. If you buy it, please spread the word and write a review on Goodreads and/or Amazon! Thanks for your support! You can find WWG at this link: 


http://tinyurl.com/k42qu4u

Love Like Blood, Fighting for Love When All Seems Hopeless

We must play our lives like soldiers in the field
The life is short, I'm running faster all the time
Strength and beauty destined to decay
So cut the rose in full bloom

Till the fearless come and the act is done
A love like blood, a love like blood
Till the fearless come and the act is done
A love like blood, a love like blood

Everyday through all frustration and despair
Love and hate fight with burning hearts
Till legends live and man is God again
And self-preservation rules the day no more

Oh, we must dream of promised lands and fields
That's never fade in season
As we move towards no end we learn to die
Red tears are shed on gray

Till the fearless come and the act is done
A love like blood, a love like blood
Till the fearless come and the act is done
A love like blood, a love like blood

Till the fearless come and the act is done
A love like blood, a love like blood
Till the fearless come and the act is done
A love like blood, a love like blood

Songwriters
COLEMAN, JEREMY / FERGUSON, PAUL / RAVEN, PAUL VINCENT / WALKER, KEVIN

I knew the title for my short story must have come from something I'd heard or read but I didn't actually realize that there would end up being a sort of parallel to the meaning of the song and the message of the story. Love Like Blood is still in progress but I have enough done and know enough about how it will end to find this interesting. Love Like Blood is a story about a Skinwalker (the picture I thought of most for my interpretation is above but feel free to picture him anyway you like) and a woman who makes a bargain with it to try and save what she holds dear. Determined to fight for what she's lost she endures a lot of hardships, involves herself in horrible acts and literally thrives on the barest knowledge that there is something left to hope for, something worth fighting to keep. 

Love Like Blood also has a few parallels to Wendy Won't Go in that they both have a lot to say about endurance through adversity, the terrible weight of loss and the human heart's desire to fight for what belongs to it. There are differences between the two however. Wendy Won't Go is a larger story because it needed detail to express the enormity of the tale but Love Like Blood is much more streamlined and imagery based in order to express the protagonists focus and skewed way of thinking. The streamlines style has made it just as challenging to write as WWG despite it only being about half it's size. 

Looking over the stories I've written for Apocrypha quite a few of them really are about the sort of things that concern parents. Am I good enough at this? Am I strong enough to endure if things don't go the way I expect them to? What would I do if something happened to my children? Why did this happen to us and how will we survive as a family? Most of the ideas for these stories came to me while I was pregnant with Sasha and shortly after she was born and I suppose that has a lot to do with it. 

Wendy Won't Go Coming Soon from J Ellington Ashton Press! Also It's Time to Reveal the Cover!

If you follow me on Facebook you know that I was picked up by J Ellington Ashton Press recently. It's been an interesting thing getting used to some of the differences between being a self-pubbed author and going over to being a small press author. Thus far it's been a very good thing and I'm happy to say that very soon, you'll be able to pick up a copy of the novelette that caught my publisher's attention! 

At the left you can see the great cover Susan Simone made for the story and I have to say that it represents it very well. Let me know what you think of the cover and I'll let you know when it'll be ready. There are a few things to finish up in the meantime, but I can tell you a little about the book:

 Billy and Sara are living a life of fear.  Every day and every night since Sara was small they have been haunted by a terrible apparition. She is cold and she is cruel, strange and frightening.  Her name is Wendy and no matter where they go and no matter what they do Wendy Won't Go.

What is Wendy Won't Go about? I can't tell you much more than that without ruining the story and there are so many little things you'll want to watch for as you go along. It's a meaningful story and it has a lot of power. I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I did when I finally had the end in sight and it all became clear!

Getting to Be My Theme Song and Facing ELBF's Flaws

One of my favorite songs from the long ago days of my youth. Some days are just going to better than others and we're going through a lot right now and hoping for the best. I won't go into it because it's just too personal to cover here but suffice to say I'm feeling less than secure. I will explain a bit about what I can with my stress over my writing.

 Eyes Like Blue Fire hasn't exactly been a big success and while that sucks I am making an effort to see about improving the book overall and rereleasing it after I sort out the bugs. It was my first book and it was originally written in high school, I had very little luck getting folks to read it back then and spent a lot of years looking for proofreaders and editing it myself. I probably took way too long fussing over it and the lack of readers added to my anxiety over it's quality but with little changing on that front all I could really do was rewrite and edit it until I felt I had something solid I could submit. That 2nd rewrite actually had me invested and encouraged enough to start it's sequel Cool Green Waters in 2002 which I knew to be a better book because of everything I
I'd learned rewriting ELBF. I got about halfway into that and then went back to working on Other Dangers in fits and spurts.

 ELBF was the one book I finished and the one I was most insecure about. It didn't help that most of my friends were guys and that as guys they really didn't get my attraction to the gothic romance elements that are the base for the gothic horror in ELBF. If you've ever read any of ELBF you'll note that in the beginning it's centered on Katja and her struggle with love and it's complications in her past. Well eventually it does move on from those initial romantic elements to deal with some very dark horror elements that Katja must face to get to a new place in her life. 


The fact that ELBF is neither completely horror or paranormal romance makes it a bit of a pariah in both genres. In paranormal romance it's an outcast because the horror elements are very dark and bloody, neither Katja nor Raven fit the stereotypes of the genre (Katja is the hero but a very reluctant one while Raven isn't a musclebound badass with no weaknesses), while there are action sequences these scenes do not make up the bulk of the novel,  and while the romance is important to the plot it isn't the overall focus. In horror it's an outcast because it has strong romantic themes, the horror elements aren't the overall theme and the goal is not to scare as much as to convey the emotional and personal change that needs to happen for the lead characters.


 ELBF was written before PNR had really had it's big rise to fame and it was never meant to be a part of this genre despite the fact that it's the only romance genre that's approached vampires and I knew it was never going to be a straight up horror novel. Still people pick it up thinking that is one or the other of these genres and then either find a pleasant surprise in it's differences or write it off because it has elements of the opposing genre (another reason it's been difficult to market. I've had it attributed to PNR like Twilight and Vampire Diaries despite the lack of similarities and written off because it doesn't suit the tropes of the genre of their choice. The animosity between the two genres due to such novels creates a bit a of shutoff and rejection point in some readers. )I never meant the book to be a genre stereotype. I wrote it to for what it was and what it was meant to be.


 ELBF  was written in my Anne Rice and Poppy Z. Brite days. I was lonely and I was struggling to understand myself as a person. I was Katja and I was Raven I wanted to find myself in the eyes, the heart, and the touch of another human being so badly that I couldn't see how inherently flawed that outlook was. I dwelled on my past and all of it's pain refusing to let it go and try to face my future and the being I could be. I couldn't see past all of these personal tragedies, these flaws that I'd pasted up all around me. Completing that first draft was one of the few really brave things I did in those days. I was and in many ways still am an introvert. I had few friends and the friends I had were not always going to be able understand where I was coming from because even I didn't understand it for a very long time. It is no wonder then that the original book and I suppose the current version are still colored by that outlook. It made many transitions over the years I reworked the novel but in the end the book is still about coming to terms with ones past and choosing to move on to the next thing. 


Let me try and explain the book as it is. Please be aware there will be spoilers ahead if you haven't read ELBF.

The first part of the novel focuses on her past because it's exactly where Katja's focus has remained for the majority of her life up until the point at which she meets Raven. In that past we meet Sebastian who colored her view of the world by being her first love, Sabine the daughter they had and lost which became a symbol of her hopes for the future, and of course the very flawed Anton Freneau. Anton really is the idealized partner a young woman seeks before she knows what she wants. He rushes in to rescue her from the tragedy of her mortal life only to fail her because he can't deal with his own issues. She isn't able to let him go because he was the person she pinned all of her hopes and dreams on without realizing that his promises were as flawed and impossible as Sabastian's not just because he is unable to fulfill those promises but because Katja hasn't come to terms with herself as a person.  Anton is so incapable of facing his own issues in fact, that he forces Katja to do the worst thing she has ever done in her life and instead of taking responsibility for his flaws dumps all of that onto Katja who doesn't even know all of it has become her debt in life. Full of regret and refusing to move on Katja creates a loop of memory and loss that she relives while physically going out into the world and acting without much thought or consciousness for her actions. 

When she meets Raven it's a strange experience because her mind is focused on Anton and Raven himself is focused on his own lost love Kathryn. Now some of this similarity is meant to be clearly in their minds and is meant to be read that way but some of that is actually there because Raven based his ideal partner elements on his ideal of what Katja was when he was a child (he only knew her through a painting and at a time of great conflict in his life) and according to what we understand of Anton's actions he placed a bit of his soul in Raven's family line. In this first meeting they're seeing what they want to see in each other and as a result things go much farther than either has intended and Katja runs. She runs because she hasn't moved on from her past and because she isn't really ready to confront the reality of her ideal partner in a man like Raven who isn't without flaws but is far more evolved in personal development. Raven mourns her loss because he struggles to feel grounded in a life that has had very few really solid people and she offered some sense of that solidarity by embodying both Kathryn and the base ideals he's been seeking his whole life. Their interaction over the distance is colored by this and their own evolving relationship with their pasts. This is where Marie comes in.

Marie Gaston is the horror of Katja's past balled up into one big nasty nightmare of a person and she is all of the things Katja has chosen to ignore so that she can dwell on the things she would rather see. She (and all of the other characters who are also damaged by their pasts) must face her in order to claim her future with Raven and the person she would be if she were to move on. Marie doesn't come into the novel as it stands until about a third of the way into it because (as in life) it isn't until Katja's confronted with a new path and romance with Raven that the elements of her past that could do the most damage rear their ugly head. It's also about this point that our other villian Trudeau comes in. Trudeau is Raven's personal demons and dreams attempting to offer him a distraction at the same time as digging open old wounds. The pair of these beings together are causing Raven serious damage in order to damage Katja and her potential future. we also meet Zero at about this point and he's Katja's confidence and a sort of conscience  trying to tell her that Anton's life was a lie and that it's poisoned all of the people he's touched. Zero's role is to get her focused on addressing her problems and past so that she can be the person she needs to be to battle and overcome our villains. 

Raven plays the role generally given to women in these novels not just to switch up gender roles but because he's actually an extension of Katja coming under attack and therefore not capable of facing the threats that have far more to do with Katja than himself. He's sort of a barely begun dream that doesn't have the strength yet to rescue her or himself from the threat. He is also representative of the aspects of masculinity which are not about battles and strength but emotions and the confusion they cause. These aspects get far less focus in novels than they should precisely because men are more often translated as "the strong one" and the one that has to attack the evil in order to fulfill his gender role. The truth is that men are not always the ones who are strongest and they deal with emotional turmoil just as much as women do. Raven is a more emotional side of the masculine and therefore not the stereotype. 


Ok that's a lot I'm sorry. Anyway the point is that book is about facing up to one's self and one's past. It isn't supposed to be a straight up romance novel and it isn't just about the horror these characters face either. It's about the personal journey of one woman and the people she affects as she takes that journey. The opposite is expected of it and I'm having to work out what I can change about the current book to make it more marketable without sacrificing the entirety of the story or huge chunks of the point to do it. I'm hoping my friend can help me see the bits that need work (for whatever reason) and perhaps the 2nd version will do better. I guess it boils down to wanting all of that work to have been all it needed to be it's best. It makes me anxious about my other writing despite the fact that this is my only work (with the exception of CGW of course) that has these sort of niche elements. everything else I've written might have genre bending elements but nothing I can see causing those pieces to be as hard to find readers for as ELBF has been. I suppose one could say that making this my first book means that I've always gone about things the hard way...anyway I'm a tad frustrated but still determined to see this book through. For the moment my focus is going to be on Apocrpyha and seeing that to market and perhaps working on Other Dangers if I can't work on CGW as a result of that frustration for the time being. 


I have Jodie, that fantasy story with the boy and his mother, a couple of YA books, the novel about a farming couple and their farm going all Lovecraft and a few other books to complete as well. I suppose that's another reason I want to be done with ELBF I spent so much time working on it or not at all that there are so many other projects backed up as a result. With luck all of out personal issues will play out to a positive end and that will allow me to relax too. Anyway now that I've gone on forever, I hope that things are good with all of my readers and those who follow me because they know me in person or online. I want the best for so many people. 

Apocrypha Cover Preview! So Tell Me What You Think!

3 Page Feature at Chuckles Book Cave (Previews for Two of my Next Books!)

This is one of my best features on a blog yet! If you'd like an early look at my short story collection Apocrypha and Cool Green Waters (Broken Edges #2) this is a good place to find them as well. Have a look: 

Page 1 a listing of interviews and blubs for Eyes Like Blue Fire as well as a few samples from the book : http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/featured-author-amanda-m-lyons.html
Page 2 A long piece from Eyes Like BLue Fire and a sample from Cool Green Waters  http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/featured-author-amanda-lyons-news.html

Page 3 A sample from Apocrypha, specifically a bit of Wendy Won't Go a ghost story: http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/new-release-apocrypha-by-amanda-m-lyons.html

Long Time No Net

Sorry I haven't been on for a while folks there was a bit of a gap in internet access but here I am again. The good news is that I've spent some of that extra free time getting things done. Along with getting more of Cool Green Waters written I've also been digging out some short stories I've had lying around and fixing them up. This means my plans for a short story collection could well see completion before even Cool Green Waters gets a completed first draft.


 I'm not sure what sort of title I want to use for it but all of the stories are clearly horror. The only real theme so far seems to be that all of the stories take place at night and have not so pleasant outcomes. As with many of my novel and story ideas there's also an edge of the surreal and dreams to them. At the moment there are 4 drafted stories and 1 other well on it's way to completion. The finished collection will have at least 8-12 stories and with any luck will be out in the next couple of months. I'll try and keep you posted on what I'm doing now that I'll be able to be on more. In the meantime I hope you're enjoying ELBF and looking forward to my other projects.


 If you have any questions feel free to reach my at any of the social networking links on this website!