Serenity Valle's Blog, page 6

The Fantastical Life of Serenity-Paperback Now Available!

The Fantastical Life of Serenity-Paperback Now Available!

The paperback of my book The Fantastical Life of Serenity is out a few days early! Click the post title to buy!

If anyone is interested in a signed copy, please comment on this thread, or e-mail me at serenity.valle@yahoo.com so I will have an idea how many books I will need to order.

Signed copy’s price will be based on my costs plus shipping to you. Prices TBA.

Love & Books,

~Serenity

Fantastical Paperback coming soon!

Coming soon! The Fantastical Life of Serenity in paperback! I will update here as the process continues!

Interview with Author CS Janey

Q: So, tell the readers a bit about you.

A: First, hi! Thanks for interviewing me.

As for me, I love to write. Romance, specifically. I’ve always been a big fan of ‘happy ever afters’ because it is just a lovely feeling. I read to escape and even if the characters have very real problems, it’s always great to see things work out in the end! I’m a mother of one son, he is 4. I’m a forever student, as I love learning and hope to finish school eventually. I have Asperger’s. And, according to my significant other, I’m a pain in the butt. I’m good with that, as long as he loves me anyway. *laughs*

Q: How did you come up with the idea for your book, ‘Surrender To You’? How did you come up with the name of it?

A: That’s a story, for sure! ‘Surrender To You’ is an adult contemporary romance and started off as a completely different story than how it ended up. It was the love story between Stefan and Elizabeth. They were both from the same small hometown and had dated previously. The story starts five years after they’d gone their separate ways. I can’t really go into that much without giving away some of the plot, but as I wrote the story – which is from Elizabeth’s POV 100% – it changed. Things come out and soon, another man named Simon, comes into her life. I’ve had it said that the story is a love triangle, but I don’t think of it that way. I see it as a woman who had been lost for quite some time having to decide between a man from her past or someone new who is wonderful in his own way. I think it’s a very real story that many will appreciate.

As for the title, I came up with it looking from Elizabeth’s POV. Stefan wants her, she’s the woman he’s always loved and he just wants her surrender. For her to give into their love, no matter what has happened before.

Q: What is your favourite colour? (This must be read in a British accent ala Monty Python)

A: I love all things British! As for my favorite color, it’s purple. Which amuses me because it’s the color of royalty. Although I’d have to say that dark green – such as Emerald and Jade – also rank up there with purple. They are beautiful colors!

Q: Do you have any special rituals or quirks when writing? Special foods or drinks? Etc.

A: I’m quirky in general. I listen to music 24/7 and cannot write without music – but the style of music doesn’t matter – and it must be so loud that you fear for my hearing. I wouldn’t say I have anything else I need besides that though.

Q: What was the easiest part about writing ‘Surrender To You’?

A: The way the story just flowed out. Even though it changed, it was easy to go with it and let the story go where it wanted. I didn’t have to struggle to get the words onto paper, which was the first story this has ever happened to me with. The characters were there and they let me know what they thought. It was nice!

Q: What was the hardest part?

A: Trying to make sure I wrote the story in a way that was understandable, while not sacrificing my own writing style. I prefer dialogue over lots of description, scenes where you find out what these people are like without needing Elizabeth to say them herself. The story is about her and even though there are lots of people in her life, I didn’t see the need to overshare about them. Finding the balance between giving the reader enough info and what I feel is necessary to know can be difficult!

Q: Do you like bacon?

A: Yes, I LOVE bacon. And prefer it baked over fried, which is also much healthier apparently. Either way though, I’ll eat it!

Q: How long have you been writing, or wanting to write and when did you actually write your first story?

A: I’ve been writing a long time – since childhood. I can’t say the exact year but probably 8 or 9, so close to 20 years now. I don’t know the first story I wrote, but the first one I sent out to be published had to be when I was about 10 or so. I did get rejected, but the person who reviewed my story also wrote back with ideas on how to improve. At the time, I didn’t know how rare it was to get a personal reply – I was too sad they rejected my story. *laughs*

Q: Do you have a favourite character from your book/books? If so, who and why?

Q: Are you working on anything else right now? If so, can you tell us anything about it?

A: Yes! I have a LOT of stories I’m working on – I bounce around when I’m stuck on one story so I have way too many projects.

However, I am working on writing the story after ‘Surrender To You’ – which is tentatively titled ‘Straight To You’ and is Grace’s romance novel. You meet Grace near the beginning of Elizabeth’s story as her best friend. I can’t say anything else because it would give away some things in the first book! I’ve written about 5.5k words of it so far and my friends who read as I write love it! The male MC is also terrific.

The stories are going to be considered a series, but they will all be standalone with their own HEA’s. They are also in a continual timeline and come after the events in the first book. So while you can read them on their own, in order would be recommended to avoid spoilers.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to tell the readers of this interview?

Yes, absolutely! And thank you again for your time

‘Surrender To You’ comes out September 1st! I hope to have it in eBook and ready in paperback the day of release. It will be available on as many platforms as I can possibly make it

To add it to your TBR list on Goodreads, go here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17904728-surrender-to-you

You can also find me at any of the below locations:

http://www.facebook.com/authorcsjaney – best way to keep up to date with the book news

http :// www . twitter . com / csjaney

http :// authorcsjaney . wordpress . com

Please feel free to tweet/follow me, like my page on FB, follow my blog – and at ANY time, send me a message! I always respond and love making new friends.

Thank you so much for “coming by”! I would also like to announce that C.S. Janey is currently running a promotion for other authors to be listed in the back of her book! This would be a great way to get your name out there! Just check out the link below to sign up!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OjaGtCrakJf5LCVIYL-kmoDlPuMGrxHnF8Qb6cSefrs/viewform

Check out her links! Discover a new read!

Love & Books,

~Serenity

Author Interview: Dominica Malcolm

Everyone, please welcome Dominica to my blog! I recently did an interview with this lovely lady and here it is!

Q: So, tell the readers a bit about you.

I currently live in Malaysia and enjoy it as a base for travelling, because it’s a lot cheaper to visit places in Asia for short trips than it was when I lived in Australia, where I was born. But I probably picked up the travel bug when I was a kid, because my parents were from the US and I got to visit the country three times in my youth.

My writing background is in screenwriting, and I tended to write more contemporary stuff, despite being more interested in sci-fi and fantasy TV shows and movies. These days I like to combine my sci-fi/fantasy with contemporary settings and call myself a speculative fiction writer.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for your book, Adrift? How did you come up with the name of it?

It was and idea that was built out of a few different things. Originally, I wrote a short film screenplay called Cracks. It was meant to be something I could film with a friend of mine, who I wanted to act opposite. He had suggested I play a pirate because I already had a pirate-looking outfit. Then, since I was in a writing competition at the time, and the prompt that came up was “cracks”, my mind somehow went, “I know! A crack in time. This pirate is a time-traveller.” And that was the basic premise. I later developed some more ideas through the competition, which is where I ended up exploring her background and introducing her female lover. And the mermaid. You can thank my friend Sally Bell (also a writer) for that aspect.

My editor named it. I can’t remember what my original title was, just that it was longer than that but basically meant the same thing. Adrift took hold because of the sailing theme. If I get around to turning it into a series, the titles I have in mind for the next two are Careening and Anchored.  

Q: What is your favourite colour? (This must be read in a British accent ala Monty Python)

Purple! I like all shades, but my favourite is a bold purple. That tends to be the colour I wear.

Q: Do you have any special rituals or quirks when writing? Special foods or drinks? Etc.

Not particularly. Sometimes I listened to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, or found other related music to get me in the right mood as I worked on Adrift. And while I was editing, I had “What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor” playing in my head for a while. It’s not quite from the right era I was writing about, but it makes me think of pirates.

Q: What was the easiest part about writing Adrift?

Probably a good portion of the book that took place in Washington, DC. In particular, when Jaclyn (my protagonist) visits the National Air and Space Museum, and has lunch at a tavern, with Max Fuentes (a character created by my editor, Jeremiah Murphy, well before I started writing Adrift). Reason being is that, whilst I changed some of the dialogue and edited some of the details out, as well as changed the order of when they visited those places, Jeremiah and I had roleplayed as our characters in Washington and I was writing mostly from my memory of the events.

Q: What was the hardest part?

The historical aspect, especially when it came to writing scenes on sailing vessels. I didn’t know that much about sailing prior to writing so it required a lot of research, and feedback from two people who were sailors who’ve sailed on vessels like the ones I was writing about. It was good being able to go back over the novel whilst editing and pick out errors I’d made when describing parts of the vessels myself, though. Or when I realised I used “Sail ho!” in the wrong context (thankfully I fixed that!)

Q: Do you like bacon?

I do! But I don’t eat it much because I live in a predominantly Muslim country, which means most restaurants don’t serve it, you can’t order it on pizzas except at one specialty place I’m aware of, and buying it from a supermarket means entering the non-halal section and using a separate checkout.

Q: How long have you been writing, or wanting to write, and when did you actually write your first story?

It’s hard to say really. I think most people during some time in their life say to themselves, “I’d like to write a novel one day.” I was like that, but never really had the motivation to write more than maybe 5,000 words when I tried. The main reason I was able to follow through with Adrift was because it seemed like so many people were interested in it.

I’ve been writing on and off since I was a kid, though. I can’t remember my specific age, but my primary school had a whole file full of stories I had written. I think I might’ve even started working on something that was novella length on my primary school’s Mac. It was a pretty long story considering how old I was at the time.

I tend to flit between different creative pursuits so I’ve rarely dedicated most of my time to writing. And even when I do focus on writing, I flit between different kinds. Blog, memoir, screenplays, short stories, flash fiction, poetry, humour, stand-up comedy, lyrics… I even co-wrote a one act stage play once. I suppose I also wrote some in primary school too.

Q: Do you have a favourite character from your book? If so, who and why?

I asked my editor this question the other week and he found it hard because I have so many interesting characters. Is it conceited for an author to say that about their own writing, even if they’re using their editor’s words?

I think the character who really ran away and solidified her place in the story was Nikki. I don’t know if I’d go as far as saying she’s my favourite, but I had no plans to introduce someone like her in my original outline. She doesn’t enter Adrift until the second half of the novel, but became so integral to the story. A lot of what she does to influence Jaclyn was meant to done by another character, Dick, until I realised it really wasn’t right for his characterisation. So I liked Nikki a lot for the way she took hold of me and made me write her. She was a great character to write.

From a reader’s perspective, going by how I reacted when I read over the novel while editing, I think the strongest reaction I had was to Jaclyn. It might not be easy to connect with her, but she did have me going, “OMG how are you going to get yourself out of this mess?” Because clearly I had forgotten between the time I wrote it and when I edited that part.

Q: Are you working on anything else right now? If so, can you tell us anything about it?

I have a few things going but, writing-wise, I don’t know what I’ll finish first. There’s a novel that is very different from Adrift that has sections written, a couple of anthologies, and a short story collection that is a spin-off from Adrift. Those stories centre around the main mermaid who appears in the novel.

But I need to take a little break from writing while I finish editing a music video I filmed in Honolulu last February. As in 2012. The group has been patiently waiting for me to finish working on my novel. They didn’t have to wait so long for the first video I filmed with them! But if anyone wants to watch that, they can find it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsnasDsX_G4

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to tell the readers of this interview?

I’m currently crowdfunding for marketing and related costs for Adrift by selling pre-orders of the book in ebook and paperback format, which will go to people prior to the release date. Anyone who orders through Indiegogo will also get the original screenplays, which I will not be making available anywhere else. If anyone wants to have a look at that, as well as the video of me talking about the book, they can go to http://igg.me/at/adrift.

For people who would like a taste for what they can expect before placing any orders, I made the first chapter available to download from there. You can also read a couple of my mermaid short stories. One is online and readable for free at Plunge Magazine (http://www.plungemagazine.com/issue-one/short-stories/bridging-the-divide), and the other was published in Fae Fatales: A Fantasy Noir Anthology (http://www.amazon.com/Fae-Fatales-Fantasy-Anthology-Edition/dp/0473243172).

If anyone wants to find out more about me they can go to my web site/blog at http://dominica.malcolm.id.au, and they can follow me on Twitter (@dommalcolm) or Facebook (http://www.fb.com/DominicaMalcolm).

Adrift is also listed on Goodreads, for anyone wanting to add it to their “to-read” list (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18168978-adrift).

Lastly, it’s a giveaway! Three more days to enter, here: http://dominica.malcolm.id.au/cover-reveal-for-adrift-crowdfunding-on-indiegogo-and-a-giveaway/

Thank you, Dominica, for taking time to “sit down” with me! It was a pleasure having you on my blog and I wish you all the best! Check out Dominica’s links, send her some love!

Love & Books,

~Serenity

The New Assistant Editor for C & D Editing!

The New Assistant Editor for C & D Editing!

Guess who is the new assistant editor for C & D Editing? Yep, that would be moi!  (click the subject for the about page) I’ve been helping behind the scenes for a while now, and now I’m official! C & D offers an array of editing options with competitive prices AND they are joys to work with! Check them out at: C & D Editing and tell them Serenity sent you!

1,000 Likes Giveaway Winner Chosen!

Thank you all who entered! Crystal of VA won! Yay Crystal! Don’t worry if you didn’t though, I love giveaways, so watch for more of them in the (near) future!

Serenity’s Pirate Crew-Street Team

Consider joining my street team! Serenity’s Pirate Crew (the good kind of pirates, not the ones that steal books!). Help me spread the word! Just go to the shiny new “STreet Team” tab on the top of this page to sign up! I will ♥ you forever! Eventually, once the team is built, I hope to offer exclusives (ie: teasers, contests, swag) to members of the street team. Come, join, hoist the colours and let’s sail!

1000 FB Likes Giveaway!

I have reached (over) 1000 likes on my facebook page! To celebrate, I’m having a giveaway! Click the photo to go to my giveaway!

Winner of the 7 July contest!

Congrats Stefanie! You win the bookmark! I did, in fact, get my driver’s license on 7 July 1989. Watch for an email!

The Fantastical Life of Serenity Blog Tour & Release Week Event-Play for a chance to win!

Ok readers! Here’s another chance for you to win a little something from The Fantastical Life of Serenity: A collection of short stories about what could be… but not quite is.

All who answer CORRECTLY will be randomly entered to win a signed bookmark! Answer this in the comments:

What momentous coming of age event happened to me on this day in 1989?

Love & Books,

~Serenity