Bella Roccaforte's Blog, page 13

INK: Sketches – A Novella

Hey everyone! I’ve been working on a novella that chronicles the events leading up to the start of INK: Fine Lines. There is a lot of background information about the characters as well as all an account of the terrible things that have happened that Shay has just chocked up to having a bad year.

I’ll be releasing the exclusive content chapter by chapter on Wattpad! Check it out and tell me what you think.

INK: Sketches on Wattpad

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Awesome Day – Met Sarra Cannon and Holly Ward

I LOVE Sarra Cannon’s books. That woman can write a story that will suck you in and leave you wanting more! We’ve chatted over the past six to eight months, we’ve Facebook’d and Tweeted. She really is such an amazing person. She’s attending RWA13# in Atlanta this weekend and since I happen to live very close to Atlanta I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to meet her in person.

This summer is going to be the summer of my heroes! First I got to meet Addison Moore at UtopYA which was amazing! I also met so many wonderful ladies that are so much fun that I can’t wait to spend time with them again. Now I get to meet Sarra Cannon in all her beautiful glory.

Unfortunately for her I spotted her in the lobby right after she had been driving all day. She was tired and really wanted to just go get ready but Mercury was still in retrograde rendering my brain pretty much useless. I walked up to her as though we were old friends and stood there — just staring. Honestly I was speechless. Which for those of you who know me you can pick your jaws up off the floor, but it’s true. I couldn’t talk for a solid 60 seconds. She introduced me to her husband and her adorable baby. He’s the sweetest little thing.

Sarra handled it like a pro, even actually knew who I was. I was completely bewildered by her magical powers, but then she reminded me that I have a profile picture. I have a pretty distinct look, there’s no running away from this mug! I’m sure she’s already handed my photo over to the police for fear that one day she’ll have to file a restraining order against me for fan-girling all over her. But I promise Sarra, I’m harmless – you just amaze me.

When the signing finally began, my brain wasn’t working much better, although I was pretty fast on my feet when my friend spilled water on Katie McGarry’s books, I sacrificed my tote bag to save the day. Although I must admit an umbrella would have been more absorbent. But hey I tried. Incidentally, Katie McGarry is so incredibly sweet. I can’t wait to read her book.

I made my way to Sarra’s table and got my books. Her parents were there and in all the chaos Sarra still managed to be wonderful and gracious. It was a bit crammed in that place. Then her friend Holly came to see her. She introduced me to to her too like we were old buddies. It was sublime, it was like I belonged. Sadly I’m a strange enough person there are rarely places I actually belong.

Now I spend a lot of time on Kindle Boards getting tips from authors and seeing what readers have to say. On occasion I’ll chime in. There are a few indies on there who are amazing about helping the little newbie indies. Helping with planning and strategising. Being there when we’ve blurbed all over ourselves – badly. Helping us with our terrible self-made book covers and really being a huge help overall. They really give back to the indie author community and I fear that a wishy washy post on KB thanking them will never be enough.

Well as it would happen one of the authors who is incredibly supportive of all of us baby authors is H.M. Ward. Admittedly I haven’t had a chance to read any of her books since I started reading her posts on KB. Totally on the TBR list though. As I was standing and talking to Sarra and her friend Holly, who I had already accosted with my author card that contains my book info were just chatting. Holly’s badge was obscured by the lighting and when it shifted I was able to see her name. Remember my brain was hanging out with Mercury in retrograde so it took a minute for me to put things together and rattled the words in my brain “Holly Ward, that sounds familiar.” That’s when I realized and I kind of blurted out after talking with her for like 5 minutes, “Wait, you’re H.M. Ward!” The clarification was necessary, because I’m sure she wasn’t aware :\. She confirmed my epiphany and I started gushing thanking her for all she does for indie authors. At that moment I felt the need to be the voice of the little just starting out indie authors everywhere and told her how much we appreciate her.

Then I figured I should make an exit fast before there were dual restraining orders out on me.

The long and short of is that I feel so honored and thankful to have been able to tell her “thank you” face to face. I know that if I actually manage to sell a hundred books (that aren’t friends and family) it will be in part because of her advice!

Overall fantastic day! I met three wonderful and incredibly gracious ladies who amaze me and of course didn’t manage to get a photo with any of the beautiful ladies like I would have loved to. But thankfully Mercury is no longer in retrograde.

 

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Chapter 1 The Intruder – Part 1

I hope you enjoy Part 1 of the Chapter 1 reveal! I will be revealing more every few days so check back!

1 The Intruder

Shay

The sound of the faucet dripping in the bath is nearly deafening, intermittently drowned out by the echo in the hollow shaft of the razor each time I pull it up my leg. I lean back in the tub, glancing at the purple candles on the ledge.

“My birthday,” I muse out loud, the two words riddled with sarcasm. The scent of lavender hangs so thick in the air a wave of nausea overwhelms me for a moment. I look over at the gift basket my coworkers gave me. “Fucking lavender.” Why am I doing this to myself?

Does anyone really know me? I’ve had the lavender discussion with Trish. Its shit like this that makes me feel so insignificant. Guilt creeps in as I remember the party tonight. It was a really nice birthday/pre-release party, celebrating the first issue of my comic Sanguine Specter later this week. My first time being picked up by a publisher, my first real shot at making a name for myself in the industry.  It’s all coming together, finally.

A year’s worth of work. A year’s worth of crazy nightmares that I’ve been translating into ink on pages. I smile when I think of Gabriel, the hero in my comic. I don’t know why I started dreaming about him, but I’m glad I did. I conjured up quite a tidbit: piercing gray eyes, perfectly disheveled hair and full lips that make you just want to nibble on them. He really is the kind of good-looking you only find in dreams. I lean back, closing my eyes tight, searching for relaxation; I just want to quiet my thoughts, maybe Gabriel will come to me tonight. Drip, drip, drip. I focus on the faucet. I sink into the calm.

The screen door slams and my eyes spring open with alarm and I hiss. “Somebody’s in my house.”

Slowly and as quietly as possible, I push myself out of the tub and put on my robe. “I need a weapon.” My first thought is to go for my gun, but I remember Dad asked me to let him hold on to it after what happened with Elise.

I search the bathroom, looking for something I can use to defend myself. There are footsteps in the kitchen, punctuating the urgency. I spot my loofa bath sponge on a stick and then consider the gift basket. I weigh the options, deciding I’ll have more luck with a blunt object than bath salts in the eyes.

Resting my hand on the doorknob, I stop and take several cleansing breaths, trying to remain as calm as possible. Dad always insisted that Elise and I learn to defend ourselves, but honestly I never expected to need those skills. Okay Shay, try not to let the panic negate your training. It doesn’t help that I had one too many espresso martinis.

Carefully I open the bathroom door and move down the hallway, resting the balls of my feet on the tile first to hide my footsteps. I startle at the sound of a cabinet door closing. I swallow, but the lump forming in my throat only gets bigger. My body grows more rigid with each step down the hallway. Reaching the end, I spot my cell phone on the kitchen table, but there is no way to retrieve it without being seen by my would-be attacker. My back is pressed flat against the wall, all of my senses dancing with fear and anticipation.

Looking at the front door I consider running, but quickly realize I have no shoes, no car keys, and the closest neighbor is a mile down the road. Shit, shit, shit, what do I do? What can I do? I raise my weapon above my head as though it’s some medieval axe wielded by a mad knight. On the count of three, one, two, deep breath, I mistakenly yell out, “THREE”.

On what would have been “four” I burst around the corner, instantly forgetting years of training in Kali. I’m swinging the loofa wildly at the intruder, hitting him repeatedly in the head, while screaming a string of expletives at the top of my lungs. This is apparently what I learned from martial arts.

I feel some satisfaction as the wood handle vibrates with each thump to his skull. The intruder shields his head while turning around to subdue me. “Shay! Stop it.” He grabs my arms and looks straight at me. “Shay, baby, it’s okay!” he pleads.

My eyes are wide and burning with anger. “Aiden? What the hell? Breaking into my house?” I struggle free from his hold and turn away to hide the evidence of the relief, hope, and pain cycling through my mind. Then there’s the familiar conditioned response of excitement that returns whenever Aiden does. I wish I could stuff that down, but it’s just part of who I am.

“Happy birthday.” Aiden holds back a laugh as he picks up a bouquet of flowers from the kitchen counter. He flashes that wry, irresistible smile. I can’t help myself from looking back at him and his gorgeous form.

He’s let his caramel hair grow out to his shoulders. God I love when his hair is longer. His body is as perfect as ever, possibly even more so. He somehow looks both leaner and more substantial at the same time. His arms are so strong; I love the way they hold me. When he smiles, his amber eyes sparkle with all the mystery of who Aiden Roth really is.

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this sneak preview of Chapter 1, Part 1 I hope you enjoyed it! If you missed the prologue on Momma Says Read you can give that a quick read here.

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Getting Ready for the Release of INK: Fine Lines

As the day is rapidly approaching that I release INK: Fine Lines I’m finding that my level of excitement is growing like crazy! I truly hope that everyone enjoys it when it does come out. I will begin sending out review ARCs this week in hopes that bloggers will have have some time to give it a read and tell me what they think!

On Monday MommaSaysRead.com posted the Prologue to INK: Fine Lines as a sneak peak! I got a lot of great feeback, but one thing I did find is that it gave the impression that this book is only about the horror of it all. I promise it’s not. I will be posting chapter 1 later today for everyone to take a look at and decide whether they are interested!

I continue to go through the line edits on Book 1 and over the weekend I managed to get more than halfway through the rough draft of Book of 2. Boy my characters are doing some crazy things!

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Runner Up in the Timid Monster Judge a Book by it’s Cover Contest!

INK: Fine Lines nearly won it’s first contest. I still feel pretty cool having been included considering it hasn’t been released yet. I also don’t mind losing to Addison Moore who is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met!

Thank you so much Timid Monster for letting me be part of the contest, it was so exciting for me to be part of it and to see how folks all rallied for me. There was definitely some stiff competition to contend with and I’m honored just to have my cover displayed along side some of the “big dogs”!

Thank you to everyone that voted for my cover, it really meant a lot to me and made me feel so good knowing that I have supporters. Stay tuned because INK: Fine Lines will be coming in August and I’m already a good way through INK: book 2. I promise there is a name coming down the pipeline, I’m just waiting for it to tell me what it is.

Thanks again guys, It means so much to me!

You can check out my runner up status here at Timid Monster!

 

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The First Time

Well I hit the send button on INK: Fine Lines last night. I think I’m so nervous because of the unknown factor. I don’t know what to expect. Of course I have all kinds of insecurities. Like what if she returns the manuscript and says that I should never write again, not even an email! it could happen you know.

Once I’m fully immersed in the editing process I’ll have a better idea if I can meet my tentative release date. Boy I hope I can! Then I’ll have a good idea about the release date for my next novel, number two will be smoother. I still don’t have the name for book 2, I have  few things rattling around in my brain. It will come to me when it’s time.

I will be anxious for the next few days until I get her feedback on the beta read. Then hopefully my nerves will loosen a bit. My poor family, I can really feel some heavy mood swings coming on. I hope they all survive.

I’m going to try busy myself with my day job and working on book 2. I’d like to have the rough draft finished by July 1. Pretty aggressive, but I think I can do it. If I can’t that’s ok too.

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Book Cover

Whoa ok! So I think I have this book cover part under wraps and completed. It’s an amazing feeling getting it completed and seeing something visual like your cover that represents all of your hard work.

It’s rather unnerving though knowing that if you choose the wrong cover, font, images color, etc it could kill your chances of folks wanting to read your book.

Nonetheless, I will exhale now and get back on revisions! Monday is rapidly approaching.

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Getting Started

I’m quickly learning that there is so much more to writing a book then just writing! There’s social media to set up, websites, Twitter, Facebook, book covers, editors and so so much more. It’s all still very exciting. I’ve finished my first book INK Fine Lines and working on the final revisions before the editor gets a hold of it. I won’t lie, I’m nervous as hell that she’s going to get it, hate it and the whole thing will need scratched.

I’ve also put my book cover on Kindle Boards for feedback, I think I’ve got most of that worked out and I’ve started writing book 2!

I’m really looking forward to this new adventure with Shay, Eli & Aiden and I hope you all come along with me!

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