Riann Colton's Blog

Good-bye 2013

Another year has come and gone. 2013 was one of those half-full, half-empty year. I released Sarah Mine and was pleasantly surprised by how many of you liked it (thanks!). My city and province was smacked hard by Mother Nature with a flood of all floods including one of my good friend’s basement – and us Albertans without an Arc kicking around somewhere. On the plus side I think I’ve determined what causes the majority of my migraines – good bye soda pop…you’ve been a good friend with your sister vodka and brother rum.

Now with 2014, I have a clean slate. And that means…the dreaded R-word.

Resolution.

I’m not going to make a promise to lose weight or eat healthy. Sorry…laughter in my head. Let’s do something a little easier to do. Sorry…more laughter in my head.

I have pretty much one goal for 2014. Write more.

Write more books, write more on my site, write more resumes (cough). I’ve got a novella on the go right now…right this second (well not right right now but when I get off this computer and stop watching end of the world movies on Space) and I have to figure out what to do with Sarah & Hill next. I have an idea…I just need to flush it out so it doesn’t suck massively.

So here’s to a brand new calendar (mine has wolves on it) and a resolution to write.

Wait…it’s December!

Gadzooks has it really been a month since I’ve posted anything?

Well that’s just an epic fail, isn’t it?

I’m trying to come up with a good excuse. I did participate in NaNo. Unfortunately the attempt to juggle two stories last…a day and I kinda got distracted by another project.

I have been lectured sternly over peppermint hot chocolate to get off my ass and do more with Sarah and Hill as I’m missing the boat. I’m not entirely sure what to do with them. Is that okay to admit? I do want to something with them but dudes…I’m drumming my fingers on my awesome desk in frustration. While I know what I want to do it’s not quite working out.

And if I can’t do Sarah & Hill there’s plenty of people in my head so I should be able to do something. Anything!

Dear Santa…for Christmas I’d like a couple of plot lines in my stocking.

Kthnxbye.

Cover Reveal – Jay Noel’s Dragonfly Warrior

I’m a little excited to do this (and I never have before). I’ve known Jay Noel for a couple of years now though I haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting him. I’m currently reading the ARC for this and even though I’m not much of a steampunk-samurai warrior story kind of girl, I am enjoying it, which says a lot. Dragonfly Warrior is coming out in the new year after a lot of bumps a long the way.

And so I happily show you his amazing cover…it’s so ridiculously gorgeous

 

Dragonfly Warrior -

The Mechanica Wars:

Savage Machines Are Afoot…

At the age of twenty, Kanze Zenjiro’s bloody footprints mark the bodies of those who stood in his way to protect the throne of Nihon. Now, the tyrannical Iberian Empire is bent on destroying his kingdom, and they send their steam-powered giants and iron spiders against him.

Zen embarks on a quest that takes him on the most dangerous journey of his life. To succeed, Zen must live up to his nickname, the Dragonfly Warrior, and kill all his enemies with only a sword and a pair of six-guns. He is called upon to somehow survive a test of faith and loyalty in a world so cruel and merciless, it borders on madness.

Book Information: Dragonfly Warrior is a steampunk adventure like no other. It’s a dynamic mix of Asian and European mythology, the Wild West, martial arts, traditional fantasy, and high powered steam action that will keep you turning the pages.

Dragonfly Warrior is the first book of The Mechanica Wars, and will debut on January 6, 2014.

Author Bio:

After doing some freelance writing and editing for more than a dozen years, Jay decided to stop procrastinating and pursue his dream of being a novelist. He’s been blogging for over eight years, and even had a comedy podcast syndicated all over the internet. All of that was fun, but all the steampunk-inspired stories in his head just wouldn’t leave him alone. Jay spends his days working in medical sales, but he can be found toiling over his laptop late at night when all is quiet.

He draws inspiration from all over: H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Shakespeare, Ray Bradbury, Douglas Adams, and Isaac Asimov.

And Jay loves cookies.

Jay Noel’s website: www.jaynoel.com

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Thankful

Today it’s Thanksgiving in Canada and there’s much in my life I’m thankful for.

My family, my friends, hair dye.

Wait. What?

Yes. I am thankful for hair dye. See when I was twenty-one I started to go grey. I’ve had almost 20 years experience with hiding the evidence and more work is going into this vanity of mine. Yesterday I was an adult at my friend’s daughter’s birthday when one of her cutie 8 year old friends looked at me and asked “Are you her grandma?”

Time to do the roots.

So yes. I am thankful for hair dye.

I’m thankful for my nephews who give me unconditional love because they’re awesome.

I’m thankful for every person who has bought a copy of Sarah Mine so that means I’m thankful to you. Yes you. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who’s posted a review, thank you for enjoying Sarah & Hill so much you ask me if there’s going to be more. So thank you because you make this job awesome.

And Canada…Happy Thanksgiving. Everyone else…happy Monday.

Sarah Mine Giveaway

Three Chicks and Their Books have just reviewed Sarah Mine and boy howdy…it’s all kinds of awesome.

There’s also a giveaway for a Kindle copy of Sarah Mine. Check it out and enter!

Raised by Wolves Trilogy

Over the long weekend I was looking for something to read. Somehow I discovered the Raised By Wolves series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

I guess I was in a paranormal ya mood because after I read the first book in the series, I went and bought the second two books for my Kindle. Let’s just say I was up until 10:30 am reading the second book because I couldn’t put it down. No wonder I went to bed at 9:30 last night. I was bagged from reading this series and it had me gnashing my teeth.

Here’s the Amazon blurb for Raised By Wolves (book one):

At the age of four, Bryn watched a rogue werewolf brutally murder her parents. Alone in the world, she was rescued and taken in by the mysterious Callum, the alpha of his werewolf pack. Now fifteen, Bryn’s been raised as a human among werewolves, adhering to pack rule (mostly). Little fazes her.

But the pack’s been keeping a secret, and when Bryn goes exploring against Callum’s direct orders, she finds Chase, a newly turned teen Were locked in a cage. Terrifying memories of the attack on her mom and dad come flooding back. Bryn needs answers, and she needs Chase to get them. Suddenly, all allegiances to the pack no longer matter.  It’s Bryn and Chase against the werewolf world, whatever the consequences.

Book Two is Trial by Fire:

There can only be one alpha.

Bryn is finally settling into her position as alpha of the Cedar Ridge Pack—or at least, her own version of what it means to be alpha when you’re a human leading a band of werewolves. Then she finds a teenage boy bleeding on her front porch. Before collapsing, he tells her his name is Lucas, he’s a Were, and Bryn’s protection is his only hope.

But Lucas isn’t part of Bryn’s pack, and she has no right to claim another alpha’s Were.  With threats—old and new—looming, and danger closing in from all sides, Bryn will have to accept what her guardian Callum knew all along. To be alpha, she will have to give in to her own animal instincts and become less human. And, she’s going to have to do it alone.

Bryn faces both the costs, and the rewards, of love and loyalty, in this thrilling sequel to Raised by Wolves.

The final book in the trilogy is Taken By Storm:

In the eye of a storm stands Bryn, the alpha of the Cedar Ridge werewolf pack. She is young. Female. Human. Physically weaker than any werewolf, she could never survive a battle with another alpha, the strongest, fiercest, and canniest of his pack.

Yet she cannot refuse a summons from the werewolf Senate. A rogue werewolf is attacking humans. The risk of exposure threatens to destroy pack life, and the center of the crisis is Cedar Ridge territory—her own lands.

Bryn has no choice but to attend the meeting, a gathering of the most powerful werewolves on the continent. The subject is the rogue wolf, but Bryn knows the other packs want what she has. Her territory. Her females. Her pack.

They want her death.

Werewolf law prevents the other alphas from making a direct attack. It also prevents her former alpha, the mysterious and powerful Callum, from coming to her aid. But it doesn’t prevent Bryn from knowing what she wants. To keep her lands. To protect her pack.

To survive.

What was so great about this series was that the author took the werewolves and gave me something new. The author upped the stakes with every book. There were times when Bryn made me face palm but those decisions were always justified later on. Yes this a series geared for young teens but I’m (*cough*) not anywhere near being a teen anymore and I loved the books. I loved the pacing. Where some series will take place over a couple of months. So a book published a year later only takes place a few months later. Not so with this series. A year went by in publishing terms and Bryn was a year older. I didn’t need to see her entire journey between book one and two. I liked seeing her a year older and knowing because there is further growth of her character in each book. And without the crutch of Callum (who is aaaawesome) who could tell her what to do and how to get out of these jams she found herself in, but he let her learn and grown on her own. The characters are all wonderful and I have a massive reader crush on Callum (who totally deserves his own adult book…just sayin’). The characters are complex and the series is so layered that I was traumatized by the time I reached the end. I mean…that was it. Just over. I had nothing more to read in the series. I was all “Wait…nooooo!!!!!” I wanted more. I still want more.

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Amazon.com Widgets

 

Sophomore Slump (IWSG)

I seem to be in a sophomore slump.

I was hacking my way through a story and came to the grinding realization that nothing was happening. That was…how to bring your book to a grinding halt.

Then I started another story last night and at the end of the scene, while I was chortling over a line I wrote, I wasn’t exactly sure why I wasn’t that happy. Upon waking up, somehow swaddled in my sheets (tad uncomfortable) I knew why I wasn’t happy. I had just written a scene involving everything I dislike. Good girl acting out of character, a douche-bag hero who, I kid you know, treats her like a puck bunny and…a douche-bag hero.

My heroine has no inkling to be sexy bad girl even for a hot hero. And I have no desire what-so-ever to redeem a douche-bag hero.

So as I untangled myself from my sheets, I tried to figure out how to untangle these two characters who were going down the stabby road…the one where I stabbed them to death then lit the story on fire while chanting around the fire “die demon die!” Okay the whole puck bunny thing had to go up in my demon cleansing flames. Just…lame. Ugh…nothing annoys me more than the good girl pretending to be bad story. There needs to be a better reason for such out of character behaviour….ahhhh motivation. And my douche-bag hero…why can’t he be a good guy? Just a simple, nice good boy hockey player? Why does he have to be a bad boy? Because I write NA?  Okay….maybe a little bad. But not douche-y. Bad boys can be redeemed. Douches need to go through a demon cleanse.

Okay. So their meet can’t be this puck bunny thing. First….eeew. Skeevy. And what? I was going to miraculously cure him of this misunderstanding how? What I was coming up with was so cliché and blah that it’s no wonder I twisted myself up in my sheets.

As I’m writing this post something new is forming in my head. Same location but different scenario. Cliché? Maybe. Probably. Done before? Maybe. Probably. Making me want to stab my characters and light them on fire? Well…no. Phew. I can fix a bad beginning. I can’t fix characters who make me want to…well…stab them and set them on fire in a demon cleansing ritual. And had I gone that much further into the story, that’s where I’d be. And peeps, once you do that ritual it’s hard to come back. For some reason it salts the manuscript so no further words can be written.

Mini-update: No lie I’m liking this story a lot more. Well, I haven’t met the hero yet but I’m not looking to stab the heroine so this is feeling promising.

Alex J. Cavanaugh‘s Insecure Writer’s Support Group is where insecure writers get to share their insecurites. Because who doesn’t like doing that on a public forum? Well, aside from writers.

When It Stalls

I’ve been writing.

Well…trying.

It hasn’t been going well. There’s been a lot of stalled and I may have realized why when in sheer defeat I tapped out “You ever get the feeling you’re writing a book about nothing?” on Facebook. I don’t think there’s a lot of conflict in this work in progress. Okay. Let me rephrase that. I don’t think there’s any conflict in this work in progress. Nothing is keeping them apart. Nothing is really keeping them together. It’s very…blah.

Crap!

And while my intention was to have a finished book by the end of summer, I’d rather it not be total crap. I like my heroine. I like my hero. But something’s missing. At least I know what it is. I don’t know how to fix it without a lot of deleting of say…everything. So before I do anything drastic, I’m going to quietly walk away from it to figure out the fixin’ part.

And in my time of writer’s woe, I found myself opening another WIP. As long as I don’t screw this one up, I may still have something finished by the end of summer. It’s only a month. Piece of cake. *sobs softly into hands*

The Reward System

I just finally got NetFlix. This probably wasn’t the wisest thing for a procrastinator extraordinaire, but there it is.

And because I now have NetFlix, I have access to some pretty cool things. Like Torchwood. How the hell did I not know about this show? Yes, yes, I knew he’s utterly beautiful but I didn’t know how awesome the show was. Do you think when John Barrowman was born, God just kinda dusted off his hands, lifted them palms out and went “Done!” Because holy cow…he’s beautiful.

Back to the point. So my friend Tawny Stokes (name drop! Boom!) said I should use NetFlix as a reward system. Write 500 words, watch something. Well, let’s be honest…that’s never going to work for me. But once I discovered the geek-y awesomeness of Torchwood I went “There…that’s my reward. Meet my daily goal and I get to watch Torchwood.”

I just now watched my second episode of it. It isn’t because I haven’t been meeting my goal, it’s because I’ve been meeting it so late at night that I can’t watch it and if I don’t watch it that day…doesn’t count. In order to finish Baby, I’m Yours by the end of summer (my goal so I can get this book out) I need to write 1,068 words a day. It would’ve been 807 if I had been writing for the first half of the month but no…I had to dick around.

On Thursday, for the first time since Monday, I got to watch Torchwood. I met my daily 1,068 (actually…exceeded it a bit but it doesn’t rollover. Tomorrow I’m gonna have to do 1,068 again.

The scene I wrote made me tear up and I got to watch some awesomeness. Thumbs up to me! It used to be a gold star on my calendar years ago…now it’s NetFlix…hey…it’s got stars!

Contest Winners

First of all: thanks to those who participated in the NAmazing Adventure and for dropping by my site. I greatly appreciate it.

Secondly there are some winners! I like prizes!! *throws confetti* (because who doesn’t like confetti!)

A big shout out to Heather S. who won Quest 3. Huzzah!

And a big shout out to Elena K. who won $25 gift card smackaroos with Amazon.com. Holla!

I apologize for kind of slacking but let’s just say I don’t tolerate pain well and it makes me really whine-y and nobody needed that here. I didn’t even whine on Facebook…this is impressive. (This sounds all dramatic and everything but really it was just an ingrown toenail…I told you…I don’t tolerate pain and for a clumsy girl this is never pretty.) But I gotta say for my first blog hop it was kinda kick ass. Thanks to NAAlley for hosting us. I am soooo glad I wasn’t organizing it. Phew.