Angela Colsin's Blog, page 23

Link Exchange (and a few other updates!)

So after a generally long silence on my end (I’ve mostly been busy planning things out lately, which has kept me highly preoccupied!) I’ve had a few ideas that I wanted to post up here.

The first was to mention an idea I had that I thought might be helpful to some lesser known indie authors such as myself when it comes to getting a little more exposure, either for themselves in general, or for their publications. It’s also pretty simple–a link exchange.

I know that’s not necessarily an original idea. People exchange links/promote others all the time. But regardless of the originality, it’s something I’d like to start doing with other indie authors out there–which in essence means if you’d like to ask me to make a post promoting your work, I’d like to hear from you!



I think the best part of this idea is that it’s free. I wouldn’t charge to make any posts for anyone, and if you wanted to do something in return, you could simply link me back. Granted, you may want to do this with another author who writes for the same genre as you (that way your established fans don’t scratch their heads wondering why they’re seeing you promoting a thriller book when you primarily write romance) but that’s a given.

Another factor is that my blog isn’t precisely Grand Central Station! But it’s a start, and everyone has to start somewhere!

So if you’re an indie author (particularly of the romance variety) feel free to leave a comment here, or send me an email to angelacolsin at gmail.com (switching the at for an @ sign of course!) and tell me what you’d like for me to take a look at!

And like always, if anyone has any thoughts to add on the matter, feel free to make some suggestions! :D

Moving on, I’m also planning out some more pages for my blog here (not to mention deciding on opening my own website, which is a different story). Some of those pages included a character page because I now have plenty of them to put up. Of course, I have to decide what information to involve in listing them, but I thought it might be a nice addition to add here when the content of The Crucible series is growing.

In the meantime, I’m also jotting down the start of Book Three, though it’s still too soon to give any real details on that–aside from the fact that I’m having a ton of fun with my ideas and the characters so far!

But I hope these updates find everyone doing well, and again, if you’d like to talk to me about doing a link exchange, feel free to contact me or leave a message on this post!

Cheers! :D

Valentine’s Day Book Sale

Hi guys! With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, I wanted to do something special for everyone. So for two days this weekend, both Blue Moon and Light of Dawn will be on sale for .99 cents!

The sale starts on February 14th at midnight, and ends on February 16th at the same time! Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone! :D

Light of Dawn is Now Available!

Hired to find a curse box, the draconian mercenary, Ulric Dra’Kai, is directed to seek out the human Charlotte Mulligan who’ll lead him to his ultimate goal. Expecting to get information from her with ease, Ulric instead meets a determined mortal who refuses to be intimidated—and draws him in like no other.

As that attraction grows, he comes to believe Charlotte may be his destined mate, but there’s a problem—he’s immortal, making that impossible. Answers could possibly lie in the dormant supernatural side of Charlotte’s lineage, but getting them proves difficult when vampires are out for her blood.

Charlotte thought she was an ordinary human living an average life until receiving an odd package in the mail containing a unique trinket box. Soon after, she’s attacked by vampires and swept up in a hunt by a dangerous but attractive stranger who not only reveals the truth of the supernatural world, but also informs her that she’s a part of it.

Trying to survive while her life is coming apart, a passion for the draconian protecting her sparks to life, one she has to guard her heart against when being mortal makes a union between them difficult, if not impossible.

Light of Dawn is now available for $2.99 on Amazon Kindle! Read an excerpt from this book here!

Light of Dawn Excerpt #2

For those of you who don’t know, the second book in The Crucible Series has been in the works for quite some time now, and it’s seriously close to completion. The manuscript itself is 99% done (getting through the final touches on editing and then formatting the story for publishing are all that’s left) and as I mentioned a while ago, I wanted to share another excerpt from the story.

So here it is for anyone who’s curious! The following has been formatted from the original version to make it more understandable without a lot of back story given, though if you haven’t read Blue Moon, this may be a little confusing. If you’d like, you can read a different excerpt here!

“Is that Rozdra?”

“Yeah, she’s cranky.”

“I would be too if you left me in the car like a dog.”

“You never complained before, Garrick.”

“You always cracked the window, Ulric.”

Ulric grinned. “I’d crack it for Rozdra, but she’d break it to get out.”

“This is why you shouldn’t have her with you right now.”

“What am I supposed to do? Liam needed a baby-wyvern-sitter on short notice. He’ll be back for her in a day or two.”

Ulric was settled in his car speaking on the phone with his brother, Garrick, while looking over at the topic of conversation. Rozdra was a baby wyvern, currently about three feet long from snout to foot, with blue scales, a silver belly, black horns crowning her head, and spines running down her back from her neck to the tip of her tail.

Like all wyverns, her wings served as her arms, and because her hands were so small, she worked with her clawed toes.

Though able to fit in Ulric’s passenger seat where she was currently watching him with crystal blue eyes, when Rozdra was fully grown, she’d be about the size of an average home.

Ulric’s brother, Liam, brought her to the mortal realm to help her escape poachers who killed young wyverns for their scales, endangering the species. Many draconians sought to reverse this by periodically caring for baby wyverns in a world where they wouldn’t be hunted, then returning them home once they were big enough to better care for themselves.

Thankfully, the endeavor had gotten worthwhile results.

Because her kind were nocturnal, Rozdra spent her days sleeping in a black, windowless carrier now sitting in Ulric’s backseat, usually only stirring a few hours after the sun had gone down—like now.

The wyvern was softly shrieking at Ulric to let him know she wasn’t happy, most likely due to hunger after sleeping all day.

“She’s probably hungry.”

“I was just thinking that,” Ulric replied, opening his door. To Rozdra, he added, “Go on, find something to eat.”

The wyvern stood immediately and hopped onto his arm, then leaped through the open door and spread her wings, swiftly taking to the sky over the trees nearby. It wasn’t a worry that she’d get lost when her carrier was enchanted to act as a beacon, so Rozdra always found her way back, even if Ulric left without her.

He shut the door in her wake as his brother inquired, “Are you still in Arkin City?”

“No, I’m back in Atlanta. Isadora contacted me in Burston last night and said to meet her here. According to her, the curse box isn’t even in Georgia anymore.”

“Damn, rough luck,” Garrick replied. “But the pay you’re getting for this job is easily worth the effort.”

“Why be here otherwise?” Ulric asked rhetorically. As far as most draconians were concerned, if the payment wasn’t substantial, the job wasn’t worth the time.

A little over two weeks ago, his eldest brother, Dalris, notified him of a job to find a curse box. The pay was half a million dollars in platinum, which was definitely worthwhile.

Because the supernatural world oftentimes overlooked humans and their activities, many mystical items unwittingly fell into mortal hands on a rather frequent basis. So Ulric started his search by checking mortal communities, and just as suspected, learned that the curse box was stored in a museum—conveniently located in Georgia—where it’d been put on display to mortals who had no idea the significance of the item they were viewing.

Thankfully, it wasn’t dangerous when most humans had no inherent magical abilities, and never really understood the purpose of such items. Instead, they would’ve thought of it as nothing more than an antique trinket box to be placed on a shelf for show.

So essentially, it was his for the taking.

But before he could even reach the museum, the box was stolen and gambled away on lupine wolf fights—which was where his hunt grew complicated. The renegade pack running the fights kept their territory a secret, so Ulric enlisted the help of their enemies in Arkin City to find it.

A local witch turned up the small town of Burston, and when Ulric arrived, all he found was a message from Isadora saying the box was no longer in Georgia.

She was a fae witch that Ulric went to after the box was stolen, hoping to track it mystically with her abilities. Sadly, a shroud surrounding the item prevented such attempts, so Ulric followed the thief’s trail while Isadora tried to figure out where the box was located more precisely.

Now, he was sitting in his car, parked in a lot across from a strip club where she’d told him to meet her, speaking with his brother before going inside.

“So let me go find Isadora and see what she has,” he told Garrick.

“Okay, be safe, little brother.”

Ulric put the phone back in his pocket when the call ended, looking at the parking lot in his rear view mirror and the building beyond it. It was a mortal strip club, and briefly, he wondered why Isadora had asked him to meet her in such a place.

Maybe she wanted to be discreet. After all, no one would ever suspect an impotent fae to show up at a mortal strip club.

Exiting his car, he shut the door and walked through the lot to the front of the building where two bouncers had a group of people waiting outside, barring their entrance. Ulric produced a wallet before reaching one of them, tugging out a fake, but well made identification card which he handed over, then waited as the bouncer made up his mind.

After a moment, the man handed the card back with an approving nod, and in exchange, Ulric slipped him a twenty for the cover charge while considering how amusing it was to be carded when you were over three centuries old.

Such was life in a mortal realm.

While storing his ID card in his wallet, Ulric detected a particular scent lingering amongst the crowd socializing outside the entrance, being that of magic, and wasn’t so sure he appreciated it showing up here.

Still, he casually walked inside. If someone was going to cause a problem, they’d get on with it soon enough, and he’d do better feigning ignorance to draw them out instead of tipping them off that he was suspicious of foul play beforehand.

Inside the club, the lights were flashing in different colors, the music pumping out a deep bass beat strong enough to vibrate the floors. The dancers were moving in sync with it, their hips swaying to entice their viewers as items of clothing were discarded in teasing fashions.

The audience showed their appreciation with howls and money stuffed into whatever miniscule garments the dancers continued wearing. But Ulric paid none of them any mind, looking for a woman who wouldn’t be on stage.

Finally, he spotted her sitting on a table surrounded by several men she’d charmed so thoroughly that they were completely ignoring the strippers. Mortals were easy for fae like Isadora to charm, and oftentimes they did so without even realizing it.

Ulric, on the other hand, wasn’t tempted to look at the disrobing dancers simply because he wasn’t interested, and hadn’t been for nearly a century.

“Yules!” Isadora called happily when she noticed him.

Some of the men looked back, stepping aside to offer passage with jealous expressions.

He ignored them to ask, “What the hell are you doing here?”

The fae flipped her mane of chestnut hair over her shoulder, revealing a pointed ear—which the mortals in the place were blind to—and replied with a decidedly British accent, “Just working the crowds. Felt like having some fun tonight.”

“At a strip club?”

“Why not? More men,” she grinned playfully, and the men around her chuckled.

Ulric smirked, wondering why she even bothered. All fae were impotent unless they’d found a mate, but maybe Isadora just appreciated the physical appeal of the opposite sex. Most fae were incredibly curious by nature anyway.

“If it makes you happy,” he pointed out.

Isadora grinned, hopping off the table and telling her admirers, “Sorry boys, I need to talk to my friend. But if you wait right here, you’ll see me again soon.”

The men looked disgruntled, requesting she return quickly. Isadora playfully blew them a kiss, then headed across the lounge to an empty table in the corner where the lights were dimmed, taking a seat.

“When I arrived, there was something in the air outside, so I cast a protection spell on this table to make it safe to talk,” she explained. “Still, you may want to be careful when you leave.”

“I know,” he confirmed as he sat across from her, then got to the point. “So you said you had a vision. What was in it?”

“It wasn’t the box if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Isadora,” Ulric grumbled. “How can you be sure I’m going to find the box if you can’t even see it?”

“Don’t be so impatient, I’m getting to it,” she chided before continuing more enthusiastically. “It stumped me for a while, how to track an object that was made to be untraceable, but I finally got around it by checking the paths that will lead you to your ultimate goal, which is payment for the job, right?”

“What else would it be?”

“Well then! That path goes up to Pennsylvania where, and this part is a little more sketchy, you should find the box in the hands of a mortal woman. But even if you don’t, she’ll lead you to your payment.”

That sounded ambiguous. The box was recently in Georgia, so hearing it was all the way up in Pennsylvania now seemed strange.

“How the hell did it get that far up north? More lupines?”

“I don’t think so,” Isadora muttered as if figuring it out had been a real pain in her ass. “I just know you need to find a woman named Charlotte Mulligan.”

“Who is she? Just an average mortal?”

“Seems to be,” she confirmed, her expression growing thoughtful as she added, “though, there’s something strange about her. It’s a good strange, but I can’t place it.”

“Something strange?” Ulric regarded Isadora thoughtfully, asking, “Is it going to effect my hunt? Or do you even know?”

“I didn’t see any negative effects from meeting her, but I need to warn you about the presence of danger during your journey. It’s nothing you can’t handle, just some vampires, and knowing you, that’s more incentive to go.”

“You know me too well,” he admitted, considering everything.

Vampires were definitely no problem, and he didn’t even care why they’d be attacking—as long as he got a chance to kill them. But what could’ve been so strange about a mortal woman living in Pennsylvania?

Whatever it was, he trusted Isadora, having known her for nearly a hundred years now, and she’d never led him astray. So if she said to go north, that’s what he’d do, and hope in the meantime that this mortal didn’t know what she had in her possession and somehow manage to open the box.

The only condition of getting payment for his job was that the box had to be sealed and the contents intact when it was delivered. But it seemed unlikely that anyone would be able to open it when all curse boxes had odd stipulations attached to the endeavor.

This one was speculated to need the hand of a halfling on sacred ground to break the seal on it, and Ulric’s first thought had been so a gnome in a church? Of course, it sounded farfetched, but he figured most mages came up with their ideas while hitting a pipe.

“I guess I’ll be taking a day trip then,” Ulric announced.

Isadora smiled brightly. “I wish I could take a day trip. But I’m going to be busy for the next few days.”

“With what?”

“Diplomacy,” she replied vaguely. “Actually, when your job is concluded, I may have something for you to do, but I won’t know the details for a few days yet. All I can promise is good pay.”

Smirking, Ulric remarked, “You only need to ask. So, do you have this mortal’s address?”

Slipping him a piece of paper with the information written on it, Isadora answered, “She lives alone in an apartment building on the tenth floor. You may want to check me on that however.”

“Fair enough,” he acknowledged, taking the paper to store in his pocket. “Is there anything else?”

“Nope, just get there and do your thing!” Isadora smirked. “Be safe, Yules. I’ll expect a forty percent royalty of any platinum you accrue for this job.”

“Forty?” he asked incredulously as they stood.

She merely grinned and headed back to the group of men she’d left earlier, calling, “Oh boys, still have room for me?”

Ulric shook his head, deciding to barter with her later, and slipped out of the club through an emergency exit near the restrooms in the back due to the suspicious scent surrounding the front entryway.

But when he stepped into the alley behind the building, that same smell hit his nose again …

Light of Dawn will be available on Amazon Kindle soon!

Liebster Award

I was nominated by mrsgillies of readingforthemasses for the Liebster Award! How awesome! And thank you so much, mrsgillies! :D

About the award from her post: The Liebster Award is a “favourite blog award”, as Liebster is the German word for favourite, beloved, or dearest. It is meant for smaller blogs with less than two hundred followers to help expose them to the world and help them discover other new and upcoming bloggers.

Rules for nominees:

Thank the person who nominated you
When you receive the award, answer the 10 questions asked by the person who nominated you
Pass the award onto 10 other blogs (while making sure you notify the blogger that you nominated them!)
Write-up 10 NEW questions directed towards YOUR nominees
You are not allowed to nominate the blog who nominated your blog!

mrsgillies’ questions:

1. What is your favourite book?

I couldn’t answer this because I have so many favorites, or at least, there’s different aspects of stories that I really love which not all stories possess. But one of my favorites, read when I was in middle school, is Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. It’s just one of those reads that’s nostalgic for me, and even if I haven’t read it in years, it will always stand out.

2. What is your favourite movie?

Again, couldn’t pick a favorite. I always find myself going through this list in my head that seems to have titles battling for the top position, but no one ever wins. And honestly, I don’t even watch television much anymore, let alone movies!

3. Would you rather live in a treehouse or an underground house?

Well, I’m kind of scared of heights, so I’d probably have to go with an underground house!

4. If there was one outfit that you had to wear for the rest of your life (you could wash it), what would it be?

A tank top and a pair of sleep pants, hands down!

5. What’s your favourite room in the house?

My bedroom. It’s where all of my things are, and I never have to answer to anyone there! Second fav is the bathroom. It might not be MY bathroom alone, but I can’t live without it hah!

6. Do you fold or scrunch your toilet paper?

Oh geeze, I don’t fold it, I roll it, so I guess scrunching would be a better description? :D

7. Which do you prefer, shower or bath?

I had to take showers for so long in dealing with a rundown bathroom that needed renovations we didn’t have the money for that I definitely prefer baths now!

8. What is your earliest memory?

Honestly? Sitting on my little mini sofa built just for me in the living room of our apartment, watching television and asking my mom where my dad and my brother were. I don’t remember her answer, but I think she said they were out at the store.

9. Sweet or savoury?

Savory. Sweet is a good thing, but savory lasts a long time!

10. Which would you prefer, ice-cream flavoured poo or poo flavoured ice-cream?

I’m not a big fan of icecream, so I’ll go with the former!



I have nominated:

mindawebber

Sherbear’s Photos

The Fevered Pen

The Violet Hour Book Reviews

Maria’s Thought Pad

Magic, Gaming, and all Things N.E.R.D.

The Fritz Chronicles

Melissa Holden

Those First Thrills

MCG Reviews and Rants

Check them out and pass on some love!



My questions for nominees:

1. If you love to read, why? If not, name a favorite book and tell us why it’s your favorite.

2. If you’re a writer, what inspires you?

3. Favorite music?

4. Favorite video game? If you don’t play, have you ever considered it?

5. Name a few iconic people you look up to (or just one!).

6. Pizza or Burgers?

7. Cats or Dogs?

8. Have any special talents no one knows about?

9. What are your guilty pleasures?

10. Tired of this questionnaire yet?

Happy Holidays! (Blue Moon Sale)

So, Christmas is here yet again, and I’ve been extremely busy trying to get everyone I know a little something to unwrap. I also wanted to come by and make a progress report!

Firstly, I’ve been doing final edits on Light of Dawn, which means going through grammar, spelling, and all that other technical stuff that makes most people (myself included) pull their hair out! But my beta readers have given me a thumbs up, made suggestions for improvements, and the finish line is in sight!

In the meantime, I’ve also noticed that Amazon has a new promotional tool, which is to offer discounts on books! So here comes a holiday sale of Blue Moon!

From Friday, December 20th to Sunday, December 23rd (starting and ending at Midnight PST), you can get Blue Moon for .99 cents on Amazon Kindle! I wanted to do this not only for the holiday, but also to kind of celebrate Light of Dawn’s progress, which has been quite a ride.

I’d also been searching for a new excerpt to post from Light of Dawn, but I haven’t quite made up my mind yet about what I should post. Still, keep your eyes peeled because I could just pop up at random with a little tidbit to share!

Happy Holidays everyone! Cheers! :D

“Strong Female Characters”

As I work on polishing Light of Dawn so it’s ready to be shared, I was having a few thoughts about a certain aspect of writing characters which I’ve noticed has become a stigma with several people. It’s a question, really, and after working on a number of original characters, I think it’s pretty pertinent.

It’s also pretty simple: Why write strong female characters?

You might be thinking, “Because they’re great!” and you wouldn’t be wrong. Strong female characters are great–but so are weak ones. Granted, I’m not talking about strongly or weakly written characters, I’m talking in terms of their personality traits.

So the question’s kind of a trick, and now that I’ve explained myself, I’ll ask again. Why write a strong female character? You know, instead of a weak one, or one who’s complex. Why not write a woman who’s sassy, clingy, fickle, crass, scared, or demure?

This goes, in particular, for leading characters who are female, and this standard has become a stigma with many writers because it’s a way of saying “If you want your female characters to be likable, they have to be strong, know how to fight, defend themselves, and so on.” In many instances, this definition of strong also involves sacrificing trait(s) you could potentially give her that are traditionally considered to be feminine.

For instance, she doesn’t like to wear dresses, or makeup, or she doesn’t like to cook. She may also exude some attributes that are considered masculine, potentially making her “surprising” and “more likeable”.

But stories are going to get old pretty fast if the only women we involve in them are “strong female characters”, and honestly, it’s insulting to think that, if I want people to like her, she can’t be or act any other way.

In my experience, it’s the ability to identify with a character that’s the real ticket to winning over an audience. A character’s goals (male or female) and what they’re willing to do to achieve them, whether they’re strong, clever, weak, saucy, or stoic, is what a reader connects with and, inevitably, wins their favor.

You also have to wonder why there’s no real “standard” for writing “likable” men. Typically, they come out the way you want them to, and no one really complains as far as “they were a poor character” is concerned. Certainly, people do complain about male characters, but usually it’s their actions within the story that gets the grousing, and not their personality traits. (For example: “God, she’s too whiny. Why can’t she just accept what’s happened and move on?” as opposed to “He’s gone through so much, the poor guy! I don’t blame him for being so sullen!”)

There’s always exceptions, but I’ve actually never seen any articles explaining ways to write likeable men. It’s either “how to write a likeable character” with no gender specification, or it’s “how to write a strong female character”. (Then again, maybe I just haven’t seen them, so if anyone knows of any articles to link, please do!)

As an example, when I wrote Ashley Passmore in Blue Moon, I wanted her to have some gumption, but I knew she wouldn’t be very realistic if she was so strong she never faltered. This would’ve also changed the story entirely because she wouldn’t have needed Leo’s help, or Cade’s guidance if she didn’t have some vulnerability.

I also gave her the quirk of loving to cook, which some people might call a feminine trait to have, but I usually end up wondering if these people have ever heard of Gordon Ramsay or seen Hell’s Kitchen. Yeah, I don’t think cooking is really a trait that would weaken a character by making them seem “too feminine”.

So what’s wrong with being “feminine” anyway, and why would that weaken a character? Is there really no way for a woman to be accepted into society unless she’s kicking someone in the face, overthrowing armies, and scoffing at the latest fashion trends?

So, in all, I think we should be against writing strong female characters, and for strongly writing characters in general, no matter what their personality or gender. Like men, women have a wide range of traits that all add up to make a human being, and those traits aren’t limited to “how equally as well or better than a man they can perform a particular task”.

In the end, I wanted to write this short article because some of my friends who also aspire to write stories have stumbled across this same concept, and I thought it might be food for thought to others out there as well. So write your characters any way you please, and don’t preoccupy yourself worrying over whether or not they’ll have a good reception because they’re too . . . whatever they might be.

Just write them the way you want them to be. It’s as simple as that.

So feel free to leave a comment if you have a related story to share, or point something out if I’ve missed anything important (which is very possible when this was just intended to be short and to the point).

Hope you guys are having a great day! Cheers! :D