Angela Colsin's Blog, page 9
June 26, 2016
Dragons Kick Ass!
I just saw this video on facebook and had to look it up to share here. The reason is that all I could think while watching it was that I want one of these of Dra’Kai (and the other Great Dragons) with string lights threaded through the body to give it the pulsing effect he has in The Final Calling. That’s when I found out the guy who made this dragon has a blog. Brb, I’m gonna go follow him lol[image error]
June 25, 2016
Hunter’s Moon and Book Planning
I haven’t been very active the past few days (I have a really good personal reason for that just fyi), not since posting this suspicious image of a wolf that claims to be a teaser for my next book. Or did I!?
June 23, 2016
June 21, 2016
The Final Calling by Angela Colsin (Book Review)
Oh wow, I don’t think I’ve ever received two reviews in one day before, aaaaaaaaand I’m speechless. I need to find some confetti and throw it everywhere while yelling “Drinks are on the house!” or something! Thank you so much for the wonderful review (on all of my books in fact!) and I’ll try to keep the good times rolling in future stories hah!
5 of 5
Adult Romance/Paranormal Romance
Copy provided for an honest review.
Edith is a mage in training to become an enchantress. To become an enchantress she must complete her “Final Calling” which is a scavenger hunt to find all the materials needed to create her staff and gain immortality. To get all her materials she must journey through magical worlds/realms and encounter various magical beings that are good and evil. To make things more complicated, she is “marked for death” by a Perosian Tyrant. Luckily an attractive and loud-mouthed Perosian, Isaac, claiming to be her mate, wants to help her and will do anything to keep her safe.
Isaac has known that Edith was his mate since she helped cure him of a curse (read Light of Dawn – Charlotte and Ulric’s story) but he couldn’t pursue her until she had been trained as a mage. Now that Edith…
View original post 330 more words
The Final Calling by Angela Colsin
Thanks so much for giving The Final Calling its very first review, Debra! I’m also extremely happy the action sequences were enjoyable because I agonized over them like crazy lol!
The Final Calling is Book 5 of The Crucible series by Angela Colsin, an indie author whose books in this series I have really enjoyed.
The Blurb: Prophecies, tyrants, assassins, and exiled royalty aren’t the things Edith Walsh thought she’d be dealing with when her training as a mage apprentice began. Her main focus is becoming an enchantress by completing the Final Calling—a grand scavenger hunt all apprentices undertake to gather items needed to craft their coveted staff and gain eternal life.
This challenge can prove lethal if care isn’t taken to watch one’s steps. But making matters worse, Edith has also been marked for death by the Steward of the Perosian Empire, a tyrant named Rothario, all because of a pesky prophecy made centuries before her birth foretelling his demise at her hands.
So what’s a mage to do? Simple; accept the assistance of a sexy Perosian who’s…
View original post 269 more words
June 20, 2016
Author’s Quote
Check Me Out!
The Final Calling is Now Available!
Books • The Final Calling • Box Set • About the Author
June 19, 2016
Timelines
I’m going to be frank here; nothing confuses me more when it comes to writing than timelines.
Jumping right into this topic, I’ve had to work out the timelines in my stories before to make sure everything fits together. Fallen Hearts was really difficult to keep track of because…er, no spoilers, but if you’ve read the ending, you know what I’m talking about.
Even still, I’ve never actually needed to make an info graphic to keep track of everything–until now.
I found myself going through one of my books today to fact check and make certain everything I’m planning for my next book is in place. The thing is, timelines aren’t even mentioned in my series very often, but I’m unwilling to hear from someone, “Hey, how could this happen then when they said in this book that it was X amount of years ago?”
So yeah, I’m a stickler for details no matter how much is explained in the actual story, and as you can probably tell from my description, my next book is going to center heavily on a previously established storyline. I’d love to tell you more now, but instead of letting any cats out of the bag, I’ve decided to do something a little more fun (and maybe pointless lol) which is to let everyone guess!
June 17, 2016
Reviewers; Keep your ARCs a Secret!
I was just on Facebook when I came across a post one of the groups I’m in put up about leaving reviews on Amazon for authors when a free ARC is received. Basically, the post was instructing reviewers not to mention where/how they received their copy of the book, and I agreed with the post. Why? Because Amazon has been known to remove reviews entirely if they don’t think the method of receiving it is “legitimate”.
In other words, according to Amazon, getting a review from a friend or family member is biased, which means their opinion on the book may not be exactly accurate.
So I think this is a practice all reviewers should follow when it comes to Amazon. If you mention that you didn’t actually buy the book there, and the author gave it to you, there’s a chance they’ll think “you know” the author, as in personally, and remove whatever review you’ve left because maybe it’s biased and you’re not being fair.
I personally find this practice of Amazon’s to be questionable for more than one reason as well. I’ve seen a number of non-book related product reviews where someone would state that they received the item for free in exchange for an opinion, but as far as I know, these reviews aren’t actually removed for any reason. I’m sure there are cases where someone leaves an inappropriate review that gets taken down, but that’s an entirely different story. So why are the books being singled out? (If someone has information on this I’m not privy to, feel free to let me know in the comments!)
Also, why does it matter if the author knows the person who left the review to begin with? Sure, my mom’s biased, and might just end up calling me the next Nora Roberts or something. But what if everyone agreed with her opinion? (I should be so lucky lol). Point is, maybe she’s biased, but her opinion could still be accurate. Besides, most authors get their start by passing their books on to friends and family, or, in this day and age, reviewers on the internet, who then tell others, and so on and so forth. So basically, this makes it sound like Amazon is saying, “We’re not going to let you actually get a start unless it’s on our terms, such as running a promotion and getting lucky enough to have some random stranger leave feedback behind.”
Maybe I’m being overly dramatic here, but what does it sound like to everyone else? At its most benign, this makes it look as if the author just hasn’t had any reviews and no one’s reading their books. But at worst, it can really cripple an author’s career, and cause them to lose sales and/or the reputation needed to get them.
Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think! Cheers!
Think You Couldn’t Possibly Lose Your Amazon Publishing Account? Think Again.
Wow. This is a frightening prospect, and it reminds me of my post concerning publishers in which I stated that sometimes, it seems like the publishers are ignoring us authors in favor of figuring out how to get ahead and make the most dough as soon as possible, and that maybe we don’t really matter all that much. Either way, this article is worth a look for both authors and readers.
There’s this indie author I know a little bit from the Kboards.com forum. Her name is Pauline Creeden, and she’s an ordinary midlister, like so many of us. I remember PMing her some time ago and gushing about how particularly beautiful one of her book covers is — the one for Chronicles of Steele: Raven.
Here, I’ll include an image. Gorgeous, eh?
Anyway, today I tuned in to Kboards and noticed that Pauline had started a thread. It contained what’s surely the worst news possible for an indie author: Amazon had closed her publishing account. All her ebooks had been taken off sale. Permanently. Here’s the email she got from Amazon:
We are reaching out to you because we have detected that borrows for your books are originating from systematically generated accounts. While we support the legitimate efforts of our publishers to promote their books, attempting to manipulate…
View original post 1,085 more words
June 16, 2016
Fallen Hearts by Angela Colsin (Book Review)
To answer the question of “I hope there will be Kivsey’s story!”, I have to say why yes, yes there will be! I’ll confirm her impending story for sure (not saying it’ll be my next book, but she *will* be coming back) and I should probably go ahead and hint that I have some ideas in mind for Mathias and Giroux, too (because even bad guy vampires need lovin’ lol!) [image error]
Thanks so much for the review! ❤❤❤
4.5 of 5
Adult Romance/Paranormal Romance
Copy provided for an honest review.
Maddox is a vampire who respects and values the life of humans/mortals. She has always made a point to work with them knowing that violence isn’t needed to live together. They could have a mutually benefiting life. When Maddox learns of a vampire, Lillian, looking to complete a ritual to allow vampires to walk in the daylight, she becomes a threat to Lillian’s plan. Knowing that Maddox could be a problem, Lillian locks her away in a tomb. For over 70 years, Maddox has to endure her tortuous confinement until one day a human seeking revenge against Lillian releases her.
Stephan and his sister were captured and used by a group of vampires. His sister was murdered and he escaped but was infected with an incurable disease that would eventually end his life. Wanting nothing more than revenge against…
View original post 340 more words
