S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 161

Bringing my characters to life PLUS a signed books giveaway!

When I wrote the Nogiku books, I always thought they’d make great manga. I could immediately picture both Sanaa and Jiro as drawn characters, swords out, fighting or defending each other. How fun would that be, right? Maybe someday I’ll find the right artists to actually make manga of my stories but until then I wanted to work with someone to get a variation of Sanaa and Jiro drawn. Eventually I’d like to see them and other characters from the series drawn in different styles, but for my first commission, I asked artist, Jed Soriano, to draw them in a classic anime style. We went through several rounds of emails to begin where I described my characters and the world they lived in. Jed and I also discussed my characters’ story arcs, where they were in their lives and the ultimate goal of the book. It was fun to talk with someone about what these “people”, my characters, were like and how I envisioned them.

Here’s the final product of our work together! I love this rendition. It’s action-oriented, and you can tell that Sanaa and Jiro are equals in their stance and readiness.

Sanaa and Jiro ready for battle.

Exciting, right? And this won’t be the only drawing I have done of them! I’d like to see them in different styles, for sure. And I’d like to get more characters drawn too. Let me talk a little about the process of working with an illustrator. Now, all illustrators work differently, but this is what we did on this project.

First we discussed full body stance.

 

First try. My comments were that Sanaa is skilled with her sword and usually ready to defend herself so I wanted to see her away from Jiro. At his side.

 

Second try. This one was better but there was too much conflict with their bodies.

 

Final stance. This one was a success!

 

Headshots. Specifics of their faces and expressions. This one was almost perfect. I had comments about their hair and that was it.

I was adamant about a few things. No ridiculous cleavage for Sanaa and I wanted to get the Nishikyō grays right along with the swords. But other than that, I only had a few small things to say about each. Hope you like them!

And to celebrate hitting 500 Likes on my Facebook page, I have set up two giveaways! One is for US residents and the other is for International citizens. One signed copy each of REMOVED and RELEASED. The giveaway ends on December 10th and that means if you win, you’ll have RELEASED in your hands before it’s available to the public. So enter below and good luck!

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Orihime and Hikoboshi

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It’s my 100th post on this blog (shoots cupcake cannon) so it feels appropriate that I’m showcasing one of my favorite scenes in RELEASED as the teaser for this week. I love me some romance, and this, my friends, is romance at its best. It’s sweet. It’s significant. It’s a little funny. And it’s exactly what Sanaa and Jiro need to keep their relationship on track.

A clear Tanabata night

This is the fifth of six teaser images for RELEASED. Only one more teaser image left! Please feel free to share this image and spread it around. It will also be on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr by the end of the day.

Need a really awesome giveaway to enter? You should really check this one out because it’s absolutely MASSIVE and easy to enter.

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The only pets in Nishikyō

As I established in Book ONE of the Nogiku Series, REMOVED, pets are not a common sight in Nishikyō. No one has seen dogs or cats for generations and even such animals as rats and insects are all but extinct. Fish, though, are kept as pets by the wealthy in areas of Ku 6, the Japanese Ward. Sanaa loves animals and was charmed by them during her trip to the zoo in Ku 8, the Extinction Ward. She is very attuned to animals and their needs, and they love her back for her attention. During a very memorable outing in RELEASED, she plays a great prank on Jiro when they encounter Shōfū-an’s koi fish pond

At the koi fish pond

This is the fourth of six teaser images for RELEASED! Only a few more weeks till it’s available. Please feel free to share this image and spread it around. It will also be on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr by the end of the day.

To promote my December release with several other New Adult authors, we’re having a giveaway! Use the rafflecopter below to enter.

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The Other Me Cover Reveal

Until recently there had been a serious lack of LGBT lit in both YA and NA so I’m pleased to see that Suzanne van Rooyen is once again delivering with a very intense story. If you haven’t checked out her NA sci-fi novel, OBSCURA BURNING, which is another LBGT novel, then you should definitely queue it up!

But now, let me bring you a new novel, this time in the YA category.

Fifteen-year-old Treasa Prescott thinks she’s an alien. She doesn’t fit in with the preppy South African private school crowd and feels claustrophobic in her own skin. Treasa is worried she might spend life as a social pariah when she meets Gabriel du Preez. Gabriel plays the piano better than Beethoven, has a black belt in karate, and would look good wearing a garbage bag. Treasa thinks he’s perfect. It might even be love, as long as Gabriel doesn’t find out she’s a freak.

As Treasa spends time with Gabriel, she realizes she might not love him as much as she wants to be him, and that the reason she feels uncomfortable in her skin might have less to do with extra-terrestrial origins and more to do with being born in the wrong body.

But Gabriel is not the perfect boy Treasa imagines. He harbors dark secrets and self-destructive tendencies. Still, Treasa might be able to accept Gabriel’s baggage if he can accept who she longs to be.

THE OTHER ME by Suzanne van Rooyen

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary LGBT

Release date: December 19, 2013

On Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18809290-the-other-me

About the Author

Suzanne is an author and peanut-butter addict from South Africa. She currently lives in Finland and finds the cold, dark forests nothing if not inspiring. Although she has a Master’s degree in music, Suzanne prefers conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. When not writing you can find her teaching dance and music to middle-schoolers or playing in the snow with her shiba inu. She is rep’d by Jordy Albert of the Booker Albert Agency.

Website: http://suzannevanrooyen.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Suzanne_Writer

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Suzanne-van-Rooyen/304965232847874

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/SuzanneAuthor/

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A book trailer for REMOVED

We all know what trailers mean for films. We wait for them and squeal over them when it’s a movie we’ve wanted to see forever. But a trailer for a book? You’d be surprised how common they are nowadays. Probably some of your favorite books have trailers and you didn’t even know about them!

I had one made for REMOVED. Here, I’ll share it and then I’ll talk a little about how it was made and what makes a successful trailer for a book.

Like it? Now I watched dozens of book trailers before I had mine made, and, coming from a film background, I knew there were a few points to keep in mind.

Do it yourself or hire someone: I got lucky here. I won a giveaway hosted by Carrie Butler at Forward Authority for $100 in design credit. Since I already create all my images myself, I asked her to build the trailer for me. She provided me with a questionnaire that I filled out so I could get a sense of what I wanted my book trailer to be. All in all, we did three passes of the trailer back and forth, first with comp images and then again with final images and music. It was a straight-forward process and freed up my own time to work on other things. If you don’t want to hire anyone, there are a lot of free or close-to-free services you can use. iMovie (Mac) is a good one to learn. Windows Movie Maker is another. And I just found out about an online video editing app called Animoto that seems cool.

Keep it short: Really don’t go over 1:30. Mine is right there at 1:26 but the bulk of the action happens before the 1:00 mark. You will lose the viewer’s attention if they have to read 2 or more minutes of text.

Use strong, compelling language: Don’t take your blurb and just animate it. Boring. Write out a script with a few short statements that use strong adjectives and action words. In my script, I made sure to use such words as “ripped” “plummeted” “danger” to build tension. This works well for REMOVED because, yes, it’s a science fiction romance, but it’s also a mystery with high stakes.

Choose your music carefully: there are plenty of royalty-free music sites out there but I suggest watching a bunch of book trailers first before you use your music. Make sure you’re not using the same music as dozens of other book trailers. If you decide you hate all the free music, consider contacting a musician to help. In my case, I have very talented and awesome friends I contacted my good friend, Jason Snell (Bombardier), to compose my music for me. He’s a musician and DJ, and his skill set and music genre is hard-core techno and industrial music. I knew he would make me something amazing.

In an email I wrote to him, I described the trailer and my book as “fairly monotone in color (which is funny to say since it’s just words on the page!) but yes they wear what I term as ‘Nishikyo grays’ which are simple gray tunics and pants for normal everyday clothing but then there are bursts of color with kimonos, yukata, and street festivals. So with these visuals in mind, I had decided I needed something rough and dark, but not too harsh for audio. I think most of the visuals will be muted, desaturated, or black and white with pops of color.” Then I described what I like and wanted in the music: “something dark, moody, maybe low synth, a good drum beat that crescendos near the end then dies off for the credits.” He nailed it in one go! The music you’re hearing was what he produced on my description.

Have a visual style in mind: The style you see in the video is how I picture my book. Dark and gritty with pops of color. I was so certain of the style that I wanted that I edited all the images myself before handing them off to my book trailer video designer, Carrie. Yes, I am particular.

So, lots of people ask, “Do book trailers sell books?” Honestly, I have no idea. When I decided I wanted a book trailer, I knew it would be an extra marketing piece to have, another thing to help my series gain some exposure. And something for fans of my series too! I’ve heard from several friends already who read my book that they love the trailer, so at the very least, I gave a few people 1 minute and 30 seconds of fun

Now, are you thinking about getting a trailer? Carrie Butler from Forward Authority has some tips for you!

Before readers pick up your book, several promotional efforts will contribute to their overall impression of the work: the cover, your book trailer, advertisements, blurbs, teaser images, etc. Of these, the book trailer will have the unique opportunity to engage two senses at once—sight and hearing—so you’ll want to make sure they work in tandem. Here are some questions to ask yourself before you post one:

1. Should I make it myself, hire a professional, or use a cookie-cutter video generator that everyone else is using?

2. Where am I going to obtain royalty-free music, images, and/or video?

3. Have I written a script that can be executed in less than two minutes?

4. Are the images/videos that I’m presenting uniform in terms of size, shape, and filter?

5. Do the visuals complement the beats in the song I’ve chosen?

6. Is there enough contrast between the text and imagery?

7. Would this entertain me if I were an unbiased viewer?

8. Is everything consistent with my other promotional efforts?

Now go out and make something fun!

The sex pants

I try to find the funny moments in every book in this series, the little moments that remind us that everyone I write about is human. They all have wants and desires, and some love tight pants more than others. Jiro, thanks for providing the comic relief in Sanaa’s life. Sometimes she just needs a good laugh.

Sanaa’s spying outfit

This is the third of six teaser images for RELEASED! And this one cracks me up to no end. I can’t even believe how perfect that image is! Please feel free to share this image and spread it around. It will also be on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr by the end of the day.

To promote my December release with several other New Adult authors, we’re having a giveaway! Use the rafflecopter below to enter.

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Favorite “firsts”

One & Only

The first time I ever drank coffee and loved it was sitting in the cafeteria at Bryant Hall at Michigan State University as a freshman. I remember smelling it when I walked in to get breakfast and thinking, “Maybe I should try coffee again, this time with cream and sugar.” I stirred that cup, sipped, and was transported to heaven where angels sang and it was bright and sunny all day long, not freezing with mile high snow drifts like East Lansing. That was the beginning of the end for me. I lived off of coffee. I loved coffee with a fiery burning passion. I have since written odes to my morning cup and brought it with me on vacations lest I be separated from it for too long. You can only imagine my disappointment when earlier this summer my body stopped loving coffee as much as I do. I had to quit it. I had to give it up. It was the saddest day. Now I’m a tea drinker, but it just doesn’t hold a candle to coffee.

I never realize how great a first is until I’m experiencing it again and again for years at a time. I wouldn’t even look back and say that I loved my very first kiss, the first real boyfriend I had, my first car, or anything as monumental in a young person’s life as much as I loved my first real taste of coffee. Isn’t that crazy? I’m one of these people that love things that last forever. My love affair with coffee, though dwindled now until my body starts complying with me, lasted almost 20 years. The first time I saw a shuttle launch into space was just as amazing as it is now when I watch a new rocket launch. Every time I pick up my iPhone, I still remember the first time I used it and how mind-blowing that was (I was an early adopter and had a flip phone before that). Only now that I’m still writing and revising do I realize how I loved writing the first draft of REMOVED. I’ll never forget that first time I laid awake in bed at night wondering what was going to happen next in my story. When I hold my children now, I remember the first time I ever held them in my arms. That was a great “first” too.

So I often wonder when I have a first time now, if I’ll remember it later. If I move from this place, my first home, will I think of it as my favorite? If I keep publishing and writing to infinity, will REMOVED still be my favorite? It’s hard to tell. Love, be it for coffee or another person, tends to last if it’s true. I still remember the first kiss I had with my husband and it was definitely a favorite. We’re still together 13 years later See? I like things that last.

ONE & ONLY by Viv Daniels gives us a taste of firsts. Maybe it’ll help you remember a great first as well.

One night they can’t forget…

Tess McMann lives her life according to the secrets she’s sworn to keep: the father who won’t acknowledge her, the sister who doesn’t know she exists, and the mother who’s content playing mistress to a prominent businessman. When she meets the distractingly cute Dylan Kingsley at a prestigious summer program and falls in love, Tess allows herself to imagine a life beyond these secrets. But when summer ends, so does their relationship — Dylan heads off to Canton College while Tess enrolls at the state university.

One love they can’t ignore…

Two years later, a scholarship brings Tess to Canton and back into Dylan’s life. Their attraction is as strong as ever, but Dylan has a girlfriend…who also happens to be Tess’s legitimate half-sister. Tess refuses to follow in her mother’s footsteps, which leaves her only one choice: break the rules she’s always followed, or allow Dylan to slip away for a second time.

…And only one chance to get things right

ONE & ONLY is available now on Amazon (Paperback OR E-book) / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / Smashwords

About the Author

Viv Daniels writes love stories for the young and young at heart. Like many of her characters, she met her husband in college, and knows all the ins and outs of navigating that kind of relationship — from how to date when you’re both flat broke to how to fit two people in narrow dorm room bed.

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18392843-one-only

Website: http://vivdaniels.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vivdanielsbooks

Twitter: http://twitter.com/vivdaniels

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A Japanese wedding

I try to include at least two big events in each book of the Nogiku Series, especially events surrounding a Japanese theme or holiday. It was fun to take a traditional Japanese Shinto wedding and bring it far into the future. What traditions would stay? And which traditions would be modernized or Westernized? We get to attend an important wedding in RELEASED! It’s a major turning point for most of the characters in the book.

Miko gets married

This is the second of six teaser images for RELEASED! And I’m really excited about all six. They’re perfect for this story. I think you’ll love them. Please feel free to share this image and spread it around. It will also be on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr by the end of the day.

If you haven’t read REMOVED, Book ONE of the Nogiku Series, you’re in luck! For a limited time, REMOVED is on sale (eBook and Kindle versions only) for 99¢! That’s $3.00 off the release price. Once this sale is over, REMOVED will be $2.99 for quite some time, so get it while it’s at this low price on Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble, iTunes, or Kobo.

On Sale Now! Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble, iTunes, or Kobo.

SFR Brigade Presents

I’m back again with another excerpt of RELEASED. If you missed the first one, you can find it here. Publication of RELEASED is getting closer. Only a few more weeks and you’ll find out what happens to Sanaa after such a catastrophic ending in REMOVED (no spoilers!)

Today’s excerpt is from the first third of RELEASED. Now that Sanaa knows her life is in danger, she needs to learn new skills and Jiro has something in mind.

You can find links to all the excerpts this week here: http://www.sfrcontests.blogspot.co.uk/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html

“So, let’s stay busy tonight. I have an excellent idea for what we can do.”

He walks to the bedroom. I hear a lot of shuffling around, a drawer opening and closing, and out comes Jiro with an armful of paper.

“Jiro, what are you doing? Paper?”

“Yes, paper,” he says, laying sheets of used paper all over the floor. The two of us are pretty neat, and we have a lot of open floor space for such a tiny apartment. He pushes the coffee table up against the couch and lays more paper on the floor there too. I get up from the table and stand at the edge. When he’s done, he stands next to me, and we both look at it. What a mess. I want to clean it right up.

“You know, Jiro, you think I’m crazy and unpredictable? When you said, ‘stay busy,’ I had another activity in mind.”

“I know you did. I can read your thoughts.” He looks at me and smiles. My mind is always on sex with him. “But you wanted to learn stealth walking and now’s as good a time as any. We should get our socks though.” He skirts the edge of the paper floor and retrieves two pairs of socks from the bedroom. Once he has his on, he walks from me to the other side of the room normally over the paper, and the sheets rustle and crack with each step.

“Hear how much noise I make with my casual walk? Now watch.”

Intrigued? REMOVED, Book ONE of the Nogiku Series, is currently on sale for 99¢ everywhere! And just yesterday, REMOVED was uploaded and became available at the iTunes iBookstore. You can either search in iTunes or access it here.

On Sale Now! Amazon (Kindle) / Barnes & Noble / iTunes / Kobo

Playing Pretend Cover Reveal

For my last cover reveal this week (wow, it was a busy week of covers!) I have another New Adult contemporary romance to showcase. This one sounds like a lot of fun, a young woman playing pretend on spring break and meeting someone who’s life is changed by her. I actually have a friend who met her husband in much the same way, and he was the one playing pretend on vacation! Fiction is never far from the truth.

I’m pleased to present Juliana Haygert’s new novel today. She’s a fantastic author with a great backlist of books should you want to check her out. I’m reading BREAKING THE REINS right now and enjoying it.

As the Governor’s daughter, Charlotte McClain is an expert in playing pretend. High society, the men her mother shoves in her direction and a Pre-Law major are all a part of her perfect pretense. But when she pretends to be a nobody during Spring Break, she meets someone who rocks her world.

Mason Rowell knows heartbreak and Spring Break don’t mesh well, so he allows the mysterious Charlotte to seduce him. What should have been a fling, results in something deeper. After Spring Break has long since passed, he moves to Washington to pursue his graduate degree, but what he never expected to find living among the rich and pompous, was the girl who gave him the strength to change and the desire to start anew.

When the guy Charlotte can’t forget goes from a sensual memory to temptation in the flesh, her facade is put to the test. If she surrenders to his charms, she risks ruining her mother’s perfect career and master plan. Playing pretend is what Charlotte does best, but how long can she pretend she doesn’t love the man who made her proud of her true self?

PLAYING PRETEND by Juliana Haygert

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance

Release date: March 2014

Cover: Berto Designs

On Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18332287-playing-pretend

About the Author

While Juliana Haygert dreams of being Wonder Woman, Buffy, or a blood elf shadow priest, she settles for the less exciting—but equally gratifying—life of a wife, mother, and author. Thousands of miles away from her former home in Brazil, she now resides in Connecticut and spends her days writing about kick-ass heroines and the heroes who drive them crazy.

Website: http://www.julianahaygert.com/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6609948.Juliana_Haygert

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Juliana_Haygert

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/juhaygert

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/julianahaygert/