Jennifer M. Zeiger's Blog, page 7

From One Hundred Thirty Five Thousand to Ninety

(Note: I hiccuped in my post scheduling and this post was emailed with the cover reveal last week. So for those who receive the blog via email, you received a sneak peek. Opps )

Writing a synopsis for a novel is bad enough. Writing the cover text or blurb is…Umm…mind gymnastics.

But after some sweat and tears and grumbled frustrations, a cover blurb does eventually stick the landing. And I’m rather happy with how the Theos Rising cover blurb came out. I may eventually have to go back and rework the Quaking Soul blurb to match this style, because I find it way more intriguing. We’ll see after the book comes out. Often times I get a better feel for how readers like something after selling it at a convention or two.

All that to say, I realized in my last post that I didn’t share the cover blurb for Theos Rising. So here’s the 90-word blurb that boils 135K words into a few short sentences.

Blessings,

Jennifer

Theos Rising Cover Reveal!!

All right! I’ve been eagerly awaiting this day!

Theos Rising has been uploaded to the printer and a physical proof has been ordered. Now I, somewhat impatiently, wait for it to arrive in the mail. Once it arrives, I’ll give it one more check for proofing errors, upload a new copy with the minor fixes I have to make, and order one more proof. Usually, that’s all it takes. I order the second proof just to make sure I didn’t mess something up while adjusting the little stuff I find in proofing.

Then the book will be ready!

There were definitely times in the last 2 1/2 to 3 years that I wasn’t sure I’d make it to this point. That makes this moment all the sweeter.

And it also makes the cover reveal all the more exciting for me. I’m not sure there’s ever been a time I’ve given Justin, the cover designer I work with, a fully fleshed-out cover idea. I’ve come to greatly trust his artistic talent. With TR, I was able to give him a fairly solid cover idea, probably because I’ve been working on this book for so long and I’ve had a lot of time to think about it.

I asked for an oak tree, similar to the Angel Oak in Charleston, with glowing leaves spanning the cover.

As usual, Justin delivered beyond my expectations! Check it out

(Note: minor changes may still happen once I see the proof copy).

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. As long as the printer and ship times don’t take too long, we’re solidly looking at a June 15th publication!

Well Deserved Thanks

It’s a rare gem when you find an editor who makes you laugh. I’ve talked before about the value of a good editor and the peace it brings knowing you’ve had a manuscript polished by someone you trust.

But editing is still one of the hardest parts of publishing, in my opinion. It’s literally asking someone to find flaws in your work and to point them out to you.

Darren and I have worked together on several Adventures before, but never a novel. As you can guess, a novel takes a lot more time and detailed work. Adventures are complicated in their way with all the endings, but they’re still short. They might take a month to professionally edit. Theos Rising took four. And after all the other hiccups with the book, I was anticipating those four months to be a slog.

They weren’t. My sigh of relief knows no bounds. It was still difficult to hand the book off and wait for feedback, but I found that when I did receive Darren’s feedback, I could clearly see how his edits were helping. I can’t always see the improvement until after the first full round.

And here’s the part I loved the most. When I was deep into editing, starting to go bleary-eyed, I’d run across a comment that would just make me pause. And then bust out laughing. Sometimes it was a comment on how weird a sentence sounded. Sometimes it was a nuance to the world that I hadn’t realized was there. But the personal touch made editing the beast that is Theos Rising a much easier process.

As the title above says, Darren deserves a huge thank you! It’s not every day you find an editor who adds humor to what is usually a painful process.

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. Theos Rising has been uploaded to the printer and a proof has been ordered!

Check out Darren’s website here: Darren Thornberry

Past posts about editing:

The Editor – Darren Thornberry

Never Enough Thanks

Never a Solo Project

Illustration Punting

The production of every book tends to have its hiccups. Usually for me, it’s in the formatting but this time it came in another form.

As I mentioned last week in my Theos Rising update, I did not give the illustrator enough lead time to actually do the illustrations I’d hoped for. I’d planned to have her draw thumbnail-sized pictures for each of my chapter headings. Seems like that should be simple, but TR  has almost 60 chapters. It’s a lot of work.

Despite not having an illustrator, I still really wanted some sort of visual art inside the book. The novels are nowhere near as heavy as the Adventures on artwork, but I love books that have a touch of character to their very design, so I started brainstorming options. I was unlikely to find an illustrator who could fit the project into such a tight timeline, which left me wondering what I could do personally.

First was the problem of how big the project was. Almost 60 images was just too much for me to figure out and still get the book formatted in a reasonable time frame. So I paired my expectations down and decided to do chapter images for each of the three viewpoints in the book instead of each chapter itself. This left me needing 6 images, three for each viewpoint and three for the section breaks in between.

Whew, 6 vs. 60 was way more doable.

But I’m not a visual artist. My sketches of people look like stick figures because, well, they are stick figures.

However, I do have a ton of pictures because my family, especially my dad, loves to take pictures. So I dug into finding something for each of my viewpoints. Na’rina, an aspen dryad, was easy. Find an aspen, or a leaf, throw it into Photoshop, shift it into a pencil sketch, and voila! I had a sketch of an aspen leaf. Sort of. Here’s the problem. Photos tend to be super detailed and I was trying to turn the resulting sketches into thumbnail-sized images. That amount of detail shrunk to a thumbnail turns into a black blob on the page.

This became even more of a problem when I tried to turn a picture of a hibiscus blossom into a thumbnail sketch. I’m sure there are ways to fix this in Photoshop, but I know just enough about Photoshop to be dangerous and not a lot more. YouTube University is my friend in this area, but it’s still time-consuming.

After attempting about a dozen photos, I sat back to rethink things. The aspen leaf was usable, but that still left me with two viewpoints without corresponding images.

Then someone, my sister or my dad, I can’t remember which at this point, mentioned calligraphy. I’ve been practicing calligraphy on and off for a couple of years now. (Crazy Muscle Memory). I still have a long way to go with flourishing and such, but I can do a decent letter or two.

So I started practicing the first initial for each of my characters. N, I, and E. And it occurred to me that I’ve done simple flowers using calligraphy pens before. So my hibiscus went from the above black and white photo sketch to this simple sketch that nicely paired with the E for my El viewpoint.

500 words later and I’ve summarized about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks worth of work. It shouldn’t have taken me that long, but, well, this is Theos Rising and it loves to demand its own timeline.

I do love the end result, though. There’s a point in a book’s production where you see it and you know, “That’s it. That’s what’s right for this particular book.” I even went so far as to add a calligraphy signature for Na’rina and a few other small touches.

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. Final touches are being done on the cover today and then it’s time to upload everything to the printer! Fingers crossed for a speedy delivery on a proof copy =)

Theos Rising Update # 8

Usually, as a book gets closer to publication, I share little things I learned while formatting. I’ve learned most of my formatting from what others have posted about it, so posting my own hurdles and how I was able to fix them is my way of giving back to the author/indie-publishing community.

However, in a twist of fate, Theos Rising didn’t throw me any unexpected curves while formatting. I’m still expecting it to surprise me with something because, to date, there’s always something.

Instead, Theos Rising threw up an obstacle in an entirely different field from what I was expecting. This one I should have seen coming. If you’ve spent any time in the publishing industry, you know that the process takes time. From the initial writing, to editing, to formatting, to artwork and cover design, to printing, to marketing – *Breathe* – I could go on. I think in the traditional industry, they expect publication from the time of manuscript acceptance to the book hitting shelves to be about two years. That’s right. Two years. That doesn’t even include the initial writing of the rough draft or first edits.

Anyway, one of the reasons the process takes so long is there are a lot of people involved and you have to plan ahead for everyone’s schedules to line up. With my recent move and everything it entailed, I dropped the ball on this. I’d touched base with both the cover designer and the illustrations artist last year, but failed to double-check with them during my recent move.

This is entirely on me. I’m well aware of how busy both Justin, the cover designer/artist, and Esther, the illustrator, are. So when I finally reached out to them again, both Justin and Esther were leery of adding another thing to their plates right now. Esther really wanted to. Even started the illustrations. But I just hadn’t given her the lead time she needed for such a large project. Justin took a look at the cover idea I sent him and is fitting it into his already crazy schedule. (From what I’ve seen so far, this cover might be my favorite to date. It’s not quite done yet, but I’ll definitely be sharing it soon!)

So, all that said, I have a cover designer but no illustrator. In Quaking Soul, Esther created fun little drawings for each of my chapter headings. I’d hoped for her to do the same with Theos Rising. Without her, I had to go back to the drawing board. I’m an artist with words, not with pictures. I’ll go into what finally happened in my next post as covering it now will make this post really long.

But here are my tips this time for book production:

Plan well ahead for every step of the process and add buffer time to what you do plan. I’ve had really good interactions with the artists I’ve worked with but it’s not an uncommon comment that artists often take longer than expected to produce the artwork.Contact people early. The more time you can give others, including editors and not just artists, the less stressful the process is.

All this seems obvious, but it’s amazing how easily time disappears when you’re planning a project as large as publishing a book.

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. We’re still on track for a tentative June 15th publication. I say tentative because I’ve seen the printer take anywhere from a week to ship proofs to six weeks. If it’s a week, yay, June 15th. If it’s six, well dang, I’ll have to push the publication date. Fingers crossed for a week. =)

Some previous posts on formatting:

Technical Mumbo JumboLet’s Talk Details Part 1 and Part 2  (Note: I did run into the issue discussed in part 2 about losing page numbers while formatting Theos Rising. Thankfully, just moving the images a tiny bit this time fixed the issue.)Quaking Soul Update 6

Theos Rising Update #7

I’m lacking the eloquence and creativity that I usually put into these updates, so I apologize for a rather dry post. But, it’s past time to update everyone on Theos Rising because we are thiiiiissss close to having a published book!

Here we go.

Expectations are sneaky things. I’ve learned to hold them loosely, as more often than not, what I expect and what actually happens are two very different things. In this case, I expected that, within a few weeks after moving, I’d be back to my regular writing schedule and I’d have this year planned out.

I can hear your chuckle now. Usually, the year plan is done by the end of January. But…I still don’t have a completed plan for 2024 and it’s…well, ummm…April.

Because of this, I’ve run into a few hiccups for Theos Rising. Despite the hiccups, however, the book’s coming along nicely and I’m thrilled to be so close to sharing it with readers. I’m just having to punt on some of the details.

Editing

The editing is almost 100% done! I’m running through the manuscript for pesky writer crutches. These are the phrases and words I use too often. Every story seems to breed its own crutches. In this case, the word “still” has become my nemesis. The fun part about combing through for these is that, at this point, the story really starts to shine. It’s altering a word here and there just to make things that tiny bit better. The difference a single word can make speaks to my writerly heart. Anyway, the editing is about finished. Yay!!

Internal Illustrations

This is my current hiccup. The illustrator I’d hoped to have draw my chapter headings isn’t available. That’s entirely my bad. I did not give her enough lead time to schedule it. This is part of why the publishing process takes so incredibly long. There are dozens of moving parts and many of them have to be planned well in advance for them to run smoothly.

Since Esther can’t do the chapter headings, I’m playing around with Photoshop and pencil sketches… I’ll update you on how that’s going in the near future.

Cover Art and Design

I almost ran into the same issue with the cover designer as I did with the internal illustrator but after hearing about the project, Justin decided to take on the work anyway. This is one of my favorite parts of the publishing process. I love, love, love seeing the artwork from the various artists I get to work with. And Justin always exceeds my expectations. I should have a cover to reveal in the next month =)

Formatting

Has begun!

Anymore, I start formatting as soon as I start a new book. So a good chunk of the page layout and chapter breaks are already formatted. Once I figure out chapter headings and perspective breaks, these will go in next. This entire next week is blocked out for those two things.

So, that’s where Theos Rising is at. Once I have the formatting done and the cover in hand, I’ll be set to start uploading to the printer and then it’s on to ordering a proof. From there I’ll check the physical proof and we’ll be just this side of having a published book!

Thanks for joining me in this writing journey and sticking around for my rather dry update =)

Blessings,

Jennifer

Theos Rising Update #6

There’s a beautiful light shining over the horizon. As many of you know, Theos Rising has been a huge learning book for me. It’s been challenging. But that challenge makes this stage all the sweeter.

I’m in the last round of edits with the editor. We’re about 33% complete and hope to be done by the end of the month. I believe this is the seventh edit, but honestly, I may be missing a round in my count somewhere. There was definitely a point when I wondered if I should just scrap the manuscript but I can now, finally, see the finished product shining through and the doubt is shifting to excitement. As with many things, the harder something is to achieve, the better the finished product.

Theos Rising significantly expands the world from Quaking Soul and I’m excited to share it with readers. A number of the QS reviews mentioned that the world-building is one of the best parts, so I hope they enjoy how the world grows in book two. Along with that, the story expands from just one point of view to three, so readers also get to know some of the characters better.

Since we’re close to being done with the edit, I’ve now reached out to the artists. The illustrator for the chapter headings has already started her part. I loved how Esther’s work fit into Quaking Soul, so I’ve again enlisted her for Theos Rising and I’m giddy to see what she comes up with. Every time I work with Esther I’m impressed with how her artwork is growing.

As for the cover designer, I have an email out to him and am waiting for a response. If you’re familiar with my books, you’ve seen Justin’s work. I again have a super vague idea for him to work with, so we’ll see what amazing magic he works for this book!

At this stage, I’m hopeful for a June 15th publication but will keep you updated as things progress =) Thanks for joining me in this writing journey!

Blessings,

Jennifer

Everywhere Beauty

Whew, it’s been a month! It entailed moving from South Carolina to Texas. Talk about changing environments! We went from swampland to desert, from vines and ferns to cactus and tumbleweeds.

I still don’t know where half our stuff is located. In a box. That’s a safe bet. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. And now it’s time to get back to some sort of regular schedule. My writerly brain desperately craves some level of normal that we haven’t seen this month. So here I am.

I’m going to miss the greenery from South Carolina. Our camellias were just starting to bloom when we left and the ones with the large red blossoms are some of my favorites. But through all our moves, I’ve learned that every place has its own adventure and beauty to offer.

Here in Texas, I can already say I’m surrounded by huge skies and gorgeous sunrises and sunsets. South Carolina has so many thick trees and such heavy humidity that the sunrises and sunsets are obscured by leaves or changed into streams of fog. The dicotomy is stark. I love it.

Every morning for the last few weeks I’ve opened the shades to find sunlight streaming into the room. After growing up in Colorado, where there are 300 some odd days of sunshine, this brings a joy to my heart that I wasn’t aware I was missing. I know it’s going to get hot…really hot…come summer, but for now I’m going to soak it in.

On a different note, the first round of editing on Theos Rising with the professional editor is finished. The manuscript is back in his hands for round two, which we hope to have done by the first week of April. EEEK! I can see the finish line in the distance =) I hope to get the cover designer and the illustrator on board within the next couple of weeks. But first, I need the back cover blurb written, so I’m off to work on that!

Thanks for joining me on this writing journey!

Until next time, blessings,

Jennifer

Onyx Treasure – Turn into a Panther (Hopefully)

Welcome back for the last post in the Onyx Treasure Adventure!

If you missed the first three weeks, you can read them here, here, and here, or here’s a quick recap:

You’re a cyborg treasure hunter who just found the onyx panther statue everyone’s been looking for. (It purportedly turns you into a panther if it’s charged in sunlight.) But one of the other treasure hunters, Blanchard, found you before you could escape the crumbling temple. You tried to run away but were caught under a falling pillar. Readers voted to accept Blanchard’s help in exchange for the statue. As soon as he got you free, however, another treasure hunter, Olivia, shot him with a blow dart. She’s now threatening to do the same to you if you don’t hand over the statue.

Readers voted to use the statue to turn into a panther and hopefully escape. Let’s see how this adventure ends =)

Onyx Treasure – Turn into a Panther (Hopefully)

Olivia taps her finger against the blowgun with impatience. Stories aren’t clear about how to activate the figurine, but many of them mention embracing it, so you curl your fingers tightly around it and press it against your chest.

The tingling shoots out from your fingers through your skin.

Olivia snarls and shoots a dart.

It passes through your suddenly opaque body and pings against the rocks behind you. Its passing leaves a prick of sensation in your shoulder.

Olivia curses, shooting more darts. Each one pricks as it passes through but the sensation is lost in the tingling that’s intensified into a blaze along your nerves.

And then it’s done. At least, you think the transformation is done. The opaqueness never leaves your body and when Olivia shoots another dart, it passes through as well.

She can’t hurt you. But more importantly you become aware of the crumbling temple. Parts of the roof have caved in, pillars lay across the floor, shattered into bits of stone, and your resting place, the alter where the grooves fit your paws perfectly, has vanished through a sunken floor.

Your temple is dying. Rage blossoms like a fire in your chest. A deep growl rumbles forth and the woman across the way takes a slow step backwards.

You follow and your paw clicks on the stone. Clicks? You look to see that half your body is metal, but your momentary shock vanishes when the woman spins and runs.

A thrill brings another growl from your throat and you give chase.

Down tunnels and around fallen stones, sliding below closing doors and vaulting over tables. The woman’s fast and crafty. She finally gains enough of a lead to close a door in your face. By the time you realize you can walk through the door, she’s gone.

Still, you track her smell until you leave the temple. Ten feet into the trees and you hit an invisible wall. She’s out there somewhere. Pacing the unseen barrier, you circle the temple and finally give up and stretch in the glorious sunlight. The warmth sends a delightful tingle through your limbs.

You return to the temple, determined to guard your home even if it is in shambles. There’s the scent of others inside—

After a while, those scents start to fade, but the drive to protect remains strong. Somewhere in the mix of enjoying the glorious sunlight outside and wandering the temple’s halls, you know there’s more that you should be doing, something more beyond this existence, but what that more is, you don’t know. It’s not pressing enough to wake you from another sunlit nap.

The End

Well, becoming a panther worked…maybe too well =)

Thank you for joining this month’s adventure! I had forgotten how fun it is to write these posts.

The next couple of weeks are going to involve moving, so there may not be any posts for a bit, but I promise there will be a new adventure soon!

Until then, blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. In a quick Theos Rising update, we’re about 52% through the first professional edit. I’ll be contacting the cover designer to start on the cover soon and we’re still tentatively on for a spring publication!

Onyx Treasure – Accept Blanchard’s Help

Welcome back for the third installment of the Onyx Treasure Adventure!

If you missed the first two weeks, you can read them here and here or here’s a quick recap:

You’re a cyborg treasure hunter who just found the onyx panther statue everyone’s been looking for. (It purportedly turns you into a panther if it’s charged in sunlight.) But one of the other treasure hunters, Blanchard, found you before you could escape the crumbling temple. You tried to run away but were caught under a falling pillar. Readers voted to accept Blanchard’s help in exchange for the statue.

Let’s see if Blanchard proves trustworthy! =)

Onyx Treasure – Accept Blanchard’s Help

“Pull me out, then I’ll give you the figurine,” you bargain.

Blanchard throws up his hands. “What? You don’t trust me?”

“Not even a little.”

He grins. “Smart one. Fine. Put away your crossbow. I’ll pull ya free.”

He kneels beside you and rummages in his bag, muttering all the while until he comes up with a disk about the size of a drink coaster. “Ahha!” he says, “just the thing we need.”

“What’s that?”

“Shield disk,” he says. “I’ll activate it over top of us and it should shove the pillar upward, giving us enough time to slide you free.”

He fiddles with the device, inputting data on its tiny screen.

You’re familiar with shield disks. The computer interface allows the user to set exactly what he or she wants excluded from the dome they create. Usually, they’re just set to keep everything out of a five-foot radius from a person, but they can be fine-tuned to more specific uses, like lifting things. However, you’ve never heard of one being strong enough to raise a stone pillar.

“It won’t explode, will it?” you ask. That’s the danger of using a shield disk in an unconventional way. They explode if overloaded. Sometimes this is helpful because they explode outward, stunning your enemy. But in this case, if it explodes, it’ll rain down rocky debris.

Blanchard grins again. “Used one to lift the slab door coming in. Didn’t even spark. Besides, it’s more likely to roll the pillar than lift it.” He sets the disk next to your leg, right against the stone “Here goes nothing.” And he activates it.

A burst of energy shoves outward, pushing rock, dust, and even Blanchard’s bag across the floor.

“Drat it all!” he exclaims as more disks, a small pick axe, and a battered water bottle tumble out.

The pillar groans as the field pushes against it. The activated disk beside your leg sparks. You burry your head under your arms, just in case, as the two fight it out. There’s a brittle cracking and then a sense of weightlessness as the pillar shatters instead of rolling free.

“Pull me out!” you yell.

Blanchard’s still grumbling about his scattered belongings but he grabs your mechanical arm and heaves.

Just as he gets you free, his shield disk dies and a dart appears in his bicep. He stiffens, and then collapses beside you.

Tracking the dart, you spot Olivia, another treasure hunter, bringing her blow gun back to her lips for a second shot. You catch her dart in your mechanical arm and shrug it off.

Her shock gives you time to grab Blanchard’s scattered shield disks. One you activate over top his prone form. He’s too heavy to drag to safety but the shield will give him some protection until he comes to.

The second you activate around yourself as you take off for the entrance. The pillar apparently didn’t damage your leg too much, because you’re able to run.

A thunderous crack comes a second before the roof caves in. Rock and dust crash into your shield while the disk heats up uncomfortably in your hand. The entrance ahead disappears in a mass of rock, cutting off escape. As you pause, sunlight streams in, highlighting the lingering dust in glittering shafts. You’re pulled from the beauty of it as the disk starts to spark.

You toss it toward Olivia before it explodes.

It doesn’t do much as Olivia has her own shield activated. When the explosion clears, she’s got her blow gun up, ready to fire should you move.

“Set the figurine on the floor,” she says as her shield vanishes.

Slowly, you pull it out, debating your options.

Olivia’s ruthless. With Blanchard, there was a chance he’d help and let you live. With Olivia, you know she’ll shoot you as soon as you set the statue down. And you have no idea if it’ll tranq you or kill you.

You could throw the statue at her. Because of your mechanical arm, the throw would be a lot harder than she’d expect. You might even knock her out if your aim’s true.

As you think, sunlight shimmers on the onyx figurine’s glassy surface and your fingers tingle against it.

Is it charging? You wonder if you could use it to change into the panther. She might hesitate if you change because it’s unclear what happens to the figurine when it’s used. Is it worth the risk?

Do you…

Throw the figurine at Olivia?

or

Turn into a Panther (hopefully)?

Leave your vote in the comments below! We’ll return next week to see how this adventure finishes.

Until then, blessings,

Jennifer