M.H. Soars's Blog, page 2

The Prophecy of Arcadia on Kindle Unlimited

A few months ago I announced the increased distribution of The Prophecy of Arcadia in other online retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and iBook store.

But since Amazon introduced Kindle Unlimited, a subscritpion program that allows members to read as many ebooks as they like for a small monthly fee, I decided to take advantage of that. I am a member myself and I love the program. But in order to participate, I have to sell The Prophecy of Arcadia exclusively on Amazon.

I apologize in advance to any future reader who doesn't have a Kindle, or has a grudge against Amazon (I'm not judging, I promise). I will revisit my decision to increase the distribution of the Arcadian Wars series again in the future.

Cheers,

Michelle

Sorry for the disappearing act!

It wasn't my intention to disappear. I swear! I have been a busy bee getting a new job, moving across the state, writing the second book in the Arcadian Wars series... You know, the usual.

Yesterday was my daughter's one year birthday party. I can't believe how fast time flies. Pretty soon, The Prophecy of Arcadia will turn one as well.

Besides writing the most anticipated sequel ever (LOL), I also had the chance to... (drum roll, please)... write a prequel novella in the Arcadian Wars world. I know that I only showed a tiny glance of Arcadia in my first novel. So if you were wondering how was life in Arcadia before the invasion, The Fall of Arcadia will saciate your curiousity (I hope). I don't have a release date yet, but rest assured you will be the first ones to know.

My last piece of news is that I'll be joining the BIG BOOK GIVEAWAY AND SOLE RELEASE BASH on Facebook. The event begins tomorrow at 11am PDT and ends on Oct 2nd. There will be loads of cool giveways and you will have the opportunity to meet awesome authors. I will be answering questions on the 30th from 9-10pm. Don't miss out!

New website!

I'm happy to report that I've finally managed to launch my author website (www.mhsoars.com) where you will be able to find information about my work (current and future projects), get to know more about my characters, and have access to exclusive content of books that are still to come. I will also share my experience with indie publishing and writing in general.

The second exciting news I have to share is that I was nominated for Best YA Author of 2014 and The Prophecy of Arcadia was nominated for Best YA Book of 2014. The voting has started and it will last a week. If you liked The Prophecy of Arcadia I would kindly ask that you go to the website and vote for it (and for me, too!).

Here are the links:

Best YA Author of 2014: VOTE HERE

Best YA Book of 2014: VOTE HERE

That's it for now. Must go back to editing the first draft of The Fall of Arcadia, prequel to The Prophecy of Arcadia.

XOXO,

Michelle

The Prophecy of Arcadia is $0.99 this week!

Hi everyone! I'm doing a promo for The Prophecy of Arcadia this week (until July, 9th). You can get it for only $0.99. It's less than a latte!
To celebrate the promo and to entice potential readers I prepared a surprise for everyone. Read the interview with one of the MCs below. If you already enjoyed The Prophecy of Arcadia I think you will appreciate it.

***

I'm sitting at my desk, writing on my diary, as usual, when Melanie comes barging in without bothering to knock. I know it's her and not one of the boys by the clank-clank sound her heels make on the hardwood floor. Without turning around I ask.
"What do you want, Melanie?"
She ignores my question and flops on my bed. "Ugh, sometimes I hate my job."
I put the pen down and swivel on my chair to face her. It's not like we have done much in our "jobs" yet so I don't understand her complaint. "Please, enlighten me, sis."
"The paper is publishing their annual list of hotties and they expect me to contribute by doing an interview. Can you believe it?"
I give her a blank stare. Here I'm thinking she's referring to our jobs as Alexia's protectors. I shake my head and turn back to what I was doing before she interrupted me.
"Fine. Ignore me. But so you know, I'm supposed to interview you."
I face her again. "What?"
She props herself up, leaning on her elbows, and smirks at me. "You've made the final five list. Aren't you honored?"
I roll my eyes. "Please."
"Anyways, since I know you hate people prying in your life, I convinced my editor to let me interview you. The other girls were pissed. You can thank me now."
My mouth opens involuntarily as I stare at my twin. The glint in her eyes tells me that I won't be able to escape without answering her stupid questions. I guess it's better to be interviewed by her than a stranger.
"All right. Fire away."

Melanie: "So, Matt. Besides brooding in your room, what's your favorite hobby?"
Matt: "Ha-ha. I don't brood."
Melanie: "Sure you don't."
Matt: "I don't have one particular favorite hobby. I like to go on hikes, swim, read a good book."
Melanie: "Likes to read depressing novels and to walk aimlessly in the middle of nowhere. Got it."
Matt: "If you're going to distort everything I say this interview is over."
Melanie: "I guess that answers my following question. Touchy."
Matt: "Do I even want to know what the question is?"
Melanie: "No. Next question. Which celebrity would you want to be stuck with on a deserted island and why?"
Matt: "That's easy. Bear Grylls and do I need to explain why?"
Melanie: "I guess not. Moving on. According to you, what are the best and worst shows on TV right now?"
Matt: "Best, Believe. Worst, any reality TV show."
Melanie: "Believe, Matt? Really?"
Matt: "What? I can relate."
Melanie: "Then you should have picked Star-crossed or Defiance."
Matt: "What's Star-crossed?"
Melanie: "Never mind. Last question. Describe your ideal girlfriend."
Matt: "Must I?"
Melanie: "This is the only question that really matters. You know that."
Matt: "Fine. The ideal girlfriend to me must be confident, funny, loyal, have killer fashion sense...
Melanie: "And she must also have white long hair, blue eyes..."
Matt: "Wait, what?"
Melanie: "Matt, do you realize you're just describing Sam?"
Matt: "I was not!"
Melanie: "Sure you weren't."
Matt: "Shut up, Mel."

Why should anyone read Sci-Fi?

This blog post was part of The Prophecy of Arcadia Blog Tour that took place last week.

To answer that question, let's understand what is sci-fi? When I was a kid, I thought Science Fiction encompassed only books and movies about aliens. I think a lot of people believe that too. So when labeling my book, The Prophecy of Arcadia, I was afraid to categorize it only as sci-fi simply because many people shy away from the genre.

According to Wikipedia, Science Fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginative content such as futuristic settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. It often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a "literature of ideas". If you take that into consideration, there is a big chance that you have been reading science fiction already and didn't even realize it. Dystopian novels? They are a type of sci-fi. Books about faeries could also be labeled as sci-fi (parallel universes).

I fell in love with the genre when I was in my teens and read Darkover Landfall by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Her Darkover series is a mix of everything. At the end of the 21st century, Earth sends colony ships out to the stars. One of these ships becomes disabled and crash-lands on Darkover, the fourth planet in a red giant solar system. Unable to repair their ship and equally unable to contact with Earth, the survivors establish a colony. After the landfall, the series skips ahead many years, and the society has retrogressed to the middle ages ways. Thanks to inbreeding with the planet's native people, the humans now possess paranormal abilities. So, the series is sci-fi but it has a fantasy feel to it with paranormal elements.

That is the reason I think anyone should give sci-fi a chance. The genre is so broad and can encompass so many elements, that you are bound to find something that you can enjoy. I'd like to think my book will appeal to a much broader audience than the so called Sci-Fi aficionados. It's contemporary, there is plenty of romance, and it's not only the aliens who possess special abilities.

The Prophecy of Arcadia is FREE on Amazon until April 18th.

See what reviewers are saying about it and read an excerpt.

"This was such an enjoyable story for me and I am glad for having the chance to read it. It has an intriguing storyline, a great mix of fantasy/sci-fi and plenty of romance that is both blossoming and forbidden. This book is a wonderful hidden gem." JessieBear

"The Prophecy of Arcadia is a great example that a good book and exciting plot doesn't need publisher badge on it. I would recommend The Prophecy of Arcadia, when you're searching for a new thrilling YA paranormal series to read." Kaie

"The Prophecy of Arcadia was a great read. It's a fast paced book that is different than any of the other Young Adult series I have read." Erin

"Witty, charming and fun all wrapped together." Kittrin

Excerpt:

“You almost gave me a heart attack!” Sam shouted over the phone without preamble.

“Hello to you too, cuz!” I replied, trying to muffle a snicker. “Why the surprise? I told you I was gonna call before I left for the airport.”

My cousin was my best friend, and I didn’t keep anything from her. She was the only one who knew about Thomas and that I was applying to Juilliard. Both were things I wanted to keep secret from everyone else. I didn’t want to deal with the questions concerning him and the extra pressure about Juilliard if my family knew about my intentions.

“You were supposed to call my cell, not the house phone!” She shout-whispered and I belatedly remembered that it was only six-thirty in the morning in Santa Barbara. Most likely, everyone was still in bed.

“I did! But you didn’t pick up. The taxi will be here any minute and you know I don’t like to talk on the phone around strangers.”

“I know, I know. I forgot my cell in my room. So, did you get any sleep, or was the excitement too much?” Sam asked in a teasing tone. She didn’t mean anything by it, she was just being Sam. But the question hit a sore spot. I hadn’t gotten any sleep, and it had nothing to do with my trip.

My cousin was my role model. What I loved most about Sam was that she was full of life, and she didn’t take any crap from anyone. She was also one of the most beautiful girls I knew, and had all the confidence that I lacked.

After a long pause, I confessed. “It wasn’t excitement that kept me awake.”

“Still feeling guilty about Thomas?” She asked carefully.

“Yeah.”I didn’t like feeling all gloom and doom about it, especially with summer vacation ahead of me, but I had the feeling I would carry the guilt of what I’d done for a very long time.

“Should I make a T-shirt for you with the phrase ‘Woe is me’ on it?” Sam asked. Just like that she put a smile on my face.

“Shut up!” I shouted at her.

“I swear Alexia, if I find that you dyed your beautiful golden locks black and see you wearing emo clothes when I pick you up at the airport, I’m going to beat you senseless.”

I started to laugh when I heard another voice in the background. “Hey Sam, who just came in?”

“Nobody,” Sam replied icily.

“Matt.” It could only be him by the way Sam had answered.

I had never really understood what had happened to them. Matt and Sam had been inseparable until the age of ten, and whenever I had been around, our uncle had called us the Three Musketeers. But then Sam had gotten into an accident, the one that had turned her hair completely white. An accident that Dad and Uncle Gary never really explained to us. All we knew was that it had been pretty serious, and she had almost died. After that, Matt avoided Sam like the plague.

“Yes, your favorite person in the whole wide world is here.” There was a brief pause, then I heard some sort of scuffle on the other side of the line. “No, Matthew! Leave me alone, I’m talking to Alexia!”

I overheard Matt asking for the phone. Sam wouldn’t let him talk to me, so I pleaded, “Come on, Sam. Give Matt a break and let me say 'Hi'.”

“Fine!” she said. By the sound of it, she had thrown the phone at him.

“Hello, Gorgeous!” Matt’s voice came through the phone. Oh, how I had missed him.

“Hey, Matt. How is it going?”

“Fine, just fine. I’m counting the hours until you get here. Did Sam tell you about Gary’s crazy idea for your party?”

“She didn’t mention anything. Should I be scared?” I heard him laugh, which brought a smile to my lips. He didn’t laugh much these days.

“Yes!” He replied, trying to contain his laughter until he suddenly stopped. I heard Sam’s voice in the background, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. When she stopped talking, he continued. “I’m glad to have you here as a buffer between Sam and me. She’s getting bitchier with old age.”

“Oh, please! When are you two going to finally grow up and patch things up?”

I sat at my desk and stared at my pin board, more specifically at a picture of Matt, Sam, and me dressed as Athos, Porthos, and Aramis for Halloween when were four years old. Because we all had wanted to be D’Artagnan, Uncle Gary had solved the problem by claiming the role for himself. That picture brought me such sadness when I thought about Matt and Sam still mad at each other.

“Ouch!” Matt screamed and I came back to the present.

“What happened?”“She threw a bloody pineapple at me! Goddamn it! She’s not only getting bitchier but also crazier!” Matt shouted. He wasn’t joking.

“I miss us being the Three Musketeers.”

“Hey, talk to your BFF. She was the one who started this cold war thing.”

“That’s not true. You were the one who got weird first.” My statement was met with silence, and I immediately regretted bringing that topic up, especially with Matt already on edge.

“That was different. You wouldn’t understand,” he replied. His tone had gone ten degrees colder.

“Why don’t you try to explain it to me?” I asked, but I knew he wouldn’t open up.

“It doesn’t matter. It happened a long time ago, and I apologized for it. It’s up to her now.”

“Maybe it would have helped if you had told her the real reason why you acted the way you did.” I said it for the thousandth time. How many times would I have to have this conversation with him? He had once said that Sam was stubborn, but it takes one to know one.

“If you really want things to be okay between you and Sam again, just be honest with her. I know she misses you.”

He was silent for a moment before he finally continued. “I miss her too,” he said finally, “but… Never mind. I’ll see you later at the airport, okay?” “Uh-oh…” I let it escape. That would be trouble. Sam wanted to be the one who picked me up, and she had made me promise that I would keep the rest of the gang from coming. She wanted to spend some time alone with me so we could talk freely about my mishap with Thomas. However, I couldn’t say no to Matt. He was one of my best friends too.

“What?” he asked.“Uh, Sam sort of volunteered…”

“So? I think we can manage to not kill each other on the twenty-minute ride to the airport. It will be fine.”

“I kind of promised…” I couldn’t finish that sentence. If I told Matt not to come, he wouldn’t.“Never mind. The cab is here. I’ll see you soon,” I told him as I hastily put my wallet in my purse and did one more double-check in my room to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything.

“Bye, Alexia. Have a safe trip,” he said before hanging up the phone.

I sighed, staring at the cell phone in my hand. What was I going to do with those two? We would be going to college soon enough, and I couldn’t let them go their separate ways still angry at each other. If only Matt would trust someone with his secrets.

You can download your FREE copy on Amazon

Writing is not always a happy affair

Writing your first book in a series may be hard, but writing the subsequent books seems like an impossible task. If you've done your job right, you put things in motion, set up the pace for the following books. You raised questions to be answered. Creating intrigue and mystery is always so much easier than the actual moment of revelation. You've made such a big deal about certain things, you don't want to disappoint your readers with an unsatisfactory resolution.

That's the reason the writing of Prodigies Unbound is stuck in first gear. If you read the first book, The Prophecy of Arcadia, you know that it ended on a cliffhanger. I know that readers hate those. But unfortunately, it had to end like that. Now my biggest challenge is to write about the aftermath of those events. Not because I don't know how the story will go from there. Don’t fret, my friends. I know exactly what happens. And that's the problem.

Yesterday, I had to write a very difficult scene. One I had been avoiding. And maybe that was the reason I had been stuck. I didn't want to write that scene. But I couldn't move forward in the story until I did. Last night, when the house was finally quiet, I quit procrastinating and wrote it. Very quickly too, disregarding grammar and clever dialogues. I just wanted to get it down on paper fast before I lost my nerve. But it made me very sad which in a way is a good thing. Now I can finally move on.

FREE download of the first 10 chapters of The Prophecy of Arcadia

Hi everyone! For a limited time only you can download the first 10 chapters of The Prophecy of Arcadia for FREE on Amazon. Follow the link below:

The Prophecy of Arcadia: chapters 1-10

Writing a novel. Anyone can do it. Really.

Have you ever thought, I wish I could write a novel, but I don't have the necessary skills to do it? Well, I used to be one those people. I've always been a bookworm and always admired the ability my favorite authors had to create wonderful characters and weave intriguing plots. But not in million years did I ever think that I could do it too. And I was fine with that.

But then I began to come across books that really didn't impress me. I would find problems with the MCs, the plot, everything! I would think, how did this book get published? I could have done so much better. Then I started to think how I would improve a novel that I didn't like. So yeah, you get the gist. What motivated me to write my own stories were the 'bad' books I've read. I know, terrible! The worse the read, the more motivated I got.

But don't think my first drafts were any gems. Oh, no sir. They were awful! All I had was pretty much dialogue (and not even good dialogue). But writing, like everything else you do, gets better with practice. If you really want to do it, go for it. Don't get discouraged if you get writer's block. But don't expect to complete your novel in a couple of months either. Writing a novel takes time, especially if it's your first. So yeah, you gotta make a commitment to it. It took me over 2 years to complete my first manuscript, The Prophecy Arcadia.

There were tools that helped me along the way. Since my book is part of a series, I wrote an outline for all 4 books. Without it, I would have gotten lost for sure. Not all writers do that, but for me it was fundamental. I also used Scrivener, a software for writers. I gotta say it was the best investment I made. I'm not saying everyone should use it, but it worked for me.

After I finished the first draft, I asked a journalist friend to edit it for me. Not only did he correct many of my grammar mistakes, but he also gave me several tips to improve my novel. So, no matter how good your grammar skills are, it's always a good idea to have someone else read your manuscript. Once I made the many changes he suggested, I sent my draft to a professional editor. And I can't stress it enough, having your manuscript professionally edited is a MUST for any self-published author. You really don't want to annoy your readers with glaring grammar mistakes.

So back to the post title. I truly believe anyone can write a book. If you set your mind to it, you accomplish anything. And even if your book doesn't become an international sensation, just the fact that you actually finished it, it's already an incredible achievement.