Kate Wrath's Blog, page 13

Features, news, and rambles…

Author, Kate Wrath:

I’ve been pretty busy lately, and not keeping up with the blog very well. So… what have I been up to? Writing, for one. I’m still revising TMT, and I think it’s going pretty well. I dove into a major revision this past weekend, and I feel pretty good about where it’s going. I just have to work out a few more bits with the timeline at the beginning of the novel, write in a few changes, and I’m calling that part done. (We’ll see if my editor agrees with me!) Speaking of my editor, I received my first feedback from the illustrious Pol Blaze, who said it was really good. And then told me to change it. But reinforced that it was really good. See why I love him so much? He was absolutely correct about the part I needed to change… which is what I’ve been working on. So it is all going according to plan. Yay.

In other news, I have been sooooo bad about sharing features with you all on my blog. Here’s a couple more:

Kory Shrum has featured me on her website.

And I am Kate Jack’s book choice, part 2.

OK, saved the best for last: Jane Dougherty’s The Dark Citadel is free on Kindle August 20th and 21st only! This is an amazing book and comes with my personal recommendation. If you liked my book, I’m betting you’ll like Jane’s. It is dystopian crossed with fantasy. I read the first and the second book… going to read the third as soon as I have a free moment. It’s like crack cocaine. Seriously.  So go download it.  It’s free right now, for goodness sake!

I am truly tired, so if any of the above ramble does not make sense or sounds like it has been written by a sleep-deprived madwoman, please forgive me.  Just wanted to let you all know I’m still here.  Still writing.  Only a couple more months now!

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My Friend’s Book Is Free (Today and Tomorrow)

Author, Kate Wrath:

Hey everyone!  Just a quick one to let you know that the lovely N. S. Dorrington is giving away her book, The Last Knight, today and tomorrow only.  Grab a copy and read up!

The Last Knight on Amazon

Like any teenage girl, Cara Page dreams of the future, the difference is, every day those dreams come true.

Now she’s dreaming of a boy, and a future that can’t be real. Because if it is, then everything she thought was myth and legend is actually true, and there is an evil coming that will tear the country apart.

Lance Filwer is a boy with secrets of his own, and a past full of mistakes he can’t undo. Cara is his second chance, his chance to succeed where he failed before – if only she’ll trust him enough to let him help her.

Cara needs to know what’s happening, but the answer lies in a long forgotten past, and an ancient legend. To find it Cara will have to travel into the depths of Wales, and the heart of ancient Britain.

 

Just remember, if you miss this couple of free days, you can read The Last Knight on Kindle Unlimited.

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Free fiction in the world of E: Glimpses: Deathbed

Author, Kate Wrath:

As promised, here is the first installment in my new series of short fictions.  Rather than complete stories, these are simply glimpses, as the title suggests.  Think of them as a peek into the world of E.  Moments you might otherwise have missed.  As I said in my previous post, these are mostly for my existing fans, who will get more out of them.  Anyone can read them, but if you haven’t read E, you might be missing out.

 

Deathbed
by Kate Wrath

 

Karalyn lay limp against the body of her dead husband. Up until that moment, she’d believed, somehow, she would overcome the illness. That she would fight it off, despite the lack of food or medicine. She’d recover because her children needed her. Because they required at least one parent in this cruel world. One person who was willing to wedge herself between their little bodies and the evil that could so easily consume them.

Now, she understood how she had fooled herself. The life was draining out of her little by little and she had no way to ease the suffering of her young. Unbearable sorrow pierced her heart, but the pain went beyond the emotional. She could feel the imminent failure of the organ within her chest, threatening to give out. This small bout of consciousness was likely the last one she’d ever get. She had only moments to prepare them, and hardly energy to speak.

“Henry,” she whispered, though it took great effort. Her eyes rolled sideways to find the face of her oldest son, who stood near the shanty’s door. She couldn’t reach for him. One finger twitched. That was all the strength she had.

He stepped closer, but not too close. She’d scolded him enough times for trying to come near to help her. To help Gabriel, the love of her life, who was now dead beside her. Would Henry hate her later for denying him one last hug? Or would he understand?

The eyes of the nine-year-old boy skimmed over her face, fearful and reserved at the same time. They paused on the sores crusted around her lips. Emotion flickered through his eyes and settled underneath a carefully controlled exterior. Henry was the one to do it. The one to keep them alive.

“Burn us,” Karalyn whispered.

Henry leaned in to try to make out the faint words.His face came into view– the golden-brown mop of hair and inquisitive eyes. For a moment he looked so young she thought she was seeing his brother. Then cold iron rose from beneath the surface, masking any youth in Henry’s face. He’d puzzled out her quiet words, and he knew what she intended. His jaw muscles clamped.

“Everything,” she croaked out, forcing the words up her dry throat. She glanced again to the doorway, where the rest of the children hovered, watching with quiet, horror-ridden expressions. This moment would be etched on their lives. For them, the first moment they were truly alone. And for Karalyn, the last glimpse of her family. A sigh drained out of her as she tried to catch hold of that glimpse: a beautiful spattering of ragged, skinny girls, mostly, from the ages of eleven to five. There were only the two boys– Henry, and the littlest one, whose face was now buried in his sister’s leg. Nora’s arms tightened on the little boy’s shoulders, and she shushed him softly, rocking side to side, trying to soothe the emotions that he instinctively felt but didn’t understand.

“Everything.” Henry’s young voice was full of unnatural calmness. His gaze was written with a stubborn determination to perform whatever duty Karalyn assigned to him. He asked no questions. No why was it necessary, or where would they live. He must have understood that there was no time for such things. He could only trust her. Allow her to give him what instruction she could in these fleeting seconds.

Karalyn drew in a ragged breath. Where would they go– she meant to answer that one. She was owed a favor from a long time ago. But the air was poison in her lungs. She sputtered and choked on it. Her next breath was frantic, and only halfway in before she was coughing it out. There was a horrible hacking sound. Then wheezing. She couldn’t grab hold of any words.

The girls cried out from the doorway. The twins and Angie were sobbing loud enough to drown out the sound of Karalyn’s desperate gulping for air. Nora tried to reign them in, but she had her hands full. The littlest one had broken from his face-hiding. He tried to make a run for the deathbed.

“Mommy!” he cried, as Nora caught him up in her arms.

“Get them out of here,” Henry growled fiercely, turning his face to his older sister. “Go!”

The other girls, sobbing with wide-open mouths and hanging arms, turned and walked obediently from the shanty. Nora struggled to lift her little brother, who was kicking and screaming, tears streaking his dirty face. She got hold of him, hoisted him to her waist, and refused to let go. She turned away from her mother, making for the door.

Karalyn’s head fell sideways, her chest heaving. Her eyes met those of the tiny boy reaching over Nora’s shoulder.

“Mommy, mommy,” he cried, renewing his efforts. Tiny fingers stretched toward her. His little face was contorted with desperate grief.

Nora kept walking, though her own back shook with sobs. As she went through the doorway, her soft, tremulous voice floated back to their mother. “It’ll be OK, Mattie. It’ll be OK.”

Karalyn couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. She was done. Terror gripped her at the thought of leaving them behind.

Henry crouched down in her blurring line of vision. His hazel eyes met her dying eyes. “Mom,” he said softly, and his voice was already fading, fading. “I’ll take care of them. I promise….”

 

Don’t forget to check out the other awesome flash fiction by Pol Blaze, set in the world of E.

Read the first 2 1/2 chapters of E by clicking below:

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A book feature, an author interview, Smashwords, and story news…

Author, Kate Wrath:

A couple of cool things to check out:

I was featured on Tricia Drammeh’s Authors To Watch.  Pretty cool!

I did an interview with Wendy Van Camp on her blog No Wasted Ink.

Thanks to both of these lovely ladies (and fellow authors) for hosting me on their sites!

Smashwords:

Yes, E is now available on Smashwords in all the many eReader formats.  If you’ve been waiting for epub, etc, now you can get it.  That also means that E should be on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and so on within a few days.

Random Rant:

Did Google really just take away Google authorship?  Seriously?  After all the trouble of getting it working in the first place???  *rants*  If you have no idea what I’m talking about, just ignore this one.  OK.  Moving on.

Stories:

I finally got around to starting some short stories.  Well, not so much short stories as glimpses.  Expect to see some short little bits that will give you a quick look into the lives of the characters from E.  These are really for my existing fans who would like to know just a little more.  Yeah, you.  You know who you are.

If you haven’t read E yet… not sure I would read them until you do.  Not that there are any major spoilers yet… but just in case.  The first one is almost done and should be on this site very soon.  I’ll probably put it in a blog post as well as on the stories page, so it should go out to anyone who is subscribed to the blog.

Click below to read the first 2 1/2 chapters of E:

 

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A couple more awesome 5-star reviews

Author, Kate Wrath:

I’m a little behind, but I have received a couple more 5-star reviews. Here are links to these amazing book bloggers:

Reviews With A Twist – Anka has done a beautiful, detailed review of E.  I love the creativity on this one!

Where Books Lead Us – Robin’s review is short and sweet, but awesome none-the-less!

 

Many, many thanks to both of these lovely ladies for taking the time to read and review E!

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Improve Your Characters, Improve Your Writing

Author, Kate Wrath:

Good morning everyone.  This week I wrote a blog post for Rock the Book about creating awesome characters.  Read it here: Internalization: the first step to creating deep, believable characters

For me, character is the thing that makes or breaks a story.  True, you have to have other stuff, too.  Plot, voice, language, and so on.  However, if you’re going to focus on improving one thing that can make your writing drastically better, my advice is to aim for the characters.

Character is the heart of your story.  When your characters become real, plot will fall into place around them, because the characters’ realistic, true-to-life decisions will drive the action that happens in your story.  When your characters become real, your world-building will become real, because those characters will inhabit a real place in your imagination.  And yes, when your characters become real, your dialogue will improve, which in turn will help the flow and language of your story, especially if you happen to be writing in first person.  Character has an incredible trickle-down effect that will improve everything you write.

So, if you want to know the single most important part of my personal character-building process, go check out that article.  It’s actually a lot of fun, and no, you won’t need to fill out any silly worksheets.

Hope you are all having a fabulous day!

Check out the beginnings of my character….

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A few little updates… progress, blurbs, reading, scrapbook

Author, Kate Wrath:

Hey everyone!  It’s been a while since I’ve posted about anything other than reviews and interviews, so I thought it would be a good idea to check in and tell you all what I’ve been up to.  It’s just been crazily busy as always.

Progress on TMT

Firstly, I’m still working on editing TMT.  I’m about to start a rewrite of a chapter that I feel really needs to be fleshed out.  I also want to have another look at a new character, because I feel like he got a bit lost in the book, and that just won’t do.  So that’s big on my edit to-do list.

Blurb Hell

The other thing I’ve been working on is my blurb.  I have had all these amazing reviews pouring in, with lots of love for E.  However, a lot of people are saying “I didn’t think I was going to like this book.”  That tells me that I am not making a good first impression with potential readers.  I’ve had a lot of compliments on the cover, so that leads me to the blurb.  My blurb is just not telling people how awesome my story is.

Well, let’s face it:  blurb writing is hard!  Let’s take 100,000 words and boil it down to… oh… maybe 300, tops.  Sound like fun?  Hell no!  On top of that, add the fact that I am one of those people that thinks that stories should be read “blind”.  I think an author should reveal a story artistically, and part of the fun is in the careful, measured revelation of details.  At least, this is my favorite way of reading.  I read Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief  knowing absolutely nothing about it, and it was perfect.  Would knowing something have spoiled the story for me, at least a little bit?  Yeah, I think it would have.  Maybe that’s just me, but I find it hard to get my head out of this way of thinking.  And as far as blurbs go, that translates into difficulty.

So when I’m writing a blurb, everything feels like a spoiler.  When I wrote my first blurb, I was trying really hard not to give away too much, but perhaps that translated to inaccessible.  Ideally, I would have people read the first few paragraphs of my story.  I am almost tempted to just put the first scene as my blurb.  But lo and behold, I am still working on an alternative (much thanks and lots of love to my fellow Rock the Book chicks for all the excellent advice and feedback, and to my other half, for putting up with 500 crappy blurbs).  Hopefully, I will have something soon, and we’ll see how it goes.

Awesome Book

I also just wanted to share with you… I am reading this really awesome book called “The Dark Citadel” by Jane Dougherty.  I don’t have time to be reading, but I am snatching bits of this book whenever I can.  It’s a super-dark dystopian story.  I’m not going to say anything else, except it’s really good, and if you liked my book, you will probably like this one.  I am seriously loving it.  Go check it out on Goodreads.  I’ll be reviewing this book on Rock the Book soon.

Scrapbook Page

Last thing for today….  I have added a “Scrapbook” page to my site.  I thought it would be fun to keep an online scrapbook of my editorial reviews, artist spotlights, and things like that.  I have already posted a number of reviews on the page:  My Scrapbook.  As more reviews, articles, and so on come in, I’ll be asking my fabulous reviewers and authors for permission to include them, and I’ll post as many as I can to the page.  Links to the reviewer sites are built in, so you can go visit them and see what they’re up to.

OK, I think that’s it for today.  I have a ton to do, and never enough time to do it in, so off I go!

Read the first 2 1/2 chapters of E below:

 

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An Interview with Booklover 2.0

Author, Kate Wrath:

My interview with Laquesha at Booklover 2.0 is live.  Head on over and check it out.  This is really one for those of you who have read E and are waiting for the next book.  Laquesha asked a slew of awesome questions after reading and reflecting on E.  (There are some spoilers in there, if you haven’t read E yet.)  I have to say, this was the funnest interview I’ve ever done.  I felt that Laquesha really “got” my story, and it was fun to talk with her about what has happened, what might happen, and what it all means.

Check it out, and enjoy!

 

 

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Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited: Read E for Free

Author, Kate Wrath:

Wow.  Where do I begin?

I just found out (thanks, Rae) that E is listed on Amazon’s new Kindle Unlimited program.  So what exactly is that?

Check it out here: Kindle Unlimited

Basically, for $9.99 a month, you can read any book on the program for free.  Amazon says there are 600,000+ titles to choose from.  E is one of those.  Is it worth it?  I don’t know.  You’d have to read a lot (some of you do).  You make the call.  Is the free one-month trial worth it?  Heck yeah!  It’s free!

So this is the part where I tell you to go check it out and download my book.  Authors only get paid if you read 10% or more of the download, but I am pretty sure that if you start reading E you won’t want to stop.  At least that’s what I’ve been told.  So go on.  I dare you.

 

Disclaimer: For my author friends… I am honestly still not sure how I feel about this program, and the above statements are not necessarily my approval!  I’m still thinking about it.  Right now, I don’t have enough information.  All I know is, like it or not, my book is part of the program.  I figure I’ll make the most of that, and see how things work out.  And for my readers… that means that E might not be in this program past August 1st, when I have to make my decision whether or not to renew the KDP Select program.  So best to get it now!

You can start reading right here for free, right now!

 

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My latest review… 5 typewriters from Books With Leti Del Mar

Author, Kate Wrath:

Check out what the fabulous Leti Del Mar has said about E on her book blog, Books With Leti Del Mar.

 

This one is short and sweet, but wow, I like it!  I think this is my favorite part:  “If you are looking for a strong and smart heroine in a kick butt dystopian world, this is the book for you.”

 

Leti blogs about books, writing, and Indie author and readers.  She is also the author of four books, including How To Self-Publish: A Do-It-Yourself Approach, The Inadvertent Thief , Land of the Unaltered (Confederation, #1), and Secrets of the Unaltered (Confederation #2).  Read her full review of E here.

 

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