Cassandra Page's Blog, page 21

NaNoWriMo — the next steps

The folks at Grammarly sent me this infographic to share last month, but I decided that the last thing people who are trying to write almost 2000 words a day need is pressure to edit when they should just be drafting. Still, there are some decent (albeit basic/fundamental) tips here, and now that the pressure is off, the graphic is worth a look at to remind you of some of the things that you should be looking out for on a proofread.

Here are my basic tips for NaNo participants now that the November frenzy is over.

Finish writing the manuscript. Just because you got to 50k, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re done. (The average novel is closer to twice that length. Here’s a handy link with recommended word counts for different genres.) And if you didn’t “win” NaNo and didn’t finish your manuscript, that doesn’t mean you should give up. A slow writer is still a writer. I know. I couldn’t win NaNo without a time machine, but I’ve still finished five novels.
Leave the manuscript for a few weeks (or as long as you can stand it) before coming back to look at it with fresh eyes.
Re-read the manuscript. Do a structural edit and re-write as needed to deal with the bigger plot problems. Copy edit afterwards (but also as you go if you’re like me and can’t let a comma splice be).
Send it to your beta readers/critique partners.
Review their suggestions and incorporate them as necessary/appropriate.
Repeat the previous three steps until you’re done.

DO NOT IMMEDIATELY SEND YOUR NOVEMBER 2015 MANUSCRIPT TO AN AGENT OR PUBLISHER, OR SELF-PUBLISH IT WITH A COVER YOU MADE IN WORD ART.

That is a NaNo no-no. :p

An update, some squeeing and probably some other stuff…

I haven’t been blogging as much lately. I’m sure you’ve noticed. It turns out that self-publishing for the first time, combined with prepping to re-release an entire trilogy, all in the lead-up to the silly season, is quite time consuming.

Who knew?

Still, there have been a few exciting things going on. On the Lucid Dreaming front, a beautiful box of paperbacks arrived. I squealed so loudly I may have frightened the dog. I then got to do one of my favourite things: autographing books to fulfil orders for some of my favourite people.

If you’re interested in an autographed copy, they are AU$15 plus postage. (I realise that could get a little XX-y for people that are outside Australia, but the offer is available worldwide regardless.) Send me an email at cassandrapage01(at)gmail.com and we can sort out the details.

Excitingly, if you don’t want me to deface sign your book, I discovered today that Lucid Dreaming has made it onto The Book Depository. Free shipping worldwide. Whee!

Aren’t they lovely?

As for Isla’s Inheritance, I had a very exciting moment when a friend posted this picture on Facebook. Yup, that’s my book, sitting next to Indigenous Governance and a little bit of Skulduggery Pleasant. Sweeeeeeet.

ERMAGERD!

For those of you that are waiting for the series re-release (especially for the paperbacks of Isla’s Oath and Melpomene’s Daughter, which TMP never issued), it isn’t far away now. I’ve re-edited all three books and am now proofing the gorgeously designed galley  KILA Designs did for Isla’s Inheritance.

And the cover reveal for the entire trilogy is this Saturday. You can still sign up here!

It even has little arrowheads!

And, of course, I’ve also been decorating Christmas trees, organising presents, and all the other things that happen at this time of year. Once Christmas is done and the Isla trilogy is back on sale, I might just collapse in a heap for a bit…

…who am I kidding? I’ll start writing the sequel to Lucid Dreaming. ;)

Book blitz: ‘Divided’ by Sharon M. Johnston

DIVIDED: AN OPEN HEART NOVEL

Sharon M. Johnston

Publication Date: November 24 2015

New Adult Science Fiction Romance

A new heart should mean new life, instead it’s a living nightmare.

Mishca Richardson’s life is at an all-time high after her heart transplant. With new boyfriend, Ryder, she has the perfect summer romance. Even the nightmares plaguing her sleep since her operation can’t dull her new dream world. Yet, life starts to unravel when Mishca develops superhuman abilities. She does her best to hide them so as not to end up a science experiment in a lab, but she can’t ignore the strange instant attraction she experiences when she meets her university professor, Colin Reed. Torn between love and the obsession, Mishca must decide between the two men. But as the organization responsible for her weird powers moves in, she’ll have a lot more to worry about than romance.

Find Divided on Goodreads

Buy links

 AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | KOBO | iBOOKS | CITY OWL PRESS WEBSITE

Excerpt

SOMEONE MUST DIE so I can live. I’ve come to terms with that. Before it turned my stomach, thinking about my donor’s death, but now I’m used to it. Most likely, it’ll be a car accident or a drunken fall. It won’t come from illness or any other natural causes that corrupt human organs and make the deceased ineligible to be a donor. A violent, painful death will be my savior. It’s the only way I’ll ever get my new heart.

I open my eyes and stare upward, hoping the white fluffy clouds splotched against the blue sky will distract me from my imaginings of people dying. I guess I’m not as used to the idea of getting someone else’s heart as I thought. The harsh Australian sun makes me squint.

I swing my legs around and hoist myself upright on the stadium bleacher, looking over the sports field. Readjusting my tank top strap that had slipped off my shoulder, I try to conjure up happier thoughts. At least I won’t be responsible for the person who dies, even if I get a new heart out of the mess.

Yeah, happier thoughts.

Giveaway

Sharon has one BIG prize bundle as part of the celebrations! You could win:

Heart Marcasite Earrings
$10 Amazon Gift Voucher
Owl Christmas Decorations
Dinosaur Christmas Decorations
Owl Pen
Heart Pen

Enter to win

About the Author

SHARON JOHNSTON is a New Adult author from sunny Queensland, Australia. She specializes in intriguing stories and soulful contemporaries across category boundaries. Working as a PR specialist by day, in her spare time she writes, blogs for YAtopia and Aussie Owned & Read, spends time with her fur babies, and plays computer games with her family. She’s also been trailed by women wanting to know where she buys her shoes.

Find Sharon on TWITTER and FACEBOOK and on her WEBSITE.

‘Isla’s Inheritance’ re-release – trilogy cover reveal sign-ups

As you know, my young adult urban fantasy Isla’s Inheritance trilogy is currently unavailable, due to Turquoise Morning Press closing its doors. I’ve taken the opportunity to give the books a bit of a spring clean — new covers, new interior design, and a bit of a dust and vacuum (so to speak). The first two aspects are being taken care of by KILA Designs; the designer in residence, Kim, is the same very talented woman that designed the Lucid Dreaming cover and interior, so you can bet your boots that I am super-excited about the whole thing!

As I write this, the covers are almost complete, and they will take your breath away — I promise.

Since I’m very impatient, I’ve decided to run an all-in-one cover reveal for the entire trilogy on 5 December … and this is your chance to take part. I’d love to have you! If you’ve got a blog or social media account and you’d like to help me share the new covers, you can sign up here.

I don’t have a release date for the trilogy yet; the first book is with KILA for internal design, and the second is also ready to go. I’m just re-proofing Melpomene’s Daughter. I’d love to have them all back up before Christmas, but that might be pushing my luck, and the friendship with Kim. We’ll see. ;)

To inspire you, here’s a new teaser for the first book, Isla’s Inheritance…

Review: ‘Never Forgotten’ by Stacey Nash

Continuing on from Forget Me Not and Remember Me, this is the thrilling third novel in Stacey Nash’s unforgettable series.

Since the strike on Collective territory during Anamae’s rescue, things have taken a turn for the worse. Unprovoked attacks on innocent people have Anamae and her friends fighting day and night to minimize the damage. With hundreds of lives lost, morale amongst the resistance fighters has plummeted. But that’s the least of her worries.

Manvyke still has Anamae’s mom, Annie, secreted away somewhere and after the way they parted, Anamae worries it’s not at her mother’s bidding. Maybe Annie’s disappearance all those years ago wasn’t her choice. But with Manvyke scouring the world, there’s something far more pressing than the need to find Anamae’s mother …

It’s a fight against time to find the other keys before Manvyke. In his hands, the three relics could unlock enough power to reek a much worse havoc than the current issues at hand. If the councillor gets his hands on those keys, civilization will bow down.

THE RACE IS ON.

This book is the third of four in the young adult modern world/sci-fi Collective series, and gives us more details of the world and the hunt for the founders’ keys. If you haven’t read the first two books (Forget Me Not and Remember Me), I recommend that you go back and do so; this isn’t the sort of series that you can jump into partway through.

I loved the little glimpses of foreign locations as Jax hunts for the second of the three powerful relics, trying to get there before Manvyke and his batshit crazy son, Nik, can. Mae, in the meantime, is trying to figure out what Manvyke has done with her mother, working on the assumption that she’s a prisoner … or worse. Mae’s group also runs afoul of Nik at various points.

I keep mentioning Nik, because he was definitely the villain of the piece. Manvyke is largely off camera, whereas Nik appears frequently to taunt Jax, leer at Mae, and beat the snot out of all and sundry.

A lot of the story focuses on Mae’s dilemma in choosing between Jax and Will. I’m not usually a love triangle kind of person, so I admit this particular sub-plot slowed things down for me a little. Still, the angsty bits are interwoven with other events, which were enough to keep me reading.

As far as the love triangle dilemma itself goes, it was obvious from the start of the series (not just this book) that Mae loved Jax. I didn’t really understand why she chose to torture herself about the whole thing, except that Will is her best friend and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings by rejecting him out of hand, I suppose?

Out of the two boys I actually prefer Will — Jax is a little bit too angry and broken for me (and what’s with him actually believing a word that comes out of Nik’s mouth? I know they are brothers, but sheesh!). But by about halfway through I was cheering for Jax and Mae to get together just so they could both stop angsting all over everything. ;)

My favourite character is still Lilly, the sweet and sad friend of Mae’s who is determined to be an active part of the resistance despite her overprotective father.

Never Forgotten does a good job as a “middle book” in that it transitions us from the discovery stories in the first two books to the set-up for the finale in book four. The pace is zippy, there is a respectable amount of kissing, and the touch of sci-fi tech is still my favourite part about this world.

When a writer resorts to pictures…

Because some days, when I really want to say something profound — something to help the world make sense or the grief ache less, something to ease the horror and despair — there’s nothing in my mind but fog. White noise and static…

Still, luckily for me, on those days there are writers like Tolkien, who’ve already said it for me.

My thoughts are with everyone affected by the attacks in Paris, and the ones in Beirut, and with anyone else who has suffered violence at the hands of another.

Lucid Dreaming release day!

IT’S HERE! IT’S HERE! Two years, two months and ten days after I originally typed “the end”, Lucid Dreaming has finally made its way into the world. It has been through beta readers, competitions, and various delightful, encouraging and supportive industry professionals. So many people have helped out along the way that I’m actually a little worried I might forget someone. If I do, please forgive me!

The obligatory thank you speech

Firstly, thank you and confetti cannons to everyone who helped during the drafting of Melaina’s story: to Peter, my enduring bad-guy consultant; to Shane for his nursing advice; and to Fad for answering questions about police procedure. Any errors of fact or bad guy failures are my fault, not theirs. To everyone who read the drafts in various states and gave me valuable advice and encouragement — Stacey Nash, Kim Last, Craig Lawrie, Rena Rossner and Dannie Morin in particular — thank you and squishy hugs.

Also, thank you to my wonderful editor, Lauren K. McKellar, who asks all the hardest questions, talks to me about ellipses and spots even the tiniest inconsistencies. This book wouldn’t be half of what it is without you.

The cover is brought to you by the aforementioned Kim from KILA Designs, who patiently bore with me while I threw random design ideas at her (including a last-minute change to the paperback design that she did yesterday!) and then produced something wonderful. Bless your socks, lady!

Thank you to my friends and family for putting up with my frequent absences and blank stares, for feeding me coffee and Bad Chicken, and for being my cheer-squad: Mum, Dad, Kristy, Ali, Craig, Karen, Mikey, Peter, Cassandra, Nicole, the BC09 girls and the AOR girls. Also, a special mention goes to Bec, who puts up with my irrational love of hyphens.

And finally, thank you to my son, Nathaniel, who asked me why I “worked” in the study after he went to bed, and then said when he grew up he’d be an editor so he could help me proofread my work. Sweetheart, with your imagination I have no doubt I’ll be proofreading yours. Love you, little guy.

The obligatory buy links

(For the ebook, that is. The paperback is maybe 48 hours away from being available — see previous comment about me making a last-minute change. My bad!)

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Australia

Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo

As this post goes live, the only one of these sites that says “buy” rather than “pre-order” is Amazon Australia. But if you’re patient and keep clicking refresh, the rest of the world will catch up eventually. (That’s how timezones work, right?)

The obligatory blurb and cover photo

Who would have thought your dreams could kill you?

Melaina makes the best of her peculiar heritage: half human and half Oneiroi, or dream spirit, she can manipulate others’ dreams. At least working out the back of a new age store as a ‘dream therapist’ pays the bills. Barely.

But when Melaina treats a client for possession by a nightmare creature, she unleashes the murderous wrath of the creature’s master. He could be anywhere, inside anyone: a complete stranger or her dearest friend. Melaina must figure out who this hidden adversary is and what he’s planning – before the nightmares come for her.

Add on Goodreads

The obligatory shot of me holding the proof and grinning like a loon

If you buy Lucid Dreaming, then mwah! Hugs and kittens to you, dear reader.

Review: ‘The Wild Girl’ by Kate Forsyth

Dortchen Wild fell in love with Wilhelm Grimm the first time she saw him.

Growing up in the small German kingdom of Hessen-Cassel in early nineteenth century, Dortchen Wild is irresistibly drawn to the boy next door, the young and handsome fairy tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm.

It is a time of war, tyranny and terror. Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all of Europe, and Hessen-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, the Grimm brothers decide to save old tales that had once been told by the firesides of houses grand and small all over the land.

Dortchen knows many beautiful old stories, such as ‘Hansel and Gretel’, ‘The Frog King’ and ‘Six Swans’. As she tells them to Wilhelm, their love blossoms. Yet the Grimm family is desperately poor, and Dortchen’s father has other plans for his daughter. Marriage is an impossible dream.

Dortchen can only hope that happy endings are not just the stuff of fairy tales.

I finished The Wild Girl more than a week ago, but haven’t been able to review since it due to a massive book hangover. I’m also finding this review difficult to draft, so please excuse any incoherence on my part!

Like the last of Kate Forsyth’s books that I read (Dancing on Knives), The Wild Girl was a hard read. Not the prose — the prose was lovely — but the subject matter. This isn’t a fluffy romance between a scholar and the apothecary’s daughter. This is a gritty tale about the realities of life in nineteenth century Germany, the horrors of war, and the awful things one human being can do to another.

Importantly, and I want to say this up front: this book needs to come with a trigger warning for rape. I had to put The Wild Girl down for two days after one particularly traumatic scene. What enticed me back to it was to see the perpetrator get his just desserts. The subject is delicately handled by Forsyth, not gratuitously or in a fashion designed to titillate, but in a way that fills you with a creeping sense of horror and dread.

It’s something to be aware of.

The parallels between Dortchen’s life and the various fairytales she tells Wilhelm at different times are masterful. The telling of “All Kinds of Fur” in particular was so moving it gave me chills. The control that society and religion gave men over the females of their households was both illuminating and scary, and made me so thankful that I live now! All the fancy dresses in the world aren’t worth subjugation. I loved Dortchen’s sister Hanne for her scandalous rebellion against the patriarchy.

One of the other parallels with Dancing on Knives (other than the awful father figure) is that The Wild Girl too has a hint of magical realism. The herb lore that Dortchen has is fascinating, making her something of a nurse to her loved ones … and some of her housekeeper’s superstitions lead in the direction of pagan magic. There aren’t any flashy spells or anything; nothing happens that can’t be explained. But I adored that touch nonetheless, and it gave Dortchen a chance to rebel in her own, tiny way — to try and effect a world that is so utterly out of her control.

A special mention goes to Old Marie, said housekeeper. She was one of my favourite characters, warming every scene she was in.

Part of me wishes that Dortchen and Wilhelm hadn’t had to wait so long for their happily ever after, but Forsyth was bound by the facts given this is historical fiction. (The amount of research that has gone into The Wild Girl is staggering.) She has come up with a convincing, albeit poignant, explanation for why the relationship evolved the way it did.

It’s a hard read, but The Wild Girl is an example of a story by an author who is the master of her craft.

Halloween Hijinks, Lucid Dreaming Pre-orders, and a Giveaway

HAPPY HALLOWEEN*!

It’s four days until Lucid Dreaming is released, and in hindsight you can bet your favourite pair of slippers that I wish I’d organised the release for today instead of Melbourne Cup Day. Because I don’t have even a single horse in the book.

Unless you count all the NIGHTMARES!

Get it? GET IT?

(Sigh.)

Skeleton cowboy flees bad joke (source: Shutterstock)

It would have been an especially good tie-in, because — as is pretty clear from the blurb — one of the primary focuses of the book is the freaky things that lurk in our dreaming minds. Especially the things that are born from real monsters.

Anyway, to celebrate Halloween and because I’m a stand-up kind of person, if you leave a comment on this post with your favourite spooky monster you’ll receive a chance to win an ebook of Lucid Dreaming in the format of your choice. The competition will run for three days, or until I decide to draw it (because I’m fickle like that!).

If you’re too impatient (which I totally respect) or don’t have a favourite spooky monster, then here are the various ebook pre-order links. There will be a paperback, but I expect it to be delayed by about a week — I’m waiting for my winged monkeys to deliver my proof so I can fondle it check it before authorising the final.

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Australia | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo

Also, in case you missed it, I’ve been interviewed over at Aussie Owned and Read. Check it out!

* In the Southern Hemisphere, at least. ^

^ Wibbly wobbly … timey wimey … stuff.

 

Who would have thought your dreams could kill you?

Melaina makes the best of her peculiar heritage: half human and half Oneiroi, or dream spirit, she can manipulate others’ dreams. At least working out the back of a new age store as a ‘dream therapist’ pays the bills. Barely.

But when Melaina treats a client for possession by a nightmare creature, she unleashes the murderous wrath of the creature’s master. He could be anywhere, inside anyone: a complete stranger or her dearest friend. Melaina must figure out who this hidden adversary is and what he’s planning – before the nightmares come for her.

Web Search FAQ: 2015 Edition

A long time ago (long enough ago that we missed 2014), I did a blog post on the various search terms people have used to find my website, singling out those searches that I suspect my content was unable to help with. I decided it was time for an update. Because I’m a giver.

why people under the age of 21 shouldn’t enter talent shows

Because they are young and spry, and how can the rest of us old people compete with that? I mean, how can we?! I had a karate grading on the weekend, and there were these young’uns who were doing kicks above their heads, when I could barely kick above my knee. (Of course, their heads were down around my knees, but still*.)

Seriously, I have no idea. Still, if it’s an all-ages talent show, maybe you should just get over it and move on?

*That is a lie. I am very short.

subject of books written in past

There … were rather a lot. I think we need to narrow this down a little. I mean, how far in the past are we talking? Early on, religion featured rather heavily, but subjects have broadened out somewhat in modern times. And by somewhat I mean that if you can think of it, there’s a book that’s been written on it.

martha jones love

HELLS YES. She’s the most maligned of the Doctor’s companions, but I loved her so much. Not as much as Donna, but, you know, a lot. I really felt for her. She was fiercely intelligent in her own right, stubborn and brave. Sure, she fell in love with Ten, but have you seen David Tennant? Besides, he swept in, saved the day and pashed her in the course of the adventure. My ovaries would explode on the spot!

sexy adverbs

I can see where you’re going here, but if you’re considering writing erotica, maybe steer clear of too many adverbs? Still, here are a few to get you started:

breathily, firmly, tightly, softly, hard (but not hardly; that’s not very sexy), lusciously, moistly

Okay, maybe not moistly. Still, you do you.

how to research a city for a fiction novel

I used Wikipedia a lot. And Google Maps. Seriously, that thing is a gift — when I was writing a scene in Melpomene’s Daughter that takes place in London, I actually found the street that the characters were standing on, and then used Google street view so that I could describe it properly. Google Maps is a gift to writers.

And stalkers.

cassandralord

I’m so flattered and pleased that you asked. I never asked for this honour of supreme lordship over you, and it’s a heavy burden, but of course I will accept.

Now: clean your room!