K. Ferrin's Blog, page 24

Desiderium, Monsters the First Ch 13

My #WedPeeks post for this week is chapter thirteen of my new novella, coming soon!  Desiderium is a dark fantasy/horror and is for mature readers.

*Warning: There is violence, sex, and a lot of profanity in these pages.

 

~ THIRTEEN ~

Crumbling Pieces

I hadn’t even turned my computer on at work when Brian showed up at my cube. I had expected it, of course, but not quite that fast. I suppressed a shudder—this was not going to go well.

“Terryn, where the hell have you been? You look like shit, brother…are you OK?” he asked, sounding concerned but clearly also pissed.

“I’m fine, Brian, I just…”

“You are not fine, man. You’re pale as a ghost. And you’ve got dark circles under your eyes. You look like you’ve lost weight, too. What are you into? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

I took a deep breath. I was feeling much better this morning but I wasn’t at 100%, not even close. His rapid-fire questions were throwing me off balance and interrupting my barely maintained calm.

“Brian,” I said, “I’m fine. I just haven’t been feeling well and haven’t been eating well. That is why I haven’t been at work. And I’m sorry I didn’t call, I just didn’t feel like I could even get out of bed.” There is nothing more convincing than a lie that consists almost entirely of the truth. Of course I wasn’t going to mention why I felt so badly. He would fill those explanations in himself. People always did. Especially people who knew you and already thought the best of you.

“You feel like you’re coming out of it OK now? You’re gonna have to hustle with Jim, you know. He’s ready to fire your ass for not showing up or calling for a week. Golden child you may have been, but right now you’re fucked, brother.”

“Yeah, I think they called my mom, too.”

“You’re damn right they did. Fuck, Terryn, we all thought you were dead and lying in a ditch somewhere. Your mom told us about you and Sophie, and then we thought maybe you’d offed yourself somewhere.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, man,” I said. “I’m glad to know you all think I’m so unstable.” Brian puckered his lips at that but said nothing. Clearly my mother had told them more than just about my break-up with Sophie. I wondered how much they now knew and how much that might affect my future employment here.

“OK,” I said. “I’m headed off to Jim’s office then. Might as well get this over with.” I laughed roughly. “Hey, if I don’t come back, will you box up my stuff and run it by my place?” I was trying to make a joke, but it sounded heavy even to my own ears. Brian said nothing. He looked at me for a moment longer, and then headed to his desk with a shake of his long-haired head.

Jim didn’t look surprised or pleased to see me when I knocked on his door.

“So, you are OK then. I’m glad of that.” He said, leaning back in his desk chair. “Your mother was awful worried when you didn’t call her back. Have you called her yet? She was ready to file a missing persons report, but I talked her into waiting one more day. Said you probably were just on a bender after you and Sophie.”

“I sent her a text this morning,” I replied. Lame, I know, but that was as much of an explanation as he was going to get for now.

“Good.” He sat for a moment looking at me. “You know how much I value your work here, Terryn. You’re the best damn developer we’ve got. But you know the timelines we work under. I can’t have someone in here who has such disregard for what we do and for the pressure his disregard puts on his coworkers.”

“I understand Jim, really, but I was—” I started, but he held up a hand.

“I don’t care, Terryn. I just don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me what’s going on with you. Not now. The time for that has passed. You’ve been on a downward spiral for quite some time now, you know that. You’re still a rock star, so I’ve gone along with it, but now you’re just out of control. What I care about is the health of this team and the quality of our product. You have lost touch with both. You’re out, Terryn. I’m sorry.”

His face was grim. Jim was a genius, and an amazing boss, too. I admired him and looked up to him. It made me sick to think I’d let him down so badly. I had known things were going to be bad, but I honestly did not believe that this was how things were going to play out. I know it makes me sound like a pompous ass—hell, maybe I am—but I sincerely believed that I was so valuable as to be irreplaceable.

“Jim…” I tried, but he cut me off again.

“Don’t, Terryn. This is hard enough, don’t make it worse for both of us by trying to save your gig. Go home, figure out whatever it is you need to figure out. Call me if you come out on the other side, and I might reconsider.”

If I come out on the other side. Not when, if. Did that mean he had no confidence in me at all anymore? Had I fallen that far? I didn’t think so, but fuck, I wasn’t sure of anything anymore. A sudden, hot rush of irrational rage overtook me so fast it made my head spin.

“Fuck you, Jim,” I spat. “I’ve given you seven years of extraordinary effort and product, which you’re so goddamned worried about. I mess up one time and miss one week of work and you fire me? Fuck you.”

He looked at me coolly and said absolutely nothing. He was angry, sure, but his eyes showed only pity, and that pissed me off even more.

“You know what? Shove your pity, Jim. I’ll make it without you, then.” I turned and walked out of his office with a stiff back and clenched fists. I didn’t make it back to my desk; a couple of the corporate security goons caught up to me at the elevator and escorted me out to the street in front of the building. I sat across the street, waiting for Brian to bring my stuff down to me. I had left my keys at my desk. Or the desk, I guess. Wasn’t mine anymore.

I fumed while I waited, and fumed even more when one of the security goons walked out the door with a boxful of seven years’ worth of my stuff. Even Brian had left me hanging. Feeling childish but not caring at all, I spat a final, “Fuck all of you,” at the guard, the building, everything, and threw my middle finger up at what had been my promising professional start in life, and now seemed to represent only my fall from grace.

I turned and walked to my car with my head high and back straight. My dignity was all I really had left at this point, so I gathered it close and funneled it into every attribute of my bearing as I drove back to my empty and lonely house.

Author Interview with Alexis Duran

This week I am so excited to share an author interview with Alexis Duran! Alexis is a talented author, AND she’s got a new book out! Check out To Catch a Threeve, you won’t be disappointed.

A bit about Alexis: She was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. At the University of Oregon, her fascination with people and relationships led her to major in Sociology, but her main love has always been creative writing.  She’s worked in museums, fashion, finance and film production, but her favorite job so far was Administrative Assistant in a haunted Victorian Mansion.

Now, hold onto your socks people!

 

What are some of your absolute favorite things other than writing & reading?

There are other things? Well, I do love to travel. I adore being a tourist, taking gazillions of photos and eating in outdoor cafes.  I’m also bordering on Crazy Cat Lady-hood and I love my poor dog, who puts up with all of us.

If you could read only one book for all the rest of your days (a horrifying terrible thought, I know!) which book would it be?

That’s a very tough question, but I think it would probably be a Tom Robbins novel, either Even Cowgirls Get The Blues or Jitterbug Perfume.  I never want his stories to end, so I guess that makes for a good forever book.

Give us one of your absolute favorite lines from a book you’ve read.

Every second of the search is an encounter with God.  (Referring to the search for one’s dream) from” The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. The book is basically one long spiritual prose poem.  I’ve been wowed, floored and flabbergasted by Tom Robbins, Barbara Kingsolver, John LeCarre and Amy Tan on a regular basis, but unfortunately I don’t keep track of which notebooks those lines have been recorded in.

Halloween or Christmas?

Christmas, because my Czech mother still puts real candles on her tree.  This is the most magical moment of the year for me.

What are your favorite times/places to write? (As an example, I love writing while riding trains across country in Europe – something about being held captive on a train while the landscape blurs by your outside your window.)

I don’t write well while traveling because I’m so absorbed in where I am.  My favorite time to write is early morning, before my brain gets bogged down with reality.  I have this ideal of a cabin on the coast, writing in front of a window with a view of a stormy ocean, but so far, that’s theory. I also love writing in coffee shops with friends.

Who is your favorite character from your books?

I love my bad boys, I really do and my favorite tends to be the one I’m trying to redeem at the moment.  I’m still infatuated with Bryn Darrow from To Catch a Threeve.  He wants me tell more of his story and I find he keeps getting more interesting even after his supposed HEA.  Yup, I’ve added a Threeve sequel to my already full dance card.

If you were the last person on earth, what would you do?

Read and write. Wouldn’t be too much different from my life write now. But I suppose Amazon would stop delivering and Netflix would stop streaming. Oh, dear. This is more serious than I thought.

To Catch a Threeve

• Author:
Alexis Duran

• Length:
Novel

• ISBN:
978-1-62300-537-5

• Genre:
LGBTTQ, Fantasy & Paranormal

• Cover Artist:
Fiona Jayde

Axel Blackwood catches a thief and is astounded to see that he closely resembles Liam Alloway, the love he lost seven years ago in an attack by the evil woodland folk known as threeves. Axel suspects he’s fallen prey to dark magic, but can’t help becoming infatuated with his prisoner. He’s overwhelmed with the hope that he can at last bring his lost lover home, despite everything that warns him it’s all a diabolical trick. 

Bryn Darrow, the half-threeve, half human orphan sent to trick Axel and rob him of much more than a simple gem finds himself equally as fascinated with his handsome human captor and the lure of someplace to call home, but he knows deep down that the constable is in love with a dangerous illusion. When he’s commanded by the threeves to murder Axel and steal a witch’s powerful grimoire, he’s forced to decide between the only family he’s ever known and the one person who might rescue him from a life of isolation and pain.

Will Axel and Bryn be forced into a deadly confrontation before they can discover the truth?

Alexis has had several short stories published in the mystery, horror and literary genres and is the author of the Masters and Mages erotic fantasy series.  Her fiction has won several awards including the Rupert Hughes Award from the Maui Writers Conference. She lives with one dog and four and half cats.  She is currently working on the next Masters and Mages novella and several other erotic novellas. You can find her:

www.alexisduranblog.com

twitter.com/AlexisSDuran

www.facebook.com/alexis.duran.18294

http://www.loose-id.com/authors/a-f/alexis-duran.html

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8332457.Alexis_Duran

If you are interested in doing an author interview please send an inquiry to k kferrin com and add Interview Request to the subject line.

Weekend Writing Warriors #6

Happy Halloween recovery weekend, and, welcome to the dreaded day of the fall time change. Say goodbye to the sunshine, from here on out it is dark and dreary. (Why can’t it be daylight savings time ALL the time!)

Don’t forget to check out the other talented Weekend Writing Warriors posts today. You can find the full list at the following link.

This week I’ve stuck with the current WIP (as of yet unnamed) which is also what I’m working on for NaNoWriMo.  This portion is in chapter 2 of the book (last week I had a snippet from Ch1), and here we meet a couple more of the major players in the novel and get to see a bit of action. I just wrote this yesterday (Saturday) so it’s not undergone any polishing yet.

This marks the beginning of a perilous journey for our protagonists, and the end of an entire way of life for hundreds of other.

The 8:

A dark shape flew from the direction of the garden and Hyssop heard the clang of metal against metal as Christopher’s sword careened to the side, slicing her cheek but missing her throat. A larger shape bounded into the room on the heels of the first and Hyssop recognized Port’s mottled skin as she stumbled back out of the way. Port leapt high into the air, pulling both feet up to her chest and slamming them hard against Christopher’s chest as she landed. The combined force of her momentum and kick knocked the man off his feet and he clattered to the ground, his armor rattling loudly against the stone. The force knocked Port backwards and she landed on both hands, flipping backwards onto her feet. She yanked two knives from her weapons rack and rushed Christopher as he was climbing to his feet, knocking him back to the ground and kicking off his helmet in one smooth motion. She knelt above him with one knife to his throat and another to his temple.

She crouched above him, naked and panting. “Why?” She demanded.

Installing Word Press

Ok, now we start getting to the fun stuff! If you are interested in hand-coding the website yourself, have fun! No, seriously, it’s a great way to learn how all this stuff works together and, personally, I think it’s a lot of fun. But these days, it is also completely unnecessary if you don’t have the time or the desire. After all, we’re here to get your site up and running quickly and with minimal effort on your part, not to teach you how to be an ace at web development!

WordPress is here to save the day. It’s the Internet’s version of sliced bread. Or, more accurately, the Internet’s version of microwaveable lunches. WordPress took something that used to be complex (making lunch from scratch) and turned it into something anyone could do (pop a box into the microwave). With a few clicks of a button you can have a fully functional, sophisticated and gorgeous website.

The first step to getting your website up and running is to install WordPress in your account. You do this by logging into the account you created when you signed up with your hosting company. When you log in, you will be in your hosting company’s Control Panel (CPanel). This is home base for controlling the working side of your website—the side of things people don’t see. It’s sort of like the engine in your car: it runs things, controls things, but generally no one ever sees it except you and your mechanic web developer.

From there you find the part of the CPanel that allows you to install applications for your site. If you are using Bluehost, you can find it in a couple places – they have an area within CPanel they call Website Builders, and they also have something called Mojo Marketplace. For our purposes here, you can install WordPress through either, and the process is the same for both. In this example, I clicked on the WordPress icon within the Website Builders portion of CPanel.

Clicking into the WordPress area of Website Builders will pull up a site that gives you a bit of background information on WordPress itself. It also has a button along the top of the page that allows you to install WordPress. Pushing this button will bring you to a screen that allows you to pick which domain you want to install to. If you only have one domain it will likely already be selected for you. If you’ve purchased multiple domains you’ll have to select which domain you want to install WordPress to. Once you’ve selected the domain you wish to use, click the Check Domain button. Bluehost runs a check on the domain to make sure it is properly set up to allow a WordPress install. Your hosting company may simply have an Install button here.

As part of the install you’ll need to read the terms and conditions, click to verify you have reviewed them, and then finally complete the install.

Note: If you would like to design multiple websites utilizing WordPress, you will need a unique WordPress install for each domain.

Once installed, a window will pop up that tells you your install is complete and that will then lead you to a link to view your credentials (your username and password). When you install WordPress, the system will automatically create a username and password for you so you can log in to the admin panel for WordPress.

You’ll get a page that gives you the URL (domain name), the admin URL (the website address you use when you want to log in), as well as the initial username and password that was created for you when you installed WordPress. Log all of this information down and don’t forget it! You’ll need it.

Let’s say you selected the domain www.amazingwordswriter.com. This would be your public-facing URL, and your admin URL would be www.amazingwordswriter.com/wp-admin.

You are done with your hosting company now. You can log out of your hosting company’s website and navigate to the admin URL of your shiny new website! When you pull up that address (remember, it is www.your_site/wp-admin) you’ll get a window that looks like the following, with your web address in the URL line (as opposed to a blacked-out space). Using the credentials you got when you installed WordPress, log in to the admin panel for your site.

Your WordPress admin panel will look like the following:

 

Congratulations! If you navigate to your website—where people will end up when they browse to your address or find you in a search—you will see a demo site all set up for you with a standard look/feel that all new WordPress sites come with.

For previous articles in this series please see the articles below. Next week we’ll cover how to find and install a WordPress Theme!

The Importance of a Website to Your Author Platform

Why You Need a Self-Hosted Website

Naming Your Website

Selecting a Registrar and Web Hosting Company

Desiderium, Monsters the First Ch 11

Desiderium

My #WedPeeks post for this week is chapter eleven of my new novella, scheduled for release this October. Desiderium is a dark fantasy/horror and is for mature readers.

You can buy Desiderium in its entirety at Amazon or Kobo!

*Warning: There is violence, sex, and a lot of profanity in these pages.

~ ELEVEN~

Addiction

 It has been three days since that wondrous night, the second night we spent together, and I haven’t been able to find her since. I’m nervous, jittery. My legs can’t stop bouncing, I’m chewing my fingernails to the quick. I feel like a junky who can’t get a fix. I have found no peace since I woke up the night after. The TV is annoying and doesn’t offer the mindless distraction it always used to. I can’t focus at work, either. I try to get into the rhythm of my programming work—something that always used to be easy for me—but I can’t find it. Every time I get close I’ll somehow catch a whiff of the smell of her or I’ll hear her voice whispering in my ear as she runs the tip of her tongue along my earlobe. I swear sometimes I feel her handling my balls, her breasts pressing against my back or my chest, and abruptly find myself struggling against a raging erection at my short-walled cube.

I feel like everyone knows. Their looks seem heavier than they used to be, though there is no way any of them could possibly know. What is this paranoia? Where does it come from? And why does it matter anyway? I am a man, I met a woman, and we had sex. There is nothing odd about this. So why this paranoia?

This morning I begged off work. I told them I was not feeling well, and in a way that’s true. I am far too agitated to sit at my desk, my frustration incredibly apparent, and I can’t keep it in check. If I went to work in this condition I would likely be fired for sexual harassment just by being there.

The day passed slowly. I watched the cheesiest shows I could possibly find on the SyFy channel all morning, and drank a pitcher’s worth of margaritas to try to distract myself. At lunch I ordered pizza, and the delivery driver was a woman. She had on a skirt and a button-up shirt. It was a perfectly appropriate outfit and didn’t show a ton of skin. But the peek of her thigh just above her knees and the swell of her breasts under her shirt drove me mad. I gave her a twenty-dollar tip and slammed the door in her face. What the hell is wrong with me?

I drank more, this time skipping the margarita mix and going straight for the tequila. I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke up with a splitting headache and a roiling stomach, the sun already dropping below the horizon. I jumped up from the couch, took a quick shower, took my time shaving, and then threw on my jacket and left the house.

I felt good about tonight. I was going to find her. And find her I did, in the same place I had found her three nights before. I had gotten there around 10:30, and I sat in the place she had sat when I first saw her. The jittery impatience that had haunted me for the last three days was gone, and an intense but coldly patient anticipation settled over me in its place.

The night was cold, and a light drizzle was falling again, just as it had that first night. The alley was dark; the only light came faintly from a sliver of moon hanging high overhead and visible only in patches as the clouds scuttled across the night sky.

I shivered against the cold, and then felt a flush of warmth suddenly suffuse my body as her scent wafted to my nose. For a moment it was foul, rotting, but then the sweetness overwhelmed me and I felt desire flood my veins. A hand touched my shoulder. I turned and saw Annabel, looking the same as she had three nights before. The desire rocking my body must have been written clearly on my face because her mouth opened in a smile as she looked at me.

“Back for more are you?” she asked. “You didn’t get enough last time?” She laughed as she looked at me and I had a distinct feeling that she knew exactly the torment I had been going through the last three days. The glint in her eyes suggested that my torment was intentional on her end.

“You avoided me.” I was angry, sulky, like a selfish child.

“Yes. That way, the pressure builds and the flavor becomes so much more intense. Also, it is always much better when I am hungry from a fast.”

A weird way of saying it, I guess, but absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that, though our hearts really had nothing to do with what was on both of our minds.

“Besides,” she continued, her voice a low purr, “I like seeing the desire flaming in your eyes, Terryn. It makes me instantly hungry for you.”

I’d had enough of the talking. I stood up and pressed her against the wall. I ground her hips hard against the rough brick as I pressed myself against her. I pulled her shirt from her shoulders and grasped at her breasts. Another waft of that foul rotting-garbage scent hit my nose, and a brief thought suddenly flickered and broke through the fog of my want.

“Annabel, will you tell me about my brother tonight? You know…after?”

Something flickered in her eyes—they narrowed to an almost reptilian slit and I swear I saw them flash from their normally brilliant green to a sickly moldy color. She shoved me back with surprising strength and stared at me with clear fury, but then the overwhelming muskiness of her took me again. I reached for her, and she grabbed my hand. Still staring into my eyes, she slowly ran a sharp nail from the inside of my elbow down to my wrist, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. I gasped at the pain and at the answering fresh surge of desire that thundered through me. I wanted her more than I had ever wanted her before.

“Never again,” she said. I closed my eyes and opened my arms wide, I inhaled the scent of her deeply, and I nodded, accepting the command. All thought of Blake bled from my mind, obliterated by desire.

She pulled me in through the same door we had entered last time, then shoved me roughly so that I fell onto the steps. I said nothing.

She pushed and prodded me up the stairs, cursing at me as I stumbled upwards as quickly as I could. I fell several times, and each time her taunts became harsher.

“Don’t you want me, Terryn? If you don’t want me we can turn around and I’ll never come for you again.” I scrambled up the last few steps, panting, hard, afraid she’d leave if I didn’t do exactly what she wanted me to do.

“They can’t hear your screams from in here, Terryn. There is no one to hear. I am going to punish you, Terryn. You have been a bad, bad boy.”

And God save me, I had, and the Devil take me, she did.

 

Want to read more Desiderium? You can see previous chapters here:

Ch1, Ch2, Ch3, Ch4, Ch5, Ch6, Ch7, Ch8, Ch9, Ch10

New Releases in Fantasy, Week of 10/27/14

If you’re like me you are always scouting the horizon for your next must read book. Here are some new releases in fantasy for this coming week, maybe one of these will make your list!

Drawn Blades, Kelly McCullough

Different Kingdoms

Once one of the world’s greatest assassins, Aral Kingslayer has finally reclaimed his swords and his soul. But the forces that destroyed his patron Namara twelve years ago are still there, waiting, and his past as a Blade is never more than a shadow’s breadth away.

In the Afterlight, Alexandra Bracken

The Darkets Minds #3

Ruby can’t look back. Fractured by an unbearable loss, she and the kids who survived the government’s attack on Los Angeles travel north to regroup. With them is a prisoner: Clancy Gray, son of the president, and one of the few people Ruby has encountered with abilities like hers. Only Ruby has any power over him, and just one slip could lead to Clancy wreaking havoc on their minds.

The Tree of Water, Elizabeth Haydon

The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme #4

As Royal Reporter of the land of Serendair, it is the duty of young Charles Magnus “Ven” Polypheme to travel the world and seek out magic hiding in plain sight. But Ven needs to escape the clutches of the nefarious Thief Queen, ruler of the Gated City, whose minions are hunting for him. His friend, the merrow Amariel, has the perfect solution to his dilemma: Ven and Char will join her to explore the world beneath the sea.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things, Patrick Rothfuss

Deep below the University, there is a dark place. Few people know of it: a broken web of ancient passageways and abandoned rooms. A young woman lives there, tucked among the sprawling tunnels of the Underthing, snug in the heart of this forgotten place.

Her name is Auri, and she is full of mysteries.

The City Stained Red, Sam Sykes

Bring Down Heaven #1

Long before he was sent to hell, the Aeon known as Khoth-Kapira was the closest thing to a living god the world had ever known. Possessed of a vast intellect, he pioneered many of the wonders that persist in the world that lingered long after he was banished. Nearly every fragment of medical, economic and technological progress that the mortal races enjoyed could be traced back to him. But with his wonders came cruelty beyond measure: industrialized slavery, horrifying experimentations and a rage that would eventually force the world to bow to him.

The Spirit Heir, Kaitlyn Davis

A Dance of Dragons #2

Drenched in darkness and surrounded by the echo of screams, Jinji waits deep in the dungeons of Rayfort, haunted by the memory of the knife stabbing Rhen, plagued by a foreign voice whispering through her mind. A few floors above, Rhen rests trapped in a coma, about to wake to a changed world–a world where his best friend is a woman, his nephew is the king, and an enemy army surrounds him on all sides.

The Shadow Fabric, Mark Cassell

Leo remembers little of his past. Desperate for a new life, he snatches up the first job to come along. On his second day, he witnesses a murder, and the Shadow Fabric – a malevolent force that controls the darkness – takes the body and vanishes with it. Uncovering secrets long hidden from humankind, Leo’s memory unravels. Not only haunted by the past, a sinister presence within the darkness threatens his existence and he soon doubts everything and everyone . . . including himself.

Weekend Writing Warriors Blog Hop #5

Greetings Weekend Writers! I missed you all last week, but I’m back and I’ve brought something new with me!

If you are not familiar with the Weekend Writers you should remedy that immediately by clicking the link below and getting to know the many talented authors who throw open their doors every Sunday and share a snippet of their writing. Go read their writing now! And leave comments!

So Desiderium is officially launched and available on Amazon and Kobo (and soon to be on Nook if they can get their account issues figured out!), so for this week I’ve decided to share something a bit different. This eight sentence snippet is from my current work in progress, a novel tentatively titled Sisters of Vel.  We are very near the beginning of the book here. A point of reference – Historians contain the history of the world on their bodies in the form of a type of tattoo that is burned into their skin as part of their magic. In this scene we are introduced to one of the movers and shakers of the tale.

The 8:

Without pause Maat stepped forward and buried a knife deep into her mother’s back, placing it carefully to ensure none of the histories were lost.  She pushed back a traitorous thought that suggested this act was motivated purely by her own ambition.  Her mother made a low grunting sound in the back of her throat, her body going taught.  Maat stepped around so she was face to face with her mother, wanting desperately to see the last of the light dim from her eyes.  The hags eyes were open wide, blood ran from the corner of her mouth.

“What have you done?” The woman whispered, splattering blood with the movement of her mouth.

“Oh, don’t worry mother.  I placed the knife quite carefully – none of the histories were damaged.  Your record is intact.”

Selecting a Registrar and Hosting Company for Your Website

Once you’ve come up with a few options for your website name (domain), you need to find a registrar to register it with. Essentially, you are leasing the domain name. To ensure that domain remains unique, it must be publicly registered in your name. This is what a registrar does. It links your name to a specific domain name, allowing you to “own” that space as long as you maintain the lease. The price for this will vary depending on the company you choose, but it is typically less than $10 per year.

You also need to decide who to host your website with. Basically, this means you are buying space on a server in some datacenter somewhere. This is where you save all the files relating to your website and where Internet user traffic hits when they pull up your site. Hosting prices vary as well, but you should be able to host your site for less than $10 per month. A quick word of warning: you typically pay for a year all up front on this, meaning they typically do not offer a month-to-month option. This caught me unawares with my first website. Fortunately I had enough cash in the bank to cover it! You can also find multi-year deals and/or a lower price for a longer contract (similar to cell phones), but keep in mind that you’re probably still going to need to pay for the entire package up front.

You do not have to register your domain and host your website with the same company (hosting simply refers to who owns the server your website “lives” on), but I do recommend you do so for simplicity’s sake. Registering with one company and hosting with another requires some additional steps that can be confusing for a novice.

I use Bluehost as registrar and host for every one of my websites (I have a small addiction to websites). They are an excellent company to start with, are inexpensive, and have hands down the best help desk I’ve ever worked with. Some other top-rated hosting companies include Dreamhost, Hostgator, and A Small Orange. Make sure you sign up with a reputable hosting company. When you run into a problem and need some help, it’s worth every penny to have reliable and competent help at the tip of your fingers (or on the phone). 

Okay, let’s get down to business. To register your domain, pull up the website of the business you would like to register and host with. For this example I will use Bluehost, but the process will be very similar regardless of the company you choose. Select the hosting option on their website. Note that some companies will have hosting options such as shared, VPS, or dedicated. Unless you expect your website to pull incredible traffic, you will not need anything other than shared. 

 

Select the service package you’d like. The entry-level option is likely sufficient for your needs, but choose what you feel best suits your goals for your site.

 Once you’ve selected the package, you will be presented with a screen that looks similar to what I’ve shown below. Enter in the domain name you most prefer from your brainstormed list and select the next button to see if it is available. I used the domain bestbookever.com for the example below.

If it is available for registration, you’ll get an image similar to this:

If it’s not available, they typically provide a list of potential names that are available that you might like. You may find something that appeals to you in this list. I have personally not found them to be all that useful, so remember to have your list of alternatives handy.

Once you’ve selected your domain name, finish filling out the requested information for your hosting package and pay! You are now the proud owner of your very own domain name.

Well, sort of. You don’t actually own the domain name, as you recall. You are essentially leasing it. You will have to renew your lease annually, and I strongly recommend you set it up so this happens automatically through your domain registrar. If you forget to renew it then the domain name will go back into the pool, and there are folks out there who watch for this to happen and then snatch them up. You might be able to get it back by purchasing it from the new owner, but you’ll likely pay a pretty penny for it. Setting your domain renewals to happen automatically protects you from what could turn into a major hassle.

One last item of note regarding your privacy as the website owner: the owner information for every website is stored in a public database, called whois. This information is available to anyone who wishes to look for it. Many hosting companies offer domain privacy as an add-on to the service. Bluehost charges an extra $10 per year for this add-on service. With this service, instead of your name and address being logged in this public database, Bluehost’s information is logged in its place. This works wonders at keeping marketing companies at bay. It is an additional expense, however, and you must decide if it is worth the price for you.

If you’d like to catch up, you can see the other posts in this series at the following links.

The Importance of a Website to your Author Platform

Why You Need a Self Hosted Website

Naming Your Website

Desiderium, Monsters the First Ch 10

Desiderium

Exciting news everyone!  Desiderium is now available on Amazon and Kobo!  (It will soon be available on Nook as well.)  To celebrate, Magicless is on sale for only $.99 all week!

No, onto business, my #WedPeeks post for this week is chapter ten of Desiderium, is a dark fantasy/horror and is for mature readers.

*Warning: There is violence, sex, and a lot of profanity in these pages.

 

~ TEN ~

Lost

Not all those who wander are lost. I forget where I heard that, but I always held it to be true. I had certainly wandered enough in my life, with great intention and deliberation, turning my back on the conventionalities our culture told us to embrace in favor of traveling and seeing the world around me. First I had done it alone, and then later with Sophie. I wandered, was frequently lost, but always ended up exactly where I wanted to be.

But just as often it seems the opposite can be true. Some who wander are lost. Or will be soon, when the thing they seek finally allows itself to be found.

I am lost.

Sophie had been true to her word. By the time I got home from work all of her stuff was gone. It felt profoundly wrong and simultaneously so right. I had thought that I was going to spend the rest of my life with Sophie. But the woman…the night I had spent with her awakened something deep inside of me. Something I don’t think I ever knew was there. She had warned me, told me that humanity was nothing but a thin veneer over the heart of an animal, and I know she’s right. Despite the conflict I feel over Sophie leaving, there is an undercurrent of deep excitement and thrill about the path I’m on now. It’s unsettling and overwhelming.

I spent no time in the now-empty house after I got home. Instead I went in search of the dark-haired lady. I needed to feel again that certainty that I had felt the morning after our first night together, and I needed her body. After two days of nothing and my libido still elevated to a feverish pitch, I was aching for an outlet. I found her, finally, somewhere around midnight on that seedy ledge that first ruined, but now seems to have saved, my life.

When I woke up this morning I was glad to see I was in my own bed instead of a filthy trash heap. I was enveloped in that same sense of euphoria as last time, and I could still smell her ripe scent all around me. My body ached as if I had just completed a triathlon.

The sun was streaming in through the windows and I could hear birds twittering in the trees outside the house. I looked around my room, collecting my thoughts, and my eyes fell on that picture of Sophie and I in France, standing outside that cathedral with the rose-colored window and the labyrinth. She was beautiful that day. Is beautiful every day. Was. Is.

I looked at the clock and saw it was 6:00 pm in the evening. I thought briefly of work—another no-call, no-show isn’t going to go over well. Especially considering I have no real excuse, no emergency to explain away my carelessness. But then again, I am a rising star and a valuable team member, or so they frequently tell me. Two days would not kill my career. I didn’t really think about it for long, all I could think of really was Annabel. Annabel Lee, I’ve decided to call her. The dark beauty who captured my soul last night. God damn… I have never experienced anything even close to the heaven that is Annabel in all my life.

I thought back to the feel of her pushing me back onto a soft bed after climbing those endless steps. From there my memory is disjointed, flashes of disconnected images only. Damn good images, though. Despite my complete physical exhaustion I feel a stirring when I dwell on it.

I have never felt anything like what I feel when I’m with her. I thought I had had it good before, but everything before was like the brightness of a light bulb in the face of the sun. Completely eclipsed. Nothing will ever measure up now. Nothing compares to Annabel. I am bewitched, smitten, and madly in love with Annabel Lee.

The wonder of it makes me laugh; it’s ludicrous and fabulous all at the same time. Is this what they’re talking about when they talk about love at first sight? Can you love someone after two nights? After two nights with very minimal talking but a whole lot of fucking? We men are as simple as women joke we are…offer us the most amazing sex of our lives and we’ll eat out of your hands and declare undying love. What a joke.

I lean forward in bed and drop my head in my hands. Damn I’m sore. I feel hungover, even though I hadn’t even had a single drink. Just dehydrated from all the exercise I guess. I laugh out loud, the sound thunking solidly in the deep quiet of the room. My eyes stare unseeing at the carpet between my bare feet. Something catches my eye.

I lean forward for a closer look, and then lift my foot up onto my knee, a quiver of discomfort shooting through my gut. It’s a bite mark. A perfectly clear outline of two rows of teeth on the arch of my foot, a bite hard enough to have broken through my skin and left a smear of blood on the top of my foot. I flitted through those disjointed memories from the night before and couldn’t find one associated with that bite. I sat quietly for a moment, considering, and then shrugged it off. People have odd habits when it comes to sex. Some are silent, some scream, and some bite. It isn’t so odd, really. In fact, I find it kind of sexy, that she would feel so free to embrace this freaky side of herself in our fucking. It makes me want to, as well.

I stand up and walk over to the picture of Sophie I had noticed earlier. I pull it off the flat-headed nail it was hanging on and look at it for a moment. I feel a flutter of guilt, brief and slight as a wisp of cloud on a hot summer day, and then I put it face down in the top dresser drawer. I was done with that part of my life, and moving toward something entirely new and different. I didn’t need Sophie staring down at me as I slept at night, and I sure as hell didn’t want her picture there if Annabel ever came to my place. She probably wouldn’t be bothered by it; she might even like it, but I just didn’t want it around. It made me feel uncomfortable, conflicted. Guilty.

I walk to the shower, turn the water to scalding, and once the steam starts billowing out of the glass enclosure I step in and let the hot water run down my sore body. It stings in several places, and each inspection reveals another bite mark or a scratch, not just small scratches but the kind a pissed-off cat might leave behind. Deep and long, frequently deep enough to draw blood.

A small, quiet snake of fear slithers deep inside my belly, but I push it even further down and smile, thinking of our next encounter. I like this animal inside me I’m starting to get to know. I feel like a stag in rut, powerfully male. We all need to get back in touch with this side of ourselves, and I am grateful to Annabel for showing me, for opening this door and giving me the opportunity to step through.

If you’d like to read more from Desiderium you can find it here.

Ch 1

Ch 2

Ch 3

Ch 4

Ch 5

Ch 6

Ch 7

Ch 8

Ch 9

Naming Your Website – Adventures on the Interwebs

Choose well grasshopper. The name you choose for your website has far reaching implications for your author platform.

Before rushing out to buy a domain and splash up a site it is important to pause and consider your future as a writer.  Do you write in a particular genre or do you write in multiple genres? Do you want to write under your real name or a pen name? Do you write in a single age group or in multiple age groups?

Many authors enjoy writing different kinds of books and they may decide to write different types of books under different names. Consider Robin Hobb as an example.  Robin Hobb is a pseudonym for Megan Lindholm,  and Megan chose to adopt a pseudonym when she realized she was venturing into a different sub-genre than what she’d been writing as Megan Lindholm (you can see more about this here: http://www.meganlindholm.com/faq/).  She has different websites for each ‘author’ and maintains separate brands though she makes it clear they are the same person.

What you want to write and how you want to market your work will dictate how you name your site.  Joanna Penn chose a company name (The Creative Penn) rather than her own name, and she houses both her fiction and non-fiction under one site (www.thecreativepenn.com).

I am and independently published writer, I write fiction and nonfiction, and I write YA as well as fiction for adults. I chose to write all of my books under the same name, K. Ferrin, and to have one platform for all of them.  The name I chose for my website reflects my author name.

There are pros and cons to every approach and the key is to find the one that works best for you. I wanted to maintain only one blog and keep all my social media work under a single name, but this may not work for you and the work you do. There are many excellent resources exploring branding for writers and it might be worth your time to do some reading before settling on a name.

Here are some links to get you started. For more simply Google “branding for writers” and you’ll find plenty of reading material.

The Book Designer (http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2014/07/6-branding-tips-for-writers-and-authors/)

The Creative Penn (http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/03/20/branding-author-platform/)

Now, to throw a wrench into the gears. As you likely know website names (domains) are all unique and once someone has slapped their name on it you can’t use it. You may decide you want to use your name as your domain name only to discover someone else already owns it.  Don’t panic! You are an author. You create for a living. Come up with a few options that might work for you.

Some authors add a hyphen to their name. So instead of they go with . Others chose to add ‘author’ to the domain, or , both of which work fine. Others go with a nickname or a shortened name.  Karen Mahoney writes YA urban fantasy, publishes under Karen Mahoney, yet her website is www.kazmahoney.com. You can also chose a domain with a .net (or any other) instead – though be careful of this.  It can create real problems for your branding efforts.

Next week we’ll cover how to select and register your domain with a registrar and a hosting company. For earlier posts in this series see:

The Importance of a Website for Your Author Platform

Why You Need a Self Hosted Website