Kim Iverson Headlee's Blog: Book Musings from the Maze of Twisty Passages, page 8

Urien demands retribution in Ch 13/Sc 2d of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Pendragon Cove Press logo
c2014 by Natasha Brown. The legendary relationship between Morgan le Fay and her husband King Uriens is always described as being rocky at best.

In fact in many cases, most notably in Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Morgan is the "head chief of the household," while feeble old King Uriens plays second fiddle.

My Uriens counterpart, Chieftain Urien, at this stage in his life stands at the pinnacle of his physical and political power. In today's excerpt from Raging Sea , however, it's also clear that Morghe is well on her way to having him wrapped around her pinky.


Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings  Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 2c |
Raging Sea Chapter 13, Scene 2d©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
“A Saxon assassin attacked my wife,” Urien growled, “when he had intended to target yours.”

“What!” This from Angusel near the back of the hall, which carried over everyone else’s more muted expressions of surprise and shock.

Arthur glared at the lad, who clamped his mouth shut. He turned to Morghe’s husband. “Details, please, Chieftain Urien.”

Urien stepped into the center of the gathering. “This is in fact why I have called this meeting: to seek retribution for this grievous and wrongful injury upon my beloved wife. Camilla of the South Saxons—no doubt acting under the authority of her father King Ælle—had set out to attack Chieftainess Gyanhumara on what was clearly bad information regarding Gyanhumara’s travel plans, and Chieftainess Morghe fell victim instead. She could have died!”

The noise from the others, which had been growing louder during Urien’s speech, reached vehement proportions by the time he was finished.

No surprise there. Arthur would have joined them if he could have afforded to let his self discipline slip any further than it already had.


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The Business of Writing: Print book pricing strategies #MFRWOrg #ASMSG

Pre-decimal till, Museum of Liverpool.
Photo by Reptonix; free Creative Commons
license via Wikimedia Commons.Today on The Maze I begin a three-part series on book pricing. 

Though most independent authors release their books in digital format first, I'm going to start with pricing the print edition because this process is fairly straightforward:
Determine the per-copy printing cost. Createspace and IngramSpark offer pricing calculators for this purpose.Determine how many books you will typically order at one time (ten, twenty, one hundred, or somewhere in between).
Note: Createspace does not offer volume discounts, but IngramSpark begins offering a price break for orders of one hundred copies or more.Multiply the printing cost by the number of copies you expect to order, add the shipping cost, and divide by the number of copies to determine your total cost per copy.Perform research on independently published books that are similar to yours in terms of genre and page count. Don’t expect to be able to compete with books published by major houses such as Simon & Schuster or Harlequin. Their printing and shipping overhead will always be lower than yours because of the sheer volume of copies they print per title.Add a profit margin, but make sure your book’s pricing remains competitive with or even undercuts other books in its class.Before choosing a low profit margin, consider whether you will wish to discount your copies for personal appearances. I subtract between two and five dollars from each book’s cover price to give my booth’s customers extra incentive to purchase my copies on the day of the event.

Whether you decide to include your book’s price on its back cover depends upon whether you plan to change the price periodically, or distribute it to book stores, gift shops, and other brick-and-mortar markets. It’s more helpful to retailers to provide the price printed on the cover, and it looks more professional since that’s the industry standard practice too.

A special note about hardcover dust jackets: Direct your cover designer to add the price to the inside front flap, which translates to the top left corner of the PDF image. If no price is present in that position, the bookseller could assume that the book was either independently published or that they have been given a book club edition. Neither assumption will help you sell copies to that retail outlet.

Next week: Setting your e-book's launch price.

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August Dog Days with The Dawnflier (Aug 2016)

Welcome to the Dog Days on The Maze!
© Petar Maksimovic | Dreamstime.com - Happy Samoyed dog in the grass. Our Great Pyrenees dogs were too busy to pose for me, but I hope you enjoy this Samoyed pup just the same. :)

Hot news: I experienced a record month for print edition sales at the Patchwork Quilters Jamboree and the US Route 21 100-Mile Yard Sale! I offer a special welcome and thanks to all of you who purchased my books and signed up for the email edition of The Dawnflier at these events.

Really hot news: Two new editions will be available soon:
El Reto, the Spanish edition of The Challenge , which is already available for Kindle, will also become available for Nook, Kobo, iTunes, and other digital platforms. Next up: figuring out how to create the dual English-Spanish print edition for El Reto and its related story, El Color de la Venganza (Spanish edition of The Color of Vengeance ).The print edition of the novella Kings , a sword-and-sorcery story cowritten with Patricia Duffy Novak, will soon be available to order online and purchase at my in-person events.Really, really hot news: Progress is hopping on my Business of Writing nonfiction book, and I’m scheduled to send it to my editor on August 18.

Almost-too-hot-to-handle news: On July 28th, my medieval paranormal romance Snow in July surpassed 3,500 paid downloads on Kindle, Nook, iTunes, and Kobo! The same week, my permafree title The Color of Vengeance surpassed 5,000 free downloads, bringing the combined total of paid and free downloads of all my digital books to well over 15K. My deepest thanks go out to everyone who made these milestones possible!

Upcoming Appearances:Saturday, August 6, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Wythe County Public Library, Monroe Street, Wytheville, VA.Sunday, August 21, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m., Big Walker Lookout & Country Store, US Route 52 at the summit of Big Walker Mountain, Wytheville, VA.Saturday, August 27, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., First Annual Art at the Crossroads, Main Street, Wytheville, VA.Saturday, September 10, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Olde Salem Days, Salem, VA.
Happy Dog Days, and stay cool, my friends!

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Arthur damns protocol in Ch 13/Sc 2c of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Pendragon Cove Press logo
c2014 by Natasha Brown. Arthur is not a king—yet—at this point in his career as I describe it in The Dragon's Dove Chronicles.  He is the supreme commander of the army charged with defending the northern Brytoni clans, and as such he remains answerable to all the chieftains.

This political wrinkle, even more so than the great military burden, has caused Arthur to develop a fair measure of self discipline and caution in spite of the fact that he's only in his early twenties. He has learned to navigate council meetings by observing from the background, speaking only when spoken to, and letting the politicians duke things out among themselves.

However, Arthur remains loyal to family above all, even family members with whom he's not terribly close, such as his younger sister Morghe (a.k.a. Morgan le Fay). In today's excerpt from Raging Sea , this trait shines forth in full force.


Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings  Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b |
Raging Sea Chapter 13, Scene 2c©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
“Morghe!”

Every head in the hall turned toward Arthur at his outburst.

His youngest sister was elegantly attired in her husband’s Clan Moray black with gold trim, which lent stark contrast to the white bandage binding her shoulder and pinning her arm to her chest.

Protocol be damned!

He strode to the bench where she was seated, ignoring the angry stares garnered by his interruption. Urien and his advisor Accolon were standing to either side of her. Neither man looked pleased at Arthur’s approach.

Arthur ignored them too and went to one knee at Morghe’s feet, clasping the hand attached to her uninjured arm.

“What happened? Are you all right?” He felt his concern slide into anger as an unwelcome thought presented itself. “Urien didn’t—”

Morghe laughed, extricating her hand and waving it in a graceful if dismissive pattern. “Of course not. He prefers his ballocks where they are.” She beamed up at her husband, cheerfully oblivious to the shocked murmurs that skittered around the chamber. “Truth be told,” she whispered, “so do I.”

Arthur stood to mask his relief while doing his best not to conjure the image of her and Urien in an intimate setting. “An accident, then?”

She tapped her chin with the forefinger of her good hand. “That is one way of looking at it.”


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LAST DAY to enter this giveaway for an e-copy of Raging Sea: Reckonings !
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— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

The Business of Writing: Digital Distribution Strategies for E-books #ASMSG #MFRWOrg

Snow in July by Kim Iverson Headlee
99 cents now through 7/31/16! If I had written this article six months ago, I would have begun with the advice to release a new e-book on Kindle Unlimited and keep it exclusively with Amazon for at least a year prior to releasing it on other platforms such as Nook Press and iTunes.

Now I know better.

Before I launch into the horror stories, let me start with the basics.

Amazon, with its proprietary e-reader device the Kindle in all its many flavors, has become the largest distributor of e-books on the planet. It also pays the lowest royalty rates to authors under most circumstances, a mere 35%, while forcing authors and publishers into a very narrow pricing window ($2.99–$9.99) in order to earn that coveted 70% royalty payout.

Oh and by the way, if you have discounted your title to less than $2.99, that kicks you back into the 35% payout rate for the week, even on sales that were made at $2.99 prior to the price reduction. Don't believe me? Experiment with your book's pricing, and then leave a comment here if you observe different results.

Authors who have enrolled their titles in Kindle Select (a.k.a. Kindle Unlimited to readers) have it even worse now that Amazon has gone to a per-page-read model for payments. As of this writing, the typical payout is about $0.003 (three tenths of a penny) per reported page read. This means that an author needs to have a customer read at least 120 pages of an e-book priced at 99 cents in order to earn the same royalty amount (at the 35% payout rate) as a regular paid download.

What? You've published a novella on Kindle Unlimited that Amazon has deemed is less than 120 pages? Tough luck, pal. Write something longer next time.

While there are short-term advantages to releasing a book via Kindle Unlimited, such as the ability to set up five free promotional days out of every 90, in the long run you are not doing yourself or your book any favors by adhering to Amazon exclusivity. And you expose yourself to the risk of having your account shut down without warning or recourse (keep reading to get to those horror stories).

Before you panic, however, there are other distribution options to consider:
Nook (nookpress.com). The royalty payout is 40% for books priced at less than $2.99, at which point the payout rate jumps to 65%. They also follow Amazon's example and reduce the payout rate to 40% for books priced at more than $9.99.Kobo (writinglife.kobobooks.com). The royalty payout is 45% for books priced at $2.98 or less; otherwise, authors earn a 70% payout rate, even for titles priced higher than $9.99.Google Play (play.google.com/books/publish). Per their overview, the author keeps "most" (in theory, more than 50%) of what is earned in download sales. I could not find any specific royalty payout schedule, and I have no sales data for this platform since I deactivated my books there in 2015, after a brief trial period. I did, however, find a royalty payout rate of 52% reported via third-party distributor Pronoun.Apple (iTunes/iBooks). The vendor account for this retailer is easiest to manage if you have Apple equipment; i.e., a Mac or iPad. According to Pronoun, the royalty payout rate is 70% regardless of the book's price.Draft2Digital (draft2digital.com). This is my third-party distributor of choice for platforms such as iTunes, Scribd, and others. The royalty payout is 60% for all books regardless of price, even to Nook and Kobo platforms.Smashwords (smashwords.com). The royalty payout varies by book's price and the origin of the sale (affiliate, non-affiliate, and Premium Catalog retailers). The Premium Catalog retailer category earns 60% payout regardless of the book's price. For a book priced at $0.99, the payout is 47–60%, with affiliate sales earning the lowest rate and Premium Catalog retail sales earning the highest. At $1.99, the payout rate is 58–70%, with the highest rate going to non-affiliate rather than Premium Catalog retail sales. When the book's price is set at $2.99 or higher, the Premium Catalog retailer rate of 60% is the lowest tier, with non-affiliate sales earning progressively higher royalty percentages of at least 74%.Pronoun (pronoun.com). In general, they follow the aforementioned retailers' royalty payment rates, with the notable exception of Nook, which they list as a flat rate of 50% rather than the price-dependent 40% or 65%. (Source: http://support.pronoun.com/knowledge_base/topics/what-are-the-retailers-distribution-fees) In addition, they offer distribution to Google Play, which could be advantageous since Google Play's title setup procedure is clunky and difficult to navigate. Just keep in mind that they tell you that you keep 100% of your earnings (i.e., the net after each retailer has taken its commission), not 100% of the list price.
In theory, you could use Smashwords to distribute your 99-cent e-book to Kindle, Nook, and Kobo and earn at least 47% royalty, rather than Amazon's miserly 35%, Nook's 40%, or Kobo's 45%. Or you could distribute via Draft2Digital and get 60% royalties from Nook and Kobo (they do not support distribution to Kindle), or you could give Pronoun a try. Do let me know if you have had success with this approach. I code my own e-books and have vendor accounts for all platforms except iTunes, to whom I distribute using Draft2Digital.

There are other publishing platforms out there, such as StreetLib (https://www.streetlib.com/meetstreetlibus/), which takes a 10% commission on author sales over and above what the retail platforms collect. My advice is to read the fine print, and don't go with any outfit that tacks on its own fee on each sale.

Now, as promised, the horror stories about Amazon's Kindle Unlimited. I'll leave you to discover them for yourself:
"Think you couldn't possibly lose your Amazon publishing account? Think again." An eye-opener about whether or not to permit Amazon exclusivity via Kindle Unlimited https://the-active-voice.com/2016/06/16/think-you-couldnt-possibly-lose-your-amazon-publishing-account-think-again/ (The Active Voice blog, 6/16/16)"Innocent authors are getting burned in Amazon's fight against KU bot farms" (http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/06/17/authors-are-getting-caught-up-in-amazons-fight-against-ku-bot-farms/) by Nate Hoffelder 6/17/16."Why I refuse to join Kindle Unlimited" (http://blather.michaelwlucas.com/archives/2703) by Michael Lucas, 6/17/16.
In short, Amazon is the big boy on the publishing block, knows it, and doesn't care how many innocent (or, as Michael Lucas put it, "low-value") authors they shaft with their automated fraud detection schemes.

I have now pulled all my books out of automatic enrollment in Kindle Unlimited. The pittance I receive for participation in that marketing ploy is not worth the risk of having my account deactivated without warning or recourse due to fraudulent activity on someone else's part.

Are you frightened enough to pull out of Kindle Select/Kindle Unlimited yet? You should be.

Whether or not you set up multiple vendor or third-party accounts for distributing your books is of course up to you, but I will leave you with a parting point to ponder.

Since I have many titles in my personal catalog, and many customers who read one of my books and then choose to purchase one or more of my other titles, I prefer to make that hunt easy by embedding product links in my "Other books by" section of each e-book. You cannot do this as effectively if you publish via a middleman like Pronoun. During the upload and verification process, Barnes & Noble will reject any book that contains Amazon links, and so forth. So if you go with Pronoun, Draft2Digital, Smashwords, or another third party for distribution to the major retailers, you have to upload a version that either contains no product links whatsoever, or it contains non-competing links such as Half.com, BooksAMillion.com, Audible.com for audiobooks, and so forth.

This approach requires that I maintain retailer-specific versions of each title, which can be a pain when I've published a new book and then have to revisit all the other books to add its link for the appropriate retail platform. However, I've found the exercise to be well worthwhile, especially during a major marketing campaign such as a BookBub feature.

Best of luck in all your publishing decisions and ventures!

***

I'm running a giveaway for an e-copy of Raging Sea: Reckonings !
To enter, click HERE.

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All this month, you are invited to…

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— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

Contest winners, and SNOW IN JULY by @KimHeadlee is on sale for $0.99! #MFRWOrg #ASMSG

Snow in July by Kim Iverson Headlee
On sale for $0.99 via Kindle, Nook, iTunes & Kobo! Before I tell you about this week's super sale of Snow in July , please join me in congratulating the winners (already notified) of the following contest prizes:

 An e-book of the winner's choice by Kim Headlee: Olga and Linda.An e-book copy of Dawnflight : Rachael, Barbara, Rebecca, Stephanie, Mandi, Kira, Nicole, Ron, Lisamarie, Krista, Kristin, Emily, Michelle, and Timothy.A print copy of Dawnflight : Ron. An e-book copy of The Challenge : Robyn, Sascha, Tiffany, Tera, Margaret, Shelley, Kristina, Amanda, Loren, Angel, Jessica, Sabrina, Tonya, Brandon, Talha, Jenny, Lonnie, Teresa, Stacy, Laura, Leanne, Sharon, and Pat.
Didn't win this time? No worries; subscribe to my monthly email newsletter The Dawnflier to be the first to learn about my next giveaway, and receive a free e-book just for signing up!

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“For Alain and Kendra, a forced marriage might lead to love — but with dark forces gathering, they soon face the battle of their lives! An enchanting page-turner full of romance, intrigue, and magic.”

Thus reads the BookBub intro for Snow in July on their Teen & Young Adult page, where they placed it in the #2 slot today.
Follow me on BookBub to be the first to hear about my next deal; thanks!




Here is what some recent reviewers are saying about Snow in July:
Written Love Reviews: 5* “Alain and Kendra are characters worth knowing.”Teatime and Books: “A high 5 Teacups... Awesome book!”Queen of All She Reads: 4* “I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of Ms. Headlee’s work.” (This is just the tip of an extremely detailed and thoughtful review.)Cathy Writes Romance: 4* “A fabulous story set in historical times.”Diana Rubino Author: Snow in July is a “Delightful, realistic historical romance.” [Note: this review contains spoilers.]Bella's Blog: Snow in July is a “Totally amazing story.”The Ardent Reader: 5* “Intrigue and romance and a bit of magic!”Historical Fiction Obsession: 5* Snow in July is “a great summer read that you can get completely lost in.“
Snow in July by Kim Iverson Headlee is on sale now via Kindle, Nook, iTunes & Kobo.Don't delay; snag your copy today!

***

I'm running a giveaway for an e-copy of Raging Sea: Reckonings !
To enter, click HERE.

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Subscribe today so you don't miss out!
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All this month, you are invited to…

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— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

Arthur has an unplanned family reunion in Ch 13/sc 2b of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Pendragon Cove Press logo
c2014 by Natasha Brown. The legendary relationship between King Arthur and his sister Morgan le Fay was anything but sunshine and light, regardless of whether or not the author chooses to make them half siblings. 

My original reasons for giving Arthur and Morghe the same father are buried under decades of life events. More than likely, I was aiming for a more unique family dynamic, since I gave Arthur two older half sisters too.

This is a "Pendragon" family structure that no other author of Arthurian fiction has described, to my knowledge.

Arthur muses about his mother and all his sisters or their husbands in today's excerpt from Raging Sea .


Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings  Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1a |
Raging Sea Chapter 13, Scene 2b©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
“Did your mother give any clues as to what’s going on?” Bedwyr asked.

“No.” And he and Ygraine had discussed the possibilities in great detail while he and First Ala escorted her entourage here from Caerlaverock. If today’s problem had originated with Clan Cwrnwyll, they’d have been meeting at legion headquarters in Caer Lugubalion.

The Caerglas locale also ruled out Loth—whom Arthur did not expect to see this day, since his hands were full with the Angli raids—and Melwas of Caer Gwenion, with whom Arthur wasn’t on the best of terms since Melwas’s youngest son had failed the legion’s initiation test a few months ago. Although Arthur had tried to minimize the shame by extending an invitation for the lad to try again in a year, within a fortnight Arthur received a scathing letter from Melwas complaining about the “insult.” Arthur had let Marcus handle the response; he owned neither the time nor patience for smoothing feathers ruffled by petty grievances.

The sobering fact remained that Melwas’s territory could get overrun by an aggressive Angli expansion too, something Arthur wouldn’t let happen no matter who was wearing that clan’s mantle of chieftainship.

They reached the praetorium’s double doors, and Angusel and Gawain stepped ahead to open them for Arthur, Bedwyr, and Cato. Arthur pointed a nod of thanks at each as he entered the building.

There could be an issue with his brother-by-marriage, Alain, and his wife, Arthur’s older half sister, Yglais. Alain stood to assume the chieftainship of Clan Cwrnwyll after Ygraine and in the meantime governed Caer Alclyd, a modest but strategically placed fortress, along with its shipping business and lands near Caerglas.

Arthur paused while Angusel and Gawain shoved open the audience hall’s doors. A problem with Alain didn’t make sense for two reasons: he didn’t have a voting seat on the council and therefore was not empowered to call an emergency session, and Yglais was quite diligent about informing Arthur of important events at Caer Alclyd.

That left…

“Morghe!”

Every head in the hall turned toward Arthur at his outburst.

His youngest sister was elegantly attired in her husband’s Clan Moray black with gold trim, which lent stark contrast to the white bandage binding her shoulder and pinning her arm to her chest.




***

Today is the LAST DAY to enter this great giveaway for Snow in July !
a Rafflecopter giveaway
***

I'm running a giveaway for an e-copy of Raging Sea: Reckonings !
To enter, click HERE.

MailChimp subscribers to The Dawnflier receive exclusive giveaway opportunities.
Subscribe today so you don't miss out!
***
All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

Congratulations @DianaLRubino on #Newrelease DARK BREW! time travel romance

Today on The Maze I am pleased to spotlight Dark Brew , a brand-new time travel romance by my longtime author-friend Diana Rubino!


Learn from the past  or forever be doomed to repeat it.

Worldwide release date 22 July 2016 via The Wild Rose Press.

An interview with Diana about Dark Brew

[The Maze (TM)]: Where did the story come from?

[Diana Rubino (DR)]: This story took 11 years from start to finish. I’m a longtime member of the Richard III Society, and in the spring of 2004, I read an article in The Ricardian Register by Pamela Butler, about Alice Kyteler, who lived in Kilkenny, Ireland in 1324, and faced witchcraft charges. After her trial and acquittal, she vanished from the annals of history. I couldn't resist writing a book about her.

[TM]: How did you decide to make it a paranormal?

[DR]: I’m a believer in reincarnation, and I go on paranormal investigations whenever I can. I’ve gone on several past life regressions. Cape Cod has a lot of history and paranormal activity. I’ve been on many ghost walks and ghost hunts there. I wanted to connect Alice in the past with someone in the present, her reincarnation.

[TM]: Was Alice Kyteler famous in 14th century Ireland?

[DR]: Not at all but she was the richest woman in Kilkenny, and for that reason the villagers hated her, especially the men. They accused her of killing her first husband, but she was acquitted. Then they accused her of killing her fourth husband, John LePoer, with witchcraft, the accusations more absurd than those of the 1692 witch hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts. Chancellor Edward de Burgh arrested Alice because her stepsons claimed she had murdered John by casting a witch’s spell with malefecia… and she used the enchanted skull of a beheaded thief as her cauldron.

She went to trial and her dear friend Michael Artson had her acquitted, but she vanished into the annals of history. According to legend, she went to England. But no one knows for sure.

[TM]: Why did you make it a time travel?

[DR]: Because my heroine, Kylah McKinley, is a Druid and has done many past life regressions, she knows she’s the reincarnation of Alice. So she has to go back and find out what happened to Alice, because too many weird things are happening to her in this life that parallel Alice’s life.

Kylah lives on my beloved Cape Cod. She’s a Druid, a ghost hunter and owns a new age store in a restored Revolutionary War-era tavern. She was also the target of a hit-and-run. Another hit-and-run crippled her husband Ted. That’s no coincidence—she’s convinced someone’s out to get them both.

She brews an ancient Druid herb mixture, goes back in time and enters Alice’s life to find out exactly what happened and who killed her husband.

These two months of hell change her life forever. Kylah’s life mirrors Alice’s in one tragic event after another—she finds her husband sprawled on the floor, cold, blue, with no pulse. Evidence points to her, and police arrest her for his murder. Kylah and Alice shared another twist of fate—they fell in love with the man who believed in them. As Kylah prepares for her trial and fights to maintain her innocence, she must learn from her past or she’s doomed to repeat it.

[TM]: Have you ever spoken to Pamela Butler, who wrote the article about Alice?

[DR]: Yes, we’ve corresponded. She lives in New Mexico, so we’ve never met in person. I asked Pam what inspired her to write about Alice. I’d never heard of Alice until I read her article, “Witchcraft & Heresy. She replied:

“You asked why I wrote about Alice Kyteler, who preceded Richard by a century-and-a-half. I only wrote it because others on the listserv encouraged me to write about witchcraft, a subject about which I knew very little. I ordered three books from Amazon.com on the subjects of witchcraft, heresy, Satanism, etc. for research reasons. That was my basis, plus I searched the Internet. The Malleus Malleficarum was published in 1487, just two years after Richard's death, so it's almost contemporary. I chanced across Alice in this reading and thought that it was an interesting case. Witch burning was fairly rare in Ireland, and wasn't as bad in England at that time as it had been on the Continent. I wish that the M.M. had never been published; still, the fact that it was published and accepted may reveal the mindset of those times.”

An excerpt from Dark Brew

Kylah shut Ted’s den door. She couldn’t bear to look at the spot where he gasped his last breath. His presence, an imposing force, lingered. So did his scent, a blend of tobacco, pine aftershave and manly sweat. Each reminder ripped into her heart like a knife. Especially now with the funeral looming ahead, the eulogies, the mournful organ hymns, the tolling bells...

These ceremonies should bring closure, but they’d only prolong the agony of her grief. She wanted to remember him alive for a while longer, wishing she could delay these morbid customs until the hurt subsided.

Throughout the house, his essence echoed his personality: the wine stain on the carpet, the heap of dirty shirts, shorts and socks piled up in the laundry room, the spattered stove, his fingerprints on the microwave. But she couldn’t bring herself to clean any of it up. Painful as these remnants were, they offered a strange comfort. He still lived here.

“I’ll find that murderer, Teddy,” she promised him over and over, wandering from room to empty room, traces of him lurking in every corner. “I’ll do everything in my power to make sure justice is served. Another past life regression isn’t enough anymore. I know what I have to do now. And I promise, it will never, ever happen again—in any future life.”

She inhaled deeply and breathed him in. “Go take a shower, Teddy.” She chuckled through her tears as the doorbell rang. She cringed, breaking out in cold sweat when she saw the black sedan at the curb.

“Not again.” No sense in hiding, so she let the detectives in.

“Mrs. McKinley, we need your permission to do a search and take some of your husband’s possessions from the house,” Nolan said.

“What for?” She met his steely stare. “I looked everywhere and found nothing.”

“Mrs. McKinley, the cupboard door was open, four jars of herbs are missing, and the autopsy showed he died of herb poisoning. Those herbs,” Nolan added for emphasis, as if it had slipped her feeble mind. “Foxglove, mandrake, hemlock—and an as-yet unidentified one,” he read from a notebook. “The M.E. determined it was a lethal dose.”

Sherlock Holmes got nothin’ on him, she thought. 

“Where’s this cupboard, ma’am?” Egan spoke up.

“Right there.” She pointed, its door gaping exactly the way she’d found it that night. Nolan went over to it and peered inside.

“Ma’am, it would be better if you left the house for a half hour or so. Please leave a number where you can be reached,” Egan ordered.

Nolan glanced down the hall. “Where is your bedroom?”

What could they want in the bedroom? “It’s at the top of the stairs on the right. But we didn’t sleep together,” she offered, as if that would faze them. It didn’t.

After giving him her cell number, she got into her car and drove to the beach.

An hour later, she let herself back in and looked around. They’d taken the computer, her case of CDs, her thumb drive, her remaining herb jars, Ted’s notebooks, and left her alone with one horrible fact: This was now a homicide case and she was the prime suspect.

Purchase Dark Brew on Kindle.
Contact Diana viaWebsite | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads |

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The Business of Writing: More on Translating Your Book by @OlgaNM and more than one #giveaway!

Today I am delighted to welcome back author-friend Olga Núñez Miret for Part Two of translating your books from English to Spanish and vice-versa. Part One may be viewed HERE.
Olga Author Translator (mailto:mmxrynz at hotmail dot com)
http://eepurl.com/baUcO
Olga translated one of my novellas, The Challenge , into Spanish as EL RETO, and she did a fine job! 

In Olga's words...

It can be a judgment call to decide how to approach any given work of translation. There are two concepts that seem to be at war with each other, that of fidelity (equivalent to translating exactly the text, word by word, trying to preserve the style as closely as possible, that tends to be used for certain authoritative texts, like legal texts, religious texts…) and transparency (the creation of a text that nobody would know had been translated from an original and it appears to have been written in that language because it sounds, or reads, very natural). The first results in a literal translation and the second in an idiomatic one.

These ideas always remind me of a novel I read years back called Loosely Translated (by Simon Hugh Wheeler, an indie writer who approached me through Goodreads), where the novel of an English writer, whose quality of writing seems to have degenerated as the number of novels in his thriller series increases, is picked up by a Spanish publisher who decides, without reading it, to get it translated to Spanish. The selected translator is a talented female writer who can’t find a publisher for her books. She can’t believe how bad the novel is and after feeling frustrated by her task, decides to become creative and completely changes the novel. It becomes a great success, and the English writer, who is invited over, can’t understand what the readers are going on about at a Q&A session. Well, I’ll leave you to imagine the rest.

Why would anybody want to have their books translated?
We all know how big a competition we face to try and sell books. Making it available to a wider audience is always a great idea. In the case of Spanish, it has 518 million speakers across the world, 427M as a native language. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. It is also used as an official language by the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Union of South American Nations, and by many other international organizations.These new markets are less crowded. Although the offerings in Spanish are increasing, the number of e-books available in Spanish is much smaller than those in English. And of course there are retailers that will be more interested in Spanish books.The same as is the case in English, there are blogs, Facebook pages, reviewers, reporters, critics, writers and readers looking for books in Spanish. I can say that with regards to other writers, I’ve found it easier to get in contact with writers who are best-selling authors, even across the whole of Amazon, in the Spanish language, than it is getting to know the big sellers in English. (Of course, some markets like Amazon Spain or Mexico are smaller, but still…)One never knows when the chance of pure luck might strike. I know a Spanish writer named Enrique Laso, whose books have been translated to many languages and who told me that although he has no idea why, his books translated to Greek have been great hits there. It’s impossible to know what might strike a chord with readers in a particular market. I’ve read many posts by writers talking about how exciting it is to see your first book published and, in the case of paperback, have it in your hands. Well, I must confess seeing one of my books translated to Chinese made me feel equally excited. I know of authors who are working on the idea of publishing their books in bilingual editions and indeed they might provide a good option for marketing as an aid to language learning.
Translation is not a mechanical thing and it requires skills, imagination, a good understanding of both languages, and judgment. There are famous writers who’ve also made a name for themselves as literary translators like Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luís Borges and Haruki Murakami. In Canada translators have as big a status as writers and there are awards for translators too.

If you’re interested in translations, there are a number of routes that can be followed. Of course there are translation agencies and freelancers, and you can find translators in places like Fiverr or Upwork. There are also options for splitting the royalties of the final text with the translator, available through places like Babelcube (offering translations to a number of European languages) and Fiberread (translating books to Chinese for split royalties). Although there are the machine translators and also useful online dictionaries, I would not recommend using them for anything more than a few lines (and even then it might be a risk).

I leave you with a few quotes:

Dryden observed that "Translation is a type of drawing after life..."

The British historian Alexander Tytler, in his Essay on the Principles of Translation (1790), emphasized that assiduous reading is a more comprehensive guide to a language than are dictionaries. (And I couldn’t agree more).

Translator from French and Greek, Ignacy Krasicki:

“[T]ranslation... is in fact an art both estimable and very difficult, and therefore is not the labor and portion of common minds; [it] should be [practiced] by those who are themselves capable of being actors, when they see greater use in translating the works of others than in their own works, and hold higher than their own glory the service that they render their country.”

You can check some of the books I’ve translated here.


As my latest story (a suspense/psychological thriller genre novella) is now free, and it’s the prequel of the series I’m working on at the moment, I thought I’d share it with you.

Escaping Psychiatry. Beginnings
How far would a writer go for a killer story? This is the question psychiatrist Mary Miller must answer to solve the first mystery/thriller of her career. You can get to know the main characters of this psychological thriller series for FREE and test your own acumen and intuition in this novella about the price of ambition.

Dr Mary Miller is a young psychiatrist suffering a crisis of vocation. Her friend Phil, a criminalist lawyer working in New York, invites her to visit him and consult on the case of a writer accused of a serious assault. His victim had been harassing him and accusing him of stealing his story, which he’d transformed into a best-selling book. The author denies the allegation and claims it was self-defence. When the victim dies, things get complicated. The threshold between truth and fiction becomes blurred and secrets and lies unfold.

Escaping Psychiatry. Beginnings is the prequel to Escaping Psychiatry a volume collecting three stories where Mary and her psychiatric expertise are called to help in a variety of cases, from religious and race affairs, to the murder of a policeman, and in the last case she gets closer than ever to a serial killer.

You may buy her featured novel, Escaping Psychiatry: Beginnings via:Amazon | Kobo | Apple | Nook | Page Foundry | Scribd |
Thanks so much to Kim for having me as guest, thanks to all of you for reading, and keep sharing and smiling.

You are quite welcome, Olga! Follow her via:

Newsletter | Website | Blog | Twitter @OlgaNM7 | Facebook | LinkedIn | Goodreads | G+ | Pinterest | Wattpad | Tumblr |


And don't forget to snag your copy of the novella Olga translated for me, El Reto!
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Arthur reviews a civics lesson in Ch 13/Sc 2a of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Pendragon Cove Press logo
c2014 by Natasha Brown. Today's excerpt from Raging Sea features the first viewpoint scene for Arthur in this book. Normally I would have created a meme to go along with this series of posts, featuring Arthur's totem dragon symbol set against the background of sea spray.

However, since I'm still recovering from my previous computer's untimely death, and since I have other commitments this week, I'm going to "cheat" and show you Arthur's dragon as incorporated into the logo of my imprint, Pendragon Cove Press.

As for the choice to use Arthur's viewpoint in this book when originally I was planning not to use him or Gyan as viewpoint characters at all, I discovered that the needs of the story would be better served if I jumped into Arthur's head a bit here. Since this is still a work-in-progress, his scenes may end up in the recycle bin when all is said and done. I will make that decision after I complete the entire draft.

Meantime, enjoy!


Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings  Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b |
Raging Sea Chapter 13, Scene 2a©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
The Council of Chieftains, the northern Brytoni body that boasted no governing authority per se but which met most often during times of crisis for one or more member clans, possessed no set meeting place. When Ambrosius had held the office of Dux Britanniarum, and clan alliances were as fragile and complex as spiderwebs, the chieftains had agreed to meet at whichever military installation was most convenient for the man requesting the meeting, for the added protection a garrison of neutral soldiers provided. In the early days it could be any garrison, though over time the list of host sites dwindled to the largest installations along the Antonine and Hadrianic walls for convenience of transportation via the centuries-old but well built and maintained Roman roads.

From Arthur’s first meeting of the Council of Chieftains—the debacle four years ago that had nigh degenerated into civil war over who would succeed Uther as Dux Britanniarum—he hated attending them.

Oh, the meetings’ reasons were valid enough: crop failures, plagues upon people or livestock, assassinations, raids—the latter two sometimes even perpetrated by one member clan against another, for covetousness and greed were not confined to the non-Brytoni races competing for land across the Isle of Brydein.

Arthur gave a grateful grin to Bedwyr, who joined him and his three-man escort from an intersecting street as they strode toward the Caerglas praetorium’s audience hall. “Did Bann call this emergency meeting?”

“My father is here,” Bedwyr said, “but no. Lammor is quiet, thank the gods—or as quiet as it ever gets.”

Arthur nodded. This meant Chieftain Bann would officiate, then, rather than being the one presenting the problem. Arthur had all but grown up in Bann’s household, since he and his foster brother Cai had been tutored with Bedwyr as boys, and he knew the man to be a pensive, cautious leader whose devotion to a cause was unyielding and absolute once he decided to join it. In fact Bann had had more to do with Arthur’s election to the Pendragonship than any other man present.

Perhaps this meeting of the Council of Chieftains wouldn’t be so tiresome after all.

***

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— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!