Angel M.B. Chadwick's Blog, page 7
July 30, 2017
My Interview Since the Revise and Re-released of Weeping Well (Weeping Well#1) since July 2017
Hi, Check out my latest interview since the revise and re-release of Weeping Well (Weeping Well#1):
http://www.sethlestath.com/angel-chad...
http://www.sethlestath.com/angel-chad...
July 12, 2017
Weeping Well Is Revised and Re-Released July 2017
Hi, everybody! I know you've been patiently waiting for the revised and re-release of "Weeping Well" (Weeping Well#1). It is now available on Amazon and Kindle as of July 2017. The copyright date on the copyright page has been changed from 2016 to 2017. Also in boldface with an asterisk next to it, it says "Revised/Expanded Edition." So you will know when you look in the "Look Inside" feature on the kindle and print editions it is the new 2017 revised re-released copy and not the 2016 old copy. I have also taken out over two hundred pages that weren't needed and also taken out chapters that were also not needed and I have added several new scenes to this book. I have also reduced the kindle price to $3.99, which is now the regular price.
Weeping Well has been through a lot. It has been through Grammarly, ProWriting Aid, Hemingway Editor and beta after beta and editor after editor countless times, especially before I re-released it. I'm writing many more books, including the sequel to "Weeping Well," which I have already started on.
I have thanked C.L. Lynch and Deb Rhodes my betas and editors on my Acknowledgements page. I thank them for their brutal honesty, reliable and constructive criticism through this process. Also have thanked my cover artist Jana for the awesome cover. I kept the same cover but I still felt I should include her for making such an awesome cover. C.L., Deb and Jana's website/contact information is also on the Acknowledgments page of my book.
*All the reviews prior to the July 2017 revised and re-released date on Amazon and Goodreads are for the 2016 old copy.
Anyone who has downloaded or requested a copy before the revised and re-released date (July 2017) you have downloaded a 2016 old copy, whether it was from the March free promo group event I did earlier this year or on Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime.
*Please read Foreword next to the Acknowledgments page on the newly available 2017 revised re-released copy of e-book and/or print editions. Thanks to all for your patience! I appreciate it.
Weeping Well has been through a lot. It has been through Grammarly, ProWriting Aid, Hemingway Editor and beta after beta and editor after editor countless times, especially before I re-released it. I'm writing many more books, including the sequel to "Weeping Well," which I have already started on.
I have thanked C.L. Lynch and Deb Rhodes my betas and editors on my Acknowledgements page. I thank them for their brutal honesty, reliable and constructive criticism through this process. Also have thanked my cover artist Jana for the awesome cover. I kept the same cover but I still felt I should include her for making such an awesome cover. C.L., Deb and Jana's website/contact information is also on the Acknowledgments page of my book.
*All the reviews prior to the July 2017 revised and re-released date on Amazon and Goodreads are for the 2016 old copy.
Anyone who has downloaded or requested a copy before the revised and re-released date (July 2017) you have downloaded a 2016 old copy, whether it was from the March free promo group event I did earlier this year or on Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime.
*Please read Foreword next to the Acknowledgments page on the newly available 2017 revised re-released copy of e-book and/or print editions. Thanks to all for your patience! I appreciate it.
June 18, 2017
Weeping Well Vol. 1 is going to be Rereleased within the next Few Weeks
Hi, everybody! Weeping Well will be rereleased in a matter of weeks. Thanks to my beta readers and editors Deb Rhodes and C.L. Lynch for helping me in working out the issues with Weeping Well. I've thanked you on my acknowledgement page in my novel. C.L. also thank you for suggesting Hemingway Editor, ProWriting Aid and Grammarly to me to improve and straighten out the kinks in my writing those devices are definitely a lifesaver. Highly recommended. I'm going to get one more beta reader to read over it, just in case before I release again for the final time. Weeping Well is an introduction and the first book in the series. I'm going to be writing three more books in the series. I'm still writing other works the cozy mystery series, plays, etc. But I will be putting out "Traveling Salesman" this fall. Thanks for those who have been patient in waiting for the rerelease and my upcoming works.
June 6, 2017
A Third Book is Coming out This Fall 2017
Hi, everybody! While "Weeping Well" is being beta read and being prepped for rerelease. I'm announcing a third book that will be released this fall titled, "Traveling Salesman." I started writing it four or five years ago. It's set in the late 1950s to early '70s.
It's part action/adult/adventure/historical fiction/humor/interracial/moderate violence/multicultural/multiracial/mystery/
romance/
sci-fantasy/sexynerdycowboy/shortstory/speculativefic/
steampunk/supernatural/suspense/thriller/young adult
I've written five chapters and I'm starting on the six chapter. 4,183 words have been written. My goal is to complete it at 30,000 words/90 pages.
Working Synopsis/Blurb: A college student sets out to find his mother's killer. But what he finds he didn't expect.
It's part action/adult/adventure/historical fiction/humor/interracial/moderate violence/multicultural/multiracial/mystery/
romance/
sci-fantasy/sexynerdycowboy/shortstory/speculativefic/
steampunk/supernatural/suspense/thriller/young adult
I've written five chapters and I'm starting on the six chapter. 4,183 words have been written. My goal is to complete it at 30,000 words/90 pages.
Working Synopsis/Blurb: A college student sets out to find his mother's killer. But what he finds he didn't expect.
June 5, 2017
Editing on Weeping Well is Done
Editing on Weeping Well is Done and it will be Beta Read and will be out for rerelease in about three to six weeks. I'll announce the official date soon. Over two hundred to three hundred pages have been cut from Weeping Well, during editing. Parts have been rewritten for this first book in the series. Stay tuned!
May 23, 2017
Weeping Well will be Rewritten, Go through the Editing Process and Be Beta Read Again
I have found several issues with "Weeping Well" and will be rewriting it, having it go through the editing process again and beta read again. This will be the umpteenth time for this novel. This time I will make sure the process is extremely thorough. Anyone who has reviewed, downloaded in the last few days or is thinking about reviewing or downloading it, or has downloaded it or reviewed it in the past six months since its been on sale, *please know it is now considered an old copy of Weeping Well and will be removed from all sale channels once the updated version is ready for sale that includes both the e-book and paperback versions. It will be rereleased somewhere between 2018-2020. Thanks to all of you for your support of me and interest in Weeping Well. In the meantime, I will be releasing short stories, cozy mysteries, novellas in the near future, preferably before the end of this year.
May 14, 2017
A Change Is Coming
I often wonder what did I just walk into when I stepped onto Goodreads four years ago. I've been quite active here on Goodreads. I've helped a lot of struggling authors with as much of my expertise as they've asked for or welcomed, reviewed lots of books (still reviewing the rest on my Currently reading list) but starting this summer I've decided I'm going to change a lot of things. I've left a number of groups because I'm either not being noticed or there are things going on that even Goodreads doesn't know about (very shady things, too many fake people) or maybe they know about it and don't care. I've lost faith in a lot of things lately and my wariness of Goodreads from the beginning keeps being reaffirmed. I have never ignored my gut instinct because it has never steered me wrong.
April 15, 2017
Shortie Blurbs
This is my expertise on how to write blurbs:
Shortie Blurbs by Angel M.B. Chadwick
Blurbs should be short and to the point. Hence the name “blurb.” Blurbs are a summary of what a book is about. But who says that the blurb has to be long. I’ve seen too many authors’ blurbs that tell too much of what their book is about, reaching the status of being more of a full length novel than an actual blurb. I’ve always written the blurbs for my books as short, to the point with an air of mystery. No more than one sentence or less. I think a lot of authors are going with the way we were taught in English class, in grade school, when summarizing a story, basically paraphrasing the entire story making it book length.
My most recent novel “Weeping Well” (Vol. 1) I took an original excerpt/quote I wrote in my book and instead of writing the whole thing which was only one sentence entirely. I decided to write a portion of the quote and left off with the ellipsis. My book has several mixed genres and if I told you the exact amount of genres and you saw the blurb I wrote to my book, you’d be saying “how did she sum that entire book, which is quite lengthy, with all those genres into such a short blurb?” You’d think I was a magician. Seriously. No kidding.
But this is how I did it. I thought about what is the main theme I want to exploit, easy “mystery” also something that lacks in a lot of these blurbs. I thought about the main character what is the internal/ external conflict or the second theme/genre, easy “thriller,” “suspense” and I thought about the tragedy my character goes through involving a specific person and I came up with my blurb for my novel Weeping Well: “Fear is like a looking glass....” I’ve gotten rave reviews on my blurb, because of its mystery, which draws readers in to want to read the book and find out more. You have to find what are the consistent main themes or genres and build your short blurb from there.
As an avid reader and reviewer, I’m constantly turned off by blurbs that tell way too much about the book and due to that I’m turned off from reading or reviewing the book because I already know what it’s fully about. K.I.S.S. still applies, the old “Keep It Simple…. Well, you know the rest. The same for reviews. I don’t like reviews with spoilers. I have tips for writing reviews without spoilers and coming up with titles for a book, but that’s for another blog post that I’ll probably talk about on my Goodreads blog. Thanks for your listening ears! I hope this helps and makes your next blurb a lot easier to write.
Shortie Blurbs by Angel M.B. Chadwick
Blurbs should be short and to the point. Hence the name “blurb.” Blurbs are a summary of what a book is about. But who says that the blurb has to be long. I’ve seen too many authors’ blurbs that tell too much of what their book is about, reaching the status of being more of a full length novel than an actual blurb. I’ve always written the blurbs for my books as short, to the point with an air of mystery. No more than one sentence or less. I think a lot of authors are going with the way we were taught in English class, in grade school, when summarizing a story, basically paraphrasing the entire story making it book length.
My most recent novel “Weeping Well” (Vol. 1) I took an original excerpt/quote I wrote in my book and instead of writing the whole thing which was only one sentence entirely. I decided to write a portion of the quote and left off with the ellipsis. My book has several mixed genres and if I told you the exact amount of genres and you saw the blurb I wrote to my book, you’d be saying “how did she sum that entire book, which is quite lengthy, with all those genres into such a short blurb?” You’d think I was a magician. Seriously. No kidding.
But this is how I did it. I thought about what is the main theme I want to exploit, easy “mystery” also something that lacks in a lot of these blurbs. I thought about the main character what is the internal/ external conflict or the second theme/genre, easy “thriller,” “suspense” and I thought about the tragedy my character goes through involving a specific person and I came up with my blurb for my novel Weeping Well: “Fear is like a looking glass....” I’ve gotten rave reviews on my blurb, because of its mystery, which draws readers in to want to read the book and find out more. You have to find what are the consistent main themes or genres and build your short blurb from there.
As an avid reader and reviewer, I’m constantly turned off by blurbs that tell way too much about the book and due to that I’m turned off from reading or reviewing the book because I already know what it’s fully about. K.I.S.S. still applies, the old “Keep It Simple…. Well, you know the rest. The same for reviews. I don’t like reviews with spoilers. I have tips for writing reviews without spoilers and coming up with titles for a book, but that’s for another blog post that I’ll probably talk about on my Goodreads blog. Thanks for your listening ears! I hope this helps and makes your next blurb a lot easier to write.
April 13, 2017
Interviewing Kinship Clover Author Ellen Meeropol
I recently had the pleasure of being a part of a blog tour with Poetic Book Tours to promote Author Ellen Meeropol. I interviewed Ellen Meeropol. Here's the interview:
Hi, everyone! I’m interviewing Author Ellen Meeropol.
Hi Ellen!
1.Tell us a little about yourself and your latest novel.
I am a literary late bloomer. In my 30-year career as an RN and pediatric nurse practitioner, I authored many articles in nursing and medical journals, but didn’t begin writing fiction until my early fifties. I’ve been writing ever since.
My third novel, Kinship of Clover, published April 4, 2017, has three main characters – a college botany major who is so obsessed with plant species loss that the plants become part of his body; his girlfriend who is determined not to allow herself to be defined by her wheelchair; and her grandmother who is a lifelong political activist now facing dementia. The book explores what can happen when you care deeply about an injustice and don’t know how to make it better. You care so much it changes you, in ways you could never predict. And, you must figure out how to balance making political change with being true to the people you love.
2. What inspired you to be a writer and to get into indie publishing? How long have you been writing? How long have you been published as an indie author?
I’ve always read voraciously and always vaguely dreamed about writing novels, but life (career, children, political activism) got in the way. When I finished reading a book, sometimes say to myself, “I could do that.” Other times I would say, “Oh, I wish I’d written that.” Finally in 2000, I started writing stories and I was hooked. I loved it so much I totally changed my life. I enrolled in a low-residency MFA program and, as soon as I could manage it, I took an early retirement from my career, started working part-time in a wonderful indie bookstore, and wrote.
My three novels are published by Red Hen, an independent nonprofit press that publishes about twenty books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry annually. They state that their books are “diverse in style and subject, but tend to have in common a certain wildness.” I love publishing with them. My work has found its literary home.
3. Who are your writing mentors/authors? What genres do you enjoy writing and what genres do you like to read? Are you an avid reader/reviewer of other authors?
I’ve been fortunate to have several mentors and teachers – people whose writing I admire enormously, who taught me, encouraged my early writing efforts and have continued to support my work. They include Marnie Mueller, Lee Hope, Lesléa Newman, Julia Glass, Ann Hood, Charles Baxter, and Rosellen Brown. I’m also part of a critique group. We’ve been reading, commenting on, and celebrating each other’s work for many years. It’s hard to imagine writing a novel without them.
I read a lot – primarily contemporary literary fiction, but also poetry, linked story collections, and mysteries. I still work (very) part-time at the bookstore and enjoy reading forthcoming novels as part of the store’s First Edition Club selection committee.
4. Have you ever co-wrote or consider collaborating or co-writing with anyone on a writing project?
I used to co-write medical articles and have collaborated on a couple of nonfiction articles. I haven’t tried it with fiction, and honestly, I can’t quite imagine the brain-sharing that would have to happen for that to work!
5. What are your dreams and aspirations that could drive you forward on this writing and publication journey?
Writing and publishing are such different aspects of this work. I love all parts of the writing – imagining, drafting, revising, revising again and again, editing. The publishing part is more mixed. It’s a hard world out there. I love my press and admire the work they do, but sometimes the promotion part feels overwhelming.
6. Do you prefer to do marketing and promotion yourself for your works or would you rather have someone else control that spectrum? What are some of the things you have done to promote and market yourself?
Marketing and promoting a small press book is a team effort. The marketing and publicity folks at Red Hen are terrific, and they do an enormous amount with limited resources. I also work with a free-lance publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek, who has decades of experience. I call her my fairy godmother. And I do a lot of the work myself, especially the social media piece as well as contacting bookstores and book groups and libraries I’ve visited with previous books. Like I said, a team effort.
7. What is your greatest accomplishment as an author?
It all depends on how you define “accomplishment,” doesn’t it? I was very proud last year when my second novel, On Hurricane Island, was named a Must Read by the Massachusetts Center for the Book (the long-list for the Massachusetts Book Award), but was equally proud when students in a college creative writing class told me, “This book is awesome.”
But on a more basic level, I feel really good when I am able to transform my experiences of the world we live in – and my hopes and yearnings for a better world – into a story with heart. I feel most satisfied when my work gets closer to my goal of balancing on the fault lines between big global issues and individual characters who breathe. I want to write books that illuminate injustice and inspire us want to understand and change the world, each in our own individual ways.
8. What's the next writing project(s) you're working on?
I’m revising my fourth novel, which follows two sisters from an anti-war demonstration in 1968 with disastrous results to political chaos in 2018. I’ve been working on this novel for 17 years, and hope someday soon I’ll get it right.
9. How would you balance creativity with the business side of writing such as coming up with particular concepts and solutions to stand out amongst the crowd in this writing/publishing industry where 'popularity' is key, if your idea wasn't exactly popular/or was unknown to the readers/publishers?
The bottom line for me is writing what I care deeply, and not worrying about whether it’s popular.
10. Have you ever been traditional published? Would you consider it? Or feel like a sell out if you took a traditional deal and abandoned indie publishing? Have you ever thought about being a hybrid, part indie, part traditional published? How would you feel about such an opportunity, if both or either of these things happened?
I am traditionally published, with a small independent press. I haven’t recently considered looking for other possibilities – either big corporate publisher or hybrid or self-publishing options – because I’m so happy where I am. But I’m grateful there are so many kinds of publishers out there, so more writers have the opportunity to share their words and find their readers.
11. What other creative talents do you have? Do you draw, sketch, paint, etc.?
I make jewelry – funky polymer beads and Kumihimo beaded necklaces. When words clog my brain, it’s wonderful to focus on colors and shapes and patterns. It cleanses the brain palate.
12. What advice would you give other aspiring authors?
Persevere. Keep writing. Keep sending your work out, when it’s as good as you can make it. Make it better. Consider joining or starting a critique group, if you’re not already in one.
13. Describe yourself in a one-sentence epithet.
I like best what Naomi Benaron said about my work: “unflinchingly political, unashamedly suspenseful, and above all, deeply human.”
14. Paying it forward. What things do you do in your community/ and other communities to help others?
I’m currently the president of Straw Dog Writers Guild, a non-profit that offers free craft programs and open mics to support and nurture writers at all levels of their development. I also facilitate a book group at a local indie bookstore, often showcasing local writers’ work. Writing can be lonely; building and nurturing writing communities is a critical and deeply satisfying part of the work for me.
www.ellenmeeropol.com
https://www.facebook.com/ellenmeeropo...
https://twitter.com/EllenMeeropol
www.strawdogwriters.org
To find out more concerning this author during this month's blog tour, click here: https://poeticbooktours.wordpress.com...
Hi, everyone! I’m interviewing Author Ellen Meeropol.
Hi Ellen!
1.Tell us a little about yourself and your latest novel.
I am a literary late bloomer. In my 30-year career as an RN and pediatric nurse practitioner, I authored many articles in nursing and medical journals, but didn’t begin writing fiction until my early fifties. I’ve been writing ever since.
My third novel, Kinship of Clover, published April 4, 2017, has three main characters – a college botany major who is so obsessed with plant species loss that the plants become part of his body; his girlfriend who is determined not to allow herself to be defined by her wheelchair; and her grandmother who is a lifelong political activist now facing dementia. The book explores what can happen when you care deeply about an injustice and don’t know how to make it better. You care so much it changes you, in ways you could never predict. And, you must figure out how to balance making political change with being true to the people you love.
2. What inspired you to be a writer and to get into indie publishing? How long have you been writing? How long have you been published as an indie author?
I’ve always read voraciously and always vaguely dreamed about writing novels, but life (career, children, political activism) got in the way. When I finished reading a book, sometimes say to myself, “I could do that.” Other times I would say, “Oh, I wish I’d written that.” Finally in 2000, I started writing stories and I was hooked. I loved it so much I totally changed my life. I enrolled in a low-residency MFA program and, as soon as I could manage it, I took an early retirement from my career, started working part-time in a wonderful indie bookstore, and wrote.
My three novels are published by Red Hen, an independent nonprofit press that publishes about twenty books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry annually. They state that their books are “diverse in style and subject, but tend to have in common a certain wildness.” I love publishing with them. My work has found its literary home.
3. Who are your writing mentors/authors? What genres do you enjoy writing and what genres do you like to read? Are you an avid reader/reviewer of other authors?
I’ve been fortunate to have several mentors and teachers – people whose writing I admire enormously, who taught me, encouraged my early writing efforts and have continued to support my work. They include Marnie Mueller, Lee Hope, Lesléa Newman, Julia Glass, Ann Hood, Charles Baxter, and Rosellen Brown. I’m also part of a critique group. We’ve been reading, commenting on, and celebrating each other’s work for many years. It’s hard to imagine writing a novel without them.
I read a lot – primarily contemporary literary fiction, but also poetry, linked story collections, and mysteries. I still work (very) part-time at the bookstore and enjoy reading forthcoming novels as part of the store’s First Edition Club selection committee.
4. Have you ever co-wrote or consider collaborating or co-writing with anyone on a writing project?
I used to co-write medical articles and have collaborated on a couple of nonfiction articles. I haven’t tried it with fiction, and honestly, I can’t quite imagine the brain-sharing that would have to happen for that to work!
5. What are your dreams and aspirations that could drive you forward on this writing and publication journey?
Writing and publishing are such different aspects of this work. I love all parts of the writing – imagining, drafting, revising, revising again and again, editing. The publishing part is more mixed. It’s a hard world out there. I love my press and admire the work they do, but sometimes the promotion part feels overwhelming.
6. Do you prefer to do marketing and promotion yourself for your works or would you rather have someone else control that spectrum? What are some of the things you have done to promote and market yourself?
Marketing and promoting a small press book is a team effort. The marketing and publicity folks at Red Hen are terrific, and they do an enormous amount with limited resources. I also work with a free-lance publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek, who has decades of experience. I call her my fairy godmother. And I do a lot of the work myself, especially the social media piece as well as contacting bookstores and book groups and libraries I’ve visited with previous books. Like I said, a team effort.
7. What is your greatest accomplishment as an author?
It all depends on how you define “accomplishment,” doesn’t it? I was very proud last year when my second novel, On Hurricane Island, was named a Must Read by the Massachusetts Center for the Book (the long-list for the Massachusetts Book Award), but was equally proud when students in a college creative writing class told me, “This book is awesome.”
But on a more basic level, I feel really good when I am able to transform my experiences of the world we live in – and my hopes and yearnings for a better world – into a story with heart. I feel most satisfied when my work gets closer to my goal of balancing on the fault lines between big global issues and individual characters who breathe. I want to write books that illuminate injustice and inspire us want to understand and change the world, each in our own individual ways.
8. What's the next writing project(s) you're working on?
I’m revising my fourth novel, which follows two sisters from an anti-war demonstration in 1968 with disastrous results to political chaos in 2018. I’ve been working on this novel for 17 years, and hope someday soon I’ll get it right.
9. How would you balance creativity with the business side of writing such as coming up with particular concepts and solutions to stand out amongst the crowd in this writing/publishing industry where 'popularity' is key, if your idea wasn't exactly popular/or was unknown to the readers/publishers?
The bottom line for me is writing what I care deeply, and not worrying about whether it’s popular.
10. Have you ever been traditional published? Would you consider it? Or feel like a sell out if you took a traditional deal and abandoned indie publishing? Have you ever thought about being a hybrid, part indie, part traditional published? How would you feel about such an opportunity, if both or either of these things happened?
I am traditionally published, with a small independent press. I haven’t recently considered looking for other possibilities – either big corporate publisher or hybrid or self-publishing options – because I’m so happy where I am. But I’m grateful there are so many kinds of publishers out there, so more writers have the opportunity to share their words and find their readers.
11. What other creative talents do you have? Do you draw, sketch, paint, etc.?
I make jewelry – funky polymer beads and Kumihimo beaded necklaces. When words clog my brain, it’s wonderful to focus on colors and shapes and patterns. It cleanses the brain palate.
12. What advice would you give other aspiring authors?
Persevere. Keep writing. Keep sending your work out, when it’s as good as you can make it. Make it better. Consider joining or starting a critique group, if you’re not already in one.
13. Describe yourself in a one-sentence epithet.
I like best what Naomi Benaron said about my work: “unflinchingly political, unashamedly suspenseful, and above all, deeply human.”
14. Paying it forward. What things do you do in your community/ and other communities to help others?
I’m currently the president of Straw Dog Writers Guild, a non-profit that offers free craft programs and open mics to support and nurture writers at all levels of their development. I also facilitate a book group at a local indie bookstore, often showcasing local writers’ work. Writing can be lonely; building and nurturing writing communities is a critical and deeply satisfying part of the work for me.
www.ellenmeeropol.com
https://www.facebook.com/ellenmeeropo...
https://twitter.com/EllenMeeropol
www.strawdogwriters.org
To find out more concerning this author during this month's blog tour, click here: https://poeticbooktours.wordpress.com...
April 12, 2017
Interview of One of my Characters From My Novel "Weeping Well"
I've recently done a character interview for one of my characters from my novel "Weeping Well." This is my first one, but I'm not going to say I'll be doing another one in the future because its not something I want to make a habit of. Thanks so much to Diamante Lavendar for making this possible. But here goes:
http://diamantelavendar.com/weeping-w...
http://diamantelavendar.com/weeping-w...
