IWSG: Cover Art Reveal Help

It's the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what that means ... it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group meeting. IWSG was created by the awesome ninja captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, and you can find out the other members of the group here.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

I have a request. You see my debut novel Reborn is coming out on May 23, 2014, and I would like to start creating more buzz for it through a cover art reveal. I know. I can hear the groans already. Another cover art reveal?! That's all we see lately, Cherie! Yeah, yeah, I know. But it's probably the last official cover art reveal I'll do, and it is my debut novel. You all have been waiting for that, right?

So, here's the deal. The cover art reveal will start the week of January 20, 2014. You can post that day or any day after that. You can signed up here for the cover art reveal, to read/review the book, as well as host me during my blog tour from May 23, 2014-June 23, 2014. A week before the reveal or earlier, I'll send you the cover art and a document with a small, medium, and long post for the cover reveal. Pretty simple and I'd be forever grateful.

And trust me, you'll want to see this cover. It's created by the uber talented Laura Sava who does the covers for Amber Argyle's work.

Best of all, I have a sneak peek of the cover for my mailing list peeps this month. I'm giving away Reborn bookmarks with the amazing cover on them to people on my mailing list, so if you haven't signed up yet, then you can here.

Thank you!

Do you have an insecurities or encouragements to share?

And for those who've forgotten what Reborn is about, here is the book description: 

To save a kingdom, a prophetess must challenge Fate.

On the day of Yssa’s death and rebirth, the god Apenth chose her as the Phoenix Prophetess.

Sea serpents and gods endanger the young prophetess’s journey and sour the omens. Yssa is cursed instead of blessed, and her duties at the Temple of Apenth prove it. She spends her days reading dusty scrolls, which does nothing to help her forget Tym, the boy back home. But the annoying yet gorgeous ferryman’s son Liam proves to be a distraction she can’t predict, even though he rarely leaves her alone for two sand grains.

Her boring temple life screeches to a halt when visions of her parents’ murders consume her. Yssa races across an ocean to stop the future. If she can’t change Fate, she’ll refuse to be the Phoenix Prophetess any longer. Fate, however, has other plans for her and the kingdom.

Yssa must either accept her destiny or fight to change Fate.

YA Epic Fantasy

The Fate Challenges #1

Approx. 95,000 words

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And in epic NaNoWriMo fashion, I completed the 50,000 word challenge on November 30th after I wrote almost 8,000 words in one day. Yeah, I was that far behind. *sighs* Of course, I figured out a new way to start Reigned too, so instead of adding another 20,000 words to Reigned this month, I'll be rewriting/editing the first 38,000 words (the other 12,000 was written in Reforged). It's not a major change for Reigned, since I'm increasing a character's age by a year, but it creates a ripple effect through the story, so although the plot is pretty much the same, the way the characters know each other and for how long is different.

If you participated in NaNoWriMo, how did you do?

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By the way, I'm participating in Milo James Fowler's 'Tis More Blessed giveaway on Friday where I'll be giving away e-copies of The Nightmare Collection and Gravity: The Complete Trilogy to two lucky people, so be sure to stop by on Friday to enter.

IWSG: Intimidated

 

It's the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what that means ... it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group meeting. IWSG was created by the awesome ninja captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, and you can find out the other members of the group here.

Congrats to IWSG being two years old!

In July, I sought out a cover artist for People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors as well as for The Fate Challenges trilogy. I really only had one artist in mind, and I was so excited that she agreed to work with me. At the time I thought People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors would come out first, so we decided we would work on the cover art for it and put off the cover art for Reborn.

I told her my thoughts on what I would like to see on the cover. She did a few sketches, and we decided on a pose for the character. Then, she was off creating the cover art. I have to admit I was impressed even with the sketches, but the final cover art was AMAZING. Seriously. I have it as my computer wallpaper at work. I just like to stare at it. It's hang up on your wall good.

Of course, I already knew she was an amazing cover artist. Her name is Laura Sava, and you can see her work on deviantART.

But now I have this brilliant cover for my complete Foxwick stories collection and it completely intimidated me. How could my simple fantasy stories live up to this cover art? I'll admit my writing trickled to a halt. It took me three weeks to rewrite "Dragon's Sacrifice" (a 2500-word short story) because I just couldn't get my mind to stop thinking about the awesome cover art and how my stories just wouldn't be good enough.

Then, I realized that my first drafts don't have to be as brilliant as the cover art. I just needed to write and worry about greatness in edits.

The cover art is still amazing, and I plan to reveal it sometime next year (closer to the new release for People of Foxwick). It's okay to be intimidated, to want to write something brilliant. I needed a writing break, and now I'm back to writing.

I'm holding off on us starting the cover art for Reborn, though, until after I finish my edit before my beta readers get a hold of it. *laughs*

Has your cover art ever intimidated you? Or has something else held you back from your writing? How did you get over it?

Indie Life: Formatting Ebooks and Angela Brown's Atone

The Indelibles will be hosting a monthly feature called INDIE LIFE. Modeled after Alex Cavanaugh's awesome Insecure Writer's Group, this will be a chance for indie authors to post about indie life, find each other, offer support, encouragement, news, helpful hints, and anything else that makes life as an indie author a little easier. 

What is Indie Life? How: Sign up on the Linky at the bottom of this page here. When: Post on the second Wednesday of the month. What: Write anything indie related: something that will inspire or help a fellow indie; something that celebrates a release or a milestone; something that talks about the ups and downs, joys and heartaches of Being Indie. Grab: The banner above to include in your posts!

I'm one of these weird people because I enjoy formatting ebooks. There is something soothing in the process. Of course, this was formatting ebooks the easy way.

For Men of Foxwick, I wanted to format the hard way, i.e. create nice headings, a pretty title page, etc. I mainly used the instructions from the brilliant Susan Kaye Quinn as well as Sigil's guide/FAQ. Unfortunately, I got a little lost at some point with my html file. I think it had to do with the CSS style sheet for the ebook. But everything had messed up. *sighs*

Then, I figured out I could use an epub from an uploaded .doc to create the prettier epub. It worked much better and saved loads of time. I had a few things to tweak to make it look even better, but I'm pleased with the prettier epub and mobi files.

There is one thing I would still like to now how to do. How can you take a picture of a letter and use it as a drop down letter? Does anyone know?

Please check out the other Indie Life links:

And fellow Unrealmer Angela Brown has her newest release available. Check out her fabulous cover!

***What harm can come from a kiss?***

Caine Fordham knows the danger all too well.

As the Kill Circuit’s top lady-killer, business is good. Yet Caine knows the life of an assassin isn’t meant to last forever, just as love is impossible for him. Who could love a man with poison lacing his veins and a kiss that kills?

When Caine decides to take one last job, deal out one last kiss, he discovers there’s more to life than death, and more to love than pain.

Atone is the second in a series of Characters Revealed novellas/short stories for...

NEO – Network of Extraordinaires and Otherworldlies:

Those who answer the call from NEO play their part in maintaining balance in our ever-changing times. With power-hungry malcontents, jealous gods, and even those with misguided good intentions, the fate of our world has oft been held in the hands of unsung heroes such as those that are members of NEO.

But before NEO, these heroes and heroines had lives, loves, issues and interests that didn’t involve saving mankind.

Wednesday's Writing Update: Cover Art Reveal of WOMEN OF FOXWICK

 

Happy Wednesday!

I caught my sister's cold last week, so I've been rather slow and drained from it. In other words, nothing much has gotten done since then.

A to Z Flashes of Foxwick and Fighting Gravity have been accepted into Smashwords Premium Catalog, but it takes a while for stories to appear on there. I'll keep everyone updated. All three are now available on Nook, though, and A to Z Flashes of Foxwick and Fighting Gravity are on Kobo.

 

I've had a change in plans. Instead of working on Pull of Gravity in May, I'm planning to finish up Women of Foxwick. Here's the cover art for it. Aubrie Dionne made it for me. Isn't it pretty? Women of Foxwick is a short story collection featuring five women of Foxwick: Lyrica in "Lady Bard," Vesta in "Dragon Seer," Umbria in "Lady Death," Amelia in "Mage Game," and Zenia in "Magic Seeker." Since May has been so busy and I want to take more time with Pull of Gravity, I thought it would be best to finish up the last two stories in Women of Foxwick ("Lady Bard" and "Magic Seeker") first and get this collection out in June. Then I can write the longer Pull of Gravity and publish it around July.

You can add Women of Foxwick to your Goodreads list here.

Don't forget to enter the 2nd Annual Flash Fiction Blogfest here. It starts next Monday.

So what have you been working on?

Wednesday's Writing Update: Stats, Goal Changers, and Cover Art Reveal

All links open up as a new page.

Happy Wednesday!

You can read my review of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games at Surrounded by Books Reviews. Plus my sister and I are going to the midnight showing of the movie tomorrow night! Yay!

I have February's stats.

Word Count: 7,511

Pages Edited: 217

I haven't sent anything out on submission in a while, so I have nothing out there to be accepted/rejected.

I have the cover art for Fighting Gravity finalized. Here it is, along with the description of Fighting Gravity. You can add this book to your Goodreads list here.

Forced into executing Aresia’s people, Phoebus escapes the Aresian Guard by flying his spaceship through a wormhole.

The only single woman of marrying age, Marissa flees her prospects of becoming Elder McGee’s third wife for a chance at freedom upon the New Atlantic Ocean.

When Phoebus’s spacecraft crashes upon an asteroid-ravaged Earth, he is captured by a rogue Earthling youth and thrown into a cellar. Marissa stumbles upon the spacecraft, but it explodes before she can find any sign of the alien. When she awakens, she discovers the alien’s whereabouts and vows to help him. They plot his escape when they learn Phoebus’s Aresians have landed and are searching for him. Phoebus and Marissa must battle against their despair and their peoples in their quest for freedom and love. And through it all, an Earthling and an Aresian will find it easier to fight gravity than their love for each other.

You can also add A to Z Flashes of Foxwick on Goodreads here.

If you click here, you'll see that I modified my 2012 Goals page quite a bit from the start of the year. Yeah, I was overly ambitious at the start of the year, and the only way I could've done everything I would've liked to do is either by giving up social networking (not happening) or sleep (definitely not happening). So I've had to modify it quite a bit and make it much more reasonable.

I've decided to focus edits on two books this year: The Phoenix Prophetess (I'd like to get the edits done by the end of June) and Starred (I'd like to get the edits done by the end of December, preferably by the end of October).

For NaNoWriMo, I plan to write Paranormal Junkies, a YA Horror novel.

I'll still have #fridayflash to write for the blog.

Then, the rest of my focus will be on some forthcoming self-published titles including: the last two books in the Gravity series, my short story collections (4 of them: A to Z Flashes of Foxwick, Women of Foxwick, Men of Foxwick, and Neighbors of Foxwick) involving the Kingdom of Foxwick, and the long-awaited sequel to Once Upon a December Nightmare titled Nightmare Ever After. I'm not sure if I'll get all the Foxwick stories done by the end of this year, but the others shouldn't be too much of a problem.

It'd be nice to get everything done before December, so I can take December off to read more and do some light writing. Of course, depending on time and everything else, this schedule in itself might change, but it's definitely more manageable, I think.

Have you decided to modify your goals before? Do you find yourself planning too much or too little?

Also, don't forget to sign up for my author newsletter. You'll get news before everyone else. I promise not to spam you. Plus, you will receive a free short story ("Magna's Plea") from the Phoenix Trilogy universe. Subscribe to our newsletter
 

Cover Art for "Once Upon a December Nightmare"

I've received the final cover art for "Once Upon a December Nightmare." I was very impressed by it, and I would like to share it with everyone. I still do not have a release date for my ebook from Wild Child Publishing, but I'll let everyone know as soon as I know.

I believe it is a very cool cover art, and I would like to thank Valerie Tibbs for putting in the time and effort for creating it for me.

As for NaNoWriMo, I'm still plugging along and enjoying every minute of it. I'm currently at 18,453 words, and I'm working on chapter eight.

Moonlight Murders

I've been thinking a bit about the cover art for Moonlight Murders. Perhaps it is a little early to do so, since I only finished chapter two yesterday, but I thought it would be best to be prepared. Here is what I would like the Moonlight Murders title to look like on the cover:

I'm debating whether or not have the two moons as seen here or have on regular O and one moon as an O. Right now, I do like it like this, but it is subject to change. I have ideas about the rest of the cover art, but I haven't bothered to look into the pictures and the like yet.

I have been working on an outline for the book too. I typically don't do outlines, but I thought I might should try it with this book. So far, I have written down basics through chapter seven. I might write more on it in a little bit. I'm rather bored right now, since I'm waiting for two test takers to be finished with their examinations.