If you're a member of Goodreads I'm currently doing a giveaway of Shattered Soul. The contest started some time yesterday (sorry I'm just now posting about it) and is only for people in the U.S. Enter in to win one of the 3 copies I'm giving away!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Some Good News...
As of this morning my novel Shattered Soul is now available on B&N's Nook and through Amazon.com as well!!!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Words Most Often Misused...
I'll admit here that I'm no grammar, punctuation, or spelling teacher. Here is a list of words that, in my own opinion, are confused and misused most often when writing. And yes, I am guilty of a few of these myself.
Than and Then: Than is used when two things are being compared to each other. Ex. I can run faster than you can.
Then is used when telling something is happening or has happened. Ex. I brushed my teeth, then crawled into bed and drifted to sleep.
Alright and All Right: As shocking as it may seem, I have been told and read that alright is not a word. It's always all right.
Alot and A Lot: Same deal here, alot is not a word. It's always a lot.
In and Into: In means where something is right now. Ex. I am in the basement.
Into implies movement. Ex. The dog bounded into its cage.
Its and It's: Its is possessive. Ex. The owl flapped its wings and darted through the night sky.
It's is a contraction and means it is. It's time to come inside now.
Loose and Lose: Loose means wiggly. Ex. The screw is loose.
Lose means not able to find something. Ex. I put my homework in my notebook because I don't want to lose it.
These are just a few to watch out for, beware though, there are many others.
Than and Then: Than is used when two things are being compared to each other. Ex. I can run faster than you can.
Then is used when telling something is happening or has happened. Ex. I brushed my teeth, then crawled into bed and drifted to sleep.
Alright and All Right: As shocking as it may seem, I have been told and read that alright is not a word. It's always all right.
Alot and A Lot: Same deal here, alot is not a word. It's always a lot.
In and Into: In means where something is right now. Ex. I am in the basement.
Into implies movement. Ex. The dog bounded into its cage.
Its and It's: Its is possessive. Ex. The owl flapped its wings and darted through the night sky.
It's is a contraction and means it is. It's time to come inside now.
Loose and Lose: Loose means wiggly. Ex. The screw is loose.
Lose means not able to find something. Ex. I put my homework in my notebook because I don't want to lose it.
These are just a few to watch out for, beware though, there are many others.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Shattered Soul Is Now Live...
Yes, you read that right! I am very excited to announce my Edgy YA novel Shattered Soul is now available for purchase on Amazon's Kindle and also through Smashwords.com!!! Also, there will be a print edition coming soon!
Monday, May 16, 2011
My First Blog Award...
I love this and am honored to be a recipient! Thank you to LisaAnn, who has a wonderfully interesting blog not only about her writing, but also her many adventures with animals. Kicked, Cornered, Bitten and Chased is her amazing blog. Check it out!
And here is my BEAUTIFUL award!!
And here is my BEAUTIFUL award!!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Helpful Hints For Newbie's...
This is a list of helpful little things I wish I'd known involving writing and self-publishing that would have saved me from a few headaches.
1) How to make quote marks curled in openoffice.
All of mine were straight when using this program. It wasn't until I was nearly finished editing for the fourth time that I figured out how to change it from straight to curled. Then, I couldn't get my 'find and replace' to work, so I had to change them all manually. That was an amazing two days!
In case you don't know how to do this, let me tell you. First go to Format, then AutoCorrect, then AutoCorrect Options. Click Localized Options and make sure both single and double quotes are set as default. On mine, the Replace areas are both checked. Click OK. Then backtrack back to Format, then AutoCorrect and make sure 'while typing' is checked. And you're good to go.
2) To buy a larger sized picture for my cover.
I used Bigstockphoto.com to find a picture, and once found one I liked I simply bought the 2 credit size. Well, when creating my front and back covers I ran into a problem, my images were to0 small. I needed them to be 300 DPI and they were only 122. Lesson learned, always opt for the larger size!
3) How to skip pages when numbering with openoffice.
This problem seriously took me the longest to figure out, and I am embarrassed to say how incredibly simple the solution actually was. After inserting my footer, I then inserted my page number. The problem was I couldn't figure out how to skip 4 pages of numbering to begin where I wanted it to. I thought the offset feature was not working properly. Basically, all I had to do after inserting my page number was double click it. A box pops up and in the 'offset' space you simply type in how ever pages you want to skip. Ex. I wanted to skip 4 pages and have my numbering start on page 5...I typed -4 and clicked OK. It was that simple. I couldn't believe it!
Hopefully this post will save you from at lease three of the many headaches you're sure to suffer no matter which way you choose to publish.
1) How to make quote marks curled in openoffice.
All of mine were straight when using this program. It wasn't until I was nearly finished editing for the fourth time that I figured out how to change it from straight to curled. Then, I couldn't get my 'find and replace' to work, so I had to change them all manually. That was an amazing two days!
In case you don't know how to do this, let me tell you. First go to Format, then AutoCorrect, then AutoCorrect Options. Click Localized Options and make sure both single and double quotes are set as default. On mine, the Replace areas are both checked. Click OK. Then backtrack back to Format, then AutoCorrect and make sure 'while typing' is checked. And you're good to go.
2) To buy a larger sized picture for my cover.
I used Bigstockphoto.com to find a picture, and once found one I liked I simply bought the 2 credit size. Well, when creating my front and back covers I ran into a problem, my images were to0 small. I needed them to be 300 DPI and they were only 122. Lesson learned, always opt for the larger size!
3) How to skip pages when numbering with openoffice.
This problem seriously took me the longest to figure out, and I am embarrassed to say how incredibly simple the solution actually was. After inserting my footer, I then inserted my page number. The problem was I couldn't figure out how to skip 4 pages of numbering to begin where I wanted it to. I thought the offset feature was not working properly. Basically, all I had to do after inserting my page number was double click it. A box pops up and in the 'offset' space you simply type in how ever pages you want to skip. Ex. I wanted to skip 4 pages and have my numbering start on page 5...I typed -4 and clicked OK. It was that simple. I couldn't believe it!
Hopefully this post will save you from at lease three of the many headaches you're sure to suffer no matter which way you choose to publish.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Chapter One Is Up...
I've created a page for Shattered Soul, to which I've posted up the entire first chapter. Hope y'all enjoy it!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Why Go The Self-Publishing Way...
This is my story of why I decided to cut the cord on attempting to get published the traditional way. I'm not saying this is something everyone and their brother should do after sending out queries to five agents and getting rejections two seconds later in your inbox.
Let it be known that I did send out seventeen queries for Shattered Soul. I received seven rejections (one within twenty minutes mind you. And to that I say, it must have been some kind of record! Lightning fast rejection stings worse than the ones you wait days for, though.) And ten (yes ten!) none responses.
And now your saying to yourself one of three things:
Gee, her book must totally suck!
Or,
She didn't wait long enough.
Or,
Why did she give up so soon?
Those are all fair assumptions. And one, or all three, could be true. Depending on how you look at it.
But for me, personally, at the time I stopped querying agents for Shattered Soul I had all ready been querying for the last three years on those two other books I've talked about before. And yes, I did all ready admit those two were poorly written. That's not my point.
My point is, I hated querying. Now your saying: Well, no one enjoys it! And your right, but for me I felt like I was in high school all over again, waiting to see if this person thought I was cool enough.
I studied agents and the books they represented and loved until my eyes crossed from staring at the computer screen for so long. But, in the end I chose a different path.
Flash-forward a few months. My lovely husband bought me a Kindle for Christmas. So I decided to put my writing, and obsessive nit-picking of my own novel, on hold to do something I enjoyed more than any other pass time: Read!
During this time I found a little book by a certain author that I'm sure a lot of you have either read or heard about. Hollowland by Amanda Hocking. It was priced at .99 and I was so, SO excited by the price! I read the book in a very short time and then googled the author. I was shocked when I saw she was self-published.
This was not the first time I had ever heard of self-publishing, mind you...but it was the first time I thought about it for myself as a true possibility. I'd be lying if I said that her impressive sale numbers and the amount of money she was making didn't play a factor in my excitement, because of course it did. But, ( there really is no but here...I just knew you were expecting to see one!)
The first time I'd heard about self-publishing was a few years before. A friend of my husband had mentioned after I wrote my first novel that I should try self-publishing (this person never read my horribly written first novel, obviously) with a certain company which I will leave unnamed. I looked into it, but did not like how much it would cost.
And so, why was finding out Hollowland was a self-published book so important? Because it opened my eyes to eBooks!
Because in this economy I personally can not afford to buy ALL the books by all the traditionally published authors I would like to. I can't tell you how many times I've been in Walmart and made the detour, my kids and husband are used to by now, down the book isle to make a mental note of the books I WISH I had money for, but can't afford at the moment because they are priced at $15.97 or whatever and we need things like toilet paper more.
Anyway, the point of this incredibly long post is this:
I want to share my stories with people at an affordable price and the best way in order for me to do this is to self-publish in eBook format. At least that is my own personal opinion. Will I offer a print version of my novels? Of course! Because that's all part of the dream isn't it? To see my own novels in print sitting on my personal bookshelf.
Will my books sell? Will people hate them with a fiery passion? Who knows, only time will tell. But I know I won't regret the path I've chosen.
Let it be known that I did send out seventeen queries for Shattered Soul. I received seven rejections (one within twenty minutes mind you. And to that I say, it must have been some kind of record! Lightning fast rejection stings worse than the ones you wait days for, though.) And ten (yes ten!) none responses.
And now your saying to yourself one of three things:
Gee, her book must totally suck!
Or,
She didn't wait long enough.
Or,
Why did she give up so soon?
Those are all fair assumptions. And one, or all three, could be true. Depending on how you look at it.
But for me, personally, at the time I stopped querying agents for Shattered Soul I had all ready been querying for the last three years on those two other books I've talked about before. And yes, I did all ready admit those two were poorly written. That's not my point.
My point is, I hated querying. Now your saying: Well, no one enjoys it! And your right, but for me I felt like I was in high school all over again, waiting to see if this person thought I was cool enough.
I studied agents and the books they represented and loved until my eyes crossed from staring at the computer screen for so long. But, in the end I chose a different path.
Flash-forward a few months. My lovely husband bought me a Kindle for Christmas. So I decided to put my writing, and obsessive nit-picking of my own novel, on hold to do something I enjoyed more than any other pass time: Read!
During this time I found a little book by a certain author that I'm sure a lot of you have either read or heard about. Hollowland by Amanda Hocking. It was priced at .99 and I was so, SO excited by the price! I read the book in a very short time and then googled the author. I was shocked when I saw she was self-published.
This was not the first time I had ever heard of self-publishing, mind you...but it was the first time I thought about it for myself as a true possibility. I'd be lying if I said that her impressive sale numbers and the amount of money she was making didn't play a factor in my excitement, because of course it did. But, ( there really is no but here...I just knew you were expecting to see one!)
The first time I'd heard about self-publishing was a few years before. A friend of my husband had mentioned after I wrote my first novel that I should try self-publishing (this person never read my horribly written first novel, obviously) with a certain company which I will leave unnamed. I looked into it, but did not like how much it would cost.
And so, why was finding out Hollowland was a self-published book so important? Because it opened my eyes to eBooks!
Because in this economy I personally can not afford to buy ALL the books by all the traditionally published authors I would like to. I can't tell you how many times I've been in Walmart and made the detour, my kids and husband are used to by now, down the book isle to make a mental note of the books I WISH I had money for, but can't afford at the moment because they are priced at $15.97 or whatever and we need things like toilet paper more.
Anyway, the point of this incredibly long post is this:
I want to share my stories with people at an affordable price and the best way in order for me to do this is to self-publish in eBook format. At least that is my own personal opinion. Will I offer a print version of my novels? Of course! Because that's all part of the dream isn't it? To see my own novels in print sitting on my personal bookshelf.
Will my books sell? Will people hate them with a fiery passion? Who knows, only time will tell. But I know I won't regret the path I've chosen.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
A Possible Cover...
The only reason I've titled this post as "A Possible Cover" is because I may have to make some minor changes still (ie. larger text, maybe). But, I'm so proud and in love with my first ever cover that I had to share it with you!
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