Lots going on!

Hello everyone!  I know I’ve been terrible with keeping up this blog, and for that, I am sorry. Things have been so hectic and busy around here lately, that I’m lucky I have any “down time.”  My wedding is just under 72 days away (but who’s counting, right? lol), and so I have been busy with planning.

On top of that, my Muse has been bugging me to finish writing Daughter of Light.  I am happy to say that I just crossed over the 45k word threshold, which is the minimum for a YA book.  I have about another 5k-10k left to write (another 2-3 chapters) I think. 

I also just signed FOUR new contracts to publish my short stories Hell Bound, Hell’s Captive, Murderous Regrets, and Moon Spirit with Hydra Publications!  I am so excited!  So, I have my work cut out for me from now until the end of the year.  My goal is to complete the first draft of Daughter of Light over the next few weeks.  As long as my schedule stays fairly clear, I can certainly do that. 

I will have more details regarding my titles and publishing this wednesday for Writerly Wednesday.  Until then, stay cool!

Tell Me Something Tuesday

Welcome to another week of Tell Me Something Tuesday, a meme that was started by the lovely Cambria Hebert.  This is the meme where she asks us a question, and we answer it.  Pretty simple, right? Well, it all depends on the question!  Sometimes they are super easy to answer, while others can be quite difficult.

This week’s question, is I would have to say, on the more difficult level.  The question of the week is:

How do you feel about negative book reviews? Writing them and reading them…

As an author, I absolutely HATE negative book reviews. Period.  No question about it.  They can hurt sales, and sometimes, depending on the reviewer, can be down right hurtful. I’ve been on the receiving end of negative reviews, and so I can personally say that they stink. BUT it also depends on how they are written. 

I don’t know about you, I HATE reading reviews that have a ton of name calling.  I just don’t get it.  Don’t you guys know that your reviews are PUBLIC, and it can and will ruin your image as a reviewer?  I see this not only for books, but for apps as well.  I once downloaded an Iphone app for the game, Deal or No Deal.  I LOVED that game show, so I thought, why not?  I read the reviews, and they were just terrible. BUT NONE of the reviews stated WHY it was terrible. So, I purchased the app (it was only .99 btw), and decided to see for myself.

Well, it was an awful app, but in my review I made sure to tell the creator of the app what needed to be fixed. I hope that they appreciated my review.

As a reviewer, (I review books for Literary Lunes Publications and Paranormal Poison), I personally HATE writing negative reviews. BUT, as Heidi mentioned in her blog, we are all entitled to our opinions.  Sometimes I just don’t like a book I’ve read, but I usually try to highlight BOTH the positive AND the negative. Unfortunately, in some cases like 50 Shades of Grey, there just aren’t any positive points, and in those cases, I usually just leave the reviews on my blogs.

I absolutely DO NOT condone authors outing reviewers.  I was absolutely disgusted when I heard that last week via twitter. Author Stacia Kane kept going on and on about how awful it was.  It turned out, I was in one of those groups causing the drama on goodreads, and promptly left the group when I realized who it was.  I just don’t get it.  What’s the purpose of outing people?  Reviewers are an author’s best friend and can also be their worst enemy.

Honestly folks, why can’t we all just get along?

Writerly Wednesday #12

Hello, and welcome to another week of Writerly Wednesday.  This is the meme where I discuss all things writerly related, and was started by my good friend, Erin Danzer. 

Some of you are probably wondering where I’ve been. Well, I’ve been around, just super busy with well life.  But I am here today to update you on some of my publishing ventures.

Regarding The World Among Us: I finally received approval from my attorney stating that I can sign the contract with Hydra Publications.  They are a fairly new small press publisher, but they already have a lot of titles out.  I have been very impressed with what I’ve seen so far, and I am excited to be working with Frank and the team. Not to mention, some of my fellow Otherworld authors have also moved there, so it’s like old times :).

It’s still so surreal to me that I am no longer with Otheroworld, but it was a choice that had to be made.  I had to think about my future as an author, and my future right now is with Hydra Publications.

I would also like to point you all in the direction of another new/old blog of mine on Literary Lunes Publications.  It is ready and waiting for followers.  I moved it from blogger to wordpress/bluehost and I couldn’t be happier.  I am still tinkering with it, but the blog is ready and it is about 95% done :).  So please hop on over to www.literarylunespublications.com and give it a follow. 

I’ll have some wedding updates for you guys soon in another post 🙂

Tell Me Something Tuesday #7

 

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week of Tell Me Something Tuesday, a meme started by the lovely, Cambria Hebert.  This is the meme where she asks us something, and we answer it.

This week’s question is:

Do you buy books based on their book cover?

I’ll be perfectly honest, the answer often times is yes.  I know, I know, how very judgemental of me, right? But come on, we all do it at some point or another in our lives. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t buy books solely based off their cover.  If I am looking at a book from an author I don’t know, I also go by the description, and if I am on the fence about that, the reviews.

More often then not, though, I usually go by the reviews.

However, I am finding more and more lately, that there are many so-called reviewers out there that just don’t know how to leave a proper review. I don’t understand what all this name calling is about etc. etc.

But, I’m getting off topic.

My point is, is that sometimes I judge a book by it’s cover, and others I don’t. It’s human nature to do so, though it’s not necessarily right. I’m often attracted to pretty, and brightly colored covers. What about you?

Website Re-launch

Hey everyone! So, as most of you know, I run a magazine called Literary Lunes.  Well, as a result, I formed my own mini-indie publishing company called Literary Lunes Publications.  The magazine has become popular enough, that I needed to split it up into two websites, and form the on-line presence of it’s publishing company.

I originally began the company on blogger or blogspot as some of you know it as.  However, I don’t like the new blogger interface, and decided to move it to the same webserver I use for my other sites.  It makes sense, right?

So, I have been re-constructing the new Literary Lunes Publications website.  It’s still got the same basic menu tabs, only, it’s much better organized. I am no-where near finished, but I thought that I would give it a shout out here, and see if any of you would be kind enough to give it a follow? The website is www.literarylunespublications.com.

The other problem I had with it being on Blogger, was that I couldn’t customize it the way I wanted to.  Blogger doesn’t have nearly as many options as wordpress, and now that I have it on the Bluehost server, I can have unlimited emails and access to some pretty awesome plugins :).

So, please give my new site a follow loves.  I’d really appreciate it! Again, the address is www.literarylunespublications.com I will be having a website re-launch party there in a few days, and will be answering any questions you guys may have for me 🙂

Writerly Wednesday #11: From sad to WOOHOO!

So, as you all know, my former publisher, Otherworld Publications, is closing on December 31 of this year. Last week, I was absolutely devistated by the news, and have since then made a very important choice. I was given the option to stay with OWP until the end of the year, or opt out now.  It was difficult because I like and respect Lynn, but I asked myself the important question; will it pay off in the long run?

After thinking about it myself, discussing it with my publicist, and my family and friends, I realized the answer is no, it won’t pay off. I wasn’t making a lot of money from them to begin with.  So, I opted to get out at the end of the month. The 25th of June is my last day with OWP. 

HOWEVER, I do have some really good news.  I have been speaking with Frank over at Hydra Publications, who is also located in Kentucky and not too far from Lynn.  I have done some extensive research on him and his company, and have found all good things.  Yes, Hydra Publications is another young, and fairly new company, but they have a much bigger following than OWP, and after speaking to their authors, I am overall very impressed with them.

I asked Frank for a sample contract and looked it over.  He sent it to me right away, and at a first glance, I don’t see anything legally wrong with it. Granted, I am not an attorney or paralegal, but it seems legit to me so far. I do plan to have one of my attorney friends take a look at it just to be safe before I sign my life away hehe.

So, Frank and I exchanged a few more emails.  He’s definitely pro-author, and is very easy to work with. He seems to know what he’s doing business-wise, and we just clicked. Before I knew it, I was telling him that I would send him Prince of Darkness as well as my other titles.  He then proceeded to ask me if I wanted him to send me a filled out contract with my name, address etc. I told him YES to send it over 🙂

I haven’t received it yet, but I am sure I will very, very soon!

And when I do, you guys will be the first to hear about it!

HOORAY!

Writerly Wednesday #10: A very sad day in publishing

Welcome to another week in Writerly Wednesday.  Unfortunately, today is a very sad day in the publishing world.  I received an email this afternoon from my publisher, Lynn from Otherworld.  The letter said that Otherworld Publications will be closing as of December 31 this year.  I, and all of her other authors are deeply saddened by this because Lynn is absolutely AWESOME!

So, what does this mean for my titles? Well, it means that as of June 25, they will be taken off the market.  However, this won’t be such a bad thing.  Why? Because it will give me the time that I need to re-vamp all my current titles and edit them.  Also, I may already have someone else who I think is interested in re-publishing them.  I have a contact over at Hydra Publications that I’ve “known” for quite a while.  Frank is wonderful, and I’ve heard nothing but great things about him. In fact, he was the first person I emailed when I heard that OWP was going out of business.  He was just as shocked as I was about it.  I found out that not only is he one of the co-owners of Hydra Publications, but he also owns a used book store down in Indiana, and carries all of OWP’s titles so he already has access to my novel.

When I emailed Frank, he told me that he would be honored to re-publish my books. So, they may not be out of print for a long time. No, I haven’t been offered a contract yet, but between my connection with Hydra Publications, and the awesome recommendation that Lynn gave on my behalf, I’m hoping to be in 🙂

Otherworld wasn’t just my publisher…we were like a family, and I hope that the authors and I will continue to stay that way.

Writings From the Heart blog tour schedule changes and updates

Hey everyone! There have been some changes and updates to the blog tour schedule! Please take a look at them. Thanks!

June 13- Erin Danzer www.erindanzer.com/blog

June 14- Me, My Shelf and I www.memyshelfandi.com

June 15- Bilinda Ni Siodacain http://bilindanisiodacain.blogspot.com/

June 16- Beth Ann Masarik www.bahbammymusings.wordpress.com

June 17-Nikki http://www.closeencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com

June 18-Lizzy Ford http://www.guerrillawordfare.com/

June 19- Tricia Kristufek  http://triciakristufek.com

June 20- Martha http://theshortone08.blogspot.com

June 21-Danica Page

June 22- Cassie from Gathering Leaves http://gatheringleavesreviews.blogspot.com/

June 23-Misty http://www.the-top-shelf.com/

June 24-Ali http://myguiltyobsession.blogspot.com/

June 25- Sheri www.makingconnectionsgroup.blogspot.com

June 26-Adrienne DeWolfe www.writingnovelsthatsell.com

June 27- Cambria Hebert www.cambriahebert.com

June 28-Audris http://yabookmark.blogspot.com/

June 29- Miriam Pia http://www.uranianfiction.webs.com

July 1-Heidi Permann www.rainydayramblings.typepad.com

June 30- Tiffany http://reviewsalatiffany.blogspot.com/

July 2- Kindlegraph book signing and www.literarylunespublications.com release & new website launch party!

July 3-Vix Parungao http://www.mum-writes.com

July 4- Jenn at www.indiesupporter.com

Writerly Wednesday #6: cover reveal and BIG NEWS!

Hello everyone! And welcome to this weeks version of Writerly Wednesday. WW for short, was started by the lovely Erin Danzer at http://www.erindanzer.blogspot.com.

Today, I am VERY excited to reveal the cover and book trailer for an anthology that I single handedly coordinated and put together. But first, let me tell you a little bit about it.

About a year ago, I put out a call for submissions for YA short stories and poetry to be put into an anthology, where all proceeds would benefit a charity. This charity is called the pediatric cardiology department of the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center of NY. Why this particular place?

Because 28 years ago I was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease and operated on successfully. This book is my way of showing my thanks to a community of excellent doctors who have treated me and cared for me over the years.

I am happy to announce, that I received an overwhelming response to my call for submissions. This group of authors is a wonderfully talented bunch. It is an international and eclectic group of writers who have come together for one thing…to support our children.

As someone who does a lot of work with the youth in my own community, I have been truly touched and humbled by everyone’s passion to help the young ones in today’s world.

The anthology is called Writings From the Heart: Stories and Poetry From Around the World, and will be released in both paperback and ebook format.

I hope you all will join me on Erin Danzer’s blog http://www.erindanzer.blogspot.com for the cover and trailer reveal. The book will be $15 in paperback and $1.99 USD. Please help us climb the bookstore charts on release day! Release day is June 6.

Thanks for reading, and remember to hop on over to Erin’s blog and look at the pretty picture and trailer 🙂

You will also be able view these at http://www.indiesupporter.com and http://www.closeencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading!

Writerly Wednesday

Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Writerly Wednesday, a meme started by the lovely Erin Danzer.  In this meme, I will be discussing all things related to writing. Whether it’s about my latest work in progress, promoting another author or just giving out advice.

This week, I am excited to announce that I FINALLY finished writing the rough draft of my short story called Hell’s Captive.  To be perfectly honest, I am so stoked and excited that this story is FINALLY done.  I honestly didn’t think it would ever end.  I kept having to put it down, and it was just a very long time in between picking it up again. Well, my muse is back, and she pushed me to finish the rough draft of it this morning right before work.  It is an AMAZING feeling once you accomplish something that you have been working hard on.

Hell’s Captive will be going into a novella along with another short story titled Hell Bound.  The novella will be called To Hades and Back.  If Otherworld signs it, I am going to talk to Lynn, my publisher, about including Murderous Regrets as a freebie, since it is written in the same style as the other two stories.  Plus, it will make the book longer.

I also wanted to announce, that I just hired Regina Wamba to design a book trailer for Prince of Darkness.  If she does a great job (which I am sure she will), I will hire her to do Daughter of Light’s trailer (formerly Stormy Nights) when the time is right.

So now I have the grueling task of editing Hell Bound and Hell’s Captive, but in the end it will be worth it when I am offered that contract 🙂

Happy Wednesday!