All Caught Up

 

Here they all are. Way back when I started writing, when my son gave me that very first little laptop computer, back then, I didn't have internet, and I didn't have any new books to read or a way to go get any. I started by writing in a notebook left over from homeschooling the boys, but they were in town now getting their GEDs, drivers' licenses, and training in a trade. On their first visit home, one of them presented me with this little computer. First thing I thought was, what do you do with a computer without internet? Well - it would be fun to see if I remember anything from my high school typing class. 

That little computer was amazing. I learned more about grammar and spelling from that Word program than I ever picked up in school. Even homeschooling didn't teach me that much, though I learned from that too. It also had an encyclopedia in it, which was awesome. Unfortunately, that encyclopedia is no longer supported, and it's no longer compatible with my computer. Sigh. I do miss it still.

In 2008, we went to Fairbanks to spend our first winter away from home, my goal was to have internet access so I could publish my first book. When we got home, long about that fall sometime, we had a satellite dish installed here, and thus began my greatest distraction from my writing. Between those two points in time, almost all of those books up there were written. I was a writing monster. 

Since then, I've produced four books, two of which are short stories, and started a very long series that I'm still working on. Other than that, I've polished up what I have and learned how to navigate the publishing world. After trying a subsidy publisher (a VERY expensive learning curve) and a small publishing company as well as a mid-range publishing company, I took the plunge and published the rest myself. I even reclaimed those I stuck out there under someone else's apron. I like my books under my name - I also like their new covers. 

So now - finally - all those books I wrote way back when, are published, and in a few months, they will all be over on SmashWords too.

My next dream - a movie deal. What do you think?

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Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

Year before last, a friend gave me these movies, but by season four, too many episodes were missing, so we bought the disks from Amazon - seven seasons. Last winter, we tried watching the last season on Netflix (I think) but many scenes were hard to see. I liked the taste I got though, and I look forward to getting the disks one of these days. I'm not sure if that season was the last of the story though so I decided I'd read the books. A friend game me these books last year and this fall I started reading them. I thought this was all of them. I mean, the movies have been out for a while now and the last book (so far) was published way back in 2011.

Here is a chronicle of George Martin's books. He has sixteen pages of books published. Now a healthy chunk of them are in different languages - kudos to him for being able to do that - but there are also at least a couple other series and maybe some stand-alones. I was just looking for books in this series so I wasn't paying attention to what else there was.

Book one - A Game of Thrones - published on January 1 of 2003
Book two - A Clash of Kings - published on January 1 of 2003
Book three - A Storm of Swords - published on March 4 of 2003
then came four other books
Book four - A Feast for Crows - published on November 8 of 2005
Then came eleven other books
Then came six books in German
Then came four more books
Book five - A Dance with Dragons - published on July 12 of 2011
Then came two more books
Then came two books in German
Then came the game of thrones graphic novel first volume
Then came two more books in German
Then came four books in French (I think)
The box set of the first five books became available on September 10 of 2012
Then came four more book
Then came the game of thrones graphic novel second volume
Then came four more books
Then came a book about Tyrion Lannister. hmmmm
Then came a book called The Hedge Knight set in the same world.
Then comes five other books
Then comes a book called The Sworn Sword set in the same world, but before the series. 
Then came two books in Chinese
Then came the third volume of the graphic novel.
Then came twenty books in various languages
Then came The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones - published on October 28 of 2014
Then came twenty-three books in various languages
Then came the fourth graphic novel
Then came five other books in various languages
Then came A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Then came seventeen books in various languages
Then came an illustrated edition of book one. 
Then came twenty five books in various languages
Then came the graphic novel called The Mysterious Knight
Then came the comic books #3, #4, #5, #6, and #8
Then came three other books
Then came the fifth graphic novel
Then came sixteen more books in various languages
Then came the sixth graphic novel
Then came a book in German
Then came the illustrated edition of book two
Then came a book in French published only this last November

That brings us up to date. There are still two books planned for this series. 

Now, I can understand the distraction of getting all those books translated into however many different languages, but my OCDness would bug the shit out of me if I let a series hang for over eight years. He published the first three almost all at the same time, meaning they had already been written, he just needed to decide how to divide them and maybe what to name them. It also meant he was totally immersed in the story and it was pounding at him to get out.

The next two books, in my opinion, he messed up. He was thinking too much. He decided that one book would take place in Westeros and the other would take place across the sea.  I had no problem hopping back and forth between countries and people as time marched on. I could accept that what happened in one country in chapter 10 happened at the same time as whatever happened in another country in chapter 9. The way it is, when you get to book five, you have to travel back in time in book four and figure out how things fit together. I always felt adrift in time because of that.

I hope he doesn't do that in the next two books. That was so annoying.

Book Six - Winds of Winter is, I hear, mostly finished short of some polishing I'm sure, but the last book - A Dream of Spring - hasn't even been started. The man is seventy-one years old. I would hate to have another author die before finishing his greatest series. There's also some scratch about the last two books not being published until all the movies are out.

Lets move on to publishing. Every author should realize that their greatest sales numbers will be from eBooks and they should give them just as much attention as the paperbacks and the hard covers. I honestly have no idea of the ratio in actual profits, all I know is I sell tons more eBooks than paperbacks. Maybe if my paperbacks were in bookstores the ratio would be closer, but I honestly can't see it being that much closer. Not really. Of course, an author who can afford the translation, can also afford the mega advertising so that would increase the sales of any kind of edition.

But I digress

My point is, as I was reading through these books on my kindle, I was disappointed to find hard copy formatting in the form of line breaks mid-word. These came in form of hyphens in the middle of the word or just spaces; a lot of times they weren't even in the right place. These typos, while the eye can digest them when it's a line break (it's something I never do), happening in the middle of a word in the middle of a line, makes the word nearly illegible, especially when the word is one of the specially made up words like names of people and places, not to mention common everyday words. There were also some other typos, but I can live with those - no one is perfect, not even a professional editor. The line breaks mid-word though, that's just a sign of laziness. Slap the manuscript into eBook form and forget about it. Sigh - people will buy it anyway, but still - have a little pride in your work. 

Rant over

Book five ended somewhere between season six and season seven of the DVDs. Tyrion and Ser Jorah are still with the slavers outside of Mireen and Ser Barriston is hand to the queen having deposed Hizdahr zo Loraq, the local she'd married in the hope of establishing peace within the city. Dynaries has already flown off on her dragon, but mostly to get him out of the arena and stop him from killing everything that was moving. John has just been killed, though not like in the movie. Littlefinger is still pulling strings with Sansa's life; she's playing the part of his bastard daughter, and he is arranging her marriage with a little-known heir of the Vail. Cersei has only just completed her walk of shame, and under the watchful eye of septans, she spends a third of her day with her son, a third of it praying, and a third of it trying to scrub the shame off her skin (like that'll ever happen). While she has been returned to the palace, she is not allowed any say in government affairs nor any of her son's schooling. King Stanis has yet to clash with the bastard of Bolton who has yet to kill his father. Ayia is still in Bravose though she is no longer blind. She is still learning to be No One. As you might have noticed, Bolton Snow did not marry Sansa. He did, however, marry a fake Arya sent by the Lannisters in order to seal their loyalty. The girl was Sansa's best friend, and went to the big city with her. She is of a similar coloring to Arya and it was figured that no one would know the difference. Only Theon noticed the difference; he grew up with them after all. Him getting her away from Bastard Bolton was nothing like in the movies, but he did it, and there that rests. Bastard Bolton sent a raven to John about it, thinking he must have had something to do with it (he did, sorta, but not first hand). Melisandre arranged it all and had Mance Rayder (Yeah, he's not dead, but everyone thought he was until now) go after her. He took six speerwives to help him. Boy, did they create some havoc at Winterfel. Mance and the speerwives were caught but Theon and the fake Arya escaped into the snow.

So two more books and two more seasons on DVD, and the series will be finished. I can't wait. I hate waiting on the next book. Have you seen or read any of it? I think you should.

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My Life and My Writing

My life interferes with my writing frequently. I work summers from mid May or so to mid September or so, give or take a week or two on either end. My hours aren't too bad, but I get no weekends. Believe me, it doesn't take long for me to get very tired - tired enough to just not feel like writing. Along with that is the desire to do other things associated with the business of writing, like advertising my books and socializing with my fans, both of which takes a chunk out of my sales. Also getting in my way is my slow internet, which has made it impossible for my husband and I to be online at the same time. This is something we'll fix one of these days, but it just can't be done yet.

At the end of my summer, it's kind of hard to get back into the groove. It was made even harder because I didn't have anything new to work on. I keep telling myself that I still have three books completed and in need of editing, but every time I get one out and start working on it, something interrupts me and I'm on a different track. Mood and motivation are lacking, and I just can't seem to reclaim it. Those three books need a lot of attention and concentration, and it seems like every time I try, something happens to break my concentration. The TV is like four feet in front of me, and my husband thinks I need it on as soon as the generator is running. Some series or movie I happen to like makes it hard to protest.

Back in the day, I'd write and write, one story after another, the length made no difference. It was a new story written to satisfy my desire to read a new book - I'd run out, you see, and bookstores are very far away. Then came the chance to publish and I finished my last book. That was back in '08. Then came internet and the distractions abounded. Publishing suddenly became easy, I had the books already written, and I've become a very good writer. I spent time pulling my published books back under my own wings and republishing them, which necessitated me finding my own cover artists, and figuring a way to earn enough money to pay them. As all this added up, I seemed to slow down.

Lately, I decided to write a new book, and I think that is the key to my slump. It would seem a new story, now nearly finished, just might be what I needed to do. I've been more motivated to write than I have been in a long time. Now all I need to do is come up with enough money for a cover. It's been a long time since I've sold a book through my website - the proceeds of which go into my PayPal account, which is what I use to buy my covers.

Publishing and covers aren't the only distraction I've been working on. I'm trying to get my books on regular bookshelves, and to that end, I've purchased my own ISBN numbers - I'm just scared to take that step. No one will explain to me sufficiently how that will work. I mean, if some store wants to order hundreds of copies of my books, I can't afford that.

One distraction after another - this path or that path - even this and my other blogs - it all gets in the way of finishing my new book. I'll be able to afford a cover soon. Keep an eye peeled for a new book one day soon. Any ideas for my next book? Happy writing to all you writers out there, and happy reading to all you readers out there.

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The Sales Conundrum

I learned from a friend today that she'd told a friend of hers about my books or that I was an author (no idea which), any way, this other woman's son bought a kindle edition of The Guardians. Good news for me, but it got me wondering. Why don't I get more such sales? Why is it that so few of my family's friends buy my books? Or maybe they do and I just don't hear about it.

Anyway, I wonder if it's because it sounds kinda cheesy when you say, "My sister is an author. You should check out her book(s)." or something similar. Does it? More than once in meeting people at work, when the subject comes up that I have written books, say how cool it is to meet a real author, and that's whether they buy any of my books or not. Not everyone is into reading, and only a fraction of those enjoy what I write, but I usually sell at least one or two books to staff every year. I was thrilled when my boss offered to display my books at the lodge. I mean really, they have nothing to do with Alaska or with fishing. They went up too late to get many sales this year, but they'll be there all summer next year, and with a new one to be added to the list. Keep an eye peeled right here. I'll be putting up a post all about it sometime soon.

So, how are your sales? Do you get more sales through family, or through strangers like on Amazon or whatever other platform you publish on?

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Summer Sales

This summer I sold 19 books from here. Or maybe I should modify that a little - six of those books I sent out of here were a gift to a wonderful online friend who has trouble collecting the necessary funds all at once to buy a book. I couldn't resist, and her reaction when she got them was a sweet reward.

This book is my first book - first published - first written - and soon to be the first to be turned into a script (one of these days). As a first it will always hold a special place in my heart, but as a first it also has a few issues. As a first, this is the book that was where I did all my learning and made all my mistakes, and I'm talking about publishing mistakes. Not that I know it all, but it's rough when your first baby ventures out into the world and it's not treated with the care you think it should be. That is why I will never recommend a subsidy publisher to another writer; they don't care about the book, they want the money. Don't worry, this story isn't completely dead. It's still available from me under this cover, and will be until I run out.

At first, when it was all alone, having 50 books on hand was really cool. Knowing this box sitting in the corner held a book I wrote was an amazing thing. I mean, really, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I never imagined I'd write a book let alone publish it and people would buy and read it, and above all, enjoy it. Even though it has issues that bug me, I never got a bad review, and this is the book with the most reviews.

As I published more books, I was slow in learning the lesson about how many books to order. Through a mailing mishap, I started out with 100 of this books. When I published The Fortunes of Magic, another first in that I did it all by myself, I ordered 50 just because it was a nice round number. In the mean time, getting the books of my trilogy was hard, but I ordered 25 of the first book. It wasn't until much later that I could get the other two. When I published The Speed of Dreams, in order to make the book available in paperback, I had to order 50. By now, I was accumulating quite a stack of book boxes. But I did learn my lesson. When I discovered I was running out of my last two books, The Trials of the Youngest Princess and The Guardians, I only ordered 10 each. I have a stack of book boxes in the corner of my room that is waist high. My days of ordering 25 or more per book are over.

I still have over 30 of King by Right and Speed of Dreams, and more of Fortunes of Magic, but the rest are down within manageable numbers. Perhaps it's time for another give-away. I do love my readers.

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My Next Book

Sorry this is late - I found myself distracted by Facebook yesterday. It happens sometimes. When the TV is on, thinking kind of takes a hiatus and time slips away while my finger surf through my game on Facebook. Bad me, bad me.

Anyway, this week I planned to tell you all about my next book. I won't even mess with it until next fall after I'm done with work. 12-hour day-7-day weeks tend to suck me pretty dry in no time at all.

By popular vote (only 3), my next book will be Lord of the Land. You can read a detailed accounting here. Anyway, a trio of young men, more boys really, passing as soldiers, enter an inn to escape the weather and recover a little from some battle they'd endured a short time before. One of them can't go any farther, and there's a chance that he will never go any farther anywhere, but he's lucky. In the mean time, his two friends hurry on in an effort to warn the king, who is the father of one of them, of an impending coup. They don't make it.

With father and son displayed over the gate, everyone is confident that the tyranny is over, only it isn't really. You see, the son displayed beside his father was the second son born to the king, but no one knew of the first born, he'd been sent away and his existence expunged by the queen.

As the country crumbles under the factions squabbling with each other over the throne, our young prince seeks to earn his keep, but he can't stay at the inn forever. The old innkeeper won't let him. He sends for another old friend who takes the prince under his wing and tries to teach him how to be a knight and a prince, hoping that one day he will take his rightful place on the throne and put order to the chaos.

However, their plan didn't work out quite like they planned. The prince fell in love and settled down to raise cattle and a family. He was quite happy, until his past came knocking on his door when he wasn't home. Not that his past knew whose door they knocked on, but the result was the same. After burying his family, he went after revenge, but the one man wasn't enough. An entire web of revenge surfaced and it needed tending to.

Along the way, he learned a lot about his true roots and the tattoo on his chest. It's quite a journey. Along the way, he discovered a deep attachment to the land, one that superseded his efforts to rule his country and to raise another family, but there was no choice. The magic pulled - He was the first Lord of the Land in generations, and it wasn't just his country he was committed to look after. He was compelled to protect all of the land. That didn't stop him from returning home frequently, and as a result his bloodline was more than certain, and his legacy was too.

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There are places in this book that always brings me to tears, no matter how many times I read it. I really tortured this poor guy, but he so blossomed. I'm curious what will happen under a rewrite. You'll know when it gets there. If you'd like to beta-read, let me know. I can send a copy now or later after the rewrite. I really do love the feedback, no matter what it is. Heck, you might even have a good idea for a cover.

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The Appearance of Your Work

I've always been very picky about what my books looked like. That's inside; covers were a learning curve - I certainly made my mistakes with the first one. To date, the biggest issue I've had was keeping the fonts I like. I'll frequently use some sort of handwriting font in notes shown in the books.

My biggest hurdle in preserving my fonts is the Kindle edition, but I've come to accept that there's never going to be anything fancy there. That doesn't mean I don't try for the best appearance I can.

For my latest book - my ninth book - a number that still amazes me - I had an additional problem. I used star symbols to clue the gaps, and in a couple other spots. I really, really liked them. My story, after all, was a science fiction story. By the time kindle made the translation, they looked like some kind of Chinese writing. It was really quite bewildering.

My first effort was to try loading a pdf, though Kindle doesn't really like that. When that didn't work, my next option was to turn these symbols into small pictures. What a pain. Well, not really but still... I only have Paint, and Paint for MAC isn't as good as what I had on my PC, but it works well enough. It has a habit of quitting if I get to complicated with it, but with patience I can usually get it to do what I need it to do.

So - I was working my way through my manuscript, pasting in my little pictures, when I discovered another spot that needed like attention. Using Futhark font - font that looks like elven writing in Lord of the Rings - I used that font to identify the monsters in my book. It is a very angular, harsh, font - fitting, I thought, for how my monsters would see themselves. The point of needing to keep that font was that the subsequent name of my monsters evolved from how it looked translated into equivalent letters in our language. There was no way around it and keep that thread in tact. Of course, Kindle translated that font to Times which killed the whole thread entirely. I had to turn that into pictures too. Fortunately there was only three places where that was needed. The tricky part was cropping my image down tight enough to not cut off any part of a letter, and still not have the image take up too much space in the line of typing. That was a toughie. It's not perfect, but I don't think I can do any better.

My biggest problem with all this was that Word didn't always put my star symbols pictures where I wanted them. Most times they allowed a space under them (which I wanted), but sometimes they didn't - every time I tried to add that space, the picture would jump to the middle of the paragraph - I couldn't figure out why, and there was simply nothing I could do to change it. And of course Kindle picked up on that. So upon occasion, you'll see those stars sitting close to the next paragraph, whereas most of the time there's a space above and below them. Inconsistency annoys me no end, but not so much so when I can't fix it.

How much do you pay attention to the appearance of your books? Sometimes I wonder when I see all manner of formatting inconsistencies in the books I buy.

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Guardians

My latest book - can you believe it? I mean, I had them all written already, years ago, but actually getting them published and out there is such a wondrous concept for me. I really can't explain it. I've devoured these kinds of books since I was a kid, but I never really thought I'd be writing any. And when my son gave me that old laptop way back when, I didn't really know what else to do with it. We didn't have any internet at the time, and what do you do with a glorified typewriter. Oh yeah, and it had Paint and I had an Encarta encyclopedia on it too. Couple that with the desire to read something I hadn't already read and this is what you get, I guess. Well now - I got four more to go and then I'm down to a large fistful of short stories. I guess we'll be talking about those somewhere along the line.

Anyway - I digress - my apologies

Guardians is my second (so far) science fiction story. Idea elements came from the video game, Final Fantasy VIII, which gave me my first soldier, Reed, the dark haired guy, and all his abilities. Like in the game, I needed an enemy, but the enemy in the game was too ambiguous, so I turned to my favorite movie for that idea. Starship Troopers had the perfect enemy for me, but I needed them to be just a little more believable so they aren't exact, and of course they had to be different in other ways too.

During the course of writing this book, the enemy evolved. Being space-faring, they had to be highly intelligent, but running up against humans proved to be more than they expected. I'm going to assume that somewhere in their distant past, roaches somewhere gave them fits so they took on the bug form and it served them quite well for a very long time, but against humans, it wasn't good enough; they were being pushed back, and they couldn't have that. The next logical step (I love logic) would be to create one of their own.

Enter my second character. Reed found him at the age of maybe two way down in the bug hive and named him Adam. He was human in every way except his DNA. Reed raised him like his own, right along with his family, and he was normal in every way right up until his magic developed.

Born with an ability that could not be genetically transmitted from parent to child in any way, he had to learn how to use it, and he had to keep it quiet - he wasn't entirely successful, but he never found himself under some dissection knife. He had too many friends in powerful places. He could, however, fly the pants off anything with wings, and was a well-known in all the simulator hangers. After he joined the Air Force, he became a force to be reckoned with in his own right.

I know that all sounds so peachy, but no journey through life is easy. It seems a family relative wanted him. She tried to get her claws on him when he was a kid, but that didn't succeed. By the time she found him again, he was essentially untouchable, but there were other ways. There's no knowing all of her reasoning, or if her reasoning was even rational, but they do eventually meet, much to her dismay.

Read it - leave a review.

I gotta go work on the document some before I can put it up as an eBook, because Kindle doesn't recognize the symbols I used to mark gaps - I need to turn them into pictures and see if that works. Sigh - Too bad pdf doesn't work for kindle publishing.

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The Trials of the Youngest Princess

My next book. Isn't that face awesome? She is so out for revenge.

Why?

I see Princess Anella as a tom boy (like me) before such an idea every occurred or was tolerated by anyone. That means that her interests and talents weren't quite feminine, but she tried.

So why is she out for revenge? Well, you see, even though she was willing to accept that her growing skill with a sword could never be seen beyond the midnight lessons in the arms-room, an uncle she'd never been told about had other plans - not that he knew anything about her first hand.

Thanks to her passion for the tournament (like her father and her brothers), she wasn't in the palace at a time when everything fell apart. Her uncle somehow was able to smuggle a sizable force into the palace when everyone was busy preparing for the ball that would take place after. Anella came in after the coup was successful to find her father impaled and her brothers hung from the rafters. That is enough to give anyone nightmares.

Since she is in disguise as a boy, she is able to see and then get away before anyone is the wiser. And then she is on the run. Until she can figure a way to drum up an army and undo the damage, she's just a girl, seventeen years old, who happens to be pretty good with a sword.

One thing evolves to another and someone comes up with the idea of following the tournament circuit. Just following wasn't good enough either. Passing as a boy of roughly fourteen, she needed to sharpen her skill with the sword enough to win each event. She could accomplish two things this way. First, competing in every district around the land would almost certainly see her presented to the new king personally, but almost might not be good enough; placing well would very likely seal the deal and she would be able to confront the man who had killed her father and brothers face to face. The other thing she could accomplish is a private meeting with each of the lords who were attached to her family via marriage. Everyone could make an appearance at the grand tournament in the capital, and lords could bring an entourage of guards; they would even be invited to the ball, and could bring an escort. With luck, her army would be enough. With luck, she would be presented to the king. Everything - the entire house of cards - depended on if the new king, her uncle, was as passionate about the tournament as her father had been. It depended on how much of the customs he'd changed and how much he'd much he'd kept the same.

Need I say... Yeah, she got the bad guy, but that's not where this story ends. You see, he's had an entire year to import his own personal army. Now she had to go after them. No way could she just let them wander around uncontested.

I'm working my way through a final edit and waiting for some feedback from some pre-readers, or beta readers as they are commonly known. You'll be seeing this book on Amazon hopefully by the end of the month. Look for it.

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Just How Careful Are You?

Are you self-published? Meaning do you publish your books yourself, either through Kindle Direct Publishing, CreateSpace, NookBooks, or any of the other publishing formats accessible directly to the writer. If you are, how careful are you about the product you turn out?

Since I started reading whatever tweaked my interest, especially within the environment I've currently been swimming, meaning the different on line forums where books are advertised by my friends and acquaintances and other people who frequent the same sites, I've noticed the product has improved over the last few years. In the beginning, the documents and PDFs I read were really quite bad. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about the story itself (most of the time), I'm talking about the product, the document, the book. Of course, most of the time, editing was the biggest issue in those early days, or at least that's what I noticed, and in those first days, if I noticed it, it was pretty bad.

Now, since I've had my Kindle, I see other things most of the time, not that editing isn't still something of an issue upon occasion, but usually it's just carelessness that grates my teeth these days. Nowadays, the eBook without a variety of formatting, or spacing, or paragraph indenting problems, is few and far between, and really very nice when I run across one.

To date, I've published two books all on my lonesome using CreateSpace (for paperback) as well as KDP for Kindle. Both allow me to look at what my book will look like as a finished product. Things I check for are:

• Are the chapter headings at the beginning of the page?
• Are my paragraphs all indented the way I like them to be?
• If I used graphics, are they where I want them to be?
• Is everything inside the margins prescribed by them?
• Is anything at all out of place? (I once found a random line that didn't belong)
• How about the header? (I once had to fix the indent there cause it was off center from the title)
• How about the footer? Are your page numbers where you want them? I don't put page numbers in my eBooks.

That's not all though, that's just the kinds of things I look for while I'm there, but before I get there, I do a spelling and grammar recheck of my document. That clears all those things you've opted to ignore in the past. Now there's all those nice little red and green squiggly lines. Going through this step would have helped the book I'm reading right now quite a lot, because frequently the space is before the comma or period rather than after it. This is a byproduct of some formatting work that created more problems. I'm not sure what it is or how it got past the editor, but I've seen it more than just this time.

You also have to understand that those nifty little squiggly red lines won't find all typos. There are a lot of words that are official words, but they are not the word you want in that spot. One I've noticed in this book is a word I happen to like - belying - meaning 'to put a lie to' or 'show something as false or impossible' - in this case spelled 'bellying'. As you can see, the spelling isn't far off and they are both in the dictionary. Believe it or not, I even found a 'there/their' mistake. I was really quite surprised to find that one.

I do know that some of these typos are rather hard to spot. That's what makes a beta reader so valuable. There's nothing like a fresh pair of eyes to read through your manuscript, especially if they happen to be good with spelling. But in lieu of a fresh pair of eyes, you could accumulate a list of these kinds of typos and manually check for them. I strongly suggest you do this. At the very least, develop a list of your own writing weaknesses. I have one.

So writing your story is the fun part, but if you really care about your work, making sure the finished product is all it can be is the work part of your project, and none of it can be neglected. Take great care, and be very picky. The harder you work on this, the better the finished product will be. The byproduct of that will be a happy reader who just might tell a friend or two about your book, and that should put a smile on your face.

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Mage King Teaser

This is it!!! This completes my trilogy. I'm so excited, are you?

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Sean leaned back against the mast. He rested his head against the cold wood and his eyes found the moons halfway down from their height. They were so still, so quiet. He reached a hand up as if he could touch them, and the sight of his hand reminded him of other things he could do to burn off his restless energy and still his mind.

The boat was too narrow for him to swing his swords unless he could be sure the deck was empty, so he left them in their sheaths. He was just getting into it, just starting to feel the rhythm, when a fierce fire lit up his back, and a moment later he felt ice cold water hit him in the face with stunning force.

Laon had been watching over Sean from the dark shadows of the stairwell leading to the lower deck. Though alert, he could not react before the sailor had launched Sean over the rail, less one money pouch. He snatched the man by the throat before he had the chance to weigh his treasure, and bent him over the rail dangerously far while at the same time looking for some sign of Sean in the dark waters.

Still clutching the man by the throat, Laon sounded the alarm. “Alert, alert!” he roared. “We have to stop! Get up everyone! Get up!” He turned his attention to the man in his grip. “Stop this thing.”

Under Laon’s grip the sailor was unable to speak, he just shook his head, frantically clawing at his grip.

The barge captain was on the deck in seconds. “What going on here?”

Laon was so furious and anxious that he could scarcely speak. “This…” As Laon shook him, the man in his grip clawed at Laon’s wrist, bringing the filched purse up to everyone’s notice. “He pushed the king over the side. We have to stop. We have to find him.”

Even though the sailor had been unable to speak under Laon’s grip, now his eyes bulged. No one had known that Sean was the king and everyone knew what kind of man the king was. No one took the time to consider that Sean and the king they all knew might be two different men.

All the shouting roused the rest of the barges in turn and lights were lit and held over the side in an effort to see something in the water.

The captain cinched the sailor to the mast and Laon promised him that if they couldn’t find Sean, he would send him into the water after him, and the captain promised to help. The purse was given to Laon.

The captain tried to explain to the frantic Laon their handicaps. They couldn’t just stop; if they threw out their anchor, the rest of the barges would run into them and even if they all were able to stop without mishap, any one of those anchors could hit their target, or the rope could catch him and tangle him. They had to look first before they risked trying to stop.

A shout went up from the second barge. Someone had spotted a red stain on a chunk of ice.

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My Cover Conundrum

Ever since my first less than glowing review, I'd planned a rewrite and a new cover for this book. The rewrite has been tentatively made - I'll probably do it again, but the cover is my biggest problem.

The society of my book is something rather medieval in structure in that there are kings who rule kingdoms and princes who inherit the throne, even princesses who play their part too.

The story is about a prince who knew nothing about being a prince. He was raised by a father who couldn't bring himself to face the outside world and a mother who would scarcely leave her room. Early on, it is hinted that perhaps the king was more helpless in his seclusion, perhaps more a prisoner than what might be first assumed, because he was able to get his son sent away, replacing him with a hostage, or perhaps merely a physical replacement in case someone counted heads. Later, he is able to warn this secondary character to make his own escape as well.

Being a prince in name only, the main character spends a good deal of time learning how to manage a kingdom, but he also needs to know who was behind what happened to his home. Why would someone go to all the trouble of isolating the towns from each other? His investigation led to much deeper mysteries, and so the story progresses until finally he is able to round up a very unusual army and go home to put it all together. And yes he even gets the girl in the end.

So this might sound like your average knight in shining armor kind of story, but there's one HUGE issue that makes this cover about as wrong a cover as it can possibly be.

Some years ago, when this was the only book I had out there, my boss offered to have it available for sale at the lodge where I worked. It was a benefit for her as well as for me. For her, she could brag a little about having a real author on staff. For me, I sold a few books every summer from that point on, and even signed a few - It was really quite fun.

I knew the cover wasn't right though. More than one person told me that they wouldn't have picked up the book because of the cover, but after having read it, they loved it. But this was brought home best of all by a comment made by one lady at the lodge. She took one look at the cover, then at me, and said, "But you're American." in the most delightful English accent.

At first, those words hurt a little. It was as if she didn't think any American could possibly understand medieval society, it being so very English in origin and setting. My feelings weren't hurt for very long though, because they made a far more important point. My story was American too. The society might have many similarities, but my story takes place thousands of years in the future. All traces of ancient England are on the other side of an ocean, and on the other end of an ice age. No one here, in this story, remembers any trace if it.

This is something my cover somehow needs to show, or at the very least, it CANNOT lead the reader to expect ancient England in any way, shape, or form. Even the sight of a shield or sword might make that connection. So what to do? I have no idea.

My goal is to republish this book as soon as I run out of copies of the first edition. So if any of you would like to read the book so you can help me with ideas for the cover, I'll be happy to mail you a copy or email you a pdf - your choice.

I look forward to your ideas - thanks in advance.

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Where is Your Passion

I was looking forward to this post being about an editor I met on FB, but she didn't seem to have the time, stating a busy family life and the coming holidays. She wanted to post a short list of generic editing tips, whereas I wanted you to get to know her, to get a feel for her passion for the job, her love of taking a rough diamond and turning it into a polished gem. I wanted to showcase her to her advantage, but she didn't want to, didn't have time, sadly.

So...what is your passion? Where is your passion? Have you thought about it? It doesn't matter if you are in the writing business or not, are you passionate about what you do?

Writers? What of your soul do you pour into your stories? Are you excited (and terrified) to put your labor of love out there for people to read? Are you thrilled at every review, good or not so good, or even the bad ones? Even if you've written twenty or more books, is the passion still there? The excitement? The love?

Editors? Do you like taking that labor of love, that rough work, and turning it into a gleaming gem to be proud of? Are you thrilled every time you hear about or see a book that you know you had a hand in making it what it is?

Cover artists? Do you love putting together that perfect picture together and hearing how thrilled the writer is about it. Does it make you smile when you see it on a shelf somewhere, or on Amazon?

Publishers? Do you love taking these beautiful gems and putting them out there under your moniker? Does it make you proud knowing that book is such a culmination of so much work, and there it sits, glowing, waiting to reward everyone for all their hard work.

Notice I didn't mention money until the very end. Publishers are in the business end of things and so money is a large part of their concern, but the rest is no less important. Writers, editors, cover artists, and publishers too, if you are only in the game for the money, you are cutting yourself short. Of course, we all need to make a living, and yes, we should all get paid for our work, but if there is no passion, no excitement, why are you doing what you are doing? Life is too short to commit yourself to a job you have no love for.

I don't care if you are 'good' at telling a story, and being 'good' at editing can't be good enough either. I've worked with a 'dry' editor; I even spoke with him on several occasions. He always sounded bored on the phone, or maybe he was just tired. Creating an eye-popping cover takes attention to detail and a desire to create something beautiful. The bland, barely good enough cover simply isn't going to generate any sales. Believe me, I know. I have one like that.

If we all work together, with passion, excitement, and pride, the end product can only be a wonder to behold. You low budget publishers who can't afford to hire an editor for what they deserve to be paid, need to hire one passionate enough to make up the difference; your business depends on it.

So where is your passion? Is it somewhere here in the writing world? Is it perhaps in the reading world? Or somewhere else? Whatever it is, are you passionate about it? Are you proud of your work?

My Publishing Lessons

I've traveled quite a journey during the publishing of my books. My first book was published through AuthorHouse, a subsidy publisher. As subsidy publishers go, AuthorHouse is probably one of the better ones, and I do have a few good memories with them, but mostly the experience was a disappointment for me. Like all publishing houses where you hire them to publish your book, for a rather high fee, if you ask me, they run your baby through their mill and "BAM" you have a book, but really, what exactly do you have? Here is something of what I ended up with.

If you know what you're doing, AuthorHouse can do you good, especially if money isn't much of an issue, but my journey wasn't so simple. You can get a small taste of it here. AuthorHouse puts out a good quality book, mine happened to be error free, and there were a few things their editor caught that had slipped past me. However they did not go any farther than they absolutely had to. My baby was merely $$$ to them and nothing more. I got a cover that could have been better with a tiny bit of coaching on their part. Also with a modicum of effort along the line of word find and replace, they wouldn't have left behind the formatting errors I found AFTER the book was already approved and published.

This book was my first - I mean I knew nothing at all about writing let alone publishing, I was hoping to learn something. Boy, did I. My very expensive lesson? Don't pay for publishing. Don't pay for advertising. And if you are joining a publishing house, don't pay for copying fees, editing, not even the cover. If you are being asked to pay for any of these things, you better also be paying an independent contractor hired for the service BY YOU. If a publishing house offers these things at all, it should be free. A real publishing house makes their money from book sales, not from the writer.

Living in the wilderness can present problems in this writing/publishing journey, so I took my new knowledge and my new internet access and started searching for something that would work for me. I was blessed to find a very understanding publisher who has since published the first two books of my trilogy. Book 3 is due out next summer, and the next book is already sitting there waiting it's turn. It seems he either likes me or he likes my writing - hopefully both.

With this small victory under my belt, I confess to being a little impatient. Without actively searching, I still kept an eye peeled, and upon the recommendation of a friend of mine, I went ahead and submitted to yet another publisher, and low and behold, they too accepted and the publishing process was under way again. Now, while this publisher was a fine publishing machine, I find I preferred the more personal approach I got from my first publisher. I'm not sure I'll publish through them again. Sales haven't been all that great either, while my trilogy is doing very well by comparison. So, is it the publisher? Their advertising? Or is it the book, classified science fiction rather than general fiction? I have no way of knowing. They are all sold on Amazon.

To round out my publishing venture, I took the plunge and, thanks to a very generous donation, I was able to buy an awesome cover for my blog novel. Now that I had a cover, I wanted to turn it into a real book. I tried very hard to make reading the blog as easy as I could, but a blog is what it is, and unless you actively keep up with a blog novel, catching up is kinda awkward. It's still there though if any of you care to take a look. Just follow the link on the right.

At any rate, I couldn't afford an editor so I did it myself with utmost care, and then off to CreateSpace I went with my manuscript and my cover picture. I discovered that it was incredibly easy to do, just follow the directions. The most important part is to take your time and make sure it looks like you want it to. You are given the chance to flip through the pages and check every one. It is my advice that you look at EVERY SINGLE PAGE. Doing so allowed me to discover a tiny mark up near the title of one chapter. I was going to ignore it, it was just a little line, but then I found a couple other little things so I backed up and fixed it all. It's a year old now and so far no one has informed me of finding any errors (whew). The best part, even though I priced it nearly as low as I could, sales were good enough to pay for my internet for two months in a row. It's kind of settled down among the slush pile now even though I advertise every day, but with every new book, the older books seem to awaken a little, and every new friend I make on Facebook just might see my advertising and check out my books, and MAYBE they'll tell their friends and so on.

And so it grows, slowly but steadily. I plug away at expanding my platform. Of late, I've taken to offering what I've learned to anyone who might be interested. I know the value of another pair of eyes and officially offer the service on my website. Most recently I've added ghost writing as well, thanks to negotiations with a friend. I am fully aware that starting writers are seldom financially comfortable, and hopefully I charge accordingly. I'm not trying to get rich, just trying to earn enough to pay for my next cover or to pay for my next book to be edited.

This is my journey so far. Share some of yours.

We Have a Winner

 

The correct guess was To Become Whole in Land and Soul. However, having learned from my first book, as you can see, I've changed the name.

Here's the blurb for the back.

When Slave Master Patro first laid eyes on the child’s ice-blue eyes, he knew he would be the most sought-after slave on the market. The fact that he didn’t seem to be able to talk was a minor frustration.

Canis couldn’t tolerate the collar though. It not only contained his body, it strangled his soul. When this turmoil turned dangerous, Patro agreed to free the boy, but there were conditions, conditions Canis couldn’t hope to meet, not if he wanted to be truly free.

Once again, for an awesome cover of your own for a great price, see Candice Bowser. She's just awesome.

Name That Book

What do you think of my latest cover? Candice Bowser does such an awesome job. And don't you just love those eyes?

Anyway, enough of my drooling over this. Since I'm going to read through the book one last time before putting it under this awesome cover, I thought I'd spend the time with a little give-away contest. The prize will of course be this book signed.

Once it's in the system on CreateSpace, it'll take it a couple days to be available as an eBook and maybe a week for it to be up as a paperback, if everything goes smoothly. At that time, I'll order a box and as soon as it is here, the person who can guess the name of the book will get a free copy.

This contest will run until I load it up on CreateSpace. You will be competing with people from Google+ and my Facebook friends and fans. The people from LinkedIn and Twitter will see this only if they click on the link when I advertise this blog.

You get as many guesses as you like until someone gets it right. Just to make myself perfectly clear. This book has already been written. It has been waiting patiently for this opportunity. Figure out which book it is, and it will be yours as soon as possible.

Have fun

Taking the Time to do it Right

Ever since I started on this road to publishing, I heard people lament how long it takes to get published. First there was the grueling effort to achieve an agent, and then there was another grueling wait, hoping they could squeak their baby in the door somewhere. The journey could take years, and there was no guarantee of ever succeeding. Many writers were impatient with this. I admit it, I was too. I'm no spring chicken and I had a dozen manuscripts to get out there. At an average of one book per year, provided that ball got rolling, that was 12 years. Add an unknown number of years just to get an agent (hoping that agent wanted all of my work, but possibly not), then add another unknown number of years to get into a publishing house. I would never see my last book published, if any of them.

With the advent of CreateSpace, SmashWords, and yes, Barns & Noble's NookBook, publishing became incredibly easy, even free, not counting the cost of a cover, and if you can do your own cover, the profits are all yours. I published one book through CreateSpace and B&N NookBook and have recouped my cover cost by 200%. One happy camper here.

However, those first indie books were a shining example of why the long, grueling route was the way to go. Fortunately, some indie authors were aware of this and acted accordingly. They went to the trouble of finding a good editor and multiple readers to help them iron out the issues in their baby. They also worked hard to spread the word that such action is vital to the success of their books. Me? I was very picky to begin with. I wanted my books to be the very best they could be. My first book, published through a seemingly reputable subsidy publisher, was error free, but certainly less than it could be, but what did I know?

Now, I've come up in the world. I have my own Kindle now and have read quite a few books so far. Not a lot yet, but I'd say maybe a dozen since getting it last Christmas. So far, by comparison, writers still need to slow down and take the time to ensure their book is the best it can be.

Reputation is still important. The reputation of the big publishing houses is still that they turn out great books, as as far as I can tell, they do. The indie publishing pool started out with a very bad reputation. Rife with errors and bad formatting to boot. Today, I think writers are slowly dragging the indie reputation up out of the mud, but we're not there yet.

Recently, I was asked to promote a book offered free, in an effort to spur interest in the rest of the series. Personally, if this had been my book, I might have made the mistakes at first (though seriously, less than I found), but I'd certainly have gone through the book again before trying such a promotion. Heck, even the reviews on Amazon should have been a clue to the writer that something needed to be done. I rated it 3 stars, but before I posted a review, I read a few of the other 3-star reviews. They too said the book was frustratingly full of errors. I didn't read all of those reviews, but when the top handful of 22 3-star reviews mention many errors, you'd think she'd have taken the hint. But no, she went ahead and pumped out another five books in that series, and has 18 others. Like I said, reputation matters and first impressions are paramount. I will not be reading any more of her books, and I actually liked the story, but if the writer doesn't care about the book, why should I?

So gee, people. Slow down. Even if you can't afford an editor, there are ways to ensure your baby is as polished as it can be. I have my computer read aloud to me. That nifty little trick is priceless. Even if you read aloud to yourself, you'll say the words your brain wants to be there; it's up to your eyes to catch the difference, and if they can't, the error slides by. However, your computer isn't so talented. It will read exactly what is on the page and even pause for commas or sound run on if a comma is needed. It also finds those pesky words that look almost the same but sound and mean something entirely different. As you can see, it is a very cool tool. I recommend you figure out how to use it ASAP. That aside, a good editor is still highly recommended, even if you think you can be your own editor, it's best to turn your baby over to another professional. You know, kings used to do that with their sons; it was too easy to overlook some kind of vital training or be to lenient with your own offspring. The same goes for your book.

Do you take time?

Cliché Storyline

When I went to count votes on my website, one of my stories had earned it's first vote. It's a bit of a cliché story - prince's parents die and the distant family member who is appointed regent decides he wants the crown. Even for bad guys, there are legal considerations. Said prince must go away, but he can't be responsible for the deed. So, he decides to make the prince the most hated person in the land, then he sends him out as just another soldier (almost) to put down another rebellion. If one of the rebels kills him, so much the better, but just in case, a back up plan is in place. Only something goes wrong and there's no body. With no body, he can't claim the crown.

Some months later, strange things start happening. The ghost of the old king walked the land claiming vengeance, but the regent knew the truth. The ghost, you see, was leaving him a calling card. A link from the mail armor the regent had made special for the prince was found on every body. The regent now had to find and kill the prince before anyone learned that he was still alive. And he had to ensure his claim to the throne by another means.

The prince had been betrothed when he was a child, and the girl was soon to come of marrying age. If he could marry her, he was that much closer to that crown, plus, he would take something away from the one person who was proving to be his worst enemy, or so he hoped. 

The idea came from my favorite movie, Black Arrow, but really the only resemblance is the prince himself. After I decided on that, the rest just swept me away on it's own wild ride. Here's the first chapter as a sample - Please understand that this story needs a lot of work before it sees publication. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

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Dire Fortune

King Martemik and Queen Jolene of Kashkar were well known throughout their land for their strength and fairness, and were therefore loved by most everyone. Of course, those on the receiving end of some of the harsher judgments thought they were dealt with too harshly and unfairly, but a line had to be drawn somewhere; the laws were the laws and the king was quite strict about the breaking of them.

Martemik was a big, powerful man, standing over six feet tall with the wide shoulders of a swordsman. In keeping with his fathers before him, he had the white hair of the royal family. Other members of the nobility all had varying shades of blond hair and light eyes, but the children born to the rightful king always had thick white hair and pale gray eyes. Even daughters born to the bloodline had the white hair and gray eyes, but their children did not carry on the family trait.

Jolene was also tall; coming from a bloodline that produced men much like her husband. She was a proud and stately woman with copious amounts of pale gold curls and striking blue eyes. With effortless ease, she commanded the attention and respect of everyone around her. She was also great with child.

The knights of the nobility and most of the soldiers wore their hair pulled up and bound in several bindings down the center of their heads in an imitation of the manes on their horses. The number of such bindings was dictated only by the thickness of the hair; a knight wanted a proud crest, not a collection of horse’s tails. Also, the type of bindings was dictated by the formality of the affair they were attending at the time. Anything from brightly designed wrappings for formal court events, to common leather straps for casual time at home or for wear with armor was used.

Since it was a tradition in the queen’s home country to seek out a fortune teller and have a child’s future told in the last month before birth, she requested this of her husband, and though it was not necessarily a custom in this country, he was familiar with the practice, so he relented to the wishes of the beautiful wife he had come to value highly and adore.

So they packed up, ostensibly for a tour of the country, to show the people that the queen was soon to produce an heir to the throne. They planned to be gone for a week to ten days. This would only cover a small portion of his kingdom but it would do to spread the word of the coming birth.

Everywhere they went, they were greeted with cheers and many of the women gifted the queen with good luck and easy delivery charms. Jolene accepted them all graciously and treasured all the charms with the respect and deference with which they were offered.

The custom of visiting a fortuneteller at this time was fairly common among the peasantry, so it wasn’t difficult to find what they were looking for.

Late one night, the royal couple approached an old cabin in the woods. “I don’t like this, Jolene,” said the king. “There’s no light inside. If you would only consent to one of the fortunetellers who were willing to call at the palace, we wouldn’t need to go through all this.”

“You just don’t like sneaking around in the dark, dear, and you know that those fortunetellers willing to call at the palace would say anything to make us happy; who would know if it was a true telling or not. At least coming this late at night, she won’t have any time to set up some show,” replied the queen with quiet patience.

The king knocked solidly on the old door. A few minutes later, the old woman who answered was greatly surprised to see the king and queen standing on her doorstep so late at night. There was no doubt that’s who they were; everyone knew who the king and queen were. She quickly invited them into her humble home, wishing fervently that her accommodations were better than they were, but there was no helping it now. “What can an old woman like me do for you, Lord and Lady?” she asked as she poked up the fire and added some wood and then lit the one lamp she owned with a coal from the fire.

“Are you a fortuneteller?” asked King Martemik as he moved his wife closer to the fire; the night air was chilly and damp.

“I am that, my lord, among other things. Do you seek your fortune?”

“My wife seeks the fortune for our child soon to be born. Can you do this?”

“I can, your grace,” she replied with a small bow. “My lady, please have a seat.” The old woman offered the queen the only seat and pulled a crate out from beneath the cupboard for herself to sit on. “My lord, I have nothing else for you to sit on, even my bed is on the floor.”

He was somewhat impressed with the way the old woman so readily handled the simple preparations for this ordeal, without making any attempts to set up any kind of stage or use any elaborate bobbles, but he was still very uncomfortable about all this; he never did like this mystic stuff. “Never mind me,” said the king. He had no interest in becoming comfortable.

The queen smiled at her husband as she took the offered stool. It was amusing to see her tall brave husband unsettled by this small frail peasant woman. She would have to tease him about this night many times.

The fortuneteller sat across from her and held out her callused hands to the queen. When the queen’s delicate hands were in hers, she closing her eyes, and with a deep breath, she rested her forehead on the table and searched for the future of this child.

Just as they were beginning to worry that the old woman had fallen asleep, she raised her head and spoke in a resonant voice that could not possibly have issued from the throat of the old woman.

“The news I have for your son is grave and troubling. Are you sure you still wish to hear it?”

“I do, speak your news. I must hear it,” said the queen as color drained from her cheeks.

Martemik would have swept his wife away from here but the words that followed froze him in his tracks.

“Your son’s life line will be fraught with sorrow, anger and danger. He will loose his father to death, his mother to fear and treachery will hunt him like a rabid wolf. All of this will beset him before he comes of age. But, there is still hope. There is one man who is close to you now; one whose loyalty to you will remain strong, despite all the evil he must see. This man will find your son and help him to see through his sorrow and bitterness. If your son has not become too lost, if he is not too bitter and angry, this man will be able to lead him out of his darkness. Only then will he be able to gather the people to him in a union that will surpass even his father’s. If he can do this, he will ascend to the throne and become a king far greater than any of his forefathers.”

“A son; we’re having a son, but how can my son become so lost?” asked the queen, but the old woman opened her eyes at the question and the spell was broken.

The old woman had heard the question though – had heard similar question before, many times, and it was her habit to try to answer it. “To become lost is never an end; it’s only a distraction in the path of life, as long as your son continues to set one foot before the other, there is no choice but to continue.”

“What are you talking about old woman?” growled the king, unwilling to admit how shaken he was about the whole thing.

“Nothing my lord, it is merely my humble attempt to answer the queen’s question. Forgive me for speaking out of turn.”

The queen held her hand up to stay the king’s words, and he turned to glower at the fire instead. “Please explain further if you can,” she coaxed. “The fortune of my son is dire and I would like to understand more.”

“In truth, my lady, I can not say more. I only heard your question and tried to answer it. Even if you told me your son’s fortune, I would only be guessing at a meaning. Does he die, become fey or does he meet some other untimely trouble?” The old woman was also quite shaken; that she told the fortune of the royal prince at all was astonishing enough, but that it seemed to be bad, very bad, was quite frightening.

“No, you said that he would loose both of us while he was still young, and then you said that he would become lost himself as well, but that he could ascend the throne and becoming a great king.” Tears had already begun to flow freely though she refused to allow herself to sob openly.

The old woman was heart broken at the sight of the queen’s tears and she truly wished that her words had been different, but when telling these fortunes she did not choose the words that she uttered; she could only hope to help make sense of them. “That is indeed a rocky road for a child to follow, but if he becomes great in the end, what more can a parent ask for.”

The queen found these words comforting, though marginally, and she rose to leave. Her movement caught her husband’s attention and he wrapped her cloak around her shoulders once more, keeping her in the protective circle of his arm until she was safely inside their carriage.

After the king had ushered his wife into the carriage, he turned to the old woman and pressing a full bag of coins into her hand. “You must protect yourself from the events of this night. Should others learn of our being here and what was revealed here, there could be trouble for both of us.”

She knew he was correct; if anyone were to find out that the king and queen had come to her home for any reason, everyone would be hounding her with every little problem and she would be unable to help all of them. If there were too many failures, the villagers would be likely to stone her for her efforts. She would keep the coin and use it only when she had to. There was enough to take care of her for many a year if she was careful.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I always liked a good prophecy. hahaha

White Star

Back of the book blurb:

When the long dead kings gave Sean their approval for to wear the crown, they also gave him a mission.

…the thing is, they didn’t tell him what it was.

Feeling like a giant hand was pushing him between his shoulder blades and pulling all his nerves and muscles into a hard fist in the process, Sean was driven.

Accomplish what?

All he knew was that he had his dear uncle’s mess to clean up, and he only had until the snow flew to accomplish it all.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Woohoo!!! It's almost time!! Another book is nearly ready to hit the virtual shelves, can you believe it. Wow!!! I'm not too sure I do. Not too long ago, writing never entered my head, now I have four books already on Amazon, and soon a fifth. It still amazes me when I think of it. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Here's the first day as a teaser)

Training Horses and Men

When Sean and Charles returned from the palace, Seth and his crew were already moving among the horses, slipping nooses over their heads and handing them off to one of the men waiting for them.

When all the horses had been handed off, Seth spread everyone out over the valley around the camp. The day was spent working with the horses. Fortunately, almost everyone had dealt with horses a good deal of their lives, so no one was utterly inexperienced. Thanks to the expertise of Seth and his men, the first day of lessons progressed with few hitches.

From now on someone would care for the horse in every tiny way as often as possible so the horse would quickly get used to the activity. The horses were touched everywhere, they were pushed and pulled. They were led around then lunged in first one direction, then another, then they were handled again. Their feet were picked up again and again. Seth and his men made their way through the throng and taught the men how to pull the horses to lie down on the ground where they were again handled and caressed, then they were let up only to do it all over again.

There were more men than horses in need of this training, and those men who didn’t have a horse to work pulled camp duty. Firewood was gathered and a stew was prepared. When it was ready, everyone filed past with their horse kept close, collected a bowl of stew and then moved off to eat where the horses could graze close by.

The afternoon was much the same as the morning, though the horses were all handed off to someone new. That night, the horses dozed next to their handlers.

Sean’s supply wagons started arriving near midmorning and as soon as they stopped, Sean set to making packsaddles. Elias and Ferris must have stripped every place in the city of every available piece of leather they could find. He worked all day and managed to turn out one saddle about every two hours. Having never made a saddle before, he took one apart so he could copy the parts. Charles helped him keep track so he didn’t make too many of one part and not enough of some other part. Seth pulled him away when supper was ready, and Larry saw to it that he went to bed after, rather than go back to working on the saddles.

Hélène told him once that working magic was a lot like doing it with your own hands; it takes energy. It’s easier with magic, but it still takes energy. He could never have turned out a saddle every two hours with his hands even if he was the best saddle maker in the world, but he had still worked leather and shaped wood for ten hours almost nonstop. He was lucky he was making them from existing material; his turnout would have been somewhat less if he’d had to make them from nothing. He was wiped by the end of the day.

Elias had been able to scrape together thirty-two packsaddles and another dozen riding saddles. Sean was not sure why he sent riding saddles, but they would use them one way or another.

Seth immediately set aside two of those saying they were broken, then he held up one that was less bulky then the rest. Looking directly at Charles, he said, “Looks a little small. We’ll just have to find a horse that’ll fit it.”

Charles looked like he was about ready to burst with the intensity of his excitement, though he didn’t moved a muscle. Seth just smiled and waved his hand in a ‘come on’ gesture and they went looking for a horse that Charles could ride. They came up with a dainty footed little bay mare with long white socks. She pranced a bit, but it looked to Sean like she was willing to learn and willing to please.

They worked the horses with and without saddles every day for long hours while Sean made more saddles. More supply wagons came into camp every day. By the fourth day, the saddles were loaded with sandbags and extra tents or blankets, and even some pots and pans so the horses would get used to flopping material and noise. Sean hoped they would never pack so sloppily, but Seth didn’t want their supplies packed and have the horse bolt because something worked loose and spooked him.

Seth kept Charles and the horse he named Dancer close by his side. Both Charles and Dancer were just learning how to ride, and he didn’t want anything to go wrong.


When Seth was finally satisfied that the young horses were trained well enough, they packed up their gear and headed west; further training could continue on the trail. At first, the men wanted to form up in a military block, but the need to tend the remounts precluded that by a long shot. It wasn’t long before they were strung out in what looked like a loose herd. Larry thought it looked rather funny and chuckled every time he looked around to check their progress.

Their first night on the trail, they were making camp and Larry was pulling the saddle off his horse. In his best western drawl he turned to Sean. “Weel Hoss, this shore ain’t Noy Yok.”

“Naw, Festus,” Sean replied in kind. “It shore ain’t.” He hooked his thumbs in his sword belt with an exaggerated swagger and then hawked up a loud spit. Then both of them burst out laughing when the move didn’t turn out quite the way Sean planned and he had to wipe off his chin.

Those closest to them looked at them as if they had suddenly gone stark raving mad.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I hope your wait for book 2 was not too long, but above all, I hope you enjoy it. Book 3 will be out next year at this time, and then you can have the whole set. Now that's a milestone too.

The Blurb

King by Right of Blood and Might

I would like to present you with my first endeavor, a book that I have written titled King by Right of Blood and Might. It is a story about a young prince who must learn how to run a country from sources other than his father. His father, the king, had been a paranoid recluse ever since his own father died and he ran his family accordingly. During that time, the infrastructure of the country collapsed and many of its citizens were enslaved and taken away.

Knowing that he couldn't teach his son the things he wanted and needed to know, King Aidyn sent his son to foster with the neighboring king to the south.

After my young hero learned the things he needed to learn, he had to assemble an army and return home to reclaim and rebuild his own country. His unique friendships afforded him an unprecedented opportunity to do that. All that remained to be seen is if he can hold it all together long enough to achieve his goals.

During this time, we watch his mother descend into insanity and his love for his betrothed grow. We also learn more about how things in the country reached this state and more about his family.

written by Anna L. Walls

Prince in Hiding; Book 1 of The Making of a Mage-King series

What would happen to you if you lost your parents at 17? And then...

what if they weren't your parents at all? When Sean loses his parents within a year of each other he can't see past the tragedy...

until he finds out his father isn't really his father...

and Sean isn't who he thinks he is. Follow Sean through his journey to a magical world where he is royalty and his powers are only beginning to bloom...

and family is a relative concept - evil uncles and all.

Prince in Hiding by Anna Walls is the first in the Making of a Mage King series that follows young Sean from boy to Mage King!

written by Bruce Sarte

The Fortunes of Magic

Liam moved with his parents to a planet that had yet to become a full-fledged member of the empire; in fact, it was so new that it had yet to earn a name, still being classified as Planet 663-457. They came to study the people and their society, and judge their readiness to enter the empire.

The people of Planet 663-457 were happily lodged between the Iron Age and the Machine Age. The only, and by far biggest, difference between these people and the people of Earth was the fact that they were about four times the mass of the normal Earth human. This, however, didn’t stop twelve-year-old Liam from making fast friends with three local boys and they were soon inseparable.

There was one aspect about the planet and its people that Liam’s parents didn’t find out about until their son was irretrievably submerged in it - magic. Many people of Planet 663-457 had some modicum of magic, but few were strong enough to be able to access it. Those that were strong enough were brought to the masters for testing, and if they passed the test, the masters took on their training.

Join Liam as he tries to lead a normal life while those around him try to control or regulate the magic that is as much a part of him as the very air he breathes.

written by Anna L. Walls

The Speed of Dreams (kindle only so far - working to rectify that)

When all hopes of peace were shattered, Pilot Aaitt'Kaz was assigned to a new style of ship. It was built for speed and maneuverability, but Kaz had no time for admirations. Everyone was scattering, scrambling to get back to their command before being shot out of the sky. The ship had coordinates for him and then she had sleep for him - a very very long sleep.

A hundred thousand years later, after leaving his refugees to their best devices on a green and blue miracle of a world, Kaz woke again. The last thing he expected to do was fight to protect the descendants of his refugees from the carefully-cultivated warlike nature that had led to the destruction of his home world. The only way he could protect them was to prevent the military scientists from learning the hidden secrets of his DNA.

written by Anna L. Walls

White Star; Book 2 of The Making of a Mage-King series (when it makes it that far)

 When the long dead kings gave Sean their approval to wear the crown, they also gave him a mission.

...the thing is, they didn't tell him what it was.

Feeling like a giant hand was pushing him between his shoulder blades and pulling all his nerves and muscles into a hard fist in the process, Sean is driven...

...to accomplish what?

All he knew was that he had his dear uncle's mess to clean up and he only had until the snow flew to accomplish it all.

written by Anna L. Walls

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

These are mine and in the order they hit the stands, or Amazon actually. Forgive me for a little shameless self promotion; I did add links to Amazon. Yeah, I'm hanging my head is chagrin.

But that was not the point behind this post. The point is, what is it about a blurb that might make you pick up a book? Oh sure, first your reader will need to pick it up, and that's the responsibility of your cover and title - and eye-catcher of a picture as well as a hooker of a title, but what do they find when they turn the book over.

See my first book? Isn't it embarrassing? "Here, this is my very first book." That right there will likely cause 90% of readers to put the book right back down. Most first books are truly cringe-worthy, I know - I've struggled through quite a few of them since I published that book. Sadly, I can honestly claim ignorance on the matter. Me, an avid reader, but yeah. Once I made it past the subliminal cover-title hook, I'd look at the back and then the first page or so. As soon as the price was paid and I started reading, I was doing good to remember anything about the cover and title, and certainly not the author, and the back - long forgotten. They all did their thing though, and my reward was the story between the covers - that was the cream on top of the (insert favorite) pie.

Should by some slim chance, a reader make it past that shameful intro on the back of my book, the rest might not be so bad, but it is still amateurish. Imagine my surprise when reviews started showing up, and they were pretty darn good reviews. Now, some of those reviews were solicited after a fashion but none of them were paid for, and there's even a few left there by people I didn't even know bought the book. So, all things considered, I'm kinda proud of that book. It's not bad for a first. But even so, it's going to get a facelift one of these days.

Blurbs can be hard to put together. Prince in Hiding's blurb was written by my publisher. It's okay, and frankly I can't think of anything better. It does kinda grab your curiosity though.

The Fortunes of Magic was the easiest because I didn't have a word restriction. Well, I did, but it wasn't something I worried about until after I had a cover and it turned out my blurb fit.

The Speed of Dreams, I was given a word limit to stay within. Now that was a hard one. Expressing the dilemma in just so many words is hard. I ended up going pretty much sentence by sentence and judging each one. How vital - can it be shorter - is it already said - you all know the questions we ask. We tend to do it all through our manuscripts, but the blurb is intense, or can be.

White Star was kinda different. This version here might not be the last version, but it's been submitted so maybe it will be - we'll see. What I was aiming for was the same feel as the first book, and I'll try to do the same for book 3.

Am I getting better at book blurbs? I don't know. I was kinda hoping, seeing them all lined up here together, I'd be able to tell, but each one had their issues and differences (not counting my first one). If I go by sales, they'd be ranked like this:
Prince in Hiding - first place by a land slide
King by Right - second place merely due to longevity, though sales of eBooks have really picked up
The Fortunes of Magic and
The Speed of Dreams are both tied for 0 sales and so are tied for last place. But then they both only came out last month, so we'll see.

Well darn. This project ended up being something of a bummer, but no worries. I'm not worrying about it. It is what it is. I'm doing what I can, and can do no more. My books are there, and more will come one day soon (yeah that's plural). So my publishing future is bright.

So - Just curious - how do you handle your book blurbs? Do you do them yourself? Do you leave them up to your agent or publisher?