29 November 2011
There are prizes to be awarded in a new promo for four authors new books, but that isn’t why I’m writing this post. For some time now, I’ve been expounding on the idea of authors getting together to promote each others writing. Yes, when we slap our names on something, we want to know it is as good as what we do ourselves, but sometimes you also have to trust others.
So before I agreed to join this promotion, I bought and read Shannon Mayer’s new book Sundered. It’s not the kind of book I’d normally read. Urban fantasy, even with a strong dose of romance tied in, just isn’t what I spend my time with. But I found that Shannon was a good writer with a well thought-out idea and nicely executed story. Her concept that a new miracle drug quickly snatched up by a huge percentage of the population that then discovers it turns them into slobbering zombies was a great setup for an apocalyptic tale. But her sensitive drawing of the leading characters is what made the story worthwhile.
So, based on my experience with 1/4 of the authors involved in this promo, I’m throwing what little weight I have behind it and encourage you to do so, too. Link to this post, or for that matter, copy and paste it into your own blog. Let’s get some new authors launched!
Now here are the details:
With this contest, there is something for everyone and it’s SO simple to be in on the winning!
On November 28 and/or 29, purchase 1 or all 4 of the debut author’s books listed here. Then forward proof of purchase (the receipt Amazon sends you will do just fine) to : motionsrider@yahoo.ca and get up to 4 entries into a draw for a $100 Amazon gift card!
It’s that easy, no reviews, no hoops to jump through. Just a great .99 book or two. Or three or four. AND, if the person who wins the $100 Amazon Gift Card has purchased all 4 books, an additional $25 Amazon Gift Card will be awarded to the winner!
On top of that, 2 random commenter’s picked from 2 of our participating blogs will receive $5 gift Amazon gift cards . So, be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think of the promo, the books, or the authors.
Winners will be chosen randomly, one entry per person, per book.
All winners will be announced on December 7th on Wringing Out Words (http://shannonmayer.blogspot.com)
“Between” by Cyndi Tefft
After transporting souls to heaven for the last 300 years, Aiden MacRae has all but given up on finding the one whose love will redeem him and allow him entry through the pearly gates.
Torn between her growing attraction to Aiden and heaven's siren song, Lindsey must learn the hard way whether love really can transcend all boundaries.
“Until Dawn: Last Light” by Jennifer Simas
For the past six years, Zoë has been anything but “normal.” Struggling to accept her immortality and thrown into a war that’s been waging in the shadows for over a thousand years, Zoë must now become who she was meant to be, joining the other Chosen to save what’s left of humanity.
When the endless night falls over the Earth, will she be able to save the one man who reminds her of what it is to be human, or will it be too late?
Until Dawn: Last Light is a story of death and despair, love and longing, hope and hopelessness, and the ability to survive and keep going even when it seems impossible – when you want nothing more than to give up.
“The Kayson Cycle” by Jonathan D. Allen
The Kayson Cycle introduces the Kayson Brothers, a pair of faith healers who once wowed crowds in a traveling show but went their separate ways after a night in which a healing took a dark turn. Jeffrey Kayson disappeared into the wilderness and William Kayson, wracked by guilt, moved to the failing mining town of Calico Hills to build a nice, quiet life – one that has lasted for over ten years.
His quiet, predictable life crumbles when a mysterious stranger walks into his tavern bearing a proposal to find his long-lost brother and do the one thing that William has sworn to never do again - have his brother heal a woman. William soon learns that he can’t escape his family – or his destiny.
Includes an exclusive sample chapter of The Corridors of the Dead. Please note that this is a Kindle Single, and around 6,000 words in length.
“Sundered” by Shannon Mayer
![Sunderedfinal1600x2400tagline[1]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_8sq2Ov125s8VeE3Wlaniv1woH1Zro_YYRP2C9XKltYGOy5AvMn3K_tUciWuxlk34SQ2G9AWwOXiak0XEo1MK0rSTHa3_3U0lyUvdgCWLZoqlsEMpf5_7GN72Qv7NGAkzP-jV/s1600-h/Sunderedfinal1600x2400tagline%25255B1%25255D%25255B3%25255D.jpg "Sunderedfinal1600x2400tagline[1]")
As the weeks roll by, it becomes apparent that Nevermore is not the miracle it claimed. A true to life nightmare, the drug steals the very essence that makes up humanity and unleashes a new and deadly species on the world that is bent on filling its belly. Locked down within their small farm home, Mara and her husband Sebastian struggle against increasingly bad odds, fighting off marauders and monsters alike.
But Sebastian carries a dark secret, one that more than threatens to tear them apart, it threatens to destroy them both and the love they have for each other.
Now Mara must make the ultimate choice. Will she live for love, or will she live to survive?
10 November 2011
It’s NaNoWriMo month and I’ve been busy writing the prequel to For Blood or Money, titled For Toil and Trouble. You can read along chapter by chapter as I write it if you don’t mind a few stumbles and inconsistencies.
While writing is taking a lot of time, I decided that this was also the perfect opportunity to do a revised second edition of For Blood or Money. Let’s face it, I’ve learned a lot about both writing and publishing since I released that book in 2008! Normally, I’m not a proponent of revising a published work unless substantive facts change, as in a non-fiction work. Revising a work of fiction implies that it wasn’t ready to be published the first time. But, I’ve been bugged by two “flaws” in the book that I really wanted to fix. One was the fact that my narrator shifts tense from past to present in the book. The second is the use of the pronoun “you” when narrating. I felt there were some real problems here.
So, I moved the book to a new more readable layout, and then started “proofreading” it for these errors. Some places I just had to change a word and all was well, and others I had to rewrite an entire paragraph. By chapter three, I’d made a bucketload of changes and I was beginning to doubt whether I was taking the right approach.
In writing For Toil and Trouble this month, I discovered I was encountering some of the same issues. I had to think this through more carefully.
Shifting Tense.
According to Ask Dr. Pretentious there are no less than 12 different tenses in the English language. (http://dr-pretentious.livejournal.com/23750.html?thread=144838#t144838) The simple past, present, and future most of us grasp. But adding progressive, perfect, and perfect progressive modifiers to each is a little more complex. I was having (past progressive) difficulty just separating past and present.
A bad example of shifting is also a colloquial use that I’ve heard frequently. “He shouted an insult at me and then he just leaves.” Both events described in the sentence happened in the past, but the second action was written as though in the present. I want to correct those.
An example that I’ve decided not to correct distinguishes past action from present state of being. For example: “I walked to Jitters this morning and ordered my usual decaf quad grande Americano. I like my coffee hot, strong, and black.” In this instance, the past tense verbs indicate an action that happened earlier. The present tense verb indicates a continuing state of being. As long as I have not stopped liking black coffee, it should be present tense. “I ran to the intersection and looked both ways. The streets of Seattle are laid out along a perfect grid.” The first sentence indicates a past action, the second (aside from being a false statement) expresses a continuing state of being. As long as the streets haven’t changed, the construction is correct.
Now to go back and correct the things I previously incorrectly corrected!
Breaking the Third Wall
This is a common occurrence in daily speech. We use the pronoun “you” as a universal substitute for the pronoun “one.” For example:
Dag: “Imagine your husband is cheating on you.”
Jen: “I’m not married.”
Dag: “Imagine a woman whose husband is cheating on her.”
Dag’s personalization of the hypothetical experience backfired on him. In the same way, if I use the pronoun “you” in my writing, I stop telling a story and attempt to personalize it by addressing the reader. That, except in rare occurrences, will also backfire. I did this a lot in For Blood or Money, and realized that it most frequently shows up in first person narratives. It is not unheard of in third person narratives, however. “He examined the contents of the bag and pulled out a pocket knife, a role of duct tape, and a ball of string. Then he reached for one more thing. You never know when chewing gum might come in handy.” In the last sentence, I stopped telling a story and gave an aside to the reader. (I also switched tense!) That the kind of thing is what I need to correct in both books.
If you have experience in either of these or an opinion about encountering tense shift or wall breaking in the books you read, I’d appreciate your comments.
Now, back to editing and writing!
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