Bankruptcy Leads to More E-Publishers

 The Border’s bankruptcy took a toll on the book industry and affected aspiring authors, like myself. Publishing Houses lost millions that Border’s owed them. Now, these companies possess less equity to invest in new authors. It’s a risk a lot of publishing houses feel they can’t afford. As a result, more and more writers turn to e-publishing.

 

Fellow writing friends plunge ahead optimistically with self-publishing on the web.

Vincent Salazar’s The Aviator Chronicles: Sky-Captain can be found on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYPG07M/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb for your Kindle for the low price of $2.99.

Synopsis: Vincent, unemployed for months now, finds himself on his first day on the job as an inexperienced bush pilot. Flying out of the local airport of the frontier town of Villavicencio(Colombia), Vincent struggles with what he is up against: a dangerous and unfamiliar environment; flying a derelict, overloaded airplane to destinations deep in the treacherous Jungle—La Selva. But in the end, he must endure—What else is he to do.

In Sky-Captain Vincent tells the story of how he became a professional pilot, learning to fly in New York City while working the graveyard shift as a Patrolman at Rockefeller Center.

Sky-Captain is Vincent Salazar’s first book, and is the story on how and why he ended up as a bush pilot in Colombia. Sky-Captain also serves as an introduction on what is yet to come: his many escapades and experiences as a commercial pilot.

 

Jeff Bauer’s Wakulla Bones, the second book in the Cavern Kings series, can be found on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/Wakulla-Bones-Cavern-Kings-Bauer-ebook/dp/B00F3O8WDU/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1385728973&sr=1-4&keywords=Jeff+Bauer  for your Kindle for $4.99.

Synopsis: Josh Jensen dreams of becoming a member of the most elite cave diving team in the world. His biggest hurdle is that the head of the team hates his guts and doesn’t believe he has what it takes to dive with the best of the best. Josh discovers amazing underwater finds that should ensure his rightful place in cave diving history but his loyalties, loves and bad luck continually get in his way.

 

Robert Frink’s Second it all Changed, can be found on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Second-It-All-Changed/dp/1492771775/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385729505&sr=8-1&keywords=Robert+Frink for $2.99 on Kindle and $8.99 in paperback.

Synopsis: Fleeing a bad marriage, Suzy, a young Japanese-American wife thought she was safe as she hide in the sleepy central Florida town of Clear Springs. Then her baby, Akira, is kidnapped. The local, Sheriff’s Office, understaffed and underfunded is making no progress in finding the missing baby. Desperate, Susie teams up with William, a disconnected man trying to put his life back together. With his help, the pieces to the puzzle slowly come into focus. Did her ex-husband, dogged by his tyrannical father take the baby, heir to a powerful crime family, back to Japan? Is the mysterious Zylontronic Processing a front for something far more sinister? It doesn’t take Suzy long to realize her Yakuza connected ex is not the only thing she needs to worry about. Her frantic search reveals racial hatred, heartbreaking exploitation and terrible anger she never imagined. Suzy’s parents had only hinted at the tension between Chinese and Japanese. If they had elaborated, Suzy might understand how Akira became the key to unlocking a decades old grudge, growing out of 1937 Nanking, involving ‘ukiyo-e yokai’, the beast of the floating world. The journey to find her son, takes her places she never believed could exist right around the corner from the sunny tourist havens of Florida. She soon realizes that dogged persistence and her new-found friends are the only hope of finding her baby alive.

 

With all my fellow writing friends forging the way in the e-book market, it seems like it’s about time for me to venture forward, as well.

Choosing a Cover Artist

 




      Choosing a cover artist for your novel is an important and personal endeavor.

      I was looking for someone who:

* listened to my ideas

* knew the tone of my novel

* could interpret someone's thoughts into a visual representation of their novel

Where was I going to find such a person?





That's when I stumbled upon this cover:

 

 

My friend, and fellow author, Jeff Bauer, went with Babski Creative Studios. It was this impressive cover design that sold me. I've already begun decisions with an artist from the company. My humorous novel about a man who works for a dog food factory is set to release at the end of January. I can not wait to see the design Elizabeth Babski creates for me!

 

 

More information on Jeff Bauer can be found at: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6855956.Jeff_Bauer 

 

Acting Out

                My husband watches me put on a clean dress, tan stockings, and brown leather boots. “What are you doing?” he wants to know as I step into the shower and turn on the water. He asks this with an amused laugh.

                “It was easier just to get wet,” I respond.

 

 

                No, I don’t normally take a shower with my clothes on. But, I do act out a lot of my storyline.  Which is what I am doing here.

The explanation: Ten minutes before this picture, I was sitting at my computer, editing the rough draft of Book 2 in The Lambient Series, and attempting to describe how my female protagonist feels completely drenched in a canoe, just rescued from drowning but still waiting for her father to be saved. I know I’ve felt what she’s feeling, probably caught in a rain storm and couldn’t immediately change clothes. But, as I was trying to recall what that felt like…the shower idea jumped into my head. So, I grabbed her costume, or the closest articles in my wardrobe, and a pad and pen.

                You can’t see it in the picture. But, beside my tub (aka, the canoe) is a pad and pen. Which, once someone stopped taking my picture, I scribbled down every emotion, thought, image, etc. my protagonist was feeling.

                I could have wretched my brain for hours to come up with the page of writing I did in five minutes dripping wet in the tub. Because…sometimes, it’s just easier to get wet.

What I do for love...

What I do for love…

What I do for the love of writing, that is.

It’s certainly not fame. Though, one day I do hope to be published. Not so much to be “famous” as to have others read my stories and live through my characters. One of my favorite questions to ask a stranger is: What is the best thing that could ever happen to you? The answer is so telling. Hands down, my response to my own question is to accidently stumble upon someone reading a book I’ve published on a plane or by the pool. Better yet, would be if they do NOT recognize I’m the author and we discuss the book. Even better, they like it.

So, what is that I do for the love of writing?

First, I’m in two writing critique circles. An online one with my former Houston Writers Club friends and a local one in Tallahassee, FL. The online group meets weekly via web conferencing and we email one another our ms at the beginning of each session.  While one individual is reading aloud their ms, the rest of us are critiquing it on the computer. Then, it is the next persons turn. The local group, and I use the term ‘local’ loosely since I travel two hours from Dothan, AL to attend, meets once a month.  In this group of five, the ms is emailed out the week before and at the meeting we discuss each person’s work.

Second, I read. Mainly, I read young adult novels and fantasy novels. And by reading, I should say studying because I underline, highlight, and take notes. Sometimes it seems to take me forever to get through a book because I’m so busy dissecting the way it was written. You might think that this takes away from my enjoyment of the novel….but you’d be wrong.

Third, I write and edit for about six hours every week day. It’s my job.

And maybe…. *I’m raising my diet coke to the air.* ….my dreams of being a published writer will come true. Maybe, even this year.

Stuck?

 Question: What happens when your storyline flows, but your prose doesn't?

Answer: I close my eyes and type.

If I get bogged down with word choice, it is easier to visualize the scene with my eyes closed. I picture my character and what he/she sees, put my fingers on the home keys, and type. This way the typos, word choice, and the way that the sentences look on the page do not get stop my train of thought. Or rather, my character's train of thought.

The world around us can distract us from our imagination, but our imagination will lead to better realization of the world around us.

In short, just write. None of it may be usuable in your manuscript, but then again, you may find yourself comparing the fostercare system to ungathered seed pods.

My Voice or His

Author George Lasher once told me that I’d be a successful writer when I finally found my voice. Obviously, he wasn’t referring to my volume- which could deafen penguins in Antarctica- or my opinions- which are definitive, endless, and always unsolicited. Not understanding what he meant, I carried on…writing and writing.

                Somewhere along the way, writing transformed from a hobby into something that I felt was achievable. I have explored picture books, chapter books, and comedy. And still, he was right, my dabbling missed something. I began to pray that I would be inspired and that I would improve. I finished writing an adult comedy (my first completed novel) and set out on my second. Eighty pages into that work my perspective changed on life. I stopped asking God for specific things that I wanted and needed. Instead, each day, I simply said, “Let me know your will.”

             As I sat down to write on my story- which I was very much attached to- I distinctly felt that I should cast it aside for this new world that began taking shape in my mind.  And, as my very first act of following His plan for me, I did. Ironically, that is the theme of the book: Having faith to follow God’s plan for you.  Five months later, I am completely finished. I read the final chapter to my writing group last night.

              I look back on what I’ve written. Desiree’s conflicting impulse to push people away and her desire for a forever family. Zach’s determinations to help Gretchen, even if it means defying a god. And, the principles my characters learned along the way, they were mine. As my characters learned eternal truths, so did I. Yes, I look back on this story and see my voice. That foster child who struggled for love but fought it at every turn. The one whose past could never stay buried. That teenager who was taught the truth, but refused to act on their knowledge. The one that took the long road to find the light. These are my stories embedded within the pages of a science-fiction, young adult novel. Within it is my voice. But, more importantly, there’s His voice, too.

             I’d ask you to wish me luck in finding an agent, but then I remember.

Houston Writer's Conference

     Since I am paid in "family moments"--- you know those magical fiveseconds of a day where your kids tell you your the best mom ever because you picked green beans out from the garden together or you've agreed to let them help make pancakes---two-hundred and fifty dollars for a writing conference is a lot of money. But, wow, was this conference worth it!
   Honestly, I'm expecting to be bored senseless with alot of lectures, like I was back in college. (Not talking about your class Sissy.) It turned out to be quiet the opposite.
  The energy level of the presenters at the conference was amazing. I took the young adult track, for the most part. All of my speakers were practically doing song and dance numbers like they were from Gypsy. I kept picturing them breaking out into song and singing, "Let me, entertain you. Let me, make you smile!" I kid you not when I tell you one of the presenters put on fairy wings!
   One of my favorite quotes from the conference was from Elaine Scott, an author published 40 times over. She said, "Write as if they will confiscate your computer on Friday." I love that. I was really bummed the email address she gave me didn't work. If anyone knows her email address, I wanted to shoot her a note about how I loved her lecture.
  Besides talented, experienced writers giving us advice on what to do and not to do, there were many agents there.  I was able to interview with four of them. I was surprised by how friendly, nurturing, and helpful the agents I spoke with were.  Granted, during the first interview I was crazy nervous...but as the energy of the conference rubbed off on me...I was on a roll. The best feeling happened in one of my interviews. When the agent was listening to my pitch, I could really tell they were really appreciating the uniqueness and humor of the story and characters. It felt great to have an agent appear to take a genuine interest in my story.  Crossing my fingers  the agent I felt a connection to works out!