New Book Release! Poison by Lan Chan

Today, my writing partner, Lan Chan, is celebrating the release of her first novel, Poison (Wind Dancer, #1)! Yay! I'm so excited for her, as we have both been working on developing our writing craft and skills for years together. She is finally ready to plunge into the world of self-publishing and embark on a new chapter in her life as an author of fiction. (Also, isn't this cover gorgeous?)

Since the night her mother was murdered, sixteen-year-old Rory Gray has known one truth: There are no good Seeders. In post-apocalyptic Australia, the scientists known as Seeders have built a Citadel surrounded by food-producing regions and populated with refugees from the wars and famine. To maintain their control, the Seeders poisoned the land and outlawed the saving of seeds. It’s been six years since Rory graced the Seeders’ circus stage as the Wind Dancer and still the scars on her body haven’t healed. Even worse are the scars on her heart, left by a Seeder boy who promised to protect her. Now the Seeders are withholding supplies from Rory’s region for perceived disobedience. Utilizing the Wanderer knowledge she received from her mother, Rory must journey to the Citadel through uninhabitable terrain to plead for mercy. However, the Citadel isn’t as Rory remembered. The chief plant geneticist is dying and rumors fly that the store of viable seed is dwindling. The Seeders are desperate to find a seed bank they believe Rory can locate, and they will stop at nothing to get it. To defy the Seeders means death. But Rory has been close to death before--this time she’s learned the value of poison. 

Recommended for fans of The Hunger Games, strong protagonists, circuses and nature!

*Pick up your copy at Smashwords / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Amazon AUS
 

IWSG: New Pen Name Edition? (#18)

Insecure Writers' Support Group (IWSG) is a really awesome meme that you should be doing along with the rest of us writers. Unless you truly are happy with your writing and don't feel the need to vent about your insecurities because they don't exist for you. But, really.... Don't they?  
IWSG is hosted by Captain Ninja Alex at his blog, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

I know it's been months since I've been regularly publishing blog posts, but I'm still alive! I've been writing, just like I said I was going to for my New Year's Resolution post. Since I made it a very easy-to-follow resolution, it's been 'cake' keeping up with it. I pretty much write everyday, although, because I get so far out ahead of my word count pace, I can afford to take some days off. It's pretty cool, and I've never been able to get myself to stick with a regular writing plan before, until now. So, I'm very happy with that. *silently celebrates* 

But, of course, I still have insecurities. Lots of them. Too many, like what do I blog about on a writing blog as an unpublished author? Since I can't ever come up with anything to blog about, hence my most recent post being published back in January, I just rarely do anymore. What is there to even say? "Hey guys, I'm writing.... Writing still.... Still writing.... Thought y'all might be dying to know I'm STILL WRITING." Uh... I just don't think anyone really wants to know about my boring life so badly.

Anyway, besides all this anxiety and angst over blog writing, I've been having serious issues with being able to fathom publishing my horrid stories. I typically never finish any of them, but that's sort of why I don't. Because I know they will be read by real super mean people one day, and because of how bad they are, those people will either lose all respect for me, or tear me a new one for deigning to make them waste a few hours of their life on my drivel.

On top of that, this anxiety is the kind that keeps me awake all night. I'm not exaggerating about that. When I write something I intend to publish one day, I get insomnia really bad. Like, REALLY BAD. The kind that will kill you if it even keeps up for a full week. The kind that makes you go insane for real. So, you can see how averse I am to finishing anything I write.

This, naturally, makes me ponder, "What is my life?" I can't be an author for a living as per my dream if this keeps up. Should I just quit? Probably. But, I thought about different scenarios of not quitting, and the only thing that seemed to greatly relieve my anxiety was the idea of publishing under a pen name. Yes. Because I can't put crap into this world with readers knowing it came from me (and, no, I don't write erotica, or anything like that. I just write crappy YA that embarrasses me). I do think I'll be able to do it so long as they believe me to be someone who doesn't actually exist.

I think one day, after years and years more of writing, I might be able to write books that don't make me or other people cringe, but, in the meantime, I can make a few bucks a month off some unsuspecting readers who either don't mind reading low-quality crap, or who just won't realize what they've gotten themselves into until it's too late. I'll keep the costs of producing the books very, very low and just see what happens. I know plenty of books have fared surprisingly well and are worse than mine. Might as well do it and see what it's like to be able to sleep at night, again.

So, assuming I actually do this in the future, I'll mention it, but won't let any of you know what the books' titles will be, nor the name I'll be using to publish them under. Unless you are going to be helping me edit the stories (although, they aren't going to be painstakingly edited), I need to keep everyone's awareness of my connection to them at a strict minimum.

Drastic times call for drastic measures. I'm sorry to those who will hate me for inflicting more crap onto the self-publishing world, but there's no law against doing it and sometimes, even those bad authors make a buck or two. That extra income will be very helpful as I've got credit card debt to get rid of. In a perfect world, I'd be writing at the level I want to be right now and publishing best sellers, but we all know that quantum reality is just too out-of-phase for me to reach. Someday, though. Maybe someday.

Have you ever published under a pen name? If so, why and how was your experience with it?

Top Ten Tuesday (#2): Books I HAD to Buy...But Haven't Read

"Top Ten Tuesday" is a weekly (super fun) book blog meme hosted by the awesome folks at The Broke and the Bookish.

Geez... I am so guilty of this week's topic and am currently trying hard to correct my ways. I make sure every other book I read is one I've had around for at least one year or more. I am soooo bad.....

TOP TEN BOOKS I HAD TO BUY...BUT ARE STILL SITTING ON MY SHELF UNREAD

 

1. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

I'm so bad about reading the HP series and I still need to read Book 2. I know y'all are looking at these words cross-eyed right now, but don't hate! Some people were older when these books came out. Old enough to not want to read children's books. And, some still don't really dig Middle Grade. ("Someone" is me, by the way. HP is good, though!)

2. Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

I've been excited to read this one for a long time now, since late last summer, and I still haven't read it. It dismays me quite a bit to have to admit that. I read the prequel novellas and they were fabulous, so I don't know what it's going to take to get me to finally read the first novel. (I like the cover of the UK edition better than the U.S. one.)  

3. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

I haven't read any Westerfeld, but he's super popular and I just need to sit down and read one of his books. I like steampunk, so I figure I'll like this one. 

4. The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge

I've had this one for over a year and was so sure I would have read it by now...but no. I have way too many books and not enough time or energy to read them! This book has one of my favorite covers. Gorgeous. I need to find out if the contents are equally as gorgeous. 

5. Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

This book has a super interesting premise and I should have read it ages ago... ugh. Story of my life. I think I read some of the first chapter and was blown away, so why haven't I dived into this? I'm clonking myself on the head as I type this (because I have three arms, actually. Very handy...). Victorian men in portrait paintings totally speak to me, too. And, you thought having three arms made me weird...? Heh.

6. Dark Mirror by M.J. Putney

Is this one about a man in a mirror? Actually, I don't know, but it seems to be about a school for magical people. Maybe it's like HP for the teenagers of the Regency era. Seriously, that sounds so cool! I'd probably love a book like that more than HP on premise alone.

7. Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

I actually have Linger and Forever and it is taking me forever to read these books. I read Shiver, Book 1, what feels like ages ago (nearly 2 years) and I think I'll have to reread it, since I can't remember too well what happens in it. There are werewolves that turn when they get too cold, or something like that. It was really good! 

8. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

I'm not even familiar with The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but it sounds pretty sweet. At least the synopsis for this book sounds pretty sweet and like something I should have read a really long time ago...but I haven't. I need a second pair of eyes so I can read while I'm doing other things (like blogging). 

9. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken       

This book is fairly knew (December 2012), but I meant to read it as soon as I got it after Christmas last year and still haven't. It's being hailed as super good dystopian fiction and I want to see what I think of it. 

10. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

I like the premise for this book as well, and I downloaded a free audiobook version of this last summer, but I still haven't listened to it yet. I'm not big on audiobooks, but a free book is a free book, especially when it's this book. I just take what I can get. I'm starting to realize how much I dislike ghosts, but I still love the idea for this story. I only hope it's not too heavy on the horror, since I'm not big on horror. 


What books do you have on your shelves collecting dust because you've been slacking off about reading them? I can't be the only person who has too many books to read and not enough time to read them! Or, can I...?

       

Week in Review (#7)

WEEK IN REVIEW

Time for another 'Week in Review' post....


Past Writing

I spent last week mostly taking time off from my novella WIP, Pink Knight, because I figured the distance from it would do me good. I think it did. By the end of the week, I began to reread and edit it, realizing that the book really doesn't have an existing audience. I suppose I didn't think much about that when I was writing it because it was so much fun, I just didn't want to kill my joy. 

But, it is what it is and it's just not like other books out there. I suppose most writers set out to write as original of novels as they can. Usually, originality is a good thing. But, people don't like what they don't recognize--it's just the way our brains are wired. I'm all for getting away from using tired old tropes, but popular tropes are popular for a reason. Because people recognize them and can make sense of them. 

But, still I want to publish this book because it was so fun to write. Why not? I'm so eager to write the next novella in the series, I've already started the first chapter. 

It's safer to write what you know will sell, but I want to write what's fun for me. I can't see myself just writing something like YA paranormal romance when I usually can barely shove that down my own throat. I guess this means I'll fail, but I'll be having fun while I go down on my sinking ship....*waves*

Past Reading

I finished reading Velveteen by Daniel Marks and it really was a bit disappointing. A lot of books do this to me nowadays. But, this one was too long, too wordy, and too lost for me to enjoy it very much. Whatever. 

After that, I read a 50-page novelette called Guardian by Rachel Morgan, which is the first of a series of prequel novelettes to a novel called The Faerie Guardian. This little story was so good and funny! I loved the writing and the pacing. It was perfect for a quick, absorbing, exhilarating YA read. By the way, Guardian is free in both the Kindle and Nook stores!

Once finished with that, I moved onto The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia and oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh...my gosh! This book is BEAUTIFUL and GORGEOUS! Wow. I'm only just starting it, but it's blowing me away with its incredible world building and the luscious prose that's making me feel like mine is a fat plumber in a tutu trying to dance around in a ballet. It's so freaking stunning.

From the POV of a human-like robot woman, it's about what it's like to be a freaking robot. How brilliant is that? One blurb said it's about "what it means to not be human." The automatons are the minorities in their society and get treated like dirt, so, Mattie, the protagonist, is a liberated automaton, but is still ignored and mistreated by everyone except her creator, a man named Loharri. Read this if you want to read genuine steampunk that means something. Like, what do all the cogs and gears mean? What is their significance to the story and its theme? You'll get that and more in this book.

Beyond that, I won three book giveaways last week, which is so bizarre, but awesome. One of them was even a Goodreads giveway, which I hardly ever win. The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett, which comes highly recommended by Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles. I look forward to reading that one.

This Week

I will continue to edit and revise Pink Knight, likely adding to its length a bit. I want to add so many little things to it, so it'll be a bit of a longer novella, which is good. It needs more wiggle room and more fleshing out.

Reading-wise, I'm going to keep on reading the magic that is The Alchemy of Stone--slowly savoring the delicious read about Mattie and her life as a robot whose maker refuses to let her have the key to her own clockwork heart because he's afraid she'll stop going over to his house to visit him. Parents....   


Sorry for the extra long post, but I'm finally finished now. Doing any editing on your WIP, lately? Discovered any amazing reads?
  

"Did I Notice Your Book?" Blogfest!

The Ninjas and Knights are joining forces!

"Did I Notice Your Book?" Blogfest, October 17, 2012

Post about a book you’ve noticed.

You can choose a book that you’ve read, something you saw on a blog or social media site, Goodreads, or a sales website. Anything that caught your eye because of a great cover, blurb or reviews, but DON’T tell the author that their book has been noticed. Instead, shout out on social media sites, and encourage others to do the same, until the author finds his/her book.

Leave a blog comment at Ninja Captain Alex or Ciara Knight’s blog when the author finds their book.

Only two rules:

1)You can’t post about your own book.

2)The book shouldn’t be on the New York Times or USA Today bestseller list.

This is your chance to shout out about a book that might not have been noticed by others.

Let’s blow up the blogosphere with great new reads!

Go HERE to enter the Blogfest.

____________________

This is a really cool feature I've seen on Ciara Knight's blog, so I wanted to get in on this blogfest.

The book I've chosen to highlight ascribes to my love of (read: weird obsession with) Frankenstein fiction, anything inspired by Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein. (Also, kind of works for the current October season, doesn't it?)

So, I chose My Frankenstein by Michael J. Lee. I have not read this novel, yet, but I do own it. As far as I can tell it is a self-published retelling of the Frankenstein story and geared towards the YA, paranormal romance-loving crowd with some horror elements, obviously.

And, this cover is TO DIE FOR. *dies*

Synopsis: In a small village in early 19th Century young Eva is enthralled by the new young baron, Viktor Frankenstein. Viktor promises to transform the traditional little town into a beacon of science and gives the book loving Eva access to his fantastic library. Eva becomes his student and assists him in a secret experiment, though she is kept in the dark about its ultimate aim. Soon after that Viktor introduces Eva to his “cousin” Adam. Adam is horribly disfigured with stitches running across his face. Viktor claims he is mute and simpleminded, but Eva takes pity on him and sets out to teach him to speak.…

What follows is a combination of tragic romance and classic horror as Eva is pulled between Viktor, who grows jealous and takes murderous steps to ensure his secret, and Adam, who possess tremendous strength and rage yet deep inside is innocent and vulnerable.

In his debut fantasy novel, Michael J. Lee retells the classic story by Mary Shelley as a dark romance with steampunk overtones.


Praise for My Frankenstein: "I would highly recommend giving this a read, probably more than once, and if you love Frankenstein, then this is an absolute must for your reading collection." 
        -Eric Swett, My Writer's Cramp


Know of any novels you feel need more love?

Week in Review (#5)

WEEK IN REVIEW

Ah... It's time to review my writing/reading week. Let's do this thing, shall we?


Past Writing

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel when it concerns finishing my novella WIP, Pink Knight. I only need to write roughly 4,000 more words and I'll be done. Yay! I met my word count goal for this week, again, of 3,000 words, by racking up 3,356 words. This brings me to a total word count, so far, of 21,150 words.

Past Reading

I didn't read any published books this week, but rather worked on a critique for my writing friend, Camille Picott. She has written a really awesome novella with a heavy Chinese mythological influence. It's definitely something up my alley, not to mention her characters are the shiz. Love them! I still need to finish writing up my critique and email it off to her.

This Week

Again, I plan on writing another 3,000 words of Pink Knight, which won't finish it, but will get me really close. Looks like I'll have this WIP done before October 20th, which is my self-imposed deadline. But, that's good because I don't think, when setting goals, we should set difficult to meet deadlines. I'm allowing myself a few extra days just in case I need them and will still be able to finish by my deadline. 

All I need to do is write the climactic scene and the denouement of the story and it will be finished. Although, both plot points entail a lot of scenes, so there's a lot left to do. But, it's all the really awesome stuff that I can't wait to write! I have it all planned out already and it's going to be so good. Writing should always be this fun, shouldn't it?

I also plan on reading my ARC of Velveteen by Daniel Marks, a YA horror/paranormal novel debut. I've been following Danny's progress with Velveteen, even watching his video when he first announced that he had sold it to his publisher. I remember when he made vlogs about fixing it for his agent to go out on submission. Really cool to see that book go from manuscript to published literature and so motivating for the unpublished. 

Velveteen will be released this Tuesday, October 9th, so check it out if funny YA horror about the underworld sounds like it floats your boat.


That's all for me on my front. It's hard work, but getting your writing done is really satisfying. Have you been making progress on your writing projects? 
 

On Critiquing Manuscripts & Top 3 Books Per Year

I think today's post is just going to be about what I've been doing lately, whether it's truly interesting, or not....

I've been critiquing my writing partner Lan Chan's manuscript (go find her blog over here) and just doing it in my own way, really. I thought if I'm going to take notes while I read each chapter, then why not write out those notes as coherent sentences and give them to her to read as part of my critique? Thus, I've been doing that, and it prevents me from forgetting largely what my notes mean after I'm done writing them. I think it's a good strategy. 

But, boy oh boy is critiquing HARD! Yeah, it is, isn't it? But, I'm so happy to do it because I also love being helpful and giving her input that will make a difference to her story. And, I have to admit that she really is a fabulous new author who writes like a pro already, so she's made my work a lot easier. Thank you for that, Lan!

Sometimes, I do weird things like research and statistics, just for fun. Can't get any nerdier than that, right? Well, lately I've been curious about the trends that have occurred in the book industry in recent years--namely the trend that has vaulted Young Adult literature over the head of everything else. 

I like to read YA literature and write it, although I read and write adult literature, as well. But, I thought it would be interesting to see which new YA sci-fi/fantasy series were the top 3 sellers in each of the past eight years. I can't even explain why I wanted to do this, but it just popped into my head and I went with it. What can I say?

Since there's no existing reliable way to research actual book sales statistics, I had to do my best to extrapolate from such free resources as Amazon.com and Goodreads.com. This is NOT a scientific nor perfectly accurate assessment, but it's as good as anyone else's not working high up in a big publishing house. From Amazon, I looked at current sales rank because past sales rank is not available, and from Goodreads I looked at the number of ratings each title received from members. These indicate books selling (Amazon) and books being read (Goodreads).

What were the results of my unscientificness? These are new series books and do not include sequel titles.



2012 (so far, but the year's not over yet!)

1. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (released yesterday!)
2. The Selection by Kiera Cass (have not read)
3. Cinder by Marissa Meyer (have not read)

2011

1. Divergent by Veronica Roth
2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
3. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (have not read)   

2010

1. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
2. Matched by Ally Condie
3. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

2009

1. Fallen by Lauren Kate
2. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
3. The Maze Runner by James Dashner (have not read)

2008

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2. Graceling by Kristin Cashore (have not read)
3. Gone by Scott Westerfeld (have not read) 

2007 

1. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
2. Marked by P.C. Cast (have not read)
3. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (have not read) 

2006 

1. Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz (have not read)
2. Glass Houses by Rachel Caine (have not read)
3. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (have not read) 

2005 

1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (dropped)
2. The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (have not read)
3. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (have not read)


I haven't gone back further than this yet, but I plan to. Although, before 2005, YA wasn't selling as well as Middle Grade due to the popularity of the Harry Potter series. But, once Twilight came out in late 2005, it rocked the book world and teen fiction became all the rage for the first time.

I'm really surprised by the Graceling series because I just didn't know it was so popular. It debuted the same year as The Hunger Games, but still did very well, not nearly as distant a second place finisher as I thought it would be. And, I'm shocked by Life As We Knew It doing so well the year it came out in 2006. I decided to buy it on my Kindle because it's only $3 right now! I had no idea it was all that great of a book. 

I intend to read all of these books, even though I've read several of them already, and I pre-ordered Shadow and Bone. I really wonder how that book will hold up during its first 6 months and which 3 books will end up holding those spots when this year comes to a close. 

Stuff like this is so exciting! And, it's a good idea for those of us who write in this genre/reading grade to read the books that impacted in the industry the most from year to year. We can learn so much about the craft and how to write marketable fiction just from these gems out there.