Character, personality, empathy, story
July 24, 2015 by A Slice of Orange in category ArchivesHow do you create compelling, distinct characters, convey personality, create a sense of empathy, and tell a story…with a limited number of words?
We not only get to know the four friends, but the narrator as well….
The Four Friends
Leonard was a lion with a six foot tail,
George was a goat, and his beard was yellow,
And James was a very small snail.
Leonard had a stall, and a great big strong one,
Earnest had a manger, and its walls were thick,
George found a pen, but I think it was the wrong one,
And James sat down on a brick
Earnest started trumpeting, and cracked his manger,
Leonard started roaring, and shivered his stall,
James gave a huffle of a snail in danger
And nobody heard him at all.
Earnest started trumpeting and raised such a rumpus,
Leonard started roaring and trying to kick,
James went on a journey with the goats new compass
And he reached the end of his brick.
Ernest was an elephant and very well intentioned,
Leonard was a lion with a brave new tail,
George was a goat, as I think I have mentioned,
but James was only a snail.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956)
Cinderella’s Happily Edit After: My Kindle Scout Experience Part 3 by Jina Bacarr
July 11, 2015 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat tagged as Amazon, author, books, Cinderella, Civil War, Confessions of a Podcast Goddess, editing, glass slipper, historical, Kindle Press, kindle scout, prince, princess, romance, time travel, Writer, writing
(You can read my previous posts about my experience with the Kindle Scout program by clicking on Part 1 and Part 2.)
Remember when Cinderella was all aflutter getting ready for the ball? Her fairy godmother shows up and poof! Cindy has a gorgeous gown, a carriage, and the sexiest pair of glass slippers. Next, she meets the prince, loses her slipper, gets it back, and marries the handsomest man in the land.
Then comes a reality check.
Cindy is a princess with a hundred and fifty room castle to manage, servants galore, royal obligations, and a demanding mother-in-law who can’t wait to show her off at high teas.
First, she must learn how to be a princess.
Kinda like putting out a good book. It’s a lot of work. Period.
After my 30-day campaign with Kindle Scout for LOVE ME FOREVER, my Civil War time travel romance, being on and off the Hot and Trending list, then waiting to see if I made the cut, came my reality check.
Edits.
Most writers would rather clean bathrooms for a week than open the Editorial Letter.
I was shaking in my slippers when mine came. I worked more than two years on LOVE ME FOREVER, getting the research right, the romance, settings. Not an easy task. My story is over 150,000 words.
Which brings me to one of my favorite things about Kindle Scout: the Kindle Press Team. With everyone jumping into the self-publishing arena, it’s easy to want to write, write, write and get it out there. Do-it-yourself, especially if you’ve been writing for a long time. I can wrap my head around a story pretty well. I’ve written several novels for trad publishers, non-fiction books, kids’ TV scripts, and plenty of magazine columns and stories.
But no writer is an island.
A good editor is as important as Cinderella’s fairy godmother. She/he can wave their magic wand and give you that extra spin on your book, make you dig deeper, cut excess. One thing that drew me to the Kindle Scout program was the idea of receiving editorial input.
I wasn’t disappointed. The editorial guidance at Kindle Scout/Kindle Press is awesome.
I’m thrilled to say that my editor at Kindle Press was thorough, gave excellent suggestions, made me think, and complimented me along the way when she particularly liked something. She’s definitely one of the best editors I’ve ever had. The turnaround was quick: a week to complete the edits. I admit I hardly slept and I maxed out the balance on my Starbucks gold card, but the KP Team gave me a heads up three weeks before as to exactly what day to expect the email with the attached files and they delivered.
So here we are at a new juncture in my Kindle Scout experience. Edits done; book in production.
Preorder begins: July 13, 2015.
On Sale at Amazon: July 28, 2015.
Am I nervous? You bet I am. I put my heart and soul into this story, laughed and cried with my characters every step of the way. I’m anxious to get it out there. But the best part is, I feel confident that as part of the Kindle Scout program, LOVE ME FOREVER is the best it can be.
~Jina
Website: www.jinabacarr.com
Blog: www.jinabacarr.wordpress.com
Next month: Part 4: what happens when my Kindle Scout book, LOVE ME FOREVER, goes on sale.
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Ad Results From KDP Select Free Days by Kitty Bucholtz
July 10, 2015 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz tagged as advertising, It's Worth It, KDP Select, Kitty Bucholtz, promotion, self publishing, self-publishing
[UPDATE: Debra Holland kindly mentioned in the comments below how you can find your prior month’s sales. Thanks, Debra! So the borrows in June were 88 rather than 63. Nice! 🙂 ]
FLING:NEW ADULT BOX SET
July 5, 2015 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as Bonnie Bliss, boxed sets, Elena Dillion, Geralyn Corcillo, Kathleen Rowland, L. Kirk, Michele Barrow-Belisle, New Adult, novella, Tina Gayle, Tracy Reed
I am so excited to be a part of my first box set. I have heard a lot of people talk about box sets. I’ve heard the good and the bad. However, the amount of good far outweighed the bad for me. I am having a ball working with the six other authors in the FLING: NEW ADULT BOX SET.
False celebration. Being new to KDP Select and the borrow or loan program, I reviewed my sales and thought I had over 200 hundred borrows. Reality stepped in and slapped me when I realized the pay structure changed on July 1st. What I thought were units borrowed, were actually pages read. Still not too bad for the first day.
THE GOOD GIRL, is my contribution to the box set and I have to admit, I thought writing a novella
would be a piece of flourless chocolate cake. And it was sort of. Originally, I was only going to write ten thousand words, which I did in a week. However, I wanted to also have a print version, so I set out to double my word count. Talking about stretching, but once I did, it was a little difficult to stop. So now my little novella, is book one in a series.
I’m very grateful to be a part of this box set, because it forced me to do some things I should have done. First, it made me implement a production schedule. Second, it forced me to write a novella. I have been wanting to write a novella for a while. I loved it. I am definitely adding more novellas to my production schedule. Third, it gave me a filler book. My next full length book needed quite a few revisions [I’ll share about that book later] which meant the gap between books was not good. So instead of almost nine months, it’s more like six.
This venture gave me six new writing friends. Thank you, Bonnie, Elena, Geralyn, Kathleen, Michele and Tina.
FLING New Adult Box Set is available at Amazon.com
So meet my Fling Box Set Mates:
Entangled Summer by Michele Barrow-Belisle
Nora Dultry has dreamed of a mysterious guy for years, but when he walks into her waking life, she must untangle the past from the present to know if he’s her dream come true, or her waking nightmare.
Love Me Like You Do by L.Kirk
Daisy Philips jumps to the defense of mysterious loner. Jason Lancaster is a lost soul. Their budding romance hits a snag when a tragedy pulls them apart. Can they find a way to mend their broken hearts?
Chase by Elena Dillon
Rylan Maguire has run from danger, right into Chase Sullivan. But his past tangles with hers, making Rylan wonder if she’s strong enough to love him.
My Best Friend’s Ex by Tina Gayle
She loved him first, but her best friend married him. With their divorce, Brooke must choose between her best friend and the man she loves.
Betrayal at Crater’s Edge by Kathleen Rowland
Marchand wants to show Yardley he loves her, but he has bigger problems. Venus is heading for a catastrophe, and only he can save their world.
Random Acts of Violet by Geralyn Corcillo
Cautious loner Violet Parker needs a new playbook when her quiet summer on campus collides with an unexpected eight year-old, a monster in the attic, and Noah!
The Good Girl by Tracy Reed
When Gabriella accepted her new assignment, she didn’t know it also included a chance for love with her boss, the hot and elusive, Phillippe Marchant.
In My Day…
June 24, 2015 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as blue jeans, Isabel Swift, LevisI was looking for a pair of normal jeans and not having much luck. So I went into the giant Levi shop (All Levis All The Time) filled with hope! Surely Levi would be able to deliver a pair of regular jeans.
Think again.
Fabric dark, cheap feeling, and like ever other jean product available on the market “stylishly” torn, big holes at knees or strange white blobs of wear on the legs in places that would never, naturally, get worn.
Or multiple peculiar holes all over, as if they’d been left hanging in some automatic weapons firing range and had been peppered good. Or both…
I look at the young clerk and confessed: “You know, I just feel it is my job to wear out my own jeans. It doesn’t seem right to have it contracted out to some machine or child laborer.”
He nodded sympathetically. (The customer is always right).
Yes, in my day we had active lives. We did stuff. We wore holes in our jeans without any outside help. Yep, not even from our disinterested non-helicopter parents.
Our jeans were authentic. Artisanal. Indeed the work was just about as local as you could get.
When you look at the language being used now to market and enhance our present possessions, foods and lifestyle, beneath the words, you can hear this wild, inchoate cry against the virtualness of much of our present existence: instant, effortless, convenient. But somehow insubstantial, unsatisfying.
Unearned.
Isabel Swift
