Tag Archives: productivity

Jerks & Irks XLII: The Unglamorous Side of Writing

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I’m sure you all know by now that the prelude novella to my Blood for Blood Series, Blood in the Past, will be released Wednesday. What you don’t know is why my eye has been twitching for the last nine days. It’s because of the unglamorous side of writing. It’s nothing short of awesome-rockets to create characters, write a plot around them, and see it through to “The End.” But the end is slow going. When I received my final polished copy from Cassie at Red Adept, I thought it would be smooth sailing until release day. It was not.

  • Following the editing process, Blood in the Past was sent to a proofreader. After I received my manuscript back from the proofreader, I didn’t entirely trust their work (equal parts perfectionism, paranoia, and the proofreader herself had made a few errors), so I had to read my story three more times. The reading and re-reading and re-re-reading of your own work is tiresome. That in itself is eye-twitch-worthy.
  • With the novella fully polished, I thought it was a good time to type up the front- and back-matter. Table of Contents. Dedication. Acknowledgments. About the Author. Contact the Author. Copyright. Agh! I bet your eyes are twitching just reading that list. Then I had to read everything over. Again and again. Typos? Spacing? Thanked everyone? Copyright page scary enough? Tres un-glam.
  • Once satisfied with my edited and proofread copy, I copy-and-pasted all the components of the front- and back-matter, then I hired Karen Perkins at LionheART to format the it for Kindle. When she was done–you guessed it–I had to read it through a couple more times, this time from my Kindle. I only found a couple of errors and they might have been my doing. But Karen was very patient with me and we corresponded via email for hours until I was happy.
  • Whoops, I forgot a step. See how scatter-brained I am? Before I sent Blood in the Past to LionheART, I purchased a gaggle of ISBN numbers from Bowker. I know what you’re gonna say: Amazon provides the ISBN for you. And you’re right…if you want the publisher to be listed as Amazon. I registered my own publishing company, remember? (Blood Read Press) Therefore I needed my own ISBNs. Purchasing them was pretty easy. Assigning one to my novella was a pain in the pin-cushion.There are so many QUESTIONS! Agh! A few of which I didn’t even know the answers to. Thankfully, not all the questions required an answer to continue. But seriously, that took me about two hours.

I still have yet to formally apply for a copyright, but I guess that’s for a different post. Tonight, I’ll attempt to upload Blood in the Past to Amazon. Why so early? To ensure I don’t screw it up and have to delay my release date. Duh. Wish me luck guys. I’m gonna need it.

But in all honesty, it is pretty damn cool to look at your own book on your Kindle. ;-)

 

 

It’s HERE! Blood in the Past COVER REVEAL!

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Squeeee!

I have waited a long time for this. A lot of days, weeks, and months have gone by while I whipped my novella into tip-top shape. And now it’s finally close enough to being released that I can reveal the beautiful cover Kit Foster of www.kitfosterdesign.com has created for me.

I know you can’t wait any longer, so here it is:

Blood in the Past 2

BLURB: Jllian Atford falls for an older man, a handsome Philadelphia cop, whose mystery is that he’s married, a reality Jillian refuses to accept. Lyla Kyle finds her mother dead on the floor from an apparent suicide. She blames her philandering father and wastes no time taking her revenge. Detective Jason Brighthouse Sr. is in the wrong place at the right time to attempt to save a colleague from his burning home. When neither of them make it out alive, his teenage son can only harp on their last argument. He shoots himself in the head…with his father’s gun.

Three lives. Three deaths. One story.

To understand the future, you must visit the past.

The Blood in the Past.

Coming this June from Blood Read Press.

The Lifeblood of the Supporting Cast

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Throughout the month of April I boasted posted about the main characters in Blood in the Past, Jillian, Brighthouse, and Lyla. But what’s a story without its supporting cast? What’s Lord of the Rings without Meriadoc and Pippin? Not that Blood in the Past is on the scale of Lord of the Rings, but still. Take a look at my supporting cast:

  • Mel. Jillian Atford’s roommate. Short black hair in a funky, angular cut across her eyes. Dark eye makeup. Tough attitude. But really she’s from a small town in Ohio. And when she and Jillian are victimized, Mel’s vulnerability is apparent. Jillian and Mel were never really close, other than living in close quarters, but after the incident a budding friendship forms. And since Jillian has no one else, she turns to Mel when she has to.
  • Susannah. Lyla’s mother. Beautiful nordic features. Long, golden hair. She’s sick of her husband’s infidelity, but she deals with it. Until she doesn’t.
  • LeeAnn. Lyla’s aunt on her father’s side. LeeAnn is an Associate Medical Examiner. Petite, pale, dry demeanor. The opposite of her charming, charismatic brother. And very suspicious of Lyla. But there’s nothing she can do about it. Her boss is retiring and refuses to hear any of her theories. So she waits. (Blood in the Paint, anyone?)
  • CJ. Lyla’s friend at UPENN hospital. They shared classes as undergrads and after she became a resident physician, he took a position in the pharmacy department. He longs for her in a way Lyla can’t ignore, but does.

There are a few other characters, but they don’t stick around very long, if you know what I mean. One day down the line I plan on writing individual short stories for these sub-characters. They will only be available to those on my mailing list. That’s just one of the perks to signing up, so make sure you add your email address soon! (Don’t worry, I won’t bombard you with crap. You’ll probably receive half a dozen emails a year at most.)

And now for my BIG announcement!

The date of my COVER REVEAL for Blood in the Past is almost upon us!

Check in on MAY 8th, 2013 to get the first peek! (And if anyone would like to help spread the word, please contact me. I’ll be scheduling interviews and guest posts throughout the month of May.)

Lyla Kyle & Me

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Yesterday, I posted the final installment in a series of character profiles from my upcoming novella, Blood in the Past. This week’s focus is on my main character, Lyla Kyle. I didn’t tell you squat about her, did I? Hmm. Well, I guess I can tell you that her story begins with her discovering her mother’s dead body. Something within in her snaps. She blames her father, thinking his careless indiscretions finally took their toll on her mother. Suddenly, Lyla’s no longer daddy’s little girl. Uh oh.

Now, I like to think as authors we all give our characters snippets of our own personalities. I’m not saying I’m a revengeful, temptress/serial killer, but there are a few similarities.

  • I gave her olive skin and dark hair, in my likeness. Although, I regretfully admit that Lyla is taller and skinnier than me. Oh well.
  • Lyla started out in science, then turned to art. Specifically, she was Pre-Med, then a surgical resident. After her mother died, she quit her last year of residency and turned to painting and sculpture, something that filled the void of her loss. She eventually does some…interesting things with that art, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. Myself, I started as a Design Major, then switched to a Biology Major. Now I find myself reverting back to my creative side.
  • Lyla is more of a loner, just like me. That doesn’t mean people don’t still gravitate toward her. Especially her male friend, CJ. (I might do a profile post of all the supporting characters, so you’ll learn about him later).
  • In the full-length novel, Blood in the Paint (coming later this year), the reality of not having either parent in her life really hits home for Lyla. Both of my parents are deceased, so my own feelings really shine through there.
  • Lyla holds SERIOUS grudges. So do I. But, thankfully, I’m not a psychopath. :-)

Now it’s time to enjoy some Lyla-ness, on the house!

Lyla bent each leg and thoroughly dried the soles of her sneakers on her pants legs. Without squeaking wet shoes, she tiptoed through the kitchen, down to the basement, pausing to grab a candle from the emergency kit at the top of the stairs. The circuit breakers in the old house were notorious for their fickle nature, so she switched off the main breaker in the fuse box, drowning the house in complete darkness. Lyla paused in the spot where she’d overheard her aunt’s suspicions only days ago. With her ear toward the ceiling and the house above, she strained to hear any indication of her father’s stirring over the din of rain pelting against the house. She heard nothing, so she removed the hypodermic needle from her over-sized bag, almost sticking herself as she fumbled for it blindly. “Here I come, Daddy,” she said in a sing-song whisper, creeping back up the stairs.

Jillian Atford and Me

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Yesterday I posted the first in a series of character profiles from my upcoming novella, Blood in the Past. This week’s focus is on Jillian Atford, psychology grad student by day, obsessive crazy-person by night. I like to think as authors we all give our characters snippets of our own personalities. I’m not saying I’m a ‘crazy-person by night,’  but there are a few similarities.

  • Jillian was mugged. Most of that scene is based on my own experience. Also, she comments to her roommate, “It’s going to be hard to walk with someone behind you for a while, but you’ll get over it.” I still haven’t gotten over it.
  • Jillian fidgets with her hands when she’s nervous. So do I. And I twirl and braid my hair, too.
  • Jillian has few people she can confide in. I only really talk to Hubby-pants. To the rest of the people who know me, I’m a glacier, so much is beneath the surface.
  • Jillian moved around a lot as a child, as did I. But I was not a foster child.
  • Jillian majored in Psychology in order to find out why people do the things they do. That’s the exact reason why I minored in it.

Ready for a Jillian-laden excerpt? Here we go:

The diamond-studded ceiling above them gleamed with the display of the stars and planets visible from this exact point on Earth, during this exact time of year. The generous air-conditioning [of the Planetarium] sent a crawling shiver over Jillian’s bare arms. Calvin noticed and curled an arm around her. What am I doing here, she wondered, suddenly glad she sat to his right, his wedding ring out of sight for the moment. This was their first date and Jillian had no idea how to feel. The way he looked at her, listened to her. She admitted the feeling of being wanted flustered her. She had gone unwanted for far too long, her entire life even. Her father left her pregnant mother. Her mother left her as an infant. Not to mention every household thereafter. Don’t I deserve this?

 

 

Why Jillian Atford? A Character Study

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On Thursdays and Fridays this month, I’ll be posting about the characters in my upcoming novella, Blood in the Past. Hopefully this will lead up to the cover reveal and the end-of-april-release, but I’m not a fortune-teller. Here’s hoping…

I'd cast Gabrielle Union as Jillian. Check out other inspiration images at http://pinterest.com/jordannaeast/blood-in-the-paint/.

I’d cast Gabrielle Union as Jillian.

The first character I’m going to chat about is Jillian Atford. Hers is the opening story told in Blood in the Past. How did I choose her name? That’s easy. ‘Jillian’ was the first name of my childhood best friend. When I started writing the first full-length novel of the series, Blood in the Paint, I named a character after her and she was also the first to read the chapters I’d written. Boy, was she was objective! But more on real-life Jillian’s comments later, in the post pertaining to Lyla, my main character.

That was years ago. Sadly, in 2009, real-life Jillian and I had a falling out. We never spoke again. Then she died in December 2011. I was devastated. All the things that were never said, the hatchet that was never buried, the water that never ran peacefully under the bridge. I still dream about her. That’s why in January 2012, I decided to finish Blood in the Paint and pursue a writing career head-on.

There are many similarities between real-life Jillian and character-Jillian. Physically, they are both tall, brown-skinned women. I originally had them both going to the same college (Hampton University), but had to alter that due to a plot problem. The artwork in Jillian’s office is patterned after that found in the home of real-life Jillian’s parents. Additionally, and I’m not sure if real-life Jillian would approve of this part, character-Jillian had an affair with a married man. Yikes!

In Blood in the Past, Jillian is a young graduate student, majoring in Clinical Psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia. She was a foster child, so she is damaged and without strong personal relationships. When a married police officer shows her a little attention, she’s confused at first, caught in the turmoil between what’s wrong and what’s right. But eventually the fact the someone who already has a family, but still wants her, wins over Jillian’s conscience. As a foster child, she never had that–and she doesn’t want to let it go.

Learn more tomorrow!

The Conundrum Over Cliffhangers

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I don’t know what made me decide to talk about this today, since I finished the first draft of my full-length novel, Blood in the Paint, months ago, and I’m now fully focused on its prelude novella, but here goes…

I love cliffhanger endings in a series. I don’t even mind a cliffhanger ending in a stand-alone novel where I’m left guessing after I turn that last page. But it seems as though I might be in the minority on this one. Or maybe not, I didn’t actually take a poll or anything. Nor do I have any interest in doing so.

But I would like to know WHY people don’t like cliffhanger endings, especially in a series. What else would lure you to buy the sequels if there wasn’t something left unresolved? I struggled with how I wanted to end my own novel. I like cliffhangers, so obviously I wanted to end it on one. But I’ve also read the countless Amazon reviews of readers chiding the author for leaving them hanging (and not in the, “How dare s/he do that to me! I love this story so much! I want to have its babies, but first I need to know what happens next!” kind of way). Some people really hate to be roped into the next book? Why? Do they want the option of not having to read the next book? Like a literary commitment-phobe? Do they hate having to wait until the next book comes out because they fear they won’t remember enough of the first book and they’ll be lost? Maybe they have a short-term memory condition like Drew Barrymore in 50 First Dates. What the hell is it? Seriously, the suspense is killing me. Oh, wait. That’s their problem too, isn’t it? Dammit.

Anyway, I hope the way I ended Blood in the Paint was a nice compromise. A nicely resolved ending, with a teeny, tiny monkey-wrench thrown in right at the very end to make you question everything you’ve just read. Ok, maybe “compromise” is the wrong word…

How do you YOU feel about cliffhanger endings?

 

Jerks & Irks XXXIII: How My Cats Prepare Me For Children

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Hubby-pants and I haven’t done the kid thing yet. But now that I’m home more, getting my novel-on, I’m also with our two cats more. Don’t get me wrong, I love the furry little frickers. One’s pudgy and feisty. The other one’s tiny and skittish. Like really skittish. Like sneeze while she’s creeping into the room and she’ll jump a foot and a half in the air kind of skittish. But anyway, they have their own little personalities and I enjoy their general existence (who am I kidding, I really do love them), but they seriously irk the crap outta me. Especially when I’m writing.

catop

Cats are intuitive creatures. They know kids will be in the picture soon, so they’re preparing me…by getting on my nerves. Crying, running, jumping, vomiting on the carpet and NOT on the tile (yes, I’m convinced they do that on purpose), eating random foreign objects, etc. Incidentally I’m now armed with a full arsenal of phrases that I just know I’ll have to use in the future when I’m home alone with the kids. Here they are:

  • “Get down from there!”
  • “What’s in your mouth?”
  • “Don’t touch that!”
  • “Get off the laptop. Mommy’s writing!”
  • “Dont eat that!”
  • “Go play with your sister. Mommy’s writing.”
  • “Where is your sister?”
  • “Get that out of your mouth!”
  • “Leave Daddy’s shoes alone!”
  • “FOR GOD’S SAKE STOP EATING THAT!!! AND GET OFF THE DAMN LAPTOP!!!”

catlap

Does this sound like you and your pets? Or do you already have kids? Do any of these scolding phrases sound familiar? In other words, am I on the right track here?

What I Learned From The Editor: Round 1

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I received my novella, Blood in the Past, back from the editor weeks ago. I’ve been working on rewrites feverishly since then to add stuff. That’s right. Add. Stuff. I’m the only writer in the history of the world whose editor requested they add stuff. But more on that later. Here’s what I learned during this first round of edits.

  • I’m wordy. Now, as a reader, I hate description overkill. I don’t need a paragraph to explain how green the grass is or a page to show how mangy a stray cat is. I also don’t need to know what everyone is wearing. In fact, details like that pull me from the story. She’s wearing a purple sweater? Hmm, I pictured her wearing a red sweater. I guess that’s because red is my favorite color. I wish I had a red sweater. Wait, I do! Is that clean? Where is that sweater? See what I mean? Anyway, the point is that I tried to avoid that in my own writing. However, I often add sentence fragments of description. For effect. My editor left the ones that actually were effective. But there were many, many redundant ones. Yikes.
  • I don’t tell enough. You know how you’re not supposed to write as though the reader is dumb? Well apparently I take it a step further and write as though the reader is telepathically connected to me. I assume they know things I know and see things I see. Dammit.
  • I tell too much. In contrast to the bullet point above, sometimes I skip having information come out in conversation or thought and just tell the reader stuff. Tsk, tsk.

And this is where the adding of stuff comes in. I’ve been adding extra scenes and dialogue sequences like a mad woman. Still hoping for an end of March release, but we’ll see. Wish me luck.

Rain Is Evil, Mother Nature Is Cruel

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For as long as I can remember, rain has ruined my life. Birthdays. Halloweens. Real holidays, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Arbor Day. What the hell, rain?

rainy-day-window

It rained when I went to go get my hair done for prom.

It has rained almost every time I’ve wanted to go to Six Flags (that’s a theme park, my non-American pals).

It rained the days leading up to my wedding so the ground was all squishy and my heels got stuck while we took pictures.

It has rained out beach days and barbecues.

It has rained whenever I’ve gotten my hair done, turning me into a troll doll.

It even rains whenever I need to do laundry, which can only be accessed from outside.

Don’t tell me about flowers and crap either. I am NOT a flower. I don’t give a damn. When I’m thirsty I grab a bottle of Poland Spring from the fridge. Besides, it’s winter. There are no damn flowers!

Right now, the rain is once again rearing its damp, dreary head. My prequel novella, Blood in the Past, goes to the editor in 15 days. It’s been raining for like the last week. Soggy, slushy, stupid rain. I can’t work when it’s raining. I just want to cuddle up on the couch, eat soup, and watch television. Or snuggle up in bed with my Kindle. I have no desire to be creative. Who can be creative when everything is so dull and grey?

You guys can, can’t you? I’m sure you’ll tell me all about it in the Comments Section. Like, how you can just put on a comfy T-shirt, pull some journals out of a tote bag, write it them with some brand new pens, and cheerily eat chocolate. By the way, if you find yourself in need of these materials, you should probably enter my giveaway where I’m including all these things as part of the grand prize. All you have to do is help me name my debut psych thriller series.

Because, once the sun comes out, it’s back to writing.