Indie Life

The second Wednesday of each month is Indie Life day, where we talk about this Indie publishing thing. If you want to join in you can sign up here .

Today, I'm focusing on IndieReCon, an amazing avenue for the Indie author to learn, network, and grow. And now, they have even more to offer. Read below to find out how to enter for the soon to famous Howey

*The following is from IndieReCon concerning their upcoming conference and awards. Yes, I copy and pasted. Theirs looked so pretty, I didn't want to change it.

Join us for
IndieReCon LIVE!
October 10th-11th, 2014!
Sandy, Utah

 

Enter to win a keepsake award and stake your claim to a (soon to be) prestigious Howey!

*Visit the IRC Live website for the rules and to enter*

*note*
The Total Package entries must be received by June 30th, 11:59 EDT.
Deadlines for all other contest submissions is July 31st at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

Enter to win:

The Total Package
Grand Prize Contest $15
*Entrants will be judged by professional editors*

Best Back Cover Copy $5
*Popular vote*

Best Cover $5
*Popular vote*

Nominate yourself or your favorite author/book for the following awards:

Best Adult Author of 2014
Best NA Author of 2014
Best YA Author of 2014
Best Children's Author (Middle Grade & Picture Book) Author of 2014
Best Non-Fiction Author of 2014
Best Adult Book of 2014
Best NA Book of 2014
Best YA Book of 2014
Best Children's Book of 2014
Best Non-Fiction Book of 2014
Best First Line
 Best Book Boyfriend
Most Evil Villain
Best Kickbutt Main Character
The Most Breathtaking Kiss
Most Satisfying Ending Most Heartbreaking Ending Most Jaw Dropping Ending

 

 

Maleficent Review

 

I took my kids to the Drive-In this weekend (along with just about every other family in Niagara County, it appeared) to see Maleficent. I’ve got mixed feelings on this one. I liked that it took the familiar story and showed it from another character’s perspective, and while that’s what I liked about it, it’s also what I didn’t. After the third or fourth instance the initial aah was lost and it started to feel stale. At first I thought it was the acting, or maybe the script itself, but after much thought I think I’ve figured out the problem, and that’s only because I’ve just dealt with a similar problem myself with Blackbird. For those of you who don’t know, Blackbird is Newstead from another character’s perspective. My first plan was to follow Newstead exactly, but that was extremely limiting. So I didn’t. Instead, I had the stories intersect only on a few points, a very few. That’s what saved it. The opposite was true of Maleficent. The stories intersected too often. It felt forced. In their case I don’t know if they had a choice. The story of Sleeping Beauty is too well known, too dear to too many people. If they had strayed too far that might have been even worse. I guess that’s one of the benefits of doing a companion novel with a lesser known work: the freedom to make it what it will be.  

 

IWSG

This is the first Wednesday of the month, so that means IWSG time. Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh and friends for hosting this each month. If you want to take part, you can. Here is the link. This month is extra-special because for the first time I’m co-hosting, which means I’ll be around to visit.

What makes me insecure? In general, not too much, but in relation to my writing—just about everything. It’s hard to put yourself out there, to make yourself vulnerable, which is just what you’re doing every time you write something you intend to have someone else read. Will they love it? Hate it? Does it matter?

That’s the question to ask: Does it matter? I’d like to say it doesn’t for me, but that would be mostly a lie. I squeal with delight when I read a good review, and pout equally loudly when I see a bad one. But that's me. After four years in this writing thing, I've decided I'll probably always be like this. How about you? Do reviews still matter to you?

The FIve Year Project

This is the last Friday of the month, which officially makes it time to review my progress on The Five Year Project. This is the brainchild of Misha Gericke, to help keep all of us focused on the bigger picture. You can join in the fun at http://sylmion.blogspot.com/

My five year goal: To have the Newstead books be the next great American novels

This was actually a very important month for me. I released two books simultaneously: Blackbird, and Revenge of the Rephaim, both of which have received initial praise. I’ve also started writing Bloodbrothers, which is the conclusion to this whole Newstead storyline I’ve been working on. At this point I’m about halfway through the rough draft stage, and I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve also started another book, Erron, which is my first non-Newstead book. It’s actually been a lot of fun to write; it’s more paranormal romance than anything, and I’ve found that by writing it simultaneously with Bloodbrothers, I’m able to being more of that element in that book as well. I also had my first actual release party this month, and I’ve got to say, it was a blast. I don’t know why I haven’t done these before. So, how is the goal going? In a lot of ways I feel like I’m already there. No, the Newstead books aren’t on any bestsellers lists (yet), but I’ve had people read the books and love them. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

My Garden

For those of you who don't know, I get pretty into my garden, especially this time of year. It's a time of projects and planting and moving things. All the plans I've complied over the last year need to be done in the month of May, because that's when the soil is workable and the plants are coming out of their dormancy. Now, it's the month of May for me, because of where I live. For some people it might be April, and for others it's June or July, and that's only talking about this hemisphere. It still blows my mind that for people in Australia, December is considered Summer. Now, what is my point in all this you might ask?
Simple.
Because I'm a writer and way overthink things, I tend to make a lot of correlations between my garden and writing, and one of the biggest lessons I've learned is timing is everything. If I went down south right now, I'm sure I'd see lots of gardens in full bloom while mine is just a pile of dirt with some seeds buried in it. And that's okay. It's not time for mine yet. That's why we shouldn't compare our gardens (books) to other people's. We should just enjoy theirs while we wait for ours to bloom.

How is your garden going?

I've just read a wonderful review of Blackbird, posted by Randi Lee, Thank you so much Randi for your review, I'm so glad you liked it. Read Randi's review here

Release Party

I did it. I had my first actual release party. It wasn't huge, maybe a dozen or so of my closest friends at my house, eating chocolate and sipping wine, but it felt huge. And it felt like time.
Before, whenever I released a book, my husband and I would go away for the weekend, or out to dinner to celebrate, but this, this bringing other people into it, was new.
Now I know a lot of writers are introverted people, but I'm not. I'm actually very comfortable in social type settings--but my books are different--they're too close, too important to me. It was actually a major step of faith to send out the invitations. It's one thing to have strangers I'm never going to see read my book, something completely different having my friends reading it, having them know what's going on inside this messed-up head of mine.  
Do any of you have this same hang-up? Ever had a release party?

Line up for this week:
I'm going to do things different around here. I've found that I'm posting three times a week, and that's great, but it doesn't give me much time to visit all of you, and that's not the friend I want to be. So from now on, I'll only be posting twice a week so I can use that extra time to visit all of you. This week my next post will be on Friday.

See you then,
-Mel

Flash FIction Friday

Welcome to Flash Fiction Friday, this is a piece I wrote some time ago and posted on this blog, but for some reason it keeps haunting me, so I'm posting it again.

 

untitled

The woman pulled the fur coat in closer, like it was still an animal, like it could still protect her. But it couldn’t. It was just as dead as she was about to be.

And just like that fox, long gone, she didn’t suspect the gravity of the situation she was in until it was too late. There was nervousness, of course, there is always bound to be that when someone steps into the elevator with you and quickly pushes the button to close the door. But rest assured there will always be rational thoughts to overcome those nerves; perhaps he was just in a hurry... And as he turned to face her, knowing he was stronger, knowing she didn’t stand a chance, those rational thoughts slipped away, too late to be of good use to anyone.