Category Archives: Book planning

Thoughts about works in progress and how they develop. Back stories that may be interesting to the readers and some of the character development.

blog, Book planning

My New Book in a New Program

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Hi, Guys!  I have a little news that is exciting for me and I am really going to need your help to pull it off.

Have you heard of the Kindle Scout program?  No?  Well, simply put, it allows the reader the opportunity to read a few chapters of a new, unpublished book and vote for the book if they enjoy it and want to read more.  If the book gets enough votes, then it might be considered for an Amazon publishing contract.  That’s a really attractive offer to me as a writer because I want to reach as many readers as possible.

legacy-72dpi-1500x2000So, I am delaying the publication of my new book, O’CEAGAN’S LEGACY in favor of submitting to the Scout program.  I have gotten notice that my book has been accepted and will be available for readers to preview and vote on as of February 11, this Thursday at 12:01 a.m. EST. Over the 30 days after it launches, you can cast a vote for the book, talk to your friends about it, encourage them to read it and vote, then pass it on to their friends.  Post the link on Facebook.  Tweet it!  Spread the word however you can.

If we’re successful and the book is selected by Amazon for publication, I will be an extremely happy writer.  What’s in it for you?  I heard you ask that.  Well, if my book wins a contract, you get a free Kindle copy of the book for voting for it.  You will also have my gratitude and I will happily say, “Best tribe ever!”

I will be posting the link for O’CEAGAN’S LEGACY when it goes live on Scout on February 11.

So I hope I can count on you to help me to have a successful launch by taking the time to do this, passing the information along to your friends and letting people know about the program.  It’s a win-win for all of us.

blog, Book planning

Happy Holidays and New Year Plans

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And little cat wit her eyes all aglow waits for Santa Claws to arrive. Christmas 1995

Another year has almost flown and we’re fully into the celebrations of the season.  However, you celebrate, I hope that your holidays are filled with love, joy and lots of good food.

It has been a very good year for me as a writer.  My romantic alter ego, Riona Kelly, just published Bitter Vintage, a suspense romance novel set in the California vineyards in 1964.  I don’t think it’s too much of a secret that I use pen names.  So, if any of you like suspense romance, check this one out.  It’s a fun, fast-moving tale of intrigue, greed and treachery among the grapevines.

The other side of it is that I’m now free to move ahead with the first rewrite of my next Funeral Singer novel, A Song for Menafee.  I completed the first draft in November and I’m ready to tackle the next phase of it.  I have a little research to do and then I’ll be moving ahead.  Right now, I am targeting publication in mid-June.  So, be patient, more tales of Gillian and her friends are on the way.

legacy-neelaban-100-smallMore immediately, I am planning the release of my long-delayed science fiction fantasy novel, O’Ceagan’s Legacy.  From Pynhavyn Press, we’ve just revealed the cover and I adore it.  I think it captures the spirit of the story, pun intended, beautifully.  The novel touches on Irish legends and brings you along for an unusual and exciting ride with a spacer family from Erinnua (New Ireland) on their merchant freighter, the Mo Croidhe.  The planned release date is March 12, 2016, so it will be along soon.

Work continues on my Young Adult novels, a series called Isles of Magic and the first book is written and resting a bit before I tackle the rewrite.  It’s no secret that I love the Celtic lands, particularly Ireland and Wales, so this series of books will take you to these lovely places.  The plan is to publish the first of the books in 2016.

Thanks for sticking with me this year.  I hope your holiday stockings are filled with delightful, mysterious and wonderful good books to read.

blog, Book planning, NaNoWriMo

Gearing up for NaNo

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Old Hillside Cemetery in Reno Nevada – the Civil War plot for those who served in the Civil War.

It’s the middle of October and time to start getting organized for this year’s NaNoWriMo.  I’ve been working on my character sheets for the next novel in the Funeral Singer series.  I have an outline and the next step is to organize all this in Scrivener so that when I start writing on November 1st, I will be ready to knock out a bunch of words from the get-go.

November is not without additional challenges to the writing.  I will be out of town three days of it and Wizard World Comic Con in Reno will take another three days out of the writing time although I will still try to write each day, even if it’s in a notebook to be typed in later.

In spite of that, I love the extra push that writing during NaNo gave me last year and I hope to have as great an experience this year.  If you’re a writer and haven’t gotten involved with your regional group for NaNo, you might be missing out on the “we’re all in this together” group feel that writing, even online, at the same time and comparing word counts with others incentive that you get from the program.  It’s a great boost and it really helped me to turn off the internal editor and just write.  The first draft needs work, but you’ve got a book when you’re done.

So over the next month, I’ll post about my progress on the next novel during NaNo.  I do have a title and the story line is really a good one, I think.  But then I’m a little biased.   Suffice it to say that Gillian Foster will still be dealing with the consequences of the first book while learning more about her “gift”.  I’m looking forward to the story myself and can’t wait to learn what she has to tell me.

Speaking of Funeral Singer, thus far, the first novel of the series, A Song for Marielle has been pretty well received, although I’ve only gotten eight reviews at this point.  Seven are on Amazon and one is on Good Reads.  I really encourage any of you who have read the book to please leave a review on Amazon and/or Good Reads. For any author, the reviews are important feedback as well as a way to let other readers know how a book is received.  Thank you to all who take the time to leave reviews.

 

blog, Book planning

“Funeral Singer: A Song for Marielle” is LIVE!

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BookCoverPreview-FuneralSingerI am so excited to announce that my book is now published at Amazon in both paperback and e-book for the Kindle.  While this is not the first book I’ve written, it is the first one to be published.

My thanks to everyone who has supported my efforts on the book and is following me.  My heartfelt thanks to the beta readers and editors who helped me whip it into the shape it is.  If I’ve missed any spelling or punctuation errors, it is entirely my fault although after eight times through you’d think I would have caught them all.

You can check out the information on my book at my launch page.

Or just go straight to the book page on Amazon.

Here’s the best part.  Today only (September 1, 2015), the e-book version of my book can be downloaded for FREE.  This is my way of introducing myself to you and giving you the opportunity to read it soon.  I do ask that if you enjoy it that you will at least rate it at Amazon and maybe even write a review.  Even if it’s not your cup of tea, please leave the feedback.  Reviews are really important to all writers, so it will help me out tremendously to have a few reviews, good or not so good, on the book.

Thanks and I really hope you enjoy the read!  Feel free to post comments and questions here or on my Facebook page.

Book planning

Counting Down to Book Release

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funeral-singer-smWow!  It’s nearly the end of July and I am still editing “Funeral Singer” to get it ready for publication.  I’ve had it out to my second round of beta readers and have gotten some great feedback on it.  I am hoping to see a little more in the next few days.   I am still making some changes as I go through and make spelling and punctuation corrections.

It definitely pays to have other eyes on the manuscript because I managed to miss quite a few things in the last two edits I did on the book.  It is so easy for your brain to just correct or ignore the mistakes you make in your own writing.  I took a class on proofreading once where the advice from the teacher was to read your work backward.  This takes away the familiarity with the project and you are more likely to catch the errors.  Other suggestions from writers are:   1) Change the font type and size so it doesn’t look the same.  2) Print the entire manuscript out and read through it with a highlighter, marking the errors.  3) Read it out loud a few times.  This also helps with hearing the dialog and if it sounds natural.  4) Use an automated reader program to have it read the book to you so you can listen for odd phrasing, omissions and other errors.  This one is really strange to listen to since there is no inflection in the reading.

In a few more days, I will be ordering my first Proof copy of the book so I can read through it to make sure I caught everything.  Once I feel comfortable that I’ve done everything I can do to get out a clean copy, it’ll be time to finalize it and release the book.  Right now, I am targeting mid-September for the release, but it won’t fly until it’s ready.

One of the things that took a little time was writing the book blurb.  These are the back pages of the book where you give a little synopsis of the story to give the potential reader an idea of what the story is about.  This is an art and a tricky skill to develop. You have to wonder how much is enough?  How much is too much?  Have I put in any spoilers?  Will this be enough to entice someone to read it?

I am excited to get my first novel out in the world and I hope that it is well-received by those who choose to read it.  No matter how you look at it, it will be an adventure.  Look for release information to come up next month.