Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The Power of Sevens

To this date: Dream Weaver has received six 5-star ratings with five glowing reviews. Thanks everybody! The Dream Weaver Giveaway on Goodreads has 279 requests and 127 people have placed it on their 'To Read' shelf.


Tag! You're it!
I've recently created my 'Author's Page' on GoodReads, and joined a group, 'Self-Publish and Indie-Authors, Promote Yourself Here!'  One of the Authors shared a great way to get the word out about your book and your blog. I tag this Author in my blog and ask 7 others to join the fun.(I found 3 new Authors to follow!) Then I post seven lines, starting at the seventh line on the seventh or 77 page of my book. And list links to the original Author and the 7 new Authors to their blogs. Sound a little confusing? I was confused. But that's not hard to do sometimes. It's not as complicated as it sounds...the tagging thing, not the confusing me thing. So here goes my attempt to follow directions.

The Author who posted this challenge was Dawn Husted. She's working on a post-apocalyptic/sci-fi story called 'diVINE Order'. Check out her 7 lines, as well as other works she has on her blog.

So Here Goes! Seven Lines from Dream Weaver!
                 “I see you,” the voice purred gruffly. I envisioned a lion crouched in tall grass. Rigid, poised for attack. His words were soft and succinct, as though masking something from me, but the smooth lacquered surface didn’t camouflage the menace that roiled underneath--like the delicate crust of cooled lava veiling the molten lake beneath.
                Blake’s eyes locked on my face as he lurched away from a rack of boy’s jeans. They followed the silent nod of my head. 

 Check out the following Authors and their books!

1.   Arthur Crandon - Writing Matters Blog 
2.   Lilly M. Love - Demons of Dreams Blog
3.   Kimberley Brockman - Raven (YA Paranormal)
4.   Lisa Orchard - The Super Spies and The Cat Lady Killer (YA)
5.   Angela Scott - Desert Rice, Desert Flower, Wanted: Dead or Undead
6.   Cally Jackson - The Big Smoke (from Down Under)
7.   Megan S Johnston - The Chimera Hunters Series

It has been my pleasure to meet and get to know each of these writers and I feel I have gained friends with each of them. This Blog Challenge has truly been that...a CHALLENGE. But it was worth it to be able to find people to stand in my corner and that I can support as well. Thank you to all of you who were kind enough to post my link on your page.

If you'd like to read the first few pages of Dream Weaver, click on 'Excerpts from Dream Weaver' on my page menu to the right!

 

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

What do you do when you're going the wrong direction?

THIS WEEK'S TYRO MOMENT
Hang in there, baby!
So what do you do when you realize you're going the wrong direction? Mapquest? Tom Tom? If only life gave us the option of a satellite directory. But the answer isn't that complicated. You just stop. And turn. Maybe not all the way around, or you end up where you started. Though maybe some of us need to just go back to the beginning and start over. Most of us, just a few degree's turn will suffice.

I started this blog as a blog about writing, but I've discovered only a billion or so other people have writing blogs and a lot of them are very good. I follow a few. I recently learned quite a few things from a HUGE blogger named Derek Halpern of Social Triggers. He challenged readers of his blog to pick some other blogs they'd like to try to connect with and to know the reason WHY. I realized that it really isn't other writers that I want to connect with (though the connections can and are mutually beneficial.) Truly, the people I want to reach are READERS. As a writer, I am an avid reader, so it stands to reason that many of the readers I want to reach are going to be writers as well.

Rasta beagle gets an epiphany!
THE NEW DIRECTION
I puzzled and fretted over what direction to take Tyro Writer and was struck by an EPIPHANY. (That's the word of the week, by the way.) Well, maybe it wasn't quite an epiphany, just a really interesting idea.

I've learned at workshops at writer's conferences that backstory drags the story down. So you have to be careful how much you use and where you use it. With that said, I've decided to tell the backstory of my characters. ARCs of Dream Weaver are slowly trickling out into the hands of readers and thus far the reviews are highly encouraging. And they're not from my mom and my sister. Beta readers are already wanting more about Emari, Nick, Sabre, Eddyson and Ivy. So this is the place to find it.

AN ODD BEGINNING
I know it seems an odd place to begin the introduction of a novel to an audience, by introducing a character that is secondary, even if only by a smidge. But I love Sabre James. The research to develop him has taken me places I would never have dreamed of going and forced me *grimace* to study history *violent shudder*. Besides, Sabre is a very misunderstood man…

Because birth records in the 1700’s were a thing of the rich and royalty, Sabre’s birth date is not precise. He was approximately six years old, using innate intelligence and wits to survive, when ruffians from a labor ship bound for America rousted him from his hovel and slung him onboard.

The Account of My Life by Sabre James
    I don’t remember much of my childhood in the streets of London. It was so long ago. I remember the fog, damp and dirty, wending its way through my soul. I scoured London’s port near Gravesend, begging coppers and stivers, even a crust of bread to dull the gnarling inside my stomach. Arriving passengers on the coaches from London often had a spare coin or two, unless the greedy driver cleaned them out first, then rewarded me with a blow from his whip.
    My memories are absent of family, no loving embraces or firm pats on the back. Only slobbering kisses from foul drunken whores and a boot in the seat from slavering watermen. Only filth and hunger and cold and desperation to survive, something more of instinct rather than desire.
    Rough hands jerked me from my hovel one night and dragged me away, took me to a ship where I stumbled, weak and feeble, up the gangway. I was cast down before the captain of the vessel. “There’s a good lad,” he spoke kindly to me though I’d no idea why he’d be kind to the likes of me. I was scrubbed in a vat of frigid soapy water, held under by a crewman till my lungs nearly burst, and emerged into a cacophony of raucous laughter.
    The sea roiled and bubbled beneath me as the ship set sail at dawn. My vomit stained the decks more oft than not for the first two weeks onboard. I had a go of flinging myself overboard, if only to cease my suffering but the barnacled hands of my master stayed me, and his crew hung me by my ankle over the bow until I blacked out.
    The Capt. was good to me, kept me on a cot in his own cabin, tried to coerce me to converse with him, tho I had little use for conversation. I remembered not even my own name, (the watermen and whores called me ‘gutter rat'). So my master took to calling me Sabre, like the sword he kept on his bedstead. He found my eyes gazing mystified at the weapon and the touch of a smile upon my lips. He raised the blade and placed it lovingly in my hands. “Sabre,” he said in soft growling purr. From that moment, when he bellowed the word, I scurried to his side for his command. Tho leathered and grizzly, his heart found a soft place for me, perhaps in ode to the son he lost. Often he saved me from the torments of his men, and refused to hire me out like all the other men, women and children on the ship who labored for his profit.
    Despite his kindness, after many years, I knew there was more to the world than the sea, ports of call and indentured servants. I yearned for the land and excitement. At 19 I took leave of my master and lord, put off in a port in the colonies. I soon enlisted in the Maryland Militia under General Smallwood. During my enlistment, his Pennsylvania division was set to harass the British army but the Brits got wind of us and routed us in the dark of night. Having removed their flints from their muskets, they attacked only with bayonets. It was a bloody barbaric assault and our company was fallen upon by Red Coats. I was wounded in what history dubbed as Paoli’s Massacre. Bleeding profusely from chest, leg and facial wounds, I was left for dead.
    I lay in a clump of bushes, bleeding from my wounds, unbeknownst to my fellows, as the Brits wielded chaos and routed the lot. Dawn broke and wisps of steam rose from the bodies of the dead and dieing. Loyalist Tories picked off the vanquishing in the name of the king and were chivied by local farmers. The patriot farmers dug a common trench on a hillside above the battlefield in which to lay the deceased.
    I shivered as shock chilled me from within and rain drenched me from without. Death’s ice cold hand clutched my own, his frost blue lips summoned me...


SO THERE YOU HAVE IT
There is still so much to know about Sabre's 250 some-odd years, so check back often to read more of his tale.

One lone, brave bloom
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Once in a lifetime, you get to do something bigger and braver than you think you can." *author unknown. From a Hallmark movie commercial   
   

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Did You Ever Read A Newsletter You Just HAD To Share?

I know I just posted early, early this morning...but I received my weekly Newsletter from Jeff Goins, one of the blogs I follow and I had to share it with everyone. Such a great nugget. Enjoy!
Jeff Goins at goinswriter.com. Here's the NEWSLETTER!

ADVENTURES INTO THE LITERARY WORLD

LEARNING FROM SCRATCH
I have spent the last four years learning as much as I can about writing and the literary world. I've attended three PNWA conferences where I've made fabulous connections with amazing people who love to write as much as I do. And with those connections I've created a network of people to link with, to support and get support. I literally knew NOTHING about the literary world; nothing about pitching to an agent, what an agent was for, how to write a synopsis or query letter. See? I told you I was clueless. I thought about calling my blog something like 'Virgin Writer' but my husband said I might attract some...interesting (in a bad way) people.

CONNECT WITH OTHER WRITERS
In my adventures into the literary world, I have been fortunate to meet some great people...if only online. I got to review books for Jason Black (Pebblehoof) who is also a great book doctor, if anyone needs one; and Angela Scott (Desert Rice). And I discovered, I'm not too shabby at editing other people's content. My most recent review was for Cally Jackson (The Big Smoke). Despite being mondo pregnant and ready to pop at any time, Cally has been sweet enough to answer all of my questions on self-publishing and cover design on CreateSpace.

THE OTHER GUY'S BLOG
There are thousands of writing, writers, and literature sites out there in cyberspace to connect to, and so much information we can glean from each one. My newest favorite is Arthur Crandon's blog, Writing Matters. I like his humor. This week I've spent a lot of time on the Book Baby blog learning more about SEO Search Engine Optimization, and that writer's should spend 70% of their writing time actually writing and 30% on promotion.

THANKS
 Many thanks to all of you who visit. Please feel free to subscribe and get my posts via email, or leave a comment. As we all connect together we can support one another in getting our work into the hands of the people who want it...readers. Check back here often to see the updates on Dream Weaver Novels. Tentatively planning a mid-March cover reveal of the official cover and a mid-April release of the book in soft cover and ebook format. Check on GoodReads soon for a book giveaway. I'll let you know here when I get that under way.