Well, I finished the first draft of The Immortals! It's sitting pretty at 68,554 words. I'm like 70% happy with it. I do look forward to working on a new draft, but I'm trying not to think about it right now.
I am doing my best to focus on the short stories for FSoA. I wrote the first draft of story #2 today. It turned out pretty well, I think. It needs a bit of meat, but overall I don't think it will need too much work. We'll see how I feel in a couple of weeks.
Tomorrow, September 24th, the 5 days of FSoA being free on Kindle begins. Since I sold 151 copies the first time, I'm really hoping to sell more than that this time. Hopefully with my presence on Goodreads & Facebook, I'll be able to get people to buy it.
We'll see.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Book Review: Project Death: Resurrection by Danielle Thamasa
Now, it's no secret that Danielle and I are best friends. That being said, I tried to be as neutral as I could when I reviewed her book. This is the review I posted on Goodreads with some elaboration.
I should begin by saying I had the added benefit of getting to help with some editing on the first few chapters. Being a friend of the author, I've been aware of the general storyline for a while.
Resurrection is a good book. It's a unique premise in several ways, especially a story about Resurrectors. You can find stories or plots about the Angel of Death, but you never hear the other side of it. Having a decent plot, particularly one that is unique, is a great stepping stone. I've found that the characters can be so-so in terms of development if they have a good plot. But if the plot and character development is lacking, than the book usually isn't good. Luckily, Resurrection had a really interesting plot that kept me reading, even when the characters bugged me.
The growth and change of the lead character Tamesis is interesting, although at some points jumpy and almost out of place, particularly towards the end of the book. She is a somewhat cliched character. A girl who has always felt out of place and has special powers, and finally she finds where she belongs. I am often the first person to roll my eyes at the special snowflake character, but I actually enjoyed, for the most part, Tamesis. She is special, but for a legit reason.
While the character of Thanos is predictable in most ways, I can honestly say I did not expect his secret at the end! I had wondered and wondered through the whole book, but that was not the conclusion I had come to. A good twist, I think.
My main problem with the book is that the character development of many of the supporting characters falls really flat. That can be attributed to two things: one, the POV is done in first person so you're only getting Tamesis' view of the world. and two, the obvious choice of the writing being a little underdone. That is often seen, however, in books with several supporting characters. The main characters are done well enough that it's a bit frustrating to see many of the other characters fall by the wayside. Just something to keep in mind for the future books.
Overall, I did enjoy the book and I'm quite looking forward to the next one! I definitely recommend this book!
I should begin by saying I had the added benefit of getting to help with some editing on the first few chapters. Being a friend of the author, I've been aware of the general storyline for a while.
Resurrection is a good book. It's a unique premise in several ways, especially a story about Resurrectors. You can find stories or plots about the Angel of Death, but you never hear the other side of it. Having a decent plot, particularly one that is unique, is a great stepping stone. I've found that the characters can be so-so in terms of development if they have a good plot. But if the plot and character development is lacking, than the book usually isn't good. Luckily, Resurrection had a really interesting plot that kept me reading, even when the characters bugged me.
The growth and change of the lead character Tamesis is interesting, although at some points jumpy and almost out of place, particularly towards the end of the book. She is a somewhat cliched character. A girl who has always felt out of place and has special powers, and finally she finds where she belongs. I am often the first person to roll my eyes at the special snowflake character, but I actually enjoyed, for the most part, Tamesis. She is special, but for a legit reason.
While the character of Thanos is predictable in most ways, I can honestly say I did not expect his secret at the end! I had wondered and wondered through the whole book, but that was not the conclusion I had come to. A good twist, I think.
My main problem with the book is that the character development of many of the supporting characters falls really flat. That can be attributed to two things: one, the POV is done in first person so you're only getting Tamesis' view of the world. and two, the obvious choice of the writing being a little underdone. That is often seen, however, in books with several supporting characters. The main characters are done well enough that it's a bit frustrating to see many of the other characters fall by the wayside. Just something to keep in mind for the future books.
Overall, I did enjoy the book and I'm quite looking forward to the next one! I definitely recommend this book!
Licensed again
My Substitute Teaching License came in this week, so now I just have to wait for the school to need me. Hopefully the first time I go in will be for a bunch of lovely kids, since it'll be my first day subbing. With my luck, I'll end up with a bunch of kids who can smell fear.
I am slowly raising awareness of my book. I'm more active on goodreads and when I can, I talk about my book on other sites. Next week, I will be having a free ebook week through Kindle to celebrate the 3-month anniversary of the release.
Heidelberg finally sent out their Summer Bulletin and there on page 29, under 2010 was my blurb about releasing my book! So cool to see it in print.
I've finally got past the long chapter 9 and am writing chapter 10 for the Immortals. This chapter should go fairly quickly and then the Epilogue won't be long. Once the first draft is done, I'm going to start really focusing on my short stories for FSoA. If I can get a good chunk done by late October, I'll submit a thing to the Winter Bulletin about releasing my second novel.
Any press is good press.
Meanwhile, the weather is so back and forth here that I tend to wake up with headaches. It sucks the big one. I'm so tired of the weather.
I am slowly raising awareness of my book. I'm more active on goodreads and when I can, I talk about my book on other sites. Next week, I will be having a free ebook week through Kindle to celebrate the 3-month anniversary of the release.
Heidelberg finally sent out their Summer Bulletin and there on page 29, under 2010 was my blurb about releasing my book! So cool to see it in print.
I've finally got past the long chapter 9 and am writing chapter 10 for the Immortals. This chapter should go fairly quickly and then the Epilogue won't be long. Once the first draft is done, I'm going to start really focusing on my short stories for FSoA. If I can get a good chunk done by late October, I'll submit a thing to the Winter Bulletin about releasing my second novel.
Any press is good press.
Meanwhile, the weather is so back and forth here that I tend to wake up with headaches. It sucks the big one. I'm so tired of the weather.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Version 21 of Within Demise
I've finally gotten around to finishing the new look for the blog. Eventually I'll do a new layout, but for now I like how things are set up.
I'm still working on The Immortals, slowly. I've been reading a lot lately. I read Divergent by Veronica Roth. It wasn't a bad book, but not exceptional. A decent story with ok characters. Some of the plot is a bit eh at times. I'm not a fan of the special snowflake syndrome, but Roth handles it decently for most of the book. Sometimes it really sticks out and makes you roll your eyes, but luckily that is few and far between. I am looking forward to reading the second book.
I started reading The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones the other day. Having seen the movie, all I can say is that the changes made were sometimes good and sometimes bad. There are parts of the book I prefer to the movie, but only barely. The writing is so sugary. Cassandra Clare makes the mistake of using food to describe skin tones. Who the hell has maple colored skin? No one, CC, no one. She also uses metaphors way too much and the ones she uses are so overdone. The main character, Clary, is an ok character. A lot of the supporting characters are cliches, and even Clary is a lot of the time. The clumsy, yet super special girl trope is far overdone. I think if CC reeled it back a bit, Clary would be a much better character, but constantly having it harped on that Clary is so special, but she's so average and clumsy just makes me roll my eyes. It's cliche and overdone. It's not a terrible book, like I was expecting, but it definitely could have used a heavy hand in editing to make it less cliche and it could have been a good book worthy of praise. Of course, none of that even touches how terrible of a person CC has turned out to be, but that's another story.
I went to Columbus earlier this week to see Kamelot, Delain, & Eklipse. The concert was amazing. I had such a good time. And I got to meet the singer for Delain after the show! This is Delain's first tour in the US, so it was really nice to be able to see them finally.
Still trying to figure out ways to get my book out there. One of my brother's friends has bought a copy and has been getting his friends to buy copies as well. I'm just waiting on the money and then we'll see how many I've sold so far. It's tough to get my name out there. I don't have a built in readership and I just can't convince people to buy it.
I'm doing what I can though. Maybe it'll turn around soon.
I'm still working on The Immortals, slowly. I've been reading a lot lately. I read Divergent by Veronica Roth. It wasn't a bad book, but not exceptional. A decent story with ok characters. Some of the plot is a bit eh at times. I'm not a fan of the special snowflake syndrome, but Roth handles it decently for most of the book. Sometimes it really sticks out and makes you roll your eyes, but luckily that is few and far between. I am looking forward to reading the second book.
I started reading The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones the other day. Having seen the movie, all I can say is that the changes made were sometimes good and sometimes bad. There are parts of the book I prefer to the movie, but only barely. The writing is so sugary. Cassandra Clare makes the mistake of using food to describe skin tones. Who the hell has maple colored skin? No one, CC, no one. She also uses metaphors way too much and the ones she uses are so overdone. The main character, Clary, is an ok character. A lot of the supporting characters are cliches, and even Clary is a lot of the time. The clumsy, yet super special girl trope is far overdone. I think if CC reeled it back a bit, Clary would be a much better character, but constantly having it harped on that Clary is so special, but she's so average and clumsy just makes me roll my eyes. It's cliche and overdone. It's not a terrible book, like I was expecting, but it definitely could have used a heavy hand in editing to make it less cliche and it could have been a good book worthy of praise. Of course, none of that even touches how terrible of a person CC has turned out to be, but that's another story.
I went to Columbus earlier this week to see Kamelot, Delain, & Eklipse. The concert was amazing. I had such a good time. And I got to meet the singer for Delain after the show! This is Delain's first tour in the US, so it was really nice to be able to see them finally.
Still trying to figure out ways to get my book out there. One of my brother's friends has bought a copy and has been getting his friends to buy copies as well. I'm just waiting on the money and then we'll see how many I've sold so far. It's tough to get my name out there. I don't have a built in readership and I just can't convince people to buy it.
I'm doing what I can though. Maybe it'll turn around soon.
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