He Kicks and . . . Off The Goal Post and Into the Mascot’s Groin

Posted on April 28, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

(Why do I keep stopping what I’m doing when I hear this song?  Something keeps drawing me to it.)

I had such high hopes for this week.  Sure, my son’s marital arts schedule changed, but that simply meant I had more time between him coming home and going there.  Easy way to fix that is an early dinner.  I had errands to do, including one yesterday that was caused by somebody else forgetting something.  That shouldn’t have caused trouble, so what in the world happened?

The issue mostly is in regards to Quest of the Broken-Hearted being edited.  It’s only 15 chapters, which is shorter than most of my other books.  My usual 3 chapters a day should mean that I’m done, but I came 4 chapters short.  I should be able to finish it by Monday the latest, which throws the next editing project into disarray.  That would be War of Nytefall: Lost, which I want to edit before I start writing the third book of that series.  Best to make sure I have everything correctly in my head to make sure continuity isn’t messed up.  That went wrong a little between the first and second book, so I have a list of things I have to repair.  While it sounds like I have a plan, I’m flailing a little bit after a strong and productive year opener.

I think the reason is because this has been a really bad anxiety week.  Wednesday might have been the only day I woke up without feeling like I was going to die.  The stress from a few life things just nailed me and I found myself dragging my mind and body along.  I didn’t think it would be this difficult to edit while fighting this thing because it’s never hit me this hard.  It was like there wasn’t a permanent way out and every time I began to pull away from the anxiety, I’d get knocked back down.  Worst part is that I would wake up with the issues, have a few blips during the day, and then get railroaded at night to fall back down.  Apparently, I can’t sleep this stuff off anymore.  I started my Anxiety Journal for Thursday, so we’ll see how that goes.  If It seems to be makings things worse then I guess I’ll drop it.

This brings up a slight problem with productivity because it means I’ll be moving slower than before.  With people calling for me to quit or work harder, I can see this causing some issues.  What is it with people thinking they’re helping others by nagging, yelling, and being an all around pain in the ass?  It’s like they think you’ll magically succeed or quit to find a happier life if they harass you enough.  From personal experience, it just makes me want to be alone or, if a massive anxiety attack is triggered, lay down and die.  Should probably admit that this happened a lot this week and that probably didn’t help my overall situation.

There are two things that are hovering over me too.  I need to figure out what to do on Tuesdays because I can’t keep doing War of Nytefall teasers without putting out most of the book.  I’ll be making a post this week asking if people have suggestions or things they want to see more of.  This doesn’t always go well, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.  The other thing I have to get my butt moving on is finding a cover artist for Quest of the Broken-Hearted.  It doesn’t get released until around July 4th, but I shouldn’t drag my feet to the point where I have to grab a generic.  As I mentioned last weekend, I’d like the character on the cover and she has a certain look that you can’t find in stock photos.  I have an idea of who I want to contact, but I also need to wrangle up enough funds in case they’re more expensive than I realize.

The coming weeks are going to be chaotic due to there being a bunch of school events for my son and other obligations.  So, maybe being on editing for a bit longer won’t hurt me too much.  It’s easier to get pulled away from that than a new project.  Nothing else has me wanting to put my stuff aside since most of my favorite shows are ending their seasons (or series like ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’).  Might be easier to write at night if I get to the new book once all those things fall by the wayside.  Since I have nowhere else to go for writing at that time of day, I’m kind of stuck by the TV.  Need to really look into getting some headphones that aren’t buds because those hurt my ears after a while.  Another errand that I might have to take since I still have a bunch of birthday money.  I’m back to rambling and I have to get ready for a family gathering, so I should close this post up.

Goals for the week?

  1. Finish editing Quest of the Broken-Hearted
  2. Start editing War of Nytefall: Lost
  3. Look into cover artist for Quest of the Broken-Hearted
  4. Try to ward off anxiety attacks
  5. Laundry
  6. Make another entry or two for my Anxiety Journal.
  7. Figure out the Tuesday post issue
  8. No, I’m not going to see ‘Infinity War’.  Please stop asking.  I’ll save my money for ‘Deadpool 2’ and ‘Venom’.
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Book Marketing: 6 Top Ways for Indie Authors to Make Self-published Books More Discoverable and More Competitive on Amazon – by Jyotsna Ramachamdran…

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

 on The Book Designer:

Amazon Kindle SEO is the process of using keywords to have your book rank higher in Amazon search results than other books. If you’ve put blood, sweat and tears into writing a book, you want readers to find and buy it!

Luckily for you, there are a number of ways to (ethically) manipulate Amazon Kindle’s search engine results in order to get your shining star of a book to crawl up to the top of its search results, and Jyotsna Ramachamdran, founder of ALLi Partner Happy Self Publishing, is here to talk you through that all-important process.

Find out HOW – HERE

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The Lair of Gregorio Roman

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

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While Nyte had some detailed description and the Scrumptious Siren had a lot, there wasn’t much for Gregorio’s lair.  Home to the ancient gnomish vampire, I made it very vague beyond there being tables and experiments everywhere.  I added a bedroom for one scene, but most of my attention went to the entrance.  This would be a long slide and some dips and slime, all of which will change from time to time.  I have it in my head that Gregorio gets bored quite often and designing new entrances keeps him entertained.  Not that he gets a lot of company, which is a gripe he makes clear at times.

I’ve thought a lot about why I didn’t make a lot of details for Gregorio’s lair and I think it’s the same reason I went all out with the Scrumptious Siren.  I created him as a recluse that stays out of politics and gets food by having it delivered by his friends.  He’s been around for so long that I can understand why he wouldn’t wander far away from home.  Gregorio probably had seen it all until the Great Cataclysm changed everything and then he just wanted to stay safe.  My description was rather basic and that felt right since he hadn’t done much with the place.

One thing I did create is a reputation, which hints that his home was nearly a legend since very few have gone beyond the doorway.  This could be an in-story reason for Gregorio doing very little with a large lair.  He is a gnome, which means he is always working on an experiment and that requires space.  Not to mention the inevitable explosions probably destroyed a lot of the decorations in the main chamber.  Still, I didn’t even describe scraps of such things, so the place comes off as very barren.  There are many chambers that I haven’t added either because the action didn’t require them.  All I know is that this place is supposed to be huge and there might have been a time when Gregorio had a lot of children who stayed there.  Not biological kids, but those he turned like Nadia Sylvan and Clyde.

As I think about the lair, I get the sense that this is a place that is going to evolve as the series progresses.  It started as almost dead and quiet because that was where Gregorio was at this point in his long life.  With the changes that Clyde has brought to the world, I can see him reviving his lair and being more open to seeing the rest of Windemere.  Will he sire more children?  I don’t think he’s going to do that, but I can see him creating a home for Dawn Fangs who are looking for a place to live.  Not all of them will want to be out in the open and Gregorio’s lair is built to contain a lot of power.  Much of this is still in the works because it was never a focus during the planning stages.  Yet, I really do think there is more to this place than I realize.

So, has anybody else designed a location in their story that didn’t come to life at the beginning?  Was it better that way or did you consider it a problem?

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The 2018 Author Interview Series Featuring Suzanne Burke

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

This gallery contains 10 photos.

Don Massenzio It’s time for the next subject for my 2018 author interview series. Author interviews are posted every Friday throughout the year. I am honored to continue this series with Australian author Suzanne Burke You can catch up with … Continue reading →

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Traveler Blog Tour

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

twixie13's avatarWelcome to Hell Bent

Traveler Blog Tour Welcome to Hell Bent

Hey, there, and welcome to stop number 11 (if my math is correct) of the Traveler Blog Tour! Traveler is the third in S.E. Anderson’s Starstruck series. While I haven’t yet gotten to read this one, the prior 2 were highly enjoyable.

So enjoyable, I had a certain half-monkey of mine take some time to speak with the main character herself.

Travis had to admit…he was a bit nervous about this interview. He was used to showing up in-person to speak to his interviewee, but this was one of those rare occasions that he didn’t happen to have transportation. What he had was a video call setup, determination (or stubbornness…one of those), and an afternoon to kill. And what’s more, he had someone to interview.

Just as soon as she located her, of course. He’d been using this video setup to contact as many different ships and spaceports and the…

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An Exciting (Scary) New Venture

Posted on April 26, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Looking for an editor? Check out Don’s new service.

Unknown's avatarDon Massenzio

I launched my author blog about three years ago and have watched it grow beyond anything I’d hoped. I’ve met many great people as I’ve made some friendships and have helped some authors along the way.

As luck would have it, I lost my day job about two months ago and I’m still in search of regular employment to keep the lights on and put food on the table.

The silver lining that emerged from this is that I’m embarking on a new venture. During the past year, I have edited books for a few select authors as kind of a pilot and test launch of a set of services that I hoped to turn into a business. My extra ‘free time’ and my need to generate some income, I’m launching a book editing/formatting service formally as a separate WordPress site.

For authors that take advantage of these services, I’m…

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Chastity Sullivan: Hostess of the Scrumptious Siren

Posted on April 26, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Vampirella

One thing that seems to always be connected with vampires is sex or, at the very least, a primal lust.  Can already see people getting squeamish here.  Well, you might have noticed that none of the previous characters had anything sexual about them.  At best, you have Stephanie Talon needing to do her rituals in the nude, but that’s only because she does them by bathing in blood.  Anyway, the final character to be spotlighted here makes up for this pretty nicely.  I give to you Chastity Sullivan the seductive, playful owner of the Scrumptious Siren.  It’s a bar, bakery, and brothel, which I came up with on the fly and still don’t know why I connected cupcakes to her pre-determined antics.  Maybe I should start at the beginning here.

Chastity appeared for a little bit in a Vampire game before the player left college.  This was the same person who played Sari in the Dungeons & Dragons game.  So, you may see some similarities between the two.  Instead of a bar owner, this version was a biker girl who loved drinking, flirting, and never backed down from a challenge.  Unfortunately, she didn’t stay around for long, but made an impact by her interactions.  Her biggest one was butting heads with Mab in a way that was similar to the Nyx/Sari relationship.  Only difference here is that they weren’t really friends and Chastity would go out of her way to make Mab uncomfortable.  This is something that was carried over to the books to turn them into rivals more than friends.  A lot of this stems from an incident that Mab hasn’t forgiven Chastity for, which is why things tend to be tense around them.

The first version of Chastity I made for the books stayed similar to the original and was basically an occasional fling for Clyde.  This ended up hurting her in terms of development, so I made her the gang’s information gatherer.  That part remained and I upped her sexuality to the point where she was a prostitute then a madam for a few more years.  Once I sat down to outline and profile for the final product, I toned that down a bit and made her a cunning business owner who is allied with Clyde’s gang.  A final tweak was that she is dedicated to him because he saved her from an abusive maker.  It isn’t blind obedience, but a solid faith in Clyde’s abilities and causes.  That is why she listens for rumors that can help her ‘savior’.  Unlike Luther, she gets information directly from sources instead of watching and listening in silence.  This makes them a perfect couple in terms of spying, which is why they have a close relationship in the books.

Perhaps one of the oddest things about Chastity is her place of business.  I expected it to be a bar and brothel where she uses sex to gather information.  That part kind of stayed, but then things took a turn to make her a more versatile businesswoman.  It started with me naming it the Scrumptious Siren and I meant for it to be a sexual thing.  Unfortunately, I was pretty hungry when I began writing the description and made the building look like a giant cupcake.  Then I put pies on the sills, which were guarded by goblins.  I got inside to describe the bar and poles going to the bottom floors for sexual encounters.  Yet, I had an open air bakery going around the outer edge of the main floor and people buying pastries alongside beer and sex.  The craziest thing is that it really worked for an establishment that Chastity would create and run.  In fact, this combination is why I think the vampires and mortals who come to the Scrumptious Siren love her so much.  It’s to the point where she could amass an army without using her charm magic.

The funniest story with Chastity is a part of her clothing from the game that I carried over to the books.  The biker version had bright pink hand prints on her pants and would go around asking all of the characters if their hands fit.  It always got either a laugh or an uncomfortable look depending on the person she did it to.  Don’t really remember what would happen if her target’s hands fit, but I know it happened once when I was doing something else.  This hand print thing was kept for the book version who wears a dress dotted with them.  Whoever is lucky enough to be chosen is brought to her private quarters for a special party.  She only wears this dress during the business hours though.

See more of Chastity in War of Nytefall: Loyalty!

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Time to Lie, on #LisaBurtonRadio

Posted on April 26, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

coldhandboyack's avatarEntertaining Stories

Lisa Burton

Hey there all you time bandits and meddlers of history. Welcome all of you young people trying to find a place in the modern world. You’ve landed on Lisa Burton Radio, the only show that brings you characters from the books you love.

I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl, and my special guest today is Landon Bridges. He’s a college student who thinks he may have stumbled upon something that will unlock the secret of time travel. “Welcome to the show, Landon.”

“Hello Lisa! Thanks for having me.”

“Okay Landon, Let’s get into the science of this thing. How is time travel actually going to work?”

“Here’s the thing Lisa, hold on to your hat, everyone can time travel. My theory, and I believe this to be accurate, is that because the brain is both a biochemical and electrical machine, all neural activity results in electrical signals that are…

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The Scrumptious Siren: Where Mortals and Vampires Mingle

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

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You’re going to meet Chastity Sullivan tomorrow for the final character profile, but today we’re looking into her realm.  Originally, she was going to be a tavern owner in the city of Nyte, but then I moved her into a more neutral establishment.  It was still a tavern and brothel because the character is fairly lustful as you’ll see in War of Nytefall: Loyalty.  She’s ten pounds of Id in a five pound dress, so her business had to show this as well.  Over the top would be a starting point and I looked at various vampire bars in fiction to get an idea.  I was ready to roll once I sat down to write.

Then, I got to the chapter where the Scrumptious Siren was introduced.  First thing I realized was that I didn’t have a name for the place, so I took some time to design one that embodied Chastity.  My focus was a little muddled and the original attempts were bad sex puns that didn’t make any sense with Windemere.  They would barely make sense on Earth if you wanted to keep the place a pseudo-secret. I went with the siren due to her seductiveness and for some reason scrumptious came soon after.  This was after I had eaten too, so it wasn’t like I was hungry, which the rest of this description will make people doubt.

I just went with whatever popped up in my head, which started with a hill that was covered in thin trees and home to hummingbirds.  That went smoothly and then I suddenly found that I made the building resemble a cupcake.  Wait, what?  Fine, I went with it and then got inside.  Chastity had a bakery that went around the main bar area and an enchanted menu on the ceiling.  I gave her private quarters with one that you would expect from a madam and another, yet to be seen, closer to that of a mild-mannered businesswoman.  I had magical poles that allowed people to slide up and down to reach the lower levels.  The bakery ended up being manned by goblins, who were incredibly protective of their wares, which were being sold alongside ale, stew, and kinky sex.  What in the world had I created here?

Honestly, I probably created one of my favorite settings ever.  There was such a bizarre mesh of the sexy vampire with the standard fantasy tavern and a common business around the edges.  For some reason, all of this worked and I think a big part of that is because I had Chastity standing in the middle.  She embodies all of this and the character’s charm abilities really fit the idea of a vampire businesswoman.  I don’t think the Scrumptious Siren could exist alongside anybody else, which makes me a little sad that I didn’t put any more prior thought into it.  Then again, it might have come out rather drab and dull if I forced it into creation.

One thing I had to figure out was the security.  Not only the goblins protecting the pies, but a way to protect the Scrumptious Siren from being revealed as a vampire bar.  This became a really big concern when I decided that patrons would be both mortal and vampire.  The mortals are enchanted as soon as they enter, so they never realize that they are among vampires.  The vampires are under orders not to hunt on the premises or they will be banned or killed.  With the Scrumptious Siren being one of the few places they can go to relax, nobody wants to anger the hostess.  Still, you can’t only have rules to keep people on their best behavior, so I needed a physical barrier.  That’s when the hummingbirds got an upgrade to vampiric agents.  Anyone who hunts around the area is attacked by the flock and drained.  This doesn’t kill them, but they aren’t going to get very far with no blood and this leaves them exposed to anything that decides to finish them off.

I’m still on the fence on if it counts as neutral territory too because Chastity is openly aligned with Clyde.  You’ll learn more about that tomorrow, but it means the traditional vampires would see her as an enemy.  Still, too many love the Scrumptious Siren in both the human and vampire societies.  Her disappearance would send some really big ripples through their worlds, which could reveal a lot of secrets.  The fact that she has operated without the Duragians ever becoming suspicious means that Chastity has created a business, which spans more than her corner of the world.  So, both sides can use it as a safe haven if need be.  This could change as the series progresses though.

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Teaser Tuesday: The Scrumptious Siren

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Alison Hunt

I’ve been holding this one back for a while because I wanted to connect it to the character bio on Thursday.  Take a look at the Scrumptious Siren, Chastity Sullivan, and Mab’s slight issue with the lustful businesswoman.  She’s gradually becoming one of my favorite characters to write because she’s unapologetically Id-driven and still the most ‘human’ out of the vampires.  Check out the full scene in War of Nytefall: Loyalty!

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