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Don Massenzio Today we sit down with author Wendy Janes. Wendy shares with us her motivation, inspiration and a bit of her work. Please enjoy this installment of 20 Questions: Q1) When did you first realize you wanted to be … Continue reading
(Morning After Disclaimer: I did start drinking Strongbow Apple Ciders halfway through this post.)
*sits down at computer and stares at screen*
*keeps staring*
*looks from side to side*
*keeps staring*
Not Dumbledore
Yeah, I don’ t know what happened to my brain here. Things have been flying this week with parent/teacher conference, driving people to the airport, fixing my car door handle due one of the people I drove to the airport, the usual routine, a decent amount of writing, and Charms of the Feykin (CLICK THE LINK!) hitting the Top 100 lists. Next week starts out a little chaotic, but should settle by Tuesday afternoon. I’ll get to that in a bit.
First, I do want to mention something about those Top 100 lists. Holy Mother of Godzilla! As amazing as it was to suddenly be on the list, a book plummets from those ranks like an elephant skydiving with normal sized parachute. I mean, what do I have to do sale-wise to even stay in the same spot? 10 books per hour? I know I live and work out of a house, but it isn’t named Random. Really makes one wonder how an indie can keep going some days, but I think the trick is to cherish the small victories. Also to make Voodoo dolls of the people who try to taint these victories. Honestly, it’s like I’m not allowed to be happy or optimistic for more than an hour.
(Embarrassing story of the day #1: Got McDonald’s with wife and son. She couldn’t find anything, but I saw a hot chocolate on the list. It’s gotten cold, so I got her a small one without her knowing. We were talking about it as we walked out. Get to the car and I ask her to hold my soda . . . upside down . . . because I never put a drink into the cup. Back inside I go, which involved walking along the drive-thru line and they knew exactly what happened.)
So, why is early next week busy? I live 2.2 miles from Hofstra University, which is housing the first Presidential Debate. Road closures have been announcement and it also means my wife, who is tempting there, will be home because security is too much a pain to get a temp worker through it. Makes sense and allows us to do a few things that day. Have an appointment in the morning, a friend coming over, kid is at school, and then an eye doctor appointment on top of that. Yeah, I wasn’t really thinking all of that through, but this is the only week I get the house to myself for most of the day. Only other thing is the final dentist visit on Tuesday morning, but that shouldn’t take long. I’ll possibly be home around the time I normally start writing.
(Embarrassing story of the day #2: Dropped people off at airport and headed home, but didn’t see the correct out road until too late. Go around airport to try again because going toward New Jersey isn’t on my to-do list. Miss it again because of a taxi that refused to leave my blind spot. Go around again, but there’s a police jeep with the lights going coming up on my right. I stay in my lane and wait for him to pass, but he’s going a lot slower than me. I switch to the right lane to make the turn on time and he switches to my lane at the same time. Was he after me? Why isn’t he going around me? It’s been 2 minutes! Crap, he’s getting behind me and I’m coming up on the turn. I’ll just slow to a crawl and ease into that place to stop and . . . Now, he blows by me!? I’m practically blocking the turn. Dammit!”
Writing has been a slight headache lately for a few reasons. A one scene character in the current project has suddenly become a main cast member who is helping to reveal a previously unexplored aspect of a certain species. This one is giving Kira a run for her money in terms of demanding an upgrade. I think I’ve got a handle on it, but another character has fallen by the wayside. Sort of since this one was hard to get involved due to being rather anti-social. That’s only one project too. My mind keeps going to the final battle of Legends of Windemere and I’m thinking up ways it can work, but a lot has to happen. Horrible level of spoilers on this one too, so I’m on my own. The section I’m thinking of might end up being really long since it requires 4 big events to happen. Possibly 6 if I simply make it the final part of the overall battle. I’m going to have to work really hard on that outline.
In possibly non-Windemere writing news . . . OH CRAP! Almost forgot!
I’ll try to do a post Friday night about this, but there will be a thriller story going up at section by section throughout October. This is the sequel to Raven’s Hold, which was posted section by section last October. I’m still not very confident in this genre and money is too tight to get a cover for this. Not to mention all the other stuff going on. If people like it then I might do a third next year and see where it goes from there. These posts will be the dailies with only a Monday post and the weekend goal post turning up, so there won’t be any clogging. What was that non-Windemere thing again? Probably wasn’t important.
Coming to the end of this long one, which is weird since I didn’t have a plan going into this. So, here are the goals . . . for the rest of the year:
That’s a really long post. I’m going to end with this since #7 and #8 put me in a mood:
Not Gandalf
October is bearing down upon us. This has always been my favorite month of the year. I would happily trade January or August for an extra October. It’s also always been my best month for sales. This is probably because I have a few paranormal titles in my catalog.
I plan to hit it hard in October. I have a few guest posts that will appear, and you may find some new blogs to follow at the host sites. I still have time to write a couple more if you know of an October event that I should participate in.
There are also a couple of blog tours via my Story Empire crowd. We’ll be giving away prizes and hope to make a big splash. Follow Story Empire to keep up with what’s going on over there.
I intended to make the tips & tricks part of this into a…
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Ron Burgundy
So, I was running around all morning and Legends of Windemere: Charms of the Feykin was in the 45,000 range with rankings. Came home, unpacked groceries, reported parent/teacher info to others, checked dinner plans, ate lunch, and sat down to write. First, I had to check the book just on a whim:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,438 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
Yahoo Image Search
Glad I finished my soda before this because I didn’t see it coming. Thought, I’d spend a lot more time dancing around the low and mid 100’s. I mean, this was a really great jump and it’s even higher on the connected Hot New Release lists. I believe it’s #8 on the one connected to Men’s Adventures. Now, I will admit that I would have liked to be on the Fantasy lists too, but this is just as good. Honestly, my hopes of getting onto a list where 8 of the Top 10 are Harry Potter aren’t very high This continues the trend of Legends of Windemere books showing up on Top 100 lists within their first month, which is something I’m proud of.
So . . . Guess I’ll go back to writing with a smile.
.
.
.
Sorry. Couldn’t hold that one in.
God from Monty Python
If you live in a world where gods and goddesses are around then you might want to know how to avoid angering them. That isn’t this list. Here we have 7 surefire ways to piss off a deity that has the temperament to show up at your door and turn you into a balloon animal. Though warnings have been added to avoid responsibility.
Multi-award-winning book – click on cover for link!
Special promotion for Davey&DerekJuniorDetectivesSeries,Book1, The Caseof theMissing Cell Phone, on Amazon beginning September 24, 2016 – October 1, 2016 $1.99 for kindle copy!
Get in on all the fun adventures with twins Davey & Derek Donato! Go to link below.
https://www.amazon.com/Davey-Derek-Junior-Detectives-Missing-ebook/dp/B00X4RDMWO/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Books 2 and 3 with plenty of magic and fun adventures for all available on http://Amazon.com/author/janicespina7
Click on covers for links too!
Book 4 coming this fall with more adventures for the boys and lots of magic and mystery.
Happy reading!
Thank you for stopping by and for your kind support!
Remember : Reading Gives You Wings to Fly!
Blessings & hugs to all!
Janice
Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
The opening promo meets two current needs:
I don’t know what it is about Thursday, but I rarely hit it with much energy. This is a shame because it’s one of two days that I can dive right into writing when the kid is off at school. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are biking days, so I lose a little over an hour with that and the clean up. This probably means I’m terrible at pacing myself or I take on too much every day. Could even be both, which is strange since I’ve managed to get to bed before midnight all week. Even slept later, so maybe I’m actually getting more sleep than normal and my body isn’t used to it.
People tend to suggest a break, but that’s a double-edged sword. I take a day to relax and things pile up to make the next day rough enough to drain the energy I regained. Not to mention the rule that ‘An idle author is just asking for trouble’. In the end, I’d rather work hard than let my attempt to rest get ruined by the idea that me sitting around is a sign I’m bored. (This paragraph came out very much like a disclaimer.)
In the end, it is strange that Thursday is always the day where I’m dragging. I could understand Friday, but it’s a little worrisome that I can’t even make it that far before being on the verge of collapse. On the other hand, hearing the brewing tantrum behind me might explain things too. My weekday mornings are never slow and steady, but a burst into action where I’m juggling email, blog, twitter, get kid dressed, kid’s breakfast, kid’s lunch, Wild Kratts, making sure the wife is awake to go to work, check dinner plan, and get the kid outside to hunt for acorns while waiting for the bus. That’s the standard morning too, which doesn’t count appointments and meetings that occasionally turn up.
John Cleese/Monty Python
The Missing Topic
This was off the top of my head since I forgot what I was originally going to talk about. It may have been book related, but I thought of it just as I was falling asleep. There’s a vague memory of it being about book sales. This might have stemmed from seeing a lot of posts this week about people not wanting to read or sales dying. Charms of the Feykin is starting slow like the other books, so I’ve been drawn to this topic. Still, I’m sure there has to be something and that’s what this missing topic might be connected to. If I remember then . . . wait a second . . . oh, that’s good . . . Questions 3 might return next Thursday for this one.
Character from Some Old Pirate Movie
Thanks for having me and Fizzle over. 🙂
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Lisa Burton Radio. I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl, and we’re going to try something a little bit different today. There is a character I’ve been dying to interview, but he’s kind of hard to catch up with.
Fizzle is a drite, and they can be kind of reclusive. If we don’t find him, I may have to think on the fly here for something to broadcast. I have a secret weapon though. I bought a beautiful basket of organic apples the last time I was at Whole Foods.
<Pop>
“OH! You scared me. Are you Fizzle?”
“Fizzle is Fizzle. Told to speak of self here. Uh . . . Fizzle small dragon. Fizzle live in woods. Fizzle leave woods to help friends. Tradespeak hard. Fizzle learn from tiny human. Fizzle love apples. What organic?”
“Oh my gosh, you’re so cute. For…
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Dr. Evil
This post might be a little shorter than expected, but I was thinking about how every world has a creation myth. At least, I think they should. We have so many tales about the birth of the world that it’d be odd for a fictional world to not consider it. Especially if there are gods who are probably responsible. Windemere is such a place.
The first deity was Solar who went about creating Windemere and moons by following a dream. Nobody knows where he came from or what drove him to create the world, but he did his job and went into a slumber. He left behind his children who are the primordial deities. These were led by Vir the Evil God, Ult the Good Goddess, Tavon the Despair Goddess, Canst the Hope God, and Gola the Magic Goddess. As time continued and they created the organisms, landmasses, and systems, more deities appeared. Some came from Solar’s dreams while others came about out of need. Soon after this, the first Destiny God was named and would continue working with mortals until insanity set in. This is what caused some trouble, but that goes beyond the creation myth.
Mortals don’t have much history prior to their existence and the basic ‘Solar and his children made the world’. The rest tends to vary by species because they all appeared at different times. The dragons, demons, and angels were first with disastrous results. The demons were pure evil and wiped out the pure good angels while the neutral dragons remained out of the fight. This event caused the creation of the Chaos Void to keep the demons away and the dragons were used as a basis for the other species. This isn’t counting the more monstrous races. Now, the next attempt was the creation of the Fireskins who helped give ideas for other species. Out of the big races of modern Windemere, Dwarves and humans came next. They were followed by gnomes, halflings, calicos, and orcs. Vampires were an accident that also lead to the discovery of necrocasting. Finally, the Hejinn were created and would go on to kick over the chessboard until they were defeated. For those new to Windemere, they are the original, demon-tainted elves that the current species were born from.
So, what does this have to do with Charms of the Feykin? All life was originally created in one area, which very few mortals have seen. Only special individuals can reach the Birthing Lands and they have to do it a specific way. At least one champion is about to find themselves in this holy place. Though, there’s no way to know what is still up there waiting for company. After all, not every creation of the gods was a success and they had to put the failures somewhere.
