Music

In my recent release, Saving Eden, I wanted to include a scene with a character singing a song to several other characters, dancing along to the music, to reach a climactic point where he followed up the performance with a wedding proposal. If you know my first two Eden stories, you’ll have to read Saving Eden to find out which characters are involved.

But it’s a challenge to create a real feeling of music in text. I had the character saying some of the lyrics aloud in the text, but it doesn’t leave the same impression. Have you ever read a novel that did this well?

If you listen to a novel on audible, there’s a chance to be more creative with music. I listened to a wonderful book by Amanda Palmer called The Art of Asking. She’s a musician, so music was woven between her chapters. That’s different than having characters sing during the action of a novel, but I wonder if there’s a way to do that when creating an audio version of a book.

It’s spring, the season of hope and new beginnings. Maybe I’ll marinate on the idea of doing audio versions of my books sometime down the line.

Kindle Links Hot for All Three Eden Books!!!

 

 

RELEASE CRAZINESS!

So not only have I relaunched SURVIVING EDEN on Amazon through self-publishing, but I also posted my newest release, SAVING EDEN,  the never before published final installment of the Eden’s Court Saga. This novel went through several title changes, but landed back with my original intent of Saving Eden. Cover is below. All three Eden novels are still awaiting a Kindle purchase choice, but they will all have electronic format options soon enough.

RELEASED!!!

It’s up on Amazon in paperback. Kindle version to follow.  My first experiment with self-publishing so I hope it all works. Link here to purchase.

Rereleasing RULING EDEN

Guess what?  I had the rights returned to me for both RULING EDEN and SURVIVING EDEN after Crescent Moon Press, my publisher, closed their doors.  Now, I am fairly close to releasing these books via self-publishing with brand new covers. Above is a preview of the new RULING EDEN cover. The ISBN number and bar code will be a different graphic, but that’s a minor detail. What do you think? I believe it to be an amazing improvement over the original cover. Stay tuned for release news as the novels become available on Amazon. They should be available in both print and Kindle.

In other news, the third and final installment will be similarly self-published shortly after I get the original novels up on Amazon. The story is currently in the editing stage, and then I’ll move onto cover art and formatting.

I am excited. This has been a long road. But life is like that most of the time.

 

 

 

The Finish Line!

Done! I finished the first draft of the third Eden book. I had tentatively been naming the novel Saving Eden, although the crowds are making noise about choosing another name. We will see. Now I will be on the hunt for some solid critiques in order to move this puppy forward. As my former publisher is now out of business, I am looking into the process of self-publishing all three of the books. That means new cover art and some small editing changes to the original two novels. Stay tuned. I am thrilled to have finished the draft. It has been many years since I finished a manuscript. Too many. And I hope the readers will feel their patience has been rewarded. Enjoy summer everyone.

Family Collaboration

So yesterday I was telling my sons that I had completed a pivotal scene between my protagonist, Rachel, and one of the uber-antagonists in the story. Death ensued. I shared how my kick-ass heroine had finally killed her adversary, a dagger thrust to the heart. My youngest scoffed. He told me how difficult it was to kill someone this way and questioned the length of the blade I had used.

At that point I knew I’d made a mistake. He immediately suggested I consider a much simpler slice to the carotid artery on the neck. Okay, this seems like a rather bloodthirsty discussion to be having with your children, but there is a strange joy that comes when I can share the creation of stories with my family. There have been a handful of times I’ve tapped extended family for special knowledge or ideas for my books. Each and every time it has brought me happiness. I am folding in all of the precious and diverse pieces of my life and identity into my stories. That makes their creation richer.

You’ll be pleased to know I am roughly three chapters away from finishing the first draft of SAVING EDEN (title tentative). It’s been a long road from the time I began this series. Life has thrown curves along the way. But if I can bring an end to Rachel’s story, I will have successfully created, helped grow and celebrated the lives of dozens of characters in that story world. Putting so many lives to rest is a strange idea, but one I kind of like.

DRAGONS!

I love dragons. They appear as characters in my Eden series, but my next project will include them as a story focus. I impulsively purchased a dragon pendant this morning from www.allnaturalarts.com.

Isn’t she beautiful?

I hope your Thanksgiving holiday was restful and enriching. Mine was, as I got to spend it with some of my favorite people. No dragons, however.

You can’t have everything.

 

 

Loose Ends

The trouble with writing a series in a complex fantasy world with a concrete ending is that one must tie up all loose ends. As I struggle to finish the third and last installment of the Eden series, tentatively entitled SAVING EDEN, I don’t want to leave any of the characters mentioned in books one or two hanging in the wind. Since I seem to have written in a mother-load of characters (ashamedly now considering doing one of those character glossary lists at the beginning of the third book so common in fantasy), I must do them justice.

I’m currently struggling with Natalya, the vampire queen, who had yet to appear in this third book until what is ostensibly now three-quarters of the way through my manuscript. I hadn’t worried much about her. The last I saw her she had attended Rachel’s coronation and pledged undying loyalty to Rachel near the end of book two. However, she’s no longer a happy camper.

I don’t have the intention of involving her in much additional drama, but she deserves for her protests to be noted and to make peace with the current story situation. She’s no villain, but even if she were a villain, I like my villains. Even when they have to die.

Don’t worry Natalya, I have no intention of killing you. Plus, you weren’t a villain anyway.  Not that I have not been known to kill good guys. Still, I do have to do something with you. I guess you’ll have to wait for the book to be published to find out exactly what that is.

And Now A Portal Picture

Sci-fi variety portal.  Image courtesy of digitalhealth.net