by Christine | Blog Appearances, Uncategorized, Writing
Hi y’all! This is Day One of Crescent Moon Press’ Memorial Day Blog Hop! You can find the entire itinerary at CMP of course. Here are the details: Following this section I’ll be putting up the blurb and a brief excerpt of DEMON SOUL. At the end, I’ll ask you a question. In order to qualify for the GRAND PRIZE, you need to EMAIL me with the answer (PLEASE do not put it into comments!) at Christineash@sbcglobal.net. Of course, I’d LOVE it if you would subscribe to my RSS feed, too!
Then hop along the rest of today’s trail, and Wednesday and Thursday. You have until the end of the day May 26th to submit all your answers to the quests for the grand prize of a KINDLE or a NOOK, plus a dozen Crescent Moon Press titles!
From all the correct answers on MY blog, I’ll be giving away a relaxing bath basket filled with a bath pillow, fabulous bath salts, a scented candle, and of course a copy of DEMON SOUL. So…here we go!
DEMON SOUL BLURB:
…to retrieve his soul, she’ll become fire…
Gabriel Caine stands on the edge of the abyss. A bitch vampire has taken his soul and if he doesn’t get it back soon, his next step will be into Hell.
Rose Walters has been sent back to complete one task; save Gabriel Caine. She’s drawn to Gabriel on the most basic level, but restoring his soul may be at the price of her life.
Rose has touched the whole of Gabriel, making him yearn for a love he believes he can never have. Her willingness to put her human life on the line for him forces him to bring all three parts of himself into harmony – demon, human, and Fae bloodlines, and the strengths of each – to the fight that decides their fate.
EXCERPT:
A sound came out of Rose then, a half-whimper. “It hurts. Gabriel, it hurts.”
“What hurts?” He turned to her, shocked to see three claw marks deep on her left shoulder, ripping her tee shirt and reaching to her elbow. Blood dripped from her arm down onto the grass. “Damn it. Let’s get inside, I’ll fix you up.”
“What? Oh, my shoulder.” She winced. “Yeah. But that’s not what hurts.” Rose put her right hand just above her hipbone. “There. It hurts there.”
Frowning, Gabriel knelt in front of her and gently lifted her hand away. He tugged at her damp black tee shirt, bared the pale skin of her flat belly. A spiral of runes rippled and moved there, a mesmerizing magical dance. Made of colored ink, and yet not ink…a tattoo, but no human hands had a part in its creation. Gabriel narrowed his eyes. If he looked closely, he could see flickers of flame and a familiar pair of eyes sliding through the runes, not quite daring to meet his gaze.
A shudder of recognition went through him as his fear came true.
The demon scent, the fire, the runes. Mephisto.
The last time all three had been in front of him, he’d killed Marianne, the girl he’d loved, while trying to kill the demon Mephisto. Ten long years ago.
Now here he was, full circle, back home with as much bad hanging around him as the last time. Mephisto was back, loaning Rose his powers. Satine was somewhere near, coming to kick his ass. And Rose, the sexy little redhead in front of him, not only carried Mephisto, but she also held part of his soul.
Gabriel had always suspected Los Angeles would be the death of him. He just hadn’t expected it to be quite so soon.
* * * Your QUEST will be at the end of this posting!
Today’s participants are as follows:
JEAN MURRAY at http://www.wickedromance.wordpress.com
LARA NANCE at http://www.laranance.com
ME!!! and then
TRACI BELL at http://tracibell.net
and Tracy Farrell at http://tracyfarrell.com
Stop off at Crescent Moon Press for the rest of the information!
Your Quest: What is on Rose’s belly? Please EMAIL me your answer at Christineash@sbcglobal.net !
Now head on over to TRACI BELL at http://tracibell.net for the next stop!
by Christine | Blog Appearances, Writing
Crescent Moon Press Memorial Day Weekend Bash~! Three Day Blog Tour
May 24th, 25th & 26th
Prizes at every stop!!! Grand Prize ~ Nook or Kindle, Your Choice!!!
Every stop along the way will have a posted quest. Sign up for the newsletter or blog (on mine, it’s going with the RSS feed!) then email your quest answer to the author to enter for great prizes.
Complete all blog tour stops, all three days, to enter into the grand prize drawing… A Nook or Kindle, Your Choice plus BONUS a dozen digital CMP books!!!
My participation begins tomorrow TUESDAY May 24th, so come on back!
Full itinerary will be posted on the CMP blog. All stops must be completed to qualify for the Grand Prize. You can join the games late, no problem! All quests must be completed by May 26th end of day.
All Winners Posted on CMP blog by June 4th. Good luck!
by Christine | Uncategorized, Writing
I have a confession to make. My latest book has been intractable. Or maybe that’s just me? Anyway, words aren’t working, plots aren’t cohesive, characters keep slipping their reins and changing their spots. It’s enough to make even the sanest writer wiggy.
I did what I could. For instance, I went over everyone’s motivations and conflicts. I replotted everything from the Big Bad Troublemaker’s point of view. Which gave me all sorts of things to throw at the Hero and the Heroine. All good, right? And I came up with a long list of scenes to write.
I thought I was set until I got to the actual writing. Every action seemed to have to be written. He got into the car. She buckled her seat belt. They breathed. They looked at each other. He started the car. See what I mean? I bored myself to tears.
Two things came to my rescue. First off, Savvy Authors is having their May bootcamp challenge. I’m going to be writing 60k this month, or 2,000 words a day. Okay. I can handle that as I’m not currently working a day job and my children are old enough to take care of themselves. I’m with a fantastic group of authors and we’re all kicking ass on our manuscripts (I’m not about to let them down!).
But I still had that …and then they went to the office, and then they went to kill the demon, and then they… well, you get the idea. I had that problem. Which is where Twitter saved my ass.
Excuse me? Why did you giggle? Oh, you’re not on Twitter. That’s okay. I fought it for a long time, too. But you know what? Right now it’s the single most powerful tool I have for getting words on the page.
Behold – I present to you the power of #1k1hr. The first time I saw that flash by on Twitter, (I believe it was Skylar Kade that I first saw using it), I admit I was intrigued. They were usually talking about how many words they had gotten done during the past hour.
Oh. OH! One thousand words in one hour. I GET it! So when Zoe Archer put out a call last week or so for anyone up for #1k1hr, I hopped in. Why not? It wasn’t a marriage – it was simply someone to hold me accountable for my wordage. Heck, she’s a fabulous writer and I didn’t want to look stupid in front of her, so add that in to the equation, too.
We began at the :15 (since on Twitter, not everyone is in the same time zone, we leave the hour off…it’s either at the top of the hour, the :15, the :30, or – well, you understand) and I wrote like mad. Every time I wanted to stop, I’d look at my word count, check the clock, and keep going.
I’ll admit that first hour I didn’t make 1k. But you know what? I had more words than I would have if I’d been going it alone. And now after getting the hang of it I can usually pull more than 1k in 1hr.
Since then I’ve hooked up with Cid Tyer, Suzan Isik, and Kat Jameson for #1k1hr and of course, I’m still bumping into Zoe Archer and Skylar Kade. Is it working? Well – last week I almost wrote 3000 words.
This week? Sunday in two separate #1k1hr sprints I wrote 2454. Monday I did two and a half #1k1hr sprints and wrote 3297. Yesterday, I made it to 3662 words in another two and a half #1k1hr sprints. So you tell me. Is #1k1hr working, or not?
If you’re not already on Twitter, join up and find me at @CCAshworth. I’m almost always up for a #1k1hr – join me, won’t you?
By the way. These words I’m writing? They’re much more interesting than the “…and then they went to the office, and then they went to kill the demon, and then they…” words I got down last week. Are they perfect? Of course not – this is still a first draft. But they’re getting me closer to “the end” – and that, in the long run, is the only thing that matters.
60K in a month? Bring it on. I am SO there.
by Christine | Writing
So – four of us from Crescent Moon Press have decided to do a book giveaway as well as try our hand at Romance Trading Cards. They were THE big thing at the last Romantic Times Booklover’s Convention, held April 6th – 10th here in Los Angeles, and I think you’ll see a lot more of them in the future. Here’s mine…
The idea being you can give a snapshot of your hero, your heroine, and what they’re like. I kept mine to my bookcover and the blurb as I’m still learning how to juggle photos and etcetera, but for a first time, 5 minute creation, I really like it.
Now for the contest. If you go to Jean Murray’s blog here, there’s another trading card to check out. Visit the next one on the list, and the next, and you too could all win FOUR ebooks – DEMON SOUL PLUS three other Crescent Moon Press books!
1. Leave a meaningful comment on my blog to enter your name in drawing.
2. Leave your email address in your comment section (to avoid spammers, please use at for @, dot for .)
3. To increase your chances of winning, go to Author Jean Murray’s website and see her other SOUL REBORN Trading Card.
4. You may enter up to 4 separate comments on each of the participating author sites to increase your chances (each site will lead you to the next!).
Here’s just one of Jean’s trading cards…enjoy!
by Christine | Writing
Okay, here we go – the last RT 2011 update. I’m actually going back to Friday, since I didn’t have my notes with me yesterday.
Friday morning I went to a panel on creating out of this world Science Fiction. But really, it ended up being a panel on world-building. I learned that when you’re creating a world, you can’t just take your home town and put it on a different planet. You need to come up with political, social, religious, and economic structures for your planet (or your area of the planet), and you cannot ignore the weather as that, too will affect the inhabitants. L.E. Modesitt, Ann Aguirre, Melinda Snodgrass and Kate Elliot were the panelists (since my sons are huge L.E. Modesitt fans, it was a thrill to be there). Another thing – when dealing with sci fi in particular, stay away from what Modesitt calls “techno-porn”, digging into how things work. Keep it gray, amorphous, and it won’t date the book as fast. When you think about it, Andre Norton, Anne McCaffrey, and Modesitt himself all have timeless stories. That’s what you want, timeless, so your book can still be on the shelves 20 years from now and still feel fresh, not dated.
From there I went to a panel with Merrilee Heifetz, a VP with Writer’s House; Anne Hoppe, a Harper Collins Executive Editor; and Sally Willcox, a film agent with CAA. They were talking about taking a book to film, the options process, and how few options actually make it to the silver screen (less than 2% of the million options that happen in a year). This was nothing new to me, having been around the Hollywood scene for a couple decades now; but I did accomplish my objective, pressing my bookmark into each of their hands. Go, me!
I sat in on the TOR Spotlight and got a ton of L.E. Modesitt swag which I had him autograph on Saturday. I also learned that TOR is very interested in romance in their sci fi, and they do want Space Opera. Yay! An interesting side note – Modesitt does not have an agent. He’s married to TOR, as he puts it, and sees no reason to get an agent at this point. He’s doing well with approximately 20 books in print (I don’t think any of his books have gone out of print, actually). Nice!
From there I went to The Many Faces of the Undead with Caridad Pinero, L.A. Banks, Kerrelyn Sparks, and Jeanne C. Stein. On the social side, since I just did a blog post with Caridad it was wonderful to meet her in person. She’s warm, funny, and so smart! We talked until it was time to start the panel.
The interesting thing I took away from this panel was that, since the Vampire has so many advantages, you have to give them vulnerabilities. Which is why one of the panelists stuck to all the traditional trappings of vampires – they die during the day, can’t go into the sun, etc. All the panelists had different ways of handling their vamps, and it was fascinating to listen to. The main thing is once you set those parameters for your characters, then you have to stick with them and make them work. I think it was Kerrelyn who said the one device she wished she hadn’t done in her first book was the garlic thing – now she thinks it’s kind of silly. So if you’re writing supernatural creatures, be careful of the restrictions you put on them, and make sure you give them weaknesses that make them vulnerable.
After that panel was the book signing and I’ve already talked at length about those two hours, so I’ll skip it here.
The Vampire Ball was interesting. Heather Graham and Helen A. Rosburg sponsored the ball and put on a show. Unfortunately the show was done while we ate, and it was very difficult to hear (not to mention follow the story line). And the story line was incoherent – too many writers, I’m thinking. All in all, the dinner was nice – the show, not my favorite way to spend forty minutes.
And now it’s Sunday morning. Time to pack up all my free books and get ready to head on for home.
by Christine | Writing
I apologize, I don’t have my notes with me from yesterday so I’ll have to add those tomorrow.
But – yesterday I had my very first booksigning ever. For my very first published book, DEMON SOUL, pubbed by Crescent Moon Press. It was amazing! No, I didn’t sell out, and that’s okay – the lovely NY Times bestselling author in two genres next to me didn’t sell any more books than I did, so that made me feel better.
What I did do though was get up off my ass. I stood, and hooked my bookmark to my pen, and leaned over the table to people as they walked by. “Here, you need this!” or “This is for you!” Most people smiled, only a couple refused; and I spread my brand a little more. I even sold one book that way (in total, I sold 4. Don’t laugh!). I could have sold more if I’d had a physical book; several people, including men, expressed interest in the physical book. Hopefully they’ll go to Amazon and buy that way, we will see. But at the end of the day I must have given away more than a hundred bookmarks and pens. Which spreads the brand.
I know – many authors say they’ve never bought a book from a bookmark, and I’m one of them. But readers are not authors, and if the blurb is catchy enough, the bookmark striking enough, you’ll pull in new people. If nothing else, you’re spreading your brand, and that’s never a bad thing, right?
I was so into my “friendly marketing mode” that I even talked to Selena James for about five minutes about her conference experience and then about my book. It wasn’t until she walked away that I realized her affiliation with Kensington. Now, she’s the exec editor for Dafina Books, and as such not a publisher for me, but still – I learned that when in marketing mode, it was easier to be relaxed even in front of the biggies. Heather Osborn of Samhain Publishing also got a pen, a bookmark, and we had a brief conversation.
Another thing I learned while pimping my book out was how to succinctly state what the book is about in an organic, unplanned way. This is not your elevator pitch, my friends – this is a conversation with readers. Hooking them verbally is different than hooking them on paper. I don’t know why but it is. The basics are the same but the delivery is different…words that I’d never put together with the novel were tumbling out. I got good at it very fast, and enjoyed it which I didn’t think I would.
The best thing about the day? I had a gal from England buy my book. She downloaded it on her newly-won-at-a-raffle Kindle, and came back to show it to me…her plan was to read it on the plane on the way back home. SWEET!!! Am I allowed to happy dance?!!
*****
Buy Link: at Amazon or at All Romance eBooks and search for DEMON SOUL.
