EP Authors Blog

I have a post over at http://eternalpressauthors.blogspot.com/ today - the full 3 1/2 star review for Humans and Demons and Elves from Manic Readers. Check it out!

Much Better Book Trailer

My friend whom I consulted on the subject was right. iMovie is far superior to Windows MovieMaker, and easy to use. See my new trailer for Humans and Demons and Elves here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWzvajkXVc0

The song is not mine; I am merely borrowing it in exchange for giving Mr. Phil Collins some advertising (so glad YouTube makes that an option).

Humans and Demons and Elves

http://eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615724352

The Elves of North America use dimension-bending magic to conceal their woodland villages from humans, though it fails to protect them from the beautiful-but-deadly Eudemons. Edofine is less prejudiced than many, even befriending an Archaedemon, whose people are known for switching sides in the ancient conflict. But when young Edofine's clan is destroyed, he has only one person to turn to: his cousin Kryvek, who was adopted by humans who established the Official Magics-Humans Institute (OMHI). Will Edofine be able to adjust to human society? Can the OMHI help him despite facing its own crisis? Could he possibly be falling in love with Kryvek’s friend Lira, a half-Elf half-Eudemon working for the OMHI? His life has fallen to pieces, and the reconstruction is full of surprises.

Sample Passage:

"One more time. You turn these knobs, and water comes out. One knob has hot water and one has cold water. You adjust the amount depending on your preference."

"And then what do I do?" Edofine stood inside the shower, gingerly poking the pipes. He was still in full Elf regalia, complete with dead leaves and grass stains.

"Cover yourself with soap and stand under the water so that it washes off. Do you think you can handle that?"

"You do this every day?"

"Yes."

"What a waste of time and water."

"Way to be sanctimonious, kid. I am merely teaching you how to conform to local hygienic standards. When you live indoors in small apartments, washing frequently becomes very important. Some even enjoy it. I'll leave you alone now to get acquainted with it."

Kryvek was growing annoyed with having to explain these basic things to his cousin. He knew Edofine wasn't being obtuse on purpose, but helping him was like having a child to take care of. Kryvek's stomach growled again and he looked at his watch for the fourth time in ten minutes.

Panic rose in Edofine's throat, which, coupled with his hunger and disorientation, made him worried he might vomit. "You cannot leave me. What if I do something wrong and I scald myself? What if the magic governing these pipes breaks down? Anything could happen."

Kryvek was about to dismiss Edofine's fears, but he saw the hurt in Edofine's drooping shoulders and bowed head and changed his mind. "All right. I'll stand right here in the doorway and talk you through the process. First take your clothes off.” Standing in the shower, Edofine disrobed. Kryvek noted many scars and bruises underneath the grime. “You have to put the clothes outside of the shower, otherwise they’ll get wet.”

“Now turn the hot knob…”

“Aiee!”

“I meant turn it while standing sort of away from the stream of water, so it wouldn’t hit you full force. No, don’t turn it off! Turn on some of the cold!”

“I think you are trying to kill me…”

Leave a comment to have a chance to win a free PDF of either this novella or one of my three other published books of your choice!

Write-A-Thon Update

I've raised my target amount of money - actually slightly more than my target amount - and I'm going on a sabbatical from these daily blog postings. I feel bad doing so, like I'm letting people down, but I've just exhausted my creative juices. Guess I'm not like some of my friends in that regard, who can keep churning out good work without getting sick of it.

This does not mean I'm abandoning all writing enterprises, though. I am slowly building up a short story for a new Damnation Books anthology, as well as launching Humans and Demons and Elves tomorrow and the day after (time zones are making my schedule funny). I am also translating yet another Shakespeare play into modern English for my best Elance client.

I will eventually get back to expanding The Raw Ghosts of Thailand and working on Sweeping the Puddles Away, I promise. I'm just going to concentrate on the stuff that pays immediately for now.

Thank you for your understanding.

300 for 30: Day 18

I'm going with something half-baked today, because I'm tired and starting to slide into another depression. Who knows, I might perk up in the process.

So you get a list! (And there was much rejoicing - insert dispirited 'yayyyyy'.)



Writing-Related Things I'm Doing At the Moment

1. This 300-for-30 which is going to morph into 750-for-Clarion on the 26th.
A. Some it, as you have seen, is miscellany like this.
B. Another portion is my Raw Ghosts of Thailand expansion, again obvious on this blog.
C. Though I'm in composting mode, letting Sweeping the Puddles Away mature in my brain before I make a serious attempt at it, I may take a few nibbles as part of the Write-A-Thon if I tire of A and B.

2. A "translation" of a Shakespeare play into modern English [I won't say which publicly; I signed a non-disclosure agreement], ghostwriting for a $200 payment. Due on the 25th. I'm glad it's not overlapping with the Write-A-Thon.

3. Editing the first manuscript in my new long-term position, for $50. Low pay but great resume/work experience credit; the publisher is quite snazzy. This is due on the 22nd. I have not received the actual manuscript yet. If I don't get it by tomorrow I am requesting an extension, because I said I'd need a week to do it, and they had better GIVE me a week, by Eru! And they'll give me another one immediately afterwards that I must have done before August 1st, since they "had to fire one of their copyeditors".
* I must admit, I am curious about what the copyeditor did.

4. Waiting to hear back from Queryshark, of queryshark.blogspot.com , to see if she is interested at all in either posting my query for Seasons Four Open the Door on her blog and eviscerating it, or on, just maybe, requesting pages. In the meantime I am polishing the query until it screams, so that if 90 days pass with no reply I can resubmit a better one in September.

5. Waiting to hear back from various other agents for Seasons Four.

6. Promotion, promotion, promotion for Humans and Demons and Elves. I'm hoping to get the Facebook page fanbase to at least 300 before July 7th. I will have to take some time off my Embassy job on the big day to be available on live chat during my appointed hour, and draft up some contests/"press releases" to put on the Yahoo loop.

7. Waiting to hear back from The Memory Eater anthology about whether a story I submitted pleases the editor enough to be included. I would get a share of whatever the book makes. I adore the Ryan-North-edited Machine of Death anthology this is inspired by, and would love to be part of a similar project. I'm on equal footing with all the other submitters credential-wise, though, since the editor has explicitly stated s/he doesn't care about that. But their twitter does follow mine, which can't be a bad sign anyway.

8. Growing my Twitter community- largely consisting of trying to find interesting things to say on command, like a trained parrot.

9. Occasional fanfic, because I'm a writingslut like that.

10. And a partridge in a pear tree.

My second book reading Friday!

I'll be reading extracts from all three published novels, and a bit from Humans and Demons and Elves. Only two people attended my first reading, but that was on a Monday and the store didn't have time to promote it heavily beforehand. Fridays are better, they said, and I have put up a score of flyers and written in chalk all over campus.

To RSVP, go to this page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170054053044827&index=1

Finalized Humans and Demons and Elves Cover

I love Amanda Kelsey's work!

Cover Mockup for Book Four

This is done by the amazing Amanda Kelsey. It's very much like seeing the sonogram for an unborn child. Except, I would argue, prettier.

A Slight Tweak in the Title

I have just been informed that an author Eternal Press is friendly with already has a book with a title that ends in "Oh My!", so I've agreed to change the title of my fourth novel to "Humans and Demons and Elves". That's probably what people would have called it when talking about it anyway. Eight words is a bit of a mouthful for a title.

Funny enough, this has the earliest history of any of my novels, despite being the fourth. My best friend and I came up with the original plot and characters when we were in seventh grade. We intended to make a graphic novel. Sadly, I moved to China with my parents before we were able to get very far. I have offered her a share of the writing profits, as she's still my best friend to this day, but she's refused. So I'll just have to get her extravagant gifts with my money. Mwahaha.

The Blog is Revitalized!

It's been a long time since blog posts, mainly because I always feel like I can only say so much about already-published novels before it gets both redundant and onanistic. But I will be returning to regular updates now that my fourth novel, Humans and Demons and Elves, Oh My! has been accepted by Eternal Press. It will probably not be published until the summer, but I'm excited anyway.

Here's a blurb for it, just to get you going:

The Elves of North America use dimension-bending magic to conceal their woodland villages from humans, though it fails to protect them from the beautiful-but-deadly Eudemons. Edofine is less prejudiced than many, even befriending an Archaedemon, whose people are known for switching sides in the ancient conflict. But when young Edofine's clan is destroyed, he has only one person to turn to: his cousin Kryvek, who was adopted by humans who established the Official Magics-Humans Institute (OMHI). Will Edofine be able to adjust to human society? Can the OMHI help him despite facing its own crisis? Could he possibly be falling in love with Kryvek’s friend Lira, a half-Elf half-Eudemon working for the OMHI? His life has fallen to pieces, and the reconstruction is full of surprises.

I'm very excited, but I should probably go to bed now - more soon.