The first installment in The Mer Archives series has arrived. Find out why it has already sold more than 400 copies.
Buy it now, here.
Lasera is going to be published! Over the past 2 years I’ve sent more than 40 query letters and got absolutely no interest, so I’ve decided to tackle publishing it myself and it’s coming out February 2015!
I’ve been putting in so many hours researching editors and cover designers and the best way to publish that blogging got pushed back. But no more! Why? I’ve launched a Kickstarter for the book! After more than 60 hours of work on a video (not to mention days and days worth of prep) the project is now live on Kickstarter!
Kickstarter is an all or nothing funding campaign which means I desperately need your help! If I don’t reach my goal in the next 29 days, I won’t get any of the funds raised. So go and click the big green button on the above page and pledge now to get some great rewards. So far the campaign has been amazing 😀 The project was chosen as a Kickstarter Staff Pick barely an hour after launch and it has already been shared on facebook almost 100 times. Keep checking back here as I update and share all that is going on.
This kickstarter is not only a great way to pre-order the book now and get some awesome extras too, but it also helps get the book into print. I love the creative journey and can’t wait to go through this whole adventure with all of you! Please share, tweet or just chat up the book anywhere you are. The water-cooler, the dog-park, the play group, the library, or even the end of rainbow. This is a -clean- young adult urban fantasy that I can’t wait to share with the world and now it’s finally on it’s way to being done.
Thank you so much for all your support!
COUNTDOWN: 29 DAYS LEFT TO GET LASERA INTO PRINT
Cheers!
There hasn’t been a post on here for a while, and there’s been a number of reasons for that. One of them being the fact that I was actually pouring over the Lasera Book One manuscript and trying to make it as good as possible. But the main one has been discouragement.
I sent out 8 query letters for this book at the beginning of April. 6 of them came back as form rejections, one came back with a line saying mermaids just weren’t her thing and I’m still waiting on one. I sent 10 more letters out in this past week. I’m not really hoping for much. (All this on top of the 20 letters I sent in 2012)
It’s hard to get form rejections, especially when I haven’t had any requests just to read the manuscript. I feel like the biggest asset of this book is the world building. This amazing place of Mer that I’ve built. But no one’s even taken a chance reading it, let alone tried to sell it to a publisher. So for a while there I had to step back. I had to make decisions and figure out what I wanted.
I’m still going to wait and see what happens with my queries, but I’m no longer banking on a publishing deal. My book is ready. I’m ready. This is my year. I’m ready to take on the world. Both figuratively and the imaginary world of Lasera 😀
If I don’t get any interest from agents in this batch of queries, I’m going to put this book out there myself. Maybe the market is sick of mermaids and other fantastical beings, I don’t know. But I’ve decided that I’m going to let the readers decide.
Watch out, Lasera is coming.
Cheers!
We’ve had some little friends of my son Everett over a number of times, and one small girl absolutely loves the Little Mermaid. I do too and got all three Little Mermaid videos for Christmas a number of years back. She wants to watch them every time she’s over, and think it’s the cutest thing. So when I found this I couldn’t help but share it! Have a laugh, enjoy a good song! And I hope everyone is having a great holiday season 😀
Cheers!
The post title is pretty self explanatory but let’s delve into it a bit shall we? How many of us as readers get annoyed when we figure something out long before the character and then the story drags and drags as mentally we just keep saying “Come on already. They totally should’ve caught on by now!” It makes what could’ve been a great experience into just an okay one, and a just okay book into down right awful.
Most of the time as readers we like to be given information that the characters don’t know, however, when there’s an event or a situation that should’ve been a light bulb moment and the character is just clueless and still doesn’t know? That’s a problem. This reads untrue to any semi-smart human being and even if you have a dopey/stupid character — fine — but make them that way all the time, with all decisions. When characters don’t learn or realize things for an extended period of time it feels like the author is extending the conflict because there’s nothing else going on.
This falls right along with giving your characters some common sense. When they take everything at face value and don’t question what they’re being told, yeah it feels fake and contrived, like the author had no other ideas for conflict. The trick would be throwing in an instance or two as a subplot when a lapse in common sense raises the stakes (especially in an already high stake climax plot wise).
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| Yeah, No. |
Being too easily manipulated also comes to mind, and it can really ruin the realism of any story. So don’t fall into that trap. An example? The Prince in Mirror Mirror, he seemed pretty smart and with it (And I actually kinda liked him) until he took the Queen’s word at face value and wouldn’t listen to Snow White. Yeah I’m aware it’s a spoof type movie and fun, but really? They couldn’t give him a little more intuitiveness? And then turning him into a guy who acts like a dog didn’t help either. I definitely want some more good prince characters out there à la Prince Henry from Ever After. So I guess I’ll just have to write those stories myself but more on that later.
We relate to stories most easily when the characters are relatable, have faults, and make mistakes, but this doesn’t mean making them blind to all possible flashes of insight and inspiration. Let’s give our characters some life and make sure they aren’t acting stupid in very convenient places just to extend plot and word count.
Cheers!
Make sure to check out the latest DanielleWAM post When Your Writing Gets a Burst
