Tenative Release Date :]

I'm currently taking time from my homework to write this blog entry. I stayed up late last night working on homework and had to wake up early today for class. Despite my sleep deprived brain, I am in a really good mood. Want to know why?

Well, you probably don't, but I'm going to tell you anyways. I woke up this morning and found out that I won an Amazon gift card from a giveaway I entered, which means more books! Then, I got to listen to Josh Groban's unreleased CD for free on his website. (It was awesome by the way. It knocked my socks off. I'm sockless right now.) Then, I had a good hair day for like 0.5 seconds. That's longer than I usually get. And, I'm really excited about where this new book is going. Like I want to reveal all of its details and plot twists to everyone I see...but that'd be weird.

Since I'm in such a good mood, I've decided to announce the tentative release date. The release date is...

February 16th!

Yes, that is an odd date, but there are some things I'm waiting to find out before the book is released. These things will not affect the release date, don't worry! Surprisingly, a lot of people have been nagging me about finally publishing this book, so I'm done pushing it back. It's going to happen.

I'm currently looking for blogs to send my book to for reviews, but most blogs are only accepting authors they have worked with before or only accept books in print. But I'm going to remain optimistic. I'll find that one person who's willing to give this publishing newbie a chance.

If you know of anyone or find a blog, let me know! I'd really appreciate it! :)

Another reminder, my project starts on Monday, which means I'll be updating my blog more often. Keep checking back for new information and updates. If anyone has any ideas of book-related things I can post about or if you have any books you would like to know more about, please let me know!

If I get between 75-100 views for this post, I'll post one last excerpt before I publish the book. It'll be a longer one, so spread the word!

Thank you all for reading!

That's all I have for today. Until next time!

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Publishing Time Frame and Teaser!

So as you guys already know, I originally planned to publish my book...like last weekend. That changed because of this immersion project in my English 104 class. I found out today that my immersion project officially starts the first week of February.

Do you know what that means????

It means that I'll be publishing my book within the next few weeks.

I don't have a definite date yet. Some of the people I sent the book to are still editing, so I'm going to let them do their thing. I'm going to read through it one more time and then make sure my formatting is correct and then it'll be ready.

Also, with the project, I'm going to start doing a few new things. I'm going to do book reviews, author spotlights, recommendations, etc. I'll be posting more often, because I have to immerse myself into the self-published/blogging community.

To thank you all for being so patient, I've decided to post another small excerpt. I hope you like it.

“How do you expect me to remain calm when you won’t tell me anything! One second, I was in my room reading a book and the next second I am here. I’m sorry if I’m a little confused. And how do you know that? How do you know that there isn’t something out there?” I point behind me. “I think something is following us. I keep hearing footsteps.” I start rambling when I’m freaked out. For some reason, I think that talking will make a solution magically appear.

It never does.

“It’s your imagination. You are scared and the forest recognizes that. I already told you this.” Liam says and takes a step forward, but stops and looks up.

The branches on the tree to my left, beside Liam, begin to move as if someone or something is moving throughout it. He looks at me as if questioning my emotions. I shake my head at him. I am not doing that. A dark figure jumps from the tree and crouches on the ground before standing up gradually.

Standing tall, the figure would have been over seven feet, but it is hunched over. Surrounding its body is a thick black cloak with fraying edges and rips along the seams. A large mouth with huge jagged teeth dominates its face. Dark liquid seeps from its mouth, piling on the ground while its piercing red eyes stare ahead at us. The beast appears to be floating an inch above the ground. An orb of gray, with swirls of black and red surrounds the being. 

Beastly dementors are going to kill me.

Thoughts?

When I have an official date, I will let you know. I've also updated the upcoming projects tab. I can't believe the responses I've gotten from the cover/synopsis reveal and then again with the first excerpt. I can't even tell you all how much it means to me. :)

That's all I have for today. Until next time!

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First Excerpt and Update

Since I'm not publishing BlackMoon Beginnings this weekend like I had planned, I decided that I'm going to post an excerpt. This excerpt is from chapter two. The scene after this one helped me come up with the book title. I thought that it would be a fitting first excerpt. I hope you like it.

Pulling into a parking lot at the back of Second Chances, the local thrift store, I get out of the car and begin walking towards the book store located across the street. I stop at the crosswalk to push the walk button…only there isn’t a walk button. Since the weekend has begun, Stormfield is pretty quiet. Most people would have gone into Brookville, the larger town located a few miles away for their weekend festivities. Without bothering to look before crossing, I take a step off of the curb and into the road

After a couple of steps, I am blinded by a bright light and a loud noise echoes down the street to my right: a car horn. It seems like everything freezes around me. The wind picks up and blows my hair across my face, momentarily blocking my vision. I know that I am going to be hit. My heart is beating a mile a minute as if trying to escape my chest. I’m sure that if anyone was near they could hear its loud beat. My airways constrict, making it difficult to breath. I try to move my feet, but they seem to be glued to the ground, forbidding any movement. Fear overwhelms me as I see the car getting closer. During times like this, most people would say that their life flashed before their eyes. I don’t know what kind of situation those people went through, because the only coherent thought running through my mind is crap, I’m going to be hit by a car.

Suddenly, the sky darkens, lightning cracks overhead, thunder booms directly above, and the intensity of the wind increases. The car is less than a foot away from me. Since moving is impossible, I close my eyes and wait for the pain.

It never comes.

The car horns blares, nearly blowing out my ear drums. At the last possible second, a large gust of wind blows through the street, picking me up and depositing me on the other side of the road. Rolling, I put my arms out to try and stop the momentum, but only manage to scratch my exposed skin.

My body collides with the curb, successfully stopping the rolling. Turning onto my back, I try to catch my breath because the wind was knocked out of me during the fall. I can’t suppress the painful groan from escaping my lips. Black spots start to dot my vision. Moaning, I attempt to roll over and sit up, but am overcome with dizziness. I hear the sound of a bell, a door open, and then footsteps running towards me. The car speeds past me—the driver yelling all sorts of obscenities out the window.

“Oh my goodness, dear, are you alright? I saw what happened, but couldn’t make it to you soon enough.” I look towards the sound of the voice, but can’t concentrate on who is speaking to me. The world is spinning all around me, creating duplicates of everything. I feel the woman reach for my hand. Wrapping my arm around her neck, her other arm wraps around my waist, and she pulls me up. Leaning almost all of my weight on her, she walks me towards her store: the BlackMoon Bookstore.

Thoughts? If you don't like it, please give the first book a chance! It'll be free, so you're not losing anything. At the moment, I still don't know when it is going to be published, but I will let you all know when a definite date is set. Since I have all this extra time, I'm just editing it to make sure it is perfect and ready for release. I'll post little excerpts here and there, so keep checking back.

 

 That's all I have for today. Until next time!

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Change of Plans...

I don't know how many of you follow me on Twitter, but I posted a tweet about how I may have to push the publication date for my book back a little.

Well, I do.

Initially, I was expecting to publish book one in about a week. However, some plans change. I'm currently enrolled in an English class at college and for this class we have to do an immersion project and research paper. I had an idea for this project and I just spoke with my professor today and she really liked my idea.

For this project, we have to immerse ourselves in a community and do something new. This project has to last for at least thirty days and we have to blog about our experience and then tie what we have learned into a research paper. I've decided that I'm going to immerse myself into the self-publishing authors and blogging community and try to become a larger part of it. I'm going to make publishing my first novel, my something new. For the research portion of this project, I'm going to analyze self-publishing and traditional publishing.

You may be wondering...so when it is going to be published?

At the moment, I'm not sure when it'll be released. I don't have all the official information for this project, but when I do, I will let everyone know. I do know that it will be released within the next few months. I promise that much.

Also, this will give me more time to make it perfect. I'm still editing it right now and I'm going through one of those I suck at writing phrases and I've rewritten a couple complete passages in book one. To me, there's still something missing. I think I'll feel more confident when the time finally rolls around to publish it because of this extra time.

Also #2, I am tweaking the cover for this book again. So the final one will be slightly different than the one I previously posted. I have to make sure I have all the correct licensing and everything for ebook publishing.

I hope everyone understands. If you have any more questions and comments about this, feel free to send me a message or comment below. I don't bite. haha Thank you all for reading and I hope you all will still read it when it comes out!

This has nothing to do with this post, but I'm kind of obsessed with the movie right now. :)

 That's all I have for today. Until next time!

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I'm publishing a book? WHAT?

Hey everyone!

Winter break is officially over, which means that I'm back at school. This also means that I have less time to write and edit. Being the nerd that I am, that really makes me sad. However, school has to be my main focus right now, so I probably won't be able to write new blogs as often as I would like. Be patient with me please. I'll still let everyone know what is going on!

Since I have some time before my next class, I decided to update everyone on what is going. If you haven't seen it, I posted the cover and synopsis for book one in my Prophesized series, BlackMoon Beginnings, a few days ago. I can't believe the overwhelming response I got to that post. I'm really shocked that so many people want to read my book. I seriously hope it doesn't disappoint!

Anyways, right now I am still in the middle of editing the book. This part takes a pretty long time because I'm so familiar with the book. I can only read small sections at a time in order to make sure I don't skip over errors because I know what it is supposed to say.

I gave the book to one more person and she's going to help me search for errors. Between the...seven people who have read this book, hopefully we can catch most of the errors. Hopefully. At this rate, I'm hoping to get this book out in two weeks.

TWO WEEKS

I may look really calm on the outside, but I look like this on the inside.

I just thought that I would let everyone know (again) how much I am freaking out about this. I don't think I thought this whole publishing thing through all the way. I'm probably going to need some anxiety medication before all of this is over. I'm not even joking. I go through phases where I'm super excited and then I start doing this weird laugh/cry thing. So, if you are around me anytime within the next few weeks, don't say I didn't warn you...because I did. (<--that's my warning).

Also, a lot of people have been asking about the format of this book. This is going to be a FREE ebook. I am going to upload the book to Smashwords first. Smashwords.com is a online publishing company that allows you to download books for multiple devices. You don't need a Kindle or Nook for Smashwords. There is a downloadable version that can be read on almost any electrical device like your computer or possibly iPod or cell phone if you have the correct app. After that, I'm going to try and publish on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. If the book does well, then I'll consider making paperback versions, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. 

To recap, I'm hoping to get this book out in two weeks. I'm aiming for sometime between January 19th and the 21st. If anything changes, I will definitely let you all know. If anyone has any questions, don't be afraid to ask!

Thanks again for all of your support. I really appreciate it. :)

I'm off to Physics now!

That's all I have for today. Until next time!

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Cover and Synopsis Reveal

I figured it's about time that I post the cover and synopsis for my book. I've talked with a couple of friends about this whole process and they all have made me feel so much better about everything. I've had really conflicting emotions about publishing this book. I'm not super confident in myself, so I keep going back and forth with my decisions, but if I didn't want to publish it, I wouldn't have told anyone. I realize that now. 

The title for book one is BlackMoon Beginnings. If you read the book, you'll understand why I chose that as the title. I made the cover in Photoshop and it could still change before I publish the book. This is my third or fourth attempt at a cover. Since I don't have a lot of money to hire someone to make a cover for me, I've had to use stock photos. I'm still tweaking it, but this is the best visualization for one of the book scenes that I've come up with with the resources I have available.

Synopsis:

Large gorgeous men, a hidden race, and a magical secret.

Ryanne Arden was on track to being Stormfield High School’s Valedictorian. Being the shy, quiet studious type, she’s always done her own thing. That all changed when a drunk man decided to get behind the wheel of a car. With the death of her mother, Ryanne is suddenly more alone than she’s ever been. With no friends or family to turn to, a local woman named Jane offers to help Ryanne in her time of need.

With graduation looming ahead of her, eighteen year old Ryanne must get her act together if she wants to get out of the small town of Stormfield, Maine and away from her painful memories.

Meeting the attractive Colton Wagner, changed everything. He awakened something in Ryanne that even she didn’t know she had. Magic. With her life thrown upside down, Ryanne has been thrust into a world completely unbeknown to her.

Being the only non-mage to ever gain magic, paints a target on Ryanne’s back. She’s the girl the whole mage world has been searching for. It has been prophesized for thousands of years that a young non-mage female would put an end to the chaos created by rogue mages, the Gadramicks. Their manipulative leader, Dravin, will do anything within his power to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled.

Finding out that she's an intricate part to ending a supernatural war, Ryanne has the weight of all mages on her shoulders. With the help of Colton and his family, along with a healer, a dream-walker, and a loud-mouthed mage, Ryanne sets out on the journey of a lifetime. Can she overcome her insecurities and do what is needed of her or will she lose her identity behind the magic inside of her?

BlackMoon Beginnings is book one in the four part Prophesized Series. 

Please keep in mind that this is a Young Adult novel. It falls under the Paranormal Romance genre. No, there are no vampires or werewolves in it. I'm getting tired of reading those kind of books, so I know you probably are too. If you don't like YA novels or read the synopsis and decide that you don't want to read the book, please just give it a chance. I've only had a couple people read it, but everyone has liked it so far.  Also, the book is going to be free, so you won't be losing anything. After you read it and decide you don't like it, that's completely fine with me. At least you gave it a chance.

I stayed up to the wee hours of the morning writing some nights because I had an idea and couldn't stop. I lost sleep and quite possibly some of my sanity while writing this book. I've gotten many strange looks for my random AHA! moments followed by giddy laughter. Yet, I wouldn't change anything. I loved writing this book. I love the characters and the world that I created. I can't believe that a short story turned into a four part series. I love this book and I really hope you all will as well.

I say this a lot, but I seriously cannot thank you all enough. I appreciate all the support I've been getting during this time. It means so much to me--way more than I can express. Even if nothing comes out of this, I've gained a lot. I've learned so much during this experience and I think that's all that matters.

Thank you so much for reading this post and I hope you all have a great 2013. :)

That's all I have for today. Until next time!

                

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