Tag: Publishing and Printing

Winter Warrior (Winter Witch #3) COVER REVEAL!

After working on this book for many months, I am proud to present the cover art for my new adult reverse harem romantic high fantasy ‘Winter Warrior’, the third book in my Winter Witch series.

After a devastating betrayal plunges the kingdom of Atlantica into chaos, bone witch Tally finds herself stripped of her magical abilities and forced to flee the palace with Ash, Dover, and her new husband, the uncrowned king Ford. Desperate for allies to protect their people, they seek refuge in a neighbouring kingdom. But when the Midlenes queen offers Ford a deal to reclaim his throne, Tally’s world shatters.

With her magic gone and her family torn apart, Tally and Dover embark on a daring mission to stop the war. But when Tally’s plan to assassinate the barbarian Highlander king takes an unexpected turn, she is thrust into a dangerous game of deception and survival. Now captive in a hostile court, she must navigate treacherous politics and brutal violence to outsmart her enemies and save her kingdom.

As Tally faces her most critical challenge yet, she discovers unexpected truths about her past and her heart. With her family scattered across the continent, she must find the strength to confront her greatest enemy, and save her kingdom and her loved ones, no matter the cost.

**WINTER WARRIOR is the third book in the WINTER WITCH high fantasy series, and is a full-length, medium-burn why choose novel. This means the main character has several love interests and doesn’t choose between them. There are steamy scenes, super hot protective men, and there may or may not be a cliff-hanger.**

Artwork by the wonderful author and illustrator Katie Stewart of Magic Owl Design, an incredible Australian artist.

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Should authors produce similar content?

similar content

This was one of my problems when I first published an adult novel and then switched to Young Adult.

Branding

Should authors produce the same kinds of stories? Personally I loved reading Maria V Snyder’s Poison Study series and then the Healer series and finding them both basically the same kind of story, with the same type of heroine, love interest, and even a pair of allies who treated the heroine like a sister.

The same with David Gemmell’s heroic fantasy novels – mostly starring loner former heroes past their prime (Druss, Waylander, Jon Shannow) or young outcasts (Skilgannon, Gaelen) with a token warrior woman who will still need rescuing, often with some kind of man-beast hybrid that would have to be murdered eventually. I could pick up any Gemmell book and know exactly what I would be getting. There is always a quiet swordsman, a brute, and an archer in the team novels.

John Green writes manic pixie dream girls and boys as love interests.

Rick Riordan writes about descendants of mythological gods.

Cassandra Clare writes thinly veiled Harry Potter fanfiction.

Richelle Mead writes YA heroines who are smart and sassy and go-getters.

Stephanie Meyer specialises in weird love triangles.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Personally I like being able to say, “I feel exactly like a David Gemmell novel” and being able to pick up one that hits all the right buttons.

My own writing

Both of my full-length novels are wildly different.

  • Adult vs teen protagonist.
  • POC vs white ‘goth’ girl
  • Sci-fi vs paranormal.
  • Established relationship vs new love interest.
  • Deep space vs suburbia.
  • Limited characters vs larger cast.

But there are certain similarities:

  • Strong/powerful female lead
  • Diverse cast
  • Feminist slant on the storyline
  • Both heroines overcome their own issues and are the agents of their own stories
  • BUT both heroines need the help of their friends/allies to do so
  • Both characters’ actions propel the storyline forward.
  • I like to think of them as both active heroines, not passive.

That is what I’m aiming for in my ‘branding’.

In all of the stories I write, I want those similarities to be there. I want someone to be able to identify a Lissa Bilyk novel and be able to say, “Yes, I recognise those elements from her other novels” even though I’m writing in different genres with different plots and different characters.

I want my books to be different but familiar.

Write What You Know: Knowing More Than You Put On The Page

knowing more

As a writer, I feel the need to really know my characters, their situations, their props and settings.

For The Edge of Darkness, that wasn’t so hard. It was largely a made-up world, set in deep space on a spaceship and the weapons used were also made up.

Internet-Based Research

I did some research on amputees and prosthetics to try to get a feel for what Max might be feeling as a cyborg with a robotic arm. I researched what kind of food could theoretically be grown on a spaceship. I researched some other science-y things. But when I wrote the story, I probably knew a lot more than I was putting in to the book.

With Winter Witch, one of my characters wears a monocle. I had no idea how monocles stayed put, so I did some research to better understand my character. I found out how someone inserts and wears a monocle, and I felt like I had a strong grasp on the eyepiece and I wrote it into the book.

When I mentioned the research to friends, another author piped up that she was interested in how people wore monocles. I was surprised, because I was sure I’d read one of her characters in one of her books I’d read actually did wear a monocle. I was surprised because this author didn’t know how her character wore a monocle and she clearly hadn’t done the research into finding it out. Maybe she didn’t care. Maybe it wasn’t important. The character wore a monocle and that’s all we needed to know.

penguin-33203_640

Write what you know.

“Write what you know” is probably one of the most repeated pieces of writing advice out there. And it’s true, you should write about what you know. But you can always expand upon what you know by research.

As for me? I didn’t feel comfortable writing about a character who wore a monocle until I knew exactly how a monocle worked. I think it’s an issue with my perfectionism that I needed to research something so foreign to me. But I didn’t want to make some basic mistake that a monocle-wearing fan might point out in the book.

My character doesn’t even take his monocle off or put it back on, so I’m not quite sure why it was so important to me to know these things. Maybe for future reference? I’m sure I only mention the monocle in passing.

The research I did certainly wasn’t earth-shattering, but as a writer I felt like I needed to know more than I was putting on the page.

I think that’s why we’re told to write what we know.

Storm of Blood on Amazon and a whole lot of links

Storm of Blood final cover

Storm of Blood is on Amazon.com for 99c. This introductory offer will last for all of May, and then the price will go up.

Also, just a reminder that Storm of Blood can also be downloaded from Smashwords for free using the coupon code EA42K on check out. The coupon expires at the end of May.

The first several chapters are also available to read for free on Goodreads. Check it out if you’re not sure if you want to commit to a purchase. You can also read excerpts on Amazon and Smashwords before purchasing.

Currently Storm Front and The Archive of Lost Dreams are available for free on Smashwords and for 99c on Amazon. I am trying to make them available for free on Amazon as well, but the process and not easy and I beg for your patience in the matter. You can help by visiting their Amazon pages, scrolling down a bit to ‘tell us about a lower price’, and reporting they are available for free on some of the bigger sellers like Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Sony and Diesel. Here, I’ll even make it super easy by providing all the links:

Storm Front:

Amazon – currently 99c.

Free on:

Smashwords
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Diesel
Kobo

–

The Archive of Lost Dreams:

Amazon – currently 99c.

Free on:

Smashwords
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Sony

As usual, The Edge of Darkness is 99c on Smashwords and Amazon.

Oops, I’ve Done It Again

Storm of Blood final coverWell, not so much ‘oops’ as ‘Hey there, loyal readers, would you like a new book?”

Today I hit ‘publish’ on both Amazon and Smashwords for my new young adult urban fantasy/paranormal novel ‘Storm of Blood’. As you may or may not know, it is the first full-length novel starring Tina Storm, my Australian teenage demon hunter who also appeared in the short story collection ‘Storm Front’ (available for free on Smashwords and hopefully soon to be free on Amazon)

Smashwords is available immediately, of course. Amazon will take about a day to show up on, and a bit longer for the international sites. Smashwords sites like Barnes and Noble and Diesel will be available in a few weeks. I’ll let you know when it’s available in your favourite format.

Here’s the link to the Smashwords site for Storm of Blood.

Also, Storm of Blood will be free on Smashwords until the end of May if you enter the following coupon during check-out:

EA42K

The coupon expires on May 31 2013, so if you’ve been waiting patiently for this novel now’s your chance to grab it in .mobi, Word, epub or whatever your favourite format is.