Book Launch DIADEM OF DEATH

It's been over a month since DIADEM OF DEATH was launched so I guess it's time to post a few photos...

I had the lucky fortune to share the launch with my Blue Moon Publishing sibling, Mark Burley!

The staff at Halifax Chapters were exceptionally enthusiastic and helped Mark and I launch our books in style!

This is me reading with my eyes closed, which is a talent not many people have.

Mark and I signing copies and feeling like real author people.

Mark doesn't have the ability to read with his eyes closed (like me) and not only that, he also needs glasses ;)

But enough about us, here are the real stars, the books themselves...

                   

HIT THE GROUND RUNNING

"Eric - Mom and Dad are gone. I don't know what happened, but I'm going to find out."Eric might not be getting along with his family - or anyone else, for that matter - but he's pretty sure a boarding school in another country isn't the answer. Skilled in parkour, running helps him deal. So be it, he decides. Do the time and get out. Flow like water. But when he gets a cryptic message from his brother telling him their parents have been abducted, and then his brother disappears, he realises they weren't punishing him, they were hiding him. To find them, Eric has to discover the secrets of his parents' research, but the conspiracy he uncovers threatens more than just his family. With help from unlikely new friends, a hack-first-ask-questions-later approach to computers, and a dangerous plan, he soon learns that some secrets don't want to be found, and others have a way of revealing themselves at all the wrong times.

DIADEM OF DEATH

(A NEFERTARI HUGHES MYSTERY #2)

Nefertari "Terry" Hughes is looking forward to spending the school break with her boyfriend, but when her archaeologist father announces he?s working on a project that will take him to Egypt, all hopes of having a romantic summer are buried.Terry accompanies her father to Alexandria where she?s reunited with her first crush, Awad-all grown up and an expert in translating hieroglyphics. He confides that the team is in a race to find Cleopatra?s lost tomb before a secret band of rebels steals Egypt?s last Pharaoh and her diadem.But sabotage and a deadly accident put everyone on high alert, and Terry isn?t sure whom to trust. As the line between ally and enemy begins to blur, Terry has to keep her wits about her and figure out who wants the diadem badly enough to kill.

Begin With The End

Whre the magic happens...sometimes.

Before I write a scene, I let it stew in my mind for a few days, choosing which parts to keep and which bits to throw away. For me, nothing is more exciting than opening up the laptop to make that moment exist somewhere other than inside my head.

After the first paragraph, I usually stop and read it over—then I make that face like I'm smelling milk gone bad. I delete everything I just typed, and then I start again.

Then...repeat.

Before I know it, a half hour has gone by, and my word count is zilch.

It's frustrating. I have the scene in my mind. I know where it's going. I can SEE the finish line, but I can't seem to get started.

I always like to to have a chapter end with a cliffhanger or one of those 'a-ha!' moments. Recently, I changed things up and wrote the last three or four paragraphs of the chapter I was working on.

I discovered that when I focused on the cliffhanger or the 'a-ha!' ending, it gave my writing momentum. Without pausing to edit what I had just written, I jumped to the beginning of the chapter and wrote until I met up with the awesome cliffhanger.

This is how I tackle most of my scenes now, and it has made a huge difference in how much writing I can get done in a short amount of time. And when I hit that word count goal, each chapter ending is a 'yes!' moment for me.

What writing strategies work for you?

Confessions Of An Unpublished Writer

Every time I hear someone say author, it sounds like they're saying the name Arthur, but with an English accent. I would love to be an author (see? now you hear it too!) but I am still a writer without readers—aka an unpublished person.

When people learn I have a literary agent, they usually ask two things. "What's your book about and when will it be published?"

The first one is easy. "YA paranormal romance," I reply. Then I explain that getting published is hard work, lots of luck and good timing. "It would be nice," I shrug, "but it's been really interesting seeing this side of the industry."

Here's the truth. I want to get published so bad I can taste it. I would sell my mother to a band of camel traders to get a contract. And that's just the beginning of my confessions. Scroll down for the rest of the dirt...

1.  I day dream about my characters at my job.  
2. Sometimes I practise my signature to make it look pretty and interesting so I'll be ready for book signings.



Alex Pettyfer in 'Beastly'.

3. I've already cast the movie they'll base on my novel. Alex *cough* Pettyfer.
4. I stalk the YA section of the bookstore and stare at the spot where my novel would be shelved alphabetically. After I randomly pick a book and flip through a few pages, I always get depressed because I'll never write that well. Last week a clerk at the Chapters noticed me. "Can I help you?" she asked. "You look disappointed." In so many ways, I thought, in so many ways.
5. Publishers Markertplace is code for awesome stuff that happens to other people who aren't me. 
6. I'm convinced my agent is part of an elaborate ruse backed up by my family as revenge for all the practical jokes I've played on them. 

 So, if you see me slouched in the YA section, just give me a sympathetic nod, pat me on the shoulder and say, "Don't worry deary, someday you'll be an Arthur."

Do you have any confessions?

Next Monday I'll be blogging the latest episode of Once Upon A Time.

Cheers!