Starting to Blog about Indie Books!

Here's why: I want to support my fellow Indie authors. People who don't write, or who work with a main-stream publisher, have no idea how hard and isolating it can be to do it all on your own. I do.

First of all, we write for thousands upon thousands of hours - fine tuning our first draft word vomit into something beautiful. Then we design (or have the cash to pay someone else to design, which I don't) an eye-catching cover that is both appealing and embodies the theme. Finally we publish and promote until we have nightmares.

Recently, as part of that promotion nightmare, I've been contacting book bloggers and reviewers. It has been a wonderful experience, and if you haven't done that yet I suggest you jump off of twitter and find a blogger/reviewer! These are people who receive a free copy of your book (usually via email in ebook format) and then they read and review it. Don't be surprised if you don't get all 5 star reviews.

It's very hard to do it all yourself. Did I mention that? For instance, I whittled down my first novel - Shattered - because main-stream publishers want fantasy to end around 100k words. Mine was 120k at first. I shaved it down to about 105k. One review, from The Mind Palace, said it felt rushed and could be lengthened. I know that's just one person's opinion, one that hasn't been shared by anyone else, but it says something I agree with. Don't try to fit your book into a box. Had I gone with my initial intent, instead of carving it up for the big name publishers who rejected me, perhaps that 3 star review would have been a 5 star one.

I also entered my cover into a design contest, from which I received helpful feedback and thanks to which I redesigned the fonts and font colors. I appreciate all the help I can get!

That's why I'm now offering book reviews/blogs. If you're an Indie author and your work is fantasy, paranormal anything, historical fiction, or something along those lines - no erotica, please - then email me your book in PDF or some sort of ebook format. legendsofrune at gmail. I will read and give an honest review. If you're interested, we can trade books for review. I'm down with that.

My primary job is and will always be writing. This is just a side hobby that hopefully will benefit the Indie author community. I'm glad I chose to do things my own way, even more so with books 2 and 3 and the next one in a new genre, and all the others I have planned.

If I can help, I'd be happy to! :)

Book trailers... why do they suck? Part II

I'll tell ya why they suck. It's because they're effing hard to make! I mean, as an author, I have no visual representations at hand to show the world. I'm not an artist of that medium. I had to find free pictures and videos, or ask permission to use people's artworks because I'm an indie author and still mostly unknown.

I'm hoping the book trailers will change all that. I said that I was using the trailer for Iced by Karen Moning as my level of excellence meter, but I don't have a budget and I just did my best with what I had. I hope you like it. If you do, would you mind rating it and giving me a thumbs up?

If you haven't read the book yet, please do. It's in ebook and paperback format at amazon.com. It's a free ebook if you rent it with Amazon Prime. If you buy it it's $2.99 for the ebook and no more than $9.99 for the paperback. (Amazon changes prices, so it's $9.99 minus change.)

Buy it here.

Here they are! Enjoy! The first one is the short version. Second one is the long version. Make sure you check out the amazing work of the artists at deviantart who were so kind as to let me use their work.

Book trailers... why do they suck?

It has come to my attention that I need a book trailer. First step before doing something I've never done is to research, so I went on youtube and searched "fantasy book trailer."

*Ahem*

Don't get me wrong - not ALL book trailers suck. I was just shocked by the high number of cringe and facepalm moments I had while watching. There was a huge difference between those done by indies and those done by professional peeps.

The trailer for Iced by Karen Marie Moning - one of my all-time favorite authors - was excellent. I will be using that as my standard of professionalism. I wonder how close I can come on my $0 budget. Probably not very. I will say though, that I've got mad respect for indie authors in general. Yes, some are less than professional. That's what you get when you open the doors to anyone with a keyboard. I'm talking about the ones who take great pride in their work, who do their very best, and who make real art.

It isn't easy to write well. It isn't easy to read and re-read, revise and re-read, revise and revise and re-read, over and over again until it's polished and pristine. It isn't easy to make your own book cover, especially if, like me, you have no experience with Photoshop. It makes my head hurt to think of all the marketing I'll have to do, and of making a book trailer when I have less than no experience with that. I do not want people to cringe when they see it and think, "Geez, that sucked. Not reading that book."

So... wish me luck! I'm gonna need it.

Running Again!

So, my twitter tagline says I’m a runner, and that used to be true. When I was training for the Warrior Dash and the Beach Dash I ran 9-12 miles per week. It was awesome! When I first started training I couldn’t even run for one minute without huffing and puffing. Thanks to the Couch to 5k program I was able to run 5k without stopping within 9 weeks.

Then I started writing my books. The writing of the first book was unbalanced. I spent hours and hours at the computer and neglected all other things. Book two, on which I’m currently working, has been much more balanced and thus has been going much slower. Still, I sit a lot. 

For the past 9 months or so I've been writing, and haven’t been running as much.

Well, I got on the scale Sunday morning and discovered that I've gained TWELVE EFFING POUNDS in the past few months. How does that even happen??? I don’t eat bad things. I’m a vegetarian for crying out loud! Grrr. So I bought Rusty Moore’s Visual Impact for Women, conned 2 of my friends into doing it with me, and began Monday.

I. am. so. sore!

It was a blast though. I forgot how much I enjoyed primitive running. I pulled on my Vibram Five Fingers, donned my Bluetooth and workout playlist, and my loaded up my dog, Daisy. We run at a local nature preserve. There’s almost never anyone there. That’s the part I like most, being that I don’t want anyone to see me running. Ugh.

Monday I did 30 minutes of walking 1.5 minutes, sprinting 30 seconds, then walked for 20 minutes. I did that after lifting weights. That was brutal. Horseflies were chasing us. Daisy got bitten. I just kept hitting the things with my arms.

Tuesday after lifting weights I ran for 4 minutes, walked for 3, totaling 21 minutes, then walked for fifteen minutes or so. That was super brutal because I was already stiff and sore. No horseflies, but my face ran into several spider webs and flying bugs. One flew into my mouth and I’m not at all sure if I actually managed to spit it out. Ick. Also, I saw a tree that looked like the shrunken head on the bus in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 

It’s not fair how quickly one gets out of shape. Yeah, I’m a writer, so my life is fairly sedentary, but I’m not willing to be a fatty anymore. I want to be a hot writer! Today is my off day, and I think I’ll just swim a bit with my kid.

I wanted to share my running playlist with you though. I listen to music for the way it makes me feel. I don’t need thumping beats to fuel my energy. If you like just plain good music, maybe you’ll enjoy a song or two from the list.

Enjoy!

I’m the one that’s cool – The Guild

Bicycle Race – Queen

Coming up Easy – Paulo Nutini

Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen

Down on the Corner – CCR

Don’t Stop me Now – Queen

Electro Boy – The Mighty Boosh

Everybody Ona Move – Spearhead

Fat Bottomed Girls – Queen (personal anthem)

Hello Bonjour – Spearhead

High Hopes – Paulo Nutini

Honky Tonk Women – Rolling Stones

I Want You – Bob Dylan

I Will Wait – Mumford & Sons

Jenny Don’t be Hasty – Paulo Nutini

Just a Friend – Biz Markie

Killer Queen – Queen

Last Request – Paulo Nutini

Little Lion Man – Mumford & Sons

Love Games – The Mighty Boosh

Might Tell You Tonight – Scissor Sisters

New Shoes – Paulo Nutini

No Bonez No Blood – Jah Sun                                       

No Other Way – Paulo Nutini

Pencil Full of Led – Paulo Nutini

Rehab – Amy Winehouse

Shanty Song – Jonathan Edwards

She Said Yes – Mumford & Sons

She’s So Cold – Rolling Stones

Shut up and Dance – Arrowsmith

Simple Things – Paulo Nutini

Somebody to Love – Queen

The Tundra – The Mighty Boosh

Top O’ the Morning to ya – House of Pain

Travelin’ Band – CCR

Under Pressure – Queen

You’re my Best Friend - Queen

Working on Book 2

A King’s Burden, book 2 in The Legends of Rune Trilogy, is very near completion. I've posted a publishing date of August 2013 on my website, www.writerapriladams.com.

Burden picks up where Shattered left off, but is told from Glenn’s point of view. Here’s the *tentative* cover copy:

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Glenn Elambil has a secret and it’s tearing him apart. His new wife is hunted by unfathomable evil, his father is dying, and the weight of the lives of the elven race hangs heavy on his shoulders. All he wants is to hide in the forest, warm and snuggled in the arms of his woman, and raise a family of little Elambils. That tiny dream of warmth and innocence is slipping further away by the minute.

If he has any chance of a long life with his woman, he has to face the overwhelming obstacles head-on. The fate of his world is a distant priority compared to that of his lovely wife. If he could only find a way to keep her safe, the burden wouldn't be so heavy. With dragging steps he walks the path set before him, seeking always to rid himself of the secret he keeps locked in his heart. He would give anything to grow old with her, to see her scarred face wrinkle, but threats and attacks are growing disturbingly commonplace. If they can survive today, perhaps there can be a tomorrow.

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If you haven’t gotten your copy of Shattered yet, you can do so here!

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The audiobook for Shattered should be out sometime in August, 2013. It’s such an exciting process!

Reality is Setting In

So, I started writing Shattered in Oct 2012. Like all the things I do I went overboard with it, writing all hours of the day and night. The story was in me and I had to get it on paper. My first draft was finished in a month. Three months later, aside from the characters and basic plot, the book was unrecognizable. I’d written the first draft, then read books on how to write books, and realized mine sucked. I spent the next three months refining it.

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Then, I published it. I decided to go indie because it’s more my style, I’m determined, and I couldn't get signed by an agent. I now see that as a blessing, but I did try mainstream first and failed.

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I don’t feel weird about any of that, not upset that I failed a few times. I just feel super awkward now that it’s out there, published.

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I’m an introvert, which means I live in my own head. My world exists within my mind, my body, and my emotions. Pretty limited, I know. I can reach out and do all the time, but I’m most comfortable in my own world. I’m super self-conscious too – leftovers from being an ugly kid/teen. I don’t like showing negative emotions. I suppress them and work through them until they go away. If I’m upset, I’m REALLY upset. Anyone who knows me knows I like to be happy. I seek happiness. Shattered isn't a happy story, and I’m a little shocked by how dark it came out.

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I told you all that stuff about me to say this – my soul is in those pages. Not all of it, not even most of it, but there’s a part of me that took up residence in that collection of words that can now be called a book. It’s out there, and I want people to read it. That’s actually terrifying. I didn't write it to be clever, or deep, the story existed in my head and only I could set it free. Now it is.

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One of my favorite authors, Diana Gabaldon, gave advice that the books we write are just for us, they ARE us, and to read people’s cold-hearted reviews on Amazon or whatever would only cripple our creativity. (I’m paraphrasing big time.) I know that’s true. I suffered from 15 years of writer’s block. Couldn't write more than a grocery list or an email. I don’t want people to hate it/me.

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I've put my work out there for all to see. I’m worried what my parents will think, what my church friends will think, will they think I’m some sort of sicko? When my fellow Christians hear that I wrote a book they instantly assume it’s a Christian book. It’s not. Of course God is God in my book too, because that’s so much a part of my beliefs and my soul that I couldn't even make up a fake world where God was not Himself. My book has gore, violence, attempted gang rape, serious fringe topics, sex, cursing… in other words, it’s pretty close to real life in that it’s a bit dirty.

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That’s what has me feeling awkward the most, I think. People assume that Christians only read Christian books, only listen to Christian music, only think good, clean thoughts. Not true for the majority of us, I’d wager. I like books with different paradigms. I love Diana Gabaldon’s books because she presents God and faith with respect, without me knowing exactly where she as a person stands on the issue. Her books make mine seem rated G. I like that, being rated G. I’m not trying to be something I’m not in my books, and I’m not ever going to. I’m pretty rated G. Maybe PG-13 when drunk.

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My point, in this bizarre ramble, is that I’m feeling weird. It’s like I just entered a room full of authors and all I have is my one book as street cred. There are giants of literature and thought there, and here I am swaggering in with my little stack of pages. I fell like I’m standing up and saying, “Hi, my name is April, and I’m a bookaholic who decided to join up with all of you to provide sweet book highs to our hungry bookaholic brethren.” I don’t want to cure anyone of a love of books. I want to feed the need. I LOVE books, and I love finding new authors that make me think and feel in ways I’m not capable of doing on my own. I can live a hundred lives all in my little head. I recently (like last night at 2am) got over my addiction to the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning. I was seriously addicted, but it’s finished so I have to get over it. I went through all five books in less than 2 weeks. No joke. Couldn't get enough. Loved the ending. I got to want things like JZB and wonder if I went to Dublin, would I see more than most could like Mac?

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I want people to devour my books like that. I want them to reach the end of the first book and scream because they have to get the next book NOW! That’s what I did with DG's last book, An Echo in the Bone. I was listening to it while cleaning the kitchen and it ended, and I screamed “NO!!!!!” because it was so open-ended, such a horrible thing to do to me, leaving me stressed out! That’s what I want to do, and I’m still having withdrawals waiting for Written in my own Heart’s Blood. I’ll have to read the paperback because I doubt I’ll be able to wait for the audio book.

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So, that’s it. I’m a noob in an art as old as time. I’m honored to be given the chance to color the world with prose, to share pieces of my soul with all of you. Reality is setting in. I really did it. I wrote a book, finished it, put it out there, and I’m working on book 2. I've found my calling in life. It’s an amazing feeling. Join me in the Elemental World by diving into Shattered, book 1, The Legends of Rune series.