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Character Development: Aiden and The Break of Chapter 26

Have you ever been asked to do a character analysis in English class as a student? I don’t remember much from the ones I did, but I do enjoy the concept. Obviously, not every character ever written is worthy of the bother, but every once in a while you get one you could spend hours on the couch with (in psychoanalysis…). You think you know them, but the more you look, the deeper you see. Part of why I love reading, re-reading, and writing is that all three allow you to revisit a certain situation, a certain place and time, a certain sentence spoken, and look beneath the surface in a way you can’t do in real life. Nuance and subtlety are the most irresistible lure for any hardcore bookworm. Yes, we enjoy action and passion, and witty dialogue, but what really keeps us coming back isn’t the obvious, it’s the things you have to dig for, think about, and chew on.

Why would you do that to a person??

WolfenNot too long ago, I was confronted with a reader’s question that gave me pause. The question was about Aiden from Wolfen and a certain thing that happens to him about halfway through the book. My answer was going to be simple and to the point: it was a test for him and another character, and their arcs hinged upon how they responded to it. But I paused because as I was typing this answer out, my mind veered off to a place I hadn’t gone before, even while writing this book, and it completely changed what I wanted to say. That place was Aiden’s past.

“Why would you do that to a person?” they asked.

Here’s my answer:

Read More »Character Development: Aiden and The Break of Chapter 26

DIYDay Lesson 23: Facebook Advertising – A Case Study

Marketing, marketing, marketing: the life of an author when not writing, writing, writing. Like it or not, if you want your books to sell, you have to tell people it’s out there. Sometimes, Lady Luck smiles down on you and you strike gold. Most of the time, however, you just keep trying different things, repeating what works, dropping what doesn’t. This cycle has recently led me to try out the Facebook advertising option, and I decided I might as well share the results with all my lovely author friends. This will be a brief walk-through of how to create a Website click Facebook ad campaign, and an overview of the results I got from mine. Be warned: lots of text and numbers follow. Hopefully, it helps someone, since it didn’t do all that much for me… (spoiler alert)

 

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What Makes A Hero(ine)? A wee rant in defense of one

If actions speak louder than words, why do we fall in love with book characters who do horrible things, simply because we know their intentions are good? Especially in Romance, the hero is usually a man with a past (or even present) filled with many violent deeds that would make us run for safety if we couldn’t see into his thoughts (translate: in real life). But everyone instinctively trusts in him, because we expect the story to have a happy ending–through his actions. Why is that?

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Goodreads Giveaway – Win an Autographed Book!

Hear ye! Hear ye! I am holding a giveaway over at Goodreads for 3 autographed copies of WOLFEN! The contest runs the length of March, 2015, and is open internationally to readers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. To enter, just hop on over to the Goodreads Giveaway page and enter your name and mailing address. Winners will be chosen at random by Goodreads at the end of the giveaway. Help me spread the word! Use  #Wolfen and  #WolfenGiveaway. Share on Twitter, Facebook, reblog, and tell your friends!

Introducing: The #Wolfen Hula Babe

Dear friends and readers, I’ve been sitting on this for quite a while, debating the wisdom of dipping my feet into something like this, and in the end decided I’d rather do one thing well, than a thousand things poorly. For those of you who’ve already read Wolfen, you might recognize this little hula gal as the secret Aiden had stashed in the side compartment of his car. You might also recognize the quote as Aiden’s signature Zen philosophy on life. It has become my adopted motto in life as well, and the Hula Babe has become a de facto mascot for this book. I originally put her on a mug solely for myself (and you may have seen pictures of it on… Read More »Introducing: The #Wolfen Hula Babe

Wolfen Stuffs…

Site

Hello everyone! This is an official Wolfen update. With the book out on virtual shelves for a week and a day now, I thought it was time to catch you up on a couple things. First, a little hiccup. Which is not actually that little. Funny thing happened when I made Wolfen available in print… CreateSpace decided to send it out to expanded distribution with a price tag of $200… needless to say, I was not amused. I was even less so when I contacted them and was told there would be no way to expedite the correction of this, and that the proper price of $25 would not show up until January 1, 2015. So, at the moment, the listing on Barnes & Noble looks like this:

Read More »Wolfen Stuffs…

#Wolfen is here… pre-order now!

A little over a year in the making, my baby is finally finished and set loose upon the world! In a manner of speaking… After 9 months of intensive writing, a month of self-edits and 3 more in professional edits, Wolfen has emerged at 185,000 words, 69 chapters, and a whole lot of awesome. And the best part: It’s now available for pre-order at Smashwords and Amazon (with other outlets to follow very soon)! For those of you impatient to sink your teeth into it, you can read the first 20% of the book at the Smashwords link. You’ll meet some pretty out-there characters within its pages, and maybe sleep with the lights on for a few nights. Or not.… Read More »#Wolfen is here… pre-order now!