Posts Tagged With: books

MEGA GIVEAWAY for my book! Check it out!

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Michelle Proulx

What up, internet friends? In honor of my 300th WordPress post, I’ve decided to hold a mega giveaway for my debut novel, Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It.

The rules are simple. I’m going to list various ways you can enter. Then you do them … and you’re entered! Prizes are listed below. Woo!

The giveaway will run from the now until May 26.

 

How to enter:

Complete any of the following activities, and send me some sort of evidence that you completed them. You can email me (michellishelli@gmail.com), write it in the comments, write it on my Facebook page, tweet me (@michellishelli), send the evidence to me by messenger dragon … literally whatever you want, so long as I actually receive it.

You get +1 entry into the giveaway for each activity completed. The activities are:

  • Buy a copy of Imminent Danger. Send me some sort of evidence of your purchase — anything works, including a picture of you holding the book! If you already bought it, awesome! Send your evidence and you’re in!
  • Write a review for Imminent Danger. Send me a link to the review, or a screencap of the review, or whatever. If you’ve already written a review, that totally counts! Send that shizzle my way, friend.
  • Share this giveaway on social media. On your blog, on your Twitter, etc. Send appropriate evidence of your awesomeness. +1 for each place you share the giveaway.
  • Share Imminent Danger on social media. Same rules as for sharing the giveaway. Here’s a link to the book … http://amzn.to/1lytZwB
  • Draw some Imminent Danger fan art. As long as it vaguely resembles something from the book, it works for me! Oh, and this obviously goes without saying, but any fan art you send me will be showcased on this blog.
  • Write an Imminent Danger fanfiction. Sky’s the limit with this one! Pick a character, come up with a silly situation, and have some fun! Like with the fan art, all fanfiction will be showcased on this blog.
  • Make your own activity! Thought of a different way to show support for my book? Awesome! As long as it’s related to Imminent Danger and promoting/supporting it, or promoting/supporting me, in some capacity, it counts.

So that’s how you enter! Now for the …

 

Prizes:

How many prizes I dish out depends on how many people enter, obviously. The more entrants, the more awesome the prizes!

Confirmed prizes:

  • Signed copy of Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It, plus related swag!

Possible other prizes:

  • More signed copies!
  • Imminent Danger fridge magnet!
  • Short story written by me, featuring you and an Imminent Danger character of your choice!
  • Scene from the book, drawn by me! I’m a terrible artist! You’ll love it!
  • Assorted Imminent Danger swag!
  • Whatever else I can think of! If you have a suggestion, let me know!

 

That’s all she wrote! Thanks in advance to everyone who participates. And now, for some totally related media to get you in the giveaway mood …

 

Totally related media:

Categories: My Works, Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 27 Comments

Cover reveal! “The Song Caster” by Danielle E. Shipley

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Michelle Proulx

Cover reveal time! Danielle E. Shipley’s fourth book in the Wilderhark Tales series, The Song Caster, is coming out on June 24th. Check out the cover below!

Song Caster Cover, front

 

Back o’ book blurb:

The dull doom of impending marriage at his back and a reticent royal at his side, remarkable minstrel Gant-o’-the-Lute is off in search of adventure, and you can be sure he finds it – complete with much music, magicked maidens, and a dangerous power so great, Lute might for once find himself outmatched.

The Song Caster

Book Four of The Wilderhark Tales

 <> ~ <> ~ <>

 An enchantress’s curse turns a spoiled royal into a beast; a princess’s pricked finger places her under a hundred-year spell; bales of straw are spun as golden as the singing harp whisked down a giant beanstalk – all within sight of Wilderhark, the forest that’s seen it all.

 You’ve heard the stories – of young men scaling rope-like braids to assist the tower-bound damsel; of gorgeous gowns appearing just in time for a midnight ball; of frog princes, and swan princes, and princes saved from drowning by maidens of the sea. Tales of magic. Tales of adventure. Most of all, tales of true love.

Once upon a time, you knew them as fairytales. Know them now as Wilderhark’s.

 

danielle_author photoAbout the Author:

Danielle E. Shipley’s first novelettes told the everyday misadventures of wacky kids like herself. …Or so she thought. Unbeknownst to them all, half of her characters were actually closeted elves, dwarves, fairies, or some combination thereof. When it all came to light, Danielle did the sensible thing: Packed up and moved to Fantasy Land, where daily rent is the low, low price of her heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears, firstborn child, sanity, and words; lots of them. She’s also been known to spend short bursts of time in the real-life Chicago area with the parents who home schooled her and the two little sisters who keep her humble. When she’s not living the highs and lows of writing young adult novels, she’s probably blogging about it at www.EverOnWord.wordpress.com. Her first novel, “Inspired”, is now available through J. Taylor Publishing.

 

Book Details:

Full Title: “The Song Caster (Book Four of The Wilderhark Tales)”

ISBN: 978-0-9891846-3-2

Genre: Young Adult Fairytale

Length: Novella (212 pages)

Release Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Future availability: Paperback (Amazon.com) and eBook (Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com)

 

Add “The Song Caster” to your Goodreads shelf today!

 

Unrelated media of the day:

Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/qbyAPKS

 

Categories: Blog-related | Tags: , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Finished my first re-read / edit of Chasing Nonconformity!

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Michelle Proulx

That’s right, people — it’s done! Well, this draft, anyway.

As you may recall, I finished my third and final re-write of Chasing Nonconformity (the sequel to Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It) back in March. I vowed to put the manuscript aside for a month or two so that, when I returned to it down the road, I would be able to read it with fresh eyes.

And my plan worked! Sort of. You see, the first person on my “people I force to read the awful first drafts of my books” list is my mother. This is partially because I love her and value her opinion, and mostly because I know she won’t mock me behind my back for the rest of my life if I hand her a terrible manuscript. Not that others have done this, but you can never be too careful!

Anyway, she’s going on vacation starting today. So last weekend she called me and said that if I can get her my edited draft by Friday, she would print it out and bring it with her to the beach. Square deal. So I edited and edited and edited, and … voila! Edited manuscript! Woo!

I had a ton of fun re-reading it — my dear space explorers get up to a lot of shenanigans, and it was awesome to re-live them. I re-worked the first two chapters a bit, as I ran both past my critique group and got some great feedback. I’ll definitely be running future chapters past them, as who knows the craft of writing better than other writers?

The slight problem that resulted from this editing spree is that I discovered the book is approximately 125,000 words. Yikes. By comparison, Imminent Danger is only about 94,000 words — and that was after we cut it down from 110,000 words. Obviously sequels are allowed to be a bit longer than the first book, but once you get over 100,000 words, it’s getting pretty darn long for a YA book. I get the feeling I’ll be doing a lot of chopping in the next few months. Alas!

As a special teaser, here’s a screenshot of the front page of the manuscript:

chasingnonconformitytitlepage

So after I get the manuscript back from my mother, I’ll go through it again for another round of edits. Then I send the manuscript off to my preliminary beta reading team — a select group of people who I know will both A) provide a quick turnaround, and B) provide useful feedback. Then more edits. Then a second beta reading team … then more edits … then probably back to my mother again … then a round of copy-editing … and then done!

I’m hoping to have it done by the end of the summer, but that’s a bit unlikely, as my best friend’s wedding is coming up in August, so I’ll be somewhat occupied with that. Still, fingers crossed!

 

Unrelated media of the day:

Check out more awesome animal puns here: http://imgur.com/gallery/KPQaq

Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/KPQaq

Categories: My Works, Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , | 29 Comments

Self-publishing and Taxes

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Michelle Proulx

The topic of self-publishing and taxes is something I recently learned about, as I finally filed my income tax yesterday. First off, note that I’m a Canadian, so this post may not apply if you’re American. Secondly, note that the H&R Block rep I spoke with was absolutely awesome, so much so that I ended up giving him a copy of my book, which he promised to read and tell all his friends about. Yay networking!

Anyway, I’m Canadian, and the assisted publishing company I went through to publish my book — iUniverse — is an American company. Last year, I made approximately $500 in royalties off my book (feel free to gasp in awe or shake your head in pity, depending on your own self-publishing experience). I figured such a small amount would be easy enough to do taxes for. I was wrong.

So I went to H&R Block, which is one of those accounting firms who set up booths in the mall and do basic tax returns for good prices. Fair enough — I have no idea how to do my own taxes, and my return wasn’t particularly complicated this year. Or so I thought. You see, if you’re Canadian, and you need to file foreign income, the rate for the return goes way up. We’re talking double the price. Gah!

Now, I don’t know how this changes if you do your taxes yourself, or go via a professional business accountant (the ones who charge obscene rates by the hour). But it’s something to be aware of!

So the take-away from this post is:

If you’re self-publishing through a foreign company, you’re going to have to claim foreign income on your tax return! Dum dum dummmmmm!

That’s all for today. Have a lovely Wednesday, everyone, and enjoy the unrelated media below!

Unrelated media:

Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/J44Onuq

Categories: Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

The Writing Process Blog Hop

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Michelle Proulx

It’s been awhile since I participated in a Blog Hop, so I figured, no time like the present!

So let’s start off with a big thank you to Andrew Toynbee, who tagged me for this blog hop and wrote some really sweet words about me. You, sir, are a class act.

On to the blog hop!

1) What are you working on?

So I have two projects in the works right now:

  1. Chasing Nonconformity (sequel to Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It) — I’ve finished the rewrite, and have now set the book aside for a few weeks to give it time to mature (books are like wine/cheese, right?). Once the maturing process is finished, I will go back through the manuscript and rip it apart, in the hopes that the beta readers I eventually give it to won’t be too disgusted when they read it.
  2. The Elemental Guard — This is a fantasy novel I’ve been working on for a couple of years now, and I am in the process of figuring out how I want to rewrite it. I do technically have a first draft, but it’s suffering from an extreme case of “Not enough happens-itis”. So I’m going to rework the story from the ground up and make it awesome.

2) How does your work differ from others in the genre?

Well, Imminent Danger and Chasing Nonconformity are different from mainstream YA novels in that they’re not entirely focused on a love triangle. I know that’s generalizing a bit, but it’s also a fact that the vast majority of YA novels currently on the market are just obsessed with doom and gloom and tragic love triangles. The Imminent Danger series does not have love triangles, and I don’t think it ever will — well, it might, but the love triangle would be extremely nonviable, and more in there for comic relief than anything else. I also try to put a lot of humor in my stories, because A) I enjoy laughing and making people laugh, and B) whenever I write dark, dramatic things, I get kind of depressed.

3) Why do you write what you write?

I’ve loved fantasy and sci-fi since I was a kid. My parents indoctrinated me young — technically from the moment I was born, actually, as my middle name is Lothlorien (the Elvish woodlands from Lord of the Rings). So I tend to write a lot of fantasy and sci-fi because those are just the kind of stories I enjoy. I’m currently dabbling in a darker, slightly anarchic story, but even that still has some sci-fi/fantasy elements to keep it interesting. For me, I get enough of reality from living in it day to day — when I pick up a book, or sit down to write, I want to go somewhere new!

4) How does your writing process work?

Oh, it’s a complete mess. Sometimes I get an idea and immediately sit down and start banging out words. Sometimes I’ll get an idea, write it down, and then forget about it for years. Sometimes I’ll do elaborate planning for a story, with character backgrounds and histories and so on, and then get bored and never look at it again. My writing process is really just about what’s working for me at the time. Right now, I’m in a “do some high-level planning first, write the first draft from start to finish, and then re-write until you go completely batty and have to take up tai chi as a calming exercise” type phase.

——–

Nailed it! Okay, moving on to part 2 of the blog hop — tagging four authors to follow in my glorious footsteps. I’m not going to give them advanced warning on this because, quite frankly, I don’t have the patience to send out emails and wait for responses. So they’ll just have to deal with the free advertising, and decide for themselves if they want to participate in the blog hop.

Audrey Driscoll — This wonderful lady is the author of one of the best self-published books I’ve ever read, The Friendship of Mortals. It’s haunting, and beautiful, and thought-provoking, and has a dash of Lovecraftian horror that will absolutely blow you away. Also, the book has a fancy new purple cover!

Danielle E. Shipley — Aside from being a sweetheart, Danielle blogs all about writing and fairytales, and occasionally even about writing fairytales (gasp!). She has a great little series of novellas out called The Wilderhark Tales.

Kate Sparks — First of all, Kate reads all my posts and leaves awesome comments, so that alone makes her one of my favorite bloggers! Her blog is also quite excellent — all about writing, publishing, etc. She’s also recently posted a few pictures of Loki and his adventures with a pink pony, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Celeste DeWolfe — You know her as the talented artist behind all the Imminent Danger fan art I keep posting, but Celeste has many other talents! Her blog is really fun, with a huge variety of topics — ranging from web comics to music to books. And she’s currently posting her first novel, Life of Gaia, on Jukepop Serials (i.e., she posts it chapter by chapter, and you can read for free and leave comments).

Thanks for reading, everyone! Have a fabulous Friday!

——–

Unrelated media of the day:

Two sentence horror stories! It’s a thing! Check out more here: http://imgur.com/gallery/aHrf8

 

Categories: Blog-related, My Works, Writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

My re-write is finally finished!

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Michelle Proulx

Well, more or less. The initial re-write of Chasing Nonconformity (sequel to Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It) is done … now I have to set it aside for a few weeks, come back, re-read it, and change everything. But you know what they say — you can’t edit a blank page! And my page is definitely no longer blank.

I’ve discovered something very interesting about my writing process. When I’m at the start of a project, I get really into it. We’re talking 5,000 words/day writing sprees, nearly suffering from dehydration due to not wanting to leave the computer to get more water, etc. It’s invigorating (and possibly detrimental to my health).

Then, around the 30% mark, I slow down. It hits me how much I still need to write, how far the journey still is to get to the end … and my motivation evaporates. I have to force myself to sit down even for one measly hour to bang out a few more pages, and even then when I get up after the writing session, I feel both exhausted and like I haven’t accomplished very much.

This continues on until about the 60% mark, where I’ve passed the halfway point and the end is finally in sight (albeit off in the distance). And when I hit the final 10% … back to the writing sprees and dehydration! Booya!

Possibly this is a horribly inconsistent way to write, but … well, apparently it works for me! I guess I’m just the kind of person who likes to start things, and likes to finish things … but doesn’t like all that mucking around in the middle. Anyone know a short cut for getting straight from start to finish?

Thanks for listening to me ramble! I’ll leave you with some unrelated media to brighten your day … and also tease you with some news: I will be re-releasing Imminent Danger at some point in the next few months, with new cover art and slightly edited text! If you’ve already bought the ebook, don’t worry, it’ll be on the Kindle free days thing, so you can pick up a new copy no problem. Stay tuned!

 

Unrelated media of the day:

First up, a cute owl for your viewing delight:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then a helpful little article about how to decide what tense, POV, etc. to write your book in:

http://writetodone.com/make-right-decisions-book/

Categories: My Works, Writing | Tags: , , , , , | 40 Comments

So I got my first 1 star review …

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Michelle Proulx

That’s right — Imminent Danger has officially acquired its first 1 star review. I won’t post the link here, but if you hop over to the Imminent Danger Goodreads page, you can check out the review for yourself.

As you can probably imagine, it makes me sad that someone out there paid money for my book and didn’t enjoy it. It also sucks because no one likes to hear their work merits a mere 1 star rating — essentially, that if the book were graded as a test, it would get a measly 20% and flunk the course.  And I’m not going to lie — it kind of crushed my emotions when I first saw the review. But then I remembered that I’ve weathered much worse than this — namely, receiving a bad review in person to my face — so I think I’ve calmed down. More or less. Mostly.

Now, it’s not very classy to go line by line through a bad review and dissect it, potentially shaming the reviewer in the process, so I’m not going to do that. The only thing I’m going to bring up is this — that I really don’t understand why people feel the need to leave nasty reviews when they haven’t even read the entire book. The reviewer admits they stopped at chapter 10 … which is like reviewing a song when you’ve only heard the first 45 seconds. I just don’t get it.

I mean, yes, if the book is truly so horrendous that you literally can’t bring yourself to read any further, and feel it’s your civic duty to warn off other readers before they spend their hard-earned free time and money on a disgusting and despicable piece of literature … sure, go ahead and leave a review without reading the whole book. But I’m pretty sure (like 90% sure … maybe 85% …) that Imminent Danger isn’t a hate-filled, vitriolic piece of filth.

Okay, fine, I’m a little upset. But I guess that’s what happens when you get a bad review. I’ll get over it! I had some gravy-smothered mashed potatoes and watched an episode of Chuck, so I’m well on my way to recovery. Just needed to vent a little bit. I’m better now. I just need to remember that different people are different, and that there’s no such thing as a book everyone likes.

Sigh.

 

Unrelated media of the day:

Categories: My Works | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 97 Comments

Almost done the re-write!

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Michelle Proulx

For anyone who’s been wondering what the heck happened to me recently, the answer is pretty simple: I’ve been writing. As you may know, I’ve been working on the sequel to my first novel, Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It, for a couple of months now, and sometime around last week I just got struck with this incredible fervor to write. And so I did. And now the end is in sight!

According to my hilariously poor attempt at a “chapter outline”, Chasing Nonconformity is going to be 47 chapters long, plus an epilogue. Presumably this will change once I cut it down a bit, as it’s sitting at 125k words and that is most definitely too long for a YA novel! Anyhoo, I’m currently on chapter 42, which makes me almost done! Huzzah!

That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’m completely re-writing the last part of the book, so this is all going to be writing from scratch–i.e., I can’t take what I had before and shift it around a bit to have it fit in with the book’s new direction. But that’s okay. Writing is fun!

Oh, and then I obviously still have to go back and take care of a whole bunch of nitpicky things. For one, the main character Eris switches outfits constantly despite only having access to one outfit. So that’s going to take some figuring. For another, this is a sci-fi book, and although I thoroughly explain a lot of important world-building concepts in the first book, I haven’t actually inserted those explanations in the second book, so I’ll have to go back and figure out a way to work those in. The life of an author never grows dull, my friends!

That’s all for now. Just checking in to let everyone know how it’s going. Wish me luck on the final chapters, and I’ll report back when the re-write is complete!!!

 

Unrelated media of the day:

This may sound silly, but I’ve recently started listening to “zen” music while I write, and it’s absolutely fabulous for getting stuff done. Something about it just puts you in an awesome frame of mind for creating. At least, that’s what I’ve found! So light some candles, brew some tea, put on this Youtube video as background, and see if it helps your writing process! And if it puts you to sleep, well … even writers have to sleep sometime.

Categories: My Works, Writing | Tags: , , , | 19 Comments

So I ran the first chapter of Chasing Nonconformity by my critique group …

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Michelle Proulx

… and they didn’t hate it!

It was a fairly nerve-wracking experience — after all, despite how much we writers talk about loving it when people read our work and tell us what they think, in truth we’re absolutely terrified at the idea. What if they hate it? What if they think it’s the worst thing they’ve ever read, but are too polite to tell us to our face? Etc. But I persevered!

Going into the reading, I asked my group to look out for certain things (feel free to steal these if you’re working on your own first chapter):

  • Do you get a good sense of who the characters are? Can you picture what they look like? Do they have a distinctive voice when they’re talking?
  • Do you get a good sense of the setting? Is it interesting? More description or less?
  • In terms of plot exposition, too much or too little? Do you know why the characters are here and what they want? Is it over-explained? Is it under-explained?
  • (And now for the most important question …) Does the first chapter make you want to keep reading the book?

Overall, they enjoyed it. They suggested a bit more description in some parts, and less in others. They agreed that I over-explained the characters’ purpose (I think I mention it like 5 times over the course of the chapter), so that’s something I’ll need to cut down and work into the flow of dialogue a little bit more seamlessly. And, thank God, they said it was intriguing and that they’d like to read more.

Success!

I was actually so nervous about sharing the chapter that my stomach went completely nuts and started … well, we won’t go into that. Long story short, I had some tea, took a few deep breaths, shared the story, accepted all criticism with thanks and a smile, and got out alive. What more can a writer ask for?

 

Unrelated media of the day:

WHngcOA

Categories: Writing | Tags: , , , , , | 24 Comments

How to write a best-selling supernatural YA novel

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Michelle Proulx

I’ve recently been inspired to start a series of “How to write _____” posts. We’re going to kick off today with “How to write a best-selling supernatural YA novel”.

Be warned: the advice presented below is terrible. Do not, for the love of sandwiches, follow this advice.

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How to write a best-selling supernatural YA novel

  1. Decide which dangerous supernatural creature from mythology you’re going to transform into an attractive, brooding teenage guy who acts dangerous but really just wants someone to “get” him.  Options include, but are not limited to, vampires, werewolves, mermen, demons, fallen angels, elves, dragon-people, and yetis.
  2. Set the story in a small town where everyone knows each other and nothing exciting or supernatural ever happens. Props if you can give the town a seemingly-ordinary name that is actually a metaphor for the female protagonist’s life journey.
  3.  Start the story off in the traditional “new kid comes to school, everyone loves/fears them” manner. Your “new kid” can be either the female protagonist or the love interest, depending on if you want your heroine to start off with friends and then gradually abandon them as she gets wrapped up in the love interest’s far more interesting life, or just make her a loner right off the bat to simplify the process.
  4. The plot should revolve entirely around the female protagonist being pursued by the supernatural love interest. If you really want, you can get all fancy and introduce an outside threat (or something that actually resembles a traditional plot), but it’s really best if you just stick to the “boy meets girl, boy scares girl, boy desires girl, boy gets girl after inflicting severe mental, emotional, and physical trauma on her” approach.
  5. The female protagonist needs a fatal flaw that frequently incapacitates her, allowing the supernatural love interest to swoop in and save the day (preferably in a mysterious and brooding manner). Extreme clumsiness is one of the most widely-used flaws, as it allows the female protagonist to remain lovely and intelligent while still forcing her into otherwise totally-avoidable situations.
  6. Introduce a love triangle, and make it as heart-wrenching for the female protagonist as possible. Remember, the secondary love interest is exactly that — secondary. He’s never going to get the girl, regardless of whatever evils befall the main love interest. Still, don’t let that stop you from character-developing the heck out of the secondary love interest — make sure he shows up everywhere, especially at awkward, totally inappropriate times, to mess things up. And remember the cardinal rule: never admit that he’s the secondary love interest. You know he’s never going to get the girl, and so do your readers, but it’s a huge faux pas to actually admit such a thing.
  7. The female protagonist needs a female friend, but they should only ever talk about the supernatural love interest. Since you’ve definitely set your story in high school (and if you haven’t, change it right now!), your characters might occasionally slip up and talk about school instead of boys. That’s okay. It happens. The most important part is to make sure the conversation gets back on track ASAP.
  8. The female protagonist’s single parent must be bumbling, well-meaning, and totally oblivious to what is going on with her life. Extra points if your single parent decides to “take an interest” in the heroine and ground her, thus preventing her from going out to meet her supernatural love interest at a key moment and nearly getting them all killed.
  9. Don’t be afraid to wax poetic about the supernatural love interest for a good three or four paragraphs per chapter. This handsome, brooding gentleman is, after all, the man of your heroine’s dreams. If she’s not obsessing over every detail of his physical makeup at all times, you’re not doing it right.
  10. Keep the ending melancholy, but hopeful. You definitely want to set up for future sequels — no YA novel worth its salt ends after just one book. Obviously you can’t resolve whatever is keeping the heroine and her supernatural love interest apart, but you can drop hints that they might just get around to working out how they can be together three or four books down the road. Whatever you do, do not give them a happy ending. Once your characters get a happy ending, that’s the end of the story — and you need to milk this series for all it’s worth!

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Unrelated media of the day:

Categories: Writing | Tags: , , , , , , | 43 Comments

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