I was hit by the website-creation bug today, so I built a website specifically dedicated to Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It. It’s just one of those free websites, so nothing fancy. And most of the content is the same as my main author website, michelleproulx.com. But hey, I figure it can’t hurt to have a website dedicated to your book, right? So without further ado …
As I went to the site to grab the URL, I laughed out loud as I noticed how many times the words “IMMINENT DANGER” appear on the home page. What do you guys think? Too dangerous, or too awesome? Maybe a little bit of both?
In other news, I’m at about 17k words for NaNoWriMo, so a victory on that front definitely isn’t in the cards. Still, it’s been fun! And then besides that … work … more work … and possibly lunch if I ever get away from my computer and track down some food.
Have a great weekend, everyone! Don’t forget to enter the Goodreads Giveaway for Imminent Danger (link in the sidebar) if you haven’t done so already!
Unrelated media of the day:
I’ve been listening to this song on repeat for the past two days, so hopefully by sharing it with you guys, I can get it out of my head!
Hi all! The lovely Tania L Ramos brought to my attention via her Facebook page that today is Black Friday, and that Barnes & Noble is offering 30% off your purchase when you use the promo code “BFRIDAY30”.
So if you’ve always dreamed of purchasing my debut novel Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It but thought to yourself, “Alas! If only it were 30% off, it would be in my budget! But as it is full price, I shall sadly have to pass up on reading this most glorious book!” … you’re in luck! Today’s the day!
And don’t forget to use the promo code: BFRIDAY30!
Happy Friday, everyone! And thanks in advance to whoever decides to take me up on this fabulous offer that I totally didn’t just found out about like 5 minutes ago. Hehehe.
As work on the sequel to Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It proceeds at a glacial pace, my thoughts turn to the series as a whole and what it should be called. Considering that the first two things that draw me to a book are 1) the cover, and 2) the name, I want to make sure the series name is just as catchy as the book names themselves.
So to recap you, the two books currently in the series are Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It (published) and Chasing Nonconformity (not yet published). The genre is young adult space adventure / romance / humor. And now I need a series name.
The obvious choice is to base the name off of “Imminent Danger”, since that’s the first book in the series. But that could look a bit silly. Imagining browsing through Amazon and coming across this name:
Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It (Imminent Danger, #1)
Seems a bit redundant. Then again, that sort of thing happens to Twilight, Divergent, The Hunger Games … lots of popular series. Hmmm …
Time to draw inspiration from popular book series! Let’s see which popular YA series have “series names” that differ from the name of the first book in the series …
The Mortal Instruments (first book = City of Bones)
Caster Chronicles (first book = Beautiful Creatures)
The Infernal Devices (first book = Clockwork Angel)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians (first book = The Lightning Thief)
House of Night (first book = Marked)
Lunar Chronicles (first book = Lunar)
Gemma Doyle (first book = A Great and Terrible Beauty)
Time to analyze! Weeeeeeeeeee …
So it seems like most YA series go with whatever the name of the first book is. Probably makes life easier. The series that don’t do that seem to draw their names from either the protagonist, important items in the story, or … well, whatever the heck “House of Night” means. The word “Chronicles” also seems popular.
Either I go with something slightly dull, like The Imminent Danger Series, or I spice it up and capture the essence of the book with something a bit more vague, like The Lamri Chronicles or The Reluctant Xenophile Saga or Abducted! (I quite enjoy the gratuitous exclamation mark in the last one).
Hmm … what do you guys think? What’s a good series name for my fledgling YA space adventure / romance / humor series? All suggestions welcome, no matter how silly!
Unrelated media of the day:
I may have already shared this last Christmas, but whatever. It’s a lovely Christmas medley shot in a very cool way, so listen/watch and enjoy!
Happy Monday, everyone! I’m psyched to announce that I’m taking part in fellow blogger Charles Yallowitz‘s cover reveal for his new book Legends of Windemere: Allure of the Gypsies.
Without further ado … the cover reveal!
Isn’t it gorgeous? It was created by talented artist Jason Pedersen — click his name to check out his website!
And now, since you’re probably wondering what the heck the book is actually about, here’s the blurb:
The epic adventures of Luke Callindor and Nyx continue after their journey down the L’Dandrin River in Legends of Windemere: Prodigy of Rainbow Tower.
Reeling from his failures in their previous adventure, Luke leads his surviving friends to his hometown. With his mind frayed and his confidence fractured, Luke must face the family and fiancée he left behind. It is a brief homecoming when the vampire Kalam attacks the village, forcing Luke and Nyx to break into his lair for the key to resurrecting a fallen warrior. It is a quest that will force both young heroes to reach new heights of strength and power that they never knew they had.
Can Luke and Nyx escape the lair of Kalam? And, what role will the orphaned gypsy Sari play in their looming destiny?
The book will be released on December 1st, 2013 — so mark it in your calendars!
Also, this is the third book in the Legends of Windemere series. If you want to check out the first two books, here are some links:
Aaaand to round out the cover reveal, here’s some info on the author himself, Charles Yallowitz!
Charles Yallowitz was born and raised on Long Island, NY, but he has spent most of his life wandering his own imagination in a blissful haze. Occasionally, he would return from this world for the necessities such as food, showers, and Saturday morning cartoons. One day he returned from his imagination and decided he would share his stories with the world. After his wife decided that she was tired of hearing the same stories repeatedly, she convinced him that it would make more sense to follow his dream of being a fantasy author. So, locked within the house under orders to shut up and get to work, Charles brings you Legends of Windemere. He looks forward to sharing all of his stories with you and his wife is happy he finally has someone else to play with.
I just got back from my monthly London Writers Society meeting, and there were a lot of interesting thoughts and opinions floating around tonight, so I thought I’d share some of them. Now, I don’t necessarily agree with some of these — in fact, several of them I think are totally wrong — but I figured I’d share the full spectrum, and then you guys can take or leave whatever you want!
In no particular order … wisdoms from my writers society meeting:
Great writers should aim to write 1,000 words a day
Great writers should treat writing like a full time job, and work at least seven hours a day, six days a week
It’s more effective to write for a set period of time than write toward a specific word count goal
Great writers should “blueprint” their books before they ever set fingers to keyboard
Great writers should write first, and research later
Great writers should research first, and write second
Great writers should write only what they know
Lots of interesting ideas presented … and I’m not sure where I stand on a lot of them. I definitely disagree with the “write first, research later” mantra. What if I’ve decided to write a story about 18th century pirates in the South Pacific? I don’t know anything about 18th century pirates. I don’t know anything about the South Pacific. I don’t even know if there were 18th century South Pacific pirates. For all I know, the 18th century South Pacific seas were ruled by a cabal of hyper-intelligent octopoids. I’ll never know unless I research!
Unrelated media of the day:
Speaking of not knowing what the heck you’re talking about …
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen — it’s Goodreads Giveaway time! Wooooooo! I’m giving away four softcover copies of Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It, and I can sign them to whoever you want if you win (you know, so you can give it away as a Christmas present or whatever).
A quick disclaimer before I share the link to the giveaway: it’s only open to Canada, USA, and UK, because shipping a book to the other side of the world is really freakin’ expensive. Sorry in advance!
Sad news — my NaNo attempts have, once again, failed epicly. I was doing really well the first couple of days … and then it was Monday and there was work to be done, and … long story short, my NaNo dreams are rapidly dissolving. I’ll still tap out some words whenever I get the chance, but 50k seems tragically out of reach at the moment. Noooooooes!
That’s right, my friends. It’s time. Time to make an Imminent Danger bumper sticker. Please, contain your excitement. Falling off your chair and collapsing on the floor in a quivering wreck is undignified. And what are we without our dignity, I ask you? WELL?
Moving on. I want to make an Imminent Danger bumper sticker, mostly because I want one to stick on my car. That’s right, I have a car now! Technically it’s my mother’s, but she bought a new one and gifted me her old one — virtual high five for awesome mothers! The car’s a bit rusty, but it’s now mine, and I want to decorate it. So let’s talk bumper stickers!
I’m thinking text is probably the best option, since bumper stickers are small and I’m not sure intricate artwork would really come across well. I was originally thinking of just putting the book title on the sticker, but that doesn’t really do much to promote my book — and ideally, the sticker would both say “Yay! Imminent Danger!” and “Buy this book!”.
Any thoughts? I’m considering including my website on the sticker, but I’m worried that’s going to put too much text to read clearly from a distance. Hmmm.
My brother suggested just having one big word — “SHWOOP”. That is, of course, the sound my spaceships make when they leap across great distances. Very appropriate for a vehicle. But no one would get the reference, not to mention it wouldn’t advertise my book at all. Then again, having a SHWOOP sticker would be pretty cool. If a couple of people got them, we could be like a secret SHWOOP club.
What do you guys think?
Unrelated media of the day:
I may have shared this already, but whatever, it’s funny.
Ladies and gentlemen, hold onto your hats, because I’m about to drop a bombshell that specializes in blowing hats off people’s heads. And that bombshell, my friends, is that …
I don’t remember much about last year’s NaNo, a fact which leads me to assume that I failed spectacularly at creating the necessary 50k words to achieve ULTIMATE VICTORY!
This year, however, will be different. I came up with a kicka** idea yesterday in the shower, and I’m getting pretty psyched about writing it. It’s going to involve college, superheroes, and (potentially) evil twins. I’m thinking it’s going to end up being some sort of sci-fi thriller mystery combo, which will be fun, as I’ve never attempted such a genre before. It’s also going to be quite dark, which I’ve dabbled with in the past and had quite a lot of fun with, despite it not being my usual cheery style.
The tentative title I’m going with is “The Nemesis Contract”, which I think sounds suitably menacing. There’s a mini-series of comics that share that name, but as far as I know, titles can’t be copyrighted. Is that correct?
So I will officially be participating in NaNo this year. I can’t promise I’ll succeed, or even get past the first few days, but I’ll definitely give it a shot. I’ve gotten woefully behind on my writing these days, and I figure NaNo’s a good way to get back on the literary horse (whom I have named “Diction-neigh-ry”).
Michelle Proulx - Author 