Posts Tagged With: self-publish

Book Review: Echoes From The Past (Grace Brannigan)

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

The Bookechoes from the past

Echoes From The Past

The Genre

Romance

The Author

Grace Brannigan

The Plot

On the verge of a nervous breakdown, Christie reacts by running away, emotionally and physically. Down to her last twenty dollars, she’s determined to fulfill her dead sister’s last wish — to locate their sister Judith, who left home twenty years before. Her quest brings her into the lives of Garrett, Judith’s husband, and the emotionally fragile Hannah, Judith’s daughter. Christie is devastated to learn Judith died two years before. When Christie insists on getting to know her niece, Garrett agrees on the condition she doesn’t reveal her identity. He hires her to work at his horse farm but what he doesn’t count on is the turmoil and hope Christie brings into their lives.

The Review

I love a good romance, and this was definitely a good romance! I wasn’t a huge fan of the setting — the whole Western, horse ranch, cowboy thing has just never intrigued me, for some reason — but I was able to ignore that in favour of the really adorable romance between Christie and Garrett. It was wonderful to watch two emotionally troubled people come together and help each other heal. And I just love that Garrett’s dog is named Bo Peep!

The plot was solid, with good amounts of backstory, intrigue, etc. I could have used a bit more danger, but there were still sufficient life-threatening moments to keep me interested. And I would have liked more twists as well, but then, this is a romance novel, not Game of Thrones! Speaking of the romance, it was very fun to watch unfold, and it progressed at an entirely believable pace. I also really enjoyed Garrett’s interactions with his adopted daughter Hannah, especially how he makes sure to factor her into his potential love life.

If you’re looking for a heartfelt cowboy romance, I’d definitely recommend checking this out!

The Rating

4 out of 5 stars

http://www.gracebrannigan.com/

Unrelated image of the day:

Source: https://i0.wp.com/i.imgur.com/nO9CJ.jpg

Source: http://i.imgur.com/nO9CJ.jpg

Categories: Book Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Returning the favour (ft. Tania L Ramos)

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

One of my favourite WordPress Authors, Tania L Ramos (and yes, when I say her name, I do say the entire thing and roll the R), has been sweet enough to plug my as-of-yet unpublished book on her blog! I thought it was only fair to plug her book back on mine.

So first of all, go check out her blog. Secondly, listen to me ramble about her book for a second.

I read Be Still (her book) over the summer, and I really enjoyed it. I had some trouble getting into it at first, because it’s a romantic drama, and my usual genre is, well, hardcore fantasy. But I fell in love with the characters, the ending was heart-warming and fantastic, and I was even able to overlook the fact that there weren’t any dragons. So props to Tania L Ramos for that. (I even roll the R in my head! I need to stop doing that.)

Be Still also holds the distinction of being the first (and thus far, only) book I’ve reviewed where the author actually sent me a physical, signed copy of the book. That was a really cool feeling — that someone is so invested in getting my opinion that they’re willing to send me one of their books that they’ve bought and paid for themselves. It was like Christmas in July. It was awesome.

If you’re interested in reading Be Still in the next little while, I’m given to understand that you might even be able to get it for free! The ebook version, that is, not the print version. Only I am special enough for this honour! Muahahahaha. Anyway, here’s a quote on the subject from Tania L Ramos’s blog:

And to ring in this holiday season, please visit my website www.BeStillNovel.com to receive a free Kindle download of Be Still. Or contact me to receive a signed paperback copy of my book for $10 plus $3.95 shipping, or buy two books and get one free.  Don’t forget, books make great holiday gifts.

And that’s about all the time I have for cross-promotion, as I have a project due today and I’ve already spent the last hour blogging instead of working. Bad Michelle!

Oh yeah, and since I’m talking about other bloggers and how awesome they are, I should mention Andrew Toynbee, who invented an award — The Most Helpful Blogger Award — and nominated me for it. Woo!

Unrelated image of the day:

Source: https://i0.wp.com/i.imgur.com/zPtT2.jpg

Source: http://i.imgur.com/zPtT2.jpg

Unrelated video of the day:

This is a … really weird video. It’s painfully catchy and adorable, and yet at the same time horribly depressing. So … enjoy?

Categories: Blog-related, Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Enter Vlog the Fourth! + MAJOR UPDATES!

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

I just spent way more time than I should have making this vlog:

To give you the overview, in case you don’t want to watch the whole thing, here are the MAJOR UPDATES I referred to in the title:

  1. Copy-edit is finished and manuscript is submitted to Editorial Review Board!
  2. Editorial Review Board has finished looking over the manuscript!
  3. I’m officially in the Editor’s Choice Program!
  4. Which means I qualify for Rising Star! See this link for details!
  5. Current publication date = January 2013!

That was an excessive use of exclamation marks. I really need to calm down and do something useful, like finish my project due tomorrow.

Le sigh.

Categories: Blog-related, iUniverse, Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

My business cards have arrived! Time to throw them at people!

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

So Vistaprint recently ran a promotion where you could buy 250 business cards for $10, with free shipping. Score! I immediately broke out my mad graphic design skillz, chose a cool space template, and went nuts.

The result:

 

Ain’t it purdy? Of course, that’s just the online preview of what the card looks like. Since the cards are so cheap, I was worried that they would have flimsy paper or poor print quality. Not so!

The result:

That’s one of the printed cards. It looks yellow due to the appalling lighting, but in normal lighting it looks pretty much identical to the online preview. It’s shiny, the cardstock is decently thick, and it’s so pretty! Squeeeeee!

Now I just have to figure out what to do with them.

Here’s my question for you guys: do I start spreading the word of my upcoming book right now via business cards, or do I wait until the book is actually published?

Option #1: DO IT NOW!

Various experts claim that marketing for your book should begin 3-6 months before the book is released. That being said, I think it’s kind of silly to hand someone a card, say “Buy my book!”, and then when they ask where they can buy it, I say, “Well, it hasn’t actually been published yet, so just hang onto that card and check back in three months.”

I know if some unknown author pulled that on me, I would probably lose their card within the week. Not on purpose, obviously, but because I lose track of everything I possess, especially little pieces of paper advertising a book with an unknown release date.

Option #2: WAIT, YOU SILLY GIRL!

The other option, obviously, is to save my cards for when the book actually comes out. That way I can actually say “Buy my book today!” when I hand out cards. I think that would be pretty darn cool.

My polling mood is still going strong from yesterday, so here’s another poll:

Unrelated media of the day:

http://i.imgur.com/SHjm5.jpg

 

Categories: Random, Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Promoting your book on your blog — how much is too much?

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

I’m in a polling mood, so let’s discuss book promotion on blogs, and throw in a couple of polls for my intrepid readers to have fun clicking away at. Am I allowed to vote as well? Seems like a conflict of interests. Pah! Conflicts of interest are for the weak. Onwards!

Promotion Technique #1 — Posting book excerpts

To be honest, I rarely read book excerpts. I will look at the cover and the synopsis, and base my purchasing decision off of that. However, many people, I’m given to understand, like to actually see what’s inside the book, and not just fork over their hard earned money and pray. Hence, book excerpts.

So what are your thoughts on book excerpts? What part of a book do you most want to read before you choose to buy? Is it the first chapter, or perhaps a scene further into the novel? Or do you prefer just reading a selection of random words taken from the book and artfully arranged by the graphic design site Wordle?

Wordle of “Imminent Danger and How to Fly Straight into It”
Source: Wordle.net

Poll time!

 

Promotion Technique #2 — Include a link to the book at the bottom of each post

I’m talking about something like this:

I’ve seen other authors do this, and I don’t have any particular problem with it. They’re always located at the end of blog posts, and they’re usually kept small and tasteful, so you only really notice it if you’re specifically looking for it.

Poll time!

Somewhat related link of the day:

Check out this funny post about editors — Editors Hate Everything. Yes They Do.

Unrelated meme of the day:

(Note: this will not make sense unless you’ve seen/read Fullmetal Alchemist)

http://i.imgur.com/lxEuV.jpg

Unrelated video of the day:

I love Sam Tsui. He’s a youtube singer who’s gotten pretty famous over the years. Check out one of his most recent covers:

Categories: Blog-related, Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 46 Comments

9 Things I Learned From My Copy-Edit

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

I finished going over my copy-edit this evening. All the changes are made, the manuscript has been sent back to iUniverse so they can do God knows what with it (hopefully publish it, lol), and I officially have nothing more to do with the book until they send me cover proofs and final print proofs. Woo! Talk about a weight off your chest. Now I can focus on other things, like my job, and not living in a forest of cardboard boxes.

But you don’t care about that. You came here for the list!

9 Things I Learned From My Copy-Edit

1. The first paragraph at the start of a chapter is not indented. The same goes for the first paragraph after a scene break.

2. According to American publishing standard, when indicating possession, this — Chris’ — is not correct. This — Chris’s — is correct.

3. A list of adjectives do not require as many commas as you might think. This — fluffy, white hair — is not correct. This — fluffy white hair — is correct.

4. Once you’ve defined a foreign word in italics, you don’t have to italicize it any more. I’m given to understand that you can still italicize it if you want to, but it’s not necessary.

5. Instead of using italics to put emphasis on a certain word, try to let the sentence structure emphasize for you.

6. Ship names are italicized, but a class/type of ship is not italicized. E.g. The Enterprise v.s. Boeing 747.

7. The following dialogue tags — “she panicked”, “she laughed”, “she sighed”, “she smiled” — are not actually dialogue tags. They are verbs that should not be applied to dialogue.

8. Percentage should be written as XX percent — e.g., 97 percent.

9. The correct phrasing is “Far be it from me to say”, not “Far be it for me to say”.

Also, having finished reviewing the copy-edit, I can now officially pass judgement on my copy-editor. Ready?

Was the copy-edit worth $1900?

No. I definitely did not get $1900 worth of editing done to that manuscript. Not by a long shot. On the plus side, I did learn several things (see the above list), so it certainly wasn’t a complete waste of money.

How was the quality of the copy-editor?

He seemed fairly competent. I caught five mistakes overall — four typos, and one word that was randomly bolded. He had a weird obsession with semicolons that I didn’t agree with, and he also seemed to have a vendetta against commas, so I had to add a handful back in. He also failed to notice that some of the chapter titles were misaligned. To be fair, I didn’t notice that either, but still!

Overall judgement?

Not worth the money, but I did learn many new things, so we’ll call it a draw and move on.

 

Unrelated media of the day:

Categories: iUniverse, Self Publishing, Writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 68 Comments

Yes, I’m still alive (more or less) + Copy-Edit news!

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

You may have noticed that I’ve been suspiciously absent from WordPress for the last fortnight. You may not have noticed. Either way, I’m back, and I’m psyched to be here. Specifically, I’m psyched not to be sitting in a freezing cold office highlighting endless paperwork. Anyhoo …

I spent the last three hours trying to catch up on all the blog posts I’ve missed over the last two weeks. Do you people have any idea how much you write? Good grief. I had to restrict myself to reading 1 out of every 6 posts, or I would still be scrolling through my Blogs I Follow list tomorrow morning. So if I missed a major update in anyone’s life due to my extreme skippery, I apologize.

My temp job is officially over, and I have about $1600 and no life to show for it. Still, an interesting experience was had, and I extracted several promises from my co-workers that they would buy my book when it comes out. So … call it a win?

Speaking of my book … nah, just messing with you. The Michelle Proulx Official Life Update isn’t over yet. Patience, my young padawans.

This month I also moved apartments, which I think I may have mentioned, and we’re officially settled into our new place. It’s smaller and cheaper than the last place, but the location is way better (right beside the mall), plus the heating is centrally controlled, so my mother can’t turn down the heat whenever she gets too hot. Muahahahahahaha.

Okay, now we’re actually going to speak about my book. The major news is that I got my Copy-Edit back! As I expected, the edits are all minor things — commas moved around, dashes added, etc. The editor seems to have some sort of weird addiction to semicolons, because he’s added about a dozen. Interesting. Right now I’m going through the edited manuscript — basically re-reading the book – to make sure the editor didn’t do anything crazy. He seems fairly sane thus far (Chapter 18, baby!), so I have high hopes.

Once I finish my review, the manuscript goes back to the editorial folks at iUniverse, and the design process begins. Woo! I’m really excited. I sent them cover design ideas a few weeks ago, but I haven’t heard anything back yet, so I have no idea what the design team has done with them. Hopefully something epic.

I really need to get dressed and unpack/review my book, so I think that’s all for now. I have great plans to make another vlog episode, which may or may not succeed depending on how my showering/unpacking/book reviewing goes.

Hope you’ve all had a great two weeks, and I look forward to reading about your lives/accomplishments on a more regular basis.

Oh yeah, and before I forget — I gave up on NaNo. No time + no energy + packing/moving/job/other job/copy-edit review = no NaNo. Le sigh.

Unrelated media of the day:

What if Aladdin always looked like that?

Hehehe. And here’s another ridiculous K-Pop video to brighten your day:

Categories: iUniverse, Random, Self Publishing, Writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

Help out a fellow blogger + update on my book!

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

My friend Matthew Cook contacted me this morning with what he termed a “huge favour”. Now, I’m inclined to give this gentleman whatever he wants, because he is one of my best beta readers/editors/copy-editors/proof-readers. Not to mention he’s just a genuinely good guy. Plus, we used to play D&D in high school, so we go way back to the days of trolls and imps and THAC0 (major cool points if you got that reference).

Anyway, he’s still in university, and he’s taking a journalism course that requires him to make a blog and acquire followers. In a strange twist of academics, his grade depends not on the contents or quality of his blog, but on how many followers he acquires. Weird, right? Anyway, here’s the situation in his words:

Hi, my name’s Matt! I’m a journalism student developing a blog about cartoons – webcomics, political cartoons, and daily comic strips. I also have my own cartoons posted, about whatever seems funny to me at the time. My blog is a part of a big journalism project and I need to get more followers if I want a good grade. So if you’re interested in cartoons, come visit the site and comment if you have the time; either positive or negative comments help (the negative comments let me know what I’m doing wrong!)

Here’s a sample of his cartoons:

I figure we bloggers must stick together, and Matt’s grade depends on how many followers he can get, so let’s give him a hand, shall we? Here’s a link to his blog.

Update on my novel:

So I got my Return Evaluation back. Surprise surprise, they recommended a Copy-Edit. Siiiiiiiigh. Well, at least it’s an appropriate length now. So there’s that.

My plans to chat with my Editorial Consultant about booking the Copy-Edit have thus far failed, in that I emailed her and she hasn’t responded. And now I’m working 9-5 (at least, for the next few weeks), which also happen to be her office hours, so hopefully she’ll be flexible about setting up a meeting with me. Once I actually get into contact with her, I will hypothetically purchase a Copy-Edit, get that done in a few weeks, and then FINALLY get the darn thing published.

It’s going to happen. I swear.

Unrelated gif of the day:

Thanks Jeremy :’)

Unrelated video of the day:

Background info: A professional voice actor reads aloud the review a young man made about an online game. Hilarity ensues.

Note: Funny begins around 0:35.

Categories: Random, Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 30 Comments

Blogging is hard …

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

I have literally spent the last hour sitting at my keyboard, attempting to write this post. Each time I get halfway through a post, I decide it’s stupid and then delete it and start over. Sigh.

Since I apparently have nothing intelligent to say, I suppose I’ll settle for giving a brief life update. You can barely contain your excitement, can’t you? CAN’T YOU?

So I got a call from Manpower (the temp agency) yesterday, and today I started a new job at a major Canadian bank, the name of which I cannot disclose on pain of a death most gruesome. It’s a 2-3 week gig, depending on how fast we get the project done, and (again, not going into details) basically involves data entry. But the challenging kind, where you need to actually pay attention to what you’re doing, solve problems, try to suss out what the scribbled writing and blank mandatory fields are trying to tell you, etc.

It’s at a bank, so I have to wear nice clothing. I’ve spent the last eight months or so wearing sweat pants (They’re comfy! Don’t judge!), so this was a new and exciting step for me. Needless to say, I felt very fancy today.

In non-work related news, my mother recently had her friend from Florida over to visit for the weekend, so I was booted from my room and took up residence on the couch. That was … fun?

I’m still waiting for my Return Evaluation to come back for Imminent Danger. It’s been about 9 business days now, and I’m getting kind of impatient. And by impatient, I mean obsessively checking my email, even at times of the day when it is completely unreasonable for someone to be contacting me. I really want to see my evaluation, if only to learn whether or not I have to fork over two grand for a copy-edit.

This concludes my rambling. It is 10:30 now, and I must go prepare for bed if I want to have time to watch Glee before I go to bed. Yes, I watch Glee. I’m a girl. It’s allowed.

Update: I spent too much time finding videos to share with you. It is now 11 pm. No Glee for me.

 

Unrelated media of the day:

Jeggings are silly. Enjoy.

 

Female warriors’ outfits in video games are also silly. Enjoy.

 

And, finally, some sports fails to round out the hilarity.

Categories: Random | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Writing in the Bathroom

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

I’ve discovered the ultimate cure for writer’s block. And it’s the simplest thing in the world. Ready?

The Ultimate Cure for Writer’s Block

Keep a notebook and pen in your bathroom.

The Writer’s Block

I’ve been working on the sequel to Imminent Danger for awhile now, and it’s been going … not so well. My problem is that, according to my beta reader, there isn’t enough plot in the second half of the book. Fair enough. What I essentially have right now is tons of plot up to the middle of the story, tons of plot at the end … but for the second half, the characters mostly just traipse around and do irrelevant stuff.

So, obviously I need to change that. And I’ve been making extremely slow progress, but it’s been tough going because I just don’t have any inspiration for it, and I can’t bring myself to sit down and write if I don’t have inspiration. Thus, nothing gets done.

And then I brought a notebook into the bathroom.

The Solution

The first step is to get that notebook and pen into the bathroom. The second step is to take out everything else that could possibly interest you. That includes books, magazines, sudoku puzzles, tablets, etc.

This means that, when you sit down for your daily … let’s call it “relief”, you have absolutely nothing to occupy yourself with other than the notebook. And when a writer has nothing but a notebook and a pen, what else can we do but write?

It’s worked amazingly well. My characters are getting out and doing things, meeting cyborgs, dancing to the alien version of dubstep, etc. Will all of my scribbling make it into the final version of the book? Probably not. But at least I’m writing again! What else can a writer ask for?

Unrelated post of the day

I can’t remember which WordPress blogger directed me to this post, but it was really interesting, and I thought I’d share it here. It’s written by Cassandra Clare, a popular YA author, and she talks about dealing with hate blogs. I didn’t even know there were hate blogs. Clearly I live in a fairyland of butterflies and ice cream mountains. Anyway, here’s the link. 

Unrelated video of the day

For those of you who’ve never experienced the genius of College Humor, here’s a link. And here is one of my favourite comedy sketches/songs by them:

Categories: Writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 34 Comments

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