Draft #3 of Cerulean Bound is officially done and off to my editor and alpha reader!
It took about three months to slog through all the revisions, and I only managed to cut 3k words — but in my defense, I added about five new scenes, so it’s frankly a miracle the word count didn’t shoot through the roof. I’m still aiming to get it down below 100k before I’m done with it, but this is a good start.
In other news, my best friend has bought her first house (woo!) and now lives only 10 minutes away. As such, we had a “walk the dog and bake cupcakes” date on Thursday. Check out our mad cupcake decorating skills (and my friend’s mad photography skills):
In her eternal attempts to be as adorable as possible, my mother phoned me up a few evenings ago practically bursting with excitement over her latest idea for marketing my book. And I’m happy to report that it is (possibly) a pretty good idea! So the idea is:
Hire my polyglot friend who speaks and writes Cantonese to translate my book, Imminent Danger, into Chinese … and then self-publish it to the Chinese market.
What do you guys think? Doable? Crazy? I know that Amazon KDP doesn’t currently have support for Chinese, but Smashwords does support Chinese, so … could it possibly work? Has anyone had any experience with translating and self-publishing an ebook? Share your wisdom with me!!!
To thank you in advance for your undoubtedly excellent advice, I present to you today’s …
Today’s book review features fellow blogger and self-publisher Misha Burnett!
The Book
Catskinner’s Book
The Genre
Science fiction / urban fantasy
The Author
Misha Burnett
The Plot
James Ozryck has a monster in his head.
All of his life the entity that he calls Catskinner has made him a fugitive, afraid to get too close to anyone, afraid to stay in one place for too long. Catskinner kills, without compassion and without warning, and is very good at it.
Now James has learned that Catskinner is not the only monster in the world, a world that has suddenly become a far stranger and more dangerous place than he imagined. In order to survive, he will have to become something more than a monster — he will have to learn what it means to be human.
The Review
I LOVED this book! It’s short, it’s sweet, it’s violent, it’s sexy, it’s intriguing … A+ all around! The world Burnett’s created is absolutely fascinating, and totally unlike anything I’ve read before — I honestly don’t know where he comes up with this stuff!
The protagonist, James, is enthralling — he’s a curious mix of beleaguered every-man, jailkeeper to a vicious alien entity, lonely man just trying to find his place in the world, and hired hitman. It’s bizarre. It’s wonderful.
I’m trying to think if there’s anything I didn’t like … I think the only thing that threw me was Godiva’s evolution as a character (Godiva being the love interest). When she first shows up, she comes across as extraordinarily vacuous. But by the time you get to the end of the book, she’s brilliant, resourceful, and deviously clever. It made a certain amount of sense, but I would have liked more of a gradual transition or explanation.
I highly recommend Catskinner’s Book. If you’re at all a fan of science fiction — or even urban fantasy! — I suggest you give it a try. It doesn’t fit neatly into one genre box, but … well, read it and you’ll see how great it is!
The Rating
5 out of 5 stars
Sound intriguing? Check out Catskinner’s Book here. The sequel — Cannibal Hearts — is also out, so click here to learn more about that!
This is a fun one, because I picked up the book on a whim and had no idea what to expect … well, read on to see what happened!
The Book
28 Shades of Black
The Genre
Humor/Drama/Erotica/Suspense/Thriller/Mystery
The Author
Sahm Ataine King is a poet, aspiring novelist, and graphic designer and has been in love with the written word since his exposure to the Science Fiction/Fantasy and Poetry genres at a young age. He has self-published two poetry collections, “The Grey Muse” and “L’aria Onyx“, along with his first novel, “28 Shades of Black”. He lives on the planet Earth and hopes to one day expand his horizons by travelling the world and learning of cultures beyond the confines of the internet.
The Plot
Dominick Black is a man with a problem: an insatiable sexual appetite coupled with a lack of inhibition.
When Black is informed by his boss that he has to take care of his over-active libido issue or lose his job, he reluctantly agrees to do what he must. What could it hurt?
From the unrelenting and murderous infatuations of a man he thought he knew, and the revelations of a past he thought was long buried, Dominick Black is in for one wild, hot, and disturbing ride.
The Review
This book was … strange. But in a good way! Also in a confusing way. It started out feeling like a parody/humour book, but then, as they say, s**t got real. The shift was totally unexpected, but in a weird way it totally works within the context of the story.
The main character, Dominick Black, is hilarious. It was so refreshing to read about him, because his character is one that I’ve never encountered before. Everything about his life is so different from mine that it was like looking into another world entirely. He’s smart, he’s gutsy … and his very peculiar method of introduction had me giggling every time I read it.
I do wish the book had been a little longer. Dominick’s relationship with his psychologist is sweet, but I felt that it developed a little too rapidly to be entirely plausible. And I would have liked the antagonist to get a bit more screen time, so I could have gotten more of a chance to suss out his motives.
All that being said, I really enjoyed the book, despite it being the total opposite of what I usually read. It baffled me from start to finish, and I had a blast reading it. Well done, Mr. King!
NOTE: This book has a lot of cursing and sexy time (some of the sexy time is disturbing and non-consensual), so read at your own risk.
Michelle Proulx - Author 