A Magical Win

Random.org picked DzrtBxr as the winner of Fabric of the World! Drop me an email with how you'd like it inscribed and your address and I'll get it right out to you.

~Marie

The Fabric of Quibell's Life

My new book, The Siege of Kwennjurat, is scheduled for release four days from now, and I feel like celebrating. For the next four days, I am giving away one signed book each day. Here’s how to enter:

Making a comment on the blog gets you one entry. If you’re a blog follower, say so for a second entry. Tweeting and sharing to Facebook or Google+ are worth one entry each (post a link to where you shared in your comment). First thing tomorrow morning, I will put all the entries in a hat and draw a winner. I’ll announce the winner, and then they can email me their real name and address, and their signed book will be on the way!

Today I’m giving away the fantasy Fabric of the World. The hero, Quibell, can see the fabric and threads the world is made of, and manipulate them. To other people, it looks as though he is practicing magic. My most magical moment was the instant they laid my new daughter in my arms. In your comments today, share the most magical experience of your life. See you tomorrow with a new giveaway and the announcement of today’s winner.

Wow! What a week!

First off, and most exciting, my book A Heart Full of Diamonds has finally been published in print and ebook! Some of my fans have been waiting ten years for this event, so I'm understandably excited. I love the new cover, too. It's been a lot of fun learning to make my own covers, and with this one, I'm feeling confident that I finally know what I'm doing.

What's this one about? Here's what's on the back cover.

Once she saw the diamonds, she was out of options.

A wig, a change of clothes, and nerves of steel freed Marilee from her diamond-stealing husband, but Tony has too many friends in too many places for her to trust anyone.

A thousand miles away, she's fashioned a new life in a safe haven. Her brawny neighbor Richard and his engaging son Derreck would do anything to help her, but she keeps her past a secret until two of Tony's goons kidnap her in broad daylight.

The race is on, and Marilee's life hangs in the balance!

A Heart Full of Diamonds is available in print here, and in ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

In other news, the renovations have been finished on the older books. Clues to Food and Fabric of the World have new covers and lower prices.

Due to requests from blog readers, I'm working on preparing Assignment to Earth and Inherit my Heart for publication in print and ebook. I'm also putting together a short story collection and a sampler book, which should be out shortly. I expect that The Siege of Kwennjurat will be coming out sometime this winter. It needed more work than I had time to complete during summer break.

School starts again in two weeks and I've got a very full schedule this fall, so if you think I've dropped off the face of the planet, you'll know where I am. In the mean time, I can promise there will be a new blog post every Tuesday on something related to writing.

~Marie

Tanella's New Look

The book has been in print only two years, and just over a year for the ebook; why does it need a new cover? It's more than just a face lift.

My first covers were made using CreateSpace's wonderful cover creator tool, which made some really great covers for our books. They looked very nice, and I liked them a lot.

When I was ready to release the novels as ebooks, I discovered that because I had used their template and just plugged in my own information and photos, CreateSpace held the copyright on the cover, while I held the copyright on the interior only. In other words, I couldn't use the cover from my print book as the cover of the ebook. I quickly made some rather bad covers for my ebooks and released them, but I was never really happy with them.

A year later, I decided to do something about it. I bought a photo editing program that would do what I needed it to do, and spent time learning how to use it. I know I'll get better with more practice, but I already like my new covers better than the old ones. The best part is that because I am now making my covers from scratch, I own all the rights to them. My ebooks and print books can now have the same cover - which will help people who have seen one version find the other one at the store.

This also means everyone who bought Tanella's Flight in print now has a collector's item, an autographed first edition with the original cover, which is now out of print. The book is still in print, with the new cover, but the original black cover is no longer available, ever.

Within the next month, I will be replacing the cover on Fabric of the World, so if you want to get the original cover before it's gone forever, I recommend you purchase it before August 1, when I plan to take it off the market to work on the new files.

~Marie

Going Green

For centuries, books were paper of some sort. There was no other sort of book. The paper was made with pulp from some sort of plant. Before easily made movable type was available, books were copied out by hand, or each page was carved from wood and they were printed. In fact, the word manuscript literally means hand-written.

Even after printing became easier, books were still written by hand. Every revision and draft was re-written by hand. Can you imagine waiting for, say, the next book in the Harry Potter series if J K Rowling had to write every draft of every 500+ page book by hand? Those 500 printed pages are single-spaced. Most manuscripts are double-spaced, to give room between the lines for making corrections. One page of typed, double-spaced text is roughly equal to two pages of hand written, single-spaced text. Most of my manuscripts go through two major revisions and four to six minor ones.

Mark Twain was the first author to write a manuscript on a typewriter, for which his editor was probably very grateful. My grandmother was a writer, and typed her things with three sheets of paper and two of carbon paper in the machine. If she made a mistake even on the last line of the page, she had to re-type the entire page.

Writing always has taken a lot of paper to produce a book, but that is changing. I write with my computer. If I make a mistake, I back up and it automagically disappears. My computer keeps track of all the changes I make. It can put it back the way I had it in the first place if I decide I don't like it. I can carry a hundred manuscripts on a flash drive in the palm of my hand.

Working on Tanella's Flight, we printed out the manuscript at each stage, using about a ream of paper. We sent printed copies to no less than fifteen readers. We probably went through at least two cases of paper preparing one book for publication.

Fabric of the World was only printed once before publication. Your eyes and brain process information differently when you read on a backlit screen and when you read on paper. We had to print the manuscript once to read it on paper, and find the last million mistakes you never notice on a computer screen.

With Deadly Gamble, the book was written, revised, read, and checked without being printed out even once. We did the final "paper test" with an ebook reader. When you're reading on an e-ink device such as a Nook or Kindle, your brain processes it like paper. People who buy an ebook copy of Deadly Gamble will get a book that has never been printed on paper. We think that's pretty awesome.

We still offer print copies for people who don't have, don't want, or can't afford an ebook reader, and those who prefer paper books. It's certainly easier (at the moment) to get a paper book autographed. We are not against paper books; we have a huge library full of them. We still think it's absolutely cool to be able to produce an entire book without using a single piece of paper!

~Marie

Looking for Readers Again!

School is out, I got straight A's, and am halfway to graduation. It's time to work feverishly on writing until I fall back into academia in mid-August.

What have I done so far? I've learned how to format a manuscript for a successful conversion to e-book; learned enough about photoshop to make decent book covers; cleaned up all the files on my external hard drive, including a badly needed reorganization of my writing files; engaged in a seriously painful battle with a sinus infection; and began coding an update on my website.

My goals are to publish Deadly Gamble by the end of June in print and e-book, re-do the covers and e-book formatting for Tanella's Flight and Fabric of the World, and do as much as possible to get the next two novels ready to publish in October and April.

The October novel has been read, and is entirely in my hands now. I am looking for readers for the April novel. This one is called The Mom's Place. It is a romance, but it is a clean romance. It has a contemporary setting.

I'm looking for people who have MS Word to read and edit the manuscript. I would like to send it out to 5-6 people on Monday, and you will have three weeks to read, edit, and return it. As always, I'm looking for people who are willing to help out, and not people who just want a sneak peek at the manuscript. Instructions on how to edit will come with the manuscript. If you're interested in reading, please email me at marie@am-jenner.com.

Thanks,

~Marie

Winding Down...or Ramping Up?

Two weeks. Four more "Instructional Sessions" in each of my classes. And Finals. then I'm out for the "summer". I'm worn out and looking forward to the break.

As soon as I'm free of schoolwork, I'll return to my very neglected writing. Anne has been working over Deadly Gamble, and should pass it to me soon.

I will be diving into learning photoshop, with the idea of making our own cover this time instead of using a CreateSpace template. It's not that we don't love their templates, but if we use their template, they own the copyright on the cover, and I can't use the same cover for the ebook. If I make the cover, I can use the same one for the ebook, and I like that.

I'll also be learning better ways to format the ebooks so they look better internally.

I'll go over Deadly Gamble, and then it can be formatted for print and ebooks, and the cool cover put on it, and sent out into the wide world.

There will be website updates as well, something I've been neglecting. Does anyone know how hard it is to make a shopping cart for your website? I was going to take a class on that this fall, but they've decided not to teach it (now that I've completed the prerequisites!)

As soon as I've finished that, I'll be making new covers for Tanella's Flight, Fabric of the World, and Clues to Food, and uploading those for print; then I'll be reformatting the ebook versions and republishing with the new covers and better internal formatting.

If it's still not time for school to start, I'll get working on final edits for The Siege of Kwennjurat, which is the sequal to Tanella's Flight.

The fall semester will be challenging mentally, but not as challenging physically, because most of my classes are online, and those that are on campus are lined up in neat, compact blocks on Tuesday and Thursday, so I'll have a lot less travelling and wasted time than I have with the swiss-cheese schedule I have now.

~Marie

Need More Beta-readers...

In order to get Deadly Gamble out on time, with a sneak peek of The Siege in the back of it, we need beta-readers right now for The Siege.

The Siege is a fantasy book, with a medieval to renaissance setting. There is some mild violence in battle scenes, but if memory serves I didn't go into a lot of gory details. Probably fewer details than Fabric of the World has.

I need people who can read Word 2007, and use the track changes feature. I will be sending out an instruction sheet with the manuscript. If you want to be a reader and only have Word 2003, I can accommodate you, just let me know. I would like to send the manuscript out next week, and there will be a four-week turnaround time. I expect readers not to discuss the story with anyone but me until after the book is published. I want people who will seriously edit and make suggestions to the manuscript, rather than people who just want to read it for free. I'm not offering payment, but I will list you in the thanks in the front of the book, unless you don't want to be there.

Anyone interested in helping with The Siege should email me at marie@am-jenner.com.

Thanks!

~Marie

Problem Solved!

First, I want to thank Okie Dog, one of my letterboxing friends, for discovering the problem and pointing it out to me.

When I go into my account at Createspace, I see a much different page than the people trying to find my books see, Which is why when Createspace recently made some changes, I was totally unaware that it is nearly impossible to search for a book, or an author, from their main page. This makes it very difficult for anyone who wants to purchase a book to find it if I only have given them a link to Createspace's main page.

Until I discover a better solution, I have changes the "buy my books here" link that's over in the right hand column. The link will now take you to my website, to the Book Shoppe page...where there are individual links to the print books at Createspace, the Kindle versions at Amazon, and the other ebook formats at Smashwords. No matter what format you prefer to read in, you can now "get there from here".

I do apologize for the frustration and difficulty in getting to the page to purchase the books. I am deeply grateful to Okie Dog for telling me about the problem. And even though it means an extra click, I have at least provided a work-around.

Anne

With a Little Help from my Friends

This world would be a lonely place without friends. They keep you company. They make fun things more fun. They make bad things bearable. They sit by your side on the darkest night of your life and hold your hand, and somehow you can feel their love and know that no matter what, everything will turn out all right. Friends also are a priceless resource. A group of friends, collectively, can know things that one person working alone simply can’t keep track of all at once. Friends share this information with you, exactly when you need to know it. Clear back in November when Fabric of the World was published, one friend asked me, “Will this be available on Kindle?” I believe my reply was something to the effect of, “What’s Kindle?” My friend gently explained to me about eBook readers in general and Kindles in particular, stressing his love for his device. I have heard of eBooks, and even have some, which I read on my computer. They are all free or public domain works. I very much enjoy reading them, though the hours spent hunched at the computer screen was not good for my back and certain other parts of my anatomy, which should remain nameless for the sake of propriety. I vaguely knew that some people, possessed of a far greater amount of money than myself, had “thingies” they could read the eBooks on. After listening to my friend’s explanation, I went to Amazon to check out this Kindle thing and look into the possibility of publishing my books that way. I was especially excited at the thought of publishing Fabric of the World electronically, because of its technological origins. Fabric was written, proofread, edited, and sent to the publisher without ever being printed on paper. When I received my first proof copy, it was the first time Fabric had actually been printed out. So the thought of a book that could be done entirely electronically, even down to the customer who bought the book, was a very exciting thought for me. Unfortunately, I found that at the time, there was no way I could economically afford to publish for the Kindle. The prices asked for the books were low enough to pull all my print customers away, and the royalties offered would not add up to enough, unless multiple thousands of copies were sold. I said as much to my friend, by way of explaining why I was absolutely not going to ever publish electronically. The funny thing about message boards is that words posted in passing remain in place and are read and replied to months later. Just recently, another friend posted a reply that informed me Amazon’s royalty setup had changed. They also accused me of trying to use my writing as a get-rich-quick method, and told me to stop whining about new technology that isn’t going to go away. The latter two comments made me mad, which got me moving. Instead of yelling back, which was my first reaction, I grabbed my computer and started doing research. First, let me say that I’m not against eBooks and audio books. They both are very good, and I can plainly see that eBooks in particular are the wave of the future. My concern was purely economic. I don’t believe I will ever “get rich” from writing, but I do work hard at it. Writing is my only job, and I spend six to eight hours daily working on writing, editing, or other publication related tasks. I have been doing this for three years straight, and have received less than a thousand dollars compensation for three years of difficult work. I create stories primarily because my characters demand to have their stories told. Even if I never sold my stories, I would still write them. When a story is sold, economics become a part of the equation. I strongly feel that the person who does most of the work should get most of the money. My self-published print books are that way, and I did not feel like giving Amazon most of the money from sale of my self-published eBooks...particularly when they demanded that I do all of the formatting as well, and the only thing they were doing was listing the book on their computer and collecting the money on my behalf. (Yes, I know, it's changed. Keep reading.) At about the same time, another friend posted a link to a blog of a man who was advocating self-publishing eBooks. I took the three posts as a call to action, and again dove into researching whether I should now publish my works as eBooks, and the how and where and all the details of doing so. Because of the pooled knowledge of friends, the challenge given and accepted, and hours of research, I am very pleased to announce the publication of both my novels, Tanella’s Flight and Fabric of the World as eBooks, available for a measly $5 each. Clues to Food is being offered for free...chiefly because I had to remove all the marvelous sig stamp images from it. I can’t see taking your eBook reader into the kitchen on a regular basis, but it would certainly make the book very easy to take along with you on vacation to Gramma’s house. The books are available now through links at my website, or my author page at Smashwords. They will be available soon at Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Amazon, and Apple; and have been translated into enough different formats that no matter which eBook reader you have, you can find it in a format you can read. And just to answer my first friend's question...yes, my books are available for the Kindle. Happy Reading! --Anne

The Story is Unravelled--Finally!

Murphy was right. If anything can go wrong, it will. At least when it comes to publishing Fabric of the World. When the manuscript was ready, we sent it to the publisher, and got our proof copy back in time for the original "publish-by" goal of mid-October. There was one huge problem. The pages were formatted backward (right pages on the left, and left pages on the right) and the book started on the wrong side of the page. I learned a lot about formatting while solving that problem, and we noticed several other mistakes too. So we fixed the other mistakes, fixed the formatting problem, and resubmitted the book.

The original colors we'd used on the cover were...not in the same places, but we liked the second cover better, anyway, with its lighter color.

When the second proof copy arrived, we had somehow missed an entire blank page right in the middle of the book...which we contemplated just living with and blaming on the printer...but then we discovered we'd also spelled our hero's name wrong, right on the back cover. That wouldn't do, so more changes were made, and another proof copy was ordered. Finally! Well, I won't go so far as to call it "perfect", because I'm sure there are mistakes hiding in there somewhere, but I'm not going to go looking for them. The book is available for sale. (Go over to the website and you can get the book from the Ye Olde Book Shoppe page.)

In 2006, I never dreamed I would have come so far in my writing just three short years. A letterboxing friend, Brandy, casually mentioned on the message board that she was participating in something called NaNoWriMo. She challenged others to join her.

Doubtful I could complete the challenge in time, because 50,000 words seemed like a lot, and also because I have a tendency to get stuck about three-quarters of the way through a book, and rely on my partner to un-stick me, (and partners aren't allowed at NaNo), I still jumped in with both feet, and eyes tightly shut.

I hit 50K in November, and finished Fabric in December, and decided I was going to try this NaNo thing again the next year.

NaNoWriMo has given me more confidence in my writing, as well as more volume. Although Tanella's Flight took thirteen years from first meeting the characters to publication, Fabric of the World has accomplished all the same steps in only three years and one month.

Writing fast is a true challenge. You go off on tangents, and you're certain they will be "darlings" that will be cut from the book later. Later comes, and you discover the tangent was a necessary thing for the plot...not something you ever imagined would be there, but a part of their life the character tells you needs to be included.

I am glad I have learned the art of creating realistic characters, and then listening to them tell their story.

My partner's 2006 NaNo novel is called Deadly Gamble, and we expect it to be published sometime this spring.

Our 2007 NaNo stories never materialized, since we had an opportunity to go to England that November and didn't get much writing done. Our 2008 novels await in our computers. My partner's is not quite finished yet, and will be published some time in the future, but there are other stories ahead of it in line. Mine took a left turn and ended up being fan fiction. Although it's a fun read, it will never see the light of day.

And 2009? We're well on our way to finishing on time. My novel includes telepaths, ciphers, an expensive bracelet, and a plot to take over the world. I don't know much about my partner's story, but I can share that her main character sees streams of words floating in the air, and though most people think she's just a little bit crazy, I'm sure her talent will prove most valuable in the end.

For now, rest assured that we're writing like mad (It is November, after all!), and enjoy reading Fabric of the World!

--Anne

No Time! No Time!

The white rabbit was rushed so he wouldn't hear the queen screaming, "off with his head" if he was late to her garden party. Although the circumstances, and certainly the consequences, are different, I've been feeling a lot like the white rabbit lately. First of all, I'm trying to get ready for my annual venture into the month-long madness that is NaNoWriMo, so I've been looking around for a likely plot. The problem is I'm up to my ears in a rough draft already, and the characters in that book won't let go of me long enough for me to think of other plots. I'm working on the "Chocolate Copy" of The Siege of Kwennjurat, the sequel to Tanella's Flight. Liammial has moved into my head, and I can't dislodge him. There's only 10 days until NaNoWriMo, and there's some 28 chapters (or more) still to write on The Siege. I tried outlining an idea I had, and less than halfway through, I realized that I didn't even want to write the outline, much less the book. I figure if it's too boring to write, it will be boring to read. Then again, maybe my boredom stems from the fact I have a megalomaniac locked up in my skull and he won't let me write anything else until I've finished his story. *Sigh* Liammial does not make for a good roommate, or happy dreams. Yesterday I was writing a particular sequence of two chapters, and I started crying, because I know what is going to happen later to these characters, and they didn't even have the opportunity to put on clean clothes or eat breakfast before their fate was set in motion. In other news, Fabric of the World is going to be a little delayed. When the proof copy arrived, we discovered a very serious formatting problem. While trying to figure out how to fix that, a score or more of typos that had previously been hidden came to light. The formatting problem is now being fixed, and the typos are being discovered and fixed as quickly as possible. Then we will have to wait for a second proof copy before the book can be released. We are now hoping for sometime in the middle of November. Happy reading! Anne

New Website and other news

Whew! It's been a long month. I've been working frantically to finish my new website. I've been totally rewriting the coding to get rid of the frames, and a bunch of other things that will never be seen, but should make the page run better. (Yes, I know, I'm starting to sound like other programmers.) *shrug* Other than new colors, and a couple of new pages that will be unveiled soon, the biggest difference is I'm no longer at a free, .co.cc domain that no one seems to know where in the world it originates. One friend looked it up and said it was an island off Australia. My virus checking program said it was from South Korea, and I had to use an exception to see my own site. The trailing letters gave erroneous information, since my place was actually hosted in the US...it just had a strange domain, because it was free.

I now have sold enough books to afford a year's worth of paid hosting and a US domain name. My website is now found at www.am-jenner.com! I'm so excited! A new email address comes along with the new website, too. anne@am-jenner.com.

We've also spent the last two months reading the suggestions given by our proofreaders for Fabric of the World, and then ripping the book apart and totally rewriting it. I've gotta thank Doctor, Force of Five, Nitrocat, neknitter, bobguyman, Hornicorn, and Pat for all their work and suggestions. The book is a lot better, and there are a lot of changes that have been made since you read it. We expect Fabric of the World to be published very soon. We are currently waiting for the publisher's cover-maker to go back online, and the book should be ready for purchase within two weeks of that time.

As with Tanella's Flight, hand-made autographed bookplates featuring a handcarved stamp will be available.

Finding Proofreaders

We’ve been really busy since Tanella’s Flight came out. Preliminary editing was finished for Fabric of the World, and a search was made for proofreaders. Eight of my letterboxing friends volunteered to help, and were sent electronic copies of the manuscript. They were given instructions on what we wanted in a proofreader, and told to return the manuscripts by August 1st. One of them has already returned their copy. With any luck, Fabric of the World will be out by this November.

In the meantime, I started preliminary editing on a book whose working title is One Deadly Gamble Too Many. My partner is doing preliminary editing on The Mom’s Place. Both of those books are tentatively planned for release next year.

Attention has been taken from our writing by family health issues. A sister-in-law lost her battle against pancreatic cancer. My dad has been in and out of the hospital twice with various issues, including serious bruising from being dropped by caregivers, a paralyzing fever, and a small stroke. This has kept my partner, who is also my mother, very busy in her primary job of taking care of her family.

I tripped and fell while out doing errands for the family and ended up with a dislocated right elbow. I am severely right-handed, and the last four weeks of being not only one-handed, but left-handed, have been challenging to say the least. For example, I can get the ice and water from the dispenser in the fridge door, but I can’t make my own sandwich. Handling a spoon with my left hand usually results in decorating my shirt with whatever is for dinner. I’m sure you can imagine other areas in which the sudden, although temporary, loss of the use of one hand has been frustrating. On the up side, I think I’m finally to the point where I don’t need prescription painkillers anymore, so things are improving.

Within two weeks I expect to get the cast off my arm and be able to resume editing. We have also been discussing the possibility of releasing Tanella’s Flight as an audio book.

Probably beginning in September or so, we will make available autographed book plates that we will send, free, to anyone who purchases a book and requests the book plate from us. The book plates are still in the design stage, but not only will they be personally autographed, we intend at this point that they will be hand stamped, and the stamp itself will be hand carved.