My website is being built! I am beyond thrilled and I had to share THIS with you:
This is going to be the header for my homepage.
Isn’t it GORGEOUS?! I did this. I got the ankh from Shutterstock (along with a three of the upcoming photos) and I figured out how to make the canvas bigger and then how to add the ankh. I had a little help from my friend Dawn (of Dawn Neil Studios) in getting the colour for the text just right and she showed me a nifty little thing with the Photoshop tool icons – if you click and hold on them there are options for which tool you’d like. It took me two hours to find the right font.
Me? Picky?
Nahhh…
There will be pages for the Highland Wolves books and the characters. Plus there will be pages for the NaNo books and the like, should I get to publishing them. So since I want thumbnails to go with the descriptions, I needed to select photos.
Anna was easy. Sort of. There’s a collection of pictures of Heather (the model) to choose from. I settled on this one.
Looks good doesn’t it? Dawn fixed the hair and the eyes for me. I love the expression on her face. My daughter described it as ”I’ve been through shit, I’m strong, I dare you to take me on.” (I have a lousy memory so it’s paraphrased.)
It was such a hardship to have to look at dozens of half-naked male models to find Liam and Marcus. I did finally manage to narrow it down to these two guys. With the help of a couple of sorely put upon women (*snorts* riiiight) I found these two photos.
Liam. Mmmm Can totally see why Anna’s lust for him knows no end.
Mmm mmm mmm mmmmmMarcus. Chelle drools over this one constantly.
Yes, we did the hair. He does, after all, have silver hair. Very hard to show that in black and white. Harder still to do it when you have a black and white photo and a model with black hair. Dawn had to create a new layer, paint his hair black and then invert it and make the blending a soft light.
She does so much for me. <3
I wanted a background for the HW book page that evoked the chaos and magic in the books and I think I nailed it with this.
I love the lightning against the sky with the wolf silhouette in front of it. It’s beautiful.
I wanted you to know that things are indeed progressing! I’ve had an insanely busy life this month so NaNo fell by the wayside; I hope to pick the story there back up in one of the summer Camps. So much to do still this month. Tuesday is the tribunal that will tell us whether the provincial government thinks I’m a disabled person or not. I live with 8 chronic health issues, 7 of them related to my spine and central nervous center, you’d think it would be an easy call.
A mighty fine beginning it is to the year too. I am with my boyfriend, my favourite place to be. The only thing missing is the rest of my family but I shall see some of them later and most of them online in a little bit. It’s snowing but the weather isn’t completely atrocious, the flakes are mostly coming straight down. It is a beautiful dance to watch. I could be feeling better (I seem to be getting bronchitis) but truthfully, I could be feeling a whole lot worse, so I will take what I can get.
This past year has brought a few trials – like a major surgery scare (turned out to be something else entirely), a minor surgery in an uncomfortable place (which turned out to be benign), some overall backsliding of my chronic conditions – but a whole lot of blessings. My son turned 16 last February, which has brought about an adventure in driving. My daughter just turned 13 and is officially a teenager, I can’t wait to see what that brings. Peter and I have a beautiful relationship with a solid foundation to build on and the determination to keep working on it, and enjoying it, as we have been. My ex-husband has a wonderful new girlfriend with whom he is building a solid foundation. Yes, I like her. He’s happy, that’s what makes me like her.
The thing, in all honesty, that has surprised me the most that I have to be grateful for is my Dad. That makes me sound ungrateful but it’s not that I haven’t been thankful that he’s in my life but this past year Dad has done far more for me than I ever imagined to help me with my books. In the last couple of years he’s – no, they, both of my parents – have done far more for me than I can ever think to repay them for, period. So to you, Dad and Rilla (the other half of my parents), I say “Thank you” from the bottom of my heart.
Whoa! I just looked up again and the snow is coming down thick and fast. Makes me wonder if we’ll get snowed in.
The new year always promises delightful, wonderful new things but, really, I believe that the dawn can only promise a beautiful day, it’s you who has to make it more than just a pretty moment in time. (hmm… that was too much I think! *laughs*) I think it takes something I’ve come to call the ‘gratitude attitude’.
“What on Earth is the gratitude attitude?” you may ask.
Well, it’s the determination to be positive and to be grateful for all you have in your life. And to show it. Even something so small as to say “thank you” to the barista who gives you your latte. Or to the person in your life who makes you dinner. Say thank you to the child who takes their dishes to the sink.
Send your gratitude to whatever Gods you believe in, however you believe, for the larger gifts in your life – your home, your health, your bank account (great or small).
It takes work to be positive. It takes gritting your teeth and straightening the hitch in your giddy up some days to take a breath, smile and say thank you. I’ve been working at it for a lot of years but it’s only the last couple that I’ve truly understood gratitude and a positive attitude. The why is a long story I may or may not tell some day.
My gratitude attitude brings me to my resolutions.
First of all, I hate making resolutions like “I’m going to spend time EVERY DAY on the elliptical trainer” (I will but I’ve been working at that for months), or “I will eat better” or quitting smoking (I don’t…anymore… just an example). They are, to me, standard things people are quick to jump on. It’s like the new year comes and BAM! people realize they need to be healthier.
By the way:
You have quit smoking for:
2 years, 37 weeks, 2 days, 11 hours and 4 mins.
You have saved:
2,233.04 Dollars by NOT smoking 14,887 cigarettes!
I am rather proud of myself.
Anyway, I have one resolution and it’s one I make often:
To prove worthy of the help I am given and the blessings I receive.
That’s all.
Simple right?
Not really. There are things I need to do to be worthy. I have to put the effort into my work, into everything that makes up who and what Catherine Bowman is. Not to mention who and what I am when I am not being the author.
One of those things is creating a schedule for my work – writing, editing, building the website, maintaining my blog and my Goodreads, TwitterandFacebookprofiles. Another is looking after myself physically. And the last is paying it all forward. There is often help given that doesn’t want to be paid back. If you want to make the giver happy you pay it forward by doing for someone else. I do that as often as I can – like putting $2.50 worth of quarters in locked shopping carts one day. It’s not a lot of money but it’s 10 happy, surprised people. Even something so small as hugging a friend who needs it is part of it.
According to WordPress this is my year in review:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,900 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 5 years to get that many views. (I’m way impressed with those 600 people!)
In 2012, there were 125 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 449 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 751 MB. That’s about a picture per day.
The busiest day of the year was October 13th with 58 views. The most popular post that day was Insanity, Heavenly Scents and Mrs Claus. (Apparently people like Mrs Claus!)
This is the weirdest search term to bring people to my blog: fear paralyzing academics in teh law.
People from FORTY COUNTRIES visited my blog! Mostly Canada, the US and the UK but I’ve had readers from as far away as Australia, as unlikely as Kenya and as cool as Malaysia. I’ve had a lot of readers from Germany and a bunch from India and Pakistan. I find this like totally awesome (if you’ll forgive a throwback to the 80s, I did grow up then after all)!
My most diligent commentors…commenters?… were Val, Rich from brainsnorts inc., thereasa, Peter and krissy. The blog that got the most comments? Books, Blow Jobs and B…Easter. *laughs* That wasn’t entirely surprising really.
I love you people.
My goals this year?
Finish HW3
Publish HW2
Build the website
Make me as healthy as possible
Keep my relationships as healthy and happy as possible
Begin HW4 (probably a month’s worth of research right there)
NaNo, of course
Celebrate life. How can you not?
I promise you a give away this month, an autographed book and… something else. Something useful. It’s long past due. I’ll figure out how to do it and what that other thing will be and I will announce it.
It’s time for me to figure out a host site for my website now.
Have a wonderful day and may the new year be truly blessed, full of joy and just enough strife to make you appreciate the joy. May you receive everything you deserve.
Last week I talked about gratitude and blessings, today I have one more to add to that list. And I mentioned that I was going to see the printer. Let’s talk about that first.
The printer was an awe inspiring trip let me tell you. Entire Imaging is a phenomenal place! They were incredibly friendly and very hard working but that’s not what had Peter and I walking around with our mouths open. Judy, the lovely wife of the owner, showed us around personally. They have several mind-boggling machines but three things stick out in my mind the most and I shall tell you about them, from least to most impressive (although they are all very impressive).
First is the … well, Judy told us that these days pretty well everything is printed with the touch of a button. All the ink colours are automatically mixed by computer but there is one thing, mostly one thing, that still requires the old fashioned touch, that guy who knows just how to measure and mix the ink and that is stationary. That’s right, letterhead and personalized envelopes. Judy said if they laser print the papers we put in our inkjet and laser printers the ink will scrape off. So the harried looking guy in the little room off to one side is the guy who does it all from scratch and by hand.
Second is this HUGE printer that can print on anything! It can print on things like carpet, cardboard or wood, virtually any hard or rigid medium. If it has a surface, it can print on it and in just about any size. The machine can be measured in *feet*. Same with the one that does posters and stuff. It’s called Megachrome Digital Colour Printing.
The singularly most phenomenal thing I have EVER seen – and Peter agrees – is the 3D printing/rapid prototyping division. We saw some
Image courtesy of Proto3000.com
really, really cool things from the adjustable wrench that is always talked about to working resin bicycles to some serious (miniature) architecture. We learned they can create these items not only in either powder or resin but in at least two different textures. We saw a tractor tire (small *laughs*) that they’d printed, the rim was one, hard texture and the tire was soft and rubbery.
It was just so (pardon my throwback to the 80s) COOL!
And now, the thing that made me grin and get all teary at the same time:
This morning I found an email from a reader that went like this:
Hi Ms Bowman
I just finished reading your book which I bought from Amazon and it is AWESOME!! I read it in less than a day and went feverishly back on Amazon for your other works but alas nothing. It was barely through my disappointment that I saw that this book was released in Sept of this year. I am eagerly waiting the next book in this series, and I really hope that I don’t lose this feeling of anxiousness that I have now to read and be invested in your other books, to another author! Anyways just wanted to say I loved that book, it had everything in it that I love reading, not so much vampires etc but characters that I can identify with and who I can envision as my friends… they are that believable!! Thank you so much for saving us (I dare to speak for readers around the world like me lol!!)from childish dramatics, needless posturing to prove strength or worth, an alpha who is not afraid to love and be in love, a heroine who knows how to accept that love in spite of her hang-ups, strength in leadership, a plot that is sensible and easy to follow along, absences of numerous names and situation where ‘we’ need a pen and paper to keep up with them, knowing exactly what the characters did or say in the last setting so we are not scratching our heads and screaming wtf when it is repeated later…whew you get my drift.
Thank you again and I will be posting my review on Amazon.
Yvonne
Isn’t that AWESOME? I wrote her back, of course, and through the course of our conversation she told me that she has 800 books on her kindle and I am the only one who inspired a need to express her appreciation.
Needless to say I am touched. Pleased. In awe. Amazed!
She said she was surprised I answered personally and I said that I’m not so big yet that I don’t have time to answer the (so very few) emails that come my way from readers. She told me I better figure out the form fan letter soon because I’ll need it! *laughs* I like her. Not just because she was stroking my ego – Dad said he’d be over to widen my doors *laughs* – but because she’s intelligent and well read. Makes her comments all the more meaningful.
I will be putting a portion of her reviews into HW2′s finished product. It’s just too wonderful to not include.
I wanted to take a few minutes to take note of a couple things. Namely, things I am grateful for and my favourite parts of NaNo thus far.
First of all, my gratitude.
First to The Boyfriend who, with no small amount of bemusement AND amusement, sticks with me through allll the crap that goes with being an author who writes by inspiration and instinct. He is part of the reason my nano book exists. It was something he said in July that made me go “Oh! oh! oh! What if Santa was…” And we went from there. He is a big part of the reason that I have the courage to do what I’m doing with HW1. I have only just begun to take the first step in that regard. So far it’s been baby steps.
Second, to Val who bullies, cajoles, pushes and encourages.
Third to Eshe, my artiste de couverture. Without her I would not have such a beautiful cover, or any of the swag art.
To my chosen Family, who read damn near every word and love it but also tell me when they don’t.
And to finally, but mostly, to my Dad. Dad is doing such wonderful things for me. He got an incredible deal for me with the printer he works with and they are doing some awesome things on my behalf. I don’t know where this belief in my writing came from, or in me, but I am in awe. On Friday, The Boyfriend and I are going up to visit the printer where, as Dad put it, I am getting the red carpet treatment as the star writer.
It makes me giggle. ”Star writer.”
Dad also found someone to create a website for me and he’s paying for the domain name.
He rocks.
I am grateful for all my blessings, which include my children who, albeit reluctantly, help with the chores when I can’t and my ex-husband who does bigger things, and some little things. I occasionally do something nice for him but he doesn’t expect it. Doesn’t want or need it.
Yesterday my baby sister got me tickets to go see The Nutcracker. For no apparent reason, she just did it because she knows someone who could and would do it. She also must have known that I’ve always loved the show and wanted to see it in person. When I was talking to that man on the phone, because he called me to tell me about it, he said “It sure is raining [blessings] on you, isn’t it?”
Yeah, it is. I don’t know what it is or why but it is. There was a huge loss in my life in the last little bit, a source of mammoth grief for myself and those in Scotland, and it reminds me that gratitude must be expressed. The love you receive must be shared. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve it, to receive all these blessings and I’m not going to ask. To ask would make me seem ungrateful and while I’m curious I am most definitely NOT ungrateful.
So here I am, throwing my gratitude out to the universe. And my promise to continue doing whatever it was that earned me this place so I can take these things and build upon them.
NaNo.
NaNo is going beautifully! I am 16,048 words into it on day seven! That leaves me with 33, 952. And no, I didn’t do the math. *laughs* When you update your word count, it tells you automatically how much you’ve done, what your daily average is (2,292) and how much is left.
My favourite parts so far:
Context: You all remember in the prologue that Eugene Van Massenhoven’s entire family was killed, except for the little girl. Ari and Ren went to visit Kirsten and her grandparents:
Keith turned and smiled as Kirsten held her arms out to her Papa. She held a soft stuffed monkey by the arm in one hand, her grip so tight the knuckles were white.. “Come here, Kissy. You remember Detective Valerie don’t you?” The wee girl nodded and Keith went on. “The men behind him are your Daddy’s bosses. They brought you donuts.”
Tears filled the girl’s eyes and Keith hurried to sit down with her, cradling her in his lap. “It’s ok, Kissy, it’s okay . They just want to talk a little bit, alright?”
When she shook her head Ari approached, pulling a chocolate covered donut out of the bag. He knelt beside Keith’s chair and smiled at the girl, turning on the Santa charm. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk to me. I’m going to talk to your Grampa though, okay?” He held out the donut to her. “Do you like these ones?”
She nodded her head and held out her free hand. When Ari gave it to her she “fed” the monkey the first bite then took one of her own. He backed away from her and sat in a nearby chair to give her some space.
Ari listened as Ren spoke to Mary but he was busy watching grandfather and granddaughter. He watched as Keith spoke soothingly to the little girl but she never said anything in return. She answered his questions with a head shake or a nod or a shrug. When Keith finally looked helplessly at him Ari smiled. “Mind if I try?”
“I don’t … Yeah sure.” Keith was tired. His heart hurt, his head hurt. He didn’t know what to do with his granddaughter in this state. He didn’t know whether to get her therapy or just wait it out. The nightmares were the only time she talked and then it was only to scream four words: Mommy, Daddy, her brother’s name, Tommy, and the word no. Over and over and over again. He had begged the cops at the door to get them ear plugs but they could still hear it. He would hear it until the day he died.
Ari smiled at Kirsten, letting the Santa shine through. Even Keith suddenly relaxed and smiled. “I know you,” he said.
Ari’s eyes flicked to him but refocused on the little girl once Keith had quieted. “Hello Kissy… May I call you Kissy?” When the girl nodded, Ari continued. “Do you know who I am?”
She nodded again, this time hard enough to make both Ari and her grandfather think she might hurt herself.
“Can you tell me who I am?”
Kirsten opened and then closed her mouth again and shook her head, mouth turned down at the corners. Keith slumped in his seat.
Chapter Eleven
Ari smiled that megawatt smile all the mall Santas tried to emulate. “That’s okay Kissy. You’re five aren’t you?” He smiled as she nodded again. “Do you like to play dress up?” Another nod. “You dress up like a princess I bet.” He knew the answer full well.
A head shake with a half a smile.
“No? Do you dress up like a monkey?”
A small smile and a head shake.
“Do you dress up like a banana? Let the monkey glom on you?”
A bigger smile and another head shake.
“Do you like to dress up like an alien with a monkey side kick?”
A small giggle escaped her and she shook her head.
Keith sat very still and stared at her in shock. Mary stopped talking and began to come over. Only Ren’s hand on her arm kept her from interfering.
“I know! You like to dress up like a… pirate, right?” Ari smiled conspiratorially, dropping his voice to a whisper on the last two words.
“Yes!” The word and a giggle burst from the wee girl and she immediately stuffed the monkey into her mouth, eyes wide.
“It’s alright, you can talk to me. You know you can trust me, right?”
Kirsten slowly removed the monkey from her mouth and tried the word again. “Yes.”
Ari held out his arms. “Do you want to come sit on my lap?”
The little girl pressed closer to her grandfather for a moment then slipped from his lap and approached Ari. She let him lift her onto his knee and stared at him solemnly for a long moment. Suddenly she hit him in the chest with a tiny fist. Then she dropped the monkey and hit him with both fists, screaming in rage.
Everyone in the room but Ari jumped in surprise and Keith leapt from his chair. Ren moved quickly and gently pushed him back into the chair as Ari shook his head.
It wasn’t long before she wound down and started crying. It was the first expression of emotion anyone had seen from her while awake. Everyone from the detective to Keith stared at her in shock as Ari held the tiny girl against his chest and stroked her hair. “It’ll be okay, Kissy, it’ll be okay.”
“You dint come. I was calling you. You dint come. The man hurt them. You dint come.” She sobbed uncontrollably, repeating those three words over and over again.
At that even Ari’s eyes burned with tears. Mary’s breath caught and she pressed both hands to her mouth to keep from saying anything. Valerie bit the inside of her cheek trying to control herself and Keith rubbed his face with both hands. Ari rocked her in the chair and kept stroking her hair. “I’m sorry, Kissy. I am sorry I didn’t hear you. I am sorry that man hurt your family.”
A tiny growl cut through her cries. “He was a bad man! He looked like a nice man but then he was a bad man!” She hiccupped then said, “He looked funny.”
Valerie’s attention was snagged and she shifted into cop mode. She opened her mouth but Ren shook his head so she settled for taking out her notebook.
Ari kept rocking the girl though she shook his hand off her hair. “He was funny looking?”
“He had eyes like this,” she took her hands, put them on the corners of her eyes and pulled back.
“Like this?” Since she was facing him and not everyone else, he put his fingers in the corners of his eyes and pulled back until he had almond shaped eyes.
“Yes! He was a bad man!”
“Was he dressed like a pirate?” Ari asked the question even though he could see the man in her head.
The angry, talkative little girl scoffed. “No! He was dressed like one of the men Daddy brings home for dinner with Mommy sometimes.”
“He was wearing a suit?”
“Yes!”
“Was he tall like Daddy?”
“No! But he hurt them anyway. He wanted to hurt me, Santa. But I escaped.” She looked pleased with herself. “I hid until Papa came.” Then her face fell again. “Is he going to try to hurt me?”
“He might. That’s why we’re going to move you and Grampa and Gramma somewhere safe.” Ari nodded at Ren who seemed resigned but pulled out Ari’s iPad. “Would you like to see my house?”
Valerie objected. “Sir! You can’t take them from here! We’re in the middle of-“
“If you want them to be able to testify when you catch this man, you need them to be safe. You’ll be able to talk to them anytime you need to.” Ari’s voice was chilled.
“I… but… Yes, Sir.” Valerie thought of her Chief’s reaction and shuddered.
“Don’t worry I’ll make it right with your Chief.” Ari turned his megawatt smile on Kirsten. “Would you like to meet my wife first?” Then he leaned close and whispered in her ear. “And Ren over there is my head elf; he has a daughter you can talk to too.”
Kirsten looked at Ren in surprise then whispered back, loudly. “But he’s so tall!”
Ari chuckled as Ren handed him the iPad. “But it’s true. Do you know what Skype is?”
She nodded. “We talk to Daddy on it when he goes far away.” She looked up at Ari, eyes clouded. “Will I be able to talk to Mommy and Daddy and Tommy on Skype now?”
“No, I’m sorry, Pirate Kissy, they are waiting for you somewhere Skype doesn’t reach.” He dialed his wife and smiled as she came on screen. “Mien Liebling.”
“My husband. I am glad to see you. Who is the angelic waif you have in your lap?”
“This is Kissy the Pirate. I was hoping she and her grandparents could come and visit.”
Heidi’s eyes shifted from Kirsten’s face to Ari’s. He nodded in answer to the question in her eyes. The sadness passed over her face quickly then she smiled brightly and quickly made Kirsten adore her. “Well, Pirate Kissy, I am Heidi. I am pleased to meet you.”
Context:
Ari and Ren are in Chicago at Tootsie Roll Industries. A board meeting of sorts.
“A catchy tune doesn’t sell. No eighties redux. New products require a new approach.” Ari looked down at the reports. “Accounting.” He looked back up and looked at each of them in turn. He reached two women sitting side by side and looked back and forth between them. “Janie and Jessie. I hope you ladies are well.”
“Yes Sir.” Janie nodded.
Jessie’s voice cracked on her first try and she cleared her throat. “Just fine, Sir.”
“Would you explain where three million, two hundred and forty-two thousand, six hundred and seventeen dollars went?”
As one the rest of the executives turned to the pair. They both blushed furiously and Jessie slouched in her chair. It was Janie who answered. “No Sir, we cannot answer that.”
“Why not?” Ari’s gaze was sharp on them both as he rifled through their heads.
“Because we really don’t know. We’ve been looking for it everywhere.”
“Why are you blushing?”
“Uh… Sir… You did just make a spectacle of us.”
Ari nodded. “Fair enough. I want you two to find that money by the end of the week. Whomever has taken it will be dealt with. I am satisfied that neither of you has done it. You may have whatever resources you will need.”
Jessie straightened up. “We need two more accountants to help comb through the divisions; preferably fraud examiners, at the very least CPAs with experience in forensic accounting. Whoever is doing this is very good. And has access to at least half the company.”
“Bring in whoever you need. Ren, be sure they have the budget to spend the hours.” He looked down the table at the two. “Ladies, this is your only assignment. I want this money found. No one steals from SCE.”
“Yes Sir.” The spoke and nodded simultaneously.
“Get started.”
As they rose, Ren spoke up. “Try Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They have some good accountants there.”
They looked at him and blinked. “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern… Aren’t they dead?” Janie offered the observation.
Ren grinned at the reference and Janie grinned back. “Only according to Tom Stoppard. I assure you, they are alive and well.”
“Yes Sir.” The two gathered their things.
“One more thing, if I may.” Ari stood up and reached into his pocket. He walked down the length of the table and handed them a small box. It hadn’t been there in his pocket until he wanted it. “When you have completed this assignment, take three weeks off and go get married like you want to. Use these.”
The two opened the box and gasped at the contents. Ari looked at the rings and smiled. “Platinum bands set with small rubies for the passions you share. Rest assured that your positions with SCE will be here as long as you wish to be here.”
They looked from the rings to each other and then threw their arms around him. “Thank you! There are no words for our gratitude!” Jessie’s voice was choked up.
He hugged them back then released them. “You’re welcome. Get the job done, ladies.” He went back to his seat as they left. “Next?”
“Why don’t we try the new flavours, Herrani?”
One of the men leapt up from the table at Ari’s nod and brought him a small plate of the bite sized tootsie rolls. “We are trying some cocktail flavoured rolls to try and regain the older market.” He began pointing at each of them. “We have strawberry daiquiri, long island iced tea, apple martini, tequila sunrise, baja gold, bahama mama, rum and coke and pina colada.”
Ari eyed the technicolour candies. “That’s a lot of flavours. What on earth is a baja gold?”
The man’s eyes lit up. “Quite nice actually. It’s pineapple juice, Añejo tequila, triple sec, sweetened lime juice and the juice of half a lime.”
Ren looked skeptical. “That does not sound pleasing at all.”
Ari promptly picked that one up and broke it in half. He handed one half to Ren. “Here you go. On the count of three. One… two…” He chuckled as Ren made a face and opened his mouth. “Three!”
They popped the candy halves into their mouths at the same time and chewed. Lime and tequila flavours exploded in their mouths. Bottles of water and a small plate of baguette slices were set between them. Both of them looked surprised at the flavor.
Ari swallowed. “That’s actually pretty good.” He sipped the water and put a half a baguette in his mouth.
Ren finished chewing and agreed. They did not like the daiquiri or the apple martini but approved the rest. The rest of the new flavour ideas trickled in from the departments. They disapproved of the raspberry mint Andies with Ari saying in an aside to Ren, “Why is everyone trying to put fruit and mint together? It just doesn’t work!”
Chapter Fourteen
Finally the last department came forward. The woman cleared her throat as she set the plate down between them. “With the zombie apocalypse thing such a rage right now we thought we’d tailor back on the vampire teeth and big lips to offer these.”
On the plate were several wax fingers that looked like they were rotting. The fingernails were cracked looking with dirt and blood under them; pus coated the knuckles and it looked like the skin was tearing off. There were two sets of wax lips with teeth. They had torn, cracked lips and rotting, twisted, dirty and bloody teeth. It was all somewhat cartoony but still looked like zombie fingers and mouths.
Ari picked up one of the fingers and studied it. It was hollow for a little way and he managed to wriggle the tip of his pinkie finger in it. The whole thing was about three inches long. “This is ingenious! It’ll fit most children’s fingers?”
“Yes Sir.” The woman glowed with the praise. “We used the children of employees to check. They seemed to really like the idea, even the girls.”
“Phenomenal! How do they taste?”
“We have cherry, cola, vanilla and we received permission from Dr. Pepper to make the red portions that flavour.”
“You put all those flavours in one finger?”
“Of course, Sir. We felt it shouldn’t all be one flavour and the research proved it. We chose the flavours carefully for compatibility.”
“Herrani.”
“Yes Ren.” Ari continued studying the finger.
“Those are just this side of being incredibly disgusting.”
The woman beamed. “Why thank you, Mr. Yutai. That’s exactly what we were going for.”
Ari picked up a second finger and handed it to Ren who looked at it in revulsion. “Must I?”
“Absolutely,” Ari said with a grin.
The woman was enjoying herself immensely. She took great pleasure in her work. “Do try the fingernail, Mr. Yutai. It’s the best part.”
That last bit was TWO favourite parts in one. I love what Ari did for Janie and Jessie and the zombie wax figures.
I don’t know where this stuff comes from, I really don’t but I do so enjoy the reactions it gets. ;)
It’s been an insanely busy week here this week and I completely forgot about the promotion I set up for this weekend!
Kindle Direct Publishing allows me to set up a FREE BOOK promotion 5 days out of every 90 and I chose this weekend for two reasons:
One:
It’s Canadian Thanksgiving eh!
And two:
It’s my birthday!
That’s why it’s been so stressful this week. My Dad is on his way here this morning to take me out for a birthday shopping spree and a fabulous lunch (lucky, lucky me! Grateful, grateful me!) so I’ve been making sure my house is clean. He’s never been here before so of course it had to be CLEANED.
Plus we’ve been having trouble with the cover. The dimensions were wrong and live content kept bleeding into the spine and the trim areas. Blah blah blah. Dawn is a saint I tell you. This is the final version:
This is the FINAL version of the cover! It’s so gorgeous!
How do I know it’s the final? Dawn put a lot of work into it and I submitted it all yesterday, again. And this morning I discovered the email that says it’s all been approved! Happy birthday from Createspace! *laughs* All I have to do is approve the proof and the book will be in print!
So why haven’t I? It has weird spacing because of their template. There’s nothing I can do about it. I’m hoping in print it doesn’t come out that way. hm Having said that… *goes to the Createspace tab*
PROOF APPROVED:
Congratulations! You have completed the proofing step and your book is ready to be sold.
Except it takes 5-7 business days to be listed. LOL BUT the book is in print and will be available by this time next week for sure!
Which makes another reason for this weekend’s promotion!
For this weekend ONLY (starting yesterday) Witch Hitlist, the ebook, is FREE!
That’s right. FREE!
So you can pick up a copy to read and enjoy. I don’t think you can pass it around but you can write a review (Pretty please?) and tell your friends about it.
It’s a Birthday-Thanksgiving weekend promotion.
And now I have to go obsess about my house. Have a fabulous day everyone! I know I will.
Today is Saturday, my photoblog but today I only have two pictures to show you and it’s because they are simply stunning.
As I said yesterday, my friend Dawn offered to create my cover for me. This is the end result of the front cover.
Beautiful isn’t it?
Dawn does some simply incredible work.
So Createspace’s cover program basically boils down to three options
Pick one of their themes and insert your text.
Lacking in serious imagination there. Which I am not.
Pick a theme and insert a cover photo on the front, insert your text and select background and font colours on the back.
Which is what I did first.
I was picking out a colour to try to work seamlessly with this cover here *points up* and said as much to Dawn. She said “I can make the back cover for you.” And that brings me to option three:
Upload a single file that has front and back cover
So this morning that’s precisely what she did. Dawn volunteered, again, to help me out. And she created this awesome work of art:
The ONLY word I can think of this is stunning.
Dawn did a lot of work for me and I’m grateful. I think she had some fun but she didn’t have to do it at all and I am pleased all the way around. Dawn is a friend of mine and I love her anyway but now… I want to send her a balloon bouquet. *laughs* Or a chocolate and fruit one!
Today we are off to the psychic fair. That should be fun. Maybe I’ll get a new crystal out of it.
Have a good weekend! Maybe tomorrow I’ll have more pictures to share but this… this just blows it all away.
I am putting HW1 up on Createspace as a POD (print-on-demand) offering.
This means that when you choose to purchase a hard copy from me they will print and ship it. It means I don’t have to pay for shipping and it provides an virtually infinite number of copies whereas having ONLY the copies Dad is paying for leaves me with a finite number and with me paying shipping for all of them.
Using Createspace AND my father’s offer will allow me to expand my market. Createspace offers a store front that will, I’m hoping, allow me to include the KDP link to the ebook. And the physical copies from Dad’s printer will allow me to a) send out select autographed copies; b) send copies to reviewers that prefer the physical; c) take books to local independent bookstores and d) allow me to have copies on hand for book readings.
See? I have it worked out. And I feel good about it. I have a good feeling this will work out well.
As you can see, I have a new layout. I love it, it’s so pretty and the navigation is good too. I decided that since I’ve taken a new step in my journey my blog needed a new look. It’s much nicer than the last, although I do mourn being able to put my own picture in the header. Haven’t figured that one out yet. Or if I want to.
Someone asked me on one of my recent posts how I got a book to Kindle. It’s a hellish process really, one that’s incredibly rewarding at the same time. I can’t speak for everyone about the process but this is mine.
Writing always starts with inspiration for me. Inspiration for Highland Wolves came from a tragic event (which I will detail as much as I can in a moment), for the Mazrakir series (which will be extensively revamped in the next couple of years) it was the desire to tell my Coven’s history; fictionalized but they are our stories. My other writing is all because of some inspiration or another. It’s harder for me to take an assignment and write. I have to have a LOT of leeway and even then, inspiration needs to strike. Some of my best writing HAS been forced. One of my favourites, laughably, is an essay I wrote in Grade 12 English. The task was to take one character from Shakespeare’s Macbeth and write a 1,500 word essay about them. I chose Lady Macbeth, the woman of maybe half a dozen total lines but immense influence.
I got an A with some real insight (for an 18 y/o) and a LOT of double talk. *laughs*
Anyway, Highland Wolves.
In November 2008, the people Liam, Marcus and Chelle are based on were out and about. They got caught in the middle of a very bad thing while they were out one day. It was totally unexpected but G & C died and D was badly injured. They saved his life. But it was a crushing blow to our collective group of friends; of which I am the only one who lives out of physical reach. I couldn’t go to their funerals or help D through his intensive recovery but what I could do was write something to memorialize them.
Nearly four years later and it still hurts enough to bring tears to my eyes.
So I started a short story called Highland Wolves. Why? Because they live in the UK and this group is thick as thieves, like a wolf pack. The short story demanded more… more plot twists, more character development, more action, more sex, more violence. More. The characters wanted more.
Then at the last minute, when I thought the book would be over – and a stand alone story – someone went missing. Jsut poof, vanished. Et voila, un deuxième livre. A second book. I got partway through book two and there was suddenly a plot and a theme for book three!
But book one is what we’re talking about. Book one took me almost two years to write – I had life going on, one that mostly sucked – but I persevered and got it done. Then I started the editing process. Ran through it a couple times and went “Well, this is done!”
How *do* you spell that buzzer noise? The “You are incorrect, Sir!” noise.
I got told so by more than one publisher. I also got told to essentially do a complete rewrite and close the third person to one person. I still don’t know what’s wrong with an omniscient view as long as it’s cohesive. The third person books I like most tend to have that this is what he’s feeling, this is what she’s feeling vibe about them. I refused to change my style and that knocked me back for a while.
And then I got a rejection that mentioned the editing. In depth.
So that got me editing again. Totally paranoid about it. So paranoid it stymied my ability to move forward. I set a goal to submit it one of the Tor imprints and… totally chickened out. I used the excuse that I couldn’t afford to print and ship it (Tor only accepts paper manuscripts, or did at that point). Lame, yep.
As my followers know I recently wrote an investor proposal (it worked out to be somewhere between $2,000 and 2,500) but I couldn’t find the balls to follow up on it. Or move forward in any way. Then an article came my way about Amanda Hocking. She’s a very popular paranormal author who, in only 18 months, went from broke to $2.5 million in 18 months AND a contract with a traditional house. What did she do? She put it up on Kindle-Amazon (Kindle Direct Publishing specifically).
I don’t know what marketing she did. I don’t know what she did after clicking on the go-ahead for that final step to make it live. I really don’t care.
I was inspired by her story, exasperated with myself, fed up with being broke and fed up with being a coward. (I don’t expect her success, but even a fraction of it would be lovely)
That’s what this holding pattern has been about – cowardice. Why? I think I have a great book. My regular readers, assistant editors (all of whom are amazing, but two more than the rest because they ARE nitpicky enough to make me want to strangle them) all think I have a great book. But what if the general public doesn’t?
Okay, the general erotic-paranormal crowd.
What if all the work I’ve put into it has been virtually worthless?
Nope, I can’t say that. It’s a wonderful memorial to C & G. They are so alive in these books. All of us are.
So Ms. Hocking’s story inspired me and within 48 hours Witch Hitlist was live.
So here I am, feeling intense pressure to succeed but it’s pressure I’ve created so I’m ignoring it. I did what I set out to do when Highland Wolves became a book named Witch Hitlist and the first in a series.
And all of it, all the angst, all the work, everything has been because I loved those two people and to help those of us who helped survive remember them with humour and love. Marcus and Chelle are more and different and yet still the embodiment of C & G.
I, for one, am proud of myself for accomplishing this goal.
So, if you’re a follower of mine on Facebook you’ll have seen this post this morning:
And it seems that I can’t post my entire book on Wattpad. -.- All because of one little line in their user guidelines: “Pornography and erotica are not permitted on Wattpad.” I suppose it’s because they can’t control where the minors go but it’s limiting for them. And for people like me.
Also, annoying.
I know there is somewhere else I can share the story. And now that I’ve decided to do this, I intend to. Anyone have any ideas?
It is one little line in their User Guidelines that I missed the first go-round. Given that you’re readers of mine, you know very well the extent of my erotic content. This is… aggravating to say the least. I finally make this decision and I can’t do it? I do know there’s anot… Oh I know who to ask, my friend Richard Schwartz. He has just recently created an author page on Amazon.
I think I’ll look at Createspace too. It gets the books out there, last I read, and into booksellers for free. Definitely gets it on Amazon. Lulu obviously isn’t doing it for me.
The following is a snippet of the conversation I had with my dad last night:
Dad: ok what is preventing printing the book? you said give aways?
Caity: Ok, so I have 500 copies of the book. People want to buy them, how am I supposed to get them out? I can’t afford it. And to celebrate the release of a book, you give some away
Dad: oh that’s nothin…can do that…thought it was something serious
Um…okay. I guess we’ll see what that’s about in the next little while. Dad and I have vastly differing perspectives on money; he has it, I don’t.
I started reading a book yesterday, given to me by Peter from the small library he has in his car because I forgot my eReader. It’s called The 50th Law by 50 Cent and Robert Greene. Robert’s, name is familiar to me, makes me think I’ve read his work before but I don’t believe I have.
This book struck a chord with me from the Foreword on. In the foreword Robert said that he met 50 Cent because Fifty had read The 48 Laws of Powerand was interested in potentially collaborating on a project. Robert left their first meeting mulling it over. Once he had an idea he went back to Fifty and gave him the proposal. Then he followed Fifty around for close to a year and came to the conclusion that 50 Cent is successful because of one thing: The man lacks fear. He is utterly fearless. 50 Cent came from a background and a place where he didn’t expect to live past the age of 25 and since he has, he feels he has nothing to lose (according to Robert’s observations).
The biggest difference between me and 50 Cent? I literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain and yet I am afraid of losing what might be.
And you see that? THAT is a huge breakthrough in my mental health. I’m afraid of losing what might be.
The thing is, if I don’t grab for the potential future then I never will have a chance at what might be.
Robert’s introduction talks about Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s inaugural address. FDR came to power during the great depression and one thing he saw is that the entire country was mired in fear. They harboured more fear than necessary and that fear was a self-fulfilling prophecy. (“We’re afraid the country will never recover so we’re going to sit here and watch.” And the economy wasn’t getting better.) The country wasn’t going to get better if they didn’t change their attitude and the inaugural speech addressed this. FDR said:
“So first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes the needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
Robert says in his book, “What Roosevelt sketched out in his speech is the knife’s edge that separates failure from success in life. That edge is your attitude, which has the power to help shape your reality.”
This struck me as incredibly profound and it hit me right in the heart of hearts. It sunk in that wanting is not the same as doing. Obvious, right? Not so much.
Wanting is sitting there talking about what could be. It’s talking about how much better your life would be if you just had This Thing. How much happier you’d be. Wanting is essentially whining if you never do anything too try and get This Thing. If you never do anything about your dreams, your hopes, your wants, if all you do is sit there and talk about it then all it is is whining.
Doing is getting off your ass and taking steps to get what you want. Doing is not talking. Doing is planning. Doing is reaching. Doing is achieving. Doing is courage.
I have, essentially, been whining.
I have been letting my fear keep me mired in the what is, letting it keep me from reaching for the what might be. It’s time for me to step out of the muck. To drag myself out if necessary.
And one of those steps is to get HW1 out there. That’s what I wanted wattpad for. It terrifies me but I did it anyway. I want need to know that I have a viable product. And it’s not enough to stick the book in print on some vanity press and say “here, here’s a book.” Thousands of people do that. Millions of people read but there’s a LOT to wade through.
I need an editor, a publisher, an agent. How am I going to get those things? By thrusting the book into the face of the public.
I am broke, I live below the edge of poverty but I have people willing to help me IF I HELP MYSELF.
