Book Nerd: September Giveaways

Book Nerd: September Giveaways: Hello fellow Book Nerds! Yes, it's that time again for the big giveaways. Help me reach 1,000 Likes at my fan page City of Fallen Angels F...

WEEKLY ROUND UP

I've been pretty busy working on the second book in The Bloody Crescent series. I thought I had the entire plot laid out but I've decided to take a totally different route that will leave my readers going 'OMG! I didn't expect that...' :). I hope it will anyway! So it's been quite a bit of work making changes and adjusting scenes but I think it will be well worth it in the end.

I've also just joined Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/ - and I've discovered some fantastic books. Although I'm still getting the hang of the site I am happy to say that Therian has been added to three 'to-read' bookshelves! I can only hope that that number soon grows.

In other news, I won a fantastic prize through loot.co.za's Facebook page. I will soon be receiving an omnibus of  "The Morganville Vampires" series.

I can't wait to get reading!

So a big shout out to Carlilse and co. for making me a winner.

I have also just pre-ordered 'Carrier of the Mark', debut novel of Leigh Fallon. A brilliant writer who was discovered on Inkpop. Really excited to read this book. I have followed Leigh for a while now and she is such a wonderful person and author who deserves all the success! I've no doubt that her book will make it onto all the No. 1 bestseller lists. Check out her website - http://leighfallon.com/

ABSOLUTE BEAUTY

So Winter should be coming to an end here in South Africa but Mother Nature seems to be wreaking havoc. We've recently had one of the worst snow falls in 20 years which left people trapped in their cars and major roads throughout the country closed. But even with all the chaos this caused there is just no way of denying the sheer beauty of snow capped mountains and fields covered in a thick blanket of icy exquisiteness!

I was fortunate enough to experience the wonderment first hand! Now you may be wondering why I am so ecstatic about this but believe it or not, I've never seen snow before!!

Here are a few pics I took :

So breathtaking...

THE ROAD TO GETTING PUBLISHED

So my dream of becoming a published author is finally coming true! * happy dance *

But before I go into all of that, let me take you back a few months…..

FRIDAY THE 13^TH

The very idea of this date makes people cringe – it’s filled with superstitious meaning and bad luck – but for me it brought on a change of luck!

May 13^th, 2011 – I woke up with the buzzing of my Blackberry, ready to curse whomever had decided to disturb my sleep at 4am ( South African time ), particularly when I saw it was an email which could only mean a notification from Facebook. With one eye open I scrolled through the message and within seconds was out of bed and jumping around like a mad person. The email was one that could possibly change the rest of my life.

It was from Sean Samborski of Elixirist Publishing and he wanted to know if I’d be interested in submitting my manuscript to them, as one of his editors had read a bit of what I had posted on Authonomy and they were interested to see what more I had to offer.

Of course I was excited, who wouldn’t be?? After months of submitting to agents only to get the good old rejection notice I finally had a break. But I had to calm myself and think rationally, I had spent many hours researching and checking different publishing and literary agent sites, taking in as much advice as I possibly could and one thing that stuck in my mind was to be cautious about publishers that approached authors for a publishing deal. More often than not, these publishers were vanity presses, asking you to pay money so they can publish your manuscript.

So, as enthusiast as I was, I carefully compiled my email, asking for as much information about the publishing process as I could think of. Juanita Samborski (my wonderful publisher) in return was happy to provide me with all the details and her open, warm and friendly manner relaxed my suspicions. She reviewed my manuscript and felt it would be a great addition to the starting line-up for their new division - 48fourteen. Next step was signing the publishing contract, approving the cover art and waiting for revisions. And that is how the ball got rolling…..

July 24^th, 2011 – By now I was getting used to my Blackberry buzzing at every hour of the day and when I got the official notice that 48fourteen’s website was up and running I had another of those jump-up-and-down-like-a-crazy-person moments. I wasted no time in browsing the site and seeing an image of myself smiling back was so surreal. The ball of excitement in my stomach kept me awake most of the night and I was on the brink of tears – happy ones, I might add. My baby was finally ready to graduate from my laptop to the world wide web! 

So I urge you all to support 48fourteen – www.48fourteen.com – register on the site, browse and have fun. There are many other really talented authors on the site so you may find more than you bargained for. Post questions directly to authors or join a discussion. I promise you won’t be disappointed!!

Time to sign off…..

But I will be back, so I hope to see you here again soon. xoxo

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

I've always loved to read. I think there is nothing better than to sit down on a lazy sunday afternoon with a good book to escape the realities of our world by getting lost in a time, place and setting that someone has created. I love anything supernatural and paranormal so I'm always scanning the book stores for names like Laurel K. Hamilton, Melissa Marr, Melissa de la Cruz and Stephanie Meyer, just to name a few.

I've written a few short stories in my life, most for English class, but it wasn't until my world was turned upside down that I actually decided to start writing for real. I used the pain that stemed from a very emotional, personal breakup to create characters and a story I never imagined would get to the point of being published. To me it was my outlet, instead of crying or screaming, or even feeling sorry for myself, I poured my emotions into every word of my story. The more I wrote the clearer my characters became! I felt apart of their world, but I guess that can be expected considering I created it :).
I continued to write, enjoying every minute of sitting in front of my laptop, tapping away at the keys because it had become a way to relax at the end of a long day of work. And then the day came when I stumbled across http://www.authonomy.com/, a brilliant writing community site set up by HarperCollins.

I was tentative at first after having read such amazing stories on the site, thinking mine was no match but when I finally did upload the first 10,000 words of my story I was thrilled by the great response I got. Such wonderful comments were posted and I thrived on the mountain of critical feedback I got. It made me want to write even more and so I thank everyone who gave me advice and posted a critique ( good or bad ) because it helped me become a stronger writer. A few months in and I learnt about Authonomy's sister site http://www.inkpop.com/ , also created by HarperCollins but aiming at more of a YA audience. Again I posted my manuscript on this site and received wonderful feedback and comments. I wrote my heart out and by November 2010, one year and one week after having started my novel, it was finally complete! :)