BookBub Special: A Round-Up

I've been all over the blog-o-sphere these past few days. If you've been wondering what the deluge was all about, here's why: I have a BookBub special! For those not yet in the know, BookBub is awesome! It's a sort of clearinghouse for books that are on deep discount or free. You can sign up with them for free, and they will send you a daily email letting you know what bargains are available on ebooks in the genres you prefer to read.

There are many such services, but part of what makes BookBub so awesome is that they vet the choices, so you are actually likely to WANT the books they advertise to you. This is not bargain basement stuff, but temporary discounts on the good stuff. I recently picked up an anthology including a story by Neil Gaiman this way.

So, when Curiosity Quills told me that my book had been accepted for BookBub, I did a happy dance (in the kitchen where only people who already know and love me could see). Given that the news of my sale (the book is free in Kindle format on August 5th and 6th) comes from BookBub, there's a goodly chance that I'll pick up some new readers! Maybe they'll leave reviews and maybe I'll go up in author rankings and be a step closer to making a living from my words.

So, to spread the word about my book and this sale, I've been guest blogging like a crazy woman. Here's a compilation of where all I've been recently and what I've been saying.

Keeping the Romance Alive is a post I wrote for Clare Dugmore's blog about the matters of the heart of Going Through the Change. Clare writes Romantic Contemporary Fiction and also manages social media for Curiosity Quills.

For Curiosity Quills, I wrote a piece on choosing the right point of view for your story. It's All in Where You're Standing.  Curiosity Quills is my publisher, and publishes lots of other great books under the speculative fiction umbrella too!

Jason Feingold is a member of my critique group. He hosted my article Building a Hero I can Believe In. You can read his most recently published short story, Fast Food Fish Fatale, on AllegoryEZine.

Fellow Broad Universe member and speculative fiction writer Wendy Van Camp hosted my article So, You Want to Write a Superhero Novel? on No Wasted Ink.

Aimee Hyndman, author of Hour of Mischief, hosted me on Slush and Writing with Kallypso for an article on gray characters: There is No Black and White.

My article, Why Superheroes, ran on Kissed by Literature and K.K. Burks's blogs.

Yolanda Renee (and beta reader!), a murder mystery writer,  hosted me on Defending the Pen for an article called Judging my Own Book By Its Cover.

My Paper Baby Learns to Crawl was hosted by Ann Noser (beta reader!) author of How to Date Dead Guys and Kate McIntyre, author of The Deathsniffer's Assistant.

LJ Cohen, author of Derelict and Ithaka Rising, hosted me for a guest blog: Getting Older and Bolder. 

David Higgins and Kate Colby hosted me for an article, too: More Than One Kind of Woman Can Be a Hero.

Marti Lawrence, a humor writer and all-around mensch, hosted an excerpt from me under the headline: You Gotta Laugh or You'll Cry.

The Renegade Word hosted What I Learned From Rewriting My Novels.

Chad C. Clark, author of two great short story collections, Elizabeth Hein (also a critique partner), author of Overlook and How to Climb the Eiffel Tower,  Emma Adams, author of the Alliance Series, and Tegan Wren, author of Inconceivable! and DSavannah Rambles my AtoZ writing buddy, each hosted me for interviews.

Andy Goldman, a friend from Google Plus and the author of The Only City Left series, hosted my article on my path to publishing: Small, Independent Publishers: Neither a Jet Plane Nor a Slow Boat to China.

Constance Burris hosted A Woman of a Certain Age: Heroism Over Forty and Kimberly FDR (critique partner!) hosted Walk Like a Man. You should check out her recent releases as KLynn: His Womanly Ways and Coffee Date.

So, whew! That's probably more than you ever wanted to know about me or my book.

What you should really notice though is how many people were willing to step up and help me get the word out! Writers really are the friendliest and most supportive people and I am fortunate indeed to have so much support surrounding my book baby. This is just a list of the blogs. That doesn't even count people who tweeted the news or shared it on Facebook or just told their friends.

(And it's working! I just hit number 1 in superhero)

(Doing my lucky girl dance)
-SB

#IWSG: The Waiting Place

I hate waiting.

That's not to say that I can't be patient. I'm a teacher, a mother, a wife, a dog owner, and a writer. All of these have taught me patience. I'm not going to go around haranguing people or beating at the walls. I know how to wait civilly. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

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I'm in a holding pattern right now in my writing life. My first book came out and I just finished a wave of promotion for it, writing many many guest blog posts and interviews to spread the word about a BookBub special (the Kindle edition will be free on August 5th and 6th!). The next wave isn't until September.

I had three writing deadlines when I began my summer writing season: submitting the sequel to Going Through the Change, writing and submitting a novella in the same world for an anthology, and a revise-and-resubmit on my historical fiction piece Cold Spring. Done. Done. And done.

So, now I'm waiting. Besides waiting to hear about those three, I also have another novel out on submission which is still being considered and three upcoming anthologies I've had work accepted for, but am waiting to hear back on. (That's not meant to be a humble brag: all this waiting is getting under my skin). The balls all seem to be in other people's courts and I'm standing here with my racquet, feeling edgy and anxious.

I still have a daily writing habit going (669 days in a row on Magic Spreadsheet as I write this). But I'm floundering with what to do with it just now. I'm writing little pieces that don't satisfy me. If the sequel is accepted without significant change, then I should work on the three-quel. It's best to have steady output for a series. But I don't want to start working on the three-quel until I know that the second book is going to go without significant plot changes. I hate the idea of wasted effort, continuing storylines that might not be useful at all.

So, here I am in the waiting place.

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I'm trying to work on the second of the historical fiction trilogy. Right now that means a lot of research as it turns out I am woefully undereducated about America in the period between the world wars. So, lots of reading and notes, little output of actual words. No feeling lost in a story.

It leaves me feeling unmoored, with no big project anchoring my vision right now. I don't feel productive or inspired. And those are two of my favorite feels.

So, what do you guys do while you're in the waiting place? What keeps you from climbing up the walls?
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This posting is part of the Insecure Writers Support Group blog hop. To check out other posts by writers in a variety of places in their careers, check out the participant list. This group is one of the most open and supportive groups of people I have ever been associated with. If you write, you should check them out!

An Interview with Vanessa MacLellan

It's my pleasure to introduce you to Vanessa MacLellan. We met online, participating in the same Google Plus community. Her debut novel, Three Great Lies, comes out on August 6th! So, here's a bit about her and her book. Enjoy! -SB

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1. Tell us a little about yourself. I'm a tattooed, vegetarian, outdoorsy woman with one head in the clouds and the other firmly settled in my hiking boots. I'm an environmental engineer by day, author, runner, reader, gamer, naturalist by night (and weekends).

2. When did you start writing, and why? When I was a wee lass I'd make up stories to tell my mother while she was gardening. I think it started there. My favorite subject was Baggy Piggy, who had a curly Q tail that never ended (I knew this, because I drew him incessantly with pink crayons). I remember, before I could even write, 'writing' (aka doodling) on paper and then reading them to my great grandmother. Storytelling is in my blood. I guess that's enough of a reason why. Though the fact that I enjoy it doesn't hurt. I have little people in my head (doesn't every author) that want me to explore their worlds, flesh out their personalities and goals and give them something to do. I can't take all the credit, it's partially their fault.

3. What do you write, and why? What do you enjoy about what you write? I write speculative fiction. Mainly fantasy, though I mix horror and magical realism in there. I write fantasy because fantasy is what first got me excited about reading. I remember my older sister, Audrey, handing me the first of the Pierce Anthony Xanth novels, and I was astounded at these magical places, characters with magical talents, all of the magical beasts. Magic. Magic. Magic. I wanted that. To live there. Be special. Be something more than just human. And I read as much fantasy after that as I could. Tolkien, Eddings, Pratchet, Weiss and Hickman, Duncan. You know the era and the authors. That's what fueled me as a young reader. I hope to fuel other readers too. And the joy comes from creation and imagination. Of speculating: What if? and expanding from that. I am the master of my own universe, what is not to like?

4. What is your latest book? Any forthcoming books? My debut novel, Three Great Lies, releases August 6th. It's fantasy, with historical and literary trappings. It carries a bit of a Finding My Place in Life theme. Jeannette Walker, a modern scientist, ends up in ancient, mythological Egypt. Though she constantly casts doubt on the existence of such a world, she has to learn to live in it. While trying to save her mummy friend's soul from a wicked tomb robbing ring, she realizes a few important things about life. What those are, well, you'll have to read the book! I have one complete manuscript for a dark fantasy I'm currently shopping out, and am working on a modern super hero series. There's always something I'm working on.

5. "Welcome To My Worlds": Tell us a little about the world of Three Great Lies. Ancient, mythological Egypt. It never rains. People's lives aren't equal. Prayers constantly dance upon lips. Beer is a meal. Sand is a major filler in the bread. Children of gods walk the street with the heads of animals and prophecy on their lips. To Jeannette it's, of course, a total shock. There are people about in public naked and jackals speak. A mummy—a desiccated, lumbering thing—chases her through the crowded streets, accusing her of stealing his ba! It's not necessarily a friendly place, but people are people, and even Jeannette is able to find friends in ways she never expected.

6. Introduce us to some of your characters. What do you like about them? Jeannette Walker is my protagonist. She's mid-twenties, a scientists with a jilted past. She still holds the hurt from a past betrayal and has learned to trust nobody and nothing. I love her voice and her mind-chatter. And she's got a good heart that struggles to show through her armor. Abayomi is the dead man walking, a reanimated mummy who seeks his lost ba container so he can continue on to the afterlife. He's a perfect citizen who knows his place in the world and doesn't seek to unbalance tradition. Until his friends are endangered, then his loyalty shines like a beacon. True best friend material! Sanura is the young daughter of Bast, cast out from her litter. She's lost and alone and Jeannette saves her—saves her—and she'll never forget such gifts. Sanura, like most young people, is soul-searching, trying to found out exactly why she's been cast away and what her purpose and place is in life. Her journey is one everyone can connect with. She's the spirit of the story.

7. A fun fact you would like your readers to know about Three Great Lies. A major aspect of the book (the stray dog theme) sprang to life at an agility dog show. The midsummer day was baking hot and I had parked myself under a tree for the next show. A Jack Russell Terrier was looking at me, with that intelligent tongue-lolling smile terriers have. Honestly, the dog was smiling. And that was the original start of the novel: "The dog was smiling at her." It's since changed, but that line and scene are still in there, the theme planted throughout the novel. The story just unfolded from that one dog's smile and here we are now.


8. Any challenges with getting Three Great Lies to where it is today? Three Great Lies has been on a long journey. In 2008, I wrote my fifth NaNoWriMo novel. That was Three Great Lies. It was titled simply "Egypt" back then. It was a 50,000 word rough draft. Then I added extra plot threads and themes, and it topped out at 140,000 words. That's quite an addition! Then there were years and years of critiquing and editing. Finally in 2013, I begin seeking representation for Three Great Lies, and it was picked up by Hadley Rille Books (which was the most perfect place for this book to land). Now for the rough stuff. As I was due my edits, my publisher had a stroke. (Though he insists he was abducted by aliens to an alternate universe.) It was terrible, we weren't sure if he would make it. The entire press huddled together in worry and anticipation. I was wavering between feeling devastated for my publisher's situation and worrying about the state of my book (and feeling so so guilty for that.) But he did pull through and has worked tirelessly on my novel, by my side every step of the way. Now, we're here, and my novel is published! I think other authors might have pulled their book to seek other representation, but I knew Hadley Rille and my publisher were perfect for my book.

9. What's your writing process? First and foremost, Three Great Lies was a 'pantser' book. I didn't have an outline. I wrote forward from the smiling dog on guts and intentions. I had this idea of where I wanted to go, with no map on how to get there. Now, I am an outliner. I think the process, for me, would have gone so much faster if I'd had a more solid idea of the substance of the story. As it was, lots and lots and lots of editing and rewriting were necessary to make this book shine. When I'm in the thick of writing and editing, I try to work on the novel every single day. It keeps my writing sharp and my mind on the storyline. It keeps me from losing plot threads and missing finer details. For me, every day is the way (ooh, that even rhymes.) And another thing I've learned: Do not work heavily on writing in the summer. I like to play outside too much and I feel guilty if I don't write. Now, I just hold up my hands and let it all go. Summer, for me, is play time. No guilt for taking some time off writing. Because, we're our worst guilt-trippers.

10. Blog/site link, and where your book is available. You can find me at http://vanmaclellan.com/ 

You can find Three Great Lies at Amazon Thanks for reading! I hope you come by and check out my site and my novel. It was a joy to write and I hope it brings joy to you as well.

Cover Reveal: Vicki Leigh's Find Me If You Dare

I'm pleased to share with you the cover for fellow Curiosity Quills writer Vicki Leigh's upcoming YA dark urban fantasy, FIND ME IF YOU DARE! Isn't it spooky-awesome? The book itself will be out on December 1, 2015, just in time for holiday reading. 

You can read more of what it's about, by stopping by her Tumblr page (vickileighauthor.tumblr.com). There's an awesome 22 BOOK giveaway going on over there, too!

They may have won the first battle, but the Apocalypse has just begun.

Five weeks have passed since the battle that left Rome and Columbus in ruins. Sheltered in the hidden city of Caelum, Daniel and Kayla train alongside over one hundred Magus and Protectors, hoping that their unified ranks will be enough to take down their greatest threat yet: Richard, his followers, and his horde of Nightmares. Then a fallen comrade is returned to Caelum with a message carved into his chest and a note referencing the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Daniel knows their time for training is over.

Finally understanding Richard’s plans for Kayla and the three other Magus born on Halloween, Daniel and the rest of Caelum’s volunteers scout the U.S. in a desperate attempt to stop their enemy before he can unleash his first Horseman. But when massive attacks claim thousands of lives, people all over the world begin to fall ill—including those Daniel and Kayla care about the most.

With the Horseman of Pestilence released, Daniel knows it’s time to step aside and let Kayla take the lead. Only she has the power to rival her father’s. But when Richard’s plot turns out to be darker than they imagined, their fight is met with more death and destruction—and an enemy who might be unbeatable, after all.

GenCon 2015!

It's that time of year again, right as summer is getting ready to turn the corner into back-to-school shopping. It's time to pack up the family and head to Indianapolis: GEN CON!

Gen Con, aka The Best Four Days in Gaming, is a giant yearly gaming con held in Indianapolis. I swear there are more people at this con than live in my entire town. And all of them are geeky. It's like having joined a commune of people the same kind of crazy as me, but only for a few days. And it starts tomorrow!

So, what am I doing this year?

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Ascension! I fell in love with this game when my husband first bought me the original game a few years ago.  We've bought every expansion and addition since. It's a deck-building game, meaning that you acquire cards through play that you then utilize to defeat monsters or acquire other cards. In other words, you build your deck of cards through gameplay. In the end the player who has earned the most honor (victory points) wins!

I'll be playing in a tournament with the new set. I don't know how well I'll do as I haven't had time to play with the new cards that much yet, but I'll love it all the same. The art is beautiful and the game mechanics are smooth. It's my favorite game.

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The Writer's Symposium! Gen Con's con within a con is a haven for writers, aspiring writers, and book-lovers. With sessions on craft, business of writing, and general topics of interest to writers (like body disposal, weaponry, or genre specific information), there's something for anyone with an interest in speculative fiction.

This year's featured speakers are Terry Brooks, Elizabeth Bear, and Chuck Wendig and I'm looking forward to hearing from all three of them during my time in the writing wing of things as well as authors I've met other years like Kameron Hurley, Jaym Gates, and Elizabeth Vaughan.

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Shopping in the Dealer's Hall will be definitely be a highlight. It's not good for my pocketbook, but it's good for my greedy little heart to walk up and down the aisles and see table after table of things I actually want to buy. This is not my usual shopping experience. I hate shopping under most circumstances, but at GenCon I have the chance to buy books, games, clothes, and art from the passionate artists who made them!

Luckily my family is geeky, too, so I can buy my holiday gifts here. The hard part is not using up my mortgage money!

I've also left myself some unscheduled hours to people watching, catching performances by singers, taking picture of cosplayers, and eating yummy things from food trucks.  This my friends, is my kind of summer vacation!

Reviewing and Being Reviewed

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Now that I've got a book out there for sale (and hopefully more to follow soon!), I've become very aware of reviews.

I need them, I'm told. So, I've been seeking them, even though the process makes me uncomfortable: pushing friends, acquaintances, professionals, and complete strangers to rate my work with stars and write a few sentences about why.

No one has heard of me. I'm not a famous writer (yet!). So, I know people are more likely to give my book a shot if they can read reviews before they plunk down their dollars. After all, when I'm the one book-shopping, I read reviews when I'm looking at a book from someone I've never read before.

Reviews more so than blurbs or even excerpts give me an idea what someone else loved or hated about a book, and thereby help me decide if it's a book for me. Sometimes what seems to be a poor review will actually sell me the book. Say, for example, that someone complains that they couldn't connect with the characters because they are so darn geeky. I'd say, "Oooh. Geeky characters!" then click that Look Inside button to see what I'm in for. Not every book is for everyone after all, and the very reason one reader hated a book may be why I come to love it.

That's made me a better reviewer, too. In my pre-publication days, I was guilty of not leaving reviews most of the time. I still doubt that my reviews matter when I'm reading Margaret Atwood or Neil Gaiman--they've "made it" already, but when it's someone more mid-list or just beginning? It really really matters. So now, I review regularly.

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Of course, I don't love everything I write. Even things written by friends are not necessarily my perfect cup of tea. So, what do I write then? Well, the truth! I praise the book for what I can honestly praise it for, and also list my issues with the book. What's changed is the way I phrase that second part, trying for something helpful, something specific.

If a review says simply "This is crap!" that's not particularly helpful to the writer or the potential buyer. But if it says, "The book has a slow start and picks up later," or "I was frustrated by the unrealistic ending," that's helpful. That lets me (the reader) know if what disappointed you is something that would disappoint me, too and me (the writer) see if there's one particular theme coming up again and again that I could take note of to improve my future work.

The reviews I've received so far have a good range. Some people love my book, others, not so much. My harshest review so far still said it's well written, she just really really hated my ending. (I get it: comic book cliffhangers aren't for everyone). And I appreciate each and every review, even the ones that sting a bit. After all, a book with no readers is only half an experience.

So consider this your public service announcement of the day. When you read something, especially by one of us at the early end of our careers, review it! Even if you don't like it, if you can explain why you didn't like it, your review will help.

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Going Through the Change is going through a change in price! On August 5th and 6th, the Kindle edition will be available for free as a BookBub promotion. So, if you've been waiting to check out, this is your chance. Nothing is cheaper than free!

An Interview with K Lynn: Author of Coffee Date

Please welcome my friend, author K. Lynn, who was kind enough to answer some questions about her novel for us here at Balancing Act.  Of all my writer friends, she's the one my character Linda/Leonel Alvarez likes the best. I think you'll see why. 

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·      You've written a number of transgender or gender-fluid characters over the years. What's the driving force behind that?

I have always been fascinated by both the perception of gender and the push of society to place people into specific gender roles. What does it mean to be a man or a woman? And what if you don't fit neatly into either role? Or if society has assigned you as one gender when you actually don't perceive yourself to be that gender? For my novella, Coffee Date, Alice is dealing with how society perceives her versus how she perceives herself.

I've always tried to maximize my communication efforts in bringing the issue of LGBT representation into general mainstream markets, but there is a noted lack of transgender and gender-fluid writing within the LGBT genre compared to other explorations of sexualities. While other members of the LGBT community have seen negative stereotypes being replaced by positive ones in media works, the transgender and gender-fluid communities are still fighting to be positively represented in accessible media. Through my writing, I hope to bring more emphasis to this area.

·      How did this story come about?

It was actually originally supposed to be a submission for an anthology focusing on transgender characters, but the publisher decided to not pursue the anthology because of lagging sales on other transgender works within their house. So, I kept it and refined it, giving myself more time to explore all the ins and outs of Alice's psyche as she navigates her place in society and her own perception of who she is.

I knew that I wanted to explore Alice's feelings in this novella, and that she would have built up a wall to protect herself from the hurt she'd experienced over the years since she began her transition. What I didn't know, and what she soon showed me through revealing her story, was how deep that hurt ran and how much damage it had caused. Alice is constantly trying to match up to what she thinks she should be, what society has taught her she should be, while making herself miserable because she hasn't reached that constructed reality. In the end, what she had to learn and what we all have to learn, is that you don't have to fit into anyone's constructed categories. Be yourself, whoever that might be.

·      What's next up for you?

Besides going to graduate school while working full-time? It is a very busy few months for me in publishing. My novel His Womanly Ways released in May, my family-focused anthology story is out from Torquere Press in June, this novella is releasing in July, and then I have a novella from Dreamspinner Press also out in July that is about a blind artist and his emerging romance with a veterinarian, and I have another novella coming out later this fall that is about a noted novelist who is getting over the death of his long-time partner and not looking for love, but love finds him anyway. You can see all my releases on my website (WriterKLynn.com).

Blurb

Alice is finally happy with her body and her life—except for the part where revealing she's trans winds up leaving her hurt and abandoned over and over again. She's decided she's done making herself miserable by looking for love.

Love finds her anyway, in the form of Hank, the new guy at her local coffee shop. He's sweet, friendly, charming... and will probably turn out like all the rest. Determined not to shatter the fantasy and lose him before she has to, Alice holds fast to her secrets.

But if the truth doesn't ruin everything, the lies will, and it seems no matter which choice she makes Alice is set for just one more heartache.

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About The Book: Coffee Date

Coffee Date is a 12,000 word contemporary transgender novella that explores Alice's struggle to find acceptance, and possibly love, in a world that has not been kind to her on either front.

Read an excerpt at Less Than Three Press.
http://www.lessthanthreepress.com/excerpt-coffee-date/

Coffee Date officially releases on July 1st, but you can pre-order it now!
http://www.lessthanthreepress.com/books/index.php?main_page=product_bookx_info&cPath=90&products_id=913

About The Author: K. Lynn

K. Lynn has been an avid reader and writer since childhood. While in college, K. Lynn increased her

involvement in LGBT issues and writing within the LGBT fiction genre. She has become a long-time fan of the authors that seek to explore the commonality that exists within all sexualities and genders. Most of K. Lynn's work features LGBT characters, many of whom are in established relationships and show how love perseveres through every trial and tribulation that life holds. She also has a particular interest in seeing transgender characters gain a larger foothold within the LGBT fiction genre, hoping that the market for these works will expand in the future. Contact K. Lynn at writerklynn@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @WriterKLynn