Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Cover Reveal: Love, Tink: The Complete Set by Elle Strauss

More of Steven Novak's work

Love, Tink: The Complete Set by Elle Strauss
Publication date: July 10th, 2013
Genre: YA Fantasy

Synopsis:
Originally published as six separate novella episodes, Love, Tink the complete series is all six stories together in one volume.

Tink is hopelessly smitten with Peter, the leader of the Lost Boys who'd mysteriously arrived at Neverland two years ago. Unfortunately, Peter is tired of the adventure and especially tired of dodging Captain Hook who is after his head. He just wants to go back to New York City and live his life as a normal fifteen year old

Tink is the only one who can help Peter return, but it breaks her heart to do it. She just wants to make him happy, so she does the unthinkable and betrays the fairy king. Now her heart is filled with remorse. Should she go after Peter? Should she follow him to his New York?


AUTHOR BIO
I write fun, lower YA fiction (time-travel and fantasy). I’m fond of Lindt’s sea salt dark chocolate and hiking in good weather. I’m married with four children and divide my time between British Columbia, Canada, and Germany. I also write upper YA (historical and science fiction) as Lee Strauss.

Author Links: Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

How to Be Brave

Writing is an emotionally risky thing to do.

You discover things about your characters. You discover things about yourself.

(You fear, perhaps, those things should remain undiscovered. This is never true.)

When I posted an article on FB by Brene Brown about Why Vulnerability is Courage, the talented and fabulous Angela Ackerman pointed me toward another of Brown's TED videos about Shame. It was held up in a forum as a way to write complex characters, but I think it speaks not only to our characters, but to ourselves (as these things often do):

It's worth every one of the twenty minutes.
(I'm totally using this with ALL my characters going forward.)

In short:
People need connection - it's the most important thing in our lives. Shame is the fear of losing that connection over something we've done or something we are. Being vulnerable means taking action that allows people to see the things we fear will be shameful.

Here's the key: Being vulnerable is a measure of courage.

“Vulnerability is courage in you and weakness in me.”

It is precisely when we are feeling vulnerable that we are being courageous.

Part of me knew this intuitively from very early on; part of me is just now getting it in full.

Example: A lot of people tell me I'm brave. This isn't something that's happened since I've started writing or self-publishing. This has been going on my entire life, and on a fundamental level, it perplexes me. My own mother was telling me this ever since I was 18 months old, climbing out of the crib and heading for the 6 foot chain-link fence that separated our apartment complex from the freeway.

My mom: You had no fear! Fearless, I tell you! You would have climbed right out onto that freeway if we hadn't stopped you!

Me: You nearly let me crawl out into traffic?? Well... that explains a lot.

Growing up, I dreamed big (wanted to be an astronaut) and went after things that seemed to make other people cringe. It wasn't that I was tremendously brave, I just never let my fears and anxieties stop me from the things I wanted to do. It perplexed me that not everyone did this, and I figured that maybe other people didn't experience the fear in the same way. As I grew up, I explained my apparent bravery as "not letting fear stop you," but I knew that was an incomplete understanding of it. Because there were times that the fear stopped me. However, most times not, and I began to see the ability to be afraid and keep going as a strength.  

I remember very clearly telling my husband (before he was my husband) that, "Being able to be emotionally vulnerable is strength." What I meant was that "not letting the fear stop you" was a strength, not a sign of severe mental illness masquerading as reckless abandon in decision-making (which was how he described many of my actions).

He clearly thought I was nuts, but he married me anyway. (A topic for deeper analysis, to be sure.)

The aha moment for me today came while I read Brown's article about vulnerability being courage: I realized that all along, all that fear that I had - about not being a good enough writer, about failing as an author, about writing things that were too dark, or too sexy, or too emotionally raw - all of it was me feeling vulnerable while doing something brave

I've known for some time that being brave isn't about being fearless. The fear is always there. But the aha came in realizing that the fear wasn't weakness, something you overcame by not letting it stop you, but that...

Fear is part of courage itself.

Fear is a sign that you're letting yourself be vulnerable.
You're taking the chance of exposing your weaknesses to the world. And Brown found in her research that it was precisely these people - the ones who risked being vulnerable to the world - who were the most connected and had the strongest sense of worthiness and belonging in their lives.

Wow.
"The courage to be imperfect. To tell the story of who you are with your whole heart." - Brené Brown

Thank you, Brene Brown, for being brave enough to point that out.

The Debt Collector Trailer is Coming...

... this FRIDAY!
I'm kind of in love with it.
(Even if it's not a high-budget production like Mindjack.)

Max Miller, the narrator for the Debt Collector Audio Book did voice-over for it, and I've made no secret that I think he's the PERFECT voice for Lirium. If you'd like to help spread the word ...
TRAILER REVEAL
June 21st (Friday)

Monday, June 17, 2013

All About Serials...

I've already written a few posts about serials (On Serials, and the older-but-still-relevant Indie=Dime Novels of 2012?), but writer-friend Heather Sutherlin had a few more questions...
...so, this post is for you, Heather!

How did you schedule in writing, editing, revising, etc?
I wrote the first three episodes before I launched the series, then wrote as I went. Mostly the pace was "write crazy fast," driven by the episode release schedule of every two weeks, with a little lead time (given by the pre-written episodes). Once the first draft of an episode was done, I did a quick second draft, then sent it off to my three critique partners. As soon as that episode was off, I started writing the next one. My crit partners were wicked fast in turning the eps around - I seriously couldn't have done this without them. Once I had their feedback, I revised - there were only a couple episodes where entire chapters had to be rewritten, so for the most part, revisions went quickly. Then I read through once more out-loud for line editing, formatted and read the episode on my kindle for proofing, and it was time to upload. Episodes took from a week to three weeks to draft, depending on my level of discipline. Overall, it was 125k over nine episodes in about 4 months (my fastest prior pace being about 85k in 5 months).

So I was writing constantly.

Lessons Learned:
  • Swapping pages with a friend every Monday helped keep me on track.
  • The pace I set for writing wasn't completely outrageous, just very challenging.

    What about cover art? How did you handle having to create/purchase new covers so frequently?!
    I had a great partner in creating cover art with Steven Novak. The first thing I wrestled with was the general "brand" or "look" to the series: dark, gritty, future-noir. I actually struggled for some time before I came up with a concept that I liked, namely black-and-white photos branded with fonts and background. Then I spent a ton of time trolling stock-art sites looking for just the right images. Finally, I decided that quality covers pay for themselves, and brought Steven on board to make the covers awesome (he did the covers for fellow Indelible RaShelle Workman's 12 part serial, so I knew he could execute on it). He totally "got" my concept, and making covers with him was a dream. But it was time-intensive. Writing the serials at the pace I set was challenging enough; I underestimated how much time I would spend creating covers and formatting and uploading as well (even though I had done these things before). I could have outsourced the formatting part, but that would have slowed things down, so in the end, I think the process worked well.

    But it was intense.

    Lessons Learned:
    • Stock art site trolling can suck up your time if you're not careful
    • All that stock art trolling will come in handy when you make a trailer
    • A nine part serial actually requires about 15 covers - the individual episodes, the collections, the print and audio versions

    How did you handle the actual plotting? Did you plot the whole series to begin with and then sit down to write each episode? Or did you plot a few and then add to it as you went? 
    Once I had written the first three episodes, I had a general plot direction for the series. But I also left lots of room for pantsing my way through - partly because I wanted to listen to reader feedback and have the chance to incorporate it (which I did on several occasions), and partly because I was still discovering the world as I wrote the series. One of my favorite characters (Valac), I didn't plan on having at all until he showed up on the pages. His story arc drove much of Episodes 4-6. I wasn't completely certain about the story arc of Episodes 7-9 until Episode 6 was written. So, I mostly pantsed my way through, with the caveat that at this point (having written several books, including a complete trilogy), I have a pretty firm grasp on the rhythm of a story that will (hopefully) be satisfying to the reader.

    Lessons Learned:
    • A strong, character-driven premise makes storytelling easier
    • A rich story-world makes creating the details easier
    • Every episode doesn't have to be plotted out, but getting feedback as I went (from CPs) was extremely valuable for keeping me on-track
    More questions? Throw them in the comments and I'll give them a stab. :)



    Wednesday, June 12, 2013

    New Release: Ruthless (Debt Collector 8)

    Time for Indie Life once again! Today happens to be release day for the eighth episode of my Debt Collector serial, so I'm sharing all about that. If you're new to Debt Collector, you can check out the first episode for free!
    Ruthless (Episode 8)
    Now available
    (Kobo and iTunes coming soon)
    or
    Add it to your Goodreads TBR


    Get Episode 1 FREE!
    Available on Kindle, NookKoboiTunes, and Smashwords
    or
    Add it to your Goodreads TBR


    I don't know what Steven Novak is going to do with all his time when he's not making Debt Collector covers anymore. Here's a sampling of what he's done so far.


    Tuesday, June 11, 2013

    Debt Collector Trailer Reveal SIGN UPS

    So... I made a trailer for Debt Collector.
    I'm kind of in love with it.
    (Even if it's not a high-budget production like Mindjack.)

    Max Miller, the narrator for the Debt Collector Audio Book did voice-over for it, and I've made no secret that I think he's the PERFECT voice for Lirium. Go take a listen to the SAMPLE for the audiobook and see what I mean:
    Audiobook now LIVE!
    Vol 1-3 Audio Book, narrated by Max Miller
    Available now on iTunes and Amazon/Audible

    Max also did a phenonmenal job on the voice-over for the trailer! If you'd like to help spread the word ...
    TRAILER REVEAL
    June 21st (Friday)

    Thanks for all your help and support in spreading the word about Debt Collector!
    And if you haven't started the serial already, the FIRST EPISODE IS FREE.

    FREE
    also free on
    Amazon UKCanada

    Monday, June 10, 2013

    Why James McAvoy Should Play Lirium

    I'm over at the Indelibles Blog today, drooling over James McAvoy talking about why James McAvoy should play my character, Lirium, from Debt Collector.

    See if you agree... :)

    to hop over and read the post
    (and for more McAvoy goodness)