Look, Ma, I Can Animate!

Huge thanks to the people who commented on my cover reveal for SOUL CUTTER, both on my blog and the other participating blogs: Alex J. Cavanaugh, PK Hrezo, Father Dragon Writes, Bards and Prophets, The Write Game, Ellie Garratt, Klahanie, Julie Flanders, In High Spirits, and Mainewords.

The winners of the giveaway are:

* drum roll*

e-copy of SOUL CUTTER -- Donna Hole

10-page crit -- Shah Wharton

5-page crit -- Georgina Morales

CONGRATULATIONS!!

I got a little overly excited from playing with photoshop (GIMP 2.6) for my cover reveal and I couldn't resist having a bit more fun.

And look!  My first attempt at making an animation!

OK, it's not very impressive, but maybe I'll get better ... or maybe I should stop playing with photoshop (which is SO much fun!) and go back to actual writing and editing. You know, what writers are supposed to be doing...

Wishing everyone a very

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Cover Reveal Game and Prizes

Help!

Gremlins have stolen my book and messed with my cover art!

They’ve added (or subtracted) weird things to the cover of my upcoming novel, Soul Cutter, 
and hidden them on 10 different blogs.

Alex J. Cavanaugh

PK Hrezo

Father Dragon Writes

Bards and Prophets

The Write Game

Ellie Garratt

Klahanie

Julie Flanders

In High Spirits

Mainewords

Please visit the 10 blogs and find each one's error so I can fix them.  You can comment on the blogs with an “I found it!” or "Nice cover" or whatever, but DON'T give away the answers!  Instead, put the 10 answers in an email to me:  laura.6eg@gmail.com

I’m so desperate I’m giving away prizes:

1     e-copy of Soul Cutter

1    10-page critique by me
1     5-page critique by me

Here's the real cover of Soul Cutter. 

(Use it as the key to see what’s wrong with the others.)

(Soul Cutter releases from MuseItUp Publishing on Dec 6, 2013.)

Blurb:

The Soul Cutter is hunting again.

Seventeen-year-old Élan spends her free time videoing psychic scams and outing them online. Skepticism makes life safe—all the ghosts Élan encounters are fakes. When her estranged mother disappears from a film shoot in Egypt, Élan puts her medium-busting activities on hold and joins the search.

In Egypt, the superstitious film crew sucks at finding her mom. When a hotel guest is killed, whispers start—the locals think their legendary Soul Cutter has come back from the dead. Élan's only ally is Ramsey, a film-crew intern, but he’s arrogant, stubborn—and hiding dangerous secrets.

When Élan discovers the Soul Cutter is no scam, she finds herself locked in a deadly battle against a supernatural killer with more than her mother’s life at stake.

Élan's fighting for her very soul.

People who find all 10 errors (or get the most right answers) will go into a drawing and three will be randomly picked to win the prizes.  The drawing and announcement of winners will be on Oct 31 – Halloween!

Happy hunting and don’t let the gremlins get you!

(You have until Wed, Oct 30 at midnight to write me with the complete list and be entered in the prize giveaway.)

Guest Post: Learning the Lingo

Hi my wonderful blogging-buddies!  I have a publishing-mate from MuseItUp Publishing guesting on my blog today with a funny take on writing dialog for kids.  Without further ado, here's Heather Fraser Brainerd!

 

Learning the Lingo

By Heather Fraser Brainerd

“Dude!” I said to my son.  “Chillax!”

“Mom, no one says ‘chillax’ anymore.”

I have three boys in the tween-to-teen age range.  While writing my Young Adult paranormal mystery, Dream Shade, I relied on them to be my vocab coaches.  Problem is, teen lingo changes at a crazy fast rate.  This meant that my manuscript’s slang had to be revised.  A lot.

“That is so epic!”’ became “That’s beast!” which morphed into “He’s got swag!” which then changed to “YOLO.”  (I just learned what that last one means.)

In the end, I cut almost all references to teen slang, hoping that the classics like “cool” would carry me through.

But while I’ve got you here, why not check out my book?  Because, you know, YOLO.

Blurb:
As if high school wasn't tough enough, sophomore Sarah Pasmore has one extra little problem: ghosts have started appearing to Sarah and they seem to want something from her.  With help from her brainy best friend, as well as a few new friends (including the hottest guy in school), Sarah must solve the mystery of what the spirits want in order to put them back to rest.  To complicate matters further, a more evil spirit will go to great lengths to make sure this doesn’t happen.  As they investigate the past to unravel this supernatural mystery, the teens learn a lesson in the powers of friendship and love.

Release date 10/25/13. Pre-order link:
http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/coming-soon/october-2013/october-25/dream-shade-detail

Connect with Heather:

Facebook

Twitter

Blog

Amazon Author Page

Leave a comment below for your chance to win the e-book Dream Shade!

Celebrate the Small Things: Reconnected!

The above artwork represents my Happy Camper Mood this week!

This week, I'm celebrating:
1) My net is reconnected and working FAST! Yippie!
2) Summer has well and truly ended and lovely cool temperatures have arrived. You'll be happy to know I'm no longer a puddle of bad-tempered sweat.
3) Hubby's away and the cat will play (no doing chores, no cooking, and no watching TV programs only he likes).
4) I'm making progress with my novelette revisions.  It's gone up from stinky pile of poo to smelly gym socks, and I hope to hit the level of only moderately pungent cheese soon.
5) My cover reveal will be next Friday Oct 25th! I have wonderful people to help, and I'm SO excited! 
6) My reveal will be a game, sort of a puzzle challenge, and I hope people will enjoy it.

I love fall -- it's my favorite season. What's your favorite season?

This post is part of VikLit's blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is follow the link and put your name on the Mr.Linky list, and then be sure to post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! 

Celebrate the Small Things: No Reception

I've had a real hard time getting on the net this week, even though I have TWO subscriptions to my local internet server.  All accounts have a download limit of 2 Giga per month (which I go through in a week).  So then my service speed drops to the minimum, usually 70 kbps, but this week it's dropped to 30 kbps.  Ack!!  It takes forever to open pages and sites -- if they open at all.  (Facebook is persnickety and rarely opens when the speed is this low.)

I might as well be trying to access the internet 

with these handy dandy antennae:

And maybe the blue wig would help too...

This week I'm celebrating when sites and blogs actually download -- Yippie!!! -- and let me comment to and communicate with my web buddies.  I love you guys and love reading your blogs. You always make me smile or applaud you accomplishments.  I may be slow in responding this week, but it's not for lack of trying -- I'll get there eventually.


What do you do if you don't have internet access? Read a book, watch TV, or cry on your keyboard?

This post is part of VikLit's blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is follow the link and put your name on the Mr.Linky list, and then be sure to post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  It can be about writing or family or school or general life.  This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! 

IWSG: Dude, Where's My Mojo?

After a project is finished (pubbed, queried, or trunked), a writer embarks on the next project.  But what if it just isn't flowing?  What if the words don't want to come and even when they do, you think they're a big pile of steaming doo-doo?  What if even after you edit and re-edit, the project just isn't measuring up to the standard of writing you think it should?

You may find yourself wondering, Dude, Where's My Mojo? 

It's not your mojo that's lost. It's probably either of these:
1) With every project you become a better writer and your standards get higher -- so you're letting your own more professional self-criticism get to you.
2) The "childbirth" amnesia syndrome. Your last project didn't start out great.  It may have taken you months or years of editing until you finally managed to squeeze that bugger out into the world.  But you've forgotten how hard and miserable it was, just like women who've given birth "forget" the pain of childbirth ('cause otherwise, they'd never do it again!).

Things that might help:
1) Read your favorite authors and books that inspire you.
2) Read some "how to" articles and try changing your technique or your approach to your project a bit.
3) Get your mind off it by working on a more manageable project like a short story or flash fiction.
4) Try reviewing new books in your genre. Sometimes finding what you like or don't like in others' writing can help you see your own more clearly
5) And my personal favorite: Eat chocolate.


You'll find your mojo was really there all the time.  Good luck!

This is a post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. It exists so the community of blogging writers can share and support each other, blog-hopping to cheerlead and commiserate. To find out more, visit: Insecure Writer's Support Group.