“All Author Blog Blitz” : Author: Melanie Cusick-Jones

This is my second post in the Goodreads “All Author Blog Blitz”. I’ll be featuring Melanie Cusick-Jones.

After graduating from The University of Sheffield with an English Literature Masters in 2003, Melanie has been writing fiction – time permitting – ever since.

The Ambrosia Sequence (started in 2008) and The Elementals (begun in 2004) are both ongoing, extended projects each containing several novels, aimed primarily at young adults and hover somewhere in the middle of sci-fi, futuristic and fantasy genres.

‘Hope’s Daughter’, released in January 2012, is her debut novel and the first of The Ambrosia Sequence; the companion book ‘The Rainbow Maker’s Tale’ is due in 2013, with the sequel ‘Outlanders’ coming in late 2013.
due after that.

When she’s not writing Melanie enjoys the wet weather of the north of England with her dogs or disappearing into a book for a few hours (no surprise there then). Unfortunately, all too often the ‘day job’ gets in the way of the nicer things in life!

Rainbow Maker’s Tale – Synopsis

“I wasted no time looking around the bland plastic space I had lived in all my life. There were no real memories here for me, no cherished moments or things to reminisce over: all that had stopped when I was eight years old and learned that life on the SS Hope was built on lies.”

Outwardly, Balik is an obedient member of society on Space Station Hope: he follows The Council’s systems, excels at school and seems happy to follow in his parents footsteps…

Balik’s real life is filled with secrets he can share with no one. As he follows his suspicions about the space station into ever more dangerous territory it seems like his whole world will unravel around him. But, he doesn’t understand everything: things are wrong, he is sure of that, he just doesn’t know why.

When Cassie unexpectedly comes into his life, Balik struggles to find his balance. For years he’s investigated the oddities of the world he lives in, but Cassie makes him question things in a different way… Can he believe in this girl who seems so much a part of the system he distrusts? Would she put a stop to his plans to break out if she knew what he was really up to? Balik can’t be sure of anything – except the fact that he can’t leave her alone.

(Note: The Rainbow Maker’s Tale can be read before, or after, the counterpart novel Hope’s Daughter).

Find the author:

Website – http://cusick-jones.com

Blog – http://melcj.com and http://asidefromwriting.com

Twitter @melabupa

Books available at: iBooks, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony and Goodreads

The Challenge of Creativity

Why do people constantly put writers down? Have you ever noticed the reaction that non-readers have when you say you’re a writer? Most of the time avid readers are excited and want to know more. But people that don’t read a lot just look at you like you’ve grown a set up horns.

For me it’s hard work to be a writer, an accountant, a children’s minister, a wife and a mom. Not to mention doing housework, finances for our Church and just living. But if it’s your dream and passion you do it through all the madness.

A writer’s life is a challenging one, especially if it’s not your full time job. Finding time to put your thoughts on paper is sometimes the real challenge. As for me it’s usually at night when my family is watching television or after they go to bed. A lot of my writing is done on Saturday after the housework is done and Sunday afternoon. But notes can be found everywhere because as a writer thoughts come into my head and I write them down for future use. Maybe it’s a picture I see, or a phrase I think would work in a scene or even a new book idea.

The fun part of being a writer is when you start building a fan base. The first time a fan emailed me I giggled a lot. It’s so nice to know someone likes your writing. I’m basically a humble person. I had a friend ask me the other day why I didn’t tell her I’m publishing books. I told her I just didn’t want to sound like I was bragging. She laughed and said well its bragging time. I just ducked my head and ran J

So, if you’re a writer, enjoy it. Make time for it and maybe even a special place to write. Mine is on the couch in the recliner with my ear buds in listening to the music I write by. That’s another post altogether.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

How do you contain yourself?

As a writer you have to have some patience. Unfortunately when a story is pressing in on you patience is hard to find. When a story pops into my brain it normally comes in with a vengeance. It presses on my brain until I start writing it. I have to relieve the pressure of getting it started. Usually I get the story outlined before I forget what needs to be said.

When I start writing the story I get excited and can’t hardly wait to see how the middle and end unfold. I have to contain myself and not just jump through the story and leave out some important information. Sometimes I tend to want to see how it ends before it even begins. That’s kind of like reading a book and skipping to the end because you just have to know how it ends.

Remember if you do an outline, which is very important to me to keep me in line 🙂 then you need to stick with the outline. If you just have to skip ahead, then mark where you stopped and go back to fill in the important elements needed to make the story flourish.

Hope this helps. Remember you’ve got to be patient and let the story flow out. It’s hard, but if you practice you can do it.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Romance and the writer…

Ok, so you know I’m a romance writer. I love romance. It’s a very important part of m life. I strive to bring as much romance as I can to the reader in every word I write. But sometimes writing romance and living romance are two different things.

When you live romance it’s ingrained in you and everything you look at you see a romantic element. Of course some people laugh at me when I say things like that. It’s important to bring romance about in everything. In today’s world of terrorism, crazy weather events, and financial woes romance is not easy to bring about.

One of the key elements is to be open to it. If you close your mind to it then that’s that. Whether you’re married or not romance can come along and surprise you. Maybe it’s as simple as a smile across the dinner table or a look in the car. But give it a little try. I know I’ve blogged several times about romance, but it’s an important element of our lives. Well, that’s my opinion.

As for romance in writing, people pick up a romance novel for several reasons. Sometimes it’s for the sexy cowboy on the cover and dreams it brings on, but a lot of times it’s to get a feel for romance. Romance can bring on a happy feeling, if just for the moment you’re reading it. So when I’m writing I try to bring a little romance into even the simplest chore. My characters have to have a romantic flare.

Maybe the reader has no romance in their lives and they need this to get through the day. You may be saying why. If you have a marriage with no romance, the spark’s gone, maybe for just a moment you can have hope. Maybe the story can inspire you to create a better environment for romance.

So, go home tonight and cook a romantic dinner or bring home take out and light a candle. Maybe after the kid’s go to bed. But bring about some romance and see where it leads. It could lead to some secret smiles over the breakfast table 😉

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Having the courage to jump!

I’ve read so much lately in blogs from want to be authors that are afraid to take the first step. I can tell you from experience it’s a huge step to take. I’ve enjoyed every step since then. It’s a lot to take in at first, but then you kind of get into the swing of things and it just happens.

I knew it had happened the first time I got a fan email. I giggled like a teenage girl. The thoughts running through my head were ‘do they know I’m just a normal person’ and ‘this is so cool.’ That fan has turned into a friend as have so many of my blog friends. It would never have happened without having the courage to jump…

Here are the steps I took to establishing myself as a writer and self publishing:

1: First and foremost you’ve got to finish your manuscript. Pray…

2: Make sure that you’ve read and reread it several times. Edit as much as possible.

3: Decide what genre your writing is. That means is it romance, sci-fi, horror, nonfiction, or one of the many genres available.

4: Design your cover. This is sometimes tricky, but exciting when it’s complete.

5. Write a short and long description of your work. This is for the book sales. Don’t get too wordy with this. The best way is to use descriptive words to describe the feeling of the book. By all means don’t give away the plot. Prayed a lot through this process…

6. Now where do you want to put your book. Amazon, Smashwords, B & N or the many other places. This is the fun part because each one wants something different. So read everything before hitting send.

7: Once you’ve set up your books on different sites, it’s time to market. I started with my blog and Twitter. Then I started finding other marketing places. I will do a blog this week on marketing.

8: Sit back and pat yourself on the shoulder. You’re an author! Just watch and see what happens. If it doesn’t do much for a while, don’t worry. It took a couple of months for my books to catch on. Pray again and give thanks 🙂

Of course everyone has a different approach, but this was mine. I’m available to any author that needs help. I design covers and help format/edit. If you need help with these, just send me a message and let’s talk. Authors have to stick together. It’s a crazy world out there and team work makes the dream work.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

Writing Emotion

How do you write emotion? To someone that doesn’t write you may think this is easy. Well, it’s not easy to put emotion on paper. In life we feel so many emotions. We feel happy, excited, angry, grief, depressed and the list goes on. But how do you put it on paper? How do you get the reader to feel the emotion themselves?

I’ve read books that made me laugh, cry and even get angry. But how do you relate that feeling in your own writing? It’s all in the way you describe it and put all you have in it. Make sure you put every detail in so that it brings the reader into the situation. If you leave out some of the details it could make the reader become detached.

The words you use to make the description more vivid is key. Go for the gusto, use a Thesaurus if you have to, but make every word count. When making someone cry over a sad part, tell how the tears streamed silently, or their lip trembled as they held back the sobs. Don’t just say they looked sad. To bring about the emotion, you need to describe the facial expressions, the feelings they have and how it’s affecting those around them.

I had a fan tell me that one of my books made her cry from sadness at one point and then from deep happiness by the end. In her review she put to have a box of tissues close by when reading it. I smiled broadly and realized that I’d done my job.

So, don’t forget to fill in the descriptions and if you laugh as you write or cry, you’ve probably achieved your goal.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

The lure of Romance…

In today’s world of divorce, affairs, depression, terrorism, disasters and just plain out life, we’re looking for a way to escape. A lot of people use reading to do this. A large percent of the books read are romance. Maybe it’s the thought of true love, untainted love or even that dream of another life.

When I sit down at my laptop I try to get lost in the moment. I want my reader to feel the same way. If you can’t get lost in the moment as a writer, then how can you get a reader lost in the moment? I want to get my reader into another world and away from the worries of life. Just for a moment to give them something to dream about…

Romance has always carried me away to another place. Sometimes it’s to another country, another time period or just to see life from someone else’s eyes. As I read a book, if it’s a good descriptive book, I try to immerse myself in the story. I try to get lost in the lure that’s romance.

Everyone needs a little romance in their life. Maybe it’s not your thing. I spoke with a friend not too long ago that said she can’t stand to read a romance. She reads only mystery and science fiction. She said she wanted to read my books but was afraid she’d be too critical. I talked her into reading one of them. Well, she’s now into the third one. I smiled as she told me how she liked the first one. “I thought it would be just oozing with silliness and lovey dovey stuff.” I laughed and told her that not all romance books are that way.

Some people do put a stigma on romance books. They think that only housewives and lonely people read them. They’re so wrong. Some of my best fans are business women, teachers, and even some men. The men are the funny ones. I have to say that I was surprised at the amount of men that read romance. So, as I say everyone needs a little romance added to their life.

So go out and pick up a romance novel today and add some spice to your life, your marriage or just to be taken away from the business of life for just a moment.

As always, Good writing and May God Bless You…

What does you character sound like?

You may be saying, what is she babbling about now 🙂 It’s simple really. What voice would you put with your main character if you had the chance? Well, I had to figure that out this week and let me tell you, it was a blast!

What I’m talking about is audio books. An author recently mentioned I ought to try it out, so I did. I went to ACX.com and set up an account. It’s really easy and may I say extremely fun and exasperating too.

After you give them your general information, then the fun starts. You have to put your book information in and an excerpt that you want someone to read for an audition. Yep, you heard me right, an audition. You actually have people sending you auditions on the account. But the fun starts when you have to put in the settings you want. Here are just a few of the things asked.

1. Style of voice: This was a huge list of things like soft, loud, funny, sad, gruff, gravelly, and the list goes on.

2. Gender: Male or female. This part was easy for me.

3. Region of Voice: In the site it has a different name but you get the idea. These included Southern, Northern American, Irish, English, Oriental, Cajun and the list goes on. This one was hard.

After you pick these out you need to tell the producer a little about the way you want it expressed. Then you put why you picked this excerpt.

Then the fun part begins. You can listen to the different styles of voice in the next screen. This is where you can change your choices which is a good thing. This was hilarious. I had to change most of the settings I’d picked. My editor would just looked at me and shake her head laughing.

The strange part is I’ve always known what my character would sound like if she could talk. I listened to a couple of people that had general auditions and found a voice I liked. Then I’ve started receiving auditions. This is going to be hard. I’ve received some that really sound right. A couple sounded like they were in pain, so no. But it was so invigorating to hear my book being spoken by someone other than myself.

So if you want to hear your book, go to ACX.com and try it out. They take royalty percentage or pay per hour. I went with royalty percentage. It’s a no brainer really. They distribute the finished audio book to Amazon, Itunes and a couple of other places.

As always, Good Writing and May God Bless You.

Reviews

Reviews can be fickle things. Some people pay big bucks to get reviews added to their books. Well there’s nothing wrong with that if they’re honest reviews. I’ve seen books that have several raving reviews but their sales ranking in terrible. Makes you think, was it worth the money?

I’ve searched out sites where you just send out your book to a reviewer and that’s all it costs is the book. Do you have some sites that you use? Right now I’m not in the position to really pay for reviews, but it would be nice if some of the people that have read my books would give a review.

I’ve been receiving several reviews on the Barnes & Noble site and Kobo, but not many on Amazon. Some advice on how to get more on Amazon would be great. I’ve gone in and changed my categories on Amazon to those that don’t have thousands of books already listed.

Are reviews that important? I think they are important to most readers. If you don’t have reviews on a book, then most people just scan right over it. I’ve noticed that some people now just give you a star rating and no comment. Sometimes that can be a good thing, but as for me, I love to hear what you liked or didn’t like. Just always be nice.

One of my books on Barnes & Noble has received several reviews. What’s funny is someone posted a nasty review and it was followed almost immediately by three really sweet reviews. Of course this reviewer has popped up on several of my books and it’s always the same. Unfortunately for that reviewer their review is not real credible as the review did not follow the book. It’s sad that some people get their kicks from downgrading us authors. Oh, well if you can live with yourself that’s up to you 🙂

Hope all is well with you and your writing. If you have comments on reviews and such, send a response. I love to hear from everyone.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Building a Platform…

For those of you that aren’t authors I’m not talking about a stage. I mentioned to my husband one day that I was trying to build my author platform and he started laughing. He asked me where I was going to put it and what was I going to say when I got up on it. I then explained to him that a author platform is the advertising, blogging, etc. you do to get your book out there. He still thought it was funny. MEN!

When I first started publishing I wasn’t very computer savvy. Of course I knew about accounting programs and such but not the intricacies of publishing, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and all that goes with it. Since then I’ve developed blogs on several sites and now I Tweet everyday. It’s funny how your life changes when you become a published author.

Here are the top ten places I’ve used to build my platform:

1: WordPress: I set up a blog and made it my very own author website. It’s so easy to do once you get into it and take the time to set it up.

2: Twitter: My Twitter account has garnered lots of interest in my writing and it’s attached to my blog so they go hand in hand.

3: LinkedIn: This site allows you to follow many people from various walks of life. My blog is attached to my LinkedIn account, so everything I blog it goes straight to this page.

4: Goodreads: For an author this is a very important aspect of building your platform. Here is where you meet established authors and Indie authors all on the same page. It’s also a good place to gather reviews.

5: Independent Author Network: This site is awesome and it’s so reasonable to set up. I have my own author page and you can put all of your sites on it. Also, other authors will tweet your page for you and they’ll tweet your tweets. It’s really helped my fan base and I really like how it works.

6: Smashwords: This is a place that I have my books for sale. They also put them through to Barnes & Noble, Sony, Apple, Kobo, Diesel and several others. You also get an author page and you can be an affiliate.

7: KindleBoards: This one takes a little more time and reading, but it can get some interest in your books.

8: AllRomanceEbooks.com: This is a great place to sell and advertise your books. It’s all about every genre of romance. It’s easy to set up and put your books on it.

9: CreateSpace: This is where I currently have my books for print. I also have a blog on this site.

10: Amazon: I have all my books on this site. You can set up a author page and link it to your blog and Twitter Account. On Amazon you can be in several countries.

Well, these are just a few of my spots that help me. I have many more, but I didn’t want to bore you too much 🙂

As always, Good writing and May God Bless You…