Cover Reveal: WAITING FOR ADRIAN by Linzé Brandon

Life was perfect for young  Erin Ville.

Her days were busy with normal teenager things, while her nights were filled with the romantic dreams of a young woman in love.

Until those dreams became so much more than the wishes of her heart.

Who was she really?

Where did Adrian fit into all of this?

Premonitions of war.

Prophecies of the future.

In the middle of it all a young woman too fragile to save the Nations of Peace, and yet they didn't stand a chance of survival without her.

Would Adrian be the man she needed, or was she destined to wait for him forever?

Waiting for Adrian is now available to order on Smashwords.

StoryCubes Short Story Writing Competition 2018

The Competition

1. Write a short story using the nine story cubes in the graphic (see HOW TO ENTER below).

2. The cubes must be used in the way they are laid out, ie. the opening 3 must be in the opening scene of the story, the middle 3 in the middle, and the last 3 in the ending of the story. The order of the use of the three cubes in every part of the story, is left up to the author.

3. Each story must have a single author.

4. No changes are allowed to stories already submitted.

5. By entering this monthly competition you declare that the stories you submit are your own work, and that you have not committed plagiarism in any form. If any story is found to be the work of another author, copied from any source on the internet, or other published work, the entrant will be banned from any future entries and any work already published will be removed with a public announcement to that effect.

6. By entering this competition you grant permission that your story may be published on Butterfly on a Broomstick and promoted on social media

7. The entry fee is not refundable, so make sure you submit your story on time.

8. South Africa is located in the GMT+2 time zone. Late submissions due to miscalculations on the time zone, will not be accepted as an excuse.

9. Three winners will be picked every month and their stories will be promoted on my blog, Butterfly on a Broomstick. Promotions will take the form of shares on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, and Twitter.

10. Linzé Brandon is the administrator/judge of this competition, and will not take part as an author.

11. Judges for the month are not allowed to enter, but are welcome to do so for other months.

12. The judges' decision is final.

13. The submissions remain the intellectual property of each author.

14. The top three authors (with the most votes) at the end of the year will be awarded Amazon gift cards to the value of - $25, $15 and $8. In case of a tie, the prizes will be combined and divided equally.

15. The cubes will send out the 1st of the following months: February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November.

The stories will be judged based on the following criteria:

1. Word count, excluding the title, must not exceed 750 words.

2. All nine (9) of the Storycubes must feature in the story.

3. All family friendly genres are welcome - that means no explicit sex, no violence, and no offensive language.

4. Stories that thrill the judges or make them laugh, cry, horrified or touched by your characters are what we are looking for.

5. The story is the most important, but take the time to edit your story before submission. Where stories are tied for a winning place, the better edited story will be chosen.

6. The top three authors for each month will be contacted by email.

How to enter?

1. Subscribe to my blog to get the nine Storycubes sent to your inbox, every month. No spam, I promise.

2. Submit your story in the BODY of an email message. Emails with attachments will be automatically disqualified.

3. Put the title of your story in the SUBJECT line of the email as follows: STORYCUBES {The Month you are taking part} - The Title of Your Story. The email addresses for submission and payment will be sent with the cubes every month.

4. Stories received after the deadline are not eligible. Since the cubes are different for every month, late stories will not be carried over to the next month.

5. Deadline for each story will be in your inbox.

6. Entry fee: $2. The Paypal reference number must accompany the entry to be valid.

How to get to the top spot?

1. Promote your story to all your friends on the internet.

2. Ask them to vote for your story.

3. Take part in the next month's competition.

NOTE: The details of this post will be relocated to a TAB on my blog, so you don't have to search for the rules next time.

Guest post and a new release from Charles Yallowitz

Thank you to Linzé Brandon for hosting me on her blog to help promote Legends of Windemere: Warlord of the Forgotten Age. This is the final book of my fantasy adventure series, which has spanned 15 volumes. After working on it for so long, I’ve found that one of my favorite parts of writing is to create and evolve characters. My heroes drove the story, traveled to reveal the world, and took whatever I threw at them without voicing too many complaints.

Many people have told me that they think it’s easier to evolve a character in a long series because you have time. I’ve learned that it’s not as easy as it looks and there are plenty of pitfalls when it comes to development. The biggest challenge is making sure the characters don’t go stale and fall into a rut. While there should be a core that remains stable, you need to be on the lookout for a plateau. Once you hit that, the hero has to either retire, find a bigger mountain, or get knocked back down. How do the three options work:

1. Retire means they’re out and whatever was connected to them has to either be closed or handed off to someone else. I’m not a big fan of this unless it was planned because you have to depend on the audience accepting it. Characters develop fans who may not keep reading if their favorite is gone.
2. Find a bigger mountain means developing news skills and traits on top of what they already had. Fresh subplots and a twist in the main plot can help here. Yet, you have a risk here as well. The character may become so powerful that people no longer believe there’s a possibility of them failing.
3. Knocked back down is my favorite because it feels the most realistic. We all have our highs and lows in life, but a hero would be more susceptible. Their adventures leave them more exposed to loss and pain. If they’re kicked from the plateau then they have to get back there while battling the sense that they made a mistake. This can only be done so many times though, but it works out well for a long series because it requires time.

While not as major, I also learned that later outlines might not survive a character’s real personality. Many chapters were changed because a plan didn’t account for how I would write the character. I’ve come to depend a lot on my heroes, villains, and supporting cast when it comes to forming subplots and direct events more than my outlines. Those are guidelines for the characters to either agree to or toss in the garbage.

Again, thank you to Linze Brandon for letting me be a guest. Hope everyone who checks out Legends of Windemere: Warlord of the Forgotten Age enjoys the adventure.

Author Bio & Social Media

Charles Yallowitz was born and raised on Long Island, NY, but he has spent most of his life wandering his own imagination in a blissful haze. Occasionally, he would return from this world for the necessities such as food, showers, and Saturday morning cartoons. One day he returned from his imagination and decided he would share his stories with the world.

After his wife decided that she was tired of hearing the same stories repeatedly, she convinced him that it would make more sense to follow his dream of being a fantasy author. So, locked within the house under orders to shut up and get to work, Charles brings you Legends of Windemere.
He looks forward to sharing all of his stories with you, and his wife is happy he finally has someone else to play with.

Blog

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Facebook

Website

All cover art done by JASON PEDERSEN

Catch the rest of the LEGENDS OF WINDEMERE on Amazon!

Note from Linzé: You're welcome, Charles and wishing you all the best with the new release. 💜

Book Review: BLOOD AND MAGIC by Ilana Waters

An ancient, ruthless vampire. A gutsy witch hippie. Both walk into a bar.

And all hell breaks loose.

From USA Today bestselling author Ilana Waters:

Bloodseeker Titus isn’t looking for trouble—just a quick meal. But when his path crosses the witch Abigail’s, that plan gets shot to Hades.

Abigail is a member of the Paranormal Investigation Agency (PIA), a secret organization that can spell death to supernaturals. Titus vows to stay as far away from her as possible. But when Abigail suspects a high-ranking PIA member of a monstrous plot, she vows to investigate. For that, she needs Titus’s special skills.

Against his will, Titus is swept into a world of exploding gas mains, lethal bird-shifters, and sadistic vampire minions. The only way out? Uncover the PIA’s murderous secret. Which means going up against the powerful figure at the center of it all. The only problem is, that person will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Even if it means destroying every supernatural in their path.

Buy the book @ Amazon

I volunteered to review this book as part of a blog tour.

This story moves very fast from the beginning, and it requires a focused mind to keep up. I liked that. Even when the pace slows down, and it didn't happen often, there was a lot of things going on or information to be digested to keep up.

Despite the pace of the story, the plot is not complicated, and the subplots do not overtake nor dominate the main plot line. Given the pace of the main story, the lack of strong subplots was a good thing.

The two main characters' first meeting set off sparks that supported the entire story and their motivations for their actions.

Their interactions sometimes made me laugh, and the author did well to establish the kind of rapport that supported the pace of the story and the high action scenes.

Both Abigail and Titus' characters worked well in the setting and the action scenes. Although both main characters, and several of the other characters, had supernatural abilities, the author didn't use their powers as quick fixes to help get them out of trouble. The scene with the uncontrollable flying metal disc quickly drew the reader into understanding that while magic might be involved in action scenes, it was not going to be an easy answer to every problem the two main characters were going to encounter in the rest of the story.

The underlying tension of romantic interest between the two main characters remained subtle and was not distracting of the main plot, which remains the action, fantasy setting of the book.

Since prequels are invariably written after the first book of a series, the author made sure that were no assumptions needed to be made by the reader based on the progress of books that came before it in real time, and yet after it in the timeline of the story.

Overall a lovely read and the story will fall into the recommended category for readers of both witch and vampire genres. Readers who don't like romance will also enjoy this book.

My rating 

It is a new year, isn't it?

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2018!

Don't we all want to start a new year with hope and positivity? Unfortunately, mine did not. I went back to work on 2 January to the news that two of my colleagues had died. The first was a young woman (I do not know the circumstances) and the second was a man was murdered in a home invasion. While this is shocking and sad, it is not that unusual in this country.

While it makes me angry, I am not going to dwell on the incompetencies of our justice system or the corruption of the government. You only have to read the news to see that for yourself.

My editing badge ❤️

I would rather find something more positive and happy to write about today.

I managed to achieve several of my goals for 2017. I wrote 275 000 words, managed to complete 20 art projects and read 58 books. I did a few drawing courses and one or two to help me grow to become a better me.

Of course, the disappointments were there too. I deliberately avoid the word 'failures' because I have learnt a few things as a result, and that is always a good thing.

To list them: I did not publish the five books I had on my list. Three of them were professionally edited, so they were finished. The novel I wanted to publish last year, is still being proofread before I press that publish key on my keyboard. The other two are short stories. One is still in need of a cover (I cannot make up my mind) and the second short story is part of a trilogy. I have put it on ice until the third story is ready for publication. At least the cover of the trilogy is ready.

Lessons learnt include make more time to edit to ensure that deadlines are met. I do not like editing, so this is something I have to work at this year.

My second disappointment? While I managed to lose some weight, I did not achieve my target. Moreover, with no one to blame except myself, this will be one goal that I am taking very seriously this year too.

My goals for this year

It took me a few hours of soul searching to determine if I am ready to set new goals for 2018, or if I am going to make a list the same as in 2017.

My badge for achieving my word
count target 💙

In the end it will be a combination of both. I did some of that soul-searching at work last week and forgot to email my thoughts home. I will put my 2018 list up next week.

As part of my writing goals for this year, I enrolled in a short story challenge. After the closing date of the month, I will post my story here for you to read. I have no control over the prompts, but if you have a moment, I would appreciate a comment or two.

More exciting news!

I love StoryCubes so that I will be rolling out a writing competition from the 1st of February. The details will be made available later in the week. If you are interested in taking part, please subscribe to my newsletter. All the details for the entries every month will be emailed. No spam, I promise.

That is it for this week.

See you soon!

Linzé

Words, Statistics and Time — the creative life's little problems

Linzé's iWatch on its charging stand

I recently read an article where the blogger/author mentioned that if you wrote 1000 words in an hour, it shouldn't take you more than 50 hours to write a 50 000 word book.

It also means that a full-length fantasy or other novel, typically in the order of 100k+ words, can be done in 100 hours. Now we are talking first drafts here. Editing and all the other activities to get a book to publishable quality, are not included in those hours.

So that means NaNoWriMo should take me (at two hours per day) only 25 days to do. These two hours are what I have available on a weekday. If I double that to 4 hours per weekend day then my NaNoWriMo target should have been completed today - the 19th of November. Since I have not achieved the 50k yet, it means that I am not as efficient as I would like to believe. Based on current performance, and present word count (41010 words) I would then complete the requisite 50k words in two days, the 21st.

Crunching a few more numbers, it means that I have only been 90% efficient at using my time this November. Using 30 days out of a potential 365 days of writing is not a large enough sample to draw any conclusions.

So I went to my word count spreadsheet for the year to see how efficiently I have used my time this year, so far. To do the math correctly, I can therefor only count the days until today - 19 November. This means my calculations must be done for 323 days if I include today.

So here is what my numbers for the 323 days of 2017 look like:

Writing: 208130 words

Editing: 126.5 hours

Until now there were 45 full weekends (ie, 2 days) plus one weekend day (today). I counted Saturdays, but it makes no difference since 1 January fell this year on a Sunday.

So that gave me 323 days x 2 hours per day + 90 weekend days x 2 additional hours per weekend day + today's 4 hours = 830 available writing hours

At 1000 words per hour, I should have written 830 000 words this year!

Let's work with hours; the numbers are just smaller to use for the calculations. Based on the 1000 words per hour premise, I had been writing for 208.1 hours up to today. Add the editing (because I can only do one of the two at a time) my total hours spend on writing projects so far were 334.6 hours.

Now my efficiency does not look that good anymore, does it? Crunching the numbers one last time gives me 334.6 / 830 = 40%.

I have used only 40% of the time I have allocated for writing this year. If this does not bother you, you can rest assured, it bothers the freaking daylight out of me!

To be honest, I type about 1200 words in an hour, which is not helping my case at all.

So where did things go wrong? Alternatively, did they go wrong at all? Am I deluding myself into thinking that writing for two hours per day is what is happening?

Reassessing my writing time slash writing life:

1. I don't suffer from writer's block, never have. So if I don't write, there must be other reasons for not writing - exhaustion, illness, and other obligations. These things happen, I am only human.

2. I read a lot. Since I work full-time, I have to choose between writing or reading in my spare time. Reading does not make me feel guilty for not writing, so those hours (which I have not kept track of) probably account for a significant portion of my writing hours not used for writing. To date, I have read 45 books - not nearly as many as I have done in recent years.

3. Studying. In September and October, I did a management course (on my own time) which required 60 hours of studying and assignments. It inspired me to change direction in my professional life. That means that I am now studying towards my diploma in Life Coaching. Again, hours taken away from my writing time.

4. Art. I have made it a point to do more art this year, and I have. The exact hours recorded are lost in a file that I cannot recover, but I did not spend them writing when I used pencils or paint brushes.

As I sit reading what I wrote here, I realise that I haven't done that badly at all. I completed Camp NaNoWriMo both times on target, I am about to finish the 50k version in the next two days, and while my fourth novel is late, it will still be published this year.

However, I have to ask: was I only 40% efficient? Judging by the numbers, I would have to say yes. However, this is my life, and while numbers don't lie, they simply cannot tell the whole story with all its plotlines, intricacies, and surprises.

Time is the most precious resource we have, and maybe I shouldn't use the number of words I write as a measure of how I spend my time. At least, not as the only parameter. A qualitative element could be more useful. Was that hour, day or week's time happy, satisfactory or fulfilling instead. Something to consider as the approach of a new year lends itself to a new way of doing things.

Until next time!
Linzé

Eyes wide shut...a book review

The Unstoppable Creative by Todd Brison

I don't know about you, but I have been getting tired of the new 'writing books and courses' that are being advertised all over the internet. I mean what's wrong with the thousands (yes, thousands!) of books and courses already available? Are authors now telling the rest of us that writing is not the thing anymore, it is teaching? Then I guess we should go into teaching.

Personally, I own more than a handful of books about writing, writing better, writing for the internet, blah, blah, blah. Instead of reading more books about writing, I have been looking for books about being a writer. Yeah, there is a difference, and a big one too.

So it was with real anticipation that I volunteered to review Todd's latest book, The Unstoppable Creative. And it is not just for writers. Or artists. Most of us think that unless you do art, or are an author, you are not creative. You couldn't be more wrong because Creativity (with a capital c) comes in many forms.

What I particularly liked about the book is that the author doesn't tell you: Now THIS is the best way. There are many, many articles and books out there to tell you that to be successful or be the best writer or artist, you have to do the next five steps, and bam! Success rolls in the front door.

For those of us who have been in this game for a while, it is more a question of if it's not working for me, what can I learn for it to make my situation work for me.

There are no quick fixes, but there are ways for creative people to get more from the hours that they do have. And before you roll your eyes, no there is no ONE solution. As much as my life, my writing, and my art differ from yours, a strategy that works for me will probably make you break out in hives.

The Unstoppable Creative is a book for people to understand what creativity really is, and how you can develop a strategy (and plans) to make your own creativity work for you. How you can make your own creativity earn money for you.

As with any changes you start with yourself and your way of thinking about your life and your creativity. The author does mention people who have made things work for them, and not all of them in a way that you might think. It is a focus on learning and understanding and often outside your usual situation. Since I study a wide range of topics, it is this outside-the-box approach to learning that resonates with my own philosophy about my own creativity that I appreciate about the book.

Writers and other creatives need to understand what it is they truly need to do to grow in their art, in their own person, to achieve what it is they want out of their art. The author outlines the limitations we create for ourselves, the wrong stories we tell ourselves and believe, that destroys the opportunities we might have seen as a result.

But the book also helps us to understand how we can overcome these limitations. How we can set our own course and that we don't need much beyond our own belief in ourselves to live the life we want.

My creative life starts with me, and if you want to take that step too then this book is a must-read for you.

My rating: 

NOTE: The book launches today. If you are interested in where to find it, please pop over to Facebook or Twitter where I will share the link as soon as it is available. 

💜  LinzéB