News, Notes and Nook’s

Next month, I go into editing for my short story, to be published by Mocho Memoirs Press. It’ll go live in December… so if you’d love to unwrap a dragon tale for christmas, let me know…. hehehehe. At first, I really didn’t think that they’d accept it. I have to admit it…  I write a little bit different. Kind of chick lit – romance- high fantasy. There’s not a whole lot of homes for it. I’m a strange bird 😀

But I love this community of writers. You should check them out at the Yahoo Group Mocho Memoirs Press Cafe. They are a lively and welcoming group.  While some  of their stuff is decidedly adult (as is witnessed by the disclaimer that you need to be 18 or above to enter the site), it also has a wide variety— otherwise why would my dragon story be hatching? I believe the title will be “Dragon’s Path”, but who knows? It started out untitled, then became (in my mind and at least one file name) Reason Number 39. It will be strictly digital– Kindle, Nook, etc…

Speaking of digital books, I finally picked my Nook back up. I had put it down in February or so for several reasons: I didn’t like having to turn on a book, the books i was reading weren’t very good (free books, and for some odd reason I felt I had to stick them out). I couldn’t get it unlocked, and so on and so forth.

What changed?

2 things. First, I got an Anrdoid. I now swipe, play Words with Friends, text, lots of thing on my phone. Transistioning from the phone back over to the Nook was a lot simpler than I had feared.

Secondly– I stopped reading stuff I didn’t like. I’m not saying that all stories you can get for free are bad– not at all. There were quite a few that I will be looking up the authors to see what else I can delve into. And yes, I will pay for those works. But if I don’t like it? Why keep reading? I don’t do it for books that I pay for, and quite frankly I don’t know the author and doubt any criticism I give them at this point would be welcome.

I found a few freebies, and also a few things by Eloisa James and Victoria Alexander that I wanted to read— so I paid for those. They aren’t available in the books stores, so… All in all, I think I might like this digital age.

Although I still don’t get Twitter.

I’m trying tho…..

Hopefully it won’t take me eight months to get it LOL.

 

Trick of Treat!

Trick or Treat

 

I lied. I actually read two Halloween themed books. Yay!

 

Death Of A Neighborhood Witch (Kensington Books)

Death of a Neighborhood Witch, by Laura Levine is a nice cozy mystery. I loved this book, except for one thing. Her best friend in the book, Lance, kind of annoyed me to no end. Which, you know, when you’re writing a character— is actually a good thing. Because I cared enough to be annoyed by him and indignant on Janie’s behalf. The voice was great—somewhere right around what I could imagine my own internal monologue going LOL (stay away from the Halloween candy in the grocery store!).

 

I Ate The Sheriff: Mallory Caine, Zombie at Law (Pinnacle Books), K. Bennett

This one kind of got me. I thought it was one type of story, and it turned into something completely different. Not bad different, just… Different. I enjoyed it probably almost as much as Mallory Caine enjoyed fresh meat. It’s actually one of the only zombie books that I’ve ever read… And the other one, I skipped about 200 pages. The ending of this one is apocalyptic, so hang on to your hats hehehe. I didn’t really feel that the whole werewolf romance billed on the back copy went anywhere or should have even been mentioned… The book does well enough with females (of which I am LOL), that it doesn’t need a forced genre. The book has a lot going for it, and the way it morphs and yet stays true to itself is one of the bestest.

 

So… Two Halloween treats for you.

 

Next time, look out for some tricks!

Kiss of….

I’ve heard people say that traditional publishing is dead. That no one wants to read books any more. And then I come across something that reeks of the normal big guy publishing houses, but is in actuality from a small press that I’ve never heard of.

Kiss of Steel, by Bec McMaster. Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca.

Kiss is a genre mash-up: paranormal romance/steam punk / alt history fun. Yup, it’s a fun book. It was also nice to read a new author in the romance vein that wasn’t, well… A little more than romance.

I admit it. I’m a bit of a prude when it comes to my reading tastes. While I don’t mind sex scenes, they need to be in there for a reason other than to flip the reader’s switches. I think I was 2/3 through the book before the main character’s did anything more than kiss. That’s not to say the romance wasn’t there—but rather that the romance had more going for it than just the act.

I forget the book it was in now, but the very best sex scene I ever read almost didn’t happen. Because the heroine kept hitting the hero in the most… painful places. Not on purpose, but more because she didn’t know how to move her body. Very funny, moved the plot along nicely and in the end was very steamy (as soon as he caught her hands above her head).

What I want to know is this, though. In 2012, 11 of their titles have ended up either on the NYT or the USA Best Seller List (which is not necessarily saying that any of them hit the top ten, stil…). With so many titles of a much smaller list on the bestseller lists, it makes me think this.

They must love books.

There are some publishing houses out there that still love both books and readers. Some will chase the elusive dream of what they think will be the next best seller. Some will chase the books they love and hope the praise will follow. I like the second kind much better.

 

Hopefully, next weekend, I’ll have either a Q&A with Rie Sheridan Rose or a guest post from her. She is one of my favorite fantasy authors, and she has a new story out for Halloween. I also have the one and only title that I’ve read for the spooky season, Death of a Neighborhood Witch, to catch up on this week.

Until then, my lovelies!

Sparky

What do you see in the picture?

 

 

 

Strange and Awesome things

 

Rock formation, or a dragon egg that got sat on too hard?

And my favorite….

Staircase to hell, anyone?

 

As you can see, someone FINALLY told me the trick of getting the pictures into WordPress. Thank you SOO much, Rie!

These photos capture my imagination, sparking all kind of ideas. While I’m no photographer, I like the way these came out. And I have noticed that several other of the writerly types also take amazing photos, telling stories with pictures as well as words. It seems that creativity does not live in words alone, but sashay’s throughout a persons life.

I’ll write more later, but wanted to share some of the images that sparked so many ideas. Now I’m off to write that essay that came out of the journal entry from the trip to Moaning Caverns.

Happy writing!

 

 

 

The Big Five Oh, and other news

I did it! I hit the big Five Oh! No! I’m not fifty years old (SHEESH)~ I now have fifty blog followers. So, a big THANK YOU to all fifty of you guys who follow me.

WOHOO! You guys ROCK!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch….

Talked with my publisher, and it looks like Dragon’s Path will go into edits next month and is currently scheduled to be unwrapped in December. Yay! I’m also up on their blog right now (see, i did write a blog post on Sunday, it was just for a different one! LOL!). It’s all about the first and only time I tried my hand at a scary story.  I’m having a hard time on WordPress with links and pictures and things, so I’ll just copy and paste right here: http://mochamemoirspress.blogspot.com/2012/10/telling-stories-by-wynelda-deaver.html

Hah!

I think I also added their link to my page, or at least the link to their blog. I think. I’m not as techno savvy as I thought I was hehehe.

In actual writing news, I am almost done with the retelling of Cinderella. I’m within shouting distance of the ending, and I found out what Fairy Tales mean to me. They aren’t about the magic, or about the prince… They are about hope, about dreaming of a different future for yourself.

I like that.

And it just sort of popped out, slapped me upside the head as a character popped off with that line in the story. It feels right, it fits the character and it fits me. Hope is always a good thing.

Till later, my lovelies!