Operation Awesome Angelica Jackson's Interview and New Cover Reveal #giveaway #CoverReveal #book

A former Operation Awesome Team Member dropped by for an interview. Check out this amazing new book cover and great giveaway!

Crow's Rest: Faerie Crossed Book 1 by Angelica R. Jackson

1- Could you tell us a little more about the Pens for Paws Auction?

I started P4P out of a desire to help a sanctuary where I was volunteering at the time, Fat Kitty City. They are unique for being a cage-free sanctuary for domestic cats--some of whom will live out their lives there, and others who are adoptable. FKC goes out of their way to take in special-needs cats, including those that are FIV+, and feral cats, too. I started volunteering there in 2008, mostly helping to photograph the kitties and to socialize them. These cats are extremely grateful for attention and a friendly lap!

I was trying to think of a way to fundraise for Fat Kitty City that would tap into my existing network of publishing contacts, so in 2012 I started putting the word out that I needed donations. The publishing community--including authors, editors, and agents--stepped up to offer some fantastic items for bid. I haven't quite managed to run the auction every year, since it's a one-woman show and I get overwhelmed trying to run the auction and manage my own book tasks. But I hope to revive it next year!

2- What five words represent your most notable characteristic or values? #In5Words

Labeling makes Geminis deeply uncomfortable

3- What ignited your passion for writing?

Spending a lot of time alone as a kid meant that I also spent a lot of time in my own head; the way I expressed myself was through drawing and writing. For a while, it was genuinely a tossup whether I was going to stick with art or writing as a career. Writing pulled ahead for a while, but I'm now trying to combine my art and writing in creative ways, whether that means cover art, interior design in my books, or even creating images for marketing campaigns. But reading is what really gave me the jumpstart to share my writing--it's so fascinating to spend some time in others' heads.

4- What was the best part of working with the Operation Awesome Team?

The community! I knew I always had trusted friends who I could vent to, or ask questions of. We've had an amazing font of wisdom in our collective, and I love that it's continued to evolve. I learned so much during my tenure, with the biggest lesson about sharing your knowledge with others.

5- Would you share a picture with us of your book in a fun location?

Of course! This is the signpost in my garden, with some of the destinations from my favorite books on it. So of course Crow's Rest is right at home perching on it!

6- What is the most fun part about writing a story with Fae?

Having come into urban fantasy after writing a heavily-researched historical novel, the most fun part is making up creatures! I used Celtic mythology as a jumping off point, but I also wanted to create authentically magical creatures that would make the reader wonder which ones are from established mythology and which are the "new" generation Note: I also think making up creatures is the hardest part, because I want them to be believable within the worlds I've also created.

7- In what ways are the main characters in your book diverse? https://diversebooks.org #WeNeedDiverseBooks

My main character, Avery, shows some symptoms of mental health issues, which actually turn out to have a magical basis for her (I hope that's not a spoiler, haha). That aspect of her personality was born from my own lifelong struggle with anxiety and depression, and how my teenaged self wished there was some "better" reasoning behind me having that imbalance. Like, what if some of my obssessive traits (like my counting things, and seeking patterns and symmetry) were actually an advantage under different circumstances? What if in another world, in another situation, they would be the key to keeping me safe?

Also, because so many of my Fae creatures swap bodies, they tend to be rather genderfluid. Occupying a male or female human is not better or worse--it just offers different sensations and opportunities. Many of them are shapeshifters, too, and their own gender is another thing they can manipulate at will (and I haven't explored it yet, but there does seem to be more than two genders in Faerie).

8- Which character has your favorite Personality Contradiction?

That would be Avery again! She can be so oblivious to some things around her, especially in relationships, and yet she has an insightful side. A way of seeing past all the noise (which often leads to her calling bullshit on people, for better or worse).

9- What is something that you know you do differently than most people?

Um, shop for clothing maybe? I just don't have the patience for it, so when I find something I like I buy it in five colors and call it a day. I do actually enjoy fashion and creating my outfits, I just hate wandering store aisles. I'll be happy when I can print outfits at home on a 3D printer.

10- Anything else you would care to share about your books and yourself?

The cover art for my Faerie Crossed series features my own photographs. What a great excuse to schedule a photoshoot at a haunted castle, amIright? My cover designer, Kelley York of X-Potions Design, worked closely with me to turn my art into a cohesive whole and I love the results.

Crow's Rest, the first in the series, came out last May from Crow & Pitcher Press, and the second book, Merlin's Stronghold, will release on October 23.

I've also released a photobook of that same castle that appears on the covers, but Capturing the Castle: Images of Preston Castle (2006-2016) goes behind the doors into the decaying Preston Castle interior. And as of this writing, a fantastic actor named Brenda Scott Wlazlo just added the finishing touches to the audio version of Crow's Rest. The audiobook of Merlin's Stronghold should be out before the end of the year.

You can keep in the loop for all the news on my books by signing up for my newsletter on my website at https://angelicarjackson.com and I'm on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001046475887 and Twitter is https://twitter.com/angelicarjaxon . Get a look at my artwork at https://www.angelicarjackson.photography , including my pics of Preston Castle.

Crow's Rest Book Blitz

Welcome to the Crow's Rest Book Blitz! Of course I had to participate in the blitz for my own book, lol. This post is chock full o' goodness, including a how-to for a literary garden accent, buy links for the Crow's Rest e-book on sale, a peek at the illustrated sampler for the Crow's Rest world, and--deep breath--a giveaway!

I'm so excited to be able to share the illustrated companion to Crow's Rest, which is called A Compendium of the Faer Folke. It's been in the works nearly as long as Crow's Rest itself, and I just love the way it turned out. Kudos to Errick Nunnally, who ably handled the art direction on this bonus material!

But first, if you're a Crow's Rest newbie, here's some more about the novel:

Crow's Rest
by Angelica R. Jackson
Release Date: May 12th 2015

Summary from Goodreads:

Avery Flynn arrives for a visit at her Uncle Tam's, eager to rekindle her summertime romance with her crush-next-door, Daniel.

But Daniel’s not the sweet, neurotic guy she remembers—and she wonders if this is her Daniel at all. Or if someone—some thing—has taken his place.

Her quest to find the real Daniel—and get him back—plunges Avery into a world of Fae and changelings, where creatures swap bodies like humans change their socks, and magic lives much closer to home than she ever imagined. 

 AND THE E-BOOK IS ON SALE THROUGH JULY 31 (THE BLUE MOON)!
  Buy Links:

Amazon│Barnes & Noble│Kobo Books

To add a little more value to this post (and drag out the suspense for A Compendium of the Faer Folke), I'm also sharing a how-to for a signpost I recently put up in my garden:

DIY Literary Sign Post 

I got this idea when I saw a photo of a similar signpost in somebody’s garden, except theirs pointed to all the places they’d traveled to all over the world. Since my trips to imaginary places far outnumber my travels to real places, it only made sense to create a bookish sign post for my garden. It was so much fun to decide which ones to include, and to doodle little accents to the hand-lettered destinations.

What you’ll need:

1- 4”x4”x8’ fence post (don’t use pressure-treated wood if you have edible plants nearby, but otherwise use what you like: wood, composite, vinyl, etc)

Wooden fence pickets, either plain pointed ones, or Gothic like those pictured (we used 12)

Paint for the picket pointers (we used spray paint because the hardware store wanted us to buy at least a quart of each color. One can of spray paint did two coats on two pickets with some left over)

Paint and Sharpie markers for lettering and doodles

A list of destinations

What to do:

1.       Set fence post in ground, with or without a concrete footing. We had to hire somebody to dig a hole in our rocky soil, and since we’re not supporting an actual fence on the post we opted not to do concrete.

2.       Cut (or break them off if you want them to look more rustic) pickets to random lengths, leaving plenty of room for you to letter the destinations on them.

3.       Paint the main color on the pickets, making sure the wood is well-covered so they’ll last longer in the elements.

4.       Paint on the letters for each picket pointer, and use the Sharpie markers to accent the letters as well as adding a doodle if you like. Don’t worry if they’re not perfect—it just adds to the charm. But if you really want them to be uniform, you can print out a font from your computer and use that as a stencil on the pointer.

5.       Once they’re the way you want them and have fully dried, spray a UV-protective acrylic sealer over all.

6.       Drill pilot holes, and use 2” wooden screws to mount each pointer. You can use all four sides of the post if it’s in the center of an open space, but we decided to only use two sides since ours would back up to a crepe myrtle tree.

And that’s all! It was totally easy. Here are a few more pictures. (all photos by Angelica R. Jackson)

And now--drum roll please--check out the illustrated companion, A Compendium of the Faer Folke! Read it here, or get it as a free download!

About the Author:

In keeping with her scattered Gemini nature, Angelica R. Jackson has far too many interests to list here.

She has an obsession with creating more writing nooks in the home she shares with her husband and two corpulent cats in California's Gold Country. Fortunately, the writing nooks serve for reading and cat cuddling too.

Other pastimes include cooking for food allergies (not necessarily by choice, but she’s come to terms with it), photography, and volunteering at a local no-kill sanctuary.

She blogs at Angelic Muse, and is a contributing member of Operation Awesome and the Fearless Fifteeners.

Author Links:

   

GIVEAWAY:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Bookplates the Inexpensive Way

I'm going to an event cross-country in Nashville, UtopYA Con, and one of the things that's been stressing out all of the authors attending is how many books to bring with us to sell and/or sign. Bring too few and you'll be turning people away empty-handed, and bring too many and you'll have to decide whether to pay shipping home (or take up your valuable suitcase space again).

I will be bringing my guesstimated amount of 40 books, but I still have that nagging fear that I'll run out and miss out on some fans. My solution was bookplates that I can sign and hand out, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked that idea.

If a fan has already bought an e-book of Crow's Rest, this is a way for them to have something physical to take away. Or if they're not buying my book that day (there is a very longs list of authors who will be signing, and let's face it, no one can buy every book), they can buy a copy later from the retailer of their choice and stick the bookplate in there. Voila, signed copy!

I looked around for some good prices on bookplates, but since I'm already paying for buttons to give out, as well as the transient vendor license that Nashville requires*, my budget was really tight. I wasn't able to find any that were within my budget, so I designed my own bookplates to print on my ink jet printer.

It obviously helps if you have some design skills and access to your book art, but you could make some pretty sharp bookplates with stock images. For the technical-minded, my image dimensions are 3.55x2.663 inches at 300 dpi to fit on the Avery 6464. Even with the cost of the ink figured in, I estimate that these will cost me about .15/each!

These are also great if someone out of my area wants a signed copy--instead of them sending me their copy to sign, and then me having to ship it back again, I can send them a signed bookplate instead.

What do you think? Are you going to give these a try?

*A lot of us were caught by surprise by the $112 transient vendor fee that Nashville requires to sell items, even if you're selling as part of an event like this con. Make sure you always check for these license requirements when you're thinking of selling your books out of your county (if you have a business license, you're covered in your county) because getting caught without one can mean fines.

Welcome to the Crow's Rest Bloghop!

Today I'm celebrating the release of my debut novel, Crow's Rest, by taking part in a bloghop, yay! You can see the complete schedule here. Participants were asked to share a real-life ghost encounter, or other strange happening, and boy do I have something special to share. And, there are giveaways!

But first, I wanted to share a section from Crow's Rest, which features a sinister encounter for Avery at Warren Castle (which is modeled on the real, haunted Preston Castle in Ione, California). Here she is telling Daniel about it:



The story behind the story is that the spooky events Avery describes actually happened to me at Preston Castle. And also like Avery, I've been involved in documenting the Castle's restoration in photographs. Preston Castle has been featured in an episode of Ghost Adventures and The Great Escape, and it's a pretty creepy place. They offer overnight events, but I'm not quite that brave!

Since I already indirectly shared a ghost story, I'm not going to count it as my bloghop post, lol. Instead, I offer you photographic proof of a living Fae being--I'm not sure exactly what kind he is, but this enchanted forest citizen was captured on film at the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park fifteen years ago:

You can click on the picture to see it larger, btw. Can you see the little bearded, pointy-eared man to the right? He's peering around the smaller trunk and looking very cheeky in his tophat. Perhaps my feet are blocking the entrance to his home under the tree? Tell me what mischief you think he's contemplating in the comments!

And now, for the giveaway!

One grand prize will be awarded, and it includes a signed copy of Crow's Rest, signed bookmarks, a Celtic knot necklace, and fun swag items

And two Swag Packs will also be awarded, and include signed bookmarks, a Celtic knot necklace, and fun swag items

These giveaways are open to U.S. addresses only, and you can enter through this Rafflecopter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Title:  Crow's Rest

Author:  Angelica R. Jackson

Published:  May 12, 2015

Publisher:  Spencer Hill Press

Isbn: 9781633920040
Pages: 288
Retail: $9.95

Buy Links: Barnes and Noble |  Amazon | BookDepository

About the author:
In keeping with her scattered Gemini nature, Angelica R. Jackson has far too many interests to list here.

She has an obsession with creating more writing nooks in the home she shares with her husband and two corpulent cats in California's Gold Country. Fortunately, the writing nooks serve for reading and cat cuddling too.

Other pastimes include cooking for food allergies (not necessarily by choice, but she's come to terms with it), photography, and volunteering at a local no-kill cat sanctuary.

Twitter  |   Facebook  |   Goodreads  |   Photo Galleries  |   Blog  |   Website

On Contests and Community

Since I'm usually the one watching our OpAwesome6 Twitter account, I get to see a lot of excitement flitting through the Twittersphere about our Mystery Agent/Editor Contests. I love the support and sense of community that comes from cheering on, and commiserating with, our fellow authors in the query trenches. Some of the writers who I went through contests with remain friends to this day, even as much as five years later.

In particular, I was thinking back to when I was submitting Crow's Rest (by query and in contests) around this time in 2013. My manuscript had been out since February, after some early interest from the WriteOnCon forums, but hadn't found a home yet.

Each contest round was a learning experience--it can be a tremendous motivation to nail down your specific voice and style, once you've read a dozen entries for your genre. Seeing them all in one place really brings home what the agent experiences in their inbox, and how your work must be fresh and different to stand out.

One of the last pitch contests I entered was The Writer's Voice, run jointly in 2013 by Brenda Drake, Cupid of Cupid’s Literary Connection, Krista Van Dolzer of Mother. Write. (Repeat.) and Monica B.W. of Love YA . The format was meant to encourage writers to establish their characters and voice right away, and grab the attention of an agent in those first 250 words. I entered Crow's Rest and crossed my fingers.

But here's the thing--I never made it past the first round in this contest, and I still learned a ton (and made those connections that I started out talking about in this post). And yes, it stung that CR didn't make the cut, but I also knew there were other opportunities out there--and I just needed to find the right match.

That right match for Crow's Rest didn't end up coming through a contest--a few weeks after TWV, I submitted the winning bid on a 70-page critique with editor Vikki Ciaffone of Spencer Hill Press in an auction. That critique turned into an offer of publication, and Crow's Rest is coming out from SHP in only a month (okay, so I glossed over a TON of steps in between)!

I likely wouldn't have even heard about the auction without my writerly connections, nor would I have taken a chance on bidding for the critique if I hadn't earned some confidence from the contest feedback.

So in honor of those connections, I caught up with some of the Alumni of The Writer's Voice 2013:

Leslie S. Rose, who I actually got to meet in person recently! She's had several short stories included in anthologies

Me on the left, Leslie on the right!

Marieke Nijkamp, who blogged about the part contests played in landing her own agent, and whose debut THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS is coming from Sourcebooks in 2016

Lucas Hargis, whose TWV entry is here, and who got two agent offers (and accepted one) by the end of that year

Christie Murillo, who also feels the contest camaraderie so strongly that she thanked a bunch of us who had been in the trenches with her in her "I Have An Agent!" announcement

Molly Pinto Madigan, whose TWV entry also had a contemporary twist on a fairy tale/legend

Pete Catalano, alias Billy Payne, whose debut novel ARTIFACTS is coming from Month9 Books in Fall 2016

Heidi Lang and Kati Bartkowski, co-authors of Mystic Cooking, who signed with Jen Azantian in February

J Larkin, who signed with Carrie Pestritto of Prospect Agency, as a result of TWV 2013

And, if you'd like to read an excerpt from Crow's Rest, Brenda Drake is hosting a reveal on her blog today! Go check it out by clicking her banner below!

Interior Design for Book Nerds

I bet you thought this was going to be a post on how to make more bookshelves fit into your home decor, didn't you? No, this post is aimed at those who enjoy the details that go into the design of the interior of the book.

They can range from little artsy accents on the page numbers, all the way up to full-blown illustrations. I personally love all incarnations of art in written works, and believe they can enhance the experience for the reader. Here are a few examples from Honey Queen, by Christina Mercer:

You'll see there's a bee hovering at the page number in the bottom right corner, and here's a closeup of the chapter headings:

Christina includes titles for each of her chapters, and I think this sort of artwork is a great way to draw the reader's attention to each one, while also tying it in with previous chapters.

For Crow's Rest, I had already bought a bunch of vector artwork of crow silhouettes and wanted to sprinkle them throughout--fortunately, Errick A. Nunnally, who designed the interior layout, went along with it and I love how it turned out:

The title page

The top of each page corner features a tiny crow, and what else do you use for section breaks but a line of crow tracks?!?

These are the chapter numberings

I know of several other books that incorporate art this way, and I love how it becomes a unique part of each story. If you have a favorite book that uses interior art, please share in the comments below!

Such a Tease

A few weeks ago, I needed a break from drafting the Crow's Rest sequel, No Man's Land, and realized I didn't have any teasers made for Crow's Rest. You know, those images with a quote from the book that get shared around Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc? (Here is a helpful post on what goes into a great teaser at the Cover Your Dreams site)

In true writerly fashion, I seized on this excuse not to write opportunity to envision my book in another medium and started combing Crow's Rest for quotable text. This was much more difficult than I thought it would be--a lot of the sections I love from the book either needed more setup, or they were too spoilery.

But I eventually had about nine excerpt possibilities, several of which got trimmed down even further for the actual teaser and a few that didn't get used at all. The opening lines even fit perfectly with some video footage I'd taken, so I have one video teaser as well as the still teasers I made.

There are lots of programs you can use to make your own teasers, btw; PicMonkey is popular and writer Sarra Cannon walks you through how to do that here, or check out this roundup of online sites to combine quotes and images. I used Photoshop because I already have it, and know how to use the tools. I also have tons of my own photos since I'm a photographer, but I didn't have very many that exactly fit how I envisioned the teaser.

Fortunately, Shutterstock sends me 15 or 20% off coupons every once in a while, so I got 5 downloads fairly cheaply. Then I spent some time finding just the right images for each quote--with some false starts. For example, one teaser features a kiss in the hay, and I found one that I thought was perfect--but the hay in the picture was so busy-looking that it was difficult to read the text overlaid on it. Tried various ways to make the text stand out, but ultimately abandoned that photo for a different background (and I love the way it turned out).

I'm planning on revealing one teaser on the Crow's Rest Facebook page every other Tuesday, but I've only shared one so far so I'll use it as an example. I started with the text:

Overhead, the stars unfolded without the interference of streetlights, and a chorus of summer insects buzzed...the leaves of the sycamore shifted and rustled. But—no breeze. A sound like muffled croaks and squeaks—or whispers—joined the rustling. Am I more rattled than I thought, or is there really something in that tree?

Those lines begged for a spooky tree in a field of stars, and I found several candidates on Shutterstock. I narrowed my choices down to three, and played around with the watermarked versions to make mockups and see which one worked the best. The one below was a clear winner, so I used one of my credits to download the high-res version and added the text, book title, my name, and the publisher's logo.

I mixed up the styles of the images and text for each of the rest of the quotes, since they all have different tones: sexy, whimsical, spooky, suspenseful, etc. I could easily have gone crazy and made enough of them to post every week until the release in three months, but it just didn't seem like that much time spent on it could be justified.

So I settled on a reveal every other week until the launch, and I took advantage of scheduling them ahead of time on Facebook and Twitter (using Hootsuite). The teasers will also find their way onto my blog, my website, and maybe my author page on Amazon--wherever I think I can make them earn their keep, lol.

If you have a favorite teaser, feel free to share the link in the comments!