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

 

Guest Post: S.L. Saboviec on Growing Your Character Relationships to Grow Your Character!

 

Hello, everyone! This is S. L. Saboviec, and I’m pleased to be a guest today on Operation Awesome. I’m author of the Adult Paranormal novel Guarding Angel, and I’m here to talk a bit about my writing process.

When I first started writing, I knew very little about it. (I know, shocker!) I tried different things to flesh out my characters—character questionnaires, interviews, analyzing their personalities, taking online quizzes—but only when I evolved a character development method did I started to become comfortable. In addition to analyzing their personality traits, I examined their relationships with one another.

Let me explain.

Character Growth: Not Just For Characters

The books we most engage with are ones where characters grow as they overcome challenges. But the characters themselves don’t just grow—their relationships with everyone around them grow. Maybe they meet someone new and fall in love. Maybe they love someone but end up divorced. Maybe they have a strained relationship with their child and mend it, or have a great one and ruin it. These relationship changes are what make up good stories.

(I’m not saying you can’t have a character grow without other characters, but it’s much more interesting to see your character grow against their relationships.)

Not only that, but these growing relationships are the stuff of delicious sub-plots: the man who launches a friend’s rescue saves the world from evil aliens (Chronicles of Riddick) or the mother who struggles with her son’s heinous crime comes to terms with who she is as a person (We Need To Talk About Kevin). Chuck Wendig states it even stronger than I have: Character relationships are what makes your plot, not just your sub-plots.

How to Make Your Character Relationships Grow

When getting ready to write a first draft, I have a spreadsheet I call my “Book Map.” Yeah, I’m a plotter… But don’t run away if you’re not! Besides my plot outline, which is totally optional in this method, I keep detailed character information that I refer back to as I write.

In particular, I have a matrix of relationships. Along the top and the bottom, I have each character’s name. Where each character meets, I write about how their relationship grows:

·         How Character A sees Character B in the beginning of the novel

·         How Character A sees Character B at the end of the novel

·         Notes about their growth arc

An example of this would be one I would have done between Enael and Kaspen for Guarding Angel:

·         At the beginning, Enael sees Kaspen as: mysterious, intriguing, and more committed to his Wards’ development than any other Guardian she’s met.

·         At the end, Enael sees Kaspen as: worth fighting for, her soul mate, and strong for having struggled through so many hardships.

·         Growth arc: When Kaspen makes a poor decision because he wants to protect humans, Enael fights for him. (I’m being vague here so I don’t spoiler anything—in case you decide you’d like to read my novel—but when plotting, I would point to specific actions she takes and how it connects to my overall plot.)

I would do a similar one for how Kaspen sees Enael, which would explain why he falls in love with her. And so on, throughout all the major characters. One of my current works-in-progress has twelve major characters, so that’s 12 x 12 = 144 character opinions of other characters to consider. It was a time-consuming exercise, but I usually don’t do every single one, since not all the characters meet or have strong opinions about one another.

And it’s useful in more than one way:

·         It highlights possible sub-plots.

·         It allows me time inside the head of each character, which allows me to understand each one’s motivations more.

·         It highlights redundant or one-dimensional characters.

Hopefully this insight into a small part of my writing process has been useful. For me, the “hair color / eye color / mannerisms” character sheet lists don’t cut it. I need to get into my characters’ heads and really understand what they think of each other. Hopefully I gave you some things to think about and perhaps even strengthen your next revision.

About Me:

I’m a self-published author whose dark, thought-provoking science fiction & fantasy contains flawed, relatable characters and themes that challenge the status quo. Guarding Angel is on sale for $0.99 right now. You can find it at several major eBook retailers and on Amazon in paperback. The sequel, Reaping Angel, will be released in early 2016.

·         Kindle

·         Kobo

·         Nook

·         Google Play

·         Paperback (Amazon)

·         Goodreads

You can also follow me on social media, check out the other stops on this blog tour, or if you like my work, sign up for my newsletter:

·         My newsletter (No spam!)

·         July 2015 Guarding Angel Blog Tour

·         Twitter

·         Pinterest

·         FaceBook

Thank you, Operation Awesome, for having me here today!

Bloggers Wanted!

Some changes have been happening behind the scenes here at Operation Awesome, and with those changes, we have some spots now open for new bloggers to join our ranks!

We’re looking for writers who can commit to posting 3-5 times per month

As far as blog posts go, pretty much anything related to the craft or business of writing is welcome. There are a few things that we avoid though, such as politics, religion, etc. We have a fairly diverse group on here, and something political will likely offend someone else. Also, we don't bash a blog post or article on someone else's blog. Let’s just say, if it is a topic that is controversial and might not reflect the collective beliefs of everyone on here, you will want to share that on your personal blog.

We maintain a calendar on our private forum to make it easy to keep track of your posting obligations—and with the wonder of Blogger Scheduling, you can always schedule your post ahead of time when you know you’ll be busy on your day. We understand that life events can sometimes put blogging lower on the priority list, but our posting schedule is flexible to ensure that the posts keep coming.

We see membership in Operation Awesome as an opportunity to make meaningful connections in the publishing community—with writers, agents, and editors—no matter where you are in the journey. Each of us has grown and learned from the experience of group blogging, and if that sounds like something you’d be interested in, please send an email to OperationAwesome6 (at) gmail (dot) com with a short message on why you think you would be a good fit for Operation Awesome, and please include links to your social media and blog sites. Thank you!

Operation Awesome Reads: July 2015 #amreading

Happy July! I know it's more than half-over, but we hope it's  a happy last few weeks in July! This month, we've got an eclectic mix of books to share with you from our nightstands. 


Wendy finished reading Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass, The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins, The Chronicles of St. Mary's series (books 1-5) by Jodi Taylor, Survival Strategies of the Almost Brave by Jen White. She is currently reading Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer.

Take your fiction to the next level!Maybe you're a first-time novelist looking for practical guidance. Maybe you've already been published, but your latest effort is stuck in mid-list limbo. Whatever the case may be, author and literary agent Donald Maass can show you how to take your prose to the next level and write a breakout novel - one that rises out of obscurity and hits the best-seller lists.

Maass details the elements that all breakout novels share - regardless of genre - then shows you writing techniques that can make your own books stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace.

Carolyn's not so different from the other human beings around her. She's sure of it. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. She even remembers what clothes are for.

After all, she was a normal American herself, once.

That was a long time ago, of course—before the time she calls “adoption day,” when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.

Father could do strange things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead. And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible.

In the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn't gotten out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient Pelapi customs. They've studied the books in his library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient power.

Sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.

Now, Father is missing. And if God truly is dead, the only thing that matters is who will inherit his library—and with it, power over all of creation.

As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her.

But Carolyn can win. She's sure of it. What she doesn't realize is that her victory may come at an unacceptable price—because in becoming a God, she's forgotten a great deal about being human.

A madcap new slant on history that seems to be everyone's cup of tea...

Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary's, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don't do 'time-travel' - they 'investigate major historical events in contemporary time'. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power - especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet.

Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary's Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document - to try and find the answers to many of History's unanswered questions...and not to die in the process.

But one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. And, as they soon discover - it's not just History they're fighting.

After their mother's recent death, twelve-year-old Liberty and her eight-year-old sister, Billie, are sent to live with their father, who they haven't seen since they were very young. Things are great at first; the girls are so excited to get to know their father – a traveling photographer who rides around in an RV. But soon, the pressure becomes too much for him, and he abandons them at the Jiffy Company Gas Station.

Instead of moping around and being scared, Liberty takes matters into her own hands. On their journey to get home, they encounter a shady, bald-headed gas station attendant, a full-body tattooed trucker, free Continental breakfast, a kid obsessed with Star Wars, a woman who lives with rats, and a host of other situations.

When all seems lost, they get some help from an unlikely source, and end up learning that sometimes you have to get a little bit lost to be found.

Winner of the 2015 Nebula Award.
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

This is the twelfth expedition.

Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them, and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another, that change everything.

Katrina read Good to Great by Jim Collins, A Mother's Influence by Margaret Nadauld, and Closer to the Light by Melvin Morse, M.D. She is currently reading The Lost Prince by Francis Hodgson Burnett.

Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning.

But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?

The Study
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?

A Latter-day woman who follows
Christ's example in her daily living can be a powerful influence for good in the
lives of her children," writes Margaret D. Nadauld, former Young Women General
President. Each chapter of this inspirational book for mothers is designed to
build confidence and courage for raising a family in today's world. For every
woman who has felt that society does not value the role of motherhood or
wondered if the job is worth the effort, A Mother's Influence points to
the long-term impact of strong families and notes that the very future of the world is at stake.

The skeptics have had their say; now listen to the experts. In hundreds of interviews with children who had once been declared clinically dead, Dr. Morse found that children too young to have absorbed our adult views and ideas of death, share first-hand accounts of out-of-body travel, telepathic communication and encounters with dead friends and relatives. Finally illuminating what it is like to die, here is proof that there is that elusive "something" that survives "bodily death." "New information on what may await us after death...Responsible, highly readable, and certainly thought-provoking."

For five hundred years... the royal line of Samavia has been in hiding, bound by the oath of the Forgers of the Sword. A father and son take up their dying country's cause and the dream of seeing its secret king enthroned. Their dream becomes a game. The game becomes a mission. Then the plan calls father and son to go on different journeys. Samavia waits and hopes that in the end it will bring them both back again to the same place.

Angelica read Crane by Stacey Rourke. She is currently reading No Better Friend: One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in WWII by Robert Weintraub.

The Horseman is unending,
his presence shan’t lessen.
If you break the curse,
you become the legend.

Washington Irving and Rip Van Winkle had no choice but to cover up the deadly truth behind Ichabod Crane’s disappearance. Centuries later, a Crane returns to Sleepy Hollow awakening macabre secrets once believed to be buried deep.

What if the monster that spawned the legend lived within you?

Now, Ireland Crane, reeling from a break-up and seeking a fresh start, must rely on the newly awakened Rip Van Winkle to discover the key to channeling the darkness swirling within her. Bodies are piling high and Ireland is the only one that can save Sleepy Hollow by embracing her own damning curse.

But is anyone truly safe when the Horseman rides?

The extraordinary tale of survival and friendship between a man and a dog in war

Flight technician Frank Williams and Judy, a purebred pointer, met in the most unlikely of places: a World War II internment camp in the Pacific. Judy was a fiercely loyal dog, with a keen sense for who was friend and who was foe, and the pair's relationship deepened throughout their captivity. When the prisoners suffered beatings, Judy would repeatedly risk her life to intervene. She survived bombings and other near-death experiences and became a beacon not only for Frank but for all the men, who saw in her survival a flicker of hope for their own.

Judy's devotion to those she was interned with was matched by their love for her, which helped keep the men and their dog alive despite the ever-present threat of death by disease or the rifles of the guards. At one point, deep in despair and starvation, Frank contemplated killing himself and the dog to prevent either from watching the other die. But both were rescued, and Judy spent the rest of her life with Frank. She became the war's only official canine POW, and after she died at age fourteen, Frank couldn't bring himself to ever have another dog. Their story--of an unbreakable bond forged in the worst circumstances--is one of the great undiscovered sagas of World War II.

Toni finished Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman and started Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. 

Fat Charlie Nancy's normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn't know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother.

Now brother Spider's on his doorstep -- about to make Fat Charlie's life more interesting... and a lot more dangerous.

Under the streets of London there's a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits him down here, beneath his native city: Neverwhere.

Karen is reading The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen.

In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king's long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner's motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword's point -- he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage's rivals have their own agendas as well.

As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner's sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.

What's on your nightstand? 

Weekend Writing Prompts: Poetry, Pocket-watches, and People

Prompt a) Gaze out your window for a few minutes and write a poem about what you see and experience. Then write a story inspired by the poem, either about the fictional poet who might have written it, or the subject of the poem. 

Prompt b) Look at your watch or jewelry collection and select a piece that stands out to you. Make up a history for the object and storify it. 

Prompt c) If you are alone, walk into a room occupied by at least one other person. Strike up a conversation. Go back to your desk/couch/computer and use their response as the starting point for a story.

Mixing it up with life-inspired prompts! Enjoy your weekend writing!

Wednesday Debut Interview: The Haunting of Springett Hall by EB Wheeler

This week for our Wednesday Debut Interview, we're chatting with EB Wheeler about her brand new YA paranormal novel, The Haunting of Springett Hall.

 

First off, tell us a bit about yourself! What's one thing people might not expect about you?
Where to start? I’m a serious history geek. I have a weakness for vegetable masala and cheesecake. I’m a Taurus. My guilty pleasure is Gothic romances. I’ve learned some fencing, but I’m pretty bad at it. Maybe some of those are to be expected, though. Here’s one: My critique group has pronounced me to be the world’s fastest chicken-peck typist. Due to nerve damage and paralysis in my hands from a spinal cord injury, I can’t use all my fingers, but I type at least as fast of the rest of them. :)


Mmmmm... cheesecake...
How would you describe THE HAUNTING OF SPRINGETT HALL in one sentence?
It’s about a ghost who has to solve her own murder to protect a household full of victims from a necromancer’s curse. (Those elevator pitches come in handy!)

How long as this process taken for you, from the time that you began the first draft of this book until the date of its publication?
By the publishing industry’s time scale, it went really fast—a little under two years. I wrote my first draft for NaNoWriMo in November 2013, did lots of revising and started querying in early 2014, and pitched it to my publisher at the League of Utah Writer’s September 2014 conference. I got an offer of publication about a month later, and here we are in July 2015.


The name "Springett Hall" brings to mind a certain old-fashioned opulence. Was the setting of this story based on any place in particular?
Not particularly. I pulled the name “Springett” from my “cool names” file, and I researched a lot of old houses as I was writing to keep the setting accurate, but there’s not one individual place that inspired it.


Which aspect of this book did you most enjoy writing?
I really had a lot of fun writing the creepy stuff, but I think I liked writing the interactions between Lucy and Philip the most.


Every writer experiences some rejection and setbacks along the way. How did you learn to cope with them and move on?
I think, for me, the key to getting up and moving forward after a setback is that I love to write—I can’t seem to give up telling stories. I realized I would keep doing this even if my manuscripts never saw the light of day, so when things were rough, I focused on getting lost in the writing—the part that makes me happy and keeps me enthusiastic. It also helps that I have an incredibly supportive writing group and a husband who believes in me.


How did you find your publisher? What makes them a good fit for you and your book?
I found my publisher by pitching to their editor at a writer’s conference. I had read and enjoyed other books they’d published, and the editor was so enthusiastic about the story, both when I pitched it and when she made me the offer, that I felt very confident it would be a good fit, and it has been. The editing process made the book stronger while keeping the things that I loved about it, and the cover they designed was a perfect complement to the story.

I love the cover of your book. It immediately reminded me of some of the ghost story novels I enjoyed reading when I was a kid -- like this one from Bruce Coville's The Ghost Wore Gray. How much say did you have in the cover? What do you want it to tell your readers about your story?

My publisher had the final say on the cover, but they did ask for my input. They made sure they understood what the character looked like (It bugs me when the person on the cover is blond but the main character is supposed to be a brunette, or similar major inconsistencies) as well as the setting, and what sort of mood I wanted from it. I asked for something “spooky but hopeful,” and pretty enough to give it the right historical flavor. This is a book about accepting and overcoming the negative things that happen to us (sometimes through our own mistakes), so there’s some somewhat dark things in it, but also plenty of hope, and I think they captured that balance beautifully.


I agree!
Tell us about the title: THE HAUNTING OF SPRINGETT HALL. Was this the original title you'd had in mind? If not, what made you change it?
Because of the Victorian setting, I wanted to do one of those long, old-fashioned titles and call it, “Within the Sickle’s Compass; Or, The Haunting of Springett Hall.” The “Sickle’s Compass” part relates to some elements of the story, but the publisher nixed it, even when I pointed out that Patricia Wrede’s Regency fantasies have titles like that. On reflection, I realize my editor made the right call. :)


What's next for you after this book debuts? Is this book going to be part of a series?
I’ve considered doing a sequel, but the book is meant to stand alone and I don’t have any immediate plans for a follow-up. I signed with an agent for my next YA Victorian fantasy, and we’re currently doing revisions on it before we start submitting. I’m also working on an adult historical fiction, so I’m keeping busy!


How does it feel to finally have your book out in the hands of readers? Do you have any events planned you want people to know about?
It feels so amazingly good! I’m doing a book launch party at The Book Table in Logan, UT on July 18th to celebrate, and I’ll be at Salt Lake Comic Con at the end of September. I’d love to see people there!


I might see you there!
Is there any other advice you'd like to pass on to others pursuing publication? Anything you would have done differently?
I wish I could go back and tell myself to relax and enjoy it more, but I’m not sure that advice would be helpful, since it’s so hard not to get stressed out about something you care about so much. Instead, I’d say to try to look at the big perspective, even when things get bumpy, and to remind yourself why you love to write, because that passion is what’s going to keep you hanging on to your sanity and pushing through the rough parts.


And, just for fun: what was your favorite childhood ghost story or novel?
Ooo, that’s hard; there were several I remember. I’m actually a giant scaredy-cat, so I avoid the truly hair-raising books and movies, but I do like “cozy horror” and books with ghosts as characters, and I love the kinds of stories that leave you with a little chill, wondering, “Was that a ghost, or is there another explanation for it?” There was this one book about a ghost collie that helped a little girl whose mother died—thanks to a quick Google search, I’m fairly certain it’s Shadows by Lynn Hall—that I loved so much I wouldn’t return it to the library. I have a feeling my mom ended up having to pay for it (yeah, I feel bad about that now).


Thank you so much for your participation in this Wednesday Debut Interview!

DRAGONFIRE, By Toni Kerr

HAPPY RELEASE DAY to Book 3 in the Secrets of the Makai Series--

Tristan is caught in a losing battle between the Slayers’ poison and the call of hibernation, while fighting to co-exist with increasing amounts of power that threatens to destroy everything. Jacques and Molajah remain elusive and Tristan must plan his own course of action while he still can.

An uprising in the realm of dragon spirits suspends any sense of leadership within the council and forces the ghostly ancestors to make a choice. They can join the rebellion in support of Tristan freeing the Faerie races, or support the council in their desire to keep a centuries-old contract from falling apart, assuring them time to oversee the world’s progression through an age of destructive humans, in hopes of releasing the races to a safer, less toxic era.

The stakes are high for either choice and Tristan must decide for himself, which of the races will be sacrificed for the greater good.

DRAGONFIRE, book 3 in this urban fantasy series, is available now on Amazon!

If you haven't read book 1 in the series, Descendant is currently FREE from July 7th to July 11th on Amazon. Spread the word!

First Revision: Cooling Periods and Paper

First Revision

For July, we're talking about the dreaded first pass of revisions on your recently completed manuscript. Revision and I have a love/hate relationship. I love it when the fruits are immediate and beautiful; I hate it when I can't seem to get something right and I feel compelled to go back to the drawing board. After the celebration period (Yay! I finished another book!), I print out my manuscript and sit somewhere super comfy and far away from my computer. I put a pen on the table beside me, so it's accessible but not itching to be used.

My first pass is for finding overall structural problems or shallow characterizations or setting inconsistencies. I may find a grammatical or punctuation error, or a typo, in this process, but that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for the things that make that typo look like a tiny almost-pimple in comparison.

Printing out my manuscript is key. It helps me visualize my story as a real book. It is easier to see errors on paper than on the screen. And it is easier to get comfortable, which goes back to helping me visualize my story as a book. When I read for pleasure, I'm curled up on the couch, so that's how I read my own book during this first pass. I want to enjoy my book. That's the objective. And if something hitches me, takes me out of that enjoyment, that's a red flag. I pick up my pen and draw out a solution in the margins.

As tempting as it is to drop everything and fix that structural problem right then, I wait. I read through the rest of the book as if I have already made the change, and mark any other places where the new story element might clash with what is already there. In the margins, I mark the necessary changes.

After this read-through, I note on the last page my impressions:

• How does this story's ending leave me feeling?
• What do I think of the main character's behaviors? Are they relatable and believable, and do I approve of them?
• Does the ending feel natural or contrived? Did it take some work to arrive there or was it predictable and too easy?
• What major alterations must be made? What's my plan of attack for those problems?

I set it aside again and give myself time away from the manuscript, just to mull it over. It is rare for me to get a breakthrough while sitting at my desk. I get inspiration through living my daily life, so setting the manuscript aside and letting it cool, so to speak, is essential to my process.

After the cooling period, I pick it back up, and take it to the computer. I find the page numbers with the most red and start implementing my plan of attack. 

I always enjoy learning about other writers' processes, particularly revision. How do you tackle that first revision? 

Wednesday Debut Interview - Call for Debut Authors!!

I love hearing about the exciting time in an author's life when their first novel that they've put so much work into finally becomes available to the world! Six months ago, I started posting interviews of some of these debut authors, and now I'm looking for more authors to hear from for the next year!

In the interest of variety, I'm putting out the call here for debuts in all categories (children's books, chapter books, middle grade, YA, New Adult, and Adult) and all publication routes (self-pub, small/independent press, and trade publishing). I'll be featuring two per month, so not every one will be selected, but if you are interested in participating, please email me at wendynikel @ gmail.com (no spaces) with the following information:

- byline/pen name

- name of book

- publisher

- release date

- genre/category

As of right now, I'm only looking for authors who have not had a novel previously published and only authors whose debut books will be published in the following months (I will update this list as spots are filled) --

Nov 2015

Dec 2015

Jan 2016

Feb 2016

Mar 2016

Apr 2016

May 2016

Jun 2016

Wondering what sort of questions these interviews will entail? Check out these previous interviews:

• Fractured Immortal by E.L. Wicker
• Tunnel Vision by Susan Adrian
• Heartsick by Caitlin Sinead
• Sachael Dreams by Melody Winter
• Fairy Keeper by Amy Bearce
• Everything That Makes You by Moriah McStay
• Any Way You Slice It by Kristine Asselin
• Nobody's Goddess by Amy McNulty
• Anna, Banana, and the Friendship Split by Anica Mrose Rissi
• The Tulip Resistance by Lynne Leathan Allen
• Run Away by Laura Slaters
• The Rearranged Life by Annika Sharma
• Secret of the Sevens by Lynn Lindquist
• Survival Strategies of the Almost Brave by Jen White
• Syeira by Gill L. Holland

First Drafts: Camp NaNoWriMo!

Today, I'm wrapping up our July writing tips on first drafts by talking about one of my favorite times of the year to hammer out a first draft: Camp NaNoWriMo!

For those of you for whom November means the stress and chaos of holidays and/or school year obligations, the lovely folks of NaNoWriMo (that's National Novel Writing Month) offer two additional opportunities for the camaraderie and excitement of the NaNoWriMo challenge: one "camp" in May and another in July.

Unlike regular NaNoWriMo, in which all participants are encouraged to write a 50,000-word novel in the 30 days of November, in Camp NaNoWriMo writers can set their own goals. Feel like writing a 25,000-word MG novel? Great! Want to challenge yourself to a 100,000-word high fantasy novel? Go for it! Determined to finish a 1,000-word flash fiction piece each day? That works, too!

What's more, in Camp NaNoWriMo, you can choose to be placed in "cabins" -- groups of up to 12 writers (either invited by you or randomly picked) who share their own private chatroom that allows these small teams to cheer one another on throughout the month.

Just like NaNoWriMo, the camps help writers stay on track with their daily writing goals, provide encouragement and support, and facilitate opportunities for writers to connect with others who enjoy writing, too -- locally and around the world!

You've still got a few days to sign up -- just head on over to the Camp NaNoWriMo website and join the fun!

Weekend Writing Prompts: a Rumor, a Coma, and a Thousand Years

Welcome to another gorgeous Friday at Operation Awesome! If you're writing this weekend, or even if you weren't planning on it, give these prompts a try. They may just help you get your creative juices flowing!

Prompt a) The ballroom din falls to a hush as your main character enters alone. Nothing but the swishing of ball gowns and whispers fills the empty air. What are they whispering about? How does your character react? Is he or she stoic, melancholy, or jubilant? 


Prompt b) She's been jumping in and out of books in the old magic library for the better part of three days, and she still can't find the one her dad read to her before he fell into his coma. She's certain the villain of that story had something to do with it, and the answer to reviving him lies in that same story. If only she could remember the title, or the author, or anything. Why had she been half paying attention during his reading? What part of that world had distracted her from the main plot which had so affected her father? How does she feel about her mother's reaction to the coma? What will happen to her family if she doesn't find the book and save her dad?


Prompt c) To Sam, every thousand years of humanity is simply a day. In the morning, he sees one civilization rise, and in the evening, he raises a generation of warriors to re-establish order after a period of anarchy. Every half hour is a little more than 20 years, and he's weary. A time travel experiment gone awry has doomed him to this strange and disconnected existence. Humans regard him as a god, not something that was once human like themselves. Their lives are like sand slipping through his fingers, and his relationships are with family lines, not individuals. Love is out of the question. Is there any hope for Sam? How could he possibly get out of the time warp he's in, and would his problems be solved if, say, he resumed human life, only to end up in a time period of war and unrest? Can he have romance after all, or is he doomed to be alone forever? Where is the end of time?


From shallow to deep. What did you come up with? If you use one of our prompts, we'd love to hear about it in the comments! Happy weekend and happy writing!

UtopYA Con 2015 and Beyond

One of my original critique partners, Christina Mercer, started going to the UtopYA Con in Nashville a few years back, and raved about the experience. Which is why that con was the first one to come to mind when I decided earlier this year that I wanted to travel to a fun con as a debut author.

It took some planning (and more money than I anticipated) to be able to attend this year, and I'm so glad I did! UtopYA started with a focus on YA paranormal and fantasy books, and has evolved over its four-year lifetime. For 2016 and the fifth year, they're expanding the scope to include MG through Adult categories, in the paranormal, fantasy, and contemporary genres, with a name change to Utopia Con to reflect that it's not just YA any longer.

Panel on "Is Time Travel Really Possible?" with Myra McIntyre, PK Hrezo (an Operation Awesome alumna), Robert Scherrer, Rysa Walker, and Sherry Ficklin

This is the most fan-based con I've ever gone to, and there was so much enthusiasm given to each and every author--we all joked that we're spoiled for other cons now, because we know what it's like to go to a great one. EVERYONE I interacted with was friendly and welcoming, and the creepster factor encountered at a lot of cons was nearly completely absent (I only heard of one incident with a member of the public trying to push his book idea on authors on fan day). Oh, and I got to have fellow Operative Karen McCoy as a housemate!

For me and Crow's Rest, going to UtopYA Con allowed me to peek into an entire other world of bloggers and fans that I haven't been tapping into. These authors (mostly indie- and self-published, and even trad pubbed authors like Rachel Harris) at UtopYA were doing everything right, and have a fan base that I wasn't even aware of. I hadn't ever heard of many of them before the Con, and yet they had fans traveling cross-country to squee over meeting them--and then those fans bought every single print book by that author to get it signed. I know of several people that left with close to 200 books they'd purchased at UtopYA. 

And not only did the con offer good-quality workshops, panels, and talks, there were tons of opportunity for letting loose! On karaoke night, the theme was time travel, so I wore one of my steampunk outfits and got lots of compliments

L to R: me, Karen McCoy, Michelle Kellogg, and Lora Beth Johnson

Karen and I rented a condo with critique partner Alison Kemper, and we got out into the humidity for a walk and to see some of Nashville. We were located on the Cumberland river and my photographer side fell in love with all the rusted metal

The railroad bridge near our condo

The drawbridge upriver from our condo

The view from our balcony

A statue of a French dude which I mocked mercilessly

And then on Saturday, there was a Fan Day and signing event, and Alison and I both had tables set up

Alison's books are rom-zom-com (romantic zombie comedy), so she gave out eyeball lollipops at her blood-spattered table

My display included my trailer on a loop, free bookplates, buttons, and bookmarks. You can't see it in this picture, but my skirt has blackbirds embroidered on it!

On Sunday, one of the attendees, Eva Pohler, organized a tour of the Parthenon replica in Nashville's Centennial Park.

I know I'm not doing this con justice--there were just so many cool things that happened, large and small--oh, oh, we saw nuns playing basketball!

Actually, that unintenionally-rhyming brain detour captured it pretty well! I'm still on overload and trying to process all the things I learned and saw. I even got video of Karen's lip sync contest performance, but it didn't turn out well. The best footage is in another post by Michelle Kellogg if you'd like to see her in action.

I really hope to be able to swing the finances to attend again next year--will I see any of you there?