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The Awakening Blog Tour : Tips on Editing #RLFblog #AmWriting #MFRWauthor
An editor is a crucial piece of the publishing puzzle and your relationship can make or break a project. Don’t make the same mistakes I did.
There is something to be said about the rush you get when you finally type the words “THE END” into a manuscript. You have put your heart and soul into the page and for me, it was like I finally reached the top of a mountain. Little did I know it was just the first plateau.
I had been fortunate by this time to have worked with some of the best self-publishing authors in the business and knew that editing was going to be a beast. I was a first time author for goodness sake. I thought it would be perfect to team up with a good friend who wanted to get into editing. This played out like a bad horror movie where everyone could see the monster behind the curtain but you.
I first want to go on record that the editor in question is an amazing editor. She really did help polish The Awakening into what it is today. Also, had I continued working with her it would probably be 1,000 times better. Yet, I know it would have lost the harried style that I was truly going for. We ultimately parted ways amicably and I shelved my book for four years because I lost all confidence in the project.
Finally, I couldn’t stand seeing all the Facebook Memories showing me a project that I truly loved. I went through and got the story edited and finally pushed publish on it. I figure that it was never going to win a Pulitzer, but it is a fun addition to vampire lore that is worth telling.
So what advice do I have for someone who is finishing up their novel?
Do your research! Talk to your editor about what they like to read and do a first chapter edit. It gives both of you the opportunity to see if you want to work together.
Remember that as a self-published author, you are the boss. Don’t let anyone discourage you from publishing if that is what you want to do.
The editor is ultimately out to create the best version of the story. If you have done your research and know that they are a good fit, then trust what they are saying.
The Awakening by JP Adkins
What would you do if you found out you were genetically a Vampire? Would you embrace it or run? I have found that power is a strange
thing – sometimes it pulls you into places you never knew you would go. I have done things that most have only dreamed of; ran through walls, jumped off buildings but it all seems like folly.I am what happens when genetics mutate, when the species collide, when the beauty can’t resist the beast. I can’t infect with my kiss, but I can awaken with my seed — if they are a mutation such as I.The Awakening Genre Paranormal
Book heat level (based on movie ratings): R
Publisher: http://trueawesome.com/publishing
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34647318-the-awakening
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XRFPLGX/
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/712655
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-awakening-jp-adkins/1126059455?ean=2940154080863
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-awakening/id1220166996?mt=11
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-awakening-192JP Adkins Social Media
JP Adkins sees it as his mission in life to help you realize your dreams and to uplift your mood. He is a celebrated graphic ,web , and clothing designer, has helped many authors publish their books, and has recently published his first novel, The Awakening.
JP Adkins gets pleasure in finding ways to make life more beautiful for himself and those around him. His dream is to travel the country writing inspirational stories and leading meditations wherever he goes. He believes too many times we allow ourselves to quit trying because we tell ourselves we don’t know how, we don’t have the money, and we aren’t good enough. He wants to inspire others to take the inspired action required to design their lives. In his quest to serve the world, he has taken the first steps in ordainment in the Order of the Jedi. You Are Loved!
Website http://jpadkinsdesign.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/jeffmp3
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JeffPAdkins
Google + https://plus.google.com/+JPAdkinsdesign
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/jeffmp3/
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/19185768-jp-adkins
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/JP-Adkins/e/B06XRWNTS7/
Newsletter http://rssmix.com/u/8230277/rss.xml -
Marilyn Baron: A Gem of a Blogger @MarilynBaron #RLFblog
In preparation for the move from Blogspot to WordPress, I’m sharing the RLF Gem Bloggers of this site. Each Saturday for the next few weeks, I’ll showcase a different author.2014 Star Blogger: Marilyn Baron
Marilyn has appeared on the Romance Lives Forever blog seven times. She has been an RLF Gem multiple times and was on the list of Bloggers of the Year in 2014. The position is chosen by the amount of visits the author’s post receives.I’m proud to present Marilyn with the 2014 RLF Gem Award.Others who won monthly top blogger awards in 2014 were Daisy Banks, Vicki Batman, E Ayers, and JD Faver.About Marilyn Baron
Marilyn Baron is a public relations consultant in Atlanta. She’s a member of Marketing for Romance Writers, Romance Writers of America and
Georgia Romance Writers (GRW) and the recipient of the GRW 2009 Chapter Service Award. She writes humorous women’s fiction, romantic thrillers/suspense, historicals and paranormal. She has won writing awards in Single Title, Suspense Romance and Paranormal/Fantasy Romance.
Website www.marilynbaron.com
Blog www.petitfoursandhottamales.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/MarilynBaron
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marilyn-Baron/286807714666748?fref=ts
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4722647.Marilyn_Baron
Amazon Author Page http://www.amazon.com/Marilyn-Baron/e/B008PJFQPC/Marilyn Baron’s Latest Book
Marilyn’s 20th work of fiction, The Vampire Next Door, a paranormal romance, is now available for pre-order. The worldwide release date for the novel is June 9, 2017. Aurora Dawn Hale, the ravishing daughter and granddaughter of psychics, wants to take a bite out of the boy next door, reformed vampire Lancelot “Lance” Lakeland, who repents his past and desperately desires to be good. Lance has given up immortality to be with the woman he craves. He must convince Aurora Dawn he is worthy of her trust. Will she love him for who he is and leave her fiancé at the altar? Or wake up from her spell in time to recognize the evil presence of the fiend who has terrorized her family for centuries?
Preorder The Vampire Next Door https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071CSXPXM/
Coming next Saturday…Top Blogger for 2015. Come back and see who it is! Visit the new blog – still under construction: RLFblog. Since the hashtag is #RLFblog, that’s the url for the new site. It will keep the name Romance Lives Forever.
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Is It True: The Reluctant Wife @warfieldcaro #historicalromance #RLFblog
Play Is It True with today’s guest Caroline Warfield author of The Reluctant Wife, a Historical Romance set in 1835. This is a game in which authors answer yes and no questions. They can elaborate on answers as much as they choose.
First, tell us about your book.
Book heat level (based on movie ratings): R (or maybe PG13 with extra caution)
When Bengal Army Captain Fred Wheatly, a disgraced soldier with more honor than sense, is forced to resign, and his mistress dies leaving him with two half-caste daughters to raise, he reluctantly turns to Clare Armbruster for help. But the interfering, beautiful widow demands more of him than he’s ready to give. He’s failed so often in the past. Clare’s made mistakes as well. Can two hearts rise above past failures to forge a future together?
When all else fails, love succeeds…
Now, tell us Yes or No for each answer below. Feel free to explain any (or none) of your answers.
Is it true:
this is your first book?
No.
this book is part of a series?
Yes. The Children of Empire series is about three cousins torn apart by lies and deceit and driven to the far reaches of the empire, who struggle to find their way home. Each has is own problems to overcome and each one finds happiness his own way.
you lost sleep while writing this book?
No.
you did research for this book?
Oh yes. Quite a lot, especially about the East India Company, Bengal, and travel between England and Calcutta. I was astonished to discover the India Mail’s overland route through Suez across the desert to Cairo, then Alexandria and on to London. It was fun to put them there.
some characters in this book are not human?
Yes. (The hero’s horse-grin!)
this book has more than one genre?
No.
you speak more than one language?
Yes, French, but not well. I can read Latin as well but I’ve forgotten all my Mandarin.
you grew up where you live now?
Hardly! I was an army brat. By the time I was six we had lived in the midwest, New England the Deep South and Europe. We recently moved here to be close to our grandson.
you love to read?
Yes.
you are never late?
No. I am clock impaired.
you love pizza?
Yes Thin crust with lots of fresh tomatoes and other veggies.
you love sushi?
No. Never touch the stuff, but I’m proficient with chopsticks and love most other Asian cuisine.
you have a pet?
No. We travel too much to keep one.Where can we find your book online?
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Reluctant-Wife-Children-Empire-Book-ebook/dp/B06Y4BGMX1/
Caroline Warfield Social Media
Traveler, poet, librarian, technology manager—award winning author Caroline Warfield has been many things (even a nun), but above all she is a romantic. Having retired to the urban wilds of eastern Pennsylvania, she reckons she is on at least her third act, happily working in an office surrounded by windows while she lets her characters lead her to adventures in England and the far-flung corners of the British Empire. She nudges them to explore the riskiest territory of all, the human heart.
Caroline is a RONE award winner and has five star reviews from Readers’ Favorite, Night Owl Reviews, and InD’Tale. She is also a member of the writers’ co-operative, the Bluestocking Belles. With partners she manages and regularly writes for both The Teatime Tattler and History Imagined.
Website http://www.carolinewarfield.com/
Blog http://www.carolinewarfield.com/authors-blog/
Twitter https://twitter.com/CaroWarfield/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/carolinewarfield7
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/warfieldcaro/
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8523742.Caroline_Warfield
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Caroline-Warfield/e/B00N9PZZZS/
Newsletter http://www.carolinewarfield.com/newsletter/ -
A Noble Sacrifice by @ciaragold #RLFblog #futuristic #scifi
Today’s featured book is A Noble Sacrifice, a science fiction futuristic romance by Ciara Gold.Book heat level (based on movie ratings): R
Fen Tared Charst has betrayed his brother, and his people. To right the wrongs he’s done, he suffers the horrors of the zeel pits only to find himself a captive of the Temi tribe. In Yalfar, he discovers that leading the Temi princess and her warriors from their dying world is the key to his redemption. But losing his heart to Princess Joyella will be the key to saving his soul.
Princess Joyella Denue has broken a sacred law and for that, she is exiled from Yalfar. To regain her honor, she agrees to lead a convoy topside to escape the collapsing city, but she can’t make the journey alone. She needs someone who has traversed the path to guide her. Tared is forced to help her, but he soon becomes more than just a guide, he becomes her heart.Publisher http://goo.gl/ncuY1J
Amazon http://goo.gl/uP5J2R
Barnes and Noble http://goo.gl/GWixE8Ciara Gold Social Media
Ciara wrote her first “under the bed” book at twenty. Another fifteen years passed before she bravely attempted another, but she’s been happily writing ever since. A true Renaissance woman, when she’s not penning lively stories, she’s reading, sewing, painting, camping, sailing or dancing. At the moment, she’s currently helping hubby build a cabin so she can add construction worker to the list as well. A recent empty nester, she and her soul mate currently live on a modest plot of land surrounded by trees, a pond, an array of wildlife and seven barn kitties.
Website www.ciaragold.com
Blog http://ciaragold.blogspot.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/ciaragold
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ciaragold
Goodreads http://goo.gl/ebcxKR
Amazon Author Page http://goo.gl/oTWhDG -
Prejudice: A Problem as Old as Time @LMBrownAuthor #RLFblog #LGBT
There is one theme that is common in many gay romance
stories, and that is the prejudices against homosexual people and how they deal
with the barriers caused by prejudices.As though who have read earlier books in my series will
already know, while same-sex relations were forbidden for the merpeople of
Atlantis it wasn’t due to any religious reason, but rather because the race is
close to extinction, and the mating rituals imposed by the rulers of the sunken
city of Atlantis were introduced to try to prevent them from dying out
entirely.That doesn’t mean that prejudices are going to be completely
absent from the series and in Shifting Currents the divisions between the
merpeople and the Atlanteans who once inhabited the city are thrown into the
limelight.In this post I am going to go into a bit of the historical
background as to how the issues between merfolk and the human Atlanteans came
about.In the history of my world Atlantis didn’t just vanish below
the ocean in some cataclysmic event or devastating storm. Instead, it was
deliberately hidden on the sea floor by the Atlantean gods in an attempt to
save the humans who worshiped them from the coming war of other ancient
peoples. The Atlanteans were gifted with the power to survive at the great
depths and continued to live in the city that had been their home for so many
years.The merpeople, who lived in the waters around Atlantis,
welcomed the Atlanteans and helped teach them to farm the fruits of the ocean
and thrive in the water, just as they did.Unfortunately, when two such vastly different races are
thrown together in close quarters, there will always be issues. The two
communities, while living in the same waters, never fully integrated, and there
were plenty of Atlanteans who thought the merpeople shouldn’t live in Atlantis.
Atlantis for the Atlanteans became the common cry from those who saw the
merpeople not as friendly allies, but as half-animal creatures to be looked
down upon and driven out of the sacred city of Atlantis.Two races, both seeing their claim on the land/waters as
equally valid, were going to come to blows sooner or later.Delwyn, a merman with the power to see into the past, and
Fabian, an Atlantean living hundreds of years before Delwyn was born, are going
to have to overcome these prejudices if they intend to make a life together.Shifting Currents by LM Brown
Can a merman and an Atlantean, separated by centuries and
prejudices, find love together?Merman Delwyn is an Oracle of the past. He loves nothing
better than observing the comings and goings of those who lived centuries
before he was born. His favorite time period to visit is when both Atlantean
and mer inhabited the sunken city of Atlantis, and his guilty pleasure is
watching lovers come together in passion. Secure in the knowledge that no one
can see him when he’s viewing the past, nothing can prepare Delwyn for the
moment Fabian, an Atlantean living in the past, speaks to him.Fabian is a man with divided loyalties. The demi-god son of
the Goddess of Sea Creatures has sworn to serve the Goddess of Prophecy as her
Oracle of the present. His unique status gives him the power to see anything in
the present, including the mysterious merman voyeur from the distant future.Despite the centuries that separate them, Delwyn and Fabian
find they have a lot in common and quickly form a friendship that both hope one
day will become something more. But before they can be together in the present,
Delwyn and Fabian must unravel the mysteries of the past.Only time will tell if the truth about the long-since
vanished Atlanteans will bring them together or tear them apart, as the battle
for the sunken city of Atlantis begins.Genre: Erotic Romance, Fantasy, Gay, ParanormalBuy Shifting Currents
Publisher: Pride Publishing https://www.pride-publishing.com/book/shifting-currents
By the time this post goes live Shifting Currents will be available at Amazon
and other online stores. Click here for the links:
https://lmbrownauthor.wordpress.com/bookshelf/series/mermen-magic-series/shifting-currents-4-novel/LM Brown Social Media
LM is an English writer of gay romances. She believes that
there is nothing hotter or sweeter than two men in love with each other… unless
it is three.When L.M. Brown isn’t bribing her fur babies for control of
the laptop, she can usually be found with her nose in a book.
Website and Blog http://lmbrownauthor.wordpress.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/LMBrownAuthor
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/L.M.Brown.authorRomance Lives Forever
Discover Books and Authors with Kayelle Allen
http://romancelivesforever.blogspot.com -
Meet Tarrant Cooper from Drakon’s Prey @njwaltersauthor #RLFblog #PNR
Welcome Tarrant Cooper from Drakon’s Prey, a new paranormal
romance.Genre Paranormal RomanceBook heat level (based on movie ratings): RValeriya Azarov turned her back on the family business to
write and illustrate children’s books. But with a sister who leads the Knights
of the Dragon, it’s impossible to get away from the secret society whose
mission is to destroy and enslave dragons. When information falls into her
hands along with the opportunity to save at least one of the ancient creatures,
she can’t turn away any longer.When a woman moves into the cabin above Tarrant Cooper’s
secret underground lair, he’s both suspicious and intrigued. He hasn’t lasted
four thousand years being careless, so when he suspects her of being a part of
the Knights, the plan is to kidnap her and find out how much the organization
knows about him and his brothers.He’s drawn to Valeriya, but trusting her could get him
killed. Even if she’s a pawn in the war between drakons and Knights, giving her
his heart would mean forever.Introducing Tarrant Cooper
Age: 4000 years, give or take a fewGender: maleBirthplace: A small village in the Middle East that has long
since gone to dust.Profession: I basically control the airwaves.Ethnicity/ Species (for scifi/fantasy characters): I’m a
drakon, the son of a dragon and a human woman.Please provide a
physical description of yourself.In my human form, I’m 6’8″ with short black hair and blue
eyes. I have a tattoo that covers the entire left side of my body from my neck
to my ankles. It’s a birthmark and is a swirling pattern that is silver and
outlined in the same blue as my eyes.Please tell us a little about yourself.I’m a drakon. That means I don’t like to talk about myself.
The less people who know about my kind, the better.Who is the significant
other in your life?My Valeriya. She’s one of a kind and she’s mine. *growls
possessively*Are you book-smart, self-taught,
widely-experienced?I’m self-taught and widely-experienced. *laughs* I’ve been
around for a very, very long time. I’ve watched mankind go from mostly
illiterate to everyone having books and information at their fingertips. From
primate communication to now having a good chunk of the population walking
around with a cell phone stuck against their ear.Do you get by, live comfortably,
live extravagantly?I’m comfortable in my below-ground
lair. It has everything I need. My biggest expense is my computer equipment.
Money doesn’t mean much to me. I have more than enough for a hundred lifetimes.
And I can always make more.Are you close to family?I’m close to my brothers. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do
or no one I wouldn’t kill to protect them. And now I have my Valeriya. She’s
everything to me.How well do you know your
neighbors?*snorts* I don’t have neighbors. I live in an underground
bunker in the middle of nowhere. And that’s the way I like it.What secrets do you know
about people around you that you do NOT share?Nothing is a secret from me. Information is my passion, my
life’s blood. If it’s out there, I can find it. There is nowhere I can’t go
online. I mostly don’t care what people do as long as they leave me and mine
alone. If they don’t…What are your biggest
hopes and dreams?I want to destroy the Knights of the Dragon and live in peace
with Valeriya. The Knights have been hunting my kind for centuries and we’ve
mostly left them alone. This time, they’ve gone too far and I’m taking the hunt
to them.Publisher https://entangledpublishing.com/drakon-s-prey.html
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Drakons-Prey-Blood-Drakon-Walters-ebook/dp/B06Y13T99M
Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/drakons-prey-nj-walters/1126093512;jsessionid=D585F1F184B630316A6D61EF1964024D.prodny_store02-atgap09?ean=9781633759336
Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/drakon-s-prey
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/drakons-prey/id1222683091NJ Walters’ Social Media
NJ is a New York Times
and USA Today bestselling author who
has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels
of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, time-travelers, seductive handymen,
and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention.
It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.Website http://www.njwalters.com
Blog http://www.njwalters.blogspot.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/njwaltersauthor
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/N.J.WaltersAuthor
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/NJWalters
Amazon Author Page http://www.amazon.com/author/njwalters
Newsletter https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/awakeningdesires/infoRomance Lives Forever
Discover Books and Authors with Kayelle Allen
http://romancelivesforever.blogspot.comYou May Also Like
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