Making a splash today on my blog, it's Anna Kringle! Here's a little bit about her, but please note that she is not the same Princess Anna with an ice Queen for a sister: Anna is a bubbly fairy princess from a small country town far, far away. Raised around rednecks and obsessively muddy trucks, She was faced with a strange need to fill empty paper with words. So she decided she might as well write stories. With the help of her friendly mice and other neighborhood animals, she has worked very hard to make this hobby a profession, and hopes to make the world a bright and colorful place through her works. Anna is working on her next book in between slaying dragons and leading the children of her realm on a musical revolt against normality. Here are the questions Anna so graciously answered for me: D.R.- Dancing or singing? Anna- Both, generally at the same time. I have a soft spot for Swing dancing though. D.R.- Beach or woods? Anna- The beach, I think. It's a bit chilly, but I love the fresh air off the water and the tumultuous openness of the ocean. D.R.- Coffee or tea or something else? Anna- Both again. I love coffee, but I have a low tolerance for it. And some days just call for the soothing warmth of tea. D.R.- What book do you recommend the most? Anna- Hands down, The Emperor's Edge by Lindsay Buroker. It's an impressive adventure, very well written. It's my favorite to get lost in, and inspired a lot of me favorite ideas. D.R.- How do you get ideas for stories? Anna- From little things and big things; it all goes into my brain, gets analyzed and cross-referenced until something jumps out. It's usually a small something: a character, or a situation. And then I have to figure out how the situation came to be, and who all affected it, and before I know it, I have a story! D.R.- Which genres do you write and what's your favorite one? Anna- My favorite is Steampunk, all of my books have that influence. I love the quirky twist it gives to the worlds, and the freedom to create a variety of new cultures and gadgets. D.R.- What do you do if you see your idea has already been done? Anna- I honestly don't worry about it to much. I know that no one has my brain, so even if our stories are similar, we'll still have unique journeys. A story doesn't have to be singular to be great. It just has to be real, and have the ability to connect people. D.R.- What's your best writer's block buster? Anna- I'm sneaky: I work around it. If I can't make progress on a scene, I jump ahead and work backward toward the block. Or if I'm stuck on the whole project, I'll jump to another one until I get the gears moving again. D.R.- What's the best advice you've gotten about writing? Anna- Probably “Leave well enough alone.” It's part of the creative life to always want to “fix” your creations; they never appear good enough to ourselves. I've had to train myself to let go and put it forward anyways, accepting that it's great as it is, and allowing myself to be proud of the accomplishment. D.R.- Tell me about the biggest surprise your own character, story, or setting has given you. Anna- Ooh, I can't tell you that... It hasn't been published yet! My characters surprise me regularly though. I have had great plans for them, only to have them choose a different path in the final draft. It's actually quite heartening. I like knowing I can be surprised by my own imagination. For even more about Anna, you can find her just about everywhere on the internet. She's even on DeviantArt! Here's the rest: Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Google+, Author Central, Barnes and Noble, and her website.
0 Comments
Hey, bloglet fans, here's the first interview for the tour. Welcome, Leslie Conzatti! Have a look at this gorgeous cover for one of her works right here. Leslie Conzatti is an avid reader, a passionate writer, and a committed lover of all things fantasy. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she has been running the blog “The Upstream Writer” since the beginning of 2013, to promote her own writing and as a medium for interacting with readers. In addition, “The Upstream Writer” is an “indie book blog” as well, since Leslie willingly uses it as an excuse to get free books. (to review, of course!) Leslie’s “day job” is a staff assistant at a local elementary school. She is currently in the process of publishing her first novella, "The Princess of Undersea," and hopes to be ready for release by the fall! Mermaids are marvelous, darling. Simply marvelous! Ahem. Okay, here are the questions Leslie so graciously answered for me. D.R.- Dancing or singing? Leslie- BOTH. No, but I am definitely better at singing. But I LOVE dancing... Like watching other people dance, or wishing I could dance, or fantasizing about being able to dance like that... D.R.- Beach or woods? Leslie- BOTH AGAIN. :) But probably woods more, since the beach is sort of exposed and the woods are just more peaceful to me. D.R.- Coffee or tea or something else? Leslie- COFFEE 100%. I have tried to like tea, I really have. But no, coffee wins this one. D.R.- What's the food or drink you always tell other people to try? Leslie- Jicama—a root vegetable with the texture of raw potato but it's sweet and juicy like an apple. Not many people have heard of that one. Huckleberry—my favorite berry, exceptional because it's rare in non-mountainous areas. They grow wild here in the Cascade mountains, so every year we head up and pick a few gallons to have. They're small and the flavor is intense, like a super-condensed blueberry. I love it. Gnocchi—(nYOKE-key) A traditional potato pasta that is part of my Italian heritage. My grandma taught my mom how to make them, and we still make it exactly that way every year for Easter. They are dense, rich little potato dumplings, drenched in red or white or pesto sauce—molto bene! D.R.- What book do you recommend the most? Leslie- I can't answer that; not because I don't have a recommended book, but because I have hundreds. I would just direct your attention to the Reader's Review page on my blog, and just pick the one that sounds most interesting to you! (All I ask is that you leave a comment telling me which one you liked, just so I know the kinds of books my followers enjoy hearing about!) D.R.- Where is the one place you think everyone should go? Leslie- Not having been many places myself, I can't really say, but a dream of mine is to tour the British Isles someday! D.R.- How do you get ideas for stories? Leslie- There have been a few times I dreamed a scene and then woke up and made a story to go with it. Most of the time, I think like a fanfiction writer: I think about a story or an idea I like, some book that I wish existed because I want to read it—and then I write it myself. D.R.- Which genres do you write and what's your favorite one? Leslie- When I write, I usually gravitate toward fantasy, either urban fantasy or high fantasy. I also do some sci-fi of the cyberpunk variety, and sometimes I'll end up with something akin to contemporary fiction, but fantasy wins most of the time, particularly if there are dragons or mermaids involved. D.R. Perry- What's your best writer's block buster? Leslie- There inevitably comes a time when I am writing and then I hit a snag; but while I am writing, I allow for the times when a new, different idea crops up when I am in the middle of writing something. I let things do that, and I just start jotting down notes for the new idea, because invariably, when one project stumps me, suddenly the plot of another idea becomes crystal-clear. So I tend to jump around ideas, depending on where my mind is at. It helps, too, to read books in many different genres and watch TV shows that sound interesting to me, becomes sometimes a story I have not written can give me ideas for my own projects. Whatever I do, I don't force it out. D.R.- What's the best advice you've gotten about writing? Leslie- Your first draft is never your last one. You WILL rewrite—several times—so don't get too attached to any one scene. Pay attention to the story; if the scene contains necessary information and it fits the narrative, you can keep it. If it's just a "fun part" but it really doesn't add anything, or there's a better way to say it, then the scene is just taking up space and it has to go. D.R.- Tell me about the biggest surprise your own character, story, or setting has given you. Leslie- That would probably be the moment that I realized that this main character in my first full-length original fantasy novel, the one with so much untapped potential, was destined to be a writer. It came as a surprise because I didn't know the world I created was going to have writers; there were no books to speak of, and storytelling was kind of taboo, a forbidden magic art normally used to create specialized objects like clothes, earthenware, and jewelry. It was called "Wordspinning" and I thought my main character was just going to be part of one particular "guild" out of the syndicate of four guilds. But then she showed signs of being able to interact with all the groups, and yet her skills seemed inherently distinct from them... Then I realized there was a fifth guild, a guild of writers whose job it was to write down the tales that the other Wordspinners told... and by the end of that train of thought, I had a whole series of four books planned. So that was unexpected. Check out the slideshow to see more images from Leslie and find links to her Facebook, blog, and Wattpad! This week, C.A. King interviewed me! Check it out right over here!
Have you read any great books lately? If so, that's awesome! But you want to read more, right? If not, here's an awesomesauce way to find some. It's a book tour that you don't even have to leave your house for. And we're all already tired from walking around playing Pokemon GO, so we could use a nice rest with a book. For the next month and change, I'll post interviews from some of my fellow authors. You can click their names to see their blogs, where they'll be doing their own interviews every Monday. Here's a little schedule for you: July 11: Opening Blog July 18: Leslie Conzatti July 25: Anna Kringle August 1: Susan Ferrell August 8: Kristan L. Cannon August 15: Guest Interview August 22: Ashley Nestler August 29: Cat Banks September 5: Carol Ann King You'll have a new author to check out all the way through Labor Day weekend. These authors write all kinds of genres, plus there's cool things to see and read about on their websites and blogs. But you're wondering by now, "what's up with August 15th? Who in the world is this mysterious guest author of mysteriousness?" Well, you'll have to stop by right smack in the middle of the dog days to find out! Oh hey, and check out the slideshow for a look at some of the stuff you'll be seeing.
Monday, June 20th is the longest day of the year. It's also #TheLongestDay, a 12 hour charity event where my team, The Night Watchmen, does a write-a-thon. But I'm not just writing that day. I'll be at the Warwick, Rhode Island Barnes and Noble from 2pm-3pm with copies of The Longest Night Watch Anthology. The local Alzheimer's Association chapter is having a day-long event, and I get to be a part of it! I'm so excited to do more to help #EndALZ
Here's my donation page, in case you want to help find a cure for Alzheimer's. And here's a link to the anthology, so you can get either an ebook or paperback version for yourself. If you've been keeping up with the series, you already know book 4 is Blaine Harcourt's story. He's sharing the spotlight with Kimiko Ichiro! The title is Dragon My Heart Around. Here's the teaser:
What’s luck got to do with it? Dragon shifter Blaine Harcourt’s bewildered when he catches a woman robbing his parents’ Newport Mansion. It gets worse when they leave him in charge of her punishment. His step-dad says it’s time to prove he’s worthy of his future inheritance. His mother just blames him for the whole thing. Blaine’s so angry he just can’t even. Kimiko Ichiro only wanted to replace what she stole from her father. It’s not her fault the only luck charms powerful enough to stop his rapid aging are in the Harcourt hoard. Robbing powerful dragon shifters seemed like the only way. Besides, thievery’s no big deal to a Tanuki. Blaine’s used to dealing with books and artifacts, not brilliantly dishonest women. Is Kimiko just using her feminine wiles to hoodwink him, or is something else at play here? And how did she get into the Harcourt’s magically sealed vault in the first place? Could Blaine’s part in foiling an evil magus be the reason for his bad luck, and can Kimiko help him turn it around? Dragon My Heart Around will be out in about a week on Kindle, in Kindle Unlimited, and paperback. I'm so excited! I'm so excited to read both of these! The one on the left is the Stardust, Always anthology to benefit St. Jude's Research. The one on the right is the first book of The Portal Prophecies by C.A. King. Click the pictures to find these books for yourself, in either paperback or ebook format! While I read, I plan to listen to some music by this amazing fellow. Going to the country,
Gonna meet a lot of authors Going to the country Gonna meet a lot of authors. Ahem. Well I sure am glad authors don't come from a can and were put there by a man in a factory downtown. Sounds pretty uncomfortable and not my kind of party. At. All. But the North Scituate Farmer's Market isn't remotely like being inside a can. It's nice and open, no need for a can opener. It even has a gazebo, though I recommend bringing friends if you plan to face it. No one should face the gazebo alone. Anyway, if you're in Rhode Island this Saturday morning, why not get some fresh air, good food, and spiffy new reading material? I'll be there with at least my first two books (Book 3 is still in the mail) and a pen. A gaggle of other authors will be there, too, courtesy of ARIA. The farmer's market has a spiffy directions page and everything. I can't believe what happened. Let me show you! Yup, that's Barely Awake, sitting right next to Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel, Mort. It happened last night, which really put a dent in my sleep time. I don't mind. That's what coffee is for!
It's out in ebook form here. Here's the description:
If you don’t own your mistakes they’ll own you. Wolf shifter Josh Dennison shouldn’t tempt coincidence, or he’ll end up ill-fated, like his missing brother and maimed sister. The wolves pledged neutrality when the Goblin King and Sidhe Queen split up centuries ago. But he’s falling for the one woman he can’t have, a Kelpie whose magic comes straight from the Goblin King’s court. Nox Phillips has hidden on campus since she undid the Queen’s punishing spell. When she and Josh work together again, their mutual attraction can’t be denied. But for any favor shown to one Faerie court, a price must be paid to the other. Nothing can erase Nox’s guilt or prevent the Sidhe Queen from putting her on trial. How far will Josh go to save her? Tomorrow morning, I'll be hosting for an hour to benefit the Canadian Red Cross in its efforts to help the people of Alberta. I'll be taking over at 10am EST. Join me for an hour of fun book chat and stick around for the other authors, including E.A. Copen, J.D. Cunegan, and Carol Ann King!
Hey guys! I have a guest post from a colleague and fellow writer! Hi, Brandon! Thanks for offering your sage Senpai knowledge about these little corners of the internet called Facebook and Twitter that is fascinating to us writer types. Here's a bit about him:
Brandon Varnell is a writer... the end. ... Just kidding. Brandon Varnell is the writer of the American Kitsune series. He has absolutely no skill at anything aside from writing and looking half-baked. He used to play guitar, but due to laziness, he never went anywhere with it. He also used to play a lot of video games, but after suffering this terrible affliction called book addiction, he only plays occasionally these days. Brandon lives mostly within his own imagination, but can occasionally be found in Phoenix, Arizona. Hello, folks! I'll be hosting for an hour today, Saturday the 14th for the Book Fanatics Facebook page.
Come on down, listen to some music, and play some games. You'll have chances to win ebook prizes and hear an announcement about PPC book 3. Head over here to check out posts by last night's hosts. The second PPC book is live! Fangs for the Memories launched in Amazon and on Kindle Unlimited. Click the image to get the ebook! The print version is coming soon. Here's the description:
Memory is a tricky business. No one remembers Maddie May. That’s fine with her; just a side effect of Umbral magic. Unfortunately, she has to take the Magic Theory Lab at Providence Paranormal College. Maddie won’t pass if the Professor can’t remember her. Henry Baxter’s a psychic vampire who can store total recall for himself and others. He’s been in business since 1986, but new regulations mean he needs a degree to keep operating. Going back to college after sixty years on earth is definitely a drag, especially since society treats vampires as second-class citizens. The woman everyone forgets and the man who remembers everything seem a natural pair. While Maddie’s all for it, Henry keeps pushing her away. But what if the only way they’ll survive is together? While you're reading Fangs for the Memories, here's a drink that Henry would have liked back in his mortal days: Red Death 1/2 oz vodka1/2 oz Southern Comfort 1/2 oz Southern Comfort 1/2 oz almond liqueur 1/2 oz triple sec1/2 oz sloe gin 1/2 oz sloe gin 1/2 oz lime juice splash of grenadine Shake with ice and serve. I had an absolute blast at the Indie Author Mega Release Party yesterday! I announced the second book in the Providence Paranormal College series, Fangs for the Memories.It'll be out by the end of April, but it should be up for pre-order by the 25th. That picture on the right up there is the cover. I want to give a big thanks to Chelo over at Indimagination, who organized and ran the event. Here's a little ditty that's been kicking around in my brain since yesterday. The links in the song lyrics lead to the book those lyrics describe. It's a parody of this song right here: Undead guy from who knows where
On paranormal investigations Girls and bears at college Make some sci-fi film quotations And if you like these kinds of books Check Indimagination. It's a dystopian world With teens sold off to corporations A magic hit man has been hired By a criminal organization And these tomes were presented By Indimagination Pay attention to the comments Enter contests and start playing A quiz or caption you invent Are sure to be engaging Men in kilt uniforms Shifters lovelorn Check out Indimagination Check out Indimagination Check out Indimagination Check out Indimagination Superhero girl out to save the world Solve a mystery about her relation Angry Norse gods' alliance frauds With their fates in a new location You find these stories at events done By Indimagination Politics and demon fear lead To Paladins taking new stations And Figments trouble writers Trying to use their imagination And if these ideas sound like fun See Indimagination If the writer's ways you praise If you feel adulation If you'd choose to leave reviews It's cause for celebration Rock stars from Texas they Look back from L.A. Check out Indimagination Check out Indimagination Check out Indimagination Check out Indimagination War between the Faerie worlds Means Megan's agitation And Emma brews tea, reluctantly While helping Detective Grayson And you can meet the authors of these Via Indimagination Pay attention to the comments Enter contests and start playing A quiz or caption you invent Are sure to be engaging Knight training has begun Dragons are no fun Check out Indimagination Check out Indimagination Check out Indimagination Check out Indimagination I'll be following the hardest act ever when I host the Indie Author Mega Release Party set up by Zanzibar 7. Schwarzenegger on April 16. Yes, that's right. I've been slated right after the author of the amazing Paranromal Detective story, Grave Beginnings, the Otter Prince himself, R.R. Virdi. Maybe it's an initials author thing, I don't know. Anyway. I can still even anymore, so it's all good.
This event is online on Facebook, happening all day. It starts at 10AM EST, and I'm on at 11AM, same bat time-zone. I have some big announcements planned for the Providence Paranormal series, so if you show up you will hear them first! Also on deck are some fun discussions on my process and inspiration sources, what else D.R. does besides writing, and a song parody. Stick around after I'm done and you get to hang out with Lee French, author of the fabulous Backyard Dragons and con-goer supreme. Check in at other points in the day, because it's 12 awesomesauce writers in 12 hours, with some amazeballs prizes delivered by rafflecopter. Click the image above to sign up for the Best Little Release Party in April! Story And A SnackBarely Awake just went live on the Kindle store! Visit the page by clicking the cover above. You can read with your Kindle Select subscription at no additional charge. Otherwise, it's $2.99 to download and $9.42 for the paperback. Click here to find a paperback copy.
Bear shifters love their food. Here's a recipe that's from Louisiana, just like our hero, Bobby Tremain. Enjoy! Pillowcase Cookies Fishermen would bring these cookies onboard with them in pillowcases. Ingredients:
I think you're gonna like it.
I think you're gonna feel you belong. -Alice Cooper Excuse me for bursting into song there. It's something I do from time to time. Okay, maybe a little more frequently than that. And I change the words. You can blame Weird Al, but really my grandma was responsible for this habit of mine. You're lucky I didn't decide to pursue a career as a popular music parodist. Instead, I wrote some novels. They're a little bit silly, a little spooky, but mostly fun. They say novelists should have websites and so here's mine. There's a front page where I post links to my work. There's a page where you can find some details about who I am and why I crunch out words on a regular basis. And then, there's this bloglet, where I might ramble on, sing my song. It's little and there's not much here yet. Give it time. |
Archives
August 2022
D.R. Perry's books on Goodreads
Fangs for the Memories (Providence Paranormal College, #2)
reviews: 17
ratings: 41 (avg rating 4.20)
A Change In Crime: A Supernatural Depression-Era Thriller (La Famiglia di Mostri, #1)
reviews: 9
ratings: 15 (avg rating 4.27) |