The best review thus far :D Please do go and read it!
http://rachaelrippon.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/eyes-like-blue-fire.html
http://rachaelrippon.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/eyes-like-blue-fire.html
 I've been digging through and trying to write more of Cool Green Waters the sequel to Eyes Like Blue Fire this last week and it seems to be fits and starts for now.
I know where I want to go with it (for those of you who've read ELBF this book centers on Mateo, Zero and Michael in greater focus than Katja and Raven who still have some major events in the novel themselves) but I keep running into things I can't quite be certain of or which end up leaving me a little uncertain. First of all I just got done doing a little research on racial interaction in 1600s England. The good news there is that Mateo would not be dealing with the racism we associate with the long ago U.S. and which we as Americans tend to assume of other nations in the same era. Nor would his mixed parentage have made him too much of a target for bigotry beyond the fact that children conceived out of wedlock were still pretty taboo in 1600s society. Ok second bit: I love research but I wish I could have gone forward without having to dig this up. I fear it's thrown me off on where I was going to go and now I keep drawing a blank...which is utterly idiotic when you get down to it because the research actually indicates that I don't have to make things more complicated than with Katja and Anton's interaction in the first book (if racial interaction in that time had been more tense their relationship would have to reflect that on some level). Instead it can be about their personal demons which I far prefer in relation to all that's been going on before the part I'm writing. I guess what it comes down to is that I'd like to be typing out pages like nothing right now but I'm just not getting them. Part of that's wanting to get the sequel done and out there ASAP and then also the idea of getting Other Dangers completed too. I figured I'd try to complete a first draft of Cool Green Waters first because there'd be some demand from fans of ELBF and since it's self-pubbed I'd do the same for CGW once it was edited. If I got that done I could finish the first draft of Other Dangers and decide which manuscript to edit first. Other Dangers is intended for traditional publication so I'll need more time to work on it than CGW. Maybe it's just not getting a lot of writing time right now...gah! It's just kind of funny to know what major bits you intended to happen in this book and the next (yep I do have plans for a third book with a pretty big surprise coming up for Katja) but having a tough time getting through the in between bits. Here's the latest interview : http://traceywickhamsblog.weebly.com/-author-interviews.html This is a song from a highly overlooked band called Ours. From what I've read it was written after the singer, Jimmy Gnecco's girlfriend committed suicide. In any case, it's a powerful song and I think it also suits the story of one of my vampires Mateo, who must take on the weight of a great deal over the course of his life. Some of that weight comes from events he can't control though he dearly wishes he could. We first learn about Mateo in ELBF and the past that comes to damage him also affects other characters in that novel. In Cool Green Waters the second novel in Broken Edges we will learn more about him and the darkness that has overtaken his life since that fateful night. Meantime enjoy the song and please do go look up both Ours and Jimmy Gnecco, it's wonderful stuff!
I don't know how many of you read my blogs and interviews but you may have noticed me mention that I have some other books in progress. Well I've been formatting the two books I'm hoping to complete over the last few days (if I ever hit enter more than once to start another paragraph I will immediately fix that shit! 7 hours wasted on removing extra spaces from two partially completed manuscripts and 3 for ELBF tell me that it's a booboo I can ill afford to repeat.) so that I can get back to working on them and hopefully have them edited up within the next year.
Yeah I'm not fond of that whole year part either but I don't want to push them out there so fast that they come off feeling subpar at best and godawful at worst. If I DO get them done before that Cool Green Waters will be self-pubbed like it's predecessor ELBF while Other Dangers my novel about an author that ends that world and then tries to save it (it's a lot more complicated than that but that's the gist) will hopefully find itself a good publisher. i'll keep you all posted on how the progress is going and will certainly let you know when they get published :). That being said I was thinking of putting together a short story anthology as a little something to tide you and I (if I could write and publish a book every month I probably would. I love sharing my work!) over until the other two novels are completed. I have a few stories done and quite a few other ideas written down just waiting to get written. I guess this is my round about way of asking if you'd like to see this antho idea of mine and would buy it...So feel free to let me know :) In the meantime I hope you're enjoying Eyes Like Blue Fire or that you will be soon, thanks for your support and thanks for checking out my book. I hope you'll stick with me as I go further down this crazy rabbit hole Interview with Author – Amanda M LyonsBY BOOK AUTHOR LEAVE A COMMENT
Author Bio: A longtime fan of horror and fantasy Ms. Lyons writes character driven novels that while influenced by her darker interests, can also be heavily laced with fantasy, romance, history and magic. Amanda M. Lyons has lived her whole life in rural Ohio where she lives with her fiance and two children. Eyes Like Blue Fire is her first novel. What inspires you to write? What doesn’t? I get inspiration from all sorts of things from watching my kids play to reading a good (or REALLY bad ) book or watching a film that gets my gears going. Some great music, a nice breeze and enough quiet space to write also help though. Tell us about your writing process. I’ve never been able to get much from outlining with my work. I think the closest I get to using any sort of planning is to jot down ideas and maybe a character sheet I can build from. Other than that it’s pretty spur of the moment. This is one of the bigger reasons I keep a writing journal. It makes it easier to keep track of what I was able to do and where I was thinking of going. I thrive on the inspired days. I can get as much as 12 or 16 pages in a couple of hours. For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters? Not often actually. In many ways it’s as if a little movie is playing itself out in my imagination. I take the imagery and write it down as it comes to mind. In a lot of ways it’s like I’m receiving the story and translating it into words. What advice would you give other writers? 1) Read! : Never stop reading everything you can get your hands on. You never stop learning how to improve yourself based on what another writer can teach you. Yes, even the bad ones. 2) Take Good Advice When You Can Find It. In Fact Seek it Out: Lots of good writers have blogs and social media accounts where they share advice on how to improve your work in all kinds of ways. They’re also very open to talking to readers as long as you’re not rude or too demanding. Make use of that. If you can find your favorite writers anywhere on the net look up what they have to say and utilize it. 3) Never Be Rude: Your reputation is one of the few things you can thoroughly hang yourself with as a writer. This goes for talking to anyone reader, writer or guy on the street. If you behave badly you make a bad name for yourself and you lose people’s respect. Once that happens it becomes a lot harder to prove you’re not the negative person they think you are. It also makes you a lot of enemies who can sway other people against you. Do your best to be courteous and respectful. it not only pays off it’ll make it a lot easier to get advice from other writers and solid, honest reviews from readers. Integrity is a large portion of your value as a writer. 4) Never Stop Trying!: It takes a LOT of work to get published and it takes a LOT of work to promote it once you have. That goes for major house publication and double for self publishers. No matter how hopeless it feels keep doing everything you can to get your work out there. If it needs improvement, improve it. If nobody seems to be buying it do all you can to promote it. If promotion ideas are running out go look for some more. There are always fresh ideas, new ways you can improve the piece and ways to find your readers. Don’t give up! How did you decide how to publish your books? From the moment I started writing I wanted to be a published author. I read all kinds of books on how to improve my writing, where to submit my work and how to market it. Well even with all of that information I was very afraid to submit my work. When I finally did I found it very hard to market my book Eyes Like Blue Fire because it’s honestly a bit cross genre. It’s true of all of my books thus far actually but none would be as hard to market (when they’re complete) as this one has been. As a result, and with the advice of my friend Susan Simone and Todd my fiance I decided I’d give Createspace and Amazon a shot. That’s what I’m doing right now, seeing how this book will do before I finish it’s sequel and working on my other books in the meantime. What do you think about the future of book publishing? I think right now it’s a little crazy. There are a lot of authors out there going to small press and self publishing format and while some of are succeeding many others are getting eaten up in the mass push. The sad part is that a lot of those writers are just as good as the ones succeeding. In fact many of them are better writers than some of the ones getting published by the bigger houses. This means that everyone has to find a good way to market their book and get it out there. As self publication and ebooking become more popular I think it’s going to get easier to get books out there but I do wonder if it’ll make it harder to make a living from it. As a new writer I have to consider that. What genres do you write? Gothic Horror What formats are your books in? Both eBook and Print Website(s) Link To Author Page On Amazon Your Social Media Links http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7035440.Amanda_M_Lyons https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amanda-M-Lyons/357528661024257 https://twitter.com/AmandaMLyons Guest Blog post : http://www.moonlightgleam.com/2013/05/author-guest-post-with-amanda-m-lyons.html?showComment=1368354979152#c5269530914015328323
Tuesday, May 7, 2013Author Guest Post With Amanda M. Lyons Amanda M. Lyons has kindly agreed to guest post here about her work, and share her inspiration for becoming a writer in honor of her debut release, Eyes Like Blue Fire. About The Author: A longtime fan of horror and fantasy Ms. Lyons writes character driven novels that while influenced by her darker interests, can also be heavily laced with fantasy, romance, history and magic. Amanda M. Lyons has lived her whole life in rural Ohio where she lives with her fiance and two children. Eyes Like Blue Fire is her first novel. Find Amanda M. Lyons on the Web: Twitter | Amazon | Goodreads | Facebook Guest Post: I was always an imaginative person. As a kid my parents would probably have said I was TOO imaginative. I can joke about it now but the truth is I actually had to grow a great big imagination in order to get by. I was a lonely kid, the other kids didn't really hang out with me and I had to make up games to entertain myself or I probably would have been pretty bad off. It was fun and I had some great ideas but I also had that imagination pull tricks on me and one of the biggest things it did was make me see things that weren't really there. You can probably guess where this is going. Yep, I was-and in some ways still am-a wee bit of a scaredy cat.I was afraid of the dark, I was afraid of snakes, I was afraid of heights-well I was afraid of just about everything. The funny thing is that as a kid I was also a big fan of horror movies and because of writers like Stephen King that made movies when I was small that love also transferred to horror books. I ate up ghost stories, paranormal encounters and events, books on horror movies, on all kinds of monsters and eventually on writing horror too. I think I wound up being a writer because I had that great big scary imagination but also because I wanted to understand my own fears. I wanted to test the limits of my imagination and see if I could create what others had inspired in me. I also loved books and the way that words could affect a person, not just in horror but in all sorts of genres. For this reason my own books (which are so far all horror not that I think it will always be the case) are tinged with elements of other things like fantasy, romance and the dramatic. I was inspired by King first but soon after it was also writers like Clive Barker, Anne Rice, David J Schow, Shirley Jackson, and even later writers like Poppy Z. Brite, Gary Braunbeck and Ray Garton. There are a lot of people for whom just writing something is enough but from the age of 12 (when I wrote my first real story and impressed my 6th grade teacher to no end) on I was determined to become a published author. Mr. Flinner gave me a start by encouraging me to write stories for in class talent shows and later other teacher's like Mrs. Roche encouraged me to learn how to use the knife or tell the reader what before I had neglected to put on the paper. From there it was Miss Clark the high school librarian who read and critiqued along with half willing captive audiences like my poor tortured brother Robbie or my friends, later followed by my fiance. I think we owe all of those people and all of those events a little gratitude for their presence. They are after all exactly what inspires us to imagine, to read, to create, to keep on going when you have the least amount of belief in your work and to cut when you need a knife to sharpen your work. What inspired me to become a writer? Life and living it. Eyes Like Blue Fire: Title: Eyes Like Blue Fire Author:Amanda M. Lyons Publication Date: April 5th 2013 Katja is a vampire who has lost sense of herself and her value in the world. Lost, broken and damaged she wanders the streets of Europe hoping to find some sense of purpose beyond the death and tragedy she has always known. Betrayed by her sire and left alone in the night she is startled to discover herself forming a connection to a young man who shares a close resemblance to her master and lover. Though everything in her begs her to stay with him she flees only to come running back to save him when a sadistic monster from her sire's past comes to destroy the only hope she has had in 300 years. Katja and Raven will face many horrors among them Renfield style zombies, ghosts and the undead. This is also the first in the series Broken Edges. Find Eyes Like Blue Fire Online: Goodreads | Amazon Book Excerpt: As he sat up, he heard soft dripping sounds from the bathroom, little plips like water slipping over the edges of the tub and into the floor. The hairs on the back of his neck rose as he realized where he'd last heard that sound. His muscles tight with strain from his earlier exertions, he stood and walked warily toward the half open bathroom door and the tub beyond it. Slipping quietly past the door, he saw that the curtain was drawn, and again the shadowed figure lay behind it. One long, slim, leg dangled from the end of the tub, beads of water gliding down its length and off the polished toes. At the other end he saw a mass of auburn curls, matted deep red near the porcelain of the tub. It was the dream and the vision again, more real now, too strong to deny. Shaking, he moved toward the curtain, gagging on the sickly smell of rust and roses, feeling the thin nylon glide between thumb and palm as he pulled it back to reveal his darkest nightmare and deepest regret. He could see the crimson water now, blood bubbles gliding over its surface and clinging to the legs dangling over the tub's edge. When he'd pulled the curtain completely away from the tub and around to its opposite side, he saw her face. Her eyes were closed and he saw that her lids were bruised and purple against the translucent paleness of her face, drained completely dead white under the makeup she'd brushed on before she'd died. Staggering by the sight of her, he knelt by the tub and extended one shaking hand to touch her cheek. It all seemed as if he'd walked into a horror film and once again he needed to prove to his mind that this wasn't real. His hand shook as he lifted it nearer to her flesh, waiting for the corpse, the supposedly dead and buried to move. He touched his quivering fingers to her face, feeling its claylike reality. The sensation caused an immediate shudder of revulsion and he fought not to vomit. Even as the moment came, the sight of her moving in the water startled him and he jumped away from the tub. It wasn't an obvious movement at first, only soft breaths moving in and out of her nostrils, but then her chest rose and fell with it and he quaked, feeling unstable where he knelt on the floor. Her eyes opened next and he felt the blood fall out of his face, wanting to scream but too afraid he would cause her to take some action, to reach out and touch him, proving well and forever that he was indeed insane. Scream and you might as well slit your own throat. He swallowed the scream like a rock and stared as her eyes moved slowly in their sockets, locking on him. Slowly, as if she'd lost control of her muscles, she rose from the tub and looked down at him, smiling. Blood water slid down her bare body, over her neck, down her back and the smooth ridges of her breasts, to slip slowly down her thighs and down over her calves. A puddle spread on the floor, and as it extended toward him he struggled to his feet, skittering away from it. As he watched it spread, he shivered, weak as he started to cry frantic, horrified tears. Breaking down, he looked back up at her face and slipped to the floor once more, his knees incapable of sustaining his own weight. The smile grew wider as she strode to his shivering form, thrown on his side and struggling to rise. The blood water seeped into his clothes, making him sick, a drop of it trickling along the lobe of his ear and into it. And then she leaned down, holding those dim, stained curls of auburn out of her face and tucking them behind her ear. Her lips parted, blue beneath the strong crimson red of her lipstick, and she spoke into his ear with the chill breath of the dead. His eyes grew wide and horrified as she spoke, the hair on his neck rising, sending a maddening shiver of fear through him. “I‟ve returned, Raven.” She whispered “And I want what is mine.” The last thing he saw before his mind, finally, thankfully, shut down was her face in front of his pursed for a kiss. Happy reading until next time! I'll be offering Eyes Like Blue Fire for free on Mother's Day and the following Monday. Please feel free to grab a copy and if you know a mom who'd like a little gothic horror laced with romance feel free to give her a copy :)!
http://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Like-Broken-Edges-ebook/dp/B00C8BL9FY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368308732&sr=1-1&keywords=eyes+like+blue+fire  So here's a pic of my very own personal copy of Eyes Like Blue Fire which I finally had the money to afford, woohoo! I'm happy to say that it seems to have turned out rather nice. You might not be able to make it out but if you're wondering it isn't a standard paperback size but one of those oversize numbers with really nice quality binding and gloss. Susan, I think I must have picked the size right above yours because it seems a bit larger. It's actually rather pretty and well worth the price.
The later part of this post is more for me than anyone else. I just have to get it out of my system because I'm driving myself up a wall. I have to say that I'm really frustrated at the moment. It's not that I'm one of those folks with no patience and way too much time to bitch and moan about my lot in life. I really try to do a lot to stay positive but right now that's only getting me so far and I want to vent a little. I have been doing as much as I can for this book. I'm doing interviews, blogs, lots of networking and even reducing the price of the ebook copy ( I can't afford to knock down the cost on the paperback one honestly) but so far none of that work seems to be paying off in serious dividends. I've talked to a lot of writers about it and apparently the sum of my sales has exceeded the sum of many writer's sales that first year (8 ebooks and one paperback so far) and while that's a bit comforting I also have to say it's a little disheartening. Let me tell you why. As a newly published author in the crazy world of self/indie publishing I have to do all of my promotion on my own and that means that I have to dig up places to market, ways to get the word out and do all kinds of networking to get just a little attention for my book. It doesn't sound like a lot but trust me it can be very time consuming especially for a mom of two (one less than a year old no less). In many ways self-promotion alone is an 8 hour a day job, toss in things like breastfeeding, baby care, teething, homework with the first grader, reading time with the two of them, cooking, cleaning, little league baseball and trying to find time with my fiance and really it all turns into a 12-16 hour day with very little room to breathe. The other bit is that while other writers might be shelling out for things like review copies, adspace, book covers, promotion and driving themselves to signings I'm rather limited. I can't be the only writer out there who sees an ad for book promotion, clicks on it and then lets out a big sigh of dissapointment when they see the price tag. I literally have no money to invest in those sort of things. In fact even if I was selling more than I am I don't know that I could afford to throw what I got back into such things precisely because I could really use it for the sort of everyday stuff that others take for granted they can buy like laundry soap and gas for their car (haha if I had or could afford a car that is). What it boils down to is that I feel like I'm putting out tons of energy and time is slipping through my fingers when I could least afford for that to happen. The fact that I'm not seeing a lot of payoff for that actually hurts quite a bit. In fact it puts me in mind of that year of freelancing I did during which I really was working 16 hours a day and losing way too much time with my son. I NEVER want to lose time with my kiddos like that again. The look in his eyes every time I had to tell him I was working and couldn't play killed me! That being said, I really can't quit. I've spent something like 12 years trying to get Eyes Like Blue Fire completed and struggled for what seems like forever to find someone to read it over and tell me if my writing was worth investing in. I was one of those writers who struggled with whether or not I could do it for way too long (my self esteem was through the floor when I started) and therefore suffered long lapses in my writing cycles( That's how you wind up with 5 books in progress and only 1 complete for years folks. If you don't believe in your work you're your own worst enemy!). With all of that lost time on my writing career I have to do a hell of a lot of make up work and in order to get myself motivated I decided to self-pub ELBF, the book that had been holding me back. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for everything my readers, the folks who added my book to their tbr shelves and Facebook fans have been doing to help me out, I'm just feeling a little worn thin. I don't expect to sell a ton of copies (nor should you feel bad if you're not interested or you can't afford one. As a fellow reader who'd love to help out tons of her favorite authors, I understand). I am a rational person and I get that first books don't always do well and that they're even less likely to do so in the indie market. I even get that many indie writers fail miserably and not all of them for lack of good or even great writing. Nor do I think I'll throw all of my books into the indie fire for that very reason (some of my better contenders will be getting submitted the old fashioned way) but if I could see some future in this writing gig I'd feel a hell of a lot better than I've been feeling the last couple of weeks and I wouldn't be so tempted to drop it all. Anyway all of that's off my chest and I hope you wont hold it against me |
Amanda M LyonsMs. Lyons is an author of fantasy, horror, and an avid reader of all genres. Archives
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