The Dawnwolf (Book Trailer)

Okay, I'm going to have to hand it to you straight. I got hardly anything done on FireHeart. I did, however, eat tamales last night, so I'm a super happy camper. That's one resolution off the list. ♪
So! If you didn't peek ahead already, you'll see I just posted a video. That, my friend, is a book trailer to help promote my novel, The Dawnwolf. Check it out!

Hand drawn images, photo effects, royalty free music, and Windows Movie Maker--all of these went hand in hand in hand in hand. If it's necessary to specify how many hands went in hand. It's a start, considering my limitations. You guys are all I have (sob, sob), so don't hesitate to show it to friends and pass the link around! Just don't re-upload without my permission or credit.

I'm snooping around and figuring out different ways I can spread the word about my novel. I've successfully caught the eyes of a few people aside from relatives and friends, which is pretty good. By the way, if you've read and finished The Dawnwolf, please do leave a review and rating on Amazon! You'll be helping me out in many ways if you give your opinion, because it counts.
If you have and suggestions pertaining to how I can further expand the audience of my novel, please share! As a self-publisher, I have to do it all by my wee little self until I get a publisher for the big girls. I hope to achieve this if I win grand prize in the Amazon Breakthrough Awards, WHICH begin submission in less than a week. I keep forgetting. Ah.

So, while I'm busy promoting my novel, psyching myself to edit and revise FireHeart, and already plotting for my next project (which I'm pretty sure I've decided on), I'll manage to keep you posted. I highly recommend transforming into a blue bird and stalking me in the land of Twitter, or creepily say that you like me on Facebook. Or you can add me, but if you start any funny business I won't hesitate to kick you off. Sorry, I have a reputation to keep, and tamales to protect.
Wait...what...

Word of the Day
Skullduggery:
Trickery: verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way.

...I'm not skullduggerying you. What? Bad grammar? Yes, I'm a published author, why do you ask?

Wolf

New Year Resolutions

Happy New Year! I have a whole long list of profound resolutions as do you, I'm sure. I have mental list, really, but all I can seem to think about is tamales. I seem to have an odd craving for them lately. Have you ever had one?

Anyway, guess what! The Dawnwolf is now not only available on Amazon and CreateSpace, but on Kindle, and to libraries and bookstores. I'm assuming it will have to be requested in order to appear there, but I'm going to go bother my local library later on to consider my book. If you want to see it on your library, too, well, go ahead! Request it! Let's see if this works. I appreciate it.
Also, you might notice a new link on the side bar there. Yup, Wolfie has a Twitter, now. She does indeed! Go and follow me, all ye tweetlings! https://twitter.com/WritingProgress

Back to resolutions, I think my two biggest are getting The Dawnwolf promoted and noticed and getting FireHeart edited and published. Then, it's on to the next project, and the same thing next year!
But do you want to know what I'm going to do this year? Like, in 14 days?
I'm entering the Amazon Breakthrough Awards! Yes...I'm just crazy enough to think my novel could have a chance, and, considering all the lovely feedback I'm getting from it, I could be right. I'm hopeful to even win grand prize, because $50k and a publishing offer sounds pret-ty darn good to me. I will squander it on fabulous pleasantries, like jewelry, dresses, and shoes! Nah, I'm playin'...I'd put it to good use, like furthering my writing career.

I'm also really hungry right now.

Starting today, unless I'm stricken with tragic symptoms of laziness, I'm going to continue writing in FireHeart, just like it was still NaNoWriMo. Meaning, I'll be writing about 1k words a day, maybe. I'm not in as much of a hurry as I was last year since I can use my CreateSpace winner's code for another novel if I don't meet the deadline.
At any rate, if I don't write today, I'll edit. There are a lot of things popping out to me that I'm itching to correct. This should reduce the cheese-o-matic gauge--which is to say, the level of the novel's cheesiness. It's not that cheesy, but it has its moments...

Yeah, well, that's what's up! I also uploaded a profile on Amazon's Author Central. It'll probably appear within my novel's Amazon page. By the way, if you think someone will be interested in he Dawnwolf, please spread the word! Thanks a ton, I owe you one!

I would give you a word today, but the only words that come to mind are "stomach" and "tamales".
A stomach is an internal organ in which the food you ingest goes to be digested. It has a tendency to growl when you need to eat. Tamales are a Mexican food with seasoned meat wrapped in cornmeal dough, steamed or baked in corn husks.

*drool*
Wolf

The Dawnwolf (Second Edition) Now Available!

The publishing process wrapped up sometime this morning and now The Dawnwolf is available in the usual locations, which you can find, along with a few other links, on the right-hand sidebar. I swapped the first edition with the second edition, don't worry, but the first edition is still available. They're the same price, $11.99.
I'll be releasing it on Kindle soon once I finish setting up my account info later on, and then extend the distribution to bookstores and libraries. Now, here's the thing; it won't just pop up into the store overnight, or even in a week. It has to be requested, I do believe. Not sure how that's done, but if you do, I'll let you know when I extend the distribution, and I'm sure you could request it. That, or I'd much appreciate it if you'd help me figure out how to do it myself if I can! I'm a noob writer. Enough experience in writing, but not in publication, promotion, and the like...you understand, right? Good! Thanks muchly!

Here, I'll give you the links here anyway:

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Dawnwolf-Second-Mary-W-Hills/dp/1479141054/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356813810&sr=1-2&keywords=the+dawnwolf
CreateSpace:
https://www.createspace.com/3941780

Copyrighted Content. All Rights Reserved.

*UPDATE: The Dawnwolf is now available on Kindle, too! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AUXUW6E

Wolf

Good Tidings!

Merry Christmas, by the way, or Happy Holidays. Whichever thou dost prefer.
I come with good news after my month-long absence! The good news is that I haven't been slacking all this time! But no, really, even better...wait for it...wait for it...drumroll, anyone? No? Okay, fine.
All right, the time is here. The second edition of The Dawnwolf is complete! Yes, my dear friend, it is 100% done, corrected, and ready to hit bookstores, libraries, and e-stores! That will take a little time, but I'll spam you with links once it happens.
I'm so stoked and excited! This has been made possible all thanks to three brilliant ladies by the names of E. G. Windsor, Victoria Grace, and Teddy Ashcraft. In honor of their epic, typo-smashing, grammatical-error-burning, time-consuming feats at the keyboard in spite of busy schedules, I hereby add them to my list of loyal contributors and bellow my loudest and giddiest thanks! I couldn't have done it without you guys! Words can't express my gratitude. Actions might. I'd hug and squeeeeeeeeze you all if I could.
As I write this, I'm getting ready to publish it. Since I have to go attend to that business, I don't have time to say anything else, so I will get back with you later!
Thanks for your continued support, everyone! I didn't forget about you!

Wolf

Winner of NaNoWriMo 2012!

Would you look at that! I've finished a day early. I did cut back down to 50k as the goal since things got kind of hectic around here, but I still beat my goal with a word count of 50,311.
However, my novel isn't anywhere near finished yet. I still have yet to write an extremely major part of the novel. If I can guess correctly, that might add another 15k or so under the belt. I have to say things went really well for me this year! There were many bumps and blocks in the road, but I managed to move past them on my way to the finish line. I'm still cringing a little at some of the slightly cheesy stuff I threw in there, but that's all right. I won, that's all that matters. I can contend with the rest later. I'll make that my New Year's resolution like I did this year. Another resolution would be to ask a bunch of people to help me edit and/or review this novel instead of me doing it all by myself. I've learned my lesson.

So, how is NaNoWriMo going for you? Whether you're extremely behind, just wrapping it up, or you've already won, I wish you the best! It's a huge challenge and a mad scramble when you happen to be behind, but no worries. You can do it. Even if you don't win, you're no loser. You made the effort, and you're sure to have an even better strategy next year! I can help you with that, too. All you need to do is ask.

Word of the Day
Hornswoggle:
Get the better of (someone) by cheating or deception.

Weird word.

Peace!
Wolf

(P.S. Wondering about The Dawnwolf Second Edition? It's on the way. I've been waiting on a reviewer for a while, but once she's done, I'll finish the corrections and send it out. At the very latest, it should be out by the New Year!)

30 Covers 30 Days - Winner of Day 20

Me again. Two posts in the same day. Well technically this should have been posted 2 days ago, and technically it's day 22 of 30 Covers 30 Days, but I didn't know I had won the cover until today, when a fellow NaNoer PMed me congratulating me.
Thank you, fellow NaNoer!I wouldn't have wanted to be the last to know!
By the way, for those of you who don't know, 30 Covers 30 Days is an event that runs through the NaNoWriMo challenge. 30 lucky Wrimos are picked to have their novel covers created by a professional. Each day, the winner is picked and the cover is posted. I won day 20! Out of millions of users out there, I was one of 30 who got picked. Wow, what an honor, really!

Here's the link to the one that was created for me: http://blog.lettersandlight.org/post/36147317396/30-covers-30-days-2012-day-20

The picture of Jesus is a lovely, traditional looking painting (not at all fitting to my time period), yet kind of blurry, and the border and cover font look like they were done on Microsoft Paint.
Okay...but let me get this straight. I'm not gonna say I don't appreciate that someone actually considered my novel, and many actually loved my synopsis (which as you'll see is slightly outdated because I've since altered the story, that's my bad!), it's just that even though I could very well create a cover myself, I was hoping to see someone do better than I could.
This cover might be just fine if you were reading about Catholic history, perhaps, but if you've been following me long enough, you probably know that my novel is not about that. If you read all the comments on the post I just linked to, that will sum up the gist of it; Axle is not Christ, but a follower of Christ. Christ is the heart of the novel, but not in an up-in-your-face kind of way like the cover suggests.
When you read the synopsis, you see there's a group of young rockstars in a modern world living the dream. Then you add the bassist in, who unexpectedly changes all of their lives. That's FireHeart, summed up in a rather un-profound way, but still. This cover hardly reflects that.
To put it very simply, I just don't think this would attract many people in the bookstore. I would also move on to the next book if I saw this, and I probably wouldn't even bother to look at the back.
I know, the designer and I didn't actually meet face-to-face to create this cover, but I'm a little startled at the lack of imagination here. I'm not saying Jennifer Morla has a lacking imagination though--she probably has a reason for this. Maybe she did like it, but if not, I'd imagine maybe her schedule was too cramped, maybe she was out of time, or perhaps she wasn't really familiar with this idea and wasn't 100% sure what to do with it. I'm little puzzled, but I suppose this is just how the world works sometimes. I really do appreciate that I got picked. I'm not complaining here. Believe me, I'm actually quite ecstatic! This is better than not getting picked at all. I'm happy I took this opportunity, and thankful that someone took the time to do this, whether they wanted to or not. I do hope I don't sound overly critical, I just felt like I needed to get my point across.


With that, I'm out! Thanks for your support, by the way--that's another thing I'm thankful for on this day!
Wolf

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you ran out of Halloween candy, good luck with making the pumpkin pie last longer. I have a family to keep me in line...cough...I mean share it with.
I have loads of things to be thankful for today, and even every other day. Too many things to list, but from the writer's perspective, I'd say I'm most thankful for...um, pumpkin pie. Sorry, that's all I can seem to think about today!
Happy Thanksgiving, NaNoers! If its the 22nd, that means we only have a little over a week left of the challenge! I need to get 24-23k done. But it's entirely possible. I'm at 36,729 at this very moment. I'm supposed to hit 38,936 today.Yes...I'm the writer who almost never sleeps. Figuratively speaking.
So guess what! I've made some major changes to my novel. Axle is now the bassist, since he claims to know how to play bass guitar as well. He does the job well, but as Sonja says, "the fact that he's also a background vocalist and my assistant songwriter makes him less disposable than most bassists." Ouch.
He's still skilled at guitar, but I remembered Sonja needed a bassist more than a third guitarist, since she plays guitar herself for some songs. Alongside that, some of their ages have changed, but not much.
You probably already peeked ahead, but I whipped up the cover image for my novel just the other day. Have another look!

Copyrighted Content. All rights reserved.

I have to admit it's quite lovely. I'll make a few more changes to it before the project is published (which will probably be sometime in the middle of next year) but I like it right now. Almost looks exactly like what I had in mind!

Here's the link to my novel's Facebook page. And by the way, let me know if I need to get a Twitter, if that's more convenient for all of you viewers:

FireHeart - Pride Meets Humility

My encouragement today is...be thankful for every word you write, because each is closer to the last. Not saying you'll die before it's done. Please don't. I'm saying you're gonna finish if you push yourself! I know this from doing it 4 years in a row, and longer with projects outside of NaNoWriMo.

I have one last thing to say. Guys really like pumpkin pie. This is not relationship advice, it's a scientific fact, with a few exceptions.

Wolf