Tale of the Twins: The Re-Vamp

Shush, I'm totally allowed to have a corny pun.

Anyway, yes, I am re-vamping the Tale of the Twins. For those that don't know: I started this self-publishing journey back in March 2010 with the novel The Tale of the Twins (ToT). Yes, five freaking years ago. Go check back to the first post of this blog. I'll wait. Good? Good. *winks*

Moving on, it took me two of those five years to realize the vanity press I had gone through for ToT wasn't helping as I thought they would. Why'd I waste three more years? I was depressed. I still kind of am but that's not the issue here.

I was stuck in the vanity press and didn't know how to get out. I couldn't do any deals for the pricing of the book, I didn't like the cover, and I started to hate the story so I didn't bother marketing it. I didn't even get a sale for four years. My self-published books (unedited and put out in haste) were doing better as a whole than ToT. I'm fairly sure I've had more views to Avalora than I've ever had to ToT and Avalora's only been out for 8 days.

So, I finally said enough and bought back my rights. Basically it was an invisible bit of documentation saying I "owned" the story again. I didn't get images and the inside they did give me is so horribly formatted I can't even use it anyway. I'll have to compare it to the edited version I was given. Yes, it was a major set-back.

Enough of the whining and onto the good news.

I WILL be re-publishing Tale of the Twins this year. I want to read through the entire story again and make a few changes here and there, possibly drop a few characters (not sure yet), definitely drop the general swearing going on, spread out character descriptions better, and tweak a few things. Basically I'll be bringing it more in line with my 2015 writing style.

So when will it come out? I've no idea. This year hopefully before National Novel Writing Month because I need to work on Book 3 for NaNo. It's the only way I'll ever finish the damned series and in order to even write Book 3 I have to revisit Books 1 and 2.

This raises the question of when Book 2 will come out. Well, that depends on YOU. Editing costs money and I refuse to release a full length piece of fiction without proper editing. If you're going to be paying me $3.99-$4.99 for this book I want to make sure you get your money's worth. It's only fair.

So, what have I been doing since I bought my rights back in January? Waiting for the rights to come to me. Yeah I know. But I got them back last month and started putting together a brand-spanking-new cover...as seen below:

Yes, it's similar to the old one but it's something I can be proud of. I never really understood why there was water in the background of the old one or why the heads of both figures looked so fake. Plus Lysandra has her scythe so that's a bonus. I would've given Leopold his guns but it may have looked a bit awkward considering where his hands are...*cough*

I PROMISE I will be taking the time I do have to re-read ToT so it can be updated. Don't hold your breath as it is a huge undertaking as I'm still trying to keep up with Avalora's bi-weekly updates, other novels, and character images for the Avalora crew. Plus maintenance on the website, keeping this blog fairly active and working 8.5 hours a day, not including travel, so yeah. It'll take a while. But Tale of the Twins will return.

And if we're good, maybe this time around Book 2 can be published because I'll gain enough profit from Book 1 to edit Book 2. Then maybe, just maybe, we'll see how the damn thing ends.

Until next time: thoughts, comments, rages, rants, questions, and out-right insults can be directed to the comments section.

So I'm back....mostly

In case you haven't noticed, I dropped off the face of the Earth for quite some time. My last post here was March 28th which is about the same for Twitter and Facebook. This is really horrible for promoting which is funny because one of my goals for 2012 was to promote more. I suck with goals, really I do.

Anyway, I'm back in a sense. I never really left to be honest. I simply did not have the motivation to promote. There I said it: I did not have the motivation to post.

Why? Well, there's a few reasons and I'm going to be completely honest, bording on blunt if you will:
1) I have no idea how to properly promote and the whole thing scares the crap out of me.
2) I'm honestly afraid of what people will say about my work.
3) I kind of became really obsessed with the 12 novels in 12 months challenge and forgot everything else.
4) I've been exceptionally depressed.

Let me explain those a bit.

1) I don't know how to promote. Sure I've read Locke's book on how to sell a million ebooks in five months. Yeah, I've read other marketing books on how to use social media to your advantage. I've never really understood it. No, that's not right. I tried and failed a few times and can't seem to pick myself back up. I'll eventually keep trying though. Plus I always feel like I'm spamming people when I talk about my stuff and I don't like spamming people.

2) I'm afraid of what people will say. There are people who have read my work and loved it. They are the reason I started this crazy journey. Then there are the people who comment with "I had to force myself to finish it." For me, that's a pretty big blow. I'll admit, I don't have a tough skin, well, not yet anyway. I mean yes, the accompanying stars on that comment was a 2 and the book does have a 3.5 star rating which is good for something that was written in one month and edited too quickly for my liking. On the same book I get the comment of "I respect this book and the way it was written. It caught my attention and had the perfect amounts of realism that made the ending all the more tragic. I loved this book that was filled with the best memories we could possibly have during the holidays.....and the most horrible..." which makes me feel great. But there's still that nagging fear of what if people don't like it. I have to work on it.

3) Ah, ha, yes. I've become obsessed with the 12 novels in 12 months challenge to the point where I've written 6 novels this year. Let me reiterate that: I've written 6 120,000 word (or more) novels this year. Actually, since March. Oddly, none of them were book 3 of Tale of the Twins which I planned to finish this year.

4) I've been depressed. Life has been horrible this year and I can't shake it at all. I'm trying to get out of the funk, really I am. But the only way I can is by writing and staying in my fantasy worlds. This does not help with promoting because it seems like everything I've done in the past two years (going on three in March) has failed and that makes me more upset. I'm kind of half happy and half sad right now reading the reviews on 'Have a Bloody Christmas' on the Nook website.

With all that being said, well, I'm kind of here. I make no promises on how often I will post but I see a scheduler for post settings so that might help. Did I mention I'm forgetful and quite unmotivated when it comes to promoting? Ha.

Anyway, I decided to come back because of the one goal for this year that I refuse to fail: National Novel Writing Month 2012. I will get 200,000 words. I will not let anything stop me.

I will also write about my insane attempts and more of what I've been doing this year in the next month. I'll also put together some blogs (probably tonight then schedule them off) on character design, plot, setting and tone.

I leave you with this quote (varied from person to person over the years): "A good author has written 1,000,000 words." Yeah? I'm 30,000 away from 2,000,000. Am I a 'good author' yet? ;) More on that later. Till then, Happy Halloween, good night and don't let the demons from Hell steal your soul.

Character Interview: Lysandra

As stated in a previous blog, I'm featuring another character interview on this blog. This is the second of a series of interviews I've done with more characters than most people would consider healthy. Last week Leopold paid a visit to the blog and this week, it's his twin sister Lysandra from Tale of the Twins Book 1: Gathering and Destruction.

Without any further rambling, here we go:

Basic Information:
Age: About 3,000 years Race: Vampire Occupation: Working to join humans and vampires as one cohesive unit and ferreting out the vampires who want to enslave humans.

What motivated you to join humans and vampires? It is horrendous how some of my kind treat humans as mere fodder as if they are nothing but cattle. Your kind is much more than just my kinds’ sustenance. Without humans there would be no vampires and vampires seem to forget that.

What do you mean by that last statement exactly? What I mean is that if were to merely gorge ourselves until there were no humans left, there would be nothing left for us to eat. My kind also seems to forget that without humans doing all the work, we would not have most of the things we take for granted before the war. It was humans who made the great arts, it was humans who made the technological advancements and it was humans who are willing to do the physical labor of rebuilding the world. We vampires merely watched.

Good point. Moving along, describe yourself in four words: Most people would call me intelligent, aloof yet kind-hearted and deadly.

I was thinking more of you telling me what you thought of yourself. It is the same thing. The ones I trust do not lie to me so I believe in their opinions.

Right, well, what’s it like being Leopold’s twin? Leopold is annoying, loud and obnoxious. He generally likes to play by his own rules and tends to follow the haphazard beat of his own drum. Despite it all, he is caring, a little insane and keeps life interesting. I can honestly say that I have never been bored in all my 3,000 years of life. Even when we were alive, he still had the same ability to be both annoying and lovable at the same time. It is quite the talent.

Does it bother you that he’s more magically inclined? It bothers me at times, yes. Then again, he cannot use the range of weapons I can. We each have our own talents that compliment and complete the other.

Has he ever prevented you from having a relationship with another male? Not intentionally I am certain. I have not been interested in having any kind of relationship with other males. Vampires do not have sexual desires so there is no need to seek out the opposite sex to fulfill certain needs. We are dead after all.

So why do some of the younger vampires seem so crazed? Because they were born in a different time. Some older vampires were born in times that did not focus on sex while the younger breed was bombarded with it.

That makes sense. What’s your favorite part in Tale of the Twins? Minus any spoilers mind you. I have two favorite parts for differing reasons: creating our family and the final fight.

Usually vampires don’t seek companionship, why create the family? Well, Leopold and I needed help to save the world.

Right, any final words to give to the world? Stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again. It can become extremely tedious cleaning up after all of you.

Thanks for the insight. You are quite welcome. Though I do not think many will heed it.

Yes, they are opposite in a lot of respects. If you want to learn more about them, you'll have to check out the book. Next week we'll see what it's like inside a flea's mind and will hopefully survive the maze.

Just a note: I'll be working on a series of more "tips and tricks" posts for both authors and non-authors. Also, I'll be doing an update of sorts of what I'm working on (novel-wise) and how far along I've gotten in my writing goals for this year.

If you have any really important questions for Leopold, Lysandra or anyone else you can think of (including me), feel free to post in the comments. I'll do my best to answer.

Until then I leave you with this quote:
"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."
-Francis Bacon

Character Interview: Leopold

For those of you who don't know: I keep every idea I've ever had, every note I've ever taken (story wise) and all other paraphernalia having to do with writing in a dresser drawer and a few binders. Actually, I don't think anyone knew that.

Regardless, now that you do I'll forge ahead. Last week (Thursday) I mentioned that I write character interviews. Why did I mention this? Well, I found some. They were hand written, half in and half out of the margins of a notebook at the bottom of my notebook stash. Yes, I'm the strange woman with a notebook stash.

After reading a few, I decided to type them up because ink fades and there's some good stuff there. I spent the weekend reorganizing my dresser drawer and my binders before typing up a few of my old interviews. I realized that instead of interviewing from the third person, I pretended that I was actually speaking with the character in question.

Does that make me a little crazy? Eh, maybe. I don't really mind because at the very least, it keeps me entertained.

Anyway, enough with the rambling. As stated in the title, here's Leopold from Tale of the Twins Book 1: Gathering and Destruction

Basic information:
Age: About 3000 years Race: Vampire Occupation: Saving the world.

What motivated you to save the world? Boredom, actually, Lys wanted to and I just went along with it.

Do you often just go along with what Lysandra says? Most the time, yeah. She is the brains of the group for a reason. I’m just around to look good and provide back-up *laughs*

Okay...describe yourself in four words: Hmm, only four? Damn. Um, hm. Oh! I’m a gun-crazed, magic-wielding, ass-kicking vampire.

You cheated. No I didn’t, I just like double words. A lot. Yeah. Can I say ass-kicking during this? Not that I really care but I figured I’d make sure.

Yes you can. Now, next question: What’s it like being Lysandra’s twin? Lysandra can come off as all cold and distant but she’s really not. She cares a lot about her family, well, namely me and er, the rest of the guys but, um, I lost my train of thought. It kind of like blew off the tracks. Anyway, it’s kind of cool having her as a twin, I mean, we’re connected and all that B.S so I’m never really alone. Actually, that’s a good and bad thing depending on the situation. I kind of wish she’d of been male too because I’d love to totally freak the Hell out of people by just randomly going by my twin’s name. That’d be awesome.

You only want her to be male to screw with people’s heads? Yep. I like messing with people, it’s fun.

Is that why you act so strange? Naw, I just act weird because I am weird. It’s one of those things, you know?

Not really but regardless, what’s your favorite part in Tale of the Twins? Without spoilers mind you. Aww, no spoilers? Damn. Well, I’ll say one word then: Abby.

That’s actually really sweet. Yeah, I’m a sucker for keeping pets.

No pun intended? Pun totally intended.

I should have known. Any final words to give to the world? This is where I should be saying something poetic and thought provoking. Screw it. I’m the best character, love me and enjoy my craziness.

Thanks, I think. No problem, it was my pleasure.

For those of you who don't know who Leopold is, you just met him. Of course if you want to read the story he's in just pick up a copy of Tale of the Twins here.

Who's Lysandra? Well, his twin of course. I'll post her interview sometime next week. Until then I'm going back to writing my fingers off and wandering around in my fantasy worlds. I might tell you about the trip at some point, I'm sure it'll be fun.

Zombie Fish and why I love Shun: Shameless Self-Promo ahead

Yes, you DID read that right: zombie fish. The anthology is out, you can find it here at Smashwords.com or here on the website.

Furthermore, since you're here and reading the blog I have a special treat. Straight from the fourth short story ("In the Water") in "Small Slice of the Undead: A Zombie Anthology" is a preview...of the famed zombie fish of course:

I know I was cursing and talking to myself, but I can't remember what I was saying. I know I turned towards my tanks and what I saw made me shut up and stare.

My fish were all looking my way. Normally I wouldn't be so freaked out because fish tend to look at you when you come towards them, especially Siamese Fighting Fish. Vibrations through the floor and thus through the water in their tanks give them a good enough guess that you're making your way over with either food or to talk. Usually I get one or two looking over, then the others join in. I never get looks from the non-Siamese fish since they're not as attentive or something.

But every single fish in their tank was looking right at me, in formation no less. People say it's creepy when cats stare at you for a long period of time. Imaging having close to 40 fish hovering in their tanks looking right at you, blowing bubbles in a formation similar to migrating birds.

I approached the tanks wearily and stood in front of them. The banging at my door was still happening but I didn't care since I knew it would hold for a good while. I slid to the left and all the fish followed in unison. I moved quickly to the right and they copied.

"What the hell?" I asked myself.

Before I could second guess my thoughts, I pulled the lid up on the miscellaneous tank. I don't think I could have ever prepared myself for the next few minutes. All 20 fish in the tank leaped out of the water and attacked me with their little mouths puckering up and grabbing at the exposed skin of my arms and neck.

"THE FUCK?" I shouted as I flailed and began whipping and bashing fish off me.

They were like leeches and no matter how hard I squished or how much I floundered about they clung to me. I finally had enough and began ripping them off by their tails. Once every fish was nothing but an oozing mess on the floor I gasped in a few deep breaths and examined the wounds.

Twenty chunks of flesh were missing and blood was trickling down my arms and neck....

###

There is one other fun character you'll meet twice in the Zombie Anthology: Shun. Actually there are quite a few fun characters. I enjoyed writing "Bomb" because of a Gothic Kid who calls himself Voltaire. "Itch" has Amber who happens to be Victim Zero, meaning the first person to become a zombie. Of course, "In the Water" has aforementioned zombie fish and "Daddy's Home" has Sam.

Anyway, back to Shun. He appears in the final two stories, "Recording" as well as "Video Feed" and I love him. It might have something to do with the fact he's Asian and I have a certain weakness for Asian men. Or it might be the fact that he uses a samurai sword as a weapon and I am morbidly obsessed with swords and other pointy objects. Or it could be that he's the most intelligent of the bunch and really, who doesn't like a smart man?

If you've been following me on Twitter, you will know that Shun is in fact homosexual. I tweeted a conversation between him and Jess on Saturday night where Shun admits to being homosexual with a lot more words then needed:
Shun: "I am a free thinker and my parents did not tolerate free thinking,"
Jess: "Free-thinking?"
Shun: "I prefer men to women...sexually,"
Jess (or Derrick): "Ah..."

There is nothing wrong with being homosexual, I want to make that perfectly clear. I'm open-minded when it comes to things like that. I think the main reason I like Shun is because he's homosexual. For his family, that's a major sin and even after being disowned by everyone he knew back home, he managed to make a few new friends and a good living for himself. He struggled through adversity, moved to a new country, got accepted into a prestigious university, made new friends and bought himself a house.

Then of course zombies happened and it didn't matter what he did or didn't do. He's just one of those characters that really sticks out in my mind. Kind of like La Puce or Anguish from the "Tale of the Twins" trilogy (Book 1 is out now), or Daimin VanHelgrove from another trilogy I'm working on for far in the future. Of course there's the lovely bunch in "Face Snatcher" which will hopefully be out within the next year or so. Yes, I have a lot on my mind. Or my mind has a lot for me to do. Whichever.

Either way, you should check out "Small Slice of the Undead: A Zombie Anthology". Why? Because it has zombies. More specifically, there are zombie fish. There's also a homosexual Asian man. The Government also admits to creating zombies. Oh and there's aliens. Well, mention of "aliens". Also, it would benefit your own survival if zombies ever attacked. I mean you would know what to do if a bomb went off, or you got really itchy, or green goo appeared in your water, or you woke up dead, or you saw people generally eating each other in a really horrible way.

Plus zombies are cool. They have the whole undead-brainless-will-eat-you thing going on. Actually there's brainy zombies in the anthology. Yes, THINKING zombies. Who would have thought? Anyway, do it for the zombie fish. Do it for Amber, Shun, La Puce and Anguish (who you won't meet if I can't get a good editor ;) ). Do it for the love of all characters and the enjoyment of all living-dead things.

Do it for Daimin VanHelgrove because he's an evil manipulative bastard and if you don't, he'll come after you....once he's done fighting the forces of evil. Yes. Evil fighting evil. Trust me, Daimin's evil incarnate. Pure badassery. As in gets pleasure out of torturing people badassery. Destroying entire planets on a whim. Collects an army of dead (more zombies) to do his bidding. Yeah. Oh and he can't be killed easily. So you get to see him maimed and as he heals, he laughs manically about the attempt as he murders the maimer in the slowest most painful way possible. Now do you see why he's my favorite?

So do it because you want to meet more of my characters. Go on, get the anthology. Get Book 1. It'll make me happy. And when I'm happy, I write more. When I write more, you get to read more. See, it's a win/win situation all around.

Now, don't be so disappointed. I warned you about the shameless self-promoting in the title. And if you are disappointed, buy the anthology anyway. It'll make you happy. Plus it's cheap and you're only losing to try a new author. Expand your horizons before I become exceptionally popular (insert your laugh here, go on, I'll understand) and have to jack up my prices.

Thus my self-promotion rant is over. Enjoy:
Website: http://www.vonravenstone.com/store.html
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/81428