Thursday, August 26, 2010

Well, I'll be damned!

As things move on, I am completely amazed by the amount of fabulous feedback I am receiving from my now growing public!!! Thank you so much to all those who have put time and effort into reading the First Chapter, your thoughts and feelings about the book, makes me even more determined to see it in print!

So far I have been inundated with emails, querying me about the release date and so on, and as yet, there is no definite date for release, but myself and my agent are hoping for a release date this side of Christmas!

I for one am both excited about the prospect of my work finally being released and hitting the stores both here and in the States, but I am slightly nervous about the commitment that I will have to make to my 'first love'- being a mother of 4 children, a sometimes domestic Goddess, and full time writer, is all a bit daunting, but I know I can do it all. I refuse to put myself under any unnecessary pressure, of course, that all depends on how much pressure is put on me by any third party! But, hey, this is what I have always wanted and I accept whatever comes my way!

Now for something a little different, I thought it would be fun to get my group of illustrators to come up with something that would help represent how I see Giselle, and the results have been astounding, these images are of course unofficial, and have nothing to do with what the finished cover will look like, but, I love to do things differently! And in a few days, I'll be posting the results up here, so keep an eye out for how I see my protagonist Giselle. It will definitely be an eye opener!

Okay, well, that's me for at least a day or two...It's back to Walking With Shadows for me!

Keep safe and remember, keep recommending me to your friends!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

New Directions or so it should be!

Okay,

So things are a little slow. But most things be like this in the beginning- right?
Well, ho hum, I am not one to bend over backwards and give up so easily, I am the kind of gal who is persistent and I believe that persistence will pay off in the long run!

First things first, it has been a crazy couple of days! I have been inundated with emails from people who 'love' my work or more to the point they seem to love, In The Shadows. I have to admit that I find this both exciting and a little bewildering, seeing as sometimes I tend to not believe in myself all that much, but in hindsight, I am made of pretty solid stuff and being Irish, I have been blessed with true grit.

I enjoy hearing from people who love my work and I have a special place in my heart for those who take the time out to read my excerpts and share their thoughts and criticisms with me. I am not afraid of the fact that my work my not be without fault, but I believe there is always room for improvement, no matter how confident you are of your capabilities.

Secondly, I have had some pretty interesting conversations this week and one person in particular gave me the buzz of my life. My work is my life (next to my family) and I find that my passion about writing has fallen into the hands of people who have my best interests at heart. I am so excited about the future and the next  4 months are going to be hard work, but I am more that determined to fulfill my dream and make it a reality!

Lastly, work on my new book, Walking With Shadows, has begun and I am finally hitting some serious numbers with my word count and I can't believe where I am taking Giselle and co. I still find it unbelievable that I have created my own little world and I love the people in it. My characters have become a permanent fixture in my life, but not to the point were I talk to them or give them a say in my life- now, that would be crazy- but I find them popping up in my head in almost everything I do, and I mean 'almost', but when you are as passionate about something as I am, it is so hard to walk away and forget!

As you can see, I love writing as much as I love life itself, to me working on something that gives me satisfaction as well as kicking my ass whenever I need it, gives my life a depth and purpose that I would not achieve if my imagination didn't exist, so here's to imagination and life itself!

Well, there you have it, my second post and I'm still holding it together, pretty impressive, huh?....

Anyway, its back to work for me... but I'll be sure to pop in and say hi in a few days!

Until then, happy reading!

: 0)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

First Ever Post- yay!!!

Wow, this is a first for moi. 


Blogging is a new venture for me and like most things, I guess I will have some teething problems along the way, but I'm pretty sure I'll get the hang of things -eventually!


Okay, first things first. I write, and that is predominately what I do! I write Urban Fantasy Books for both YA and adults! My first book, In The Shadows, is the first in a series of books from The Shadow World series and I have to admit, it has been hard work and up until now I was completely blind-sighted by the glitz and glamour of the publishing world (slight use of sarcasm there).


It has been without a doubt an almost perilous journey having my manuscript fine tuned, read, re-read, edited, and copy edited to an inch of its life and here I sit, telling you all about it. I almost gave up and sat back, feeling the sting of rejection, but as one wise old soul said, 'A rejection is nothing more than a necessary step in the pursuit of success.' So here goes, I refuse to give in in the face of adversity and in my case the literary world better watch out!


I am glad to say, that I have received some amazing support from friends, family and complete strangers and I know that my work is without a doubt publishable! And having done some serious research, I found it startling to see the amount of authors (pretty famous ones) were rejected and had their work panned!


Some examples below:


 "The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the 'curiosity' level." One Rejection aimed at, The Diary of Anne Frank.


"I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language." Editor of the San Francisco Examiner to Rudyard Kipling.


H.G. Wells had to endure the indignity of a rejection when he submitted his manuscript, "The War of the Worlds" that said, "An endless nightmare. I do not believe it would "take"...I think the verdict would be 'Oh don't read that horrid book'. "And when he tried to market "The Time Machine," it was said, "It is not interesting enough for the general reader and not thorough enough for the scientific reader."


Ernest Hemingway, regarding his novel, "The Torrents of Spring" was rejected with, "It would be extremely rotten taste, to say nothing of being horribly cruel, should we want to publish it." Pretty harsh, huh!


As you can see, this industry is pretty cut throat, but I'm a gambler and even more so, I have alot of fight in me!


So watch this space!