'Claire' Unveiled!!!

I've been thinking about putting some short stories up on Amazon for a while now for the express purpose of entering them in to KDP select. But I've been holding back wondering if it's a good idea or not. Finally yesterday I decided to go for it, I would upload 'Claire And The Party' (previously published in 'A Splendid Salmagundi') and write a new adventure for Claire as well: 'Claire And The Haircut Of Doom'.
So today I've been making covers!!!
And I have to say I'm very proud of them, and I want to show them off and see what you think!!! So here they are:

And...

A Random Lesson Learnt.

Okay, so I broke a rule. I started work on 'Severance' while in the middle of writing 'Truce'.

I know, I know... bad DeeDee!!!

The thing was that I had it right there, it was in my head, writing itself and I was scared of losing it! It's a sad peace of writing, a letter written by an older brother who knows that he's going to die, to his only sibling, also a boy, who will be left all alone when he is gone.

It was hard to write for a lot of reasons. It is an emotional subject, yet the purpose of the letter is to comfort and 'be there' for the brother that will be left alone. Then there was the fact that it was a letter written by a man and I am a woman. I didn't want it to be too emotional, Jae Shin has accepted that he is dying and wants to help Di Ye accept it too.

Fortunately I have a brutal  honest 'editor' who read the letter through and, after some thought, drove a neat red line through my most cherished passages the more maudlin phrases. I have to admit that the letter is better for the corrections.

It's also half as long.

With the sentiment stripped away, you really get a sense of Jae Shin's character, his personality springs from the page; strong, clever, a little bitter that his frailty has limited what he sees as his purpose in life, but not uselessly so. He sees a way to make a difference, even after death, by guiding his brother. He seems more vibrant, more alive somehow. You understand why Di Ye thinks so much of him, why he has allowed the letters his brother left behind to have such an impact on his life.

I think for the first time I understood that 'less is more' can apply in writing too. The bald facts, set out starkly and without emotion, gave a much clearer picture of the man Jae Shin was than all the extra information I had  added to the narrative in the form of feelings. It also re enforces my belief that having someone, that you trust completely to be honest, look over your work is a must. Because there is always more to learn, and sometimes the only person who can teach you is a reader.

Showing Some Love For 2013!

So far I'm loving 2013!

Some really great things have happened so far:

'The Promise' placed 3rd in 'Indie Book Bargains' best indies of 2012 awards and 'A Splendid Salmagund', an anthology that had a short of mine in it, won best anthology! So I now have two lovely badges to show off on my side bar!!!

At this point I would like to say thank you to everyone who voted, I really appreciate it! ;-D

'Blood, Sweat and Tears' book blog listed 'Broken City' 8th in the best books read in 2012! (Wish I had a badge for that!!!)

And I received a 4 star review of 'Broken City' from an Amazon vine voice reviewer.



Due to my 2013 challenge I've been busy writing, I'm now 34.000 words into 'Broken City: Truce' and I'm getting really excited about it! I'm already starting to think about the cover and hope a friend of mine will take the job on. If she says no I'm going to be in deep trouble!!!

I've just started sending out pre - release review copies of 'Fracture' to a few blogger friends of mine, I'm looking forward (with nervous excitement!) to their reviews!

Also you may have noticed that I've been blinging out my blog! I thought it was time for a bit of an 'update' and it kind of got out of hand!