Guest Post from new author, Christine Ashworth!

Hello readers! I've got a special treat for you today. Christine Ashworth, author of Demon Soul, is here with a guest post. Welcome, Christine!  :)


Meghan, thanks for having me visit your blog! I’m in a bit of a flurry right now, what with my debut book DEMON SOUL coming out any day now, and with the Romantic Times convention happening this week. It’s my first one, so I’m excited! I’ve got the perfect dress and mask and faery wings for the Venetian Masquerade Faery Ball, and a super dress for the Hollywood Glamor night…I just can’t figure out what to wear to the Vampire Ball, though…the theme this year is Zombie Strippers from Plan 9! Any ideas for me?

Being a debut author has been such a ride. I’ve been writing since 2001, and have over ten novels under my belt…this is my first sale and boy, the journey’s been so much fun!

First, the incredible high that came with someone actually wanting my book. Really? Wow! Nice! Then of course came the hard part – revisions. When an editor tells you to change something, you do – and you make it work. Unless you really can’t make yourself change it, and then you have discussions with your editor. But I will say I did my best to make every change asked for, especially when she was so totally right. Everything, from getting the cover to getting the final pdf file of the book – I learned so much. Next time will be easier, I’m sure!

In digital publishing, the wait time isn’t a matter of years as it can be in traditional publishing. From offer to first availability, it was just about six months! (DEMON SOUL is available currently for the Kindle at Amazon.com, but will be widely available soon). That gave me enough time to get my ducks in a row as far as marketing goes. I’m lucky to have RT to go to as well, as that will give me the opportunity to meet readers and sell some books.

Blogging will be my focus for the month of April, and doing giveaways too. And then I’ll crawl back into my writer’s cave and get the second book in the Caine Brothers series written because, you know, that’s my job! Feel free to drop by my website at http://christine-ashworth.com/ or follow me on twitter @CCAshworth

If you’d like to win a copy of DEMON SOUL, please leave a comment, below, and thanks for spending time with me!

BLURB:
Gabriel Caine stands on the edge of the abyss. A vampire has stolen his soul and if he doesn’t get it back soon, his next step will be into Hell.

Rose Walters has been sent back from the dead to complete one task – save Gabriel Caine. But this strong hunk of male doesn’t look like he needs anyone’s help.

Rose has touched the whole of Gabriel, making him yearn for a love he believes he can never have. Her willingness to put her human life on the line for him forces him to bring all three parts of himself – demon, human, and Fae bloodlines, and the traps and strengths of each – into harmony, and into the fight that will determine their fate.

BUY LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Demon-Soul-ebook/dp/B004USLO6W

Thanks for stopping by Christine. Best of luck on your debut novel!  :)

Readers, you have until Friday at 4 pm (EST) to leave a comment to be entered to win a copy of Demon Soul. Good luck to everyone!

'Till next time...

FINALLY - my notes from the DFWCon 2011 :)

Better late than never, right? LOL. I've been overwhelmed with school and writing and life, you know how it is. But, I promised a post on what I learned at the conference, and here it is. Enjoy! (If you're thinking it doesn't look like I attended that many workshops, keep in mind that I overslept BOTH mornings and missed both 8:30 am workshops! Mornings and I don't mix  ;-)


High Concept – Colleen Lindsay
I took very few notes at this workshop, unfortunately. Colleen spoke briefly about her thoughts on what “high concept” is, and gave a few examples. (The only ones I remembered to write down were “Jurassic Park” and “Sum of All Fears” by Tom Clancy.) She did say that your high concept should be a “clear concept” able to be expressed in 10-25 words. For the rest of the workshop, Colleen took examples from the participants, and told them whether she believed their ideas were high concept or not.

Taxes for Writers – Diane Kelly
This was a very informative workshop. I did take some notes in this class, but I couldn’t begin to try to sum up everything I learned in the class. Diane is definitely one smart cookie. I recommend checking out her website for more info. She has also occasionally offers an online “taxes for writers” workshop.

Exploring the Action Dilemma – Weronica Janczuk
Another informative workshop. But it was VERY fast-paced and my notes aren’t exactly coherent. But, I’ll share with you what I have, in the hopes you can make sense of it :)

Your novel needs proactivity (no “reactive” conflicts)
Your character’s goal must cause tension
You must fit your character to plot, or plot to character
Your character must be unwilling or unable to change
Your first 50 pages must concentrate on one main and specific goal
That goal must be reflective (they will lose something)
Day to day tension is not enough (eating, sleeping, etc. is BORING)
NO INFO DUMPS
Fake tension = bad
The resolution must lead to a definable change

Eight Point Arc
1. (of course I missed the first point LOL)
2. Trigger
3. Quest
4. Surprise (unexpected but plausible)
5. Critical Choice
6. Climax
7. Reversal
8. Resolution (explain the change)

Scenes are like a mini-novel. Drive scenes with goals.
Scene beats:
Act I – pacing slow until inciting incident
Act II – fastest; speed up before & after each obstacle
Act III – slowest
To shape scenes, use syntax and diction
To shape a novel, events must affect main characters and entire cast
Your novel must have turning points – dual, major/minor, high/low
You have half of the first page to hook your reader
Clue in to supernatural things in the very beginning


It’s a Matter of Taste – Jessica Sinsheimer
Jessica set up a blog specifically for the info she generated for this workshop. Instead of give you my half-assed notes on what she said, I shall give you the link to her site: click me :)

Plotting for Non-Plotters – Candy Havens
Candy mentioned a site called totallythebomb.com which uses something called a story-saurus (I didn't go to the site, so you'll have to look it up yourself!

I took the most notes on Michael Hauge’s Six Stage Plot Structure.  There are 6 stages, and in between each stage is a turning point

Stage 1 – Setup
Turning Point 1 – Opportunity
Stage 2 – New Situation
Turning Point 2 – Change of Plan
Stage 3 – Progress
Turning Point 3 – Point of No Return
Stage 4 – Complications and Higher Stakes
Turning Point 4 – Major Set Back
Stage 5 – The Final Push
Turning Point 5 – Climax
Stage 6 – Aftermath

The Changing World of Publishing – Faith Black
I must admit I didn’t take any notes in this workshop. Basically Faith spoke about epublishing and all that good stuff. She assured everyone that the publishing world isn’t going anywhere, regardless of any future changes in technology

Romance Panel – Candy Havens and Anna DeStefano
My first recommendation is for you to check out both of their websites.
Anna
Candy
Both are full of great info for writers. I didn’t take many notes in here because it was mostly a casual conversation atmosphere. But here’s what I do have:

If you’re going to write a good romance novel, you’ve got to:
•know your voice and how to fit it into the romance genre
•have a HEA (happily ever after)

For Newbies:
•hone your craft
•write and polish your book
•find an agent
•network

*Once you finish your first book, immediately start your second book


That's about it for me. I'm sorry if I've been a bad comment-leaver lately. My accounting class is totally kicking my butt LOL. Hope everyone is doing well and gettiing their writing done. Till next time...!

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!

Yes of course, I'm talking about my date with blogger! I really meant to write last week, but life got in the way (as it usually does).

I got home from Texas last Monday night, after some craziness at the DFW airport. For some odd reason, American Airlines cancelled a 1:40 flight, and tried to re-book everyone onto the 2:20 flight (the 1 we were booked on). There ended up being FORTY-SIX people on stand-by. Then they actually asked a few people to wait (three hours!) for the next flight, b/c we needed to bring extra gasoline with us. This was b/c the weather in NY was so windy they were afraid we might have to be diverted to another airport. Thankfully we landed safe and sound at LGA a few hours later, and only {sarcasm} had to wait 25 minutes for our freaking luggage to come out on the carousel.

But the trip itself was wonderful. Everyone down in Dallas/Ft. Worth is so friendly! And the weather was so nice and warm. Temps were in the 60s on Fri and Mon, and in the 70s and 80s over the weekend. The conference was fun and I learned a lot. And, of course, I want to share it with all of my readers! But not in this post (*ducks for cover*). I still need to type up my notes from the workshops I took while attending the conference.

(School work has been keeping me quite busy unfortunately. I had 2 tests last week – accounting and business law. I got a 78 on my accounting test which was kind of a bummer, but at least I passed. I won’t find out my grade for business law until my next class. And, of course, the homework never stops.)

Since I don’t have conference scoopage for you this post, I’m going to share some links to blogs that are chock full of DFW goodness! They’re from last week so you might’ve already seen them, but in case you haven’t, check these out:

Gong Show meets Query Letters

Great recap by fellow DFW-goer

Follow this blog to read what you missed in Jessica Sinsheimer's workshop

I wasn't at this panel, but it sounds like it was pretty interesting

This is not a blog - Anna DeStefano mentioned this at the Romance Panel - TONS of good stuff on her site

If anyone knows of a blog/site related to the DFW conference that I missed, feel free to leave a link to it in the comments!

I will try to type up my notes over the next few days, and share with y’all my experience of the conference. In the meantime, have a wonderful week!  :)

Taking a short blogging break...

I've been overwhelmed the past few weeks, between school, writing workshops, and life in general. Accounting 101 is kicking my ASS. I knew it was going to be hard, but it's even harder than I anticipated. Intro to business is kinda hard, but nothing compared to accounting. Business law is boring as hell, but I wouldn't call it hard. Same with business math. But taking four classes is certainly keeping me busy.

Then I stupidly signed up to take not one but FOUR writing workshops this month. Genius, huh? I also applied to be paired with a mentor on the Romance Divas forum, but that doesn't start until March (if I'm accepted, which isn't a guarantee b/c the ratio of mentee to mentor applicants is like a zillion to one - ok not that bad, but close enough  ;-)

To top it off, I'm going to the DFW Writers Conference in Dallas/Ft. Worth next weekend (26-27th). I'm excited to visit Texas since I've never been there before. I'm dragging my boyfriend as well, we're leaving Friday morning and coming back Monday evening. He's excited to do some sight-seeing while I''m in workshops. And we're both excited to eat some greasy, fried southern food! 

I meant to write a post last week, but I never got around to it. So I decided instead of worrying about keeping up with bloggerland, I'd let ya'll {see, I'm practicing for Texas already LOL} know that I'm taking a break for the next two weeks. This way I'll have one less thing to worry about getting done while I'm trying to figure out assets, debits, liabilities, and why the hell I decided to go back to school for accounting!  *rolls eyes*

When I come back in March, my goal is to set some sort of loose posting schedule. Hopefully you'll be seeing posts from me more than once every week (or 2). Until then, enjoy the rest of February!

Where do you get your news? (and I don’t mean the every-day, always depressing “the world is going to end” kind)

I mean the kind about things you’re actually interested in. In my case (which may also be your case considering you’re reading my blog), it would be new books to read, what’s going on in the writing/publishing world, and of course all things sci-fi (books, tv shows, movies, etc.). How do you stay “in the know” regarding what’s going on in the world around you?

I ask because I’m looking for new sites to bookmark, to keep me up-to-date on a daily basis with things I deem relevant.

Two sites I follow for sci-fi articles are Blastr and io9. For instance, thanks to Blastr, I found out that Kristen Stewart turned down the role of Lois Lane in the Superman reboot (wtf is she thinking?!?). On io9, I read about the awesome new sci-fi(ish) shows that might debut this fall on network tv (I am most excited about the adaptation of Stephen King’s “the Dark Tower”). Annnnnd I found out via entertainment weekly that Warner Bros Studio is remaking King’s “The Stand” (I literally LOLd when I read #10, M-O-O-N)!

As for new book releases, and info on the writing/publishing front, I follow a TON of different blogs that usually keep me in the loop. Some of my favorite blogs on writing are linked on the sidebar on the right, feel free to check them out (if you’re not already following them). There’s also Goodreads for book reviews, but I have so many books on my TBR list already that I really don’t need to go looking for more at the moment!!! ;-)

So I’m asking you, readers – where do you get your news from? Do you have sites you check daily (or more often?) for scoopage? Can you recommend some sites I should check out? Let me know in the comments section. Have a great weekend!