A Blog Hop and a Beast Sighting!

For those of you here for the Crimson Romance A Year in Love Blog Hop, please visit the Blog Hop Page Tab at the top of this page!

That little message up there is simply to direct readers to the correct place, but I wanted to stop by today and talk a little bit about what the blog hop is about, and also to show you a teaser about the next book in my Furry Tale Chronicles series...

A Year in Love Blog Hop

It's pretty self-explanatory, really... my publishers, Crimson Romance, are celebrating their first anniversary throughout June, and while Crimson are doing lots of lovely things to promote the milestone (you can check their Facebook and Twitter to see what they have planned), the CR Sisters decided that they needed to do a little something extra to help with the partying!

For three weeks in June, the CR Sisters are hosting a blog hop, where we will be offering a chance to win one of two $50 gift cards (one for Amazon and one for Barnes & Noble) to all those who visit our blogs. There are also going to be individual book giveaways from many of the participants, so be sure to check out everyone on the hop list, because there are prizes aplenty!

As well as the prizes, the participants are posting excerpts from their books to tempt you. And as if that wasn't enough, there is an exclusive brand new short story being posted, written by seven Crimson Romance authors (I wrote the first 'chapter' - eeek!). Everyone is synchronising their posts, so all excerpts and story chapters will be available immediately, meaning you can spend all day happily clicking lots of lovely links and reading to your heart's content! Please drop by and share in the fun!

Beast Sighting

I'm excited to announce that I finally have the inspiration for the next book in my Furry Tale Chronicles series! After several false starts, I was worried that I'd never find the right beginning for my second book, but a few days ago I was hit with a flash of  inspiration, and I'm currently hard at work on the first draft of my next book. The EXCELLENT thing about this, is that the excitement I feel about this project is exactly the same feeling I got when I started writing If The Shoe Fits. And to add to the awesomeness, I am writing this during a WriMo month, which is the same way I wrote my debut furry tale. Everything has clicked neatly into place, and I have that all important 'good vibe' feeling about it, which bodes well for finishing the book and sending it to my publishers by the end of July (*fingers crossed*)!

As visual stimulation, my good friend Joris Ammerlaan created some cover art for me, and while I know it will not be used if and when the book is published, I think that having a cover art in place is a great boost to the writing process, and I am excited to let you all have a peek at it! There is also a short blurb - again, a work in progress - just to let you guys have a glimpse of what is to come...

The Blurb

Model by day, wolf by night...

Jennifer Hope has everything she ever wanted. She's a successful model, financially independent, has fantastic friends, and enjoys being single. She also hides a secret, and this secret means holding down any kind of relationship is never going to be more than a fantasy.

Brandon Denning is a ruthless agent, dubbed ‘The Beast’ by all who work with him. Grumpy, foul-mouthed, and perpetually pessimistic, he takes an immediate dislike to Jennifer, who sashays into his organised world and creates instant chaos with her inability to take anything seriously.

Thrown together, this Beauty and Beast seem doomed to be forever at odds. But Jennifer isn’t the only one with a secret, and Brandon may get more than he bargained for when he discovers that Beauty is far more Beast-like than he could ever be...

And that's my current news! I'll keep you all posted on the progress of Beneath the Beast, and don't forget to check out the blog hop - it'll be a blast!

Cover Reveal!!!

I got my cover, and isn't it purrrrrty? The art department at Crimson are absolutely fantastic! Actually, I need to reiterate that the entire team at Crimson are awesome. Nothing but friendliness & helpfulness, and super efficient into the bargain! I really couldn't ask for more.

I love the simpleness of the cover. It looks clean and fresh. And I love the kitty cat, sitting so saucily on the title, cleverly echoing the letter 'S'. Gorgeousness all over really... *sighs happily*

And now for the official blurb:

Life isn’t a fairy tale… except when it is.

 

There’s nothing wrong with Ella Gibson’s life— it just isn’t very exciting, despite being surrounded by lingerie. Working for Cardiff’s top modelling agency should have been glamorous, but most of the time Ella is running around with memos and cups of coffee. It’s a far cry from living the dream, but skirting the edge of her fantasy life is enough.

Then comes the day when her cat starts to talk, claiming to be Ella’s fairy godmother. As if that weren’t crazy enough, the pesky puss becomes a fashion advisor and behavioral expert, too. Add an evil ex-stepmother, a hunk called Charming, plus a looming party-cum-ball, and you have all the elements of a classical fairy tale. There’s even a couple of ugly sisters—the fact that they are two gorgeous gay men being neither here nor there.

Ella’s not your typical fairy-tale princess though, and it will take more than a discarded glass slipper to get her man. It’s quite possible she may have to curb her enthusiasm for cursing a wee bit, not to mention her love of vodka. And can Muse, her surprisingly straight-laced feline friend, overcome her prudishness long enough for Ella to sneak a kiss or three with her intended beau?

If The Shoe Fits releases with Crimson Romance April 29th.

  

Still in a sort of euphoric daze at present... I've had some fabulous feedback on the cover, and I've also had a sneak peak at a review that will be posted somewhere very soon, so I'm pretty much floating on a high at the moment.

Catch you soon, my lovelies!! x

Quickly Passing Through...

Hello!!

Just wanted to quickly stop by and fill you in...

Release day is creeping ever closer, and yesterday I received both my ARC's (that's advance reader copies for those of you who, like me until very recently, didn't know what an ARC was) and the mock-up of my cover. The cover is AWESOME, but I can't share it yet. There'll be a cover reveal post later this week though, and I can't wait to show everyone!

Also, you may notice that up on the left of the screen there is an A-Z badge. I am nuts, but I have decided to take part in this year's April A-Z challenge on BOTH of my blogs. And seeing how If The Shoe Fits releases at the end of April, I'm going to use both blogs to spread the word. Over on my Princess of Procrastination blog, I'll be using each letter to represent a word that is something to do with the publication process, while on here, I'm going to do what I'm calling 'promotional limericks'. These limericks will somehow link to a character or scene from the book, and I'm hoping the little teasers will help to engage some interest in potential readers.

Plus, limericks are fun... *grins*

That's all for today... it really was a quick visit! I'll be back in a few days with the cover reveal!

Doing Some Grown-up Work

*sigh* It's sad to say, but I've had to abandon my silly side and become more of an adult, even if it's only temporary...

Those of you who follow me elsewhere - Facebook, Twitter, or on my other blog - will know that I had some exciting news at the beginning of the month. My book baby got accepted!! I spazzed a bit over at my Princess of Procrastination blog (not to mention all over Twitter and Facebook *shifty*), so I won't repeat myself here, but suffice to say I am still squealing. I think it's taken a couple of weeks for the initial shock to wear off, but now that it has, I've had to knuckle down.

The first order of the day was regarding the title. Much as I love the play on Cinderella, and the fact that my home town was a part of the original title, I had to agree that Cardiffella wasn't going to work. Unless you know Cardiff, the reference was going to be lost, and readers would just be confused. So I did some brainstorming on Facebook, and after coming up with a few possibilities, I settled on a shortlist. Fortunately, the editors immediately liked my first choice, and as of now, Cardiffella is no more *sniffs*. Despite being a bit teary over it, I am incredibly happy with the new name, and there is a funny little story behind it too.

Bye bye baby... *dabs eye*

As I was thinking of new titles, I added them to my Facebook poll, whether I thought they were good or not. I just wanted to sound them out, you know? Anyway, I'd thought of If The Shoe Fits, but didn't add it to the poll. I think it was mostly because I had a vague notion that it had already been used as a book title before now, though I have no idea why I thought this (you already know how nutty I am, yes?). Then my good friend Tami (also known as The Watery Tart) suggested it to me, and it just tickled me that she had the same idea as me. I did a little research, couldn't find anything obvious in my investigations, and added it to my poll after all.

Eventually I had a shortlist, which I dutifully sent to my editor. Now comes the really funny part. You see, just as I hit 'send' on the email, I had an email alert. Another editor, who was working on my cover art, needed me to send her my ideas for the new title so that she could get a feel for the tone. Over the next few minutes, both editors and myself engaged in crossed emails, and BOTH came back with immediate approvals for If The Shoe Fits. Have I mentioned how fabulous the editors at Crimson are? No? Well they are! Fabulous, that is. Super friendly, super helpful, and all round awesome, actually. And that's a genuine endorsment from me, I'm not saying it because I have to, I'm saying it because I mean it. They've made what could have been a daunting process for a newbie author incredibly easy.

So anyway, I guess it was kind of meant to be. I'm happy, they're happy, and most of the people I polled are happy. Sorted!

Currently I am busy editing. I'm happy to say that there were no major revisions needed. The majority of changes are due to the fact that it's an American publishing house, which means that I've had to format according to American English rather than British English. Aside from typos and a few grammar boobies, the original manuscript is virtually unchanged. I'm currently 50 pages in, so I'm about 25% done, but it is an easy job and I'm aiming to finish by the end of the week, which is a full week ahead of my deadline. Not only am I determined to show that I will be a good client, I am also committed to taking part in a WriMo in March, where I fully intend to get the next book finished, so that I can spend April polishing and revising it. My aim is to submit it to my editor just as If The Shoe Fits releases.

This is where a series title comes in. You may have noticed that as well as the book, the title for this blog has changed too. I've had to be ruthless and get rid of it. *wipes away tear* But again, I'm really happy with the new name. The Furry Tale Chronicles is what I can hopefully call the series, though until I contract a second book, a series title is not up for discussion. Crossing my fingers that things will go to plan, though!

Lastly, and again I'm wiping away a little tear, I won't be able to use the cover art that was so beautifully created for me. Ana did a wonderful job on it, and I will keep it on display not only because I love it so much, but because I'm super grateful to her for finding the time to do it for me. Not to mention Joris (Joris Ammerlaan Design), who is the exceptionally talented graphics whizz who spruced up the original drawing. Between the two of them, they made a fabulous cover design that I will always be fond of.

I'm waiting with bated breath for the new cover to be finished. I have no idea what it will be like, which is part of the excitement, but I'm confident that it will be fabulous!

I think that's enough news for one day. Now I have to get back to my edits...

If The Shoe Fits releases with Crimson Romance April 29th.

PS - Okay, apparently it wasn't enough news for one day. My signed contract just landed on my doormat! Clearly I am still not over the initial shock, and am still in the Spazzing Phase. *squeals*

Something To Blog About

*dusts off page*

I finally have some news on my book baby, though sadly not as good as I could wish for. The last time I updated you guys was way back in September - all of five months ago!- but to be perfectly honest, there really hasn't been anything to report. Several times I stopped by, opened up a 'New Post' window, then left. After all, what on earth could I say when I was still in the land of Limbo?

The beginning of January arrived, and I'd yet to hear from either of the two publishers that I submitted to, so I figured it was time for a gentle pester. The minimum 16 weeks had passed, you see, and while there are those who say 'no news is good news', I'm more of a believer of the 'no news is wearing on the nerves' train of thought.

Both publishers replied, asking  for a little more patience as my manuscript was currently under review with their editors. Great news, I thought! At least it wouldn't be too much longer until I heard anything. Two weeks late I got my first official rejection, and it sucked, despite having more or less expecting it. Still,I wasn't disheartened.

This week, on Wednesday to be exact, I got my second rejection. Boo-hoo!! I was gutted, obviously, but again I wasn't overly surprised. I was also really encouraged though, because despite getting turned down, my book baby actually did rather well. Although the rejection email was pretty much a form letter, it did tell me that my MS had reached the acquisition team, and that the entire book had been read by a number of people. My understanding of the process is that you need a 'yes' from an editor, and one from a member of the acquisition team. If the team member passed on it, a second member would also read to give it a fair chance. Two agreeing votes are needed to decide the outcome. So, unless I completely misunderstood, I was literally one vote short. Bummer, huh?

Now, despite the disappointment, I was fairly buzzing. I'm new to all this, but I know that getting this far, especially on a debut submission, is really good news. It would have been helpful to know WHY I didn't get my final 'yes', but feedback is rarely provided, so it's just one of those things.

My guess is that my feline fairy godmother is is the culprit. That's going to be a hard sell, and I've always known it. But as a good friend pointed out to me - and I fully agreed with her (she's a Smart Tart, after all) - it is this hard selling point that will probably be the 'win' factor if and when I eventually get a 'yes'.

So I will keep plodding along. In fact, I've already submitted to four more publishers! Unfortunately, I've already received a pass from one of them, but again, it was an encouraging rejection. That particular editor was already working on a series that was similar apparently, so she declined before reading the full MS. Having sent the blurb and first three chapters, though, she also commented that she thought it was a 'fun' idea and that she 'loved my voice', which was AWESOME, as I finally had a teeny tiny bit of feedback.

This leaves me with three queries currently pending, and as soon as I have anything of any interest to report, I shall be back. In the meantime, I need to continue working on the sequel - something that is loosely based on the Beauty & the Beast story. After all, this is a series I am trying to sell, so it stands to reason that I need at least one more book written and polished ready to submit as soon as I get a 'yes' for the debut, right?

*positive thoughts*

Belle, the muse for my Muse character, fainted with shock at the news that her mistress's book got so far!

Oh My Daisies!

Or as Ella would say... 'crap!'

I finally bit the bullet and sent my manuscript off to two publishers this week. I have to admit, it's been ready for a while now, but I was too chicken to send it. I kept telling myself that I needed to add a few thousand more words, even though, deep down, it was one of those projects that practically wrote itself, and too much tweaking with it would have ruined the voice. Sure, I edited a few things out, and added little bits here and there, but really, there was never any chance that the story would have an extra twenty thousand words added to it.

The story is a fast paced, mad-cap romp, and aside from a few minor adjustments to do with timing inconsistencies, a truck-load of excess wordage would have removed a lot of the mood.

It's not perfect - of course it's not - but this first submission is the first step on the road to publication. It'll never be accepted (frankly, if it was, I'd probably die from shock - just how many projects ARE accepted first time around?), but if nothing else, it's a learning curve. And while I wait (anything up to sixteen weeks!!), there are things to be done. *nods*

I've tweaked the heading on this page to reflect the present change in circumstances, and I've spruced up my author page on facebook with a shiny new banner. While writing my query, I added a few things to the book blurb, and it occurred to me that the very first sentence would actually make a good tag line. When researching marketing and the like, I kept seeing the word 'brand' being bandied about, and I wanted to do something about that immediately. I didn't quite know what it would be, but the thought was lurking in my brain nevertheless.

So I now had a tag line. I even googled it to make sure that nothing else came up too prominently, just to reassure myself that it hadn't been used before. So far, so good. Now I needed a theme, and I thought... hmmm... STARS! (My brain is a bit odd sometimes, but that's a whole other blog).

Why 'stars?' Well, to be fair, it took a while to come up with the idea. It was only as I uploaded a basic picture to photobucket (a purple background with the tag line in a pretty script), that the idea formed. Looking through all the editing tools on the site, I spent some time adding different effects and what not just to see what would happen. Eventually I came across a 'space' feature, and I heard a little 'ping!' in my head. (I did! Honest!) One of the more famous themes from Fairy Tale World is wishing upon a star, and, after having made that connection, my banner was born.

I might be biased, but I think it's rather nice. It could do with some more 'prettying' up, but I like the way it turned out regardless. As a side note, I seem to have a slight obsession with all things purple. Not only is the banner purple, but so is the background for this blog. And my other Writing Personality - the one that (occasionally) writes fantasy - has an entire book theme centered on purple. Maybe there is a reason for this, but I'm not going to look into it too deeply. I just like purple.

Anyway, thats my news at the moment. I won't say the names of the publishers that I have submitted to, but shrewd people who know me might take a guess. And that's the way the way it will stay... that seems to be the way it works in this publishing game. Nothing named until contracts are offered, and that suits me just fine.

I have a short list of publishers to send to for round two of the submission process, but I am going to wait for rejections first. Which I am pretty sure I will get if they base their decision on my synopsis - the nightmare of which deserves a post all to itself. *snort* I was so tempted to add a couple of sentences at the bottom of the darn thing:

Please don't refuse on account of this synopsis. It sucks, and I know it. But the manuscript is much better! Honest!

Not sure that would have helped though...

Yoikes!!!

Yes, the 'o' in 'yoikes' is meant to be there, it's not a typo. It's just how I say 'yikes'. And why am I saying 'yoikes'? Well, because I did it. I actually got off my butt, thoroughly tidied up my manuscript to the best of my ability (which probably means it isn't as tidy as it should be), and entered it into this year's ABNA.

Yoikes indeed.

The good thing about this is that I finally did something with my manuscript (rather than let it continue to gather digital dust on my laptop). I had a good go at fixing it up before, and it was a fairly legible piece of work. But it was in no way ready to be seen by a publisher. To be fair, it probably isn't now, either. I mean, apart from tidying up the punctuation and spelling errors, and an odd word change here and there, I haven't actually added to it, so it is still my first draft.

But let's be realistic here. I am under no illusions that my modern little fairy tale will be able to stand up to the drama and suspense giants that I am competing against. I've had a good nose around the various ABNA discussion boards, and I haven't actually come across anything remotely similar to the chick-litty genre that my book mostly belongs to. This could be a good thing because, as one friend pointed out to me, it may stick out from the crowd. But I tend to look on the flip side, and I figure that my story may be considered too lightweight to be a contender for the incredibly distinguished sounding 'Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award'.

Let's break that down a little. Amazon is just the name, so nothing to break down there really. And 'Novel' and 'Award' tend to explain themselves. But 'Breakthrough'? This is where I may struggle. Plots filled with suspense, thrills, drama, and all kinds of other epic-type elements, lend themselves well to being contenders for a 'breakthrough' kind of story. Me? I've loosely - and I DO mean loosely - based my plot upon Cinderella, which, I might add, is something that's been done many a time before now, and doesn't seem to me to have anything breakthrough-y at all about it.

OK, so I have a talking cat, which, while not unheard of in literature, is probably not so common in the real world. And despite a talkative tabby, my story is very definitely set in the real world.

Anyway, the book is definitely not 'breakthrough' in general terms. I suppose I could go with the definition of 'breathrough'  as being that of an unknown author making a splash with her fantastical tale of nude nosedives, cussing heroines, and magical pussycats. Yeah, I could go with that.

Of course, the odds seem pretty stacked against me. In my category, there are a potential 5,000 entries, and only a 1,000 maximum will go on to the next stage. Less, if the judges don't rate the pitches that high. So in reality, I have to have a pitch so good that it will beat 4,000 other pitches. Erk.

But if I flip that coin to the other side, and at least try to be optimistic, I could also say that I have a one in five chance of getting to the next round., and you know, one in five isn't all that bad. Sounds much better than saying I have to beat 4,000 people to the post, anyway.

Much as I would love it, I really don't envision myself at the beginning of June anxiously waiting to see if I have won. I don't envision myself making the semi-finals either. Reaching the quarter finals is probably as far am my doubting self will let me dream about, if only to be able to get real feedback from real publishers. Honestly though, I'm just hoping to get past the pitch. Unfortunately, there is a month to wait before we get to find out.

It's going to be a long month. And not a talking cat in sight to distract me.

Sneaking Back In...

So, after nine months of nothingness (my bad, very bad), I am returning with some actual news. Those who know me well know that I dither and put things off for as long as I possibly can. I don't know why I do this, as it's not exactly conductive to getting a book published, but there we are. Anyway, the new year brought with it a new determination to push my debut novel out into the general public.

I think a lot of the dithering is down to the fear that nothing will ever come of it, but that kind of attitude will definitely never get anyone anywhere, so once again I am going to give it a go. This time, hopefully, I will be able to keep going despite the Fear Of Getting Nowhere cloud hanging over my head.

The first big news is that off and on subtle pestering from my good friend Hart Johnson (Confessions Of A Watery Tart), has pushed me into entering this year's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition. It's been mentioned more than a few times over the last two years, but I've always backed away from the idea. That fear again, I suppose. Anyway, this year I thought why the heck not? I mean, I've got nothing to lose, right?

With this in mind, I wanted to spruce up my cover art. My good friend Ana Karina Padilla Preston drew my original cover, but I wanted to make it all shiny and new to go with my fresh start. I have no talent at all with graphics - drawn or computer generated - so after a few abysmal attempts, another friend stepped in to help.

Joris Ammerlaan is a genius. *nods* He's already designed cover arts for several of my writer friends, and he offered to 'do something pretty with it'. Using Ana's drawing as a base, he enhanced the colours, created a new background, added some text, and just generally did some techy stuff which goes right over my head. This is the result:

Isn't it great?

Only now I had a wee problem. I needed a name. Who had written this book? Should I go with my real name, or pick a pseudonym? Once again, I turned to my friends for suggestions, then I put up a poll on my facebook page. I also asked for ideas on my Princess of Procrastination blog. Finally, today, I decided. After looking at the poll results and discussing it with family and friends, I went for 'Amber T. Smith', and I'm really happy with it. It's a pseudonym, but it also contains my real name. Most importantly (for me, at any rate), it has my daughter's name, whom I lost just over twelve years ago. Amber was actually a sort of lucky charm for me when I was writing Cardiffella back in 2009, as I'd used her name as my NaNoWriMo profile name, and it was the first time I'd ever completed a challenge like that. It seemed fitting.

So there we have it. I have a book (almost completely edited, by the way *faints*), a cover art, a pen name, and a competition to enter. Ooh, and Amber T. Smith also has a shiny new author page on Facebook. I'd say that qualified as news. wouldn't you?

Yay!

For those of you that don't know me very well, I am a technical dunce. Seriously, when it comes to anything done on a computer, I am a complete ninny. I usually get there in the end, but the end can sometimes feel like it takes forever.

I have tried, over the last year or so, to format the mess that is the first draft of Cardiffella. As you can imagine, the speed that it was written meant that spelling errors, typos, and general formatting went right out of the window. Plus the fact that I only had basic Wordpad to use to begin with meant that my first draft was a complete dog's dinner (as we say here in Cardiff). Anyway, up until yesterday I was completely overwhelmed by the huge task that awaited me. Aside from adding the extra ten thousand words that I need before I can submit to a publisher, I needed to make my draft readable.

Now, I don't know what happened today, but I awoke with a renewed determination to not let Word beat into submission. I have spent the last few hours going through my manuscript with the aim of correcting all of the spelling and typos - at least, those that Word helpfully highlighted to me at any rate - and, through a great many trials and errors, doing all those pesky formatting things that have to be done in order for me to have a professional looking manuscript.

I now have a manuscript with real chapters (instead of seven chapters of ordinary length, and half of the book falling under the heading of 'Chapter Eight' *shifty*), page numbers, author name and book title on every page, and the text itself in double-spaced, 12pt Times New Roman.

*faints*

I'm inexplicably chuffed to beans with myself! All of the tedious stuff that has frustrated me for so long has been done! Now all I have to do is edit in those last ten thousand words.

Guess I'd better crack on with the writing then, eh?