Reviews, released and reworking

Yup another post by me.  Today I was happy to receive a five star review on Guardians.  Here it is, (actual both reviews!)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous adventure July 13, 2013

By Ch’kara SilverWolf

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love this series of stories. Harry Lionsey is the Guardian of the city of Nashua. He is a man of honor, with abilities that help him with his tasks. He reminds me of the old-fashioned PI (private investigator) only magical.

I highly recommend this series by Lisa Williamson a talented author and I hope to see many more adventures of Harry in the near future.

I have said this about other books I have read, but this would make a truly gripping TV series with the wonderful visuals.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant July 27, 2013

By Roy E Stolworthy

Format:Kindle Edition

At last a collection of wonderful stories from a brilliant author of fantasy. Lisa Williamson has a talent that should be recognised, her stories leave you wondering if she knows something that we don’t. This collection contains something for everyone and should not be missed. Highly recommended, well done Ms Williamson.

***

I am glad people are enjoying Harry’s tales.  as for the release part of the header I decided to release my most recent ghost story even if it is a slow month.

Now for the reworking or as it is more commonly known…editing.  Yeah I do this all the time.  Sometimes you release half way into the next segment that you didn’t quite get that last part right  Many authors just steam roll ahead and go back later to fix the mistakes but that drives me a bit batty.  So today I will be fixing little continuity issues I feel that Blood song has.  That should keep me out of trouble for an hour or five right?

 

Back to work or where did that blind dwarf come from!

I have seriously padded my thumb so I can type and not feel like I am being jabbed each time I hit the space bar.  Managed to do a chapter on Traveler last night and another so far today.  Yes the chapters are short, only a few pages but I do this when I change viewpoint from heroes to villain.  Only makes sense to me.

A new character (or two) decided to pop their head into the story.  Since I am one of those weird writers who don’t use outlines and cue cards and all that stuff to do my stories it is expected.  You need your muse to toss in these voices to move the story in the direction it is supposed to go.

The villain is turning into one hell of a nasty little creature.  Any creature who wants to commit genocide is going to be of course but you don’t expect someone who was once a beautiful Elf woman to turn into one do you?  I am having fun writing the arrogance of the two who are battling over our main character.  Parents…sometimes you just don’t need them right?

Looks like this will be lighter in tone than my last few.  I don’t want to become known for just dark fantasy right?  I am hoping I can get through this whole book with something that would be good for a younger audience.  Say that big youth market?  Would be nice.  The love story is soft and tentative so far.  I won’t take it too adult, after all I have a few others in the wings for adult fantasy romance type things.

Edana is strong willed for sure.  But a woman who grew up not knowing who she is and even what she is, who is the best in a field generally male dominated, she is going to be strong willed.  Now i just need to come up with the Elder Gods.  Yes I said Elder gods.  Creatures who took a hand in events that they never do…or rarely do.  Should be fun.

Still crossing everything I have that the review of Fall Into Nightmares will be a good one from PRG.  They have liked books I have read and reviewed, some more than I have and others less.  Sometimes I am surprised at the things they give 5 stars to.  I don’t expect something that good but I would gladly take it.

Endings is getting a small handful of reviews, which is good since Revenge is out now.  And now I am going to hold off on working on the third book in that trilogy till I see some good sales on both books.  Endings is neck and neck with Ice right now.  While neither is a best seller by any stretch of the imagination they are doing good for me.

Speaking of Ice.  I am thinking that soon I should put together those collections.  March should hold a number of releases of my work.  While I may just be taking up virtual space someone will find me someday and rad everything.  That is my hope after all.

 

Poetry can be harder than short fiction

Yes I know poetry is hard for many.  Heck some writers take a year to write one decent poem but well that isn’t how mine come out.  Generally when I am in an emotional overload I will sit down with pen and paper and let it flow out of me.  That was how Love, Loss and Loneliness came about.  A lot of emotional bursts in free verse style.

But the people doing the Apocalypse anthology wanted to have some poetry to go with the short stories.  Now I had submitted a short story and offered to do one for them.  Took me a week to write it!  No really a week for me is a long time in poetry.  I’m not sure of it of course.  I am never sure of my poetry but I sent it over.  Hopefully it makes it into the anthology which submissions for is closing on Thursday.

The Fae poetry contest ended and I was not in the top three.  Course again my poetry is short and to the point.  The ones that one were more epic in style.  Nothing wrong with that and people did like my little ode to the Fae.

Other contests I have entered seemed to have folded up.  Which is too bad really.  This is why I tend to put out my work on my own.  While getting into a collection is supposed to help with your over all noticeability it seems that these stories get lost in the shuffle.  I like being parts of writing groups since it helps with the creative process and you all know dear readers that I adore a good anthology.  but if they never get put out who will read these children of my mind?

The past few days I have been doing a major edit/rewrite to Revenge.  While it is much better than Endings was it needs the work.  some of the sentences just do not flow the way I feel they should.  I am hoping to get it done this coming week.  With my hubby’s hours being shifted I will be doing a lot of writing in the evening.  Now that doesn’t always work for me.  I tend to write in the morning while he is working and the kid is at school.  We will see what happens.

The free offer on Smashwords for both Endings and Fall Into Nightmares is still going.  Nightmares freebie will expire on Valentines day.  Endings goes on till the 25th.  I haven’t decided if I will do a one day free offer on Love, Loss and loneliness on Valentine’s day yet.  I have made a single sale on that poetry collection and I hope to see a few more.  While it may not be all sweetness and light it is definitely a look into a heart and good for that day.

In other works I have a good idea how to finish up If Shadows Could Speak.  That tale is I would say three quarters finished.  That will be either number six or seven in the Death Walks Through series.  I have gotten a bit stuck on Death Comes Softly, which is the piece I had planned as the sixth story.  The either will be No More the Smiles.  After that I will probably take them all and put them together in a paperback.  Not sure how many pages it will be but if it isn’t enough I will have to dig around for new ideas.

The other series are on hold for a little bit.  I have ideas waiting to be sprung out of my folder of starts but I really need to work on the longer stories.  The sequel to Nightmares, Destiny’s tale and Traveler all need to be worked on and hopefully completed by the end of this year.  If I keep up a steady pace of writing I should get them all done.  Too bad I have a number of books to read and review. They are so very distracting..and worth it!

Whoops I thought I edited this!

Yeah opened up Revenge to see if it was ready and oh my….NOPE.  Needs work.  so I have gotten through the reformatting, the spell check, the grammar check and now it is the re read….and yes the rewrite.  Okay I admit that I wrote most of Revenge about 8 years ago, so yes it needs work.  And yes I am working on it.  I have gotta a whole five pages done right as I type this.  The story will stay the same but I needed to fill in better on things like inner dialog.  Loralil is a very flawed young elf right now.  There  is a lot she need to process as she works toward her revenge.  The end will be the same but the trip will be a bit different.  Which is a good thing.

When i went back to look at the stuff that will come after this book I realized that a bit more lyrical style was needed.  A better understanding of why she goes a wee bit over the edge in this book and the journey she would need to find a balance…a peace to take her to the next stage of her life.  When writing a character that you know will go on to do much more it is actually hard work to do the dark parts that made them who you know they will be.

And on a side note one of my dear writer friends is going over Endings for me.  I knew that book needed work.  I have reviews that are quiet good in that they are four stars but the book needs work.  As long as the wonderful editor doesn’t try to convince me that killing off characters was wrong I will take most of what I am given and fix it.  But those deaths, while harsh, are important.  This is a dark fantasy world, a harsh place where even the best of characters can die suddenly and  in cruel ways.  It helped set the tone for the rest of the stories that will come in this world.  Revenge has less loss of good guys but it will have tragedy because it is out of tragedy that Loralil will become a great bard someday.  That is the goal.

Now I am doing a quick little promotion for Fall Into Nightmares on Smashwords.  Anyone who contacts me in the next week can get a free copy of the novel if they will promise to review it, good or bad.  I like real reviews, ones that tell me what is right and what is wrong in my work.  That novel is another dark fantasy but of course it is…after all we are talking the end of the world.  While I have read many books lately where things have ended but the stories are light I feel that we need some darker fiction too.  Not dark zombie OMG we all die but dark in that the world is no longer the easy place we thought it was.  Hopefully I get a few bites and a few reviews.  Nightmares is a good story and I have the sequel half written.  I need some one to read that book!

Reading instead of writing

Sometimes you just take time to do something other than be immersed in the worlds inside your head. It helps spark the creative force and hopefully gets you out of what ever stuck place you are in.  Of course it can back fire on you and make you go, why the heck am I writing?  Well luckily for me it didn’t this time but damn I just read some intense work.  I have a few more I have to read through of other writers I chat with but I think I can stop for the night.  After all I have read and reviewed quite a bit over the past two days.  My eyes are crossing a bit.

Now the fun part is I have two people working on covers for Loralil’s next book.  I have my sweet, amazing and very loved and talented hubby who is working on the ebook cover.  A totally from scratch design that will work great as a second book in the series cover.  Something a wee bit darker as the novel is darker than the first was.

Then I have the dear friend of my older daughters who is an artist and is doing a art piece from scratch and it will be the cover for the paperback.  They are both talented artists, in two different mediums.  I wish I could do half of what they are doing for me.

I have work I could be putting up right now but I am waiting.  What am I waiting for?  For someone some where to actually review something I wrote.  Yeah I have a lot of stuff out there but thanks to the change in Amazon’s ranking, tagging and over all searching my sales have died.  They haven’t stalled, they have DIED.  I have a total of four sales on Amazon this month.  Four whole sales.  Okay I have had two on Kobo and four downloads for free on Smashwords but come on.

Yeah I know I am kevetching.  There are times I wonder why I do this to myself.  I am not looking to be a number one best selling author, just want my ranking not to bottom out below DEAD authors!  Really now this is bad.  I have a nice, fresh if odd why of telling tales and people when they read my stuff like it but damn…this is hard on the ego.

Well I just have to submerge myself back into my story telling.  I have work in progress to finish.  So many works in progress that I wouldn’t need to bring my head up for a long time.  But I will.  I hope all my friends who got copies of my work are reading them and hopefully if they like them there will be a one line or more review put up sometime soon.

Enough complaining.  Yes even I know I am being whiny.  I think I will go and do one more final pass through on Revenge, make sure it is as clean a I can make it and then go back to Not To The Grave Go I.

A new and cold day

Yup fall is definitely with us.  As I type this I have on hand warmer.  Yes just one because i can’t find the other one.  Funny thing is I don’t have it on my bad wrist.  For some reason my left hand is much colder than my right.

Well on to work.  Thanks to the November 50K challenge I have finally decided to work on Traveler again.  I have 10K+ up on that site and I have about 8 pages of notes to type up from yesterday.  The idea with the challenge is to write 50K in 30 days.  And that is all, write.  No editing, revising etc.  Just write the words and go back and fix your typos etc next month.  I have a real problem working that way.  We all know I typo and then fix in the same sitting but oh well we will see what happens.

Not too happy with the wording I have at the moment but well that is just me.  I will get it to flow the way I like soon.  I hope.

So far I have been lazy today.  I reviewed a few poems on facebook and then finished reading James Anderson’s Scorpion and reviewed it on Amazon.  I think I will do a bit of reading yet this morning.  Finish reading up Sam Kates Pond Life and review it before I type and write.  Maybe put up some movie reviews on my livejournal account.  Also going to start reviewing albums and songs over on my myspace account.  Silly aren’t I?

Here is hoping that the motivators of the story in Traveler can come across as what they are.  Vane, shallow and self centered monsters who pretty much destroyed an entire culture of creatures for their petty sins.  Okay that sounded a wee bit much.  I will work on it!

Other people’s work

Since the work computer is down till tomorrow at least, thought I would catch up on my kindle reading and reviewing.  I downloaded a lot of odd books.  reviewed four of them so far.  The karma fairy must be watching.  I got two more reviews on One More All Hallows Eve…which made me happy.  Seems like that story is being taken in ways I didn’t expect.  Interesting how that can happen.  Readers certainly take things in and get out of your simple tales different things.  I can’t wait for more.  Good, bad or indifferent.  The review says more about the reader than the story they review I think.