This lovely (and large) box arrived in today’s mail. Oh, yes, those are 10 paperback copies of After The Virus and Spirit Binder. And yes, there will be giveaways.
I’ll keep you posted.
Ready?
-  background / location /characters /plot  – brainstormed – check.
- Â new 300 page notebook, titled, and blank page awaiting brilliance (or at least some words … hopefully pieced together into a story) – check.
- Â red ink topped in the fountain pen – check.
Set?
- new Marianas Trench & Alanis Morissette & The Killers on the headphones
GO!!!!!!!!!
“On the floor, the lemon-filling had spattered out of his half eaten donut. Phil kicked at the donut, missed, and slipped in the powdered sugar that now coated the immediate vicinity. Once he’d regained his balance, Phil felt bad about the mess, so he retrieved the donut with the hanky he carried in his breast pocket. It would have been smarter to use the handkerchief on his broken nose, but Phil always had a difficult time putting his own needs first.”
– Love Lies Bleeding, the novella (TBR September 2012)
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Guess what came in the mail today?
I almost immediately yanked them out of the box while squealing – I didn’t even hear the mail courier drop them – but I managed to contain myself long enough to grab my phone and snap a picture:
These are the proofs for After The Virus and Spirit Binder from Createspace. I been anxiously waiting for these to arrive (almost three weeks from shipping date, FYI).
I needed scissors to get the packages open … I guess customs opened the package at the U.S. border, so hopefully they liked what they saw: I DO!!
It is so exciting to see them in print!
Now to approve the proofs!!
“That blueberry box is clearly too small for you, Leo.”
Leo blatantly ignores Meghan, even though she just so happens to feed him regularly and provide such things as blueberries boxes, looms, and other great places to nap.
“And it’s hanging half off the counter. You might tip and fall.”
Leo continues to ignore Meghan, who is obviously exaggerating as humans have such a propensity to do.
“Fine. I’ll just post a picture of you on the blog then.”
Leo, not even remotely motivated by this nothing of a threat, doesn’t bother to crack an eye for the pictures. What does he care of the blog when he has this perfectly sized box to nap in?
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Spirit Binder Blog Tour
Starting today Spirit Binder will be on a one week blog tour hosted by Bewitching Book Tours. I’ll update with direct links as the posts go live.
Here is the current schedule:
July 20 Behind A Million And One Pages
Guest blog – Post 1: What Inspired Spirit Binder: Opening Scenes
July 21 Book Nerd Revealed
July 21 Crossroads
July 22 Reader Girls
Guest blog – Post 2: What Inspired Spirit Binder: The World
July 22 Happy Tails & Tales
July 22 Coffee Addicted Writer
July 23 Book on the Bright Side
Guest blog – Post 3: What Inspired Spirit Binder: Character Names
July 23 Mila Ramos, Paranormal & Contemporary Romance
July 24 It’s A Hardcover Life
Guest blog – Post 4: What Inspired Spirit Binder: Settings/Locations
July 25 A Bibliophile’s Thoughts on Books
Guest blog – Post 5: What Inspired Spirit Binder: Theme
July 26 Chapter by Chapter
July 27 Manga Maniac Café
GIVEAWAY!!! {Review} Spirit Binder by Meghan Ciana Doidge (The Cascadian Chronicles #1).
Check out the first (4-star! YAY!) review of Spirit Binder by A Book Vacation, and enter into a giveaway of the ebook at the same time.
Irene Langholm recently re-envisioned the book cover for After The Virus and the amount of work she put into it was crazy and amazing at the same time. So I thought you all might like to see what an artist does when pitched a basic plot from an author … through concept … to completion.
I am absolutely infatuated with the finished product, BTW (in case there was any lingering doubt). Click the image to get a closer look:
Finished cover and sources:
http://irenelangholm.deviantart.com/art/After-the-Virus-310887976
Stock used:
http://freetextures.deviantart.com/art/Texture10-asphalt-67439625
http://waxsphere-stock.deviantart.com/art/asphalt-stock-50308707
http://arkaydo.deviantart.com/art/asphalt-texture-171800902
http://darkrose42-stock.deviantart.com/art/Army-56617154
http://pendlestock.deviantart.com/art/Fossil-120329445
http://hatestock.deviantart.com/art/Paper-stock-9-91944104
http://bashcorpo.deviantart.com/art/Grungy-paper-texture-v-1-22965919
http://agent-kstock.deviantart.com/art/snowy-mountains-75365193
http://hoschie-stock.deviantart.com/art/street-47084536
http://rml-stock.deviantart.com/art/Street-Stock-05-75324962
http://sirius-sdz.deviantart.com/art/texture-100-106021598
http://babybird-stock.deviantart.com/art/White-crumbled-paper-texture-48496295
Death and Friendship.Â
Love and Gaming.
Mind and Machine.
The Meaning of Life.
High School Graduation.
The End of the World.
That Kind of Stuff.
A group of teens discovers that the online game they’ve been playing has serious, life-impacting consequences. While this tight knit group seems on the edge of unraveling at the beginning of the book, the author skillfully interweaves the plot of his action-packed, sci-fi thriller with an exploration of the relationships of his characters. At times, they hate each other as much as they care, but when faced with life and death, games, guns, and secret military organizations, they choose truth and love.
This is rather obviously my kind of book.
I hesitate to elaborate further because I don’t want to give too much away about the plot, which, though it starts slowly, ramps up into glorious action and heartwarming love story. By the midpoint, I was gobbling up the novel and turning the pages as quickly as I could read. By the end, I had tears in my eyes. Unreleased, but still tears.
Normally, I would quote some of my favourite lines when reviewing a good book, but in this case I feel the reader needs to discover this world as the author has presented it, beginning to end, and not in bite-sized pieces. With that said, I will at least hint at my absolute favourite line, which is the accumulation of a running motif. This motif is almost painstakingly set up by the author as a way to describe the feelings of his main character, who also happens to be the author himself. Yes, this is written as semi-autobiographical.
Crazy stuff happens. It can’t all possibly be true. You’ll have to read it to figure it out.
I’m going to read We Can Be Heroes again. And I very rarely reread. I give it a solid 4.5 stars. You can currently find the ebook at Amazon (click the book cover picture above). The paperback version would also soon be available.
*Disclosure note: I know Scott Fitzgerald Gray. He edits my writing. I should therefore be harder on him than other storytellers, just to get back at him for tearing my words apart. So perhaps I am. Perhaps I should have given We Can Be Heroes five stars. Man, sometimes I can be a meanie.