Author Archives: Cindy Woolf

Guest Blog by Anastasia V. Pergakis

Posted on by

1.    How did you get started writing?
It was just something I’ve always done. When I was younger I wrote mostly poetry and short stories. It wasn’t until I was in high school that I tried my hand at full length novels. And it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized that fantasy novels were my calling. I still write the occasional poem or short story, but now my focus is always one novel or another.

2.    What genre(s) do you write in and why?
I write fantasy to enchant adults to remember that magic can still be real. My debut novel is a fantasy adventure, but I also have an epic fantasy series in the works along with a few other fantasy adventure stories. I have one or two ideas for Urban Fantasy titles, but have yet to explore them fully. And then of course, some day, I’d love to write a few sci-fi stories, but time will tell on that one.
I think the reason I love writing fantasy so much is the “other world” aspect. I get to make up everything about the world, down to how the grass looks like. Some might say I have a “God complex” but really I just find it fun and interesting. I do a lot of research into religion and government and culture in order to make my worlds as realistic as possible. It’s great fun for me to learn about new peoples – and then make up my own!

3.   What movie best describes your life?  Why?
Oh goodness. Let me see…that’s a tough one. There is a line in the movie Avatar where he says “Everything is backwards. Like the real world is in there, and this is the dream.” in reference to his life with the N’abi and his life as a “researcher” in a wheelchair. I get so engrossed in my stories that it’s literally like I have two lives. One “in there”, the world I’ve made up and the one “out here” where I’m a mom, wife, etc. And while Avatar might not be the best example to show that point, it’s the first one I thought of LOL

4.    What inspired your latest book?
I had the idea a few years ago to write a story about my Dad’s military career and his life. He was great and answered all the questions I had, even though I’m sure some of them were hard to answer. I began writing the story and got about a page into it when I realized there was no way I could do it. I didn’t think I could capture the feelings, the emotions, he felt during that time in an accurate way. I would hate to write a story to honor him – and all soldiers – but only end up ruining it completely.

So I fell back to my passion – fantasy. The story now is completely fictional, and not based on any one truth really. Although, my Dad’s military career is a huge inspiration. I call him often for help with military strategy, tactics, and even plot ideas.

Because, I wanted to honor my Dad and all soldiers with this book at the beginning, I decided to continue with that idea despite the book being fiction. So, I donate a portion of my royalties to the Wounded Warrior Project. They help wounded soldiers and their families heal after they return home. You can read true stories of soldiers they’ve helped at their website, www.WoundedWarriorProject.org.

Cleanse Fire is the first book in the The Kinir Elite Chronicles. Filled with edge-of-your-seat action, suspense, and a bit of romance too! Follow the Kinir Elite as they track down a traitor and find more than they bargained for.
Complete the mission, no matter what…

Captain Derac Vidor has served Kinir for nearly twenty years. It’s his life, his blood, his soul. And then his Commander betrays everything Derac holds dear. Now he has to focus on his own life and his team instead of saving the citizens of Kinir.

Treason is only the beginning…

Fueled by rage, the team chases the source to their Commander’s betrayal – a powerful wizard bent on revenge. The wizard seeks to destroy the Kinir Elite, in both mind and body. No place is safe, even among their allies.
The past holds the key…

Derac’s tragic past may be the key to saving the team. But can he face the gruesome nightmare in time?

5.    What is your favorite part of writing?
Oh this is a tough one. I mean, I like being able to connect with people through my writing and learning new things. Then of course, I love watching a plot unfold, new characters showing up unannounced, and twists in the story that I didn’t expect. But I think my favorite part is seeing and hearing what other people think of the story. Hearing how much they loved it and how they connected with the characters is the best feeling in the world.

6.    What is your least favorite part of writing?
I don’t think there is anything I don’t like about writing. I mean, it can be tough sometimes when the words won’t flow or if a scene doesn’t come out right no matter how much I try. But, I can’t think of anything I don’t like about writing at all.

7.    What is your next project and when will it be released?
I’m already writing Fire Renewed, the sequel to my book Cleanse Fire. The Kinir Elite Chronicles continues with some new faces, new missions, but still the same edge of your seat action and suspense. I don’t have a set date yet, but Fire Renewed will be out Summer 2012. I’m shooting for July 4, but that’s not a firm date yet.

8.    What is your typical day like?
Oh goodness. It’s crazy. I’m a stay at home Mom and my three year old is extremely active. (What three year old isn’t right?) But I also try to write, run my web design business, network, homework, oh and then of course there is the laundry. It’s hard sometimes to find the balance but I wouldn’t have it any other way really. I love being busy. I’m never bored for one thing! It is hard to schedule things for my work side sometimes since my son can be so unpredictable, but I like the spontaneity he offers. Like I said, keeps me from getting bored!

9.    How much time do you spend promoting your books?  What works best for you?
Depends on the day really. Today for example, my son was content to spend most of the morning playing on his own. So I was able to do a lot of things around the forums and social networks I belong to. But yesterday, I could hardly do any promotion it felt like because he wanted some extra attention from me. Even at night after my son is in bed it varies as my husband’s work schedule is never the same. On nights he’s at work I glue myself to my computer and don’t do much else. But on days he works in the morning, I try to spend time with him watching a movie or playing a game on the Wii. So, I can’t really put a number on time I promote.

10.  Where do you get the ideas for your stories?
My son’s imagination and innocent view of the world gives me a lot of inspiration for sure. But, really, I get ideas from almost anywhere. An overheard conversation, TV, books, dreams, etc. But overall, I’m the type of author whose characters talk to her. And most of the time it feels more like I didn’t have the idea at all! The characters are the ones that tell me the story – like a friend would tell me about their weekend. I just listen and write it down for them. It sure makes for fun times. I’m sure my husband thinks I’m insane talking to “imaginary” people, but hey, my son can do it, why can’t I?

11.  How has your experience with self-publishing been?
FUN! Yes, it has been difficult when things don’t go exactly how I planned or stuff pops up that I wasn’t prepared for, but over all, the experience has been a thrill. I know every writer is excited to see their book published, but I think – for me – it’s taken on a new level because I had a direct hand in every stage. Writing, editing, the cover art, and then actually publishing it. It is overwhelming sometimes for sure, I feel like I don’t have enough ours in the day to get everything done that I need to. But I’m still having the time of my life.

12.  What advice do you have for other authors wanting to self-publish?
Do your research. And then research some more. Ask lots of questions! There are so many steps, so much to know about self publishing, it can be a little overwhelming. There are plenty of people out there to help you, plenty of blogs with information. So, take your time and keeping reading, keep asking until you feel completely comfortable going forward.

And sometimes I feel this is more important to self published authors than traditional, only because traditional authors have the help of their publisher to figure this part out. Know your market. Know your audience. If you don’t, you can’t promote your book anywhere. Find the main theme or genre of your novel, then figure out the second and third. Don’t exclude something just because it appeals to a “small” group of people. As a self published author you have to think like a publisher – a sell is a sell. So make sure you know who to sell it to!

Thank you so much for having me Cynthia! You had really great questions and I had fun answering them. 🙂

Purchase Cleanse Fire

 

Join the Kinir Brigade by signing up for our newsletter! Get
exclusive deals, access to special giveaways, and inside information about the
series!
Join the Kinir Brigade now and receive the first five chapters in your
email! And don’t forget to visit our Facebook Page and Website too!

~ * ~ * ~

In honor of Veterans Day, I’m giving away an e-copy of Cleanse
Fire! Leave a comment on this post to enter into the random drawing by 11:59 pm
November 6 (Eastern Standard Time). You MUST leave your email
address IN the comment so I can contact you when you win!

All commenters will also be added to the drawing for a
chance to win a signed hard cover version of the book when it releases December
21.

I’m having more giveaways throughout the months
of November and December! “Like” the series’ facebook page to keep up to
date on all the events!

Guest post by Stephanie Draven

Posted on by

Why Your Villain
Shouldn’t Be a God…

and Other Rules of
I’ve Shamelessly Broken

 Dark Sins and Desert Sands

Gods are very powerful, otherwise they wouldn’t be…youknow, gods. Therefore, as an author, it’s especially unwise to choose a god as your villain. This is especially true if the hero and heroine of your
story are mortals. Even if they are very special mortals with very special powers. Because chances are, if their powers were strong enough to defeat a god…they too, would be gods.

All of this seems eminently sensible to me now, but when I began my Mythica series for HQN Nocturne, I thought the idea of war gods as villains seemed like a fantastic idea. Wouldn’t it be great to pit my modern day hero and heroine against Seth the Destroyer, Ancient War God of Egypt?
Think of the excitement! I was infatuated with my world, in which war turns men into the monsters of ancient myths and the gods still walk amongst us. There was no room for doubts!

At least, I didn’t have any doubts until the part of the manuscript where my hero and heroine landed themselves in deep trouble. Now, the best writers get the hero and heroine into so much trouble that the reader has no idea how they’re going to get out of it. The problem was, I couldn’t figure it out either!

I spent many sleepless nights wrestling with the story in DarkSins & DesertSands, trying to make sure that my modern day minotaur found his happily ever after. I think it was all worth it, but I don’t ever want to work that hard again!

People who meet me on the street would never suspect that I’m a rebel, but as a writer, my inner subversive loves to come out and play. I say this because making my villain a god wasn’t the only reckless thing I did in this book.

First, I decided that my hero would be an Arab-American soldier accused of working with the enemy. Having been imprisoned for two years and tortured, he has transformed into a modern day minotaur. He has a few anger management issues to work out and his initial behavior with our heroine isn’t
pretty. I also gave him mind-control powers. That’s right. Orgasms on command, ladies. I’m not shy about saying so.

And though my hero is guilty of the crimes the government accuses him of, he isn’t a completely innocent man. I liked playing with those shades of grey and giving him a redemptive character arc.

Next, I decided to include a teenaged prostitute and a goddess of whores in this novel. Can’t wait to hear what the moral majority is going to have to say about that.

When it came to my heroine, things were even trickier. Layla is the minion of an evil god, so she has a very dark past that she doesn’t want to remember. When our hero enters the picture, she becomes a hot mess. It takes a long time before she gets her shit together enough to be worthy of our hero, but that was alright with me. The safest kind of heroine is someone mildly flawed so that every reader can imagine herself in the role and concentrate on the redemption of the hero. Well, forget that. I decided to gamble on the idea that readers would appreciate the journey of the heroine just as much.

I love her and I hope readers will love her too!

Below the links to Stephanie’s book, you will find link to an excerpt from Dark Sins & Desert Sands

Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble,

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Desert-Sands-Harlequin-Nocturne/dp/0373618719/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Barnes & Noble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-sins-and-desert-sands-stephanie-draven/1102081693

Excerpt

http://stephaniedraven.com/2011/08/24/excerpt-from-dark-sins-desert-sands/

The Mighty Plumeria That Could

Posted on by

Back in 2005, my husband and I went on a wonderful vacation to Hawaii.  While visiting the Dole Plantation, we saw a plumeria stick.  We thought it would turn into a bush and that would be neat to have in the house.  The flowers smell so wonderful.
Well, one thing lead to another and the ‘stick’ got shoved out of the way and forgotten.  Flash forward more than a year.  I’m cleaning out a closet and low and behold there is the plumeria, still in it’s plastic wrapping with it’s price tag on it…and a green leaf growing out the end.

Whoa!

It’s been forgotten in a closet for a year, no water, no light, how could it be growing?  The answer to that question is I have no idea, but it did.  We decided that it showed such perseverance that we should put it in a pot and see what happens to it when it get’s water and height.  Amazingly, not a lot.  It grew very slowly.

Flash forward again to early summer 2011.  In Colorado where I live there is lots of sun.  I think we have sunshine in the state on average 360 days a year or something like that.  We’d put the plumeria outside in order to  get some of that sunshine.  It is a tropical plant after all.  It had been outside for several weeks and was doing very well.  Getting taller, got a few new leaves.  Suddenly a severe windstorm came up.  It ripped every leaf off the poor tree.  Now I have two four foot trunks sticking out of a pot.  But the trunks looked healthy, so we continued to water the trunks.

The trunks seemed to be alive and thriving.  Soon leaves started appearing.  Great bunches of them.  More than we’d ever had before.  Needless to say, I was shocked and thrilled at the same time.  When the grasshoppers came and started to eat my beautiful tree, we took it back inside.

That was about three months ago.  This past week pale green, almost white, buds started to appear at the top of the mass of leaves.  My tree was flowering!  This tree we bought as a stick was now reproducing.  The flowers smell wonderful.  The tree now sits in front of the patio sliding door so it gets plenty of light and I make sure it gets all the water it needs, too.  It may flower all winter, I hope so.

My writing has been like the plumeria.  A life changing event sent my muse to the closet where it stayed in the dark, hibernating for many years.  I didn’t even know if I could still write.  It was four years before I wrote again.  Then another life changing event, a heart attack scare, made me realize how important writing was to me and if I was ever going to do it now was the time.

I finished the book I’d been “working” on for ten years, overnight.  I was in the hospital and you can’t ever get any sleep in there anyway, so I put my time to good use.  I got the skeleton done.  Sure it needed lots of editing and some of the “leaves” fell off, but I’d done it.  I’d finished my book.

Slowly my leaves came back and then the book started to flower until all the buds opened and I published it.  My stick had come back and grown in to a beautiful tree.

How about you?  Where are you in your plumeria cycle?  Do you feel like all of your leaves have fallen off?  Or are you starting to flower?

My Self Publishing Journey

Posted on by

My mother always told me I could do anything I set my mind to.  If I didn’t know how to do it I could learn.  Being a reference librarian, and a self taught one at that,  she was all for research.   Even with all the information on the internet, the library is a great place to bring the kids for a life lesson…but I digress.

One day in April 2011, I was having chest pains and ended up in the hospital.  Thankfully it was not a heart attack.  Unfortunately, it was a severe anxiety attack brought on by stress at work.  I was subsequently laid off in June, but again I digress…imagine that.

While in the hospital I finished the book I’d been working on for ten years.  This book, CENTAURI DAWN, I hadn’t been able to finish or even work on since the death of my younger brother in 2006.  I’d already finished one, TAME A WILD HEART, had it edited and submitted it to several publishers just to be turned down.  So now I have two books that are finished with nowhere to go.

I told my critique group that I’d finally finished CENTAURI DAWN and one of my CP’s said “now you can publish with me”.  Considering that my first book had been turned down and that I have no patience, I was intrigued to say the least.  I started researching the self publishing entities of Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.  Later on I’d add All Romance eBooks to the mix.

My CP’s went through the manuscript with a fine tooth comb and I must have read the finished product a dozen different times and found something wrong every time.  I hired an editor who went through and critiqued the first chapter for me then fell off the face of the earth.  I never did hear back from her and had to go through PayPal to get my payment to her back.  *Note to self, do not pay for services in advance.

One of my CP’s is in discussion to become a freelance editor for one of the big publishing houses, so I had her go through it again.  There were still minor errors which I fixed.  Then I went on to publishing the book.  Even after it was published, I found minor errors in my Kindle version.  What I’m saying here is that no matter how many times you read it, check it and recheck it there are still going to be errors in your manuscript.  That is just the way it is.  I bet there is not a book out there, that doesn’t have some errors whether indie or traditionally published.

Formatting drove me crazy.  It’s not as easy, especially the first time, as the companies would have you believe.  I ended up loading the book three different times.  The last one just to get the cover into the Kindle file.

This doesn’t even go into the process of getting the book published in paperback.  I’m not a techno geek or a Photoshop pro, so the process of setting the book up to the format they required for printing, especially the cover, was a nightmare for me.  I highly recommend having a professional cover done by a cover artist who is familiar with this process.  It will save you many, many headaches.

So despite all the glitches, the stumbles and completely landing on my face, I got back up and got my book, Centauri Dawn, published.

Would I do it again?  In a heartbeat.  Even if it meant going through the agony I went through with the first book, would I do it again?  YES!!  As a matter of fact I did.  I published my second book, Tame A Wild Heart, one month after I published the first book.  And made some of the same mistakes I make the first time.  The worst part of the paperback printing process I did avoid by using CreateSpac rather than Lightning Source for the print version.

Anyway, I did it.  I published my book.  I made my dream come true.  There are two books that now have my name one them.  I wrote them, they are a part of me, my work, my babies and I’m proud to have my name on them.  Whether I’ll ever make any money with them I can’t say, but I’m going forward with my writing and with my publishing.  It feels good.  It feels right.

Mom was right.  I can do anything I set my mind to.

Are you poor?

Posted on by

One of the hardest things I think I’ve ever done is be the personal representative for my mother’s estate.  I will never do this again.  I thought I was helping my mother and I’m sure that I actually was giving her some peace of mind, but I will never do this again.  I will let another family member do it.

Dealing with family and realtor’s is the pits.  My mother was the glue that held my family together.  Since her passing, my extended family has shrunk.  We no longer meet for Sunday dinners.  Where we would have made time because it was at Mom’s or Grandma’s, now our lives have moved on.  We no longer have the time for each other and in some cases, have found out we don’t really like each other and were only doing it for Mom.

My mother was a strong woman.  We lost my dad to a heart attack when he was just 51.  I was five.  Mom raised four kids by herself.  Working for fifty cents an hour as a substitute librarian, she managed to put food on the table and by making them herself, clothes on our backs.

We were what the neighbors called poor.  We didn’t have a lot of money.  Our house didn’t have indoor plumbing until I was eight years old.  I remember when my dad was alive, we would bathe in a big metal tub in the middle of the kitchen.  Mom heated water on the stove.  We kids bathed first and Dad last, just adding more hot water as it cooled off.  I sometimes wonder now, if Dad ever had a really hot bath or for that matter one that hadn’t been used by someone else first.

I didn’t know we were poor.  We had everything we needed and even special things, like a trip to bible camp for me.  We had lots of extended family and friends and neighbors.  All of us watched out for the other.  Even though it was in the mountains and our neighbors were far away, we still watched out for our neighbors and they for us.

All of us take a lot of things for granted.  For the most part if you are able to read this blog, you are not poor.  Do you have a car in your driveway, food on the table and in the pantry?  Do you have friends and family who love you and look out for you?  If you have any of these things you’re not poor.  You may not have a lot of money, but you’re not poor.  I definitely don’t have a lot of money, but I’m one of the richest people I know.

How about you?  Are you poor or are you richer than you ever imagined you could be?

Male Models…Too Young?

Posted on by

I attended RomCon this year.  What fun.  It was wonderful.  I met more authors and readers in one weekend than I could have imagined.  It was the first time for me to attend a function as an author and I was amazed at the camaraderie that existed between the authors and the readers.  There was not an author or reader there that wasn’t absolutely tickled to be there.  Everyone had smiles on their faces.  The readers were excited to meet their favorite author and the authors were just as excited to meet their fans.

The other thing I discovered this weekend is I’m old.  There were two young men there, cover models, with the authors whose covers they model for.  There was a time, when I would have been one of those ladies drooling over them.  I did with Fabio when I met him nearly twenty years ago, but I digress, anyway, all I could think of when I saw these two beautiful young men was how very young they were.

Now I admit that I’m eligible for AARP but I’m not dead.  What in the heck is the matter with me?  Well I’ll tell you.  I’m just not attracted as much to young men as I used to be.  Now I want a man whose a little older, whose been around the block once or even twice.  I want a man who knows what it is to lose a loved one, one who has traveled the world and worked out in it for people he loved and people he hated.  Someone who still has a lot to give but has lived in the world, like I have.  I want someone who had something in common with me.  I don’t want someone who is only old enough to be my son.

We need to let the publishers and editors know that a man can be more than twenty something and still be attractive to the romance novel buyer.

Just as I want my heroine to be older and wiser than the sixteen year olds from the early romance novels, I want my hero’s to be different, too.  Before it was a hero in his late thirties or early forties with a sixteen year old heroine.  Yuck!!  That just seems so warped now.

I still want a hero in his thirties or early forties.  Someone who knows what he wants.  Someone who wants a woman, a partner, someone wise enough to know her own mind and go after it.   Not a girl, just out of the school room, as they would have said in the old historical romances.  I want the old maid.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love the six pack abs of the models.  They are fine figures of men.  Very nice to look at.  It would be nicer to have those six packs attached to a face.  Maybe even one with a few crow’s feet.  Or laugh lines.  And would a little, I repeat little, hair on their chests be so bad?  I don’t want it to look like they are wearing sweaters, but a little something to assure us that they are old enough to legally enjoy that glass of wine with us.