Monster Gallery: The Gral

Just posted this on my FB page. Thought I should share it here, too.

With Halloween on fast approach, I figured I'd make a couple sketches of some of the monsters that appear in my novel, Try Not to Burn.  There's an eclectic bunch, from giant serpents to burrowing spiders.  I'm not sure if I'll attempt to draw the spider critter, though. It would take me too long to draw in all the legs.

Anywho, here's the first one.  It's a picture of the Gral, one of the monsters that's central to the story. There's an army of them prowling through the afterlife.

I've only painted the eyes so far, as the painting process takes forever for me, so the picture's not finished, but I hoped people might enjoy seeing it.

Fun at the BookFest, aka "Authors Invade Glen Ellyn"

I was in scenic Glen Ellyn, Illinois for BookFest last week, and had a chance to meet some wonderful local authors, like E.C. Diskin, who wrote "The Green Line." She was a delight to talk to, and the ol' "time flies when you're having fun" expression held true once again. The show went from 9am to 2pm, but I barely noticed. It would have been better if more actual readers had been there, as it was mostly just us author types, but hey, you can't have everything, can you?

This is me telling the crowd about my book before the show began, blinding people with the sunlight glancing off my dome:
 

 And here are the treats I brought to hand out.  I talk a bit more about it on my Facebook author page, and also mention the item I wish I'd brought along. 

Stories of the Week for October 2, 2013

Hello, and welcome to another edition of SOTW.

Last night, I put together a new version of the book trailer for Try Not to Burn.  I liked the previous version I'd made, but I do have to admit that it was a bit slow paced.  And since I decided to add in a review quote that called the book “a real page turner,” I thought it made sense to have a faster video.  Also, the video's literally on fire now, which is an added bonus.  :)

The song running in the trailer is “Kill Me Quickly (Or Not at All)” by His Boy Elroy.  The title seemed like a good fit, given the theme of the book.

I'll keep working on it, since I may come up with something I like more, and the video was surprisingly easy to put together.  I added the video for the trailer above, but since I'm not sure how it will play on the blog, I'll also include a link to the animoto page below.  I'll probably upload it to youtube soon, just for good measure. 

http://animoto.com/play/8ookaee5JG1hR72TcS4lVw


As for my writing for the week, I had to take a small break from my Middle Grade novel.  I'm on page 203, and on the final chapter, but I couldn't resist the urge to head back to the dystopian Young Adult book I'd finished somewhat recently.

I revised the query letter, trying to make it a bit more fun and lively (it seems like everyone and their dog is writing a dystopian YA book now, so it'll take a lot for it to stand out, methinks), and I also wrote up a synopsis for it.

It took me all of Sunday, and it left my brain feeling like a wiggly blob of gelatin, but I eventually managed to distill the entire book down to a single page.

I've always hated writing synopses (I keep wanting to say “sypnopsises”) but they're definitely an important tool to have when submitting a novel, and they can be a useful writing exercise, as well.  I find that the more of them I write, the better I get at crafting a cohesive plot.