CONTEST WEEK 4: Win the 4th of 4 Fires, 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers, Black

JILO DEBUTS 4/26/15!

Win the 4th of 4 Fires, 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers, Black

SEE https://www.facebook.com/JackDouglasHorn/ FOR DETAILS!

CONTEST WEEK 3: Win the 3rd of 4 Fires, 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers, Black

Win the 3rd of 4 Fires, 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers, Black

SEE https://www.facebook.com/JackDouglasHorn/ FOR DETAILS!

Unpublished/Self-Published Author Profile: Sean M. Davis

This post is the latest in a series of profiles featuring currently unpublished and self-published authors. These interviews focus on three areas where both those writers who are looking to find success in traditional publishing and those who are taking the self-publishing path must develop strength: pitching their work, pitching themselves, and creating quality, well-edited work.  None of what is shared in these posts is intended to be prescriptive. Also, a profile is not to be viewed as an endorsement of the author or her/his work. If you'd like to be featured, email your responses to the following prompts to JackDouglasHorn@gmail.com.

Bio

Sean M Davis lives in and loves Detroit. He has written weird, disturbing stories for as long as he's been able to write, proven by his story, "Killer Morning," written in second grade. He lives with his partner, Kate, and five furry children.

http://seanmdavis.wordpress.com

100 words or fewer, describe your book or story. This is your pitch. Make it enticing!

"In God's Image" will appear in Borderlands 6, coming soon. In it, Viola struggles to hold onto her identity in the wake of God Re-forming the human race without faces.

Describe your editing (not writing) process. What steps have you taken to polish your story?

I wrote the first draft of this story as an assignment during the Borderlands Press Writers' Boot Camp 2014. The first draft received good reactions from my fellow grunts and the instructors, but was only 500 words long. For the second draft, I reread the story and answered all of the questions I could possibly think of, trying to create more back and forth for the character. The story is relatively simple after you get past its bizarre set up. After it was accepted for Borderlands 6, I took another run at it, cleaning up the little things I'd missed during the first two passes.

What steps have you taken/are you considering taking to build a social platform to promote your work?

So far, I'm not that great at online promotion. I have a blog and I do things here and there (like this interview), but I don't have Twitter or anything else other than a personal Facebook page. I have lots of things on my To Do List, but when it comes right down to it, between my partner, my day job, hobbies, friends, and family, I'd rather spend my time writing. Even submitting stories on a regular basis has been a new development in my career.

I do go to several local conventions where I participate on panels and peddle my wares. Honestly, that's where I enjoy promoting myself and my work, though I understand the need for online promotion.

I suppose at this point in my career, I am more focused on having things to promote.

CONTEST WEEK 2: Win the 2nd of 4 Fires, 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers, Black

Win the 2nd of 4 Fires, 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers, Black

SEE https://www.facebook.com/JackDouglasHorn/ FOR DETAILS!

Unpublished/Self-Published Author Profile: GWEN DANDRIDGE

This post is fourth in a series of profiles featuring currently unpublished and self-published authors. These interviews focus on three areas where both those writers who are looking to find success in traditional publishing and those who are taking the self-publishing path must develop strength: pitching their work, pitching themselves, and creating quality, well-edited work.  None of what is shared in these posts is intended to be prescriptive. Also, a profile is not to be viewed as an endorsement of the author or her/his work. If you'd like to be featured, email your responses to the following prompts to JackDouglasHorn@gmail.com.

Gwen Dandridge

Bio

I was born in the deep South, but I lived on Long Island most of my first years. It was after I moved to Berkeley, dragging along three small children, that I started to think about creating something more... 

For awhile I managed to bury my after-work creativity into dance. I flitted from Scandinavian to Irish, to English step dancing, to Morris dance and sword. Having a short (or sometimes long) fling with each until finally settling on Morris and English short sword (Rapper) as my favorites. 

After moving to Central California and marrying my love, my creativity has evolved even more, into more tangible forms: mosaics, stained glass, and finally, writing.

100 words or fewer, describe your book or story. This is your pitch. Make it enticing!

The dragons came from beyond, demanding a virgin sacrifice. When Princess Genevieve is handed a golden token, she accepts her fate. She must, in order to save her kingdom. But the journey to her final destiny is complicated by the arrival of a 1970s Berkeley co-ed. To Chris, the whole scenario reeks. Where she comes from, corsets are for burning and virgins hard to find. She's sure the dragons are out for more than innocent blood, but the only way to find out is to accompany Genevieve. 

Genevieve is duty-bound–unless Chris is right. Then her sacrifice would mean nothing.

 

Describe your editing (not writing) process. What steps have you taken to polish your story?

Painfully slow. I write slowly, I edit faster, but slowly. I rewrite for the second and third and fourth times--slowly. My writing group pokes, prods and generally encourages me to cut out redundancies, to step up to the plate with my plotting and stop whining. 

I make sure that I have a professional copy-editor do a final, Hail Mary, over the whole thing before I send it off with its little wings still wet.

What steps have you taken/are you considering taking to build a social platform to promote your work?

I live on Facebook, I barely Twitter, I have a website and an unloved blog. 

I'm very funny sometimes, but not always. Mostly in "The Dragons' Chosen" not so much in "The Stone Lions".

We have our first winner!

Congratulations to Jaysen Mansfield-Jarret for winning the 1st round of the Witching Savannah coloring contest. Check out the original and the winning entry below. 

See https://www.facebook.com/JackDouglasHorn/ to find out how you, too, can try to win one of the remaining Kindle Fires. 

Jaysen Mansfield-Jarret

Unpublished/Self-Published Author Profile: JOSH VASQUEZ

This post is third in a series of profiles featuring currently unpublished and self-published authors. These interviews focus on three areas where both those writers who are looking to find success in traditional publishing and those who are taking the self-publishing path must develop strength: pitching their work, pitching themselves, and creating quality, well-edited work.  None of what is shared in these posts is intended to be prescriptive. Also, a profile is not to be viewed as an endorsement of the author or her/his work. If you'd like to be featured, email your responses to the following prompts to JackDouglasHorn@gmail.com. 

JOSH VASQUEZ

Bio

Josh Vasquez is the author of the Savannah Zombie Series. He lives in Savannah, Georgia with his wife and daughter.

The city is currently zombie-free.

www.savannahzombienovel.com

100 words or fewer, describe your book or story. This is your pitch. Make it enticing!

Nineteen, a college dropout, and working as a grocery store clerk was not how Jeremy Riggins imagined the prime years of his life. Helping his mother with bills, while his father lives in luxury not too far away, life does not seem fair.

Then the zombie apocalypse shambles into Savannah, Georgia.

Jeremy has to fight his way through the city, search for family, and fight off the undead horde. He’ll join up with a diverse group of characters to make it out alive. Could his mother’s religion be right? Is this the end? Can he survive the zombie apocalypse?

Describe your editing (not writing) process. What steps have you taken to polish your story?

*pours whiskey*

Huh, what? Just kidding folks.

*hides whiskey*

This may be super weird, but I actually enjoy editing. Writing is fun, don’t get me wrong. It’s all, “YEAH! WORDS! IDEAS! THIS IS THE BEST THING THAT HAS EVER BEEN WRITTEN!”

But then it comes the time to actually read what you wrote and you’re like, “Holy crap on a mechanical pencil. I wrote this? I wrote this. This is what I wrote.” And you just sit there and stare at the steaming pile that wafts up from your keyboard. (Or paper, if you still use that stuff.)

Editing is taking that pile and molding it, shaping it into what you really meant, taking your word vomit and turning into a gosh darn novel. You see all the little nuances and side stories you subconscious put there, because you’re freaking awesome and that’s how you roll. (Go you!)

For me, what this looks like is taking my first draft and shaping it into a longer 2^nd draft. THIS IS FOR MY EYES ONLY! I read it, add to it what it needs, and subtract what it doesn’t. Then I copyedit the thing and let some trusted people read it. Since I’m self-published, this is a list of people who know books and love books. But, I also try and get someone who is not a reader, because if I can keep their attention, I can keep anyone’s attention.

From there a third draft fixing anything they caught or stuff I missed the first couple go arounds. Then I hit that scary little button that says, “PUBLISH.”

What steps have you taken/are you considering taking to build a social platform to promote your work?

Originally, I had a Facebook page, a personal Twitter account, a book Twitter account, and a website/blog. I ran a Facebook ad for my Facebook page and got a bunch of Facebook likes, which in the end, was really only a waste of my Facebook dollars. So, I dropped that platform. To be honest though, I’m at an age where Facebook is super lame, but I’m still like, “Snapchat can suck it.”

Right now I focus on hanging out on Twitter. The important thing with social media is do what YOU like to do. It’s not to sell books. Don’t be a spam bot. Nobody wants that. Be a human being.

I like playing hashtag games and will RT/Like you if you’re funny. There’s enough negativity in this world; I’d rather share some laughter.

@beencalled

@SavZombieNovel