Archive for the ‘Novel’ Category

Katniss vs. Zahara

Posted: March 16, 2014 in Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Writing
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I got The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on DVD on Friday and watched it this afternoon. If I were to do a review, I’d say it was a very good adaptation of a book I absolutely hated for a number of reasons. However, I’m not writing this post as a review for Catching Fire. I’m writing this post because, after I took the DVD out and went to make my dinner, I thought to myself, “There is such a difference between Katniss Everdeen and Zahara.”

And indeed, there is a great difference between the two characters. And I’m not just talking about upbringing, religious identification, and their experiences. I think the biggest differences between Katniss and Zahara is their access to choices in their lives. (Okay, there’s also major differences in character development, but since all three books of The Hunger Games are out and only one book of the Reborn City series is out, I won’t go into that lest I spoil something).

In THG, Katniss rarely has any sort of choice in what she can or can’t do. Except for certain memorable instances, Katniss follows a script that someone else wrote, whether that be the Capitol or someone associated with the Capitol, or District 13 and someone in the rebellion. Sure, the moments when she gets a chance to make her own choices are pretty momentous. She volunteered for the Hunger Games, she nearly committed suicide using poison berries, and she killed President Coin in an act of revenge. But other than those moments, she’s mostly dancing to the tune of someone else’s fiddle. And she’s either unaware of it or she’s aware of it and so pissed off about it.

Zahara, on the other hand, has a little more leeway. When I wrote Reborn City and started planning its sequels, I obviously wasn’t planning on writing about Zahara’s choices. But after she’s forced to join the Hydras, she does find that she has a bit of choice in the events that occur later on in the story. And those choices do end up affecting the Hydras in several ways, whether  it involve a gang war about to go wrong, or by a simple encouragement that changes the way someone thinks. And as the series goes on, Zahara will get to make more choices, some of which will have greater effects than the previous ones she’s made.

Why the difference? Well, I guess you’d have to ask the authors. In addition to wanting to create a story that was a commentary on both our addictions to violence and reality TV, Suzanne Collins also wanted (I’m assuming) to allow readers to relate to the feeling that our lives are not our own. We’ve all been there, had those moments when we felt our lives weren’t our own, where we felt like our lives are being directed by someone else. Maybe our parents, our employers, our teachers, our government, our spouses, etc. Basically we have to subordinate our lives to the needs or whims of others. This speaks to plenty of people, particularly teenagers and young adults who are constantly pressured to fulfill the wishes and pressures of the adults around them. I can only guess as to why Mrs. Collins wanted to weave that theme into her trilogy, or if she even realized what she was weaving in until it was already there. What is obvious that Katniss exemplifies that theme of lack of control over one’s life, and it’s part of why people identify with her.

With Zahara and RC on the other hand, the intentions were very different. I realized early on in writing a novel about street gangs that people in gangs or in slums or broken families or several other similar situations that they feel like they can’t leave the situations they’re in. This attitude, which seems to perpetuate itself over generations in a terrible self-fulfilling prophecy, horrified me. Imagine people who didn’t try to change their horrible lives because they felt that trying was impossible, that it would only lead to pain and regret. Where they were was where they belonged. Throughout the trilogy I try to fight that belief through the travails of Zahara and the Hydras, making choices and fighting for not only their lives, but also to live their lives as they wish.

So I guess this difference in opportunity and choice for Katniss Everdeen and Zahara Bakur really just boils own to the intentions of the authors when we were writing our stories. I strove to write about teens fighting against a world that oppresses them and tries to control them, while Mrs. Collins seems to have written a story about a world where, among other things, the lives of others are maddeningly not their own.

It’s interesting what the intentions of the autor can do for a single story, isn’t it?

That’s all for now. Tomorrow school starts up again, so I’m heading to bed to get ready for the big day. Goodnight, Followers of Fear, and have a great week.

Snake: Three Months Away

Posted: March 10, 2014 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Yes, this is the novel's cover layout. What do you think of it?

Yes, this is the novel’s cover layout. What do you think of it?

Hard to believe with the new year already in March (how did that happen?) and so much else going on in my crazy life, but it’s already three months away from when my next novel Snake is released on June 10th. And as I’ve said in previous posts, that’ll be two years to the day I started working on Snake, which is both symbolic and more proof that time just seems to fly by.

For those of you who haven’t become familiar with Snake yet, it is a thriller novel I wrote back in 2012 and which, with the help of author Angela Misri, I edited throughout 2013 and January of 2014. It is the story of a young man who becomes a serial killer in order to save his girlfriend from a powerful organized crime family. It’s definitely one of my darker stories, at times even scaring me. I also think it’s one of my best stories, and I hope people like it and the characters as much as I do. Oh, and there are no actual snakes in the book. I’ve had people tell me they won’t read it just based on that title. I’ve heard you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (especially when it has a naked lady on it) but that’s ridiculous.

If you’d like to read an excerpt of Snake, you can click here to read the first chapter. And if you look below this paragraph, you’ll find the book trailer for Snake, which I created through iMovie after school one day. It’s very dark and gritty, which I think reflects the novel very well.


I’ll bring up Snake again when we get a little closer to the release date. I’m looking forward to it. Are you?

Conversations With Becket

Posted: March 7, 2014 in Author Interciew, Journalism, Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Writing
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becket

Today’s interview is with indie author Becket, whose books include The Blood Vivicanti series and the Key The Steampunk Vampire Girl books, including the recently released The Tower Tomb of Time. When not writing, Becket works for author Anne Rice and is supplementing his education with a degree in psychology.

I had the chance to email Becket and learn a little bit about him, his books, and what it’s like to work for Anne Rice. It was definitely an enjoyable correspondence.

RU: So Becket, you’ve had quite the interesting life, working as an author, working for an author, and at one point you were a Benedictine monk. Makes me curious about what else you’ve done, so could you give us a brief history of yourself?

Becket: I entered the seminary when I was 21 because I wanted to deepen my relationship with God as well as be a minister of hope, faith, and love. I spent three years in the seminary, during which time I also finished my BA in music composition. Then in the summer of 2000, I entered a Benedictine monastery, St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, LA. The spiritual charisma of the monastic life appealed to my personality type. The monks lived a very silent life, guided by two principals of work and prayer. During my first year in the monastery, Anne Rice requested a harpsichord for a book signing in New Orleans. We monks had a very nice one; and the abbot asked me to deliver it because of my musical background – I had studied the instrument in college, along with several others. That was when Anne and I first met. We developed an email rapport over the next few years while I was earning my MA in theology. When I completed my degree in 2005, I decided that it was time for me to re-enter lay life and, needing a job, I emailed Anne, asking her fi she had a job on her staff for a former monk with a few degrees. She replied with a job offer. I’ve been with Anne ever since, studying the craft of writing under her guidance while also earning an MS in psychology.

RU: What is it like, working for Anne Rice? Besides the amount of jealousy you must receive from fans including myself, I mean.

Becket: What is it like, working for Anne Rice?

Working for Anne Rice is like working for a childhood hero. I first read Anne’s books when I was a teen. Being a lonely adolescent, an outsider, Anne’s words spoke to me powerfully – because her words have a wonderful way of showing empathy for the outsider/reader. Many days she and I talk about literature and the book publishing business. It is a continual learning experience. Every day I learn something helpful and significant about my writing, about the publishing of my own books, about my own capacity for problem-solving, about many things. But every day is a new experience because every day I’m presented with a new challenge. Before I started working for Anne, I had never used Photoshop. So to assist her as best as I could, I learned many new skills, such as photography, shooting video, proper lighting, sound engineering, etc. I also learned several programs in the Adobe Creative Suite, namely Photoshop, Illustrator, and even Premier Pro and After Effects. Most of those programs I use every day, whether it is creating an app for Anne, or posting an image, or editing a video for Youtube. And today all those programs have helped me greatly in my own work; they are invaluable book publishing tools. A successful indie author cannot live on Word alone.

RU: Tell me about it. iMovie and Photoshop have been great tools in the past for me. Now, you’re new book is the latest adventure for your character Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl. Tell us about her and the new book.

Becket: Key’s new adventure picks up where the last book left off: Key has just escaped from the Dungeon of Despair. Yet unlike the last book, which takes place over the course of 250 years, the course of this book happens in a single night. Key gets to do what she has not done in over two centuries: She gets to explore the City of the Dead. She rides a Hobbeetle, she meets the Worm King, she visits the Grave of the Grim Goblin, whose not as grim or dead as some people might think, and she does so much more! Ultimately she finds herself at the Tower Tomb of Time, which allows her to visit the moment when she was first made a vampire. She discovers the mystery behind her mom and dad’s disappearance, as well as the reason she was taken to the City of the Dead in the first place. In other words, The Tower Tomb of Time explores questions that were raised in The Dungeon of Despair.

RU: Some people would hesitate to write a vampire novel these days when most people associate vampires with Twilight. What made you decide to write about vampires?

Becket: Before there was Twilight, there was Anne Rice. She was ground breaking (and indeed she still is) in the sense that she made the vampire a Byronic hero – someone whom we could easily identify with. Moreover, being a vampire isn’t the story of Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl – which is fundamentally the case with Bella, the heroine of Twilight. Bella actively seeks to become a blood drinker. Key, on the other fang, like Anne’s Louis or Lestat, never wanted to be a vampire at all. Becoming what she is happened to her, and then lots more terrible things happened to her, and so she has to make the best of her situation. That kind of narrative ambience is what I strove to create when I wrote Key. I hope readers will associate with her story and say to himself or herself, “I know how she feels being in the Dungeon of Despair, or confronting the Worm King, or revisiting a past that was hitherto forsaken.” Additionally, I hope readers would also feel inspired by Key’s successes and victories over personal demons. Key’s story is a coming of age story.

RU: What is your writing process like for you?

Becket: Generally my process begins with an idea, which usually comes to me while I’m writing another book. I write down that idea, and if it stays with me for some time, I will jot down notes about potential plot development, prose style, themes, and so on. When I finish one novel, I immediately begin another; there is no waiting for me. I write every day. It is a routine. And the routine for starting new novels is grounded in two goals: (1) the long-term goal of my book, and (2) the short-term goal of my daily writing. My long-term goal is the size of the book that I want to write, and I generally determine that by comparing it with other books. For instance, I know that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is about 25,000 words. So if I am seeking to create a children’s story, such as Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl, I will make the long-term goal of my first draft comparable to 25,000 words. My short-term goal is the amount of words that I will write in a day. On average my goal is at least 1000 words a day; usually I write more, often twice as much; and some times I write fewer words. The point isn’t perfection: It’s progress. As long as I am writing, I am coming closer to the completion of a book.

RU: I admire your tenacity. Now what are some tips you might have for other self-published authors, such as myself, on writing and getting your work out there?

Becket: The beauty of indie-publishing is in the word “indie” – independent. This is a quintessential word to keep in mind because, if a writer gets embroiled in the industry of professional book publishing, that writer would lose some degree of control. The writer would usually not be able to control, for instance, interior or exterior formatting. In other words, you would probably have little to say in the creation of your book jacket. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard professionally published authors complain about their book jacket, how it does not look like the story they told. Other authors have complained about the struggle they have with their editor or copy editor, how important words will be edited out, or how sometimes sentences or pages completely rewritten. There are some authors who want to be controlled like that. And that is good! Great books have been written with the help of excellent editors. But finding such an editor is like finding love in your life: It usually happens when you least expect it. Being an indie-author means controlling every element of your work. I like this, not micro-managing, but being purposeful and meaningful with every element that I produce.

RU: I love that independence too. It’s gone well for me. So what’s next for you, Becket?

Becket: The Blood Vivicanti Parts 5 and 6 will come in March and April. And after that, I will be publishing a book titled, The Door to Heaven, which is about a boy whose life is changed forever when he encounters an old man’s face on the doorknob to the Door to Heaven.

RU: That “Door To Heaven” sounds very Stephen King-ish. Last question: If you were stranded on a desert island and could only take three books with you, which books would you take?

Becket: Well, I am a man of faith and prayer, so I would probably take the ESV Bible (because I like that translation), The Imitation of Christ, and a book of blank pages, so that my mind could fill it up with my own stories.

RU: I love it when authors say they want to bring a blank notebook with them. Shows their true writing spirit, in some ways. Well, thanks for joining us, Becket, and best of luck to you.

If you’d like to find out more about Becket or check out some of his books, you can check out his website, his Facebook page, Twitter feed, and get personally autographed copies from the Changing Hands Bookstore.

Our next scheduled interview is March 31st with author and dear friend Angela Misri, who will be talking about her debut novel Jewel of the Thames. So get excited for that!

The Last Eight Short Stories

Posted: February 11, 2014 in ideas, Living and Life, Novel, short story, Writing
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After finishing “A Haunted Man” two nights ago, I’ve decided that, although I’ve got so many short stories I’d like to work on, I need to narrow it down to a few choices so I can return to my WIP Laura Horn. Yeah, I know I can just get through all the short stories I want to get through before I get back to the WIP, but I don’t like to leave a novel unfinished like that, and I would prefer having several short stories unwritten than have a novel languishing unfinished on my flash drive.

Besides, as I recall most of the chapters of LH were pretty easy to get through, so I don’t see it taking too much time to finish up. Then during the summer after I get back from my study-abroad trip, I can spend the whole summer editing my other novels and working on short stories. Besides, I’ll most likely be working on a novel for my senior thesis in the fall, so it’ll work out in the end. At least, I think it will.

So I’ve narrowed the number of short stories I’m going to work on to about eight, and I’m going to try to get through as many of them as possible before mid-March, when I plan to start working on LH again. I picked the short stories based on a couple of factors, namely that I thought the ideas behind them were exciting, that I knew where I wanted to go with the story in terms of plot, and that I think they could be published in magazines, especially ones that pay for their published work (I know that sounds crazy, but it helps pay the rent, so I’m trying to get into more magazines that pay for their work). Oh, and one of the short stories will be submitted as a homework assignment to one of my classes, so I could get a very good grade on it.

So that’s my plan for the next four weeks or so. I hope to at least get two to five of these short stories written. Among the eighty-odd ideas for short stories I have written down, these are among some of the best, so I think I’ll enjoy writing them. When each of them is done, I’ll write a post and let people know how they’re doing.

I’m also going to try to come up with an idea for an article. A friend of mine runs a magazine, and I want to write an article for it. Just the question of the subject that’s getting to me. We’ll see what I can come up with.

Oh, and one last thing: I’m thinking of posting a few stories on WattPad all at once. Would you be interested in reading anything of mine if I published it on WattPad, even if it wasn’t strictly horror?

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to prepare myself mentally for writing later this evening. Wish me luck.

Reborn City: New Lower Price

Posted: February 8, 2014 in Novel, Writing
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Reborn City

I don’t usually do this sort of advertising, but I figure what’s the harm in trying? Reborn City has gotten its price lowered on Amazon for paperback, down form a little over $11 to $8.99 (I’m not sure why Amazon lowered the price, but if it gets more people reading the book, I’m not going to complain).

As many of you already know, Reborn City is the story of Zahara Bakur, a girl who joins a street gang in Las Vegas-style Reborn City after her parents are killed for being Muslims. The gang she joins, the Hydras, become a family for her, but that family is under threat by older gangs, who dislike the Hydras rise to power, the fact that they’re interracial, and that they accepted Zahara, who is Muslim. In addition, there is a connection between the Hydras and the Parthenon Company, the corporation that runs Reborn City and other metropolises like it. The choices Zahara makes as she tries to become part of the gang and protect her friends will change the course of her life and the lives of others for a long time to come.

I hope that sounded interesting to you. So far, RC has gotten four reviews averaging around 4 or 5 stars. I’m very happy about the response, and I’m hoping that if more people buy the book, more people will add their feedback as well and let me know what they think. Honestly, I love reader feedback.

You can check out Reborn City at Amazon.com, as well as on Smashwords. The paperback is $8.99 like I said, while the e-book is $2.99. Hope you enjoy reading it and have a lovely evening, Followers of Fear.

Snake: The Official Book Trailer

Posted: February 6, 2014 in Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Snake

I swear, this is the last Snake-themed article for a while. Honestly, even the Snake is getting tired of all the articles about him (and if you can figure that one out, then you win a prize). And I’m going to try to keep this short, so don’t click away yet.

Today I had some time on my hands, so I took some photos I’d scoured off the internet, a song I’d always associated with the Snake for some reason, and compiled them all using iMovie into a very scary video for a book trailer. A book trailer for Snake, to be exact. It’s probably my longest and most complex book trailer yet, using a variety of techniques I learned from a class I took a couple of semesters ago. Honestly, I had not used iMovie in a while, so it took a while to figure out how to do some things I’d forgotten. But I guess it was like riding a bike, because before I knew it I was making the video and had it done in almost an hour.

The video uses images I associate with the character of the Snake, who has an extreme love for scary movies and knows quite a bit about famous fictional serial killers and a few real ones (gee, I wonder who that sounds like?). And the song I use is “Before I’m Dead” by metal band Kidney Thieves. For some reason it’s a song I’ve always thought should be put at the beginning of a movie adaptation of Snake. Since I don’t think that’ll be happening any time soon, I’m using it in this trailer.

Oh, and the people in this video whom I identify as characters in Snake are actors from some shows I’ve seen. They came the closest to how I imagined the characters in Snake, so I used their images. I hope nobody minds that!

So without further ado, here’s the official Snake book trailer. Tell me what you think when you’ve watched it. I love feedback (I think I’ve mentioned that before).

Oh, and good news: I’ve sent Snake to the copyright office. Hopefully they won’t take their sweet time processing it. I hate it when that happens!

Reborn City: The Fourth Review

Posted: February 5, 2014 in Novel, Review, Writing
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Reborn City

I’m not sure what could make this week go any better…besides winning the lottery, because that’d make anyone’s week. Yesterday Reborn City got another review on Amazon, the second this week (and a whole new record for reviews in a single week). The review comes form Josh Mangel, someone I’ve known personally for several years and downloaded the book not too long ago. He gave RC four stars, bringing the average of the book to 4.5 out of 5. His review, titled Very Good, is below:

“This was really a page-turner; I was hooked from the start and read it in a day. While not perfect, this is an auspicious debut novel from a good author. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series when they come out!”

I’m glad you liked it Josh. And the whole page-turner thing is something I’ve been getting a lot on RC. Kind of makes me happy, because it’s my first novel, I wrote it in high school, and I’m happy to know that people are being honest with me when they say that. Also, thanks for posting the review. Hearing back from readers means a lot to me, and I’m always happy for feedback, whether it’s positive or negative. So thanks for that, Josh.

If you’d be interested in checking out Reborn City, you can find it in both paperback and e-book on Amazon and Smashwords. And whatever you think of the novel, please let me know. I always love to hear feedback.

All for now. I hope to write a post later today about the necessity of editing and some editing experiences I’ve had in the past. For now though, I’ve got classes to get ready for. See you later!

Snake: The Second Cover

Posted: February 4, 2014 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Looks like I get to do a post again with a snake at the top again. You may remember my previous post about the cover for Snake that I created (if not, you can read it here). I got some feedback on it, and most of the people who commented on Facebook said that they wanted more of the painted Lilith’s face and less of her legs. Well, I kind of went with the choice to hide her face because it meant that I could hide her bare breasts. The last thing I wanted was someone to flag Snake as abusive or offensive because of a little T&A.

But I decided that my friends had some very valid points. So I changed the design of the book cover to Aspen, and made the color for the background burnt sienna. The result got better reviews than the first cover. Okay, one guy thought it was “too racy”, but to be fair he’s Orthodox Jewish, so I guess to him a sleeveless shirt on a young lady might be crossing lines. Still, I see his point: Lilith by John Collier, while definitely a work of art in the style of the old Renaissance masters, is pretty sexual. Given the references to the Genesis story though, I think it’s important to keep the theme there, and that’s part of why I chose the painting (along with the obvious snake wrapped around her Britney Spears-style and the red hair which is also upon the head of an important character in this book).

So to recap here’s the previous cover I created:

Snake

And here’s the second version:

Snake

Is it much racier? Yes, it really is. Might it get me in trouble? Possibly. Am I going to change it? At this point, I’d have to say no. I kind of like it, the painting entered the public domain ten years ago, so there’s no copyright issues, and it looks like something I might pick up and at least consider at Barnes & Noble. And I hope people who come across this book on the Internet won’t be embarrassed by the naked woman on it to buy it. Then again, that is what made Kindle and Fifty Shades of Grey such great bedfellows: nobody felt embarrassed reading the book on a tablet on a train or bus. We’ll see.

And yes, that “bedfellows’ thing was intentional. I wasn’t going to do it, but I put it in anyway.

Anyway, unless anybody gives me some objection or some feedback that makes me change my mind, I think I’ll go with this cover. Tomorrow I’ll send it off to the copyright office and possibly start on a book trailer if I have the time. I already have a song I’m going to use, and several images I plan to put into a rather interesting slideshow. I’ll post it here when I’m done.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’m heading to bed soon. Goodnight, Followers of Fear.

Snake: The Cover

Posted: February 3, 2014 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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The photo up above is NOT the cover. I just wanted one more photo of a snake before I unveiled it. Actually, the cover is right below this paragraph, and I must say it’s some of my best work yet in covers. Take a look:

Snake

Yes, that woman is naked on the cover. The actual painting is called Lilith by the English painter John Collier. I chose it for three main reasons. One was that it represents a Genesis theme, and references to Genesis do appear in Snake (three guesses what they are, the first two don’t count). The second reason is that a lot of authors I admire have famous paintings on their book covers and I wanted to do something similar with Snake and with any sequels I might write. Or maybe I wanted to draw audiences in by featuring a naked woman on the cover because nothing sells like sex. I confuse the two often. No, it’s the one about authors I admire. Never mind.

The third reason is that the only other option I had for a cover was a photo of a mask similar to what the Snake wears in the novel, but that was too disturbing to put on the cover. I decided to go with the less-disturbing Lilith instead.

Well, that’s the cover. I plan to back my files up in the morning and then send them off to the copyright office. Hopefully for once the US Copyright Office will make good on that promise of a processing time of two-and-a-half months (I doubt it).

And while I have your attention, I would like to announce a tentative release date for Snake. Assuming that nothing gets in the way of this book coming out by that time, I would like to announce that Snake will be coming out June 10, 2014, my twenty-first birthday and exactly two years to the day I started work on this novel. If it needs to be pushed back, I’ll do that, but I’d like to release it on that day. Not only will it feel right to release it that day, but it’ll be a great birthday present if a lot of people buy the book the day it comes out.

Well, that’s all for now, Followers of Fear. Please let me know what you think of the cover and of the release date. I’d love to hear from you. For now though, I’m heading to bed. Goodnight!

Snake: The Final Draft Is Done

Posted: February 3, 2014 in Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Oh, I am on the ceiling tonight! Okay, I’m not literally on the ceiling, but you can guess how I’m feeling right now. As the title suggests, I’ve finished the final draft for Snake, which means it’s time to get it ready for publication! So excited right now, and I can’t wait to get started. In fact, I’ll start after this blog post is done.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Snake, it’s a thriller novel I wrote through the latter half of 2012. It follows a young man who becomes a serial killer in order to take down the mafia family who took from him what he considers most precious in life. Referred to by the media as the New York Mafia Killer (most of the novel takes place in New York City), he calls himself the Snake, for reasons that become apparent in the novel. So it’s basically a story of an antihero vigilante with mental problems and methods that would make Batman cringe. Still, it’s a story I enjoyed writing and I think that anyone who’s into these sort of dark thrillers will enjoy the story.

I know Angela Misri did. Angela, for those of you who haven’t been lucky enough to meet her yet, is an author and friend from Toronto whose first book, Jewel of the Thames, is due out next month. She did me a great favor by taking a look at Snake and giving me suggestions on how best to spruce it up before I published it. During the last twenty chapters or so, she was getting back to me every couple of days with revisions and suggestions on the manuscript. I have to say, I’m impressed that she was able to find the time to look over the whole novel with a full schedule of her own. Most of all though, I’m thankful for her help. She gave me amazing feedback on Snake, and I’m so happy to have collaborated with her. I hope that if I ever get around to writing a sequel to Snake, she’ll be willing to look at that as well.

Oh, before I forget. I did another check on the page and word count for Snake. All told, the novel is 370 8.5″ x 11″ pages and a little under 120,000 words. So it’s like a mid-length Harry Potter novel in length. Hope that doesn’t scare off any readers. That would suck! Anyway, I already have a cover picked out and I know who I’ll be acknowledging and who I’ll be dedicating the book to. I’m going to get on compiling the final manuscript together and creating the cover, so I’ll post on Snake again when I have those made up, along with a release date for the book.

One last thing though: I have to thank everyone reading this blog. Your support keeps me going and every time someone reads one of my books, it brings a boost to my mood and makes me want to write more and to improve the quality of my storytelling. Thank you so very much. I hope you’ll continue to support me in the future as I work on my dream of becoming an author.

And before I go to put dinner in the oven, I just want to let you know that if you’re interested in Snake or interested in reading an excerpt from Snake, please click here.

Have a lovely evening, Followers of Fear.

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