You can be a flash in the pan, and it might make you happy for thirty seconds, but it will no doubt make you ache thirty seconds later.
There's a saying about falling, someday the ground finds you and you smack into it-- hard.
The definition of long term career is long term, it could take years for anyone to realize what a genius you are.
Trying to fast track your life is like drinking too much coffee and trying to run a marathon, if you don't pass out first, you'll end up in last place.
Good things come to those who wait.
Better things come to people who fight for those things.
Never underestimate the underdog.
Nobody understands originality until someone rips it off. Hello Superman.
You're not cool until someone copies you.
Or until someone really famous spoofs you.
You can't measure success.
An interesting tidbit: for Indie Filmmakers it takes 1 hour of filming to produce 1 minute of finished product. (I'm sure this rule varies for the more experienced filmmakers.)
Anything that's really worth it, is also worth slaving over, bending over backwards for, and not giving up on, ever.
"Dream until your dreams come true" is stupid, because if all you ever do is dream about your dreams, they'll never come true.
*cough* copying me by writing your own Stupid Honest Thoughts blog posts would make me cool.
Reading my books would have the same effect.
No pressure.
Seriously....
Cheers,
Rhi
Friday, April 12, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Mmmmm SIGNED Paperbacks / E-book Cards
Don't you love the smell of books? And sharpies? And that moment when you open the front cover to read the little personalized note left to you by the author?
Isn't that the best freaking thing in the world?
So I know some of you can't come see me at shows. It makes me sad too, but the cool thing about the interwebs is that we has snail mail!
Here's all the info which is permanently found on my contact page along with a lot of other cool things like how I do personal appearances and I'll donate books to your school library or local library and stuff . . .
Signed Books:
I don't know why I didn't mention this before but I often have a number of books in my office and I can sign them, personalize them or whatever you like and ship them to you.
PAPERBACKS:
CANADA: $25.00 w/ shipping. I'll send them expedited too so you'll get them in two days.
USA: $25.00 w/ shipping. I'll send them small packet air mail so you'll get them in roughly 6 days. FYI: Canada Post has now stopped their small packet ground to the USA. It used to cost me $8 - $10 to ship books to anywhere in the US. Now the cheapest for one book has been $15.57. I think this is why the post office has been deemed evil. At the very least you'll be getting the signed copy for less than the list price on Amazon.
INTL: I'll need to get you a quote.
MULTIPLES: Obviously shipping will be awesome, but I'll still need to quote you.
E-Book Cards:
CANADA: $5.00 w/ shipping. I'll send them letter mail, should arrive in 3 days.
USA: $5.00 w/ shipping. Letter mail, should arrive in 5-7 days.
INTL: $10.00 w/ shipping. Letter mail, and it'll depend on where you are.
MULTIPLES: I'll need to quote you.
*the cool thing about these is that I can sign them in silver or gold ink, and you can keep the collectible card. E-mail me at rhiannonpaille at gmail.com if you want to take advantage of me and my silver pen.
Cheers,
Rhi
P.S. I might ship those lollipops too, they're pretty effing amazing.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Cover Reveal: Burning Falls by Laura Kreitzer
Oh Hai!
Many of you may have been wondering when Laura Kreitzer will be releasing the third book in her Summer Chronicles Burning Falls, but the truth is that she hasn't set a date. Mainly because she hasn't finished writing it. HOWEVER, she is writing it. The project is in motion. Until then, how about a cover reveal? And now (drum roll please) here's the official cover for Burning Falls!
Many of you may have been wondering when Laura Kreitzer will be releasing the third book in her Summer Chronicles Burning Falls, but the truth is that she hasn't set a date. Mainly because she hasn't finished writing it. HOWEVER, she is writing it. The project is in motion. Until then, how about a cover reveal? And now (drum roll please) here's the official cover for Burning Falls!
Book 3 in the Summer Chronicles:
Summer’s in the midst of a rivalry between the scientifically altered people living on Forsaken Harbor. As things heat up on the island, our heroine and her friends are thrown in the middle of a war that will rip them apart. When Summer discovers those she trusted most are keeping life-altering secrets, she flees the violent harbor for the wild jungle. Realizing Summer’s missing, Julian and Gage fight their way through the jungle and come across a mysterious burning waterfall. Summer’s there, but so is someone else . . .
Will it be fight or flight for our battered heroine? Who will win her heart? Who will betray her? And who will make the ultimate sacrifice to save her? Find out in the shocking third installment of the Summer Chronicles as more than one battle is waged on the island.
You can read the first book Phantom Universe for FREE.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Review: Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire
*sigh* Contrary to popular belief I did not fall for the hype of Beautiful Disaster. I read it, and salivated over it a little, but I didn't feel the need to write a harsh review about it because frankly, I could see something like that happening. In fact, I feel like these books might be based somewhat in truth. Either that or Jamie McGuire is really good at making stuff up.That being said I first spotted Beautiful Disaster at a Safeway. I read the back of the book blurb. I thought it looked interesting. I was going to pick up the paperback but chickened out and got the kindle version. Meh, women are allowed to be ashamed of what they're reading too. I didn't want my husband knowing I had bought yet another book. Boo.
Beautiful Disaster was good. Walking Disaster was great. The story from Travis's point of view puts more into perspective. Of course it was the same story as Beautiful Disaster, but there were a few different scenes we missed, and a few scenes that were nice to see from the alternate POV.
My biggest pet peeve with both books was the bet part. I felt like it came into the story too late. The boiler being broken was a great way to get Abby into Travis's bed, why mess with that genius? It was also logical, unlike the bet which frankly had I been Abby, I wouldn't have bothered keeping at all.
The rest was pretty sound, Travis's jealousy issues, the supposed friendship, Abby's past, Vegas, the fighting, the fire, all of it was fantastic. And actually, the covers and the trailer was amazing. That's really what got me when it came to Walking Disaster, I loved the trailer. And when I saw it on NetGalley I snatched up a copy pronto because I couldn't wait until April when it came out.
So there you have it, I read these types of books too, and while I liked this one, there are others I've liked more. Don't eat the hype people, read what you want to read.
Cheers,
Rhi
Monday, April 1, 2013
Cover Reveal: Over It by Sarah Billington
The Kiss-Off (The Kiss Off #1)
Sarah Billington
Genre: YA Contemporary
Synopsis:
WARNING: Sexual references, occassional coarse language.
When sixteen year old Poppy Douglas writes a song about her ex-boyfriend Cam and ex-friend Nikki, she has no idea that her heartbreak is about to go global.
A local band picks up her song from Youtube and soon she’s along for the ride with her own fanbase as they blow up on the local club scene and hit the international charts. Though it turns out leaving Cam behind isn’t as easy as she had hoped.
Tangled in a web of unfinished homework, ill-considered sexting and a new lead-singer boyfriend, Poppy has a choice to make between the ex that inspired it all and the rock God whose poster lines the inside of half the lockers at school. But as she struggles to keep her emotional dirty laundry private, she learns that the truth can be hard to find when your life is in the headlines.
Over It (The Kiss Off #2)
Sarah Billington
Genre: YA Contemporary
Synopsis:
Warning: Sexual References, occasional course language.
Teen Youtube song writing sensation Poppy Douglas's lead singer boyfriend Ty's been criss-crossing the country and living it up on tour for months while Poppy has been stuck in the boring suburbs, finishing out the school year.
But it's Summer now, and the best thing just happened: Poppy's royalties for writing the hit song The Kiss Off just came in.
She's minted, and she knows just what she's going to blow it on.
Ty's band Academy of Lies are headlining a summer music festival, and Poppy is taking her girlfriends along for the best weekend of their lives. It's all organized: the weekend is going to be full of camping under the stars, backstage passes, VIP rooms and partying like rock stars, not to mention some long awaited one-on-one time with America's favorite front man.
Except, when someone drops out of the trip and Poppy takes the opportunity to mend a broken friendship, it doesn't quite go according to plan.
And when she meets her boyfriend's BFF from another band, the paparazzi form their own totally wrong conclusions.
There's also the matter of Ty's 'super fan' stalker, but the less said about her the better.
The biggest test of all comes in the form of an opportunity too good to pass up. But will insecurities and jealousy stand in Poppy's way?
Can Poppy and Ty's relationship even survive it?
Life is about to get much more complicated for Poppy Douglas, but what can you expect when your boyfriend is a rock star?
Sarah Billington is an Australian writer and editor who likes to write stories with love, laughs, suspense and zombies. Sometimes all in the same story.
She writes predominantly light Young Adult fiction under her name, Sarah Billington, but if you're interested in something a bit darker and scarier she's got some of that for you too.
Sarah loves a variety of random things, which include Swing Dancing, Ice Hockey, fly ball and is a bit obsessive about paranormal investigation shows and channel E!. She has also become known as "the zombie girl" because of her fascination with all things zombie. She doesn't quite know how that happened, but she's going with it.
Author links:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Cover Reveal: Renegade by Cambria Hebert
Title: Renegade (Heven and Hell #4) (the final book in the series)
Series: Heven and Hell
Author: Cambria Hebert
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Release Date: May 3, 2013
Formats: Ebook and Print
I’ve been beautiful. I’ve been ugly. I’ve died. I’ve been brought back. I’ve had abilities awakened within me. My strength has been tested. My beliefs have been tested.
Yet I stand.
What’s next when you’ve pretty much experienced it all?
The end.
Sam and I are picking up the pieces. We’re trying to come to terms with all we’ve lost. And as much as I would like to hide my head, ignore the reality I live every day, there is no forgetting.
Riley is in hell—I’m still not sure of his agenda. My mother’s past haunts me. And Kimber…Kimber is being herself. Cole sneaks glances at Gemma and she returns them when she thinks I don’t see.
But I do.
When Beelzebub escapes he brings his war to places I never thought he would. Earth. Maine. Home. Now everyone and everything is at risk. This has become bigger than my circle of friends. This has become bigger than me. I have to finish this. I have to find a way to stop him, to finish this war.
I just pray we will all be left standing in the end.
About Cambria:Cambria Hebert is the author of the young adult paranormal Heven and Hell series and the Death Escorts series. She loves a caramel latte, hates math and is afraid of chickens (yes, chickens). She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured her characters will always have good hair. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and children (both human and furry) where she is plotting her next book. You can find out more about Cambria and her work by visiting http://www.cambriahebert.com
“Like” her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cambria-Hebert/128278117253138
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cambriahebert
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/cambriahebert/pins/
Cambria website: http://www.cambriahebert.com
Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/CambriaHebert?feature=mhee
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Review: Dare You To by Katie McGarry
After reading Pushing The Limits I was hooked to Katie McGarry's writing style. I read Pushing The Limits in two days, and while Dare You To took me a little longer it was definitely not because I wanted to. Things like work kept getting in the way and I kept having to put it down when I didn't want to.Dare You To happens after Pushing The Limits, but it's not about Noah and Echo. This book is about Beth, and the horrible life she's had to endure. This book is much stronger, more edgy, and resembles real life situations in a scary accurate way.
Without giving away the plot too much, Beth used to like getting drunk and high with Noah and Isaiah. She lived with both boys at her aunt's house until something bad happens to her mom and custody of Beth goes to her Uncle Scott. Beth is forced to move from Louisville to Groveton where she used to go to elementary school. She doesn't expect the kids to remember her, but they do. To make matters worse, there's Ryan, all star baseball pitcher who keeps annoying her.
To be honest, I thought Isaiah and Beth were a better match, despite him being wrong for her. Ryan was good, but he was all american good, and too shiny. This isn't really a book about a straight laced guy saving a girl whose fallen off the rails in her life. It's actually the other way around. Beth ends up showing Ryan a different side to life that baseball and listening to his parents can't give him. Beth pushes him to do things he'd never do. Yes, they dare each other to do things but that dare game started long ago between Ryan and his friends.
It's so hard to explain in a review why this book is so good, but once you're reading it you'll understand. McGarry is effortless in her descriptions, dialogue, and plot. She paints her characters with such simple brushstrokes that while you can see what makes them stereotypical, you can also see where they bleed between the lines. Beth is no cookie cutter badass girl from the wrong side. At times she's insecure, and skeptical. Ryan isn't just great at baseball, he's not your typical jock. Sometimes he's got deep emotions.
It's all of these things that make the words jump off the page and attack you. It makes it a very hard book to put down and one I constantly found myself going back to even when I was supposed to be doing other things.
Read this one, I dare you to.
Cheers
Rhi
P.S. I received this book off netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Book Formatting Ninja
O Hai
If you know me at all you'll know just how much I hate book formatting. It's been the bane of my Indie Author existence for a good two years now. I like it about as much as I like gardening, and well the truth is, I kill plants, much the same way I make your eyes bleed when I attempt to format a book.
That was, until Rachel Thompson wrote a cute little blog article about self publishing, and mentioned things you need to outsource for. I was surprised to see book formatting on that list.
Why? Because Amazon has this 8 easy steps to formatting a kindle book guide and I treated it like the holy grail of ebook formatting.
I soon found out I was sorely mistaken. While on the hunt to find someone who could add page numbers to my paperbacks, I decided to have the same person check out my ebook, just to make sure it was on the level. It's kind of like when you take your car to the mechanic thinking, "I put oil and gas in it, I take it to the car wash, it should be fine."
Needless to say, my ebook wasn't "fine". Dafeenah, my book formatting ninja told me point blank that she would have to "start from scratch because there was so much useless code in there it was impossible to weed through." Which is the same thing as my mechanic saying, "Your alternator is busted, you need new carbon air filters, and there's something wrong with your power steering, we have to replace all of this, and it's going to cost you 1200."
Dafeenah even added the, "I can fix it, but it's up to you." Also something I've heard my mechanic say.
And my response to Dafeenah was the same as my response to my mechanic. "Ugh, just fix it."
Why? Because you can't drive a broken car, much the same way you can't read a messed up ebook.
And this leads me to the good news. Dafeenah is done with SURRENDER. I uploaded it last night. It's pretty. It's got the map and the interior illustrations the paperback has. It's AWESOMESAUCE. AND it'll be 0.99 cents until I feel like making 2.00 a book instead of 35 cents.
Cheers,
Rhi
If you know me at all you'll know just how much I hate book formatting. It's been the bane of my Indie Author existence for a good two years now. I like it about as much as I like gardening, and well the truth is, I kill plants, much the same way I make your eyes bleed when I attempt to format a book.
That was, until Rachel Thompson wrote a cute little blog article about self publishing, and mentioned things you need to outsource for. I was surprised to see book formatting on that list.
Why? Because Amazon has this 8 easy steps to formatting a kindle book guide and I treated it like the holy grail of ebook formatting.
I soon found out I was sorely mistaken. While on the hunt to find someone who could add page numbers to my paperbacks, I decided to have the same person check out my ebook, just to make sure it was on the level. It's kind of like when you take your car to the mechanic thinking, "I put oil and gas in it, I take it to the car wash, it should be fine."
Needless to say, my ebook wasn't "fine". Dafeenah, my book formatting ninja told me point blank that she would have to "start from scratch because there was so much useless code in there it was impossible to weed through." Which is the same thing as my mechanic saying, "Your alternator is busted, you need new carbon air filters, and there's something wrong with your power steering, we have to replace all of this, and it's going to cost you 1200."
Dafeenah even added the, "I can fix it, but it's up to you." Also something I've heard my mechanic say.
And my response to Dafeenah was the same as my response to my mechanic. "Ugh, just fix it."
Why? Because you can't drive a broken car, much the same way you can't read a messed up ebook.
And this leads me to the good news. Dafeenah is done with SURRENDER. I uploaded it last night. It's pretty. It's got the map and the interior illustrations the paperback has. It's AWESOMESAUCE. AND it'll be 0.99 cents until I feel like making 2.00 a book instead of 35 cents.
Cheers,
Rhi
Thursday, March 28, 2013
REVIEW: The coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen
To my utter surprise, I downloaded this book because I loved the cover. I saw it posted on Regina Wamba's wall (she's from Mae I Design and will rock your socks off) on facebook and I thought it looked like a good book. Lately I had been craving something good to read, contemporary, imperfect, and maybe even Indie.
Jessica Sorensen fit the bill for all three of those. Callie and Kayden are the epitome of messed up. Callie doesn't even like it when people pay attention to her, much less jock Kayden. She does her best to stay invisible. Of course, as the story progresses things between Callie and Kayden heat up and what started as a "Who are you again?" kind of encounter becomes an "I'll never forget you." kind of thing.
I will say I read this book too fast, and in my car, in January. I will say I found the writing average, meaning it wasn't really teaching me things I didn't know before, but the story itself was enjoyable. Yes I'm weird for wanting to read books that are newer but that challenge me as a reader, go figure.
I like that Jessica Sorensen is an Indie Author, but then I'm even more proud of her because after I read Callie and Kayden I had the urge to look it up on Amazon and lo and behold, it had the #1 spot. It wasn't just #1 in a category it was #1 on ALL OF AMAZON. Which was kind of amaze-balls to me. I didn't learn about the book hype until after I fell in love with the book is basically what I'm trying to say.
Since Callie and Kayden, I've read Ella and Micha, which I plan on reviewing very soon as well. If you haven't picked up on Jessica Sorensen yet, you should because she's definitely one of the hottest new writers out there and you won't be sorry you did!
Cheers,
Rhi
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
My Editing Process of pure GENIUS
O Hai!
Thought we'd take a little foray into the hell of editing. So you wrote a book, and you're wondering what now? Well, editing! You want your words to shine so much they temporarily blind people.
While I'm sure this is one of those things that everyone does differently, this is how I do it.
1) Outline the Book
This is before it's even written, it needs an outline? Why? Because you can spot problems in an outline much more easily than you can spot them in a full length novel. Case in point, MERCY (The Ferryman + The Flame #4) was outlined twice. The first time I got to chapter 17 and shredded the whole thing because it was crap. The second time...well let's just say I can't wait to see what kinds of FB messages my editor sends me about that book. *evil laugh*
2) Write like there's no tomorrow
For two reasons. One so you get the momentum right and get the book onto paper. Stalling only turns you into a procrastinator and well if you stop, there's a chance you won't start again. Two, you want to write it all at once so that you can avoid your style changing. Hey, we're all learning here right? So we write one book, read some other books, come back to write another book but we've got a stronger voice, different ways of phrasing things. If you write part of a book, take a long break of a few months and then come back to it you'll notice that the earlier stuff isn't as strong. Just saying...write it all in one shot (as in, over the course of 2-3 months, instead of 2-3 years.)
3) Read your first draft on Kindle
This is so that you don't self edit while reading. You're basically BETA reading your own work. You'll know where to go back and clarify details, technicalities, and where scenes need to be longer, dialogue needs to be tighter, etc. etc.
4) Revise your first draft
Go back and fix all those things you noticed while on your kindle. Fix the typos and word choices you also noticed. Basically revise what doesn't work, while also doing some light editing.
5) Read it again on your Kindle
Wax on, wax off.
6) Edit your first draft
NOW you can go through and edit all the things wrong with it. If there are more revisions to be made, get through those, but clean up sentence structure, pacing, word choices, grammar, punctuation and all the things YOU can recognize.
7) Send it to BETA readers
It's so not ready for the public eye but it's ready for those friends who can tell you what else needs to be revised.
8) Revise/Edit again as per BETA readers suggestions
Yeah this is beginning to hurt isn't it? Didn't I mention this was hell? You were warned.
9) Send to a Professional Editor
Like my girl, Michelle Kampmeier of I'm A Book Shark or Jaidis Shaw of Juniper Grove Book Solutions. Get them to do the heavy edits.
10) Edit again based on your Professional Editor's suggestions
Most of them will simply point out what needs to change in the document without actually changing it, that's up to you. So go through, fix everything they mentioned, or debate with them about it if you're sticking to your guns. Tabitha Suzuma I am looking at you. I can't imagine what you and your editor must go through, BUT your books are amazing because of it.
11) Send it to a Copy Editor
So in the process of this revising/editing sandstorm you missed a comma here, or you accidentally deleted the s in she, or you forgot a quotation mark or something. I've seen some of the traditionally published book go down this long road of copy edit mistakes once the book is out and it's not really that nice a place to be. You wanna talk about being embarrassed in the bedroom? Nothing like getting to the major sex scene only to say "he" instead of "his".
12) Read it one last time on your kindle
And once you're totally happy with it, then you can go about doing everything else you need to do to publish your masterpiece!
On that happy note, I am currently reading ASYLUM (The Ferryman + The Flame #5) on my kindle for the first time. Feel free to be green with envy. Cheers,
Rhi
Thought we'd take a little foray into the hell of editing. So you wrote a book, and you're wondering what now? Well, editing! You want your words to shine so much they temporarily blind people.
While I'm sure this is one of those things that everyone does differently, this is how I do it.
1) Outline the Book
This is before it's even written, it needs an outline? Why? Because you can spot problems in an outline much more easily than you can spot them in a full length novel. Case in point, MERCY (The Ferryman + The Flame #4) was outlined twice. The first time I got to chapter 17 and shredded the whole thing because it was crap. The second time...well let's just say I can't wait to see what kinds of FB messages my editor sends me about that book. *evil laugh*
2) Write like there's no tomorrow
For two reasons. One so you get the momentum right and get the book onto paper. Stalling only turns you into a procrastinator and well if you stop, there's a chance you won't start again. Two, you want to write it all at once so that you can avoid your style changing. Hey, we're all learning here right? So we write one book, read some other books, come back to write another book but we've got a stronger voice, different ways of phrasing things. If you write part of a book, take a long break of a few months and then come back to it you'll notice that the earlier stuff isn't as strong. Just saying...write it all in one shot (as in, over the course of 2-3 months, instead of 2-3 years.)
3) Read your first draft on Kindle
This is so that you don't self edit while reading. You're basically BETA reading your own work. You'll know where to go back and clarify details, technicalities, and where scenes need to be longer, dialogue needs to be tighter, etc. etc.
4) Revise your first draft
Go back and fix all those things you noticed while on your kindle. Fix the typos and word choices you also noticed. Basically revise what doesn't work, while also doing some light editing.
5) Read it again on your Kindle
Wax on, wax off.
6) Edit your first draft
NOW you can go through and edit all the things wrong with it. If there are more revisions to be made, get through those, but clean up sentence structure, pacing, word choices, grammar, punctuation and all the things YOU can recognize.
7) Send it to BETA readers
It's so not ready for the public eye but it's ready for those friends who can tell you what else needs to be revised.
8) Revise/Edit again as per BETA readers suggestions
Yeah this is beginning to hurt isn't it? Didn't I mention this was hell? You were warned.
9) Send to a Professional Editor
Like my girl, Michelle Kampmeier of I'm A Book Shark or Jaidis Shaw of Juniper Grove Book Solutions. Get them to do the heavy edits.
10) Edit again based on your Professional Editor's suggestions
Most of them will simply point out what needs to change in the document without actually changing it, that's up to you. So go through, fix everything they mentioned, or debate with them about it if you're sticking to your guns. Tabitha Suzuma I am looking at you. I can't imagine what you and your editor must go through, BUT your books are amazing because of it.
11) Send it to a Copy Editor
So in the process of this revising/editing sandstorm you missed a comma here, or you accidentally deleted the s in she, or you forgot a quotation mark or something. I've seen some of the traditionally published book go down this long road of copy edit mistakes once the book is out and it's not really that nice a place to be. You wanna talk about being embarrassed in the bedroom? Nothing like getting to the major sex scene only to say "he" instead of "his".
12) Read it one last time on your kindle
And once you're totally happy with it, then you can go about doing everything else you need to do to publish your masterpiece!
On that happy note, I am currently reading ASYLUM (The Ferryman + The Flame #5) on my kindle for the first time. Feel free to be green with envy. Cheers,
Rhi
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