Dilemma

So, I've been having this feeling that amazon is getting ready to go through something pretty big lately and that if I don't get in there and start selling soon, it'll be just as difficult to crack that egg as NY has been. That's why I had a 4 book line up scheduled for release July 15th...

BUT--

I'm not sure any of the books are ready for publication. The two stand alone full-lengths have come to my attention that they need much help. One was written nearly 10 years ago and just needs a face lift, a major one, but a face lift. The other is more technically ready, but the plot needs some serious tweaking. Then there's my novellas and they need some work... not the books themselves, they're fine, but the overall 5 book plot line keeps changing each book I write. So I find myself going back into book 1 or book 2 to make book 3 make sense. So if I have to keep tweaking books 1 and 2, it doesn't make much sense to publish them only to then have to edit them down the line. Which leaves me with a serious dilemma... do I really have anything ready for publication?

I'm afraid the answer might be a big fat no! :( I'm just not sure what to do with these books... I'm desperate to publish but not at the expense of a good product. I'm quite convinced I have one chance to impress an audience, if I put out crap to begin with I'll lose a lot of readers... but the longer I wait to publish the more I fear I'm losing my window of oppurtunity.

Lots to think about. :(

Tales from the slushpile:

Even though I'm Indie, I pursued NY like a relentless pitbull coveting a steak before, I've made some friends in the biz and am fortunate to have them blog for me when I'm just too busy to do so myself. So without further ado... Mysteryinternx take it away!

Hi everyone, thanks Marie for letting me drop by! Marie asked me the other day if I could give her some insight into what I've been reading in my slush pile lately and here's a few greats and some bad.

You may have heard paranormals are glutted and aren't selling well,partially true, but there's always an audience for it. NY is just slightly more picky now with what they'll accept. At the moment ghosts are very interesting. We've pretty much seen more than we care to see about vampires and demons, although, if it's good by all means send it along. Just know we're much more snobby with those now. Another personal favorite of mine are fairy tale themed books. And by that I mean, fairy legends or traditional fairy tales (IE: Beauty and the Beast) but with a twist, and for me personally, the darker the better.

Pirates! Where are they? I would love to see more pirate themed books. Not necessarily traditional pirates... but a YA pirate themed book, if you're writing one, send it off!

Food themed contemporaries, pretty hot right now. NY is really into the whole foodie craze at the moment thanks to Food Network and high profile chefs, so if you're writing one, great time to query with it.

A disturbing trend I've been reading is Incest themed romances. Please don't. Just, don't. They're not sexy, and even if the writing is fantastic, the market is way too small for it.

Zombies. Sigh... unless it's really, really good. Tough, tough sale. Readers, we're finding, are just not that into dead love interests, go figure.

Interracial romances are still great, would love to see more unusual locales as well. We're always keeping an eye out for them.

As of this moment, contemporaries are really the king of the block- any derivation of them. Mystery, Suspense, Romance, Beach Reads.... they're doing really well.

For all you Sci-Fi writers out there, take heart, sciene fiction romances are garnering slightly more interest than before. And since before there was about zero interest, take that for it's worth. But now might be a good time to dust yours off and take a crack at the market.

But in the end what we most want is an amazing story. If you've written about an Asian zombie with the hots for her brother and won several awards and made people cry, forget everything I've said and send it off. You just never know!

Thanks mysteryinternx! Well, I hope ya'll learned something here, I know I have! :D
~Marie

Welcome to my new home on the web!

Now that I'm getting so close to D-Day, or my first Indie release, I figured it was time my blog account more closely fitted to who I am and what I do. I write fantasy, be it romance or not. So the blog now resembles the fantastical choas of my mind. Isn't it wonderful! *squee*

Anyway, hope you'll come back to visit often! :)

~Marie. ;)

Six Sentence Sunday #8

While I wait for my new site to go live, I figured I'd post one last SSS to this account. Last week you were introduced to Pandora, a Nephilim who has a 'thing' for mortal men. This paragraph is set up for the carnival she and her demon family run. Pandora is a thoughtful demon, but her head can be a very dangerous place to stay in for too long... So without further ado:

Diabolique was Luc’s brainchild. Years ago, none of us could have imagined how popular and mainstream ‘dark’ would become. There’d been a time to admit you dabbled in darkness meant a swift and excruciating death. Dancing with the Devil was a strict no-no. Now, to be cool meant embracing every dark thought and deed and making it your own. Funny how things change.

Happy 6!

Update

Since I'll be writing under a different penname I'm currently getting ready to transfer over all the info from this account to my writing name: mariehallwrites.blogspot.com. I'll also be updating my account, make it look more inviting.

Stay tuned for further updates soon! :D

Red and Her Wolf... The cover

My cover artist keep churning them out and I'm just amazed at the quality of these covers. Though I shouldn't be, she so totally rocks! Anyway, here's the cover for book 3 of the Kingdom Series: Red and her Wolf! Wolf-man is so totally *swoon*... le sigh...

I'm busy, I'm busy

Oh my gosh I'm busy! Sorry I haven't been updating in forever. I promise the wait will be worth it. :D I've had so much on my plate, cool, fun stuff. Last minute, getting set to go to print type stuff. My first 2 Kingdom books are done, my full lengths are nearly ready to be sent off to an editor for copyedits and I'm soooo super stoked, lots of book covers and neato fun stuff on the horizon to share soon!

Stay tuned...

Another gorgeous cover!!!

Seriously ya'll don't be jealous but I've got the bestest cover artists in the world! ;) This is my cover to the second (as yet to be completed) book in my Death Series! She's just gorgeous! *g*

The pink stuff at top is actually Dia de los Muertos skulls. Aren't they divine? The setting for book 2 is in Mexico during the, you guessed it, Dia de los Muertos celebration. Wow did Kelsey outdo herself!! If you guys are looking for cover artists check out razzdazzdesign.com or forthemusedesign.com both come highly recommended by me! And the artists are super easy to work with and very affordable! ;)

Six Sentence Sunday #7

So a new offering for you. This is from my completed novel Death and the Crimson Night, here we're being introduced to the main protag of the tale. Pandora, a Nephilim conflicted with who she's supposed to be vs. who she really is.

The night rang with the cacophonous pitch of rides and the thrilling screams and laughter of riders. Some type of heavy metal played over the loudspeaker, too loud for me to tell who it was. Knowing Luc, it was probably something creepy and mood setting, a-la Black Sabbath.

I watched the scene with cold detachment, not paying much attention to the women or children. I wasn’t into that sorta thing. I preferred my prey young, muscular, and full of testosterone.

Don't forget to tell the Dad in your life Happy Father's Day! Have a great one! :)

Trend shifts, yet again...

Sigh...

Apparently NY is pretty sick of Urban Fantasy's right now. Which I'm not terribly surprised to hear about. A couple of months ago I shopped around a manuscript to agents which 3 years ago (yes, I shopped it around before) garnered several requests, ultimately getting passed up because they either had too many UF authors on their roster, or they couldn't quite connect with my heroine. Which, she can be sort of sharp. LOL... But this time when I did it I noticed a much less enthusiastic reception. I switched up several of the plot elements and practicially rewrote the first three chapters to it. Out of 20 queries, I got one bite and she told me she loved it, but UF's were a tough sale.

So now it seems things are shifting again. Sci-fi, the ugly red-headed stepsister is starting to inspire editors again.

Epic fantasy's are no more popular than before. Authors were hoping since Game of Thrones there'd be a rise in readership for it, but there doesn't actually seem to be and in fact a number of editors aren't buying them, with a rare few exceptions.

I guess if you're like me hang on to those UF's/epic Fantasy's because everything is cyclical and eventually an author, movie, or (insert whatnot here) will make them popular again.

Why I know writers are the smartest people on the planet

Have you ever wondered, as I have, 'man, if the cops ever needed to crack into my hard drive they'd swear I was a bank robber/drug dealer/professional race car driver/gourmet chef/vampire/soccer mom!'

Seriously think about it. Writers tend to know the most random, useless, impossibly brilliant tidbits of information about almost everything. I write about countries I've never stepped foot in, yet I know the peak of their altitude, the country's population, general demographic, old stories, and even a smattering (though probably butchered...lol) version of their language.

One day I'd love to see a writer get on some trivia show like Jeopardy, I'd be willing to bet we'd go very very far.

So to all the brew masters/herbalists/wiccan shapeshifting wolfie mermaids out there...

I salute you! And cops if you're reading this, I swear that article on how to make a bomb shelter is totally research!!  *g*

Deep ninja mode:

Be very quiet, Marie is in deep edit mode. If you value your life, you'll back away slowly. If not, I'll lay the stinky ninja on you. And you won't like the stinky ninja, trust me!!

Six Sentence Sunday Part 6

Time for another riveting Six Sentence! *g*


THIS SIX SENTENCE HAS BEEN DELETED BY AUTHOR (the book will be uploaded on Amazon's Select Program and I cannot promote it off amazon! Thanks for understand.)

And the rest I'll leave to your fevered imaginations, my little chou's! Till next week! ;)

Dream Weaver (Cover Love)

So here it is, time for another showing! My beautiful cover to a book a wrote years ago. It's in need of tender love, but I'm beyond thrilled with this cover and just had to share!

Jealous yet. ;) LOL... hopefully I can make the inside as great as the outside!

All of you must bow down to me!

Do it I say! Bow down, you worthless pathetic slime.

What?

Do you not know who I am? I am King of the Trolls! Mortimor Snerd. Have I not introduced myself to you once? Did I not tell you I'd be back?! That stupid cow Linda was too busy to update you today. She's writing. Writing. Excuse me while I spit the bitter taste out my mouth! Always whining about not having enough time, needing to work on this or that. Try Lording it over a rabble rousing crowd of cannibalistic trolls, that's pressure!

And riddle me this puny mortal, why when I offer her the vasntess of Trollandia she chooses to write about this man, this Gerard!

Tell me honestly now. Is he not the most revolting thing you've ever seen? Why he's got no scales, no green hue. Where are the horns?! The callouses! That is not a man, that is a babe, a babe with fuzz around his lips.

I know, he's hideous. And French, good gods, save us all! Anyway, I've no patience for any of you anymore. I've a kingdom to run, some heads to bash in, and a stinky little writer in my dungeon who's waiting on my big hairy kiss.

(Deep in the dankest drippiest side of the Troll's dungeon a harried writer's heart seizes up when she hears Mortimor's words...

"No, I'm not, Mortimor Snerd!" Linda yells. "You stay away from me you big walking mole!")

"Oh shut your mouth, Linda!" I snicker. The woman so obviously wants me. Yes, she's also a frightfully ugly creature, but I guess I've got a thing for worms.

Anyway, I'm bored of you all. Go away! A word of warning though... remember we're always watching.

*cue maniacal laughter now*

Sleeping Handsome

So now that I've totally decided to go Indie, I've decided whenever I come across a great Indie artist, I'll plug their book here. Show some support. Today is all about a scrumptious novella I read last night, Sleeping Handsome by Jean Haus.

The book is great, it's about an eighteen year old boy in a comma and the girl who falls in love with him. The heroine of the tale- Paige- is a self centered, typical high school Senior who's gotten herself into trouble and in order to not be expelled has been assigned reading duties to a comatose patient. She's an aspiring actress and because she reads so well, the principal feels she might help Zach come back to the world of the living. At first she resents being 'forced' to do it, but over a period of a month she starts to feel as if Zach is only just sleeping and not on the verge of death at all. After stumbling onto his secret journal she begins to read to him from it, hoping that she'll jog his mind into waking. Remind him of who he was. And as she does so she begins to fall in love with the boy between the pages of the book. After a month, she's reached the final entry and is then told by Zach's mother she'll no longer be needed to read to him anymore. The family has decided after four months it's finally time to take Zach off life support. Paige is heart broken and goes to his room to tell him goodbye, she leans in and kisses him and... well, I won't give it all away. ;)

If you can suspend disbelief that a boy that sick should actually be in the hospital and not on life support at home, then you might actually enjoy this love story. It was incredibly sweet, no sex, though there is some language. But still, well worth your time and when it's free??? You're not really out anything but an hour of your life. Give it a shot. *g*

Try it, you might love it as much as I did!

Unbeliveably bored

So today, I'm sooooo bored. There's a great many things I should be doing and I've done none of them. I'm getting antsy because there's a million places I should be hearing back from soon (3..lol) and yeah, I'm full of nervous anxiety and just want to hear something. Of the good variety specifically! :D

We didn't make the flight, obviously I'm here typing instead of playing with my niece and nephews and that was annoying. Next time I'll know, be absolutely packed a full week in advance. I'm used to flying traditional airlines, where if they don't fly out on time it's because they've bumped the flight back. The military thinks it's fun to jump forward with no word of warning. So when I went to the airline to ask why the flight was no longer on their Sunday flight plan, it was because the flight was getting ready to take off in less than an hour! Needless to say, 2 small kids, lots of packing still to do. Yeah... maybe next year. Sigh...

So today my hubs got his associate's degree from the college of the Air Force. My not going home did at least afford me the ability to watch him walk across the stage. Which in hindsight was a good thing, we had no idea this ceremony was even slated to take place today until last week. I would have hated to miss it.

I've got less than 10k left to complete Gerard's Beauty and I should be done with it *fingers crossed* by next week. Unfortunately if my writing goes the way it did today (5 words exactly) it might actually take another year. :(

So yeah, need some good news. Something to invigorate me and get me motivated again! Do you hear me universe!! A million dollars, a book contract, the return of my abandoned muse... I'm not picky!

Six Sentence Saturday?

Happy Weekend all, hope it's as great as mine. Though I doubt too many of you can touch mine, Hawaii and all... Kind of an unfair advantage. ;) Anyway, you might notice I'm updating my six sentences today rather than Sunday, I have a perfectly good reason. You see tomorrow I'm going to try and catch a HOP with my boys (that's a military flight for you civilians *g*) and heading back to the mainland for 2 weeks to hang with family. So if all goes as planned I won't be here tomorrow to update. Ergo... Six Sentence Saturday has been invented. *VBG*

So without further ado:

THIS SIX SENTENCE HAS BEEN DELETED BY AUTHOR

:)

Fun Factoid Friday!

Used to be a time when the end of the week was a source of great excitement for me. The older I get though, the quicker time seems to fly and I'm desperate to slow it down! LOL... anyone else like me? Sheesh *eye roll*. So here we are, yet another fun fact Friday.

1. Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers were all invented by women!

(Somehow I'm not surprised to learn that inventions designed to prevent harm to a person belong to us! We so totally rock, and laser printers... obviously a writer. ;) Hmm... maybe she's a diva! *g*)

2. It is impossible to hum if your nose is plugged.

(I wish I was a fly on the wall to see how many of you are trying that right now! LOL)

3. Couples' personalities converge over time to make partners more and more similar to one another.

(Clearly the same is true of owners' and their pets!)

Have a great weekend all!