WLP: Stop With The E-Footnotes Already!

January 26, 2012 in Books & Reviews

Picture it, you’re reading a funny book on your e-Reader and all the sudden this little 1 shows up next to a sentence. So you click it, giggle and then suddenly you are without a map and lost. What the hell page was I on before I clicked that 1? See, on my e-Reader, these footnotes take you to god knows where, it sure isn’t the end of the page you were on! After much panic, you find the damn page only to be confronted with the next sentence ending in a 2. Son of a b!

By the fifth chapter you’ve seen 85 separate numbers and gotten lost or thrown out of the story trying to go back to wherever the hell you were. That’s also about the point where you give up, you stop clicking those damn little numbers. Okay, so I gave up at 10 but you get the idea.

I’m WLP and I HATE funny footnotes in e-Books. HATE.

In regular, in my hand books. Fine. I am all for the funny footnotes, or hell any footnote because I can just read them on the page or flip said page. But with my e-Books, please write a sentence then (BRACKET THE FUNNY) it makes it so much easier to read the book and doesn’t make you click happy.

By the end of the book, I’d have probably clicked 400 times and been thrown out of the story if I kept clicking.

So for the love of my finger pads, stop!!

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Nadia Lee Guest Blogs

January 26, 2012 in Guest Blogger

World Bible: How to Create One in the Middle of a Revision



When I got serious about writing, I thought I’d focus on contemporary romance until a friend of mine got me hooked on urban fantasy. Since I liked it so much I decided to try writing one, which then became The Last Slayer.

I was terrible about organizing my notes on the world.  I didn’t really feel the need to make a world bible or anything of that sort since I always work on one project at a time, so I had everything in my head.  Creating a separate document or notebook with all the details seemed like a colossal waste of time.  If I ever needed to revisit the world, why, I had my brain!  I could just recall whatever I needed about the world from my memory, easy peasy!

Over a year passed between completing The Last Slayer and actually selling it.  Once I signed the contract, my editor sent me a revision letter, and one of the things she asked for was the world bible.  She wanted one so we could keep things straight, and also for her to get a better sense of what was going on beyond the story on the page.  (Since The Last Slayer is the first in a trilogy, it made sense that she wanted to know more about the world and what was to come in the sequels.)

Anyway, I was totally confident I could knock one out in an hour or so.  How hard could it be to write down what was already in my head?

Unfortunately, while I remembered a lot, I’d also forgotten a lot of the details.  I couldn’t recall the exact names of certain factions and agencies and so on.  (And I’m certain that going through the last trimester in my first pregnancy did not help matters at all.  I’ve read studies that showed that women’s brains shrink during pregnancy. The brain expands back once the baby’s delivered, thank god…if you can survive the sleep deprivation!)

Anyway, the Find feature in Word helped tremendously.  If I couldn’t remember an exact title or name, I’d type something that was close and look for it that way.  That took a while (okay, about four days), but I was able to put together a world bible that my editor was happy with.

So the next time I create a new world, I’ll make sure to keep good notes! At least all the proper names and brief descriptions of each item.

Do you have any questions or comments about world building, world bibles, the editorial process or revisions?  Feel free to post them, and I’ll be happy to answer.

The Last Slayer

Ashera del Cid is a talented demon hunter, but when she kills a demigod’s pet dragon, the hunter becomes the hunted.  Her only potential ally is Ramiel, a sexy-as-hell demon. Now the two must work together to battle dragons and demigods…and the chemistry crackling between them.

Ramiel has his own reasons for offering Ashera his protection.  He knows her true identity and the real reason the demigods want her dead. What he can’t predict is how she’ll react when she discovers he knew who she was all along…

Ashera is shocked to discover that she is the only daughter of the last slayer. To claim her destiny, she and Ramiel must join forces to face down danger and outwit their enemies.  Only then will she be able to truly accept her legacy…

Where to buy The Last Slayer

Carina Press 

All Romance eBooks

Amazon 

Nook 

Book Depository

Books on Board 

Kobo

Sony 

Where to Find Nadia Lee

http://www.nadialee.net/

http://www.facebook.com/nadialeewrites/

http://www.twitter.com/nadialee/

http://nadialeewrites.tumblr.com/

http://www.goodreads.com/nadialee/

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New Review Posted

January 25, 2012 in Reviews

My review for Darynda Jones’ Third Grave Dead Ahead is live on Heroes & Heartbreakers! 

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The Thorn & The Blossom Blog Tour

January 25, 2012 in Reviews

  • Hardcover: 82 pages
  • List Price: $16.95
  • Publisher: Quirk Books (January 17, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 159474551X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1594745515
  • Theodora Goss’ Website

Buy The Thorn & The Blossom at:

One enchanting romance. Two lovers keeping secrets. And a uniquely crafted book that binds their stories forever.

When Evelyn Morgan walked into the village bookstore, she didn’t know she would meet the love of her life. When Brendan Thorne handed her a medieval romance, he didn’t know it would change the course of his future. It was almost as if they were the cursed lovers in the old book itself . . .

The Thorn and the Blossom is a remarkable literary artifact: You can open the book in either direction to decide whether you’ll first read Brendan’s, or Evelyn’s account of the mysterious love affair. Choose a side, read it like a regular novel—and when you get to the end, you’ll find yourself at a whole new beginning.

Because this is such a short story (around 80 pages) my review will reflect as much so I don’t give anything away.

The first thing readers will notice about The Thorn and the Blossom is that it’s visually stunning. It’s an accordion book, with two sides. You can start at either end and get both Evelyn and Brendan’s side of the story. I started with Brendan’s side of the story and was glad I did, I wasn’t a fan of Evelyn nor her perspective of what happened.

I felt like it was unfinished, that there should be a part two of some sorts (there are no plans for a part two). While I could connect with Brendan, the same cannot be said for Evelyn.

To me she ran from her issues for years instead of trying to figure them out and dealing with them. I did love that there was a dual point of view, but like I said, Evelyn’s didn’t sit well with me.

My biggest issue was the fact that after Brendan kissed Evelyn, she ran away screaming, only to send him a short letter saying sorry but not explaining why she did. I get why she ran, but the explanation wasn’t given to Brendan and he never asked why?!

If you are looking for something a little different from the norm, I would suggest The Thorn and the Blossom, but at only 80 pages don’t expect a full fledged novel.

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Seleste Reviews: Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

January 24, 2012 in Young Adult Reviews

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (January 31, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0062060759
  • ISBN-13: 978-0062060754
  • Price: $17.99
  • Jodi Meadows’s Website

Buy Incarnate at:

NEWSOUL

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.
NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?
HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies–human and creature alike–let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

Much of young adult literature deals with feeling out of place–in high school, a new town, human society as a supernatural, etc. What Incarnate does is takes that trope of the genre and turns it up about as high as it can go. In the world Jodi Meadows created there are a million souls born over and over again into new bodies. They die, they come back, life goes on, and this is the only life they know. Until Ana.

 

When a soul known as Ciana dies, she doesn’t return. In her place is Ana. Newsoul to some. Nosoul to others. She’s an outcast simply by being born. Her mother takes her from the city to raise her in seclusion, her upbringing filled with hatred and abuse. Even once she turns eighteen and is free to leave, her mother sends her into the wilderness with a broken compass–a calculated move that nearly leads to Ana’s death. Instead she finds Sam, a man who sees her as not an abomination, but something rare and precious and wonderful. However, because of how she’s grown up, it takes weeks before she can even begin to trust that he isn’t going to try to kill her too. And once they get to the city, Heart, Ana finds out her mother might have been more right than wrong with her lies–far too many people don’t want her around and make no bones about letting her know.

 

This is the set-up for a tragic story of pain, love, music, hate, and what happens when those in power set their sights on one person. I’m not going to delve into the plot a lot simply because if I did it would be full of spoilers and me squeeing about how fabulous certain things were. As a heads up to people who like simple plots without a lot going on, Incarnate has a LOT of plot elements from supernatural creatures to religion to a lesson in music theory to romance. However, for me, it never felt like there was too much going on. Everything fit and flowed.

 

There have been a lot of dystopian novels in the last few years, with even more slated for 2012. What sets Incarnate apart isn’t just that it takes place in a different world with living buildings and sylph and dragons. It isn’t even really the reincarnation angle. While most dystopians focus on a small group of the government trying to keep the people as a whole docile and (often) ignorant, Incarnate has a large section of society that focuses all that control on Ana. She’s the thing that “ruined” their perfect society. And in that difference lies the book’s true power. It narrows our attention to her, to one victim of hate.

 

In short, it’s brilliant and beautiful and tragic. There are books that sell millions of copies right away and there are books that stick around forever. While the series still has two more books in it, based on the first one, I truly hope the NewSoul Trilogy manages to do both.

 

***Full Disclosure: Seleste read Incarnate in beta-form prior to Jodi Meadows signing with her agent.***
***She has not, however, read book two yet, much less book three. Don’t ask for spoilers–she doesn’t have any.***

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