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As with everything in life, things come out better if you take the time to do them right the first time.
Now that I've decided to publish on Smashwords, I've had to reformat every book to fit their specifications. This is absolutely fine, because I know that I'll reach a lot more readers this way. Their books go out to Sony and Apple and Kobo as well as Barnes and Noble and Amazon.. It's just time consuming. I've had to put aside writing Book Six to do it, which ties me up in a non-creative knot. I love spending time with my characters every day, and even though I'm back in Book Two, Stalked, at the moment, I'm editing and not writing. However, I'm also working with a wonderful book cover designer, Tatiana Villa. You can see her first design for Rebirth on my home page. Here's a link to her website in case you're a writer and have a book to cover. http://tat-94.wix.com/viladesign She's professional, reasonably priced and extremely patient with me. Thank you Tatiana! I've had to pull my adult paranormal book, until she can design a proper cover. However, my Rogues Shifter books come first. And because I'm changing the covers, I'm also changing the price. The books are still extremely reasonable and once I have at least three covers up, I'm going to offer coupon discounts through Smashwords. It's a great site, check it out. So I'm officially apologizing to you for pushing the date back on the release of Book Six. It will be done as soon as I have a chance to dedicate the hours necessary to do justice to Jackie and Garrett's tale. Here's a tiny Book Six Spoiler: Jackie's with Isaiah in the Demon Realm for some of the book, which irritates Garrett and the fae. Plus Charlie is five and already beginning to shine. And there's so much more... :0)
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I"ll be publlishing my latest Ebook under the pen name Marie Booth sometime this winter. Smashwords, a terrific site I've recently discovered, distributes your books to all the major retailers in one go.
I'm using a pen name so that my teen readers don't confuse it with a Rogues Shifter book. Just put iT down to me being a mom of two daughters who wouldn't have wanted them reading an adult paranormal book while they were in high school. That being said, I have no guilt about actually writing the steamy story. In fact, I had much more fun than was absolutely necessary when writing a book. It was freeing in a way I hadn't imagined and since I do intend it to be the first book in the Theta Series, I can now say that I'm excited about writing the next one. The book is about a theatre troupe made up of a newly discovered supernatural species called Thetas who are gifted with amazing mental powers. They're able to connect to the individual minds of their audience members, sending them their most wished-for and often violent of hedonistic fantasies.Their audiences are comprised of other supernatural groups who've all come out of their coffins/packlands/demonrealms/etc during the past 100 years. Theta troupes along the east coast are owned by an archdemon, (called the Director), and they have no real freedom. If a troupe doesn't bring in good money at the box office, they're retired...or exterminated, My leading female character is a lovely young Ingenue, new to the NY based troupe, who feels that she has the ability to get out from under the Archdemon's iron fist. Of course, her efforts anger the male in charge of the troupe, the tech Theta who's just trying to keep them alive and working. Needless to say, tension builds between them, sexual and emotional. The book is full of magic, drama and romance and the main characters in this first book will be recurring characters in the series, even though each book will concentrate on a new couple. And no, I haven't stopped writing my Rogues Shifter Series. In fact, book #6 is my next writing project and I'm already busy continuing Jackie and Garrett's story. After that I'll be working on my spinoff involving Charlie at seventeen as he travels down the California coast with his best buddy Jay, (A bear shifter who's Peter and Kyle's adopted son). He's grown up feeling smothered and stressed out by the prophecy that haunts him, so he goes on a journey to find his path in life. Of course he meets a girl, and of course she has a secret. I'll say no more on that score. So it looks like I'll be busy. Yay. I like this kind of busy! :0) G SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't finished the 5th book, Caught Between, then don't read any further!
I've begun writing a spin-off on Charlie as a seventeen year old who's off on his own, frustrated by the overly protected life he's been forced to lead. It's interesting, because in the Rogues Shifter books, Jackie is seventeen, so it will be fun to play with a different character, her son, in the same age range. He'll be accompanied by his best friend, the adopted son of Kyle and Peter, a 17 year old bear shifter with great martial arts skills but also a goofy sense of humor. Jackie, Liam and Garrett will also be making appearances, but the story is primarily about Charlie and his struggle to work out his path in life. Jacqueline, Aedus' daughter (called Lin) and Sammy, Aaron's son, will also play a part, It's kind of Rogues second generation...lolol. I'll be writing the stories in two points of view: Charlie's and a young woman, also seventeen, who he meets in Los Angeles during his journey through California. I'd be interested in any feedback from readers. Thanks! Caught Between is finished and up for sale on Amazon and Barnes and Noble...so what's a girl to do?
My ritual is to go back to book #1, Rebirth, and re-read every word. I'll even re-edit if I feel it's necessary. Then I go one by one through the rest until I end up back at Caught Between. I haven't read some of these books for months and since ebooks are so easy to edit, taking only a few hours to be reposted in their new form, I do this in the hopes of giving my readers a higher quality experience. I'd never change the basic story, I'm just going over awkward phrasing or bad grammer. That kind of thing. If you've bought my books and you want the newest version, you can delete them from your ereader and download them again to get the most current version. I'll try to keep you posted here on the blog when I've re-editied a book. So then what? My friend, Kate E. Lane is working furiously on Playing With Passion, so I'll be assisting her. (wink) Then I have notes on my next book, #6, and I've been discussing the possiblity of a spin-off series about Charlie as a teen, written from the point of view of a young woman that he befriends. Tell me what you think. And in my real life, I'm making a 3,000 mile move to the other coast. Whew. Back again soon. ;0) G Pseudo-Spoiler Alert: (You'll know who I'm referring to as soon as you read the Prologue to my 5th book. I haven't posted the Prologue on my site, but you'll be able to download it as part of the free sample. Caught Between is available now! :0))
This spring, I finished Book #5, Caught Between, and although I knew it was coming and had prepared myself, it still sucked when I had to write about the murder of one of my regular characters. This was a character that I'd grown to respect and like quite a bit, especially during Book #3, and it hurt to say goodbye. I'd put off writing that one chapter FOREVER, coming up with excuses like: Tonight's a good night to scrub the bathroom floor with a toothbrush, or This afternoon, I really need to replace the lining in every drawer in the entire house, or that old standby, I'm reading a great book and I have to finish this really exciting part which is 20 chapters long. At night in bed I'd told myself that the death was necessary to the overall arc of the series itself, and that I needed to man up and just write it already. Still, I found myself working on other projects, after all, Fiddler on the Roof wasn't going to costume itself. I'd known from the first stages of planning who the murderer would be and how it would affect the characters left behind, and that upset me too. The murder would be brutal and the affect it had would be dramatic. None of that helped push me toward writing that chapter. I haven't been writing for long. I started because I felt I wanted to express myself in a genre that I've loved for a very long time, and because I felt I had something to say to young adults. I've thrown my whole heart into Jackie and Garrett's story and I've enjoyed (almost) every minute. So it occurred to me that maybe I'm too involved with my characters; that I should pull back and write with more detachment. F#*k that. What actually got me seated once more in front of my laptop and wrting that chapter was the knowledge that it was ok for me to feel sad about his death. He was a good guy who'd had a tough life, just like so many of the people I've met throughout my life. Just because he's a character in a book, it doesn't mean that I can't mourn his passing or feel sad for the people left behind who cared for him. So in the end, he died to move the plot in the direction in which it needed to go. My Rogues readers will, hopefully, forgive me. I'll miss him. G My brain can only hold so much. At times my various to do lists become just so many jumbled words and I find myself mumbling them out loud to get them firmly implanted in my sometimes too porous gray matter. It happens at unexpected times.
This week was typical: In addition to what I carry around in my head pertinent to the work I do that pays the bills, I also had these items screwing with my my overloaded synapses: Hem the Queen's gown, find dwarf pants and adjust them to mid calf, spray paint the picture frame gold, take up the petticoat, divide costumes at home into those appropriate for Fiddler on the Roof and those to be mailed to California....(I'm moving in the summer)...and on and on And begin work on Query...re-edit chapters 1-10 of Caught Between...decide on male Demi-fae names...work on blog... don't forget to check Twitter...and on and on. So when I heard my self talk to myself out loud as I was driving from work to take care of a number of these errands, I tuned in for a moment to listen. The conversation went something like this: Also Me: (Muttering) Re-pin queen's dress, Sinlae's males, buy gold spray paint, work on CB Chapter 6... Me: You're taking on too much. Also Me: Well, Duh Me: So drop something Also me: Sure Me: You're not going to do it, are you? Also Me: Nope Me: Why? Also Me: If I stop I'll lose my momentum Me: Bullshit Also Me: It's true...I't's like making a snow man belly Me: What? Also Me: If you stop rolling, it's harder to start again. Me: You know the guy in the FTD truck is looking at you Also Me: That's ok...he's kinda cute...he'd make a good William if we ever did the books on TV Me: Lets face it...you didn't write no True Blood or Game of Thrones. Also me: Yeah yeah, I know, but If there's Fantasy Football, there can be Fantasy Casting, too . That comment led to silent musings regarding which actors I'd cast in the various roles, putting me in a great mood for the rest of the day. After one of my little talks with my self, I usually feel much better. Did I accomplish everything on my list? No...but according to Also Me, I did pretty good! G Yes, I'm a virgin blogger, it's true, but I learn quickly, so have patience, please... RE: The Rogues Shifter Series: I'm so excited to be able to tell you about Jackie and Garrett's series and how it all got started. So this is how it happened....da da da daaaaaa! (trumpet sounds) My cat died. Yep, Molly, who'd lived a long and happy life, died at the age of 17 and I was feeling kind of frayed around the edges...not really wanting to go out or even talk to friends. In order to get my mind off the loss of my sweet Molly, I sat down at the computer to write. But what? Allow me to let you in on a secret. I DEVOUR paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels. I mean I actually inhale them into my bloodstream and digest them. I think that Magic Bites might now make up the lower left hand corner of my lungs and Shadowfever is definitely lodged in my aortic membrane. (Barrons....sigh). And those Sherilyn Kenyon and Nelini Singe books...well, we won't talk about where they ended up. Fantasy has been an integral part of my life since my mom and I first sat down to watch Dark Shadows together after I got home from school. Add to that the fact that I've been involved with theatre, majoring in acting in college and then working for the last 12 years with a children's theatre company in New York, working with little ones up to young adults. So lets see....reading....fantasy....theatre...young adults...kind of led to the whole writing a paranormal romance geared toward 15 - 21+ year olds. Also, I'm sure you've noticed that my main shifters are all feline. Another tribute to Molly. How did I come up with my two lead characters? Most of what I read in this genre is written by women, about strong female characters. I wanted to do the same, so Jackie was born. I chose not to put humans in my series because, even though we're a delightful species, I didn't want to have to deal with a race so much weaker than the rest of the supernaturals. Making Jackie a shapeshifter, put her on a more equal footing with the others, even though at the beginning she was untrained and relatively clueless. I've enjoyed watching her grow in strength and in character thoughout the books. Like Jackie, I feel that Garrett is absolutely yummy. Even though he's kickass powerful, what was most important to me in every book, was that we all feel how vulnerable he is. I wanted my two main rogues to heal each other, and I hope in the readers eye, they do, every day with their love. I've had loads of fun with both of them, as well as the rest of my assorted rogues, and I can't wait to see how book five comes together, which should be out around the fall of 2012. Please leave me a note and let me know what you like about the books, (and also what you don't like.) This is all new to me and I appreciate your input. Re: The Theta Series: Right now, I'm busy writing an ADULT paranormal romance. Playing with Passion centers around a theatre troupe made up of an entirely new supernatural species. It should be available in the spring of 2012. You can read the prologue and chapter one here. Although the prologue and chapter one are tame, the book is an ADULT book, definitely in the steamy category. Talk to you again soon! Gayle  This is Molly playing dress-up with my daughters. She was a patient soul.
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Author A theatre major in college, Gayle now spends her time in front of her computer making up stories, banging out books, and hanging with other romance writers - the most awesome community of writers in the world. Just sayin'. Archives
January 2022
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