Music That Moved My Muse #linkinpark

Well, this wasn't the post I expected to be writing...

2016 was a bad year. So many of us lost icons that had meant so much to us. I still haven't got over some of them. But 2017 isn't shaping up all that well either. On Thursday, just as we began the long school summer holiday, I saw a tweet about Linkin Park, and my heart sank. Then shattered. Chester Bennington had been found dead, probably suicide. He was five years younger than me.

I only became a fan recently, and quite by accident. One of my many internet friends came over to meet me for real and suggested a trip to the cinema. We went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I'm not a huge fan, but it was action packed and entertaining if not particularly challenging mentally. It had something else though.  A song called New Divide by Linkin Park.

I loved the sound of it and the lyrics, and played it endlessly after downloading it. After watching a few of their videos on Scuzz, most of which had a scifi look and sound to me, I went looking for more of their music and found they'd done a track for The Matrix. They went on to have another song featured in the third Transformer film - Iridescent.

Chester's voice and music inspired and transform two of my books. Thanks to the album Living Things, the chaotic, scattered mess that became When Dark Falls gained an identity and a darkly industrial feel, as well as turning into a superhero romance with a coherent story.

Chester's lesser known band Dead by Sunrise became the sound track to the hardest book I've written so far - my Louisiana zombie story, Restless In Peaceville - along with an LP track called The Little Things Give You Away.

I even had one of their songs picked out to be played at my funeral (morbid, I know, but I'm conscious every day of the fact my mum passed away at 43 and I'm just about to turn 47, so it preys on my mind a bit. Oh, and watch the video. You'll see why I find them so scifi-y).

I haven't loved everything they've done. I'm sorry to say it but I couldn't even sit through the entirety of their two latest singles. They'd gone in a direction I didn't like, but their ever evolving sound and willingness to experiment might well have brought me back to the next album. But that will never happen now. I'm just glad that I found them when I did and at least got to see them play live once. I will treasure that.

RIP Chester Bennington. I hope you've finally found peace.

Tuesday Teaser - Cajun #Zombie Problems #YA #paranormal

While I continue with my summer book binge and spending time with my three monsters, here's another excerpt and featuring an altogether different kind of monster. Here, my teen zombie hero Luke as passed out in the swamp after an encounter with a weird black shadow that's been following him around. But the shadow's no longer the problem...

I can hear the frogs. Above me, the moon is so fiercely white and full, it hurts my eyes. It's also jerking across the sky between the branches of the cypress like someone's hauling on the leash of a disobedient hound. I frown at it, and then realize it ain't the moon moving. It's me. Something's got a hold of my leg and is dragging me along.
Glancing down sets me yelling. A gator has my right ankle in its jaws as it pulls me down to the river. A small one as alligators go and probably why he hasn't dug himself a hole in the mud to hibernate. I guess he's planning to stick me under a log until I rot and tenderize a little more. But I ain't planning to end up in his stomach. Not when I might still be conscious all the way through digestion.
I twist and latch onto a nearby tree. I'm so slick with mud that sheer strength and bloody minded stubbornness are all that keep me clinging on.
My resistance earns me a growling from the gator, and he yanks all the harder on my foot until I can hear my joints popping as they threaten to snap. He shakes his head, hoping to break my hold, and my damn fingers slip. I feel things parting in my ankle. Shit, I can't afford to lose my foot. I let go of the tree but I kick him in the head with my free leg, hard enough that he lets go. Most gators wouldn't give up a meal so lightly, but I hit a damn site too forceful to be classed as easy. He growls and goes for another bite, but my next kick breaks his jaw. Bleeding, several teeth missing, he scuttles away into the river, more than his pride hurt. I sit and stare until the ripples he made smooth out into stillness. Then I check the damage.
His teeth have gone deep, leaving a pretty pattern and some of my flesh torn. I don't have nothing to patch it up, and I don't much care. I've lost Annabelle. I should have just let the gator take me.

A YA Zombie Novella
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Back in Print! #YA #paranormal #zombies

Mission Success!

The zombies are coming! This week it's all about my undead friends as Restless In Peaceville releases in print (my first paperback since Keir went offline last July, and my first ever with Lycaon Press), while I completed line edits on Zombie Girl: Dead Awakened on Monday and put it up on Goodreads HERE.

And although Restless didn't officially release until today, I got my lovely shiny author copies last Friday. So pretty! I tell you, however much I've loved having so many titles out in digital, there's a real buzz to opening a box full of your print books and holding one in your hand for the first time.

Why so many? Well, two are destined for my eldest's school libraries. One for my local library and one for my local indie bookstore. One signed copy for the Goodreads giveaway running this month. The rest will be going to BristolCon with me in September.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Restless In Peaceville

by Pippa Jay

Giveaway ends February 28, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

In the meantime you can check out the tour HERE. If zombies are your thing, you can also sign up to my newsletter to get an early look at the cover for Zombie Girl HERE, while the reveal will officially be the 25th February.

So, my current titles are not very SFR, are they? Zombie Girl has been making me think hard about its classification. As part one of a trilogy, it isn't a romance in itself - despite a HFN, the story is not romantic. But the trilogy overallwill be a YA dystopian romance, since the romantic arc takes place across the three stories. For now, ZG is yet another non-SFR title for me, and while not a paranormal like Restless, it is, at least, definitely scifi/futuristic.

All my titles, both my current and my upcoming releases, are now on Goodreads. Which means, what's next? Well, I hope to release two more Keir books, a novella in the Venus Ascendant shared universe, and a winter SFR short. But those all depend on finances and how busy my editor is. I also need to finish the two ZG stories, want to write a sequel to my superhero romance When Dark Falls (which will need to be 50K minimum to pass Breathless Press new submission requirements), and currently have two short stories in progress for two separate anthologies. So after Keir releases at the beginning of May (fingers crossed as I'm struggling hard with chapter 12 right now), I hope to spend the rest of the year just writing. Ah, what bliss!

Events

Tethered was mentioned at The Galaxy Express as an example of a diverse book! I'm wondering if this might explain Tethered's sudden rise to #1 bestseller in Cyber at Breathless Press (their scifi romance line) and is alternating with Wicked Satyr Nights at #9 on the site's overall bestsellers. Woot! I think this is the first time I've hit a best seller list since Gethyon earned a silver star on Omnilit while on pre-order. This weekend also saw a sudden jump in downloads on KU for all three of my short stories. I'd love to know what sparked that off, but I'll settle for being extremely happy for a little success there! I also got more good news last night. I'm a winner in the 2014 Judge A Book By Its Cover Contest, sponsored by Houston Bay Area RWA! When Dark Falls placed Third in the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Paranormal category. Woot! Kudos to my cover designer Victoria Miller at Breathless Press (although I'm sad my other three covers didn't place).

Still to come: the launch of both Laurie A Green's and Donna L Frelick's debut SFR novels! Both have been giving you a little insight into their characters here at Spaefreighters Lounge, and having read a draft of Laurie's, I can guarantee you a good read there. Eleven days to go!

Have you been checking out the fun mini interviews as part of SFR Month at Anna Hackett's blog? Go check them out HERE.

Pippa's Journal - How The New Things Are

So, last week I told you about all the things I'm trying out this month as part of the all new marketing me. Here's a little update on what I'm doing and how it's going.

1. Putting my short stories into KU. The first problem with this is removing my books from other retailers. While Smashwords and All Romance eBooks are simply a matter of going in and clicking Unpublish or Inactivate, there's a slight issue. Remember how B&N can take such a long time to put UP a book? Yeah, it isn't much quicker taking them down either. Smashwords said 1-3 weeks before my books could come down from all the third party retailers it distributes to. So that meant it could be almost February before I could go for KU. I could be missing out on sales from some of the retailers while I wait for the others to remove it (since my sales anywhere other than Amazon have been zero, this isn't a BIG issue but you never know. I might have got a sudden sales rush on one of the other venues). If I'd thought to check this previously, I'd have removed them at the start of December. Hindsight is a wonderful thing! Anyhow, turns out I needn't have worried. It took less than a week for my books to come down from the third party retailers, and I've already enrolled them in KU. Progress report to come!

2. The book launch workshop. I have to say my first couple of days on this were disheartening. We had to take a creativity and personality test, then do a list of our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to promoting. Not only did I get below average on the creativity test, but as regards the personality test I already know I'm an ISTJ. The important bit there is the I for introvert. Putting myself in front of people is probably my biggest challenge, and one that I often shy away from. The internet has been wonderful for allowing me to network and communicate without setting off my need to withdraw, but it still holds me back and I can't bring myself to push past it. So it's a huge weakness that tends to outweigh everything else for me.

However, I'm hoping to benefit from other details on the course. Certainly the suggestions for organizing the tour and looking at various options for promotion are helping. An awful lot of it seems to depend on having money for swag, giveaways and paid advertising, though, which are where I just don't have the budget. One suggestion was to do smaller giveaways, working up to an ereader. Say what?! I'm lucky if I can pay out for the sale price Vistaprint business cards for a title. Plus I'm not sold on the idea of complicated giveaway contests. I have a hard enough time giving books away in return for comments, so I can't really see anyone following me across a dozen blogs playing wordsearch for one. However, I got slapped by a friend/fan who said it was down to one of my giveaways last year that she found me, so I guess they *do* work. You just can't expect a return on the cost.

Our teacher generously donated us a virtual $1000 budget to use for our outgoings and incomes for our prospective book launch, but I based it instead on my real life budget (determined by upcoming royalty payments). I'm lucky that for Keir I essentially have very few production costs, but that's an exception. Overall I'm finding the course beneficial, even if it's just the act of being made to get my act together better!

3. I've managed to pare my reading list down. After sorting my books into collection, instead of 340+ I found myself with 191 unread actual books (others were reference books, dictionaries, cookery books and how to books that I don't count as 'reading' books, plus several I thought I hadn't read but actually had). Since Christmas I've read five novellas, one novel, and two short stories. A good start for the New Year!

4. I'm currently experimenting on changed keywords with Tales from the SFR Brigade on Amazon. There has been an uptick in downloads, but I'm not putting that down to the changes yet. I'll see how it goes until the end of March, then compare it to last year's figures.

5. I said that part of my aim for the relaunch of Keir was to ask for reviews, something I was hesitant about. I've been surprisingly flattered at the number of people who volunteered to read and review, or to repost their previous review. I'm currently waiting for news from my original publisher about removing the out-of-date print edition of Keir still listed on Amazon. This will, of course, mean I lose the reviews currently there, but I'm confident of replacing them. I had to email Amazon about removing it and their response was that the original publisher must take it down - there's no option to merge it with my own publication because I don't 'own' that version despite having my rights back. As usual, Amazon have been less than helpful, while my old publisher is doing their best to fix the situation.

6. Reading up on marketing. Right now I'm not doing so well on this. New articles keep turning up in my inbox, so I need to make a more determined effort to read these, or at least start reading some of them even when I go back to a more normal routine. However, since I've been getting advice from others and I'm working on the relaunch for Keir, I don't yet consider myself a total fail on this. :P I did read this article of improving your email subscription list here.

7. Writing. Following a tweet about setting yourself realistic goals, I decided to go for a very modest challenge of 250 words a day. Doesn't sound much, does it? Especially as someone who would regularly crank out over 1K during a bi-weekly word war on Twitter. But I need to set myself something easy around the greater challenges I'm taking on. And even at that rate, it should give me 91K in a year. I only managed 65K in 2014, so it's still an upgrade wordwise. And who knows, maybe I'll manage a NaNoWriMo this year.

This is not part of my goals for the year, but some things have happened this week that will effect what I'm doing. Last week my publisher announced some changes, including moving from giving ebooks priority to making the print releases the primary focus. This is pretty exciting. While I love ebooks and make good use of my ereader, I'm still a print girl. There's nothing quite like holding a paperback of your own book. So, not only will I have print of Restless in February and Tethered in March, but I now have a tentative date of 30th June for the print release of When Dark Falls. Woo hoo! This means at least three print editions to take to BristolCon in September instead of just ebook download cards.

They've also made their minimum word count for submissions 50K. Wow! That's quite high, especially since I've been struggling to get over the 40K mark in the last year. I have Zombie Girl coming out in April - a YA dystopia short that I wrote specifically because they'd asked for YA shorts. So the announcement made me think that the planned trilogy I had in mind wouldn't be happening. Turns out that, because book one is contracted, they're committed to the trilogy. It just won't be coming out as seperate ebooks. It'll be ONE PRINT BOOK! ^_^

So my schedule is currently:
February - print release of Restless In Peaceville
March - print release of Tethered
April - digital release of Zombie Girl 1
May - re-release of Keir
June - print release of When Dark Falls
Add to that I'm currently working on two short stories for two separate anthologies, due in the end of March and April, plus I have the two Zombie Girl shorts to finish AND I want to put out two more Keir stories, plus another VA series novella, PLUS write a sequel for When Dark Falls that now needs to be over 50K... *spontaneously combusts* Nothing like setting yourself a challenge, right?

How are your New Year goals/resolutions going?

News
Last Friday I was surprised and delighted to learn that When Dark Falls came joint 4th in Best Steampunk Novels in the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll. Woot! Thanks to those who voted. My wonderful editor Danielle Fine also came in the top ten finishers for Best Editor, and very well deserved that is too.

Events

Next week is the cover reveal for Keir! I'm so excited to show this to you, and to be closer to relaunching my series. Keir was my first book baby, and I'm so pleased to be bringing him back. Even more so to finally be able to give you the entire series!



Ping Pong

Congrats to Laurie on the early release of her debut! Woot! Now I don't get to hog all the novel page to myself. :P And today she has her cover and title reveal for her SFR novel and series over on the Brigade blog HERE.

Another Milestone in the Path of Publication - Pippa's Journal

Here at Spacefreighters Lounge, we not only talk about our paths to publication, but also the highs and lows of being published. The good and bad reviews, getting that agent or contract or award, piracy, author meltdowns, submission calls and publishers going out of business etc. It's a twisty, turny, never-ending road, up to the point where you finally decide to leave it or pass on to the great Library in the Sky (or whatever your beliefs are). And while this particular milestone  isn't exactly one to celebrate, it's a significant one and it comes with a silver lining.

Keir is now out of print. I checked my Amazon page last Wednesday evening to find the final print edition produced by my publisher had sold. To the best of my knowledge, this was the last official copy other than those few second hand ones being offered by other sellers (and no doubt by various pirate sites that have it, grr). And yes, I'm sad. I didn't expect it to happen so soon with my debut novel - my first born. When my publisher announced their sale to another bigger publisher at the start of the year, it was only one of several lows both in my publishing and private life. Choosing NOT to sign the new contract was one of the hardest decisions I've made, and since then I've been fighting to get Keir back out. I've had to admit defeat, for various reasons - most of them good. New contracts and releases with new publishers mean I've been kept very busy, and have more than made up for being one title down (even though I wish it hadn't been Keir).

The upside? It means once Keir is re-released, the decks have been cleared. I don't know how long a book listing stays up on Amazon once the book is out of print. Maybe forever? Obviously the new book will have a new ISBN/ASIN as it won't be with the same publisher. I'll essentially have to start all over again with reviews. But it'll also have a new cover, a new blurb, and an updated and re-edited interior. What's even better is that now *I* have control of the book...and the series. Oh, yes. Keir was meant to be book one of five, but it was never marketed as that, and the sequel was never picked up. Now I can release them all, have the covers match and put on the series number. That kind of makes up for all the trauma of it coming down.

So yes, while I may feel a pang of regret at seeing that last copy go, there's a sense of freedom. It's a fresh start for Keir. And while I have to apologize for the delay, at least I can say you'll be getting all five books now. Keir will re-release next year, and I plan to release the sequel too, and hopefully a side story set between the two. Book three should be 2016. There's always a bright side to what might seem like bad news.

Happenings

Restless In Peaceville is on tour! My zombies are shuffling around the internet, and there's a suitably zombified giveaway to match. Check out the schedule HERE.

I'm in the process of editing the paranormal romance short I'm self publishing in October. I've just completed content edits on the futuristic UF short No Angel for release in December from Breathless Press. I'm also still waiting to do a cover reveal for When Dark Falls, my alternate 1920s superhero romance, due out in November. So still three releases to go before the end of the year. I'm not panicking, honest. >.<

Ping Pong

While I spare a moment of thought for the demise of one title amidst the chaos of edits and releases, two of my fellow bloggers on Spacefreighters Lounge are suffering pre-release nerves and hopefully much excitement at the upcoming launch of their publishing debuts. Congrats to Donna and Laurie on their soon-to-be-published status! (and a big sigh of relief that I'll no longer feel like I'm hogging the sidebar!). With Sharon also now multi-published (how many now, Sharon?), give us another year and we'll need a whole bookshelf of our own!

Landmarks - Pippa's Journal

The 17th of August 2009 is a date engraved on my memory. It's the day I sat down at my computer with a short story to hand, some new music, and a desperate need to rediscover myself as I began work on a rough draft that eventually became Keir and the now renamed sequel Keir's Fall. Yeah, I know the exact day I started it. Seems kind of surreal now, five years down the line. Back then I felt I'd lost my identity, and that I'd gone slightly insane. Once I'd started writing, I couldn't stop. Six weeks of nonstop scribbling and typing convinced my husband I really *had* gone crazy. I suppose I had in a way. I was definitely on another planet...

 

But now I can look back and shake my head. In the midst of that craziness, I found myself and rediscovered my passion - writing! Now I'm a multi-published author with my eighth title releasing TODAY! How awesome is that?! Five years ago it was enough to simply be writing again, let alone imagine that I might be published. Weird.

 

So if you're thinking that it can't be done, I'm telling you it CAN. I've done it. All you need to remember is - Never give up, never surrender!

Mission Success

Restless In Peaceville

 

Restless In Peaceville releases today. Woo hoo! Title number eight, and my first paranormal release. My first zombie story too. Definitely wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me I'd have something like this coming out. No, sir. You can check out the tour schedule HERE, and I'm kicking off with a post about why the heck I wrote zombies at the lovely Karen Y Bynum's blog HERE, and a book spotlight HERE. The official tour kicks off on the 1st September with a suitably zombie-themed giveaway. Bwahahaa!In the meantime my tour for Tethered is still running, and you have a couple more days to win a shiny thing HERE.

Amazon has enabled pre-orders for indies! Frankly, it's about time too. With Smashwords and ARe already offering this long before Amazon, it felt as if once more the Zon were denying indies the same rights as other publishers. Some authors are saying this isn't necessarily a good thing, but I for one am relieved. When self publishing, it'll make my life a lot easier being able to upload and set titles in advance rather than having to do it on or just before the day I want something to go live.

On the subject of self publishing, there's a post of interesting tips from a recent RWA event that you might find useful HERE. I didn't know about the series landing page for one thing.

I've seen Guardians of the Galaxy twice, and would happily go again! I know Donna's review found it lacking that essential something, but for me it ticked all the boxes. Reluctant hero makes good, interesting characters, great spaceships and planets, a strong storyline with a satisfying ending yet potential for sequels continuing character development...yep, very happy. And if you haven't seen the dancing baby Groot - go check it out NOW!

In the meantime, I have just two more weeks with my monsters home before I can really get back to work. There are edits and covers and releases to come, oh my! Here's my schedule as it currently stands -

Restless In Peaceville releases 20th August
Tethered tour ends 23rd August
Restless tour begins 1st September
Complete and submit YA dystopia short Zombie Girl
Cover Reveal for When Dark Falls TBA
Edits for No Angel and a paranormal short
Paranormal short releases 1st October, tour 8th-31st
BristolCon 25th October
When Dark Falls releases November
No Angel releases December

Keir, Keir's Fall and a side story set between the two are on my list for 2015, plus a novella in the Venus Ascendant collection, two holiday-themed SFR shorts, and completing a novel-length sequel to Imprint, my SFR short in Tales from the SFR Brigade anthology. However, I also have sequels to Tethered, RIP, When Dark Falls AND Zombie Girl in mind. Book three in the series for Keir is down for 2016.

Funny to think that when I started the submission process with Keir I was afraid of running out of ideas... O.o