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Monthly Archives: January 2013

The official cover art and other interesting news.

26 Jan

bonnies story ebook cover 400x600

Yes, here it is! The official cover for Bonnie’s Story: A Blonde’s guide to Mathematics. And how wonderful does it look? Huge thanks to Dean Harkness for his fabulous work. I wanted something in this style, due to my liking of said style, after seeing it used on the covers of some of my favourite author’s books. Does that make sense? Hope so. Anyway, I got it. Yay!

And with the cover done and officially out there for all to see, more fun and exciting things are happening. Not only will my eBook be appearing on Goodreads and other online ‘booky places’ soon, but we will really be getting into publicity events and putting Bonnie’s Story out there for people to see. If you are a book reviewer, and would be interested in giving my eBook the once over before its official launch, please contact Hague Publishing and discuss with them.

In other fantastic news, not only does it look like I will get a Launch for Bonnie’s Story at Adelaide’s Writer’s Week, but my local (and much loved) library, the Mount Barker Community Library, has offered themselves as a venue to the official eBook is released on June 15th! Call it a Local Launch maybe? As a supporter of all things local, and a lover of the Adelaide Hills and its glorious community, I am very honoured to be given the opportunity to have a launch in my ‘home’.

The official flyers cum invites are also now being finalised with the hopes I can start distributing them soon. They are for the Launch ‘do’ during Writer’s Week and, as it’s nearly a month away, I am getting a little nervous about it all. Very exciting.

Okay, well, that’s enough enthusiastic waffling from me for now. I just wanted to show off the gorgeous cover and pass on my latest bit of news. Once we have more things finalised, I will once again be posting here.

Have fun until then!

Janis.

 
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Posted by on January 26, 2013 in Writing

 

Any day now… honest!

23 Jan

Not being very good at building suspense, please don’t feel this is a sad attempt to do so, as it’s honestly not.

I just felt like blogging and so here I am. I received the Proof Reader and Publisher massive edit of Bonnie’s Story, pouted a bit at it being nearly 700 words shorter than I thought it had been last time I saw it, and then had a general whinge on online social media at all the red (and blue as they’d both been ruthless) changes.

Still, I knuckled down, spent my weekend ignoring the kids, yelling at the husband to take the kids away so I could ignore them better, and really just went through it all. Thankfully most of it was punctuation changes. I seem to never get my commas in the right place. And, strangely, I seem to have a blind spot for the word ‘that’ and tend to leave it out a bit.

Then there was all the standardising of how things were said. Was it red haired or red-haired? Cow pat, cow-pat or cowpat? Was the dog Mr Doodles, Mr Doodle, or did I really still want the dog? I stood my ground on a few things and removed them from being removed, but generally went with the flow and do hope it makes for a better read. You’ll never know, but at least all your cowpats and red-heads should look in order. 😉

So, Saturday I read it and dealt with all the changes. That night I started re-reading the first 50,000 words I’ve written on my new MS tentatively called Isis, Vampire and Ghosts – Oh My! and then went back to Bonnie’s Story on the Sunday. I found it interesting to chop and change between the two as they’re both written in first person, and yet I’ve done my damnedest to make the heroines as dissimilar as I can. Hopefully Stephanie will turn out just as interesting, but not identical, to Bonnie. I have, however, discovered that in all my stories (these two and Grey currently being reviewed by Hague Publishing) my characters do tend to snort and roll their eyes a lot. I am told it is a trait they have picked up from their creator. As well as the tendency to tell people to go bite them… Oops?

Monday morning, I bid Bonnie’s Story a fond farewell and hoped I wouldn’t be seeing her to be edited again. I could seriously just keep picking at it and changing it forever. But I’ve put my pens down and handed it in at the front of the class and hope it’s all acceptable.

Adding to the total lack of suspense this blog post provides – I have seen the near finished covered and it’s brilliant! Now, I know you think I’m going to say that no matter what as it’s my book cover. But, you know what? I’d give this book a look from its cover, even if I’d not written it. It’s all down to Dean Harkness and his ability to turn my whims, wishes and ideas into basically what I wanted. Woo hoo!

The other important things I’ve done to for my soon to be finished book is I chose the vignettes (can also be known as those curly things you put under the chapter number to make it stand out), wrote an ‘About the author’ that was so very cringe worthy, and did the dedication. All I will say on the dedication is it is to one person only… and if I’ve not contacted you about it, it’s not you. Surprise!

And to put all my family and friends at ease, or worry them more as the case may be, I do hope there will be more books and I will do my best to squeeze in a dedication to you there. Just be nice, as not all dedications have to be. 😉

Okay, so that’s this week’s update. I should find out on the weekend how badly my response to the editing actually was and then move forward from there.

Enjoy and have fun until next time!

Janis.

 
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Posted by on January 23, 2013 in Writing

 

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New year – New Update to Bonnie’s Story.

11 Jan

Hello again everyone,

So, while we’re still awaiting the big Launch book party for Bonnie’s Story on March 2nd at the SA Writer’s Centre, what exactly am I doing?

What’s that? You had no idea I was having a Launch of the eBook? Well, I am. Basically, during Adelaide’s Writer’s Week this year, I’ve been lucky enough to get the opportunity to show off Bonnie’s Story. However, as the eBook isn’t actually out until June this year, I’ve been a little creative in getting it Launched in March. I simply couldn’t miss the chance at being part of the Writer’s Week festival, rather than just a spectator. So! If you want to come along to an evening of me discussing Bonnie’s Story, do let me know. Alternatively, you can RSVP to: contact@haguepublishing.com.

What else? Last week I sent back my response to the first edit of Bonnie’s Story. There weren’t as many red corrections as expected, which was good. Now just awaiting the Official Proof Reader’s verdict, as well as the fine tooth comb edit my Publisher has given Bonnie’s Story to see if I need to make any more changes. Meaning, there could still be red corrections to come. Oh no!

What else has been happening? Have you seen my Author’s profile is up at Hague Publishing’s website? If not, you can check it out here.

And we are near the completion of the cover art to Bonnie’s Story by the very talented Dean Harkness. I am in awe of how he has cleverly taken my obscure suggestions and instructions and re-created the image I had of the cover in my mind. It may not be exactly the same, but it is so darn close it’s scary how clever he is. Once the cover art is completed and ready to be shared, never fear – it’ll be posted here!

Once I have that glorious cover art completed, I will be using it to post an official invite to my Launch for one and all here on my blog. I can’t promise chocolate at the Launch, but I can assure you’ll get information on how to be one of the first people to be able to buy a copy of Bonnie’s Story.

Do you like the re-decorating I’ve been doing to the blog? Why the chocolate theme? Well, there is an underlying theme of chocolate throughout Bonnie’s Story that, as a confirmed chocoholic connoisseur, I felt should be shared. The only problem I have with it is, if I spend too much time working on my blog, I get a desperately huge craving for the fancy choccies on display. Damn!

So, that’s you updated. Excited? As I am! Not long now until it’s all happening. Time to go brush up on reading in public I think.

Janis.

 
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Posted by on January 11, 2013 in Writing