Old Blog Posts

 Hello, everyone! I'm starting a blog that is specifically related to reading and writing. 

I have a lot of material spread over many different websites, and this blog will help to keep and organize the information in one place.

I've transfered several articles from other sites onto this blog. They come from three major places:

Atypically Ordinary: This is a personal blog that I've kept on and off for many years. I've moved the articles that have to do with writing, poetry, and stories in general onto this blog. They're all on here under the tag "from atypicallyordinary blog".

The Spectra Books bonus material: This is a collection of short stories, background information, and sneak peeks.They were originally published on the spectra books website, but will now appear here instead, with the tag "from spectrabook's bonus material".

The Spectra Books monthly newsletter: These include book recommendations, personal stories and explinations, and more. If you'd like to receive these, including announcments and deals not found on this blog, you can find a sign up on my website, www.TheSpectraBooks.com

Moving forward, this blog will continue to include writing articles, short stories, and everything else represented by the original sources, as well as some original content.

Thanks for stopping by.

Book Recommendations, September 2021

 I was sick this month, which meant... lots of reading time!

Here's a few books that I've read, enjoyed, and reviewed this month:

Retold of Old series by G. Lawrence: Basically a feminist take on fairy tales, sprinkled with wisdom. Though there is exciting action, these are books to be savored instead of binged.

Gingerbread Hag Mystery by KA Miltimore: I enjoyed the quirky characters in this cozy mystery with a bit of paranormal and a girl-girl romance. It has a good message for everyone no matter your idealogy. The main character was an older woman with lots of sense.

The Marquess Meets His Match by Julie Coulter Bellon:

I loved the mix of regency romance and mystery. It has the feel-good romance, as well as an exciting mystery.

A Timeless Romance Anthology: California Dreamin': 

I have to admit, as a California girl from a small desert town, I was hoping for a little more representation. My state is not all beaches and big cities. But that doesn't take away from the stories. I was looking for a light, feel-good story, and this collection delivered

Manor for Sale, Baron Included by Esther Hatch:
This book had me laughing so much that my husband thought I was having a coughing fit. I tried to read them out loud and couldn't get the words out through my laughter (they involved an inept flirter gifting a girl a dead squirrel). Jonathan certainly needed to grow up in the beginning, but that added to the hilarity and made his arc that much better

Fathom by LL Standage: An excellent urban fantasy with mermaids. Exciting action, relatable characters, fantastic worldbuilding. The information comes out little by little, waiting just long enough for me to want it before revealing. What's not to love?

If you'd like my recommendations spread over the month, you can follow my reviews on twitter under the hastag #CVPReviews.

Manny's art

 Here is a journal entry from Norma (one of the main characters of DreamRovers) about an artist who really knew what he was doing:

 

April 16, Year of Freedom 491 

My friend Manny and I solved the problem with the traitor, Natt. 

Oh, not the problem about how to punish him, because he got away. We don’t really have good jail places that would keep a dreamrover in. He disappeared one of the very first nights. But not fast enough, because I brought my friends to look at him before he escaped, including my friend Manny. 

See, Manny’s a dreamrover, but not strong enough to tread. He’s got a different ability instead. Like my brother can speak with animals. Manny is super good at drawing. Not just that his drawings look good, although they do, but if he sees something, he can draw it perfectly from memory. It’s not that uncommon an ability—I met quite a few artist-types when we lived in Shelby. Still cool, though. And in this case, it came in handy. See, there are so many people here now that not everyone recognizes Natt on sight, so he can sneak around and spy on them without anyone knowing who he is. But not now that we have a really good picture of him! We can show everyone. 

All About Covers

 

I've always been interested in art. As I was writing my first book in 2015, I drew some basic pictures of my characters... (That's Sienna, Keita, Carli and Zuri from Keita's Wings, by the way).  So I decided to try designing my own cover when I began looking at publishing my first book. Cringe with me, please.

Yikes! Thankfully my publishing people insisted on going to a professional. The cover I paid for was much better looking than my attempts. However, I'm not sure that their professional was up on his YA fantasy. It's a beautiful cover, but doesn't quite reflect the genre. One of the great things about being an indie author, though, is that I can expiriment and change things over time. I used this cover as a rough template for the others in the series. Later I figured out how to add things to make it look more fantastic. Luckily I had all the rights to this cover, so I could legally play with it as needed. Here's what I have now:

Conventional wisdom says that you should never design your own covers unless you are a professional graphic designer. But I'm a stubborn independant author for a reason. I've been making all of my own covers ever since, and learning as I went. Until now. Recently, I bit the bullet and hired an expert to redo the DreamRovers trilogy covers. I have to admit that the new ones are beautiful. Here's the before and after. Reply to this email or contact me on social media (TheSpectraBooks on most sites) and let me know what you think!

Book Recommendations, August 2021

 Here's a few books that I've read, enjoyed, and reviewed this month:

The First Girl Child: Excellent quality of writing and realistic struggles define this fantasy novel about a kingdom where only boys are born.

The Rise of Kyoshi: A fun addition to the Avatar: The Last Airbender world. It's a bit darker than the cartoon but well worth reading.

Kid Authors: True Tales of Childhood from Famous Writers: A fun collection of stories about famous authors before they were famous.

Life in the Pit: A contemporary young adult story about a girl playing in the pit orchestra and often feeling overlooked--even when the main lead starts paying her attention.

A Shard of Glass: I've enjoyed this series of fairytale retellings that mixes a fantasy world in with the story. It's what I'm planning to do with The Spectra Crowns, so I had a good excuse to get into this fun series.

Magic of Nasci: I didn't mean to binge-read this whole series in one day, but here we are. It's an excellent urban fantasy that mixes the Pacific Northwest with a hint of Japanese culture, with exciting action, a heroine who's both relatable and full of attitude, and all sorts of magical creautres.

If you'd like my recommendations spread over the month, you can follow my reviews on twitter under the hastag #CVPReviews.

My history with audiobooks

 

I have to admit, I'm not big on audiobooks, but there was one time that they were a large part of my life: family road trips. My siblings and I would beg for "The Storm Testament" (abridged to be appropriate for families). I first experienced "The Life of Pi" in audio, joining in the adventures of a boy and his tiger. I traveled through the past in "Tennis Shoes among the Nephites". My mother and I listened to a delightful scandinavian narrator read "Fire of the Covenant" as we drove through Salt Lake City. (Yes, most of these are religious fiction from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  Now one of my books is out in audio!

I've had a great experience working with my narrator, Talon David. She does some amazing accents for the fantasy characters. We've been working on this project for about three months, and I'm delighted to present the results to you now.  For those too busy to read, or who prefer to listen while doing some other task, or those trying to find a measure of peace while crammed into a car with many other listeners, I hope you enjoy Mira's Griffin in audio.

Sneak Peek:

In honor of the audiobook release of Mira's Griffin, the sneak peek this week will be in audio:

Our Audiobook Story, So Far

 My first audiobook is coming out soon! I've had people ask about the process, so here's a quick sum up about our journey so far:

I decided to try making an audiobook for my standalone book, Mira's Griffin. I figured I would test the waters, if you will, with a standalone before I committed to a whole series.

First, I used acx, which is amazon's audiobook branch. I chose a sample from my book that included dialogue from most of my characters, especially the ones with accents and that needed special effects (mind-to-mind speech, in this case). I put it up for audition. ACX asked me to provide the age, gender, accent, and style of the narration I'd like, and showed my book to those. Two people auditioned within the first week or so. I chose the best one, Talon David, and we exchanged some messages, making sure that we got along and could work well together, before I made it official. 

I chose royalty share for our payment option, which means that the royalties we earn are split 50/50 between the two of us. You can pay a narrator outright, but it will cost many hundreds of dollars, so you'll have to be certain that you can sell enough books to cover the cost. And, of course, you can do it yourself, if you have the equipment and are willing to learn how.

I, as the author, was in charge of setting a date. I looked at my publishing schedule and sent Talon a large range, asking when she thought would be best (communication with your narrator is super important). She told me how long she thought it would take, I added on a couple weeks just in case, and we were ready to go. I sent her a pronunciation guide for some of the words and names unique to my fantasy world. 

While she was recording, I did the cover. I made my own cover for Mira's Griffin, so it was pretty easy to adapt it to audiobook. The cover for audiobooks needs to be a perfect square, and they require that the bottom right corner be left without important information in case they want to stick promotional information there. 

After she submitted, I listened to the whole thing and wrote down a few things that needed to be changed, and sent it back. It's really cool to hear the story come together--and it's also important to remember that it's not going to sound exactly like me, and that's okay.

I put my book up for audition on May 3, 2021, and right now it's being reviewed by acx. It should be available for purchase sometime near the end of the month, so all in all, it took about 3 months. It's been a great experience so far. We'll see how it goes!