It's WCW!!! My goal for this week was small. With 3 days until the release of my first officially published novel, I'm a little busy planning release parties, games, giveaways, and costumes. Something you will not want to miss. As for my wordcount for the week my goal was 2,500. I can usually crack that out in a day, but oh boy, have I mentioned how busy I've been? lol So busy. So what's my actual wordcount? .... *drumroll please*..... 3,247!!! Now starting next week I will be posting pictures of my word counts. Today though, I'm just going to celebrate my wonderful tiny achievement. *Party over here, Party over there!* So what I'm learning this week as a brand new, almost published author: It's hard to find the time to write! In between release parties, deadlines, social network marketing, planning and organizing events and signings, and least I forget, REAL LIFE as well. Which for me consists of a Flock of 4 children, A husband, a workout schedule, end of the year field trips (I swear they saved them all up for the last month of school), and volunteer work. Along with hikes that were pre-planned, races I already paid for (since I'm apparently a masochist who hates running so why not pay someone money so I can be miserable for a few hours of my day), among other events and today two trips to the hospital. lol The thing is I could quit writing for a while, I could put it aside and say, "right now I don't have time." I wont though. Any more than I'll stop hiking, or hobbling through races, and not just because I'm a masochist. It's because every night when I sleep, I dream of new book ideas. Every day when I'm in the shower I think of new book ideas. Every 90 min drive to the hospital and back, I think of new book ideas. Every time I'm tortoising my way through a 5k I drift off to think of book ideas so I don't focus on the bone splitting pain in my feet and shins. Writing is who I am, it's what I do even when my hands are far from a keyboard or pen. Even without the extra hours in a day that I desperately need, I will keep on writing. I am writer- hear me type! On to more celebrating!!
While I celebrate my WCW win for the week, I will be doing more great planning for the release party. So if you haven't already, click that super fun button above, head on over to facebook and sign up for the Illuminous release party this Saturday. There will be games and prizes and you'll get to meet a handful of other great authors! You and I both know you'll already be checking fb periodically anyways, why not have some fun and prizes! Speaking of prizes my Publishing house and their imprints are having a huge giveaway, if you purchase Illuminous you can enter for a chance to win a Kindle Fire and a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Check out my Author page on Facebook to find all the rules on how to enter.
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HONORABLE MENTION BOOK #1: RITE OF ANNARII BY A. MASLO As I have said, I do not do book reviews, but something I am doing is a series of honorable mentions on my blog. These consist only of books I'm currently reading and only in the YA genre. First in this series is A. Maslo's YA Fantasy novel Rite of Annarii. *I had the pleasure of re-reading Rite of Annarii the other day as it's release was May 12th. I found the story of Fellwynne intriguing. I was curious to find out what happened next. The foreshadowing was light and unlike many novels I could not accurately guess what was to come. The history of The Stones was pleasantly reminiscent of the ultimate Fairy fantasy every little girl has. It was an adventure I would love to be a part of. The story seemed to end so suddenly, I definitely cant wait for the next installment. Which is why Rite of Annarii gets to be my very first Book Siren Honorable Mention. WINNER! ***** If you would like to join in on the adventure, be sure to purchase Rite of Annarii on Amazon: A. Maslo is also with Bella Tulip Publishing and Feather Dreams Press. As such our imprint is having a HUGE giveaway you do not want to miss out on. If you purchase both Rite of Annarii and my novel ILLUMINOUS before June 30th 2017 you can enter to win. Click on the picture below for details. Then you can click the button below that to pre-order ILLUMINOUS. MORE ABOUT A. MASLO: A. Maslo is a multifaceted author with many more projects and novels to come. One being The Unremembered, a fractured fairytales anthology. To learn more about A. Maslo the author you can check out this blog interview at My Books - My World (a blog I happen to love!) which you can find by clicking the link below or going to mybooks-myworld.com **RITE OF ANNARII HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR BEST BOOK BY INKS AND SCRATCHES FOR THE SPRING BLUSH BOOK AWARDS 2017**
So quick! Go read Rite of Annarii, then head on over to Inks and Scratches on Facebook and vote for Rite of Annarii to win!! You can click on the picture below to vote! Happy Word Count Wednesday and Flash Fiction Friday! I'm shaking things up for my very first WCW and FFF. I figure I made the rules, I can break them. Yesterday I was busy so I didn't post my Word Count Wednesday, and tomorrow I'm doing a post to support another writer so I wont be able to do Flash Fiction Friday so I am doing them both today! So welcome to Mix Things Up Thursday! WORD COUNT WEDNESDAY: For the week of 5/2/2017- 5/9/2017 my word count was a 11,274. My goal for the week was 17,500. Although I didn't reach it I will be working even harder this next week! I'm going to be dedicating an entire post to word counts and why they are important for my process. FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: Flash fiction. It is fiction that is extremely brief, generally a few hundred words or less. I have read some incredibly talented flash fiction (Go, Alicia Abrams!) and some incredibly terrible flash fiction, also known as my own. Ha! Its embarrassing how awful it is, but I'm going to be posting it here anyways. Why? Because I can. So here it is, Flash Fiction Friday #1 Breathless
Everything was liquid around me. Nothing had form or meaning, my hair floated around my face in the blackness. I knew I must have drown. I remembered how the nighttime stars had looked as I’d fallen off the boat into the ocean. I remembered being pulled under, the salt burning my eyes. Struggling until I couldn’t anymore, and I remember the blackness, it hurt more than the heaving of my lungs. I didn’t notice my eyes were closed until they opened. How long had I been down here? I couldn’t feel time passing. Shafts of light break through the darkness around me shining onto a colorful sandy world below. If there was any doubt before of my death, it left me as I saw her. There was a girl down there, far out of reach walking along the bottom of the sea. It was as if she was out for a leisurely stroll. She didn’t sway in the current. White hair danced in the water behind her as she walked. I was mesmerized, certain she must be an angel. She kept walking, slowly getting further away. I wanted to call out to the spectral, my voice wouldn’t come to me. As if she sensed my presence, she turned suddenly. She looks right at me, her eyes glowing a brilliant blue in the dim light. She smiles, shiny white fangs flash. Gills flare out methodically. Alarmed I shudder against her alien features until her hand reaches out to me beckoning me. Finding my legs they begin to move propelling my body towards this amazing creature. Before I can get near her something heavy locks around my waist yanking me backwards away from my goal. I panic struggling against whatever has caught me. I sense something large pulling on me. It feels familiar, but my brain won’t stop to question, I just want to reach the girl. Her arm is still reaching out for me, calling me home. As if sensing my desperation, the thing pulls on me faster, yanking me upward further and further. She becomes a spec within seconds. Cold air shocks me out of my desperation. My body’s functions take over as I try to take in a breath of the icy air, coughing and sputtering. Lights are all around me, brightening up the night. I hear a whistle blowing in the wind. The person who yanked me out of the water begins talking to me. The pain in my chest and the salty burn in my nose assaults me. All of the water is exsanguinated from my lungs. I ignore the pain and ignore the cacophony of voices yelling. Was that all real? I struggle more, releasing just enough to plunge my face back into the water, closer than before two blue orbs watch me. The kindness washed from her face she bares her pointed teeth. A clawed hand now swipes at me. As swiftly as I entered I am snatched out of the water again and heaved onto a raft. Everyone around me speaks at once, asking me questions and moving me. I cannot find my voice to warn them of the two glowing orbs rising faster and faster towards the surface. The End This past week I went on vacation to the Bahamas. I was amazing, of course. A wonderful way to spend the first week of May. *Kisses my suntan that will inevitably fade back to stark white in a matter of weeks* Now I'm back and along with being well rested and a little burnt I have a lot of catching up to do. It really is hard to miss a few days with a book release coming up. So here's a bit of advice for those looking to publish, schedule big vacations after your release. Probably long after. Haha! It's crazy how much you can miss in just a few short days when you have an awesome team of people behind the scenes working hard to keep things speeding along. *Warm and Fuzzies to all of you at BTP and FDP* On to my great news..... ARCS are now available for ILLUMINOUS!! *Throws Confetti!* This is so exciting to me. My book is now an ARC! Its a thing! This is one of many milestones every author gets to go through and now I've hit it and its just super cool. So if you're interested in doing a review whether on your blog or otherwise for Illuminous and would like to request an ARC you can email one of two ways, just click one of these two buttons and send your request there: Now, not to sound like a cheesy salesperson, but- THATS NOT ALL! *waves cheesy salesperson banner* Bella Tulip Publishing, and their imprints are running a Giveaway from now through JUNE 30th! This is something you really don't want to miss. There's well over $150 worth of prizes going out. So, let me tell you how to enter: If you purchase ILLUMINOUS, before June 30th, (along with one other Bella Tulip imprint), you can enter to win one of these cool prizes: * Kindle Fire * $20 Amazon gift card * Mystery box of goodies worth $150 * Five ebooks * Or one of three $5 gift cards Do not miss out on this. I'm tempted to enter myself haha! I love giveaways. For full details on how to enter and a list of other imprints you can check out, just All of the information is pinned at the top of my Author page. Enjoy!!!
Wooo! I got a great vacation, and came home to ARCs, giveaways, and much more in the near future. Not to mention there's only 11 days until ILLUMINOUS RELEASES!!! It's getting real up in here people ha! If you need me I'll be bouncing off the walls for the next few hours...*cough*.... days keeping my countdown going. So go soak up some lovely May sunshine and don't forget to keep Illuminating May by hash tagging #IlluminateMay wherever you go and post all the things you love about May so we can continue to spread May cheer! IT'S MAY! I love May! May has always been my favorite month, and now there's even more to love about May... 19 days until Illuminous releases! There's more though, so much more. May will always hold a special place in my heart. It gets warmer, finally. Our rain soaked Pacific Northwest dries up a bit. Hiking season starts for the seasonal hikers up here, so I see a friendly face now and again on some of the more well known trails. Flowers are in bloom all over. Mother's day- always a plus. It's my Father's birthday this month, he's pretty amazing and deserves to be celebrated. Finally, 12 years ago this month I married my person! Guess what day our anniversary is? May 20th, the same day as my release. I didn't choose it, but I think it's great. I will be celebrating twice as hard this year. *Yay!* Not only does Illuminous release this month, but Feather Dreams Press is releasing another great novel by an amazing author. Rite of Annarii by author A. Maslo releases May 12th! You can pre-order by clicking the button below. There is so much to love about May! I want to spread May cheer all over, and illuminate the great things about this wonderful month. So if you want to, share your favorite things about May, here or anywhere on social media using #SpreadMayCheer or #IlluminateMay !!
Happy May Day All! So I did a thing... recently got introduced to the wonderful world of book trailers! And then... I made a trailer for my book!
I recently learned book trailers even existed. Why is this not a thing for every book? I love it! Maybe it's because I'm such a sucker for a good movie preview, but book trailers seem like a great idea. I would have an even longer TBR pile if there were trailers for all books, so maybe it is a good thing there isn't. For ILLUMINOUS, though there is! And you can watch it, for those that haven't already, by clicking that pretty grey button up there. For those that are curious, what does it take to make a book trailer? For me: * 3 days of backwards planning * Signing up to a video editing site just to realize I didn't need to * Getting onto said editing site the correct way, just to learn I need photos to make a video * Scouring through photos * Scouring through music * Figure out how to describe your entire book in 4-6 slides * Remind self not to try to be funny * Forget and try to be funny * Edit, edit, edit, remove any remnants of personal humor *Make first video too short, and try again *Debate over which of the two, almost exact videos are better *Ask for opinions only to realize I already know which one I want after I ask, resulting in me agonizing over the idea that someone will choose the wrong one, then get offended when I don't use it *Start posting video I like before they answer (Sorry friends!) *Done! For every other author it's probably easier so don't be discouraged. I just make sure to make everything more dramatic than it need be. Ha! So there was my fun adventure into the writing world for the last three days! I hope you enjoy the book trailer! I'm getting published! I'm getting published! *Yay!* *Happy dance* *balloons and confetti* ... Oh wait... this is actually a lot of work.... Early this month I signed with Feather Dreams Press of Bella Tulip Publishing! *Yay again!* Finally my lifelong goal is here! It is my dream come true, and my book hasn't even released yet. It's everything I wanted since a tinier version of myself wrote her first stories and thought "This is awesome". It is also not easy. Maybe it's just me. Everyday I give myself a list of things to do, everyday the list is longer. So what can I tell you about publishing that hasn't been said before? I can tell you- I don't know a thing! I thought I knew. I spent the last... however many years of my life, reading blogs, books, and joining groups about writing and publishing. I've sent queries, and got my very own collection of interesting rejections. I put in the time, did the work, and I learned there's so much more to this than I realized. And I LOVE it! I wanted this blog to be about my journey through the writing world and that's all it is. I'm keeping it simple. I cannot claim to have any answers for any new writers out there. I am no expert on being an author, or publishing, or marketing so as of now there's not much I can say about that. There's much to be said, though, about working for something, getting everything you wanted, and then some! Even if that means a lot more work and a learning curve that leaves you feeling like a dunce some days. Life is about these moments. The moments where the hard work pays off, just to get more hard work to do. So all of you with goals that seem impossible, keep going. Keep working. You can always make more goals as you go along. Simply getting what you want isn't always what you need or what you thought it would be. But I've learned something as an avid hiker and weightlifter, getting what you work for... that's magic.
For now my goal is to keep learning and keep checking items off of all of my lists. Today's blog post just got checked off, whoop! Even though learning for me means asking a lot of questions and fumbling through my first attempts. I will get there though and when I do you had better believe I will be sharing what I learn if it means helping someone else in my position in the future. So to all of the poor souls I message with questions and cries for help, *cough* Alicia & Rebecca *cough*, I'm sorry! I'm probably going to keep doing it. I'll send you all e-flowers. To all of the sunshine I'll miss being parked in a chair inside, I'm thinking of you and watching you like a creeper from afar. To all of the writers out there dreaming of someday, make today your first day of someday! Write on! I'm going to start out by introducing myself and letting you know what to expect to see here on my blog. I'm Yolanda Allard, also known as The Book Siren on many a' website over the past decade or so. I did have another blog on blogspot a few years back, also called The Book Siren's Grotto. What can I say, I know what I like, and who I am. As for me, Yolanda Allard the person; I'm just a fun-loving adventurous Mermaid who writes. Any thing I like I pursue with fangirl like obsession.
So that's me! I like sparkles, daisies and anything magical. I hunt for Wisps at night in the woods when I'm not writing. I'm friendly, quirky, and I love all manner of beings. So whether you're a fellow Mermaid, any manner of Fey, Unicorn, Wizard, Beasty, Adventure enthusiast, shut in bookworm, or *gasp* even human you are all welcome here!
Now let me explain some of what you can look forward to finding here. I believe blogs are like us, always changing and growing. They're living things that sometimes have a mind of their own. So to an extent I'm keeping mine open to change as changes are needed. For now what you'll find is me just describing my journey with writing, being an author, and going through the maze that is the publishing world. I did recently get picked up by a Publisher *YAY!*, I signed with Feather Dreams Press of Bella Tulip Publishing. My debut novel, ILLUMINOUS comes out next month. *EEK!* I will be talking about all manner of what's going on with me, my writing, and my journey as an Author. This Grotto will be full of all things bookishly me. I will however, from time to time, talk about other authors, books, covers, and whatnot. I'm not going to be reviewing books. Let me say it again for those in the back: **IM NOT REVIEWING BOOKS** SORRY! My TBR pile is ever growing, thanks in part to my friend Kelsey *Hi Kelsey!*, who keeps introducing me to amazing new books. So no reviews from me. I don't have time. What I will have is honorable mentions from time to time or I'll talk about stories I am willingly reading. I'm an ever developing fan of new stories and I must share. I will also have giveaways, prizes, and links to free books if they fit in with this blog. You wont find any links to free ebooks about erotica, thrillers, or detective stories, ect. I like thrillers and detective stories, but they're not my genre here. For the other Writers and Authors, I will have Word Count Wednesdays. It's something a friend of mine and I started doing years back to be accountable for our writing. I'll post my weekly word count here every Wednesday. I encourage anyone who wants to join, to do so. There may be something in it for those with the highest word counts. Ill post the rules and such when it comes to that. Flash-Fiction Fridays! On Fridays we write flash fiction. Here's the thing, I suck at it. I don't like writing it, but I enjoy reading it and I'm determined to get better at it. So I'll post a small Flash Fiction piece every Friday for you all to read. Eye bleach can be found in your nearest e-store. Book Cover Lovers! Every once in a while I will feature my newest favorite book cover. I love book covers! It will be at random, but I will scour books I see, pluck a cover from either the best selling shelves or obscurity and feature it here for everyone to bask in its amazing-ness. Why? Because I can. So that's it. In between blog posts about how my writing and author life is going, I'll have contests, drawings, giveaways, shout-outs, and fun themed days of the week! I wont even make anyone lift weights with me to win either... or will I? I hope you all enjoy! |
Yolanda AllardInternational Bestselling and award-winning quirky author of numerous fantasy, and paranormal novels, novellas, & anthologies. Archives
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