#13Treats - Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Book Giveaway

It's Friday the 13th!
Some might be leery of this day, but I'm particularly fond of the number 13. It's lucky in my eyes! And I hope to make it lucky for you too.

Fantasy Book Giveaways is trying something new. We want readers to Trick or Tweet for books. The rules are simple. Go to the site and browse through all the great reads up for grabs. Each author will have provided a tweet you can copy and paste. Tweet as many as you like, and at the end of the event, the authors will randomly choose winners.

I'm picking five winners for my dark urban fantasy, Of Blood and Sorrow.

You can make up your own tweet if you'd like. It must have my twitter name and the hashtag #13Treats in it. Here is my premade tweet for you to copy and paste:
 I want to win Of Blood and Sorrow by @CRainsWriter for #13Treats! Trick or Tweet for books with @paranormlcandy's big Twitter #giveaway

As extra incentive to tweet for my novel, I'm currently working on the sequel to Of Blood and Sorrow. The next two books in the trilogy will be out next year!

I want everyone to get a treat. So for five days only, I'm offering Ghost Dancer (The Paramours #1) for free! It's a ghost story with much more woo than boo.

Good luck!

Exclusive excerpt from True Shifter (Totem #9)

I love October, and all the fun things that come with it. As a treat for you today, I have an exclusive excerpt from True Shifter (Totem #9) at Boundless Book Reviews. They're celebrating this month with the Boundless October Book Fest. Check it out for more awesome reads to add to your TBR list.

#IWSG for October 2017 - Show Us Your Writer Insecurity!

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is the brilliant idea of Alex J. Cavanaugh. The purpose of the group is to share doubts and insecurities and to encourage one another. Please visit the other participants and share your support. A kind word goes a long way.

This month's awesome co-hosts are: Olga Godim, Chemist Ken, Jennifer Hawes, and Tamara Narayan!

Show us your writer insecurity!

 Are you proud to be an insecure writer?

Then show us!

Post a photo of yourself (or your alter ego) with any of the IWSG swag or with the IWSG logo. Then leave a comment that day at either the IWSG website’s post or the IWSG Facebook post directing us to your photo. (All blog, Facebook, Goodreads, and newsletter members welcome, but photo must be posted on a blog or Facebook to qualify.) There are awesome prizes involved! Check out the IWSG site for a complete list.

Here's this insecure writer!

Like any good insecure writer, I'm trying to hide behind my cat. Just a few seconds before the picture was taken, he was playing happily with the IWSG keychain. There he just looks annoyed.

This month's optional question: Have you ever slipped any of your personal information into your characters, either by accident or on purpose?

Yes, especially into my geeky characters. I take bits from my past and slip them in now and again too. It does help to write what you know, after all. Adding in the real bits with the stuff we make up creates better characters.


We're also celebrating the release of the newest IWSG free anthology: Writing For Profit!

From writing to publishing to marketing, the Insecure Writer's Support Group members provide tips on making money as a writer. This guide represents the spirit of the IWSG - to encourage and support writers everywhere! It is our hope that this book will benefit you as a writer, no matter where you are in the journey.

Get your free copy here: Amazon * B&N * Kobo * Smashwords




Don’t forget the deadline for the annual IWSG Anthology Contest is November 1st. This year's genre is mystery with the theme of "Tick Tock."

We're always excited to celebrate good news with our IWSG members. Email me at christinerains [dot] writer @ gmail [dot] com with your news, and I'll include in the next newsletter.

Spirits in the Water is here!

A haunted journey on a riverboat, water sprites borne of pennies, preternatural creatures, ancient serpents, and the Lady of the Lake lurk in dark waters. Raging storms and magical rainbow fountains. Water is spectacularly beautiful but also treacherous.

 Buy the book: Amazon | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo | Nook | Smashwords

This is the fourth and final book in the awesome Elements of Untethered Realms series. We're so excited about this release. Check out more details on the blog, and the first book, Twisted Earths, is free!

Word Witch Wednesday - balancing formula and originality

This is a battle I've been thinking a lot about lately. Readers want familiarity. Give them their favorite types of genre books with the same formula. Readers also want originality. Something they've never seen before. Giving readers both? It can be done, but it's tough.

Formula - Most publishers will have a sheet on what you're supposed to have in a book in a given genre. For example, paranormal romance (PNR) requires a dual point of view from the heroine and hero, minimum 80% (with some publishers it's 90%) of the plot must have the hero and heroine together, the male must be an alpha, the heroine must kick butt, the key to the climax must hinge on their romance, and it must have a happily ever after or a happily for now ending.

With the formula, I feel like I'm reading the same two or three books over and over again. It's not enjoyable. Every now and then, I'll come across something different within the formula and it will rekindle my love for the genre. But as a reader, the formula is ruining my enjoyment of PNR.

It just isn't in this one genre. I've heard the same complaint about other genres, especially young adult (YA) and romance. The thing is these three genres I've mentioned are the best selling genres in the market.

Originality - Many publishers will not take a chance on a book that isn't written to their formula. Thank goodness for self-publishing! It is in indie books that I see more original tales. Yet sometimes I feel as if these stories are lacking something or wondering what the heck was that!

Making it in the indie world is hard work. Yet there is a lot of fabulous original material out there. Why aren't they selling better? Because readers want the comfort of the formula... while complaining they want something new.

 

The trick is then to give them both. But how?

 

I don't have the secret to that. I can only share what I've been doing. With formula, you can easily Google story structure for any genre and find hundreds of links. If you're aiming for a particular publisher, be certain you know what they want.

Here are some tips for adding originality into the formula:

- stick to the standard main plot but write twisty subplots

- choose a little known mythology to base your story on

- twist the clichés of your genre (e.g. the heroine isn't an orphan but a well loved daughter in a big family)

- have something familiar combined with something new (e.g. a greedy dragon stealing treasure from castles is really a scaly Robin Hood)

- write one main character off trope be it the hero, the love interest, the sidekick, or villain

How do you feel about formula writing? Do you have any tips to add to help make a story original?

#13Treats - Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Twitter Giveaway Signups

Attention paranormal romance and urban fantasy authors!

Fantasy Book Giveaways is trying out something new for our big October event. We're going to have people trick or tweet for a chance to win books! #13Treats is a Twitter giveaway which is fast, easy, and fun. It is a free event with the possibility of reaching thousands more eyes than newsletters alone.

Sign up here.

The event starts on Friday the 13th. If you know me, I can assure you it's a lucky number!

Word Witch Wednesday - a bunch of tips for making writing life easier

It's been a while since I've done a writing update. I've been busy working on the first draft of Of Gods and Sorrow, the sequel to Of Blood and Sorrow. It feels fantastic to get back into the world and to be writing a novel again. When I write novellas, I keep everything tight and concise. I don't allow myself to wander. With novels, I feel less constrained.

Writing tip #1: When working on your first draft, don't be afraid to ramble on. Don't let your inner editor chain you down. Anything you don't want can be cut later. You might find you like some of those longer descriptions and extended scenes.

My writing has slowed recently. I've found I can't stare at the screen as long or I'll get headaches. When my critique partners and betas send me their manuscripts, I wondered why they always have their documents zoomed in at like 120% or 150%. I stubbornly put them back to 100% every time. My stubborn self was wrong. Now as I'm writing, I zoom in to 120%, and I get less eye strain and no more headaches.

Writing tip #2: Zooming in with documents does help ease eye strain. It's also important to take regular breaks from the computer and rest your eyes doing something else. Keeping well hydrated will help as well. And those bathroom breaks resulting from that can count as resting your eyes!

Putting your butt in the chair and your hands on the keyboard does get you writing. Yet it doesn't help you get up when you need to later. My body get stiff if I'm lost in my worlds for too long. I'm not as young as I once was.

Writing tip #3: Stretch. I'm not going to tell you to go out and exercise, but stretching your muscles will not only take away your stiffness, it will help the blood get flowing to your beautifully creative mind. I take about 30 to 40 minutes every day just before lunch to stretch and use my little hand weights. It wakes up my body and my afternoon writing session benefits from it.

Writing tip #4: That time as I'm stretching is the only time during my writing work day that I allow myself to turn on the TV or a podcast. Eliminating distractions like that while I'm writing allows me to better concentrate. Plus, it makes for a good motivator to do the stretching if I have a show recorded I want to watch. (Con Man aired on SyFy Channel this past Saturday night. I'm watching that this week as I stretch! Mmm, Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion.)

My writing life changes with each story and every new year. I'm excited to see where it will take me next.

Do you have any writing life tips to share? I'd love to hear them.

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An IWSG reminder:

Be sure when you leave a comment, your profile leads back to your blog. If it links to Google+, make sure you have your blog listed in your ‘About’ section. We encountered a lot of comments that we could not return because that person’s gravatar was not linked to a blog. And since some people comment with a name but it’s their blog name on the IWSG list, that makes it extra challenging. If you’d like your link title modified or changed on the IWSG list, we have set up a IWSG Google Document where you can request that change.

Plus the Show Your Writer Insecurity Contest is October 4, so get those photos ready!

Don't forget we're always excited to celebrate good news with our IWSG members. Email me at christinerains [dot] writer @ gmail [dot] com with your news, and I'll include in the next newsletter.