Saturday 21 February 2015

E-Book Giveaway

Angela Stevens is doing a giveaway of ten e-books to a lucky winner and a few other prizes in celebration of 300 likes on Facebook.

The giveaway runs from 21st of Feb until the 28th.




You can enter and find out more by checking out her page here at http://www.angelastevens.net/journal/

Monday 9 February 2015

Hold On by Angela Stevens



The second book in the Vargr series brings a better, more drawn out conclusion as to what happened at the end of book 1.
Join Tore and the clan as they come to terms with the events of the first book. Tore having fed the wrong wolf, has to sort himself out before he can be there for his family. We follow Vargr children as they venture into adulthood. They encounter a few surprises as they learn to fend for themselves. Especially Eveline, a very strong female character that I suspect will continue to pull the family back together.
Readers can experience anger, suspense, joy, disgust, frustration, surprise, sadness and excitement, all in one chapter! So hold on and I recommend you fasten some sort of emotional seat belt.

Part two in the emotional Vargr Clan Trilogy. After the tragic events of 1997, Tore Vargr is consumed by hatred and despair. As he battles once more with the two wolves within him, he is in danger of losing everything he holds dear. 

Hold on to what is good, 
Even if it’s a handful of earth 


Hold on to what you believe, 
Even if it’s a tree that stands by itself. 


Hold on to what you must do, 
Even if it’s a long way from here. 


Hold on to your life, 
Even if it’s easier to let go. 


Hold on to my hand, 
Even if someday, I’ll be gone away from you. 


Pueblo Prayer



It’s the second act in the wonderful series and I can’t wait for the third to become available. I’m curious to see what other surprises Angela has in store for us.

You can grab your copy here at Amazon.

And here is Angela's website. http://www.angelastevens.net/

Sunday 18 January 2015

The Wolf You Feed


A book you can’t put down.



While I read this story on Wattpad, I missed reading the ending. I recently had the pleasure in finishing the beaut story in paperback form. My choice of reading novels.
The story follows the life of Tore and his struggles with life. We join him as he grows from a puppy love sick fool into a father who struggles to keep his family safe.

Angela has constructed an interesting very descriptive world of Lycans and shapeshifters following the saying of a Cherokee proverb.

There is a battle of two wolves inside us all. 

One is evil: it is anger, envy, greed, arrogance, jealousy, resentment, lies. 
The other is good: it is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, truth. 
The wolf that wins? 
The one you feed. 


The proverb really hit the nail on the head with her main character Tore. I admire how much research she put into the story, especially my favourite part of the book. The traditional Hopi wedding.


The intriguing story keeps you on the edge of your seat and wanting more. I have to admit. I was a little disappointed in the ending. I wanted to know more after the tragic story. That is why it is a series and I can’t wait to get a hold of the next book in whichever format!

You can find a copy of this awesome indie author book at http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Feed-Vargr-Clan-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00PCBFGBU

And you can find out more about the wonderful Anglea Stevens at http://www.angelastevens.net/

Friday 2 January 2015

Searching for Ideas

Intro


Last year, a group of of fellow Wattpad authors and I wrote some helpful articles for a magazine called Heroes Insider Weekly by WPAvengers.
There is some great information in the magazine for writers. You can check it out here. I think most of us became to busy to keep posting. But there is still a fair few chapters to take a squiz at.

I've decided to post my contribution here for other aspiring authors to find.

I spend my writing time thinking about what else I should be doing, checking links to see if anything has sold, liked or commented and voted on. And yes. I Google myself.
Some of the time I surf the web looking for great sites to improve my writing or just plain old research which has given me an extensive list of great websites that have helped me become a better writer, or I hope so.

I'll be posting them up week by week. If you find the information useful you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or this blog for updates. I've also created a board for these links on Pinterest for fast links.

Searching for Ideas


I've come across a few sites that are good for producing ideas like plot, characters and setting. There is so many so I'm just going to list my favourites here and tell you a bit about them.

First, the plot.


Where do you start? I start with any idea pulled out of my strange existence and start writing. But what happens if you can't think of something to get started on or you become stuck halfway through and need a little bit more inspiration.

There is a few sites I’ve found that generate ideas for you. The few that seem to make some sense when generated are http://www.springhole.net/ and http://www.seventhsanctum.com
Both use a formula to create a plot idea. Springhole has more generators which lead on to character descriptions and their backgrounds, world building, names, other creature characters, items, outfits, location, settings and many more explorable categories.
Even if you have you're own ideas. These sites are still fun to look through and play with. After a few tries you can see the pattern the generator uses. If you can't find one suitable to your writing. Why not try to make your own with their formula.

Another way gain access to ideas or where to look for them is the Writers Digest site. There is currently a promotion going for their newsletter. If you sign up, you receive a free copy of Writers Prompt Boot Camp. I don't recommend signing up with an email you don't want to be spammed. Writers Digest send sometimes 3 e-mails a day! But, some of those newsletters are interesting to read and the site can help with other writing related help. There are many free and paid books available for download or if you prefer paperback, them too!

Characters


Generators can be used with characters as I mentioned above. But I like to write down a little bit more about my creations, not just hair colour, age and height.
Character sheets are good for these. I've filled out a few and here are the links some good ones out there.

Like to print out sheets and write down who your character is? I know I do! I print these out and place them all into books or up on the wall for later reference. Yes, I find myself saying, crap. What was her name again? Simple, I should know them! But I don't.

This site I found is great for building characters. Design your characters through a huge list of questions and also find links to a massive amount of information on how to build your characters and make them realistic to your story line. There is even links to help name them through baby naming sites and others. I could go on! There is so many great links within this site.

Setting and descriptions.


I love creation software. I'm not going to give you the names of my favourite software for drawing up things because it cost way too much. There are great sites and free software out there that will do the same job.

To get a visual on things I design my own maps, buildings and worlds. Here are a few great sites for doing these.

This site is another random generator and worth a look. Not only for setting ideas. But plot too. It attracted me to the site while writing my own science fiction story. This site helped me design a planet. It can be much more than that. There is even a dungeon and inn generator for those fantasy stories and also full star systems. It not high tech, some are just descriptions, but we writers can deal with that =D

Best free program I found for drawing maps is AutoRealm
The download can be found at http://sourceforge.net/projects/autorealm/
Its pretty simple to use. If you can use paint, you can use this program. It had a great range of pens and objects to insert into the drawing.
All most anything you want in a story can be found within the program and it draws all kind of maps from bedrooms to countries. The maps can be basic drawings to the real map drawings with the contour lines and everything. Hours of fun to be had!
Using this program, you'll have your own Game of Thrones map in no time!

Prefer to draw up you one with a pencil? Gimp is another program that can take your artwork and create a digital image. Its not so user friendly as paint, and the first time I used it I couldn't even work out how to draw a line. There are many tutorials online to help out with anything you might have in mind.
If you use Photoshop, it's a great free alternative, and once mastered it can create some spectacular images.

Another favourite site to use is Google Earth. It provides real maps that you can print off and draw over if you have the ink and paper. The downloadable program even allows you to draw and make notes on the satellite images. So if you have a story in this world during this time. Look into that one!

That is for this week. Next time I'm moving on to some awesome sites to write with!




Thursday 25 December 2014

Dragon Tails Promotion.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Dragon Tails Part 1 is now available on Amazon in both paperback and eBook.


Skeat and her dragon, Tarlan wanted nothing more than to graduate and become officers in the Dragon Glider Air Force. 


During their first high flying mission they are attacked by the notorious terrorist, Kieetah and his dragon, Itchum. Soon their dreams are crushed and they find themselves trapped on a planet called Earth after chasing the renegade Glider through an ancient portal. 


Their only way home is to defeat Kieetah with the help of Neil, a human orphaned by Itchum’s attack who seeks revenge on the reptilian race. 


How can the trio bring Kieetah and Itchum to justice before they tear both worlds apart?

Over Christmas and New Year holidays I'm giving away the eBook on Kindle/Amazon.


If you liked the story, please support it by giving it a review on Amazon. As an indie author, it would be really helpful.

Thursday 6 November 2014

NaNoWriMo 2014

November has come around again.


NaNoWrimo is here. 

Sixth day in and where is my word count? 4773. Yet I’m meant to be hitting 10’000 by tonight. I don’t think it’s going to happen.

The rules are to write a 50’000 word novel/novelette in a month. A new story.

I have that many unfinished stories that I’ve joined the rebels and writing the endings for two stories. Dragon Tails Part Two and Stained White. Both stories have blown out of their original word count. I expected them both to be about 30’000 words. Well, Dragon Tails is about 80’000, not finished! Stained White may still come in under the original count. But not going to bet on it.

So next year you might be able to read about the conclusion of Skeat and Tarlan’s adventures. Maybe even find out who Lisha really is and how join her as her memory returns. The plot in now getting very exciting over on Wattpad. If you haven’t yet read the story. Go check it out.


Am I including this word count? Hell yes! 186 words. Thank you very much.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Lemon Drops and Love by Angela Stevens




For years, Jude loved Maya from afar. When she falls into his arms at his sister’s wedding, Jude decides he’s waited long enough. But it’s complicated. Maya’s no longer the carefree, self-assured woman he once knew. Frightened, vulnerable, her confidence crushed, Maya is unable to see a way out of an abusive relationship. But Jude Holland is not going to stand back and watch this happen. After rescuing her from Carl’s clutches, he plans to stay and pick up the pieces, but he didn't bank on Carl's unwillingness to let go.

Check out Angela's website for more great stories!