An excerpt from ‘Lichgates’, a YA epic fantasy by S.M.Boyce
Today we have an excerpt from S. M. Boyce’s Lichgates, the first in the epic fantasy Grimoire Trilogy. With a unique blend of action, lifelike characters, and breathtaking imagery, Lichgates will keep you riveted and turning page after page to the heart-pumping finale. On S.M’s blog today, she has an exerpt from ‘You Can’t Shatter Me.” I hope you can pop over there and have a read. Synopsis for Lichgates (Grimoire Trilogy #1): The Grimoire turns its own pages and can answer any question asked of it, and Kara Magari is its next target. Kara has no idea what she’s getting herself into when she stumbles across the old book while hiking a hidden trail. Once she opens it, she’s thrown into Ourea: a beautiful world full of terrifying things that all want the Grimoire’s secrets. Everyone in this new world is trying to find her, and most want to…
A different kind of book trailer
We all know what the usual sort of book trailer looks like (see the second video below for an example) but here’s a different kind of thing. It’s the really soft sell, aimed to grab people’s attention with humour. Why am I posting this as part of the Celebration of Indie Excellence? Because I just put it together, think it’s really cute and figure you would enjoy it. Also because perhaps it symbolised the kind of creativity that Indies authors represent. The video is just for fun. I’m not really expecting it to sell books. It’s shot in my garden, using the animals that live there in the staring roles. I’m the voice-over. I hope you enjoy it. It’s 1 minute and 20 seconds. Here’s the revamped traditional style trailer for You CAn’t Shatter Me. This one is 1 minute. Do you like them? If so, could you pop over…
A Novella with a Heart – interview
For our Celebration of Indie Excellence today, author Juliet Madison is hosting an interview with me about my book. You can read it on her blog here. Juliet Madison is a writer of humorous and heart-warming women’s fiction, embracing life, love, and magical new beginnings. She lives on the south coast of NSW, Australia, (close to me) where she works from home and homeschools her son. Juliet has written several short stories and three full length manuscripts, which you can read about here. She has a blog where she shares author interviews, competitions, and marketing tips for authors, and can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
What is Magical realism?
My young adult novel You Can’t Shatter Me is magical realism, and all my fiction has magical realism elements, in particular The Prunella Smith books . But what does that mean exactly? What is magical realism? Here’s what Wikapedia says about it. “Magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction [1] in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the “real” and the “fantastic” in the same stream of thought. It is a film, literary and visual art genre.” The question this raises is how is it different to fantasy? Magical realism is set in the real world. Fantasy is set in a fantasy world. Even in urban fantasy, the witches, fairies, vampires and so on that populate the world make it not the real world as we know it. The real difference lies…
The Best Beta Readers are the Most Critical
When you ask someone to read your work, I suggest that you take the attitude that their criticisms will help you to make your book better. You should look forward to their criticism and understand that the harsher they seem, the better your book will be when you have fixed the problems. It’s better to have the criticism before it’s published than afterwards when it’s too late to fix it. This is why the best beta readers are the most critical and I always tell mine to be very critical and not to feel that they will hurt my feelings. Here are my suggestions for the kind of things you can ask them to look at. If you lose interest, please stop reading & I’ll send you a revised edition later. Tell me where I lost you. In general, does the story/plot work? Is there anywhere where it wanders or…
Hunger Games – the good, the bad and the ugly.
The book The good Suzanne Collins is a brilliant writer. It’s an extemely well-crafted novel. I cannot fault it on technical grounds, the plot was a bit relentless for my personal taste, but if you’re into young adult dystopian then it’s a must-read. Click on the image above to get your kindle version. The bad It had me so full of adrenaline that I couldn’t sleep until I finished the book – I tried and failed. It’s set in a really horrible, cruel world, one I do not want to spend time in, especially when I can’t sleep. The ugly It’s about teenagers fighting to the death. I found this deeply disturbing. The Movie The good It was over in two hours, so I could sleep that night. It was well cast, well acted, well costumed and probably as good a rendition of the book as anyone could make. The…