Day: December 7, 2012

Video Trailer: Crimson & Cream

Crimson and Cream Crimson & Cream recounts an unlucky orphan boy’s adventurous tale of flight and discovery as he unravels his tortured past while securing his tenuous future. The murder of Eadriel and Elvar’s parents forfeited their birthright and sent them fleeing for their lives. The fugitive twin brothers were adopted by an underground orphan gang. During a risky foray, a sentry chased the twin intruders into an unfamiliar cavern. Lost underground, they encounter a strange beast that changes their lives forever, and starts a harrowing journey for survival.

Crimson & Cream by C.M. Skiera is available on Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other online booksellers.

My Journey to the Center of CreateSpace

398px-'Journey_to_the_Center_of_the_Earth'_by_Édouard_Riou_24Last weekend, I formatted my new novel for CreateSpace in MS Word, and survived mostly unscathed. This is my story.

First, I did the easy part: formatting the book for Smashwords and Kindle. But then – oh, then. Then I had to dust off my high school yearbook staffer hat, and tackle the paperback.

When formatting for print, you have to think in terms of two-page spreads. Your even-numbered pages will be on the left, and your odd-numbered pages will be on your right. That means you want your title page, your dedication (if you have one), the first page of your table of contents, and page 1 of your story all to be right-hand pages. You will need to insert blank pages to make this work. So: Title page, copyright page, dedication page, blank page, Table of Contents. If your ToC is an even number of pages, you’re good; if it’s an odd number of pages, insert another blank page. Then put in a “next page section break.” Continue reading “My Journey to the Center of CreateSpace”

Congrats to Flash Fiction Winner Jacqueline Hopkins

Our flash fiction champ this week is Jacqueline Hopkins. Congratulations to Jacqueline, and thanks to everyone who participated – excellent entries!

The winning entry is rewarded with a special feature here today and a place in our collection of winners which will be published as an e-book at year end.

Without further ado, here’s the winning entry: Continue reading “Congrats to Flash Fiction Winner Jacqueline Hopkins”

A Pantser’s morning monologue upon sitting down to write.

Oh…gawd.

What the Aytch-Eee-Double Hockey Stick am I doing here? I mean here in the middle of this book? Did I not have a plan when I started this? What has been going on for the last ten chapters, and why-oh-why do I have all these characters off in different places doing different things? For the love of Virginia Woolf, every narrative is supposed to have a central trunk from which all the other stuff branches out – I swear somebody told me that in a class at some point – and all I have here is a thorn bush!

Hey, a squirrel out the window. Look at him go… Continue reading “A Pantser’s morning monologue upon sitting down to write.”