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A Lonely Magic

05 Thursday Sep 2019

Posted by wyndes in A Lonely Magic, Self-publishing

≈ 11 Comments

I think that I am finally done with my revision of A Lonely Magic. Well, or almost done. Before I post it, I’d love to have a few careful readers take a look and make sure I haven’t introduced a bunch of typos. Or really, any typos at all. If you’re interested, reply in the comments or send me an email.

This wasn’t supposed to be a major revision — it was going to be little tweaks, here and there, with one big but still minor change. But of course once you’re in the file… well, I just kept playing. It’s still much the same book. If I had a document comparison tool, it would be interesting to look at the first published version side by side with this version to see how many words I really did change — not many, I suspect, given how much time I put into it. But I made it slightly more YA-friendly. Still with plenty of swear words, though.

The big change was eliminating Theresa, the bookstore owner. She was originally important because Fen’s journey was going to take her back to her starting place. Maybe Fen’s journey still will take her back to her starting place eventually, but I suspect that by the time she gets there, Theresa will have been long since forgotten. Eliminating her also tightened the beginning & made Fen more active — she’s not pushed into accepting Kaio’s help, she chooses to go with him in order to stay alive.

Along with the revision, I have a new cover. When I hired the designer, I sent her a PDF showing all the previous covers, including the ones that I never wound up using. There were nine of them. Nine! That didn’t include minor variations — that was nine totally different covers. Along the way, I worked with six different cover designers (if I can count myself as one of those designers, which I am going to.) So this cover is the tenth cover and the seventh designer. I’m hoping those will be lucky numbers.

Book cover for A Lonely Magic with a girl surrounded by waves, and a blue phoenix pattern behind the title. Very blue.
I call this the princess Fen cover.

Revising A Lonely Magic is the kind of quixotic act that a traditional publisher would never go for — sales of the book just don’t justify it. So is writing a sequel, actually. I haven’t done the math recently, but between the professional editor I hired, all those covers, and the marketing I did when I released the first version… well, I’m pretty sure I broke even. But a new cover and many days spent revising were impractical at best. That’s okay, I love the new cover. And I love the revision, too. Let me know if you want an early look at it.

Bad File Management & A Lonely Magic

26 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by wyndes in A Lonely Magic, A Precarious Magic, Cover design, Self-publishing, WIP

≈ 15 Comments

I started work on A Precarious Balance, sequel to A Lonely Magic, last week. I didn’t get very far, partially because I kept getting distracted by Grace, but also because I was flailing a bit. I’ve got lots of notes, and there were things I’d already written that I wanted to re-use, so I compiled everything into a Scrivener file and got started. But as I tried to write, I was having a tough time finding Fen’s voice.

I finally decided two days ago that I needed to re-read the book again and refresh my memory on all the details, not just the ones that I’d put into my notes.

I didn’t like it.

That was a weird experience. I don’t always like what I’ve written (understatement, yes), but I LOVED writing A Lonely Magic. It was so much fun and I liked being in Fen’s head so much, and her adventures were so surprising, and such a beautiful blend of things I enjoy, science and adventure and fantasy and romance. But four years later, I’m re-reading and I didn’t like her at all. She’s bland and a little whiny and annoying.

And then, at about the halfway mark, I read the line, “Her own reputation had been shot to hell even before she dropped out and she hadn’t given fuck one.” and the “fuck” was startlingly out-of-place. It wasn’t the first time she’d used the word, but it was pretty close. And I realized that the version I was reading — which was in Vellum, which is the software I use to create ebooks — was the version I had once-upon-a-time tried to delete all the swear words from.

I wrote about it at the time. I was tired of getting negative reviews about Fen’s swearing so I tried to edit it into a “clean” version, and I realized partway through that Fen’s cursing is part of her, that it didn’t work to clean up her language, and I stopped. It REALLY doesn’t work to clean up Fen’s language. She goes from a character who is internally tough, a fighter despite her relative level of helplessness, to a… well, leaf in the wind.

In the hotel room scene, Swearing-Fen is stuck because she’s considered her options and she can’t find a way out but you know that she’s still fighting, even if it’s only in her head. (She never swears aloud in that scene, it’s all in her inner dialogue.) In the same scene, Clean-Fen is stuck and she’s passive and helpless about it. She’s going along with what other people are deciding for her future because she’s got no choice. Losing her inner obscenities takes her from edgy and angry to blandly accepting. She is not an interesting character to me when she’s being bland.

Largely, I think, that’s a good realization to have. I can’t write a book with Clean Fen. She is not someone I want to spend the next six months with. But it was not at all a happy realization to discover that the version in Vellum was the bland version. That means that the one available online is also the bland version. I know that because I only have one Vellum file and it has the latest cover. But oh, what a screw-up. I suppose it doesn’t matter terribly if I publish another version online, but these were non-trivial edits. They changed the flavor of the story. I don’t even know how long that’s the version that’s been available. Sigh.

The good news, I guess, is that it doesn’t really sell much — 100 copies in the past 12 months — so not many readers are going to know or care. Yay for being an unsuccessful author, I guess?

It is interesting, though, as a writer, to discover how such a seemingly minor change can become so important. One of my favorite occupations is playing with ideas for book covers. I’ve got probably at least a dozen designs for A Lonely Magic that I’ve toyed with — it’s literally been published with at least five or six different covers, but I’ve got a bunch more that haven’t seen the light of day — but I’ve never been satisfied, because somehow I’ve never found one that conveys the feel of the book to me. Maybe that’s because I don’t really know how the book feels?

I do know that the last time I read the book, which was in a print edition just a few months ago, I laughed when I got to the ending. Despite all the reviews that criticized the cliffhanger ending, I never believed it ended in a cliffhanger, not once. Fen found family, she found magic, she’s in a safe place, she knows who wanted to kill her, she’s defeated the bad guy — what the hell is a cliffhanger about that? Except it’s totally a cliffhanger, because when I was reading it with the perspective of time, I ended it really, really wanting to know what happens next. Everything with Malik is interesting and even though he’s the bad guy, and his resolution technically doesn’t matter, I absolutely want Fen to figure out how he’s bound and how to get him unbound.

A few of the many covers for ALM that I’ve made and never used. Which one looks most like the story to you?

Sample cover for A Lonely Magic

another sample cover for A Lonely Magic


A Lonely Magic Cover

27 Friday Nov 2015

Posted by wyndes in A Lonely Magic, Cover design, Grace, NaNo, Self-publishing

≈ 2 Comments

Several days ago, I mentioned that I had — impulsively — commissioned a fifth cover for A Lonely Magic. Yes, insane impulse, I know. How many covers does one book really need? The short answer is five, because I am so absolutely pleased with this cover that I can’t imagine ever looking at it and not feeling a thrill of satisfaction.

ALM-JCaleb-FinalCover

Jake at jcalebdesign is phenomenal. He took the info I gave him and got creative, and then he took my absolute nitpicking insanity and managed five or six more rounds of design, changing and tweaking and never telling me that I was a pain and always trying to deliver what I was looking for. I am so pleased that at Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, I actually picked this cover as the thing I was thankful for — well, and then added my delightful son and darling dogs and lovely family and terrific guests. I’m not a total ingrate about all the blessings in my life. I’m just counting this cover as one of them right now, because it makes me happy to finally have my feelings about this book captured in an image.

And now I have to go reformat A Lonely Magic for print, because I want a paper copy of it with this cover.

Sometime today I’m also going to be trying to write like mad to catch up for my two NaNo days devoted to Thanksgiving dinner instead of word count, but I’m also feeling this great impatience to be done with Grace and Noah. I really, really want to get back to writing A Precarious Balance right now!

Motivation

22 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by wyndes in A Lonely Magic, Cover design, Food, Writing

≈ 4 Comments

Sometimes it’s so hard to open up the file and start typing. I wish I knew why. I read The War of Art recently, subtitled “Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Creative Battles” and about all I can remember from it is a sort of religious idea of creativity, with Resistance being the devil’s handiwork. More or less. Really, probably less, I’m totally reading into it. But I remember nothing that tells me why I experience such resistance or what to do about it. Except, of course, to just open the damn file and start typing.

A few weeks ago I was on reddit and a cover designer posted a $30 cover offer for NaNo. On a total impulse, I took him up on it. For, of all things, A Lonely Magic. This will be the… fifth cover. I had to count on my fingers. Ugh. I should stop blaming the cover for the book’s lack of success — I worked in the business long enough to know that some books just don’t sell. Wrong time, wrong book, wrong opening, wrong blurb — it’s impossible to know why. It’s just the nature of the business.

But my Law of Attraction friend told me that I needed to be positive about the cover, to send out vibes into the universe that said “sparkling and magical” and to have faith that the cover would be, finally, the cover of my dreams. It would help, I suppose, if I knew what my dreams were. Anyway, I got a first design yesterday, and then a second pass at that design in the evening, and I’m actually rather impatiently waiting for the third pass. It’s different. I have no idea whether it will sell any books. But I’m definitely pleased with my $30 investment. (I’ll post it, obviously, when I get a final version.)

And now I should stop letting my Resistance run away with me. Yesterday I didn’t write a single word on Grace and today I need to do better. As well as doing all those chores I didn’t get to yesterday, including getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, four days in advance! But I like to make it easy on myself by having almost everything prepped in advance. Last year, there were nine of us, and by the time people arrived, I had the kitchen close to clean, and by seven PM, it was back to normal. I aspire to do the same this year, with ten people, which means planning. But this year it ought to be really easy — I’ve got people bringing stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, rolls, and two kinds of dessert. I’m on turkey, cranberry sauce, and gravy, but will probably add brussel sprouts and maybe salad, just to give myself more to do. Hmm, maybe I’ll make an appetizer? But I already know that my guests are happy as long as the turkey, stuffing, and pie are there, so I don’t really have much to worry about.

Resistance is writing about Thanksgiving dinner when I should be writing Grace. But if you know of any interesting Thanksgiving appetizers, please share them with me!

Updates

08 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by wyndes in A Lonely Magic, Ghosts, Randomness, Self-publishing

≈ 2 Comments

This’ll be a weird little post but that’s the kind of mood I’m in.

1) Glitter nail polish is extremely difficult to remove. I scrubbed at a single nail for a couple minutes before giving up and scraping it off with a nail file and there are still silver specks on the nail. That stuff is like glue. My finger nails may still be glittery weeks from now. I bet my toes will still have glitter on them at midwinter.

2) I remembered I should mention that the audiobook of A Lonely Magic is not going to happen anytime soon. I went back and forth with the ACX guy. He had nice comments for my delivery but I couldn’t manage to get rid of the background noise he spotted, because Florida + summer + closet recording studio = yes, the air-conditioner has to be running. I might try again in winter, if I’m feeling like reading aloud for hours a day would be fun. That sounds pretty unlikely, doesn’t it? More realistically, I might try again if I can get an audio producer willing to do all the hard parts, while I do the reading.

3) A Gift of Ghosts reached an amazing milestone today–two hundred 5-star reviews. For my quirky little book, with its video-game playing hero and anxious, geeky heroine! I feel proud, humbled, (embarrassed that I might sound like I’m bragging!)… but mostly like the world has more possible friends in it than I ever realized. It’s a good feeling. I’m celebrating by returning to Eureka for a while. I’m going to complete Reckless, a fanfic that I’ve left unfinished for almost three years now. I suppose that’s sort of an odd celebration, but it feels fitting.

Goodreads Giveaway

02 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by wyndes in A Lonely Magic, Randomness

≈ 1 Comment

I didn’t think I’d give away any copies of A Lonely Magic until I got a new cover for it, sometime in October. (The cover designer I want isn’t available until then, so the cover for the first few months is temporary.) But the paper copies are so shiny that I couldn’t resist.

If you’re from the US, enter for your chance to win! (If you’re not from the US, I promise I’ll do another when it has its final cover and I’ll open that one up to international shipping.)

PS Not you, Judy–yours will be in the mail as soon as I make it to the post office. 🙂

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Goodreads Book Giveaway

A Lonely Magic by Sarah Wynde

A Lonely Magic

by Sarah Wynde

Giveaway ends August 05, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/widget/98663

A Lonely Magic’s First review

26 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by wyndes in A Lonely Magic, Randomness

≈ 19 Comments

A Lonely Magic’s very first review

Needless to say, it made me happy.

I sent out an email to my mailing list late night inviting everyone on it to download a free copy of A Lonely Magic and giving them a link where they could do so plus a code (ARC7679, which will work for the next four days or first 500 downloads). Three people reported me for spam and one person unsubscribed, saying that she had never signed up for my mailing list. Ha. She subscribed on June 2nd. I still have the damn email I sent her. I wanted to email her again today and say “give me my story back, you liar,” but I managed to show the appropriate self-restraint to not do so. Talk about a short memory, though! And seriously, I wish I got such nice spam. Being reported for “abuse” made me feel all icky and slimy and hostile to the world, which was really sort of a sad result of a giveaway that I had been all happy about just a few hours earlier.

I’m trying to make the nice review and some lovely thank-you notes balance out the bad feelings which would probably be easier if it would just stop raining. If I could go outside and turn the butterfly lights on and maybe go for a swim, I’d feel better, I know. Pro side, though, is that Zelda is plastered against me like a fellow sardine in a can. She hates thunder. It is only bearable to her if she can have fur-to-skin contact with a human being. Doggie cuddles, always a good thing. And nice reviews, those are good, too!

Dark Side of the Sun Event

23 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by wyndes in A Lonely Magic, Marketing and promotion

≈ 3 Comments

Oooh, isn’t that cool? I’m going to be attending this event on FB on Friday. The host suggested we do giveaways so I’m also going to be madly giving away copies of A Lonely Magic. He suggested two or three, but I’m sort of thinking that if you show up and chat for a few minutes, I’ll count that as your ticket for a free copy. And if you’re thinking that means I’m done–YES! You are correct. Final proofread corrections completed on Friday. Createspace file created today. I’m not going to publish it until July 10th, so it’s still a few weeks away, but sometime this week–the 24th, I think?–you’ll get to read its very first review.

Choices

18 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by wyndes in A Lonely Magic, Personal

≈ 2 Comments

I have guests this week, two boys, aged 10 & 13. On Sunday, we went to the movies and saw How to Train Your Dragon 2. On Monday, we went up to Wekiva Springs and had a picnic between dips in the refreshingly cold water. Yesterday was a day filled with boring appointments for me–vet for both dogs, doctor for me, but today, I’m hoping we’re going to play mini-golf in the afternoon. Tomorrow, if the weather co-operates (please, weather, please cooperate!), we’re going inner-tubing at Rock Springs.

Needless to say, I’m not getting a lot of work done. I don’t care. More than that, I’m actively choosing not to. I think it’s the most important lesson I learned as a parent–time never comes back again. Yeah, it would maybe be better for my bottom line if I were writing a story or working on A Precarious Balance but I don’t get to turn around after I’ve finished those things and say, okay, now I get to play with you guys. They won’t be here and even if they come again, they won’t be the same kids, they’ll be x amount older and different. The visiting 10-year-old still knows how to giggle. If he visits at 11, that might already be lost. I’m going to enjoy it while I can. So much playing, not so much audio book recording. I think this audiobook may be a “it happens when it happens” instead of the simultaneous release I was hoping for.

On a slightly more news-y note, I posted ALM to NetGalley last week, with the proviso that it was an Advance Review Copy, still subject to minor changes. (When it’s no longer subject to minor changes, but still an Advance Review Copy, I’ll let everyone on my mailing list know how to get it, so if you’re waiting impatiently, give me just a little longer to get it completely cleaned up.) Anyway, today it received its first review. I’m reasonably calm about reviews: I think people are entitled to their opinions and that if we all liked exactly the same thing the world would be a boring place. But the first few reviews on a new book are different, and the very first one, today, was a weirdly physical experience–my stomach churned with nerves when I saw that there was feedback and my muscles were all tight with tension as I scrolled down, and I think I forgot to breathe while I clicked the “View All Feedback” button… and now, I’m pretty much going to spend my day in a glow of happiness while I walk on air. 🙂 The review will get posted to the author’s blog next week, so I will link to it then, but it’s a lovely review. Yay!

Eenie-meenie-minie-mo

19 Monday May 2014

Posted by wyndes in A Lonely Magic, Cover design, Self-publishing

≈ 7 Comments

A Lonely Magic's darker cover

A Lonely Magic’s darker cover

A Lonely Magic's lighter cover

A Lonely Magic’s lighter cover

Looking at them side-by-side definitely makes me think that I should keep trying to tweak that background wavy-box. I don’t really have any good design tools, which makes it hard to do anything clever and creative, but I could keep trying. I’m not sure it’s a worthwhile use of my time, though! Anyway, opinions welcome, please.

Also, the current blurb:

WTF? What did she ever do to him?

When a gorgeous guy gives her an unthinkable choice – death by drug overdose or gunshot – he plunges 21-year-old Fen into a sea of trouble. Although she’s rescued in the nick of time by a teenage boy, Luke, and his sexy older brother, Kaio, escaping from her would-be killer won’t be so easy. Her brush with death is only the beginning of her wild journey.

The brothers aren’t ordinary men, and Fen’s rescue and her supposedly safe retreat have unnerving layers. How did they find her? What do they want with her? Who can she trust? And why was she targeted for murder in the first place?

As Fen and Luke are forced to run for their lives, Luke spirits Fen away, into an enchanting underwater city. But every enchantment has its dark edges. Fen must face an otherworldly plot that threatens not only her life but those of millions of human beings…and she must look deep within herself to find the strength and courage she’ll need to get out of this strange new world alive.

Submerge yourself in the latest gripping novel from Sarah Wynde, author of the Tassamara series. You won’t want to come up for air before the final enthralling page of A Lonely Magic.

*****
I think I want a new headline, so I’m still working on that, but otherwise, for those of you who haven’t read it, does it sound interesting? And for those of you who have, does it sound right? Any suggestions for changes?

Thanks for your help!

Updated: tweaked blurb

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