It’s time to celebrate–you Champions unlocked the third Snow Queen extra: Arrivals. Arrivals is the first scene from Sacrifice, told from the viewpoint of Tenebris Malus. It’s a very interesting and revealing piece that let me reveal the backstory I made for Tenebris, that I never got the chance to explore.
I hope you guys enjoy it! It’s a little more shiver-inducing than heart-warming, but I really wanted to convey to you Champions what kind of a villain Tenebris was.
In other news, on Tuesday I got a chance to hang out on the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Marketing Podcast with hosts Lindsay Buroker, Joe Lallo, and Jeff Poole. They are an awesome and hilarious trio, which is good because I was petrified for about 99% of the interview. You can tell by how quickly and how LOUDLY I talk. Ugh. I really dislike talking about myself to begin with (so knowingly recording a podcast brings me to terror level eight out of ten) but I’m also a longtime listener of the podcast and I really admire Lindsay, Joe, and Jeff, so that sent my fright level to Godzilla Invasion. (See again speed and volume at which I talk!)
The podcast is meant to help newbie authors, so we’re mostly talking shop (Think marketing, writing for a niche like fairy tales, etc) although I do moon over you Champions on a few occasions. If you are interested in listening to my terrified babble, here’s a link to the podcast! (If you visit, please tell ’em I sent you!)
I know a lot of you have left comments on my blog, and I really want to get back to you, but I’m currently away from my office and I’m using snail speed internet, so I’m going to wait to respond until tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope you find the new extra enlightening! Thanks for reading, Champions, and thank you for leaving such amazing reviews. (It’s obviously not because I am a charismatic person. Seriously, uuuggghhhh! I debated not sharing the podcast with you guys because I sound like Mickey Mouse!) I hope you guys reach 100 reviews as fast as you reached 75–the next freebie is about Oskar, and I’ve had this written since I started planning Heart of Ice!
Can you tell us how close we are to having the 4th extra unlocked?
Yes, I actually should have gotten the short up yesterday, but I was away from my computer so it’s going up in a few minutes! (I just have to go dig up the file.)
Thank you, It was wonderful although heartbreaking. I was so excited to see you posted it 🙂
I’m glad you like it! I spent a lot of time obsessing over Oskar while writing both books–both of my editors had to warn me not to spend TOO much time with him, or readers would think he was the romantic love interest instead of Farrin!
Hi I listened to the podcast and then went and bought your Rumpelstiltskin! It was really encouraging to hear you speaking because a) I love Robyn McKinley’s Beauty – wow, a kindred spirit! and b) I’ve just started doing a freebie of fairy-tale retellings for my readers and am absolutely loving the freedom of the genre. So I really appreciated you taking the time to share. It was a huge encouragement to hear that someone else indie is writing in fairytales and doing well. I totally agree with your comments around competition in the writing world, – the more writers the better 🙂 PS You didn’t sound nervous at all.
Hi Rachel, welcome to the genre–we all have a magical time in here, and about 70-80% of us love Robin McKinley, so you are in excellent company! 😉 I’m glad you found the podcast useful; I hope it keeps you from making some of the mistakes I made.
PS: I checked out your fairy tale collection and I love your cover, it’s gorgeous!
Other than seeing your name pop up in my book’s “also boughts” I was a complete KM Shea newbie when I heard the podcast (which is what brought me here to this page.) So with no pre-bias I can say that you don’t have anything to worry about – I thought you sounded completely normal! I didn’t even notice you talking quickly or loudly. Our own voice recordings always sound weird to us I reckon, so that’s probably all you’re hearing 🙂
Thanks, Melanie, for the reassurance! My brain was scurrying like a hamster during the entire interview, so a few of the moments on the podcast make me want to facepalm, but I’m glad you didn’t think I talked too fast or loudly! I tend to fret a lot about presentation, so your comment means a lot to me. 🙂
Oh, how awesome! I’ve been following Lindsay/the podcast for a while, and I’m gearing up to start publishing my own fairy tale series later this year; I was actually wondering about your covers, since your more recent ones have changed a bit-and I noticed you’ve gone back & updated Ahira & Red Rope (I love the new ones, btw! If you are able to publish them in paperback eventually I am going to snap those up :D); I was curious as to what prompted the change, so I”m so, so excited to listening to you discuss it (and unlimited! I’ve noticed a few other indie authors in this niche that are in KU) :D.
Thank you for being so open and sharing-it’s seriously useful to us who aren’t quite at the publishing stage yet.
Ohhh, welcome to the fairy tale club! 😀 I did get into it a little bit in the podcast, but I am anxious for some new people to start publishing in fairy tales too as a lot of other fairy tale series have finished, and while you want a small niche what you really want is a small PRODUCTIVE niche so readers keep coming back to see what’s new. Enough about that! A side note about the covers–Myrrhlynn does use stock photo images so they cost about $20-$40 a piece. Having a person on it is important, but Myrrhlynn is a genius at placing titles and using custom fonts, and that’s really what makes my covers pop.
Hopefully the podcast was useful! I’m delighted to try share whatever knowledge I have. 🙂 And good luck with your books!
There are a few of us out there publishing fairy tale retellings but we’re a bit newer to it and don’t have your levels of popularity or output, Kitty!
Ahh yes, I do have a high output–although I’ve got nothing on Lindsay Buroker! 😉 Of course I wasn’t this popular when I first started–it was just a matter of finding the right book that resonated with people–which, now that you mention it, points back to my high output, haha. Anyway, I do suspect the genre’s “top 100” page will have some influx soon as some of the other big-name fairy tale authors have books that turn over a year old, and they don’t release new fairy tales to replace them.
I love this idea of honest comment = short stories. I just wish that there was a way to see how many reviews there have been written. Also, I liked that we got the villains perspective in the Snow Queen. I was wondering why Tenebris had that head wound in the scouting scene. That seemed like an unfinished end. Thanks for tying it off!
I’m glad you like the idea! Also, good job on observing Tenebris’s head wound in the book. I poked and prodded through Sacrifice several times to see if I could slip any more details about him in the book, but it just wasn’t happening. 🙁 My main cast of characters had too much going on, so it kept coming off as phony. As such, I’m super thrilled you liked the extra! 😀
The freebie was really good! It was cool to realize Tenebris is more than your average villain. 🙂 You really don’t sound that bad on the podcast!
Thanks Jenna! 😉 Hopefully next time I have to speak, I’ll have a little more courage.
As for Tenebris, I’m glad you enjoyed getting to see more of him! Rakel’s friends (Cough PHILE Cough) can be real page-hoggers, so no matter how I tried I couldn’t quite fit his backstory in. But that’s why I love writing these extras! It gives me a chance to add the details floating around in my head that I couldn’t cram into the actual story.