cover art

Here we go! This is the cover art for Lair of the White Wyrm. My starting point for the skull was the dorsal view of an alligator skull. I'm fancypants like that. Skull shading took a while. I did it by hand on my Bamboo.

I reserve the right to make minor adjustments in the future.

If you've been hanging out on my blog for a while, you might have noticed that I didn't use the original illustration I put up on the blog. I changed course, and I think this looks better and fits the book better. I put together a whole evolution of the cover art thing that will go up with other Extras on the media page for the book.

Bookishness - remix project

Ok. I put the first three chapters of the new book up on Authonomy. Hopefully I won’t make a complete ass of myself by doing so. I guess if I did make an ass of myself, it wouldn’t be the first time…or the last.

Anyway, this book is called The White Wyrm (working title that might be changed before it is actually published). My monster and some other similarities are lifted from a Bram Stoker novel called Lair of the White Worm, which is available on Project Gutenberg. I should warn you that some people might find parts of it offensive as the “N” word is used multiple times. I did not carry that over to my book, FYI.

When I told my grandmother about this project, she was like – Isn’t that plagiarism?

No, grandma, it’s not plagiarism. Lair of the White Worm is in the public domain. Also, I took no passages from the genius Mr. Stoker. This is not a “mashup” like Pride, Prejudice and Zombies . It’s an all new story, I promise. Dracula was also one of his monsters and how many people have written about Dracula or similar characters?

Here is the link if you want to check my book out. You probably have to have an account on Authonomy though.

http://www.authonomy.com/books/39441/the-white-wyrm/

My cover image that I tried to upload didn’t work properly. I need to mess with it to figure out what I’m doing wrong.

friday bloggin'

Glorious Friday! I am so excited to be heading into the weekend. The day was warm when I got off work. We had sunshine too!

Here is what the field behind my house looks like right now. Pretties!

I need need need to finish AnnaBeth 2!!! Like yesterday, like 10 minutes ago. I am going to be writing my ass off the next week or two to finish it.

I would like to post at least the first few chapters of the remix project up on a couple of writing feedback websites before November starts. That means I need to finish the AB2 rough draft and read through the beginning remix chapters in a very short period of time.

So this weekend, there will be no animation. There might be a little Journey Reader working. Mostly, there will be a lot of writing. I swear it.

AnnaBeth2 word count update: 67738

really a lot of words

I finally crossed over 50000 words in AnnaBeth2! Woo! Very exciting. The thing isn't finished of course but at 50000 words, I've crested the hill and I'm rolling on momentum. If I remember correctly, the first installment was a little over 70000 words.

If I really get moving, I can probably finish before the end of October.

I'm eager to get back to the remix project; I have to admit. That's probably a good way to feel when editing time rolls around.

I was starting to get sick of it during the last round of rewrite. That happens with everything I write after a few reads. Now I have distance and the enthusiasm I need to work on it effectively.

I like working two projects at a time. That was a good plan. Releasing the books takes longer, but there are benefits.

However, I won't put a book down in the middle of a rough draft again like I did with AnnaBeth2. That was not my best move. I don't think it will affect the finished product, but picking back up and remembering where the subplots were and who was doing what was very difficult. A novel is a complex thing. I'll probably still have to sort some parts out in the rewrite.

So future writing schedules - two works in progress at a time.

Book One rough draft to completion (no hiatus) plus 1-2 rewrites.
Stuff Book One into a virtual drawer
Book Two rough draft to completion (no hiatus) plus 1-2 rewrites.
Stuff Book Two into virtual drawer
Book One - more editing plus feedback from beta readers
Book Two - more editing plus feedback from beta readers

Two book releases in a relatively short period of time, which will depend on marketing schedules and such. Be free, my pretties!

Have I mentioned this is work?

I did take the day off to read a chunk of Bossypants, by Tina Fey. She is awesome. I have great admiration for people who can achieve insane levels of success and remain true to who they are and where they came from. If I’m ever lucky enough to reach a Janet Evanovich level writing career, I want to be like that. Still me, just with enough money to do what I love for a living and enough skill to do it well.

TTFN

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1

Remix Update plus Kindle Learning

Hellloooo!

Remix project progress - 30000+ words

In case you're to my neck of the online woods, the remix project is my current work in progress. I'm rewriting a century-old horror.

Judging by where I am in the story so far and where I need to go, it's either going to be a really long novella or a really short novel. I don't foresee it hitting 7000 words.

I had intended to make it a full novel, but the story isn't unfolding to that length. I'm alright with that fact because the pacing is perfect and the tone and the story are coming out as I'd hoped. I may add in a few things when I slash and burn the first draft, but I won't try to cram in any random story bits just for the sake of fattening it up. The story deserves better than that treatment.

There were a couple of discontented rumblings when What the Dead Fear was released only as an ebook. Remix is longer, so rejoice, fans of print, there will be a dead tree edition.

Work on the cover art MAY commence very shortly.

Rapid subject change.

Did you know that you can read this blog on your Kindle! Es verdad!

These directions work on my Kindle. It's the black one or dark gray or whatever they call the color. I figured out how to do this last night so I'm sharing for anyone who might not have gotten around to checking out the browser yet.

Directions. Here we go.

1. At the home screen, press the Menu button.

2. Activate thy wireless.

3. Via Menu, select the "Experimental" option (not as dramatic as it sounds) and "Launch Browser".

4. Be amazed at the awesome links already listed.

5. Click the first link to hop onto the internet.

6. Select the address bar - this may require some fiddling. I pushed up and to the right to get to it.

7. Delete the address that's already in there and type in the following.

http://Lea-Ryan.blogspot.com

The / : and - symbols are available when you push the "Sym" button on the little keyboard.

Select “go to”

8. Once the page loads, press "Menu" again and then "Bookmark this page".

Et voila!

Why the hell would you go through all this trouble to read my blog? The process isn't so difficult, is it? And besides, once you learn how to access this one, you can access other ones too. You could have a million blogs and other websites right at your pretty fingertips.

_________________________
Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1