If you are in the Mobile Bay area, next Tuesday night Gallery 450 on Dauphin Street is kicking off 2017 with monthly Literary Night events, co-hosted by Mobile Writers Guild.
Yes, I have the honor of being the first presenter. I’ll share my experiences of researching and writing historical novels set in and around Mobile, including Fortitude and my current projects (more news on those to come soon.)
Reminder: If you aren’t signed up to receive my newsletter, now is a good time to join the list.
Yes, it’s that magical time of the year when the weather cools and spirits invigorate from the break of summer heat! Though months have passed since I last posted, I’ve been productive in other avenues, like writing a new manuscript and working on edits on the multi-book Gothic Horror.
Now that I’m in between projects, I’m taking a week or two to catch up on long over-due things like blogging, cleaning, and organizing. This year has been one of creativity and my living spaces showcase that artistic chaos. The next few posts will feature some highlights from this past year, like new tidbits about Fortitude and Corroded. To start things off, here’s the newest item: a photo from my recent book signing at Christmas Jubilee market hosted by Mobile’s Junior League at the Mobile Convention Center.
Going on now:
Enter to win one of two signed copies of Fortitude on Goodreads.
UPDATED June 7, 2016:
On the afternoon of June 11 at 1:00pm , I’ll be the featured young adult author at the Spanish Fort (Alabama) Barnes & Noble for a book signing during their NATIONAL TEEN BOOK FESTIVAL. They will have copies of Fortitude and Corroded for sale, which I’d be happy to sign, and lots of other cool things.
For details about this store’s B-Fest events, check out their Facebook event page.
For the run-down of “B-Fest”, happening at all Barnes & Noble stores nation wide June 10-12, 2016, check out their Teen Blog. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/teen/join-us-in-store-for-b-fest-our-first-ever-national-teen-book-festival/
I’ve posted about writing mood music and soundtracks for my stories before, but I thought it’d be fun to bring the official, post-published soundtrack for Fortitude to the forefront of my site for a little while.
Fast fact: I can’t listen to music with lyrics while editing—only when writing fresh scenes. “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” and “Pride & Prejudice” (2005) soundtrack albums were the most listened to during edits on Fortitude.
While the “Fortitude Groove” playlist has over fourteen hours of tunes (including the above albums), I narrowed down songs for specific scenes in the book. A few of the songs transcend their listed chapters like “No Stone Unturned” and “Carry On.” Those two embody the whole theme of the book while the others merely highlight certain sections. I’m including Youtube links for those two songs for three reasons: their importance, their awesomeness, and the fact that some of the other songs are so obscure they aren’t on the web/there isn’t a decent video for them. It’s important to note that the songs aren’t always from Claire’s perspective even though she’s the main character. Sometimes the music is from the point of view of one of the secondary characters or even shared by more than one person.
Obvious Fact: I’m sure you’ll notice a certain fondness of a few musicians on here. Without further ado, here’s Fortitude’s soundtrack:
Chapter One: “Another Road” Mitch Malloy
Chapter Four: “When the Smoke Clears” Mitch Malloy
Chapter Six: “Right to Respect” Joey Tempest
Chapter Eleven: “Kick a Little” Little Texas
Chapter Fourteen: “If” The Cult
Chapter Seventeen: “For Your Love” Hanson
Chapter Twenty: “No Stone Unturned” Europe
Chapter Twenty-five: “Angels (With Broken Hearts)” Europe
Chapter Twenty-seven: “Reason” Europe
Chapter Twenty-nine: “Carry On” Mitch Malloy
Chapter Thirty-eight: “Roll With You” Europe
Chapter Forty: “Let ‘em Whirl” Blackhawk
Curious? Go look up the songs, listen for yourself (if you can find them), and then come back and share your thoughts.
P.S. I like to hide song titles in all my manuscripts, but unless you’re familiar with the selections in my iTunes account you’ll never catch them.
It’s been over a month since Fortitude released in its e-reader formats and two weeks since the paperback release. Reviews are slowly coming in. I know there are those who’s paper copy hasn’t been delivered yet, so I’m expecting more conversation once those are out in the world. When you’ve read Fortitude I’d love to hear your thoughts in any format–traditional review, comments on social media, private message, or whatever works best for you. And in case you haven’t gotten around to buying a copy, ordering links from several companies can be found on my BOOKS page.
As far as I know, Candice Conner received the first delivery of the print edition.
Right now I’m hard at work on my next project. During my writing time this morning I passed the 10,000 word mark. That’s always an exciting milestone. It’s fun to be working on something new after all the edits last year. (Still awaiting the final round of edits for Corroded–coming April 12–but other than that, it’ll be fresh pages for the next few months.)
What has this new year brought you? Hope it’s mostly good.
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Christmas cheer goes a long way, especially when unpacking from a trip the day before Christmas. While off on a magical vacation this past week I received equally exciting news: Fortitude is an official nominee for the Whitney Awards!
Finalists will be announced in February, so if there is any more Whitney Awards news to share, that’s the next time it will happen.
Keep in mind the paperback edition of Fortitude will be released in eleven days. I know some of you have been holding out for a print copy–thank you for your patience. Once you’ve read it (either digital or print), please leave a short review online where you purchased it or at a book review site. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads are the most viewed locations but any place is great. Reviews go a long way, and even just one sentence is wonderful. Word of mouth goes a long way, too. Please recommend it to your book-loving friends and family.
Happy Christmas to all!
P.S. In case you missed it, here’s a link to the complete listing of all the stops on Fortitude‘s blog tour over the past two weeks. Lots of insight and tidbit about the book and why/how I wrote it.
