Category Archives: The process

Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing!

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INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE NEXT BIG THING

(When you post this interview on your blog, don’t forget to substitute your book image and answers for mine.)

Awaken - Cover Beginnings_-_Cover Revenge_-_ResizeCover Sector C Book 1 Front 3.25.15

* What is the title of your book(s) (or story/stories)?

My Blood Angel series books are titled: Awaken (book 1), Beginnings (book 2), and Revenge (book 3)

My SECTOR C Series books are titled: The Chosen (book 2) and The Hunted (book 2 – coming soon)

* Where did the idea come from for these books?

I have always loved the supernatural/paranormal stories. I’m a huge fan of horror films that include vampires, witches, shapeshifters, zombies, and anything out of the realm of normal possibilities. Because of that, my writing doesn’t sway too far from the supernatural and paranormal.

The Blood Angel Series takes place in Atlanta, Michigan, a small town in the northern part of the lower peninsula, where I spent most of my summers as a child. I have always had a very active imagination and spending so much time camping and being outdoors I think my childhood plays a big part in how I write.

* What genre do your books fall under?

Young Adult Supernatural/Paranormal Fiction

* What is the one to two-sentence synopsis of your book(s)?

  • Awaken: What if everything you thought you knew about yourself and the world turned out to be wrong?
  • Beginnings: Would you give up everything and everyone you knew in life, just to survive your destiny? What if you didn’t have a choice?
  • Revenge:  Dying in her father’s arms only to awaken in a pool of blood, surrounded by the mutilated corpses of those she loved most, who could blame Alee for what she did next? Wouldn’t you seek REVENGE?
  • SECTOR C ~ The Chosen: When your only choices are vampirism, lycanthropy, breeder, blood donor, or banishment to the Wastelands, what choice do you really have?

* Will your book(s) be self-published or represented by an agency? I self-published all of my books through Create Space (paperbacks) and BookTango (eBooks).

I self-published all of my books through Create Space (paperbacks) and BookTango (eBooks).

* How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

The first book in the Blood Angel Series, Awaken, took about one and a half years from start to finish (published). The others came a bit more quickly, but I have published one book per year since 2012 when Awaken was published.

The first book in the SECTOR C Series, The Chosen, took one month to write the first draft, but from start to finish (published) it took five months. I am working on book 2, The Hunted, right now, and I am about 22 chapters in writing my first draft.

* What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

With the Blood Angel Series I would say; The Vampire Diaries, the House of Night Series, the Morganville Vampires Series, and other YA supernatural books.

With the SECTOR C Series I think a quote from one of the reviews I received says it best: “Think of a recipe that has a dash of Hunger Games, a pinch of Mystic Falls and a splash of Divergent. Then mix it all thoroughly with Nina’s flair of the supernatural and you have a great novel called Sector C.”

* Who or what inspired you to start writing?

I started writing poetry when I was pretty young. Then, as I got older (college and after) I started acting. The idea of becoming different characters, be it through theatre or film, helped to expand my writing from just poetry into screenplays. After I had left Los Angeles, I began writing short stories and then novels.

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Don’t forget to add at least five more authors to the network by linking to them on your blog.

You can contact me at BloodAngelSeries@gmail.com.

Good luck with your marketing!

 

I Just Published my Book. Now What?

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Have you written a book? Did you publish it? Are you confused as to what you should do next?

Well, you are not alone.

Nicholas C. Rossis attacks those very issues in his post I Just Published my Book. Now What? Check it out and let me know what you think.

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksFirst of all, congratulations! You’re now a published author – and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Second, you’d be amazed how often I hear that question in LinkedIn’s author groups. With some 3,000 new books published every day, I have serious doubts that you can just sit back and wait for readers to stumble on your book, or for word of mouth to work its magic. The chances of that happening are probably similar to that of winning the lottery, in which case you don’t even need the long hours and hard work that goes hand-in-hand with a career as an author (if you don’t believe me, you may want to check out this post by Pedro Barrento on Indies Unlimited).

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Do you use Grammarly? Here are my thoughts!

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I was recently asked to give Grammarly a try.

“What’s Grammarly?” I asked.

THE ANSWER AMAZED ME!

Their website www.grammarly.com says that Grammarly is “the world’s most accurate grammar checker.” I decided that I should be the judge of that myself. The program allows you to either download or cut and paste your text into their online platform. Once the text is in the program, it scans for over 250 points of grammar. Now, I’m not going to list them all but some of the things it looks for are:

Contextual Spelling
Grammar
Punctuation
Sentence Structure
Style
Plagiarism

My Test Drive:

In order to test out “the world’s most accurate grammar checker” I decided to cut and paste, into their online platform, the latest chapter of the novel I’m writing:

The Hunted

(COMING SOON)

Just a little plug for me 🙂

WOW – OMG – SO COOL!!!

The program proceeded to mark grammar issues, words that were miss used, spelling errors, and even overused words – things that Microsoft Word doesn’t find. Things that I am sure my editor will love for me to have fixed before sending her my manuscript. Already, after only five minutes with the program, I was sold.

But wait, there’s more!

There is a FREE version!!!

Nope, that’s not all…

If you upgrade to the premium version, you can also download Grammarly to your computer and activate it in Microsoft Word. That means you don’t have to upload your manuscript to the internet or cut and paste it into the online platform. This made me feel so much safer. So, I gave it a shot.

download

Once the download was complete, I opened up my current work in progress. The 176-page document (34,632 words) only took a matter of minutes to be processed. When it was done, Grammarly had marked all of the “errors”. From the use of passive voice, squinting modifiers,  incorrect use of commas, and so much more. No, I don’t like my “errors” to be thrown in my face, but trust me I am glad that there is a tool that will allow me to catch them now – before I send the completed document to the editor. PLUS – I can now use Grammarly as I type instead of going back and trying to catch the errors after the first draft is already completed.

Grammarly

Here’s a little more information

Grammarly’s free version checks for the most frequently made writing mistakes.

  • 100 points of grammar
  • Contextual spellchecker
  • Punctuation checks
  • Works anywhere on the web. (Use the editor at Grammarly.com or use the free Chrome add-on)

Grammarly Premium eliminates both basic and advanced errors.

unnamed

  • 250+ points of grammar
  • Sentence structure
  • Style checks
  • Vocabulary enhancement
  • Plagiarism detection
  • Document type checker (business, academic, etc.)
  • Windows Microsoft Office add-in

My recommendation…

If you are a writer – GET Grammarly NOW!

Still not convinced? Check out the screenshots below to see more things you can do with Grammarly!

Use Grammarly to help edit your emails to ensure the quality of writing.
Use Grammarly to help edit your emails to ensure the quality of writing.
Choose your document type.
Choose your document type.
Choose what types of errors you want Grammarly to find.
Choose what types of errors you want Grammarly to find.

What are your thoughts? If you’ve used Grammarly or another program like it, please share your thoughts by commenting below. 

Supernatural – Paranormal – Preternatural, OH MY!

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YA Fiction

As a YA Author of novels that contain vampires, shape-shifters, witches, fairies (not the Tinkerbell type), and so many other un-natural beings I have often been asked the following questions:

‘What is the difference between supernatural, paranormal, and preternatural?’ and ‘Which of these categories do you write in?’

Well the simple answer is this: They are pretty much interchangeable! OR ARE THEY?

 

Below are the “official” definitions – followed by some examples of character types I, as an author, would put into each category.

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Supernatural… Attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature

Super: above; over; beyond     |     natural: existing in, or caused by nature

* Angels * Vampires * Werewolves (and other were-animals) * Witches * Warlocks * Wizards *

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Paranormal… Denoting events or phenomena such as telekinesis or clairvoyance that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding

Para: beyond     |     normal: usual; typical; standard

* Zombies * Vampires * Necromancers * Time travelers *

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Preternatural… Beyond what is normal or natural – existing outside of nature (very unusual in a way that doesn’t seem natural)

Preter: This is not a prefixe that I could find a definition for, but it seems it means: beyond   |     natural: existing in, or caused by nature

* Zombies * Werewolves (and other were-animals) * Vampires * Witches * Necromancers *

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OK, so maybe that didn’t help sort out the difference after all. A lot of the examples tend to fall into multiple categories, at least for me.

Click here to read a previous post I had re-blogged about a similar topic: Brass Tacks: Supernatural vs Paranormal; Vampire vs Zombie

So, what are your thoughts? Comment below and tell me what you think the differences are and what types of un–natural beings fall into each of the categories!

 

Sector C Book 1 Front 3.25.15 Awaken - Cover Beginnings_-_Cover Revenge_-_ResizeCover

Sector C: The Chosen by Nina Soden

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Sector C Book 1 Front 3.25.15

I was so excited when I read this review for my latest book SECTOR C ~ The Chosen. I just couldn’t help but re-blogging it! I hope you enjoy it and that it makes you smile as much as it did me… or that it makes you rush to http://amzn.com/0985885335 to get your copy today!

Jonas Lee's avatarJonas Lee

Rating Overview

Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★ 1/2
Characters: ★★★★★
Cover: ★★★ 1/2

Overall: ★★★★★ (4.5)
 This book was given to me as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nina Soden starts off on a brand new series and I think, out of the gate, it’s brilliant. I was asked to help look over her final rough draft and offer a review. In spirited fashion, I will hit all the usual points I make when rating an ARC, minus the grammar Nazi in me pointing anything critical out.

Sector C is a futuristic, supernatural take on what the world might be like if there were societies where you were brought up, trained and tested to fall into the category of vampire, lycanthrope, breeder, donor or castaway. The story follows the lead Heroine, A (because they are assigned alpha-numerics as names until they are worthy to choose their own name)…

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Mapping My Readers!

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OK, so I got this idea from another authors blog and thought – WHAT A GREAT IDEA!

worldmap-bigger-size

I’ve decided to start a little geography project with my kids and I could really use your help. Using a world map, my kids and I, are going to attempt to map out where my readers are. This will include blog followers as well as all you amazing people who have purchased a copy of one or more of my books. So, that means I need to know where you are!

How are we going to do this?

WITH YOUR HELP

As well as a bit of color coding (one color for blog readers, one color for book readers, and one color for those of you that do both)! Or maybe for the book readers I’ll have one color for each book… yeah, I don’t have it all figured out yet – its still a plan in progress.

In the comments section below this blog, please tell me if you follow my blog and/or have read one of my books or added it to your “to read” list. Then let me know where you live (City/State/Country – Or however much you are comfortable giving).

Want to have even more fun? If you are a book reader please post a photo of yourself holding a copy of my book (paperback or eBook) so the cover is showing in the photo! You can post it in the comments below, on twitter tagging me @Nina_Soden, or on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/BloodAngelSeries (Facebook search: Nina Soden – Author)

I’d like to know just where my readers are and how far my reach has gone. This is my attempt to find out from all of you, while my numbers are still small. I appreciate your help on this project as do my lovely children!

Happy Reading 🙂

What’s in your MEDIA KIT?

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So, as an author, one of your greatest tools is your media kit.

media-kit-checklist

At least that is what I have been told. A media kit is a marketing tool used to sell not only your book(s) but yourself – as an author. Remember – You are not gearing your media kit to readers, your media kit is designed to attract potential agents, publishers, book retailers and interviewers (bloggers, radio, magazine, newspaper, etc.). I have read many – MANY – articles about what an author should include in a media kit. Everything from author head-shots with bios to full-length copies of your printed books. I have weeded through all the information I have found and have settled on the following list of items I plan to include in my media kit.

….Drum Roll Please….

Nope… wait a second. I’d like an opinion first. I had thought about doing two media kids. Why? I’m not really sure. Actually, I am but I’m not sure if my reasoning is sound. I was thinking that because I have written more than one book – and of those books there are two different series – I should have two media kits. In order to sell myself properly, I thought that maybe there was a need to have a media kit specifically designed for each of my book series (the Blood Angel Series and the SECTOR C Series). I have decided to move forward with just one media kit for now, but if you are an author, with media kit experience, please chime in and tell me if you think the right move is one comprehensive media kit or two series media kits.

OK – Now I’m Read

….Drum Roll Please…

Below I list what I plan to include in my media kit… No, it is not complete yet, but it is on my ‘TO DO LIST’! Lets call it a goal for the coming months. (preferably by the end of 2nd Quarter 2015)

Nina Soden, Author Media Kit

  • Author Information Sheet – with photo, bio, contact information, and social media site information
  • Blood Angel Series – Information Sheets/Press Release Information
    • Awaken (book 1) One Sheet and Treatment
    • Beginnings (book 2) One Sheet and Treatment
    • Revenge (book 3) One Sheet and Treatment
  • SECTOR C Series – Information Sheets
    • The Chosen (book 1) One Sheet and Treatment
    • The Hunted (book 2) One Sheet and Treatment (to be included after the book is completed and in the editing phase)
  • Copies of Reviews of each book (not sure how many to include just yet or how long this should be)
  • Bookmarks and Postcards with my book covers
  • Q&A about myself and both of my series (this can be used for bloggers to assist in writing articles or for those wishing to conduct interviews)
  • Color copies of each of the book covers
  • Target Market Information (who my readers are!)

So, what do you put in your author media kit? I’d love to know, please share in the comments section below.

SECTOR C ~ The Chosen — NOW AVAILABLE

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I AM SO EXCITED!!!

Sector C Book 1 Front 3.25.15

SECTOR C ~ The Chosen

IS NOW AVAILABLE

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Release date: March 31, 2015

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Set in a futuristic Dystopian where society is governed by a council of vampires and lycanthropes, selection students are sheltered and raised in a deceptively Utopian world. Strict rules are imposed to control population growth, education, and even personal interactions with other members of the sector, all in the name of safety.

When ‘A’ comes of age she, like all youth throughout Sector C, and her selection classmates aren’t sent out into the world to find jobs, make money and lead happy carefree lives. They are forced to endure the rigorous physical and mental testing of Selection Week before choosing their destiny or being forced into a fate far worse. Those that make it out alive are announced as sector residence, given a position within the society, and allotted all the privileges of their chosen “culture.” However, when your only choices are vampirism, lycanthropy, breeder, blood donor, or banishment to the Wastelands, what choice do you really have?

Suspenseful, intense, passionate, and awash in paranormal delights, SECTOR C ~ THE CHOSEN captures the enchantment and mysteries of the supernatural world and the power of friendship.

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WHERE TO PURCHASE:

PAPERBACK: https://www.createspace.com/5379797 

EBOOK: COMING SOON to http://bookstore.bookcountry.com/

AMAZON: http://amzn.com/0985885335

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Come along on this JOURNEY with me!

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OK, this post is short – but very VERY important, and I do hope that you re-post it and share it with all of your friends.

One of the most important things for an indie-author is friends and followers – READERS. With that in mind I’m reaching out to you, my amazing blog followers, and asking that you follow me here and everywhere (see links below) and that you share this post. Tell your friends, bribe your families, and blackmail your enemies into following me too!

LINKS

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BloodAngelSeries <— VERY IMPORTANT (Facebook Search: Nina Soden – Author)

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Nina_Soden | @Nina_Soden

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6469590.Nina_Soden

  • I have a question and answer section on my Goodreads sight – so if you want to ask… please do.
  • If you read my book(s) and enjoy it/them – please leave a review here.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/ninasoden <— VERY IMPORTANT

  • If you read my book(s) and enjoy it/them – please leave a review here.

Blog: http://www.ninasoden.wordpress.com

  •  This is where I talk about my books, upcoming projects, host author interviews, and sometimes just go really REALLY off topic and ramble about random stuff.

BOOKS

Beginnings (book 2 ~ the Blood Angel Series): http://amzn.com/B00D3G7RWM  |  http://wp.me/P1Ft9W-7J  | http://bookbzz.com/beginnings-nina-soden/ 
SECTOR C ~ The Chosen (book 1 ~ SECTOR C): http://wp.me/p1Ft9W-444
Awaken - Cover Beginnings_-_Cover Featured Image -- 13143 Sector C Bk 1 - FRONT

Books – the Cheapest Vacation You Can Buy!

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Books are a special kind of magic!

Books are a special kind of magic!

To me… books are a special kind of magic!

I tend to go through spurts where I read constantly – in the carpool line, making dinner, at karate, at dance, etc… Then I go through spurts where I don’t crack the spine of a book for months. Right now I am smack dab in the middle of three books, well, one play and two books. Basically, I am at the beginning of a regular reading marathon… at least for me.

Every year I set a reading goal for myself… In the past it has always been 12 books! Yeah, I know – that isn’t that many, but come on… I have a full-time job and two kids that do dance, karate, t-ball, cheer leading camp, etc. etc. etc. So, for me to find time to read even just one book a month is often hard. So, I have always set my goal low… one book a month… and hoped that I actually exceed it. In 2013 I exceeded my goal of 12 books by 5 and read a total of 17 books… I WAS EXCITED! In 2014 I raised my goal, just a little, to 20 books and I managed to read 26! Yeah, last year was a big reading year for me. This year 2015… I have decided to increase my goal again – I plan to read 30 books! It is already February 27th and I have only finished 4 books… I’m a bit behind and not getting off to a great start, but I have time. Right?

What I’m currently reading:

What I’ve recently finished reading:

 

So… the whole point of my post, which I never really got to is this… Books are a wonderful escape into a world you never knew existed. They are a vacation for your mind and cost only pennies compared to what most people spend on actual vacations. So, take a stay-cation… grab a good book… and let it take you to places you’ve never been.

There are so many amazing places, real and imaginary, that books can take you if you only let them.

So… where will you go on your next stay-cation?

End Game by Nina Soden Blood Angel Series Cover Poster Sector C Bk 1 - FRONT Private Words Unspoken

 

Nina Soden, Author
SECTOR C ~ The Chosen (book 1 ~ SECTOR C): http://wp.me/p1Ft9W-444