Tag Archives: awaken

Rewrites… Week Five In Review

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Haven't checked out the Blood Angel series on Facebook yet? Well, you should!

Haven’t checked out the Blood Angel series on Facebook yet? Well, you should! www.facebook.com/BloodAngelSeries

Why is it that when I’m approaching a personal deadline my life gets crazy CRAZY busy?!

Tech week… performances… babysitter cancelling… work deadlines leading to me having to work LATE EVERY NIGHT… stress… StReSs… STRESS!!!

Wow… So I didn’t have much time to do anything this past week, but I did get the book uploaded to the online self-publishing software. Now I just need to make the final edits, error corrections, format adjustments, etc. and then hit send!

Okay, it feels crazy that I am this close to publishing book two. If someone would have asked me two years ago if I believed I would publish a novel I would have said, doubtful! I definitely would never have guessed that I would have two full-length novels published! But man does it feel good.

Okay so here is a recap…

  • Week 1 – Reread the book and all editor’s notes – (YEAH, THAT DIDN”T GO AS PLANNED)
  • Week 2 – Outline changes, rearrange chapters (if needed) based on editor’s notes – (NOT REALLY GOING TO NEED TO OUTLINE CHANGES AND REARRANGE CHAPTERS – I WILL JUST USE THIS WEEK TO FINISH THE REREAD!)
  • Week 3 – Rewrite cover to cover – (YES IT WAS AMBITIOUS, BUT I DID IT AND I AM PROUD OF MYSELF FOR IT. ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING EVERYTHING I HAVE ON MY TO DO LIST RIGHT NOW.)
  • Week 4 – Reread the book for content, timeline, character motivation (YEAH, I KIND OF CHEATED AND TOOK CARE OF THIS DURING WEEK 1. HEE HEE HEE)
  • Week 5 – Reread the book for edits: grammar, spelling, etc. (DONE and THANKFUL FOR IT!)
  • Week 6 – Final changes, format, upload, and publish (VERY EXCITED TO SAY THAT THE BOOK HAS BEEN COMPLETELY UPLOADED AND FINAL ERRORS WILL BE WORKED ON THIS WEEK. I HAD PLANS TO HIT “SEND” AND SUBMIT IT TO THE PUBLISHER BY THURSDAY OF THIS WEEK, BUT THAT ISN”T GOING TO HAPPEN. I AM CROSSING MY FINGERS FOR SUNDAY!)

Yes, it was short but sweet… Next week my update better say “PUBLISHED”. However, I am not going to get down on myself either way… Just going to think positive!

Now, off the subject… Sunday was Mother’s Day and mine was great! My kids and husband got me the prettiest charms for my favorite bracelet and we got to go out to dinner after a day at the theatre. Spending the day on stage with my hubby and being backstage with my kids at the theatre (because the babysitter cancelled) was actually very nice. They were very well-behaved and loved by everyone.

Okay… back to work.

When you get a chance tell me how your writing is coming along. I know I talk a lot about myself here, but I really do care how my readers are doing and what you are all up to. Please share!

Come Along On A Journey With Me!

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Wow, it doesn’t seem like that long ago that I started this blog, but it was…

When I first started I invited you along on a journey of writing, editing, and of course the ultimate goal of (drum roll please) publishing my first young adult novel series. I promised you the journey would not be easy pointing out that I would probably laugh, cry, scream and even shout as I faced many trials, tribulations and hopefully some successes.

Well, I published my first novel ‘Awaken’ ~ a Blood Angel novel (BOOK 1) back in July 2012 and since then a new journey began. It was much the same as the first. I promised to drag you along, kicking and screaming if it came to that, as I start all over again on book two ‘Beginnings’ ~ a Blood Angel novel by Nina Soden!

Well, my journeys to date have been filled with so much more than I could have imagined. Now I am only days away (maybe a week depending on formatting) from uploading my second novel in the Blood Angel series to every e-book seller online. I hope that you will take a few seconds and spend the few dollars it takes to download the book – and please tell your family, bribe your friends and blackmail your enemies into picking up a copy of their own.

Now I begin a new journey – ‘Revenge’ ~ a Blood Angel novel (BOOK 3)

Hope on… join the ride… and click follow to come along on this new adventure.

And, if all that isn’t enough… follow me because I randomly (often) get writers block and end up going way off topic, and challenging myself to discover new things about myself, or just new things about the world in general!

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Beginnings ~ a Blood Angel novel

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Beginnings ~ a Blood Angel novel by Nina Soden Coming soon to e-readers everywhere!

Beginnings ~ a Blood Angel novel by Nina Soden
Coming soon to e-readers everywhere!

BEGINNINGS ~ a Blood Angel novel

by Nina Soden

 Surrounded by a new world where the horror films she grew up watching have become reality Alee finds that the most unlikely characters have become her lifeline. If she thought hunting in the wild and drinking blood was bad, what will she think when she becomes the hunted? Newly armed with the knowledge of being half witch and half vampire Alee, the only surviving Dhampir in history, is forced to learn to control a lifetime of magic and vampire powers if she wants to survive.

 Part horror thriller – part tender romance, Beginnings will leave readers wanting more!

 E-BOOK COMING SOON!

Haven't checked out the Blood Angel series on Facebook yet? Well, you should!

Haven’t checked out the Blood Angel series on Facebook yet? Well, you should!

 Click here to check out the Blood Angel Series on Facebook

Rewrites… Week Four In Review

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Haven't checked out the Blood Angel series on Facebook yet? Well, you should!

Click here to check out Blood Angel Series on Facebook!

WEEK FOUR IN REVIEW…

Okay, I just need to get this off my chest for a minute. There are days, most, in which I feel that I am simply writing this blog to amuse myself, which I do by the way. Its like… emptiness out there. I put all this stuff out there into the world, but no one every comments or responds. Is it a waste of time? Should I stop? Hmmm… makes me wonder. I’m not planning to stop though because if for no other reason than to be able to look back and read about my journey, I want the blog.

So, week for has come and gone – how did I do, you ask…

Well, my goal was simple: Reread the book for content, timeline, and character motivation. Yeah, like  I said last week – I already took care of that during week one, so I skipped ahead to my week five goal of: Reread the book for edits: grammar spelling, etc. Well, that is done, and I gotta say I didn’t find to many errors. I found some and glad for it, but honestly the more you read your own writing the less you see wrong with it. I am sure the first person that buys a copy will spot a typo on page one, but like I have said a thousand times, “I am a self-published author. I don’t promise no mistakes, typos, spelling errors, and grammatical issues. All I can promise is that I will put my heart and soul into every thing I write, and I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.”

Okay… Monday started week five, and being ahead of the game – the week six goal: Final changes, format, upload, and publish.

How do I do this? Simple, a plea to my editor for any final edits she has come up with in the weeks since giving me her last comments, then the dreaded process of transforming the book from a plain old word document to an easy to maneuver and well formatted e-book. Actually the process isn’t all the dreaded. With BookTango it is actually very simple. You just upload the document and they it points out all of your formatting errors… Makes you feel kind of stupid for making 100-200 (sometimes more) formatting errors in the first place, but they are easy to fix.

So once again here is the plan:

  • Week 1 – Reread the book and all editor’s notes – (YEAH, THAT DIDN”T GO AS PLANNED)
  • Week 2 – Outline changes, rearrange chapters (if needed) based on editor’s notes – (NOT REALLY GOING TO NEED TO OUTLINE CHANGES AND REARRANGE CHAPTERS – I WILL JUST USE THIS WEEK TO FINISH THE REREAD!)
  • Week 3 – Rewrite cover to cover – (YES IT WAS AMBITIOUS, BUT I DID IT AND I AM PROUD OF MYSELF FOR IT. ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING EVERYTHING I HAVE ON MY TO DO LIST RIGHT NOW.)
  • Week 4 – Reread the book for content, timeline, character motivation (YEAH, I KIND OF CHEATED AND TOOK CARE OF THIS DURING WEEK 1. HEE HEE HEE)
  • Week 5 – Reread the book for edits: grammar, spelling, etc. (DONE and THANKFUL FOR IT!)
  • Week 6 – Final changes, format, upload, and publish (VERY EXCITED TO SAY THAT BY MONDAY OF WEEK SIX THE BOOK WILL BE COMPLETELY UPLOADED AND FINAL ERRORS WILL BE WORKED ON. I PLAN TO HIT SEND TO THE PUBLISHER BY THURSDAY OF WEEK 6! THAT IS THREE DAYS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE!)

Okay, so back to my journey… I hope you are enjoying my journey and partaking in one of your own. If you are… tell me all about it!

Beginnings ~ a Blood Angel novel by Nina Soden Coming soon to e-readers everywhere!

Beginnings ~ a Blood Angel novel by Nina Soden
Coming soon to e-readers everywhere!

Live your life… but indulge in the lives of others through literature.

Rewrites… Week Three In Review

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Yes, I know it is Thursday (NOT MONDAY). I get it, I am three days late on my weekly review. Although I am not big on excuses (NOT), let me just throw this out there…

  • 2 kids in school (wake, feed, clean, teeth, school, homework, cuddle, bath, teeth, bed…)
  • 1 full-time job (work, work, work, proposals, contracts, accounting, work, work, work…)
  • 1 amazing husband (love, cherish, respect…)
  • 1 lead role in a theatre production (memorization, memorization, memorization, character development, character development, character development, rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal…)
  • 1 house (clean, vacuum, laundry, dishes, clean, vacuum, laundry, dishes…)

You get the picture right?

So… with that behind me I will say this; my goal for week three was to rewrite the book cover-to-cover!

Do you think I made my goal? YOU BEAT YOUR BUTT CHEEKS I DID!

That’s right, I did it, I rewrote the book cover-to-cover. I took into account all of the notes, edits, comments, and revisions my two editors put into it and I rearranged, deleted, added, and just plain improved my book. At least I think so. 🙂

Seeing as it is Thursday of week 4 I am sure you are probably wondering if I have already started my week 4 goal of rereading the book for content, timeline, and character motivation. The answer would be: yes, yes I did. Actually I kind of cheated. While I was rereading the book and all the editor’s notes in Week 1 I also took notes about timeline, content discrepancies, and character motivation. Yeah, that might have been why week one took a little longer than expected, but hey… I got the job done right?

Having already done that portion – I was able to utilize the notes I had taken during my week three goal while rewriting the book. So, in fact… although it is only week 4 right now I have begun the week 5 goal of rereading the book (AGAIN) for edits such as grammar, spelling, and word substitution (there instead of their, to vs. too, etc.).

AUTHOR DISCLAIMER: The Blood Angel Series are self-published books… I don’t promise that there are no editing errors (grammar, spelling, word substitutions [see above for description]) but I do promise to put my heart and soul into everything I write and to do my best to make my books as entertaining and exciting for my readers as I can. I don’t know if that is enough to make you want to buy my books, but I hope it is, and, if you do… I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy writing, editing, rewriting, and reading them over and over again.

Okay, so week 4 is almost over what more is there to do in my 6 week plan to go from edits to published?

So once again here is the plan:

  • Week 1 – Reread the book and all editor’s notes – (YEAH, THAT DIDN”T GO AS PLANNED)
  • Week 2 – Outline changes, rearrange chapters (if needed) based on editor’s notes – (NOT REALLY GOING TO NEED TO OUTLINE CHANGES AND REARRANGE CHAPTERS – I WILL JUST USE THIS WEEK TO FINISH THE REREAD!)
  • Week 3 – Rewrite cover to cover – (YES IT WAS AMBITIOUS, BUT I DID IT AND I AM PROUD OF MYSELF FOR IT. ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING EVERYTHING I HAVE ON MY TO DO LIST RIGHT NOW.)
  • Week 4 – Reread the book for content, timeline, character motivation (YEAH, I KIND OF CHEATED AND TOOK CARE OF THIS DURING WEEK 1. HEE HEE HEE)
  • Week 5 – Reread the book for edits: grammar, spelling, etc. (WORKING ON IT NOW… WOO HOO)
  • Week 6 – Final changes, format, upload, and publish

Let me know how your writing goals are going…

Beginnings ~ a Blood Angel novel by Nina Soden Coming soon to e-readers everywhere!

Beginnings ~ a Blood Angel novel by Nina Soden
Coming soon to e-readers everywhere!

AWAKEN – Press Release – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 6, 2013

 AWAKEN ~ a Blood Angel novel

by Nina Soden

Awaken - Cover

 HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA March 5, 2013 – Awaken is set in a world very much like our own, yet Atlanta isn’t just an ordinary city and Alee Moyer isn’t just an ordinary girl. Having barely survived her childhood it will take the death of her father for the truth of her true bloodline to come out. It may mean losing her life, or at least her identity, but she cannot escape her true destiny as the first surviving Dhampir in history. Surrounded by a new world where the horror films she grew up watching have become reality and the most unlikely characters have become her lifeline, Alee will struggle to find herself and her purpose. Part horror thriller – part tender romance, Awaken will leave readers eagerly wanting more!

“From the opening scene to the final chapter, the characters in this book dive onto the page and demand your attention” Stated The Gena Monologues http://www.genamonologues.com/2012_09_01_archive.html

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Huntsville author, Nina Soden, has always been creative, in art, theatre, film – anything but singing! She earned her bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Military Science from Eastern Michigan University where she spent most of her time either on stage, rappelling down buildings, or working one of three jobs. After college she moved to Los Angeles, like so many other actors, in pursuit of her dreams. In 2008, after some major life changes, Nina self-published her first book PRIVATE WORDS UNSPOKEN, a compilation of poetry. Since then, her dreams have gotten bigger and she likes to think her storytelling ability has gotten better. She has done everything from secretarial work to business development and was even the Director of a private preschool. She has fired a M16, jumped out of a C130, and given birth – TWICE – but she always returns to her art.

Though she’ll forever be a Michigan girl at heart, she now lives in Alabama with her husband and two beautiful children. If she’s not working on her latest story, you can find her lounging with a good book, playing with her kids, or indulging in her unhealthy addiction to Starbucks coffee.

For additional information about Awaken, the debut novel in the Blood Angel series visit http://www.ninasoden.wordpress.com, or download Awaken to your kindle, Nook, iPad, or other e-reader, anywhere e-books are sold, today! ISBN: 978-1-46891-158-9

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AWAKEN ~ a Blood Angel novel – 1st Quarter Sales

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As you all know, I wrote a book.

Awaken - Cover

BookTango – Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Books on Board – Kobo – Sony

AWAKEN, is the first book in my Blood Angel series, and it was published on July 29th of this year, which only gave me two months to sell during my first quarter in the published world.

How did AWAKEN do?

Well, I sold some books! That’s a start. I just got my quarterly earnings report and I was so happy to see that I sold twenty-three copies in the first two months. Yeah, I know twenty-three copies isn’t going to get me on the best sellers list, but for someone who started this just for fun as a creative outlet the fact that I sold even one book made me happy.

I just wanted to say think you to the twenty-three people out there that cared enough to buy my book. I hope you enjoyed it, and that you are looking forward to book number two, BEGINNINGS!

Beginnings is currently with the editor undergoing what I hope is its final round of edits, but you never know. The plan is to have Beginnings out on the online virtual bookshelves early 2013, but stay tuned to www.ninasoden.wordpress.com for updates.

Beginnings_-_Cover

For those of you that haven’t picked up your copy yet please do. I am a firm believer in supporting the arts, artists, and anyone trying to make their place in the world. If you feel the same way, please click on one of the links below and GET YOUR COPY TODAY:

BookTango – Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Books on Board – Kobo – Sony

Follow me to learn more and find out exciting new updates as I complete BEGINNINGS book 2 of the Blood Angel series:

Blog – Twitter – Facebook

Goal… #WRITING

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It’s Friday night, and while so many people are out on the town for a date-night of dinner and a movie I’m going to be home cuddling on my couch with a cozy blanket, my laptop and a glass of wine. That might not sound great to you, but to me it sounds divine!

The thing is I love date-night with my hubby, but I rarely set aside time for just me. So, with that in mind, that is exactly what I am going to do tonight. After I get the kids to sleep the television will be turned off and I will be in the zone… the WRITING ZONE! Which, brings me back to the title of this post [Goal… #WRITING] My goal for tonight’s writing session is 4 chapters in BEGINNINGS the second book in the Blood Angel series! What is the Blood Angel series you ask… VERY GOOD QUESTION. The Blood Angel series is my first YA novel series. It all started with AWAKEN, which I published at the end of July 2012 and it continues with BEGINNINGS which I hope to publish later this year, or early 2013. You can check out the Blood Angel Series Facebook Page and read all about it.

I might be able to do more, depending on how late I can get myself to stay up, but I’m trying to be realistic. I’d like to say that I am one of those authors that can pump out 5000 words a day, but unfortunately I have a full-time job, two kids, and a house to take care of. That leave little time for me to just be the author me. Its to bad someone hasn’t come along and offered to pay me to write all day – that would be great!!! Hint Hint!!! So, for now, I will be happy with the little amount of time I do get to write, and I will focus on my small successes, and tonight I am hoping for that to be 4 chapters.

Wish me luck, and enjoy your evening – no matter how you end up spending it.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2012

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Since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I was looking for ways to showing my support. If you are too, but you don’t have a lot of money to donate – then keep reading.

Does $3.99 sound like to much? No? Then you have come to the right place!

In the spirit of breast cancer awareness month – I will be donating the profits from the October sales of my book AWAKEN to team STEP BY STEP who will be walking in the 2013 Susan G. Komen 3-day For The Cure. These amazing women (Nicole Smith and Clara Tapaninen) will be walking the 60 mile 3-day walk for the third year in a row, and although I would love to walk with them… other commitments stand in the way. Therefore, I will find other ways to participate and so can YOU!

My book AWAKEN is only $3.99 online NOW and available for download to your Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc…. Just follow one of the links below and get your copy today. The Bonus – You can feel good about your purchase because the profits will go toward finding a cure for Breast Cancer! Who can say no to that?

GET YOUR COPY TODAY:

BookTango – Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Books on Board – Kobo – Sony

Follow me to learn more and find out exciting new updates as I complete BEGINNINGS book 2 of the Blood Angel series:

Blog – Twitter – Facebook

Cover Reveal – Beginnings ~ a Blood Angel novel

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I am so excited to reveal the cover for BEGINNINGS the second book in my Blood Angel series, which has an expected release date of early 2013 (maybe sooner).

BEGINNINGS SYNOPSIS:

Ever since her funeral, seventeen-year-old Alee Moyer has discovered there is a whole new side to her sweet little town. In her new identity as Aleerah Wenham, she has had to learn to accept that the horror movies she grew up watching weren’t all make-believe, and that life isn’t always as simple as she might hope but can be a lot more exciting.

Theres a new boy at school that has her heart skipping a beat and questioning her feelings for her boyfriend Kyle, but is he really who he says he is or is there more to his story too?

Read the story that started it all AWAKEN by Nina Soden available now online!

Links: BookTango – Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Books on Board – Kobo – Sony

Follow me to learn more and find out exciting new updates as I complete book 2: Blog – Twitter – Facebook