Don't Miss the Black Friday Book Sale!

Are you ready for the most wonderful time of the year?  It's nearly time for the Black Friday Book Sale!  The time when a couple hundred indie authors (including me) put some or all of their Kindle books on sale for $.99 or FREE!  From Black Friday through Cyber Monday, you can stuff your Kindle full of amazing indie books at ridiculously low prices.

I'm marking all six of my Once Upon a Western books down to 99 cents.  Same goes for A Noble Companion.  And all the authors of Follow the Lonesome Trail agreed to lower its price to 99 cents for the weekend as well!  

This price drop is part of the massive indie book sale showcased at blackfridaybooksale.com, a site run by the wonderfully organized Perry Elizabeth Kirkpatrick.  My books are mainly in the Historical Fiction section, except for A Noble Companion, which is in the fantasy section.  A lot of other books in the Cornerstone Series (which ANC is part of) are part of this sale too.

All of the books included on that sale site are clean, which means they do not contain smut, the violence is non-gory, and any cussing is kept to a below-PG-13 level.  There are a couple hundred authors involved in this, which means hundreds and hundreds of ebooks available at their lowest price possible!

It looks like the price for my books has already dropped even though it isn't Black Friday, so if you want to go shopping a little early, go right ahead ;-)

Alan Ladd and My Writing

It's Alan Ladd's birthday today :-D 

This year, to celebrate, I'm going to share about the ways that Alan Ladd has shaped my writing and my books.

When I write fiction, I see and hear the story in my head like a movie.  I can replay scenes, move the camera angles, rewrite lines, and so on -- I see and hear it all in my imagination, and I write it down from there.  Because I love movies, I tend to use actors and actresses as a kind of jumpstart for my imagination, and often "cast" specific stars in different roles.  Eventually, the characters step a bit away from who I have cast as them and come to life in their own ways, but it's a good way to get a book started, for me.

(If you're ever curious about exactly whom I have cast as different characters in my books, I have Pinterest boards for all my books with character choices, pictures of setting and clothing and objects that I have saved as I research, and so on.)

I fell for Alan Ladd hard back in February of 2016.  At that time, I was working on rewrites for my Sleeping Beauty retelling, The Man on the Buckskin Horse, which had won a contest and was to be published in the anthology Five Magic Spindles.  I didn't actually recast any of the characters as him, since they were all very much themselves by that point, but he did help me out with one scene.

One of the changes the editors had me make after I won the contest was to give my "handsome prince" character, the gunfighter Luke Palmer, a backstory.  And I needed to write a scene where Palmer explains his past to Miss Emma, my "fairy godmother" character.  I banged my head against that scene for the longest time because Palmer Did Not Want To Share His Trauma.  At all.  Not a bit.  And I finally threw my hands up in disgust, booted my usual actor for him out the door, and tried running the scene in my head with Alan Ladd in the character instead.

And the character sat down, got a little quiet, and then reeled off this heartfelt speech about how his experiences as a Civil War surgeon had led to his present job as a gunfighter for hire.  One writing session.  Bam.  Whole scene, perfect and complete.  And, when I reread that book (because, yes, I do reread my books -- I write them because I want to read them!), I see and hear Palmer as his tall, dark self... except for that scene, where he flips into quiet and fair Alan Ladd.

Well, I had such a good time working with an imaginary Alan Ladd in my head while rewriting The Man on the Buckskin Horse, I knew I wanted to write him again.  So, when I was casting my Little Red Riding Hood retelling, Cloaked, I put him in as the woodcutter character, Hauer.  And Hauer absolutely stole my heart.  This is Alan Ladd in his 50s, which he never quite reached in real life, and I loved getting to imagine him a bit older and with a lot of life ahead yet, even if only as a fictional character.  (Hauer would obviously be a bit older than in the photo above, but it captures the Hauerness of Hauer too well to use something else.)

I even dedicated Cloaked to Alan's memory, and a tradition of dedicating my Once Upon a Western books to a Classic Hollywood actor or actress was born.

It's pretty easy to know which character I cast Alan Ladd as in my Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling, Dancing and Doughnuts, if you know his full name is Alan Walbridge Ladd.  I gave Sheriff Gideon Walbridge that last name as a placeholder because I didn't have a name for him initially, and it stuck.  Sheriff Walbridge is Alan in his 40s, wise and starting to mellow, but still sharp and ready for trouble if it comes his way.

I was so giddy when I realized that Hauer could show up again in One Bad Apple, my Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs retelling.  It takes place a decade before Cloaked, and I spent a long time scrutinizing the personal history I have for Hauer to make sure he could be there in Missouri in 1873.  I tried not to tell too many people ahead of time that he was going to show up again in it so he would be a fun surprise for initial readers, and the reactions I got to his return were everything I hoped for.  

Because I love Hauer dearly, I am especially pleased that he got to be the first character to show up in more than one Once Upon a Western book.  The little ties and crossovers will keep coming as the series lengthens, I promise!

Dan McLeod in my Beauty and the Beast retelling My Rock and My Refuge is the kind of friend we all should have.  He's had so many sad things happen in his life, but he never lets them get in the way of being a good friend to those around him.  I love his quiet dignity, his determination to do anything rather than lose another son, and the fact that he is both soft and resilient.  I want to write more characters like that.  

I have loved the last name McLeod since I was a kid and first saw the movie El Dorado (1966), in which John Wayne's character has a frenemy named McLeod.  I only heard it pronounced, I didn't see it spelled, and thought it must be spelled McCloud, which seemed to me like the absolute coolest name ever.  I even gave it to a character in a story I was writing at the time.  I was super disappointed to later learn how it is actually spelled... but I still love the way the name sounds, so I used it here for a character with lofty ideals and a high moral character, who lives high in the mountains.  Like a cloud.

If you look at the Pinterest board for A Noble Companion, my Ugly Duckling retelling, you'll see lots of photos of a young Ewan McGregor, and not one of Alan Ladd.  That's because Alan was my original casting for Javier Moncada, the love interest.  I wrote the first couple of drafts with him in mind, but then switched Javier to Ewan McGregor because he was a better physical fit for what the character as I was writing him.  But I still hear all of Javier's dialog in Alan's voice when I reread the book.  I loved finally getting to write him as a younger character!  

And then I went right back to writing him older in my short story "Safekeeping," which is in the anthology Follow the Lonesome Trail.  He just has a bit part, and barely any lines, as the weary Dr. Masterson who drinks too much.  In a way, that's me kind of addressing Alan Ladd's own struggles with alcohol, which is also something a lot of people I know have dealt with.  It's not a big focus of the story, but it's there, and my own headcanon involves Dr. Masterson eventually moving away from town and getting (and staying) sober with the help of his daughter-in-law.  

Those last two books are not part of my Once Upon a Western series, but the book I'm about to start writing is!  It's a retelling of The Steadfast Tin Soldier, it involves a Civil War veteran amputee, and Alan Ladd is once again playing a supporting character in it.  I think his character is in his late twenties, a bit older than the main character, and again something of a mentor, because I just really love writing him that way, I guess!

Beyond that?  Who knows!  Will I one day write a book without Alan Ladd in it?  I mean, yeah, it could happen.  It probably will, one day.  But for now, you can expect to keep seeing characters show up in my books who look, sound, and behave like characters he often played.  Because my imagination isn't tired of him yet :-)

Five Books? Surreal.

It's a little hard to believe I have five books out now.  Five!  One was amazing.  Two was terrific.  Three and four felt like really good progress.  But five books, out in the world, on people's shelves.  On my own shelves.  Somehow, five seems like a significant number.  Like I'm not just dabbling in publishing my books.  Like this is a real series now, not just a few books that I keep saying is a series.

(from my Instagram)

My launch tour for The Man on the Buckskin Horse is over.  I've updated the links in the tour post if you want to check out any you've missed.  It feels really fitting that this novella would be the number five book, the book that makes me really sit back and say, "Yup, this is a real series.  I'm an author with staying power."  Because this is the novella that launched my publishing career, when it was published in the Five Magic Spindles anthology in 2016.  It's like a homecoming of sorts, that I'm able to bring it into my series officially at last.  And in such a pretty illustrated edition!  I love it a lot.

That's probably enough rambling about this book.  I'll leave you with this cool book video that Deborah Koren made for me :-D

Book Tour for "The Man on the Buckskin Horse"

It's book tour time!  The illustrated edition of my Sleeping Beauty retelling, The Man on the Buckskin Horse, releases Tuesday!  Here is a link to it on Amazon, where you can get the paperback and Kindle editions.  (Well, the paperback drops on Tuesday, and you can pre-order the Kindle until then.)

I have put together a short online tour for this release, including several interviews, lots of book reviews, and some other types of stops as well.  For website and blog stops, I will update links as things go live.  

Note that the interviews on Monday and Friday are live events that you can join on Instagram and watch as they happen, and even ask questions during!  Those will be archived on Instagram as well, to watch any other time that works for you.

Here is the book tour itinerary:

Monday, April 29

Live interview with @books_with_cordy at 8pm EST on Instagram

Book review by @jillions_of_stories on Instagram

Tuesday, April 30 -- Release Day

Post by the book's illustrator, Skye Hoffert, on her blog Ink Castles

Book review by @thefilmdirectorswife on Instagram

Book review by @ive_seen_a_new_world on Instagram

Wednesday, May 1

Book review by Kilmeny on her blog VT Dorchester

Book review by @giltedgedpages on Instagram

Book review by @thepurplegiraffereads on Instagram

Thursday, May 2

Interview with Suey Nordberg on YouTube

Book review by @elisabethaimeebrown on Instagram

Friday, May 3

Live interview with @eldmountain at 7pm EST on Instagram

Book review by @aliciaandherbooks on Instagram

Don't forget that if you buy a copy of The Man on the Buckskin Horse by May 31, you are eligible to receive a pack of related goodies!  There's more info about that in this post.  

As always, you can order signed paperback copies of my books via this form.  I don't have paperbacks for Buckskin on hand yet, but I should have them soon, and will ship them out as soon as I have them.  All paperbacks ordered directly from me before May 31 will automatically receive the packet of goodies.

Goodies for "The Man on the Buckskin Horse"

When you buy the new illustrated edition of my Sleeping Beauty retelling The Man on the Buckskin Horse between now and May 31, you can receive a packet of related goodies!

All you have to do is buy a copy (paperback or ebook) before the end of May, and then fill out this form.  I will send you one bookmark, two stickers, and one art card of your choice!  All of those feature artwork by Skye Hoffert that are also in the book.

If you haven't read this novella yet, here's what it's about::

As the local midwife and sole medical professional in her Nebraska community, Miss Emma always wants to help. When she learns the Owens family's bitter enemy has hired a gunman to force them from their home, she rushes to the Owens homestead to warn them. But the gunman has arrived sooner than expected. Despite Miss Emma's efforts to protect her friends, her actions only worsen their plight. Now, Rosalind Owens battles a severe infection, and Miss Emma's medical skills aren’t enough to save her. 

Professional gunman Luke Palmer was hired to remove the Owenses from their land, but he now suspects the family has a legal right to stay. As fear and uncertainty grip the Owens family, Palmer offers his aid. Can they trust him, or is his offer a ploy to remove them from their land for good? Amidst these conflicts, Palmer faces his own internal struggle, torn between his wish to forget the past and the urgent need to save an innocent life.

You can pre-order the Kindle edition here right now, and the paperback will be released April 30!

As always, you can order signed paperback copies of my books via this form.  I don't have paperbacks for Buckskin on hand yet, but I should have them right around the release date.

Upcoming Book Releases

Yes, that title is plural for a reason!  I have several new releases and rereleases in the works for 2024, and it is long past time for me to be talking about them here.  Life has been kinda... extra... the last couple of months, and things like blogging have gotten shoved to the back burner a bit.  Part of that mayhem has been that I have a LOT of book projects I'm working on all at once, so let me give you a quick run-down on what is on the horizon for my books!

First off, I'm releasing my Sleeping Beauty retelling, The Man on the Buckskin Horse as an illustrated paperback on April 30!  It will also be available (with the illustrations!) for ebook -- you can pre-order the Kindle edition here already.  The illustrations are all by Skye Hoffert, whom I commissioned to do character art for My Rock and My Refuge.  It was such a joy to work with her again!

This is the novella that won the Rooglewood Press retelling contest and was included in their 2016 anthology Five Magic Spindles.  The publication rights have reverted back to me, and I am excited to be able to finally make this book an official part of my Once Upon a Western series!

Info about book launch goodies and so on will be coming after Easter, so be on the lookout for that.

Okay, that's announcement number one.  Here's the next one:

I will be releasing a collection of ten short stories this summer!  There will be two stories related to each book in my Once Upon a Western series, all either prequels or sequels to those books.  You've been able to read some of those stories before, but three will be brand-new, and several others have only been available to my author newsletter subscribers previously.

Speaking of which, if you haven't signed up for my author newsletter yet, you can do that right here.  It's a much faster way to find out about my book news than waiting for me to have time to post things on my blog ;-)

Okay, piece of news number three:

I have signed a deal with ONE Audiobooks to produce audiobook versions of my entire Once Upon a Western series, including the short stories that I'll be releasing this summer!  This is a dream come true, and I am really excited about this additional way for people to access my books.

(This is the same company that I wrote A Christian Reader's Guide to Jane Eyre for last year, which should be released sometime this spring.)

And now, my fourth and final announcement:

Last fall, I was invited to be part of a multi-author series called the Cornerstone Series which will be a set of sixteen novellas, each retelling a fairy tale, but focusing on a side character from the fairy tale.  So, imagine a Cinderella retelling that's about the fairy godmother, or a Snow White retelling that focuses on the huntsman, that kind of thing.  (Those are examples ONLY -- I don't know if any of the authors are writing anything like that.)  The series will be all non-magical fantasy novellas, which means there may be fairy tale creatures like unicorns or mermaids, or other fantasy elements, but there will be no magicians, witches, wizards, or sorcerers.  

My book, A Noble Companion, is an Ugly Duckling Retelling that focuses not on the ugly duckling himself, but on a childhood friend.  It is set in a fantasy version of Spanish California in the early 1800s where there are talking animals and a dragon.

I'll be revealing more about A Noble Companion in the coming months, and it will be released November 12.  You can already pre-order the ebook on Amazon if you want to.

Okay!  That's all my news!  Are you breathless?  I kind of am. That's a LOT to be working on in one year!!!  Drop a comment below and tell me which of these projects you're the most excited about :-D

Happy Halloween! Have a Free Book... No Tricks!

Want something to read while you wait for My Rock and My Refuge to get released next week?  Well, you are in luck!  Because I am offering a free copy of my Sleeping Beauty retelling The Man on the Buckskin Horse to everyone who is signed up for my author newsletter.

If you're already a newsletter subscriber, you should have gotten an email this afternoon with instructions on how and where to access your free copy!

If you're not a newsletter subscriber yet, you can follow this link or use the widget in my blog's sidebar to sign up.  And then you will receive a welcome email with instructions on how to get your free copy.

And that's all there is to it!  Happy reading!

The Fairy Tale Tag

Fairy Tale Central has created their first-ever tag!  You can find the original here, along with a link-up so you can find other people who have answered it!

It just so happens that I sent off the revised version of One Bad Apple to my editor at the end of last week, and so I am footloose and fancy free for a few days, and this blog tag about fairy tales is exactly what I'm in the mood for.  I hope you are too.

(All photos are mine from my Instagram)

– What’s an obscure fairy tale you love? 

I really love The Tinder Box, which is this weird one involving a kind ex-soldier who helps an old woman who then gives him a tinder box that he can use to call these three giant dogs to help him.  I keep trying to figure out a way to retell it without magic so it could be part of my series because it's so dear to my heart, but so far, no luck.

– If you got to choose Disney’s next animated princess movie, what fairy tale would you choose to be adapted? 

The Twelve Dancing Princesses, because it's my favorite.  And just think of all the merchandising opportunities with that many princesses!  Come on, Disney, get with it!

– What is the first fairy tale you remember hearing when you were a child? 

I had a whole lot of Disney story books that came with records you could listen to while following along in the book.  I had them for Cinderella and Snow White and Mickey and the Beanstalk, so those all kind of tie for the first one I remember.

– If you were to embark on a fairy tale quest, what necessities would you pack in your bag? 

A pistol with lots of extra ammo, strong rope, lots of protein bars, a couple canteens, and a spare charger for my phone.  Also, a good camera.

– What’s your favorite fairy tale trope? 

Overlooked, ordinary person saves the day.

– If you could be any fairy tale character archetype (the princess, the soldier, fairy godmother, talking animal, mischievous imp, wise old woman, evil stepmother/sister, etc.), who would you want to be and why? 

A fairy godmother!  I'm already practicing :-)

– What animal/mythical creature would be your sidekick for fairy tale adventures? 

I'd like a flying horse, please.

– What is your favorite historical era, and what fairy tale would you love to see in that setting? 

I love the Old West, and as it so happens, I have a habit of setting fairy tales there!  So far, my Once Upon a Western series has book-length retellings of Little Red Riding Hood (Cloaked) and The Twelve Dancing Princesses (Dancing and Doughnuts), plus (FREE) short story retellings of Scheherazade, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Three Billy Goats Gruff.

(All those links just go to Goodreads pages, btw.)

Also, my first retelling, which was of Sleeping Beauty, is called "The Man on the Buckskin Horse" and is available in the Five Magic Spindles anthology.  Next up is my Snow White retelling, One Bad Apple, which I'm hoping will get released late this spring.

After that, I have book-length retellings planned for Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and The Steadfast Tin Soldier.  Plus there will doubtless be short story retellings in there too.

– If you could change a fairy tale’s villain into a hero, who would you choose and why? 

On a whole, I'm not a huge fan of twisting up fairy tales so the villains are the heroes and the heroes are the villains.  But I think Maddie Morrow did a marvelous job doing exactly that with her Snow White retelling "Red as Blood," which is in the Five Poisoned Apples anthology.  So let's stick with that.

– Do you prefer fairy tales with happy endings or sad/tragic endings? why?

Happy!  I prefer happy endings for everything except very specific stories like Hamlet.


And that's the end of that!  I hope you have a lovely Monday :-)  It's dreary here, but the rain has stopped for a little while, at least.

The Never Have I Ever Writing Tag

(Source)

So, you may or may not know that I am in the final chapters of revising One Bad Apple, my latest Once Upon a Western book.  It's been a long road, writing this book.  But I feel like it and I have finally made friends, and the last couple weeks of revision of been joyful ones.

Be that as it may... it's nice to take a break from writing once in a while and just chat about the writing process itself.  Which is why I'm so glad Eva tagged me for this over on Coffee, Classics, and Craziness!

Rules 
1. Link to and thank the blogger who tagged you. (Thanks, Eva!)
2. Include the graphic somewhere in your post (or make your own!)
3. Answer the questions truthfully and honestly.
4. Tag 3 bloggers.

(Pssssst, DKoren!  You're going to want to turn on GIFs for this post...)


Never Have I Ever… 

…started a novel that I did not finish. 

I can think of three actual novels I did not finish the first drafts of.  And many short stories.  So, yeah, guilty.

…written a story completely by hand. 

In high school, I did about half my story-writing by hand and half on typewriter (!) or computer.  In college, I wrote papers on the computer and stories by hand (the first draft, I mean).  It wasn't until I wrote my first novel after college that I started switching to mostly computer.  But I didn't give up doing at least some of my crafting by hand until I got my first laptop sometime around 2010.

…changed tenses midway through a story. 

I know it's happened.  I can't remember specific instances, but I know I've had to go back and make stuff match before.

…changed my protagonist’s name halfway through a draft. 

Totally guilty, though usually for side characters, not protagonists.  But I've changed names for main characters after the first or second draft lots of times, particularly the gunfighter in "The Man on the Buckskin Horse," who was originally Cole Palmer, then became Bret Palmer when I rewrote it, and finally became Luke Palmer when I revised it after winning the Five Magic Spindles contest.

…written a story in a month or less. 

Pssshsshhh.  Of course I have!  I've won Nanowrimo multiple times.  I've written whole first drafts of books in a month or less, much less some measly story.

…fallen asleep while writing. 

Nope.  Never.  No way.

…corrected someone’s grammar irl/online. 

In real life?  Yes.  Cuz hello?  I'm a homeschool mom.  It's in the job description.  Online?  Probably a few times.  But I tend to give most people a pass online.  Or else I'd go crazy correcting people constantly, and who needs that?

…yelled in all caps at myself in the middle of a novel. 

Oh, all the time.  So guilty.  I was just talking to a friend about how, when I'm writing romantic scenes, I'll put stuff like (GAG ME!) and (YARK!) and (MAKE IT STOP!) all through the first draft.

…killed a character who was based off someone I know in real life. 

I've based very few fictional characters on people I know in real life.  The only time I've consciously done so was for Dancing and Doughnuts, where the quilting circle ladies are named after the ladies in the book club at my home church.

…used pop culture references in a story. 

Guilty!  I do it all the time.  But it's usually subtle, like re-purposing a favorite line from a movie or book.  In my WWII stories, though, I'm all about popping in references to the pop culture of that day.

…not researched anything before starting a story. 

Not lately.  But in the past, yes.  And I generally do a lot of my researching as I write because I don't always know what it is I'm going to need to learn until I get to that part of the book or story!

…used “I’m writing” as an excuse. 

Probably?  I can't remember a specific instance.  I mean, as in like, "here's why I'm not doing such-and-such on Saturday," yeah.  As a reason to be excused.  Not like I've said, "I can't, cuz I'm writing," and then actually gone to a movie or something.

…written between the hours of 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. 

I worked third shift for four years straight.  I wrote in the middle of the night all the time!  For years!  But lately, no.

…drank an entire pot of coffee while writing. 

Technically, yes, because my coffee pot only holds two mugs-worth of coffee, which is about equal to a venti from Starbucks.

…laughed like an evil villain while writing a scene. 

Indubitably.

…written down dreams to use in potential novels.

Yes, totally.  They're usually utter rubbish upon further inspection, alas.

…published an unedited story on the internet/Wattpad/blog. 

I have not, I would not, and I loathe the very idea.  Everything gets edited!!!  Even my blog posts!!!

…procrastinated homework because I wanted to write. 

Definitely.  I used to pretend my schoolwork was taking a really long time during high school so that I'd have time to be alone at my desk, madly scribbling at some story or other.

…typed so long that my wrists hurt. 

Yeah.  Especially the year that I worked doing data entry 40+ hours a week, and then started writing my first novel in my spare time.  I didn't quite develop carpal tunnel, but I would have if I hadn't gotten a different job.

…spilled a drink on my laptop while writing. 

Nope, don't think so.

…forgotten to save my work/draft. 

I would like to say that this has never happened to me, but it totally has.  Ugh.  Not for a lot of years, though!

…finished a novel. 

I've written full first drafts for nine books, varying in length from 40K to 100K.

…cried while writing a scene. 

Yes, I have, and it's all Armie Hammer's fault.  I didn't realize a character I'd based on him was going to have to die until I hit that scene, and then he got shot, and it was really awful.  I cried.  In Starbucks, while writing it.

…created maps of my fictional worlds. 

I almost always end up making some kind of map using Paint or just scribbling it on a piece of paper.  I've got maps for houses so I know where stuff is so I don't say dumb things like mention a door that wasn't there before, and I've got maps of whole towns, or of where one place is in relation to another.  A lot of times, I make maps for action scenes so I can remember who is where at what time, and where they move around to.  I'm very visually oriented, so I find maps really helpful.

…researched something shady for a novel. 

Well, if by 'shady' you mean 'weird or suspicious or dangerous,' yes.  I've done a lot of researching into poisons and 19th-century drugs lately....

I tag…

DKoren at Sidewalk Crossings
Hayden at Leatherbound
Skye at Ink Castles

Play if you want to!

A New Story -- My Christmas Gift to You!

So... I wrote a new short story.  It's a sequel to "The Man on the Buckskin Horse," but if you haven't read that yet, you will be able to enjoy this story anyway.  Here's the synopsis:

Can storytelling save a life?

Emma the warm-hearted midwife transforms into a prairie Scheherazade, using storytelling to fight death while delivering her step-daughter's baby. 

Whether you're rejoining your favorite characters from "The Man on the Buckskin Horse" or meeting them for the first time, this story of a blizzard birth on the Nebraska frontier will warm your heart any time of year.

This is the gift I hinted about the other day :-)  You can read "No Match for a Good Story" right now, for free.  How?  Just visit my official website, where you can read it online, download and print it, or even download a version to load onto your Kindle.

I will eventually have this available for free on Amazon and Barnes & Noble's website, but that's proving to take longer than I'd expected.  So for right now, this is the only place you can get this story.

It does have a page on Goodreads already, though :-)  If you want to review it there, you are welcome to do so!

Merry Christmas, my friends.  Enjoy!

Want to Participate in a "Cloaked" Cover Reveal Event?

So, you know I'm working on independently publishing my book Cloaked, which is "Little Red Riding Hood" re-imagined as a western.  Like my story in Five Magic Spindles, "The Man on the Buckskin Horse," was "Sleeping Beauty" re-imagined as a western.  Same idea, whole new cast of characters and setting and story.

I'm pretty sure you know about this because I've been talking about it on my blogs off-and-on for like a year now.

It's my first time doing the indie-pub thing.  I'm nervous.  I'm excited.  I'm terrified.  I'm thrilled.  And I'm almost done with this thing at last.  Like, seriously, this book will be out in September.  I don't have a firm date yet, but it's coming.  For real.

(This popped up in my Pinterest feed today.  Perfect timing.)

I'm going to be asking for some Advance Readers soon.  Very soon.  But first... I'd kind of like to do something fun to celebrate my cover being finished and ready to share.  I've been working with graphic designer Erika Ohlendorf on a cover for my book, and... it's basically done.  We've got like one more tweak to do.  Which means that next week, I will be sharing it with all of you!

I know a number of you, my lovely and supportive and encouraging blogging friends, have been looking forward to seeing what the cover will look like.  (And to reading the book, too, I hope!)  If you would like to join me in showing off the cover on your blogs or in social media this coming Wednesday, Sept. 6, please email me at rachelkovaciny at gmail dot com with "Cloaked cover reveal" in the subject line.

All participants will receive my gratitude, fake internet points, and an imaginary hug :-)

#RebelliousWriting -- What's it All About?

You may have noticed this little badge in the sidebars of both my blogs.  If you have, you may have wondered what it means, aside from obviously being a call to writers to write clean YA books.

Basically, it's a movement started by a couple of bloggers.  A couple of US, in other words.  A writer called Gray Marie started the ball rolling in this post by calling for others to join her in praising and supporting clean books, especially those aimed toward teens and young adults.

I first learned about #RebelliousWriting from this post of MovieCritic's, which led me to this post from Farm Lassie, then to Gray Marie's original post, and that very day, I added the badge to my sidebars.  But, having been so busy with my Gatsby read-along and so on, I haven't had time to talk about all this until now.

I have three kids.  My oldest is nine, and he loves books.  His reading level is somewhere around 5th or 6th grade, but I have a hard time finding him books that he likes that I'm okay with him reading.  Happily, he loves the Chronicles of Narnia and the Boxcar Children and Beverly Cleary's books, and he loves to re-read, so most of the time he just re-reads a book he loves or reads another one by an author I know we can trust.

But other times he wants to try a new book, and I'll have to flip through it first because... even in junior fiction and middle-grade fiction, I sometimes run up against things he's not ready for!  Or things I object to!  I mean, I picked up Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor in the junior fiction section of our library a couple of weeks ago because I wanted to read it myself, it just looked so cute.  And in my review, I discussed how I loved that book a TON... but I won't let him read it yet.  Partly because it has a girl dealing with the onset of puberty, and I'm okay with that being in a book, but I think it would gross him out -- he's NINE, after all.  But mostly, I won't let him read it because there's an adult male character who has a boyfriend.

In a book aimed at grade school kids.

What even?!?

And I think back to books I loved in my tweens, like The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks -- I adore that book, it's still one of my faves.  But it has several bad words in it.  Several!

Then when you get to YA books, it's like hey, let's just open the floodgates and let all the sewage in, shall we?  Just this week, I quit reading the book The Espressologist by Kristina Springer, which is about high school students and presumably written for them to read, because it had too much bad language in it.  And folks, I read grown-up books.  I can handle bad language in them.  I very much enjoy Lee Child's books about Jack Reacher, which are full of adult stuff.  Very adult stuff.  (But not graphic sex, I don't go there.  Keep that door closed, thanks.)  But in a YA book, if it's got adult stuff in it of any sort, I will probably quit reading it because... it's almost like I'm retroactively undermining my own innocence.  Which probably doesn't make sense, but there it is.  Also, the language in The Espressologist was primarily taking God's name in vain, and I am NOT okay with that.  In fact, I will put up with all manner of obscenities far more tolerantly than I will a "mild" case of taking God's name in vain.

I always think of myself as a clean writer.  No cussing.  No sex scenes, though I do imply sometimes that consenting adults go to bed together -- that's in some of my Combat! fanfiction, which can also get violent, though I try not to write anything they wouldn't have shown on the original show in the mid-1960s.

But I now also write YA fiction.  I mean, I hope adults enjoy it too, but I do write with teens in mind. "The Man on the Buckskin Horse," my story in Five Magic Spindles, was basically YA-level.  And clean.  My new book Cloaked has a sixteen-year-old girl as a protagonist (because "Little Red Riding Hood" ought to be Not An Adult, don't you think?), and I rather expect that most of the people reading it will be in their teens and early twenties, just because that's probably who will be most interested in a book about a sixteen-year-old.  And I'm keeping this book clean, too.

So this whole #RebelliousWriting movement is important to me as a reader, as a mom, and as a writer.  And if clean books are important to you too, get involved!  #RebelliousWriting is getting its own website in a couple of weeks.  You can find details here for now, and you'll also find lots of links to cool blog posts and so on from the official Pinterest account.

"Five Poisoned Apples" Cover Reveal and Contest Info

Hey, guess what?  Today's the day that Rooglewood Press announces their final fairy tale retelling contest!  And I get to be part of the reveal.  Here it is!!!

I don't know about you, but I think this is the prettiest one yet.  The cover photo is by Wynter Clark, and the design is by Julia Popova, who also designed the previous covers in this series.

If you're interested in entering the contest, the official page is right here.

You know that I won the previous contest, and my story "The Man Buckskin Horse" is now available in Five Magic Spindles.  I'm excited to also announce today that I will be involved in the publication of Five Poisoned Apples too -- but this time as a judge!  That's going to be such fun.  In fact, I'm looking forward to it so much, I'm posting about it on both of my blogs!

Five Magic Bookmarks -- Winners

Congratulations to the five winners!  They are:

Cowboy -- Carissa H.
Horse -- Lynn L.
Castle -- Rayleigh G.
Dragon -- Hayden W.
Moon -- Ally M.

Please check your email for a message from me asking for your mailing address so I can get these sent off.

And to all of you, whether you won or not -- I'm holding another giveaway here on this blog starting Monday to celebrate Legends of Western Cinema Week!  Check back then to see what I'm giving away :-)

Five Magic Bookmarks -- A Giveaway!

Yippee!  Five Magic Spindles gets officially released today! This has been such an exciting journey, and I'm really glad so many of you have shared it with me here.  I'm so eager for you to read "The Man on the Buckskin Horse," of course, but also for you to read the other four stories!  They're all excellent, and each so fascinatingly different.

To celebrate, I've created five bookmarks, one for each of these Sleeping Beauty retellings. And I'm giving them away, one to each of five lucky winners.  Here they are, paired with the title page of the appropriate story that inspired them:

This giveaway runs through Friday, July 29. I will draw five winners on Saturday, July 30, and post the names of the winners that day, as well a notify them by email.

I can only send these to US addresses because of shipping being so expensive these days. Of course, if you have a friend who lives in the US that is willing to have it shipped to them for you, that's fine, but I can't send them internationally.

PLEASE make sure your information for the giveaway widget includes your current email address so that if you win a prize, you'll get the email informing you that you won! If you don't reply to my email within one week, I will choose another winner and award your prize to them instead.

The first way to enter, as you see, asks you to leave a comment telling me your top two prize choices. I do my best to match winners with their choice of prizes, but that doesn't always work out.  I will do my best.  You can leave that comment right in the widget this time.

You can enter via this widget:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm running this giveaway here, on The Edge of the Precipice, and on my Facebook author page.  You may enter at any one of those places.