POV

I've read my prologue for Pull hundreds of times and I love everything about it. My proof readers loved it and I have an idea why. It's in the first person point of view. The rest of the Sanctuary novels are in the third person except for the Prologue. I wanted it to stand out like a prologue should. Red is one of my main characters in Pull and I wanted to begin with him because everything began with him. First person allows you to be close to the character as a reader. There's intimacy there. Most novels are written in the first person, but the santuary novels are third person, subjective omniscient.  I write with a distance between the reader and the character in order to keep the voice of my three main characters. The reader will see all three points throughout the Pull. I'm not head hopping within the same sections. I choose a character and stick with them through that chapter so it transitions better. The problem I saw after writing most of the series was after my proof readers read Pull, I wanted to go back and rewrite the story in first person, but then I would have to choose one character or at least I feel I would have to. That's a lot of work. I'm still contemplating the idea like Stephenie Meyers did with Midnight Sun (Twilight in Edwards POV).

Read my self-published ebook Pull it's FREE on Amazon for Kindle, Barnes and Noble for Nook and Smashwords.

Excerpt from Gravity

 

"Into the tight rhythmic crowd of people, he watches her. Her closed eyes are just as beautiful as when they're open. Her shiny wavy hair captures the flashing lights like fireworks over water. Everyone around him is in their own trance, pushing into each other, rubbing against each other, sweating all over each other like one big organism swaying. The crowd takes her away like a message in a bottle, floating in the ocean of people. Gabriel surrenders his body as those around him compress and take him. Hands are raised in the air but he is still, wedged between singing voices and jumping rebellious bodies.

Gabriel squeezes his way, his personal space rule is already broken and now his aura flexes like wings. Buzzed and centered only on her, he pushes recklessly towards her, setting off auras around him. He doesn't feel them. He wants only her. His Violet."

 

I love music and so do my characters. Music basically breathed life into my work. The excerpt above is part of a scene was written before I had a story for book 2, Gravity. I wrote it because I've had this scene in my head forever. I've pictured over and over again with plenty of characters and with plenty of songs. I thought it would add to book 2 perfectly, but I had to pick the right character. The character has to be physical in some way because being at a concert can be a physical experience. There's dancing and dancing close and dancing even closer. There's bodies everywhere and your personal space is violated. The character I chose, Gabriel, can't have body contact due to his hybrid ability. He's the most physical of all my characters because he's so mindful of everyone's vicinity at all times. Touching is dangerous for this character so closeness is the one thing Gabriel craves. So put this person in a concert setting with some alcohol to top it off, throw in the girl he likes and see what happens.
Gravity : A Sanctuary Novel will be coming soon. Look for twitter updates via Twitter by following me @MandaMiga

Climax

What have I been doing? Writing of course! I've complete book two of the Sanctuary novels. It's taken me a while because I've been looking at houses. My husband and I finally found one we love, so we've moved out of our apartment and are now living with my in-laws. It's been stressful because we can't just buy the house, can you believe it? It's a short sale so the process is longer because there's more stuff than usual to approve. All I know is I want to move in and blast my music up to eleven! <--(This is Spinal Tap reference, just so you know).
I work retail incase you didn't know, so not only were we moving, but I have to prepare for Christmas at work right after Halloween. Just so you know, from Halloween to January... yes January is Christmas time in retail... it doesn't stop on December 24 people. So, I'm tired and I haven't written much.

My sister Jess had been proof reading and found one doosie of an error. I was always unsure about a certain scene near the end of Gravity. As a writer, every page seems to need work so my thoughts on that particular scene didn't seem to stand out. Jess had called me out on it and I had to agree. It was lacking where it was suppose to be most climactic. I failed. I went back to my writing desk and had to fix it. I was moving and it was Christmas time in retail so I was tired. I hadn't even downloaded music in weeks. I was just exhausted. Christmas is now almost over and I finally sorted out that last scene. I'm waiting to hear back from my mom and Jess. I have my fingers crossed. I'm pretty sure they'll like it.

Pull: A Sanctuary Novel book one is NOW AVAILABLE at Smashwords

I love crows. Today there were alot of squawking ones. At one point four of them circled above me. There was an extremely loud one that demanded my attention when I went for a walk with my mom. Funny enough the crow was in an evergreen right in front of a house I was admiring, hoping to one day live in one day. Maybe these crows were trying to tell me something. Maybe there just being crows. My protagonist turns into a crow and of course when I see them I can't help but think about Red. So I decided today was the day I'd upload my book into Smashwords to get the ball rolling. You can check it out here. Also my author profile here.
I'll have the ebook available on Barnes& Noble, Sony, Kobo, and the iBookstore soon!

Mission Ebook Cover Completed

I got my ebook cover created. It doesn't look like some cheap cover neither. I held a contest at 99designs.com as suggested a blog comment. What was cool about the experience is I held a contest and the designers submit art according to my "design brief". At first I was waiting and getting nervous because I wasn't getting very many designs but then after two days all these professional looking designs pop up. I get to give the designers feed back, like "I hate this font" or "can you make the crow's eyes blue." These designers take the feedback and make multiples of designs. I ended up with 162 designs to choose from. the last three days you pick the finalists. I picked two. Of course it was the hardest decision but I had to keep in mind my story and my characters, not just based on "how pretty" the cover was.

Here it is! The cover to my first ebook in the Sanctuary series. I awarded the finalist Soheil Toosi. I hope to work with him on my next cover. The great part is I now have the copyrights to this image. Hooray!
My protagonist, Red is a crow but not an ordinary crow. His eyes are blue and he emminates a red aura. He's torn in "Pull", (his heart and mind fight), he hurting and this cover I feel best shows this. The contrast to me is important; the extreme light and the dark because like the cover, Red has a light side and a dark side. If you look closely, there's red heart to his chest because Red has a heart even though this "stylistic", "scary", "weak" crow looks out of the ordinary; this character knows love.
As an ebook the cover must stand out among other's so the negative space around Red (the crow) and the contrast between light and dark were a must. On a tablet device, this image is detailed and will add to the reading experience. This ebook will be selling on Barnes & Noble, Amazon and the iBookstork just to mention the major retailers. The ebook will launch as soon as I'm done formatting my files and pass those retailer standards. Notification of this will be tweeted and posted here on this Blog.

 

Is there a foggy area between YA and adult fiction, ' cause that's where my novel is?

The teen genre is tricky because it's always changing. Since the 70's taboos like drugs, sex, rape, incest are not instant rejections when it comes to YA fiction. In  fact, YA fiction has gained a broader audience with adult women. Mom's are reading their daughters books.  Books like Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, City of Bones and Beautiful Creatures are series read by children and adults alike, this may have paved a way for each of these to become movies as well. But what makes a story YA?
For my book I've been asking this question since my plot came together. Who is my audience?
My answer every time to that question was people like me. I read YA and I'm thirty-four year old female. But does my story meet the criteria for a YA novel?

My protagonist isn't a teen, he's twenty-three which already breaks a YA rule.  Teen novels have teen protagonists. My protagonist has a relationship with a young girl. (statutory rape) My book takes place when the protagonists love interests is sixteen. there's suppressive feelings involved between them another love interest( another adult).

Questionable content:
there's swear words. Fuck shouldn't mean sex though, oops!
the relationship with the girl is between a sixteen year old and two twenty three year old. A love triangle. Naughty!
there's no sex but there are sexual situations. Still graphic is bad I guess.
there is hinting that the protagonist had feeling for the girl when she was just a child, but there maybe indication of sexual attraction depending on the readers perception. That I understand is a No No. I get that but again I'm vague where it maybe safe to read. Hopefully my beta readers will see that clearly. Pedophiles,hmm.
attempted rape by a boyfriend.

I've read that I may have a teen crossover, a novel that stretches over to adult fiction. I'm still not 100% on that definition. YA's boarders are so vague.

I do know that I intend make my series in ebooks and the genres are set by the author, not an agent telling you, you can' t have the word "fuck" meaning sex in a YA novel.  There's more control on my part what I think my book is. I won't have to cut away "the good stuff" just so my audience won't be offended. The thing is teens want this. Adults shopping for YA want this. I want this!

Is a crow just a big black bird?

I recently made it known that I was in much need of a glass jar to display my button collection. My husband comes home with an enormous jar 9'' high and 5 inches wide; too big to display something as humble as tiny buttons. I took my buttons I've been storing in a plastic bag and dumped into the spacious jar. To my surprise it looks lovely.
The one inch space the buttons took left the rest empty but I thought to myself, is it really emptiness that that males it look so lovely. It's the hope of filling it and the joy of slowly doing so.
Objects are symbols. They're representation is only relevant when we give them meaning.

An engagement ring.
A photo of a loved one passed on.
A lucky rabbits foot.
A song that brings back a memory, though not an object the sound is carried through one.

Even if the meaning is negative it is still meaningful.

A cluttered closet is cluttered mind. Is it a coincidence you feel better in a organized home?
A empty room is loneliness. There's no one there not even a chair.
A forgotten teddy bear slumped over with dust on it's glassy eyes. Could it be this bear has a heart? I can imagine it may be crying.

Objects are just as symbolic in life as they are in fiction. In my first novel Pull, two specific objects make their appearance and do so in my second novel. Their symbolism doesn't change with my characters as they mean the same thing to one character as it does to another. Symbols and signs carry weight because to everyone it's meaning is similar. Like dreams of snakes can mean death or rebirth, depending on the dreamer, yet death is also seen as a rebirth and in that they are similar.
Darkness is negative.
Lightness is positive.
These things are represented the same in nearly every culture.
Is not the night filled with stars and a bright moon? Positive even in darkness.
The clouds shroud the moon, and the natural light is no more. Destroying the positive.
When you are reading a story take note of the objects in the way they are represented and it gives clues to the inner workings of the character and even the plot resolution.
In Pull, one object the protagonists tinkers with is a music box that he once brought home to his sick mother. When the object is first introduced, it is dismantled in pieces on his writing desk, no longer in use for the purpose it had before. The owner, Red, keeps it as it used to be his mothers. This object will later appear in the series with a similar purpose to wake a loved one from their slumber, but with a different owner.
You give objects their meaning and this is very important in fiction as objects are like shells in sifted sand. Its very presence is important to the story. How many things do you have, make such a presence in your life?
My button jar isn't nearly full but hope-full.

Here's a few other objects I placed in my novel series for symbolism fun whether the reader knows it or not:
Aspen tree: Overcoming fear.
Oak tree: Strength and courage.
Day Lily: Wish for a baby boy.
Rose: Beauty, love, purity.
Phoenix: death, purification, rebirth.
Bee: regeneration, fruitful activity, feminine, growth, motherhood.
Crow: Red is the book 1 protagonist who shape shifts into a crow, Omen (good and bad), associates with the darkness, keeper of the sacred law, messenger.
Red Tailed Hawk: Guardian, protection, healing, safety, long life, higher perspective.
Owl: Vigilance, acute wit, patience, keen sight, solitude, time, harbinger of new cycles.
Dog: Grey is a character throughout the Sanctuary novels shape shifts into a Alaskan Husky dog, it's a tradition that Huskies are named by their personality and in Grey's case he is a gray area character; he is both the hero and the villain (both light and dark). Dogs: guardian of secrets, faith, loyalty, friendship, power over life and death.
Music box: Call back a loved one from slumber, memory.
Victorian pocket watch: Victorian era, time, reminder of purpose. (in Pull Red carries one. He was born in this era. He gives this watch later in book 2 which its purpose is "enhanced".)
Violet: The name of the character my protagonist falls in love with whose aura is blue. Little blue flower, affection, virtue, faithfulness.
Feather: Center of existence, innocence, trust. (in Pull Grey gives Violet a feather necklace which later is ripped from her neck)

*Pull is my first novel in the Sanctuary series.

art by derSheltie at Deviantart.com

First things first read the idiot's guide and research, research, research

So I'm researching query letters and on my break at work I'm reading the Idiot's Guide to query letters. I'm reading blogs and articles online query query query... I come across an article on Self-publishing. I had originally planned to self-published bypassing the "hard work" in getting a publishing house to except my work. If you can even get noticed. This article said to do both!
Have my cake and eat it? Oh yes!
I can upload my novel as an e-book (an electronic book or digital representation of a book read on a digital device, such as smart phones, e-readers, tablets and computers) Through a self-publishing site, I can sell Pull on Amazon, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble all at once. I can choose to print my book, but of course that's where you have to pay the big bucks. With an e-book I can sell it at a reduced cost or even for free and I get more profit than I would a major publisher. While self-publishing it, I can query about the same book, earning credit at the same time.
Don't get me wrong, it's not about the money, it's about people reading my work. This is the one thing I've stuck to because I've finally found something to be passionate about. It would be awesome to make money while doing it, sure! I could use money for a house we'll eventually buy or a baby that's not yet born. But first and foremost is sharing my work. making it into a movie.
I can't wait to get to the feedback from my beta readers. I can't wait to polish up Pull and have it available for download.

Art by Merkotoz

New To Do List:

• Polish and edit Pull (book one of the Sanctuary novels).
• Coffee.
• Find a book cover artist or a royalty free graphic for Pull.
• Research more on LuLu.com for my self publishing needs.
• More coffee.
• More Blink 182 listening for positivity.
• Work on book 2, working title: Gravity.
• Continue reading on query letters.