editing

Teaser Tuesday

Welcome to a new year, a new decade! 2020 started out a bit rough for this author. I’ve basically been sick since November 2019 but have finally recovered enough to get back to writing and editing.

What does that mean for the Greylyn the Guardian Angel series? It means forward progress on Book 2. Yesterday evening, just before the college national championship football game (Geaux Tigers!), I sent off Book 2 (working title: Revelations) to the publisher. Now on to editing Book 3 which is going to a bit more strenuous since I’ve had all these lovely ideas for plots twists and expanding the series to incorporate.

With Book 2 off to the publisher, thought I’d offer up a teaser just to whet your appetites for more Greylyn and Kael. I hope you enjoy!

***

Considering how traitorous her body reacted to the dark guardian in normal circumstances, she didn’t want to imagine what being this close would do to her over the long term. Twenty-four hours? Did the vamp expect them to do this little exercise for that long? At the very least, shouldn’t they be given potty-breaks?

Her head already throbbed with tension to fight her body for control. She couldn’t allow herself a second to relax. All it would take is one moment of weakness.

Too late. His closeness was already sending ripples of goosebumps up her arms while a delicious heat crept up her cheeks. To distract herself, she scanned the garden for signs of surveillance. Anything to avoid looking at Kael. Being here with him made her more nervous than facing down the entire throng of Olivier’s minions months ago.

Absentmindedly, she pulled out a platinum chain tucked underneath her shirt and toyed with the ring dangling it – a nervous tick she’d picked up after their first encounter. The ring had been in the pocket of the drab wool dress she’d been buried in. The one and only link to a life she didn’t remember, a normal human life.

Kael reached over to touch her face, but a voice boomed over the loud speaker again. “No touching.” He withdrew his hands, holding them up in the air as a sign of surrender.

Forcing herself to lock eyes with Kael might be the hardest thing she’d done since tearing herself away from him at Gaelic Haven. She had wanted nothing more than to lose herself in his arms. That night had haunted her ever since. She’d dreamed of melting into his strong, inviting arms, caressing the stubble along his jawline…

Great balls of fire, Greylyn! Get over it! Hasn’t even been two minutes!

***

Until next time!

 

Teaser Tuesday

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Photo by freestocks.org on Pexels.com

It’s the day after Cyber-Monday, a four days after Black Friday (hope everyone finished their holiday shopping and everyone is giving and receiving books this year), and two weeks since the release of my debut fantasy/paranormal novel, Rekindled Prophecy (Book 1 of the Greylyn the Guardian Angel series).

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If by chance you haven’t finished your shopping, and the person(s) on your list enjoy reading fantasy/paranormal fiction, check out this little teaser from the above story. Regardless of the completion of your gift-giving list, check out this excerpt from the book.

***

Just as a small ray of early morning sun peeked between the slate-gray clouds, the shadowy outline of Gaelic Haven came into view. There were no lights on in the main house or the Carriage House. Breathing a sigh of relief, she tiptoed from the car to the Carriage House and opened the foyer door without so much as a creak.

“Didn’t realize you were such a partier, Greylyn. If I had known you wanted to party all night, I could’ve joined you.”

She froze in place. Despite the sarcasm, there was an underlying tension behind his words. The words were more clipped than usual. Greylyn didn’t know what to make of it and was too tired to care. Ignoring him, she reached for the door to her room.

The shadow at the top of the stairs pounced like a preying tiger to stand between her and the door. The little light that was available in the foyer from a small tabletop lantern reflected the gold in his eyes as they stood almost nose to nose, staring at each other for what seemed like an eternity. No matter how she tried, there was no looking away.

How could she be this tired and still be so affected by his closeness?

Without warning, his hand came up to her face, causing her to flinch. Instead of striking as she expected, his hand caressed the place just below her eye where she had been sliced earlier. His fingers softly moved over the now dried and crusted blood. Her skin warmed, as if she’d stepped too close to a bonfire.

His eyes strayed back to her own. The pupils enlarged, registering alarm and something else she couldn’t place. In a strained, gruff voice, he whispered through clenched teeth, “Who or what did this to you?”

It was difficult to think, much less speak or move, with Kael this close to her. His hand, still cupping her face, paralyzed her. She repeated to herself, “This is the enemy. This is the enemy,” in an effort to free herself from his hypnotic gaze.

The best she could manage was to say, “What’s the big deal? Worried that someone else might kill me before you’ve had your chance?”

She had wanted to sound sarcastic. Instead, her words came out more like a breathy whisper that ended with a pitiful squeak.

He leaned in closer, a mere inch or two from her face, his eyes locked on her own. “I don’t want to kill you, Greylyn. I would never allow anyone else to hurt you either. Haven’t you figured that out by now?”

***

If you are enticed by the above teaser, please check out the entire story. Rekindled Prophecy is available on numerous book retail sites, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Audible, Walmart eBooks, Google Play, Abebooks, Book Depository, Alibris, Better World Books, and Indie Bound.

Here’s a link to the ebook at Amazon, but the hard cover is also available.

Also, I’m trying to build up my newsletter. If you believe you’d enjoy regular updates about the book, the series, general discussion of all things related to guardian angels, my silly rants and ravings on a myriad of topics, please check out my newsletter signup at http://www.eepurl.com/gDp4Jr

As an added enticement, I’ve joined with 9 other authors in a December Reader Appreciation/Newsletter Buildup campaign. Leann Ryans, L.P. Dillon, Becca Dawn, Nora Nolan, L.V. Lane, Krya Fox, Rowan Thalia, KC Freeman. V.T. Bonds, and Mandi Konesni have joined together to offer 24 days worth of prizes in December.

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From December 1st through the 23rd, one person on our newsletter subscriber list will be chosen each day to win a prize leading up to the grand prize drawing on the 24th. The grand prize winner will receive 15 ebooks, an audiobook, 3 paperbacks, and Amazon gift cards totaling $50.

You must sign up for all 10 newsletters to qualify to win a prize. The winner each day will be notified and announced on Facebook once their subscriptions are verified. Each author is responsible for delivery of their book and prizes to the winner.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LCoDbQsFeACRukRT_t0ZjyTQLDs7oKdXezS9HsCADgY/viewform?fbclid=IwAR25TxaSx_2wYzQgdX4-JfGXz-SgFHnb31SqsNlxJqav6Tay4_O7YVgb5BU&edit_requested=true

Happiest of holidays to everyone! Ciao for now! Come back next week for another teaser.

 

 

 

 

 

New Career Starts in 3…2…1

Yes, friends! You read that correctly. New career. As if I didn’t have enough going on in my life!

Leaving the professional world far behind a few years ago to move south and raise a family was the best decision for me, my five kids, my husband, and my elderly mom. They needed me. I needed them. The kids weren’t getting younger and neither was my mom.

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However, if I claimed the domestic life was pure bliss…well, you would all know I was lying. Seriously, I don’t like cleaning, cooking, gardening, and do not get me started about my feelings on mountains of laundry. I am NOT a domestic diva by any stretch of the imagination. I tried and it just didn’t take. Not saying my house is a pig sty or my children are running around in stinky clothes. They most certainly are not. All that stuff gets done, but for me at least it does not make for a full, satisfying life. I needed more.

Tried the school volunteering thing. I swear that I will be happy if I never step foot in another pumpkin patch again. Once the kids hit middle school, I vowed those days were over. Ha! Got suckered into the 7th grade field trip to a college three hours away just after I wrote that line. (UPDATE: Field trip reaffirmed that decision that “Just Say No” was the correct one.)

Did the sports’ team mom thing, too. With five kids, that became darn near impossible. Pee wee football team mom (okay, assistant team mom) was quite enough. Became the First Aid mom for the year-round travel baseball team up until that son finally said he was ready to try football. Oh no! Here we go again! Even when the hubby took on coaching responsibilities for the middle school wrestling team, I held up my hand and said “Absolutely NOT! Find another mom! I will NOT be the team mom!” Thankfully another wonderful lady stepped in, but being the coach’s wife comes with its own headaches.

All that kept me super busy, but still didn’t fit the bill. I needed something more. So what did I do? Went back to my first love of writing “in my spare time.” Started out ghostwriting.

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Worked my way up from marketing blurbs and website articles to cozy mystery and romance novels. Wonderful learning experience, but the need to see my own name on a manuscript took hold of my heart.

So I turned on my PC and typed out the first book in what I dreamed would be an urban fantasy series. That was the first in a zillion versions of that book. Seriously, the revisions were so numerous that I had to finally delete some versions to make room in my PC’s storage. Finally, I sent it to a professional editor who chopped it up some more (breaking my heart) and then commenced another series of revisions.

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Thought I was good to go, so I decided to get others’ opinions by subscribing to a fantastic website of authors helping authors. Scribophile. If you’re an author, or want to be one, do yourself a favor and get on this website NOW. If I’d joined earlier, perhaps I could’ve avoided about 50 revisions before sending to the professional editor.

Several years after starting the process, my first book is set to be published (no date yet as I am finalizing the book cover and some other odds and ends). Every author has their own style, their own pace. With me, my time is limited so years was what worked for me. However, I don’t recommend it. That story banged against my noggin all that time, day in and day out, every day.

My lessons learned?

  1. Scribophile would’ve sped up the process as I wouldn’t have wasted so much time revising on my own without opinions from others in the business.
  2. A professional editor is a must-have.

As for #2 above, I fancied myself a fantastic editor. After all, I can catch spelling and grammar errors better than a DNA test can answer “Who’s your daddy?” Seriously. Spelling and grammar drive me crazy because I constantly find mistakes in everything I read. I send marked up emails back to the principal and teachers of the schools here when I find mistakes (which is in everything they send out – DO NOT get me started on how that makes me crazy). I corrected the high school yearbook last year because it was just awful. I correct newspaper articles. I once sent back legal documents with corrections marked up in bright red ink.

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What does that tell me? I’m a born editor. With all the critiques given and received on Scribophile, I am much better at catching other writing issues now.

Too bad, I couldn’t see the flaws in my own 77K word manuscript. It needed another pair of eyes on it. It’s occupational hazard for writers. Our eyes naturally skip over what can be simply typos because our brain fills in what we know should be there.

Now why am I telling you all of this? Because I found my calling…editing. I will still write when time permits. But I am a kick ass editor naturally. In addition, I beefed up my editing skills by obtaining a certification in editing from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

Whereas, I may still need someone else to proof my own writing before clicking the “publish” button on Amazon, I can be that set of eyes for you.

Please feel free to contact me regarding any editing services you may need.

I can be found on Facebook at KC Freeman https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100015282787131

OR

Twitter @KCFreeman5 (https://twitter.com/KCFreeman5)

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