BEYOND THE LAST TREE: BOOK ONE GENERATION ONE
THE CHRONICLES OF THE CHOSEN

 

 

 

Available for KINDLE at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007BYODXI

Available for Nook at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beyond-the-last-tree-m-cummins-fair/1112271487?ean=2940014339674

Paperback available at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/dfair

Life is what happens while....

 

We all know how it is in the modern day and age.  The old expression 'time flies' doesn't even begin to cover it.  Turn around once and a year has gone - twice and it might be a decade.  Anyhow, for those of you who check this blog from time to time, you know I have been in absentia for quite some time.  The needs, and time needed to care for an elderly parent have changed my time table on releasing my fantasy several times.  For the past two years my mother has been sinking deeper into Dementia and there was little time for anything other than cold hard reality.  Now, with three excellent care givers in place, I am hoping life will let happen the completion of the editing of the first of my fantasy trilogies.  Beyond the Last Tree is available now at Amazon and B&N.  I hope to have book two available by the end of the winter, and book three soon after that.  It's down to the proofreading and, if any of you are Indie authors, you know that is a very important step - and a hard one.  In this present lightning-speed age, it's hard to find people who have time to stop and read your book and note every error.

Anyhow, apologies to all those who read former notices about a 2012 publishing date for books two and three. 

Here's to 2014!

Back with Book trailers

I have a t-shirt that says it all - "Reality is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there."  Between work, home, aging mother and growing grandchild, there never seems to be enough time for writing and promoting books.  It's been a few months, but I am back on the track of getting my fantasy trilogy 'out there'.

Over the last week or so, I have created a book trailer for each of the three novels included in Generation One of the Chronicles of the Chosen:  Beyond the Last Tree, While the Cat's Away, and Betrayer.  The trailer for Book One is up and running on youtube.  If you take a look, let me know what you think - or even better - GO BUY THE BOOK!  <G>

Here's the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imo9s5Mc4Ic

Creating these book trailers was an interesting experience.  I worked in PowerPoint as it is a program I am fairly familiar with.  I was excited to see you could save a slideshow as a video, which allowed me to post these trailers more places.  I learned how to add video, add sound over the video, and how to add an audio file. (Portrait of the artist as techie, as a friend of mine used to put it.)  I also came across a number of really neat FREE sites for obtaining video, etc.

Here's a few of them:

  http://www.motionbackgroundsforfree.com
  http://incompetech.com/
  http://www.public-domain-image.com

With these sites I was able to build what I feel are pretty compelling book trailers.  The images I couldn't get for free came from www.dreamstime.com  I feel Dreamstime is a little pricey (unless you go for the HUGE package of credits at $200 some dollars, which I did not do).  However, their images cannot be beat!  I spent $20 - 30 for the ones in these trailers and I feel they are well worth it.

Here's an example of what I did with one of the Dreamstime images.  I wanted to create an image of Coven, the mortal, to use.  As I didn't have time to draw it (or energy to be honest!, I had to use a real man, and then had to manipulate the image to make it look like the character.  I did this using Paint Shop Pro, which I feel is a pretty right brain friendly program.  I don't understand rasta layers and all that, but I can certainly point, click and manipulate!

This is the Dreamstime image I chose for Coven.  Now my hero does not wear plaid, have blue eyes, or brown hair, but I could see him looking at me out of these human eyes.  So...

  

...I took the photo into Paint Shop and altered it using a combination of cloning and a solid fill to make his hair black and then 'painted' his eyes green.  Then...

 

...I painted out his shirt and used a gamma setting to darken the entire image.  And voila! as they used to say, a workable image of my hero.  

It's always a toss-up when you are trying to promote a book whether or not to use the image of a character.  Some readers prefer to create their own in their head.  But with social media nowadays and the need to have visual 'punch', there seems little choice.

Let me know what you think about all of the above and check back here soon for the release of Book Two and a link to its trailer.

Nothing remains the same - thank goodness!

Several years ago I sat across a table from a New York agent pitching my fantasy.  She read a sample of 'BEYOND THE LAST TREE' and told me that I had a wonderful lyrical style, great writing, etc., but...and there it was, that HUGE unwelcome word all writers and artists dread, 'BUT...(and this is a paraphrase) I can't pigeon hole your writing, so I don't feel I can represent it.'  You see, in the wonderful world of publishing as it was, agents and the houses they worked for needed to be able to put your book on the shelf - literally - so it had to fit into a known genre.  An author was represented for 'fantasy' or 'science fiction' or 'romance' or 'mystery'.  No one knew what to do with a piece like BLT that is fantasy with a science fiction angle, plus a healthy dash of romance and a LOT of mystery.  Fortunately, due to the New Jacksonian era (as I think of it), that is the 21st century 'empowerment of the people' happening now due to the internet and social media, none of those rules apply anymore.

Yippee!

I am an artist.  As an artist I create a piece, put it out there and let the public decide whether they like it or not. No one would think of telling me my subject's eyes should have been blue, or I should have put them to the right of the frame instead of the left, or that I made their dress the wrong color.  People look at art and it is what it is.  End of story.  To me, a book is the same.  My novels and short stories are my written 'pieces of art' and I don't need an agent or an editor or anyone else to pick, prod, cut, change, and rearrange my tales before the public sees them.  Ten years ago the words 'independently published' were a death knell for a writer.  It meant to the casual observer (for some odd reason, since 'indie' movies win the Academy Award at times) that you must not be able to write or one of the big houses would have published you.  That doesn't hold water anymore.  The age of POD and internet publishing for Nook, Kindle, etc. has made it possible for stubborn, independent artists like me to have you read what I wrote, as I wrote it, and as I wanted it to be read.

It's simple.  I write.  I publish.  You read if you want.  And if you don't, you ignore it.

How democratic is that?