Interview with {Eli Constant}: Part Two

Woot, woot!  Eli Constant is in the house. She’s releasing The Water is Sweeter as a part of The Falling in Deep Collection. Here is Part Two of our interview!    (Get This Now)

The Water is Sweeter Cover with FiD logoWhat is your favorite writing music?

Quiet. Ha-ha. Yeah, I’m not really into having music on while I’m writing. Sometimes, I’ll stick a favorite movie on the television- one I’ve seen so many times that it just becomes a background hum, but rarely do I listen to music.

Where is your favorite place to find inspiration?

There’s no magic place for me – it happens whenever and wherever it wants. Quite frustrating actually – to be sound asleep and get an idea, to be driving down the highway with no way to jot it down, desperately fumbling with your phone to hit the sound record function, to be in the shower soaking wet and suddenly have a brilliant notion pop into your noggin. I wish I did have a special place that inspired me. Life would be easier.

What was your inspiration for The Water is Sweeter? Tell me about the story.

Female empowerment. Finding the will to improve your life, even if it’s daunting and scary and hard. Realizing that love, although imperfect and difficult, is not ugly and cruel.

Here’s the blurb actually:

When the land becomes a desert, the water will quench your soul

Orphan Lena McMillan used to think that what she shared with Truman Kent was real. Now she sees their relationship for what it really is- controlling and abusive.

She has to choose to die slowly from ‘love’ or say goodbye to the family she’s always desired. Leaving scares her though, so much so that dying seems like her only option.

But fate won’t let her quit life and Truman won’t let her quit his love. Not without a fight.

Under the layers of a lonely childhood and an adulthood romance gone wrong, a starfish holds the key to Lena’s parentage and the answer to the mesmeric ocean dreams that haunt her.

If she can find the strength to leave the only life she knows, Lena will discover the truth. And she will find a new world, one that will cleanse her of the memories of false love and abuse.

One that will finally lead her home.

Any advice for new writers (like me)?

Keep at it. If you stop for a while, force yourself to get back in the saddle as soon as possible. Don’t take crap from anybody. Just because you’re a new author – that doesn’t mean that you don’t have an opinion or perspective worth listening to, that doesn’t mean that your voice isn’t good enough already. I will agree that the more you write, the more you work at it, the better you’ll get- It is talent and skill combined, not one or the other. Getting better doesn’t change the core of who you are as a writer, it simple hones your voice and makes it clearer, so people can recognize it through all the other noise.

Be honest with yourself too, on the things you know need improvement. Again, this doesn’t detract from your God-given talent, it doesn’t mean you aren’t good enough, but what it does mean is that you’ll keep working and pushing yourself. And pretty soon, you won’t be ‘new’ at all; you’ll be an old hat giving others advice (and probably feeling awkward when you do, because a good writer should retain a modicum of humility. It makes them more real, human and approachable).


Blurb:

The Water is Sweeter Cover with FiD logo

When the land becomes a desert, the water will quench your soul

Orphan Lena McMillan used to think that what she shared with Truman Kent was real. Now she sees their relationship for what it really is- controlling and abusive.

She has to choose to die slowly from ‘love’ or say goodbye to the family she’s always desired. Leaving scares her though, so much so that dying seems like her only option.

But fate won’t let her quit life and Truman won’t let her quit his love. Not without a fight.

Under the layers of a lonely childhood and an adulthood romance gone wrong, a starfish holds the key to Lena’s parentage and the answer to the mesmeric ocean dreams that haunt her.

If she can find the strength to leave the only life she knows, Lena will discover the truth. And she will find a new world, one that will cleanse her of the memories of false love and abuse.

One that will finally lead her home.

Make Your Library Happy ❤


EliConstantAbout the Author:

Eli attended USC-L, Columbia College, Texas A&M, & George Mason University. She studied everything from Mariculture to Differential Equations. Settling on Biology, Eli participated in research fellowships in Texas and at NIH, worked a few random jobs, and finally settled into a Virginia lab where she focused on mastering diagnosis procedures and implementations of histology and pathology.

Choosing to be a dedicated homemaker after the birth of her first child, Eli rediscovered her passion for writing. She’s never regretted the decision. Not only are her kids the most amazing creatures, but writing fulfills her soul the way science never did.

******

Eli is the author of Dead Trees, Dead Trees 2, Mastic, DRAG.N & Z Children: Awakening. She is a contributing author to Let’s Scare Cancer to Death, State of Horror: New Jersey, State of Horror: Illinois, & Fading Hope. Her books are available in eBook, paperback, & audio formats.

Meet Eli:

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Eating Rotten Tomatoes: Guest Post {A.R. Draeger}

**Brought to you as a part of the Paranormal Love Wednesdays Blog Hop**

***Be sure to click and visit the other great authors***

When a Reviewer Throws a Rotten Tomato: Moving Past Your First One Star Review

By A.R. Draeger

Learning to take, let alone welcome, constructive criticism was a hard lesson for me. Writing is a very personal endeavor, and although we do our best to distance ourselves from it, our ego is wrapped up in every word we leave on the page. For some of us, it takes years to lower our defensive walls.  Some of us never do, and this is in response to words that, for all intents and purposes, are meant to grow our abilities, strengthen our stories, and build us up on the whole to be the authors we have it in us to be.

Yet it still stings.

The day comes when you throw your first book out into the wide open world, and it’s terrifying. Your stomach will twist in knots, and despite however many times you have reminded yourself that you will keep writing regardless of what people think of you, your heart will skip a beat when it comes to your attention that someone has left you a review.

Don’t read reviews. Don’t pay attention to them. There’s a reason celebrities don’t Google themselves.

You repeat this mantra, but still, the temptation is there, feasting on each incoming review until you can no longer help yourself. Perhaps you were trying to get ACX set up for an audiobook audition when you looked down and realized your star rating was lower than you last checked on Amazon, as was my case. Perhaps your mom calls you from four states away to tell you, as was the case for another author.

You click, and you find it. Maybe there’s more than one. Maybe there is a whole mess of them.

They are one-star reviews, and they are ugly. They will have subject headings, such as: “Awful! Eye-gouging horrible!”

You’ll find hate-spewing, author-bashing, insult-flinging trash. Those are the more polite ones. The rude ones will spoil everything they can possibly find in your book, deride you for issues that – had they actually taken the time to read the book – would not have been ‘issues’, and proceed to blast not only you as a writer, but every writer that you may or may not be associated with.

The ones that are belligerent are the easiest to digest. They feel little more than bullies on a kindergarten playground. The better written, more eloquent ones are a bit of a gut-punch when you look over them. When you are new to the writing world, those are the ones that take you by surprise – the ones that punch you in the gut, that make you wonder and doubt if you should be writing at all.

It’s those you have to dust off, and believe me, it’s not easy.

How do you recover? How do you cross the bridge when the trolls come out to play?

Simply put: one foot in front of the other.

  • Write, and don’t stop. Why should you care about their opinions? Why should you care about anyone’s but your own? Write because you want to. Publish because you want to. They can hate it, they can love it, whatever.
  • Realize that you may have touched a nerve. Everybody has baggage, and their reactions to you may be from the stuff they are carrying and not what you’re writing.
  • Remember everyone gets bad reviews. Look up the classics. Yikes.
  • Perceived value may also play a part. More independent writers are noticing that when they place their books on sale at $0.99 or give it away for free, it attracts more negative reviews in proportion to the positive. The more we pay, the more we tend to value something.
  • Also remember that the internet provides a mask for bullies. People who are jaded, perhaps failed writers themselves, too afraid to strike out on their own or try again, that hide behind the anonymity of a screenname. Feel sorry for them. I guarantee you they spent more time drafting that so-called review they left you than what they spent reading your book, or what they probably even spend smiling in a day.

The truth of it all is that this situation will come about with every work you release. With time and perseverance, your skin will thicken to the point that you’ll find such reviews completely laughable – and with any luck, you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.

In the meantime, look up authors reading their bad reviews online and know, with pride, that you have joined a club of sorts that not many have the dedication, determination, or courage to join: that of published authors. So let them throw their rotten tomatoes. They can’t take away your books, nor your hard work, and truth be told?

They just wish they could be you.

Keep writing.

Author Amber (A.R.) Draeger

**Brought to you as a part of the Paranormal Love Wednesdays Blog Hop**

***Be sure to click and visit the other great authors***


~ Of Ocean and Ash ~

Of Ocean and Ash on Amazon now.

AmberHeadshotA.R. (Amber) Draeger resides in rural Texas with her husband, Josh, and son, Logan. When not writing or reading, she is watching reality TV shows or tromping through the nearby woods.

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Interview with {Erin Hayes}: Part Two (and a giveaway)

htbam-erinIt’s out, it’s out! You could WIN it here.

I met the lovely Erin Hayes through a rocking writers group! She’s releasing a novella with the Falling In Deep Collection. You can Order the mermaid awesomeness here.

What is your favorite writing music?

I listen to a lot of movie and video game music. It’s meant to enhance a situation, not distract from it, and I find that a good soundtrack amplifies my mood. I just need to find the right mood.

Where is your favorite place to find inspiration?

My desk! I’ve surrounded my writing area with great, creative things, such as my Sailor Moon figurines, 50 pieces of art, and my Sharknado figurine.

What was your inspiration for How to Be a Mermaid? Tell me about your heroine.

I wanted to tell a fun story unlike anything I’ve ever seen before for mermaids. I came across professional mermaids, and the story unfurled from there.

Any advice for new writers (like me)?

Other writers have said it, but I find the best advice to be to read as much as you write. This is an art where it’s easy to isolate yourself from everyone, but reading is something that takes you to different worlds and allows you to perfect your craft.

Synopsis:

All Tara ever wanted was to be a mermaid.

So she takes a year off between high school and college to don a fake tail and tour aquariums across the country in a professional mermaid troupe.

Everything’s great until she meets a gorgeous real-life merman named Finn. Suddenly, what she thought was a dream turns out to be a nightmare — she’s turning into a mermaid herself. For real.

Yet when she returns to the sea to seek out Finn and reverse her transformation, she finds herself in the middle of an impending war between the land and sea. Tara may have always wanted to be a mermaid, but now it’s sink or swim. In order to survive, she has to learn how to be one, too.

ORDER IT! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

Check out this GIVEAWAY!

Short Excerpt:

“What is this?” a rough, intense voice demanded.

I swam out of unconsciousness, an uncomfortable experience that revealed my entire body aching, my head most of all. It was so dark, and a strange feeling had overtaken my body. Like I was floating. I tried touching a hand to my head, only to find that I couldn’t.

What the-?

My hands were tied behind my back with what felt like…kelp?

The realization hit me and I thrashed about trying to free myself, and I finally opened my eyes.

I paused for a moment, unable to grasp exactly where I was.

I was…underwater?

Air bubbles popped out of my mouth in a flurry when a scream escaped my throat. A thousand thoughts filled my head, none of them making sense except for the overwhelming dread that I was somehow underwater with my hands tied behind my back. From what I could tell, there was no way I could get air to breathe. I’d lost a lot of air when I screamed.

Oh my god, I was going to drown.

My mermaid necklace was thrust in front of my vision, momentarily disorienting me.

“What is this? I demand you to tell me now!”

“What?” I asked out loud. A sharp pain zigzagged across my head from where I’d hit it on the rock. I was trapped underwater and this man wanted to know…what exactly? What my necklace was?

The necklace came even closer to my face, so much that I’d have to go cross-eyed in order to focus on it.

“Where did you get this? What is it?” the man demanded.

“It’s my…” I was unsure and still terrified of my situation. “It’s my necklace.”

About the Author:Screen Shot 2015-05-30 at 9.07.40 AM

Sci-fi junkie, video game nerd, and wannabe manga artist Erin Hayes writes a lot of things. Sometimes she writes books, like the fantasy mystery novel Death is but a Dream, the sci-fi middle grade book Jacob Smith is Incredibly Average, and the Her Wolf paranormal series.

She works as an advertising copywriter during the day, and she moonlights as an author. She has lived in New Zealand, Texas, and now in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, cat, and a growing collection of geek paraphernalia.

You can reach her at erinhayesbooks@gmail.com and she’ll be happy to chat. Especially if you want to debate Star Wars.

Meet Erin:

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Love mermaids? Looking for a great beach read? The Falling in Deep Collection, a collection of 15 unique tales of creatures of the deep, is rolling out the first novella in their collection at the end of May.

From mermaids to sirens, Miami to Athens, dark paranormal romance to contemporary stories with steam, the fifteen award-winning and best-selling authors of the Falling in Deep Collection are bringing you mermaid tales like you’ve never seen before.

Every week beginning May 26th, 2015, we’ll be releasing one unique, never-before-published novella! Each novella will feature our favorite creature of the deep: mermaids.

The Falling in Deep Collection (May – September Releases)

Scales by Pauline Creeden

Ink: A Mermaid Romance by Melanie Karsak

Of Ocean and Ash by A. R. Draeger

Deep Breath by J. M. Miller

At the Heart of the Deep by Carrie Wells

The Mermaid’s Den by Ella Malone

How to be a Mermaid by Erin Hayes

The Glass Mermaid by Poppy Lawless

An Officer & a Mermaid by Blaire Edens

The Water is Sweeter by Eli Constant

Cold Water Bridegroom by B. Brumley

A Beyond the Sea Prequel by Emily Goodwin

Immersed by Katie Hayoz

Siren’s Kiss by Margo Bond Collins

To Each His Own by Anna Albergucci

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