Lake Of Sins: Hangman's Army by L. S. O'Dea (VBT, guest post, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

I have the pleasure of sharing a guest post by author L.S. O'Dea, who shares...

 

My Advice For New Writers
by L.S. O'Dea

Hmm.  There’s so much that I’ve learned since I published my first book that it’s hard to pick exactly what to tell a new author.

First, I’d tell them – write!  Don’t worry about getting it right the first time, just get it down.  Let the characters lead you on the journey.  They’re usually more fascinating than you think.

Once your story is done in rough draft – edit, edit, edit.  I edit so much, I get sick of my own books, but I don’t let that stop me.  Even though I don’t want to read it again for the thirtieth time in three months, I do.  I read it and edit it over and over until I’m not changing anything.  Then and only then is it ready for publication.  Putting out something that’s not as perfect as you can possibly make it is cheating your readers.  So, don’t do it.

I’m not saying that my books are perfect because they aren’t.  There are still a few typos and perhaps a misspelling.  I’m only human and so are my beta readers.  We miss things.  It’s a fact of life.  However, the story is as clean as possible.  I remove anything that isn’t needed.  I’m ruthless and so should you be.  It doesn’t matter if the paragraph is the most beautiful piece of prose you’ve ever written.  If it doesn’t add to the story then it has to go.  Period!  No exceptions!

Now, once you have your book ready – publish.  I used to think I was done at this point, but this is where the real work starts (at least in my opinion).  Marketing doesn’t come naturally to me, but it’s part of the process.

So, to all you aspiring authors – start reading up on how to market your books.  Check out forum and other writers’ blogs.  Goodreads has a good forum called “Best Bang For Your Buck” that lists a lot of the promoters that help and hurt.  There are a lot – A LOT – of people out there willing to take your money and give you almost nothing in return.  Beware. 

Of course, you have to stay open to new things but do your research.  The best marketing tool I have used so far is Nick Stephenson’s “Your First 10K Readers” course.  It’s not cheap and I thought long and hard about signing up, but it has been worth it (I’m not affiliated with him in anyway). 

Final words – good luck.  I have to believe that if you turn out a good story the readers will come (kind of like Field of Dreams and perhaps that’s all it is…my dream).

*******************

Lake Of Sins: Hangman's Army
by L.S. O’Dea

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE: YA, Dystopian Fantasy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

A rebellion is brewing in the world of the Lake of Sins while Hugh Truent sits in prison days away from his execution.

After taking his findings about the genetic similarities between the classes to the Supreme Almighty and the Council, Hugh had been arrested for treason and all his evidence had vanished as if made from smoke.

To protect his family, he cut off all contact with the outside world while he sat in prison for over four years waiting for his execution. He has no idea that some of his reports were leaked to the other classes and that civil war looms on the horizon.

Trinity and her friends have no hope of winning the war unless they can unite the classes. In order to do that, they need someone everyone will follow. They need the one person all the classes trust and believe in. They need Hugh.

That means they have to break him out of a maximum security prison and convince him to lead their army, but that won’t be easy because Hugh wants revenge and he’s not going to let anything get in his way especially mouthy, attractive, know-it-all Trinity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT

Hugh

“What do you suggest we do?”  From this position, the next tree was quite a distance away.  The River-Men waited in the water below.  He didn’t want to go back but he didn’t think they had a choice.

She went farther out on the branch toward the other tree.  “Do you think you can jump?”  She turned toward him, her golden eyes searching his face.  “Don’t lie.  If you miss, you die.”

“I’ll never make that jump.”  There was no room for manly bravado in this situation.

She stared at him for another moment and then leapt.  The River-Men dipped below the surface and then back up as she landed safely on the other tree.  His heart thudded in his chest.  She wasn’t leaving him.  She wouldn’t do that.  He had faith in her.  He trusted her, but his stomach knotted.  He’d trusted before and had been betrayed.

She tied the end of the rope around the trunk of the tree.  “Do you think you can cross on the rope?  If you don’t, I’ll come back, but then we’ll have to backtrack and that means sleeping in the swamp tonight.”

His arms and back ached and his hands were a bloody mess, but he could do this.  He had to do this.  “Throw me the rope.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”  He wasn’t sure at all but they didn’t have time to go back.  He caught the rope and tied it to the trunk of the tree, making sure it was tight-really, really tight.  Then he grabbed the taut rope and wrapped his ankles over the top of it.  Hand over hand, he moved away from the safety of the tree.  He glanced down.  The River-Men were swimming faster, excited and anticipating a meal.

Join Readers’ Group and Get the First Two Books in the Lake of Sins Series for FREE

http://lsodea.com/yourfreebooks-2/

Buy Links: This book is the third in the series--and the series should be read in order.  The first book in the series are FREE. Please check the price before purchasing

links to Amazon to purchase

http://myBook.to/LOS_Escape

http://myBook.to/LOS_Secrets

http://myBook.to/LOS_HangmansArmy

draft2digital

escape = https://books2read.com/u/4Xgn21

secrets = https://books2read.com/u/bo6Dn9

hangman = https://www.books2read.com/u/bzpA5Z

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

L. S. O’Dea grew up the youngest of seven in a family that uses teasing and tricks as an indication of love (or at least that’s what she tells herself).  Being five years younger than her closest sibling often made her the unwilling entertainment for her brothers and sisters.

Before she started kindergarten her brothers taught her how to spell her first and middle name—Linda Sue.  She was so proud she ran into the kitchen to tell her mother.  She stood tall and recited the letters of her name:  L-E-M-O-N   H-E-A-D.

She’s pretty sure she has her siblings to thank for the demons that lurk in her mind, whispering dark and demented stories.

Website

Facebook

Twitter

e-mail

*******************

GIVEAWAY


Enter to win a Kindle Paperwhite




The tour dates can be found here

Or, visit Goddess Fish Promotions on Facebook