I have the pleasure of sharing a guest post by author Christine Amsden, who shares her thoughts on the...
Path to Publishing Volume 9:
Crossroads Edition
by
Christine Amsden
Frozen is my ninth book, and sometimes I still find myself
wondering when publishing is going to get easy! Granted, I can now count on
Twilight Times Books to accept anything I send them, but “success” is something
I still work for every day. I’m only as good as my next book.
I find myself writing this
blog post from a crossroads. To the left: an agent and big-press publishing.
This traditional, respectable route carries with it tantalizing promises of success
that are not always – or even often – realized. To the right: self-publishing.
No longer the road less traveled, this path offers tempting promises of total
artistic and business control alongside wild success stories that, once again,
are not often realized.
You can read the pros and
cons of both paths elsewhere. I have read quite a few as I sit at this
junction, querying agents with my latest manuscript while simultaneously
researching KDP Select Publishing vs going “wide.”
As I look at the path behind
me, the one leading to this crossroads, I see a lot to be proud of. With the
exception of Frozen, which has, after all, only just been released,
every one of my novels has won an award. Many have won multiple awards. They
are well reviewed, with reader comments to make an author’s heart swell with
pride. Some have even sold well, especially as I learned more and more about
marketing and outreach.
But if there’s one thing I
can promise you about the path to publishing it is this: “publishing” is not a
destination. It is itself a road upon which you travel, never quite getting
“there” (wherever that is) but, if you are wise, you can learn to enjoy the
scenery along the way.
It’s not a road to travel
lightly. Publishing takes work, both before and after you start down that path.
The world of publishing is constantly changing, markets popping up and
disappearing overnight, agents coming and going in the blink of an eye, and
technology making everything we thought we knew wrong.
Remember that in the end, you
have to write because you love it. Nothing else in the publishing world will
make writing worth it.
**************************
Frozen
(Cassie Scot Book Seven)
(Cassie Scot Book Seven)
Apparently,
life doesn’t end when you get married.
When
a couple freezes to death on a fifty degree day, Cassie is called in to
investigate. The couple ran a daycare out of their home, making preschoolers
the key witnesses and even the prime suspects.
Two
of those preschoolers are Cassie’s youngest siblings, suggesting conditions at
home are worse than she feared. As Cassie struggles to care for her family, she
must face the truth about her mother’s slide into depression, which seems to be
taking the entire town with it.
Then
Cassie, too, is attacked by the supernatural cold. She has to think fast to
survive, and her actions cause a rift between her and her husband.
No,
life doesn’t end after marriage. All hell can break loose at any time.
Excerpt:
The node called to me. I could hear it, almost like
singing. It wanted me to take hold, to use it, to find the raw power I would
need if I had any hope of survival.
“Hang on, Sheriff,” I said.
Then I opened myself up to the node and let the magic
pour through me, out of me, and into the world around me.
I didn’t know what I was doing. Not really. There is a
big difference between theory and practice, whatever the little voice in my
head wanted to make me believe. Which meant that what I actually did was open a
floodgate when I had no shutoff valve.
Power. Intense. Hot. Electric. I could no longer feel my
body at all. I was the power.
Some dim part of me that retained awareness tried to will
the power to form into heat, but I was simply overwhelmed. The power went out
into the world to do whatever it would, with no form or focus.
I was at the center of an explosion. No. I was the
explosion.
Pain crackled through me until I
couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t …
Buy Links
Print Release: July 15, 2018
Audiobook Release: TBA
The Cassie Scot Series
Cassie Scot: ParaNormal
Detective (Cassie Scot Book One)
Secrets and Lies (Cassie Scot Book Two)
Mind Games (Cassie Scot Book 3)
Stolen Dreams (Cassie Scot Book 4)
Madison's Song (Cassie Scot Book 5)
Kaitlin’s Tale (Cassie Scot Book 6)
About the Author
Christine Amsden has been writing fantasy and
science fiction for as long as she can remember. She loves to write and it is
her dream that others will be inspired by this love and by her stories.
Speculative fiction is fun, magical, and imaginative but great speculative
fiction is about real people defining themselves through extraordinary
situations. Christine writes primarily about people and relationships, and it
is in this way that she strives to make science fiction and fantasy meaningful
for everyone.
At the age of 16, Christine was diagnosed with
Stargardt’s Disease, which scars the retina and causes a loss of central
vision. She is now legally blind, but has not let this slow her down or get in
the way of her dreams.
Christine currently lives in the Kansas City
area with her husband, Austin, who has been her biggest fan and the key to her
success. In addition to being a writer, she's a mom and freelance editor.
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