Cover Love #1: Welcome Caller, This is Chloe

Cover Lover #1

Okay so it's pretty common that authors have a thing for cover art. We have big strong opinions about it because  the cover on the front of your book can make or break your sales.


Since I have such an opinion on covers I thought I could make this a regular thing. Talking about shit-hot covers when I come across them.


I should have started this donkeys years ago cos cover love is an affliction I come down with frequently. But I didn't think of it then. I thought about it now. 

So without further ado here is my latest cover lover!

Striking, isn't it? I think this one is going to stand out on shelves in a big, big way. Props to Abrams Books cover designer!


Yes, the Young Adult section of all bookshops is full of girls on covers. But the majority of those girls on covers are broody, and pouting and wearing flouncy dresses. The covers are dark and atmospheric.


The girls on covers are generally NOT standing in the centre of the cover, staring the reader in the eye wearing Big Bird yellow, flouro pink above and...what is that...tinsel? Glittery tinsel stuff behind them!


This is different to all the covers out there, it's so completely modern. The only thing I'd change about it is size and placement of Shelley's name. I had to go hunting for it and though I think it's cool that it's on the microphone, she deserves a bigger name.


I think it'll do well. I hope it does well, because Shelley deserves it. 


The novel Welcome Caller, This is Chloe was the fifth out of six times (so far) that Shelley Coriell was a finalist in the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart competition. So basically she's so good that she is ALWAYS PLACING in this prestigious, highly competitive competition. It was just a matter of time before one of her books was published. And Welcome Caller, This is Chloe is coming May, 2012 from Amulet Books.

So what's it about?

Big-hearted Chloe Camden is the queen of her universe and loved by all until winter break of her junior year. That’s when her BF shreds her reputation and her school counselor axes her junior independent study project. Forced to take on a “more meaningful” project in order to pass her junior year, Chloe joins her school’s struggling radio station where she must team up with a group of misfits who don’t find her too queenly. Ostracized by her former BFs, lonely Chloe throws herself into the radio station where she ends up hosting a late-night call-in show that gets the station much needed publicity. And in the end, trouble. She also befriends radio techie and loner Duncan Moore. On and off the air, Chloe and Duncan learn sometimes funny, sometimes painful lessons about life, love, and what it means to be alone…and lonely.

And who is Shelley Coriell?

The CEO of Coriell Creative Services LLC, Shelley is a communications professional with 20 years experience in public relations and print and electronic media. She has served as a newspaper reporter, award-winning magazine editor, and freelance writer. As an executive for non-profit organizations, she has directed print and electronic communications efforts, overseen special events for thousands, and assisted clients with leadership development, long-range planning, issues management, and media relations. Shelley is a summa cum laude graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. A member of Romance Writers of America and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Shelley travels the country giving motivational speeches and workshops on the craft, business, and joys of writing. You can find her at online www.shelleycoriell.com and blogging at Sa-weet Treats and Great Reads.


So what say you, fellow cover lovers? Do you like it as much as I do?


Sairz

Blood and Tears: How to write an impressive Author Bio (it's not how you think!)

Thought I'd follow up my "come meet an Academy award winner!" post with a debrief on how John Kassab, Sound Designer's talk was.

And it was AWESOME.

Though not an author by trade (he is currently writing a children's book, however) just like us, he is a creative person, and knows all too well the struggles involved in being one.

He told a lot of great stories, funny and inspiring and I thought I would share with you John's take on those impressive, accolade-filled bio's you find on successful people's sites - authors and otherwise.

But first! Here's John's:

John Kassab is a sound designer, re-recording mixer, installation artist, electronic musician and DJ from Melbourne, Australia.

In 2010, John embarked on a 3 month Winston Churchill Fellowship interviewing leading sound people in 8 cities across 4 continents. His fellowship report, 'The State of Post-Production Film Sound', has popped up in film school teaching packs around the world and sections have been translated into languages other than English. Later that year, he was also inducted into the prestigious Motion Picture Sound Editors in Los Angeles for his contribution to film sound.

John's recent sound work can be heard in the Academy Award Winning 'The Lost Thing' directed by Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhmann and Ariel Kleiman's 'Deeper Than Yesterday', which received the Kodak Award and Petit Rail d'Or at Cannes in 2010 and the International Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2011. Both films also received award recognition for their sound design and mix. 

His latest sound design and mix can be heard on Craig Irvin's 'Tethered', which just debuted at the Sydney Film Festival where it won the Dandy Award for best director.

Impressive, yes?

Of course, you won't have a bio as impressive as that unless you too are a multi-award winning, inductee who won a lucrative Fellowship and is studied at universities across the globe.

What John has to say about his impressive bio is this:

That snapshot of his achievements doesn't take into account the decade of heartache and rejection, the promising sounding meetings that nothing came of, the applications for jobs that didn't exist. The years on Centrelink (Government payments), where Centrelink pushed him to work in an abattoir, and his family pushed him to work in the family's Real Estate business.

The impressive bio doesn't take into account the times after he dropped out of his law degree in order to pursue his passion, sound design, and then watched his ex-classmates go to the Mercedes dealership to buy their first real car.

Behind the impressive author bio, was a lot of struggle and pain. But there was also passion and belief in himself that he could succeed.

And now he has.

So. How to write an impressive author bio? Believe in yourself. Keep doing the work, keep honing your craft. Take a chance on you.

And be rewarded.

Sarah

Free lunchtime talk in Melbourne: Academy Award Winning Sound Designer John Kassab!

For all you night owls and for those of you seeing this in the morning...this just in!

Melbourne peeps - TOMORROW (Today if you're reading this on Tuesday 9th August) you should pop over to NMIT, Yarra Bend Rd Fairfield, Victoria Australia to see John Kassab speak and hear all about sound design and working on Academy Award winning films.

Should be a great way to spend your lunch break. 
PL Speaker Series Kassab

See you there!

Sairz

Why I, Sarah Billington could never be a Pantser

Today I'm talking about Seat-of-the-Pantsing when writing.

I'm not talking about this:

Another form of "Pantsing"

I got an idea for a new story last night as I went off to sleep. And I'm rather excited about it. It's about a wall separating a town. It's been there as long as the MC can remember and there are armed guards in front of it who will kill you on sight if you approach it. This'll be a SHORT story, not a novel, and I wanted to write it today. BOOM. Done.

So I started writing it aaaaannnnndddd it's really not that simple.

If it's going to be a GOOD story, I need to know some stuff upfront.

Is the emphasis on what's on the other side/who's on the other side?
Is it on the danger of approaching the wall?
Is it about who put up the wall, and tearing it down?
Is it about why there is a wall in the first place?
Is something good/bad happening on the other side?
Is her side imprisoned, or are they being protected from what's over the wall?
Is it perhaps, the Berlin Wall? Is this a historic piece? An alternate historic piece?

Without knowing any of this stuff, really, what can I write?

Pantsing so doesn't work for me.

How about you?

Love Sairz

Sarah Billington eBook Project Management...is OPEN!

So I thought I'd tell you about this thing I'm doing. One of the things I'm doing.
I've been UNOFFICIALLY doing it for awhile now, but NOW I have a website. And nothing's real unless it's on the internet.

Sarah Billington eBook Project Management is OPEN!

Really, you're too kind. Those fireworks...oh you spoil me so.

Sarah Billington eBook Project Management (ePM for short) is the grouping together of all the services I offer:

Manuscript Appraisals
Manuscript Editorial (Structural/Copy/Proof reading)
eBook formatting
Cover Design
Query letter assistance
Teaching Writing or eBook formatting (in Melbourne, Australia unless you want to fly me somewhere) and of course,
Project Management

What is eBook Project Management, you ask?

Well it takes a lot of people to bring a book to life. The author, (if they choose, the manuscript appraiser), editor, cover designer and eBook formatter.

A project manager is one person who works on all of these aspects. It helps the author because one person is connecting with them, their work and their vision for their work on a deep level. I'll get to know it inside and out and help craft a spectacular (and professional) book. By having the manuscript appraiser edit the book, your editor can tell what has been improved and how much deeper the book is, and how to get it closer to what you hoped it to be. By having your editor design your cover, you aren't giving a stranger a copy of the blurb and hoping they'll put together something right - the editor/cover designer knows the tone and feel of the book and what will reflect what's inside, as well as being visually appealing to attract readers.

I offer all services individually, at affordable prices, and look forward to helping more writers achieve their dreams.

Soon I shall also be launching Billington Media - my Business/Sales/Academic writing editorial business. There are all sorts of things on the horizon!

Check out the site, give me a shout if you think I can help, and if you know someone who needs me, I don't mind you talking about me. I ENCOURAGE it. :)

Later, lovelies!

Sairz

What Type of Zombie Are You? The Six Categories of Zombie

My awesome friend Amie Kaufman had a write-in at her house last week, and since I've been out of writer mode lately and more in work and study mode, I knew it was going to be difficult.

So we didn't ACTUALLY write anything new, but we discussed our books and plotting problems and writers blockages. The last couple of years I haven't really been one to believe in writers block, but after realising that yeah - I've been stuck in the same scene for at least a month, I now concede that sometimes writers block DOES exist. 

Anyway, we were talking about my zombie book, and the TYPE of zombie I choose to make them will influence the events in the book.

Type of Zombie, you ask? Well you can't just say "zombie" and everyone knows what you're talking about.

TYPES OF ZOMBIES

1. SLOW ZOMBIES

Slow zombies shuffle and moan and aren't really that big a threat unless they're up close, don't you think?

Slow zombies can be found in the traditional George Romero Dawn of the Dead movies (or so I hear because I am appallingly uninitiated in 70s zombie chic), as well as Shaun of the Dead, The Walking Dead and Carrie Ryan's Forest of Hands & Teeth books.

28 Days Later Zombies

2. FAST ZOMBIES 

Fast Zombies are super-scary because they'll be on you, ripping out and chowing down on your intestines in an instant.

28 Days Later and the newer Dead movies (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead etc) are full of fast zombies that chase you down until they get you. Charlie Higson's The Enemy also has fast zombies, and in Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands & Teeth there are fast zombies called Breakers.

Shaun and co. attempting to blend in with
mindless zombies

3. MINDLESS ZOMBIES

There's nothing going on in this type of zombie's head, except that they want to kill and eat you.

Shaun of the Dead, The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, Zombieland. They're empty-headed eating machines.

4. INTELLIGENT ZOMBIES

In my short story eBook I, Zombie, my zombie is alert and thinking and functioning, he's planning things. In The Enemy, some of the zombies use weapons and hunt the kids down in packs. In the Dylan Dog movie and graphic novels (I assume), zombies are just like humans but a bit decayed with bits falling off. Maybe intelligent is the wrong word to use here...

Positively DEAD Zombies

5. DEAD ZOMBIES

Dead people brought back to undeadly life. The Walking Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Forest of Hands & Teeth all have dead people walking around hungry for braaaaaaaiiiiinnsss.

6. ALIVE ZOMBIES

Humans that are ALIVE but have some sort of disease that makes them rabid for human flesh and the desire to kill.

In 28 Days Later the zombies are alive, but infected with the incurable Rage Virus, Quarantine some sort of biological weapon has been released with zombieriffic consequences and I THINK The Enemy (are the grown ups dead or just sick? I can't remember.) is swarming with sick adults intent on killing and eating the children as well.

CONCLUSION

Deciding on which category(s) of zombie you wish to write about will have a big impact on the way your story unfolds. If they're mindless - they're unlikely to set traps for your characters, if they're slow, they'll be easier to avoid if you have good cardio fitness going on, but your characters may underestimate them.

Underestimated Slow Zombies

I have been making decisions in regard to MY zombies and its really helping to shape my book. I love writing!

Ciao for now,

Sairz

C-c-c-coooold

Hello lovelies, what's new?


Me, I am in hibernation, staying inside where it is warm. Mind you I had a shower last night and steam rose from my skin so it's not as warm in here as I'm pretending. But it's warmer than out there. And there are blankets in here.
I seem to have completely forgotten how much colder it was in Leeds, London, Scotland and New York a year and a half ago. But the buildings in those places were better insulated. Except for the haunted castle in the Scottish High Country. Now THAT was cold.


I have two weeks left of my semester break from University, therefore am finishing up work on my Certificate IV in Small Business Management (which I snuck in, during the break). I  passed all my assessments, just have to finish my Business Plan now.
I've been working on my website which I think is coming along well and will be unveiled within a couple of weeks and as soon as I post this blog I'm changing the background to match the forthcoming website so that's all rather exciting.
I've been doing some copy editing of sales and marketing documents which has been an interesting experience - interesting in a good way because I've been learning new things as I edit! Coolies.
And I'm currently doing a manuscript appraisal of a novel and am happy to say I'm really enjoying it. It makes the job a lot easier.
Plus I've formatted a few books for eBook distribution lately and I love seeing them up and being purchased and reviewed. I feel like their success is partly my success - even though I only had a small hand in it. I'm proud of them. 


Oh! And the video shop has NOT been robbed for a third time yet, so that's nice.


I'm currently reading The Carrie Diaries: Summer in the City and am getting a kick out of meeting Samantha and Miranda when they were younger. Looking forward to seeing what Charlotte was like as a teenager. Will soon know!
I also just downloaded the sample of a new indie eBook, Restless Spirits by Jean Marie Bauhaus today.

"A paranormal investigator becomes the subject of her own investigation after stumbling into the crosshairs of a malevolent spirit. Finding herself a ghost and imprisoned in a house that's haunted by the spirit's other victims from across the ages, Veronica "Ron" Wilson discovers an afterlife that's full of surprises, the biggest of which is that ghosts can still fall in love. "

I have a secret passion for paranormal investigator TV shows so this sounds right up my alley. It's half-price on Smashwords at the moment so go check it out!

I just watched Lemonade Mouth, and have a new favourite Disney Channel movie and soundtrack. How funny is Wen? Great character. Disney Channel movies are not necessarily Acadamy Award worthy, but they're always fun and I love them all. 

My zombie novel is coming along slowly - very slowly - but it's coming along. Writing's taking a bit of a backburner at the moment. I'm grossing my out trying to find just the right, evocative words to describe a decaying corpse. Yeah. I'll be doing a writing class next semester so hopefully that will help get me back into the habit.

There you go, that's me lately. Not much to report really. :)

Hope you're all well!

Love Sairz