Thursday, January 31, 2013

Critique It!

I'm looking for critiques on the cover Idea's for my two upcoming books. They are both Young Adult Fantasy / Romance. Would you buy them?


Back Cover Text:
Long ago the witches and the Dreamers got together, and made an eternal agreement to limit the power the Dreamers  had over the world. Thus they created the cycle of life in exchange for being invisible to their prophetic dreams. 
      Now the witches of present day are angry, and want to change the spell their ancestors created, but it will take a lot of careful planning to change what the coven created hundreds of years ago.
     The witches kidnapped the younger Dreamer when he was a baby, effectively cloaking him from their dreams.  With many years to work their witchcraft on his unknowing mind, they continue to build the resources necessary to change the cycle forever.  
     Will he join with the other Dreamers to save the land from the witches, or was he corrupted by the long laid plans of the coven?


Back Cover Text:
 Emily is a young girl born without a magic talent in a world where talent decides your rank in society.  A boy named Ashe shows up, and changes start happening all around her, causing chaos throughout the city.  Emily must fight to keep herself grounded, and figure out what to do when the magic is suddenly gone.



UPDATE:  2/22/13 I definitely appreciate all of the advice I received from this post, not only in the comments here, but on the posts on my google+ profile. I took all of those suggestions into consideration and created two covers that I am absolutely in love with, and many others have given praise about them too. I will post them in a blog when the titles are ready to be published. 

Monday, January 14, 2013

Does it spread me too thin?

   There are several different areas I am interested in writing in. I have a lot of time I devote to writing, and have developed many ideas for what I want to write.
          *My main desire and passion has always been for adult fantasy. My first full novel (The Lost Dreamer) in a series titled Witch's Brew is nearly complete. It's being edited right now.
          *My early reader series titled Loren and Lulu's Magical Kingdom is plotted out to four books so far. Two of them are complete and up on amazon now. This series was written to enhance my daughter Loren's excitement for reading. I don't really care if these books "sell" or not. They are really just to get my seven year old daughter revved up about reading.
          *My oldest daughter is ten, and she is not a great reader. She is behind the other kids her age. I have another idea for a series for her age that would get her excited and practicing reading. This series would be written for ages 8-12, middle grade fantasy novels. There would only be a few of these written (more if they become popular, but again I don't expect that). They are being written for a specific purpose.
          *And last is my idea for a young adult series. The adult category, and this young adult series would be my long term categories. Both are fantasy based (sword and sorcery). I don't know how long this series is yet, it is only in the idea phase. I have a big list of things ahead of it in line, so I haven't allowed my brain to dig into it yet.

   So, this makes me wonder. Am I spreading myself too thin (genre wise), even though the two middle categories are limited to only a hand full of books each? My early readers are authored under E. Paradise. I'm thinking of doing the middle grade series under that as well, and the young adult and adult under my full name (Elizabeth Paradise).
    Do you have any thoughts to share with me on this? I would love to hear them.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Be You

    I have always said "I want to be _______ when I grow up." The blank part would change from time to time. I was always jealous of the skills other people had that I didn't. I never thought myself good enough to put the word ME in that blank. Until now.
     Do you want to be you? Are you proud of who you've become in life? Have you let the world make you into something unrecognizable?
    It took me a long time to learn how to be myself. I don't care what anyone else thinks of me because I am being true to who I am no matter what. I know what it's like to not know who the person in the mirror is. It took me three focused healing years, and an amazingly supportive husband to rediscover ME. I also had some great new friends in my great new life I had created for myself that were great listeners. We all need someone to tell us we are special.
    It takes a lot of courage to start over. I had to turn around, and analyze every little aspect of my life. I needed to rediscover which pieces still represented me, and which were contributing to my unhappiness. Initially this caused a lot of pain for me and the people I love, but in the end, it was 100% worth it.
    Now that I am here, I intend to make the most of it. I intend to follow my dreams, and see what roads they take me down. I've always wanted to write, so that is what I'm doing. It is an amazing feeling to finally accomplish something that I feel proud of.
     I've decided to start a Be You campaign, and post to people about being themselves. (#BeYou for you twitter junkies). This is something that has so much meaning to me.
  You can visit my author page on amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/E.-Paradise/e/B00AX1S6FM
 to see what books I have written so far.

I have a young adult fantasy book coming out in Feb. 2013 titled The Lost Dreamer