It's finally here! Thoeba's book birthday! It's our re-do debut.

For those of you who don't know, Staccato is Thoeba's second publisher. It was scary when we lost our first one, Vamptasy, when they downsized, but things happen for a reason. Once again I am excited and hopeful. Heather Savage and her team are awesome. (Thanks ladies <3)

Reviews are pouring in and most of them,but not all, are great. And that's cool. There's even a couple of contests out. Check out mel'sbookbloglissalynnreviews.blogspot.com and authorjessicafrost.blogspot.com. Those are two I know of for sure. They're giving away e-book copies of Thoeba and other stuff.

And I've decided to have a contest of my own. I'm going to give away three e-book copies too, plus autographed bookmarks. And just between you and me? I'm in the process of getting three T-shirts printed up for the contest. I'm getting a friend to do it, so they aren't done yet. ;)

Wanna enter my contest? Here's how: Same rules as last time...every time you tweet, retweet or share or even MENTION me or Thoeba, you get an entry. You have until next Wednesday, July 4th. Ready...? Go!

I'll announce the winners next Thursday. Thanks and Good Luck!

Can't Please Everybody...

It was bound to happen. After weeks of four and five star reviews I have to admit I probably got cocky.

The feedback had been all I'd hoped for. Review after review assured me that I belonged in the writing world...that my first novel was a shining example of imagination and skill. Maybe I'd be a bestseller, like one of those people who became social media darlings within months thanks to Facebook, Twitter and word-of mouth.

THEN "Thoeba" would become a blockbuster movie, starring Elizabeth Banks as Thoeba, and one of Dakota Fannings unknown younger siblings as Kayla. And people would talk about me in trendy circles, and the pressure to follow up with nothing less than brilliance would be...

Wait...What? A two star review on Goodreads? WTF?

I don't know her. But she IS a professional book reviewer. Which made me wonder why she hadn't commented on it.

More curious than upset, I politely thanked her for the review and asked her, "in all seriousness", what she didn't like.

Her quick response was friendly, VERY nice. She just couldn't get into it. She said she felt bad about that. She didn't put it on her blog as a regular review, or post it on Amazon because she felt it wasn't a bad book, or even a badly written book. She just didn't get into it, and she hoped I understood.

Ah, there go my dreams of uniting the globe with a message of tolerance and world wide empathy. Goodbye, Nobel Peace Prize.

Just kidding. But I think I DO understand. Not everybody is going to fall in love with my concepts. But at least I was honest to my work, and I hope others continue to like 'Thoeba' and my next novels. I will continue writing and learn from people who don't agree with me.

But it's funny...I thought this would hurt more.

Illustration by: aref www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Nothing on this blog is about writing...

Busy day today...And an important anniversary tomorrow-at least to me.
It was exactly one year ago tomorrow that my husband and I fell in love with a cat. At the Humane Society she meowed at Dan's feet until he picked her up, and purred so loud he never wanted to let her go. So we didn't.

I could go on and on about how she's changed my life. (I could...for HOURS) But anyone who knows me, or reads this blog knows just how precious she is to us. We love being cat owners so much, we got another another, a handsome boy named Sully. Delightful chaos has ensued ever since. Tomorrow they'll get her favorite wet food (Turkey and Giblets) and on the weekend, I'll buy an extra special treat for both of our furbabies.

I can't do it today (or tomorrow)because I'm doing garage sales at my house from 4 to 8, Thursday and Friday afternoon. As you know, Entities Unknown has been doing some fundraisers, and this is part of it. We have dishes, clothing, books, games,etc. We also have a sewing machine, stereo speakers, and other cool things. If you live in Edmonton and the surrounding area, come see me! It's at 9902-158st. Edmonton, Alberta.

Meet Terra Weston-Koster!

Yeah, I'm late again...But honestly I had nothing interesting to post about. That is until the amazing woman who designed my book cover agreed to be on this blog! It gives me a whole bunch of pleasure to introduce you to Terra Weston-Koster, the graphic designer behind my first cover, but certainly NOT my last!


Tell us about yourself...


Im Terra (Weston) Koster and I grew up in central Minnesota. My biggest passions in life are family, horses, singing and Art. Im a former Sailor (so please excuse any language slips and currently a graphic artist.



How did you become a graphic artist? What drew you to this line of work?


I love art in any form. I love drawing, painting, photography, throwing on a wheel, basically everything involved with art. I realized that the only way to make a living as an artist is by living out of your car… or about 100 years after you die ☺ So I decided it would be smarter to mix my love of art with Technology because that is never going to go away. I went to school for Multi Media so I could do everything from digital art to websites and photo editing.




Where do you get your inspiration?


I get my artistic inspiration from all different sources, from my kids to nature, animals and I love fantacy/SciFi.. However for book covers I definitely get my inspiration from the characters in the book! I love books that are so well detailed that there leaves no questions about the characters. That being said, it’s also interesting when a characters personality is very specific but their physical attributes are more vague. I think that helps the reader put themselves in the story.




How did you come up with that genius cover for 'Thoeba'?


There is so much emotion in Thoeba! Sorrow for her lost Love, Joy and discovering new things, anger at the demons that pushed her from heaven… and a snarky sarcasm as she deals with the new humans she meets. There was just no way I could fit all that on one cover, so I decided to use an image that shows her as overwhelmed as possible, and holding herself/the Energy for support. She clearly misses heaven so I wanted her to have her head thrown back and her face up.

She is an angel so of course I pictured her beautiful, and when she lost her wings the description of her scars was great, so I wanted to make sure she had a “tattooed scar” look instead of cuts and blood which is not how they are supposed to look. And although you cant see The Energy, you can see the necklace she is wearing. There is also a darkness with the demons so I had to add lots of falling ash.





Could you explain to us how the average cover comes together?


That depends on the cover. Reading the book to get a feel for the characters is a must. Sometimes it depends on the author as well. Many times there are certain things they just love and really want incorporated. It can be as elaborate as the whole theme, or something as simple as the font ☺

Then you have to think about your target audience. Just because it might be a cover that I personally love, if it wont appeal to the targeted readers it wont be good for the book. The cover needs to grab them long enough to get them to pick it up and read the back ☺ After that it’s a combination of cover, and blub that gets someone to read it.



I see your facebook profile photo has a horse. It seems you have a passion for them. Can you tell us about it? What else makes you happy?


I grew up with horses and I love to ride and show. I would live and breath them. My husband says my love of horses overshadows everything else, but he also says most people don’t have a passion that strongly for anything at all so its not all bad. We have some very good cow horses, and we compete as often as time allows. My kids have been riding since they were about 15months old, and my daughter is 7 and competes with me. The other loves of my life are my husband Scott, our daughter Shane and our son Wyatt. They are the 3 funniest people I know. I tell Scott that I was normal before I met him… and Im pretty sure I get my sarcasm from my kids.


Thanks so much Terra for my perfect cover art AND for taking the time to do this interview. You rock.