Goodreads Giveaway for Canidae: The Journey

So yesterday I set up a giveaway over at Goodreads for Canidae: The Journey.  It went live around 3:01 AM Eastern this morning.  Now, I could never be accused of having high expectations for my book.  In fact, I figured I'd be lucky if even five people entered the contest.  Yet when I checked it this morning, I found out that 61 people had already signed up within less than twelve hours.  That is impressive, and far more interest than I had expected.  With this in mind, I'm considering getting more copies of the book.  Although at the moment I'm monitoring the amount of people signing up to determine how much I should increase the number of copies by. 

The contest will end in three weeks, and I look forward to seeing the final number.  Not only that, but I hope that this will result in more feedback about Canidae: The Journey.  Feedback of any kind is invaluable, and it will hopefully make me a better writer in the years to come.  That and what people think of the story will help shape the future of the Canidae series, provided that a sequel is eventually written. 

That is all for now, but I'll keep you posted about the results of the contest! 

Advertising For the Win

As of this week, some advertisements for my book will be going live over at Kirkus.  So keep your eyes peeled if you happen to follow them.  With any luck those advertisements will help spread the word about Canidae: The Journey.   I've included an example of the advertisement below:

I am really impressed with how the advertisements turned out.  I'm looking forward to seeing how effective these will be as I go forward with promoting my book and all future titles. 

That's all for now, stay tuned! :)

First Review of Canidae: The Journey

Hello everyone!  Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. 

As I announced over in the news section, the first review for Canidae: The Journey has been published over at Kirkus Reviews.  If you haven't had a chance to check out the review for yourself you can take a look at it by following this link. 

Overall it seems the folks at Kirkus liked my book, and I feel quite relieved to be honest.  I tend to be a little self critical about my work, and throughout the process of writing Canidae: The Journey I was always looking at what I was writing and saying: "This is awful. Why would anyone ever want to read this?  I need to make this better.  I need to rewrite that entire page.  Etc." 

That said, Kirkus did point out some issues and flaws that I both agree with and acknowledge.  Creating the Canidae was not easy, and even now I still feel that they have too much of a human element in them.  I wanted to have some amount of that in order to make them easier for readers to relate to, but I didn't want to be on the opposite end of the spectrum where the canids were so different that it would be difficult to understand them. 

I also appreciate that Kirkus pointed out some of the weak spots in my writing.  Feedback like this is immensely helpful for writers like myself, and I believe that it will help me avoid repetitive word choice. 

That is all for now folks, talk to you again real soon!

Happy Holidays!

It's been a little while since I've posted anything, but I've been pretty busy.  Before the year ends, I wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays.  Stay safe, stay warm, and party like crazy.  

So what are my plans for the next year? Well I will be promoting Canidae: The Journey, and of course writing another book.  I'm not sure when that one will be published, but I hope it will be Q4 of this year at the earliest. 

That is all for now, take care folks and happy holidays!  See you in 2015, with lots of exciting announcements and news to come. 

And We're Live!

Well it took a few days to get everything into working order, but my website has finally been completed.  The only thing left to do is replace my picture on the Author page, that is an old one from college.  The new picture will be posted some time early next week if all goes as planned.

As far as updates with Canidae: The Journey go, I am currently working on marketing the book.  In the weeks to come I hope to answer any feedback about the book and discuss what I plan to do next.  As I've said earlier, I do have another book I am working on.  However, it is still far too early to discuss that one.

Well, that is all for now.  Later folks!

First Post

Welcome to the blog section of my website!  So what is the difference between the blog and the news section?  Well the blog will be less formal than the news section, and I will also provide a lot more behind the scenes details about books and other projects I'm working on. 

For the most part, the website is finished.  In the weeks to come I'll be promoting my first book while also working on the next novel.  The next novel is not a sequel to Canidae: The Journey, but that doesn't mean that there won't be a second book eventually.  

At present I can't give many details about the next book, but as it develops I will share more details.  If you have picked up a copy of Canidae: The Journey, I hope you are enjoying it.  Feedback is always appreciated.  

Well that is all for now, I'll be posting again in the near future!