New Blog Spot

After more than two years with WordPress, I have decided to move my blog over to Blogger. They have more options for formatting and meet my needs a bit better.I love the freedom I have with the layout and how I can add more of the little widgets to share.

I’m hoping to take the blog in a slightly different direction and target more of my readers with topics and reviews that will appeal to young adults. Although, I’ll still slip in some posts about my writing and publishing experiences.

Please come and check out my new (and still old) blog at www.angelafristoe.blogspot.com

Songbird is a YA Strongest Start Finalist!

I learned today that Songbird is a finalist in the YA category of The Strongest Start Contest 2011 on TNBW! Last year it was a finalist in the Romance category and lost to my other book Evolution of Janie (now titled Raven’s Mark). This year is another stiff competition and I can’t wait to find out who the winners of all the categories are!

If you’d like to read the first three chapters of Songbird you can join The Next Big Writer or you can buy the book from Amazon, B&N, or CreateSpace!

 

Songbird is Now Available!

Songbird is now available in print as well as in all e-book formats! It’ was so exciting to know that I have a book out there now, and people can actually order it themselves!

You can get the paperback from Amazon.com, and the Songbird e-store. Both of these locations with ship internationally.

E-book formats are available in the  Kindle store, The B&N Nook Store, and Smashwords.

Songbird Book Blog Tour June 27 – July 22

The Songbird Blog Tour starts on Monday! YEA! Here is the schedule of where I’ll be:

Monday, June 27: Yani at The Secret Life of an Avid Reader
(In Her Own Words)
Tuesday, June 28: Ashley B at Basically Amazing Books
(Review)
Wednesday, June 29: Amber at Down The Rabbit Hole
(Author Interview: Tweets)
Thursday, June 30: Britta at I Like These Books
(Tens List)
Friday, July 1: Cyndi at Dog-Eared & Bookmarked
(Review)

Monday, July 4: Bailey at IB Book Blogging
(Review)
Tuesday, July 5: Kai at Amaterasu Reads
(This or That?)
Wednesday, July 6: Reagan at Shadow Star Blog
(Teenage Garage Sale)
Thursday, July 7: Patricia at Patricia’s Particularity
(Author Book Picks)
Friday, July 8: Heather at Proud Book Nerd
(Review)

Monday, July 11: Bailey at IB Book Blogging
(Character Tweets)
Tuesday, July 12: Crystal at My Reading Room
(Guest Post)
Wednesday, July 13: Amber at Down the Rabbit Hole
(Review)
Thursday, July 14: Corrine at Lost For Words
(Into the Past)
Friday, July 15: Patricia at Patricia’s Particularity
(Review)

Monday, July 18: Jen D at What’s on the Bookshelf?
(Review)
Tuesday, July 19: Hannah at Paperback Treasures
(Author Interview: Book Lines)
Wednesday, July 20: Heidi at YA Bibliophile
(Character Interview: Dani)
Thursday, July 21: Britta at I Like These Books
(Review)
Friday, July 22: Lilibeth at Chica Reader
(Book Picks: Dani)

Book Review of Wayward: The Witch Wars Saga

GoodReads Blurb:

Born without magic, seventeen-year-old Helena “Hex” Wayward is an embarrassment to her power-hungry relatives.

As the weakest member of the world’s most deadly magical family, Hex learns early how to avoid confrontation. There’s no defending herself against an errant curse or the pit-demon that her cousins like to summon during family reunions.

Review:

Wayward was a very enjoyable read. Fast paced, it had enough action mixed in with romantic elements to keep things interesting.

Hex is a strong and independent character and she’s consistent throughout the story. I love that she is a little sassy and cynical. She was the really what kept me coming back. She’s an outcast not just in school, or in her family, but also in the secret society she supposedly belongs to.

The development of secondary characters was good as well, although the I felt that I need more closure with the villain, however I can hope that it will be addressed in the sequel. the preview of the sequel was also a nice teaser and even in that one chapter it’s apparent that there is more depth to Hex than even shown in Wayward.

Wayward:The Witch Wars Saga is available for $12.99 at Amazon  and in e-book format for $0.99 also at Amazon.

Book Review: Shimmerspell: A Faerie Tale Girl Novella by Kimberly Spencer

Book Blurb from GoodReads:

When sixteen-year-old Jensen Meadows is cut off from her sister and finds herself caught in the middle of an ancient faerie war, she quickly learns that faeries aren’t made of sparkly goodness. They’re vicious. And worse, they’re after her.

With the help of Liam Casey, she searches for her sister and begins to suspect that her whole life has been nothing more than a faerie tale.

But what if the truth turns out to be more than she can handle?

Review:

I’ve never been a Faerie girl, so this was the first I’ve read of them. That said, I really enjoyed this novella. It was fast paced, and gave me just enough faerie background that I wasn’t entirely confused, but not so much that I had to skim to keep interest.

The characters of Jensen and her friends are well developed (especially Zoe), although I would have liked to see more of Liam. His reactions to Jensen and what she is suggests that there is a lot going on with him that we aren’t privy to, because the book is written in close third person, with Jensen being the main character. However, as this is the first in the series, I’m guessing that will be developed later.

I really wish this hadn’t been a novella. It was so short that I managed to read it in about an hour. Good for a quick read, but I wanted to know what was going to happen next. As a reader it was a bit frustrating, but as a writer I can see the benefit of having shorter stories that keep the reader wanting more.

Shimmerspell is available for $0.99  in Kindle format at Amazon and all other formats on Smashwords.

Songbird Available in E-Book Format!

That feels just amazing to say! I’ve been so focused on getting everything ready with the print version that this had just kind of been a step in that accomplishment, but today I was sitting here working on posts for the blog tour and I realized – I’m on Amazon! I’m on B&N.com!

I have already had 3 reviews left on Amazon and one on Good reads, and I’m very happy with them. I’m a bit of a number person, but even the 3 star review had me smiling, because the content of the review was really good.

So, if you have an e-reader and are looking for check out Songbird!

Moving Onwards!

Editing of Songbird is done! It feels great to say that!

After 2 proof copies and countless word processor edits, I finally submitted the final version and ordered my ARC copies. Now I just hope they get here quickly, because I need to mail them off for my blog tour. Which is the next phase of getting Songbird published.

The marketing aspect is the scariest part of this whole process. Marketing is such an all-encompassing idea, and there seems to be an endless list of things I need to do to get my book out there, before it’s even out there!

My book trailer was my first move and I love the way it turned out. I had a blast putting it together, and the feedback I had on my original version really help me look at what a reader is looking for from book advertisements.

Next came my websites. I now have two websites. The first is my author site and gives a look at me and my work beyond Songbird. The second site is dedicated to Songbird. Creating both of them was interesting, but took a long time. I will be making sites for my other books, but I’m starting early so I don’t get overwhelmed again.

My blog tour is set up and I will be posting the schedule soon, as well as publicizing it on Facebook and Twitter. I’m working on my blogs now, so that they are done in time. A few of the posts are a little challenging, but if writing were easy then it probably wouldn’t hold much interest for me.

Goodreads has been interesting and I’m going to be putting up a giveaway on there this Monday that will go until the release date. I’ve also heard some good things about Librarything.com and am going to check out their  site, which I think will let me give away ebook versions of Songbird. I’m also involved in a Nook giveaway with a number of other authors, so look for more info to come about that in the next few days.

Ebooks is the last major thing I need to tackle. I know I said I was done editing, but now the reformatting needs to be done, so I can get into the ebook market. If I can get that sorted out, then I may actually have the ebook out before the print.

Okay, so after reading everything I still have to do, I’m not feeling so great. Maybe I need a list so I can check things off! 

Stepping Closer

Publishing is hard! I’d never realized just how many things I’d have to do to make sure I’m ready for this! Every time I turn around I’m getting ideas on marketing before publication, marketing after publication, marketing, marketing, marketing! One really great thing is that I’ll be publishing through Little Prince Publishing and had some awesome advice on things to do to market my book!! (okay, I realize I used an exclamation point in every one of those sentences, but I feel they were necessary )

I knew that marketing would be key in turning this into a success, but I didn’t realize how time consuming it is, and will continue to be. I’m still working on edits and I’m trying to sell my book already. I have my Facebook fan page, my book website, my Goodreads’ Author page, book trailer, I’m working on an Author website (with a real domain name) and every one of those things is sucking my time away. At least I know it’s not going down into some endless abyss. It will pay off, but I need to do even more work on it.

So, as bad as I am at setting goals and following through, I’m giving myself until this weekend to have my edits done. Then I’ll be able to get my next proof copy for the beginning of May. I need to get ready for a giveaway on Goodreads and I really need some ARCs for book reviews by the end of May. That gives me a month. To do another round of edits and finalize everything, so I can spend June promoting the launch.

On a very positive note, I finished my book trailer!! Thanks to the amazing generosity of Grindmouth over at DeviantArt.com who let me use a number of her beautiful photographs for the trailer.

Off to edit!

Choices, Choices…

So, I’ve sent off for my proof copy of Songbird, which was a scary feeling. Each day I get closer to publishing and I realize how little I know about the publishing world. Over he past few days I’ve been reading blogs and trying to learn everything I can.

Well, yesterday I spent an hour reading a forum about the importance of book covers. I knew they were important, but I don’t think I’d really considered how important and what exactly it is that captures the reader’s attention. Until yesterday, I was pretty happy with the cover I created using Create Cover. The stock photo was pretty and soothing, just the effect I was going for. But did it really represent my book. The field has a nice mix of colors, but my book takes place in the city.

After long hours last night trying to  figure out my photo program I came up with a new possible cover. All that’s left is getting a few opinions.