Tuesday, May 30, 2006

My First Release is HERE!

Ah, fan me while I take a deep breath. Celestial Dragon hit the Cyber stores yesterday or maybe even day before yesterday. Gotta lub that the author's the last to know. But - I'm just so excited, I can't breathe. I love this story. It took nine months to write and lots of revisions, but in the end it was worth every nibbled fingernail.

So - now, I've got to promote. Promotion is probably one of the hardest things for me to do. I'm an artist, a writer. I should be able to sit in my corner and write for the simple joy of writing. The book will sell itself. Wrong. Argggg. So, I guess this means I have to come out of my corner and tell everyone I've written this fabulous story. Nibble. There goes another fingernail.

No worries. I can do this. I actually sent out a bunch of postcards today. And I've found several places to send my bookmarks. In fact, I gave my son a mission. I gave him a handful of bookmarks and told him to slip one or two in the magazines on the plane. You know the one. The Air Mall. And he's also going to plant them in his hotel room. He flies out tomorrow for Vegas. Too fun.

Rambling now, but I think it's nervous energy. I've gotta get up at 3:00 AM to cook the boy eggs and see him on his way. Wow. I should be in bed now. Nite all.

Ciara

Exciting Month!

Dante’s Duty was chosen for the Editor’s Pick of this week over at my publisher’s website, www.bygracepublishing.com and I’m thrilled with it!

Also I reached a very difficult decision this past week, a decision that took a great deal of thought and finally have decided to cancel the release of my historical, Always Love. I love the characters and the basic story idea, but it isn’t right. To release a book that I don’t feel one hundred percent confident in, or have faith in would be letting everyone, not just myself but my readers, down. So I pulled it from the line up. Maybe one day will see Jacob and Moira out and sharing their life story, but this isn’t the right time.

I do still plan to keep the witches in the line up and the first release will come in October! I can’t believe how quickly that time is coming! I’ve also sent a short story, my first inspirational, to my publisher in hopes that it will be picked up for the short and sweet line. Who knows maybe it could even be included in an anthology? Keep your fingers crossed!

Becka and Marie have some great news; Becka’s book On Eagle’s Wings will be coming out in paperback format in the near future! This means that you can go to your local bookstore and pick it up! Also Marie’s book “Ten Ways to Melt a Man’s Heart” will be headed to a bookstore near you as well! Congrats ladies! That is so GREAT!!!! When the dates are verified we’ll pass the information on to you.

And today we see the release of Jami’s book “Celestial Dragon”, YEAH!!!!! We need to have a cyber party for her! So wine, Champagne and other assorted drinks as well as snacks are here for everyone! CHEERS JAMI!!!!

Huggles EVERYONE!

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Musings

Ever wonder where authors of fantasy and futurist escapades get their inspiration? Me too, and I write both. LOL. So, where do I get my inspiration? I was blessed with a very vivid imagination and a voracious appetite for watching anything sci-fi. I don’t read a lot of science fiction, but I think that’s because I don’t want to plant ideas in my head from other writer’s words. I plant enough ideas from the visual versions.

I also research. It’s quite easy to find information on fantasy figures like dragons, witches, gnomes, trolls, and wizards to name a few, but it’s more difficult to conduct research on the author’s projection of what the world might look like centuries from now or the dynamics of a civilization within another galaxy. For Celestial Dragon, I had to make up a new power source and being the mechanical klutz that I am, I had to envision how that power source might be used. In this case, my husband’s vast knowledge came in handy.

I broke a few rules within the sci-fi standards of world building, but sometimes rules beg to be broken. Rule #1: Thou shall not use made-up words unless they serve a purpose. Celestial Dragon vibrates with new vocabulary and while not evident to some, most will see that these words are grounded by sound. My purpose in creating new adjectives (primarily colors) was to allow the reader some leeway in conjuring their own visuals. Rule #2: Thou shall not allow the inhabitants to live in a cave. I didn’t really know about this rule until after I’d written Celestial Dragon, but I hope I gave enough reality to the situation to suspend disbelief. Yes, caves on earth are dark holes where moisture clings to the surface and bats nest. Trails leading downward are usually steep and rugged, but caves on distant planets can have whatever characteristics the author chooses to give them. Enough said. LOL. For research on this part of the story, I visited Carlsbad Cavern. Deep inside this cave, the owners built a restaurant and public facilities, so I know it’s possible to build a structure within a cave and make that structure habitable.

If I broke any other "rules", it was unintentional, but heck - what fun would it be if we always had to play by the rules.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Great news!

Becka has finished her first B.E.A.S.T. book, WTG Bec!!!!!!

Marie's going to print with her Champagne book, Ten Ways to Melt a Man's Heart! We're so excited for you Marie! That's awesome news!

Ciara, love that new cover!

Seems that everything is going great gang busters for all the mavens!

I'm going to be a little out of touch from the world for a time. A virus attacked my computer and deep fried my hard drive and I'm now in the process of having to rebuild and reinstall EVERYTHING. As soon as I can get it all up and running I'll be back in touch, hopefully it won't be long!

Huggles everyone!
Donica

Monday, May 15, 2006

Hard at Work

Well, I'm hard at work trying to finish up the first in my BEAST series by June 1st. It's coming along nicely, I must say. The book is entitled THE B.E.A.S.T. WITHIN, and you can find more information about it here:

http://beastseries.blogspot.com

There aren't many updates because of my looming deadline, however, I intend on making that blog kind of a "DVD Extras" kind of thing, where you'll get juicy tidbits about this series ONLY on this blog, not even in the novels. :D

The story itself is growing to epic proportions. There just may be a government conspiracy going on here. We'll have to wait and see! :) But I'm so very excited for these books. There is a lot of action and sexual tension. Think The Bourne Identity meets Shifters. Ooo... LOL

Anyhow, I've got just under 14K left to write on this book and it should be done in no time. Ooo, I can't wait for it! Ellen at Champagne Books has told me this baby is going to print. Yippee!! Bookstores, here I COME! Cannonball!!!

hehehe

~~Becka

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Ciara's new cover

The artist for Champagne did an exceptional job on my cover. I'm so excited. CD and PDF downloads of this fabulous story will be available on June 1, 2006. How's that for blatant promotion.

But seriously, this was a labor of love and I hope all that read it will be entertained for hours. And btw, Magic Mavens will be launching our first newsletter soon, thanks to Donica's organization skills. Be on the look out for the Magic Maven's newsletter.

Happy reading,
Ciara

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Introducing Ciara Gold

Wow, this is just so exciting. I'm here with three other super writers and I plan to have a blast blogging away. Hi all, I'm Ciara Gold and my debut romance comes out this June. Be sure to watch for Celestial Dragon, available through Champagne Books and Fictionwise.

About me? Hmmmm. I'm an artist, a writer, a teacher, a reader and a sailor. Okay, so maybe not as much of a sailor as I'd like to be. I could never feel the wind, so I always cheated by looking at the wind tails. But I do enjoy being out on the lake when the breeze is steady and the sun is shining. Of course, sitting in the slip all cozy in the berth during a storm ain't so bad either. And that's all I'm gonna say about stormy days, ha ha.

What do I write? Everything that strikes my fancy. Okay, so I need to narrow it down a bit. I love writing paranormal adventures because I lose myself in the fantasy. I love creating new worlds. But I also love writing historical western romances. I think sometimes I should have been born in the 1870's. Our forefathers knew how to live, how to survive on the bare essentials. And most upheld a moral fiber that seems distant nowadays. And oh my, aren't cowboys just plain sexy. Gotta love a man in a cowboy hat, tight wranglers and scuffed boots. I spend at least one night a month country western dancing with my husband and the atmosphere always manages to take me back in time. I developed a passion for writing in my early twenties, but I didn't nurture that passion until about five years ago. I feel so fortunate to have found a wonderful publisher who appreciates my talents.

Ciara Gold
http://www.ciaragold.com

Welcome, Mavins!

Hello everyone. My name is Rebecca Goings, but I'm known around the 'Net as Becka. It's been my dream since I was a young girl to be a published author. Now here I am, after much determination.

My publishing career has been a roller-coaster ride so far. I'm currently published with three houses, but I have been published at two others. New Age Dimensions couldn't stay in business after one of last year's hurricanes ripped through Florida, and Triskelion Publishing and I had our creative differences. In both instances, I was released from my contracts. But it's good news, because my previously published paranormal romance HEARTS ETERNAL, has now been picked up by Inara Press! I'm very excited about that.

My publishing career began back when I was posting on the eHarlequin forums. That's where I met Donica, and she told me about By Grace Publishing. I had already written two Inspirational romances that were getting rejected by Heartsong and Steeple Hill, so I decided to give By Grace a chance. Now they have five of my published stories! :D

Then I heard about Champagne Books from a few Yahoo loops I was a part of and decided to submit there, as the publisher, Ellen, was always a sweetheart on the loops. It was the best thing I could have done! They have three of my mainstream romances, and I'm contracted for four more!!

I've got a new paranormal suspense trilogy coming with Champagne called my B.E.A.S.T. series. In fact, this series has a blog if you're interested in checking it out: http://beastseries.blogspot.com. It's about men who've been genetically altered by a ruthless secret agency. They're on the run and find love along the way. The first book is entitled THE B.E.A.S.T. WITHIN and it's so much fun to write!

I have another series, a fantasy romance series called The Wolverine Chronicles. These were published at New Age Dimensions, but we know what happened there. Now they're being queried at Mundania Press, and I'm waiting to hopefully hear the good word over there.

Anyhow, that's it from this peanut gallery. If you'd like to visit my website, it's at http://www.rebeccagoings.com. I also have an author loop at: http://groups.google.com/group/themagicofromance. Hope to see you around the 'Net! :D

~~Becka