When I was young a mysterious package arrived from my great grandmother. I opened it with hopeful expectations only to discover a rather tatty and very old book. She enclosed a small note saying this had been a family favorite and she hoped I enjoyed as much as my grandmother and mother had. Since my mother had neglected to tell me about any books she had enjoyed as a child I threw the book into the back of my bookshelf and ignored it for months.
A rainy winter, a bad cold and with nothing left to read I retrieved The House of Arden by Edith Nesbit and devoured it in a day. The delightful story concerned two children trying to restore the family fortune with a magical mole that takes them back in history. The book might have been dated but I loved the story and it still remains a family favorite. If I can get Scharnelle to stop snoring long enough to listen when I read it to her.
Slow Return
Getting back to refining Florian.
Final Cover
So the final cover has been done and while it does not relate to the existing Sancti covers it is a proper reflection of the character so I will stick with this one.
The Titles
I am very pleased with covers of all the books. The Vampiris Sancti series are just what I want and Not Really Mr. Smith also suits the genre. There are so many aspects to your work besides writing the story. Such as presentation for the emotional response of the reader to your cover can be a huge factor in determining if they buy or pass on your offering. It can have great reviews but if the covers look like hack jobs by a ten year old they might consider that your work will follow suit. So below are the finished covers with links to Amazon. I am pleased to be moving onto the next books in the series.
The Chase for Fame
The chase for fame for me is a double edged sword. The attention I want is not for personal notice as I would hate for anyone to recognise me in the street. I value the anonymity of life, however, I do want the world to know of my work and that it is out there.
This means having to promote and to me this is far more difficult than actually writing a book–even a series! While I am enjoying sales, they are not of the quantity to change my life and I am well aware they could dry up at any time. Resting on my laurels at this time would appear to be both foolish and a waste of time so I have taken to approaching book bloggers.
The dreaded review is something I have been trying to ignore since being published since I am well aware my fantasy is not mainstream and therefore will not please everyone. My hope is that it can please enough people to garner some decent reviews. It has been pointed out by others that reviews are very important in places like Amazon for sales.
I am not so worried about the romance as it is a general romantic adventure and as such will be reviewed more according to taste than failure of story. I have tried to keep the story believable and not to preposterous. Unfortunately, I find many romantic books to have contrived scenes and I can understand their lure because they forward the romance easily. Instead, I tried and hopefully succeeded in creating a logical and fun adventure.
So now I wait and see who responds, who ignores and more importantly what the reviews will say. I might as well start the next book in the series as there a few stories that need tending.
