There She Goes. There She Goes Again....

Yet again, I hate the editing process. But to get into my chosen market I must do what I have to do. This also would entail a possible HUGE change. The title.

Apparently, publishers and agents alike can't stand that fact that there is a book of poetry by Baudelaire and a famous manga series by the same title. I could be mistaken, but I had read in a few places that it is a good idea to have a title that will show up when searched right up there with those top sellers. Which just happen to be these two things. I chose the title long before this, but seeing it reaffirmed my belief that the title was amazing and need not be changed. Well, apparently I was wrong.

While these two things are not competing directly in my market genre, I guess they feel it would be competition. I have no idea, but now I am debating something. Use the series of themed taglines I had concocted to go on the covers as the titles themselves for all three parts of the trilogy. Do I want to do this? Of course not. Do I and my publicist/friend believe the original titles fit better than any other possible title? Yes.

But do I want my personal opinion to stand in the way of me getting published? Hell no. So here I go, yet again. A major edit and a title change.

Why, oh why?

As much as I love writing, I absolutely loathe the editing process when it has already been done about four times. But apparently the work is more intelligent than it should be for it's audience. So I am working on shortening a few sentences, adding a few commas, and throwing out my extensive vocabulary in this HUGE re-edit.

Sound like fun? Not really.

So I am sitting here listening to "Bounty Hunter" starring one of my favorites, Gerard Butler. All the while trying to edit something I don't feel really needs the edit. For what reason you may ask? Because the publishers said so.

A massive re-edit and I will be on my way.

Fun and Guns in Tennessee

Me, my husband, and step-son went to Speedwell, Tennessee this weekend to visit my father in law. All I can say is there isn't much to do when you have no cell phone signal, butt that leaves you open to so many other possibilities like sitting around talking about everything and nothing and, my personal favorite, learning how to shoot my gun. Which I will go ahead and mention I hadn't had the pleasure of firing off any rounds until yesterday.

Instead of writing like I had originally planned, we ended up in the backyard with some make-shift targets learning how to shoot a multitude of guns, but I loved my pistol so much I didn't want to hand it over to anyone else. This gun is one that was used by Polish police in the 1970s and I couldn't be happier with our purchase.

Who knew shooting guns could be so therapeutic? Definitely not me. I was nervous about the kick, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. This is definitely some good research for the Executioner Trilogy where I may give them guns, or for any of my other future works. Oh the possibilities.

It's OMNIFIC!

Well, all I came home expecting to have yet another rejection letter but behold there was a letter expressing interest for my "intriguing" book "Flowers of Evil." While Cascade Literary passed because of its current self-published status, Omnific Publishing is seriously looking into it.

I can't begin to explain how excited this makes me. All other writers out there know that your first letter like this that's not from vanity press is exciting. I was approached by Tate Publishing as well as Dorrance Publishing in the past year, but getting this from a traditional publishing house makes all the hard work and all the rejection letters worth it.

Here's to even better news to come.....hopefully

Sample Chapter "Flowers of Evil": Chapter 1

I bet you all are wondering a little bit about how our main character has come to be where she was in the recent chapter sample I had posted! Well here is another sample chapter, chapter 1! Hope you guys enjoy and remember, if interested in purchasing "Flowers of Evil" it is available in the Barnes & Noble Nook store as well as LuLu and Ganxy which are also shared on this blog. I also have a Facebook page available! http://www.facebook.com/kmkinnaman

Chapter 1: Our Journey Has Just Begun

I didn’t realize just how tender I was until I lowered myself into the scalding hot water in my porcelain claw foot bath tub. It was almost like knives and needles piercing my muscles making it so uncomfortable I almost wanted to jump right back out. The mirror was fogged up and the steam coming off of the surface of the water was a welcome sight. Nothing in this world made me feel better then water that felt like the surface of the sun no matter how painful it was to get into at first, especially after an extremely difficult hunting session. Many people would assume this was the hunting of animals, but I was particularly interested in a whole different kind of game. The kind that walked and talked like a human being, but once you saw the fangs and felt its evil, you knew you made the wrong assumption and you knew that assumption would end your life. The fight I had just ended was particularly strenuous.

There were more vampires then I had ever had to kill all on my own before which made this fight so much harder than any before now. One of them was a very ravenous and snarky female who was the hardest to take down. She would snarl a promise of destruction every chance she got, which made it so much easier for me to want to end her than it already was just because of what she was.

 As I sat there and let my mind wander I thought of the power I had inside of me. The power I realized was there not even a year ago. I held out my hand, palm side up feeling the water run down my arm, and I could see all of the heat rising up from my skin and I built up the little bit of energy and heat it took to send small trickles of flames across the underside of my lower arm. That’s when I smiled and I listened to the slight sizzle of the water evaporating when the flames hit it and the little bit of steam I could see when this happened was almost satisfying. A slight tingle throughout my body and in my gut reminded me of how good it felt to have that small release after a lengthy and difficult day, especially if there was no need for its use.

            The delicate glow of my skin as this happened was something some people noticed outside of this small act. It was like I had been out in the sun and just happened to tan very well even though in reality I burned so badly I looked like a tomato after only being in the sun for five minutes. I never did it in public but this glow from the heat and energy resonating inside of my body was hard to hide no matter how many layers of clothes I would wear or how gloomy it was outdoors. The glow gave my skin a look of being out in the sun all day, even though I barely stepped foot out my front door during the day, since my prey had a tendency to surface only when the moon was shining its light down on the world and that wasn’t good for tanning. And sometimes I could swear, there in the darkness, that this small amount of a glow would make me hard to miss.

Where did this gift come from? I wish I knew. I just chalked it up to a big mystery that I would never solve, and I guessed I was okay with that.

            All I remembered about the time I figured out I had the gift of fire was that I was at work as a barista at the local coffee shop at the age of twenty three. I had turned a warm caramel macchiato into a scalding, overflowing mess that almost burned my customer’s entire arm. But I had learned how to control it now, which was a blessing in disguise as far as I was concerned. After this fiasco though my father realized I wasn’t going to be able to hold down a job without running the risk of burning the place down. He had actually believed that my hands would turn into burning embers instead of denying it, which was completely out of character for him. So what he did was buy my house and make it his mission to take care of me and all of my baggage.  Yeah that’s a little slothful on my part but this gives me more time to take care of the whole saving the world bit, which needed to be my main focus since holding down a part time job and paying the bills wasn’t going to do it for me. I also don’t hear from him often since my mother passed away from pancreatic cancer. It was like once she was gone there was no need for further contact except when needed.

            She had fought for what seemed like an eternity, but was really a three month struggle before she closed her eyes and let out that final breath that lets you know her suffering was over. By this time she had lost so much weight she looked like a skeletal Barbie doll, but she always managed to have make up on and looking her best no matter how bad she felt. I admired that about her and I still did.

            Even to this day I could remember the light floral scent she used to wear and every time I ran across this particular scent it reminded me of her. The smell of jasmine would always fill a room when she entered, but it was never an overwhelming scent. No matter how much of it she would spread over her wrists and neck, the scent was barely there but yet noticeable when she passed or you were right next to her. Her dark hair was always styled in different ways daily even through those three months.

            I looked more like my mother than my father and I also inherited her compassion and the ability to make anything my own without much effort.

            I was there when she passed. Sitting at her bedside as she took her last breaths I was able to sense when it had happened and her soul had departed, drifting off in an invisible cloud of pureness and radiance. Even though she was no longer in a physical form, she was always there in spirit and I could always sense her. Especially when I was in my darkest hours.

A deep dream not too long after my discovery told me who I was and what my gift was to be used for. There was a woman in a beautiful, sleek white dress whose sleeves had delicate and long bells on the end of the sleeves covering her hands. She was walking slowly towards me in a light mist that covered the ground and her feet and gave this woman an air of mystery.

Her hair was long and dark, reaching her hips, with a slight wave that gave it dimension and the shine in it was like the sun was beating down on it even though there was no sun to be seen. Her eyes were the color of the spring leaves, and her skin was as pale as the winter snow and just as delicate like if you touched it she would crumble to the ground one flake at a time. She reminded me so much of my mother, and I took it as a sign that my mother was the reason this message was being sent to me by a being that looked so much like her. Her voice was like silk as she spoke to me of the upcoming battle between good and evil, but never revealed much more than that, like I was going to be the person writing this story and only so much of what was to come was predestined. All she revealed was that I had a journey I had to complete and these gifts that were bestowed upon me were a way to help me make this journey and take my place in this conflict. She also told me another woman with a whole other set of gifts was going to be my companion through this journey, and a part of my army in the clash between the light and the dark. I couldn’t help but remember how much this woman reminded me of my mother as my thoughts drifted in and out of this memory. Even the vague scent of jasmine hung in the air when I awoke, leaving me almost breathless.

That’s when a thundering knock on the bathroom door startled me out of the deepening pool of my thoughts and I could’ve stayed in that place forever.

            “You okay in there, Robin?” my roommate Elizabeth, Beth for short, inquired through the white, crisp bathroom door. I almost wished the door was made out of lead as soon as I felt the concern in her voice, which had me sinking farther down into the claw foot tub until the water was up to my chin. That edge to her voice always had me running for cover and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon as far as I could tell. It contained annoyance, concern, as well as a tiny bit of anger that she had to wait for me at all. To be honest, she didn’t have to. She could have gone by herself if she wanted, but for some reason she felt she had to wait for me.

            “Yes. I’m great, actually.” Of course I was being sarcastic. I wasn’t okay. Never was and I had no idea why she would think I was okay when I had such a huge secret to keep from those around me.

 At least my secret wasn’t one I had to keep from my best friend, but that was only because she had a gift as well and this gift was the gift of foresight. Wasn’t that a pain in the ass? So, because of that, she always knew how I’d feel on certain days before I even knew what made me feel that way, which was really annoying and I wished I could get away from sometimes. “We really need to get headed out. You know how that club is. Don’t want that dreamy vision of mine to get away.”

            As I groaned I could feel her frustration coming at me in waves through the bathroom door, making me want to sink further into the clear water until I was completely submerged to never come out again. Damn, I hadn’t even gotten to wash my hair yet, I thought. It was still gross from my nightly excursion as well as my rumble with that snarling woman. I submerged my head under the warm water and quickly returned to the surface, gulping in air and trying to get water out of my ears which wasn’t going very well to say the least. Scrubbing shampoo through my hair and into my scalp I yelled, “Give me a second.” I let the impatience at her insistence to hurry along penetrate every nook and cranny of my voice, and I could tell it had annoyed her even more than her insistence to leave had annoyed me. Good. Goal accomplished.

            I could hear the heels of her pumps as she walked away from the door and down the hall, agitation echoing with every step she took and that really made me wish she wouldn’t wear those things when she was agitated, but that sound took me back to when we first met, not even a month after the coffee shop incident.

            I was walking in downtown Los Angeles, something they tell all attractive young women never to do, but I was doing anyways. Plus, who would want to mess with someone who could turn them into a pile of nothing when I was through with them.  I noticed a muffled sound in the dark, damp alley to my right that was so obscured in shadows I almost couldn’t see anything at all. All I remembered was that I should keep going and mind my own business. It was probably a creepy man down there with a lady of the evening and he was doing something to her she didn’t enjoy as much as he might have been, but I couldn’t help myself. Damn human curiosity.

I stopped dead in my tracks and turned my head, dreading what I’d see in the shadows and thinking it would be something I definitely didn’t want or need to see and I would be scarred for life.  As soon as I saw the sight of a man with very long canine teeth about to sink them into the neck of a woman around my age something took over and there was going to be no way I would be able to stop it.

            It felt like a monster was inside of me. Beating on my skull, my ribcage, trying to get out and right this wrong being done and as I let it consume me with a fear so strong I’d never felt before I sensed a heat rippling through me that I felt I wouldn’t be able to contain. It started in my belly and worked its way throughout my body in thick waves of heat that pulsed with the same rhythm as my own heartbeat. I knew my eyes had to have been radiant at this point because a fire was blazing inside me, begging for sweet release, and I was going to give it what it wanted. No questions asked. I didn’t fight the instinct to put my hand out and yell out to get the creatures’ attention, the power in me distorting my voice to a demonic gravely blast of sound that would have scared even me if I didn’t know where it was coming from. The power running through me was like nothing I had ever felt before.  As the creature turned it was so quickly that he looked like a slight blur, dropping its victim and hissing a promise of death. My hand began developing a luminosity that could blind a whole city block without effort and I almost couldn’t look at it myself as that light began to grow even brighter.

            The creature hissed again and started to back away, holding its pasty white hand just in front of his deep crimson eyes to block the intense light I was discharging and would surely blind him. It wasn’t doing him any good considering the light was causing his skin to smolder and blister like he had stuck it on the eye of a stove. That’s when it happened. As the light grew to a glow that rivaled the sun, flames burst from my palm, incinerating the creature in a matter of seconds. He fell into a pile of gray ash and the fire ceased to flow from my hand in slow trickles.

            When all remnants of the intense power I had no idea was this strong, I felt so weak I almost couldn’t stand. I fell against the wet brick of the alley as the woman ran up to me with hands out to keep me from falling to the ground instead, but that didn’t seem to work. I was dead weight and so weak I almost couldn’t hold my own head up just like a newborn baby. The rush of heat that had run through my entire body produced a cold sweat that made me shiver and my teeth chatter like I had been standing outside in a blizzard.

            Through a haze of fatigue and the sound of my chattering teeth I could somehow hear the woman thank me for saving her life and telling what her name was, but I hardly thought this was the time to be introducing herself. There was an edge of fear to her voice as she was shakily asking me if I was okay. What was her name? I could only hear muffled sounds and see her lips move like she was speaking but all I could hear could best be described as the sound from Charlie Brown.  Elizabeth? Yeah that was it. Elizabeth. She later became known to me as Beth.  It was like my soul was calling out to her and the connection was instant and I knew exactly who she was. She was my salvation and my companion in the fight that would soon tear the world apart and it would never be the same again.

            I let out another sigh and sunk deeper into the tub as that resonating heat licked up through my belly, causing the water to bubble a little around my entire body and then cease and it was like they had never existed. Quickly rinsing the shampoo out of my hair, I rose from the tub, the cool air around me causing my skin to develop goose bumps.

            I hastily dried myself off and blew my hair dry, barely even bothering to run a brush through it. Beth was going to be pissed it even took me this long to get my ass out of the tub and into some clothes for a night out that wasn’t really going to be a night out which I hated because I never got just a night out without having to kill something. It was scouting. She had a vision of some dreamy guy who she apparently thought was put in her path just for her. Too bad it never seemed like I could find one just for me who I could tell my secret to who wouldn’t go running for the hills thinking I was schizophrenic or something. Now wasn’t that just too bad?

"Flowers of Evil" Availability

Just to let all of my fans know who haven't purchased the book yet, it is available in all eBook formats: mobi, ePub, and PDF! So if any of you don't have a Nook or Kindle you can still get it and enjoy it. Links to everywhere it is published are below:

https://ganxy.com/i/79360/kindra-kinnaman/flowers-of-evil

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/flowers-of-evil-kindra-kinnaman/1115230274?ean=2940016554648

http://www.lulu.com/shop/kindra-kinnaman/flowers-of-evil/ebook/product-21002837.html

"Flowers of Evil" Excerpt: Chapter 11

Chapter 11: A Dream’s Significance

            I was in an empty field, covered with a fog that only offered the ground seclusion and almost seemed to cling to my bare feet and legs like a living creature that needed protection. I couldn’t make out my feet at all in the dense coverage of it. I was dressed in a gossamer white gown. The fabric of the dress was soft, almost like silk and was so indulgent I barely felt it brushing up against my skin as I moved through the dense fog. It wasn’t silk though. I wasn’t sure what it was but I felt like I was wearing something made out of the very thing that made up Gordon’s voice.

            I had fallen asleep wrapped in his arms and covered with my thick comforter that would hold in the heat his body generated almost enough to where it would suffocate my skin, but I didn’t care. We had laid there, not speaking a word to each other, and the silence was welcome. I felt like we learned more about each other in those moments then if we had been speaking to each other for years. The way someone handles complete silence tells you more about them than anything else they could possibly do or say.

            The fog was so thick that I felt like I almost had to wade through it like water which made me feel like I was going in slow motion. The temperature was very comfortable and early morning dew was hanging on the sparse trees and the trellis laced jasmine like small diamonds shining in the dim twilight. The smell reminded me so much of my mother and all I wanted to do was bask in it. My delicate mother who was taken too early from this world. The woman who created me and gave me the strength to always move on no matter how hard it may be in the beginning. I was always challenging my emotional limits because of those very lessons in rigidity and always held in feelings that would make me look weak to keep my enemies from using them against me. That was mostly a lesson I had learned from my father.

            I walked to one of the trellises and touched one of the delicate flowers, the drops of dew coming off cool and slick on my fingers and it felt almost like silk. I was in perfect happiness at this moment and everything felt right. Everything was falling in place like it should and I just hoped to god it would stay that way. I picked one of the subtle flowers and held it to my nose, deeply inhaling the perfect scent that reminded me so much of my beautiful mother. The woman who taught me so many life lessons worth remembering even though she was so smothered by my domineering and cold father.

            The fog started to clear and patches of yellow flowers, poppies, started bursting from the ground all around me like they had been waiting for the right time to make themselves known. I turned away from the trellis when the sun came into view and the clouds parted revealing its wonderfully brilliant light and warmth that reminded me of Gordon. The sky was a cornflower blue and so beautiful I wanted to cry from pure elation. The sun’s rays warmed my skin and the soft glow that it usually had was amplified to an almost bronze radiance like I was emitting a light all my own from the inside. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, and let out a sigh of contentment. I wasn’t going to give up on this happiness. I had no limits and I could use it to defeat whatever came my way. Even Lilith.

            This was what perfect harmony felt like, wasn’t it? It had to be. I had never felt anything like it before so this had to be it. I knew this was only a dream, but I hoped to awaken with this same feeling and prayed it would never leave me in the cold and unforgiving darkness of what my life was becoming. The sunlight on my face was enough to make a silent tear escape and for a smile to cross my face. I had never felt so elated before. Almost nothing was better than this.

            No matter how many horrible things came into my life I knew I treasured it for these moments. Moments like this were what life was supposed to be about and as people we have a tendency to focus on the negative and let it overwhelm the positive. This moment wasn’t real, but it felt real enough to me and I was happy to be enveloped in it even if it was just a facade. No matter what I would encounter once I awoke this would forever stick out in my mind as a moment of pure happiness. If I could find a few more moments like this when I woke up then I’d be the happiest person on the face of the planet. If I woke up and Gordon was still there lying beside me that would be all I needed. Nothing else would matter nearly as much as long as he was always there with me.

            That perfect happiness when you wake up to find the love of your life still there beside you was the most perfect thing I could ever experience besides this. It would be a moment away from all the blood, sweat, and tears from leading a life like mine and turn into one filled with happiness, love, and sunshine.

            As the sun beat down on me with its perfect rays I woke up to my dark bedroom, Gordon’s arm draped over me and his breathing sounded like the softest sigh, and his warmth rivaled even the suns’. It was like my mother had said a long time ago before she had gotten sick. The tiniest flickers of light give you hope, and that hope can guide you through even the darkest of paths and she was correct in saying it. Gordon was my light, but he was so much more than a flicker. He was as brilliant and warm as the sun and he was going to guide me through even the deepest blackness that could ever exist until we would emerge from it to meet a world where darkness was a distant memory.

            Like he could sense I was staring at him even in his deep slumber, his eyes slowly opened and almost couldn’t adjust to the dark that threatened to overtake us. But then he focused on me and lazily beamed at me and I knew he had my heart forever no matter who else came into my life trying to change that.

            I smiled back at him and took his hand in my own, locking them together like a vice so that no one could tear us apart. Not even Lilith’s darkness could take him away from me. This was perfect happiness and there was nothing more seamless than this. The darkness that was surrounding us was nothing compared to this because this was the light that was going to lead us out. Our love was the North Star and all we had to do was follow it to our salvation to a life of peace. There was nothing out there that could rival this. No blackness deep enough to swallow us to the point of no return.

            “What?” he whispered as he smiled at me. I could feel the happiness pouring out of him like flood gates had been opened and there was no way to close them now. I felt like I had a Cheshire cat grin on my face that I needed to wipe clean from it before he thought I was crazy.

            All I could do was shake my head. There was absolutely nothing wrong, not even with Lilith breathing down my back threatening to take my life and everything in it. I was sure he could see the longing in my eyes and feel it emanating from me as he held onto my hand like nothing else existed. “Nothing.”

            He clearly didn’t believe me, but there wasn’t anything truly wrong that could ruin the moment. I could tell by the look in his eyes. Absolutely nothing was wrong. This was my happiness and nothing could spoil it. First, the most perfect dream that I could’ve ever had followed by an awakening of pure unadulterated bliss that no one could take from me. I moved in closer to him and just snuggled there hugged up against his chest. His warmth took away anything that chilled me, which at the time wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. I had almost completely forgotten about Lilith and her band of worshipers, but nothing could erase her from my thoughts completely. All they did was push all thoughts of her to the back of my mind, and for a few picture-perfect instants I could just lie there and forget everything except the light in his eyes when he looked at me. He was my treasure. My pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and it was time I let him know that.

            As I looked at him his eyes sparkled as they caught the little bit of light that filtered into the bedroom from the moonlight flowing in from between closed curtains. Pure happiness radiated from those eyes and I could feel it flowing from his hand and into me, filling me up to the brim and threatening to flow over the edge. I knew I was worried about what he was to begin with, but that worry had been completely wiped away by the love he showed me. The first kiss we had had set my body on fire and it made me wonder what the second would be like.

            I leaned into him and he closed the distance between us and when our lips met it was like fireworks had gone off. The same electricity that was there the first time had returned for a second round and my body responded so strongly I couldn’t help but give into the most primal of urges. My arms wrapped around him of their own volition and I knew this was the night we were going to make love to each other for the first time, and I couldn’t have been happier about it.

Exhaustion and class work....

I am telling you guys, trying to work on class assignments when you are exhausted from being up at 6 in the morning and working all day is hard. I've been busy for a while, but even more busy now that I'm full time and I am so tired. All I know is, I do want to write tonight, but sleep deprivation doesn't bode well for writing, especially when you're burning up because your house currently doesn't have A/C.

Oh well, right? So, I'm sitting here writing about research design and hypothesis testing and I am about to fall asleep. I even ate a brownie or two to try to keep myself awake. I also have CougarTown running in the background. Normally, this combination does the trick, but today  no dice.

I guess this is just one of the perks of being able to take care of your own business. Oh well. Writing more in the second installment will just have to wait...

Worst Mood Ever.....

Well, all I have heard from Imprint.li and I am not happy. Here is the letter they sent to me and I'll go ahead and say one thing before I show you guys what they said and you see how stupid they do sound. Firstly, I'm not going to draw out a prologue more then it's already been drawn out. And how can I draw it out without making it even more"front-loaded" than it already is. Also, YES I put a lot of thought into my titles and I'm okay with them coming up on Google and Amazon with other popular works so people see my work! Just saying this now....now here is the letter they wrote. When you get to the end you will see how ridiculous they are, especially when apparently they have no concept of the history of London....

Dear Kindra,

Thank you for your submission to Imprint.li. We have now had an opportunity to read your short and long pitches, and have a look at your manuscript. We are impressed with your writing potential, although we think your book is not yet ready for publication. I am writing to make a few suggestions that I hope will be helpful as your work on this book, and also as your career as a writer progresses. 

First, about the title. As you probably know, the title you have chosen is the title of a book by the French author Baudelaire. While there are no copyrights on book titles, you have to be certain you want to re-use a famous title for your own book. If you google the title, you also discover there's a recent 8-book manga series by a Korean author. That seems to be a little too many Flowers of Evil. Of course it's an easy thing to change a book title. Your series title also exists as the title of a series from the 1980s. These aren't insuperable problems, but need to be thought through very carefully.

Your short pitch, which is the first description of your book that anyone will see (think New York Times best-seller lists), comes across as a bit hackneyed. "What would you do if the fate of the world was in your hands and you can save humanity from the brink of oblivion?" This sounds like far too many action-adventure movies, and doesn't really provide that first glimpse of your heroine, your setting, or your interesting story that people want to get from a short pitch. Your long pitch was quite effective, and your bio was also well done; we could feel we got to know you.

Of course, the first few paragraphs and the first chapter are where you really hook your reader. I feel that you front-load the plot too much; by that I mean there's too much information in that first paragraph, where your protagonist is walking through a scary part of London, afraid of Jack the Ripper. Why not just let her be walking for some purpose that you develop, noting the look and feel of people and places, and make your reader wonder why she's so scared? What's she doing there, anyway? Don't be so quick to get to the fear of Jack the Ripper and talk about how he is terrorizing London; stretch out the scene. And she's headed for a gypsy camp? Really? In the heart of London? That interrupts the mood you have set up, as the reader wonders how there could be a gypsy camp in downtown London.

I hope these are useful comments to you. I do think you have a good imagination and a promising writing style, but still need some work on the story-telling process. I'd recommend you join Authonomy, where people can post their whole manuscripts and engage in feedback with other authors of similar genres. 

Best of luck with your book, Kindra. We feel you definitely have a future as an author!

OMG!

Well I woke up to one of the things this morning a writer who is looking for a publisher is looking forward to. After countless emails to publisherss and only one nibble before now, upon checking my email I couldn't help but jump around with excitement.

Ms. Regina Paul of Leap of Faith Publishing LLC, after reading only the synopsis and hasn't even gotten to the attached manuscript yet, wrote me saying how intrigued she was. This is exactly what the email said.

"Hi Kindra,

Thank you for your submission. It looks very intriguing. I'm looking forward to reading your manuscript. We'll let you know what we think within 90 days if not before."

For me, if that's an indicator, I may finally be a published author (not counting my self-published eBook version) in 90 days!

Choices

Now I know I have my book published as an eBook in a few places like LuLu and Barnes & Noble Nook store, but I am still submitting to traditional publishing houses. Now, I got a letter from Decadent Publishing stating that they'll consider "Flowers of Evil" for publication if I unpublish it from those places. I'm not 100% sure if it's worth it for just consideration.

Now, I'm really unsure about it because Decadent Publishing publishes mostly in eBook format and very few are selected to go to print. I just don't think I can ruin my chances in one place to go take a chance on another. Most publishers will look at your eBook sales and popularity to decided on whether your book is one they want to take a chance on, which is why I did it to begin with.

I only see taking it off the market completely will only hurt my chances. Sorry, Decadent Publishing, but you just lost me because of your unwillingness to take self-published work.

First Preview of "Bleeding Fire and Brimstone"

While working on the second installment of the Executioner Trilogy, I decided I would give you guys a small preview of what's to come. I hope you guys enjoy!

"I turned onto my stomach and searched for the knife, but I had lost it as soon as I had hit the ground. The ashen ground had swallowed it whole and I wasn’t going to be seeing it again no matter how badly I needed it. I heard him walking up behind me and knew I had to do something. I wasn’t going to be cast out into oblivion. I was going to make it back up to the land of the living and nothing, especially not this tiny peon of a demon, was going to stop me. I turned back around in just enough time for him to be standing over me and bending down to take my arms in his hands with a superman grip and bite me right above my left collarbone. Apparently he didn’t need his knife to give me a matching set of scars and as I screamed out in agony as he tore at my flesh with his teeth I made a connection. If I couldn’t take him down the way I had originally planned, he was going to end up in that fire right next to our struggling forms."