Thursday, September 27, 2012

New Before/After: "Myth Weaver"



Today's before/after is David J. Normoyle's Myth Weaver.

Before:

The Norse and Greek mythologies are about to collide and Jagger is stuck in the middle.

"A must read for anyone fascinated with the legends and myths of old."

When Jagger's daydream world becomes a battleground for Odin and Zeus, the edges of reality begin to blur. A contest of myths is formed where Norse is pitted against Greek. Jagger is Perseus as he cuts off Medusa's head and Loki as he schemes against Thor and the other gods. And that's nothing to what he faces in his first year in university. Can ancient truths help Jagger in the real world?

"The retelling of the stories of the gods are cleverly intertwined with a student's own quest with coping with life."

A young adult fantasy novel.

After:
Eighteen-year-old Jagger Burns lives so much in his head that his guardian wonders if she should commit him. In the real world, he's shy, he's an orphan and he's just failed his college exams. His imaginary world feels safer. When he enrolls in a mythology class, Greek and Norse myths fill Jagger's daydreams; they become so real that Zeus's thunderbolts leave phantom burns behind. These gods have ideas of their own; they're guiding Jagger back to reality.

Each myth he relives in his imaginary world teaches Jagger more about living in the real world. With Loki and Prometheus to help him, he begins to re-enter life and gets a job on the student newspaper. But when his reporting uncovers a dangerous crime ring, he'll need everything the gods can teach him to survive. Otherwise, he'll either dream away the rest of his life in an institution, or wind up dead.

I'd love to help you with your blurb!


Friday, September 14, 2012

New Before/After: "Land of Myth (The Dragon Wars Saga)



Today's before/after is Becka Sutton's first book in the Dragon Wars Saga series, Land of Myth.

Before:
Weird events have beset the Stevens Quadruplets since infancy. But nothing can prepare them for the day they open their door and find another world outside. A world inhabited by intelligent mythical creatures, most of whom are hostile to humanity. And it seems they are expected to save it from its ancient enemy – the dragons.

Even with the help of their bonded ‘heart friends’ can they save both this strange, new world and Earth when the people they are trying to help want to kill them?

After:
The four Stevens kids have been odd since birth; they're quadruplets, after all. But that's only the beginning. Lydia is pyrokinetic. Karen has dangerous gaps in her memory. Daniel is hiding something dark and sinister from the others. And cryokinetic Andrew is obsessed with the paranormal for a reason: monsters have chased them, showers have turned to blood, and roads sometimes don't lead where they should.

Perhaps they should have expected it when three of them open a door and find another world beyond it.

Dragons threaten this world, where almost every inhabitant--every mythical creature Earth's peoples think they've dreamed up--hates humanity. Even so, Karen, Andrew and Lydia discover three creatures who love them have been waiting there. Through a mystical bond, these "heart friends" can access the quads' powers and fight the dragons. But powerful forces are trying to keep the kids and their heart friends apart--and if they succeed, it spells disaster for both Earth and the world beyond the door.


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

New before/after: "Nocturnal"



Today's before/after is the first one-shot I've featured. The one-shot service is a thorough once-through of your blurb; I may be able to rewrite it, or depending on what you've given me I may only be able to make suggestions, give possible examples based on what I do know, and give you questions to answer.

This blurb is for Chelsea M. Cameron's book Nocturnal, the first of the three Noctalis Chronicles books. I did one-shots for all three of the books, and I'll be featuring them all here in coming days. This is the second blurb we've worked on together. After we finished this one, here's what Chelsea has to say about working with me:

Wahoo! Sooo much better. You're magical. ... The first blurb you did has been more effective than I ever could have dreamed.

Thanks, Chelsea!

For one-shots, I'm going to show you what the client gave me initially, what I sent back, and what the client eventually came up with. Things I put in [[brackets]] are questions I have or incomplete information the client needs to fill in.

Before
Seventeen-year-old Ava-Claire Sullivan isn't one for doing the expected. Especially when she finds out her mother's cancer is terminal. After a crying session in the local cemetery where she's attacked by one strange guy and saved by another, she doesn't call the cops. Because those guys definitely weren't your average hooligans. 

And the one who sort-of saved her? Well, he's odd. He doesn't seem to breathe or smile or have anything better to do than wait in the cemetery for Ava to come back, which she does. Morbid curiosity? Even after he warns her that he's dangerous, she can't stop wanting to see him, talk to him, be with him.

There's just something about Peter that provides a much-needed escape from her mother's diagnosis and her tenuous relationship with her father. Her best friends, Jamie and Texas, don't know what it's like to face death. Peter does; he already has. But a promise he made a long time ago could destroy both of them.

When everything in your life is falling apart, what are you willing to give up to hold onto the one thing that could last forever?


One-Shot Consultation
Seventeen-year-old Ava-Claire Sullivan's mother is dying. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that her greatest solace comes from someone who's already dead.

Peter [[last name?]] saves her one night in a graveyard from an attacker just as strange as he is, and now Ava-Claire can't stop thinking about him. She wants to see him again--even after he warns her against himself, and she begins to realize what he is. Her best friends don't know anything about death, but Peter does, intimately. He's waiting for her [[whenever/every night]] she comes to the cemetery. 

But their growing bond comes up against a promise Peter made a long time ago, a promise that could destroy them both. Now Ava-Claire has to decide just what she's willing to give up to hold onto the one thing that could last forever.


After
Seventeen-year-old Ava-Claire Sullivan's mother is dying. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that her greatest solace comes from someone who's already dead. 

 Peter Hart saves her one night in a graveyard from an attacker just as strange as he is, and now Ava can't stop thinking about him. She wants to see him again - even after he warns her he's dangerous, and she begins to realize what he is. Her best friends don't know anything about death, but Peter does, intimately. He's waiting for her the next night she comes to the cemetery, and the next... 

 But their growing bond comes up against a promise Peter made a long time ago, a promise that could destroy them both. Now Ava has to decide just what she's willing to give up to hold onto the one thing that could last forever.


Friday, September 7, 2012

New Before/After: Feels Like the First Time



Today's before/after is Shawn Inmon's Feels Like the First Time, a true love story set in the '70s and the modern day.

Before:

September, 1975: Shawn meets Dawn, his one true love, when she moves into the vacant house next door.  Many people spend their life searching in vain for happiness, but he was lucky; finding it at the age of fifteen.

February 1979: Forbidden to see each other and feeling he is harming her by being in her life, he walks away from the love of his life, seemingly forever.

December, 2006: After decades of sadness and mourning the girl that got away, he has a chance meeting with her that might change his life forever… again. Can the sweet bond of first love not only survive, but flourish?

Feels Like the First Time lets you share in the magic of young love in small town America in the 1970s.  No matter how much the world changes, some things – timeless music, high school dances, making out in the backseat of a Chevy Vega, and of course true love – will always remain the same.


After:
His name was Shawn, hers was Dawn, and when they found one another in 1975 they knew it was forever--even though they were only 15. But they have only four years together until they're forbidden to see one another. Shawn walks away from their small town, convinced he's nothing but trouble for the love of his life.

Decades pass, and Shawn never forgets her. When he runs into Dawn out of the blue, they must discover whether it really can feel like the first time--or whether true love only happens in the songs of their youth.