Muse Monday: Ready For Signings

Now that I’m past the buzz of my second novel being released, I get to start putting everything together to get ready for my first few appearances. In some ways, that’s even more exciting than getting ready for the release, but it’s also nerve-wracking.

Can we say “stage fright”?

In my immediate future, I have three events I’m getting ready for: an elementary school author visit (talking to 7-9 year-olds), a middle school author visit (talking to 11-13 year olds), and a signing at a book store. The book store doesn’t have me nervous at all. I’ve been there before, they’re wonderful people, and I’m really looking forward to going back.

The school visits? I’m terrified.

Is there a tougher audience than a room full of kids? Yeah, a room full of pre-teens. Yikes! Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to it. I’m just so nervous! Even though I’m going to be talking about the same topic, I’m going to have to present it two very different ways. What interests a seven-year-old probably won’t matter much to a teenager, and vice-versa.

Not only that, but I’m just barely getting accustomed to the fact that I’m the parent when I go my girls’ schools. Part of me still wants to refer to all the teachers as Miss or Mister, and I’m still a little floored when I get to call them by their first names. Now I’m going to go to two schools to be a presenter? Pardon me while I get my head to stop spinning.

I’ll get over it, and I’m sure it will go well. Thanks for letting me release a few nerves. 🙂

In other news, there is something that I wanted to share with all of you: there’s a way you can get a signed copy of my books!

The book store I’m visiting later this month will take orders for either of my novels, I’ll sign them while I’m there, and then they’ll ship them to you. Here’s the link to order. You can order much more than just my books, so take a little look around while you’re there!

Ten days and counting until I start this merry-go-round! This is going to be fun! (Yes, I’m still convincing myself.) 😉

Muse Monday: How to Help an Author

How do you support an author? Many ways, but they boil down to three overall categories: Buy, Tell, Forgive.

One – Buy.

Buy their books! It’s the simplest category. I’m not saying that you have to spend fifty dollars on the hard-back/super-high-def/whatever edition. Grab the e-copy for a few bucks. Occasionally, authors and publishers will offer certain books at a discount. Did I mention that my first novel is a free download right now? 😉

Two – Tell.

A) Tell other people. Did you like the book? Did it make you think? Did it make you laugh, cry, jump at the sound of the wind brushing a tree branch against your window? Tell someone. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, word-of-mouth is the highest form of advertising. If you liked it enough to remember to bring it up in conversation, that’s huge.

B) Tell the author. If an author has included an email address, Twitter handle, etc., take 30 seconds to send them something that says “hey, liked your book.” We authors sometimes feel like we’re writing for nobody. Is anyone even reading these things? Okay, we’ve got sales. Yay! But, are the books actually being read? Or are they just landing on a shelf somewhere to collect dust? We worry about things like that. A random message to let us know that you enjoyed it means more than we can tell you. Follow us, friend us, email us. We’d love to hear from you!

C) Tell the internet. Leave a review. Please, please, please leave a review! Did you know that some (many) bookstores won’t carry your book until you have a certain number of reviews? This is especially important for the authors of small publishers. Hop on Amazon and give it a star rating, and add a few words for a review if you have the time. We’re not asking for you to write your own mini-novella to review our novels.

Three – Forgive.

Please, forgive us. We’re emotional, and sometimes a little neurotic. When we get a great review, or a glowing email from a fan, we can brag about it until your ears fall off. When we have a special promotion going on with our books, we can do self-advertising until you’re tired of seeing it. (Like me offering you the link to my free download twice in one blog post.) When we hit the wall that is writer’s block, we can be very grumpy and not much fun to be around. We can go through spells where we blog so often you want to set your email to block us, and then we disappear for no apparent reason. Collectively, we’re sorry about these things. We know that we do them, but we can’t seem to help it. Please forgive us.

 

If you’re reading this, chances are excellent that you’ve done at least one of the above. Thank you for the support!

Official Cover Reveal

Introducing “The Prior”!

 

I’ve learned how to jump into pictures and become other people in some alternate reality. I’ve learned how to be a wife, a ruler, a Provider. Now, I’m back in the real world.

Remember when I said somebody might want us all dead? Yeah, so that happened. I mean, it almost happened–that whole jumping-into-pictures thing saved me. For now. But Sarah…she’s still out there, somewhere.

Even though I kind of skipped a few years, I’m legally an adult now, and I’m officially on the run. Now, I have to learn a whole new set of tricks.

Except, well, it turns out I’m having to figure out a lot more stuff than I bargained for. I have to learn how to make it on my own, and I’m trying to find Sarah, and I still have to make sure nobody’s killing off the people who share my talent, so now, on top of everything else, I have to try to save the world.

Well, part of the world. My world. And, this time, there’s no safety net…

Catching Up Briefly

Raise your hand if you thought I had fallen off the face of the planet. I’m so sorry. I was trying not to blog too often, and I wound up blogging far too little. I’m back now! I hope all of you had wonderful holidays, and have great things in store for 2015. Here’s what my 2015 is looking like so far:

Next week- My second novel, The Prior, is being released!

Later this month- It’s my birthday, I’m doing author visits at a couple of schools, and I’ll be back in Texas to do book signings for The Prior.

Later this year- Honey and I will be celebrating fifteen years of marriage, one of our daughters will be going into her last year of middle school, we’ll become aunt and uncle to another niece, and other amazing milestone moments.

For now, though, I’m focusing on book-related items. Ahead of the release of my second novel, my first novel is being offered as a free download this weekend! If you have a Kindle, or at least the Kindle app, stop by and take a look!

Cover reveal for my second book comes tomorrow! 🙂

Muse Monday: Why do we use names?

For me, the hardest part of writing three novels was naming everybody. There were times that I felt like I’d used every name ever written and then some. I know I didn’t come anywhere close, but that’s what it felt like to me. Even though I know I did totally make up one name. Different blog post. Never mind.

Anyway, I started having conversations with people about character’s names. A remarkable number of people have told me that they read books without really paying attention to characters’ names. They’ll actually put a name with the character once the movies come out and they hear the names over and over again.

After I’d had some of these conversations, I had an interesting thing happen at a restaurant: My family went out for supper/dinner. (The last meal of the day, whatever you want to call it.) We were seated at our table, given our menus, and then the waiter walked up. “Good evening, folks. My name is Jeff, and I’ll be your server tonight.” I automatically looked at his name tag, because I was spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about the way names were spelled. His name tag said “Jessica.”

I’m pretty sure I cocked my head over to the side. “Well, that’s an interesting way to spell Jeff.” He looked down at it, looked back at me and grinned. “One of the waitresses and I are doing a social experiment. We switched name tags for the day, just to see how many people noticed.”

Of course, I had to ask him how many people had noticed.

We were the first table! He’d been at work for eight hours, on a weekend, and we were the first table who had noticed that his name tag said “Jessica.”

Why do we writers even bother naming our characters? I’m really tempted to write another novel that goes something like this:

“Hero went on a walk with secondary male lead, walking right past the house of throwaway female one that we’re going to mention once in a flashback and then she’ll never come up again.”

It might work. Then again, maybe not. I think it would be awfully fun to try, though!

Muse Monday: Creepy hotels, bad weather, and book selling

I’m back from my book-release! It was a great week, and I learned so much. Let me share a little of it with you.

1- Don’t automatically trust national chain hotels. We stayed at two of the big-name brands (how many national chains are there?) during our trip. One of them was fine, one of them was far from it. This hotel was somewhere between The Haunting, The Shining, and Hotel California. I had no idea that “let’s put lion heads on lamps” was still in fashion. What do I know? They had these enormous mirrors (floor to ceiling, and about twenty feet wide) set up in random places. And I’ve never seen a hallway that wide and long in a hotel. And, of course, said hallway was not very well lit. I was thoroughly expecting “come play with us” to happen any time. Creepy!! Plus the floor liked to give, shake, and squeak. And the door to our room didn’t fit the frame. There was easily a half-inch gap when the door was closed. Yeah, we moved furniture in front of it before we went to sleep. Totally creeptastic, but at least we got a good story out of it!

2- When your cell phone, that has never given you a weather warning before, randomly alarms and tells you that there’s a flash flood warning where you are…BELIEVE IT! We were just about to get back in the car at the welcome center north of Ft. Worth when both of our phones started screaming at us. We got back into the car in a hurry, just in time to go nowhere fast. Thankfully, the freeway was higher than the side roads. We didn’t have to worry about too much flooding. The side streets and feeder roads were another matter entirely. Those streets were so flooded, I could see white caps on the water running down them.

3- Don’t underestimate the power of people working together. We had the opportunity to drive through Moore, Oklahoma, on our trip. I drove through there last year, very shortly after they were struck by a massive tornado that killed dozens, injured hundreds more, and flattened buildings all over the place. The tornado crossed right over the interstate, so it was easy to see the damage while we were driving. Seeing how much has been rebuilt and repaired in just a year was amazing. Good for them!

4- Selling books is fun! It was wonderful to see so many people that I know and love, but it was also thrilling to sell to total strangers. Having people buy your book just because you’re there to sign it, or because they saw your face on the sign outside of the bookstore, is an amazing feeling. These are people who have no idea what the book is about, what the story line is, etc. And that’s pretty cool.

That’s just the highlights of what happened while I was gone. I’ll have to tell you more in another post. Now that I’m home, I’m hoping to get back on a regular blogging schedule. We’ll see how well that works out. 😉

Surprises, great neighbors, and a new schedule

I’ve got so much to fill you in on!

As my last post said, my book is already out. Kind of. The original release date was set for July 15th, but the Kindle edition came out a full week ahead of that. I was pleasantly surprised! It took almost a full twenty-four hours for me to stop looking at the page every fifteen minutes and going “oh, my goodness! I’m on Amazon!” However, the paperback is only available for pre-order. It won’t be available until July 19th. I guess that averages to July 15th as an overall release date. 😉

Regardless, I’m spending this weekend getting ready for my book-signing road trip! I’m going to be gone for a week, which brings me to the next part of my post title: great neighbors. Getting ready for a road trip can be stressful. Thankfully, courtesy of my awesome neighbors, I don’t have to worry about leaving my house. I know that they’ll watch out to make sure that nobody tries anything shady with my property while I’m gone. And four of them offered to watch our cat for us! That’s why I don’t know if I’d ever want to move away from here. Houses can be built or remodeled, but you can’t buy neighbors as good as the ones we have. I’m so grateful.

As for my new schedule: I’m going to be gone for a week, and I’m sure I’m going to have a few hectic days before I leave and after I get back. I’m not going to be blogging during that time. I’m sorry. 😦 However, I invite you to friend me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter @KatieLeaYates. I’ll be posting pictures and little snippets of the trip while I’m gone, and I’d love for you to be able to be a part of that! I’ll blog about them after I get back, of course, but you’ll probably see more of them on my Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Thank you all for the warm thoughts and enthusiasm about my book and my first few signings. I’ll see you soon!

Muse Monday: The cover reveal!

Okay, it actually happened on Saturday, not today. I’m sorry. I wanted to get back to my regular blogging schedule, and waiting these 48 hours has been so hard! But, I don’t have to wait any more! Here it is!

 

It’s nothing like what I pictured, and that is totally okay. I’m a writer, not an artist. 🙂 I think it turned out beautifully. I can’t wait to actually hold the book in my hands. I can pretty much guarantee I’m going to cry.

Eight days until we find out! 😀

My first interview!

It’s not one of my regular blogging days, but I’m too excited to wait. Debbie Manber Kupfer, author of P.A.W.S., interviewed me and posted it on her blog this morning.

MEET KATIE LEA YATES

by paws4puzzles

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’m a wife, mother of two, and a story-teller. I was born and raised in Texas, but I’m currently living in Colorado. I love to read, write (of course), travel, listen to music, and spend time with animals of all shapes and sizes. I’m also fairly incapable of giving a short answer to questions.

 

When did you first start writing?

That’s a tough one. I think the first time I actually wrote something that wasn’t an assignment was when I was in middle school. Twelve, maybe? But, I’ve told stories all my life. When I was very little, I’d tell stories to my dolls. As I got a little older, I would go to slumber parties and make up stories for my friends before we went to sleep.

 

Who are your favorite authors?

That’s an even tougher question! It really depends on what I’m in the mood to read. As an overall answer, I think I’d have to say Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb. Yes, I know they’re the same woman. I love the way that she can make her characters so real. When I read her books, I feel like I’m getting to spend time with people that I genuinely care about.

 

What inspires you to write?

My daughters. There are more things, but my girls top the list. I have a twelve-year-old who is a voracious reader. Mentally, she’s very advanced. Books that are written for her age aren’t challenging enough for her; however, books that are at the right mental level for her have things in them that my husband and I don’t think she needs to be subjected to at her age. I decided that I would write a Young Adult Fantasy that didn’t have the sex, drugs, and/or profanity that so many other books in that category usually contain. I wanted to challenge myself to prove that it was possible to write an entertaining and engaging story without having to use any of those things. My one book has actually turned into a trilogy, but they’re all clean.

 

Tell us a little bit about The Provider.

The Provider is the first book in my trilogy. In it, you get to meet my heroine, Kenzie. She’s fourteen when she discovers that she has the ability to jump into paintings or drawings that she’s made. After one of the jumps, she comes back with an injury that she sustained inside the picture world. It doesn’t take too long for her to find out that she’s just one of many people who have this type of ability. She goes to live in a colony full of these people, and that’s when her life gets really entertaining!

That’s about the shortest I can make that particular answer. If you’d like to see the longer answer, feel free to visit http://katieleayates.com/2014/01/07/whats-the-book-about/.

 

What attracts you to write fantasy?

Well, life’s pretty fantastic, don’t you think? I believe in fantasy. If you want to go for the religious theory “with God, all things are possible,” fantasy books are just predictions of what might happen. If you want to go for the more scientific theory, everything’s possible until it isn’t. How long ago was it that we, collectively, thought it would be impossible to put people on the moon? Been there, done that. I like to explore what might happen, someday, to somebody. Hope is a fantastic thing, too.

 

If you had a super power, what would it be?

Providing. Hands down, no questions asked. When Kenzie jumps into her first picture, she becomes Alana, the Provider. In Alana’s world, the Provider can bring anything to her, from anywhere, just using sand and her mind. As many times as I’ve moved in my life, I would LOVE to be able to just stand in my new home with a bag of sand and bring all of my belongings to me. It would be so much easier! Not to mention being able to bring my long-distance friends and family up for visits.

 

Kenzie’s ability is traveling into pictures? Do you have a favorite artist?

I have to split this one into two answers.

Yes, Kenzie has the ability to travel into paintings and drawings, but that isn’t her only ability. Every time that she becomes someone inside of one of the picture worlds, she retains that person’s abilities. When she comes back to being herself, she has the ability to Provide.

I do have a favorite artist. When she was alive, my grandmother painted beautiful landscapes. They were real enough that you almost felt like you could step into them. There are many other artists that I enjoy, but Grandma was definitely my favorite.

 

Is there a particular picture that you would like to visit if you had Kenzie’s power?

Too many to count! I would love to jump into the picture of Alana, so that I could bring back the ability to Provide, or some of the fantastical pictures like it. On a more realistic side, I’d love to jump into some of the historical paintings. How awesome would it be to be able to learn history by talking to people like George Washington, Christopher Columbus, Sacajawea, etc?

 

What are you currently working on?

The Protector, the final book of my trilogy. The Provider, book one, is coming out on July 15th of this year, and The Prior, the second book, is going to be released next January. I’m hoping to get the third one done and submitted so that it can be released soon afterwards.

 

What do you like to do to relax?

That depends on the day. I love to read, of course. The best books are the ones that transport you to another place and time. I also enjoy traveling, but that isn’t always an option. Cooking can be relaxing, and I’ve been known to play with paints and colored pencils. I’m not an artist by any stretch, but I do enjoy playing with them. Spending time with my family and friends is usually the top of my list, though.

 

How can readers connect with you?

I’m on Facebook, and my blog is www.KatieLeaYates.com. I also welcome emails from my readers (KatieLea_Yates@yahoo.com), and I’ll be on Twitter soon.

 

Thank you for taking the time to interview me, Debbie. I really appreciate it!

You are very welcome, Katie!

Muse Monday: Book excerpt

Three weeks from tomorrow, my first book is being released. I’m thrilled, and excited, and nervous, and I think butterflies have taken up permanent residence in my stomach. It seems like I’ve waited forever, and now it’s right around the corner.

Since it is so close, I wanted to share a little bit of the book with you:

 

I picked up right where I’d left off during my art class, and I felt the same focus and determination coming right back. My nose actually bumped into the paper before I realized that my room had gotten dark. I got up to turn on the light and ran to the kitchen for a glass of water, and then I was right back to work.

My dad poked his head in the door, around my usual bedtime, to tell me that he was finally home. I was so involved in my drawing, I barely registered that he was there. About an hour later, both of my parents came in to wish me a good night. My mom gently reminded me of the time and told me to head to bed soon. I told her I would, but I was still shading in part of the picture.

When my mom came back, she had to touch my shoulder before I realized she was there. “Mackenzie, it’s one o’clock in the morning. This isn’t due for almost a week. It’s time to shut it down.” She started putting all of my supplies back in their case, not giving me a choice.

I gave her the pencil I’d been using. It wasn’t until I sat up straight and let go of the pencil that I realized how stiff and sore I was. My hand felt like it was going to be permanently cramped in the position of holding the pencil, but the picture looked amazing.

Mom practically pulled me off the bar stool and sent me to get ready for bed. When I came back, she had moved the easel to the side of my desk, put away my art case, put the bar stool against the far wall, and turned down my covers. She gave me a hug and watched me get into bed before she turned off the light. I knew, from experience, that she would be staying awake for a while to make sure I didn’t turn the light back on.

I was well past the age of needing a nightlight, but there was a streetlight at the edge of our yard that threw some light into my room. It was enough light that I could still see the picture.

Whether she’d meant to or not, I don’t know, but my mom had placed the easel so that I had a perfect view of it from my pillow. I studied it while I waited to fall asleep.

The sky was the color of sunrise, pinks and oranges stealing across it. There were low mountains in the background, lush and green. In the middle of the picture, but still somewhat in the background, there was a village with people between and in front of the buildings. The focus of the entire work was the young woman in the front, on the left side of the picture. She was older than I was, but she looked a little like me. That was shocking, since I hadn’t planned to draw her that way.

Like me, she had brown hair and green eyes. Unlike me, she had hair that fell in waves almost to her waist, streaked through with highlights of red, and eyes that almost glowed because they were so brilliantly green. She was wearing a dress that was similar to a picture I’d once seen of an ancient Greek tunic, bold blue with silver pins on the shoulders. She had a thin silver chain around her head with a gleaming pendant resting on her upper forehead.

Her hands were cupped in front of her and she had her lips pursed, blowing sand from them. The sand changed as it left her hands. First the dull tan that sand naturally is, then a silvery gold, and finally a shining white as it formed into a snowy horse. The horse wasn’t entirely formed, its back half was still the sparkling sand, but the front legs, shoulders, neck, and head were stretching proudly forward into a run.

I rolled onto my side, still staring at the picture. Just as I started to drift off, I thought I saw the sand start to swirl. Well, that’s just crazy. It can’t be moving, you’re just exhausted. I closed my eyes and slipped off to sleep.

The dream didn’t start the way my dreams usually did. Normally, I’d drift into a dream, getting vague images or nonsense phrases. This was like being teleported from one place to another, or, rather, from one body to another. I was the woman from my own picture, blowing the sand out of my hands. I knew her name and her life story, knew how and why she was making the horse appear from the sand. If some small part of my brain still realized I was Mackenzie Ward, it was deeply buried.