Tag Archives: blurb

Silly Question on Blurbs

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well

About two months ago I wrote a blurb for The Old Mill.  It wasn’t quite right, so I did a few changes.  Much better.  But then I noticed something.

The blurb was in present tense.

Even though most of my fiction is in past tense, I always write the first draft of my blurbs in present tense, though occasionally I have done an odd mix of tenses (ugh…).  One of the pluses about being in present tense, if I ask questions at the end of the blurb, they can be in present tense or future tense and seem fine: “With Amesbury entering a new “time of dying”, seemingly at the hands of the long dead Thomas Goode, the man said to be responsible for the first “time of dying” in 1821, will Gill succeed and perhaps drive off the black clouds, or will the evil forces streaming out of the Goode Mill, the Old Mill, win, destroying everything, and everyone, that he holds most dear?”. If the blurb is in past tense, can I ask such a question? You know, the action has already been resolved…

So a quick question for you: Should a blurb for a book written in past tense be in the past tense, or does writing it in present tense make sense?

After I write this, I will spend some time on Amazon and see what others have done, but I’d like to hear your opinion as well.

Cover Reveal! Two Novellas

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My next book is going to be two novellas, Towards the Light and The Mad Quest.  They both started as serial replies to Sue Vincent‘s #writephoto prompts, and ended up being 30-35K novellas.  I hope to release in mid-April, but there is no set date.  yet.

What do you you think?

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(Note – I am traveling and thing this is an old version of the blurb :(  Will put an updated version up later.)

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Brandon finds himself down the rabbit hole and into a new reality where he is captured by Dwarves, gets involved in “Elemental Politics” and finds himself in a race to save the worlds – yes worlds, six, perhaps seven – and the peoples of those worlds in the tongue-in-cheek Fantasy novella, “Towards the Light”.

Lorounce, a “not only is the glass half empty, but the longer we talk about it, the more that evaporates” kind of guy, is on a reconnaissance mission with his childhood friend and secret crush, Merla, to enter the stronghold of the evil Lord of Darkness.  The mission soon spins off on an adventure to try to rescue the prince, find and confront the dragon to secure the magic sword and then raise an army to defeat the evil one with said magic sword all while being chased not only by the minions of the evil one, the dreaded Snow Demons, but their own people as well. Whew.  It is totally impossible, mad even, but with some unexpected help and a few twists along the way, maybe they could pull it off, this adventure called “The Mad Quest”.

“Towards the Light” and “The Mad Quest” are two fast paced, farcical Fantasy novellas.  With visible winks and nods to the great Fantasy works that came before, but with a few unexpected twists to keep you guessing, these two stories are light-hearted valentines to those classic works of the past; love notes but with pokes in the ribs and “bunny-ears” behind the head fun.

Blurb – Two Novellas

12 Replies

Rocky Mountain National Park lake

Unless there is an issue, my next book will be two novellas, Towards the Light and The Mad Quest.  The rough draft of both novellas was 100% from Sue Vincent’s #writephoto prompts.  I have come up with the rough draft of a blurb.  What do you think?

Brandon finds himself down the rabbit hole and into a new reality where he is captured by Dwarves, gets involved in “Elemental Politics” and finds himself in a race to save the worlds – yes worlds, six, perhaps seven – and the peoples of those worlds in the tongue in cheek Fantasy novella, “Towards the Light”.

Lorunce, a “not only is the glass half empty, but the longer we talk about it, the more that evaporates” kind of guy, is on a reconnaissance mission with his childhood friend and secret crush, Merla, to enter the stronghold of the evil Lord of Darkness.  The mission soon spins off on an adventure to try to rescue the prince, find and confront the dragon to secure the magic sword and then raise an army to defeat the evil one with said magic sword all while being chased not only by the minions of the evil one, but their own people as well. Whew.  It is totally impossible, mad even, but with some unexpected help and a few twists along the way, maybe they could pull it off, this adventure called “The Mad Quest”.

“Towards the Light” and “The Mad Quest” are two fast paced, farcical Fantasy novellas.  With visible winks and nods to the great Fantasy works that came before, but with a few unexpected twists, these two stories are light-hearted valentines to those classic works of the past; love notes but with pokes in the ribs and “bunny-ears” behind the head fun.

Embers – The Blurb

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book cover for Embers

One of my least favorite parts of writing, even worse than editing, is writing a blurb ;)  Oh well, it has to be done.  Here is the blurb to my upcoming collection of short stories, Embers.  What do you think?

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Meeting at that corner of time where day and night become one, where dreams and reality mix, let’s stir the coals of that fire called ‘imagination’ to discover an eclectic mix of short stories.  Each story is a bit of frozen flame, an ember, that can flare up in your mind.

In the words of D. Wallace Peach, author of the Rose Shield series, these embers form a collection of “tales that cover a wide range of genres, moods, and characters, from heartbreaking and heartwarming trials of love and family to thought-provoking journeys into the future. Most importantly, the stories are peopled with richly-drawn characters gifted with unique voices, emotional depth, and the power to capture the imagination. They’re stories that will stick.” (Taken from the foreword of Embers.)

So whether you only have time to warm yourself with a very short work of flash, or you want to get cozy and lost in a novella, there is a story, an ember, in here for you.

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The Haley Branch Blurb Take 2

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The Hamlet Symphny - Alt Image

A few weeks ago I posted a couple of draft blurbs for The Halley Branch.  Since then, I have sat on them, not trying to think of them at all.  This weekend I decided to have another go at the blurb.  Here is what I came up with:

An evil 300 years in the making.  A trap set 150 years in the past.

The day should have been a normal “family day” at the Hawkins’ Mausoleum, but a premonition followed Trevor into the crypt. To make matters worse, he couldn’t shake his morning vision of dead woman draped in a funeral-shroud.

After rescuing a girl trapped in the tomb, repressed memories force him to reevaluate everything. Is his extended family a cult with roots going back to America’s colonial past?  Is the evil Benjamin Halley still stalking his tomb after 150 years? Is there any truth to the Power described by the family’s patriarch, Miles Hawkins?

Trevor realizes that he is being manipulated and drawn into a trap set in the 19th century, and fears that everyone around him has already been ensnared.  Who can he trust?  The members of his own family’s Branch, The Bradford’s, like his cousins Bill or Stan?  Perhaps members of the Hawkins Branch, such as the beautiful but jaded Amelie?  The one Branch he knows not to trust is the extinct Halley Branch.

But the Halley’s are the ones who are welcoming him with open, if dead, arms. Continue reading →

This or That? Blurbs

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Fiction

During my short break from editing The Halley Branch I have been throwing around blurbs and right now am stuck.  Yes, I can be a bit indecisive at times.  Don’t worry, I will eventually decided between the different variations I’ve come up with, but I wanted to ask your opinion.

I have one, with some slight variations, that uses a “tag line”.  That’s a little line at the beginning of the blurb that sums it up.  For instance, all of my posts on The Fireborn start with “In the shadowy area where myth and history collide“.  It is on the back cover as part of the blurb using a different color font.

I am going to put up the original version of the blurb with the tag line, since this is as far from the other I will post as possible (I have some inbetweenies…) Continue reading →

Another Shot at the Blurb

41 Replies

Fireborn

It was almost a year ago that I asked for comments on a  blurb for my book, “The Fireborn”.  At the time I was planning on sending query letters to agents.  Well, a year later and I haven’t sent out a single query.  I performed another rewrite back in November thinking it would inspire me to start the process, but even that didn’t work.  Knowing agents aren’t going to come knocking at my door knowing I’m sitting on a book I guess I really need to start sending letters out.  With that in mind, I’d like to know what people think about the following blurb. Continue reading →