Shadow of Death: Book Two of the Chosen Chronicles receives Siren Books Best Stone Review

I am blown away, yet again, at such an amazing review of Shadow of Death.

Here's a snippet:

This is a fabulous story, well conceived and illustrated in such a way that the reader will not put it down until they’ve completed it...You cannot miss with Karen’s book. You will love it. If you haven’t read the first one yet, start there and then you too will be waiting impatiently for book number three. This is the kind of story that leaves you both begging for more...

To read the whole review:
http://sirenbookreviews.blogspot.com/2011/04/karen-dales-shadow-of-death-book-two-of.html

Karen Dales
Award Winning Author
http://www.karendales.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarenDales
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/karendales

Facebook Group: http://tinyurl.com/cn27xa
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/karendalesauthor

Wait patiently and the Universe WILL provide.

I wasn't planning on posting today, but after what happened I just had too.

I first thought I should twitter or facebook this as a status, but again, too many words.

My husband has his computer in our living room. The desk it sits on is old and it's the wrong height. It's also a bit of an eyesore for me. For several years we've wanted to replace the desk, but whenever we went looking the desks we saw were either had the wrong dimensions, the wrong set up or just too expensive. We've decided to be patient.

The other factor to his desk and how his computer sits on it is that I can't work on it at all. This means whenever I want to quickly check email, etc, when he's not on it, I have to go into my office. It's no big deal, but hey. I like to spend time with my family.

This has been going on for a long time.

Today, on the way home from picking up our son from school, my husband and I drove. (Thank you rain storm.) On the way there we didn't notice anything. On the way back we saw what appeared to be this brand new computer desk. In fact, it was the one that my husband had/has been wanting for quite some time. It was just sitting there on the curb of a neighbour amidst their other garbage.

We stopped. Hit the hazards. Hubby jumped out of the car to take a look at it.

He couldn't put it into the car, but we were close enough, and it had wheels, that he was able to walk home with it.

Once home we dried it off and looked at it. There was no doubt. It was the desk that went for $200 from Staples and it worked perfectly! My husband has his new desk and my son (who is outgrowing the kids desk we have for his computer in the living room too) is going to get the one my husband didn't like, but will work perfectly for the Bug.

It was yet another clear lesson, and proof, that if one is patient the Universe will provide.

By the way, today's my husband's birthday:)

Karen Dales
Award Winning Author
http://www.karendales.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarenDales
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/karendales

Facebook Group: http://tinyurl.com/cn27xa
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/karendalesauthor

Awesome review for Changeling: Prelude to the Chosen Chronicles

I just heard today that the review of my book Changeling: Prelude to the Chosen Chronicles from Sizzling Hot Books is now up!

Here's a snippet:

"Changeling by Karen Dales was an amazing read...(it)kept me on the edge of my seat. I cant’ wait to read the next one to see where his path will lead."

Please feel free to read the whole review here! http://www.sizzlinghotbooks.net/2011/04/changeling-prelude-to-chosen-chronicles.html

Ad Astra and the Shadow of Death

This past weekend I was at Ad Astra http://www.ad-astra.org for their 30th anniversary.

For those of you who don't know what Ad Astra is, it is one of Canada's premier Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror literary convention that takes place in Toronto, Ontario. Because it was the 30th Anniversary there were many, many, past Guests of Honour, such as Ben Bova, Julie Czerneda,Eric Flint, Ed Greenwood, David G. Hartwell, Tanya Huff, Guy Gavriel Kay, Todd McCaffrey, Tamora Pierce, and Peter Watts. Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon made their first Canadian convention appearance too, though I didn’t get a chance to meet them.

There were other wonderful authors there as well such as Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, Marie Bilodeau, Robert Boyczuk, Erik Buchanan, JM Frey, James Alan Gardner, Nancy Kilpatrick, Adrienne Kress, Lesley Livingston, Derwin Mak, Stephen B. Pearl, Douglas Smith, Rob St. Martin, and of course, myself, just to name a few.

It was a fantastic weekend, for me the highlight was the Friday night where I launched my newest book in The Chosen Chronicles – Shadow of Death: Book Two of the Chosen Chronicles. I want to say thank you to the folks of Ad Astra for allowing me to take over the Con Suite to throw the party. It was a wonderful success. Lots of friends and family showed up and many others from the convention did as well. I did two readings from Shadow of Death and the little Chibi Chosen that I made were a complete success. Thanks to everyone who came out to make the launch so wonderful!

The rest of the weekend was great. On Saturday, my friend, Derek, helped out at my table, so I wave a thank you at him. People who couldn’t make it to the launch came by and bought books. I got to moderate a panel on “Writers and Relationships.” The panel went extremely well. It was nice to discuss these sorts of issues, but when we took a poll of the panelists as to relationship experience we found that all of us were part of long term committed relationships with creative folk. It would explain why we tended to agree with each other.:) We did remark that it would have been nice had someone who was an author and who was single on the panel to get their take on things.

I also participated in the large group signing that afternoon. It was fun. I got to sit with Adrienne Kress and Lesley Livingston. The place was packed with authors and artists signing for so many people.

Later that evening I was on the Vampires of the Future panel. By that point I was so punch drunk tired I don’t recall if I made any sense or not. I do remember it was a great panel moderated by Nancy Kilpatrick. After that I went home and crashed.

Sunday, the last day of the convention, was wonderful. Despite everyone being so tired I think many of us would have liked the convention to continue longer. I know I would have.:)

Indy, Self, POD and Vanity Publishing - Oh My!

I was reading a few different blogs about the topics and thought to throw in my 2 cents...

Okay...there's a difference between 'indy,' 'self,' 'POD' and 'vanity' publishing...

"Indy" Publishing - This idea (or term) comes from the music industry where bands or artists who are not signed with a large record label (Sony, WEA, EMI, etc) either go with a 'small' label or a label the band set up themselves. They find a recording studio, graphic artist(s) and cd duplication place and basically do it all themselves, even the marketing and the video production. This holds true with an 'indy' publishing. It is an author who either goes with a small to medium publishing house that's not connected with the big 6, or the author sets up their own publishing house to do their own books (and maybe others as well). This means setting up their own label, getting their own isbn, hiring their own editors and graphic artists. It also means they find their own printer, whether they use POD technology or offset is up to the author/publisher.

"Self" Publishing - This is where the author publishes their books without going under a 'label'. They are doing it all under their own name. The author pays for everything - editing, cover design, etc. As well as the print run. (You can see the confusion between this and 'indy' publishing.)

"POD" - is the TECHNOLOGY of printing one book at a time rather than offset printing. PERIOD. Companies that use this technology but who are PRINTERS with DISTRIBUTION are Lightning Source. Createspace also does this, but they also offer author services that one DOES NOT HAVE TO TAKE TO BE PRINTED AND DISTRIBUTED BY THEM.

“Vanity” Publishing – This is where the author is suckered into paying a company to do all the editing, cover design, marketing, isbn allocation etc, despite the type of printing (offset or POD) is done. This is usually done in an 'author friendly package' that seems like a deal but ends up being a scam. Some infamous companies are iUniverse, Trafalgar, Author House, Author Solutions, Writer’s House, etc… These are so called ‘assisted self publishing’ but they are not because you are forced into having your book under their isbn and you have to sign your publishing rights to them. Not only that, they set the price of your book and they give you a royalty. This is the worst type of publishing situation to get into. Period.

One last type is “Assisted Self Publishing” in the real sense. This is where a company helps, for a fee, authors self publish under THE AUTHORS OWN ISBN. They just sell the services of graphic arts, editing, marketing, etc, and they also will help the author connect with a reputable printer and/or POD company for greater distribution. The only monies received are for the services of helping to self publish in the truest sense, such as doing editing on the book, creating the book block, creating the cover, etc. They don’t take a cut of each book sold. The only monies received are for the individual services. Unfortunately I haven’t found a place that is like this in truth.

ConCepting Change

It's been a long time since I last posted here, mainly due to the insane schedule of working full time, having a family, writing the next novel and promoting the current ones. Now I'm no longer working full time and this has been a MAJOR adjustment that I'm still not comfortable with. I'm a person who likes certainty, especially when it comes to finances, so I'll flip and flop about the fact that I am currently staying home and writing.

My husband and I decided that if he hasn't found full time work by the beginning of March I'll jump into the job searching mix. Personally, I'm itching enjoy to jump in right now even though I LOVE being at home writing, etc.

One of the highlights since I was laid off was being at ConCept in Montreal as a Author Guest/Panelist. Because my husband and son could not join me I went with a friend. It was a weekend well worth it. Lots of things came up from being there that has made me think of things I was refusing to think about. I also had one of the best, most relaxing times (except for missing my son's Tae Kwon Do test and some other stuff)since being laid off.

Friday night I went to my friend, Violette Malan's book launch party. http://violettemalan.com/ She's the author of the "Dhulyn and Parno" series published by DAW. Wine was served and I really enjoyed being there, supporting my friend.

Then it was off to my first panel where Violette was the moderator. She brought wine. Jo Walton and Marie Bilodeau http://www.mariebilodeau.com were part of the tipsy panel. I swear, it was one of the most fun I've had on a panel, at least until Marie took my 3rd glass of wine away.:)

Later that night was out for drinks and snacks with some friends before turning in wayyyyy to late.

Saturday was another day filled with fun. More panels - 2 of them about Vampires. One other was about time and writing, which was excellently moderated. I went out to dinner with another author friend, Nancy Kilpatrick http://www.nancykilpatrick.com, who is the editor of 'Evolve' which is an EXCELLENT anthology of Canadian Vampire writers (no, I'm not in it.:)

Sunday I had a great time. Went to the panel 'Killing your babies' where my author friends were on the panel. It was great enjoying a panel by not being on it. Lots of great information from it that got me thinking about my book 'Shadow of Death' that's due to come out in March.

One of the main highlights for me was meeting Tad Williams and his wife Deborah. What wonderful people they are. Hugs and kisses were exchanged before I had to drive the 6 hours home. I hope that they do come to Toronto in 2012 for the World Fantasy Convention as I'd love to possibly spend more time with them.

All in all, ConCept was an amazing experience, one that I plan on repeating next year when I bring my husband and son.

Cheers,

Karen Dales
http://www.karendales.com