Alex AMES — Writer, Singer, Songwriter
That was another long hiatus from blogging / socializing. I spent a while translating Teen Monster Hunters, which led to some rephrasings and corrections on the English version, too. As my previous publisher closed shop a few days ago, I relaunched the eBook once more. And so it goes into Kindle Direct first for the next three months, should be up and running in a few days. Next update is the print version.
Writing like crazy on three items at the same time. And then, as if there was nothing better to do, I would stumble tonight on the TV over "All About Eve". It had been a while since I last saw that one and I was immediately riveted again. Witty dialogues, wonderfully atmospheric, carefully staged and incredible cast. I am usually not a nostalgic, but 'they don't make movies like that anymore!'
Wikipedia "All About Eve" under Fair Use Policy
So what is going these days? My rom-com chick lit start-up novel got the treatment a second round. I put in a lot of work in order to complete and edit and then decided to stop once more. The story is good, but not good enough yet. There are three women who in the course of the story will fall in love with three men. That is the easy part. But I have not figured out yet how to make the three fall-in-love cases unique. So far all three cases are pretty much the same. The male is the dominant one, making the female realize that her way is the wrong way and that she should put trust in steady relationship. Once is fine. Two maybe with a little variation acceptable. But three in one book in one fifth act is too much. As I ran out of ideas and lack the right tactic, I decided to shelf the book for now.
What happens in the meanwhile? The next Teen Monster Hunter novel is in the making. Teen Vampire Hunters is going well, I am not measuring yet, but all chapters are defined and in place, so it is all a matter of writing and sticking to the formul. The first Teen Monster Hunters book was indeed the first one, introducing the main characters and the story format. But Teen Vampire Hunters will be the first one out of the regular story stack that will be sequence agnostic, meaning: you can read them in any order you like. There will be no overlap and no development that makes it necessary to stick to a sequence. All in "the formula".
And then there is the German translation of "Teen Monster Hunters". Mostly to the benefit of my youngest son and his school peers. One of my books is always an appreciated gift or token, so the German version will go well with the locls. And maybe gives me opportunity to organize a reading one of these days, locally.
Saturday had been creative change day.
Closed the story line on another RomCom romantic comedy (What do you think about the tagline: "Three friends, one startup, one vow: no romantic distractions. Yeah, right!")
Decided what to write next, continuing the Teen Monster Hunters series with the next 50K word novel, working title "Teen Vampire Hunters".
Changed the cover of Teen Monster Hunters. What? Why? I felt, the cover was too bright and cartoonish. I like the cartoon concept, to the extend that it will be a recurring theme for the next books and novella short stories. But for monster hunting story, the color scheme and cover should be slightly more edgy and scary.
Before and after. What do you think?
Today I received notification from one of my meta publishers "Pronoun" that they cease their operations. I have used them just a few weeks ago to publish my latest novel "Teen Monster Hunter" into the various e-channels for ebooks.
Too bad. I really liked the uncomplicated interface that autosaved your inputs, always told you where you were in the process and did not asked you to overly format your Word document that would be converted by the service into the various' platform ebook formats. (A more detailed comparison to the gorilla in the room Smashwords can be found here) No real reason was given by the mother-publishing company Macmillan. My guess: the financials weren't there for indie book publishing.
What does this mean for me? Well, first of all a lot of non-creative work to move some of my works over to another platform. Three of my works currently get distribution via Pronoun: "Teen Monster Hunters", "Troubleseeker", and "Pieces of Trouble". Links change, formatting changes, resubmission process, new ISBN... I hate this distraction when all I want to do is write on my next books.
This is it: Teen Monster Hunters is finally out and available at all major e-tailers (Print version to follow in a few days). Follow Sally Storm and her formidable friends, genius Ryan Montgomery and single-word slow guy Moe Doe, at their high school adventure to discover there is more to their school than obnoxious football jocks and boring classes.
But wait, there is more: I created a small sequel to Teen Monster Hunters called "The Test". And guess what, it's free!!! All you have to do is follow it on Wattpad, the serialized chapters will come out every two days. Hope this gives you a taste of the new series, and makes you addicted (and makes you buy Teen Monster Hunters!)
Proud to announce that my "A Brilliant Plan" novel is one of the "featured" books on Wattpad in the category "Mysteries / Thrillers". Of course you can head over to Wattpad and read the story there (all 50 Chapters of it). It's amazing how many people have read this story. A Brilliant Plan is the first English full length novel I published, so I hold it very dear to my heart. May many other people discover it during October's promotion!
If you prefer to read it on your beloved ebook reader like a Kindle or any other device, of course you may buy it at any online book outlet in any format imaginable. Fancy the print in your hands, also possible. Here's the link to my book page where you find some of the outlets selling the story.
