An Open Book

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

After writing the first rough and I mean rough draft of The Mark of a Druid, I searched all over for a group that would be right for me as an aspiring author. I found that group on compuserve’s literary forum. Now since I joined, the group some almost 5 years ago it has had its membership ups and downs. For several years we were housed in another location on a Forums America site. Not too long ago the forum moved back to compuserve and into a much larger community setting. Lots of the old folks are there and a ton of new ones.

One of the things I liked about our little group was that there wasn’t anyone who felt it necessary to cut you to pieces to make a point about what you could do better in your story. The crits were not only content considerate but line editing as well. (for me extremely helpful) If you saw a mistake that was an obvious typo or grammatical help were also offered as well as plot and character development.

It was an easy system. Once granted access to the library of file you picked something that caught your eye and started critiquing. After you critiqued 5 pieces, you could upload 1. Pieces usually consisted of a complete short story or a chapter or chunk from a WIP (work in progress). From then on it is 3 to 1 and trust me you would build a cash of crits to use for your uploads fast if you put any effort into the group.

The diversity of the group was wonderful, people from all over the world joining together and helped each other out. The benefits to me as an author were worth every minute I spent with these people. Now I am not going to tell you that I agreed with all of the suggestions but if I didn’t incorporate something I thought long and hard about the readers experience.

Now there are plenty or writing groups online and in your local communities as well. I like the online groups because I can get more out of them, the volume of participants is higher and more diverse. While I am not active in the compuserve forum at this time because I am in a different phase, pre-publication and podcasting, I do recommend the group. Here is a link to them the membership is free and once your work is posted it is copywrited so it is actually a way to protect your work although others say it is not safe I just don’t agree. No one writes in the same way I do. They may be able to take what is there but they would never be able to complete the work like I would have, so I don’t worry about it. And from what I know this has not happened in this place. There is also a research and craft area that can be very helpful.

I found my time in a critiquing group extremely rewarding and I hope as I move into book two in the series I will find the group as helpful again. I met many wonderful people there and one of my dearest friends and I actually met there and we talk almost every day.

Keep Writing, I know I will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

The Mark of a Druid. Is fairing better than I ever expected!

If you haven’t subscribed yet it is free!

You can get The Mark of a Druid, serialized podcast of the novel. www.podiobooks.com here is the page address http://www.podiobooks.com/title/mark-of-the-druid All of the episodes that are available now on podiobooks.com, podcastpickle.com, Mobli, Amigofish.com, Digg, Itunes and other places as well. The Episodes are available at the same time at (usually a few hours before) at www.themarkofadruid.com under the Episode sections where you can listen to them on the site with no download or download them. I am considering doing an extended version for Themarkofadruid.com but have not made up my mind yet how that will work.

And my favorite kind of writing weather is almost upon the mountains where I live. There is nothing better for me than the fog dancing on the forest floor to inspire me to tell a story. Add to that a warm fire in the hearth and the silence that comes with winter in a resort community and it makes my mind wonder in and out of plots and subplots. The voices of my characters call to me to scribe their words and emotions. They scream, “tell my story,” and I must listen.

So you might asked what is the next book? I started a historical fiction novel based on a true story that is about ¼ done called Truth Slithers. And I have the first few chapters of the next book in the The Mark of a Druid Series in the works. The title you ask? Drum Roll Please…. When Ethers Descend.

More about the contest that is coming up. As you may have read the cover of this book is mighty special as there are lots (nope not saying how many yet) hidden images from the book in the artwork. Sometime in the next month we will be launching the contest and I can’t wait. The artist who painted the oil on canvas, Miss Amie Perry will not even tell me all the locations and I have found many of them and she says there are more. Thanks Amie that means I get to play the game too, but I can’t win anything. That just wouldn’t be fair. There will be formal rules and the prizes are very cool. Posters of the cover art, greeting cards and copies of the book all dual autographed by both me the author and Amie the artist. I have my very own Web GOD! Dave from http://wrkg.com/ who is full of very cool interactive ideas for the book site and how the contest can be interactive on the web so look for announcements about that as the day gets closer and tons of other cool stuff for the readers to get involved in. I figure if we are going interactive lets take it to a new level.

The Print Version?

I have approved the final cover polish and the print versions hardback and paperback of The Mark of a Druid are in print set up right now. So in a couple of weeks tops I will be holding this labor of love in my hands!!!! Can’t wait! Then it will go live at the iuniverse bookstore website and a few weeks after that we will be announcing the contest and going live on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com as well as bookstores and outlets everywhere in the USA. .

If you have been following the progress of the endeavor then you know there has been a lot of work and I am very excited how well it is going. I was checking the stats for hits on Friday of this week and I was shocked. In a good way. 81,219 hits between rhondacarpenter.com and themarkofadruid.com and it is not even the half way point yet. So keep coming back and tell a friend. Thank you all so much it feels great to have so much interest.

If you haven’t noticed the blog roll to your right or the Hot Promo page you should take a minute and hear what else is out there. I started Fractured Horizon by H.E. Roulo and I am totally impressed with the story so this may be one you will want to follow if you want a story that is original and read very well by the author. And congratulations H.E. For hitting the The Podiobooks Top Ten #1 slot! For the most downloads in the last 30 days! Great Job! So what are waiting for check it out. You won’t be disappointed. I haven’t been.

As I have been unable to record this week because my oldest son was in a car accident and is in living room recovering from double pelvis fractures. Poor guy! Sorry “G” But no worries I have episodes in reserve for just such a problem. How did I know??? Hey life happens you just need to be as prepared as possible. So if push comes to shove and I hope it doesn’t, I will be good for 4 more weeks of episodes before things get critical. I promise I will do my best not to let the listeners down. I know I have a problem when I get into a book and then all of a sudden there is a gape in installments. So I said I would not do that to my listeners. Hence the reserve!

Okay I have prattled on enough. Remember leave a comment either here or podiobooks.com or itunes. It helps and only takes a second you don’t have to tell your real name. But I would so help me to know what you are thinking and what you like or don’t like so I can do this better for the next books. All comments are appreciated.

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Yes! The Mark of a Druid has officially reached 100 subscribers in less than a week. And it is all because you guys! Thank you. And Enjoy the read. on www.poidiobooks.com or www.themarkofadruid.com

Keep subscribing!

Rhonda

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

What a wonderful week for The Mark of a Druid.

If you haven’t subscribed yet it is free!

You can get The Mark of a Druid, serialized podcast of the novel. www.podiobooks.com here is the page address http://www.podiobooks.com/title/mark-of-the-druid

Sign up for an account there is no cost involved. At that time you will be able to add my book to your subscriber’s list or any of the others. It is free! And you can snag the promo here! http://www.rhondacarpenter.com/?page_id=95 post it to your website send it to your email, chat buddies, put it up on your myspace, facebook and talk about it on twitter and please tell a friend! And let me know if you have a podcast you would like me to promo other podcasters.

All of the episodes that are available now on podiobooks.com, podcastpickle.com, Mobli, Amegofish.com and Digg, soon Itunes and other places as well.
The Episodes are available one week before at www.themarkofadruid.com under the podcast section where you can listen to them on the site with no download or download them.

Sunday is upload day as well as Blog night, but my son was just in an accident and I am typing this as I wait for which hospital I need to go to. I don’t think it is serious as he called me just after it happened. Back to Biz…So keep up with what is going on and get your weekly fix of The Mark of a Druid.

The Print Version?

As I type this blog I am awaiting the final cover design so I can approve it. Let’s just say it was not easy to get to this stage. Also if you haven’t paid close attention to the cover art as there are hidden symbols and I will be starting a contest with a ton of great prizes for identifying them. More on this when I have a release date from Iuniverse.

The interior of the book has been approved and now we only wait on the cover finish and we are in printer set up mode. So for those of you who are waiting for the print versions hold on it is coming I promise!

If you haven’t noticed the blog roll to your right you should stop by and check out Fractured Horizon by H.E. Roulo I am starting it this week and will leave a review when I am done.

This week is about podcasting. Out there tell everyone that the book is available. Market, Market Market. Edit Episode 14 which is recorded but not edited. And write the press releases. Scary!
 

Also this week the book was promoted on J.D. Sawyers Antithesis and Edward G. Tabolt’s New Word Order as well as Emriane Rich’s Horror Addicts. Thank you all for adding my promo. You’re the best! See these authors’ works in the hot promo section of this site. Very cool stuff.

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

I am so excited that I have reached this level of production with the book. Tomorrow…

Monday… September 29, 2008

You can get The Mark of a Druid, serialized podcast of the novel. Where you ask? It is going live on http://www.podiobooks.com/title/mark-of-the-druid Please notice this page is not live until the day of release. Sign up for an account there is no cost involved. At that time you will be able to add My book to your subscriber’s list or any of the others. It is free! And you can snag the promo here! http://www.rhondacarpenter.com/?page_id=95 post it to your website send it to your email, chat buddies, put it up on your myspace, facebook and talk about it on twitter and please tell a friend! And let me know if you have a podcast you would like me to promo in reciprocation.

All of the episodes that are available on podiobooks.com and soon Itunes and other places are available one week before at www.themarkofadruid.com under the podcast section where you can listen to them on the site with no download or download them.

Sunday is upload day as well as Blog night. So keep up with what is going on and get your weekly fix of The Mark of a Druid.

So Why Free?

This is completely a personal decision. I know that in my home my husband is more the listener and I am the hold the book in my hands gal, although, I do listen too. As a new author people don’t know about me and this is one of many ways I am getting my name and the story out there. As I move forward with the publication process for the print books I am confident that the free release of the podcast version will build some chatter and help with letting those know that the book is about to be out there in print. The pod casting has been totally fun and educational and I can’t imagine release any book with out using this kind of medium. Like any author, I want people to read or listen and cash dollars while important and graciously accepted for all the long hours of work I simply want to write and be read. So there you have it: 1. It is a marketing tool and 2. It is fun! 3. It has worked for the big boys.

Speaking of Marketing the book and fun! We will be announcing a contest as soon as we have a release date for the print version is given to me so stay tuned for that and the new website for the book going live around the same time there will be so many things to talk about as that gets closer.

Talking about the print versions and E-book versions… This week the cover proofs came in. At the end of the process, I will give a review of the iuniverse’s way of doing business and how my experience went with this self publishing company. All of you authors out there will want to read that when it comes out it promises to be very eye opening and will help you in making the decision as to what company to go with. I am also hoping I can talk Arlene Radasky into reviewing her company as she has made the first steps toward publishing The Fox. Congrats Arlene! The way it is looking it may be about the same time frame. That should perk your ears as she just started. Hmmmm.

The cover proof sheet was retuned to my PSA today and when he arrives tomorrow I should get confirmation that it is received. So another deadline beat by days and the next step after the answering of a couple of questions will be print set up and author proof after that, it is 1 ½ to 2 weeks for the interior and exterior changes to be done and 14 business days to do the print set up with the printers. Ahhhh! Then I will be getting a release date for Barnes and Noble and Amazon and it will be available on Iuniverse first. I am so excited!

This week is about podcasting. Out there tell everyone that the book is available. Market, Market Market. Edit Episode 12 which is almost done and start on Episode 13 which is recorded but not edited. And write the press releases. Scary!
 

Also this week the book was promoted on J.D. Sawyers Antithesis and Edward G. Tabolt’s New Word Order as well as Emriane Rich’s Horror Addicts. Thank you all for adding my promo. You’re the best! See these authors works in the hot promo section of this site. Very cool stuff.

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

This week I received the Iuniverse book block. If you have ever been involved in the process of publishing a book then you know that it is all about editing. The book block which is a layout formatted 6×9 PDF of what the book will look like came in on Monday late afternoon. Then it was time for me to get on the stick again. They give authors a 14 day (not business day) window to make any changes to the text, layout and formatting of the book.

By this time in the process you have read, re-read and edited your manuscript several times. And the mind simply doesn’t see that is on the page. I am pleased to say that the podcast recording of the book really helped me find those tiny little things that would jump off the page for a reader. The process of recording and editing the audio allowed me to find 24 errors which over all is not bad considering the print version of the book is over 360 pages.

Here are a couple of things that I found interesting about this process as I went through the book block as it is called. First as an Iuniverse author you must meet certain formatting requirements. All of which the MS met in the beginning of the submission process. But when I got the book block back I was not just looking for my errors, missing punctuation or spelling/text changes and the like, but I had to check what the formatter’s did as well. I was surprised at some of the things that I found that were in the submission I made but not in the book block. Like chapter headings and POV switches that I set with ****. In the process of formatting the book. Two of the chapters were not headed out. This was a touch frustrating for me. And gave me serious doubts as to what else may have changed that I was not catching. I mean seriously if you have a book with 47 chapters would you not make sure you had 47 chapter headings??? Guess not. Then it appear as if there were two people working on the layout as the **** kept switching with no rhyme or reason from one Glyph to another. Neither of which I liked or were related to the premises of the book.

So I spent all week, every spare second going over the book block against my hard copy word by word, line by line. I complete today 8 days ahead of the deadline and I think we will have a really clean book in print. YES!

What is next on the schedule for the print book. I was informed today that I will have cover draft for proof in the next couple of days. That means two layouts one for the hardcover and one for the paperback. This will be my last chance to make any changes to the cover art/text and while this is happening the book block should be being corrected by the Iuniverse formatting staff. Their requirement is up to 2 weeks for this to happen. There are 58 changes to the text and formatting that need to happen I can’t imagine it taking two weeks but I am not their only author. LOL.

Then it goes to the printer for set up at that time they require 14 business days for set up and I will be holding the book in my hand in not long after for the final approval. Then it is available shortly after in the Iuniverse bookstores and a few weeks after that on Barns and Noble, Amazon and other booksellers through the web. How exciting is that?

In that mean time if you have been checking back with the new book site for the book www.themarkofadruid.com then you have seen that you can get a sneak preview of audio version now! That is right the first 5 episodes are live and you can hear them by running your mouse over the right side of the page and under the category pages you can select podcast link and selecting the episode you would like to listen to. The formal release of the audio book is Drum roll please…

Monday… September 29, 2008

Where you ask? http://www.podiobooks.com/title/mark-of-the-druid Please notice this page is not live until the day of release. Sing up for an account there is no cost involved. At that time you will be able to add this book to your subscriber’s list. It is free! And you can snag the Promo Here  post it to your website, your myspace, your facebook, your twitter and tell all your friends and even tell your frienemies! Send it to your email and chat buddies.

Last week I told you about the new website. It is still being constructed so check back often we are working on it daily. At this point stay away from the top of the page categories they are funky and I have not figured out how to change them yet and has little time to work on the site this week because of the book block.

Look for the coming blog this week as well: Why free!

We are playing with the idea of having a contest that is centered around the hidden aspects in the cover art. Yes that is right it is not what it seems at first glance. I will be making announcements in the next few weeks about what the prizes and contest rules are.

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

We have a release date for the audio book!

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

I received the quality control approval for the serialized pod cast this week and we have a date! I can hardly type I am so excited. Drum roll, please…

Monday… September 29, 2008

Where you ask? Well, here is how it works for me. We will be going live on http://www.podiobooks.com/title/mark-of-the-druid

Please notice this page is not live until the day of release. Sing up for an account there is no cost involved. At that time you will be able to add this book to your subscriber’s list. It is free! (yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking. We will talk about that in a another post.) And you can snag the promo here!  post it to your website, send it to your email and chat buddies, oh and please, tell a friend!

I am also at present building www.themarkofadruid.com It is an thrilling time. And by thrilling I mean you just don’t know, when a novice at building sites, if you are going to do it right or if it will work 100% of the time until you work out the bugs—so to speak. Prime example, and totally, not my fault—I might add, both my author sight, got insight? blog and the new site went down early this week and I had to completely rebuild, so you will notice a new look.

Sigh, it was a lot of work and is not complete yet. So bear with, stop back often and know the goal is to get the audio version of the book up live on the new book site one week before they go live on podiobooks.com. Starting the week after the initial release. But if you sneak in and nab as I am working on it then you may be able to get a preview on the podcast page of themarkofadruid.com site. We are working on a stie player now. No promises.

You will get the first 5 episodes on the first day and then one per week until the book is done. Don’t ask how many episodes because I really don’t know today. It looks like there will be around 30.

This is also the week I am supposed to hear form Iuniverse with the Book block for the print version. Nope still don’t have a date on release yet…

Look for the coming blog about why free!

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

So what is next for The Mark of a Druid?

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

The cover copy and cover art are in to Iuniverse. They now need 3 weeks to do the cover layout and book blocking. I simply can’t wait to see it. In the mean time, I am pod casting. See!

Cover art and Back cover blurbs are finalized!

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

I am so excited to be able to show you all the cover art for The Mark of a Druid. Please click here http://www.rhondacarpenter.com/images/podcover.jpg

There is also now the final on the back cover blurb in MP3 form that you can listen to. http:www.rhondacarpenter.com/mp3/backcover.mp3

As for meeting deadlines I am totally an animal. The cover polish went back to Iuniverse today with the cover art in the format they require. Here is a link to the front and back cover art. http://www.rhondacarpenter.com/images/webcover.jpg just so you know we don’t know where they will locate the text for the cover this is just to give you all and me an idea.

This week I will be submitting to podiobooks.com and Next week Itunes. So keep your ears perked for the first episodes of the pod cast novel The Mark of a Druid.

Short and sweet this week. As I am behind in the blogs because of being out of town.

I will post when we go live with the pod casts.

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

Wow what a week. I am totally proud of myself. I know tooting my own horn… I thought I would get chapters 4 and 5 in the can this week but I actually got 4,5,6,7,8,and 9 in the can. AHHHHHH! Which means at this rate I will be able to release the pod book in about a month.

Now for the bad news. Not that it is bad bad, it is just, a delay I was not expecting and had not counted on happening. But the print version of The Mark of a Druid will not be ready for release by Oct of this year. At the this rate we will be out this year but not by the end of October, unless of course a miracle happens. And I am not opposed to miracles.

So what is the hold up. Well I was not prepared for it to take 4 weeks for the cover text polish to happen. And then another 4 weeks for the cover art proofs to be in. I am excited to report that I will not have to wait for the Iuniverse cover to release the audio book. A very dear friend is a most talented artist and is trying to come up with a cover design for the audio version. Thanks you AMIE!

So what is on the plate for this week? Late tonight I will start editing Chapter 10 and then tomorrow night it is off to chapter 11 recording. I am having a blast with the recording process. I am thrilled that my work is my play and my play is my work and I don’t have to work for either. It just is.

Product is going up in the lifefirst store with week and I hope to get some free mp3’s uploaded as well. Clients, clients, clients and we love that the folks I work with are awesome! Go have a great week and stay tuned for updates on the release of the The Mark of a Druid in Pod book form!

Keep Writing! I Know I Will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter