In an attempt to make their lives normal for once, the Undertow gang realizes it is not possible, that their lives will forever be filled with the excitement that comes with having supernatural abilities. One of their problems is the FBI agent that won't stop bothering them about the incident at the Breakers. He knows more than he should such as the truth about Ana's mom. Why would he of all people know Ana's mom? Then there is another problem they are left with in the first book. They need Elizabeth's necklace and the diary that Nikki Shea, the evil high school cheerleader, has. Will there be a feud or an illegal heist? On top of that a new character shows up. Sketchy and mysterious the Undertow gang is unsure whether he is to be trusted. But he knows Elizabeth. How? Those are just some of the problems to list. Stormfront is a wonderful sequel full of wild twists and turns. The ending will leave you shocked. Christian is hiding something, something the reader will never suspect. If you are a fan of the first book then you definitely need to read Stormfront. It is a wonderful sequel full of twists and turns. (No spoilers).
1 Comment
1. What is your writing schedule like? - Coffill: I love writing at night with my headphones and listening to all kinds heavy metal, soft and hard rock. I also like the oldies like Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. 2. Are you a part of any writing groups or organizations? - Coffill: I am a proud member of the New England Horror Writers and me also, a proud member of Horror Writers Of Maine and Horror Authors Alliance (I founded both groups) and with Horror Writers Of Maine, we try to do a lot of comic cons and expos. 3. Have you won any writing awards? - Coffill: No awards out of school, just a couple while I was in high school. 4. What was your first published work? - Coffill: The Rain. I later bought my rights back and re-wrote it and called it, Cursed Darkness. 5. How do you think you've approved since you began your writing career? - Coffill: Research. Have mentors who have more experience than you. Always keep in open mind. If a mentor tells you to keep working on your writing, you do it! This has happened to me many times, and I welcome it! You always want to be better than you were five years ago. 6. How long have you've been a published author? - Coffill: Since 2003 7. Which one of your works are you most proud of? - Coffill: I love The Eyes Within and Nightbeast. 8. When did you want to become an author and why? - Coffill: Age twelve. I love telling stories and writing a novel was a challenge, but a fun one! 9. What is your favorite part of the writing process? - Coffill: When I get an idea for a story, I write it down and then I try to bring it alive. 10. If you could have lunch with any author in history who would it be and why? - Coffill: Stephen King. He opened the door for horror writers. His type of writing attracted me, and I took an immediate interest in his stories. Also, all of the donations he has done for his local community of Bangor and what he has done for children has been amazing. 11. What made you want to write in this genre? - Coffill: As a child, I was allowed to watch horror movies. My parents were cool enough for me to do so. I, also love the fear factor. 12. If you couldn't be an author what would your ideal career be? - Coffill: Sales. I love selling stuff like Computers, books or anything that interacts with a customer. 13. What advice would you give to aspiring authors? - Coffill: Never stop writing or give up! Do your research and never listen to anyone telling you can't do it! If it's your dream...just do it! 14. Who is your favorite character throughout all of your books and why? - Coffill: One book comes to mind. My vampire character, Nolan Kraoe from my book, Nightbeast. Teenagers are strangely attracted to him. I get letters in the mail on how they want to marry him or have him go to the prom with them. It's strange, but I am flattered by all of the attention he gets. 15. If you could live any fictional universe what would it be? - Coffill: Star Wars, Star Trek. I love those universes. About the AuthorTell us a little about yourself: I grew up in Freeport, Maine. Graduated from Freeport High School in 1992. Went to Andover College for computers. In March of 1993, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. I was only nineteen when they found the disease. I have been married once, but that ended in divorce. I got married again to my beautiful wife, Shelley on May 23, 2015. I have two beautiful daughters, Madelyn, and Savannah. Maddie is five and Sissa are four. I took online classes with US Career Institute and Full Sail University, but my health kept interfering with my courses. I was also diagnosed with Coronary Artery Disease, which I suffered two mild heart attacks, one in Dec 2011 and my second in June 2013. I started writing when I was twelve, and I have fifteen unpublished books and four unpublished short stories. I write poetry. I published my poem in 1997 in the anthology, “By The Light Of The Moon.” My poem was called, “Heart Like A Rose.” I only write poetry for my wife now. I currently live in Windham, Maine. My day jobs are: Premium Retail Services, I do sales and merchandising for them. I also an inspector/mystery shopper for Trendsource. I also work for Goodwill as a custodian. I am on disability for Crohn's Disease due to the surgeries, including the one flare up that happened on Easter, 2002, where the Crohn's perforated my large bowel, and I died from it. I had an ileostomy bag for six months, and I was able to recover. I found my Faith in Jesus Christ in 1996, and it's gotten stronger ever since.
Celaena Sardothien became the world's most notorious assassin before the age of seventeen. For a whole year she has spent her time locked in the Endovier Salt Mines, also known as a death camp for criminals. She was the first to almost escape. Now she was getting her opportunity. If she won a competition to be the King's Champion, she would work for him for four years then gain her freedom. Celaena is cocky and sarcastic. Maas makes a notorious killer lovable. Though she's an assassin she's like any other human. She loves to read, loves candy, and puppies. Perhaps Calaena was right. Maybe she was fighting a good cause and the government was just corrupt, but Maas leaves this a mystery for the next book in her trilogy. The story may not end with a cliff hanger but the reader is left starving to know Calaena's past. Why did she kill those people? Who is this past lover and what happened to her parents? Dorian is the Crown Prince and a womanizer at that. He has slept with every woman in Adarlan, the kingdom he resides in. You think this would make him distasteful, but his conversations with Celaena are often humorous and awkward. Chaol, the Captain of the Guard, seems uptight at first, but we know he's like that because of his profession. It's his job to guard Celana so she doesn't kill anyone but also to protect her. Let's just say he starts to care for her later. Then there is Nehemia, a princess from Eyllwe who befriends Celaena. What she doesn't know is who Celeana is. We also don't know for some time what Nehemia's real intention of being there is. Aside from having likable characters, the plot is intricate and exciting. Celaena's first problem is to win the competition. She's then faced with another when her competitor's start getting killed off. The killings make it seem like it's done by something not so human. Celaena has something to fear: losing the competition. She either gets mysteriously killed like her competitors or if she loses she goes back to the death camp. Either way she is surrounded by death. If you haven't read Sarah J. Maas's bestselling series then you need to get in the loop. It took Maas a decade to get Throne of Glass from inception to publication. She started out writing Throne of Glass on fictionpress.com, a site for fan fiction and other writing works to be shared on the internet. There she developed thousands of fans who anticipated the release of Throne of Glass. If you would like to check out the book click on the box above. You can also follow Sarah J. Maas on twitter @SJMaas.
At first glance when I saw this book, I thought (a) this book was going to be extremely pretentious and (b) it was going to be boring. On this instance, I was far from the truth. I found “How to Read Literature like a Professor” insightful, expanding my thinking process. It makes the reader dig deeper into a literary work to discover any hiding meanings the writer wants us to find. Often times in English class I would feel lost when the teacher would explain a composition (story, poem, etc). I wondered whether we were reading the same work. They are able to find hidden meanings, meanings that to any teenager may not seem clean cut (especially in works of Old English). I could imagine that many of my classmates also struggled with this. Being an author, I did have an advantage to finding the meaning of these symbols and figurative language, but many times I looked at my teacher with a perplexed look. Sometimes I even thought it was a bunch of bologna, not everything is a symbol. (Foster later states in “How to..” that they’re not always symbols, but there are many of them). Many times, she [my teacher] would even accuse us of not doing our homework because we would not volunteer our insights. It was not a failure on our part. We just did not know how to read a story the same way she did. This book will teach you all the useful tips needed to read a text in depth. For all the avid readers: “How to…” will definitely transform the way you read. Besides it being insightful, I did not find it a least bit dull. I’m not usually a fan of nonfiction books because many have the habit of not being concise enough or stimulating. “How to…” gets to the point yet after the three hundred pages I thought there was still more to be discussed. That is how a book should leave you fiction or not, to wish that there was more. Although it may not seem stimulating in the sense stories with action make one feel, it is stimulating in the intellectual sense. I know many people may not have enjoyed “How to Read Literature like a Professor” as their summer reading. But hey, it wasn’t written for students anyway. It was written for readers and any reader should find this book useful. Everyone knows the cliche saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover". I think a lot of us try to follow this saying, but most times that doesn't happen. We as readers do judge a book by it's cover. That's why it baffles me when authors put such hard work into their story but do very minimal for their covers.
Readers DO judge a book by its cover. If you're cover looks rushed or looks like very little thought or effort was put into it, readers will feel that way about your writing before they even read it. Think of your cover as a job interview. When you go for a job interview you want to dress the part because first impressions stick. (There's another cliche that reigns true). If you wear sweatpants your interviewer will feel that you're lazy or not really care about the job. You may actually care about the job and be hard-working but your interviewer already made up their mind about you. The cover of your story is the first thing that readers look at. It has to catch their eye before they consider looking at the blurb. By having an interesting cover readers think "Hey what's that?" Your cover needs to be aesthetically pleasing and show elements of your story in the art work. Another part of the cover that is important is the title. You title needs to be intriguing and say something about the story. Readers are drawn in by the title then the cover. How do you make sure that you have a good cover for your book? Most publishing companies design your cover for you but if you are self-published you have to go through a graphic designer to get a cover. Many self-published authors I know use Createspace. A good idea is to get two covers made then poll your followers on social media on what cover they find more attractive. (Don't do this if it is too costly of course). Don't use pre-made covers. Most of the time pre-made covers are put onto other books. It is not good to have the same cover as another book since people identify books with their covers. In addition, make sure that in your publishing contract you have the rights to your cover art. With your cover art you can make t-shirts, bags, posters and etc. You do not want your publishing company to steal the money because they own the cover art. Make sure that all works of your book belong to you, the author. To get an idea of what your cover should look like look at books in your genre. If your book is a fantasy book, many of them have dragons or fairies on them, elements of the genre. Pull elements from your genre and in the story. Make sure that your cover does not copy another author's artwork. By having an attractive cover you will attract more readers' attentions. Remember readers do judge a book by it's cover. Undertow by K.R. Conway
Genre: Dark Fantasy Self-published: Wicked Whale Publishing Copyright @ 2013 Review: 4 and 1/2 stars Blurb: Eila [Eye-la] Walker's new home has defied the brutal Atlantic for over 100 years. Abandoned since her 4th great grandmother, Elizabeth, vanished, the town legend declares that she drowned...or was struck by lightning. Unbeknownst to the town and Eila however, is that someone does know what really happened to Elizabeth, and he has returned, determined to protect the last surviving Walker from a history of violence. A soulless killer himself, Raef will attempt to keep Eila safe from his own kind who murdered her grandmother so long ago. But what starts out as a quest for redemption evolves into something more, and soon Raef is forced to reveal the truth to Eila. As hidden secrets about their warring families come to light, Eila begins to realize she may be their best shot at survival...even if it means following in her grandmother's fearless footsteps to save her killer bodyguard. Eila is a Kansas girl who ends up moving to Cape Cod. She discovers culture shock from the way us Massachusetts people speak to our seafood. (The fact that she dislikes seafood offends me but I let it go). There she lives with Mae, who was a friend of her mother but is now her guardian. The first Cape native Eila meets is MJ. MJ is the quirky and goofy comic relief and probably my favorite character out of the bunch. If you're looking for cheesy jokes MJ has them. Ana is MJ's friend who is a little bit of a hard ass (well in Eila's mind at least), likes to fix cars, and can read people's thoughts. Raef is the mysterious sexy boy who is new to town and watches Eila outside her window. Creepy, but there is a reason for that. He's also 160 years old but looks 18 and Eila has the hots for him. Kian is the cocky 'brother' of Raef who is close to his age (the 160 years old part). They also live together on a yatcht. Besides the characters being an interesting like-able cast. It's setting is local (well for me). Some of the places discovered in this book are the Cape, Newport and Boston. We also end up at the Vanderbilt's mansion. For some reason- that you have to find out by reading the book. When you think you have everything figured out you don't. I thought the book was going to go one way but it took an original direction. Conway has characters that are thoroughly developed. Though the circumstances they go through may not be a normal teenage problems they keep their teenage personalities such as having fun when they can, acting on their crushes, and going to normal teenage events. So what is this thing with Elizabeth? Well all I can say for now is that Eila is more like her 4th great grandmother than she realizes. The Cape is also not as safe as she thought. There are soul stealing monsters lurking in the waters. Murder is high during tourist season. Conway, a Cape resident, said she felt inspired for that part of the story because she hates tourist season. Conway is a journalist of fifteen years and a member of the SCBWI (a critiquing group for authors). She teaches Fiction Craft classes for teens and adults including at the Cape Cod Writer's Conference. She also drives a 16-ton school bus during the year. Conway said that during driving she develops many of her book ideas. In addition, Conway has a BA in Forensic Psych, torments the tourists about Jaws, and occasionally jumps from Eila's bridge with the local teens. She currently lives on the Cape. If you would like to know more about Conway, talk to the author, and know more about Undertow you can find her at the following: Twitter: @SharkProse Instagram: k_r_conway Facebook: K.R. Conway Undertow is part of a trilogy and is available at Barnes and Noble and on Amazon. Make sure to add it to you Goodreads 'Want to Read' list. To be a pantser or a plotter that is the question. A plotter is a writer who plans out their novel before they write it. A pantser, on the other hand, "flies by the seat of their pants"; they take the rollercoaster for a ride without [or with very little] planning.
Personally I'm a pantser. I've always hated outlines ever since my primary school teacher introduced me to them. They feel too forced and strategic. Writing is supposed to be a journey. On a journey one may have the destination planned and maybe a few pit stops in between but everything else should be in the moment. That's an important thing that I have learned about writing: if you do not feel surprised then your audience will not be surprised. That's why I don't use outlines because it feels more authentic. Another thing about outlines is that if you decide to steer off course you may have to change your destination and everything in between. Trust me, to redo an entire outline is a pain. Unlike a pantser, a plotter has an organized direction. For a plotter the dreaded monster named "Writer's Block" is usually out of sight. It is not hard to get passed a roadblock when you know where you're supposed to go next. When writing, I get stuck often and have to dig myself out of a hole. Sometimes I get stuck for days or weeks making me abandon one project for another. I have several unfinished novels at roughly the same amount of words. I've tried making outlines, but it doesn't work out. I can't plan that far ahead. It just feels rushed. What do you consider yourself: a pantser or a plotter? What are the advantages or disadvantages of your plotting techniques? Leave a comment... Those are the days, staring at the white blank screen of your laptop trying not to pull the hair out of your head. Why is it that you've had five cups of coffee, but still cannot form a concrete thought? Well it's simple really, you have started your next novel with the problem being: the first sentence. This should be the most important sentence of your story. In one sentence your reader can decide whether your work is worth their time. What the first sentence of your story should do is question the reader. That is how you are going to grab their interest. For example in my book, The Demonic Eyes, the first sentence reads: "Blood was the first thing I saw when I regained self-control." This sentence makes the reader think: What is happening? Who is hurt? Did he [the main character] harm someone? When the reader has these questions they need to find the answers to feel closure. Aside from having the reader develop a curiosity, it should give them an idea what the story is about. Note that though it should provide the reader with information it should not reveal the whole truth. For example, going back to our example sentence, the reader knows (though not for certain) that the story could be a mystery, horror, dark fantasy, or the like. They know most likely that it is not a romance, or realistic fiction and that it definitely is not a comedy. The reader also receives the tone or theme of the story. From the example the reader sees that the story is of dark content and that it could involve serious topics. Another great way to show the tone of the story is by having your sentence as the thought of your main character. This introduces your reader to the person they will be reading about for the rest of the book. Here's an example from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." Though this sentence isn't concise it does the trick. It shows the reader the main character's personality and his thought process; he thinks a lot. It also shows a mutual disinterest for what many people like to avoid: introductions. It is more beneficial to try this method if your character is relatable or is against mainstream society. Finally the first sentence should evoke emotion in the reader. In the sentence: "Blood was the first thing I saw when I regained self-control", the reader immediately feels fear. Since emotions are relatable to every human experience if your sentence lacks it, the reader can find it disinteresting. One of my favorite first sentences is from Gillian Flynn's, Gone Girl. "When I think of my wife, I think of her head." This sentence makes me puzzled and curious because it is such an odd sentence to begin a story. Curiosity: that is the key emotion. As I have said previously, you must make your reader curious to entice them. Advertising does this all the time. Think of your first sentence like an advertisement. Draw them in before giving more information (aka the rest of the story). Though it sounds simplistic it might not always be. As the expression goes: "First impressions always stick" this is your first impression to the reader of your book. My suggestion would be that your first sentence does not need to be perfect at first. Write your story then come back to it during the editing process. By then you will know your characters perfectly and you will know everything scandalous in their life. Scandal attracts people. Write a sentence that is bold and that stands out from the rest. Look at the books that are popular and books in your genre. How do they approach the first sentence? How does it make you feel? Do you feel like continuing the story? Ultimately what you need to remember is to draw the readers curiosity, make them question what is happening, let them get a taste of what the story is about, and evoke their emotion. Make sure to look at other examples and remember it is okay to write a bogus sentence now then fix it later. |
AuthorAuthor of The Demonic Eyes and Bloody Nightmares Archives
February 2017
Categories
All
|