Today I have the clever and humorous Roland Yeomans for a not-blog tour post from his...blog tour. ;)
Take it away, Roland!
THE
SHELL-SHOCKED REDEMPTION
Or
My Next Stop On My “Don’t
You Hate Book Tours?” Book Tour
Yes, my name is C. Mai Kahunas and my new book is “Thrust Is Not Just a Term in Rocket Science.”
Aw, man, you found me out. My name really is Roland Yeomans: Reader,
Writer, Dreamer.
What many bloggers won’t tell you is that when they see a
favorite blog has a book tour post, they dart away faster than Taylor Swift
from a real relationship.
But mine is different.
Have you been badgered with the cover yet? No, you have not.
You want to see it?
I’m going to be like Trump on a date and take your NO for a YES.
See? No title yet or cover blurb or even my wonderful
name.
That wasn’t so bad, was it? I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that. (Sulks in Cyber Silence)
Right off, you can see it is Steampunk. And why is Steampunk still so popular?
Well, the Victorians were dealing with financial
difficulties, as well as social and ethical questions as we are going through
now.
Downton
Abbey shows how drawn we are to a period when the times are
perceived to be more elegant, yet people all too much as we are now.
People are looking into the past to try and figure out
what to do about the future.
The Victorian period was also the time of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and H. G.
Wells’ The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds.
Anything seemed possible … as with today.
So how do we make our new novels stand out?
Did you know that many great novels had their first
chapters excerpted in magazines?
Think the stunning completeness of the first chapter in
Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach which
was excerpted in The New Yorker.
Or did you know that some experts believe your first chapter
should have its own arc like a short story?
There are some anthologies that include previously
published material. And there are some
that ONLY include previously published material (they know the material has
already been thought of as publishable.)
Writing your first chapter so it could be published as a
short story gives you one more weapon in your arsenal to give your novel more
options.
And yes, the first two chapters of my novel could be used
as short stories.
How else can you make your novel stand out?
Give it the AROUND
THE WATER COOLER magic.
Today, the internet has replaced the water cooler for the
place to chat about cool new discoveries.
How to cast that magic spell?
REPEATABLE DIALOGUE:
From my novel:
Oh, don’t groan.
The dialogue to come is short and snappy. You’ll be repeating these to your friends …
just you watch.
The vampiric Abigail Adams:
“Oh,
Lucy, why the long face? Blood is
warm. It is like drinking hot chocolate
… but with screaming.”
Samuel McCord:
“Lincoln,
I thought you knew. When you dance with the Devil, you don’t lead, he does.”
Mark Twain:
“The
trouble with trouble is that it always starts out as so much fun.”
Ada Byron Lovelace:
“Oh,
Samuel, Franklin was not smelling my perfume.
I am wearing none. He was
smelling my … my blood.”
This March come board the Xanadu, the 1st Air/Steamship in 1867 on the honeymoon
cruise of Samuel McCord and Empress Meilori Shinseen. Ports of call: Paris, the Unholy Lands, and
Realms Beyond the Pale.
Plots, intrigue, betrayals, deceit, and murder reign
supreme … and that is just in their bedroom!
Watch out for the insane Abraham Lincoln, the crippled
General Sherman, the vampiric Benjamin Franklin, the shrewd, thieving Thomas
Edison, and the vengeful Captain Nemo, following the airship in his Nautilus.
Cost of Passage?
Just $9.99! A bargain … unless
you run into the vampiric Abigail Adams.
When I write, I do it to music. This is the tune to which I wrote of the Xanadu majestically slipping through the
boiling mists to descend from the clouds to battle the Nautilus.
Thank you, Roland, for such an entertaining post!
Please leave Roland a comment! :)
Could the first chapter of my books be stories on their own? I'll have to go back and look. Way to make me think on a Friday morning, Roland.
ReplyDeleteI think a few of my could. :)
DeleteIt's one more way to get our novels out there by submitting them as short stories to ezines or anthologies. Don't think outside the box, enlarge its dimensions! :-)
DeleteVisiting a tour is one of the ways I have found new authors and books. I am not one of those who dart away. :-) I am a "cover girl". Most of the time that is what hooks me. Who does your covers?
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
I don't run away either. I love hosting, visiting, and doing my own tours. :D
DeleteI believe Roland does his own covers.
Leonora Roy does many of my covers and Dreamstime is a great source for images for them as well. Heather McCorkle is the graphic designer that whips the covers into shape. Think nice thoughts about her, will you? I am being recalcitrant about INNOCENTS' cover I am afraid. She is much too nice a lady to have deal with a scoundrel like me! :-)
DeleteGood tour stop that wasn't a tour stop as you stopped on by. Never knew about the first chapter being published elsewhere. A good idea to get more traction indeed.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked the idea, Pat. Getting traction for our work is hard work so we need all the edge we can get, right? :-)
DeleteYou can certainly liven up the chatter around the World Wide Web Water Cooler, Roland ;-) Interesting concept for first chapters to publish alone.It seems to exemplify the tenant of every chapter being written as a short story - I like that! Best wishes, Roland :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat non-tour stop, Chrys!
Thanks, Diedre. Writing first chapters able to be published alone gives us a way to get our novel noticed by readers of anthologies or ezines. And having most of our chapters being able to be read as a short story helps when our books are picked up by a browser and read at a random spot in the book.
DeleteThanks for the well-wishes. :-)
World Wide Web Water Cooler...I love that. Thanks for visiting Roland's post!
DeleteThis books sounds both wonderful and crazy, Roland. Haha :)
ReplyDeleteYou know, that's a pretty good idea about the first chapter needing to be a complete short story. I need to check out my stuff to see if I can work any of them like that... I know the prologue of one of my novels could be a stand-alone short, but not so sure about that first chapter. Hm.
It just is a way to get our novel out there. Pick a chapter of one of your books at random and try reading it as a browser would. It will give you an idea how important each chapter is in the sale of our books. :-)
DeleteI had fun writing this book. I think it translated into having the reader have fun, too.
Wishing Roland success with his book; he had me laughing when he mentioned Taylor Swift and pretty much a smile on my face through his whole post :)
ReplyDeletebetty
Thanks, betty. I'm glad I made you laughing and smiling. Taylor's lawyers will soon be contacting me I am sure! Or she'll write a nasty song about me! Why would anyone date the woman, knowing she'll later trash you in a song? Perhaps after about 40 bad relationships, she might think: "Maybe the trouble might be me?" :-)
DeleteTaylor Swift and Trump in nearly the same breath. LOL
DeleteAwesome post, Roland. Your book sounds intriguing and I like how you kept us in suspense in the cover reveal. Great tips too for our own writing. Thanks , Chrys for sharing Roland :) I'm still on holiday but wanted to check in and say hi!
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping in from your holiday, Lisa. It occurred to me after seeing so many cover reveals that that part of the appeal of the strip tease was the slow unveiling not just coming out starkers!
DeleteI thought I would use that principle to see if I could add some suspense or at least fun to the procedure. :-)
In March when INNOCENTS is released, check out its Amazon page and utilize the LOOK INSIDE feature to see if it might be your cup of blood, ah, tea. Darn, I have to stop hanging around the vampiric Abigail Adams!
Thanks for stopping in on you holiday, Lisa! I'm glad I could share Roland and his book with you. :D
DeleteRoland is awesome! I really enjoy his blog, and I'm looking forward to reading his book.
ReplyDeleteThat's very nice of you to say! INNOCENTS should be out in the first week of March. I hope you enjoy it. ;-)
DeleteHe is awesome! Yay, Roland! :D
DeleteYour book sounds fascinating, Roland! I cannot wait to read it :) And thank you for the dialogue tips! Have a great weekend, Roland and Chrys! ~Lori~
ReplyDeleteI hope you give the LOOK INSIDE feature on its Amazon page a try when it is released. Sadly, I will be doing solo duty as a rare blood courier this weekend ... and every weekend come to think of it! Whew!
DeleteThanks for visiting, Lori! Happy weekend! :)
DeleteI do actually read blog tour posts. But yours was more fun.
ReplyDeleteLiz, I'm glad you thought my post was more fun than usual book tour posts. Our book post suggests to the reader what kind of writer we are. If we are boring, pedantic, and repetitive, the reader will think that is what our book is like! Shudder!! :-)
DeleteI really feel you! Especially with the pressure of being a blogger.
ReplyDeleteI learned some time back, pressure really comes from within. If we look at life as an adventure, then it becomes one. :-)
DeleteThanks for liking my post.
I didn't know that these novels appeared first in magazines as short stories. I like all the major people of old being vampires or hunters
ReplyDeleteBirgit, there is a war going on even after the Civil War ends: Abigail Adams and her American Revenant Empire against the Unholy Roman Empire of vampires led by Empress Theodora. Yet all of them are deceived, for there is a darker force at work behind the scenes.
DeleteThanks for liking the idea of my Steampunk Novel. :-)
I have to say that your blog tout post was fun. And you're right, a lot of times the blog tour posts are boring. But you are funny, charismatic and fun to read...I really like that. I still have yet to read a steampunk novel because most times they don't fit in with the paranormal genre that I read most times these days. But...a steampunk with vampires? Did I read that right? Great idea.
ReplyDeleteMary, you made my morning with your comment. :-) I think that if our book tour posts are boring, we give the impression that our prose inside our book is boring, too. Ouch!
DeleteYes, not just vampires but a global war of vampire kingdoms going on underneath the noses of the living world -- and it is interfering with the honeymoon of an alien empress. They have mistaken her boredom with ruling the nations of Man from the shadows as weakness.
They have made a grave error, emphasis on the word "grave."
What is a not-quite-mortal groom to do? Survive as best he can.
Vampires, Vengeful Spirits of the Earth, Aliens Among Us, and a Man with the Blood of Death in his Veins ... oh, my. I think you might enjoy my Steampunk novel.
You do have the entertaining patter down pat, Roland. Enjoyed this. I enjoyed the serious parts too: '...did you know that some experts believe your first chapter should have its own arc like a short story?' I like that.Now I'm going to run away and check out the arcs in my chapters...
ReplyDeleteThanks for having Roland,Chrys.
Good seeing you here, Denise! I try to be entertaining and not bore Chrys's visitors! It is interesting to read the first chapters in our books to see if they do, in fact, have their own arc! :-)
DeleteHi Roland and Chrys ... a short story in a chapter - I guess that makes sense: also as everyone else is doing - mull the concept/idea over.
ReplyDeleteThe thought of Not-So-Innocents abroad in this 21st century after Twain's travels in the Mediterranean - will be so clever ... good luck and cheers Hilary
I hope others think it clever, too. And worth buying. And funny. Did I mention "worth buying"? :-)
DeleteGood advice about the arc of the first chapter, and something to keep in mind. Actually doing that well is much harder. Nice to see you here Roland! Good luck with the new novel - I like steampunk.
ReplyDeleteThanks, D.G. I tried to make it unique and absorbing. I think you will like it! The first chapter is all important. Great to see you here!
DeleteThis was indeed a great post. Love some of the suggestions found. I do try to make my chapters small mini episodes, with a set direction for all.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jeffrey. I try to be helpful along the way of asking for sales! :-)
Delete