Friday, December 28, 2018

Two Thousand and Nineteen

It's that time of year when people start looking forward to the new year and make resolutions. I never used to make a lot of resolutions in the past, but I enjoyed holding myself accountable to the resolutions I made last year. Let's take a peek:

1. Three books to finish writing.
2. One book to write for nanowrimo.
3. An entire series, consisting of eight books to edit.

Yup. That's what I said I'd do. What did I actually do?

1. I only finished two books. But...
2. I did write a new book for nanowrimo (after going back and forth about not knowing what to even write and I did it in 12 days, so I'll take it!)
3. Well, I'm still slowly making my way through this. One of the books is fully edited and could probably be published at any point, but I'm not ready for that. The others are getting there.
4. I published a book this year! It wasn't in my resolutions list, but who cares? It's a huge accomplishment for me!


 And now for 2019's resolutions!

1. Two books to finish writing.
2. Publish at least two books this year. (I say at least, because I think I can squeeze out three, but I'm not sure.)
3. Finish editing that series!

Here's to a great 2019 for everyone!!


- Natasja

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Nanowrimo 2018

Those of you who follow me regularly on Facebook and Instagram know that I completed my 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month on November 12. For me it was just like this blur and whirlwind of words that whipped past me in some more or less coherent way.
My stats

 I can't say too much about the book I just wrote because it's a sequel to a sequel so spoilers abound. But I will say there was a lot of dancing involved in it, which got me thinking back to my very first nanowrimo, which I've written about here. That was when I wrote My Best Friend's Brother/The Summer I Turned Into a Girl, a story about a dancer and a soccer player who switch bodies.

It was kind of fun revisiting a dancing character but it also reminded me how very little I know about dancing. I was very much out of my element the whole time (especially since I feel like I've been writing so much about boxing lately).

It also got me reflecting on my New Year's Resolutions, so I want to take a look back...
1. Three books to finish writing.
2. One book to write for nanowrimo.
3. An entire series, consisting of eight books to edit.
Well, I've written two books this year, but one of those was for nano. Honestly, I can't remember whether I meant for the nano book to be a part of the three books, but I'm going to go with yes. And I definitely think I can squeeze out another book this year if I try really hard. (Read: don't sleep at all). The series is still being edited - that one is taking me a little longer, but I'm working on it. One thing I didn't have in my resolutions was publishing a book, but I think that's a pretty big accomplishment. I will definitely add that to next year's resolutions though!

One other thing I wanted to do today was post a couple of interviews that I did this month in case you missed them on my social media. There are some interesting questions in there and I gave one of them the exclusive honour of posting the first look at my next book cover!
https://cynthiabrandel.com/2018/11/06/author-spotlight-natasja-eby/
https://journal.media/life-as-a-self-published-author

For anyone who's still working their way through nanowrimo, hit me up if you need some encouragement!


- Natasja

Wednesday, October 03, 2018

News - Knockout Girl - Part 2

The great thing about self-publishing is that I could literally be sitting on my couch in my pyjamas and a sweatshirt under a Paw Patrol blanket doing this right now and you'd never know it! (You totally do now though, don't you?)

The thing about "self"-publishing is there is no such thing. So, I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to all the people who helped me get Knockout Girl out and into the hands of readers! If you ever answered any of my ridiculous questions, if you read my book and made suggestions/corrections, if you were just there during my darkest times of self-doubt, please know how very much loved you are. I cannot express this enough - there is no such thing as "self"-publishing.


Having said that, my latest self-published novel is now available on Amazon!

And here's a list of links for you to enjoy:
Facebook
Instagram
Goodreads
Amazon
 

Saturday, September 29, 2018

How to Make a Book in 7 Steps

I've had a few people ask me about my experience either writing or self-publishing a book. I'm not exactly an expert on either of those things, but since the question is about my experience and not my expertise, let me lay it out for you.

Spoilers on screen
Step 1: Write a book! I know, I know, sounds easier said than done. But this is by far the best part of the process. Obviously. I feel like that goes without saying. I'll do a post on the writing process at some point.

Step 2: Edit the book! Not the most fun part of the process, especially if you have a hard time looking at your own work critically. This is where it helps having a best friend who's a copy editor. I'm just saying. (If you don't have one, find one and feed him/her coffee and sushi. Should do the trick.) Seriously though, edit the book at least a million times before you let strangers read it. I'll do a post on self-editing tips later.

Step 3: Beta reading! This is a part of the process I discovered last year. A beta reader is someone who reads a mostly-polished unpublished mauscript and gives their impressions. Think of them as guinea pigs. Nice guinea pigs, who volunteer a lot of their own time for free to help you out. Don't forget to be nice back to them.

Step 4: More editing! At this point, you might opt for a professional edit if you didn't already do that in step 2. I've personally never had a professional edit done because I have so many editors, teachers, and writers in my life helping me out. But if I ever do that, I'll share my experience of that, too.

Look! A cover ^
Step 5:  Do you have a cover? If you feel comfortable enough designing one yourself, I say go for it! I used Canva to design my cover for Knockout Girl and I love it. I also got a lot of good feedback from it which is super important, too. What I didn't love was putting the front cover together with the back cover and I did have to have a lot of help with that. Again, helps to know people who may be good with photo editing programs. Oh! Don't forget that you're going to need an awesome back-of-cover blurb. This blurb might be repeated in a lot of places (such as descriptions online) and it's your audience's first introduction to the story.

Step 6: Have you formatted your interior? This is just as important as having a good cover because no one wants to open what looks like a great book to find garbage formatting inside. You can find a lot of tips online for how best to lay out a book, what fonts to choose, how you want everthing to look. And most self-publishing companies, such as Kindle Direct Publishing, will give you a template to use which is a life-saver. KDP will also check over the manuscript (and cover) you upload to make sure everything is in place. Again - and I can't stress this enough - knowing people who are good at these kinds of things truly helps. Alternatively, you can find paid services for book interiors and exteriors.

Step 7: Upload everything. Hit enter. Watch yourself get richer. I mean, I'm half-serious but actually I find this part pretty easy after all the rest is done. I'm publishing through KDP and everything is pretty clear. You set your price (dependant on how much you want to earn in royalties), upload your manuscript and book cover, and then away you go. It's published! Yay! You are officially an author.

Did you notice anything missing from these steps? If you said "Yes, where's your marketing plan?" then you're correct! The reason I didn't include marketing as one of the steps is because marketing is kind of just this ongoing thing that you always have to think about. Writing a book? Post about it! Looking for betas? Post about it! Did you make an awesome cover? Post it everywhere for the world to revel in its glory! Are you set to publish/have you published it? P.O.S.T. I.T. Marketing is important and I'm not great at it or in any position to be giving advice. But I'm always learning new things to try and I hope that means I'm getting better at it. Just remember - you're awesome, your book's awesome, and you need to let everyone know.


Thanks for coming along for the ride with me, folks! And don't forget - Knockout Girl is out this Wednesday, October 3rd!

- Natasja

Monday, September 24, 2018

Conferences should be called proferences

I recently attended a conference for work at the Nottawasaga Inn. This is a fantastic place for a retreat, holiday, or just to enjoy a couple days off of real life. I loved every minute of it (and not just because I had a gigantic jacuzzi in my room).

View from a walking trail

We had a workshop on reader's advisory (for non-librarians, this is when you ask the lady at the desk for a "book maybe set in the 1800s or 1500s or even WWI with a strong female lead but if she falls in love with a general, too, then that's good.") We also had a great customer service workshop, which started with us identifying problems and the whole thing was just us finding the best way to deal with those problems in a professional and neutral manner.

We also got to see the fantastic makerspace at the Innisfil IdeaLab & Library. If you ever get a chance to check out their makerspace, take it! They have all kinds of fun stuff, like 3D printers, vinyl cutters, a CNC machine, a heat press, a host of design programs, and a full staff to help you create. It's really one of the neatest libraries I've been too.
The vinyl words and designed were made in-house

I think the most memorable workshop for me was about marketing and branding with Jamie Hardie. I'm totally plugging this guy because not only did I like his company's designs, but he is also a fantastic presenter! Very knowledgeable and friendly, did a fun marketing exercise with us, and left me with a lot of ideas. He even gave me some book recommendations afterwards. I emailed him after the session and in his reply he wrote, "P.S. Imagine your brand as the North Star for all decisions, as well as providing the basis for consumer-focused engagement." Didn't even ask, but the advice was definitely welcome!

All in all, I had a wonderful time, learned new things, made some connections, and now it's back to real life for me!
From the garden maintained by "Sue and the Gardening Crew."


- Natasja
 


Wednesday, September 05, 2018

News - Knockout Girl


October 3 ^

"My life has always been absolutely beautiful. Amazing. Perfect. Floating in the salty ocean, lying on endless sandy beaches, school, surfing, boys, beach parties, night dips. Everything has always been exactly as it should be. Until one day it all came crashing down.

Picture yourself—not on a boat on the river—lying on a towel, stretched out on white sands, the sound of the ocean waves calming you as a breeze filters through your salt-tangled hair. The palm trees sway back and forth, offering you occasional shade from the hot rays of light.

Then you leave forever, because the next day you’re on a plane bound for Canada in the dead of winter. And you just keep wishing that you’d wake up back in the real world. You keep wishing that you never had to leave. But you do. The stupid plane keeps heading farther and farther north.

Obviously this story is about me, and not you. But you get the idea."


Thus begins Elli's journey in my new novel called Knockout Girl. You've already read about it (if you haven't, click the link), and you've been treated to the cover reveal through my social media. So I'll keep this short and sweet.

If all goes as planned, Knockout Girl will be released as a paperback and an ebook on October 3, 2018 on Amazon. I'm going to try to give some more updates and maybe a few more excerpts before then, but for now, mark your calendars! This is a story you won't want to miss, I promise.


- Natasja


Thursday, August 02, 2018

My Best Friend's Brother/The Summer I Turned Into A Girl - Excerpt


I have been asked in the past to post an excerpt of MBFB and with its recent release as an ebook, I've decided to do just that. I had a hard time picking the part I thought best represented the book without giving too much away, but I hope this'll do the trick.  

That night, Jess and Colin met and worked separately on their “homework.” Jess gave Colin an entirely new list of moves to practice over and over, while Colin set up some markers for Jess to practice her kicking aim.

“I don’t know how you do all this,” Colin commented as he twisted Jess’ body into shapes he’d never known existed before.

“Do what?” Jess asked as she lined up some soccer balls.

“All of it,” Colin said. “I mean, I’m exhausted from all of the rehearsals and pretending to be happy and perky with your friends.”

“I don’t have to pretend to be happy for my friends,” Jess said calmly, kicking the first ball and missing the target by a lot.

“You have to keep your leg directed at where you want the ball to go,” Colin pointed out.

“Yeah, yeah. Work on your forms,” Jess said, her voice edging on frustration.

Colin went back to the list of moves Jess gave him. Some of them were stand-alone while other ones melded into new ones. It was the transitions that he had the most problem with. Sometimes he just didn’t know when to move into a new form or really how he should look when he did. Now he understood why there were mirrors all over the dance studio.

Colin was so focused on what he was doing that he was startled when Jess grabbed him around the waist from behind and started guiding his movements. Colin tensed up but Jess didn’t seem to notice.

“See, it’s like this,” Jess said. “Just sway your hips to the right, extend your left arm.” When Colin didn’t move, she repeated, “Extend your left arm.”

Colin cleared his throat nervously and did as Jess instructed. What was wrong with him? Jess was like right behind him, practically breathing in his ear and he just couldn’t handle it. He turned around and took a couple steps back.

“Colin, what’s wrong?” Jess asked innocently.

“N-nothing,” Colin stammered. “Just keep your hands to yourself, okay?”

Jess narrowed her eyes at Colin and then she burst out laughing. “Are you embarrassed or something? I was only trying to help you.”

“Yeah, okay, it’s fine,” Colin said. “Go practice.”

Jess gave him one last smirk and then went back to kicking soccer balls. She didn’t know what had Colin all riled up, but she had a pretty good feeling he wouldn’t tell her anyway. She only half-concentrated on what she was doing because she kept looking back at Colin to see how he was doing. And she had to admit – he didn’t look too bad. He just lacked the knowledge. She had no idea how she would ever get him to memorize all of the dances by Friday.

Colin knew Jess was watching him, but he decided not to let on. He wanted to ignore her but after the way she’d held onto him and moved his hips that way, he was keenly aware of her presence. He hadn’t wanted to admit to her that he’d liked being touched, because it would just make their already awkward predicament even more complicated. Plus it just felt weird.

“Ian told me he was going to ask Cass out,” Jess said after they’d been practicing silently for a long time.

“Um, yeah,” Colin said. “Actually, he already did.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, she told me he did it at the mall today.”

“How do you feel about it?” Jess asked.

“I didn’t really get a chance to say anything to her,” Colin said. “It was kind of a quick mention before she went home with you and I haven’t seen her since.”

“That’s not really an answer to the question,” Jess commented.

“I don’t really like it,” Colin said, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. “But I didn’t know how to tell her without sounding like…me.”

“Do you…” Jess paused. “Do you want me to talk to her? For you?”

Colin dropped the stance he’d been trying to perfect and turned to look at her. She had also stopped kicking to watch him. “You would do that?” Colin asked.

“If you want me to,” Jess said. “I mean, she is my best friend, and you know Ian better than me. I could give her a little warning, I guess.”

“You really have no qualms about meddling in her business?” Colin asked uncertainly.

“I’m already lying to her, remember?” Jess turned back to the soccer balls.

“Hey, pass me one of those,” Colin said, nodding at the other balls on the ground. Jess leaned over to pick one up, but Colin said, “No, not like that. Never touch a soccer ball with your hands.”

“Sorry,” Jess muttered. She haphazardly kicked the soccer ball in Colin’s general direction but it went wide by about two feet.

Colin lifted an eyebrow at her. “Did you even think about that before you did it?”

Jess shrugged. “What’s there to think about?”

Colin shook his head. “I know you think jocks are stupid and stuff, but there are a lot more cognitive skills involved in sports than you probably think.”

“Okay, the fact that you used the word ‘cognitive’ has my attention,” Jess said. “So educate me.”

“You can’t just kick something and expect it to read your mind,” Colin said. “I mean, it would have even helped if you were looking at me while you did it, but you weren’t.”

“Yes I–”

“You weren’t,” Colin said. “You can’t lie to me; I know what I look like when I lie.”

“Okay, okay,” Jess said. “So, I have to look at you. Fair enough.”

“And there’s a lot of angling involved. Ever play pool?” Jess shook her head and Colin added, “That’s okay. My point is that every time you kick the ball, you literally have to make sure you leg follows through in the exact direction that you wanted the ball to go. If not, you’re doing it wrong.”

“Okay…” Jess said slowly.

She went over to the next ball, lined it up exactly where she wanted it and then kicked it in Colin’s direction. She had so much follow through that she actually kicked her leg right out and fell backward on her butt. Colin laughed out loud at her, and she lifted her head to glare at him.

“I’m sorry,” Colin said, laughter still in his voice. “But look! You got the ball right to me.”

“I did?” Jess asked, sitting up.

“Yup.” Colin grinned.

“Woohoo.” Jess smiled back at him.


Sunday, July 29, 2018

Updates, and writing, and editing, oh my!

Hello, all! I'm looking back on my New Year's Resolutions that I made for 2018. In case you can't recall (or can't be bothered to click the link), here's the list:

1. Three books to finish writing.
2. One book to write for nanowrimo.
3. An entire series, consisting of eight books to edit.

And here's how I'm doing...

1. I have finished writing one book so far. Not sure I'll make it to three even with Nano's help, though.
2. Nano hasn't come up yet. I briefly considered doing camp nano this July, but I was just too busy for it.
3. I'm actually working my way through this series, with the help of a couple of wonderful critique partners. One book is fully edited, a couple others are mostly polished and a couple don't even have titles. One needs a complete rewrite and I'm three chapters into it, sooo...

There's that! If you don't hear from me for a couple of months again, it's just because I'm doing lots of writing.

- Natasja

Monday, April 30, 2018

So many books, so little time

I have had the longest week ever. It seems like the closer I get to finishing my next manuscript, the more life gets in the way. Sometimes being a writer feels like you're living at least a double life: your real one and the one(s) you live in your story. 

I would never push aside the needs of my family to be a writer or to finish what is, at the moment, a mediocre book. Still I managed to get this far and I'm still going. This current book has been in the works for a good five years and I'm almost, finally, just-about-to-be done. Which is, of course, why I'm on my blog, procrastinating.

Loki is watching

Oops! Better get back to it then!

- Natasja

Friday, April 06, 2018

Themes and other things

I think one of the hardest things people ask me when they find out I'm a writer is what do I write. It's hard because I have a variety of interests and tastes, and I can't even talk about the baker's dozen of unfinished books on my laptop. I write contemporary YA. Or dystopian YA. Sci fi. Historical fiction. Christian fiction. And a little bit of romance sprinkled throughout.
I also occasionally write blog posts

When I think about the books I have written and the ones I'm still working on, I notice a trend in themes rather than types of stories. I love a good coming-of-age story, or even just one with a lot of character development. I like to write about bullying, or just good ol' good-vs-evil type stuff. I like to throw my characters into situations where they're unequipped or unwilling and they always end up better for it.

Another major theme in my books is love, and I don't mean just romantic love (though there is a lot of that, too.) I mean like friendships and family and deep bonds that last forever and ever, far past the last pages of the book. I guess I'm just a happily-ever-kind of gal and I prefer saccarine endings to, well, anything else really. Sorry, Geoge R.R.R.R.R. (how many Rs?) Martin.

I guess the next time someone asks me what I write about, I'll tell them "happy things."

Happy reading!

- Natasja

Saturday, March 17, 2018

Let's hear it for the B team!

Just wanted to post a little update...

I know tons of people are always wondering "What's Natasja up to these days?" (Okay, I know that doesn't really happen, but when you're a creative fiction writer, you can imagine just about any old thing that pops into your head.)

Anyway, lately I'm been doing a lot of beta reading for other unpublished authors, which is actually a very interesting and rewarding experience. Funny enough, it gives you a pretty good idea where you sit on the quality scale. There are some authors out there that I would say have some work to do before they get to my level, but there are certainly a lot that are way better than me. It's a learning experience and the more I do, the more aware I am of how I write and how to better myself.

By the same token, I've been having a few of my novels beta read as well which is... well also interesting and rewarding, but it's hard. I know, it doesn't sound like it's hard to just have someone read what you've written but trust me, it is. When you love something as much as I love my books, it's sometimes hard to hear any negative thing about them. On the other hand, it's also twice as rewarding to hear good things about them.

So between the beta reading, the editing, and trying desperately to finish writing a book, I haven't had a lot of time for my blog. But I'm still here and it's still here and I'll update it when I have time for it I guess.

Interested in all this beta reading jazz? Hit me up!

- Natasja


Monday, January 08, 2018

Less Than Perfect preview

Hi all!

You may remember me talking in the past about a book I have called Less Than Perfect. I wrote this book a good seven years ago and my writing has a evolved a lot. However, I've decided to let people read it, so I've started uploading it to Wattpad. You can find it here.

I will try to upload at least a chapter a week (unless it becomes more popular or something). So please do check it out.

While you're on Wattpad, check out my friend's book, Sold to a Wolf Pack. (Werewolves but no vampires.)

Happy reading!



-Natasja