March 6, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

Celebrate the Small Things! And Blog Tour! At Doreen McGettigan’s and on Unicorn Bell!

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly celebration created by VikLit and now hosted by Lexa Cain to celebrate the happenings of the week, however small or large. You can learn all about it and sign up for it here.

I’m celebrating the release of my new fantasy adventure novel, Lady, Thy Name Is Trouble, with a two-week-long blog tour! Today, I’m having interview conversations with author Doreen McGettigan and with Kristin Smith on Unicorn Bell! Hope to see you there!

*****

March 5, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

Blog Tour! At Electic Alli’s

I’m celebrating the release of my new fantasy adventure novel, Lady, Thy Name Is Trouble, with a two-week-long blog tour! I hope you’ll come visit me today over at Eclectic Alli’s, where she’s sharing her review! Thanks, Alli!

EDIT: And check out this review just posted by Jo at My Inner Geek! Thanks, Jo!

March 4, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

IWSG — I Did It!

Today’s the day for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) where, on the first Wednesday of every month, writers get together to share their insecurities and offer encouragement. The IWSG was created by Alex J. Cavanaugh, and you can learn all about it and sign up for it here.

After so many years of working on my book, it’s finally published! There’ve been snags and setbacks along the way, including a major formatting snafu with the e-book on release day, but I’m not focusing on that today. Nor am I thinking about all the insecurities that have increased a hundredfold now that my book is actually out there for all to see.

Right now, I just want to say Whoo, hoo! and Yes!! and dance around the house with glee.

On Friday, the print proof should arrive in my mailbox. I’ll get to hold the actual book in my hand, and it will finally start to sink in. I am a published author!!! Whoo, hoo! (More dancing around the house…)

And all aspiring authors take note — if I can do it, so can you. Just take that dream and make it happen. 🙂

March 3, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

A Piece of the Action

Starting this Thursday, I’ll be celebrating the release of my new fantasy adventure novel, Lady, Thy Name Is Trouble, with a two-week-long blog tour! I’d like to say a big Thank you!! to all of the wonderful bloggers who offered to host me for this tour! There’ll be a mixture of interviews, guest posts, reviews, and an excerpt or two. Stay tuned!

And speaking of excerpts, I’m going to kick things off a little early with this short scene:

*****

A faint sound formed in the cloying darkness. Icy coldness shot down Tara’s spine — her danger sense warning her of immediate peril. She bolted upright, listening, hearing only the ominous silence and the booming of distant thunder. Yes, there it was again, outside, a faint rustling like the tread of a night wolf stalking its prey.

Cautiously, she peered over the edge of the stone sill. There — slipping across the inner courtyard, obscured by the murky darkness — a mass of moving shapes. Lightning flashed, revealing a troop of soldiers, fully armed, their swords drawn. Emblazoned on their shields was the eagle and crossed swords of Sulledor.

Stifling a curse, Tara dashed out of her room and down the torch-lit hall. She had to find Laraina. They had to get out. She came to a cross corridor, hesitated, changed direction. She should warn the Dhanarran king.

She rounded a corner and slammed into something huge. Hands of iron gripped her arms, holding her. She gasped, recognizing the hulking giant in her path. Captain Natiere. The Butcher. His black eyes stared down at her, inscrutable. A long, gruesome scar snaked down the left side of his face from his cragged forehead to his stubbled chin. Blood stained his shirt. Fresh blood. Tara pulled away but couldn’t break his grip.

A look of shock crossed the Butcher’s face. “Silvestri witana,” he whispered. Then recognition lit his eyes. “I know who you are.” His voice was as rough and gravelly as his face. “You’re one of the Triannons.” He smiled. “Your reputation does not do you justice.”

Tara stopped struggling, her eyes drawn to his. His gaze held her as strongly as his hands. She could not move or breathe.

“Mi achina,” he said softly and released her.

Tara fell backward, catching herself against the wall.

“I look forward to our next meeting.” He strode down the hall and disappeared around a corner.

Tara sank to a crouch, her heart hammering in her chest. She looked down and saw blood on her clothes. Blood. The king. She jumped to her feet and ran.

*****

Trouble is Tara Triannon’s middle name. As swords for hire, Tara and her sister Laraina thrive on the danger. But a surprise invasion throws them into chaos… and trouble on a whole new level. Pursued by the Butcher, a terrifying assassin more wolf than man, Tara and Laraina must get a prince marked for death and a young, inept sorceress to safety. There’s only one problem – eluding the Butcher has never been done. Aided by a secretive soldier of fortune, they flee the relentless hunter.

Gifted with magic and cursed by nightmares that are all too real, Tara must stop an army led by a madman and fend off an evil Being caught in a centuries-old trap who seeks to control her magic and escape through her dreams – all while keeping one step ahead of the Butcher.

Amazon Kobo

February 27, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

Back On Track

Okay, I think we’re back in business. The file appears to be working now. My copy of the book that I downloaded from Amazon for my Kindle no longer has glitches.

The customer service representative I spoke with at Amazon a little bit ago said that for anyone who purchased the e-book earlier, if their devices are connected to wi-fi, their book file should be automatically updated with the new, non-glitched file. I’m not sure exactly how this is supposed to work. I think she said the cloud file would be updated and could be re-downloaded to whatever device the original file had been on.

I’m hoping this works for everyone with no problems, but if for some reason it doesn’t, you should be able to contact Amazon and get the updated file. Their customer service number is 1-888-280-3321.

Again, I apologize to everyone for the inconvenience. It has been one rollercoaster day.

February 27, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

Waiting, Again

I thought today would be an exciting day with the release of my new book, and it has been, though not in the fun way I’d expected.

I posted my Celebrate the Small Things post last night, just after midnight, when my book went live. Later, when I looked at the download I’d preordered from Amazon, I noticed that there were no page breaks, and it had these weird symbols here and there in place of dashes, ellipses, and sometimes commas.

I called Ingram/Spark, and they said it was likely an issue with Amazon and suggested I contact them. I spoke with Amazon, and they said it was Ingram’s problem. I called Ingram back and talked with a different customer service person who was more helpful. She asked me to e-mail her screen shots of the problems, since they weren’t showing up in their files. I sent her the screen shots, redid my file and uploaded it, so they could compare and hopefully figure out what was causing the issues. The file I had originally uploaded had looked fine on my computer. The preview on the Kobo site looked fine, too.

At any rate, she sent everything to the processing department and said it could take 24 to 48 hours (business hours) to get a response, which means Monday or Tuesday.

So now I wait.

I apologize to everyone who downloaded a book with these formatting issues. I hope to get this resolved quickly.

February 27, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

Celebrate the Small Things — My First Novel Has Arrived!!

EDIT: Thank you to everyone! I’ve discovered some formatting issues with the e-book, and I’m working to resolve them. I’ll visit and reply to everyone as soon as I get this ironed out.

It’s here!!!!

This week I’m celebrating a very BIG thing — my first novel is being released today!

Whoo, hoo!! I’m so excited! To think that after all these years, my book is finally in print. Well, sort of. It’s currently available in e-book form, but will be out in print form very soon, if all goes well. The color issues have been fixed, and the print cover file is being processed. All my fingers and toes are crossed that it goes through this time.

Either way, I’m going to celebrate!!!

Available at:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lady-Name-Trouble-Lori-MacLaughlin-ebook/dp/B00TT8NERU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425178824&sr=1-1&keywords=lady+thy+name+is+trouble

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lady-thy-name-is-trouble-lori-l-maclaughlin/1121255932?ean=9781942015017

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/lady-thy-name-is-trouble

What other celebrations are going on out there?

February 25, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

The Long-Awaited Cover!

Early last week, I received the long-awaited cover for my fantasy novel, Lady, Thy Name Is Trouble.

I love the colors and the way the elements blend together.

I had hoped that once I got the file, it would be smooth sailing into publication, but was it easy? Of course not. What was I thinking?

Making the e-book cover from the cover file using Adobe Photoshop was simple enough. But then I had to figure out how to convert my MS Word file, including the cover, to the epub version 3 required by Ingram/Spark for the e-book. Calibre only converts to epub version 2. I searched the Web for a free program that would do the conversion without a huge learning curve. I know some HTML, but I’m not a programmer. Ingram/Spark would have done the conversion for me, but I really didn’t want to pay them the $250 or so to do it.

I ended up using a program from the Daisy Consortium: a “Save as Daisy” add-in for Word, which, along with the Consortium’s Tobi and Pipeline 2 programs (all free downloads), allowed me to convert my file. Interestingly, the programs’ original intent is to create books with sound for people with vision problems. Below, are the links to the programs and the instructions.

http://www.daisy.org/project/save-as-daisy-microsoft/

http://www.daisy.org/daisypedia/how-convert-microsoft-word-document-accessible-epub3

http://www.daisy.org/daisypedia/tobi-convert-daisy-books-epub3

The instructions weren’t hard to follow, but I did have to do some uninstalling and reinstalling of the programs to get them to work together the way they were supposed to. I persevered, though, and in the end, I had the necessary version 3 epub file.

I’m sure there must be other ways to do a free conversion of Word to epub 3. If anyone has experience with other programs, I’d love to hear about it.

At the end of last week, I uploaded all the files to Ingram/Spark, set a release date of February 27^th, and crossed my fingers that everything would go through. The customer service person told me that file processing generally takes 3 to 5 business days.

The e-book files went through with no problem, but they found an issue with the print cover file — something about the CMYK color percentages being too high. The file needs to be adjusted and resubmitted. Unfortunately, it’s not something I know how to do. So, until I can coordinate with the cover designer, who I think is away on vacation since we have school vacation this week, the print version of my book is on hold.

However, the e-book version has already been picked up by Amazon and Barnes & Noble and is available for preorder. I discovered this when I did a search on the book title out of curiosity over the weekend. (My jaw hit the floor.) I hadn’t expected it to be listed so quickly. I’d read that it could take two or three weeks to show up on retail sites.

Now, I’m having a hard time getting my head around the fact that Friday is the big day. THE DAY! After almost 30 years of chasing this dream, it’s down to 2 days. It seems too surreal to be true. In 2 days I will be a published author!!!!!!!

February 4, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

IWSG — The Waiting Game

I had hoped to be celebrating my book release at this point in February, but unfortunately, things are not working out as planned. Between the communication issues and the variety of problems my cover designer is having, the cover still isn’t done.

I feel bad for her, as it’s been one thing after another — things breaking down, computer crashes, kids getting sick. Dealing with life’s snarls is obviously more important than publishing a book, but, man, it is frustrating to be so close and not be able to get there.

So for now, I’m sending positive thoughts and energy her way in hopes that it might help smooth things out on her end. After all that’s happened, she deserves a break! And it’s a great lesson in patience for me.

Is anybody else out there playing the waiting game?

January 21, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

The Official Map!

In two previous posts, Western Kingdoms of Alltyyr, Part 1 and Western Kingdoms of Alltyyr, Part 2, I described some of the various kingdoms that comprised the fictional world I had created for my fantasy novel, Lady, Thy Name Is Trouble. I always draw maps to go with my stories, partly because I love drawing maps, and partly because I need that visual reference to plot characters’ movements.

A couple of people commented that they would like to see the map, so — here it is! It took me a while to ink it in, which made me wish I hadn’t drawn it in quite so much detail. 🙂 I’m worried that it won’t look professional enough, compared to the maps I see in traditionally published books, but it’s the best I can do, so hopefully, it will work.

Right now, it’s just black and white. Someday, I want to color it in and hang it on my wall. I think it would be really neat to have a section of wall covered with maps of my fictional worlds.