Saints Astray - Revisited

After two weeks and hundreds of entries, folks have anxiously been awaiting the news of who would be receiving that signed book from Jacqueline Carey. Well, wait no more! A winner has been chosen.

David from Lansing, Michigan is the lucky man, selected at random, to get a copy of Saints Astray.

I'm so grateful that Miss Carey was willing to let me host this giveaway for her and only wish her the greatest success on her latest book.

On a fantastic side note, DarkCon is less than two months away. Jacqueline Carey is the Guest Author of Honor and I get to spend four whole days working side by side with her as her personal liaison. I couldn't be more excited for this oportunity. Talk about an honor!


© Courtney Conant, 2010-11. All Rights Reserved.
 

Favorite Book Quotes

And it is time for one of those age old questions... What is your favorite book quote of all time and why?

Me? I have two and could never choose between them.

The first is by Stephen King and it has always made me laugh because I've felt the truth of it many times since first reading it almost 20 years ago. He actually uses the line in two different books of his. Of course, I can't remember which the first one was (I was only ten when I read it the first time) but the second was Salem's Lot.

"There is no such thing as gravity. The Earth just sucks." - Stephen King

The second is by Kurt Vonnegut and is very dear to me. I read this line in The Sirens of Titan a few years back and I couldn't help but feel the power behind the words...

"The worst thing that could possibly happen to anybody would be to not be used for anything by anybody." - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

ALSO: Don't forget to sign up for the giveaway of Saints Astray by Jacqueline Carey! You have until the 22nd at midnight to enter.


© Courtney Conant, 2010-11. All Rights Reserved.

Is Being Self-Published and Indie the Same?

This is definitely a 'hot topic', so to speak. I think everyone has their views/opinions on it.

Mine? I'm an indie author. I published my own novel, by choice. I had a lot of interest in my book but was told that it was too short for the genre to be published via the traditional route. Everyone wanted me to change it to make it longer but that would affect the integrity of my story so I chose to do my own thing instead.

Should this make me less of an author, by the writing world standards? Being self-published makes me MORE independant because I had to do everything myself. I had to find my own editors, artists, photographers, etc... I also do my own marketing so it takes a lot of work to be self-published.

Don't judge an author by the type of publishing they choose. Judge them by their work!

Tell me what you think!

On a side note... I just did an image search on Google to find a picture to go with this post and found a picture of myself instead! I guess that means my image is at least getting out there and being associated with the indie movement.

ALSO: Don't forget to sign up for the giveaway of Saints Astray by Jacqueline Carey! You have until the 22nd at midnight to enter.

 © Courtney Conant, 2010-11. All Rights Reserved.
 

Liquid Story Binder, help me!

Always fighting distractions! Between working too much and training for my marathon, I'm having a difficult time focusing on my new novel. I'm supposed to be up to around 15k words right now to be on schedule for NaNoWriMo yet I'm only just over 12k. All I can say is that I'm quite happy with where the story is taking me and am definitely looking forward to finding out how it ends. That will be quite a ways away though...

I've decided to give Liquid Story Binder a try again, as I didn't really attempt to use it much when writing my last novel. I'm only using the free trial version, as I'm not willing to pay for something that I don't even know if I'll use yet. I will say that I like how it organizes things and breaks the chapters down.

I've gone one chapter that I know I have to go back to and so when initially writing it in Word, I highlighted the passage. This meant that I would need to scroll through the whole thing to find it. It LSB, all I have to do is place an asterisk by the passage that I need to return to and hit F7 and it will automatically take me there, when in that chapter. That is pretty convenient but not quite enough because I'd have to remember which chapter it was. So how did I solve it? I made a new heading, something like "fix this chapter", and moved the chapter under that heading (keeping the chapter name/number intact so I know where it goes back to).

So far, I think I'm liking LSB and might end up snagging it for all my work.

What could be better? Just saw that they are supporting NaNoWriMo and offering 50% off through the month. Ok, I might break down and buy it after all.



© Courtney Conant, 2010-11. All Rights Reserved.

Saints Astray Giveaway by Jacqueline Carey

Anyone who knows me, or has read my book, knows that I adore the word of Jacqueline Carey. The flow of her ideas and thoughts onto the page is mesmerizing and once I start reading, it's hard to stop. I've always been a fan of hers on Facebook and followed her posts. I'm so glad that I do too!

Yesterday she announced that she wanted to change things up a bit from her normal giveaway routine. She offered the chance for 10 bloggers to host the giveaways for her and I just happened to be one of the lucky ones chosen!



Saints Astray by Jacqueline Carey

Enter to win a signed copy!
Giveaway ends 11/22.


This is great for me and my readers both. For me, it's an opportunity. For the fans, it's a chance for a free signed book by an amazing author! Jacqueline and I emailed yesterday and she will be sending out the books herself. This means that if you win, you get it directly from her hands.

Just hop over, sign up and make sure to follow the rules...

UPDATE:
Some seem to be having an issue with how to follow my blog. There is a button on the right of the page to "Join this site". A Blogger/Gmail account is not required to follow.

You can follow using:
* Google

* Twitter

* Yahoo

* AIM

* Netlog

* OpenID

Also, Miss Carey was the one that requested this be US only for the initial giveaway. She has stated that she will be hosting her own giveaway in the near future that will be open to all.

© Courtney Conant, 2010-11. All Rights Reserved.

Random Facts...

Here are 10 random facts about that you might not know about me...



That's me!



1. I like to dress up as a 1950s pinup model. It's so fun and the clothes are so beautiful!

2. I love riding my vintage scooter around town. People always look at me funny and it makes me laugh.

3. I'm training to run my first full marathon in February of 2012. It's rough going but I'm enjoying every painful second of it!

4. One of my favorite things is singing. I've even won a trophy and was crowned 'Famous Sam's Queen of Karaoke' several years ago.

5. I'm addicted to costumes. Any chance that I can dress up and play at being someone else, I take it! This makes Halloween my absolute favorite time of year. I went through three costumes this year, one for a 5k race that ran, one for going out Halloween weekend, and the last for Halloween night.

6. I live on a golf course yet have never touched a golf club in my life... Minigolf doesn't count!

7. I'm very anal about my closet. I have everything sectioned off by the type of clothing (work shirts, dresses, skirts, pants, then casual). Then the sections are organized by color. Everything is color-coded and always in its proper place.

8. While alcohol is mentioned several times in my novel (especially wine), I rarely touch the stuff because I'm allergic to it. If I do drink, I pay for it severely...

9. I have to admit, I have a deep seated love for anime. I've been watching it for such a long time and I can't seem to stop. It is one of my favorite ways to escape!

10. I have over 100 shades of eye shadow yet I almost never touch makeup. I just can't seem to pass up getting a new color because I never know when I might want it, even if it is 50 years from now...

Don't forget to stop by NaNoWriMo to FOLLOW MY PROGRESS as I work on Beyond the Known Horizon, book two in The Land of Makayra series.

Also, if you haven't done so yet, Hop over to my fan page on Facebook and give it a 'like', as I update that much more often.

© Courtney Conant, 2010-11. All Rights Reserved.