Split Your Heart, Not Your Tongue

For a while now I've been contemplating if I should change the cover to my debut novel, A Tragic Heart . While I love the original cover, there has been speculation that it may not be reaching the target audience. I've been told (by agents and publishers) that it's a great book but it may be overlooked simply because of the cover. Although we all know the saying "don't judge a book by it's cover" sadly most of us do exactly that. The biggest misconception is that the book is a sci-fi novel instead of a Young Adult/Coming of Age/New Adult novel. The original cover is supposed to depict the emotional turmoil of the book and the human heart shattering like glass is supposed to depict how fragile the characters are. People love it once they understand the meaning behind the cover but the issue is most people won't read it to give it that chance. I'm going for a more traditional book cover this time around that has a similar concept but is more appeal...

Today I am feeling very generous so I'm going to give you all a sneak peek on my upcoming novel, RED . It's the intro along with the first few pages. It's unedited so some things may change but I think it's a nice introduction to the novel. For those of you who read A Tragic Heart, you'll completely understand where this is taking off from. The rest you still have time to catch up , but for now I hope you enjoy it. So, here it is: Intro R ed hair. Green eyes. Perfect Smile. Curves in the right places. I’m a knockout, but not only in the physical department. I’m a knockout at home, in school…in every aspect of my life. Poor Mason. I don’t mean to be so cruel but he’s not my dad…and Adalyn, she’s not my mother…and they never will be. My parents left me before I could even figure out who they were to me. My dad didn’t have much of a choice but my mother…she chose…she had a choice and I think that’s what hurts the most. The selfish bitch didn’t even lov...

Today is the day A Tragic Heart is on sale for only $2.99 on Kindle! You can pick up a copy of the book before the release of the second novel to the series, RED. You should hurry because the sale ends on September 28th at 12:00 am PST and will resume to its original price of $5.99. Here's a quick synopsis of the novel and you can find the link to the novel below: Sixteen year old high school student Taylor Caldwell has been through the wringer of life. The love triangles, heartbreak, and stress of being a teenager is all crashing down and it's slowly igniting a fire that's bound to destroy her. It would take a miracle for her parents to remember her existence and the same goes for the only guy she has eyes for. But sometimes miracles happen...just not in the form that we want them to. All she ever wanted was an option; a way out of her turmoil...a reason to fight. She never thought that life would give her two. With more options and decisions to make than ev...

Wow! Time really flew by fast! On September 27th, my debut novel, A Tragic Heart will celebrate it's first birthday. I wanted to do something special for my baby's first year so I decided to discount the price of the novel for 48 hours. That's right! Starting September 26th at 12:00 am, A Tragic Heart will only be $2.99 on Kindle. The sale ends on September 28th at 12:00 am. It's a pre-birthday/birthday celebration! The novel has seen a decent amount of success, moving over 400 units (not bad for an indie author of no primary status) since it's release almost a year ago. More importantly, the novel has been met with critical acclaim by both readers and book reviewers. In fact, I just found out that my novel has been illegally downloaded 815 times this week and it's only Tuesday! While that may not seem like something to be proud of, the fact that the average star rating is 9.4 out of 10 makes me proud. More than anything I'm happy that people actually enjo...

Can you believe it's a new month already?! It feels like I just created a character profile for Mason Taylor and here I am about to sort of introduce a new character. For those of you who read A Tragic Heart , the name Adalyn isn't so new to you. Although in A Tragic Heart Adalyn didn't have any dialogue which still makes her a new personality because she is one of the main characters in RED . In fact, RED couldn't exist without her. From now on, Adalyn is an extremely important character to the series I'm working on (I'm in the last stages of writing the final book). As some of you know Adalyn is/was the bass player in Peyton's (Mason's cousin/Peyton Hayley Giordano's father) band. They also have a history together that goes far back (I won't ruin anything else for those who haven't read it yet). So let's get to know Adalyn a little better...shall we? Full Name: Adalyn Voyvodich-Taylor Birth Date: November 23, 1992 Gender: Fe...

Remember last week when I said I was going to write up a character profile for each character for RED , until the release? Well, here is the first one and it's for the main character, Peyton Giordano. I'll release a new character profile every month up until the release of the novel. That's enough time to catch up on the action that led to RED by picking up or downloading A Tragic Heart . Here we go: Full Name: Peyton Hayley Giordano Birth Date: April 4, 2010 Gender: Female Age During RED : 16-18 years old Eye Color: Green Hair Color: Red Height: 5'6 Weight: 130 lbs Relatives: Taylor Caldwell (Mother-Deceased). Peyton Giordano (Father-Deceased), Mason Taylor (Cousin), Adalyn Voyvodich-Taylor (Cousin-in-law), Jackson Caldwell (Uncle), Nick Taylor (cousin), Ryan Taylor (cousin), Lila Taylor (cousin) Relationship Status: It's complicated....don't ask!  Interests/Hobbies: Singing, Guitar, Piano, Songwriting Positive Character Traits: Sh...

"Ego . Our ego is who we are. It’s the part of our functioning mind that is stuck between the id and the superego. My ego is who I am. It balances out my subconscious mind bringing me back to reality whenever I fall victim to my id or superego. My ego is nervous. Anxious. Guilty. My ego is red ."- RED   I'm happy to say that RED is going to go through the editing process starting July 1st! The novel is pretty long so it'll take a while to edit but I was told the latest I will have the manuscript back in my possession will be December 1st. This means that RED won't be able to come out in the Fall as I originally planned but it will be available by the Winter of 2015.  As I mentioned before, the novel may not be as emotional as A Tragic Heart but it does have a lot of twists and turns. The plot is a little riskier and it continues to touch on major issues during teenage years. SPOILERS! PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ A TRAGIC H...