Tuesday, December 18, 2012

It's Here! St. Nick's Favor


Please drop in this afternoon (Tues. Dec. 18th) to
the virtual release party for St. Nick's Favor, the sequel to Chasing
the Trickster.

The party will be held from 1-5 pm EST. There will be novel and
short story giveaways. Also holiday recipes and music (if I can
figure out how to do that with Facebook). And there
will be a book trailer for St. Nick's Favor as well.

 Free copies will be available to reviewers.

Blurb:
St. Nicholas asks Nina Weaver to be his emissary. Her mission is to
take a one-way trip five years into her past to save the lives of
thousands of children. Doing this will result in her losing the life
she has built in New York City, including her relationship with
Pascal Guzman. Nina faces down corporate greed, attempts on her life
and the terrors of the Trickster God to keep her promise.

Even if you can't attend the party, please drop by to "like" the page. http://www.facebook.com/StNicksFavor?ref=hl

Hope to see you there,

April Grey

Friday, December 7, 2012

With Great Pleasure...

Here is the trailer for Rayne Hall's latest anthology
 

Undead: Ten Tales of Zombies!!!

 
  I'm delighted that my short story, "I'll Love Ya, Forever...But" is included with other terrific, spine-tingling tales.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Blog Tour Schedule

October 31st- Black Hippie Chick's Take on Books & The World (Interview)
November 1st- Simply Infatuated (Promo Post)
November 2nd- A Bibliophile's Thoughts on Books (Review)
November 3rd- Kaidans Seduction (Review)
November 4th- Bookluvrs Haven (Promo Post)
November 5th- I am, Indeed (Review)
November 6th- Juniper Grove (Interview)
November 7th- NightlyReading (Review)
November 8th- Kristy Centeno (Promo Post)
November 9th- The Avid Reader (Review)
November 10th- Tricia Kristufek (Promo Post)
November 11th- Lizzy's Dark Fiction (Promo Post)
November 12th- The Avid Reader (Interview)
November 13th- Fangs For The Fantasy (Review)
November 14th- Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews (Guest Post)
November 15th- Cabin Goddess (Review)
November 16th- A Bit of Dash (Promo Post)
November 17th- The Book Maven (Review)
November 18th- Writing to be Read (Review)
November 19th- My Seryniti (Review)
November 20th- Beach Bum Reads (Author Interview)

Please do drop by and leave a comment!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Blog Tour Begins

Starting today and going the next 20 days I'm on a blog tour...

Please stop by for my interview at Black Hippie Chick Reads:

And have a free read on me
Halloween Special - Troll's Bridge for free with coupon code KC76P 
 

Saturday, October 27, 2012

A Review! From Rayne Hall




 


1. Dark and Twisted: The Fairy Cake Bake Shoppe And 13 Other Weird Tales by April Grey
These are easy-to-read, entertaining stories, but they have a bite to them. Paranormal elements – vampires, zombies, fairies, ghosts, sexbots, magical cupcakes – are woven into everyday reality. Some of the stories have dark or erotic content – nothing overly graphic, but unsuitable for young readers.
I enjoyed Exile where a vampire gigolo tempts an older woman with eternal youth.


Thanks so much Rayne! For the rest of her guest post please head to Guest Post by Rayne Hall: Rayne’s Five Favourites: Short Story Collections.

Rayne has published more than thirty books under different pen names with different publishers in different genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Recent books include Storm Dancer (dark epic fantasy novel), Six Historical Tales Vol 1, Six Scary Tales Vol 1, 2 and 3 (mild horror stories), Six Historical Tales (short stories), Six Quirky Tales (humorous fantasy stories), Writing Fight Scenes and Writing Scary Scenes (instructions for authors).

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Blog Interview Today and Book Giveaway

Hi Everyone,

I'm interviewed today at Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts: http://buff.ly/RelHJv . Please drop by and leave a comment.

Avril Grey
Chasing the Trickster
Chasing The Trickster

Monday, October 1, 2012

Silent Spring and the Zombie Apocalypse

Caution: touching on the political.
 
Writers are supposed to confront the ugly stuff. Give a wake up call. 

However, in the 50 years since Carson's Silent Spring we've learned nothing, except how to make tobacco science more appealing.

I was on a board at a SF convention last year and the topic was end of the world scenarios. Zombie apocalypse = end of the world. It's all code words for when this poor weary planet runs out of steam. It's when civilization breathes its last gasp and anarchy reins.

Welcome to the Dark Ages Redux. "No phone, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury. Like Robinson Crusoe, it's as primitive as can be."

 The theme is everywhere we look. Dystopias are in vogue. Stories of alien invasions undermining civilization, zombie viruses, blindness viruses, infertility....


 I think the way we're living is non-sustainable. I suspect, at least on a subconscious level, everyone agrees with me. 

Neither political party is taking this seriously enough.

Maybe some figure they have enough money for private armies. Others may figure the Rapture will save them. We have a leader who went on national television to tell us that "Fracking was safe."

Maybe with bottled water and filters for your bath, fracking is safe. Maybe we'll get a tax break for gas masks as well. Maybe some figure life will raise itself all over again. Maybe creatures that thrive on radiation and mercury and plastics will evolve and start all over. But by that time, me and mine will be long gone.

That part doesn't bother me so much as thought of if I'll be around or my loved ones for the big dissolution. What will it be like? Riots? The breakdown of law and order. Private armies owned by the rich to suppress the poor. We've seen so many distopias on paper, TV or the silver screen. What will it be like when the majority of kids die of cancer at an early age due to pollutants in our air, water and soil? What will it be like when fewer and fewer children are healthy because of mercury and other toxins attacking their bodies?

Keep reading and watching those zombies. It's a primer of things to come. Take good notes...

So how are you preparing?

Sunday, September 9, 2012

You gotta have a gimmick.

 


"You Gotta Have a Gimmick"- Ethel Merman

When it comes to writing there's pantser and plotters. There are the people who start with an idea and others, like myself, who start with a character who has a problem.
 
I spent twenty years in theatre, my BA and MFA are in theatre, and for me writing is like creating a play. In media res means you have to choose where to start and stop the story and for heavens sake don't start it at the beginning. And not too close to the climax,either. There has to be time for the readers to get to know the characters and care.
 
Do you have a flash fiction piece, a short story, novella or novel? Or a novel series… Many short stories wind up as novels.
 
Are you going to go first person point of view, second person, third or *gulp* omniscient? In my debut novel I did both first person and third. And half the story was in the past and one half in the present, switching between chapters until the past caught up with the present. I didn't plan this, I'm a pantser. I did try having a linear time sequence and it didn't work.
 
Was it a gimmick? Did it work or alienate the reader? So far no complaints, but then some people might have stopped reading and not told me.
 
It seems to me that there are rules being created and getting ignored all the time in both genre and literature.  The important thing is to be open to risk.  Don't be afraid to be different.
 
So do you have a system? What's your Gimmick?
Leave a comment and share your tricks.


Tuesday, August 28, 2012

On Killing the Angel


The Bitch is Back
Staying on top of our writing isn't easy. No (wo)man is an island and if you are lucky you will have many, many distractions in your life. I say lucky.
 
I spent many years of my life doing theatre. It was my family; I had no time to date or start a family of my own.  That was cool for about 15-20 years. When the fun began to fade, I thought maybe an art which kept me closer to home would be good.  So I took up writing. Now here was flexibility. I filled notebook after notebook with short stories (this was pre-computer, only a friend or two had them) and even made my first sale. Then I met my future hubby, we courted and wed. Next came the patter of little feet.  I admit I took a very long break from writing. Around the time my son turned six, I felt comfortable enough in my role of wife and mother to return to it.
 
It seemed the perfect occupation for a stay at home mom and home schooler. Seemed, which leads us to the angel… the infamous angel of the Victorian era whom Virginia Woolf wrote about. The perfect wife who put aside all her personal needs to meet the needs of her family, yeah, you know her.
 
In Woolf's 1931 essay, "Professions for Women" (originally given as a speech to the Society for Women's Service and then posthumously published), she writes:
 
I discovered that if I were going to review books I should need to do battle with a certain phantom. And the phantom was a woman, and when I came to know her better I called her after the heroine of a famous poem, The Angel in the House. It was she who used to come between me and my paper when I was writing reviews. It was she who bothered me and wasted my time and so tormented me that at last I killed her. You who come of a younger and happier generation may not have heard of her--you may not know what I mean by the Angel in the House.
 
Well, we are of a younger and happier generation, but the Angel in the House still lives and she is one hell of a mean bitch.
 
I fight her each and every day as I look at the pile of laundry waiting to be folded and put away, or even when I decide to cook something simple (or order in) so I can meet a deadline.
 
So, spill it. Have you met the Angel? Share how you either killed her or put her in her place. Please leave a note, I love hearing from you.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

A Very Sticky Wicket

There's an internet controversy going on -when isn't there?

This time about a YA novel, Save the Pearls.  I haven't read the book, and it's not on my list to read, but it has lead to a cautionary story.

The author in this case has written a book which supposedly will help young adults understand racism. Wonderful. We need to have greater awareness if we are to create a better world.

Unfortunately, in the process of tackling this important topic the author, Victoria Foyt, may have reinforced racial stereotypes.

So the question is how does one write about racism without falling into this trap?
One writer who I follow wrote about this saying that he has wanted to do a similar book but was unsure if it wouldn't be misinterpreted. This guy is a terrific writer, if anyone could write a great novel using this topic, it's him.

So I wonder. Are we all stuck writing within our own little fishbowls of culture, race or religion due to fear that by commenting on racism we will somehow make it worse? How do you approach writing characters that are of different  backgrounds from your own?

Do we comment on racism or perpetuate it?

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Quicksilver Moonlight is Up!

I recently decided to break up one of my novel length stories into different sections and self-publish it. It's an experiment. I want to learn if serializing a story can help sell it in the long run.


Part One is a stand alone, complete in itself, but the story and the characters didn't want to end. And so I wrote more, it got longer and before I knew it I had a novella length tale ready to blossom into a novel.

It's a Regency Paranormal, taking place just after the Napoleonic War and it's my take on historical paranormal and gothic romance. In it ghosts and werewolves haunt the halls of Pembrook Manor.

I haven't written too much in this genre. There's "The Vision" which is also a dark romance, and then my work in progress - A Clockwork King.

Usually my novels are Urban Fantasy, but as of late I've been drawn to the Early Nineteenth Century.

As far as author branding goes, I consider myself a writer of dark fantasy, horror and sf. The key term would be dark meaning contemporary dark fantasy is as valid to me as historical.

Blurb:
 
Beth felt sorry for her brother-in-law, but that was no excuse for the way he had treated her husband, or the way he was treating her now: forcing her to stay in his house as a nurse to his ailing wife. Once she discovers his secret, she is thrust into a nightmare from which she may never escape.

Accused of murder, Beth Pembrook must rely on the man who stole her inheritance and who plans to marry her off to the highest bidder. Can she trust him?

Ghosts, werewolves and things that go bump in the night abound in this Regency thriller, part one of a planned series.

So it's up and available for reading at both Smashwords and Kindle.  I hope that you stop by.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

My News! No Man (Woman or Writer) Is an Island









It's going to be a short post. I'm very excited to make the announcement (finally) which I've been hinting at for the past few weeks.

I've accepted a position on the editorial staff of Damnation Books. I've long held great admiration for Kim Richards and the people she's chosen to work with her. When the opportunity presented itself I jumped at it.

It does mean some self-disipline to get my writing and promotion done along with the editing of other people's work; however, I believe that you get out of a community what you put into it.  Very often writing seems like a business where there is a need to ceaselessly promote one's own work and I think I will enjoy helping to promote others for a while.

Wish me luck!

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Why I Support E-publishing

I consider myself a greeny wannabe, and when it came right down to it, when I was sending my first novel, Chasing The Trickster, out to agents, I had visions in my head of advances not earned out and my book with it's cover ripped off filling some warehouse in New Jersey.

Eventually the feeling got so strong that I sent my novel to an e-publisher and was delighted to be accepted. With e-pub it can stay in cyberspace a very long time, which meant working with a publisher willing to return those rights became very important. I am very happy with my e-publishing contract.

Which brings me to Gordon Dahlquist. You may have never heard of him, but he has written the best steampunk literature that I have read. Based on his works I consider myself a lover of steampunk, yet, I often find myself disappointed when I read other steampunk because nothing seems to match the sheer joy I had when tearing through the first two volumes of his Glass Books of the Dream Eaters.

Maybe you have heard of him. He was the guy who got a $2 million dollar advance and only earned back $800,000. Oh, yeah...

Well, he's coming out with The Chemickal Marriage, a third book. [Depending on how you count - the first book The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters was divided into two volumes (over 400 pages each), and the follow up was called The Dark Volume (500 pages). So it's the fourth book in the series and perhaps the last if this is indeed a trilogy.]

The Dark Volume left the reader dangling. I'd say to my husband, who has no choice but to at least pretend to be listening, "Mr. Dahlquist doesn't know how to end a book."  But I'd say that still craving the next one. I really want to get my hands on this new book, still not quite believing that the story will ever end.

Here it is end of July and its publication date was at the beginning of this month. Penguin UK has it listed, it's published by their imprint Viking but Penguin doesn't even have it listed on its American website.

Furthermore, this book is only available in hardcover. And the hardcover wasn't available at my local Barnes and Noble yesterday. Barnes and Noble on-line lists his other books and an upcoming book, The Different Girl, but no mention of The Chemickal Marriage. Why don't they just sow the ground with salt?

Amazon is better. The hardcover is available, with the paperback coming out Jan. 31st of next year. At 528 pages, I don't look forward to owning the hardback copy and lugging it around.  So, as much as I am aching to read this book, I'll probably wait.

And that is another reason why I love e-pubs. It's lightweight and I can usually get it immediately.

If anyone has any info to add it about getting a kindle copy of The Chemickal Marriage it would be great to hear from you. Also, I do have an announcement to make, but I have to put it off until the right time, which I hope will be soon.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

A Change of Pace


As a writer, I exercise two sets of muscles. One is the crazy, creative, write-as-quickly-as-I-can part, and the other is my editorial side.  As much as I love writing, very often the hypercritical, perfectionista editor in me gives me a PITA.

That's why I love arts and crafts.  My grandfather was actually a well-known and respected artist in Holland. When I told my dad that I'd like to take art classes his attitude was that my grandfather was never without a pencil and pad of paper in his hand. Was that what I really wanted?

That turned me off. I couldn't ever be that determined to draw.  What was ever present in my hand was--a book! I was constantly reading and you can't really spend all your time drawing if you spend all your time reading.  And for the first 20 years of adulthood I was working as a theatre person and a paralegal. I got to read in my spare time, so making art got short shrift.

But I've always loved Art, with a capital A. Theatre and the visual arts mostly. Just like I've studied a lot of foreign languages and realized it's not my forte, I also tried to become proficient in several musical instruments: piana, guitar, violin.  I think I do okay on the Jew's harp and enjoy little ditties on my penny whistle, but I'm just not talented at music or languages. Writing, reading, theatre, and the visual arts make me smile and give me the warm fuzzies.

Getting to the point: I spent this past weekend at Create NJ, a mixed media retreat. I got to be with two of my former teachers from the City Quilter - Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Jane Davila. I also had the pleasure of being with two new teachers. What I learn everytime I go to an arts/crafts workshop is to relax and play. I'm not doing this for money or to be a professional. I'm just having fun. Which is so refreshing since the fun part of writing is often overshadowed by the editorial or business aspects of the profession.

So, I kicked back for the past 3 days with other women (mostly) and made stuff. I learned how to carve stamps, make ATCs, put paperclay faces on canvas and decorated them, and made collage pendants.  What a hoot!

I feel refreshed and relaxed and ready to face another week of teaching ESL, and working on my writing.

How do you feel about doing multiple arts? Are you a Jack of all Trades, King of None? Or do they all feed into each other. Please leave a comment and let me know.

Also, I might have some surprise info for you all next week (or not)!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

My Weekend at Connecticon

As I might have mentioned, I have a teenager.  He likes gaming and at almost all our cons he spends his time in the gaming rooms.  Connecticon is all about that, anime and cosplay. It's a energetic and youthful con. And there are little corners tucked away where you see the parents, patiently doing their thing--waiting for their children to be done.




It's not a literature heavy con like Philcon or Lunacon so I make a point of checking the panel listings when I get there, attempting to get in as many writers panels as possible.

This year, however, I missed CJ Henderson's panel because we were checking into our hotel.  Rats. I did drop a bundle on buying anthologies at his seller's table, though.

And I did make it to a couple of panels:

I was in the audience at three panels with Michele Lang, (I think I was on a panel with her at Lunacon.)  She was kind enough to do a reading from her book, Lady Lazarus, and to give away copies of the next book in the series, Dark Victory. Thanks, Michele, you are next on my reading list. She also read one of her short stories at another panel.

Finally she was on a Copyright and Creation panel with Margaret Killjoy (not a kill joy at all). 

Margaret is absolutely the cat's meow when it comes to anarchy and steampunk. He's the author of A Steampunk's Guide to the Apocalypse, which I plan to read ASAP, and the current editor of SteamPunk Magazine.

Finally, I sat in on an inspirational panel by Oscar Rios and Mike Tresca called Maintaining Motivation in Writing. This was worth the price of admission as I felt instantly determined to get my projects (way too many I'm sorry to say) done, done, done.  While I have no problem getting through a first draft, it's the second through final which feels like slow torture. They had an excellent explanation for this: in a nutshell you are not the same person who wrote that first draft and so as you change so does your perspective. Now we all know to put a story or novel in the drawer to get some perspective. Their point was to take a break, celebrate your success in finishing that first draft, and then get back to it.  Hmmm. Worth a try I think.

So it was a terrific weekend, and though we are all exhausted now, tomorrow we will be refreshed and ready to face a new week.

Were you at Connecticon?  How about some of the other cons last weekend. What was the best con you were ever at and why? Leave a comment.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

A Rose is a Rose: What's in a name?

When creating names for my characters I sometimes just "know" what the character's name is. It pops into my head with no effort on my part. I'll then check through baby name sites for the meanings of the names. Just for fun? Hmmm.

Looking up the meaning of names might be a colossal time waster; however, for me the name's meaning gives me additional information about the character and even inspiration.

In Chasing the Trickster:
  • Jeanine Weaver, Jeanine means God is Gracious and Weaver represents the tale of Arachne, a young woman transformed. 
  • Pascal Guzman, Pascal is for Easter child and Guzman is "good man." French and Latino, just like Pascal.
  • His sister is Rose White because she is larger than life with lots of thorns, but has a petal soft side.
  • Kate Wainwright was originally an Elizabeth, but being best friends with Linda Brockhurst the L-L thing might have become annoying. So I didn’t' stay with the original name.  Maybe she's actually Katherine Elizabeth Wainwright. Her last name came to be because her parents run Wainwright Reality and it felt like a tongue twister. I laugh whenever I try to say it out loud. Katherine means "pure" but it can also mean "magic." Wainwright means "wagon builder."  It told me a lot about her personality.
  • Linda Brockhurst - Linda "pretty" and Brockhurst, "badger woods." 
  • Linda's daughter Amanda is "worthy of love" and is named after her step-grandmother.
  • Joe is from Joseph, a Biblical name and it means "he will enlarge." I guess that's a good thing. But Joseph was also the husband of Mary, so a father figure to Jesus. Joe, the self-given name of an ancient pagan fertility god also considers himself a father to Pascal.
  • Linda's hubby is Andrew Brockhurst, and Andrew means warrior. I recounted his last name above. "Woods of the Badger-Warrior" Cool
These names all popping out of nowhere is weird I guess, but I have a thing for names. That Andrew is the father of Amanda, pleased me no end since it would be Andy and Mandy for their knick names.

But to get a bit weirder, when I went to my high school reunion last year it sudden hit home that many of the names I had used for my characters came from kids I had gone to school with. The characters were nothing like the kids, but somehow these names had stuck with me for all these years and were leaping out upon the page without my conscious awareness.

Many authors show amazing creativity and playfulness when naming their characters. One only has to look to the books of Harry Potter to see an ironic and eclectic use of names, not just for her character alone but in place names, spells and all sorts of items.

What authors have you found to use great imagination with names? Or if you are a writer, could you share with us how some of your characters came to be named?

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Of Gods and Things that Go Bump in the Night


Urban fantasy can be said to be made up of two elements: the urban and the fantastic. Well, yeah, it's much, much more. It's almost synonymous with paranormal romance, but it's a darker shade, grittier, in my opinion. Yet we've come to expect the supernatural elements to be either hunky vampires or even hunkier werewolves. Hunky gods? Not so often.

My intro to urban fantasy was through the works of Charles De Lint. He had Old World Fairy living in Canada mixing with Native American spirits. I loved the gentle whimsy streaked with violence in his work. It all sparkled with magic, in a good way.

When I decided to write Chasing the Trickster I was also inspired by Tom Robbins's Jitterbug Perfume wherein Pan complains how he is depleted by the lack of people's belief since so many switched to Christianity. That aggrievement is at the core of Joe Cernunnus' character. He's an old world god of the Celts who has tried to adapt to Christianity but finds himself playing the buffoon to St. Nickolas as the Krampus, and then as a mortal's captive. To make things worse, the Trickster god of the Southwest is highly territorial, he understands that power comes from worship, and as Coyote he is worshipped. He sees Joe start a power base in Sante Fe and takes action working with the Web of Fate to change things more to his liking.

Little is known of the Celts. Mostly we associate them with the people of Ireland and to a lesser extend Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man and Brittany (the six Celtic Nations). These are all that remain of a language and culture belonging to pre-Roman Europe going back in places to the Bronze Age. The Celts had no written language (this is argued as there are some ancient inscriptions extant) and so most of what we know of them come from artifacts and the writings of the Greeks and Romans. As the Roman and Germanic migrations grew, the Celtic people were pushed back to the few areas we see them today. I'm tempted to say they were absorbed by these two cultural groups, but there is so little to be seen of them, it's hard to say. The name Cernunnos is from the Latin for "horned one" and is an inscription for an image of the god with stag horns (on the Boatman Pillar).



When sitting in a college course on early European Religion I expected to learn more about Cernunnos, but really there is little. I wondered how could Christianity, only adopted by the Roman Empire in the Fourth Century, so quickly push out the older religions. Was it the idea of accepting a symbolic sacrifice instead of the human or animal ones declared by those older religions that was so appealing? We know that many of the pre-Christian religions of the area demanded the death of a human being. Could the pain of such cruel practices have lead entire peoples to embrace a kinder, gentler religion?

And what of poor Cernunnos and his followers? The image of Satan comes complete with horns. Demons have horns. Has our stag god (and Pan) been vilified by the followers of a new religion? Many would agree.  Furthermore we have the demonic follower of St. Nicholas from Austria, Krampus. He's hairy and horny (pun intended). I introduced the Krampus into my novel, as a strategy taken by Cernunnos so at least he'll have some attention, some worship.

As a child I had a keen sense of the numinous (sublime). I grew up on 3.5 acres of land in Westchester County. There were ancient willow trees surrounding a pond, and there was an area of pine trees behind the pond. And the house I lived in was built in 1756. There was a strong sense of history and mystery. It probably helped that I was in love with books from an early age and devoured Andre Norton and Madeleine L'Engle when young, and then later Hawthorne, James and Poe (and let's not forget C.S. Lewis and Tolkien).

In many religions, we learn that God or Spirit is all around us. We can connect with this feeling whenever we choose. Even atheists will agree to a sense of the numinous can be found in nature, science or the arts. However, I love the idea of spirits, whatever names you give them, including the Holy Ghost, surrounding us. In writing about gods, I hope to connect with numinousity, a sense of sublime, and perhaps lead others to experience that when reading my work.

As a Fourth of July special, if you will promise to write a review of Chasing the Trickster (leave it at Goodreads, Eternal Press, Barnes and Noble, Amazon or your own blog) I will send you a free reviewers PDF of my novel.

Hope you take advantage of the offer.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Turning over a new leaf.

Back when I was on Live Journal, I used to overshare, giving away every particular of my life.  I also posted several times a week.  With this blog I went the other way. I've treated my blog spot here more or less like a bulletin board to share high points in my writing experience.

I'm about to change that. First, I promise to post once a week.  What I'll post is difficult to decide.  As a writer it's easiest to present information about the process of writing.  However, this blog's purpose is also being redefined to be focussed on my readers.  Who are my readers? I assume that they enjoy dark fiction with a bit of humor and sex thrown in.  My novels are urban fantasy while my short stories range from gothic romance to sf to fantasy and horror. I think of women like me (love reading genre whatever the mix of sex, romance and supernatural) when I think readers, but honestly some of my most earnest supporters have been men.

Back in my Live Journal days, my fan base came easy.  People joined and I wondered, "Who are they? What do they want?" They were all fans of my Harry Potter fanfiction.  And fanfiction being free, the community freely came together.

Now I've gone professional.  I sell my work to various anthologies and e-zines and I get paid up front. I also self-publish as a way of advertising. And my novel is published through Eternal Press, an e-publisher, meaning we each get a percentage whenever my novel is sold.

I plan to post regularly and write about interesting subjects having to do with my writing. However, considering that this blog is now reader focussed, please let me know what you'd like to hear about.

Have a great week,

April Grey

Friday, May 18, 2012

It's still pouring!

Please head over to read this wonderful blog interview!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

When It Rains, It Pours pt. 3

Also, my guest post is up at Savvy Authors on using the Byronic Hero your writing.

When It Rains, It Pours - pt. 2

I'm featured for about 15 seconds in a video about last Saturday's Fiction Fest.
http://popularromanceproject.org/category/behind-scenes/

Sunday, May 13, 2012

When It Rains It Pours!

I've been neglecting this blog as of late, not because I haven't been busy, no, no, no.
  • I've reached a 40 on Klout through Facebook and Twitter.
  •  I have two guest blogs coming up.
  • I'm putting the finishing touches on St. Nick's Favor, the sequel to Chasing the Trickster.
  • This weekend I went up to the CT Fiction Fest and had a great time. Many thanks to Carole, a fellow published author at Eternal Press, for encouraging me and driving me to the event. I loved the panels and greatly enjoyed pitching to four agents and I will be sending out partials.
Happy Mother's Day, we're off to see Dark Shadows!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Free Read - Willow Pond at Wily Writers

Willow Pond at Wily Writers

Had a great time at Lunacon. The panels were great.

Won't be at Steampunk World's Faire, sadly they sold out of hotel rooms.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Less than a week to Lunacon

I just got the preliminary panels listing. Wow!

I'm on panels with some really terrific writers like CJ Henderson and Joshua Palmetier. And the other panels also look to be totally awesome.

I hope you can join me at Lunacon next week.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Only a Couple of Weeks Now - Lunacon

I'm looking forward to Lunacon; it's sort of my birthplace. Not just that I lived in Rye as a tot and then moved to Armonk, and my mom grew up in Port Chester, just a hop, skip and a jump away, but Lunacon was the first con that DH and I decided to partake in once our son was old enough to appreciate cons.

I had just sold my first short story and was very excited to have a story under consideration to a major e-zine (which later fell through) and I did my first Rapid Fire Reading as a member of Broad Universe at Lunacon.

Later my family added on more cons: The Steampunk World's Faire, Connecticon, and finally Philcon last year. We also did World Horror Con last year as well, but that was more a family thing as my in-laws live in Austin...

So, Whoo-Hoo. Lunacon here we come.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Another Free Read

My story, "Doing Time," is the flash fiction of the day at Every Day Fiction.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

The Next New Thing

This Thursday, Jan. 12th another free story of mine, "Doing Time" will debut at Every Day Fiction. My short story, "Objects of Desire" is in their anthology, The Best of Every Day Fiction Two.

Please head over and check it out this Thurs.