Ingram and You

Part of me wants to try to do this like some cheesy 50's health class movie. "Ingram and your body..." But in the interest of time (and sanity)

Most of you (I hope) saw me announce that The Music Box Girl is now available through Ingram. And you may be thinking "But MBG has been out for a while, what does this mean?"

The very short answer, for most of you, is nothing.  For the longer answer, read on.

Ingram is a part of publishing that is largely invisible to the average reader. They are a book distributor & printer. When you buy a book at a B&N or indie store, it most likely got there via Ingram.

You may say "but wasn't Createspace already printing and distributing your books?" Yes! Good question. The difference is that Ingram is the supplier that most bookstores and libraries order from. See, Amazon (Createspace) is a direct competitor of other bookstores, so they don't want to order from someone who is actively trying to put them out of business.

There are other things that also make Ingram preferable, involving wholesale ordering prices and the ability to return books that don't sell, but that's probably a bigger topic than I intend to cover in this Cliff's Notes version.

So, back to the question. What does this mean? It means that MBG can now appear on library and bookstore shelves. It means that someone could be browsing a bookstore and pick up my book and think "Hey, this looks cool." And just like that, I could have a new fan.  It also means that I can do in-store book signings much easier, since the stores can actually order books to have on hand. My hope is that we (my family and I) will be able to travel more in the next few years and get to places where folk might want to see me.

"That's fantastic! How can I help?"  I'm so glad you asked! The thing that will do the most good is to tell people. Ask your local indie store to order copies in. Request the book from your local libraries. Let them know that Second Olympus and the JJD books will be coming soon in the same format. Get the word out, folks!  Help me, Obi-Wan. You're my only hope.

Also remember that, before the year is out, Peacemaker will be re-released, in print for the very first time. This too will go through Ingram as well as my other channels. Tell the world!

Happy Birthday to ME!

So, in honor of my birthday at the end of the month, I've decided that I'm going to make the ebook of Second Olympus just $0.99 for the entire month!

If you haven't tried this one yet, now is the time!

You can find Second Olympus at your favorite retailer!

Kindle
Nook
iTunes
Kobo
Smashwords

And the winner is!

Ok, I don't know about y'all, but I had a LOT of fun doing this. (And the folk who run IMDB are currently trying to figure out why I spent the last hour rapid-fire looking up actors I wasn't familiar with to check out everyone's cast lists)

So, after careful consideration, and some very scientific wibbly wobbly timey wimey type calculations, I have come up with my winners.  Drumroll!

Or not.

First place, and winner of the $25 Amazon gift card is:  Dragonflylass
Second place, and winner of the $10 Amazon gift card is:  Josh

Both of you email me at kari.stewart21 (at) gmail.com, and let me know what email address you want your gift card forwarded to. (If Amazon isn't quite your thing, let me know, we'll talk.)

Of course, if you showed me yours, I now have to show you mine.

Some of these are absolutely in my head who should play it.  Some of them are folk who would be good, but there were other really good ones in the casts you all came up with, too, and now I just don't know!   Some of them would require some makeup, and possibly some CGI to pull off the right look, but ain't movie magic grand?  ((And obviously, there were just a few where I couldn't make up my mind))

Olympus Tower:

Heracles – Chris Hemsworth

Artemis – Charlize Theron

Persephone – Hayley Atwell

Demeter – Madeleine Stowe

Hades – Richard Armitage

Hephaestus – Ron Perlman

Deeptown:

Geoff – Nicholas Hoult

Lia – Riley Keough

Ambert – John Goodman  / James Earl Jones

Jon / Rik –Bret Dalton

Keras – Steve Buscemi / John Leguizamo

Raffa – Jaimie Alexander / Katee Sackhoff / Michelle Rodriguez

Anyway, thanks for indulging me in this bit of silliness.  I'm glad you all read and enjoyed Second Olympus.  Tell all your friends, and remember to leave reviews at your favorite sites. Every one helps.

Second Olympus: The Movie

Only in an author's fondest fantasies are their books actually made into movies.  But that doesn't mean that we can't dream. I mean, c'mon. Imagining stuff is what we get paid for!

So imagine with me, people!  In the comments below, leave your ideal cast list for the characters listed below.  They can be past or present, you can specify young or old (for example, young Marlon Brando is very different than older Marlon Brando).  If you need more inspiration, check out this earlier post featuring my Second Olympus Playlist!

I'm limiting everyone to ONE entry per person (yes, I know that there are a several married couples who may be competing, so it's up to you guys if you want to enter as one, or as individuals)  ((I may have just ruined a couple of marriages))

Because I know there are folk who are busy this weekend (*waves hi to the Malice Domestic crowd*), I will leave the contest open through next Wednesday (5/6).  I'll post the 1st and 2nd place winners that evening.

1st place winner gets a $25 Amazon gift card, and 2nd place gets $10!  Woohoo!

Remember, only the first 12 characters are must haves (and if you truly can't figure one out, it's okay to leave it blank. I've got a few I haven't cast yet, too).  If you want to put some names to the "Others" section, you can do that just for fun.

Olympus Tower:
Heracles
Artemis
Persephone
Demeter
Hades
Hephaestus

Deeptown:
Geoff
Lia
Ambert
Jon / Rik (they're twins, remember?)
Keras
Raffa

Others:
Art forger
Old Stan
Young Stan
Fons
Drones
Hunstmen

And....GO!  (Have fun, folk)

Your Mission

Should you choose to accept it, and I really hope you do, or this will be the lamest contest ever.

So, people often tell me (usually in reference to the JJD books), “Hey, this would make a great movie/TV show!”  Well, in all honesty, I’ve never believed that the JJD books would translate well to film.  There’s too much internal introspection in dear Jesse’s head that I think would be lost on the big (or little) screen.

However, I have always believed that Second Olympus would be my “movie book”.  I have a soundtrack picked out and everything.  And occasionally, I amuse myself by daydreaming about who would play who in that movie.

So here’s what we’re going to do!  I want YOU to cast my Second Olympus movie.  I’ve got a list of main characters below, and I’d love to know how YOU picture them.

Now, you’re thinking, “As fun as this is, this seems like it could take some time! What’s in it for me?”  I’m so glad you asked!  I will be awarding a $25 Amazon gift card to my favorite cast list.  Second place will get a $10 Amazon gift card!  To win, I want casting for the 12 “main” characters. (the “others” listed at the bottom are just for fun, if you have someone perfect in mind)

Since this kinda requires that you have READ the book, and not everyone reads super fast, I’m announcing this today, and then NEXT Friday (May 1st), I will put up a new post and THERE you will list your answers.  That gives you a week to read and ponder.

REMEMBER:  Don’t leave your answers on THIS post, wait til next Friday and we’ll do it then.

Now, you may have see me mention a few actors that I see in a couple of the roles, but don't feel like you're bound to that!  I want to know what YOU picture.  So get reading, and on May 1st, have your cast list ready!

Second Olympus Cast List

Olympus Tower:
Heracles
Artemis
Persephone
Demeter
Hades
Hephaestus

Deeptown:
Geoff
Lia
Ambert
Jon / Rik
Keras
Raffa

Others:
Art forger
Old Stan
Young Stan
Fons
Drones
Hunstmen

Second Olympus - Cover Art!

Once again, Robin Ludwig Design has knocked it out of the park.

For those who want to read the back, you can click on the pic to make it bigger, or here's the text:

AND THEY WILL COME FROM BELOW

The war amongst the Greek gods lasted over three decades and when it was ended, the sun was snuffed from the sky, Artemis sat on the throne, and the muses were murdered.

Without the power to create or invent, the human race languished for generations, trapped within the walled city of Elysia, their lives governed by the steady tick of the great world clock and the watchful eye of their increasingly erratic goddess.

But in the lower wards, far from the shining beacon that is Olympus Tower, a crippled boy named Geoff has grown to manhood, unaware of the legacy contained in his own mysterious bloodline. When his loved ones are threatened, the world will finally wake under the power of the muse, and the insane goddess Artemis will remember the very dangerous power of human imagination.



And just another close up of the front, 'cause I lurve it!

Current plan is to try and have the preorder option processing by tonight, with an eye to an April 21st release date.  Most likely, I will release the print copy a few days prior to that, to make sure that everyone can READ it on the release date.

I'm so excited!

Gooey Sticky Syrup

I suppose by now that it’s pretty clear that I’m not gonna hit the March 24th release date for Second Olympus. Well, it was worth a shot.

The good news is, the cover art is still in progress, and that’s really the only thing I’m waiting on.  Once I get that, I can hit the button and get this ball rolling.  Still hoping to give it a “pre-order” period, even if just for a couple of week.  Still hoping to have this out in April, but no promises, and no set date.

Other than that, I’m just plodding along.  Got that feet stuck in thick syrup feeling, lately.  I’m making progress, but it’s slow and steady, rather than abrupt and thrilling/terrifying.  Truthfully, I’m not sure which is better.  Patience is not one of my favorite things, but neither is abject terror.

Folks are getting antsy about JJD5. Trust me, it’s coming. I pick at the outline now and then when I need a break from MMwD, and this morning, I actually wrote down the first few paragraphs of a chapter just so they’d quit taking up room in my head.  Goal is still to have this one out and available this year, though not sure just when.  Won’t be a summer release like the others, but I feel like that’s not so important in the big scheme of things.

Nothing else going on but life in general. As it happens to all of us.  (well, most of us, I guess. I don’t discriminate against the undead)

Second Olympus - The Playlist

As mentioned before, I had a playlist for this book.  Most of the music was sent to my by a friend, and while it wasn't for the purpose of connecting it to the writing I was doing at the time, it just worked out that way.  Perfectly, in fact.

I wanted to make a Spotify playlist to link here so that you could all listen to it as well, but unfortunately, some of this music is a little obscure, and therefore not available.  I DID manage to find them (most of them, anyway) on Youtube, and so I've made you a Youtube playlist instead.

Again unfortunately, I can't figure out how to get that playlist to display MY notes on the songs to you, so I'll be doing that below.

It's not my intention for you to sync listening to the songs to reading the book.  That would be silly, and impossible.  It is also worth it to note that I very rarely picked a song for its lyrics.  Some of them aren't even in English.  More, I picked it for the sound of it, the mood I felt it conveyed.  Also, don't bother looking at the videos themselves. They were chosen as the best example of the music I could find.



The name of the song & artist are available in the videos above, so down here, I'll just label them by number, and where I believe they fit in the book. I hope that I've left them suitably vague so as not to provide spoilers.  More one of those "when you've read the book, you'll understand" kind of things.  It's also worth noting that I've always believed this to be my "movie book", so it's only fitting that I have songs for the opening & closing credits.  Trust me, in my head, it's EPIC.

1 - Opening Credits
2 - Artemis' Theme
3 - Looking out on Elysia
4 - Heracles' Theme
5 - Taken
6 - Den of Iniquity
7- Hunt with the Black Hound
8 - Demeter's Theme
9 - Across the River
10 - Sanity Stretched Thin
11 - A History of Things Past
12 - Through the Dark
13 - The Airship
14 - Death in Olympus
15 - Closing Credits

More than all the music above, I'm hoping that if you find music that YOU like for this novel as you read, you can mention it in the comments below.  You'll notice that there are certain characters that I never found a theme for, so I'm always on the lookout to update my tunes.

Second Olympus

Yesterday, as I was working on my copy editing phase for Second Olympus, I Googled something involving the use of the possessive apostrophe on names ending in S. (I know, wild and crazy stuff, right?) The amusing thing was, the first hit that popped up was a thread on a writers’ forum from 2008. It was my thread, asking the same exact question for the same exact reason on the same exact book.

First off, let’s not talk about my powers of retention. Second, it made me realize that by the time Second Olympus actually releases, it will be 7 years old, and it will have a long road behind it already.

I started writing Second Olympus (then called Muse) back in 2008 after I’d finished the first JJD book (then called Third Strike, since we’re talking trivia). I was querying, trying to find an agent, and I knew I had to keep writing to get my mind off of it. A stray conversation late one night with a friend lead to the idea of Muse, and I got to work.

It was unlike anything I’d been writing, up to that point. I had a trunked epic fantasy under my belt, and JJD1 which was urban fantasy. Muse was…different, which was scary and exhilarating all at once. I stretched myself beyond my own literary box, and in the end, I was really proud of what I’d done. I think I finished it sometime in early 2009, about the same time we sold the JJD series.

Of course, from that point, I got busy with JJD stuff and new projects. Every so often, I’d go back to Muse and revise bits and pieces, send it to new readers, get their thoughts, add my own. My first agent wasn’t super gung-ho about it, I could tell, not because it was badly written, but because he just didn’t see a traditional market for it. And that’s their job, to know those things.

Time went on, years went by. I wound up with a new agent. When she asked about other projects I had, I of course sent her Muse, ‘cause I was still super proud of it. She had the same feelings about it, that traditional publishing probably wasn’t going to be interested. That was the point where I’d just had success getting JJD4 out on my own, and I knew that I could do this. So, with her permission, I moved forward with self-publishing Muse. That actual decision was made…probably July-ish, 2014? (Yes, looking at the date in the picture below, that was exactly when I made that decision)

I did another round of new beta readers, and their suggestions really made the book into what it is at this moment. I came up with a new title, and hopefully on March 24th, 2015, you will all get to read Second Olympus. (See what I did there? Slipped a release date right in like that. Ain’t I sneaky?)

I can’t even count how many rounds of revisions this thing went through. I probably have four different printed copies of this thing floating around my house, and at one point, I just quit printing it out and started making my editing notes on the same draft, just in different colors so I could tell the evolutions apart.

(This picture is the pile of previous drafts of everything. Muse, JJD1-JJD4, Peacemaker, MBG. I have no idea what to do with these. Do I throw them away?)

I should finish the copy edits this week on my lunch breaks, and then this weekend, I’ll get the print copy formatting done. Once I have a firm page count, I can commission the cover art and get this ball truly rolling.

My goal for release is March 24th, like I said above, contingent on cover art and zombie apocalypse, of course. I’ll try to get everything up for pre-order by March 1st if I can (the print copy won’t have a pre-order phase, but I’ll make it available a few days early, like I did with JJD4, so we can all read on the release date). I’ll also try to have limited print copies available for reviewers who want them, so folk definitely need to let me know. (kari.stewart21 (at) gmail.com)

I keep going through these deep highs and lows with this thing. The highs are where I’m SO FREAKIN’ EXCITED to have this book out and available. After all this time, it’s still one of my favorite stories. The lows are where I’m damn certain this is garbage, and that fans of my JJD books aren’t going to like something that’s so very different from what they’re used to from me.

I guess time will tell.