INDIGO AWAKENING Virtual Tour Announcements & GIVEAWAYS

by Jordan Dane
@JordanDane



I will be launching INDIGO AWAKENING (HarlequinTEEN) on Dec 18th. Because December is such a hectic month, I will be postponing my promotion (v-tours & signing events) until January, 2013. INDIGO AWAKENING is book #1 in the Hunted series and is available for pre-order now. You can be first to read it before the virtual tours start, but here are the scoop on the upcoming online tours.

The first virtual tour will be hosted by KismetBT and scheduled for Jan 7 – Jan 18, 2013. Tour stops will have my book giveaway at each stop to one lucky winner, PLUS an amazing Harlequin Teen GRAND PRIZE pack awarded at the end of the 2-week tour.

Another v-tour will be hosted by YABOUND and held the week of Jan 28th. This will be a blast tour format, PLUS Harlequin Teen will also be giving away their GRAND PRIZE gift pack of goodies at the end of this tour too.

Here are a few other deets for the giveaways on these tours:

For anyone who has read an advance copy of INDIGO AWAKENING, you know that a silver infinity bracelet plays an important part in the story. Special bracelets will be given away on the virtual tour so the lucky winners will be part of Rafael’s street family. Rafe’s bracelet was in black leather, but I’ve added a white leather braid as my personal remembrance to you for being in MY family.



Another cool giveaway is a music from the pop punk band, Archimedes Watchout. These guys are friends of mine and are mentioned in my book. Whenever they tour in Texas and come to San Antonio, they stay with us. My husband and I love the 2 AM knock on our door. Friend them on Myspace. Very cool guys.




I also will have a special giveaway for the audio book of IN THE ARMS OF STONE ANGELS with Audible and narrated by the award winning and talented voice actor, Michelle Ann Dunphy. She's amazing as Brenna Nash, my main character.

And I'll have uber-cool commemorative INDIGO AWAKENING bookmark swag, signed of course. Here are the front and back. The design is gorgeous. The color online is nothing like the real thing in your hands.

High Concept and Red Wheelbarrows

We are a society that loves high concept. Agents hunt it, editors want it, directors demand it. That translates to thousands of writers banging at computers across the country trying to write it. One problem is that the definition isn’t always clear. I was having lunch this week with two writer friends, a screen writer and a Sci-Fi novelist. We tried on definitions of high concept, but as soon as we thought we had a sleek fit, one or the other of us objected. It was as bad as trying to find a pair of good fitting jeans. As we regretfully discarded each definition one by one, I thought of it as the literary equivalent of “that  makes your butt look fat.”   Did I mention that the two other writers are male? They would have a different analogy, I’m sure. 

So what is the elusive definition of high concept? Agent Nathan Bransford says in a post a, “hook that we can easily understand and digest."

John Truby, in The Anatomy of a Story says:  "high concept. . . means the film (story) can be reduced to a catchy one-line description that audiences will instantly understand and come rushing to the theater to see."

It sounds like they’re describing this year’s politics: complex problems reduced to sound bites, one sentence solutions with the difficult bits left out. No wonder our society loves high concept.

"But what about substance? What about beautiful writing, fresh ideas? Can high concept be all that?" I asked.

"What about William Carlos Williams?" my SciFi friend asked? 

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

I wanted to say I didn’t know SciFi writers read poetry, but I kept my mouth shut. He had a point. A short idea, but deep. The catchy one line phrase might belie writing of substance. The sleek fit. The pants are looking better. But still there was something missing. I wasn’t ready to buy yet. The fit still wasn’t perfect.

In the post,"High Concept Writing the Michael Crichton Model," seemaxrun says, “Extreme” and “first” define “high concept.” Ah, writers must take “what if” and stretch it as far as it will go. What if we could clone dinosaurs? Extreme might be a good word to include. 

So we tried a new style: High concept is a story idea taken to the extreme that resonates at a gut level, appeals to a wide audience and is easily described in a single sentence that begins with What if. . .

I got my wallet out. 

Sci-Fi guy wanted a tighter fit. “An idea so big yet so simple, it screams:  why didn't I think of that?”

I’m ready to buy, but you can be honest, does this definition make my butt look fat?

Enough already.

by Michelle Gagnon

I feel like there's been an increasingly acrimonious discourse lately on traditional vs. self-publishing, and frankly, I'm tired of it. I'm seeing it at conferences, online, and everywhere in between. Both camps are equally guilty here, in terms of snide comments and blatant put-downs. Those who are under contract with traditional publishing houses sniff at the fact that self-published authors skipped over hurdles to publish what they suspect (but rarely say publicly) must be drivel, or what one writer friend of mine referred to as a "tsunami of swill."

In the other camp, the self-published authors extol the fantastic revenue returns they're receiving, a far greater percentage than what they would have gotten from a standard publishing contract. They make lots of references to an archaic business model, implying that anyone who still partakes in it is a fool.

Enough already.

I don't really care how someone is published, or how many books they sell, or how much money they're making. But the overall nastiness that's becoming commonplace is off-putting. The prevailing attitude used to be, "we're all in this together" among writers, whereas now there's a schism. And that's a shame, because both models have their merits.

To those (like me) who are still publishing with the major houses: I've read wonderful novels in the past few years that failed to find a home. Sometimes the reason for that was clear--the book was aimed at a very niche market, one where publishers couldn't envision making a profit. Other times, I was at a loss to know why a particular book didn't sell. One was an amazing YA novel written by a friend of mine, who ended up self-pubbing on Wattpad. After reaching an extraordinary amount of downloads, she moved it to Amazon and started charging for it. And it's doing well- IMHO, the publishers lost out on this one. 

To self-published authors: The traditional houses aren't going anywhere. People frequently point to the music industry, which is a fantastic example. What they fail to take into account is that musicians still aren't, by and large, self-producing music. Eighty-five percent of the music sold worldwide is still produced by the same music companies that were producing it a decade ago. Many of those companies have merged and/or consolidated, sure. But they're still around, for the same reason that the big 6 will still be around in a decade. Like it or not (and I'm not, personally, a huge fan of this, but so be it), most of the houses are part of much larger conglomerates. And News Corp and CBS aren't going anywhere; they're also unlikely to shed an industry that still feeds into their film and TV franchises. So, no, people who still follow the old model aren't going to be shoved out, by and large. The midlist might diminish further, but books will continue to be released by those companies well into the future.

There are pros and cons to each model. Self-published authors don't have the benefit and protection of a contract, so if Amazon decides tomorrow to change those royalty rates, they're well within their rights to do so. It's also far more difficult to secure foreign and film/tv rights when you self-pub, and that tends to be the bread and butter of traditional authors.

Traditional authors, meanwhile, do lose out on some royalties that they could potentially be getting. They also have to wait months, and occasionally years, for a book to finally appear on shelves. And advances are not what they once were.

But there's no right way and no wrong way. Write your book. Publish your book, however you prefer. But please, stop with the mud slinging. At the end of the day, we're all still pursuing the same dream.

It's a Wrap! Austin Comic Con 2012

Austin Comic Con! The crazy, whirlwind weekend is over, but even with all the preparation and pre-excitement, I'm always sad when it's done. Still, the best thing is that there is already next year to think about!

A few quick things and then I'll summarize it with pictures...

First, I made the news! Yes, they interviewed me and Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino. How fun is that?

Games begin on Halloween weekend

Second, no, I did not meet any cast members from Star Trek: The Next Generation. They were seriously kept "safe" at all times. I did see them quite a bit, but they were never just hanging around at the signing tables. I'm pretty sure they would be mobbed if they did.

(which is why they have these signs around where they'll be)

I got this close to Michael Dorn.

I think he remembered me from the Star Trek convention I went to back in 1995.

Third, I am a bit disappointed. I saw no Klingons (except Michael Dorn). No Borg. I'm told there was one of each at the show, but I had no sightings.


And now, on to the pictures!

***

This year I shared the booth with four other awesome authors: 
Jessica Lee Anderson, Mari Mancusi, Madeline Smoot, and Cory Putman Oakes. 
Danny Woodfill at THE BOOK SPOT, a great independent bookstore in Round Rock, TX, sold books for us again this year!

Friday and Saturday had me dressed as Alice in Wonderful from the Tim Burton movie, the red court dress.

Saturday at the booth with Jessica, Madeline, Me (PJ), and Cory!

Mari (Friday) as Bat Girl!

Danny, ready to sell lots of books!

And check out all those beautiful Sharpies :)

It's always nice to change it up on the costumes, so Sunday, since Madeline, Jessica, and I were the only ones there, we dressed at the three fates.

 Me (PJ), Madeline, and Jessica

We scared kids by handing out eyeballs :)

One of the best things about being an exhibitor is bypassing the huge crowd and getting in early. The con was packed and so much fun, and I was happy not to wait in a single line.

Everyone wants to get in to see us.

And the crew of TNG.

Getting in early allows pictures on the bridge of the Enterprise to be taken when no one else is waiting.

Costumes are fun and all, but changing out of them at the end of the day is always a wonderful thing.

Jessica and Madeline dressed as themselves.

I ditched my dress but kept my fancy hair :)

It's great running into people you know! We saw awesome English teacher, Valerie Burleigh and her husband, Austin writer Zaib Husain, Austin author Jo Whittemore and her husband Roger, Austin author Ernie Cline, and excellent publicist Jennifer Hill Robenalt just to name a few!

With Cory, Me (PJ), Mari, and Jennifer Hill Robenalt

Another great part of a con is meeting your neighbors! We were next to awesome comic artist, Jeff Balke and very close to my favorites, the Vamplets!

Jeff, ready to draw for the day!

The Vamplets booth, dressed up and ready to go!

Maybe the best part of Comic Con is taking random pictures with random people in random costumes!

Everyone needs a little R2D2 love!

I had to lean to the side so his costume wouldn't block my face!

Two Face asked which side I wanted to be on.

I totally picked the non-yucky side.

A little DeLorean time c/o Ernie Cline!

There are always Storm Troopers a-plenty at these things.

Death had some sweaty armpits, hence me leaning to the side here.

 No! Don't shoot!

It took the Emperor four hours to get his makeup just right!

p.s. Go, Team Sith!

And of course there is art that must be bought!

Borg Cubes c/o Drew Johnson at Bye Bye Robot.

Girl with Pumpkins c/o Jeena Pepersack.

Gorn c/o Charity Wood at Bye Bye Robot.

(the other Star Trek print is from Dallas Comic Con a couple years ago.)

***

So that's it, summarized in a bunch of pics. Did I mention I love my job? 

The only question at this point is...

What should I dress as next time?

*****

P. J. Hoover is the author of the upcoming dystopia/mythology YA book, SOLSTICE (Tor Teen, June 2013), the upcoming Egyptian mythology MG book, TUT (Tor Children's, Winter 2014), and the middle-grade SFF series, THE FORGOTTEN WORLDS BOOKS (CBAY, 2008-2010). You can read more about her and her books on P. J.'s website or blog.