Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Winners! The Treasures of Carmelidrium


Wow! My blog book tour for The Treasures of Carmelidrium is over. I had many wonderful comments and a few questions left by all of you. But before I answer the questions below; we have 3 winners. Many of you entered more than once. Two of you entered at every post. There were 82 entries.

So here are the winners of my e-book, The Treasures of Carmelidrium.

Tony Benson at Fireside Park

Linda Leszczuk at Linda Leszczuk

Melissa Bradley at Melissa’s Imaginarium

I hope you all will enjoy my book, The Treasures of Carmelidrium.

My grandson drew the names that I had assigned a letter of the alphabet. 25 names in all. He is 3 and he did a great job and wanted to continue, but I had to end it somewhere. Right now, every name, multiplied by your entries, on every slip of paper, is decorating my office floor where he left them.

A few of you had questions for me during my blog book tour. While I gave short answers in the comments, I wanted to do a little more today.

Dominic de Mattos at Writes of Passage, asked.

I was interested in your comments about your critique group, and have picked up from other writers just how valuable a resource crit partners are.
How did you go about finding crit partners?
How important is it to be able to physically meet your crit partners?
How do you sift through the comments to sort the wheat from the chaff?
How much reading of their work is required?

Nancy: In my case, I am a long time member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. They offer critique groups. In the beginning I attended a writer’s support group at the local Barnes & Nobles Store. One member of that support group began to share the difference between a support group and a critique group. If you are serious about being published, then you need other writers to review your work. I started to attend a four person critique group. I felt uncomfortable at first because of my lack of experience. But with their gentle words, firm lessons and encouragement, I was transformed from a person who enjoyed writing, to a person who had a marketable manuscript. Now, I am the moderator of that same critique group. All the current members are new.

I am glad I had a face to face group in the beginning. But it isn’t always possible. There are online critique groups available too. Here’s a link to Critique Circle. I have no personal experience with this group so I can’t say if they are good.

Shorting through critique comments is a skill that you learn with trial and error. There are some people who won’t get your writing just as there are some who will give you a poor review, while others love your work. I recommend that all critique partners point out what is good about the story, and then what didn’t work for them, or needs improvement. I have become quite good at this because of the years of practice. After all, my youngest was in 3rd grade when I started and now she is 23.

Each critique group is different. But most want 10 pages, double spaced, courier new, 12 pt. I recommend that the group takes one entire chapter. That way you don’t have comments that you didn’t “hook” the reader at the end.

If you need a faster read, then I recommend you partner with someone who appreciates your writing. You should set up a mutually agreeable arrangement. I personally will be looking into doing this since I have advanced beyond the normal functions of a critique group.


Enid Wilson at Hot and Steamy! asked.

Time travel and medieval? Love it. Bring it on. Why doesn't Missie want to come back to modern day? Is there some romance in the book too? Congratulations, Nancy.

Nancy: Yes, there is romance, but there is also the power that her music has in Gil-Lael which it lacks in America. It’s a tough choice for Missie, one she struggles with right up until the end.

Jamie Gibbs at Mithril Wisdom, asked.
Excellent advice! Do you worry about anatomical details in your created monsters i.e. ways of walking, positioning of vital organs etc.? Also with pack monsters, do you work out the potential social interactions between the animals when they are free from human intervention?

Nancy: My monsters, the symberveen, are loosely based on Big Foot. Loosely is the operative word there. Big Foot is said to live in family groups. They don’t socialize with each other and they are shy of humans. Now how anyone knows this is beyond me, but that is the legend.

I didn’t worry about the symberveen internal organs. I would assume they would be like any other bear-like, or big foot creature. What I needed was a creature formidable in size and lethal in both physical and psychological action. Thus, the symberveen attack first with nightmares, and secondly with poisonous claws.

Jeffrey Beesler at Jeffrey Beesler’s World of the Scribe, asked.

Love the creative names of your creatures, Nancy! As fantasy writers it can be more work to come up with brand new critters, but oh so much rewarding in the same token, too.

Do the female symberveen do any hunting, too?

Nancy: I suspect they would though I had no need to show the female symberveen in my story.

Joanne at Whole Latte Life, asked.

I like the idea of interviewing the actual character. It really gives us a feel for the "voice" of the book. Is Voice something you consciously consider as you create the characters in your story?

Nancy: Yes, I was careful to create unique characters with their own voice. But for my author’s voice, I simply told the story and trusted my instincts.

Rachel Morgan at Rachel Morgan Writes, asked.

Yup, we readers definitely want both character and plot! I have kind of a random question, Nancy (if it's been answered somewhere obvious, like your website, then I'm really sorry for missing it!). Is this a stand alone novel or part of a series?

Nancy: I’m glad you asked that Rachel. Yes, The Treasures of Carmelidrium, is the first in a series of at least 3 high fantasy novels and possibly 5. I also plan to do 2 or more novellas in that same world. I’m working on a prequel novella right now.

The next full length epic will be titled, The Rise of Lord Sinon. I hope to release that at the end of this year or the first of next.

In addition, I’ll be working on a series of novellas featuring a phoenix heroine. This series will be written in first person.

Congratulations to the winners!

Thank you everyone for following my blog book tour and making it a success.

Nancy

25 comments:

Tony Benson said...

Wow, Nancy, Thank you! Having read what you've said about the book in your blog tour I'm really looking forward to reading it, and I'm excited to be a winner.

I wish you success with this book. You deserve it.

Will Burke said...

Thanks for the insights! I'll hopefully be looking for a crit group by the end of the year, and that was helpful.

N. R. Williams said...

You're welcome Tony. What is interesting is that of the 3 people who followed and left comments on nearly all my post, you are the only one that won. I was certain all 3 of you would win.

I'm glad I could help you with that Will.

Thanks for leaving comments.
NR

Joanne said...

Congrats to the winners, and kudos to you for a thoughtful, engaging tour!

Summer Ross said...

Congrats to the winners!

Michael Di Gesu said...

Congrats to the winners.

And to you, too, Nancy for giving us a fun book blog tour. I enjoyed hosting one of you hops very much and hope to do it again for your next book.

Good luck and I hope sales are great!

Michael

N. R. Williams said...

Thank you Joanne, I did my best to make the tour interesting.

Hi Summer, thanks for dropping by.

I appreciate that Michael, it was fun being on your blog.
NR

Unknown said...

Thank you so very much! I look forward to reading this marvelous tale.

Your words about crit groups is spot on. I find my own invaluable to my writing.

Dominic de Mattos said...

Thanks for answering my questions Nancy. I will have to give some thought to finding crit partners.

The tour seems to have gone well - I hope it achieved everything you wished. I was sorry that I had a sudden busy period which kept me away from blogland for the best part of two weeks. I have been struggling to catch up! Unbelievably for me, I have still not finished Treasures yet - I usually devour a book within a week! (and this is no reflection on how much of a page turner Treasures is, but I am so late to bed every night, I fall asleep before my head even hits the pillow!)

:Dom

Unknown said...

Congrats to the winners, and thanks for answering my question :-)

N. R. Williams said...

You're welcome Melissa.

I wondered Dom and em glad it was just everyday things that kept you busy.

You're welcome too Rachel.
NR

Misha Gerrick said...

Congrats to the winners!

:-)

N. R. Williams said...

Thank you Misha.
NR

Unknown said...

YOu've had a great tour! I've enjoyed all of your posts.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Congratulations to the winner! Hope you had fun on your tour.

Golden Eagle said...

Congratulations to the winners! :)

I've enjoyed reading all the posts in this tour! And it was great having you on my blog, Nancy.

N. R. Williams said...

Thank you Clarissa, Alex and Golden. I had a good, but exhausting time on the tour and I loved being on both Clarissa's blog and yours, Golden. Thank you all for dropping by.
NR

Jules said...

SEE, I told you. Your tour is over and people have questions and I'm only 2/3 of the way through. I definitely need to enroll in a speed reading class :)
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

Southpaw said...

Congrats to the winners. Nancy thanks for answering all the follow-up questions.

N. R. Williams said...

No problem Jules, the most important thing is that you enjoy my book.

You're welcome Holly.
NR

Denise Covey said...

This is a cool post. Congrats to all 3 winners. You'll love the book! Also Nancy I read your expanded comments with much interest. I was pleased it is going to be a series. What isn't these days huh? Great stuff.

Denise:)

New Publication Party up soon!

Publication Party!

Jeff Beesler said...

Congratulations to the winners! And congratulations to you, Nancy for a really awesome book tour!

Enid Wilson said...

Thanks Nancy for answering the question. I like the new look of your blog.

DEZMOND said...

yeepee, congrats to the winners! Especially to my dear Melissa.
It's really nice that you're giving your books to your readers, because we've seen many writers in the blogosphere who use their followers for free marketing and then never give them even some symbolical gifts such as their books when they get published!

N. R. Williams said...

Thank you L'Aussie, Jeffrey, Enid and Dezmond, for stopping by and leaving great comments.

I'm glad you like the new look Enid. I am actually planing to change it with the seasons since I love to change things, that gives me a purpose.
NR