Nathalie M.L. Römer General Posts

URGENT: Delayed release announcement

Due to a rather nasty stomach flu with all the accompanying symptoms, I’ve had something like 10 days where I’ve not been able to do much work on my writing. Because of this I had to make the difficult decision to delay the release of my books by THREE WEEKS to the following dates:
 
12 August 2016 – Subject 37 (The Utopus Series)
(This release will remain unchanged)
 
3 September 2016 – The Wolf Riders of Keldarra: Book 2: Second Elder of Ruh’nar
(This release has been delayed due to this illness)
 
I apologise to everyone who is looking forward to these books, but I rather recover proper and be able to deliver a better book, then try and rush now and deliver something affected in quality by how ill I’ve been feeling. I hope everyone understands this, and accepts my apology.
 
I will do my best to keep the window of delay as short as possible, and if I can get the release earlier than the new dates, then I’ll let you know here…
Nathalie M.L. Römer
Nathalie M.L. Römer General Posts

Encouragement to keep writing comes from the most unexpected places…

I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this year and using it as a platform to push me to keep working hard on The Wolf Riders of Keldarra: Book 2: Second Elder of Ruh’nar. I was just updating my word count there, and spotted a message waiting for me. It was a message sent out on behalf of an author called Natalie C. Parker. Here’s what it said in part…

BREAK THE RULES. It’s easy to get distracted by all the “do’s” and “don’ts” of storytelling. We’ve all heard rules. Don’t use adverbs! Do use dialogue tags! Don’t start with a dream sequence! Do start close to the moment of change!

Writing is about making your own rules. No one has written your manuscript before, so no one knows what’s going to work until you show them. So, ignore the noise that says there’s a right way to write a book and find your own rules.

Over the last few days I’ve been beating myself up over a bad review I received. It apparently said I was making “editorial errors.” Well it was for me more of a wake up call to get into action on the editor front. So I guess I’ll get a much better book out of this that will get enjoyed by a lot more people.

But going back to the above quote. I write my book in my voice. Not everyone may like it, and if someone doesn’t like it, just put the book aside and move on. But those who decide to give themselves a chance to read the book will find a wonderful world. Like what this reader told me:

I’m really enjoying book 1. I particularly love the detail you put into scenery and the fruits and history of the land – Jenna H.
 
I’ve realised that the biggest criticism I got from those who didn’t seem to like reading my books, is that they can’t get into it. I’ve decided they are right, and that’s why I am going to work with an editor to fix my first book The Wolf Riders of Keldarra: Book 1: The Stone of Truth 10-15 chapters at a time. Each time I get a section that’s sorted, I recompile my files to upload for the various eBook sites I am on, and each time I will re-upload a new file for the print version. And when it’s all done I’ll ask Amazon to push through an update so everyone with a copy of my book gets the new and improve edition delivered to their kindle or reading app. Stores will take about six weeks to update.
 
So why am I opening up about this?
 
Being an author is hard work. It’s mentally taxing, you have to be extremely organised. And here’s a screenshot of my planner showing all my planned books. Obviously I can’t give away specific details about titles etc. So this is as detailed you’ll get.
 
planningwork
 
There’s an author who goes out of her way to teach other authors the way to do stuff in this business. Her name is Joanna Penn, and she runs the site The Creative Penn. I secretly call her my “action-packed guardian muse” but don’t tell her I said that. She has stacks and stacks of information on her site that’s useful for authors who are just starting and those who have been at it for a while already. she shares on every aspect of being an author and running your career as a business. Thanks to her, I am becoming more and more that way.
 
And then I tripped and fell down, because I made the biggest error… not getting an editor sooner than I did. Well that’s sorted now.
 
I am by nature a very sensitive person, and I don’t take criticism easily. I get hurt by it easily. Joanna says you need a thick skin to cope with this business. But I am also a believer in compassion. I am not angry with the person who did that bad review. In fact, he did me a favour. He gave me that wake-up call I needed so badly. If I did not get that one star rating I’d probably write the next two dozen books and always be in denial about what’s needed to succeed.
 
After the editing will come the proofreading. And I’ll flesh out the story so it’s even better to read if that’s also needed. I’ll work on improving until I am certain the story is as best as I can make it. I do it every book I write… one step at a time…
 
One day in the future, perhaps a decade from now, I will come back to this post and add a comment to it that will be so simple. It will say “I’ve succeeded”. But you only get success with hard work, and part of that hard work IS to accept when you need help…
 
Thank you for reading. I wrote this from my heart.
 
Nathalie xx

Nathalie M.L. Römer General Posts, Publishing Advice

9 Literary Magazines for New and Unpublished Writers | Aerogramme Writers’ Studio9 Literary Magazines for New and Unpublished Writers – Aerogramme Writers’ Studio

via 9 Literary Magazines for New and Unpublished Writers | Aerogramme Writers’ Studio9 Literary Magazines for New and Unpublished Writers – Aerogramme Writers’ Studio

Nathalie M.L. Römer General Posts

Bonus Author Interview Page!

If this book is part of a series, tell us a bit about it?

The Wolf Riders of Keldarra is most certainly a series. I will be revealing all the titles in the series once Book 3 is published as I have a special promotion planned to coincide with its release. I cannot give any details beyond that at this time.

What made you decide to write a series?

Actually the book originally started as a short story of just 1600 words long, then it grew to what could have been a single book. But to me the original synopsis of the book felt incomplete so I worked on it for about three weeks, and it ended up as the multi-part series it is now… and no, I still can’t tell you how many parts there are.

Do you read a lot, and who are your favourite authors?

I read a lot. I also use Audible a lot. Some of my favourite authors include Jean M. Auel, Christie Golden, Richard A. Knaak. To this day I, Robot by Isaac Asimov is my favourite science fiction book, and Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien my favourite fantasy book.

Do you read books as physical books or do you read them as eBooks?

I read them in both formats.

Who designed your book cover? Is that apocalyptic science fiction book your mentioned designed in the same way?

For the The Wolf Riders of Keldarra I went with something somewhat unassuming, or at least unassuming on the surface. In my book the location of where the gems from which the Stone of Truth is cut, is revealed as the story progresses – you first find out it’s somewhere in the east of Keldarra, and the second book in the series is in part set there (spoiler!), and you will find out then why the image on the book cover is significant. You will also find out more about the reason for the design later as the series progresses…

Steven Novak from Novak Illustration did the cover for the dystopian apocalyptic science fiction novel Subject 37 recently for me. I can recommend him for a job well done, and I will highly recommend him for anyone, who wants a cover designed.

http://www.novakillustration.com

How did you publish your book, and why?

I used CreateSpace to publish my book, and plan to use them again for further book releases. However in the future I will expand to other platforms as well to expand the network of where my book is available.

I will update this page with a link to a new blog entry listing a number of these publishing platforms for interested readers.

I will be adding another bonus link below here with a link to another bonus page of questions in the future.