Sara Brookes » blather

Time Ticking Away

Sara Brookes — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:44:01 +0000

I blogged today over at Paranormal Romantics about playing the waiting game. (http://paranormalromantics.blogspot.com/2010/05/playing-waiting-game.html). Come by and chat with me about it.

Book VS Movie

Sara Brookes — Fri, 21 May 2010 22:33:43 +0000

I blogged today at Liquid Silver Book’s author blog and I’m talking about books vs movies. Which do you prefer? The book or the movie?

http://www.liquidsilverbooks.com/blog/?p=5638

State of Sara

Sara Brookes — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:28:04 +0000

I haven’t done this in a while, so I’d thought I share a bit on how things are going and where they’re going.

My first science fiction romance, Midnight’s Ghost, will be released on May 10 (just a short ten days from now) from Liquid Silver Books. I’ll be doing some promotional work to coincide with the release, so keep an eye out in the coming weeks for that. In fact, on Monday – 5/3 – I’ll be posting the entire first chapter of Midnight’s Ghost. Be sure to stop back by and see what sort of action/adventure/science fiction/hot romance you’re in store for.

Edits are currently in progress for the second Rebirth book, Blood Fever. I’ve got a blurb all ready to go (though it’s still pre-edits) and waiting on a few things before I post that. However, I will say those who got attached to Stark & Ana in Flash of Dark, have no fear, they will return – in time. Blood Fever deals with a different set of characters and they are still attached with events set in motion in Flash of Dark (you can actually think of it as a mini-arc since the next book will be these characters as well). Oh and if there wasn’t enough vampire action in Flash of Dark for you, don’t worry, Blood Fever will make up for it in spades. Trust me.

Currently, I’m hard at work on the next Star Runner book, Midnight’s Shadow, with the third Rebirth book hot on its heels. That third book has a name, but I’m waiting until I get more in-depth with working on it before I announce anything. Plus, I have something else in the works – something completely different – but I’m waiting on that as well.

Needless to say, there’s a lot of waiting right now.

Don’t forget to stop back by tomorrow for Six Sentence Sunday – I’ll be posting six sentences from Midnight’s Shadow as a teaser.

When Five Become Four

Sara Brookes — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:21:17 +0000

I was asked to guest over at Paranormal Romantics today and decided to talk about a unique challenge I face as a writer. One most people take for granted.

How do you write about five senses when you only have four?

Come visit! http://paranormalromantics.blogspot.com/

My TBR Pile – Show & Tell

Sara Brookes — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:32:37 +0000

So, it’s February 18th. Which means Flash of Dark has been out for a whole month. So, what I have done in that month? Started the next book in the Star Runner series (Midnight’s Shadow), finished the next book in the Rebirth series (Blood Fury), waffled and fought with my own inner writing related demons. I’ve always been my own worst enemy when it comes to writing, but now it’s a whole different set of them added on top of what I already deal with. That’s okay though, to not get caught up in my own crap (that I always make worse in my own head) I write. Seems sort of odd, doesn’t it? You worry about writing so you write to forget about it? Not so odd if you remember that writing is an escape for me. There are times when writing is a struggle (like currently) and I learned not to force writing, so I usually use those times to catch up on my large TBR pile. A few books into it, I finally find my writing stride again and my TBR pile builds again.

Speaking of TBR piles, I thought I would show off mine. (Note, this of course, doesn’t include my eBook TBR pile, which sits on my hard drive and on my eReader.)

What’s yours look like? Bigger? Smaller? I showed you mine, show me yours.

When the Brain Goes BOOM

Sara Brookes — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:11:04 +0000

My brain has exploded a bit and I find myself suddenly working on something now I hadn’t thought I’d been working on yet. Thursday evening, I finished up my recent draft of the next Rebirth book, Blood Fever. I’ll set it aside for a little while before digging it back out to check for my usual “tells”. I expected to take some time, maybe dabble around with the untitled fantasy book I’ve been working on, but something else decided to come to the forefront.

So, since Friday evening, I already have nearly 5k on the next Star Runner Saga book, Midnight’s Shadow. I’ve scribbled out a bunch of notes in an effort to try to keep up with my brain, but I try not to do that too much as I’m quite content with my “pantser” mentality. I usually know only a few key things I want to accomplish in a book each time I start and that all came to me Friday night while I was driving. Start, middle and most importantly end (which, funnily enough is usually always, always, the first thing I think of when starting a new book – this one was no exception).

Off to fly in the stars.

Brain Farts & Reader Fails

Sara Brookes — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:04:43 +0000

I haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth, I swear. I’ve been busy putting the finishing touching on my sci-fi romance (which I just finished those last touches on last night) so I could get it off for submission and have another story waiting in the wings for me to start editing. For those that don’t know what I classify the difference as:

Revisions = I think something doesn’t work

Edit = I had a brain fart or my fingers and brain weren’t communicating very well

So, in addition, I had an idea for a quickie story I jotted notes down for last night. The brain – she doesn’t want to stop. I know better than to complain however and because of all of this, my reading has taken a severe beating. I won a copy of No Reservations by Megan Hart & Lauren Dane from Lauren Dane herself well over a month ago and I’m just getting time to sit down and read it. Normally, I’m beating down the bookstore’s front door the day a new J D Robb …in Death book is released and I’ve not gotten a chance to read that one either. It’s been sitting on my nightstand taunting me. Ava Gray’s Skin Game and Deborah Cooke’s Winter’s Kiss are there as well. Needless to say, I’ve had massive amounts of reader FAIL this entire month. But, I was one of the early pre-buyers of Barnes & Noble’s nook eReader, so I will have mine in my hands at the first part of December. While that won’t help me with my already purchased books, I hope it will help me keep up after.

Now that I’m done rambling about my shortcomings as a reader, there’s another Author Blog Tour in the works. If any of you were around for the Trick or Treat Blog Tour for Halloween, you’ll remember what a great time was had, great bodies were gazed upon and books were given away. I’ll have more details when they’re available.

WiPs in Outer Space

Sara Brookes — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:47:22 +0000

Things have gotten a little hectic around my household as I just finished up my 2nd rough draft pass on the 2nd book in the Rebirth series Sunday night and I immediately dug into my next WiP, which is not a Rebirth book. It’s a sci-fi romance and doesn’t have a title yet despite the word count indicator on the side of my website. That’s a placeholder only for the time being (Grey is the last name of one of the characters and Frost is the name of my new computer). But, since I do have an active WiP, this month’s Excerpt Monday offering on the 9th (this coming Monday) will be from that sci-fi book.

Personally, I’m not taking part in it, but this month is National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) and millions of people worldwide are frantically working their fingers to the bone to have 50,000 word by the deadline, Nov. 30. I wish all the participants luck and have fun!

Where There’s a Paddle, You’re Not Always Up the Creek

Sara Brookes — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:45:31 +0000

Sometimes, writing is like a giant game of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. In other words, rowing up a stream and going nowhere. Okay, you go somewhere, but times like these – you sometimes wonder.

I’m in the process of tearing apart Dark Fire, the second in the Rebirth series. There were a few things in the story that I didn’t particularly care for and this was my opportunity to set right all the wrongs I had. Which is usually a lot since it was still the first draft. Sometimes, this can be a daunting take, tearing a first draft apart like this. For instance, last night, I cut around a thousand words from my MS. Within an hour or two, I put back 900. This morning, I put another 800 in. So I made up what I took out, plus some.

It doesn’t always work this way. I’ve taken out 5000 and only put back 1000. Sometimes it’s just taking out something that didn’t work (because not everything does). Sometimes it’s making things tighter and corrects an unbalanced flow. Sometimes, realistically, things just suck.

I’m just glad right now that there’s no holes in the boat as I’m not interested in the whole “There’s A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea” deal right now.

Halloween Hotties Blog Tour & Why I Hate Technology Right Now

Sara Brookes — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:42:04 +0000

It’s been a very long weekend for me. My daughter’s Irish dance school put on their annual competition this past weekend and hubs and I volunteer for the whole weekend. To prevent a long story, my computer blew up Saturday afternoon. We’re talking physical memory dumps – repeated ones. Couldn’t happen at a worse time, I’ve exams this week and I left this morning, bright and early for a business trip for the week.

So, needless to say, technology and I aren’t friends right now like we usually are.

But that isn’t going to stop me from passing on goodies to you and boy is this one a treat! Come join me and trick or treat bag full of other authors for a Halloween Hottie Blog Hop on October 30. Now, if getting an eyeful of Halloween Hotties wasn’t enough, there’s prizes in the tour and you can find out more about the details on who’s involved and what the prizes will be here.

Be sure to stop back by here on the 30th!