Fractured Legacy Release Day

Can Kaylyn figure out how to stop a spirit that has been looking for her since she was a child?

Available October 22

Fractured Legacy by Skye Callahan

Kaylyn Anderson's fascination with abandoned places and dark creatures kindled her work as a paranormal investigator. But when dreams begin to distort reality, she questions what is real and pulls away from everyone she trusts. The opportunity to investigate the Teague Hotel--a long-abandoned landmark that has always piqued her curiosity--provides a chance to redeem herself. Unraveling the hotel's secrets won't be easy, but Kaylyn soon finds herself the target of a dark entity that has been trapped in the building for decades. If Kaylyn stands any chance of defeating the spirit, she'll have to accept that her fears are real and convince fellow investigators that she hasn't lost her mind. Buy your copy on Amazon Read the first 3 chapters on Wattpad Follow along with the Release Tour for interviews, excerpts, reviews, and a chance to win a signed paperback (US), bookmarks and Fractured Legacy swag in the Rafflecopter giveaway.

About the Author: Skye Callahan

Skye Callahan was born and raised in Ohio and has seen enough unbelievable stuff to feed a lifetime of paranormal stories. When not writing or working at the dayjob, she hangs out with her ethnomusicologist husband and pet ferrets, reads, and takes long walks through the cemetery. Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Blog

Friday Links -- Volume eight

It's been a busy week for me, both at home and at work.  So much so that I didn't even post on Wednesday.  At least I can make it up to you with more writing links.

Enjoy the weekend!

Copy-editors: What They Really Do

5 Mistakes Authors Make When Approaching Book Bloggers

The ABCs of Self-Publishing

Nanowrimo Prep: Story Elements Checklist 

The Characteristic Moment Belongs at the End of Your Book Too 

Learning How to Blog—the Hard Way

Friday Links and Backworlds Announcement

It's Friday again, with a whole bunch of writing links for your reading pleasure.

Do You Read Self-Published Books Differently?
Query Detox, Part 2
The ABCs of Self-Publishing
Let the Characters Tell the Story
Reinventing Your Story: Part 1: Why Reinvent?
Reinventing Your Story: Part 2: Types of Reinventing
Reinventing Your Book: Part 3: Type of Story

But wait, there's more!

I'm also happy to announce the release of Beyond The Edge, the fourth book in the Backworlds series penned by M. Pax.  What are the Backworlds, you ask?  I'll let the author tell you herself.

ChemistKen: Why are the planets your main characters live on called the Backworlds?

M. Pax:  As humanity expanded from Earth, at first the genetic modifications were minor. In my future, we terraform ourselves instead of planets. The first worlds settled were more Earth-like and closer to home. To expand further, those enhanced humans created descendants with more modifications to take advantage of less ideal habitats. They became the Foreworlds and the Backworlds. Earth is so far back in history, most think it’s a myth.

Interesting concept. So be sure to check out Beyond the Edge.  BTW, The Backworlds, the first book in the series, is available for free!  Grab it now!

That's it for this week.  Have a great weekend.  I certainly will. Tomorrow's my birthday!

Some truths are better left unfound.

For two years Craze’s dear friend, Lepsi, has been missing. The murmurings of a haunted spaceship might be a message and may mean his old pal isn’t dead. The possibility spurs Craze and Captain Talos to travel to uncharted worlds, searching. Out there, in an unfamiliar region of the galaxy beyond the Backworlds, they stumble upon a terrible truth.

Meanwhile, Rainly remains on Pardeep Station as acting planetlord, dealing with the discovery of her lover’s dark and brutal past. Alone and questioning her judgment, her introspection unlocks more than heartache. Latent protocols in her cybernetics activate, forcing her to face a sinister secret of her own.

In the far future, humanity settles the stars, bioengineering its descendents to survive in a harsh universe. This is the fourth book in the science fiction series, The Backworlds. A space opera adventure.

Amazon / AmazonUK / Nook / Smashwords / Kobo / Other Outlets


About the author:

M. Pax-- Inspiring the words she writes, she spends her summers as a star guide at Pine Mountain Observatory in stunning Central Oregon where she lives with the Husband Unit and two demanding cats. She writes science fiction and fantasy mostly. You can find out more by visiting her at:

Website / FB / Twitter / Goodreads / Pinterest / Wattpad

Showing and Telling -- ARGGGGGGGHHHHH!

I’ve been thinking about showing vs. telling a lot this week, mostly due to a pairof blog posts by Janice Hardy  and Jami Gold. Janice wrote a nice post describing the differences between telling and showing, including several “before” and “after” versions of the same passage. Good information, and I suggest you stop by and read it. However, some of the “before” passages, the ones with more telling, sounded pretty darn good to me.  And it would never have occurred to me that they required fixing. Was I clueless or what? After some back and forth comments, we agreed that the "before" versions weren’t all that bad. Janice was just demonstrating how to make the wording even better.

Still, I wonder if I’m ever going to grasp the concept of showing in any meaningful way. I understand the basics – don’t tell us character emotions, show us through their actions. Don’t tell us their motivations, let us figure it out based on what you have the character do. I get that. But anything more subtle than that? Forget about it. I can’t see it. And even when someone else points out my sentences are telling, I’m often at a loss as to how to fix it – at least without turning my sentences into a wallowing, stinking mess.

Sigh….

I suspect part of my problem stems from my personality. I’ve always been a “just the facts, ma’am” kind of guy. Tell the reader what’s happening and get on with the story already. And to be honest, I find books that have a fair amount of telling to be much more readable. Too much showing often leaves me with the impression the writer is either trying to pad his word count or trying to avoid telling me what’s going on—like a politician giving a speech—hinting at what’s happening instead of coming right out and telling us in plain speech.

Maybe that’s why I’m not published yet. Well, that and the fact that I haven’t finished my book.

What we need are some good books dedicated to the art of showing.


P.S. My 3 month old silver Ford Focus was side-swiped this morning by a driver pulling out of a fast food parking lot without looking. I am sad. (Hmmm… I guess that’s telling, isn’t it?)

Friday Links -- Volume Seven

Not much to say this week, other than the fact that I spent most of it trying to figure out social media.  Oh well, I'll get it eventually.  At least I've made some small progress on my story.

Anyway, here are the writing links.  One of these days I'll get around to adding non-writing links.

Enjoy the weekend!

Misdirection: Why We Have to Fool Our Readers

Inside Inner Conflict 4 Tips to Solve 99% of Your Writing Problems

My Type (of Character)

Why You Should Be Blogging Your Origin Story

How to use Pinterest to Promote Your Book

The Insecure Writer and Social Media

Today is October's contribution to Alex Cavanaugh's Insecure Writers Support Group.


Why am I an Insecure Writer this month?

Because of social media.  (Shivers).

It's no secret I'm not very savvy when it comes to social media.  I've always been a bit of an introvert, and I've never been very comfortable with the idea of sending out updates on the status of my life or my current thoughts. I've toyed around with Twitter, but most of my tweets are direct messages (DMs) to people I know. One big barrier is the fact that I can't connect with either Twitter or Facebook at work.  And after I come home, eat dinner, and take care of family responsibilities, I only have about an hour or two to spend on social media and writing.  And every minute I spend on Twitter is one less minute I could be writing.  Besides, I feel silly retweeting something that happened eight hours ago.

I guess you could say I spend more time and energy avoiding social media than I do using it.

My lack of social media kung fu was brought home to me last week during Melissa Maygrove's Follow Fest.  I made many new social media connections during the blogfest, but if I don't get onto Twitter soon, I'm not going to be interacting with any of them.

So here's my current status on the various social media sites:

Facebook:  Haven't updated it for years, although I do occasionally post on blogs of friends and family. Haven't decided if I going to stick with a profile page or create a fan page once I'm published.  But if I don't start posting on Facebook regularly, what difference does it make?

Twitter:  It's been so long since I've even checked on Twitter that I only just discovered my version of TweetDeck is so old it won't even run.  And there doesn't appear to be an updated version for Linux, which is what I run on that particular computer.  What do you guys say?  Should I put Windows back on my computer or should I look into Hootsuite?

Pinterest:  Finally followed a few other people's boards this week.  Haven't uploaded any new pictures in half a year.

Google+:  Didn't even remember I had set up an account until a few people asked to connect with me. Embarrassing!

Goodreads:  I've had an account for over a year, but--no surprise--haven't done anything with it.  Not even sure what my password is.  Bad writer!  Bad, bad writer!

Amazon Author Page:  Almost makes me glad I'm not published, so that I don't have to worry about starting one up... yet.

ISWG: At least I've been diligent here, slowly working my way down to number 60 on the ISWG list.  My goal is to make it to 50!

Sigh...  It looks to be a long road ahead for social media and me.
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The co-hosts this month are Julie Luek, Rachna Chabria, Beverly Fox, and Ilima Todd!  Be sure to stop by their blogs and say hello.

BTW.  Good luck to Alex with his new book, CassaStorm.