Facts - Stranger than Fiction

Happy Thursday!!!! Wow, what a week! I've been busy gearing up for my blog party next week and have some amazing prizes for you guys to win! Be sure and come back every day to see what's new!

Today I'm going to spend some time doing a quick, "Did you know?" post for anyone who may not be familiar with the great man known as Genghis Khan. This is in honor of the book Yassa being on sale for the month of October both in Kindle (just $2.99) and paperback (just $7.99) formats. The paperback has had a beautiful re-work and the interior is to die for (screenshots after the post). I hope you all enjoy this post and that you learn a little, too.

The following are all facts that I based Yassa on. Yassa is a work of fiction steeped in factual history.

Did you know:

• Genghis Khan began life as a boy named Temujin.
• His father was poisoned when Temujin was just nine years old; forcing the child to step up and lead his people.
• In Mongolia, it was common for a young boy to live with his betrothed's family to learn the ways of their people for up to four years before the marriage.
• Temujin spent four years of his life in slavery, and his escape got him noticed by powerful men.
• Blonde girls were an anomaly but highly sought-after prizes (I could find nothing that said Borte was one of these but I read it happened and went with it).
• The Merkits stole Temujin's wife, Borte, just two weeks after they were married and his retribution made him a household name.
• Jamuka was Temujin's anda (brother in life) but no one knows why they had a falling-out (most assume it was over power).
• No one is sure if Temujin's first son, Jochi, was of his loin because of the timing of the child's birth (~ 9 mos after Borte was taken).
• In the span of just twenty-five years, Genghis Khan took over much of Mongolia; uniting the tribes under one banner.
• Genghis held the idea of loyalty above all else and wrote Yassa law based on it.
• He developed a new writing style and demanded it be used across all of Mongolia so writings could be understood by all.
• The cultivation of the Silk Road, made famous by Marco Polo, was done under the guidance of Genghis.
• He truly believed he spoke to God and was tolerant of all religious followings.

Genghis Khan was one of the great men from history. He did things others had only dreamed of.

If you want to learn more about Genghis, in a fun way, you can find out a lot of fact by reading my historical fiction novel. I stuck as closely as possible to the actual timeline of events and used many of the facts you see above to mold my character and get inside his head.

Now for a shot of the new interior of Yassa.

Smaller type, smaller format, better design, and less expensive for you, the reader. Go grab a copy and get your learning on!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Restricted Fonts

It's hump day, good people of the blogosphere! That means just two more days until the weekend arrives if you can make it over the hump. Can I get a, "YAY!"? Come on, you know you want to!

Today, I'm going to bombard you all with information to help get you through today if you happen to be formatting a book, e-book, or designing a cover. This post is all about restricted fonts.

Anyone know what a restricted font is? Do you know how to check if the font is restricted before you use it? I have your answers! Read on...

A restricted font is one that cannot be embedded in a file. It's restricted to use on your personal machine.

But how do you know a font is restricted before you use it? Follow these step-by-step instructions for discovering if a font can be embedded before you use it in your file:

1. Open MS Word (I use 2007 so these instructions are for that version)
2. Click on the Acrobat tab at the top
3. Click on Preferences
4. Click on Advanced Settings
5. Select the folder icon for Fonts
6. Look under the section titled Embedding and find the font list
7. Scroll through and note the tiny icons on the left side of your fonts

• TT means it's a true type font.
• O means it's an apple (mac) font.
• If there's a lock icon there, that's a restricted font. You cannot embed those fonts. Make a list of them and avoid them like the plague when preparing a book or e-book.

Now, if you flatten your Photoshop file to a jpeg before you upload it, it will keep your font (even if restricted), but you can't use it to design the interior because it WILL NOT embed.

I hope this post helps you all to find and avoid those fonts that will give you hours of headaches if you use them.

On a happier note, I just released a smaller, less expensive version of Yassa in print! It's 11pt type and this book is only 5.5x8.5 (standard size). It's $10 less than the large print version and is just $7.99. You can find it here. Remember, the Yassa ebook is also on sale for the month of October for just $2.99, everywhere e-books are sold. For an easy link, click here.

Have you ever been pinged by the dreaded restricted font warning message?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Ten Timeline Tips for Tuesday

Good Tuesday, people of the blogosphere! Today I'd like to talk a little bit about those pesky problems we all run into from time to time called inconsistency. I'm gonna give you a handy dandy way to eradicate that problem by giving you ten tips to creating a timeline in MS Word that will help your story (or series) stay the course.

1. When you decide on a year your story will take place in, write it down.
2. Make a quick list of your characters' ages and put their birthdays on your timeline.
3. Use sequential time (don't put 1988 down, follow it by 1992, then jump back to 1964).
4. Be specific - use a calendar and reference months and days.
5. Don't move or change dates while writing (you can add, but that's a different animal).
6. Use a type size that's easy to read (I recommend 12pt or larger).
7. Italics and bold are your friends.
8. Bullets can be used to call out a list of events that occur on the same day.
9. It's okay to have a year where all that happens is a birthday.
10. Color code your characters' names.

Now, for a more in-depth look at each of those tips and why they're important.

#1. You want to have an idea of what the speech was like in the era you're writing about. You also need to know what the world was like. If you're writing a novel set in the 1960's, you won't have someone chatting on a cell phone.

#2. You need to know your character from birth to death even if you don't kill them off during the story. Life events have a way of shaping us into who we are. Know them all.

#3. You don't want to hunt through ten pages of time to know when a character fell down and scraped her knee. If you want to make it when she was nine, you'll be able to look up the year by following the timeline.

#4. Just do it. Your story will be more believable if you do and will help you find pertinent information later with ease, keeping you in the flow of writing. If you have to stop and figure out what Saturday in May little Alice had her twelfth birthday party, you're going to break your concentration.

#5. I don't know how Scrivner works, but if you're hashing out a manuscript in word, changing the date something happened is a PITA. You may have referenced it elsewhere and forget. Make decisions!

#6. This is so you don't suffer eye strain when looking back and forth or searching for something.

#7. Italics and bold can help you call out emotional or life-changing events; eliminating the need for searching through your entire timeline to find out when the character's friend called him ugly.

#8. If you have a particularly stressful day lined up for your character in the past, bullets will help you reference the list quickly and call it out on your timeline for easy spotting.

#9. Even if it's just a 9th birthday party, put it down. You may decide later to have someone drown in the pool and it will prevent you having to look up what day of the week it was on. See #4.

#10. If Margot and Alice both had an event on the same day, color coding will help you see what happened when and to whom as soon as you find the date. Easy peasy.

I hope this list helps you prepare to write using a timeline. For a series or a work with specific dates already set in stone (like the birthing of children in a Historical Fiction novel), it's a must-have tool.

I used one religiously when writing Yassa so I could keep the dates of Genghis Khan's son's birthdays in order. Is it just me or was that a lot of s use?

Do you keep a timeline? Have you ever thought about it?

Well, that's all for today, folks! If you haven't picked up a copy of Yassa yet, it's on sale everywhere for the month of October at just $2.99. Go get one! You can find the links here. Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Interview with Lily Mystic Book Two

Hello, good people of the blogosphere!! To warm you up for my author interviews and blog party next week, I'm giving you a look at the main character in Lily, book two of my Mystic series. I hope you all enjoy meeting her.

Jo: Hi Lily! It's good to have you here today.

Lily: Thank you. It's good to be here, verbally, rather than on-screen - I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.

Jo: I understand your fear. If I'd gone through what you went through, I'm not sure I'd be sitting here either.

Lily: *laughs* I'm thankful to have been rescued from the hell I was in.

Jo: I bet. So, tell us a little about your modeling career.

Lily: I was famous. I appeared in every fashion magazine that exists by the time I was nineteen. My career really took off when I was eighteen and had already been working for a year. My ex and I did a campaign for Guess and that was the beginning of success for us. We were booked through the next two years after that ad hit the shelves. It was like a fairy tale come to life.

Jo: Will you please tell our readers what happened?

Lily: Well, I was drunk and decided - like a fool - that I should drive home. I crashed on the exit ramp and went through the windshield. I almost killed my ex-boyfriend in the process.

Jo: That's quite a burden to carry. How did you deal with it?

Lily: I'd prefer not to talk about that. Can we talk about Markaza instead?

Jo: Sure. I understand if the memory is too painful. How did you meet Markaza?

Lily: She moved into the beach house next door. That crazy fool went swimming in the Atlantic ocean in January! Afterward, she collapsed on the beach. I put an umbrella up so she didn't get crispy-crittered. She returned it, and we met.

Jo: How did she help you?

Lily: She helped me find a way to love myself again. I'm beautiful, even if I am scarred. It's my heart that counts.

Jo: How right you are. Tell me about moving to New York. Why did you make that decision?

Lily: I got accepted to a program in a college here where I'll be studying ophthalmology. I got a full scholarship from a company called WSTW - Women Save the World - and I took it.

Jo: Tell me about WSTW. What do you know about them?

Lily: Very little. All I could find online was their mission statement: "WSTW is on a mission to empower women and bring the strongest of them together to right the wrongs in the world." Pretty powerful stuff, huh?

Jo: Yeah, it is. How do you like your roommate, Bronya?

Lily: She's great. We haven't had a lot of time to get to know one another though. What I know and what I've seen, I adore. She seems really eager to make friends.

Jo: I interviewed her a few weeks ago. She's marvelous and has a huge heart. Well, Lily, thank you for your time today. I enjoyed talking with you. One last question: If you could choose who would play you in a movie rendition of Mystic, who would it be?

Lily: Thank you, Jo. I enjoyed being here. If I had to choose... Taylor Swift. She seems innocent enough.

If you want to know what Lily struggled with and how she dealt with it, you'll have to read the book!! Her story will be released 10/30. It's a hair-raiser. Don't forget to pick up a copy of Mystic~Bronya and get up to speed on what's going on! Just $3.99 for Kindle on Amazon!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

CR TBR and RR

Good Friday, people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm sharing my CR (currently reading), TBR (to be read), and RR (recently read) list. My goal here is to introduce you to books you may not know exist.

We'll start with my CR list and go in order. You can read the synopsis via the links provided. They will take you to the Amazon page for the books.

First on my list is a print book I won in a giveaway hosted by One More Chapter.

• Pulled by Danielle Bannister

Being read in tandem with Pulled is a digital book I picked up via a free promotion.

• Breath of Air (The Dryad Quartet) by Katie Jennings

Now on to my TBR list.

• Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
• The Dangerous Kind & Other Stories by Robert Chazz Chute
• New Revelations (Second Sight Book 2) by Heather Topham Wood (Goodreads link, not available for sale yet)
• Hollowland (The Hollows, #1) by Amanda Hocking (Free on Kindle today)
• The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan (hardcover will read in tandem with e-books)

On to my RR list. My reviews are posted at these links as well (if I wrote one).

• Soul Sisters by Janiera Eldridge
• Soul Journey: The Greatest Secrets to Living the Live you Want by Lisa Cherry
• First Visions (Second Sight Book 1) by Heather Topham Wood
• Canopy by Crystal Lee (I was one of the editors on this book)
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I've only listed the books I've read over the last month. If I went back any further, this page would be out of control!

I hope you all enjoy looking through the books and I hope you find some new authors to read.

What are you reading right now?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Coffee and Writing

That's right, you know what I'm talking about: the stuff of life. Those rich, dark, enticing brews we all know and love called: coffee. The perfect friend for writers when they're struck by the muse and need to keep their peepers open or for the mom who just needs a helping hand to get moving in the morning.

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm chatting about something I imbibe great amounts of on a daily basis. Join me!

I've been drinking coffee for more years than I know. It's always been a part of my life; kinna like breathing.

Things I've learned about coffee through the years:

• Some like it hot
• Some like it cold
• Some like it strong
• Some like it weak
• Some like it sweet
• Some like it bitter
• Some prefer cappuccino
• Everyone has a preference

Beyond how people like their coffee prepared, most of them are brand-loyal. There are many brands out there to choose from. My favorite is Community, but I know some who like Folgers, Doughnut House or StarBucks; to name just a few. I've been lucky enough to find a partner who loves coffee as much as I do. May you all be as blessed!

How does this pertain to writing besides keeping you awake so you can? Oftentimes, I find my characters having a chat about things while sitting around. I introduce coffee. Coffee mugs give them something to do with their hands. It can be spilled, thrown, or make someone ill. Making coffee gives a reason for a character to leave the conversation for a moment to think, reflect, or calm down. Java can give them the jitters or enhance tension in the room. It can also provide fuel for keeping them up all night having a chat.

I've had many many conversations over a cup of coffee; some were life-changing. I write what I know.

Markaza, Bronya, Lily, and some of the other ladies from my Mystic series are always drinking coffee. Why? Because it's in their character bios. How you take your coffee can say a lot about you. Keep this in mind when creating your characters.

I leave you all with a question: How do you like your coffee?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

3D Characters

Good Wednesday, people of the blogosphere! I'm revisiting an old favorite of mine: character creation. So, sit back and buckle up, grab your coffee and your notebook, and get prepared to join me on this short journey.

How long is your book? That's the first question you must ask yourself. If your book is part of a series, how much do you want to reveal in book one? That's question two.

Every character has a past, present, and future (unless you kill them off, you cad!). They all have a set of core beliefs and an intrinsic nature. These things should be decided upon before you ever put down the first word.

I cannot stress enough how important a character bio is. It will give you a document to reference when gauging how a character will react when placed into a specific situation where they have a decision to make. For example: If your character is very humble, they won't brag on their accomplishments in a group setting, take praise well, or be comfortable in a situation where they're the center of attention.

But a decision must be made on how to convey these values to the reader and if/when to tell the reader where the values were instilled in the first place. In a series, don't reveal everything about the character from the first book. Leave some to work in later. In your character bio, be sure and mark through what you have and haven't told in the story.

You do need to make your character 3D though. Show their emotions, living conditions, and perhaps even give a little background information. But those moments of reveal should come from things that occur during the story. Have a reason for showing the reader the past.

If you do the above, your characters will be loveable, connectable, and three-dimensional.

If you're writing Historical Fiction, you already have a good idea of how your character will behave. When I wrote Yassa, I knew Genghis Khan was very strict, believed in God, and was loyal beyond all else. I used his loyalty against him when I made him react to his wife's relationship with Jamuka. It provided tension that couldn't have come from any other source. His inner struggle was severe because of what he did.

If you'd like to get an idea of how powerful characterization is, I've put Yassa on sale for the month of October. It's priced at $2.99. You can pick up a copy on Smashwords, Amazon, or B&N for this price (Amazon will update sometime today, Kobo, iBooks, and others will update throughout the month). Go pick up a copy and have a read. Then pop on over and tell me what you thought.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo