Blog for Mary K. Preston, Siren romance author. Buy books at http://www.bookstrand.com/mary-k-preston
Striking a Chord is also available at Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/cssuo7u
and Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/caf76wd
Check it out, beautiful people! http://www.bookstrand.com/striking-a-chord
From the pre-order until now, I've sold something like 16 copies! I'm so excited, everyone. If you are one of those wonderful purchases, thank you so very much. I appreciate it a lot, feeling like a real author!
I missed Music Monday earlier this week, so I will include a song I've been listening to a lot in this post. You are all so wonderful!
I'll be updating as soon as any reviews come in, so stay tuned for sure. Hopefully everyone who has purchased the book so far will enjoy it.
I am a big fan of Elliott Smith's work. I don't typically write while listening to it, because while his work is beautiful, it's also very, very sad. And it's not really the head-space I like to be in, particularly if I'm writing romance.
But since it's been rainy, and then cold, for the past several days, Elliott Smith has seemed appropriate. And I've re-discovered his early stuff as a result. I was introduced to Elliott Smith's second-to-last album first. Figure 8 is a wonderful album, and it is still pretty much my favorite of his albums. But I'm going to talk about Elliott Smith, his second album. He was still pretty much sticking with plain vocals and guitar at this point in his career.
What I have somehow managed to forget is that he's such a skilled guitarist. Seriously.
This song, Satellite, is best listened to with headphones, I find; you can hear how intricately he combines the strumming and picking. It's a truly beautiful song, and I try and make everyone listen to it at least once.
So now it's your turn!
In other news, I have already sold a half-dozen copies of Striking a Chord in pre-orders, which is absurdly exciting. If any of my dear readers bought copies already, I want to thank you.
Since I thought it might be a good idea to get this blog in a regular schedule, and since I've mentioned in the past that one of my greatest inspirations in writing is music, I figured that making a music post every Monday would only be natural.
I'm slowly putting together the soundtrack to the next project. It's elusive--possibly because I haven't really started writing it yet. But some things are definitely standing out in my mind, little roadsigns on the path to a completed story.
The music I listen to isn't necessarily directly related to the tone of what I'm writing. Sometimes it's good to just have some atmospheric stuff going on. I was recently reminded of how much I enjoy Radiohead, and as a result, I've been listening to it a lot.The great thing that I love about Radiohead is that the sound is so beautifully layered. I can listen on headphones and be in my own little world.
I just sent in my edits for final approval, so I should be getting my advanced reading copy shortly! You know what that means...
The book is coming out soon!
Now that this one is done-done, I can finish up revising the second book in the series (and hopefully get it out quickly, since it's a sequel), and then I can start working out the book idea that I have that's been alternately whispering in my mental ears and screaming at me to start already.
I'm slowly working out a soundtrack to composing the next project. I think I've mentioned before; soundtracks are incredibly important to me when I'm writing. With the right soundtrack I can get 4000 words down without even realizing it. Ideally, the next book will be over 45k words, and thus eligible for print-on-demand.
Also, since there's going to be some real action coming up, I'll be making real efforts to keep this blog maintained, as well as to get some guest blogging in. Be on the lookout, folks!
I hadn't heard back from Siren since I sent in my edits on the 21st, so I checked in on the publication schedule.
Bad news: my book's release date is pushed back.
It's not the worst thing that could happen, because it's still coming out in the month of February. Looks like the new release date is at the end of the month. They're moving a lot of books right now, which makes sense--Valentine's Day and all.
The good news is, this gives me more time to prepare for promoting the book!
