A. L. Wiley's Author Page
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
I've been off line for awhile now, almost a year, due to a variety of things. One of which was writing, but also was getting my rights back to my writes from Ellora's Cave which is now defunct. I have them back, have republished the lot on Amazon and am in search of a new publisher. Not that I'm looking that hard. I kind of enjoy the freedom of my own publishing schedule. Now I just have to work on covers! So much to do, so much to learn, so much to write...
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Into You, My Newest Title and Foray into Self Publishing
Yep, its been awhile since I've been on blogger. And this is why-Into You, a little labor of love for my experiment with self publishing.
Okay, here's the thing; I have published two books with Ellora's Cave, and while I am grateful for the opportunity and I have certainly learned a lot, particularly about editing, I have never been paid. Not once. Not in a year. I get that the publishing house has been going through some rough times. I get that they are transitioning staff. I even get that they may never pay me. Okay. Fine. But what I don't get is that they don't answer emails. Ever. That is grating. However, enough about that. Every experience is a chance to learn something new.
So, taking what I have learned about editing and publishing in general, I decided to go out on my own and do some direct publishing on Kindle at Amazon. At least with them I can be fairly certain that I will get paid. Every 60 days. I have to do my own promotion, but I had to do that with Ellora's Cave as well. I also get to have my book listed with Kindle Unlimited, though I'm not sure how well that will turn out. We'll see. One gets paid by the read page with that, which could work out pretty well.
All that being said, hey, buy my new book at Into You
You might also leave a little review, if you are so inclined and thanks for supporting Indie Authors!
Okay, here's the thing; I have published two books with Ellora's Cave, and while I am grateful for the opportunity and I have certainly learned a lot, particularly about editing, I have never been paid. Not once. Not in a year. I get that the publishing house has been going through some rough times. I get that they are transitioning staff. I even get that they may never pay me. Okay. Fine. But what I don't get is that they don't answer emails. Ever. That is grating. However, enough about that. Every experience is a chance to learn something new.
So, taking what I have learned about editing and publishing in general, I decided to go out on my own and do some direct publishing on Kindle at Amazon. At least with them I can be fairly certain that I will get paid. Every 60 days. I have to do my own promotion, but I had to do that with Ellora's Cave as well. I also get to have my book listed with Kindle Unlimited, though I'm not sure how well that will turn out. We'll see. One gets paid by the read page with that, which could work out pretty well.
All that being said, hey, buy my new book at Into You
You might also leave a little review, if you are so inclined and thanks for supporting Indie Authors!
Monday, October 26, 2015
Now that my latest book is out, Guardian, I am finding it increasingly difficult to work on the sequel. It should be easier, now that I have that one under my belt, right? Wrong.
Marketing is really what is shutting me down. All of my writing time is spent not on writing and editing, but on marketing the book that I have for sale. A worthy endevour, to be sure, but I really need to get my writing groove back on.
With that I mind, I re-tackled a smaller story and just had it accepted by Ellora's Cave, the publisher of Guardian. At about 15,000 words, Kansas Moon should be either a Quickie or part of an anthology. I am not sure yet what is going to be decided, but, as it is so small, I am okay with either as long as it can get off the ground quickly.
Perhaps with a little more meat to my writing resume I can concentrate not so much on getting my name out there as getting my words out. Next book, coming up!
Marketing is really what is shutting me down. All of my writing time is spent not on writing and editing, but on marketing the book that I have for sale. A worthy endevour, to be sure, but I really need to get my writing groove back on.
With that I mind, I re-tackled a smaller story and just had it accepted by Ellora's Cave, the publisher of Guardian. At about 15,000 words, Kansas Moon should be either a Quickie or part of an anthology. I am not sure yet what is going to be decided, but, as it is so small, I am okay with either as long as it can get off the ground quickly.
Perhaps with a little more meat to my writing resume I can concentrate not so much on getting my name out there as getting my words out. Next book, coming up!
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Guardian Excerpt
Finally, I have the excerpt from Ellora's Cave, the fantastic publisher who has let me share my characters, Jax and Rohan, with the world. Or the small part of it who likes romantic fiction. This is from the first third of the book and is the first meeting of my hero and heroine. Enjoy!
An Excerpt From: GUARDIAN
Copyright © A.L. WILEY, 2015
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.
Jax was tired. It had been a hell of a long day. She felt completely,
utterly drained and just wanted to drop onto her bed and get some sleep before
it all started again tomorrow. She probably wouldn’t even bother to take off
her pantsuit.
After the river, she and Zander had met the parents of Annie Tate at
the morgue. They identified the body as that of their daughter and Jax didn’t think
she had ever had a more heartbreaking day at work. The mother had cried, lying
in her husband’s arms, and he had just stoically answered questions as tears
streamed down his face.
The autopsy had revealed very little that they didn’t already know.
Her time of death was roughly midnight the previous evening. There were no
foreign substances in the girl’s body, and no signs of any sort of struggle
except for the bloodied arm. There were no bruises, no rope marks…nothing. It was
as if she had just calmly lain down and let her arm be mangled and her blood
drained. The bite marks looked to be from a human, possibly male given the large
size of the bite radius, and something else, maybe a large cat or the person
had modified their teeth in some way. Jason hadn’t been sure yet and was
checking databases for a match. He had been annoyed, pushing his glasses up
onto his nose in a nervous gesture. It didn’t help that they had found nothing
that wasn’t from Annie Tate anywhere on the body. No foreign hair, no dirt that
wasn’t from the river, nothing. Whoever did this was good at it. Jax didn’t think
that this could be the first one. No, this guy had practiced. Nothing was left
to chance.
They started to look through various databases for a similar victim
and had come up empty, at least for today. Their best and only lead other than
the bite marks were those flowers, those little white flowers that had graced
the hands, ankles and head of Annie Tate.
Jax opened her apartment door and dropped her blazer behind her. She
groaned as she stepped forward, laying her keys on the little stand next to the
door and heading into the living room. She was in mid-stretch, her long arms
above her head when she felt it. She wasn’t alone.
She whipped her gun out of the holster strapped to her torso as she
scanned the apartment. Her eyes lit upon a shadowy figure in her living room
near her fireplace.
“What the hell are you doing in my apartment?”
Rohan looked at the woman before him. He tapped his chin with one
long, tanned finger and wondered how to proceed. He had never met a human so
hard to read, well, not in many years anyway. He had certainly been trying
since she entered the apartment. She had the stance of a warrior and he found
himself wondering if she had the physique of one as well under the shapeless
clothing. Interesting. Jaqueline Tournay was definitely going to be one of his
better assignments. Or they would kill each other. Either way, he wouldn’t be
bored.
Jax held her gun on the giant of a man leaning casually against her little
fireplace. At least it seemed little in comparison, though she had never thought
it so before. He had to be well over six feet, maybe even six-five. She flicked
on the lights to get a better look at the intruder, and blinked in the sudden
brightness. He was huge, clean-shaven and muscular in a rangy sort of way, not
a ‘roid-driven bodybuilder, but well-toned, and it showed in the tight black T-shirt
he wore over faded jeans that left little to the imagination. His blond hair just
hit the collar of his shirt and the whole was a relaxed look, sexy but casual.
Rather than seeming alarmed by the gun she was holding and pointing straight at
him, he seemed amused and she noted that he, unlike her, did not seem affected
by the light. And he still hadn’t answered her question. Fuck this. She had
already had a hard enough day of alarmingly weird shit.
“On the ground. Now. Hands behind your head.” She was pleased that her
voice was as steady as her gun, though on the inside there was a whole lot of
cursing as Jax lamented the fact that her cell phone was still in her blazer
pocket, which she had thrown behind her next to the door.
The man didn’t shift, just continued to tap his chin. Jax didn’t want
to shoot this guy, but he was in her space, dammit, and didn’t seem inclined to
move. He was too big for her to take down without the gun, unless he was
completely inept, which she somehow doubted, so it was close to do-or-die time.
Jax didn’t intend on dying today, or doing whatever else the giant had in mind.
“On the ground—” she started to say again and was interrupted by the
man’s deep, but oddly musical voice.
“I’m sorry for startling you. I’m not here to hurt you in any way.” Jax
snorted but was somewhat distracted by the sound of his voice. No one that
large should be allowed to have a voice that was soothing and musical.
Rohan tried to project as much of his calming magic as possible into
his words. A normal human would have dropped the gun and would be all but
drooling and giggling on the floor with that much empathetic energy directed at
him or her, but not this one. There was a slight tightening around the eyes, a
little tremor in the hands, very slight, but otherwise her gun did not waver.
And the sound she had made, the one of disbelief. Rohan found it…cute, if a
little perplexing.
“We have a common purpose, Jaqueline Tournay.” He ramped up the empathy,
almost singing but not quite. Unfortunately, it worked both ways. He was now
picking up wave after wave from her with his other senses, his channels
hyperactive and open. She smelled, oh, she smelled amazing. Fantastic. Like
chocolate and honey and fairy magic, and great sex. Rohan checked himself
before he transmitted that to her. He
had to focus on what the Elders had sent him here to do.
“Our Goddess is in need and the ancient pacts are breaking
with the earth. We require your help, Jaqueline Tournay.” He paused and smiled
at her without showing his fangs, trying not to look alarming. “Okay, that is,
roughly, the official message. I come with that, by the way, to assist with all
and sundry.” He grinned, trying to send nonthreatening waves of energy toward
her, but again hiding his fangs. They could get to that in a bit.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Editing-Bleh
Editing. I can't say that as an author I like it. At all. I know the necessity of the process. I understand the need for consistency of product for the publisher. I even get that sometimes, one has to play to ones audience. I don't, however, have to like it.
A well edited book is more likely to get a look from a publisher or literary agency, and a poorly edited one, no matter how good the story, is more likely to be sent back unread. I know these things. What I wish, what I really, really wish, was that more editors were more upfront about what they needed to see and in what format.
There are those who direct writers to articles written in the long forgotten past (that's five years internet time) or have brief formatting guidelines, but only to put the whole into a twelve point readable font and double space it. Those are not good directions to help one reach the final product. This, right here, has been the hardest part of my editing journey.
POV, or point of view, is one of those things I really needed to know about, but didn't really. I have read tons of books that I really enjoyed that have 'head-hopping' or quick switches in POV. That, apparently, is a problem for most editors. Why? Because standards say that it is a no-no. It can be well-done, there might not be a problem with following the story for the reader, and it might actually hurt the story to have POV in big chuncks, but it doesn't matter. The editor, and the publisher, want something standard. Sigh.
My relatively okay POV can be found in my new book Guardian, coming out from Ellora's Cave on October 7th, 2015.
A well edited book is more likely to get a look from a publisher or literary agency, and a poorly edited one, no matter how good the story, is more likely to be sent back unread. I know these things. What I wish, what I really, really wish, was that more editors were more upfront about what they needed to see and in what format.
There are those who direct writers to articles written in the long forgotten past (that's five years internet time) or have brief formatting guidelines, but only to put the whole into a twelve point readable font and double space it. Those are not good directions to help one reach the final product. This, right here, has been the hardest part of my editing journey.
POV, or point of view, is one of those things I really needed to know about, but didn't really. I have read tons of books that I really enjoyed that have 'head-hopping' or quick switches in POV. That, apparently, is a problem for most editors. Why? Because standards say that it is a no-no. It can be well-done, there might not be a problem with following the story for the reader, and it might actually hurt the story to have POV in big chuncks, but it doesn't matter. The editor, and the publisher, want something standard. Sigh.
My relatively okay POV can be found in my new book Guardian, coming out from Ellora's Cave on October 7th, 2015.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
My new book, Guardian, will be out on October 7th from Ellora's Cave. Excited doesn't even begin to cover it, particularly when I saw the cover!
Here's a blurb:
Here's a blurb:
Guardian
A.L.
Wiley
Lawrence Kansas is usually a fairly boring place, but when a
young girl is murdered under mysterious circumstances all that changes for
Detective Jax Tournay. She will do anything to solve the case, including taking
on a big, sexy, immortal blood drinker.
As Guardian, Rohan is responsible for every living thing in
his area, including the enigmatic Jax. He is surprised to discover she seems
immune to his allure, while his senses are almost overwhelmed by her
intoxicating scent. He is determined to have her, but their relationship might not
survive the evil magical forces that stand in their way.
Reader
Advisory: This story has graphic sexual language and scenes—no closed bedroom
doors (or other rooms) here!
An adult
paranormal romance from Ellora’s Cave
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