I love that moment when Amazon recommends my own book to me….
Tag: reading
First Impressions and First Lines
“Call me Ishmael,”. Do I even need to tell you, this is the first line of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick ? I feel like literally EVERYONE who has ever read a book knows this line. There’s something about it that grabs your attention. Maybe it’s because this opening line is dialogue. Maybe it’s because its a little unexpected. Whatever the reason, it stays with you.
I read Jack London’s Call of the Wild years ago, when I was in high school. I’m not sure why, but the opening line of the first chapter has always stayed with me: Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tidewater dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. That’s the magic of opening lines of books. They are the all important first impression, that will help the reader decide, if this book is a journey they want to go on, or if it may not be worth their time. As a writer, I try to come up with great first lines for my books. I suppose its hit or miss, but I still try.
Was it a dream or was it reality?
I wrote the first line to Fortune’s Wing sixteen years ago. It was the first thing about the book, that popped into my head. More than the characters, or the story, I came up with this line. I feel like this line invokes the mystery surrounding The Prophecy of the Wings, which is the heart of the story. Fortune has been plagued by dreams of the end of the world for several years, and he doesn’t understand why, until he receives a visit from a mysterious stranger who seems to know a lot about him.
It was early; around six in the morning. It was a good time to hit the road.
I’m going to cheat here, and include the second line as well. The opening line of Valentine doesn’t waist any time. It’s early, and a road trip is about to take place. Val Entienne, aka Valentine, is on a mission. The first book in the Valentine series concerns Val going to California to find her father, Vincent. She meets (and helps) many different people along the way, including fourteen-year-old orphan Melinda St. James, who becomes an important part of Val’s life.
When I was twelve years old, I fell in love with rock n roll.
Amy’s statement is the opening line of Our Lady of Righteous Rage/Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Extended and Uncensored is the first step into what is going to be a journey through childhood, love, friendships, and rock n’ roll. Amy and her friends grow up and experience the ups and downs of adolescence and adulthood, including marriage and divorce, all while starting a business and a band. Friends become lovers and lovers become enemies. After reading that first line, you may find yourself wondering: what made a twelve year old fall in love with rock n’ roll?
The dark blue Dodge Challenger pulled over and parked in front of an abandoned lot, covered with overgrown shrubs and bushes.
When I went back an re-read this line, the first word that popped into my head, was seclusion. When you continue to read the opening paragraph from Allan and Mac, you may find yourself thinking, the driver of the car, must have pulled over because the car broke down. When you read the first sentence of the second paragraph, you realize, she didn’t pull over because she was having car trouble; she pulled over for an entirely different reason…
Allan and Mac is the first book in what turned into a spin-off from the Valentine series. A brother and sister duo work as hitmen, and both have interesting ways of carrying out the hits they are paid to do. For instance, Mac would like to drown an alcoholic in a bathtub filled with beer. This story is as dark as it is amusing, with Allan and Mac having conversations about the most mundane things, in between acting as killers for hire. I sort of struggled with the first line. I wanted readers to be interested, without giving away the aesthetic of the book. You don’t really know how twisted this ride is going to be, until that second paragraph.
For anyone interested, previews for my books are available on my website:
http://www.woolastonentertainment.com/previews.html
Monday Blog: Guest Blogger Ebunnygirl!
Welcome to a special edition of the Monday Blog! This week, guest blogger Ebunnygirl will be posting one of her WordPress blogs. Please enjoy, and you can find more of her posts on her WordPress page, https://ebunnygirl.wordpress.com/
Nicole Woolaston’s Spin-offs Are Worth Reading
I’ve never been a huge fan of spin-offs. Sometimes you find a really good TV show or book, and then someone decides to take a character or idea from it and create a second show or write a second book. The spin-off usually stinks. For example, I love the show “Criminal Minds”, but “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior” kinda sucked.
As I have mentioned before, I’m a fan of indie authors, especially Nicole Woolaston. She’s the author of the Fortune’s Wing series, the Valentine series, and the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series. BTW: I am not being compensated in any way, to post any of this. Woolaston’s books are unique, and completely different from any other books I’ve read. Once you pick one up and start reading, you’re going to have a hard time putting it down. I’ve read Valentine, and it’s one of my favorite books. When I discovered Woolaston was publishing a series of companion books for the Valentine series, I became curious. Normally, when I give a spin-off a try, I end up being uninterested and disappointed. But that wasn’t the case with the Valentine Apart series.
The Valentine Apart series focuses on characters APART from Valentine (the lead character) herself. The first is Allan and Mac, which is about the brother and sister duo who work as hitmen. It is HYSTERICAL! The casual conversations that take place between Allan and Mac when they’re in the middle of doing their job, are brilliant. Next, is Her Name is Lola Vencent, which give details about Lola’s life before she started working for John Rafferty, the primary villain in the Valentine series. Jo Fuentes: The Black Queen talks about one of my favorite characters, Jo Fuentes. She’s the Marine turned hitwoman from the regular series.
What makes these books so good, is the way they’re written. You can read them as companion books to the Valentine series, or you can read them separate and apart. The end of each book, however, ties into the regular series with such ease. If you’ve read the regular series (as I have) you find yourself thinking, Oh, I know what this is! I remember that scene from one of the other books!
The companion books in the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series work the same way. You can read them along with the regular series, or read them alone. And, much like the Valentine Apart books, the stories and endings tie into the books from the regular series.
I think one of the reasons Woolaston’s spin-offs are so entertaining, is the way she chooses particular characters to focus on. Allan, Mac, Lola and Jo from Valentine were excellent choices for stand-alone books. Erin, Dee and Jon from Our Lady of Righteous Rage are characters we didn’t know a lot about, but their personal stories were interesting enough to make for good reading. The author is currently writing two more Valentine Apart books, and is planning to write another Our Lady book as well. I’m looking forward to reading all of them. If you’ve never read Woolaston’s books, you really should pick one up.
Nicole Woolaston can be found here on WordPress and on her website, www.woolastonentertainment.com
Thank you to Ebunnygirl for providing this week’s post!
Monday Blog: The Witch of Fulton Lane’s Dark Sequel
Greetings and salutations, everyone! It’s another fabulous Monday. This week, I’d like to focus on one of the three books I’m currently writing. Aside from the next two books in the Valentine Apart series, I’ve been making notes for the sequel to The Witch of Fulton Lane. The title is The Age of The Daughter.
The Age of The Daughter
I did some research on the subject of Dianic Wicca, Paganism, and Neo Paganism. If anyone takes the time to look into my borrowing history from the library, I’m sure they’ll be in for a surprise! Here’s a short list of what I’ve read recently:
The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess by Starhawk
Modern Paganism In World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives by Michael Strmiska
Re-Riting Woman: Dianic Wicca and the Feminine Divine by Kristy S. Coleman
Italian Witchcraft: The Old Religion of Southern Europe by Raven Grimassi
I’m always saying this: read what you write! If you’re writing a story where one of your characters is a gardener, you may want to pick up a copy of “Better Homes and Gardens”, and do a little research. If you’re working on a sci-fi book, READ some sci-fi books. Fulton Lane deals with witchcraft, so I needed to read about witchcraft.
The title The Age of the Daughter comes from a passage I read in Italian Witchcraft: The Old Religion of Southern Europe by Raven Grimassi. It speaks of a time when women will walk as men do; women will begin to have the power that has been reserved for men until that time. The moment I read that, I knew I needed to use it, and I knew I could build a story around it. In this new story, Dylan Maycriss will find herself being pursued by a coven of witches who practice Dianic Wicca, a neopagan religion of female-centered goddess ritual and tradition. They worship the Goddess Diana, and want to bring Dylan into their fold. Dylan also learns she may have a half-sister through her father, Marcus Maycriss, who is part of this coven.
It’s going to take me a long time to write the first draft of this book, but I’d like to have most of it on paper (or USB, I guess) by October. I have so many details I want to pump into this book, so I’m going to take my time with it.
The Author’s Corner
And, I’d also like to mention, the Author’s Corner has some new members! This is open to all writers, bloggers, artists, etc. I will gladly post your information on my site for free. If you want to share links to your websites, books, Amazon Author Pages, social media pages and the like, please contact me. I can also post images of the covers of books, along with author head shots. I have seven members so far, so keep it coming!
See you again next week.
Monday Blog: Patagonia Library, New Valentine Apart Books, Biologicals
Greetings, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I have some wonderful news for you, so let’s jump right in: one of my books is available for check-out at a public library in Arizona, I’m further along in my drafts for the next two Valentine Apart books, and Biologicals is currently available in paperback form!
Patagonia Public Library
First, I need to say thank you to Shannon Wright of the Patagonia Public Library, for sharing info about the Street Lit Program on Facebook! This was created in order to give indie authors some exposure. I donated a copy of Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Extended and Uncensored , and it’s available for check-out! So, if you’re reading this in Arizona, check out the books in the Street Lit collection!
https://www.patagoniapubliclibrary.org/
This has inspired me to reach out to public libraries beyond my home in New York. If anyone reading this knows of a library seeking book donations, please let me know! You can reach me on the WE website contact page, or just email me: woolent@hotmail.com
New Books in Valentine Apart
As I have mentioned before, I’m working on the next two books for the Valentine Apart series. So far, the drafts are coming along nicely. In Project Sleep, Jo Fuentes is not sure if she’s being paranoid, or if she’s being followed. Her suspicions are confirmed when Kelly McCormick gives her her next assignment.
Speaking of Kelly, in Young Kelly McCormick, Kelly attends a meeting and makes it very clear to the rest of the Syndicate, where she stands. She’s not there to be anyone’s secretary, and she wants just as much respect as the men sitting in the room. Of course, if she’s going to get a seat at the table, she’ll have to earn it the hard way…
I’ll keep you posted as I continue to write.
Biologicals
The paperback is ready! You can find it now in the Create Space store! By tomorrow, it should also be available on Amazon’s site. I will release the Ebook in a few weeks. I really hope everyone enjoys the latest Our Lady story!
Until next week, folks!
woolastonentertainment.com
Monday Blog: Inside the Personal Lives of Characters
This month’s theme is New Fiction, and I’m currently working on three new books (technically four, but I haven’t started the draft for the fourth one yet; only notes). All three books explore the personal lives of the main characters featured in the story. This week, I wanted to talk a little about the characters.
Jon Sarconi of Biologicals
Jon only makes a few appearances in the Our Lady books. You’re introduced to him when he’s a toddler, and later, as a child and then as a teen, he only has a few lines. He receives his own chapters in Your Fame Will Destroy You, and even then, it’s limited. I started thinking about the idea of him being adopted, and how his relationship with his birth parents turned sour when he was young. I decided, there was enough material there to write a story. My first thought, was a shot story, then I decided to write a companion book. Biologicals gives readers a little insight into Jon’s life: his feelings towards his birth parents, his mother Amy Edwards, and his thoughts on being adopted. Like Novocaine, this book is written in Jon’s “voice”, so readers will get a chance to really get to know him.
Jo Fuentes of Jo Fuentes: Project Sleep
You already know a few things about Jo, if you’ve read the books in the Valentine and Valentine Apart series. She’s a Marine, who survived an attack in the Iraqi desert, which killed everyone in her unit, except herself and her friend Sully. She starts working for Kelly McCormick becomes a hitwoman for the Syndicate. Jo has a special set of skills, which saved her life and Sully’s life in Iraq, however, Jo can’t recall where she learned the things she knows. She’s adept at killing, and she knows a variety of methods. Little by little, Jo begins to have flashes of a white classroom, and five other soldiers, where she is being trained to kill. Kelly is able to do some investigating and learn that Jo was part pf a program called “Project Sleep”. The project was canceled, and Jo’s mind was supposedly wiped clean of any memories of it, however, the incident in Iraq triggered her memories. In Project Sleep, Jo finds herself digging deeper and deeper into her past, learning more about Project Sleep, and about herself.
Kelly McCormick of Young Kelly McCormick
Before Kelly McCormick made a name for herself in the Syndicate, she made a name for herself around her neighborhood, and with people who knew her. The Syndicate isn’t ready to accept a woman in a powerful position, but twenty-year-old Kelly is going to show them she deserves a seat at the table. Aside from working with the Syndicate. Kelly has several personal issues to deal with, including an uncle who gambles and gets himself into dangerously high debts. Young Kelly McCormick reveals Kelly’s life before her rise within the Syndicate.
See you next week….
woolastonentertainment.com
Sample from “Jo Fuentes: Project Sleep”
I‘m currently working on three new books. One of them is Jo Fuentes: Project Sleep. This is the fourth book in my Valentine Apart series, and it a sequel to Jo Fuentes: The Black Queen. Yes, my ass-kicking Marine turned hitwoman is back, and I’d like to share a small sample from the first chapter. Enjoy!
Remember why you are here. You are here to serve your country…
It was the inside of a white classroom. Six of them stood in a row, guns drawn and pointed at the mannequins at the other end of the room. The idea was to shoot the mannequins, at center mass. The six of them fired at once. When they were finished, they lowered their guns, and awaited further instructions. This had been a simple task, with no real challenge. Using a handgun was easy enough. The real training would begin, when they learned how to use inanimate objects. There was a rumor going around, they would be trained to kill using something as common as a number two pencil…
So you can shoot a handgun. Big deal! What would you do if a gun wasn’t available? What else would you use? It was always the same voice, barking from behind them. No matter how good you are, you can always be better! Let’s start with Fuentes!
Jo’s eyes suddenly shot open. She stared up at her ceiling, furrowing her brow and trying to get a grasp on where she was. She slowly turned to her left, and recognized her alarm clock, sitting on her nightstand. She took a deep breath, and released it. Her room, in the same apartment she’d grown up in. The white classroom from her dream had faded into memory. She sat up and swung her legs over the side of her bed, and scratched the back of her head. It was Saturday morning. There wasn’t any place she needed to be today, so the day was all hers. She stood up, and stretched all five feet and eleven inches of her, and yawned. “First order of business,” she said out loud, “A shower.”
Preview for “Biologicals”
I recently released my 21st published book, Righteous, which is the fourth book in the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series. This book follows the band on their tour across America, as they go from city to city, state to state, playing shows and meeting new fans…and narrowly avoiding fights with Mick, David, and the rest of the band, Stereotype. When I wrote the final few chapters, I developed an idea for yet another book. This time, I decided to focus on Jon, Amy’s son. During the story in Righteous, Jon’s birth parents contact him, much to his alarm. He doesn’t want anything to do with, but he decides to be diplomatic and try to spend time with them. My next book, Biologicals, will focus on Jon’s attempt to reestablish a relationship with his birth parents, aka his “biologicals”. Here’s a sneak peak from the first chapter:
- The Delivery Room, The Couch, and Onward
“It’s a boy!”
I imagine that’s what the doctor said in the delivery room, on the day I entered the world. I can picture myself, tiny and naked, and silent, until that first smack on the ass, which caused my lungs to open up, giving me the opportunity to take my first breath. I’m sure I must have started crying. Then I guess the doctor or the nurse handed me to my mother, so she could count my fingers and toes, and give me a once-over, just to make sure she hadn’t given birth to some freak show kid.
But, like I said, I can only imagine all of this. I don’t remember any of it, because I was just too young. The memories I do have of my birth parents, aren’t the most pleasant memories I have. To put it frankly, my birth parents—or biologicals, as I prefer to call them—are assholes.
Yep. I just did that. I called my biologicals assholes. That’s what they are. You’re probably wondering why I feel that way. Sure: most teenagers hate their parents. Most of their reasons for hating their parents are completely unfounded: not being allowed to go to parties, drink, stay out past curfew, etc. My reasons for feeling the way I do, are totally legitimate.
When I lived with my biologicals, I didn’t have my own room. I didn’t have any brothers or sisters to compete with; I just didn’t have a room. My room was the living room, and my bed was the couch. I lived with Michael and Leora, my biologicals, in a one bedroom apartment. So, naturally, the one room went to them. This was interesting, especially when they had company. They would quickly clean up the area known as “Jon’s space”, and pretend we were a normal family. Bullshit artists.
They managed to pull this off, until my uncle told them, he was going to take steps to have me taken from them. I was eventually sent to live with my cousin David, and his girlfriend (later, wife) Amy. I had been spending time with David ever since I was two. He would babysit me whenever my biologicals went out (which was often). Amy was the best. She was the only one outside of my family who was allowed to pick me up. When I was really little, David started seeing this girl named Gina, before he and Amy were dating. I hated Gina. She smelled like she had soaked herself in an entire bottle of perfume, and not even a good fragrance. And, she was a bitch. To this day, I have no idea what David saw in her.
But, Amy and David got married, and adopted me. I wasn’t sure of what to call them: Mom and Dad, or Amy and Cousin David. David went out of the country when I was younger, and left me and Amy alone for the first time. I came down with a case of pneumonia. I was a little nervous, but Amy kept it together. She was barely eighteen, and acting just like a mother. She took me to the emergency room, got my medicine, and took care of me. From that day forward, she wasn’t Amy. She was Mom.
But, David, on the other hand, couldn’t handle the whole Dad-thing. Mom can sing and play the guitar, and she and her friends were in a band. David was jealous from the very beginning. He started criticizing Mom and her friends, saying she needed to focus on being a wife and a mother instead of a rock star. But I was watching her juggle both with no problem! At no point did I ever feel like she was neglecting me. I was sad when they got a divorce…I was even sadder when I had to go and live with David. We’re biologically related, so the judge gave him custody of me…asshole. Mom is a fighter, though. She went back to court, and got custody of me. So, I got to go and live with the one person in this world who truly loves me.
Monday Blog: The Ladies of “Our Lady”
Amy
Dee
Nyda
Vanessa
Carmen
Erin
Olivia
Hello! Welcome to the first official blog post of the month of May! To kick off one of the two themes of the month, Female Character Month, I decided to start with the ladies of the Our Lady series. Her we go….
The Ladies of Our Lady of Righteous Rage
While there is a pretty long list of female characters in the Our Lady series, I’m going to focus on the most important ladies, who appear across nearly every book.
Amy Edwards: Amy is the lead character of the series, and she handles most of the narration. She grew up in a single-parent home, with her two brothers and her sister. Raised in Bayside, in New York, Amy falls in love with Punk Rock when she receives a copy Green Day’s Dookie album. From there, she decides to learn to play the guitar. She and her friends start playing, and eventually form a band, Our Lady of Righteous Rage, named after a poem Amy wrote. She’s also a mother: she and ex-husband David Sarconi adopted his cousin Jon when he was little, and despite the divorce Amy and Jon are still extremely close.
Dee Seybrook: Amy’s best friend, and the wife of Our Lady’s bassist, Aidan Sirci. Dee is petite, but she has no problem standing up for herself, and refuses to be pushed around. She’s a singer, and a drummer; she discovers she has a natural talent for drumming and develops it very quickly.
Nyda Summit: Dee’s cousin, and Nick Lianetti’s wife. Nyda is soft-spoken and tall, and an artist. Photography is her passion, and she has even taken pictures of the members of Our Lady for their album covers.
Vanessa Vance: The woman with the plan. Vanessa comes up with the idea of running a business with her friends in high school. She’s the co-founder of the Urban Collective: the store she and her friends created in order to sell their books, music and artwork. Vanessa is ambitious and a handworker, and will do anything to help her business and her friends succeed.
Carmen Portez: Carmen went to school with Amy, Dee and Vanessa. She’s a talented painter, and she began selling her artwork while she was still in high school. She eventually opened her very own art studio, Portez Art Studio, where she shows her artwork, and the work of other local artists.
Erin Michaels: Erin goes from quiet girl who likes to read, to a Punk Rock/Emo chick with a passion for music. She meets the band, and begins to work for them, after a tragic experience with her family brings her and her mother to New York. She later becomes the band’s social media expert. She’s particularly fond of Amy, and thinks of her as a big sister.
Olivia Midkiff: One of Jon’s friends and a really talented drummer. Olivia is upbeat and generally in a good mood. When Dee takes her under her wing, the two form a big sister-little sister relationship. Olivia is sometimes unsure of herself, but she’s learning to be more confident.
I created all of these characters years before I wrote this series. I used bits and pieces of my personality, and my mother’s personality, when I developed them for the Our Lady series. There’s a lot of Mom in Dee and Nyda (especially Dee). Amy and Erin represent my punk rock side. One of the reasons Our Lady is written using stream of consciousness, is because I wanted to give watch character an opportunity to grow and change. You meet Amy, Dee, Nyda, Vanessa and Erin, as teens, and you get to watch them “grow up”, so to speak. And, it was important to have a female character in the lead role. Amy’s talents as a guitarist, song writer, and artist, reflect my personal belief that girls can do anything. She’s a challenge to the status quo.
If you haven’t read Our Lady of Righteous Rage, I hope you decided to pick it up and see what its all about. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Monday Blog: Reading Changed My Life (Guest Blogger Ebunnygirl)
Great news, everyone! Today I have a guest blogger! Ebunnygirl will be posting today’s edition of the Monday Blog. Please enjoy!
I had a revelation the other day. While there weren’t any sparks or canons blasting, it was still an important moment for me. I realized, reading changed my life. Discovering books and the places they could take me, literally changed everything for me. Yes, I know: I sound like a corny afterschool special. But it’s the truth! I learned just how big the world really was, and the variety of characters I read about, showed me how diverse people are. Girls don’t always have to be princesses and damsels in distress. Boys can be strong, or they can show some emotion. And as for nonfiction and fiction, I learned to appreciate both: facts about things in the world I was unaware of, and worlds created from the minds of creative authors.
Nowadays, I see people reading books on e-readers and tablets, but it’s always nice to see people reading physical books. I’m thankful for that. I’m considering writing a book of my own, I’m just not sure of what to write about. I have received a lot of encouragement from Nicole Woolaston, for whom I am blogging today. Reading opened so many doors for me, and made me feel as though anything is possible.
(thank you to Ebunnygirl for this blog post! You can find her WordPress page here: https://ebunnygirl.wordpress.com/)
woolastonentertainment.com 