Tag Archives: publication

The “Look” Challenge.

Over at Frame Tale, Kate did a challenge post that she had come across that I just had to give a stab at myself. I love these little games, where you get the chance to showcase a little bit of your work. It’s also pretty useful for those days when you don’t have much else to write about, either.

So here’s how it works:

Take your current manuscript and find the first instance of the word “look”. Then post the surrounding paragraphs as an excerpt of the book on your blog. Lastly, tag five more blogging authors who you think would be a good choice for the game.

What I have typed of Serpent in a Cage right now is a hot mess; I’ve been doing my thing where I inflate the paragraphs to whittle down into more concise words later, but it didn’t seem fair to skip it entirely since a variation of the word “look” appears in the first page. However, I didn’t want to leave it at just a really rough draft, so I’m including Bowlful of Bunnies to it, too. Which also has a variation of “look” right at the beginning. Perhaps something I need to look into not doing so much…

Anyway, without any further ado, here’s a little snippet of Serpent in a Cage‘s rough draft, built around the word “look,” which so happens to be the beginning prologue, heavy and dense as it is in its current unedited state:

      “When she pulled her arm back, tearing the blade away from the soft, warm body, she just wanted it to be over. She wanted to collapse and close her eyes and finally rest, letting the weight of her steel drag her down to the floor, where she wouldn’t have to get up again until she was good and ready. The sweltering heat of the fire was almost as suffocating as the thick smoke that filled the air and choked her lungs, made her eyes sting and start to water. Overhead, the rafters strained with a loud, threatening crack, struggling to keep the roof held under the intensity of the heat. Underneath, there were pitiful groans from the scattering of bodies left for dead. It was a nightmare, something out of a hideous dream, and she just wanted to fall back and let it finally end. Close her eyes and perhaps, when she opened them again, it turned out it was all just a figment of twisted imagination after all.
      But she couldn’t stop. She had to keep focused, she had to keep moving. She had to find the others and make sure they were safe. Auferrix Ferrore gave her sword arm a quick jerk, shedding off some of the wet blood from the blade before it started to stick. Splatters of it landed in the fire and hissed like serpents.
      “Kadue!” she lifted her voice, calling out over the chaos and destruction. Smoke rushed into her lungs, and she gasped from the sudden pain, fighting against a cough. Scanning the area, looking for him, was useless; her eyes were so damp from the stinging smoke that they rendered her blind. She staggered forward, exhausted but determined. If only she could find a way out! In the fresh air of the cool evening, she could collect her thoughts and her wits. She could breathe and begin to see more clearly.
      The smoke was so dense, so thick, that she didn’t even notice the big, hulking man in front of her until she had practically collided into him. She stopped just short of contact; he has his arms lifted over his head, ready to plunge his axe down into a figure on the ground. Panic swelled inside of her as she realized she had no idea if the attacker was one of her own or one of the enemy, but if she did not act, the person on the floor would be just as dead. She moved on instinct, trusting her gut feeling and praying to the gods that she was right. It was justice; it was defending those who could not defend themselves, not matter what their position in this crazy war might be.
      “Firae, give me strength,” she whispered, as she always did before she braced herself for an attack. The axe started to fall, but it didn’t get far. Every action except the bulging of the man’s eyes stepped suddenly as Auferrix drove her blade firmly through his shoulder blades, through his heart, and then out on the other side. The tip dinted against his armor, and she yanked her blade out again.
      A moment passed where the man seemed to be suspended only by the last thin thread of Life, and he fell into a crumpled mass at Auferrix’s feet. She looked down on the poor, lifeless bastard, feeling only a small bit of pity while the heat swelled behind her with a crackle of fallen wood. After nudging the body with her toe, he thrust out her hand to the cowering person she had just saved, hoping she had slain the right one.
      “Come on,” she ordered, firmly, but hurriedly. The smoke had cleared enough that she could now recognize the face gawking up at her. Not his name, but definitely the person, the owner of the tavern they were in, the owner of the tavern burning down into a bloody rubble around them. She closed her eyes a moment to thank the gods and pushed her hand closer when he didn’t grab it. He was in a state of shock, that much was clear, having expected to be cleaved in half by the man between them. Auferrix barked out her next words to get him back to reality. “We have to get you out of here.”

And, as a bonus, here are a few paragraphs surrounding the first instance of “look” in Bowlful of Bunnies, which happens at the beginning of the first story, Dragon Rising, which means it’s nothing special because it’s exactly what you’d read in the book preview, lol:

     Possum, Rabbit, and Prairie Dog had all gone to the river to do the washing, and I had followed to watch them. The sun was bright in the cornflower sky, and hot, so after they had dunked the clothes in the gentle rushing stream, after they had scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, they laid them out on the big flat rocks that had been soaking up the sun’s heat. There, the clothes would dry, basking like salamanders, and the girls would splash around in the water themselves, laughing and playing, tossing handfuls at each other until they were drenched and cooled. Then they, too, settled down in the long grass, turned their browned faces toward the sun and soaked it up.
     Quiet and still, I crouched next to a boulder too tall and round to be used for drying, underneath a fern for further shelter. I curled my tail in, which was the only way I could prevent it from twitching happily at the serenity of the scene. They had no idea I was watching; the three of them were such pleasure seekers that they had none of the carefulness and caution of their friends, who would have surely caught me. Rabbit was perhaps the most skittish of them, and her bright brown eyes flicked my way on occasion, her pert little nose wrinkling as it tried to pick up the scents carried on the wind. Mostly, though, it was just the sweet grass and the soap still floating by on the river, the fresh linen and the lavender flowers from up the hill.
     She looked at me at least three times, straight at me, without seeing me. My ears pressed back with the pleasure of my successful camouflage. The others wouldn’t even believe me when I told them that I was peering into the intimate, quiet respite of these three bright-eyed girls, knowledge so valuable that I would instantly be skyrocketed up in their ranks. If only Deer and Fox had laundry duties today! They, out of all the girls in the village, were easily the most eagerly sought after. Next time, perhaps I should try my stealth in the kitchens or the temples to see what other wonderful things girls did when they were alone, but I couldn’t imagine anything as splendid as their splashing and laughing, their hair catching in the sun as they tossed it freely around.
     And then they began to talk.

So there you have it. Apparently, “look”s appear pretty quickly in my work, and I hope you all enjoyed this…look (ah-ha!) of Serpent in a Cage. Don’t forget, I’ve got a really cool scary story/mystery contest running until the end of September. I’ll even give you a new prompt with the following picture, found at favim.com, accompanied with the word “clandestine“:

And, lastly, I have a few new subscribers! Hooray! So a shout out and a thank you to Meghan Elizabeth, Amber West, and Cheryl Moore! So good to have you all along!

The Bunnies Have Arrived!

I know the big “cover reveal” was only yesterday, but I’m happy to announce that my very first independent ebook publication is now available That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the bunnies have finally arrived, marching from my doorstep to an ereader near you!


Bowful of Bunnies: Short Stories by L.S. Engler, available now on Amazon.

I owe a hefty round of thanks to so many people who helped make this book possible. Shannon Perry provided the fabulous artwork, and my awesome crew of beta readers (C. Michael Hubbard, Mike Young, Angela Misri, and Sharon Howard) saved me from making a lot of silly mistakes. Without them, this book could not be nearly as good as it is, and, with them, I’m sure it could be even better, too.

I also want to thank everyone in the A Round of Words in 80 Days community; this might not have ever happened if it weren’t for the encouragement and community built up with this fantastic group. I haven’t been around much this RoWnd, due to getting this thing ready, but it has opened so many doors for me.

A special acknowledgment also goes out to Lauralynn Elliott, Kait Nolan and Catherine Ryan Howard, simply for being three amazing women that really helped show me the ropes on how to do self-publishing thing and really inspire me to take this big step forward into a fascinating new world filled with opportunities.

Formatting the book for publication was made delightfully easy thanks to Cameron Chapman’s excellent guide. Assuming the formatting did turn out as all the gazillion previews I looked at suggested it would, I was actually incredibly impressed and pleased by how simple it was. I took all day to do it, because I was working on other stuff at the same time, but to think that it only takes about an hour to get a book formatted (assuming you’ve done most of the heavy-duty editing and what not already) kind of blows my mind. I wasn’t expecting to have this done until Saturday, but I just went all out yesterday.

As mentioned above, the book is available through Amazon, priced at just 99 cents. I wanted to do a special free day for all my bloggers, but it turns out that independent publishers can’t do free unless they’re a part of the KDP Select thing, which I don’t want to mess with (not yet). I know Smashwords offers a free pricing, but Smashwords and I continue to be unable to get along despite my best efforts. I’m working on it, though, so there might be a day in the future when you can snag Bowlful of Bunnies for free. I’m also working on getting it onto Barnes & Noble, but I have a weird address and they’re having some issues validating it.

So, there you have it! There’s a book. I’d be absolutely tickled if anyone would feel so inclined to mention it, reblog it, tweet about it, do whatever you will. Since it’s my first book and I’m testing the waters a little, I’m not doing a promotion contest or anything like that. I’m keeping it simple, but it’s always nice to have a little bit of a boost in audience. I also know I’d be eternally grateful towards anyone who might like to read it over and provide reviews.

It’s not the end-of-May release I was hoping for, but middle-of-June’s not too shabby, either, giving me right around half a year to get to that second book I wanted to publish by the end of 2012. So now it’s onto that one, as I release the bunnies out into the wilderness, where they’ll hopefully hop their way into someone’s heart.

Awwwww. Enjoy!

Morning Glory.

My mornings are sacred.

There used to be a time (we’ll call it “college”) where I considered myself a night owl. Classes were carefully chosen to start much later in the morning, if not in the afternoon, and I was a closer at my job, sometimes not getting home until two in the morning. And then I would still do stuff after that. Eventually, I got out of college and got on a regular schedule, but, even then, it was staying up until one. That’s when the Easling Pool hit. The Easling Pool is the aquatic center of the Grand Traverse Civic Center in Traverse City, Michigan, and I was hired to do some clerical and customer service work there. This required being at the pool bright and early at five o’clock to make sure everything was ready for the early birds who came in at five thirty to get in their laps before the work day. Fast forward about two years later, and I still get up at five o’clock nearly every morning (today was six o’clock, since I was out celebrating a friend’s timely new job until two in the morning, a rarity for me!), and it works out pretty well. My friends and coworkers kind of boggle at how soon I go to bed and how early in the morning I get up, but maybe Ben Franklin was onto something with that whole “early to bed, early to rise” thing.

My roommate is definitely one for sleeping in when she can. She’s also the type that can get up and be ready for work in half an hour; I am the complete opposite and need an extra hour to oh-so-slightly curl my hair. Needless to say, since she doesn’t usually get up until eight on a weekday (and later on weekends), I have the mornings all to myself, and it’s glorious. I do my best work in that chunk of hours, when the day is getting started. Sometimes, I can manage to continue after its been interrupted, but, more often than not, my focus leaves me and I can get a little more work done, but it’s between house work and talk radio.

Still, those morning hours are invaluable to me. Usually, when I work in the afternoon, I don’t have the same motivation and drive to work on my writing like I do first thing in the morning, but I am getting better at that, especially since, lately, writing is all I want to do. Have you ever gotten to that crazy level where your friends plan something and all you can think is, “Man! That’s going to cut into some valuable writing time!”? I’ve been having some moments like that lately. All I want to do is work on my little system that allows me to write and read. It’s fantastic.

But it’s also a little strange. Sometimes, because writing is my passion and what I love to do, I feel guilty about the time I allot to it. I’m sure some of that guilt might be lifted once Bowlful of Bunnies is actually posted and in the market, but there’s a little voice in the back of my head right now that’s trying to tell me I should be doing more productive things with my morning. I’m pleased that this voice is lately encountered with a swift reply of, “What could possibly be more productive?” but there’s always that niggling doubt that this is all just a big waste of time.

This is my dream, my passion, and it’s coming together, especially in those glorious hours of the morning where I can really focus and get my work done. And the fact that I feel a desire to have those morning hours last all day help me believe that I’m definitely on the right track.

When are your sacred hours, when the craft really strikes and you feel that inspiration and that strong conviction that things are finally coming together? Do you often get the doubt creeping in on you that threatens to abolish that conviction? I’ve sat here and rambled at you for a good bit, so feel free to ramble back!

I’d also like to thank circles under street lights for being my latest follower! Thanks for reading the blog! Great to have you with us.

RoW80 Update: May 2nd!

“‘A misunderstanding?’ the man barked with disdain. A rough laugh exploded from his mouth. ‘Ha! Because there are so many sticky-fingered pale Northerners in this city to confuse you with. You took the stone, and I want it back.’”

Things are starting to settle slightly back into order for me, though I know it’s going to be short lived. Tomorrow, I’ll be traipsing off to a midnight showing of The Avengers, which should be interesting considering I usually go to bed at ten. Thankfully, the showing is at Hollywood Boulevard, and so there will be booze. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of state I’m in on Friday…

But today, I settle in for my Round of Words in 80 Days update, things are going well. The extra time I’ve been taking to clean up this apartment has been well worth it and much needed, but I’m also doing a great job with my writerly and reading goals as well. Let’s have a look:

Serpent in a Cage: The fighty scene continues to make me wonder if I’m any good at fighty scenes. Probably not. Still forging forward, especially since I got the idea to write myself notes of things I’d like to see in SiaC once I get to typing it, and then I can work on developing those things that I feel would make the book a lot better, but that I usually don’t have the time or energy to add to the story “just right now.” Still, it’s coming along and doing okay. Page count: 67/120.

Bowlful of Bunnies:

I’ve got Betas reading through it, my cover artist sketching, and so it’s mostly a waiting game at this point. I considered going through with more edits, but I want to refresh my brain with a little bit of new stuff before one last go-through.

Book No. 0002: Okay, so….I have come up with an idea that might be a little bit crazy. A lot bit crazy, anyway, and I’m sure a lot of you are going to read this and stamp it as official L.S. Engler insanity. But I mentioned that I wanted to do a sort of NaNoWriMo thing for Book No. 0002 this year, and that I’ll just plug away at words for the month of May and see what I’ve got at the end of it. The problem was that I didn’t know what I wanted to write about yet. A few ideas were floating around in my head, but nothing really solidified itself. So I’ve decided….why not try to write around 1667 words per day on several different books and the one that sticks and develops the most will clearly be the winner? Now, I’m not going to be religious about this. This is mostly an “if I have time” pursuit, but I will be poking at at least one story a day for at least 1667 words. But I figure it could be a great way to test the waters on a lot of different potential books. Right now, I’m working on two, so, by the of the day, I know I’ll be happy with them each at 3334 word each.

I’m….pretty far at the moment on one, but the first one I started a couple of days ago is actually pretty good for the moment. I decided to “officially” start it yesterday, because it’s easier to track where I should be on any given story by just multiplying 1667 by whatever day of the month it is. I still think this is vaguely crazy. I’m not even sure it makes any sense. But I’m really excited to see if I pull it off, or if it just sort of falls to the wayside. Just think of all the new, rich material I’ll have composed if it does work!

The 100 Books Project: I’ve got one book finished in the wings, ready for review, and I’m 100 pages away from finishing the 700+ book for April. So this is going very, very well. I’m getting back into the habit of reading before bed, and that’s getting quite a lot of pages done! Books read: 15/100. (4/38 for this round)

Other Novels: Chapter One of To Cross a River of Blood opens with my main character tossing his cookies over the side of a ship. Awesome. I also found an old copy of a start to the book that follows TCaRoB, too, so I might start poking at that. Part of my brain is all, “FINISH JUST ONE BOOK OF THIS SERIES FIRST!” but most of my brain resoundingly answers it with, “AHAHA, NO.”

So, there you have it. A quick little look-see into how my goals are going. I talked to my dad on the phone today, and I mentioned Bowlful of Bunnies (we got on the topic of his broken Kindle and his new iPad for work), and he jokingly threw out that he’d have fifty bucks in it for me if I had it out by the end of June. I told him I planned on having it ready at the end of May, so I guess I’ll find out then if he’s going to let me hold it to him! Ha! Anyway, be sure to check out my fellow RoWers here and happy writing!