Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Creating a Paranormal Hero

Q: What do you get when you cross Josh Groban with Godsmack's lead singer, Sully Erna?
My concert t-shirt and CD from two of my fav singers.

Answer: The hero for my novella, ANY WITCH WAY, due out later this year from The Wild Rose Press. 

I am a visual writer, so I post pictures of my hero/heroine for inspiration. I also write to music, and this novella came to fruition after I'd attended two very different concerts--both with singers that fascinate my muse: Josh Groban and Sully Erna.

There's something about Josh Groban, the young singer with the voice like audible velvet, that screams 'tortured hero' to me. It's the combination of his liquid chocolate eyes, with that puppy-dog like slant at the outer edge, his shaggy hair, and that full-lipped smile--he has the look of fallen innocence.

And then there's Godsmack's lead singer, Sully Erna. Just the name, Sully, evokes an image of the reformed bad boy hero. And when you look at his music videos, Sully is like sin walking. And I mean that in a thigh-shaking-ly good way. With his tattoos, bedroom eyes and rock-mussed hair, combined with his incredible voice and song lyrics--Sully represents the mysterious and evocative.

Combine fallen innocence with the mysterious and evocative and you have:

Yummmm.

I recently did my best to meld Sully/Groban into one paragraph for my publisher's graphic artist--a daunting task when all that artist will see to create your cover is those few sentences. I'm waiting with baited breath for my  novella's cover art to be returned from the graphic artist.

Maybe he or she is Godsmack/Groban fan as well??

Keeping my fingers crossed...as I
Happily My Ever After,
Dylan

Curious to see just how varied my musical tastes really are? Check out my Rockin' Date Night Post for a list of concerts I've attended, and rock concert rules. 

Godsmack's videos are here. My fav is "I Stand Alone" because the song rocks...and The Rock is in it! 

Click through Josh Groban's website to see him sing. No, really. He's amazing. 

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Creating an Author Facebook Page

After years of avoiding it, I finally created the dreaded...

Author Facebook Page 

Yes, it's true. I caved.

Despite the fact that I'm notoriously irregular updating my own personal Facebook page, I went out and cluttered the web with my new "Author" page. It just got to the point where I no choice. Here's why...


3 Clues That It's Time to Create an Author Facebook Page:

1. When readers and fans begin to find your personal Facebook page it's pretty cool. At first. Then, you get that one fan who is a little creepy. Maybe he posts something like, oh, I don't know...like he hoped to see me at the next book signing to get tips on writing sex scenes... and suddenly you realize how much personal stuff is just sitting out there, like chum floating in the ocean, ready to be snapped up by the first hungry predator. (Yeah, that was a true story. *shudder*)

2. You want separation between your treasured new fans, readers/author friends from...well, you know. From your paranoid co-workers, your psycho boss or the crazy [insert relative name here] who uses Facebook solely to post the score from her billionth game of  Farmville and rant about politics and religion. Sometimes in the same post.

3. When you are serious about taking your writing career seriously, and you want a way to measure your success. I don't know. There was something about watching those "Likes" pile up in my Author Page that felt so different from my personal page. I've been published since my debut novel, "Despite the Ghosts," came out in 2010 but I can honestly say this little step made me feel like more of the real deal. And I just loooove the Insights section of Admin panel. Nothing helps illustrate success like a good old-fashioned chart!

Go ahead and create that extra FB page, my writer and author friends.  It's like the motto of the Borg (Yeah, I like Star Trek. So sue me.), "Resistance is Futile." 

Happily Writing My Ever After...
Dylan


Dying to see my final product? Go to www.facebook.com/DylanNewtonAuthor -- and at the very least you can snicker at my profile picture.