Amethyst The Platinum Series

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Sample #1 Book Cover
Sample #2 Book Cover
Sample #3 Book Cover


  I'll be attending the Author's Expo this coming Wed July 18 in Danvers, Massachusetts.I'm really excited about the wonderful opportunity to meet with people working in the industry. Plenty of authors will be there selling their books so I can ask questions about their experiences of becoming a published author. Also there will be artists, literary agents, copy-editors and publishers to learn more about the publishing world. Without an actual book in print, I'm preparing my own "press kit" including my business card, sketches of logo ideas, a synopsis of each of the first three titles in the series, merchandising ideas, jewelry I've designed such as the Celtic Eternity Heart and three samples of the artwork for the book cover that I've created. Yet another baby step closer to getting Amethyst published and in the hands of readers.
  Stephanie M. Jandreau


Celtic Eternity Heart

http://merrimackmedia.com/2012/07/visit-merrimack-media-at-the-2012-new-england-authors-expo/
    

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

It's Been A While

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It's been quite some time since I've had the chance to update this blog. The first book in The Platinum Series: Amethyst is getting closer to being published. It's being edited to thin down the lengthy manuscript highlighting the struggles of the main character, Milican. "Streamlining" the main story into a concise, strong book that I hope will retain the overall "heart" of Milican's adventure and depict his undying love for Vivian. I love his story so much that Amethyst had gotten to be a bloated 1,100+ pages roughly. So instead of eliminating so much content of the plot, I divided it into two separate titles thus creating book #2 Diamond as the follow up in the series. This gave each title a single major conflict that no longer competed against the other as the main goal of the story.

I'm currently working on my query letter to submit to potential publishers and also to literary agents. Realizing this may take a long time, if ever, to find a traditional publisher interested in the series, I have decided to self-publish or release the book as an e-book if necessary later in the year. At some point within this calendar year Amethyst will be available to readers.

I've selected a small "test audience" of various ages, both genders and random backgrounds to read Amethyst gathering their feedback. This will allow me to alter the manuscript if they point out flaws or mistakes in the writing. One such suggestion was that Milican would seek the approval from Vivian's parents especially her father, Thomas. And the father needed a more divisive role when dealing with Milican after major things in his life had dramatically changed thus impacting Thomas' family. Basically Milican would need to regain the confidence of Thomas before continuing his relationship with Vivian. The original story Thomas was too apathetic about his daughter dating someone like Milican and that needed to be addressed so I added more conversations between Milican and Thomas to show more of the father's misgivings about their relationship. This tip from a trust friend who is a English creative writing professor was crucial in building a more realistic story. The father would be more protective against what he would perceive as a dangerous situation for this daughter, grandson and wife. Milican would have to proof himself to be a good choice for Vivian by convincing Thomas that he was still a good person after all that had changed and that he was not a threat to their safety. (Thanks Shaun for that advice.)


That kind of feedback at this stage is priceless. And since I'm writing multiple titles simultaneously, this allows me to customize their interactions making the stories stronger and more life-like. This is a tragic tale of supernatural events that empower Milican to love Vivian like no other man ever could, but its a unbalanced love affair despite the fact that she loves him equally. The fact that he is a supernatural being creating tremendous stress and hardships that they have to deal with on a nightly basis as they journey forward in their lives.


I'm juggling several different stages of the writing, editing, brainstorming, finding a publisher and researching numerous topics directly related to my story, plus thinking and designing my marketing strategy for the series all at once. They all go hand in hand so I don't mind having so many concepts, such as I designed a custom-made piece of jewelry that is important to the story and will be used throughout the series. I've been designing my own logo and/or brand to market my series so its easily recognizable and will hopefully make The Platinum Series standout amongst the crowd of new books in the genre of Sci-Fi, Supernatural, Mythological Creatures Romances.

I've written up to the fourth title so far in the series, Amethyst #1, Diamond #2, Garnet #3, & Sapphire #4. March of 2010 when I started this writing experiment, I had thought of having six books about Milican but the story is progressing so easily and quickly that I have stopped thinking of a set number to end the series. Although the last chapter of the last book has already been written so I know how the series will ultimately end for Milican. I almost don't want to see the final title, Onyx, published because that will mean its over... but I'm a long way from that point.

Fingers crossed that I'll be blogging soon of a released date for The Platinum Series: Amethyst
Thanks for reading Stephanie M. Jandreau