Fabulous Five blog hop

I’ve been invited to answer these questions by Debbie McGowan, author of contemporary fiction. Her current titles include the series Hiding Behind The Couch, Champagne and Checking Him Out. Further info and download links can be found on her website:  http://www.debbiemcgowan.co.uk.

I love Debbie’s works. She’s one of my favorite authors. If you have time, please check out her works. She’s awesome.

What am I working on?

As usual, my head is all over the place, so I’m working on various projects. The project I’m most attached to these days is a friends to lovers story with an age gap between Mcs.

Terrance was Chase’s hero back in childhood, a worship that soon turned to infatuation from his part. But Terrance never saw Chase as more than a cute kid. Wanting to escape from his small-minded town and hoping to get over his childhood crush, Chase jumps to the opportunity to go to university in L.A. where he becomes a famous nature photographer. He thinks his feelings for Terrance are gone, but when his relatives abruptly die in a car crash, Chase is forced to come back home and see Terrance again. All the emotions he tried to suppress, along with the fears and insecurities he felt as a teenager come crushing back.

The story is yet to have a title, but I’m almost done with it, so the title will surely come to me. I’m very curious how the readers will react to the age gap between Terrance and Chase and if they’ll find their reactions realistic enough or too dramatic.

How does my work differ from others in its genre?

This is a tough one. Honestly I’m not even trying  to make my books different and I don’t really get why they should be. I write M/M and you can find plenty of other books similar to mine in this genre. I don’t think this is a flaw though. Readers who choose M/M lean towards this genre for a reason and, obviously, they look for certain “ingredients”. I, like many other authors, try to offer this ingredients in a nicely wrapped package. we are all different, as individuals. It’s a given our books will be different too. But, thank God, there are plenty of books to choose from and there will always be readers there to support us. 

Why do I write what I do?

I love M/M for various reasons. It’s sexy, original, fun and so much more engaging than hetero romance. But, most of all, I like writing M/M romance because I believe love is beautiful and people shouldn’t judge others. I truly hope one day people will stop discriminating against gays. Already, there are many positive changes in the world and I believe M/M romance is a huge help. It’s opening people’s minds. I am proud to take part in this, even in such a small measure.

How does my writing process work?

I am a procrastinator and I get easily bored. Because of that, I always need to have more than one current project. I like juggling between stories and daydreaming about characters, but I hate plotting. I find it a waste of time and I rarely outline stories. At the most, I write a phrase or two about my main ideas and plot points, but the rest is up to my imagination.

I enjoy writing a little every day. Half an hour is enough to get me going, and, usually when I start, I don’t stop until I finish a scene or a chapter.

I hate editing though and I always procrastinate when it’s time to correct the first draft. First, I concentrate on grammar and typos. Then I leave the draft for at least a week and read it again after. I correct more typos. At this point I try to brainstorm what scenes should be cut and if the characters react properly to certain scenes. I usually consult with my betas about it.

Then, I revise accordingly. Leave the draft one more week at least. Correct more typos. Done!

Who’s next?

Unfortunately, I can’t tag five authors, but I hope you guys enjoy Jesse Frankel’s Fabulous Five blog hop answers. He’s an exceptional YA writer whom I truly admire.

Shayla’s (Mis)Adventures in Coverland PART 2

As promised, my friends, here is part two of my adventures in Coverland.
Last time I stopped at the point where I decided I needed to see my cover from a different approach. As a result, I oriented towards a more abstract/vectorish looks. No more stock photos for me.
At first I wanted to have a microphone as the focus of my cover, but I soon changed my mind. I didn’t find microphone illustrations for commercial purposes, I didn’t find brushes that I liked. So I said “Never mind, i’ll just do something cute, even though it might be unrelated with the story.”
That’s how this cover was born:

I used a free commercial font, a free music notebook texture and flower brushes that I made myself.

After I shared it with my friends, they all commented on the pink. no pink for us, lady, thank you very much.  *Sigh*

No biggie, I’ll make it purple.

Basically all I did was play around with layer modes, hue-saturation, curves, etc. I liked it a lot. Deb commented on the flowers though. now that they popped, she suddenly realized they had no place in the pictures. It made no sense for them to be there.

I didn’t really understand her logic, I admit, but I’d rather trust someone else’s opinion than my own when it comes to unexplored territories, and this was definitely an unexplored territory for me.

So I took the flowers out and came back to the main idea of my book. What was my book about? Two best friends. One of them is singer that uses his unrequited love to fuel his passion for music, the other one comes out for him in the end. It’s that simple.
I thought I could convey this with the use of the rainbow’s colors and some music notes.
I made various versions of the cover, some of which I have deleted . Here’s what I kept.

I apologize, but I’m too tired now to modify the damn HTML so the pics show in one row. I swear I’m sick of blogger. It may be easy to customize sometimes, but other times…

Anyway, end of rant, back to topic. I again showed these to Deb. She pointed out that having some guitar picks and drums would be better. I didn’t agree with this one because they had very little to do with the story. She even showed these covers to her students and they all agreed on the third from those above I believe. I’m not sure exactly because I deleted a few.

At this point I showed the cover to Vess. Vess immediately said she thought it was too dark. She suggested I enlarge and right (righten?) the heart in the middle. cange the layer mode a bit. This is how I came with the above fifth cover.

Well, Deb was very very helpful. But I felt that the cover had a too many things thrown on top of each other. I returned to the initial idea of something simpler.

It was then that Vess saved me again. She showed me a wallpaper with a rose and a text in a circle. It looked gorgeous, simple. Beautiful. I thought about it a little and I decided I could do something similar. With the use of a rose picture I had with my own garden roses and a few free brushes, I made this:

Vess loved it. But “What’s the blood got to do with it?” she pointed out. Oops. Maybe I shouldn’t so obviously point at bleeding heart. some might take it literally and confuse it with a mystery story.

So I changed it. unfortunately I deleted the last file. I had a few falling petals, but they fell upside down. I noticed it thanks to Vess again. In the end, I corrected the mistake, deleted a bit more of the gray area, and ended up with this:

So, this is my final cover. I did not write “an LL story” or something like that as other authors did, simply because I forgot. I wanted to be done with it, otherwise, knowing me, I knew I’d end up tweaking it endlessly.

So, this was the story of my first self-made cover.

What I learned from this experience?

First and foremost, NEVER do it alone. I had three awesome friends who helped build this: Louise, Deb and Vess, who all pointed out my mistakes and gave priceless advice. I would have ended up with a mess if not for them.

Secondly, go with your first instincts.
From the start, I wanted something simple and minimalist. No matter how many ideas I bounced back and forth with everyone, no matter how many versions I came up with, I was still attracted to the simple cover. I could have saved myself a lot of time and effort and spared my friends a lot of eye rolls and huffs if I’d just stuck to my first thought and worked around that.

Third, if you don;t know what you’re doing, go with simple. I might not have the greatest cover. But for a beginner, I think it looks good. As long as it’s simple, your rookie mistakes will be reduces to a minimum. It won’t be so noticeable that you have no idea what you’re doing. Monochromatic is also a good way to avoid bad result. As you can see, I went with both to minimize my risks LOL

If you can make it free, go with it. You can have a cute cover even for little or no money. for this cover I made my own rose brush from a photo. I used free for commercial use font from 1001fonts.com (click the green dollar button) and free for commercial use brushes from Obsidian Dawn .

Lastly, don’t forget to give credit, even if it’s not required, for the resources you use. It’s common sense.

Well, thanks a lot for following me through my adventure. I’d be honored if you’d like to share your covers with me.

Lots of hugs and kisses,
Shayla

Shayla’s (Mis)Adventures in Coverland or How I learned making covers is not that easy (gah!) – PART I

Sorry for the long title 😛

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog. Huge apologies to everyone who’s following. In case you were curious, yes, I’ve been busy writing. My story for Love’s Landscapes, Only you, is complete. Edited, revised, revised again, and again, and again, you name it. I really hope you guys will enjoy it.

So, this year I wanted to put a lot more effort into the process and decided to make my own cover as well. I didn’t want to hire anyone to do it. I wanted it to be much more personal than that. However, I never expected it would be so hard to decide on an actual cover. And some point I was so frustrated I was ready to give up. Let me show you why (and keep in mind that this is the abbreviated version :D):

First, I thought I should buy stock image that would fit the mood of my story. Since my prompter was inspired by this song, Say Something (I’m giving up in you) by A Great Big World ft. Christina Aguilera – a super sad song in case you don’t know – I figured I would use a photo that would give off that feeling. So I searched pics with guys walking away, autumn inspired pics, depressed guys, and, generally black and white backgrounds.
Here are just a few I found particularly inspiring:

Of, course, there were a lot more to choose from. But as I started writing , I realized it wasn’t my thing. I would never be the kind of writer that would write something particularly dramatic or angsty. I’m all for the cute and fluffy. No matter how sad the subject of unrequited love was, I knew I would eventually end up with a fun and cute story. A depressing cover would definitely not be fit.

On to plan B then. I figured I needed something to suggest the pain of love and loneliness, but at the same time have a hopeful message. So, I thought the best way to go about it was to find a cover with a heart somewhere in the middle. 

My scavenger hunt for lonely hearts proved to be very rewarding. It turns out there are hundreds of images with hearts as the focal points.

Here are some I really liked.

This is where I got serious. I really loved the pic with the rose petals. even though it was in low resolution I could really see its potential once I would buy it. I did a Google image search and confirmed it hadn’t been used as a romance cover before so I made a mock cover. 

 I wasn’t decided on the title and just put something in there.
I posted this mock cover on the writers group on Goodreads and got lots of advice.

I used those pieces of advice and tweaked my cover some more:

 And then some more:

Still, I wasn’t satisfied. Like several peeps from the group pointed out, the writing was too small. However, the image was already way loaded. If my typing would have been bigger than that, I felt that the beauty and simplicity of the image would have been lost. Sadly, as much as I loved the pic, I had to let this one go  T_T

I reoriented myself towards another image and made this cover:

Again with the same issue. My typesetting just didn’t fit. Too small. It didn’t pop out. It didn’t leave a strong impression. In other words, amateurish. I was definitely not satisfied. 

But I’m a stubborn person.

Switching to plan C, the most radical so far. I decided I’d make two totally different covers and ask my friends for help in choosing the right one.

The first one was meant to be cute, but also very minimalist and airy, so there would be enough space for the typesetting to be big without crowding the picture. 

I wanted to convey the image of a guy giving his heart to another guy. That, however, wouldn’t have fit the minimalism criterion at all. Not to mention it would have been way too hard to find an image like that. I could have tried painting the guys, but I suck at digital art, so, I immediately dismissed that fleeting thought. 

The best alternative I could come up with was to concentrate just on the hands. By this time, I also had my title picked. This sounded promising. I searched for some hands pics, one holding a heart and another one receiving it. Unfortunately, at that time I didn’t find the best stock ever (after a couple of weeks, I did, but it was already too late) and here’s the result:

At this point, like I said, I was consulting my friends. One of them, Vess, said she didn’t like the font. She also suggested putting my name under the title or, either way, make it centered. I followed her advice:

Much better, right?
The problem was that this cover did not satisfy my other two friends, Deb and Louise. Deb, especially, really disliked the hands at the bottom of the cover.

Meanwhile, I had the second option available. I thought to myself, “Ok, cute doesn’t seem to work. Let’s try sexy.” So I picked a really gorgeous hunk image. But I, again, wanted to connect the image with the title of the story. So I decided to put a heart on his chest, make it look like a tattoo.

It was guaranteed this would turn out awesome. I mean, who doesn’t love a naked guy? Sadly, like Deb pointed out, naked guys are so last year. Plus, my tattoo wasn’t very convincing (that was not my fault; his chest is way too flat. No matter how much of a distortion filter I applied it would not stretch further).
Vess loved this one, but she also agreed that between the naked hunk and the previous cover, the one with the hands, the most original one was the first choice.
Louise was the most smitten with this one. She only suggested changing the font. Just to please her, I did.

But, I had pretty much figured it out that this cover was hopeless too.

Ok, sweet pics wouldn’t work. Naked hunks were outdated. What was I going to do? Give up ad hire a pro, or stick with the group cover, which was guaranteed to be gorgeous?
But, how could I give up when I had already reached so far?

It was all or nothing. I decided to completely switch gears and try a vectorish look. My last chance at making my cover. I was determined if plan D would also not work, then, and only then, I would give up.

In part II I’ll talk about my next series of misadventures in coverland. That is, if you till haven’t gone insane by the time you’ve reached the end of this post 😛

Hugs and kisses,
Shayla

Hiding Under Covers is out and proud!

Remember how I told you I wrote for an anthology? Well, it’s finally out and it’s completely FREE!
You guys will love it! This book has a little story behind, because it was made in honor of the Scavenger Hunt challenge organized by moderator Katie of the M/M Romance group on Goodreads. Katie recently gave birth to a baby girl, and we thought (well, Shelby thought and we all agreed)  it was the best way to show our appreciation for all the effort she put into the challenge despite her very pregnant condition 🙂

I will follow up with an interview with authors Kaje Harper who wrote a yummy ménage story that’s part of the book and Kathleen Hayes who wrote a lovely time travel story that inspired a few bunnies to hop in my little head. Of course, I”ll try to convince the other authors to talk a little about their stories so you get to know better what this anthology is about. I’m searching for people willing to host me on their blogs to spread the word out, so, if you’re willing, let me know at the usual e-mail address – shayla.mist@gmail.com.

Well, without further ado, here’s where you can download Hunting Under Covers from and, if you like the stories, please don’t shy away from leaving a review. Always appreciated.

Divergent Publishing

ARe link

Smashwords

For Goodreads aficionados, here’s the link to add our book to you TBR list.

Goodreads 

Well, that’s all for today, guys. Hope you have a great week!

Hugs and kisses,

Shayla

I’m a reviewer. Yey!

Hey, guys. Happy Monday!
Not so happy for me, because I’m down with a cold. But other than that, I have great news. Author Caitlin Ricci welcomed me to her team of reviewers on her new site – Read the Rainbow. Here’s my first review: http://readtherainbow.weebly.com/1/post/2014/01/review-scott-sapphire-and-the-emerald-orchid-by-geoffrey-knight.html

There are many more from where that came, so keep your eyes open. If you have a book to review, you can find a segment on the site on how to submit your book. Who knows, you might get the chance to be reviewed by amazing me *cough cough* I’m very happy to be part of this team.
I know being reviewer will help me write better, understand the process of different authors and help improve my critiquing technique. Moreover I will get to discover new authors and new books every day. thank you, Caitlin, for giving me this opportunity.

The second good news is that I managed to finish another story. And it’s free! It’s part of an anthology and I’ll post the link as soon as it’s published. I’m so very excited because I worked along an incredible team of very professional and reliable people and I feel proud to have been part of it.

That’s it for today. You may noticed I posted a new poll. On the last one the voters chose author interviews to the question ‘What you’d like to see on my blog?’, so I’ll do my best to find authors to bring to the blog, although, surprising as it may be, no author answered my call to be interviewed. I guess my blog is too new and uninteresting or my writing sucks too much and they don’t want to be associated with me *sorry about that (>-<)*.

This new poll I posted concerns a work in progress of mine that reached a crossroads. I’m unsure whether to transform the unlikable coworker into a love interest or follow my initial plan of getting my MC back together with his ex who left him when he contracted a mysterious alien illness (the ex, not the MC). I’d really like some opinions on this.

Leaving you with my boy GD’s latest MV (hmmm… hope I didn’t post it before; when it comes to G-Dragon I can’t help myself).

Hugs and kisses,
Shayla

Snippet from my story anyone?

Hi, peeps.
It’s another new day and I have nothing new to say. My life is so boring that even my dog is more interesting than me.
As a result, I’m just gonna share a snippet from my gay Cinderella remake, which I’ve been working on, I think, for almost half a year, maybe even more. It’s a novella; that tells you how much of a procrastinator I am.
Anyway, it’s tentatively called “Oops, I lost my blue suede shoe” Too Elvis-ish? I’m humbly waiting for opinions. Pretty pwease?

Here it is, the beginning of my story:

The room was dark when Eli came home. He hit the couch hard and cursed out loud.  His voice sounded deafening in the empty space, but as soon as he threw his clutch in the direction of the armchair, the room was invaded with light.

“OMG! You’re back!” his roommate shrieked and immediate jumped into his arms

“I lost a Fendi. Fuck me! They were so expensive.”

Eli sighed and fell on the floor, resting his head on the sofa’s cushion. He was so tired he didn’t feel like doing anything right then. But, at the same time, his brain was buzzing like a radio.

“How was it? Why are you back so early? And how the hell did you manage to lose a shoe? Only you could have done that. Tell me everything!” Tanya’s enthusiasm was infectious. Despite his exhaustion, Eli found himself smiling. He took his mask off with a lazy hand and yawned.

“It’s your damn fault. I told you I can’t ride a bike with this fucking dress. It was a friggin’ pain even getting on the bike. Of course I barely noticed losing a shoe. Especially since I was trying my hardest not to get caught.”

“Get caught?” Tanya’s eyes widened. Eli could almost see the wheels turning in her head. With a wicked smile her friend took a cushion and put it underneath her, assuming a position more appropriate for meditation rather than for a gossip session, but that was definitely Tanya’s favorite position for gossiping. “I want details,” she begged, looking at him like an eager puppy. “You’re not getting any sleep before you spill it, mister.”

Eli moaned and pressed his palms together in a silent prayer. Not a chance. The determined look in his best friend’s eyes told him he couldn’t get away without spilling the whole story.

Of course, it had all been Tanya’s fault to begin with. She was the one with the crazy ideas. Several hours ago, in fact the previous evening, since now it was already past midnight, Tanya had stormed into his room with a crazy grin on her face and plunked an envelope, her expression triumphant.

Cliffhanger *kukukuh*

See y’all next week. Hugs and kisses!

Back to work :P

Hi, guys.

I finally decided to get out from underneath my shell. It’s getting a little mossy under there. I think I might need to clean it up and let the air in, you know.
I was so happy to check Top2Bottom reviews this morning and see my interview up. Aww, I feel like an author LOL
Moreover, they gave my book 4 stars *puppy eyes* The review put everything I wanted to do with this story out there. I thought no one would understand the underlying emotions behind my MC’s whacky personality, but someone did! It gives me a lot of hope for my future writings.
Thank you so much for the wonderful review, Top2Bottom!

If anyone has enough time to spare, here’s my interview – http://top2bottomreviews.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/shayla-mist/
And here’s the review – http://top2bottomreviews.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/love-rivals-by-shayla-mist/

I’m leaving you guys with yet another awesome song by G-Drgon (don’t virtually kill me!). His song really reminds me of my MC Aiden from Love Rivals, who acts like the biggest jerk ever, but, really, he’s just in need of a bit of love.

Interview at Liv’s

Hi, everyone! I’m excited to let you know that my dear friend, Liv Olteano, has offered to interview me regarding my book.
You can find the post here.
although it’s not a giveaway, I’m hoping you’ll be interested enough to find out more about me, as a person, as well as a writer. Feel free to leave a comment and ask me anything.
Hugs to all! Wishing you a wonderful week!
xoxo,
Shayla

Doctor’s Puppy Love is out!

Yuppie! My LHNB story is out! *happy dance*
It was inspired by this hot pic and prompt:

 Dear Author,

Our jobs are stressful and heartbreaking, but coming home to him makes everything better. He makes me smile even when I’m angry at the whole world and being with him makes me stronger.

Of course, the first time we worked together he called me an arrogant heartless bastard. Mind you, I had just referred to him as “the spineless wonder from the Land of Too Naive to Survive”. It wasn’t like I realized he was listening.

It took a long time of working together before we starting to respect each other, and longer still before I realized he was the center of my world. It took a lot of sarcasm (him) and name-calling (me) before we got to that point.

Perhaps you could tell the story of how we got from there to here.

Sincerely,

J.

Ignore the J. , please. The thing is I only realized there was a J. after I was halfway though the story so…Well, I decided to stick with my initial names.  Yes, I’m a total airhead!

For the moment, you can find Doctor’s Puppy Love on Goodreads at this link , only if you’re a member of the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads. However, it will soon be available for download, and, of course, I’ll let you know when the time comes.
Don’t let yourself be scared away by the silly title and give it a try. Pwetty pwease?

Love Rivals Pomo Tour schedule

Hi everyone!
As you all probably found out, my Love Rivals will be released on the 10th of July (dammit, I dread the future reviews). It is already available for preorder on Less Than Three’s book market (yahoo!).
But, if you want to win a free copy, you have five chances (yes, you did read well) because I am giving away a copy per promo post. So, stay tuned for my book promo, make sure to follow/subscribe to the following blogs so you don’t miss it happening, and, if you want, you can also actually read my blog posts, in which I talk about things in my book.
Ready?

Here’s the tour schedule:

July 8     Joyfully Jay     http://joyfullyjay.com

July 9     Raining Men      http://rainingmenamen.blogspot.com/

July 10   Armchair Reader          http://coleriann.com

July 11   World of Diversity Fiction               http://sean-norris.com

July 12   Megan Derr              http://maderr.livejournal.com/1656277.html?view=16601557#t16601557