“Vanguard Prime: Wild Card” Cover Revealed

For those of you who missed it, the cover for Vanguard Prime: Wild Card (aka Vanguard Prime Book 2) was revealed at Inside a Dog, including a behind-the-scenes peek at what goes into producing the artwork for a book jacket. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get Inside a Dog’s blog system to link to a high-res version of the image, so I thought I’d post it here for you to see in all its glory (click for high-res).

Click for high-res version.

You can see a few new characters surrounding the Knight of Wands and Goldrush, but I’ll save details about them for the future. In the meantime, head over to Inside a Dog to see the creation of this image step-by-step!

Can’t Keep a Good Dog Down

It feels like these days I’m simply posting updates on what I’ve been writing about on Inside a Dog. Probably because that’s all I’ve been doing. My residency there will be wrapping up this week, with the very next post to be of great interest to Vanguard Prime readers…especially those who want to learn more about Wild Card (aka Vanguard Prime Book 2, for those people out there googling those terms!).

In the meantime, you can read my argument on how Boredom = Excitement, get some tips on writing dialogue, learn what a Tomato Surprise is and find out what music to listen to when looking for inspiration.

‘Til next time.

Shark Bait

Readers of Vanguard Prime: Goldrush and anyone interested in the manuscript submission process may want to check out my latest Inside a Dog blog post where I go through the cover letter and the plot synopsis that was included in my submission to Penguin. If I’d known about Query Shark at the time, I would no doubt have worded things completely differently. But everything worked out, so why fuss over it now?

We’ll be getting the keys to our new home next week. Right now, our house looks more like a warehouse full of half-packed boxes than a place that people live in. And at least half of those boxes are full of books. There’s definitely something to be said for e-books.

Dogs and Solitaire

I’m still blogging at Inside a Dog, and covering topics that I’ve been wanting to write about for ages. One is a list of links that includes Ian Irvine’s post on The Truth About Publishing. As I mention in my post, the article pulls no punches but the comprehensive information it offers was invaluable to me when I was looking to get published.

I’ve also explained what a Chekhov’s Gun is and extolled the virtues of mining old material for new ideas. Hopefully I’m not getting too preachy. I like to think I’m simply passing on some of the things I’ve learned along the way.

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The last two weeks I’ve been busily working away on the edit for Vanguard Prime: Wild Card. My editor and I are scrutinizing every sentence to make sure that each one works, and that they add up to make a satisfying (and logical) story. Of all the new characters in it, I’m most excited to introduce you guys to Solitaire. I can’t wait ’til you get the chance to meet her.

And with that tease of what’s to come, I’ll sign off for now.

Win Stuff!

Another Monday, another new post for Inside a Dog.

I originally intended on interviewing Samantha for this blog, but when the opportunity with Inside a Dog came up I knew that it’d be the perfect venue for a Q&A with an editor. Like I mentioned in the post, I’m hoping my next Q&A will be with someone in the sales department of a publishing company (and a children’s publisher, to be specific), so if there are any questions you might have make sure to let me know!

And one major thing that I keep forgetting to mention…you can win a signed copy of Vanguard Prime: Goldrush! For details, just click here. Entries close at the end of November.