YEAR OF THE WOLF is PUBLISHED!

Can you tell I'm excited? :)

A full summary and a peek inside YEAR OF THE WOLF is available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008ZNKRQG

It is the fourth search result in Amazon All Departments if you search for the title, "Year of the Wolf" in quotes. It is the seventh search result if you look directly in the Kindle store, no quotes. It is one of only two items that pop up if you search for my name - that, and a magazine by a certain Hugh Hefner... Well, what can I say.

Applications: 

 

YEAR OF THE WOLF is now available on the following Amazon Kindle e-readers and apps:

1. Kindle Fire

2. Kindle application for iPad

3. Kindle DX

4. Kindle Touch

5. Kindle

6. Kindle application for iPhone

Steps for downloading to iPad or iPhone Kindle apps:

  

1. The Kindle application (app) is *free* for iPad and iPhone users, however, you must have an Amazon account in which you have made a purchase in in order to register your Kindle app. When the app asks for you to register your "Kindle," just use that account's email and password. 

2. Go online and look up "Year of the Wolf" on Amazon. Quotations should narrow the search field down nicely. There's an adorable story about puppies that's still ahead of mine. 

3.  Do a 1-click purchase, or view the free sample that can be sent to your app device. 

4. The book should be downloaded onto your Kindle app in no time!

Presentation:

 

The apps are ranked from best presentation to worst. Kindle Fire and the iPad Kindle app are by far the best, because they support color picture for a fully embellished cover, and they allow variety in font styles. I tried out the iPad Kindle this morning, and it looks great! (Thank God)

The Kindle DX, Touch, and Kindle are nice, although you might notice that currently, the font style is uniform across the board. Originally, font style was used to tell the reader which character's viewpoint the chapter was from, but now, the E-book has been formatted to have the Table of Contents entries indented slightly for chapters featuring younger sister Raina's viewpoint.

The iPhone... Well, what can I say. It's a phone. You should have no problem reading the story, but you can only make a phone screen so big. If you're waiting in a long line for something, it is pretty nice to have a ton of reading material in your small phone.

The Kindle "Click to look inside the pages!" on the Amazon purchase page will give you roughly a four chapter sample to read. Don't worry if there seem to be no chapter breaks, that's just the format of the Kindle "Click to look inside!", and not how the purchased E-book looks. 

Again, a big thanks to everyone who supported me up until the last hour of revisions and hitting *gasp* the "Save and Publish" button. We did it!

Upcoming E-Book: Year of the Wolf

EXCITING, exciting news... 

Although I'm sad to have left all of you for so long, rest assured that I didn't take a year-long hiatus for nothing. To be released on Amazon Kindle this August 19, 2012 will be my first E-Book! 

Title: YEAR OF THE WOLF

Genre: Urban Fantasy

 

  

Description: 

NINE YEARS AGO… Citlalli's eldest sister mysteriously vanished, after years of fighting off a strange illness with no cure.

A NEW START… Citlalli thought her family had left their tragic past behind when they moved to the techno-glamorous city of Seoul, South Korea. But then her youngest sister began developing the all-too familiar symptoms: pale skin, a revulsion toward meat, prattling on about seeing ghosts…

NO LONGER A CHILD… A chance confrontation late one night in the subway convinces Citlalli that something is hunting her family. Maybe an illness isn't an illness, but a mark… Either way, she will not stand by and be prey any longer.

NOW… When you start a war with beasts, how long before you become one yourself?

YEAR OF THE WOLF is the darkly-imagined, self-empowering journey of one girl's encounters with the supernatural side of Seoul.

-

This will be the first book in the ongoing Changeling Sisters series for adults, about a headstrong American girl tackling life in Seoul, South Korea—and crossing dangerous creatures in Eve, the alluring spirit world, one too many times. Inspired by Korean folklore and beautiful cities across the country, YEAR OF THE WOLF is told from a foreigner's perspective, as Citlalli Alvarez adapts, fights, and tangles with love.

Becoming a published author has been a longtime dream of mine, ever since age eleven, when I started writing stories for family and friends as birthday presents (I'd buy them presents, too. Sometimes). Writing, I soon discovered, is the easy part. The editing and revising process is the second act where your friends point out how many mistakes are glaring you straight in the face, and you wonder how you can repeat the most bizarre words far more than necessary (I think my overused word was "sliver." Random!)  Thank you to everyone who journeyed through Citlalli's Seoul with me. Your encouragement and support has been invaluable.

Buuut we're still not at Act Three yet: Storming the Publishers' Gates. Sometimes it feels like you have to be as lucky as a lottery ticket winner to catch an agent's eye. The process can take years. What you write might be hot in today's market, but not so trendy a year from now. Mind you, I did my due diligence. I sent out query after query letter, and slowly but surely, watched my Inbox fill up with rejections. However, you know you're doomed to be a writer when you can't seem to stop writing, can't seem to give up writing, so I decided to try something else. I turned to the friend of my generation: the Internet. 

With the opportunity to publish manuscripts as E-Books, through such companies as Amazon's Kindle program and Smashwords, the writer's goal of sharing his/her stories with global audiences is much more attainable. There are cons to E-Book publishing just as there are in traditional publishing. Amazon can choose to decrease the price of your E-Book to attract more customers. A traditional publisher can tell you to change your heroine's age to a much more marketable sixteen, because college age stories don't appeal to as wide of an audience.  Either way, I plan to follow the writer's creed of never giving up and embracing the trials that come, so bring on the challenge. I'll keep you posted here in the months to come. 

Until next time, keep your Kindle apps close. The countdown to book launch begins!