Book Covers

I'm getting closer to publishing my first book Rent Me.   I would love your opinion once more about the book covers.  I numbered them. Please let me know by number.
Email me at brinabrady@gmail.com
Thank you,
Brina Brady

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Archetypes

Here is a great link on shadow archetypes.

https://www.archetypes.com/timeline/shadow-archetypes


Here is a view  inside of the limo in my story. I will look for some more of these.

The Write Practice News Letter

I wanted to share The Write Practice newsletter I receive.  You can sign up here:

The Write Practice

The Poor, Misunderstood Semicolon

This post was originally published in August 2011.

Wait a second. Did you just hear that?
Pick meeeee…
There it is. You heard it, too. Don’t try to tell me you didn’t.
That was the sound of a semicolon in the throes of a self-esteem battle.

How Do You Use a Semicolon?

If the semicolon was just a little less top-heavy, then it would be a comma, and rightfully used and appreciated. Sadly, many writers have a confused relationship with the semicolon, not really sure how or when to place it in their lovely sentences. Some have rejected it outright, including Kurt Vonnegut, who said that the only reason to use a semicolon would be “to show you’ve been to college.”
Don’t worry, little semicolon. Your virtues will not be lost on this audience as long as I have a say in it.
In all seriousness, the semicolon is probably the most misunderstood button on a keyboard (except for maybe whatever the heck the little hat over the 6 is). When used properly, however, the semicolon can connect phrases in a beautiful and sophisticated way. For example:

Martin squinted as he read over his news brief; he was in need of a good pair of glasses.

The semicolon in this sentence connects the two independent thoughts without bringing the narrative to a full stop in the way that a period would. A comma is completely inappropriate here because that would lead to a comma splice, and as we have previously discussed, comma splices are evil.
Semicolons can also be used as a kind of supercomma, and should always be used in a list when separating objects that also have commas. Take the following sentence:

Diana included Athens, Greece; Paris, France; and Vienna, Austria, on her list of honeymoon cities that were not to be confused with their American counterparts in Ohio, Texas, or Virginia.

See? However, in order to use the semicolon properly when you’re not making lists, it’s important to remember a few things.

1. Each clause of the sentence needs to be independent clause.

You know what an independent clause is, right? You’re writers! Sometimes, however, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of the semicolon, and you’ll want to use it everywhere. Don’t. If you’re going to use it, make sure that each clause can stand on its own as a fully formed sentence. If it helps, mentally separate the two clauses with a period to test their independence.

Justin didn’t walk; he ran. Justin didn’t walk. He ran.

2. Use them sparingly.

It can get exhausting for your reader if there is too much going on in one sentence. If there is too much going on in each sentence for a full paragraph, that may result in reader mutiny, and you’re going to have trouble bringing them back. Use the semicolon to connect ideas that are related, but don’t try to connect every single idea in a paragraph. Periods are your friends (at least in this context).

Ellie subtly flared her nostrils; the smell of lilac and lavender filled the air; it reminded her of her summers in the hills of Ohio; she and her cousins would make crowns of daisies and give them to their mothers.

For the love of God and the sanity of your readers, do not do this.

Ellie subtly flared her nostrils. The smell of lilac and lavender filled the air; it reminded her of her summers in the hills of Ohio. She and her cousins would make crowns of daisies and give them to their mothers.

It takes some practice, but you’ll start noticing places in your writing where a semicolon would add a welcome breath to the prose.

PRACTICE

Practice writing with semicolons. Write about the following prompt using as many semicolons as you can (create a couple lists if you have to). However, if you overuse the semicolon, you will be punished; severely.
Spend at least fifteen minutes on this.
Prompt: Billy is going backpacking through Asia and needs to get vaccination shots.

Leave a comment or post your practice...

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Writing Tip

Write. Start writing today. Start writing right now. Don’t write it right, just write it –and then make it right later. Give yourself the mental freedom to enjoy the process, because the process of writing is a long one. Be wary of “writing rules” and advice. Do it your way.
TARA MOSS

I am working on my revision but with revision comes new writing. 

Here is something to go with your morning coffee.

                               Travis Fimmel. 

Good Afternoon,
I made more book covers. Who knew there were so many versions to one darn book cover. Click on each image to see it larger if you like. 

Cover 1

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Cover 6B

Cover 6C

Cover 6D

Cover 6E

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Good Morning,
Today I want to share a link where you can practice your writing skills.

http://thewritepractice.com/

Here is my prompt from my WIP Rent Me:

Twenty year old male escort Brennen created a private porn Twitter account and his Russian lover’s brother Mischa who is Brennen’s personal guard and chauffeur discovered the account and brought it to his attention and he was not too pleased. The questions are posed to Brennen. 
These characters are from my WIP Rent Me by Brina Brady.

How did that situation make you feel?

I was angry with myself because I should have known better to think that I could get away with having a private Twitter account. What makes it worse is that I used my escort name Kaiden. I should have know Mischa would find out about it. I wouldn't put it past him if he stuck something in my computer to trace every finger stroke I made. But for him to find my Twitter account with all those pictures I posted of myself naked and those videos. What was I thinking?

But what was worse is he gave me a choice, not a choice really. He told me I had choice to be punished by Dmitri, the man I love or him. Mischa was a Russian hit man for Dmitri’s drug organization. Neither of them would be easy on me.

What did you do to remedy the situation?

The only way out of this stupid mess I created for myself was to choose Mischa to punish me because Dmitri would be angry but I could not stand to see the hurt in his eyes. I don’t want to hurt him. He did so much for me. I am so stupid.

How do you think your decision will affect others?

I think my decision choosing Mischa prevented Dmitri from finding out about it and so he was spared the hurt.

However, I did not get off too good. He pulled a gun to my head, disciplined me then stuffed me inside the trunk tied up for thirty minutes while he drove us back home from the cabin. Mischa stopped the SUV and removed me from the trunk and thought Mischa was going to shoot me but he asked me if I learned my lesson and I said yes. I was able to sit in the car and he told me that the gun did not have bullets.

Where do you go from here?

I won’t be posting anymore naked pictures and I will think about others and how my actions affect them. Of course when I got home, my darling Dmitri was waiting for me.  I asked him to stay the night and please hug me in bed so I feel loved by him.  I felt like my world left me on a planet all alone and he stayed the night to hug me back to feeling his love.

I am making some book covers.  If you want to comment, thank you I appreciate it.  Maybe by the end of the week, I will decide.

Cover 1

These book covers were removed and I have another post with updated book covers.

Hello,

I am working on cutting down my novel since it expanded to 108,000 words and one editor told me that is way too big for a first time author.  So, after working so hard to write and checking my word count, I need to cut down. Last night, I cut one chapter and some scenes.

Today, I am working on eliminating overused words.
Rebecca Andrews wrote: The Millennium Phrase Book.
Her website is here:
http://www.rebeccaandrews.net


She made a list of words that are overused.  I use the search and find for this in MS Word.

Here are the words she suggests to delete.

about                 all                        almost
always              eagerly                 every
finally               frequently            got
just                   merely                  nearly
need                 never                    not
often                only                      so
that                   then                      very

These words can be removed in most cases.
although               appeared                at least
began                    even                       felt
figured                  for a moment         heard
if nothing else       in spite of              perhaps
quite                       rather                    realized
really                      saw                       seemed
sort of                     started                  suddenly
in fact that

You can remove And, But or While from the beginning of a sentence.

I cut many words so far.  Cutting is worse than writing.

Here is a Happy Friday picture.

Merry Christmas!
Here is a present for you. I like Gabriel Aubry. I wish I could use this picture for a book cover. He is perfect!

Good Morning,
As I go through my novel for editing, I noticed I got carried away with removing adverbs. But what did I do?  I replaced them with adverbial clauses, more words.  I now have broken the rule of write less. I noted that I have a fixation as using this: "In an instant" instead of using an adverb.  The only reason I noticed this was from listening to my novel on my Kindle. So I will do a search for  "In an instant".

I downloaded Movie Maker to make a video trailer of my book.  This should be fun and challenging at best. I use pictures to help me describe things in my novel.

I am doing some research on males who dress like woman and want to be addressed as a woman. When writing about these characters, do I use the pronoun she or he?  So far, most think use the she.  I don't want to offend anyone. Brennen has one client like this named Theresa.

Here is Theresa's bed.

I researched a great amount on Russians so now my inbox is full of Russian Mail Order Brides.

I joined a few interesting writing groups. If you are a writer, you may want to check them out.

http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/

http://www.critiquecircle.com/default.asp

https://ce.savvyauthors.com/index.cfm

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/romantica-critters/info

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MarketingForRomanceWriters/info

http://lowcountryrwa.com/workshops/all-workshops/

UPDATE:
I had to delete this chapter.

This is today's GM man.

Please email me at brinabrady@gmail.com or answer here which cover do you like best by the number.
I did not purchase the image yet until I decide which one I want. That is the reason for copyright on the image.

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Adverbs!

Apparently, adverbs stink up your fiction, so out go all the perfect adverbs.  Here I am doing a search for "ly" words and replacing adverbs with action verbs. Since when did the Parts of Speech have an hierarchy?  Many publishers reject manuscripts because of the damn dirty adverbs that are creating a foul smell in your story. Frankly, I love adverbs. Maybe someone could create a "Adverbsaurus" that can create verbs from adverbs. That would be helpful!!

Let's not forget you must rid your story of the passive voice.  You know, any form of the verb "to be".  Also please do not leave in too many "this" or "that" either;  I have to work on REVISION.  This part of writing stinks. 

Currently, I wrote 100, 300 words for my novel Rent Me.  I need to develop my last chapter more then the first draft will be completed.

Here is THE CABIN in my book that I used.



                              Blurb of Rent Me
Brennen fell in love with the Russian stranger who saved him from an abusive environment. Dmitri, a Russian Mafia member, adopted Brennen, sent him to the best schools and spoiled him with all the finer things in life.

When Brennen turned 18, he became Dmitri’s lover. Dmitri controlled ever inch of his life in and out of bed. The story captures their struggles to define their relationship. Brennen loves Dmitri as a father and lover and Dmitri loves Brennen as a son and lover. 

Their relationship with many overlapping roles to each another creates chaos in their lives. Brennen denied sex to Dmitri to attain an escort position in Dmitri’s Escort Service. Dmitri gave in because he needed Brennen as his lover. To maintain control, he diverted Brennen’s entire paycheck to a trust fund in Brennen’s name.

Two years after Brennen became an escort, Dmitri married Nika. He moved Brennen to his own apartment while he attended USC. Devastated Brennen did not know how to deal with being number two to his lover while they continued their sexual relationship as if nothing changed.

Will Dmitri and Brennen’s love be strong enough to endure all the trials and tribulations?

Will they have a happy ever after ending?

Want to find out, read the book.