I'm so excited - 'Happiness Guaranteed' has reached the Top 10 in Omnilit Best Sellers. I can't believe it! At the time of posting it is also No 1 in Best Selling Short Stories ebooks and No 1 in Highest Rated Short Stories ebook. I have to thank Lea Schizas MuseItUp Publisher, my editors Anne Duguid and Nancy Rafter Bell for their wonderful input and Tiger Matthews, cover designer, for this captivating cover.
Showing posts with label Happiness Guaranteed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Happiness Guaranteed. Show all posts
Saturday, 13 October 2012
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Thursday, 6 September 2012
Six Five Star Reviews
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| cover designer Tiger Matthews |
What a lovely surprise to find six 5 star reviews. And these reviews are so beautifully written they took my breath away. I'd love to share them with everyone I know and thank Edith, Laurel, Rosalie, Michelle, Lin and Rochelle from the bottom of my heart.
These heartwarming reviews are here on Amazon Kindle.
Thursday, 26 April 2012
How I Devised a Short Story
For those of you who love Science Fiction and Fantasy I'd like to tell you about Happiness Guaranteed and how I devised this short story.
I woke one morning, determined to write something. While still in bed, stalling to get up, contemplating how one must never open a story with the main character waking up, or with the weather, I did both.
First line: Bianca’s bed swayed in gentle rhythm with her floating condominium.
and, I let the sun stream in. Why is it we reinforce the don'ts we hear about rather than the do's?
'Write what you know' is a 'do' so I focused on that. The Formula 1 GP was an obsession of mine at the time. I knew about F1. This, coupled with a paragraph I'd picked up in a science article about an 'ancestral memory gene' excited my imagination.
This character directed the plot...to a point. She was a beautiful brunette and her husband was a handsome blond. However, she was already content in her ideal world, so really didn't need 'happiness' for a gift. How could I switch things around to give the story some oomph?
She became the blonde, Bianca, and he became Derek with the swarthy good looks. And, if Bianca was to receive the gift of happiness then she'd need to lack contentment.
In that group, a critiquer told me my story broke all the rules of writing, but it had something he couldn't put his finger on and suggested I send it to a new print magazine he'd just come across, in Australia,
the Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. So I did. I called it Bianca's Birthday Present.
My manuscript went through three stages of assessment and I was notified each time I reached the next level. Naturally I was thrilled when ASIM accepted Bianca's Birthday Present, for their 5th issue. I expected to be directed to fix those 'broken rules', but the editor asked me to change one phrase, only.
Years later, when the magazine allowed me my rights back, I submitted the story to MuseItUp as Happiness Guaranteed. It was accepted on the proviso I should work with my editors Anne Duguid and Nancy Bell , to 'flesh it out'. This I did and had a lot of fun revising my much loved story. It has increased by 1,000 words and now has a more obviously ambiguous ending. :)
I wish my grandfathers were here to read it.
Happiness Guaranteed (5,325 words) is available from the MuseItUp Bookstore ; Amazon Kindle
My website My Imagination - Here you can read the book blurb and an excerpt.
I woke one morning, determined to write something. While still in bed, stalling to get up, contemplating how one must never open a story with the main character waking up, or with the weather, I did both.
First line: Bianca’s bed swayed in gentle rhythm with her floating condominium.
and, I let the sun stream in. Why is it we reinforce the don'ts we hear about rather than the do's?
'Write what you know' is a 'do' so I focused on that. The Formula 1 GP was an obsession of mine at the time. I knew about F1. This, coupled with a paragraph I'd picked up in a science article about an 'ancestral memory gene' excited my imagination.
Since my previous story had a young man as its main character, I wanted to write this story from a woman's pov, and I wanted her to have an idealic life. I can't remember, but someone's birthday must have been on my mind because I needed to give my heroine a birthday present and, to me, 'happiness' seemed like the best one at the time. Of course, I had to figure out a conflict, give her a problem because 'problem' is the backbone of all stories, and the need to overcome that problem would provide her with a realistic goal.
Ah, simple!
Swap their appearances.
She became the blonde, Bianca, and he became Derek with the swarthy good looks. And, if Bianca was to receive the gift of happiness then she'd need to lack contentment.
Blonde v. Brunette, Innocence v. Experience. Naiveté v. Worldliness. Happiness v. Discontentment. This led me to think of other opposites -- Guilt and Suspicion v. Trust, Honesty V. Deceit. Old Ways v. New, Us and Them, Perfection v. Imperfection.
Ah!
Bianca couldn't be perfect in her ideal world. She needed a flaw. In fact she'd need a life threatening flaw.
Bianca couldn't be perfect in her ideal world. She needed a flaw. In fact she'd need a life threatening flaw.
Then Bianca and Derek's sweet romance became quite scary and much more exciting to write. :)
In one way or another, I used all of those opposites as well as my passion for speed and F1 Ferraris. I reseached that memory gene and settled on a futuristic setting, mainly because I belonged to a science fiction critique group.
In one way or another, I used all of those opposites as well as my passion for speed and F1 Ferraris. I reseached that memory gene and settled on a futuristic setting, mainly because I belonged to a science fiction critique group.
the Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. So I did. I called it Bianca's Birthday Present.
My manuscript went through three stages of assessment and I was notified each time I reached the next level. Naturally I was thrilled when ASIM accepted Bianca's Birthday Present, for their 5th issue. I expected to be directed to fix those 'broken rules', but the editor asked me to change one phrase, only.
Years later, when the magazine allowed me my rights back, I submitted the story to MuseItUp as Happiness Guaranteed. It was accepted on the proviso I should work with my editors Anne Duguid and Nancy Bell , to 'flesh it out'. This I did and had a lot of fun revising my much loved story. It has increased by 1,000 words and now has a more obviously ambiguous ending. :)
I wish my grandfathers were here to read it.
 |
| cover designer: Tiger Matthews |
Happiness Guaranteed (5,325 words) is available from the MuseItUp Bookstore ; Amazon Kindle
My website My Imagination - Here you can read the book blurb and an excerpt.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
'Happiness Guaranteed' has a COVER!
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| Cover artist: Tiger Matthews. |
Bianca, a beautiful Epicurean Supremo from a privileged futuristic society has a flaw which, if discovered and reported to the Rulers, will threaten her life and that of the man she loves. Unable to pinpoint the cause, she tries to hide her anxiety until an ingenious birthday present from her husband provides a respite. Now, on her thirty-third birthday, her primitive behaviour and thought patterns return; stronger and more dangerous.
Due for release December 2nd 2011
From MuseItUp Publishing Happiness Guaranteed
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