Adrianne Brennan's Blog: AJ Brennan's Blog

I’m the author formerly known as Adrianne Brennan. I took a lengthy hiatus for a variety of reasons from my writing, and am slowly in the process of figuring out how to get some of my works available again for purchase.

As some of you may know, the main publisher I was originally with for The Dark Moon series and other works of mine closed down in 2017, and the rights to my works were reverted back to me. At the moment I’m in the process of going through the motions to self publish them and also get the sequel to Blood of the Dark Moon out there at last. Between the pandemic and various personal issues, the delay in getting this all wrapped up has been substantial but it’s underway at long last.

Since I had taken down my old website a long time ago it seemed like a good time with the name change to finally dust off some old social media profiles and also create some new ones. In addition to my FB page and profile, you can also find me over at Mastodon at @AjBrennan@universeodon.com. I’ve also very reluctantly dusted off my Twitter account and renamed my account, but I can’t guarantee with all of the changes there in the past few years or so that I’ll be over on there often.

I plan to use my blog to share updates as I get back into the writing business, talk about my books as well as writing in general, and to discuss whatever topics are relevant to my works.

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Do you have a favorite fall memory linked to a train? What do you

imagine you would see if you were riding a train in the fall? Join the authors of Wild CHild publishing and

Freyas Bower as we Take an Autumn Train Ride through our blogs.

Prizes will include




Four $50 gift certificates (two for Wild Child and two Freya's Bower)
An awesome swag package that includes:

Bookmarks
Books
Wild Child T-shirt and mug
Wild Child and Freya's Bower bags
Four handmade, crochet coasters by Kit Wylde
An autographed copy of Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
A rare DVD copy of the Matheson/Furst classic "Up The Creek" (lovingly used)
One ebook copy of Nita Wick’s short story, The Dream (previously published as part of a Freya's

Bower anthology.)
Book trading cards
Signed Dangerous Waters poster
of "Battle for Blood: The Blood Feud"
winner's name as a character in Kissa Starling’s next sweet romance story.
A Yankee Candle
more...






Blood of the Dark Moon

Adrianne Brennan








Blood of the Dark Moon is the first book in the Dark Moon series.



Blurb: A dark flame of passion ignites between Amanda, a devoted follower of the Greek god Apollo, and Jesse, a handsome scholar who shares her love of both the classics and the occult. But little does Amanda know she is destined to fulfill a legacy that began long ago and ended in tragedy. Together, she and Jesse embark on a journey down a shadowy path that delivers Amanda into Jesse’s scintillating underworld of vampires, magick, and secret societies. Will she learn her true identity in time to help those she has grown to care for, and find happiness in her new life with Jesse? And will destiny finally be fulfilled?



You can buy Blood of the Dark Moon either directly through Freya's Bower or through Amazon.com and BN.com.



More about this book can be found on this page.




Please visit these sites for more chances to win, the more you visit the more chances you have to win.

We have 46 participating authors. You can stop at as many or as little blogs as you wish. At each stop,

you will find either two chances to enter per blog to win some awesome prizes. If you visit all, that's 92

chances to win! There will be five, lucky winners.




Take the Blog Train and Visit These Blogs for more chances to win

Marci Baun/Kit Wylde

Critters at the Keyboard

Teresa D'Amario

Judith Leger, Fantasy and

Comtemporary Romance Author

Writing

The Fictional World of Jaime Samms

Follow Where the Path will Take You

The Wandering Mind of Lizzy P.

Bellows

Where Love and Magic Meet

Kissa Starling

Marianna Heusler

Hell's Ambrosia

C.M. Michaels

The Shadow Portal

The Blog Zone

Blog By iMagine

Ardyth DeBruyn Author Blog

Shadows of the Past

Dear Reader

Cassie Exline -- Mystery and Romance

Sarcastic Rambling & Writing

That's What I Think

Sue's Random Ramblings

Make Old Bones

Elements of Mystery

Molly Dean's Blog

Kenzie's Place

The Forbidden Blog

David Huffstetler

Cassandra Ulrich

Carol Marvell

Andrew Richardson

Nick Lloyd

Fiddleeebod -- land of stories

Nita Wick's Blog

Ruth G.

Too Poor for Texas

Jenn Nixon

City of Thieves

Musings and Doodles

Husein

The Western Writer

Bike Cop Blog

The Character Depot

Allen Currier

Tracy Holohan




a Rafflecopter

giveaway

Like all writers, I struggle with balancing writing with the day job, work with play. I've had times when I had writer's block and other periods where I had so much stresss going on that my muse went into a virtual coma. So how does one kickstart one's muse, especially after a prolonged absence?

I like to begin with the following steps:


Re-reading my writing, including works in progress. Reminding myself of where I was at when I wrote my last helps to get the motor running. I try to read them all like I'm new to the work and am just a reader enjoying the story. Daydream, imagine, let it run wild. What can I bring to my current works? Am I trying to force actions that are out of characters for the players involved, or have I hit a point where the subject matter is proving to be more challenging to get inspiration from than I thought?Take long walks, do a repetitive workout, and let the mind wander. Recharge those batteries.Pinpoint where the source of frustration is coming from and work it out. Think of it like massaging pressure points. It may hurt a little at first but once released...ahhhhhhHope this helps! Feel free to provide your own suggestions in the comments. Also, if you want to be entered into the giveaway, please include your email in the comments and/or use the widget below. Thanks! :D


Love & Magic,Adriannewww.adriannebrennan.com
Today’s post is part of the MSA birthday bash. Check out MSA at http://midnightseductionsauthors.blogspot.com/ and see the details and how to win a Kindle Fire.

the Rafflecopter giveaway

Today my story in the Mammoth Book of Hot Romance is now available online at Amazon.com, bn.com...and...bookstores near you!

That's right, my very first release straight into bookstores!





Blurb:
Angels who serve the Powers That Be must work to fulfill Divine Will, or become one of the fallen. An overwhelming assignment weighs upon Aliyael’s angelic shoulders: return Julael, a recently fallen angel, back to his rightful place among the rest of the seraphim.

However Julael brings not only challenges towards her perception of angels and humanity, but to her heart as well. Can she rescue him from the darkness, or will she fall with him? Or worse yet…for him?

Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/Mammoth-Book-Hot-Romance/dp/0762442662/ref=cm_cmu_up_thanks_hdr

For more info, go here: http://www.adriannebrennan.com/loveunderwill.html

Love & Magic,
Adrianne

Love Under Will, a short paranormal/urban fantasy and erotic romance story in the Mammoth Book of Hot Romance is now available in the UK!





You can order it online here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mammoth-Book-Hot-Romance-Books/dp/1849014671/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1


If you live in the US, you can preorder it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mammoth-Book-Hot-Romance/dp/0762442662/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2


It'll be arriving in the US August 23rd!


You can read more about this story here: http://www.adriannebrennan.com/loveunderwill.html




Love & Magic,
Adrianne
www.adriannebrennan.com

My site is back up and running as of the start of the weekend. I'm in the process of updating it, but the news page is very current:

http://www.adriannebrennan.com/news.html

And for those of you in the UK, look for a happy surprise! Check out the url for details.


Love & Magic,
Adrianne
www.adriannebrennan.comPublished with Blogger-droid v1.7.2

My website was forcibly taken down by my hosting company, and I'm in the process of getting the nameservers transferred over to my new webhost so it'll be up and running again.

Once that's set I will let everyone know.

Sorry about this and for the record, I advise everyone to avoid Freeservers/MySite.com like the plague.



Love & Magic,
AdriannePublished with Blogger-droid v1.7.2

A lot of people come into this profession wide-eyed and unknowing, and learn as they go along what being a writer as a career entails. Heck, I entered the same way and found out quite a bit that I never would've anticipated. Some things were more obvious than others while a few details took me by surprise.


I'm writing this post so those of you who are new or considering breaking into the field are less surprised and more prepared for the reality of being a writer.


So, without further ado, here goes:


1) Writing involves self-promotion, and your publishers are not responsible for doing that for you. 
 This is the big shocker for many, self-included. Most enter thinking all you have to do is write, and people will magically find your works and purchase them. Not so. Being a writer means you have to be willing to put your neck out there so people can find you. That means putting up a website, registering a domain name in your name (or pen name), blogging, and engaging in social networks both online and offline.


What do you do if you're an introvert and are horrible at talking to total strangers about your writing, let alone trying to promote yourself? Join up with other authors and promote as a unit. It'll take some of the pressure off of you and will make you more visible for less effort.


2) You have to be willing to deal with constructive criticism, and constantly improve in your craft. This is the area where some people will balk at. After all, if their book was accepted, what's wrong with it? But if you look around at how people's unedited works do not make the grade and how embarrassing it would be to be in the public eye and have obvious grammatical mistakes, typos, sentence structure issues, you'll understand what a huge service your editor is providing you. Not to mention the chance to become an even better (and hence more successful) writer. 


So be nice to your editors, folks. They're your gold and your chance to shine.


3) You have to adhere to the standards of your publishing company(ies). Different places will have different themes, house rules, editing standards, you name it. You may not like all of it or agree, but it's there for a reason, often to establish enough commonality among their works to make an ease out of the editing and publishing process. Other times it's very exacting standards so they can be sure of high quality works going out their door. Remember, it's their reputation on the line.


4) You have to respond well (or not at all) when you take a hit on the chin, especially in regards to negative reviews. There is NEVER a single writer who does not get a negative review. Usually it boils down to different reading tastes and interests: you just won't be everyone's cup of tea, and you'll have to accept that. Heck, I have a negative review on Goodreads from someone who clearly doesn't like reading about vampires or lesbians, so why he chose to read a particular work of mine is beyond me--I can only conclude masochistic tendencies. :) The only way to respond to these things is not at all. If they're a reviewer who agreed to review your work for them, you thank them for their time and move on. Take the high road; you'll benefit more from it in the long run. If there's something in their review you can learn from for the future, take it. And keep on plugging away.


Whether writers like it or not, this is a profession which requires dealing with people and being in the public eye. After all, it's people who make up your readers, your fanbase, and potential investors in your future works. That's the reality of the business. It's a lot of hard work and effort, but it's also very rewarding. I'm happy to say that I've met many wonderful people as a result of being a writer, and have been in all sorts of amazing events and situations which I never would've been in had I not become published.


And above all else, I still love to write. It's my passion and will forever be such. And as long as you can maintain that passion, you can do what it takes to stay in it.




Love & Magic,
Adrianne
www.adriannebrennan.com

An author has decided to leave the field after years of unsuccessfully trying to promote her works, and she brought up a point I've heard before in various rants and discussions time and time again: how can an author be successful and still have time to write?





Many of us have day jobs or families to support as our primary time suck, and very few of us are full time writers. In fact, I don't know of any full time writers off the top of my head and I don't think even most NYT bestselling authors are there. It's not just the economy; this isn't a profession you can get rich off of. This is a labor of love where you have to put the energy into it or perish. "Publish or perish" is an oft-heard cry, and it is true. It's been said that the best promotion an author can have are new releases, and this is also true.





In the days of social networks, online chats, blogging, and emailing lists (which many authors refer to as "loops", don't ask me why!), some of this load has been taken off of us. But the rest really comes down to time and fortune, fortune being in the right place at the right time and taking the time to do it.





I write because I love it. When I say that it's work and requires work, that's simply truth. It's something you have to constantly strive to improve in and stay on top of in order to continue producing good and better works. It's a labor of love and must remain such in order for it to be "work that isn't work". When it ceases to become that, it's either time to try and put the romance back into the craft or consider a hiatus or even a permanent departure from the field altogether. Sometimes you can put too much in too quickly and burnout. I think nearly every author has had burnout at some point in their career, and it can greatly impact your ability to put out quality works, or any at all.





Like every valuable thing in your life, you have to determine for yourself what you're willing and able to put into it, and evaluate often. Sometimes life has to come first whether we (or our readers) like it or not.





What are your thoughts? Writers, have you ever battled with this and if so, what did you do? Readers, what are some of your own ideas on this issue?













Love & Magic,

Adrianne

www.adriannebrennan.com

I posted about my "geek toy squee" here earlier, but I never realized before how dangerous this gadget is nor why it is the number 1 bestseller at Amazon.com.





The thing with the Kindle is the instant gratification. Whereas before you may have thought, "Ooh! I really want to read that book. I guess I'll have to go to the bookstore/library/online store." Now it's "Ooh! I really want that book! *clickclick* And it's mine!"





I stumbled upon this recently when I decided to reread the Dark Tower series by Stephen King as I haven't yet read past Wizard and Glass and wanted to finish the whole thing. Then it hit me--I could read it RIGHT NOW on my Kindle! Click, click...ooh, shiny! This is dangerous for the bookworm and perhaps rather like a dream come true. I don't have to wait to get to a bookstore or library, I don't have to wait for mail delivery. I can get my book NOW! 





How is this dangerous, you might ask? Well, eventually these books cost money, and I can definitely see how someone who may have only bought books once or twice a month--or less--can suddenly be buying a whole lot more. Especially given how fast I read.





Anyhow, just finished up book 1 of the Dark Tower series, now reading book 2. I love this series.













Love & Magic,

Adrianne

www.adriannebrennan.com