Happy Holidays

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. (Dr. Seuss)

A Christmas story

As promised a little while back, I finally succeeded in finishing an early Christmas present for you. It's a short seasonal contemporary romance and you can get it absolutely for FREE. All you have to do is sign up for my newsletter. ;)
If you want to read an excerpt first, just visit my website.

Christmas Love

It's another Christmas Eve for roommates, colleagues, and eternal bickering partners, Lana and Cole. Yet it's not the same as the previous years, because there is something heavy in the air, charged with electricity and pent-up emotions.

Something happened the previous night, something that could change their relationship and make this Christmas Eve the most special and memorable of them all.


P.S. I just realized the cover looks like something from the Harlequin line. Sheesh!

Apparently I'm a heretic ;)

I found an interesting little test and have discovered that if I was in Dante's "La Divina Commedia" I'd be banished to the sixth level of hell - the city of Dis. Neat

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

New style

Whew! I finally succeeded in making a decent Christmas template. The original idea for the header image is not mine, though. I found an old Blogger template from Paulene, but since it wasn't made for the beta version and the sidebar was too narrow, I made slight modifications to the header (removing the song and expanding the columns) and used my original template to make a Christmas-y one. Both images uniting in the header I found here and here.

I'm quite proud of the final look, actually.

P.S. Almost forgot. Stay tuned for a little free Christmas short-story. I'm putting up the finishing touches and as soon as it is ready, I'll make sure you know about it. ;)

Season Greetings

It's December. How fast time goes by, huh? It seems only last month we went gift shopping and in a blink of an eye, the end of the year approaches once again.
I quite like this time of the year - yeah, it's cold (unless you just happen to be on the southern hemisphere), but it's quite a pleasing kind of cold. Because you know that even though you're freezing your (sometimes vital) parts off, there is a warm home waiting for you at the end of the street.

I walked home from work today when it suddenly hit me it’s December already. It’s been six days since the start of the month and yet it was only a few minutes ago that I realized were smack in front of New Year’s door.
The day is quite warm and there is still some sun outside, so it didn’t seem like the last month of the year, until I stepped into the center of my town. The lights were twinkling down on me from the trees and rooftops, the shop-windows were full of posters announcing “the end of the year is near, so come in and cheer” (they forgot to mention spend loads of cash, but hey, it’s Christmas time, we can close an eye on that one).
My favorite bookstore is already selling book bundles on ridiculously low prices, my favorite CD and DVD store have pulled the all-time favorite end-of-the-year movies from the attic, and everywhere you turn there are Christmas cards on Christmas cards on Christmas cards. Lucky for me none of my friends celebrate their birthday this time of year, because I’d be in trouble.

I bought some roasted chestnuts from a vendor, smiling at the aroma and the feel of their warmth travelling from my fingers into the rest of my body. There was already an elderly lady selling gingerbread, a man selling ornaments and Christmas lights, and even a little coir (more of a quartet) singing Christmas songs.
I’ve never seen a quartet singing Christmas songs before. As a matter of fact I have never seen someone singing Christmas songs on the street before. It’s too cold even for those, I think.

Yes, it finally hit me that December is here. Right upon us. Beware!

It’s gift time and although I love receiving presents, I quite dislike buying them. Not because of the price, I never buy anything costly beside an occasional perfume for my mother, because I was always taught it’s the thought that counts, what’s in you heart as you buy and give the presents. I dislike buying them more and more recently because I never know what the reaction might be. Don’t get me wrong, everybody is always happy when receiving a present… Well, everybody always looks happy when receiving a present. But there is nothing worse for the giver than to receive a false smile of gratitude in return.
And it’s becoming more and more difficult finding original and meaningful gifts. Once upon a time I used to buy teas, tea pots, tea cups, potpourris, something hand-made… There are less and less stores with hand-made stuff around. We have become obsessed with costly gifts, trademarks, designer clothes and accessories. Once a child was happy when he or she received a toy-car or a doll, now they all have to have the latest PSP, some expensive and hi-tech DVD player or better yet burner, because “everybody else has it, I’m the only loser in class”.

When did it all change so much? Where was I?
Probably in front of a cozy fire, reading a good book, drinking jasmine tea, eating chestnuts and wearing home-made wool slippers.

Moonlight Phantom trailer

Okay, I went off the deep end apparently. =O
I made a trailer for my new book and I think I'll continue making them. It's just so much fun. The less fun thing is having to search (and subsequently find) a decent piece of music. Oh, well, who said life was easy?

Anyway, here's the trailer. Enjoy. ;)

News, news, news...

Well, not really, but hey, what the heck.

I've been a little sickly lately and before being sickly I totally forgot to blog about my website finally being on-line.
Yes, my website is finally operational. ;)

And for those who just happened to be up here for the first time, the template for this blog has also changed - quite a lot, actually. I pressed the save button only a few minutes ago and I'm quite proud of it all, since it's a Beta template I created.
Yoohoo!

That's it, I guess. Wow, how much news. Riiiiiiiiiight!

Take care, A x

Moonlight Phantom is released

Moonlight Phantom

In the city that never sleeps, a new threat is dawning. In the shadow of the full moon a phantom is lurking, waiting for its prey. No one knows its name, no one has ever seen its face, everybody fears this ghost in the moonlight. Its past is shrouded in mystery, its purpose is unclear.

The urban legend tells that in the nights of the full moon the phantom brings justice to the righteous and swift retribution to the wicked, making its presence known when it is already too late...

While a man struggles to discover the reason and the culprits for the death of the woman he loved and lost, the phantom will strive to keep him alive, guarding over him from the shadows of the night, trying to keep its secrets and past buried.

Will the phantom reveal what hides behind its actions? Will it finally reveal the face hidden away from the silvery moonlight?


Paperback $ 11.99
Buy from Amazon
Buy from CreateSpace

E-book $ 3.99
Buy from Lulu

We're almost there

I finally ordered the proof copy of my first book, so I guess if I like the whole thing the book will be available for purchase pretty soon. I'm so excited!!!
I'm pretty satisfied with how the cover turned out, too and I can't wait to see it printed. I'm getting this insane urge to start jumping up and down, but I'm afraid the neighbors might call the loony-bin. God forbid.

I'm leaving you with a sneak peek into what the book is about. Take care.

Moonlight Phantom

In the city that never sleeps, a new threat is dawning. In the shadow of the full moon a phantom is lurking, waiting for its prey. No one knows its name, no one has ever seen its face, everybody fears this ghost in the moonlight. Its past is shrouded in mystery, its purpose is unclear.

The urban legend tells that in the nights of the full moon the phantom brings justice to the righteous and swift retribution to the wicked, making its presence known when it is already too late...

While a man struggles to discover the reason and the culprits for the death of the woman he loved and lost, the phantom will strive to keep him alive, guarding over him from the shadows of the night, trying to keep its secrets and past buried.

Will the phantom reveal what hides behind its actions? Will it finally reveal the face hidden away from the silvery moonlight?

Maybe... Just maybe

Yes!!!

I finally heard back from a publisher regarding a short story Love... Delayed. The chief editor for their contemporary romance department contacted me, asking for a copy of the manuscript. Now I'm forced into another period of waiting and hoping and keeping my fingers crossed.

In other news: my first book is coming out later this month. It's the first story I wrote back in 2003 and I decided to publish the print version with CreateSpace and the e-book with Lulu. I'll see how it goes - especially with this "new" POD publisher. It's also a novella length story, so I didn't want to put it in print in a larger format.

I have all intentions of publishing the full-length novel sometime in the beginning of 2008 and hopefully it'll attract some other publisher. I won't give up, don't worry.

Deep sigh

Okay, so I'm not particularly interesting for publishers. It happens. Only yesterday I received another negative reply from a digital publisher saying my work didn't grab them.

After a while it all gets a little tiring and mixed with a busy work schedule, even busier personal and social life, along with a huge dose of writer's block, I sometimes get this irresistible urge to just send everything straight to hell, move to Mauritius or something like that and forget about writing.

But then I get the possibility of visiting the island of Capri (that's in Italy for those of you geographically challenged) and the whole deal with the vista of the rocks reaching out from the sea (where they supposedly filmed a Bond flick - I don't know which one), combined with a hefty amount of my crazed imagination - it was a pretty hot day! - and BAM I'm back on track.

So I guess I'll just get down to business, make a kick-ass cover and upload my book on Lulu. Maybe in a few weeks you guys will be able to see it on Amazon somewhere. Wouldn't that be nice? ^^

First rejection

Oh, well. No one said the publishing business was an easy place to be. Yesterday I received my first rejection e-mail from a publisher. Apparently my manuscript wasn't exactly material they were looking for, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't fit someone else's "vision".

One has to fail in order to succeed, right?

Anyway, I already submitted the material to another publisher. If even that won't cut it, there is - as I said in the previous post - always Lulu. And with that one I'm sure it would reach on-line retailers (granted, for a quite reasonable price).

Let's keep our fingers crossed, I won't give up. And sooner or later, if I'm stubborn and determined enough, some publisher might take pity on me. ;)

A warm welcome

I'd like to welcome you all to my brand new blog.

There's not much to say about me. And that which is to say, it's all written on the right, in my profile. Alathea is not my real name and Wright is not my real surname, but no matter how hard you beg or threaten, I won't reveal neither. One has to have a little mystery, don't you think?

Let's get right to the chase. I'm an aspiring author. I've published five books under my real name, but... It's sort of not adequate for the English speaking market, hence - a pseudonym. Currently I have two of those stories submitted to two different publishers and if I'm lucky someone will see some potential in them and give me a chance. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Why am I trying to get "seriously" published when there are all sorts of POD publishers out there just itching to give me an opportunity to publish? Because all those POD publishers out there are just that - caterers to authors. They don't offer editing, you have to provide your own cover art - I'm a writer not a graphic expert! - and if you want to slap your book with an ISBN you have spend quite a few bucks for the privilege.

Why am I trying to get into the e-book business? Because trade publishers - every author's dream! - don't accept unsolicited manuscripts (or query letters) and even less those from un-agented authors. And because I don't have an agent the most obvious choice was e-book publishing. Besides e-book sales are soaring with everyone reading the stories on the go, without the extra space taken by a regular book.

Though I read e-books, I still prefer the regular ones. It is less tiring to the eye and there is a special kind of experience holding a book in your hands, listening to the rustle of the pages as you turn, breathe in the slightly sweet aroma of the paper, feeling the familiar weight in your lap as you take a deep breath before continuing on with the next chapter...

So, yeah, I submitted two manuscripts and now have to wait a month or two to get a reply. My website is ready to launch, but I will do it with the first release. If both replies come back negative... Well, there is always Lulu.