Thirteen reasons

Guess what?

Yes, it so happens that Hunters is now available for purchase! Indeed, if you desire to buy the masterpiece, you may now do so in print, PDF and Html (for now). Kindle and every other outlet coming soon.

Before you take me too seriously, take heed that the above is a spoof and should be treated as such. Except the book being available, which is real. And just to prove it, here's a link where you can buy it.

What am I doing now? The already famous happy dance (which is pretty weird to do in public, since most people have no idea what's going on).

To celebrate this extraordinary event, I shall give you 13 reasons to read this book:

1. I know that you read the word vampire in the blurb and probably want to run screaming. DON'T. How about a book in which vampires are back to being the original bad guys, bent on raining havoc? They don't love humans (except as food) and fight, fight, fight. And plot.

2. Tired of a human heroine and supernatural hero? You'll see none of that here. For once, the guy and gal are equals. Which makes for other troubles to get the romance rolling.

3. Don't like damsels? Neither does Rachel, though she admits it's nice to have someone look after her from time to time.

4. It's not the beginning of an endless series. You can read it, enjoy it, and not worry about future sequels.

5. It's short. Yes, that's a reason to read a book too. It's 217 pages in print. Great for the beach or a stormy night.

6. There is witty banter to be witnessed. With two head-strong MCs who don't take crap from anybody, there's bound to be.

7. There is emotion. Or so I've been told.

8. A new world of paranormal beings awaits. Though you might meet some familiar creatures in the world of Hunters, not all of them are what you may know/think.

9. You might laugh. If I don't draw a smile/chuckle/snort out of you, I'm doing it wrong.

10. The villain is not just your stereotypical bad vampire. Watch as Vlad's legend comes together and brings forth the man he really is (well, man is a relative term). Bad guys can be fair too, right?

11. Going against the grain? It's here. When the entire world wants your head for doing what you believe is right, would you keep doing it?

12. Stuffy protocol, an old system and mass-manipulation. Yup. Watch what happens when the good guys are not really as good as they should be.

13. And finally, I wrote it, and I'm brilliant. you might grow to like Rachel and Daniel and want to see how their journey ends.

Have I convinced you to pick up a copy? No? How about to win a copy? In even more celebration, I'm giving away a PDF copy of Hunters to one lucky commenter. Just leave a comment with your e-mail address, mention that you want it and tell me which of the 13 reasons makes you want to read it most. The winner will be drawn this weekend.

Now, as to the people who won a copy of the book from me during the RAOK week, let me know if you'd like your copy now, in PDF format or wait for the kindle version.

In other news, if you don't win here, tomorrow, Mysti Parker of Unwritten is hosting the 200 000 hits giveaway. I've most generously (please don't take me seriously) donated 3 PDF copies of Hunters for the event, so you may hop on there and grab a copy.

If you'd like to support and up-and-coming/going author, the facebook link is on the right and the goodreads link here. Everyone is welcome to the party.

Okay, I'm done with the shameless plugging. O:)

Cover power

Hey people!

I know it's kinda late in the month for my first post, but I've been laboring away at trying to find a job. I'm now waiting to get called back, if I do get called, and biting my nails in the process.

The good part with all this free time is that I've started writing again -> well, not so much, but I did write the beginning of a new project. A Hunters style novel, only much darker - I might just change my allegiance and join the Paranormal Romance writers. Though my pet project is still YA, I can't figure out how to epically start that one so it's on the back burner while I fool around with much easier things to write.

So, in the meantime, I've been cooking up more covers. That is, because I'm more and more drawn by the prospect of self-publishing my baby. It's not that I got rejections (I didn't even try sending it out yet, honestly), but I just feel like it. I don't know why, but I find that book to be so easy and... um, not exactly literary brilliance that I think it might sell easy on its own. I mean, I got a lot of good responses for it from my crit partners (and I had over 20 people reading it - I know, wow - and I thank all of them).

Anyway, to celebrate that, here are the 3 covers I've cooked up for it. Some are better, some are worse, some are different concepts. I'd really like to know which one you like most.

You already know this one

  So, this is what I have been working on. You already know the first one. It was my first attempt after fooling around in photoshop. Good parts of it - the valley with the village actually appears in the book, the moon plays some role, and I made the chick with green eyes. Plus, it's mysterious and my friends liked it.

The second is similar only with a city background - since half of the book goes on in the city and half on some dang hills, the first two covers both have aspects of the book on them. Plus, I made the city chick redheaded (I learned how to do that :D)
Also, I made her eyes the green I had in mind for Rachel. And there's blood around her mouth, which I found awesome. The bad part, it might hint that it's a book about vampires as the MCs. Honestly, I don't mind that. The book description will serve to clarify that.

Second possible version

 The third one is a bit more symbolic. There's the moon, some castle window, books (which are incidentally Bibles) and a redheaded chick which looks pretty cute. I made her hair red (believe it or not, it was pink) and planted her there. This cover is more likely focusing on the searching and unusualness of the whole thing - plus, it has a moon there.

Now, another thing, each potential cover has a different writing style and placement of title and author. I'm not sure which one I like best either.

Latest version

After these three versions, I'm out of women. Yes, yes, it's not so easy to find stock photos of women out there (well,not one that could potentially be Rachel). So, my next attempts can combine any background (I have more I haven't used) with any of the three ladies and writing styles. I also have more backgrounds and more eyes and moons to try to make an alternative version of these.

So, my question for you this time would be - which one do you like? Cover plus writing style or mix between the elements and writing on different covers. Even cover style - the mysti (first), the city (second) or the pure symbolism (third). Also, what other elements if any would you like to see on the cover? (For people who want Daniel on that cover too, eh, I can't find any photo that remotely even looks like him, so I'd rather leave him to the reader imagination - acceptable guys photos are even harder to find.)

Would you buy a book with any of these covers?

Hope to be back soon with good news, more covers and possible info on my new project :D Since NaNo is coming closer and closer.

What's in a name?

As a non-English language person (yes, I am from Romania - you might have heard of it since it's inside Transylvania - that's not even true!), it's hard to write English fiction under your real name - hard, not impossible. Mainly because people can't pronounce it. And sometimes can't even read it. Especially when it contains letters like ş, ţ, ă, î or â - how many people know how to read those?

Take my name for example:

My first name is Ioana - how would you pronounce it? Probably along the lines of I-wanna. Not too bad, but it's actually E - wanna. :)

My middle name is Ştefana - there's already a problem there since it has an evil ş in there. ş is basically sh - but that doesn't work the problem of pronunciation out, does it? It's reads something like: Shteh-pha-nah.

My last name is Pristavu - I can't teach anyone how to pronounce this in writing (something like Pri-stah-voo).

And even so, there's the accent of the syllables, and the the fact that I can't actually spell my name like that on the cover of a book. Therefore, a pen name is in order.
As you all know, Stephanie Jones was my first choice - but I came up with it when I was 10. See a problem here? Plus, it's very common - and if I'm going to be a writer, I want an uncommon name, so that people can recognize me.

And here's how mature I usually am 

  My reasoning when choosing my name was simple (simple ten-year-old logic): it's not my real name, so let's use that middle name no one calls me by - so, I'm Stephanie (and I really don't mind - I've been called Steph face to face and it worked great. I actually   answer to it if I'm called:))
Jones was a combination of my first name - which translates as Johanna and the fact that my last name, even at home, is distinctive  - and I wanted a non-distinctive one. So, Jones it was.

 Meanwhile, I grew up (yes, it unfortunately happens to the best of  us) and it suddenly dawned to me that it's not working (since I  share the name with a photographer, other authors and miss teen  USA).


Change, change, change


And I came up with this:

I'm keeping Stephanie - I grew too fond of it over the years and I like the sound of it. Plus, it really is my name :) Though, I consider spelling is Stefanie.(make it even more standing out)

Jones will turn into Johanna which will turn into Jo which will turn into a J (I actually like the middle letter there :) Plus, I've been told I have a thing for the letter J)

And here comes the huge change - I'm putting my family name there - well, not the real one, but one pretty close to it anyway. So Pristavu = Pristty

My first choice was Pritty, but I think I like it with the S there as well - closer to the real thing. Plus, you can find Pritty as a case against the UK at the European Court of Human Rights.

So, here are my two/four choices:

Stephanie J Pristty    vs   Stephanie J Pritty

Stefanie J Pristty       vs   Stefanie J Pritty

Or, of course, I could always go for S. J. Pritty/Pristty - but I'd rather have my full first name there (so that people would know I'm not a dude:p)

What do you guys think? Which works best for you/looks nicer on paper/are more likely to remember? I'll take your votes to heart, and it might even influence my decision.

For the last time, I sign myself as Stephanie Jones :)