Jade Varden Official Blog

"The unfolding of characters motives, histories and discoveries of lies were just fun! I wanted to know what happened  next."  "The writing was fast paced and descriptive without being overbearing." Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) has been reviewed at The Readers Heartstring . Read the whole thing before you get your copy of the book!

In late November and all through December, holiday-themed movies flood the theaters. People want feelgood stories, intense dramas, laughter and action. They want to be entertained , and they're doing it indoors because it's winter and it's cold. Filmmakers need holiday-themed stories to create all those movies. One of the most unusual picks, and one of the better book-to-film adaptations you'll find, was created by Dr. Seuss. The Book Arguably the most well-known children's book author of all time, Dr. Seuss has created unforgettable stories like Green Eggs and Ham , The Cat in the Hat and 1957's How the Grinch Stole Christmas , a holiday-themed treat starring my very favorite color, green.  It's because the Grinch is green. He's the hero, or anti-hero, of the story, and he's a good one. He lives on a mountain above Whoville, where Christmas is celebrated with gusto. The Grinch hates the Whos. They sing, they dance, they exchange p...

If your main character doesn't have conflict and obstacles to overcome, then your story probably isn't complete. In life, things get hard. The going gets tough. Enemies appear. I want to see that in your book...and then, I want to see the main character defeat them. This is why your main character is also known as the hero .  Nobody Said Life Was Fair Here's the thing: you want readers to identify with your main character. Nobody's life is just perfectly smooth sailing. We all get crushes on people who don't like us back, spill something on ourselves at the worst possible time, get caught in the rain or in an embarrassing situation. Some people face extreme challenges, and often these make for the best stories.  If your character faces no obstacles and lives a life free of conflict, I'm not going to find it believable. Even worse, I'm probably not going to like this character. Conflict and obstacles are an essential part of every plot. You d...

I was inspired by a hashtag that I just happened to notice when I went to write this post, but it's a thought I've had before. It's easy advice to say "don't ever give up!" "follow your dreams!" and all that other inspirational nonsense, but it can be hell to live it. It's also unrealistic. Should you ever give up? Well yeah, maybe.  A World Full of Books This past year, 2012, which is nearly over (but not quite), more than 2 million new books have already been published. Just this year. In the United States alone, approximately 400,000 books have been published this year ( 10 Awful Truths About Publishing ). That's wonderful, a great testament to the popularity of reading and literature. We are preserving a record. We are creating entertainment.

Judgment (Deck of Lies, #4) is now available for Amazon kindle ! The book will be available for Nook and other devices later this week, so keep checking back for links.  Cashing Out Do I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? How can I, when the truth will destroy us all? Now that I’ve started telling lies, I can’t stop. Not until all this is over, and I’m free of the family that never felt like mine. Maybe it’s wrong. Maybe I’m a bad person. But it’s definitely the only way I’m ever going to escape them. I have to take the opportunity, no matter how terrible it is…don’t I?

When I was very young, and dreaming of becoming a writer, I had a vision in my head of what it would be like. I would sit in a very quiet and serene room, all by myself, just creating brilliant words all day long. Now I know that sort of thing isn't possible -- and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want it if it was. If you're self-publishing, you're doing a whole lot of work all on your own...but you probably aren't actually alone. Sometimes, it's hard to remember that the people around you are always contributing, too. Hey, There Are Other People Here Plenty of self-published authors don't live alone. They may have pets, or kids, spouses or roommates. All of these animals and people are capable of affecting the way you write your book. The people closest to writers are usually a big influence; certain characteristics from your mate may seep into the characters you put on the page. But they influence and affect you in other ways, too, and their con...

"More twists and revelations will come right at your face." "This book is spooky and creepy (in a good way) which makes it a  really great mystery read!" Little Book Star has reviewed Death (Deck of Lies, #3). Read the entire review before you get your copy of Judgment (Deck of Lies, #4) this week!

Write "the end" as many times as you like -- it doesn't necessarily mean that you're all done with your book. Many writers, in fact, spend more time editing and re-writing than they ever spend on creating that first draft. It's really easy to get caught up in perfecting a book, to go back to it again and again...and that makes it really hard to release your book so others can actually read it. How do you know when you're done, and when a book is really ready to be released? The answer is actually pretty simple.    When Enough is Enough Some scenes just won't go away, even after you put them on the page. Some scenes demand to be re-written, perfected, over and over again. And it's easy to get caught up in that. Every writer wants to produce a perfect book. But at some point, you've got to stop typing, stop reading, and finally say done .  You're the only one who knows when you finally get to that point, and it changes with every s...

"What could oh so easily have been just another fish out of water story full of trite and tired cliché is instead a well thought out and cleverly written page turner." "Jade Varden is an excellent storyteller with a deft hand at flowing prose. The story is compelling and interesting." Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) has been reviewed at Twisted Sense . Read the full review, and then get the book free as part of the Stuffed Full of Lies weekend.

Verdict Book Reviews has picked me as their indie author of the month of November! Visit the blog to see the post, and find out exactly why I got picked.

Judgment, the fourth and final book in the Deck of Lies series, will be in online bookstores Tuesday, November 27 . That's only three days away!  It gives you just enough time to catch up on all the lies before the series ends. For the rest of this weekend, the first three books in the series will be FREE when you buy them at Smashwords. Get them in any electronic format, and get stuffed full of lies.  To get Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) , use the code PA47C To get The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2) , use the code PW83B To get Death (Deck of Lies, #3) , use the code PM25K

The day of Judgment is coming. Take a peek at the trailer to find out what the fourth and final book in the Deck of Lies series has in store for you... Check the blog every day this weekend for announcements about Judgment (Deck of Lies, #4), and get the book as soon as it's released!  

The holiday season is a special time of year, and plenty of writers have used that to their advantage. Stories about Santa Claus, believing and the holiday spirit are always going to be popular. But few are destined to gain the sort of love and popularity enjoyed by Miracle on 34th Street , one of my all-time favorites. You've probably seen the movie, but what do you know about the book? The Book Valentine Davies wrote Miracle on 34th Street in 1947, as a companion novelette for the film released the same year. It was actually published by 20th Century Fox, who also made the film, but it's managed to stand on its own and has sold millions of copies. The book introduces readers to Doris Walker, a rather cold career woman who works for Macy's. She's managing personnel for the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and must fire the Santa Claus she's hired at the last minute when he turns up drunk. She hires bystander Kris to take his place, an elderly...

The fourth and final book in the Deck of Lies series, Judgment, is nearly here! The book will be available in online bookstores soon. Now, you'll know what to look for. The cover has been officially revealed! Cashing Out Do I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? How can I, when the truth will destroy us all? Now that I've started telling lies, I can't stop. Not until all this is over, and I'm free of the family that never felt like mine. Maybe it's wrong. Maybe I'm a bad person. But it's definitely the only way I'm ever going to escape them. I have to take this opportunity to end things between us once and for all, no matter what it takes. Don't I? And here's a little taste of Judgment (Deck of Lies, #4). You won't find this brief excerpt anywhere else!  “It’s fine, Rain,” Asher assured me maybe four minutes later. He’d excused himself to leave the room, no doubt to talk to...

Food and books go well together. When you're nice and full from your Thanksgiving feast, there's nothing as sweet as curling up with a good book. They seem to encourage snacking, and sometimes a book is so good it's difficult to pull one's eyes away to bother with looking at dinner. Why not cut right to it, and add food directly into your books?  Even Characters Have to Eat Everybody eats. It's one of the universal truths that ties all human beings together. I live in Kentucky, in the United States, and passionately love books and basketball. But when it comes to food, I'm not so different from the boy working on a farm that has no electricity in Asia  -- because I eat it, too. And that brings us right back to why you want to add food to your books.  Realism Anything that makes your characters feel more real to readers is a good thing, and there's nothing like food to do that for you. Have your character eating pizza with friends or stoppin...

Exposure is the best way to sell books, because if people can't find you they definitely can't buy. As a self-published author, you've probably got accounts on all those social media sites. You may already have a blog, even a website, to promote your writing and your books. But there's more you can start doing if you want to start getting exposure. Becoming Noticeable Blogging and staying active in social media, particularly book-centric sites like Goodreads , is a great way to get exposure for yourself as an author and by extension, your books. But you can always take things up to the next level, too.  First, you've got to identify what sort of author you are. If you write in a specific genre , you've got a good starting point. If you're a short story author, you're already ahead of the game.  Expose Yourself Writing articles for magazines, professional blogs and literary journals is a great way to get exposure among a reading audi...

Every author has to have a bio somewhere, sometime, for something. Just about every website is going to want one, bloggers are bound to ask, and even Amazon expects you to write a little something about yourself when you self-publish your book.  Who Am I?  It's a little task, and for many authors it's terrifying. What does one say about oneself? The author bio is another little piece of promotion, and it shouldn't be overlooked. I've literally purchased books based on the strength of an author bio. You want to come up with something standard to use, 50 to 150 words, that is interesting but professional, attention-getting but low-key, suggestive without being pushy...and written in the third person.  It's a whole lot to ask for, and frankly I find it to be one of the more undesirable tasks that come with being an author. Some people can afford to hire publicists to do this sort of thing for them, but the self-published author has got to write their own ...

Why do some books succeed, where others fail? A lot of professionals say it's all in the marketing. When it comes to budget, the big publishing houses probably have the advantage over you as a self-published author. But you are your own best possible advocate. And when it comes to gumption, you've got the marketing edge. Use it well by creating press releases. It's totally free for you to do so. Hear Ye, Hear Ye Press releases are created for any number of events, products and people, but only for one reason : promotion. Think of it as a text-based advertisement. Instead of moving video or a stunning graphic image, you're using words, and only words, to sway the audience. Many authors excel at writing press releases because they are completely word-based. Any writer can figure out how to write a press release, because they all follow a pretty simple formula. Master the formula, and then start working on your rhetoric. All press releases begin with the l...

Even if you haven't read the books, or seen the movies, you've heard the name Nancy Drew. She's a famous book detective, and through the years she's been edited, adapted and re-packaged endlessly so she can keep on being relevant. And it's worked, because we all still know who she is -- and she's been a teenager since the 1930s. The Books Nancy Drew was born on the page in 1930, to be exact, with The Secret of the Old Clock . This first book spawned an entire series that's going on 83 years old. The many, many books in the series are written under the name Carolyn Keene, a person who does not exist. Several ghostwriters have been responsible for crafting Nancy's adventures over the years. Ghostwriters were also used to change those stories. Nancy underwent her first big re-branding in 1959, to eliminate racist stereotypes and other subject matter that didn't make for appropriate reading in those times of Civil Rights. Drew changed agai...

Receiving rejections is a wearing, wearying experience. Each brand-new letter brings a ray of hope. Every time the envelope is opened, that hope is crushed. It's like standing on top of a mountain for thirty seconds before falling to the Earth...and it's a long, long way down. One author refused to let that fall break her, and because she wouldn't give up all of us know her name. Being Stubborn Judy Blume was born in 1938 in New Jersey. As a child, she liked to make up stories in her head. After graduating high school, Judy attended Boston University, but went on to graduate from NYU with a degree in teaching. Teach she would, but not necessarily in the classroom. Judy went on to marry in the early 1960s, and became busy with a home and a young family. But all those stories were still in her head. So when her children started attending school, July Blume finally had the time to start writing them down. She wrote prolifically, and eventually got enough gumptio...

No, you haven't fallen into a time warp. Print marketing is still relevant, up to a point, and there are a whole lot of good reasons why you should be using it to market your self-published books.  Really, It's a Good Idea I know, I know. Everyone and everything is online these days, including self-published books. So what can print possibly hope to offer to a digital-savvy writer who's hip to social media and an entire world of e-marketing?  Bookmarks. Lots of people still love their paper books, and each one of those rectangles is a marketing opportunity. First, print them up using images from your book cover. Add pertinent info in easy-to-read text, like "available in print and online at Amazon.com" and maybe your author blog address. A quote or two praising the book probably wouldn't be out of hand, either. Remember to print images and text on the front and back.  Once you've got them, give them away. Go to your local bookstore (if y...