Jade Varden Official Blog

The first time she submitted Flowers in the Attic , V. C. Andrews was rejected. It was too long, the publisher advised, and boring. So Andrews went back to the book, eliminated about 100 pages and added the stuff that would "make [her] mother blush." It was a huge hit right away, leading to a movie, three sequels, one prequel...and a career that outlived the author herself. Authors don't always get it right the first time, especially self-published authors who have to learn how to do every bit copyediting, formatting and marketing on their own. There are lots of reasons why you might have to issue a re-release or a new edition of a book you've already published in the past. But if you do it, make sure you do it the right way. Re-Releases Re-releases are common in the book world, and there's no reason self-published authors can't join in. Books that have been re-released usually are not changed in any way; all the text of the book is the same....

Have you ever loved reading a book so much that you didn't want to finish it? Sometimes, writing a book can inspire the same sort of feeling. Writers spend a ton of time inside the world they've creating, looking into the minds of different characters, and ending the book is a very bittersweet experience. Sometimes, maybe too bittersweet. Getting to the end can be so difficult, authors end up putting it off...and ruining the story.  All Good Things... Once an author is really into the story and into their characters, the writing flows naturally. The dialogue style of a particular character, specific thought processes -- it all becomes second nature. Putting an end to all of that can be really heart-wrenching and difficult. Sometimes, authors may not even realize that they're having trouble getting to the end of the story...they just keep inventing more and more and more story.  Getting that deep into a particular story can create a one-way flow of creativity; ...

Lots of writers, even the most famous ones, advocate that if you're a writer you ought to be doing it every day. It's a good way to exercise your creativity, they say, and how else can you get finished with a book otherwise? Should you be writing every day? Habits, Hobbies and Obsessions I found a quote online where even Mark Twain himself advised writers to writer every day. Easy for him to say, right? Writers in the 1800s didn't have to think about tweeting, or blogging, or checking their own sales figures. It may come as a surprise to know that Mark Twain self-published, but you can bet he wasn't spending an hour wading through emails every day or digging through book blogs to find reviewers. And then there's the fact that Mark Twain became pretty famous in his own time, and his books sold quite well. So naturally, Twain had time to write every day because he was getting paid to write books. Lots of self-published authors aren't getting paid (at...

 "I loved the development of the story line right from chapter one."  "I would recommend this book to any young adult because it's the perfect amount of high school drama for any adolescent." Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) has been reviewed at The Rise of a Novelist. Go and read the whole thing , and get an inside look at how I get my reviews!

"This is a suspenseful, mystery book that has you gripping every lie as they multiply in the palm of your hands." "This book felt real and I will recommend it to everyone I come across." Addicted to Novels has reviewed Justice (Deck of Lies, #1). Read the whole thing to find out where to get your copy of the book!

It's hard to believe The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was published just 62 years ago, in 1950. It feels like it's been a part of children's literature for ever. It's certainly been part of TV movies, miniseries and  films for a long while, but then things move pretty quick in the movies. It's the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia series, and one of Times All-TIME 100 Novels. C. S. Lewis nearly didn't get it published, and now it's one of the most beloved children's books ever written. The Book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is set in war-torn 1940s Europe...and in a mythical land called Narnia. It opens with the four Pevensie children, of whom there are two boys (Peter and Edmund) and two girls (Susan and Lucy). They've been forced from London due to WWII and into the country home of Professor Digory Kirke.  While exploring his large home, Lucy goes into an old wardrobe...and all the way through it into a magical, s...

"It seems like on every page you are learning something new, more truths revealed." "Another breathtaking, fast-paced, eye-opening and jaw-dropping novel from an Awesome author!" The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2) has been reviewed at Keepin' up with the Joneses. Read the whole thing to find out how to enter a book giveaway and get some new reading material (after you buy The Tower, of course!)

If you follow the blog, you already know how to comb through book blogs to get reviews . You know how to approach reviewers in order to get them to read your work. You know how to deal with review exchanges, and how to handle the inevitable criticism. But if you're not also following up, you're doing yourself a disservice. The follow up is one of the best tools you can use for getting reviews.  Are you using it? Remember Me?  If you're committed to being an indie, you're probably going to self-publish more than one book (or maybe you already have). Whether you're writing a series or several stand-alone books, you can't neglect all your follow ups. So if you're asking, what's that, you already have been. It's okay, you can still catch up.  Keep track of your reviews. If you're going to properly follow up on the reviews you get, you've got to keep track of your reviews. I'm a big advocate of organization , so my first sugges...

"An exhilarating ride, and once I started the book, I just couldn’t stop." Justice (Deck of lies, #1) has been reviewed at Keepin' up with the Joneses. There are some spoilers, so feel free to read the whole review if you've already read Justice, and see if you agree with the reviewer!

Words that sound alike, homonyms, are problematic for every writer at one time or another. Some homonym pairs are especially evil, because the two words in question have similar meanings. Passed and past are perhaps the most evil of all homonym pairs. Maybe that's why they're used incorrectly so often. Past The word past is confusing, because the word itself is not past tense. It's a perfectly normal adjective, a descriptive word, used when describing something that has already happened.  "Didn't you and Jim break up?"  "Yeah, but that's in the past."  Past is a word that references time. It's even part of a word trio, a group of buddies known as past , present and future . The three are often mentioned together, and it's worth remembering because it'll help you use past correctly. There are different ways to use the word, different places to put it in a sentence, but the meaning of past won't ever ...

There are dozens of different book genres, but when you get right down to it there are only two types of books: comedies and tragedies. Do you know which type of book you're writing, and what makes the difference between the two? Comedy and Tragedy Dustin Hoffman explains the nature of book writing beautifully in Stranger Than Fiction , one of my favorite movies. In the flick, he tells Will Ferrell the difference between a comedy and a tragedy: "Tragedy you die, comedy you get hitched." It's a pretty simple explanation, some might say trite, but it's also true. Every fiction book falls somewhere inside the comedy-tragedy spectrum. Sometimes, it's easy to tell which kind of book you're reading. Really clever writers keep you guessing until the very end. But when you're writing, you have to know which direction you're pursuing...because if you don't, no one else will be able to figure it out, either.  Comedy   Comedies ar...

I blog a great deal about punctuation, proper grammar, the importance of staying organized and all the work self-published authors have to do in order to get reviews. But at the end of the day, after you're done promoting on Twitter and editing pages and thinking up new ideas, you've got respect the fundamentals of writing. Don't ever forget the most important element of any good fiction book: storytelling. The Elements of a Story The art of telling a great story is very complex, at least until you break it down into its most basic parts. You should always try to write realistic dialogue and avoid over-writing throughout. You've got to think about capitalization and comma placement and all of those little details. But before you do any of that, you have to know what story you're going to tell...and you're going to have to make sure it's a complete story.  It's simple -- deceptively so. Many authors seem to forget the most basic element o...

Anne Shirley was bookish, talkative, orphaned, accident-prone...and my hero. I loved her story when I was younger, and the one thing I always associated with Anne was her red hair. Fashion is total -- it's not just about the clothes. But Anne had some very specific ideas about that, too, and that meant that I had to as well.  Pigtails and Puffed Sleeves Anne Shirley was first introduced in 1908 by Lucy Maud Montgomery in Anne of Green Gables , the beginning of what would become an extraordinarily successful YA series. She hated her red hair, and I've always wanted it badly (I'm blonde instead, and even that's debatable). So much so, in fact, that I dyed mine red for half of high school. Well, I tried. Turns out, blonde doesn't hold red dye all that well. The point is, Anne's been a personal style icon of mine for a long time. She didn't think her red hair was very fashionable, but she was certain about one must-have detail: puffed sleeves. ...

Before you self-publish, writing is a passion and a burning desire. Once you start self-publishing, it can start to become a chore. Falling out of love with writing is common to all authors, and it happens to everyone from time to time. There is definitely such a thing as getting too much of a good thing.  Breakin' Up is Hard to Do  Remember when writing was a hobby? Once you start self-publishing, it becomes part of your to-do list. Now, you've got books to promote. You've got links to Tweet. You've got sales figures to check and pages to edit and networking to do and forums to check...and oh yeah, you need to get some writing done in the middle of all of that.  Self-published authors have a lot on their plate, and that makes it easy to fall out of love with writing. Many indie writers spend the least amount of time on the actual writing part. The research, the editing, the promotion -- this all takes up a huge amount of time. Creating book covers and tra...

Happy Halloween! It's a day for scares, and that means it's perfect for unveiling my newest excerpt from Judgment (Deck of Lies, #4). The fourth and final installment in the Deck of Lies comes out next month. If you buy Death (Deck of Lies, #3) from Amazon, Smashwords or B&N, you'll get an excerpt from the first chapter. If you haven't already read the first three books in the Deck of Lies, you probably shouldn't read this sneak peek! Chapter 4 The day’s mail arrived about forty minutes after my tutoring session ended. It was 3 PM, so it was Morales who came to the cell with a stack of envelopes and magazines in his hands. “Mail call,” he announced. “Please stand back from the bars in the center of your cell.” I knew this, of course, and I rolled my eyes as he made the requisite announcement. Minutes ticked by in silence as he sorted through the pile. The magazines he shoved between the bars, where they landed on the concrete floor with lazy sl...

I am literally exhausted every day by 1 pm. This is because I spend my mornings cleaning and working out, and it's a pretty intense routine. When the afternoon rolls around, I finally sit down to work...and I stay right where I fall. I don't stop working until 9 or 10 pm at night. The life of an indie author can be packed pretty full of stuff to do, and that's why keeping up the energy is so very important.  The American Obsession Energy has become a commodity in the United States. Watch television Stateside for an hour, and you'll see that it's true. Shows are packed with ads for energy drinks, of all things, and they've become so prolific you can even get them in a diet version. Indie authors, who often maintain full-time jobs while doing all of the marketing, research, writing and editing for their books on their own, are probably the prime target for these ads. If self-published authors aren't tired and overworked, then no one is.  But k...

At some point, every author has to face the possibility of committing murder by killing off one of their characters. When it's done well, you can bring an audience to tears. When it's handled incorrectly, you can receive death threats on Twitter. Committing murder is serious business, even if you're only doing it on the page. Death by Fiction You don't have to write mysteries to contemplate murder when you're writing a book. Ask J. K. Rowling. She writes fantastical children's books, but she's definitely guilty of fictioncide. Where there is life, there is also death. Instead of ignoring this universal truth, some authors embrace it and use it as a plot device. In some stories, death has to happen to get a certain point across or make something important happen.  But it's not something you can introduce without advance preparation, and even then you have to walk a pretty careful line. Death is very emotional, even when it's the death of ...

Halloween is almost here...but not yet. There's still time for one more horror-themed book on film, and for the last novel in the series I've picked the best of the best: Psycho . As far as villains go, the one in this story is the one I've always found to be the most terrifying. The Book That's right: Psycho was actually a book before it became possibly the most well-known slasher film of all time. It was written in 1959 by Robert Bloch, and it revolves around a man named Norman Bates.  He runs a small motel just outside of Fairvale, and lives with his dominating mother. The state, unnamed, has moved the highway and the motel has been struggling ever since. They are arguing angrily about the general state of things when the young, lovely Mary Crane arrives at the motel to rent a room.  She should've stuck to the highway. She's avoiding it because she's a fugitive. After deciding on a whim to take $40,000 from the real estate company wh...