Jade Varden Official Blog

The writing is done, the editing is finished and the formatting has been (painfully) completed. Yes, the day has finally arrived -- The Tower is being released! Book 2 in the Deck of Lies series is now available at Amazon's Kindle store , so download your copy while the downloading's good. Book description: A Tower of Lies... Death brings some families closer, but it’s ripped mine apart. I wanted to convince the police that they had the wrong suspect…but I never expected them to start suspecting me. Now, I have no choice but to keep searching for the truth, even if all my relationships fall to pieces around me. Someone is trying to make me look guilty. I never thought my mission to prove my own innocence would lead me to more family secrets. I thought I had already discovered the truth about myself. But every answer raises more questions, and everything I think I know is about to change…again. I have to find the truth, no matter how much it hurts -- before I get ch...

"I very much enjoyed the story. It’s humorous, there’s a mystery to be solved...The story moves quickly and a LOT of stuff happens." The lovely ladies at Quirky Girls Read have recently posted an in-depth review of Justice (Deck of Lies, Book 1).  Go to their site to read the full review, and find out just what it is I'm writing about, anyway.

The Tower (Deck of Lies, Book 2) comes out this week! Get a head start and get the first two chapters free at my official site .

When I got an early review copy of Sherri Fulmer Moorer's Anywhere But Here , all I knew about the book was that it's a YA story. This is not accurate by any means, but I'm happy to say I wasn't too disappointed to find myself caught up in a contemporary tale about the cutthroat corporate world -- and a fantasy novel filled with dream castles and dragons. Surprisingly, the two halves of the story come together well to create a cohesive whole, blending elements of female-centric fiction, romance and fantasy. But if you don't know what to expect, you may find this ride pretty confusing indeed -- even off-putting, at times. Anywhere But Here introduces readers to a heroine on the brink of a new life, and on the brink of breakdown. Graduating from college and embarking on a new path should be an exciting time, but Jana finds her entire world crumbling to dust instead. The reader will truly feel Jana's confusion as the fabric of her life turns to tatters all ar...

Now that you've established the setting for your story, you can draw from a rich well of knowledge to make every scene authentic. But if your plot doesn't follow a logical course, readers aren't going to care about the rich backgrounds you paint with your words. For the plot to feel authentic, you're going to have to do your homework. Yes, it's time for even more research. Get it done before you start putting words down on the page. Plot Points If it's in your plot, you should research it. This is especially important for writers in the historical and mystery genres. If, for instance, a devastating act of nature wreaks havoc with your characters try to link it to an actual event and study that event. Look at similar events and their effects, and how the problems were handled. If your plot includes a horrific fire, do some research into firefighting procedures to describe the scene in vivid detail. Medical conditions, the effects of stress on the body, wh...

Creativity isn't a spigot that you can turn off and on. Even the most brilliant creative minds need inspiration before the ideas can flow freely. Some need to put themselves in a specific environment or mindset, or both, before they can let go and create. Once you get into that zone where everything is flowing perfectly, the last thing you want to do is stop, look something up and then get started again. But you should anyway. Because if you aren't taking the time to do your research, you're only doing half the work. Details, Details, Details So what's it matter if you put your characters in the middle of a "famous landmark" that doesn't actually exist, or talk about the beautiful oak trees found in a tropical forest? What if you've got them eating unspecified meadow mushrooms and berries from the shrubbery, if the plot is exciting and the intrigue is abundant? Who really cares about that crap anyway? Your readers do, and if you make a mista...

So, you've finished a book. You carefully wrote an outline, craftily developed your characters, sweated out the formatting to make every page perfect. If you don't get yourself a copyright through proper and legal channels, you don't want to self-publish that story. If you do, I can download it, put my name on it and sell it as my own -- legally. If you think slapping a copyright symbol and writing a disclaimer is enough to protect your rights, you might be wrong. Getting a copyright is pretty easy...but it's not that easy. What is a Copyright?  You can't have one unless you know what it is. When you own the copyright to a work -- usually a piece of music, a book, artwork or a film -- you and you alone are allowed to sell, distribute and duplicate that work. This means that if someone else wants to sell and/or distribute your work, they've got to go through you first. Copyrighting your book legally marks you as the owner, and it's something you...

Better late than never! The trailer for Justice is finally finished -- just in time for me to need a second trailer for The Tower. Begin exploring the Deck of Lies now!