A New Undertaking…

Hello. Yes, I have been woefully absent on the blog yet again due to being crazy busy with work and life and the usual. Unfortunately, I haven’t been working on any new Cooking Adventures, nor any new Inspiration Through Music blogs. I have, however, developed a new idea for a bi-weekly/monthly blog that I think could be quite interesting.

Not too long ago, Amazon released a list of “A 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime”. In that list are several classics such as Orwell’s 1984, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Ellison’s The Invisible Man along with newer classics like Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, and Zusak’s The Book Thief. 

Out of the 100 books on this list, I’ve read 13, and started but didn’t finish 2 others. Several of these are classic novels that are usually required reading in school. I’ve decided to work my way down the list and read the books I haven’t read, including the ones I started to read but didn’t finish. My goal is to finish them, however, if I find that I’m dragging through them, I will probably set them aside and move onto the next book.

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Inspiration Through Music: MEMENTO MORI

MEMENTO MORI: Inspiration Through Music

The Monstrum Chronicles has always been inspired by a variety of music. Whether it is rock, instrumental, or opera, I’ve listened to just about everything while working on these books. Today, I’m particularly happy to introduce to you a list of music that I found most inspirational while working on my latest novel, MEMENTO MORI. Today I’ll be sharing 13 songs from the unofficial playlist with you and one sentence about how the song correlates to the story. Enjoy!

MEMENTO MORI: Character Creation

The most fun I had while writing “Memento Mori” was in creating the various characters that inhabited the world. Several of them are characters that we’ve seen in other Monstrum Chronicles books, but the majority of our protagonists are new. I had so much fun breathing life into them. And of course, I had my favorites. Below I’ve detailed five characters to take interest in in “Memento Mori” (and who I would love to play them should there ever be a movie version, haha).

The Making of “Memento Mori” – The Creative Process

Make no mistake; this book was the most difficult book that I’ve ever written. A combination of unrealistic expectations, uncertainty about the direction of the book, and a whole host of other reasons are why I make that declaration. The goal was to have the book published by the end of the year; I was starting from scratch. I’d scrapped five different beginnings for the book including nearly two hundred pages of previously written material. A good deal of it was written before “Vox” was published. Want to know why? 

MEMENTO MORI Kindle Release Celebration!

MEMENTO MORI: BOOK 3 OF THE MONSTRUM CHRONICLES releases for Kindle on December 7th, 2014! In celebration of finishing the third book in the series, I’ll be holding a series of day-long goodies including (but not limited to): a morning kaffeeklatsch meet up (for those who are local) to talk about the book and enjoy warm beverages, a Cooking Adventure video (that’s right; a video!), blogs about the making of “Memento Mori”, and contests galore where you can win an ebook, a skype interview with the author, and other goodies! A few other surprises, too! A detailed schedule of events will be available soon! Spread the word! Invite your friends! http://www.amazon.com/Memento-Mori-Book-Monstrum-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00OPC5J0K

FACEBOOK EVENT

HAPPY FREAKIN’ NEW YEAR!

Hello, folks! As I sit here sipping my coffee and enjoying the scent of fresh peppermint chocolate scones, I’ve decided to unveil to you one of my New Year’s resolutions: BLOG MORE! I totally dropped off the earth with both my cooking and music blogs this year and that put me in a bit of a funk. So, this year, I’ll be returning with new weekly Cooking Adventures blogs, and Inspiration Through Music blogs. Having taken the last several months of 2013 away from the blogging scene, I’ve uncovered a dazzling array of glorious new recipes and inspiring music to share with you.

I’ve also got something else for you today: a copy of my first book, “Vox”, free on Amazon Kindle! And, later on today, the sequel, “Aequitas” will be available for 99 cents! Too good to be true right? In exchange, I ask only a favor. If you enjoy one or both of the books, would you please consider leaving a review on Amazon? Reviews are quite helpful to us struggling authors. It lets us know what you (the reader) likes (or doesn’t like) about our work and helps us improve ourselves in future projects.

Follow the link here to grab a copy of “Vox”! http://www.amazon.com/Vox-Book-1-Monstrum-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B004VSZQTW/ref=la_B004W4P690_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388577478&sr=1-3

Don’t have a Kindle? You can read it on your smartphone, IPad, or computer, too, with Amazon’s Cloud Reader (which is totally free!) How do you like that?

Enjoy your first day in a brand spankin’ new year and stay tuned for a whole host of exciting blogs!

KSilva

“Aequitas” is free March 8th and 9th!

WARNING: Shameless self-promotion below. Take it or leave it, peeps.

The title says it all. My second book, “Aequitas: Book 2 of The Monstrum Chronicles” is free today and tomorrow! Please jump on the bandwagon and download your copy today! If you already have a copy and have already read it, please do me a favor and write a little review of it for the Amazon page!

If you want to get updates on what else is coming up for future projects, give the facebook page a “like”!

https://www.facebook.com/katherinesilva.author

Got a Twitter? So do I? Don’t use it much… but I’ve got it!

Tweets by KatherineSilva_

And Goodreads! Great place to be and always a good place to show your love of all things literary!

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5066729.Katherine_Silva

And I think that about covers it! Thanks for showing your support. You guys are the best of the best.

~KSilva

Aequitas is now on Kindle!!

Dear readers,

Two years ago, I started writing my second novel, one that I knew was going to be a challenge for a couple of reasons. I’d committed myself to writing a series of books. I, therefore, had to keep the characters, plot, and locations engaging. I also had to show that I’d learned more about the writing craft and was actually using this knowledge to better my own writing. I wanted my second book to be more jaw-dropping than the first, more edge of your seat, and bring more into the fan circle associated with The Monstrum Chronicles.

Two years later, and that book is now out on Kindle. In certain ways, it’s a relief as well as it is stressful. I worry about getting bad reviews, I worry about it not being purchased at all! There are so many different books out there that are wonderfully written and yet, haven’t been read by anyone, and so many of them are paranormal or horror fiction. That being said, I’m doing my utmost to make sure that this doesn’t happen with “Aequitas”.

Today, both my first novel, “Vox” as well as a companion short story, “Acquolina” are free on Amazon Kindle! I’m hoping that I can get some people hooked on the series or bring back people who have purchased and read Book 1 so that they realize Book 2 is now available. It is still early but already, Vox has gone from 500,000th place up to 31,000th. And that’s only with 8 copies being sold. Having created ads for Facebook and Goodreads as well as contacting several Kindle free e-book websites ahead of time, I’m hoping that all of my hard work pays off over the next two days.

For those of you who are fans of my Inspiration Through Music blogs and Cooking Adventures, please take a moment to go and look at my other works. If you have a Kindle, feel free to download copies of Vox and Acquolina if you are curious about the other writing that I do. If you don’t have Kindle but still want to help, please spread the word via twitter, facebook or your wordpress blog about my book. I would be most grateful for anything that you could do to help me get this book out there.

Here you can find “Vox”.

Here you can find “Acquolina”.

And here, you can find my newest book, “Aequitas”.

Thanks, all!

~KSilva

Acquolina is now available!

Good morning everyone!

My first short story in The Monstrum Chronicles, Acquolina, is now available for download on Kindle here. At 99 cents, this 46 page story chronicles the tale of Sibyl, a year old fledgling of the Kume bloodline. The Kume are the water-dwelling bloodline of lilitu (vampires) from The Monstrum Chronicles. They have mutated from so many years spent in the water. They have blue tinged skin, black eyes, and scales, occasionally. These creatures are also extremely artistic. The bloodline was created during the Italian Renaissance in the 1400’s. The novel takes place in the late 1800’s in the Kume city of Vitoria, which exists in the Erebus, the dark shadow realm where the lilitu hold territories. Vitoria is the capitol and the home of the Artigianti di Alta. They are the group of highly skilled artisans who protect a collection of the most highly valued artwork pieces created by their kind.

As the novel opens, we find Sibyl preparing for the annual Festival Della Costola, a celebration where one Kume is picked to join the Artigianti di Alta and the various Houses (clans) celebrate their creativity. However, there are also civil tensions rising between various houses which are building toward a terrible possible outcome: war. As Sibyl finds herself chosen as the new inductee to the Artigianti di Alta, she will be pulled in opposite directions by two men: a mysterious outsider who might be her only escape from the rising unrest, and The Ghost, another outsider, who has a vested interest in saving Vitoria by using any means necessary. But do they have their own agendas as well?

Here is the cover:

Acquolina is written for those who want a taste of what’s to come in Aequitas: Book 2 of The Monstrum Chronicles. It gives the background story for two characters who play large roles in the series. The short story also gives further clarification to an event that is referenced in Book 2. Later this evening, I’ll have a soundtrack list up for the short story on my website, so stay tuned for that!

Also, (and I feel pretty bad about this) sorry I wasn’t able to get Inspiration Through Music up on Monday. It was a busy day, I was getting my new car (Izze 3!) and then the new car had a dead battery so I got home rather late. Yesterday, I was rushing to get the short story published and then spent the entire night reformatting it because I hadn’t done it properly. I’m hoping to write the blog this morning. If I’m not able to, I’ll have it up for you later tonight.

Right then! Stay tuned for new stuff! 🙂

~KSilva

June “Vox” Promo and Other Summer Suprises to Come!

Good morning, readers!

I have good news. I have “Aequitas: Book 2 of the Monstrum Chronicles” back in my grasp for the last round of editing. I hope to finish it this week (in reality, it will probably take me 2 weeks). Then I’ll begin the oh so painful process of formatting the book into a PDF file. And so I have concluded that Book 2’s release date will indeed be this fall. In fact, it will be a little sooner than I thought it would be.  The release date has now been scheduled for October 4th, 2012!

In the mean time, I’m running a couple of special promos on “Vox: Book 1 of the Monstrum Chronicles.” The first starts this week and ends on Sunday, June 24th. For a limited time, “Vox” will be available for only $0.99! This special pricing will begin this evening and run until Sunday morning at 7, eastern time. You can find the book by clicking on this link here.

Later this summer, I’ll also be holding a photo contest for the cover of Book 3. I had attempted to take a photograph myself and it turns out my photography skills really aren’t that fantastic. More details will emerge on this in July.

I will also be releasing several short stories this summer with events that pertain to The Monstrum Chronicles series. There are three in the line up and the first will probably be released in August, the next two in September. I’m very excited to get those out and introduce people to a new set of characters that will be integral to the events of “Aequitas.”

With that being said, I will now return to my editing of “Aequitas.” I’m currently on Chapter 8!

Have a wonderful week! And stay tuned for my Cooking Adventures blog tomorrow!

~KSilva