Upon the Wings of Greater Things

The creative endeavours of Starla Huchton

World Building at ZappCon!

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I had a little adventure this weekend! I had the awesome opportunity to fly out to Fresno, CA for a great little convention called ZappCon. I’m still working through some of the awesome of the trip, but I’m feeling over my jet lag enough to address one of the happenings today.

On Sunday, I had a Q&A session with a small group of folks about world building in fiction. At first, I wasn’t really sure I was overly qualified to speak on such a topic (or anything, really, LOL), but there were some excellent questions raised that maybe others are curious about, in as far as my opinion on them exists.

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It’s Story Time! Ride the Wind is Taking Flight!

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SAHFantasy

So, The Chronicles of ISLE, Book 1: Spark is out in the world now (did I forget to mention that here? Whoops. Author fail.) Not only is it live on Amazon, but it’s absolutely a part of the Kindle Unlimited program for those of you who subscribe to that service:

Get Spark right here!

Note: if you haven’t read the Evolution series, it’s highly recommended you do so before beginning this book. You’ll be able to follow the story fine, but there is so much more to understand about this world that you can only learn in detail from the first trilogy!

Also note: this story is NOT for children. Adult situations and mature language are contained therein. (Hence the S. A. Huchton label.)

But now on to today’s news!

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Humaning 101 (Or, How to Fake Extroversion)

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Being an author is sort of a strange thing. As a writer, I spend a lot of time by myself, submerged in worlds only I live in. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, when I call myself an introvert. I’m not good with large groups of strangers and, more often than not, I feel like a failure as a human when I’m unable to do what “normal” people seem to do in those situations.

So what happens when it comes time for events when success is riding on coming across as human? Basically, you fake it.

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The Night Bridge: Cover Reveal and Preorder Information

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 SAHSF

Greetings and salutations! It’s been a super busy year for me, and we’re finally past the halfway mark! I hope everyone’s having a great summer and getting a ton of reading done.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been over a year and a half since I started on the road this story led me down. Lots of other projects made their way into the world first, and it sort of got shuffled away in lieu of superheroes and fairy tales. As my last two releases have both been Contemporary, I am happy to report my return to steamy speculative fiction! That said, for those of you under a certain age, or who aren’t keen to read fiction with adult themes, hang tight. I’ll be back in November with another Flipped Fairy Tale, so I hope to see you all then. :)

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The SFR Brigade’s Summer Cafe – Weird Science!

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SFR Brigade's Summer Cafe, week 2

 

Welcome to the SFR Brigade’s Summer Cafe! I’ll be one of your hosts for this week’s little blog hop, so please feel free to seat yourself wherever you like, and today’s special will be delivered to you shortly. If you’d instead like to peruse the menu, simply click the banner above and the full list of offerings will be on display. Alternatively, you’ll find the other items listed at the end of this post. Do scroll down to the bottom, however, as there is a special giveaway for those who make it through this course of the meal! [Read more…]

Balticon Panel Review: Getting Noticed in the Self-Publishing World

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So, this past weekend was Balticon 49, and, as always, it was a lovely (albeit exhausting) time. It’s great to catch up with old friends, but I had something else I took away this year from the experience. On Monday, the last day of the con, I had the extreme pleasure of being part of a panel on how to stand out as a self-published author when everyone is self-publishing. Now, I’m not sure I’m a foremost authority on this, but I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of some basics, and the other four people on the panel generally agreed with what I had to say and added bits of their own that left me nodding in firm agreement. So here’s the gist of the discussion distilled down for you.

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The Evolution of a Book Cover

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SAH Contemporary logo

One great thing about being an indie author is flexibility when it comes to a book cover, and the ability to change it fast when a problem comes up. Today, I’m going to show you the cover for my next release, but I’m also going to show you some of the less tidy bumps in the road I hit on the way to the finished product. I thought folks might like an inside look at this process, and I promise it’ll be faster for you than it was for me. ;)

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Helpful Tips: Teaser Images

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helpful tips

 

Occasionally I have conversations with people that make me think there’s maybe a need for me to post about certain topics. Yesterday, I had a rather in-depth discussion with an author friend who was attempting her first teaser images and was wondering if I had any advice (spoiler: YES I DO OMG). If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, teaser images are a quick impact way to promo your book, and typically include a very short excerpt of your story, an eye-catching image, and the title/author name. The conversation I had about teasers made me really stop and think about the subject, which leads me to believe maybe other folks might have the same questions my friend did. So, here goes. Here’s some things to consider when building a teaser image for your book:

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New Release Spotlight: Mindy Hayes and Michele G. Miller

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All right, people, stop what you’re doing right now! I have two new releases for you to check out from two of my favorite people on the planet! I wasn’t able to post about these over the weekend, but I am rectifying that error immediately. Ready? Get your one-click finger set…

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