Ballad of Aramei Cover Reveal!

Everything about Adria Dawson’s life has changed in unimaginable ways: the shattering betrayal of her mother, the fight for her life and sanity…the loss of her humanity. But now Adria must face the ultimate challenge and risk not only her life, but the lives of everyone she loves at the wrathful hands of Isaac Mayfair’s father.

Determined to help unravel a mysterious message deeply rooted in an unhinged mind, Adria becomes obsessed with traveling into Aramei’s turbulent past to see the truth of how the relationships and betrayals between the Mayfair and Vargas bloodlines were formed.

Meanwhile, Adria and the Mayfairs are doing everything they can to smoke out and trap the Praverian traitor. A trip to Providence uncovers not only an old family line who are enemies of the Praverians, but also raises questions about the Praverian’s true agenda.

But the traitor will be caught. People will die. And Adria’s destiny to be the cause of a war will come to pass. But what could a kind and simple girl like Adria Dawson ever do that could be considered an act of war? The landscape of the werewolf world will be forever changed in the climactic conclusion to The Darkwoods Trilogy.

Anyone Pumped?

So School has been killing me and writing has been slow, but I'm getting more and more pumped up by Michelle Monique's prospective cover for my book. I have learned so much more about her as a person as well as an artist, and I am wondering if my book really meets her criteria, I know the spin off series will be her style but will Lunar Eclipse be a big challenge? I don't doubt her abilities but it is different from her normal covers. Its a male empowering book so we shall see how things come.



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Some things are fast...Some are slow..

So I've been busy working towards finishing my drafts and edits all at once as well as gathering funds for the cover. So in relevance to the title...coming up with the book idea and planing the series timeline was easy...writing, editing, and publishing are VERY slow. I just hope I can still meet my deadlines with school starting now. Full time is no walk in the park! Wish me luck!

Michelle Monique - Interview

Hi there Michelle, I'm glad we were able to get together like this and introduce you. I'm very taken by all of your work and excited to say that you're my artist for Lunar Eclipse, which will (hopefully) launch in November!

MM: Thank you! I'm so excited to work on this novel. It'll be refreshing to edit wolves into a book cover ;)

TK: So Michelle, what made you originally design book covers for authors?

MM: I actually never decided to do book covers. People just came to me asking if I do them and I gave it a try. I really enjoy it though, so I'm glad my work gradually headed in that direction. It's interesting to take someone's story and try to sum it up in one picture that really speaks to their audience. I am hoping to branch out and work on game advertising and movie posters as well!

TK: So which came first? The chicken or the egg? Or in your case, the camera or the editing?

MM: I would have to say editing came first. I started graphic design when I was 14 on Neopets. I would make layouts for my page and guild so I got a head start in photoshop before I even started photography. Once I did start taking pictures, I wanted something more creative than a mere photograph so I just combined the two skills.

TK: Did you ever take any photography courses, either in high school or college? 

MM: I took some intro classes in high school but most of the class time was spent browsing the internet. I taught myself everything I know about photography and photoshop and just applied what I already knew in the few projects that we had for school.

TK: What mediums do you use to make your awesome work come to life? 

MM: Other than the obvious photography and photoshop, I use a tablet to pain small details and real life scupting to take objects that I cannot realistically create in photoshop.


TK: So we heard from Raschel's interview that you're going to school for marketing. Have anything in particular in mind for after college? 

MM: I'm going to full force networking for my business. I plan on making a physical portfolio that I can send to companies and will be looking for an agent to help me find more work.

TK: How many projects have you been commissioned to do already and how many of those are still open progress? 

MM: I've had around 25 commissions and 8 are currently in progress.

TK:  Do you think you'll ever need to add more workers to your company? Do you ever feel overwhelmed with the amount of work you're commissioned to do? 

MM: I do sometimes feel overwhelmed especially having to balance school, commissions, and personal projects. Although I have a lot of support from my family, it would be helpful to hire an assistant someday. I spend 2-3 hours each day just doing clerical work and if someone did that for me it would leave me more time to edit. 

Well it was great getting to know you better as well as learning more of your mediums. I know I'm saying that I'm one lucky author to have you as my artist! Good luck with your company and I'm sure I'll see you more in more and more book covers, but also good luck in the gaming and movie industry!

Here is a list of her blog tour:

22: Raschel's Reads: Interview - www.raschel-reads.blogspot.com
24: Andrea Heltsley: Promo/Interview - andreaheltsley.blogspot.com

26: Jessica Redmerski: '10 Weird Things' - www.jessicaredmerski.com

27: TK Knox: Interview - www.tk-knox.blogspot.com

28: Devon Ashley: ___ - www.devonashleywrites.blogspot.com

29: Beverly Sharp: Artwork Feature/Bio - www.wormyhole.blogspot.com

30: Amy Fournier: ___ - www.booklovingme.com

31: Inna: Art Feature - thebookconfessions.blogspot.com

September:

2: Kassondra Leigh: Musical Inspirations - http://www.kasonndraleigh.com

3: Urban Fantasies: Teenage Garage Sale - www.urbanfantasyinvestigations.blogspot.com/

Newcomers

Hello everyone, I'm so sorry that you're seeing a downed site. I'm currently trying to update my site as much as possible but I haven't quite gotten there. I split the previous blog in two and I'm currently attempting to copy/paste the blog posts and dates to this blog.


On the up and up on writing I have hired a cover artist! We will be having her stop by this month for her blog tour. She is working with me for Lunar Eclipse's Debut in October (possibly November) And I have a word count for you!
Lunar Eclipse currently stands at a total of: *drum roll please*

 

23,000 words!

Time To Lose

It seems like I'm not going to get the chance to use my book as my homework. She wants short stories only, things that will only last up to four pages max. I do have someone to read it though, one of the English councilors for the free tutoring group that the school provides and so far  she is loving it. I'm happy to be editing what I have so far and working with someone who encourages me to do better.

College Curriculum

School starts up in a few days and I am pumped to be going back to school, but i'm not to excited at the idea of leaving Anthony behind. I feel like a horrible mother to leave him behind while I go to school. It's almost enough to make me stop schooling until after he starts school of his own. Almost. On the up and up I'm writing all day today and I've managed to get all my books together. I'm also taking a Creative Writing class and I've talked to my professor about looking over everything so far and she said she'd try. So there would be my first Beta reader! Maybe I'll even use my story for the bulk of my course work? We'll see. Wish me luck for school!

New Years!

So Happy New Years to all you readers. I'm glad to say that my holidays went well and my new job is rather demanding of my time still. Hopefully it'll slow down soon so I can not only spend some time with baby but also spend some time with my notebook and write. I'm happy to say I'm at 12K words on Lunar Eclipse finally, Dragon's Venom is at 20K and First Blush is still stuck at 16K, and I don't think that will be going up anytime soon. I'm afraid it may have fizzled out.

Anthony is growing so fast! He's trying to walk now but I'm not too sure it will take right away. He's saying Mama all the time though which I love!

Maybe one of these days I'll figure out how to turn this picture :/

Christmas Updates

So I know I said I was going to take a break from posting for Christmas and all, but I had to pop in with these photos of him!

He has got to be the most adorable child I have ever seen, he always has a smile, even if he's sick and he's always making faces!

He loves putting everything he gets his hands on into his mouith and gumming it to death. Well he actually has a few teeth...and by few I mean he has two. He got them last month and has been trying to put them to work as much as possible.

He is still standing and now he's starting to pull himself up from a sitting position as well as trying to crawl up the steps in the living room. I'm quite proud of this accomplishment. And as always, when he sees the flash on my phone he smiles for the camera.


What a camera ham right?!

I nearly had a heart attack when he started to reach out for this ornament...I was just glad he didn't fall back out of the present box! I am now working as a photographer at JC Penny's Portrait Studio and I got to have these pictures for free. I am so happy with how they came out in the end I had to share them with all of you. I am still attending school so that is why I haven't posted in a long while but I am still writing here and there when I get a bit of time between classes. Let's see what adding a job in the mix does for my writing abilities.

Short Break

So, since this is my first set of holidays as a mother, I've decided to take this month off from writing, and last month's NaNoWriMo kinda fell through the cracks with all of my finals coming up and the baby getting sick, which followed through with me getting sick...I'll post my Christmas Pictures if you post of yours/Hanukkah/Quanza/New Years.

NaNoWriMo

Okay...So I just found out all the information for this thing called "NaNoWriMo" or in full, National Novel Writing Month. Addison Moore, a fellow writer, talked about it on her twitter over and over which got me questioning what it was she was talking about. So I looked at google. Apparently, November is a time for people across the globe to start on a brand new project from scratch and write! Just write, no editing, no worries that things won't fit right, just throw things onto the page for your novel and reach 50,000 words by November 30, 2011 so that's what I'm doing right now. People gather into groups and encourage each other to write their books when they seem to be procrastinating and encourage them to get past "writer's block."

Who knows, maybe this will help me finish a manuscript and throw it onto Amazon to self-publish it? So I'll be devoting all the extra time I have to write towards this project for this whole month.

Stabbed in the Gut...

So I thought today was rather progressive. I have been diligently working on one of my series books through some of my classes and have made some good progress with them. Today I see that Melissa Marr and Kelly Armstrong have teamed up (which I was happy to hear since they have written some VERY grand books in my view) to write a series with werewolves...which also made me happy cause I love werewolves. I click the link given by Melissa via Twitter only to feel like I've been shoved off a writer's cliff cause their series has a lot of the same things in it...should I still write it or scrap it for another few years so that its not viewed as a ripoff? So lost and hurt and dazed by this, I'm kinda turned off to the all-nighter I had planned to work on said series. :( for now I'm going to shelf it and work on fixing the blog up again or ... just something-anything else....

Halloween

So baby is totally not feeling well. He has been puking quite a bit, but after a few hours at home and keeping down two meals just fine we have decided to go out trick-or-treating after all. He is so cute as a little bumble bee! And my Vampire husband looks good too. I'm a mixed breed of vampire bumble bee. My stingers are my teeth lol. 

I want to see your pictures! Send them and a story to me and maybe I'll even put you into one of the books!

Real Steal

Anthony and I just went to see it, can I just say AWESOME! He likes movies just as much as I do, and we both agree...this movie has like a zillion stars to it, I haven't seen a real passionate movie with a real story that sucks you in and draws your rawest emotions out in a VERY long time. I was happily crying along with the main characters. Now to just make my books like that!


Anthony is standing and doing the crab walk around the house furniture now. He even plays a bit of peek-a-boo when egged on...he's a real cutie.

Cooking

I can't cook at all....I never realy have and never really could. I've tried...a few times and no sucess... So I'm trying without hubby's prior knowledge or pressures from him. I think he's gonna like it..I've already had a few bites and it was rather good. Chicken casserole is simple enough to make, but I made sure to have a second pair of eyes watching everything I was doing. Oh and its the same friend who wanted to do Zumba...which fell through like I figured it would, but she is riding a bike back and forth to work so she is still exercising.

I'm attempting to write...I need to get better at this balancing thing....

Attack of the Flies!

So, I get up this morning...and as I'm getting ready for school there are like 5 flies zooming around the bathroom...I notice the odditiy but decide I have no time for it and quickly slap them into death with my fly swatter....I come home to a number somewhere near 100 flies that I have to kill one by one...I gave up on the swatter and moved onto raid. I'm already not feeling well as it is from the wedding, (everyone who went to my friend's wedding, including the bride and groom got sick) and now the flies are attacking. I called the office after vaccuming up the dead bodies from everywhere and they were going to send pest control tomorrow. I wish they would come out today, but apparetnly I'm not alone...they
are having the same issue next door so I'm told, at least I know that it isn't something wrong with our trash or anything. Luckily baby is already staying at my parent's house since both hubby and I are sick.


(Blogger must hate how many pictures I post...)

Weddings galore!

So a friend of mine's dad has an awesome digital SLR (single lense reflect) camera...for those of you who don't know that is the kind that have different lenses that are long and you turn them to zoom and focus. He asked me to go with him to do a wedding photoshoot and take pictures of the actual wedding and then after reviewing the photos decided he wants to try and make a buisness out of this! How awesome is that? I am having super amounts of fun with it, and my friend's wedding was also this month so he let me borrow his camera to take pictures of it.

Anthony dressed up in a onesie that had a tux print on it and looked adorable, but right before going out to drop him off so I could do pre-wedding pictures, I was rear-ended.....not so cool. Anthony's first car accident and it freaked me out like SUPER bad. He cried a bit but when the EMTs arrived he was smiling at them and giving a soft bit of a laugh...since he's not fully laughing yet. Here's hoping that this job is a real one! It would be so much easier for me to keep that as a job and get paid nicely for short bursts of work here and there.

First Cold

So Anthony now has had his first cold. We went to the Dr. office today and he weighed 14 pounds 3 ounces. And soon as this cold passes he will be starting rice cereal. He's growing up so fast! Just thought I'd drop you a personal note today. Lemmie know how yall are doing!

(Again with the side ways photos!!! GRRRR)
PS Side note is that i totally got a Kindle for my birthday! :D I'm loving it so much already!

Birthday & Anniversary!

Okay, so this month I not only have my birthday, but my anniversary so I'll be taking a short break from every and anything work style related.  Please know that I do try hard to write as much as possible but it has not been easy lately with baby blues and loads of baby needs. I will keep trying as soon as this month is over though. Promise!


(Again, blogger won't let me turn the picture...)
~TK Knox

Shout out to all the mothers out there!

So, breastfeeding can be very difficult for some mothers, and very easy for others. For me, it was simple and a no-brainer that I knew I was going to breastfeed him. I felt very discouraged though, when I was stuck with Mestitis (a small clog in the milk ducts that causes EXCRUCIATING pain when feeding your child and when coupled with a fever can lead to you drying up and no longer being able to breastfeed at all!) I didn't know if I could feed him while sick so we gave him formula for the first time. Let me be clear, I had it in my mind that I wouldn't ever feed him formula, so this was devistating to me. My mother encouraged me and helped me along the way though, and I was able to fight the issue and continue breastfeeding and didn't dry out. For that I'd like to say, "Thank You Mom." and remind you all that sometimes, we really do need to remember how much our mothers really do help us...even when we don't really notice.

(Does blogger just hate me that it doesn't want my pictures straight?)