Casting call: Castles apply here

With 55000 words on my new book, I am about half way there. I don’t know what’s with historical books, they always seem to be so long. Didn’t quite plan it like this, but as I write, I realize there is still so much that needs to happen. And don’t worry: this will be all in one book. Even though it’s long, I won’t split it. 

Btw DOE was meant to be a trilogy from the start, just as this one is envisioned as a single book.

As you know from my previous emails, the writing time at the moment is not only spent by typing words on my laptop but as lots of research too. 

I know that the second part of the book needs to happen in a castle, and Switzerland has many of them, one of the most famous ones you might have seen is Chateau de Chillon, at the lake of Geneva. However, since I know the first part of the story will be happening in Rapperswil, also known as the City of Roses, Castle Chillon being 250 km away is too far for my protagonist to reach. Even on a horse.

Chillon Castle - Wikipedia
Chateau de Chillon

So I went for a search to find another castle which is a bit closer, and found one that could fit: Castle Lenzburg, some 70 km away. I knew about this castle from many years before because the train I used to take from Zurich to Basel (which was my daily commute when I did my doctorate) passed just under the hill where the castle is situated. Seeing it from below it looked fabulous, but I never actually went in to check it out. 

However, with this specific task in mind, I recently did a tour, with a special mention of the early 18th century, so I can fit it into my story.

Schloss Lenzburg | Switzerland Tourism
Lenzburg Castle

For many centuries, the Lenzburg castle belonged to the Habsburg family but from the middle of 15 century (1444), Canton Bern took hold of the Castle and a large area around it which was from then on under the influence of a local bailiff. They would come from the aristocratic families of the city of Bern (which is a capital of today’s Switzerland) and they would govern the castle and the surrounding area for about 4 to 6 years, until they were replaced by a new bailiff.

Habsburg family, also known as the House of Habsburg, is one of the most prominent dynasties in Europe, which held the reign over the large part of Europe from 11st (1020) until 1918 when Charles I of Austria renounced his role in state affairs. One of the most famous individuals most people know about is Maria Theresa (1717-1780), who held the power over 40 years, and was “allowed” to be a ruler only because her father Charles VI made a decree that the daughters are allowed to take the throne (as opposed to being handed to a male heir of a brother or other cousins). 

Maria Theresa

The other daughter you might know is Marie Antoinette, who married Luis XVI (when she was 14 btw), and who had an infamous ending in the French Revolution, taking the “punishment” of all the royalty before her.

But as I said, the Castle of Lenzburg is at the rule of Bern at the time the book takes place, and the Habsburg family owning only patches of land of Confederatia Helvetica (CH, today’s Switzerland). Still, they will appear somewhere at some point 😉 

Castle Lenzburg turned out to be a gold mine for my story. It has several houses, which were not all built at once, but in 18 century all of them were already there, the last one just being assembled. It has the most fabulous knight house (Ritterhaus), the Clock house, the baroque Bern house, the bailiff house, with a stunning garden overlooking the city of Lenzburg, a large courtyard with a single tree that looks like a crooked hand reaching out of the ground (in winter!), and a dungeon with a two cells and variety of torture weapons. 

All in all, this was exactly the castle I was looking for!

Lenzburg Castle (Schloss Lenzburg), Switzerland
Castle Lenzburg courtyard

So the castle Lenzburg took the role for the second part of the book 🙂

And the story continues… 

Descendants of Earth: Complete trilogy

Ten years ago I started my writing career (or vocation, to be more true to my mindset and way of thinking). The same amount of time – more or less if you ignore the Swift Escape excursion – it took to write the Descendants of Earth trilogy. I knew from the start that it would need three books, as the story couldn’t have been told in one.

Except that it could.

But this in turn would mean that I would be writing complete story behind the closed doors, for ten years, and then published it in one large book of some hypothetical 850 pages. 

But I didn’t have patience for this. 

As soon as my first book was out, I wanted to share it with the world.

I wanted to share it with you!

So this hypothetical “all in one” book, that should hypothetically have 850 pages, is not so hypothetical any longer.

The Descendants of Earth: Complete trilogy is now out. And I have to say, it looks awesome!

Deranged Doctor Design made a new cover, which combines all three covers beforehand.

I realize on some level that I must be cannibalizing my own single books sales. But I really wanted to have the story in one single book. 

And I really love that it is massive!

Just look at it!

Wish you all a great day!

Keep reading, and I will keep on writing 🙂

How to deal with bad book reviews

Every author will face it: bad reviews. Some more, some less, but in all cases they will hurt. Bad reviews come mostly because your book came into the wrong hands: that reader wasn’t supposed to read your book but based on your cover or summery they thought they are and they read it. So, a large part of potential bad reviews can be avoided with careful considerations when deciding on your metadata: genre selection, book covers, blurbs and such. But even if your metadata is spot-on, you will still end up with some readers that were never meant to pick up your book in the first place. Here is how I dealt with mine.

The Senthien is a Number 1. Bestseller!

There are 48 million books on Amazon.
Let me repeat that.
There are 48 million books on Amazon.

So as you can very well imagine, it is difficult for a not-well-known author to be discovered. Sometimes, a promotion helps. And every now and then, my free kindle deal for “The Senthien” helped me found some new readers.

This time, however, when I did my free-promo, something quite amazing happened!

“The Senthien” climbed up to a number 1 spot on Amazon USA, UK, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Australia, France, India and Germany in sub-genres of hard science fiction, genetic engineering science fiction, space opera, sci-fi romance, sci-fi adventure and dystopian science fiction.

Which was just WOW! I couldn’t believe it. And needless to say, it made me so incredibly happy.

12 years since I first started writing “The Senthien”, it is now a bestseller.

The adventure, of course, continues. “The Mind” sequel to “The Senthien” was published in April 2020, and the final sequel wont take too long either. The first draft is finished, and is now in the process of post-production, which means edits and re-writes until I finally have it in the form I want.

For all who are curios as to when the final sequel will be out, please join my newsletter and I will keep you in the loop.

Take care and stay safe!

Interview: The magic of audiobook narration

If any of you were wondering who is the mystery person behind the amazing honey-colored voice of my audiobooks “The Senthien” and “The Mind”, it is an actress, Corinne Davies.

And today I’m bringing you the interview where she explains what -or who- inspires her voice choices, where does her voice-shifter talent come from and what is the process in auditioning and narrating the books.

The link below is an abridged version, but if you want to see the full version of this interview, please check out https://youtu.be/RtUjWyCKbP8

And if you would like to hear more of her voice and enjoy the sci-fi romance story at the same time, write me an email. I still have a few freebie codes I can send you 🙂

Take care all and stay healthy and sane!

Author vulnerability No.1: Fear of rejection

I think I can talk for all authors when I say that each and every one of us fears that our work will be disliked, that people won’t respond to it, that it will leave them unaffected, especially if we give heart and soul into our creative work (which is pretty much always). I succumbed to the same fear so much, that I unpublished some of my work due to the response. And then, I had a good talk with a very clever person who taught me some wisdom 😉

Check out my short stories: www.tarajadebrown.com/books

A word about gratitude, love and recognition

A long time ago, my mother in law told me that there are three components to happiness. Looking forward to something, to love and be loved, and to be recognised and acknowledged by others. Today I will focus on the last one: recognition, and what does recognition mean for a writer.

The last audiobook excerpt Vlog, and my favourite scene

Today I’m playing the last of the audiobook excerpts from my book “The Senthien” and, as a proper romance author, I chose this one to be one of the romantic scenes.

Also, this is a place where where Humans find out that Senthiens can tell the future, and where J finds out that he needs to change something to make this particular future happen 😉

#audiobookgiveaway

Findaway Voices, the production and distribution company for audiobooks, is offering 10 free copies of the audiobook “The Senthien”.

If you are interested, just send me an email.

* the free copy is available from Chirp, and currently only in US, Australia and UK.

Sam Swift at “Swift Escape” book giveaway

I figured since I have the paperback for “The Senthien” and “The Mind”, I might as well do one for my tech-thriller stand-alone novel “Swift Escape”. And for this episode I invited someone very special: Sam Swift, a main male protagonist of “Swift Escape”.

I hope you enjoy it 🙂

“The Senthien”: A story that starts with the lie

Today, I am playing a scene from Chapter 5 where readers find out that a premise of the story – is a lie. So if you haven’t read “The Senthien” yet (and want to), and you like twists and surprises, please skip this Vlog post 😉

For all others, I like this scene a lot, firstly because this is also the moment when my protagonist, Dora Dana Dasnan, finds out the truth as well (and I like how she reacts ;-)), and secondly, here you can really enjoy the narration. Voice acted by Corinne Davies, the story becomes alive: the different colors of her voice, variety of accents she can do, and distinct personalities she is able to act is simply amazing.

For me, having Corinne narrate my stories, is a real treat 🙂

I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.