Recap of The Light of Supremazia Kindle Scout Campaign

I may not have won Kindle Scout, but I learned a heck of a lot about blogging and marketing.  This blog post is recapping my 30 day campaign:

Launch on #KindleScout and a #CoverReveal

Using Real People as #Fictional #Characters – #ArtisticLicense and #TBT

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The Proper #Setting for a #MagicalRealism #Book

Vita

Made Up Words, the #Language of a #Fiction #Novel

Visumary and Ableptic Definitions

Who would you want as your #art #teacher?

Art Teacher

#MondayBlog – Mapping Out Your Novel’s #Fantasy #World

Map of Vita Post Mortem Academy

#BookTrailer #BookMarketing and #KindleScout

My #cat Baby Thor is #marketing my #book

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What Influences Your #Setting Descriptions?

The Dreadfort

Write in Your Own Voice

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Technology in Literature

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#BookMarketing for my #KindleScout Campaign

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3 Qualities of a Great #English #Teacher

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Ensuring the Proper Sequence of Events for Your #Book

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Managing Your Social Media Presence – #twitter #facebook #youtube #pinterest #wordpress #tumblr

Merciless Necropolis

A Cast of #Actors for Your #Book

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#BookMarketing and #TagsForLikes.com and #Einstein

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New York, the City I Love

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That Time I Elbowed Jimmy Fallon

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GhostFeed and Wikispirit

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Wikispirits

My Kindle Scout Experience

Introducing The Light of Supremazia on Amazon

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE LIGHT OF SUPREMAZIA!

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Who would you want as your #art #teacher?

Character Traits

Picking traits for the characters in your novel can be difficult.  Is the person argumentative and always causing a scene? Is your character reserved and likes to hide in the back of a pack?  Is the person loud and dramatic?  Are they optimistic and happy?

Back Story

As an author, you need to consider why the character acts the way they do.  Are they competitive?  Have they lived in the shadow of an older, more impressive brother?  Are they happy because they work at the job of their dreams?  Are they lonely in a new town?

Teachers at Vita Post Mortem Academy

While I was writing my latest novel, The Light of Supremazia, I had to pick famous deceased people to teach at Vita Post Mortem Academy as spirits.  The characters had to stand out on their own, but also make sense as part of the school’s faculty.

Who would you pick as an art teacher?

Art Teacher

Please vote for The Light of Supremazia on Kindle Scout!

Twitter-Size Bites

Who would you want as your art teacher? Author @alanasiegel has a view on #character traits in #fiction (Click to tweet)

How do you decide on #character traits? Writer @alanasiegel tells you her method (Click to tweet)

Modern Day Books Need Add Ons

As I prepare to launch my next book series, I keep thinking about additional ways to enjoy the story. How many times have you read the details by J.K. Rowling about characters she didn’t mention at the end of the series? Or get excited because they brought the characters of Vampire Diaries to life in a tv series? Or sing along to a song from the Hunger Games movie on the radio?

Like a bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans or your very own Mocking Jay pin, I hope you enjoy Jules’s Vita Post Mortem Academy Class schedule!

Vita Post Mortem Acadedmy Class Schedule

The Light of Supremazia, book #1 in the (after)life lessons young adult, fantasy book series!

Check out the pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/alanasiegel/afterlife-lessons/

Check out the book trailer: https://youtu.be/ZfKnXA8oJBE

#Salvador #Dali ‘s View of #Purgatory Reinterpreted as #Food

I’m a firm believer that resolutions should not be a once a year decision. That being said, I am declaring my latest resolution to update this blog one of many resolutions I will make in 2015.

To begin my blog updates, I’m making the posts more “Alana-like” and adding structure. Each post will include something that has inspired me and an update on my writing.

A SPANISH ARTIST AS MY MUSE

Last night, my husband and I went to a New Year’s Eve dinner at Coqueta in downtown San Francisco. The chef (@chefchiarello) used four Spanish artists (Miro, Dali, Picasso, and Gaudi) as his inspiration and the theme for the night.

Two particular dishes stood out to me. One was an ironic, yet delicious, interpretation of Miro’s Still Life with Old Shoe oil painting. Picture below includes the painting and a server passing out chicken croquette’s from an old shoe.

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The second was an translation of a quote by quirky Salvador Dali (the Spanish chef emphasized the accent on the “i”). In Dali’s opinion, purgatory included eating sea urchin and ham. The chef brought the vision to life with dry ice, and I’ll admit, purgatory was tasty. Check out my video on instagram: http://instagram.com/p/xTWnczEOuJ/?modal=true.

(AFTER)LIFE LESSONS

I consider myself superstitious (can’t fight the jinx theory!), and I thought it was a nod from the universe that Dali was one of the artists honored at last night’s dinner. Dali is a teacher at Vita Post Mortem Academy in my next young adult, fantasy series about a girl who goes to school taught by spirits. Dali’s character is bizarre and eccentric. His classroom is a collection of clocks stopped at exactly 4:17, the time he died. As a school assignment, he asks the students to decorate their own urn while he has colorful conversations with his old friend / foe Picasso.

I have been brainstorming ideas for a book trailer as well. It would include creepy scenes driving through dark woods, doors creaking, and curtains blowing ominously. I was hoping my cousin Jane would record an unplugged version of Eminem and Rihanna’s song, “The Monster,” and my cousin Melanie would narrate. Fingers crossed they are on board.

I’m friends with the monster that’s under my bed

Get along with the voices inside of my head

You’re trying to save me, stop holding your breath

And you think I’m crazy, yeah, you think I’m crazy

Other than that, I’m still pinning a few pictures to the Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/alanasiegel/afterlife-lessons/

And my editor is reading through my draft. I’m hoping to publish the book in the Spring!