It's Been Some Time But There's A New Me!

I know, I know! It's been over two months since the last time I posted anything but that's going to change because I have finally found a schedule that works for me. In the time that I have been away I completed my first children's chapter book, Madison Avenue and I created a new website that you can check out at SElleCameron.com.

From now on, I will try to blog at least once a week and I am going to become more active via my social media pages. For those who know me personally, they know this is my biggest challenge because I hate social media. I know this sounds insane for a 24 year old who is also a public figure to state but I really do. I'm not good at socializing in real life and the same goes for cyber socializing. Sorry, but I was never the "cool" kid so I'm a but stumped at this part but I am going to make more of an effort.

I have so many ideas for 2016 and the rest of the future that I'm extremely motivated to stay on top of my blogging and sharing. In fact, I plan to start a new blog entitled Wanderlust via my website that will chronicle all of my travels as I write a book of the same title that will feature personal journal entries, poems, short stories, and anything else I feel inspired to write about. It's a book that will aim at nothing yet go everywhere, hence the name Wanderlust.

The blog will feature videos (I'm going to get over my fear of video blogging), photos, and excerpts from my personal travels around the world and USA. Traveling is big for me and I hope to start the blog as soon as next month while on my cruise from Miami to Mexico with my favorite band Paramore. Now that's something to share!

So, remember to keep checking for me throughout 2016. I'm hoping to become more transparent as a public figure and reach people I never thought I could. Keep scrolling, clicking, and sharing!

Much love,

S. Elle Cameron

 

Turn It Off Release Date!

Turn It Off, the third installment to the RED Tragedies series will be released on December 13, 2015. The novel acts as a prequel to the first 2 novels, A Tragic Heart & RED. Turn It Off is told solely from Peyton's POV and gives readers insight into his life before Taylor and A Tragic Heart. 

Much like the first two novels there is plenty of drama and heartache. Peyton didn't have it easy and Turn It Off goes into full detail of that. It will also give you answers to some questions raised by the first novel, A Tragic Heart. 

For now, you can check out the book cover and the intro and first chapter on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1MPBM6F 

A Letter To Readers

This is something that I talk about often with my boyfriend and pretty much anyone who gets on the subject with me. It's about readers and reviews. For authors, leaving a review is crucial. It's almost like the biggest deal ever for us. We rely on customer reviews to help us sell books and get our name out there. Reviews are awesome but they can also be very cruel.

I noticed on Goodreads and Amazon that people leave an alarming number of one star reviews for novels. The funny thing about it is those books average a four to five star rating from most readers but a surprising number always gives one star. Now, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if by any means you believe the book deserves one star then rate it; however, think about the context you're rating around.

I find it troubling when I see a book that has an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars receive a 1 star rating based on a small subject within the book. For example, I've seen someone give a certain book a 1 star rating on Goodreads because she claimed a character slut-shamed another. Even if this is so, I feel it's unfair (and brutal) to slam an entire book and label it misogynistic over one character.

When writers create a story they make their characters both likeable and dislikeable. It's realistic. Also, another thing to keep in mind, just because a writer writes something, doesn't mean they feel that way personally. We make up things we would never say or do all the time. Not all characters are meant to be likeable so if you become frustrated or angry, it's a sign the author did their job right.

Things to think about when reviewing a book are:

1. Was it well written?
2. Was the story interesting or not?
3. Did the story flow well?
4. Were the characters believable? (Regardless if you liked them or not)
5. Did the book make you feel any set of emotions?

It's okay to write in a review that you hated a character and wanted them to die (trust me we all feel that way) but if that's how the author wanted you to feel then they did their job well. I've seen people give a book 1 or 2 stars because a situation made them angry. It's a situation that would make anyone who's human angry, therefore if you felt anger while reading it, that author got their point across. It's almost like giving the movie P.S. I Love You a bad review because it made you cry at the end. That's the point of the movie...it's a tearjerker!

Now, thankfully this hasn't happened to me yet (knock on wood) but I'm sure it will sometime in the future. So, readers before you review any work by any author keep the questions above in the back of your mind. Does a book really deserve a bad review because it made you cry or angry? Does it deserve a bad review because a character frustrated you with their choices?

It's okay if a book wasn't for you (and it's more than okay to put that in a review) but don't try and discourage other people from buying/reading that book. Everyone likes something different. It's cruel to an author if a reader rates their work 1 star over something that didn't represent the plot of the book overall. There's a lot of time, editing, and frustration that goes into place when writing a book. On top of that, there's a mixture of fear and excitement to release the book to the public. People are going to tear us apart regardless but think before you become one of those people. If you feel the book wasn't well written, the story sucked, it didn't flow, the characters weren't believable or realistic, and you felt nothing at all while reading it, then by all means give it 1 star and maybe even give the author a few tips for his/her next book; but if all of these factors were pretty much there and you didn't like one character or one situation, then be a little more considerate. Readers, we depend on you.

S. Elle Cameron

A Tragic Heart's First Anniversary! (Let's Celebrate!)

Wow! Time really flew by fast! On September 27th, my debut novel, A Tragic Heart will celebrate it's first birthday. I wanted to do something special for my baby's first year so I decided to discount the price of the novel for 48 hours. That's right! Starting September 26th at 12:00 am, A Tragic Heart will only be $2.99 on Kindle. The sale ends on September 28th at 12:00 am. It's a pre-birthday/birthday celebration!

The novel has seen a decent amount of success, moving over 400 units (not bad for an indie author of no primary status) since it's release almost a year ago. More importantly, the novel has been met with critical acclaim by both readers and book reviewers. In fact, I just found out that my novel has been illegally downloaded 815 times this week and it's only Tuesday! While that may not seem like something to be proud of, the fact that the average star rating is 9.4 out of 10 makes me proud. More than anything I'm happy that people actually enjoy something I created during one of the worst times of my life. At the end of the day, it's not all about sales, it's about knowing that I created something people thoroughly enjoy. So, thank you to anyone who bothered to read the novel whether it was illegally or not.

As a lot of you know already, A Tragic Heart is part of a 4 part series entitled RED Tragedies.Basically, there's a lot more to come and I hope you all follow me into the last book and beyond.

Welp! That's all for now. Remember on September 26th starting at 12:00 am, download your copy of A Tragic Heart for only $2.99 on Kindle! Here's the link: A Tragic Heart-Kindle Edition.

In the meantime, A Tragic Heart has also just been released on Kobo for only $4.99! Link here: A Tragic Heart-Kobo

RED Is Gearing Up!!!!!!!!

"Ego. Our ego is who we are. It’s the part of our functioning mind that is stuck between the id and the superego. My ego is who I am. It balances out my subconscious mind bringing me back to reality whenever I fall victim to my id or superego. My ego is nervous. Anxious. Guilty. My ego is red."-RED

 I'm happy to say that RED is going to go through the editing process starting July 1st! The novel is pretty long so it'll take a while to edit but I was told the latest I will have the manuscript back in my possession will be December 1st. This means that RED won't be able to come out in the Fall as I originally planned but it will be available by the Winter of 2015. 

As I mentioned before, the novel may not be as emotional as A Tragic Heart but it does have a lot of twists and turns. The plot is a little riskier and it continues to touch on major issues during teenage years.

SPOILERS! PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ A TRAGIC HEART! SKIP TO NEXT SECTION!

For those of you who read the first novel, A Tragic Heart, you all know that part of the ending resulted in Taylor having Peyton's baby long after he's gone. RED follows the life of Taylor's daughter who is named after her father. Peyton (the daughter) is all grown up (the novel starts when she's 16, just like her mom) and she's being raised by Mason and Adayln (you all should remember them). Peyton has a lot in common with both her mother and father and the novel follows her struggle to grow up without them in her life. She's carefree and loves to take risks but many of her choices can seem less than desirable to others. 

Spoilers Ended! 

 

A lot like A Tragic Heart, RED is told from multiple point of views which means that everyone has a story and everyone has their own drama going on. I believe that it can be hard to tell a complete story from one point of view because realistically there is always more than one side to a story. People constantly make the same mistakes and it usually takes us more than one time to learn from them. RED is all about making mistakes, learning from your past, and moving on with life the best way you could. Sometimes we're ashamed of who we used to be but the important thing is to remember that we are not those people. We are who we think we can be and that's a very important theme in RED.

I'll start revealing character names soon. Maybe a write up on each character until the release of the novel...that sounds tempting enough!

 -S. Elle Cameron