Category: Blood Feud

Posted in Blood Feud, ebook, Emperors of Ethia, fiction, novel

Blood Feud Available as eBook

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

It has been out in print for almost a year, but now Blood Feud finally out in ebook!  You can either get it for your kindle at Amazon or as epub at Smashwords.

This is the first book in the Emperors of Ethia. If you are a science fiction lover or just love books in general, check out the beginning of this epic series that dives into a galaxy ruled by an authoritarian Emperor who’s determined to settle once and for all the successor of his throne, and a son determine to find out more about his true role in the Empire.

Caught in a deadly conspiracy to forge the next Emperor of the Ethian Galaxy, an ancient rite demands blood…

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Posted in Blood Feud, Emperors of Ethia, Other Writing Stuff, The Writer's Toolbox, the writing journey, the writing process, write, writing

My NOT Marketing Plan

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

I know I’m not the only one who can claim to have a very busy life. Everyone is busy these days. No one has time for any extras, and it’s just plan impossible to squeeze in time for things you really, really don’t want to do. I wear many hats as a wife, mom, homeschool teacher, friend, Reiki healer, writer, sometimes employee, and a very sometimes blogger. Lately, I’ve added another job as packer and mover with our family’s relocation to Florida in the next few weeks. I really don’t have time for anything extra, especially for something I don’t want to do and something that’s most assuredly going to add more stress to an already stress-filled life.

If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you know I recently published my first novel last month. Most writers would be marketing their little hearts out and plastering the internet and anything else they can think of to get the word out about their new book! And why shouldn’t they? It was hard work and it’s time to reap the benefits. But I’m not like most people, I already got the “benefit” out of writing my book. I finished a really hard and tough project (well the first book of it anyways) and damn if that didn’t feel freaking awesome! If I actually sell some copies here and there… bonus!

But I did not become a writer to make money, and I do not and will not get to a point where I rely on book sales to supplement my income (that’s what my hard working husband is for–– love you Hun!). If I need money, I’ll find some other way to acquire it. That being said, it would be really, super awesome to at least earn back my investment in self-publishing my book, and I certainly appreciate anyone who has helped and will help to contribute to that goal!

I know there are a lot of hard working writers out there who do rely on writing as an income and my hat is off to them, but partway through my writing “career” I realized that’s not for me. I can’t write that way. I have to be one hundred percent free to be me when it comes to my writing and that means not limiting myself in anyway or stressing myself out over something I don’t want to do. And marketing is something I most certainly do not want to do.

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Posted in Blood Feud, Emperors of Ethia, first publication, novel, publication, published, science fiction, the writing journey, writing

Blood Feud Release: It’s Official!

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

Here it is available for purchase, Blood Feud the first book in the Emperors of Ethia! Can’t believe the day is finally here. If you are a science fiction lover, check out the beginning of this epic series that dives into a galaxy ruled by an authoritarian Emperor who’s determined to settle once and for all the successor of his throne, and a son determine to find out more about his true role in the Empire.

Caught in a deadly conspiracy to forge the next Emperor of the Ethian Galaxy, an ancient rite demands blood…

After twenty-two years being held captive on an Outlander world, the long lost Prince Adar Zahn is finally brought back to his true home, but without any memory of his past. As he searches for the answers about himself and what is expected as the Emperor’s sixth son, Adar discovers how difficult trust is to find and that the truth can be worse than a lie.

On his journey of discovery, he is left with questions about himself, a growing foreboding about his family, and a rising urgency to discover more about a vaguely mentioned Blood Feud. Can he unravel the mystery that surrounds him before it’s too late?

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Posted in Blood Feud, Emperors of Ethia, Michael Knost, novel, publication, published, publishing, the writing journey, writing

Blood Feud Cover Reveal!

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

I’ve been talking about it for awhile off and on, and the day finally arrived when my awesome newly published book showed up on my doorstep. Imagine my excitement as I opened up the box and held my very first published book in my hands! Then I immediately imagined doing the same with all the other books to come (I’m working on two books right now in fact). Finally after years of hard work, I have something very physical to hold in my hands!

I knew this day would be coming. So over the past few months, I made many book release plans and even came up with some release dates, but in the publishing world release dates can be a tricky thing. Ultimately, I opted for short, sweet, and simple by doing a cover reveal post and another post when the book is up on Amazon. Another reason for this simplicity is I have been and still am heavily preoccupied by our family’s upcoming move to Florida.

In fact, I still can’t give a exact release date so people can start buying the book because I am going to Florida very early this coming Tuesday and will be in Florida for ten days looking for our new home! I am in the process of working with Create Space to get it up and available on Amazon, but I’m not sure if it will be done before I go. I’m not taking my laptop on this Florida trip because it’s supposed to be a little bit of a getaway for me too (hitting two birds with one stone, three if you count spending time with my husband who’s already been in Florida the last six weeks working his new job).

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Posted in beginning writer, better writing, Blood Feud, book publishers, Bookerfly Press, editing, Emperors of Ethia, first publication, great writing, how to write, learning to write, lots of writing, Michael Knost, novel, novel writing, publication, publishing, the writing journey, the writing process, writing, writing discipline, writing progress

Taking the Plunge to Self-Publish

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

It has been a long road since I started writing my novel Blood Feud. The journey began in April of 2012. I remember it well — a month of straight writing where the ideas just flowed like water. They pooled onto the page with little effort as months of thinking about my story and characters finally found a permanent place on the page. My story flourished but my poor family suffered from neglect. So at the end of the month and about 50,000 words later, I took a break. A few weeks later I came back to my marvelous work of art to realize everything I had written was total crap. And that pretty much sums up the next four years. Awesome spurts of writing where words flowed and family suffered just to end up with… yep you guessed it, more crap.

That my friends is the way of the writer as I am sure some of you are quite familiar with.

But something happened in my fifth year of writing. During my sixtieth (and really that’s not much of an exaggeration) rewrite of Blood Feud, the crap fell away and a good story finally started to form. At least to the point where I felt confident enough to send my work to a professional author, editor, and friend (Michael Knost) so he could tell me it was crap too. And to my surprise, he said it was a pretty awesome story.

Crap, what do I do now?

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