Monday 16 June 2014

Spotlight - M.S Kaye




Hi everyone,

Today M.S Kaye is dropping by to say hello. This is one of the stops on her ‘Publishing Tip Blog Tour’.

M.S is talking about how to effectively use the Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market Digest.
 

Thanks for having me!

Welcome to my Publishing Tips Blog Tour. I’ve put together ten short, easy tips that have been invaluable on my journey to publication. Follow my tour to see them all. Tour stops will be posted on my website: http://booksbymsk.com/?page_id=428

 


Stop 5: How to Use the Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market

If you don’t know what this book is: published by Writer’s Digest, it’s the go-to guide for agents, publishers, literary journals, contests, online markets, etc. And there are great articles about the writing business. When you’re trying to get your work out there, start here.

However, Writer’s Digest does not endorse the entries, so you have to be careful (see my next blog tour stop about this).

Here’s my method for using this book:

·         Make notes in the margins for the genres they take. Example: YA for young adult, RS for romantic suspense, W for women’s. Or if they don’t take any of my genres, I mark the entry with an X so I know not to waste time looking at this entry again.

·         Note if they do not take email queries. Most do, so I only mark the ones that don’t with “no E.”

·         Mark if they’re recommended or not recommended by PreditorsandEditors.com (more on this site in the next blog tour stop). If I see anything negative about this agent/publisher/magazine online, I mark the entry with an X.

·         When I send a query, I write the book title (or initials of the book title) and the date.

·         When (if) I receive a response, I write that underneath the book title: “5/19/14 partial requested” or “5/19/14 No.”

Now I have all the information about my interactions with this agent/publisher/magazine easily accessible, and it’ll make the submissions process for the next article/story/book much quicker.

Strong as Death

Book one of the Born from Death series

by M.S. Kaye

Ilona runs from her sheltering mother in order to find the truth, why she’s seeing people who are invisible to everyone else. A mysterious boy named Archer guides her through Brooklyn and introduces her to Hendrick, the man who claims to be her father—though he died in 1890. Ilona must discover not only what she must do to rid the city of Soll, a sadistic and powerful spirit, but also what it means to be half ghost. She proves what her mother told her—love is stronger than death.

 
 

Excerpt:

Another twenty yards and she’d be out of the darkness of the trees and almost to the sidewalk, within reach of the light from the streetlamps.

A figure stepped out from behind a large oak, directly into Ilona’s path.

Ilona stopped and searched for a way around.

“What are you doing?” a rough voice growled.

Ilona recognized it immediately, even before she registered Archer’s face.

“It’s none of your business what I’m doing,” she said.

He moved closer. “You’re making it goddamned impossible to protect you.”

“You can’t protect me.”

His jaw tightened, and he glared. “What in the hell do you think I’ve been doing?”

“I’m honestly not sure.”

His voice rose. “You’d be lying frozen dead in a gutter right now if it wasn’t for me. You saw what happened in the shelter—you’d have been attacked by now if I hadn’t been around.”

Her tone was quiet, calm. “I know how you scared them away.”

“I told you I have a talent for creating fear. It comes in useful.”

“But you don’t like it.”

He said nothing.

“And I know you’ve been around,” she said.

He raised his eyebrows as if she was being slow.

“Before you asked me if I was lost,” she said. “You were there—when the car hit me.”

His expression sobered.

She waited for a response.

Finally, he said, “I’ve been around.”

“Will you answer one question? And be honest?”

“I give as much honesty as I can.”

Her lips curved a little. That was perhaps the most honest response he had yet given.

She moved closer, and he backed away.

“No,” she said.

He stopped.

“When you turned the corner and asked if I was lost,” she said, “you leaned your shoulder on the wall. How did you do that?”

His eyebrows pulled together.

“You’re really good at it,” she said. “It took me awhile to realize you never actually touch anything, that you stay out of the light, that you don’t get cold, your breath doesn’t come out in puffs in the cold like everyone else’s, you never let anyone close, near enough to realize you have no scent, to feel the static when you get too close.”

He took a step back, as if in self-defense.

“Don’t try to lie anymore,” she said. “I know what you are.”

 

Buy Links:





 

Author Bio:

M.S. Kaye has several published books under her black belt. A transplant from Ohio, she resides with her husband Corey in Jacksonville, Florida, where she tries not to melt in the sun. Find suspense and the unusual at www.BooksByMSK.com.

Contact M. S. Kaye at:


www.Twitter.com/MSKosciuszko   (Yes, that’s my real last name. See why I use a pen name?)
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7222522.M_S_Kaye



 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

Nicóle xx
 

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