Editing issues

Due to many issues with editing, "The Evil Queen" will be published tomorrow, or Tuesday at the latest! Thanks for the patience!

On Rick!

Of course, if you read my post yesterday, you'd realize that Rick is not indeed not a person, but my wonderful laptop! Anyway, due to the fact that he has better capabilities than my home computer, I have finally started on my book trailers! Fun! I am currently editing tracks for background music, though I think I may do an original piano composition, sans editing, for "Zenith"...not sure yet. But it will certainly be an adventure!

What a day!

Salutations! Today was quite busy - getting back in tough with friends and the like. Good times...Anywho, I have had my highest sale day ever (granted, all sales were free, but I still call that a success). Remember, both "Zenith" and "Love Fades" are free until 12:00pm EST.

And even if you miss he deadline, it's no big deal! "Zenith" is regularly $2.99, and "Love Fades" is $.99!

Enjoy, lovies~

Big news for "Zenith"

Tomorrow, my first short story goes on a one-day-only promotional deal! That's write, "Zenith" will be available for FREE!!!

Summary: Nova has spent her entire life stuck in a game of reaching; reaching for Deidre, the singular bright spot in a seemingly endless tunnel of darkness. Her love for Deidre is unwavering. It appears as though Deidre's web of enchantment has forever entrapped Nova, leaving no escape. 

However, as they venture further into their senior year of high school, a mix of harsh violence and pure romance tangle the already messed up web of their lives, leaving the two hanging in a very delicate balance. 

Heartwrenchingly real and breathtakingly beautiful, this tragic love story told through Nova's eyes helps to prove that happy endings - the zenith of life - do exist within the realm of possibilities.

It's a nice (try totally and completely tragic) love (see unrequited) story, involving two girls (les-be-honest). Seriously though, you should check it out. There's nothing to loose, after all!

Lastly, don't forget to maybe drop a rating and/or review! Authors love feedback, after all, so that they may learn what their audience likes!

Tomorrow is also the last day to get "Love Fades" for free. If you like quick reads, and something that will "shift your paradigm", then this is something for you!

Link for "Zenith": http://www.amazon.com/Zenith-E-J-Nottingwood-ebook/dp/B00LKV83ES/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1407457494&sr=8-3&keywords=e.j.+nottingwood

Link for "Love Fades": http://www.amazon.com/Love-Fades-E-J-Nottingwood-ebook/dp/B00M5G9T4K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407457494&sr=8-1&keywords=e.j.+nottingwood

Rick returns!

Tomorrow, my darling Rick will be returned to me! ^u^

And who is Rick, you may ask? That would be my actual laptop, that isn't totally and completely...Dell. The only bad thing about Rick is that he has no place to put disks. Yeah, he's a Macbook Air.

Anyway, it will be amazing to have him back to me, because I find it easier to write on him, as opposed to my home computer. Also he's faster. So he'll be able to load the anime I'm currently watching MUCH MORE QUICKLY!

Yay that!

How do I get my ideas?

I have this process, and it's very weird. You see, I am a huge fan of Disney, Pixar, and the like. So, one day, I wrote down every character from every movie's names, and entered them in this randomized pairing thing. 

Bam boom bam, I have about 100 random pairs. 

So I go through each of the pairings, and come up with some wacky way for the two characters to meet and whatnot. Then using that, I throw in my own characters, and bam boom bam, we have ourselves a wacky story.

Cats

Salutations, humans! Today, due to the fact I have nothing really to say, I shall introduce you to my cats! How exciting!

First, we have (from top down) Loki, Grell, and Sunflower.
- Loki was named for the Marvel villain/Norse God, Loki. Though...she is a girl.
- Grell was named for the androgynous Grim Reaper from "Kuroshitsuji" or "Black Butler".
- Sunflower was named as such, because Ivan Bragginski (Russia from "Hetalia") I found a little strange for a female cat.

This itty bitty sweetie, Alex.

- Alex is named for Alex from "A Clockwork Orange". But he's actually really sweet!

This little menace, Widget.

- Named, of course, for one of the red-headed twins from "The Night Circus".

This dorky albino, Gilbert.

- Named for Prussia, from Hetalia.

Adorable, though the antisocial Titan.

- Named for one of three things.

     1.) "Attack on Titan"

     2.) "Remember the Titans"

     3.) "Sym Bionic Titan"

This little calico, Hazel Grace.

- Named, of course, for Hazel Grace from (the absolutely incredibly amazing) John Green's novel, "The Fault in Our Stars".

This cutie, who has yet to loose his baby fur: Rabbit.

- I don't know why I named him this. I guess I find humor in naming animals after animals that are not the same species.

This bipolar boy with a girl's name, Poppet.

- Named for the other red-headed twin from "The Night Circus". Of course he's a boy...so...

Yep. So those are my crazy and fun cats! Enjoy the adorableness!

Wow!

Wow! In the last three days alone, "Love Fades" has been downloaded 65 times! I call that a success my friends!

Remember, "Love Fades" is currently available for free on Amazon to download on your various reading devices! Enjoy~

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Fades-E-J-...

Upcoming Projects for August 2014

Salutations everyone~ Exactly one month has passed since the publication of my first novella "Zenith". Time flies, doesn't it?!

I am slowly finding my feet, in this crazy world of book writing and publishing, and I think I am finally finding my place in the wonderful world of short stories. So yay there!

Here is the (tentative) schedule for August publications and such, coming from me:

* "Zenith" will be on a ONE DAY ONLY free promo, August 8th. Enjoy a bit of lesbian romance, and don't forget to drop a little rating~

* "The Evil Queen" will be published on August 10th. If you are a fan of lesbian romances, with a magical and historical twist, this is definitely for you.

* "Akihiko" will hopefully be published sometime between August 15th and August 20th - I still have quite a bit of editing to do on that one. Pirates, princes in disguise, and gay romance on the high seas - what more can a person want?!

* Lastly, the sequel to "The Mountain" in the "Winter Nights" trilogy will go active on August 30th, if not a little sooner (it just depends on time available to me, as always). "Hot Springs" takes the kind of hinting at romance in "The Mountain" and throws it into a rather steamy situation, if you know what I mean.

* Another side note - the day that "Hot Springs" is released, "The Mountain" will be on a free promo. Enjoy~

I believe that is all. Some fun works to look forward to indeed!

"Love Fades" - FREE PROMO

BIG news everyone! My short story, "Love Fades" will be on a FREE PROMO on Amazon, August 4th through the 8th! That's right, FREE! Because who doesn't love free stuff?!

The reason for me doing this, someone may ask? Well, it's not actually for promotional reasons, at least in my mind. "Love Fades" carries important messages within it, and I believe that everyone should have a chance to read it.

If you're not sure whether this story is for you, that is understandable (as I have literally said nothing about the actual content of said story). So therefore, here are the basics:

Summary: A bruise appears on Sam's neck - a bruise that prompts questions to be asked and causes paradigms to shift. Somehow, a bruise has appeared on Sam's neck, with only one possible culprit. But it couldn't be her...right? This short story breaks the rules by reversing a situation we all know, delving into the depths of a relationship gone wrong - and into secrets not spoken. 

Word count: 6,000-ish

Warnings: Domestic violence/abuse

After letting my friend read this (the cheap dude refused to pay when he knew he could convince me to give it to him for free), he asked me what inspired me to write this. 

Well...actually his exact phrasing was, "What put this into your mind, you crazy hipster?"

My response was simple. You see, I had been watching the famed television show "What Would You Do?" and one of the scenarios showed a man being verbally and physically attacked by his girlfriend. I was shocked, naturally, because when you think of people being abused, you usually think of women and children. However, upon looking more into it, men actually make up 40% of the abused population of the world.

That's right. 40%. A rather large number, definitely one that should not be ignored.

Interested in the concept and it's reception from the general public, I looked into various media types, trying to see if abuse against men was ever brought up or "used" as a device. 

What did I come up with? Siding from a few memoirs, there were no books about grown men being abused by their partners, female or otherwise. There were a few manga, but only the yaoi ones took the subject seriously. Movies and television shows? Nothing besides that episode of "What Would You Do?".

What made it all worse, was the fact that if there was abuse against a man from a woman, it was played for laughs or comic relief, or was just some sort of feminist statement. 

(Now I have nothing against feminism, as I am probably considered a feminist. However, being as such does not give me or any female the right to hurt our partners, the same going for men.)

Anyway, upon discovering the absolute lack of anything pertaining to the subject of "abuse against men", I wrote "Love Fades".

I hope you will check this book out, and tell your friends! That 40% has as much right as the other 60% to have their voices heard.

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Fades-E-J-...

30 reasons I hate (and love) my writing

As an author, I believe I handle people critiquing my writing very well. You see, all of the stuff that is critiqued is usually 1: Supposed to be that way, or 2: Absolutely and completely true stuff that I agree with. 

So below, I shall list all the things that annoy me about my own writing. This will be fun. 

1.) Love for anti-heroes
2.) Love for villains
3.) More love for villains and anti-heroes than protagonists
4.) REDEMPTION 
5.) Melodrama
6.) Stupid puns
7.) Dreadful insults
8.) Pointless analogies 
9.) Dorky humor
10.) "Suddenly"
11.) Focusing way too much on facial expressions
12.) Focusing way too much on eyes
13.) Inability to write a heterosexual couple
14.) Angstity-angst-angst
15.) Dialogue sounding like it's from a manga/anime
16.) Overuse of Japanese names
17.) Abuse
18.) Abusive love (yeaaaah)
19.) Waaaay too much focus on tongues
20.) Mixing up "then" and "than"
21.) Mixing up "accept" and "except"
22.) Long business conversations
23.) Over emotional
24.) Too much crying
25.) Corny lines meant to sound cool
26.) Characters being mute
27.) "Everyman" protagonists
28.) Most chicks are bad-asses
29.) Sexy supernaturals
30.) Everything seems to have been influenced by stupid manga or fanfiction that I have read. Flipping wonderful. 

So there you go. Thirty reasons why I love to hate my own writing. But...if you enjoy any of that stuff, definitely feel free to check out some of the stuff I've written! You'll enjoy it.

Awesome site: iAuthor

Dear fellow authors and readers,

I don't know if any of you have heard of this site called iAuthor, but it is this incredible place, where you can advertise your books and discover new books through these things called themes!

Anyway, it's actually pretty cool. I discovered lots of cool books that way, in addition to advertising my own books.

So...I'm just spreading the word about this amazing website! You should check it out.

Here: I'll drop you a link: http://www.iauthor.uk.com/

Musings about a horse named "goat"

I don't know what I was thinking when I named the horse from "Winter Nights" Gavlebocken. I think I was going for something funny? 

Because in Sweden, there's this giant sculpture thing called the "Gavle Goat" which is apparently modeled after the traditional Swedish Yule Goat. In Swedish, it is referred to as "Gavlebocken".

But as I said above, I named a HORSE Gavlebocken. I basically named a HORSE "GOAT". I must have been on some weird sort of drug when I thought that THAT was a good idea.

Salutations

Salutations all! My name is Elaine Jay Nottingwood, though everyone calls me E.J. I am a published author, with my stories available for purchase on Amazon.

I love short stories, and stories involving LGBT themes - both of which I write. I, of course, venture into other genres, namely fantasy and historical.

Other things you may or may not want to know about me:

1.) I read. A lot. Sometimes hard literature, sometimes manga, sometimes fan fiction.

2.) I don't know what my sexual orientation is, because I usually spend my time doing #1, and not...experimenting.

3.) I play the piano, and have for many, many years.

4.) I know I said that I read manga already, but what I should really say is that I am obsessed with manga. There.

5.) I currently have two dogs (both very loud beagles) and 10 cats. Yes. Ten.

6.) I am a fangirl at heart, so if any of you would like to have a spirited debate about Harry Potter, or SuperWhoLock, or The Avengers, or Hetalia, or anything that could be considered geeky, know that I am on board.

7.) Speaking of board, I occasionally skateboard. And I named my board "Mongoose" after the name written on the bottom.

8.) I mentioned fan fiction as well...I used to write some, before I literally had no time ever to write that, and instead began writing original works. However, if you have written anything that you are super proud of in any of the fandoms mentioned in fact #6, feel free to tell me about it. I might just read it (especially if the main character is either Snape or Loki).

9.) I work in a library, by the way. A public library. If you want to hear some...interesting stories, just ask.

10.) Lastly, I am a very easy person to talk to. If you ever need to chat, either to rant about whatever happened in the latest episode of "Once Upon a Time" or "Welcome to Nightvale", I will be here for you. If you want to tell me a funny story, or me to tell you a funny story, I will be here for you. If you are feeling super sad, I will be here for you.

I hope you all enjoy my wacky musings - remember to have fun!