Writing With A Soundtrack

by S.A. Hoag

I generally write while listening to music. It relaxes me, gets a rhythm going, and the words flow. If I'm writing an action scene, I've got Metallica, The Scorpions, AC/DC, Iron Maiden . . . You get the idea. For general writing, there's always the stand-bys of Rush and Journey.

I'm fairly eclectic when it comes to music. My MP3 player has Hugo Montenegro and David Garrett, AC/DC to ZZ Top and lots of 80's music in between. Music has always been my muse. There are a couple Easter Eggs in 'The Vista' that are song references. I snicker and don't really expect anyone else will notice them. That's all right too.

Why music? Why not! Every culture has a love of music; it transcends language barriers. For me, it pulls out emotions and words and lets me put them into thoughts that turn into stories. Sometime I keep them, sometimes I don't. When I'm doing a later edit, I pick out a soundtrack for the particular book. Love songs when the scene is there. Instrumentals for other parts, loud guitars for fights and conflicts. 'I'll Follow You' by Shinedown was on repeat for quite a time when I edited the ending of book 1.

Pick something that fits and go with it. I'm not trying to advertise any particular music, just music. Many of you are way ahead of me on the publishing side and probably already knew this. Another thing that helps? Find new music. I'd never heard Shinedown but that song stuck, that was the one I needed for the scene.

Close your eyes and just listen.

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  Blurb - The Vista by S. A. Hoag

Team Three has a secret, one they think they've kept from all but a select few colleagues. They couldn't be more wrong.

Allen, MacKenzie and Wade are Vista Security's top officers, part of the first generation post-World War 3. They've trained all their lives to survive and thrive in a cold, hostile world. Their secret - they believe they are genetically enhanced and are unquestionably connected psychically. Hidden away in an enclave in the Rocky Mountains, they're also at the forefront of the movement to see what's left of the outside world. Not everyone in The Vista is as eager to venture forth.

As they attempt to learn the truth, their mere presence makes them targets of a vicious renegade with the means to destroy everything they know. Facing exile or worse, Team Three has short time to figure out who is enemy, who is friend and how to save their home and themselves.

The Vista: Book 1 of The Wildblood series takes place in the near-future where the Earth has been nearly emptied of human beings by a short and devastating world war. Venturing beyond the safety of their valley may be the best move Security has ever made; it's absolutely the most dangerous.

 

On sale now: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W6R8WNM

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S. A. Hoag is an author, lapidary artist, very amateur astronomer ("I just look at the stars, I can't name 'em."), and accidental desert-dweller. Born in the middle of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, more specifically Salida, she has lived in a number of cities in a number of states before crash-landing in the New Mexico desert. Not Roswell, however. Science Fiction has always been her first interest in reading and writing; many other genres sneak into the novels and that's alright with her.

Where to find her -

S. A. Hoag, Author Website: http://www.topaz08.com

Blogging It All: https://topaz08.wordpress.com/

 

Sheila's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/topaz08

 

And her Twitter: https://twitter.com/HoagSheila

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this guest post are solely that of the author and not that of the SFR Brigade.

Getting A Custom Book Cover

by S.A. Hoag

With my first novel getting close to being online, I had to figure out a few things - the cover being an important issue. Having scrolled through hundreds of books in the same genre I noticed a lot of stock covers in use and knew I didn't want that. A fabulous internet friend (hi EJ!) who happens to be a couple books ahead of me on the internet learning curve has offer invaluable advice. She said a custom cover was the way to go.

 

After a bit of research I connected with an artist, Joe Kawano. We emailed, we did some PMs, and things got moving. This is the very first sketch.

 

Joe made sure to explain how the process progresses and that this was a mock-up for him to work from. The finished cover would look pretty much nothing like this.

 

Stage Two!

After some personal glitches on both ends and getting through the holidays, we got around to some more PMs and polishing the details.

This Monday, I received an email from Joe with this picture attached. He is taunting me!

So very close. In the meantime I've been lining up the other things I need to get this project finished. If I have any advice to offer as a first-time novelist or to anyone new to publishing online, I'd say do your research. Find out what's involved. Get ahead of yourself. Do the 'impossible'. I should have gotten to some of the details sooner, but I didn't know. You can learn something new every day.

'The Vista' is almost a reality now. While I've been concentrating on this, I've also got the rough draft of a prequel about half finished. It will be a novella and promises a few surprises. So, let me introduce you to the world of 'The Vista'.

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BLURB

Team Three has a secret, one they think they've kept from all but a select few colleagues. They couldn't be more wrong.

Allen, MacKenzie and Wade are Vista Security's top officers, part of the first generation post-WW3. Their secret - they are genetically enhanced and psychically connected. Hidden away in an enclave in the Rocky Mountains, they're also at the forefront of the movement to see what's left of the outside world.

As they attempt to learn the truth, their presence makes them targets of a vicious renegade with the means to destroy everything they know. Facing exile or worse, Team Three has short time to figure out who is enemy, who is friend and how to save their home and themselves.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Excerpt from 'The Vista'

A storm moved in after nightfall, the rain almost ice as it fell from a black sky. No thunder, sparse lightning and that was the worst part of it – the broken, eerie silence between downpours. Shannon didn’t like being in the city for any reason. Twice a week, four months a year she was anyway. It was her job. They might say ghosts weren’t real, but most of ‘them’ had never spent a night in the long dead place. Sometime after midnight, she gave in and headed for home.

Crossing the Continental Divide, the rain turned to snow, huge white flakes splattering on the windshield and not melting. The road was mostly clear. Static on Shannon’s radio was thick, but moments later, she understood two words. Code Seven. Active aggressive incident outside the outer perimeter, but active aggressive still. She kicked it into overdrive and came down the mountain full tilt, pushing the car and pushing her luck on a road known to devour Scouts.

Then the outer marker merely went ‘blip’ as she passed it. If there was an alert, proximity warnings would have gone off all over Security. Alarms should be sounding in Dispatch and her car. She stared at the radio for a moment, realizing what she had stumbled in to.

Wargames. The call-out wasn’t real.

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BIO

I knew before I got to high school that I wanted to write books. I did, too, dozens of short stories I thought someday I’d turn into novels. Oh, how I wish I had those spiral notebooks full of wild ideas and teenage musings.

I still have the ideas of many of those stories – some of them make me cringe. A few will become something more as I add books to my list of those that are published.

For now, I live in the desert and many nights, in between writing and sleep, you can find me out watching the stars. It’s dark, out here in the desert and I can see so many stars that weren’t there before. I make time to write now. The tiny seeds of stories demand that I write them down.

I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy creating them.