This week Author Dawn Husted joins us to talk about her writing journey, how she decided on to independently publish her novel, and a few challenges she faces as an indie author. We also delve into some memorable reading experiences, important writerly reads, Kaisha’s impulse buys, Dawn’s process for naming her books, and that experience we have all had with pronouncing a word we’ve only ever read before.

Sorry for the delay in posting this episode. Kelsey had some technical issues!!

Welcome to Read.Write.Repeat.

This month we will be giving away a lovely book box put together by the amazing author, Dawn Husted.To enter, simply interact with us on social media or leave us a review! We explain more about how the giveaway works toward the end of the show notes.

Listeners weigh in:

• What are those words you have been pronouncing in your head completely wrong?

Let us know in the comments section below, or by tagging us on social media! Your response might be featured in an upcoming show and you will be entered into our monthly giveaway!

Dawn’s Writing Journey:

• Her background and what drew her into writing.
• Her publishing journey and what led her to indie publishing.
• The challenges for indie authors and some tips on dealing with those.
• Her most memorable reading experience.

The book or short story Dawn recommends every writer read:

• The New World by Patrick Ness.
  • I haven’t read many short-stories, which is crazy and I need to read more of them. One of the short-stories that impacted my own short-story was The New World by Patrick Ness. I first read it years ago, and because of that story, I read his follow-up novel: A Knife of Never Letting Go. When I began writing my own short-story in June, I remembered his short-story and decided to read it again. Knowing that I thoroughly enjoyed it as a reader, I wanted to figure out why. This time, I studied the format/writing from a writerly perspective and found it so much more amazing. It’s perma-free on Amazon.
• Best writing tools–
  • The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.
    • The book that I recommend every writer buy is The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. This book is a life-saver when I write. It is filled with TONS of emotional cues/responses to write characters with. I have a difficult time describing emotions through body-language, this is my “Bible” of books for the subject.

Dawn’s Current Project:

• Short-story prequel for my novel. The prequel is called Touch of Darkness.
  • Published August 16th, 2017
    • Currently available on Amazon, Nook, and Wattpad. FREE!
    • A short story prequel to Scythe of Darkness.Wanting to leave his supernatural family behind, seventeen-year-old Thanatos runs away. Against his better judgment, he befriends an ordinary girl. But it won’t be long until the darkness he’s hiding from comes calling—he can’t hide forever.

      ***************
      Whether you’re new to Scythe of Darkness or an established YA fan, this prequel serves as a riveting introduction to the grim reaper novel that “hooks readers until the very end.”

• What inspired it?
  • I hadn’t planned on writing a prequel, or a sequel. But a few readers got in touch with me, reviewers and winners of ARCs. They really liked my book, and asked about a sequel. That got my wheels turning and I said yes. But as an indie, I have to also think about marketing/promoting techniques. I listen to a lot of podcast on the subject. Very quickly, I decided there needed to be a prequel that I could publish permanently free on Amazon in order to draw in readers for the series. Not every reader will go forward to buy my novel, but the hope is that many will. HOWEVER, the prequel needed to be well-written and well-edited for it to be impactful.
  • I volunteered weekly this summer, helping at a TEENS Publishing course. The leader of this course is an author whose written dozens of books, some self-published, some traditionally published. I knew that I could learn a lot from her, while also assisting. I outlined the idea for my short-story as I sat in one of the classes, revised it a couple of times over the next two weeks, and then hired an editor.
• What were some of the challenges in writing it?
  • There were two main challenges:
    • The need to reveal a lot about the main character’s gift/curse, but also not to reveal too much. I didn’t want to give away any secrets that the reader discovers in the novel. Instead, I wanted to expose a healthy inner-glimpse, one that the reader doesn’t see in the novel. This was hard, requiring input from other readers/writers to make sure I toed the line carefully.
    • I decided to switch back and forth from present-to-past tense, much like Ness did with his short-story. This was harder than I expected, and I’m still re-reading it to make sure everything is written clearly, so that the reader isn’t confused.

Don’t miss listening to this episode. Dawn reads an excerpt from Touch of Darkness!

Read more about Dawn and find more information on her novels in her bio.

Check out her answers to our Proust-ish Questionnaire coming Tuesday, 10/17/17!

Connect and Win!!

• Don’t forget to enter our giveaway for October. This month we will be giving away a lovely book box put together by the amazing author, Dawn Husted! To enter simply interact with us on any of our social media platforms. A winner will be drawn at random on November first.
• You can find other Giveaways on the giveaways tab and in the Give us a Shout tab on our website. Be sure to check those out. We ship worldwide, so don’t hesitate to enter our giveaway.
• If anything sparked an idea for you, or you have thoughts or ideas about what we should discuss next. Let us know. Fill out our survey for a chance to win cool prizes!

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Thanks for listening to Read.Write.Repeat! Talk with you next time!

You can read more about Dawn here!