Super Number One Podcast

This is the post from Super Number One that I mentioned a couple of blogs ago. The podcast begins with their announcement of her passing, a song she wrote (that he sings) and a replay of her May interview about Lightning Spliced. 

Check it out! The link for the mp3 podcast is on the bottom of the page!

I have also added a Posthumous Postings category on her links section as  a quicker way to see the most recent dedication postings + her Lightning Sliced Press Release video. I'm sure more links will be added as time goes by! 

Book sales are still rising, little by little! 

Much love to all of the Zellie Fans! Thank you for all you continue to do for her Legacy! 

Two fun announcements!

First announcement: 

Just so you know, because of you and all of your efforts, the American Cancer Society will get its first royalties check from Zellie's book sales.  Since I posted yesterday, the book sales JUMPED! She has now sold 32 print and 11 eBooks.  The check is pending– I will let you know when the first donation has been made! 

Second-

I've been emailing back and forth with one of Zellie's good friends who she called Tramz. He had some happy news to report, too! Here is his message verbatim! (back note- she has been fans of Super Number One [had done some work with them- they do podcasts about things like games, books, music, etc]:

I heard back from the Super Number One Podcast btw. They are going to have a special dedication to Zellie at the beginning of next episode, and Kevin (Rad Bear) let me preview (to see if it was appropriate) a song he wants to play there that both he and Zellie were working on. I don't know if you want to put up a post on either Zellie.info or Facebook once the new episode goes up, but it might be a cool way to let those who wouldn't normally listen to that podcast know that something about Zellie is going to be said there.

It can either be gotten on iTunes or directly from here

i am posting this now so you all can keep going to their page and look for it!! I'll do the same and when I know for sure it's up, I'll post the link as well. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up!!!!

I have also been reading your comments. Thank you to everyone who has ordered a book and who have promoted it! 

In other news, I was informed that Absolutewrite.com put Zellie's post in a remembrance section and her fans have been writing condolence notes here:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5314165#post5314165

The timestamps on the Zellie posts confuse me a lot, but anyway, this was one of the forums that Zellie worked on posting about LS right before she died. The times are wrong though, because she had already passed by then…

Anyway, keep your comments/suggestions for marketing coming! I like the idea about the cards, as someone suggested (Orin I think?).

Hugs to everyone

Lightning Spliced- copies are selling!!!

Hi everyone. It's shorter Jen/Madeline again. I wanted to write to inform you some happy news in the midst of all of this sadness. 

1) I wrote to JC Hutchins who kindly emailed me back. Not only did he have wonderful things to say about our beloved Zellie. He also blogged about her. He promoted her book. Savannah Writing Group Friends- you know her and her love for JC Hutchins and her love for writing more than anybody else. I hope you enjoy this post by him! I hope EVERYONE enjoys this post. 

Click here

2) I logged into her LuLu page to see how things were going. So far she has 5 eBook orders and 22 paperback copies sold! No! Wait! I just checked again- 23 books sold now! 

We still have a lot of work to do to double, maybe triple this number. Zellie ordered 20 copies when it was first published (this is not counted in the 28 sold), and once those arrive, we can 'approve' it so it can be sold on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. With enough pestering, we could get it into brick and mortar stores. You will all be posted on the book's progress.

In other news, just to update you, Zellie's body will be cremated and her ashes will be spread somewhere beautiful since she liked to travel. A bunch of us Zellie fans will be planning her memorial. The date for that is TBD. You will be updated.

I am sorry I am not as good a writer/blogger as Zellie. But please know I have every tiny ounce of her interest in my heart and I am doing everything i can to keep her dreams alive. 

So many people have stepped up- many of you are responsible for these book sales. You have made her smile, laugh and continue to dream. You have given her good memories. You have supported her during her worst time. She appreciated all of you, and as her JenTwin, I appreciate all of you too.

Lightning Spliced Official Press Release

Hello Zellie fans! 

Madeline here. Just writing to let you know that Zellie's book LIGHTNING SPLICED  is finally available for purchase on Lulu! You can get it as a paperback ($20) or an eBook ($7.99). What makes this even more awesome is that all proceeds will be donated to the American Cancer Society. So be sure to get your butt up and buy your own NOW!

If you prefer to order this book from another online outlet, such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble, this option will become available 6-8 weeks from today. FYI- purchasing from Lulu sends more proceeds to the American Cancer Society.

In further electrifying news, this book can be available at brick and mortar stores!  How? Marketing! So with a lot of work, we can get this done! But we won't just wait for them to notice us. We'll MAKE them notice us! Be sure to spread the word so bookstores can find this novel as awesome as we think it is.  We can go into independent book sellers, comic retailers,  Borders, and more. Once there,  we can speak to the person in charge and request that they stock copies. LET'S MAKE ZELLIE FAMOUS!

For ordering purposes, here is the ISBN: 978-0-557-65205-1. If the person in charge needs any further information, contact us at zellieblake@gmail.com.

For more about the book, you can read the cover flap, subscribe to audio chapters as a podcast and/or read the first three chapters for free. 

For more about self-publishing see  Should Self-Publishing be a Dirty Word? and  Marketing Options for self-publishers

Below find the link for the Official Press Release V-Log

LIGHTNING SPLICED Press Release

For fun, here is the outtake video

Outtakes

Love,

The A Team

Join our hurricane street team

I've got just a few more queries pending.  Considering I haven't gotten so much as a partial request, (]let alone a full, offer of representation, publishing contract which could be a matter of years), I'm not likely to get one any time soon.  This book is NOT going to be thrown in the ocean.  I enjoy it, friends enjoy it, an exacting critique group enjoys it and so do 500+ subscribers who've heard the first three chapters.  I hope  that making this available to even one more person can make them feel alive…….and BE alive.  The proceeds are going directly to cancer research.

With the worst/best timing, Jennifer and john had already been planning to visit me so they've taken on the grunt work while I dictate my needs.  We're setting this up as a softcover, e-book, and audio book.  I'm not sure how much of the audio I can do but Will Ross has already volunteered to do some ass kicking.

Jennifer's got the video blog announcement on her computer and we're ironing out Lulu.com's counterintuitive formatting issues.  The book will be available for purchase at Lulu.com–in which case a greater percentage of proceeds will go to research–Amazon and it has the capability of being purchased for brick and mortor stores like Barnes and Noble, just get into the store and make the request.  I understand if you want to read the book first before putting in that effort so just email us and we can send a larger sample.

Jennifer  is the head of our street team and the go-to girl for those who want to help so we'll post her contact info ASAP.  For now, send anything to mine, she's got accsss to it.

If you have any promotional ideas, let us know!  Some ideas so far

- press releases in local (to you!) stores

-print out your favorite quote with the website address and stick it inside a book or games or movies etc  that might relate (7th Son, Heroes novels, X-men books or comics, Iron Man stuff, TMTNT, Blade

-Get creative–draw the characters, make a diorama of a scene, be eye-catching a fun, make pins

-Challenge people…..whose side are you on?  The doctors or the patients?

-Write fanfiction!  I'll feel like I've made it when there's slashfic on fanfiction.net ;)

-Go around videoblogging…. ask people  what they'd do if  their touch killed people but so did their reputable doctor?  What other questions could you ask?  Go for tings that are open-ended

-Send us your creations so we can post them!!

The Work of the Awake

I've shaken my ratapatootie enough to get an invitation to be part of The Awake, a group of passionate creators who work in a variety of mediums.  We've got writers, artists, podcasters, photographers, and more working together on charity projects and sharing the buzz.  

We just started up a site called The Work of the Awake so you can get a daily dose of awesome from our delicious brains.  The first chapter of Lightning Spliced has already gone up and I've got a bunch more cool stuff in the queue so keep an eye out (: plus I just inducted my friend Alex who I hope will grace us with his gorgeous New Zealand photography.

Networking is awesome (: it's through these guys that I'm livin' my rock star dream by recording my lyrics to go with music written by Rad Bear.

Planning or Pantsing

It's hard to write when I think about a disease so aggressive it springs up in the midst of treatment.  I hate that some of the most shining lights among my friends are going through the same, similar, or worse.  It scares me how fast I went downhill and how fast it could happen again.  I feel like I can't plan ahead.  I always knew I wasn't meant to have kids or a house or whatever else normal people do but I'm still jealous (99% happy for them, of course, but that 1%) that they can plan.  They can get married, have kids, get divorced, get remarried and build a garden.  I knew I wouldn't make a lot of money so I didn't need the house, it didn't matter that I couldn't afford kids.  But I thought my alternative was going to be saving up for hot springs tours of Japan, book tours in Callie's van, and the best dog ever.

I don't really know what direction to go in though.  Pantsing means a day at a time, massages and cookies.  But if I'm going to get published I need to finish some books.  But books involve planning, involve *time* and I don't know how much of that I have.  Aggression doesn't bode well for treatment or for recurrance and I'm only 27, that's like starting the game with 8 points against you.

I need to prioritize.  The dog is most important.  Is that weird?  I didn't think it would be first, I mean I've managed for years without one but if all I have is tomorrow, I want my dog at my side.  I know I should be concerned for my health and infection potential and blah blah blah.  FINE, I'll wear a kevlar bubble if I have to!  My MENTAL health is important too yaknow!

It's midnight.  My chemo today had crack in it!

I don't know what's next.  I guess I do take that a day at a time.  Maybe I'll write tomorrow.  Maybe I won't.  

I've been having trouble the last couple days but I'll get over it.  It's not worth losing a day to being upset about the future and I'm so, so lucky.  I can *walk*….I'm not paralyzed, I'm not in the hospital, I can breathe, I can sing, aside from my shoulder I'm not in pain…..my quality of life is pretty damn good right now.  So right now, I'm happy.  I can't ruin that with worry even if it does mean I give myself short term memory and can't plan anything.

Also, I watched Troop Beverly Hills which is just as hilarious now as it was when I was ten (unlike Grease which I couldn't watch ten minutes of haha)

PS. My white count is low so I have to get HORRIBLE BURNING NEEDLES all week.  But I'm not getting one now.  SO YAY.  

My muse is stronger than Oxycodone

So I've got these painkillers that knock me out.  They prescribed them *after* I got my first round of chemo, you know, when I started to feel better?  In the hospital I was stuck with tylenol aka skittles and they'd only give me one.  Anyway, I haven't treated my back well today and my jaw was weirdly hurting too so in  the name of a good night's rest I took one of my Oxycodone pills.  I was about to roll over the edge into the Deep when I heard the rattling of pills.  

Mayuri's pills.  

Six of them.  

BAM now I'm wide awake tearing my room apart for a pen at least until I realized my laptop was right here and my typing is MUCH more ledgible than my writing ;)

I'm relieved…I'd be thrilled if it wasn't for that Oxycodone pulling me back toward my Raphael pillow.  I caught a conversation with Nova in the middle of the night a day or so ago but I lost it.  I haven't kept my notebook by my bed because I've been too sick to think.  Now I've got a brainstorm, a breakthrough, details for my next chapter.

It's time to get back in the game!

Super Number One interviews me - Krang impressions, the publishing minefield, etc

Huge thanks to Kevin and Andrew for inviting me over to their podcast for an interview.  I'm totally flattered and honored (:   We had a great time chatting about everything from TMNT to publishing methods to vivid writing techniques and of course, Lightning Spliced's future! They gave me a really interesting perspective on the value of description using the five senses and I got to sneak in my worship for Portal's writers.

Here's the link, enjoy!

Contests and Interviews — I’m a rock star haha

Merciless Storytellers round one just went live and holycrap, I'm in the top two!  Go visit and vote for as many of the stories as you like (:

The guys at Super Number One asked me to do an interview and it was a blast!  I can't wait to post the link!

I'm also now thin enough to make it in Hollywood  :P  I've lost 18 pounds in two months.  If they don't figure out what's wrong with me soon there's not  going to be a Zellie left to run tests on T_T