The Glass Butterfly Pinterest & Playlist Reveal + Giveaway!

In less than 2 months, The Glass Butterfly will break free of its cocoon and fly. So it's time for a couple of reveals and a giveaway!

Below is a peek at my secret pinterest board. I've now made it public, so by clicking on the image, you'll be taken to pinterest where you can see all my visual inspirations for the story.

Click to go to board

And anyone who knows me knows I'm inspired auditorily as well as visually, so here are the songs that I used to set moods, emotions, and scenes.

Don't have spotify? Check out a list of the songs linked up to youtube by visiting this page on my Haunted Hearts Legacy website.

*****

Now for the international giveaway. Below are the five prize packs up for grabs. Just enter the rafflecopter for your chance at one!

The Architect of Song prize pack 

(signed swag, 

8x11 vintage musical sheet and flower print)

The Hummingbird Heart prize pack 

(signed swag, Papyrus jeweled 

hummingbird greeting card)

The Glass Butterfly prize pack 

(signed swag, set of 6 butterfly/dragonfly magnets)

Journal and Quill prize pack 

(vintage brocade journal, 

quill and ink set)

Haunted Hearts Legacy prize pack 

(three book set, signed and personalized)

Good luck to all who take part, and I look forward to sharing this romantic, mysterious, and ghostly tale with you on August 15, 2018!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Announcing: The Architect of Song + RoseBlood ARC/poster winner!

Okay, first, the winner of the RoseBlood cover reveal ARC + poster giveaway has just been announced via the rafflecopter. 

Congrats to Alice Wu, and thanks to everyone who took part! If you didn't win, don't despair! There a lot more giveaways on the horizon... ;)

Which leads me to the next point of this post: A while back, I hinted at my literary gothic romance in the blog post at this link. 

Today I'm announcing the title officially via my GoodReads book bio:

"NYT bestselling author, A.G. Howard, brings her darkly magical and visual/visceral storytelling to Victorian England. THE ARCHITECT OF SONG is the first installment in her lush and romantic "Haunted Hearts Legacy" series, a four book gothic saga following the generations of one family as -- haunted by both literal and figurative ghosts -- they search for self-acceptance, love, and happiness.

New Adult: Recommended for ages 17+. Slated to launch August 2016."

Here's the short & sweet description for book one:

A lady imprisoned by deafness, an architect imprisoned by his past, and a ghost imprisoned within the petals of a flower -- intertwine in this love story that transcends life and death.

If you'd like the longer version, head over here to the GoodReads book page.

There's also a pinterest board for those of you who like eye candy as much as me. ;)

Stay tuned... book trailer reveal, cover reveal, and giveaways are coming soon!

The Genesis of a Ghost Story

We all have different prompts that inspire our muses. For me, it's always something visual. An intriguing picture, an atmospheric landscape, a word or word combinations -- any of these can flip the switch on my creative outlet. We also each have very unique processes that nurture and structure those fledgling ideas to full blown stories.

As an example of how my mind works, here's a rundown of my literary gothic romance that will be launching later this year (title, date, book cover, book trailer, excerpts, playlist and pinterest board + giveaways forthcoming!) from conception to ready-to-write plot.

Several years back while I was on vacation in Kansas, my husband and I four-wheeled over to an old graveyard surrounded by a forest—one of those lushly macabre numbers with crumbling tombstones and intricately carved statues dating back to the 17 and 1800’s.

While walking among the debris we stumbled upon a locked fence. An isolated headstone sat inside the enclosure in the far right corner, covered with ivy to the point the epitaph couldn’t be read aside from two words: beloved son.

Seeing something like that … a tomb set off by itself in an enclosure that’s now overrun with weeds and vines … already the questions are stirring my imagination. Who was this person, this beloved son? And why did he merit such isolation?

Then I see something that spurs even deeper introspection. What is the significance of the other gate in back? The overgrown path that opens into the woods … where does it lead? Who once kept a vigil here, and why are they no longer keeping it?

BOOM: my idea was born. A grieving young lady (from the Victorian era, because naturally, the setting lends itself to something gothic), comes upon a wrought iron enclosure in a cemetery and sees not only a tomb, but a lone flower, proud and thriving in the midst of the decomposing wilderness. The young lady can't resist the unusual blossom because ... hmmm ... she has a love for colors and textures since she's a hat maker. So, resourceful and impetuous as all good heroines must be, she breaks off the padlock, digs up the flower, and takes it home, little realizing that it's tied to a man’s spirit—a ghost that happens to have no memory of ever dying. To help solve this dashing ghost’s death, my young heroine must return to the cemetery and follow the trail that leads into the woods to meet the keeper of the grave, her first step in unraveling the mystery.

Voila! From a scene rich with a history that I will never know is born a story that I can mold and shape into something of my very own.

I so love being a writer.

So I had my skeleton plot (no pun intended). I wrote it down, and filed it away to let the idea simmer. Next, I had to motivate and get to know my main characters:

When I first flesh out my characters, I want to have a sense of what they look like. I go online, look at sketches or headshots of people. I look for faces that hold some sort of aura, some expression or aspect that brings to mind characteristics of my character. Then I print them off and tack them to a corkboard in my office to help me visualize these people in the beginning when I’m first getting to know their voice. For me, it makes them come alive. To see my character inspirations, check out the book's official pinterest board here.

Next, I have to give them personality and motivation. First we have a ghost. And he’s already an interesting fellow because:

A. Well … he’s a ghost. *hee*

B. He sings beautiful arias in a foreign language yet speaks in English.

C. He has amnesia; not only is he unaware of his death, but he has no memory at all of his life. So naturally, he’s going to want to remember = his motivation to reach out to this woman.

Next, I give my heroine something unique to her. Something that will be a challenge to her everyday life, but will bond her instantaneously to this spectral stranger. What say we make her deaf? She lost her hearing at age eight and hasn’t heard a sound for eleven years. Suddenly, she can hear this ghostly man. And ONLY him. No doubt, they are going to become fast friends, despite the fact that they can’t touch on any traditional level (sexual tension—it’s a great tool—USE IT). Her affection for him will motivate her to act against her introverted nature and try to find answers to his past.

Now for a twist. How about having another hero in this tale, who may or may not be good?  Any gothic novel worth its salt has a beautiful, dark, sensuous stranger with secrets, who will either be the heroine’s redemption or downfall. Yeah. Let’s give our ghost a rival.

But this fellow needs to be flesh and blood. He needs to have some advantage to put him on equal ground with the man’s spirit who can sing and speak to the deaf heroine. So, the living man can touch her and communicate through romantic gestures. To up the stakes, I give him a link to the ghost’s life … and he’s harboring a secret that ties him to the ghost’s death.

At this point, I'm biting at the bit to get the story penned, so I sit down to the business of research and writing. Looking back on every book I've written so far, the genesis, structuralization, and organization all follow this same pattern.

How about you . . . what sparks that first idea? And afterwards, how do you build on / brainstorm that premise into a full-fledged plot?

Posie & Mosey Monday and Contest Winners

On Mondays, I like to share word posies with my readers. Comments are usually disabled so you can enjoy this gift of poetry then mosey on along to your list of daily do's. BUT, today is different because I have some WINNERS to announce.

Thank you everyone who played my Friday Fright-Fest Contest last week.

With the help of Mr. Random.org, here are our five winners and the books randomly chosen for them:

1. Bethany Crandell--Bad Girls Don't Die
2. Sarah Pearson--Incantation
3. Bess Van--The Trembling Hills
4. Keriann Martin--Killing Britney
5. Cherie--Fade

Lucky ladies, if you will please email me your addresses, I will send the books your way. Those of you who didn't win this time, I promise to have another contest soon.

 

Have a happy and safe Halloween, everyone, and enjoy the following creepy poem. Hope to see you on Thursday for another book trailer that has caught my eye.

Fragment Of A Ghost Story
  ~Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
      
A shovel of his ashes took
From the hearth's obscurest nook,
Muttering mysteries as she went.
Helen and Henry knew that Granny
Was as much afraid of Ghosts as any,
And so they followed hard-
But Helen clung to her brother's arm,
And her own spasm made her shake.

Trailer Thursday

First, an announcement: I heard from my editor at Amulet yesterday, and Splintered's release date has been moved up by six months. YAY! This means, instead of coming out in Spring 2013, it will be published Fall of 2012. Which also means I'm about to receive my edits and will be VERY busy VERY soon.

Busy = good. Hee.

Okay, for my first official post for the blog hop, I'd like to share my newest book trailer. The Architect of Song (a gothic/literary romance set in Victorian England with a unique love triangle—sort of “Jane Eyre” meets “A Certain Slant of Light”, but with a deaf heroine).

 

This is the MS about to go out on sub under the masterful guidance of my agent. (Just for the record, I'm every bit as nervous as I was when Splintered made the rounds. Maybe even more, because this is the book of my heart. Eeps.)

If you know of a trailer that's dark, melancholy, creepy, or atmospheric, or if you have one you would like me to consider posting, please leave a link in the comment section.  (I prefer videos that don't exceed 3 minutes.)

Thanks for visiting today, and don't forget: I have a special QT guest for tomorrow's interview. She's a bit of a legend, having gone from the slush piles to a major deal in a matter of weeks. So be sure and stop by to hear her amazing story!