Author Dana Lockhart

-The Story, The Legend, The Blood Knight - I’m super duper excited by this, guys. The Blood Knights series, as I have said multiple times, is the most vivid world I’ve ever created. It’s so alive that I don’t quite feel like I’m in control of it. More than once a character has veered off on their own chosen path against what I had originally intended. Villains grew up to be heroes, heroes turned out to be villains. New characters I didn’t have in the original concept just popped out of nowhere demanding to be seen. It’s been a wild ride to see all the stories unfold. The Blood Knight is the first in the intended trilogy. It centers on Archer Mathews, a vampire hunter that makes a grave mistake and is turned into the thing he hates most. The thing is, he should have died instead. Hunters are almost a breed of supernatural beings of their own, with fast reflexes and heightened senses tuned into finding evil, and something in their blood won’t let them be corrupted into monsters. The cl...

-My Second and Final Gateway Con- It is with a heavy heart that I write this, because the wonderful convention known as Gateway Con has officially been cancelled, probably forever. The three-day writing retreat I’d recommend first above all other writing conventions is being replaced with a one-day writing retreat, "Writers in the Park." The situation is disappointing to say the least. Supposedly, it wasn’t making enough money to sustain itself. I’d argue that money isn’t the point, it’s inspiring and educating prospective writers, that the friendships we made along the way were worth more, but unfortunately it’s not my call. Goodbye, Gateway Con. I will miss you. You helped me become the writer I am today. Hopefully Writers in the Park will be half as fun. But with bad news comes good, and here’s my trip back in time to Gateway Con 2019 and the events that transpired. -Meeting Old Friends and Making New- This year was different in so many ways. Gateway Con 2018, my first co...

It's been a while! Hi! I've been busy with leading CampNaNoWriMo workshops and lots of book signings . But here I am today, ready to tell you a little more about my novel, The Un-Life of William Moore. I highly suggest reading the novel before reading these "fun facts," as there are spoilers ahead. You can purchase the book at most all places you buy books, including Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and your local book store. -Fun Facts About The Un-Life of William Moore - 1)   The novel is approximately 63k words.   When I first “finished” the story, it only had 35k. Being so short and condensed, the story's pace was way too fast.   The additional word count helped to slow things down, develop characters, and make it a more standard sized novel.   2)  My first working title was “Billy the Vampire.” This title made it too obvious what the story was about, even though it conveyed the corny tone I wanted at the time.   Later, I wanted to make it more subtle. ...

-My Second Year at Gateway to Publishing- I had an amazing time last year at Gateway Con. I met some amazing people and also made a good friend (looking at you, android ). I learned a lot and came home with pages of notes on how to improve my writing and my brand. After such an awesome experience, I couldn't wait for the next one to come around. Though I pitched The Un-Life of William Moore to agents there, ultimately I decided to self-publish it. It's my first story, and as such it has the most of my heart and soul in it. While the changes some agents recommended weren't unreasonable, I wanted to remain as true as I could to what The Un-Life was to me. Still, I applied what I had learned to the story. I connected with people that helped me improve it even further. I still came out of Gateway Con successful, in my mind. This year I will also be having an author table/book signing , so if you're going to the Con, too, come see me! I'll be selling my paperback novel...

When I'm put in an unfavorable situation, I try to look on the bright side of things. More often than not, the bright side is always the same: a learning experience. Whether it's a bad breakup, a civil suit, or a risk like investing in my novel, there's always a learning experience. And I love learning. I identify as a scholar, as a student, no matter if I'm enrolled in study or not. And this entire book adventure has been one heck of a learning experience. I always thought I was good at manipulating Microsoft Word, but I discovered new options and standards than what I knew before. Not to mention all the learning of how to write better to even get the book finished. I received my first proof on April 16th for my novel The Un-Life of William Moore. Getting it proof-ready was a challenge in itself. I didn't embed fonts right the first time, had a bunch of hidden blank pages I had to deal with. But the first proof wasn't that bad. Needed some margin work, but oth...

After over a year since I started this journey, The Un-Life of William Moore will soon be available to put on your bookshelf. I already had an e-book cover, but to be able to hold this book in your hands I went back and got a spine and back added to it. A week of waiting was well worth it! Here is the official book cover for The Un-Life of William Moore : I am so ecstatic about this cover. Thank you, again, Zakaria Nada , for working with me on making this book come to life. I didn't have a single complaint on the background of the back cover and am still in awe of how amazing it looks. If you need a book cover done, I highly recommend Zak and her watercolor style book covers. She has great turn around time and great taste. She also designed the bookmark (coming soon) that will come with this book when you buy it at one of my book signings. -Book Signing Times and Locations- Speaking of signings, I already have three book signings on the schedule and a potential fourth in the works...

I know, I know, I've dropped off the face of the earth. My articles on DVS dropped from four a week to maybe one if I'm lucky, and my blogging here has suffered, too. But I promise it's for a good reason. - The Un-Life Coming June 2019- The big reason that I've stopped my side-writing gigs is because I've gotten back my mini-edit of The Un-Life of William Moore . Applying the critiques is my number one priority right now. I'm in a rush to get everything done in time for Gateway Con to have my grand first book release there. And I'm a little behind schedule. I'm still on target for the June release, but I'm feeling the pressure. Big thank you to Ryan P. Freeman for providing way more feedback than I anticipated. I ordered story editing and he still pointed out several copy-editing suggestions he didn't need to do. On one hand I'm glad he did more than I was looking for, and on the other I'm exhausted at the thought of all these things I s...

I know it seems like I haven't been blogging much (because I haven't), but I am trying.  I have five post drafts in the works right now and I'm not happy with any of them.  And I don't want to just post re-hashed stuff I already posted on DVS Gaming like I did with my Lucifer article .  So, if I can't come up with something entertaining, at least maybe I can come up with a post that's informative. -It's Time to Bring The Un-Life to Life- I am currently in the beginning stages to self-publish The Un-Life of William Moore .  I discussed it with the agent I had been taking to, who gave me her blessing.  As I told her, The Un-Life just feels like an old chapter in my life.  I don't believe that I have the spark to force myself to edit it anymore.  One, because I feel like the story is done and complete as is, two, there's just so much more I want to be doing.  So instead of trying to change the story to what it isn't for the sake of being more main...

I have a lot and nothing at all going on at the same time. I got five agents that requested material while I was at Gateway Con. I didn't like one of them because he sounded like he came from a vanity publisher, and another one told me to submit it via their website but their website isn't accepting submissions?  So I sent varying requested lengths of The Un-Life to the remaining three and so far I've only gotten a brief response from one that didn't say yes or no.  So I'm not sure what's going on there. I suppose I'll see what the others say before I start digging in too deep. Gateway Con was amazing. I recommend it or any other writing conference if you are an aspiring author. I met several authors that have become acquaintance-friends.  Made some connections, I hope, with editors and agents.  Learned some.  The hotel was pretty and expensive but amazing.  I bought some signed books.  Conventions are a great way to boost confidence, meet people, and ...

A lot is going on in my life right now that has distracted me from posting on a regular basis. I ended a bad relationship as well as a bad friendship and I'm taking it hard. I'm a little over a month into my new job and I'm loving it! But more importantly, I'm nearly to the next step in my publishing adventure. I will be attending the St. Louis Writers Guild Gateway Conference  this weekend. There I will network with authors, editors, and agents, and the best part of all is that I will be pitching to two or more agents to try and get The Un-Life of William Moore published traditionally. It is a little conflicting.  From how much Kindle Scout wanted to turn my novel into a crime thriller, I'm afraid of what an agent or publisher would want to do to it before they'd say yes. But I can't just ignore the opportunity.  So often when you submit queries it can take months, even years, before you hear back as to whether they want your  novel or not.  I don't wa...

It's honestly been a hard month. Full of stand-stills and unexpected pitfalls. I'm disappointed that most things I'm trying to achieve in my life right now just aren't going according to plan.  But that's fate for you.  Try as you might, the universe can off-set you at a whim. I'm also sad to announce that just three months after my campaign, Kindle Scout has thrown in the towel and will no longer be accepting submissions.  I had planned on continuing to submit my work to them in the future, but now that is no longer possible, unless by some miracle they reopen submissions.  But right now, I'm assuming they are just shutting down the program for good. But!  All is not lost.  I'm reconsidering my plans for The Un-Life of William Moore . I am wanting to get it out as soon as possible.  My plan had been to self publish.  However, I am strongly considering changing my mind and giving my novel a chance to be traditionally published. Normally the tradit...

In Part I , I discussed the marketing methods that I recommend and ones that I almost recommend.  In this Part II, I have a list of marketing techniques I do not recommend, as well as a final note of what I wish I would have done better and how Kindle Scout appears to work.  Not Recommended: Books and the Bear – This is another company that baited me by following me on Twitter.  I was getting desperate to become hot and get views again before I had found the Fiverr marketing.  So I panicked and purchased their $10 one-time promo to their giant Twitter account before I realized this one-or-two times promotion stuff just doesn’t yield results.  Look at where you’re getting promoted!  Look, I beg you!  The Bear has a lot of followers, yes, but they also post umpteen times a day with their own advertisements for marketing and editing so that in no time your paid advertisement gets lost on their page.  Heck, since following them back they’ve been clog...

This is Part I, featuring recommended and maybe recommended marketing techniques for Kindle Scout.  Read Part II about what’s not recommended and a final overview of Kindle Scout. Before I even launched my Kindle Scout campaign, I was getting baited by marketing companies to try and buy their promotions.  Being pretty new at this marketing thing, I was looking for cheap, effective ways to promote, and I quickly learned that sometimes you get what you paid for and you better be a smart shopper. If you undergo a venture like Kindle Scout as a new author with little experience in marketing, I encourage you to really double check what you’re actually getting.  An ad of “reach 100k+ people on Twitter” sounds too good to be true because it is.  Sure, there might be 100k people following said Twitter account, but when you only pay for one post when they post over 30 times a day, you’re post is likely to never be seen. I have outlined some very specific methods that I imple...