Tag: projects

New Covers on the Owen Family Saga

September 10, 2018 / Marsha Ward / 0 Comments

From the time I re-ordered the books in The Owen Family Saga, and then added the Origin Story, That Tender Light, as a novella, I’ve wanted to change the covers on several of the novels, especially the three books published first.

I didn’t want to change the cover of Gone for a Soldier. It’s pretty special as it is, but it had been fifteen years since the first novel was published, and two of them didn’t even have a print edition published by my company, WestWard Books.

Now look:

New Covers on The Owen Family Saga

These changes have been a multi-year, complex process that began when I replaced the cover of Spinster’s Folly. Since then, I’ve been haunting stock photo sites and designers’ pre-made cover pages in an attempt to keep expenses down. A parallel project was to re-format the layout for the interiors of the novels to reflect not only cover credits for the new covers I found, but to make the novels more uniform. I’m almost finished with that project.

Finally, I found the last cover I wanted, but one of the images needed an enhancement to bring the subjects into more prominence. When I was told that wasn’t possible due to the original image file, I elected to find another image that would suit so the designer could change it out. Mind you, this cost me additional money, but I gladly paid it, and the resulting cover is excellent.

I still need to make a few little adjustments, but for all intents and purposes, my huge task is complete, and I can get back to writing.

Find purchase links to the novella and novels that make up The Owen Family Saga.

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Fresh Book Friday: Faith and the Foreman

July 15, 2016 / Marsha Ward / 0 Comments

It’s Friday! Today is Book Release Day for my newest project:

Title: Faith and the Foreman

Author: Marsha Ward

Genre: Romantic Western Adventure Novella with a Bonus Short Story

Publisher: WestWard Books

Date of Publication: July 15, 2016

Price: $2.99 (ebook formats)

Book Description:
Faith and the Foreman was introduced in the OLD WEST COLLECTION, Volume Nine of the bestselling and RONE Award-winning Timeless Romance Anthology series, and is now available as a standalone novella.

New Yorker Faith Bannister’s circumstances force her to become a school teacher in faraway Arizona Territory. Harsh conditions don’t seem so overwhelming when Faith meets lanky Slim McHenry. But menacing Rance Hunter stands in the way of Faith and Slim’s happiness. Both must rally all their resources and act to overcome evil before it spreads.

Faith and the Foreman is bundled with a Western short story, The Usual Game, which is set in early-day Jerome, Arizona.

Verl might not make it home to Phoenix this weekend. His landlord is stuck in Happy Sam’s usual poker game, and it looks like he’s losing his entire savings. High stakes action in early Arizona.

Excerpt:
A bell jangled on the horse-drawn street car outside as Faith Bannister folded the letter she’d been reading and rose to pace the room. After two circuits, she stopped before her cousin. “I am ruined.”

Clarissa Pembroke looked up from the bandage she was knitting and shook her head. “The news can’t be all that bad, dear. We’ve managed to survive the bank crisis fairly well thus far.”

Faith waved the letter. “The interest on my stocks is practically zero.”

“You should have told me, Faith. I must try harder to find employment.” Clarissa breathed heavily. “I can’t believe my usefulness as a nurse is over because of a few gray hairs.” She straightened her back as though in denial of aging. “I’m going to a lecture tonight to keep up with advancing science. Doctor Harley will speak on treating poisons.”

“You shouldn’t have to support me, Clarissa. I’ll sell the house to that fat banker who lusts after it.”

“Faith! Mind your language.”

“He’s wanted it ever since Poppa and Mama got killed.” She bit a fingernail, then removed her finger from her teeth at Clarissa’s continuing reproachful look. “I know. Mama tried so hard to break me of that.” She brushed a blonde curl away from her misting eye and whispered, “Stocks and bonds are no replacement for one’s family. I’m most grateful for your companionship.”

Clarissa wiped her own tearing eyes.

Faith turned away. “Perhaps I can enter the nursing school at Bellevue Hospital. Mr. Spencer offered a price sufficient to pay tuition and allow me to rent an apartment.” She shrugged. “I’ll have to let the servants go. If it appears I don’t have time to train as a nurse before we’re destitute, I’ll become a governess or a shop clerk.”

Clarissa shook herself as though to restore a cheerful outlook. “Let’s not fret about finances now, dear. Come with me tonight and enjoy the lecture.” She held up her knitting. “This bandage will be finished by then, and I’ll have another eleven for the good doctor.”
~~~

Purchase Links:
Smashwords all formats | Kindle | Kobo

Author Bio:

Amazon best-selling author Marsha Ward writes authentic historical fiction set in 19th Century America, and contemporary romance. She was born in the sleepy little town of Phoenix, Arizona, in a simpler time. With plenty of room to roam among the chickens and citrus trees, Marsha enjoyed playing with neighborhood chums, but always had her imaginary friend, cowboy Johnny Rigger Prescott, at her side. Now she makes her home in a forest in the mountains of Arizona. She loves to hear from her readers.

Find Marsha online:
marshaward.com
facebook.com/authormarshaward
marshaward.blogspot.com
twitter.com/MarshaWard
authormarshaward@gmail.com

Join Marsha’s Readers Mailing List to be notified of new releases: Click here

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I wrote “The End”

October 31, 2015 / Marsha Ward

It’s always gratifying for a writer to get to the end of a writing project. Last week, I wrote “The End,” and experienced the relief of finishing the first draft of a novel I’ve been working on for several months.

The Zion Trail didn’t originate just a few months ago, though. I started writing it sometime in the 1980s. Whew!

The first draft has been sent to several readers. One sent it back already, and loved the book! Here’s hoping that the other readers like it, as well.

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Downtime Decompression

November 13, 2014 / Marsha Ward / 5 Comments

I recently released a novel, Gone for a Soldier, which took me two years to write and publish. Of course I wasn’t writing solidly for two years, but with intensive research and several drafts, not to mention the publishing side of the equation, traveling to conferences and workshops, and life in general, it was a long two years.

Now I’m in a sort of downtime lull before I begin another work of long-form fiction. I need time to decompress from the stress and focus of the completed task before I begin another like process.

I’ve had people ask me what I do between writing novels. The first thing I do is take a couple of weeks to recover. No writing. Plenty of recreational reading. Sleeping in.

But that can’t last forever. When I’m tired of being a lazy lout, what do I do?

I write shorter fiction. Much shorter, like six thousand words or fewer. I have three stories in the works right now.

Or I write poetry. It’s a totally different discipline of writing.

Or I think. I collect my thoughts. I let ideas swirl around in my mind, mulling over grand “what if’s” for a new work.

Or I analyze and plan. What methods of publicity for my works are best? Should I up my quarterly e-newsletter to six times a year? Should I learn more about using Goodreads? Spend less time on Facebook? More?

Since my books typically come out in the last part of calendar years, a new year is right around the bend, so another thing I do is try to figure out my calendar of projects and travel for the following year: How can I juggle writing and production with traveling to events? What conferences will I attend? Should I make a box set of my novels? What awards will I seek? Will I make the deadlines? How can I make my website more useful? What did I leave undone this year that should be put on next year’s list of projects? Do I have enough inventory of books? Too much? Should I consider cutting back on travel and/or memberships in writing associations? What is my most effective time of day to write? Why am I not on Wikipedia?

Whoa! Enough with the questions. They could take over my life. It may be time to start writing a new novel.

What do you do with your downtime?

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