Poetry Friday ~ Plan & Finish

Hello, welcome to my blog!

 

I don’t know if other writers would agree but one of the things I find hardest about publishing a book is coming up with the blurb for the back cover. You would think it would be easy, especially since you wrote the book! But it’s really hard to compress your entire complex story into a paragraph or two.

In the publishing business the book description on the back cover is called Back Cover Copywriting, not to be confused with copywrite©. Copywriting is an art form in and of its own. You have to dig deep into your book’s message, capture the essence of your work, and find the most exciting part of your story to tell to make sure readers will be intrigued and inspired to purchase it. I find this very challenging to do. I mean, just when you thought it couldn’t get any harder for writers, now we have to not only be creative, imaginative and write an amazing story but we also have to be marketers with a degree in sales and advertising. Phew!

Last year I had the help of expert copywriter, Paul Witcover. He read my book, The Fall of Lilith and together we came up with what I thought was an excellent back cover copy. Of course, my book was already published and still has my original copy on the back cover but I’ll change that as soon as I can. In the meantime, I’m using the copy that Paul and I worked on as my book description on Amazon and Goodreads. Here it is:

In The Fall of Lilith, Vashti Quiroz-Vega crafts an irresistible new take on heaven and hell that boldly lays bare the passionate, conflicted natures of God’s first creations: the resplendent celestial beings known as angels.

If you think you know their story, think again.

Endowed with every gift of mind, body, and spirit, the angels reside in a paradise bounded by divine laws, chief of which are obedience to God, and celibacy. In all other things, the angels possess free will, that they may add in their own unique ways to God’s unfolding plan.

Lilith, most exquisite of angels, finds the rules arbitrary and stifling. She yearns to follow no plan but her own: a plan that leads to the throne now occupied by God himself. With clever words and forbidden caresses, Lilith sows discontent among the angels. Soon the virus of rebellion has spread to the greatest of them all: Lucifer.

Now, as angel is pitted against angel, old loyalties are betrayed and friendships broken. Lust, envy, pride, and ambition arise to shake the foundations of heaven . . . and beyond. For what begins as a war in paradise invades God’s newest creation, a planet known as Earth. It is there, in the garden called Eden, that Lilith, Lucifer, and the other rebel angels will seek a final desperate victory—or a venomous revenge.

Unfortunately, Paul is unavailable until November, so I’m on my own. But don’t feel sorry for me yet. I plan to tackle this head on.

◊

Rid yourself of fear

Like a nimble little ant

Think you can achieve

Success is so often near

You need only to believe

◊

Plan and Finish are this week’s prompt words chosen by Colleen Chesebro ~ The Fairy Whisperer. *The catch is that we can only use the synonyms to these words in our poems.

Colleen hosts a challenge that anyone could participate in called, Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge every Tuesday, and you have until Sunday to create a post featuring your Haiku, Tanka, Haibun or Cinquain poem. She is an author and poet, and also does book reviews and so much more on her blog. Be sure to check it out.

---

This month I wanted to share a bit of my trip to Japan each week. One of my favorite places in Japan was Nara. We went to Nara Park and were surrounded by reindeers. They were clean (no deer ticks!) and so sweet. It was a very happy day.

◊

Nara Park (Japan)

◊

◊

◊

◊

◊

I hope you enjoyed the photos of Nara Park in Nara Nara, Japan. Happy Friday!