Author Archives: hkrowe

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About hkrowe

A writer living in western suburbs of Chicago.

On Schedule

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The release date for my book Unbridled that is set for tomorrow appears to be on schedule. I’m doing my last minute formatting tonight, and then I will upload to various distributors, check formatting at those places, and then finalize some marketing.

It must be fate because on Sunday I got called by my supervisor at the IT company I work for that they will need me to go to a career show tomorrow from 12 to 7 at the Chicago Cultural Center. Which means she doesn’t need me into work until around 10 in the morning. I will have the early morning tomorrow to release the book and post at various social outlets. I’m nervous but it seems like the opportunity is falling right into my lap.

I was talking to a co-worker today (one whom I thought didn’t like me, lol) and he was surprised that I was releasing a book, let alone that I wrote something that could be about 250 pages. He was even curious about the process. I’m shocked myself, buddy!

Haha, and here I was thinking 250 pages was too short.

Okay all, until later.

H.K. Rowe

Cover Release Day!

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Okay guys! It’s time to reveal the cover of my upcoming book, release next week slated for May 20th!

Unbridled cover!

Unbridled cover!

I’m very happy with it! I found just the right stock photo image and made some tweaks. This is the official cover of the book, which features my female protagonist Elekta. Elekta is a pinnacle part of the story, even though a majority of the POV rests with Ethan, the male anti-hero.

I hope you enjoy it! Now that the cover is revealed, the next step is only to release the book! The plan is the e-book version will come first, and then within due time, the print version will be available as well.

Just little background about myself, besides writing (of course), I’ve been a professional graphic designer for over 10 years. I’ve been drawing forever and I love technology so naturally I have evolved into the Illustration, Graphic Design, and now UI/UX design world. Design evolves and changes, so I love being able to share this part of myself with my writing as well.

I hope the book cover makes you excited as I am for this book’s release.

Until later!

H.K. Rowe

Update, Dedication Pages and Thanks

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First off, thank you to everyone who has followed this blog and liked my posts! I really appreciate it, and I look forward to blog-stalking everyone who followed me. 🙂

I will be officially releasing the cover of my “Unbridled” novel this Friday. I’m super excited to show you all and pretty much show the world when it’s done!

And just one last thing… I was thinking the other day that I really wanted to have a dedication page in my novel, but have not seen a lot of them in Indie books. What do you guys think? If you’ve published indie books before, have you had a dedication page or other beginning pages? I’d love to just hear other people’s experiences!

I’d love to dedicate this book to my late father. He was a huge supporter of my creativity, whether it was art or writing. Our family lost him last October to pancreatic cancer, and I believe that even though he’s gone, he still supports me from the beyond. I don’t think I would have gotten this far without his wisdom and guidance.

A dedication in my first book seems small in comparison to the gratitude I feel for him, but it’s something, right?

Also, I hope you like my new header image on top of the blog! 🙂

Let the final revision begin!

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SO EXCITED!

I received my feedback from my editor this morning, and starting tonight, I am good to go to start the final revision for my novel “Unbridled”! Whooohoo!

I’m getting closer to that release date. Here’s to tight deadlines and extreme editing! It’s going to be a crazy, dedicated week!

I’m a little scared and I’m a little excited, but I’m ready for this. I’m hoping for positive results!

5 Great Writing Resources That You Should Know About #amwriting

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I’m definitely bookmarking this.

Mary Wright's avatarThat Typing Sound

1) Chaotic Shiny:

This site, in reality, is the probably one of the only sites you need. It has like 50+ generators, and has many uses. Great for science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction writing.

2) Behind The Name:

It has a random name generator, name meanings for both first names and last names, and names that mean specific things.This could be used for any type of fiction writing when you need to come up with cool-sounding names, and especially when you want your characters’ names to have specific meaning.

3) Seventh Sanctum:

Like Chaotic Shiny, this site has lots and lots of different generators, including the What-if-inator, and the Alien Race Generator, which includes up to a paragraph of description for each generated result. This is a good website for fiction in general, but especially for fantasy, science fiction (and writing…

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Unbridled Update

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Yay!

My beta reader texted me yesterday and she’s very close to being done with her feedback, so I’ll be able to start revising and formatting my novel into its final stages. I’m shooting for May 20th for a release date. I’m working toward that and I feel like it’s my own personal iron-clad promise to myself and everyone who’s had an interest in the book.

Let’s just say I’m very determined to meet my goal!

The cover is 80% complete, and I will post it when I’m closer to the release date, and maybe some teaser pics.

I’m sorry for the lack of blog updates but I really am working on things! I shall update again soon.

Thanks,

HK Rowe

Behind Unbridled – Character Sketches

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With the upcoming release of my novel “Unbridled”, I wanted to share some of the processes I went through to breathe life into my story. One of my favorite things to do, and most essential, is to sketch the characters that come alive in my mind. I did a variety of character sketches, doodles, and even a colored work of my characters and the personalities I wanted to convey.

By sketching them out, I find I can come closer to their nature, learn about them, and solidify their true personality by putting pencil to paper without words.

Here are a variety of artworks created for “Unbridled” which helped satisfy my muse as well as shape these characters.

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I seem to be lacking in Brian sketches. I felt that after sketching him once within the group picture, I was satisfied with his personality. My favorite of the mix is Staisha, with her calculated resolve as her hair draws back a little to reveal the scar on her neck.

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I had fun making a color “manga cover” out of this at one point. Another one of my obsessions come to life.

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At one point “Unbridled” had its own website with the first “un-drafted” eight chapters up for consumption. This was the header. Website building is another passion of mine that was partnered with this story. It was known as “Unbridled Aria” then and Howin was actually Hay Lin, named after one of the characters in the Disney W.I.T.C.H. show. Through the drafting process though,the title and that character name changed.

I hope you enjoyed some little treats from the process of making this story. More to come soon, such as a cover reveal! Thanks for stopping by!

 

– H.K. Rowe

Resurrection

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I have a working laptop now! I managed to save it from the dead, and put in a new hard drive, but my old Mac is still kicking, even though I gave her a sex change, sort of, lol, as she runs on ubuntu now and not OS X. Oh well, you gotta use whatever works! Especially since $40 for a hard drive is more economical right now than a brand new laptop.

“Unbridled” is still in the beta reading process so I’m anxiously awaiting to hear back from my reader to see her opinions and suggestions. In the mean time I’ve narrowed down the perfect stock photo for a cover, I just have to change some things in Photoshop. It’s very exciting! I think I just “knew” when I stumbled onto that photo that she was very much like my character, the atmosphere and background were perfect, and the expression on the model’s face was exactly the mood I wanted to create. Amazing how that happens. Now to find the right font… I’m such a font snob that finding the right one might be harder than finding a picture!

Also, Camp Nanowrimo still goes on. I haven’t updated my word count at the site, but I’m still writing. It’s been hard because I’ve had a lot of distractions; fixing my computer, work, getting over a migraine, working out, website work, and spending time with my family and friends. Things are better now that I’ve solved the problem with my laptop and taxes are paid. I feel more relaxed, haha!

Meanwhile, marketing for “Unbridled” continues. I plan on posting more on the book, sharing tidbits about characters, a family tree, and inspirations.

Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by!

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This was actually the runner-up to the photo I really chose. This girl looks just like my female protagonist, Elekta from “Unbridled” as well, but the other stock photo that won has a better expression. 🙂

 

Cheers,

H.K. Rowe

Hello!

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Well, it has begun.

My name is H.K. Rowe and I’ve been writing for as long as I could remember, dabbling in prose, poetry and fan works. I’ve finally decided to start publishing my first work, which was a National Novel Writing Month experiment. Now finally drafted I’m publishing my first novel using a variety of services around the web, such as Amazon, Kobo and CreateSpace.

Please stay tuned for more news, tidbits about the upcoming story and progress.

Thanks!

H.K. Rowe

edited to publish to Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hkrowe