Category Archives: Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams
Author Tuesdays: My Writing Process Blog Tour
This blog tour stop brought to you by the lovely Takako Wright at http://www.tommiastablet.wordpress.com. She is an avid writer of multiple forms and multiple formats. Thanks for this opportunity to join your tour! And here I go answering the following questions:
- What Am I Working On?
My list of goals and deadlines is always growing. I’m working on promoting my novel Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams (which happens to be free for Kindle today!) by getting reviews and telling people how wonderful it is. I’m editing a different young adult manuscript, At One’s Beast. I’m also attempting to write a trilogy, starting with Camp National Novel Writing Month Project with a 25,000 word goal that is not going very well at all. I’m having plot complication difficulties and am only a couple thousand words in. I did write a connected short story that was my very first attempt as an accomplished writer at a short piece.
- How Does My Work Differ From Others of Its Genre?
Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams is unique in that it is in first person (I like to do this. I thought that. I said those things. Etc.) and employs my own writing style. The story features a bizarre training landscape for the characters that is a mix of dodgeball, capture the flag, and laser tag that you won’t want to miss!
- Why Do I Write What I Do?
I have always liked to write and only recently have developed enough skills and knowledge to write good stuff that others would care to read (like you dear reader). I write young adult in particular because that is my favorite genre. I love dystopian fiction and have incorporated elements of a dystopian world into Ataxia. I write for myself, essentially, and since there are so many readers similar to myself I know that many others can enjoy my writing much as I have.
- How Does My Writing Process Work?
I have a lengthy list of novel/short story/etc possibilities in google drive that I have been developing over several years and when I am unusually inspired I grab one of those ideas and run with it. Ataxia was born from a dream I had one night about the training landscape and the story followed from there in a very natural way for me. The characters begged me to write sarcasm for them. I write what I see and I saw so many cool things I just had to write them all down. Of course, during the editing process I cut some of the unnecessary parts to make the story a more cohesive whole.
As I write I edit so that my first draft is essentially a fourth or fifth draft and quite nice. After finishing I like to let the story sit so that I won’t immediately recognize every individual sentence. Then I dive into editing, going through several rounds of painstaking readings. I enjoy marking up a physical book during this process and Createspace lets you order proof copies quite easily for this purpose. During this time I will finish the cover and formatting as well so that during proof review I can make sure both the cover and interior formatting are perfect.
If possible I’ll have some beta readers jump in to help and point out anything I might have missed and then copy edit. I copy edit multiple times so that I won’t miss anything ridiculous and voile: finished work of art (aka manuscript has turned into novel).
Miscellaneous Mondays: Free Download on Kindle – Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams
My debut novel, Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams is free to download on Kindle today and tomorrow:
As the U.S. government prepares to take over the world, MC infiltrates one of their elite academies that trains future leaders. MC must rise to the top in the Cube training grounds in order to be placed high up within the government so she can stop them in their takeover.
It is not until her fourth and final year at the academy that her top-student status is threatened by the sudden arrival of Li, the new transfer student. MC is completely focused on her self-created mission until she gets sidetracked by Li, who might be bad news in more ways than which she bargained.
Author Tuesdays: Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams
Local Author Re-releases Debut Young Adult Novel
Seattle, Washington, March 25 – Rachel Barnard, a driven young author in the Seattle area, released the new version of her debut novel, Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams. The novel is version four, according to the Amazon version counter, and features a stunning new cover from Dodo’s Design as well as improvements within the front and back covers. The novel is available in both print and eBook formats on Amazon and Createspace.
Barnard wrote her debut novel after graduating from New College of Florida and has not stopped improving the novel since. She released the first version in 2012 but decided that she wanted a more vivid and professional cover. She has been working for months to solidify both interior and exterior of her book and has now released the updated and final version.
Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams follows MC three years after she has infiltrated one of many elite academies across the U.S. The government has created these academies in order to train the youth for high end government positions in order to take over the world. MC must rise to the top in the Cube training grounds in order to be placed high up within the government so she can stop them in their takeover. It is not until her fourth and final year at the academy that her top-student status is threatened by the sudden arrival of Li, the new transfer student. MC is completely focused on her self-created mission until she gets sidetracked by Li, who might be bad news in more ways than which she bargained.
“Rachel is a writer with a strong head on her shoulders. This is evidenced by her presentation of the main character. MC has a purpose, that’s at odds with her school life. She doesn’t need friends, sneers at getting a crush on a guy, and is willing to vanquish her enemies. Travel with her as she explores the underside of the school, finds her hiding places and learns strategy while fighting with the other students at the Cube,” says Victoria Bastedo.
Rachel Barnard released a book of poetry, Wandering Imagination, early this year that is also available on Amazon in print and eBook format. For more information on either the author or Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams, you can visit her website at www.rachelauthorbarnard.com
Toiling Tuesdays: Authoring, Marketing, Publishing, Selling is Hard Work
The Maple Valley Writers booth at the MAple Valley Holiday Craft Fair sold several copies of the books of the two featured authors: Becky A. Benson and Rachel Barnard. For more information on the authors, check out the brag corner on the Maple Valley Writers website. To purchase Becky A. Benson’s novel, Three Short Years, click the link here. To purchase Rachel Barnard’s novel Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams, click the link here.
We had fun and met many fascinating people with their own stories to tell. Perhaps you will see their books in the future. This post is dedicated to those writers out their in Maple Valley who have important stories of their own to capture and inspire us.
NaNo November: Author Do List
My to do list as an author
1. Develop my web presence (get known before the book deal)
1. Web presence/platform – blog, facebook, website (update blog 3x/week and read others’ blogs and comment)
2. Send my children’s picture book off to publishers
3. Beauty and the Beast – edit this young adult manuscript per beta readers comments and create a professional cover
4. Ataxia – redesign cover and make internal edits, market, market, market
5. Get involved (Goodreads, Smashwords, Facebook groups) – connect with both the audience and other writers through communities
6. Finish the Day the Computer Stood Still Manuscript First Draft.
7. Write write write
What is on your to do list as an author?
6. Finish the Day the Computer Stood Still Manuscript First Draft.
7. Write write write
What is on your to do list as an author?
Author Thursdays: http://maplevalleywriters.webs.com/
About this author and the creator/founder of Maple Valley Writers:
Rachel Barnard is a Pacific Northwester from Florida who is always looking to work the changes in her life into a story, plot, or character.
“Back in my day,” Begins 23-year old Rachel Barnard, referring to her early age writings, “not everyone had their own personal computer. Writers wrote with a pen and paper. That’s how I got my start.” Barnard had always been a voracious reader, seeming to swallow books whole, reading lengthy novels like The Three Musketeers and the Hobbit while her peers were reading Junie B Jones and the Diary of Wimpy Kid. While in school she discovered that such a thing as grades existed and her sense of competition was ignited. She went on to become AR Queen (following in the footsteps of her sister) and surpassing the closest competitor by near twice as many points. From that moment on Rachel looked for the competition in everything. She entered the Wings of Hope Speech competition and came in third in the state, meeting one of her idols Jane Goodall. After speech writing she turned to poetry, which kept her quite occupied throughout middle school. It was not until high school that she diversified her writing portfolio once more and began to write the great american novel which was a complete failure. Her vocabulary was immensely advanced whilst her realistic sense of plot and dialogue was lacking because she was still young and inexperienced in the world. Short stories soon followed while she continued with the poetry. It was during her last two years in high school that Rachel submitted her works to various competitions and got several of her better poems published, winning a couple of bucks along the way. Unfortunately, when she arrived at college, Rachel was too busy to continue inhaling fiction, instead focussing on her textbooks, her work in a restaurant, and an active social life. Rachel was amassing life experience and soon put all this knowledge to work when she began the great american novel attempt number two after graduating. Nine months later Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams was born. Rachel had published her young adult novel of a heroine’s adventures at the Academy through Amazon, doing her own editing and using her own picture as cover art. When she turned 23, Rachel joined a writing group in the Valley and wrote a children’s picture book and started on another young adult novel. She decided to form a local writing group in her hometown and is always looking for new and different challenges as she grows and learns as an author and a dreamer.
Seattle Specific Saturdays: The Gum Wall
Located a 30 second walk from Pike Place Market:
I added something of my own, can you spot it?
Toiling Tuesdays: Business Cards
Who was that gal?
I’ve really gotten into business cards. I started out making them myself when I was about 13. They advertised that I could crochet and babysit and they contained my phone number and name. Basically one step up from writing that information down on a napkin if I met someone who might want to use those services. In my last year of college I discovered Vistaprint and the online do-it-for you of business cards. Vistaprint is great and so far I’ve created three different business cards with them. Each time I make a better card. The first was very general, which is a bad idea and a good idea all wrapped into one that made it quite ineffective. This was a card that I could hand out at the library or on a bus but not during an interview for a position at an engineering company. I really should have left off the “For Hire” bit. The second business card I crafted was catered toward my author business, i.e. for my book. It was a free card and it is nicely simple but I have been told that the font is almost not readable. Perhaps if I had made the curlicues larger, the differences between letters would stand out more and it would work better overall. This card needs an explanation to go along with it though, which is why I developed the last card. It is a standalone card that if found on the street has all the information one would need to get the idea of who Rachel Barnard is.
Featured at the top of the blog post is the back of my current business card. The front contains an image of my first book’s cover and title as well as a short description.
In my writing group: Snovalleywrites, my second business card prompted one of the members to get his own. I really liked how his looked and have taken some of his ideas to incorporate them into my third business card (portrait vs. landscape and putting the cover of my book on one side).
Rachel Author Barnard 