Category Archives: Sing Sweet Nightingale

Reviews have started to come!

ARC copies of Sing Sweet Nightingale are out in the world and that means one thing: reviews. I have made the choice that I am not going to go out searching for reviews of my books, but these early ones came to my attention and, guys, they’re AWESOME.

First, I saw this one:

I didn’t know that SING SWEET NIGHTINGALE had a dark, horror aspect to it. Heck, I didn’t know much about it at all, except that part of this novel took place in the dream world. That was all I needed to know, and I’m thankful. Because if you’re anything like me, I would totally shy away from horror. I’m usually easily spooked and creeped out, but instead, I was completely under this book’s spell! I read this novel straight through and was drawn into the story immediately. I couldn’t put it down! I was so taken in.

— Liza Wiemer on Goodreads

Then this one popped up:

I like books that have never been done before (at least I haven’t seen this done), something original or out of the ordinary, that makes you think and when you finally start reading it you realize it is not what you expected and gives you so much more. Sing Sweet Nightingale by Erica Cameron is an amazing book with strong characters and a story that keeps you turning the page until you realize OMG it’s done I need more.

— Michelle on Because Reading is Better than Real Life

And just this morning, another one!

There was nonstop suspense, hauntingly vivid visions and dreams, and action that was beautifully written and original. It wasn’t your average kick, punch, stab kind of fighting. No, this fighting was all about will power and inner strength at its core and I loved it.

— Kayla DeGroote on Bibliophilic Nerds

More than anything, what thrills me is seeing that people GET IT. The layers and the relationship dynamics and the psychology of it all. I was so afraid I would spend a lot of time defending Mariella, my female narrator, but so far readers seem to understand and, honestly, that is all I can ask for and more. <3

For those who haven’t had a chance to get their hands on the book yet, check out my Tumblr page and the official Dream War Tumblr page for teasers from the novel! I’ve been having a lot of fun pairing the quotes with images. Like this one:

Don’t be stupider than you need to be, I remind myself. Remember Calease? The last glowing girl you talked to tried to kill you. ~ Hudson from Erica Cameron’s SING SWEET NIGHTINGALE

So go check it out! Because it’s a lot of fun. At least, I’m having fun. 😉

Sing’s e-book is up for pre-order!

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The paperback of my debut novel, Sing Sweet Nightingale, has been available for pre-order for a while, but just today I saw that the Kindle and Kobo e-books are finally up as well! So far, the Nook version isn’t live, but I’ll be sure to link that when it comes up too.

Asja (in glasses) and me Summer 2013

Also, my friend Asja recently interviewed me on Tangled Up In Words! This is probably cheating a little since Asja is basically like one of my sisters, but that makes it even more fun! The interview is long and contains lots of stories about SING and the last year of my life, so make sure you check it out!

Also, just in case you haven’t heard, SING releases in less than a month!! And it has been hinted that paperback pre-orders of the book may release into the wild a little early! Pre-orders also get you a lot of bonus entries (and a ton of cool points) in my ongoing contest, fyi. The grand prize package is pretty amazing. It includes a YEAR of free books from my publisher, an amethyst necklace inspired by SING, amazing books by Christina Farley and Vivi Barnes, swag from SING, plus a gift card! You don’t have to pre-order anything to enter, but you get a better chance of winning if you do! And if you’ve already ordered the book, that counts! The order doesn’t have to be placed within the contest time. Existing orders are just as good! Better, even, since you did it without the bribe. 😉

That’s all for now! More will definitely be coming soon, though. We’re getting to the time when interviews and blog posts and reviews will start popping up all over the place! In other words, I’m going to be very busy for the next two months… O.O

Sing Sweet Nightingale is a real book!

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So, on Wednesday night of this week, I came home and found a package sitting on my front step. Within the package was this:

SING SWEET NIGHTINGALE IS A REAL THING!

I knew that–I mean, of course I knew it would be real at some point–but this week was the first time ever I got to hold a printed, bound, and finished copy in my hands. Seeing the book like this and being able to flip through the pages makes it slightly more real that other people, people I don’t know and might never meet, will soon be able to do the same thing. I’m in awe and a little scared of that truth. And so, of course, because that truth does terrify me more than a little, it got hammered home in the awesomest way this morning when another 2014 debut author Rebecca Petruck tweeted this fabulous picture from the American Booksellers Association’s winter conference:

THAT IS SO MANY COPIES! I tried to count and I lost my place too many times and eventually gave up but WOW! Apparently Rebecca found them in galley hall (which sounds like a place I could spend hours). I’m not even sure I know how to process seeing that many copies of my book all at once. For the second time this week, I believe I might have succumbed to a state of shock. O.O

Soon, Sing Sweet Nightingale will be available on NetGalley and in paperback form through my publisher Spencer Hill Press. And then, not too long after that, it will be available EVERYWHERE.

And hopefully people will feel the need to tweet me pictures of sightings when that happens. 😉

For a limited time only!

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Want to check out the first chapter of Sing Sweet Nightingale? For a very limited time, you can!

Spencer Hill Press posted the first chapter last night and it will remain available until 10 PM EST tonight. It’s a little scary that my baby is peeking its way into the big wide world, but I will have to start getting used to the idea! And, so far, everyone has loved it, which is so amazing. So, go read and then come back and tell me what you think!

Also, don’t forget that SSN is available for preorder!

Buy it from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble |
Book Depository | Books A Million |

You can also add this book on Goodreads.

Sing Sweet Nightingale is now up for preorder!!

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I come home from work today and it’s a typical Monday. When I check Facebook, however, things suddenly get a little more interesting. My day went from blegh to OMG REALLY?! in about three seconds all because of this post:

SingSweetNightingale-PreorderLinkPost-09092013

I had no clue! It’s true, though! My book is now up for preorder (paperback only so far; ebook links to come!!). It’s not only up, it’s up all over the internet! Have a favorite store? You can probably preorder it there. For the sake of convenience, though, LINKS!

Buy it from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Books A Million |

Now I’m going to go try to forget I know it’s possible for people to buy my book. Really. The less I think about it, the saner I’ll be in March when it actually releases! 😉

*runs off flinging glitter*

Sing Sweet Nightingale is moving right along!

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I’ve heard more than a few times that you better love writing to make it a career. Having started to make it my career, all I can say to that is YES. SO TRUE.

Even voracious, lifelong readers don’t always know what goes in to producing a single novel. Just on the editorial side. It’s intense. It’s brutally intense. So much so that you will probably end up on the verge of printing your entire book just so you can rip it up, throw the pieces into a trash can, and then burn it all. Or maybe that’s just me…

Sing Sweet Nightingale is now completely through line edits and sitting in the copyeditor’s inbox, waiting for them to go through and tell me how bad I am at commas (which I already know). After one or two copyediting passes (I’m honestly not sure), then page proof, and then, I think, galleys? That is the point in time when I’ll actually be able to hold a book that I wrote in my hands. Something with a cover and a pretty layout and my name on multiple pages and OMG. I think I might start freaking out soon. And it’s not even here yet!

While I’m waiting on revisions on another project and copyedits from Spencer Hill, I’ve been jumping between reading and working on two different contemporary projects. Mostly, though, I’ve been trying to give my brain a little bit of a break before the insanity begins again with book 2 of The Dream War Saga.

So that’s it! That’s what’s happening in my life. Preparing for more edits and also for my upcoming trip west for the Vegas Valley Book Festival! I’m especially excited about that trip because I get to see my bestie Lani and my friend Vivi Barnes, whose book Olivia Twisted is out soon! If you’re going to be in the area, I hope you’ll swing by the festival on Saturday. I will have bookmarks to sign and maybe a copy or two of Doorways to Extra Time to give away.

And now, back to my regularly scheduled programming. Otherwise known as the day job… >.<

The final website move is done!

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Champagne Clink (c) Roger Kirby

Yay! Thanks to massive amounts of help from my friend Patrick, my errors have been fixed and both websites (byericacameron.com and thedreamwarsaga.com) have been moved to my new servers! At this point, there should really only be design changes. I think. I hope. If anything else does change, I think it will be behind the scenes stuff that (hopefully) won’t be noticeable from the world wide interwebs.

In other non-website news, yesterday was pretty fun. I got my hair cut and re-dyed and it’s OMG RED now! I love it. It’s pretty fabulous. Also, ALSO, when I came home from the salon, there was a package waiting for me at home! I had absolutely no clue what it was since I didn’t remember ordering anything. And when I opened it up I saw why. I GOT MY FIRST SET OF SING SWEET NIGHTINGALE BOOKMARKS!

Thanks to my awesome publisher Spencer Hill for the surprise! I have so many pretties now and no idea what to do with them yet! EEK! Once I figure it out, though, I’ll let you know.

That’s all for now! Time to go back and work. On a book or on day job stuff, I’m not sure… but I know I have something I should be doing… 😀

Keep Calm and Write On.

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Stepping Down (c) Craig Lucas

I’m finished with this round of edits on Sing Sweet Nightingale.

I’ve turned in the first draft of The Dream War Saga Book 2.

I’m waiting on revision notes on a project from my agent.

I’m on hold with my co-authored series while things happen. Good things.

Basically, I’m suddenly like an airplane that wants to come in to land but keeps being told by air traffic control to circle. It’s awesome because it means I have a lot going on and people who are willing to help me, but it also means I’m kind of at loose ends right now. Between projects. So… what do you do?

Start a new one. 🙂

The best thing to do in these situations is let a new idea take center stage for a little while or go back to an idea you maybe didn’t have the time to develop earlier. I have more than enough of the latter to keep me occupied, so right now I’m tinkering with a story involving a death, a conspiracy, and a lot of mystery. I’ve never written anything like it before, so it’s both difficult and fun to force my brain down meandering paths I’ve never traveled. I don’t know if this project will ever see THE END or if anyone except me will ever read it, but that doesn’t make the journey any less enjoyable.

One thing I think can be forgotten in the press to get published and to make a career of it and all that is that writers need to play. We need to write drafts that don’t work to figure out what does work. We need to meet characters we hate so we know how to write ones we’ll love. And we need to create stories for ourselves sometimes. Just because it seems like fun.

Maybe this book will one day sit on a shelf next to all my other ones. Maybe not. Right now, I’m not worried about that. Right now, I just want to see what happens next.

Progress and projects.

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Girls Read Book (c) Ned Horton

This weekend I did something I have never done before. I read Sing Sweet Nightingale in its entirety to my younger sister. Not that Haley couldn’t have read it herself, but she’s already read this book five or six times and I needed to read it aloud anyway for editing purposes. She hasn’t read the latest draft, so she volunteered to listen. Two birds and one stone and all that.

I already knew that reading text aloud can help you catch errors you wouldn’t see while reading silently (the human brain is such a strange place), but I wasn’t aware how much it could change your experience of your own book to read it to someone else. Moments that didn’t seem that amusing on the page are suddenly giggle-worthy and action sequences fly past as you read with the speed of a blow-by-blow fight commentator. The flip side is also possible, though. Moments you thought would be tear-jerking don’t come off with the same power as you thought they had or that dialogue you thought hid the massive exposition you needed to slip in doesn’t play it’s part as well as you’d hoped. Whatever the realization, good or bad, it’s worth the time and the slightly raw throat to read your book aloud. Preferably to an audience. Even if it’s an audience of one.

What this impromptu reading means in the larger scope of my life, though, is that I’m pretty much done with this round of edits! I’m waiting for one or two other beta readers to get back to me with notes (hopefully just to tell me I made all the right changes), then the draft goes back to the wonderful editresses for the next round! Line edits, I think. Which should be interesting. I’ve never done line edits before. It should be an experience, to say the least. The idea of examining each of my words with that much attention to detail is… daunting. In a good way, but daunting nonetheless.

I’m also nearing the time when I get to begin editing another project–something entirely different from anything else I have in the works and a project that I LOVE SO MUCH. The excitement level for this book is just, whoa. Love it. Things are happening with it and I really can’t wait to share more details, but for now, that’s it! Tis still in the works and up in the air, so I don’t want to say something now and have it not be true later. SEKRITS ARE FUN! Not really, but whatever. I have to pretend they are or I might go a little crazy. 😉

And, um… that’s it for now! Later, lovelies! <3

You may notice something different.

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Wow (c) David Siqueira

I’ve been considering it for a while and I have finally decided to just go for it. Blogger hasn’t been giving me the functionality I’ve wanted and Google has been making me a little mad by cutting out services I like (why kill the Reader, Google. Really?). Originally, I wanted to switch platforms and have a complete custom redesign along the way, but that isn’t going to happen right now. I want all the bells and whistles and I don’t have the money to pay for them. However, I found a WordPress template that has most of the features I wanted so I decided to switch to their free platform and hope for the best.

Thus, the new look! Also, you may notice that the URL at the top of the page is not quite as simplified as my old one. That’s one thing Blogger definitely does better than WordPress–custom domain names pointing to your site. You can still get here by typing byericacameron.com, but after that everything will be a little longer in the navigation bar. WordPress, if you’re listening, it’d be nice if you could fix that. I already pay for a domain name. I REALLY don’t want to pay you for the right to use it, too.

Other than the site switch, I’m still working on Sing Sweet Nightingale edits. Right now I’m about 100 pages from the end, but I think this round is going to take multiple passes and read throughs because of all the tiny tweaks I’m making. It’s been an interesting process. Well, the whole publication process has been a learning experience, but this is different. I’m not a details person, but I have to be now. I have to look at all the tiny questions I never answered–never really considered–and make it all fit. Here’s hoping I pull it off!

Also, let me know what you think about the site! I may change the background if I find one I like more, but this one is kind of cool. Are those darker blue shapes flowers? Are the the silhouettes of skulls? WHO KNOWS? I don’t. 😉