Hello friends! I’ve been hard at work revising Riftmaker, and I just turned it over to the editing team at Our Write Side. It’s always a great feeling to get something done, but nerve-wracking to see if there is still more work to do.
In the meantime, I am continuing to get ready for the launch on Valentine’s Day by working on the blurb. Unlike a summary, which can be several pages long and gives everything away, the back of book blurb needs to be very short and hint at the characters, conflict, and stakes of a story. Plus, I’ve got to take the tone and my young adult audience’s preferences and expectations into consideration. In short, blurbs are no easy task!
I’ve been workshopping the text below with my faithful launch team (if you want to join us on Facebook, let me know!), but you can never get too much feedback. If you have suggestions or just want to give it your seal of approval, please leave me a comment.
Blurb for Riftmaker:
Save his boy, uncover a conspiracy, and master opposable thumbs–a dog’s work is never done.
Buddy’s favorite thing is curling up for a nap at the foot of Ethan’s bed. Then he stumbles through a portal to a clockwork city plagued by chimeras, and everything changes… Well, not everything. Sure, his new human body comes with magic powers, but he’d still rather nap than face the people of Excelsior, who harbor both desire and fear when it comes to “the other side.”
Buddy discovers Ethan followed him through the portal and underwent his own transformation, and it becomes his doggone duty to save him. He finds unlikely allies in an aristocrat with everything on the line, a mechanic with something to hide, and a musician willing to do anything to protect her. Using a ramshackle flying machine, the group follows the chimeras deep into the forest and uncovers a plot that could reshape the worlds on both sides of the rift.
Phoebe Darqueling 
Good day to you, Milady. It is, of course, impossible to judge the aptness of the blurb without knowing the book, but the feel I get from this is a “cute” narrative that might be a children’s story. If that isn’t what you’re after, don’t panic, and don’t make any changes based on one guy’s opinion. I’m generally regarded as dumber than a sack of hammers, so be sure to get some more, wiser, opinions. I’ll link this on my blog Sunday, and maybe we can bring in a few extra eyes. Good to see your writing moving along. Wishing you all the best with this and all your projects!
LikeLike
Thanks, Jack 🙂 It is a YA novel, but with the main character as a dog who becomes a human, he has a very childlike wonder about the world.
LikeLiked by 1 person