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Stay Calm/Smile Anyway

Dayo Benson

Hey guys,

I’ve been busting my butt to get Allies (Crystal 4) ready for publication on 1st of May, and guess what? It still hasn’t been returned by my editor. But you know what? I refuse to go into panic mode. In fact, I’m feeling pretty calm, and I’m smiling–although that may have something to do with the fact that I’m eating Duck Vermicelli from my favourite Chinese Restaurant.

I’m actually feeling all compassionate towards this editor. Who knows, she might have had some kind of tragedy, or she might be unwell, or she might just hate my book so much that she really can’t make herself read and edit it. I have been an editor myself, and sometimes still take on editing work so I know how hard it is, and how tedious it can be. So, honestly, I’m feeling compassionate.

Image result for not stressedAnd I’m not going to stress because if I miss the deadline, at least I’ll know never to tell people what my publication date is anymore.

When I get a book back from an editor, I go through each change they have made one at a time and review it, deciding whether to accept it or reject it. This is a painstaking process and takes a while. I then read the whole book. Doing these two things can easily take two weeks, but these days I limit myself to a week at most, and three days at least. I need the book back by tomorrow (Saturday). If I don’t get it tomorrow, only God knows when it’ll get published.

You know what, the more I think about this the more I’m glad I have my Duck Vermicelli to comfort me.

Please pray for my editor to respond.

Thanks xx

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Book Update/Cover Reveal: Allies (Crystal 4)

Dayo Benson

Hi Everyone,

Quick update on what I’m doing and why I’ve been so quiet blogging-wise:

I’m Currently Writing: Sleeper (Crystal 7).

I’ve flown through the writing stage for most of the books in Crystal’s series, but this one is taking me longer than necessary. I’m on my third week writing it. I should be able to finish it by Saturday. Sometimes I forget how early on in the series my readers are, because obviously I know what’s going to happen a lot further down the line, and when people contact me about the series I have to remind myself that they’ve only read books 1 – 3 and not give away any spoilers. I really can’t wait to get the whole series out for everyone to read it all. I think it’s pretty fun and exciting, but had deep spiritual messages too. I was worried I wouldn’t do it justice before I started the series, but I’m pretty proud of how it’s turning out.

I’m Currently Editing: Allies (Crystal 4)

Allies_500x750I’m hoping this will be out on 1st May. Fingers crossed/pray for me. I’m trying hard to get it ready by then. Here’s the unofficial/unedited synopsis–I don’t think it’s going to change:

Crystal never wanted anyone to get hurt…

But her team of ex-SOT rebels was dealt a near-fatal blow after their first assignment. It’s been two weeks and Crystal still cannot push away the pain of her team’s devastating loss until the support of a business coalition and news of new havoc that the SOT is wreaking in the country rekindles her hunger for the SOT’s downfall.

Crystal never wanted to fall for Juda…

Between masterminding missions and infiltrating nefarious meetings, Crystal doesn’t have time for her strange attraction to Juda. He’s not the right guy for her, and he never will be. But sometimes, it seems fighting the SOT is much easier than fighting her conflicted feelings for Juda.

All she wants is to find a weak spot in the SOT, see them crumble, and then get back to living a normal life. But nothing is ever straightforward. Is it?

***I had such a ball writing this book 🙂 ***

Random Info

I am doing really badly with my New Year’s reasolutions. One of them was to cut down on sugar, but I’m even worse than usual now, eating sweets all the time. Today I bought a pack of 15 macaroons (I’ve never bought macaroons before today!!!) and I’ve eaten 7 already. I can’t believe myself. I hope you’re doing better with your resolutions than I am. Not really sure why I felt the need to share that. I guess it’s bugging me, lol.

Anyway…

If you want to receive an email alert as soon as it’s out (or as soon as I publish anything) CLICK HERE to sign up.

God bless,

Dayo x

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Out Now: Insurrection (Crystal 3)

Dayo Benson

Insurrection_Amazon etcHappy Saturday!

Insurrection (Crystal 3) is out now. I hope you’ll check it out. If you haven’t started Crystal’s series yet, book 1, Searchlight, is currently free at all online retailers.

You can view my Pinterest board for this series here. It’s ‘in progress’ so if you see any pictures that you think I should pin to the board let me know. I’m looking for a picture that would suit Luke’s character. He’s probably the hardest to ‘cast’.

As always, if you’re reading this series, get in touch to let me know what you think. I’d appreciate your feedback.

**Get your copy of Insurrection (Crystal 3) at Amazon UK, Amazon US, iTunes & Smashwords

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Pinterest – Check out the Crystal Series Cast

Dayo Benson

CrystalSocial Media really isn’t one of my strong points. I have Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts, but post only once in a blue moon. Ya’ll probably didn’t know I was on Pinterest, did you? I’m most active on Twitter, but I post book covers on Facebook, and I have started adding more pins on Pinterest. The picture on the right is the pin i chose for Crystal. I’m finding that I quite like Pinterest. The pictures of food…mmm. They make me salivate. It’s torture.

Anyway, I have 3 boards on Pinterest. Actually I have lots of boards, but only three of them are public. One of them is for my Crystal Series. It only has nine pins on it so far, but I’m going to try and add two pins a week. Let’s hope I do that, because I know I’m no good with social media. If you’ve already read Searchlight, feel free to check it out HERE. If you haven’t read the series, don’t look. Honestly, you need to form your own mental picture for each of the characters so please don’t look 🙂

***If anyone wants to add pins, let me know (dayo.benson@ymail.com) and I’ll give you access.***

I’m planning to do boards for all my other books too. The Beauty for Ashes Series will be hard as some people are in love with Jace Washington so I probably won’t be able to get someone that makes everyone happy, lol. Oh, and just to let you know, my boards are ‘safe.’ I cropped out washboard abs and the like. Faces only, ha ha.

Writing update

I finished writing Allies (Crystal 4) on Saturday morning. I was happy, but I didn’t get the rush I’ve gotten each time I’ve finished a book in the past. I was just like ‘next’ and created the file for the next book, which I started writing this morning. I want the rush back 🙁

Publishing update

I’m going to try and get Insurrection (Crystal 3) published sometime this week. Sorry for the delay.

Dayo xx

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I can finally call myself a bestselling author!

Dayo Benson

Every author wants their book to be number 1. It’s like a reward for all your hard work, and it’s probably an ego thing too.

So, anyway, back in August I was updating my goals for this year. I rarely share my writing goals with anyone. I know some authors blog about theirs, but if a goal is really important to me I won’t tell a soul about it. I added a couple of goals to my list, and one of them was:

To make it to number one in the Christian Fiction category on Amazon (either UK or US) by December 2015
At first I wrote 2014, but then I thought that wasn’t realistic, so I changed the 4 to a 5. Well, obviously my words went straight from my lips to God’s ears because Surrender (Crystal 2) is number one in two of it’s categories on Amazon UK!!!

Surrender no.1 ranking bigger

And it has a cool little tag when it’s listed in search results that says ‘the no.1 bestseller.’

Surrender no.1 best seller bigger

It’s probably because I chose a different category for this book. I’ve put it under Christian YA. Maybe that’s not as competitive? The only big Christian YA author I know is Melody Carlson, and she’s so good at what she does. Anyway, I’ll be wearing a huge maniacal smile for the rest of today 🙂

I’ve been publishing independently since July 2011 and none of my books have ever been number 1 in their category. There is just too much competition, especially in Christian fiction where the big names are very well established and people don’t want to deviate from them because they represent the finest in Christian fiction.

Last year I had a bit of a wobble and thought I needed to be more like Karen Kingsbury and Francine Rivers, so I started my Pure Passion Series. I had a ball writing Lust, but by the time I was moving on to book 2 in the series, Bondage, my edginess (some may call it weirdness) was back and that book had violence, rituals and a cult. I had another series lined up, called the Restoration series, which is all about married couples. I started to write it and I just thought, ‘Why am I doing this?’ Again I was trying to be a hybrid of Kingsbury and Rivers, so I decided to leave that series for a while.

I’m still finding my feet as a writer, and not having a publisher means that I can write whatever I want. So, I will probably still try to imitate the big names in Christian fiction in future (after all, they are amazing and talented), but I will also do my own thing, too. Crystal’s series is my own thing. I’m just being me and writing what I want, and thankfully my readers are supporting it. You guys got Surrender to no.1 in its category, and I am so thrilled.

Christmas has definitely come early for me. I can now call myself a no.1 bestselling author 🙂

Dayo.

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Out Now: Surrender (Crystal 2)

Dayo Benson

Surrender (Crystal 2)Hi everyone,

Surrender (Crystal 2) is out now: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Smashwords (it’ll be everywhere else soon). I love how the final cover turned out.

I’m feeling pretty festive, so if you post a book review for Searchlight (Crystal 1) on any of the online bookstores or review sites (Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, etc.) I’ll send you a free PDF of Surrender. Just email me and let me know that you’ve posted a review. My email address is dayo.benson@ymail.com.

(By the way the first book, Searchlight, is free in some places, like Smashwords).

People (readers) tell me I’m no good at writing book descriptions so I hope you guys have noticed that I’ve actually put in more effort with the book descriptions for this series, ha ha. I’ve read that the description should sound like a movie trailer (huh?). To be honest, I find writing these little descriptions harder than writing the actual book 🙂

Here it is:

Everyone has a limit…
…and Crystal is steadily getting closer to hers. She thought she could escape the SOT, but now they have her and there seems to be no way out. Some people think she has everything, but she knows she has nothing. Is she ever going to break free? And is the mysterious Juda a friend or foe?

Everyone is scared of something…
…and fear is the worst enemy of all. Crystal wants to hold on, but her fears enable the SOT to drag her to darker depths than she ever thought possible; depths from which she must claw her way back if she is ever going to regain her freedom.

The pressure is on, and Crystal must either fight or be broken. It all comes down to one question: Who will she surrender to?

Get your copy at Amazon UK, Amazon US & Smashwords.

Blessings,

Dayo.

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Cover Reveal: Surrender (Crystal 2)

Dayo Benson

Surrender2bI’m so excited today because I just received an ‘in progress’ version of my next book cover. I think it’s fab. It’s not the final version, as the designer is still working on it, but the final version won’t be hugely different. I think the model’s face might just be shadowed more as I like to leave how my character looks to the reader’s imagination.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to message me about ‘Searchlight’, I really appreciate it because Crystal’s series is a new direction for me. If you haven’t read it yet, what are you waiting for? It’s on Amazon UK, Amazon US and B&N (and lots of other places).

Surrender will be out once the designer finishes with the cover. Here’s the synopsis:

Everyone has a limit…

…and Crystal is steadily getting closer to hers. She thought she could escape the SOT, but now they have her and there seems to be no way out. Some people think she has everything, but she knows she has nothing. Is she ever going to break free? And is the mysterious Juda a friend or foe?

Everyone is scared of something…

…and fear is the worst enemy of all. Crystal wants to hold on, but her fears enable the SOT to drag her to darker depths than she ever thought possible; depths from which she must claw her way back if she is ever going to regain her freedom.

The pressure is on, and Crystal must either fight or be broken. It all comes down to one question: Who will she surrender to?

By the way it’s Christmas next week. Are you guys ready? I still have presents to buy; never organised, *sigh*.

Blessings.

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Cover Reveal: Searchlight (Crystal 1)

Dayo Benson

searchlightSo, I finally have cover for Searchlight (Crystal 1). I didn’t want a bright cover because that could cause people to think they’re getting a light ‘easy’ read when the book is actually pretty dark in places.

Searchlight should be out over the next few days. If you’re on my email list you’ll get an email alert. If you’re not on my email list Click Here and sign up so that you’ll get the alert.

I’m sending book 2 in the series to my editor tomorrow. I finished my own ‘self-edit’ of it yesterday and I asked myself: if someone else wrote this, what would my verdict be? And guess what, I really couldn’t answer. If I hadn’t written it, I would have been scared reading it because there are some intense scenes and I’m a bit of a wimp (seriously I can’t even watch anything above a 12a). So, I honestly don’t know how I can write dark stuff.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself talking about book 2 when I haven’t even published book 1 yet. Book 1 will be out this week.

What do you think of the cover?

Blessings xx

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Announcing…Searchlight

Dayo Benson

SearchlightGuys,

I’ll come to what the picture to the left represents in a minute. First a quick update: I haven’t been blogging much because I’ve been doing so much writing. I’ve noticed that when I’m writing a lot, I blog less. I guess the writing fulfills my need for creativity and I have nothing left to put into a blog. I’ve hit a few 10,000 word days over the past two and a half months. My record is 11,352 words in a day 🙂 I’m so loving it.

Anyway, I finished 4 books, and I started the fifth book, then stopped and thought, ‘I need to publish the first four’. My husband was like ‘yes, stop writing and start editing the books you’ve written and get them out there.’ So that’s what I’m doing.

I was editing Pressure (Book 4 of Pure Passion Series), but I’ve put it aside. Something is just not going well between me and that book. The last book I was like this with was Blurred Vision (Drew Ashley 2). I’m just not feeling Pressure. I think it’s a good book, and the message behind it is strong, and the character arc (the transformation the main character goes through) is heavy. And the male lead is lovely. But, I’ve set it aside for when I have the mental strength to face it.

So, I started editing ‘Searchlight’ which is book 1 of Crystal’s books. The image above is the image I think my husband is going to use for the books cover–I absolutely love it because it really represents the book. Remember Crystal? Lexi’s daughter? She was a child in the Beauty for Ashes series, but she’s grown up now. I have written the first three books of her series, and I’m 18,000 words into book 4. I’ve decided to stop and get books 1 to 3 out. I finished editing book 1 on Saturday and I’ve sent it to an editor, so it should be out in November.

Let me just warn you. Crystal’s series is dark. Searchlight (Book 1) is dark-ish. Surrender (Book 2) is extremely dark. I haven’t read Surrender yet, so I might change my opinion when I do that. But writing it was hard, and slightly painful. But I didn’t hold back because there are people out there who go through worse things that what Crystal went through. Don’t worry, it’s not domestic abuse like what Lexi went through. It’s SOT- related.

When I finished writing the Beauty for Ashes series, I got a number of emails from people wanting to know more about the SOT. Crystal’s series is all about the SOT. If you remember her as a toddler in Red Carpet and Refiner’s Fire, she liked to sing. Well, now she’s 18 and she’s in a band, and the SOT want her. Book one of the series is about the SOT forcing her to join them. Book two is about her trying to get out of the SOT. Books 3 – 7 are about her, and a bunch of ex-SOT members that leave with her, trying to bring down the SOT. The series is cross-genre: YA, NA, action/adventure, romance, suspense. It will be a gritty read.

If you’ve read Bondage (Pure Passion Series, Book 2), I kind of wrote that in preparation for writing this series. I wanted to see how people would respond to the cult and the dark themes. Crystal’s series is a bit similar to Bondage.

Anyway, I’ll stop going on about it. Here’s the synopsis for Searchlight (unedited):

A heart-rending tragedy. A passionate love. A firm resolution.

Ambition
For as long as Crystal remembers, she has wanted to be a singer.
For as long as she remembers, her parents have feared the SOT, a celebrity cult that will make you famous, but destroy you in the process.
When Luke, leader of the SOT, sets his sights on Crystal will Crystal have the courage to stand her ground, or will she give in?

Destruction
After the SOT deal a deadly blow, Crystal has no choice but to obey their orders to sign up for Searchlight. Searchlight is the biggest talent show on TV. With the SOT’s backing, Crystal could win, but is she willing to pay the price? When she unexpectedly finds love, she is afraid to pursue it for fear that darkly handsome Juda could become an SOT target, too.
At Searchlight, her dreams and nightmares collide. According to Juda, it’s the darkest places that need light the most, but the SOT is much darker than Crystal imagined.

Heartbreak
Not everything is what it seems to be, and not everyone is who they say they are. Crystal is tough, but she’s only human. There’s only so much heartache and betrayal one girl can take.
Then she is tested, and she is forced to make a choice.
It’s a choice between light and darkness.
Good and evil.
Faith and despair.
But choosing God, might mean choosing death.

The SOT is back, and this time they mean business! Lexi escaped. Will her daughter, Crystal?

***Fans of the popular Beauty for Ashes Series, by the same author, will love this new novel, which focuses on supermodel, Lexi Washington’s daughter.***

You will be shocked. You will be drawn in. You will be entertained. The only thing you won’t be is bored.

Let me know what you think guys. I get told that my book descriptions are boring, so we tried to switch things up a bit for this one. Tried to make it sound more like a movie trailer, lol. Does it work?

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Stuck!

Dayo Benson

ImageI’ve been writing the next book in my Pure Passion series, Pressure, since March, which for me is pretty miserable. I can’t believe how long it’s taking me. Ever since I wrote one of my books, Refiner’s Fire, in three weeks, I find that I get impatient with myself if a book takes me longer than six weeks to write. I also get fed up of the book and it becomes a uphill task. Not that I don’t care about the characters in Pressure, or don’t find their story absorbing. I really do. I’m just stuck. There are people who don’t believe in writer’s block, they think it’s just an excuse for laziness. On the other hand there are people who blame writer’s block for every lapse in concentration that they have while writing a novel. I’m not really sure where I stand. I wouldn’t call what I’m going through now a ‘block’ as each time I sit down to write, the words do flow pretty easily; it’s just that I’m fed up with myself for not finishing this book sooner. I have definitely been blocked before though. When I was writing Lust I had about a three-week period where I really couldn’t write and I wasn’t sure why. That was pretty scary.

Anyway, I don’t have a cover for Pressure yet. Maybe that’s why it’s taking so long for me to write. Maybe I need something visual that represents the book and will inspire me to be passionate about it again. I don’t have a book description yet, either. But here’s a summary:

Pressure is the story of a young woman called Brooke who is controlled by her parents and is being made to marry some guy that she doesn’t want to marry. She runs away to Bridgefield the day before the wedding and her parents are furious, especially because the guys she’s jilted is the son of some big shot preacher. They want her to come back and marry the guy, but Brooke meets someone else in Bridgefield. His name is James Cassidy. And he’s been jilted before. A few years ago, his fiancé didn’t show up for their wedding and she ran off with his friend. So he likes Brooke, but will he still like her when he finds out that she jilted some guy, or will he think she’s just like his ex-fiancé, not to be trusted?

Pressure is all about a young woman getting to know God for herself, rather than just accepting what her parents have told her about God. There’s a lot of conflict around whether she has to obey her parents and break up with James, or disobey them and stay with him. Then, there’s also an element of faith vs. fear as Brooke has a lot of fears in her life that she has to deal with. Also, James is famous, but Brooke has no idea who he is until someone says words to the effect of ‘that’s James Cassidy. You don’t know who James Cassidy is?’ Oh, and the guy that Brooke jilted, his name is Darren by the way, tries to get revenge.

This is not really a good summary at all. There’s quite a lot that happens in the book. I think my problem is that I’m getting distracted by the next series I’m going to write (which is about Lexi’s daughter, Crystal, and is pretty exciting). I’ll share the cover for Pressure when it’s ready. I’m at 92,000 words. I guess all I need to write is another 10-15,000 words and I’ll be done. Pray for me 🙂

Blessings.