Crystal Series Uncategorized Upcoming Book , , , , ,

Survey: What do you want to read next?

Dayo Benson

confused cartoon downloadGuys, I’ve been working on my 2016 books, and I just have too many ideas; it’s hard to decide what to do. I’m praying about what projects to focus on in 2016, and I would also like some feedback from you about what you would like to read next. I’ve thrown together a questionnaire, and I would so much appreciate you taking a few minutes to complete it. There are only 9 questions.

Please click here to access the survey.

Thank you in advance for your response 🙂

And thank you for taking Sleeper to no. 1 in its category on Amazon UK and no. 3 in its category on Amazon US. I’m totally overwhelmed 🙂

Quick update, I’m working on editing Powerful Enemies (Crystal 8). It’s a long book, the longest of the series so far, so I know I have to cut it down and sharpen the prose. I also have a 7.5 book called ‘Wedding Kidnap’ which I will be releasing in a week or two. After Powerful Enemies will come Legacy (Crystal 9) and that will be the end for the Crystal Series. I’ve had a blast writing the books and I’m so glad many of you are enjoying them.

After I finished writing the Beauty for Ashes series, I felt a little sad at saying ‘bye’ to those characters, but I was mostly relieved. I was sick of the books because Raw Deal had been on my laptop for six years, as had rough outlines for Red Carpet and Refiner’s fire. I’d read Raw Deal over and over for six years before publishing it. I really wanted to move on to new books and characters. With the Crystal series, the idea was in my mind for a few years before I started writing it last year, but it was pretty vague until I started writing. Because I only started writing the series last year, the series and characters still feel new-ish to me. I feel like I could easily write another ten books about them. But I have other characters in my mind too, whose stories I want to tell, and other ideas I want to explore.

I’m still trying to work out my ‘author brand’ and determine where I fit in the marketplace. My books are all too different from each other. I have both romance and supernatural suspense books; books about adults and YA/NA books; books with white main characters and books with black main characters. At the moment I just categorize my books on a book-by-book basis.

I guess, I just like the freedom of writing about whoever and whatever I want. I’m an independent author, so why not? If I had a publisher there is no way I could write the Beauty for Ashes Series and then follow it with the Pure Passion Series. Neither would I be able to write sweet romance and then follow it with a series about a cult. Only the biggest authors are allowed to genre-hop, and even then, not very much.

Anyway, I’m thinking about my brand so that readers know what to expect from me. A lot of my readers are so sweet and have followed me as I’ve genre-hopped all over the place, but I want to settle down now, enough playing the literary field (ha ha). I want people to know what to expect when they pick up a book by me. Denise Hunter has been my favorite author for a while, probably because she writes sweet romances that relax me. I can’t read anything too suspenseful while I’m writing suspenseful books myself. It’ll be suspense overload. I know what to expect from Denise Hunter. I know what to expect from Francine Rivers. With most authors you know what to expect. I’d be completely shocked if I opened a Denise Hunter book and there were angels in it? If I wanted angels I’d go to Frank Peretti. So, I think brand is important. I’m praying about it. I wonder if my brand can be that I have no brand, and that I’m unpredictable, lol.

Please don’t forget to complete my short survey. Here’s the link again.

Have a great week.

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Out Now: Sleeper (Crystal 7)

Dayo Benson

First of all, I have to mention what happened in Paris on Friday. It’s devastating, and I pray that God comforts all who are bereaved 🙁

On to some happier news, Sleeper (Crystal 7) is out! Get your copy at: Amazon UK, Amazon US & Smashwords (Coming soon to B&N, ITunes & Kobo).

sleeperBefore You Read Sleeper – You need to read Exposé. There was a link to it inside Secrets. If you didn’t download it you can do so here. Sleeper talks about an important list of names, but you won’t know anything about that unless you read Exposé.

Here’s the back cover blurb for Sleeper:

Have you ever loved a man who was bad for you?

Crystal knew all along that loving Juda was foolish. Something has to give. Either Juda changes or there is no hope.

The more Juda fights his father’s organization alongside Crystal, the more he’s drawn to her and the faith that he has seen defeat his father’s occultism. But he cannot change. He has done too much and gone too far.

When Crystal is in danger of being killed by an assassin that Luke has sent after all the notable Christians in the country, Juda is desperate to keep her safe. But he sinks into oblivion each night when the assassin strikes.

It soon becomes clear that Luke is pulling out all the stops to get Juda back. Juda’s options are limited. Either he goes deeper into the occult to save both himself and Crystal from Luke’s plans, or he loses everything.

Crystal thinks there is a third option, but becoming a Christian is not an option for Juda. God doesn’t want people like Juda. And when Crystal finds out his secret, she won’t either.

Juda has to make a choice.

The biggest choice of his life.

What will he do?

I have literally been getting bombarded for the release of Sleeper 🙂 It started almost as soon as I published Secrets (Crystal 6). I think I got the first few messages asking about Sleeper the day after Secrets was released. A few people had stayed up all night and read Secrets & Exposé and immediately wanted more. I’m loving how much people are enjoying this series. And it’s all kinds of people that are enjoying it, older people, young people, men, people from all over the world. The best thing about it is talking to readers from other countries e.g. South Africa, the Caribbean, America, India, and many more places. I’ve even had a Costa Rican lady get in touch to put me straight about some of the things Alejandro (our beloved womanizing Costa Rican fashion designer) says. The Crystal series is 9 books long, so I’m really glad we’ve gotten to book 7 and so many people are still invested in the story.

Sleeper is a make-or-break book for Juda. In Secrets, Luke and Abha did something to him, but he didn’t know what. He finds out in this book. But is it too late when he finds out? Also, he didn’t tell Crystal his secret in the last book. Will he have the courage to tell her in Sleeper? And then President Hounslow sent them that message at the end of Secrets, asking the team to do something shocking. Will they pull it off?

Get your copy today and find out: Amazon UK, Amazon US & Smashwords .

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Big Sigh – Update on Secrets (Crystal 6)

Dayo Benson

sighYes, as I sat down to write this post I sighed heavily. Because I feel really bad. Secrets was supposed to be out in August. Today is August 31st. As at Friday I was still optimistic that it would be ready, but it’s not. I guess I could release it as it is, but I’m not happy to do that. I need to feel confident as I push the button on Amazon that I’m putting out the best product I can.

I feel really bad for the people who message me almost weekly asking when the next Crystal book will be out, so I’m going to add a little bonus to the book as a sort of ‘thank you for being so patient.’ You’ll find out what it is when I release the book. It’s just a little extra to say thank you.

Bear with me guys. Things happen. You go to the hospital for a routine check up and get told you’re not allowed to leave and need an urgent x-ray and then they make you stay overnight and stab you with needles (yes, that happened to me last week on the day I arranged to be off work so that I could focus on putting the finishing touches to Secrets. I’m fine though, thanks for asking 🙂 ), editors get busy moving house and can’t work on your book as fast as they usually do (yes, that happened this month too), beta readers hate elements of the story and you have to rethink everything (ha, ha, I love my beta readers. I used to be very thin-skinned but they’ve toughened me up).

Life is all fun and games isn’t it? How on earth do people do it without God? That’s what I was wondering as I sat grumpily on a hospital bed a few days ago. As soon as the doctors told me they weren’t letting me leave I just began to pray on all the scriptures I could find about health and healing. And then I wondered what people who don’t have God do. If they’re Juda I guess they try to heal themself, ha ha. If they’re Alejandro I guess they call up a woman. Can’t really think what Max would do.

secrets5So…it’ll be a few more days before Secrets hits the virtual shelves at all the online retailers. But I hope the bonus I’m going to slip into the book will make it easier for you to forgive that 🙂 Make sure you’re on my new release list so that you get an email alert as soon as it’s out. Join my list by Clicking Here.

By the way, some people have already pretty much guessed what Juda’s secret is. I didn’t approve their comments on this site so that they don’t ruin the story for those of you who haven’t guessed. What do you think Juda’s secret it?

God bless.

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Cover Reveal: Secrets (Crystal 6)

Dayo Benson

secrets5The cover for Secrets (Crystal 5) is finally ready!!

I’m so excited about this book because you get into Juda’s dark mind for the first time, and it was a challenge to write from his POV. He’s tortured, troubled and constantly second-guessing himself because he doesn’t know if he’s acting/thinking in a ‘normal’ acceptable way or not. Since meeting Crystal, he is desperately away of his abnormality and it’s a struggle for him.

It shouldn’t be too long now before the book is ready. Here’s the description:

Two unlikely people. An undeniable passion. A devastating secret.

Two passions consume Crystal: vengeance over the SOT, and love for Juda. Nothing may ever come of either.

Juda feels connected to Crystal in a way he has never felt with anyone before. But a devastating secret holds him back. Crystal may be the most forgiving person he’s ever known, but even she would never forgive him if she finds out what he did.

Some things are best kept secret.

But can he live with himself if he doesn’t tell her?

Christian Living , , ,

Realistic Romance (Part 2)

Dayo Benson

man proposingPornography gives men an unrealistic view of women and objectifies us. Most women are not desperate for their man 24/7, don’t wait eagerly to rip of his clothes every evening when he gets home, and aren’t cool with swinging from the chandeliers every night (ha ha). Porn is simply fantasy. I guess that’s why it’s so addictive. And I’m in no way assuming that only men watch it. Seriously, both genders struggle.

On the flip side, romance books and movies often objectify men. Have you noticed that? The men that star in them are usually hot and hunky (it’s like a pre-requisite) and they are just there to adore the heroine, or love and support her while she takes out all her childhood issues on him and punishes him for every mistake that every other man before him made. Sometimes I think romance books are as unrealistic about men as porn is about women. I might have to write a book with a totally ‘unattractive’ (by Hollywood standards) love interest who doesn’t work out and might even be overweight. But I’ll might him sound really cool and romantic 🙂

As a writer, I constantly think about things like this. I tell myself, Dayo, you need to be proud of what you’ve written when you stand before God. You need to be able to present all your books to Him and tell Him you wrote them because you love Him and because you want other people to love Him more too. And God is the author of romance, right?

So…I strive for balance with the romance in my books, but I wonder if the romance I portray and the romance we all experience in real life is anywhere near as cool and pure and exhilarating as what God intended romance to be. So the dilemma is, should the romance I write be perfect and amazing and totally unrealistic since God probably intended romance to be better than what we experience anyway? Or should I write the reality of what most romance is like, easy and fun in the beginning, but in need of more effort to keep it going?

Just thinking out loud.

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Writing Update/What should I Write Next?

Dayo Benson

heroine silhouetteI haven’t given a writing update for a while because I was hoping to have a book cover first so that I can do a cover reveal, but I figured I might as well just go ahead without a book cover. (The picture to the left is just random. You can ignore it if you want).

I’m Currently Editing: Secrets (Crystal 6)

I sent it to my beta readers this morning so they should all get back to me within a week and then it can go for its final edit. It’s on schedule to release in August. But cover design is hard for this one. If anything is going to hold up publication it’ll be the cover design because we’re having a few issues with it.

You finally get Juda’s point of view in this book. You get into his head and see all his dark and confused thoughts. It’s not pretty. He’s tried to be a little sweet and romantic in previous books, but…well. Wait and see. I hope no one will be scared. Here’s the book description:

Two unlikely people. An undeniable passion. A devastating secret.

Two passions consume Crystal: vengeance over the SOT, and love for Juda. Nothing may ever come of either.

Juda feels connected to Crystal in a way he has never felt with anyone before. But a devastating secret holds him back. Crystal may be the most forgiving person he’s ever known, but even she would never forgive him if she finds out what he did.

Some things are best kept secret.

But can he live with himself if he doesn’t tell her?

I’m Currently writing: Nothing 🙁

I finished writing The Lincoln Manifesto on Tuesday, and I had so much fun writing it. But it’s been four days since then and I haven’t decided what to write next. Too many ideas, not enough time…

What is ‘The Lincoln Manifesto’ I hear you ask, lol. Well, it’s the first book in a new series that is set in the same world as the Crystal Series and the Beauty for Ashes series. In fact, I have ideas for three more series set in that world.

I’ve received a few messages from readers asking what’s next after the Crystal series. The Crystal series isn’t even all out yet? But it’s nice that people are already getting withdrawal symptoms at the prospect of it ending.

I have been thinking about what to release after it. All the Crystal series books have been written, so I’ve been brainstorming a couple of follow-on series.

Here’s the lowdown:

Idea 1 – A series of books about the Lincolns. The Lincoln Manifesto that I just finished writing is the prequel to that series. I can’t tell you who the Lincolns are because it’ll be a spoiler for something that is yet to be revealed in the Crystal series. But just think, Luke’s surname is Lincoln. So is Juda’s. (hint hint). This series will be standalone romance books, each with a bad boy main man. Think the current ‘billionaire bad boy’ trend in fiction.

Idea 2 – A team is set up by the FBI specifically to fight crime by craft practitioners. The team is headed up by a badass assassin lady who is in conflict with herself and as a result no guy who tries to get her attention gets very far. Naturally she will probably fall for a practitioner and have even more internal conflict over the fact that the nation is trusting her to protect them from dangerous practitioners, and she can’t get her mind off some practitioner guy with broody dark eyes. (Bear with me, I think I’m brainstorming live in this blog post). Insert evil super-powerful practitioners who do evil things and make badass lady realize she needs more than assassin expertise to overcome them; she needs Jesus too. And maybe she needs Jesus so that she can deal with her issues. And why on earth is she an assassin anyway? Does God want people to be assassins? Now that she’s saved does she need to give up her job and forget the practitioner guy who has pretty eyes, or does God have a purpose for her job, and can practitioner guy get saved? Insert handsome saved guy to cause love-triangle-type conflict. Assassin lady doesn’t know who to choose. She retires and moves away to get away from both guys and all the confusion. Insert big scary plot by practitioners which forces assassin lady to come out of retirement to fight again. Insert lots of explosions, car chases and broody guys and rival women.

Hmm…I’m thinking I’ll have to read some famous assassin books to see how a series like this would work.

Idea 3 – The Crystal saga continues. After the end of the Crystal series, there will be some closure about which guy she ends up with and about whether she succeeds in bringing down the SOT. But this new series will start a year after the final Crystal book and there will be a fresh challenge that is bigger than ever before. There will be angst, there will be craft magic thrown around, practitioners might succeed in ushering in ‘Neo Cosmos’, the rapture might even happen. Nah, I’m not having the rapture happen in a book.

Anyway, those are a few of my ideas. You can tell that my mind is a strange and wonderful place. To be honest I want to write all three of these series. But in what order? What do readers want most? I also want to write other things that are not set in the world of Crystal and Lexi, etc. Like normal books that don’t have any practitioners or supernatural things. I will have to send out a survey when the Crystal series ends and see what you all want. In the meantime you can email me or leave a comment below.

God bless.

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Out Now: Delirium (Crystal 5)

Dayo Benson

Hi Everyone,

Delirium (Crystal 5) is out now. Just in case you’ve missed my previous blog posts about it, here’s the book description.

A frantic race against time

A cocktail of dangerous SOT-made drugs has been released into the water supply, and everyone is going nuts…

The SOT’s plans seem to be coming together nicely; while nothing that Crystal’s team is doing seems to work. With the opening of new spirit centers all over the country to ‘combat’ the effect of the contaminated water supply, America is falling prey to the SOT’s agenda. Can Crystal and her team create an antidote before it’s too late?

***

It’s ten thirty p.m. in the UK, where I live, so although I’d like to say more, I’m just too tired and it’ll probably not make much sense 🙂

Buy the book and have fun reading it.

Have a lovely night (or day, if you live elsewhere).

God bless xx

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Cover Reveal: Delirium (Crystal 5)

Dayo Benson

Happy New Month Everyone!

Delirium2c The release of Delirium is fast approaching. I was thinking July 1st, but it might even be before then 🙂 I’m a little apprehensive about Delirium because readers finally get into Alejandro’s head, woohoo, and it’s a pretty weird place. Alejandro is a womanizer with a one track mind, but this series is still supposed to be ‘clean’ and Christian, lol.

Delirium follows Crystal and the team as they create an antidote to the drugs in the water and then try to get their antidote released to the nation. It also follows Alejandro as he tries to seduce older married women, including Crystal’s mom, Lexi. The challenge when I was writing this book was to keep Alejandro’s character authentic without going too far, since he’s not a Christian, he can be pretty crude, and he thinks about sex pretty much constantly. I think I did an okay job and managed to strike the right balance. I’m sure you’ll all tell me if I didn’t, lol. But you have been forewarned. There’s nothing graphic so don’t worry. Anyway, here’s the synopsis:

A frantic race against time

A cocktail of dangerous SOT-made drugs has been released into the water supply, and everyone is going nuts…

The SOT’s plans seem to be coming together nicely, while nothing that Crystal’s team is doing seems to work. With the opening of new ‘spirit centers’ all over the country to ‘combat’ the effect of the contaminated water supply, America is falling prey to the SOT’s agenda. Can Crystal and her team create an antidote before it’s too late?

***

Over the past two weeks I’ve been back and forth with my poor cover designer. I’m actually very easy to please when it comes to book covers, but I didn’t have any clue what I wanted for this book. Then when I got the cover with the girl in pink with New York City in the background, I really liked it, but Crystal’s skin is a lot darker than that girl’s, so I had to go back to the designer about it. You can see the transition below.

Delirium

 

 

 

 

 

Delirium2 Delirium2b Delirium2c Delirium2d

 

 

 

 

 

If you’ve been reading the Crystal Series, or if you read the Beauty for Ashes series, you’ll know

Cmillian that Crystal has a drop of Cuban in her. It’s not a big deal, but I do want the girl on the cover to be true to the description of Crystal in the book. I imagine her skin colour to be similar to the gorgeous Christina Millian (right).

I think I’ll be going for the third version of the second cover.

What do you think?

Dayo x

Want an email notification as soon as Delirium comes out? Submit your details below.

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Crystal Box Set on Sale/Writing Update

Dayo Benson

Crystal Box Set JPEGHi Guys,

The box set of the first three books in the Crystal Series just went on sale at 99 cents/pence. If you haven’t started the series yet this is your chance to try it at little cost to you.

By the way, I’m so grateful to all my readers because I released Allies (Crystal 4) last week and it hit number one in its category and stayed there for three days. I was over the moon. I felt like my name had changed to Karen Kingsbury or something. Right is the picture of when it had the cool bestseller tag on it on Amazon. It’s gone Allies no 1now, as it only says that while the book is number one. Not forever, sadly. The book needs reviews though so if you enjoyed it please do me a favour and review it. If you haven’t read it yet and would like a review copy email me at dayo.benson@ymail.com.

Anyway, I’m on a major high right now because I finished writing the final book of the Crystal Series, Legacy (Crystal 9), last week Wednesday. I’m so happy that the series is all written. Now, I have to do the hard work of editing, looking at structure, consistency of characterization throughout the series, etc. But I’m glad I decided to get all the books written before releasing them all, rather than writing them and releasing as I went along. Before I released Searchlight (Crystal 1) I had already written Surrender (Crystal 2) and Insurrection (Crystal 3). I would recommend this method to any writer. Get the whole series written before you publish the books. There were things I didn’t see coming, and because I have only published books 1-4 I can still go back and amend previous books. But if I had been publishing each book as I wrote them, it would have been almost disastrous. For a trilogy it won’t matter so much, but for a nine book series, it does matter.

cookiesI had white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies as a treat for finishing another book. Honestly, you need to get yourself down to Subway and try them. Life changing! They’re only nice if they’re fresh, though.

You can see that I am motivated by unhealthy goodies 🙂

I’m planning to write a few novellas to support the series and fill in some gaps, and I might also write a few books about Juda’s background, so when I finish those I will be well and truly done with Crystal and her comrades and I’ll get myself a nice big reward, like a meal out with my hubs or a spa day, or something. Maybe both 🙂

Anyway, for those of you who have already read Allies and are eagerly awaiting the next installment of the series, Delirium (Crystal 5) should be out in June. Sign up for my mailing list Here so that you’ll get an email as soon as it comes out. I’ll do a cover reveal soon.

Ciao for now x

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Out Now: Allies (Crystal 4)

Dayo Benson

Allies_500x750Hi Everyone,

I’m so excited, Allies (Crystal 4) is out now. You can get it at: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Kobo & Smashwords. It’ll be available at iTunes, B&N and all those other places soon. If you would like a free review copy email me at dayo.benson@ymail.com.

Just to refresh your memory, something terrible happened at the end of Insurrection (Crystal 3). How will the team recover? Will they continue or will they split up?

There have been a few hitches on the way to getting this one published so I’m so happy it’s finally out. I just emailed everyone on my new release list to let them know. This is the fourteenth book I have published but there is still some apprehension about sharing it with the world. I wonder if that apprehension will ever go away. It’s like I’ve been nurturing the book for months in the secure womb of my laptop, but now it has been born and anyone can read it and judge it. We writers are a funny bunch. We want to be bestselling authors but at the same time we’re scared to share our work. My husband doesn’t understand why I get embarrassed and walk away whenever he starts telling people that I’m a writer. I’m proud of my work, but at the same time it’s just hard and complicated. Other writers will know what I mean 🙂

By the way, I think I have finally worked out what category this Crystal series fits into. I think it’s Christian Paranormal Romance. Or Christian Supernatural Romance. For some reason I prefer the word ‘Supernatural’ to the word ‘Paranormal’. But I haven’t read any paranormal or supernatural fiction books so I’m not certain about this. I’m still working it out. I had the series categorized as Christian fantasy as I have read some science fiction/fantasy books and they have lots of supernatural things in them. Who knew that categorizing your own book could be so hard!

Anyway, here’s the book description:

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?

Amazon UK, Amazon US, Kobo & Smashwords.

As always, I love to hear from readers so let me know what you think if you read it.

Dayo xx