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Book Update

Dayo Benson

Allies_500x750Hi Guys,

Further to my last blog post, I didn’t hear back from my editor so Allies (Crystal 4) is now being edited by another editor. I don’t want to give an exact release date, but I should still be able to publish it this month.

In the meantime, why don’t you check out an interview I did with a fellow author, Remi Roy: http://thelightedgirl.com/2015/dayo-benson-prolific/

I will be interviewing Remi on my own blog soon. She’s a fantastic author that I think you’ll love.

God bless.

Dayo x

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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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Passion

Dayo Benson

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life – Steve Jobs.

This morning I finished writing Unrest (Crystal 5). I managed it in two weeks and two days, although I initially gave myself a deadline of 28th February. I have literally been writing early in the morning and at every spare moment. This morning I asked myself why. Seriously, where does this drive come from? People have all kinds of passions. For some people it’s music, or art, or sports, or acting. But where does the passion come from? What compels us to do it?

Nobody has to tell me to write. I’m completely self motivated and I could do it all day, every day. My husband was talking to a friend last week lamenting about how he didn’t get any work done in the house because of our kids. His friend asked how I manage to write with the kids around, and my husband said ‘my wife can write even if there’s a hurricane tearing the house to bits.’ It made me laugh, but it wasn’t far from the truth. I’d probably hold on to my laptop and let the hurricane take the rest of my possessions.

The only explanation I can give for the overwhelming drive that motivates us and pushes us to do the things we love is that God builds it into us. I feel like writing is as much a part of me as anything else in my make up. God wires us all up for something.

When I was younger my parents tried to get me into science so that I could get a good science job ‘when I grow up’. I studied the sciences in school and did molecular biology with genetics at university, but it was a tug of war. Each day was a struggle. I got to a point where I actually became depressed. I felt like I was drifting. I hated it. To cope I would take a notebook to university with me and write stories while everyone else was taking notes about Nucleic Acids and Ribonuclease.

It wasn’t my passion. I was a square peg in a round hole. Just as you are if you’re making yourself do something you don’t want to do. Yes, we need to be responsible and sometimes we have to do things we don’t enjoy. But if all you do is things you don’t enjoy, you’re wasting your time. Like the Steve Jobs quote above says, your time is limited. Don’t waste it. Use it for what God created you to do.

God has given everyone a passion. Dig deep and explore yours. Writing novels takes time. It means I don’t have time to watch TV. I have to weigh up everything I do. I can write 1500 to 2000 words in an hour, so if I have the option of doing activity A for an hour I weigh it. Would I rather do activity A or add 2000 words to my work in progress? It might sound boring, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. That’s what happens when your passion takes over.

God has a unique purpose for each of us. We just need to find it.

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5).

P.S. Happy Valentines Day!

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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