One year ago today I published Daisy Dunlap and the Cartoon Carnival. It’s a small book but I’m very happy with how it turned out.
To celebrate the one year anniversary I wanted to share some of the fan art I’ve gotten over the past year.
First up is Daisy Dunlap by Claire B. You can see Daisy’s been through a rough night. This image also includes her Daisy Daffodil doll.
Claire also took a stab at Tom. Look close and you can see his green thumb.
This next drawing is from Nathalie S. One of my earliest readers. She depicts Daisy in pencil. Clearly at the beginning of the night before it got scary.
But just incase his cuteness fools you she also made one with very clear text.
Have you read Daisy Dunlap And the Cartoon Carnival yet?
I’ve been describing it as mascot horror but wholesome. Think of Five nights at Freddy’s, Bendy and the Ink Machine, and Poppy Playtime. Daisy Dunlap is all the mystery and fun without the dead kids in the animatronic suits.
Today is both, my favorite, and my most dreaded part of the writing process.
Publication day.
It’s done. The book is out of my hands. There is nothing else I can do to it.
Now I just have to wait for people to read it.
I have been working of Daisy Dunlap and the Cartoon Carnival for almost three years and now it’s finally ready to greet readers.
“So,” you ask, “what is this book about?”
The great thing about art is that it can be interpreted so many ways. Each person processes everything differently and comes to their own conclusions. And even us creators may subconsciously be planting messages that we didn’t intend. However, if you see this as a thinly disguised Bendy and the Ink Machine fan fiction, [stuffs unhealthy obsession with BATIM into the closet.] you’re reading too much into this.
The truth is, it’s more of a rebuttal to the Bendy franchise. If you know what that is, great. If not, the next paragraph is for you.
Bendy is a video game series that take place at an animation studio where the employees have been turned into horrific versions of the cartoon characters created there. It’s a story about greed and corruption. A legacy in ruins.
Daisy Dunlap is not like that. In my story, the characters are actually alive. They weren’t people first. They have their own souls. If anything inspired this book, it was the idea that an idea can take on a life beyond its creator. Just look at how far removed Mickey Mouse has become from the man, Walt Disney, who created and voiced him.
My novel is an exploration of legacy. As I’ve grown older, I’ve often wondered what I’ll leave behind. The obvious answer is my books. There is a reason that authors refer to their published works as their book babies. In the same way that Daisy’s mom in the story, left her daughter as a legacy, Daisy is kind of my legacy too.
Find the truth. Save the family legacy. Don’t get eaten by the giant cartoon spider.
Reeling from the loss of her mother, twelve-year-old Daisy comforts herself with the cartoons and carnival run by her family’s animation studio.
When an anonymous source accuses Grandpa of stealing his most famous character, the impish Tom Greenthumb, their family’s reputation, and business, are on the line. The only thing that can clear their name? A mysterious sketch book hidden somewhere within the Cartoon Carnival.
Sneaking into the theme park at night, Daisy uncovers her family’s greatest secret. Their cartoon creations are alive—and some of them are deadly.
C.O. Bonham is the pen name for a commonly misspelled first name. She loves stories of all kinds, but really likes the ones that are weird, and outside the norm. A certified book geek, when she isn’t writing stories of her own she is busy reading stories by others. A homeschool graduate with a degree in creative writing, her goal is to create stories that make people think, feel, and have fun.
This past year I took part in The Story of the Month club by Michelle Francik. I had sun trying to come up with stories that fit each of my assigned months, but I was very lax in promoting it to all of you. Anyway, here I am to say that my last story is up on the website and you can read it for free.
“Cupcakes on the Brain” is a story about writing, grieving, and being thankful for the weirdest things—things like diabetes. Why did I write this? Here’s my author’s note to learn more.
Cupcakes on the Brain might seem like a weird story for November, so it might help to know that November is Diabetes Awareness Month.
I, like Hannah, am a type 2 diabetic, which means we developed the condition later in life. I manage it with regular medication and a healthy diet. A diet without cupcakes in it.
November is also National Novel Writing Month. Aka: NaNoWriMo or NaNo for short. NaNo is when crazy writers everywhere attempt the immense task of writing a 50k word novel in only one month. These insane few often form support groups to help encourage one another in their ridiculous attempt at productivity during the busiest season of the year.
Two other popular holidays influenced this story. All Saints’ Day on November 1st is when the Christian Church honors and remembers all those who have died. Much like Hannah seeks to remember her father through her writing.
And of course Thanksgiving. When Americans set aside time for overeating, overspending and for being thankful for friends, family and things like mind-altering cupcakes.
A special thank you to the IronSharpeners writing group for helping to make my writing stronger than it would be on its own.
You can also go back and read the other ten stories out, so far, for free. My previous contributions are in January and in April.
Click the banners at the bottom to read each story on the website or click on any story to get access to the dropbox folder where you can download the PDFs for all the stories to read at you convenience.
Today is a very special day. It marks the one-year anniversary of my first novel.
That’s right Runaway Lyrics is one-year-old today!
In case you’ve forgotten what Runaway Lyrics is about:
What each sister has she must share with the other . . .
Snow loves music. She has spent her entire life learning new instruments and memorizing new pieces, only to while away her life in a country manor with only her mother and twin sister as company. If only she could get out on her own and play in front of a real audience.
Rose loves magic. The things she can do with music would amaze her twin sister, but whenever she shows her, Snow quickly forgets as if the event had never happened. If only Rose could get out on her own and work some real magic.
When an airship crashes near their home, Snow’s magical abilities awaken. Together the sisters must learn to use their magic, rescue a pair of cursed princes, and discover their own secrets.
Discover the magic of music in this retelling of Snow White and Rose Red.
You can click on the Runaway Lyrics tab above to find all the fun things I made for last years release including downloadable wallpaper and a YouTube playlist of music that inspired the novel.
So this is the part where I ask you to buy my book?
Yes. But first an announcement.
There was a lot I wanted to have done by now, I wanted to have an audiobook version, some character art, and I wanted to have a sequel ready. I am so sorry that I couldn’t have any of those things ready for today. All of those fun things have one thing in common. They take money.
That’s why I’ve made the executive decision to join the Amazon Associates program. That means from now on every link on the website will be affiliate links. (Don’t worry I will not be going back to update old blog posts.)
This just means that if you click on a link to a book and you buy it Amazon will give me a kickback. A tiny kickback but every bit helps. It doesn’t change the price you pay, and it doesn’t affect what the author gets paid either. (As an author that part was very important to me.)
And yes I will disclose this on every page with this super fun disclosure I wrote:
*This website uses affiliate links through the Amazon Associates program. Every time you buy a book using one of these links the blogger gets pennies from Amazon and those pennies will add up into nickels and eventually dimes.
Okay maybe it’s not that fun. I’ll keep working on it. Anyway the point is, if I post about a book that interests you and you would like to buy it, please consider using my link and spare some change for a poor blogger.
If you have firm convictions about affiliate links, or convictions about Amazon, then I promise there will be no hard feelings. Please purchase the book in whatever why feels right for you. Just don’t pirate it please, we will brook no pirates here.
Will you please buy my book? Today is its birthday!
Buy Runaway Lyrics *Yes this is an affiliate link. And yes I see the irony in trying to make more money off a book I already get royalties from.
I also want to shout out the Spellsmith and Carver series which was a huge influence on my book. It also is on sale for 99 cents now through September 22nd, 2022. Get it here: Spellsmith and Carver boxset.
Are you tired of looking at lists of award winning books that you haven’t and don’t plan on reading? Well never fear the Realm Awards Readers choice contest is here to save the day.
From April 2nd-23rd (I know I’m so late telling you about this) any reader can nominate books that they feel deserve the award.
There are some stipulations though: You may nominate up to three different books for the Realm Award Readers’ Choice Contest. To qualify, books must be:
Speculative in genre (Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, or any of their related sub-genres)
Written by a professed Christian author
Published between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021
The first instance of publication of the work (no new editions, subsequent printings under a new imprint, etc.)
Novel length
A single work (no anthologies, collections, or compilations)
Written for middle grade, young adult, or adult audiences.
You’ll need the complete and accurate book title and author’s name for each entry as they appear on Amazon.
All these books written by my D&D party qualify!
It just so happens that my novel Runaway Lyrics qualifies.
I would be super honored if you would consider nominating my book but I understand if you have other books that you love more. Seriously, choosing only three book is very hard.
To avoid swaying you I won’t tell you which three I nominated. (No I did not nominate my own book even though there doesn’t seem to be a rule against it.)
All of the Frosted Roses novels qualify except The Bear which is too short.
Here are a dozen books that I loved from last year that qualify for the award (the three I nominated are on here somewhere):
Merry Christmas! I am so thankful that you chose to visit my little blog in the midst of your holiday preparations.
I love Christmas stories!
Don’t you?
Christmas is such a magical time of the year that any story set during Christmas instantly takes on this warm and fuzzy feeling of nostalgia and magic.
From the original Christmas when a God came to live as a lowly creation, to the story of a miser who’s heart was changed by spirits in one night, Christmas stories are ultimately about how to live everyday of the year.
If you are looking for a good seasonal story and will give you all the Christmas feels then check out this Fellowship of Fantasy blog post to read more about each book and find links to where you can buy them.
I’ve personally read at least half of these books and can promise you that they are amazing and full of holiday cheer.
This year I wanted to do something special for my Christmas cards.
I knew I wanted a music theme and I knew I wanted them to have a steampunk look.
I looked everywhere and I couldn’t find a card I liked.
Suddenly, it hit me. Why not just design my own? So I did. The result is the Christmas card you see below. It is very Christmas and very Steampunk.
The card front says: May music show you the magic of the season. The image is the girl from my cover art, holding her violin, surrounded by a holly wreath on a background of blue gears.
The back says: As the Lyrics tell you of the reason. Warmest Wishes and Happy Holidays. C.O. Bonham. (Only instead of a signature I put my author logo there.)
I also need to tell you about an anthology that I am in. It’s called Hope and Renewal 2021. It’s another one of the Challenge anthology from author Michelle Francik. It’s super short, mostly poetry, but it’s priced pretty reasonably and it does have a short story from me it. My story is titled Birth and it’s my attempt to figure out why people would even want to be born.
My story is first so honestly you can cheat and just read it in the free sample.
Also with al this talk of Christmas stories I want to leave you with a wonderful song that I love so much for the story that it tells. It’s a little sad but also upbeat. Listen at your own risk.
I know I just posted an update the other day. Well today’s update is related. I promise.
Did you know I play D&D?
“What is D&D ?” you ask quizzically.
Well I am surprised that you don’t already know.
D&D stands for Dungeons and Dragons. It’s a table top roleplaying game.
My party plays it on the computer, though, not on a table. It’s hard to meet in person when you live in different parts of the country.
The players create characters and then someone called the DM, or Dungeon Master, creates a story arc for the characters to complete. It’s sort of like writing a book, only you have a different author writing a separate character while one author lords over everyone pulling the plot threads together.
It just so happens that my D&D party is mostly authors. So you can imagiane the amount of fun that we have with this.
Today I’m featuring my D&D party and our books.
First up is me. It is my blog, after all.
Cathrine/Katrin
Yes I am aware that it’s basically the same name. I did that on purpose.
Book: Runaway Lyrics
Snow wants to perform music, Rose wants to perform magic. Luckily, for them, it’s the same thing.
When an airship crashes near their home, Snow’s magical abilities awaken. Together, the sisters must learn to use their magic, rescue a pair of cursed princes, and discover their own secrets.
Discover the magic of music in this retelling of Snow White and Rose Red.
My D&D character is Katrin Songsmith. She is a Human Bard. In D&D Bards use music to perform magic much like my main characters in Runaway Lyrics. In fact, if you read the book already, you may recognize Songsmith. It’s the last name of my main characters, Snow and Rose.
Was this an attempt to play my book character instead of writing a new one?
Maybe?
Like Rose and Snow, Katrin also has a twin sister. The evil White Dragon kidnapped Cressida. Her soul is currently inside a ship, and it is Katrin’s mission to restore her sister to full humanity.
She has purple hair and wears a Rainforest café t-shirt. Because D&D lets you do things like that.
New York City, 1859: On Samhain night, a mage pledged to the Wild Hunt is violently murdered. Tensions between the Hunt and Triona, Fey Queen of Central Park, heat up and threaten to boil over into a full-scale conflict.
Sofia De Benedetti, mage and musician in Triona’s court, has her hands full making enough money to support herself and help women who are down on their luck in the rough corners of the city.
Now a fey war looms and a mage killer is on the prowl. Everything Sofia has built since immigrating, and her life itself, is at risk. With the help of a cait sidhe and a tempestuous storm fey, Sofia must find the murderer before the streets of the city erupt into a magical battleground.
Naomi plays as Talice a Cleric and a Drow. Drow are from the dark underground and are considered evil. But Talice has been called by Solaris to redeem the Drow and bring them out of the dark. I really like Talice, because in a game that is often accused of being evil she has created a character that feels very in keeping with the spirit of Christ.
Book: Wishing Against the House.My city is under attack by shadowfiends. Apparently, this is my fault, thanks to the family I’ve never met.
At least the attack interrupted my first couples therapy session with Cendric. Small blessings, right?Personally, all I want for Christmas is to survive until New Year’s. And maybe, a vacation.
Janeen plays as Dessa, a Half-Elf Ranger and Beast Master. She has a Wombat as an animal cmpanion, named Alfred. Alfred has toxic farts that Dessa has weaponized.
I love her character becasue she comes up with the most bizarre solutions to problems that our party encounters.
And most of the time they work.
Wishing Against the House is Janeen’s newest release but it’s the third in the series. Click the buttons below for the first two books. Trust me you don’t want to come in in the middle.
Books one and two are on sale until Tuesday 12/7/2021.
Happy Book Birthday to Power Play! The newest release in H.L. Burke’s ever expanding superhero universe.
And yes, it just so happens that H.L. Burke plays D&D with me.
Heidi/Intuitive.
Book: Power Play
It’s dangerous to go alone. Even for superheroes.
Laleh Ashe has found her first real friends at Camp Sable, a refuge for at-risk superpowered teens, but her politically ambitious mother has other plans. Mrs. Ashe is determined to send Laleh to a fancy, overseas boarding school—far from her friends and the life she’s come to love. To drown her sorrows, Laleh agrees to a table top role playing game with her friends, Marco and Jake, as well as the new girl at camp—shy, withdrawn Rian. Too bad no one warned her about Rian’s reality bending superpowers.
Sucked into a fantasy world created by Rian’s imagination, Laleh and her friends must scramble to master their magical new surroundings and complete their quest if they are to have any hope of getting home again.
This magical world is less fun than it sounds, but as Laleh and her friends face the various challenges, Laleh can’t help but remember that all that waits for her in the real world is separation from her friends and a life under the thumb of her overbearing mom. Maybe going home is seriously overrated.
Superheroes meet Portal Fantasy in this second book of the Supervillain Rescue Project Young Adult Series.
Power Play was largly inspired by our D&D sessions. As I was reading it I couldn’t help laughing at all the inside jokes and events that she had copied.
But don’t worry this book is very accessible, even to people who have never played D&D before.
H.L. Burke (Heidi) plays a Tifling Wizard named Intuitive.
Intuitive is a fun mix of book smarts and chaos, She once used octopus mating rituals to save the party from a Kraken.
Intuitive also has a cat named Purrcival. He helps, sometimes, when he feels like it. He is a cat.
Intuitive is a fun character to play with because you never know what she’s going to do next.
There are two members of the party that do not have books out, but despite this oversight I will mention them, anyway.
The first is Matt, Heidi’s husband. He plays as Pyrrhic a Fighter. His character saves our butts in every session. He’s also the veteran D&D player in our group. He keeps gameplay on topic. Otherwise, we would all chase after every shiny side quest that presented itself.
The second person I need to mention is our long suffering DM who shall not be named. As the DM, he plays every other character in the game, including the bad guys. He also invents most of the story arcs and plots out how adventures will go.
Hello Readers, I hope everyone is doing well. It’s been a minute since my last post. I’ve had to cut back on my reading lately to give myself time for National Novel Writing month, you the time of year where everyone is struggling to write a novel in 30 days AND cook dinner for thirty family members. Writers are crazy.
My project for NaNo is Shattered Lyrics. It’s the sequel to Runaway Lyrics that released this past September. Behold my Inspiration collage:
I’m about seven thousand words in right now. (Yes I am way behind in NaNo.)
Once again I am writing this story as part of the Arista band of fairy tale retellers challenge. In 2021 the challenge is to write a Snow Queen retelling.
Snow Queen is a hard fairytale to retell, it is very meandering and has a lot of characters.
Thankfully Runaway Lyrics had a lot of characters too.
Also as a side note, The winning book was written by my cover designer. I’ve read it before and it is very good, Beauty and the Beast meets Norse mythology. She is so talented at both art and writing.
So you know that phrase about saving the best for last? well the last post of June is going to be a big one. Not only am I spot lighting a new book from Janeen Ippolito, I get to plug my upcoming novel at the same time. Yes I am actually publishing this one. I have a release date. I’m committed But first here’s a little about Janeen’s book.
Get more out of your writing prompts!
Weird Writing Prompts is a short book loaded with questions to jumpstart your creativity, dive deeper into your characters, and rev up your book marketing.
Oh yeah, and some questions are weird. Like “trap your characters in an elevator with an emu” weird. Because everyone needs a little weirdness to refresh their writing lives!
Grab this book to:
-Get Deep & Random – Expanded prompts with ideas to make your characters epic, plus absurd situations to unlock your creativity with play
-Get Sharing & Marketing – Author-centric questions to fuel your marketing brain and help with social media content creation
It’s time to refresh your brain, supercharge your story, and have fun with your marketing!
“Having fun is vital to goo writing, good marketing, and good sales.” – Janeen ippolito
My review
Weird Writing prompts is a great writing prompt book. Instead of just offering you more story ideas to add to your “to write” list, this prompt book actually helps you develop the story you are already working on.
The book is divided into two parts, character questions and marketing questions. The character questions may seem random and silly, but each one is formulated to help you learn something about your characters.
The marketing questions are also fun and are great for helping you decide what kind of giveaway items you want on hand for when you your book releases. The author also includes ideas for how to adapt the questions for a classroom setting which is great for English teachers and homeschoolers.
I really enjoyed all of the odd little questions and having to think about how they would apply to my story.
If you are stuck on your current project and would like a prompt book to help you move forward then check out Weird Writing Prompts.
To see sample questions and how I used them for my story, keep reading to the end.
Weird Writing Prompts releases July 13.
But you can pre order the ebook now for only 99 cents.
Janeen Ippolito believes you should own your unique words. She’s a multi-published author of bestselling fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She’s also an experienced editor, marketing strategist, and businesswoman, plus the CEO of Uncommon Universes Press. When not writing, she explores random hobbies or posts cute animal memes. Connect at janeenippolito.com
Runaway Lyrics is a retelling of the Snow White and Rose Red fairytale, with a light steampunk aesthetic. The main characters are Snow and Rose, identical twin sisters who are both talented at music. There are also Bayare (the oldest) and Wickham, half brothers and princes. Placed under a curse that causes Bayare to turn into a great brown bear every night and for Wickham to become a great golden owl every day.
So let’s start with the ultimate random question:
What would each of your characters do if a bird pooped on them?
Bayare would look around to see where Wickham, in owl form, was. Then when he found him he would instantly accuse him of doing it. Wickham would deny everything. Honestly he knows that Wickham would never deficate on anyone but he loves teasing his little brother.
If Snow was pooped on she would flinch, but then wipe it off and keep going, hopefully to someplace where she could take a bath.
Rose is a bit different. She would complain. Long and loud, about how gross it was and why, of all the places for a bird to poop, did it have to be on her.
Wickham, as a part time owl, knows the bird that did it. He knows that bird did it on purpose. And Wickham is already planning his revenge.
“Writing is hard. Marketing is hard. We can use all the fun that we can get.” – Janeen Ippolito
Would each of your characters rather: sort 1,000 pieces of paper OR stand on a public stage for an hour to entertain a crowd of young children?
This is easy. Rose, Snow and Bayare would take the stage for an hour. Rose and Snow love playing music and that’s how they would entertain the kids. Bayare doesn’t know what he would do on stage, but he hates repetitive tasks like sorting. Besides who doesn’t like kids?
Wickham that’s who. Oh he loves attention and it’s not that he hates kids, he just doesn’t know what to do with them. They find the crudest things hilarious. They require so much talking down too. Nope give Wickham the stack of paper and lock him in the library.
“They say you have to go deep or have silly fun. I say you can do both.” – Janeen Ippolito
You can hire anyone to compose music for your story. Who do you choose and why?
It would be Lindsey Stirling. I listened to her music on a loop while writing this novel. Even though Snow and Rose can play multiple instruments, Linsey Stirling is the reason that they prefer the violin. Her Music videos also inspired the way the magic system in my world works.
Runaway Lyrics will have an official cover reveal and release date soon. So I hope you’re ready to hear me talk more about myself in the next couple month. But don’t worry I’ll still keep doing book reviews for others as well.
What was your favorite question I answered?
Are you excited to hear more about Runaway Lyrics?
I have a cute short story in a new anthology. The release date is tomorrow (March 10th) but you can pre-order it for ninety-nine cents if you do it today.
What if Fairytales were real? Things that go bump in the night. Mighty warriors, dragons, and fairies. Ogres and cupids. Magic, mystery and mayhem. Join our authors on a journey through time. To a place where magic exists and things are not always what they seem. Fourteen authors and eighteen stories. Tales of bravery, enchantment, terror, and romance. What are you waiting for?
The paperback ($8.99) is live now and there is a hardcover ($19.99) option too. Buy it on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3kFIgsM
If you grab a copy, look for my story, “Dragon Cuddles.”
“Dragon Cuddles” is a story about a dragon who just wants some love and cuddles.
I’ve it had in my head for a while now that just never manifested right. For a long time, I was trying to make it be a novel. Turns out, once I committed to making it a short story, the whole thing came together.
Fantasy and Fairytales is the sixth anthology produced from Michelle Francik’s short story challenges. You can learn more about her at her website https://mfranciktheauthor.com/
C. O. Bonham 