Apricots and Wolfsbane has a book trailer! Check it out and be sure to have your sound turned on to hear the voice over:
Tag: Apricots and Wolfsbane
Cover Reveal!
Here’s the full cover for Apricots and Wolfsbane! Thank you to Kate Cowan at Broken Arrow Designs for bringing part of my imagination to life.
Pre-order the Kindle version from Amazon (Paperback link coming soon)
Pre-order the paperback from FillesVertesPublishing
Apricots and Wolfsbane releases on Friday, October 13!
Synopsis:
Lavinia Maud craves the moment the last wisps of life leave her victim’s bodies—to behold the effects of her own poison creations. Believing confession erases the sin of murder, her morbid desires are in unity with faith, though she could never justify her skill to the magistrate she loves.
At the start of the 16th century in Tudor England, Lavinia’s marks grow from tavern drunks to nobility, but rising prestige brings increased risk. When the magistrate suspects her ruse, he pressures the priest into breaking her confessional seal, pitting Lavinia’s instincts as an assassin against the tenets of love and faith. She balances revenge with her struggle to develop a tasteless poison and avoid the wrath of her ruthless patron.
With her ideals in conflict, Lavinia must decide which will satisfy her heart: love, faith, or murder—but the betrayals are just beginning.
Praise for Apricots and Wolfsbane:
“Delicious. Apricots and Wolfsbane is a unique thriller packed with impressive research into historical poisons. Fast-paced, grim, and darkly funny, Pohlkamp’s prose are intoxicating.”
—Jessica Cale, author of Tyburn
“This is not my usual genre, however, I enjoyed the novel immensely. The story kept me on my toes with the action and the plot twists.”
—Lisa Orchard author of The Super Spies and The Starlight Chronicles.
“Although rich in period detail, K.M. Pohlkamp’s Apricots and Wolfsbane reads like a modern-day psychological thriller. Fans of the Dexter series will love Lavinia, an anti-hero the reader simultaneously gravitates toward and cringes away from. In some scenes, Lavinia is so sympathetic, my palms sweat with anticipation, hoping Lavinia could escape every predicament she found herself in. In other scenes, my stomach turned in revulsion at the lengths the poisoner went through while stalking and attempting to murder her prey. This is a perfect book club novel—with enough interest and intrigue to keep everyone turning the pages and enough depth for a lively discussion afterwards. I can’t wait for the sequel!”
—Megan Cassidy, author of Always Jessie, The Misadventures of Marvin Miller, and Smothered
Pre-order the Kindle version from Amazon (Paperback link coming soon)
Pre-order the paperback from FillesVertesPublishing
Apricots and Wolfsbane releases on Friday, October 13!
50 Days Until Publication!
It is strange and exhilarating to watch a tale crafted out of the depths of my imagination come to life in tangible form.
The past months have been a whirlwind of revisions and authoring promotional/guest blogs for this fall. Last week, I completed a final round of manuscript edits considering comments from the beta reviews completed by all the Filles Vertes interns. (Thank you all again!) I’m thrilled my book caused so much thought and conversation. I wanted to write a book that made the reader think and it seems I met my goal!
Pre-publication reviews from published authors are also coming in (you can read them here) and I love the first glimpses into the thoughts of readers. I sincerely appreciate the time of the authors who have helped with this effort, and thank you for the beautiful reviews!
I’ve had a blast working with Kate Cowan of Broken Arrow Designs to create the cover and helping Filles Vertes Publishing with details for the inside layout design. I can’t wait to share the final cover and expect we’ll be announcing a reveal date soon!
50 days – it’s getting real, folks! I’m publishing a book!
The Math Hidden Within ISBN Numbers
An ISBN (or International Standard book Number) is a 13-digit number uniquely identifying books and “book-like” products. The number is used to differentiate one title, or edition of a title, from a specific publisher. For example, an e-book and a paperback version of the same book would each have different ISBNs. Changing the cover of a book does not result in a new edition, since the text is the same.
Not all books have an ISBN number. If the book is printed privately and is not intended for bookstore or library distribution, then it does not need an ISBN number.
ISBN numbers were first derived in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker, who based the system upon the 9-digit Standard Book Number (SBN) created in 1966. The 10-digit format was then developed the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and published in 1970. Ironically, the UK continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. Old SBNs were converted to ISBNs by adding a zero prefix. ISBNs remained 10-digits long until January 1, 2007, when ISBNs switched to a 13-digit format.
The number is divided into five parts of variable length, each separated by a hyphen:
- A Prefix (only applicable to 13-digit ISBNs). To date, only “978” or “979” have been used.
- Identifier for national or geographic location of the publisher
- The publisher identifier
- The title identifier which differentiates a particular title or edition
- A check digit which validates the ISBN.
For my fellow math geeks out there, the check digit for an ISBN-13 number is calculated via the following procedure:
- Multiply each of the preceding 12-digits by a 1 or a 3 (alternating, starting with 1)
- Sum all the products
- Divide the result by 10 and calculate the remainder (mod 10)
- Subtract the remainder from 10
For the ISBN-13 number for Apricots and Wolfsbane: 978-1-946802-02-6, the check digit (6), is calculated:
Fun fact: The check digit for ISBN-10 numbers is calculated differently. The procedure can result in a “10” for a check digit. When this occurs, the last digit is replaced with a roman numeral X to maintain a 10-digit ISBN Number.
For more information visit:
http://www.isbn.org/faqs_general_questions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number
Word Clouds!
Here’s a neat idea I picked up from Twitter (thanks @BrianneZwambag and @emsheehanwrites!):
Want to know what the most used words in your manuscript? Build a word cloud!
I used www.wordclouds.com to analyze the current version of my novel as well as my short story work in progress. The free program allows you to upload a word document and also ignore what it calls “stop words” like: the, at, and, etc.
For fun, you can also change the shape and coloring of the generated cloud, play with the font, and change word orientation.
Here are my two results!
From Apricots and Wolfsbane:
From my untitled short story work in progress:
K.M. Pohlkamp - Author Website 