Happy Birthday Molten Publishing!

Thank you to everyone who's worked with us in the past year. I've loved every minute of it - almost - and although we've had our ups and downs, I wouldn't change it for the world. I have learnt so much more in the past year than I ever have before, and I love it!

And waking up on a Monday morning and actually wanting to get started with your work is a feeling like no other.

I am changed for the better, and I can't wait to see what the next year brings. It's going to be bigger and brighter, just you wait!

To celebrate our birthday, we can finally announce that our website is up and running! Go visit us there! 

Thanks for all the love and support. I don't know where I'd be without it.

Molly :)

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

Molten Publishing Service

Have You Ever Dreamt of Being a Published Author?

*So excited about our new publishing service! Can't wait to get started!*

The journey from initial idea to published work is not an easy one.

Molten Publishing would like to make your dream a reality. We believe in Walt Disney’s words, ‘If you can dream it, you can do it’, and we want to see your magic available worldwide.

Molten Publishing are a YA (Young Adult) publishing specialist, and we love phenomenal, action-packed fiction with a protagonist to cheer for.

We will work with you every step of the way, from initial ideas or early drafts of your manuscript to the beautifully designed, completed, and published work.

As part of your publishing journey you will receive the following:

• Manuscript perfection – cutting, adding, polishing, and making it sparkle
• Plot development – brainstorming, exploring, and enhancing your ideas
• Character enrichment – helping you create unforgettable stars
• Pace and tone improvements – giving your work even greater impact
•  Full line edit – sentence construction, word choice, and overall 'voice'
• Proofreading and professional typesetting
• Spectacular cover design – our amazing graphic artists will take your breath away
• ISBN number - to ensure your book is visible to thousands of book buyers worldwide
• Worldwide distribution through retail partners
• Superior author royalty rates
• Online promotion across multiple social media platforms

All of this, and your publishing dream realised for £ 2995.00

This investment represents a twelve month (approximate) roller-coaster ride of getting to know your characters, developing your plot, enhancing your craft as a writer, and releasing your work to the world.

Contact our in-house author molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk and begin your life-changing journey.

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

I Am ZA Ready

ZA has always had a special place in my heart, and over four years since starting Zane's journey, it's more true now than ever.

ZA is special to me for a million different reasons, but one of the big ones is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Now those of you who know me will know how much of a huge deal NaNoWriMo is in my life. I've participated every year since I discovered it in 2011, and it's become a huge part of who I am as a writer. ZA was my very first NaNo novel, and I had never believed I could write so much in such a short space of time. Nothing encourages me as much as NaNo, and ZA was my first stepping stone in discovering the phenomenal world I now throw myself into once a year.

Another reason is of course, zombies. My dad and my brother and I have always been fans of zombie movies. In 2012 we took part in the very first Zombie Run up in Lincoln. I'm also proud to say that I read Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth before anyone even knew what it was. Conversations and discussions in my house directly inspired me to write ZA. I'd be lying if I said that certain phrases and events in ZA weren't based on something real. The phrase itself - "ZA Ready" - was coined in my house. And the character of Jay is somewhat based on the fourteen-year-old version of my own brother.

So yeah, this book means a lot to me.

The original 2011 version of ZA up until last year had been available on Kindle, but as this story means so much to me, it wasn't good enough. I released it on Kindle in 2013 thinking that would be enough, but there was something about Zane's story that kept calling to me.

Original cover design by James Terry - jrterry95@gmail.com

So in 2015 during NaNoWriMo'15, I re-wrote the entire thing after the brilliant Kimberly Ito gave me some phenomenal editing critique. I agreed with every single tiny thing she told me and officially worship her editing talent. I managed to almost double the word count, adding suspense, gore, and of course, a load more zombies.

One of the reasons for doing this was Molten Publishing, the publishing company my dad and I set up in 2015. From then on, writing was not enough. From then on, I lived and breathed and inhaled all things books and publishing.

And that led us to the immensely talented Chris Kemp from CK Creative who designed this awesome cover! Every time my inbox flashed up with an email from Chris, I was excited to open it and see what he'd come up with next.

Cover by Chris Kemp - ckcreative@outlook.com

Of course I can't go any longer without mentioning my second home, Movellas. The Movellas community have supported and encouraged me every step of the way and even helped Chris and I decide on a final cover design.

They also agreed to run a ZA competition, which is still open! Participants have a chance to win a signed copy of ZA and critique from me! The competition is the perfect way to get into the zombie genre if you're new to it.

It's only a little creepy that I have a picture of my sixteen-year-old self standing like Zane . . .

After the cover, I was a buzz of energy (and stress), fiddling with typesetting and blurbs and proofreads.

So yeah, sue me if I'm a little proud.

Okay, a lot proud.

And get ready for the Zombie Armageddon . . .


Like ZA on Facebook!

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

Girl of Nightmares - Kendare Blake

A Spoiler Free Bit About The Book

*Sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood - read my review of Anna here!*

Cas is back! Everyone come read!

"Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-gets-sucked-into-Hell story."

My Review

It's been a whole year since I read Anna Dressed in Blood so it's about time I got stuck into Girl of Nightmares. It's an understatement to say I was excited. I adored Anna Dressed in Blood, it was one of the best books I read in 2015 and I was hoping Girl of Nightmares would be one of my favourite books of 2016 . . .

So far it is! Blake stood her ground and wrote another phenomenal story. Watch out, this is going to be a gush fest!

Honestly, I was hooked by the first sentence. I'm not even exaggerating. If anyone's considering reading it, here's the first sentence: 

"I think I killed a girl who looked like this once."

Go, go read it!

But seriously, spending time with these characters was an utter joy. It's hard to explain but the words and pages just rolled by so easily. I did not want to put it down and I couldn't stop turning pages.

As I reached the end, I felt like I was hyperventilating it was so intense. I was reading with trembling fingers and holding my breath. Just . . . whoa. Magic.

The only possible thing I could think of to criticise was the fact that the adverbs started to annoy me half way through. But that was it. I can't think of a single other thing to say!

Anyway, I loved it. Truly.

Evaluation

Overall 10/10

Would I recommend it? Yes! Just go and read it!

Would I look up the author? Yes! Put a few of Blake's books on my to-read list!

FAVOURITE BOOK OF 2016 SO FAR!

That's another one for the Molten Reading Challenge.

An impulse buy: Girl of Nightmares - Kendare Blake

Girl of Nightmares was breathless, intense, and phenomenal! 

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo

So Long 2015!

Well 2015 has been a huge year! This year I've learnt more from my failure than my successes and I have been braver than I ever have been before (and than I ever thought I could be).


But let's start off with the most important shall we? Books!

I only read 28 books this year which sounds like a lot but not when you compare it to my 32 from last year and 34 from the year before. I was 7 off my target of 35 and perhaps I'll drop my target down to 30 next year. I've got to say, when you're running your own business, there's a lot less time for reading. But that shouldn't be an excuse so next year I'll aim for 30!

I read some incredible books this year but here are the top ten in the order I read them:

Haze - Paula Weston
Anna Dressed in Blood - Kendare Blake
The Passage - Justin Cronin
Just One Day - Gayle Forman
The Rise of Nine - Pittacus Lore
An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
Shimmer - Paula Weston
Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green and David Levithan
Burn - Paula Weston
Sinner - Maggie Stiefvater

I knew my favourite of 2015 was going to be Burn by Paula Weston even before it came out. I adored the Rephiam Series which I read books 2, 3, and 4 of this year. It is just an outstanding read and anyone who loves YA should go and read it straight away!

Special shout out also to Pittacus Lore whose Lorien Legacies series I picked up this year. I read the first four and can't wait to pick up book five and six next year!

This year I also put three books down without finishing them for the first time ever. What can I say, life is really getting going for me and I don't have time for bad books! No more terrible reads for me! Be afraid, be very afraid.

Now moving onto the blog. . .

I wrote 33 book reviews this year which is something to do with having books from 2014 left over that I hadn't reviewed yet back in January! This is blog 52 of the year so I have again succeeded in blogging once a week! Go me!

My three favourite posts are definitely My Definitive List of Disney Classics , Books Nobody's Reading That Everybody Should Be Reading for #IreadYA , and  NaNoWriMo Pep Talk 2015 so if you want to go back and read something I suggest one of these.

However my most popular post this year was my Insanity for Imprint post which isn't surprising seeing as I posted the link to it everywhere! In fact, it was my most popular post ever!

This year also saw the mark of my 100th Post! which is just insanity.


Now blogging isn't my entire life - shocking, I know - I also do some writing sometimes!

I won some in 2015 (Shortlisted for the Wicked Young Writers Award 2015) and I lost some in 2015 (only wrote 1 book this year.) but I learnt a hell of a lot about writing and about myself.

My NaNo project, Imprint, crashed and burned and I couldn't be more glad. Three days into NaNo I decided enough was enough and threw the thing away. This let me concentrate on what I really wanted to be working on, ZA. (By the way it stands for Zombie Armageddon.) Some of you might recognise the title from 2013 and yes, it's the same novel in essence but I'm revamping it. More drama, more chaos, more gore. It'll be beautiful and shiny and even more terrifying in 2016 so thank you so much Imprint for being so terrible! (Come 'like' ZA on Facebook for all the news!)

I also wrote Hereafter, book two in my After trilogy which I'm super excited about! I wrote Hereafter in just 23 days and loved every word. The After trilogy is causing so much excitement I can barely contain it but at the moment Hereafter is being kept under lock and key until I can give it my full attention.

Thereafter, book one in the After trilogy, is doing fantastically on my favourite writing website in the world, Movellas. This year Thereafter reached 10,000 reads on Movellas which is a fantastic sign for the rest of the trilogy. I'm counting on all the movellians buying it when I get round to releasing it!

Oh and I also released Chancing the Truth, the third book in my Immorality of Immortality trilogy. Gosh I have been busy!

But I swear to you, I've been hard at work too!

One of the reasons 2015 has been so incredible is because I started my very own publishing company: Molten Publishing (you can come and join us on Twitter here!). We are a dynamic publishing house passionate about phenomenal young adult fiction - what else! - and our first release, ZA, will be out next year!

I also opened my editing and critiquing, social media services, and mentoring pages!

I wonder what's around the corner for next year . . .

Next year will of course bring ZA and the zombie armageddon and I'm so excited for that I could burst!

As well as that I'm going to write book three in the After trilogy and get round to polishing Thereafter and editing Hereafter.

There are so many books still on my shelf but I'm looking forward to The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness and of course more Lorien Legacies books!

And who knows, Molten Publishing might even open for submissions. Definitely stick around for our author events and creative writing workshops though!

Thank you to everyone who reads my blog. Here's to sticking around for 2016!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the most fantastic new year imaginable,

Molly :)

Molly Looby

Author / Editor in Chief at Molten Publishing / Freelance Editor / Writing Coach / Reviewer / Blogger / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly@moltenpublishing.co.uk

Visit me on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Movellas / NaNoWriMo