October 25, 2013

SINS OF THE LOST by Linda Poitevin - Guest Post & Giveaway!



How different is SINS OF THE LOST now from the first draft?



Thank you so very much for hosting me on Good Choice Reading today...I’m delighted to be here, and soooo excited to tell your readers about Sins of the Lost, the third book in the Grigori Legacy series!

From First Draft to Finished Copy

Many writers advocate the just-write-it-down approach, preferring to produce a continuous first draft without going back to edit or make any changes. As a result, the first draft they produce often looks nothing like the final one.

I’m not one of those writers. (I tried Na-No-Wri-Mo once. I made it three days before giving up. It was either that or start drinking. Really.)

Instead, I’m one of another group...those who edit and tweak as they go. This approach has good points and bad. On the downside, it certainly slows me down when it comes to word count (I guarantee you’ll never, ever see me post about how I wrote 5k or 10k words in one day. Ever.). I can also get stuck for a really, really long time on a single chapter or scene, needing to get it right before I can move forward with the story (case in point: I rewrote the first chapter of Sins of the Lost 17 times before chapter two had a snowball’s chance of making it onto the page).

On the upside, however, it also means that by the time I finish my “first” draft, I’ve already been through several edits and have a very nearly polished product to hand in to my editor. I still do two or three full reads of the completed manuscript—first, to make sure I’ve smoothed over any of the scenes I moved around; second, to remove all the niggly little bad habits I’ve missed (rolling eyes, heavy sighs, shrugging shoulders, etc.); and third, to do one last general proofread.

My process isn’t for everyone. Every writer has his/her approach to writing. It’s a personal thing, designed to fit around life and its many challenges; and what works for one isn’t necessarily going to work for another. And honestly, my method tends to be as much a work-in-progress as...well, my works-in-progress.

For instance, book 1 in the Grigori Legacy series, Sins of the Angels, underwent a complete rewrite when I signed with my agent followed by several more edits at the contract stage. The manuscript wasn’t nearly as polished as I’d thought because of the sheer amount of stuff I still needed to learn. Book 2, Sins of the Son, fared somewhat better...though I may have given my editor minor heart failure when I requested a number of substantive changes at the copyedit stage. (I got the changes I wanted, but the book had to be sent back to copyedit. I suspect I wasn’t the most popular author over there that day. Oops.)

By the time I settled in to write book 3, Sins of the Lost, I had a good grasp on most of the structural stuff: I’d built my world, developed my characters, knew (more or less) where the story arc was going, and I was keeping an eagle eye out for the pesky bad habits as I wrote. The end result? The manuscript I turned in to my editor was sent straight on to copyedit (resulting in minor heart failure for me, but that’s another story...which may/may not be connected to my control-freak tendencies). Which means that the copy of Sins of the Lost you buy today (because you know you want to!) is essentially the same as my “first” draft...minus a couple of glaring timeline errors, the typos, and some really annoying repetition. ;-)





From the author of Sins of the Angels and Sins of the Son comes the newest novel in the “electric, thrilling and extremely intelligent” (Ex Libris) Grigori Legacy series.

Heaven and Hell are on the brink of war as Lucifer builds his Nephilim army and waits for his new agenda to become a reality — that of having a Nephilimchild of his own bloodline to lead his forces to cataclysmic victory.

With rumors of the pending war rampant on Earth, Alex fights to save humanity from its own panic – leaving little time for her fledglingrelationship with Seth, the man with heavenly origins who has captured her heart. But when Nephilim children begin to disappear, along with Alex’s own vulnerable niece, the inevitable war between Heaven and Hell becomes as personal as sin.

Heaven has its own plans to fight the coming apocalypse, but first it needs Seth back. Asked to betray the man she loves, Alex must turn for help to the soulmate she thought she’d given up — the Archangel Aramael, who may be her last chance to save her family and humanity from the ashes of Lucifer’s Armageddon.


Publisher: Penguin Group
Pub. Date: October 15, 2013






Linda Poitevin was born and raised in B.C., Canada’s westernmost province. Growing up in an era when writing was “a nice hobby, dear, but what are you going to do for a living?”, Linda worked at a variety of secretarial jobs before applying to be a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Due to an error in measurement, however, she was turned down when she didn’t meet the height requirement of that time. Undeterred, Linda became a civilian member in the force and was a dispatcher for two and a half years, during which time she met her husband, a police officer.

Following their transfer to Ottawa, Linda went on to become a real estate agent and then a human resources consultant before starting a family. She remained a stay-at-home mom, homeschooled her youngest daughter for nine years and, now that she has realized writing can be more than a nice hobby, she continues to live her dream of being a cop vicariously through her characters.

Linda currently lives near Ottawa with her husband, youngest of three daughters, one very large husky/shepherd/Great Dane-cross dog, two cats, a rabbit, and a bearded dragon lizard. When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found in her garden or walking her dog along the river or through the woods.









There are two awesome giveaways included on the tour -

1 - GRAND PRIZE Giveaway (US & Canada ONLY) for a surprise prize package from Penguin - ONE Winner
5 - GRIGORI LEGACY Swag Packs (International) - tote bag, pen, fridge magnet, sticky notes & bookmarks - FIVE Winners

- The Grand Prize Giveaway is open to US/Canada.
- The Grigori Legacy Swag Pack Giveaways are open Internationally.
- Giveaways end on November 10th at 11:59 p.m. Pacific.
- Giveaways are open to anyone 18 and older.

Tweet daily for additional chances to win!



a Rafflecopter giveaway





Follow the rest of the blog tour HERE.




11 comments:

  1. I find the Nephilim interesting and the war between heaven and hell is always exciting.

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  2. i love the idea of angels and i haven't read a lot of books of them so i enjoy when i find a really good series i can recommend

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  3. Sounds like a great book and I am looking forward to reading it. evamillien at gmail dot com

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  4. I haven't read this series yet but it sounds amazing. I love books with a paranormal spin on the bible it makes for a very interesting story. Thanks for the giveaway!

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  5. Love fantasy! And I haven't read many angel/nephilim books. This has battles, heaven, hell, earth. All the good stuff :)

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  6. I'm really into the Nephilim. I find them fascinating and I like to read stories about Heaven and Hell where good and evil are actual characters.

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  7. I've read a couple of Nephilim books, and to be honest, when I read the synopsis, I thought to myself, "Oh no, not another one!" Now, though, seeing Linda's from my province, I'm intrigued by the whole series. Canadian authors just have a different feel to them!

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  8. Got to love the war between heaven and hell! Angels are a great read.

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  9. Love fantasy world !
    Thank you for this giveaway.

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  10. Im quite intrigued by this series! I love paranormal books. This series sounds amazing. I love the war between heaven and hell, the characters sound very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

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