Elizabeth Dunlap's Blog

Buckle up, kitty cats, it’s story time!

I was scrolling through ACX the other day, claiming all of my books on there. Whether or not I planned on making them into audiobooks, it’s a good practice to do, just to make sure no one else can claim your books.

I discovered this book: Die Auserwahlten by Anja Weissmuller. It came up in my search for “Elizabeth Dunlap.”

Now, I’m sure you’re aware that I make my own book covers. I have a distinct style, especially for my YA Born Vampire series, and upon seeing this cover, I immediately sensed something was off. It’s too similar to my BV series covers. I figured, maybe someone saw mine and thought it was nice? But no, it was worse than that.

Die Auserwahlten, which, if you don’t speak German (like me), means “The Chosen” and I’m sure that sounds familiar, because “War of the Chosen” is book 3 in my BV series. And this book, with it’s clearly copied cover, wasn’t just a copy. It was a literal stolen copy of my book “Knight of the Hunted” that someone shoved into Google translate, and put it on Amazon.

My name was still in the blurb, the blurb that was just a literal German translation of mine. It had my chapter headings inside.

My book being stolen was a horrible feeling, added on top was knowing if my name hadn’t been in the blurb, by accident, I would’ve never known this existed.

I went through the steps to have it removed, and it is now taken down from Amazon and Goodreads, which is good, and I’m so relieved to get it fixed.

I understand that there’s a market for translations in other languages, but if it was as simple as plugging my book into Google translate, I’d have already done that. Language doesn’t work that way at all.

And to whoever thought they could steal my book, maybe you should write your own stories and stop taking people’s hard work?

If you’re interested in reading my books, they’re on Amazon, right there for you to find. If you’re having trouble affording books, they’re also in Kindle Unlimited, a subscription service where you pay a small fee every month, and you can read as many books as your heart desires.

And if that still isn’t enough, maybe visit your local library, and ask them to get copies of my books for you to read. I’m sure they’d love to have more indie authors on their shelves!

Vixens, it’s my four year author-versary!!!

Four years ago I hit publish on Knight of the Hunted (YA) and began a journey. I didn’t know what I was doing, I made plenty of mistakes, but the people I’ve met along the way have helped me get to where I am today, four years later.

I’ve written and published books that I’m proud of, stories that I love, and I have so much more planned to fill the next four years, and then some!

Thank you to everyone who’s helped me get to this day, I couldn’t do this without you

To help celebrate this occasion, both versions of Knight of the Hunted are free today!!!

https://books2read.com/nsfwknightofthehunted

https://books2read.com/koth

Last Halloween we were introduced to the witch school of Highborn Academy that houses a rather interesting set of characters.

Jaz, the snarky necromancer.

Alec, the playboy warlock.

Pierce, the forbidden Lycan.

And Gilbert, the adorably whiny ghost.

And now it’s time for the second installment in the series: Neck-Rological!

Will Alec get over his moody display on the train? Will Gilbert be able to do all he dreams about with Jaz? And will Pierce be discovered on school grounds?

I guess we’re about to find out!

Part 1: My 10 year journey of how a 2 book series became 6

Part 2: How a M/F series became Reverse Harem

While doing my daily Amazon check to make sure all my books are fine (trust me, it’s not always the case), I remembered I have a blog!! Haha, funny how that happens! I get so wrapped up in my deadlines, custom book covers with my Pixie Covers business, I forget to do the social media aspect of, well, social media.

Recently my cover making has taken a leap in quality, and it got me to thinking.

When I first wrote “The Grumpy Fairy” I didn’t know how to make covers. I couldn’t afford to have one made. It was one bump in a very long road of cover issues that only recently have all been smoothed out. I found a free image (which I now know is a huge no-no) and I made a cover for it, published it, then left it alone.

Then, Grumpy Fairy became a series in my head of between 5-6 books. I couldn’t keep the current cover because there was only one image of that model. I poured over legit stock image sites like Shutterstock and Depositphotos for fairies, anything that looked like Drusinella, the way I saw her. I found a model that I loved, but she wasn’t a fairy, and I didn’t have the skills to make her into one, not to mention there weren’t the right bodies for it.

I accepted that I’d never have the covers that I wanted, and moved on, making instead some covers I thought would appeal to children, the target audience of Grumpy Fairy. I remade it again when the book stopped selling, still going with a cartoon aspect.

And then I decided to write the second Grumpy book. I set a deadline, which I barely made even after extending it as far as I could, and while in my writing bubble fueled by caffeine, I got to thinking. I’m an overthinker, I won’t lie about that, but I always explore thoughts in my head because sometimes they’re worth following.

I realized that now, two years after Grumpy was published, one year after I started making book covers professionally, that I finally had the skill to make real Grumpy Fairy covers, exactly the way I’d wanted them in the first place. I’d shoved that book so far away that I forgot it needed a glow-up too, and I could finally give it one.

Thus began a project that I started mid-writing session for “The Dragon Park” (Grumpy Fairy 2) that has since become one of my favorite creations. I created the body I needed and couldn’t find, and I used the head model that I’d originally fallen in love with, not to mention a background I’d been eyeing, all to create….

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ISN’T IT AWESOME????

Every time I look at it, I feel like crying. It’s exactly what I’d always pictured, and the best part is that I made that! I don’t think I’ve ever been as proud of my skills as I am right now. Especially since that first act was followed by…

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Gaaaaah!!!! I can’t get over it, it’s so gorgeous!

I ordered the first paperback of Dragon Park, and when I held it in my hands, admiring my work and the sheer perfection of my girl, I started crying.

Once these covers were done, I immediately made the third cover (no spoilers!) and wrote an outline for the rest of the series, with all the things I’ve been planning. I’m not sure when the third will be finished, but now I’m looking forward to finishing this series!!

Grab The Dragon Park today!

As my most recent book, Ecrivain, has released, the story line has a few people scratching their head. Most importantly, they’re bothered, confused, and in disbelief over the main character’s parents.

Calliope’s parents are introduced in the novel as favoring her little brother Penny over Calliope. They let him do whatever he wants, while Calliope is constantly reprimanded for doing exactly the same things as him.

To make matters worse, once Calliope’s parents discover she has the dream of becoming a writer, they’re appalled, and they ship her off to boarding school as a punishment, making it clear they will not tolerate her writing at all.

While this behavior from someone’s parents might seem outlandish, unbelievable, and downright reaching, it happens. There are parents who don’t care about their child’s dreams, don’t support them, aren’t there for them. Just because someone is a parent, it doesn’t mean they want the best for their child. Sometimes they’re only interested in what they want for their child, and their child’s wishes are not considered.

There are also parents who mock their child’s dream. Tell their child it’ll never happen and to just give up and do something else. There are some who even deny their child the chance to chase their dreams.

The fact that my readers are having a hard time accepting this type of abuse as fact only spurs me on to highlight it further, so it is brought to light and shown that it exists. If one day a child picks up my book and sees a girl struggling to get what she wants exactly like them, then my job will be done.

Things are heating up for me after releasing book five of the Born Vampire series! The book was amazing and took several twists and turns I didn’t anticipate, including a little resolution to what has been between Arthur and Lisbeth this whole time! No spoilers, so you’ll have to go read it!

Buy Rise of the Monsters on Amazon!

In other news, it’s time for a new book series to emerge now that Born Vampire is almost finished! This is a series I’ve been working on for well over a year, and now I’m almost done with book one! I’m hoping to have enough time to have a limited amount of ARC paperbacks for my next event as a little extra something for my readers

It has been a crazy couple of months since my last post! My cover business is booming (cough pixiecovers.com cough) sales have picked up since I put my books back into KU, and I finished the next Born Vampire novel!

Sneak peek????

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What mysteries will book five of this series hold???

The manuscript has been whisked away to my alpha readers, then I’ll give it some tweaks, send it to beta readers, and then it’s off to Amazon for pre-ordering! Hopefully it will be out in March, if not April at the latest, because I need it available for Dallas Fan Expo in May!

I hope to see everyone there!

P.S. It’s my birthday!!

For the past several months I’ve been so busy as a cover designer I’ve been neglecting my own writing. As the next year approaches, I hope to have the time to finish my latest projects and publish my next book!

I re-designed the Aero short story series covers, and I’m going to be re-writing them as well so I can finally release part 3! I’m also working on another short story that I’ve had in the works for more years than I care to admit *innocent face* but my main focus is the next Born Vampire book, because as much as I try to write other stuff, it’s the one talking the loudest.

I hope everyone has a great holiday, no matter what you celebrate!