I know, I know, I'm trying to break this awful blog slump I've been in. You're going to have to suffer through some lame rambling posts for a while.
Wait...that's all I ever write!
Anyway...here they are, my rules of writing.
1.) Write when you're feeling inspired.
2.) Write the kind of book you enjoy reading.
3.) Not feeling inspired? WRITE ANYWAY!
4.) Write even if it sucks. You can edit out suck later.
5.) Eventually someone will tell your book sucks anyway, despite your best intentions to edit the suck out of it. Tell them to suck it.
6.) Discouraged? Shut up and write anyway!
Yeah, that sounds about right. Errr...write!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Pop quiz...
Out of a three book series, which is the hardest to write?
A.) The first
B.) The second
C.) The third and final
D.) ALL OF THE ABOVE
Hmmm???
Answer D!!!
It's not writer's block, I swear. I've just lost my writer mojo. Or maybe I never had any to begin with.
A.) The first
B.) The second
C.) The third and final
D.) ALL OF THE ABOVE
Hmmm???
Answer D!!!
It's not writer's block, I swear. I've just lost my writer mojo. Or maybe I never had any to begin with.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Where am I? Where are you?
I'm on hiatus. Well, not really. I think I really, really needed a break from writerly stuff after the last push to get FS out. Even after it was out, I kept re-reading and fixing things. I think I found a few missing words and fixed those. Ah, that makes me rage. I hate mistakes. I hope everyone who reads the book, and notices a little something off here and there realizes that I literally proofread it fifty times. Alas, sometimes perfection is out of my reach.
Anyway, so after this past weekend, and finally approving my print copy, I told Matthew I was going to take a week of from writing stuff (aside from begging people for reviews) he agreed that this was a good idea. I'm sure this will totally surprise you (NOT!) but I get really neurotic and insane when it comes to my writing, especially in the final throes of publishing.
So I took my week off. Well, not really. Instead I got SICK AGAIN! So I've been nursing a cold/cough combo once again. Make that a forced hiatus from writing then.
Hopefully I'll be back to 100% soon. And by this weekend. BECAUSE IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!
In other news, the books are both doing well. I'm actually selling a few copies of LE outright, which makes me happy. The list of people on Goodreads who have marked it as "to-read" is growing longer. Actually I just caught this little tidbit from someone who is reading it now. "Well, I am hooked. It's good, people. I think I may be coming out of my reading slump!" I love it. And yes, I totally stalk everyone on Goodreads. No shame.
Anyway, so after this past weekend, and finally approving my print copy, I told Matthew I was going to take a week of from writing stuff (aside from begging people for reviews) he agreed that this was a good idea. I'm sure this will totally surprise you (NOT!) but I get really neurotic and insane when it comes to my writing, especially in the final throes of publishing.
So I took my week off. Well, not really. Instead I got SICK AGAIN! So I've been nursing a cold/cough combo once again. Make that a forced hiatus from writing then.
Hopefully I'll be back to 100% soon. And by this weekend. BECAUSE IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!
In other news, the books are both doing well. I'm actually selling a few copies of LE outright, which makes me happy. The list of people on Goodreads who have marked it as "to-read" is growing longer. Actually I just caught this little tidbit from someone who is reading it now. "Well, I am hooked. It's good, people. I think I may be coming out of my reading slump!" I love it. And yes, I totally stalk everyone on Goodreads. No shame.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
My brain just exploded...
Well, sort of.
In case you missed it, and I'm pretty sure you didn't, or did you? My second book finally came out yesterday. Of course, to add to my impatience, which has been growing since last October, Amazon spent sixteen bloody hours getting it up! I think was around two pm (I had submitted my files at ten the night before, and it's only supposed to take twelve hours) that it finally popped up on Amazon. After that I started spamming Facebook a little obnoxiously. (Sorry) And then sat back to bask in the glow of my minor success. Relatively minor, anyway.
But that's not the real story. For as excited I was to release Finding Sanctuery, it was a bit overshadowed by London Escape's stellar performance on the freebie charts. (Yes, I know it's free, free sells, blah blah blah) You can't minimilize these numbers. My total downloads for yesterday were a little over six hundred. It's free again today and we're already up to almost eight hundred (including the six hundred from yesterday.) So let me check my spreadsheet and crunch the numbers real quick...
That brings my grand total downloads (real sales and freebies, USA, UK and other places) to a whopping 2,826.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's all I can say. Still not famous. Still not really published. But still pretty happy with where I am right now. People are reading my book. As far as I know they are liking it. Haven't had a negative review. (YET!)
I can't complain. EXCEPT Finding Sanctuary has only sold eleven copies so far! So go buy it!
In case you missed it, and I'm pretty sure you didn't, or did you? My second book finally came out yesterday. Of course, to add to my impatience, which has been growing since last October, Amazon spent sixteen bloody hours getting it up! I think was around two pm (I had submitted my files at ten the night before, and it's only supposed to take twelve hours) that it finally popped up on Amazon. After that I started spamming Facebook a little obnoxiously. (Sorry) And then sat back to bask in the glow of my minor success. Relatively minor, anyway.
But that's not the real story. For as excited I was to release Finding Sanctuery, it was a bit overshadowed by London Escape's stellar performance on the freebie charts. (Yes, I know it's free, free sells, blah blah blah) You can't minimilize these numbers. My total downloads for yesterday were a little over six hundred. It's free again today and we're already up to almost eight hundred (including the six hundred from yesterday.) So let me check my spreadsheet and crunch the numbers real quick...
That brings my grand total downloads (real sales and freebies, USA, UK and other places) to a whopping 2,826.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's all I can say. Still not famous. Still not really published. But still pretty happy with where I am right now. People are reading my book. As far as I know they are liking it. Haven't had a negative review. (YET!)
I can't complain. EXCEPT Finding Sanctuary has only sold eleven copies so far! So go buy it!
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
T-minus whatever...
Have I ever mentioned how much I strongly dislike waiting? Okay, I'll say it. I HATE waiting.
Last night I submitted my files for the final publishing of my SECOND novel. I'm still waiting on my paperback proof copy to ship, so I can approve it for sale. But in the meantime, the kindle version should be out sometime today. Yup, love the vagueness. Amazon says it could take up to twelve hours for it to appear on their website. It was under review all night, so hopefully this means it will go up SOON!
In the meantime London Escape is free today and tomorrow to celebrate the big release of book two!
And I have plenty of things to keep me distracted from refreshing my Amazon author page over and over. School to teach, laundry to wash, floors to sweep and mop. Ah the glamorous life of an author!
Last night I submitted my files for the final publishing of my SECOND novel. I'm still waiting on my paperback proof copy to ship, so I can approve it for sale. But in the meantime, the kindle version should be out sometime today. Yup, love the vagueness. Amazon says it could take up to twelve hours for it to appear on their website. It was under review all night, so hopefully this means it will go up SOON!
In the meantime London Escape is free today and tomorrow to celebrate the big release of book two!
And I have plenty of things to keep me distracted from refreshing my Amazon author page over and over. School to teach, laundry to wash, floors to sweep and mop. Ah the glamorous life of an author!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
It's coming...
So I finally had to stray from my song title thing, but I think we can all agree that was getting old. Plus, I have news. Real news! My book is coming out! TOMORROW! Yes that definitely requires all caps!
It's seems like I've been waiting such a long time for this, as the book was technically finished late last summer, but I've been sidetracked by a lot of different things.
I'm actually a lot more nervous about this release than I was London Escape. By the time that was published, it had been "out there" so much more. Finding Sanctuary has been kept a little more under wraps. Only myself and two other people, my beta readers, have even read it. And of course there's that fear of not living up to expectations, and we all know the trickiest book to like is always the middle of a trilogy.
This book is not filler. It's different than LE though. It's a little slower paced, though plenty of things happen. Somehow I feel like you will get to know the characters better this time around, especially Kit and Jason. I hope everyone loves it, loves them, the way that I do. I hope you're excited for this next chapter in Kit's story. I know I am!
Last year when I released my first book, Facebook played a huge part in my sales. So don't be surprised if you see me totally spamming for the rest of the week. And feel free to spam for me!
So, lovely readers, what are you most excited to see happen in the second book?
It's seems like I've been waiting such a long time for this, as the book was technically finished late last summer, but I've been sidetracked by a lot of different things.
I'm actually a lot more nervous about this release than I was London Escape. By the time that was published, it had been "out there" so much more. Finding Sanctuary has been kept a little more under wraps. Only myself and two other people, my beta readers, have even read it. And of course there's that fear of not living up to expectations, and we all know the trickiest book to like is always the middle of a trilogy.
This book is not filler. It's different than LE though. It's a little slower paced, though plenty of things happen. Somehow I feel like you will get to know the characters better this time around, especially Kit and Jason. I hope everyone loves it, loves them, the way that I do. I hope you're excited for this next chapter in Kit's story. I know I am!
Last year when I released my first book, Facebook played a huge part in my sales. So don't be surprised if you see me totally spamming for the rest of the week. And feel free to spam for me!
So, lovely readers, what are you most excited to see happen in the second book?
Monday, February 18, 2013
Learning to fly...
Okay, so the song thing is getting a little annoying, isn't it? It's fun though. Even though most days the song titles don't have anything whatsoever to do with the posts, but oh well.
Busy weekend around here. I finally got some forward motion achieved with my second book. Sadly, I had to hire a new cover artist because my original artist is buried with her real job. But I'm happy with my choice and I'm looking forward to seeing what my new designer comes up with when she sends me the first draft of my cover later today. Yes, today! I'm beyond excited.
Because Finding Sanctuary is now completely wrapped up, besides the actual publishing part, I decided to sort out my massive stack of legal pads and archive all the ones labeled "FS". My "archives" consist of one of those large rubbermaid tubs under my bed. While I was putting the new ones in I decided to stack up all the notebooks I've used so far on this trilogy and count them.
I think the final count was like, twenty-five or so. And book three is not even done yet. Though, honestly, I spend much less time writing longhand these days. Sometimes I go straight to the computer. I just don't have time to write by hand for three hours every day anymore! It's crazy to think that I started all of this when Sophia was just a tiny baby! I was showing Matthew how I had color coordinated my tabs. Green is London Escape, pink is Finding Sanctuary and orange is book three, currently the working title is Final Redemption. He asked me how on earth I made head or tails out of all that, and I just laughed. Sometimes I don't! Half the time I can't even read my own writing. But all of it's in my head, so I'm not too worried.
I'm really looking forward to publishing Finding Sanctuary. Well, that's a bit of an understatement at this point! I feel like I wrote London Escape for the purpose of being published, while Finding Sanctuary was totally for me and my readers. All five of them. So I hope they enjoy it. ;)
(An offhand note about music. If you listened to any of these songs so far, you might notice that I have completely random, and sometimes terrible taste in music! Lately I've been listening a ton to The Fray, Lifehouse, and Linkin Park, as most of those are on my "book soundtrack" for Finding Sanctuary. But I obviously have a serious thing for classic rock, too. I have my dad to thank for that. I literally grew up with Aerosmith, the Stones, Led Zepplin, and Pink Floyd. To this very day "Learning to Fly" is one of my all time favorite songs.)
Busy weekend around here. I finally got some forward motion achieved with my second book. Sadly, I had to hire a new cover artist because my original artist is buried with her real job. But I'm happy with my choice and I'm looking forward to seeing what my new designer comes up with when she sends me the first draft of my cover later today. Yes, today! I'm beyond excited.
Because Finding Sanctuary is now completely wrapped up, besides the actual publishing part, I decided to sort out my massive stack of legal pads and archive all the ones labeled "FS". My "archives" consist of one of those large rubbermaid tubs under my bed. While I was putting the new ones in I decided to stack up all the notebooks I've used so far on this trilogy and count them.
I think the final count was like, twenty-five or so. And book three is not even done yet. Though, honestly, I spend much less time writing longhand these days. Sometimes I go straight to the computer. I just don't have time to write by hand for three hours every day anymore! It's crazy to think that I started all of this when Sophia was just a tiny baby! I was showing Matthew how I had color coordinated my tabs. Green is London Escape, pink is Finding Sanctuary and orange is book three, currently the working title is Final Redemption. He asked me how on earth I made head or tails out of all that, and I just laughed. Sometimes I don't! Half the time I can't even read my own writing. But all of it's in my head, so I'm not too worried.
I'm really looking forward to publishing Finding Sanctuary. Well, that's a bit of an understatement at this point! I feel like I wrote London Escape for the purpose of being published, while Finding Sanctuary was totally for me and my readers. All five of them. So I hope they enjoy it. ;)
(An offhand note about music. If you listened to any of these songs so far, you might notice that I have completely random, and sometimes terrible taste in music! Lately I've been listening a ton to The Fray, Lifehouse, and Linkin Park, as most of those are on my "book soundtrack" for Finding Sanctuary. But I obviously have a serious thing for classic rock, too. I have my dad to thank for that. I literally grew up with Aerosmith, the Stones, Led Zepplin, and Pink Floyd. To this very day "Learning to Fly" is one of my all time favorite songs.)
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