And suddenly it’s November

Tags

Fantasy, Indie Author, Updates, Writer's Life

Hey everyone, it has been a while since I posted last, hasn’t it?

No, I haven’t ditched the whole blogging thing, though now you see why I stopped actively accepting review requests. What have I been up to? Well, aside from the general distraction of the world devolving into daily insanity…

I discovered CloudLibrary! It’s a Kindle Fire app to access ebooks available through my local library. Now, you all know that I support indie books on this blog, but I do read trad pub books as well–When I can afford them because those suckers are usually $10 each. Sure, that’s not a ton of dollars but when you add a few of them together it turns into serious expense. Because of this I’ve had to be really, really selective on what I buy which means there are a ton of titles I wanted to read but couldn’t. Guys, this is why libraries exist and why they’re an extraordinary part of the community. I finagled the app onto my device, linked into my library and it was like…

…like someone flung open the doors to a jewelry store and said, “Go ahead, take any pretties you want. Enjoy them a while, and when you’re done, come back for something new.”

Not gonna lie, there was squealing. I’m not prone to high pitch noises, but I was making them. SO, I’ve been reading these past months. And reading. And reading. And, let’s see…yup, reading. I’ve got a large TBR pile and a marvelous dent has been forming in it.

Aside from reading, what else have I been up to?

I’ve also been writing. And writing. And writing. I’m hoping to publish two books next year – one in the Spring and one just before winter. This goal requires actually writing the actual words to finish the books, thus my long absence on the blog front. Kind of a bummer because I like blogging but time has to be found somewhere.

HOWEVER

I am happy to report that you’ll be hearing from me more this month because I have a couple of big reveals coming. I’ve been working on a project since August that I’ll finally be able to unveil to you in the coming week or so. I’m really excited about it!!! Can’t tell you more than that because…

But the reveal is coming so stay tuned!

Also this month, I’ll be doing the cover reveal for Beneath Cruel Fathoms, the first book in The Bitter Sea trilogy, the new fantasy series I’m working on.

And meanwhile – yes, this is a long post, but news builds up after a few months;) – I wanted to draw your attention to an awesome new installment of the Uncharted Realms by Jeffe Kennedy. Her latest, The Arrows of the Heart, was a great read based in her Twelve Kingdoms fantasy world. Definitely recommended!

Love this cover. If you haven’t started this series, begin with the first book The Mark of the Tala, one of my favorites.

That’s all for now! More posts coming soon:)

 

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New book release! and other details

Tags

Book Release, Indie Author, Science-Fiction, Self Published Book, Writer's Life

The final installment of my Insurrection series is out!

Well, it was actually out last week except a bout of flu (another one, ugh) prevented me from announcing it. But yes! The series is complete at last! I’m really excited about it, not least because book four was published a little over a year ago so it was definitely time to bring you the conclusion.

This started out as a novella series however book five, Martyr, is novel length. I still priced it at $0.99 like the others though. Why? Because it drives me bananas when authors put a higher price on each subsequent volume in the series. Book one to book two, I can see a price increase since a lot of book ones are free or $0.99, but going from $2.99 to $4.99 for book two, and then another dollar or two for book three? Come on. I see the business angle of it but it has a nickle and diming your readership feel–at least, that’s how I experience it as a reader. At any rate, I’m not doing that. Every installment is $0.99, including the finale.

Lessons Learned

This was my first series as an Indie writer and it taught me three things:

1. I suck at figuring out deadlines — This is the thing I’m working on the most. I think a lot of Indies struggle to account for drafting and revision time to pinpoint exact publication dates. This is compounded when one has a day job and little ones and winter flu bugs that can throw life into a spin. My solution? I’ve decided to only announce a publication date when the book is just about ready. That’ll also save me wagon loads of stress.

2. Have the next installment done before publishing the earlier one — This goes along with figuring out deadlines. For the fantasy trilogy I’m planning I’ve decided to hold off on publishing book one until I have book two almost ready. This’ll enable me to create some sort of publication strategy since, um, I haven’t had one so much. Here’s to learning better ways to publish than flinging my work into the void.

3. It’s about the outline, stupid — Unlike with standalones, which I outline like a boss, I was a little less organized when putting together the series. I still ensured every thread and subplot was resolved but I made it harder on myself by going into it without a complete outline. Yeah, it gave me a lot of creative freedom, but I found myself having to go back over previous installments carefully to make certain everything synced up. This made the writing process take longer. Next time I’ll have an outline to lead all the way through (with some wiggle room for creative tangents — hey, I can’t contain the pantser part of me completely)

So, here it is, the last installment of Insurrection (SPOILERS in the synopsis for those who haven’t started it yet). Huge thanks to those who sent their support and words of encouragement as I pushed to finish it. The whole series started out as a dream. Not too shabby for my unconscious brain. I’m tempted to try getting more sleep at night to see what other ideas sprout up but *snort laughs* let’s not delve into impossible goals.

 

On the outside, Yaren appears human. A friend to the Albatross. A rebel ally. But her humanity is only skin deep, a means to hide her true origins. Her people have traveled long and far to find a new home and she has given everything to ensure nothing stands in their way.

As the Locust armada moves to eradicate mankind on Earth, Yaren’s task is to betray the human fleet’s position and strategy. She only needs to evade the watchful eye of an infuriating former inquisitor to see it done. Human notions of trust and friendship will not distract her. Nothing will, not even the doubts thumping in her borrowed heart.

Available on Amazon & Kindle Unlimited

 

A Bludgeoning Muse

Tags

NanoWriMo, Science-Fiction, Writer's Life

The first half of NaNoWriMo has passed (the annual attempt by writers to complete a full novel, or 50,000 words, in a month). Having done NaNo in the past I know this is the point where the reality of the situation has sunk in and you realize three things:

1. This month will require much more caffeine than you anticipated
2. You have to decide whether you’ll meet your goal or keep your sanity. You do not get both.
3. You look around your home and determine which section of the house you’re going to live in because you won’t have time to clean anything else.

For myself, I’m actually not participating in NaNo this year because, well, I kinda already did it this summer. No, it wasn’t voluntary. Yes, dear God, it was painful, but the story wouldn’t let me go until I finished it. Seriously, the thing chased me to the keyboard and chained me there until midnight EVERY NIGHT, guzzling coffee and gnawing on forkfulls of dinner on a plate next to the keyboard. There were even a couple of close calls to the bathroom (Just kidding…Sort of.) It was a grind day-after-day. I wanted to put it aside. It was a new idea and I had other projects to finish up, including the revision of the final installment to my Insurrection series. People have been asking me about it. I need to get that DONE but this one just wouldn’t let me pay attention to anything else. It was a haunting, I’m telling you.

So, I gave in.

I said, “Fine, you treacherous, nagging beast.” I was addressing the muse here. “I’ll give you this month. One month, hear me? You better not be wasting my time.”

It wasn’t.

Six weeks and 75,000 words later, it was finished. A YA Sci-Fi standalone novel set in a cyberpunk universe. Yeah, standalones are not smart from a business perspective and terrible to market, but I love this story. I love the characters. I love the gritty world. I could have made it into two books, maybe, but it’s stronger as a single story. Ideas like these, the ones that blast onto the page in a heady, sleep-deprived fever, deserve a writer’s loyalty. Trying to stretch it into something longer than it was meant to be seems ungrateful. Yeah, yeah, I’m just an idealistic Indie pup still cutting her teeth in this business, but I’m okay with that. I’ve got ideas meant to be in series form. This world has a single window for readers to look through, but after three revisions and a professional edit, I can promise the view is amazing. More posts to come on this, including the synopsis and a cover reveal early next year so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, for those who have been waiting on Insurrection’s final installment, I have good news:

Martyr, book five, will be published in December.

Yes, next month. It’s happening and I appreciate all your patience and encouragement during the wait since book four was published. If you’d like a glimpse of it I’ve updated the series page to include the synopsis. Check that out here (If you haven’t read all four books yet, !SPOILERS!)

How is NaNo going for you this year, fellow authors? Feeling the mid-project pinch or are your word counts chugging along smoothly? Give me a glimpse of what goodies I have to look forward to reading next year!

 

Roll Credits

Tags

Reading, Storytelling, Writer's Life

Recently I came to the ending of a couple of books that I’d been SO looking forward to. One was the final book in a trilogy and the other was a standalone sequel. There I was, boppin’ along happily, enjoying the story and the writing (well, more for that standalone sequel than the trilogy finale, but that’s unrelated). There’s a big confrontation in both. The heroes are backed into a corner. DEATH is on the line! I’m thinking, “Woah, how are they going to get out of it all?? This is going to be great!!” while at the same time a frightened part of me is praying the authors won’t go for some cliche deus ex machina cop-out to haul the protags assess out of the fire.

I get to the plot’s crescendo AND…

Yeah, both went with the saw-it-coming-a-mile-away, take-the-easy-road, one-fell-swoop solution to ALL the problems ending.

*sobs*

I shambled around the house afterward feeling gloomy. My husband asked if something happened at work or if I argued with my mother, to which I replied, “No, it’s worse. I have book blues.” His face got really still like he was trying very hard not to roll his eyes or make that wry smirk of his that says, “Reeeeally?” I guess since he’s a social worker this sort of mood crasher seems a tad exaggerated given the things he sees everyday. Hm, he has a point, but STILL!

Has this ever happened to anyone else? When the end of a book you’ve been dying to read just completely disappoints? I’ll admit I’m a bit of an odd duck–I know, you’re shocked, right?–when it comes to endings. I can absolutely accept an unhappy ending as long as it makes sense and isn’t just trying to be avant guarde about it (Don’t get me going on The Departed’s stupid ending).

I can also be good with happy endings, as long as there isn’t too much shiny-shiny-the world is at peace-everybody lives-no one had to sacrifice squat. AND, most importantly, as long as the ending included characters fighting their own way out of trouble and not simply delivered from it by some other “all powerful” force rushing in from the sidelines to resolve the problem and defeat the “Big Bad”.

These two books I mentioned were traditionally published which really leaves me scratching my head as to how these lazy-written endings (because when you get down to brass tacks, that’s what they were) got through the author’s team of editors, critiquers, and beta readers. Granted, these are very big authors so maybe the publishing house didn’t bother with much polish time because they knew they were going to make a ton of money no matter what. That irks me, particularly since they now own my money too and didn’t fulfill their end of the bargain.

When I finished the review draft of my first novel, I sent it out to trusted beta readers before I contracted an editor. Being a novice author, I admit there was some deus ex machina toward the end. Yeah, my betas all jabbed fingers at it and said, “Nuh-uh. Make the characters we’ve been rooting for take the spotlight.” I took their advice and rewrote the entire ending (yes, the whole thing, several chapters worth) and I’m so grateful for their feedback because it was 100% better. In fact, my editor only had minor notes for it.

The point is, I realize it’s easy to fall into the cheap fix to a story’s problem, but that should never make it out of the draft stage. The authors of the books I referenced are not novices but big names. Maybe it’s naive to hope that despite their fame they will still strive for their best rather than “good enough to sell”. Yes, it’s a business but at the heart of it, it’s art. To me, art deserves our best every time.

Has anyone else had the “book blues”? Ever get to the end of a read you were excited about only to see it unravel?

Sincerely, not

Tags

Indie Author, Inspiration, Writer's Life

A while back an acquaintance of mine (sort of a devolved friendship with someone I don’t really talk to or hang out with anymore) began emailing, FB messaging, and calling me to reach back out to her about “something”. Seriously, if she were a family member I’d have thought someone died with her dogged pursuit to contact me. My husband, ever talented in the art of reading people, told me, “Yeah, she probably wants to sell you something.”. I thought, naaaaah, you wouldn’t contact someone out of the blue like this for such a self-serving reason. Right? That’s just awkward and ugly.

Well, you can probably guess where this is going. When I spoke with her it was a weird, stilted conversation wherein she talked in this artificially bright voice, dropping questions about details in my life she likely gleaned from social media in an effort to convince me she actually gives a damn about it. I wondered if she thought I was so starved for acknowledgement that I wouldn’t see through this.

“I heard you published a book! That’s awesome!”

She was so impressed she didn’t know the title, that it happened over a year ago, and that I’d published several other works.

“How’s everything going with your husband?”

I guess our cancer scare didn’t come up on her wall when she did a quick review before the conversation.

“It’s been WAY too long since we last got together!”

Yup, the last time was when she came unannounced to my house right in the midst of getting my toddlers down for a nap. The sole reason for the stop was to collect baby clothes my daughter no longer used which I didn’t have ready to go at all. She insisted on waiting and then sat in my living room while I ran around collecting them. She left immediately afterward. No calls followed.

Finally, she’s gets to her pitch. She’s thinking of starting a home business selling products for women for a vendor company but has to watch an orientation video about it beforehand and wouldn’t it be fun to do it with a group of us?? Then afterward we can have a girls night, squeeee! As if I couldn’t spot the recruiting scam from a mile away. Honestly, the fact that she thought I’d see this as a sincere attempt to get together just royally insulted my intelligence.

The sad thing is it’s not like this sort of behavior–using a friendship for purely personal and mercurial advancement–is unprecedented. I’ve seen it before with invites to Mary Kay or some type of Tupperware party. And there are plenty of people who don’t mind it, I’m sure, and even have fun at these things but I wonder if it too easily falls into the situation I just went through–A hamfisted attempt to act like you care about someone in order to get them to sign up/spend money. Are people really so eager to trade in their integrity? We all know that’s done in politics but it hurts to think friendships are treated this way. Am I being idealistic here?

Indie authors are sometimes accused of doing this as well when marketing their books. I’ve seen it–authors following bloggers and then blasting them with spotlight requests on all their social media platforms, unfollowing them just as quickly if they don’t get what they want. It’s a hit-and-run with no interest in actual interaction with said blogger, as if they are just a means to an end, as if their site is run by a book promoting vending machine rather than a living person doing their best. It’s gross. And short-sighted.

Not that I’m claiming that all or even most Indies are this way. Most Indies I’ve gotten to know are wonderful people who comprehend networking as a long-term relationship thing. They promote each other. They comment on each other’s posts. They correspond. They reply to tweets and retweet one another. Okay, yes, the original move to reach out to another Indie or a blogger might be from personal interest, but the investment in the relationship is what makes it sincere. These friendships are what make this whole self-publishing/writer’s-life thing fun, especially if you’re still trying to get your name out there. I mean, let’s face it, this gig can dole out the punches. You need some pals in your corner.

Needless to say, the concept of sincerity has been on my mind since the yucky fake-friend invite thing. Obviously I didn’t go. I wish I could tell you guys that I told her off in such terms as to make her feel small and ridiculous for being such a disingenuous phony. The truth is it just made me kinda sad and I couldn’t summon the will to do it. Odd really, since I have no trouble with articulation when I see a need to stand up for someone else. Then I come shouldering in, snarling protectively. We can’t be all things at all times I suppose.

Anyway, that’s what I want to leave you with–heavy and potentially cliche as it is for a Monday–the thought that we need more sincerity in this life. Because the truth is when we’re open and genuine with each other the world is simply a brighter place to live in.