Tarnished

Life goes on and, as you can see, blogging hasn't been a big part of mine.  I'm leaving my last two posts up as a reminder to me.  One- blogging is not going to be something I do on a regular basis.  Why?  I'm not a big talker, and to me blogs are another form of speaking.  I listen, I read, and most of the time end up keeping my opinions to myself.  Not because no one listens to my opinions, but because I'm too busy listening to others and filing little tidbits away in my mental files.  (Later, I'll raid those files for inspiration.)

Two- I always want to remember how exciting first stepping into the world of self-publishing was.  Yeah, I know, I'm still just stepping in.  Gotta admit though, those first steps are the most exciting.  Then before you know it (seriously- look first) sharp pointy rocks with labels pop up.  Those labels are "brand", "marketing", "advertising", "social networking", "blogging". (Couldn't resist that last one.)  None of which do I find nearly as entertaining as sitting in front of my laptop and writing a story.  Those things are almost torture to me, and as much as I like to torture my characters, self-torture has not been a big thing for me.

So, what does all that mean in terms for this blog?  Not a clue.  Well, besides that I'm going to try to keep this going.  Even if I only post once or twice a month. (Hahahaha.  Try every 3 months?)  I could try convincing myself that I am in fact simply talking to myself.  (Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.)  In short, we'll see how it goes.

*Dusts off hands.*  Now that I'm done with that.  Guess what's been happening in my life.  Go ahead, guess.  Oh, alright I'll tell you.  Kids are back in school.  (Yay.)  Youngest is still at home.  (Next year.)  We're back at church.  I'll admit, I'm a terrible Catholic- but we do have the kids in the requisite classes now.  Cough- a few years late- cough.  I finished a short story for a new Supernatural Crime series.  BUT I get to rewrite it.

A little bit more on that.  When I write my stories I get to be judge, jury, and executioner.  But what happens when I have the wrong killer?  Crap.  Double crap.  It means I have to go back and rewrite it.  That's okay, the characters will forgive me.  (Or not, as I've just made things worse for the main character. Muahahaha.)  It will help the steady the second story, which I've already started writing.  I'm also plotting out the third.

Main character is a police detective and it's set in a world where magic exists.  Can't ever forget magic.  It's more fun that way.  Right now I'm toying with two ideas for the series title. 1) Death Magic.  2) Warlock.  I have time to decide.  I'm looking at a release date sometime next year- summer or fall.  I want a decent head start on writing the series in anticipation of readers like me.  (Voracious, gotta have it now.  You know who you are.)

That's enough from my world for now.  Go enjoy yours.  And if you're unlucky enough to have snow I recommend hiding indoors with a notebook.  Or a netbook.  Whichever works for you.

Demons Just Wanna Have Fun

I did it.  I put my book Demons Just Wanna Have Fun up on Smashwords and Amazon.  Amazon is still looking it over, but it's available for download from Smashwords already.  Now that I've managed to calm my excitement somewhat, (I published my first novel.  How cool is that?) I can relate my experience.

Publishing to Amazon was easier to do.  I didn't have any trouble with it, and the preview looked like my .prc file.  Smashwords proved more difficult.  The short description did me in.  When they say 400 characters, they mean 400 characters.  And every time I had to fix something I missed, I had to browse for my cover and my file again.  The actual process still took less than five minutes, and the bubbling joy at seeing my book available minutes after I'd uploaded made up for any trouble I had.

To celebrate my new status as a published author.  I have a coupon for Demons Just Wanna Have Fun.  I hope you all enjoy it!

 Promotional price: $1.02
Coupon Code: HC36A 
Expires: June 19, 2011
 Smashwords

Be sure to write the coupon code down before clicking over to Smashwords!  Regular price is $2.99.

Shiny

I've been told two things over and over again: indie authors need to network and readers need a way to contact you.  Alright so, I have a twitter account and an author page on facebook.  Was that enough?  Not according to those in the know.  So now I have this shiny new blog where I can post up info on my e-books and anything else that skitters across my mind.

My first novel will be published on the 19th of this month through Amazon and Smashwords.  I wrote it back in 2009, and thanks to a blog post from Dean Wesley Smith, I decided to publish it. (If you haven't read his blog, I highly recommend it.  You can find the link over there to the right.)  If you enjoy Demons Just Wanna Have Fun, feel free to drop me a line and let me know.  If you don't- I've been promised you won't come after me with sticks or stones, so let's stick with that. K?  Thanks.

My goal is to update this blog at least once a week.  People standing in my way- four kids on summer break.  That's right, the school year is up and it's time for fun in the sun.  Or rain, in our case as we've been waterlogged the last couple of weeks.  Summer vacation has reduced my writing time to early morning and late evening.  What does that mean?  Glad you asked.  It means if I can't concentrate to write a blog post while my darlings are running around and generally creating havoc, I won't be posting on a regular day.  Oh wait, I said once a week, not once a day, right?  Yeah, it won't be on any particular day.


If you've managed to make it this far through and are a reader, I hope you enjoy my work.  I'll have a short story up soon for free, right here on this shiny new blog.  If you're an author, you can read it too, I don't mind.  But you might find the links to the right helpful.  I know I did.