I did a little pimping of my books on twitter last night. I have a book out, Rebellion on Piza 7 for those who are newcomers :D It's available through Barnes and Nobles and Amazon. It was released a couple of years ago, but I ahve a rather fond attachment to it. Go buy it on Amazon. The kindle is only 1.29 :D When I get a beautiful cover I shall up the price! (I kept copyright of the book but not rights to the cover!) I'm an artist, I should be able to do something...

Anyhoot, I'm looking at actual self-publishing for my sci-fi fantasy books and maybe a short romance line. I write so much and that's partly because I READ so much. I LOVE TO READ. I READ EVERYTHING. You will find two common elements in my books-relationships (not just romantic ones) and adventure/mystery. Adventure and mystery aren't typically classified together, but the adventures I mean are the unknown, the wild, the ones that you learn something while doing. It's like it's own mystery. So if a book has done those things real well, I'll read it regardless of its genre. I have a vampire horror story I just found that started as a writing exercise from one of the blogs I followed. I have a sequel to write. I have another sci=fi to write. AND I ALREADY KNOW THE NEXT GAL NOIR STORY.

I have a fantasy to edit, a Blaze type book to edit, a paranormal to rewrite, a thriller to edit (gal friday noir) and my devil story to edit. All of those idets are going to lead to publishing!! I have to decide which one(s) are going more tradition, indie or self publishing. So many questions and information to process.

And the opinions for/against each one!! I'd like to see some discussion for and against self-publishing, indie pubs and more "traditional" pubs. What's your take on the whole thing?

Have so much to do

My critique partner and I are rocking. I wrote an erotic comedy short for a contest that opens on March 1st. And you know what? I wrote it in first person :D

I think it's pretty good for a quickie. *snicker*

I'm now at 19360 words on my Gal Friday Noir and it's coming along nicely. About to send her out into the fray again. Knives blazing. Momma is pissed. Her kids are being held captive to ensure her cooperation. Nothing like a grizzly momma after you. Bad guys never learn. Don't mess with someone's kids.

Not going as quickly as I'd like on the edits. In fact, Hubby just left with the reason and I may have to edit instead of write while they're gone!! It's hard though. I'm really digging my new story and my critique partner as well. Sigh. But I must finsh the other one. Send it off :D

And ahem, I have one other beta reader. her initials are AG who needs to put her two cents in. Or on the other one :D Maybe should send them to her again? LOL I guess I'll be good and go edit. Course, it is the devil's human son, demons, Succubai, angels, Soulmates, sex, love, bondage, sword fights... Hey, that's right, I like that book. :D

Damian series

My Damian series, the one where he is the Devil's son, has officially started. LOL My first complete novel (upgraded from a short through much sweat, tears and blood)has started trickling back from readers, and the over all impression is good :) some technical issues to take care of, but the end is in sight. At least the end until a professional editor gets ahold of it and "suggests" things to bring it inline with house rules. LOL

Wow. I realized I'm saying when, not if. That's how good I feel about it. I have set up the next book in it as well, now to find the initial conflict around which the couples have to work. I already know the personal problems they have to overcome. Need to set up the outside obstacles. First, though, I will be finishing my Gal Friday Noir initial book. It is awesomesauce in the making.

I'm excited to have so many good projects. I'm grateful that I have the ability to produce so much as it is a wonderful stress reliever. I can easily write 3-5 novels a year (fantasy and sci-fi are longer) plus edit, and research agents. My biggest block right now is my inability to write awesome query letters without extensive help, and the synopsis. For example, the Damian series is a paranormal erotica and I forgot to include the sex angle at all. only the subject line referred to it being an erotica.

As for synopsis, well, each agent/publisher wans a different length, so I don't even know where to start with that!! *sigh* It's okay. More learning, more stretching, more growing. I love the writing world!

However, I'm sick right now and can't concentrate. May be the sickness, may be the lack of thyroid meds (which is corrected, but takes time to catch up), or more likely, may be the combination. I'm thinking of penning a ballad to my over worked sinuses. LOL

How is everyone's writing going? Any one else have issues with queries? If you're one of those who DON'T have issues, please share :) Tell us how you do it, and any tricks you know. Mine is to go to CJ Redwine and take her Query workshop. I've already informed her that I shall no longer be putting out queries until I can take a workshop from her LOL

Sunday

Sundays have traditionally been days of rest. Slow days. Easy days. Right? Not in my household. For the year we went without TV it was major clean up day, including laundry. Before TV, and perhaps today, it was football!!

Then again, football was before I had concrete writing goals. Before I discovered what I am capable of. In regards to writing, I keep stretching and growing, I'm finding my nitch, but not settling in it.

My nitch seems to be dark-ish paranormal erotica. Although, my next series I start will be something new. I am still going to write the sci-fi/fantasy. Those I will publish on smashwords and kindle with my won artwork as cover. I really need to crack that whip. However, before I do that, I do need to wait for the last round of queries to respond. My fantasy made it into semi-finals of agent contest that held mostly romance, so I know it has some real potential.

Recently, I got so tired that I couldn't edit. Then we had company over the holidays. I was busy with extra cleaning and cooking. Then my dark moments, some of which inspired the ballad in the last post, took over. I started writing it out. Releasing on twitter inspiring an alter-ego that is leading to something new and dark and I think wonderful. I shall see when it's written.

Writing is a good weapon in my arsenal against falling into situational depression and it and painting is how I keep my sanity. FYI for those who might remember, I didn't do so well last year between my brother's birthday (feb 8) and the day of his death (april 25). I'm hoping that this year, since it is second year through all of this, will be easier to cope with.

The holidays were a bit easier as I found old friends. But I found out, through some weird happenstance, that I was only moving through the motions. I don't know how much missing my brother and sadness regarding my family played into it, but I'm absolutely sure it didn't help.

So hold me accountable. Many of you follow me on twitter. My phone is supposed to receive the @mentions from those I follow. You have my permission to inundate me with comments and pointed remarks about where my writing is and where the hell am I type of tweets.

My brother's death had a great impact on me. One I will always feel. He was the tie to my adopted family. So, keep me in your thoughts as his birthday approaches. I will hopefully be out of this other dark period before that day. Or at least be writing it out of my head to leave room for the extra so it isn't so overwhelming.

Keep writing, and/or whatever it is you do to keep your mind healthy :)

I'm almost finished with the first Damian book. You remember, the one I outlined then couldn't finish? The one I threw out 60k on already? Yep, that one! I will, with any luck, finish it today and send it off to my beta reader! Yay!

Excerpt

Thanks to everyone who showed their concern and niceness regarding my daughter's well being :) Some on twitter and some here (and a couple both ways!) And to those who helped me through a rough patch yesterday. Thanks for being the bestest. Now, back to business, so to speak.

So, I'm editing, very, very, very, very, slowly. I mean, sllllllooooooooowwwwww. but it is good. Here's a quick excerpt from my paranormal, the Damian series that I am currently calling Ghost of Kristen's Past.



Before she responded, the detective's eyes glowed strangely and he turned toward the door. "Kenny is here."

Kristen could not remember the last time she had been in such a nervous state. Her mind fumbled for coherence and her body was in fight or flight mode. She mutely turned back to the door and opened it.

She was so not surprised to see Kenny coming up the walk. She let Kenny in and turned back to Detective Damian.

Kenny strode purposefully into the living room. "I'm here, obviously. What did you want?" he said abruptly as soon as he saw the detective.

"I need you to tell me everything you know. Half of Hell is after you and the other half will be once they find out that the two of you are Soulmates."



You like? That's the end of a chapter :D I really like that last line. One of my favorites. I know a book is good when I have favorites...

Happy Winter!

Day 3

Day 3 rocked for me. As I posted earlier, I finished my other assignment. I received news as to when my "guest blog" will be posting (Friday, I will post a link here :) and heard feedback on my Forever Nocturne story and artwork. I had a good writing day and it isn't over.

I pulled what I'd like to call reverse psychology on my characters and this story. The paranormal I've been trying to pin down for year? It's here and it rocks. Only thing is I wrote the last chapter before finishing the first chapter. Turned out to be the second to the last chapter. 5-6k words in a little over 24 hours (some last night, some this morning/afternoon) and I wrote the end. Now my characters know I'm not going to hurt them-much. And there is kissing involved. Maybe they'll get it together and tell me how they want to handle the rest of the first chapter?

See, I don't have the middle-slog problem a lot of writers seem to have. My problem is the beginning. I end up telling too much too soon. Or too much backstory that I then have to cut and add in by bits and pieces later. Nope, for me it is not the middle that perplexes me. It's how to keep the story interesting and give out the right amount of facts and backstory from the first.

I need to get back to it while I have the impetuous. So without further ado, here are my up -to-the-minute stats.

Starting count: 6112
Right this minute count: 8756
Chapters finished: 2 the LAST 2 lol.

If you haven't been following along, then you might not realize that I am well aware that my start numbers are NOT the same as my end numbers. I don't quit writing after I post. I write and write and write... you get the picture.

Oh, and in case you missed it, (or I didn't post this?) the working title for the book is Ghost of Kristen's Past :D I know I want to read it. Now, to get the words down on paper so that I can print, print, print.

PS My goal is to do a MINIMUM of 3k a day, 5 days a week. However, my long term goal is to have more than 70k written by the end of the month. This book has had many false starts and lots of research. The only thing stopping me has been this silly mental block because of a sillier outline. Now, muse, drink up and taste the Pepsi. It's time to roll out the words!

Hello

So, I'm back on the web. Had a small hiatus there. I"ve now caught up and cleaned out my email inbox. My INBOX had over 2k Emails. Not sure exactly how many as I didn't think to look until after I started the "delete, delete, delete" but it was a lot. I now have less than a hundred. Whew! That was a lot of work.

I think of all the agents out there who can't do what I just did. A large portion of my deletes were personal interests that I imagined I'd actually have time to read/look at. Sewing, crafting, art stuff. I finally deleted them. Hopefully, I will be able to look at them in the future... I know I'm kidding myself, but I have to believe that someday, somehow, I will get to do what I want, when I want, how I want, without neglecting anyone. LOL

I am editing (Quest for Riverhand) and writing (see aforementioned) for now. With a dash of crochet, quilting and a dollop of cleaning thrown into the mix, I am plenty busy right now. I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo. I want to be finished editing my fantasy before then, but doesn't look like. Oh well. It gives me something to edit if the mood strikes, rather than tearing apart the WIP for NaNo.

I've definitively decided on the paranormal (the Damian series) for NaNo. The one that should have been written and published by now? Yeah that one. Maybe I'll actually get somewhere... You think? LOL I'm determined to get it finished. Not just the 50k whipped out. So 70k+ Well, 4kaday will have to be my goal. Remember, that's for five day weeks. That way, I should hit the bare minimum easily, even if I miss my personal goal. Of course, if by some weird fluke I make it everyday, That will mean I've finished and probably started a second book! Now THAT would be sweet! Yeehaw! I now have a new fervor for this thing. It had waned a bit because of the technical difficulties, but now is back full pitch.

Don't forget. I've given my followers an open option for kicking, er keeping, my butt in gear for this thing. Feel free to comment at any time :)

Day 1 counts

I've tallied my total for today, although I may work on it more later. I've quite at 5 pages and I'm working strictly on new contact characters and word count for DAMIAN. That's the working title of the first book in the series, with Jolene's Desire being the second.

The script title is Demon Run. It's interesting trying to use someone's formatted script as a template (Windows XP users) but it's easier for me.

I've found the inspiration I need for Damian by doing this. New start to the story makes it more exciting and the paranormal aspects immediately evident. I' excited about the book again. I was always excited about publishing possibility, but was stalled on the story. Now, I'm on a roll. I've added another 800 words already (that's on top of doing the 5 pages of script!)

Thank you Script Frenzy!