SO very busy

Yup been writing like mad. I have 18 stories going through editing, adding chapter headings, formatting and cover creation. Which feels good as you can imagine. Only thing is in today’s world you need to put in disclaimers, spice level and trigger warnings. Something else I have to figure out along with blurbs and teasers for social media. it is really never ending. Honesty the easier part is the writing. Even the editing isnt so bad since I use two different computers for it with two different word programs. If I could get the online editors like Prowriter or grammerly to work on my old as the hills machines it would be better but we do what we do right?

Now I will be using my other writing blog to post up first pages of everything as I want to pea interest. Both in my older series and the new ones I have started. After going through and condensing the over 20K worth of files I then started placing work into series One bad habit I had was making back ups in new folders instead of just over writing the old ones. It made finding things oh so much fun, not.

So stay tuned. i might even post up full first chapters, depending on the stories.

Now as for the series. I have a lot of new Guardians stories. They are set in both Nashua and Barrie with a few in the background for Manchester. I will be putting up a reading order on the stories for that very involved universe soon. I realized that having over twenty stories set in the same universe it might be wise to give a reading order. Never mind all the pending ones. That universe I made is quite a bit bigger than I intended way back at the turn of the millennium when I wrote Harry’s first short story. Who knew that a little halloween story would go so far right?

Now the new series I have are both filled with erotic elements, so not to be read by kids. Games of Rebirth as stories based very loosely on video games I have played over the years. A big theme in them is your character coming back to life after all. So I started tales that just poured out. There are three in that series that as mostly finished. Now they are not a shared world really. The thing that ties them together is the fact that the main characters are reborn into a world that is not the one they died in. These are an adult looking at the fact that being reborn into a healthy and strong body is going to do more than run around doing quests. It is not the main foucs of the stories of course but I get to explore a lot of themes that I don’t in my other work.

The second new series is Angel City stories. A fictional west coast series filled with beings living under the radar. shifters, weres, fae of all kinds, living vampires, gods, demons and more. I have four in various stages on this series. Not as erotic as the Games series it is still filled with lots of spicey parts, so no kids.

As I work through my old backlog of story ideas new series will come about. In fact I have three romance tales all set near the sea that I am trying to come up with a good series name for. Never mind my Angels series, Fantasies in fur and the others.

I have noticed the older I get and lets admitit I am almost sixty, the more I add romance to my stories. Not because it might help them sell, but because that is where the stories go. Yes I would love it if one of these series took off and sold a few hundred if not thousands of copies, but for you ten or so faithful readers You can expect a lot more to read. Thanks again for being aptient with me after I had those years of sickness and lack of drive.

So dern busy lately…

Yes i know I should do this every day but between my poetry collections, getting Harry’s book together and helping on getting Reflections up and out I lost track of time.   Thanks to all that work though I now have a number of new releasing showing up all over.

Twist of Fate is the most recent charity collection.  Stephen Wilson is the man behind this one and it came out really exceptional.  There are a lot of talented writers/poets/photographers and other people inside this book.  I am very proud that I have two poems inside.  The money from this book goes to those effected by the Tornadoes that destroyed so many homes in Oklahoma.

Reflections of the End is a facebook group anthology about what else?  The end of the world.  I submitted one piece to that one and hopefully it will be well received by the reading public.  It just went up life this morning after all lot of shuffling around.  I got added as an admin to this group so I could help push it through.  These folks are another group of highly talented indie authors.  We will now work on the second book..all kinds of stories about secrets.

The Writers stuff group is closing up submissions for their anthology and I have a tale in that one too.  Plus we have been doing a bunch of drabbles to help fill pages.  I have quite a few I have done but I am not sure if all of them will make it into the book.  Drabbles are a lot of fun.  Exactly 100 words written about an image.  Good practice for sure.

Guardians of the Gate City is live on Barnes and Nobel, Kobo and Apple but for some reason not yet on Amazon.  I put through the paperback version this morning on Createspace so it will be available to those who prefer a real book in their hands.   I really hope people will buy the collection.  That is a lot of Harry stories all in one place and I basically tossed in Sudden Disappearances for free!

The two poetry collections are out and available and I will work on finishing the third one next month.  I needed to step away from that one.  Just too intense.  I plan on finishing up a few short stories this month instead.  Blackbird is two thirds done and then I can dive into a few other projects.

My sales might have been slow in June but at least I had some.   Not as many as in May but I am told things go like that.  I got one review of my own work and a few of the anthologies.  Funny thing about anthologies some people just don’t get them.  I know we got dinged on one of the collections because of all things that the stories were not all set in the US by American authors…really?  I mean anthologies are so you can try out a new author, see if you want to read more of there work.  No where in the description did it say the book was US or American based.  Now I can understand wanting to read stuff like that but dont expect it to be there if it isn’t listed in the blurb…

Music is the muse today

Music is definitely my muse right now.  The two ghost stories I have put up over the past two weeks were both inspired by songs on my IPod.  I have another started that I am not sure will be a ghost story or something from what I am tentatively calling my horror series.  anyone who knows me or has read my work realizes that I am no HP Lovecraft or EA Poe.  I write stuff that is odd yes but not necessarily that dark but it seems I have a number of stories (in pieces right now) that would really be more a horror story than a fantasy.  They are dark for me (which can be quite dark) and don’t have a happy ending for sure. 

My original dark tale was Descents, which is in the Gates collection.  Dark and eerie it fit in that book because of the gate in the story.  Though I will admit I am thinking of a new set of tales once I get Descents and the others back.  With titles like Man’s Roads, And Darkness Claims it all, Light search the Night and Walk Blind Into the Night these tales would be darker than my usual.  I guess I could call the series Descents into Darkness.  That would be a nice title don’t you think?

Course not all of my tales are dark.  I do have lighter more romantic fair just waiting for me to finish them up and put them out.  Flame Vixen is one of them and Singer of the Blood Song another.  They will of course have me normal odd fantasy flavor but with romance as a big component.  What to call them I have no idea.

Now I finally put up the last of my finished erotica stories.  And He makes three is pretty much smut but well you never know what sells right?  I obviously would rather my fantasy sell but I will take sales where they come. 

Today I started writing to Richard Marx.  One of my all time favorite singers.  His songs have inspired me to write poetry and of course short stories.  Hazards is based on his song Hazard and Children should be heard is based on Children of the Night.  So this now story, Now and Forever, is of course based on the lines of that song but it always has bits inspired by other songs from the same album.  While I have only typed as of now 710 words, it is a start.  Who knows where it will go.  This man telling this tale is doomed for sure though.  Never ever sign a contract with blood, no matter who tells you to do it.

I will post excerpts from some of the tales I have mentioned over on books by Lisa Williamson and of course the two covers on my newest stories over on Window of my mind.

Poetry can be harder than short fiction

Yes I know poetry is hard for many.  Heck some writers take a year to write one decent poem but well that isn’t how mine come out.  Generally when I am in an emotional overload I will sit down with pen and paper and let it flow out of me.  That was how Love, Loss and Loneliness came about.  A lot of emotional bursts in free verse style.

But the people doing the Apocalypse anthology wanted to have some poetry to go with the short stories.  Now I had submitted a short story and offered to do one for them.  Took me a week to write it!  No really a week for me is a long time in poetry.  I’m not sure of it of course.  I am never sure of my poetry but I sent it over.  Hopefully it makes it into the anthology which submissions for is closing on Thursday.

The Fae poetry contest ended and I was not in the top three.  Course again my poetry is short and to the point.  The ones that one were more epic in style.  Nothing wrong with that and people did like my little ode to the Fae.

Other contests I have entered seemed to have folded up.  Which is too bad really.  This is why I tend to put out my work on my own.  While getting into a collection is supposed to help with your over all noticeability it seems that these stories get lost in the shuffle.  I like being parts of writing groups since it helps with the creative process and you all know dear readers that I adore a good anthology.  but if they never get put out who will read these children of my mind?

The past few days I have been doing a major edit/rewrite to Revenge.  While it is much better than Endings was it needs the work.  some of the sentences just do not flow the way I feel they should.  I am hoping to get it done this coming week.  With my hubby’s hours being shifted I will be doing a lot of writing in the evening.  Now that doesn’t always work for me.  I tend to write in the morning while he is working and the kid is at school.  We will see what happens.

The free offer on Smashwords for both Endings and Fall Into Nightmares is still going.  Nightmares freebie will expire on Valentines day.  Endings goes on till the 25th.  I haven’t decided if I will do a one day free offer on Love, Loss and loneliness on Valentine’s day yet.  I have made a single sale on that poetry collection and I hope to see a few more.  While it may not be all sweetness and light it is definitely a look into a heart and good for that day.

In other works I have a good idea how to finish up If Shadows Could Speak.  That tale is I would say three quarters finished.  That will be either number six or seven in the Death Walks Through series.  I have gotten a bit stuck on Death Comes Softly, which is the piece I had planned as the sixth story.  The either will be No More the Smiles.  After that I will probably take them all and put them together in a paperback.  Not sure how many pages it will be but if it isn’t enough I will have to dig around for new ideas.

The other series are on hold for a little bit.  I have ideas waiting to be sprung out of my folder of starts but I really need to work on the longer stories.  The sequel to Nightmares, Destiny’s tale and Traveler all need to be worked on and hopefully completed by the end of this year.  If I keep up a steady pace of writing I should get them all done.  Too bad I have a number of books to read and review. They are so very distracting..and worth it!

Snow is gone

Okay I was doing okay writing a Christmasy story while there was snow on the ground.  I could put on the carols and sing along as I wrote happily my odd little tale but it rained all day today.  Yes I got some writing done. but the rain has put a damper on it.  I should settle down and scribble more notes, really I should.  Not sure if it is the wetness or the ache that it brings that is making it hard to write.  I have ideas and heck a new character added to Harry’s world.  Yeah I know I am slowly filling in this world which makes it a bit more interesting I hope to my readers.  When I get this and hopefully a sixth story done they will have a full world to read in a paperback form.  Yes I said paperback!  I figure if you want them as ebooks you can keep getting them as they come out but as a complete collection paperback will be the way to go.  Interconnected shorts are probably the best way to read my work.  After all I am a short story writing.  I don’t see any reason I should be ashamed of my worlds and how they connect.

I have had some movement on Endings since it went up as the BOTM.  Not huge but heck four copies in about three days is good movement for a book that had no notice over on Amazon before.  With the 9 copies sold on Kobo, it is quickly catching up to Ice as my best selling story.  What surprised me is people have started actually noticing Naughty interludes!  I have no idea how many but it has a nice relatively low number.  Now the lower the number the better it is doing.  Right as I type this is it listed as 234,291 on paid kindle and Endings is 295,785.  Not too bad for me really.  Gates is at 511,594.  Now yes i know not the highest numbers but we are talking at out of I believe 7 million books on amazon.  That isn’t too bad for a totally unknown author right?  Heck even Distance is holding at 763,488.  I hope someday to have better rankings but right now I just want to see sales and reviews.

I did get asked to be part of a blog thingie.  Basically I join their group and give them access to review copies and they will read, review and discuss.  Now that is something to think about.  After all a few copies of my ebook out there and maybe they can get others to read and pay for it.  Not sure at the moment but today I am not sure about a lot of things.  So I will think about it over night.

 

Working hard

It is amazing how hard it is to come up with 30K in short erotic stories.  While to me these stories read fine alone, putting them together is torture.  I had planned on releasing them one at a time but with a publisher wanting 30K in erotic content I find myself putting them in one book.  I am currently short about 4K.  Now that could be just one more complete story.  If I could get myself into writing it.

I have half of the 30K in an fantasy novel with erotic content.  But the thing is the erotica in that story is not the main focus.  The battle between the god of the Sun and the god of Night is.  So while I am enjoying working it I doubt I will have it done in time for the publisher.  Well unless he isn’t in a super rush.  I could probably have it all done in a month or so.  The writing part that is.  Still would need the editing and proofing but well…we will see.  If he hadn’t wanted erotica I could have given him Nightmares but well we do what we do right?

So much work, so little time.  I better get back to figuring out what to send this guy and what order then need to be in.  Msot of them read okay but a few are raunchier than the rest.  What to do!

Fresh and brisk morning

Okay taking off yesterday to read and play games was a good down time.  Needed it.  I was getting way to wrapped up in my storyline for comfort.  Yeah it is a good idea to enjoy what you are writing but you need time to do other things and relax.  Pushing to get your characters through something can make the seem like they are being pushed.  I have the beginnings of a section with Avendale, a bit into her motivations and a bit into why she is so focused on controlling Jeffery.  Plus a few more hints about his mysterious background from before  she found him.  I know having a character who only remembers bits and pieces can be annoying to some but it will work out.  Probably should add a bit here and there about Jessica and Gregory but this is really Jeffery’s story.  There came into being in this paradigm, until Jeffery.
Realized after I had fiished up my spoiled time that I am behind on book trailers.  I mean five whole finished books, not counting A Water Grave which I am holding off for those pics from my daughter.  I need to do them for The Words That Bring Peace, Distance Means Little to Love, The Dream Wish, Endings and All That There Was.  Now four out of the five wont be an issue.  Distance…well that depends on if I go romancy or raunchy.  I dont know but I guess I will get them sorted out in the next few days.  Then a few more covers to do for the finished stories and oh yeah get the paperback cover to work for Endings so I can get that out.

So much to do, so little time till school starts.  Well back to work for me.

Brisk morning lots of work to do

Well the temps today are comfy and should stay that way.  Which is good.

I got a lot of notes written up yesterday and plan on more of course today.  I will be typing them up after I go get groceries.  Chaos War one has topped 30K in words.  That is long for me as my followers know.  Obviously it will need a lot of editing to make sure it flows the way it is supposed to.  Still haven’t rescued the damsel in distress but we will get there.  Not that she isn’t trying to rescue herself, just hard to get lose when you are chained up right?  So it will happen.  New characters have forced their way into the story.  Now no guarantee these fun guys will last past the battle with the baddies but that is the fate of many a secondary characters right?

I posted two new shorts over on Amazon kindle.  All that There Was and The Dream Wish.  The first is an odd little story that was inspired by of all things an episode of Sailor Moon and a painting of a tree in a globe of glass.  Yeah I know I do have odd ideas.  The Dream Wish on the other hand was just that, a dream.  I do get a lot of really good inspiration from dreams.  Which is a good thing since my dreams are just so weird.

Today I do have a lot of work that I should do.  I need to make trailers for the three shorts that dont have them and one for the erotic collections.  That one will be hard, oh the bad puns!  I want to elevate it to something nice so we will see.  I have one more cover finished that I can post up the story to Amazon but I think i will wait a week on that.

Still waiting on the photos for A Watery Grave.  That story is of course the third of the Guardians of the Gate City stories.  I hope my daughter figures out how to get the photos off her phone soon!  I am also seriously looking into a way to do my photos and poems together in ebook form.  There are a few out there so if i can figure it out who knows what might show up?

Happy Civic holiday or what the heck is this?

After two years in Canada you think I would be used to the holidays but well?  Today is a civic holiday called Civic holiday.  Basically it is a day off for those who work in offices I think.  I know my hubby has to work today as do his friends, so is it really a holiday?  I don’t know.

Well the free promo of One More All Hallows Eve did really well.  One day promo had 173 downloads and one review.  That story now has five total reviews, all four and five stars.  The new one wanted more Harry…which of course is what the other free promo was.  Hope Everlasting is the second story in the Guardians of the Gate City series and it isn’t dong too bad either.  So far 92 downloads and I gave it a full week so by the end of the week I expect to see more downloads and hopefully a review or three.

I decided that August is going to be my free month for sure.  Obviously had Hallows up and have Hope up but next week I plan on putting Partings up for two more days, then well have Sacrifice up for three days and finally that attempt at breaking into a different genre with Distance (my erotica) going up for free the 20th through the 24th.  Here is hoping it will get some notice and maybe some actual sales.

Been working on the Chaos war like a good doobie.  This is definitely going to be a longer tale.  The first part is all ready past 30 pages in word.  Now I found out that the page length in word does not translate to an exact amount of pages on Kindle.  8 pages at 14 point font is 14 pages on the kindle.

I usually type at 10 point and then adjust when I go to publish.  I do want to finish this story.  I started it back at the turn of the century!  Yeah that was a while ago.  Not the longest it has taken me to write a story, we know that but it needs to get written.  After all I have so many other stories to write, publish and sell.  Well hopefully sell.

I love the encouragement I get over on the amazon MOA discussions.  The men and women over there are really a great resource for an indie writer.  Most of us have been writing for a long time but actually putting those stories up for sale?  It is harder than people think.  In this world of instant gratification it is still hard to wait to see a sale come in. With Amazon you get a nice little report you can pull up any time to see how the downloads are going.  Yes they are slow but it has been only been since April right?

My traditional published book, Gates, I sent an email to my publisher to find out how I could get a report to see how well my efforts were working.  Well you don’t get to find out for a YEAR.  Yes I said a YEAR!  Okay I wont get upset.  After all Gates is just one of the books I put out.  People have bought it yes.  After all it has a ranking in both ebook and paperback.  So I just have to be nice and patient.  I will just focus on writing and promoting and hoping I actually sell enough to pay one bill sometime this year.

Okay I should probably type up my notes on Chaos from last night and then figure out how to get the next important scene set up.  When writing a short you can really just dump the reader right into the scene but a longer story needs set up and that takes time.  I don’t think I will ever write something over 200 pages but you never know.

free downloads, new words and heat with humidity

Yup another Sunday and it is still humid as heck.  I was hoping to wake up to a nice cool morning that would help me feel up and ready to write.  Nope, hot, humid, sticky…just plain icky..but I wont let it stop me!  I must write after all.

Now per the part of the title about freebies.  I decided that Hope Everlasting has been overlooked.  So it is up for free for the next five days.  And in case anyone didn’t get a chance to read One More All Hallows Eve it is free today.  So two of the Guardians of the Gate City tales for free.  It is a good thing.  Once I get some photos of Sandy Pond I can put together the cover and trailer for A Watery Grave.  Three tales in the same world.  This is a good thing.

My book trailers have started having some notice.  Which is nice.  After all I made those to help entice people to try reading my tales.  I know I had one sale because of the trailer for Ice.  With the heat people are enjoying the images of snow and ice for sure.

Chaos war is moving along.  Not as fast as some can write but we know I write in my own weird way.  Spent the part of the night that my brain would not shut down trying out different ways to have Jessica separate from the guys long enough for the Vamps to grab her.   Not sure I am going to find a way that will not involve magic of some type.  The guys are more than hyper vigilant at this moment.  I only have the few months between Greg getting cursed and the next section of the book to get her taken down under again.  It will wok out.  I am glad I kept Master Tachi around as a ghost though.  Need a wise old man in this story.  Gives me a place to add in little things that the Warrior should know but doesn’t.

Now the Warrior’s back story is starting to fill in.  When I made up Jeffery I hadn’t thought about just what he was.  He was a construct.  Now he is getting history, a vague one thanks to all the magic wrapped around him but one none the less.  Poor guy wants to remember but he can’t.  Between destiny and Avendale’s messing with his head it will take a lot for him to remember who he was before Avendale found him and used him.

Okay time to dig out stuff for the coming yard sale and to fill in missing parts, maybe even make a trailer for Endings..and if I can do something not porny for Distance…we will see.