Happy Almost Thanksgiving giving friends in the US

Yup the holiday is coming up. Thursday all the Americans on my list will hopefully be with their friends and families, eating good food and remembering why they are thankful. I have been sitting here in Canada thinking about Thanksgiving and all the things I am thankful for over the past year.

Of course on the top of the list are my loved ones. My sweet husband who works so hard to support myself and our daughter. Who helps me write fight scenes by telling me how it should go and who was so very helpful with those science fiction things like space ships and the weapons and engines they would have. He is a wonderful man who has made my life so much easier and I thought I would take this week to tell him so.

I am thankful for all three of my daughters. From the two who I miss so much who are living lives so far away from me, to the fun and silly now twelve year old who lives with her father and I. My heart has grown so big just loving those three girls.

I am thankful for my parents. My mom and stepdad who live so far away from me. I hope that even with the trials they are going through that they will have a wonderful day and that things get better.

Now this is supposed to be my writing blog right? Yes I have been writing new things. I haven’t dived deeply into a longer project because of just releasing the Echoes of Elder Times collection last week. It hasn’t moved more than a couple copies but i am thankful both for the sales and for the five star review that went up yesterday!

But back to Thanksgiving right? Yes I have been writing some fun little short bits based on this holiday. Thanksgiving happened last month here in Canada but back home it will be this Thursday. So I plan on putting up these little bits on my Facebook author page. One a day (or more) will be put up over there. Some will be funny, some will by dark and some will be personal. This holiday is a mixed bag for me. For years I was the woman who made the feast. At one time I used to feed up to twenty people at my table and it has been fur years now since I have. I miss those days. I miss the crazy day of cooking all those dishes and then the happy and full faces of people who enjoyed what I made. So I will write about them.

Here in fact is one of the quickies i wrote:

Thanking

Place the napkins, light the candles, place the turkey on the table. Sit down, look around and realize that this is a special day. No matter the dishes, no matter the faces, this ay is unlike any other. For this one day a year we thank those who came before us, for those who are with us.

Or that is how it used to be. Now it is a rush to eat so we can go out and spend. What happened to the joy of Thanksgiving, of family and friends in one place? This year, why not settle back and relax. Eat that turkey and remember to thank the person who did all the work. Better yet, thank them by doing the dishes! That’s the ticket.

****

Will this end up in a collection? Maybe. This is a quickie length piece and I don’t yet have enough of those for a collection but who knows.

I have also contemplated putting all my Christmas drabbles, micros and quickies into a book and putting it out around Christmas. Something priced at 99 cents that will be filled with the fun little tales that I have written after doing a lot of holiday research. As for today I am done babbling over here. Time to dive back into writing drabbles, micros and quickies. Hope you all have a great holiday!

Been busy working

Well now that Halloween and the kid’s birthday is over, I have a bit of time to roll into working on my next publications. As I have commented before, I plan on doing a bunch of collections over the next few months. Adding in new material that will not be sold separately and of course massively editing previously published work can and will take a lot of time.

Last night I finished up the final story for the first of the Echoes of Elder Times collection. This book will include all of the previously published tales, which in fact is ten tale. Added to those tales with be a new one titled Winter’s End. Making this collection a total of eleven tales.

While this collection won’t be as large as others the stories are well worth reading IMO. They have the feel of retold faerie tales but with a twist of course.  Some are dark, some are light but they all have my take on the myths and legends of the old world.

This is the working cover I have for the book but I do believe I need to change up the text color and font. The purple just doesn’t stand out after all. So over the next week I plan on updating this. I will probably remove the leaves and make the font both larger and another color. Simple covers can be some of the best. If I can get it the way I want you can expect to see this release just before American Thanksgiving. A nice book for those looking for a read while they are waiting in those lines at the check out on Black Friday.

In those news I am deep in the edits of Mythos of Love. This second collection will not be out till around Valentine’s Day but it need a lot of work IMO.  MOL will only contain six tales but the very first tale in the book is the novella The Knight Protector, giving this book a longer tale. Five of the tales have been published before and I admit they needed some major overhauls but the final and newest tale will by Singer of the Blood Song.  Now if you have no idea why I am using Mythos in the title here is a bit of the blurb I have used on the tales:

 

Mythos – A story or set of stories relevant to or having a significant truth or meaning for a particular culture, religion, society, or other group.

Love stories are common through out all cultures.  These short stories are my take on love and magic for romance can be found in any genre.

 

Fantasy and romance have mixed before but mostly as paranormals. Stories with vampires and werewolves at the heroes are fun to read but they are not the only romance stories out there. With Knight Protector I have just that, a knight. He is human, who an inner power.  An old fashioned tale with a damsel in distress and an evil wizard, it is a good place to start.

Not all of the tales will have the traditional happy ending though. Because we all know that love doesn’t not always have a Happily Ever After. Sometimes the hero is killed or dies and the heroine is left to mourn. So you can expect some twists and turns from that collection.

And that is enough for now. Expect a lot of work over the next six months. I will be slowly removing from individual sale those titles that are all ready part of a collection. I do this mostly so that you, my readers, won’t feel you have to buy all of my titles and find yourself with duplicates. I will only do this on Amazon, as it is the largest seller of my work. If you still want individual copies you can go to places like ITunes, Barnes and Noble or Kobo. Happy reading everyone!

Book teasers, do they work? Should we do them?

Well on the first question, I am not sure yet. I just don’t have enough information but on the second half, yes we should. They are fun, easy to make and they can peak the interest of a potential buyer. They work great on things like Twitter and other social networks. So why not right? I have a bunch of examples to show you here.

Like the book trailer, these little things attract attention to your novels or collections.  So why not try one?

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…

I need to make covers!

As of right now I have two completed poetry and photography collections and one short story collection.  All three of them need covers before I can put them up for sale.  I hadn’t planned on working on them today as it is my third wedding anniversary but why not?  When I sat down to my computer I thought just check the mail but then of course I started working.  Silly me!

Not that I should complain.  I finished up the photos for the two collections.  I hope they fit better than some of the ones from Love, Loss and Loneliness did.  I added some little bits into Seasons of my Mind.  Sort paragraphs and pages that switch from season to season.  I think it looks nice and clean.  Having the two new poems that I wrote yesterday actually filled it in nicely.  Now neither of these poetry books are a ton of pages.  Seasons comes to 33 pages with the added stuff and Random musings of a Poetic Mind comes to 32.  As I said they are both short but I don’t plan on charging as much as I did for LLL.  Probably got with $1.99 for Seasons and $2.99 for Random.  Why the price difference for basically the same number of pages?  You actually get more poetry and images in Random.

Now the third poetry collection, Generations of Love is still being written.  At the moment I only have 12 poems for this intensely personal collection.  I have the beginnings of some essays that will be typed up and put in.  If and this is a big if, if I can get myself to type them.  The feelings behind the Generations poems are intensely personal and are about how I felt being a daughter, grand daughter and mother.  Someday I will be a grandmother and I just might ruminate on that too.  Heck I could include the feelings I have from being a little sister.  I am just not sure.    While these books may never sell a copy I still feel like getting them out there to the world is a good idea.

Now I need to get myself in gear tomorrow and actually finish up Blackbird.  I am still tossing back and forth between submitting to an anthology or just putting it out myself.  It follows nicely in the feel of my free story A Bargain Made with Fur.  Though to be honest I just might take it down and sell it.  I have no idea.  Not that I need too many more ideas at this time right?

Finished the writing on Sudden Disappearances

Yup finished it up just now.  Yes it is rough, yes it will need editing and yes it leaves things open at the end but that was the idea.  I mean you can’t do a sequel without an opening right?  Harry has taken some nasty punches and will have to learn to ask for help.

Now the next stories in this cycle will be a bit of a back step.  Filling in the back stories for major characters so that the other guardians are better know is a good thing.  Jackson, Daniel, Maeve and even Sheldon will get their own tales.  In fact one story for Sheldon is done and will be out next month.  Of course I will need to come up with a back story for that little surprise that Harry was given.  That will be a lot of fun to write for sure.

I am going to let this marinate for a few days before I go back and work on the editing.  I need to obviously go through and make sure it is spelled right, that I didn’t mix up names or change important info by accident.  Spell check seems to shut itself off when I am writing some days and that annoys me.  Plus I need to make sure the grammar is as good as i can and hopefully find a beta reader to catch anything I miss.  Once it is cleaned up then I get to put all the shorts together with the now just shy of 40K word novella.  As this is a longer piece it will make selling it as only available in the collection a good deal.  My readers wont feel rooked by getting only one new story in the book.

As I let that sit I will move back to the Death Walks Through stories.  I have three more of those and once they are done I can combine them together for a collection also.  Hopefully the collections will move better than the stand alones have.  Now I know that the market is tight and sales are slow but this month I can honestly and truthfully say that almost every sale has been of my erotica.  Yes I am proud of most of those tales but I would rather see sales of my nonerotic work do better.

In other writing news both charity anthologies from the Independent Poets group on facebook are now live!  I am rather proud that we managed to get them together and out.  All the money raised goes to charities helping the victims.  I am proud that I helped get these out there and moving.  You can purchase a copy right now of both of these on Smashwords.  Here are the links

April Rains https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/318496  For the victims of the West, Texas plant explosion

United We Stand https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/321005 is for the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing

also of course if you are still interested there is Angels Cried https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/268589 which is for the victims families of the Newtown shooting.

Work is progressing on another anthology called Twist of Fate, which will raise money to help those effected by the Moore, Okalhoma twisters.  Expect to see something next month.

And lastly Reflections of the End will be out soon.  That is a non charity anthology that has one of my stories in it.  As will Dark Minds, another anthology.

Once i have links for those two anthologies and one other I will put them up on my blog

Cover is nearly done and I am still editing!

Here I thought I would have Revenge done editing before my hubby made the cover.  Well I guess not.  I have only edited five chapters so far.  Now that might not seem like much but in this book the chapters are longer than they were in Endings.  The edit is making the story longer.  Yes I know most editing is removing but as i tend to be short I actually am writing in things.  Filling out the fragments that I have a bad tendency to write.

As I go through this I realize that while Endings had some intense drama with some character lose Revenge is darker.  This book goes more into Loralil’s mind and her journey through the darkness in there.  As one seeks revenge it is expected.  She needs to work out this stuff so she can go on to become what her parents wanted for her.

The advantage and disadvantage of being an elf is the years they live.  As they live so much longer than the mayfly humans it takes them longer to work through things but it gives them a chance to work through what would stop a human.  I have ten other tales that I could write for her.  Now some of them will probably never see the light of day and others will be combined but it shows how deep a character she is.

And yes I plan on each book getting longer.  No I probably won’t charge more for each.  After all this is a series.  Pricing is something I struggle with.  There is a lot of discussion on the boards that this or that amount is the kiss of death on a book.  Most of my stories are 99 cents but that is because they are just that.  Short stories should not cost the reader too much IMO.  Yes once I combine the collections together into one book that book will cost probably $5.99 each.  When it will be a minimum of six stories and more likely eight each it is a good price.  And of course they will be paperback.

Now why did I decide that you ask?  (okay probably not) Well I have yet to sell a paperback and this might not be a good idea but I want to see them in that format.  So I will yes put them out that way first.  And then maybe go the ebook collection route.  Okay yes I will and I will decide the price then.  So many stories!

New book of poems

Been a bit since I put up a cover right?  Well that is cause i have been working hard on short stories for contests.  So I have a cover for my long awaited poetry/photography book.  Hope you like it folks!

cover for poetry book

Hot days and lack of energy

Okay it wasn’t as hot up here in Canada as it was back home but I have trouble with the heat.  I have to force down twice as much water so I dont get ill.  Which I admit I didn’t do, so didn’t get anything done since posting last.

The free download is going okay.   Ar0und 100 downloads in the US, UK and Germany.  Course don’t know how many might be in Canada since they don’t let me check up here.  Weird but true.  You think they would have Kindle listing for up here but they don’t.

Probably should put together some covers for my fanfic.  I noticed that Goodreads has a place to post up fanfiction.  Might be a way to get more attention toward my original fiction.  After all both Sins of the Father and When Shadows Rise have a nice reader base.  It would be a new place for those two stories and a notice that there is more to me than fanfiction.    Now if I can just deal with the humidity today I should be able to get a lot done.

Considering I have three complete stories for Death Walks through and Six for Worlds Apart I could do covers and have fun.  Get them ready for publication at some point.  Then there are the seven stories that are part of a mythic cycle that I haven’t named yet.  Not exactly sure what to name that book.  Suggestions would be gladly accepted, dissected and weighed.  After all the right title can help sell a story right?

Or maybe I should write today?  Instead of the darker stuff I have been working on something light would be good.  I have this story I started while watching two butterflies dance outside the window back in spring.  It has a sweet feel to it that isn’t common on my work.  Depending on how it goes it could be part of Nana’s tales.  After all I have the Dragon’s Quest started.  That one has the little dragon in it.  So many ideas so little time.

 

 

Worked hard yesterday so today work hard again

Okay retyping the whole bloody thing!

I did a lot yesterday.  Finished the read through and edit of Hope Everlasting, edited Partings and sent to writer’s group, made a series trailer for Guardians of the City short story collection, made book trailer for Hope Everlasting, made the cover for Hope Everlasting and other stuff.

Today I will try my best to get editing done on Star Beast.  And then work on coming up with the next steps in Whether to Save Face or Family, Price of Freedom and a few others.  I found the children’s tale, A Dragon’s Quest and I think I will do that in a series of tales called Nana’s Stories.  Fun fantasy stories for kids.  Then I need to sort through the over 300 poems and decide which will work with photos for a new series of music videos.  And if that isn’t enough to keep me busy I can take my recipes and get them down for a possible cook book.

 

Part of the Guardians of the City collection