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Archive for October, 2010

Today’s Word Count

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 30, 2010| 5 Comments »

I’m trying desparately to finish Guardian Vampire before I start writing for NaNoWriMo. I usually can only write somewhere between 1200 and 1600 words in one sitting. That’s just usually my limit. Today I cranked out 3,343 words in one sitting! I couldn’t believe it when I realized it. That must be why my hands are tired and my butt hurts. LOL

So, anybody else out there doing Nano besides the ones who have already posted about it? It’s a great way to make yourself write on a schedule. And there’s such a frenzy during the whole thing. It’s contagious!

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NaNoWriMo

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on October 29, 2010| 2 Comments »

I signed up for NaNo this year. I won last year and that was pretty exciting. I just hope I have it in me this year. I’ve been doing a lot of dragging my feet and procrastinating about writing all year. I just hope NaNo jump starts my motivation. Because I hate to lose.

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Fun and Excitement

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on October 25, 2010| 1 Comment »

I have two exciting things to tell today.

First, I had the most awesome weekend. I got to meet Susan Bischoff and Kait Nolan for the first time. We all traveled close to three hours to meet for lunch. Susan and Kait are so different, and they are both lovely people. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed getting together with them. Then Susan and I met up with Zoe Winters for dinner and had more good times. Zoe was her usual perky, fun self. :0) It was good to see her since I hadn’t been able to get together with her in a long time. It was such a satisfying day…so nice to be able to talk to other writers. I learned some things, too, so it was a profitable day as well.

Second, I have a brand new author to introduce. Her name is Michelle DePaepe and she’s just released her first novel, The Gardener, on Smashwords. Her Amazon listing will be coming soon. A mutual friend introduced us awhile back. Michelle had gotten frustrated with trying traditional publishing, so when she found out about e-publishing, she was very interested. I’ve tried to be her cheerleader, and I hope I helped. LOL. So I’m very excited to see her book online. I’ve read it and I really love it. It’s spooky, a little disturbing, with a touch of romance thrown in. Check it out!

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Life Gets in the Way

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on October 22, 2010| 2 Comments »

Sometimes life just gets in the way of writing. It may be that someone else wants you to do something, or someone has the TV too loud, or you may just be too tired. There can be any number of things. But the important thing to remember is that writing is part of life. At least to those of us who want to do this as a job, or at least a part time job. If you would take time out of your day to, say, go to work, then you have to think of your writing the same way. That’s where I’ve been failing. Writing has been what I do when everything else is done. But no more.

Last night I wrote a pretty intense chapter. There was some violence in it, and that’s something I’m trying to get comfortable writing about. By the time I was finished, I felt kind of drained. But I felt! That’s the key for me; I have to feel when I’m writing. In an earlier post, I mentioned that I was having trouble feeling the characters in this novella. I remedied that by writing from both MC’s POV instead of just one. So now I’m really getting into this story. I’m glad I didn’t abandon it like I almost did. So now that I’m sort of on a roll, I need to prioritize and make sure the writing doesn’t get put on the back burner anymore. Because it’s important. It should be close to the top of my list. Very close….

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Jonathan Eli

Posted in Uncategorized on October 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

If you like science fiction, Jonathan Eli is giving away a free copy of his book “The Last Cabbandeum” at Smashwords to the first five people who comment on any post on his blog.

http://jonathanelibooks.blogspot.com

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Reviewers

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 14, 2010| 5 Comments »

I’ve talked about reviews before, and so have a lot of other authors. Many of them, including Zoe Winters, have suggested that it might be best for our mental well being to ignore them. But I just can’t seem to do it.

So, I was looking at goodreads.com and was happy to see a couple more good ratings that had popped up on my books. But then, yesterday, I got a 2 star rating from the same person on two of my books. But instead of freaking out this time, I took a look at her other reviews. I found out that she had given 3 stars to Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Mary Shelley, Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, and J. R. R. Tolkien. So should I get all upset because my rating is only 1 star below the “King”? And she gave Mark Twain 2 stars. So my books are at least as good as Huckleberry Finn, right?

The conclusion is that reading really is very subjective. So the real question is…how closely do other readers pay attention to the reviews? Do they really make you lose sales? Honestly, I’ll pay more attention to the ratings of an actual physical product, especially when tangible reasons for the rating can be offered. But, as I’ve said before, I’ve actually bought books because the rating was bad…and actually enjoyed them.

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Name That Book

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 11, 2010| 15 Comments »

One of the things that I’ve found about myself is that I have more trouble thinking of a name for my books than I have actually writing them. This is how the other book names came about.

A Rocky Path – this was my first novel and the name wasn’t as hard. Because there is a literal rocky path in this book, but the MCs also were going down a figurative rocky path

Club Blood – Zoe Winters actually picked this one

See Me – a sudden inspiration based on a note that was found by the MC

Starfane – I tried and tried to think up something for this one. I kept trying to figure out something about the MC going through the mural, etc. I kept calling it the Starfane book so I would just have something to call it. Starfane is the world she finds through the mural. So somehow the name just stuck. And it was simple.

Ok, here’s the problem. I’ve tried and tried to come up with a name for my WIP. Very brief synopsis: Female MC sees something she shouldn’t, people are trying to kill her, she doesn’t remember what she saw, father hires a bodyguard, bodyguard is a vampire (she doesn’t know it, but the readers do), he tries to keep her safe but they keep being found, etc.

Anyway, I would love to hear some brainstorming from some of you awesome authors out there. Just any title that comes to mind. I keep trying to incorporate the word “bodyguard” or “protector” into the title, but that’s not set in stone. Come on, I need some help! I don’t want to get this novella written, only to be held up by a title. If I see the right title, I’ll know it almost immediately. So throw some things at me, even if you think they sound silly, and let’s see what we can come up with.

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What I’m Reading

Posted in Uncategorized on October 6, 2010| 10 Comments »

I just started reading Blood Lust by Zoe Winters. I’ve already read the three novellas, each one a great read by itself. But this time, I’m going to read them all together. I won’t have to wait on the next installment…just go right into the next one. I love these novellas and I’m excited about getting into Zoe’s world again. After all, she’s the reason I’m writing. 😉

Also, if any of you are Science Fiction fans, you might want to try the novel by a new author, Jonathan Eli. It’s called The Last Cabbandeum. I edit Jonathan’s books for him, so if there are errors, it’s my fault I didn’t catch them. LOL. If any readers see errors, I hope they’ll let us know so we can fix them.

I’ve been reading so many different types of books lately. Everything from young adult to paranormal romance to murder mysteries to horror. And I’ve found a lot of authors that I’ve never heard of, most of them indies. (I find a lot of them on Zoe’s blog.) I know that most people kind of stick to the genre they like best, but I think readers cheat themselves by not dipping into a different kind of book now and then. So take a chance. If you like paranormal romance, try a murder mystery. If you like horror, try science fiction. Just please don’t ever ask me to read any more “classic literature”. My life is too short to be bored to tears. LOL

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