Tag Archives: self publishing

What do you mean it’s not Monday?

15 Wednesday Apr 2020

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So I’ve lost track of what day it is in self-isolation.

That’s not entirely true, because I’ve been updating this cute little whiteboard on my fridge with the day and date every morning to make sure I know exactly what day it is. This was supposed to come out Monday, but my days have been getting away from me.

Part of it’s stress at work – while I like working from home for the most part and falling into a rhythm is easy enough because I’m keeping the same hours I would were I actually at my desk in the office, I feel like some of the people have gotten either incredibly lazy or incredibly stupid with this stay at home during work time. Or potentially a little of both.

It wouldn’t surprise me if some of them are playing Fortnite instead of working considering the amount it takes them to answer an email just to confirm they are working on it – it’s like a two-second email it shouldn’t take you six hours to see my email and send it.

A lot of summer events that I have been working on both for my office, we’re supposed to be hosting a conference at the end of July, and my volunteer group, we’re supposed to be hosting a festival at the end of July, are kind of on notice because the Illinois Governer has not yet canceled summer events but has already voiced that he’s concerned about holding them until we have a vaccine for this virus – something that’s months away at minimum. And honestly, I can’t blame him for being concerned.

As much as I want to get back out in the world, to not have to worry about someone sneezing or coughing while I’m out shopping for essentials because I couldn’t get them delivered, I also don’t want to rush it and end up right back where we started. I want everyone to be safe first, because our health is the most important thing in this world.

That being said, I’m also seriously hoping that by November I can attend a Sci Fi Convention and potentially get a little booth and sell my wares – one of which I’m hoping will be a hold in your hands, large enough to print novel. Yes, I’ve got shorts and novellas but nothing that’s really big enough to run through the print on demand for paperbacks. But soon. SOON!

I’d say I’m making great headway on it, but the reality is that I’ve been spending a lot of time playing my newest addiction. Animal Crossing New Horizons on the Switch.

That’s right. I have a self-isolated myself not just in the house, but to a deserted island that I’m slowly building up to be a cute little town. It’s a really cute game, and if you like things like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon and things, I’d totally recommend it. It’s super chill, super cute, and super fun.

Also – if you play the game and have Roses, Lilies, or Cosmos for sale? Hit me up, I’m totally needing them!

I’ve got a couple books I’m looking to read this month, a review going up next week, and some artsy things I’m looking to try out. All the plans, on top of getting some editing done on that novel.

And yet, it’s hard to want to do much except nap when I turn around from my desk and see cuteness overload.

I mean, how can you not want to nap when you see that behind you?

I hope everyone is staying healthy, staying safe, and finding ways to stay sane while we’re stuck at home.

New Release – Treasure of the Deep

15 Saturday Feb 2020

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Treasure of the Deep

Treasure of the Deep

Kari is a headstrong Princess who loves to explore the ocean floor around her. Treasure is always something she loves scouring for in the shipwrecks, but will it be her heart that ends up the treasure when she saves a diver from a shark attack?

You can find the book HERE for purchase or free to read with the Kindle Unlimited program.

NaNo – Week 4 Recap

27 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts, Writing

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Hey Everyone! I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

And for those that don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you just had a wonderful week. =)

For those of us in the States, Thanksgiving is a time when we gather with family, enjoy people we may not see all the time, cook some delicious food, and be thankful for the time we have together.

My family also celebrates my Uncle’s birthday, and one of my cousin’s birthdays, at the same time, so it just adds to the joy of the day. Over all it’s a good day for my family. We all gather at my Aunt’s house and she cooks the turkey (wrapped and cooked in bacon). My Mom makes a mushroom pie that is just divine. And my uncle gets enough beer as birthday presents to last him until the new year – a gift that my mom and I started when I was little and everyone and their brother decided in the last few years to jump on the bandwagon and do for him.

While it’s a good day, it’s also a long day. The mushroom pie has to be baked so that it comes out of the oven just prior to us leaving the house, so the morning is spent eating a quick breakfast and then baking. We’re out the door and to my Aunt’s for a serve time of 1pm, and then we’re there until 5/6pm. Leaves little time to really get much else done.

Not that I’m using that as an excuse. Not completely anyway. I mean, I didn’t have family obligations for the rest of the weekend. A dentist appointment and getting together with one of mom’s friends to talk about writing, yes, but nothing that ate up the whole of my day either.

Truthfully, I just needed a weekend off I think. I didn’t get a single word written from Thanksgiving through the weekend. I focused on what I felt was important to me this weekend: Family, Friends, and my Health. I also took this weekend to read, something I’m still sorely lacking a majority of the time. But it felt REALLY good to be able to just pick up a book (or well download it to my phone through kindle) and read. I started it Friday while sitting in my dentist’s office waiting to be called back and finished it Sunday morning. I pretty much did nothing but read Saturday night. And I took a little time to enjoy some video games Sunday afternoon when Mom decided to crash for a little bit because she wasn’t feeling well.

You guessed it though. It means that my NaNo word count did suffer greatly. So let’s get into the numbers, shall we.

Day 20 – 964

Day 21 – 0

Day 22 – 1562

Day 23 – 0

Day 24 – 0

Day 25 – 0

Day 26 – 0

Total: 24,227 (Goal: 43,333)

So. I’m roughly 20,000 words behind. I didn’t even bother to look at what day NaNo’s site suggested I would complete my 50,000 words, or look at how many words I would have to complete per day to catch up.

We only have four more days left of NaNo, counting today. I can safely say that because I took the weekend off, I’m not going to.

This isn’t to say I won’t continue to work on the story I started, I totally will. I want to see it to completion. And NaNo helped me to get a good portion of the way through the first draft. For that, I’m always grateful.

I will say, I have had the habit of bringing a novel back for a round two of sorts the following year if I don’t finish it or NaNo, but my goal for this novel is to have it finished before NaNo is even a blimp on my radar for 2018.

Ideally, and I’m not sure just how feasable it is yet, my goal will be to have my second Faerie novel planned out and ready to start for NaNo 2018. It’s a year off, which gives me a year to finish this year’s Fantasy novel and finish editing my Faerie book 1 novel, polishing it up before I start to save and potentially look for an editor to take a wack at it. Even, pending how long the first two goals take me, potentially have it back from said editor. We’ll see.

I’m still back and forth on if I want to try and quarry my novel or just ship it off into the world myself. There are a lot of pros and cons in both categories for what I should do. I’m still trying to feel my way through what I think might be the best route for me though.

I still have time before I get there, though. A couple rounds of edits at least.

Until next time, dear readers!

Writing, ever Writing

02 Sunday Aug 2015

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Warning! Rambling Ahead – Kind of a stream of consciousness post.

Sometimes I’m just not sure how other authors do it. They just have book after book coming out, and I’m stuck with just a very small collection. Granted, life hasn’t been exactly kind to me recently in the letting me write department between my dad dying, and now my mom contracting a serious medical condition. It’s left my head nearly constantly in migraine land, and my will to do much at all almost nill.

But I’m not sure watching other self publishing authors come out with books every few months helps me either. How does that work? Did I just decide to get my self publishing-ness out there too soon because I only had two finished works and a notebook of ideas that are either on my ‘to start’ list or on my ‘started but not complete’ list? Or is it just that my pace, especially with life is just slower all together.

I know I should probably stop worrying about others and focus on what’s currently in front of me, which means writing and taking care of my mom. But, well, as nearly everyone knows, the internet is hard to stay off of sometimes, and once you’re online, it’s really easy to pick up bad habits like watching things.

This week I’ll be headed out to a campground, with some sketchy wifi that only works if you’re in the right spot in the camp barn, and nearly no cell service either. (gotta love nature, and just proves that if the cell companies promise you they’ll reach everywhere – they’re lying because this little campground barely gets anyone service provider wise)
Mom and are are trying to get away some, leave work behind, try and relax and breath in nature. The weather is even supposed to be dropping to the 70’s for us so it shouldn’t be too hot or humid.

I’m hoping to try and get some of those works in progress complete, or at least limping closer to completion. Maybe take a stroll through my ideas and either flush some out, or narrow some focus down so that I can work at a productive rate.

Focus has been my hard thing as of late. Too much noise, too much going on, too much emotion that I’m bottling up. Not enough outlet, and not enough energy to ignore the white noise. I have been told by friends, take one day at a time, which is great advice, but I think she was still too broad, and that I need to start working on taking an hour at a time to really try and get things moving. Maybe once I can get moving again, it’ll help my motivation in all things. Because it’s not just my writing that’s suffered, but my performance at work and the state of the house – and the fact that we never cook anymore. I LOVE to cook, and we’ve been doing take out nearly every day for lunch and dinner – and if not ordering fresh just re-heating the left overs.

I want to get back into cooking, get back into those delicious smells not coming from the front door, but from my kitchen. It’ll not only save on the wallet, but it’s healthier over all too. The biggest thing I need to hunt down are some easy recipes. Things that can be prepped and cooked in about 30-45 minutes, because after I get home from work I have little to no energy.

So once I’m hope from camping, that’s going to be one of my priorities – finding recipes that I can cook for us after work.

Have a recipe you think I should try? Leave it in the comments.
(Though note, anything shrimp is a no go because we both hate shrimp)

New Steps

09 Thursday Jul 2015

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Some new steps in the direction of self-publishing, however small. I’m excited, and a little nervous, about finally getting something up on the Kindle eBook store that’s all my own.

ftow2 cover

Following the Old Ways is now available for purchase on its own over here! 

Back from the Wilderness

14 Wednesday Aug 2013

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It’s oddly nice sometimes to get offline, hang out with friends, and just… relax unplugged. Well, I was a little plugged in until my best friend joined me out in the woods for the festival last week, but that can’t be helped when my smartphone gets better internet service than cell service out in the middle of no where. But the crux of it was, it was nice to be unplugged for a while.

Get back with nature, just have some good time with friends, campfires, and some crafts. And when there’s time, get back with the old pen and paper and just… get to the essence of writing without all the distractions from the internet that can crop up. Seriously, writing with a computer that has online capabilities is sometimes like ordering a new ebook from Amazon. I go for the free book, but suddenly, ten bucks later, I have a small arsenal of new reads and I’m going ‘no, get me off here!’. 

Can you tell I have a very ‘Oh! Shiny!’ kind of personality? Heh. I tend to get distracted easily if I’m not careful, and even sometimes when I am careful.

This week is a get back into the swing of going to work kind of week over all. Though I’m hoping that I can get back into the swing of writing as well. As per my friend’s suggestion, I need to see about putting aside one hour to write a day so even if I don’t get the thousand word (or more) goal, at least I am getting some words out. And in that hour I won’t do things like play on tumblr or poke around on facebook. Dedicated purely to writing. I want my Fae story out, damnit.

And in other news this week, hopefully the anthology I’m part of will be released Friday, fingers crossed at least.

And did I mention that while at the camping trip, a friend of mine said that she would help me to figure out how to format a word document so it’s all ready to self publish at create space? Because I really am seriously thinking of doing some shorter, novella length works for kindle/create space while my novel is being pushed at some big publishing companies. At least, that’s what I’m hoping for, for this Fae novel of mine. Big house publishing company. Hopefully it’s got enough potential and punch for that.

Pricing on the Kindle Store

20 Thursday Jun 2013

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I have to say that sometimes it amazes me how the pricing ends up on Amazon’s Kindle store. With Kindle Direct allowing authors to self publish instead of finding a publisher, it’s flooded the ebook stores with more material than ever. (Which is both good and bad.)

On the one hand, it means that authors don’t have to jump and compete with that very small market that is the big publishers line up, and they don’t have to deal with the hassles that can come from trying a small, specifically genre-d press, or bend their genre and style to fit that small press. However it also means that anyone can publish anything, and editors aren’t always used before publishing. (Though I’m starting to get a little off topic here since I wanted to discuss the pricing, aren’t I.)

A lot of the books on the store are $0.99 – especially when it’s a book one of a series, which I personally think is great. It gives you the ability to try a new author without really committing a lot of money at first, and if you like them and want to continue the series it’s usually $2.99. To me? That seems more than fair and more than a little awesome. It’s affordable as the reader, the author gets their stories out there, and while it’s not much they’re also getting at least a little money for the effort they’re putting into it.

What baffles me though, while I was cruising the Kindle store I came across an author who is publishing 4K stories and asking for $2.99 for them. In a see of chapter ebooks and lengthy novellas that are being sold for $0.99, this person wanted more. And I will admit, I haven’t gotten into self publishing my stuff yet, though I do have plans to in the near future, I don’t see how the author thought that would be a good business plan. Especially since said author states the word count in the description on the info of the book so you know you’re getting a massive short.

I won’t say that the author is wrong for charging that much as it’s her work and she has every right to charge as she pleases. What I’m wondering is, do people actually spend that much for such a small short? Am I just a little too wallet tight to spend almost a dollar for every thousand words?