Time Warp

One reason I love Halloween isn't simply because I’m a horror movie fanatic. It's also the start of the holiday season and I love this time of year.

Sure the weather gives me constant sinus headaches. On the plus side, we experienced a really wet spring and summer, so the trees in the yard and neighborhood grew tall and healthy this year. All of those changing colors have never looked as lovely as they do right now. I don’t know if I’ll actually move to Texas before the next autumn (seems unlikely), but I’m feeling nostalgic the last few weeks. Autumn around here is rather picturesque even on gloomy days such as this one.

Overall, the month's had its share of ups and downs. Tigger and Pooh are still adjusting to their med changes, so they've had good and bad days. My allergies have been smacking me around a whole lot which slowed me down with writing. It’s difficult to concentrate when you’re sporting a headache or doped up on sinus meds.

I was hoping to have Saint done by now. I think on a deep level my fears of ending the series has held me back. True, I've found success with non-Damaged books. My readers are hella loyal too, yet I've dealt with a lot of uncertainties regarding Saint that I’m only now getting over. Saying goodbye is tough to do especially for a long series. I’ll avoid such closure issues in the future since I’m planning to keep upcoming series to three books tops.

October a great month income-wise which is a good thing since I have a new obsession. It started innocently when I bought a Halloween Hello Kitty at CVS. I normally buy a new Beanie Boo when I pick up the kids’ prescriptions. This time, I also bought the Hello Kitty doll and my obsession began. It’s in the early stages, but I’m already eyeing a few super cute Christmas dolls.

I completed the redo of the Whisperer website, but still have work to do on the Bijou one. Mainly, setting up the store. I also want to change up the template once I have a cover reveal for Saint and can add a new banner. I’m not a super visual person and usually leave the design stuff to Miranda. Since Candy Girl is iffy about messing with the websites, I do my best with my limited artistic talents.

Halloween is so much more relaxed now that my boys are older. Roo is only eleven, but this is the second year he's decided not to go trick or treating. He’d much rather kill zombies on the computer than dress up like one. Pooh has never really understood Halloween, doesn't enjoy candy, and isn't a horror movie buff. He’d prefer to stay safe and warm in the house. Tigger and I do love horror movies, so we’re spending Halloween watching a few. I’m typing this while we watch Sinister and it’s a creepy gem. We plan to finish off the night with one of my new favorite movies This Is The End.

I’ll finish up this post with a song that always reminds me of one of my best days as a sub teacher. It was just before Halloween and I took over in a music class. The assignment was listening to popular Halloween songs. The kids danced (even the too cool 5th graders). It was a fun day especially when this song played.

Happy Halloween!

Change

Springtime is when most people do their cleaning. Since I was busy in the spring and summer, I'm finally getting organized now in the autumn.

One of things I've finally gotten around to doing was creating a specific Bijou website where I can sell books and swag. In the past money was tight, so I shoved all of my pen names along with my BBA forum onto the single bbawhisperer.com site. Finally, I accepted I have the money to create a second website specifically for Bijou. I’m still designing BijouHunterBooks.com while also setting up the Whisperer site with only BBA info.

Now I admit I haven’t been paying much attention to the BBA stuff lately. Miranda and I stopped posting on the Whisperer blog back in Feb. We had a few posts on secondary blogs, detailing private information we received from inside sources.

Yet back in early summer, STGRB went quiet and we saw no need to blog at all anymore. There are plenty of talented bloggers who can handle people like Kathleen Hale. Back in the day, few were willing to challenge STGRB directly, instead pretending to ignore the hate site. You know, except when they were babbling about it in private groups.

Miranda and I don’t hear much about BBA anymore unless it’s a big deal like the Maggie Spence clusterfuck over the summer. Otherwise, we’re focused on books and covers. Miranda spends a lot of time designing teasers for me. She’s also given advice to a few other indie authors. Agent M isn't officially retired from tracking asshats, but she rarely gives them much attention these days.

As for our other blogs like Indie Angie and Where Zombies Come to Read, they’ve run out of steam. I post about new releases and book sales on BookLikes. I really don’t need to duplicate the info on the Indie Angie blog. I’m also not currently working on my Angela books, so there’s nothing really to post.

At home, I’m organizing my office and looking to declutter. I have a lot of books from the Damaged series sitting around which sounds great except next year will bring new books and series. Until we move, I need to make room, so I plan to do several paperback giveaways during the holidays.

Next year will be crazy busy. I only have two signings on the schedule, but lots of books to publish. I honestly can’t say which ones will be written in 2015. I do have the novella for the box set and the new Bad Men Rising series. Spin-offs from Damaged and Little Memphis MC might happen, but only time will tell. Poor Miranda deals with me telling and retelling her about all of my ideas. She never knows if I’ll actually produce the books I’m bugging her about either.

The last six months or so, I've become spoiled with an income I didn't enjoy even as an IT specialist at a California beach city. However, I’m not at Aurora Rose Reynolds level of successful. No legion of fans or best seller lists. For a midlist author, the way to keep a steady income is to publish, publish, and publish again. No more six month lags like I had between Outlaw and Dragon. Even my holidays will be spent writing. Good thing I love it.

For November, I’m hoping to publish Saint the same week I have a FB blog page takeover along with a sale for Gator. Speaking of my standalone books, Kindle Unlimited has been a boon for both novellas. They get hundreds of borrows each month, keeping their rankings strong.

The rest of October should continue to be drama filled. Both Tigger and Pooh are switching medications. Meanwhile, Roo is “enjoying” that big push students get before the holidays when they learn a lot of new concepts. After Thanksgiving, we review those concepts and things will settle down.

I really should post this message and get back to writing. Yeah, being organized isn’t my favorite thing, but I’m on my way.

Knock 'Em Out

Oh, how I love October! Sure, the weather can be a pain and I remain defiant towards wearing a jacket even when it's raining. Yet, it's still a lovely time of year.

Two birthdays in my family land this month. My youngest boy Roo turned eleven. Today is Sally's birthday. She likes the simple things ~ the first draft of what I've completed with Damaged and the Saint, books from the library, and takeout from the Chinese buffet.

Saint was slow going, but I finally have a groove going. I figure I can finish the main draft by Halloween. Then it's editing before the book is handed off to my beta readers. While they're fixing my goofs with Saint, I'll work on Broken Memphis.

After the success of Little Memphis, I thought about turning the series into a trilogy, but the tone of the third book wouldn't fit. I've decided to use the third book idea for a spin-off trilogy with a darker tone. Of course, this throws off my plans for 2015.

My main series ideas were the Bad Men Rising trilogy and a trilogy following Saint and Harlow in their new life (the books will focus on their colleagues finding love). Now I'm uncertain what second series I'll write next year. Rising is definitely on my schedule. Miranda even has the covers sketched up. The three Rising men are introduced in Damaged and the Saint. They don't play big roles, but I'm ready to write their books.

Besides writing and enjoying birthdays, I've been gorging myself on horror movies. Most suck balls, but a girl can dream of finding a solid mix of intelligent heroes and menacing monsters. Here Comes the Devil was creepy, though Tigger wasn't a fan. He prefers the found footage sub-genre. Most of those movies are crap, but he loves them anyway.

This month has been really cool with new readers friending me on FB and I even got a shout-out in an article about romances based in Kentucky. I've also signed up for a second signing for 2015. This one is in Alabama with another great lineup of authors. 2015 will be busy, but I'm excited about more new adventures.

Until next time, be sure to smile...