The summer is here. The bugs are out. The yard needs love (to the tune of 2 grand). The new romance releases are arriving fast and furious. June is turning out to be quite a boon for readers.
In personal news, Pooh continues to show improvement on his medication. He smiles easier and is more alert. We're seeing more of the child he was before his troubles began in March.
Pooh and I had the flu last week, though I was much whinier about this fact. Finally I was writing Bulldog again. As I type this post, I have less than a month until the book's release. Eek!!! While I'm behind again (shock), these characters are super easy to write. So much dysfunction and angst. Plus, I have a whole new family to focus on.
Candy Girl redesigned the cover for The Bite. Unfortunately, she doesn't have much to design for me this summer. The Bulldog cover has been in the bag since winter and Blue is pretty much set. Once I work on Little Memphis, Miranda can get creative again.
Roo is loving his summer break while Tigger enjoys the warmer weather. Tinker doesn't love the season though. All the thunderstorms terrify the little furball and she hides under the couch most of the time.
Well that's a quick update until I have something more concrete to share. Enjoy your weekend plus two great songs by Pat Benatar.
Today is a very special day. No, not because of the high five for book four in 2014. Even better! Candy Girl a.k.a Agent M a.k.a Thunderkitten a.k.a Marvelous Miranda is celebrating her birthday!!!! We "met" a little over a year ago and have never spoken except online, but she's still my BFF. After Sally, Miranda is the first person to know what's happening in my RL. She's always willing to give me pep talks (even the tough love ones). Creative and quirky, Candy Girl shows me things I would never see on my own. There's no way to express how blessed I feel to know her.
Used is her "baby" too because she found the guy's picture and took it in a completely different direction than I would have. The consensus is the cover is smoking hot. Aces, CG!!!
More proof of Miranda's awesomeness is the thank you she got in Emilia Winters's new romance Electric. Yep, everyone cool loves Candy Girl.
This week has been great and it's only Tuesday! Used is out. Miranda is celebrating her sweet birthday. Pooh is showing real signs of improvement after only a week on the new medicine. Roo is out of school. With the little man on summer break, I'm also on vacation since I'm his teacher. More time to write!
With Sally and Miranda's help, I made my deadlines for both Damaged and the Dragon and Used. Planning to stay in my writing groove, I've already begun working on Damaged and the Bulldog and my side project of Blue Awakening (yes, I've said that before). My goal is to release twenty books by the two-year anniversary of the first book I published. I seriously doubt I'll make two more books before the end of July, but one can dream.
With so many great books coming out in June, Miranda will keep her Kindle busy. Just this week, there are new books from Emilia, S.N. Garza (my girl Stephanie), Amity Cross, and Jo Wylde.
Speaking of awesome authors, I will publish the interview with Sera Bright this week. Yep, I'm finally getting caught up. I do think there's a Deadly Dee review I need to post too, but that's for another day. Candy Girl deserves the best birthday imaginable. She's a great friend, co-blogger, beta reader, illustrator, BBA Whisperer (makes those whiners wet themselves), and all around awesome chick. I hope everyone enjoys the songs on this week's post. They're two of Miranda's favorites. :)
La La is on a roll so forgive me for bragging. I just published Dragon a week ago and now I'm nearly finished with Used. Aces, baby. At this rate, I can start Bulldog next week. Heck, I might finally get started on Blue Awakening after a year of saying I would.
While I'm still behind on my publishing schedule, I should hit my goal of ten books for the year. This is what I must write this year:
1) Used (next week)
2) Bulldog (July)
3) Blue Awakening
4) Little Memphis
5) Saint (final Damaged book)
6) Broken Memphis
7) The Moon Burns
I'm also hoping to begin the new Bijou series Lush Gardens and Coliseum by the end of the year. Might even get a few standalone novellas published too. My hope is to finish at least two of the open Angela series ~ Blue Davison and Gigi Monroe. That'll leave Vivi Rios's final book. I also have the three books for the Dakota Shepherd Angelic Redemption series, but it'll likely take two years to finish them.
Dragon has sold well and readers seem happy with the book that took me forever to give them. I also had a pretty successful free weekend for Gator a.k.a. the little novella that could.
In more good news, the day Dragon went live, Ammy agreed to make Beast permafree in the US. I'm already seeing an uptick in the sales for Knight and it's been less than a week. I'm planning to set up The Fallen as permafree, assuming Ammy is willing. Making the first book free for these longer series is a great marketing tool that many authors on Kboards have talked up. Miranda was a godsend by pointing me to the awesome threads there.
Speaking of Candy Girl, she's turning her creativity towards writing a book. Oh, it's a doozy too. Here's the link to her GR page. How badass is she? Blogger, Whisperer, illustrator, she's now working on adding author to her resume. I'm not worthy...
Unfortunately, Pooh remains ill. In the last week, we've changed his medications and hope to see an improvement soon. I'm also happy to report Lil Sis learned her son's tumor was benign! What a blessing for Marcy's family.
In BBA news, STGRB decided to institute a new commenting policy on May 24th. This respectful version of the hate site lasted until May 27th when they posted comments like this one. Charming, huh?
In happier news, June 2014 looks to be an exciting month in indie publishing. Books by S.N. Garza, C.M. Lema, Ember Casey, and Laramie Briscoe will be released. Oh, and those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Even though summer is known for slower sales, many great authors will soon deliver awesome reads. I'm excited to read them all.
In honor of the great Steve Perry's first public performance in decades, my songs are Journey classics.
High five for book three in 2014! Damaged and the Dragon is also my seventeenth release since I first published 2012. Hot damn! Cool beans! Fan-fudging-tastic!!! Too much?
There were many times during the last few months when I believed I would never everin a million years finish Dragon. I last published a Damaged book in late November. Six frigging months passed and I just couldn’t seem to get Dragon written. Then wham bam thank you Candy Girl and Mustang Sally, I finished. Sarah and Patty were great beta readers as always.
Today, I'm already focused on the next project. Pooh’s health issues and my short attention span (squirrel) have put me behind on my publishing schedule. I had hoped the books set for May releases would be Damaged and the Bulldog and Blue Awakening. Nope.
Used is the next book I’m planning to publish. The standalone novella is scheduled for release on lovely Miranda’s birthday. Even though June 3rd is right around the corner, the book is already half written. As soon as it’s published, I am on to Bulldog, Blue, and the Cooper novelette.
As busy as I’ll be with Used, I have two interviews I need to post on Indie Angie. One is with new romance author and super sweet chickadee Sera Bright. The other is with Trevor Tomlin who I interviewed on When Zombies Come to Read. These days, he’s writing urban fantasy using a second pen name. We all know how I love authors who cross genres.
The BBA continue to be butthurt. No big shock. Nothing new to report besides they continue to suck. However, there's no denying the dorks are entertaining when I’m bored.
Pooh remains in poor health, but we keep chugging along and hoping for him to make a turnaround. Faith is a big part of my life and I trust in God’s plan.
My Lil Sis Marcy has struggled this month too. Her ten year old was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Henrik’s already gone through two surgeries. The kid is a trooper, still enjoying his life even through the fear and pain. Marcy is an amazing mommy and her family remains strong with the help of family, friends, and prayers.
The songs this week are by Skynyrd. In Dragon, I added the Free Bird shout out as a tribute to sweet Candy Girl. Using a quote from the book, she created the cool bear teaser above. The other song is perfect since it mirrors my mood. Oh, and I’m posting this on a Tuesday and everything…
My middle boy turns seventeen today. Unfortunately, Pooh remains sick even after returning home from the hospital. He's never had an easy life and the last few months have been especially tough. However, we're beginning to see the old sparks in his big brown eyes. Soon, we might enjoy a smile on his freckled face again.
I am still working on Dragon. The finish line is in sight finally. Next week, I plan to have the book in the hands of Sally and Candy Girl. Once that happens, I can work on Used. The standalone novella is already half finished, but I put the book aside to work on Dragon.
My recent real life issues have slowed down my writing, so my goals for this year are up in the air. I do know I'll finish the Damaged series by autumn. I have a few new romance series I'm sketching out. The Memphis duology will likely be next, but I'm unsure whether I'll also work on Lush Gardens (four books) or Coliseum (three books). I also have a number of novellas on my to-do list.
Candy Girl redesigned the covers for most of my Angela books. I love seeing them with a fresh look. It's exciting to see Miranda learning lots of new design tricks. I can't wait to unveil the Used cover she designed.
April was a long stressful month, but May had already shown blessings. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend and finds many reasons to smile.
FYI, the songs on this post are two of Pooh's favorites.
Oh, boy, it's been awhile since I blogged, but things have been hectic.
Last month, my family marked the twenty-first year since Freckles joined our Lord in Heaven. March is always a difficult month for us and my son Pooh's worsening health made this year even trickier. I'm actually typing this blog from the hospital where he's been since Wednesday.
I've also been struggling with writing the last month for obvious reasons. And not so obvious ones. Nick from Damaged and the Dragon was giving me fits. The guy felt like a stranger, yet I needed to get into his head. Finally, he opened up to me and I was able to get into a writing groove. I'm still expecting to finish both Dragon and Used this month.
After hitting the best ranking of my short career, Gator continues to sell better than I expected from a standalone novella. There are so many unknown factors about why one book gains attention and another book never does. Whenever new indies get frdustrated, I tell them I published nine books before one sold well. If you love writing, don't give up.
Once again I'm running behind, but I still have high hopes for 2014's publishing schedule. My goal is to finish the open Angela series (Gigi, Vivi, and Blue) this year. I have over a dozen ideas for Bijou alone, so I need to prioritize what I'll focus on in the future.
This last week, Miranda worked her sweet ass off designing a teaser for Dragon. I just have no talent for marketing. If it was left to me, I would take a picture and stick words next to it. Bam! Done! Candy Girl is a godsend when visuals are needed. She's also helping design the cover for Used.
The last week hasn't been all stress and work. I also enjoyed lots of laughs at the expense of the asshats. Namely Mel from STGRB. In a nutshell, she accused me of creating a rival hate site plus she thinks I'm Miranda. I won't go into the specifics. Let's just say she's obsessed and clueless.
Mel learned the truth the hard way and now has egg all over her face. All last week, she kept mocking how I didn't respond to her allegations. Why would I remain silent if I was innocent of her lies?
After years of working and living around jayholes, I've learned sometimes silence is golden. When I was young, I thought I needed the last word to win. The reality is silence or carefully worded non-answers hurt idiots more. Why? With time, they will bury themselves in their lies and paranoia. It's all about the slow sell.
So I refrained from rolling my eyes publicly at Mel and she doubled down on her dumb. Works for me. I support the jerks in the indie publishing world attacking each other rather than readers.
This is the first year I've done taxes since I've had substantial sales to report. Eek! People kept warning me to squirrel away money for taxes, but I didn't listen. It wasn't awful, but a little startling nonetheless. Squirreling for next year is my new hobby.
Well, I better get back to Dragon and Used if I ever plan to publish them this month.
Crazy week. Published two books. Helped get a BBA booted from GR. Discovered and tossed aside a wannabe Melissa D. Promoted a lot of great indie authors with new releases.
First, there was Gator. The feedback has been mostly positive. Sales are solid especially over the weekend. It became my fifth book to rank under a thousand on Amazon. Gator even reached the four hundreds. Not bad for a novella about a bi-racial assassin and his intellectually challenged prostitute love.
Scattered was a day late on my publishing goal, but extra proofing is always worth the wait. Once again, Sally and Candy Girl did brilliant work with both books. They're both partial to the Angelic Redemption series. Even loving it too, I took months to edit the book. The old Angie wrote very differently than the new one.
With Scattered, I got the idea to format a second version as a Large Print edition. Along with the Christian fantasy series, I plan to create LP versions for my romances too. I think a lot of authors would be smart to open up their books to another demographic by formatting for LP.
Asshat drama doesn't stop just because the Whisperer blog is on vacation. The fact is too many indie authors are embracing whining as their marketing plans. Every negative review is a personal attack.
They hate readers to the point of wanting to end anonymous reviewing on Amazon. How many reviews will indie authors lose in the future because of a change like they suggest? In the end, Amazon will do what's best for Amazon.
It wasn't all whiny whiners the last week. There were a lot of new releases by great authors.
My focus for the upcoming week is working on Damaged and the Dragon. Used and Damaged and the Bulldog are my backup books. With so many big publishing goals for this year, I better get back to writing.
