03/08/2013 Fantastic Friday!

Hello everyone and happy Friday! I hope your week has seen you all well. I have been busy, but it's been lots of fun! I'll admit that editing has taken a backseat right now, but while I feel somewhat bad about it, the satisfaction of what I've been working on is far greater and I am really excited to see how it is progressing. For now though, let's get to what you all came here for!

I bring you 'Moon Rising' by Eleanor Frances today. The teenage years are awkward and uncomfortable for everyone (if you say they weren't for you then you don't remember them correctly) so imagine if you were a teenager but also a werewolf. You go through a violent change once a month already, so adding being a teenager into the mix and things just get more complicated.

Alex has tried to be 'normal', well as normal as being a teenager can actually mean, however being a werewolf too doesn't make anything easier. Luckily she's been keeping that part a secret for so long it's starting to become second nature to her. However one night she finds herself stuck somewhere and she isn't alone. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the moon is threatening to make everything a lot worse. She doesn't want to hurt the person she's stuck with, but even she knows that losing control is all a part of the change. Will the one taking shelter with her make it out alive, or will Alex learn she's not the only one with secrets?

'Moon Rising' is available on Smashwords for absolutely free and is a fun little story to enjoy during a break. I picked it because sometimes, especially on a Friday when you're just waiting for that clock to say it's time to run out the door, you just want to read something sweet that makes you feel good about things. This is that story for today and I hope you all get a chance to check it out. Just a heads up, the Smashwords servers have been taking a little bit of a beating this week because of the sale, so if you aren't able to download the story at first, please don't let that stop you and keep trying until it works.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend. I hope to get lots of work done on my new project, and if anyone would like to see the progress so far you can check them out here, here, and here! I plan on making one for each of the main/important characters from my entire series. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm looking forward to it! Have a great weekend!

03/06/2013 Writing Wednesday!

Welcome back everyone! I'm glad to see you back here and hope the week is treating you pleasantly. So far my day is a tired one, and unless caffeine is far more magical than I remember, I don't see that changing much. Either way I have a lot of work to do, so hopefully that will keep me excited and motivated throughout the day.

My current project is part of what I'm going to bring up today actually. As a self-published author the hardest thing in the world is to get your book to where people can see it. Getting to to where they can buy it is easy, especially if where you publish from distributes pretty much everywhere. The problem comes when you need to let people know that they can even look for it. Advertising is hard, possibly expensive (never again...) and a lot of the time, yields very small results. It can be the part of self-publishing that makes getting motivated very difficult. However, that doesn't mean there isn't light at the end of the tunnel!

I've talked before about how social networking makes getting the information out to people a lot easier than it was say....10 years ago. It's still true, and for those who follow me on Facebook and Twitter will know that I am irritating when it comes to spamming that link out to everyone. The thing is there is a reason for it; new followers might not necessarily see older posts. Sure they have the ability to look back and see what those were, but when you start following someone, do you really go back and look at each and every thing they've ever posted on the Internet ever? No...unless you're a stalker, in which case...creepy. The other reason is that the new followers will have new and different people following them. That is an entire audience that you haven't reached out to and unless you keep presenting the information you'll never get to.

Finding a new audience is where things are also difficult. In a 'Real World' setting like a workplace environment you will be surrounded by people who are interested in what you're doing at your desk for as long as they are standing next to it. This isn't to say there aren't some who are genuinely curious and want to know everything about you and what you're doing. The important thing is to identify who those people are, because frankly you don't want to irritate the crap out of someone who is just by your desk because they need to get some paper. If there are people who are truly interested they will keep coming back even if they don't need anything. These are the ones you tell everything to and you ask/beg them to tell others. Word of mouth is a wonderful tool and just like on the Internet is extremely useful in real life.

Which brings me to what I was saying previously. Branching out into the other mediums might actually be helpful, you just need to work it in such a way that you can do it. For instance at my work we have a craft fair coming up. We've had it before, and I honestly have no idea how frequent they are, but I have been (strongly) told to participate in it. This is a strange concept to me, as I had no idea  that anything I did that was 'crafty' would be something people would decide they should pay money for. Anyway, after much deliberation and getting some suggestions from "totally unbiased parties" I have decided to try and get some things ready for it. Right now the plan is to make some cards and have them set up both individually and by sets, and on the back have information about where to go to start reading my book series with 'The Light Rises'. If I manage to get this done, it will allow me to use an entirely different medium to reach an audience I wouldn't have even considered an option previously. You can even see the picture one here and I apologize for the picture quality I will upload a better one later and maybe even make it so prints are available! This is something that we all have a potential to do, you just need to figure out the best way to mix and match everything.

I know getting the information out to the masses is hard, and sometimes feels so futile you can to flip all the tables and just go to sleep. I really do (Facebook, your advertising sucks, btw) but that has never stopped me from trying and it shouldn't stop you either. Your work is important, it may seem like it's just important to you, but that's just because you haven't found the right person to read it yet. When you do then things will explode into so much awesome you won't know what to do with yourself. Just be patient and keep going. It'll all work out.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I'll be back on Friday and hopefully will be all bright-eyed and ready to face the day! I hope the rest of the week sees you well, I'm going to get back to writing/editing/drawing everything ever!

03/04/2013 Magnificent Monday!

Hello everyone and I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was full of entertainment and some fun. Currently though my week is starting on a questionable level when I discovered the dish washer didn't actually do what it's name suggests. So we're checking to see if running it again will make it work, since I thought maybe something was blocked, but we'll see...if it doesn't work that's going to be lots of frowning from me.

I have starting the editing process, now more officially than just saying I was going to do it. The pages are printed out an in a binder and I have a new pink pen to help me make everything up. This process is always the hardest for me, especially when its something I haven't looked at for a while, but I know it needs to be done. I just have no idea how long it'll actually take, at least the first round.

This week is also 'Read an EBook Week' over at Smashwords, so if you're interested go check it out. There is a list of participating books and they are, for the most part, all being offered at some kind of discount. I have included 'The Light Rises' in this as well, so please go check it out so you can get it for 50% off! The coupon code is available right on the page too, so there won't be any need to dig around to find it. This is a great chance for all of the authors involved, so please check it out and tell all the people you know about it!

The further I get through my notebook, the more I realize that I'm getting close to the point where I'll be done with typing up 'Daughter of the Shackled King'. I know that means I'll get to take a break and focus on editing, but it seems like that has taken such a long road to get to that part that there's part of me that won't know what to actually do next. The real answer, after editing the ever-living-hell out of 'Rending the Seal', is to move onto 'Feathers of the Dead', but even still I'm sure you all know how that feels to suddenly be done with something that has occupied so much of your time. Seeing that I'm getting close to that part is kind of interesting.

I appreciate everyone stopping by today. I really hope this week proves to be a good one and isn't a jerk, because I would really like it to be nice to me. The last couple weeks have had their share of days I just want to hide in a dark room and having one where I don't feel the need to do that would be super cool. I'll be back on Wednesday though, likely with a progress report on how the editing is going. If there's any suggestions for the topic that day please feel free to let me know, or if you just want to start a conversation I'd be more than happen to oblige. For now though, have a great start to your week!

03/01/2013 Fantastic Friday!

Hello everyone! Did you realize that today is the start of a new month already? It just seemed like yesterday I was still trying to figure out what to do for all the birthdays I'd see in February. Talk about ridiculous! Anyway, let's get to it!

Today I bring you 'Fred' by Aaron Knight. A robotics company has created something wonderful for the American Household; a robot that will do all your chores for you! However the creator of this robot has a little bit of resentment toward the head of the company that he works for and has added in a little special something into Fred's programming in an attempt to bring the company to its knees.

Imagine you are part of something great and fantastic, and then you're told that you need to change it. Something that you are incredibly proud of and want nothing more than to show the world, but then your boss tells you that it needs to be just different enough that it will still be the thing you love, but you will always know there's something off about it. Now imagine that you have a chance to get them back for it, and what you do is make your revolutionary helper-bot completely anti-social. It's put into the programming so well that no one will know it's in there, or that you were the one that did it, or at least by the time they figure out what happened the robotics company will be ruined. That is what happens in this story and you feel yourself kind of rooting for the robot.

'Fred' is available on Smashwords for absolutely free. It is closer to a full-length novel too, which makes the price even more reasonable. It's nice to wonder who the real bad guy is in the story; is it the inventor that changed the programming without anyone noticing, or is it actually the head of the robotics company that wronged him? Those types of stories are always a fun read, especially when they keep you guessing until the very end.

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking everything out today. I'm looking forward to a nice, hopefully quiet weekend after the last couple days I've had. My hope is that today is fantastically easier overall. For now though I hope you all have a good day and weekend and enjoy the start of March!

02/27/2013 Writing Wednesday!

Welcome back everyone! This week has been one that likes challenging my ability to get up in the morning. Hopefully that's going a bit easier for all of you. The important part is that I'm up now and will also remain so for the important parts of my day. Like working, I should probably be awake while I'm at work...

Recently I've been talking about things on a broader scale of importance, like the whole thing on patience, and our Valentine's Day special. followed by last week's post on time progression (that was the correct order, right?) and something that has hit me in the back of the head fairly recently was something very specific and yet not something that is usually considered until it's far too late. Formatting. Making sure your document is readable is so very important, which I'm sure everyone agrees with, but anyone can put words down on paper and as long as they're in a language your reader understands they are considered 'readable'. The thing I'm trying to get at today is formatting in such a way that you don't feel like you've made dozens of bad life choices down the road, particularly while editing.

During a certain month of the year writing is more about speed and quantity than quality, and frankly sometimes just when you're writing in general you are 'in the zone' and can't be moved from it. Something so small are numbering a chapter has the potential to knock you away from it that you just decide that putting a small break there would be enough. However what happens when you have a perspective break in the same chapter and you decide, because you're me and younger and stupid, to make them look exactly the same. You think that when you go to put in your chapters it will be obvious where you wanted that number to be, but after having pretended something didn't exist for however long it's been, you no longer remember where that spot was. Welcome to my life, and I am here to give a cautionary tale so that you don't make the same mistakes I did.

In my current works I am doing the smart thing and numbering my chapters, all of my works-in-progress that aren't in the editing stage have numbered chapters. However, that wasn't always the case, and currently 'Rending the Seal' is not like that, and I am regretting the more impatient side of me. Having breaks in chapters is something that pretty much every story ever has, and that's fine, however you really should make those different from where you plan on putting your chapters (if you're not numbering the chapters right away) just to make you life easier later. That way it will save you time and heartache as well when it's ready to begin the editing process.

Another thing, and this is particular if you are planning on publishing through some kind of ePub like Smashwords or even Amazon, is that the systems they use to 'read' all of their potential entries looks at things like tabs, spaces, and even alignments. Smashwords, for example hates the tab button with a passion. In their guide they explain how to set up a saved format in whatever word processor you happen to be using that will make all the tabs/indents for you because your work will constantly get kicked out if it detects the use of the tab button. Now this was something that was learned the first time around with 'The Light Rises', mostly because I didn't know that was a thing that happened, and have since saved a specific format in my Word program for my 'professional' works. I do recommend if you are going to go the self-publishing route to look into what formats your future publishing outlet requires before throwing it at them. It will save you a lot of time and effort in the end, because while trying to find every instance of where you accidentally used the tab button isn't hard, depending on how long your story is, it can be very time consuming. Also keep in mind that if you are going after an agency, they prefer things to be double-spaced as well, so if you send your manuscript to them and it's not, there's a chance that they can just toss it over their shoulders and it'll no longer exist. Be sure to check the submission guidelines ANYWHERE you plan on putting your story before you send it.

I very much appreciate everyone for stopping by again today. I hope to see you all on Friday for my normal weekly review. Remember, if you ever have any questions, comments, emotional outbursts, or just want to say something or make a recommendation feel free to let me know. I enjoy getting replies or messages from the people who visit here as it lets me know that this blog is doing something correctly. For now though, I'll be off and I hope everyone has a good rest of the week!

02/25/2013 Magnificent Monday!

Welcome back everyone! I hope your weekend was fun and exciting. I am super not used to working Saturday anymore and there is a very profound feeling that my weekend was far too short going through my head right now. It doesn't help that I've also spent this weekend looking for one of my notebooks and haven't been able to find it, which is driving me a special kind of crazy.

I'm sure it's sitting somewhere right in front of me, but that doesn't make knowing exactly where it's at any easier. It's the notebook that contains 'Feathers of the Dead' and while I don't necessarily need it right now, it would still be nice to know where it's at for future reference. I'm sure everyone knows how that is when you have something, and then it suddenly disappears for no particular reason. I mean seriously, where is my stuff?

I have actually been making some decent progress on 'Daughter of the Shackled King' and I am becoming pleased with the page count as well. I think it'll still be a little short before any real editing starts up, but it is actually nice to see it coming full-circle. My test reader (finally) got back to me about 'Through the Broken Mirror' too, which apparently they finished weeks ago and had forgotten to say something. Luckily the things that I was worried about are apparently working, though there are a couple things they admit they were a bad person to read it because they already know about one of the characters. I think I'm handling it alright though, so the feedback was nice. Hopefully I'll be able to start working on that again soon; just need to get myself in the right mindset.

Soon I think I will be taking a break from 'Daughter of the Shackled King' to officially start the ridiculous process of editing 'Rending the Seal'. I think it's been long enough pretending that it doesn't exist and I really need to start getting things in gear for that. The hardest part, and this could just be me since I was (admittedly) stupid and let's just say a little more impatient when I wrote it, is going to be formatting it with chapters. Since I had written it as part of NANOWRIMO I was going for word count and put markers where the chapter breaks will be, just not the actual chapter numbers, which is something I have learned going forward. That happened with 'The Light Rises' too and I was always worried I was either going to repeat a number, or even skip one, which did happen a couple times and I needed to correct it. Hopefully that won't be too bad, I just need to get that process started and get that thing into a 3-ring-binder and get that whole thing started. It will be kind of nice not to carry my laptop with me everywhere though for a while...thing gets surprisingly heavy.

It's kind of neat seeing all of the projects starting to come together, and hopefully as the series continues that will be even more satisfying. I have no idea what I'm going to do once everything's finished, but luckily for me that is going to be a long time from now. Right now though, I hope all of you have a good start to your week. I'll be back on Wednesday as always so I would appreciate you stopping by and checking it out. Until then, have a great week!

UPDATE: FOUND IT!!!!!!

02/22/2013 Fantastic Friday!

Welcome back everyone, it's Friday! I'm glad you all could make it. A quick shout out to that guy I live with who claims he's an old man today! Happy Birthday! I do have a new story for you all today too, so let's get to it.

Today I bring you 'New Bird' by Robert Larrison. Callista is an aid worker bringing food and medicine to the impoverished around the world, even to the places most wouldn't dream of going. Her newest job is putting her into the heart of militia territory and she needs to make sure she plays her cards right or else her name becomes a statistic.

Sometimes doing something dangerous and good for everyone possible are the same thing. Callista knows of the dangers in her job, as does her assistance Charlie, which is why they take as many precautions as they possibly can. The problem comes when it's unknown whether or not that'll be enough in the end. When their convoy is ambushed, Callista is forced to reflect on the things she's done and decide whether she wants to survive to help anyone else.


'New Bird ' is available on Smashwords for absolutely free and is a nice quick story to read while on your break or lunch. It's a recent publication, and I'm not sure if it's going to make it into the Premium Catalog because of some formatting, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't just make the trip to Smashwords and get it there. I always like stories about people with a drive to help others, and this is one of them. Please help out the author and take a peak, alright?

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. This week was a little different, but everything will be back to normal next week. They have it scheduled so that I work only one Saturday every 3 weeks now, and apparently that week I work Saturday I am no longer used to the schedule with. I hope the weekend sees everyone very well and I'll see you on Monday!