What Do I Say

"I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it." Voltaire

Please remember to vote tomorrow. Remember, no complaining if you didn't bother to vote. I know many of the elections seem like a choice of two evils, but find the one you deem the lesser.

At my writer's meeting this past Saturday, we had a guest speaker, Tere Michaels, speaking about the The Hero's Journey of the Relationship. I've read and heard about The Hero's Journey almost since I started writing. But as I listening to Tere, I realized that there is always something to learn from a knowledgeable professional. She said a few key things that will help me make my current WIP a better book.

Somewhere on twitter I found a link to an article about color in marketing which led me to this article, When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink? It was very interesting to read how before the 20th century, the common practice was for all children under the age of six to wear simple white dresses. It quoted another piece from 1918 that suggested pink was a good strong color to be worn by boys and blue was a dainty color for girls. It wasn't until the 1940's when society switched that up. There's a lot more interesting research about society and the gender assignment of colors and fashion in clothing. None of that had a thing to do with my writing but it was interesting. I do tend to make clothing more unisex style in my books. The one article did say that blue is the favorite color of the majority of people.

Thought I would share another new cover for the reissue of my Tiger series book. Tiger's Mate is the second book in the series. I enjoyed writing it because it's a bit lighter than the other two books in the series. My publisher is offering it for sale only on their website for the first month.

Don't forget to visit IWSG today and be ready with you post for Wednesday for the usual monthly blog hop.

Are you going to vote tomorrow? Ever read The Hero's Journey? Do you dress in the 'accepted' gender color?

It's That Time

I know a few, only a few, authors who use their blog only to promote their own work. Most blogs I follow are involved in the business of writing or reading and the content of their blogs varies but most of the time I can read and learn something to help my career.  Sometimes, though, those blogs are just pure entertainment and fun to read.

Yesterday I received my quarterly statement from one of my publishers and a check will follow within a week or so.  New Concepts Publishing has revamped their website and put together lots of promotions to sell more books.  And I can see the results in my statement.  So many publishers leave all the promotion to the author and I certainly understand it is my responsibility.  That knowledge only adds to my gratitude for the efforts my publisher is making.

If you pop over to New Concepts Publishing Website, you can see the beautiful covers they create for their books and you can see the cool contests and the chats they've organized.  I'm honored to have my latest release, Tiger's Mate, as one of the books on the front page now that it's become available in print as well as ebook.

So this is my monthly post to self-promote my books.  New Concepts offers reasonable prices for ebooks and I hope I have many more contracts with them.  I have some other promotional plans in the works.

As an author, do you ever pay for promotion?  As a reader, how do you usually discover new authors? As an author, what do you feel is the best 'free' promotion you do?

Book In Hand

Most authors remember the thrill of holding their first book in their hand.  The UPS guy delivers that box packed with unmarked, perfectly new and untouched books with your name as the author.  They even smell good.  It was thrilling.

Today my sixth fantasy romance novel, Tiger's Mate, was released in ebook in April and today it came out in paperback.  I'm thrilled to have another one of my books in print and I'll be ordering some copies for myself tomorrow.  My publisher, New Concepts Publishing, is a small, but successful and well-established publisher.  Like most small, independent publishers, you won't find their books in the big stores.  Borders (if they're even in business later this week)  won't set up a signing for my romance novels.  With independent bookstores on the endangered list, it's more and more difficult to find venues to sell my print books.  That used to bother me.

I've grown past my need to see my book gracing the shelves in a bookstore, though I still love that, and come to the realization I make more money off the sales of ebooks.  And I don't need to search across three states to find a bookstore willing to set me up at a table inside the front door. The number of print books I'll sell won't pay my son's college tuition next year but each one is an extra little treat. I hope some people put it on their 'keeper' shelf.

As an author, do you see more of your earnings from ebooks or print?  Do you have a 'keeper' shelf for the books you want to keep and reread over and over again?

Publisher's Websites

Like many writers, I often visit publishers' websites.  A few I visit searching for information on upcoming books from my favorite authors.  Some I visit to check out their submission policies but the ones I visit most often are the ones who have published my books.

New Concepts Publishing has released five of my romance novels under my pen name, Susan Kelley.  I love working for NCP.  Their editors are friendly and efficient.  Their author liaison replies to my emails usually within a day if not within hours.  In the past few months they've become even more author friendly by trying many new way to help with promotion, always my least favorite part of being a writer.  And I have a special place in my heart for anyone who finds a way to get my books in front of the readers.

One of the things they've done is update their website.  It's so easy to navigate, has simple buy buttons, along with forums, ongoing contests and place where readers can chat with the authors.  Each author has a page with a short bio and all their books in one spot.  My Solonian Chronicles, starting with The Greater Good and ending with One Good Woman, are showcased on my page.  Tiger's Mate will soon join the page.

So does your publisher help promote your book?  I'm especially wondering about those of you with small publishers?  Have you visited a publisher's website you found difficult to negotiate? Why do you go to publisher's websites?

What Comes After Z?

Like over a thousand others, about two weeks ago, I finished up the A to Z blogging challenge.  And it was a challenge.  I've learned many things from my first attempt at participating in such an event.

It's a lot of work to blog six days a week and I have an even greater admiration for those who blog every day than I did before.  I know many of them hold full time day jobs like me yet still they manage to create new posts day in and day out.  Wow.

It takes a lot of time to visit blogs and comment each day.  Before the challenge I visited between ten and twenty blogs every day.  During the challenge I stayed with that number during the week and tried to visit triple that number on weekends.  By the third week I was falling behind during the week and on weekends.  I never made my goal of visiting over half of the blogs involved in the challenge.  My loss.

I learned there are a lot of wonderful, informative and clever bloggers out there.  I met only a fraction of those participating in A to Z and found dozens of blogs I wish I could visit every day.  I read many of them and wondered how some of these interesting people weren't already famous published authors.  Talent by the bucketfuls.

Another lesson I learned is how I can be overwhelmed by what I feel are my responsibilities to my writing career.  I have a new book released during the last week of the challenge.  Suddenly I had too many things to do each night.  To top it off, thanks to PA's wettest April ever, water came into our basement.  My husband was working nights and I had to deal with most of the problems by myself.  And promote my book. Guess what got lost in the chaos?  Visiting blogs.  I felt guilty about it every day.  But I'm back in the grove now and I owe lots of visits. 

My book, Tiger's Mate, is now over a week into its published life and doing well I hope.  It's difficult to tell with those young ones.  This week I'll continue with some promotion, kick a little activity into my blog and get back on track with my WIP which is a third book in the Tiger's series.  A great thanks to all my new followers. Can't wait to get to know you all better. 

Did you participate in A to Z?  What did you learn?  Would you do it again?

Y: Yahoo: Book Release

Yippee, my book is available today. Tiger's Mate is the sixth fantasy romance I've released.  I thought about trying to publish this one myself through some of the new programs, but I'm very happy with my current publisher, New Concepts Publishing.  They do a great job editing and on the covers for my books. One of my covers missed the mark but the others were pretty great.

My first writing love if pure sword and sorcery fantasy but I dabbled in writing romance before I sold that first fantasy book.  Why?  I like a good love story as do many people.  Many, many people.  Romance outsells all other genres of commercial fiction.  I write romances to make money.  But when you read my romances, you'll see my love of fantasy there.  Probably the fantasy elements in my romance novels take up a greater share of the plot than some typical romances. 

In my Tiger's of Salubria series, the Tigers are legendary race of warriors.  In the distant past, a curse was put upon these warriors so they have to form a magical bond with a person of magic when they reach maturity or they will die.  The person of magic then has some control over their fierce will.  You can believe these proud men of war resent their magical tethers as they move through society unprepared to meet them. 

The first book in the series, To Tame a Tiger, begins the tale and gives some background as to the origin of the curse.  It's available in print and ebook.  The book released today, Tiger's Mate, follows another of the swordsmen as he fights his way toward his lost homeland.  Please take a chance by entering this medieval world of sorcery, adventure and of course, love. 

I hope you don't mind my unabashed self-promotion but I have two kids and college.  Very expensive investment, those offspring. 

Will I make any money on these books? Every little bit helps.  I'm a long way from quitting the day job.  How about you? Can you or are you close to making a living off your writing? Do you think you will sometime in the future or is it a rewarding past time for you  and the money doesn't matter?

W: Wild Wednesday

It has been a month of wild Wednesday from the weather to challenge of blogging six days a week. 

The weather caused a number of changes in some athletic schedules so every day the evening events were up in the air until the last moment.  The torrential rains also sent some surface water into our basement.  It rained so hard the water ran in around the sliding glass door.  We save one section of carpet but the other needs replaced.  I know parts of the country have suffered much worse so I'm going to stop whining about it.  I only hope we go an entire day without thunderstorms for this wild Wednesday.

Blogging has challenged me.  Though I had almost all my subjects selected ahead of time, I didn't have all of them written when April started.  So each weekend has been busy as I make sure everything is ready for the upcoming week and try to catch up on commenting on other participants' blogs.  Wildly busy.

I've also had a wild time trying to prepare for Friday's release of my next fantasy romance, Tiger's Mate.  Today I'm participating in a chat at my publisher, New Concepts Publishing, as a way to promote this book and all my back list.  This live chat is a first for me, so I don't know what to expect.  I also have no idea how effective it is as a promotional tool. 

Have you ever participated in a chat as a promotional tool for a book with as the author or a reader? Do you think it has promotional benefits?

U: Unrepentant

It's been so much fun on A to Z this month but this week, starting today, I need to do some unrepentant self-promotion.  My sixth published fantasy romance will be released Friday, April 29th.  Tiger's Mate is the second book in a series that started out with one publisher but I moved the second book to a different publisher.

New Concepts Publishing contracted my first four romance novels and now are taking on Tiger's Mate.  NCP is one of the oldest ebook publishers out there.  They've been successful for a long time when many other smaller publishers have folded.  Lately they've been doing more and more to help their authors with promotion unlike so many big publishers who promote only the big names at their houses.

But all authors, especially me, must still do our share of shameless, unrepentant self promotion.  I'm not a shy person but I don't easily speak and write loudly to put my work forward. Like most writers, I'd rather just write.  But I also want to sell my books.  I want people to read them.  Therefore they must know about them.

So today at my publisher, New Concepts, I've the featured author on their Manic Monday Promotion.  From noon until midnight,  all my books are 30% off.  A good price on what I think are good books, perhaps even excellent books.  How did I do with shameless?

How good are you with self-promotion? Does your publisher help you?  What kind of things has your publisher done for you?

M: Music to Write By

My daughter did a psychology project linking learning and music.  Many studies show students retain more information when they study with ear buds gently carrying their favorite tunes nearly directly into their brains.  This didn't surprise me as I'm someone who works best with some background noise such as TV, a movie or music playing.  I almost never write in silence.

I have to wonder if the type of music matters.  I really don't think I could write a fight scene for my latest series with a polka tune bouncing off the walls.  On the other hand, the soundtrack to The Last of the Mohicans might be just the thing.

While I wrote the last book in The Futhark Chronicles, due out in 2012, I had the soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings or the movie itself playing most of the time.  It's great for inspiring my muse to create heroic battles and tragic loss of life. 

Some of you who know me know I have three different DVD versions of Pride and Prejudice on my movie shelf.  While writing my upcoming fantasy romance release,  Tiger's Mate, I watched all three of them and mixed in some time for Happily Ever After to help keep the mood light.

My iPod contains a little country and a lot of alternative rock.  Lots of loving to put me in the right mood as well as a few melancholy tunes to cover the emotional spectrum I hoped to infuse my novel with. 

Do you listen to some tunes while working?  What are your favorites? Do you prefer silence while you write?

B: Back Lists

I have a new fantasy romance coming out at the end of the month.  My publisher is doing a promotion the week leading up to this release by featuring discounts on my back list.  Hopefully some new readers will try my books on sale, like them and buy the new one.  I have some great hopes for this promotion because I've been guilty of buying an author's entire back list when I discovered one of them and then eagerly awaiting the release of their newest. 

I discovered Preston and Child this way.  John's Marco's book The Devil's Armor caught my eye and since then I've read everything he's written. 

So on April 29th my latest, Tiger's Mate will be released by New Concepts Publishing, and hopefully some readers will find it because of my back list or will find my back list because of the new release.

Is there an author who won you over with one of their books and inspired you to read their entire back list?

Two Minute Break

I finished edits on Tiger's Mate today on my lunch break at work and sent it out.  Tomorrow I'm getting right back into A Tiger's Courage, the next book in this fantasy romance series.  I working on the 2nd draft of that book and hope to complete it before the end of April.

Finishing the book at work today is something I didn't used to be able to do.  In the early years of my writing career if I didn't get a stretch of time of a couple of hours I wouldn't even attempt to delve into my current project.  When my first book was accepted for publication I was already four books down the road from when I had completed that one.

Suddenly I needed to do promotion.  I had to start a website, begin blogging, join Facebook, and all sorts of other things.  After a book is contracted there are still many things to be done in the months between signing the contract and the book being released.  But I still wanted to work on the book I'd interrupted to begin promotion.

Besides learning to juggle different projects, I also learned to use those little slots of time. on my lunch break, while dinner is cooking, between loads of laundry and make the most of them.  I can visit a number of blogs while fixing dinner.  I can write a blog while waiting for a load of laundry to dry.  And today I finished edits on a book at lunch. 

I think most writers laboring at day jobs have learned to use every little bit of time or else we'd never get anything done.

How long a period of time do you need to get into your writer persona?  Do you fit writing work into your breaks on your day job?

My Favorite Things

Did you think I was going to break into song?  I'm not Julie Andrews.  I have a book due to come out at the beginning of the summer and my publisher sent Tiger's Mate to me for the final read through.  I love this part of the process.  It's one of my favorite parts of the writing process. 

Why? I think it's because I know it's too late to make any big changes. All the major problems have been fixed and I'm mostly looking for spelling and grammatical mistakes.  The plot holes have been filled, loose ends tied up and character missteps ironed out.

I'll probably work on this every free moment for the next seven days and send it back over the weekend.  Then I'll get back to my current WIP which happens to be the next book in this fantasy romance series.  I love creating a new book.  It's one of my favorite things in the writing process.

I also enjoy the second draft when I search out all those passive verbs, repetitive phrases and pet words which for me is usually, 'just.'  I usually have a list of things I need to fix in the plot I refer to when I work on the second draft.  It takes me about a third of the time to do a second draft compared to the first draft.  Maybe that's why it's one of my favorite parts of my writing process.

You probably figured out where this is going.  With the exception of writing a synopsis, I enjoy every part of writing a novel.  Each draft, first, second, final and even the polishing in between, have attractions.  I didn't used to like editing.  I just wanted to write new stuff all the time.  But since I published my first book, I enjoy fine-tuning a manuscript into a novel someone might want to buy and read. 

So what is your favorite part of the writing process?  Which part do you find the most challenging?  Name a few of your favorite things.

Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

My husband is a painter, the kind who paints walls not landscapes.  My sons have benefited from this as they always had a job growing up.  They learned a trade and will never have to hire a painter for their own homes.  There's more to painting than going to the store and picking a color.  My husband could probably write a book about it but something that has come about from the boys working with their father is a family collection of his sayings.  It's kind of a joke but that doesn't mean they're not relevant.

When painting, you have to do things in a certain order.  You don't paint the walls before you paint the ceiling.  You plan the order of the work and then work from that plan.  I'm going to be applying my husband's wisdom for the next week.

Starting today, I'm teaching an online course for CPRW, the local chapter of RWA.  I'll be talking about world building all week.  I'll spend today polishing the posts for that obligation, enough to last the week.  Every evening when I return from work, I'll answer questions and interact with the students.  Good times.

I'm also preparing two blogs for this week, one of them to introduce my highly anticipated guest, Alex Cavanaugh, author of Cassastar.  He's running a Music Top Ten Blogfest starting tomorrow.  Check it out  and join if you can.

Also this week I'm submitting the first book in my newest fantasy series to a publisher.  I received a kind rejection from PYR about two weeks ago.  Is rejection ever kind?

While all that is going on I'll be working on my WIP, the third book in a fantasy romance series.  More about that later.

So do you plan your work and then work your plan?  Do you go with the flow? 

Drugged and Dragging

The heroes and heroines in my books are tough and brave.  It is fantasy after all.  Some of you know I had ankle surgery yesterday.  Today I'm dragging and still trying to shake off the anesthesia.  I don't do well with any kind of meds.  I'm actually taking only ibuprofen but not because I'm tough or brave or stupid about pain. I just get really sick taking any kind of narcotics.  I'd rather be in pain than sick in my stomach.
The good news is that without the mind-fogging narcotics, I'll hopefully be clear-headed enough to keep working on my WIP.  And I'll have a new perspective on my characters' physical discomforts.
For more on dealing pain to your characters please visit the group blog I share a few other members of Pennwriters.  The Susquehanna Writers can be found here.  I'd like to hear your opinions on how TV, Movies and Books handle pain and injury.

HELLO and Good Bye

Happy New Year! Hopefully you all have some wonderful events to look forward to in 2011.  The first day of the new year brings my first highly anticipated event.  Today is the official release date for Beyond the Gate!


Ebook Cover



Book #2 in The Futhark Chronicles picks up the story only moments after the end of book #1, The Keepers of Sulbreth.  It has two terrific covers, one for the ebook and one for the print.  You can purchase the ebook here and probably other places also.  It's not up on Amazon yet and my publisher is blaming them for being behind. 

You can buy the print book here if you'd rather have that.  Being my book, I prefer to have it both ways.  LOL.



Print Cover



I have other good news I'll share later this week but I do want to take this chance to say good bye to some dear friends.  My local chapter or RWA, called Central Pennsylvania Romance Writers, are a talented, supportive and friendly bunch.   Our monthly meetings are filled with laughter and generosity as members share knowledge and support.  I've learned so much from then and am certain I would never have been published without them.  But the economy (well, two kids in college) forced me to some tough choices this past year and one of those was to end the high yearly dues I must pay the national organization, RWA, to belong to my local group.  Their rules disallow membership in a local group if one doesn't pay the hostage fee, I mean dues, to the national organization.  So I say farewell to those lovely people and wish them the best.  Perhaps I'll rejoin later but in the meantime I'll keep in touch with many of them through my blog, their blogs, facebook and a few are fellow members of Pennwriters, a statewide and much less expensive group to belong to. 

 I'm thrilled about some of the things going on over the next few weeks, most of them related to the release of Beyond the Gate.  I have a blog tour later this month, ankle surgery later this week (ouch) and another book being released later this winter.  Busy and busier and wonderful.  So hello to 2011.

Weak Week

I'm not getting much done on my writing this week, but I did get that wallpaper removed last week as I promised myself I would. And it was even worse than I'd feared. Twenty hours of frustrating work revealed a wall that should never have been exposed to the light of day. Read more about how that experience related to my writing life at this blog post. Fortunately, my husband does commercial and residential painting. Using a many step process, he somehow made those walls look like a new room. Still with all the help I've been giving him, I haven't done much writing. I'm about 10K into rewrites on Tiger's Mate, but I'm so tired in the evenings I can't seem to get much done.
And (my next excuse) my children's softball and baseball seasons are coming to a close and taking up a lot of time. They have been exciting games though.
I'm using the same excuse for not getting my website updated. I did work out though. My daughter helps me keep at that as she works out in anticipation of the fall field hockey season.
Vacation plans are looking more and more unlikely to come together as the summer progresses. If you want to know how the state budge impasse affects people like, I have two sons in college this fall and their tuition is going up. No one knows how much yet, but Penn State isn't getting any money apparently and it could be up to a 10% increase in tuition. There goes summer vacation for us. The college has to send their bills out this week at the latest so they're guessing how much they need to increase since they don't know what they're getting from the state. They're guessing at the upper end of needed increase. No surprise.
So I better get back to writing. Even my little bit of writing income is needed to help this year. If only that movie deal would come through. LOL