Back in the Breach

I've been absent from the blogosphere for a while.  The reasons are many though most of them are more like excuses.  Things like my daughter's softball playoffs, the chaotic end of a school year, some days of good weather when I could actually work outside, an ill cat...you get my drift.  Excuses.

My daughter's team was eliminated from the state playoffs two days ago with a heartbreaking 3-1 loss to a very good team.  I still have three days of school but I have nearly all my paper work done.  Thanks to some help from my daughter, I'm getting caught up with the outside work.  The cat is still a problem. 

So no more excuses.  I'll be blogging 3-4 days a week again starting today.  Despite my excuses for being absent here, I know the real reason.  I was feeling down about my writing career.  I'm not entirely back on the upbeat trail now, but I'm not very good at quitting when things get rough.  It took me a few weeks to get over being angry about something and come up with a game plan to get my career traveling in the direction I want it to go.  More about the anger in a future blog.

I'll be around to visit my bloggy friends today and tomorrow.  I hope some of them will stop in here too.  Though I haven't been blogging lately, I have been working on my WIP and can see 'The End' approaching.  A few more weeks like this past week and I'll be ready to send it off to my favorite editor at NCP.

How long have you taken a break for blogging?  Did you have good reason or did you just need a break?

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?

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?

Dreadful Synopsis

I've learned not to fear writing a synopsis as I did early in my career, but that doesn't mean I like it. I worked on one today for my latest WIP. I'm confessing to writing the most horrible example of the darned things of my entire career. It was so dry and skipped so much yet was almost nine pages long. The book is the first book in a new fantasy series and there are a lot of things happening, numerous important characters and an entire world to build. I had so much trouble deciding what to include and what to skip. After finishing it, I decided I'd made a wrong decision at almost every opportunity.
So tonight I'm going to delete the entire thing and start over. Yuch!
On another note, our book signing was a bit of a bust. I'm calling it an act of God. I'm talking monsoon like rains and wind. We're going to try again near Valentine's day. Stay tuned.
I'll be posting some reminders starting next week about December's release of A Ruthless Good. I'm still waiting for my cover art. I can't wait.