This is not a hobby!

Lately I have read a lot of writers making disparaging comments about other writers who do not follow their model of the craft. Many so called writers/authors seem to believe that if you do not treat your craft as a job with set hours and goals of so much a day, that you don't do everything and anything in a set way to gain lots of fame and fortune then you area hobbyist and not a writer. Since when?

Writing fiction has always been the place that the storyteller, the bard or even the teacher exists. Those of us who are trying to sell our work are not all desiring to make a ridiculous amount of money. Many of us want readers. Yes we would like to be paid for our work, and I assure you even when you write short stories like I do, it is work but it is a passion, not a JOB.

A job is what you do to put food on the table, a roof over your head and clothing on your skin. While writing can fulfill those needs, there are much easier ways to do that. Writing is as easy as breathing and as hard as breathing can be. It is something you do because you have a story to tell inside you that needs to come out and no other way will work.

As a long time writer but a short time publisher, I know this well. I wrote things down for years that I never shared. It was not till my husband gently pushed me that I finally dove head first into publishing my work for money. And while I would love to sell thousands of copies of my tales each month, I know very well that it is a crapshoot. Most, if not all of the classics were only discovered by readers after years and years of languishing in obsurity.

Writing is like any other art or sport. Yes, everyone can write or sing or run or hit a ball, but it takes years to get good and it is more than likely you will never get out of the bush leagues. You may die unknown only to be discovered fifty years later and haled as a master of your craft.

The reason I comment about hobbies is this. A hobby is something you do for fun. Yes, you might be one of those who go a little off the deep end but a hobby is something you can put aside to do your job, to spend time with friends or family and it is just something you do for enjoyment. Writing, for most people, is not something you do for fun. You do it either in secret or out and proud because you must. You have tales in your head, yelling at you like demons to tell their tale.

How many hobbyists will spend hours researching some minor thing before going out and observing every person that walks by them for quirks? What in a normal person would be considered mentally unstable is what makes the best writers. We observe, research and develop. We do our best to make our characters real to the reader, our places seem like someplace you could visit if you had the money to and a passport to imagination. We then release those hours and hours of hard work and heart's blood like a parent letting go their beloved child to the wide world and hope that they make it.

Unlike the singer or the musician, artist or sculpture, we don't get instant feedback. We don't have fangirls singing our words or fanboys panting after us. (okay in most cases) We let go our babies and then we have to turn into pimps. We push our babies on anyone who is there and hope that someone will pick up that tale and read it and better yet love it enough to pick up our other babies. All the while we have to dive back into the maelstrom of our creative side and work on a new baby.

Unlike a job, we can't turn off our computer, lock up the office and go home to relax and have some diner. No, we are constantly taking in new things, listening to the tales our fictional children are saying and tell those tales.

Now this might be mostly because I write genre fiction. I am not sure those who write nonfiction have the same type of need to write. I know they are not expect to put out the same amount of work that a fiction writer is expected to. I know they are paid better, not expected to give away their work for the seething masses. I do give away my work from time to time in the hopes of garnering those precious reviews that are supposed to help the world find us and i can honestly say that of the thousands of copies of my tales that I gave away in the first year I published, only a few handful of reviews came in.

In nearly three years of publishing (and over thirty years of writing) I am slowly seeing an increase. My numbers are small enough that I have been accused of being a hobbyist. Of being not good, of needing to pay for people to make my work better. Yet those who do read my work enjoy it. By and large the majority of reviews of my work are four and five stars and respectful.

No, I am not looking at the reviews showing on Amazon for the anthologies I have been part of. Yes, I have one anthology on my list with almost forty reviews but that is for the whole book, not for my one tale in the book. While it is fun to be part of an anthology, I don't look to that as overall to my work but a place to get my name out there.

Yes, this is a long and rambling piece. When I get annoyed this can happen. Being told that if I don't do the Stephen King school of writing I must be a hobbyist is insulting and annoying to me. While Mr King is a god in his field, has made buckets of money and has the respect of many, he is NOT my hero. No, authors like Jo Clayton are. People who go along working on their tales in relative obscurity yet became known names are my heroes. Yes I would love to make enough money so my hubby doesn't have to work six days a week to support us but there are only so many places for writers to make that type of money and I do not write that type of tale.

Yes I could do the research into the hot genres and write formalistic tales of zombies, vampires and heaving bosoms but they would not be me. My tales are what they are. Filled with characters, dialog, descriptions and a tale that hopefully keeps the reader up till they finish it.

So what I am trying to say is don't call me a hobbyist! My hobbies are crocheting, watching fun movies, listening to odd music, trying to paint, photography, and just maybe soon sculpting. Writing for me is not a hobby. I can no more not write than I can not breathe. I will write, I will publish and I hope someday I will hit on a larger group of fans of my work.  Call me a writer, call me an author but just don't call me a hobbyist.

Looking for writer's prompts or I am stuck, I need an idea

One of the fun things about all the various social networks out there is that a writer can find like minded people to talk about the art and craft of writing. This fall I have found a lot of different places are now putting up writer's prompts in attempted to get content on their pages. They quick often offer either a prize for the winning piece or they might accept your work for an exposure anthology.Now many writers are unsure about submitting anything they write to a website but in the small writers prompts can do a lot for you.

Let us look at this logically. Every writer, every type from poets to epic novelists, will at some point find themselves blocked. Yes, simply getting up and taking a walk can help but what if you can't? Well look around and you will find some helpful person putting up a writing prompt.

This week I spotted one on LinkedIn.  This one has a photo of a gun being fired and the prompt is "the shot" as simple as that. Now as I am still in the middle of getting a novel ready to publish, I am just playing with the prompts and writing flash fictions of various lengths.

If you are a wise author/writer you will play with these prompts, write anything from poems to whole novels if you wish. If you just do a drabble or a flash fiction, well keep them.Even if you don't submit them to the rapidly growing marketplace for flash fiction, you can collect them together and put them out on your own. I am very close to putting out a collection of one hundred drabbles. Yes I wont be charging much for them but like everything you write, these little bits of fiction can build your writers brand.

So try the prompts out. You never know if you are going to write something amazing.

The importance of remembering where you posted your work

As a long time scribbler yet only short term published author I have had the fun and joy of trying to remember where I might have posted my work while it was in the stages of being finished. The last place that I remembered I had posted things was over on the erotica site, Literotica. (Yes i write erotica too). Now I had a small following over there with people bugging me from time to time to complete some of the partial stories I posted up here.

For the longest time I forgot that I had work up there. Now I am doing my best to pull those stories down so that i can complete them and of course publish them. Let me tell you this is not as simple as hitting the remove or delete key. It is a bit of a pain in fact.

You see the moderators over there seem to be none existent. I have emailed them multiple times requesting they remove titles or even delete my account with no response in the past TWO YEARS! I have managed to remove titles from the site by submitting the title with revised in it and a note in the body that it is being removed for publication. It takes up to a week but they do pull them down.

For the one or two at a shot it is not so bad but when I have 17 chapters of one title and six more chapters on two other titles, that is a lot of work and annoying.

Folks you better remember this when you post. The work you put up is yours but you have to fight to keep them in your hands. In this world of writing and publishing things change on a daily purpose. From getting signed to a small publisher that seems to disappear from one day to the next, to deciding to rewrite a work that you thought you were done with over a decade ago, you will need to find work arounds.

So do your best to keep your work in your hands. If you decide to post on free sites make sure you can remove things easily and quickly. And never post the complete work if there is a chance that you can sell it later.  Take it from the mad writer, you will regret it.

Getting your tale started

As a writer one of the things we all need to do is find that opening to our tales that drags the reader in and makes them read what we have so lovingly written. A story that starts off slowly might work in some genres but in those of us who are writing in the genres of fantasy, science fiction and horror really need that hook.

Now I admit dumping a reader into an intense action sequence can be jarring if not done right. So there is a fine balancing act going on. As a writer of mostly short fiction, I tend to go for the hook, the punch early and then let the tale tell itself, but now that I am doing longer tales I need to have the action move up and down.

While in the genres of mystery and romance, you can start out with introspection but in fantasy or science fiction you need that tension. For example I can give you some of my opening pages.

Here in Endings, the first book of my Saga of Loralil Greyfox I have the action off stage so to speak but it is there:

Screams of terror and betrayal filled the clearing. Blood flowed as the vicious invaders looked for their prey. They weren't here, but the sounds from below should bring them forth. Death was not quiet on this afternoon. 

Once the noise from the attack reached up the hill to the smithy, the Blade master looked up. He was tall for these small folk. He came to a height of 5'6". Tall for an elf. He had blue black hair tied back in a club. His eyes were a deep purple, odd for a surface dwelling elf. He had massive muscles from years of smithing. He grabbed up the nearest weapon, a sword he made years ago for a king who did not live to collect his custom job. A flame brand. He yelled back to the open door of his home, "Silvershine! Greyfox! Come out here!"

"What is it, Stoneblade?" Asked his wife as she came out of the house. She was a beautiful woman. Long silver hair pulled back into a myriad of tiny braids. She was slender and graceful. She had kept a fine figure after the birth of her child and the following years of settled life. She was a foot shorter than her husband and had a voice that would make birds stop singing in envy.

"The village is under attack," Stoneblade replied quickly has he turned to intercept his child as she tried to fly past him. "Stop right there! Greyfox, you must go to the hiding place."

"Father! No! I want to help!"

***

As you can see I put action in the very first page of this novella length tale. It hooks in the reader (or so I am told) and makes them want to read more. This is a good thing for any writer.

When you move into a second book, you don't need to have as strong a hook to get the reader. If you have hooked them properly then your second tale in the series can have a less action oriented opening, as I have here in Revenge, the second in the Loralil books:

Travel during the winter was always hard; it was even harder for Loralil.  She was leaving the only home she had known; she had spent the last two years living with her uncle, her mother's brother.  He had tried his best to make Loralil feel welcome and it wasn't his fault that she was leaving.  It wasn't his fault that the people of his home clan could not accept her.  She had very few of the mannerisms expected of an Elven maiden.  She tried to fit in but she just couldn't.  The prejudice of the people against anything non-Elven was too much to deal with.  They felt that anything or anyone not Elven was beneath notice.  Never mind that Loralil had spent thirty years in human hands, she was an elf and was expected to act like an Elven maiden of her years; with all the training and knowledge that an Elven maiden of her years normally would have.  The clan elders knew her history and tried to ease her way but many just didn't care.

Her parents had been rebels in the eyes of many here.  Her mother had left to train in a human run bardic college not staying and learning from the bards at home.  She had then gone on to adventure in the outside world, instead of coming home to care for her family's businesses.  She had the audacity of meeting and then she marrying outside her clan's wishes to a different race of elf, to an elf that worked for a human monarch.  And worse yet she decided to settle down with a third race of elves away from the clan and raise her family there.  

***

A more relaxed opening than what I had with the first tale, correct? In my opinion Revenge is a better book, but that is because I had learned a lot in the years between writing the two tales.

Now those are of course both fantasy books. As a fantasy writer I generally know how to get my fantasy tales moving from the very beginning but switching genres can make it a bit harder to pull off.  In this, the opening to Escape, I once more track back to the intense action opening.:

Caro ran down the corridor ahead of the Sweepers. Throwing a look back at each bend in the way, she managed to stay just out of their view. Dodging between the shoppers, under the long scraps of material that heralded what each tiny, hole in the wall shop specialized in, she moved from one tiny space to another with all the agility of a child. The Sweepers were once more rounding up the young and masterless and it was clear they needed new females, females to breed up new warriors and to slave for the Masters. Caro refused to follow in her sister dancers footsteps, refused to be made a slave again. She needed to get off this station, onto a ship headed to a free world. A few more twists and turns down tunnels that echoed with the mix of languages that made up the natives of the station. Cries of warning and of complaint mixed with the patios of commerce. She leapt high over a cart that had spilled in the middle of her path, briefly amazing those watching as she seemed to fly. She flashed a tight grin and waved as she landed, a quick pirouette that she could not stop herself from doing. She rolled her eyes at her action and dashed off once more. A few more twisting turns and she came to the concourse. Slowing, she eeled her way into the crowd. Her size helped her blend into the crowd, but she stood out for her ethnicity. Where most of those who lived and worked on this station were small with black hair and blacker eyes, she had a different shape to her face, her eyes large and round compared to the almond shape of those bred to this station. She was dressed in her silks, a bright flash of color among a sea of black tunics and pants. A cardinal that stood out surrounded as she was by crows. She had to find Adam. Only with him did she feel safe from the Sweepers.

***

 Once more I have pulled out that action sequence to pull the reader into the first book of a series. By making the first character the heroine, I give readers (at least the female ones) someone to sympathize with and hopefully make them want to know just what she is running from and why.

Switching genres, sort of, I have Fall Into Nightmares. This post-apocalyptic novel has more the tension from something other than action. While I did include a lot of action in the first of the Chaos War series, this book started with a more dramatic, emotional opening (IMO):

"You will change the world, my love. Your agony will set me free!"

Jeffrey woke with a start, his eyes darted about the darkened room searching for the source of the voice that filled his head but there was nothing and no one there. After a few minutes, his breathing calmed down and he whispered. "Just a dream, nothing more."

"Hmm?" came a soft, muffled murmur at his side. He looked down with a soft smile for the woman who shared his bed. Reaching out he lightly brushed a lock of black hair from her cheek.

"Nothing love, go back to sleep." He moved closer to the girl, wrapping an arm around her and drifted back to sleep. Just as he fell back over into dreams, he heard soft and evil laughter.

***

Using a dream for an opening can be very powerful if done well. If you are looking to do a horror story or a fantasy with heavy horror elements, you can can use this type of opening easily.

So as a writer you have to decide. Do you do an intense action piece for your opening page, a dream or something simple like this piece from The Traveler, my fantasy novel

Riding through the storm, Edana sighed as the shelter finally came in sight.  She had been riding for hours in the massive storm.  The crash of the thunder had become just background noise to her.  As her horse stumbled to a halt, she pulled her mind together and with great effort looked around.  They had stopped in front of the first travel shelter she had seen in days.  It was one of a series of small buildings scattered along the old grand highway or should have been.  Most had been left to the elements, falling to ruins that had barely a single wall to set a tent against. With an effort of will she unclasped the hand holding the reins, her fingers were white from the cold.  She pushed back her heavy, wet hair with a shaking hand and sighed wearily.  "This is a good enough place.  Time to rest."

****

 Each tale of course has its own flavor and style but do your best to not make that opening page boring.  If you do you will find the readers will be few and far between.

Writing and music

As I sit here with my earbuds in listening to Annie's song from John Denver I realize that I write more to music than I do without.  While my songs are not the songs of the characters they do set me in the mood to work.  There are a lot of distractions in a simple day even for a stay at home mom, wife and writer.

As my other blogs have shown there are a lot of things i work on during the day.  From crocheting blankets, to painting to making little plastic models of robots, I can get myself distracted.  I bake a lot, cook a lot and try to do many things each day.

This is both a good and a bad thing.  As a writer I should be sitting my butt down and typing up a storm every single chance I have.  And to be honest I do do a lot of writing.  In the past year I have written 41 separate tales that have been published and I have 15 more that are finished and either submitted to anthologies or pages or are waiting for covers to be released by me.  That is all since the first of the year.  A lot of work done yes.

Now though I want to complete the novel I started last year.  I have spent two days editing and now I need to settle down and write and write and write.  This tale is a good one i think with a touch of romance, magic and of course conflict.  There are good guys, bad guys and everything a tale needs but can I finish it this time?  Who knows but I plan on it.  So off to work I go.

Fictional Witches and being a real Wiccan

With the season quickly moving toward Halloween there are a lot of Witches showing up on television, in movies and in books.  Some are good, some are bad and some drive me nuts.

As a writer I find myself reading as much as I can and while I know that the average reader doesn't know the reality of Wicca it annoys me to see so many evil witches out there.

Okay before I go on about how we are typecast as green nosed evil wielders of wands, riding brooms and casting spells that hurt people let me give you my own take on Wicca and witchcraft.

Right around the time i turned 18 I was introduced to Wicca by a good friend.  The religious aspect of Wicca is a belief in the magic of life, the duality of the divine and the one law.  That law is as so:  An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will.

A lot of people look at that and say either, see they will do anything with no restriction (wrong) or see they stole that from Us..the so called golden rule of the Christian mythos. 

What the law means is that we will not judge you but you must not harm anyone, including yourself.  There is one of the big differences from what people think of us.  We don't want to harm anyone.  We want to help.

Now that I have that off my chest lets go to fictional witches.  In the past they were always the villain in one way or another. It was a cop out in my opinion.  While I have written female magic using villains I don't call them witches.  Like the male versions, mages, sorcerers and necromancers, the female versions can be as good or evil as we want them to be.

After watching an episode of Being Human (the US version) I found myself once more having that low level grumble.  They have introduced a Bruha, a sorceress who brings the ghost back to life with a lot of restrictions.  The first was they needed to get the heart of a man that they had killed.  This was easier than you would expect as our favorite werewolf had killed off his maker at the end of the last season.  They dug him up and got what they needed and brought her back.

Now the second part was that the recovered ghost can not be in contact with people from her past.  They were told just that with no explanation.  We find out that if she interacts with people from her past (not the vampire or werewolf of the show) they will die.  At the end of the episode we find out why the witch didn't tell them.  Because the ghost of who ever dies this way, when they go through their door to the after life ends up in her soup kitchen.  And then she destroys them and eats them, gaining their life and aging in reverse.  Yet again the so called witch is an evil being who uses others pain to transform herself into a young, sexy being. 

I have tried in my own stories to portray a more positive version of witches.  Lady Katherine in the Guardians of the Gate is a wise woman who helps my hero with protective devices and a bit of non traditional healing techniques. 

Moira is another witch that I have in a tale that will be released in the next few months.  .In this story I work with how even in today's world people still chant "Do not suffer a witch to live."  As this little bit goes:

Moira was a quiet and shy woman.  Living on the top of a lonely mountain, she rarely had visitors, even more rarely wanted them.  Secrets gathered about her, both from without and within.  She hid when the women came looking for another for the church social.  She hid her hair and eyes when she had to go to town.  The men and reacted too strongly. She lived a quiet, lonely life but it was hers.  When the big stranger showed up in her shed during the blizzard, she took him in, tended his injuries and fed him.  And like any injured creature at first he was skittish, lashing out .  Luckily for her he was too injured to actually land a blow to her petite frame.

Witches are  people like any other.  There are good and bad but most of them should be portrayed as what they are.  People who believe in the sacredness of life, all life.  We may not be vegetarians (some are) but we do honor the creatures that give us life.

Sending out work for reviews

One of the best things about social media is finding people who are willing to read your work and give you HONEST feedback about them.  While I look about the various places that people can comment on my work I have found a lot of interesting comments.  Yes I have received two star reviews and while it is a hit to the ego it is also a learning experience.  If and this is the important part, if the reviewer actually gives you the reason they gave your tale two stars.

On Goodreads you don't have to leave an actual review when you star a story.  I have a few low stars there that I really wish the reviewers had put down why they didn't like my tale.  One thing I strive to do in my work is to get better. 

Now a lot of people think that reviews that are given from free copies of a book or story is wrong but are they?  Even if a story is gifted to a reviewer if the person is honest in what they liked and didn't like what is wrong?  I have over the years reviewed a number of books that I have picked up during free offers on Amazon, Smashwords and other etailers. 

Also I have offered a number of my works for free, either for a short period of time or in the case of my fan fiction, always.  Reviews are one of the ways for a writer to learn what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong.  The good ones learn from these comments.

Now yes reviews can hurt.  Some people seem to believe that they need to tear down writers the same way they tear down artists, singers and actors.  The amount of bullying on the web is sad in my opinion.  We need to find ways to uplift and not drag down.

But back to the post heading.  I have a number of people who have graciously offered to give me honest reviews on both my work in progress and on the pieces I have up for sale.  The WIP pre readers make my life so much easier and they will be thanked in as many places as I can get away with.  Those who are reading my published work I can't thank on the reviews but I can here.

It is considered wrong to respond to a review.  The rules of receiving reviews are complicated and different from place to place.  With all the social media accounts out there just finding those reviews can be almost impossible.  One thing I have done and plan on continuing to do is placing those reviews I give and those I receive up on my own website. 

This can be tricky though.  One Amazon alone I have 71 reviews.  Not all of them are for my stand alone work.  The anthologies i have contributed to have reviews and for the most part those are positive.

So the thing about this blog is that reviews are necessary for growth and that authors need to search out people to review them.  You shouldn't expect your reviews to be all glowing and five star.  You should take all comments and learn from them but most importantly don't take them too much to heart.  Keep being creative and learn but don't let the trolls drag you down.  Remember that the things you write, like the art or song from other creative people, is a part of you.  How the reviewer sees your work is only a part of what you gave it.  The rest is from them.  If they are hurt, angry or just plain mean inside then they will say things that are the same.  Keep writing things that lift your heart and soul and hopefully others.

Writers reading stories written by writers about a story about a writer

Okay was that confusing enough?  Everyone knows I am a huge fan of tv/movies/books and music right?  One of the shows I watch faithfully is Castle.  I started watching of course because of Nathan Fillion.  Who wouldn't?  He is funny, handsome and a very talented actor.  But a funny thing happened.  The show turned out to be a lot deeper and a lot better than I expected.  So I kept watching.  The fact that he is playing an author on the show was in no small part why this show grabbed me.

They would mention his different books and then go on to work on what ever murder they had to solve that week.  Fun and fluff all at the same time right?  Well recently on a goof I decided to go to amazon and see if they actually put out any of the books that Richard Castle refers to.  And wouldn't you know it they did!

Yes I have complained about famous people getting all the notice because of their name but I thought hey this is a fictional book by a fictional character.  Lets see if they actually got a good writer or if one of the many talented script writers tried their hand at writing a novel.  Yes folks these are two very different skill sets.  I am a short story and novel writer, I have never even tried to do a script and I hold those who do in high regard but that isn't what this is about.

The first Nikki Heat book started out a bit rough, kind of what I expect but then I got sucked in.  I could see where the fictional Richard Castle had included himself and the fictional Kate Beckett in the stories but it was fun and lighter than a lot of the murder mystery/cop thriller books out there are.  So I decided to go ahead and read the rest. 

Let me tell you I can't wait for the fifth book!  They are slowly getting much better.  The writer (who every he or she is) has managed to catch the flavor of the fictional Richard Castle  and made the books fun and worth reading.  By ending the books with a cliff hanger of sorts it makes you want to read the next.

Just on a hoot I went and looked up Richard Castle on Wiki and whoa.  A very well done page with lots of books that you can actually download.  Amazing.  I wish I had such a nice page.  I decided right then that I might as well read the read of the so called Richard Castle books.  I have read four of the Derrick Storm books and they are the typical spy book with a bit of tongue in cheek and attitude.  Again a fun and fast read for a voracious reader like myself.

It was hysterical last night that they broadcast an episode with the fictional character who was the basis for Richard Castle's fictional female spy.  The episode was a lot of fun, actually had the same flavor as both of the series and of course had a dramatic cliff hanger at the end!  Yes these are reruns so I am lucky enough to be able to see the second part tonight but it was just pure unadulterated fun.

As a writer I dream of someday seeing my work in other forms.  I would love to see things like Guardians of the Gate city made into a short series.  The Saga of Loralil Greyfox made into an anime and even maybe my Death Walks Through tales made into a manga.   We all dream these things, wel don't dare hope but we dream.  Right now I will admit I just want to find a few (thousand) readers who love my tales and will read them and comment on them to me and the world.  I have a few fans who I adore having and I will continue to write what I can till the day I can't.

So as you can see my blog title is weird but it is accurate.  I am a writer who reads books about writers who write books about a writer in their books...confusing but fun and that is what reading and writing is all about to me.  Confusion and fun and maybe the ability to open up the mind of a reader to something they never thought of before.

Making book covers on your own

As a independent writer I have to do a lot of what publishers used to do.  Years ago a writer got to just do the writing.  Editing, marketing and things like book covers and even book trailers was done by your publisher.  People who have read my posts in other places know that the two small press publishers I have did none of that for me.

The editing and marketing parts bothered me quite a bit as I can only do so much editing on my own and well marketing is a skill, a well paid one.  I have little to no idea how to market my work and I am very glad to those who have taken the plug to read my work.

Even more I have a huge thanks for those who have beta read some of my work and have pointed out where I need to fix something.  When you are a starting writer with no money you have to hope to have wonderful friends who can help you.

But one thing I have enjoyed is making covers for my work.  Many of the covers have come out of my photography hobby.  When you have a few thousand nature shots it is easy to find something that will work.  I keep searching the web for fun fonts and play around in photoshop to make them better.  While most of my covers don't have half naked images I think they are okay.

Now that I have started trying to do painting I thought I would try doing one of my short story covers as a painting.  I wrote a short called The Pest House, which is a Death Walks Through short story.  It is based out of a story I read on the Nashua, NH facebook group.  Pest houses were the places that people with contagious diseases were taken to back in the 1830s.  Most of them were places for them to go and die.  So it fit perfectly in my series.

Going through my little paintings (yes I do small paintings) I decided this painting just might work well for the cover for this tale of a ghost

So should I use this or not?  Any suggestions?

Working in short story series

Anybody who reads my work knows that most of what I do is short.  Short stories, short poems just plan short.  It isn't that I don't have a lot of words, it is that I don't believe it wasting them.  A short story is a snap shot of time, a scene to an act in the life of your characters.  Sometimes that snapshot will complete itself in just two pages and sometimes it is more like thirty of them.

Most of my tales average out around ten pages.  Now since I write in what I like to call series I bet you are thinking why dont I just hold off and put them into one book?  You see I take a common thread and write a lot of different tales under that thread.

In my Death Walks Through series the common thread is Death.  He is not the main character of each tale but he is there, in the background most times.  Those stories are ghost stories, not the scary, creepy ghost stories that are so popular on tv and in movies but little tales of souls searching for the end to their tales.  So far I have written ten of these little tales.  They truly are little tales because these ten little stories all total up to 25K so far. 

My next series of tales, Guardians of the Gate City, just got combined into a collection and published.  Six tales that come up over the 50K limit for a novel.  These stories are more interconnected than the Death stories because they focus on the main character, Harry Lionsey.  I have worked through a couple years worth of his life and introduced side characters that will be getting their own series.  The first Guardians of the Gate city side stories will be out next month.  That series will focus on characters like Sheldon, the dragon information broker.

Thirdly I have the Echoes of Elder Times series.  Now the tales in this series might not seem to be connected but they all have the feel of the ancient world to them.  Modern tales with ancient themes is what I planned when I started putting the tales out.

Next we have the Worlds Apart series.  These tales are of course about different worlds than our own.  They are written as science fiction or fantasy but the idea is the worlds are separate from our own but hold theme and characters that could have been our own.

Then I have Beyond Realities.  Like the series above it is our world but not our world.  Stories of just a step to the side of our own world.

My newest story series is going to be Myths of Love.  I have had The Knight Protector up for ages now but I had a handful of stories in the works that were more romance than the rest of my tales.  I recently added the series title to Knight Protector.  I have one more that will be going up next month and two more right now in the works.  They will be odd fantasy romances they may or may not have a happily ever after.

Of course I have collections out.  Two complete erotic collections in fact.  One with interconnected stories and one that is just a mix of a lot of erotic tales I wrote.  Two other series are of different kinds of erotic tales that I will some day compile into separate books, but not for a long while yet.

Then there is Gates.  This was the book that kicked me into self publishing.  The six tales in the Gates book all have some type of gate in the tale and if the publisher had done more than take my rough files and publish them I think it would have gone further.  For now it is a nice little collection and the first book I have in my hands of my own work.

Of course i have been found in a lot of anthologies over the past year.  Between my poetry and short stories I have added up a nice little set of anthology entries.  And speaking of my poetry I now have three collections of my poetry and photography up for sale.

I have rambled a lot here but that is the point.  There are a lot of ways to do your writing and writing short stories is one very fine way of doing it.

I keep doing it! Forgetting to comment over here!

Well I will have to reorganize all my links so I can post here too!

I have been very busy since my last post back in January.  I put out Revenge finally.  For those of you reading this and not in the know that is the second book of the Saga of Loralil Greyfox.  The first book has been reviewed with a solid four star ranking so far.  People think that is it dark..and well yeah it is.  Revenge is also but in a different way.  I can only hope that the readers of Endings will be looking forward to reading the longer and better written sequel.

Yesterday I put up a new story in the Death Walks Through short story series.  The story is titled The Red Ghost Rides and it is a short short but still a fun retelling of an old American south western legend.  I hope people will look for it where ever they buy ebooks.  There will be a fifth story in that series up once I get my butt in gear and make a cover.

I have also made two new book trailers.  Endings can be found both on youtube like all my trailers and it is the first of my trailers up on viveo.  You can see it here.

https://vimeo.com/61005423

I am about halfway through my next novel. The Traveler is a lighter (for me) fantasy novel.  This one might just fit in the YA category, or so I hope.  After all that is a huge market right?

I have also started putting up my really short short stories over on Wattpad.  These will be freebies to let people see how I write.  The first one, In Space No One Can Hear You Scream, was written as part of a Halloween short story contest on amazon's Space station discussion group.  It was so much fun that I have written two more that will go up, you guessed it, when I make covers for them!.  I plan on posting a longer story too, A Bargain with Fur.  That is a retelling of a Japanese folk story inspired by a filk song I have.  While I could probably sell it I don't feel right doing so but I hope people will enjoy it.

Now I thought I had put Sins of the Father up on Wattpad but I was wrong.  That fan fiction greatest hits (for me) is up over on Goodreads.  Anyone who wants to reread (or read for the first time) my most popular story you can find it there.

trying to decide what to do

Since I decided to let my mind rest after finishing the first full draft of Nightmares  I decided to look into three of the hundred or so waiting stories I have.  Now I have a problem.  Should I work on "Whether to Save Face or Family", "The Price of Freedom" or "The Traveler".  Now these three are the furthest along of the tons of stories I have.   Face is in fact half the size of the book I have set aside for a bit.   All three are good stories, all three have great hooks and all three are in that limbo place that works longer than 30 pages have with me.  I get stuck and then I have to decide if I can pull them together and work on them.  Now of course I could go back to "The Battle of the Star Beast", that story is almost as long as Face.  So urban fantasy, true fantasy, science fiction or science fantasy.  So hard!  I should put up bits and see what people say I guess.

Well I am gonna be lazy and watch XMen now.  It is a good movie and fun.  I need some good relaxing fun.

Mommy porn

Yeah I know but it does sell.  So far over 200 downloads of Distance Means Little to Love...course these are free promo downloads.  Lets see if word of mouth will move out a few paid copies.  Would be nice.  Yes I have seven sales of my real work.  My fun fiction that has no sex in it but I will take sales of any of my words right now.

If I get feedback than I can put up the dozen other erotic tales I have.  Now i could put them up like I have the other short stories.  Charging 99 cents each and like one writer told me put in lots of nasty words in the titles and tags.  I'm trying not to pander but well I want people to read my work.

Guess I should just get my butt in gear and finish up a few more covers, trailers and stories, then post them up.  Still not seeing any movement on Kobo, Smashwords or anything other than Amazon.  People may complain about them but I get a good royalty rate and I get a report that lets me know I am selling and better yet a way to advertise.  Why the other places don't have a way to help you move stuff I don't know.  I love that I am on so many different sources but what is the use of being on ITunes if you don't have a clue if you have sold a copy or not?

Well work to do

Morning world

Since I decided to take off yesterday and not work on my books I am actually feeling pretty good today.  Read one of the books I was behind on and it wasn't an ebook from one of my indie author homeboys and girls.While I am more than happy to support them, read them and review them sometimes I just want to read one of the big name authors I love so much.

Now I had planned on sitting down and reading Cold Days by Jim Butcher but as readers know the book got delayed till November!  Which is an ouchie for those of us who ADORE Dresden files.  Best series ever!

But that was okay I am seriously behind on a lot of books thanks to the lack of MONEY in our house.  So I splurged and got Born in Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon.  I love all of her work, have for a while now.  The mix of dark brooding heroes that are damaged.  The not spectacularly beautiful heroines and the trials they go through are my cup of tea.  Okay I try to write as well as she does but I am a faint copy after all.

This book as always caught my attention from the get go.  I sat down at the mall and started to read, blissfully ignoring the people walking by.  I got to do this since my sweet hubby took our rambunctious monster to the near by toy store and left me alone for a good half hour 45 minutes.  Okay I didn't finish it there and I had to wait till the next morning to pick it back up but once I did I settled in with a pot of cinnamon tea and read for the entire morning.  Loved the ups and downs, the mistakes, the prejudice and the redemption that abounds in her work.  Another keeper to be added to my bookshelf and savored over and over again.  All in all my day off from being the author/artist/video graphic artist, publicist, etc was good.  Finished my book, played some Mindcraft and cooked.  Just had a good day. 

Now back to my regularly scheduled messes of writing, making covers, trailers, cooking, laundry, cleaning and answering the ever present, Mommy I'm bored can we go for a walk/play a game?

Well at it again

Typed up yesterdays notes.  So much fun typing up the dialog for a four year old medium.  The way they say things is hard to replicate at an adult.  I can hear it but did I type it right?  Never know.

Chaos war book one is now over 30K words.  That is a lot of words for me and I have not got to the climatic battle yet.  Who knows how big this horse will be when I finish?  I sure don't but it has been fun.  All these fun little secondary characters just keep forcing themselves into my narrative.  Who would have thought of a four year old medium..really?

Okay time to pick up the pen and scribble more notes.  Don't know why this flows better from fingers to pen to keyboard but that is how this story is going.  I just might finish it if I pay attention!

Down into the depths

Okay working on Chaos War book one.  Have the heroes in danger (duh!) Need to get Gregory to where Jeffery is losing his mind. Yeah take the guy in the story who has the most potential to destroy everything and then send him over the edge.  Fun times were had by all.

Yeah I know but if you are going to do an end of the world/beginning of a new one you have to destroy the old one.  And why destroy it with fire or bombs or aliens from above or disease?  Just let the things that go bump in the night loose from the collective unconscious.  Have one poor man who isn't even from this dimension have the ability to open the doors between there and here.  Now have him fall in love with a sweet woman and have her kidnapped by said monsters and dragged away into the dark underground...recipe for disaster!  Yes...but have an ace up your sleeve.  Have some one who just might be able to bring him back around in time to save the woman.  Or that is the idea after all.

Now I know I don't have a lot of readers over here yet so I can drop little spoilers like this.  Yeah the tale has been told before but not the way I do it.  Here is hoping I can get through this scene today so that I can work on the big rescue.  I want to get this book done writing by the end of the month.  Then the editing and other stuff can be done. 

another friday or should I just go to bed

Yeah head has started up to go with the joint pain and I am thinking I should give in and lie down but I really want to write.  After all I have a roll on with Chaos war book one.  Characters are growing stronger and more interesting.  That is secondary characters.  I find that secondary characters can either be just there to fill a plot hole or they can be those side kicks that we all need and sympathize with.

So far my stories are not moving so fast.  I have a few sales and a wee bit more downloads.  Having them move out would be so nice.  After all sales is the reason we do that right?

okay I cant think well enough to write a decent blog tonight.  I will try again tomorrow.

Write, write and write some more..then edit

Yup doing just that.  A Watery Grave is moving along and might be done today if I can decide a couple things through the building headache.  I am not sure if it is the focus, the kids in the background or the weather but darn it all i am going to finish this one up.  I need to move forward with other long awaited stories, really I do.

Endings is up on Amazon now, as is Sacrifice.  Endings being on another site will never be a free download but Sacrifice I have set up to be free Tuesday.  Here is hoping I get some movement and a review or two out of it.  Ice finished up a respectable 179 downloads.  Can't argue with that now can I?  Okay a few more sales would be nice but hey two actual paid for sales?  It is a start right?

Got the cover fixed on Sacrifice too.  I know the story is set in a dark place but I guess having it on my cover was not a good idea.  Figures.  When I finish up A Watery Grave I will have to do a pretty cover.  Now to do that I need those photos my daughter said she would take for me.  After all if you are going to have a real place in the story why not have a photo of the real place right?  Could be interesting.  If it gets any movement that is.  Hope Everlasting has not moved at all.  Now that surrpised me.  One More All Hallows had respectable downloads...yeah mostly free but I thought that would have led people to trying out the second story.  It isn't priced too bad either.  Well I will put it on free for a day when I put up A Watery Grave.

Okay time to go back to deciding just how Harry et all will defeat the Mari-morgens and keep Sandy Pond a safe place for fishermen and kids.

trying to work through the pain

Okay I'm not sick like a lot of people in pain.  I just have a bad sinus headache.  Any of you who have had them understand.  You try to concentrate and all you can do is wince.  I got some writing done, blogged a bit and answered questions on discussion groups.  Made some tarts for dinner tonight and started up the sweet potatoes for my killer SP rolls.

Now to come up with title ideas for the erotica stories.  Yes I will publish the 20 odd I don't think are too porn.  They need some editing to make them better and then I think if I group them into five books of 4 stories each they can be sold.  Coming up with titles.  My downfall.  Now I like Pleasant moments, Naughty Interludes, Nasty intimacies and what ever I can figure out. 

Heck I could do a book or a dozen of my poems.  Heart's desires, Soul's Torment, etc etc.  They might sell, they might not. Okay my mind is coming up with title ideas all of a sudden.  The title of one of my blog pages, Windows of my mind...but who knows.  Flowers of a city field?  Who knows.

Rain is here today

Yes we are actually getting rain and are mostly happy for it.  Okay yeah having my hubby have to walk home in it isnt good but we need the water obviously.  Heck was all know that the North American continent needs water.  The whole thing is mostly in drought.  So let it rain..I dont mind.

Blogging, writing, reading and cooking.  Trying to do so many things at the same time.  Need to settle a bit I think.  Had fun making those yummy muffins.  And I am just gonna have to work on putting my recipes together.  If I can get a good little book together who knows?  It might do better than the fiction.  Though really I want to be known for my fiction.  After all I have been working for so long on most of these tales.

The erotic fiction now that might be interesting.  I have 20 stories currently that would be worth putting in collections.  They aren't the wilder of my stories, almost sweet really if sex could be called sweet.  Trying to figure out what to do.  It is popular right now.  Do I want to jump on a bandwagon just because it is popular?  Can I actually put those tales into print?  Should I use a pen name?  Not sure.  I will have to mull it over.

And better yet what should I call them?  Coming up with titles for my series are hard enough but to come up with titles for erotica that don't sound tacky, harder.  Then there is what should I do for the covers?  I will figure it out soon enough but for now I just want to figure out how to get my other works noticed by readers.

The free downloads tend to top out around 130 copies.  Of those I have gotten a total of nine reviews.  And I seem to get about a sale or two.  Yeah that is all so far.  Now I have only been selling my stories since May so I can't say I am doing horrible.  In this world of instant gratification being n author is still slow.  Very slow.  People have to find you, then decide they want to buy/download your words, then read them, then they might comment.

I am happy with the comments I have gotten.  Even those that are not uber positive.  Nice that I have gotten some though.

Okay time to work.  Harry is being good at the moment and talking to me.  Seems this little tale needs to be concluded.  Here is hoping it will be by the end of the month like I planned.  After all I should probably move on and finish up Destiny's story, she has waited a while for her story to be told.  Yeah those are characters folks and yes they need their stories told.