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Sunday, April 24, 2016

Facade Now Available!

Only on Kindle. Discounted through April 30th for $1.49. On May 1st, the price will go up to $2.99.

Grab yours now!

Amazon


Thursday, April 21, 2016

What's the Opposite of Grimdark?



I recently discovered a thread on the Kboards asking for recommendations of NobleBright, books that were basically the opposite of Grimdark.

Wonderful!

I am not a fan of Grimdark. It's too dark for me. That's just my personal taste in reading. It's obviously very popular with other folks because it's everywhere.  I thought I was bucking the trends by writing my lighter, happy-ending, good guys win stories. Turns out, there's a lot of us!

At some point, I will make a list of all the authors and recommendations on that thread so I can add their books to my To Be Read list. I wasn't surprised to find a few authors that I have already discovered chiming in. But it reminded me that I've forgotten about a couple of series that I'd like to get back to.

Lovely! More books that appeal to me.

In other news...
Today I was interviewed by a friend for her blog. She will be putting it up on Tuesday. I'll post a link to that because she asked me a lot of questions about A Changed World books.

Still waiting to hear from Kindle Scout.

The interview reminded me of some back story that I had intended to put in the new book and promptly forgot. So I need to go back and figure out where it might fit. Luckily I'm only about 1/3 of the way into the first draft.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Last Days on Kindle Scout and Other Things

Facade is in its last days on Kindle Scout. The campaign ends on April 17th.

In comparison to what others have achieved with their marketing, I haven't done very well. So if they are going to judge me on that ability I will get a very low score. I have all my eggs in the story basket. I am hoping that writing a good story will win their approval. Since no one knows exactly what they are basing selections on, I might still have a chance of being chosen for publication.

If you haven't voted for Facade yet, please hop over to Kindle Scout and take a look. I would appreciate a nomination!

On the bright side, I think that being in Scout has boosted visibility of my books. Lethal Seasons and Scattered Seeds have continued to sell a book or two every other day. More eyes on my books is always a good thing.

In other news...

I am 18,000 words into the rough draft of Speculations, book 3 of A Changed World. Life is getting more complicated for the folks at High Meadow. I had to spend some time on research yesterday. Thank goodness the internet makes it easy to find odd facts like the harvest dates for spring wheat. I am also glad that I kept such good notes on the previous 2 books. It would be very time consuming to have to scan through the books to find out that Harlan's horse, Jelly, was a Paint.

Allergies gave me brain-fog for about a week and I got very little writing done last month. Whatever makes me all sneezy and itchy must have stopped blooming because I am in better shape now. The story is at a flow-point and I have been able to hit my goal word count all week. If I can keep this up, I may have the book ready a little earlier than planned.

Spring has me out in the garden most days. The weather has been a roller coaster of too hot and too cold. I am working on building up my garden stamina. Over the course of the winter I lose my weeding and digging muscles from too much time sitting at the computer. A couple of days of very sore muscles are in my future.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Another Rung on the Ladder

When I first started writing, I was on a lot of forums for newbies. I read tons of blogs on writing and publishing. I signed up for newsletters and joined peer review sites. They were all immensely helpful.

Then I learned some things and moved up a rung on the ladder. Some of those places weren't as helpful as before. I needed to find new places to give me tips and tricks and tell me what I didn't know yet.

It's a cycle of learning and growing. I've inched up one more wrung and the air is getting a little thin. I don't need pats on the back as much as a clear view. I've gone from ardent scribbler to business woman and my needs for input have changed once again. Now I'm searching for the blogs and forums that will teach me new things at this level. They're out there, I just need to spend some time to research the right ones for me.

And about the books...

Facade is in its final days over at Kindle Scout. Please visit the site and vote for my book!

Speculations - I'm still working on the first draft.