A Time For Everything

"Darn," you're thinking, right? Y'all finally got a break from my hockey obsession and here we are again.

I just want to express my disappointment in the San Jose Sharks--who I'm sure are way more disappointed in themselves than I truly am--but I digress.

The Sharks were supposed to win the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and send the St. Louis Blues home laden with disappointment. The Blues, you remember, won over my Dallas Stars in the second round of said playoffs and sent my boys home laden with that disappointment.

Instead, the Blues are moving on to the Stanley Cup Finals, playing the Boston Bruins. I hate the Bruins and I hate the Blues this year, so I don't know who'd I'd prefer to win. Not that it matters since it's not the Stars, the Golden Knights, or the Penguins.

 Now back to whatever I was originally going to ramble on about... Um... No, seriously, blog topics are a crap shoot. Did I think of something and forget because I didn't make a note somewhere? Did something happen in the world that I have an opinion on? Is there anything exciting going on in my life that rates coverage? No, no, and no.

Let me roll the metaphorical dice and see what occurs to me...

Okay, so...

I used to think life was busy with kids and that once they'd all grown up and moved away, life would be less busy, but that's not the case. It's not a bad thing, but anyone who has reached a certain age (it's different for everyone, I think) knows that time starts to pass faster. I do think you have to be at least 50 years old, though, yeah?

One of our speakers at writers group this past weekend talked about business plans. Now, several years ago, I put one together. It wasn't nearly as detailed as this person's but it served its purpose at the time.

Something she said struck a chord and is something I'd heard or considered before, but didn't really put into practice. Fast forward to two and a half months ago when an opportunity to participate in an anthology was passed along to me. I wanted to do it, but with all the hockey going on, could I pull it off?

I had to consider the deadlines, the scope of the project, if I could even come up with characters and a plot line, and how many days I'd be out of commission to write in the early morning because of a late night of hockey. I spent a weekend on characters and plot before I joined. If I didn't have that, there was no point. Then I figured up how many days were available to me and how many of them would be writing days. After that, I calculated how many words a day I had to write.

One of the woman's points when drawing up the business plan was how many books a year do you plan to write and or publish. You've obviously got to factor in your real life (day job, children, travel, etc) as well as how fast a writer are you.

It was a concept I'd considered previously but didn't do much with it, but I probably won't have the two books I wanted to publish out in the world this year. I will have the anthology I just mentioned and possibly another little volume of very short "coffee reads"--they're short enough to read while consuming a single cup of coffee--but not the two longer books I have despite both of them being half written.

The fact that they're both half-written and I can't seem to get them done maybe speaks to other issues. I'm trying to sort those...

Anyway. I need to try the approach of deciding on how many books to publish, how long they're going to be, plot and plan them, set deadlines maybe, sort daily word counts, and then--as Nike says--JUST DO IT.

Yeah, some of that ain't so easy. The plotting gets me every time.

Anyway, back to work. Have a great rest of your week.

This week's purge includes a spool holder and vases.


Who doesn't have a collection of vases in the closet?? There were three others I'd already hauled to the garage before remembering to get the photographic evidence. I will keep one just so's we have one. DD did bring home a bouquet from a student just the other day. But we don't have enough of those in our lives to warrant storing six vases. Bye bye!

On a quick side note...book two was approved overnight for physical copies--woo hoo!!! I have a ordered a singer author copy of each to make sure they look okay still. If they do, I will order a batch of each for my conference. Keep your fingers crossed please.

Have a great week. Mine is looking up, now that the first hurdle of the book issue has been jumped.

Get some free romance novels...


I'm participating in the promo...they are not all male/male romances, so take a look if you're so inclined.

And now for an update...I heard back from KDP and I spent almost an hour on the phone with a lovely, patient gentleman named Christopher who helped me (hopefully) get the book accepted for print so that I can order copies for my conference.

The bleed issue--that my cover graphics (back and front cover images) weren't long enough for when the book gets trimmed was insane. The cover template I was sent--by KDP--was 2475 pixels high. After two print proofs with issues, I made those graphics 2510 pixels high (35 additional pixels) and there was still an issue on the back end. They could see it, but it never shows up on the screens and views that I have access to. That's a problem.

But, as I said, Christopher walked me through an alternative method and reviewed it on his end and said there is now 99.9% that it will be accepted this time. *cross your fingers please*

The other issue was with pagination. The main book is numbered and the excerpt of the second book is numbered although not continuously--why would it be?? According to the notes in my files, this could be an issue and cause a print delay.

WHUT???

My print proofs arrived within days of ordering with nary an issue as far as the page numbering was concerned. *sigh*

BUT-- I just need print books right now, so I deleted the page numbers of the excerpt and re-uploaded the manuscript.

Please, please, please...let that work. I will have an email within twenty-four hours.

Now to get book two sorted... Wish me luck and have a great weekend.

As you know, I'm going to a conference in October. You also know I've been trying to get physical copies of my books to have available...

It took three tries to get everything sorted for book one...the third print proof copy looked great. I was happy with it. So I clicked the "go live" button within my Kindle Direct Publishing account and upon review by Amazon I have two issues to resolve...

But, but, but... my print proof looked great. There were no issues with the cover or the numbering within the book, so how is there now a problem??

I sent a query to Kindle/Amazon and they are going to research and get back to me by end-of-day Friday.

Time is of the essence now for getting the physical copies ordered.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Have a great rest of your week.

So I read a book called "5 Secrets of Story Structure" as it was free and, honestly, I don't even know why.

And then I fell down the rabbit hole of copying the list of ten items. And then I watched a movie to see if I could pinpoint them as an educational exercise. And then I decided to figure out the structure points of the book I'm working on.

The book I'm trying to get done and to an editor by September 15th. The book I want to have published by the time I leave for my conference mid-October.

It took me an hour and half or so to get my little worksheet filled out.

Then it took me two hours--two hours--to hash out the first four (of ten) with a writer friend until we both felt everything made more sense. Oh. My. Goodness.

The good news is...the book will be all the better for doing it.

The bad news is...chances are I can't get the book done by September 15th.

So plan b is to print the cover, put it in a clear plastic frame/stand thingy and have it available for pre-order.

And then work like a lazy fiend to get it done in time to publish no later than Thanksgiving.

I've been working on formatting my books for print... Meaning applying styles and headers and page numbers and breaking my Word doc up into sections, etc., etc., etc...

I've been working on this task (not daily, but often) for over a month now. I started off with one issue and I finally got that figured out, but then I have a new issue. And it's frustrating and I really just want to get the thing done and the books printed.

*sigh*

Back to the drawing board today.

I may start from scratch. Ugh.

I don't want to have to pay someone, but at some point I'm going to run out of time to keep messing with it.

But that point is not now, so...

Hope you're having a great week.

It definitely needs some tweaking, both the cover and the innards, but I was more excited about seeing it, warts and all, than I expected to be. The print proof of book two should land in my mailbox in the next few days.

As I've mentioned, I hadn't planned on offering print books before each book's 1st birthday, but because I went for supporting author status at the conference I'm going to in October, I have to have physical copies for at least a couple of books. I decided to start with two. If I can get them tweaked easily enough, then I might attempt getting book 3 and maybe 4 done as well. But we'll see. I also have to keep costs in mind...

Anyway--YAY--so cool!!

Hard to believe that half the year is over... The last month has been busy, the last week has been busy.

Sooo...fireworks season wasn't a great as we'd hoped. We bought more fireworks than we probably should have and spent way more on advertising than we probably should have for a season with a burn ban in effect. The fireworks will keep for next season and the next, so that's not a major issue, but chances are that we'll stop with the advertising. We have no definitive way to know if we're getting the customers or if they're just being reminded to go buy some and hitting the closest-to-them stand.

But in better news, a book series I read ages and ages ago, and I mean ages ago, is finally in e-book format. I bought it and am looking forward to reading it again. It's also available in audio format and I might get that too...

I finally got around to formatting books one and two for print and got covers done and submitted to Kindle Direct Publishing. My print proofs, one for each title, are on the way for my review. I'm another step closer to being ready for my conference in October.

Speaking of October, despite SO MUCH HOCKEY in May and June, I miss it a little. The new season doesn't start until October, so I'm having to ease my withdrawal symptoms by watching World Cup soccer and baseball.

On the writing front, I'm no closer to finishing book seven than I was a month ago, but characters for my new series have been bubbling around in my noggin for a couple of weeks. Five of my six core characters have names and occupations; a handful of supporting characters also have names and jobs. A few characters have some backstory.

I haven't gotten to plot lines in more than vague idea terms, though. I really want to know these characters well and have their romance plot come from who they are and where they've come from. I also want their lives to be really intertwined so that readers will wonder whose book is next and be more invested in their story.

The last series didn't work that way and it was anybody's guess--even mine--as to who would show up in the next books. There was some crossover with a few characters, but no one a reader might look forward to seeing. I wanted to come at a series a different way this time around.

And now that the 4th of July has come and gone, it's time for life to return to some semblance of normalcy. It also means that Jen has gone back to the gym...starting this morning. Getting out of bed at the sphincter of dawn was tough, working out was tough. But it felt good too. My body had started to let me know that all that lying around was not kosher. My butt's going to be dragging for probably a good week, but maybe break I took will have set my body up for burning the fat.

Despite not going to the gym, I did do stuff here at home, mostly, and I counted calories and I didn't gain any weight back. But my tummy is still there and has maybe grown a little. So, yeah...

Hope you had a lovely holiday week!!

It wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped--I'd planned to go to the Stars game with my daughter and her BFF, but I couldn't  find three or even two seats together on my last-minute-ticket app. I underestimated the popularity of Retro Night. We went to a local sports bar instead and enjoyed good food and hockey on the big screen. The STARS won and a good time was had by all.


 In other news, I finally came up the new title for book 6. The original title promised things that didn't happen in the book, so after some various searches through Amazon with keywords specific to my book, I found a title that didn't appear a dozen times in Amazon and that fit the story-line of the book much better. I was also able to finalize the blurb.

So TWO things off the list.

I've contacted my cover artist to see how soon she could change the title for me...but I haven't heard back from her yet... But it's the weekend. So maybe she's traveling or celebrating something. Fingers crossed I hear from her soon. I need to get this book out. And having the cover allows a whole host of other things to get done. I wish I was better at graphics.

Now that I have a new title and the blurb, I've been able to move forward much on several other items on the TO DO list. Whew.

I also added a few more hockey patterns to my Etsy shop. My traffic is going up--no place else for it to though. No sales as of yet, but *fingers crossed*.

Anyway, I hope you a relaxing and/or productive weekend.

The process of publishing six (and more) books gets exponentially more task-riddled as the days go by. I now have a  FIVE-PAGE TO-DO list, because for most of what I have to do, I have to do for six books.

When I became an independently published author back in November of 2017, I did so by publishing directly with major retailers where I could and using two aggregators (virtual distributors for all intents and purposes) for the the ones I couldn't, as well as for the dozen or so smaller retailers.

I had one file for everybody--meaning that purchasing the next book was a two- or three-click process rather than a one-click endeavor. At the time, I just needed to get the books out into the world, and I did that. The rest had to wait for the new year.

Well, it's the new year and it's time to do the nitty gritty grunt work of creating unique files for each book for each retailer so that if you bought your book for the Kindle, the link at the end of the excerpt of the next book is going to take you directly to that book's purchase page in Amazon. Same for iBooks, Kobo, Nook... Well, you get the picture. Six books, six retailers, plus a generic link for miscellaneous use... You can see that it's quite a project.

Back in November, I used an aggregator to get my books into Barnes & Noble because the aggregator offers pre-sales and Barnes & Noble doesn't when publishing directly through them. Fast forward to January, and I want to publish the live books directly so that as much of the royalties go into my pocket as possible. Well, shoot-- I didn't even think that doing so was going to render the original purchase pages/links (through the aggregator) unavailable because Barnes & Noble was going to generate a its own new purchase pages/links. Add a new task to the list: updating all Barnes & Noble links.

I'll have to update links again when I'm able to upload to the Apple Store directly... *sigh*

Of course, once I get all of this figured out and done, it'll be one book at a time and much less daunting.

As I mentioned a post or two ago, I may be called upon to talk about aggregators vs. distributors to my writing group... I think I'll call it "To Aggregate or Not To Aggregate, That Is The Question..." Anyway, I think the specific issue of transitioning books and the hassle it causes needs to be a talking point for sure.

Maybe there's an easier way, maybe I'm making things way more complicated than they should be, but...

I didn't pay much attention to this stuff when it may or may not have been discussed in front of me. It's not fair now for me to constantly beleaguer my friends for information. So I'm plodding through the best I know how, learning as I go. But maybe that's better. I'll certainly remember how to get things done!

On a more exciting note, I get to attend my writers group meeting for the first time in four months. I'm so excited to see my chapter mates and especially my writer besties. I published all my books during that absence, so I get to return as a published author. I get these really cool jumbo pencils, one to celebrate each book. I get charms for writing min 25 pages each month, as well as a charm for completing a book. I can't wait. It's going to be so fun.

Hope your weekend will be as fun as mine--!!

See you Monday.

It's been almost two months since I pressed the "publish" button for the first time. It's been a bit chaotic since then because of the Thanksgiving holiday and my cruise and then Christmas and New Years so I pretty much just pushed the button and focused on other things.

Now that the holidays are over and the new year begun, it's time to take a look at everything, get a read on where I am, and decide what I'm doing, where I'm going, and how I plan to get there.

There is still a lot of noise in the romance writing realm about doing this or doing that and following certain rules and making sure that all the Ts are crossed and all the Is are dotted--whatever the Ts and Is might be. But then I hear a few voices going against the grain saying the things that really resonate with me.


I have to keep listening for those voices.

There's so much that can be done, and maybe should be done, but that doesn't mean I have to try to do them all at once. And that's the pressure. I keep having to stop and remind myself that I have a plan. Does it need to be tweaked? Yes. Does it need to be expanded? Yes. But being a published author is not brain surgery. No one is going to die if I wait a year to expand to print or setup audio or translate for foreign markets.

Maybe I don't make as much money up front, but I also don't want to miss out on life because I'm chained to a keyboard trying to learn stuff and then implementing what I've learned.

As just one little ol' me, I only have so much time and brain capacity. So I learn what I need to learn for this part of the journey and take a deep breath when the pressure starts squeezing at me.

Despite all of that, there's one key piece to the puzzle: keep writing. Without new books, the rest doesn't matter much.

Hope your year is starting off right!!

So

It's been a long journey--not that it's over yet--and there were many times when I wasn't even sure I wanted to take it, but ultimately I did decide to pursue publication.

And here I am...well over a dozen years after taking up writing with book babies out in the world!


Book one in the Ten Rigs Texas series, For the Love of Scott, is out free at a handful of online retailers. Well, except Amazon, because they don't allow free and it takes time to get them to change the price to match other retailers. And also propagation takes time... Books two through four are available for pre-order.

This is book one, For the Love of Scott:

You can find it at...

Amazon

iTunes

Kobo

It's not at B&N/Nook just yet because of technical issues, but it will be soon.


Books two through four, coming soon!

Book Two	Book Three	Book Four

So, yeah--the journey's finally begun. Wheee!

Have a great week. :0)

Book six arrived back from the proofreaders this past Tuesday...it was with some trepidation that I checked email everyday looking for it. After all the struggles I had, I really doubted that I'd sent her something at least on par with the first five.

As luck would have it, Ms. Proofreader had lovely things to say about the book as well as my writing--things I find hard to believe. Not because I'm trying to be humble or modest at all, but because I have doubts every time I sit down to write a book, because pulling a plot together and weaving any and all threads is a challenge each and every time, because plotting in the first place is not intuitive to me.

I don't have beta readers or critique partners that I run chapter by for feedback. Yes, I have my group of peeps who I ask for brainstorming help or their opinions or for help when I'm stuck, but they don't read my work. My proofreader is also my first reader. Which means not only does she find all my errors--of which there were many this time around--but her initial impression of the book is, I don't know, "pure," maybe? I mean...she doesn't know me. She's not obligated to encourage me.  I pay her to be honest with me about my words, to tell me if there's a flaw in my plot.

So, no, she doesn't have to love my characters or their particular tale, nor does she have to enjoy the genre I'm writing in order to praise my ability to actually tell a story. The fact that she has means a lot.

Anyway...all that to say that pulling the trigger on publishing my books hinged on book six being done. Well it's done and back in my hot little hands. So I guess it's time to get my little ducklings in a row and get them ready to go out into the world.

Look out world, here they come...

Well, in November!

Have a great weekend! I'll be busy checking and double-checking books 1 through 3 in preparation for creating the ebook files. But it's a task I'm suddenly looking forward to a heck of a lot more.

Wait. What?

Getting published is not a race. There's plenty of room out there for books. There are plenty of readers out there who will enjoy my books. I'm not competing against anyone here.

My journey is not a race. I get to decide "where" I want to go, what I "see" on the way, and what "route" I take to get there.


Over the last ten years or so--since I've been a member of Romance Writers of America--I've heard and read and listened to most of what the organization and its members have shared about writing and publishing in the romance genre. Granted, most of it has probably been more osmosis than anything, but if you hear something enough times, it sticks even if you're not an active listener.

As the years have passed and I sort of drifted (okay, not drifted--I served my chapter every year but one) along in my local chapter, learning and watching as my fellow chapter mates followed their own paths and published one by one, some to big six publishers, some becoming indie authors...

There are few people in my chapter not published, and those that aren't have been part of the group for a much shorter period of time. At this point, I think there are only two people who've been a member longer than I. My journey, my timetable. But I digress.

...I gleaned from fellow authors' trials and tribulations, as well as their successes, what kind of journey I wanted to take. I've kept my expectations realistic.

I get to decide when and how this journey begins and mostly the path I take, but once I start the car and pull out of the driveway, what then? Then outside forces get a say in my journey. Weather, traffic, road construction...

In publishing, I've learned that momentum is everything. This is where the journey becomes a race. (to a degree.) A race against time and outside forces. I have a schedule now for getting the books published in terms of length of time between releases, but I have to make sure all the books in the series are written or can be written/edited/finalized by the time it's any given book's turn to be published.

And then I have to be ready with the second series at whatever interval I decide is appropriate and do-able. Sustainability is the key.

But the thing is...I haven't held down a full time job in a decade aside from wife and mother. I know that the writing muscle becomes leaner and stronger and more powerful as it's used, just like the muscles of our bodies. Writing is going to have to become at least a part time job at some point. More structured, more focused, more deliberate. Writing can no longer be done just when I feel like it and am in the mood.

One of the reasons I haven't started my publishing journey is because I got stuck, somewhere, somehow, on book six--think of me on a large roundabout, to continue the driving metaphor, going around in circles and not knowing where I am or what the correct exit is. I'm working on the book again now, trying to string ideas for scenes together that tell the story I had envisioned, but I lost a month and it was important to me that book six be as complete as possible before I started publishing.

I'd prefer if book seven was at least started as well, and I think it will be, because I've got characters and plot pretty well hashed out. Book eight has characters with backstory and the basis of a plot. Book nine (last one) is a shimmery notion, but that's okay. My brain can only process so much data. Or the gas tank can only hold a max amount of gas at one time and must be refilled periodically. (Am I maintaining my travel/journey metaphor still? Or have I run off the road???)

Once I finish this series, how much time do I need for the next one...? I have the series premise. I know how many characters/books there will be. I know the basics of a couple of plot lines.

So it's become a race to do this in a timely fashion to get the best start and the proper momentum to keep the income stream primed and flowing for months and years to come.

 I guess I need to keep training.

Have a great rest of the week.

That's the big question...

I've been told that October/November/December is a good time to publish, but I'm no closer to a final decision at this point. I want to publish. I do. That lure of an income stream no matter how small is pretty strong, but I also know that if I can't stick with the schedule, I'll lose momentum, and it'd just be better if I can avoid that.

My options at this point are next June to coincide with and/or start off my 50th birthday/50th year with a bang, January of 2018, or Oct/Nov/Dec of this year if I can get my act together on the last three books.

The problem is Book Six is still a big muddled mess in my brain. But I am getting help with that, so fingers crossed. Also, I plotted out one of the remaining books--which may get bumped up to "six" status, depending on how it goes--so that's encouraging. I worked on one of the other books as well, but didn't make quite as much progress. Which is fine. I just gotta keep plugging away.

The other thing that was niggling at me was lack of ideas that really excite me for the next series. I have a few written down, but I've felt kind of meh about them. And then one came to me and I was instantly stoked about it and several ideas sparked right away. So that's the one. :0) The plan is another nine books. And, unlike my current series, it's gonna have some advance planning--way advance, since it won't start until the first series is complete. It'll take approximately seven months to publish a nine-book series on the schedule I've outlined, so yeah...

That gets me into 2019. I guess I don't have to worry about the next series for awhile.

Any words of advice?

A couple of weeks ago, I shared that I was rethinking the timing of publishing my books. It's been on my mind since then, and I'd pretty much come to the conclusion that it would be August or September before I sent my books out into the world.

But this weekend I spent some time talking to an author friend of mine. An author friend whom I consider very successful in terms of the income she's making, which is three times my monthly goal...!! I asked a few questions and got her talking and she was off to the races. She told me the secrets to her success, and while our genres are different, I think everything she said applies to mine.

She also got me to thinking about the timing and intervals of publishing each book...and I'm wondering if I shouldn't have all nine books written, if not completely ready for publication. (I've pretty much decided my first series is going to be nine books.) If I decide to do that, then I probably can't begin the publication process in September. She suggested October or November...but I still don't think I'd be able to get all my ducks in a row by then...


So now the notion of waiting until next June is now under serious consideration. That's a year to get those other four books plotted and written. I still don't really want to wait that long, but that wait might mean the difference of thousands of dollars. And I've waited this long, right?

So, in between writing and revising, the day job, my side job, and just generally living life, I've got to determine what the best path for me is.

My publishing journey is just that...mine. I've been of a mindset to publish the first three or four books in June as a sort of birthday present to myself. Disappointingly, I don't think that's going to happen.

Two things are at play and both are a subset of my friend and yours: TIME.

First--

If I want to publish my books on or around my birthday, I have five weeks from last Friday to ensure books one, two, and three are ready to go. That includes all final revisions based on comments from my editor, as well as having all file formats ready to upload, and having my website capable of processing payments. Those are just off the top of my head. There are probably a few more things I could come up with.

Twenty-eight days after that, all that same stuff for book four needs to be in place and same for book five twenty-eight days after that.

I'm struggling to get book six written (that plot issue I mentioned last Wednesday) so that it can go to the editor at the end of June.

The best recipe for success with indie publishing is to be able to publish something new every twenty-eight days for five or six months. I don't have enough "stock" yet. I'm in a better position than a lot of debut authors, especially ones that aren't part of any sort of writers group and don't get the benefit of learning from others paving the way. I could go forth with what I have and everything would work out fine. I know this. I'd still need to postpone at least a month though.

But I just don't feel like I'd be starting out on as firm a foot as I would like.

Second--

If I worked eight hour days just at this writing/publishing gig, I could probably get everything done and ready. But I can't work eight hour days just at this writing/publishing gig. I have a day job and a life. There might be a trip to Seattle in my near future before Sonshine's ship deploys for real. Fireworks season is also around the corner. Two of them actually--the State of Texas has added several and one of them falls over Memorial Day.

Plus if I want to work on my plotting skills, I need to read books or take workshops, and that requires time too.

I've also mentioned how I don't want to be a slave to the writing either. I know other writers who, it seems, are always chained to a deadline and a keyboard. They're grumpy and tired and have little fun.

Since it is my journey, I get to decide when to pull the trigger. I thought of waiting a whole 'nother year and doing it to celebrate my FIFTIETH birthday. I don't necessarily want to wait that long, but it's not off the table.

Seems like I have some serious thinking to do and some important decisions to make.

I'll keep you posted.

Hope you had a great weekend.

I've been doing this "event" thing with my writers group where we read a blog post by this particular author/publisher and discuss his topic.

I've mentioned it before, but I'll say it again, this guy's opinions really resonate with me. They don't resonate quite as deeply or as across the board with everyone else, though. Which is, of course, perfectly fine. But it's certainly been interesting.

I was reminded the other day that this journey, my journey, is not a race. Yes, there are deadlines I need to meet and a there's an understanding in indie publishing romance that the faster you churn out books, the more financially successful you can be. Of course I want to be successful. Financially and otherwise.

But I also know that I don't want to be a slave to my writing. I'm almost fifty years old and I'm in a better place than I've been on many levels for most of my life--I want to live and enjoy life too. And if I'm not out living life and learning things and meeting people, then I fear my writing won't be as enriched as it could be.

I'm not even in competition with other writers. My chosen sub-genre is a small one. There's room for new authors. I hope my style, my twist resonates with people. I think (I hope) it will.

Not only is it not a race, but it's no one's journey but mine. I get to choose what I write, when I publish, if I advertise or spend time on social media. All the loud voices say you should advertise and promote and connect with fans on Facebook (or wherever) but that's not me and I'd much rather spend time writing or watching hockey or talking to my DD.

That's not to say I won't put my Facebook out there and interact with people if they find me, but I'm not going to actively recruit. I've never been convinced that all that stuff equals enough sales to justify the amount of time people seem to spend on it.

Every little while I start feeling ansty, like I'm falling behind, but until that first (second & third) book goes live, I can take as much time as I need to get there. After that, there's a bit more pressure to stay on track and be more timely rather than less, but it's still ultimately my decision.

I'm still hoping to hit "publish" on or before my birthday in June, but I've had some small hurdles and I'm just not sure if everything's going to come together. And maybe every single thing doesn't need to be in place. I don't know. Food for thought.

Have a great weekend!!!

Yep, I went AWOL last week. I think I was just wiped out and my brain couldn't come up with anything exciting to talk about. I'm still at a loss, really, but figured I ought to check in.

So what's going on with Jen?

Well, Saturday was my writing group's annual conference, which was a lot of fun. I saw my favorite peeps which is always a joy and I learned about character archetypes.

In pondering the heroes of my first six books, I discovered I have four of one type with two others that also have those underlying tendencies. All the others are unique. I might have to branch out a little and challenge myself to try a new archetype.

I also made some progress finally on book five revisions. I've still got a ways to go, but I'm feeling better about the whole thing. Mostly, anyway. :0)

I've got a lot of publishing stuff to get a handle on this month too as time ticks down to publication day. I'm looking at a slight change to my plan after a conversation with a successful friend of mine--that being only publishing the first three books to start, with the fourth one coming 28 days after, and book five coming 28 days after that and book six 28 after that.

And now that I'm thinking about that schedule, books six will now be scheduled two and half weeks sooner than anticipated... Hmmm... Gonna have to think about some more. I'm not opposed, but the question becomes: can I get the book done and edited in time along with all the other stuff on my plate?

I really wanted to publish in June for my birthday, but maybe I should consider postponing for a month... I don't know.

So a good weekend over all for me. How about you?

Not necessarily the things that need to happen--LIKE BOOK FIVE REVISIONS--but other exciting things like...

I am learning how to create my own ebook files: PDFs, epub, and mobi files. Well, really, I know how to create them...it's more learning how to tweak all the settings and coming up with consistent formatting from book to book, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel every time I want to publish a book.

Now, PDFs are easy, so...pfft!

The other two formats I create using Scrivener, one of the writing applications I use. They're a little more time consuming what with all the tweaking, but only a couple of hours at most. As I get more proficient and get formatting templates and setting templates worked out, then it'll be a matter of minutes.

The other fun thing that happened was that I have beta readers--basically first readers who tell you if your book/plot/characters work. One of my dear friends has a vast vast online network of people and she sent out a bat signal on my behalf. Three people volunteered to read book one for me and so I sent it out to those three generous ladies yesterday afternoon.

It's a bit nerve-wracking, I must say. Despite the fact that I've written fan fiction for years and it's out there in the world, and I've rarely had negative feedback on it. Two other friends of mine have read book one and were very complimentary, as has my editor been on all the books she's read so far.

I'm creeping closer and closer to the big day. Things are falling into place slowly but surely. For the most part...

I have a self imposed deadline of the 25th to finish book five revisions. I don't think that's going to happen. I chose that day in order to give myself time to put the book away for a rest before I planned to re-read it for any last minute adjustments before sending it off to my editor. I do have the leeway to push the deadline out, so for now I'm giving myself another week. April 1st, my friends.

I really need to just set my behind in a chair and get after it...and I will.

Hope you had a lovely weekend. I sure did.

Talk to you soon!