Writing without Fear

Found this meme and thought it really related to writing. 

One of the things that holds a lot of people back is judgement.

Am I good enough?

Will they laugh at me?

Do I really know what I'm doing?

Other writers will think my book is stupid.

My friends will think my book stinks!

I'll be embarrassed...

At some point writers have to just get over it. Some never do. Some never care what other's think. 

Today a guy I've known since I was in grammar school wanted to know where he could buy my books. (Yay!) But I can't say I didn't have that little tingle of fear that said, "Will he like them? Will he get it?" It took a moment to just brush that off and send him the link. 

The first book I put up was Soul Mates. A story about a person reincarnated as a Chihuahua who goes through a rough time to find happiness. I foster a lot of abused dogs and always wondered what put that fear into their eyes before they came to my house, so I wrote about it. I put that book up without fear because I liked the story. I didn't think about who else would like it. I thought it was a story I had to tell for the dogs.  

The next book was harder. For a long time I had to remind myself to shrug off the fear and just do what I wanted to do. Write. Tell stories. 

Stephen King once said he wanted to be remembered as a good story teller. I hold on to that because he's right. I just want to share the stories and hope they give someone a little escape and maybe some happiness for just a short while. 

Someone once said, "Courage is just fear holding out for one more minute."

So, here's to courage! May we laugh at fear and kick it to the curb while we post our stories and share our art. Some may love it, some may not, but we're too busy to notice because we're working on the next story. 

See you in the pages....

Book Covers & Money

I haven't made much money on my books. I haven't marketed and only have 2 and a half up on Amazon and a couple of shorts up on Inkbok. My third book will be out in August (if all goes well) so I started looking at options for the cover. My last two I did myself (and covers for the shorts on Inkbok) and I think it shows.

Since I couldn't find a good angel man to represent one of the main characters or at least one that hadn't already been used on other books when I searched angel books on Amazon, I used this sunset I shot in Key West. Eh.
For Soul Mates I just put paws across a sky to represent the heaven reincarnation  aspect of the book. Not great but, hey! It was my first book so I didn't have $$$ to spend on anything.

Now I'm working on final edits for No Apologies and I found a cover artist. She sent me a sample of what she'd like to do for me and I'm tingling with excitement! The book is Romantic Suspense and I think she nailed the mood of the book. After seeing her work I know its worth the money. She took my critique of the first two ideas she had and her third one gave me what I wanted. She's working on the final and I'll post it as soon as I get it.

I never knew cover art could get me so excited!

Story Layout, Outlining, or Writer's Scribbling

I was in a writer's group the other day and someone asked me about how I outline my stories. I had to think about that as I'm not really an out-liner. Mostly I scribble a few notes on the first page and just take off.

Which made me wonder about other writers. In Stephen King's On Writing, he said he just takes two ideas and melds them together. Teen girl puberty + telekinesis, Haunted hotel + alcoholic with issues, Mother with broken car + Rabid dog, Nerdy teen boy + evil car.
I think he's got something there, the possibilities are endless!
Sparkley vampires + miserable teen girl, Boy wizard + strange school, Nerdy college girl + man with bondage issues.... all best sellers.

Mostly I go by the "what if's" and reach into my old Catholic issues. When I was a kid I was constantly questioning the rules of the Catholic church. This upset my Irish Catholic parents to no end. "Just believe," they'd say. "Have faith." I'd answer, "That makes no sense."
I mean if God is everywhere that means he's at my house, too, so why do I have to go to church on Sundays? At what point did Jesus say we needed to eat body and blood? It was something he did once in reference to a peek into his future. Isn't it kind of gross we mimic that? And why did he hang out with 12 guys? Okay, we won't go there. My experience in the Catholic church was not a good one. We had a bad priest who constantly screamed, yelled and embarrassed kids and adults alike. I never felt good there, just scared. Then he made my mother cry and there was no way I was going back.

So now I wonder about reincarnation. Isn't it kind of limiting that this is it? One life? One experience? Wouldn't' the grand scheme of things seem more complete if we could experience many types of lives? That got me to thinking if we do reincarnate we could come back as any gender and race. What if we can come back as animals? Then came Soul Mates. Which I would have given a different name if I had just searched that name on Amazon first.

The phrase, "A child shall lead them" got me thinking in what universe would any adult let a child lead? How old a child? A seven year old? Younger? Then came Threshold to Midnight which is not yet Amazon-ed. Coming soon.

Any of these stories began with a blurb. Just a bunch of sentences of what i wanted to write about, but no where near an outline.

So do you outline? Scribble? Or is there another way to layout a story?

Paperback Worth $30...??? What is this?

In checking my numbers on Amazon, I look at my book, Soul Mates and find a used paperback for sale for $30. Really? I list the paperback for $5.39 and there haven't been a lot of sales. So where did anyone get 3 used paperbacks to sell for the ridicules amount of $30. I smell a scam and wonder if I should report this to Amazon?

Anyone ever seen this before?  What's going on here?

Fonts! Spacing! So many details in an ebook

On Kindle my book, Soul Mates, was an easy read. Now attempting to send it to Create Space for a paperback copy.

I have a ...what do they call it? Sample copy? Anyway I hate the font! Its very light and that alone makes it hard to read. So I know I have to change this. Do I make it Arial rounded? Times New Roman? Courier? Do I bold it?

What about spacing? I think it might be better double spaced or am I only thinking that because of the font issue?

Decisions, decisions....

A friend spotted an error in the ebook, so I'm reading it backwards (brain-drain!) to try and catch the typo. I wish she had noted the page number, but she said "next time" so that will help for the next book. I do see I sometimes miss little words like "an" or "the" when I'm editing my own work. I think my brain knows it so it tells me it sees things that aren't there. Weird.   Do they teach copywriter classes?

Still watching Zimmerman trial....It's addictive!

Favorite fonts? Do you bold?

The devil is truly in the details...

Betrayed by an Angel on Amazon

My book, Betrayed by an Angel is now Available on Amazon!

When an angel appears to tell Shay Deville she can’t marry her fiancé because she will forever alter his destiny, she thinks she is going crazy. Shay learns she was supposed to die seven months ago, but Merrick, her own guardian angel, broke angelic law and saved her. Now she is a woman without a future – or a guardian.

In spite of the angel’s warning Shay refuses to give up her dreams. She hunts down Merrick, her renegade angel, and demands he help her.

Guardian Angel Merrick knows the Heavenly Handbook better than anyone, but when the time came to help Shay Deville cross over, he just couldn't do it. Now Merrick is stripped of his wings and banished to the earthly realm until he corrects his mistakes and completes the destiny of his charge. But how can Merrick arrange to take Shay’s life when he has fallen in love with her? How can he not?

Will Merrick give up his wings and forever be cast to Earth for the woman he loves?

Can a woman without a destiny ever find happiness, or true love?

COVER ISSUES: 
The cover is from a photo I took in Key West last year. I really wanted a winged (Angel) man on the cover but all the cover shots available that I saw on various websites either had goofy wings or, when searched for angels on Amazon, were already being used on other books.  Short of dressing up one one of the guys I know in a pair of wings...I wasn't going to get a cover I'd absolutely love. So I liked this one next. When I tried to photo shop wings onto something ...well, they never felt good enough. 

Soon this book, and Soul Mates, will also be available in paperback. 
I'm also working on torturing my characters in my next book; No Apologies. 

Amazon Ranking for Writers

I'm not understanding Amazon's ranking system. I check my rank (probably too much) but it fluctuates constantly. What's up with that?

Its never great..ever. But I watch it anyway. You know, average day...check Amazon rank, think about blogs, page views, check Amazon rank, check for new reviews, maybe open latest WIP, check Amazon rank before starting. Coffee break, check rank again.

The rank is constantly going up and down by thousands. What does this mean? Does it rise and fall by page views? It certainly can't be for sales. At least not with this book so far.

Can we improve it? Am I doing something to wreck it that I don't know about?

Okay, now someone tell me how to stop watching it. Its almost as addictive as facebook.

Writing the Book Back Blurb

Writing that little catch that lets people know what your book is about? Either on the back of the book or Amazon. Writing the blurb to lure people into buying your book takes real talent. It's one of the hardest things to do. Take the story you've spend months, hours, weeks, years working on, a story with many bends, twists and turns, and shove it into a few lines. Lines that have to be good enough to make the reader want to see more. Are you exciting enough? Daring enough? Do you need to tug heart strings? Use keywords so they can find you in that big old web?

I rewrite my blurbs over and over. I put the book, Soul Mates up on Amazon and sold a few, nothing amazing. So now my next book, Betrayed by an Angel will be going up soon and I started rethinking my other blurb. So I changed it from;

After dying on mean city streets a woman goes to heaven and begs God to reincarnate to bring the message of unconditional love back to earth. Follow the adventure when a deal with God goes terribly wrong she's tossed back to earth as one of the smallest dogs on the planet.

to;

     She was dying. Her life draining away on a hot city sidewalk and she gave it up willingly. Life had been hard and she was ready. With a jolt and a prayer she awakens in Heaven.

     Through her flows all the joy and wonder of existence and she comes face to face with God. Overwhelmed, she begs to reincarnate to share this wonderful message of God’s unconditional love with those on earth. Will God give her this chance?

     One thing before she goes, “Please,” she begs. “I want to be blond and petite and find my soul mate in this new life.”

     Poof! She wakes up on earth as one of the smallest dogs on the planet!

                                                  Does God have a sense of humor or what?

Is it any better? Some of my sources says it still needs work. I just don't know what. 

Now I'm writing the blurb to book 2 and still struggling. Like that 2 minute agent elevator pitch, that little eye catching book blurb mystifies me. I think its a special talent to think in words so brief. My mind tends to ramble. 

So? How's your blurb talent? 

Writers Designing Book Covers

Since I'm an unemployed writer and not seeing any great sales (yet), I'm doing my own book covers. I do them in photoshop and publisher, change to a pdf and done!

Eventually I'll hire a book cover designer and maybe my covers will get awesome but for now I make due with what I can do.

In searching photo sites i found a great picture for the cover of my next book, Betrayed by an Angel. The book is about a guardian angel who refuses to help a woman cross over when she dies. Instead he saves her life. Because he didn't follow the rules he's banished to earth as human. There's more to this book but when i found a pic of a man with angel wings, head bent down, looking sad I thought it would be a perfect for the cover. I went to purchase it and if i wanted it for a book cover it would have cost $1000.

Really? Holy crap! My first car didn't cost that much. (okay it was a crappy little Maverick-but I loved it)

So I winged it and made a different kind of cover. It's kinda close to the cover for my first book which I don't think is too good an idea but until I come up with a better concept, it is what it is.     First book: Soul Mates
Second book: Betrayed by an Angel      

Free Book, Soul Mates

Love dogs? And FREE ebooks?

My book, Soul Mates (A different kind of love story) is now available FREE on Amazon. 

When a deal with God goes terribly wrong a woman is reincarnated as one of the smallest dogs on the planet. Follow the adventure as she seeks her place in a world where she has little control.

Soul Mates (A different kind of love story) is free on Amazon for the weekend. Enjoy a story about a dog that who's spirit never gives up.

I wrote this book on the idea that maybe our Soul Mate isn't a lover or spouse but someone we connect with on a more spiritual level. When soul meets soul and people do the right thing, they can find the thing they've been searching for; unconditional love.

If you like it, leave a review on Amazon. I'd love to hear from you. To find out more about the writing of Soul Mates visit my website.
I hope you enjoy reading Soul Mates as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Happy Reading!