What's Going On

I forget sometimes, that this blog is an author blog. And I'm supposed to be talking about what I do as a writer, than what's going on either on the writing blogs or for the "business" end of things. If I have a fan base, I'd like to let them read what I'm working on next, rather than the same old they can find other places.

I had an idea the other day, a good one I thought, for a companion piece to go along with REMEMBERING YOU. It was from Tony's Point of View (POV) considering he never had a say in the novel. However, in doing some research on my Piedmont Writer blog, I uncovered some character sketches for REMEMBERING YOU that could also be worked into something. Something that might be called a "player's list". I don't know what else you could call it. Certainly not a short story. There's no story. It's more of an autobiographical take from the other characters POV on what happens when Genna comes home.

I'm still thinking about what to do with it.

I've been steadily churning out pages for my historical novella. But that's for another post on another blog.

I've also been thinking of "Kate". See a writer has to think (well, this writer anyway) about what and who she wants to write about before she actually does any writing. I've had Kate in my hard drive for about two years now. She's a good character, but with building my Regency line, I've let other work fall by the wayside. I think I'm ready to tackle this project.

Kate is a woman who's been taking care of her ill mother for the last 10 years or so and when her mother finally dies, Kate is left wondering what is to become of her. You'd think that would be easy for her. She's finally free of her dreary day-to-day existance. But you know what, it's not so easy. Her family (brothers and sisters) are making demands on her that Kate really doesn't know how to deal with. As the baby of the family, she feels they have the right to tell her what to do and she should listen. But then, what about Kate's right? She's a free-thinking human being. An adult, who's never been able to have a life until now. So what does she do?

Well, first of all, she goes to Martha's Vineyard. and that's as far as the story has gotten. I know she meets a man while she's there. I also know, he's not her family's choice of man for her.

Choices, I think is going to be the theme of this book. The same as with Genna in REMEMBERING YOU. But with Genna her choice revolved around her family. With Kate, I think the choice will revolve around her.

I'm not sure when this book will be published. I'm not sure when it will even be finished. But it's there, on my hard drive, waiting for me.

So that's what's going on.

Marketing & Promotion

Well, for those of you who follow me here, and I do appreciate you, this blog is mostly about my writing. Yes, unfortunately this blog is all about me. If you want to see things about you, you have to go to Piedmont Writer.

In the course of the last month, I've been moving. Because of where we lived, where I live now, and that my parents own both the houses, I've been lucky enough to move at my leisure. Well, the first few weeks were furious that I had a man around to help me move the big furniture. Now that he's gone, I've been struggling to get the old house into some semblance of clean so we can market it and sell it.

My mother feels that we should just leave it the way it is. Broken toilet downstairs (that has been broken since we moved in) overgrown yard, mismatched cabinets in the kitchen. Sell it for what we can get.

I, on the other hand, want to fix all the gaffs, repaint, fix the toilet downstairs and gut the bathroom upstairs to bring it to the 21st century. I want to make the house shiny new so we can sell it for a little bit more than what we paid for it. Sounds sensible to me. And if not get a little more, then sell it for what they originally bought it for so they don't lose money.

 My mother also feels she wants to sell the house For Sale By Owner. I do not. I gave her the arguments that although she'll save money by not hiring a real estate agent, she'll also have to be at the beck and call of people who want to look at the house. Not to mention, find ways to market it, etc. and all the other things real estate agents do. Pictures, MLS listings, showings, print-outs. (And that will fall to me, which I do not want to do.)

There's been a slew of discussion going on for the last few weeks, and now that she's gone on vacation, I have settled down into the routine of cleaning and moving the last of the stuff out. Next week, I'm hoping to begin painting.

And all of this brings me to the idea of what we need to do to market our books. I just released REMEMBERING YOU for the third time. New cover, new name, new edits, new chapter titles. Shiny shiny shiny.

I'm not what is known as an aggressive marketer. I prefer to do things quietly. For my Regency romances I think I only mentioned it on my blogs once, and then Tweeted once and let it go. I may have done one or two interviews, one or two guest posts.

With REMEMBERING YOU, I had nothing set up, (because quite honestly I didn't know I was going to release it, was a spur of the moment decision). I decided to offer it for free on Amazon, put a barrage of hourly Tweets up, and did a post on Monday on the Piedmont Writer blog. I guess you could say that was somewhat quiet.

I did get to the #1 rankings on the Kindle Free list, so that was nice. I didn't give away as many books as I thought I might, but enough to keep me hovering at the 1 and 2 spot for two days. But because Amazon changed their algorithms again, I've lost all my ranking. It seeems one needs reviews to keep the rankings. (Anyone out there have a review handy for me?)

Anyway, what this post all boils down to is that, with the new self-publishing model, we can make changes to our books as we see fit. We don't need to keep what is old and broken and not working anymore. We have the option to go back in and change what needs changing -- to make it shiny and new. We have the option to have an "open house" instead of trying to show one person at a time. We have the option to go all out on a marketing frenzy or just quietly promote and hope for the best.

I suppose it depends on who you are and what you want from your book.

The Last and Final Cover for Remembering You

Well, after a long and heartbreaking thought process, I've decided to have one last go at a cover for REMEMBERING YOU. The nice thing about self-publishing is that I can change the cover any time I want to. So I am.

My first cover, (if you remember and if not here's a pic ) was okay. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it didn't have that WOW factor, you know. And I was still using my other name. My Regency fans weren't buying it.

Then we did this cover. I really liked this cover.
These pictures were supposed to represent Genna's
longing for "home". Alas, this didn't sell too many
copies either.








So now we come to the latest cover. And for what it's worth, I don't care who doesn't like it, I'm not changing it again. This is the last and final cover for REMEMBERING YOU and I LOVE it.

I know I shouldn't ask, but what do you think?

Guess What I Found?

Guess what I found buried in the back of the basement closet while I was moving? My college writing!

Oh yes, I shrieked with joy as I pulled the boxes out of the smelly dampness. I crowed with triumph as I loaded them into the car to take to the new house, for I thought I would find some gems I could fiddle around with.

Dismay hit me full in the face, however, as I removed the lids from the containers and reread some of these "diamonds in the rough". Out of the four boxes, out of the countless file folders, out of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of pages, I found only one short story that held any merit.

One. Short. Story.

I thought I was a literary genius in college. I thought all these years I would be able to just open the boxes and find the next Pulitzer Prize. I thought, well, never mind what I thought.

The cold hard truth stings when it slaps you in the face.

However, at least I can say with all honesty, I'm a better writer now. That helps ease the crushing blow somewhat. The really funny thing is, all of it, yes, ALL of those writings, those stories, are written in first person POV, which really blew my mind. I don't write in first person. EVER. I get blocked. Wicked blocked. So what's up with that I wonder?
Tell me, have you ever found something you wrote years ago? Was it any good? What did you do with it?