Posts Tagged ‘#book’

Relationship of writing a book

Posted: February 5, 2019 in amazon, authors, book blast, book blog, book lovers, book release, book writing, editing, facebook, humor, love yourself, new business, writing, writing process
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I’ve been asked a couple times what my process is for writing a book, and this is the best way I can think of describing it.

Writing a book is like being in a relationship.

<The introduction>

The moment the book idea pops in your head. It’s exhilarating and new. You’re shy at first, afraid to tell many people about it because you’re unsure of what’s going to happen.

<Honeymoon stage>

Writing begins, the first draft. This is it. You’re committed and it’s shiny and new. Your book takes over your life. It’s all you think about, and you will ditch the 3 F’s, family, friends, and food to be with it. It brings a smile to your face. You want everyone to know about it. You’re proud and it’s yours.

<Middle of the relationship>

The first draft is done. You’ve reread it until you’re eyes have gone cross. You find annoying traits you’ve never noticed before. Words are repeated, and if you see it again you’ll pull your hair out. You attempt to change it to make it better, and you do, it’s just not the same as it was in the beginning. You’re both growing and learning about yourself. In truth you’re kind of over the whole thing, and there are times you hate it with a burning passion. But you stick with it. You try to recall the giddiness of used to elicit, and sometimes you do. You read a sentence or chapter that reminds of you why you loved it in the first place.

<Couple Counseling>

You need help. You need someone else with fresh eyes to take over. You send it to your editor (counselor) It’s nerve wracking. You’re letting someone else in your relationship, and you’re hoping they will tell you it’s salvageable.

<Break up>

It’s time to publish. You’ve done all you’ve can, and it’s time to release your book. You will always have fond memories of your time together, but you can’t do anymore. You’ll put it out, and hope someone will see the beauty in it you did. You helped create it so you’ll always be proud of it. It’s heartbreaking, and a relief at the same time. You may go immediately into another relationship, or wait a while before starting the whole exhausting process again.

<Rekindle>

Not all the time, but every once in a while you take your book back. Maybe you saw something else that would make it better. Whatever the reasons it is still going to end up in a breakup.

My advice is keep getting into relationships. Don’t stop writing, and be happy with every break up. Be proud.

Life is shorter than a little person standing in a hole. Even if you believe in heaven or reincarnation or any of that other nonsense, this is the only time you’ll be you. So make every day you’re you the best one you can. You’re only you once.

BOOK LINK

My cocky stance

Posted: May 11, 2018 in #Romance, amazon, authors, book blog, book lovers, branding, cocky, cockygate, facebook, goodreads, indies, rebel, venting
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So I waited. My two cents are mine, and really what the fuck can you buy with two cents?

At first I was going to write something awful and demeaning toward the cocky author. Something along the lines of…

Get me some syrup because I smell a major twat waffle. Mrs Cocky maybe you should stop writing and go teach victim 101. Where of course the space would limited as your ego would encompass most of the room.

But I didn’t write that. What good would that do? I mean it would make me feel better but this would just be another chapter in her victim text book.

So instead….

Let’s talk about branding. No let’s talk about books and specifically genres.

Stay with me there is a point to be made.

I will admit on my kindle there are way too many titles that include the words Highlander, Earl, Duke, pirate and many more historical romance verbiage. Historical romance is my jam. I love reading stories outside the genre’s I write.

The titles are a combination of those words. The earl highlander, the pirate Duke so on so on. I pick the books because they are in the genre I like to read. A lot of times it’s based on the title, because it lets me know what genre it’s in.

Now with the word cocky an image of an alpha male comes to mind. A cocky male who’s most likely is going to be a jerk. One who has slept with a ton of women and thinks he is Gods gift. He’ll meet a chick he fights with and in the end they will find they can’t be without each other. This is a genre MANY people like to read. The alpha male is one most women want to conquer. Why not read how others have done it.

Why stop at one book? Why not read them all?

When readers who enjoy the alpha male romance see the words ALPHA COCKY DICKSLINGER they know what they are in for. And if they enjoy them they want more

And this may come as a shock but readers can read more than one book. WHAT? NO! REALLY?

And readers will read what they like. I will admit I don’t just read historical romance I branch out, but I know what genres I like. And that’s what I spend my money on

I read more than one author. AND SURPRISE SUR-FUCKING-PRISE most readers do as well. Especially avid readers. So unless our favorite author is publishing a book a day, because let’s face it people can devour a shit ton of books readers will need to read other authors.

Why would you want to alienate authors from your genre? This doesn’t make sense.

I write rock’n’roll romances. My books are pretty far between each other (sorry. I promise Van and Jesse are coming) Why would I as an author not want my readers to read other rocknroll books?

Keep my readers immersed in the world of rockstars while waiting for the next JackholeSseries. Have them excited for my book by reading other rocknroll books and seeing what my characters get onto as opposed to other rockstars.

I don’t question my readers loyalty to the JackholeS if they read other rocknroll books. And I don’t think my readers are silly enough to buy a rockstar book and think it’s mine because of the title. I give my readers more mental credit. Also I don’t own them and would never think to tell them what they can and cannot read.

Also Amazon has this nifty little feature called the “read the sample”

This feature allows a potential reader free access to the first 10% of a book. At the end of the 10% the potential reader is given the option to pass the pay wall. They can decide if they want to pay and become a reader or they can pass and go onto another title. The reader has no loyalty to the book. And much to my chagrin Amazon also gives a reader an option to return the book for a refund before a specific amount of time with no questions asked.

With this any reader has the option to access a book. And just in case they did get confused because there was an innocuous word in the title. They can return it or not pass they pay wall.

This whole thing makes no sense. I’m not saying I don’t want my book to be the best rocknroll romance. Of course I want it to hit NYTBS list, but I’m not going to practice shady business to get there. I have enough faith in my books that they can make it there on there own without destroy anyone else in the process.

Also I would never talk bad about another book in my genre because different options are the spice of life. I wrote this post in 2016

Can’t we all just get along?

And I still feel the same.

So Cocky author suck on this cocky post. I hope you get over yourself and eat crow. Or should I say cocky.

I’m alive??

Posted: October 6, 2016 in #Romance, amazon, authors, book blast, book blog, book boost, book lovers, book release, comedian, comedy, facebook live, giveaway, Halestorm, Hollywood, Hollywood Improv, humor, improv, indies, love yourself, new release, stand up comedy
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Hello,

Remember me?

Yeah, me neither.

I have been telling myself that I need to write a blog post. I guess I’m finally taking my advice and doing it. I’ve become rather bossy inside my head.

Life has decided to give me a big middle finger.

I’m going to try and make this short, and see where it gets me. My kids are also on fall break. What does that mean? It means I’m secretly writing this on my phone hoping to get through it before someone gets hungry or hurt.

Aug. 21st I went and preformed at the Hollywood Improv. I was trying to juggle everything so blogging kind of went on the back burner. Also I had a book coming out Sept. 13th that I was getting ready for.

How was your set, you ask…

https://youtu.be/TGEOSsFCo1k

It was amazing. The audience seemed receptive to my brand of Jackassness. I’m pretty sure I floated off the stage.

That was on a Sat. Three days later the foundation I was firmly standing on shook. I’m still trying to recover my footholds and feel secure in day to day life 

I received a text from my dad saying that my mom…MY MOM…had a stroke. If you have been one if my loyal followers you would know how special my mom is to me. She is the one I take to Halestorm. She is the one I word vomit all my problems to 

My dad is the worst at relaying information. Hell, he’s the worst at answering the phone. I’m pretty sure when he sent me the text he pressed send looked down at the electronic rectangle, shrugged, thought I don’t need this any longer, and chucked it into a magical ocean that appeared to take the only form of communication I had with him. Suffice it to say it was the longest three hour drive of my life.

When I got to the ER my mom could only say Hi and I love you. She kept repeating it over and over again, while internally I was begging myself not to have a complete break down.

In the ICU she was only allowed to have two visitors. I convinced my dad and brother to go get some rest. Here is the thing about ICU they don’t want you to stay. I had one hard chair and nothing else. It didn’t matter I wasn’t leaving her.

That night she was woke up every hour. I was with her throughout the whoke thing. It was also the night she looked at me and said, “I love you, Joy” then turned aroud and corrected herself to,  “I love you, Sissy.” Yeah, the tears flowed.

The second night they realized I wasn’t leaving and a nice nurse brought me a blanket and pillow. 

My mom had a stroke that was caused by a clot breaking free from an aneurysm. Aneurysms run in my family. My grandma and aunt had one both at 56. (in about 10 years I suppose I’ll go get checked) Her aneurysm didn’t bleed or burst. It just had a piece break off. Of course my mom doesn’t do anything half assed. She had a huge aneurysm in the front of her brain in the middle of where the artery branches. 

She had surgery where an amazing surgeon and team placed a coil in the aneurysm and two stints on each side. 

I’ve never understood people wearing sports jerseys, but I can tell you I would proudly wear a jersey with her surgeons name on the back. Also her PT, Norman. He was a PT god, I watched him use PNF stretching where she moved her leg for the first time. He also let me do the PNF on her. Yeah, always the teachers pet. Or at least my mom teased me of that. 

Keeping myself busy in the hospital

Every day my mom improved. She was in the hospital for a month. I’m so proud of her. She is now home. She can walk without her walker ( I named it, Paul) She still gets frustrated, but it is amazing to see her get better and stronger every day.

 

Also during that time I pushed my book release back to Sept. 27th. I worked my ass off to get everything done but I had a lot on my plate. 

I made teasers and banners of my beautiful book cover. I ordered paperbacks for the signing I have on Oct. 22nd. On my release date I was so damn excited. Until around 11 o’clock when I got a message asking if I meant to spell Survivng wrong.

Nope

No

I sure did not

I looked at that damn cover over a thousand times and not once did I recognize it was wrong. 

Ughhhh

I called my printer but it was too late to find out of theg had been printed yet. The awesome customer service lady said she would email me if she was able to pause the shipping. Imagine my hysterical laughter when she sent me my tracking number. 

I owned up to it live on Facebook. Explaining that Surviing Faith paperbacks will be at the signing because I didn’t have time to order another set.

Readers were supportive and understanding. Some even saying they wanted the misspelled cover. The cover is now fixed so any other books I order will be spelled correctly.

So that has been my life lately. I’m still crusing along. I have a paperback giveaway going on right now. To enter all you have to do is add a review of Surviving Faith to amazon. I’ll pick the winner live at the author by the beach signing Oct. 22Nd. Also keep an eye out for the costume I’ll be wearing. 

Hollywood Improv

Adventures in Ghost Writing

Posted: July 15, 2016 in authors, book blast, book blog, book boost, book lovers, customer service, facebook, ghost writing, goodreads, love yourself, new business, Uncategorized
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A friend of mine pulled me into the ghost writing business. It has been a big adventure and it has allowed me to explore more of my writing ability. I can’t go into details of the books we have been working on, but it has definitely yanked us out of our comfort zones.
The most surprising thing was how much I enjoyed it. We enjoyed it so much that we have decided to expand our ghost writing and create our own business. This is extremely exciting for both of us. We have already had some satisfied customers.
If you are interested, please check out our website.

http://theghostinggals.blogspot.com/p/hire-us_6.html

International Writers Association Radio Interview

Posted: January 25, 2016 in authors, book blast, book boost, international writers association, podcast, radio, Uncategorized
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So Thursday I was interviewed by Robert Moore for the International Writers Association Podcast.
This is the link to the interview.

http://iwaaudio.podomatic.com/entry/2016-01-24T20_49_18-08_00
I come on about into the podcast.
26 minute mark
I don’t want to listen to it. I have a deep hatred for the sound of my voice. I feel I sound like a 12 year old on crack. I also said amazing, awesome, and great way too many times. I kept telling myself to stop saying those words in my head only to blurt one of them out seconds later. I was laughing in my head every time I let one of those words slip.
Also I tried to mention as many people as I could but I know I missed so many. It was not done intentionally, and I’m sorry. In fact I don’t really remember what I said.
So here you go if you want to have a laugh at my expense. Or you can make it a drinking game. Take a shot when I say awesome amazing or great.

Best of 2015: Rockstar Romance by a Debut Author

Posted: January 24, 2016 in authors, award, book blast, book blog, book boost, book lovers, facebook
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Breaking Faith was awarded Rockstar Romance Debut Author from Backstage Book Blog.
Thank you everyone for your support. Surviving Faith will be published shortly.

Backstage Books

The first of the year always brings about discussions and awards for all the best things of the previous year.   With 2015 being the debut year for Backstage Books, we decided it is a good time to begin another annual tradition, the Best of {Year} Awards.    And, being the first time out, there will be kinks to work out.   And being who we are, we don’t necessarily do things the way anyone else does.   So, the awards will be presented at the rate of one a day instead of just in a list – so we can take some time to talk about the award winner, and why it won.   The large majority of the books will have been published in 2015, but there will be a few exceptions where we just discovered them this year.   And yada, yada, yada – let’s let the awards begin!   (and one more yada…

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