Goal Updates

First, a little update from a couple things I mentioned in my Insecure Writer's Support Group post.

• A Merrily Matched Christmas (6 novelettes) is available for $0.99 preorder for today and tomorrow before it's release on Thursday. 
• The author events in Mulberry and Bella Vista were a lot of fun. I enjoy getting to talk about writing in general and love talking about my own stories. What's not to love?
• I sold a couple books at the craft fair, including my proof copy of The Magic Wakes. I probably shouldn't have, but the teen really wanted it and I felt bad that I hadn't been able to get the books delivered before the fair. I hope he enjoys it. 
• Last weekend was a wonderful time with family. I ate way too much food, but that's what we do. 
• I have been writing more this month than I have in the last 8 months, thanks to sort of doing Nanowrimo. That may not say a lot, but I'll take it! Sadly, the writing is scattered between several new ideas as well as the three I need to be finishing. 

February IWSG Reviews and No New Ideas

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time.

I'm currently #80.

Where to start?

No New Ideas--
You know how they say there are no new ideas in movies and books? It's so true. I woke up yesterday morning at 3 AM with a new story idea. It came to me as an obituary. For a few hours I lay in bed writing it over and over in my head. Then I actually woke up and realized the idea for what it was. A twist on Return to Me. So now I have to decide if it's different enough to write or drop it.

Reviews--
I've recently hit a snafu with reviewing books. In an effort to get more reviews for FADE INTO ME, I did a couple of swaps. The stories sounded fascinating. Unfortunately, I couldn't read them.

There's more. These other two people had already finished my book. I felt so bad! I'm a pleaser personality and I didn't want to hurt their feelings by saying I couldn't review their book. But I couldn't read it. The language made me too uncomfortable and I knew I couldn't recommend the stories to my friends and family.

I'm not insecure about writing honest reviews. The insecurity came in how to approach the authors. I mean it really is a case of "It's me, not you" but uncomfortable all the same.

What's got you insecure this week?

First Review on Amazon for FADE INTO ME

FADE INTO ME is now available on Amazon!

It's finally official. You can buy the print now and the kindle version is available for pre-order. It will be live and delivered to your kindle on Monday.

To celebrate I'm sharing the first review that was posted on Amazon. It's from fellow author Elizabeth Naranjo. I love the way she sums up this story.

4/5 Stars--Caedan Frey has a duty to fulfill, one that involves marrying a human girl before his next birthday. He’s been holding out for true love but is running out of time.

Ryanne Killian has lost her faith in Prince Charming and the whole idea of happily ever after. She judges her worth by the scars on her back, and it’s not a pretty sight.

When Caedan meets Ryanne, he knows instantly she is the one. But first he has to restore her faith in love, and then convince her she belongs with him in the world of Ireas, an alternate dimension on Earth.

Fade Into Me is told from alternating points of view—Caedan’s and Ryanne’s—and the story takes place in two worlds. The author does a nice job creating the world of Ireas, a place where colors are vibrant and changing, playing “like joyful children.” Caedan is a likeable hero, but flawed in that he underestimates Ryanne and what it will take to win her heart. To accomplish that, he needs to find out what Ryanne’s hiding—a painful secret that has destroyed her belief in herself and in others.

The book has a nice balance of romance and fantasy. The story is well-paced and the writing full of gems. I enjoyed the way both characters learned that something they took for granted was much more complex. For Ryanne, that was reality itself, and for Caedan, it was a woman’s heart.

Thoughts on FIM and Favorite Lines

Over the weekend I received an email that totally made my night. Elizabeth Naranjo read FADE INTO ME last week. Here are a few of her thoughts along with some of her favorite lines from the book.

By the way, I think this is a great idea and I'm going to start doing it as I read books--marking my favorite lines to share.

I finished Fade Into Me the night before last. I love your characters, especially Ryanne. I also love the unique way you use color; the thought that colors are dynamic and play "like joyful children" and that in our world they are only motionless because of our lack of magic--that's so neat.

Some of my favorite lines:

"Happiness is never a guarantee and it always requires effort."

"I stopped her fingers from causing any more damage to my resolve."

"All I could think about was following him down the street for a fist to face conversation."

And your FIRST line, Love! "The runes moved under my fingers as the fabric of space split and fluctuated within the confines of the portal."

I'm so glad you followed your heart, Charity. And congrats again on your Kickstarter success!

~Elizabeth Maria Naranjo, Author of THE FOURTH WALL

Reviews of Stellar Cloud

I'm so excited that I now have 4 reviews for Stellar Cloud on Amazon. The little snippets of feedback are very interesting and I'm enjoying them. And right now they balance my hubby's feedback.

He finally started reading them over the weekend. His comments were as follows.

The Rising--"I didn't get it."
The Sleeper--"I can't believe you wrote something so smutty." (Which means once again he didn't get the story. Makes me wonder if I'm just not clear, but he doesn't read science fiction so I'm trying not to worry too much.)
And I guess the next one he read had 1 swear word in it. So he stopped reading.

Reviews like that really make you hang your head. All night I wondered if I needed to go back and add to them so it was clear what I meant and not what he thought I was talking about. Then I remembered the whole "trust your reader" and the fact that hubby was not my target audience.

And then today I got this lovely review on Amazon.

"I hate short stories, because there is normally no character development, no fully developed scene, and the tiny stories are trite and end abruptly. This collection, however, pulled me in. It seems as if this set of stories was designed to set you up in a wonderfully written world, with compelling characters and then you get to imagine the story however you want. Each story leaves you with a feeling that it ended in the correct spot, that anything more or less would just ruin it. While I would love to read more, I'm actually happy with them as they are."

~J. Brook from New Jersey

Now I feel better. My one goal, the thing I worked harder on with these shorts than anything else, was making them NOT feel like the first chapter of something larger. So this review makes me very happy.

Emotional ADHD and the Review That Made My Day

Do you ever feel like you have emotional ADHD? If you answered no you are probably a man. Is that a false assumption on my part? Is crazy emotional roller coastering a symptom only women have to deal with?

I'm two weeks away from my next author event and I've struggled to do anything to get ready. It's in another state, but my "home" state, meaning where I went to high school. So even though it's harder to work out details it has the potential to be a great success because I know people there. And yet that also makes the pressure greater.

What if no one comes? Is that because they just don't care? Don't like me?

Or is it simply because they didn't know I was coming?

I contacted one local paper and sent messages to those I couldn't get a real person on the phone for. The one asked me to email the info. Great! Will do!

Crap, the press release Shauna (from WiDo) made for me is lost on my dead computer.

Okay, no sweat. Just tell them who you are, your connection to the area, list the book, publisher, date/time of event, and include the back jacket blurb. Right?

And then sit around with no response. I've done this so many times and it's starting to condition me.

Send it in an email, please = so we can ignore you and forget you ever called.

I'm sure it doesn't really mean that, but that's what it feels like. So, in the midst of all of this I got to a point where I just didn't want to do it any more. I don't know if all my scrounging around helps, so why bother? And then I got this jewel on Amazon.

I wanted to just cry. This is why I wanted to write and that's what I need to remember. I want to share stories that people can just enjoy. Things that will keep you up at night just because you have to see what happens.

This reminded me that I need to stop worrying about the mistakes that I still make. Not forget, but allow myself to grow and become better. I need to let go of the things in my writing and personal life that have crushed my ego and just write for the sheer enjoyment of it again.

And that's what I'm doing.

As of today, I'm 9851 words into my campnanowrimo project titled Last Christmas. It's a pressure free project and as I write it, I'm finding that I can think more about where I want to take the other stories that are sitting half finished on my hard drive.

And that's a really good thing.

Stay tuned...I might share some snippets.