Promoting, Ice Storms and More...

It's been a wild week. We had not one but *two* ice storms this week - everything was covered in ice for a couple of days, photos to follow - three days worth of power outages, schools canceled for two days in a row, and so many other wacky things happening... I honestly thought I wouldn't get much work done on anything writing or promotional wise this week.

I'm now into the third week of being published, and word has gotten around a little. So far, a few friends of mine have read Stricken, and they loved it. I haven't had any public reviews yet but I'm hoping that will change now that it's out on Amazon.

I'm still going crazy promoting it. In fact, I decided to make some banners for Stricken - something I should have done a month ago. Better late than never I suppose, lesson learned! I've also run a few Facebook ads, and they have really gotten the word out. One ad got over 1500 views, which isn't bad!

Even with everything going crazy, I managed to squeeze in a full day of writing on Friday, and I more than made up for missing work earlier that week. I finished Chapter Seven of the MS in progress, and started Chapter Eight... I'm in the buildup to a *huge* key scene - not a sex scene, but a mammoth breakthrough for the main characters.

I hope to get more written this week. I have maybe six or seven days left before the end of the school year, and I want it done ASAP so I don't have to worry about it over the summer.

I'm happy this one is almost writing itself, when my brain is working.

Here's two of the promotional banners I've created for Stricken. One is a quote from the book.

Banner with quote from Stricken.

Banner for Facebook author page.

Here's a couple of shots from the ice storm. Note how heavy the trees were with it....

I leave y'all with a photo of Amber. She was showing me what she thought of a scene that wasn't exactly well written...

Cats do have a wacky way of showing their humans when they're disgusted, I swear.

Have a great week everyone!

Ahead of Schedule?

This past week has been very interesting.

Today, Whom Gods Destroy released their first vlog of 2017... It's less than 13 minutes long, so I decided to burn some bandwidth and watch the entire thing. Let's just say it's nuts. There's never a dull moment with the guys. However the last thing I wanted to see was Tim's butt crack. Thanks for imprinting that onto my memory for good, guys. *GAG!!!* 

It's shared on my author page, for anyone who wants to see it. Link to that is in the Links list in the left hand column. WARNING: Foul language! May not be suitable for all viewers!

On the writing front............

I didn't think I'd do it due to lack of writing time, but I have another rough draft finished. Husband took Son grocery shopping yesterday and I had the entire house to myself for the whole afternoon. I typed in "THE END" at 4:57 PM Atlantic Time yesterday. Finally. 

It's shorter than I expected, only about 90 pages, maybe 92. Less than 50K... BUT that's subject to change as things get edited and rewritten. It needs a *lot* of work before even my editor, Peapod, sees it. 

Right now, it looks like a bomb went off in the middle of an ink factory. The basics are there... I use Draft 1 to build the foundation and subsequent drafts (or incarnations) to erect the rest of it.

I do have a working title for it, but that's subject to change too... "Fugitive Dreams". 

It went into Draft 2 mode earlier today, and I will be cleaning it up a bit this week, when I'm not working on the next project that is... 

Or beta reading...

I think that as an aspiring author, being a beta at least a few times is essential for growth. You learn a lot by reading the rougher drafts of other people's stuff... And it trains your eyes to see similar mistakes in your own work. 

I took this morning off from my own stuff to do a beta read for one of my betas... Gang, this gent is *good*. It was a rougher draft, but the principle of the story was still there, and he has a solid foundation for this particular story. 

I'm hoping to do another round of beta reading for him or someone else soon. Sometimes you need to take a break from your own work and read someone else's for a change. 

Back to working on a blurb for the newly finished first draft. Hopefully I can come up with something coherent that won't give away the full story.

Have a great weekend everyone... I leave you with "Sea of Tears" by Whom Gods Destroy, from their 2007 Demo CD.

Brainstorming...

I hate choosing a title for a story. 

I never seem to choose one that suits the story and has a lot of punch at the same time. My title choices tend to be boring, really boring.

Hearts Remembering. Yeah, it says what the story is about but it doesn't have pizzazz in my opinion. I'm so glad I changed it at the last minute, it did turn out to be *gold* after all. (Long story!)

In case anyone's wondering, I'm trying to think of a one or two word title for the current WIP, one with a lot of punch yet gives a hint to what the story is about - a modern day romance. 

So far a number of ideas have gone through my mind, but none really suit the story, the characters or me, and some of them are already in use.

I was thinking "Smitten" but Husband and Peapod both said it's too close to my upcoming book's title, Stricken. So that idea is out, for now at least.

I put things out there for my Facebook friends to help me brainstorm, after a short rant about how much I hate settling on a title, especially one that feels blah. Maybe with a little luck, talking things out with them will result in a good idea. 

It did when I was trying to come up with a good, solid name for the leading man in Stricken years ago. Lightening may strike again, in a different area.

One can hope at least. 

Anyway, I did manage to get some work done on the WIP, the one I'm trying to find a title for. Thursday was it, and it was only 2 hours of work time before the bus arrived.

It was still productive, a 2200 word day. I managed to wrap up a chapter and put in a huge key scene, along with finish two smaller ones. I was so deep into it that I even wrote after Son was home from school, a rarity considering how noisy he is when he's home. I wanted that scene *done* dang it, so I could continue on in a fresh chapter and scene next week.

I'm pretty close to 3/4 of the way finished this one's rough draft, or possibly more. I'm almost at the anti climax so that's good, I think. 

Who knows, I may actually get this one done before my deadline of March 10th. The rate I'm going it's quite possible. 

Have a lovely weekend everyone. I'm hoping to get more done this week, and I'll update when I can. 

Once again, I leave you with a photo of Amber from Thursday, doing her "Writing Su-purr-visor Impreshun". Silly furball. LOL