IWSG Wednesday: Traveling to a New Home

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

***Going forward, I will be posting from my new Wordpress site: michaelpierceauthor.com. This post will also be the first post on that new site, so feel free to leave a comment on either one (they will basically be the same).***

The year has gone by so fast and it’s showing no sign of slowing down. I had a nice and quiet Thanksgiving holiday, but even with it being quiet, the long weekend seems like a blur. I haven’t gotten as much done as I had hoped, which seems to be the complaint of every holiday season. All I can do is take what baby steps I can to keep moving forward.

As far as the Lorne Family Vault series is concerned, the revised editions of the first three books are available now on Amazon: Provex City, Le7el, and SUSY Asylum. I’m also giving away the first two books for signing up to my mailing list. The fourth book, Doria Falls, will be released on December 11th. I don’t have a release date yet for the final book in the series, Archanum Manor, but it will most likely be early February.

With the Lorne Family Vault series practically finished, I had wanted to start writing my new novel this week, but I don’t feel confident enough in the outline I have thus far. It’s coming along, but not at the place I’d hoped it would be at this point. The main resources I’m using for outlining and pre-production are: Write Better Faster, Story Engineering, The Story Grid, and the Dan Wells 7-Point Story Structure videos. I read through twice as many books on story structure and outlining, but the above mentioned books (and videos) are the ones I got the most out of. The structures are similar and easy to adapt and combine to make the story you want to tell the best it can be. Hopefully, the rest of my planning will come together soon so I can start writing in the next few weeks.

As I mentioned above, this will be last post for this site as I transition over to the new site HERE. It’s been a great learning experience on the Blogger platform. I still don’t feel fully comfortable using Wordpress, but I’m sure all will be fine with time. So this isn’t goodbye, but the start to a new chapter—one I’m very excited to write.

I hope your Thanksgiving was full of fun and fantastic food. Christmas is only a few blinks away. My family and I put up our Christmas decorations over the weekend and I bought my first eggnog latte of the season. I love this time of year now that I don’t work in retail anymore. I have a lot of writing goals on my list, but enjoying this time with friends and family is equally (if not more) important. Find your story, find your balance, and find your Christmas cheer.

IWSG Wednesday: New Releases & Learning the Art of the Facebook Ad

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

The new editions of Provex City, Le7el, and SUSY Asylum are finally up on Amazon. Today I just finished fixing up the fourth book in the Lorne family Vault series, Doria Falls. I plan to get it to the ebook formatter by the end of the week while I'm working through my final read through of Archanum Manor. I'm planning to release Doria Falls in early December and Archanum Manor in late January (or early February).

I've also started thinking about and planning my next project. Organization and productivity is key moving forward. If I want to get to a point where I can write full time, one book or less a year will not cut it. I need more content, preferably in different worlds, to gain potential readers. My next project will be planned as a seven-book series. I will be more careful with cliff hangers this time, but the books will build off each other. So this will also be a series to read in order. I'm setting myself up for quite the challenge, but I'm excited to dive into a new universe. This series will be YA contemporary distopian (if there is such a thing), which will transition to NA by the end (it will follow the protagonist from 14 to 21 years old).

I had wanted to submit a short story to the IWSG short story contest. Not doing so was my major fail for the month. I had the story planned and everything; I just needed to write it. At some point, I'll just have to write it for myself. I'm sure there will be a lot of fantastic entries. Best of luck to everyone fighting for a spot in the anthology. I'll be sure to pick up a copy when it come out.

I signed up for Mark Dawson’s course on Facebook Ads, which I think closed yesterday. I've gone through two thirds of the modules so far: the basics and ads for building a mailing list. Ads for building a mailing list is where I need to start since I don't have much to sell at this point. When I get my box sets out, then I'll start testing out sales ads. The importance of building a mailing list is emphasized on every podcast I listen to, including countless interviews with successful indie authors. It makes sense. The online retailers continually update and change their platforms which affect author sales (look at how the introduction of Kindle Unlimited and the change to the subscription service this summer has affected author earnings). Facebook can change their rules at any time (like how the reach of using Facebook author pages was greatly reduced this year, so you're now lucky if 5-10% of your fans see your posts). There is so much uncertainty when relying on these other companies for the health of your author business. But if you're focused on growing your mailing list, then you own those email addresses. You have a better chance of getting information to your fans, especially if you're focused on building trust, confidence, and engagement through your emails and exclusive offers. So that's my plan, to build my email list. I've already set up my exclusive offers for signing up (free copies of Provex City and Le7el). Now I'm putting the finishing touches on my welcome automation email sequence. By the end of the week, I want to have those pieces fully in place and start building my first Facebook ads following all of Mark's advice. I'm a little nervous, but looking forward to the experimentation process.

I've recently started listening to The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. They've been around for the past decade, with a few songs occasionally on the radio. I'd heard the name before, but never paid much attention to them. From a recommendation, I gave them a real listen and now I've gotten hooked on two of their albums: Don't You Fake It and Am I the Enemy. I guess I would consider them Christian emo. I'm usually turned off by Christan bands, but RJA's songs are more subtle than most. And they have so many catchy songs. I'm not one to judge based on a category (or genre); good music is good music (like books). The song I've included here is You Get Me High, a bonus track on the Am I the Enemy album. Enjoy the song and happy writing!

 

IWSG Wednesday: Coming Together

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

I’m happy to report that this is finally the month where things are coming together. I should have the new editions of Provex City, Le7el, and SUSY Asylum released in the next few weeks. And with the release of these books, I’ll start promoting and building my mailing list and introduce my new website. The new website won’t be anything fancy, but it will be clean and functional until I decide to spend extra time and money to spruce it up.

 I recently discovered an issue with numbering volumes of a series within the Amazon series function on the KDP dashboard. Amazon only allows you to enter whole numbers in the volume box. So I could not include Le7el, Book 1.5, in the series boxes because the volume box would not recognize 1.5. So I had two options. I could not use Amazon’s new series function and put the series name and volume number in the title box. Or I could renumber the books in my series. I have decided to renumber the books in my series so I can take advantage of the series function. I figured this was the best course of action because I didn’t know if I’d have similar issues with other online retailers. I know not many authors plan for series with decimals in one or more of their volumes, but Amazon’s current series function may cause you to reconsider.

Next up, I need to do my final edit of Archanum Manor. Then I’ll start writing a short story for the IWSG short story contest. I recently finished plotting it, so it’s about time to get those pesky words on the page. The story will be in the universe of my Lorne Family Vault series, though not dependent on the story within the series. Then I need to start outlining my next book so I can start the draft next month…and hopefully finish a first draft by the start of 2016. I have a lot to accomplish before year’s end. Oh, and I’ll have to fit in some marketing in there somewhere. I do plan on taking Mark Dawson’s course on Facebook Ads, which opens up again on October 23rd. I expect the course to have practical and powerful marketing information. I’ll share my impressions on it next month.

As I’ve been doing recently, I’ll leave you with some new music that provides me with inspiration, motivation, and much needed mood for my writing. About a week and a half ago, Silversun Pickups' new album, Better Nature, was released. Silversun Pickups never disappoints and this album is as strong as all their others. The album doesn't sound as mainstream, but it's filled with sweeping soundscapes that makes for great writing music. Enjoy and happy writing!

IWSG Wednesday: The Next Dream

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

The months keep creeping by and I'm getting that much closer to releasing the first few books in the series. I just finished my edits for Doria Falls and I'm on my final read through of Provex City. My proofreader sent back Le7el today and I forwarded her SUSY Asylum. So there you have it. That's where I'm at in the process of getting the Lorne Family Vault out to the world. 

About a week ago, I got all the finishing touches put on the new book covers and received the cover for Le7el. I'm very happy with the way it came out and want to again thank Karri Klawiter for all of her hard work and providing me with such awesome covers.

Editing gets quite tedious at times. So it's time to finally start planning for my next novel. I've learned a lot from my first series and I want to avoid many of the mistakes I've made with the writing and publishing of these books. In an effort to be more productive and efficient for this next venture, I've downloaded a few books for increasing writing speed and outlining. I need to make the most out of my limited writing sessions. I've also purchased the newest edition of Dragon NaturallySpeaking to experiment with dictation again. I actually did dictate most of my first book, Provex City, but at the time I did so more out of necessity than efficiency. Now I want to use it as a tool to increase writing speed (I'm quite the slow typist).

The newest song I'm obsessed with is Dreams by Beck. I've always respected Beck as an artist, but have never been much of a fan. This song has made me a fan. I'm adding it to the soundtrack for my next book. Put on some headphones, crank up the volume, and let the sonic layers and sweet melodies take you away. Happy writing.

IWSG Wednesday: In the Editing Cave

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

I finished editing Provex City and sent it off to my proofreader. I expect to get it back over the next week. I've also finished editing Le7el and SUSY Asylum. The next items on my agenda is to get all my covers finalized. They all need blurb rewrites and spine adjustments. I also need a cover for Le7el, which should be completed by the end of the month.

I'm excited to have finished my edits of Provex City, Le7el, and SUSY Asylum because I made quite a few tweaks and changes to match up with the last two books. There were a few scenes and details I'd forgotten about in the early books that never went anywhere. I specifically targeted those types of scenes and details to make the stories as tight and fast-paced as possible. I had been nervous about splitting Le7el and SUSY Asylum since I had to completely rearrange the stories. Now that they're both done, I'm happy and more than a little relieved. This is the great thing about ebooks and self publishing--the ability to easily change stories that have already been released.

I feel like I've accomplished a lot over the past month, but I still have a long way to got to get this series fully released. But I can see the end of the end of the tunnel, which is encouraging. I'm itching to start a new story, but I have to stay focused and get this series released before moving on. It drives me to work that much harder.

My biggest insecurity right now is what will happen once the entire series is released--an insecurity that grows with each passing month, the closer I get to finally releasing the last books. I'm not worried about negative reception, but of not reaching an audience with the ever-growing ocean of new releases. Discoverability isn't getting any easier. But I'll get back to focusing on the tasks at hand and let future Mike worry about that.

A new band I've gotten into over the past two weeks is X Ambassadors. I've liked the song Renegades since I first heard it on the radio, but didn't look into the band until recently. And I'm sorry I waited so long because they are amazing. X Ambassadors sounds like a fusion between Imagine Dragons and The Fray, but I like X Ambassadors much better than the other two bands. It was hard choosing a song to post here. I'm typically a sucker for acoustic versions of songs, so I finally decided on a live acoustic version of Unsteady. As an aside, their beautifully emotional song Litost was on The Host soundtrack (another writing song I'd highly recommend). Who knew?

IWSG Wednesday: Finding Your Voice

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

June flew by way too fast. I wish I had more to report, but I'm still just wading through revisions. Archanum Manor is now in the hands of my editor and I'm excited to receive feedback over the next couple of weeks. I've been in contact with my proofreader and scheduled to start sending her manuscripts by the end of the month. I still have a lot of work to polish up Provex City, so hopefully I can make some good progress over the holiday weekend.

It's interesting, but after writing four books in Oliver's voice, I think I finally found it. Five years ago, with only Provex City committed to the page, I thought that Oliver's voice was authentic. But I've now realized that I didn't truly find his voice until Archanum Manor. He's grown throughout the books and I've grown as a writer. I spent so much time on Provex City compared to the other books (well over a year writing and rewriting), and I thought it was my most polished story. Now I feel it's the least and needs the most work. It's interesting looking back at it now. I still love the story, but the writing's different. It doesn't feel as natural as its successors. So I'll be working hard to remedy that over the next few weeks.

Oh and from last month, there were a few questions on how to pronounce the title of my new novella, Le7el. I think it looks cool spelled that way (to me it has a NIN vibe), but it's simply pronounced Level 7. So simple it's probably underwhelming. Sorry, but I still like it.

Another great writing album that came out last month was Of Monsters and Men's Beneath the Skin. So far, Empire is my favorite song from the album, and like many of my favorite songs, I can listen to it on repeat for an hour or more (which I've been doing for the writing of this post).

If you're in the U.S., then have a safe and happy 4th of July. If you reside elsewhere in this shrinking world, then I'm sure you can find some reason to celebrate. Do you really need a reason to spend time with friends and family and have a few drinks? I think not. And once your head clears from one too many drinks, then it's time to get your butt back in the chair and write. 

IWSG Wednesday: Introducing Le7el

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

I am elbows deep in revisions. I have more work than I originally thought, but I'm excited for the final products. An idea came to me a few weeks ago and I'm running with it. I had been concerned that SUSY Asylum was so much longer than the other books in the series. I had thought of splitting it into two books for a while, but didn't know how...until I explored the idea of splitting it into one novel and one novella. I didn't know if it would work until I began reorganizing the story and I think it's working quite nicely. Now I'm  not so worried about cutting. I'm actually having to write a few more chapters to fill in some newly created gaps.

So the new novella will be titled Le7el, Book 1.5 in the Lorne Family Vault. I don't want to deceive people that have already read the first edition of SUSY Asylum, but since I didn't promote it much, I don't believe it was read by many people. So I'm not worried about angering a whole lot of readers. Ultimately, I think this is a good decision for the series. It's creating more work for me right now, but I think it'll be worth it in the end.

As I get back to work, I want to share what I've been listening to while writing this post. Florence + The Machine's new album came out today (still Tuesday as I'm writing), "How Big How Blue How Beautiful." Their albums create such great mood music for my writing. I'm not too familiar with this new album yet, but the song Delilah caught my attention immediately. Florence + The Machine never disappoints. Enjoy!

IWSG Wednesday: The New Face of the Lorne Family Vault

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

April has been a blur. I'm sure quite a few of you can relate, especially those of you who participated in the A to Z Challenge. I am in the deep waters of editing. Right now I'm trying to finish my initial rounds of editing Archanum Manor so I can hand it over to my editor and he can sand down all the rough edges.

And now that the first draft of my final manuscript in the Lorne Family Vault series is complete, I'm finally ready to reveal my new covers. I will be re-releasing Provex City and SUSY Asylum before finally releasing Doria Falls and Archanum Manor. I've been sitting on these covers for a few months now and I'm so excited to finally share them with you. All four covers were created by Karri Klawiter. She did a great job of capturing the visual essence and tone of my novels and she was so easy to work with every step of the way. Also, her prices are very reasonable. If you're looking for a cover designer, then check out her website and see the many other beautiful covers she's created HERE.

Now, I should get back to editing so I can get these books finished and published...and begin a new project.

IWSG Wednesday: The End in Sight

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

As I said in my previous IWSG post, this past month would be an important one, and it was. I just passed 74,000 words, which is a number I'm quite proud of. I have two chapters left in Archanum Manor. The first one is huge because it's right in the middle of the climax. The second, will be a short resolution and wrap up. I can finally see the end and I'm pushing to finish by this coming weekend.

I know many of you are starting the April A to Z Challange, which is a huge commitment. So I'll keep this short and just update you on my progress. Once I finish this first draft and do a full read through, I'll go back and edit the third book, Doria Falls. During that time, Archanum Manor will be sent to a few beta readers. When I finish the Doria Falls edits, I'll have the distance I need to dive back into Archanum Manor and clean it up. I still have a lot of work ahead of me, but it doesn't feel much like work anymore.

I'd like to leave you with another song I recently added to my Archanum Manor playlist, one I've listened to a lot this month while writing. But I've been listening to the album version and ran across this beautifully haunting acoustic version by accident. But as Mr. Gordon would say, accidents don't just happen. I was meant to find this song tonight. It fits the tone of the book so very perfectly. Take a few minutes for yourself and enjoy the sublimely melodic duet. 

IWSG Wednesday: Crossing the River

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

Another month has flown by and I'm taking a moment away from my writing cave to give an update on my current manuscript. I just passed 50,000 words in Archanum Manor, which feels substantial, but it's obviously taking longer than I had hoped. So I actually averaged 500 words a day this past month, not the 1000 I was pushing for. The important thing is just to keep writing, so I won't come down on myself too hard.

One reason for my lower than expected word count was hitting a major snag in the story. I came to the edge of a river that was quite difficult to cross. I could see the opposite river bank with no idea how to get there. Building the bridge cost me time with writer's block and rewrites. But it did finally get built. I've been writing that bridge for the past week and a half, and I can successfully say that I've reached the other side of the river and ready to continue down road leading to Archanum Manor.

Now I'm getting close to the biggest scenes in the book, which is both exciting and terrifying. I need these scenes to live up to the key scenes in previous books, with the hope of actually surpassing them. This will be an important month as I bring the series to a close. I don't expect to be done by next month's IWSG's post, but I expect to be close. Here's hoping.

I'd like to leave you with a song I just added to my Archanum Manor playlist, one I've been obsessed with over the past week, listening to it repeatedly while writing the interactions between Oliver and Desiree. It has the beautifully sad tone of an Elliott Smith song. Sit back, turn down the lights, close your eyes, and let Joshua Radin pull at your heart strings for three minutes while I get back to work. 

IWSG Wednesday: Writing, Covers, and Soundtracks

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

I just received a rough draft of my fourth and final cover for the Lorne Family Vault series, and I’m excited with how well it fits with the others. It feels great to have them all nearly done, one more thing I can cross of my list for releasing (and rereleasing) all of the books. My biggest complaint with my current (and previous) covers is the visibility (and readability) of the titles, especially viewing them as small cover icons on Amazon. This was another live and learn experience for me since these issues with the titles were my fault. I wanted title graphics that were uniquely stylized. But the results were also hard to read. I know not to ask for that anymore. Now, I’ve asked for a bold title font that stands out even as a small icon—and my new designer fully delivered.

I’m still plugging away at the manuscript for Archanum Manor and just passed the halfway point. As I’ve previously written, I’ve been writing without an outline for most of this first half, but I’m now getting nervous. I want to bring this series home with a strong ending and that pressure is building into more frequent writer’s block. I haven’t written in a few days and I need to get myself back on track this evening because days of non-writing can be a slippery slope of losing momentum.

I enjoy creating soundtracks to my books for brainstorming and writing, and I finished the one for Archanum Manor last week (as an iTunes playlist). For Provex City, the songs I chose fit with specific scenes in the book, but now I create a soundtrack mainly for expressing the tone of the story (though some songs in the other soundtracks still coincide with certain key scenes). The difference is that for Provex City I created the soundtrack after the book was written and fit the songs accordingly. Now my soundtracks are WIPs before and while I’m writing until they feel complete.

And now I’d like to leave you with the teaser of a first song from the Archanum Manor soundtrack for your listening pleasure while I get back to writing.

IWSG Wednesday: The Start to a Great Year

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

I’m excited for 2015. I began this writing journey at the end of 2008 with an idea for a young adult series, and this will be the year I finally finish. I hope to have all four books released sometime this summer, hopefully early summer, but everything seems to take longer than anticipated. I won’t beat myself up over a couple of months. Mark my words: it will get done this year!

This week I received the cover for the third book, Doria Falls, and I’m very happy with how well it came out. So now there’s just one cover to go. The covers are visual representations of finished books for me, so they’ll light the necessary New Year’s fire to get this final book done. I’ve put off all promotion with the writing of these last two books just because that would have prolonged the writing process even longer, which was too hard to accept. These books are my training wheels, and at this stage in the game, it’s much more important to focus on bettering the craft than selling books. When I’m more competent and confident, I can find the more appropriate balance.

There are quite a few things that these books in the currently evolving publishing environment have taught me. Here is a short sampling of what I’ve learned:

• Long books are not my friend: When I started writing, I was inspired by the Harry Potter books. There was something cool about having 700 page hard covers. With most books for self-published authors being sold as ebooks, that coolness factor becomes irrelevant. For me as a self-published author (and at the pace of which I write), it is better to have two shorter books available than one longer book. SUSY Asylum clocked in at 120,000 words, which is quite a bit longer than the other books in the series. Going forward, 60,000 – 70,000 words is a more appropriate length, which in turn will help me add more titles to my backlog.
• Don’t end on cliffhangers: I will no longer write books that end on cliffhangers because I don’t write fast enough to keep readers happy (or at least I won’t while I still work fulltime). I actually like cliffhangers, but they don’t currently work for my writing. With the books in my current series having cliffhangers, I felt like I had to finish the series before moving onto something new. If I decide to write a serial at some point, then I’ll most likely use cliffhangers (but that’s another discussion entirely).
• Don’t create a new Createspace file for a reissue: When you create a new Createspace file/page for a reissue it creates a new Amazon page for that book. I did that with Provex City. What I didn’t know at the time was I couldn’t delete the old page. So now I have one Provex City paperback Amazon page that simply says “currently unavailable.” Also, if I unlink that page from other formats of the book, I lose all the reviews originally written on that page. Amazon will not move reviews from one page to another even though they’re for the same book (just different formats). This was a frustrating lesson.
• Don’t pay for ISBNs: This one goes along with the bullet point above. I created a new Createspace page (which in turn creates a new Amazon page) for the reissue of Provex City to give it a custom ISBN number. I wanted the option that if Provex City ever made it into libraries, then it wouldn’t need a new ISBN number. This is just a waste of money. If my future self published books make it into libraries one day, they’ll just need to be reassigned a new ISBN number. Why worry about that now (and pay $99 for it).
• Try new genres: The digital bookstore of ebooks make an author’s expansion into multiple genres easier than ever. Why not intentionally try to reach more readers? Some genres may sell better than others for you. You may write some genres better than others. You may enjoy writing some genres better than others (which may not be the genre you started with). So why deprive yourself? Sample all the flavors.

Those are enough of my mistakes for one post, but I am thankful for the learning experiences. Though the day I stop messing up is most likely the day I quit--it's all part of the process, the journey, the adventure. Give yourself permission to screw up because at least you're trying. 2015 can be the greatest year ever or it can be a year that passes by without incident. You get to decide.

IWSG Wednesday: November Rain

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

I've finally begun writing again, but it's slow going. Starting is always the hardest thing for me, getting back into the rhythm of daily writing. One week would go by...then two...then three...and I'd still have nothing written down. I can now say that is no longer the case, but I'm far from a novel length. I had hoped to finish my first draft by year's end, but my schedule is shot to hell at this point. Though I'm trying not to be discouraged. I gave myself a deadline, but it isn't an end-of-the-world deadline. As long as I keep working toward my goal, I'll eventually get there.

Which leads me to my plan for finishing my YA series. I plan on releasing the last two books in quick succession. It's important to me to get this series finished so I can begin something new. I'll do some promotion once they're both ready to come out. With my current workload, I don't have the time to write and promote...my 1-2 hours a day doesn't stretch nearly as far as I'd like. It's frustrating, and even more frustrating when that frustration creeps into my writing time and undermines my productivity. All I can do is try to do better tomorrow. Tomorrow is another chance with a clean slate.

Well, it is November and I know many of you have begun your NaNo projects. 50,000 words in a month is my Everest! One day I'll reach it. Good luck to all of you taking the challenge. I'll continue plugging away to increase my word count and trying not to get distracted by too many holiday treats.

IWSG Wednesday: Fall Back

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

Where did this summer go? I’ve had a much busier summer than originally planned because my wife and I made a last minute decision to move around the middle of July. We had been talking about it for over a year, but it never seemed like the right time. When a larger townhouse in our association came on the market, we made the firm decision that it was time. And everything moved very quickly from there, and we were able to purchase the townhouse that had convinced us it was time to move. This was my first experience with buying and selling a home simultaneously, and it was more stressful than I’d anticipated. But with all the stress and headaches of the past two months, we are finally settling into our new home and free of our old one.

In the middle of this buying and selling process, we had a large family vacation planned (booked nearly a year ago). Of course our one big vacation for the year would coincide with our home buying. But nevertheless, it was a great experience (I won’t say relaxing…but a great experience). We spent a few days in Seattle and then boarded the Carnival Miracle for an Alaskan cruise. Besides the beautiful scenery and wonderful food, what made this vacation so special was that parents and sibling from both sides of the family had signed up to come with us, some family members flying in from around the country. It will be an experience that I’ll always cherish because who knows when all of us will vacation together again. I've included a few of our billion photos below--two from Seattle and two from Alaska.

So this is where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to for the past two months. The hardest thing for me when my routine’s been disrupted, is starting it back up, falling back into the groove and rebuilding that momentum. I’ve been outlining my fourth and final book for the Lorne Family Vault series over the past few weeks, but it’s been hard to find the time and energy with all the unpacking and little home improvement projects (I’m not handy enough to take on big projects). But I gave myself a goal of starting the manuscript at the beginning of this month and I intend to keep it. It’s time to get back into writing mode. I intend to have a first draft finished by the end of the year. So I’ve got three months. I’ve never finished a first draft so fast, but if I remain focused and keep to my weekly goals, I believe I can. Cheers--with a pumpkin latte (decaf)--to the best season of the year.

IWSG Wednesday: Doria Falls is Done!

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

It’s been a long time coming, but I finally have a completed manuscript of my third novel, Doria Falls, Book 3 in the Lorne Family Vault. I wrote the final words on Wednesday of last week, and over the weekend finished my first round of editing. My beta readers will dive into it over the next few weeks as I begin the next round of editing. Hopefully, I can hand it over to my editor by the end of the month.

Even though this book took me a few months longer than I had hoped, I’m proud with how it turned out. I don’t want to kick myself too much for my sporadic daily word counts and celebrate the steady progress of one more novel under my belt. Doria Falls is a big change from the two previous books, especially SUSY Asylum. Clocking in at a slim 75,000 words (slim by comparison), Doria Falls is a very streamlined novel. The story within Provex City took place over several months, SUSY Asylum over several weeks, and Doria Falls over several days. It picks up exactly where SUSY Asylum left off—to the minute. Now I need to write a blurb for it, which is not something I’m looking forward to.

Along with editing and formatting, I am beginning to plan for the fourth and final book in the series. This will be my first experiment with a thorough, scene-by-scene outline. Hopefully, this will help my productivity during the writing process and maximize the limited time I can devote to my novel each day. My plan is to begin writing by the beginning of September and have a finished first draft by the end of the year. This series will always mean a lot to me, but I’ve reached the point where I just want to get it done and begin something completely new. It’s time to finish up and move on, allowing a whole new chapter in my writing career to begin.

IWSG Wednesday: Energy to Start the Day!

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

Sometimes the best thing one can do to move forward is to take a step back. I've done precisely that over the past few months. Last month I spoke about being paralyzed with my writing in April and turning to editing in order to stay productive. I was looking forward to May as being the month I'd complete my third manuscript. And I have been writing, but haven't produced the word count I'd originally intended for the past month.

Now to discuss my step back to help propel me to where I want to be. I've been actively writing for six years, spending a lot of free time in front of the computer screen. Over the past three years, my life has changed dramatically due to family additions and a career change that has more than cut my free time in half. Giving up writing is not an option, but if I want to succeed in the long term, then I need to find ways to accomplish more in less time, to become more efficient as a writer and as an entrepreneur, and to refuel myself with energy, passion, and momentum.

Energy--or better yet, the lack there of--has been a major issue for quite a few years. I've equated my dwindling energy to just getting older and counteracted it with drinking more coffee. I hit a tipping point where the coffee wasn't giving me that needed boost anymore, just continual heartburn. So my first major shift was getting off caffeine entirely. That was a year and a half ago. I had hoped my energy would slowly return from conquering my addiction, but that wasn't the case. My energy continued to dwindle as competing priorities kept building. My emotions were suffering. My writing was suffering. And my vision for my future as a full time writer seemed to be fading away if I wasn't committed to making some even bigger changes.

And the first big change I had to make was making a commitment to myself to regain the energy that's been so steadily slipping away. I could work to improve all of my writing routines and obligations, force myself to get up earlier, go to bed later, push my word count, and maximize any free time I could find, but none of those changes would last if I didn't have the energy to even get out of bed in the morning. I had to take a step back.

Over the past two months I've committed to a new exercise routine and healthy nutritional plan. The first few weeks were hard, but as I began to feel better, see some results, and noticed my energy returning to a level I haven't felt in years, the commitment became drastically easier. I can't remember a time when I could get up at 5am and feel refreshed, but I feel that on most mornings now (especially on the ones when I exercise first thing). To do this, I've had to take time away from writing, but with the remaining time I do have to write is now more productive. I can appreciate it more. I can see my vision returning.

I'm still writing. And I have many improvements still to make to reach my goals. But this one has been an important first step. One step back and two steps forward.

IWSG Wednesday: Change Gears, Regroup, and Move Forward

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

I know many of you have spent the past month in the April A to Z challenge. For those who did, I remember how challenging, yet rewarding it was. I hope you enjoyed it. You deserve an blogging break.

I took my blogging break this past month, planning to spend it writing with the goal of finishing my WIP's first draft. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I let my insecurities get the best of me, and had a difficult time getting new words down on the page. I also saw where my initial planning failed me, by reaching a point where I had no idea how to get from point A to B, wasting a lot of time (including designated writing time) trying to figure it out.

For my next book, I plan to write a more detailed outline to try and improve my writing process. For my first two books, I wrote a very basic outline and then "went with the flow," creatively went where the story took me The process was romantic and worked relatively well for those books. With my increased work schedule and family demands, the need has never been greater for me to budget my time wisely, and with that, I'm seeing my creative flow approach is not the most efficient process. And I need to become more efficient as a writer and self publishing entrepreneur.

Instead of wasting my whole month in a paralyzed state, I shifted gears and edited what I had written instead. Editing can be often times tedious and frustrating, but I found it refreshing in this case. I had become so frustrated with my writing paralysis that editing provided a win.

With the first two-thirds of my manuscript now decently edited (just by me thus far), I'm ready to finish the adventure, getting Oliver one step closer to the end of his journey.   

IWSG Wednesday: Indie ReCon Recap

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

There were a lot of great posts from this year’s Indie ReCon. Surprisingly, much of the information was similar to last year’s online conference. There was some good information on writing and formatting, but what I primarily looked for this year was the most current and productive marketing strategies.

My biggest learning is that there is no one way to best market your book(s). Each indie author have his/her best practices, many of which conflict with the experiences of other authors. What was gold for one, worked poorly for another. And what works right now, may not work six months or a year from now. Trying and testing different techniques seems to be what’s needed, changing your approach and adapting. For one, I’m still trying to decide if it’s better to be exclusive with Amazon (to take advantage of the Lending Library and KDP giveaways) or have my ebooks up on the other major online retailers.

Here are my Top 10 posts from this year’s Indie ReCon (in order of time posted):

• Facing Your Fears by Susan Kaye Quinn 
• The Evolving Indie Industry & Standing Out in the Pile with JA Konrath and Barry Eisler 
• Words are Cheap by Rachel Aaron 
• Write, Publish, Repeat: How to Turn Your Art from a Hobby into a Real Business Live Podcast with Johnny Truant, Sean Platt & David Wright 
• Creating Book Buzz by KP Simmon 
• Maximizing Your Sales at Kobo by Mark Lefebvre 
• 5 (Interesting) Ways to Build Your readership by Joanna Penn 
• Understanding Amazon’s Recommendation Engine by David Gaughran 
• Taking Goodreads to the Next Level by Patrick Brown

I know I have to dive more into marketing, but splitting my time between that and writing right now is difficult. I’m doing well with my writing, so I’m focusing on that until I can get my third book finished. The one piece of advice that all the successful authors can agree on is to keep writing. You want to sell more books? Then release more books. There are a few authors that make a killing off of one or two books, but most of the successful authors have many offerings for their fans and curious readers to choose from. So with that said, it’s time to get back to work.

IWSG Wednesday: The Best Days are Not Behind Us

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

The best days are not behind us. At times I feel like I missed out on the good ol’ days of publishing. I don’t know if I’ll ever see my books in actual bookstores, but that doesn’t have to be such a bad thing. Online retailers are crushing bookstores one by one. I get to be part of the new revolution instead of what’s being phased out. Some mornings I feel like I missed the self-publishing gold rush of several years back. I am running near the rear of the stampede only to get lost in the kicked-up dust like so many other authors joining the chase. The market is overcrowded now and discoverability is like winning the Mega Millions jackpot. But it’s never been easy. If it was, then everyone would crank out their masterpiece to collect a quick million.

There are a lot of best practices, but there doesn’t seem to be a single secret to discoverability and becoming the next big name. It always comes back to hard work, persistence, and luck. The harder you work and more persistent you are, the luckier you tend to become. But coming back to the notion that the self-publishing gold rush is over, I recently read a blog post by Hugh Howey, who coincidently is one of the self-publishing success stories listing more indie authors able to support themselves on their craft. Go check it out and come back: Defying the Odds (And the Naysayers).

I have to admit, I’ve never heard of the authors he mentions, but I’m not looking to be famous, I’m looking to make a living as an author (a comfortable living if I may be so bold). I found the post very inspirational because these authors really began to make an impact after the so-called gold rush was supposedly over. Granted, they have been writing for quite a few years and have healthy backlogs, but that’s the real key—honing your craft over multiple books, finding your true voice, finding what it is about your storytelling that will connect with readers, and having more titles for your readers to discover, fall in love with, and tell their friends about.

The best days are not behind us. It seems like everybody has a book or two or even three, but the truly passionate authors will not stop there. They’re in it for the long haul—10, 20 books, and more—and will inevitably find their nuggets of gold because more is always out there. More readers are looking for good books every day. I only have two books out so far, but I plan on writing for the long haul. Sometimes I feel like I missed out, but I didn’t—not really. I didn’t miss out on anything because my best days are writing, which can—and should—be every day.

IWSG Wednesday: Committed to the SUSY Asylum Tour

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

Is it just me, or is each month flying by faster and faster. This week I'll finally finish everything for the SUSY Asylum blog tour, which starts on October 14th. I wanted to be done with all the posts by the 1st of the month, so I didn't quite make that, but I'm close and I'll take that as a win.

I am so anxious for the tour to begin--I haven't been this nervous in awhile. There are quite a few blogs signed up to give reviews...and I'm terrified for the responses. SUSY Asylum is longer, darker, and less restrained than Provex City. I feel like I held back a little with Provex City, but with SUSY Asylum, I went for it with everything I had. I'm spending too much time fidgeting and tapping anything within reach. I've been drowning in headphones. Music is my healthiest distraction right now. I already can't wait for the month to be over, just to know what will happen. I want to skip to the end of the book, even though I know I'll only be cheating myself.

Breathe.

Okay, aside from my blog tour anxiety, I'm excited to announce that I'll be swapping blogs with the legendary M. Pax next Monday. That's right, I'll be over at her place, and she'll be right here talking about her experience as an indie author. So if you're an indie author or thinking of becoming an indie author, then park your butt in front of your favorite computer screen and prepare to take some notes.

What do you have going on this month? Are you ready for Halloween, cooler weather, and pumpkin lattes?