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Monday, March 11, 2024

Calm before the storm

Restless today. Maybe time change. Maybe me. Both?

This week is a quiet one for me, and I'm thankful for it.
Next week will be balls to the wall. I seem to thrive in that. Until it's over. And then I both look and feel like roadkill. heh

Extremely excited about no appts this week. Grocery shopping Wednesday, the usual fare. But starting next Tuesday, I have an appt that day, groceries Wednesday, appt Thursday, hair appt Friday and leaving after that to drive down and spend the night in my Arlington hotel to go to my first book event this year, which is the Home Run Author Event in Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
It's a lot. But I'm always uber excited about book events. 
The buzz and the excitement is like a drug, I swear. You're in a place with your people, both authors and readers. I'm convinced my pupils must be HUGE. 😂

Seems to be about fifty of us. My adrenaline is pumping, simply thinking about it. Having never gone to this particular event, I'm not sure how many books to take, which titles, etc. I think I've decided on 20 each of OHH, Canary-both, PCA, and a bookmark with a code for a free download. I'll also have free pens and bags. 

Simmering down. Hope tomorrow is more productive mind seems to be scattered right now. Guess we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Always writing*

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Discounted eBooks!

March 3rd-March 9th, 2024

My eBooks will be discounted! Come read me. 😄 




Great time to find something new.

Happy reading!

Friday, March 1, 2024

A feeling

For some unknown, as of yet, reason, I believe my March to be busy. I DO have my March event in Arlington:  Home Run Author Event
Excited about that. 😊

I have a couple other things, but nothing to make me feel like I feel right now. It's giving me a bit of anxiety. I need no help in this area. 😑

I'm writing on my dark fantasy romance today. I quite love it. Infinitely darker and deeper than I've done before.
My three books I'll release this year are:  dark fantasy, "Incantation"--4th book in the Rivers Series, and "Out of the Shadows"--last book in the Canary Trilogy. I wanted to release five, but these three are the priority. I might fit in some short stories, but it's already MARCH! I didn't think I was going to make it through January, but here we are.

The ONLY bad thing about a productive day, me being at this desk tap tapping away, is that I think I need food inhalation to meet the writing productivity. If I'm in the flow, I eat more. My brain thinks that since it's expending so much energy, I must need snacks. 😂
Oh, Lordt.

Have a good Friday!

Always writing*
...and inhaling snacks on those productive days

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Who am I kidding?

I am chaotic neutral. Emphasis on chaotic. I seek absolute freedom and individuality.

I'm attempting to stick to some type of schedule. My want for some type of organization is butting heads with my need to go with the flow and work and exist in the space that lets me create when I need/want to. It isn't remotely pretty.

I decided to take each day of the week and have at least one fixed item I will maintain and then continue to do what I'm drawn to.
I have Monday and Tuesday. 😬

Possible solutions? Try even harder. Acquire a jacket that buckles in the back. Go full rager. Have all my personalities gather for a therapy session. Keep on keepin' on. Lose what's left of my sanity.

Stellar options. *deepest sigh possible in the known universe*

Okay. Going to try this daily at least one fixed item. Then be about my business and what strikes me. How many days does it take to make a habit? Twenty-one? Awesome. Yes. I'm going to out-stubborn myself. Please don't ask me how this makes sense. It just somehow does. 
I hope. 😂

Always writing*
...and playing mind games with myself to do so

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

When I realized writers (me) were insane.

It happened to me. About a minute and a half ago. Taking a small brain break. Looking at FB. When it hit me. I am certifiable. Completely. And well with it.

Writers are insane. Insane obligatory definition:  in a state of mind which prevents normal perception, behavior, or social interaction.

 That's my wheelhouse. But let me really explain a writer's insanity to you.

Right now, I'm making a TikTok/Insta video. I'm wearing my TARDIS pants, a ratty shirt, and my beautiful hair is pulled up in a not-so-cute bun. Laundry is laundrying. I'm drinking a Red Bull and water.

I have eight tabs open on one screen and my Clipchamp on the other screen with my project up. I'm sifting through 295 audio clips to find the perfect one to go with my visual I created on Canva. I color-coordinated my arrows on my visual to match my book cover. I changed the arrows up so my readers, hopefully, won't be bored with the look. I though using all the same arrows would be monotonous. Yes. I am stressing about ARROWS. 

I have my visual on screen for exactly 15 seconds because I want the audience to be able to read the necessary words but not grow so bored they swipe too quickly. That defeats the purpose. I will come up with a two or three sentence synopsis I will use to scroll-at the right speed-over said visual. It will also need to be the right color and font.

I started writing my fantasy romance. I've written a chapter. It's a good chapter. And I spent a great deal of two days typing '"word" synonym' because I had a word I could use, but it wasn't perfect. So I Thesaurus'd the hell out of some of the vocabulary looking for the EXACT verbiage I needed. Not satisfied until I found it. I scoured 65 pages of "Woman Fantasy Warrior" because I needed a good visual for my Hero, and I had to sift through fictional women wearing a handkerchief on the upper and lower bits. 65 pages, guys.

And I do this GLADLY. I look for the perfect everything when I write. I discard the meh, the almost, the "this COULD do", in favor of the shiniest, prettiest, best I can find for my audience.

The biggest tell-all of not quite being on the sane train?

I've taught myself this. I didn't know some of this organically. I love it. My SOUL loves it. The passion has ALWAYS been there. But if you would have told me that I would create something on Canva and then pop it on Clipchamp to add audio and THEN post it on my socials, I would have laugh-snorted and called you delusional.

But here I am. Looking like something Simba coughed up and creating content. 
I love my job. 

Always creating content and havoc...  

Saturday, February 17, 2024

Saturday before 52.

Yesterday was incredibly busy. It was, for all intents and purposes, my day off. 

Stylist touched up my hair, yay for rose gold!, lunch with baby child, and participated at an event at the local book store.
I'm a wee bit tired this morning. Um...afternoon.

I'm trying to be more active on my FB page, Insta, and TikTok. I'm preparing bookmarks with codes for a free download of the first book in a series to take with me next month to the Home Run Author Event in Arlington, Texas.

I'm doing my plotting/pantster writing on my next work of Fantasy Romance. I have twenty separate pages in my OneNote Notebook of characters/scenes/villains. I am immersed, but I am thriving. It's such a fine line between exhilaration and exhaustion. 
But the love for the words is always there. I never grow tired of them. Weave and wind. Stitch and sew. 

Off to write a bit. Make notes. Hope everyone is having a good day! 
May take tomorrow of and play around on Amazon Prime and watch some murder/detective mysteries.
The heart wants what it wants.

Always writing*
...except when I turn 52
  

Sunday, February 4, 2024

I'm astonished.

I bought PublisherRocket yesterday and have been playing with it since. It's an amazing tool that breaks down keyword and category searches on Amazon. It has tutorials. And it's full of information for authors. Handy ass tool I'm glad I have now.

But...and I say this as calmy as I can...I can now see which books are making bank and in which categories with what keywords they are using. Thus, the purpose of the site.

There is a book that is about an ungodly rich man having a one-stand with a virgin. They run into each other as their company's are doing business with each other. And there, on the landing page of the book, it states that it's a rich hero, virgin heroine, one-night stand, workplace romance HEA.
*blinks*
It's making bank.

There's no mystery. I've given you the entire book in the last paragraph. That's not a blurb, it's the damn book. And readers are eating it up. When I started publishing, we had to choose fewer categories, but that's not my point. I didn't publish a book that had:  Rich paranormal man uses false ad to imprison virgin woman to bear child. Rules of the contract prohibit further contact. Intrusive mother-in-law. Alpha male. HEA.
That's What He Wants, by the way.

I suppose I'll follow the trend, y'all know I hate the hell out of it. AND, of course the covers all look the same, and heaven forbid we buck that trend.
Hard being a visionary. 

Always writing*
...and researching...and flexing...