A few days ago, I sent out a newsletter regarding my two new releases: Shades Of Darkness (Book 4 in the Central Division Series) and Grave Secrets: A Halloween Mystery Suspense Novelette.
Much to my surprise, I had over 600 subscribers. For any normal person, this would cause great excitement. Here's the problem: Mailchimp (the e-mail subscriber I use) sends me an e-mail after each subscription . . . and I know darn well that my number wasn't that high. I won't disclose how many, but it certainly wasn't that many.
I sent the newsletter without looking at the list.
Then, I started to get unsubscribes and bounce-backs. Bounce-backs are from e-mails that simply do not exist.
As I looked into each subscriber, many had funky names like 5764g113bn82. Now, I know no parent would name their child this, let alone well over 550.
I then started deleting these subscribers. Unfortunately, I think I deleted my entire list--in fact, I know I did. I can still look over the list I sent on the last newsletter blast, which I'll probably end up doing.
Currently, I working on the first draft of a Christmas-themed novel. I am roughly 5,500 words into it and it's going well. I will share more when it gets closer to done, like the title, synopsis, and the cover.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Friday, September 23, 2016
Grave Secrets / Happenings In The Outhouse 23-Sept-2016
In mid-October 2015, I was thinking about writing stories geared towards the holidays, and not only did I come up with one, I came up with two.
Grave Secrets is the first one. It's a Halloween-themed suspense mystery novelette, and it is currently available at all of your favorite e-retailers.
Here's the synopsis:
Five teenagers. In the woods. At night. On Halloween. What could possibly go wrong?
No one has seen Old Man Cronkite in two weeks. But Tim and his friends go on the Night Ride anyway, hoping the elderly hermit bachelor is planning an elaborate Halloween prank.
But the night doesn’t turn out as planned. Will they be able to keep their deep, dark secret? Will someone discover the truth behind what they did?
Now, I mentioned at the beginning that I had come up with two holiday-themed stories. I am currently writing the second one, this one centered around Christmas. This new one will be a departure of the majority of my stories, save for Gabriel's Hope and possibly my short story A.K.A. Anonymous. I will share my progress, as I do all of my other novels.
Grave Secrets is the first one. It's a Halloween-themed suspense mystery novelette, and it is currently available at all of your favorite e-retailers.
Here's the synopsis:
Five teenagers. In the woods. At night. On Halloween. What could possibly go wrong?
No one has seen Old Man Cronkite in two weeks. But Tim and his friends go on the Night Ride anyway, hoping the elderly hermit bachelor is planning an elaborate Halloween prank.
But the night doesn’t turn out as planned. Will they be able to keep their deep, dark secret? Will someone discover the truth behind what they did?
Now, I mentioned at the beginning that I had come up with two holiday-themed stories. I am currently writing the second one, this one centered around Christmas. This new one will be a departure of the majority of my stories, save for Gabriel's Hope and possibly my short story A.K.A. Anonymous. I will share my progress, as I do all of my other novels.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Periodically Audit Your Back List / Happenings In The Outhouse 16-Sept-2016
I listened to a podcast the other day and the author talked about how they--meaning, him and his indie publishing team--would regularly audit their back list.
A back list, for those who may not know, is the entire list of your publishing works. Everything you've written.
What do I mean by audit?
Audit is to review the product. Is the cover okay? How about the keywords, the synopsis/book description, and even links, etc. inside the book? Believe it or not, what you did years ago may not be relevant anymore. Links you had to a free book may not be the best fit anymore. And so on.
I've been doing this a bit, from time to time, but now I have a set schedule to look at a few things on a quarterly basis. This isn't going to require loads of time, but if I can improve a book or two by improving keywords and/or book description, or even the cover, or update links it will help down the road.
On a side note, I've been quite a busy beaver lately. After I set Shades Of Darkness up on pre-order--the book is out now!--I wrote a Halloween-themed novella called Grave Secrets. Then, I'm planning on a Christmas-themed novel. This one will be quite a different story than what I normally write, but it's been in my head for close to a year and I'm itching to get it done before the holiday season.
A back list, for those who may not know, is the entire list of your publishing works. Everything you've written.
What do I mean by audit?
Audit is to review the product. Is the cover okay? How about the keywords, the synopsis/book description, and even links, etc. inside the book? Believe it or not, what you did years ago may not be relevant anymore. Links you had to a free book may not be the best fit anymore. And so on.
I've been doing this a bit, from time to time, but now I have a set schedule to look at a few things on a quarterly basis. This isn't going to require loads of time, but if I can improve a book or two by improving keywords and/or book description, or even the cover, or update links it will help down the road.
On a side note, I've been quite a busy beaver lately. After I set Shades Of Darkness up on pre-order--the book is out now!--I wrote a Halloween-themed novella called Grave Secrets. Then, I'm planning on a Christmas-themed novel. This one will be quite a different story than what I normally write, but it's been in my head for close to a year and I'm itching to get it done before the holiday season.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Shades of Darkness is out today!!
Shades of Darkness, the fourth book in the Central Division Series, is out today!
Here's the synopsis:
A wife murders her husband. The prosecution calls it a slam dunk. A fiery defense attorney demands a speedy trial. So what’s the problem? Minneapolis PD investigators KOLIN RAYNES, SIMON TEMPLETON, and rookie KELLY KING trust their instincts, that not everything is as it seems.
SHADES OF DARKNESS is the fourth novel in the Central Division Series of suspenseful thriller novels. Be sure to check out the previous novels in the series BEHOLDER’S EYE, STRAIGHT RAZOR, and DISCARDED.
Shades Of Darkness is available at all of these fine e-retailing establishments:
Amazon Kindle version
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble Nook store
Apple iBooks
Kobo Books
Google Play
For all others in the Central Division Series, click on this link to visit my website.
Here's the synopsis:
A wife murders her husband. The prosecution calls it a slam dunk. A fiery defense attorney demands a speedy trial. So what’s the problem? Minneapolis PD investigators KOLIN RAYNES, SIMON TEMPLETON, and rookie KELLY KING trust their instincts, that not everything is as it seems.
SHADES OF DARKNESS is the fourth novel in the Central Division Series of suspenseful thriller novels. Be sure to check out the previous novels in the series BEHOLDER’S EYE, STRAIGHT RAZOR, and DISCARDED.
Shades Of Darkness is available at all of these fine e-retailing establishments:
Amazon Kindle version
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble Nook store
Apple iBooks
Kobo Books
Google Play
For all others in the Central Division Series, click on this link to visit my website.
Friday, September 9, 2016
Revisiting the perfect swing / Happenings In The Outhouse 09-Sept-2016
Last week, we discussed the perfect swing and how it relates to authors.
I wanted to revisit it again because I find it an interesting topic. Have you, as a writer, ever sat down to write and completely lost time, where the words flow out of you without little effort?
I'm sure you have.
Yes, there are times when (myself included) I have to pull, push, twist, and shove the words out of my brain and onto the virtual page. Oddly enough, most of my blog posts are written in a single draft (with very little editing, save for fixing incorrect grammar or adding to something I had written). Right now, I'm almost done with a Halloween-themed novella. It's something I got the idea for in mid-October last year.
Just the other day, I brought my laptop to work . . . and the words just flowed without effort. There were areas where I didn't plan on exploring before, making the story that much more richer.
The more and more you write, the more times you will experience this. It's a great feeling, getting lost in the words you're putting down. Don't stop to edit what you had just written. Just keep writing.
And have fun.
I wanted to revisit it again because I find it an interesting topic. Have you, as a writer, ever sat down to write and completely lost time, where the words flow out of you without little effort?
I'm sure you have.
Yes, there are times when (myself included) I have to pull, push, twist, and shove the words out of my brain and onto the virtual page. Oddly enough, most of my blog posts are written in a single draft (with very little editing, save for fixing incorrect grammar or adding to something I had written). Right now, I'm almost done with a Halloween-themed novella. It's something I got the idea for in mid-October last year.
Just the other day, I brought my laptop to work . . . and the words just flowed without effort. There were areas where I didn't plan on exploring before, making the story that much more richer.
The more and more you write, the more times you will experience this. It's a great feeling, getting lost in the words you're putting down. Don't stop to edit what you had just written. Just keep writing.
And have fun.
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Shades Of Darkness on pre-order for 12-Sept-2016 release
A wife murders her husband. The prosecution calls it a slam dunk. A fiery defense attorney demands a speedy trial. So what’s the problem? Minneapolis PD investigators KOLIN RAYNES, SIMON TEMPLETON, and rookie KELLY KING trust their instincts, that not everything is as it seems.
SHADES OF DARKNESS is the fourth novel in the Central Division Series of suspenseful thriller novels. Be sure to check out the previous novels in the series BEHOLDER’S EYE, STRAIGHT RAZOR, and DISCARDED.
Shades Of Darkness is set up on pre-orders on several e-retailers for a September 12th 2016 release.
Amazon Kindle version
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble Nook store
Apple iBooks
Kobo Books
Google Play
For all others in the Central Division Series, click on this link to visit my website.
SHADES OF DARKNESS is the fourth novel in the Central Division Series of suspenseful thriller novels. Be sure to check out the previous novels in the series BEHOLDER’S EYE, STRAIGHT RAZOR, and DISCARDED.
Shades Of Darkness is set up on pre-orders on several e-retailers for a September 12th 2016 release.
Amazon Kindle version
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble Nook store
Apple iBooks
Kobo Books
Google Play
For all others in the Central Division Series, click on this link to visit my website.
Friday, September 2, 2016
The perfect swing / Happenings In The Outhouse 02-Sept-2016
First of all, this is blog post number . . . (drum roll) . . . 700!
Hard to believe this all started in June 2010, just a mere 6 years ago.
One bit of news before we talk about the subject this week. Shades Of Darkness, the fourth novel in the Central Division Series is complete. Final edits are taken care of, and as of now it looks like it will be released 12-Sept-2016. When it's available for preorder, I will provide a link and a separate post.
What is the perfect swing?
I equate this with golf, a sport I am most familiar with, but this could be with any sport (I know, I'm not much of a sports fan, but trust me, I won't take long to get to my point). I played basketball up until 7th grade and golf throughout my high school career. There were times when I would toss the ball to the basket and just knew it would go in. The same with golf. I knew the hits that just made the ball soar higher, straighter, and farther.
Professional athletes do this more often than amateurs. Countless hours of practice have given them the muscle memory to do it over and over again, in a variety of situations.
Writers can have the equivalent of a perfect swing too. And again, professionals experience it more often than amateurs, but what separates the two is plain sit-butt-in-chair-time. Deliberate time, but time nonetheless.
Have you ever written a paragraph, page, scene, or even chapter and just sat back afterwards, exhilarated at what you had accomplished? I'm sure most of us had. These are words that, when it comes to editing, it more than likely is the most clean.
There were a number of scenes and chapters in Shades Of Darkness that were like this. They were super fun to write, and even more fun to re-read.
Hard to believe this all started in June 2010, just a mere 6 years ago.
One bit of news before we talk about the subject this week. Shades Of Darkness, the fourth novel in the Central Division Series is complete. Final edits are taken care of, and as of now it looks like it will be released 12-Sept-2016. When it's available for preorder, I will provide a link and a separate post.
What is the perfect swing?
I equate this with golf, a sport I am most familiar with, but this could be with any sport (I know, I'm not much of a sports fan, but trust me, I won't take long to get to my point). I played basketball up until 7th grade and golf throughout my high school career. There were times when I would toss the ball to the basket and just knew it would go in. The same with golf. I knew the hits that just made the ball soar higher, straighter, and farther.
Professional athletes do this more often than amateurs. Countless hours of practice have given them the muscle memory to do it over and over again, in a variety of situations.
Writers can have the equivalent of a perfect swing too. And again, professionals experience it more often than amateurs, but what separates the two is plain sit-butt-in-chair-time. Deliberate time, but time nonetheless.
Have you ever written a paragraph, page, scene, or even chapter and just sat back afterwards, exhilarated at what you had accomplished? I'm sure most of us had. These are words that, when it comes to editing, it more than likely is the most clean.
There were a number of scenes and chapters in Shades Of Darkness that were like this. They were super fun to write, and even more fun to re-read.
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