So I'm on Authorgraph

There are so many different ways to promote one's book that it's actually mind-boggling, and I've just recently discovered a site that allows you receive a digital autograph from your favorite author!  It's called Authorgraph.

Authorgraph makes it possible for authors to sign e-books for their readers. Really! Getting an Authorgraph is easy: 

• Search or browse for your favorite authors or books 

• Click "Request Authorgraph" (you can include a short message to the author) 

• Receive an email when the author has signed your Authorgraph 

• View your Authorgraph in your favorite reading apps and devices

I actually found a few books that I own so I'm going to request an author-graph from the respective authors and just have fun with it.

But don't let me be the only one to have any fun!  If you have my books, you can even get me to author graph your copy! Yup, I signed up with them and here are my books on their site which I recently added.  You'll probably end up searching for my books once I cycle through the "Recently Added..." section but it would be fun, wouldn't it?

It's Cover Reveal Day for "A Collateral Attraction (Fire & Ice Series 1)"

When hippie Billie Delphine joins her sophisticated twin sister, Blythe, in New York for a vacation, the last thing she expects is for Blythe to disappear with embattled heir, Ethan Kheiron, or be involved in an embezzlement scandal. So when Ethan's brother, Heath, suggests they work together to find Blythe before the scandal is exposed, Billie agrees, even if it means entering a whole new world of personal shopping sprees and private planes, where millions of dollars hide decades of lies.  

But a life of luxury, no matter how temporary, is no match for the years of unresolved differences between sisters. And even as Billie fights the attraction she feels for Heath, she knows that they're all just pieces on someone else's game of power, where some of them are more expendable than others.

Cover designed by @Dani_CoverArt

Wattpad Favorites: Mission Macabre by Kevin Gebhard

Time to get your Halloween groove on, folks, and get reading!

Kevin Gebhard's first foray into vampire fiction is a guaranteed hit with Mission Macabre, free to read right now as it's being serialized on Wattpad.  When a vigilante detective teams up with a sexy vampire, it only means a whole new brand of justice to hit the city!

Wattpad Review: The Body by TheAlvarezChronicles

Sometimes there are stories that just grab you and don't let go at all, and The Body by Robert Alvarez or @TheAlvarezChronicles on Wattpad does just that.  From the moment we're introduced to the case, we know that we're in for a wild and bumpy ride.  A girl is missing, and the detectives on the case immediately sense that she's not just missing: she's dead.

The suspect list isn't long, and there aren't exactly any surprises as in, whodunnit?  That's because we're investigating the case along with the detectives.  It's not just about catching the killer, it's about building a strong case against him.

The Body is a non-fiction account of an actual case (as far as I know) and Alvarez knows what he's talking about.  It's a riveting read and one of the best on Wattpad, hands down.  But you don't have to take my word for it.

Book Review - Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies and The Making of a Medical Examiner

Look what just came in! Working Stiff by @drjudymelinek #amreading #research #nonfiction pic.twitter.com/0tKInbDaNM

— Liz Madrid (@LizMadridauthor) October 6, 2015

Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the first shows I fell in love with a child was Quincy ME even if at that time I had no exact idea what a medical examiner's work really entailed. It was my mother's favorite show, along with Murder She Wrote and so we all sat in front of our one TV set on Sunday nights and watched it. If I had any questions about what an ME does and how he/she gets there, Judy Melinek, MD answered all my questions, and then some. I always knew that CSI and all those other shows depicted many of the job description wrong, but what makes for good work practice (bright lights, caps, gowns, face masks, and months before getting toxicology reports) doesn't necessarily make for good TV. But behind the Gil Grissom's and the Temperance Brennans of TV was dedication to their jobs, and I love seeing that in books like Working Stiff.

Working Stiff: 2 years, 262 bodies and the making of a medical examiner is Judy Melinek's journey to being a medical examiner where two months into the job, she is among those responsible for doing the autopsies on the 9/11 victims. I remember the containers she talks about because I remember walking past them among the throng of people making their way to "Ground Zero" then and always wondered what was inside. I still remember the makeshift memorials people put up months after.

I honestly could not put this down - although I did so I could make dinner and sleep and do some work in between. I finished it at about 3am and my only advice is, if you're at all squeamish, don't read this right before bed. The one death that stays with me the most is the one that gave Melinek nightmares and I won't spoil it for you - but you'll know it when you get there.

I'm giving it 5/5 because I love her style of writing. It's far from too technical and there were times that it felt like she were just telling me how her day went which brings back memories of my best friend telling me about what they did in med school that day while dissecting a cat cadaver in her backyard. I also felt for her whenever she talks about her father, who committed suicide when Melinek was just a teen.

View all my reviews

Can You Really Pitch Your Novel on Twitter? Apparently, Yes

A few months ago, I read about someone who sold her screenplay on Twitter for up to six figures.  When I told one of my massage client this, he asked, "how could anyone pitch anything using only140 characters?"

Well, I had no idea either.  And when an author pitch event happened on Twitter a month ago and everyone was telling everyone not to favorite any of the pitches (that's reserved for the publishing house; if they do fave your pitch, then be ready to submit your manuscript), it scared me enough not to even understand what was going on or how it worked.  Two fellow authors did do the event and their pitches got picked.

So anyway, as of this morning, I can now say that I do have an idea on how it's done.  And it's not as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be, though narrowing your blurb to less than 140 characters can be tricky and you'll need to craft a few versions of them to tweet out.  I only tweeted the best one I could come up with out of 6 versions.

What is nerve-wracking is when your pitch does get faved by a publisher, as mine did during this morning's pitch event.  It got faved five minutes after I tweeted it.

So what's next? Well, I'm supposed to send them the first four chapters of my manuscript and they'll let me know if it's good enough for them or not.  I still need to see what else they'll need besides those chapters and work from there.

And whether or not the outcome is positive or not, I did get to learn what all the pitch madness is all about on Twitter and not be overwhelmed or intimidated by it when it happens again.  And to answer that question whether someone can really pitch a novel or a screenplay in less than 140 characters?  Yep, it can be done!

Growing Pains of An Indie-Author

I'm still trying to navigate this overwhelming new world of marketing for writers, especially self-published writers like me.  There's so much to do that I have to keep a notebook and jot down all the notes, all the websites, all the tips that everyone else swears will work to promote your book - turns out I'm such a visual-kinesthetic learner that I have to actually jot down, scribble, sketch the ideas on paper before it makes its mark a bit more permanently than just plain reading or watching some how-to video on Youtube.   And while my notes are constantly growing, the toughest part will be the execution of these tips successfully.

And in the process of the execution, there will be mistakes.  And because I'm easily distracted, there will be lots of mistakes.

Take Loving Ashe for example, which is going through a re-release party of sorts in mid-November, when the paperback version will be released.

When I first published Loving Ashe, it was to no fanfare at all. Why? Probably just excitement, but part of the reason was that I wanted to gather reader reviews on sites such as Amazon and Goodreads, even Smashwords.  Then barely one month after publication, I made the decision (as an experiment) to have the book exclusive to a Amazon's Kindle Direct Select or KDP for 90 days.  I figured, I'd see if that would help increase my sales.  It's also part of the Kindle Unlimited lending library.

With only one month left to go in the 3-month term, I've un-checked the box that says "Automatically renew this book to KDP in another 90 days..." because while there are sales, right now 1 book per day and sometimes 2, when I went to check my Smashwords dashboard, I found out that I made more money selling Loving Ashe on iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and even Scribd in less than a month than I have on Amazon.

And I also hate having all my eggs in one basket.

There are also many people who refuse to buy from Amazon, and from among my bodywork clients alone, I've counted 6 people alone.  That's 6 sales I would have lost - and am losing - while my book remains solely on Amazon.

So starting November 10th, Loving Ashe will be back up on Smashwords and made available to other retailers like iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, though I think Scribd is out of the running if Loving Ashe is categorized under Romance since they've pulled out romance books from their library. Turns out, romance readers were driving their company model to the ground - they were gobbling up more books in a month than was financially feasible.  I'm actually a Scribd subscriber and one who barely has enough time to read any of the books that I've earmarked in my library. Most of the books I read on Scribd happens to be Charles Bukowski's poetry - go figure.

Anyway, so if you haven't yet gotten your copy of Loving Ashe because you refuse to buy it from Amazon, which is the only place you can get it right now, don't despair.  November 11 (hey, that's 11/11!) is the date it will go back up to all the other online retailers and I'll be doing a happy dance then, too.  Now my only problem is figuring out how to get the paperback available from sites other than Amazon.  But then you can always buy that from me :)

A Writer Keeps Writing

Though Collateral is currently ranked at #3 under Mystery/Thriller category on Wattpad, it's not among the Top 50 semi-finalists in Harlequin's So You Think You Can Write competition this year.  Sad, I know, but I'm actually glad.  For one, it's not what Harlequin wants in a romance and I knew that already, not when it straddles chick-lit and romance that's set in a mystery.  

Still, while there is some disappointment (about 10%), there's a lot of relief going on inside this noggin (80%, while the last 10% is undecided).  Last night, I transferred the edited story from Word back to Scrivener and am ready to spend the rest of October doing a second round of edits for it, including a full rewrite of its ending.  

And then there's NaNoWriMo.  Loving Ashe was actually my NaNoWriMo novel last year and this year, it's Loving Riley's turn!

So being a writer, I write, right?  Or I'm not a writer.

The Inspiration Behind Loving Ashe

©Guylty

People often ask what led me to write Loving Ashe, and other than NaNoWriMo 2014, it started a year and a half earlier with a writing prompt about an elevator. At that time, publicity was in full swing for the lead actors of The Hobbit, namely Richard Armitage.  And after seeing a picture of him during one of the publicity events in New York, I wondered what would happen if my main character got stuck in an elevator with a handsome man whom she didn't recognize was an actor because she was feeling too guilty over something she'd almost done. A bit complicated, I know, but this was the premise for Elevator, the short story that was the result of the writing prompt.

A year and a half later, with the characters slowly coming into their own like fine wine, Riley Eames and Ashe Hunter were "born" just in time for NaNoWriMo14.  Ashe became much younger at 32 than Armitage (43) and Riley remained that magical age of 23 (kinda New Adult but kinda not).

The idea to keep Ashe an actor, giving Riley a little glimpse into his life in show business is based on my experiences as a massage therapist, visiting homes of people who worked in the business, from directors, producers, managers, agents and the actors themselves.  Some were older, and part of Old Hollywood as we know it now and some were even rappers who were also actors.  

The one thing that struck me about the actors though was that while they were known as one thing in the public eye, behind closed doors - even if those doors were mansions in Bel-Air or Sherman Oaks or Malibu - they were normal people like you and me.  Sure, they had more security, had game rooms larger than my entire house, and you often needed a map to navigate your way from one end of the house to the other.  But they were still normal. They had the same aches and pains as you and I do, watch the same shows and even read the same books.  They had their dreams, pursued them with a passion and had work ethics to die for.  But they also worried about their kids the same way I worry about my kids and most of all, they were just as insecure as you and me.  

It was a far cry from the tough, often bad-boy or bitchy image they portrayed on billboards, movies, or on talk shows.  

I'm sure there are many people in the "business" who aren't so nice, but so far, I've been fortunate.  In my case, it was meeting one man, a line producer, who got me "in."  So impressed was he with my bodywork (deep tissue techniques specializing in treatment of chronic pain, plus I do tend to talk when talked to), that he referred me to the star of the movie he was producing, who then referred me to the director of the same movie, who then referred me to another actor...and so on.  One person.  

These days, I've let go of the stars and the directors and the producers since marrying and starting a family but I can never forget the inside look they all gave me into their lives and their homes and their families.  The thrill of being recognized and called by your first name is something you can't describe, but at the same time, it's something you can't buy as real.  In the end, I was still their massage therapist and it was business.  I was also bound to client privacy so whatever they were willing to share with me was to remain with me and no one else.

Maybe they'll show up in my stories but luckily if something does, it's all pretty tame.  Or at least in my fiction it is.

Loving Ashe is now available to buy from Amazon.

A Brand New Cover Reveal (And How To Update Your Purchased Copy With the New Cover)

Yesterday I did a brand new cover reveal for Loving Ashe on the Facebook page.  Honestly, I couldn't be any happier working with Daniela of SelfPubBookCovers.com to get the look I wanted, especially one to match the cover of the second book, and soon, the third of the trilogy.

It's definitely one of the lessons I'm learning about self-publishing - that not all covers are created equal, even if it says, "custom cover."

I also learned that unless I did one more step on my Kindle device settings, the new version wouldn't necessarily replace the older versions that I already purchased.  So if you've purchased your copy of Loving Ashe before today, chances are you'll need to do one more thing to make sure you get this brand new version with the appropriate credit to the designer within the copyright page.

I went ahead and did a screen cap of the things you'll need to do on your end to get the updated content automatically downloaded to your device or app.

Here's the more detailed look into how to turn Automatic Book Updates On or Off that will help you get the updated cover downloaded onto your apps and devices.  

The Case of the Perfect Book Cover

With the release of the paperback copy of Loving Ashe set three months after the release of the ebook, it's safe to say that I was not as prepared as I should have been.  I was plagued by paperback-release jitters mainly because I was sending one copy to my mother, to whom Loving Ashe is dedicated to.  It's one thing to send the book out the world, right? It's a whole other enchilada to send a copy to your mother.

At least my mother.

Not that it's hard to please my mother - it probably is - but this is the woman who introduced me to art and books, who had the whole collection of classics in my room, and kept her copies of Harold Robbins hidden on the top shelf thinking no one would find them.

But then I digress - Harold Robbins would be for another blog post.

So anyway, the case of the perfect book cover was the main reason I held off on the publishing of the paperback because I knew my cover was a plain stock photograph just moved a bit to the left to make room for the typography.  I always fear that someone else will publish something with the same cover and so I've been on the look-out for months for the right cover - or in the case of Daniela from Selfpubbookcovers.com, the right tweet to show up at just the right time on my Twitter feed.   And already, the cover for the second book of the Loving Ashe trilogy is now finished.

Right now, we're finalizing everything with the paperback for Loving Ashe and I am definitely excited - so excited that I'm going to hold a release party for Loving Ashe the way I should have done when I first published the book three months ago.  There will be a raffle for prizes and book give-aways, so keep your eyes peeled.

And to celebrate this upcoming book release, I've made a video with a new blurb and a whole new mood to capture the essence of this new book cover, compiled along with the best reviews for Loving Ashe since I published it, gleaned from Scribd, Amazon and Goodreads.

Who knows? You just might find your review on there!

"...No Story Is Ever Done." - John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck, ca. 1966. Photograph by Yoichi Okamoto

A man who writes a story is forced to put into it the best of his knowledge and the best of his feeling. The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty. A writer lives in awe of words for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator. Of course, there are dishonest writers who go on for a little while, but not for long—not for long. 

A writer out of loneliness is trying to communicate like a distant star sending signals. He isn’t telling or teaching or ordering. Rather he seeks to establish a relationship of meaning, of feeling, of observing. We are lonesome animals. We spend all life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say—and to feel— 

 “Yes, that’s the way it is, or at least that’s the way I feel it. You’re not as alone as you thought.” 

 Of course a writer rearranges life, shortens time intervals, sharpens events, and devises beginnings, middles and ends. We do have curtains—in a day, morning, noon and night, in a man, birth, growth and death. These are curtain rise and curtain fall, but the story goes on and nothing finishes. 

 To finish is sadness to a writer—a little death. He puts the last word down and it is done. But it isn’t really done. The story goes on and leaves the writer behind, for no story is ever done. 

Source: Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 45 (Continued), John Steinbeck

Juggling Life As A Writer, Or At For Least Me

One of my greatest weaknesses is the inability to juggle two things at once - like writing and being a mom.  Or writing and having a life outside of the writing in general.

On the outside I think I do a good job pretending I do know how to juggle all those things, but the truth is, I struggle.  I remember during the days when I was starting out my massage practice 15 years ago, I had to draw a pie chart which represented my overall life.  How much time was I going to devote to massage as a career, marketing it, hanging out with friends, being with family, and setting aside time for myself?

Strange that when I went into massage as a field, it was actually so that I'd have the flexibility to write - yet when I wrote that pie chart, writing never even made it in there anywhere because to me, setting aside time for myself = writing.  It was a no-brainer.  Taking care of myself didn't even involve getting myself a massage knowing full well that I was usually plotting out my novels while lying on the massage table pretending to relax.

After all, it's why I write - to sort out things in my life that I need to look into more and glean lessons from them.  It's a very roundabout way of solving problems, but that's the main reason I write - besides the escapist part of it, of course.  Who wouldn't want to live the life of the rich and famous, or solve mysteries while jetting in private planes, or stand before a packed Broadway theater and act their hearts out?

But now that writing has taken over most of the pie chart once reserved for my private massage practice which has now been relegated to a tiny tiny sliver to represent just being at my office once a week, how do I balance that with everything else?  These days I have a high-functioning 5-year old kid on the spectrum who should be getting a lot of therapy to address behavioral concerns, a house to look after and laundry to do, even meals to prepare.  There are playdates with other kids for the little one, and time with friends.

But with me being writer, blogger, marketer and all around juggler, it's hard to find the balance to be all that.  But I try.  It's the only thing I can do, really, while trying to find the time to blog about my book or about writing in general, even if I end up sounding like I'm whining like I am now, learn how to engage reviewers to read my book, or find the right book cover designers to convey the covers I want without having to waste any more money as I have on plain stock photo covers, and so much more.

Even my iPhone 6Plus, with its hundreds of organizing apps can't hold a candle to all the things I have to do without me needing to have a battery reserve somewhere in my purse amidst the snacks I have to take for my kid and myself. Hell, most days I even forget to eat.

It's an ongoing battle each and every day just to get everything done amidst the writing.  It's what gets me up at 7 in the morning, already working while still under the covers and dragging myself to bed at midnight or 1am just to get some shut-eye before the whole process starts again - and yet I'm behind, and most days, feeling like the lousiest parent on the playground.

I've even gotten myself notebooks again to write everything down just in case my beloved phone runs out of battery, and usually by 10 am, it's at 40% from all the writerly things I have to do on it while on the go.  Maybe that's why I'm still rambling right now instead of hopping in the shower and grabbing something to eat before picking up the kid from kindergarten and taking him to the Titanic exhibit just like I promised him last week (he reminds me these things because I think he's figured out how scatterbrained his mom is - and he's only 5).

Which reminds me - I so need to get a day planner again. But then, do they even sell them still?

The Morning After

It's the morning after I finished Collateral, my entry in SYTYCW15 competition and the delirium has finally subsided.  Reality has set in, and as I sit here in front of my laptop with its busted keyboard from too much writing and waiting for the coffee to kick in, I have only one thought in mind.

I'll never do that again.

Next time, instead of writing from scratch, and deliriously editing like crazy during the final days just to get to a decent word count, without even finishing the epilogue or last chapter of the novel, before hitting Complete while still wondering if the ending was right, I'm submitting a finished and edited work.  Not one that just got the NaNoWriMo first month treatment - nothing against NaNoWriMo as I've done it three years in a row but, well, you know what I mean.  I'm usually very attached to my characters but with this one, it feels like Heath and Billie were introduced to me and before I could warm up to them, they were quickly pushed out the door and out into the competition world to be judged.

So next time I hear of a writing competition, I need to go in prepared and just submit something that's already been polished.

Still, I really can't complain. I churned out a 90K+ novel in 88 days, pared down to 85K and after a bit of time away from it, I can return to it and start editing and adding in the bits and pieces that got left out from the rush.  The contest results don't even matter at all, because at the end of the day, I learned two things:

1. I learned how to do a blurb the right way.
2. I learned how to write according to a plot I had written down versus just pants-ing the story all the way. And for a self-admitted pants-er (converted from years of being an overdone plotter), that's a huge thing.  

So, I'm taking it easy the next couple of days, though there's still a lot of writing to do, as well as writing-related stuff.  I'm editing Loving Riley, my sequel to Loving Ashe, which I published in August, and while I finalize some things with the paperback version for Createspace, I'm working on a major change for Loving Ashe which I can't wait to share with you all soon.  

Done and Dusted (Preliminary Thoughts On #sytycw15)

So as of 12:16 pm PST I marked my latest novel, Collateral, as Complete.  That's 88 days of writing and 91.6K words (pared down to 85K words during the weekend) for my entry for Harlequin's annual So You Think You Can Write competition.

It's my first time submitting an entry to Harlequin and my first time writing according to a deadline that's not NaNoWriMo, which I've done for the last three years.  So far, I've come up with a few observations about writing competitions, that probably apply to writing in general.  Given I'm bleary-eyed and hungry and lack sleep, this is my list so far:

1. Keep calm and just write.  The first day I started writing, I honestly had no idea what I was going to write about other than I had a cool cover from Melody Simmons and I had a title.  That was it.  And since I'm usually a pants-er, I just started writing and letting the characters tell their story - within specific guidelines, of course, like location (New York), time period (present), and genre (I started with chicklit and romance and mystery).  Broad, I know, but I had to start somewhere and just pare it down as I went.
2. Find your cheering squad and listen to what they have to say. Don't take everything personally. Given that the platform I'm writing and posting my work is Wattpad, I was hoping that readers from my previous works would warm up to small-town girl Billie and cold businessman Heath, and offer me feedback beyond awesome! cool! or Bae! and luckily I found them.
   Some of them responded to the characters of the identical twins, Billie and Blythe, discussing among themselves and with me about first-hand experiences of being an identical twin, while others let it be known that a certain bathroom scene with Billie by herself wasn't something they expected to see.  As much as sometimes I can't help but feel defensive about my babies, I had to remind myself that this is why I welcome the feedback.  Do I have to tone down the bathroom scene or remove it altogether?  Why is it there in the first place?  Is it something integral to my main character?
   No matter what the end result is, whether the bathroom scene stays or goes, it gave me questions that would eventually strengthen that scene and the character in it. So, don't take comments too personally.
3. Don't get discouraged. Don't give up. I hate to say this but I gave up on the contest halfway through. Even though it was getting a lot of traction with my readers, when I started reading other entries, my story was nothing like any of the entries.  There was no romance going on (although there was a whole lot of romantic and sexual tension) and while some of the entries had sex in the second, third and fourth chapters, mine didn't come till I hit 50K words and Chapter 23.  So I promptly sent out a tweet saying I was bowing out, I didn't know how to write Harlequin stuff and good luck to everyone else.  It was pathetic and I'm still cringing.
   But remember that cheerleading squad in #2? Well, they picked me up and dusted me all up with positive fairy dust and with the surprise of Collateral being picked by RT Book Reviews as one of the top 4 romances to read on Wattpad for July, I was back in the race - though this time, I had to keep it quiet.  So yes, don't get discouraged.
4. Don't compare yourself to others. Why? See #3.  It's easy to forget that we all are different. Even if people say that there are only 7 or 8 plot lines to go by, we all have our own unique voice to relay those plot lines with.  We write with a filter that makes us uniquely us, colored by the way we see the world be it from the way we were raised, our learned beliefs and customs, as part of a culture, or even a race.  We also have our own unique vision of the world we want to see on the page, whether it be dystopian, historical, contemporary, romantic, or horror. So given that, don't compare yourself to others - or your stories to other stories for that matter. Even characters can suffer from identity crises of their own, too.
5. It's a marathon, not a sprint.  So now that I've written the epilogue of Collateral and hit Complete on my manuscript, does that mean I'm done?  Nope, far from it.  There's editing that's yet to be done from here on, and also depending on the outcome of the contest, more editing that has to be done till it's as good as can be.  And even when I'm done done, like really done, there's still more stories to be told. I am, after all, a writer.  And writers keep writing.

That's my list so far on an overly caffeinated but empty stomach.  Maybe I'll think of more stuff as I calm down from the caffeine jitters, but to everyone who entered SYTYCW15, congratulations on finishing that novel and the best of luck to us all!  

Panicking

I'm trying to come up with the final two chapters of my latest novel, Collateral, my entry into Harlequin's SYTYCW15 competition, which you can read on Wattpad.  Honestly, my plot is a bit too convoluted and at 86K words, I still need to get to the final two chapters and make sure the characters go full circle - meaning, get them back into the romance because the romance parts are way too few and far between. But somehow I've let too many days slip past me where I didn't really write (actually more distracted writing than anything - and this thing called kindergarten), namely four days, and I'm paying for it.

Every time I sit and write the next chapter, I feel like I'm writing a completely different story that does not go with the 86K words before it.  Somehow it's taken a twist to darker, more confusing and convoluted territory. I'm bringing in characters who haven't even made any face time in the novel other than being mentioned 14 times into the last chapter and thinking I can get away with it.

But even as I do so, the chapter ends up in the "unused chapters" folder because it just doesn't feel right. I need to finish the novel, and I need to finish it now.  And so I distract myself, hoping I'll get the gist of the story back.

But I think I'm just panicking.  Yep, that would be about it - panicking.

I think my problem is also that even though I already knew who the 'killer' is (no one really dies, as far as the main characters go), I want to throw in that major plot twist, one that will make readers go, wow! never saw that coming!  Unfortunately, neither did I.  So I need to get myself back on tract and get the right killer back on the saddle even if it won't have that kick that good mysteries often have.  And that way I can move on to the three other novels waiting on me to finish editing them!

Date Night - A Short Story Collection

For me, writing short stories is a way to tease out the muses, new characters who come out of the cracks of my psyche. It’s a way to get to know them, to figure out the things they want to say. It’s an exploration of sorts - of new people, ideas, situations and their consequences, even sex (without having to write a full-length novella with sex in every chapter - though there’s nothing wrong with that). It’s a product of sitting too long in airports and standing in line at the coffee shop as a couple argues in the corner in silence, their eyes doing all the talking. Or even the lack of exchanges between peopleIt’s many things, and at the same time not so many.

After all, they say that all stories have been told, with the only differences in the telling. I don’t even know if these stories connect. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But if they have one thing in common, it’s falling in love, being in love, or starting over after falling out of love.

Date Night is my latest collection of short stories (five in this collection) which is now available from Amazon. These are stories between people who are just getting to know each other, or couples who’ve known each other too long, yet there’s something still there - love, passion, trust.

Moving House

I'm slowly moving my blog back to Blogger simply because I miss having JavaScript add-ons like the ones from Smashwords and Goodreads. While I wish there was a Kindle option, too, I'm happy with the ones I have right now, which are along the right side. It just means that I have to get better with Smashwords formatting for novels, at least in a way that is aesthetically pleasing for me.

But while setting this blog up has been quite easy, I've been struck today by how much time is taken away by social media engagement and marketing from actual writing. I haven't written a word of my current work-in-progress, Collateral. Hopefully, I'll get to write 2k words tonight and move the story onwards.

But wouldn't you know it, I'm writing this while hanging out with my little one as he builds some Minecraft village because after all that work on Twitter and Goodreads and posting my short story on Amazon, I now need to spend time as a mom. After all, when everything is said and done, I may be a writer first, but I'm a mom first. Distracted most of the time maybe, but still a mom.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Loving Ashe

A booty call. A stuck elevator. A chance to move on. 

Three years after her ex-boyfriend dumped her for his Hollywood dream, barista Riley Eames' life has been on hold, plagued by questions only he can answer. So when he asks for a late-night meeting, Riley agrees, only to find herself stuck in the hotel elevator with dashing British actor, Ashe Hunter, who's in town to promote his latest movie.

 But even as sparks fly between them, it's going to take more than a celebrity romance to get Riley's life moving again, not when the answers she's been seeking finally come - and with disastrous results.

Amazon