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!