CROW!!!!

Someone or something is stalking Denora.

After learning that her best friend has died, Denora thinks things can’t get much worse. She’s already lost her parents, leaving her and her brothers to fend for themselves. Then her brothers disappear without a trace - all three of them.

When she meets Silas, he seems to have all the answers, but for every truth he reveals there are even more secrets that he keeps. He introduces her to a hidden world of cryptic premonitions and deadly curses thriving in the underbelly of the city she thought she knew. Can Denora trust this alluring stranger and unravel the truth to save her brothers?

*****

Crow, the first book in a four part urban fantasy series, is now live in ebook and paperback through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

There is a version up on Smashwords, but they still don't like my formatting, so I would suggest skipping that until I have time to fix it *blush*

Happy Reading!

Formatting, formatting, formatting......

Despite my previous anxiety, I managed to finish the final edits on time and have now started formatting the manuscript for publication. The Amazon Kindle version is finished and waiting. I'm working on the Barnes and Noble Nook ebook and the Smashwords one as well.

I've downloaded an ebook to Kindle before, when I published the short story Imaginary Self there last year, so the process for that was familiar and easy. The Nook version seems straightforward enough, and even has the added bonus of being able to make adjustments on screen, instead of having to re-upload over and over every time I find something that needs a tweak.

Smashwords, on the other hand, is giving me a fucking headache. I've heard about the evil "meatgrinder" of Smashwords formatting requirements and so far that seems to ring true. It keeps giving me errors and I don't even know what else to do. I really want to have a Smashwords version available, but I may have to set it aside because I've been doing this over and over for two days and I have a ton of other things I need to get done before I publish the book.

That being said, unless some freak accident rocks my world (I'm looking at you toddler-who-kills-laptops), not only will I be able to put Crow out on schedule, I'll actually be able to put it out ahead of schedule by a couple days.

So off I go, back to the formatting insanity that is self-publication...

Oh Wattpad! You brilliantly beautiful time-suck!

My experience with Wattpad the past two weeks has been..... interesting. I've put up the first three chapters of Crow and gotten over 200 reads and a fist-full of comments, all fairly encouraging and positive. Buoyed by the feedback, I finally got up the nerve to start posting Firechild (you remember Firechild, right? My beloved fantasy novel that I've re-written half a dozen times over the past 16 years that I was trying to finish last year before my daughter killed my laptop?) I'm hoping getting feedback on it will motivate me to get back to writing it.

If you're curious about the infamous Firechild, here's a link to the Wattpad: Firechild

But, oh man, Wattpad! As if I needed another social media outlet to obsess my brain with. I find myself refreshing my profile page over and over and over, watching obsessively for reads, comments and votes. It's certainly dangerous. On the positive side, I've started connecting with other writers and gained a few new readers. I've also found a dozen or so books by other authors that I want to read (when I can find the time!) I've even had people message me, asking when I'd be posting more because they couldn't wait to read the next chapter! I can't even express what an ego boost that was! Sometimes, when you spend so much time in your own head, it seems kind of unreal that other people could love it as much as you do - when it actually happens, WOW! Waking up and turning my computer on in the morning to find messages like that certainly drives me to get back to writing. On that point, Wattpad is an amazing motivator.

At the same time, my editing has slowed to a crawl, but that's not Wattpad's fault. I've gotten to that point during editing where I've just been in the story too much for too long and I hate all my characters and want to re-write the first chapter and kill them all off violently on the first page. Truthfully, I know this is caused by me not giving the story enough space between the first draft and the edits. I'm now two-thirds of the way through the major edits but I'm having a really hard time bringing myself back to it each day - dreading it more and more even while knowing my deadline is speeding closer and closer - which of course just stresses me out and makes me resent the book even more. I've been seriously contemplating pushing the publishing deadline back and working on something else - because, of course, I'm eager to get started on another story I've been kicking around in my head for months and finding constant inspiration for it, even though I know I should finish Crow first.

I haven't settled on pushing the publication date back, yet, as I'm still trying to keep my word and have it finished on time, so I suppose this is just a warning - it MAY end up happening if I can't get it together in time. I really want to make sure the book is as polished as I can make it and not only do I still have to finish the major editing, I have to do another read through to clean up anything I may have missed AND I still have to format the book. If you've noticed the little countdown going on in the right sidebar, I've only got about two weeks left to finish.

With that said, I'm going to get back to work.

Thanks for reading.

Being a Mom is like Being a Writer...

I meant to post this yesterday - so belated Happy Mother's Day to all you other mommies out there!

The lack of sleep and two Mother's Day margaritas knocked me on my ass, so I'm posting this a day late. Celebrating mothers and all they do has left me thinking just how similar being a mom (or a parent in general) is to being an unknown writer. This is only my opinion, so please don't start some stupid debate about the points I'm about to make.

Being a mom, especially to kids as young as mine, is a thankless job. We get one day a year where we are lauded and appreciated, but for the other 364 days we spend our time cleaning messes, wiping asses, lacking sleep and losing our sanity a little bit each day.  As soon as we've managed damage control on one mess, we turn around to find six new ones take its place. Your children are not grateful, they expect it of you - no matter how exhausted, sick or depressed you feel.

Being an unknown writer feels about the same. Unless you've struck it lucky and become famous, your work is not appreciated. You write every day (or as close to it as you can), you lose sleep - getting up extra early or staying up extra late to get some more writing finished after doing all the other things you have to do each day. As soon as one book is finished, you have multiple rounds of editing and critique to get through, re-reading your work over and over until you want to strangle all your characters and shred your book in a garbage disposal. No one cares that you've written a book - in fact, they probably look at you like you're nuts and your loved ones complain that you spent all your free time writing while there is a pile of dishes in the sink and laundry that needs to be folded - what the heck did you do all day?

Having kids is painful - literally and figuratively. Your childless friends stop talking to you and can't seem to understand when you can't go to their party or randomly meet up for drinks.

Writing is painful - you birth this creative world, create whole characters from your head, put them through hell... and love every minute of it. Your non-writer friends are sick of hearing you talk about your story - most of them will probably never read it - and they can't seem to understand why you'd rather play with the people in your head than come out to their party or randomly meet up for whatever.

If you've got both going on at the same time - you're pretty much screwed.

You're always exhausted. You get no sleep. You have little in the way of a social life. You spend all day talking to the imaginary characters in your head or talking to the mini-people that think the word "poop" is hysterical.

But to be perfectly honest - there is nothing in the whole world I'd rather do than play with my kids and write my books. So, in honor of Mother's Day, I'd like to say just how grateful I am that this is what I'm doing right now. I'm happier than I've ever been and I hope I can keep doing this for the rest of my life.

Happy Mother's Day.

Crow on Wattpad: Thoughts and Updates

As I probably mentioned before, I posted the first chapter of Crow to Wattpad last Sunday. In the first week, it garnered 60+ reads and some very generous responses. I posted the second chapter this morning and so far the book has had around 100 reads. Considering how many people moan and groan on Wattpad's forums about barely getting 20 reads after posting multiple chapters, I think that's a pretty good sign. If you haven't seen it yet, and would like to take a read, here's the link:

Crow (The Crow Series Book One)

Unfortunately, the editing is going much more slowly than I'd like. I had hoped to be finished with the current round of edits by now. Even though I've been chopping and rewriting like a madwoman, I'm only about halfway through the book. I've got less than a month left to my publishing deadline, so it's stressing me out a little bit, but I really want to put out the best, and most polished version that I can, so I suppose I have to suck it up and keep working. I still have plenty of time to finish (or so I keep reminding myself!)

In other Crow related news, I've had sooooo many ideas for Book Two and I'm DYING to get started on it, though I know I really shouldn't get distracted until I've finished editing and preparing Book One. I've completed a rough outline and have been jotting down ideas and snippets of dialogue and scenes for the time being. It's going to be good, I promise!

I hope you all are enjoying Crow so far. I'll be posting the third chapter next Sunday.

Until then, Happy Reading!