Still At It

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Well, it’s been awhile since posting anything. We’ve been dealing with surgeries and their aftermath, as well as the ever so fun and stressful job stuff. And, of course, I’ve been writing. Kids are back in “home” school and I’m teaching three co-op classes this semester on top of everything else.

The WIPs are moving along, as you can see by the chart. I doubt I’ll have Nicholas done in time for Christmas this year, which is a bit of a bummer – ’cause it’s a Christmas book. No matter. It’ll give me a chance to push it out properly for next season.

I’ve been at a bit of an impasse with A More Perfect Union, which has, finally, resolved itself. I kinda know where the story needs to go, and where things need to be so I can wrap them up in the final book. It’s just a matter of getting there. I feel like I’ve lost some of the fun and poetry from the first volume, so I’m hoping to recover it before the series ends.

The other thing I’ve been contemplating of late is an attempt to ignite more interest in some of my other books. I’ve come to learn that Amazon rewards authors who publish more content more frequently. While I’m cranking away on these novels, I’m starting to seriously consider serializing some of them – publishing a collection of chapters once a week for a period of weeks – to take advantage of this peculiarity of the ‘zon. Some call it gaming the algorithms. I’m not so sure it is, as much as it is recognizing the nature of the medium in which we publish. I’ve got two books I may take down and then republish in a serial form, if only because they’re being rather roundly ignored – and I think they’re worth another look – if people could find them. I suppose if it doesn’t work, I haven’t really lost anything. It’s not like they’re selling right now as it is.

In the meantime, I’ve got two other WIP’s I’ve begun working on that aren’t in the bar chart on the side. One of these doesn’t have a satisfactory title just yet. The other one is part of a series I’m going to hold on to until I have at least three in it written. Part of a different marketing strategy, you see.

I have to remember this is like a 100 mile marathon, and just keep plodding along until enough content shows up to put me over the top. I just hope I’m still young enough by the time that happens to enjoy it. Oh well. I suppose this is what I get for waiting so long to pursue my passion. God knows, I tried when I was younger. Just couldn’t seem to pull it together enough to finish anything.

I have high hopes for my son, though. He’s started several projects, but the one he’s working on now has well over three hundred pages. I hope he finishes this one. Then the real fun begins!

Okay, ’nuff for now. I’m back to writing. Later!

End of the Month

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We’re practically at the end of July already. Can you believe it? Feels like this summer–this year–is just flying by. So far we’ve been inundated in rain for most of this week. Hasn’t exactly been a scorcher ’round here. For the most part, things have settled into a dull roar at the Scott home. Even work has calmed down significantly.

I’m doing some publishing work for a friend–Roz Pullara. She’s a member of the local Rocco writer’s group I attend at the library, and has written a 1940’s family mystery/drama. Her style is quite different from mine, which is certainly fine. She paints with a very detailed brush. Anyway, she hired me to do the cover design, interior formatting and upload type stuff for her latest work. Looks like I’ll be putting together a similar package for her first novel as well. Should be fun. She likes the look of her cover, too. 🙂

In the meantime, I’m still plugging away at my various projects. Looks like I’ll only get in about 20k words or so for the month–significantly off my last year’s pace for June. Then again, I’ve had a few things going on.

I did some promotion-type stuff in June, which nearly doubled my sales. I’m hoping to see more “fruit” from that effort pay off in August, with new readers of Jefferson’s Road moving on to books two through four. I plan to do more “promoting” of some of my other titles in August and especially in September, but I’m conscious of the fact that I only have one series really ready for promoting. Typically, readers (I’m told) look to see if there are three books in a series, and then pick up the first one for free to see if they want to keep reading. While I have six series going, only one of them has more than three titles available. I do hope that I’ll have more series ready for this by the end of 2015.

From here on out, I don’t plan on publishing any new series until I have at least three books in it completed–and quite possibly even four. That way I can try to create some “buzz” with my release strategies. Not to worry, though. There’s plenty enough to keep me busy before I can pull that off.

Anyway, just thought I’d drop a line in before the end of the month. I’m getting back to writing now.

See ya!

 

Coppersmith on Sale this Weekend

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So I’m trying something new: The Coppersmith, my first Janelle Becker Book, will be going on sale this weekend (it’ll start Saturday and run through Wednesday). I’m utilizing a combination of paid advertising and free advertising to get the word out (as well as mentioning it here), in the hopes this will get the ball rolling.

The truth is, though, that I need a few more things in place to actually make it in this business – barring a lightning strike. One, I need to have more books out. I know, I know – I’ve got thirteen titles for sale! Yes, many writers have done it with half that number. Foolish me, I spread myself a little too thin, trying to write over six series as well as stand-alones. The thing is, I need to have at least three books in each series in order to effectively promote them. The first book is made perma-free (it becomes my loss leader, the way I’ve been doing it with The Spirit of Resistance), and the rest are sold as sequels. Those who like the first book in the series often go on to buy the second and third, etc., but only if they are available to buy!

In order to pull this off, I need another seven books. I have to finish writing The Blood-Eater Coven, Anarchy, and The Music of the Spheres, and then I have to begin and complete writing the following: Puzzle (A Janelle Becker Book), The Division of Darkness (Book 3 of The Dragon’s Eye Cycle), A Glass Half-Full, and the as yet untitled fourth New World Order book (I was going to call it “Blood,” but my daughter pointed out that people will think it’s a vampire book. I haven’t yet selected a new title. Working on it, though).

Once this is done, I will be able to promote all six series.

The second thing I need to pull this off is the money to buy some ads on a few particular sites (which I won’t mention here). The sites I have in mind have a proven track record of generating significant ROI when it comes to selling e-books, and  I’m reasonably confident I can’t do this without them.

The good news is this: I should be able to a) finish the three books in process this year, along with the fifth installment of Jefferson’s Road, and easily write the remaining four novels in 2015. As it stands right now, I will only be able to effectively promote two series at the end of this year – and only one of those is independent! My Jonathan Munro Adventures are traditionally published with Ellechor.

This, it seems, is the heart of the problem. Too many series too soon. Sigh. Once I get some of these off my plate, I promise that I’m going to write more books in fewer series at a time. I think this’ll be a little more effective in the future.

Okay. Enough for now. Back to writing!

Another Book Finished!

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Tonight I wrapped up my thirteenth novel. A Glass Half-Empty, the long awaited sequel to A Glass Half-EmptySpilled Milk, is now done and being prepared for publication by Createspace. I’ll prepare a Kindle version probably tomorrow, and then get the Smashwords and Google Play versions done shortly thereafter. Of course, those last two will have to wait until the book has run its Kindle Select term.

In the meantime, I reworked the cover a bit. The gun, I think, conveys a little better what the story might be about. I’ll let you guys know once the book is available.

Whew! Now I’ve just got four more to wrap up before the end of the year. Ha!

Addendum

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Oh, I just remembered why I opened up the blog to post something. I actually had a purpose beyond just ranting about cancer.

For fans of New World Order, book one: Turning, I wanted to let you in on a little deal: anyone who recommends the book to at least three friends (they have to actually start reading it) will get a free sneak peek at part one of New World Order, book two: Anarchy.

That’s not a cheesy freebie, either, folks. I’m talking a solid fifteen chapters worth of material (it was just twelve, but I’ve realized the last three chapters I’ve written still belong in part one.)!

So here’s the way this works: you recommend the book to three friends who begin reading it and just shoot me an email, and I’ll send you the first fifteen chapters in either pdf, mobi, or epub format (if you need it in another format, let me know and I’ll see what I can do).

Naturally, I’m asking you NOT to send this material on to your friends as well. If they want the sample, they can get it the same way you did.

RECOMMEND THIS                              GET 15 CHAPTERS OF THIS!

Cover 4      Anarchy Cover

Cancer Sucks

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Let me just say this as concisely and as compassionately as I can:

Cancer sucks.

My beloved wife is now home after a double mastectomy due to malignancies found in both breasts. Been a helluva week here at the Scott home. For those who didn’t know, just understand that a) we found out about this fairly recently, and b) we didn’t want to be answering a lot of questions over and over again, and c) we didn’t want to do the Facebook thing, either. Guess we’re both just a little too old school and uncool for the social media thing. And some of you are quite busy around graduation time, and we didn’t want to detract from someone else’s celebration. Don’t want to be the rain on someone’s picnic, y’know?

At any rate, she’s now made it through two different cancers–kidney and breast–and yeah, they both sucked. I’m hoping things can get back to something resembling normal, now that the hospitalization is over. We’re still facing a long recovery and the whole reconstruction phase, but once she gets past the initial surgeries, things should start calming down. I don’t believe we’ll be looking at either chemotherapy or radiation, because her lymph nodes were clear. Still waiting for 100% confirmation from pathology, but we may be out of the woods. Yay.

Downright exhausting, though, lemme tell ya. Mostly for her, of course, but also for me a bit, too.

We’ve been blessed to have so many friends bringing over meals and stocking our pantry, and my job has been great about giving me time off. I did put in a couple hours this afternoon, but honestly, I’m grateful my son called with bike trouble, because I think I was pushing myself. Haven’t been sleeping right at all these past several nights. My parents are also in town, and were great about hanging out with the kids while I hung out with my wife in the hospital. Oh, and a shout out to Rochester General, too, for the awesome recovery room. They practically gave us a suite!

There’s a couple of people whose phone calls I’ve yet to return. I’ll get a hold of you, soon, I promise.

As far as writing goes, I’m still plugging away, albeit a little more slowly these days. I’ve got one book almost finished, one 2/3rds done, two about half done, and two more about a third done. ‘Course, that’s also written on the sidebar, so  you can see for yourself. I’m on target to get at least three of these finished this year, if not four. But we’ll have to see how that pans out. I couldn’t have predicted the cancer thing, so who knows what might get in the way of that goal.

That’s all for now. Later!

And Now For Some Good News…

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Just last night, I finally finished Descent, my alien abduction novel. Spent part of today reworking the cover so it would fit, and then uploading the files to Createspace and Kindle.

So if you’re a fan of UFO stories or the X-Files, this one’s for you.

It’s not a series, just a stand alone novel. I have no plans to write more of Christopher James – at least, not in the foreseeable future. And truthfully, I’m relieved to have it finished. Means I can concentrate on some of the other outstanding projects. At any rate, I think it’s a fun story – nothing too serious – and I hope you like it.  I enjoyed writing it. For the longest time, it was just something I tinkered with. Once I realized I had a real story on my hands, it was kind of one of those “you owe it to yourself to finish” deals.

Once it finishes publishing, I’ll set it up on KDP Select and make it free to any who want it for a time. I’ll let you guys know when that is – as well as informing all the usual suspects – so you can grab a copy and enjoy.

Here are the links:

Descent in Kindle

Descent in Paperback

 

Last Day of Vacation

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Okay, so this post is a little late. We were on the road, and access to the computer was a tad limited. At any rate, I wanted to share the highlight of this particular day, which, of course, was going to the Old Post Office Pavilion and into the bell tower.

Tower

Here’s a pic of me in the tower, and behind me you can see the line of sight from the tower to the Capitol Building itself. No spoilers for those who haven’t read The Spirit of Resistance yet. Those lines are wires, beyond which is the open air.

I have to admit, it gave me chills to step in there, especially after how significant a role this building played in the series. All in all, the whole trip was amazing.

 

Vacation 3, 4, and 5

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Gaa! I just found out that the edits to my kindle promos didn’t take! Argh! Just lost an entire day of promotional opportunity for Spilled Milk, and now tomorrow, a lot of places will be looking to see a free book from me, and it won’t be free! I hate that!

If anyone sees the free promo and isn’t able to download the book because it isn’t free FRIDAY when it’s supposed to be, please send me a note via this blog and I’ll get a copy to you.

Very disappointing, frankly. If Amazon isn’t going to accept edits to their promotions, then they shouldn’t make that option available. It doesn’t DO ANYTHING!

Okay, enough about that. Vacation. I’m on vacation.

Been doing a lot of walking this vacay. A LOT of WALKING. My feet have informed my legs that they quit and they’re not going out anymore. My thighs and calves have seconded the motion, and have informed the small of my back, who has agreed by planning a mutiny against the rest of me for taking them on this walking tour of our nation’s Capitol.

So far, we have visited Arlington National Cemetery, the monuments, the National Museum of Air and Space – which I’ve already discussed, the National Museum of Art, the National Museum of American History, the National Archives, the National Zoo, and the National Air and Space Udvar-Hazy Center.

Museum of Art was very interesting: I especially enjoyed the Monets. The American History museum was also quite compelling. The whole history of American Warfare is told there – quite fascinating and very moving. Saw also the transportation section (my youngest enjoyed the section on pirates), the history of electricity and steam. The food exhibit was just okay, though. Didn’t feel particularly organized – no real sense of how “eating” has changed in America. More like somebody dumped a lot of historical artifacts into a massive Cuisinart and just let her rip.

At the National Archives, I positively got chills reading the actual Constitution and the Bill of Rights – very cool to see the words actually written there in pen. I’d say the same for the Declaration, but frankly, it’s illegible at this point. Tragic.

Today we walked the Zoo. And that’s about all I can say for it. It wasn’t bad, but the Pittsburgh Zoo was better. The tiger cubs were cute, though. Most of the animals, unfortunately, were in hiding (likely due to the weather). Watched a gorilla throw up. That was very nearly the highlight. Fortunately, the tiger cubs saved the day.

After coming back and resting a bit, we went on to the Udvar-Hazy Center. The Enola Gay was moving. The Space Shuttle Discovery was inspiring. The mother ship from Close Encounters was amusing (yes, we found R2-D2, Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter, several planes, a graveyard, and a screen door on the mother ship. Didn’t see the VW van, though), and the SR-71 Blackbird was menacing. I have to admit, though, one of the coolest moments I had was recognizing a Focke-Wulf FW-190 from a distance. I remember making a model of that aircraft as a kid. To see one now up close and personal felt incredible.

Of course, it also occurred to me that we went from the Wright Brothers’ flyer at Kitty Hawk to Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon in sixty-six years. And even seeing the Space Shuttle, I realized this is technology that is some thirty years or so out of date. What could we as Americans, as people, do, if we set our minds to it in the next sixty-six years?

Tomorrow we’re going back to the city for one last visit. We’re hoping to hit the Post Office Tower (hehe), the White House (a walk around it), the Smithsonian Castle, the Library of Congress (my youngest wants to see it), and Ford’s Theater. It’s a lot of walking – whew! By the time we’re doing, I think I’m gonna need some new shoes.