MystiCon was amazing! I stayed busy, as usual, the entire time I was there. I had 5 panels and 1 book signing. I arrived in Roanoke on Friday afternoon. A nice change this year is that Joe lives in Roanoke. So I packed some clothes, my books, my cats, and hit the road at 1:30…
Indie Author Tools – Part I
Indie authoring, being an authorpreneur, is a full-time job. Not only do you have to write books, but you also have to sell those books. That means lots of late nights working on marketing campaigns, lots of stat checking, lots of copywriting…just lots of stuff to keep track of. There are so many balls to…
What is Horror?
This year I’ve ventured into a new genre of fiction. Horror. Granted, all of my books have an element of horror in them, but typically the focus is on something else. The St. Sebastians books are paranormal romance, so they’re pretty well focused on my two main characters falling in love. Also, the supernatural aspects…
The Dreaded Query Letter
Getting published by a publishing house isn’t as difficult as it may seem. Though it’s not the route I’ve taken today, I used to be published by a publisher and I can tell you that it doesn’t take spending a year in Hogwarts to learn how to spell a publisher into publishing you. It’s also…
Quick and Dirty Scrivener Resource List
This is going to be a super fast blog post with useful links to sites that teach on Scrivener. Why am I posting a quick and dirty blog with resource links about Scrivener? Because Scrivener kicks ass. If you’re an author, you should use Scrivener. That’s my humble opinion. Not only as a word processor,…
2018 Year in Review/2019 Goals
Instead of my usual craft post, I wanted to talk about my 2018 year in review and plans for 2019. Looking back at 2018 I don’t have much to say about 2018 except that I didn’t accomplish nearly what I’d planned on accomplishing. I wanted to release at least 4 books this year, but only…
Content marketing….what the heck is that?
Content marketing….what the heck is that? Let’s back up a few steps. For a writer, it’s not good enough to simply write a book then send it out into the world to sell millions of copies. Books don’t sell themselves. Readers have to know they exist. If they don’t know your awesome, urban fantasy is…
The difference between writing horror and writing steamy romance
People have told me they’ve read my books and had nightmares. This fills me with such joy. But I’ve also been told that readers have read something I wrote under my pseudonym and had to go find their husband. This also makes me happy. Some people think it’s odd that the same person who inspires…
Back of the Book Content
I’m putting on my author hat to talk about something indie authors often overlook when they’re formatting their books. The type of formatting I’m talking about happens after the book is finished and edited, but before it’s uploaded to online retailers like Amazon or Kobo. What is this something? Back of the book content. Back…
Stupid First Drafts…or Before & After
I’ve always thought it would be fun to post an excerpt from a book when it was a WIP, then post the published version of that same excerpt, just to show how much the first draft of a book can differ from what’s published. You learn so much about your characters and what’s happening to…
Subplots
There are tons of great mystery authors out there who write fantastic mysteries. Some of my favorites are: Lorna Barrett, Elizabeth Peters (Nobody beats the Emersons!!)/Barbara Michaels (as Barbara Michaels she’s also brilliant. Stitches in Time is one of my favorite books), Janet Evanovich, Juliet Blackwell, Charlaine Harris, Carolyn Hart, PD James, David Baldacci (I…
The Perfect, Inexpensive Date Night…according to a romance author
Movie Night I am an unrepentant and sappy romantic. I love all things that have to do with romance. That goes double for romantic dates, which probably isn’t surprising since I write romance. But there seems to be a disconnect somewhere between men and women. Women say they want romance and men see dollar signs….
