Reader check and book update

Is anybody reading my blog?  If so, please comment, just to let me know that you've been here.

Also, for the readers, Since I've been laid off, I've been thinking of my books a lot.  I think I may attempt to publish this year.  I just need to tally the costs and see if I can swing it in my budget.  Unless somebody wants to donate using the go fund me site to the right or click this link (https://www.gofundme.com/publishmeplease)  I may not be able to budget publishing a book.  

However, I read through my old synopsis of my first choice of books to be published and I'm not sure I like it.  I think I need to rewrite it.  What do you folks think?  


The Perfect Time

When an infection hospitalizes Sarah, she begins speaking a strange language.   Sally, her best friend, records what she said and gets it translated with shocking results.   Once Sarah is released from the hospital, her friend tells her about the episodes of her speaking in tongues.   She learns she’s lived before in sixteenth century Scotland and was married to an abusive Laird.  Her 16th century version has secrets that may cause harm to her and the blacksmith known as Tanner.  Little did she know that the choice made in the sixteenth century would have repercussions today.

Genres:  Historical Romance, Past Lives, Romantic Comedy

Help me!

I have had  go fund me page active for a month and no donations yet.  I'm hoping i can keep it active. If not, I'll just keep creating a new one.   so here ya go.   Click on the link below to help me out!

https://www.gofundme.com/publishmeplease

Odd things Writers learn

When you are a writer, sometimes you need to search on the internet for details on how to do things.  For example, I just learned how to get blood off of walls using meat tenderizer.   If anybody ever looks at my search history, I will be in trouble.  Seriously, how many people look up "how to remove blood from walls"?   In the past, I've also looked up brain tumors and learned the different symptoms that depend on where the tumor is located in the head.  I've searched for how police treat crime scenes and if they can find out what kind of blood it is merely by blood type (like A+, B, etc) and that answer is no.   I've learned how to set up security cameras and the fact that they need a transmitter or two.  I've learned a lot of things that I probably won't remember until I look it up again.

I'm sure other people have odd things in their search history. It just tickles me when I search for something and wonder what is in other writers search history.  

Too many books!

I have six books that I'm writing right now.  That's right.  6 books in progress.   I don't know which book to focus on.  I know of a couple that I can push aside for now but leaves 4 that I still want to work on.   Unfortunately, it seems lately that when I start writing a book, I either lose interest or I think it sucks so badly that I want to scrap the whole thing.   I haven't scrapped anything yet. I've rewritten parts, continued writing anyway but I haven't actually finished a book in a long time.

I really wanted to get a book published this year. I keep thinking about it and here it is, half way through October and I don't think it's going to happen this year.    If you look at the labels on the right, you can click on the Book label and you'll see all sorts of posts about my books.

Self Publishing costs money.  Money which I don't have.  So... I'll work on saving money again and hope life doesn't get in the way of that.

The Next Step & ramblings

I need to contact a few book cover designers and at least get some quotes. But I'm hesitant to do anything because of money.   While I know I have the money in the account, that money could be used for other much needed things.  I need new glasses and to get my eyes checked. I need my bottom teeth worked on which is going to cost a shitload.  I just need too many things.   It sucks.  

I have a couple websites saved that list the steps of self publishing a book.  They have helped me a lot so far.  However, the links mostly talk about ebooks and while that's good, I want to do both.  I want to publish an ebook but I also want a paper back book that I can hold in my hands.  I'll probably use create space for that part.  So I need a step by step guide that says what to do when doing both ebook and paper back.   Actually, I want somebody to hold my hand and dummy it all down for me. lol   

I work full time, 45 hours a week. I don't have kids and I'm single which means I have a lot of free time to do everything that's needed.  However, I also have health issues that limit what I can do.  You try working full time, writing books and doing this publishing stuff when you're too tired to do anything and just want to sit and stare.  It's not easy but I'm doing it.

I'm going the self publishing route for the following reasons:

1. I don't have put up with rejection letters from agents or publishers who think I'm crap
2. I don't have deadlines where I have to have something done by a certain date.  I follow my own schedule and do what I can, when I can.
3. I control what my books say and how they go.  I know some editors and publishers want more details, cut down on details, change this, change that.   ummm.... No.  I have my book the way I want it.
4. I'm new at all this stuff and while I may have more to do by doing this, I have more control.
5. I'm tired.  I can't think of any more reasons but you know what? That's okay because it's my decision. 

I guess I typed out the list to remind myself that any pressure I feel is my own doing.  I don't have a schedule to keep.  Do I want my book published in the next month?  Hell, yes!!   If it doesn't happen yet and gets pushed to later this year, that's ok.  My book.  My timeline.

About Me

Since I am working on getting my first book published, I thought I'd write up an "about me" page.  Below is what I have so far.   Everybody is free to suggest something to add.   Also, eventually, I will have an author page on Facebook.  In the short description for the about me section, I need something to write there.   A friend suggested "Katie loves to write paranormal romance while surrounded by her Supernatural Funko-Pops and Tarot decks."  Which is all true.   I suggested "Katie loves to write paranormal romance while surrounded by her geeky toys and Tarot decks."   only because geeky toys includes a variety of stuff from light sabers, stuff animals, supernatural pop toys, supernatural spirit board, miniature crap and lots of other stuff. 

I'll go ahead and create an about me page but below is what I'll have on it for now.



About Me

My oldest dream was to see my name on a book cover.   I believe it started when I was in the fifth grade and the teacher taught us about poems.  Our assignment was to write several different poems (using the different styles) and create a drawing for each poem.  I enjoyed doing that so much that I wanted do more.  So my hope was that I would someday have a book published, containing poems that I’ve written. At the time, I didn’t think I could write a story by myself. I guess my brain wasn’t ready for it yet.  That didn’t come until the eighth grade where the English teacher asked me to join the creative writing club.  She also had a guest author in class one day. I wish I could remember his name but one piece of advice he gave was to write what you enjoy reading about.  If you like ghost stories, write a ghost story.  If you like romance, write about romance.  Write what you like because if you don’t, then writing will become a chore and you’ll come to hate it. 

For that reason, I write paranormal romance novels.  I love that genre so much because it includes such a wide variety of topics.  Nowhere else could the hero be a tormented shifter/vampire/ghost/fairy, etc and the heroine could do whatever the hell she wants.   So I strived to create stories people would like.  I’ve written countless books and up ‘til now, none of them have been published.   

Enough babbling.  Here are some facts about me.  I’m single, in my mid-forties and work full time as one of the helpdesks that involves software and helping sort out issues.   Also, I have rheumatoid arthritis which is a painful disease involving the joints that disables a lot of people.   I consider myself lucky that I can work and I can still type and do what I love.   

Editing sucks

I don't know how book editors do this for a living.   I'm reading through my book yet again and have still found errors.  One error was a previous one I had put a mark through but didn't correct.  Another error was I used the word 'it' instead of 'he'.  Makes a big difference in a sentence when you use the right word.   Other things have been small errors like a dropped period or one letter too many.

Granted, there aren't as many errors now and I know the chances are slim that I'll catch every single error.  Knowing this, I have to say that if I published my book today, I'd be okay with it.   There aren't that many errors and readers can actually read it without cringing or having to mentally correct a sentence.  It's readable. 

I don't know if I'll have my aunt go through it one more time or not.  It may not be needed but I fear she'll find something that needs correcting. silly, I know.  

Also, for any readers I have, what are your thoughts on grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and readability of books?

The Perfect Time

Instead of posting info on all my completed books, I'm going to skip ahead to the last completed one and I believe the best of the batch.     This book is different then the rest I've written and when I reread it, I fell in love with it all over again.   Right now, I'm editing it and working on corrections.  Can I just say that punctuation sucks?  Punctuation is not my friend.  It's a pain getting the book corrected.  However, I believe in having a book that readers will like and can read without cringing at errors. I've read too many books myself that not only have wrong words and misspellings, but just too many mistakes for the book to be enjoyable.

So yes, I'm working hard on getting this particular book corrected so that it looks right.    This book is called The Perfect Time and I know it'll be my first book to be published.  I just don't know when yet.  Below is the quick synopsis or blurb I wrote about it.    What do you think?  Would you read this book just based on this blurb?




The Perfect Time

When an infection hospitalizes Sarah, she begins speaking a strange language.   Sally, her best friend, records what she said and gets it translated with shocking results.   Once Sarah is released from the hospital, her friend tells her about the episodes of her speaking in tongues.   She learns she’s lived before in sixteenth century Scotland and was married to an abusive Laird.  Her 16th century version has secrets that may cause harm to her and the blacksmith known as Tanner.  Little did she know that the choice made in the sixteenth century would have repercussions today. 

Questions to ask...

I thought I'd come up with a list of questions to ask a published author in case I ever get the chance.    So I came here to start a new post and now I can't think of any questions.   sigh..

Let's see.  Um...

1. Do you have any suggestions for somebody who works full time and wants to be published? Good thing I don't have a contract with deadlines. 
2. Do you do any fact checking on your fiction books?  Or since it is fiction, do facts matter?
3. When writing a book, I've heard that you shouldn't edit it as you go.  Don't worry about punctuation and spelling errors so much and just write.  Do you believe that's true?   I can't help but make corrections as I go.  I really can't.  It'll bug me if I know there's a mistake and I left it alone.  And yes, I do read the book several times and make my own corrections.  Man, I suck and make a ton of typos.
4. How many books did you write and finish before you were published?  I have 8 so far.
5. How many books did you abandon because you thought they were utter crap?  I have many. :)
6. Book covers are important.  They say you can't judge a book by its cover and it's true to a point.  However, as a reader, I know I look at the book cover and tend to skip those that just have a title and nothing else.   Having said that, do you believe the cover should always have a hunk and a woman on it?  Or do you think scenery is alright?    It's not like you should have a picture of an airplane on the cover and have the book be historical fiction. The scenery has to tie into the book but I don't think it's required to have a woman with her bodice ripped and some drop dead gorgeous hunk leaning over her.   hmm.. drop dead gorgeous hunk. I may rethink that.
7. How did you find your group of beta readers?  Are they family or friends?

I may edit this list of questions but these are what I came up with after a brain fart.  Now, if any readers know any authors who would want to answer these questions, feel free to share this page with them.  

Fourth book Synopsis

Hello all.  After a break in posts here, I'm back with another synopsis.    This fourth book is a ghost romance story with a happy ending.     Now my previous books were vampire books so this one is different.  no vampires in this one.  I had fun writing it.   Below is my attempt at a synopsis.  What do you think?  Would you read this book?


My Eternal Love

After an exhausting two year battle with the courts, Evelyn is finally able to relax and enjoy life again. With a new home, she’s ready to start a new chapter of her life away from the prying eyes of reporters.   When objects start to appear on her pillow, she’s sure her friends are playing a practical joke on her. That is until she comes face to face with a ghost.  Forced to believe that ghosts do exist, she struggles with what to do next.  A reporter finds her though and threatens her safety. 

Can she overcome her skeptical nature to do what must be done?  When her life is threatened, who will save her?

Third book synopsis

Today, I'll share my synopsis idea for my third book.  It's called Destined for Darkness.  It's a unique story idea and just so happens, I share a couple of my poems in the book.   though I'm not sure I should have this poem in the synopsis.   Hmm.  

Anyways, the book is a paranormal romance (as all of mine are).  What do you think of this synopsis?  I know it's short but sometimes it doesn't need to be overly long. 


Destined for Darkness

Dreams haunt her, darkness hunts her.  Just when Katarina starts to think the psychiatrists were right about her, Devlin walks into her life.  As she comes to know Devlin, danger threatens her life and her new found love.   Will they overcome the darkness or they embrace it?
(maybe include one of the poems from the book in the synopsis)

Darkness
When darkness descends upon your skin
Don’t let it fill you, don’t let it in.
Don’t turn to look or let it know
That you’re willing to let the light go
When the light is gone, darkness will embrace
Those who wish it to take light’s place.
When you find a passion in the dark of night,
Be watchful of a love that blinds your sight
For darkness has a beauty that hides all lies
Tricks you to think love is before your eyes.
There is something that lurks in the dark
Longing to drink in your spark.
Be careful of what you see or feel
For you may be it’s very next meal

Second Book Synopsis

If you saw my last post, you'll know I'm going through my completed books and I have realized something.  The first book needs work. A lot of work.   As I've been reading, I've found that the story and writing gets better with each book.  

Below is a synopsis for my second one called "In My Dreams".  While I do think this book is better than the first, it still needs work.  I think the ending is a bit abrupt.  Maybe it needs an epilogue.   Still, read the synopsis below and let me know what you think.  Would you read this book?

In My Dreams

Grace's life takes a sudden turn when she finds her fiancé cheating on her.  Soon after, the dreams start.   Her friends tease her about her dream man until one fateful evening when she sees him while she's awake.  A crowded bar, the lights dimmed but she knows it's him.  He's here and he's come for her. 

The path they take is full of blood and danger.  Will he keep her safe from others?  Or more importantly, himself?

Books, blurbs and ideas.. Oh my

In the coming days, weeks, months?  I'm going to post stuff here.   I'll write up a synopsis for each of my completed books and possibly ideas for covers or ask for beta readers and all sorts of tips.  

I ask you the readers to share your opinions of the synopsis I provide.  Please give feedback.  Is this a book you'd read?

Without further ado, I give you my first try at a synopsis from my book titled "Not Alone".  What do you think?



Not Alone synopsis

While on vacation, she falls in love with a house.  It's a steal. A deal that seems too good to be true.  Soon, she finds that the house is not as empty as she thought.  Disembodied voices, brushes of her hair and a touch on her shoulder all make her wonder if she's losing her mind.  Then she meets the other resident and knows the deal really was too good to be true.

She's not alone.  He's something she hasn't encountered before.  Can they coexist? Or will the past pull them apart?

Inspiration comes from funny things

On the way to work this morning,  I was flipping through radio stations and heard a song come on that I couldn’t help but listen to. Then I thought of my book I was writing and thought of a scene with this song in it.  So of course, I had to write the scene idea down once I got to work. Now, I want to hurry and get to where I want the scene so I can write it out and laugh.

Scene idea:  Have CeeCee in her room (while on vacation and staying in somebody’s house).She’s in a good mood, feeling oddly better and starts listening to music.A song comes on and she can’t resist dancing and singing to it.Little does she know that her host (Xander) has walked in the room and is watching her sing and dance.Song is Pony

If your horny, Let's do it

Ride it, My Pony

My saddle's waiting

Come and jump on it

 

yea, yea, yea...

yea, yea, yea...

Thoughts on writing...

I have written 8 books to completion. They have a beginning, a middle and an end.  That's an accomplishment.  Yes, they are not published but how many people actually write one book, let alone 8?  

While I am happy that I got those stories out, I also am unhappy.  You see, I also have 7 books that are in progress.  I come up with an idea, start writing and then lose interest part way through.  If I can't hold my own interest when writing the book, readers aren't going to want to read them at all. 

I haven't written in two months. I open my book files, read them and try to come up with something new to add and I get nothing.  I even opened up my idea file and decided they all suck.  So now I sit here, trying to come up with a new book idea and so far, all I could think of was writing this blog. 

Sigh...

As for my completed 8 books, I still need to get them published.  I still want to go the self publishing route but I need money for it.  I had promised myself to get one book published this year and yet, here it is almost the end of November and still I'm not published.    The problem is money.  I had saved up a lot of money at the beginning of the year, and then life happened.  I had to pay a ton for dental work (really bad teeth).  And once that was over, I started saving again.  Then a hail storm happened and insurance decided my car was totalled.  So I bought a new car and still have money left over (Hurray!).  However, I'm trying to hold on to that money because I'll need more dental work next year (have to wait for insurance to reset itself) plus, any extra money I get next year will be saved for a new condo.  While I love living in an apartment, it's time for me to move.   Rent keeps increasing and my full time job doesn't give high enough raises.  

So between my sudden car payment and trying to save money for more teeth work and possible Condo buying at the end of next year, I'm starting to lose hope that I'll get one of my books published.  However, I will promise myself here and now, to push all my worries aside and save money just for publishing costs.  

Until then, I'm trying to decide whether to post a first chapter of one of my books here on my blog.   Do I have any readers who would want to see a chapter?   I write mostly paranormal romance so if you are curious, post a comment here and let me know.

Complaints about books

I love reading and I read a lot.  I'll read free books and ones that cost money if they sound good to me.   One thing that turns me off of buying a book is the length.  If it's less than 100 pages, I'm not paying for it (if it's free, I'll think about downloading it).   If it's less than 200 pages and costs 4.99 and up, it's doubtful I'll pay for it.  It has to be a part of a series and I really have to want it to make it okay for paying that much for a book that's not that long.    I have stopped reading series of books because the length is no longer there.

It seems like more often these days, authors are writing serials where you pay 99 cents or more for short segments of books.  I hate that.   Luckily, there are authors who after providing a serial will put the book together when they are done and offer it as one whole book but there aren't enough people doing that.   While short serial type books seem to be popular and okay for a lot of people, I don't like them.

To me, if you publish something that's less than 100 pages, it's not really a book.  However, I've seen authors publish a 50 page story and call it a novel. 

I use Amazon when searching for books to download onto my ipad.  That's just a personal preference.  However, their advanced search leaves a lot to be desired.  I would like it if I could search for books based on length.  Just add another field to their field so it looks like Pages greater than and then you can type in the number.   I don't know what coding they would need to do on their end but I wish they would do it.   It would make me happy. 

Also, I would love it if authors didn't include the extra pages as their total page count. I want the number of pages of the actual story or the word count of the actual story.   I'd be good with word count too.  Too often, I buy a book and find it's actually shorter than what the description says.  I also find some books don't even include a length at all on the website.  Why not? 

I want to read books with a good length.  300 pages or around 80,000 words. I want to be able to search for full length novels. Actual novels and not serials.     I want the length of the book to be a requirement when you make it for sale on websites.  

Sigh.  Having so many short stories out there now, has made searcing for an actual book, somewhat of a chore.  If I find a story that sounds interesting, I look at the cost of the book. Then I look at how long it is.  Books under 100 pages aren't even considered.  Books under 200 pages, make me ask "Do I really want to spend three bucks on a short book?"   99 cents, I'll consider it more.  Hell, even 2.99 I'll consider buying it.  Anymore than that?  I'd have to really want the book.    

If you made it this far in this long rant, leave me a comment.  Tell me what you think.  I can't believe I'm alone in my need for longer books out there. 

Go Fund Me

I have a created a page at Gofundme.com. This site lets you set up a fund where people can donate to whatever cause you want.  What's my cause?   Well, getting me published of course!  So check it out and feel free to donate.  It's free!

Six books down.. ?? many to go.

I just finished writing my 6th book. It actually was book number 5 but I took a break from it to write the next one. When that was done, I went back to it and finished it. I actually finished it about 20 minutes ago. I have to say that I'm proud of myself for actually being able to write one book, let alone six. I already have book number 7 lined up and it will be a sequel. Now, if only I could either get the money to do self publishing like I want or find an agent or publisher who like's my work. I do still want to be published some day but even if it doesn't happen, I'll still write. Simply because I love it. I love coming up with characters and a story line. I love how a book can change as I'm writing it. I love that I can write without having an outline or a plan in place. I love that I can be shocked at how my own book ended. Now, to take the afternoon off from writing and maybe do my real job. lol Yea, don't tell anybody I do my writing at work. I don't think they'll like it. lol

Writing Scenes and Rewriting...

Yesterday, I wrote a few pages of a big scene in my current Astral book. I reread what I wrote and promptly deleted it. I wrote the scene another way and took the characters in a different direction. By the time I was leaving for home (yes, I was writing at work. lol sue me), I had finished the scene and didn't think anything more about it. I knew I'd read it over and might change a couple things but I thought the scene would stick.

Last night, as I was lying in bed, trying to get to sleep, I thought of what I wrote that day. I then came up with "what if I did this with the scene and the characters did this?" so yea, got to work this morning, opened up my book file and promptly deleted the second scene I wrote yesterday and started writing the scene again and I'm doing something different yet again.

I'm hoping this time, the scene works and I'm fisished with it. I want to move past it. It's silly really. Oh well... back to the book.. and oh yea, maybe actual work too. lol

Ideas and book writing

I have a file where I write down new book ideas. I open it up every once in a while and read it, sometimes add to it. I've decided that since I seem to be getting to a point in my werewolf book that I'm bored with it, maybe its time to start a new book. Maybe put the werewolves on the back burner for now, and start a new one.

I started a new file and chose one of my ideas. The first page lists my idea and I just got done typing up something about the main characters. Mainly, describing them and their part in the book. Now, I've written 4 complete books and my 5th one (the werewolf book) is still in progress. For two of those books, I listed out the characters, their details and background. This new one I've done that again. so half my books started without much of anything except the idea itself and the other half started with details of the characters. I don't know which is the better way to do it.

Now, just because I've written the character info down ahead of time, doesn't mean it'll stick. I'll probably change the details as the book progresses depending on how the characters make themselves known. I don't write every detail down, I don't make an outline of the book. I have a general idea of what I want to do with the book, and sometimes, my idea, my characters take things in to their own hands so to speak.

Knowing this, I can't help but wonder what the purpose is for me to even write down any details ahead of time. It's odd.

I just thought I'd post some random book thoughts since I haven't posted in a while. I'll try to post more for any readers I might still have