“O” is for “Other World: Book One” – An A-to-Z Blogging Challenge Post

For the A-to-Z Challenge 2017 I’m writing all about myself. Every post will be some random fact or bit of information about me that you may or may not have already known. Maybe you’ll learn something! Feel free to let me know! ^_^

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More self promotion today!

“The Other World: Book One” is my recently-published novel that is the first book in a series. It is the story of a teenage girl who has lost everything but subsequently gains a strange and unusual purpose when she is transported into a parallel universe.

This story, like my previous novel “Nowhere to Hide”, was a National Novel Writing Month project, but that’s not where it started. The original story, which I then called “Parallels”, was a single novel that I began writing after my high school sweetheart broke up with me. I was a complete mess – as one tends to be after a break-up – and one of the things I did as a result of that was to get back into writing for cathartic reasons. It was a Mary-Sue project at first, because I was writing simply to make myself feel better. The main character was based on myself, and the bad guy was based on the dude who broke up with me, and that’s really all you need to know, because no trace of that original story made it to the final cut. Those first chapters that I wrote way back then were picked up a few years later and re-written twice before being dropped again. The following year I picked it up again as my NaNovel, and a few years later I picked it up AGAIN as my NaNovel. A couple of years after that I had the idea to change the single story into a short series, and after about two years of working on it I finally came out with Book One.

The final cut (or, at least, the final cut of Book One, I suppose) is not even the tiniest bit like the original draft. As the years went on my views on life changed, my views on what is good literature changed, my skills as a writer grew, and all in all the story just evolved, became much, much better, and turned into something completely different. That’s a good thing, but in a way also very weird from my perspective, because I can remember all the bits of story that never made it in, the things that I realized were stupid, or literary suicide, or just didn’t fit anymore as the characters changed entirely.

But I’m mostly rambling. The point is that the story that was is just a memory now, and the story that is is all the better for it. So if you’d like to check it out and support your local indie author, please click on the image or link above for both the ebook and paperback options. 🙂

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Are you going to check out The Other World: Book One? It’s okay, you can be honest with me! XD Leave a comment as well, if you’d like!

Goals and Aspirations in Review – March 2017

March has come and gone – even if Winter damn well refuses to do so – so it’s time for another update. Let’s just get right into it, shall we? Here’s how my goals and aspirations went for March 2017:

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Goal #1. WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE.
You’re not going to believe this, but I have decent news to report this month around! March was far from my best month ever when it comes to writing, but it was MUCH better than both January and February were this year so far. I did equal parts blog posts (mostly advance writing for April’s A-to-Z Blogging Challenge) and fiction writing toward “The Other World: Book Two”, and managed to put together 9435 words in March. That’s nearly twice January and February combined! Go me! Mind you I don’t want to get cocky. I want to do better in April, for sure. But I also feel a little proud to have finally had my first good month in a long time, as far as writing is concerned.

Mini-Goal #1.a. Publish more erotic fairy tales.
As far as this mini-goal is concerned, things have ground to a halt. I do still intend to move forward with this one, but most of February and March was very focused on getting “The Other World: Book One” out and available, and once that happened I became more focused on writing “The Other World: Book Two”, so the erotic fairy tales just got pushed onto the back burner. That said, I do hope to go back and finish the one that’s been sitting in waiting sometime soon.

Mini-Goal #1.b. Start writing blog posts again.
I’m working toward this one, I swear! Ha ha ha… Actually, April will be the month, since I am, in fact, doing the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge again. In addition to that, though, I’m also pretty much caught up on posting videos, so soon I should actually have an empty slot here and there with which to try doing some actual blogging again. Wish me luck!

Mini-Goal #1.c. Find ways to promote the book(s).
Still waiting on some advice for this one, especially now that I have two books to promote. I’ve had a suggestion here and there, but nothing that’s really going to be doable. I’ve been staring at Goodreads for months, waiting for them to make their ebook giveaway option available outside the US, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen any time soon, and I’m not in a spot financially right now where I can afford to ship out free paperbacks in return for reviews and the like. So, yeah, again, if anyone has any suggestions, please hit me up.

#2. Get healthier.
Remember that 30-day program that I mentioned I was going to do last month? *cough cough* I made it about six days in, I think. But that just gives me another chance to try it this month! That’s called staying positive people, STAYING POSITIVE!

Mini-Goal #2.a. Walk/run 10k 8k steps per day.
In all seriousness though, I am continually impressed/disgusted by my inability to get my steps in. It’s sick. I managed 6 days this month during which I hit my 8k-steps goal, and the average overall was 6485 steps per day. That’s so pathetic.

Let’s say it together, shall we? I. Must. Stop. Being. Such. A. Sedentary. BLOB!

Mini-Goal #2.b. Take daily “me time”.
I can’t say anything particularly good or bad about this one, but I think I’ve been doing okay. I had some hot baths, some snuggling-up and watching movies with the kid, a bit of lounging with a mobile game every so often. I’m not taking huge swathes of time to relax by any means, but I’m getting my moments in here and there.

#3. Work on my online presence – specifically, YouTube.
I’m never sure how to quantify this one, but I think it’s going okay. We grew a little over the past month because of an awesome giveaway we did with The Collectors Case, and I’ve been trying to be more active on things like Twitter and Instagram, which I’m pretty sure is working out well, so all in all, I’d say it was a pretty decent month. I’m also hoping that I might build my presence a little in the coming month with the Blogging Challenge, so fingers crossed for that. 

Mini-Goal #3.a. Learn to respond immediately.
This one may have taken a little nosedive this past month. I know for a fact that I’ve gotten better overall, but for whatever reason this past month felt really rushed and busy, and so there were definitely a number of times that I skipped responding to something and forgot about it for a couple of days. In fact, as I write this there’s an email that I’ve been meaning to get back to for at least 48 hours and I feel really bad about it. So yeah, I’m going to try to get back to it on this one in the coming month (and I’m going to respond to that email the second I finish this post)!

Mini-Goal #3.b. Focus more on daily social media.
I think this one is going to be one of those things that I struggle with right through to the end of the year, but I’m definitely getting better. Like I said earlier, I’ve been trying to focus a lot more on Twitter and Instagram, and it’s been going fairly well. Facebook is a little bit more of a drag, just because I find it harder to think of things that are interesting to post, whereas Tweets and random pics on Instagram are easier to come up with. Snapchat is right out there…ha ha ha…I enjoy it, but I often just flat-out forget about it for days at a time. I’m totally still trying though!

Mini-Goal #3.c. Come up with new video ideas.
And the response for this one is pretty much the same as last month’s: it more or less hasn’t happened. There’s been so much else going on! I will say, though, that Jason did come up with a few interesting ideas, and we might be using them as collaborations with a few other channels, so that could be interesting. Fingers crossed!

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That was my March! How was yours? Did you get anything accomplished? Do anything awesome? Feel free to drop a comment!

The Other World: Book One – Now Available in Paperback!

Exciting news, everybody! I finally received my proof copy of “The Other World: Book One”, and it was beautiful! If you’re interested, I was super-excited to share it with everybody, so I did an unboxing video of it here:

So what does this mean to the casual observer? Well it means that the paperback version of the book is now available for sale! Yay!!! If you’re interested in checking it out, you can find it on the CreateSpace store, or through Amazon.com right here. And of course, it’s still available as an e-book right here.

This story started life as a cathartic way of helping myself through a tough time, transformed several times as my NaNo novel for multiple years, and eventually became something completely different that I’m super-proud of and excited to continue. So with all that said, I’m extremely happy to finally have a physical copy of it for myself, and for others to have the option to get it as well. It’s a huge accomplishment for me, so I hope you’ll consider checking it out! If you do, please consider rating and/or reviewing on Amazon or Goodreads to help encourage others to check it out as well. 🙂 Cheers and thank you everyone!

The Other World: Book One – Now Available in E-book!

It’s an exciting day, you guys! “The Other World: Book One” is officially available for download as an e-book through Amazon and Kindle! This story is a bit of a baby of mine – something that I’ve written and re-written so many times in the past decade that it’s not even the same story it began as – so it’s super-exciting to finally see it be available online!

If you’re like me and you prefer holding a paperbook copy in your hands, don’t worry, it’s coming in the next couple of weeks! But for you digital-age readers, you can click on the image below to go directly to Amazon where it can be purchased. Don’t forget that if you’re a Kindle Unlimited member you can read for free, and all you need to read is the free Kindle app on any of your smart devices!

I hope you’ll check it out, and if you do, please be sure to rate and/or review. :3 Cheers, readers! ❤

Goals and Aspirations in Review – February 2017

February is the shortest month in the year, so one would be forgiven for feeling as though it just up and disappeared in a breath and a blink. Therefore I won’t spend too much time talking about how I swear to puppies it was February 1st just yesterday. Instead, let’s jump right into the details. How did February go for me?

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#1. WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE.
I hate that I’m having to admit this again, but February was an even worse month than January for writing. Looking back at last month’s post I realize that I didn’t even give you guys any numbers, so I’ll rectify that now. In January, during my epic, EPIC writer’s block episode, I wrote a grand total of 4396 words, most of them for a handful of blog posts. During February, I wrote a grand total of 1468 words, ALL of them for a handful of blog posts. That could hardly be more pathetic if I was actively attempting to be pathetic.

THAT SAID…I’m giving myself a bit of a pass for this month, because it’s not like I wasn’t doing anything. I spent a large portion of the month going through final edits for “The Other World: Book One”. I took all the notes from my beta-readers, fixed a number of typos and small issues, and began a final read to make minor changes where I felt they were needed. Because of this work I am currently only a couple of chapters away from having a completed manuscript, and as soon as my cover artist has his bit ready, I’ll be prepared to upload everything to CreateSpace and order my personal copy to ensure that everything looks good.

So yeah, I’m gonna let myself off for this one. JUST for this month, I swear.

Mini-Goal #1.a. Publish more erotic fairy tales.
This mini-goal has been put on a temporary hold, in part because of that huge stint of writer’s block in January and in part because of everything I just previously wrote. I haven’t got back around to finishing the current story I’m working on because I’ve been focusing my energy instead on “The Other World”, which I consider to be much more important. Be assured, however, that I’m very close to finishing another of these tales, and I’m confident that I’ll have half a dozen or so up by the end of the year. *fingers crossed*

Mini-Goal #1.b. Start writing blog posts again.
No excuses for this one; it simply hasn’t been happening. I do still want to start writing blog posts again, but for now, since I’ve got more important stuff I’ve been working on, I’m just worrying about catching up on sharing my YouTube videos. Once I’ve actually got to a point where I’m sharing the videos as they’re being posted, there will be lots of empty days available where I can possibly start writing actual posts again. *fingers crossed again*

Mini-Goal #1.c. Find ways to promote the book.
This is not going well. Someone help. Please. Seriously. I have no idea what to do.

In all seriousness though, I am at a bit of a loss. I can’t afford to spend money on things like advertisements and the like, and other options I’ve found aren’t currently available to me (I’ve been patiently waiting to be able to do a Goodreads E-Book giveaway, but it’s still only an option for those in the US). Any suggestions would seriously be deeply appreciated.

#2. Get healthier.
Um…what? Why do I do these things to myself? lol Okay, okay, I’ve been trying, I have, but more in little stints than reasonable leaps. I’ve been trying to drink more water, although I can’t cut out the coffee and tea without passing out multiple times a day, and I’ve been attempting to eat more fruit and veggies, but god DAMN candy is so tempting. 😀 I’m not complaining or making excuses, I swear, I’m just…not very good at being healthy. lol I’m trying though, I promise. I really am. I’m even starting a 30-day program this month that basically trains you to be able to do long stints of push-ups, squats, crunches, and lunges. Wish me luck!

Mini-Goal #2.a. Walk/run 10k 8k steps per day.
If you read last-month’s post, you’ll know that I’ve lowered this particular goal from 10k steps to 8k, as suggested to me by my saucy, saucy FitBit. Unfortunately it seems as though lowering the goal has only served to create a situation in which I lower my output as well. Throughout February I only had four days on which I hit the 8k goal, and my overall average for the month was only 6635 steps per day. That’s sad, really.

Now, in my defense, there were a few days on which my steps were not recorded properly because my stupid FitBit has been dying a lot quicker lately for some reason, and occasionally I won’t notice that it’s conked-out until I’ve lost half a day’s steps. But even considering that, I doubt my true average was any higher than 7000 steps, which is still frustrating. So with that said, this month I’m going to do my best to take an actual walk each day, even if it’s only 15 minutes of going up and down my street. I have got to get those numbers up before I become a completely sedentary blob.

Mini-Goal #2.b. Take daily “me time”.
I’m actually wondering why I bothered to include this as a mini-goal, since I’m not actively attempting to record anything for it. I have nothing to report, really, other than that I think I probably succeeded for the most part? I’ve had several nice baths, some solo shopping, and usually I spend at least a few minutes a day just laying down and watching a couple of YouTube videos, so I think we’re pretty good with this one.

#3. Work on my online presence – specifically, YouTube.
This is another one that’s hard to quantify, particularly through February, because there was a lot going on, some stuff to catch up on, people to talk with, packages to send, and so on and so forth. We didn’t film and upload as many videos as I’m sure Jason would have liked us to, but I don’t think it was as bad as all that, considering a number of different factors. That said, I’m still working on a few things, and if I could get my mood under control it would be a lot easier to focus on this goal in the future.

Mini-Goal #3.a. Learn to respond immediately.
This is one for which I can honestly say that I’m getting a lot better. There are still the occasional times when I’m out shopping or driving and can’t get back to someone immediately, but I’ve been putting a lot of focus into making sure I get back to people asap before I forget about them. I’m regularly responding to emails, personal messages, YouTube comments, and so on as soon as I catch wind of the opportunity, and I’m happy with the progress. Now if only the people I’m talking to could manage the same courtesy. ^_~

Mini-Goal #3.b. Focus more on daily social media.
I’m still working on this one, but I’m definitely getting better. I’ve been focusing mostly on Twitter, but also trying to throw a few extra things on Instagram here and there. Facebook is still slow because, honestly, having a Facebook Fan Page is a little extraneous when all your followers have you on the more active social media outlets as well, but I’ve been trying to throw some extra fun stuff in the Basement Geeks group as a way of socializing more. Still a bit behind on SnapChat though. I just can’t get really INTO that one. 😛 

Mini-Goal #3.c. Come up with new video ideas.
And last but not least…you know what? I’m not even going to try to bullshit you guys on this one. I have absolutely not been coming up with new video ideas. I’ve been focused too much on the other fifty things going on. So let’s just not even bother. I’ll try harder in the future. 😛

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So that was my February, and honestly, as I was writing this post I realized that it wasn’t all that great, but I’m okay with that. February had a lot of issues, but I still managed to get a fair bit done, and it has served to steel my nerves for March. I’ve got plans and determination, and I’m confident that next month’s post is going to be a much more positive one, so I’m going to focus on that. 🙂

How was your February? 😀

It’s Almost (Self-)Publishing Time… – An IWSG Post

Let’s be totally honest. Writer’s are insecure, like…200% of the time. We occasionally have little bouts of confidence and genuine belief in our abilities, but the overwhelming majority of the time we’re little balls of misery and self-loathing, rocking back and forth in the corner, insistent that we have no talent, no prospects, and that anyone who ever said they liked our books was a dirty, dirty liar.

That said, I personally feel that the most powerful moments of insecurity come right before something is about to be published.

I’ve been working on “The Other World” for more than a decade, no joke. That wasn’t all consecutive, of course. It began life as a therapeutic way of dealing with my then-boyfriend breaking up with me. Those early drafts were very, well…terrible. It was a Mary-Sue story in which everyone loved the main character except for herself, and she made a massively huge deal about her own breakup, as though it was literally the end of the world. It was absolutely horrible, but at the time it served it’s purpose. It made me feel a little better, and it was a reason to put words to paper.

Eventually it grew and evolved. I’m not joking even a little bit when I say that I restarted this particular story from scratch at least a dozen times. It was my NaNoWriMo novel twice, and I would regularly return to it and completely rewrite it whenever I would get bored or frustrated with my other works. And as time went on and I learned more about proper styles of writing, what turns readers off, and so forth, the story changed more and more and more. Eventually it became a series. Characters transformed. Main plot points shifted dramatically. To be perfectly honest, at this point what I have in my Scrivener file has extraordinarily little in common with the original story. It has matured spectacularly from what it started out as. Even I – as a completely self-loathing writer – can see that. The story that I am currently performing final edits on is nothing like the self-absorbed cathartic ramblings that I first put down back in college. It is much, much better. Infinitely so.

I know this. And yet, as I wait (im)patiently for my cover artist to send me some ideas, and I finish those final edits on Book One of the series, I find that little voice beginning to whisper in the back of my mind. “This is complete crap,” it hisses. “Your beta-readers are liars, and you’re a talentless hack who will never have any real success as a novelist. You should delete the entire file and never speak of this story again.”

That voice is a bitch. I know this, and yet it is exceptionally difficult to quell her. I have become the master of procrastination, taking much longer at each step of the writing process than is reasonable, because that voice slows me down, weakens me, and convinces me that it’s pointless. She’s a complete and utter bitch and I hate her.

So I say this to you now: moving forward I am going to do my level best to smother that voice and bury her deep, deep down where I can’t hear her hateful hissing. I’m going to trust that my beta-readers weren’t just being nice to spare my feelings, I’m going to work with my cover artist to create something beautiful and attractive, and I’m going to put that something out there for the world to see. Then I’m going to take what comes as it comes. And then, regardless of the results, I’m going to sit at my laptop, and I’m going to get to work on finishing Book Two, and I’m going to start the process all over again. Because that’s what a real writer does. We murder that voice in cold blood – no matter how many times it resurrects itself – and put ourselves out there regardless of the vicious whispers.

Who’s with me?

Falling Back in Love…With My Novel

A couple of weeks ago, in February’s ‘Insecure Writers Support Group’ post, I talked about how I’ve fallen out of love with my manuscript recently, which is highly unfortunate considering that it’s only part one in what is supposed to be a four-part series. There’s this swirl of different emotions and feelings about the story wheeling around in my head, driving me near-mad, in fact. On the one hand, I definitely still feel that it’s a viable story that people will enjoy. On the other hand I’ve been technically working on this particular story for years (it has evolved many times and barely resembles the original concept) and I guess maybe I’m just feeling a little bored with it. Back on the first hand, I love the characters and really want their stories to be told, but on the second hand I’ve been having a difficult time keeping the main character in the emotional train-wreck state that she’s meant to be in without making her completely unlikable in the process. And, I guess, at least a little bit of me feels like I have to finish this particular project whether I want to or not, while another little bit of me is longing to do something different without actually knowing what that different is.

So I’ve decided to take the advice of some of the lovely fellow writers who commented on the IWSG post and re-read my story. As we speak I am compiling the manuscript into a readable form and transferring it onto my phone so that I can scroll through it on the bus to and from work, and maybe during my breaks as well.

Maybe by doing this I’ll get back into the characters’ lives, get back into the adventure, and find myself truly wanting to finish the last couple of chapters so that I can ship it off to my beta-reader. Maybe I’ll fall back in love with the story.

At least, I hope so, because if that doesn’t happen, I really don’t know where I’m going to go from there. @_@

Looking on the Bright Side – An IWSG Post

Well, it’s once again time for the “Insecure Writer’s Support Group” post of the month, and though I’m having what I consider to be a pretty rotten morning so far I’m going to try really really hard to keep a positive light to this month’s post.

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First thing to be happy about: a couple of weeks ago those of us who are participating in the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge got our results back from the first challenge. The way it works is that in each group (which has about 30 people), the top fifteen stories get points, and you get as many points as your rank. So the top ranking story would get fifteen points, and the lowest ranking story would get one point, with the remaining fifteen people getting zero points. For my first story of the challenge I got ten points, which I think is pretty great, especially considering that it’s my first time ever participating in the challenge. 🙂

The second part of the challenge was about a week and a half ago, so I won’t get the results back for that one until October 20th-ish. Once those points are doled out the top six scorers in each group move on to Round Two. I’m not expecting to get into Round Two because my second challenge story wasn’t nearly as good as the first one, but it’s still been tons of fun and I’ve gotten lots of great feedback from fellow participants, so it was definitely worth it.

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Second thing to be happy about: the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book competition is coming to a close very soon. Why is that something to be happy about? Because it’s been KILLING me waiting for it! To enter the competition you had to send them a hard-copy of your novel way back in March/April, so I’ve just been sitting around waiting for the results since then. I’m not expecting to place at all – after all, I’m sure there were probably hundreds of entrants all with amazing books – but I’m excited for it to be over because even the losers get feedback from the judges on their novel. Plus it’ll just be nice to not be anticipating it anymore! Only five more days until “all winners will be notified”, so soon I’ll be able to breathe a sigh of relief and know that it’s officially over and I don’t have to think about it. XD

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Third thing to be happy about: although it’s actually taken longer than I expected it to because my life is a ball of “go here, do this, do that”, I am almost done of the current draft of “The Other World: Book One”. That means that I can ship the manuscript off to my beta-reader and not have to think about it again until she ships it back with her thoughts. This is definitely a good thing because I’ve reached that stage in every story where you just want to set your laptop on fire rather than have to re-read the same paragraphs one single more time.

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Fourth thing to be happy about: NaNo season is approaching. Honestly, even though I love NaNoWriMo, I’m usually filled with dread at this time of year because it’s just such a god-damn busy time and I’m usually so stressed out and there’s absolutely no way that I can find the time required to write 50,000 words in one month. HOWEVER, this NaNo I’ve decided to totally rebel and do something fun and kinda-sorta-in-a-way relaxing. I’ve been toying with the idea of writing an erotic novel or two, mostly for research purposes (no, seriously), to see how such a thing would sell in comparison to my zombie novel, “Nowhere to Hide“. So, this year for NaNo I’m going to rebel and just write 50,000 words worth of erotic stories. My understanding is that the average erotic story is 5000-7000 words, so I’m going to try to write 8-10 short stories. I think it’ll be an interesting change from the usual system since, generally, by mid-way through NaNo I’m both losing interest in my story and wondering how I’m going to stretch it out to 50,000 words. With what I’m going to do this year if I lose interest I can just skip to one of the other stories in the line. Yeah, okay, technically it’s cheating, but the NaNo forums have a “Rebels” board for a reason, right. ^_~

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So I guess that’s basically it for now. I’m just trying really hard to look on the bright side of things, because otherwise my eye starts twitching and I start grinding my teeth and not sleeping well, and it’s just overall a really bad scene. 😛

So what about you guys? What are you all up to? Looking on the bright side, right? RIGHT?

“She’s Lost Everything” – A Flash Fiction Friday Post

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Note: The following is a tiny piece of flash fiction featuring a scene from the background story of The Other World: Book One. This part of the story does not actually occur as a scene in the book, but I thought it would be interesting to write. Enjoy!

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There was no white light, no choir singing for her to join them in eternity. There was no gentle crossing over into another, more simple existence.

There was noise and confusion and pain.

Her body screamed and her mind wept; it wanted to shut down, to drift away and relieve her of this misery, but something inside her struggled to find its way back to reality. She grasped for her name, desperate to maintain herself in this sea of shrieking, burning horror, but it was just outside her grasp. Vi-? Victor? Victoria.

She could hear the way her mother’s voice had enunciated the name and she let out a horrible cry.

She thought she was in a hospital now. It was so bright and white, and so very, very loud. There were people all around her, poking and prodding, sticking her skin with needles and splinting her bones back together. The sounds were terrifying. She thought she should have been unconscious for all this. Why, oh why wasn’t she unconscious for all this?

“Heart rate rising,” said one voice.

“I need a hand here now!” cried another one.

Machines beeped and whirred as the people worked. She listened to them and wanted to scream because she didn’t understand what was happening, where she was, or where she was headed.

But yes, you do, said a little voice in the back of her mind. You remember the blood, the crying. You remember your parents rushing you into the car. You remember the headlights of the transfer truck and the shattering of glass. You remember-

“The baby…” whispered a sad voice, muffled through a medical mask. For a second that voice was the only sound Victoria could hear. “The poor girl…she’s lost everything now.”

And then all was chaos again, and she couldn’t struggle against the tide any longer. She felt herself sink deep, deep down, and truly prayed that she would never break the surface again.