writing with Damian

The other day I was writing a very suspenseful scene, where the two main characters are walking through an abandoned (maybe) house to claim it as their own, when I realized it was getting dark and difficult to concentrate on my computer screen as it was the only light in the room. I got up to flick on the light and get a  drink of water. I have dark blue carpet, and my hallway is always dark- even during the day. I opened my office door, clicking on the light as I started to leave and suddenly my black cat, Damian, thundered past me in the hallway! He scared the absolute crap out of me. It was awesome, and I had to call my sister. 

I am now fighting a lovely head cold and can't seem to form a coherent thought. Goodnight.

Zombiezzz

I love this short book. I know I should because I'm the one writing it, but I honestly love it. The gore is just what I have needed lately, and I love the escape and release I have by writing and editing it. So much fun! I sent it to my sister to read (she's my editor), and she couldn't get past the second page. She made her husband read it, to see if it tamed any, and he told her that she could probably read the second chapter, but that was it. I have thought about taming it many times since then, but can't bring myself to eliminate any of it. I just like it too much. Two more chapters to bring it to a nice close and I'm done. I will have to do my edits myself <eeek!> and hope for the best! My goal is to have it written by this weekend, and available by next weekend. We shall see......

surreal

I am so exited today! People are buying Choice that I don't know, (I don't get a list of who purchases it, I just get a number of book sales and my friends tell me if and when they have gotten it, and the number of sales is more than the number of friends and family that have gotten it!) I have started my author's blog/webpage thingy, I am learning how to market and have been starting to network. I am really starting to feel like an actual AUTHOR! This is exactly what I want, and yet it is terrifying. I almost feel as if I am living someone else's life right now and that they are allowing me a small glimpse into the intricacies of what being a responsible, hard-working, self-employed author is all about. It is so much more complex, interesting, and difficult than anything else I have ever done in my life. I love it. The thrill of not knowing what is going to happen next, and how am I going to reach that next hurdle, is almost as nauseating as it is exciting. I think I was almost this nervous the first time I rode my motorcycle. I hope that like it has with my bike, this still holds joy for me, but calms down in its nerve-wracking intensity.
I feel as if I am almost finished with the Zombie short, and hope to have it available mid-March. We shall see. All the other things involved in selling books are occupying more of my time than I thought they would, but I am trying. I have to sleep now as I feel like I am getting loopy. I wish you all Happy reading!

Aha!

I have officially discovered book bloggers and am very excited! Yea! Zombie War is coming along great; I have to say I am definitely enjoying the change of pace from the romance to the gore. I did decide on elaborating on the graphic details, and hope that everyone ends up enjoying it just as much as I am. (and by enjoying it I really mean you read it and go ewwww) :) Off to work I go now, oh the joy. Happy Reading!

Zombie War

Oh. My. Lord. I started the day out without a clue as to where to begin. It is snowing, and while I know we desperately need it, I detest the snow. I have to run errands today, and have other things that sound a lot more fun than trying to get this story to flow. Instead of wallowing in all the things that I had to do today, I sat down and wrote. I vowed that I would write for at least an hour, and no matter how bad, I would at least get something down on paper. I can always fix it later. I just needed something.
I am now applauding that decision. While it took a minute to get it started, I have just written one of the goriest scenes I have ever read. I am not sure at this point wether to keep it, elaborate on it, or delete it completely. It is disturbing. The fact that it came from my head makes me want to hug someone and be told that I am not as disturbed as I feel right now.

zombies

It's time to start back up with the writing. I have placed everything on hold to promote and publish Choice, then my gramps died, and now I have to get back to the actual writing part of this process. The part that I actually enjoy. I have been tinkering on some of the books, but haven't seriously sat down and concentrated solely on one book. Zombie War: The Beginning is my short story. At least it is starting out to be a short story. We will see where Sarah, the main character, takes us. Right now we are both leaning more toward a short story. Hopefully it will be finished, complete with edits, by July. That's my goal.
After Zombie War comes out, I am hoping to have some type of inspiration for Changed. For some reason I am totally and completely blocked for the second installment of the Origin's series. Grr. It will get there.

Loss & Remembrance

My gramps died on Sunday night. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather & great-grandfather. He was the perfect example of a retired military "Man's man." They really just don't make them like that anymore.
We got together as a family to remember the good times with gramps, and while I couldn't be there physically, I was via phone and spirit. It is hard when so many miles separate those you love so dearly.
My husband and I had a day for each other today where we cuddled and held on tightly to the gift of each other today. It was a great day to add to our memories, and one that I will cherish.
I hope you go and hug your family today. You never know how many tomorrows you have.

A Glimpse

Life can be so cruel sometimes. I have been preparing for a great week, and by all accounts should have accomplished just that. I relaxed all weekend with my husband, finished all my to-do's for Choice, went on an epic motorcycle ride, cuddled with my kitties, and had a (rare) wonderful night at work last night. Oh yah, and Fatburger is opening this week in a town very close to me, so Bry (my husband) and I are finally going to have good cheeseburgers. I am very excited about all of this.
Unfortunately, it is all now shadowed by the fact that my grandfather is in his last hours of life. I have worked as a hospice CNA for a few years, and my aunt, who is an RN, is taking care of him. She told me his symptoms today, and we are both convinced that he has hours, not days to live. That is, if you call gasping for breath, living. I am very upset by this news as I thought for sure I would have a few more months to try and see him before he left this world. I want to be there with my family, to love and support them, especially my gram. She and grampa just celebrated their 60 some odd wedding anniversary, and I don't know what she is going to do now. I want to give her a hug and an excuse to do all the baking that she loves but I can't, because I have to work and they live across the country. Life can be so cruel sometimes.

The bike

I absolutely love riding my motorcycle and think that everyone should at least learn to ride one. It is an experience that is so unbelievable, awesome, and completely unexplainable completely. Maybe one day I will try to verbalize this experience...
Today we took a nice long ride up and down a mountain. It was chilly and absolutely beautiful. We had just finished lunch and were on our way home when a heard of wild mustangs galloped toward us. They came within twenty feet of running over my husband when they made a quick right and galloped next to us for about five seconds. It was beautiful. Completely something out of a storybook or in some sappy movie. Absolutely completely breathtaking.

smashwords.com

I really wish I would have found this website way earlier as they have a link to a free book called Smashwords Style Guide by Mark Coker that is simply amazing.
Every place I have looked for formatting questions has been like reading Greek, but more irritating. I have changed the formatting on the book about 10 times to try and get it to look good on various e-Readers. The last time I was so frustrated I cussed out my computer and everyone around me for about three hours and said simply that I give up and hopefully people won't mind if it has a few oddities.
SSG walks you through the entire formatting so that it looks decent as an eBook. For those of you that purchased Choice already, I do apologize for any weird font, and for those who were waiting to get it, yea! You get the updated one. (content is EXACTLY the same, just better format) I really really wish I would have found this before I started this publishing fiasco. I had never thought myself as computer illiterate, but after attempting to publish in various vendors.... wow.
Anyway, Choice should now be available for every type of eReader created thanks to Smashwords.com in the next two days.
I'm going to ride my motorcycle now. Happy Reading! :)

I couldn't think of a title today. Guess it is just one of those days. I made my first ham today for the family. It rocked. Didn't do anything new for the books today, but I still have to get the formatting corrected for Smashwords. Hopefully I will have that done this weekend. I'm freezing right now and going to bed. Have a great weekend! :)

Friday!

Thank God it's Friday!! I am so happy that I have my weekend coming soon! Saphyra is helping me to type right now so... she's awesome. :) I hope to get some good work on Changed this weekend and feel like I am progressing a little bit. It has been a challenge to work full time, write, market the book (As I have absolutely no idea what I am doing), and still have some fun time with my family; but it is a challenge that I think I have done fairly well. I wouldn't say perfectly, because I think that no matter how good you anyone has done something, there is always a way to make it better. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Muse

I have decided that my muse does not like my job. She has only been inspiring me to write about death, murder, and chaos the past month and I don't want to write about that at the moment. I am desperately trying to send her down the path to guide Changed, but she is stuck on The Head Hunter. So frustrating.

Football

One of these years I will actually be able to watch this game. I used to love it. The excitement, the food, the fun people competing with each other on who's team is better. It's fun. Unfortunately I have worked every football game in the past few years and have missed out. I secretly love the commercials and have before they became popular. They are always very strange and seem to contain the energy of the game. Maybe next year I will get lucky and the Titans will play the Lions and I will have it off to watch my husband and brother battle it out in the living room. :) That would be fun.

New computer

My computer has been wigging out for the past couple of months. As I have been searching more and more for different places to advertise the book, I have been having an increasingly harder time doing anything else on my computer.
I now have a new one. I have spent an entire day trying to figure out the new computer as well as downloading all the necessary apps and files from the old computer. I really wish that when you purchased a new computer it came with all the basics already installed and ready to go out of the box. Plug it in and go. Oh well.
Changed has two separate beginnings so far. They are very similar to each other yet different. I will probably end up combining it, or deleting the whole thing and starting over like I did with Choice about 5 times. I have a very difficult time starting the book. Once it begins, it flows better, but the start is my tricky moment. I'm very critical of my writing and want people to be captivated by the start. I'm still getting good feedback from Choice, and for that I am very excited.

It's in the details

So, my eventual goal is to quit my day (night) job and write full time. I have wanted to share my stories with others who are interested in traveling to places unknown for a long time, and have just recently decided that I am ready to take that challange. I am discovering that it is much harder than I had originally anticipated.
I work a minimum of 40 hours a week at night at a local hospital, and am married with cats. As anyone who really knows me can tell you, the cats equate to eight little toddlers running around my house. Between running my household, working, and taking care of my families' needs, my books often go on the back burner. It has been extremely frustrating. Choice, the first book in the Origin's series has finally been self-published onto Kindle and Nook. I am very excited to finally see it for sale, and have now entered the advertising stage of this process. It is a much more complicated and time-consuming process than I had thought or wanted, forcing my writing back onto that back burner again.
I am having to remember, and remind myself constantly, that once the details are set-up and flowing, the book will sell, and time will appear. To those of you just entering the writing process, I say to you, find a very understanding support system. They will be lifesavers in the next year. Having people tell me Choice was great, begging me to get to Changed, has often been the only thing keeping me going when I felt like it was just too much.