May
06
2011

Book Trailers

Hey peeps,

So today I have a question rolling around in my head that’s begging to be asked—do you need a book trailer to promote your book?

For those who don’t know, a book trailer is sort of like a movie preview. But instead of live action actors, it’s a series of photos and images with some text that tell the basic premise of the story. The point is to hook the watcher into wanting to read the book. I’ve seen a bunch of authors do book trailers for their new releases but obvious not every book out in the world has one. So do you think they help promote and ultimately sell the book or are the resulting sales (if any) not worth the effort and time?

Share

May
04
2011

Stalking my Inbox

 

I’ve been stalking my inbox for weeks—Weeks! It’s getting very tiresome and yet I continue to check it often. And by often, I mean all the fricken time! I’m currently waiting on final edits, and a cover, and a release date, and hopefully a request for a partial, and hopefully a request for a full, and an always-expected-but-never-desired rejection or two. The wait is madness. Absolute and utter madness!

What are you stalking your inbox in hopes of finding?

Share

Apr
20
2011

Juggling… I Mean Starting a Writing Career

Oh my goodness. This whole silly “starting a writing career” thing is tricky somedays! How do you writer’s—aspiring and pubbed—find time in your day to do it all? I want to hear from you!

Somedays it’s very easy for me. I find time to get all of my regular responsibilities done and still have lots of time to fill with writing, submitting, editing, brainstorming, etc. But other days, well, that’s a whole other story. Those days I feel like I’m juggling balls, dowsed in kerosine, and lit on fire.

Today for example, I was outline my new novel while the kids played. Easy-peasy, right? Well, it was easy until they started chanting, “I’m hungry, I’m hungry!” Then it was time to switch into mum mode again and set my story aside. So I started mixing pancake batter and tried to ignore the characters in my head. But I couldn’t—Damn they’re loud sometimes! So I brought my laptop into the kitchen and found a clean spot for it on the counter. To do that, I had to move the easter egg dyeing kit I bought to use today, which reminded me we needed to get started on that right after lunch. So then I had to fill five little cup with water, plop in five little tablets of color and mix once in a while…while I flipped pancakes and outlined the scenes that the characters just wouldn’t shut up about. Oh, and did I forget to mention that I needed to eat also, but not pancakes… No pancakes would be too easy. Since boiling a million eggs yesterday for said dying today, I’ve had the worst craving for egg salad. A craving not to be ignored. So while mixing the dye, flipping the pancakes, and plotting, I then added egg salad making to my list of multi-tasking. Needless to say, a few pancakes were burned in the process.

Now, since I just had to write this blog about this multi-tasking extravaganza, I’m eating my egg salad sandwich while typing…holding on…need another bite…mmmm. *Licks egg salad from fingers before typing again*

So am I the only one stupid enough to try and meet so many different needs at the same time, or are there other crazy writers out there doing fifteen things while they read this post. Speak up! I wanna hear from you! I know you can squeeze in time for one little comment… 😉

Share

Apr
19
2011

Deadlines and Milestones

 

Last week was a busy one for me. Aside from my usual mum/wife duties, I also had a couple of play dates scheduled for my kids, I was class mom at my daughters school Wednesday morning and then that night we had a huge event to go to with my husband’s work. We didn’t get home that night until after one am. That’s not nearly enough sleep for someone who has to get up and get kids ready for school at seven the next morning. But that’s not all I was busy with. Oh no!

I also received my first ever professional edits for my soon-to-be published novella Love and Lattes last Monday! Very exciting and nerve-wracking. I was eager to get my edits to see what would need fixing, but I was so nervous that I wouldn’t be comfortable with the edits, or that I wouldn’t have it in me to make the change, or *eekk!* that I wouldn’t be able to complete them by the one-week deadline given to me. It was a very good lesson in multi-tasking for sure!

I’m happy to say that I met my first ever professional writing deadline and a couple of days early no less. I can’t help but feel like I’ve achieved some kind of milestone. It feels pretty damn good.

What was your first editing deadline like?

Share

Apr
16
2011

Welcome to my New Site!

Yeah! I have a new website!! I’ve been trying to figure out how to get a nice-looking, multi-functioning website for a while and finally I gave up—and hired someone! I’m so happy I did. The new site is awesome and very user friendly, even for a not so tech-savvy user like myself. So what do you think?

Lex Valentine, author and fellow Six Sentence Sunday participant, did the design work for me and helped get everything all set up. I think she did an amazing job. You should check out her design company Winterheart to see all the other wonderful work she’s done for other clients. Thanks, Lex!

Please take a tiny moment to update my link if you have me linked anywhere on your blog. Thanks!

Share

Older posts «

» Newer posts