Rebooting – once again.

Wow – almost 4 months since I last posted. I keep saying “I am going to get back into this” but I have decided that fate hears that as “here, take this next” between the ambush divorce, death of my mom, and such – it’s been hard on my writing, hard on my mojo. Hell at one point I gave quitting a serious thought to quitting.

Serious thought lead to a 4 months absence.   But things have stabilized and I have come to some interesting to me conclusions & have a couple new projects to announce here, or at least preform a sanity check on them.

Let me start with the conclusion – The digital world sucks, the way several people behave in the electronic universe is at best reprehensible.  case in point, I have been talking to several authors a various levels of skills and success. I use Facebook, and twitter mostly, and my blog of course. Some of these people have political and religious beliefs that are diametrically opposite of mine, some are like minded. [I will spare you the saying they are right like me] some are men, some women and their age ranges go from 16 to 73. Today I was reaching out to someone that I have worked with in the past, only to find she has blocked my Facebook page, blocked me on Goodreads and even shut down the email address she used. I can’t tell if she quit, or if something I did annoyed her. But its actions like this that make me realize how ‘unreal’ Facebook is, and that the term ‘friend’ needs to be changed to ‘digital being that you sort of know’.  When the stuff hit the fan, several people suddenly stopped talking to me, and a few went as far as to block me [not block my posts, but block me, removing all communications and preventing me from seeing theirs. An unneeded precaution. For me I have only blocked 2 people ever, both of whom decided that their brand of religion was something that I must have. And even those people I tell I am blocking them and why. The whole ‘just block and run’ move, it’s rude and reduces the value of the digital world, and our places in it.

Okay now off my stupid box and time to talk about my new project. I have no less than three books in the works, a SciFi book, a horror book and my series of books – Jamie Ryder.   I also have a visual project as well, a graphic novel of my story ‘Pengalan’ (Graphic in this case meaning illustrated, not just the content). I also have a new piece of swag, a deck of cards complete with a new card game that I will be releasing as prizes and promotional materials. Next book signing, I will give them away. So any thoughts about the deck of cards and/or the game?

CHugging along

so after my ‘return’ from the last setback, another one derailed me…

I sware I am getting worn down,  but not enough to quit.  hell I don’t even know if I know how to quit.

my mother passed away, and no matter how much I say “it was coming, we knew it was” or ‘shes not in pain any more’ the truth is still the fact that she is dead

No matter how good or how bad,  no matter the sins we traded, or the disappointments we exchanged,  she was my mother.

For those reading this,  thanks for sticking around.  I will get over this and start to piece things back together soon.  

after all,  if being an author were easy, everyone would do it. 

I am getting back into the saddle again, and am going to start aggressively working on both my novel and my horror works,  reading various things for inspiration. 

next book to complete Shannon Thompsons Minutes before sunset – then either the sequel or some thing by SKN Hammerstone.  

the desire is there, the stories are there,  and I am not going to wait any longer to get them out.

 

Getting back into the saddle

Greetings all,

For those of you who bet in the pool ‘why I have not posted for almost 3 months’ anyone that bought the “is dead” or “has quit” squares have lost.

I have been dealing with a huge and personal tragedy, one I respectfully don’t wish to share, other than to say I am not the first, won’t be the last, and wished I could fix thing to prevent it.

During this time, I have not been creative, or maybe to be accurate I have not be productively creative.   I have been drug down, beaten and my writing has reflected this.

But it’s a new year, and I can’t keep contained any longer, so I am back in the game.  I am working on my writing as always, and I am also working on my photography as well.  In a way this tragedy has freed me, given me options that maybe I had before, but now I can see and feel clearly!

I am attaching a raw, unedited test photo. THEY MAY NOT BE WORK FRIENDLY!!! (they are on the cusp of not being work friendly.)   Its for a new project I am working on, one that I will end up needing to crowd fund, but one that I honestly believe will be worth it.  The Crowd Fund idea, I am not sold on, but I already know how to proceed with it, and am going to try to make the crowd fund more of a “preorder” then a “give me money to produce”.

reactions and advice are appreciated, just try to keep it clean! (and if you hate hate hate it, but don’t have advice on how to improve it – save yourself some typing – I am posting to get input & ideas, not criticism.)

I will be back to my weekly updates, working between the problems.  Thanks for being patient and for still being here.

As always, your

Little Rakasha

Hello my fellow Miscreants

Those that know me in real life know I am going through a very rough time. It has affected my blogging and I promise to be back to ‘normal’ as soon as I can. 

Last night, my daughter went and got me a rescue kitten. He is small, cute and needs me, a very good combination.  He reminded me of my other cat Buster (the one born in the wrong body). I have decided to name it Rakasha after my book, even though in truth, the adoption fees were more then my book has made. 

Last night he was on guard – watching and protecting me as I slept. At some point, he saw something evil crawling on my head. Being that he is a natural hunter, he moved into position, found his high grou

nd and leapt in and attacked. He used his kitten sized teeth and his baby claws, to tear and scratch and drive this intruder off of me.  It was three am on his first night and he saved me.

On another related note, I need to teach him the meaning of the word “Ear” and what one looks like, I would bet after last night he has the taste down. 

Results from the Convention

 Hello all,

As I announced before, I went to a horror movie convention to try to move some books.  I was not expecting much from sales, but I was hoping to learn a lot about how to work these conventions and pick up tricks I can use for the next ones.

Selling a total of 6 books in 12 hours is somewhat disappointing, but considering how little preparation I had, I will take it as a win.  Before my next appearance, I have a new ‘plan’ and its simple enough that someone should have suggested it before. But since I have never seen it, I will share with all of you 

First thing, have book stands and lights.  The co-presenter (who BTW –is the only reason I sold the 6 books I did) lent me one, it put my book out in a way that it could be seen. I also needed lights, the theater lobby we were in was dark, I used my iPhone as a source, but it was not great.  I will be picking up some small battery-powered lights, so I can illuminate my book cover next time.

Second thing – have some Candy.  A 4.00 bag of candy, put on your table, and in an appropriate container (in our case a ½ skull) people come up to get a piece, and they see the book – does that mean they buy it? Probably not but they become aware of it.  And if it’s a multi-day convention, who knows they may buy it on the second or third day.  

Third thing – have an ‘elevator pitch’ ready, be able to tell them about your book and get them interested, and do it in under a minute!  The sales I got were all because of my quick pitch about how the tiger demon is not only a flesh eater, but how her bite is addictive. The pitch intrigued enough people to buy 6 copies. 

Fourth thing, have something on your table unique.  For my next one, I want to get a tiger stripped cloth, to put down.  It will make my table unique, without being to garish, or expensive and its tied to my books theme.

Fifth thing, I am going to make a variety of ‘posters’ both from the shoot this Saturday, using the Book Cover, and also one with the quotes.  They will be 11*17 and with luck I won’t have to replace more than once a year, give or take. The idea, have something visual to grab the potential readers, and bring them to the table.

I am also going to get a plastic storage box to keep everything in, including a LCD screen (a spare I have from my other job) so I can put my book trailer on a loop if the table has power (and a power strip as well).  I will have blue painters tape, I will have duct tape (tiger stripped of course)  I will have paper clips, rubber bands and the cords needed to hook both the laptop and the IPhone to the monitor as needed. 

The last thing, I am going to set up a card table in my basement and practice setting things up – just so I can be sure I have at least a clue before next time how to do it.  The goal would be to have it to the point that I can set it up no matter how sleep deprived/hung over I am.  After all when you hang out with your fellow authors, that skill maybe far more important than you think

BTW – for those of you that enjoy my writing, or are curious about it, I have joined WattPad  (thanks to Shannon A Thompson for letting me know about it). So far I am putting my humor pieces up there.  I may start putting my horror pieces up as well, because the site allows you to block based on age. I would rather not have either year olds reading about Meth addled drug dealing bikers being eaten alive while cheering the demon on, call me old-fashioned.

Last Random Thought – if you want a copy or “Raksahsa” either the Ebook or the Physical copy – hop on over to Shannon’s blog and enter the contest  you could win one!  good luck.

 

short news

Hey all,

sorry about the lack of posts,  I have been working with some other authors and donating books to some give aways. 

if you’re not a fan or Shannon Thompson, you should be – she is doing a contest  and one of the many prizes you can win is either an ebook or a physical copy of Rakasha (my horror book)

also if you are a fan of Horror & History,  my short Ekmuu is going to be in the Horrors of History anthology – the first story! 

and for those of you lucky enough to live in Colorado – the Metro area at least,  I will be live on October 27th, signing and reading from Rakasha – at the Mutiny Book Mall at 2 Broadway. 

I also will be working the Denver Horror film festival, with a table (to sell books) and I will be at the MileHighCon  as well, doing a panel about Demons and Undead.

over all a busy month,

tack on my 17th anaversery of my thirth birthday, and my poor head is going to explode.

Time to Roll the Dice

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Monday – my daily rant will be about the email from KPD.

You all know I released then re-released the book Rakasha.  The latest round, I also realized that there are a couple hundred versions in the wind that need to be updated.  I reached out to KDP and asked what it would take.  The email I got back was clear, tell them the changes and they will either

1)    Ignore it, if they don’t feel the changes are important enough to bother with a push.

2)    Email clients and enable new content to be down loaded at client’s options.

3)    Pull my book off the for sale list “pending”.

WOW, talk about rolling the dice.   I went ahead and told them about all the changes and I am now sitting and sweating.  If you down loaded the book before Sunday, you may be getting a notice telling you there is a new and improved version.  That or it will be yanked and I will have to start all over, needing to replace all my reviews (all 11 of them) and dealing with a gap in my sales/marketing.

Moral of the story, no matter how sick your mother is, don’t hit that publish button until you are one thousand percent vetted.

Also, just an FYI but as of Sunday at 13:01 MST Rakasha the audio book has been approved.  It is not a matter of waiting for ACX to put it up and make it available.  I plan on running a free day to celebrate.  I also put Rakasha on the “Match” program, so if you buy the physical version of the book, you will get a free download of the Ebook – in theory, and when that program goes live.

Updates from the semi soggy word of writing

Hello all,

sorry for the lack of updates, but for those that don’t know I live in Colorado.   Yes the state that has been all over the news, getting flooded.

My books arrived Saturday – how the UPS truck got into the neighborhood I don’t know, but they tossed my 15 books to my rain-soaked porch during the storm..

need less to say my Rakasha books like water less than my Rakasha demon does.

all 15 books are damaged, some just a little bit (water damage in the corner,bottom) and some are just beyond ruined.

the good news, Amazon is going to replace them all (I did tell them I could try to save some of them, but their customer service is going to just replace the lot – outstanding)

and on other related news,  my Rakasha Photo shoot is still a go for the 28th,  I have another person that is doing a photo shoot, so we are splitting the studio, and other costs.

and I didn’t realize this before today, but my voice actor has been posting Rakasha excerpts for me to review and comment on….. so now I need to sit down with the script, and listen to the parts, and approve, or request changes.

I have also hired a publicist for a month to see if she can get Rakasha sales moving.

its funny, Rakasha is not my ‘lead book’, if anything its my ‘bitch book’  I have less money for it then for my novels marketing allotment, but it is showing me all the things about what works, what doesn’t and how to do them.

still one hell of a piece of fiction, but it is such a polar opposite of my novel, I sometimes wonder how many of these lessons will apply.  for example, I can’t advertise on book bub- Rakasha is 18 pages too short (they do not accept Novellas)  and there are other places that do not do reviews of Horror books, so testing them will not work. Looks like there will still be more Trial and Error on Jamie Ryder then I like, but at least I should have some really basic information to build from.

My Evil Plan Worked.

I will have 15 copies of my book in hand to deliver to the mutiny café and that sales spurred my number up a smidge (took me off the bottom of the pile). Add that to the fact that I have already sold those books, and I am feeling pretty darn good!  I also may be working with someone to get more exposure and just maybe sales will start, after all October is a good time for Horror books!

the evil part of that paragraph?  it was cheaper to buy from Amazon [now that they discounted my book] then it was to buy from the publisher.  after you factor in the free shipping, and the fact that the order fulfillment date was 3 days sooner, and the fact I still get my authors share, there was no way NOT to order it that way!

On a sad note the photographer I was going to hire is done. His pictures are worse than mine!  He sent me four ‘nudes’ he was very proud of.  Honestly, it takes talent to mess up a pretty girl nude, but somehow he did it.  But I am taking that as a sign, after all either I am a better shooter then I thought, or at least I know someone out there sucks more than I do… Either way!

You all should be treated to the Raw photos sometime the first week of October, and posters should follow soon!

BTW – now that Amazon has only a single page for my book (both Print and Ecopy) getting it in a format you want is that much easier.

http://www.amazon.com/Rakasha-Legend-Hindi-Tiger-Demon/dp/1490560785/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378833998&sr=8-1&keywords=rakasha should get you to both.  Note that Amazon discounted it to below 5.00 – a bargain if you ask me (or any of the 11 people that have reviewed it)

time to get ready for October’s big marketing push!

 

Rakasha Fan Page

Hey all,

Hope your weekend went well,  have been working on a new piece, its strange (like a lot of what I write) and I am not sure what I am going to do with it, but according to my beta reader/Uberfan  its interesting and they want it finished!

of course I also have been working on my Jamie Ryder series, and at this point, I found a new Muse.  She is smart, open, funny and smart as a whip.  She is helping me bring Jamie back inside the lines of normal behavior for a young woman.  I am also still trying to work out of the deaf problems, but those are not as important,  worse case I write what I think they are, and when book 1 comes out I find someone that wants to talk to me about it and then I will sort out the details.

if your inclined, my Books fan page is  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rakasha/501245046624553.  it could use some likes.

have a good weekend every one, and enjoy your extra day off.