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| DepositPhoto |
We’re supposed to write about one thing that’s been on our
mind this week. Well, mine is pretty much occupied with the adorable new
grandbaby. Sorry I have no photos to share but his parents are trying to keep
his social media footprint as tiny as his real footprint, at least for now.
You’ll just have to take my unbiased, totally impartial word for it that he’s
the cutest baby EVER. Or at least since his mother was a baby.
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| Jake the Cat |
I have a butterfly mind, flower to flower, thought to
thought. Or stream of consciousness perhaps. I don’t brood over any one thing
to the exclusion of pondering other stuff. Well, maybe when Jake the Cat is
yowling at me to FEED HIM. That’s pretty hard to ignore. But I’m not getting up
at 4AM because he has a craving for smelly fishy catfood from the can. Never
mind he has dry food in the bowl at all times and is thoroughly spoiled. By
who, you ask? (Looks around guiltily.) Couldn’t be me!
So of course there was stuff this week that I thought about
– the current state of world and national affairs, medical insurance, local freeway construction
delays, author drama (there is so much of this but that’s kind of a constant,
only the names and the central issues change, beware the flying monkeys),
fasting for my blood test today, the novel I’m writing, many MANY plot bunnies
for other books I don’t have time to write…
Well, ok, how about this one? I don’t know the person myself
but there’s an author whose first book sold like hotcakes AND got made into a
movie that did fairly well…and five YEARS later they are back with the
sequel…and oh, surprise, not only have the readers not been waiting with bated
breath, the entire industry has changed a LOT. What worked then does not work
now. (Except when it does, of course, in the confounding manner of publishing.)
I keep visualizing this poor person being like Rip Van Winkle in a way,
emerging from the writer cave, book in hand, shouting “Here it is!” to the
waiting crowds…only there aren’t any.
Never mind five years, seems like the publishing industry
changes every six months or even more often, or so it seems. I’m grateful for the various author groups
I’m in online, where people compare notes and share generously as to what still
works, what quit working, what’s new to try…
I’ve kind of had to unwind my view of myself as an author
from my view of myself as the small business-publisher-of-myself, to keep my
writing sanity. I write what I write and enjoy telling the stories and don’t
let myself worry if this particular book I’m in the middle of now will pay the
bills in June. Paying the bills in June is a whole other issue than whether my
hero and heroine will defeat the Big Bad and get to that HEA. I'll handle the bills issues when I'm in business-mind mode! Too much pressure
on the creativity kills the whole thing for me. I can’t “write to market”, nor
do I want to, nor do I want to fret over it.
My market is people who happen to enjoy the same kinds of
stories I do, and buy books that I write.
I do my promo activities and my networking and I certainly
don’t let myself slack off on any of that because there are so many other good
books and so many other good authors out there, and I don’t want readers to
forget that they enjoy my books too. Reminding people that Veronica Scott
exists and oh-by-the-way she has a new release (see below) plus a growing
backlist is just good business sense. I
love scifi romance and I enjoy talking about the entire genre and other authors
I admire on various platforms. I’m honored and have fun doing that!
But I have had to give myself a few stern lectures fairly
recently on not getting spun up over the latest twist some large ebook seller
has thrown into the business mix, or that alien planet barbarian dragon
shifters with secret babies are now the rage in my genre when I write books
like the adventures of Ripley and Hicks in “Aliens” but with more romance, less
gore and less dripping ick and an HEA. Or any number of other wrinkles, permutations
and new stumbling blocks in the indie author biz.
I’ll never be a statistical whiz, analyzing all the clicks
per bid or whatever it may be, and I needed help with the complexities of
creating a MailChimp newsletter…so I do the things I can, make myself learn the
ones I totally require to survive as an author nowadays, and I keep it all FAR
AWAY from my creative process of
writing the next scifi romance.
This excellent article by Kristine Kathryn Rusch comparing
the indie author phenomenon to a gold rush, an investment bubble and a business
cycle was extremely clarifying and helpful to me and I highly recommend it.
New Release! Ta da!
The blurb:
I’m really excited to release three Sectors stories that have only been
available previously in anthologies, none of which are available currently. (I
know many of you purchased the Pets In Space anthology, which first contained
STAR CRUISE STOWAWAY and thank you so much!) Along with STOWAWAY, I’ve really
been wanting to get the other two stories out there for you, especially THE
GOLDEN TOKEN, which was only in the limited edition paperback we handed
out at last year’s RT Booklovers Conference. So I’ve bundled them ALL into one
book with the lengthy title STAR CRUISE A NOVELLA: STOWAWAY WITH RESCUE AND GOLDEN TOKEN SHORT
STORIES.
Here are the story
descriptions:
Star Cruise: Stowaway: A
novella of 22K words, previously in the award winning ‘Pets In Space’
anthology.
Cargo Master Owen Embersson is shocked when the Nebula Zephyr’s ship’s cat and her alien sidekick, Midorri, alert him to the presence of a stowaway. He has no idea of the dangerous complications to come nor does he anticipate falling hard for the woman whose life he now holds in his hands. Life aboard the Nebula Zephyr has just become more interesting – and deadly.
Cargo Master Owen Embersson is shocked when the Nebula Zephyr’s ship’s cat and her alien sidekick, Midorri, alert him to the presence of a stowaway. He has no idea of the dangerous complications to come nor does he anticipate falling hard for the woman whose life he now holds in his hands. Life aboard the Nebula Zephyr has just become more interesting – and deadly.
Star Cruise: Rescue: A
short story of 9K words, previously in the ‘Romancing the Stars’ anthology.
When a shore leave excursion goes terribly wrong for Mira Gage, a member of the Nebula Zephyr’s crew, Security Officer Clint Miltan races the clock to find her before the ship leaves orbit and abandons Mira to her fate. Clint’s got more than a professional interest in Mira, but will he be able to save her from the aliens holding her prisoner?
When a shore leave excursion goes terribly wrong for Mira Gage, a member of the Nebula Zephyr’s crew, Security Officer Clint Miltan races the clock to find her before the ship leaves orbit and abandons Mira to her fate. Clint’s got more than a professional interest in Mira, but will he be able to save her from the aliens holding her prisoner?
The Golden Token: A
short story of 13K words, previously in the limited edition ‘Dealer’s Choice’
paperback anthology put together by Linnea Sinclair and handed out at the 2016
RT Booklovers Convention Interstellar Bar & Grille event.
Sectors Special Forces operator Charlie McBrire had a few days to kill on a layover at Space Station 47. He never expected to find himself in the middle of a miners’ rebellion, fighting to save the life of a casino dancer he just met but can’t imagine living without.
Sectors Special Forces operator Charlie McBrire had a few days to kill on a layover at Space Station 47. He never expected to find himself in the middle of a miners’ rebellion, fighting to save the life of a casino dancer he just met but can’t imagine living without.
