First Draft of "Emily Martin" Finished

First draft is done and I am not taking a break from it. I am getting right into editing as I know there are a handful of things that need work. So far, we're looking at 157,691 words and looking to get bigger. I see it coming in at about 160k words, much longer than RB, but still shorter than RH. Page count should come in at about 350-370 depending on what gets cut and added. May be out of town this week, so some of the work may have to wait. Also waiting to hear back about my Fin aid which strangely enough has still not shown up on my DMC page. We'll see how that works out.

First Draft of "Emily Martin" Almost Done.

I've adopted a different style for this next work which has allowed me move between scenes differently. It makes sense because this book will be different than the previous two in a very noticeable way. As soon as the reader gets started on it, the will instantly see what I am talking about. I imagine I will be done with the first draft by no later than Sunday and editing will start right after that. Still working through a few story points that may not make the cut and thinking of some that will be added. As with the last book, the ending will be very explosive and have people flipping out in a good way. Book 4 will wrap everything up for my readers and I feel that the ending I have come up with will satisfy just about everyone out there. Happy? Sad? Middle of the road? I'm not saying, but it will be...something.

Rumbling Heart is Free on Smashwords

That's right. The one that started it all is now free on Smashwords.com. The direct link to the book is right here.  I would greatly appreciate it if you were to download the book for free to please also let Amazon know that my book is going for $0.00 on Smashwords so that it could possibly be lowered to Zero on their site as well. My writing pal Melissa Foster just had massive success when she offered her book for free and since then, it has hit #1 on the Kindle book lists. It would be amazing to be able to do the same thing with my work.

You may be wondering how exactly to let Amazon know that the book is free elsewhere. Here's what you do. Check out the book on Amazon here.  Scroll down to where is says Product Details and there, you will see a link that says "Tell us about a lower price." Click it. Then, just fill out the data it asks for which is not much. There small window you will see will look like this.



The Link you would want to post there is this one:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/81600

And that's it! Enjoy the book. I enjoyed writing it. Feel free to let everyone know and I look forward to seeing your reviews on Amazon. Thank you again for all the support.

Writing and Celebrity

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This is a response to a blog post I read regarding privacy and how much of it you should keep. The blog post started out talking about sales numbers, but also dove into personal privacy as well. You can read the original post by Tamworth Grice here.

"True that some data is good to keep to yourself. One thing however that I think a lot of eBook writers are missing nowadays is that one key element still holds true to a certain degree: people want to know about the authors writing their books. I've talked to a few people and many of them have felt irked by the fact that a lot of eBook authors give little to no information about themselves so readers lose interest. It's true that you should not have to give out certain info, but you have to remember that readers will often read books and make a personal connection to them. Because of that, they feel the need to learn more about the writer. Especially in this day and age where you can essentially make up a personality on the internet and pass it off as yourself, people in general want a little honesty with their celebrities and that's how they see some of us. I in no way think of myself as a celeb, but people from other countries see me as one for some reason. It's for that reason that people search for me and want to know more about me. They want to know where the story came from, why i wrote it a certain way, and probably the most asked question i get "is this from real life?" Sure, we all want a little privacy, but as writers, we need to open ourselves up to the fact that with great success, we become celebrities and as most celebrities do, we have to give into the fact that we, in a sense, become part of the public domain where we will be discussed and talked about in various circles."

Emily Martin Update

Writing this book is among the hardest things I've ever done. Not even through the first draft and I am having difficulty with making scenes work. Could also be that I have been in constant pain these last few weeks. The words are coming just fine, but I have had to stop numerous times due to pain. Even with meds, it's very hard to deal with. At least once a day I just turn everything off and just lie in bed and hope it will stop hurting. I've contemplated calling for help, but it's pointless. They'll just charge me $3k for a shot and tell me there is nothing they can do. I've been looking into free clinics to see if I can at least get into a pain management program, but not many in this area of the state. Still, I just keep on chugging away, trying to get this book done all while planning for school, looking for work, and trying to get my name out there so people might take notice.

The story has taken some interesting turns and things I didn't initially think of have made it into the work. Some of them are very good, others not so good and will probably be cut. I try to make it a habit not to do much if any cutting while I am writing because it distracts me from the work. Anyway, I have already come across a public domain photo for the cover. Hope you enjoy it. 

90k Words

It's not a lot to me. I've gotten that far in a short period of time. It all felt really easy and I was doing fine. I think I wrote too much today and yesterday though. Today I hit about 16k words and yesterday about 12k. I'm pretty sure that's a lot for two days. I also got a few personal things done so I am rather exhausted.

Dealing with some significant pain as well. I've always been able to find ways to manage my pain since I've not had access to Vicodin. I had a feeling the time would eventually come when OTC's just weren't enough. Last wednesday, I OD'd on OTC pain meds. It was accidental, I assure you. My average pain lingers at about 3. Wednesday night and into Thursday morning I was at a 10 almost constantly. It got so bad that I started hallucinating. I maxed Aleve, but kept taking more. I then switched to Ibuprofen which I never take. I took 4 to start on top of the Aleve and then i went from 8 to 10, even with that much in me. After that, I kept thinking I hadn't taken any meds so I just kept taking more and more. At some point during the night, I also though it was a good idea to start taking my diphenhydramine. I'm not really sure how much of that I took, but it put me out.

I'm fine. Didn't end up in a hospital or anything. Just had a really mad hangover the next day and I'm sure my liver was severely pissed at me. Thankfully, I rarely stress it so it seems to be working just fine. Only thing worrying me is that my average pain isn't a 3 anymore. Now its closer to a 5 with suddenly spikes to 7. I'm not gonna lie. I'm worried.

I am still going to finish this series though regardless of what happens. Of course, if i suffer a brain aneurysm from these massive headaches then there isn't much I can do to stop that. Hopefully I can finish though before something serious happens. I'd like to say this is just stress, but I know it's not. The one good thing about all this? The dreams have been amazing.

First Review of Recorded Butterflies is in.

Got a review. Here is the link. Enjoy.

You can purchase the books here.