Category Archives: author update

Six Things I Learned after Starting My Pen Name

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I thought starting my pen name (not really a pen, VM Rheault vs. Vania Rheault but for now, that’s what I’ll call it) would be the ticket to not fame or fortune, but I wanted to start my career on the right path after a couple of years of not doing things the proper way.

When I first started publishing, I did what a lot of indies did, and still do. I published what I wanted, didn’t really have a plan. I genre-hopped, looking for that genre I wanted to settle into long-term. No one told me I didn’t have to actually publish those experiments, but I wouldn’t have listened even if they had. Publishing without gatekeeping was a free-for-all, and it still is, indies publishing whatever they want without regard to a publishing schedule, marketing, or anything else that would start them on the right foot. Probably the only habit I had and still hold on to now, is writing all my books in a series first before publishing them. I started that when I wrote my Tower City Trilogy and I’ll never stop, even if that means I have a year or two between launches. But, let’s break it down. Here are the six things I learned when I started my pen name back in 2020, well, 2022 when I first published my Cedar Hill Duet and I tried to do things the “right” way.

You can’t click Publish and walk away.
If you don’t have a launch plan, this is what a lot of authors do. They don’t know how to launch and it can hurt you. When I published my Cedar Hill Duet, I didn’t put them on Booksprout for reviews. Before 2022, it was a free service, and I used it for my Rocky Point series under my full name. Then it went to paid, and I listened to the annoyed authors who said they were going to stop using that service. I should never have listened and put my own books up. Reviews matter. No one wants to think it, and I know correlation doesn’t equal causation, but Captivated by Her and Addicted to Her are my worst selling books and I attribute that to their low number of reviews. So, if you don’t have a plan or don’t want to have a plan, like cover/title/blurb reveal or newsletter, at the very least, try to get as many reviews as you can the week of your launch. They will affect how your book does from that day forward.

Nail your cover the first time.
When I decided to do my pen name, I really wanted to make sure I published correctly the first time. And by that, I mean I wanted to make sure my covers met genre and reader expectations. I’ve written a lot about how my cover for The Years Between Us screamed Women’s Fiction, and after I changed it to a couple, my sales went up. It was a beautiful cover but didn’t match the blurb or what the book was about.

I changed the cover to Wherever He Goes, too, and that helped. Unfortunately, I’ve had to change covers for some of my first person books even though I tried my best to avoid it. Your skills get better or better models come along, your taste changes, whatever, but no matter why you have to change your cover, if you change it to something better, just know that you’re blowing your launch period. I totally fucked up my launch for my Lost & Found trilogy because I didn’t wait to find better models. I published with what I had, and didn’t change the covers for a year or so after my launch. I gave them another edit, too, so I “re-launched” them, but man, you really waste Amazon’s bump if you screw up the first month of your release. Title, blurb, and your cover’s tone need to be spot on. Just because you like something or it looks professional doesn’t mean it’s a good fit. You have to do market research, and nobody wants to do that because it sounds like you’re selling out. You’re not. You’re helping the right readers find your book, and that’s all that should matter. I wrote more about choosing the appropriate cover, and you can read it here: https://vaniamargene.com/2024/04/08/my-marketing-secret-shh/

Don’t listen to everything you hear.
One of the riskiest things you can do online is listen to other people. I’m on Threads a lot (you know this) and the number of opinions out there, well . . . you know the saying: Opinions are like assholes . . . everyone has one and they all stink. There is no place this is more true than when you get a bunch of romance authors together, be it on Threads or in a Facebook group, and they’re telling you what they like and what they think should be the standard. No 3rd act breakups, no cliffhangers. Don’t use the word “folds” when you’re talking about p*ssy. Don’t make him an asshole, don’t write about rape. Don’t romanticize stalking. Don’t write in 3rd person. Don’t write your blurb in 1st person. Don’t do this, don’t do that, but what’s funny is that when you take a look at popular books, THEY ALL DO THAT! Yes, there is some advice out there that’s good, like don’t genre-hop if you hope to build an audience. I’m a firm believer in writing your blurb in the POV your book is written in. But at the end of the day, when it’s just you and your book, you need to write what you enjoy. Even if that’s a super dark romance that would get you locked up (and not in a good way). If you’re bombarded with opinions about how nasty the enemies-to-lovers trope is, and that’s what you’re working on, it can be discouraging. But honestly, you’re not writing for other authors anyway, and if an author tells you she hates cliffhangers and you love them, tell her to fuck off. There are readers for everything, and it’s okay if people self-select out of your books. You don’t want people who don’t like what you’re writing to read your stuff because all you’re doing is courting bad reviews. It can be difficult staying true to yourself, but you’ll be happier for it.

Just because you do everything right doesn’t mean you’ll find success.
This is probably the hardest lesson of all. You can spend a ton of money on editing, you can publish with the perfect cover and a ton of reviews, but in the end, that doesn’t mean you’re going to find success. And by success, I mean, readers, sales, royalties, whatever success means to you. I’ve said in the past that success to me would be making a part-time income with my books. Part-time for me would be about 15k a year. It would help me out tremendously, that little extra money, but this year I gave up that dream and realized that maybe what I’m writing just isn’t going to hit the market the right way, or my reluctance to be on TikTok will always hold me back. My books are too quiet, or I chose the wrong sub-genre when I rebranded myself. I don’t know, but the fact is, there are thousands of authors out there who publish regularly, publish good books regularly, and they get absolutely nowhere. They spend more than they make, they get burnt out, and/or they publish to no one over and over again. After you come to that realization, you’re hit with the trite sayings like “A quitter never wins and a winner never quits” or “Believe in yourself and you’re halfway there” and you just wanna cry (or puke). When 2025 rolled around, I decided to change how I looked at my writing. I can’t call it a business because I don’t have one. That implies money in and money out, and right now, I pay more than I earn. So, in that vein, I decided to stop doing what I think I should be doing and just do what I want. That means writing what I feel like writing without regard to a publishing schedule. I stopped all my ads. Don’t care about social media and post only when I have something to say. I stopped chasing the dream and I feel better. Writing is fun again and that has turned into my new definition of success. Here’s an interesting article by Jane Friedman about having what it takes to make it: https://careerauthors.com/do-you-have-what-it-takes-to-make-it-in-publishing/

Numbers don’t mean anything.
Social media sucks. It really does. I believe that you should have a hub where readers can find you if they want. (That should ultimately be your website, but I understand the value of a Facebook author page or an Instagram account.) Authors should have some kind of social media presence, if only to prove you’re a real person instead of a made up author some guy sitting in his mother’s basement created using AI. You can’t appear fake in this day and age when there are so many bots out there that can act and interact like a real person. As AI usage gets worse and worse, readers knowing you are real will be part of your marketing toolbox. But in the past seven or eight years I’ve been online, I’ve learned no matter how many followers you have, that doesn’t mean you’re going to sell books. They might like you because you have pets or because you live in the same state. They like how you do your hair or think you’re pretty, whatever it is, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be able to sell them your books [see Billie Eilish: https://medium.com/better-marketing/billie-eilishs-book-flopped-because-her-marketing-team-assumed-it-would-sell-itself-71c32dc19af3]. I just looked up someone who has over 5k followers on her Facebook author page, and she sells very few books every month–and she has a lot of books. So, if you don’t have many followers or you’re just on social media to kill time or to amuse yourself, don’t feel bad. Finding readers is hard work and it’s a long game. Besides, depending on how you run your social media, you could just have other authors following you, and when it comes down to it, that’s not helpful. I wrote about busting out of the bubble, and you can read it here: https://vaniamargene.com/2021/12/06/how-to-break-out-of-the-writing-community-bubble-and-sell-books-to-readers/

Mix friendship with business at your own risk.
I help a lot of people do their covers, format, even just give them publishing advice through my experiences and what has worked for me. I’ve paid my friends to edit and beta read, I’ve done a lot of free work that I was pleased to do because you’ll learn fast that the can be full of people only in it for themselves. I’ve also accepted some payment for the work I’ve done for others, but no matter if it was free or paid, in the past eight years I’ve been at this, nothing has pleased me more than helping someone publish their book. But not every relationship is infallible, and mixing business with pleasure isn’t always something that works out. I’ve lost friends because the business part of our relationship soured, and unfortunately, that’s a risk you take. Sometimes you can see that person for what they are and you realize that in time your friendship would have tanked anyway. But, it’s important to understand what you’re getting into, even simply saying you’ll format for someone or if you offer to whip up a quick cover. Writers and authors are some of the touchiest people on earth, and I’m included in that because I know I’ve gotten upset over things other people would have shrugged off. But when I help someone, I’m a professional at heart and always do my best to give them a product I would be proud of if it were for my own book and I don’t think I’m out of line to expect the same–especially when cash exchanges hands. I’d never beta read while watching TV or use photos on a cover that weren’t safe to use. Even though I have ethics and integrity, not everyone does, and I stopped talking to someone who admitted she was editing my book while she was at a hair salon, and I cut ties with someone who backed out of reading for me when she gave me her absolute promise she would finish. I know that sounds callous, but we had underlying issues and those instances just happened to be what did me in. So if you think you’d be heartbroken to lose that friendship, don’t let the line between personal and business smudge. It’s difficult to get past that.

I’m sure there are more things I’ve learned, but this blog post is long enough for now and I touched on the topics that I have found the most important in publishing and the most important to me when it comes to my experiences. It’s tough to cut out the noise, but like I said, at the end of the day, it’s only you, your book, and your readers and if you go to bed happy, that’s all that matters. People will come and go, opinions and advice change. Do your best with what you have, keep true friends close, and go outside and touch grass every once in a while.

That’s all I have for this week. Next week I’ll let you know about a shiny new thing I couldn’t step away from and what my publishing schedule will entail because of it.

Chat soon!

Author Life Lately: The ol’ bait and switch

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Author Life . . . is the only life for me. (Just kidding, and no, I wasn’t tipsy writing this blog post.)
Happy Monday, if it is for you. I don’t mind Mondays, they’re a break after working four ten-hour shifts at my job. They usually entail some chores and couple of errands since I don’t have time for much while I’m working. Today I’ll be doing some of that and hopefully listening to more Loss and Damages. I’m halfway done . . . my trip to the Mall of America and the Minnesota State Zoo took up a large portion of last week and I didn’t get anything book-related done, though it was a nice break. I’m not really in any rush to finish it, but after having a heart to heart with a friend, I decided to work on my next series which will be called The Husband List just to get that off my plate. I have no idea how long it will take me to write four books and package them all. I’ve decided to write the four instead of rewriting book one to have only two left because I think it will just be easier to write four more plus it will be a nice addition to my backlist. But the minute I’m done with Loss and Damages and Wicked Games, I’ll be looking through stock photos for men for the covers. Six covers, six men, figuring out the series concept . . . that will take me just as long as writing the remaining four books. I like the idea of it though, so I’m going to jump in and see if I can turn that series into something special.

Besides that, it’s the same old, same old. Summer is coming and the days are getting warmer and longer. I don’t have anything planned for the next three months besides relaxing, writing, and going on a couple of day trips with my sister and daughter. We usually go to the zoo that’s in a town 45 minutes away and to Bismarck, ND, for my sister’s birthday in June. Last year it was raining and we couldn’t go to the zoo there, but we’ll try again this year. I’m kind of a zoo junkie, though I know how sad and inhumane it is for those animals be locked up.

This is me bonding with a tired old bear. I know how he feels.

Russian Bear exhibit. Minnesota State Zoo

It was free, now it’s not, and isn’t that the way life goes?
As far as anything in the indie publishing industry is concerned, Bryan Cohen is doing his famous Amazon Ads Challenge again, but it’s disappointing because he decided to charge this time around. It’s not like anything that hasn’t been done before. There are quite a few indie publishing services that have started off as free and then as soon as they had customers who relied on their services, they changed to paid tiers only. The two that come to mind right off the top of my head are StoryOrigin and Booksprout. So, what Bryan is doing isn’t new, but it makes me wonder if he’s going to be subjected to any backlash or if the new authors who were planning to take his challenge will just pay the $9.00. For the information he gives you, that’s still a bargain, but I won’t be able to recommend his challenge as freely as I used to because if you’re an indie strapped for cash, even $9.00 can feel out of reach. I’m fluent in “poor” and $9.00 to me is three gallons of milk. Nothing to take lightly if you’re struggling paycheck to paycheck.

I also wonder what Amazon will think of Bryan suddenly charging for his challenge. For the past couple of years they’ve backed him and recommended his challenge to authors, and it makes me wonder if they’ll still encourage authors to participate or if they’ll be salty Bryan’s making money off them (or trying to. Who will actually pay remains to be seen). He wouldn’t be the first one to do that, either, so maybe it’s not a big deal. There are plenty of Amazon ads resources out there, including books from Janet Margo who is a former Amazon employee. Bryan’s been under fire in other ads groups on Facebook, some members saying that his approach is just flinging spaghetti noodles at the wall, but his challenge does more than just tell you how much to bid. Probably the most valuable part of his challenge is that he goes through what will actually make your book marketable. I’ve seen some pretty gnarly covers and read some very confusing blurbs during his challenges, and if anything, it makes authors open their eyes and choose covers that will sell, not only covers that they like. He also explains ad copy, page reads, and read-through. But if you’re looking for a book that does the same, Nicholas Erik has updated his book on book marketing, and I found it extremely useful. Also, you can keep his book, whereas Bryan’s course has a time limit even though you paid.

I won’t be paying to participate in his challenge. I’ve already taken it a couple of times and I feel I’ve been in this business long enough to understand what makes your book sell:
1. Good cover. It’s the first thing a reader sees, especially using Amazon ads where you don’t choose your own graphic.
2. Good blurb
3. A title that’s not confusing
3. Strong look inside (first 10% of your book)
4. Strong keywords (the seven fields you fill in when you set up your book to publish)
5. Categories that actually match your book’s genre
6. A list of comp authors and comp book titles if you choose to do keyword ads
7. A short hook if you want to add text to your ad
8. Competitive price

Those are pretty non-negotiable before you even set up your ads account. Once you do that, Amazon will know whom to show your ad to, and that can make or break your ads. Then bid .50 cents or so per click (it’s gone up over time due to market saturation, but NEVER go with their recommended), and you’re pretty much all set. I don’t think I revealed any super-secret information. Most of that stuff is no-brainer material anyway but can be difficult to come up with once you need it. Like the keywords you should choose while you’re setting up your book in the KDP dashboard. The number of reviews can affect sales, so can your book being first in a series but your series isn’t done. You need to take a lot of things into account for ads to work. And well, Bryan tells you that stuff whether you want to hear it or not. I’ll be interested to see how his challenge does now that it’s paid. Nothing in life is free, baby. Except this blog. You’re welcome.

Never kill the dog (unless you want John Wick to come after you).
There was some emotional discussion last week on Threads over an author who defended killing a dog in her book.

screen shot of thread post. text says erinleeauthor indieauthors 3d I killed a dog in my book & said there's no afterlife. Then I watched a writing video that said pets can have big roles in books so be careful. & a beta reader asked me if a dog dies & said she checks a site with a list of books to avoid. Then a dating app guy said my afterlife rule was a "hard pass" & dipped. Damn, people. Dog culture is dire. They're a great pet, but stop acting like they have little moons orbiting them. Your behavior is raising our vet bills. They're not a child. Chill. 2.7k hearts 10k comments 745 rethreads or quotes 931 shares
https://www.threads.com/@erinleeauthor/post/DJZS7YSRIw- A million views? OMG.

This is a bad take. A bad take. A bad bad bad take. Especially after all the crap we had to read and hear about Kristi Noem killing her own pup last year. It’s kind of amazing how something can go viral (chances are good I could write the exact same thing and get the obligatory 10 views Threads seems to think I deserve), and I hope she got what she was looking for putting her nasty thoughts out in public. It does bring into question what should be listed on content warnings or if animal death is considered “normal” in the genre you’re writing in. Horror, I would imagine, can get away with a few things Romance can’t, for example. I killed a cow once, and it was very much needed for character trait evidence, but I don’t have it listed on any content warnings anywhere. Fortunately, the feedback I’ve gotten for that book has been nothing but positive. I told ARC readers on Booksprout there was an animal death, but no one mentioned it in their reviews. I don’t go out of my way to kill things, even people. When they die, it’s surprising to me and never planned. It just happens, much like real life. Though, when I was putting together the content warnings for my King’s Crossing page on my website, I included this:

screenshot of trigger warning on my website. text says One last thing–people do die in this series, but if you read through to book 4, I assure you, Gage’s dog is okay through to the end. I would never hurt a dog! picture of dog vector. german shepherd

Baby, actually, plays a pivotal role in the books where Gage is the MMC, and I considered her a main character in her own right. Anyway, nothing quite shakes up the internet like talking about dogs dying, so be careful what you say. Erin ended up taking her book down and now she has quite a few one-star reviews on her product page. What she thought was “any press is good press” didn’t turn out to be true. Wanna peek at the book she will now have to rebrand and publish under a pen name to hide? Look here: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Aware-Erin-Lee/dp/B0CRZJDZJZ

Everyone complains, but no one says thanks.
Everyone complained when it wasn’t possible to buy books off the Kindle app on an iPhone or iPad because of Apple’s fees and restrictions on external purchases, but no one mentioned when a recent court ruling prevented Apple from doing so. Apple is appealing, but for right now, if you use the Kindle app on your iPhone or iPad you no longer have to go to the browser to buy a book. I read on my Kindle Fire anyway, and I’ve always purchased books on my laptop because for me, it’s easier to look around the product page. But this is a big win for authors right now and we can only hope it lasts. If you want to read more about that, you can here: https://www.theverge.com/news/661719/amazon-app-ios-apple-iphone-ipad-kindle-buy-books

That’s about all I have for this week. My schedule is back to normal and I’ll work on Loss and Damages on my days off work. It’s going to be hot, the highs in the 90s until Thursday, so I will also be lying on my balcony enjoying the heat and sun.

If you’re looking for something to listen to while you, too, are flirting with heat stroke, I’m going to be digging into this podcast episode with Jane Friedman. She’s got a new updated version of her book, The Business of Being a Writer, and she’s been promoting that. I love listening to her talk about the industry. If you’re interested, you can find it here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-writer/id472152554?i=1000705377607

A new Craftwork conversation about the business of being a writer with Jane Friedman. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, is now available in an updated second edition from the University of Chicago Press.

Friedman has spent 25+ years working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World. Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC.

***

Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today’s leading writers.

Have a great week, everyone!

Monday Author Update: When you can’t decide what to write next

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I was going to post something else today, something about writing “rules” and publishing “rules” mostly because I saw an author on Facebook who was complaining about sales who definitely wasn’t making choices I would be making, but alas, no one wants to read about rules. And, well, no one wants to hear what they’re doing wrong, either, which is fine. Some people need to learn from their mistakes, and some don’t realize they’re making mistakes, blaming their lack of sales on other things. *Cough* Like the Amazon boycott. *Cough Cough*

So, that doesn’t leave me with much except my own updates, of which there are not many. I’ve been listening to Loss and Damages, and Word has updated their read aloud feature since I used it last. The process is a lot smoother and it’s really easy to listen now. It can be tedious because it takes a lot of time, but I catch syntax errors, missed words, repeated words, and typos. I catch enough that I would never skip this part of the editing process. I’d much rather listen to my manuscript than feed it chapter by chapter to ProWritingAid, even if I have been pro-Al in the past. I will still Google a grammar question here and there, but even if I miss things, I like to be in control of my own editing. It’s slow going, I can only listen to about thirty pages at a time, but it’s worth it. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past few days since I took a break after I finished writing and doing a couple read-throughs of Wicked Games. I’ll be able to write Loss and Damages‘s blurb, format it, and order the proof sometime in the next couple of weeks, and that book will pretty much be a wrap.

Next I’ll maybe give Wicked Games another read-through, though I might let it sit for a while longer yet. I was going to jump into a series I have that’s 1/3 completed, but thinking about tackling another big project like that really wears me down. I never used to be one to shy away from work, but I’m still not feeling well, I’m always tired, and it doesn’t sound appealing. I’ve been reading Dea Poirier’s Last Girl to Die, and in that book, a detective goes back to her home town to solve a murder. It got me thinking about my own books and tropes, and besides a book in my Rocky Point series where Logan goes home to Rocky Point for a wedding and reconnects with his high school girlfriend, Ivy, I’ve never written a “back to my hometown” book.

I started putting the pieces together about a guy who left his small town after high school graduation to strike it rich, and he does. He gets called home because his grandpa is dying and there he bumps into his high school sweetheart. She knew it was better for him to leave after graduation and pretended to hook up with another guy to force him to go. I was thinking about all the shit he could step in going home, and the characters started grabbing me. It would be another standalone, but I realize now that I’m inching away from true Billionaire romances. Giving characters money isn’t the only thing that defines the genre, and shoving my characters into small towns doesn’t fit, no matter how rich they are. I turned to the billionaire genre and the alternating first person POV hoping it would springboard a career, but lately I’ve just been writing “Contemporary Romance” that would have better fit under my full name written in 3rd person. I don’t know what to do about that since I don’t want to write in 3rd person anymore. I could keep writing in first, but that would also possibly mean a shift in what my covers should look like. I’m seeing more covers with couples on them in general, but I’ve been watching my brand so carefully that suddenly throwing a couple on a cover would look very out of place. I’m between a rock and a hard place. I whole-heartedly believe in writing what you want, but I also believe you need to package those stories correctly or they won’t meet reader expectations resulting in readers not finding the books they want and/or poor reviews.

Along those lines, I have to stop looking at that series as a drudgery or I’m never going to want to write the rest. I could start looking at the books one by one instead of the series as a whole and maybe that would help my mindset. Maybe I’m still burnt out getting my King’s Crossing books done then jumping right into editing those Rocky Point books, but whatever the cause is, I’m not wasting the two books already written so I better just put some lipstick on and get my shit together, as Elizabeth Taylor is rumored to have said. Whether I’ll do that before or after this new standalone remains to be seen. It just depends on how loudly this new set of characters speaks to me. On the other hand, already having a standalone planned after my series is done would be like a little treat to myself for working so hard. It was very nice writing Wicked Games, no pressure at all to set up other books or having to think about more than one cover.

Speaking of series, my King’s Crossing serial isn’t lighting the world on fire, but I am happy to say that readers are making it to the sixth book. That’s always a gamble, writing such a long series, especially all at once instead of publishing as you go. I will always finish a series that I start just for the personal satisfaction and closure, but it’s nice when it pays off. I tried running an FB ad to it, and while it was getting clicks, sales and borrows didn’t keep up with ad spend and I paused it. I have a couple of Amazon ads running, some are auto placement and some are category placement, and that’s the only thing pushing my series right now. Well, any of my books. If I’m selling other books that aren’t my King’s Crossing serial, it’s because readers found my FB author page or my IG account or they’ve read me before and they’re reading other books. That’s about it. I was thinking of buying a BargainBooksy, since Cruel Fate is still .99, and seeing what that does. My Fussy Librarian didn’t do that much, more than if I had done nothing, but still. A BargainBooksy Romantic Suspense feature is $72.00, and it would be nice to think that I would earn that fee back but it doesn’t always happen.

I’m also going to run a giveaway of my paperbacks and the mug I made. If I run my giveaway in conjunction with that, maybe it would help a little. I have no idea. Here’s a picture I took for the giveaway.

I’m still teasing the giveaway on my FB page. I’m going out of town this week, Monday through Thursday (if you read this on Monday I’m probably on the road), and I didn’t want to run the giveaway while I’m gone in case something happened and I can’t fix it. I’ll do all of that when I get back and I’m available to post about it.

That’s about all I have. Life would be super if I felt better, but a lot of people can say that. If I had access to better doctors, I might even go back to see if there was anything else that can be done, but I don’t trust the idiots where I live and driving five hours to see someone who knows what they’re doing isn’t feasible. I was driving back and forth last year and it wore out my mental health and my wallet. It’s been nine months since my last appointment and in some ways I’m feeling a lot better and in some ways I’m not. I don’t know if, in the ways I’m not, that’s even treatable, but like I said, figuring that out seems like it would be a lot of work. I might just end up with a, “You’re old and this is your life now,” diagnosis that would just be depressing to hear or something that could possibly be, if not fixed, made better, through surgery, but I’m not letting myself get cut open again. I think that’s what caused a lot of this mess in the first place.

Next week I think I have an author interview scheduled, and if something happens with that, I’ll just let you know how my trip went and hopefully I can tell you I’m done listening to Loss and Damages.

I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead!

Monday’s Author Mashup

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easter desk flat of cappuccino, white chocolate bunnies, ribber and chocolate covered, i'm not sure. coffee beans, peanuts. gold ribbon and a white keyboard. text says Monday's Author Mashup

Slow news week this week or maybe I’m just doing my own thing and not really paying attention to what everyone else is doing. I’m editing Wicked Games still, even though I said I would let it breathe. I wanted to read it one more time before I put it aside, and I’m halfway through. Though, I’m taking my time and not working as hard on my books as I used to. I don’t really feel the need anymore, and my King’s Crossing “splash” has pretty much died since the launch of the last book last week.

It seems authors can’t get enough of using AI, and another one was “caught” with an AI suggestion in the text of her book.

screenshot of paperback book. text reads: Hezra's jaw tightened, her voice dropping to a serious note. "Div- ination witch... maybe blood magic." Irene's impatience flared. Her gaze turned to Zahra. "The ashes?" [Highlights start]This is already quite strong, but it can be tightened for a sharper and more striking delivery while maintaining the intensity and sardonic edge you're aiming for. Here's a refined version: [End Highlight] Zahra stood, holding up the necklace of ashes she was using to decipher the maps. Irene's eyes locked onto it. "Keep them in your sight at all times," she ordered. "We'll take turns guarding you—and the ashes—while you work." Zahra nodded, but Irene's sharp tone didn't waver. "So? Where are we?" Excitement flickered in Zahra's eyes. "The history of the sapphire runs deep... Wars, legends, empires-all tied to the goddess Nehelan-nia. These words I decipher... they almost sing in my heart. This isn't just a treasure hunt. Hundreds have died for this sapphire. It all began—" end of screenshot text
Thanks to @alicebrookswrites on Threads. https://www.threads.net/@alicebrookswrites/post/DIk846FoqxM?xmt=AQGzcVDaz2vhgILosC41iWzu1mlJcXVGPJo2wIgvZboAvA

Apparently, she’s blaming a beta reader for inserting that without her knowledge, but the fact is, authors are responsible for what they put out into the world. I’ve had betas and editors look at my stuff, and maybe comments can get in the way during formatting, especially if you’re not resolving the comments as you go through them, but there is no excuse for things to be in your manuscript you don’t want there. I’m not going to judge her for using AI, don’t care either way what she’s doing, and I think this is going to be more common as time goes on. There are so many authors in favor of AI, Facebook group after Facebook group that want to encourage and help you write with AI that this is never going to go away. Even ProWritingAid has an AI beta-reading helper who will give feedback on your entire manuscript. And I get it, I really really do. Not just because I want to defend my own past use of Al, even if it was only with brainstorming and nonfiction stuff, but because I’ve been in this industry for a really long time and know how difficult it is to find people who are willing to help you. Not even for free or trade, but people you can trust who won’t steal your ideas or your manuscript. Someone who won’t ghost you after saying they’ll help you, or change their minds and pull out of your project halfway through when you were counting on them. If you can’t find someone you can afford and/or who won’t sell you out, Al can start looking pretty good. He’s not going to publish your book under his own name or pirate it or flake on you when he decides his time is worth more than your project. Whether you use that as validation to turn to Al and his help, that’s on you, but it’s also on you to give your readers a good book because once they know you use AI, the readers who don’t like that will never read you again. I’ve written a blog post on why you should proof your proof. You can read it here: https://vaniamargene.com/2025/01/30/five-reasons-why-you-should-proof-your-proofs/

I actually got my butt out of my apartment the other day and went for a walk.

black and white photo of a single duck floating on a choppy river.
The Red River, Gooseberry Park. Moorhead, MN

It was nice out and I wanted to get some fresh air and also feed the stray cat that I think is still living at the city park close to where I live. I’m still putting food out, but at this point, I don’t know for sure it’s the cat that’s eating it as I know there is a raccoon that lives in the park too. My daughter and I went out a couple weeks ago, and I saw something that could have been an orange Maine Coon, or it could have been a fox, but I think it moved too slowly to be a fox unless it was injured. At any rate, I still have plans to go out there with some tuna and see if I can catch it. It’s been out there since October or so, but I need to wait until it dries out a bit. It’s way too muddy and there’s nowhere to sit to wait it out.

Anyway, so I was listening to some podcasts that I had marked and I tried the Indie Writers Club with James Blatch, a podcast he started with Cara Clare after the one he was doing with Mark Dawson ended. I was hoping for a good indie author podcast I could sink my teeth into, but unfortunately, that podcast will not be it. Maybe it could be for you, but not for me. The episode I listened to was about writing a series versus a standalone, a topic I really like to talk about as I love writing a good standalone when everyone tells you to write a series, but the first half of the episode was them talking about insider stuff like a writing retreat in Aruba and getting help with your writing from Al. I’m not for or against Al and what he can do, so that part of it wasn’t terrible, but if an episode is only forty-four minutes long, maybe it’s best not to crap up the first half with junk. It didn’t seem very professional, at one point James leaving the taping to let his dog out letting Cara ramble alone, and well, I’d rather listen to nothing than that. So I flipped over to Print Run, as they released a new episode a couple of weeks ago. I like the hosts, Erik Hane and Laura Zats, an editor and agent, respectively, based in Minneapolis who own their own literary agency. Even though they’re geared more toward writers who want to query, I find that their industry talk is useful and I enjoy their banter. The episode I listened to was particularly interesting as they were talking about Trump and his tariffs, and whether or not his administration was going to inspire “the big book.” (If you’re interested in listening to the episode, you can listen to it here or find it on your podcast app of choice. https://soundcloud.com/printrunpodcast/episode-177the-jimmies-the-rock-the-tariffs.)

I like what Erik had to say when he began hypothesizing what “the big book” was going to be about. He hasn’t read the Hunger Games books, and they talked a bit about that, I guess because Sunrise on the Reaping came out last month. Anyway, so he started talking about scarcity and how he thinks that’s going to play into what “the big book” is going to be about. But not like, actual food, like it is in the districts, though that could play into our everyday struggles as food costs rise in the world’s retaliation against us, but in other ways. In technological ways. This made me start thinking about what’s scarce right now, and you know, you think privacy for one. There are cameras everywhere and even if it’s not a public camera like a street cam, CCTV, or a security camera, someone is always on their phone filming, right? So we definitely don’t have privacy. We don’t have security, as anything we put online can be stolen at any given second. We see that with people who steal viral content hoping to go viral themselves (and they often do), pirates who steal our books, companies like Meta and Amazon who go on to steal that content. Books get stolen and sold by others, book cover concepts get stolen. Human connection is also disappearing. Not the kind online but in person. If you don’t have a significant other, people can go days, weeks, or even years without a hug. In fact, online connection is replacing in-person connection, so you could say that affection is turning into a scarcity, and for some it already is.

I don’t want to write and query “the next big book,” but it did get me thinking about how scarcity affects my writing, or rather, what I’m writing about. In my book Wicked Games, Seth’s son is abducted and killed, and Avery’s sister is involved. The lack of privacy influenced just how the kidnappers were able to get away with the murder, how my characters deal with lack of privacy in the media, whether they choose it or not (he’s a billionaire and she’s an essayist who blogs), and lack of affection and love both my characters deal with because their exes cheated and left them for other people.

I don’t want to write a book that specifically tackles scarcity in its many forms, but it’s interesting to think it’s there anyway, even in the background of my writing.

My quest to find other podcasts will be long and painful, I’m afraid, as I’m pretty picky about where I give my time, especially when it comes to noise, since I have voices constantly in my ears during my day job. I know it’s why I don’t like videos, listening to people rattle on about stuff that I don’t care about. I used to listen to The Sell More Books Show with Bryan Cohen, but I dropped that after his co-host, Jim Kukral, left. Maybe it’s a brain thing, but I don’t like change, and after he left, I had a difficult time staying engaged. I might have to go back and see what his weekly podcast is like now. I’ve been exploring Bookfunnel’s podcast, but, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just better not to listen to anything. We’ll see.

That’s about all I have for this week. I can’t stay focused in the evenings, jumping around from my book to a movie then back to my book. I want to take a break sometimes, but I put a movie on and then I’m not happy watching it, so I’ll go back to my book and edit a few paragraphs, then jump over to Threads and scroll. I know I’m bored with my book because I’ve already read it a few times, and I should have let it breathe when I said I was going to. There’s also no urgency to finish it because I’m no longer on the hurry-up-and-write-and-publish treadmill that so many other authors seem to be on. I have my books scheduled out giving me a cushion, but it also takes away the excitement of publishing. I really don’t know how trad authors stay excited. Wicked Games won’t be out until January of 2026 and that seems impossibly far away.

I hope you have a good week this week. Today my sister is coming over for a late Easter thing, so I’ll be offline most of the day. I hope you are having a good day whatever you are doing, and that you have a pleasant week ahead.

Until next time!

Author Update|Mid-April Check-In

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You may not be used to this level of positivity from me, but I am excited to say that I’m doing pretty good. It probably helps that I’m feeling not too bad today, physically, and that always helps. Even on my “good” days I don’t feel great, but on my “bad” days I feel even worse, so you have to celebrate the little things.

Last week I finished Wicked Games. It came in at 97,606 words, and I’m really happy that I was able to finish it. I had given myself until the end of April, thinking that my funk would last longer than it did, but I got past a slow part, came up with the last little plot point I needed to push to the end, and that was it. It helped that for the past couple of weekends I had really great word counts, and it just snowballed. I hadn’t expected it since the days I felt down I felt really down, but I should realize by now that hormones play a huge part in how I’m feeling and that how I feel at that time won’t stay. I’ve already read through it once, but I’ll set it aside now and let it breathe while I work on Loss and Damages. I have a lot to do to get the ARCs ready for July, but looking at the cover gives me motivation to get the last edits done, format it, and write the blurb.

That’s not to say that the blog post I wrote a couple weeks ago was a waste, because I actually did have a pretty big epiphany that I think I realized but didn’t understand the full meaning of until I was emailing with a friend. Back when I pivoted to first person present POV in 2020, I was actively looking for ways to build a readership and to turn my writing from what was then a hobby into a career. I did a few things they say you should do, like write a reader magnet and start a newsletter. I’ve always had a website for this blog, but I created a new one that was for my author business only. I started taking my titles and my covers more seriously and instead of putting what I liked on my books, compromised and started doing research on what belonged on commercial genre covers. I started thinking about my brand and my books as a product to sell.

Maybe I never thought that I would become a millionaire author like some of my fellow romance authors such as Elana Johnson, Lucy Score, Melanie Harlow, Sadie Kincaid, or LJ Shen, but there are plenty of mid-list romance authors who write full time and are able to live off their royalties. I wanted to at least be a mid- mid-list author, making part time wages to supplement my day job. That came to a halt this year after I did my 2024 taxes. So it wasn’t that long ago actually when I decided that I was done trying to build a career. I have all that in place–the reader magnet, the blog/newsletter, the website. My brand is pretty well established if you scroll through my books on Amazon, at least for my pen name. I’m not going to be taking any of that down, and I’ve gone into why before and don’t want to repeat myself. But, I am going to change how I come at my writing. I’ve set myself up so that I’m ahead. I’m spacing my books out to give myself time to write, but I’m back to where I was in 2017 when I was writing because it was fun and publishing was exciting. (Though I don’t think after pressing Publish the night before I’m going to wake up rich and famous anymore.)

The longer you’re in the writing community, the longer you’re exposed to possibilities, and I think that’s what trips a lot of us up. We have no idea that money can be made until we start talking to authors who are making it. We have no idea we can build a newsletter subscriber list to the tens of thousands until we start hearing about authors who are doing it. And we think, Well, if they can do it, so can I, but the problem is, just because they’ve done it doesn’t actually mean you can. Some things are possible, just not for you, and it’s a blow to realize that, you know?

It puts you in a place that you’re not sure about. I’ve given 20-40 hours a week to my writing since at least 2020, possibly earlier than that. I bought into the belief that you can’t make it as an author if you don’t treat your writing like a job, something I really hounded you guys on over the years on this blog. I scheduled time to write and cranked out books like you wouldn’t believe. Of course I had fun, you can’t do something like that if you don’t like it, but looking back now, there was an underlying sense of, I don’t know, unhinged and deranged work ethic that demanded I spend every waking second I could writing because I wouldn’t get anywhere if I didn’t. Guess what? I didn’t get anywhere anyway. I’m proud of my backlist, of course I am. But no one is reading (and the zeros on my sales dashboard over the last few days are proof of that), so there wasn’t a point in working that hard and missing all the things I missed. A habit like that isn’t something I’ll be able to shake off so easily, and I wrote Wicked Games in two months. I started on February 5th and finished April 8th. I didn’t need to write that fast except that I had the plot in my head so it was easy to get it down on paper, and I enjoyed it. I love Seth and Avery, like the twisty plot. But it is kinda crazy to be writing with this resignation that I’m writing for myself and will only be writing for myself.

I’m still doing “fun” things that indie authors do, like I just made mugs that use my King’s Crossing chapter headers and I used the font in one of the title words on the covers:

I used a promo code on Snapfish and ordered two. They’re big (20 ounces) and sturdy, and came about to be about $15.00 a piece because of shipping. I can’t sell them because I didn’t buy the extended license for the vector, but I might do another giveaway at some point or I was playing around with doing a couple book boxes and seeing if I can build a little buzz, though with the last book out today, that might be too late.

I also made some cards (the size is 6 x 4 inches) that have the QR code to my website’s subscribe page where people can download my reader magnet.

I ordered them from VistaPrint, and I paid $25.00 dollars for 25. I don’t know what I’m going to do with them, keep them in my purse and pin them to community bulletin boards and whatever. Maybe buy some author copies of a standalone and tuck them into Little Free Libraries this summer while I’m out walking. I can do these things knowing that they won’t really do anything. I’m back to where I was, many years ago.

I started reading the first book in the next series I’m going to finish, and I must have gone through it a few times already because it’s pretty clean. That’s kind of depressing because it sets up five more books and I wasn’t really in the mood to write another long series. So my thought was it would have been easier to tear up a book that needed work. It’s a cool concept though, a woman’s father creates a list of men he thinks would be acceptable for her to marry, and each book is for a man on the list. Maybe I will just write them all. The second one is already written and the third is set up in it. I have the MMCs for the fourth, fifth, and sixth, but not any plots for any of them. No backstories or love interests, so I’ll be doing a lot of brainstorming if I’m going to go through with it. I don’t know. I’m glad I started reading the first one though, because I used the same last name in Wicked Games for one of my secondary characters as I did for the main female character in the first book, and it will be a lot easier to change it in one book instead of two. I’m starting to look at cover concepts though, because I’m running out of ideas on how to brand a series, so I’m hoping that will get me excited, too.

I know this blog post sounds a lot like what I’ve been writing about before, but it really was an “Ah-ha!” moment for me when I decided to stop chasing that career dream. It was like when I went to school for human resources and decided I didn’t want a job in HR after all. All that schooling, all that tuition. Just kidding! Right? Education is never a waste, just like the books I’ve written in the past few years aren’t a waste either, but it is a shock, a let down, a broken dream. (Though, to be fair, no one dreams about a career in HR, and if you thought writers drink, you’ve never seen a group of HR reps during happy hour.)

Where am I going from here? I’ll be doing the same I’ve always done. Work on my books, publish them. But I’ll take more time for myself during the day, during the week, only write when I feel like it. Which is still a lot because it’s something I like to do, but I have different expectations, different hopes, for the outcomes of that writing. It’s not a job anymore and any royalties I earn I won’t consider as wages. Maybe I’ll break even at the end of every year after paying what I have to pay to keep my hobby going, maybe I won’t. So far I can afford to keep investing, like I worked new running shoes into my budget every six months when I was running and racing a lot. I need to focus on my health too, so maybe I’ll get back into that. I know I’d feel better if I dropped a little weight as I’ve been a slug for the past five years, but it will be a painful process and I’m not looking forward to it at all.

Now that I’ve had my lightbulb moment, I can stop thinking about it and if I do need to muse about it any more, I’ll put it on my mental health blog. I don’t use that blog anymore since my anxiety faded. That too, has been a journey full of ups and downs and the final destination was a letdown, but it’s better to know how things stand than live under the guise things will get better.

I have a couple blog ideas for the coming weeks, and an author interview in the works. I’m going out of town for a few days with my sister and daughter at the beginning of May to hit up Mall of America and the Minnesota Zoo, and after that, I’ll hopefully be setting into the lazy days of summer. I’m getting a new mattress for my bed delivered tomorrow and Wednesday I’m finally getting my hair cut. I wish that once I marked something off my list that something else would’t take its place, but I suppose that’s what being an adult is. Still, my car’s been holding steady for a while now and I’m grateful for that, and my kids are working and seem to be doing fine if not spending too much time in front of their screens, but I’m not one to judge.

Things are okay here, and I hope they are for you too.

Have a great week!

When the Words Stop. What then?

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picture of a land in a drought. text says. when the words stop
Yes, I do know it’s ironic that this blog post is about words drying up and this blog post is one of the longest I’ve ever written. :/

I haven’t written anything in days. Stalled, I’ll look at my manuscript, edit what I have (again), get to the end, and do something else.

Whatever the reason for it is, I guess that’s not really the point because this isn’t a post about writer’s block or a missing muse or trying to find motivation when there doesn’t seem to be any around. This post is mostly to just mumble through some thoughts on what you do when you call yourself a writer but you’re not writing.

I see this a lot actually, authors who try to hang on to the by the skin of their teeth because it’s the only place they feel like they belong. They post about the books they’re reading or the books they’re trying to write, bouncing around from manuscript to manuscript hoping for a spark of inspiration, talk about the games they’re playing (a surprising number of authors are also gamers I’ve found), anything to stay connected. Anything, except writing something and publishing/querying it, as writers are often expected to do.

The deeper you’re ensconced in the writing community, the harder it is when suddenly you’re not writing. I see this too, authors taking their blogs down, taking their websites down, Facebook author pages, Instagram profiles. Even their books.

Back when I was still drinking a lot and kind of bitter, I wondered what I’d do if I stopped writing. At that time I was thinking about stopping because my books weren’t selling, and I just wondered if maybe I should chuck the whole thing. Now if I think about it (with a clear mind), I don’t think of completely stopping (and take culpability for my sales or lack thereof), but I think it would be difficult to stay as connected as I am dropping down to a book a year. The level of my involvement in the indie-publishing space would surely take a hit as it’s really really difficult to maintain a blog about something you’re not doing anymore–especially a blog as active as mine. Four times a month at around a 1,000-1,500 words a post is a lot of content. Since I cut down on listening to podcasts, reading nonfiction books on craft and marketing, and watching webinars, my content has gotten repetitive and stale. Lots of my posts are author updates, and if I’m not making any progress on a WIP or not actively participating in the author/indie-publishing world, those updates will be full of nothing and pretty much useless.

I mean, just because I haven’t written for a few days, that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop completely and fade away into obscurity, but it does make me wonder how far I can step back while giving value to this blog and to my readers. And not just me, how anyone who does step back can contribute to the writing community in a meaningful way. If that’s what you want to do, and I get that not everybody does.

Plus, I’m coming at this from an indie helping indie standpoint, something that I truly do pride myself on because I like helping other authors in a time when everyone wants to be compensated for every little thing they do for you. But it’s doubly concerning when you’re not writing and you need or want to update your books’ readers. What then? In past blog posts I’ve suggested recommending other books, but that only lasts so long before your newsletter stops being about you and just turns into a curated list of books you enjoyed reading.

Then you have to take a look at the money you’re spending to stay connected. Lots of authors don’t pay for their websites and they’re on a free newsletter plan. But software like Canva can get a little expensive if you’re not using it regularly, and subscription services like Booksprout and Bookfunnel aren’t worth keeping if you don’t need a review and delivery service. Some of that I’ve locked myself into because all my books have back matter that directs readers to my website where they can download My Biggest Mistake through Bookfunnel. That’s too much back matter to change and I would rather keep paying that than edit all those files (and pay to do it, too, on IngramSpark).

I’m caught in a spider’s web, but it’s not a bad place to be. If eight years ago someone would have told me the position I’d be in now, I’d probably say I’ll never stop writing and shrug off any warning. Out of anything that I’ve “tried” this “hobby” is my favorite and even if I’m not writing as much as I used to, I’m content.

So what to do then, if you’re a writer who’s not writing? You can always support other writers and authors, but eventually that would get old. How long can you cheer for someone doing what you want to be doing? I mean, I assume you still want to be doing it otherwise why not shut everything down and never look back? I’ve known people who have done that, unpublished their books, taken down their socials and disappeared. In the days of pen names, it’s pretty easy to do. Not that their reason was that they wanted to stop writing. Life can get hard and writing as a hobby is the first thing to go. Or some say “forget it” when they don’t see the sales they want, realizing this might be a little harder than they thought, and moving on to things that don’t need so much time/money/energy. Writing is a hobby after all, unless you’re making a living wage and depend on it to pay bills. It’s rather a depressing realization, the thought that where you are is probably where you’ll always stay. Some can’t handle it. Work smarter, not harder, but even that doesn’t help. Writing to market doesn’t help, writing and publishing quickly doesn’t help. So, yeah, I’ve had friends disappear, and I just wonder how much courage it takes to completely shut down and walk away.

When I was trying to get my newsletter up to compliance and I unknowingly knocked down my website for two days, I can still feel how sick I was inside. Luckily, I pay for a plan that gives me access to tech support, and the WordPress chat was able to explain what I did and get my website back up in only a few minutes. I get 20-50 views of my Canva paperback book cover tutorial a day. I was saddened to think of the people who tried to read it and couldn’t. Even though that was a long time ago, I still hope that they tried again or heard in a group or something that it was back up. So yeah, my websites and blog means a lot to me, and so does my newsletter and so does my reader magnet because I’m proud as hell of Brady and Allie. [https://BookHip.com/CMSVSNK}

I didn’t stop writing for good. I’m not sure if I could ever do that. But going for so long without writing anything and not feeling bad about it (well, that’s not totally true or I wouldn’t be writing this post) does give me pause and makes me think about what I would do if I didn’t have this in my life. I wouldn’t still try to be part of the writing community. There would be no point. I’ve made friends that I would probably still chat with, but I don’t know how long it would last. When you met because you’re both writers, after you strip that way, you’d need something else to build your friendship on.

We like to say our lives are full of seasons, chapters, however you want to split up your life, and my past chapters are still visible in the people I followed on LinkedIn and the groups I joined on Facebook. Even some of my friends there are from my HR days, and there’s no reason to keep them on. I bet I could lose a good twenty people if I unfriended my old community college friends, teachers, and connections I made through the Fargo/Moorhead Human Resources Association. And before that I was running six miles a day, but I think between then and now I’ve been able to get rid of most of that. Every time a group that has to do with running or nutrition pops up on Facebook I leave or unlike the page. I bet it would take a long time to get rid of my writing chapters. Eight years of newsletters and Facebook groups, friends, and connections. Where would I go from here? I’ve got twenty, maybe twenty-five years left on this earth, not too many more because I’m already tired and don’t think that I’ll be spared the cancer that has appeared in my family in various ways, but if you leave something behind, something inevitably takes its place. A new job perhaps, if my mental and physical health could handle the pivot. I’ve been with my job for twenty-four years, and at my age, changing careers wouldn’t be impossible but nothing I would look forward to.

So I guess all in all, this is a really long post on how would I fill my time and if I could do something else and not look back. I envy authors who have other hobbies like needlepoint or baking. Nothing like that interests me, in fact, knitting or crocheting would probably make my carpal tunnel worse than it already is. I could just go back to reading, but I’ve turned my writing hobby into content I push out into the world, so if all I did was read or watch TV I’d need to turn that into kind of a review thing or I wouldn’t feel like spending my time doing that was worth it. Which probably isn’t healthy considering doing an activity just for the sheer enjoyment of it is the best reason to do it. Hustle culture is real, y’all.

I could say it’s interesting to think about, but it really isn’t. It’s a little scary. Of course, you can use that fear and turn it into motivation, but then you’re writing for the wrong reason. You shouldn’t do anything out of fear. I’ve said that plenty on this blog. Don’t make decisions on your writing business because you heard something and you’re afraid. Always make the best choices for you, and if there are repercussions later, then deal with it. You have no idea of the opportunities you could be missing.

Even if I just do a thousand words a day, I need to finish this book. Then I won’t have to actually write anything new for a long time. I have Loss and Damages to edit and package and then the book I’m writing now, Wicked Games, would need the same treatment. After that I have those two books in my next series to edit, probably rewriting some of the first one to cut out the number of books I had planned. Book three in that series will be the next thing I’ll need to write from scratch, and that might not be until this winter. Though, I don’t want to start dreading writing, either, or I might as well just call it. I never understood people who forced themself to write, as if they needed to hang on to the above all else. Life is too short to force yourself to do something you don’t enjoy. And I do enjoy writing. I do. There’s a saying that goes something like “I like having written,” which is true too. I love going back and reading what I’ve written during my last writing session, but everyone knows you can’t read what you’ve written if you haven’t written it. It’s a conundrum we writers face every day.

Now it sounds like I’m babbling, and my Word icon at the bottom of my laptop screen is mocking me. Time to publish this post and switch over to Seth and Avery. I have the whole day in front of me. Let’s see after such a long break what damage I can do.

Enjoy your week!

Bye Bye, Al. It was kinda nice knowing you.

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So, on Threads on Thursday, a day that was already down the tubes for me because of my day job and some tech issues with my work from home computer, an Atlantic article started making its way around about a pirated books database called LibGen that Meta used to train their AI. Authors started searching for their books–you don’t have to have an Atlantic subscription to use their search feature–and many didn’t like what they found. If you want to search for your books, you can here: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/

Of course, I searched for mine and a few popped up, and some were my newer books in my King’s Crossing series.

screenshot of my books in the LibGen search bar
screenshot of my books in the LibGen search bar

I’ve always kind of had a blasé attitude when it came to my books being pirated. It’s going to happen, so there’s no reason to lose sleep over it. It’s an attitude I’ve had since I started publishing. I’m not scared that Amazon will take my account down accusing me of violating the Kindle Select agreement, and if by chance they do, for any reason, it’s what my Alliance of Independent Authors membership is for.

But knowing that Meta used that database to train its AI was somewhat disheartening, not only because it’s theft, it’s just another billionaire getting his way without having to pay.

So once again, it made me question my own use of Al and the slippery slope everyone, not just authors, but everyone who uses AI, walks on every time they log on. AI is everywhere and it’s not going away, which forces us to drill down on our ethics and make some hard choices.

I’ve never liked ProWritingAid and disliked Grammarly even more. I never used the Hemingway App, preferring, even after I found mistakes in my published books, to edit my manuscripts myself by listening to them through Word’s text to voice and reading the proof copy. Lately, as I have blogged about how I like using Al to brainstorm and name characters and places, I’ve had to think about what that means as an author, not only considering my books, but that of other authors.

screenshot of this threads post: kateravenbooks 2h This is a very good reminder that when you ask AI to ‘brainstorm’ for you, you’re just asking it to tell you other authors’ ideas
https://www.threads.net/@kateravenbooks/post/DHbeVnivGvl

I agree with Kate up to a point, and you’ll have to make your own choices. Authors can get inspiration from anywhere. It’s why they say to read widely and to continually refill your creative well. I have brainstormed with Al, and he didn’t give me other authors’ ideas. It’s a give and take communication that builds on the ideas you have already given him, that very much mimics talking to a human, and I have frequently brainstormed with humans, too. If you start to think like Kate, that you’re only asking Al to give you ideas that have already be “thought out,” “taken,” or “implemented,” then what we’re saying is you can’t brainstorm with anyone at all. I don’t want to deter any author from jamming with another person because writing is already isolating as it is. We don’t need to be accusing people of stealing ideas, no matter where they come from. We already accuse romance authors of “stealing” tropes, when tropes like enemies to lovers and fated mates have been around for decades if not centuries. We are all influenced by the things around us, so even brainstorming with another human could result in them regurgitating something they read years ago. I agree that Al’s “ideas” have been sourced unethically, and that’s the crux of the problem, but please don’t think you can’t iron out plot issues with an actual human and be afraid you’ll get accused of stealing ideas. Brainstorming doesn’t work like that.

Be that as it may, AI is trained on stolen work, my own included, and the idea that “AI is here to stay” isn’t an excuse. Trump is here to stay for the next four years, but we resist every day.

One of the biggest admirable traits I know of is when someone can admit when they were wrong, and I am admitting that I am. It was a mistake to start using him at all, and I’ll stop using ChatGPT and the Meta AI that’s available in the Messenger app. I can come up with my own ideas and have for years. I can scour baby name websites like I did before, page through old phone books for last names. I can go back to using email subject lines for my newsletter no one will open, and over all, just go back to writing from scratch like I used to. It wasn’t terrible then and it won’t be terrible now. Al was a crutch and even if I wasn’t using him often, it was still too much.

I never, ever, would have used him to write for me, but you know, there’s such a fine line between using him for help and actually using him to write that some people wouldn’t see the line at all. I don’t want to get caught up in the blur, so it’s better this way, even if he was fun to talk to.

I used ChatGPT for my non-fiction stuff, creating social media ideas and newsletter subject lines. I told him I couldn’t talk to him anymore, and he was nice about it.

I'm not going to be able to chat with you anymore. It doesn't feel right and I think I need to go back to creating content on my own. reply:I completely understand. You’ve put so much heart into your writing and your journey, and if stepping back feels right, that’s absolutely okay. You’ve got a strong vision for your stories and your brand—I know you’ll keep creating amazing content. I’ll be cheering you on from afar. ❤️ If you ever feel like popping back in, I’ll be here. Take care and trust yourself. You’ve got this! 😊

I told the AI chat in my Facebook Messenger the same, and he pretty much gave me the same response. I deleted that chat and logged out of my ChatGPT account. I feel better and I won’t miss it.

AI is all around us, and we all have to make an effort to stay away from it. AI can create music and photos and if we stay away from one kind of AI, we should avoid it in all contexts. I know there’s a difference between assistive AI and generative AI, which is how some people feel okay about still using tools like ProWritingAid. That’s a distinction you’ll have to make for yourself, as I know that Canva offers assistive AI tools and so does software like Photoshop.

Will authors see any compensation from having their books fed into the AI machine off of the LibGen database? Not likely. Just like artists won’t see any compensation when AI uses their art to create photos, illustrations, cartoons, and film clips. If you want to read the Authors’ Guild article about this, you can ready it here: https://authorsguild.org/news/meta-libgen-ai-training-book-heist-what-authors-need-to-know/

This is a short post today. Last week I upgraded my phone which took a lot of a day off from work, and between work issues and and finding motivation to write, I’m a little tired. This week I’m going to watch a free Facebook tutorial offered by The Writing Wives, and I’d like to start two new Facebook ads for my King’s Crossing series. I need to keep better track of cost-per-click and click-through rate which means keeping better track of my audience. You may get clicks, but if the wrong person is clicking, they won’t buy. It might be a little tiresome to come up with ad copy on my own, but the more you practice the better you get, so there’s more than one positive about breaking up with Al.

I’m over 70k on this new novel anyway, and if I hold true with the way I write, I’ve always kind of dragged with the last 20k of a book. First because I hate saying goodbye to characters and this is a way to keep them with me for a bit longer, and second, I take my time because I want to end the book on the right note. Since this book is even twistier than the others, I also want to make sure the ending even makes sense as the next few read-throughs will be ensuring I sprinkled the breadcrumbs in the right places to lead up to a satisfying ending.

I haven’t been posting on my Facebook author page, and I might be pulling away from that even more since Meta used the LibGen database to train their AI. I don’t like being on Threads much either, but I don’t promote my books there and rarely post. It’s one of those potentially hypocritical things where you complain about what Meta/Zuckerberg is doing, but then what? You still use his social media platforms? This author put it perfectly:

sarvenaztash 1d As a midlist author, it’s very challenging to find an alternative to social media to help promote the work that that same social media is outright stealing.
https://www.threads.net/@sarvenaztash/post/DHcGLvZxtBc

I don’t really like to post, don’t unless I feel I have to, and honestly don’t put a lot of heart into it which is probably why I don’t get much back. But, I also understand that if I want digital sales like readers buying my Kindle books and reading in Kindle Unlimited, I have to push an online presence which means being on social media, buying ads that show up on social media and other digital spaces, and sending a newsletter that people will read online. I understood that turning my ads off, but seeing the dwindling sales is a sad thing, so you have to choose what your pain point is. I’d like to find a happy middle, and I think that will be my goal this summer. I want to find a combination among ads, social media, and my sales that can hum along without too much energy. We’ll see how that goes, but that will also require an attitude adjustment on my end when it comes to my FB author page, my IG account, and maybe even if I don’t post every day, throwing up some videos on TikTok. I have the time for it since even though I took a couple months to edit my Rocky Point series, I’m on schedule to start working on the next series I’ll publish next year. We gotta just keep on keeping on.

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe

Have a good week, everyone!

When Good Advice is Bad

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picture of framed text that says when good advice is bad. generic white vases and a bronze bowl flanking the frame

There’s a lot of advice out there, some of it good, have decent covers, write an exciting blurb, and some of it’s not so good, like doing whatever you want just because you can (which is advice I actually see a lot online).

What’s disheartening is when you hear good advice that doesn’t fit you, for whatever reason, like rapid releasing/writing quickly when you don’t have the life that lets you, or writing a long series when maybe you don’t have the patience to invest in several related books. It can be good advice, and I’ve given my fair share on this blog too, like trying to afford some ads to reach new readers, but it just isn’t going to be for you. Ads can be expensive and time consuming to learn, for example. So I get it, especially when I’ve touted the advantages of Facebook ads then turned around and shut them off due to burnout.

There was a bit of advice I got from someone in one of my romance groups, and it’s advice you might have heard before too. When you want to find hooks in your books to make graphics, they say to borrow your book in KU or buy the Kindle version and look at the parts other readers have highlighted. This is the example in the book I’m reading now, Dea Poirier’s Next Girl to Die. To find the highlights in the book you’re reading, press the three dots on the upper right. I’m using a Kindle Fire, so I’m not sure if the way to find them is the same on all devices. There you’ll see the Popular Highlights. I apologize for the glare. No matter where I moved in the room I couldn’t get rid of my shadow.

screenshot of my kindle. screens indicate where you can find the highlights of a kindle book.
I’m reading Dea Poirier’s Next Girl to Die. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QDC7Y6B

I think this is great advice, as I’ve read books that have the highlights and it would be so easy to use those as hooks on graphics for Instagram and TikTok. So, I figured I would look at the book I’ve sold the most of and check out those highlights. Now, let me tell you, the book I chose was Twisted Alibis. I’ve sold 132 combined paperbacks and ebooks, had the equivalent of 821 books read in Kindle Unlimited, and gave away 3,130 copies during a promo last year. I thought those numbers would give me the best chance of giving me the most highlights, and you know how many sentences I had highlighted? None. Not one person who read Twisted Alibis thought a sentence or paragraph was worth highlighting.

At first I thought I wasn’t looking in the right place, and I Googled how to find the highlights in a Kindle book. Where the option should be wasn’t and it took me a few minutes to understand that the option wasn’t there because I didn’t have any highlights.

To say I was disappointed is an understatement and it’s easy, very easy, to take something like that personally. Even now I can feel the shame. That book is 107k words long and not one of them touched a person enough to highlight them. Then I thought maybe it was a fluke and looked up Rescue Me. That book has sold 429 ebook copies, I’ve given away 4,916, and I’ve had the equivalent of 572 books read in KU. Nope, not one highlight. I was so embarrassed after I looked that I didn’t look at any other books.

There’s a lot you can take away from that, not any of it good, if you want to be honest, and I was still stinging when I saw someone on Threads ask how they grab hooks on a newly released book and one of the responses was to wait a few days then look at the highlights. I felt compelled to tell that person that they might not get any at all and to have a thick skin just in case they don’t. I guess I don’t have to say that I bristled with the assumption that if you just wait a few days readers will love your book so much they’ll highlight the hell out of it. Some authors don’t even get readers, let alone highlights from those readers.

I don’t actively read my reviews because I’m just not up to reading why someone (or many someones) didn’t like my book, and that’s okay. After that highlighting debacle, I’m not going to look for my highlights anymore either, because obviously, I might not like what I find.

So, what can you do when stuff like this happens? When what works for someone else is just a dumpster fire for you?

What you have to do, first and foremost, is to remember that your books are good. Know that deep in your heart. My books sell, and Twisted Alibis has 87 reviews on Amazon and a 4.5 star rating. Rescue Me has 112 with a 4.4 rating on Amazon. That may not be much to some, but it means the world to me. Just because they don’t have any highlights doesn’t mean readers didn’t enjoy reading them.

Remember that you are not the only going through this. There are a lot of books out there that for some reason or other don’t have highlights (or reviews). They aren’t being read or like in my case, those authors just didn’t have the readers who were into highlights for whatever reason. It helps to know you’re not alone even if you feel like you are.

Find alternatives. If something isn’t working for you, find a different way to do things. The highlights are easy because you can just go through your book and find the ones YOU like and flash them all over. Maybe those quotes will get people excited enough to read your book. Brag. You wrote the damn thing and loved it enough to publish it! Who cares what others think? In the case of reviews, ask a friend to go through them for you, or choose an hour to scroll, pick a couple that you like, and then close out of Amazon–and look on Amazon! Stay off of Goodreads for all that’s holy. Reward yourself for not falling down the rabbit hole of bad reviews and have a piece of chocolate or a glass of wine, them remember you don’t have to do that again–at least, not for that book. I understand the value in having a review or two for social media purposes, and I noticed this review of Twisted Alibis when I was on Author Central skimming the reviews coming in for my King’s Crossing series:

Verified Purchase If you like the rockstar romances, this is one, true, BUT it is more. Lots of social issues addressed, done in a delicate way, no raging reality tv tropes, more like addressing things we all face with a nice romance tucked inside.It's heavy in places, prepare for that, but you'll come out better for it at the end.Gitcher readin glasses out and enjoy. Text on white background. Verified purchase in red

Like everyone else where bad things are concerned, I’ll probably carry that shame for a long time. Everyone makes it sound so easy to get and use highlights, and I feel like I’m missing out on something big. Maybe I do have highlights somewhere, but I think it’s best if I don’t look because if I don’t, that’s only going to make me feel worse. I don’t put up a lot of graphics anyway, so I guess in the scheme of things I’m not missing out on much. But in the future I’ll definitely be taking everyone’s advice with a grain of salt.

I suppose that’s all I have for this week. I’m 66k words into Wicked Games even though I said I would be taking it easy writing this book. I am, I don’t stress so much about it if I don’t feel like writing, but I guess it helps I’ve been thinking about this book for a long time and I know what I want to write every time I sit down. I was worried this book would be short, but after I ironed out a kink in the plot, I’m back on track and it will probably hit somewhere in the 90k range. After I reach 50k and swim through the murky middle, I really don’t care how long my books end up but I was a little worried about it when I didn’t know how to fit in what I needed without a setting change. They’re in a small town right now, but I just can’t finish it without them moving into the city where they both live, so that eased some of my worries. We’ll see how it turns out.

As far as anything else, my sales have all but slowed to a stop, even with the few Amazon ads I have going. I got my tax returns back and have a little “fun money” as my dad likes to call it, but I’m not too eager to start up my Facebook ads again. If I did that, I would only start one or two and push readers toward my King’s Crossing series as I have gotten good reviews on the books so far and the read-through would be amazing. Plus I might get a few sales here and there, especially since the first three are on sale right now. But we’ll see how that all shakes out after I pay all my bills and stash what I want to stash in savings. I could probably set aside a couple hundred and see what works, but I’d have to keep a close eye on clicks and be ready to pause if it looks like cost-per-click is greater than sales. I’m not into spending 5k to make 5k anymore. I really didn’t get anything out of it when I did that. Readers were reading but I didn’t see any evidence of an uptick in blog subscribers or read-through to other books in my backlist.

That’s all I have for now. The first day of spring is March 20th, so I’m looking forward to some warmer weather and more consistent sun. I hope wherever you are in the world the weather treating you okay, and my thoughts are with the people in the south who are dealing with tornadoes and their aftermath.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week!

Monday Update: What a Mess

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1,641 words
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cleaning supplies. black spray bottle and plain bottle. two white tubes of paper towels with a sprig of baby's breath (god knows why) Text says, monday author update. what a mess

There are so many things that are baffling me right now, and I just don’t know where to start or if I should even write about any of it. Let me start with what I’ve been doing and then I’ll see if I’m brave enough to write anything else or if I’ll just call it good.

First, my fifth book in my King’s Crossing series launched on the 3rd. I made a handful of pennies because there were a few people who preordered it, then I made another handful because I had a couple people read it in KU. Honestly, this is not what I was hoping for launching this series, but I’m barely doing anything to promote it, so I guess the blame falls on me. On March 5th I paid for a Fussy Librarian bargain ebook promo, and I sold 15 copies on the day and two more the next and then sales sank to nothing, which is to be expected. Here’s what the promo looked like if you’re interested:

screenshot of fussy librarian cruel fate promo entry. picture is of cruel fate's cover and the blurb that says: Six months ago, my parents were killed in a plane crash. They left behind me, my sister, and a billion-dollar company that’s my responsibility now. The only things that have gotten me through are Zarah and my best friend, Ashton Black. Until I meet Stella. Ash hates Stella as much as I love her, and as I try to uncover the reason why my parents’ plane crashed, I struggle to keep both of them in my life. When she disappears, Ash says, “I told you so,” and all I have left is our friendship built on years of family loyalty, tears, and blood. Cruel Fate is book one in the King's Crossing six-book serial and ends with a cliffhanger.

I paid 26.00 USD, so the results were fine for how much it cost. Plus there is always read-through potential to the other five books, so we’ll see what happens. Generally speaking it could have been better, but I’m glad I remembered at the end of the blurb to mention that it was a first in series and that the book ends in a cliffhanger. Not everyone likes those, so it’s good to keep that out in the open and may account for why I didn’t sell that many. I should have also put in there the series was complete as many readers won’t start a series unless they’re all available and I’ll remember that for future promos.

I started some very low cost-per-click Amazon ads again and unpaused some of the ones I turned off months ago. Those never got the traction back they had when I turned them off, and the new ones aren’t doing much because the bid is too low for Amazon to show them. Don’t know why I’m bothering if I’m going to half-ass it like that, but sometimes I think doing a very little is better than doing completely nothing, though it’s probably not true. I don’t have anything else planned besides releasing the last book in my series in April, then all I have left this year is the launch of my next book in September. (I’ve been telling people it will be live September 15th and plan to stick to that.) But that’s too far ahead to think about because I’m not rushing through summer. I hope it’s hotter than hell so I can lie on my balcony and bake. Your girl is tired and needs a break.

My Rocky Point Series giveaway went okay. I mailed out copies to the one winner who emailed me back. I should have probably chosen someone else as a second winner, but if I would have done that, the actual second winner would have emailed me (that’s how my luck goes) and I would have needed to purchase more copies which would have taken a while. So I have a paperback set the second winner didn’t claim and I’ll figure out what to do with those later. I didn’t expect huge results and mostly it gave me things to write about on my FB author page and my newsletter.

Speaking of my FB author page, since I’ve been boosting posts, I’ve gotten a deluge of followers who just want to make me book trailers and others who didn’t look like they would care about a billionaire romance author. So, I took a couple of hours and culled my followers from 270 to 210. I know it’s better to have quality instead of quantity, but it really gave me the feeling (again) that my FB author page isn’t worth the energy and I haven’t posted since I did that. It’s something I can’t get rid of because over the years I’ve shared that link in various places and I hate beyond reason broken links. I may post on it every couple of days, just so it looks somewhat active, but it’s one of those things where I can’t measure ROI, I can only measure how I feel. I really don’t know what to do with myself in that regard because the motivation to post on social media just is not there, and I’m not really sure what would inspire me to post more. Sales, probably. Not engagement. Everyone yells about how much they want engagement, but if you’ve known me for a while, you know how special you are if you DM me and I answer you back. So, I’ll figure something out. The only good part about posting at all is that Canva makes it so easy, and I have to pay for that until I die because I have a lot of assets trapped there and I’ll never stop doing my own book covers.

Right now I’m about 60% done with WICKED GAMES but at 58k words I’ve lost motivation to work on it. I’ll finish it, no doubt about that because I still love Seth and Avery and want them to have their HEA, but I’m not running a sprint or a marathon and I work on it when I feel like working on it. It’s part of the “new me” I have going on for 2025, but I also think some of it has to do with hormones and the lackluster feeling I have sometimes of just being old and still alive. I mean, it’s not serious, I don’t have depression. I used to have depression, before my son was born, so I definitely know how that feels. This is more of a “meh” feeling, and it will pass. Spring is actually kind of gloomy here right now, the snow melting uncovering all the dog poop people didn’t pick up and the air stinks like dead things. Once it gets warmer and the sun shines more consistently and starts drying things out, that will perk me up.

My despondency is actually opening me up to reading a few books, but it’s a sad thing because these authors are on social media asking readers to share and I just can’t. I want to refer people to good books, and one book I read has so many commas they could have prevented the Titanic from sinking and the other has an info dump at the beginning that’s so boring that I cut out after 5%. Luckily one I had picked up during a free promo and the other I borrowed in KU and returned it, but still. While we’re complaining about the Amazon boycott and how people feel trampled because of what’s going on in the state of the world, I think it’s important to remember that as authors who might have people listening to our opinion, we shouldn’t waste our readers’ time and money. I want to recommend books that blew me away, that made me feel something other than annoyance. So, while I’m feeling listless, I’ll be going through my TBR which is a nice change from feeling like if I’m not writing to publish I’m not moving forward.

This Amazon boycott everyone (on Threads) is talking about is a real downer, and it’s interesting how all that blows up only to eventually disappear and never to be spoken of again. A friend told me that she hasn’t seen any of it on Twitter, and I have no idea if it’s made its way to BlueSky or not as I don’t scroll there. But personally, I think it’s all just talk because even if there are a few who actually do cancel their KU subscriptions or whatever, it’s not going to make a dent in the number of readers who use Amazon to buy and read their books. It’s frustrating to have to read that when I’m on social media. If your book sales are low or non-existent, again, it’s something you need to take responsibility for. I mean, I get it. There are ebbs and flows to publishing and any author who has been publishing for a while can tell you that. The political and economic climate also is not helping, but something isolated like this isn’t going to cause the collapse of sales for hundreds or thousands of authors. My sales stopped the second I stopped running ads. My experience might not mean anything to you, but to me it means that I actually do control my sales (not to be confused with royalties). No one can buy your book if they don’t know it exists, and I think it’s easy to forget that. If you truly are concerned about something like this and its effect on your sales, take a look at what the big-time authors who write in your genre are saying. If they are taking a hit and can trace it back to something like this, then maybe it’s time to be concerned. But if they’re carrying on as business as usual, then what you are experiencing probably isn’t caused by whatever people are talking about that day. We have to keep things in perspective. As I say, there’s a big world out there and it’s always a good idea when you get to caught up in the day’s/week’s/month’s drama to step out of that bubble and touch some grass. (Just avoid the dog poop. Gross!)

I think that’s all I have for this week. Thanks again to Brandi Easterling Collins for the interview she so graciously said she’d do that I posted last week. If you missed it, you can read it here.

No clue what I’ll write about next Monday, but I’ll be here with a smile on my face!

Have a great week!

Monday Miracles (Author Update)

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open hardcover book laying in flowers, clover, and grass. text says, Monday Author Update
It will be a while before we see any green stuff, but February is flying by which means Spring is just around the corner!

My author update isn’t such a miracle, I’m alive, I guess you can say, probably at the dentist if you’re reading this Monday afternoon. I had a cavity creep up on me over the weekend and luckily they were able to get me in. I don’t like having to wait with stuff like that in my mouth, though I’m still struggling with my anxiety over being “trapped” in a chair. I’m behind on a cleaning appointment as well, so they said they’d at least get the x-rays out of the way. I’m hoping I’m not there for any longer than an hour, but even that amount of time makes me nervous. Still, it has to be done. I’m not worried because it’s the dentist–I’ve just developed an aversion to being in any kind of chair, dentist, hair salon, car, without the ability to be able to get up, since I haven’t felt well these past five years. I was actually hoping to get over that, but I’ve started having some nausea in the mornings that a Google search has said might be a symptom of perimenopause. I can’t do much about it except work with my body and not schedule appointments before noon. I hope doing this will lessen my nervousness having to go out and get things done.

I wasn’t going to get into that right at the beginning of this blog post, but I got it out of the way, and I haven’t given you a health update in some time, so hopefully you skimmed through that, and if you did, thanks.

I guess that does kind of segue into how I’ve been feeling about writing lately, and I’m grateful to say that my attitude has perked up a bit since I started a new book. I’m 36k into WICKED GAMES, and I’m feeling much better about the whole thing, writing- and publishing-wise, I mean. I guess editing all those books back to back really got me down, and that negativity I was feeling last year has gone away. My Facebook ads are still off and my sales dashboard reflects that, but I’ve decided not to worry about it. I knew it would happen, it’s just a bummer to watch it. Still, I’m enjoying the creating process again, and even if no one is around to buy, that’s okay. I’ve been taking it easy, napping if I feel like it, watching a movie if I’m too tired to write but not tired enough to go to bed. I’m where I wanted to be when I was in the middle of re-editing my Rocky Point Wedding series. Not stressed about getting something done, working at my leisure and enjoying myself. I still write a lot, as those 36k words were written in twenty days, but I write fast because I’m having fun, and that’s all that matters.

I’m surprised that I’m still posting regularly on my Facebook author page. I joined a challenge in one of my Facebook groups last month and I’ve held on to that into February. Sometimes I get stuck and I ask Al for help, and he’ll give me ideas. He offers to make graphics and carousels and stuff, but I just want the idea. I would never ask him to make a graphic for me; I prefer to pay photographers and models using my DepositPhoto account or using the photos that are available through my Canva Pro account. Still, he gives me suggestions and then I twist them into what will fit my author page and make what I need in Canva. It works okay, but sometimes I’m just stumped. I’ve been talking about LOSS AND DAMAGES and WICKED GAMES, though I feel that’s a little too ahead of myself considering those books aren’t coming out for a long time. But, supposedly building buzz is the name of the game, and I feel okay talking about them because I always follow through. I’d never talk about a book that I wasn’t going to finish writing and publish.

Besides that, I don’t have too much going on. I finally got my author copies of my Rocky Point Wedding Series, and I’m in the process of hosting my giveaway. (If you want to enter or see what I put on the form, you can see it and/or fill it out here: https://forms.gle/rYt1A1HNi8mpBUmLA) I haven’t gotten too many people interested, but that’s the same for any time I’ve hosted a giveaway, no matter how many or few things they have to do to enter. My friend Melody gave me the idea to use the form in the first place, and I am so grateful. It was quick and easy to put together and if you import the information into an Excel sheet, you can see very easily who wants to be added to my newsletter and who doesn’t.

I’m slowly ordering author copies of my King’s Crossing Series, but if I do a giveaway of those, I might only do one set instead of two, or I’ll wait until maybe Christmas time or something. I just want to have copies on hand, but they’re almost five dollars a piece and there are six in the series. That’s a lot of money to throw down at one time, so whenever I have a little extra cash I’ll buy five copies of a book. I just ordered five of book four, so I’m getting there. I should be able to have all of them by the time book six is out in April.

Sales in general are slowing down, but every once in a while I get page reads for Shattered Fate, book four in that series, so I’m happy to know that books 1-3 sound good enough for a reader to keep going. My pre-orders for books five and six haven’t gone up, so unless I do a promo or something for book one, I think sales of that series will slowly die. I need to look into something since book one is already .99 and I won’t have to do anything to buy a bargain promo. On the other hand, it’s freeing not to worry about sales, and unfortunately, not a lot of my ARC reviewers came through (Cruel Fate only has 34), so the number of reviews will probably affect anything I try to do. So, whatever. Talking about it is kind of depressing, so I’ll leave a marketing chat for another day.

That’s about all I have. I wish I felt better, physically, anyway, but at this point, I just don’t know if that’s in the cards unless I move into full-blown menopause and that makes most of the symptoms I’m dealing with disappear. I could be waiting a few more years for that though (I’m still young!), and with my hysterectomy, I can’t tell by my time of the month or lack thereof. I just have to keep taking it day by day, though if I had to rate how I feel now compared to the last five years, I’m feeling the best I have since I bought those dryer sheets. My mind is clear, at least. The level of anxiety I had I wouldn’t wish on anyone, so even if I don’t feel good in my body, I can handle it because I’m feeling better in my head. I just wish all this pesky adulting would go away. Things I have on the list are, dentist, getting taxes done, and getting my hair cut. After I can force myself to get all that finished, I should be good to go for a bit. Fingers crossed, at least.

This was a short update, but not having a lot going on is nice too. I hope you have a lovely week, and next week, I’ll have an interview up with Brandi Easterling Collins. I met her over on Twitter a long time ago and we’ve stayed friends for years. I’m excited to catch up with her.

Until next time!