Sunday Update 8/24/24

Well, hello there.  Thanks for stopping by for my weekly update.  In case this is your first time here, I'm a pretty boring person.  All the exciting in my life is fictional.  

Day before yesterday, I finished the WIP.  It'll become my 18th published novel.  It's Duke Noble, book 2 - tentatively called Thicker Than Water.  (Not sure I love that title.  We'll see.)  It ended up being 47269 words for the first draft.  I really like how it ended.  There's a lot I have to go back and fix - continuity issues, gaps, a dearth of description... the usual.  I'll probably start that next week.  With my brain, I don't really need too much time to step out of the story so I can look at it objectively.  

So, with finishing that sucker, I wrote 6657 words last week.  I'm hoping to start writing again on something else sometime this week, then write at night and edit TTW during the day once I get to editing again.  I've done this in the past, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.  I do wonder whether I still have the chops to write one book while editing another, though.

This past week, I ran a sale on the Once Upon a Djinn books.  I ended up moving 106 copies of WIOH (free), two copies of IDW, and one copy each of UWC and WHTF (99c ea).  On the bright side, the rankings thing on Amazon is finally moving again, so here's hoping it equates to residual sales and page reads in KU.  WIOH reached #91 in free urban fantasy, so yay.  That usually helps.  :shrug:

I didn't post a Reading Wrap-up yesterday because, frankly, I forgot.  Honestly, though, I didn't really have anything to talk about.  I didn't finish a book last week - just DNF'd one, which was annoying.  Then I picked up a SF and finished that last night.  I'll talk about it all next Saturday.

In baking news, I made a batch of Peanut Butter & Cocoa Oatmeal Cookies.  Hubs was jones'n for something chocolate, so tada.  

On the activity front, I walked 3 days for 2.55 miles worth, then yesterday, I cut down my lilac bush with this nifty new hand saw thingie I bought.  (Poor Linus.  He up and died this year, all but one lonely trunk and 3-4 suckers.  I left all that, hoping to resurrect him.)  It was quite the upper body workout and I'm feeling it today.  I haven't weighed myself.  I don't need that kind of negativity... LOL.

I can't think of anything else from this past week worth talking about, so feel free to go on about your day.  And if you want to, drop a comment and tell me about your week.  I hope it was a good one.  If not, we can commiserate. :hugs:

Wished for a Free Book? Tada!

For a limited time, WISH IN ONE HAND is FREE! And its sequels are only 99c each. Which means you can get the Once Upon a Djinn series - all four books - for less than $3. Pick up your copies today!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074C8Y2LJ 

(All of them are always free with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. This is for the rest of us.)

Sunday Update - Week 44

Hello again.  We're slowly creeping toward the end of 2020.  A lot of people won't be sad to put this year behind them, and I'm one of them.  Still, whether 2021 is better than this is up to you.  And what happens on Tuesday.  Positive forward progress vs negative sliding backward.  

And if you haven't set your clock back yet, you should probably get on that at some point today.  (We do ours Sunday morning after the coffee has kicked in.)  Right now, the computers and the satellite clocks all say 5:30 and the other clocks all say 6:30.  :shrug: 

Anyway... I didn't do any writing this past week.  This was mainly due to getting Cinder Ugly done and up for pre-order and focusing on the Once Upon a Djinn sale.  Post-publication is not a good writing time for me.  I get the blues.  Meh.

I have done a bunch of marketing this week.  It's netted me 9 sales, which is more than I've sold over the past few months combined.  If I'd done some paid advertising, I could've possibly raised that number, but paying for marketing is not in the cards right now.  Gotta sell books to make money so I can pay for advertising to sell books.  It's a vicious circle.

On the reading front, it was a good week.  Not gangbusters, but good.

This week was not good for activity.  It rained.  A lot.  Like 7 inches worth of sky water.  And I was not inclined to exercise indoors.  Or clean.  Meh.  Let's not talk about weight.  I didn't weigh myself.  I don't want to and you can't make me.

I made oatmeal raisin cookies this week.  Those are for Hubs.  I had planned to make a meatloaf yesterday, but then I got a wild hair and picked up the fixin's for chili.  Big ol' vat of it.  Yum.  Actually I planned to make the meatloaf Thursday and then forgot until it was too late in the day to start it.  That's the problem with meatloaf.  It takes 2.5 hours to cook, so I have to get it in the oven by 2:30 if I want it ready by dinner.  And I don't like eating late.  I'm getting a real craving for cake, so that might be on the to-do list for today.

Speaking of wild hairs, I cut my hair yesterday.  It was driving me nuts.  Back up above my collar it goes.  Yay.

It's finally getting cold enough to go into the woods.  I haven't yet - 7" of rain makes muddy mush out of my hill.  The rain also screws up the fishing - makes a muddy mess out of the river, doncha know.  I hope to be able to do both of those things soon.

I've been thinking about what to do for writing next.  Again, I'm faced with the same decisions - do I hit the unfinished YA fantasy, or the unfinished mystery, or the unfinished UF?  Or do I start a new book - another SCIU or Dennis Haggarty?  Decisions decisions.  I'll figure it out.  Needless to say, I will not be starting NaNoWriMo today.

I think that's about it for me today.  What went on in your week?  What lies ahead? 

 

Sunday Update - Week 43

Blerg.  I'm running late today.  Again.  Anyway...

In writing news, I got all the proofer notes in and input.  Friday, I fixed the last few things and started the formatting.  Then I fell down (figuratively) and didn't get anything else done.  Today.  Today I really need to get ahold of myself and get stuff done.  

In marketing news, I have a sale starting tomorrow for all the genie books - 99c each.  Get all four for less than $4.  I haven't set up any advertising, so this will be all FB posts and stuff.  Fingers crossed.  In a perfect world, I'd have the CU stuff done so I could put links in the backs of all the genies books.  This is not a perfect world.

I had a good reading week last week.  Yay.

I did something active every day. Once again, not active active, but active is active, eh?  Weight: 180 even.

Yesterday, I went a little goofy and started the day making apple-cranberry bread.  Then I made beef stew.  Then I got a wild hair and made homemade drop biscuits to have with the stew.  All that mixing and chopping and stirring... my arms are kinda ouchy today.  On the upside, we have loads of homemade stuffs to eat.

Also, yesterday, I saw a golden-crowned kinglet.  So cute!  They're a winter visitor here and it's nice to see them back again.

A new buck came to the yard yesterday.  One of his ears is flopped over, so he'll be easy to identify in years to come.  Hubs named him Lear.  (Short for Left Ear, but it fits with the kingly names theme this year.)  Arthur is looking well and his face is healing nicely.  Lumpy and the twins are also fine - although one of the twins is getting independent and not always right with mom when she comes to feed.

I think that's it.  I got up late, and the coffee isn't kicking in quite like it should yet.  What was up with you last week?

The Big Djinn Sale

Today's the start of the big sale for the Once Upon a Djinn books.  Buy 'em all, buy any you might've missed, give 'em as gifts, sprinkle that stuff everywhere...  At 99c each, you get hours of fun for under $4.  They're also all in the KU program if that's the way you get your reading material.  Over 1500 pages if you read them all straight through.  Which is the best way to get the whole story.  Jus' sayin'.


You know, I'm really proud of this series.  I had no idea where it was going to go when I started it.  In fact, I wasn't even planning it as a series.  I wrote Wish In One Hand thinking it was going to be a one-shot.  But you guys were clamoring for more when you finished reading it, so I developed it into a series. 

And it took me on a wild ride, lemme tell ya. 

Then I had figured it was going to be a trilogy.  Hah, fooled me.  There was still too much left unanswered by the end of the third book.  Bingo-bango, presto-chango... the fourth and definitely final book.  A quadrilogy, if you will.  Complete story arc from start to finish.

Yeah, I know, some things didn't turn out the way a few of you hoped, but it's a happy ending for Jo, which was the goal.  I mean, each book has a happy-ish ending, but the end of the series as a whole is happy for Jo.  (Can't say 'happily ever after' because that implies a romantic happy ending and I don't do romance.)

Anyway, thanks to all of you who've read and reviewed these books.  You guys rock.  And I hope those of you who haven't read them take this opportunity to give them a whirl.

Sunday Update - Week 37

Hi there.  Another week has rolled by.  Here's what happened...

Wish Hits the Fan is now live and available for your enjoyment.  Wish in One Hand is still free thru tomorrow.  In Deep Wish and Up Wish Creek are still 99c/.99p thru Thursday.  The hope is that people who picked up WIOH for free will want to purchase the other books shortly thereafter.  Anyway, the books have been selling together over the weekend so far, which is good.  And the ads seem to be doing their jobs and paying for themselves.  One more ad will go out tomorrow and Tuesday.  WIOH actually hit #34 on the Amazon free Paranormal/Urban Fantasy list Friday - an obscenely hard to reach list, btw.  So, it's a win.

I haven't done much of anything else with regard to writing or writerly pursuits - just marketing.

Still waiting on my paperback proof for WHTF.  I paid extra to get it here Friday.  It shipped Thursday.  Not sure what the hell, but if I don't see it tomorrow, I'm contacting Createspace.  Seriously.  

I went fishing once last week.  Caught some panfish, but nothing worth writing about, hence no Saturday Fishing Report.  This coming week ain't looking any better.  Hot and sunny.  Bleh.

The reading has been going pretty good.  I actually read 5 books last week.  Three of those were by 'new to me' authors.  One had no stars on Amazon =o(.  Well, it has one review now.  It was pretty awesome, so if you're interested in YA paranormal, check out Bewitch Me by Amelia Blake.  Also, if you're into those kinds of books, Caught in Between by Allison L. Perry was amazing, too. 

Bow season started here on Friday.  Crossing fingers none of our deer get culled. 

Well, that's about all I have to say this morning.  I hope you all had an awesome week and will have a great week ahead of you.  :hugs: 

Release Day is Finally Here!

Cross posted with Outside the Box...

When I first started writing the first genie book (Djinn-ocide... which would eventually become Wish Hits the Fan) back in September of 2009, I really had no idea where it would go.  I thought maybe I could make a series out of it someday and maybe it would land me an agent and a publishing contract.

LOL, well, we all know where that last part of the vision went, don't we?

I self-published Wish in One Hand in August of 2015.  A little over two years later, the fourth and final book in the Once Upon a Djinn series is available for the general public to read.  Yay!

I'm super stoked that all the books are together.  And I really I hope you all enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Here they are...

Wish in One Hand

In Deep Wish

Up Wish Creek

Wish Hits the Fan

Not quite sure what's up next.  I'm going to enjoy this for a little while, I think.  All four books together.  Finally.

Whew.

Any Questions?

I would usually put a post like this up at Outside the Box, but since I do have followers here who don't follow there, I'm putting it here today and there tomorrow. 

You see, I'm working on the final book in the Once Upon a Djinn series.  And I want to wrap everything up, if I can.  (Not that I'll never write another genie book, but I want all the questions from books 1-3 answered in #4 so readers can leave feeling satisfied.)  To that end, I was wondering what burning questions readers would like to see answered in this final book. 

Now, yes, the book is already written.  All the way through.  And I finished the first edit pass last night.  But I might've missed something.  I don't think I did, but there's always the chance I'm wrong.  This is your chance to tell me what you're dying to know. 

Yep, there's always still a chance I won't have wrapped something up to your satisfaction.  Them's the chances we take when we read a book, don't ya know.  But I'm trying. 

To help, here are a few things I know for certain I have addressed...

- Zeke's disappearance in book 3.
- the cliffhanger at the end of book 3.
- the mysterious glimpse Jo was given into the future in book 2.
- the ultimatum the other supernaturals gave Jo in book 3.
- what happens with Reggie?
- the disappearance of Hans

Anything else?  I'm sure whatever we don't catch now, JC will catch when she gets her hands on WHTF.  But I want to know what you're thinking. 

If you have any non-genie related questions, you can ask them now, too, if you want to.  I'll answer what I can.