Marketing Monday - Series Bonanza - A Model Curse

I'm trying something different today.  I'm marketing an entire series.  My A MODEL CURSE series definitely hasn't gotten the love it deserves, so all three books in the series are free starting today and running through Friday.  It's snarky.  It's got a heroine who breaks the rules by being slightly unlovable.  Although, frankly, I do love her, but that's because I know her and she's really a good person deep down.  She's shallow and vapid and self-absorbed, with a foul-mouth and bad habits, but she's also got a big heart.  Once you read the books, you'll see how she got the way she is and how she grows to show her real beauty.  

The book is written in a very conversational style - my conversational style - so don't come into this with your Strunk and White in hand.  It's for fun.  It's for escape.  Oh, there is a deeper message behind it all, but I don't beat you over the head with it.  If you get it, great.  If not, I hope the ride is still enjoyable.

Anyway, enjoy.  The books are free, so why not try them?  What have you got to lose?

Marketing copy:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTFRD71
A MODEL CURSE - the entire series - is free for a limited time. Now through Friday, get the whole damn, fun, snarky, paranormal suspense story totally free. (They're always free with Kindle Unlimited. This is so everyone can play.)

Monday Marketing - Ugly and the Beast

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I did one of these, but here we are.  And I'm still hungover from the trip, so bear with me.  

Starting today, UGLY AND THE BEAST is free. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) It's a snarky and fun paranormal mystery about a cursed model who's just trying to get her life back, and now there's a surprise beast or two in the mix. No sex, but a lot of swearing, so not for the kiddies. Pick up your copy today.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087ZRD6XM

Sunday Update - Week 18

Sorry I'm late.  I forgot to write this and schedule it.  Then I slept in unintentionally.  Now you're stuck with me first thing in my morning.  Blarg.  (Which is monster sized blerg.)

After I got Ugly and the Beast out into the world, I did some post-publication stuff and then lost the gumption to do anything else.  Yesterday, I poked myself in the butt and got 2400 words out on Cinder Ugly.  More of that today definitely.

I did some minor marketing on FB.  Crickets.  Since publication, I've sold 1 whole book and 1 book through KU.  :shrug:  I'll keep working on CU and see what happens after the complete trilogy is published.  Couldn't hurt, eh?

I only read one book last week, but it was a good one.

In baking news, I did another batch of Incredible Chocolate Chunk Cookies - which chips instead of chunks this time.  And I made a chocolate oil cake yesterday with peanut butter frosting.  Yummers.  And I did a BBQ pork roast and turned it into pulled pork to rave reviews.

I think we figured out the slowness of our internet.  It wasn't the neighbors - all apologies to them for my wrongful accusations.  It was Owl, downloading games while she sleeps, which is while we're up and trying to do things online.  I asked her to keep her downloading to the weekends and our mornings have been fine until yesterday morning and this morning. 

My previously peeked columbine got big and bloomed.  It's red with a yellow center.  So pretty.  The white one that was doing fine last year died.  The black one is still going strong. 

Kira Kitty went to the vet, much to her dismay.  She's on the road to recovery.  Two days left of the antibiotics and she's breathing almost normally again.  And she pooped like a champion yesterday.  Yeah, it is strange that I get excited over whether a cat poops and how much she poops.  If you've ever had a geriatric cat, you understand.

Not much on the activity front last week.  I went fishing once and walked once.  Weight: 173.0.  Nine and a half pounds down for the year.  Yay.

The fishing was good.  I went out before dawn on Thursday and caught three undersized bass.  Almost caught a good-sized one, but it threw the lure.  C'est la vie.

Other than that, not much going on.  We're still all well, as are our families.

How's things with you?

Sunday Update - Week 17

First, let's get something out of the way.  Ugly and the Beast went live last night.  Any errors, flaws, gaffs, screw ups, etc. are entirely mine.  It's $2.99.  Sleeping Ugly is 99c right now here in the states and should be comparably priced elsewhere in the world.  And will be through the end of the month.

Yeah, so umm, last week.  Well, it was pretty much devoted to getting UatB out into the world, so loads of proofing and editing and formatting, etc.

If you stopped by yesterday, you'll see I didn't read much last week because of the above.

Since I was launching a new book, I had to update my spreadsheets to reflect a new book in the month of May, which was tedious to the max, but needed to be done.  It's done.  Which is good because I had my first sale last night, too.  (Umm, it was me.  I always buy a copy of my books when they release.)

I did get some exercise last week.  Unfortunately, I gained back some of the weight I lost, too.  I blame that on it also being the week for my shot.  I always gain weight right before I get my shot.  No biggie.

Today, I have to do all the after-pub things - updating blogs and Goodreads and Pinterest and backmatter.  I have to add the series info to Sleeping Ugly's Amazon listing, too.  And marketing!  Blerg.  I'd forgotten how much stuff is involved in a book launch.

In local news, there seems to be a whole new flock of free range guinea hens wandering the neighborhood.  They've taken to visiting our yard.  And they ARE the silly, noisy, rusty-windmill birds I've been hearing since the newish neighbors moved in last year.  :shrug:  They amuse me.

I don't think I baked anything of note last week.  The week is a blur.  I need cake.  Maybe today I'll make some.

So, what's been up with you?

Randomosity

It's Tuesday.  Yeah, I probably don't have to tell y'all that.  You're probably well aware.  Me?  I need a reminder from time to time.

Today the sale ends for Blink of an I and begins for Sleeping Ugly.  SU will be on sale through the end of Monday and the sale for the A Dennis Haggarty Mystery series will begin at midnight PST on Tuesday the 23rd.  That last one paid has advertising attached.  An ad will go out on Friday the 26th.  Fingers crossed.  I'll post more about the SU sale tomorrow on Outside the Box.

I'm back to work on Ugly and the Beast.  I have a page and a half of notes left to input, then I'll start all over again making new notes and fixing other things.  No promises about when it'll be available for publication, but at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel.  The long, long tunnel.  Actually, it's more like a rat hole, but there's a light.

Yesterday, I finished a book so damn good that I had to buy the sequel.  At full price, which ought to tell you something.  And I started reading it right away, which also ought to tell you something.  I almost never read books in a series back to back, but I couldn't help myself.  It's already delivering on the promise made by the first book.  If you're into fun and snarky urban fantasy, go forth and buy a copy of Necropolis by Shane Simmons.  I haven't been this excited about a new urban fantasy series since I picked up Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire.  There's only two books in this series right now, which will be fine if he wraps it up right.  :fingers crossed:

I'd like new readers to get excited about my books like that.  And, you know, write reviews so other readers can see how excited they are.

Well, I suppose I should get cracking and do something positive this morning.  This stuff isn't going to do itself.  Have a great day and I'll see y'all tomorrow.

Sunday Update - Week 10

Hello again.  This post is way later than usual because 1) I forget to schedule it, 2) I slept in for a change, 3) Daylight Savings Time began last night, so it's really just after 6am.

I did some pretty good work writing last week. I did just under 7K words over the course of the week.  And last night I finished the first draft.  It's sitting at a little over 54K words.  I have loads of editing to do, so that number will definitely rise. 

I also did a boatload of FB marketing for the Natural Causes sale.  I wish I could say I sold a bunch, but umm, no.  I probably would've done better if I wasn't promoting a Book 2 with only 2 Amazon reviews.  If you read indie author books, please review them.  Your reviews help with sales, they help with marketing, etc. The sale's still going on until Tuesday.

In reading news, I managed to finish two books last week - both of them on Friday.  I'm also most of the way through another.

For the active thing, I only got off my butt two days last week.  Wednesday and Thursday I went into the woods, raking trails and throwing some logs around.  About an hour each time.  It doesn't show on the scale, but it was good to get out there and the more I'm out there, the easier it is.  Climbing the hill afterwards isn't nearly the trial it used to be.

Yesterday, I made brownies.  Just my 'basic fudgy brownie' recipe, but oh, so good.  Which probably doesn't help with the whole weight loss thing.  :shrug:  Sometimes a girl just needs brownies.  I ate one, Hubs ate one.  Ten left.  Woohoo.

This coming week, I'll start the editing process on UatB.  And I'll do some of the cleaning I neglected while I was working.

Well, I can't think of anything else to say.  How was your last week?

Sunday Update - Week 37

Thirty-seven weeks into 2018.  What a ride.  And we're just about done with September.  How'd that happen?  Blerg.

Okay, so anyway, here's how the week went for me:

I rolled over 32K words on Ugly and the Beast.  Not dreadful, but also not awesome since I'd planned to be just about done with this sucker by the end of September.  It doesn't look like it's working out that way.  Those days I did manage to write, I'd type furiously until I was pretty sure I had a few thousand words out, only to discover I'd barely done a thousand.  Which is kinda disheartening.

Friday, my Createspace letter finally came and I transferred all my paperbacks over to Amazon.  More on that tomorrow at Outside the Box

Then Friday, I spent some drudge time working on my back matter and front matter for all my books.  More on that, too, tomorrow at Outside the Box.

On the activity front, I only managed to be active 4 days out of 7.  Wednesday-Friday I just couldn't muster the gumption.  I did manage to drop another two tenths of a pound, though.  I'm chalking it up to heavy-duty yardwork early in the week and managing to eat less than I was burning.

Let's see... What else went on?  I think I've already talked about the crock pot and the keyboard.

Oh, yeah, it finally rained yesterday.  We've been kinda dry here lately, so that was welcome.

We've been seeing some odd birds lately.  It's migration time again, so it's not surprising.  But a couple of them were birds I'd never seen before - a male and a female of what I think are black-throated green warblers.  Cute little buggers.

Speaking of birds, we had a hummingbird ditch into the picture window.  I looked out the window and was pretty sure he was laying there with a broken neck - head all cocked to one side with his wings akimbo.  I went out to give comfort in his last minutes, but he wasn't broken.  YAY!  He just needed some tender love and care for a few minutes.  Then he flew away to the redbud and sat there for a while.  He finally flew off.  All is well.

And that's enough out of me today.  What's going on in your world?

Ideas and Problems that Aren't Problems, Per Se

I'm back to writing again.  Ugly and the Beast is making strides.  Not great ones.  I'm averaging about a thousand words a day.  But I am striding.

It's all good, except I have a problem... Well, not a problem per se... The ideas are flowing at me fast and furious, but my hands aren't keeping up.  I type pretty fast, but I can't do it for long stretches at a time.

You see,, I'm out of practice.  I haven't done a writing marathon in quite a while and the ol' hand muscles are atrophied.  So my old pace of 1500 words an hour is down to 800-1000 and I can only get about an hour in before things start to crap out.

Not complaining, mind you.  I know several writers who are worse off than me physically and still manage to write.  I'm just explaining.

As for the ideas... OMG, flowing so fast.  I'm keeping them all on a notepad beside my ashtray.  As I complete one, I cross it off, but new ideas are getting added faster than I can cross them off.

I know, I know... I should have such problems all the time.  Again, not complaining so much as explaining.  It's all good... as long as I can get the ideas down and don't lose them before I can write them.  And as long as I write them down well enough to I know what I mean later.  (Cuz, yeah, that's a problem, too.  Going back later only to ask myself 'what the hell did I mean here?' is a thing.)

And I'm writing these scenes in a kind of bare bones way.  Thank goodness for editing.  Get the scenes down and flesh them out later.

But I am writing.  Which is a good thing.  Writing new words is awesome.  They may not be the best words right now, but they're the framework and I can rebuild them later.  I do have the technology.  Better, stronger, faster... Ahem.

Ah, the life of a writer.