The year of writing dangerously continues!

I finished Nick of Time!  It’s done, it’s had a couple of re-writes, and it’s off to the editor.  Once I get it back and make corrections, it’s next up at Kindle Scout.  I found out in the re-writing stage I’m doing better at not writing the word “that” all the time.  I still do it far too much, and had to have a “that” hunt to eradicate most of them.  However, instead of having well over a thousand “that’s” in a 66k manuscript, I only had around 700.  Now the total is under 200, and I’m happy.

It’s my dialect.  Folks around here must say the word “that” a million times a day, and since my writing style is very conversational, they creep into my work on quiet little mouse feet.  Then I search through and kill them off.  I’m hoping to write less and less of them with each project.

I’m very pleased with Nick.  It’s lovely to get back into genres I have a far better feel for.  I enjoyed my romance projects, but I have to say romance writing doesn’t come naturally to me.  Give me a bit of mystery with some paranormal elements and I’m all set!  I’m a little sad about it.  I love reading a good romance, especially ones with paranormal bits, but it doesn’t flow as easily when I write it.

Now, as far as Nick of Time goes, it was big fun to write and I think it will be fun to read as well.  I really dig this book!

Teatime of the Living Dead is nearing its debut! I’m excited and nervous all at the same time.  I’ve got some early readers who plan to do reviews, and I’m doing a paid promotion for the first time.  Author Shout has a package that’s very reasonably priced, so I’m going to give it a try and see how much it influences sales.  They are not one of the major players in book promotion, but let’s face it, I cannot afford a Bookbub right now.  Author Shout has done great work for me with my Kindle Scout campaigns.  I’m looking forward to what they can do with my book.

My plan was always to wait until the third novel was published before I did any paid advertising.  Teatime is number three, and it’s also one of my best written books to date, so some advertising is a good idea.  I’d like to do some AMS ads and such, but I think I’ll have to wait a bit before trying that.  My smallish ads budget, at least for this month, is going to Author Shout.  I’ve used them before and I’m looking forward to it.

Teatime will have its big debut on May 9th, so be sure to check it out!  Once I have some paperback copies available, I’ll do a giveaway on my Facebook author page as well.

The writing news I’m most excited about is that I’m ready to do a re-write on Ghost in the Park.  This was the first novel I wrote after leaving fanficdom, and it remains my favorite.  While my sweetie Brian enjoys all my work, this one is by far his favorite.  He says it’s the best thing I’ve ever written.  It needs a light re-write, as I’ve learned a few things since I wrote it.  I need to do some “that” killing for certain, lol.  But honestly, it doesn’t require much work before it’s ready to go.  The best thing about starting in fanficdom was I was there long enough to develop my writing style and voice.  I really only have a few grammar oddities to fix, and then Ghost will be ready to roll.

Ghost in the Park is book one in a series, and I’ve been waiting to write book two for ages.  I was going to finish Crucible Station first, but I can’t wait any longer.  I love the Ghost series, and it’s high time I got to it.  What stopped me before was trying to get a literary agent and be traditionally published.  It’s not a good idea to write a series while you are doing that, you have better chances with stand-alones.  Now that I have no such worries, it’s time for more ghost stories!

That’s all the news that is the news today.  Look for Teatime of the Living Dead on the 9th, and a Kindle Scout campaign for Nick of Time coming soon.