Thursday, November 26, 2015

Bingeing

First off HAPPY THANKSGIVING to folks in the US! For the rest of you, HAPPY THURSDAY!!

Okay, since it's a holiday, I won't bore you with a long blog. (Not to mention, I am officially WAY behind on NaNo and will be needing words for that, so can't spend them all here. ;))

But I'd like to briefly talk about a topic near and dear to many of us on this day-bingeing.

But, before you start hiding that third piece of pie, I'm not talking about food bingeing. Rather book bingeing.

I have a very dear friend who will not read ANY book series until it's done (pretty sure he still has unread copies of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series in his bookshelf). Now he has always been this way (at least as long as I've known him and that's well over 25 years) and he says it's because he doesn't want to get vested in a series, then have it never be completed. (And no, he has NOT read my books for that reason.)

But binge-reading just because is a past time for many. I have another dear friend who goes crazy when she finds a new-to-her author who has a backload of books in a series. I mean seriously CRAZY! She's also a power reader at times, so I think she figures 6-10 books is a "meal".

In  a way this also ties into the whole binge-watching folks do with TV. I personally can't do that beyond two eps at a time, but I will watch an ep a day for weeks to work through a beloved series. And I sort of do that with my favorite book series too. I'll just re-read the first book for nostalgia, then all of a sudden I'm pawing through my stacks looking for the rest of them. 

It's because we want the endorphin rush to continue. When you see a great movie, read an awesome book, eat a wonderful meal- you just want that feeling back- so you go for another, and another. Perhaps down the line their will be self-help books on how to get the "binge-" out of your life. But for now, it's part of our culture.

Luckily, books don't put on the pounds the way a box of chocolates or an entire pie will ;). And yes, having someone say they binge-read my books is a MAJOR goal of mine :).




Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Wild Horses

Okay, I'm in the midst on NaNo brain right now, so stick with me, it will be short and sweet (Because these are words that could be in the NaNo project! ARGH!).

Nano has taken over my head and story. It happens every year, and every year I start yelling in my head, "WHAT are you doing?!" and "Come back here!"

Every year, once things settle down, and I finish the story and start editing, I realize that it's okay, and a lot of great stuff actually came out of the madness. But at the time?

It is seriously like a team of wild horses (probably being egged on by some faeries with waaaaay too much booze in their tiny bodies) has taken the book reins in their mouths and are running with it. We are banking off walls, flying over slow moving pedestrians, it's MADNESS!

This probably doesn't happen to plotters, even during nano, and it really only happens on this scale when I am writing this fast, but wow! Some of my recent writing sessions have felt like I'm hanging on for dear life and trying to get those crazy horses back in control--and am losing horribly.

So what about you, NaNo or not- ever have this feeling? When?

Good luck to us all!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

IWSG# I'm insecure, how about you?



Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group day!  Yup, once a month a bunch of writers all post our fears, hopes, dreams, screaming-mimi's-that-wake-you-up-in-the-middle-of the-night-that-cause-you-to-eat-things-you-will-regret-in-the-morning- that sort of thing.

JOIN US! http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/

So I thought about what to post today, and thought I'd keep it short and sweet- I'm freaked out and insecure.

Yup.

Big time.

I LOVE writing (most of the time anyway ;)). I love jumping in and finding out what will happen to my characters, who they'll meet, what will blow up in their faces. I love having written. Reading a chapter and thinking, "Damn!  That was fun!"

It's all the other stuff that freaks me out.  Marketing, promo, blah,blah,blah. I'm on a lot of writing groups on Face Book including a few business oriented ones. One of them consistently freaks me out.

The guy behind it really seems to know what he's talking about, but when people are flinging around terms ROI, AMMY, etc- I run away screaming and pretty much figure my poor little drunken faeries are just going to go on being under-exposed.

Being Independent is great in many ways, exposure and marketing are not two of them.

So, on this Insecure Writer's day, I sit here being very insecure about my ability to get the word out about my books, without having a screaming fit and breakdown.

How about you? Love promo? Hate it? Want to shove it in a dark closet until it promises to be nice?

;)

Happy IWSG day!!!

Monday, November 2, 2015

Win The Obsidian Chimera!!!

Okay folks, if you came here to the blogstead, you probably already saw the widget to go enter. But If you get my blog posts via email- you would have no idea!

Until November 9th- there is a giveaway being run on Goodreads to win a signed copy of The Obsidian Chimera!  Pretty much ALL countries are able to enter!

Tell your friends!

You can go find it on Goodreads, or here on the blog, just follow the magic widget.

Happy Monday!