novels of suspense, romance and intrigue
Three of my suspense novels are now available as audiobooks with virtual voice narration, allowing listeners to experience the stories in an innovative and accessible format. Latest releases include "Strangers on This Road," "Unrecovered," and "Down an Unknown Road," with more titles coming soon.
Kindle Direct Publishing recently launched virtual voice audiobooks, allowing creators to pick voices and modify settings. I spent many hours working with "Evelyn," my virtual narrator, and while it's not perfect, it could be a great solution for independent authors to publish audiobooks.
I didn't actually intend to publish under a pen name. But it felt right, to have my previous name become a fictional one, a pseudonym, as a new era in my life began. I didn't consider not continuing to publish under it. The pen name that I continue to use is one that I made mine.
Some of my favorite fiction authors are unapologetically genre-defying. It isn't necessarily why I like them, but I appreciate that they didn't allow or aren't allowing themselves to be confined to one category.
We need the fallow times as well as the creative and inspired, the down days as well as the up and energized. And everything in between.
I'm currently reading a mystery about authors by arguably one of the most well-known novelists in the world, J.K. Rowling, writing as Robert Galbraith. I'm finding Rowling's commentary about the publishing industry, about writers and writing, an interesting subtext to the story, given her unique perspective in that regard. One fictional author is successful and… Continue reading What Makes a Book Good?
I feel like many authors would agree that dialogue is both a joy and a little bit of a nuisance to write. Conversations are such critical elements in fiction, allowing the characters to meet, interact, develop, perform, discover and figure out. For all the incredibly eloquent descriptions we might pour onto a page, for all… Continue reading The Delights and Challenges of Dialogue
"Pivoting" is one of those buzzwords you hear a lot lately, along with "new normal," "reinventing" and "intentional". They start to mean less the more you hear them, to the point that my partner and I snarkily joke how "intentional" we're going to be about various things, like laundry or picking up the dog poop… Continue reading Pivoting, Reinventing, Revisiting… Rinse and Repeat
These are slow times in my marketing and writing, as I work through editing a manuscript and feel less than inspired to think of ways to publicize my work on social media or to set up new deals or promotions. Both inwardly (creatively) and outwardly (outreach to readers), I'm in a down cycle. Editing always… Continue reading The Slow Slogging Days
It's been an incredibly strange time for all of us, strange and complicated and challenging, defined by fear, uncertainty, isolation, unity, unexpected blessings and unplanned burdens. In the first month or so of shelter in place, I found it difficult to get my scattered thoughts down in my journal, much less to work on any… Continue reading A Row of Books
Toward the end of 2019, I got really productive and finished two first drafts, which was gratifying, and then started editing them, which is painstaking, and began to think about marketing, which is downright painful. And now here I am, writing a post to remind myself why this part needs to happen. After I came… Continue reading Inspiration vs. Motivation
I’d like to think that the books I write definitely work as binge-by-the-pool kind of reads, which aren’t necessarily light (though they can be) or long (though they can be), but are stories that for whatever reason draw you in, and allow you to read and read and read without becoming emotionally drained or bored or devastated. In a word, to binge.
After a December and January of intensive book marketing and back-to-back paperback releases, I fell back, somewhat exhausted, into my safe, familiar routine of writing and editing. The only downside to being an indie author, as far as I'm concerned, is that unless you hire professionals, you have to be your own marketing team and… Continue reading Inspiration from an Unexpected Place
It's a big learning curve for indie authors, doing most if not all of this on our own. Those of us who are savvy with social media—and that does NOT include me—have a big advantage in today's market, but it's only one element to book promotion.
In addition to the pleasure my books have given me, the experience has been something of a revelation. It occurred to me yesterday that I have reason to feel confident about my work. Reason to believe in my own product. I've been proud of myself for completing them, but didn't consider their intrinsic value beyond what they mean to me personally.
Just this past Wednesday, I finished writing my latest novel. I've talked before about what a high it is to finish, and this week that was an especial treat, since my day job threw some interesting (code for "yucky and upsetting") curve balls my way. Day jobs have a tendency to do that, and it… Continue reading A New Direction
This past weekend, I spent some time going through bins full of old papers, a mess of things that included elementary school projects, photo albums, college essays and design work from my late 20s. A lot of it could be tossed, some I reorganized and stored until the next time I decide to go through… Continue reading “Also, I hope to be writing a few books”
One of my favorite things about writing a series is the fact that characters can come and go throughout, even as I have the opportunity to create new people. I begin each book with an idea of the story I want to tell, and from there the characters either introduce themselves or step forward out… Continue reading The Characters in a Series
Before I began to write the first book in my series (not my first book, which wasn't much good), I'd taken a lot of time to think about why I really wanted to do this. What did I want to write—and why? Did I hope for fame? Fortune? Prizes in literature? Bestseller lists? A big display in Barnes and Noble?
Writing can be a lonely and discouraging experience at times. Those inescapable dark days when we feel like we'll never amount to anything and can't write worth a damn (even though we know it's our lying, double-crossing internal doubter talking), or when someone, even kindly, manages in word or action to dismiss or diminish what… Continue reading The Very Best Days
