novels of suspense, romance and intrigue
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.
Emily Senecal's new novel, "Unrecovered," kicks off a suspenseful series featuring art historian Katie Evans. After an unexpected job offer, she joins a team in Paris to recover lost art and antiquities. A suspicious burglary plunges her and her new colleagues into a tangled conspiracy of lies, secrets and betrayal.
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?
Now rescheduled for Oct. 13, 2021, the 9th Annual Gifting Grandmas' Authors' Luncheon I'm excited and gratified to share that I've been invited to speak at the Gifting Grandmas' Authors' Luncheon benefiting the Sacramento Children's Home Crisis Nursery. This is a fantastic opportunity to support an organization I believe in, and to share my thoughts… Continue reading Talking About Books
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
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
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”
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?
I think you could safely call it a slump. It's a nice descriptive word, slump. It sounds like what it is. Lately I've been somewhat underwhelmed with myself as an author, besieged by doubts. Who did I think I was, that I could really do this? At some point someone will catch onto the fact… Continue reading The Downsides of Writing: Underwhelm and Self-Doubt
Last night I was invited to give a talk about writing to a women's group, which was an honor and a pleasure. I so appreciate the attention and interest of those 25 women, who asked such intelligent questions and so generously celebrated my accomplishments. Following is the text of what I shared about myself. I’m… Continue reading Defining Who You Are as a Writer
The competitive publishing market highlights both benefits and challenges of traditional publishing versus self-publishing. While agents and publishers offer resources for success, many authors remain unpublished or face contract termination. Self-publishing is now affordable, allows for creative freedom, and provides full ownership of work and royalties, empowering authors to define their own success.
