Off to work I go...

The longer I'm in the writing business, the more I see how much hard work it takes to stay on top of things. If you're indie published, you are running your own company and you have a dozen hats to wear. Marketing, Cover Art, Scheduling, Editing, Social Networking, etc. etc. etc.

And then there's fixing the occasional computer glitch (IT Department). Ugh. I won't go into the gory details of the fight I had with Word yesterday.

I have a feeling that even if I could stay at home full time, there still wouldn't be enough hours in the day. But it's a fun life. I'm not complaining. Much.

It's just that what has dawned on me recently is that you can end up using all the business tasks you have to get done to fall into that nasty writer habit of NOT writing. Avoiding your WIP. Procrastination. Writer's block. Whatever name you give it.

And that's not a good thing when writing for a living is your goal(!). In fact it's scarier than The Walking Dead. (Had to throw in a Halloween twist.)

But I've found a solution for that dilemma. At least for its current incarnation. It's Dean Wesley Smith's Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing.  

Dean Wesley Smith's has a resume as long as my arm. Probably as long as his arm (he looks a lot bigger than me). He's been an editor, a publisher. He's written comic books, the Star Trek books, and over 90 novels. This man knows how to write fast. (Oh, he's also the husband of the fabulous Kristine Kathryn Rusch.)

His recommended method is controversial and contrary to most advise I've heard. In his chapters on Rewriting, he says to write without revising and send out your work or self-publish it, and go on to the next project. Say what??? No revising??? Well, he means his definition of revising. You can revise, but it has to be in "creative voice." You can't critique yourself like a high school English teacher and expect to come up with something new and different, he says. In a weird kind of way, it makes sense.

But what I learned the most about myself from his post is that I'm a cycler. I do go back and "fix things," as he calls it, and add new stuff as I think of it. And that has gotten me working on my new WIP. It's gotten me writing again after being off for more than a month. This week I wrote almost 7,000 words. Just in time for NaNo.

So thank you, Dean Wesley Smith! Right now, I think I owe you my sanity. If you're a writer, check out his posts and see what you think. If you're a reader, he's got a ton of short stories available.

Now excuse me, I've got to go write. :)

The Idea for "The Clever Detective" Series

Cleverest of Them All is the third book in a series I’ve dubbed “The Clever Detective,” which is the same title as the first book. Some readers have wondered about that name, so I thought I’d explain it.

The first story came about when my then blog sister Nicky Salcedo invited the members of the Petit Fours and Hot Tamales blog group to write a contemporized fairy tale. Since I like both romance and mysteries stories, I decided to combine the genres in my yarn.

While searching for a fable to base my story on, I discovered lists of fairy tales with names like “The Clever Little Tailor,” or “The Clever Tinker,” or “Clever Hans.”

These titles evoked memories from my childhood of stories about a poor man who was challenged by a king to perform some impossible task such as find a pot of gold, kill a bear, or slay a dragon. When the hero performed the task by reason of his wit, he was rewarded with the King’s beautiful daughter’s hand in marriage.

So I did a spin on this idea.

Instead of a tailor or tinker, I decided on a hard-boiled detective. A female hard-boiled detective. The King’s dilemma was that his son (a.k.a. the Handsome Prince) had gone missing. The hard-boiled female detective’s challenge was to find him.

Thus was born Stacey Alexander.

Once Stacey found Prince Chad in the first story, I realized the adventures had to continue, so I followed with Clever is as Clever Does and now the third book, which is novella length (the equivalent of about 70 printed pages) Cleverest of Them All.

In this story, Chad gets a taste of Stacey’s world, though that doesn’t work out so well for either of them. You can check them all out on Amazon or Smashwords.

Happy Reading!
Linsey

Shamelessly Plagiarizing (Plugging) Kristen Lamb

Not that she needs it…

Kristen Lamb is my new hero. I heard about her and her social marketing book for writers, We Are Not Alone (WANA) on a Bob Mayer online course I recently took (Bob is not too shabby either).

As soon as I bought the book, the buzz started. Or maybe it had already started and I just noticed it. Kristen Lamb this, Kristen Lamb that. Suddenly everyone was talking about Kristen Lamb. And it's no wonder. We Are Not Alone is awesome.

For maybe a year or two (or three) now, I've been baffled by Facebook and Twitter, wondering what I was supposed to do with them and how they could possibly help me my writing career. In WANA, Kristen explains everything I needed to know in an entertaining style that makes it painless and fun.

I was so taken by her approach to social networking, that when Tamara LeBlanc mentioned Kristen's blog, I had to stop by.

So much good stuff!

One of the funniest articles Kristen has written is called, Twitter Tuesday–Twintroverts & Twextroverts.

In this article (as elsewhere), Kristen declares herself to be an ENFP (Extroverted Intuitive Feeling Perceiver). Maybe that's why I connect with her. I am an INFP (Introverted Intuitive Feeling Perceiver). So close and yet so far.

I won't go into the NFP part, but I must say that I am most definitely a Twintorvert and have been mystwified and even twerrified of Twitter (sorry, Kristen’s post does that to you) for a long time.

Kristen claims, “The beauty of Twitter is that human interaction is on YOUR terms, and I find that often transforms the shyest introvert into a wild Twitter party animal.” I don't know about that.

Remembered the beast in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons? You know, the hairy monster that was so scary until he looked into the camera and said, "People? Awwwww!” And then he ran away and hid?

That's me. Well, I hope not the hairy monster part.

And yet, I need human interaction. Don't we all? The good part is that I've always been better at expressing myself in written form than face-to-face.

So after reading WANA, I held my breath, signed up, logged in, and began socializing with my new friends. And it wasn't that bad. In fact, it was downright fun. It's great reading about everyone's doings, giving encouragement, drooling over pictures of the cutest pets in the world.

And now? I've fallen in love with Facebook, and often get sucked into its time warp. I've even done a bit of Twittering. But I find it hard to keep up both every day, what with writing projects, contests to enter, Petit Fours and Hot Tamales (my wonderful group blog) to keep up with, etc. etc. It isn't easy to carve out the time from the little slice of time I have.

In a recent post, Bob Mayer said the number one key to self publishing success is consistency. Thanks, Bob. Well, I guess he's right. But persistence can lead to consistency, can't it?

One thing we can all be consistent about is getting back up on our horse when we fall off. Whether that's the  social networking horse, or the writing every day horse, or the exercising horse, or any other personal or professional horse, uh, goal, we may have. It doesn't matter if we blunder once in awhile as long as we keep getting back in the game.

Kristen has convinced me that reaching out to others and building a community is well worth the time and effort.

Are you with me? If you are, take the social networking pledge.
Stand up, hold your hands in front of your heart and the sign of the hash tag (#), and repeat after me.

I solemnly swear to do my best to Tweet and Facebook and blog every day without fail. And if I miss a day, I will Tweet and Facebook and blog the next day. And the next after that. And the next after that. So help me, Google.

There's no going back now. Are you ready? Then get ready, get set, network!

Kindles, and eBooks, and Indies, oh my!

Everywhere I look these days, I hear something new about "The Digital Revolution." "Embrace it with excitement, not fear," Suzanne Brockmann advised at a recent GRW meeting where she was a guest speaker (and a fabulous one, I have to add.) I agree.

Since my last update on Smashwords, Barry Eisler has turned down a $500K advance to self-publish, Amanda Hocking has an offer for a $2 million contact with St. Martin's Press and movie rights, to boot, and J A Konrath is probably giggling to himself, saying "I told you so."

Me? Well, I haven't self-pubbed anything but my four FREE short stories on Smashwords. Right now, I'm working on a third book in The Clever Detective series, which will be longer, and delve into Stacey's character and background more. I'm thinking of pricing it at 99 cents.

Anyone have any thoughts on that? I'd love to hear what you think.

To give you an idea, here are my download numbers from last year, compared to now:

Downloads as of October 30, 2010

The West Wind Blows
Price: FREE
Downloads: 519

Careful What You Wish For
Price: FREE
Downloads: 311

The Clever Detective
Price: FREE
Downloads: 260

Downloads as of April 4, 2011

The West Wind Blows
4 stars
Price: FREE
Downloads: 1,269

Careful What You Wish For
3.33 stars
Price: FREE
Downloads: 629

The Clever Detective
4.5 stars
Price: FREE
Downloads: 1,399

Clever is as Clever Does
4.5 stars
Price: FREE
Downloads: 1,058

I'm not in Barry's or Amanda's class (yet!), but I'm just getting started. So far, I'm excited.

How do you feel about the digital revolution?