We now return to your regularly scheduled program, for a day

I finally got a writing day today. I earned it by staying up late last night doing my critiques for tomorrow’s meeting.

I wasn’t overly productive and started my day washing the copper fountain pen I use at the paycheck job. I’ll fill it after it drys. Then I reviewed some cover sketches and put down a deposit. Fingers crossed to have The Cock of the South out by the end of September.

There are some pending reviews for my other works floating around out there. Private communications are that they’re going to be good. (Yay) If some of them show up, I’ve formulated a plan. I could give away a book per day leading up to The Cock of the South. I could do it anyway, but a stack of happy reviews makes it all look more enticing. I won’t do another long giveaway, but maybe one story per day (with a bit of promotion) would catch someone’s eye. That way they can choose the genre that most suits them and grab a freebie. (It’s all speculative fiction, folks. Some of it just speculates a little more than others.)

The only flaw in this plan is shoppers won’t have time to read them before The Cock of the South is available to purchase. It might lead to sales down the trail, but not necessarily on release day.

What do you readers and writers think? I haven’t done much promotion this summer and getting something new out there feels about like the right time. Would you do it if you were me?

My wife and I are leaving town Friday and taking some time for ourselves. If we see cool things I’m sure they’ll wind up getting blogged about. I may not catch every day this weekend, but U. S. readers should be out doing something else anyway. For my international audience you could…, I don’t know,… maybe read one of my books if you really miss me.

I downloaded another Harry Dresden novel to take with me. There won’t be much reading time, but some is inevitable. I’ve been reading a lot of indie authors this year. (I’m no hypocrite) I always liked Harry, and this doesn’t mean I can’t have the best of both worlds.

My writing today involved introducing my heroine. I spent more time on description and setting than I usually do. (According to my sources, this is a good thing for me.) I feel like I can take time here, because there are already stress points from the villain, the antihero thug, and the victim. Part of this section involves a spooky old house and it needs some description to really sell it. The next chance I have, someone’s going to die and that always keeps pages turning. (Someone died today too, but it was pretty peaceful.)

I’m sure it’s full of telling and typos. It’s impossible to fix something that doesn’t exist. My attitude is to get it on the page and go back through it after a day or two. As of right now, I’m at 10,098 words. That makes 2644 on the day; not horrible.

Let me know what you think about the promotion idea.

What to do? What to do?

Okay, so Wild Concept isn’t exactly setting the world on fire. I have no idea what I’m doing, but doing something crappy is the first step to doing it well. Tally HO!

I have to set up an Amazon author page. I’ll add that to the list.

I know positive reviews are a good thing. I won’t pay for one, because I think that’s unethical. If there is a service I should know about, please say so in the comments. Sounds like I need to research; another item for the list.

I need to read more. Item #3.

I want to start my St. Patrick’s Day beer tour at Old Chicago, because I need a shamrock shirt.

Two new movies look interesting. I can probably catch one of them.

Most of my writing will probably be in the form of blogging. I have several topics to touch upon. I’m off Monday, and might manage a few lines of new fiction.

If the weather cooperates, I have some fruit trees that need pruning.

I need to get to my critique group pages. I have them all, I just need to read them and mark them up.

Then there’s my uber cool new fountain pen. It reminds me so much of my last story called The Cock of the South. I wonder if Amazon will accept that name? I filled it with ink called Bad Black Moccasin.

Right now it’s Olympic speed skating and fountain pen. After that, I’ll work on the list.

I used to do promotions in the analog world. I’m open to suggestions in the digital age. Let me hear from you.