Field trip and a bit of luck

My paycheck job sent me to Idaho Falls for a couple of days. We avoid work related topics, but it puts a damper on my blogging ability. That’s the main point here.

Fortunately for me, two of my guest appearances posted while I was absent. That allowed me to keep some fresh content on my site, and I managed to deal with comments after hours. I think I answered everyone, but I’m going to surf back through the host sites to make sure after this goes live.

I have things to do today. (I always have things to do.) I’ve just come up against a wall of “I don’t wanna.” A big part of this involves driving, hotels, and all the rest of it. Driving across Idaho is not like driving across Vermont. It takes about five hours to drive across Idaho, and I did it twice. Bonus though, I got to see about 200 antelope, and one really nice mule deer buck. I also saw an elk rack that did not fit completely in the bed of a pickup truck. I know we’re all supposed to hate hunting and everyone that partakes, but I do not. It was impressive, and that was one of the biggest racks I’ve ever seen. If the rest of him was that big, someone is going to need a bigger deep freeze.

I’m going to have to sacrifice most of my planned word count for now. The stuff I need to do involves commitments to other author friends. I’m not going to let them down. There is one small bit of critique work I have to get to. Thank God for my Apple Pencil, and its new ability to work with Pages, my word processor. This speeds things up a bunch over the old redline versions.

I have two Lisa Burton interviews to work on. One has returned his questionnaire, and I’ll address it soon. The other is in a holding pattern until I get the questionnaire back. Still, it’s good to know there will be more “broadcasts” from Lisa’s trailer in the woods.

Yesterday was payday too. This means we might pull off a date night tonight. Old Chicago Pizza sounds good, but there is a BSU game tonight. Both things are good, but sometimes it means the place is SRO. Never know if we don’t try. I can be content with the MLB playoffs too, so I’m not picky as to whatever. We’ve talked about a backup plan that might involve a total absence of sports.

As a State employee, I get Monday off too (Thanks Columbus). Lower on my list is a cluster of critique pages of my own work. They aren’t going to spoil or anything, but if I get my commitments dealt with, I’d like to find time to slick up my own story.

It isn’t a huge list, and all of it is possible in three days. I just have to figure out how to deal with the “don’t wannas.”

Starting my weekend

I started off with a pretty short list, and dove right into it this morning. I didn’t finish everything, but I’m okay with that.

I have my Lisa Burton interview all scheduled for next week. For anyone that reads this, Lisa is getting a little think on candidates to interview. Now would be a good time to jump in if you’re thinking of doing some kind of Fall/Halloween push for your books.

I also wrote my last micro-fiction for the October event I call Macabre Macaroni. Then I went ahead and scheduled them all. They will post every Tuesday in October. These have traditionally been pretty fun, and I hope you enjoy this year’s selections.

Personally, I never know which ones are going to click with people. I have my favorites, but I’m always surprised. This year, I opened the first story with an almost Rod Serling kind of introduction. I also ended the last one with something similar. I doubt anyone will put the bookends together, because it’s going to take a month between these stories.

The only thing that’s left is to turn Lanternfish into a book. This means to add a title page, copyright data, and some end of book material. There is no rush here, I don’t even have all my Lisa Burton artwork yet.

So I did something relatively stupid. I started writing a new story. I haven’t even published Lanternfish yet, but I’m 2800 words into a new tale now.

This is supposed to be a relaxing journey into self improvement, but I’m on the verge of turning writing into a job.

Honestly, I enjoy drafting new material, so it looks like I didn’t make it to November, which was the mark on my calendar.

This one is kind of odd, because I don’t have a complete outline. I have a bunch of vignettes that I need to pull together into a plot somehow. This can work with a character driven story. It remains to be seen if I can pull it off.

It looks like I’m off to the races now. I have Saturday as a fairly productive day too. Sundays are more problematic, but it’s looking like a productive weekend.

It’s a Milestone

I was brought up to keep quiet about accomplishments. I’ve done that all my life, but it’s kind of counter-productive to all the promotion that comes with being an author.

We all work hard, and it seems like progress is slow. It is there, and it’s harder to observe, but it happens. I’ll walk you into my announcement.

Today was largely dedicated to Lisa Burton Radio. In fact, I accomplished nothing else. I assembled and scheduled two interviews. At one per week, I’m keeping ahead of the game. This is because I know what it feels like to fall behind.

I also sent another shtick out, with one more to go out tomorrow. This is the mid-point of the process. This is how I keep the line moving.

Somewhere along the way I spotted a number in my editor. Remember, this is WordPress we’re talking about here, so there is a bit of uncertainty. The number was 100. From what I can tell, there have been one-hundred episodes of Lisa Burton Radio.

I know it’s possible the number refers to one of the episodes I have scheduled, but that poses the question: When is it appropriate to celebrate?

I choose now.

I’ve worked hard to make these interviews into a going concern. The kind of place someone might seek out when promoting their fiction. I kind of feel like I’ve accomplished that.

This isn’t discounting the partnership with all of you. You folks have been wonderful to participate, to use the sharing buttons, and to actually buy the books being showcased. Thank you for all of that, and Lisa thanks you too.

I’ve gotten to work with some amazing authors, and I’ve learned a lot from you.

Thanks also to Sean Harrington, who revamped this image for me on very short notice. He’s been a godsend to me, and I look forward to many more years of working with him.

I’m not going to slack off, but for one night, maybe it’s time to have a glass of whiskey and take some small pleasure in one of the little things. Here’s to the next 100.

The weekend I expected.

I wanted to get some of the interviews started and out the door. I accomplished that much. I have a couple back that I can schedule, but since this week is already scheduled there is time to get to them. I have more to work on so I can keep the line moving.

We managed a moderate date night, but now I wish we hadn’t. There was an awesome cream stout involved though, and it was worth it.

The dogs got me up early, made even worse with the change to Daylight Savings time. We had a late breakfast, and a late lunch, on the new time schedule. Followed by an early dinner, and I feel bloated. I need to go to bed on the new time, but may need to let my stomach settle first.

I covered the bills this afternoon, but that’s about all. We have enough money for gasoline and beans for the nest two weeks if everything works out. How often does it actually work out around here? Kind of wish we’d skipped out on date night now. Except for that one beer.

This seems to be the new normal for us.

There really isn’t a lot of other news. I wrote interview stuff most of the weekend. It is my short weekend, so that will have to do. Back to the grind tomorrow, and 4:00 is going to come really early for a couple of days.

Hope those of you who deal with the time change adjust quickly. I usually do, and I appreciate the extra daylight once I get off work.

An Open Invitation

Let’s start this post by recycling this graphic:

Long time followers know what this is all about, but I’m going to write about it for the new folks out there. I use my original character, Lisa Burton, to host an imaginary radio show on this blog. Lisa Burton Radio interviews the fictional characters from your books.

These are a bit of a collaborative effort; whereby, I get your notes and create the shtick. You fill in the blanks where your character would interact with Lisa. These post on Thursdays.

I didn’t have a guest this week, but I’m set for next week. I must have a dozen of these interviews in the mail in various stages right now, but they aren’t getting finished for whatever reason. Some folks get halfway through the process, then simply disappear.

I generally work up the shtick over the weekend and send it to you. The following weekend, I assemble what you return and schedule the posts. With full time employment this system works for me.

The spot has proven to be quite popular, and I’ve been able to keep this going for nearly two years now. I’ve gotten emails about authors who sold books on the day of the post, and some who’ve seen fresh movement in older titles. LBR makes a good place to stop on a blog tour, or as part of a second effort. It works well in conjunction with discounts and free days for those who plan ahead.

Obviously, some posts perform better than others. Some depends on participation by the guest author, some depend on the book itself. For myself, I share them across a spectrum of social media sites, and many of my author friends do too.

Do you have a book that could use a kick in the pants? How about a new one making the rounds? Consider using your character as another way of marketing your book. This is what LBR is all about.

Please check out the Lisa Burton Radio category in the sidebar to see those who’ve gone before. It will give you a good idea of how the posts flow, and the inclusion of your covers, blurbs, bios, etc.

I traditionally hide my email address in the page dedicated to the interview process, but here is it for this post coldhand.boyack@gmail.com Drop me a line and let’s do this thing.

I’m going to ask you to use the sharing buttons today. I do this on the LBR posts, but I would like to spread this invitation around a bit for one of my own posts.

A new venue for authors

As authors, we are always looking for new ways to reach our readers. I was contacted by these two lovely ladies, through friends made on Lisa Burton Radio, to promote their startup on YouTube. Check out what they have to offer, and there are some pretty decent prizes available here too.

CraftQuest 2018 Launch

Co-Founders: Maria Tureaud & Ari Augustine

Motto: We are warriors of the written word.

This month, Maria Tureaud and I are launching CraftQuest, a LIVE YouTube webinar series for serious writers. We wanted to create the equivalent of The View for seriously determined writers willing to transform their failures into successes and want to “get shit done”.

Each month, CraftQuest will host between five to ten writers to chat about their unique writing lives, creative processes, and lessons learn from rejections. We will share tips, perform open critiques, and collaborate with other humans who want to improve their works in progress.

At its heart, CraftQuest is mostly about making connections with writers who understand how terrifyingly maddening writing can be and recognize the value and beauty each writer brings to the table as a literary artist.

We will pull the curtain back to reveal what it really takes to write a book.From the pre-research stage to the querying phase, we delve into our fears, lay bare our failures, discuss our projects, and shed light on the realities of writing life. CraftQuest is a place for us to use our bruises, cuts, and scrapes as weapons of motivation, and to address the flaws of our work in a constructive manner.

At CraftQuest, we are a “revolution of writers.” We share our passion, hunger, and drive to create the best versions of our work for publishing. We believe that together we are empowered to create fearlessly, encouraged to write authentically, and embraced for the uniqueness we bring to the publishing industry.

Episode one: The Art Of Making It All Up airs February 24th, 2018 at 5:00 pm EST.  Our guest speakers include: Vivien Reis, author/writertuber, and Justine Manzano and Megan Manzano from The Inkwell Council.

To kick off our launch, Maria is giving away three first pages critiques. I’ll be giving away one FREE download of Scrivener in February, March, and April. All entrants into the giveaways must be followers of our CraftQuest YouTube channel and our Twitter profile.

Maria Tureaud bio: 

Maria is one half Tolkien, one half Captain Kirk. She began writing fan fiction in high school, and hasn’t looked back since. With a passion for history, fantasy, romance, and sci-fi, she likes her heroes tough, and her heroines tougher. Blogger, Tweeter, and Writetuber, Maria is a co-founder of CraftQuest — writers helping writers. With a penchant for query writing, she strives to break down the doors, change the conversation, and hammer home the truth: a writer’s craft level determines their level of success. They are their own gatekeepers.

 

Ari Augustine bio:

Ari Augustine is an ENFP Type A personality who works as a freelance writer in Seattle, Washington. As a wearer of many hats, she graduated in 2017 with a degree in Science and is actively pursuing an English Literature degree alongside a certification in editing. In her spare time, Ari created Ravenous for Reads, a blog dedicated to the lifestyle of book lovers, and in 2018, she became co-founder of CraftQuest, a webinar series created to discuss the turbulent nature of writing. After growing up in foster care and struggling with Anxiety, she believes in taking risks and passionately diving into the art of writing. After all, life is too damn short to be doing anything, but the one thing that brings you happiness.

Social media links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/writecraftquest

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZMncuN-YLU-vsTySyQuBYA

Maria’s twitter – https://twitter.com/Maria_Tureaud

Ari’s twitter –  https://twitter.com/SouffleLumiere

Ari’s blog: http://www.ravenousforreads.com

Back in the swing of things

I went to work on Monday. I figured I could get more done at half speed by going to work than I could by staying at home. I ran out of gas about halfway through the afternoon, but that time got longer each day. I hit it hard all day today.

My cold doesn’t mean I was completely idle on the writing front. I sent out two copies of The Hat to beta readers. I also received beta feedback on my novel, The Yak Guy Project. In addition, I have two Lisa Burton Radio interviews to work on now, and several more inquiries.

Today started like any other; in the dark and covered by bulldogs.

Frankie is across my lap just below Otto in this image. (They love me.) Before I left for work, I received the first Lisa Burton promotional poster for The Hat. That gives me a cover and one poster.

By the time I got home, I already received one full beta workup on The Hat. I am so excited about the remarks here. It went over well, and I can’t wait to share it with you. Tonight, I sent off a lengthy email to Sean Harrington for the second promotional Lisa poster. I included a lot of photos this time, because it’s a big scene in the story being represented.

Looks like this weekend is all about editing either the novel or the novella. I also have some interviews to get to. No idea what kind of time I’m going to have, but it feels good to get back to full power.

A little bit behind

It's been trying around here. I usually get a small project finished in the evenings, but the house is chaos right now. If I open my blogging program, one of the puppies tries to mess on the floor. This requires me to jump up and address the problem. Then it usually requires me to play for fifteen minutes, darn it.

I have about three Lisa interviews to work on, and I must get one scheduled for next week. Puppies may be helpful in this regard. We've decided that one of us needs to stay with them, so we might be running individual errands for a while. With the arrival of nice weather, I can use the backyard furniture and slave away while the puppies get the run of the yard.

If I can get caught up on my commitments to others, I need to forge ahead on my reading. This is a commitment to a friend too, and this kind of task comes first.

Life won't work this well, but in a perfect world, I'll get to address my beta edits too. If I can catch up on the interviews and do some reading, I'll be content.

Our current situation also puts a damper on date night, but that's okay. There is a strong possibility that our daughter will babysit while we take a quick trip together next week. My fingers are crossed for that.

Otto has a little habit that we call poodle time. He likes to crawl up with me in the early mornings. With the arrival of his sisters, things are getting crowded. It's a lousy photo, but they had to move to the ottoman so everyone could fit.

Looks like a Bev Doolittle painting.

Been super busy

As a matter of fact, I could be mental. If not, I feel close and it woldn't take much to get me there. My paycheck job has kept me super busy. It's three weeks of craziness that seems to happen every year. It won't end until after next week.

I worked my personal slate clean ahead of time. I even burned some vacation time to get it all done. Now my personal life is falling behind again. That means blogging, reading, writing, and all the peripheral activities that go with it.

My blog stats are down, Lisa's Facebook site is stagnant, and my FB page isn't much better.

I have half of a Lisa Burton Radio post finished, but there is more to do. I have about a quarter of another one. I just need to find time to work on them. This will have to be a priority over the weekend. If you've been cursing me in private, I will get the projects up to date this weekend.

There is a cool Lisa interview scheduled tomorrow, so that will help me out a bit. Gotta love the scheduler option in WordPress. If I get everything done, I'll be two weeks ahead. That means Lisa needs more guests if you're of a mind.

One awesome beta reader turned The Enhanced League project around in about six hours. She made some outstanding comments and suggestions. I feel like a slacker right now. I want to dive right into the modifications, but it makes more sense to get a few more reports before I work through it all. It's a good enough reason to put it off for a while.

I still need to update my banner image, but at least I got the wallpaper changed. I really need to get back on social media too. My footprint doesn't amount to much over the last two weeks. I'm sure this can change, but I need to address it.

Everything will get done, I'm certain of it. I just have to make time for everything life throws at me for a few weeks. I kind of know how a ping pong ball feels right now. In my personal life, I like to work on projects in some kind of order. Lately everything is shuffled together, but I think progress is happening.

On the good side, early reports for The Enhanced League are positive. Actually, they're awesome. Lisa's show is scheduled for tomorrow, and the subsequent interviews are partially done. The Lisa promotional posters for Enhanced League are looking awesome too.

Harmony Kent has an awesome tool for us over at Story Empire today. This post kicked my Muse in the pants, and I got a cool new idea. I even wrote it down so I don't forget. (Bonus!) I was also invited to contribute to another anthology dedicated to time travel. I've never written a time travel story before, and I already have a cool creepy new idea for it. It just needs some serious daydreaming time before I start writing it.

This weekend I'll work on the Lisa interviews, maybe apply a bit of triage to my social media accounts, get that banner updated, schedule my next Story Empire post, and write a new one for Chris Graham. If I accomplish any more than that, it will be gravy.

It sounds like a plan. If I'm lucky, it will carry me through the 12th. On the 13th we get to pick up Frankie and bring her to her forever home. I'm pretty excited about that part.

Welcome October

I love October. I've been bouncing around in cyberspace and may have said that a few other places. This month, I'm going to be hitting promotion hard. The last two weeks of September I had time to take on even more stuff. I spent it filling out forms, answering interview questions, etc.

I'm going to miss that September wallpaper though. Let's take one last look at Lisa goofing off with the rocket-pack before we retire it completely.

I found a cool image of bats flying in front of a full moon to use this month, but another of my blog friends is using the exact same image. How about some pumpkins. If I find something else, I may change it again.

I also went back to the Will O' the Wisp banner image for a while. That's an October story, and fits with the overall theme. If I find a cool monster, maybe I can shoehorn it into the Moai graphic somehow.

I filled out another interview sheet, and sent out a final proof for this week's Lisa Burton Radio before I decided to write this. Basically, I've been sending out excerpts, covers, reading copies and such for weeks.

Will it all work? I have no idea, but I intend to meet some new people this month. The basic idea is that I have three novels that might qualify as Halloween reading. There are plenty of similar tales in the Experimental Notebooks too. What better time to try promoting them than right now.

My friends at Story Empire are banding together to push all of our paranormal tales in a massive blog tour (or two). I'm almost certain to post about it, but might not do it until next weekend.

I need to write and schedule my Monday and Tuesday posts this weekend. If I get the Lisa Burton Radio stuff in time, I will use the scheduler for that too. My paycheck job is sending me to Coeur d'Alene for a week, and blogging time will be limited. The scheduler is wonderful under those circumstances.

That will leave Wednesday open, and I might be able to post some pictures from CDA or something.

Some of the best things about this kind of promotion are the hosts themselves. Not everyone is open to hosting an author. I try to reblog the posts as a way of supporting them. An enterprising author might visit them too, just to make the connection. It might even be worth adding a note or two to any living documents you keep about bloggers willing to host authors. Then when you need them, you'll have a starting place.

Most of this promotion stuff involves work in advance. After sending the kit out, all that remains is participating in the comments and sharing across social media. By hitting it hard in September, and the first parts of October, I may be able to coast a bit in the second half of the month.

It's still early yet, and I can take on a few more projects as long as they're small. If you need to fill slots on an October themed event, or are opening up some paranormal slots keep me in mind. I'm willing to return the favor and host people here too. My preferred method is Lisa Burton Radio, but I've hosted cover reveals and such too.