My Secret Weapon for 2022 - Plottr

I've always been a pantser. I'd get an idea for a story, see the end or the main point in my head and off I'd go writing myself in and out of corners until I lurched to the finish line. 

The "finish" line was followed by weeks of (hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing) editing until I could declare the book complete or too stupid to live. 

My process was long, tedious and increasingly joyless. Worst of all, it did not result in book that was as tight as I would have liked it to be because I was exhausted and hated the thing by the end. 

There has to be a better way, right? Well, there is. It is called drafting an outline which is something normal people do. I've tried to nail that sucker down for years without success. The act of writing an outline to write only led to me hating my story faster. 

I can't even remember when I heard about Plottr or where, but on impulse I signed up for the online demo of the software. I am cheap. Some might even say stingy. I am immune to impulse buying or sales pitches. But I loved the demo. I could see instantly how this program could work for me. I could play with it, I could manipulate it to work the way my brain works. Sometimes I plot very tightly with it. Sometimes I follow one of the templates. Sometimes I use it for the timeline to shift scenes where I need them to be. I can see how the story is progressing in each box where I jot down everything from dialogue to clothing to weather.

The random bits that flesh out a scene get plugged into Plottr and make writing faster, easier and stronger. Less editing, less time wasted hunting around for where I put what. My daily word count went from an exhausting 2K day to a relaxed 5K a day.

I'm not sure how it does what it does. It's visual so that's a huge help when you're trying to figure out what comes next. It's also liberating because it's easy to plug in the bits that come to me and dump them if they're not working. I can move stuff around. It's not set in stone. There's room for some pantsing but I get a look at the dead ends before I start writing. I waste less time and brain energy when I'm cranking out the words. 

To make a living in self-publishing, we have to produce and Plottr is my secret weapon to amp up production. I have five books planned and instead of feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, I have this cool little tool at my side to get the stories out. 

If you are interested and want to check it out for yourself go to www.plottr.com. There is a rate for a lifetime license which is what I bought. The service is excellent. The thing works. 

Books2Read Universal Link and the Independent Publisher

I am an independent publisher. I also write but because I manage four pen names, one imprint, two blogs and forty titles, I am considered an independent publisher. I use Smashwords, Kindle Direct Publishing and Draft2Digital to get the titles into the world. I use CreateSpace for printing and print distribution. After twenty years of trying to make a living at writing, these service providers have made it possible for me to actually make a living at writing. Whoo hoo!

You'll notice I've changed the sales links to the titles on this blog from individual ebook retailers to one link per title: Books2Read Universal Link. ( https://www.books2read.com/ ) 

This amazing little tool was developed by Draft2Digital for authors and book-buyers to streamline the shopping process. Instead of half-a-dozen links (that I may or may not get right) I only have to provide one. 

1) The book-buyer clicks on the link and is taken to a landing page for that book where all the stores that carry the book are listed with logos readily identifying each  store. Cool!

2) Book-buyer chooses store he or she likes, clicks and boom--there you are on the product page. Read the blurb, mull over the price and buy. Swell! 

3) The buyer is prompted to request the same store for future purchases. Nice!

I like stuff to be as uncomplicated as possible. Shopping online is very difficult for me so anything like this helps cut out the clutter and I don't feel pushed or hassled into looking at a bunch of stuff I don't want.

Draft2Digital did not charge me as a publisher for this new tool. These savvy ebook distributors are quietly remapping the publishing industry one book sale at a time.

Smashwords is another forward-thinking distributor that also has a hopping book store. They sell in all formats, retailer direct, give an outstanding royalty to the author, host author pages, giveaways and work with libraries to promote independent titles. They are super international and have a free section to sample new authors. No pop-ups or advertising or spam emails--just books in all genres at great prices.

Check them out:   Smashwords Book Store

Hey! Happy Reading!

Kindle Unlimited and Me

I would've titled this post Kindle Unlimited and the Indie Author but every author's experience is different. Our books are different, our marketing skills are different---it gets really boring itemizing how different we all are. We're so hung up on trying to find commonalities when we share information that we can't see the forest for the trees.

Here is the forest:

Amazon is a book retailer. They also publish their own imprints. They're also a mechanism by which authors can self-publish their work direct to Kindle ereaders. They sell the devices as well as the books to read on the devices. They also offer subscription-based access to all books enrolled in Kindle Direct Publishing Select. They have margins.

Here are the trees:

The independent authors who have enrolled their books in Select. They give Zon an amazingly diverse catalogue to hook Kindle Unlimited subscribers and Zon gives them a platform with which to reach readers. Sure, almost everyone wants the blockbuster novels, but indie offerings are the "added value" component of the whole forest. The authors also have margins.

It's a happy, balanced ecosystem until Amazon has to increase its margins and then the authors inside the forest get squeezed. We felt the Amazonian boa constrictor squeeze this week when the KENP formula was changed and the value of our books decreased by about 60 pages. KENP stands for Kindle Edition Normalized Pages. Authors in Select are paid 0.0046 per KENP read. If Mary Sue borrowed my riveting mystery, Iced Under (511 KENP) in January, I would have been paid a $2.35 royalty. Now, I would be paid $2.07. The royalty on a sale is approx. $2.79.

Not too shabby, right? What's 72 cents among friends. And besides, isn't the idea we'll get readers borrowing our books and make a bit of money on the side? Hey, I drank the Kool-aid, I'm not judging.

The kicker is we have to promote and compete to get borrows with exactly the same zeal and expense that we have to promote to get sales. Time and money margins. Only these are not sales and your book is only available in one store, not four (or five if you count Google Play and I don't). And then you open your reports page and whoa nelly! You are down by a sum that you did not see coming.

Okay, so we've been "normalized" after not being normal. Or something. I was all in with Kindle Unlimited until I realized I wasn't building a sales record. I was knocking myself out to get borrows. Borrows are lovely when they're in a library and somebody--somewhere--has already paid for the book. But when you become dependent on them for income, borrows are like living in your mom's basement. Every now and then she threatens to sell the house.

It's been said that KU has cannibalized sales. It's also been said that KU has helped sales. I have no data either way. In my experience, I worked like a dog to promote my novels last year and came out about $10 ahead each month that I was in Select versus wide. Other authors report dramatically different results.

The upshot of all this analysis is no two books are alike. Look at your own book and take your own market and margins into consideration when you're deciding to go exclusive or wide with all retailers. If all else fails, experiment. I liked the convenience of Select but I like getting sales in other markets a whole lot more. I like building a sales history. I like getting my $2.79 fair and square.

My margins are chubbier now too and I like a chubby margin.

Peace out.

A Writer's New Year's Resolutions

1. Write better books.

2. Get more exercise.

3. Write more books.

4. Make more money (anything above poverty level will do)

Resolution 4 used to top my list. Year after year, making money was my number one priority and year after year, it was never enough. I make more now than I did last year but at the expense of my body, emotional well-being and the joy of writing. So I'm ditching Resolution 4. 

Selling books is a crap shoot. Writers can spend years crafting novels and never make enough to pay the Hydro bill. Or they can spend 14 days writing a novel that lies there like a dead dog in August and never sells a copy. Or they can spend years working on craft and net thousands upon thousands of dollars from one book, or the exact same result could be achieved after a weekend of booze-induced scribbling. Total crap shoot.

I hereby resolve to ignore sales reports, do my best and let the money take care of itself. Sink or swim, the book is on its own. 

Next!

Resolution 1 and 3 can grow to like each other with steady, daily application to the word count. 200 words a day for 365 days equals one reasonably-sized book. 200 words is a walk in the park. For me and other writers, the demarcation between "good writing" and "cranking it out" is 2000 to 3000 words a day. 2K for me is a good day's work. A friendly, patient approach and good books will come in great quantity.

I resolve to write good books and more of them with daily dedicated application of 200 to 2000 words.

Which brings us to Resolution 2. All of us who sit in front of a computer for hours at a time need to stand up. Right now. I can see you. You're not standing. It has become life-threatening to sit for hours. (It probably always was but we're just learning about it.) I've restructured my office to allow me to stand and work. But that's not enough. Daily exercise outside improves just about everything.

I resolve to take a daily walk, which will help me stick to Resolution 1 and 3 and increase the odds of number 4 happening in my lifetime. 

I'll report back on December 31, 2016 (God and Blogger willing) on how my 2016 Resolutions panned out. Because that could be fun. Or not. We shall see!

Kindle Unlimited Royalty Structure - My Thoughts

Oh to live in a world where things stayed the same for more than a calendar year. Rapid change and publishing do not mix. As a writer on KBoards said: "This is why authors drink."

Amazon's KDP platform rolled out its new royalty structure for titles exclusive to KDP on July 1st. If you enrolled your book in Select, your book is subject to borrows. Borrows used to be paid at a flat rate (the amount varied from month-to-month) of $1.35 for a book read to 10%. Under the current structure, royalties are paid for pages read at a rate of 0.005779/page.

A 300 KENP (the term for Amazon's calculation of a page) book read to the end would earn $1.73. Under the old system (fondly known as KU.1) that book would have earned $1.35. 300 KENP breaks out into roughly 150 regular pages depending on how it's formatted. So let's say a price point of $2.99 with a $2.09 royalty on a sale and a $1.73 on a borrow. A sweet deal, right? Oh, but that's the honey-trap. Let's run the math....

10% read under KU.1 earned $1.35. 10% read under KU.2 earns 0.17. Yes. 17 cents. (Cents is such an old-fashioned word. I feel I should be wearing a newsboy's cap as I write this, fingers inky with newsprint.) One hopes one has written a high-octane, addictive page-turner but it's a little late now if it isn't. The book is exclusive to Amazon for three months.

With Kindle Unlimited, a subscriber is allowed up to 10 titles at a time per month on their Kindle for $9.99. Maybe my book will make it to the top of a reader's TBR pile. Maybe not. In the meantime, Amazon does not pay out for more than what is read that month. There are obvious reasons why the old system was unsustainable for Amazon, at the same time it was an excellent strategy because the retailer was able to quickly build a huge catalogue of books for their subscription service. It is equally obvious why KU.2 is a bottom-line dreamboat.

(Sadly, I would've done exactly the same thing if I were Amazon. Actually, I'd be even meaner. I'd start culling books from my store that were not performing. I'd be analyzing the Pages Read Data to identify a break-out book that hasn't broken out yet and then I would snap up that author for my Imprints. I'm horrible.)

KU.2 has deep ramifications for publishing and I'm still mulling the possible outcomes. But in the here and now, what it means for this author is something like 17 cents a day. (30 KENP pages x 0.005779 = 0.17337 cents; 30 pages is approx. 3 chapters)

Drinks are on me!

Stealing in Broad Daylight

Um...

At this very moment I'm listening to the FULL ALBUM of Enya's Greatest Hits on YouTube.

15,909,875 people have tuned in since it was uploaded on November 13, 2013. plata oro is the entity behind the upload and they have 25,140 subscribers.

I don't get it. Did plata oro pay Enya's music label for the right to upload a digital copy? Did YouTube? Was it such a huge cost that the only way to recoup their investment is by running ads throughout? (I just skip 'em. No biggie.)

Has YouTube and plata oro uploaded the album and from the millions of listeners the artist is bound to attract (like me), they make a fantastic profit by selling ads to corporations? ("Psst, guys, I got a vid running on YouTube that has over 15 mil eyeballs. If you want a piece of the action it'll cost ya.")

I never have to pay for this album. It's crazy. I don't get it.

Wait--is this the Utopian Era of Communal Property and no one told me? Well, hot damn! There's a lovely little mansion in Silicon Valley I've had my eye on for some time ... so when can I move in?

Inquiring minds want to know.

(stolen from the National Enquirer. it's their tagline.)

Fifty Shades of Sheep

Across the street from an Author's house there is a field of sheep. For the most part they stick together at the hay troughs but every now and then something catches the fancy of one or two and off they go.

On this day, it was a book. The story had caught on with a few members of the flock and they ran off to read it from cover to cover. After a short time, hearing the shrieks of glee, several others followed not wanting to be left out. Gradually, more and more of the flock trotted after them, curious as only sheep can be, until only handful of sheep were left near the hay trough.

One of them looked at the others and said "Maybe we should go along just to see what the fuss is all about."

"It is about a movie based on a book about a virgin who wants to be controlled by a billionaire who has issues."

"So it's a romance?"

"Only if you think control is romantic," bleated another. "The girl doesn't want to think and she doesn't have to with the billionaire."

"There must be more to it than that. They seem to think it's Important," insisted a third sheep. He rose up on his skinny legs trying to see over the billboards, television ads and commercial sex shops circling the flock.

"The author made millions and millions from the book and now millions more from the movie. That's why it is Important."

"Ah, so it is a Worthy Piece of Culture."

"The Media certainly think so and the Media are never wrong," intoned an older sheep.

"Then why do we not follow the others and get in on this party!" bleated one of the younger sheep, clearly chomping at the bit. "I, for one, do not like to Miss Out."

"By all means, go if you must. I, for one, have no trouble Missing Out," said one of the sheep who had joined the discussion late. "I Missed Out on Pet Rocks, Cabbage Patch Kids and Tickle Me Elmo. I slept through Twilight and I forgot to turn up for Titanic. But go if you like. It will do you no harm."

"It will do you no good either but that never seems to enter into the equation," griped one of the quieter sheep of the flock.

"Oh, not this again," groaned the older sheep. "This Fad is no different from the days of the Roman circus. We survived that nonsense, we shall survive this."

"There were fewer of us then. It seems like it's much easier these days to fool all of the sheep all of the time."

"You are taking this far too seriously. It is only a movie. I am not going only because I don't like crowds."

One of the flock at the premiere had broken away and was careening toward them at a dangerous speed wearing a black silk mask. The Ewe skidded into them breathlessly. "The movie is even better than the book!" she gushed. "It is very naughty and we're all watching the naughtiness together so it doesn't feel like we're baaad. A documentary filmmaker said this is an insightful phenomenon; women are finally coming out of the closet about their sexuality."

One of the Ewes who had stayed behind rolled her eyes but did not comment for fear of being labelled a prude. She was a prude and she would admit it freely if prudery hadn't become a dirty word within the flock.

The young sheep bolted to his legs and gamboled off after the masked Ewe to catch the second showing of the movie.

The older sheep bent his rickety old legs and settled near the trough. "I suppose it'll be hours now before anyone shows up with anything nourishing for us to eat."

"Hours? It will be years before Culture recovers from this shock. Mark my words. Look at them. The sheer weight of their collective shades of wool has shifted the balance. No one will want to invest in the really nourishing hay after this."

"You are probably right," bleated the sheep who had joined the conversation late. "I found a patch of grass at the fringe of the field. I think I'll graze on that until the fuss dies down and things get back to normal around here."

The rest of the sheep settled near the trough of stale hay to wait for nourishing feed. Some continued to grumble but most were not at all surprised that a book about a girl who did not want to think had struck such a chord among sheep.

Goodreads Giveaway Winners!

And the winners of the Goodreads Giveaway for THE RIVER BRIDE are.... *insert drum roll here*

Susan Gannon of Arvada, Colorado
Arturo Operario of North York, Ontario
Sarah Hansrote of Knoxville, Tennessee

792 people entered THE RIVER BRIDE Giveaway and 365 people added it to their To-Read shelves. Thank you!

Folks, this will be my last Giveaway and here's why:

The mailing of books is costly in addition to the cost of the books themselves. This expense is absorbed by the author. The service the winning readers provide is to post their reviews at Goodreads. Without reviews, authors cannot afford to continue to enroll their books in Goodreads Giveaways. A print copy is the only format accepted and because of the cost involved (and often disappointing result) many authors I know are giving up on Giveaways. It is a great program and I'd hate to see it go but for independent authors on a tight budget, it has become a poor return. 

There are readers out there who buy indie books at full price and post their reviews. There are companies who for a fraction of the cost of a Giveaway will promote an independent author's book. When marketing dollars are tight, the non-performer gets cut. 

Writing a review can be nerve-wracking but your opinion matters, especially for an unknown work in this day and age. Think of yourself as a literary talent scout! Finding diamonds in the rough! going where no man has gone before! Readers rule! Discovering a new work by an unknown author is an adventure. You have to tell the world about it because if you don't, who will?

Congratulations to my three winners. Folks, your books are in the mail and I look forward to reading your reviews!

Peace and happy reading.

The Frugal Author

It's Sunday. It's November. We've had snow flurries which I love. I am not one of those November-haters. I love November. Because:

1) It's hunting season.
2) It's quiet.
3) It's not too early for Christmas music.
4) It is too early to stress about Christmas shopping.

I woke at 6:00 am. Wrote/edited/swore at my latest manuscript. Then popped downstairs for televised church, then back upstairs for a teeny bit of writing. Just enough to keep me from sticking my head in a gas oven when I open the file again.

I joke about the gas oven. As if I could afford a gas oven.

Which brings me to The Frugal Author. I've been following an online discussion about how to weather the lean times in writing---a subject I consider myself an expert in as I've only known lean times. If you are considering chucking your job to write full-time, read on.

The Frugal Author: Tips to Living the Dream.

1) If you are currently spending money, stop. Break the habit of spending money while you still earn it. This will lessen the trauma to your central nervous system when you have no money to spend.

2) If you can save, save. If you can't save---see above.

3) Brace yourself to work hard. You will write every day, all day. Plan to write genre fiction even if you are working on The Great Canadian Novel. It will comfort you when no one buys your lit-fic and possibly pay some bills.

4) No. 3 does not apply if you are a New York City journalist, a plastic surgeon, or in the entertainment industry.

5) Don't worry about eating, it's overrated. But if you must, then learn to cook, shop local and (it goes without saying) don't shell out money for junk food (incl. booze). (I know, I know, this one hurt me too.)

6)  Do not go into debt for your books. Ever. You will be tempted. Resist. Hundreds of thousands of authors will back me up on this. Do not get so deep into debt that you can't write. This is the best advice I didn't take when I was starting out. I didn't take it and I still owe money for Living the Dream.

7) Self-publishing, you say? The temptation (and pressure) to spend is even higher. Do not spend more on your books than you can realistically expect to earn from them. And then ratchet those expectations down by about fifty percent. I'm not being negative. I'm being positive. You will positively have a tough slog to sell 100 copies of your book. Pace your expenses accordingly. Your market will grow ... but baby steps.

8) Agents reject you. Publishers don't respond. Your savings have dwindled and your life is shit. You never see your kids/husband/wife/mother/friends and your body is falling apart. Was it worth it? If your answer is no, then please do not quit the day job. Not a living soul will fault you for it. And if they do, send them to me and I'll set them straight.

9) The last frugal tip I have is for your ego. You'll have to adjust to working without reward. And don't kid yourself that the joy of writing will be enough. It's a hell of a joy but it's rarely enough to replace the validation, income, and society of the workplace. Think hard. There will be no reviews of your work. No feedback. You will have to accept silence for a very long time and write anyway.  

10) You took the red pill. You're all in and today is the first day of Living the Dream. You've got such a tiny economic footprint that you barely register on the grid of household expenses. You're eating rice and beans but on the upside, you've lost 10 pounds. The price of gas is something you never think about because you never drive anywhere. You write every single day. Even Sunday. And you are happy. Frugal living is a walk in the park. So the last tip is, this is the money shot. This day. This moment. Work hard. Give it your all. Enjoy every minute and give thanks.

I'll race you to the bestseller lists.

Wedding Madness

This is a quick fly-by post because I am supposed to be:

1) setting up chairs
2) writing my speech
3) vacuuming (again!)
4) fixing the hem on my Mother of the Bride outfit
5) foraging in the forest for fall cuttings to decorate house

I've discovered that the only thing worse than writing is not writing. Going a bit crazy actually. I hope this month off results in a huge surge of productivity when the wedding is over. Not writing causes me to over-think my life and that leads to stressing over non-issues like the thread count in sheets. I can tell you one thing: I will not be doing any more housework for the foreseeable.

I got a new haircut out of the deal though. My first professional cut since 2009 and wow, what a difference! I thought I was doing a pretty good job cutting my own hair until now. Who knew?

(As it turns out--everyone. I'm the only person who thought my hair looked okay.)

Wedding-wise everything is under control. The weather has vastly improved. There is never enough money but we haven't set fire to the credit card yet. My book sales paid for some of the extras which is amazing considering where I was a year ago as an author. My daughter is very happy with her groom and the wedding plans. I'm going to see my sisters again and my beautiful nieces and my sweet little grandson will be here as well....

Who am I kidding? I'm a nervous wreck. Giving birth was less terrifying.

12 Weeks In - A Self-Publishing Report

Over the course of the past three months, I have self-published four titles as ebooks and brought one of those titles out in print. Two titles are making steady sales. One is struggling to gain traction as an ebook but has already earned out as a print title (very soft release on May 10). And one is only 12 hours old so it's too soon to tell.

The Stats:

All sales in the 12 weeks have come from Amazon.
Smashwords reported one sale very early in. Although downloads of the sample were brisk in the beginning, the books haven't moved since and the downloads did not translate to sales.
No sales reported through iBooks
No sales reported through B&N
No sales through Kobo because they are experiencing delays (as per Smashwords) getting titles listed and to list them myself, I'd have to do some reformatting. Which I might one day when I have time.

In fairness to the other sales channels, the titles were listed with zero marketing and I haven't investigated any promotional opportunities that may be available through them. Here is why:  Marketing takes time. Precious time from writing new work, editing current work, formatting, and reading up on changes in the industry just to keep up. Plus I have a wedding to plan in September.

From a business perspective (Hey, I watch Dragon's Den) Amazon is getting me where I want to go faster with the least time-consuming effort. If I enroll all four titles in KDP Select, I can manage promotions in one location for no cost. It's 90 days. Titles are listed with KDP exclusively. At this stage in my self-publishing journey, my priorities are to keep costs down and write new content.

So although it seems counter-intuitive, I'm going to list my titles with KDP Select, run some promotions through Amazon, write the next book and at the end of September, I'll evaluate the strategy. Many authors feel Select is not worth tying up their books for 3 months exclusively, but when I weighed the pros and cons it came down to time. I just don't have time to effectively promote in other channels right now.

12 Weeks SP Positives:

Self-publishing was the only option left for Iced Under and The Grey Lady. If you think getting a new book published is difficult, try attracting interest in a book that has already been under contract. Win!

Self-publishing was the only option for my three romance novels. Surprising, successful, fun and creative, I'm really enjoying giving this older debut work new life. Bonus!

Self-publishing gave print life to The Grey Lady and I've sold out my initial print run. Validation!

I have two full length novels waiting to be revised and formatted to be published. And the book I've started writing as well as two new series I have outlined will keep me busy until 2016. My old enthusiasm for writing is back. Productive!

12 Weeks SP Negatives:

 A lot of work. Long hours at my desk. There is always more to do. Time.

The feeling of having no back up. Writers are for the most part generous with support but I miss having the structure of a publishing house behind me. Or maybe I miss what I imagined a publishing house to be... Exposed is the feeling. It is just you and your books. Solitary.

You make ALL decisions for your books. Everywhere. Constantly. Sooner or later you're bound to make a poor one from sheer fatigue. Responsibility.

There's no money or very little money. There was no money for me the other route so this isn't a total negative but one to keep in mind. No money. No advance. Frugal.

For the author just starting out, I'd recommend pursuing traditional publishing before self-publishing for a least a year. If no one bites, revise the manuscript and then go ahead and self-publish. I'm glad I had my trade publishing experience before I took the leap. But at the same time, I am very glad I took the leap.

David and Goliath - An Author Fights Back

In September 2013 I discovered my first novel, ICED UNDER was being sold on my former publisher's website three years after my rights were returned to me due to breach of contract.

After a long, often absurd exchange of emails in which the publisher admitted he did not hold the rights to my work or of a few others on his site---nor did he intend to provide royalty statements for the books that were sold, nor did he intend to apologize for the piracy of copyrighted work--the website was abruptly pulled this morning and a new one installed in its place.

He claimed no books were sold and demanded I take his word for it. Hmmm. In my experience, the man who cannot be trusted with little,  cannot be trusted with much. My debut novel was a little thing to him, but ICED UNDER was a big thing to me. I had to fight for it. He accused me of being vindictive. I was not nearly as vindictive as I wanted to be or was capable of being. Hell hath no fury like a writer scorned. He should count his lucky stars that the website was pulled this morning and not 24 hours from now.

The contempt I was treated with during this battle was one thing. It will interest and amuse writers in Canada to learn that this publisher received $65,426.00 in government grants in 2012/2013. It amused me at any rate. I can't get a government grant to write. I have to prove myself first.

Or do I....?

Hey! Why not buy a website, attract a bunch of authors to contract their work to me, and then throw their books out there without editing, proofreading, copy editing and wait for the government grants to start rolling in?

I couldn't do it. No right-minded person could. I like writers and their books, the printed word and trees too much to make a hash out of publishing from laziness and greed as Ashis Gupta of Bayeux Arts Press did.

So there it is. Now you know. Not a happy ending but an ending. The next time I speak of ICED UNDER, (and I will) it will be under happier circumstances.

Working for a living...

Oh yeah. Working for the man.

Putting in a 9 to 5 for a couple of weeks to make peace with my bank account. But 9 to 5 is hell on a writing schedule. I have nothing left when I get home. I have to content myself these days with getting familiar with my latest character, a young woman half my age whose heart is breaking. Eventually there will be a murder and other plot elements but while I'm working a "real" job, all I can do right now is get to know this character.

I am only 12,000 words into the first draft; working title: BLOODY THOUGHTS AND VIOLENT PACE. I should be at 16,000 words.

If only I didn't have to eat or pay my mortgage. Life would be a dream....