It's off and running!

I was a little taken aback when my publishing company told me not to expect any sales (save for one or two) until my book his Amazon.com and some of the other online book selling sites. This book was originally supposed to be released right around March 1. Somehow it ended up live on the 26th of January, but I am certainly not complaining about it. So, since then I have been a busy beaver. Because I chose not to use a publicist or PR firm, I am having to do all of my marketing myself. It’s hard work, my neck has a permanent crick in it from looking at my laptop and desktop screens. I wrote press released for radio stations, newspapers and even a TV station or two. There is the possibility that I will be interviewed on a noon TV show for News 10. They said it would be live, but I really prefer taped. (That thing they told me about not selling anything? I have already sold 10 copies! I know, it’s not much, but you have to sell 10 before you can sell 20, right? Shows how much they know huh. :-) )

I just spent three days reformatting my book (and correcting a few more errors I found) for viewing with the Amazon Kindle. It was grueling work, but I think I did well in the end. I sent it to my own kindle multiple times and went through it page by page to make sure I got it right. I will find out in a few days if the book has been accepted and will go on sale in the Kindle book section at Amazon.com

I am disappointed in Amazon.com overall though. I learned a lot about trade discounts and the process a book goes through to get on the big book sites. After learning what Amazon paid for my book, I was very disheartened to find they set the price at the maximum possible price right off the bat. Because of this, I have suggested that anyone interested in purchasing the book should either wait for a book signing or for your local book stores to carry it (it helps if you call and ask them for the title, a LOT) or your can get it from the publisher site at www.authorhouse.com. Just search either my name or the name of the book.

Since the subject is ‘going green’, you may want to be green about your purchase and buy the e-book. It saves trees and saves you money. On the publisher site, the paperback is $8.50, while the e-book is a cool $3.95. Coincidentally, the kindle version will also be $3.95, when it comes out.

In the meantime, I am scouring the internet and every publishing site I can find for more ways to publicize the book, to put it in front of more people.

My hands, my neck and my eyes are tired of looking at computers for a while. So I will publish this, turn off the laptop, and sit back with my Kindle and start “I, Alex Cross” while dreaming about the chicken and dumplings waiting for me in the crock pot at the house.

For anyone else writing, keep at it. Learn everything, write everything, critique everything. Getting your first book in the mail for your approval is a feeling like no other. Chase your dreams, you CAN catch them. I did.

Progess!!

I finally got a notice that I have something on my todo list with the publishers! Granted, it's only the pricing agreement, but it's progress!!!

Great News!

Wonderful news came in today!! My book is finally out of content review. The design team is scheduled to start work on the 28th. It should take 10-15 business days before I have an e-proof to edit, then it's all gravy!! I am so excited!!!!!!

or perhaps this one

A typical computer hacker, a typical geek, a typical nerd. Who would have thought Thomas would accidentally uncover one hell of a conspiracy. When he is out hacking and stumbles onto information that suggests the federal government has found a new use for both the newly dead and death row inmates, he is torn between attempting to expose it, or just trying to stop it. He becomes increasingly obsessed with covering his tracks, hiding his electronic fingerprint. It’s a good thing, too. The corporations in question found trace of the hack and their ready to take out the perpetrator, if they can find him. Now it’s a race against time and technology.

Okay, this one is pretty weak. I will work on it, promise.

How about this for a plot

Merry Christmas

When Anita bought her family a video game system for Christmas, she thought it would be the one thing that would pull them back together. Her two children, Rachel and Rowan, both teenagers, had become distant and she was afraid they were getting into other things, like drugs. Both had a face full of metal already and neither ever wanted to be around family or listen to anything they were told. It was getting progressively worse. Anita worked for the company that made the game system; she was familiar with it so she thought it was perfect. That lasted for about the first week. After that, things changed. They changed for the better. Too much better. Suddenly the kids took out their piercings, started keeping their room clean and even stopped using the horrible street slang and cleaned up their language. Both of them went from failing every class to straight A students. Initially, Anita was elated, but it was too good to be true. When Rachel and Rowan started inviting their friends over to play, and the effect was repeated, she got worried. Anita was a programmer, she had access to the heart of the programs they were selling. It was time to tear the program apart and find out what was really in there. In the process of going through the program that went on the market, Anita makes some startling discoveries, but she hasn’t stayed under the radar.

New plots

Ok, there really are no new plots, just old plots with new characters, I get that, but I am trying to put something together I can actually write. I am just bouncing ideas here.

We find the defendant…..

Devon is on jury duty, actually he is the foreman of the jury, and is approached and asked about the case he’s on. He says he can’t talk about it until it’s over with. He is threatened, then his family is threatened. Will he sway the jury to keep his wife and one of his daughters safe? The other is off at college, the man doesn’t mention the older daughter, does he know about her? How can he contact her and tell her what’s going on without the stranger knowing about it and possibly killing his wife and other daughter? The stranger knows an awful lot so he figures he is under surveillance. Devon’s older daughter, Aleena, is away at school, but not your average institute of higher learning. She is in martial arts training, she has been for some years now. Her father doesn’t know where she is actually going, it’s all been an elaborate plot to follow her dreams. It’s been carefully plotted out. Aleena is in the middle of something in her own life. She has just been contacted and told that her ‘roommate’ at the other college is in serious trouble. She’s gotten into drugs and hanging with the wrong crowd. After the last few years of her friend covering her ass with her dad, how could she NOT be there for her now?

PI in trouble

I’ve been a PI for about 5 years now, but I wasn’t always one. I spent a little time in the military, some time in contracting, and quite a bit of time as freelance jack-of-all-trades. Taking the biggest chance of my life, I quit the cushy contractor job and moved where no one knew my name. After writing and publishing a book, I decided to follow the one dream I have never been able to do anything about and become a PI. The cases are standard for a while, then one comes along that is more exciting than any I have had before, but it doesn’t take long to figure out I am in way over my head. I have one friend in the FBI, perhaps she can help, but who would believe me if I walked in and said “I’ve landed a job working for the mafia and I need out, alive preferably.”? That’s right, nobody. Not out here in the middle of Nowhere, Texas. So begins the investigation of the murder of Carlos Martinez, accountant to the mafia here in Nowhere, TX. When the investigation leads back to the person that hired me, it takes some fancy footwork to keep my head another day, and to stay one step ahead of these guys. Finding out what happened to bring all of this to a head is the only thing that is going to keep me alive…..I think.

Clean up, aisle 3

Anthony’s tattoo was itching again. It was the third time in as many years he had to have it removed completely, along with the chip, and replaced with a new number and history. Living on the run was no walk in the park in this day and age. Ever since WWIII started in Dec of 2009 with some Iranian launching a missile that radars couldn’t see, it had been like this. Guess that’s what happens when you are accused of selling secrets to both sides of the fence. The war ended only a year later, but the results were devastating. His home and everyone he ever knew or loved, had been destroyed, or so he thought. No one anywhere to recognize him. He looked at his tattoo this time before he scratched it. It looked the the UPC barcode for a can of beans, but that little spill of ink under his skin held every detail there was to be known about him, at least the ‘him’ he was this year. The only way for Anthony to clear his name was to find out who was really selling those secrets, and why he was being framed.

Thoughts? Ideas? Kick in the pants?

Alright, as the first blog on a new site, I feel I should catch you up on what has happened so far. Here's the low down on my books, my muse and a little snippet of my life on occasion.

If you want to see things from the beginning (October 2009) then you can check out either of my other two blogs. www.booksbydiedra.wordpress.com or www.booksbydiedra.webs.com. (Seeing a pattern here?)

Sat down near the end of Sep 2009 and a book fell out of my head and onto the keyboard. Consequently, I am now awaiting publishing. You say "Great!" Right? Mostly right.

After sending off some queries and getting no answers at all, I started getting a bit antsy about the time line. There wasn't actually a time line, but I felt like time was running out. Just one of those gut feelings. I felt like the market would be prime for my book, "Going Green Without Going Broke", in Feb or Mar of 2010. Obviously, waiting on an agent, then an editor, then a publishing house was NOT in the cards for me. Luckily, I found a sponsor for my book and did the self-publishing thing. Right now, the ms is in, the illustrations and pictures are in, the back cover is done, the About the Book and About the Author are complete and turned in as well. The ms is currently in the 'content review' stage. Hopefully next week I will get the introduction to my design team and we can start working on a cover. Everything else is gravy. The book is due out, and get this, in late Feb or early Mar of 2010. Coincidence? I think not. ;-)

Meanwhile, I had a couple of concept pieces I wrote a while back and was lucky enough to find a site called Scribophile.com. It's great. You critique other writer's works, they critique yours. It's a lot of work, but worth it for what you get. They took the two pieces and tore them to shreds. Constructively of course, but it made me realize I have one serious flaw in my style of writing. No story. I sit down and write what falls out of my head, there is no story, no direction, no ending, no beginning.....in short, it's a short series of scenes, nothing more. If you're a writer and you want someone to look at your work with fresh eyes, this is the place to go.

I have a few plotlines I am trying to work out, to see if I can write on them. I would like to be into at least the 3rd chapter or so of the new book when my first one comes out. Granted, the first one is non-fiction, this one will be fiction, but that's ok. I want to keep them about a year apart. At least I think I do. From here on out, when I post to my other blogs, I will post here as well. Feel free to follow along with my musings and frustrations. It might give you something to laugh about.