Tag: Audiobook sale

The Slogging Beginning

~ patyjag ~ 8 Comments

I am doing something I haven’t done in some time. I am trying to write a 70k+ book in a month. I want this book off to my critique partners and beta readers by the first of August so I can have it polished and uploaded for release before I leave on a month long vacation the middle of September. Have I put a lot of pressure on myself? Yes! But it will be worth it to be between books while I’m enjoying my vacation.

Most writers know about the saggy middle. It’s where in the middle of the book, sometimes it feels like the pacing has slowed or the story doesn’t feel as fresh and vigorous as it started out. Many have had this happen in a book more than once. But with editing and rewriting it can be given a nice crisp revision.

I’m finding the beginning of this book, not the story, the story is moving along fine. It’s the having to stop and research something that takes time and then takes me off on, ‘What if I did this?’ that turns the story in a different direction. I have had that happen on this particular book four times since beginning the book. I’m a third of the way into the book and I’m finally getting into the rhythm of the story and not having to stop so much and look things up.

So my slogging beginning is the fact, 1) I was at an event and met a person that was so ingrained on my brain after our interaction that I had to put her into this book. Which then changed the direction I had started out on. 2) I decided to make a business I know nothing about as a primary setting to the story. 3) Due to the character I added, I needed to look up mental illnesses. 4) Trying to add information from a short story I put in an anthology required me to reread the short story and figure out how to make it all play into the main plot.

Slogging in this instance is not the writing or the story line, it is the fact I have to keep stopping to research information I hadn’t known would come up with I started the story. Slogging is the hours I’ve spent reading and researching when I wanted to be writing.

However, no matter what you write there is always a need for some research. When I wrote historical western romance I had to research history and how they dressed and lived. In mysteries it’s all about type of wounds, types of crimes, occupations, and yes mental illnesses. Not to mention locations and oh so many things that you would think I wouldn’t need to look up since these are contemporary mysteries. But because of the internet and everyone having access to information, you have to make sure you do even more research so no one can say you don’t know what you’re talking about.

I rarely have a saggy middle and this is the first time I’ve had a slogging beginning. But I can tell you, from here on out this book won’t be sloggy or saggy! I love when I hit the middle of the book and it is like wild downhill ride as I pull all the clues and red herrings together and carry the main character to the revelation of the killer.

Endings are always like a runaway truck!

If you are looking for a good deal on an audiobook bundle, the first three books of my Shandra Higheagle mystery series is available for $0.99 at many audiobook vendors until the 10th as part of the Indie Audiobook Deals. https://indieaudiobookdeals.com/

Feng Shui and Me

~ patyjag ~ 9 Comments

Did you know that today is International Feng Shui Day? According to The Spruce.com, Feng shui is the practice of arranging pieces in living spaces to create balance with the natural world. The goal is to harness energy forces and establish harmony between an individual and their environment.

Years, okay, two decades ago, I took an online class on how to Feng shui your workspace hoping to help give me harmony to become a published writer. And it work!

Well, I don’t know if it was the Feng shui or being at the right place at the right time or knowing the right person at the right time. Whichever of the three it was, I became a published author with a just starting small press who has grown immensely over the years. I put out 10 books with them before taking the Indie route in 2012.

I kept my desk top and writing space Feng shui just as I’d learned to place items from the class the whole time we lived in Central Oregon. Then we moved to SE Oregon, and I worked in a ten by twenty cabin for 8 months while we built the house we live in now. Nothing was Feng shui but I kept writing books and publishing them.

We built the new house with one room set up for my office and my husband’s desk. (we have matching desks- but he only uses his to hold stuff) At first I placed the desk under a window so I could look out when I needed thinking time while writing. But that put my back to the door. And the one thing I learned during the Feng shui class that stuck with me was to always be facing the door as that is where opportunity walks through. Keep books to your back for knowledge. Those are the only two things I remember from the workshop.

When I was feeling like my writing had stalled and wasn’t feeling as optimistic about my future, I changed my desk. It now sits with one end under the window but it faces the doorway. I don’t have book cases at my back but I have them on both sides of me some just an arm’s reach away.

My husband says my desk takes up too much room this way, but I say I’m open to the opportunities that are coming my way. What they are, I don’t know but I’m ready to embrace them when they do show up!

I have joined a Facebook group that is actively helping me promote my audiobooks. Since it is a whole different group of people than those who read print or ebooks. The owner of the group puts together Indie Author Deals once a month. I’m hoping that one of these days I can use links to my audiobooks on my website. For now I have links to multiple audiobook vendors. Right now there is a sale going on and you can get the first audio 3 book box set from my Shandra Higheagle Mystery series for $0.99 at: IndieAudiobookDeals.com

Being part of this group is one of those opportunities that I found while trying to find someone to help me promote by audiobooks. Feng shui or just luck? I think a little of both!

I’m also excited that through this blog, I’ve met some amazing mystery, suspense, thriller writers and I will get to meet 6 of them in person at the Left Coast Crime conference I’m attending this week in Bellevue, WA. Several of the Ladies of Mystery bloggers and I will be riding from the airport together and then having brunch together the following morning. I’m excited to meet them in person and make even more connections to them and with others throughout the conference.

One of my favorite sayings is: Life is never boring, embrace it!

Gathering my Thoughts

~ patyjag ~ 8 Comments

When a new year comes around and I’m starting a new book, it just feels right. My desk is clean. Something I do the end of every year is make sure my desk is tidy and ready for the coming year. (I also do it between each book/project) It wipes away what I had been working on and makes a clean slate for the next project.

This first project of the year is book 9 in the Gabriel Hawke series. I enjoy writing these books. They are set, mostly, where I grew up and have a unique character who I feel I can tap into better than my female protagonists. I don’t know why, but Hawke flows from me without doubts or self recriminations that the character isn’t this or that.

This book will push me and my character. He and his significant other are going to be pushed to their limits trying to help a wounded person and survive a blizzard in the Wallowa Mountains. I have my research books stacked up and have started reading them. I have even ran some tests in our snow to see what blood looks like when it first drips onto the snow. I took photos and studied the spot for about four days, until our snow melted. I know what my character will see or be on the look out for when they follow the sparse drops of blood from the bleeding person who left a dead body behind.

Blood experiment

Several of the scenes have played over in my mind since I came up with the premise of this book. I have sat down and discovered who the person they are following is and who the dead person was. I wrote out the chain of ideas for scenes. Once I do some more research on snow conditions and animals that would be accessible for food or to follow to stay warm, I’ll start writing the book this week.

While some people don’t like to have a “road map” or outline to follow when they write, I’ve found, after the last Spotted Pony Casino Mystery that I “mapped out” that it helped me to know my story better when I started and while I didn’t stick to the road or route I’d mapped, I felt I had a stronger book throughout because I knew a bit more about my characters and who I wanted to highlight as possible suspects.

As yet, I don’t have a title for book #9 in the Hawke books. I’m waiting to see what animal makes sense that is out in the winter and would work for the premise of the book. I’m a writer that either has the titles before I start the book or I come across it as I’m writing. It looks like it will be the latter this time.

If you have any thoughts on a winter animal put it in the comments and I’ll look up its habits to see if it might work.

At the moment I have Churlish Badger being made into an audiobook as well as the Shandra Higheagle Mystery book, Homicide Hideaway. But what you really need to know is through the month of January, if you like audiobooks, Book 1 in the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series, Double Duplicity is $1.99 at Authors Direct.

If you don’t have the app it’s easy to download and free. This audiobook resource gives me and the other authors using it more royalties than the other audiobook vendors. (and my books are priced lower here.)

https://shop.authors-direct.com/products/double-duplicity-shandra-higheagle-mystery