Tag Archives: promo

Where’s Wally? (Spoiler alert – somewhere warm and sunny!)

It’s been a while since I did a blogpost, so apologies for the lack of updates. So why have I been missing in action? It’s been a bit of a whirlwind month and I’ve finally begun a nice long writing sabbatical.

Although I released Dirty Little War in 2016, most of last year was taken up with non-fiction work. Although 2017 started out the same way, I did manage to wrap up all those annoying projects in the first quarter so I could put the second quarter of the year to good use.

Specifically, to write the lesbian romances and urban fantasy stories that had to be put aside for far too long. To get myself back in the mood, the wife and I are in Europe, working on books and taking time out from commuter hell. With the farce that it Brexit, it makes sense to enjoy this before the British politicians ruin this forever.

So, other than sampling lots of delicious wine and tapas, what does this mean…?

Research, right?

Creative – new ideas and first drafts

I’ve started researching a new urban fantasy idea that I suspect will have romantic undertones, but the characters haven’t quite fully formed yet. There is a definite connection between them, so if it turns into something interesting then it might be a 2018 release, which sounds far away right now, but these things roll around quickly!

I’ve also been putting the final touches (helped by all that food and drink ‘research’) to the first draft of my 2017 summer romance. The plan is currently to release before June, barring any last minute hiccups or the complete thumbs down from my editor.

Editing – the slow, tortuous road to publication

Another plan is to release the second book in The Lazarus Hunter series later this year. Full disclosure: I’m not happy with it in it’s current form, so I intend to do a serious edit before handing it over for someone else. It’s been a stumbling block for two years. Given that this is not a lesbian romance, or even with two specifically lesbian main characters, I’m also toying with branding options so people don’t leap from the romances to this expecting the same thing. It’s a tough one and I’ll probably end up reaching out to get opinions on it.

Publishing – and all the other bits that go on behind the scenes

Nothing yet, other than putting marketing plans in place and thinking about book covers. I’ve got a working title for the summer romance but again, it could get canned when my first round of test readers get to it. Instead I intend to enjoy this quiet time to actually reappear online after simply having no time for such things for months.

Planning and dreaming – what’s coming up next week

It will be a ‘more of the same’ kind of week. So I probably won’t do another blogpost and instead focus on getting the first draft truly finished so I can get the edits started on that. It feels strange not to have client meetings taking up so much of my time, so I want to get a few more ideas in the bank. The third quarter of 2017 is still up for grabs, so if non-fiction takes over again for a few months, I’d like to have something to run with in the background.

But for now, more wine, more good company and more romance. Research is the best thing ever.

Writer Life: Back To The Real World

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Of course, the ‘Real World’ and ‘Dystopian Fiction’ can be used somewhat interchangeably at the moment. I have spent much of the last three weeks offline and away from constant (social) media, but that didn’t stop several days of general anxiety taking over. It was impossible to escape the reality of the American presidential election, but having time away to focus on writing was a lovely coincidence of timing that turned out to be sorely needed.

It always helps when that writing retreat is based somewhere warm and sunny. I love Spanish food and the laid back lifestyle (although it saddens me to see that it’s become less so each year I travel there). I have enjoyed strong cups of coffee, looking out over the ocean and listening to the chatter of a language I only partially understand all around me. I loved having a notebook and a pen, rather than a screen. I have made some new characters and maybe even some new friends. It’s what living the life of a writer should be all about and I’m not ashamed to enjoy it when it happens.

So, back to the weekly recap…

Creative – new ideas and first drafts

As you might expect from the above, lots of creative juices have been flowing since my last post. I have fully plotted out the next two lesbian romances I intend to write. One is a novella and one is a summer romance/beach read. Being me, even the summer romance will have some slightly darker undertones. I just can’t help myself.

I still haven’t quite completed NaNoWriMo, but the last few thousand words should happen this weekend. I have probably completed it already in terms of words written on other projects, but I’d rather do it properly and spend a few hours completing the it on the same novel on Sunday. Also, maths. I can’t be bothered pulling all those numbers in from various notebooks.

Editing – the slow, tortuous road to publication

Not much editing while I was away, which is good. I only take the iPad while travelling for less than a month, and doing edits on that device isn’t the easiest. So there were some minor tweaks I needed to make, but nothing too significant.

Publishing – and all the other bits that go on behind the scenes

I hoped to be able to publish a little Christmas something, more for fun than anything else. However, with the extended travel and stress of the past few weeks, I’ve decided not to. Whilst there are many disadvantages to being an Indie author, I see this as a positive thing. I took a look at what was completed and, regardless of whether or not it was meant to be lighthearted, made a call that I wasn’t happy enough with the quality. I’d rather can thousands of words, or put them on the back burner, than release something just not right.

However, The Crochet Killer and A Taste To Die For are going to be on offer for the next week as part of a Kindle deal, so if you don’t have them yet, then head on over and grab them while they’re over 50% off. Let’s face it, most people have been rushed off their feet with either family commitments or election misery, so I’m more than happy to give people an excuse to sneak away for some solitary reading time!

I did come back to a lovely review of Dirty Little War from Planet Nation which was a great reminder of why I do this before the post holiday blues had chance to appear. I’m so grateful when people not only enjoy my books, but do so enough to review. So thank you.

Planning and dreaming – what’s coming up next week

My alter ego has to do more traveling next week for some non-fiction projects. It’s getting to that time of year when I already begin planning for the next in detail. 2017 will be an interesting year as I begin to transition away from the traditionally well paying projects that I don’t enjoy and move towards the fun stuff.

Writing Best Bits

Honestly, the best bit about writing over the past three weeks is that it has been my excuse for everything. I have spent time in the sun, visited quaint cafes, eaten enough food to sink a small ship and had more alcohol experiments than any self-respecting woman in her thirties should. All in the name of research for my next novel.

Weekly success score: 10/10 – Tapas, Tales and Tequila. What more could you want?

Writer Life: New Beginnings

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Another week rolls by and my friends are all beginning the Christmas countdown. This seems absurdly early to me, but if it means mulled wine happens in October, then who am I to argue?

So, after locking myself away in a hotel last weekend, I re-entered the real world to discover it was even madder than when I left. My writing goals for next year have now been upgraded to ‘earn enough to live on a small island away from those determined to incite chaos amongst the cesspit of humanity’. It’s good to have ambition…

Creative – new ideas and first drafts

The hotel retreat did what it was intended to do. Without the everyday distractions, I was able to knuckle down and get some creative thinking done. I came away with a full plot for a new romance novel. The only thing missing is the title. It felt exceptionally satisfying and it is always nice to have a few ideas (that are slightly more than half-baked, even if they are not fully written) in the back pocket.

I did start on a new first draft. It’s been going slowly, but that is the product of these unnecessarily cold, dark mornings. I feel the lure of hibernation and it will take me a little while to get back up to full speed.

Oh, and I signed up for NaNoWriMo. Officially my favourite writing event of the year, when I get to hone my competitive skills.

Editing – the slow, tortuous road to publication

This week I have been helping to edit something for someone else. Strange how much easier it is when you’re tearing down someone else’s baby, rather than your own…

Publishing – and all the other bits that go on behind the scenes

Things have been quiet this week. I have stepped back a little from social media because I was getting caught up in the horror of politics. Not just with the US election. Brexit is still this huge uncertainty and although I don’t like Marmite, I respect other people’s right to abuse their tastebuds in the privacy of their own home. Who knows, over the weekend I might allow myself back out into the world. It is terribly easy to justify that you’re actually working when you’re not doing anything of the sort though.

In actual book related things, I am beginning to think about cover designs for my next release. I’m trying to get better at running a tight ship when it comes to these things. I don’t want to put pressure on myself, but nor do I want to make things harder for anyone I’m working with. Baby steps.

Planning and dreaming – what’s coming up next week

I have a huge planning and strategy session in the calendar that will map out the first half of next year. This won’t be just writing projects, but they have to fit in somewhere and at the moment, they are my priority. The one thing I’ve learned is that if you don’t actually prioritise your priority, then someone else will give you theirs instead. So next week will be planning and dreaming and then boiling it down into the nitty gritty of action. There will be calendars and spreadsheets. I might have to put the brakes on before someone pulls out a Gantt chart.

Writing Best Bits

Coming up with brand new characters and discovering their story is always an amazing thing. If I had to pick one thing, I would say that it is my favourite part of the writing process. There is none of the pressure that comes with actually having to write the damn thing, but you still get to be creative. It is like the first part of a relationship, when you’re getting to know all the things about each other, but haven’t yet had your first argument about who has to do the dishes.

Weekly success score: 6/10 (It’s been good, but the actual word count could have been higher). NOW:

Writer Life: Some words, but mainly yawning

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I’m very happy to reach the weekend. Yet another manic week is behind me, but then the next two are gloriously empty. I know life moves in cycles, but I seriously have to get better at managing them. Still, you live and learn. This final quarter of the year is all about experimentation and testing, so I’m braced for one or two failures along the way.

On the bright side, I had a lovely weekend exploring the very beautiful South West of England. There is nothing like sun, sea, sand and… the rest to make you appreciate life. A bit of fresh air and time to just think kept me sane for the weekdays that followed.

So, writing this week has been fractured but I’ve managed to make some progress.

Creative – new ideas and first drafts

Things That Die In The Light has continued towards the end of the first draft, despite writing mainly from hotels and cars this week. I’m not sure that’s 100% accurate, but it is certainly how it feels.

I’ve also had a small plot bunny for a new lesbian romance that may or may not be interesting enough for me to bump it to the top of the list and the next project I work on. Only time will tell…

Editing – the slow, tortuous road to publication

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. There simply hasn’t been time amongst the more mundane (yet thankfully bill paying) work.

Publishing – and all the other bits that go on behind the scenes

Dirty Little War has continued to receive some pretty great reviews, so I am really happy with that. I’ve got some fantastic readers out there that I’m grateful for.

STILL trying to get to grips with Facebook. I keep having moments of teenage style angst. I’m such an introvert, I have utter fears about coming across as desperate. Please like me! It’s utterly embarrassing for someone my age, but there you have it. We all have our weaknesses. This is one of my many.

Planning and dreaming – what’s coming up next week

It is the end of another quarter. I had some pretty big goals and dreams for the last one. I achieved most of them – even if the majority of the work I procrastinated on until September. So I will be spending some time this weekend planning how I round out the year. The remaining three months will give me the information I need to determine how many side projects I can (and am willing to) take on next year. I’ll be deciding which book to draft next as well as picking the next one to edit. Some more big decisions, but I’m sure taking the time to think about them properly will be worth it.

Writing Best Bits

The biggest win for me this week was actually getting out of bed to write despite feeling terrible. A mixture of both mental and physical exhaustion held me back. So why was this a best bit? Simply because years of training myself to this point, along with an unwavering desire that writing is what I want to do for the rest of my life, allowed me to get up when normal people would have quit. That is worth celebrating.

Weekly success score: 5/10 (Not enough sleep. Will try harder next week.)

Dirty Little War Playlist

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I think a lot of writers have a selection of songs they put together when they are beginning to write a novel. I know for me it is one of the key things at the beginning. When I’m actually writing, I don’t really listen to the songs at all. But a playlist gives me instant access to the themes and mood of the story, so when I’m out an about, I can put it on and instantly become immersed on the characters again.

My latest novel, Dirty Little War, is a standalone lesbian romance, set on the gritty streets of East End London. It dips into organised crime and forbidden love. We all know that forbidden women are exciting and make us lose all rational thoughts about consequences, even when they are dangerous.

So, without further ado, the playlist for Dirty Little War:

I’m On Fire, Bruce Springsteen
Blank Space, Taylor Swift
It Might As Well Be You, Del Amitri
Take Me To Church, Hozier
Tell Me, Billie Myers
Sunset (Jamie xx Edit), The xx
Casual Sex, My Darkest Days
Spring Released, Grant Lee Philiips
Coming Up From Behind, Marcy Playground
Poison, Alice Cooper
Steer, Missy Higgins
I Drove All Night, Roy Orbison
Point Blank, Bruce Springsteen

I know, it is a somewhat eclectic list in terms of musical genre and artist. But the songs work for the story I wanted to write and when I look back over the finished result, I can see the songs helped me stay true to the characters and what they were going through. Given that my characters were essentially prisoners of their families and the lives they were born into, I’m On Fire started me off in the right place for writing about the insanity of passion.

Each song had a special place too in that they directly tie up to certain key scenes. I always find this most useful when writing dark scenes about real life and the despair of escaping that comes with it. So for me it comes full circle, ending with Springsteen too…

You grew up where young girls they grow up fast
You took what you were handed and left behind what was asked
But what they asked baby wasn’t right
You didn’t have to live that life
And I was gonna be your Romeo, you were gonna be my Juliet
These days you don’t wait on Romeos, you wait on that welfare check
And on all the pretty things that you can’t ever have
And on all the promises
That always end up point blank, Shot between the eyes

It’s here! My new romance novel has been published today

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I’m thrilled to introduce my latest book to the world!

In the dark heart of the city, a dirty little war is about to begin

Evie Baedeker knows her place in the world. Born into a life of organised crime in the gritty East End of London, she has endured nothing but hardship and disappointment. Then one night, in a sleazy bar, fate sends a dangerous opportunity her way.

Carmen Trogan, daughter and heir apparent to a rival business, has no idea who Evie is when their eyes meet across the dance floor. But Evie knows all about her. The chance to bring the rich and beautiful woman to her knees – both figuratively and literally – is too good to pass up.

Sparks fly from their first kiss, but Evie is playing a dangerous game. There are consequences that come with spending the night with a woman like Carmen.

Will she be able to walk away from the best night of her life, or will she risk it all to see Carmen one more time?

A standalone lesbian romance novel, this has all the bittersweet joy that comes with forbidden love. You can pick up a copy over at Amazon now!

Big changes ahead

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As I’ve indicated a couple of times this year, I’ve been in a crazy place when it comes to work and life. The good news is, a few key projects that have been consuming so many of those projects have finally begun to wrap up.

What does this mean? It means that after a year of not publishing any fiction, I will be in a position to begin putting my time and effort into this again to a much greater degree. I still intend to work on other projects, but my C. K. Martin fiction is some of my favourite. I love to spend the hours creating these women and their lives, so the prospect of being able to indulge myself is really very exciting.

It has been a year since my last book, which in independent author terms is sometimes seen as the equivalent of being dead. My current goal is to get back to the publishing rate of three books per year, which I was on course to do until the last twelve months hit. I spent a significant amount of time over the past weekend working out how I get to schedule my time in a way that works for me and helps me to achieve a higher quality output. September to December will be the real test of this. If it doesn’t work, then I may have to go back, tweak the approach and continue to push forwards.

The most exciting thing now is the thought of finally being able to share characters and stories with you that have been more neglected over this past year than I would like. So there are exciting times ahead. Next week, I’ll be publishing my first lesbian romantic standalone novel and I’m a mixed bag of nervous and excited about the response. Regardless, I’ll be opening a bottle of wine when it appears on the kindle store, as a way of marking a new chapter in my life if nothing else.

Kindle Royalties (Part Two) – still the enemy?

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A while ago, when Amazon announced a new way of paying royalties based on read page counts, authors and publishers threw their arms up in despair. The reality was, it was most likely to affect self-published authors and only with the books ‘borrowed’ rather than purchased, which I discussed in my first blog post on the subject.

It’s been happening now for several months and we finally have some data on the subject. For those of you sensible enough to just enjoy reading rather than killing yourself writing, monthly royalties are broken down by territory and then again by purchased and the amount you’ve earned by total pages read.

The other me works with data to fund the writer me, so this little method, no matter how crude, fascinates me. I’m all about data driven decisions and it would be foolish for someone not to analyse the data they have available and use it to inform their strategies. At this time of year, when I’m planning for 2016, it will certainly influence things.

So, what do I know?

The United States is my highest paying market
The UK is my second highest paying market
In the US, I don’t sell many more books, but my ‘borrowed, total read pages’ payments are three times that of sales, bumping it into the lead
In the UK, this is just above total sales by little more than a couple of quid each month
My other markets are Canada and New Zealand and I’m happy to just have people buying books from there given how damn expensive it was when I’ve lived/travelled there

Borrowing with Kindle Prime has clearly taken off more in the States than the UK and other countries, that’s for sure. The good news for me is that when people borrow my first book The Crochet Killer (shameless plug) they read more than just the first few pages and give up. They tend to read the whole book, which is fantastic news for me. And I completely understand not shelling out the cold hard cash for an author you don’t know if you have an alternative, it’s essentially the same as using a library.

So there you have it. Borrowing a book and reading it can still make an author happy. None of the figures I’ve talked about above have been massive, certainly not enough to be a full time writer and that whole private island thing is still a million miles away. But enough to let me know that people are reading and enjoying my writing, which is what we all do it for in the first place.

Goodreads: where the brave fear to tread

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Believe it or not, I’ve never been a member of goodreads. Now I’m signing up at last.

So many of my author friends absolutely loathe the site. I mean they hate it so much, they actually rank it lower than going to Amazon to look at your reviews, which for popular authors is a very special kind of torture. That alone was enough to put me off.

Now I’m increasingly hearing that it is the best way for Indie authors to connect with their readers, as well as finding cool people who are writing the same things you are. My reading list is undergoing something of a review at the moment (too many books in the same genre for far too long) so this seems like a pretty good idea.

I guess I’ll find out in the next few weeks whether or not I’ve been missing out by listening to others. Or it could be a damp squib of a place that is on the decline. I’m going to hold out for the best case scenario: it’s full of awesome people to meet who are passionate about books and can teach me a thing or two.

If you see me on there, feel free to say hi and forgive me if I mess things up (I invariably do) whilst working it out.

Do LGBT readers expect explicit content?

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It is clear to see when you do a simple search of any LGBT eBook category that the first few pages of book titles include a generous serving of the steamier side of life. Seriously, you only need to look at those covers to know what’s going on between them.

Which then led to an interesting conversation with friends: do LGBT readers expect explicit content? Is that what they’re there for, or is it just a given within the genre and no one is at all surprised when it happens?

I have a few thoughts about this, given that my own books don’t contain explicit content (yet it has been requested, so there is obviously a market). I wonder, sometimes, if actually the assumption is somewhat based on that old stereotyping – that the gay is all about the sex. Gay men certainly suffer from this perception more than lesbians, hence the oft-held belief that they can’t be in a long term relationship and will hump anything that also has a penis.

Are we still in the stages of infancy with the genre so books with gay characters are all about the gayness rather than plot? If so, this automatically leads into somewhat dodgy ground. It is difficult to demand greater visibility but without giving characters same depth and multi-facetedness. Romance is one thing, but other genres?

Let’s face it, sex sells. It doesn’t matter what kind of sex you’re into, it’s still enough of a taboo to generate intrigue, and the anonymity of eBooks makes for fertile ground. After a perceived drought for LGBT readers it’s no great surprise that explicit content is in high demand.

So, is the LGBT eBook market just moving with the dynamics of supply and demand? Do the readers merely accept the content or are they actively seeking it out? If anyone has the answers then I would genuinely love to know. I’ve tried to make diverse characters who are more than just their sexuality, or their race, or their social background. But I suspect that I’d probably shift more sales if there was a bit more laborious breathing and references to bodily fluids in that first 10% taste you get for free.

Bonus points and apologies if you’ve spotted all the sex puns scattered throughout.