Fiction Wins

If you've been following my dilemma, you know that I was torn between an essentially historical tome and another novel.

I've decided that fiction wins. I like the notion of a third book to place alongside my other two novels, and it's frankly more interesting to write.

If I'm going to write (and you know I am), it shouldn't be drudgery. I may go back to the non-fiction idea at some point, but for now I will plug away at my novel.

It's going to be a challenge -- a complete story taking place in the span of one weekend -- but if it wasn't for the challenge, I don't know why I would do it.

So, one day, and I hope it's sooner rather than later, I'll have one more image to place on this blog -- a trifecta.

Then I might be done.

It's hard to say.

Editing

Music will have to wait a week or so. I'm currently editing. I decided to, what the heck, pretty up my first manuscript and publish it as the second April Tompkins novel. If it sells as well as RADIO CRAZY, I'm going to be flush with a sprinkling of pennies!

But that's what we do -- and by "we", I mean quixotic strivers.

Maybe I need to advertise - tweets aren't working well. But I have no budget. I edited RADIO CRAZY, designed the cover, converted it to the proper format, uploaded it to Amazon -- all at a cost of $0.00.

All one can do is try.

Rich Farmers Update and Giveaway!

Yes, this is another shameless plug!

People tend to enjoy my music posts more than my book posts, but hey!  A gal's gotta make her $11.98!  Total.  Seriously.  And that's mostly because my friend took pity on me and bought a copy.

Be that as it may, I wanted to announce that Rich Farmers is now available on iTunes and Barnes and Noble (for Nook). 

I was going to say how honored I am to be featured (to use the term loosely) on iTunes, but then I realized that some of Red River's songs can also be found there; not through any effort (or knowledge) of the band.  It seems that one of our music libraries, Audiosparx, put together a few compilation CD's of various artists, and some of our tunes were stuck on five or six of those CD's (No sales to report!  Just like my book!)

So, I guess I'm an old hand at iTunes.....

Now is a good time to put in a plug for my book formatter and cover designer, Elijah Toten.  You can view his services here. He was very nice to work with, and I think he did a great job on the cover design.  Granted, I gave him a picture that I insisted he use, but the graphics, especially with regard to the subtitle, really convey the scariness and, I guess, shakiness, of that time, growing up.

I bet there are tons of self-published authors who only sell one or two copies (I write, sobbing).  I can still say I did my best, and I slaved over writing my book; and I'm GLAD I did it.

And now without further a-dewww, I am giving away three copies of Rich Farmers in whatever digital format you choose.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post.  Guests on my author site will also be included in the drawing.  I will use the Randomizer to select the three winning entries.

Winners will be chosen on Friday, May 3, 2013.   

Thank you for reading!

Missing In Action

I used to be such a prolific blogger!

Now, my blog is all dusty (figuratively, of course) and neglected.

You see, I am writing a book.  (Shhh!  It's kind of a secret.)

Writing a book is hard!  What was I thinking? 

And I don't even want to ponder the editing part of it.  Right now, I'm just writing, writing.

I write on weekend nights, for about three hours each session.  I would think that in three hours, I'd get a lot more written, but apparently, the thinking part of writing takes some time, too.

I have no idea how long my book will be, or where it will end.  Or how it will end.  I have discovered, though, that writing a book is like watching a movie; I'm immersed in the story, and I can't wait to see where it will go; what turns it will take in the road.  It's kind of like songwriting.

I've only written 149 pages so far (and 42,300 words, but who's counting?)  It seems like way more!  And I already know that I won't be using all those in the end.  I, alas, have a long way to go.

I have to constantly remind myself of the old songwriter's adage:  Show; don't tell.  It's not a lecture; it's a book.

So, I'll try to keep checking in from time to time, and maybe (like today) write more than a one-word post.


And one day, who knows when, I will join the ranks of all the self-published authors whose books are never read.  Just like us songwriters.