Tag Archives: novel writing

There’s a Need for Large Print Books

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Yesterday, I went to my local library to have something printed. Honestly, I could just buy myself a printer and not leave my house, but then I wouldn’t have the experiences I do at my local library. Plus, our local libraries need our support hence the reason why I prefer paying the library to use their copying machines. Not to mention, checking out a few books while I’m there.

I live in a small country town. Majority of the patrons I meet at my local library are elderly and retired individuals. I love to listen to the stories they share while they check out their books at the front desk.

One of the stories I listened in on included the lack of large print books. They told the librarian that they enjoy reading books, too, and that at their age, it is harder to see the print on regular paperback books.

As an author, I hadn’t put much thought into large print. My list of published titles consists mostly of ebooks. I do have two books that are paperback, Dana’s First Fish, Chaos: Supernatural Realms; one is for children and the other is for young adults.

As I prepare one of my recently published books, Rancher’s Daughter, for a paperback release, a thought came to me. I have a chance to broaden my readership if I also publish it in large print.

I had to look this one up and stumbled upon a website that I had visited a few times before. Joanna Penn is a wonderful author, who explains how to publish large print and how it is actually more popular than I realized. You can view her post here.

 

When Do You Find Time To Write?

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writing on the road

Working on my next novel while running errands with my dad.

People still ask me how I find the time to write. To them, I’m quite a busy person.

“You’re a single mom with a special needs kiddo, you work full time, yet you have time to write and publish books? How do you do it?”

“Well, I make time,” I say with a shrug. “I love to write, so, I write.”

True, I have my hands completely full with my daughter. Being a special needs parent is a full-time job in itself, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

I’m often approached by aspiring authors telling me that they don’t have the time to write, yet they want to write and publish a book. If you want to be a writer, then be one. Don’t sit on the sidelines saying how you wish you could be one. Make it happen. Authors don’t find time to write, they make time.

Authors don’t find time to write, they make time.

I was going to college full-time, working part-time, volunteering, taking care of my daughter as a single mom, and helping my grandmother. In the middle of all that I had written and published three books; one of which was a novel.

I have been able to remove ‘attending classes, studying and doing homework’ off of my plate, but my plate is still full. Between IEP meetings (I’ve had 6 this year so far), meeting with someone from the school (a weekly event, if not daily), school events, afterschool events, daily life requirements of housework and errands, work (the main money-bringer), I still find thirty minutes to an hour, sometimes more, to write. If my daughter is at school and I’m off work, that’s plenty of time (8 hours, give or take time out for lunch) to write and get my errands and housework completed.

Being an author is a job.

Since starting my new job last year, I have had nothing but time to write, that I have made it my second job. Being an author is a job. You not only work on your next book, but you have to promote and market the work that you have published. How else are you going to earn an income from your work if no one knows it’s out there?

However, I tend to spend a lot of time writing than I do marketing. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. I’m writing more, which means there will be more published works out there. The more you have published, the more your work will be noticed. I had also decided not to market as much until I had more published works out there.

I’m not saying all of this to brag, honestly! I’m trying to encourage others to make the time. I once used to look at published authors, wishing that I, too, could write and publish a book. I decided to tell myself that I could.

I started writing my novel, Chaos when my daughter was a few months old. I kept pushing it aside as I lacked the motivation to continue. My grandmother became my cheerleader, in a way, urging me to keep going. She knew I wanted to be a published author. I’m glad I listened to her.

Now that she is no longer here, I find myself thinking about her and what she would say each time that I need that little boost of encouragement. Or, I see the pride in my daughter’s eyes when she takes my children’s picture book to school to show everyone that her mommy wrote it. That right there is all the motivation I need.

Mock Ebook Covers Helps With Motivation

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For the past few months, I have been working on a novel that had me stopping now and then. It’s a mystery/thriller – murder, the FBI, a love interest. The idea sounded great in my head yet, I had trouble getting it to come out and onto paper. I pushed my novel aside, and then pulled up another writing project onto my computer and worked on it. I was able to write in spurts. My brain kept trying to focus on that one novel though.

I enlisted the help of a few co-workers. A few of them listened to me as I rambled on about this story I was writing. A few others added their two cents, which was enough to help me push aside my writer’s block.

Later that night, I typed up what I came up with, then stared at the scene after I was done. I re-read the story, hoping something new would come up, but as I read it, it seemed as if part of it wouldn’t make sense in the real world, and my book took place in the real world.

Once again, I pushed it aside and pulled up the other writing project, until I couldn’t write any more on it either.

Pushing my other writing project aside, I decided to try something new.

I read how one author creates her own book covers for inspiration. Though she never uses these covers on her books, as she hires a professional, her self made covers do serve a purpose.

She chooses the model, picks a title for her book, and then puts it all together in a mock photoshop software you can find for free on the internet. She then prints it out and hangs it near her computer for her to see while she writes. Once I read this, I was able to understand her methods. Sometimes it takes visual cues to help get the creative juices flowing.

I tried her method and found that it worked. Honestly, why didn’t I try this before? It wasn’t long that the words started to flow. I could visualize the story playing out as if it were a movie. I even went as far as creating boards on Pinterest; picking out my characters and locations to draw out inspiration.

All these methods have helped me write a better story.

I even went as far as coming up with a second book, but that’s just me, always thinking ahead. Soon the outline was coming into place and I was able to determine an ending.

Now it was time to fill in the story.

Check back to see how far along my story has gotten.

 

Another Year, Another Book Published

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Claimed by the Alpha is a steamy paranormal werewolf romance. It’s available for purchase on Amazon, or check it out on Kindle Unlimited.

Rancher’s Daughter is an adult soft romance novella. It’s available for purchase on Amazon, or check it out on Kindle Unlimited.

 

It’s been a busy few months, to which I hadn’t realized it’s already April! This year has already started out great for me. I have published two more titles and will have two more books coming out this summer. Crossing my fingers that I will have two more coming out in the Fall.

The year before last, I had set some goals for myself; publish 6 titles a year, for 5 years. That includes short stories, novellas, and novels. Partially, it’s for tax purposes, but mostly, it was set as a challenge. Could I do it? Could I actually write that many books in a year? Well, it turns out, I can. or, rather, I’m getting there.

Last year started out a bit rough. However, I had switched jobs and am now happier where I am. Not only do I get paid more at my present job, but I have more time to spend with my daughter and more time to write.

Last year, I published a novel, a novella, and a short story. I had also written two more novellas, Claimed by the Alpha and Rancher’s Daughter. However, I wasn’t able to publish them until this year.

I also decided to work on lengthening The Mummy’s Curse, a short novella I had published last year. A few people told me that it was a really great story, very hot, but it was also a bit too short. I was told that it had promise had I made it longer. I listened. Not only did I lengthen it, but I am also working on making it a 3 book mini-series and plan to have the next two books in the mini-series published this Fall.

Things are looking up for me as an author, finally, and I couldn’t be more happier!

 

 

Update on my manuscript

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Even though I’m going to school full time I still manage to work on my manuscript (Young Adult Novel). Yesterday I was curious as to how far I’ve gotten on word count. I’m almost a hundred words shy of making it to 37,000 words. I’m also up to 134 pages. The last time I posted how many words I was at was this past January. I think it was 5K words short of making 40K words total. Looks like I’ve written two thousand words since then.

I know it doesn’t seem like that’s a lot, but honestly I’m editing my manuscript, which means I’m cutting words and or paragraphs here and there, as well as adding words and or paragraphs here and there. I have twenty chapters in my manuscript and right now I’m working on editing chapter fifteen.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed in hopes that I can get it finished soon. I know with added school work in my schedule it makes it difficult to work on my manuscript more, but a little work is better than none.