Hi

Hey, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Sorry about that. It’s time to get back on track, I think. Life has been hectic, and hopefully has settled down to the point I can get back into a routine. We’ll see how it goes.

I won’t elaborate here as to just all that has gone on, but here it is in a nutshell.

Lost three online friends to cancer. Helped my mom clean and list her bar for sale. Stressed out about work (a lot more than I needed to). Got angry about my favorite daughter getting cut from volleyball. Allowed everything to get into my head and put all my writing and blogging on hold.

Today that all stops and as I said, it’s time to get back into a routine.

Before I fell off the writing wagon, I was way up on my word count for the year. I was on target. I was feeling great. I got a great start on Asteroid Bunnies. I had gotten back into Almost-Super Heroes. I’d redone and resubmitted my short story Dans le Ciel and retitled it Contrat d’Oliviver. I was in the middle of getting edits done.

Yes, all that and then I fell off the map.

I started making my comeback when I looked at my book covers as a whole and decided they weren’t getting the job done. They were okay, but as a collection, too disparate. I needed something more cohesive. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be releasing those covers and gearing up for the release of Jack Kane (hopefully later this year). I’ve redone most of my covers and am in the process of getting my blurbs also redone. I’ve found terrible grammar, typos, just a big old mess that I can’t believe I missed. So I’ll be fixing all of those when I drop the covers.

Then I’ll be re-reading all my books and getting them cleaner. This will be a big task, but needs to be done.

Speaking of Jack Kane; The editing process on that one, for me, was brutal. I began to question my ability and everything I’d done up to that point. Was I as good of a writer as I thought? Was I making far too many mistakes in my writing? Did all that red me I just plain sucked?

Well, no. What it was, for me, was a learning experience. I learned that I’m terrible with two things. 1) Commas. 2) Word Echo. 3) dialogue tags. (okay, okay, three things).

But you know what, that book was picked up by a publisher. Mike and I pounded though those edits, cleaned it up, did some needed rewriting, and, in the end, came out with a much better manuscript.

Publishing with a publisher is a partnership. Something in a manuscript that doesn’t bother me (like word echo) might be like needles in the eyes to an editor. It was an education that I needed and feel much better for it. I can’t wait for Mike and I to start working on Jack Kane 2!

So now that I’m back, I will be writing once again. I need to look at the unfinished manuscripts I have. I need to look at what I want to work on next. I really need to take stock in what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and get my nose back to the grind stone.

So I apologize for dropping off the map. Look for future posts about what I plan on doing with my books. As a hybrid author, I have the ability to do what I like with my self-published books, and in doing so, I hope to have an impact on my publisher produced books.

For now, I should be writing.

Until Next Time!

WOO WOO!