Best Writing Advice Ever

I'm interrupting my work-in-progress to post a great motivator for other writers.

From Joe Konrath's Blog: 2013 Resolutions For Writers

Special Announcement

I'm writing again.

To anyone who doesn't know, the Bad Mojo Series will have 13 stories. One novel, eleven shorts (episodes), and one novella. I'll make another announcement after I complete SERIAL QUILLER 6, 7, 8, and 9.

See you then.

In The Year 2013

I have a proper Table of Contents on my books, new covers for Bad Mojo and Hellfire, and a review request at the end of every story. I spent the past two days re-uploading all 15 titles to Smashwords, Pubit!, and Amazon.

I really love the new cover art. The only other cover I'd consider changing is for NIGHT OF THE DARK. I noticed it's too much like the Quiller covers.

While this is all good, I'm further behind in finishing my thriller series.

So. In the year 2013, I will...

...stop making changes to my books after I release them.
...complete the Bad Mojo Series before spring.
...complete the children's short story collection by June.
...blog about something other than my books.
...give up the notion of panning for gold in California.
...devote the first half of the second half of the year to promoting my books.
...send a free copy of SERIAL QUILLER 1 and SMOKE ON THE WATER to multiple reviewers.
...consider enrolling one novel in Amazon's Select Program. [Probably KILLING SUMMER]
...consider using Amazon's CreateSpace.
...make certain everything is in place before the holiday shopping season ramps up.
...improve what I can, let go of what I can't.
...keep my political views private.
...try a new brand of coffee.
...bait my own hook. [Hmm.]
...lose five more pounds.
...plan to write lighter stories in the future.
...devote the other half of the second half of the year to having fun.

Cheers

What's Happening

Not only has this been a very strange year it's also been a very stressful one. I completed several stories. Made new covers for some books. Changed the content on others.

On the 12th of this month, I made new covers for the Bad Mojo Series [book one shown below]. I was pleased with them. For a little while. Um, that's a picture of a Voodoo Lily, folks. Sheesh. :)

I've known from the beginning how this series is going to go. But I've really struggled with the covers. So. Today, I made these covers: Bad Mojo. I love them. And they are here to stay.

The other thing I've had to deal with this month is learning how to make a Table of Contents for my books. None of my books had one. I found out this is why Apple has been slow about uploading my stuff. The ToC is a requirement of theirs. I couldn't figure out how to do it, though. Following the step-by-step directions on the Style Guide from Smashwords I made them in just a few minutes. It was so easy to make the ToC's I couldn't believe I was reluctant to do them sooner.

Another thing I did was to add a Review Request at the end of all of my stories.

I'll put everything [new covers/text/ToC's] on Apple, Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Sony, Diesel, and Smashwords later this week. I'm waiting for the holidays to be over and done with.

By the way, my books are available on Kobo and Diesel, again. I'll put the links on this blog as soon as everything has been uploaded.

It's a shame I didn't have everything in place before the Christmas-shopping season began.

Merry Christmas

New Look For Serial Quiller

This is cover image number five for book one in the Bad Mojo Series. I think. It might be number ten. Or forty. Seriously. I've lost track of how many times I've changed the covers for this series.

After I went with the critter pictures (shown below) I noticed I'd lost the subliminal theme of this ongoing story: sex and voodoo.

So. What do you think? Are the new covers here to stay? Or do I need to go back to the drawing board?

sharon [dot] austin43 [at] gmail [dot] com


SERIAL QUILLER 5 is available on Amazon.

I don't know why, but Sony hasn't uploaded SQ 5, yet. And for some odd reason, Apple only put SQ 1, 2, 4, and 5 on their site. I contacted Smashwords. Hopefully, book three will soon be available.

New Release – SQ 5

SERIAL QUILLER 5 is now available.

Nook .. Smashwords

Coming soon to: Apple, Sony, Amazon

Synopsis:
During a séance in Charleston, South Carolina, the ghost of America’s first alleged female serial killer, Lavinia Fisher, possesses Alma LeJeune. Taking up where Fisher left off, Alma drugs traveling businessmen spending the night at the Wayfarer Hotel. Before they pass out she escorts them to their room where the bed is rigged to a mechanism that lowers it to the cellar through a hole in the floorboards. In the cellar the sleeping men are hacked to pieces by Lavinia and her husband, John, who has also returned from the dead. After dark, she feeds the body parts to her pet, a great white alligator. One man who didn’t drink the tea escapes and leads authorities to the hotel. Alma – still trapped in a trancelike state and getting closer to becoming completely transformed into Lavinia – is unable to resist arrest, much less defend herself when she’s on the verge of being hanged by the neck. Where is BJ? Why did she leave her there all alone?

Bad Mojo Series