Yup. Private Property is still at the top of the chart. It wasn't a dream.
Yes, I know some of you can't figure out why I find it surprising, I just do.
In other news ... well, there's not much other news. It's freaking cold out again this morning -21C, but that's nothing new. My diet is still going successfully. The scales are very slowly moving downward, and though it's not enough that I need to buy new clothes or anything, I 'feel' better for it. The exercise, however, is not going as well. Yes, I have been on the treadmill, but not as often as I need to. So that'll be my continued goal for the next couple weeks. They say it takes a repetition of 21 times? I believe it is for something to become a habit. Obviously I've got about 19 times more to go ;)
I'm gobsmacked. And I have never used that term before. I just have no idea how it's happened to catch on so quickly, especially since it's my first book and I'm a totally unknown author.
Back in September, I attended the Ottawa Romance Writers' Conference. Gizmo Guy went with me, and while I attended the lectures, he wandered around downtown Ottawa taking photos.
He has a real eye for photography and interesting pictures - I posted some of them on my blog a while back (that link will take you to one post, but there are a few, starting at September 25th, 2008) There were pumpkins with funny faces on them, flowers, the motorcycles and ceremony of the National Police and Peace Officer's Memorial Service. And this one:
Do you also remember at one point last year, I had a photograph I'd taken in Dallas nominated to be put on an online map called Schmap? Well, GG just got word that the above picture is also going to be used by Schmaps. Isn't that cool? What are the odds that both of us would have photos on that system?
I really need to convince him to start getting serious about his photography, or at least sign up for someplace like iStock or Dreamstime and make some money off his photos. He's got some beauties.
That winds up my guest blogging until February 3rd when Rose Marie Wolf is hosting me. Phew! You guys must be getting tired of all my promo. I have to say I'm pretty much drained of any new ideas for guest blog posts. Heck, I usually find it tough to come up with things to post here.
On the good news front, when I opened my email yesterday, there was a notice that Private Property had hit #6 on Samhain's Top Ten Bestsellers list in less than 24 hours. Woohoo! I guess the promo has paid off. **Edited** I woke up this morning to a "Congratulations" email and wondered what the sender was talking about. Private Property is the #2 Best Seller this morning! *Jaw hits floor*
That's really good news, because I'm ready to go to bed and sleep for a month now.
I admit it. I've been stressing out over everything lately. I've been sending panicked emails to Sue and Dani, Marley and Amy. Hopefully some of my stress will die down now that Private Property's released. At least until I get my first review. (Don't forget to visit me over at Greta Wheeler's "I do not want to wait, I want the book now" blog. There's a contest and everything!)
Anyway, my sister sent me the link to this one and I just had to share it with you because it helped relieve some of my stress by getting me laughing. All moms will be able to identify with this lady ...
By some very strange quirk of fate, I have planned all these guest blogging spots and had a long list of where I was going to be on other people's blogs, and totally forgot about putting up a post on my own blog on release day. *shakes head in amusement*
I got up this morning to discover that Gizmo Guy had left a present for me on my keyboard in honor of today's release. A pair of Australian opal earrings. He then said not to expect a present for each release. Rats! "Unless," he continued, "it was for a New York Times Bestseller. Then I'll buy you diamond earrings." Aha, a challenge!
Anyway, yes, finally after me going on and on about this story since ... forever ... well, I guess since the sale last July anyway, Private Property is being released by Samhain Publishing today. Here's the link to My Bookstore and More. It's on sale this week for $3.15.
I know you've all seen the cover a billion times, but here it is again, along with a blurb, and I think for the first time, an excerpt.
Private Property Genre: Contemporary Romance, Red Hots! ISBN: 978-1-60504-368-5 Length: Novella Price: 3.50 3.15 (this week only) Publication Date: January 27, 2009 Cover art by Natalie Winters
Even though Mark Rodriguez holds Jodi at arm’s length from his heart, her self-confidence is a turn-on he can’t resist. Inviting old college buddy and future business partner Sam into their bed for one night was supposed to set free her wildest fantasy. Instead he finds the tables turned, forced to watch while Sam brings her to the height of ecstasy.
Now, Mark’s not so sure he wants to share his treasure…
“I’m in,” she whispered, knowing Mark was listening in the van. She wiped the sweat from the back of her neck, angling her head to catch the cool breeze rushing through the air-conditioning vent.
“You never told me how you got the security code,” she heard Mark say in the earpiece as she headed through the empty room toward the center hallway.
“I have my secrets.” That weekend she’d bribed to call in sick so she could fill in had paid off—even if it meant she’d had to scrub toilets. The work hadn’t really been hard—the new owner had only furnished four rooms so far, so there’d not been much to clean.
A smile tugging at her lips, Jodi paused at the door to the office, ensuring it was empty. Moonlight streamed between the heavy curtains that flanked the French doors and across the floor in a rectangular pattern, slanting up the bookcases lining the walls. The red power light on the cordless phone reflected in the brass base of the banker’s lamp on the desk.
Assured she was alone, she walked confidently toward the desk.
“The safe’s in the floor behind the desk,” Mark reminded her. “Figure you’ve got less than an hour to crack the safe, leave the envelope and get out before the next patrol cruises by.”
She rolled her eyes. Cruise was right—that’s all the minimum-wage cop wannabees currently providing security did for their visual inspection. Her van had been parked in the area for a week now and they hadn’t slowed down enough to read her license plate or check why she was there.
She pushed the leather office chair aside and knelt on the hardwood floor, inhaling a whiff of lemon furniture polish. The very same polish she’d applied on the weekend. Reaching beneath the desk, her fingers found the latch that would free the panel hiding the safe. Her breath left her with a whoosh when she heard the audible click.
“Got it!” she whispered, pumping her fist in the air. Now the real fun began.
Still on her knees, she reached down and swung open the square section of floor concealing the safe. A chuckle escaped her. She’d never bothered to tell Mark that during her stint as a replacement maid, she’d been assigned to dust this room. Or that she’d discovered the safe’s combination on the flip side of the leather blotter.
“Hey, Mark, start the timer—I’ll bet I can have this baby cracked in under three minutes.”
Mark’s low chuckle reverberated in her ear. “Two. Loser gets tied up and spanked.”
Jodi’s butt tightened. Spanking usually meant Mark was in the mood for ass play. Maybe she should deliberately take four minutes. No, she thought with wicked delight as she glanced at her latex covered fingers, it was time Mark got a taste of his own medicine.
“Then drop your pants, big boy, and show me your sweet ass, ’cause you’re going to get a whoopin’ tonight.”
Clenching her penlight between her teeth, she leaned over the dial of the old-fashioned safe. Then jumped when the egg started to vibrate deep inside her.
Sonuvabitch. She stopped herself from screeching. She’d completely forgotten the damned thing. Her nipples hardened into swollen buds rubbing against her cotton T-shirt while her pussy throbbed in time with the vibrations.
No way was she going to let Mark win this bet. Ignoring the vibrator as best she could, she carefully turned the dial clockwise to the first number. Heard the click as the mechanism released. One-and-a-half-turns counterclockwise. Another click. Clockwise again. Click.
Grinning, she checked her watch.
“Mark, your ass is going to be sore tomorrow,” she whispered.
A quick tug on the handle opened the safe. Her penlight’s thin beam of light illuminated a thick rope of gold with a massive ruby pendant resting upon a black velvet-covered board. A set of dangly earrings that matched the pendant and several diamond-encrusted bracelets winked back at her. A fortune in easily fenced gems and the idiot had left the combination to the safe where anyone could find it.
Shaking her head at the owner’s stupidity, she pulled out the envelope. Then froze when the sliver of light from the French door lengthened, slid beneath the desk and over the safe.
She peered beneath the knee space under the desk. The moonlight outlined the shape of a dark figure shutting the doors.
“Under two minutes, Mark, I win,” she announced as she crawled from beneath the desk. She straightened and smiled, expecting Mark to flash that sexy smile of his. She was so ready to fuck him, to have him ram his cock deep into her.
But her smile froze when the intruder took a step into the room and the moonlight gleamed off his head. His shaved head.
Not Mark.
“Welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly.”
Two years ago I posted my very first blog about getting serious about my writing, about how I hoped, sometime in the future, that maybe, hopefully, one day I might get published. Tomorrow my first book is being released by Samhain Publishing. Does any one else find that timing more than just a little coincidental, or is it just me?
But none of it would have happened if it hadn't been for one lady's persistence. Nope, not mine. I wish I could take the credit. I'm talking about BlueSueL.
You see Sue is the reason I am getting published tomorrow.
I met Sue on-line almost five years ago on an MSN movie fan group. As we exchanged posts, I learned that Sue was writing with the eye to being published. While I had been writing since I was in elementary school, not once had I considered actually showing anyone my writing. Yet somehow that day I found myself showing Sue my work. I still don’t know how that happened. No one, and I mean no one – not my parents, my sister, my husband, or my sons - knew I wrote. Oh, I’d done lots of non-fiction writing for my day job as a computer instructor, but that was mainly dry instructional manuals. But my fiction? That was completely and utterly private.
Looking back on it, I shudder at what I must have shown Sue that day. I knew little of passive verbs versus active verbs. I didn’t know what ‘showing vs telling’ meant. I had no idea what a Point-of-View slide was.
I do now.
Because Sue, bless her heart, encouraged me to write and bravely volunteered to be my critique partner. She endured my emails ranting about discussing the use of ‘was’ and asking ‘why’ did it have to be this way or that, after all [insert big name author here] didn't follow that rule. Not to mention the endless and lengthy chapters I sent to her to critique. Sue encouraged me to join writers’ groups to learn more. She bugged me to ‘get serious’ about my writing, to try submitting my writing to an agent or editor. To take a chance at the brass ring of publication.
A year and 250,000+ words (a couple shorts stories, a 50K novel, a 33K novella, and 150K bloated … whatever it was) later, I listened to Sue and entered my work into a "Cold Read" event my writers' group had arranged with an editor and an agent. BOTH of them asked to see more of my work. They didn't ask that of anyone else there that day.
So what did I do? I stopped writing.
Completely.
For over a year.
Seriously, I wouldn’t even open Word. Do you know why? Because the prospect that I might actually get published, that I'd have to put myself 'out there' for others to read, scared the sh*t out of me.
Why did I start writing again? Because Sue never gave up on me. She kept emailing. Nudging me. Coaxing me. Threatening me. (just kidding about the threats ... sort of)
In the fall of 2006, she finally managed to convince me to join with her and another friend, Dani, who has since become not only another critique partner but also a good friend, to join Candace Haven’s Fast Draft with them. After not having written for almost 15 months, within 14 days I’d written 80K. That manuscript will never see the light of day, but once I’d re-opened the creative faucet, I couldn’t turn it off.
I made it my 2007 resolution to finally listen to Sue and submit something to an editor or agent that year. At some point in February--and it happened so quickly I still can’t believe it--I'd registered for the RWA National conference in July that happened to be in Sue's and Dani’s Dallas back yard. Not only did I register but I also committed to an appointment to pitch to an editor. (Sue’s rather hard to ignore when she decides to convince you of something. Add Dani to the mix, and there was no chance at escape. Hmm, now that I think on it, maybe I didn't 'jump' into that deep end so much as get pushed. But I'm glad they did.)
Between when I registered and when I actually went to Dallas, Sue challenged me to write an erotica. So I wrote up one chapter and thought “Hey, I like this.” Next thing I knew, I was writing another chapter, and another, and another. Thanks to Sue’s unmerciless grilling, I pitched that story to an editor and got my first request. But not before Sue had taken me on the grand tour of Dallas, including a trip to the Fort Worth Stockyards where we raised a mug (and ate the biggest--and best--ribs I've ever seen in my life) at Risky's, and had a cold brew at the White Elephant Saloon, location of the last gunfight in Fort Worth. We followed up the pitch session by going out to Sue's farm where she got me up on the back of a horse and took me riding (no mean feat for poor Cimmi). She even introduced me to her dad who taught me to shoot - a highlight of the trip and a memory I still draw on when I'm writing one of my characters firing a gun.
When I returned from Dallas, I submitted my manuscript and immediately started another that's stuck in the back of the proverbial drawer. It wasn't until late fall that year before I wrote the story that had occurred to me while I was having dinner with Sue and Dani and some of their writing friends. Naturally it was set on the shores of Lake Arlington on a hot July night ... and I titled it Private Property.
I submitted Private Property to Samhain Publishing in April of 2008 and by July I had my first contract. A contract I never dreamed I’d have back when I first met Sue, following a career path I’d secretly imagined but never had the guts to pursue until Sue harassed nudged me.
So, for pushing me onto the path of success, and keeping me on it, here's raising a glass of thanks to Sue! Thanks, my friend. I couldn't have done it without you.
Phew! Two MAJOR chores done this weekend - the re-organization of Gizmo Guy's and my office is done. I now have my own five high for all my books and office supplies, etc separate from GG's disks and tools and computer parts. And my Mac and PC are tied together on my desk so I can easily flip from one to the other thanks to the D-Link gizmo Gizmo Guy found.
The second major accomplishment is that the downstairs bath now has a sparkling new functioning toilet. That gets a hugehuge Woohoo from me on that one. GG installed it this morning, and so far we've had no leaks or floods or anything. *fingers crossed* it'll stay that way.
So take a wander over to Marley Delarose's blog today - she's done an interview of me, and then at some point between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. stop in and say hi to all the Samhain authors over on the Samhain Cafe as they celebrate the first ever Sammie Awards for the top ten best selling books for each of the past three years, along with reader's favorite books and favorite covers.
I did manage to get to sleep last night (I'd scheduled that last post before I went to bed figuring I wouldn't sleep again.) Unfortunately I was rudely awakened just around 6 a.m. to the smoke alarm going off. Guitar Hero decided to make himself something to eat. He cooks the same way I do - you tell when the food is ready when the smoke alarm sounds. Like mother, like son.
You've got two more days to comment on the Raven Feature - it'll close down at midnight tomorrow night, and the winner will be announced on Monday both here and in the comments section there. I'm also going to be guest blogging over at Marley Delarose's tomorrow, so if you have a moment, you can scoot over there. If you're not already fed up of me, LOL.
We spent this morning tearing my office apart as Gizmo Guy set up my Mac and my PC to use the same monitor and keyboard and mouse. Yes, he'd done this before but the KVM device he used crashed. He got a new one - a d-Link this time - and I've been using it for a week with no problems. Since he'd left the Big Mac on the floor in the middle of the office while we saw if it worked, and now it needs to be put into place, he needed to rewire everything. OMG, the stuff I had stashed on my desk. Lottery tickets from 2003? Swag from Dallas 2007. However, we cleaned up the office as well, and now we have enough space for another shelving unit so GG can store his stuff on one, and I can reclaim a couple more shelves for my overflowing Keeper shelf.
(and I had to add this - I totally stole it from Amy Ruttan's blog)
You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and appreciate the kind way you always handle things.
Got any reliable non-medicinal cures for insomnia? This whole week, I've been sleeping on average of one-and-a-half to three hours a night, and it's getting frustrating. I can't blame too much sugar, since I've been watching my diet. And I can't say I'm not getting any exercise because I've been hitting the treadmill in an effort to wear myself out.
Thursday night I dragged myself to bed when I was just about falling asleep in my chair. I think I may actually have started to fall asleep but then Gizmo Guy came in and turned the light on and that woke me up for a while. I managed to fall asleep for an hour, hour and a half at the max, then woke up just after one as if someone had rung a fire alarm right beside my ear, my brain whirring with thoughts. I ended up giving up and getting up, going downstairs to work on my WIP, then dragged myself back up to bed at 5:30 to wake up when Gizmo Guy got up at 6:30.
It wasn't a total loss, while I was up, I made a decision about the start, and made notes. Then when I got up this morning, I started fleshing it out and wrote over 2K through the day - so I guess some good came out of it, but still. I've got to get a good night's sleep soon or else I'll be falling asleep on my computer just like little kitty above. (Which is funny because that laptop's just like my mini-Mac.)
Okay, okay, I guess I'm a little excited. In fact I'm wondering if maybe that's why I'm not sleeping.
But as I said ... got any home remedies for insomnia? Other than a half bottle of scotch that is? I'd like to be able to function the next day ...
I'm guest blogging today over at JK Coi's blog ... something a little different for me, I interviewed the heroine in Private Property. She wasn't happy with some of my questions.
What a whirlwind it's been lately. Along with a few interviews and advertising features, I think I've got almost all my guest-blog posts written and sent out now. It's been a challenge to try to make each one unique without being an in-your-face Buy My Book post.
So far for my guest blogging schedule, I will be at these blogs on:
Friday, January 23: JK Coi - includes an interview I did of my heroine
Wednesday, January 28: "I do not want to wait, I want the book now" - Greta's devised a comprehensive interview of not only what I write, but what I read and have on my (overflowing) keeper shelf
I'm going to try to put it over on my sidebar so there may be additions go up in the next couple of days. I know I have one for BlueSue going up soon ...
I also have an interview coming up at some point on Kate Davies' blog in her Meet the Author Mondays spot, but I'm not sure of the date yet. And I have a Feature Author spot over on The Romance Studio for February. Gees, I could swear I wrote more blog articles than that. I've forgotten someone.
Don't forget that the contest is still going over on The Raven - you have until Sunday, January 25th to leave a comment to be eligible for a free copy. Winner will be drawn and announced in the comments section, and here, on Monday, January 26th.
Nothing to talk about today, I wrote three guest blog posts, and another 1700 on my WIP, pulled out an old erotica I started last year and wondered why I'd put it away. But that's it so I'll leave you with some YouTube videos ... one chosen by Gizmo Guy, one by Curly, and one by me ...
Here's the first one recommended by Gizmo Guy - the presidents morphing from George Washington to Barack Obama. (Does anyone else think Andrew Jackson resembles Sir Ian McKellan?)
And this one from Curly - Rick Mercer's "Aging Barack Obama Art kit". For those of you unfamiliar with Rick Mercer, he's the Canadian equivalent to Stephen Colbert.
And my choice for today? Rick Mercer's Rant on Canadian Envy of the Obama election and inauguration. Be thankful I didn't post clips from his "Talking to Americans" show.
Yes, like everyone today, I was glued to my television watching the first African-American take the oath of office as 44th President of the United States. What reduced me to tears (okay, so I cry at the drop of a hat) was the musical arrangement played right before President Obama took the oath. World renowned cellist Yo-yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and pianist Gabriella Montero played an arrangement by John Williams. It started with an Air before they segued into Simple Gifts, a Shaker song, that I discovered a while back and fell in love with for its simplicity.
For anyone watching, and unfamiliar with the tune, there are lyrics to go with it, and how appropriate they are for everyone, especially in today's world of strife:
'Tis the gift to be simple,'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we will not be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.
Later, the following verses were added, but while some think it doesn't fit, I think they are absolutely appropriate for today:
'Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return
'Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn,
And when we expect of others what we try to live each day
Then we'll all live together and we'll all learn to say,
Tis the gift to have friends and a true friend to be,
'Tis the gift to think of others not to only think of "me",
And when we hear what others really think and really feel,
Then we'll all live together with a love that is real.
This is the esteemed Yo-Yo Ma providing the accompaniment on his beautifully plaintive cello, and the lyrics are sung by Allison Krauss, though unfortunately she doesn't sing those last two verses.
And to tie it in to writing, for anyone who has read Patricia Brigg's Cry Wolf, this is the song Bran, Charles and Samuel sing at Doc Wallace's funeral.
Here's today's performance (Simple Gifts starts at 1:11):
I could be talking about the over-a-foot of snow we received yesterday or those icicles blocking my view from my kitchen window.
I'm not.
I'm snowed under by all the marketing and publicity that goes along with the release of a book. Holy Moly, why don't they warn a newbie author when she finally makes a sale what can be involved?
I've been spending hours researching review sites and setting up author pages on places like Manic Readers and The Romance Studio. Investigating page hits to see if buying an ad on this site or that is worth the money. Should I take an ad out on Joyfully Reviewed or not? How about Coffee Time Romance, Fallen Angels or Romance Junkies? What brings the best "return on investment"? Banners? Static or rotating cover ads? Features? Interviews? Radio interviews?
I have no idea. From what other authors have told me what works for one doesn't work for another. It's all a mystery.
Other authors have very kindly invited me to be a guest blogger on their blogs. However, one thing I've discovered is that most people will look at that post and if it's a blatant "Buy My Book" blurb and excerpt only, they'll click off. So I've been struggling to write more chatty style posts, working in the blurb so it's not obviously a sales job. And I've tried to make each post unique. For instance, I'm guest blogging over on JK Coi's blog on Friday, and I was completely stuck on what to write about for days until Gizmo Guy suggested I 'interview' one of my characters. Brilliant!
Some people have provided 'interview' questions for me to answer which I thought would make it easier for me. Wrong. "Describe your Perfect Day" was a question I had to answer for Kate Davies's "Meet the Author Monday". I had to sit and ponder that one. Did she mean one I'd already lived? Or one I dreamed of? Two totally different answers. (I'll let you know when that one posts.) I still have to finish the questions Marley has asked. I also have a blog post due for Erotic Muses on January 26th, a regular "Buy My Book" post on the Samhain blog on the 27th (Private Property's release day), Greta Wheeler's interview over on I do not want to wait I want the book now blog (already written and submitted thankfully) goes up on the 28th. I have a blog post to write for the Samhellion blog on the 29th, and another for Rose Marie Wolf on February 3rd.
Oh, and I mustn't forget that I was the Featured Author over on Michelle Pillow and Mandy Roth's Raven blog earlier in January and my contest there closes on Sunday so I have to choose a random winner and announce that on the 26th. I'm going to be receiving more questions for the Featured Author spot over on The Romance Studio I booked for February. And then there's the cover/link I put in the Passionate Ink's Booknotes newsletter.
All this while I'm trying to write the next novel in the Hauberk series. Needless to say, that's not going as fast as I'd like. Arrrgh. And I have to go through all this again in May?
As I said, I feel completely snowed under.
In addition to being snowed in. The snow past the chairs is thigh high which makes it interesting when I'm slogging out to fill the bird feeder.
I always get a thrill when I see that I've blogged about something that's made someone go 'Huh'. Yes, I'm dating myself with that reference, I don't care.
Apparently, last week's book trailer blog inspired Shelley Munro to create her own for the next release in her Middlemarch series, Leticia's Lovers.
Take a look:
Now I've not had a chance to talk with Shelley about it, other than what she posted on her blog, but she did a lot right with this trailer. First of all she kept it short - one minute, thirty seconds. Viewers tend to get bored if it goes much beyond that. I also like how she's mixed her photos with plain backgrounds. That's a completely personal preference, but I think it helps the viewer focus on the story rather than just the graphics.
Now Guitar Hero cringes when they see a picture with black bars on either side. (I had a few myself, sometimes it's hard not to if the picture is higher than it is wide. If you stretch the picture, it changes the aspect ratio, and you end up with a really weird looking person.) That's one reason I decided to try the flash program I ended up using - I could place the picture where I wanted. That also helped me place the text so it wouldn't blend in with the photo.
GH also says not to use too many fade-ins/fade-outs, and to watch the text transitions too. I think Shelley's got a good mix here.
Another thing Shelley has done right, that I DIDN'T do, was to keep her text to around 8 to 10 words per screen. I had some screens where there was a fair amount to read. Hers are easier to follow and not feel rushed.
As Shelley says in her blog post, it's "trial by doing."
Yup, our basement's wet. Again. And yes, it's the hot water heater to blame. Yes, the brand new hot water heater they installed last week. That one. Looks like they forgot to properly tighten the drain valve at the bottom. Now I was down there the other day checking on it, and all was dry but this evening I went to the basement and suffered from squishy foot syndrome again. Yuck
At least because we'd cleaned up last week, the water ran directly to the drain, but there was still enough standing water that it filled two buckets. We'll have to keep an eye on it and hope that it's now sufficiently tight. Either that or I won't need a phone to get them to come over to repair it. I'll be yelling loud enough for people in England to hear. On another front, this afternoon Gizmo Guy and I went to a brand new Lowe's that just opened up this weekend and bought a new toilet for the downstairs bathroom. GG claims he can change it himself. Here's hoping that side of the basement isn't damp tomorrow after he's done.
Can you believe we're already at the middle of January?
I thought I'd give you an update on this year's resolution to get healthy. It's still alive, though I wouldn't say it's kicking. I've managed to stay on my diet (I'm watching calories, cut out snacks, using those little pink packets instead of real sugar in my tea, etc.) though I can't say if I've lost any weight. (My scale is one of those where your weight can vary by ten pounds depending upon where you step on it.)
I'd said I'd not try to jump into things whole hog and start off by taking small steps figuring that would be easier, so I guess I'm now up to the next step. Exercise, in my case (given the Canadian weather) using the treadmill. I sit right beside the danged thing when I'm working on my Mac, I even rest my feet on it when I'm talking to Curly or Guitar Hero when they come talk to me. But I haven't actually climbed on it and started it up. So my resolution for the rest of this month. To actually climb onto it and start it up.
Check in at the end of the month to see if I've managed to meet that little goal. (And feel free to send me an email to get me off my duff and walking.)
Yesterday I posted the final version of my Private Property book trailer - if you haven't seen it already, I've reposted it at the bottom of this post, or you can go to yesterday's post to view it.
Technically there's no empirical evidence that says viewing a book trailer will lead to a sale of that book. But I figured it's another way to get my name seen, and from what I've been told, name recognition is key to increased sales.
I started writing this post comparing the different software I've used, right down to a chart of 'advantages/disadvantages' but frankly I think I'll turn that into an article as it'll just be too much for here. As I mentioned yesterday there are a variety of packages out there you can use. The most available, for those of you who use PCs is Windows Moviemaker which comes as part of XP and Vista. There's also another freebie Microsoft product called PhotoStory which is basically just MovieMaker with a couple of cosmetic changes. Or you can try various programs Gizmo Guy uses when he's transferring out home videos onto DVD - Roxio is his favorite. Or if you're a wiz with flash, you can make them as flash programs then convert them to AVI files (which is how I made the final product that I posted yesterday.) Mac users might try using iMovie - although I have two Macs I've not actually tried using the software yet, although I have looked at it. That's for another day, and frankly I've got other video software (the millionaire granddaddy program of the professionals, Final Cut Pro) that'll work better.
Warning: These next two steps are HUGE HUGE HUGE time sucks. Before you do anything, you need to storyboard your trailer. You need to do this to determine what type of photos and music to use that are representative of your story. Ideally, you shouldn't make a trailer longer than a minute and a half to two minutes long. Your viewers' attention span wanders after that. Then, and here's the time suck part, you have to go find those photos and soundtrack. And since it's technically an advertisement for a commercial product, you need to make sure you don't steal someone's copyrighted photo or song no matter how perfect it would be. Otherwise you may find yourself with a cease-and-desist letter from the lawyer representing the copyright holder. (I use Dreamstime.com to find stock photos and purchase them. The cost is based upon 'credits' and some photos take more credits than others to download. Another bonus about Dreamstime over somewhere like iStock is Dreamstime has a 'free' download section - the pictures I used in the First Night trailer were all freebie downloads or ones I already owned. Also check out the Creative Commons License section over on Flickr, but don't forget to read the fine print to make sure you credit the photos properly or again ... another lawyer's letter may be in your post box.)
Music was harder to find because of the time investment in surfing to find the sites and listening to the songs to find that 'perfect' sound. Another minus in this category is that music generally cost a lot more than the $1 or $2 the photos cost. Most of the sites I found charged anywhere from $20 to $300+ per song. However, anyone who has viewed videos on YouTube, or if you'd noticed the credits on my piece, may have seen the name Kevin McLeod. Kevin, God bless him, has a site called incompetech.com where you can download his royalty-free music without charge; he only asks that you donate $5 via credit card or paypal to help him defray the costs. His songs are professional quality, as evidenced by both yesterday's video and today's, no cheap midi sound here. (Yes, I donated to Kevin, and I'm now thinking I didn't donate enough for the product he's providing to impoverished writers like us.)
Then you can finally dive into the actual creation of your project on your chosen software.
Another WARNING: According to my sons who are both trained - in high school and college in various media programs, and my own experience, video software is inherently unstable. SAVE your work. Often. And not with the same name, use version numbers. I had the unfortunate experience of discovering this the hard way when a project I'd spent quite a few hours on was lost when the program crashed my system. (I can't remember which program it was at the moment, but I THINK it was Roxio.) I thought I was safe because I'd saved it right before the dreaded event. Uh uh. Because I'd given it the same name, for some unexplainable reason, the crash destroyed the file and all was lost. Ever since then, I've named them things like PP_V1.01. (I use the .01 because I haven't yet created a video I was satisfied with in less than two digits and the .01 allows the file list to show properly when you come to .11 or .19.
Below is the very first version I did using MovieMaker ... This was made before I had my cover, and uses the original tag line of 'No trespassing, unless you know the password-No boundaries." Now it's "There's nothing casual about this caper."
Take a look at the text and how it's hard to read against the picture - one of the drawbacks of MovieMaker. You can change the color of the text, but no matter what color I chose it was tough to read. (And red's darned near impossible to read on any background.) And another warning - it's ROUGH, people. I've learned a LOT since then. I was very very tempted to clean it up because there are some basic mistakes in it that made Guitar Hero cringe (all that sliding text for instance), but decided to leave it unchanged, for posterity.
(it's loaded, but I've been getting errors that it's 'unavailable'. Let me know if that happens to you too.)
First Draft, using MovieMaker
The next one I did with Roxio. It allows a sense of motion with a pan-and-scan option across the photo. I'd love to keep the scene where the camera is panning down Mark revealing he's tied up, but I can't figure out how to do it in the flash program I used for the final version.
Every picture I used represents something that the casual viewer may not get until they've read the story. For instance, the estate shown in the trailers below represent Sam's Lake Arlington house - it was perfect because there's a wrought iron fence in it that I mention in the very start of the story as Jodi's breaking in. But again, like Moviemaker, with Roxio, you can't change the placement of the photo, they're always smack-bang in the center of the screen, so there are still parts where it's hard to read the text so that's why I ended up using a shadow to try to make the text more readable.
In this version, note how the text is shadowed, and certain words can be different from the others in color or italics. Especially at the end, I managed to find the fonts cover designer Natalie Winters used for the title and matched them - it's like that on the final version too!)
Second Draft, using Roxio
Of course, for comparison purposes, here's the final version that I've decided to go with:
Notice I used almost all the same photos (except the safe cracker and silhouette), and the text is pretty much the same as well, but the music changes the entire mood of the story. And that's what helped me decide upon the final copy. The first two versions are just too contemplative, too introspective, when the real story has a lot more emotion - anger, jealousy, excitement, etc. to it that I think the final version reflects much better.
Okay, you're probably getting really tired of me going on about it, and snickering at this newbie author's enthusiasm, but I can't help it. And I'm going to torment you with a sneak peak at the book trailer I've been working on ... it's not even up on YouTube yet, you can only see it here.
I've been trying all sorts of different video programs - from Windows MovieMaker (which does a pretty decent job for a freebie program), to Roxio, which gives you more control over the text placement, etc. but not over the graphic placement. So I ended up doing this one as a flash program. It took a bit more work to learn, and is a lot more fiddly but I really like the final product. (I've done another version on Roxio that I still like although it has a completely different feel to it because of the music selection. I may post it tomorrow so you can see the difference music can make.)
I'm stuck, and I need a good swift kick ... somewhere ... I even moved my manuscript over from my Mac to my PC in the hope that sitting back in my office instead of the living room might force me to concentrate. (Yeah, that worked well, didn't it, considering I'm blogging instead of writing.)
A lot of times I won't read other people's work when I'm writing a first draft because their writing influences me too much. Over Christmas I made the mistake of indulging myself with some 'off time' and re-read Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompson series as well as Cry Wolf, the start of her Alpha and Omega series, and they've sucked me in. Now all I can think about is hunky werewolves Sam and Charles and Adam. Now there are worse things to be obsessed about, but damn it, I should be making my own heroes hot enough that I can obsess about them instead. Add to that all the kaffuffle (or is it kerfuffle) over the hot water heater and broken appliances and my concentration is shot. Arrrgh.
Anyway, to pretend I actually have something to blog about today, here are some things that have sparked a few discussions in the Braemel household:
1. Computer geeks in Potsdam University (Germany) now have the opportunity to learn some skills interfacing with real humans rather than computers. According to this article:
The 440 students enrolled in the master's degree course will learn how to write flirtatious text messages and emails, impress people at parties and cope with rejection.
Philip von Senftleben, an author and radio presenter who will teach the course, summed up his job as teaching how to "get someone else's heart beating fast while yours stays calm."
Think I can wangle a trip to Germany out of it? Between an erotica writer and a computer engineer who have been married almost 31 years, GG and I should have some viable tips, don't you think?
2. A 107-year-old woman in China is seeking her first husband. "I'm already 107 and I still haven't got married," the Chongqing Commercial Times quoted her saying. "What will happen if I don't hurry up and find a husband?" My first reaction was: She's only thinking of this now? I wish her luck, she's looking for a centenarian who might keep her company.
And the story that got the most laughs and rude comments when I read it out ...
3. Police in Cairns, Australia, are seeking the man who broke into three separate sex shops, stole a specific type of blow-up doll called "Jungle Jane", took them into the back alley where he then had sex with them. Can every one say "Eeewww"? Of course the idjit left his DNA and fingerprints for the police to find, but can you imagine being the lab tech on that case, and the jokes that must be going around that precinct?
I was driving home from today's Toronto Romance Writers' meeting when one of the overpasses I went over was filled with flashing lights - a fire truck, ambulance, police cars. Oh oh, I thought, something bad had happened. It wasn't until I went under the next overpass and saw the Canadian flags I remembered that something bad had indeed happened. Another Canadian soldier had been killed and was being brought home.
The latest soldier was Trooper Brian Good, 42, who was killed on Wednesday when a makeship bomb exploded just north of Kandahar. He's the 107th Canadian soldier to have died in Afghanistan, and the tenth since the beginning of December 2008.
When a Canadian soldier is killed in Afghanistan, their body is flown first to CFB Trenton where it is loaded into a hearse, and accompanied by a motorcade, is driven to Toronto for an official autopsy.
A while back, it became a routine for police officers, paramedics, firemen, and appreciative citizens to line the overpasses along the route. There they would wait to show their appreciation for the ultimate sacrifice the soldier had made.
I've heard of it, that section of the 401 between Trenton and Toronto has been renamed The Highway of Heroes, but this was the first time I'd witnessed it. And I have to admit that I had tears in my eyes when Trooper Good's body passed.
Thank you and God bless you to all our soldiers no matter where they're stationed. And my most heartfelt sympathies to Trooper Good's family.
The hot water heater is replaced and we now have hot water again! Yay!
But while I was waiting for them to arrive I decided to vacuum. I ran my upright over the living room and front hallway but realized that it was only moving the dust around not actually sucking it up. Arrrgh. So I figured I could at least do the stairs, so I grabbed the little handheld vacuum and started it up. Except its beater bar wasn't working. @#$&(# doesn't even begin to describe what I was saying, or what I was feeling at that point.
Anyway, I got NO writing done today. Again! This has GOT to stop. I'm going to take my iBook and head to the library next week and force myself to write forward. (You watch, it'll snow a blizzard or be freezing rain every day the way my luck is going.)
Tomorrow is the monthly Toronto Romance Writers' meeting. If Private Property weren't coming out this month, I don't know if I'd be going because I have so much to do here. Although the ladies over at the TRW have so much spirit and energy that they give me a boost that usually gets me back on track.
However, it is January, and they are, of course, calling for isolated flurries. So as is the usual phrase I have to use this time of year ... I guess it'll depend upon the weather. And if my car starts. I'm afraid to touch anything electrical at this point.
The carpet is still a little squishy, but we sopped up what we could using the carpet cleaner we got fixed just before Christmas - talk about serendipity. However we still have no hot water. Our water heater is a rental and the company we rent it from couldn't get someone out with a new unit until tomorrow. Hopefully we have hot water by Saturday morning or Wylie and Christine won't want to sit anywhere near me. ;)
Gizmo Guy and I tore out a panel and cut out a joist so they can put in the new one - I have no idea who designed a basement with the furnace and hot water heater smack dab in the middle of the basement, or what bright spark decided to totally enclose them. We figure we will just open the whole side up and create a separate room just for it, though that'll totally destroy the tiny cubbyhole I had for my sewing area.
Of course, basement esthetics falls quite far down the list on the 'Honey-do' list. It seems this past year our house has decided to join the "White Trash Team". In the past month alone, we had a windstorm that darned near ripped a screen door from off by its hinges - tore the screws holding the little chain at the top and thing that looks like a bicycle pump at the bottom right out out of the wood (darned if I know what it's called); the guest bathroom toilet (a necessity for a family who love to take long hot soaks in the tub in the only other bathroom) decided to continually flush a while back. Though GG replaced every single part in it, it's still not working so we ended up shutting off the water to it and declaring it off limits, so that needs replacing. And thanks to an ice storm a couple weeks ago, the eavestrough over the living room has parted company with the eaves.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the kitchen sink that we replaced a couple years ago but now can't plug because the stupid designers used rubber in the sink stoppers and they degraded within a year. And of course the company that makes the sink doesn't sell replacements. So either GG rips out the drains or replaces the sink completely - which includes ripping out the drains anyway. So that's another chore on the 'Honey-Do' list.
But despite all my whining, I have to remind myself that this was all just a minor inconvenience. It wasn't a massive flood like they've had along the Mississippi last year; our house is still intact, and our beds are warm and dry. And since the water heater was a rental, it's not costing us anything to get it replaced. Other than time and Gizmo Guy's sore thumb from when he squashed it trying to get the panel out. Yeah, he's rather handy-impaired. But I love him anyway.
I've been going around with a swelled head this afternoon after reading Angela James' comments about me over on Marcia James' latest James Gang post. Seriously, everyone here was subjected to another Price is Right bounce. (Believe me, it's not a pretty sight when I bounce.)
I guess I bounced too hard because we went down in the basement to where we keep our freezer to find fixings for dinner, GG and I stepped onto a carpet that squished beneath our feet. Oh oh.
Our hot water heater ... cracked a lining, split a seam ... did something, but the basement's now flooded.
So on tomorrow's schedule is lifting the soaked carpet, cleaning the path so the repair people can get to the hot water heater which is wedged between the furnace and a concrete slab. The only way they're going to be able to get to it is if we tear down a wall, which is of course at the bottom of the stairs. It's gonna be ugly, folks. Butt ugly. And so's my mood.
What's that saying about pride going before a fall?
It's January 2009. The month Private Property releases, and OMG, the marketing side is way beyond anything I thought it would be. Bookmarks? Postcards? What do I do with them? Do I buy an ad on this review site or that one? What's the best "return on investment"? And the guest blogging interviews - who knew some of those questions could be so difficult to answer?
First up this month is a blog post over on Mandy Roth and Michelle Pillow's The Raven. My cover's been up on their main Raven Happy Hour site since the first of the month. But today is my actual Feature on their site. (Yes, it deserves the capitalization.) Michelle even sent me this uber-cool graphic to put up to let you know where I am.
On my very first blog, I said I was jumping into the deep end of the pool, but holy moly, I had no idea just how deep and far from shore I'd end up. Let's hope there are no riptides.
I suffer from Multiple Identity Syndrome. I'll bet some of you do too. But I don't think we qualify for psychiatric help just yet.
I'm talking about my multiple email addresses. I have always kept a couple - one I gave only to my family and friends, one I used for posting online. I also usually one or two others that just sort of float 'out there' that I've forgotten about. But when I got serious about my writing I started reserving email addresses with my pseudonym and my list ballooned, especially once last week's cover came out, I added a couple with the misspelled name, both Breamel and Brahmel. I believe I now have four or six Gmail addresses (three in the variations of my pseudonym, one with my real name that I give to my friends and a few other transactions, and an ancient one from my fanfic days.) Oh, and I mustn't forget my website addys now too.
Once I got the contract with Samhain, I started switching my yahoo groups over to my Leah Braemel identity and had the emails automatically forwarded to me from each individual address. However I've noticed lately that most of my emails are from the Leah Braemel identity. This morning, only three came to my 'real name' address. So I decided that instead of logging on to my 'real name' address, I might as well forward its mail to my Leah Braemel address and deal with it there.
That was the simple part.
What I hadn't counted on was that by logging into my Leah Braemel account, I lost my Google bookmarks. I LOVE Google bookmarks because they allow me to take my bookmarks with me no matter what computer I'm on. And since I now have four computers I shuffle through, that portability was important. So I had to figure out how to transport my extremely lengthy list of bookmarks from one identity to the other. Turned out I had to:
log into my old identity and export my bookmarks to an HTML list
import the file into to my Firefox bookmark list
log out of my old identity and onto my new identity
import my Firefox bookmark list to the google toolbar bookmarks
As confusing as it sounds, it didn't take long, once I figured out what had to be done.
Next problem? Oh, yeah, I used to post my blog from my old identity. I had to set up my blog to accept the new address. No problem, easy peasy.
Except I lost all the blogs I'd been following. Oops.
But in the process of trying to move them over - and you briefly had me following you twice if you noticed - I discovered that I can read your blog posts using a feature of Google called Google Reader (If you use gmail, it's up on the menu list at the top left of the gmail screen.) It's like the 'Blogs I'm Following' list on the Blogspot Dashboard, but full screen. Trouble with THAT is I can read your blogs but if you have any sort of counter to keep track of who is reading your blog? I'm not going to be showing up. At least I don't think I will be.
AND another thing I discovered while I was changing over the bookmarks? Google now offers a 'Google Notebook' which I think is fantastic for when I'm researching for my books. For instance, I was over on The Goddess Blogs this morning, drooling over a lovely picture of Matthew Fox when I thought "Hey, that's Scott" from my Hauberk series. I wanted to keep the picture handy, but if I saved it on my laptop, I wouldn't have it available on my desktop, or my Big Mac or my mini-Mac unless I emailed it to myself and downloaded on those machines. But by using the Google Notebook, I right click and at the bottom of the menu is a new option that reads "Note this - Google Notebook". It saves the photo, along with the URL to a notebook I set up to capture my information. That's transportable too, so now instead of having to save documents/pictures/URLs to a file and send them to myself to use on my other computers, I can access them via the online Notebook. Wow, that is going to make my life so much easier.
(To get to the notebooks, click on "More" in the gmail menu, that should bring up a new page - Notebook is over on the left hand side list. It'll download an add-on to your computer that'll show up in the bottom right of your Firefox screen.)
So that handy-dandy gizmo Gizmo Guy installed two days ago cr*pped out last night and crashed both my computers. So that's being pulled out today. Apparently it's either one of those things where you have no problems with it, or it gives you lots of problems. *sigh* I was so hoping to have the two systems on my desk so I could close the door. Ah, well.
After the Christmas tree and all the decorations come down this weekend, the Big Mac will be moved up to the living room. (Don't forget that you have to have your decorations down by January 6th or you'll have bad luck for the rest of the year -- at least according to my mother, who claims that's because it's the end of the twelve days of Christmas. What the Orthodox who celebrate Christmas on the 6th do, I have no idea.) Also on tap for today is to finish two interviews I've been putting off and I just can't delay them any more. The reason I've been putting one off is because I have to send a head shot with it. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. I hate pictures of myself. I don't suppose I could send this shot taken in 1968, could I?
How about a shot taken of me ten years later - on my honeymoon?
Or the one taken of me in San Francisco in 1983. That one's not too bad. I can live with that one.
But any picture taken of me after then? Ugh Ugh Ugh.
There's this one Gizmo Guy took of me in Banff in 2006. I was telling him to wait until I got the branch out of my face. He replied "What branch?" and shot the picture anyway.
Then there's this picture taken in 2008 at Niagara Falls.
Both reasons why I've finally faced the fact that I need to take charge of my health, etc. I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get a professionally done head shot.
I'm writing this from my Mac for the first time. For Christmas, I bought Gizmo Guy a gizmo that would allow him to use his two computers with one keyboard, mouse and monitor. He hooked it up and discovered it had some problems. First off, he has power on passwords that the gizmo doesn't handle well. Then it didn't recognize his iPod touch. Nor did it recognize his external hard drive I'd also bought him for Christmas. So after spending a few days crawling under his desk and rewiring things, then giving up in disgust and pulling it all apart again, he has set up my system so I can use the Big Mac at the same time as my Windows PC.
It's pretty cool. I start up both machines and can flip back and forth either using the "Flip" utility in the task bar or by pressing a handy-dandy little button. The Mac's got a problem recognizing my Microsoft bluetooth mouse, but that's easily solved. I simply have to unplug the little bluetooth plug and reinsert it. Fiddly, but hey, it's neat having both systems in my office. And I'm really liking Scrivener for writing a first draft. It helps me stay on track by not letting me scroll back easily to see the rest of the doc. And I love its word count tracker that makes me focus that much more on completing my daily goal.
Anyway I'm back to writing my first draft of the next (still untitled) story in the Hauberk Protection series. I've managed over 2K today even though everyone's home. I'm feeling the pressure as that widget over in the sidebar counts down to Private Property's release. Because then I'll have to put one up for Personal Protection. Which means I need to get ITS sequel DONE.
* * *
On yesterday's blog, Lori suggested a "Let it All Hang out" type blog once a month. I think that's a good idea. Once a month, I have to report what changes I've made for good or for bad. I'm starting slow with yesterday's resolution. There have been lots of articles lately that those 'big resolutions' don't work. That you have to start with small, reachable goals. I've also heard that it takes 27 days or repetitions for a habit to be made.
So my first habit/change is to stop using sugar in my tea and switch back to Sweet 'n Low like I used to use. I can't remember why I went back to sugar, but my hips know I did.
The next will be to get on my treadmill and do a certain numbers of minutes per day that will be upped regularly.
And I will write down everything I eat, and read the labels with a careful eye on fat content/cholesterol as well as calorie content.
Small steps. Then next month, I'll add a couple more steps. Maybe add an extra exercise routine. So the first of every month will be my 'Resolution Check in.'
One exercise Gizmo Guy recommended? Climbing under my desk and vacuuming the powerbar. Apparently the dust bunnies have a huge lair growing there.
Wow, it's 2009 already and I'm still writing 199- on things. It's going to be a big year for me. My first book, Private Property, releases in 27 days. My second book comes out in May. TWO books in the same year.
My New Year's resolution for 2007 was to "get serious about my writing. To finish a manuscript, polish it and submit it to an editor." And I did. I finished not just one, but two manuscripts and submitted them both before year's end. Unfortunately one got lost when the editor parted company with the publisher and deleted all her submissions. But hey, I actually completed my resolution, something I rarely do.
My New Year's resolution for 2008 was "to continue improving my craft and keep submitting." I didn't ever make a resolution to "Get Published" or "Make a sale" because that was really out of my hands. The best I could do was submitting the best possible effort I could, which I continued to do. Not only did I submit two manuscripts, but both resulted in contracts. That 100% success rate was definitely worthy of the Snoopy Dances and Price is Right bounces that resulted.
My New Year's resolution for 2009?
I guess I'll continue last year's resolution. That and a firm vow to forego birthdays from here on in - it's either that or I have to get serious about my health and begin a diet and exercise plan. You see this is the year I have THE birthday. You know the one that ends in zero and starts with a fi--*cough choke* Nope, can't say it. I've never cared if someone asked my age before, never thought twice about admitting I was in my mid 30s or 40s but this one? I think knowing that I'm am currently older than my father when he had his first heart attack, or the same age as his sister, my aunt, when she had her first heart attack is finally hitting home. Oh, each year for the last ten years, I've made the same resolution to "get healthy" but within weeks, sometimes days, I let my willpower fail. There was still a lot of time left for me before I had to worry about such things, I told myself as I played the proverbial ostrich with her head stuck in the sand.
So this year, facing that dreaded half-century (GAK!) mark, I'm forced to admit that in addition to putting my butt in the chair and my hands on the keyboard, I need to make an effort to get my butt out of that chair and get moving. I need to watch my cholesterol levels, and lose weight. That challenge must be met. I know if I put my mind to it, I can do it. I've done it before. But it's daunting. Not only for the amount of weight I need to lose, but also because it's one I know I HAVE to do , not only for myself but for GG and the boys. So I figure if I publicly say that I have to get healthy, if I have to report ... say monthly how the battle goes, maybe I'll have a better chance at succeeding.
So in the coming months, I have a mission for you. I want you, need you, to nag me and question me about what I'm doing to stay healthy this year. Use guilt if you have to - it's a terrific motivator. I can't turn the clock back, but maybe I can tweak the mechanism so it ticks a little longer than it would right now.
On another front, this afternoon Gizmo Guy and I went to a brand new Lowe's that just opened up this weekend and bought a new toilet for the downstairs bathroom. GG claims he can change it himself. Here's hoping 
