Marketing Wins And Losses #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

October 17, 2022

Most of us (or maybe all of us) struggle with marketing. What are your top 3 marketing tips?

First, a confession. As some of you know, I moved across the country this summer. I’ve none almost nothing in the way of marketing for over six months, but am trying to get back on track. But marketing is tough.

I’ve tried a lot of things. Various social media, ads, blogging. None of them have propelled me to the top. That hasn’t stopped me from trying again. So here are my recent top three.

3. Amazon Ads. They are pricey and don’t always work. I swear The ‘Zon plays with the algorithm and some months the ads sell books and other months they don’t. I can’t budget for what each month will cost me unless I turn the ad off and on, and I don’t have the energy for that. (FYI-I dipped my toe in FB ads a couple of times several years ago and got no results.) I’ve used commercial reader newsletters in the past, and it’s time to make another attempt. Which of my books would you like to see go on sale?

2. Podcasts. I’ve really enjoyed doing podcasts and would love to do more. (I’ve got one scheduled with SapphireJBlue this week on Thursday the 20th. Check my home page for more details as far as the time when I get the info.) I don’t know if I sell any books from doing podcasts, but I love talking about my stories! I guess they are a newest form of word-of-mouth advertising. 

1. In-person book signings. (More word-of mouth.) I did one this past weekend with the Beaver County PA Libraries with moderate success, but it was fun. I think that’s where I shine-talking with readers one-on-one. Now that I’m mostly settled into our new home, and don’t have to worry about interfering with a job, I’m trying to set up more public appearances. I’ve got a list of possibilities to work on, and I am looking at one in New Castle, PA next summer.. (Procrastination is not my friend.)

There you have it. My top three marketing tools for the moment. I’m afraid my current state of reader engagement is limited. Hopefully some of the other authors on this hop can provide better ideas. Follow the links below to find out.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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October 17, 2022

Most of us (or maybe all of us) struggle with marketing. What are your top 3 marketing tips?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

Have It Your Way Pizza Edition #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

October 10, 2022

What toppings do you put on your pizza? Is pineapple a real pizza topping?

I actually had this conversation with my brother-in-law a few nights ago. I don’t remember who brought it up, but I think we were discussing the sandwich shop down the street. (They sell pizza, too.) He nearly had a heart attack when I revealed I like pineapple on my pizza. 

Not just any pizza. It has to be a traditional Hawaiian style pizza. Which isn’t Hawaiian at all, but the name makes sense when you consider the other toppings.

The basics are the basics. Crust (your choice) pizza sauce and cheese. Now, start with the meats. I don’t think I’ll offend anyone with those. Canadian bacon tops the list. No substitutions. Ham doesn’t cut it. Pepperoni is a bonus. Other meats are fine (Bacon is always good!) but not needed.

Green pepper is called for, as are diced tomato pieces.

Here’s where I may wander into controversy.

Sliced black olives. I know, I know. Many of you don’t like them. You can skip them.

It gets worse.

Pineapple. Yes, pineapple is a fruit. So are olives and tomatoes. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Tomatoes are fruits that are considered vegetables by nutritionists.”

If you think that’s bad, I’m not done. There’s one more old-school topping. Yes, I know it sounds crazy. Maraschino cherries, cut in half. And there you have it-one Hawaiian style pizza.

Still with me? What do you think about pineapple as a pizza topping? Let me know in the comments. And check out the other authors by following the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

October 10, 2022

What toppings do you put on your pizza? Is pineapple a real pizza topping?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

One Genre To Bind Them All #IWSG

  By IWSG
 
It’s time for another post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. 
 
The awesome co-hosts for the October 5 posting of the IWSG are Tonja Drecker, Victoria Marie Lees, Mary Aalgaard, and Sandra Cox!

This month’s question:
What do you consider the best characteristics of your favorite genre?

First off, I would like to protest. I’m only allowed to have one favorite genre? That seems totally unfair to the wide variety of books I read. I have to pick one? Well, okay. I pick science fiction.

Here’s why. I love me some well-written, old-fashioned, world-building science fiction. But I also love that it has become the base for many genres. That may be its best characteristic. It’s used as the backdrop for everything from romance to mysteries to suspense to fantasy. There are even stories centered around pets in space. But I haven’t seen an Amish romance in a science-fiction setting yet. Someone tell me in the comments if I’m wrong!

(By the way, I’m not forgetting that fantasy used to be a sub-category of science fiction. Full circle and all that.) 

What about you? What’s the best characteristic of your favorite genre? Tell us in the comments. Don’t forget to check out some of the other authors on this hop by following the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

 

A Writing Style For The Moment #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

October 3, 2022

Does your writing style change depending upon what you are writing?

Daryl Devore, another writer in this group, mentioned in a post a few weeks ago how her writing style changes based on what she is writing, and it got me thinking. Does mine?

Easy answer, yes. The Free Wolves books are written in third person, but the Harmony Duprie stories are in first person. (We’ll get to Jake’s story later.) I know not everyone enjoys reading first person, but it was what the books needed to be. I tried writing what turned into The Marquesa’s Necklace in third person, but it didn’t work.

Other differences? The Free Wolves books mostly center on one or two characters. Harmony, however, in telling us her story, gives credit to the friends that support her and give her strength. The real hero of the series is the ‘village’ that she is a part of.

How about the Jake books? (The Fall of Jake Hennessey and my WIP, The Resurrection of Jake Hennessey) They are also third person, but I tried to dive deeper into Jake’s thought process and motivations. He’s a bad guy in sheep’s clothing with a hero complex-an interesting mix of characteristics. Unlike the Free Wolves, which were story-driven books, the Jake tales are more personality-driven, which meant I had to move the action along without dialogue.

Speaking of dialogue—my style of writing dialogue can switch between characters, depending upon their personality and the situations they are in. Harmony is a great example of this. She’s a laid-back person, but when the need arises, her style of speech changes. It becomes stiffer, more formal. I don’t plan it ahead of time: it comes naturally. Here’s an example I wrote yesterday. (Unedited, so please forgive any mistakes.)

“Is that how you want to play this game? My lawyers will request that any files the agency has backing up the request become part of the record. Which means I will have access to them. If I feed my media contacts a story about a secretive government group harassing a grieving widow, how will that look? And I can’t imagine any judge in the area siding with that agency over a local girl coming home to heal after a tragedy in her life. Think carefully. You may believe you have me cornered in a game of checkers, but I’m playing chess. Checkmate, Agent.”

So yes, my writing changes with the story. I don’t think about it; it comes from knowing my characters. How about other authors? I think I know what Daryl is going to say, but I’m not sure about some of the others. Follow the links below, and we can find out!

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

October 3, 2022

Does your writing style change depending upon what you are writing?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

It’s A Small, Small, World, But It’s A Big Universe #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

September 26, 2022

Do you want science to find aliens or find that we are alone in the universe? Does it scare you to think there are likely other beings out there?

Despite hours spent watching the stars, I’ve never seen a UFO or a UAP or whatever you want to call them, but I have friends who claim they have. I don’t take that as proof they exist or they come from another world, because I consider the sightings more likely to be of some unknown military equipment. I am a logical person imbued with a heavy dose of skepticism.

But it’s a big universe we live in, and the world is a speck in the expanse. Logic tells me that the possibility of other forms of life out there is huge, but it’s not something I can prove.

Do I want scientists to prove they exist? (It’s an impossibility to prove they don’t exist.) I’m torn.

I’d like to know if ‘aliens’  exist. The big thing is that I don’t think humans (as a collective entity) have reached a level of maturity that would allow us to interact with a different form of intelligent life. Just look at the world we have. Wars, racism, poverty…you get the concept. 

We’ll never be perfect, but I would hope we could become better before making contact with life from another world. I worry that the knowledge that aliens exist would send shockwaves through human society, and we aren’t ready to deal with the changes it would cause. We are, on the whole, resistant to change. Can you imagine how the knowledge would affect religion, politics, and other societal institutions?

Then there would be the debate about whether they are good or bad. Are they looking to destroy the earth (we’re doing pretty good at that already) and enslave us? Or will they be saviors with advanced knowledge to fix all of our problems? Or a bit of both? Are we smart enough to know the difference?

Do I believe there are other civilizations out there? Absolutely. Do I want scientists to prove it? Nope. I’m happy waiting until “we” are better.

We have authors on this hop who write science fiction and fantasy, and I’m really looking forward to what they have to say about this topic. You can find them by following the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

September 26, 2022

Do you want science to find aliens or find that we are alone in the universe? Does it scare you to think there are likely other beings out there?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

 

It Takes A Village #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

September 19, 2022

Share your tips for world-building, even if it’s only a village.

When I started writing The Marquesa’s Necklace, I knew the action would take place in a typical American small town fallen on hard times but clinging to respectability. It would be filled with a mix of grand old Victorian, typical ranch stye homes and everything in between, from brand new to falling apart. The residents reflected that mix, too.

I’d grown up in a town like that, so I didn’t have to research what it would be like. But creating that feeling on paper was a different matter. I didn’t want to spend page after page describing the town I created, so I revealed it in small steps. For example, here’s a description of the lobby of the police station:

Officer Felton left me in the barely furnished lobby. It was a place you don’t want to stay in too long—several hard plastic chairs, a beat-up fake wood end table and a few old magazines scattered about. It smelled like stale cigarettes and appeared not to have been cleaned for weeks. I perched on the edge of a chair and put my hands between my knees to keep from touching anything.

And the information about the battered women’s shelter:

“If I could put you in a safe house, I would, Harmony,” he said softly. “But the town doesn’t have one. Hell, everyone knows where the home for battered women is.”

He’s right. It’s on the corner of Chestnut and Pine. But the angry-looking, black-belt wearing, .45-packing, six foot tall lady who mans the front desk at night is enough of a deterrent to keep most upset exes away.

Or the description of the house that is featured in the series, The Aldridge House

I researched its history when Jake bought the place. The house had been built by Harold, the son of one of the original settlers in Oak Grove, Joseph Aldridge. During the Pennsylvania oil boom, Harold had made big money. When he got married in his mid-forties to a much younger wife, he had the house built as a wedding present for her. Their plans, according to the reports I dredged up, were to fill the house with children. Unfortunately, Harold died in an accident in the oil fields while his wife was pregnant with their first child. She raised the child alone and never remarried, so the big house remained mostly empty. Other families lived in the house after that, but it hadn’t been occupied for years.

Along the way, I learned what really made the town what it is was were the people. Harmony’s overly protective landlords. The smokers huddled outside the back door of her favorite restaurant, and Al, the owner. Freddie, the sometimes-friendly police detective. Harmony’s closest friends. With each book, the list grew. For example, Mrs. Axcel:

Lots of folks in the neighborhood tried to help her keep the place up. She fed me milk and cookies too because she was just happy to have someone to talk to. She told me she wanted to stay in the house as long as possible. It’s the house she and her husband bought when they were newlyweds and they raised all three of their kids in it.

And that’s how I built my world. One person, one building at a time, until the town had become as much of a character in the books as any other. My readers are welcome visitors. Maybe the cousin from out of town, or there for the bird watching festival.

To find out how other authors build their worlds, follow the links below. For now, as always, until next time, please stay safe.

 

September 19, 2022

Share your tips for world-building, even if it’s only a village.

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

The Fame! The Glory! The Money! #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

September 12, 2022

If your book took off tomorrow with enormous worldwide interest and sales, are you prepared for all that entails?

We dream about it, amirite? One of our books skyrocketing into major success. NYT bestseller list, here we come. But are we ready?

I’m not. I just moved onto a new house in a new state and the new experience of being retired from my day job. Shoot, I only got my office pulled together last week. The concept of not having a daily schedule to follow has thrown me for a loop. But, slowly, I’m getting a handle on my changed life. Having it tossed off course so soon would stretch me in ways I’m not prepared to handle.

After all, I am a one-person show. There’s no one else to answer my emails, take phone calls, or keep up my social media pages. Sure, I could rope my husband into helping, but that would take a lot of coaching at first. When would I find time to write?

Then there’s the travel required. Once upon a time, I did a lot of travelling all over the US for my job (that was before I started writing fiction) but I haven’t been on a plane for several years. I could do interviews over the internet, but book signings would require in-person appearances.

I know an author or two who do personal assistant work to help support themselves, so as soon as money started coming in, I could hire them to help. (It takes 60-90 days to get what you’ve earned from Amazon.) There would be other business expenses to plan for, along with a separate bank account to handle them. And taxes. I’d have to restructure my financial setup to cover income taxes.

Could I make the changes needed? Not overnight. Truth is, while it’s a sweet dream, it’s nothing I expect to happen, so I don’t have to worry about it.

Some of the other authors on this hop have had more experience with writing success than me. Find out how they handled it by following the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

September 12, 2022

If your book took off tomorrow with enormous worldwide interest and sales, are you prepared for all that entails?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Interview With The Detective #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

September 5, 2022

Interview one of your characters (not your main character.) How do they feel playing second fiddle to your main character?

Note to those folks who have read the entire Harmony Duprie series: Chronologically, I have placed this interview around the time of the Contessa’s Brooch. 

I met with Detective Frederick Thomason of the Oak Grove Police Department at Mama D’s, a local restaurant, for lunch. It was the first time he’d ever agreed to be interviewed that wasn’t connected to a case. He ordered spaghetti, and I opted to try the chicken parmigiana.

I expected him to be bigger-than-life based on the stories I’d heard, but  in real-life I wouldn’t have picked him out as anything but average, except for the cop haircut. While we waited for our food, we chatted about the weather and the local high school sports teams to break the ice. Once we had settled into our meals, I transitioned to the interview.

Me: “To catch my readers up, I’ll ask a few basic questions, Detective, if you don’t mind.”

Him: (with a grin} “I’m off duty. Call me Freddie.”

Me: “Thank you, Freddie. How long have you been with the Oak Grove Police?”

Him: “Almost fourteen years. I got accepted to the force right out of college. It was a case of being in the right place at the right time. A couple of older cops were getting ready to retire, and the chief was looking to hire locally to gain points with the City Council. Shoot, I had a job before I had time to get all my stuff moved out of my parents’ home and into my own apartment.”

Me: “My research suggests you rose through the ranks in record time.”

Him: (taking his time to finish chewing a forkful of spaghetti before answering) “Another case of good timing. Having grown up locally, I knew where all the hangouts were, who I could trust, and people knew they could trust me. As a result, I closed more cases and when a detective position was added, the chief picked me over some other patrolman that had been around longer.”

Me: “It caused some resentment, according to the rumor mill.”

Him: “Sometimes, the rumor mill gets things right. Those officers mostly chose to look for other opportunities once it became clear I knew what I was doing.”

Me: “Was Harmony Duprie around at that time? The rumor mill also suggests she has something to do with your success.”

Him: “Harmony’s contribution to the police is a closely guarded secret, per her request. However, she’s five years younger than I am, and we didn’t go to school together or move in the same social circles. In fact, I believe she was still in college when I made detective.”

Me “But you dated?”

Him: (raising an eyebrow) “You’re a bit of a detective yourself, aren’t you? Yes, we dated. Briefly. With disastrous results. I couldn’t turn my inner cop off when she needed a friend. I made the mistake of searching some of her private papers, trying to solve a case in which she was a victim, and lost her trust. But one good thing came out of that disaster—Harmony introduced me to my girlfriend.”

Me: “Yet she continued to assist the police?”

Him: “That’s privileged information.”

Me: “Do you resent that the rumor mill gives her credit for your success?”

Him: (Putting his fork down midway through loading it with pasta) “Excuse me?”

Me: “She takes away from your success in the eyes of the local citizenry. How does that make you feel?”

Him: (Leaning across the table) “Despite our difficulties, Harmony has proven herself to be a good friend and an asset to this community in more ways than one. Ways that I shouldn’t know about and can’t reveal. Anyone who suggests I resent her has no idea what they are talking about. I can’t speak for other officers on the force, but I know the Chief feels the same way as I do. We would do anything to protect her.”

Me: “I apologize. I also heard she has a way of attracting people’s loyalty. I should have realized it would include you.”

Him: (Chuckling) “That’s not all she attracts. She gets into more trouble than any one person ever should. It’s not that she does anything to attract it, but trouble has a way of finding her. The department Has been able to handle things, but she keeps us on our toes. I’ve never told her about the reputed car thieves we’ve caught eyeing her fancy red Jaguar. She calls it a cop magnet, but doesn’t realize it’s also a bad guy magnet.”

The detective’s phone beeped. He glanced at it, pushed his chair back, and stood. “Sorry, but we’ll have to cut this short. Work calls. At least it has nothing to do with Harmony this time. You can email me if you need additional info for your article.”

Me: “Thank you for your time. Stay safe out there.”

September 5, 2022

Interview one of your characters (not your main character.) How do they feel playing second fiddle to your main character?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter


The Horror Of It #IWSG

  By IWSG

 

Welcome to another month of the Insecure Writers’ Support Group, whose purpose is to share an encourage. The awesome co-hosts for the September 7 posting of the IWSG are Kim Lajevardi, Cathrina Constantine, Natalie Aguirre, Olga Godim, Michelle Wallace, and Louise – Fundy Blue!

September 7 question – What genre would be the worst one for you to tackle and why.
 
The one genre I have no interest in reading and would never tackle writing is horror. The why is simple-I do most of my reading for entertainment, and I find nothing entertaining in stories about humans getting joy out of hurting other humans. Sure, I know there are lots of other aspects of horror, but I just don’t like the genre. And, since I write for personal fulfillment and enjoyment, I’d never use my limited writing time on a subject that I don’t appreciate.
 
I also wouldn’t try science fiction, but that’s because I don’t feel up to the task. I just don’t feel I could do a good job with the genre. My current WIP is set twenty years in the future, and that’s tough enough. I don’t have a crystal ball to reveal what subtle changes we might see in our daily lives by then and am trying to project based on what had changed in my lifetime.
 
There’s one genre I’ve tried unsuccessfully and I may try again – romance. Sure, I write with a touch of romance in my stories, but action is the primary component. My few attempts at writing a full-length romance have been unsatisfactory and I have shelved them. But who knows, I might try again.
 
That’s it for me. But there are plenty of other authors on this hop. Check out the list below. And, until next time, please stay safe.
 
Note: I lost track on myself and posted this last week- way to early! So if you are here again, it’s not your imagination, and thank you! 
 
 

Exploring Short Stories #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

August 29, 2022

Do you ever write short stories? What do you see as the biggest difference in the writing process between a short story and a full-length book?

Novels are my primary form, but I have explored and published a few short stores. I wrote two of them for collections that are no longer available. But for every book I’ve written, I’ve reached a point where I’ve wondered if I’d get enough words to call it a novel. (50,000 words is the figure often used to denote a full-length novel, but that number can vary by genre.) Short stories have the opposite challenge—fitting the plot and characters into few enough words. (Usually between 1,500 and 10,000.) Considering my longest book, the Ranger’s Dog Tags, is about 90,000 words, and the shortest, The Fall of Jake Hennessey, ran 52,000, you can understand the difficulty I have writing something much shorter.

What’s the difference? The writing has to be tighter. Descriptions need to be hints and not long strings of flowery phrases.  Same for the characters—there’s no room for lengthy speeches or action scenes to build their personalities. Everything has to be compact.

But creating those short stories helped me become a better writer. They forced me to show, not tell, and made me reach for the thesaurus to find the exact word instead of settling for one that was close enough. Those changes slow down my writing speed, but also translate to less editing. One of the short stories took me almost six months to complete. I’m currently writing at the non-breakneck  speed of one book a year. (Compare that to authors who strive to complete a book a month. Every month.) They also forced me to do more plot development before I put words on paper, although I remail a pantser (writing by discovery.)

While I don’t expect to ever adopt the short story as my default writing style, I wouldn’t object to writing another one if the right opportunity presented itself. I enjoyed the experience.

How do the other authors on this hop feel about the short story form? You can find out by following the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

August 29, 2022

Do you ever write short stories? What do you see as the biggest difference in the writing process between a short story and a full-length book?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter