Springing Into Action

How many things can Jean do at once? We're testing the limits this month.

Did I go into this knowingly and willingly? Yep. It is a torture of my own doing because sometimes all the things just align like that.

Thing #1: Nugget the Space Chicken books 3 & 4 is on Kickstarter (pre-launch as of this post) and going live on April 7. If you'd like to help bring more adventures to my early reader sci-fi/fantasy chapter book series, please consider supporting our campaign.

Thing #2: My next book will be released on May 4. Siphon, my paranormal romance is wrapping up proofreading and then will head into formatting (that's me) and out to ARC readers.

Vampires full of tragic pasts and dark secrets are delicious.

Lavina feeds off the memories of others, the more traumatic the better, but once she’s fed, they’re fixed: looking for redemption, good…so very vanilla. Lavinia craves triple dark chocolate.

Stephanos is called to America to help his sire take over the blood-rich city of Northchester. The job, like all the others before it, is simple: kill the target, cause a little chaos, and enforce compliance with the new regime. Then he can go back home and not deal with his sire’s demands for a decade or two.

When a strange woman interrupts his killing spree, all of his plans go to hell. His sire is pissed, the target isn’t thankful, and everyone in Northchester is looking for him. Lavina has a safe place to hide the wanted vampire and a plan to make him last. Unfortunately, she’s never been good at sticking to diets.

Thing #3: Holland Lit Fest. I'm in charge of author selection and various other things for a new book festival we're launching this fall.

Thing #4: Finishing the rough draft of Nugget book 4: The Broken Bots of Quintus 9 so we can be ready for illustrations once the Kickstarter concludes #ThinkingPositive

Beyond that...all the usual things. I have four book events in April and four more in May, three of those eight will be long weekends of away from home travel. A new brood of chicks is on the way. The flower beds need lots of cleaning up and the garden will need planting soon. Zero (the current teen chick) is enjoying his/her (time will tell) first spring. What all can I get done in addition to everything else? We shall see.

I am happy to report that Penguicon 2026 was fantastic. It was great to see this convention return to it's mission of family friendly diverse programming. I met lots of great authors including David Weber (author of the Honor Harrington series) and Jim Butcher (author of the Dresden Files), sat on seven panels, attended a few more, AND managed to get some editing done. Did I stay up too late? Yes, but not because of room parties. I blame my lack of sleep on a rousing after midnight conversation with author pal Vera West, who I roped into attending the con with me.

Third Coast Author and Book Festival was also a great time and soooo many author friends were there but the festival hours were short and I was so busy signing books that I couldn't get away from my table to chat with most of them. #AuthorProblems  A few of us hung out after hours at a local brewery, but there were many faces I didn't get to see. Good thing the year is young. We'll hopefully get a chance to catch up at another event.

My road trip to Toledo Fantasticon was blessedly uneventful. The hotel was wonderfully quiet (I always use that same hotel when in Toledo for that exact reason) and Little Kay (the chicken on duty that weekend) and I got to meet lots of new and returning readers. 

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the 

other participating writers. 

We've reached the part where I do my Insecure Writer's Support Group post. Hooray, if you've made it this far and aren't tired yet. I'm tired too. ;)  This month's question is about playlists and writing, and well, if you've been here for awhile, you know I don't listen to anything when writing. Silence is my friend. The better to hear the voices, she said.

So instead, we're going to quick chat about doing all the things at once and not going crazy. Consult the calendar. Make lists. Know your due dates and roughly how much time tasks will take. Time blocks are fantastic.

Unless I'm totally in the zone, I do better with short blocks to keep my attention on task. Fifteen minutes to half an hour works great for me. Find what works best for you. Catch up on email for fifteen minutes. Do twenty minutes of editing. Half an hour of writing. Go outside with the dog or check the chickens and get fresh air, stretch the legs. Fifteen minutes to set up a social media post or three. Got another half an hour to burn? Back to writing. You get the idea. These small goals make it so much easier to play catch up if life happens and you miss a handful one day. It's easier to accomplish lots of little things than forcing yourself to set at the computer for three hours to "get some writing work done". #ADHDproductivity 

Let The Crazy Commence

The March into madness is off and running. We begin with four weekends of events, while also applying feedback from beta readers on Siphon, my upcoming paranormal romance stand-alone novel. Oh and along with writing my next book Not Another Unhinged Romance, I'm also madly writing Nugget the Space Chicken 3 & 4 for an upcoming Kickstarter campaign—because my illustrator wants to get paid or something? Also also, I'm finalizing the author line up for the Lakeshore Art Festival's author alley. Aaaaaand planning a local book festival that will take place in September. I'm supposed to be sewing a new ren faire dress too, but yeah, that's kind of on the back burner at the moment. 

So yeah, no dull moments any time in the near future. Or maybe (looking at my event list) until December. 

Up this month: Mona Shores Comic Con— a nice little one day school con close-ish to home. Fantasticon Toledo—A mid-size two day con, not close to home. Third Coast Author and Book Festival—a one day book festival with a bunch of my author friends that is close to home. And Penguicon—a three day hotel con on the other side of the state where I'll be doing 8 panels, hanging out in the bookstore, and getting some writing done after hours. Or sleeping. Or checking out the room party when I should be sleeping. Place your bets. I'll report back next month.  

Let's see what has transpired since my last post... The Mid Michigan Women's Expo was underwhelming with attendance, but as always, we authors had a good time, networking happened, and books did find new homes. And I bought a new crown, because hey, if I'm not going to have time to sew soon, at least I have something new to wear. :)

Loki, the new puppy, is settling in nicely. My lap (where my laptop should be) is his favorite place.

Zero, the newest chick is growing beautiful feathers. I'm excited to see how this one turns out when it grows up. 

I recently did a couple podcast interviews if you're into those and want to check them out. On For the Love of Books, we talked about I9, my newest book, a stand-alone space opera with mystery and a little romance. Then on Indie Reads Aloud, we talked about One Shot At The Sphinx and The Narvan. 

In non-writing things... I took a break for a couple of weeks and watched all 90 episodes of Farscape, one of my favorite sci-fi shows. Except for that one animated episode. Nope. All these years later, and I still didn't like it. The other 89 totally made up for it though. 

For those of you on the author business end of things... BookFunnel finally came out with a cost effective audiobook plan, allowing us to sell our own audiobooks (without the distribution middleman getting a big chunk of the $) for only $2 a month and .04 per download hour. This means I can now sell Sahmara's audiobook in person at events along with my ebooks. I've really enjoyed having options for however readers want to read, ready to go right from my hands to theirs, where I get the majority of the profit. Sorry, but Amazon does not need your money to pay the bills.

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the 

other participating writers. 

Let's get to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question: What elements do you include in your book launch? What do you have in mind for your future book launch? Advice on book launches?

Well, I'll just be honest here, I suck at book launches. Mostly I write books and throw them out into the world because I have an endless cascade of events where I promote them along with my entire backlist. Do I do some of the usual things? Sure. And if you're wondering what those are:

Cover reveals, posting the blurb, teasers, guest blog posts, sending out a few newsletters- before, during, and after launch, getting ARC readers before the release date, and generally chatting up the book on social media before, during, and after launch. If I can talk my way into a podcast or two to promote the new book, that's a bonus.

Do I have a ton of money to invest in big name reviews or do big promo advertisements? Nope. I invest my $ in event table fees because that's where I know I sell books and my return readers are there. Your milage may vary. 

I've tried ads. I've tried ebook blasts, bundles, blog takeovers, and promo deals. Results were meh on all of that. Not to say they don't work, but I'm guessing genre and timing have a lot to do with it.

Do I do a big release party? I have not. I tend to time my releases with a well attended con or festival and call it my book launch party. So nice of you all to come! LOL  Sometimes I do have a few special launch goodies that I hand out to the first X number of people who buy the book. One of these times I'd like to do an actual launch party for local fans, but my schedule is a bit restricted so we'll see if that ever works out.

Until next time...