New excerpt:
“Thanks. Uh, is that…” I pointed at the horned being taking shape.

“A daemon. Mid-level, I’d say.” he straightened his jacket and spoke into the air. “Illy, I need you. A careful arrival, please.”

A soft whisper of sound; the husky faded into view with a guilty expression and an empty meat package in his mouth.

Damian sighed. “What is it with you and the damn trash?”

The dog dropped his prize and sat on it, offering up a big, shit-eating grin.

“Uh, daemon?” I prompted, then gaped as Illy leaped to his paws, spinning around. The husky went from goofy and cuddly to a teeth baring, hackles raised danger. I was impressed.

From the Soldiers’ Angels website: Project Valour-IT helps provide voice-controlled/adaptive laptop computers and other technology to support Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand wounds and other severe injuries.  Items supplied include:

Another character popped into the story to complicate things a bit, and just a few minutes ago, I discovered why Cordi developed her psychic abilities, thanks to another character’s parrot familiar.

This novel is going to be longer than 50k, so I’m not entirely certain it’ll be a finished first draft by the end of November. In fact, it’s trying very hard to convince me that it has series potential.

[plugs ears with fingers] Lalalalalaalaallaalala, I can’t hear you!

Right, like that ever works. Heh.

Anyway, progress is definitely ongoing and I hope that I just might hit 20k by this evening. The Storm Adept is still working on the bedding and texturing stuff, so I’m not on duty for physical labor. Just making fresh tea each time the pitcher runs dry.

If I do manage to write that much, I’ll see if I can’t entice the second bit of Night Falls out of that dark corner it’s hiding in, and post my real life ghost story I promised @Care4Horsescom .

Back to writing!

Edited to add: Whoops, forgot to do an excerpt!

A menu was shoved into my face right then by the surly looking waitress. Being a vampire hadn’t turned out the way she thought it would, was my guess.

We ordered and there was nothing to do but stare around or make small talk. I choose small talk. “What made you take the job?”

“Babysitting you?” Nick grinned, his eyes sliding from me to the door and back. “It sounded interesting. I’ve never met a psychic before.”

Tiny excerpt:

“Don’t panic. Go on up, we’ll see if we can figure out what’s going on.”

Throwing a scowl over my shoulder, I said, “I’m not panicking. I just said I don’t like this situation.”

“Okay. Would you start climbing?” Nick poked me in the back.

“Hey! No touching.”

“Is that a prejudice thing?”

“It’s a psychic thing,” I huffed, stepping up. “I sometimes pick stuff up when I touch things or people. Or if they touch me without warning.”

“Oh. Sorry.” The shifter was silent for a few seconds. “Damn, that must make sex impossible.”

Um, yeah. It’s going. Hehe.

In other news, I put up a new page and suffered Dr Pepper withdrawals all day long.

Those suck, just in case you were wondering.  The Storm Adept has ventured out and will be returning with some bubbling brown, sugary goodness for me, so my suffering’s nearing its end.

And that is all.

Wait! No it’s not!

My birthday’s just seven days away, and I’ve made a wish.

That means I’ve already met today’s goal, and in fact, am about 199 words into tomorrow’s goal. So any writing done today is gravy, baby!

I did bounce ahead in the story to write a few scenes that I’ve just been dying to. They’ll have to be moved to the right spots, but at least they’re finally out of my head.

I’ve signed up over on 43Things, following in OrangeCatBlues‘ pawprints, and will be putting my goals/projects up as time allows.

I did write a bit on Night Falls last night, but I don’t think it’s the second bit. More likely the 3rd or 4th bit, so I’ll have to see if bit two shows up tonight when I should have some writing time.

In other news, it appears that Feral Intensity will be my first title to hit that 100 sales goal. Only 27 more to sell to reach it!

The Harkfell Chronicles is in last place with only 5 sold so far, but it is my newest release. There’s a coupon available for it until the end of the year:

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Here’s a peek at what my office currently looks like, now that the drywall has been taped and bedded:

We’ll be working on the utility room today, then I should be cut loose for a while and have some free days to write my ass off. Yay!

Oh, and I’m still looking for sponsers for Arcane Solutions! All donations made go directly to the Office of Letters and Light, but they make me a happy little writer.

Coffee and bacon help.

We have to finish up the underlayment and I’ve got some household chores to take care of before more writing time will be available for today. I think I’ve started with a nice flow, so will just need to keep it up!

Arcane Solutions is definitely my NaNoWriMo novel this year. Night Has Fallen will be a web fic posted here on my blog. The details are here, such as they currently are.

Word counts will be updated daily (assuming I have more words to count each day!) for both. Excerpts from Arcane Solutions will be on my NaNo page; the full first draft will be posted to my subscription site, the House of Craze.

I’m ready for November. How much longer until midnight?

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It thrills me deeply when a reader lets me know they enjoyed my stories.

It also embarrasses the hell out of me. You are spared the blushing and stammering that goes on, thanks to the wonder of email and Twitter, because I can accept such compliments with apparent grace via them by simply typing ‘Thank you!’.

I mean, my stories come from my brain, and here I am, sticking them out for friends, family and complete strangers to read. It’s personal and very public, all at once. I war with giddiness and thinking ‘Oh my gawd, I can’t believe I’m putting stories out for people to read!’

Because of this combination, I have a lot of problems with just asking readers if they’d mind posting a review. I’m not worried about criticism – I can take that, because I want to better myself as a writer. If my readers don’t tell me what I got right and where I lost it and screwed things up, how can I improve?

Writers need feedback from their readers. I know I don’t have a huge readership (yet, but maybe someday!), but I’d love and appreciate feedback.

Not ego stroking, but definitely some reviews. Especially at Amazon and Smashwords, where the majority of my e-book sales occur.

Readers have the power to make or break a writer’s career by word of mouth. Every story is a risk, regardless if you’re just starting out or have made a name for yourself.

I’ve previously held back from actually asking those who’ve read my e-book titles to post reviews, because to me, it seems kind of rude to do so. I mean, if they did really enjoy the book, wouldn’t they go take a few minutes to say so?

But I also know that posting a review isn’t the first thing I think of after reading a book or buying a product, no matter how much I enjoy either. Or don’t enjoy, for that matter.

So here goes nothing!

If you have read one of my e-books, I’d really appreciate it if you’d take a few minutes to post something on either Amazon or Smashwords. Good or bad, I don’t care. You’re helping me out either way and I really do appreciate constructive criticism.

Thanks for reading this. It is said you won’t get if you don’t ask, but I have to go recover from my boldness in asking now.

No, seriously!

They’re growing in popularity with voracious readers at a time when print books are seeing a decline in sales.

Traditional publishers have been slow to jump on the bandwagon and made some rather bad decisions, as far as readers who prefer e-books are concerned, by delaying the release of e-book versions of their favorite authors. And they’re taking on fewer new authors because of the state of the publishing industry.

So here’s what you big names do.

Start a dedicated e-book division. You need an editor, a web designer who can also format e-books (or someone to handle that) and an internet marketing guru/book publicist.

Create your website for this division. Don’t go all out, just set up a nice WordPress blog/site for it (Wordpress is free, so just a domain name, hosting and your web site guy/girl for expenses there).

Put the word out that you’re accepting submissions. You’ll be flooded.

While your editor type is going through those, you need to be making deals with distributors (if you haven’t already) for good profit splits. You’re a big name, they’ll work with you.

You also need to be drawing up a standard contract. Make it short term, fair royalty split, for digital publishing rights only on listed distributor sites (Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, etc.), but with a rider for possible adding printing rights via POD publishing, if say 2k copies sell.

Work out the print on demand details so you won’t be caught short when that’s needed.

Have your publicist set up social media accounts for your new e-book division.

Offer a small advance to those authors selected to offer a contract to. Say $100 or so.

Editor does his/her part in working with author to polish the title. It’s finished, formatted and a cover created (you already have people who do covers, right?) and then uploaded to Amazon, etc. Your publicist announces its release; the web site guy blogs it (or adds it to the online store there and blogs about it. You can easily add an online store with free WP plugins available).

There’s buzz in place, e-books start selling, their authors are thrilled to be ‘traditionally published the new way’ and your big name stays a big name.

You make money, the authors make money, the readers continue to have fresh reads to enjoy.

Win, win, win.

After all, your job as book publishers is to put books out in front of readers. If you’re not jumping into the e-book market, you’re failing at it in this day and age.

But then again, what do I know? I’m just an independet, self-publishing author doing it all mostly by myself.

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If I may direct your attention over to the right sidebar, or to the new My Goals page, you’ll see that I’m hoping to hit a total of 500 e-books sold by Dec. 31st.

I’ve taken steps to possibly better my odds in achieving that goal.

The first is an addition to my standard copyright statement on my for purchase titles listed at Smashwords, as follows:

“The following permission is granted by the author only to those readers who have legally purchased this Smashwords edition of the title:
You may share this e-book with friends or family that you believe will enjoy it, as long as you do so in a manner intended to prevent anyone other than your chosen recipient from gaining access to it.”

If the wording comes across a bit snotty, sorry. It’s meant to be all legal looking, not snotty.

My second push towards this odds lowering biz is coupons! Click on the titles to read a sample, and pop in the coupon code when asked if you decide to purchase one.

• The Harkfell Chronicles – Coupon code  ‘SF95Y‘  – 35% off of $1.50
• Moon Children: Dark Cravings – Coupon code ‘JP29Z‘  – 40% off of $4.75

My After the Fall series titles could use some luvins:

• Tria’s Tale – Coupon code ‘SU63H‘  – 40% off of $5.25
• Good Intentions – Coupon code ‘KK27T‘  – 40% off of $3.25
• By Chance – Coupon code ‘AC95E‘  – 40%  off of $3.25

Daughters of the Lore: Resurgence is regularly priced at 99 cents, and my shared After the Fall series title, A Little Nip, co-authored with JC Montgomery, is regularly priced at $1.75.

In total honesty, I’m pushing the Smashwords versions because they’re offered in several formats and because I receive 82% as my ‘royalty’.

Of course, sales won’t just edge me closer to that 500 e-books sold goal, but also to the ‘100 copies per title’ goal and something else.

My son’s desktop computer totally cratered on him a couple of weeks back. I want to buy him a laptop for Christmas, so any royalty earnings between now and the end of November (so that I’ll receive the payouts before Christmas) will be used towards the purchase of that.

Wow, three goals in one. Look at me getting all ambitious and stuff!

Of course, selling more than 199 e-books between now and then would be even more helpful and pretty freakin’ awesome.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!