Cohorts In Crime

My muse is either very fickle or very smart.  Or, perhaps, I’m either exceptionally stubborn or exceptionally stupid.  More likely, it’s all of the above.

I had a plan.  I blogged about my plan last time.  I was working on a new historical romance.  Once it was done or (at least) well underway, about the beginning of next year, I was going to stop and do an edit of Griffin’s Law.  The next to be published Griffin’s is complete and has been resting pending an edit.  Griffin’s is a contemporary romance set in a law school and is sort of a crossover between E-mail Enticement and a historical.  Okay – if you insist- think of Griffin’s  as the Grey’s Anatomy of the legal profession.

Anyway, I’ve been hard at work writing my new historical.  Rather, I’ve been trying to be hard at work on the historical.  I’ve been coming home after work and opening the computer to the MS every night.  I’ve been opening it faithfully every Saturday and Sunday morning for the past few weekends.  Sometimes, I’ve even written a few lines on it.  But inevitably, after a line or two, the story leaves me and I start sneaking over to my desktop to play Snood or Solitaire.  Or flipping over to check sales on Amazon, Createspace, Scribd, Smashwords, etc.  Or getting sucked into something on Google News that I keep in customized form as my homepage for Internet Explorer.

 

Enticing Interest

Hubby The Magnificent blogged recently that E-Mail Enticement would be available in paperback on Amazon and Createspace soon. Well, soon is now.

E-Mail was written much earlier and had been out and available on Kindle and in e-book form. But sales figures for the book didn’t show much interest, so we didn’t hurry to make it available in paperback. The lack of interest sort of echoed the reaction from literary agents when I queried the book initially, which was quite a few years ago. Of late, interest in and sales of E-mail have risen dramatically. Perhaps E-mail’s time has come. I hope so.

Unlike the other books I have published to date, E-mail is a contemporary. I have written one other contemporary in the vein of E-mail, but it hasn’t gone through the editorial wringer yet.  I’ll slot the final edit of the new one (Griffin’s Law) for early next year, when my WIP – a new historical romance- is well along the road towards completion, if not actually complete.  But, like I said above before I started rambling, E-mail is different from the other work readers have seen to date.

 

It’s An Amazon World (After All)

They say that even a broken clock is right twice a day.  My percentage may not be quite as good as that broken timepiece, but by The Great Green Toad Frog, once in a great while – I’m right too. 

A while back, I started blogging about my dissatisfaction with Mobipocket.  As you may know, Mobi is the ebookbase distributor that used to be THE place for indie publishers to sell ebooks.  The little French company was going gangbusters until 2005 arrived and the American giant, Amazon, gobbled up little Mobi.  Many thought that the purchase meant that Amazon’s already immense assets and web presence would advance the brand, provide a killer venue to the indie publishers, and make the Mobi format the industry standard for ebooks.  But, of course, it didn’t work out that way.

It was a strategic takeover for the Giant which was apparently already eyeballing plans for an ebook distribution service of its own.  The purchase meant that Amazon could cannibalize the company by siphoning off pieces and parts of the Mobi technology. I’m no gadget guru (my hubby wears that hat), but I suspect that computer folk would be able to examine the Kindle app’s code and see the fingerprints of its Mobi forerunner.  Once the Giant licked all the red off the Mobi sucker, it could toss the sucker in the garbage. 

 

E-Mail Enticement Available in Paperback Soon

Howdy chitlins, it’s me again, the husband.

I finally got the paperback cover completed for E-Mail Enticement, the text formatted, and the whole thing uploaded to CreateSpace. The e-store page for it is up, but the book itself won’t be available until we approve the proof copy currently on its way to the humble Graham abode.

Also, be on the lookout for it to appear on Amazon’s site. I will, as usual, update the links on Quacking Alone when Amazon does all of its voodoo to get the book up there.

In the meantime, please enjoy an image of the full paperback cover here (also accessible via the sidebar and the complete list of books page). And buy it on your Kindle or other favorite e-book reader if you don’t need a 5″ x 8″ projectile with which to smack a beloved cranium.

Until next time, chitterlings, be good and if you see me approaching, DUCK!!

 

It’s Called Fiction For A Reason

This week over at one of my favorite Internet spots – Romancing The Blog - there was an interesting discussion about the importance of historical accuracy in romances.  A Fine and Dandy Problem was posted on the site on October 13th by literary agent Emmanuelle Alspaugh.   Check out the post if you can – Ms. Alspaugh used a specific example from one of her clients to highlight the issue and she did a fine job of tossing a meaty bone for blog followers to chase.  I chased it and lost on the site, but (cue music) I stand by my stance.

I think historical romance is any romance that takes place in a previous era.  In other words, if it’s not contemporary, then it’s historical.  To me, the period of a piece sets the mood.  Beyond that, I think details are pretty much fair game.  Okay, a Regency novel where the heroine e-mails a friend for advice might be (are you sitting down?) a little over the top even for me.  But precise details like whether the railroads ran a specific route, intricate details about heirs to a particular title,  the names of places and people -including dukes, earls and the like – can, and often should be created entirely from the mind of the author.   I don’t care whether women were wearing a particular style during the years of my story - in fact, I don’t care that much exactly what anyone was wearing.  If I describe a gown in detail, it’s because those details will play an important part of the scene.  Otherwise, I don’t sweat the small stuff.

 

Does Anyone Buy Paperbacks Anymore?

Our new project this week - the book trailer for Faerie (see post from hubby below, YouTube, Yahoo Video, & Coming Soon Everywhere We Can Think Of)  turns my thoughts to marketing and the state of the industry generally. 

Of course, it also turns my thoughts to Faerie which is my “rest of the story” spin on the famous legend of the Clan McLeod of the Isle of Skye in Scotland.  After Ian’s handfast marriage to a faerie princess ended after a year and a day, per his agreement with her da, the Faerie King, the princess returned to the land of faerie.  Her braw, strong hubby watched her go, holding their infant son, without making a single protest.  Later, the babe cried and the princess returned to comfort him, leaving him wrapped in a faerie flag that could be used to protect the Clan.  Interesting story, but what laird worth his highland blood would let a beloved go without fighting to keep her?  And after she left, we have a fine laird with a castle and no lady wife.  When he marries, how will the princess feel?  Surely, the many tears she’d shed would anger her powerful father into appearing at the wedding reception and pronouncing a curse. 

Check out the trailer for A Faerie Fated Forever, and you’ll get a glimpse of that handfast marriage that ended in a curse that the current laird must meet or risk living his father’s tormented, unfulfilled life.  You’ll also get a glimpse of the gorgeous terrain of the highlands and hints of the rest of the plot.  So watch the trailer and buy the book or the e-book. 

After watching markets recently, I’m betting you’d buy the e-book. 

 

Latest Project – Book Trailer!

Greetings and salutations, kiddies. One of the many reasons I haven’t got Mary Anne’s E-mail Enticement into paperback form yet (besides being an enormous slacker) is a little project she assigned me.

It seems the newest thing in publishing is the book trailer – essentially a short video to whet your appetite for a book. It’s much like a movie trailer, except more of a pain in the gluteus maximus because you don’t have any video footage to begin with and you do them for authors who just looooove words, words, and more words.

At any rate, with much fury, frustration, and cursing with Windows Movie Maker, I have finally completed Quacking Alone’s very first book trailer.

Behold, A Faerie Fated Forever, the book trailer:

 

Plots That Make Me Say — No Sale

I write romance so, obviously, I read romance too.  Try writing a book in a genre you haven’t read for years — go ahead, I dare you. 

As readers, I think we all have some things that turn us off from the get go.  I know there are plot descriptions I can read and almost every time I’ll slide the book back on the (real or virtual) shelf.  I’ve created taboos because if I buy a book with one of these plots, I’ll almost always have buyer’s remorse.  Do I hate the book because it’s bad? Maybe, my preconceived ideas created hurdles so high that no writer could have written a story about these plotlines that I’d have enjoyed.

Here are some of the plots that turn me – the buyer - off:

 

Grey’s 6 – You Are What You Think You Are

What theme does Shonda Sunshine want to explore on the sixth season of Grey’s Anatomy?  I think it’s her take on the old adage – You Are What You Think You Are.  Although the theme is rather conventional, I expect that Sunshine’s take on it will be anything but standard.

Who set the theme?  Why, it was Lexie’s question to Callie:  “How gay are you?”  Don’t forget, Callie had been wandering around in states of half dress right in front of Lexie’s beau Mark.  Callie even darted in to speak to Mark while he was wearing nothing but steam from his shower.  So Lexie put the question to Callie who could have answered it straight out, proclaiming herself a lesbian and any future romantic escapades with McSteamy impossible.  She didn’t do that.  Instead, she said Mark didn’t see her boobs anymore and that meant he was committed to Lexie. 

Ahmm,  yeah, right.  So now, Lexie must measure the status of her thing/fling with McSteamy by checking the degree of his boob blindness.  Can he see other boobs today?  Some boobs?  All boobs?  No boobs?    He’s only as into her as he thinks he is.  So she should watch out for the cry - Boobs ahoy!

 

The Amazon Strategy – If We Kill It, They Will Come

Amazon’s strategy for marketing the Kindle makes me think of a dictator who decides he wants all the citizens of his country to live in one city. 

People being, well, people with individual patterns and practices, likes and dislikes, it’s not likely that all them will ever live in one city.  But the dictator could certainly get more of them there by showing that his city is a safe place with the best streets and parks and the most jobs.  That would attract interest.  Then he could point out that his city opens its arms to everyone and respects their differences.  I’d bet that dictator could then watch the steady influx of folks from hamlets all over the land, willing to try city life because it lets them keep big parts of the things they loved about their hamlets while letting them have more jobs, more choices,  and more possibilities. 

Or, if the dictator is maddened with power and crazed with the determination to have it all his way, he could use a different strategy.  He could simply kill all the citizens who live anywhere except in his favored city.  Guess which strategy Amazon has chosen to market the Kindle?