2020: Pandemic and Writing

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We’re halfway through 2020 and deep into the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope all of you are staying safe and healthy, and for those of you who have lost loved ones, my deepest condolences. These are strange and scary times.

I have been actively writing, jumping back and forth between projects that I have started and stopped countless times. I feel like I’m not really getting anywhere with anything, but that’s not true. I have finished the 13th draft of a upmarket literary novel that I wrote with NaNoWriMo 2016. I will begin submitting to agents again in the next several weeks. I finished THE BONE DANCER, which is the novel I had hoped to self publish at the end of 2019. I hadn’t quite finished it in December, and then when I did finish it early this year, I decided that I wanted to write the second and final book before releasing the first. I’m about 3/4 done with the first draft of the second book and have stalled out on how I want it to end, which is my M.O. Endings are hard. I wanted to have both books finished before publishing to make sure there was strong continuity between the two. Now I’m wondering if I should just release book one? It’s been so long since I’ve published anything… seems like it’s time to get back on the horse.

I have a new idea for another novel—or perhaps a series of shorter novellas—that I hope to start working on soon.

I watch too much TV, but am trying my best to use my quarantine time proactively. So here’s to potentially publishing something during this crazy year.

Cheers!

2019: A Year of Goals

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Hello!

I am horrible at blogging. Many apologies. (I’m horrible at Facebook too. Argh!)

I am actively working on the revisions of my next novel, which is the first in a two-part series (can you call it a series if it’s only two books?). Working title: THE BONE DANCER. This novel moves more into the realm of urban fantasy (not so much fairies and stuff, but magical beings) or perhaps it would be better classified as modern fantasy. I don’t know… I suck at marketing as well, but I’ll figure it out before it goes online. I’m hoping people enjoy it. Will post a synopsis when I get closer to the finished product.

The first draft was pretty darn rough, so the editing process has been a little slower going this time around. I’m feeling confident that I can have it completed and ready for publishing by December, which would mean that I would successfully meet the goal that I set out for myself.

So if you’re out there wondering, please keep your fingers crossed for me! And if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I might be looking for one (or two).

In other news, I’ve been trying my hat at different forms of art–mostly watercolor painting. But I promise to stay focused on my one true love, writing, for the remainder of the year.

New Book Coming in 2019… I promise!

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It’s been a loooooong time. So sorry. I’m alive!!

I have been writing… I just haven’t been publishing. :c(

My recent novels have been in a different genre (more literary fiction) than my past novels. I have one book (which I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2016 that is complete, but needs another edit), and an almost complete novel (which I wrote from NaNoWriMo 2017); however, I can’t figure out the ending of that one, so it’s just been sitting around waiting for some kind of conclusion.

I also took some time to pursue traditional publishing (ie, sending query letters out to agents and being lucky enough to have one read the full manuscript of the 2016 novel and give me very helpful feedback). I’m still really invested in this novel and hope to do another revision and resubmit to agents by the end of the year. Traditional publishing is so challenging in comparison to self publishing. It takes a LOT more time, but I feel so good about the novel. I know it’s got potential.

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So, NaNoWriMo 2018 is just two days away and I’m devoted to writing a draft of a new novel that I’ll self publish. I’m hoping for it to be a stand-alone supernatural/fantasy/new adult/magical realism/upmarket fiction. Working title: THE BONE DANCER. This internet borrowed picture is the closest thing that I can find to sorta illustrate the idea, but imagine this light coming from someone’s hand. Too abstract? To vague? The novel is still too fresh to really break down what it’s about, but I hope I can pull it off. It’ll definitely be different, but then it’s been over 10 years since I wrote the KM series. I’m a different author now… kinda have to go where the muse takes me.

THE BONE DANCER is an idea that’s been floating around in my head for a while and has tried to emerge in a couple different ways, but I’m locking down a working outline that I’m excited about. It’s all coming together, with the exception of the ending. I always have trouble with endings!

Wish me luck!

First Promo

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So, my first promo is running today! I’m not sure how well this will go, but at least I’m trying to get the word out there about my books. KILLING MEMORIES will be discounted to $1.99 through February 14th. Go to ManyBooks.net and share this post!

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Revamping a Brand

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So, 2016 was a bit of a slump for me in my e-book sales, and I definitely didn’t sell any paperbacks (I don’t think, if any were sold it was probably less than five). I know a big part of that is that I don’t market as I should. I also think that the novels probably need a vamp up. I recently re-did the covers, so I’m going to leave them as they are for now, but last night I worked on a new blurb for KILLING MEMORIES:

Ecover_finalstela Ramos knows she will die a lonely virgin spinster with donut glaze on her face. She’s resigned herself to this fate, but the women in her life have other plans. Soon, there are two men standing before her: the first is a desperate gynecologist with personal space issues, and the second is a handsome high-fashion photographer who claims that they’ve known each other for years. Estela becomes easily lost in the steady gaze of the photographer’s jade-green eyes, but knows she won’t get anywhere if she can’t forget the pains from her past and truly believe that someone would be eager to love her just as she is.

It’s shorter than the previous version and I hope a little more engaging. Thoughts?

I think the next one I might tackle is AROUND THE WORLD TONIGHT. That blurb is a little long and perhaps a little clunky. The sales for that one haven’t been that great since I published it in 2015. I might even consider redoing that cover on that one as well. We shall see.

Rebranding is hard. I should probably think of it on a larger scale. Revamping my facebook page… maybe even this blog (the home page has been the same for a while), maybe even revamping TATIANA MOORE. I don’t really know how to do this, though. I’m not yet at a point where I would try to hire a company to review and make changes for me, but that is always an option. I need to start small and try to put more effort into this process myself first. I’m currently looking for cheap advertising to help promote my books.

Update on the YA novel: 229 pages 77,622 words (about 90%) complete.

Getting close!

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I’m just over 210 pages into this paranormal YA novel draft (that’s around 71,000 words). So, I’m feeling “on track,” so to speak to completing the first draft. I’m going to shoot for no more than 85,000 words for round one, which means that I need to start wrapping up the end of the first book. I definitely need to add a lot more to this one to help build this world I’m creating. I’m used to writing long novels, but I just need to make sure that none of it drags–I tend to have slow openings.

 

High Queens & K-Dramas

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Has anyone ever noticed how quickly Friday comes back around? I love Fridays. I get to wear jeans to work and therefore feel super comfy (I wish every day was jean day) and I get to start my weekend at 3:30. **insert jazz hands and fists in the air and happy dancing**

It’s been a strange week. I’ve wanted to go to bed at 8pm every night and the last two nights I’ve had little headaches. I just drastically cut carbs out of my diet, so that may be the cause (body’s slowly acclimating to carb starvation and instead of processing the fat that I have stored it kind throws up its hands and says “we done for today!”). At any rate, it’s just been a weird all around week. The good news is that I’ve managed to write a page (many more, actually) a day and have about 154 pages to this YA novel I’m working on. I’d say I’m about halfway through at this point and am planning it to be a two-book run. I have some more outlining to do, but I’m feeling pretty good about it. I’ve also decided to go ahead and self publish, so the likelihood of a 2017 publication is pretty high. **more jazz hands**

What’s the difference between my YA writing and my adult romantic-comedy writing? Nothing style wise, in my opinion. My YA stuff tends to lean more toward the supernatural/paranormal genre. And the characters are younger… This one is about a 17.5-year-old girl who didn’t know her mother was the High Queen of the Dead (thus making her a princess). Her mom is murdered for fleeing the kingdom and the girl is dragged back to the Kingdom of the Dead. Hopefully at that point there is political upheaval, a fight for the throne (etc.), a fight for the heart (aww!), and someone should probably die. Maybe. The main character’s name is Eva Cass and the main “hero” is Lee Yong-sun, a long, long dead Korean warrior. [Yong-sun, according to my copious amounts of internet research (ie, five minutes or so) means “Dragon in the first position”–kinda cool, right?]

Guys… I watch a LOT of Korean dramas (k-dramas). I mean…… tons.

You should as well because they’re amazing. A little formulaic. But what makes romance novels so damn good? The formulas. That feel goodness of a happy ending. Now… not all k-dramas have happy endings. A few, circa 2005 – 2011-ish, have horrible endings. Still, they’re all really good in their own way. Want to start your addiction (**I’ll be your drug dealer**) look for “Faith” which stars my secret boyfriend, Lee Min Ho. Image result for faith lee min hoThis was one of the first k-dramas I devoured. I then went and watched everything that he was in, cause… hello <–!). In seriousness, it’s a great show (16 to 20 episodes, I can’t remember). A couple things to remember when watching: K-dramas are like any other soap opera done by any other country… they’re a little cheesy at times. A little unrealistic. And a lotta dramatic. (The romantic comedies are pretty cute!) So… once you can get past some of the quirkiness (do you know how many times I’ve yelled at them to walk faster?!) you’ll be hooked. I promise.

Anyway, so hopefully I have a fun YA novel coming this year, and hopefully all you lovely Estela and Moo fans will give it a shot.

Oh, and Killing Memories is going to be free on Amazon tomorrow for one day only. Spread the word! I’ll try to remember to tweet and post.

My Year Toward “Traditional” Publication & Better Indie Marketing

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I almost forgot that I made a resolution to write one blog post a week (on Fridays). It is Friday, so here I am.

Sorry if this comes off as a ramble—I guess part of the blog challenge for this year will be to actually have some sort of plan for what I want to say. I suppose we can start off with my plans to pursue traditional publication with my NaNoWriMo novel, GIRL X, as well as my attempts to “market” my Indie publishing side. Maybe I’ll throw in a few snippets of the paranormal YA novel, which has the working title of REAPER HIGH (trust me, this will change as the scope of the novel has changed since I started it in October, but I thought I’d share that working title ’cause it makes me roll my eyes each time I open the file! Ha!). Maybe I’ll find writing prompts to share and will free write. Possibilities are endless, it seems.

Ya’ll… I am so bad at self promotion. I’ve had my work published online since 2012 and I’m only NOW taking advantage of Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing, which has forced me to take my books off other platforms for 90 days–sorry) and have decided to spend $100 dollars on a “per click” ad campaign through Kindle. So far… my ad for KILLING MEMORIES has run 5610 times, and 42 people have clicked on it (thanks people!!), and 1 person has bought it (yay! Thanks if that was you.) Hopefully more have downloaded it through Amazon Unlimited (they’re FREE if you’re a subscriber) and my “page read” numbers will continue to stay up. So far, I’ve spent $6.30 in advertising for 2017 and probably will get about .37 cents on that one purchase. I don’t know if this is worth it at all, but at lease I’m doing more than just sitting there wondering why my sales dropped so much in 2016. My goal for this year is to amp this up a little more. I need to look for some blog attention. I need to get myself back on the map. Time to DO something.

Another resolution was to write one page a day. Well, we’re 5 days into the new year and I’ve written 50 pages. So… I guess that goal is working out well.

The road to traditional publishing is on hold this month (and probably next) as my NaNo novel is out with a few readers for feedback. But once I have it back and have a good final draft, I plan work on my query letter and synopsis. A writer buddy of mine recently told me that most authors have to query 100 agents before they find one who is interested. I’m trying to not let this deter my goals, but……. :c|. It’s so much easier to not deal with the hassle and just self publish, but… I’ve always wanted to be in mainstream bookstores. I won’t know if I can until I really, really try.

#stampingoutlaziness

Needless to say…

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…I’m a terrible blogger. Maybe 2017 will be a new year for my blogging. It already feels like the start of a new year with my writing.

It all started with the NaNoWriMo challenge back in November. I shocked myself by completing the draft of a literary novel (I hit the 50,000 word target and had a mostly complete 1st draft at that point). I’m really proud of the draft and think it’s a decent story. My writing process has changed from where I was when I wrote the first draft of KILLING MEMORIES back in 2006. I feel like it’s more purposeful and direct. The story is more complete by the time I’m done with the first draft, and the editing overall is lighter than it usually is. I like to think that’s a result of so many years writing (and my degree). It’s been a decade since I wrote that first novel, so I guess it’s probably about right that novel #8 would feel the strongest.

Gosh, it feels good to be writing again.

I’m going to try to pursue the “traditional” publishing route with this new one. I often think that I dove into self-publishing because I can be incredibly lazy when it comes to big, overwhelming projects. Again.. maybe 2017 will be the year of putting in actual work to take my writing somewhere.

So, some preliminary writing resolutions:

  1. Write one page a day
  2. Submit “Girl X” (my NaNo novel) to agents for consideration; give this process an ENTIRE year (or more) before stopping
  3. Finish KM3 and KM4 paperback edits
  4. Finish a draft of Book I and II of the YA series I began this year
  5. Blog once a week (on Fridays)! <–needed to make this one specific ;c)

Let’s see what 2017 brings.

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