M.L.S. Weech's Blog, page 39

Marketing Journal: A Push For Impressions!

Greetings all,

[image error]Stock photo from Pixabay.

So a few weeks ago I talked about Reedsy. I also mentioned Publisher Rocket. Given that I’m still in a holding pattern on the rest of the Oneiros Log, this turns out to be a good time to offer you an update.

Naturally, I hope for this to become a profitable business. However, the unfortunate reality is after five years, I’m still losing money. This in no way reduces my love for writing, nor does it affect my resolve to keep at it. What this truth does do is challenge me to look at what I’m doing and try to get better.

When I talked to marketers, I had two conversations. The first validated a truth I accepted when I started. I have ten titles available. If I use the wide umbrella of “paranormal,” I could argue that six of them are in the same genre. One of those six is YA. Three more of those six are parts of the first book. When one doesn’t write to market, it’s very difficult to build a platform. I went into this dream with my eyes open to that truth.

[image error]If you were a hopeful author who didn’t care what you wrote, I’d recommend you search the categories (more on that below) and write to one of the smaller markets and build your following. However, I have stories that have been stuck in train wreck between my eyes for decades, and they want out. Some are more demanding than others. I don’t think I could stick to one thing if I wanted to. This means I have to be willing to accept that I don’t have a lot going for me in terms of platform and market. I am trying to get the Oneiros Log done, and that will give me a complete trilogy (quadrology if you count Repressed, but, again, that is a YA outrigger story) to market to one audience.

The other marketer and I spoke via chat, and we have a meeting scheduled for later today (Saturday). I was clear about my goals and my struggles.

My ultimate goal is to earn $7,000 per month in profit from my writing. That’s the target that will allow me to become a full-time author. I’d probably continue working for two years just to get everything stabilized. Then I would focus on being the author I’ve always wanted to be.

This meeting is hopefully the first step toward making the books I have out contribute to the goal rather than continue to budget for my author career the way some people budget for vacations.

The next thing I did was possible because of some overtime I worked. I finally purchased Publisher Rocket. My desire was to skip straight to the AMS Marketing Keywords, but I held off. I learned a few things by doing that.

[image error]A while back, I talked about using the seven KDP keywords to help get you placed into more specific categories. They do, but those keywords are even more powerful. I sort of think of them like free marketing keywords. So I spent the last week going through all of my titles and refining those keywords. Now, since those titles are old, and I don’t have much of a platform, I can’t really expect there to be any night and day changes.

The next thing I did was use Rocket to help me find categories that gave me a better shot to be visible. When one first publishes on KDP, they see some 600 categories they have to try and fit themselves in. Amazon has way more categories than that, and Rocket has a way to find them and rank them based on how many books per day you’d have to sell to be the best seller for that category. From my understanding, being a best seller or a number one best seller for a category does wonderful things for a book and an author’s bank account. I still have to move those titles into those categories, but I just finished identifying them, and getting put in those categories is only an email or phone call away.

As for marketing: I’m actually having trouble finding the first article I researched, but what it taught me (and other sites reenforced) is that each of my book should have at least 100,000 impressions per month.

I was nowhere near that. The short math:

Impressions must happen for anyone to click. Clicks must happen for anyone to buy. You want clicks to lead directly to buys.

Last weak, I took stock of what books were generating the most impressions. Caught was getting somewhere around 40,000 impressions per month. So, without having Publisher Rocket, I just went at it. I created about two new campaigns a night until I reached the point I am at today. As of May 21, Caught had 78,804 impressions during the last 30 days.

This tells me I should be hitting my goal soon (if I haven’t already). The next step in my plan is to get the rest of my books going.

Once I have all of my titles pulling in 100,000 impressions a month, I can use that data to look at my click through rate.

So I thought I’d give you a snapshot on just how far off I am. My hope is, as I get better, you’ll see that I’m doing is working. Why isn’t it working now? Because I haven’t been doing too much of anything. Time is a valuable resource. I spend the bulk of my time happy with my wonderful family. I spend time with God studying the New and Old Testament. So I was using my time to write (which I love), but my books aren’t selling (which makes me sad). The goal is to turn things around by focusing on my AMS marketing. Will it work? Stay tuned and find out. (You can help by purchasing any or all of my books!  Just saying.)

My Current stats:

BOOK                                    IMPRESSIONS                  CLICKS         ORDERS (BOOKS BOUGHT)

Caught                                  78,804                                38 (BAD)       1 (NO FUN)

Bob                                       20,453 (BAD)                     12 (BAD)        0 (SAD)

Power of Words                 40,069 (BAD)                     11 (BAD)        0 (SAD)

Repressed                            34, 740 (BAD)                    9 (BAD)         1 (NO FUN)

Sojourn                                 29,210 (BAD)                    22 (BAD)       0 (SAD)

Stealing Freedom               4, 718 (TERRIBLE)          5 (BAD)          0 (SAD)

Testimony                             33, 028 (BAD)                  11 (BAD)       0 (SAD)

 

I left out info for the individual parts for Bob because I only have about one campaign for each of them, so it’s probably not good.

It looks like we got Caught up to speed. I’ll know for sure June 1. I’ll probably do a few more campaigns just to be sur. My first goal will be to get them all to 100,000 impressions a month. Then I can worry about that devastatingly bad click-through-rate. According to my research, I should be getting clicks about 35% of the time or more. I think my highest click-through-rate is about 7%.

One thing I can do now though (and intend to do during my meeting with the Reedsy marketer) is work on converting those clicks into buys. How often do I want that to happen? Let’s look at the math.

[image error]My current AMS page looks depressing.

After Amazon takes it’s cut from one of my sales, I make a maximum profit of $2.79 (on average. Most of my books are between $2.99 and $3.99, but let’s just work with this number for now). If I pay 25 cents a click, that means I could have about 10 clicks before I lose money. My goal is to convert one out of every eight clicks into sales. The way that happens is making sure I get my book blurb on point and reviews. I can’t actually do much about reviews. I hope people read and review my work, but I don’t have a way to make that happen. I can look at my blurbs and make them as strong as possible. My hope is this marketer will help me with that.

Why one for every eight click? Because if I can keep it that low, I could make 9 cents a sale. Not the best sales rate ever, but I have to start somewhere, and my current one per fifty four clicks is costing me about $20 a month. The perspective is that flipping it from a loss to a profit is the right progression.

We have to think positively. Rather than stay fixated on the lack of sales and reviews, the more-productive (and less painful) mindset is to look at what can be done to get better.

So here is the starting point and plan of action, the two things anyone needs to execute a plan.

Wish me luck!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Story Review: And Men Will Mine the Mountain for Our Souls by Seanan McGuire from Unfettered II

 

 

[image error]Cover for Unfettered II taken from its Amazon buy page for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine.

Spoiler Free Summary:  And Men Will Mine the Mountain for Our Souls by Seanan McGuire is the third story in the Unfettered II Anthology. The princess and prince of dragons have seen the end of their world. The humans are coming, and there is no foretelling of how to prevent it. How will they face the end?

Character:  First off, I love dragons. I’m always attracted to tales of dragons, and the more human they seem, the better. The dragons here are absolutely sympathetic. I want to call them proactive, but that’s what bugged me about the story. This inevitable thing is coming, and it just, well, comes. I wanted there to be something to come of it, and I don’t feel I got that.   

Exposition: This was good. The point of view and the exposition did a great job of connecting me to the characters. That’s actually what made the ending so anticlimactic for me. 

Worldbuilding: I want to mention how impressive this was given the short nature of the story. The author crafts unique characters and lore into tight prose and structure. I was impressed by the author’s ability to do that. Usually, people sort of gloss over worldbuilding to account for short fiction. This story proves you don’t have to do that.

[image error]Image of the author was taken from her bio on her website for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine. 

Dialogue: The dialogue here was solid if not impressive. It was realistic and helped connect to the characters.

Description: This was good enough on my end if not what some people look for in fantasy. I could see the dragons and the scene. There could have been more senses activated, especially considering dragons were the viewpoint. 

Overall: This story sort of disappointed me. You see, it had a lot of great elements, but those elements lead to an unsurprising and, ultimately, unsatisfying conclusion.  If the characters gained something, or we had a pleasantly surprising ending where the characters found a clever answer, this would be an amazing story, but to see characters just sort of lament something and then watch it arrive made great elements a disappointing story.     

Thanks for reading

Matt

 

Musings on Christianity 32

Why Aren’t There Miracles?

That question has a connotation that might not be accurate. I, for one, don’t think we have a lack of miracles in the world; we have a lack of faith. If one were to credit every improbable act to luck, then there wouldn’t be any identification criteria for miracle. If one defined a miracle as something not possible, then one is expecting God to break the rules of the universe he created. He can, and He did, but with a purpose.

So first I’d like to talk about the epic, obvious miracles we discuss in the Bible: The plagues of Moses, the parting of the red sea, the sun staying in the sky, and the resurrection of Christ. Those mind-blowing, obvious-to-everyone miracles were signs, endorsements of sorts to those God was working through. The gospel has been given to us. The word is there for us to read and see. The time of prophets is at an end. With no prophets to endorse, there simply isn’t need for those sorts of miracles.

That answer seems simple and short because it is. Again, I point to all those who were around for those miracles. Every wondrous, nature-breaking miracle one might point to was directly attached to a chosen tool of God for His purpose in working His will.

What happens though is that people want to state that since an ocean hasn’t turned to blood or a sea hasn’t parted, we can conclude God has left us or that God doesn’t exist because we have no miracles (spoken of as evidence) to point to.

Readers, the lack of some unscheduled eclipse or galactic shift in the universe is only evidence of the lack of prophets, which we, of course, will have because once God’s own Son came down, anyone else would be ridiculous in comparison. Once God’s own Son returns, He will be with us to rule and guide us.

However, none of that really means God’s hand isn’t visible in these days. Indeed, everything that happens is by the permission or action of God. The evil things that man and the devil bring, God turns to His good. The wondrous things that bring us joy and gladness are by God’s sovereign hand. Even things that are worthy of sadness and trembling could be God working His justice on the wicked. Which is which? How should I know? What I do know is the the God who created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1) is in control.

But the absence of signs and wonders shouldn’t come as a surprise to the elect. Jesus Himself was challenged to perform a wonder of that sort, and He rebuked the people saying no sign would be given (Matthew 12:39). If Christ said no sign would be given, why would anyone keep looking for a sign? Think of the logic flow. If Christ is indeed the Son of God (as Christians like me believe), then there won’t be signs and wonders because He said there wouldn’t be. If Christ were not the Son of God, wouldn’t some wonder or sign have happened by now to discredit His words? This, in fact, is further evidence of Christ’s rightful place at God’s right hand because as He has said, it has been. 

That doesn’t mean Jesus didn’t do some amazing things. Again, Matthew 12:39 needs a bit of explanation. The Pharisees wanted an epic sign. They wanted a heavenly sign. They wanted the sun to go down at noon or the sky to turn red. They wanted a creation-event level sign. This is because they wanted to reject the many healings and even resurrections Christ performed.

Isn’t that a bit like what we’re doing now? If we deny the existence of wonders (even if lesser  than the creation week or the works of Moses), how are we any different than the same hard-hearted men who crucified Christ?

Earlier in this book, I talked about the miracle dog. Sure, some could say that those events were a simple pleasant alignment of a series of unlikely events. If you insist on not seeing providence, I’m not going to convince you of otherwise. However, I’d like to remind you just how amazing life seems to me. I pray, and God answers. I need, and God provides. I sin, and God disciplines. This pattern holds in so many aspect of my life.

I look at the answered prayers in my life, and I can’t help but see God’s grace and power at work. The only world-changing event I pray for is Christ’s return. It will happen, perhaps or perhaps not in my lifetime, but when it does, it will be the beginning of Christ’s rule, and the world will be as it should. However, those other prayers, small and maybe a bit short-sighted, are still lovingly, gracefully answered.

I have a wife, and my heart had just truly started to believe it wouldn’t be. I have children, too. I have a home. I truly have a blessed life, and every part of it is a gift from God. Could He take it away in an instant? Absolutely, and it would be His right. But an honest prayer life and love of God yields many blessings, the most important of which are yet to come, but some of which are here on this Earth.

Does that mean every unanswered prayer is a sign God doesn’t love you? No! I prayed for a wife and children for decades. Sometimes, the blessings are held back for the right time. Again, the sequence of events may seem pleasantly random, but I just don’t buy it. Even God’s elect suffer. God’s own Son suffered, so I would strongly speak against any who say, “Well if you’re suffering, God must not love you.”

But when those seasons end, there are so many beautiful, wondrous blessings.

So no, I don’t expect the moon to explode or the sky to turn green. I don’t expect the stars to reshape themselves into the face of the virgin Mary. I don’t expect any of those things, but I look at my pastor, five years diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, preaching the word of God boldly, and I see God’s grace and power. I look at my cousin, told she’d likely not survive bearing a child hold her beautiful newborn son, and I see God’s grace and power. I look at this virus and fear, and I see God’s sovereignty and power.

Those attributes of God are always there and working. The real question is when are you going to open your eyes and see?

For our panel: Is there a bigger distinction between miracles and blessings than I imply above? What are some blessings or moments in your life that gave you comfort and faith? Has something happened to you that you would call a miracle? What was it? What are some other reasons a person shouldn’t consider him-or-herself “forsaken” just because they may be suffering in the moment?

I’ve Finished the Outline for Discovered!

Greetings all,

[image error]I’m happy to report that I’ve finished the outline for Discovered, the conclusion of the Oneiros Log and the story which began in Caught.

COVID has caused me to have to adjust how I operate. I was counting on conventions to earn the money I needed to get Betrayed a developmental edit, but no conventions in my life (at least so far) means no sales. The good news is the finances are (apparently) back on track for my normal budgeting. That means I can resume saving for edits. That will happen in time, but it will take time (about five months at most). That’s not the timeline I wanted to work with, but we live in the world we live in.

Rather than freeze completely, I’m able to work on other projects that I can have ready for when the world (God willing) gets back to normal. I typically bounce from one project to another. In a perfect world, I would have had Betrayed edited by now, so I would do the next draft on that while I let Discovered simmer. Since that isn’t an option, I’ve decided to get caught up in other projects, namely, Images of Truth. I was working on this discovery draft and set it aside to work on Sojourn in Captivity, which is essentially a prequel to Images. It really bugged me to have a draft 118,000 words written but not finished. So I’m going to take the chance to get that draft done.

[image error]Now, Images of Truth is huge! So I might not finish that draft before I start working on Discovered’s discover draft. I promised that I’d get Oneiros done, and I mean to do it. I’ll work on Images until June 1, then get cranking on Discovered.

The moment I save or earn enough to get Betrayed to Sara for a developmental edit, I will, and I will let you know. Maybe what I get out of this is getting Images closer to ready as well. If (and it’s a big if) I get that discovery draft of Images done, I’ll do another pass on The 1,200, which is scheduled to be the book I release after I’m done with Oneiros.

I wanted to post this to show you all that I am working hard to get this saga done and into your (very patient) hands. I’m also doing my best to keep the creative projects going so there I  don’t get stuck in the midst of this trial.

I’m glad I hit this benchmark, and I appreciate all the support you’ve shown from the beginning to now and, hopefully, the future.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Story Review: A Slow Kill by Peter Orullian from Unfettered II

 

 

[image error]Cover for Unfettered II taken from its Amazon buy page for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine.

Spoiler Free Summary:  A Slow Kill by Peter Orullian is the second story in the Unfettered II Anthology. What seems like the story of a pair of famers working becomes a tale of an assassin’s work. However, each tale told reveals a deeper plan to the final target.

Character:  I like stories where the characters have a deeper agenda. I can’t name the characters after this long, but I remembered this story when I reviewed the title, and that’s a good sign. The protagonist has a lot of cool moments that sort of (on a very small level) remind me of Man on Fire. 

Exposition: This was strong. The plot moved well, and I didn’t get bogged down with back story. 

Worldbuilding: There isn’t much here in that regard. The story is pretty self contained. It doesn’t degrade the quality of this story since it’s so character driven. Those who want deep worldbuilding and intricate magic systems probably won’t get what they’re looking for here, but if you like clever stories, this is pretty good.

[image error]Image of Mr. Orullian was taken from his about page for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine. 

Dialogue: This story did right what the previous story didn’t do so well. It still didn’t have the banter or wit I typically love in dialogue, but it was genuine and natural. The conversation ebbed and flowed naturally and really made the end pay off. 

Description: I actually really appreciated this description. Obviously, a story told by an assassin is going to have some elements that could be overly graphic, and that’s not my jam. Orullian does a great job of giving the readers what they need to feel and sense the scene requires without being gruesome or lewd.  Now, there may be arguments that Caught is gruesome. That may be, again, people have different sensibilities. So I need you to understand that, as an author and creator, I  feel Orullian did a good job of being descriptive without being distasteful.

Overall: This is probably my third-favorite story in the anthology. It’s a good little tale with a nice twist that was satisfying if not surprising. 

Thanks for reading

Matt

 

Musings on Christianity 31

What is Love?

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

“If you love me … “ It’s a phrase many people hear and say. The question of “if” introduces a lack of faith to begin with. If one has to question love, then one already doesn’t feel love. Perhaps one doesn’t feel loved regardless of its presence. After all, God’s love is endless. He sent his son to die for us.

And that, readers, is the message of this chapter. Love, ultimately, is sacrifice. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).”

In the verse quoted at the top of this chapter, we see several examples that also prove the theory that love is sacrifice.

Love is patient. Love means denying what you want now (patience). Sacrifice your immediate desire for a greater treasure later. This is most holy when sacrificing your immediate desires to honor God, but it works great in Earthly relationships, too. Maybe I give up an hour of video games to watch an episode of TV my wife likes. It shows her love in that I’m willing to wait. She’s not even asking me not to play video games, she’s just asking me to wait.  The last chapter focused entirely on patience, so I won’t dwell on it here. I just wanted to draw the connection between patience as an act of sacrifice, which ultimately shows love.

Love is kind. Kindness is giving. A simple Google search defines kindness as being friendly, generous, and considerate. To be generous means to give. What would one possibly give but something one already has. The degree of sacrifice might be high or low, but any act of giving is at least to a small degree an act of sacrifice. I must note here though that the giving must be joyful (2 Corinthians 9:6-7).

It’s not kind to give someone any gift and mutter about what it cost or complain about how you had to work to obtain it. You’ve sacrificed nothing and, therefore, gave nothing. That sort of act isn’t generosity, it’s self aggrandizing. What is consideration if not the act of letting one’s offenses pass over you (Proverbs 19:11)? And what is that if not the sacrifice of your pride?

Naturally that leads back to the idea that we should just live and let live. However, letting people jump off cliffs because it’s fun isn’t love. It might be fun, but when they die, the fun is over. Patience against a personal offense will indeed lead to glory. But those who sin against God are doomed. It can’t be loving to not even offer wisdom. I personally won’t cause an argument to try and “make” you see wisdom (fear of the Lord (Job 28:28.))  There’s a balance, but there is absolutely a difference between not becoming sinfully enraged at another’s sin and just letting folk do whatever they want. I might not be willing get into a fist fight over what is a sin and what isn’t (the Bible is clear on sin), but I also won’t pretend that sin isn’t wrong. Nor will I endorse it. 

Back to the subject at hand. We constantly want others to “get over” our mistakes, but if we want that sort of behavior (forgive and forget), we have to be willing to do the same. The instant you’re not willing to let go is the instant you can’t then get made at someone else who’s equally unable (or unwilling) to let go. However, each time you do this, you do this to your glory.

Love does not envy. You cant love someone if you covet what they have. If you look at a happily married man and then want his wife for yourself, you’re taking. More loving is to let go of your desire so that couple may live in peace. That would require the sacrifice of your love (or lust).  To hold onto that envy only leads to sin. This is because seeing leads to coveting, which leads to sin, which is demonstrated in hiding what you’ve taken because you’re aware it was wrong (Joshua 7:21).

Love does not boast. This is because boasting makes something about you. I touched on this when I talked about kindness. To give so you can show off how “generous” you are is only a way to boast and bring about attention to yourself. This is the opposite of love because any act of self is by definition selfish.

  I’ve spoken about these few things mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 because they prove that love is sacrifice. This is true because anything that leads to personal gain or attention is the opposite of what love does. Having offered a few examples, I want to skip over examples of what love does not do to return to the things that love does.

Love rejoices with the truth. So what does one give up with the truth? It depends. Truth reveals. Truth exposes. We use lies to hide (so we appear better). We use lies to fool (so we can dupe others to give us what we want). To have truth means to risk people truly knowing you. Is there anyone in your life (other than our all-seeing God) who knows everything about you? If not, why? If you’re like me, your answer is, “because I don’t want them to think less of me.”

Everybody has secrets. I do, at least from some people. But the secrets I keep (and I’d argue the secrets you keep) are because you refuse to give up the esteem you have in the other person’s eyes. While I can say I know that holding those secrets denies a person the chance to show their love for you, I won’t be hypocritical enough to say I haven’t done it. What I can do going forward though is to show more love. The easiest solution is to not do anything that would lead me to shame. If I think I’d have to hide an action from others because they’d think less of me, the best thing to do would be for me to not take that action. This shows love because I’m denying myself the sinful action I’m considering and because it shows that I love the person I’m thinking about more than the action I’m tempted to take.   

Love bears all things. The word “bear” is such a deceptively small verb. It implies to carry or support. Imagine that. Love means carrying others. Love means supporting others. How would one be able to do that unless they are willing to set down other things? Husbands, did you ever, just for a moment, resent your wife for that time you couldn’t go fishing, or play video games, or finish that book? We husbands carry the hearts of our wives wherever we go. If we remember that, then we should realize we set those hearts down to chase after whatever other pleasure we choose. Does this mean you can’t play golf on Tuesday? That’s not what I said. What it means is if you start to desire golf more than your wife, you should really take a look at your priorities. To bear anything, we must have hands free, and that is only possible if we let go of what we might otherwise hold on to.

Love believes all things.  Here again we must let go or sacrifice our own preconceptions. Is this saying we should believe whatever we hear? Not exactly. A loving heart is trusting. A loving heart believes that what is right will come. Most importantly, with God’s love, we can believe all His promises. Here on Earth, we can believe that those you love aren’t trying to hurt you. That belief could be false. Unfortunately, several people are abused by people who claim to love others. However, we can use this list as a way to verify love.

The short test, if the person you’re looking at is completely unwilling to sacrifice anything for your sake, he or she doesn’t love you.

However, one who consistently sacrifices to some degree or another is at least showing you some love; therefore, you can trust and believe in that love. Naturally each time that person is unloving, that trust is damaged. This is why we need forgiveness on Earth just as God offers it through Christ in Heaven. We need to be able to forgive so that love can overcome and take it’s place where hate and resentment would otherwise live.

So we can also have hope, the sacrifice of despair, because the love we have shows us that the things we want to happen will come to pass. Why would anyone want to hold onto despair? I don’t know, but we do. We don’t trust that the repentant person who’s sinned against us won’t do it again. We don’t trust that the goal we’re pursing will come true. This might be because the person who’s sinned against us had committed this sin seven times before. This might be because we’ve been chasing this goal for five years. We have the best hope when we have the most secure love. This is why God is our greatest hope because he’s never failed to show his love for us.

Again, this isn’t an endorsement for one to stay in an abusive relationship. First, one who’s willing to injure for any reason has already shows murder in his heart (Matthew 5:22). Second, I leave it to you to determine if a person is loving or not. I can’t know your circumstances. What I am saying is that if you hold fast your hope in love, you will have more peace than if you don’t. Our highest hope and faith should be in God, the ever-living, who always provides (Matthew 7:11), who is slow to anger (Nehemiah 9:17 among many others), and ultimately gave up His Son so that we might live (John 3:16).

Of course any other hope in any other person bears risks. They’re human! I would only ask that you weigh the sins of another against the sins you’ve committed to see if they are unworthy of love.

Love endures all things. What has God endured from us? How often do we stray? How many sins have I committed? Are there enough stars in the sky to compare? Are there enough sands on the beach? How much has he put up with me? How slow has his anger been for me? While we were enemies of God, sinners living in our own lusts, God sent his Son to die for us.

On Earth, how wonderful it is to endure our trials. Maybe you and the wife are in a rough patch, but you endure that trial in hope that things will be better. The reward is a marriage that’s stronger, tested by fire and proven true by patience and sacrifice. Anyone can quit if something isn’t fun, but to endure suffering or fear is to show how much you love the person for whom you suffer. Most people think that’s easy. We causally say, “I’d do anything for my son,” and then shout at him when he interrupts our TV show.

We say, “I love my wife more than anything,” and then grumble when we have to take out the trash in the middle of the game.

Those aren’t even comparatively real trials. How much more sacrifice comes from the wife who endures her husband’s cancer treatment? How much more sacrifice comes from the father who endures his son’s special needs? As we endure trials with those we love, our love becomes strengthened. Who wants to suffer alone? However, who wants to suffer at all? Therefore, if you find someone willing to suffer with you, hold fast to that person, for his love is readily apparent. 

All these words are descriptors of the ultimate form of love, which is sacrifice. Let go of yourself. Let go of your wants so others may have. Sure, you might have less on this world than you could have, but God promises that what treasure we deny ourselves here is piled up for us in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-21).

For our panel: Why is it so hard for man to sacrifice for others? Is there a point where we would ever be justified to stop loving (and therefore sacrificing) for another? If that’s the case, doesn’t that mean that there is indeed a point in which God is also just to deny us his love? Is it only love if a person is always willing to sacrifice, any unwillingness or failure means an absence of love? What is the greatest form of sacrifice?

Reedsy: What’s This All About?

So I was watching a Kindlepreneur video, and it introduced me to Reedsy.  I don’t want to take away from the video; you can watch that here.  The long and short is Reedsy seems to be a gift to the author world where it provides a one-stop-shop for your needs: Cover art, editors, marketing, you name it.

The down side? Well, because the company is very selective in who it links authors too, the prices are higher. How much higher? Well, that’s what this post is about. I’m looking to see if this company has what I want at a price I can budget for.

Signing up was easy. It took a few seconds. So next up was looking at what they offer.  Let’s start with editors. I’m happy with Sara, but it’s always nice to see what is out there.

I searched editors for Betrayed since that’s what I’m saving up for. I was pretty frustrated because I can find a paranormal romance editor, but just plain paranormal? Nope! Still I found an editor who looks great (worked for Angry Robot), so I sent a request for a quote. The good news is this makes it very easy to find the type of work I’m looking for. What I want to know though is what is the price range I’m going to need to budget for. I don’t know about other authors, but I have a very limited monthly amount I can budget with, and I need to see how this site’s services align with my budget. Unfortunately, I’d have to fill out the form to get a quote, and I don’t actually have time to do that right this second and write this post, so for now, I’m going to work on filling out the form and follow this blog up with more data.

I also looked up another service I truly want some help with: Marketing. So what if I want some help marketing Sojourn in Captivity?  Well, I found marketing for Space Opera, and I found a hit. I sent a request for a quote to him as well.  I actually filled this form out first.  We’ll see what we come back with.

The last thing this site gives (not nearly the last I’m interested in, just the last one I’m looking at today) is Book Reviews.  They offer a review for $50.  That’s in my budget, and reviews are helpful. The form was a little tricky, taking me a minute to figure out, but the gist is I upload my book and fill in some basic information, and then they have reviewers who look at it.

So the marketing information I requested took about 20 minutes to fill out. From here, I wait and see what comes back. We’ll follow this post (as I said) up in another, but my hope is this trial can help others see if this is a good fit for them.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

 

Story Review: Castle Coeurlieu by Naomi Novik from Unfettered II

 

 

[image error]Cover for Unfettered II taken from its Amazon buy page for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine. 

Spoiler Free Summary:  Castle Coeurlieu by Naomi Novik is the first story in the Unfettered II Anthology. A young boy and girl investigate a tower after dark. The secrets it keeps could make one of them a monster forever.

Character:  The characters were proactive if not memorable. I think this story fell short in two areas for me, the lack of sympathy I felt for the character is the first issue I had. Sure, the characters were taking action, but I just didn’t really care about them. Short fiction has to immediately connect readers to the characters or it will fall flat, and I think that’s what happened with this story. 

Exposition: For short fiction, this exposition was outstanding. The author’s crafting of words isn’t remotely in question. While this story didn’t really ring my bell, I’d probably be willing to give any of her longer fiction a try because of her style and how well paced her writing is. Honestly, this story comes down to a card match, which would bore me to tears in any other case, but the pacing and style of the writing allowed the story to flow well despite the lack of character connection.  

Worldbuilding: There’s not much here. The scene make sense, but I never really got a fell for much more than what I needed to know what was happening. I don’t think that’s bad, exactly. I wanted more though.

[image error]This image of Naomi Novik was taken from her website for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine. 

Dialogue: This is the other area where the story fell short for me. Essentially, there’s a card game where people talk. That conversation didn’t carry the story the way it needed to. I’ll confess I like plenty of wit in my dialogue, and that’s not exactly a thing all writers do. Still, I read a lot of talking, and it the tone and pace of that conversation didn’t really do much for me. 

Description: This was good. This author shows a lot of skill in telling concise stories and giving plenty of detail. I’ve often said that you can tell a story is good if two of the categories listed here are good, and that holds in this case. The two categories (exposition and description), just happen to be among the categories  that are the least important to me. Regardless, this story truly activated my senses. 

Overall: Drama and character fall short, but readers who enjoy smooth stories with great description would love this little story. It has a pretty interesting premise, I just wish I was more invested in the character.

Thanks for reading

Matt

 

Musings on Christianity 30

The Importance of Patience

The military trained me to be decisive. I learned problem solving. I learned how to take action. What I didn’t realize was how quickly my patience was eroding away. I think sometimes people equate waiting as not taking action. We don’t want to be lazy, but we can’t lose our perspective to such a degree that we become frustrated or angry that things don’t happen.

Maybe we have a co-worker who’s not as skilled as you, and so takes longer to complete a task. Maybe your children are being disobedient or acting out. All these test my patience. However, I can’t fail those tests. And that’s the topic of this chapter.

Patience is love (1 Corinthians 13:4-5).  Patience is wise (Proverbs 14:29).  Patience shows faith in God (Romans 8:25). Patience is better even than victory in war (Proverbs 16:32). Patience is a show of strength (Psalm 27:14). Patience is Godly, for he is slow to anger (Psalm 103:8).

As the world progresses to more and more immediate satisfaction, patience is eroding away from society.

Look at debt. I have $50 a month to spend. I could wait and buy that $400 TV eight months, but for those who want it at that moment, they go into debt, paying perhaps as much as $1,200 for a $400 TV because they wanted it that moment rather than waiting.

As parents, we tell our children constantly to wait. “Dad is working!” “Mom is making dinner!” “It’s not your turn!”

But how often are you willing to wait? Do you slow down and stop at the yellow light or do you step on it to be sure you don’t have to wait at the light? I’m guilty of all of these follies, but the important thing is to recognize them as folly.

This isn’t the same as not working diligently. In fact, I’d argue that working diligently for years is a demonstration of patience. After all, anyone can quit if they don’t get the raise they’re looking for or the weight-loss they’re trying to accomplish. 

As a Christian, my lack of patience is a serious issue in my life. I ask that people pray for the Lord to help me be more patient. At this point, I’m humbled to see how often I lose my patience. I’ll be the last to point and mock at anyone who loses their cool, but each time I loose my temper is a failing on my point.

There are some hints to how to improve your patience:

Be quick to listen and slow to speak (James 1:19).

Overlook an offense, for it is to your glory (Proverbs 19:11).

Don’t resist discipline (Proverbs 3:11).

If I try to see why I struggle with patience, the answer is because I struggle to do all of the list above. I let offenses bring me to resentment. I don’t like being told I’m wrong. I usually want to be the first to talk.

This is tough. At least, I struggle with it every day. The first step is recognizing when you’re focusing on yourself (your pride, your offense, your desire to be heard) and when you are being more thoughtful of others.

We’ve already talked about rebuking those who sin against you, and that’s perfectly holy so long as your goal is reconciliation.

Another thing you can do is practice self denial. If you want to play one more video game, turn the system off. You have every right to play a game, but turning it off is a way to tell your brain that you are in charge. If you want seconds, even if you’re skinny, deny that temptation. These little self denials are ways to put your body and heart under control. Avoiding debt is another way to do this. You can have that $400 TV, just make yourself wait the eight months and pay for it in cash. Delay gratification to avoid becoming enraged when you are denied gratification.

Again, it’s hard. Especially when you have the means to obtain things quickly, but the more you work on this, the more patient you will find yourself becoming.

For our panel: Why is patience so hard to maintain? What are some other ways to practice patience? When we find ourselves losing our patience, how do we hold fast to it? What are some of your favorite verses about patience? Why is patience referenced so often in the Bible?

My Top Five Naruto Characters!

Greetings,

Since COVID still has things slowed down, I need to dig into my bag of ideas.  Since I’m still on a Naruto kick, I figured now’s the time for my five favorite Naruto characters.  This isn’t ranked by power, but instead only the ones I liked.

[image error]This image of Itachi was taken from FanPop .

#5) Itachi: Honestly, this is one of the best characters to study to begin with. Itachi has a fantastic arc. His story is heartbreakingly beautiful. He’s amazingly powerful. I like his personality. That personality really matches his story to. He’s figured things out, and he’s acting on those realizations. The only time he acts on hope is when he’s thinking about his brother, and even in that case, he’s planned for the worst.

#4) Shikamaru: For the same reason I like Itachi, I like Shikamaru more. He’s hilarious in that he can do anything, but he’d prefer to do nothing. I’ve already told you how much I loved his role in the Asuma arc.  I like characters who are thoughtful. I love watching them to see how everything will inevitably come into fruition. I spent every arc watching him and thinking, “somehow, this is a part of his plan.” It usually was.

[image error]I vectored this image.

#3) Naruto: I don’t think I’ve ever had a title character as my favorite. But Naruto is pretty close for me. He’s everything I want a character to be. He’s sympathetic and proactive. His numbskull antics get him into trouble and it sort of makes him comedic relief when he’s not supposed to be so. Still, he is a brilliant title character who always makes me cheer for him.

#2 Gaara: I LOVE a redemption arc. Honestly Gaara would be my favorite if I did this tomorrow, but he might fall to number three next week. That’s why I’m doing the top five: because they are all my favorite at one point or another. I just love that Gaara was as low as one could be and then became one of the most loved characters in the show. His sand power is what initially caught my interest. I just thought it was cool. He’s also got that cool-but-passionate personality.

[image error]This image of Rock was taken from MyAnimeList .

#1 Rock Lee: Yeah, that’s right. Look, it’s pretty simple why I love him most. I see a lot of myself in him. He’s probably in the worst position to be a ninja, but he’s earned his right to be there because of that hard work and determination. Honestly, anyone who wants to know me better, just watch Rock. His single-minded determination is pretty much how I’ve worked for as long as I can remember, and the pain he feels when his dreams are put at risk or the people he loves are in danger resonate with me as well. Don’t even get me started on drunken fist and his love for his mentor!

So that’s my list. Do you have a top five you’d like to share? Why?

Thanks for reading,

Matt