Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 71

Weekend Roundup & Release Day & Blog Tour!

Part One: My Weekend

I was walking Maggie yesterday and passed by a neighbor who shouted out, “You’re nothing if not predictable.”

Just what every girl wants to hear, right?

So this neighbor has a security cameras on his house, and every morning at 7:05 a.m. it dings that someone’s in front of his house. When he checks the camera, it’s me and Maggie heading out for our walk. Like clockwork. Every. Single. Day.

That’s me, boring and predictable. That was pretty much my weekend too

Now my characters are the total opposite. They are having a grand old time making me chase them and figure out how to make their crazy, wild lives into rational scenes that make sense. They constantly try to defy the logic of magic and the world they are in, which leaves me scrambling to make it all work. Fun times! But overall, I had a pretty decent writing weekend, and if this holds, the book will finally get going.

Part Two: Release Day of the Boxed Set:

Today, Savaged Illusions, The Complete Series should go live. So yay! The price change from $3.99 to $6.99 is scheduled for Tuesday. The wild card there is Amazon. Getting them to change the price as planned should be a simple matter as it is with the other vendors, but sometimes they drag their feet and try to spice up my boring, predictable life by making me jump through hoops followed my lots of begging. We shall see.

Part Three: Blog Tour! With a Giveaway! (I hope, I forgot to double-check that–so fingers crossed I didn’t let that slip through the cracks.)

Note: this blog tour was set up by Inkslinger P.R.

Monday 2/22:

Reading Between The Wines Book Club  (Read an Excerpt)

Reading Bliss (Read an Excerpt)

Tuesday 2/23:

Yashika Verma (Review)

Wednesday 2/24:

Gin Reads (Review)

Cat’s Guilty Pleasures (Read an Excerpt)

Thursday 2/25:

Another Book Hangover (Read an Excerpt)

Reading in Pajamas (Review)

Friday 2/26:

Brittany’s Book Blog  (Read an Excerpt)

Books, Booze & Bon Voyage (Read an Excerpt)

Saturday 2/27:

Lynn’s Romance Enthusiasm (Read an Excerpt)

Melena’s Reviews (Review)

The Power of Three Readers (Review)

Sunday 2/28:

Bookish Kelly 2020 (Read an Excerpt)

Melissa’s Book Love (Read an Excerpt)

MI Bookshelf (Read an Excerpt)

That’s it for me, how was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup & Release Day & Blog Tour! first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF! I hope all of you in the path of the freezing and dangerous weather have power, heat and water. This is just brutal, and shows us that Mother Nature can kick all our modern conveniences butt when she chooses. But seriously, Mother Nature, take a chill pill and give these folks in Texas, Oklahoma and all the other regions a break.

Okay onto Friday Five:

I went to lunch with Biker Witch today. Great to see my sister! I had a tri tip wedge salad that sounded good, but wasn’t But that’s okay, ordering dessert made up for it.Wizard got his first Covid shot. Yay! It was super easy, he got up early, went online and made an appointment at out local pharmacy and did it. I won’t be eligible to get mine for another month or two, but at least people I love are getting it.Wizard is building a model car (small scale). And he’s a perfectionist…and I’m laughing my butt off. He’s already ordered an exact replica because this one isn’t coming out good enough. He’s laboriously redoing parts, and describing it all to me and I finally said, “All this pain, doing it, redoing it and endlessly obsessing, then buying a new one and starting over? IT’S LIKE WRITING MY BOOK! He gave me a sheepish grin, acknowledging that he may have told me to just write the book and be done a time or two.I am writing tons, but no farther in the book, LOLOL! The book I originally planned wasn’t good enough and I’ve done months of work to retool the story to where I think it will be…someday, but still hoping for summer   I think I may make it. I really want to get this book and Ram’s written this year.The last few weeks were a combination of stress and not feeling well that landed my butt in the doctor’s office. Really long and boring story short: one theory is that my funky gall bladder is being set off by stress. This week we started some tests…and of course I feel better. I can hear my gall bladder taunting me,  What? I’m totally cool, dudes. Nothing to see here! Anyhow, I have an ultrasound scheduled next Friday (a week from today) and I’m going actively try to set off another attack before that with spectacularly bad food choices. Will it work???? Probably not. You all know my gall bladder is laughing gleefully, right? Still I’m feeling so much better this week that I’ll take that as a win

That’s my random five things about my week, now I’d love to hear yours. I hope everyone has a safe, warm and happy weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Update on My Promotion Experience

Today I’m sharing promo updates for the release of Savaged Illusions, The Complete Series on February 22nd. I’ve done a few things to get some preorders for special price of $3.99 before the price goes up to $6.99 after release. I’m going to be brutally honest. In rebuilding my career after a publishing hiatus, and the current market that’s over-saturated, I don’t have the sales power I once did.

My Preorder Goals: Below are my levels of goal setting for preorders on Amazon because I can see the actual preorders in real time:

Low Goal:  20 to 40 preorders. I got that. Achieved

Medium Goal: 60 preorders. I got that. Achieved

High Goal: 70 preorders. I got that. Achieved

Dream Goal over a 100 preorders. Not Achieved Yet

I have so far topped out at 70 on Amazon so I hit my high goal (so far) but not my dream goal.  I’ve stopped running ads so I may not get anymore.

So how did I get those 70 preorders on Amazon? I used three methods:

Social Media, I’d estimate I got between 20 to 30 preorders from my newsletter and social media.Amazon Ads. I tried one of two Amazon Ads, and failed. Mostly because they would NOT let me mention the special or reduced prize. This is frustrating, because why else would most new readers preorder a boxed set they didn’t have a prior interest in? It’s different if it was a series or something they’d been anticipating, but for this, not being able to advertise the special price killed it.FB Ads. I had decent success there and got the balance of the preorders from those. I probably about broke even between what I spent and what I sold in preorders.

Without the FB ads, I’d never have done even half the 70 preorders currently listed on Amazon for this boxed set. But this way, the boxed set lands in at least 70 readers Kindles (or other devices) early morning of release day, which puts it right at reader’s fingers tips. Some of those will read them soon, and hopefully a few will talk about the book. So my goal with the preorders is that my paid marketing of advertising preorders will translate into some priceless word of mouth publicity from readers. 

FB Ad Tip: Don’t do what I did, and keep stopping and restarting, or changing the ads. I learned the hard way that you lose all the likes and comments that push your ad higher in the algorithms and attracts more readers. I was doing it to “test” different ad graphics and targeted audiences, and eventually figured out that was a really bad idea. So set an ad and let it run.

Other Marketing-Promo I’m Doing:

Blog Tour. I hired InkSlinger PR to schedule a one-week blog tour for release week (next week). They scheduled 15 blogs over 5 days, and so far, they’ve fulfilled what they promised. So color me happy with them at this point.

Buy Links in Published Books, I had my formatter update some reader letters and all the buy links in all six of my related books (even distantly related, like the Plus One Chronicles Series that has some crossover characters). This required me to get that all organized and then re-upload all those book files to all the vendors. It was a time suck, plus the cost as I pay for formatting, but those buy links are gold. If someone finishes a book of yours and loves it, that’s the time for them to have a link to click on.

Newsletter. I’ll send out a newsletter announcing the release. They’ve known about it for a while, but I always try to communicate with my newsletter subscribers. They cared enough to subscribe, and that means a lot to me. I mean that.

Social Media. I’ll promote some on social media.

Other Things in the Works. I’m always trying one or two things here and there. For instance, I submitted Savaged Dreams, the first book in the Savaged Illusions Series for a Bookbub Feature. I’ve never managed to get one for my self-published book–even the bestsellers, but I know one thing for sure: If I don’t try, then I definitely won’t get one. These are pricy though, and they don’t have the same success these days as they did a few years ago.

I’ll let you all know how it all goes. So that’s my few updates/tips. Anything you’d like to share?

 

Check out the Special Priced Preorder for Savaged Illusions, The Boxed Set here

The post Update on My Promotion Experience first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Round + Contest!

This is a two-parter! Scroll down if you want to skip to the Weekend Roundup part

The Contest:

I am so excited to be participating in Cathy Yardley’s Fall Into Romance Giveaway! We have a $200 Amazon Giftcard up for grabs and it’s super easy to enter! 

The giveaway will run Feb 12-21st. The grand prize winner will be announced February 28th  by email and The Weekly Ink! 

Enter Here!

𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀:
Cathy Yardley
Sloane Steele
Cassia Leo
Jen Talty
Sigal Ehrlich
Jillian Liota
Jennifer Lyon
Jennifer Bernard
Teri Wilson
Lea Nolan
Nina Crespo
Renee Rose
Ginny Baird
Michele Arris
Paris Wynters
Cheryl Sloan
JP Roth
Amelia Kingston
HL Packer
M.H.B.

Weekend Round

Hey all! I hope everyone in the grip of the cold snap is safe, warm and stocked up on necessities!

Saturday we got to see Turbo. Always fun! He’s a Grandpa’s Boy, and I love it. I’m starting to plan a fun birthday cake for him. Can you believe it, he’s going to be 3 years old next month!

Sunday we made streak and shrimp, opened a bottle of wine, and I made some chocolate covered graham crackers (Wizard’s request) to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Youngest son’s birthday is this week. So I called him yesterday to figure out a time to see him (not nailed down yet) and ask him if he wanted me to make cookies or a cake. For that I got an instant answer, “Peanut butter balls!” I’ve redesigned my peanut butter ball recipes for him to adjust to his preference for non-dairy, and my attempts seem to be working out, LOL. They do tend to come out soft, but they are good if you keep them in the fridge, and I discovered by accident, even better in the freezer. Like chocolate covered peanut better ice cream

I’ve been dealing with some doctor stuff, and while I like my doctor very much, I don’t love tests and running around. But that’s minor, and this week is looking much better than last, so I’ll happily take it!

How was your Valentine’s Day and Weekend? How’s the weather in your area?

Don’t forget, if you want to enter into the Cathy Yardley’s Fall Into Romance Giveaway for a chance to win a $200.00 Amazon Giftcard, click here to enter!

The post Weekend Round + Contest! first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF and Happy Early Valentine’s Day! Boy it’s been a week, but I don’t want to dwell on sad and mad stuff. Let’s jump into Friday Five:

Maggie got her stitches out, cone off and she feels great. It made Wizard and I feel so much better to see her happy again. There will be followup tests in two weeks. Maggie will be on a special diet for the rest of her life to try to prevent the stones from reforming, and if we don’t have to watch her suffer like that again, it’s money well spent.We’ve had the stairs gated off to keep Maggie contained for two weeks, and man that was a pain. Wizard and I kept stepping over the hip high gate to go up and down stairs, and try that carrying laundry. To my credit, I never tripped or fell. Yay me! But it sure is nice to have free access to the stairs again.I just started reading a new to me paranormal, REJECTED (A Shadow Beast Shifters Book 1) by Jaymin Eve and enjoying it so far.We haven’t made any plans for Valentine’s Day, but Wizard and I are experienced at pulling off romantic dinners and will pull something together. We always do.Tomorrow we’re going to see Turbo. I went to the store and bought him some little things for Valentine’s Day. Both of us are looking forward to hanging out with the little guy now that Maggie’s doing so well and we feel comfortable leaving her.

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a good weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Wednesday Fail

I don’t have a business related blog today. Frustrations like some computer issues for Wizard, a hack that was caught (Kudos to our bank!) and assorted life stuff tripped me up. It’s been like that for a couple weeks now, stuff popping up that requires instant attention.

Hopefully this picture will make up for my failure to post a substantive blog:

Or if you prefer a little hair:

 

Did either of those distract you from my lack of a real post?

The post Wednesday Fail first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

More like Roundup Lite. Not much happening, and I’ll take it. Here’s the highlights:

–Maggie’s been fine, no more upset stomachs. She’s sick of the cone, but I’m holding out until Wednesday when the stitches come out, then that cone is history.

–I tried to write. I spent more time thinking and researching and plotting. But I’m addicted to the story so that’s good. I figured out something amazing about the bad guy and why he needs Savi. I’d written a synopsis for this book, but the story is taking on a life of it’s own and that’s always magical (as well as messy and a ton more work!).

–Friday and Saturday were headache hell. Sunday morning I felt a bit better and was finishing my French toast with blueberries and bananas when I had a wave of nausea. It came and went in a few minutes, a lot like being pregnant. I Am Not Pregnant! But I am over this headache, so I marched my butt to the pharmacy the second they were opened and got the super Sudafed that requires a driver’s license and blood sample to buy. So far by at 5pm on Sunday I’m doing better. Fingers crossed it works and I don’t have to go to the doctors to treat an annoying sinus infection. FYI, no fever, no congestion, no real illness. The symptoms are classic sinus crap.

–I told Wizard I want a goat. Guys…his expression was hilarious. But being Wizard, he recovered quickly and told me I can’t because, and I’m quoting here, “Goats break in the house when you’re asleep and eat the shirt off your back. We can’t afford to replace all our shirts.” Then we had this long and serious discussion about when it’s appropriate to get a goat. We agree on the parameters, LOL! Spoiler alert, I won’t be getting a goat.

–Turbo, with his dad’s help, video-called us twice. We miss him! But Turbo called us because he wanted to check on Maggie Turbo told his mom that “Maggie fought the monsters, hurt her stomach and had to go in an ambulance, but the monsters are in jail.” How cute is that? Kids have such fun imaginations and his parents really encourage his stories. We should be able to go visit him next Saturday.

–PROMO ALERT: If you haven’t read the Savaged Illusions Trilogy, you still have time to preorder the boxed set of all three books at the special price of $3.99. Click on the image to order your copy now!

That’s it for me. My weekend was fine, not exciting, not as productive as I hoped, but no dramas or llamas, so I count that a win! How was your weekend?

 

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF! Let’s jump into sharing five random things about our week.

A headache that comes and goes is making me cranky. This is normal allergy stuff for me from the weather swinging between cold and rainy to warm and dry.Maggie got sick twice yesterday. But she had three really good days before that. Mostly likely it’s the antibiotics irritating her stomach, and a case of three steps forward and one step back in the recovery process. If she has more problems today I’ll call the vet but I’m not worried as I write this, just watching her.I stopped by my daughter-in-law’s yesterday for a few minutes and got to see her and her mom. It was awesome just to have some girl chat for awhile. My son was inside working from home, and I never even said hello (he was on a business call), but I did make time to say hi to their two dogs, LOL! Priorities people!Wizard is super over-protective of Maggie right now. Remember the man who didn’t want a dog? Um… My book is not moving forward much, but the characters are telling me all kinds of stuff in my head. I think this is good, but it’s also confusing trying to make order. I just keep trying because I get to do something I love even when I hate it. I’m falling so in love with the characters now.

No plans for this weekend at the moment, but who knows what plot twists could happen. Anyway, that’s my five and now I’d love to hear yours. Have a great weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Fight and Action Scenes

**Note: I adapted a blog I originally wrote for the MurderSheWrites blog, and the examples are from my book NIGHT MAGIC in my Wing Slayer Hunter Series.

I love writing fight and action scenes, which might seem odd since I’ve never taken a formal martial arts class in my life. However, one of my earliest memories is seeing my older brother do a flying jump, snap a kick in midair and break a board held by my other brother. One of my brothers went on to become a black belt, compete all over, and eventually he co-owned a karate studio with a friend. I used to hang out at the studio and watch them spar all the time. It was terrifying and exhilarating. I remember the long wall of mirrors and the blue mat, the pungent smell of sweaty men, the sounds of flesh hitting flesh, the shouts and grunts, and how fast it all moved. One thing that has stayed with me is the glint in their eyes when they saw a weakness in their opponent then planned and executed a strike—all in a second or two.

It’s all vivid and tactile in my memory.

And that’s exactly how a fight scene, or any action scene, should read in a book. It must be vivid and present, not distant and vague. The reader wants to see and feel with the point of view character. Here are some of my tips:

Establish point of view and stay there. This character should the one with the highest stakes of your characters who have a POV in the book. This scene needs to move both the plot and emotional arcs forward. Here’s Example # 1 from NIGHT MAGIC:

Phoenix sprinted around the side of the building, followed the blood trail of the witch to a ladder on the side of the church and started climbing.

It was an A-line roof two stories up. Damn, he wasn’t a fan of heights. Why couldn’t people do their business on the ground? Hell. He grabbed the edge of the roof and silently hauled himself up to the wickedly slanted top. The tiles were slick, and he had to lay flat on the slope to keep from sliding off. He looked around while digging his fingers into the raised edges of the tiles. The witch was standing and clinging to the cross that stood proudly at the front tip of the roof. The scent of her blood was stronger. His gut cramped with need while the pores opened up, desperate to feel the warm relief of her blood. It made his skin so sensitive, every scrape hurt like a burn.

The man chasing her was directly between them, belly-inching his way closer and closer to his prey. Seeing that set off his fury. Oh hell, no.

The rogue was so crazed with the need to get to the witch’s power-laced blood that he wasn’t paying attention to what was coming up behind him.

The tile under Phoenix’s left hand creaked and pulled up, causing him to lose his grip. Swearing silently, he slid down an inch, got another hold and steadied himself. The copper-stinking rogue was a foot closer to the witch. Phoenix had had enough of this shit. He slipped his knife from the holster at his back and put the blade between his teeth. Then he army-crawled a few more feet, dug in his left hand for a strong hold on the tiles, and grabbed the rogue’s calf.

Swear to all the gods and demons, he’d better not fall off this roof. It wasn’t the heights he hated, but falling. Anytime he fell, he had a horrible feeling he was going to burst into flames. Plus landings were always a bitch. 

In this example, we are deep in Phoenix’s head, and we feel the stakes, well actually he’s afraid of falling. But seeing the rogue tormenting the terrified witch outweighs his fear. We can feel his struggle not to fall off the damn roof while determined to save that witch. Being in Phoenix’s point of view means we are living the scene in his voice, which is reflated in phrases like “copper-stinking rogue” and “landings were always a bitch” and lots of swearing, LOL. Staying in one POV keeps the reader anchored and able to see and experience the fight with the characters almost as if living it themselves. Of course, there are circumstances when more than one POV will be used, just make sure it doesn’t dilute the experience for the reader.

Use active, not passive, writing in a fight scene (and I can think of a time when I broke my own rule!). This is a fight scene with the hero Phoenix trying to rescue a witch from two rogues (bad guys), and Phoenix ends up stabbed. By the way, “…ends up stabbed” is passive. We don’t want to tell the reader what happens with passive writing, we want to show them through active writing. Here’s Example #2 from NIGHT MAGIC that I hope illustrates the concept:

Phoenix leaped into him, knocking him to the ground and stabbing straight through to his heart. He twisted hard, making sure he was dead.

The smell of burnt skin set off warning bells in his head. He threw himself off the rogue and rolled.

He felt something fly by his shoulder but miss, leaving the stink of sulfur.

He rolled to his feet and whipped around, trying to find it. Was Quinn Young here with his Immortal Death Dagger? He heard the sound of a truck barreling up the road, but he focused on that smell.

Something tugged at his brain, some memory.

Then he saw the small knife, no bigger than his hand but black as sin, flying toward him. What the fuck? That wasn’t the Immortal Death Dagger from Young’s arm! He dove, and it missed. Dirt filled his nose and mouth, but adrenaline pumped like cheap beer. He jumped to his feet, turned around, and oh fuck, now there were two of those mini-daggers reeking of burnt skin and sulfur!

He snapped his chain, knocking both knives to the ground. They bounced off, shot back up and came at him again.

The truck was closer. He darted a quick look as he evaded the two knives once more. Key’s truck, he realized as he worked his way toward it, still evading the two knives.

A sharp pain arrowed into his back, right into his kidney. Instant, blinding agony boiled through him. Two thoughts exploded in his mind—there had been a third mini-dagger, and that mark he’d seen on Young?

Notice that everything is moving fast. The scene’s paragraphs are short, and the sentences vary in length with some very short and punchy to keep the tempo up, yet still give the reader just enough description to stay in the scene. For instance, the first sign of a new danger is the smell of burnt skin. That’s unexpected enough that sticks out in Phoenix’s mind and triggers an internal warning. That’s normal, but Phoenix doesn’t analyze it. Instead, he reacts, jumping to his feet and looking for the new threat. The scene must keep moving, and the character needs to have more questions than answers to keep tension rising.

Choreograph the scene. Draw out the setting and all your characters on paper. It helps you build a visual in your head and then you know where everybody in the scenes is and what they are doing. You must keep track of everyone through your point of view character’s eye. That way you don’t start out with five people in a fight and two just fade away never to be seeing or heard from again. It also helps to prevent a knife from morphing into a gun, or a dog suddenly appearing out of nowhere to conveniently distract the villain. Drawing it out really helps—even with my stick figure drawings.

Action/fight scenes must be build your plot and emotional arcs, otherwise they are just boring filler. Gratuitous fight scenes are as boring as gratuitous sex scenes and slow a book down. But if you create fight scenes with emotional stakes that build tension, they turn a book into a page turner. We do that by raising the stakes with surprising revelations, new questions and escalating threats, and also by foreshadowing. So in Example 1 we learn Phoenix is afraid of heights. That’s not only a character revelation, but it’s foreshadowing about who Phoenix really is which they find out later. In Example 2 above, we learn of the new threat–the mini dealt daggers, and shows us that the antagonist’s powers are growing stronger. Then when Phoenix is cut by one of those daggers, it spins the story in a new direction. Give your fight and action scenes the emotional stakes and plot twists and turns to transform your book into a page turner.

Those are just a few of my suggestions to write fight and actions scenes. Feel free to jump in with your suggestions!

The post Fight and Action Scenes first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

There’s not much to roundup this weekend. We mostly stayed home and kept things quiet for Maggie. So here’s the boring highlights:

–The day before the surgery, Maggie got worse. Like a little scary-to-me worse. So while while it’s not fun to watch her frustration at the cone, or annoyance at being limited, we’re very grateful she came through to surgery so well and is recovering.

–Through a fluke of events, we had 10 cans of food for Maggie that we now can’t use. Wizard took them to the animal shelter, and they were so grateful, we now want to buy extra just to take to them. Somehow we got out of the habit of donating to them. We are big believers in animal shelters. I like rescues too but animal shelters are often front line and help more animals that a lot of the public realizes.

–Maggie ran in her kennel at bedtime the first night home, but her hard plastic cone makes a terrible noise against the side of the kennels and scared her. So she slept in her bed on the floor in our room. She stayed quiet and calm where we put her so that’s fine…but will she ever go back to sleeping in her kennel??? I hope so, but right now, this is the best thing for her to stay calm and feel safe.

–BLB and daughter-in-law came by yesterday. Daughter-in-law is the one who works at the vet and Maggie ADORES her. So after surgery, they keep the dogs in a kennel for recovery. Maggie didn’t care when anyone came in that room, but when daughter-in-law came in she cried and freaked out with her “I know you and love you” cries. Seriously Maggie LOVES her. Maggie was all over her when they came over. She loves BLB too. We truly appreciate how lucky we are to have a family member working at our vet’s office, and that Maggie adores her.

–Fun fact: I was taking Maggie on a “banned” small walk around the corner right when BLB and daughter-in-law drove up. I was quite literally busted doing the thing I’d been told not to do   But daughter-in-law understood that Maggie is used to a lot of activity and struggling with the typical (not serious) post surgery issues, and I thought a walk to the corner and back might help. And it did It also helped her just seeing more people she loved. After that, she ate really well and rested.

–I worked and reworked a scene. it’s not great progress, but all things considered, I’ll take it.

That’s it for me, how was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.