Q. Kelly's Blog, page 19

"Third" Blurb Change (Again) -- Anne Is Revealed

I blogged here about adjusting the blurb for "Third."

Well, guess what? The blurb, it be a' changin' again. People kept telling me to keep it mysterious, mysterious was better, that they liked figuring out in the first few chapters of the book who Anne was. That was all well and good, but I always had niggling thoughts in the back of my mind if I oughtn't be more specific.

"Third" has been on sale about a week. It's sold decently, about forty-five copies, but still behind what I'm expected to seeing for my new releases. Who knows what the reason is. Could be "Q. Kelly" fatigue because "All in the Family" was released a few weeks earlier (selling pretty well), could be that I had "Third" priced at $7.99 (I've since dropped it to $6.99 to match my other novels), could be the polyamory thing, could be the time travel thing, could be the blurb just was not enticing, or not enticing enough.

OK! New blurb, all-holds-barred reveal of who Anne is. Blurb's been swapped out at all purchasing sites. And I've already had a few people say the newer blurb makes them take more notice.


NEW BLURB:
Tudor historian Helen Franklin is horrified when her dying scientist father leaves her a most unusual inheritance: Anne Boleyn. Yep, Anne Boleyn as in Henry VIII's beheaded queen. She is a time traveler and is having trouble adjusting to the modern world. Helen tells herself she does not have time for Anne. Yalia, Helen's wife, has been distancing herself from Helen for three years, and Helen needs to decide if she wants to save their marriage.

Then the unexpected happens. A romantic relationship develops among Yalia, Anne and Helen. Can the three of them figure out their lives together, especially when time might be running out for Anne?

Readers Like Free. So Should Authors.

Free definitely works, in my experience. Indie authors have much freedom and flexibility and should take advantage of that. Experiment with pricing. Experiment with freebies.

If nothing else, I recommend y'all write a short story with the sole purpose of making it free. Get it a nice cover and everything. Use the back matter to list all your other works. AND MAKE THE WORK FREE! :-)

For example, I had a short-story collection ("Miss Lucy Parker and Other Short Stories"). It is my only gen fic work, btw. I made it free on Smashwords and BN, and in a few weeks, Amazon followed suit. "MLP" just missed being in the top 100 in the free Kindle store. Yep, the top 100 Kindle. That still blows my mind. It had barely sold anything before becoming free, so I knew I had little, if anything, to lose by making it free. It isn't free anymore (it's 99 cents now), but this collection that barely sold anything before sells at least five to ten copies a day now. PLUS making it free got "MLP" a lot of nice reviews on Amazon and most likely more visibility and awareness of my other books.

I also made "The Old Woman and Other Lesbian Stories" free. It didn't do as well as "MLP" on Amazon, but it did much better than "MLP" on BN and Smashwords. (Go figure.) Similar pattern to "MLP" -- more reviews, more visibility. "Old Woman" barely sold before it became free. Now it's back to its $2.99 list price and sells at least five to ten copies every day, too. I got a few emails from people who got "Old Woman" for free and bought my other books as a result. These few emails probably equate to more people who bought my other books but didn't email me.

It is important to keep in mind that freebies often work long term. Many people snatch up the free stuff and may never get around to them, or take their sweet old time getting around to them.

With my two free-short story collections having about 10,000-15,000 free downloads each, that's probably 20,000 to 30,000 readers who would not have heard of me otherwise.
Same for some of the people who downloaded "The Odd Couple" during its two-day free period on KDP Select. (KDP Select is a whole other issue. I have one book in it ("The Odd Couple"). The exclusivity clause has always bothered me, and I'm probably not renewing "The Odd Couple" when its 90-day period expires. I doubt I'll enroll another book, but I might. I'll have to see how sales of all my titles are doing at other channels first.) Anyway!
Free is worthwhile JUST for the visibility and exposure. Really.

Gonna repeat what I said earlier: If nothing else, I recommend y'all write a short story with the sole purpose of making it free. Get it a nice cover and everything. Use the back matter to list all your other works. AND MAKE THE WORK FREE! :-)

Gorgeous!

The print proof for "Third" arrived today. It is gorgeous. Along these lines, "Third" is for sale in print now!

https://www.createspace.com/3775921

It will take five to seven days to wend its way into the Amazon system, but you can buy it now from CreateSpace. And here's another review of "Third" from Amazon:

Ann,Helen,Yalia.
Each is beautiful in her own way.
Each has some serious regrets.
You would never guess what brings these 3 women to know each other.
It's fascinating and scintillating and makes me wonder what I would change in my own history if I could.
Q.Kelly has the ability to write about situations that are just a little "twisted" or maybe that's the wrong word.
Her stories have an edge to them that might be off putting at first but then you find yourself totally intrigued, not sleeping so good because you keep turning on the light and reading some more.
I was only curious about this story until I read "maf6355"s review here on Amazon.
Hope my 5 stars helps you decide to read this book.

Unveiling the "Switch" cover -- and LIAC

I'm gonna kill two birds with one stone in this blog post. But not live birds! Stuffed birds. No animals will ever be harmed in the making of any of my blog posts. I can pledge you that.

First up, let's unveil the "Switch" cover! It is possible minor tweaks will be made later, but this is the cover.

Here's the (very rough draft) blurb:
Ellora Elaine Landry and June Clementine Blue Sky are forty years old and have led very different lives. June, raised by hippie parents, is an out lesbian who has protected her heart since her wife deserted her five years before. Ellora, from a conservative family, is leaving her controlling, manipulative husband.

June and Ellora come together after they find out a disturbed nurse switched them when they were newborns (along with four other pairs of babies over fifteen years). Ellora finds herself falling in love in June and grappling with what her feelings mean about her sexual identity. June, meanwhile, is reluctant to risk her heart again. Will they realize that perhaps they were fated to be together since their births?

    **********************************
Time for the second stuffed bird. I am a moderator for a Yahoo group nicknamed LIAC. That's short for Lesfic Independent Authors Consortium. Wow! A mouthful, right? I took over the reins recently, and it's a small group. It's made of lesfic authors who are indie or thinking about going indie. We basically support one another, share tips and relevant links, and so on. Here's the description on the front page:
 
Lesfic Independent Authors Consortium is a group of lesbian fiction authors who have chosen to self-publish their work (or as one of our owners puts it, be "fiercely independently published"). LIAC is set up so independent authors have a place to network with like-minded souls, share marketing tips and contacts for editors, cover designers, etc. We are colleagues, peers, and most importantly, friends. Welcome!

The link to join is here. You can participate as much or as little as you want. You can be traditionally published and still join. That's cool. Some of our members have an indie-publisher mix, and some are merely curious about going indie.

Different Perspectives of Anne

*** This blog post is going to have spoilers about "Third." Be warned! :-) Don't read on if you do not want spoilers.
*** This blog post is going to have spoilers about "Third." Be warned! :-) Don't read on if you do not want spoilers.
*** This blog post is going to have spoilers about "Third." Be warned! :-) Don't read on if you do not want spoilers.

One thing I love about my books is the wonderful conversation they inspire. This has never been more true than with "Third." My other books, particularly "Strange Bedfellows" (which has the most reviews of my books by far), have led to some interesting discussions. "Third" definitely is taking the cake in depth of discussion so far, though. A few days ago, I posted a convo with Linda North.

I had another conversation earlier today with a friend of mine who has not read "Third" but is going to (once she gets her library books due soon read! ;-) ). Given her comments, I thought having a before/after conversation would be interesting. I'm not promising an "after" conversation, but I hope one will happen.

Anyway, my friend knows about this post and she is, shall we say, anti-Anne. Quite anti-Anne.

If you're new to "Third" and have no idea who this Anne is, let me slip the blurb in here for you:

Helen Franklin is horrified when her dying father leaves her a most unusual inheritance: a woman. Furthermore, the woman, Anne, is anything but ordinary. She is a time traveler with a tragic past. Helen tells herself she does not have time for Anne. Yalia, Helen's wife, has been distancing herself from Helen for three years, and Helen needs to decide if she wants to save their marriage.

Then the unexpected happens. A romantic relationship develops among Yalia, Anne and Helen. Can the three of them figure out their lives together, especially when time might be running out for Anne?

And here's the review that prompted my friend to say the things she did.

FINAL WARNING: *** This blog post is going to have spoilers about "Third." Be warned! :-)


OK, so you probably know that Benjamin Franklin is an important supporting character in "Third," but I haven't said publicly yet who Anne is. It is not a huge secret. Her identity is fairly easy to suss out in the first two chapters for people who know history well. And for people who don't, her identity is revealed in Chapter Three.

Anyway, Anne is Anne Boleyn (see portrait at right). Annnd here's the convo between my friend and me. Her part is in bold.

My biggest problem with the idea of this book is actually not the three-way relationship or even the time travel part, but the woman you chose to be your 'Anne'. I think I have a pretty good idea who she is, and while she was very smart and was able to have an entire system in the society of her time changed just for her, she was also a [bleep] and was not a friend of women. She looked for validation from men. Other women were there only to be the backs she climbed on on her way to the top. She was cruel to her husband's ex-wife and daughter. I will grant that her husband was the bigger [bleep], but she helped encourage him because it improved her standing in his eyes. Her fall was spectacular, and she pretty much reaped what she sowed. Her end was sad, and I did feel sorry for her then. Maybe you did address all of that in your book? I don't know.

It also got me thinking about the other women this Anne had a connection to in her time and was thinking that if the last three women in that group hadn't been obviously attracted to men, they would have been interesting contenders. All three had their lives ended prematurely in different ways. One of them lived a nice long time, but she was never allowed to have an romantic relationship or have children. One was young and silly but would have been traumatized enough to avoid men, and the other I think would have been the most interesting. She was smart, capable, yet had to submit all the time to what men wanted. Her one true love betrayed her with her stepdaughter. Then she died. Definitely an unfinished life!

I'll have to read your book though, I want to see how you pulled it off!

Yep, I grant Anne was cruel to Catherine of Aragon and Mary. That's addressed explicitly in the book. As for the other stuff, it's a matter of perspective and which historian you ask, although it's true Anne likely had no women friends except Lady Lee. That's in the book too. Anne didn't bother with society women's idle chatter.

Also, it's unclear if Catherine Parr's husband ever did anything with Elizabeth. May have, maybe not. That's why there's historical fic. One more thing about Anne, she was pretty much forced into doing what she did by her father. I maybe shouldn't say this (it's spoilerish) -- but after reading Tudor books, Anne realizes just how bad she was to Mary. She decides she would pick Mary over her own daughter Elizabeth to bring back to the present because she wants Mary's forgiveness so much. The ending has Anne getting Mary...kinda. You'll have to read to find out what I mean.

Well, it would be nice to have Mary I to have a redo of her life. Apparently she was a lot like Elizabeth when she was young: smart, sweet, nice. She was always nice to her younger sister until politics interfered. Emperor Shaddam IV said it best: blood is thicker than water, but politics is thickest of all! I may have not quoted exactly but you get the gist. If Mary lets go of her crystallized perspective on life, then she could grow into a new person.

As for Anne, her dad may have encouraged her to do it, but she threw herself into it. If she didn't want the prize so much, she could have had sex with Henry and told dear old dad, he made me get into bed with him, I didn't have a choice, and she would have been right. Henry would not have seen himself as an rapist; he believed enough in his charms to do that, but one doesn't refuse the king after the dance of courtship without a good reason! (I wonder if this would work, "Your Majesty, I have the clap," heh.) Men were real [bleep] back then, which brings me to Catherine P.'s husband. He may or may not have done something with Elizabeth, but his intent was clear, and once Catherine P. saw it for what it was, it had to hurt a lot.

Yeah, I have people wanting a sequel! Mary has always fascinated me. I would love to do something on her too, but I don't get the same "vibe" I do with Anne that Mary could be a lesbian. But, who knows. If I write a sequel to "Third," I imagine Mary would be in it. Probably as straight. Anyway, that's true Anne could've done all that. I can't imagine what it would've been like to be in her shoes, though. Hindsight is 20/20. And if she was a lesbian, I could see how it would be extremely easy for her to think all she had to do was not have sex for seven years and have a nice life. We have a young woman whose sister is sleeping with the king at the behest of their father, and then the sister is discarded. The father pins all his hopes on his second daughter. It must have been a confusing situation for Anne with no clear "right" path. You said men were real [bleep], and that's exactly right. We don't know what Thomas Boleyn may have threatened Anne with, or if he had more subtle ways of getting her to do his bidding. Anne was a powerless woman in a man's world, and like so many women before and after her, she lost her battle.

We don't have Anne's own words, so we'll never know why she did the things she did. "Third" is only one take (and not necessarily all what I believe, but what worked best for the story). Everyone has a different take on Anne, and that's one reason history can be frustrating and why there's that time-travel fascination to find out the truth.

Yeah it's hard to say about historical figures unless you can sit them down and interview them...and not even they know why they did some things sometimes!


Many people, historical or not, have no effing idea why they do the things they do. I don't sometimes ;-)

*** The conversation ended here, but I want to say a few more things about Anne Boleyn. She may have been a [bleep]. Or not. Or somewhere in between. From "Third," I present Tudor historian Helen Franklin's basic theory: 
 
Helen's theory, or as she called it, her wishful thought, was that Anne was a lesbian trying to make her way in a ruthless, heterosexual world. Helen had shared this theory with no one except Yalia, long ago. She had no shred of proof to back up her theory. But one question Helen would never need to ask: Was Anne guilty of the charges the king brought against her?
Also, from Helen's book, here is the small biographical summary of Anne:
Anne Boleyn (?- executed 1536): Anne spent much of her adolescence at the court of the French king Francis I. She returned to the British court full of wit, grace and charm. She caught the eye of Henry Percy, and they secretly were engaged. Anne also became a lady in waiting to Queen Catherine. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey found out about the secret engagement and forbade a marriage. Percy was exiled from court, and Anne's father, Thomas, forced her to focus on the king. Anne's sister, Mary, was the king's mistress, and Thomas Boleyn had learned a valuable lesson. Mary had given her body up too quickly. Thomas ordered Anne to flirt with the king, to toy with his emotions and nothing more. This worked like a charm for seven years, to the point where Henry VIII turned his back on the Catholic Church. Henry would never get free of Catherine if the church had a say in it, so he founded his own religion. He married Anne in the eyes of the Church of England. Anne was pregnant and gave birth to a girl, the future Elizabeth I. Henry was sorely disappointed but envisioned more pregnancies. They came, in the form of miscarriages. A frustrated Henry contrived a scheme accusing Anne of witchcraft, incest and adultery. Anne was beheaded in 1536, after a mere three years of marriage and shortly after her predecessor Catherine's death.

Covers

A book is kind of like a wispy figment. It becomes real real REAL to me when a cover comes together. The "Switch" cover has been a struggle until today. Then the designer got a concept that clicked. More than clicked. This may be my most striking cover yet. I can't wait to unveil it.
When do your books become real to y'all?

(Updated):  Oh, yeah! The first review of "Third" is out. Awesome review over on Amazon. Here's the review:


When I first read the blurb for this book I had my doubts. As imaginative as the author is I wasn't sure she could bring off a story with a lead character that travels through time and becomes involved in a relationship with a married couple (lesbian) on the brink of divorce. I shouldn't have worried. Q, Kelly does a great job of making the premise plausible.

Helen Franklin and Yalia Yamato are deeply in love but their relationship is dying as a result of a trauma in Yalia's past. Helen is also experiencing a trauma with the death of her father and the discovery of what had been his life's work. It is this unwelcome discovery that brings our time traveler Anne into their lives.
Anne had been a chattel to men in her time period and with the kindness of Helen and Yalia she blossoms into her own person. She finds she has feelings for both of these women and while they recognize that she has been damaged by her past she is able to see that they too have been wounded and it is the vulnerabilities of the three women that bring them together.

The way the characters work out their feelings and handle the repercussions of travelling through time while dealing with a man who wants to control their destiny makes for a satisfying read.

Polyamory, Time Travel and Benjamin Franklin

Lesbian sci-fi author Linda North ("The Dreamer, Her Angel, and the Stars" and the upcoming "Deep Merge") and I had an impromptu talk about "Third." I asked if she would mind if I put it here. She said great! So here it is. :-) Linda read "Third" and really enjoyed it.

What got you interested in polyamory? I admit, I find the subject fascinating.
Good question. I am not sure, actually. Zillions of ideas occur to me all the time. I must have some subconscious filtering system to help me decide which ideas to write about.

I remember wondering what my next book would be after "Waiting" was published. I have always wanted to write a book in which one of the leads was a Siamese twin (Ladan and Laleh Bijani inspired me), but I wasn't "feeling" it for that time. Somehow the idea of a three-way relationship popped up in my head. It takes people of tremendous self-confidence and commitment to do a healthy poly relationship, and I think such relationships are quite cool. By the time I finished "Third," I really wanted my own third!

I know a lot of people will think your book is a "sex" book, but it's not. It is a romance about two women, Helen and Yalia, in an established relationship, who have lost that closeness and spark, falling in love with a third woman, Anne. Anne in turn falls in love with both of them. Through their love for Anne and Anne's love for them, Helen and Yalia rediscover each other.

Anne is from another time. What influenced you to go with the time travel element?Thanks for pointing that out. "Third" definitely is not a sex book, although it has sex scenes. It's about the three women's relationships with the other two women individually as well as the way the "three" relationship works as a whole.
I had a 10k-word short story with Anne and Helen that had the whole time travel thing.
The three-way idea popped up, but I also wanted to expand the short story. I was not sure which way to go (three-way or short-story expansion?) and realized I was having trouble thinking of potential subplots for both ideas. So, light bulb moment -- combine both ideas! :-)
The family Anne is from -- I had done a lot of reading about the family and watched movies, TV shows, etc. so she was one of the first people I thought of when I did that time-travel short story. For that story, I needed to find someone from history who could potentially be a lesbian. And Anne fit quite nicely, especially since she had been involved in a tragic love triangle. "Third" gives Anne the chance at a happy ending in another love triangle.
For you curious readers, I'm gonna type who Anne is, but I'll black out the name. Highlight it if you want to find out who Anne is.
Anne is Anne Boleyn.

I'm being selfish here and encouraging you to do another romance "time travel" story. Bringing a famous woman from the past to the present and pairing her with a modern woman. It doesn't have to be polyamory. I know you would have to research the person and time period she lived in, but you did that so well with Anne and her time that I actually have been reading online history about Anne.
I love time travel stuff, so I would definitely be more than happy to revisit a time-travel storyline. Since I was a kid, I have been in love with time-travel stories, especially the ones with Neanderthals. I also really enjoyed the poly part, so I'd do that again too for sure. Anne's history certainly is fascinating, but there is no denying she died way too soon. I am glad "Third" was able to give her a second chance at life.

Another time traveler in the story is Benjamin Franklin. Why him?
I went to Philadelphia about a year and a half ago on vacation. Philly is basically another word for "Ben Franklin city." Ben is everywhere, and deservedly so. That man had so many accomplishments! He was a statesman, politician, an inventor, a scientist and much more. I did not make a conscious decision to choose him, but the Philly trip probably did it. Ben was a scientist, perfect for my story. He also had an upstanding life of public service, but he also had that slightly (or more than slightly, depending on what you believe) sleazy side. I thought presenting a less-than-ideal side to Benjamin Franklin would be interesting. He's kind of a bad guy in "Third."

The Heart Is a Wonderful Creature ("Third" Is Out!)

"Third" is on sale now on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords (Nook and print coming soon; I will update here when they are ready).  I'm excited about this book, but then I'm excited about all my books.

Here are the first six and a half chapters in .pdf. No download necessary. "Third" is about 70,000 words. And here's the blurb:

Helen Franklin is horrified when her dying father leaves her a most unusual inheritance: a woman. The woman, Anne, is a time traveler with a tragic past. Helen tells herself she does not have time for Anne. Yalia, Helen's wife, has been distancing herself from Helen for three years, and Helen needs to decide if she wants to save their marriage.

Then the unexpected happens. A romantic relationship develops among Yalia, Anne and Helen. Can the three of them figure out their lives together, especially when time might be running out for Anne?


"Third" is a bit (perhaps a lot) different than my other books, and for me, that is saying something. Different on several fronts: the polyamory aspect, the time travel/sci-fi aspect and the historical fiction aspect. Three huge figures in history are characters in "Third," and a few scenes take place in the mists of time. One of the three time-traveling characters is a lead, and the second is an important supporting character who has a few POV chapters. The third character is not in the book much, although he's talked about a lot.

I think "Third" would do quite nobly in a competition for a pretty durn good cross-genre book. At its heart, though, it is a lesbian romance. Not a traditional romance, of course. That's where the polyamory part comes in. One thing I wanted to make sure I did with "Third" was show that three people can indeed fall in love like two people can, and that their feelings are just as valid. The heart is a wonderful creature, and love is a wonderful thing as well. I did not write "Third" for cheap thrills or titillation (nothing wrong with that, just was not my intent with "Third"). Along these lines, the emotional aspect of falling in love is important in "Third." This is especially so for Anne, who used to be involved in a tragic love triangle. She finds herself falling for a married lesbian couple, and her feelings horrify her.

I will probably do a blog post after "Third" has been out a few weeks explaining why I chose the characters I did. I am not doing it now because it may be spoiler-ish. It'll be a fun post! :-)

One Sentence Can Make a Difference -- Blurbs (Updated)

Writing blurbs is a tricky business, no doubt. I've discussed in other posts why I changed the "Strange Bedfellows" blurb about a month after the book was published. I also discussed why I took extreme care with the "Waiting" blurb.

Well, guess what? The blurb for "Third" is changing too, by one sentence. "Third" is a multi-genre (crossover) novel, although at its core, it is a lesbian romance. No doubting it has strong sci-fi and historical fiction aspects. The original blurb didn't mention these aspects. The opinions I got back then said not to. Now, opinion (including mine) is shifting, so I added this one sentence, this one sentence only:

She is a time traveler with a tragic past.

So, the updated blurb in its entirety reads thus:
Helen Franklin is horrified when her dying father leaves her a most unusual inheritance: a woman. Furthermore, the woman, Anne, is anything but ordinary. She is a time traveler with a tragic past. Helen tells herself she does not have time for Anne. Yalia, Helen's wife, has been distancing herself from Helen for three years, and Helen needs to decide if she wants to save their marriage.

Then the unexpected happens; a romantic relationship develops among Yalia, Anne and Helen. Can the three of them figure out their lives together, especially when time might be running out for Anne?

So, anyway, I'm going to change the blurb on a few other posts here. I hope adding this sentence was the right decision! I think it was. :-)


*** UPDATED: OK, here's my new revised blurb.

Helen Franklin is horrified when her dying father leaves her a most unusual inheritance: a woman. The woman, Anne, is a time traveler with a tragic past. Helen tells herself she does not have time for Anne. Yalia, Helen's wife, has been distancing herself from Helen for three years, and Helen needs to decide if she wants to save their marriage.

Then the unexpected happens; a romantic relationship develops among Yalia, Anne and Helen. Can the three of them figure out their lives together, especially when time might be running out for Anne?


I deleted "Furthermore, the woman, Anne, is anything but ordinary." because it was not necessary anymore to say Anne was anything but ordinary. Time travelers aren't exactly ordinary, as far as I know. :-)

One Sentence Can Make a Difference -- Blurbs

Writing blurbs is a tricky business, no doubt. I've discussed in other posts why I changed the "Strange Bedfellows" blurb about a month after the book was published. I also discussed why I took extreme care with the "Waiting" blurb.

Well, guess what? The blurb for "Third" is changing too, by one sentence. "Third" is a multi-genre (crossover) novel, although at its core, it is a lesbian romance. No doubting it has strong sci-fi and historical fiction aspects. The original blurb didn't mention these aspects. The opinions I got back then said not to. Now, opinion (including mine) is shifting, so I added this one sentence, this one sentence only:

She is a time traveler with a tragic past.

So, the updated blurb in its entirety reads thus:
Helen Franklin is horrified when her dying father leaves her a most unusual inheritance: a woman. Furthermore, the woman, Anne, is anything but ordinary. She is a time traveler with a tragic past. Helen tells herself she does not have time for Anne. Yalia, Helen's wife, has been distancing herself from Helen for three years, and Helen needs to decide if she wants to save their marriage.

Then the unexpected happens; a romantic relationship develops among Yalia, Anne and Helen. Can the three of them figure out their lives together, especially when time might be running out for Anne?

So, anyway, I'm going to change the blurb on a few other posts here. I hope adding this sentence was the right decision! I think it was. :-)