Beth Martin's Blog, page 14

Today is Release Day for At Fault

While in the middle of drafting a novel—one that I ultimately decided to set aside—I had an idea for another book. Actually, not really an idea for an entire novel, but a character. I’ve met some quirky and interesting grad students/postdocs over the years and wanted to write a story featuring an academic. I started piecing together my protagonist, Dr. Peter Cork. He loves his work, which

Indie Authors: Make the Most of an Event

Last weekend was HeroesCon, and I had a great time. I really enjoy going to events to meet fans and sell books in person. Of course, the primary goal of tabling at an event is to make money, but there are a bunch of other benefits that also make it worthwhile. Even though I didn’t quite reach my lofty sales goals for Heroes, I’m still really glad I went.

I’ve done an embarrassing amount of

A Sneak Peek of At Fault

Last weekend was HeroesCon, so the past week has been incredibly busy and hectic. I’ll share more about the event after I’ve had a chance to decompress.

I wanted to write up something about my novel, At Fault, since I haven’t talked about it too much. In fact, there isn’t even a preview of it on my website! So here is the first chapter of At Fault.

The Kindle book will come out on July 3rd,

5 Best Escape Room Board Games

I love the idea of an escape room. I already enjoy solving puzzles, and the opportunity to do that in a tactile, first-person setting is awesome. However, I don’t think escape rooms are particularly kid-friendly, and good childcare gets expensive. When I learned that there were board game counterparts to these immersive experiences, I had to give them a shot. There are a number of escape games

Book Review: The Amber Project by J. N. Chaney

Young-adult fiction just isn’t my jam. I was looking for something to read with more ‘adult’ themes (i.e. the characters have jobs, no coming-of-age self-discovery, romance subplots that contain more than the protagonist over-analyzing whether or not they should kiss the love interest, and so on). How do I keep messing up? Clearly, I need to stop purchasing books from my Kindle, since the sales

Self-Publishing Expert Needed

My novel group has made it to the halfway point of our sixth-month time frame, and the first member has finished their first draft. I had been hoping that I would be the first one to pen The End, but I haven’t been keeping up a fast pace like I had originally expected. Instead, I’m a little under halfway done. Even though publishing is a business, the act of writing is still a creative

Writing as a Parent

Being a parent is really hard. Last week, I got a call from my son’s school. The nurse informed me that he was sick, and she needed me to come pick him up. However, I had an important meeting in an hour with his teachers. Unable to find anyone to watch him, we tried doing the meeting as a conference call. While I was steam cleaning the sofa (why couldn’t he aim at a bucket, or at least a

Branding

I'm sure some authors are already aware of the insanity surrounding Faleena Hopkins and her claim to the word “cocky.” The whole debacle has brought the entire idea of branding to the forefront of my mind, so I thought I’d tackle it in today’s post.

Faleena Hopkins is an indie author who writes romance novels. She has a series about the “Cocker®️ brothers” called “The Cocky®️ Series,” in

Book Review: Immersed by Jenetta Penner

Immersed by Jenetta Penner
My rating: ★★★★☆

Following right after the end of Configured, Avlyn finds herself in New Philadelphia. But instead of attaining freedom, she has become a prisoner of the president, Warren. A team of people will help her train her skill of immersing into computer systems, with the plans of using her in the future as an ultimate weapon.

She doesn’t trust any of the

Book Covers: Stock Beware Part 3

I have delved into the world of book covers before, finding a bunch of romance and thriller novels which shared the same stock image. However, since I write science fiction, I wanted to know if there were any great stock photos within the genre that have been a little too played out. Enter Future women concept, black latex with neon lights. Now, future woman is featured in a few different photo