C.L. Donley's Blog, page 3

Release Day! Love on a Lark out NOW!!

It’s my favorite time of year again: release day! To celebrate, Love on a Lark will be on sale for $0.99 all day today, everywhere e-books are sold!

I made my cover myself, and I gotta say… I’m starting to get pretty good at this. Also, technology is amazing. 

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Love on a Lark is about two ridiculously attractive people who meet in Italy, speak Italian, eat Italian food, and do fabulous Italian things. And literally… that’s basically all it’s about. Because Italy needs no one’s help to be great.

When I got my inspiration for this hero and heroine, I didn’t know much about their dynamic except that she worked for him, she was fluent in Italian, he was rich and gorgeous, and they were both passionate people, in different ways and in light of their respective cultures. She was a little more reserved, a little pent up if you will, and he was drawing the passion out of her. And I knew there would be “subtitles” and all kinds of yelling and gestures and Italian flying everywhere, and of course, hot steamy hotness. And everything the characters do is really in service to that pivotal moment of tension release.

For your consideration, check out the blurb:

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African American savant Lark Chambers is young, beautiful and brilliant, an interpreter formerly trained by the United Nations. Fluent in seven languages, she’s at the top of her game at Linguistics, Interpreting, Sign and Translation (LIST), the company that assigns her to Dario DiRossi, a multi-billion dollar textile heir, and currently her devastatingly handsome boss. DiRossi is no threat to her self control, however. As a product of the foster care system, Lark doesn’t know the first thing about getting close enough to a man to trust him with her heart. But when a handsome stranger christens her first night in her favorite city of Florence with lovemaking, Lark finds herself confronting the turmoil behind her put- together exterior. And her latest assignment just might put her over the edge. 

Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QM59JRX

Buy everywhere else: https://books2read.com/u/bW96yz

And that’s it! Follow me on Amazon, Book Bub, or keep up with me on social media for the latest updates! Check out my Love on a Lark Pinterest section to see how I imagined the characters, settings, etc for this book. My book inspirations page contains all my visual inspirations for previous books, and even some of my upcoming ones! And as always, happy reading!

C.L. Donley

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Get Leftovers With Benefits FREE this weekend only!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/weekendpromo

You have until the end of this weekend to download my new release, and many others, for FREE! Free romances, all heat levels and sub-genres! Stock up your TBR pile, or spend the weekend binging! Promo ends Feb. 4th!

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Release Day: Leftovers With Benefits Out NOW!

I’m so super excited about this book. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it’ll make you think, and best of all, it’s HOT! Love this story, love these characters (yes, even the mean ones!)

I can’t believe it’s been six months since I last released a book. Yeah… let’s never do THAT again!

Available anywhere e-books are sold!

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Guys, check out this weird ass thing I wrote when I was 23.

April 8, 2005

pages out of the autobiography
Current mood:  creative

Prelude

The other night I told a friend about one of my equations. Humoring him of course, I didn’t really think he understood but conversation was scarce. I had a vast theorem about colors and he told me yellow and blue made green. I was floored. I suppose I thought I would convince everyone I was never born. I dropped to Earth at 18 and found my way around. And my childhood experiences would be just a coaching, a profile I studied. For many reasons I thought it would be better maintain a massive construction than dig from the shed. I could pull it off. I was pulling it off but I couldn’t figure out why no one seemed to turn around or ask me to repeat the question. Why, this is what I knew, what I’d like to know, what I’d like you to know I know. I was a PR vehicle. An advertisement. Things never change overnight but now that I make ripples, I ‘m hoping the feeling will be enough to drive me down a new path every morning. And maybe I’ll eat more vegetables. I feel like Patrick Swyaze in Ghost when he finally kicked that can!

“Something that occupies space and can be perceived by one or more senses; a physical body, a physical substance, or the universe as a whole…”

All this week I thought I would get fired. I’ve been shuffling and reshuffling papers. Writing, highlighting, yet nothing would get done. I took losta breaks. I stared off into space. I’ve been evaluating my life now, having tried to fix a patch in the floodgate and unexpectedly drowned. Now I’m risking my neck with my nose in a notebook, exposed and “on the clock.” I’m doing this for them, really. Maybe after I hash this out I can go back to normal.

I was thinking about one of my many folklore tales about growing up. I tell people I’m an only child sometimes. Just cuz it’s easier. But every once and awhile something will prompt me to tell people the whole story. Most of the story. A real part of the story is that for awhile I grew up in a household of seven- me, my mom, dad, and my four cousins. Their mother died when I was three and from my perspective the transition was all very painless. I was three; I didn’t have any plans to begin with, any objectives or aspirations. You couldn’t really turn my world upside down. I gained four playmates, as far as I knew. It was smack dab in the middle of the 80’s so I was dubbed by the outside world as Rudy. The Cosby comparisons were never ending. Never…ending. Maybe the show was created just for us, some kind of cosmic energy we were sending out. It wasn’t as interesting as you think. Our ages ranged from 3-18 so time picked some of us off gradually. I was always the youngest.

My mother has said on occasion that the good thing about “the kids comin’ down”… That’s what we called that period of time. When the kids “came down.” As a child I thought this was synonymous with any permanent addition. People “came down” to live with you. Anyway, according to my mom, the good thing about the kids comin’ down is that they “toughened me up.” Because in my folklore childhood memory they were Detroit project kids and I was a guileless, black, ingénue girl living in the Midwest and they would terrorize me. All this is true. But in the movie version, the version I’d planned on telling everyone, all this was exaggerated. They sold crack and I chewed on wheat. Why would I want to do such a thing? My life needed to have flare. It was so dull and average, and black people can’t be average. Well they can be, but on their own time otherwise no one will talk to them. Which would be fine, but I didn’t have a secret arsenal of black friends. White people are my only audience and it’s sweeps week. I could only retreat to and close the door on the white world. When White World closed, and the lights went out and the doors locked, everyone else went home but I grabbed a blanket and a corner. And my eyes adjusted to the darkness.

So anyway, my mom felt like my cousins were good for me to make me thicker- skinned. Here, my mother is referring to my god given fragility. Which is apparently a negative. It is true; my heart seems to be a premature baby. Born without many bones, half a liver and one kidney. Everything makes me sick. I am always broken. It makes traveling difficult, new things difficult, keeping up difficult. My mother can’t be blamed; I too always wondered why after 23 years my heart is still this way, still on a breathing machine and roughly the size of a man’s fist. But I’ve heard God say to me on occasion- and only to me- “I can’t make mistakes.”

To be continued…

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Shoot Me in the Face: Confessions of a Self-Published Author Pt. 2

So the other day, in fact, I think it was Christmas Day, I was looking at my sales stats and I got to thinkin’ about that ol‘ book 2, Mya’s Pride, the second book in my first series. I don’t do it as often as I used to, but I started turning it over and over in my mind a bit. Troubleshooting. Like a Rubix cube.

When it first came out, the feedback was mixed, and notably tilting more negative, which at first put me in a panic. I re-wrote and re-worked and every little tidbit, no matter where or how I thought of it, it went into the manuscript. After a while, I felt like I’d plugged up all the holes I could have and scoured all the two-star reviews I could for clues about what I could possibly be getting wrong (nobody’s dared give me a 1 star for it yet!). I knew I took a lot of chances with Mya’s character, and I eventually just had to let it go. I’d done all I could do. Some objections I flat out didn’t understand. Every time I’d go back and put up another edit I’d think, “okay, now THIS is the one. If people are still complaining after this, then they’re all insane.”

As I said, it’s been six months, and I feel absolved. I’ve given the book all the care I can give it. I also mercilessly cut. I made sure that the reader is led through every page like a damn baby child through a labyrinth. If nobody gets it after that, then I can’t. Let’s move on.

Welp. The other day my brain was just randomly like: “what if you switched it from third person to first person?”

And then I responded to my brain with a “hm. maybe.”

I’ve never been a huge fan of using first person. Aside from it being to… I don’t know, intimate I guess, I feel like it’s overused. Poorly. I mean, my blog is in first person, but I’m me. But I’ve been doing this writing thing a little while now, and I’ve got a story or two in the pipeline where I’ve toyed around with the idea. Plus, I sort of know these characters like the back of my hand now, so I decided to try it out.

You guys. YOU. GUYS.

I have been glued to my chair for the last four days. The dishes are piled, the refrigerator is empty, my children, neglected.

12 hour days people. Just to get TWO CHAPTERS DONE PER DAY.

Not only am I changing it from third to first person, I’m also changing the tense from past to present. So I’m basically re-writing the entire book, but in a much more tedious way.

Yes, folks, I’m in editing hell right now. But I’m just passing through. I got two more chapters to do tomorrow and I see light at the end of the tunnel.

And I’m doing it all for you, dear reader.

Okay, maybe a little bit for myself, but mostly for you.

The finished product is driving me forward. I didn’t think it was possible, but it’s a much, MUCH better book now. To the point that I’m starting to understand some of the objections. Maybe an editor would’ve caught this long ago. But I tell you one thing, I will never forget the lesson I just learned. Sometimes a book just calls for first person. Perspectives matter.

And after what will be 60-ish hours of editing, now I know that I mean what I say: THIS. is. the. one. If you don’t like the book after THIS… I. CAN’T. HELP. YOU.

If by chance you’ve already read the second book and you’re checking this blog out, by the time you’re reading this, the book will probably be updated. Yay, technology! I should have it up by the 31st. No pressure if you’re not interested in re-reading but… let’s just say I’m tempted to offer a money back guarantee or something, because I just took this thing to 11.

This time last year, I was starting this very book. I intentionally sat down on New Year’s Eve and went into the new year starting book 2. So it’s oddly fitting that I’m ending the year with it as well. Mya’s Pride needs to go into the new year being its best self.

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Leftovers With Benefits: C.L. Donley’s Latest WIDE Release, Now Available for Pre-Order!!

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I am super funky balls excited to announce that my latest effort, Leftovers with Benefits will be released on January 11th, and is now available for Pre-Order everywhere e-books are sold!!![image error]

How do you like my super sleek cover? I made it myself

The Billionaire’s Club Trilogy Box Set

Amara’s Calling, Mya’s Pride, and Kim’s Courage is now a box set! Includes edited versions of all three books, plus deleted scenes, alternate endings, and more! Now in Kindle Unlimited! Makes a great gift! [image error]

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Shit. (Or Confessions of a Newly Self-Published Author with Writer’s Block)

So about a month ago I realized, as I eeked out a few hundred words this afternoon, like a truck driver on a steady diet of protein trying to take a frenzied dump at a truck stop toilet, that I had to admit to myself that perhaps I was in a bit of a crisis.

You see, after publishing my third novel in mid-July, I told myself I was going to take a break from the stresses of self-publishing, platform creating and maintenance, marketing, Amazon rankings, and sales and just go “back into the lab.” Start making more stories, as fast as possible, as easy as possible.

I gave myself many excuses when my time in front of a blank screen became overrun with distractions. When I got caught up in the stats, in the un-subscribes, the page likes, the negative reviews, the ads that suddenly stopped working. Or when I simply took a nap or watched a movie instead. Or read another romance. I said, maybe I need inspiration, once I step away the ideas will start flowing again. And they did. In fact, there’s no shortage of ideas. I’ve got at least four books on the assembly line of my mind. When I didn’t have the energy to continue one, I started on the other. And then I did it again. And again.

Now it’s been two months. And aside from a novella that’s only semi done and basically a re-hash, written exclusively for my subscribers, I have about… 25K words to account for.

It would take about three months to responsibly release a new book, provided I speed up the process by doing the editing myself (barf), find cover art, and all that jazz, so even if I started today, we’re talking 2019 before I can get another book released. Which I anticipated, but I also anticipated having a rash of books ready to release one by one by the end of this year.

I keep trying to go back to see where I’ve gone “wrong.” How did I get so much energy to write those first three books? I came to accept that I could write a rough draft in 3-4 weeks. I mean, after three books why would I expect anything less? Was it the pressure that came from going from complete and total obscurity to…less obscurity? Maybe. Trying to keep in mind the input of readers and reviewers and critics? Maybe. Trying to live up to the standard and somewhat intimidating success of the first book? Maybe.

But then I realized I was overlooking the obvious. The first book came b/c I felt that there was a book that hadn’t been written, a story that didn’t exist that needed to. And that was my motivation. Every day was exciting, because I was writing a story that hadn’t been written, and the muse in me would say, “what’s gonna happen next?” And I would have to write for such a question to be answered.

Well, now that book exists.

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Which is great. But sort of makes me say, “well…shit.”

B/c now I’m back to my writer’s vegetative hibernation state that I was before I began. Every time I sit down to write it’s like, “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”

“Does this book need to exist? No? Then we’re done here.”

Turns out my creativity doesn’t give a flying fuck that I’m trying to run a business, build a platform, gain a following, or NONE OF THAT. You got ideas? Cool. Really good premise? Wow. Marketable? Hot hot heat.

Oh, you want us to write that??? Hmmmm….

Oh, you want us to be disciplined?? Wow, now I’m extremely bored.

My mind was a broken movie theater. Fragments of scenes, stuck. A vivid dream that instantly became nothing but ash once you’re wide awake. Not worth the words it would cost to bring them into existence. What to do?

*sigh* Oh well, I thought. It’s nothing I hadn’t experienced before. I was most likely that all those professional pressures had indeed gotten to me, not to mention personal ones that had to be managed simultaneously. Who knows who or what was supposed to help me navigate the maze successfully. I thought “maybe I’ll just be a one-hit wonder.” Maybe I’ll be the George R. R. Martin of interracial romance. Maybe I’ll lose the fire for any of it and just become a horticulturist or a house flipper and just cash a royalty check of a few hundred dollars every so often. Or maybe I’ll become famous blogging about not writing.

Or maybe I’ll wake up one day as I did so many months ago, with a nugget, that becomes a lightning bug, that becomes an oncoming train that becomes a baby that becomes a book.

And then I remembered.

That nugget started as a free write. Two characters in a room.

Inwardly I gave myself a dopey hit to the forehead.

A quarter of a million words under my belt and I somehow forgot that it all begins with two characters in a room?

*sigh*

Slowly but surely, I found my way back. It’s still not the 3,000+ words a day routine it was before, but I can write sit down and produce something every day without thinking about doing something, anything else.

It’s my firm belief that I owe making it as far as I have made it in life in large part to my innate ability to not give a shit.

It is what has kept my work honest and noteworthy and polarizing. And it is what I will continue to do. Even if it means breaking one of the cardinal rules of successful self-publishing.

If I’m ever to write another book, I know I have to instinctively ground myself in this ability to not give a shit. It is an ability, because it is truly not easy to do without the inclination.

Without it, I know I would be overrun. I would be dragged to the hospital with a heart attack after sitting at my dining room table in front of my computer for four days straight with a strong cup of coffee at hand.

Without it, the books that I’ve written so far wouldn’t exist. I just sat and wrote more words for this blog than I have in the last few days. Easily. And I have to honor that. I have to honor it all. It’s not gone, I know its there, and I have something to say. But it’s gotta be important, it’s gotta be edifying, it’s gotta be necessary, and it’s gotta be expedient.

Otherwise, there’s just no point.

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Billionaire’s Club Sunday: The Entire Trilogy on Amazon FREE Today!

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It’s that time again! Download the entire trilogy for free today! Binge at your own risk! https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B078Z6TSS8

 

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Billionaire’s Club Sunday– Get the ENTIRE trilogy FREE all day today!!

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Y’all, I was under the distinct impression that daylight savings time was in September, but why is the internets telling me it’s in November?! What?! Well, anyways, happy reading all! Amara’s Calling, Mya’s Pride, and Kim’s Courage are all FREE today, Sunday only on Amazon!

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