Kate Alexander's Blog

Twas the Night before Release...

Twas the night before release and all through the house, every creature was stirring, even all the fish in the house.

There are only a few hours before book number two goes live. I must admit that there is something amazing and scary about that. It took forever for me to let go of book one and show it to the world. Now it seems that book two is sprinting out the door fast behind it. I learned so much about formatting and uploading to promotional sites the first time, that this round went so much smoother. Now, I feel like I am forgetting something.

Amazon... oh you dear sweet and yet evil creature. For the first book we had several growing pains... margins, page bleeds, cover issues... we were not meshing well. I still have the small bump on my forehead where I banged my head a few times on the table in frustration. This time though... you took everything in one shot, and you got it right. I am having all the feels now, thanks.

Draft2Digital... You are my favorite of them all. You format my books beautifully and give me a PDF version that Amazon likes. I would send you chocolates and flowers if I could.

IngramSpark... We got along better this time. I was so anxious about setting up book two. I remember spending several days back and forth with issues on book one, but this time... POOF my book was approved. I hope that this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Don't screw it up.

For all you new authors out there let me reassure you now, it will get easier. I learned so much from book one to book two, it was leaps and bounds a different experience this time. I wasn't crying into my bowl of ice cream about getting the book listed, my poor editor didn't have quite so much clean up to do and this social media thing is getting easier. Keep learning. Keep trying to better yourself. In the end it will give you time back so much time and sanity.

So, here we are just a few hours away from going live for Images of Devotion. Hubby is on the couch waiting for me with the dog, and the fish are glaring at me for still having the big light on while I type away. I am still wound up tight like an eight year old the night before going to Disneyland, but I wouldn't trade this for anything. I just hope my mind gets off this panicking thought of forgetting something.

A Picture is Worth... About 1,140 Minutes

Yes, you read that right. One picture is worth over a thousand minutes. How can a picture be worth minutes you ask? Well let me explain...

When you write your first book there are these lovely dreams of how much fun it is going to be. The idea of creating characters that you love and telling their story becomes the first focus of becoming a writer. While it took me a couple months to write the story, more time was invested learning all the stuff that comes with self-publishing. I wanted to make sure that I was doing everything that I should, and not missing important steps. The one part that I was looking forward to was creating my cover. Actually, looking forward is too gentle of a term. I was more like an eight-year-old who was just told they were going to Disney World. Let's just say things did not go as planned. It ended up more like getting to Disney and finding out it was closed. Queue the angry temper tantrums and tears.

At first, I wanted to take the pictures and create the cover art from my own photography. I had an apron that was inspired from Zoey's bakery and used wire to make it stand up. I then spent time learning photoshop and green screen technology. That was days and days of maddening trial and error. Finally, I finished the cover and the more I looked at it... the more I hated it. Of course, friends and family were all supportive and said it looked good. But in all reality it was melt in your mouth, ooey gooey cheesy. Not sexy at all. This horrible picture is now buried in some random folder somewhere on my laptop.

After mourning the loss of my time and energy on cover attempt number one, I decided to go with a graphic designer. This is the best decisions as an author, that I have ever made. These people know what they are doing and don't have to watch a million YouTube videos to figure out how to do one little thing. I didn't want to leave it in the designer's hands to choose who represented my couple, so that part was still up to me. During the course of writing and research, I had made friends with other self-published authors who gave great advise about how to find the photograph you want. Having recovered from the catastrophic attempt number one, I thought that this was now going to be one of the highlights of publishing my book. I can fully admit that I was wrong... again.

Thanks referrals from other authors, I found that there are several good sites to get stock photos for your book covers such as DepositPhotos, Shutterstock, iStock and others. Where these sites need improvement, is a good way to search for a matching photo to your character. I spent over nineteen hours searching these sites for the perfect Zoey and Tyler. For about five days after work I searched and searched using a number of different search keywords that described my adorable couple. Oh, and if you try a search for romantic or sexy couple and all kinds of goodies pop up. Make sure you are alone, unless you want to be teased about looking at porn. Anyway, I digress. The first couple hours were fun, but after some time your eyes go fuzzy and your brain turns to mush. I found the couple I wanted to use for book two before I found the image for book one. When I finally did find the couple that I felt captured the sweetness of Zoey and Tyler I almost cried. No, seriously... I almost cried because I was near the edge. My fingers were twitchy and I was nearly at the stage of buying a whole French Silk pie and eating it in one sitting. And here is a little public service announcement for everyone... if I have gotten to this stage, don't try to take it away from me. I get a little stabby.

Today was the cover reveal today for book two, Images of Devotion, and I couldn't be happier with how it looks. The next book in the series is about one-third of the way completed. When I have had writer's block for it, I have taken small breaks and searched for a picture for that matches the new couple. If I finish this book and haven't found the matching photo, someone may need to send a care package, or at least check in with my husband that I haven't completely lost my mind.

Picking back up my blogging pen

Hello world, it's Kate, and I am back from the land of craziness and picking up my blogging pen again, or at least turning on my wireless keyboard. I haven't blogged since March. Wow, how did that happen? Well, okay I know what happened. First, we were all told to stay home and behave ourselves due to COVID-19. Do you know just how uninspired I was without human interaction besides my husband, Tom? Apparently, I need people. I am a people person. I did not see that coming.

All writing stopped. I found myself playing games and putting together puzzles with Tom. And you know what? I really enjoyed the time we spent together. We were getting back to the basics from when we first started dating. Each night we were having fun with some activity and talking to each other. He was taking this whole locked up in the house thing way better than I anticipated. Ever since day one that I met my husband, he has always needed to be moving and doing something. That part didn't change, he still was doing things, but we were finding things at home to do together. So, while the stay at home orders were quite frustrating, I am appreciative of the time we had together without interruptions.

Around the end of May, I was starting to really write again and sent my first book to the editor. While I was waiting for the manuscript to come back with what I feel is the equivalent of the teacher's red pen from my editor, I was a mess. Here we were still in social distancing mode, I was working from home for my day job and my husband was an essential worker still working his full schedule. I tried to write after work but my mind was still on book one with the editor. What if she says it is horrible? Am I wasting my time? Queue the panic mode and indulging in every ounce of chocolate in the house. Thankfully, it did take the edge off my crazy.

June rolled in and my editor sent back my book and she loved it. I think I was finally able to take a deep breath and relax. Taking the next steps to get the cover and formatting done were both challenging by themselves and took up a lot of time (that is a whole other blog post). During all this I celebrated another birthday (they could stop anytime now) and we had family visit for a week. Overall it was a good month. We spent time by the pool and basically took it easy, not that you can do much else in Phoenix in the summer.

July came and went in a blur. The book was released on July 27th and the reviews that I received made me super happy. There is nothing better than a stranger saying that they read your book and loved it. Yeah, it is great when friends and family say they enjoyed your book, but when you get that validation from someone who doesn't know you, it is happiness on a whole other level.

Now, here we are in August and book two is with the editor and book three has a solid start. I have also been spending the summer working on making a connection with my readers through social media. Social media has always been a struggle for me, and I think I have the hang of Instagram now... Twitter... that little tweeting bird is still hard for me. My next step is that I want to pick my blogging pen back up. I feel like I have found a rhythm that works for me, and am looking forward to sharing my thoughts again with this blog.

I hope everyone is doing well and staying cool. I will be hiding from the 106 degree weather in Phoenix by writing diligently at my temporary office, also known as our dining table.

Peeking through the storm

This is me poking my head out to see if it is safe from the storm, and in this case I mean it literally and figuratively. First lets attack the literal sense of the storm. As I am writing this it is raining. No scratch that... it is dumping water on us. We live in the valley of the sun, Phoenix, Arizona. When we moved here we thought it would be little to no rain and warm weather. They lied to us. It rained nearly all week last week, and now we have the pleasure of seeing water flood our yard again. What is a girl to do? Find ways to amuse herself of course. First, I have a sarcastic weather app on my phone that tells me the forecast with a touch of humor. Today's gem... "Ok, which one of you made Mother Nature cry? I expect you to apologize". I agree please apologize this is getting old. My second form of entertainment is letting the princess dog out to potty. The princess does not like getting wet. She goes to the edge of the covered patio, turns around with wide eyes and then promptly gives me the death glare until I let her in. She has the bladder of a god. She will hold it for hours before she dares to get a drop of water on her fur.

The second type of storm is one we are all suffering from, the coronavirus. Normally, I find inspiration in my surroundings for my writing, but I have to say that it is hard to find inspiration amongst the crazy right now. Let's start with the social distancing. I saw a woman refuse to hold her husband's hand in the grocery parking lot. Maybe she was getting into the mindset of defense so she could find the golden roll of toilet paper or the hand sanitizer worth more than platinum right now, but the poor guy looked dejected. It just made me sad. Later, during this same trip to the store, I had a woman yell at me when I tried to reach beside her to get my husbands blue Jello. Blue Jello people. This item has no nutritional value whatsoever, but it makes my husband smile. I took a step back as she yelled at me for trying to get something off the shelf while she was looking at it first. She wasn't even looking at the blue Jello, or any of the other rainbow of Jellos. Oh no, she was looking at the Jello pudding. The stores are crazy, people are edgy and I feel feel like the only winners in this whole mess are our pets, because we are all working from home now.

So, this is me, poking my head out to see if it is safe to come out again. I am hoping that we reach a line of normalcy soon. I need to see happy people to put me back in the romantic mindset so I can wrap up this second book. Please don't make me resort to On Demand Hallmark Movies. Let's remember to be kind to others and try not to hoard the toilet paper.

Gettin' twitchy with it

Remember in school when you worked really hard on a project and you were not so patiently waiting for the teacher to come back with your grade? Yup, I was that kid. I was proud of my hard work and wanted that approval in the form of an A. My anxiety levels always kept me moving around in my desk and in general being a pest asking if the grades were done yet. Then when I did get my grade, the world was ending if I got anything lower than a C. I did not take rejection well. Now I stand before you to say loud and proud that I am so much better about all of this. Most of this. Part of this. *Hanging my head in shame* Okay, I still have issues, but being the awesome adult that I am I hide it much better.

I sent my book out to some Beta readers last week. Much like that silly 3rd grader with her project from foam balls, wire and string I am proud of my work. It is not perfect by any means, but that I why we have Beta readers and those lovely editors, who are sometimes scarier than teachers with a red pen. Now it is just the waiting game. Luckily, I am in contact with one of my Beta readers constantly because she is related to me, and I get small words of encouragement here and there as she goes. Am I still fidgety? The answer to that is a resounding YES! I try to fill my time where I can. I am posting on social media more to get my name out there and gain more of a following. I have brainstormed ideas for marketing when the book does release. Meanwhile, my phone battery is dying a quick death from refreshing emails and trying to distract myself. Added into all this is that I passed a phone interview to go to the next round of interviews for a new position in my company. So don't mind me, I have just turned into a twitchy bundle of nerves.

Proudly, I can say I have taken negative feedback much better over the past few years. My current manager has even said that one of my strengths is taking feedback in a positive manner. Let's just ignore the part when I come home and open a tub of ice cream and eat it directly with a spoon. This is a giant leap beyond the tears and tunneling under blankets hoping to hide from rejection. It actually took me being in a manager role and having to give feedback to others to understand it really isn't personal, and you just want the other person to learn from their mistakes. Look at that... personal growth!

This is me patiently waiting. Please disregard my constant leg shaking, clock watching and refreshing of my screens.

Creating a Whole New World

It is said that God created the world in seven days. Well let me tell you that creating a fictional small town take a lot longer than seven days.

At first it started in my mind with my core couple. I knew I wanted the heroine to be new to the small town and to open a bakery. She was going to fall in love with a local hottie who worked with computers. Before I knew it these two characters were becoming individuals with their own voice in my head. I would be sitting in traffic and small pieces of their story would run through my mind. Next thing I knew I had the whole story outlined in less than a week just by taking small notes on an ever-growing pile of Post-Its. I started carrying these notes back and forth to work incase something inspired me, I could write it down and work it out on my next break. It was a disorganized multicolored mess. Imagine your 2 year old being proud of gluing together a bunch of construction papers together and then carrying it around for a month. Here is a tip for everyone: Post-its are great for sticking on walls but not for making impromptu note books.

I had my story but still needed to create the world around them. First, I needed a setting, and then people who lived in this new world. I always knew I would have the central 8 characters to start with, 4 boys and 4 girls. After peeling apart my notes, I got a journal and started my encyclopedia of the town and residents. Naming my characters was like naming a child. I couldn't name them certain names due to real life people I knew. Even if it was a pretty and romantic name, if that person was mean to me in grade school they were not going to have the same name as one of the core heroes. You know the difference between naming your child and a fictional character? Now you have to create a last name too. Easy right? Nope. At one point I was going to name the primary hero Tyler Davidson. I always liked the name Tyler and Davidson just came to me naturally. I was super happy, that is until one day I was watching a sporting event being played in Cincinnati where I grew up. Then there it was in all it's beautiful glory... Fountain Square (for those who don't know it's a big deal there). The name of the fountain is Tyler Davidson Fountain. No wonder I liked it. So, now our swoon worthy hero is now Tyler Ashford.

When I take a look at my little fictional town of Blossom Hills I know it is ever growing in people and size with the more I write. My encyclopedia is now filled with characters names, descriptions, occupations and a couple maps to keep my consistencies in line when describing the town. Here is what I have learned. First, I can't draw maps. Seriously, I know fifth graders who could have done better. Second, remembering the physical descriptions and names of all your characters is nearly impossible. Notes will save your life, especially when you are in the middle of writing a great chapter and can't remember what eye color you gave a character earlier. Finally, maybe only other writers can understand this, but sometimes when you write, your characters take on a life of their own and don't do what you originally planned. It is often these moments that shine brightest.

My New Heroes

That's right I have new heroes. Move over Wonder Woman. Step off to the side Thor (but not too far, you are still pretty to look at). I have new heroes who have won my heart. Are you ready for this? Drumroll please.... Welcome to the front of the line Mr. Google and Mr. YouTube. Yes, that is right these are my new heroes. Why do you ask? Pull up a chair and let me tell you.

I consider myself an intelligent person. I am college educated. I can hold good conversation with almost anyone. I can even fix stuff when needed (thanks Mom). However, after trying to work through the steps of self publishing, I was rethinking that intelligence stance. At first I was very confident, too confident. The biggest lesson I had was that you can never self edit too much. Do you think your nearly 200 page word document is ready to be sent to your test readers? Better look again. I watched several YouTube videos from authors who couldn't say enough good things about editing programs such as Grammerly and Prowriting Aid. Being the smart intelligent girl that I am, I figured that I should put my pages through and see how much I missed. Let's just say that it counts your "errors" and all of a sudden I could feel the smack of reality as to just how not ready the book was.

After editing the book to death, and realizing that I am stingy with commas, I was ready to format the book into an eReader version. So, here I was going back to YouTube again. Several videos mentioned the free software called Calibre. I have to say it is very easy to use and provides great options. However, there were things I needed to format in Word before uploading to the new software. They talked about Chapters as headers to create table of contents, headers and footers and page count. Here is where Google became my friend. I found out that I know only a fraction of what Word can do. If I didn't need it for my job, I didn't learn it. By the way, if you are listening out there Microsoft, your help section needs an overhaul. Google kicks your butt.

Now after spending days with my new heroes, I have sent my book out for first line beta reader testing. Now I just need to try and finish book #2. I will not obsess and panic about the feedback from the betas. Okay, I will try not to obsess. I heard Google has some great articles on how to create thick skin, maybe I will go bond with one if my new heroes.

Those Darn Little Bubbles

I always tease my husband that he has no attention span. We could be doing something in the house and then all of a sudden he could jump up and say "Let's go to Walmart". More often than not there is no real reason to go, he just wants to get up and out. If there is a Walmart within a 50 mile radius, I have been there with him. No joke. But it is his crazy ways that make my life interesting and I appreciate him for that (most of the time).

Now when I get in that same mode and I have my mind pulling me in a bunch of different directions I can't stand it. Take today for example. I had to work my "real" job and we were short staffed, so I was busier than normal. This messed with all of these new ideas I woke up with for my books. I got a new scene in my head for the book that I thought I was done with, and then it inspired a new idea for the one I am currently working on. Then while trying to make a quick note for the new ideas, I remembered that I need to do some more research at lunch on Amazon self publishing and IngramSpark. Later, I got another idea for additional questions for my beta readers while trying to simutaneously eat my god awful frozen lunch and reading about who is better for publishing for my first release.

It is as if I have all these incomplete ideas floating around in little bubbles in my mind. They are pretty and probably important, but the problem is that when I try to pop one of them a bunch more pop at the same time and then disappear. Sadly, there were some pretty swoon worthy lines to add to the books, but they were part of the sacrificial pops today. I think those were the ones that popped while I was remembering to pull the steaks out to thaw for dinner. These steaks better be awesome.

Inspiration and Motivation

No one tells you just how hard it can be to go from an inspired idea to reality. One day you wake up with this idea in your head screaming to be let out. This goes for any idea. Got an idea how to perfectly decorate your room? Great, it will take lots of time and energy to find all the pieces to make the room complete. Did you suddenly you decide that you are the next great chef and have the perfect recipe? That means hours in the kitchen modifying your dish that you know is just almost there.

Well folks, let me tell you... waking up one day having eight characters screaming to have their stories told is a little daunting and a whole lot distracting. It started with a notebook that described each character that soon turned into a town map and encyclopedia of secondary characters. I began writing like a woman possessed. I just wanted to get the story on paper. Artists will often tell you that the canvas will tell you what it wants to be, whether you are painting or sculpting. The more I kept writing these characters and giving them life, the more they didn't do what I originally intended. They took on a life of their own. One primary example is that the couple that I thought would be the next story (Ariel and Kyle) ended up being the third story because the other couple (Dixie and Chase) were forcing their way to the front while writing the first book.

After I wrote Tyler and Zoey's story I had to research what all is involved in self publishing on different platforms. What did I learn? I knew nothing. Absolutely nothing. My motivation level to complete and publish the book got to a new low. I had to read, watch informational videos and revisit my work several times to move forward with a positive attitude all while still working my "regular" job. Now I am here planning to share with you (whoever your are) my growing pains and hopefully some triumphs until release day.

Here's to finding the motivation to keep going to make my inspiration a reality.

Kate