Kimberly Dean's Blog, page 36

Get a Free Download of LEXIE

Samhain had a great signing event at the RWA National Conference.  I was giving away free downloads of LEXIE and guess what?  I have a few left.

Want one?  I’ll give them away to the next 10 people who sign up for my newsletter.

Already a member of my mailing list?  Don’t worry.  10 more names will be picked at random.

Act fast.  These copies will be gone in a hurry.

 

Inspired

I went to the RWA National Conference last week in Atlanta.  It’s always such an exciting, exhausting, educational, and fun time.  I learned so much my hand got tired from taking notes.  There were a lot of sessions about independent publishing.  It’s so exciting to see what’s happening in the field of publishing these days.  There are so many avenues authors can take now in their careers.  Yes, I will be pursuing more indie publishing opportunities, but I also plan to continue the great relationships I have with my publishers.  I think indie publishing is a cool way to get those one-of-a-kind stories out there.

Yes, I’m talking the Dream Wreaker series, but I have some contracted work I need to concentrate on first. 

The national conference is also a great place to get caught up with friends and make new ones.  Writing can be a lonely occupation.  Authors tend to sit in home offices for hours upon a time.  We form bonds with others who do the same.  We email and text each other, but there’s nothing like sitting down and having lunch together.  Or in my case, fried pickles!  Who knew it was such a delicacy?  Yummy.

So now I’ve returned to the daily grind, but I’m inspired again to write and do all the other things that authors do.  It will be interesting to see what new tips and tricks work for me.

 

Plotting as a Puzzle

I’m currently working on edits to an upcoming story.  My editor asked for some changes and as I’m working on this, I can see how I can address some issues by moving scenes around.  It’s like an elaborate puzzle in my head.  Everything has to fit.  How can you move chunks of a story around and have it still make sense?  It’s like taking the puzzle shapes and modifying them a bit to make them fit somewhere else.  I might have to add something here and remove something there, but that’s fun to me.  I consider it a challenge and if it will improve the story, I’m more than willing to go in there to cut and shape and pad.  Usually, the problems are there because the story was out of order in the first place.  Sometimes, scenes don’t fit at all and need to be cut entirely.  That’s when you, the reader, get those extra “deleted scenes” that you love so much.  Perhaps I’ll have some of those when this whole process is through.  It’s a puzzle piece that just doesn’t fit, no matter how much you want it to.

It’s all about perspective.  Sometimes as a writer, you’re looking so closely at each puzzle piece or scene, you forget that the reader is focusing on the story as a whole.  The pieces not only have to fit, they must make that picture as pretty as can be.

Win a print copy of LEXIE

I received my author copies of LEXIE today.  They’re so pretty!  Book 1 of the Triple X series doesn’t go on sale until September 3, but I’ll be having a contest for subscribers to my newsletter.  Win, and you’ll get a signed copy.  Sign up for the newsletter here.  More information will be coming in the edition I plan to send out (on or about) June 30.

Wearing Different Hats

I finally got around to cleaning up all the stuff I collected at the RT convention last month.  I know it’s been a while, but I was on a writing deadline so it sat in a heap in the corner until I had time.  It’s amazing all the swag one collects at these things.  There’s pens and pencils, post-it notes, key chains, card decks, and all kinds of postcards, bookplates, and little booklets.  Plus bags.  Lots and lots of bags.  For some reason, though, authors seem to also collect a lot of hats.

I don’t know why this is.  I look terrible in hats, and they always give me hat hair.  They probably give us hats to make us easy to spot in a room, but it got me thinking about other reasons.  Authors do tend to put on different hats as they’re writing characters.  We have to learn about occupations from cowboys to policemen to soldiers.  I don’t think any of my characters so far would wear the hats in the picture, though…

These days authors have to wear different hats for their own job, too.  Not only do we have to hone our writing craft, we now also have to become skilled marketers, public speakers, web site developers, and even publishers.  Whether you’re writing with a large publishing house or doing the indie pubbed thing, authors are expected to do more than ever before.  It can be exciting to wear the different hats and assume more control over one’s career.  It can also be overwhelming.

So yeah, the more that I think about it, the more appropriate the hats are.  But I haven’t received the one that most aptly portrays the writing field yet — a hardhat.

 

Private Dancer finals

Great news!  Private Dancer is a finalist in the contemporary category of the Passionate Plume contest held by the Passionate Ink chapter of the Romance Writers Association.  Winners will be announced at the RWA National Conference in Atlanta in July.

Mailing List

I’ve decided to start a newsletter, since I’ve got so much going on this year.  If you’d like to receive a copy, hop on over to the Mailing List page and fill out the short form.  You’ll receive the quarterly newsletter, emails about upcoming releases, exclusive excerpts from upcoming books, and other fun information.  This won’t be a high volume list, but if you sign up, expect to find something occasionally in your in-box.

Excerpt from Maxie

Maxie, Book 2 in the Triple X series will be releasing on August 20.  Hard to believe, but that’s not so far away.  I’ve posted an excerpt from the book for you.  Just click the link shown below.

Maxie

Genre:  Contemporary romance

Release:  August 20, 2013

ISBN 9781619217331

It’s just pretend…but nobody wants to stop.

Maxie’s quiet, predictable routine is shattered when she steps outside her flower shop and almost runs into two women. It’s not the near collision that’s startling. It’s the strangers’ faces. It’s like looking in a mirror times two, and it sends her into a dead faint.

Sheriff Zac Ford sees three identical copies of the woman who’s caused him more sleepless nights than he can count, and it stops him in his tracks. Maxie’s buckling knees snap him out of his trance, and he catches her before she hits the cement.

Two sisters she never knew she had? Maxie can’t deal with this turmoil, not on her own. She needs a shield, a rock. For the first time in her life, she takes a wild leap of faith.

When Maxie calls him her boyfriend, Zac has no trouble playing along. It’ll give him time to figure out what these “sisters” want. Soon, though, for-show kisses get hotter and playacting touches grow bold. And Maxie must choose to stay in her safe little world, or grab life by the horns.

Maxie excerpt

Pre-order ebook   Kindle │ Nook  │ iBook │ Kobo

Summer Fun Scavenger Hunt 2013

I’ll be participating in Night Owl Reviews Summer Fun Scavenger Hunt.  If you haven’t participated in this before, it’s a lot of fun.  You can find a lot of exciting new authors and win great prizes.  I’ll be giving away a set of 3 Czech crystal braces to celebrate the release of Maxie.  Entry opens June 15.

Down time

I spent most of the month of May working hard towards a deadline.  When I’m in that frame of mind, everything else gets pushed into the background.  The house goes uncleaned, chores go undone, and I disappear from the radar of all my friends and family.  It’s self-imposed isolation, and I suppose it’s good for the story.  When that deadline passes and the story is put to rest, though, it’s time to re-enter the real world.  It feels a bit strange to be excited about paying bills and weeding the flower garden, but that’s where I am right now.  I have so many things I want to do that don’t involve sitting in front of a keyboard.  This down time is important for recharging batteries and getting the creativity brewing again.

However this, too, shall pass.  Soon, the urge to write will return and I’ll be moving back into the planning stages for my next project.  I will tell you that I already know what my next project will be, but I wouldn’t actually consider it new.  It’s more of an old project that I’ll be picking up again.

Yes, for all of you who’ve asked, I’m going back to the Dream Wreakers.