Robin Jeffrey's Blog, page 3

The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Lonely is the Night – I… I did it… and yet… I didn’t do it. I hit my word count goal for this draft (78k, lest we forget) and I was over the moon, folks. Truly, it feels amazing to have gotten this far with this draft. But. But but but. THE DRAFT STILL ISN’T DONE. *cue sobbing* Now, I’ve always said, the first draft of a book is as long as it needs to be. But damn, I am ready for this book to be DONE. So close and yet so far! I will get it done this week though. I estimate I have another four to six thousand words to get down. Very doable in seven days!

Overall, I am so very impressed with myself. I thought there was no way I was going to hit the 78k word count goal by the end of my writing retreat – but I did!! I worked my butt off and got there and I feel so accomplished and proud. Of course, there’s that little part of me that’s complaining and trying to downplay what I did by harping on the fact that the draft still isn’t finished, but I’m working hard to ignore that voice and hold my head high. I did it!

LESSON OF THE WEEK: TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR WORK!

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Behind the Scenes Sunday

Video Marketing for Books

Let’s take a peek at the cogs inside the machine and talk about why I write and how I write on Behind the Scenes Sunday! Today I’d like to talk about the power of video marketing when it comes to selling books! What works for me, what hasn’t, and why I feel like this medium works for me as far as “advertising” my work goes.

There are a lot of different ways to market books once they’ve been published. I’ve recently started getting really excited about podcasts and their capabilities as far as reaching new readers and driving sales, for example. And we all know that nothing beats word of mouth buzz about a book. People are just more likely to read a book that’s been recommended to them by someone whose opinion they trust than by a random ad they see on the internet!

But sometimes, those ‘random internet ads’ can help create that word of mouth buzz. Video content can be an especially great way to get your book noticed by readers, get you as an author noticed by the public and just generally build your brand in some powerful and unique ways. I’ve found that creating videos that talk about my experience as a writer works more effectively than specific videos about my books, but you may find differently. Don’t be afraid to try different things and see what hits best for the audience you’re trying to reach!

More than all this, though, I think video marketing is great for me and my books because of one simple, but oh so important fact: I enjoy making video content. So often marketing is an arduous, painful task that authors take up under protest and without any joy. But for me, making video content is at the very least fun! And that counts for a lot. Marketing shouldn’t have to make you miserable. If at all possible, it should be something you like engaging in. I think if you do, that joy comes through in your content and hits your audience as well.

As always, if you’re interested in supporting me and my work, thank you: Hungry is the Night, my urban fantasy, is available on all major platforms, as are my classic murder mysteries with scifi twists, The Cadence Turing Mystery series!

Order Your Copies Now!

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The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Lonely is the Night – 10K more! 10K more! I made crazy good progress last week, just like I hoped I would! Not sure that I’ll be able to finish this draft by the end of my “retreat” – in fact, I’m sure I won’t, but that was always a pie in the sky kind of plan anyway. All that matters is I’ve gotten a helluva lot closer and feel much more confident about saying that I’ll get this bad boy polished off before/by the end of the month!

I’ve really impressed myself this past week. I’ve gone from struggling to writing 500 words a day to writing 2500 words a day multiple days in a row. That’s awesome! And it was hard! And I should give myself credit for that!

I am a chronic self-flagellator, however, and find it almost impossible to cut myself some slack and recognize my own achievements. I seem almost addicted to looking at the negatives, of all the things I didn’t manage to do, and beating myself up for that rather than holding up for praise all the things I did manage to do — and do well.

If you’re the same way, I feel for you. I see you. And consider this your permission slip to pat yourself on the back and celebrate yourself. YOU are incredible. Every day. No matter what didn’t get done, there is so much good that you DID do. Go you.

LESSON OF THE WEEK: CELEBRATE YOURSELF.

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Behind the Scenes Sunday

Sequels

Let’s take a peek at the cogs inside the machine and talk about why I write and how I write on Behind the Scenes Sunday! Today I’d like to talk about the challenge and joy of writing sequels: how to make the process easier and what makes it so much dang fun!

I think there are few things more satisfying for a writer than getting a chance to expand the universe or world you’ve created. Every book, every story I’ve ever written, no matter how short, only ever includes a fraction of what I’ve actually imagined. This is largely by necessity and design – a story needs to flow and move at a certain pace that just doesn’t allow for the author to explain every single detail of what they’ve created. In addition, as a writer you also want your readers to feel free to interpret and interact with the world you’re putting before them. If you explain everything down to the last detail, that doesn’t leave them much to do!

But sequels can be that chance that every writer dreams of – the chance to go back and revisit ideas that had to be cut or abandoned from the first book. They can be given new life in subsequent stories and truly deepen reader engagement with your world.

As fun as it is to go back into the sandbox and play with old toys, it can also be challenging to craft sequel books. That’s because authors have to be very aware of continuity, of keeping details consistent from book to book so they create a world that seems real and that makes sense mechanically. The richer the world, the more sequels an author may write, the harder it gets to keep track of all the details!

This is why I highly recommend starting a Series Bible the moment you think you might have a sequel in mind. Even if you’re still in the weeds with book one, do yourself a favor and start writing down the worldbuilding details that you’ll need to carry over into book two. You will thank yourself later!

As always, if you’re interested in supporting me and my work, thank you: Hungry is the Night, my urban fantasy, is available on all major platforms, as are my classic murder mysteries with scifi twists, The Cadence Turing Mystery series!

Order Your Copies Now!

Join my email list

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

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The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Lonely is the Night – Changed up how I’ve been attacking this draft and the writing came much easier. The problem the past week was I had several events and some life stuff that took precedence over writing time. But! This is the beginning of my two week writing “retreat” across the water in the Seattle area and I have high hopes for the amount of progress I’ll be making on this draft. Let’s see if I can get this sucker finished!Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch… – This story isn’t going away, but I’m going to be focusing pretty exclusive on Lonely over the next two weeks, just because I want to get that draft done so frickin’ badly. I am tired of having it hanging over my head! So I’m almost using Meanwhile as the carrot at the end of a stick. Once I finish Lonely, I get to work on this. Yay!

Writing is hard. It’s about finding the time, and when there’s no time to find, making the time, and then making the best use of that time once you’ve found and/or carved it out for yourself. It’s constantly reevaluating what’s working and what isn’t in your process and fighting your own demons to get words out onto the page. It’s hard. It’s also what I love to do. I’m under no illusion that I have some kind of special power that other people don’t have. I think I’m just more stubborn, more contrary, maybe. It’s easier, more sensible to walk away from the work when it gets hard than to sit and struggle with it. But if you do that, if you walk away — you’ll never get the book written.

LESSON OF THE WEEK: HARD THINGS ARE WORTH DOING.

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The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Lonely is the Night – Not as much progress as I was hoping for on this draft, but progress nonetheless! I’m going to put that down to the fact that I had an event this weekend – and that the event unexpectedly went from 1-day to 2! So I had less writing time than I had anticipated. Soon though, hopefully in the next couple of weeks, this sucker will be finished and I can put it away for a little while!Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch… – Still feeling this new piece out as far as tone and plot. Think I’m going to try and write it in 3rd person, which…well, it’s been a minute since I’ve written a book in 3rd, let me tell you that! So it’s taking some getting used to. Really liking how my main characters are fleshing out though!

Honestly, when I first sat down to write this post, I was really disappointed in myself. In my progress, or lack of progress as I see it. Looking at the numbers, looking how little I’m moving forward in both drafts…well, it felt like a microcosm of my whole writing career right now. I’m trying as hard as I can, I know I’m putting in the work, but I just don’t seem to be making the progress I think I should.

But then I remembered that progress, success, whatever you want to call it, doesn’t happen in a straight line. There’s no direct cause and effect between hard work and results (not in this business). I take pride in my work, whether it results in twenty thousand words or five hundred. I take pride in my trying, in loving recklessly and living passionately. It’s what thirteen-year-old me always dreamed I would grow up and do — and be. And damn, I’m proud of myself. It really is about the journey at least as much as it is the destination. Sometimes I forget that.

LESSON OF THE WEEK: MAKE YOUR THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD SELF PROUD.

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LAST CHANCE! Romance Grab Bag Giveaway!

ROMANCE GRAB BAG GIVEAWAY

June 1st through June 30th

Fill your eReader with a surprise!

Romance Mystery Bag Giveaway

Is your eReader full of tumbleweeds? Do you need something to read but have no idea where to start? Let my mystery box pick for you!

Fifty-One authors teamed up to bring you THIRTY-NINE mystery bags of romance. Alpha heroes, untouchable bosses, sexy vampires, kilted pirates, and more wait to sweep you away. There will be numerous winners!

You get to pick between the three categories that interest you most: Contemporary, Historical, Paranormal

Enter whichever genre is your catnip, or go for all three if you love everything romance.

Do you want a sneak peek hint of which books are available in the bundle? Visit the giveaway page to check them out and enter.

The giveaway is sponsored by these wonderful authors:

Ellen Mint • Tember Sapphire • Cynthia Terelst • V.J. Allison • Jane Maguire • Amber Daulton • Seelie Kay • Jennifer Wilck • Courtney McCaskill • Charlie Lane • Kathleen Ayers • Tanith Davenport • S J Coles • Ella Cooper• Rosanna Leo • Maggie Sims • Sheri-Lynn Marean • Tina Gallagher • K.E. Turner • Will Forrest • M.C. Roth • Maren Jenner • Cass Scotka • Tracy Sumner • Robin Jeffrey • LS Phoenix • Catherine Peace • E. Rose Lynn • Collette Cameron • TJ Finn • Megan Slayer • Kristian Parker • Erin Zarro • Merry Farmer • Amy Craig • Celia Breslin • Aubrey Wynne • Zoe Dawson • Karenna Colcroft • Michelle McCraw • C. J. Burright • Katherine Grant • Andie James • Amber Night • Sandra Carmel • Anna St. CLaire • Andrea Jenelle • Kelley Heckart • N Dune • Cassie O’Brien • January Bain

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The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Lonely is the Night – Continued steady progress forward on this draft! And I’ve just found out that I’m going to have some Retreat-level writing time at the beginning of July (two weeks to do nothing but write – I am so excited!) so I’m more confident than I was before that I can get this draft finished up by the end of next month! Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch… – YES! A new Work-In-Progress has entered the chat! I don’t want to say too much about the project at this stage (it’s super, super new, very baby) but I will say that this particular book concept was birthed out of my lifelong love of westerns and my desire to make them queer and cozy AF. Shout out to my S.O. Phil for developing this plot bunny with me!

Getting back into a more normal writing routine has been…nice doesn’t quite cover it. It’s been exactly what I needed, while at the same time being kind of intimidating and scary. It’s hard to sit down at the computer and write everyday. But it is also enormously satisfying and fun. I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made in Lonely and beyond excited with all the planning I’ve been doing for Meanwhile…. It makes me wish this whole balancing act of business and writing was easier. As it is, I can only hope that with practice and time I’ll get better at it!

LESSON OF THE WEEK: LET YOURSELF BE EXCITED BY NEW THINGS!

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Countdown to Bremerton Bridge Blast!

1719684000

  days

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Bremerton Bridge Blast

In less than a week, I will be attending the Bremerton Bridge Blast as a vendor! The Bremerton Bridge Blast festivities start at 11am today and won’t stop until 10pm tonight. Stop by and see me at the AEN table where I’ll be signing and selling some fantastic fiction just for you!

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The Check-In

Welcome to THE CHECK-IN, where you can get a sneak peek into my writing progress every week! Read on to find out what I’m working on and how things are progressing in my world.

Here’s the breakdown:

Lonely is the Night – What’s this?? Progress?? Minor, incremental, but definitely there progress?? WHAT?! Yes indeed, folks, I got some time to do some actual, honest-to-God writing in the past week and I took advantage of it. I’m going to get this damn draft done, brick by brick, sentence by sentence, if it’s the last thing I ever do. I don’t want to set myself up to eat my own words, but I think (looking forward at what I have on my to-do list this week) that I may get even more writing done in the next seven days. We shall see! But could I get this draft to the 60k mark? It’s possible!

The thing that’s been getting in the way of my writing this week more than anything else hasn’t been lack of time – it’s been fear. I haven’t written more than a few hundred words at a time in such a long time…I worry I can’t do it anymore, you know? That I’ve forgotten how to do it, or lost the spark. I don’t want to fail. But the only way to deal with such fears is to face them head on, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. And will continue to do. I’m a writer – writing is part of the job description, so there’s nothing to it but to do it!

LESSON OF THE WEEK: FACE YOUR FEARS HEAD ON AND DON’T FLINCH!

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