Lauralynn Elliott's Blog, page 62

The Boyle Brothers

I arrived at the Nashville airport early for my trip to Chicago, so I stopped at a restaurant called Tootsie's in the airport. I was blown away by the live music playing there. There was this band of VERY young guys called The Boyle Brothers. They were so good at such a young age that it actually brought tears to my eyes. Great harmony! I ended up buying two of their CDs, one for me and one for a friend. The CD is good, but these guys are so much better live. It may just be the whole experience of seeing them while listening, but they are just awesome.

I'm sure these guys are indie musicians. I don't know where they got their CDs made or anything, but there's no record label on the CD. I was thinking, the whole time I was listening to them, that indies need to help each other whether it's books, music, or whatever. That's why I bought two CD's.

ROW80 Quick Check In 8/14/11

I just wanted to pop in quickly and say hi to everyone. Right after church, I'm heading for the airport and on to Chicago for a few days.

There's really not much to report. After I finished my novella, which is the second in a series, I sent it off to the first beta reader…the one I always send to before it's been proofed. LOL. Anyway, I'm not doing any editing yet because she's printed it out and has marked some things. I figured I might as well proof from that same printed copy.

I'll try to touch base with everyone from my hotel room Sunday night. Hope everyone is doing well!

Haunted Lake – In Print

I submitted my files to CreateSpace just a few days ago. Yesterday, I got the proof copy back. They are so quick! They were the same way when I did a print book for Jonathan Eli. I was very pleased with the way the book looked. The cover that Anya and I agonized over looked fine. So Haunted Lake is now available in the CreateSpace Store and will be available at Amazon in just a few days. Squee!

ROW80 Check In 8/10/11 – I'm Finished!

At 10:40 PM Tuesday, August 9, I finished the second novella in the Libby Fox series. I finished almost 10,000 words ahead of where I was supposed to be at this point. I wrote 2800 words tonight, which is a first for me since starting ROW80. That may not be a lot of words for some of you, but it's a lot for me. My hands hurt, my butt hurts from sitting…but my heart is light.

I agonized a little over the ending. It's probably going to make a few readers mad, but it will also make them want to read the final novella if they want to finish the story. (I still think it could be read as a stand alone story.) And I did put at the end to watch for the next novella in December. Yeah, I know it's not a good idea to mentioned a release date, but unless something really bad happens, I should be able to do it. I wasn't sure whether or not to end it the way I did, but in the end, I had to do what felt right. I was in Libby's head so deeply that I had to write what she wanted me to.

So now what do I do? Of course there will be editing, but I also should be able to work on my short story that I started. And I'm also getting Starfane ready for print. But top priority will be editing right now. Wow…I can't believe I'm done.

ROW80 Check In 8/7/11

I can see the finish line! As of Friday, I was 9163 words ahead of my goal. I took off from writing yesterday to do some power shopping with a friend (I was gone 11 hours!), and it was a much needed break. As of yesterday, then, I was 8663 ahead of my goal. And this is the cool thing. I only have a chapter or two left to go on my novella. Because of the writing pace I'm setting, I'm getting done a lot more quickly than I thought I would. That means I have more time for editing and getting this work out before round four starts. I may even have time to work on my short story.

And that's another thing I found out about myself. One of my goals for this round was to work on my short story in between times of working on my main project. But I found out that I can't work on two writing projects at the same time. Not actual writing. I can write one story and edit another. Or I can write one story and format another for print or E. But I just can't focus on writing two stories at the same time. It's too distracting, and I feel like it dilutes one or the other.

I may take one more day off from writing before writing those final scenes. I need to let things stew a little and think about what I really want to do. I know there's going to be a pretty intense love scene (not necessarily a SEX scene) close to the end. I've got to figure out how I can end this novella satisfactorily and still leave it open for the final book in the trilogy. We shall see.

CreateSpace/Haunted Lake

Today I submitted Haunted Lake to CreateSpace for a print version. I'm really nervous, and I think my cover designer, Anya Kelleye, is nervous, too. The cover is going to be iffy. I love it, but sometimes there's an issue with color on this particular cover. And it looks different on the computer screen than it does when I print it out on our color laser here at work. Also, I hope all the errors in the interior have been fixed. When Anya and I did the print version for Jonathan Eli's book, The Last Cabbandeum, we were delighted at how it turned out. Her cover was perfect. The interior I did looked great. So, hopefully, we did okay on this one. If not, we can always redo it and order another proof. It costs more to do that, but it has to be right.

After this, I'm going to work on getting Starfane in print. Then, I'm going to do a three novella set in one book with Club Blood, See Me, and Guardian Vampire. I may have said this before, but I joked about calling it "Loving the Dead and the Undead". :0)

ROW80 Check In 8/3/11 + Frustration

No, my frustration isn't actually with my ROW80 goals. I'm 7864 words ahead of my goal on my current WIP. And I have Haunted Lake ready for print. All is good on that front.

This is my frustration. I never wanted to write a series. I was doing perfectly fine writing stand alone books. But then some readers emailed me and asked me for a series. So I thought I would try one. I released Dark Relic: Vampires' Curse in June. I'm currently working on the second novella of the Libby Fox series. Here's the problem…Dark Relic isn't selling worth a crap. (See, I'm frustrated, because I never use that word in my blog.) Every one of my previous books is outselling it. I thought the whole purpose of making sure you're constantly putting new material out there is to keep your sales up, and get people to also buy your backlist. But my backlist is what's selling. No matter what I do, Guardian Vampire continues to be my best seller. What is it about that book that sells? Although, maybe I need to think about something else. Hmmm. Haunted Lake is now keeping up with Guardian Vampire. And that book took seven months to really start selling. So maybe it's going to take time. I just don't know. I think Dark Relic has a better cover than Guardian Vampire. Is it the title? Am I just being impatient? Grrrrr.

I Bought a Bicycle!

I've been trying my best to get back into exercising and eating right. It's hard to believe that I actually still have size 6 jeans hanging in my closet. Actually I have 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16…. It's time to get serious about this. I have a treadmill, Bowflex, Wii, and free weights. I have no excuse. I have a friend who likes to be outdoors and we used to go walking a lot, but I get really bored with just walking, though.

A few weeks ago, my friend and her husband bought bicycles. Then they went on a trip to Virginia to the Virginia Creeper Trail to ride bikes. She had a blast. Although, she did have a couple of bicycle wrecks, LOL. Anyway, she's been after me to buy a bike so we could ride together. I finally did it Saturday. We went to a sporting goods store and I bought a Diamondback Serene Classic Comfort Bicycle. Yeah, a comfort bike…because it's all about the seat for me. Anyway, I'm excited to get started. If only it wasn't so stinkin' hot right now! Heat indexes close to 100 are not fun. Wish me luck!

ROW80 Check In 7/31/11

As of last night, I was 6522 words ahead of my cumulative goal. I feel like my story is slowing down a bit, but I think it will pick back up.

Also, one of the goals I didn't state at the beginning is that I'm working to get my novel, Haunted Lake, in print. I'm in the process of proofreading it one last time. I have it printed out in the format in which it will go to CreateSpace, so I'll be able to see any formatting errors, too. I'm over halfway through that read. And, I'll have to say, I'm really enjoying reading it. I think it's still my favorite of all the books I've written.

How's everyone else?

Vampire Eye Candy

My favorite vampire – Mick St. John played by Alex O'Loughlin on the series "Moonlight".