Lauralynn Elliott's Blog, page 70
January 23, 2011
ROW80 Check In Jan. 23
I don't have a lot to report. I didn't write anything Thursday because, well, I just didn't want to. I went out of town on Friday, but I did get most of my words in Friday night in the hotel room. I didn't get to write yesterday because I was working a booth for the company I work for in Hickory, NC all day, then we were on the road until 10:30. I was so sleepy, I couldn't hold my eyes open. I expect to get my words in tonight. I'm still 1,071 words ahead, so I'm okay.
That's all folks!
January 20, 2011
Guardian Vampire Review
Okay, since I was all about ranting and raving and whining yesterday about that insane person who reviewed my book without reading it, I thought I would post about something positive today. Actually, I found out about this yesterday before the craziness happened, but all that mess put a damper on things for me. But today, I thought I would share a link to a good review that made me very happy.
January 19, 2011
Fighting MAD!
The following is a one star review I got which I consider slander to my character:
just so we're clear, i didn't bother buying this book simply because of the short excerpt from he book i read before i bought it. ok the vampires name is logan steel, sounds sexy enough,with one problem- the charactors name was taken from another book!! this book was published after a book that i have already read. this same charactor was in the book "biting nixie" to a "t" so to speak. all the way down to the detail of the charactor. if you're going to write a book and steal ( no pun intended) a charactor from another, at least change them a bit to reflect your own personal interest in the charactor.
and to boot not only was he in a different book, but another book from mary hughes was based solely on his charactor in another biting romance novel. i'm utterly disappointed in peoples lack of imagination in creating their own work.
again i say that i haven't bought this book, nor do i intend on doing so simply because of the lack of imagination put into this book. however if you are someone who enjoys a well thought out storyline and charactors i would refer you to mary hughes biting love series. especially "biting nixie".
I usually don't answer bad reviews, but no one calls my character into question without a rebuttal:
Just for the record… I have never read nor heard of another book with a character named Logan Steele. I would NEVER steal anything from someone else's book. That's deplorable and I just don't do it! If you read a book and don't like it, and it deserves a one star review, then so be it. But it is mean and nasty to assume a character was stolen, and give a one star review, without even contacting an author to see if…wow…you might be wrong. I hope you reconsider and change your review since you have accused me unjustly and that's neither fair nor morally right. If your conscience can allow you to let it stand…then that's something you'll have to live with. My conscience is clear.
ROW80 Check In Jan. 19
It seems like this past week has been a combination of "I can't wait to get this scene that's in my head written in my book!" and "Do I really have to write today?" On one of the days with the former attitude, I wrote about 1200 words. On the latter…I have to push to get the 500, usually ending up with a little over 600 if I'm lucky. But, as of now, I think I'm a little over 2,000 words over my cumulative goal. I don't have an exact figure because I'm at work right now, but I know I'm ahead enough to feel comfortable about it.
I think the challenge is going to be getting the scary scenes scary enough. If I can't, this may end up being a paranormal romance or thriller rather than horror. And I can live with that.
January 16, 2011
ROW80 Check In Jan. 16
I'm not feeling very "wordy" today, so I'll just be brief. I took off from writing on Thurs. (can't even remember why, but there was something) and yesterday (because it was my birthday). But I'm still ahead on my cumultive word count by 708 words because I usually writing more than my goal of 500 per day. I don't take any days off unless I'm ahead enough on my word count to make up for it.
I haven't written anything today, but I had a brainstorm about a scene while I was getting ready for church this morning. So I expect to write more than 500 today.
Hope everyone else is doing well!
January 13, 2011
New Releases in Vampire Romance
My friend Anya got an email from Amazon telling about new releases in Vampire Romance. I got it, too, but didn't read it. LOL. Anyway, she scrolled through the pages and found Guardian Vampire on page 5. So the question is…do people look that far? Do they scroll through that many pages, or do they stop at the first couple? I'm a scroller because I don't want to miss anything. But people are kind of impatient these days. So are they too impatient to browse a lot?
Just a side note concerning the bad Amazon review I got the other day. Since that day, my rank has been steadily declining. It may be that bad reviews mean more than I thought. I'm still at 900, but I had gotten up to 563. Or maybe it had just run its course.
Another word concerning ratings and reviews. B & N gives people the ability to just rate something without having to review or without letting anyone know who they are. I think this is making people more likely to rate, since they don't have to actually think or write down anything. Because I have 3 reviews on Amazon for GV, but on B & N I have 26 ratings (4 of which are reviews). I don't know if this is good or bad for authors, but it definitely makes it easier for readers to give an opinion…just click a star.
January 12, 2011
ROW80 Check In – Jan. 12
I'm finally getting around to posting my check in after battling a migraine, then working on an editing job I have right now. So I haven't had time to write my 500 words yet tonight. But I'm going to.
As of yesterday, though, I'm 1,685 words over my culmultive goal. Hey, I can take three days off! LOL. But, of course, I won't. It's nice to have that cushion, though, in case something goes wrong. And I probably won't write anything Saturday because it's my birthday. 
So, yeah, I'm on track.
I hope everyone else is doing great!
January 11, 2011
Barnes and Noble
Barnes and Noble's PubIt is still wonky. Today I looked and December sales are STILL trickling in. And now the Jan 1-6 sales are starting to grow. But I'm still not showing ANY sales after that. I know that's not right because I got up to #145 in rank on B & N. This is all so frustrating. I know others are frustrated, too, judging by what I'm seeing on the forums. But I want to know what my sales really are! Waaaaaaaa! Okay, end of crying.
January 10, 2011
Snow Day, Bad Review, and ROW80 Authors
Today, I'm snowed in. The company I work for even closed because, in the south, eight inches of snow shuts everything down. I was planning on working from home, but apparently my work computer is turned off. Maybe a power outage. So I don't get paid today. 
So I'll try to be constructive in other ways. You know, like writing.
Guardian Vampire got a bad review on Amazon. It wasn't just bad, it was a TERRIBLE review. Probably the worst I've ever had, even though I felt like Guardian Vampire was so much better than anything I had done in the past. I could tell that one of the things the reviewer didn't like was that there wasn't any sex in it. Because she said that nothing happened even though you kept thinking something was going to. This time, I didn't get that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. So I think I've finally learned to not let these reviews bother me.
I was thinking…one of the cool things about ROW80 is that it's going to produce a bunch of good reading material for me when it's all published. And that's always a good thing! :0) Because I'm definitely going to check out the ROW80 authors' books.
January 9, 2011
ROW80 Check In – Jan. 9
I'm still doing fine. My goal is 500 words per day, which for me isn't necessarily that I have to write that many a day, but that I average that. I took a day off on Friday because I was 996 words ahead of goal, and I got in late that night. Then on Saturday I wrote 1187 words, so I'm back to 1183 words ahead of goal. I haven't done my writing for today, but I see no problems with that. I think I know what's going to happen next.
Oh how I wish I didn't work a full time job!
