Brandy Hunt's Blog, page 3

State of the writing

Not much going on with the writing.  More editing has been done on everything but Promise Kept, but nothing has been finished.  I should be getting the edits on Promise Kept this weekend.  Hopefully, I'll have everything finished by the end of August.

A riff on a review of A Walk in the Snark by Rachel Thompson

First, you may want to read the review I gave A Walk in the Snark over at Goodreads.com.  I'll wait; go ahead.

Now why did I come over here to talk even more about the review?  It sounds like a really good review, and I went into exactly the amount of detail I wanted to go into there, but I left a few things out, mainly because I am not your usual woman.

Not that I'm transgendered.  I just don't understand shoes, purses, and make up.  Oh, I can match a pair of shoes to a purse, and I can apply make up — you don't graduate from a Southern high school without someone showing you how to do that if your mama hasn't beaten them to it.  I just don't understand the attraction of owning more clothes than you can wear in a week or more shoes that you can wear, as in more than one pair.

But does that mean I can't find the funny in Mrs. Thompson's OC life?  No, I found the book to be quite funny.  Not really funny hahahaha – more funny smile and tell my husband I've found his people.  But that is all I need to be able to enjoy the book.  It is a different look at a different life despite the similarities.

I don't need to live like Mrs. Thompson to empathize and realize that D. has impacted her entire life.  Most women have a man somewhere in their past who effects every choice they make whether they realize it or not.  I can pick out the similarities (after school jobs to save for college, possessive and jealous boyfriend, finally meeting a sane and sensible man, family life) and stand back and view Orange County life from her POV and say, mighty fine, but I prefer my farm life, thanks.

So yeah, I don't understand why people either loved or hated the book according to the reviews on amazon.com.  Couldn't you just like it a lot somewhere in the middle, or does that make me even more unusual?

At this point, though I need to wrap this up.  It is very early in the morning, and I only have an hour before my kid wakes up.  Time for a wee bit of pucker vodka and nice, long bath in the blessed quiet.

State of the Writing

Sorry that this post is a day late.  I've been really busy with family stuff, so not much has gone on.  I have a lot of notes on paper copies of stories — edits I need to enter into the computer basically.  I'm still working on the sequel to Promise Kept, but that is about to be tabled along with other edits.

The new cover to Promise Kept has been picked out.  My wonderful friend who has been working on proofreading my work should be done this weekend.  If nothing goes FUBAR between now and the end of August, I hope to reissue (?) Promise Kept no later than September 1st.

Woot!!

State of the writing

So I managed to get another chapter of the sequel to Promise Kept looked over.  I also got part of another project started.  I'm currently rereading a cute little novella (maybe) that I think will do well if I can fine tune it.  It is mostly in the first person which is a first for me.

Other than that, still waiting on the edits from the friend who is editing Promise Kept for me.  I'm also waiting to hear back from the cover artist I was talking to.  Hopefully, everything will start to come together so I can get Promise Kept rereleased as soon as possible.

"Flames on my face"

For those that don't recognize the title of this post, shame on you.  Go rent (can you still do that?) the movie Clue and soak up some cult culture.

So I ran across this blog entry in my Twitter stream this morning — Ten Simple Things for Becoming Rich-Rich-Rich in Self Publishing — and said hey, you never stop learning right?  And I knew there was a fifty percent chance it was going to be something like what it was.  Basically, it whips together every stereotype in self publishing into an easy to access list.

Now, I'm not the person to be talking about how I really messed up with Promise Kept.  I really did need a copy editor/proofreader even though I thought I had caught all the problems.  Idiocy is something I have no problem embracing.  I should have gotten a better cover, and I've even been told the title is just all wrong.

However, it is not the post itself that had me in flames, but the comments.  Not that there are many at the moment.  I thought about commenting, but when everyone is patting each on the back for being better than those self publishing jerks who are bringing down the quality of books by self publishing trash, I thought it might be better to come over here and just rant for a moment.

There are lots of reasons for people to self publish, so I'm not going to go into all of them.  We know why we do it, let's say that.  I'm tired of people pretending we do it because our novels are too horrible to be published by the mainstream.  I don't think that is what happened to Amanda Hocking, do you?

Tagged: rant

Doodling by Jonathan Gould

It is short.  So short that I can't say much without spoiling it, which is why my review on the various sites wasn't very forthcoming.

I think we all have had the sensation of not being able to catch up, of being disastrously behind, and of eventually kind of spiralling into a place where we just don't care anymore.  Doodling is kind of about that, but it's also about why you have to find a balance between work and worry.

So yeah, it is short, and I liked it.

Book reviews are strange things

Book reviews can make or break a book.  This, of course, made me feel strange and upset when I finished Splintered:  Sierra's Legacy by Leslie Wright.  Leslie is a book review blogger who asked me to read and review her book.  I certainly didn't mind.  She had done the same for me and published it on her blog.

The problem was that I liked the plot of her book better than her novel.  Leslie's writing style is more in line with the epic fantasy style of Richard Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and I don't really like those kinds of novels.

I had no idea what the protocol was, so I emailed her and explained.  And she came back with — I understand; write an honest review, which I did, giving 3 out of 5 stars and a recommendation that if you liked Richard Jordan, I thought you would like Splintered.

I still feel weird about it, especially since I got my lowest review yet over the weekend.  Someone finally slammed me on the mistakes in Promise Kept.  I messaged him through Goodreads.com to thank him.  I know that sounds weird, but I want to know what is wrong with my writing, so I can fix it, and I've been kind of waiting on him.  Hopefully, he'll be the last once I get the edits on Promise Kept.

 

State of the Writing

So, another Friday.  Editing on Promise Kept's sequel still moves very slowly.  I just can't seem to get into the swing of it.  In other news, I should be getting the feedback from my proofreader and perhaps that new cover art.  Once that is together, then I'll be promoting Promise Kept big time, I think.

Not much else to report, except I'm going to start trying to write something new.  I won't be doing Camp Nanowrimo, but I do want to do something new.  I feel locked into a rut, and I really need to jump the track.

A review for Dollars & Sense: The Definitive Guide to Self-publishing Success

I may have published Promise Kept at the end of January 2011, but I wish I had a copy of this book the September before.  Really, this book is full of not just good advice, but proven advice from women who have blazed the trail and want to share their experience.

The authors, Amber Scott, Carolyn McCray, Rachel Thompson, are all outstanding writers who bring their individual expertise to the book.  Each writer had a section, and each section rocked my world!  I'm already in the middle of a huge edit of Promise Kept and getting professional cover art, but I had no idea what branding is, or how to use Twitter in other way than to kind of talk to people.  And ad campaigns?  I did not even know where to begin.  Now, well, maybe eventually.

So, I'm going to go and get a "real" copy (the ARC is nice, but kind of hard on the eyes) and sit down with a notebook and pencil.  Because one look through is not enough to learn everything, and this time I'm going to take notes.

You can also get a copy for $0.99 at amazon.com.  Each author is also putting forward a bestselling novel at $0.99 as part of the Bestseller for a day promotion being held for this book at Indie Book Collective.  You can also go to www.bestsellerforaday.com and submit your confirmation number in the sidebar and be registered to win a kindle.

Update on Promise Kept's revision and new cover art and To do list

So, I am still waiting to hear from my editor.  She is like the finest mill, grinding slow but exceedingly fine.  I expect to get something from her any day.  However, the search for cover art may be at an end.  Adjustments need to be made, but the person I've contacted seems very reasonable and is a wonderful artist.

Now here is the big update.  Promise Kept was never meant to be a standalone book, in fact, it is the first in a trilogy.  I am something of a slow writer, so I wanted to keep that under wraps, but the new book cover needs space for the name of the trilogy and well, it seems stupid of me to keep this secret.

Promise Kept is the first book in a series I'm calling To Return to Mankind.  I'm going to go ahead and put the next book on my writing to do list, then start really digging in and getting stuff finished.