Brandy Hunt's Blog, page 5

State of the writing

Not much in the way of writing or editing has gone on this week.  Mostly because I've been way to busy trying to promote myself.  I'm currently at the top of Smashwords.com's bestseller's lists for both Fantasy — General and Science Fiction — General.  However, Kindle sales are abysmal.  I've sold a few copies on Kindle, but not in a couple of months.

What does this mean?  I spend a lot of time plotting and planning, and because of the last few reviews that have come out, my thought processes are tumbling.  I may have found a good but cheap way of getting a proofreading for Promise Kept.  I also have found my own missteps in the last couple of chapters that should at least explain a few things.

So again, what does that mean?  It means, that if things go well, a second edition of Promise Kept will be offered before the end of the year.  I'm not sure if I'm going to keep Promise Kept out there yet, or if I'll keep it up.  I know that customers will be able to download the second edition without any problem through Smashwords, and I'm sure it will be just the same through any outlet that keeps track of what books you have bought.

However, it does mean that other things will have to be put on hold.  The zombie short story I'm working on for instance.  The critiques that I got from the last round of people who looked at it were not encouraging.  I really need to work on that quite a bit as well, but I think I'm going to put it aside as something that can wait.  If my plans for Promise Kept work out, then that is going to be the main project for quite some time.

Tagged: promise kept, writing

A couple of new reviews

So yeah, I've gotten a couple of really nice reviews that I've been geeking out about in the last couple of days.  But also biting my nails about.  I've known for awhile that there were problems with Promise Kept, but I was hoping to be able to wait to fix them.

Waiting to fix them is not going to be the best way to go on this, I feel.  I have some feelers out on a couple of copy editing services, especially one that might fix the font problem with the Kindle version I just found out about.

My wishlist at one service was priced over $2000, and that included a nice, new, fancy cover and not having to upload the file on my own.  Right now, I'm trying to find how much it would cost to be practical.  Hopefully, practical is much more within my price range.

Blog Tour over with

But I'm still going to be giving out free copies of my novel for the next day or so.  The Kindle giveaway and the troop giveaway is closed.  Due to the huge response, there is some talk of increasing the number of books donated per comment for those of us with a backlist.  If you want to keep up on that sort of thing, keep going by http://indiebookcollective.wordpress.com .

Blog Tour de Troops — Gratitude, Appreciation and Support

Welcome to Blog Tour de Troops's blog hop to support our soldiers in the field.  Some of you are visiting from Regan Black's blog, and hopefully most of you will be going on to Terri Long's blog to continue today's blog hop.

I first got involved in Operation E-book Drop for one reason.  You see, my father is a member of the retired military, and while he doesn't talk about Vietnam often, I know my father felt the lack of support just as every soldier who returned from that place did.  If offering a soldier my book for free gives them any sort of support, then I wanted to offer it to them.

Taking part of Blog Tour De Troops was a different sort of decision.  While I completely agree with supporting our troops and providing them with free e-books, my politics are very liberal.  With the death of Osama bin Laden, I would bring home every one of our soldiers if I could.

This doesn't mean I don't feel grateful for each soldier's service.  My gratitude feels small and ugly, because I will never understand the sacrifices these soldiers have endured.  I can say that I appreciate the troops, but really, there is no way of giving those soldiers the proper value on the months and years of service they have given those of us who have stayed safe at home.

So it really comes down to support.  As a writer, all I have is my writing to give, and if I can give a soldier any kind of escape from the war each one is fighting, then maybe I have done my best to support one soldier.

Please remember to include an email address in your comment if you want a coupon code to download a free copy of Promise Kept.  If you want your copy sent to a soldier, that's doable, just let me know the name of the person I'm sending it to along with their address.  If you would like to check out a review before commenting, please check out Leslie Wright's review or my sponsor's review at Motherlode.  And don't forget to visit Terri Long's blog for another free e-book.

Tagged: blog tour, support our troops

State of the writing

And why am I up so early?  Because my brain is insomniated.  That sounded better in my head, so I'm going to let it ride.

In other news, I managed to edit a chapter or two in the last week.  I'm still kind of working on that zombie story.  I currently have houseguests, and one of them is ill.  So, the time, it does fly right away from one.

However, Evangeline has been talking to me again, if you can call it that.  Evangeline is still mostly a secret, but I think it maybe time to start her story.  It's going to be a wild ride.  I don't know if my small square brain will be able to handle writing her and editing Promise Kept's sequel, which no longer has a working title, because most of them feel strangely like gay romance titles.  Which it is kind of, just none of them feel right.

Tagged: writing

State of the writing

The state of the writing is not going quite so well.  I'm currently experiencing just a bit of writer's block as far as my To Mr. Republican, Sir series is going.  Mostly because I can't decide where I want to go next.  On that front, I'm spoiled for choice.

As for editing.  I managed to get two more chapters on Promise Kept's sequel done.  I also got some interesting critiques back on that zombie short story I was working on.  I think I'll probably end up working on that just a bit this evening or weekend, then putting it aside for a bit.  I think I need some distance to make some hard decisions if I can't pull it together for this pass.

Depending on how things work out, I think I'm either going to start work editing on another project at the end of the month or try writing something new just to kind of keep it flowing.  I feel like I've worked myself into a corner with all this editing.  I know it needs to be done, and I need to keep working on it to get it done, but there comes a point when you have to admit when something isn't working and move on.

In other news, you may have noticed the images in the sidebar.  These images actually have links.  Yes, I will be doing a blog tour for Memorial Day weekend.  I'm not exactly sure which day it will be, but commenters will get free ebooks and will be entered to win a free Kindle.  There will also be free ebooks going out to the troops, along with a care package of some sort.  And a soldier will also win a Kindle.  As soon as I get a date, I will be sure to let everyone know.

So that is the current state of the writing.

State of the Writing

I guess this should be titled State of the Editing, or maybe the State of Fucking NOTHING.

I haven't gotten much done this last week aside from get this site up and running.  Not exactly a bad thing, but aside from work on some of my short stories, I'm kind of stalled on editing the sequel to Promise Kept.  Not exactly where I want to be, especially since there is talk of another Nanowrimo this summer.  They are going to call it Camp Nanowrimo.

I don't want to put that sequel to the side.  I do have a novel that I wanted to work on this summer, so Camp Nanowrimo would really work for me.  I just don't know if I have it in me to edit on one project and write on another.

I guess we'll see.