Robin Murphy's Blog, page 13

Positive Thoughts – Needed to Share

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http://positive-thoughts.typepad.com/positive-thoughts/2012/09/15-relationship-truths-for-tough-times.html

Happy Anniversary Baby…14 Years and Counting…

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It was August 30, 1998 and the day was off to an exciting and nervous start. The preparations had been made, family and friends had arrived, and the future showed signs of hope, joy, and unconditional love. Life brings on many changes, some sad, some happy, some bemused, but new beginnings open up a fresh outlook on life.

When I walked down the aisle of the United Church of Christ with my hand laced over my father’s arm and my eyes locked onto the man I was about to marry, all of life stood still. It was a very humid August afternoon and my tightly synched corset pierced my rib cage while my baby blue and silver satin Civil War period dress bobbed and swayed to the heavenly sound of the Wildcat Regiment Band. The ceremony was performed by our local historian, Rev. John Schildt, while songs were sung, vows were exchanged, and loving embraces were traded with words of congratulations by those who had come to stand witness on our blessed day.

The reception took place at our dear friends and neighbors back yard, Sid and Marian Gale, under a massive tent. The food was prepared by none other than, Suzie Nalley, the historically correct cake was made by Edie Wallace, and the flowers, garland, and period vases were handled by The Rooster Vane. It looked and felt as if we had stepped back into 1862, and it couldn’t have been more perfect.

Today I am blessed to have said “I do” to my adoring husband, Bob Murphy, and living in the town where those vows were exchanged. Happy Anniversary baby, I love you. Here’s to a future of new adventures filled with love, health, and happiness.

It’s Time…

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I find it interesting how life teaches us all certain lessons. I never chose to become a writer, I think it chose me. I’ve always been able to tell a detailed story, my Mom used to laugh at how long it took me to get to the point because I had a knack for making the story excruciatingly long. But I couldn’t help it…I just loved the escalade to the final climax. I loved it in books, television shows, and in movies.

My father and I used to try and figure out “who did it”. It used to drive my mother crazy because we usually ended up being right. So it truly seems natural for me to be writing now at this time in my life. I’m vastly approaching one of the “over the hill” numbers and I feel in my heart I’m ready to move on into the next chapter of my life…writing as a career.

But getting back to life’s lessons, I have had many different people come in and out of my life, as everyone does. You begin at a young age being taught to be kind to others, do unto others, never judge others, to turn the other cheek. As we get older life gets more difficult and those lessons are hard to live by. But we try.

I think over the years in my administrative career I’ve been able to gain a lot of knowledge through so many different avenues. I’ve either had amazing managers or co-workers help me to learn about myself and my capabilities. I firmly believe that people are brought in and out of our lives to learn from through challenges or victories. I also believe we are brought into other people’ lives to possibly teach them something, or to encourage them or provide support.

But I have to say I am feeling disheartened lately as I learn more about people. I know there are those out there who choose to do whatever it takes to move ahead without any thought or regard about those they step on. I choose to keep my chin up and refuse to let them steal my joy, but I guess the wind has been knocked out of my sail today. I’m tired of trying to learn the lessons or teach them. I’m ready to move on.

So with that final thought, I am here to proclaim, it’s time. It’s time to get this writing career off to a dramatic start and I’m ready to say good bye to my administrative career. It’s been great to me for it has taught me so many talents and has helped me to move into my writing. It’s my time now, no more reporting to others. I’m tired of the politics and distrust.  The constant looking behind your back.  It will be me making my decisions as to when, where, how, and what. Why do you ask? Well, because I deserve it…and it’s time.

Thanks for listening…and keep on writing.

Heightening My Senses

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My hubby and I decided to go on a picnic and the venue of choice was one of the many Civil War sites close to our home. It was the Reno Monument and the day was picture perfect. We decided to take a walk before our lunch and began our destination on the trail to the NC monument that was sculpted by a friend of ours, Gary Casteel.

We’ve been to this monument before, but it was nice to revisit this historic site and to reflect on the terrain that the soldiers, both Union and Confederate, had to endure throughout the Civil War.

But what I found myself doing as we strolled along the pleasant path was purposely listening to the sounds around us. I had learned in one of my writing courses a technique, known by all writers, of heightening my senses. I was given an exercise to go to a public place, I chose Starbucks, and sit in a corner and people watch.

I learned to watch people’s gestures, inflections of their voices, clothing they wore, how they walked, ate and/or drank. It was a great deal of fun, and I felt a bit like a detective, and it did help me with characterization.

Getting back to my walk…I found myself identifying the many sounds taking place around me all at once. I heard birds singing, cicada’s chirping, leaves rustling in the light breeze, and muffled traffic from a distance down the road. I’m not sure if I ever took notice to the details before I began to write, but it was quite exhilarating. I then began looking at the many colors of wildflowers strewn throughout the wooded areas and how the air smelled fresh and sweet.

I’ve always heard the phrase, “Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses.” I had no idea how true a statement this is, not only for everyday life, but also for my writing. Something I will be sure to continue.

Happy writing…and thanks for listening.

Finally…Back to Writing

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Well, I’ve been away from the most treasured thing I love to do…writing. I have finally finished my second book in my series and sent it out to many…many…count them, many agents and/or publishers…but to no avail.

So, I made a decision…a hard decision, to self-publish.  I have read so many blogs, posts, and comments regarding this process, and it became a little confusing.  But I overcame that publishing stereotype of not being good enough if you self-publish…and did it.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy.  The process was a gigantic learning curve, but I’m thrilled with the product I’ve released. I chose CreateSpace because it was, to me, very user friendly. I found an image on Pixmac for only $7 and used it as my cover. Hint: try to use one full image for the cover instead of many images within an image.  The clarity is much better.

I then downloaded their word template for the book format. I proceeded to copy and paste my book from my original word document into their template.  You do need to understand formatting, but it went rather smooth.  What’s fun during this step is you get to choose your font for your titles, page numbers, etc. Hint: do read the information out in the CreateSpace community, many helpful hints there. I learned which fonts work the best.

CreateSpace gets your ISBN number, no worries there. But the little snag I came across was the process of getting the Library of Congress number, if you choose to do this.  CreateSpace does this for you for $49, and I almost paid for that step.  But, I found out on the internet a great article on how you can do this on your own. (I’ve posted this article on one of my earlier blog posts).  So I went out and tried my hand at it, and low and behold, I got my LCCN# for free, yep that’s right, no fee. Now, it can be a little confusing on making sure you fill the information correctly in their form, but there are librarians out there to chat with, so it’s worth the try if you would like your book to be purchased through a library. Which I’m glad I did, what better way to get exposure than in your local library to do signings, right? Libraries always love to promote local authors. And we authors love our libraries and librarians, right?

Then I uploaded my file to CreateSpace and they do the conversion. They give you the opportunity to review the entire book through their electronic previewer.  You can literally read the entire book there, and if you find any errors, you can go back into your template, make the changes (which always improves your professionalism) and re-upload.

Once your satisfied, you can order a hard copy proof – which I HIGHLY suggest that you do. The cost is minimal (mine was $3.22 a book), this will show you how your cover will look and you can, yet again, read through your book and pick out any mistakes…if any .

Once you’re satisfied, you can go back to CreateSpace online and do the final approval.  They also walk you through the steps as to the cost you want to place for the book, and if you want to extend the sell of your book in Europe, wholesalers, retailers, and the like.  Mind you, I’m being brief here, but you get the jist.

After that process has been taken care of, CreateSpace carries you onto another automated screen to publish to Kindle. Now this was a little more involved for me because I needed to learn how to upload a file for any e-book and there were so many answers to my searches that it blew my mind. But, I did find the universal software to convert my file for e-books. And that my friend, is Calibre.

Calibre can be downloaded for free, and they have a tutorial on how to use it, which wasn’t hard. I needed to take that CreateSpace book template and save it out as an .html file. Then I brought that file into Calibre and walked through their steps and converted it to an .epub file.

Once complete, I was able to upload it to Kindle and B&N Nook, which is another venue I had to create through B&N PubIt, but not hard either. Kindle and Nook walk you through their steps for pricing and give you advice on how to price.  Worth your while to investigate the cost you want to choose for your book.

Then, whalah, it’s out for ebooks. But, as I said earlier, I was away from my writing to complete these tasks, and I did get a bit frustrated and had thoughts of why am I doing this, why hasn’t a publisher answered my prayers, why, why, why.

But, now that I have come out on the other side and my book is out there for sale, I can proudly say, “Yes, I have self-published my book, and I’m damn glad.” No regrets or takesy backsy’s. You still need to have a great product, which in my heart I know I’ve done. And of course, the marketing takes up quite a bit of time, but I continue to ask myself the real purpose for all of this, and my continued answer is, “I love writing and all aspects involved.”

After a little turmoil of getting my book out there…and being a bit of a crank with my hubby, I was able to get back into the flow and find my creative brain muscles…and continued writing for the third book in my series. As always, I was able to slip away into my little world and become reacquainted with my characters.  I missed them, and I think they were a little glad to have me back.

So, keep on writing and thanks for listening.

Wanted to Share POD Secrets Revealed by Writers Weekly – Angela Hoy

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http://writersweekly.com/the_latest_f...

Inflated Copyright and LCCN fees – great insightful article – a must read for self-publishing authors who thought they needed to pay a fee for a Library of Congress Number.

5 Star Review for Secret of the Big Easy – 2nd book in the series

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Rating: 5.0 stars

Reviewed by Brenda C. for Readers Favorite

Dr. Marie Bartek, a veterinarian from Sullivan’s Island SC, is learning to deal with the fact that she can see spirits. She and some of her friends created Sullivan’s Island Paranormal Society called SIPS for short and often investigate haunted places. While in New Orleans for veterinarian conference she and her friends decide to stay an additional week to do some site seeing, and investigate a few haunted places. Their vacation quickly turns into something else when Marie has a vision of a woman being tortured and then murdered. She decides to contact the police to see if there are any missing women in the area, and learns that the woman she saw in her vision has actually been murdered and is at the morgue. When she has another vision similar to the first, except that this time she sees a pentagram in the vision, she again contacts the police and learns that cult activity is heavy in the area, and that the woman in the second vision was murdered as well. Are the killings cult sacrifices, or is something else going on? Will Marie and her friends be able to figure out what is going on?

“Secret of the Big Easy” has plenty going that grabs the reader’s attention and keeps it until the final page. The suspense surrounding the murders that Marie is seeing in her visions is really first rate> Add to that the mystery of why the murders are taking place and you have a first rate story, but that is just the tip of the iceberg with this story, because there is so much more going on. There is the romance going on between Marie and her boyfriend Cory, who just happens to be the police chief of Sullivan’s Island. My favorite parts of the story are the paranormal supernatural elements of the story. Marie is trying to learn how to handle seeing spirits, and to deal with the visions she sees. The visions she had were very vivid allowing me to feel as if I could actually see what was happening, and also kept me wondering what might happen next. I am a huge fan of ghost hunting/paranormal activity and because of Ms. Murphy’s accurate descriptions it was easy to see that she had really done her research in this area. The secondary characters really balance out the story, and the relationship between Gale and Tim was often funny. I always enjoy when there is an animal written into a story and in this one we have Bailey, a chocolate Lab which Cory gave to Marie.

Even though this is the second book in a series, the author provides plenty of background information making it easy to read this book as a stand alone work, although the story line is so interesting I certainly plan on going back and reading the first book in the series titled “Sullivan’s Secret.” While Ms. Murphy provides a great ending for “Secret of the Big Easy,” I am anxious to see what direction Marie and the SIPS team take in the next book. Recommended!

Pixmac – A Great Place to Purchase Affordable Images for your Book Cover

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I came across Pixmac when I was searching for images for my book cover if I chose to self-publish. I’m, unfortunately, not a graphic designer and really don’t have the payroll to pay someone with that talent to design a cover.

So, I just thought I’d share this unique website for those of you who are looking to self-publish your book and need an image for your front cover. The prices are very reasonable ranging from .92 to $6. You can also join and purchase credits to use toward the images, but the cool thing is you don’t have to register to download an image.

You do need to have a little knowledge to understand the size and dimensions and dots per inch (dpi), depending on which self-publishing company you go with. I know that CreateSpace with Amazon requires and image of 300 dpi.

If you have any questions, there is a great help section with frequently asked questions or contact information.  They literally have millions of images and it’s worth the time to check them out.  It’s as simple as typing in your search in their search engine.

http://www.pixmac.com/

4 Ways to Immediately Improve Your Book Marketing Efforts by Jane Friedman

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http://janefriedman.com/2012/05/18/4-ways-to-immediately-improve-your-book-marketing-efforts/

10 Great Google+ Hangouts for Book Nerds

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http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2012/06/04/10-great-google-hangouts-for-book-nerds/