Meredith Allard's Blog, page 28

Visiting Old Friends: Writing Down Salem Way

Witch House in Salem, MA, which looks remarkably like James’ house.

As I said in this post, it’s hard to believe it’s been five years since Her Dear & Loving Husband was published. For those of you who have been following me, you know that I’m finally working on the new Loving Husband tale, Down Salem Way.

I know conventional wisdom says to write as many books in a series as you can, but I’ve found that, for me at least, it’s best to write whatever it is that’s in my heart to write. Perhaps that’s not the best business model, but it works for me. When I finished writing the final book in the Loving Husband Trilogy, Her Loving Husband’s Return, I felt that James and Sarah’s story was complete. I already knew the next two novels I was going to write—That You Are Here and When It Rained at Hembry Castle. As a result, I had my writing planned out for the next two years since I write about one novel a year.

The Witch Dungeon Museum in Salem, MA.

Then a funny thing happened. I kept getting emails from Loving Husband fans who asked for the story to continue. For a while I said no, the story was pretty well wrapped up at the end of HLHR, but then I began to wonder myself if there was more to James and Sarah’s story. When I wrote Her Dear & Loving Husband, I was fascinated by what I learned about the Salem Witch Trials. Though the novel goes into that sad time in depth, I felt there was more to know about Salem in 1692 than I was able to touch on in the context of that one book. Perhaps a continuation of James and Sarah’s story could allow me to focus once again on the witch hunts.

I’ve been writing historical fiction since 1994, and it has been a dream come true to write a story of everlasting love that resonates with readers around the globe. I was thrilled that readers loved James and Sarah so much they wanted more. If I were a good business-minded author, which I’m not, I would have written Down Salem Way as soon as I had the idea so I could get it out right away and capitalize on the success of the Loving Husband Trilogy. But I already had my mind—and most importantly my heart—set on writing That You Are Here and When It Rained at Hembry Castle. I took the less traditional route and decided to carry through with the two novels, and then, after they were written and published, I would work on Down Salem Way.

The Friendship, which is docked near Pickering Wharf, where Olivia’s shop The Witches Lair is located.

There were a couple of challenges along the way. First, I’m back in college full time both taking and teaching classes. I’m glad I made the decision to return to school because I needed a new challenge, but it does take time away from writing fiction. The second challenge was the fact that When It Rained at Hembry Castle was more difficult to write than I expected so it took me two years to write instead of one. With That You Are Here and When It Rained at Hembry Castle both out in the world, I was finally able to turn my attention to Down Salem Way.

I’m about halfway through my “shitty first draft” phase, and even though most of what I’m writing in that first draft will never see the light of day since it will be completely revised by the time the book is published, it’s still a joy watching the story start to take shape. At first, I saw Down Salem Way as a prequel to the Loving Husband Trilogy, and in a way it still is. I thought the story would only take place in Salem during the time of the witch trials, but then I realized I needed to keep the past and present storylines readers have come to love. As a result, Down Salem Way has become both a prequel—an insight into James and Elizabeth’s lives prior to the madness of the witch trials—and a sequel as we follow James and Sarah in their new lives in California. The whole gang will be there–Olivia, Jennifer, Chandresh, Timothy, and Howard. And what would a Loving Husband story be without Geoffrey?

Although it’s been a long wait for James and Sarah fans, it’s been a good thing for me that there has been some time since I finished writing Her Loving Husband’s Return and started Down Salem Way. Now I’m as excited as Loving Husband Trilogy fans to see what’s next for James and Sarah. For those of you who have been patiently awaiting the new Loving Husband story, you’ll be happy to know that the book is right on track for an October release—just in time for Halloween.

If you’d like to read my posts about my research trip to Salem, MA, click here. A number of you have already signed up for updates about Down Salem Way. If you’d like to join the mailing list, click here.

Filed under: Down Salem Way, Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, Historical Fiction, Writing Tagged: Down Salem Way, Her Dear and Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Return, historical fiction, The Loving Husband Trilogy, writing historical fiction

99 Cent Promotions: Which Had the Best Results?

When I first released When It Rained at Hembry Castle in February, I decided to set the price at 99 cents so I could use the first couple of months to run ads on the various book promotions sites. While you can advertise your book with prices higher than 99 cents, general wisdom says the lower your book is priced the better it will sell. I tend to believe that’s true because readers who sign up for these lists are looking for bargains.

When It Rained at Hembry Castle was in the Top 20 of its genre categories for most of the three months I used the book promotions.

I had used book promotion sites in the past, but I wanted to be as systematic as I could this time. I knew I needed a new audience for When It Rained at Hembry Castle than I had for any of my other books. While there are some readers of my Loving Husband Trilogy who read and loved Hembry, I still had to help new readers discover the novel. Phase One of my marketing plans was to try as many book promotion sites as I could.

I decided to write this post because when I was searching for sites where I could promote my 99 cent books I found articles like this extremely helpful and I wanted to do the same for others. I’m not advocating certain book promotions—I’m simply sharing my own experiences.

I admit I have a different outlook on book promotions than others. I’ve read comments from some writers who said they don’t pay for promotions because often the promotion costs more than they’ll make from sales. I’ve found that to be true since if I’m promoting a book that’s 99 cents then I’m making about 30 cents per copy sold. This is where you need to consider your goals.

If you’re only interested in making a profit, then 99 cent promotions probably aren’t for you. If you’re looking for exposure, getting your book in front of eyeballs, and making sales in the process, then I highly recommend 99 cent promotions. I broke about even between the amount I spent on the promotions and the amount I made, and for me it was worth it. The promotions didn’t make me rich, but they did get my book seen and, most importantly, bought.

Hembry was named a Hot New Release by Amazon shortly after it was published.

I’ve heard that readers need to be exposed to a book at least seven times before they buy it (some say it takes 20 times for someone to buy what you’re selling, but seven sounds better so let’s say seven). For myself, I rarely buy a book the first time I hear about it. If I hadn’t heard about the book more than once I probably wouldn’t have given it another thought. If doing the promotions helps to give potential readers their first, second, or even fifth viewing of my book, then to me it’s money well spent.

The Numbers

2/7/16

Free Kindle Books and Tips—36 sales

2/9/16

Books Butterfly—19 sales

2/10

Books Butterly—32 sales

2/11

Awesome Gang—26 sales

2/12

Genre Plus—8 sales

2/15

OHFB—78 sales

2/17

BK Knights

Betty Book Freak—26 sales total for the day

(This was a mistake on my part—I set two promotions on the same day. I don’t recommend doing this because then it’s harder to tell where the sales are coming from.)

2/19

Many Books—60 sales

2/23

Fussy Librarian—46 sales

2/26

New in Books—on list “6 Books to Read if you Love Downton Abbey”—34     sales

2/29

eBook Hunter—21 sales

3/8

Book Gorilla—122 sales

3/23

The eReader Cafe—88 sales

3/26-3/27

Books Butterfly—68 sales

4/5

Book Sends—83 sales

4/7

eBooks Habit—10 sales

4/11

Kindle Book Review—9 sales

4/13

The Fussy Librarian—40 sales

4/16

Kindle Book Review—6 sales

4/20

Read Cheaply—23 sales

4/21

Read Cheaply—35 sales

4/23

EReader News Today—215 sales

4/25

BK Nights—26 sales

I had my first Amazon Author Rank after the EReader News Today promotion. The novel was #1,472 overall and #3 on the Historical Fiction British chart and #4 on the Literary Fiction British and Irish chart.

Even on days when I didn’t have a promotion running the novel still sold well—perhaps not as well, but still pretty well. I should also mention that there were times when I had Facebook ads running during these three months (working toward getting potential readers to that 7th—or 20th—time a charm visibility). No matter what marketing strategies you’re using, it’s impossible to say precisely where book sales are coming from—book promotions, Facebook ads, virutal book tours, Amazon algorithms, word of mouth, your Aunt Sally buying 50 copies—but I believe the promotions were the main catalyst because sales spiked on days when the book was being promoted.

Of course, once the promotions stopped and the price went to $2.99 sales slowed. It’s funny how your perspective changes. Normally, I’d be thrilled to see one of my books selling 4-5 copies a day, which is what Hembry is doing now, but after all those sales the 4-5 copies looked a little wimpy. That’s when I put myself back on my “no checking stats” rule which I normally live under (as I speak about here). I think it’s okay to check stats when you have a promotion going (which I did for three months), but then you need to remember there are other things that need your attention—such as writing new books, for example.

For my next experiment I’m going to try promoting Hembry at $2.99 and see what happens. Not all book promotion sites allow for $2.99 price points, but some do. Some charge more for the $2.99 promotions than they do for 99 cent promotions. But now I’m interested in comparing and contrasting what happened at 99 cents and what will happen at $2.99.

I’d love to hear what experiences others have had with book promotion sites.

Filed under: Publishing, When It Rained at Hembry Castle Tagged: 99 cent promotions, book marketing, indie publishing, publishing

An Interview with Emma Rose Millar

Emma Rose Millar is the co-author of the historical novel Five Guns Blazing, the first place winner of The Chaucer Award in Historical Fiction. Five Guns Blazing is an epic tale of piracy, slavery, and treason.

Meredith Allard: When and why did you begin writing, and did you always write historical fiction?

Emma Rose Millar: I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember. As a child I was painfully shy; back then writing was a means of expressing my feelings, a way to take myself off to an imaginary world. As I grew older though, other things seemed to take over and I found myself writing less and less. When I was in my thirties, I became mixed up in a very bad relationship and it was then that I began writing my first novel. Strains from an Aeolian Harp was a dark tale of opium addiction and domestic violence, set in 1920s England when women weren’t allowed to get divorced on the grounds of cruelty alone. I wrote that novel in secret; I was terrified of my partner finding out, but it was something I felt I needed to do. Thankfully my life is a much happier place now and I think that shows in my writing.

M.A.: What is your latest novel? How would you describe it to potential readers?

E.R.M.: My latest novel, Five Guns Blazing, is an historical adventure based on the true story of pirates Anne Bonny, Mary Read and John ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham:

1710: Convict’s daughter, Laetitia Beedham, is set on an epic journey from the backstreets of London, through transportation and grueling plantation life, into the clutches of notorious pirates, John Rackham, Mary Read and the treacherous Anne Bonny. In a world of villainy and deceit, where black men are kept in chains and a woman will sell her daughter for a few gold coins, Laetitia can find no one in whom to place her trust. As the King’s men close in on the pirates and the noose begins to tighten around their necks, who will win her loyalty and her heart?

M.A.: What makes your novels different from others about similar eras?

E.R.M.: Five Guns Blazing is a multi-layered story, not only one of piracy but also a tale of slavery in its various guises. Whilst writing the novel, it quickly became clear to me that I would need the help of a co-writer. I approached Jamaican-born author Kevin Allen and asked him if he’d read my half-finished manuscript. Fortunately for me, he liked the story so much that he agreed to work on it with me. Kevin wrote all the plantation scenes and changed some of the dialect. That was the beginning of our two year transatlantic writing affair. It was a long hard road but together I think we created something I could never have managed alone. The novel recently won first prize in its category in The Chaucer Awards for Historical Fiction. It was an incredibly proud moment for both of us.

M.A.: All authors have a different path as they seek publication. What was your journey to publication like?

E.R.M.: It was such a rollercoaster ride. I wholly believed in the novel and I put it through a professional edit before submitting it anywhere. Quite a few big agents in London asked to see the full manuscript after reading a sample. They all said that they loved the story but didn’t know what the market was for a book like this. It seemed it was always going to be a case of ‘close but no cigar’. For a while I’d been hearing good things about Crooked Cat Publishing in Edinburgh but they were closed to submissions at the time. As soon as they opened their doors again though I sent them Five Guns Blazing and I was thrilled when they accepted it. All of their authors were so welcoming. We work as a team; I’ve made so many lovely new friends.

M.A.: What are the joys/challenges of writing historical fiction for you?

E.R.M.:I love history, especially 18th and 19th century and I couldn’t imagine writing in any other genre. Writing historical fiction takes a tremendous amount research, but I love uncovering all those nuggets of history, stories and characters which I know will make a fantastic novel. While writing Five Guns Blazing I also discovered some fabulous old words: ‘bastardly gullion,’ ‘jerrycummumble,’ and ‘flaybottomist,’to name but a few.

M.A.: What is the research process like for you?

E.R.M.:I absolutely loved doing all the research into eighteenth-century piracy. In Anne Bonny I found the archetypal anti-heroine: treacherous, double-crossing and fiercely independent. Then there was John Rackham, a rake, devilishly handsome, the Casanova of the seas. Some sources suggest Rackham was captain in name only and it was Anne who ran the ship, terrorising all who sailed close to her. Their pirate adventure came to an abrupt end in 1720 when their ship, Revenge was captured and the entire crew sentence to death. But that wasn’t quite the end of the story. There is no record of Anne’s execution or of her release or escape from jail. What became of her is still a mystery. The more I read about the villainous pair, the more intrigued I became.

M.A.: Do you travel for research? If so, what role does travel play in your writing process?

E.R.M.: I’d have loved to go to the Caribbean as part of my research for Five Guns Blazing, but I’m a single mum and my son was far too little at the time to take a trip like that. Kevin regularly visits the islands though and he has a wealth of knowledge about their history. A lot of my own research came from the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham. They have an old court room there where they do reenactments of famous cases, an eighteenth century jail, complete with cells, exercise yard and gallows, and a fantastic transportation museum. My visits there were invaluable.

My next novel is set in Vienna and is based on a painting by Gustav Klimt. I’m hoping to go there for a few days in October with my son. He’s six now so I’m sure he’ll enjoy the zoo and the aquarium. Hopefully I’ll find some time to soak up the atmosphere and to see some of Klimt’s work while we’re there.

M.A.: Which authors are your inspiration—in your writing life and/or your personal life?

E.R.M.: I really admire Sarah Waters, Alice Walker, Philippa Gregory and Joanne Harris. Their writing is sublime. I did an Open University degree in English Literature about fifteen years ago though and my bookshelves are still heaving with novels by the Bronte sisters, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, etc. I do love a good classic!

M.A.: What advice do you have for those who want to write historical fiction?

E.R.M.: I think good historical fiction starts with meticulous research and a great story. As with any genre, it takes a massive amount of work for an idea to blossom into published novel. The best thing I did was to find a good editor. He took the manuscript to another level; without him, it may never have been picked up by a publisher. Most of all, don’t give up; nothing worth doing ever comes easily. It’s an amazing feeling once you’ve completed a novel.

M.A.: What else would you like readers to know?

E.R.M.: Five Guns Blazing is now available on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble

 

Filed under: Guest Authors, Historical Fiction Tagged: Emma Rose Millar, Five Guns Blazing, guest authors, historical fiction, interviews, The Chaucer Award

Happy Anniversary, James and Sarah: Her Dear and Loving Husband is Five Years Old

I can hardly believe this as I write it, but last week marked the fifth anniversary of the publication of Her Dear & Loving Husband. As of this writing, more than 200,000 copies of Her Dear & Loving Husband have been bought or downloaded (mostly downloaded since the novel has been perma-free most of its life). Thanks to some Very Nice People at wattpad.com, Her Dear & Loving Husband was recently added to their Featured List in Vampire Fiction. Prior to being added to the Featured List, HDLH had about 5,000 reads, which by itself is not too shabby. In the past three weeks, 21,5000 new readers have found James and Sarah’s story of eternal love, making a total of 26,500 readers on Wattpad, and that number is growing every day. It makes my heart glad to know that James and Sarah are finding new fans even after five years.

I’m now working (cross my heart) on Down Salem Way, the prequel to the Loving Husband Trilogy, and I’ve just finished revisiting HDHL as a way to refresh myself with the story. I hadn’t read Her Dear & Loving Husband in three years, and I thought it might be a good idea to reread the trilogy before I wrote the prequel. As funny as this might sound, I had forgotten how much I love James and Sarah. After I finished writing Her Loving Husband’s Return in 2013, and after putting together and marketing the trilogy’s complete box set in 2014, I was burned out and I didn’t want to churn out another Loving Husband story if it wasn’t in my heart to do so. I didn’t want to write about these characters I had come to love so much for the sake of getting something out. By 2014, I had been working on the James and Sarah stories for five years, beginning in 2009, when I first came up with this oddball idea of a vampire mourning his long-lost human wife. The two year break from the Wentworths was just what the doctor ordered. In that time I wrote two novels and now I’m raring to get back to James and Sarah and revisiting their time during the Salem Witch Trials.

While I reread Her Dear & Loving Husband, I made a few editing changes, but not as many as I would have expected. I wouldn’t say my writing has changed drastically in the past five years, but there are a few things I’ve improved along the way. I’ve never been a fan of dialogue tags, and I’ve always tried to use them as little as possible. I think it’s more effective to set up the conversations so the reader can follow without having to point out who’s talking. I’m planning a series of posts about writing dialogue for May, but for now I’ll say the fewer dialogue tags the better. Even though I didn’t use a lot of dialogue tags in the earlier version of HDLH, I used them more than I do now so I deleted a number of he saids and she saids. I tightened up a few sentences because I’ve become better at adhering to my “no extra words” rule. I think even James and Sarah superfans will have a hard time spotting the changes, but I felt like, well, I’m rereading the book anyway, I might as well make whatever edits I think are necessary.

I’ve decided to celebrate the Loving Husband Trilogy this summer in preparation for the autumn release of Down Salem Way. I’ve sent the revised version of Her Dear & Loving Husband out into the world, and I ordered new book descriptions for all three books in the series from Bryan Cohen from the Sell More Books Show, a podcast he does every week with Jim Kukral from Author Marketing Club. Bryan and Jim’s podcast is a must-listen for indie authors. If you’re not familiar with Bryan, he’s the Book Description King (my words), and as I’m learning more about book marketing I’ve discovered (yes, I learned this from Bryan) that book descriptions are there to encourage readers to buy your books, not just to rehash the story, which is what most book descriptions do—including mine! I can’t wait to see what Bryan does for the descriptions for the Loving Husband Trilogy. If you’re interested in spicing up your own book descriptions, you can visit Bryan online at Best Page Forward.

For those of you have been waiting so patiently for the next installment in the James and Sarah saga, blessings. You guys are the reason I continue to write books after five years. If you’d like to be kept up to date with news and information about Down Salem Way, you can sign up here.

So happy fifth anniversary, James and Sarah Wentworth. Here’s to many more Loving Husband stories.

Filed under: Down Salem Way, Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, News, Writing Tagged: Down Salem Way, Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, paranormal romance, The Loving Husband Trilogy, vampire fiction

Spring Cleaning for My Author Website

The view from my apartment patio. I love spending days out here during the spring drinking iced tea and reading on my Kindle.

This is a busy time of year for me. I have two weeks left of the Spring semester for my university learning and teaching, and I have final papers to write and final papers to grade. I’m also working on a newly edited version of Her Dear & Loving Husband to celebrate the novel’s 5th anniversary. I like to do some spring cleaning around the house this time of year, not just dusting behind bookcases where I’ll never see, but I like to weed through my wardrobe, my books, my shoes, and old appliances and donate things I don’t wear or use anymore to the Salvation Army. I’ve become interested in the minimalist movement, and I’ll have more to say about that in a later post.

As I’ve been thinking about my 2016 spring cleaning, I realized that my author website was something I had been sadly neglecting. I’ve said in this post how I learned that author websites should have a landing page to make for easier navigation for visitors, and while I never doubted the value of that advice, I liked having a flowing site where my latest posts were the first thing you’d see. It was simply my personal choice, and I was happy with it. But over the years I’ve learned and grown like everyone else, and I decided to make some changes to my author business this year. My website seemed a great place to start.

I should begin by saying that I loved the old site. I loved the Gothic feel, the color scheme, and I loved the clean look to it. Too many websites, from authors and others, hurt my aging eyes with the busyness of all those  links, icons, and other doo-dahs. When I decided that my website needed a makeover, the first thing I realized is that I wanted to maintain clean lines while changing things up in a good way. My blog had looked exactly the same since I started it five years ago. It even had the same header—from the cover of Her Dear & Loving Husband—because when I first created the website that’s the only book I had published.

To make some much needed changes, I upgraded my blog theme to Hemingway Rewritten (of course the name Hemingway drew me in, but I think it’s a snazzy looking template anyway). Then I added several of my novels to the header so there’s more of a sense of the various books I’ve written. I simplified my tagline to just ‘Historical Fiction With a Twist.’ Simplicity–that was my keyword for the remodeling. I do, finally, have a landing page that acts as a directory for the site. The blog is still there (obviously, or you wouldn’t be subjected to reading this now), located conveniently in the handy-dandy Blog link in the menu at the top.

I consolidated the links to buy my books with the book descriptions to create one ‘Buy My Books’ page to make it easier for potential buyers to find the purchasing links. Her Dear & Loving Husband is free, but some new website visitors might not know that so I’ve made it easy for them to contact me with requests for the novel by clicking on the Free Book! link. I’ve also made it easy for new and existing Loving Husband Trilogy fans (you know who you are) to sign up for updates for Down Salem Way, which will be released Autumn 2016 (cross my heart).

Another major change I made was classifying my historical fiction into paranormal historical fiction (The Loving Husband Trilogy), Downton Abbey inspired historical fiction (When It Rained at Hembry Castle), Biblical historical fiction (Woman of Stones), Woman Suffrage and World War I historical fiction (Victory Garden), and American Civil War historical fiction (My Brother’s Battle). This way readers can see at a glance which of my historical novels might be of interest to them. The right sidebar has been cleaned up and now only contains social media links, my too-cool Indie Reader approved logo from IndieReader.com, and website sign up links.

It took me two full days to complete the website (that’s what happens when I’m procrastinating from writing a paper for school), but I’m happy with the final result. As much as I loved the old style, I wanted to make it as easy as possible for readers to navigate the site.

Over time I’ve learned that my author website is my online home, and I highly recommend one for all authors. We want to give our readers a designated place to find out more about our books, about us, and I’ve learned that the more personal we can be on our author websites, the more we can connect with our readers. I’ve said before that readers want to know who the man or woman is behind the curtain. Our author website gives us a way to share more of ourselves in a way that feels comfortable. If you’re new to my online home, welcome! If you’re a returning friend, I hope you like the redecorating.

Here’s to spring cleaning. You never know what undiscovered treasures you might find if you’re willing to open yourself up to trying out new things.

Filed under: News, Publishing Tagged: author websites, spring cleaning

What I Learned About Writing from Coloring Books

As I’ve said before (in this post), I’ve joined the coloring book craze. I loved coloring when I was a kid, and as it happens I still love to color. I consider myself a wannabe crafter, and I used to dabble in painting with acrylics, and while coloring isn’t actually crafting or creating an original work of art, it still allows me to play with colors.

This is definitely one of my better pieces, maybe because I love peacocks.

I’ve found that, at least for me, there is a meditation-like quality to coloring because the coloring itself is all I’m thinking about while I’m engaged in the activity. I’m not worried about schoolwork I have to do, crazy professors, and all the writing I have to get through. All I’m thinking about is the page I’m coloring, what colored pencils, crayons, or markers I want to use, and which colors I think will look best. The more I have to do, the more I appreciate the simplicity of sitting down with some crayons and filling in the pictures.

As coloring became more popular, suddenly there were countless posts and articles about how to color. It’s similar to what happened with writing and indie publishing—suddenly there were all these experts shouting about the right way to do things. Something that should be relaxing and fun becomes stressful as we try to keep up. There’s nothing like an expert to take the fun out of something.

I had the realization (while coloring, of course) that my attitude toward coloring was the same as my attitude toward writing. I had to decide for myself how I wanted to color, just like I had to decide for myself how I wanted to write. Here are a few things I learned from coloring books and how they relate to writing:

Use the colors you want to use.

The experts in coloring will tell you to choose your palette first—use a color wheel to help you determine which colors to use. They’ll tell you which colors go with each other, and if you use that other color combination, look out! The Crayola Police will hunt you down. Hey, they say, that’s how painters do it, so that’s how coloring people should do it too!

And then I realized that I could use any color combination I want, just as I can write my stories however I want. I don’t like choosing my colors ahead of time. I like to choose my colors one by one as I’m coloring in the picture. Sometimes I have an overall idea of the color scheme I want to use, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I’m happy with how the pictures turn out, sometimes I’m not. When I’m writing, I have an overall idea of how I want the story to turn out, but I’ve also learned to get out of my own way and allow the story to find its own path. If I prefer choosing my colors as I go as opposed to choosing them first then I can do that. If I prefer letting my stories find their own way, I can do that too.

Stop comparing yourself to others.

There are some amazing coloring websites out there where the coloring people post their finished pages. Some of those colored pages are indeed museum ready. They’re absolutely beautiful with shading and light and the way the colors blend together. My pictures don’t look like that (as you’ll see from the examples in this post). I love playing with colors, and some color combinations I try I like, some I don’t like as much, but so what? I wouldn’t know what I liked unless I allowed myself the freedom to experiment.

I have no desire to become a professional artist. Making myself crazy trying to make my pictures look like some of these artists’ pictures doesn’t work for me. I don’t have a lot of time to color because I’m so busy with other tasks, so when I do have time to color I don’t want to spend my time being stressed because my picture doesn’t look good enough compared to what other people can do. Where’s the fun in that?

Writers often have severe cases of compare-itis. We’re always looking to see which writers are selling more books, getting better reviews, or winning more awards than we are. We have to remind ourselves that we’re not in competition with other writers. This isn’t a race. Our careers as writers are just as unique as we are as people. No two writing careers are alike. We need to remember to focus on ourselves and helping our own careers move forward. Like runners, if we keep looking back to see who might overtake us we’ll lose steam and slow down.

Outline if you want to (and it’s okay to color outside the lines).

You can see that I outlined the leaves in dark green and filled them in with light green.

When I was reading posts of coloring tips, a number of the experts said not to outline your drawing. Apparently, with outlining you’re not going to have a realistic looking product and that’s not how the professionals do it. Oh well. I’ve always liked to outline my coloring pictures. Even when I was a kid I’d outline the shapes with whatever crayon I was using. A lot of times, I’ll outline with a darker color and fill in the shape with a lighter color (as evidenced in the picture to the left here), and I like the way that looks. Is it wrong? Not to me. It’s my coloring page and I’m going to do it the way I want to. It’s the same with coloring outside the lines. I like it when my coloring pencils or crayons end up outside the line because then when I’m filling in the next color they blend a bit. How maddening, to feel like your coloring page is all wrong if your hand slipped and some color ended up on the other side of the black line.

There are many posts out there for writers about the right way to do things. Write in these genres if you want to make money. Publish this many books a year. Set your books at these prices. Grow your social media presence and build your author platform. But what if you don’t want to limit your writing to certain genres, or what if you have another life outside of your writing like I do and you can only publish one book a year? Does that mean that you won’t have any career as a writer? Not at all. It means that you get to decide what kind of career you’re going to have. If I’ve learned anything over nearly five years as an author/publisher, it’s that I have to run my writing career the way I want to. I have to write my stories the way I want to write them, and if I color outside the lines with my words on occasion I’m okay with that.

Here are my own tips for coloring (and they apply to writing as well):

Choose what you want to color. You don’t have to start at the beginning of the book. You decide where to start. If you don’t love the picture, colorng it will be a chore. The same goes for writing. Write something you’re excited to get back to. If you’re not excited about it, it’s going to be hard to convince readers your writing is worth their time.


Choose your own colors. You can use a color wheel to examine which colors go together, or you can choose whatever you want to choose because you want to choose it. You can choose them ahead of time, or you can choose them in the moment, whichever feels right to you. For writing, you get to decide how you use language. You have the final say in how you’ll string phrases together. You may not like the way some of it turns out. That’s okay. You tried it, you didn’t like it, so try again until you find something you do like.


Don’t compare your pictures (or your writing) to anyone else. Find your own style.


Coloring (and writing) should be fun. Listen to your favorite music. Turn off your electronic devices and other distractions. Make your coloring (and your writing) time special so you’re looking forward to getting back to it.

You can let the experts tell you what to do and how to do it, or you can find your own way. Whether I’m coloring or writing, I find it a lot more fulfilling to find my own way.

Filed under: Spirituality, Writing Tagged: coloring, coloring books, creativity, writing, writing tips

The Book in Your Head Versus the Book Your Readers Read

Since February 9, When It Rained at Hembry Castle has sold over 1000 copies. Thank you! I’m sure there are other authors who can sell that many in a day, but I think those are pretty snazzy numbers.

After the release of my new book, I had an interesting conversation with a fellow author about what happens when you put a book out into the world. As writers, we spend hours, weeks, years living with a story, and then one day we have to set the story free. But what happens when other people (also known as readers) begin to read that story?

I have a friend who is struggling with this issue while she’s getting ready to release her first novel, a venture into Steampunk complete with Victorianisms and fancy-pants machinery. The fear that nearly paralyzes her is the worry over bad reviews. I’ve tried to explain to her that it’s all part of the game. Every book gets bad reviews. I want you to check your favorite book’s Amazon page. I’ll wait. While you’re looking, you’re likely to see some bad reviews there.

I had a few things to say about negative reviews here. Focus on the people who like what you do, I say. They’re the ones who will look forward to your new releases. And if you really can’t handle book reviews, you can always do what I do—not read them. I kid you not. I don’t read reviews of my own books. My mother tried to catch me out once when I was talking about a movie review I had read. “I thought you said you don’t read reviews,” she said. What I said, I explained, is I don’t read my own reviews. I read other people’s reviews all the time.

The discussion with my friend about book reviews led into another conversation about the book writers think they’re writing versus the book the readers read. Think of it this way—when we’re writing a story, we know what we intend to do, why the pieces of the puzzle are set out the way they are, why this character says one thing when she means another. But when readers read, they’re not in our heads, they’re in their heads. Which is just as well. My head is crowded enough with only me in there. Readers have their own experiences, their own likes and dislikes, their own tastes. In the end, it doesn’t matter what I intended when I was crafting the story. To the readers, it only matters what happens when they engage with the story.

Next, my friend asked how to write a novel that will appeal to everyone. The answer is you can’t. I mean, really, you can’t. I see articles all over Pinterest and Twitter with headlines like “10 Steps to an International Bestseller” or “How to Make Everyone Love Your Book” or “I Don’t Suck at Writing Anymore, and Now You Won’t Either” (for a fee, of course). Here’s the secret that’s not really a secret: you have to write something that could only come from you. I love this quote from Barbara Kingsolver because it explains the point far better than I ever could (yes, I found it on Pinterest): “Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the only thing you have to offer.” How true.

When we write, we figure out what we have to say and we say it the very best way we know how. And if what people read is different than what we thought we were writing? As Toni Morrison once said to Oprah Winfrey, “That is called reading.” Readers are going to bring their own perspectives to the page. They’re going to see the characters and the events through their lens, not yours. And you know what? It’s all good. Many times readers see our stories in a completely different light than we intended, and often they see possibilities the writers never considered.

Here’s a case in point, and one close to my heart because it involves Hembry Castle. When I began writing Hembry in 2014, I had just come off the success of the Loving Husband Trilogy and I thought Hembry would be a great way to go back to writing a love story that readers would cheer for. Edward Ellis and Daphne Meriwether were always the focus for me as I was writing the novel. Yes, Daphne has to figure out how to live in this Downton Abbey-like world, but all along I saw When It Rained at Hembry Castle as a great love story. And here’s what happened…

Before I continue I should say that, while I don’t read reviews of my own books, I do read every email that comes my way. Readers who emailed me about Hembry weren’t gushing over Edward and Daphne. They were asking about Richard, Daphne’s uncle, the 9th Earl of Staton. In the reader’s mind (at least those who contacted me), Richard was the center of attention. He is the Earl of Staton, after all. But I was intrigued by their questions about Richard when to me Edward and Daphne are the stars of the show. Is it wrong for readers to focus on Richard? Of course not. But realizing that readers were not necessarily reading the book I thought I had written was a huge revelation to me and a continuing source of fascination.

Over the years, I’ve learned to keep my focus on writing the best stories I know how before sending those stories off into the world with my blessings. Everything else is beyond my control—even how readers respond to the books I’ve written. If, as writers, we can learn to make peace with that, then there will be much more smooth sailing ahead.

Filed under: Historical Fiction, When It Rained at Hembry Castle, Writing Tagged: book reviews, Downton Abbey, historical fiction, how to handle negative book reviews, When It Rained at Hembry Castle, writing, writing tips

A Hembry Castle Giveaway

I’ll be back next week with a new post, but in the meantime I thought I’d pass along the Amazon giveaway for When It Rained at Hembry Castle. It’s the easiest giveaway ever. Just click on this link and you’ll find out immediately if you’ve won. Fun, right?

 

 

Filed under: Giveaways, When It Rained at Hembry Castle Tagged: Amazon, Downton Abbey, Giveaways, historical fiction, When It Rained at Hembry Castle

Janet Fitch and Avoiding Clichés “Like the Plague”

First of all, thank you to those of you who helped to put When It Rained at Hembry Castle on the Amazon genre bestseller lists. As of this writing, the novel is #15 in the Literary Fiction British and Irish category. I don’t know who else would think to combine a love of Downton Abbey with a love for the books of Charles Dickens, but there you go.

I thought I’d repost this oldie but goodie from two years ago. To this day, I adhere to Janet Fitch’s idea that anything you’ve heard before is a cliché. That’s why I’m always stretching for unique descriptions.

Enjoy!

* * * * *

I’ve always had a hard time writing first drafts. You can see my tips for writing a first draft here. After I finish my first draft, that’s when I sit down at the computer no longer wanting to pop my eyes out with spoons or pluck my hairs one by one. Finally, in the second draft stage, I’m able to find the poetry in the prose. When I find the flow, that’s when the fun of writing begins for me. How do I find the flow? It’s a challenge, one that started 17 years ago.

In 1999, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander, for the Oprah Book Club. Fitch talked about how a writing instructor told her that a “cliché is anything you’ve ever heard before—so never use a description anyone has heard.” As I remember it (it was 1999), Fitch spoke about a time she challenged herself to describe a tree with her own unique phrases. I was already well into fiction writing at that time, and her words struck me as truth. I learned that writers should reach to find their own descriptions, and they should never be lazy and allow others to do the work for them.

In a 2006 interview for O Magazine, Fitch explained that when she began writing fiction she had to work on word choices and the music of language. That was what I wanted too. I wanted to work on word choices and the music of language. I wanted to avoid clichés “like the plague” and create images “as sweet as pie.”

It’s a lesson I still hold close to my heart. When I’m molding sentences, I stretch, hands out, fingers pointing there, there where that inchoate image waits, sometimes patiently, sometimes not, for me to probe my vocabulary for the exactly right string of words to illuminate what I see the way I see it. If I’m describing a storm, a small town, a person, an emotion, I need to do it my own way. In their 2006 interview, Oprah mentions to Fitch that such a stretch “seems as if it would be quite difficult.” Fitch responds, “It is. But it means that everything you give the reader is absolutely fresh. We read so that we can be moved by a new way of looking at things.”

I learned a lot from Fitch in 1999, again in 2006, and I continue to learn from her whenever I read one of her novels. Reaching for phrases I’ve never heard before becomes harder with everything I write, but that’s the part of writing I thrive on—creating poetry in prose. And when I do finally find the right words, that is when I love having written.

If you’d like to lose yourself in the poetry of Janet Fitch’s prose, check out her novels or the short pieces on her blog. The 2006 interview for O Magazine can be found here.

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Avoiding Cliches, Janet Fitch, O Magazine, Oprah, White Oleander, writing tips

When It Rained at Hembry Castle is Now Available

Enter the giveaway for a chance to win a paperback copy of When It Rained at Hembry Castle.

Finally! My first new novel in two years! When It Rained at Hembry Castle is now available on Amazon, BN, iTunes, and Kobo in ebook and paperback formats. The ebook is on sale for .99 cents from now until March 31 when it will go up to its regular price of $3.99. The paperback is $16.99.

Here’s the blurb:

From Meredith Allard, author of the bestselling Loving Husband Trilogy, comes When It Rained at Hembry Castle, a lush historical novel set in Victorian England. Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey, it’s the story of an aristocratic family, secrets that dare not be told, and the wonder of falling in love.

When the 8th Earl of Staton dies, his eldest son, the unreliable Richard, inherits the title and the family’s home—Hembry Castle. The Earl’s niece, the American-born Daphne Meriwether, is intrigued by Edward Ellis, a rising author with a first-hand knowledge of Hembry Castle—from the servants’ hall. And Edward, though captivated by the lovely Daphne, has his own hurdles he must overcome. Can Richard come to terms with his title before bringing ruin on his family? Will Edward and Daphne find their way to each other despite the obstacles of life at Hembry Castle?

When It Rained at Hembry Castle is a page-turning, romantic novel with vivid characters and an engrossing story that will keep you guessing until the end.

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Here’s the press release: Bestselling Author Meredith Allard to Publish a Downton Abbey Inspired Novel 

Filed under: Historical Fiction, News, When It Rained at Hembry Castle Tagged: Downton Abbey, historical fiction, New Releases, Victorian fiction, When It Rained at Hembry Castle