Judith Post's Blog, page 33
November 3, 2021
Ooh La La!
Grab a glass of ice water before you read any further, because we’re going to talk about SEX. No, not any favorite positions, but about WRITING it. It’s not my top skill. I manage, but just, and thankfully, it’s not allowed in cozies. But my friend, Julia Donner, writes Regency romances. And let me tell you, those aristocrats had no shame. And she writes steamy scenes REALLY WELL. So I invited her here to tell you about it. Her latest Regency comes out November 30, and I’ve had a chance to critique it, and I think it’s her best one yet!
Evelyn Archambeau, the Duchess du Fortier, doesn’t feel like a dowager. She’d been a child bride when her late husband had her spirited out of France to save her and their son from the guillotine. Preoccupied with the mysterious past of her companion, Daphne, Evelyn thinks herself content lavishing her affection on family and friends. She never considered remarriage or entanglement in sordid affairs. Then she’s introduced to the Marquis of Bellingham.
When a series gets as long as 14 books, it’s time to start thinking about a change-up. I used to try to read or scan at least 10 books a week. Now, I just don’t have the time. With the exception of keeping up with history, my joy and the necessity of reading widely has become increasingly narrow. The business of taking care of 30 books of my own and writing more sucks up the four-letter T word.
Nowadays, I still seek out the unusual plot, because, let’s face it, there is nothing new under the sun and the staggering numbers of digital books coming out every year lends itself to repetition. And there are lots of repetitive stories, partially due to reader preferences and forced sales in popular genres.
To boil it down to a gob of grease, I’m gravitating to books that really capture my interest. I’m no spring chick and often seek stories in the vicinity of my age group. (Like Judi’s newest, Posed in Death.) Only the very young think that love and sex end after 40. It never ends. I learned that from working in nursing homes when I was in my late teens. And I don’t know if it’s still the case, but Florida retirement communities had some of the highest rates for STDs in the nation.
So, I’ve written a Regency with a “mature” couple. A subplot is connected to a younger couple, but mostly it’s about two people, set in their ways, resigned to being alone later in life. As it so often happens, and did happen to me, a soul mate shows up unexpectedly.
When a Marquis Commands will be released on 11/30/21 and is available for pre-order. I love the cover Casegrfx created, which helped secure an ad on BookBub. And thanks to Judi Lynn/Judy Post for honest critiquing and suggestions. You’re always spot on, Judy! I’m not forgetting line edits by Connie Curwen Hay and Terri Ashton. (It does take a dang village to raise a book.) And a shout out to Mae Claire for her support of fellow writers. Looking forward to reading your Things Old and Forgotten. I can relate. I’m old but luckily not forgotten. Don’t know where I’d be, unless in front of the TV with a bag of chips, if not for Judy’s nagging and use of her blog. Thanks, friend.
M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)
Follow on Twitter @RigdonML
Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/
Website http://www.MLRigdon.com
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner
https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline
November 1, 2021
Hooray! It comes out November 2nd!
I met a new twitter friend, and I cheered when I read that she’d found a home for her book. A mystery. You know how I love those. And then it felt like I waited FOREVER before the book was going to come out. When she asked if I’d read it and give it a blurb if I liked it, I jumped at the chance. And yes, I liked it. A lot. So I invited her to my blog to share her wonderful news. Please welcome Jennifer Bee and help her spread the word about her first published book!, Congrats, Jennifer!
Hi. I’m Jennifer Bee and I couldn’t be more excited to be a guest here on Judi Lynn’s blog since I’m a longtime fan of all of Judi’s books.
When I signed my first publishing contract, Judi graciously agreed to read an advanced copy of my debut novel, The Killing Carol, and after doing so, invited me to share my debut with all of you. It’s an honor to be welcomed.
My favorite books have always been mysteries, figuring out whodunit, the clues, the suspense, the unexpected twists & turns. Somewhere along the way an idea for a mystery novel hit me. “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, the reason your husband had to die.” That was it. That was the idea. And that is how my debut novel The Killing Carol begins.
The Killing Carol is the story of widow, Anna Greenan, who finds the cryptic lyric shoved against her front door:
Each day of Christmas brings Anna a new stanza with a new clue. Will this mysterious Christmas carol lead Anna to uncover her husband’s murderer or will the killer find Anna first?
The Killing Carol is the first novel in a series being published by Level Best Books. I’m so excited to be able to share this journey with all of you. Excited and nervous. No one tells you when you sell your first series just how nerve-wracking becoming a professional writer can be. Think back to when you were young and your teacher asked you to read something you wrote in front of the class. No matter how great you thought that piece was, you still probably got butterflies in your stomach and heat rising to your cheeks. Now, imagine having your story go out to the whole world, not just your sixth period English class. To say that I have butterflies in my stomach is an understatement—more like pterodactyls. But when writers like Judi tell you they really liked your book, that makes it all worthwhile.
If you’re interested in reading The Killing Carol, it is available in e-book and print on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever books are sold.
Feel free to follow me and keep in touch on social media. Facebook – @authorjenniferbee, Instagram – @authorjenniferbee, Twitter – @authorjenniferb.
You can use the hashtag #JudiLynnFan so I know you have great taste. J
Thank you for having me and wish me luck. Pterodactyls are not easy to live with.
“The Killing Carol – A mystery/thriller with a satisfying romance and lots of twists and turns. The tension never lags. The song ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ becomes filled with menace as Anna receives one note a day with a twisted message.” — Judi Lynn, USA Today bestselling author of The Body in the Attic.
Time or Money or Both?
We all know how hard it is to find time to write. HH and I are retired, and I had visions of writing a chapter every week day–5 chapters a week, 20 chapters a month, a manuscript every other month, a finished product every three months. Sounds good, right? It looks great on paper. Well, that’s the thing. It LOOKS good. It hardly ever works that way. My daughter got a job as a traveling nurse in our town. On nights she works, she stays at our place. And instead of writing when she’s here, I spend time with her. A no brainer. When she moves to the next job, we won’t see her that much. We’d better enjoy it while we can..
My cousin went into a nursing home. I try to visit her once a week. I have my writers’ club twice a month. I could go on and on. We need groceries. It’s a good idea to pay bills. One day gets eaten up here, another there, and soon, I’m lucky if I can sneak in an hour or two of writing three times a week. Today, the flower beds needed prepped for the end of the season. Tomorrow, our grandson and his wife are coming to stay the weekend with us. There’s not one of these things that I’d miss. So… I write when and where I can. I have more time than I used to, but not nearly as much time as I thought I would.
But that’s just fussing about WRITING–the actual work of telling a story. But that’s not even close to all you need to do to be a writer. Yes, you write a book–somewhere between 45,000 to over 100,000 words. You have to include rewrites and polishing, editing and tweaks. And when you finally get it done? You need to decide what to do with it. An agent? Small publisher? Self-publishing? And don’t think that doesn’t take serious time. Research. Queries. Formatting. A cover? A blurb? Key words. Branding. Social media. Every step of the process has to be your best, because there are over a million other books on Amazon. How do you make yours stand out? How do you find readers?
My friends are divided into two camps. Some of them, like me, write blogs, connect with friends on twitter to support one another, and spread the word on social media when they put out a new book. Other friends don’t bother with social media at all. They pay for ads on BookBub, The Fussy Librarian, Written Word Media, and EReader News to promote their books. And if they have enough books in a series (and I think you need at least 5 to make it worthwhile), they do pretty darned well.
I repeat. My friends who are successful have AT LEAST 5 books in A series. When they put one of those books on sale for 99cents or for free, readers buy the OTHER books in the series, and they make money. The more books, the better. Which is my way of hinting to you to WRITE A SERIES or books that are similar enough in style to be considered a series. The sad truth is, though, that to promote a book these days isn’t cheap.
When I make a book free right now, when I only have the first book written in POSED IN DEATH or A CUT ABOVE, and only two books in my Lux series, I know I’m going to lose money. I’m only promoting the book to invest in finding new readers. I just paid $60 to The Fussy Librarian to make POSED IN DEATH free for five days. $60 gets me ONE day of promotion in The Fussy Librarian’s newsletter. But it also got me over 2500 downloads. For me, I lost money, but it was worth it. The next question. Out of 2500 downloads, how many people will actually READ the book? I’ll be thrilled if it hits 1,000, and I get a few good reviews, but let’s be honest. How many books have you downloaded and intended to read, but never did?
At this moment in time, it would be a waste for me to invest the BIG bucks it takes to get a book on BookBub, because I don’t have enough books in any of my new series. My friend just paid $410 to have BookBub (which is HARD to get into, but they accepted her book, hooray!) do a new book release for her 18th Regency romance. A SMART MOVE. And I hope she sells TONS of books! Both of us, though, have paid for advertisements that were total busts. Some sites do better jobs with romances than fantasies or mysteries rather than speculative fiction. You never know. You cross your fingers, pay your money, and hope for the best.
But if you don’t have the cash to invest in advertising for your book, then you have to invest TIME. Hopefully, you have blog friends who will promote your book and have you as a guest on their blogs. Some authors pay to have someone set up blog tours for them. The Goddess Fish did my early tours. And don’t even think that blog tours aren’t a lot of work. Because they are.. No one wants to follow a tour where they see the same information on each site. For most tours, the author has to write original material for each site he/she visits. My first blog tour had 25 bloggers sign up for it. And each one wanted something different. Which was great. But it took FOREVER to write unique material for each one. If you’re not up for that, you can design ads to put on twitter with canva.com. But you have to do SOMETHING to get readers to notice your book, or else it gets lost in the deluge of new books that come out All The Time anymore. At least, a million a year.
The question is this: WHAT CAN YOU AFFORD? TIME? MONEY? BOTH? Jan Sikes is doing a series of blogs on marketing for Story Empire. This is the first one. She’s up to six now, I think. I’ll add a link below.
There are all kinds of ways to market your books out there. Some have worked for me. Some haven’t. I can’t figure out how to do ads no matter if I bid low or high. So don’t ask. I can’t give you any good advice. My best luck, so far, has been paying for promotions, even though it’s been hit or miss. I have more luck on Twitter than on Facebook, but then, I spend more time on twitter, too. I don’t have any brilliant answers for anyone, but I know this. If you don’t do SOMETHING, or get a publisher who’ll do it for you, your book gets lost in the thousands of other books out there.
Debbie Macomber, who has a publisher and sells a kazillion books, wrote a great article on marketing your book. I’ve posted it before, but I’ll post it again, just in case you’re ready for it now. And happy writing!
Book Launch Checklist: A Marketing Timeline for Authorshttps://storyempirecom.wordpress.com/2021/07/09/every-authors-four-letter-word-mktg/
October 29, 2021
Talent
I read a blog post by Ilona Andrews. Her readers often send her questions, (I’m jealous), and she often tries to answer them. This time, someone asked about talent. And her reply was thoughtful and insightful. https://ilona-andrews.com/2021/talent/ And it made me think.
If I had to define talent, I guess I think of it as a natural ability, something you might be better at than someone else, to begin with. But that’s the defining thing, isn’t it? “To begin with.” Because talent, on its own, doesn’t get you far.
If I’d have had to make it as a writer on only talent, I’d be doing something else right now. I had some talent. My teachers said so. Editors said so. But it wasn’t enough to propel me….much of anywhere. But it was enough to give me enough little trickles of success to keep going.
The sorry truth is that you might be really good at something, but if you don’t work at it, develop it, and THINK about it, you’ll do all right…maybe…but you probably won’t find big success. And everyone defines “big” differently. Success is one of those words that carries a lot of different baggage. Do you mean a New York Times bestseller? A USA Today bestseller? Making it into the top 100 on Amazon lists? So much money you can swim in it like Scrooge McDuck? Or enough to give you pocket money like a second job? Everyone hopes for something different. But I don’t think talent is enough to get you to where you probably want to be.
Writing takes work and dedication, and usually, time. A lot of time. You can put that time in, a little here and there, over the years–like I did. Or you can go for broke and write like a demon to hit success sooner. But there are no guarantees in writing. And that’s the worrisome part. I loved writing enough…and had enough success trickle in a little at a time… to keep me encouraged. I consider myself lucky. I had lots of failures but enough successes. And I don’t know what the answer is to when to call it quits and take a break. Because I have an awful feeling that once writing worms its way around your heart, you have a hard time turning away from it. I’ve known some people who have, though, but I think later in their lives, they might return to it.
Writing, for me, is a wonderful/terrible addiction. I haven’t learned how to say ‘no’ to it.
October 27, 2021
The Three Acts: Act2, Part 1
C.S. Boyack is giving a great explanation of the three act play for writing on Story Empire. Thought I’d share.
Hi, Gang. Craig with you again with a continuation of my series about Three Act Structure. Many of you enjoyed the post about Act 1, but if you missed it, here is a link.
By the end of Act 1, we should have the setting, main character(s), problem being faced, and stakes well defined.
I’m going to start today’s post with motion. While it isn’t completely required, making your character enter a strange environment adds tension and obstacles to the adventure. This happens somewhere late in Act 1, or early in Act 2. I milked the Godzilla mythos pretty heavily last time, but let’s visit it again. Your character has to deal with this issue in Japan, does not speak Japanese, and has no idea how to get around. He might be reduced to pointing at the distant destruction and yelling to go there. Might not be too productive…
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October 26, 2021
Need a Little Magic in Your Life?
It’s October, time to reach for stories with a little magic, and one of my favorite authors (both as a writer and as a blog friend) wrote a collection of short stories that I grabbed the minute the book came out. Mae Clair’s writing has a certain elegance I admire. I’m happy she agreed to visit my blog today to tell you about THINGS OLD AND FORGOTTEN. Take it away, Mae!
Hi, Judi! Many thanks for hosting me today and allowing me to share my newest release with your readers. Although my preferred genre as an author is mystery and suspense, most of my work includes an element of myth, the supernatural, or a beastie from urban legend. With Things Old and Forgotten, I’ve chosen to focus on magical realism, fantasy, and yes—creatures of myth and the paranormal.
The title relates to various elements of the book, including unique spins on the legends of King Arthur, Robin Hood, and Taliesin. Tales harken back to the day (erm, decade) when I wrote fantasy, speculative fiction, and magical realism almost exclusively. You’ll discover redemption in the desert, a man in need of a ghost confessor, courage when facing a deadly leviathan, and a sorcerer whose power wanes with the dawn.
The title of the book comes from a poem I wrote many years (erm, decades) ago which explored my love for things old and forgotten—a passion I’ve had since childhood. I won’t repeat the entire poem here, just these few verses.
If I build a mountain from memories alone,
there is no Phoenix to rise from the pyre,
no rebirth of vision on Icarus’s wings,
nothing to recall Camelot’s fire.
Taliesin sang in the halls of kings,
Tristan waited for a sail of white,
Merlin played our hearts like strings,
but Arthur held the candle’s light.
Beneath the moon the fen lies barren,
Taliesin’s ballads forever survive,
the bard weaves magic in ancient tales,
keeping things old and forgotten, forever alive.
BOOK BLURB:
A man keeping King Arthur’s dream of Camelot alive.
A Robin Hood battling in a drastically different Sherwood.
A young man facing eternity in the desert.
A genteel southern lady besting a powerful order of genies.
A woman meeting her father decades after his death.
These are but a few of the intriguing tales waiting to be discovered in Things Old and Forgotten. Prepare to be transported to realms of folklore and legend, where magic and wonder linger around every corner, and fantastic possibilities are limited only by imagination.
As with any collection of short fiction, selecting a few stories here and there is perfect for a lunchbreak or coffee time. And don’t forget relaxing with a glass of wine in the evening or a short tale to wind down the day.
Thanks again for hosting me Judi. In honor of my love for autumn—a fantastic time to curl up with a book—Things Old and Forgotten will be on sale for .99c through October 31st. Thank you again for helping me celebrate today.
US
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HP4Q6QC/r
UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09HP4Q6QC/
Connect with Mae Clair at BOOKBUB and the following haunts:
Amazon| BookBub| Newsletter Sign-Up
Website | Blog| Twitter| Goodreads| All Social Media
October 22, 2021
FREE, Oct. 22nd to 26th
Just wanted to let you know that POSED IN DEATH, my darker mystery, is free now.
Laurel is a widow with grown children, and she suffers from empty nest syndrome. She fills in her time by doing volunteer work, and she’s become a close friend of Maxine, who volunteers with her two days a week at the Botanical Gardens. Maxine’s husband spends as little time as possible with her, so she’s suffering from loneliness, too, after her youngest son starts college. When Maxine’s car is in the repair shop, Laurel stops to give her a ride to the gardens, only to find her dead, an apparent victim of the Midlife Murderer. Maxine fits the killer’s usual agenda of killing attractive women in their forties who have long lush hair, but his victims usually cheat on their husbands, and Maxine never did. Or did she, and Laurel never knew?I based the character of Maxine on a woman I met when I used to go to our local, dinner theater to see every play. Not so much to see the performances, but because my friend’s Aunt Betty and her friend Fran sat at our table, along with four other older ladies, and they were all vibrant, intelligent, opinionated, and FUN. All widows. I’d come home to tell my husband (who worked second trick at the time) that I wanted to grow up to be just like them, except I’d let HH stick around:) Aunt Betty spent hours volunteering at the SPCA. Fran was in her eighties and was a seamstress for all of the local theater groups. She was always busy. Maxine isn’t as vivacious as Fran, but she sews for all of the local productions, too. Those ladies inspired me.
Anyway, POSED IN DEATH is darker than my usual cozies, so I thought it might fit the October scarier theme. If you try it, I hope you like it.
October 20, 2021
I love being a critique partner!
My fellow writer friend and I exchange manuscripts. We’re a good match, and that’s not so easy to find. There are many, many wonderful critique readers out there, but only a few that click with me and what I write. M.L. Rigdon/Julia Donner and I appreciate each other’s style and stories. I sharpen my red pencils to read her manuscripts, and she gleefully bloodies mine…but only gently and generously. We’re fans of each other’s works and only mark things that trip us up or don’t work for us. I don’t want her to write like I do, and she doesn’t try to change me..
Right now, she’s given me her next Regency romance to critique. I love Regency novels, both romances and mysteries. I love historical settings. So I’m a happy reader. And the truth is, I just plain enjoy Julia Donner’s writing style. So this doesn’t FEEL like work to me. It feels like I get to be naughty and peek at the book before anyone else gets to see it. Score one for me!
My daughter, Holly, reads my manuscripts, too. But what’s nice about her feedback is that she reads them as a READER. I know, that may sound odd. But readers notice things that writers don’t. We have different hang-ups. Holly tells me when she loses interest and puts the pages down for a while. She tells me if a character didn’t pull her in. It doesn’t matter if the writing and the words all work. She just wants to be pulled into the story and stay there. She wants to be disappointed when the book ends. M.L. marks when I tell, don’t show, when I go off track and my tension sags and she loses the storyline. And that’s sometimes the same. But Holly doesn’t care as much about skill as she does story. And occasionally, that’s a different thing.
For me, I think I’ve found a perfect balance. I get to read M.L. Rigdon’s/Julia Donner’s books, and I have a writer AND a reader who read my stuff. Once in a while, I get lucky and Kathleen Palm lets me see one of her manuscripts (horror or YA or Middle Grade), and once in a while, she’ll read something of mine and give me feedback. She reminds me to focus on feelings/descriptions/internal dialogue. I rarely look at anyone else’s work or ask them to look at mine. Honestly, I just don’t have the time, but recently, I read Jennifer Bee’s soon-to-be released thriller, THE KILLING CAROL, and it was a great read. I hope it has huge success when it’s released.
For the moment, I’ve found a happy fit for my work. Finding the right critique partner/s is a wonderful thing. If you’re a writer, I hope you find your perfect fit. The right person helps you catch things you don’t see and he or she does his/her best to make your writing as good as it can be.
October 17, 2021
Short stories
I love short stories. I love reading them. I love writing them. That’s why every once in a while, I post one on the blog. I think of an idea that I just can’t say no to. So I write it and put it up here. I just finished reading Mae Clair’s short story collection, THINGS OLD AND FORGOTTEN.
I invited Mae to my blog to talk about it later this month, (on the 26th), but I couldn’t wait to tell you how much I loved the collection. It has a little bit of many things I love. Some fantasy, beautiful language, and stories that wriggle into your brain to stay a while. And right now, it’s only 99 cents.I’ll let Mae tell you more about her work when she stops by, but for now, I’m just saying, I haven’t bought anything for less than a buck that I’ve enjoyed so much for a long time.
October 15, 2021
Childhood
I recently read D.L. Finn’s post on the Story Empire blog. It was about retaining the child in you and putting the fun back into writing. https://storyempirecom.wordpress.com/2021/10/06/writing-and-fun/ I admire people who can keep the enthusiasm and joy of their youth. I’m not sure I ever had it to begin with, though. According to my mom, I was born a skeptic and a somber sides. And she didn’t say that just to bug me. I believe each child comes out of the womb with their own personality intact, and all parents and adults can do is work with what they get. Mom swears I was born “an old soul.”
Now, I’m not saying I don’t enjoy life. I do. I take pleasure in all kinds of things–my flower beds, cooking, kids and friends. I’m a happy person, but not a carefree one. Fun is for special occasions. And I’m fine with that. My husband says I think too much. And maybe I do.
My kids loved to visit one of the neighborhood moms, because she was FUN. She was sort of a kid herself, always up for a good time. Lots of laughter. Playful. The same kids loved to hang out at our house, because I was always there for them. We each have our own strengths. But D.L. Finn’s post, which obviously stuck with me, made me think about childhood.
I had a mom and dad who loved me. I had two sisters who were my best friends. Our lives were secure. Good. The nine kids who grew up across the street from us were mostly neglected and left to their own devices. The boy who lived next door to them had a mom who chased him into the front yard when she was angry, knocked him down, and kicked him until my mom would go out and yell, “Stop! Now. Or I’m making a call.” And all of those kids grew up fine.
I thought about them when I was reading another Louis Kincaid mystery by P.J. Parrish, THE DAMAGE DONE. Nothing in Louis’s childhood was happy. His life didn’t get better until he was twelve. The focus of the book is on childhood abuse and things from the past that get so deeply buried, they have to be dug up to be released. Only then can a person be freed from them to move on. When I realized the book’s theme, I was worried. Like me, Louis isn’t a carefree type of guy, and unlike me, he usually ends each book disappointed by something in his life. It was a nice surprise when Louis actually works through some of the baggage he’s been carrying for a long time. Each person on his new cold case team has emotional baggage, and my hope is that each book in the future deals with how each of his colleagues frees himself from his past. It might be too much to hope for, but it would be nice.
I taught elementary school for six years before I had my girls and before the rules changed so that I couldn’t go back to teaching. (I got my Master’s Degree and priced myself out of the job market. Maybe a good thing or I would have never started writing. Who knows? Maybe it was destiny, but I wasn’t too happy about it at the time).
Anyway, I taught fist grade twice, second grade twice, and fourth grade twice. And I learned this. Some kids are going to succeed no matter what the odds are. Some kids have all kinds of brains and talent and don’t care. Some kids have wonderful parents and make a mess of their lives. Some have horrible parents and rise above them. But boy, each disadvantage stacked against a kid just makes it that much harder for him. It’s not impossible. It’s just hard. In The Damage Done, Louis and his team have all been damaged by life, but they all have the means to put their pasts behind them. Not true of the villain/killer in the story. He’s damaged beyond repair.
A SPOILER ALERT. STOP NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW. The killer’s brother doesn’t think so when it happens, but he gets lucky when their father rejects him and gives him to someone else to raise. It leaves a terrible scar, but the brother has hope at the end of the book. Maybe. The villain thinks being his dad’s favorite is a blessing. It’s not. And sometimes, life is like that, isn’t it? What looks good isn’t, and what we curse, ends up saving us.
