T.K. Rayford's Blog, page 5

Huge contest: Win a copy of Abstrus

Just to get this out there, without standing on my soap box too long, I will just say that Black Friday is evil.  But let me explain... I guess it's not fair for me to say that really, but now stores are so hungry to get your money that they're pulling their employees away from their families on Thanksgiving to try to one-up each other by opening earlier.  So.... now I guess, it's gray Thursday.  Maybe in future years, we will have gotten all the way to mother-of-pearl Monday.  I just think that it's pretty ridiculous to impede on people's holiday with their families.  I'm sure those who sit around a round table in business suits making decisions for these stores, the big shots if you will, are no where near the stores on the holidays.  I wonder if the decision making would be a bit different if they were the ones being pulled away from their families to work. Needless to say, I will not be shopping anywhere on Thanksgiving or Black Friday.  And now I step down from my soap box.

See, that wasn't too bad, was it?

In TK news, I was so excited to be invited by JoAnne over at The Fairytale Nerd.  She is hosting a HUGE Abstrus giveaway, so make sure you check it out! You have the chance to win 1 of 2 paperback copies of Abstrus or 1 of 2 ebook copies.  Check out the post here.  The instructions to enter the contest are at the bottom of the post.  Make sure to enter and leave a comment.

In the meantime, I'm looking for a really good "Homer Simpson Says" for twitter tomorrow.  Gotta love the Homie.

A Little Bit of Motivation

A great thing about NaNoWriMo, almost as great as setting a daily word count goal, is the pep talks.  Getting to hear from some established writers who are motivating you is great.  I know I have been gushing for a while about NaNo so I will make it quick.  I just wanted to share this quote from Chris Cleave's pep talk, because not only can it be applied to writing, but to anything that we are striving to be... and the best thing any of us can get when working toward a goal is motivation.

"The only bad days as a writer are the ones when you are too cowardly or too lazy to sit down at the keyboard and give it everything you have. If you can sit down at the keyboard every day in November and give it everything you have, then there is no writer on earth who is better than you."

Now just replace "writer" with your title, keyboard with your medium, and November with your time frame.  Pretty powerful stuff, huh? Yeah, I thought so too. 

And in TK news today, a snippet from Abstrus was featured by Bryan on his blog Indie Snippets.  Check it out here.  And make sure to take a look around the blog.  It's completely dedicated to works by indie authors.  Definitely worth a gander. 

Also, don't forget the contest going on over on the facebook fan page.  Like the page here for a chance to win free goodies, a t-shirt, or a free signed copy of Abstrus

Whaddya Know... Another Interview

The past week has been sorta weird for me, solely because I've been more productive than I think I have ever been in my whole life.  Funny thing is, I kinda like the feeling.  Maybe I will try to be less of a slacker in the future.  What I'm finding through participating in NaNoWriMo is that setting goals is so important.  I am officially an advocate for goals.  So set all kinds of goals people! Set a goal to get up 5 minutes earlier in the morning.  Or maybe your goal can be to actually be productive on your job or to eat a healthier dinner.  Set those small goals.  And then set  the ones that are long term too.  Like procure a million dollars and a bag of gummy worms within the next year.  But be careful if you set that one... I find that good gummy worms can be very elusive. 

The feeling that you get when you reach a goal that you've set and actively worked to obtain is indescribable.  Every day when I reach my short term word count goal I feel so accomplished.  And  I'm really a hot shot if I exceed the goal.  But then there will always be those days in there when I fall short, but at least I will have gotten something done.

And in other TK news.  Someone else thought I was at least a little bit interesting and posted an interview with me.  Check out Sarah over at Words by Williams.  You can find my interview here.  And make sure you check out her other interviews.  There are some really great authors and books there. 

Also, there's another contest over on Facebook.  Like the TK Rayford fan page for your chance to be 1 of 3 winners.  #1 will receive Abstrus swag.  #2 will receive a long sleeve Abstrus shirt just in time for winter.  And #3 will receive a signed copy of Abstrus.  Click here to enter.  Good luck!

I'm Interesting Enough to Interview??

I'm still coming to you from the island of NaNoWriMo.  It's nice here, and I love it... I truly do.  But I must admit, the regimen is strict.  That's not a bad thing, especially considering how I need guidelines and especially deadlines if I'm ever to get anything done.  I'm proud to say that I have been sticking to the 1,600 words a day that I'm supposed to be writing.  Haven't missed a day yet and I'm very excited.  Book # 2 is really coming along.  I'm thinking about making every month National Novel Writing Month (at least in my house).  That way, I'm sure to do a lot more writing and a lot less procrastinating.  For those of you who don't have goals set, I encourage you to set one.  Boy does it feel good when you reach it.  So, I said all that to say, I'm still chugging away at the goal of at least 50,000 words this month.

And in other news, I got to do an interview over at Tom Taylor's blog.  It was great talking with him.  You can check it out here. Also, be sure to browse around over there and see what other good stuff he's got cooking.

I haven't written my target # of words for today, so I must leave you for the time being to go play in a world where aliens do exist and you really should be paranoid because they are out to get you.

Greetings from NaNoWriMo!

Ok, so I am a little later than most writer types.  I just found out yesterday that November is National Novel Writing Month.  They have a month for everything these days.  But I couldn't be more excited.  NaNoWriMo is the perfect motivation for all the procrastinating writers of the world.  Most people who don't write believe that writing is the easiest thing in the world to do.  I mean, how hard could thinking of something and writing it down really be? The answer is: most days, not all that hard.  But the writing is the easy part.  Actually sitting down and putting pen to the paper (or fingertips to the keyboard in most cases these days) as turned out to be the hardest thing ever  for me.  Life is always happening every minute of every day outside of the fictitious worlds that I craft; always a load of laundry to wash, ornery mouths waiting for dinner to be cooked, workplaces waiting for the time clock to be punched... etc, etc, etc, so on and so forth.  Not saying that the dreaded writer's block isn't a very real thing, but for me, sometimes picking up the laptop looks less appealing than stealing a few moments to myself, stuffing junk food in my face and watching trashy reality TV.  (Don't judge me. It's a guilty pleasure.)



NaNoWriMo brilliantly brings writers together, motivating one another to get their targeted word count completed every day.  And that's just what I need.  I'm already ahead of my targeted # of words so at this rate, the new book will be complete and ready for editing in no time.  You can check out the NaNoWriMo site here and see how awesome it is for yourselves.

Don't forget to get your copy of Abstrus for Kindle or paperback here,  for Nook here, or at Smashwords here.

And keep the name suggestions coming for Name the Character.  Your character just might surprise you by showing up in the new book.

My Own NBA Lockout

Well I feel like an NBA player... minus the millions of dollars and athleticism.  And yes, comparing myself to a basketball player is wishful thinking.  Not because I want to play ball when I grow up, but because it helps me feel less guilty about being a slacker.  Kobe and KG are not working, not because they are lazy procrastinators, but by force.  The lazy procrastinator title definitely applies to me for the past week though.  I was supposed to write 30 pages this week (and no I'm not going to tell how many I've actually written).  Let's just say I have fallen very short of that goal.  But here's to getting back on track.

And yes my random NBA talk is a result of my anger at the lockout.  It's really hitting me how much I miss watching the games.  But let me step off of my soap box before I can get solid footing on it.  (GO CELTS and GRIZZLIES!!)

Miss Lynn, over at Miss Lynn's Books and More, did a great review of Abstrus.  I was very excited to read it.  Make sure you go visit her here and read the review plus check out the blog in general. 

Also, don't forget to like the TK Rayford facebook fan page here. There are tons of contests coming!  And don't forget the Name the Character that's going on over there now.  Throw some character's name suggestions out and if chosen, you will see your character in the new book.

Oh and I didn't get to go to my haunted corn maze either... I'm disappointed and sighing in relief simultaneously.

For the Scaredy Cats in the Room

Welcome to "I'm Afraid of Everything Land", population 1.  Well, ok, I'm not afraid of literally everything, but close to it.  The dark and I are definitely not friends, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. 

It took me a while when I was little to realize that the best way to avoid the nightmares was to avoid the scary movie before bedtime.  I still to this day will not even watch some movie trailers, depending on the level of scary.  No Paranormal Activity for me...  Go on, point and laugh, but I'm still not going to taint my eyes with the poltergeists exorcisms on screen.  I think it has something to do with being a writer.  My imagination is a crazy place (be thankful you're only caught inside for short periods of time by way of literature) so a scary dream in my head is no fun at all.

And I said all of that to say that Halloween is almost here and I think I want to do a haunted corn maze.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  I'm such a consistent person.  I can't explain my reasoning, but this sudden urge to scare myself to death and not be able to sleep until Christmas just hit me all of a sudden.  I'm wondering if anyone else has gone through one before.  Is it as bad as I'm planning for it to be?

Hopefully I don't end up being the one calling someone to come and get me out.  That would be a bit more embarrassing than admitting my fear of the dark. 

New Things Excite Me

New stuff makes me happy, and not always the kind that can be purchased in a store.  I thoroughly enjoy rearranging furniture or painting a door a new color.  Sometimes those kind of changes can improve things and other times, not so much.  I revamped the cover of Abstrus and I hope the change proves to be a good one.  I loved the old cover and still will be using it, but I also really like the colors and textures of the new one.  Let me know which cover you prefer.

Old cover

New cover
OAN, I received this quote in my email, and it couldn't have come at a better time.  It spoke to exactly how I've been feeling, but we all know perseverance is the name of the game.
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." -Unknown     

I Wish I Had the Memory of a 7 Year Old

My son is the most social person I know.  And it kind of makes sense, because somebody had to play the role. He's almost my exact oposite when it comes to human relations. I'm the stereotypical brooding, dark, loner type artist - well that's not completely true... okay, it's not true at all, but necessary to make my point.  But now I'm not even sure of my point or if I even had one to begin with.  Anyway, the fact of the matter is that he is extrememly social.  He can and will start up a conversation with anyone about literally anything... Which creates problems for him in school.  Straight A's but just can't seem to stop talking in class.

So here's the thing that blew me away. It's not like I was surprised to learn that my 7 year old is smarter than me.  I think that's a given.  But I must admit I got a bit jealous.  Due to his non-stop blabber at school, he got his DVD player revoked.  I know, I know.  Such harsh punishment... but if I don't do it then who will?  And let me tell ya, this isn't any ordinary DVD player.  His name is Ramon and he happens to be famous.  Heard of Disney's film Cars?

So that's Ramon.  Cool isn't he? His hood pops up for you to put the movie in. But I digress.  So, my kid improved 100% by not talking in class, but I forgot to give him back Ramon.  As I was putting him to bed last night I told him, "Remind me tomorrow to put Ramon back."  I was amazed and as I said before, a little jealous when I woke him at 6:30am this morning for school, and the first thing he said was, "Mommy, don't forget to put Ramon back." If you told me to remind you of something in 5 minutes at 6:30 PM, I would probably still forget.  I still have trouble sometimes remembering someone's hair color in some of my stories.  (See how I related this all to writing? ) And on that note, if you ever notice an inconsistency in someone's hair color, do let me know.
And that was my random post for the night.  And as a side note I think it's hilarous that my mother can't pronounce Abstrus.  She still calls them the people from Abstraught.  Hahaha!!! So to throw it out there for the record (HA) it's pronounced Abs.trus- like you're going to say trust but without the "t". 
And don't forget about the giveaways for liking the fb fanpage.  Only 2 more likes until 20 and that person will be receiving some great Abstrus stuff.  Like #25 gets a t-shirt and #30 a free signed copy of the book. Click here.

The Good, the Bad... The Fizzled

The past couple of days have been a tad bit rough, but what can ya do? It's the nature of the beast right?  I've worked my 9-5 for 10 days straight, plus all the extra madness floating through the halls of my life.  I feel like it's been a revolving door of crazy, but luckily I haven't gone completely insane yet... so stay tuned. But then that's my own opinion.  I'm sure my fascination with ellipses says that something's not quite right in my head.

I'm finally at the stage where I can appreciate this statement that I read somewhere (can't really recall where): now that your book is complete, the hard work begins.  Silly me for thinking getting Abstrus finished would be the hardest thing I had to do.  Turns out that getting others as excited about it as I am is even harder when there are so many other great authors and books out there.  But if it takes years, as I'm told it does, then you'll find me still plugging away at it.

Thankfully, and none too soon, I ran into a silver louding in my week of dark clouds.  The amazing Leanore Elliot, or more fondly, Wicked Lenore, made Abstrus one of the books she features on her site Soul Circle. Click here. She has fanned the flame that was fizzling a bit for me this week. 

I've been working on some exciting stuff that I will be sharing soon so keep an eye out.

And don't forget about the contest! The 20th person to like the tk Rayford facebook fan page will receive Abstrus swag, the 25th person will receive an Abstrus t-shirt, and the 30th will receive a free copy of Abstrus. Click here.