Amanda Meuwissen's Blog, page 11

Galaxy Con 2019

Galaxy Con was my favorite kind of success because not only did I have a hoot as a geek, I also met a ton of readers, made some new fans, and SOLD OUT of copies of Coming Up for Air.I dressed up as Deanna Troi the first day, Ms. Marvel the second, and Captain Cold the third.Other highlights were meeting Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation) and John Wesley Shipp (the original Flash from the 90s and so many other things; I seriously squeed, he was such a joy to meet), and then when Michael Rooker walked through Artist Alley and talked with me live on Instagram. Be still my fangirl heart. Stay tuned for future shows (maybe even some out of Minnesota in 2020) and the chance to meet me in person!

Fall Con Fun & Galaxy Con to Come

I’m doomed to chilly weather for all my events this year, it seems, because it was rainy and cool at Fall Con at the MN State Fair Grounds but still a wonderful time.This event, the one-day wonder, as they call it, since it’s the single-day version of the two-day MSP ComiCon in the Spring, is put on by the MCBA (Midwest Comic Book Association)and just a joy every time.I had the pleasure of sharing table space with Brass Marionette for the second time, who made a kickass Linda Belcher.The Education center at the fair grounds was filled with creators showing off their art, stories, and crafts alike. It was great to see old and new fans, and I hope that those of you who couldn’t stop by can attend one or all three days of the upcoming Galaxy Conat the Minneapolis Convention Center on November 8-10.I will be about center front of the creator section once you’ve entered the building, and you’ll either find me in the Ms. Marvel costume I wore at Fall Con, my blue Next Gen Starfleet uniform in honor of Jonathan Frakes being there (Riker!), or look for the sexy merman sign. ^_-I’d also like to welcome fans to join my private author group on Facebook. I post four days a week, mostly small snippets about current and future works, and try to get conversations going with fans and fellow writers. I’d love to see you there or in person at Galaxy Con.Stay tuned for more!

Autumn Adventures for Gay Romance in Minnesota

I had a great time at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival on a cold and rainy weekend. It was their Wine, Chocolate & Romance weekend, so I figured I’d throw my hat in to be a guest in the theme weekend events section. Even tucked into the back with that less than perfect weather, I sold several book bundles.Thank you to everyone who stopped by!For those who don’t know, while my books are available as both paperbacks and eBooks online, I of course sign any copies I sell in person at events, but I also do series bundle pricing with a certain amount off, remove tax for anyone who purchases more than one book, and have a very nice discount if people purchase the whole lot of my titles.I have a few more events coming up. Next is Fall Con at the MN State Fairgrounds on October 5, 2019, which is a great event for creators, including comic artists, other authors, and just a fun time with costumes all around. Then there’s Galaxy Con at the Minneapolis Convention Center (which is a new event) November 8-10th.That one is a larger comic con type with celebrity guests (I need autographs and/or photos from Jonathan Frakes, John Wesley Shipp, and David Tenant), and I’ll have three whole days to dress up and enjoy the con while selling books.If anyone is in my area or close enough to make the trip, check out those events and looks for me!My upcoming releases (Interpretive Hearts on November 19th and After Vertigo on December 10th) won’t be ready in time for these shows, but they will be for Spring Con next May and are available for pre-order.Aand honestly, if anyone who can’t attend a show wants to hit me up for a signed physical copy, I might be able to work something out. ^_^

After Vertigo - Cover Reveal & Pre-Order

I never thought I’d be celebrating yet another release in the same year—this will be 4!!!—but my upcoming urban fantasy title, After Vertigo, through the Dreamspinner Press imprint, DSP Publications, is set for December 10, 2019, and available for pre-order now.This one is special as it is dedicated to my husband, who is a constant source of support, but also because it is basically a love-letter to comic books, one of the things that brought us together. It also has a cameo of a cat that bears a striking resemblance in personality and appearance to my own kitty, Helga.I could not be happier with how the cover turned out (and the artist’s patience with me and my nitpicks) and hope this tale offers something special for those of you who enjoy a ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ finding love in each other, especially since neither of them fits the molds they’ve been cast in.Here’s a sneak peek!In a flash, the world changed. A solar flare—later dubbed Vertigo—activated the DNA of more than half the world’s people, granting them special abilities. Brilliant scientist Benjamin Krane might be Powerless, but his inventions are the only thing giving the police a fighting chance against super-powered evil. Ben doesn’t have much of a life beyond work, and when he gets wind of a robbery one evening, he decides to test his newest invention personally….A thief, rogue, and shameless flirt, Grey Miller—aka the Streak—likes shiny things, but he doesn’t hurt people. When Ben catches him—and proposes they team up against the real bad guys—Grey doesn’t know whether it’s the offer or the man he can’t resist. But one thing’s for sure—they’re an ideal match in more ways than one.With a psychotic supervillain’s catastrophic plan moving forward and everyone he cares about in danger, now might not be the best time for Ben to give in to Grey’s seduction, no matter how tempting. Grey is a man of secrets, and if Ben wants a future with him, he’ll have to learn to trust Grey—and himself.Pre-order now!

Interpretive Hearts - Cover Reveal & Pre-Order

My next release is already on the horizon, another contemporary romance title that I am really excited for, and while the Dreamspun Desires series has limitation on what I can do for covers, I once again love how it turned out.Official release is set for November 19, 2019, but you can pre-order HERE. Here's what you need to know about this new romance:Love is easy once you learn the steps.In the competitive world of dance, Teddy was a flawless performer and hardass choreographer who students feared and admired in equal measure. But hip surgery ended the glamour and drama, and now Teddy is recovering at his beach house, lost and listless.Until he meets Finn, his neighbor, who is too perfect, gorgeous, and kind to exist—but very ill timed. In a seaside town as small as theirs, they can’t avoid each other, especially since Finn is also Teddy’s new physical therapist. But Teddy isn’t the man he used to be, and though Finn flirts shamelessly with him, Teddy can’t believe a has-been dancer is worthy of someone so young and full of life. Finn’s sunny smile is also hiding heartache. Pursuing Teddy challenges both his professionalism and his self-preservation, but if he can convince Teddy to trust him, maybe they both can heal. PRE-ORDER NOW

Authors don’t compete with each other—only ourselves.

Writing often is (and I think should be) a community effort. My newest release, Coming Up for Air, is dedicated to Regan Moore, an online friend of mine who is a master at coming up with prompts and matching imagery to inspire others.In this case, she had the idea of a criminal being dropped in the river and then being saved by a merman who steps on land afterward to seek him out and find love, a sort of modern take on The Little Mermaid. I took that prompt, that starting idea, and ran with it, making it my own, but all because of the community of sharing and discourse that I’ve had the pleasure of participating in online.I love when fellow writers want to take prompts I’ve come up with that I know I’m not going to write myself, and I have had so many inspirational ideas come from others, even if I end up changing a lot from starting idea to finished novel.I often tell people that my favorite part about being an author is that we don’t compete with each other—or at least we shouldn’t. We compete with ourselves, to better ourselves with each new story, but we’re not fighting for the same readers. Readers want more to read all the time, so when we help each other, encourage each other, read and review for each other, we circulate a better community and make each other (and ourselves) more successful.That’s why I never hesitate to offer to beta read for friends (when I have time, and sometimes even when I don’t) because I love seeing someone else succeed with their stories just as much as I enjoy success with my own.Coming Up for Air allowed me to create not only a unique love story but some of my favorite side characters too, all my creation, but they never would have existed without Regan’s prompt. Copyright and being careful with our intellectual property are important, but so is coming together and remembering why we write to begin with—because we have stories to share.I have more ideas in my back pocket for future books than I’ll likely ever be able to write, largely because of my online community of writers and readers. Thank you to everyone who has ever given me a prompt, whether I wrote a drabble from it or a novel, but a big thank you to Regan for giving me the inspiration for Coming Up for Air.

If it hurts, it’s working

I am not a fulltime author. By day, I’m in marketing for a customer engagement software company that caters to auto dealers. This year, we’ve been utilizing a fantastic sales coach to help train our sales team, and I’ve had the pleasure of sitting in.Remember being a kid and having your parent or guardian put Chapstick on you for the first time when you had chapped lips, and when it hurt, they said that just means it’s working?Sales training is like that.Likewise, exercises that really help you grow as a writer or push you to see the flaws and holes in your current project sometimes need to hurt too in order to work.Dreamspinner Press and their various imprints and team members that I’ve had the pleasure of working with has been a joy from start to finish—until they rolled out GMC (Goal – Motivation – Conflict) Charts for submissions.I kid, but this type of exercise, no matter how well you know your main characters and the story you want to tell, is just plain hard. It’s also supremely helpful once you push through the initial suffering.You start with basic character info, describing the character’s personality, past, and how and why they ended up where they are at the start of the story. The harder part comes in describing their external and internal goals, motivations, and conflicts to flush out what they want, why they want it, and what they need to overcome during the story to achieve it.You can see why this would be useful, especially when first plotting a story, but it’s harder than you might think to take what seems obvious to you as the author and make sure everything comes across well in the events and obstacles your characters face.Never forget to ask the question – why? If the answer is plot convenience, you need to rethink things.I recommend to all writers, especially those looking to be published for the first time, to try this exercise, whether your story idea is in its infancy or almost a finished manuscript.First, who is your character? What are their positive and negative personality traits, their background/family history/relevant past events and influences, and any negative traits they need to work on because of that past.Next, what do they want from an emotional standpoint (to be loved, for example) as well as professionally or socially driven (like a new job).Then, what motivates them to want those things, such as the background/past events previously described.And finally, what stands in their way from achieving these things?Internally, maybe they want to be loved but a bad childhood makes it difficult for them to connect with people. Externally, maybe the return of a past lover reminds them of all the things they dislike about themselves and has them second guess being able to move on with someone new.Ultimately, a happy ending means overcoming these obstacles, but without conflict, there is no story.Try your best to fit this exercise onto a single page. Be concise but specific, and no matter how much it may hurt, I promise you, you’ll pull back afterward and have a better understanding of your characters and how to make the best version of your story.Thanks, Dreamspinner. GMC Charts may be painful, but they are a tool every writer should use.

66 Days to Create Good Writing Habits

More than any other piece of advice, what people most often ask me is how do I foster good writing habits to create as much content as I do each year. The simple answer is I write every day, but that isn’t what people want to hear. Writing every day sounds hard. It sounds nearly impossible.Considering the amount of people (myself included) who try to break bad eating and exercise habits and fail, it’s no wonder we feel that way. We all wish there was an easy route to what we want to accomplish, but sadly, the difficult path is the only one that works.But back up. Writing every day, while it might sound difficult and does take discipline, isn’t as hard as you might think. It just starts with consistency, and over time, you can build on that more and more.When I say write every day, that doesn’t mean you have to write 2,000 words every day. Even a single sentence can be enough, but you must build the habit of writing something each day as a starting point.Developing discipline as a writer is the same as any good habit (or bad habit you want to break). I’ve heard varying numbers about how long it takes to make or break a habit, but the general rule is that it takes a little over two months, or around 66 days for something to become routine—for eating and exercise habits too, by the way.And I speak from experience, nothing is harder than the first two weeks of those 66 days, but if you can last that final push over two months, the third month is easy, and from there, it’s no longer a challenge to keep consistent.That’s why I have repeatedly told people who ask me this question that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month in November) is a great starting point for any writer to get into good habits with writing. It gives you your first 30 days right off the bat as a challenge. The trick is to not stop there.Another exercise I took on last year was an AU (alternate universe) a day challenge for a full month, which can easily be tailored to be a prompt a day challenge if you prefer. In my case, I took one of my favorite fandoms, the superhero world of DC Comics, and chose a different universe to place those characters in each day, so ultimately, I was creating a unique story every time but with familiar faces.Meaning, I wasn’t pumping out a full novel during this time like with NaNo, adding new chapters and scenes to a single story, I was dabbling in a different story every time I sat down to write.You don’t have to add to the same project every day if you don’t feel inspired from one day to another, just write something, some amount, and if you do take a day off, make it only ONE DAY. Any more than that, and you risk breaking the path to a good habit.

5 Tips for a Successful Author Convention

There are many kinds of conventions. The ones I’m most familiar with are comic cons (being a huge geek myself) and creator conventions where authors, artists, and craftsmen can share their work with others.I have had tables and wonderful experiences at both for my writing for close to a decade now and have learned a lot about what works best, what to hope for, and what is considered a successful experience.Here are 5 of my top tips for your next convention.Bring too many books – you can always save them for next con.I actually ran out of copies of the first book in my Incubus trilogy one year, not having prepared for how many I would sell. Whether you have inventory normally or purchase print-on-demand, order as many as you can the first time around, especially for a new con experience, and judge accordingly from there for future years based on sales.You can still never be sure what new people might discover you and how many books you might sell, so always overprepare rather than under. Readers love getting author-signed copies.Make it about the books, not swag.I’ve tried having posters of my book covers, and I always have bookmarks and my business card, but whenever I consider adding imagery from my covers to other merchandise, I remind myself that if I want someone to buy something of mine, I want it to be one of my novels, not a T-shirt or something else to fill up their arms or bag at a convention.Books take up enough space, so just like I think in all my marketing, keep your calls-to-action simple and singularly focused. I’m an author. I want to sell books, not swag.Be friendly with your table neighbors.This is just common sense and good manners, but there’s no reason to be rude or cold to the people who are going to be sitting near you for the next several hours (or days). Make friends wherever you can. We’re often all creators, whether of the same craft or not, and even other authors aren’t competition. We only compete with ourselves, because readers always want more stories to indulge in. Help each other. Be courteous. Offer to watch their things when they need to take a break or offer to grab a snack when you get up to get one for yourself. It just makes for a better overall experience.Plus, we usually give each other vendor deals come the end of the con to clean out last minute merch, but you’re not getting any dollars off if you’re a jerk.Have multiple payment options.These days people almost expect that you’ll be able to take a card payment, even at smaller conventions, because it’s so easy to offer that. Some use Square, I use Paypal, and it’s no huge cost to sign up and get the card reader you need to do this.On that note, also make sure to accept cash and therefore have a cashbox and plenty of change. That often means hitting the bank before a show to make sure you have enough $1s and $5s and coins. I only ever deposit large bills after a con and tend to keep the other cash in the box for next con.Asking for tax depends, in my opinion. You will have to pay in sales tax to your state come the beginning of next year, so best if you usually collect it to save that money for when taxes are due, but there are situations where it might be more prudent to round up or even down to make a sale or just make it easier on the buyer to pay with a clean $20.Enjoy yourself.I don’t just mean in general, though I do hope you enjoy any conventions you attend, but you also need to look like you’re enjoying yourself. A smile goes a long way for making a sale. It helps you and your table look more inviting.I tend to stand most of the time, and since I’m often at comic conventions, I also usually dress up as one of my favorite geeky characters. It reminds people that hey, I’m one of you too, I love this stuff, we can just talk about anything, and maybe if we have a lot in common, you might like one of my novels too.It’s a community experience, and you should have fun, whether sitting chatting with a table partner, your neighbors, or whoever stops by your booth.I hope these tips are useful for any new authors (or other creators) planning to attend conventions. My first one of 2019 is MSP SpringCon, May 18th and 19th, at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds. You can learn more HERE.

Coming Up for Air - Cover Reveal & Pre-order

Check out my new Dreamspinner Press novel: Coming Up for AirIt’s not easy being someone’s fairy tale.Leigh Hurley is making a name for himself among thieves and criminals, even if it isn’t the life he would’ve chosen. He shouldn’t have screwed over the Moretti brothers, though. It landed him in the river with weights on his feet. But somehow he’s escaped certain death. The last thing he remembers before waking on the riverbank is a beautiful face and a soft kiss.Then, Tolomeo turns up naked at Leigh’s apartment.Tolly comes from a race of killers—merfolk who drown humans for fun. But Tolly is different, and when he sees a human in trouble, he offers a kiss, granting the man the ability to breathe underwater… and himself the ability to walk on land, at least until the next full moon. The ancient laws state that if he is given a vow of love by the one he kissed, he will be able to keep his legs. If not, he will be put to death when he returns to the water.But love is not something Leigh offers easily… and Tolly has a secret of his own.PRE-ORDER NOW!Release Date: April 30, 2019 from Dreamspinner PressCover Artist: Tiferet Design Buy Links: Dreamspinner Press eBookand Paperback