James M. Jackson's Blog, page 11

Second Edition - Chance for a do-over

This past Wednesday, all the rights to Bad Policy officially reverted from my publisher to me and the second edition went live using my publishing company, Wolf's Echo Press. I’ve already discussed the self-imposed angst I generated by reediting and reformatting the book. Today I want to talk about one of the things independent authors often say they most cherish, the ability to choose how to price and promote their books.
The print decisions were fairly easy to make because I’ve had practice...

Guest Author - Debra H. Goldstein

Debra H. Goldstein is the author of Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery (April 2016) and 2012 IPPY Award winning Maze in Blue. She also writes short stories and non-fiction.
What is the background noise when you write and why is it there?
For me, the background noise when I write can best be defined as “It depends.”. Hard rock, heavy metal and rap agitate me, but songs with strong lyrics relax me to the point that my writing flows. My first book, Maze in...

Lexi Revellian - Guest Author

Please welcome Lexi Revellian, a fellow Kindle Scout winner, as today’s guest author. She says: I’m a London jeweller/silversmith who also writes feel good page-turners. The latest is my Kindle Scout winner, The Trouble with Time, (Time Rats Book 1) . (Ed. Note: I didn’t Americanize the English spellings.)
What is the background noise when you write and why is it there?
Ideally, I’d like silence to write in. I have a fantasy of a house with a walled garden in the middle of a forest, where I and...

P.A. De Voe - Guest Author

P.A. De Voe is an anthropologist, an Asian specialist, and an incorrigible magpie for collecting seemingly irrelevant information. I first met her in the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Her short stories and YA adventure/mystery trilogy are set in ancient China.
What is the background noise when you write and why is it there?
Nowadays, I write in a quiet environment. Even music distracts me. I trained myself a long time ago to work with noise all around me. However, today I have the luxury o...

Nancy Raven Smith - Guest Author

Nancy Raven Smith is a fellow Kindle Scout winner and member of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime. She says this about herself: I am an avid reader and former screenwriter who came to writing novels late in life. Mysteries and suspense with some humor and romance are what I love to write.
You have an all-expense-paid long weekend to spend with three guests. The Starship Enterprise has agreed to beam you to the place of your choosing, so travel time is not a consideration. Who are your gue...

Guest Author - R. E. Carr

I am the lucky girl who fulfilled a twenty-one year old dream by getting a novel polished. I embrace the wacky and macabre and won’t be stopping any time soon.
What is the background noise when you write and why is it there?
I almost always write to music. Whenever I am dreaming up a book, it’s like a movie scrolling through my head and every movie needs a brilliant soundtrack. I sometimes think that I’m in The Matrix though, because it’s an awful lot of Techno that keeps me going nowadays.
What...

Northern Lights

As many of you know, Jan and I recently embarked on a nearly two-week vacation with the primary purpose of enjoying ourselves in new territory and experiencing the aurora borealis. The pictures decorating this blog are ones I took on this trip. Neither of us had ever been to Churchill, Manitoba or anywhere on Hudson’s Bay, and we enjoyed the two-day train ride up from Winnipeg. Jan had never seen the northern lights, but I had seen them on several occasions in the vicinity of our camp in Mich...

Guest Author - Katie O'Rourke

Fellow Kindle Scout author Katie O’Rourke is a writer of contemporary fiction and women’s fiction. She’s a hybrid author with traditionally published and self-published books. Her latest novel, Finding Charlie, was selected for publication by KindlePress.

[The stars aligned for this long-scheduled post: KindlePress has put the Kindle version of Finding Charlie is on sale today for $0.99!]
What is your most recent excellent read (book, short story or essay) and why?
Celeste Ng'sdebut, Everyt...

Polly Iyer - Guest Blog

Polly Iyer is the Kindle bestselling author of eight suspense/thriller novels, including Kindle Scout winner, Indiscretion. She’s working on the fourth book in the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series.
You have an all-expense-paid long weekend to spend with three guests. The Starship Enterprise has agreed to beam you to the place of your choosing, so travel time is not a consideration. Who are your guests (and why) and where are you staying (and why)?
I thought about all the interesting/famous...

Elizabeth Zelvin - Guest Author

Please welcome fellow Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime member and Kindle Press author Elizabeth Zelvin. She  is author of the Bruce Kohler mysteries and historical novels Voyage of Strangers and Journey of Strangers. Her stories have been nominated for the Agatha and Derringer awards.
Are you a plotter, pantser or something in between and why?
I don't outline, but I detest the word "pantser," which sounds pejorative to me. I'm an "into the mist" writer, ie I can see only a little way ahea...