R.J. Blain's Blog, page 15

REAM update: 19 Books Now available! (Plus some other stuff.)

Greetings, folks!

Before I disappear from the internet (for the most part) to enjoy the holidays, I have a few little bits of business for you lovely readers out there!

Subscription Services News

To open the show, my REAM now has eighteen novels for readers to enjoy on the $5 per month tier. The $10 tier has access to the first Royal States novel (Susan Copperfield.) REAM is my solution to giving people a legitimate way to read my novels for a low monthly fee if reading on Kobo Plus isn...

A little Bit of News, a Fun Promotion, and Whiskers on Kittens is Coming!!!!

Obligatory kitten picture. Because look at those sweet little kittens!

I’ll try to keep this somewhat brief.

1: Life-Debt is involved with a sampler promotion to help you find new books! All of the books (should be) in the Kobo Plus program, so if you’re looking for some science fiction romancey type books, please give this a click!

This promotion basically takes you to the retailers the books are sold at, so you can shop around for the books that look interesting. Check out the Kob...

A Love Letter to Other Writers

(Sorry, readers. This one isn’t for you… but you’re welcome to stick around and continue to read if you would like!)

Dear writer,

Let me open with a “Happy Holidays!” because life is hard, our choice to write often makes it harder, and spreading good cheer is never a bad thing. Right now, a lot of you are probably looking over your year in review and wondering what has happened? Where has time gone? Why didn’t things, like our writing, work out quite like we planned?

Here’s my year ...

You want to be an author? A Not-So-Quick Guide to the Self-Publishing World… (Late 2023 Edition)

Being an author is hard. Life, the universe, and everything can make it harder. This post is my attempt to give new writers a glimpse into the publishing world, all in one space. You’re going to find some information on the different types of publishing, the various paths available to you… and why NONE of the paths are the “right” one. It’s a personal decision.

Readers, if you’re interested about the ‘behind the curtain’ stuff writers/authors deal with, grab yourself a cuppa, make yoursel...

Some Tips for Authors! (Amazon Preorder Cancellations and how to dodge them…)

Sorry, readers. Today’s post is very much geared for those who are authors or wish to be authors.

A lot of my friends have been having their preorders cancelled at Amazon lately, and all of them have had one thing in common: they’ve only put in one (maybe two) files with the corporate giant before their lock date.

What is happening is a rather nefarious bug where the file, instead of being loaded into the system, is being sent to “null”, which is essentially a data black hole. Once somethi...

There is a tiny error in Whiskers on Kittens’s description. (I’m fixing it.)

During writing/editing, the number of kittens kidnapped was adjusted. The number is no longer six. I am removing the number of kittens from the description. Because reasons involving I changed the number of kittens. (This update will go live at the same time the finals of the books are uploaded to vendors.)

Reason why number of kittens changed: the size of laps within the book could handle only so many kittens, so one kitten was edited out to be the perfect number of kittens for the size of l...

Unpopular Opinion Time!

This post is just a random collection of my unpopular opinions. Take or leave as you like, and if you become offended, that is a you problem and not a me problem. (AKA, unpopular opinion number one….)

1: If you are offended by something someone else does, that is a you problem and not a them problem.

Nobody owes you jack shit, including making you happy all the time. This includes when someone is offensive. (Spoiler alert: being offensive is a subjective issue.)

One of the hardest t...

R.J.’s Method of Weight Loss and Health Improvements

Andrea wanted to know how I’m handling my weight loss and health improvements. This is not medical advice. This is my road map on how I’m improving my health (and losing weight.)

You’re absolutely encouraged to verify what I do, learn about it, steal what you want. This isn’t your alley? Don’t worry about it and scroll on. (There is not going to be much about the writing world in here, but there will be some commentary about how I’m balancing my work life, home life, and dieting.)

Befo...

Whee, Stuff, stuff, stuff, and more stuff!

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Look, it’s a flower!

This post includes a little about life, more about REAM (and a new tier I made for it), and some other stuff.

We’ll start with life, because it’s been a while since I’ve posted about the nitty gritty. Please note I am not asking for any medical advice in this post. I’m sharing. That’s it, that’s all. I’m sharing because I want to. I don’t need (or want) assistance with what I’m doing, because what I’m doing is working at a healthy pace for me. I’m sure you’re super...

So, more about REAM (For readers AND Authors!)

Yesterday, I commented that I was starting some new read alongs over at REAM. There was a plot twist!

The operators of the platform have decided to do a book awards for indies. (We always need new book awards for indies.) I was very surprised with a nomination for their debut award in the Best of Urban category.

It was apparently something people voted on sometime in November, so while I missed that, I want to show the platform a little love.

REAM is a totally new thing to me, but the ...