R.J. Blain's Blog, page 34

Well, armchair editors pissed in the pool for everyone. No more collections. Sorry, but I’m really not sorry.

I woke up to this today. It is December 23, 2021. There was no warning, just suppression. All because of an armchair editor, AKA someone who decided to complain to amazon, unsolicited, and ‘edited’ the book.

There were examples of the current armchair editor rewriting things in their style rather than mine. They did catch some legitimate typos, but… nope. I’m done.

I was taking significant losses running those collections to give people an affordable way to catch up in a series. No mor...

Working on the new and improved (and easier on me) 2022 schedule…

Everything in this post is subject to change if I mention a book order or so on. Mostly, I want to talk about reader expectations versus writer obligations.

The only thing a reader ever owes a writer is the price tag of their novel. In my case, $5.99 for a full-length novel, $6.99 or $7.99 if the length is utterly ridiculous, $2.99-$4.99 if they’re shorter works, and $9.99 for collections.

I base the price on the word count, and the lowest I’ll go is typically around 20,000 words. I prefer...

Plaidypus has been delayed until May 17, 2022.

Dear humans,

We’re sorry. (But we’re not that sorry.) Let us explain: for the first time in five years, the female is taking off for the holidays. She deserves time with the male. This is the beginning and the ending of that story. Without moving Plaidypus, she couldn’t do that. Moving to May was the sensible time to move it, preventing a backlog of books and crunched deadlines.

That means there will be changes to the publication schedule. We’re also sorry but not sorry for this. (The fema...

Hoofin’ It is on Sale, plus some random thoughts regarding Vigilante Magical Librarians (that weren’t actually included because tired.)

Hey, folks.

Truth is, I (that RJ person) is too tired to get the cats, wrangle them, and make them earn their keep today. As such, they’re sleeping. (Their favorite hobby, y’all.)

Here is Zazzle having claimed ownership of my purse.

Here is Princess having claimed ownership of a potato. (Side note: the paper is from preparing for 20Books in Las Vegas. The potato… just don’t ask about the potato, okay? It’s been a rough week, and that potato is now HERS.)

All hail Princess’s P...

The Vigilante Magical Librarians and Royal States Series are *NOT* connected, y’all.

Dear humans,

Y’all are weird. Like, really weird. We of the Furred & Frond Management love y’all to pieces, but y’all are weird.

As the title of this post suggests, we have gotten an amusingly high number of people speculating that the Vigilante Magical Librarians series is a precursor to the Royal States series.

We don’t got a clue in hell where y’all are getting that idea, but we are amused. But, since we’re here, let’s talk about it!

This show is now being written by the female. E...

Booked for Kidnapping is now available! Hooray! Happy Book Birthday, Janette & Friends.

Following the assassination of Senator Maybelle, widespread rioting and unrest transform the presidential campaign into a lethal circus. With protests raging over the new bill, the government scrambles to restore peace and order.

Armed with a probationary private investigation license, Janette and her friends race against time to prevent the next murder. On the surface, the motive for the killings seems simple enough: the senate bill, if passed, would transform the United States into a mi...

2022 Writing Productivity Spreadsheet is now ready. (I hope.)

There may be bugs. In fact, considering the number of formulas, despite the hours of bug hunting I’ve done… there are probably bugs. I did this for me and am sharing with you because I can, so please be kind if you find a bug. I’ve removed as many as I was able to without actually *using* the sheet, but I typically correct bugs as I find them and upload a new version.

Anyway, a LOT has changed compared to last year’s sheet. Instead of a monthly planner, it is now a daily planner. The yearly ...

News, general updates, and the kickstarter is ending soon!

Hey, folks. You’re getting the human today. It’s me! RJ! Hooray.

Okay, not even going to lie, that was tiring to type. So, I’m going to get straight to the chase today because I have a bazillion things to do before I can go to bed tonight, and I’d like to get to the fun portion of my day sooner than later.

I’ve been putting in a bunch of long days lately trying to get caught up from basically a year and a half of struggling with every word. Words are not a struggle right now, so my intenti...

On Writing: Conceptualizing a Novel (Standalone or Series.)

Dear humans,

Buckle up. This is going to be a long ride. Get a drink, make sure you’re not reading while drinking, as we have a hobby of making as many people spit on their devices as possible, and enjoy the show!

To begin with, we would like to offer a bribe of us being adorable. We went to the V-E-T a while back, as we needed our vaccinations and a check-up. We did not appreciate this, as evidenced by this picture.

In good news for us, we were taken home after some additional trauma. ...

On Writing: Show versus Tell.

Dear humans,

Welcome to a new installment on ‘A Cat’s Guide to Writing!’ I am your host, Zazzle the Beguiling Tyrant. I steal the intel from the human female’s brain, and I share it with you!

We of the Furred & Frond Management hope you find this post helpful.

Showing versus telling is one of the fundamentals of writing. It is how you engage a reader in a story and immerse them in it. Telling is also important, but showing is how you bring characters to life.

In a previous post, ...