Meka James's Blog, page 6

IWSG - Time To Refocus

Photo courtesy of Pixaby
Happy June! I hope you're enjoying summer so far. I've been dealing with two sick kiddies but we're working through it. Anyhoo, new month means new IWSG blog hop day.


All that doom and gloom weighs you down. It drained my energy and generally made thinking about anything writing related a sad endeavor. And no words were being put to page. Through it all, my Squad was there to hold my hand and offer slivers of sunshine behind the gray clouds. 
So, with their cheering, I'm trying to get back to basics as it were. When I first joined IWSG I had been in a slump and not writing much due to other reasons. To get back in the swing of things I set up dedicated writing time. Having that sort of focus is what lead me to finishing Not Broken. I need that back. I have reclaimed my writing time. Twice a week, for two hours per day I focus on new words. 
The words are slow going, but they are going. The doom and gloom remains in the background. Marketing struggles and low sales make that unavoidable, but I'm trying to refocus my attention on the present. Moving forward. Half the year is gone and I have nothing new completed so the likelihood of me getting out a new indie release this year dwindles away with each passing day. 
But I'm *trying* to only focus on the forward momentum. I still have plans to attempt to do low key focused marketing on my backlist while I work on getting new projects completed. The doom and gloom thoughts are still there, and I'm still trying to decide my future in publishing, but I'm moving forward until I make a decision. We shall see how things end up.
June 5th's optional question: Of all the genres you read and write, which is your favorite to write in and why? 
Easy! I am a romance writer and proud! I read and write contemporary and erotic romance. People think romance is 'fluff' or 'unrealistic' because of the happily ever after endings, but there is more to it. Humans are complicated. Relationships are complicated. Romance explores that in so many different ways. Yes you know at the end the couples will end up in some sort of happy ending based on the story, but that doesn't stop the roller coaster that they ride to get there. Human nature, connections, how people interact with each other to couple up, all of it is fascinating and interesting. I enjoy all of it and couldn't see writing anything else. 
That's it for this month. Have a great one
Until next time~Meka

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.
The awesome co-hosts for the June 5 posting of the IWSG are Diane Burton, Kim Lajevardi, Sylvia Ney, Sarah Foster, Jennifer Hawes, and Madeline Mora-Summonte!

Music Monday - Power Over Me

It's June! How is half the year already here. Man, time is flying. I hope you are enjoying the start to your summer.


Moving on since you're not here to hear about life with the kids. LOL It's all about the music. Back in April I had mentioned a WIP I was starting featuring the older sister of Calida from Not Broken. Dorian and Gerald's story is going to be one featuring the opposites attract trope.Now, I'm a pantser so I don't plan out things in advance, but that doesn't stop me from getting bits and pieces randomly.

The mini scenes I've thought up have let me know that while these two start out with a acquaintances with benefits situation it turns into something more and will deal with deeper issues. Fun times ahead for me. And even though I've temporarily put that WIP on hold to finish up my third novella for querying purposes, I still think about them.

That brings us to this week's musical selection. I heard this song on the radio. The first time I thought it was catchy and like the beat. The next time I heard it, I started to pay attention to the lyrics and found myself enjoying the song even more. I kept hearing it and started associating it with Dorian and Gerald. If you've read Fiendish and Not Broken, you know that Dorian isn't the nicest person.

She's rather cold at times. Rude and the relationship with Calida wasn't always the best. Though in Not Broken we got glimpses of another side to Dorian. The sisters mended their bonds and while Dorian is still very much a head strong and confident woman, she also has a soft side. One that she doesn't show. But in those random scenes that pop for her and G's story, he sees it. He knows there is more to her.

This song speaks to that connection. The deepening of his feelings towards Dorian despite her trying to maintain a wall between them. I feel like when I start to seriously focus on their story I'll be in for a wild ride.

Anyway I hope you have a wonderful week.

Until next time,
~Meka

"Power Over Me" by Dermot Kennedy

Music Monday - Body Like A Back Road

Happy Monday. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine was pretty standard, not much going on.
With it being a holiday, I'll be keeping this brief. My writing time is still going well. Slow, but well all the same meaning each time I'm getting some new words. A trickle, not a flood, but it's better than the drought.

The ladies of my Squad all know about my playlists and when they hear songs that they think fit my stories, they tell me. That's what this week's selection is. I aim to have varying body types represented in the stories I tell. Nothing major and I don't make big deals out of it, but I like to know what I'm working with for description purposes.

Lana, from my current WIP I pictured as a full-figured woman and when I showed my gals her inspiration picture, Lily sent me this song because it reminded her of Lana. Or my idea of her anyway. I'd heard it before and I agree, it fits the story so it's been added to the list.

Anyway, I hope you have a great week.

Until next time
~Meka

"Body Like A Back Road" by Sam Hunt

Adventures In KU - Month Three

Happy Friday! I hope you all had a great week. So, if you've been following along, this is my last month update about KU. If you've missed the other two, never fear, you can read Month One and Month Two.
Each month I was trying different advertising avenues to see what would help and what's a dud. Month one was all about the Facebook takeovers but no paid advertising. Month two I tackled AMS ads, and for month three I did Facebook ads.

Let me just say, that Facebook ads have WAY more hoops to jump through mainly because it's not romance friendly. They gave me trouble with my covers, mainly the updated one for The Lists. So I attempted with the old cover, still had issues. So then I used a video I'd made only featuring Not Broken, they still tried to give me issues because the links I supplied went to both Not Broken and The Lists. I was able to successfully appeal and that ad ran. It was a boosted post, which is different than a direct ad, something else I learned.

Now this first ad ran in conjunction with my Kindle Countdown, one of the "perks" that you get when in KU. Besides the paid ads, I did the typical things, post on social media to advertise the sale on my own account and in a few Facebook groups that allow promotions.

How did it do? Let's see shall we...

The Facebook ad: Now I don't know what all this means (the impressions, to the reach, to the play throughs) I'm not a numbers person. What I do know is I did not have enough sales during the countdown to make up for the money that was spent. It was a fail like the AMS ads. $13.64 spent and only 4 sales.



On to my overall numbers. Sales. And I realize now I have been giving overall numbers which include my non-KU book. Apologies, but hopefully the picture shows the breakdown. Fiendish (non-KU) continues to sale more with no promotions.

Month three has been my best for sales so far with 17 total sales. (Month one-9, Month two-13)


Like with last month, sales went up, but the pages reads went down having only 1,161. (Month one-2,672, Month two-2,201) I don't understand the consistent drop, but I don't understand a lot of things LOL.

I was doing all of this to see if KU was worth it money wise for me. Would I make more by being in this program over being wide. Based on these results I can't say that is the case. Amazon runs two months behind so this time around is my first full month payout. These numbers cover March 1-31.

Sales
Page reads
Royalty

As you see Fiendish still carries the sales royalties. Now the big question, would I have made that extra $12ish dollars I earned from being in KU and getting page reads if I had been wide. Probably not. Looking back at month one when I pulled my numbers from Smashwords, I'd sold ONE copy of Not Broken during that time. So, yes in theory I did come out ahead by being in KU, but it's not really a landslide.

My final decision? Well, after talking with Vania Rheault who is running her own 'experiment' by going wide, I'm giving it another round. She advised that it can take 6-9 months for a platform to take hold so to speak. Since at this time I do have a slight win in the page reads area, I'll give it another 90 days and re-evaluate then.

That's it for now. Undecided if I'll do monthly updates again or just do one final update in August when my next round is finished, but either way, I'll keep you all posted.

Until next time
~Meka

Music Monday - If I Die Young

Happy Monday. I hope you had a great weekend. And if you're a GoT fan, I hope you enjoyed the big finale. We're on end of school countdown, just two more days. My quiet days are coming to an end, but for now I'll enjoy what I have.


Maple Summer Wallace was an intriguing read from start to finish. It's not a romance, so I knew going in that I may not get my satisfying 'happily ever after' type of ending, but it was a risk I was willing to take. At the heart of the story is a young woman who is dying after having lost so much already with the death of her parents, a close mother figure, and while not a death, the loss of a relationship with a man she loved and had dreams of making a life with.

I won't get into more, you can read the review, but I thought this week's selection would be a perfect musical pairing for that story. I know it's not my normal attempt at starting out the week upbeat, but sometimes that's how it happens. I'll do better next week. LOL

Anyway, I hope you have a great week!

Until next time
~Meka

"If I Die Young" by The Band Perry

Book Review - Maple Summer Wallace

Happy Saturday. I’m here today with a review of a book that is normally not in my wheelhouse. I’m a romance reader mostly, but it’s good to stretch my readerly muscles and branch out every so often. That’s what I have today. NA (New Adult) Women’s Fiction. After learning she has only six months to live, twenty-two-year-old socialite, Maple Summer Wallace, plans to spend her remaining time hanging over a roulette table in Vegas and squandering her family’s fortune. Her plan takes a wrong turn when she finds Veronica, her twenty-year-old housekeeper and daughter of her beloved nanny, Lola, hovering over the dead body of octogenarian Randolph Brentwood, the fifth richest man in the world.
Maple has never been a warm and fuzzy type of family person, and the last thing she wants to do in her final months of life is deal with Veronica’s mess. But long ago Maple made a promise to Lola that she’d always look out for her “little sister” Veronica. Still, the stubborn Maple, hardened from her own personal loss, resists involvement until she learns that Veronica is pregnant with Lola’s grandchild, an heir to the Brentwood estate.

To make good on her promise to Lola, Maple vows to help Veronica. With the assistance of Michael, a handsome and savvy PI, they journey up and down the East Coast, dodging the authorities, a shady lawyer, a cold-hearted hit man, and the powerful widow, Mrs. Brentwood. As Maple’s bitterness about spending her last days saving Veronica dissipates and her friendship with Michael develops, she realizes that on the way to death, she’s found something she’s never had—life. 
My Review** 5 STARS **
So, just imagine finding out you’re about to die, have a “live it up til the end’ plan and have it completely thwarted because you walk in on a murder scene. That is exactly how we first meet Maple Summer Wallace. The story grabs you from the opening page, latches on and doesn’t let go.
Maple and her nuisance of an accidental sidekick, Ronnie are both orphans. Their relationship is complicated having grown up as ‘sisters’ but not related. They are polar opposites. Maple having shut down and shoving away her emotions, and Ronnie has this near naïve innocence about her.
Facing your mortality puts a lot of things in perspective. Sometimes. Maple was a little delayed on that. She wanted to go out the same way she lived. Closed off, and making only superficial connections. Getting tangled up in a murder has a way of derailing one’s plans.
What follows is a journey of finding a reason to live when time is no longer on your side.
Maple initially comes across as cold, unfeeling, the ‘typical socialite’ as it were. She can’t be bothered with Ronnie’s situation, it doesn’t concern her. Plus being around Ronnie makes Maple feel, and that’s something she wants to avoid at all costs. I loved how she’d try to tap into her ‘inner Jackie O’ when she needed to deal with stressful situations. Reminded me of an episode of Sex and The City with Charlotte.
To borrow from Transformers, there was more to Maple than meets the eye. Beneath the cold exterior was a scared young woman. A woman who experienced a lot of loss in a short period of time. Because she didn’t want to appear weak, she hid the pain. Ronnie reminded Maple of everything she wanted to forget. Everyone Maple had a connection with was gone, other than Ronnie, the one person she wanted to avoid because of the memories.
Nothing brings people together than being on the run from the law. Ms. Calla weaves a tale that keeps you wanting to turn the page. The growth Maple goes through in the face of her death will leave you misty eyed and hoping that they find a way out. You want one of those WTF how did that happen hail Marys (or is it Maries?) at the end.
Now I will admit, as much as Maple grows, I’d also hoped for some with Ronnie. Not going to lie, but she got on my nerves more times than not. That naivety and innocence stayed hard fast even in the face of running from the law for murder. It’s like she never fully grasped the seriousness of the situation and while her eternal optimistic outlook was refreshing in small doses, more times than not I wanted to yell at her to get it together.
Regardless on my feelings about Ronnie, this story touched me. Ms. Calla proved that family isn’t always in the DNA. Blood related or not, the two young woman stuck together, looked out for each other, loved each other in a way that only family could.
I highly recommend Maple Summer Wallace.

  Buy NOW or read in Kindle Unlimited
About The Author
Jessica Calla is a New Adult and Contemporary romance author who moonlights during the day as an attorney. If she's not writing, lawyering, or parenting, you'll most likely find her at the movies, scrolling through her Twitter feed, or gulping down various forms of caffeine (sometimes all three at once). 
Jessica is a member of Romance Writers of America and the New Jersey Romance Writers (New Jersey's local chapter of the RWA). She's volunteered as a mentor in the PitchWars contest for unpublished works, and loves helping out the writing community any way she can. A Jersey girl through and through, Jessica resides in the central part of the state with her husband, two sons, and dog.

Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

#AuthorToolBoxBlogHop - Let's Get Romantic

Photo courtesy of: Pexels
Happy May. If you’re like me, you’re barreling toward the end of the school year with kid activities. A busy time for sure, but I’m looking forward to not getting up at 6:30am. However, I’m not looking forward to refereeing fights between my younger two. Tis is mom life. Anyway new month, means new #AuthorToolBoxBlogHop post. So, did the title scare you a little? I’m a romance author, it’s what I do and not everyone is comfortable writing romance. Now, I’m not talking the sexy bits, that’s a whole different post. I mean just the romance. The relationship between the two people itself can be awkward.
If you’ve been wanting to add a romantic element to your story, but have been worried about how to go about it, I’m hoping this post will get you started on that journey.
First question to ask, is why you want the romance.
Not every story needs to have a romantic element therefore the reason you want to attempt it needs to make sense to your overall plot. Otherwise it leads to point number two.

Don’t force it.
Like with other parts of a story, the romantic element needs to feel natural to the plot. If it doesn’t the reader will know. Ever watch say an action movie and for some reason there is this near over the top deep connection between the leads? The Punisher comes to mind for me. The ‘connection’ between Thomas Jane and Rebecca Romijn I never got. Like why couldn’t they simply be friends like with the other guys that were in the rundown apartment building. That romantic element felt rushed and unneeded for the overall plot of the movie. You don’t want that for the one you add to your story.

Stay within your comfort zone
If you think you’re going to struggle writing any sort of affectionate bits, then don’t. Again, not every story needs it. Sometimes the unspoken connection and sexual tension is just as, if not more compelling. Back to the action movies (what can I say I like to watch them). Hitman, the one with Timothy Olyphant, there is a natural progression between his character and the character Nika. But nothing ever comes of it. You can feel it, you can see how they help each other in unexpected ways but it never goes beyond the tension.

That’s really the basics on getting started if romance isn’t your normal wheelhouse. As always, these are simply my opinions and nowhere near close to anything ‘expert’ level. If all else fails, make friends with a romance author and ask for help. We’re generally nice people and enjoy talking about the genre we love.
Don’t know any romance authors, next best thing is to read a romance novel. There are plenty that are low to no heat if you’re not into all the sexy time bits. There is more nuance and layers that go into crafting a romantic relationship that can’t be fully explained in a blog post, but hopefully this has given you a starting point.
Until next time~Meka

Music Monday - Talk

Happy Monday! And happy belated Mother's Day to anyone it applies to. :) I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I didn't do anything special, not even yesterday. But it's Monday, new week, new music.


They do a monthly blog hop where the members talk about their ups and downs of the month. I started participating and sharing my worries. Through that process I decided I needed to start to focus. Get serious about what I wanted and follow through. Where am I going with all of this?

Well, I set strict-ish writing days/times. I left the house, told those that might call me during the day to not during those times and I got shit done! Then I got lax. I mean I still completed projects, but as time as gone on, my blah-ness is increasing and my productivity was lacking.

I am in the midst of having to make some decisions about what I want in the future, but that's for another post. For now, so I don't get too long winded, I'll bring the point around. In order to get back to the focus I had in completing Not Broken I am reclaiming my writing time. Two days a week, I'm leaving the house and spending at least two hours getting words.

I know I mentioned a project before, but I've switched gears for now. Instead of completing Dorian and G's still unnamed WIP I'm aiming to finish up my last book in my pseudo-'series' following couples in the Desert Rose Station complex from Being Neighborly. There are three in total. I've submitted book 2 already and want to have this one completed for submission. If the publisher rejects book 2 then I'll take these last two indie. But since these are all novella length with a max of 25k words I figured getting the shorter (and hopefully easier) project done first would be best.

New project means... you guessed it new playlist. The last book will follow the enemies-to-lovers trope which will be new for me. I've been looking for songs that play into that, but not something that has been super easy to find, though the playlists are always a growing WIP, hell even sometimes after the project is done.

With this being enemies-to-lovers neighbor style communication won't be their strong suit. What better fitting song than one titled "Talk" and it deals with relationships and trying to figure out where to go and what's next. Something Emilio and Lana will have to work out and see where things can lead past their sexual attraction.

I hope you all have a great week.

Until next time
~Meka

"Talk" by Khalid

Release Blitz - Lethal by K.H Kate

Music Monday - Three Nights

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and hopefully you didn't party too hard in your Cinco de Mayo celebrations if you take part in those. Last week for me was rather unproductive, but I'm hoping to change that this week.

Best way to set the tone is with a upbeat song to put me in the right mood. I had to work this weekend so that meant time in the car, stuck in traffic, and lots of songs played on the radio. I'd heard this week's selection before and liked the catchy tune. It's boppy and makes you want to dance around when it's on. The best thing to shake off the Monday Blues.

Then when I actually listen to the lyrics, hidden behind the fun beats is a song that I realized could be added to my playlist for Dorian and G. In my head they are going to have this simple, yet complicated sex only, but maybe more type of relationship and with them being such opposite personalities, well should make for lots of up and down.

Anyway, that's it for this week. A short little post, but really I know you're here mostly for the music and not my ramblings. LOL

Have a great week.

Until next time
~Meka

"3 Nights" by Dominic Fike