Rebekah Jonesy's Blog, page 14

Always learning

I've been struggling with my latest series. It's about a one of my favorite characters, Stu from the Mandy series. Stuart is an awesome guy, sweet and quiet and goes put of his way to help his friends. He's also a bdsm dominant and has faced a lot of pain, heart break, and criticism for the way he likes to have sex. He keeps that part of his life hidden to avoid the stares and stereotypes associated with that. He's also a self made billionaire, which he keeps under wraps for the same reasons.I totally understand the first part of his internal conflict. What I don't understand is the second part. I grew up poor. My parents worked hard and got us to middle class. But in the center of my psyche I am still that girl that grew up a poor country girl. I don't fully get being rich or the attitude that goes with it. Just like a person that grew up rich will never fully understand my attitude.I spent two very frustrating weeks going over the same chapter, writing and discarding it. I finally started venting to my husband about it. He instantly perked up and started answering my questions that I had been stewing over the whole time. After taking notes and asking several more questions it finally dawned on me. I knew he had grown up wealthy, upper class. But I didn't realize just how wealthy his parents had grown up. Upper crust old school wealthy. I knew his grandmother had a maid\cook and butler but I assumed it was because she was elderly. No, she was just that wealthy and that was the standard for her family. It was such a normal every day thing for him he didn't talk about it much.We've been married for 11 years, together for thirteen. I was shocked at the depth of insight he had into the lives off the millionaires and billionaires. He informed me there is a difference between the two. Being who I am I didn't ask more than I needed to, or ask which of his family members were the millionaires and which the billionaires. You don't ask that about people where I come from. But it did make me insanely happy. After so long together I am still learning things about the man I share a life with, and I love that he can still surprise me.

Fighting like kids

I'll admit, I am kind of an odd person. I am always amused by kids fighting with each other because they come up with the most random arguments and name calling. So the last few hours watching the GOP "debate" has left me with a sore stomach from laughing so hard.Trump went on a mini tirade about a foreign official using a bad word. Rubio was tweeting during the debate making remarks about Trump. Cruz tried out yelling everyone, cause louder = more right? Carson pleaded, "Can someone attack me?" because he was getting no talking time. And that other guy, uh whoever he is, he had a few well thought out answers so they stopped asking him questions early on. It got so bad Trump asked for the moderator to ask someone else a question and leave him alone.Hysterical. Too bad these are presidential candidates not kids on a playground. #GOPDebate

Inspiration?

That strange feeling when you wake up from a restless sleep and grab a glass of milk before sitting down at the computer to furiously pound out the scene in your head before it completely dissipates. Fingers flying over the keys, typos be damned. That's what spellcheck is for and I can deal with that after coffee. For now I have to get this out. I have to get it all written down. This fabulous narrative that coalesced in my brain and dragged me from my slumber. This story that won't be stopped, it has to be finished and finished now!

All done. Relaxed. Browsing over it to see what needs to be added and make sure it all makes sense. Then it hits me. I write romance novels. Was this inspiration? Or lovely erotic dream? I light a cigarette and realize, it doesn't really matter in the end. My readers will never know.

Safe or in the Dungeon?

Over the last few months I have seen my book sales on Amazon drop remarkably. I couldn't understand why either. I know that Smashwords is better for self publishing romance novels but after a solid month of 0 sales on Amazon I knew something had to be wrong. After a bit of digging I realized I had been sent to the "Adult" dungeon.

As kinky and fun as that sounds it really isn't. Being in the dungeon means that your book won't show up in a search. Which means no one can find your book or buy it. And no one tells you the safe word. Or the not-so-safe word that you used as a tag that landed you in the dungeon in the first place.

If you are a romance of erotica author that is suddenly noticing a decline in your Amazon sales check here to see if you are labeled as "safe" or "adult". If you do have the adult label check through your tags to figure out what got you flagged. If all of your tags are good take a good look at your blurb too. Check your cover. "Hand bras" are no longer allowed for some reason. Some people have said that the position of female legs might also be a no no. If all else fails email kdp support and ask them why your book got flagged.

I managed to get almost all of my books out of the dungeon and back on the shelves. Already my sales are going back up. Hopefully this post will help others get back to selling and keep the sexy flowing on Amazon.

Reality of working from home

I have a serious love\hate relationship with my new job.

I love writing. I live it. All the stories that live in my head can come up and I can share them with other people. I love working from home. It gives me a flexible schedule that allows for me to be available when problems come up. I moved back east to be closer to my parents who needed help so that is very important to me.

But at the same time those things also bug me a little. I am a workaholic. I am very driven and goal oriented. I hate having to stop work to deal with other things, and that happens a lot when you work from home. It happens even more often when you don't have a dedicated work office. Family and friends don't seem to understand that I work at least eight hours a day, usually longer. So they think I am available to do things all the time.

They don't get that for every hour I spend doing something for, or with, them I will be working into the night to make it up.
I love my job. I love my family. I hate having to choose between my father's health and my work success. Inevitably I choose less sleep. But that also means less quality time with my husband.

Then people ask, "Why are you tired? You don't work "

Adventures in candy

No, not that Candy. Real candy. The sweet gooey, crunchy, creamy holiday candy tyat holidays are made for. Every year around this time I invite friends and family over and we make candy together. This year was a doozy. My best friend fell and couldn't make it, her daughter was sick and also couldn't make it. That left me and the three kids, my niece and nephews. And we made a glorious, delicious, sticky mess. The dog was very appreciative of all the stuff on the floor but pouted when I wouldn't let her eat the chocolate fudge that was spilled.
Together we made Grandma's sugar cookies, a family tradition. Then we decorated those a bit with buttercream frosting. The chocolate fudge lost too much in the spill and I don't think it will ever set up properly. I told the kids to eat it was a spoon when they got home. Chocolate covered cherries that were immediately demolished. Peppermint bark that my niece had a wonderful time breaking apart. I sent the kids home with tins full of the goodies they had made. My niece decided to add a little something to her tin cover after hearing something on the news. I swear I did not prompt her to do it either.

After that I needed a shower to get all the sugar off of me before heading out with friends to see a Christmas light show that was a lot more fun then I had thought it would be. We even got to see a camel!That was unexpected. We got home late but I still had some holiday baking to get done. I made seven loaves of banana bread for my friends. I had already made pumpkin bread and handed that out. Now the loaves are done and wrapped to be passed out tomorrow along with the candy and cookies that were left over from today.

This is the real reason I love this time of year. 

Not easy

Ok this is hard for me. I have always played my online life fairly low key. I never use my real name. I rarely even use my real birthday. I never hand out personal information. I don't state my gender on message boards or forums if I can help it. I don't even allow friends to tag me in posts with locations.

A lot of it has to do with my on again\off again stalker ex. A lot of it has to do with sexual harassment online that I would rather not deal with, like most women. But I think it is time for me to come out of my shell, my warm, comforting, protective, gender neutral shell.

This is either going to be massively cathartic or a terrible mistake. There's a chance it will be both. But I am going to take that chance. I am going to start posting real things about the real me.
I am a terrible photographer so don't expect a lot of pics, especially don't expect good ones. The few I have shared my best friend took for me.

So expect a big change to this blog. It will no longer just be about my work and writing. It will be me bragging about my husband (he got a promotion I am so proud of him!) and about my best friend Khrys who is an amazing woman. And about my cooking adventures and random crazy days with my niece and nephews. I hope I don't regret this, but only time will tell for sure.

Juicy Bits

Just in time for the holidays I put out a collection of some of the juicy bits from eleven of my books. These aren't all the fun parts from each book just enough to keep you warm, and busy, over the holidays. My friends tell me to warn people "read with a partner or make sure you at least have enough batteries on hand". I hope you enjoy yourself with this collection of stories.
goo.gl/FE7UzF

Erotica books for $0.99

I recently added a collection of my books to KDP Select program and dropped the price of a some books to 99 cents.

Trail Slut
Keep Her Safe
Safety Ropes
Safe and Secured
Dangerous Angle
Do Over
Melissa's Men
Truth Revealed
Plans Revealed
Take Charge
Two Faced Wife

Dangerous Angle

After nearly a year in the making my full sized novel, Dangerous Angle, is out.  It's a mystery romance inspired by my friend's rocky relationship with women over the years. He's one of the best people I have ever met in my life and I hope he finds his happily every after one day.

"Tabitha thought she was ready for anything: she prided herself on being a prepared and organized journalist. But when a story she was working on led her to show up unannounced at Connor’s house she wasn’t ready for the mess she walked into. She thought she had an angle for his story, but Connor was nothing like she expected. He wasn’t a shut-in kid; he was an angry, paranoid, and suspicious man. Yet he was funny, kind and trusted her with his secrets. Interviewing him made her want to get to know him better -- off the record. For the first time in her life lines were blurring; the passion she felt for him broke her main rule. Never mix business and pleasure: it will only get you hurt. 

Raising his little sister after the death of their parents had taught Connor to be careful. An unknown stalker that had followed them ever since had taught him to be suspicious. When Tabitha showed up at his home, he didn’t know what to think of her. She seemed helpful, honest, but not completely open. He knew she was hiding something but he couldn’t figure out her angle. When she was around he was too distracted to think straight, and that wasn’t good for him or his sister. He wasn’t ready to trust her enough to make her a part of their lives, no matter how sweetly she responded to his touches. 

When violence followed Tabitha to Connor’s house, the angle became clear to both of them. 

It’s not paranoia if someone really is out to get you "