C.B.’s Comments (group member since May 01, 2015)

C.B.’s comments from the Support for Indie Authors group.

I think the next time I need to warn characters that an area is dangerous, I am going to have the aliens shoot and destroy a company that makes red coloured shirts.

Eric wrote: "Firstly, lols! Anything requiring ice cream can't be ALL bad. Secondly, if character death is done regularly enough, and well enough, it becomes something both accepted AND time-honored. Consider all those red-shirts within the first iteration of Star Trek. Glorious!"

But... the feels! ^_^

To be fair, I was probably going to eat that ice cream regardless of what happened that night. It just struck me after I wrote 'dead' that they were dead, and I was sad, and I knew it was coming. Still... the sprinkles gave me comfort.

I've killed many, many red shirts though. They don't bother me!

For the protagonist I was going to use the name of a person I met that day. I misstyped what I was thinking the very first time I typed it in, and I liked the name far better than the original which was just going to be a filler until I could think of something name.

I suggest doing that.

Minor unimportant characters? Oh absolutely. I kill those without a second though. Their main purpose was to die most likely. I killed 2000 characters with a single line, no big deal.

...

Main characters need to die? Oh... but those are my babies!
I needed to kill one for the plot, and after I wrote the scene, I cried. Legitimate cries for a long time. Ice cream needed cries, and I knew it had been coming for some time.

K.P. wrote: "lolz! will Wheaton likes naughty elf stories"

Maybe I can get him to do the Audio book!

Fun Fact: Many of the reviews I see on the site appear to be written by Wil Wheaton!

Well, I finally did it!
I am famous enough to get baited.

Has anyone heard of probookstage.com?

http://probookstage.com/25539752/brea...

Interestingly, I think they are taking the information off of Goodreads as my 'related books' are the same as 'readers also enjoyed'.

Do you contact these things, or just ignore them?

S.J. wrote: "I haven't received fan art and didn't even know it was a benchmark but am sure looking forward to it now."

Benchmark reached! +50 experience points! ^-^

Here is Trent and Skyla from The Dark Side of Chemistry by SJ Higgins. According to what I can read in the book blurb, there is a 70%-80% chance this happens in the book. (+5% chance if Trent's middle name is Bruce)

Oh yes, naming non cars. I've done my fair share of that as well.
My PS3 was named the most appropriate thing for a PS3- Susan. When we sadly lost her, and the replacement was dubbed The Son of Susan. My PS4 is Susan the Second.

My Nintendo DS is named Toaster and my PSP is named Freezer. This is because my user name is waffles. :D

(Yes I the sincerest form of flattered the topic title from Anthony, because it made me think of this one!)

I know naming characters can be hard, but what about cars? Specifically real life cars. Have you ever given your car a name? What is the story behind it.

I have a few.

James - The Jimmy
While talking with others at a workplace, the topic of car names came up. I owned a Jimmy, it didn't have a name until this exact conversation. The conversation was as follows.
Skeptic: "Your own a Jimmy? Let me guess, it's name is Jimmy."
CB: "Of course not. That would be silly."
Skeptic: "Oh what is it's name then?"
CB makes up name on the spot: "Jimmy. But he prefers to go by James."

Last Place - The Grand Am.
A purple Halloween bat antenna combined with a rousing game of Dokapon Kingdom for the Wii (The friendship destroying game) in which I was losing is responsible for the name of my old car. In the game if you are in last place you are allowed to sell your soul to a Chibi Satan like character for ultimate power. To show you this the game... places a purple bat hovering over your head and constantly reminds you that you are in last place. (It didn't help that Grand Ams have a bright red dashboard that resembles demonic death murder)

Norrin Radd - The Generic Silver Car
My sister's car's name. Norrin Radd is the Silver Surfer's real name.

Jodi & Rebecca - the Civic
After about 2 years of trying to think up a name for her car, my indecisive friend just said, "Whatever the next name I hear is, that is the name of my car." She said this during the song Get Busy. The very next line in the song was "Jodi & Rebecca" So that was the name of her car.

My current car
It was a toss up between The Blue Bomber, as it is Mega Man light blue, and Hansel, because he is so hot right now. Blue Bomber won by one vote in the poll. Yes... I held a poll.

What about your favourite cars? Any good stories (or bad stories you can jazz up)?

As long as the conversation doesn't turn to macaroni loaf, I think we are good.

This is the second most riveting conversation about bologna I've ever been a part of.

Wonderful!

Mods help! The mods have completely derailed the topic with their baloney / bologna! ^-^

Is baloney an Americanism? I was under the impression that it was bologna. Maybe I just cannot afford to spell it properly though.

I thought I would update this.

My Giveaway had 1012 entries, but I made a few mistakes I think that changed my results for the worse.

- I ended it on the last day of the month, there were 9 pages of books ending on the last day of the month!
- I had a bunch of information in the beginning that wasn't relevant to the giveaway, this pushed my bold text and the items given away to after the 'read more' description.

I began a new giveaway a few days ago using what I learned the first time. Thus far after 3 days I am at almost 450 entries. I know that is more than last time at 3 days.

I will say how it goes by the end of it.

Saying that, the person that won my giveaway added me as a friend in many social media places, sent me a lovely message about how much they want to start reading, and overall gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

This is why I decided to try another.

Overall I don't think it increased sales, but still here is the kicker...

I logged into my sales reports and there are a few numbers there to make me happy. I logged onto Goodreads and saw that 1000+ people were interested in my book enough to click on it. That was a giant confidence boost compared to the actual sales! At the very least do it for the huge numbers you get to see! ^-^

The best way to get over a 1 star review? Look at the 5 star review beside it.

Riley wrote: "Looks like a good place to go for some inspiration when working on a cover. Thank you for sharing C.B."

Not a problem Riley! Always happy to share.

There is a bunch of useful information on that site. Lots of layout and legal help as well. I learned a lot there.

E.J. wrote: "C.B. wrote: "I am not just posting this because my book is on the list this month, Wooo!"
Nonetheless, congratulations!"

Thank you EJ!
(I will admit I sort of posted this because my book was on there this month.)

Every month over at a www.thebookdesigner.com (which is a nice resource site for designing books and covers that you should check out) there is a cover design awards.

You can submit your cover and at the very least get some exposure for your e-book. ^-^

Here is the link for this month's awards: http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2015/0...
(I am not just posting this because my book is on the list this month, Wooo! It is actually also a good resource, and the site has a tonne of stuff.)

Warning: Joel is friendly on the site, but if your cover needs work he will tell you so. It is always helpful criticism though to help others learn.

Dwayne wrote: "Yes! Now, who among us cannot play guitar or bass? Charles? Owen? Ann? Riley? Maybe we need a tuba player, just because it's a stupid instrument that doesn't belong in a rock band. I can play tuba, so it won't be me. I bet C.B. can't play tuba.
"

There are multiple instruments I can't play! The Tuba is at the top of that list. (Right under theremin, but before tambourine.)

I can also not sing. My steering wheel and shower curtain both have cease and desist orders out on me.

There is only one musical thing I can do. One single musical thing. It happens to be on guitar, and I am amazing at it. It isn't a song, or musical in any way. It is a joke that involves not playing and chords (notes, strums, jingle jangles?) at all! But I can do that!