Dale’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2017)

Dale’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Alex wrote: "That is a great starting point, Dale, thank you so much. It would require a bit of tweaking because Stone isn't the one that discovers the first body, but it gives me something to work with."

You're quite welcome. Here's a tweak to deal with that one issue:

During a much-needed break in Devon, Inspector Nathan Stone is forced back to work. The hotel owner's wife [name] is found murdered. Worse, the murder weapon is found in Nathan's room! Adding insult to injury, when a violent storm cuts off access to the village, he becomes both suspect and investigator, charged with ferreting out the truth. And then a second murder drives home a frightening fact: Nathan, the other guests, and the hotel staff are sharing a roof with a hate-filled killer who will stop at nothing to exact revenge . . . and to prevent Inspector Stone from discovering the truth.

Alex,

Scorned women are found in a number of other titles, so I wouldn't go with that merely to avoid confusion. Carol's suggestion of "A Stone's Throw" is good.

For a blurb, I threw this together as a first cut. Admittedly I don't know many of the details of the story, but if you think it fits maybe this can be a starting point:

Finding a dead body really ruins your holiday.

During a much-needed break in Devon, Inspector Nathan Stone discovers the hotel owner's wife [name] murdered. What's worse, the murder weapon is found in Nathan's room! When, adding insult to injury, a violent storm cuts off access to the village, he becomes both suspect and investigator, charged with ferreting out the truth. Then a second murder drives home a frightening fact: Nathan, the other guests, and the staff are sharing a roof with a hate-filled killer who will stop at nothing to exact revenge . . . and to prevent Inspector Stone from discovering the truth.

Alexis wrote: "I’ve been headhunted for a nice legal counsel position. Problem is, it’s a 3 interview process. The first one is tomorrow (I’m not prepared at all but that’s another story.) but if I make it throug..."

If I'm not too late on this . . . go to the interview, but let them know that you will be traveling during (whatever the dates are). If they are interested in you, they'll be more than happy to schedule interviews around your trip.

I've taken a few jobs with the understanding that I have a trip scheduled for after I start, and there has never been any problem accommodating it..

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Thank you, Dale. Trying not to overdo it and rest, but it's not in my nature, plus the hubby works overtime and I haven't taught the dogs how to vacuum and do laundry. Doing my best. Hugs"

Better get those dogs trained up. They need to pull their weight. ;-)

I don't follow trends that much, but I agree overall. My feeling about self-publishing has always been that it's a mixed blessing. The easy of self-publishing means that everyone and their cat can publish if they want, with the result that great masses of unreadable drivel has flooded the market, along with a respectable mass of promising material that is not ready for prime time, along with smaller conglomerations of good material, and a scattering of true gems.

I don't actually see that changing. What may change is the behavior of consumers, now that they're wise to what's happened. A certain number of people will always dream of publication and wealth, so the market will always be flooded with low-quality material. For those of us who are serious about it, the challenge is to (1) continually strive to produce high-quality work and (2) find ways to get people to read it and, when they see how good it is, share it with others.

But really, this has always been the challenge. It's just that there are so many more voices vying for attention.

Carmel wrote: "Congratulations to both Dale and DJ! That's pretty cool, Dale, and you certainly put in the time to earn it!"

Thank you!

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Here I am a week later, still hurting like hell. Hugs

https://medium.com/@sambeachdogs/its-..."

Clapped and commented. I hope you feel better soon. That kind of injury is utterly miserable. Often the only way to get over it is to rest the strained muscles, but can't move at all without using them. Take it as easy as you can.

Thank you everyone, and congratulations DJ on impressing your daughter! I enjoyed reading it, too.

Hey, I'm now a "top writer" in "Fiction" on Medium! https://medium.com/tag/fiction/top-wr...

And The Writing Cooperative just published my next article for their publication: Who Do You Trust? It's about getting feedback on your writing.

Falling Into A Waterless Swimming Pool. Do not try this at home!

This is either crazy or creative. I write a short story as you watch. Zoe.

I plan to revise the story and post the final version later. Meanwhile, enjoy!

I imagine my characters are made up of bits and pieces of people I've encountered, but I wouldn't do something like that intentionally. That's just me, though. I don't think it does a person any good to be vindictive.

M.F. wrote: "You all are way more advanced than I. I'd like to create an author page/site (whatever you call it), and I have no clue on how to begin.

*Am I to understand that I get/create a domain name? If so..."

I've used a Canadian company called 123ehost for almost 20 years now. I went with them because they were inexpensive and stayed with them because they have very good customer support. Many hosting companies (mine included) have software and templates that can be used to build a site, plus they often sell site-building services. I second using Wordpress. It's about the easiest to learn and use, and for non-techies ease of use is a necessity (not a plus, a necessity). Being a software developer, I can get into some of the more techincal stuff without too much trouble, but even I appreciate simplicity, because developers aren't system administrators.

A rare weekend posting: The Mystery of Mystery (on why it's so popular). This is an edited version of a guest post I used during my blog tour a few months back.

I'll do more than two.

Bargain Booksy has worked the one time I tried it (and I'll be going back for more).

Author appearances at book stores have always gotten me a few sales, but generally no more than 5.

My author workshop has netted me more sales than my appearances, although I don't do that primarily to sell books. So I think face-to-face events that are about things other than selling can be successful for sales and marketing.

Facebook ads . . . zip.

Kathleen and I released the third Howard County Mystery, Ice on the Bay, in February, 2018. It's available at Amazon and B&N in ebook formats, and at Serpent Cliff (the publisher) in print and ebook.

D.J. wrote: "Uh oh! I still haven't got around to submitting anything anywhere. Maybe I'll wait until all the creases have been ironed out. Hope you manage to find it!"

They apparently got it and published it, and now it shows up under my published stories. Very strange, but at least it's not lost!

Here it is: Is It Genre or Is It Literary?. Enjoy!

I thought I'd submitted a story to The Writing Cooperative earlier this week, but it doesn't show up anywhere. Am I going nuts? (Possibly.) Or is Medium still dealing with glitches over its change to Partner Program stories in publications? (Possibly.)

The worst part is, I can't even remember the subject . . .

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "If this was an unethical request, I sincerely apologize. I will not ask such a thing again. Been feeling a bit ashamed about this. Very sorry. Please forgive me. "

I don't think it's an unethical request at all. Medium allows readers to go back and add claps to something they've already clapped for. I've actually done that a time or two, once possibly by accident. :-P

I might suggest, though, that it's probably not worth worrying about an occasional mishap. Medium caused a major (in my view) mishap recently when they opened up the ability to submit Partner Program stories to publications.

Previously, that wasn't generally possible. A few publications like The Writing Cooperative could somehow take Partner Program stories, but the payments went to the publication, which distributed them, less a cut for themselves.

When Medium made the change, publications like Lit Up could take Partner Program stories, with earnings going directly to the author, not the publication. But publications like The Writing Cooperative suddenly could not take Partner Program stories! This was a bug in the system.

I and some other people happened to submit stories to them about that time, assuming that they would earn money anyway, but no. They did not. After the bug was fixed, I changed my story to earn money, but I lost out on most of the interaction it got, which occurred before I could change it.

I doubt that represents much of a hit to my earnings, though. Most of my stories earn two or three dollars at most. If I lost two or three dollars, I can't really complain. It's not like my ability to eat has been compromised. ;-)