A Work in Progress

There's a whole lot to be thoughtful about right now. Particularly now that we're post-election. No more ad campaigns, no more lies ... well, fewer lies anyway... maybe. But, I'm not going into that. No sirree. I'm going to talk about less formidable, less headache-inducing things. Fantastic things --and one not-so-fantastic thing-- that happened this week. I'm doing this so I won't cry. Look at this! ↓ Fantastic: My book, my little, tiny story has been in the top 100 kindle classics for kid literature for three weeks now. THREE WEEKS. Why? I'm not exactly sure. But a few sales a day sure can make a writer happy. THIS is fantastic. If you haven't read my middle grade book, you should.  I kind of like it. The Puzzle Master . ◄▬ Click on that and get the Kindle version for only $.99. Not fantastic : See this coupon? Imagine me cutting coupons out of the Sunday paper. Imagine me trying to save money. Imagine seeing this coupon, reading wha

It's pretty fun pretending to be one of the bigwigs. Because truthfully, I'm so far from it.  Really hard to see, but my book is # 57 between The Yearling and The View from Saturday. When I list my book free for a day on Amazon -- and every self-pubbed author can attest to this -- you turn into this "top-selling" author ... but only temporarily. When a book is free, people tend to take it. Great. That equals thousands of "sales" for me. (Unpaid sales). But the hours and days immediately after the book is free are filled with stragglers. They're the ones who check to see if the book is still free, see it isn't, and still buy it. Those stragglers make me a super-author, because their purchase turns me into a "Top 100 paid children's book" in the classic, or social situations category, in which my book sits on Amazon. Where else can my dinky, little book place next to the top rankings of Bridge to Terabithia , or The Yearlin

So, it wouldn't be right if I didn't plug my own book for the letter "P." A few months ago, I ventured into unknown territory ... and self-published a middle grade book. Here's the synopsis: Twelve-year-old Marshall Thompson's favorite place in the world is Luke's Junk Store. With one more trip in before school begins, he's intent on finding the perfect thing to take with him on his first day back. But his "great find" ends up being a girl -- and a friendship begins that will change him forever. Together, they share a love of puzzles and something else: sickness. With his asthma, and her in cancer recovery, they're linked as kindred spirits. But when a life-changing incident threatens their friendship, Marshall has to learn to pick up the pieces to his broken puzzle of life and put them back together. The Puzzle Master is a story of friendship, love, forgiveness and hope; issues that surround us at the youngest of age. Through Ma

If you don't know about Ereader News Today or Pixel of Ink , then you're missing out on free books. Sure, some are newbie self-published authors (like myself) but there are plenty of very established authors that offer up their book free everyday. Check out these two sites, like them on FB, or sign up to recieve their newsletter, and you'll never be in want for books ... for free. I've already FAR too many books on my ipad ... but they're free! Just a happy reminder, that I'm offering my new book The Puzzle Master for free again this saturday, the 24th of March. Know anyone who would like to read this? Have a middle-grade/YA reader? Friend or family member? Be sure to send them the book. You can do that! Just go to  the page, and send it as a gift. And hey, if you don't want to wait, then buy it today. It's only $.99! The Puzzle Master Also, remember: you don't need a Kindle to read any of these books. You can download it to your ipad, iph

Okay, here we go. So, you know that extremely worn cliche that says "never say never?" Well I'm going to use that cliche right now. Don't EVER say never because odds are in your favor that you will do the very thing you said you'd never do. For example, over the past eight years, I've told my husband that I will never self-publish. Absolutely never. (Look at my last post to see reasons to why I didn't want to). It just wasn't for me. Okay, now here's where I explain how I'm going back on that promise. I am self-published (e-published) now, and the book is up on Amazon Kindle today! I've about a million feelings going through me right now: I'm completely scared that my work is no good, completely expectant, hoping for cool things to evolve from it, and I'm completely enamored that I can publish a book myself and see it on Amazon just like all the big-wig authors out there. My book is called The Puzzle Master . It's a

Kindle E-publishing A few years ago, when Kindle came out, I was hurt. It sounds absurd, but as a writer, we view books as the actual evidence to verify our profession. How in the world was a writer supposed to be an author if their books were virtual? Did it count? Did it invalidate all the authors out there? What about the wanna-be authors who think they too can be authors all because their work is out there as a "book"? Now that we've all gotten a chance to deliberate over it, buy our Kindles or Nooks or Ipads or other e-readers, it seems that none of that matters. My thinking that e-publishing debased authors and their platforms was incorrect. Why? Because good writers, whether physically published or virtually published, still need the readers -- the public -- to consider their work good in order for it to fare well. I also used to think that e-pubbing was a cop-out; that this wasn't "real" publishing because an editor or agent or publisher did