Miscelleny

Sent off six letters and brochures to local libraries yesterday, offering each a free book for their collection and to make appearances with book clubs or at fairs. We'll see how that works out. I'll be exploring more promotional ideas and I'm giving serious consideration to making a book trailer. I found some articles on how to do that, but I'm not sure exactly what to do with it when it's done. I suppose I could do what some authors at Glen Ellyn Bookfest did and bring a computer to display the trailer in their allotted space. When it comes to personal appearances, I see a need to step it up a bit and look more professional. Would that help sales? Dunno.

Waiting to hear from my publisher about print editions of "Dabblers" and "Game Faces" before I send in my query for "Where Power Lies." A few times, I've started to open the "Power" manuscript and then decided there was nothing more to be done to it. I'm sure there are things I would change if I really tried, but it really is time to move on.

"Mongan Manor" is progressing well. Still fumbling around with how to get back story told. I've settled for putting in references whenever I think of them with the intent of editing them down later. I certainly want the book to be readable by someone who has not read the previous two books, but I also don't want to annoy those who have by restating things they already know. This can certainly be done, I believe, and a good example is with the Tempe Brennan books by Kathy Reichs. I did not start with the very first one, yet I enjoyed several of the books without it. Some of the references to previous events tempted me into reading the books that covered them, so that's the effect I want to achieve with my series.

An interesting blog post from Brianna Lee McKenzie (a writer's journey) which I picked up on from Twitter. She writes of how she had never written erotica, never tried to do steamy, explicit sex scenes, and yet found actually doing it not all that difficult. Hmmm. Maybe someday, I'll give it a shot, too. Thanks, Brianna, for the inspiring post.