Bloodroom is now an Audiobook!

Who could resists those eyes! Wait'll you hear him speak! Yes, Julian Mouret now has a voice, courtesy of award-winning narrator, Paul Heitsch. Bloodroom is now a downloadable audiobook. You can listen to a sample at Amazon, Audible, and iTunes.

For a synopsis and character bios, visit my website's Bloodroom page.

Audiobook reviewers, contact me at http://naimahaviland.com/ for your review copy.

 

Win a Free e-Copy of Where the Dead Fear to Tread

I love film noir and horror so when I discovered Where the Dead Fear to Tread, a novel that embraces both genres, I bought it. Peter Schwotzer of Literary Mayhem calls it “…a combination old time detective pulp story, a revenge story and a good old fashioned horror story.” I'm reading it now and really enjoying it.

Now the book's author and publisher are giving away a free e-copy in a contest that runs February 1 - 28. I'll post the synopsis, then directions on how to win, then a few more reviews of Where the Dead Fear to Tread. Good luck!

A police officer and a serial killer search separately for a missing child while running a malevolent labyrinth populated by creatures they never knew existed.

Former prosecutor William Chandler, disgusted with his past inaction, spills the blood of those who victimize children to correct the ills he sees in the world. A self-admitted serial killer and uncomfortable with his actions, Chandler attends the funerals of those whose lives he has taken in an effort to retain a true understanding of the nature of violence.

The carnage left in his wake is investigated by Detective Kate Broadband, who becomes progressively more comfortable with the corpses left by Chandler. Envying the power she sees in him, she pursues Chandler as each search for Maria Verde, a missing eight-year-old girl.

As Chandler and Broadband draw closer to discovering what happened to Maria they are forced to confront The Devourer, an unnatural being trafficking in stolen children.

To enter you can like on Facebook and send a Facebook message to M.R. with your email address and preferred version (EPUB, HTML, MOBI, PDB and PDF).

Or you can mark as To Read on your Goodreads account and send M.R. a Goodreads message with your email address and preferred version (EPUB, HTML, MOBI, PDB and PDF).

You can enter once through Facebook, and once through Goodreads to increase your odds of winning. The contest will run from February 1 - 28. Your email will not be used for any purpose beyond notification of winning.

“Where the Dead Fear to Tread is an immensely enjoyable read; jam-packed with great action sequences and wonderfully horrific monsters that will chill you to the bone.”
~Dark Rivers Press

"It could be a future movie or video game franchise hit that you can brag about having picked up when it was just a humble indie e-book. Give it a chance and you may be surprised to find out Where the Dead Fear to Tread."
~Robert Hibbs of Ravenous Monster

"...well-thought out. The main character, like the writing, is a complex man who you’re not sure if you can classify as “good” or “bad”. The story takes him through a supernatural mystery that will
leave you wanting more."
~Nerds in Babeland

Alex Kava Speaks at the Friends of the Library Dinner

I had such a good time with my friend DeAnna at a dinner for the Friends of the West Florida Public Library, Friday night. The speaker was novelist Alex Kava, whose thrillers have been New York Times bestsellers. Neither DeAnna nor I had ever read Alex Kava. In preparation, we read her latest, Hotwire. Well, now we're fans. Kava has a neat economical style that I can't quite pin down. You know all about a character's personality very quickly without having been aware of reading a description. She writes short chapters with cliff hangers. Her protagonist, FBI agent Maggie O'Dell, is easy to relate to on a personal level; she's kickass but also someone you might know. Hotwire's plot revolves around a possible government conspiracy and weird shenanigans with the nation's food supply. DeAnna and I would text each other, saying, "Man, I'm never eating out again!" or "I'm giving up meat!"

As a speaker, Alex Kava was wonderful. She was funny, self-deprecating, and warm. She talked a lot about what it was like starting out. How subjective the feedback was; one rejection letter saying, "it needs more detail" and the next rejection letter saying, "it needs less detail". And how there's a double standard for crime-fighting protagonists such that Maggie O'Dell really can't develop a drinking habit or swear a lot or cat around. She spoke movingly of her respect for the contribution that libraries and librarians make to community life. She encouraged aspiring writers to stay true to their vision and believe in themselves. She talked about her friends who live in Pensacola and who were in attendance. She spoke of her friends' mother having been a lifelong supporter of our library and of their father, on whom she based one of the characters in the Maggie O'Dell novel, Damaged. It turns out, she bought a house here in Spring 2004. This made the audience laugh ruefully. It was Fall 2004 when Hurricane Ivan made landfall at just under Cat 4 strength and devastated our region. Alex buckled down under the storm with her two friends and used the experience to write the plot for Damaged set against a hurricane.

Oh, and we did not make good on our vows to never eat meat or eat out. The dinner was delicious. Thanks, West Florida Public Library and Alex Kava, for a lovely evening.

Painting to Write

This time in Juicy Writing, Sharon reminded us that sometimes we work too hard. Tonight, instead of doing writing exercises, we would paint. I came into the session stressed and left completely relaxed. This is my painting you see here. 

I am a classic Type A. As fulfilling as writing and self-publishing are, I get really wound around the axle. I get really obsessive. I wake up every morning with an aching jaw from grinding my teeth and with my head a mental teleprompter endlessly scrolling a list of publishing tasks. I have to remind myself sometimes that I already have one stressful job. I did not choose to pursue my writing muse to give myself a second stressful job. It is precisely at those times when playing is just what my writing needs. 

To understand how this works, I recommend the book My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. She suffered a massive stroke to her left hemisphere and lived with only her right during the first long stretch of her recovery. What she unexpectedly found was bliss. She lost her ego, lost her agenda, lost the concept of linear time, lost her need to be top dog, lost even her sense of physical separateness. Without these qualifiers, she felt constant love and joy. As she regained use of her left hemisphere, she had to develop mental habits that disciplined her left's dominant tendencies so that she could maintain inner peace.

One of the ways I maintain balance is through creative play, like painting. For you it may be throwing pots on a wheel or playing a round of golf before noon while the air is still fresh and cool. Something that absorbs your attention and brings you into Now. Something that has nothing riding on the outcome. This transfers your mental energy from the left hemisphere of your brain, which collects data and makes predictions based on its findings, to the right hemisphere, where creativity reigns and anything is considered possible. As writers, we need both hemispheres working in partnership, but for many of us left is dominant and really stifles right. So let Right out for a frolicsome run!

If you're interested in something like I do, you might check out Sharon's websites, http://www.sharonrenae.com/ and http://sharonrenaeart.com/. She's starting an online series of classes soon. Throughout the next year, she plans to branch out into a number of intuitive and creative subjects. Her newsletter will keep you informed as these opportunities arise.

What I Know About Kindle Singles

I hoped to get my Demontorium short stories into the Amazon marketplace as Kindle Singles. The Kindle Singles store is smaller than the Kindle universe. I'd have a chance to be more prominent right off the bat. Finding no info on the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) pages, I Googled. I reached  the January 26 Amazon Kindle Singles press release, a first-hand Singles submissions experience on ZdNet, a Facebook post on the subject from Steve Lewis, self-publishing guru and author of the Taleist blog, and the Submissions Guidelines right on Amazon's Singles bookstore page. First a word on what a Kindle Single is, as described in the press release:

"... each Kindle Single is intended to allow a single killer idea -- well researched, well argued and well illustrated -- to be expressed at its natural length. Available to both Kindle device and app users, and priced between $0.99 and $4.99, the first set of Kindle Singles include original reporting, essays, memoirs and fiction."

Here's what else I learned:

• Amazon's editors review your manuscript submission, just like a traditional publisher would. It's not a direct publishing option.
• The permitted word count is 5,000 - 30,000 words. This leaves my short stories out. My longest, The Entrepreneur, is just over 3,000 words.
• If accepted, your Kindle Single royalty can earn you 70%, even at a price point below $2.99. This is different from the KDP experience, where a price point below $2.99 rates a 35% royalty.

This is a good opportunity for writers, especially journalists who long to expand a topic beyond the amount of space usually alotted for their work. I say this because I believe readers look specifically for fiction they can read in the pockets of downtime available -- on a train commute, for instance.  However, authors on the KDP Community forum have expressed some confusion and frustration with the Singles process regarding such things as 1) longer than expected wait times for news of acceptance/rejection and 2) the perceived quality of accepted and published Singles. It seems Amazon is working itself into a space previously monopolized by traditional print publishers and the receiving end feels pretty much the same to authors.

I hope you can take this info farther than I can. The 5,000 word minimum rules me out, so for now, as we say in the South (US), "I don't have a dog in the race".

What I Did Instead of Working

Yesterday the work was so scarce that I logged in half my time as vacation and spent it surfing my social networks. On Twitter, CC Ekeke (@ccekeke) tweeted a link to the writer's newsletter he publishes called The Daily Novel. I read an article called Maximizing Digital Book Sales, by Carolyn McCray. It talked about improving your ranking in Amazon through tags and classifying. There are some categories in Amazon that are less populated and, therefore, less competitive -- shortening the distance to the hundredth place in the top 100 best-seller list. Some of the categories are classifications Amazon has total control over, but you can influence Amazon to classify your books by the use of tagging. This article explains how to use tagging to increase your visibility to Amazon and ultimately to more readers. Another tweet (and I apologize for forgetting which tweeter contributed) had a link to JK Rowling's address to a 2008 graduating class at Harvard. Her subject was the gifts of failure and imagination. It was so stirring. I had no idea she had had extraordinary experiences before she became a bestselling author. Blog surfing informed me that 2 Twitter followers have new books out: AL Fetherlin's Brynn, The Exorcist (she's gifting free review copies) and Elisa Hategan's Race Traitor, a thriller. I'm looking forward to reading both.

Working with a Professional Editor

If you're undecided about hiring a professional editor before you self-publish, I strongly advise you to do so. My editor is Linda Wasserman of Pelican Press in Pensacola, Florida, USA. She strengthened my story so much. For instance, I never realized how many times I used passive voice, which resulted in weaker sentences. 

She sent me two Word document versions of my edited novel. One has all her edits accepted and Track Changes turned off (so I could read her version without distractions). The other has no edits accepted and Track changes on (so I could see each edit and read her comments on the purpose of the edit). I am going through the second version and accepting or rejecting each edit myself. For the most part, I agree with her. Every now and then, I reject an edit. Below are five examples in the form of "Before and After " edit comparisons:

Example 1: 

My original version:

Julian knew the candlelight was making his features ghoulish. It was darkening the hollows of his face, concealing his eyes and throwing his shadow up to the ceiling.

Linda's version:

Julian knew the candlelight made his features ghoulish. It darkened the hollows of his face, concealed his eyes and threw his shadow up to the ceiling.

Example 2:

My version:

“This annual gala I throw every year, Holiday Lights."

Linda caught the redundancy. Her version:

“This annual gala, Holiday Lights.”

Example 3:

My version:

“Yes,” Julian said a little awkwardly, “I am sorry."

Linda's version:

“Yes,” Julian said, disliking himself for feeling awkward. “I am sorry.”

Linda's embedded comment explained her edit as a suggestion: "I just threw the “disliking” in because it seemed to fit.  What do you think?"

I disagreed with her edit on the grounds of Julian's personality. Julian doesn't dislike himself for feeling awkward. He likes himself all the way down to his rotten core. His apparent awkwardness is an affectation. However, considering the rest of the narrative as context, it no longer seemed necessary to explain that or even keep the word awkward, so I deleted it entirely to make this sentence:

“Yes,” Julian said, “I am sorry.”

Example 4:

My version:

Flat, golden ringlets parted at the center of her high waxy forehead, clinging to her tiny skull and spilling to her waist.

Linda's version:

Flat, golden ringlets parted at the center of her high, waxy forehead. Clinging to her tiny skull, the curls spilled to her waist.

I rejected her edit because I like the flow of the original sentence and because when you take in someone's appearance, your vision flows from her head down, in one sweep.

Example 5:

My version:

Julian's nerves tightened until his long, white fingers became talons impaling the tapestry arms of his chair.

Linda's version:

Julian's nerves tightened until his long, white fingers transformed into talons that impaled the tapestry arms of his chair. 

Linda's comment explained her suggested change:  "I just wanted to offer this as an option."

I had written that his "fingers became talons" as a metaphor, but I liked Linda's suggestion –especially in light of the fact that a few paragraphs down, Julian does transform physically into something monstrous. I accepted her edit.

To sum up, I recommend spending the money and time on collaborating with a professional editor before self-publishing your work. Each individual edit may not seem like a big deal, but together they add up. The result is a stronger story that is still true to your vision.

Is it too Late to Clone Myself?

I'm obsessed with publishing and publicizing. If I could just take one day to insert end matter into my Demontorium short stories, I could devote all my energy to accepting Linda's line item copy edits to my novel, Bloodroom. And I could create my Facebook page and do all the things Shelley Hitz taught us in her webinars. The strategy she teaches is very thorough and implementing seems as full time an enterprise as my other tasks. It's not just the time, but the mental focus. I haven't written anything in my new novel, House of the Apparently Dead, for about two weeks now -- which I tell you, there's an eager little racehorse in me wanting to bust out the gate and write the next scene. I tell myself, this big publishing push is a temporary switch in focus. There's a lot to do at first because I'm establishing a platform. The stories I have already written deserve the best support I can give.

Naima, Inc Chugging Right Along

You might call it a Little Shop of Horrors...yuk, yuk, yuk! I have published four short stories from my upcoming anthology Night at the Demontorium to Kindle and Smashwords. More on that in the near future.

Bloodroom came back from the editor and I'm literally going edit by edit, choosing whether to accept or reject. Sometimes an edit is grammatically correct but it messes up the rhythm of the sentence. That's why I don't just hit "Accept All" or whatever Word calls it.

I just bought David Gaughran's book Let's Get Digital. The book is a collection of advice, articles, and essays on self-publishing e-books. It features many indie authors who've found success, and for that reason alone, I'm excited to read it. I like David's writing style and enjoy reading his blog. My immediate intent is to read LGD sparingly, because I've been suffering a little from information overload, what with all the experts I've been tapping into recently. However, that's like telling myself to nurse one glass of wine at a party. Oops, did I just tell on myself?

Helping Your eBooks Sell Your Other eBooks

My subscription to Steve Lewis' Taleist tutorials paid off again today when I learned how to make the last pages of an e-story direct readers to review, share, or tweat about the story (as well as buy another story).

I had just finished an e-book and gotten to the last page, a Before You Go page where I could rate the book on Twitter. I thought, how can I have that on my e-books?

The tutorial said 'Before You Go' is a feature for the latest Kindle that Amazon sets up for e-books automatically. Thanks, Amazon! Then the tutorial had example text I could incorporate into my story's html that might influence a reader to review my story on Amazon and possibly buy another. Directed thus, I created an About the Author feature with my photo, asked them to review, included a link to the story's Amazon page, and told them how very much I'd appreciate it. I also gave them a heads-up to the Before You Go page they were about to encounter.

I did all this in my short story, Sparky's First Day, before publishing to Kindle. As soon as Sparky goes live, I'll add the end matter to my already live e-stories and I'll add an 'If you liked, you'll also like ...' feature with links to the other stories. I'm trying to keep it all short n' sweet but still getting the most info to them I can.

What are some other techniques I can try? Suggestions?

Romance and Twitter Contests

In Juicy Writing last night, Sharon read from a list of phrases in a romance writing phrase book and challenged us to take one or more of these phrases and write a short story on the spot. I wrote a 3-page story using two of the phrases. I love my story! It's not a horror story in any way. It's a romance, untinged by anything dark. I like the rare occasions when I write something completely un-dark because it reminds me that I can write "normal" stuff. I want to put it up on StoryFans at the same time I publish Bloodroom, which is a vampire romance. The StoryFans release will hopefully drive readers to the book.

Yesterday, Steven Lewis' Kindle Self-Publishing blog featured Tony Eldridge, a writer and e-book marketing consultant. Tony's new book teaches techniques for creating successful Twitter contests. The blog story includes a link to a free sampling of Twitter contest ideas. I would love to create Twitter contests as a way of widening my readership. There are so many options for book promotion and I feel somewhat like Columbus upon "discovering" the New World. It's all very exciting. Do you have a successful marketing strategy you'd like to share with me?

Quick Blog Before Dashing to Work

My favorite part in the movie Constantin is when Keanu Reeves' character, John Constantin, asks the Devil something like, "so how are things going?" And Satan shrugs, rolls his eyes, and says, "Oh ...busy, busy, busy!" Ha ha. Yeah, Satan. I know just what you mean.

So among the million things I'm doing, I attended Shelley Hitz's weekly webinar on Facebook marketing. I've learned so many useful things. She offers a free self-publishing checklist at www.selfpub.me/pub-checklist. And you can see her video on the subject here: http://youtu.be/tIkbBNutGzk.

Now, I gotta motor. You know ... "busy, busy, busy!"

Short Stories Pending

My short story, The Entrepreneur, is pending approval by Amazon and Smashwords. Thanks to my friend Jimmy for excellent advice in the editing phase (check out Jimmy's site Horror Web, where you'll find reviews and news of movies, books, and people influential to the genre). Tamara Fincher, creator of The Skaggs, designed the cover art. 

Also pending approval is He Dreams in Yellow -- thanks, Dan and Kim for your feedback! Aunt Téa's Addiction is for sale on Amazon, but is hung up in Smashwords with the rest. The issue is a lack of free ISBNs. Without them, my stories can't be in the premium catalog for distribution to Apple, Borders, and Sony. (I think that also means no access to Nook.) Smashwords says they expect to have ISBNs available in a few days.