What an #SFR #author did on her holidays #amreading

This summer holiday I decided that I needed to take a complete break from the internet. I was tired of marketing, tired of publishing, tired of the online dramas and cat-fights and stuff. I was burnt out and just plain exhausted by it all. Although the closure of my main publisher back in May wasn't as bad as it could have been - thanks to the owner going out of his way to make it easier, so that I had most of my titles back up at retailers within a month -  it was still a hard blow coming on the end of a chaotic year.

I got myself back on track, closed my blog for renovation (while considering leaving it permanently closed), and focused on setting up seven weeks worth of blog posts here, on Tumblr, my regular monthly post at Romancing the Genres, and a batch of tweets that would post to my fanpage and to the Brigade page to keep everything ticking over in my absence.

As time went on, I began to wonder if I wanted to come back at all, and if I really wanted to keep on publishing. I'd stopped writing. I'd promised my sequel to Keir so I was committed to that, and I have one last book with a publisher until June 2016. That would be a convenient place to quit and take everything down. So the seven week holiday was apparently also going to be time to mull over what exactly I would do after my return, if return I did. Yeah, I was feeling that low.

In the meantime, my TBR pile had just kept on growing and growing and growing over the years...damn that Amazon 1-Click and all those freebies...to the point where I had some 300 ebooks and a dozen print books, many of them as old as two or three years since purchase. That's...pretty bad. Considering part of the reason I started writing was because of my love of books, I certainly hadn't been reading anywhere near as much as I used to.

So, with my monsters off school for those seven weeks, I decided to devote the time to them and to my reading list. If you want to see what I read, you can check out my Goodreads profile, or see my recent reviews at Critique de Book (more are upcoming over the next few weeks, and I hope to keep it up to date now).

First things first. My basic review policy is this: I only want to talk about the books I love, not waste time on the books I didn't, or on books that were just okay. Over the summer I read several books that were beautifully - even perfectly - written in technical terms, but that just didn't wow me. I read some that were good, but other things meant I couldn't give them the above three stars rating that's my minimum. It doesn't necessarily mean they were bad books. It just meant they weren't for me, or some flaw meant I'd have focused more on what I didn't like than what I did. Not always the author's fault (where poor editing or lazy writing aren't the issue) - we all have our preferences and differing tastes or tolerance levels.

I also don't write reviews for books that only made the 3* rating (in my opinion): I rate them on GR and leave it at that (I use GR to keep a record of what I've read most of all). I only spend time on writing reviews for books I rate as 4 or 5*, and the books that get them are the only ones I want to talk about. In my entire life as a reader I have only ever written one negative review, and that's because I'd committed to reviewing it for a particular site. On a personal level, I prefer not to do negative reviews because they make me sad, and I really don't want to spend precious time writing them. I've already wasted valuable time reading them. So many books, so little time...

So, here's the list of books I did review. Once the review is scheduled at Critique de Book, I post it to Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, ARe, and wherever else possible (such as the publisher's own retail site for example):

• Even Villains Have Interns by Liana Brooks 5* (Love this series! I'd already read a rough draft pre-release, but went back to the full version.)
• Iron Admiral: Conspiracy by Greta van der Rol 4* (classic space adventure)
• Ignition Point by Kate Corcino 5* (more stunning post apoc shorts)
• Girl from Above: Betrayal by Pippa DaCosta 4* (gritty space opera, but beware the cliffhanger ending).
• Inherit the Stars by Laurie A Green 5* (classic SciFi romance)
• Queen of Nowhere by Jaine Fenn (stunning space opera with some cyberpunk, and the last Hidden Empire book - boo hoo!)
• To Even Have Dreams by CE Kilgore 5* (I love Corinne's space opera series!)
• According to Plan by CE Kilgore 4.5*
• The Path to the Sun by Jaine Fenn 5* (alternative pre-WWII historical short, free from the author's site)
• A Mirror to Life by Jaine Fenn 5* (thought provoking SF short free from the author's website)
• The Trouble with Pixies by Gayle Ramage 4* (humorous UF short set in Edinburgh)
• Queen of Starlight by Jessa Slade 4* (beautifully lyrical SFR, but the sex scenes felt out of place)
• Deep Deception by Cathy Pegau 4* (f/f SFR - Cathy has got me hooked on them!)
• Rulebreaker by Cathy Pegau 5* (more f/f SFR)
• The Ships of Aleph by Jaine Fenn 4* (A sci-fantasy novella set in her Hidden Empire universe)
• Blood Siren by Michael Formichelli 4* (A Dune-esque epic type SF, but shinier)
• Girl from Above: Escape by Pippa DaCosta 4* (more gritty space opera)
• Whispers from Exile (Corwint Central Agent Files #2) by CE Kilgore 4* (more and multiple mixed gender/human alien mecha SciFi romances, but lost a star because of too many conflicting POVs)
• Tracing the Stars (Corwint #3) 3.5* & Breathe Into Existence (Corwint #4) 5*

Some of these were legal freebies or 99 cent sales - as an FYI I have  then gone on to buy the next or other books by some of the authors, notably CE Kilgore's. You will notice from some of the titles alone that these are not all purely SFR, to prove I do read other genres occasionally. :P But SFR is my main area of preference. I am not, however, a strictly romance reader. I came to SFR from SF, and I'm afraid non-speculative romance just doesn't do it for me at all, though I have tried a few contemporary or historical romances. Just not my bag.

A few things came up during my reading that bugged me. One, although I love SFR/SF most of all, I can't get into contemporary/near future Earth settings. They bore me. They aren't...science-fiction-y enough to satisfy that aspect of me. The only exceptions to this that I can recall are Misa Buckley's Tin Cat (which had a suitably SF geeky type setting) and Liana Brooks's Heroes and Villains series - both entertaining enough to overcome my dislike for contemp settings. There may be a few others on my book list. Oh, an exception to that is urban fantasy - for some reason, the contemporary settings don't even figure in my perceptions when reading those. I have no idea why.

Another was that, although I've written a couple of YA stories, I'm not a huge fan of reading them, or a fan of NA either. This is not a condemnation of anyone who reads them (gee, I'm never going to hate on someone for their reading choices - I see enough of that kind of stupidity on social media as it is). Just confirmation that it's apparently not for me. Maybe I shouldn't be writing YA either if I don't like reading it... While there are exceptions on my reading list (Fatal by TA Brock for one, although the high school setting did grate on me a bit), on the whole I much prefer to read adult, though I live in hope that I will find some more YA books I'll enjoy.

Also, I discovered that a book can be technically perfect in all ways and yet fall totally flat for me, while a book full of interesting characters, settings and emotional impact, though flawed, will totally win me over. I don't believe the fault lies with the books or the authors. It seems I have a very definite type when it comes to books I love, though they might be quite broad in their genre, trope, writing style etc. Much to my disappointment there were a couple of books that I hoped/expected to be wow-ed by...and I wasn't. The books weren't 'bad'. They were clearly just a bad match for me.

But one thing that came up during my reading that really did irk me was what I think of as book padding: where instead of actual story, the book is padded out with front and back matter. This happened to me twice. Both were shorts. Both were well written. But both had way too much back matter which, if I'd bought them, would have got them one starred for cheating me of story (they were legal freebies). As both were free, I simply left them unrated. In the first, 30% of the work was back matter. In the second, an over-the-top 42% was back matter.

Now, I totally understand using back matter to promote other works by the same author, and to give the reader bonus info. But in my opinion, there's a limit. If I pick up a 50 page work and 20 pages aren't actual story? I feel cheated. It's like buying a chocolate bar to find out two fifths are granola because the manufacturer is using it to advertise its new cereals. 2-5 pages in a short story, maybe up to 10 in a novel seems okay to me as non-story additions, but 42% of a short? Even as a freebie, I feel like I got ripped off. (BTW, this doesn't included added material such as glossaries, explanations of terms, cultures, maps, etc in the book that contribute to or help explain the story. I'm talking about an over abundance of About the author, excerpts etc).

Of course, I'm not a typical reader AND I'm an author. So maybe I have this wrong. Maybe I should be putting 10-20 pages of back matter into my 20-40 page shorts. Maybe that's where I'm making a mistake. After all, bonus material seems to sell DVDs well enough...

So, dear readers, what do you think? How much extra stuff do you want in a book, and what do you want to see? Or do you just want the book and nothing more?

If you want to know more about the books I reviewed, you can visit my Goodreads bookshelf HERE  or follow the reviews on Critique de Book HERE - right now I have weekly reviews set up until December, and I hope to keep this more up to date.

Happenings

Exciting news! Currently under the working title of Revived, my next and longer length Venus Ascendant story (set in the same universe as Terms & Conditions Apply) is a finalist in The Rebecca contest run by LERA. Woot! This is a really big deal for me. Firstly, because this is my third year in the contest and the first time I've finaled. Secondly, it's my slightly 'heavier on the SciFi' SFR and something I really wanted to do. It's also the story that I wrote 17K of on my smartphone because I was away on holiday! Lol. Even if the finals are as far as it goes, I'm especially chuffed to see my more science-y story make it this far. I had great fun researching tech for this, as well as what happens to a corpse in vacuum. ^_^ This does mean I can't release Revived before November due to the contest rules, but since I hope to give you Keir's Fall (also long overdue) at that point so I'm hopeful you'll forgive me for yet another delay in the Venus Ascendant universe. Ahem...

Back to blogging! I re-opened my own personal blog HERE after a FOUR MONTH closure. It's had a bit of a revamp- a de-clutter, redone sidebars (thanks to technical help from Laurel Kriegler), and a shiny new banner (thanks to Dani Fine). I'd love to know what you think! To celebrate, I'm doing a couple of free days on Amazon for my futuristic urban fantasy short - No Angel - on the 11th & 12th of September.

A Futuristic UF Short
Goodreads | Available from...
Amazon 

BristolCon is fast approaching! If you're a Brigade member who wants to send swag, now is probably your last chance. And if you happen to be a Brigader going to BristolCon, I'd love to see you! I'll be in the dealers hall with fellow Brit Brigader Misa Buckley, and I know my name twinsie Pippa DaCosta will be stopping by. Subject to possible change, but I'll be part of the discussion panel on reboots at 7pm in Room 2, so please stop by to offer moral support, laugh at my pitiful attempt at my first panel, or at least stand by to throw me some chocolate afterwards. Misa will be running a workshop for aspiring authors, moderating the How Green is our future? panel, and part of the panel for Faster than Light (subject to final confirmation). Please check out her schedule HERE.

Print release! Or maybe not. When Dark Falls, my superhero novella formerly with Breathless Press (and originally scheduled for print release in June, which sadly didn't happen) was supposed to be available in paperback. But I only received the proof to review yesterday, so now the race is on to have it for BristolCon! I hope to re-release Tethered and Restless In Peaceville in print with their shiny new covers as funds allow - sadly formatting and ordering proofs takes money, and the ebook sales have to finance it. WDF only made print this year because it was my only longer work that I didn't have print of - my other two novellas were briefly available in print via Breathless Press and I'd ordered in author copies for a convention before my publisher's closure. These will have the old BP covers.

Birthday! On the 3rd of August, I turned 44. Because I have always had a thing for the number four (don't ask - I don't have any logical reason for it), hitting 44 made me ridiculously happy. On a sadder note, my mum passed away at age 43, so that's been on my mind for the past year. It's also made me very conscious that I've been gifted time she didn't have, and that it would be a damn shame to waste it.

This is Pippa Jay, signing off...

Tuesday Teaser - Demons on the Streets of the Future #urbanfantasy #futuristic

My summer book binge with my monsters continues, and while I keep reading, here's another excerpt for you to read. This is taken from my futuristic urban fantasy No Angel, where supernatural beings still roam the Earth, and other planets too...

He stalked the streets of the city, the part that he had an unspoken claim on. Around him, those few humans venturing into the cold, wet weather walked with silver rain sticks in their raised hands, the buzz of invisible energy umbrellas keeping them dry. Beams of light from flying vehicles criss-crossed the clouded sky above. The odd blaring of collision warnings or irate drivers too impatient to wait their turn at the aerial stop signs broke the incessant hum of traffic. Towers and gothic arches in black marble and black glass surrounded him, glinting in the bright gleam of lurid neons. Mirrored panels reflected the 3D adverts that would spring up in front of commuters, like pranksters leaping out of hiding. Lucien strode through them all as they tried to seduce him with the latest social drug, eating place, bar, or males and females available for company. Next, it offered things to increase his libido, at which he laughed, then cosmetic alterations to enhance his appearance. Lucien snorted. As an angel, he'd been beautiful. As a demon, he'd kept his looks, but his demonic nature had sharpened his high cheekbones and narrowed his face, turned his already dark skin a shade darker. He could class himself as drop dead gorgeous and appreciate the utter literal nature of the phrase.

When that failed, the ads tried targeting him with off-world travel as they followed him around. Lucien smiled. He already belonged to another world that most humans might have forgotten they could reach. Little did they know it would still be their final destination.

At last, even the holographic advertising left him alone. Contrary to what humanity might think, the supernatural beings of this world had adapted to technology, if somewhat more slowly than their mortal cousins. There were demons on the outer planets too, and new versions of Hell that linked them to the original to ensure the sinners still met the fate they deserved. Crossing space was no defense from supernatural beings who could cross dimensions as yet unknown and unexplored by the human race. 

A Futuristic UF Short
Goodreads | Available from...
Amazon | All Romance eBooks
Kobo | iTunes | Oyster | B&N 
Google Play | Smashwords

How to Create a Shiny Slideshow

First things first. This was how my post intended to start - with an admission of fail. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but this month has not started as intended. I'd planned to do NaNoWriMo, which was unusual in itself. Normally I just sign up at the last minute with an idea that muse just won't drop. This year, I plotted...and the day before NaNo started I knew I wasn't going to do it. I just wasn't feeling it. In fact, I haven't felt like writing since I did Camp NaNoWriMo back in July. Which might be part of the problem.

So what will I be doing instead? Well, I haven't done much reading this year, and as a result very little reviewing. I therefore nominated November as my NaNoReMo - reading, reviewing, revising and researching. I have over 300 titles on my Kindle, I have two shorts and a novella that need overhauling before they can go off for edits, and I made a vow to do research and reading on marketing (at which I suck so badly). That should keep me busy, give me more titles to release next year, a better marketing plan (ha!), do some payback to my fellow authors, and clear my TBR list a bit. Plus I have another book release this month and next, so there will be plenty of blog posts to write and one tour and one book blitz to organize--my last release is less than a week before Christmas, so I'm just going to do a release day blast rather than a tour. I should imagine everyone will be too broke after the holidays to be book buying.

In the meantime, because I wasn't writing and I have upcoming releases, I did a big (and overdue) update of all my social media platforms - my website and blog, my Author App and book cover albums on my Facebook page, added new first chapters to my WattPad account, and pinned my missing covers to Pinterest. I also started putting various videos on YouTube into soundtracks for each of my books. But in the process, I decided it was time for an overhaul of my blog. At a friend's suggestion I went looking for new blog templates and found a couple I liked.

I created a private test blog to experiment with (I NEVER make adjustments directly to my blog without testing, and without doing a full backup of my template and content just in case. I do this as routine once a month anyway) and discovered that because these templates weren't Blogger's own, it wouldn't let me change anything in the template settings like colour, width etc...you know, all the really important stuff. *rolls eyes* So I considered what it was about the two templates I liked. Turned out all I really wanted was the slideshow facility and the drop down menu (my page section is cluttered, and I've actually run out of pages to use. I'll come back to the drop down menu at a later date). Creating the slideshow initially turned out a whole lot more complicated than I thought, but perfect fodder for a blog post.

Firstly, you'll need to create some images for the slideshow if you don't already have some. I used PAINT.NET to make some promo pieces - my book covers on a fancy background, with one or two review quotes for each. I'm not going to go through making those (unless someone asks for them - I had enough of a nightmare doing them in the first place!)

So if you go into Design (top right corner) on your Blogger blog, then Layout (near the bottom on the left hand side), you'll get this -

You'll see the little Add A Gadget widgets. Click one of those and you get a popup box. Scroll down that and you'll find Slideshow in the list -

Click the little blue +, and you'll get this -

This is where my problems started. For one thing, Picasa Web Albums are tied into Google photos. But you can't access Google photos through this menu. And if you try to go direct to your Picasa album in your browser, it redirects you to Google photos (I discovered that Google just loves to make life impossible). To get around this and access your Picasa album, go here - http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/start-picasa-web-without-redirection-to-googlePlus-photos.html
Actually setting up a slideshow album once you get into Picasa is fairly easy (you might find these links helpful if you get stuck -
http://www.bloggersentral.com/2009/07/how-to-embed-picasa-slideshow-in-blog.html

https://support.google.com/picasa/answer/66969

http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.ie/2010/01/picasa-blogger-part-4-putting-slideshow.html

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topicsearchin/blogger/slideshow$20picasa/blogger/Q_dvdLF_xF8).

And when you're done you'll have something like this -  

If you set your Slideshow gadget to configure to this album, you get a teeny, tiny slideshow which you can't change the size of. Fine if you just want thumbnails of a photo album, perhaps in a narrow column on your blog, but totally inadequate to my promo pictures. BUT, if you look to the right hand side of that screenshot, you'll see Link to this album. Click that to get either a share link for social media platforms like Facebook, or HTML code to paste into your website or blog (for Blogger, use Add A Gadget but choose HTML instead of Slideshow from the gadget list). Or click Embed Slideshow and you get this - 

Now you can see some options for Autoplay, size etc, and you copy and paste the HTML into the HTML Add A Gadget instead of using Slideshow. It's a perfectly serviceable slideshow. But it didn't autoreplay, which frustrated me. As soon as you reach the end of the sequence it stops, unless you press play again.

It wasn't doing what I wanted, and I couldn't find a way round it, short of putting multiple images of the same pictures into the slideshow. There had to be a better way.

I was given a link to this site - http://www.cincopa.com/  You have to sign up to an account but it's free (if you want extra features, you have to pay but you don't necessarily need them. Currently I have a logo free version for 30 days - what the logo will look like after that expires I don't know). I'm not going to go through setting this up because it is really simple to do and the site takes you through each step to creating your own slideshow, plus you can preview it before using to make any tweaks. And this is mine -

...

You can add tags, captions, choose and customize your skin (the surround), link to specific URLs, add descriptions - it's awesome. And if you need to add images or update them, you do them on your account and you don't need to change the slideshow on your blog, website etc, so if you put the same slideshow on multiple sites, you don't have to go around updating every single one each time. I love it!

If you have any questions about the process or I haven't been clear on anything, please feel free to ask!

Additional: One thing I promised to do after my Dreaded Sales Word post was tell you about my sales. Well, they were down for October. In fact, I had no sales at all for the first week of the month, though this was slightly compensated for by a spike after BristolCon. My blog stats were also very down on previous months (they've been increasing steadily each month over the past two years, though I had a big dip back in April). This despite several guest posts, and taking part in several blog hops and online events. The fact that both have dropped this month despite extra efforts on all sides to raise both, I put down to the time of year. All the events (particularly giveaways) plus the holiday may mean book buying and online activity is less (I'm guessing here. I really haven't been selling books long enough to see patterns much). So with two more releases to go and Christmas approaching, I'm going to be watching both with interest. I'm also posting about how BristolCon went over at the SFR Brigade blog today if you're curious about the cold hard details.

Happenings

When Dark Falls is up for pre-order and releases on the 21st! Woo hoo! My superheroes are coming to save the city...or will they?!

EXCERPT | GOODREADS
Available at... Breathless Press
Amazon US | Amazon UK

Blurb:

In a city where Dark Technologies Inc. now runs the show, Kadie Williams has more immediate concerns than the fall of Blaze, their guardian superhero. Almost every morning for the last few months she's woken up with cuts and bruises on her body and no idea how she got them. There are no nightmares. No evidence that she sleepwalks or any sign of a break in. And nothing to tell her who's been cleaning up after her. As just one of thousands of civilians conscripted to slave away in the labs of Professor Dark, she knew there'd be trouble ahead. But she never expected it to be so bad, or so personal.

Desperate for answers, Kadie looks to the new defender of the night, the only person who can hinder the total domination of Professor Dark—Nocturnelle. The mysterious vigilante superhero came from nowhere with her cybernetic sidekick Shadow, set on putting an end to the brutality of Dark's regime. But as his laboratories work on a new secret super-weapon, Nocturnelle and Shadow may not be enough to save Nephopolis...or to save Kadie either.

***

I'm so excited! And this leaves me with just my futuristic UF No Angel to go before the end of year (pssst, that releases the 19th December, just in time for some Christmas reading). I'll finish 2014 with six titles released this year, and eleven since my debut in May 2012. And after that I have a WHOLE FOUR MONTHS until my next scheduled release. Or will I...? *snigger*

Ping Pong

Awesome Halloween photo Donna, and so much easier than having to clean all that makeup off later, huh?

#NaNoWriMo - Why It's Not For Everyone

This month I achieved something that's a landmark for me. I won Camp NaNoWriMo! This is a first. I've attempted both the November NaNoWriMo and the Camp version five times since 2011, and flunked the previous four. I also have to confess that my win this time is probably down to aiming for a much more modest word count of just 15K rather than the full 50K. But I'm still chuffed.

Now, I'm not going to slate or promote NaNoWriMo as the must-do thing for writers. This is a very individual thing. Just as you need to find your own way to write successfully, be it plotting or pantsing, story arcs or character driven, or series structure, or whatever. NaNoWriMo is NOT for everyone, and no one should ever feel a failure for not hitting that magical 50K. Because I can tell you for a fact that, even when I've come close (36K is about my highest), it leaves me so burned out afterward that it often takes me a couple of months to recover, and completely kills my creativity. I'm not the kind of person who can always consistently pump out 1.5K a day. On my best day I've done 30K (not recommended - I didn't stop the whole day, and felt ill for almost a week afterward). Obviously on a bad day it'll be zero. Usually I can trot along with a steady 500 words a day (and taking into account I can usually only write five days a week when my monsters are at school, that would still give me 97.5K in a year - a decent sized novel or couple of novellas), but it varies hugely.

So the commitment of NaNoWriMo is a tough one for me, even when I'm in the deepest throes of inspiration from the muse. The afterburn is bad. Last November's NaNoWriMo hit me hardest, because not only was it a story that was more of a 'had to get it out of my head' rather than a 'I so want to write this', but it then got a request for the completed work. So instead of taking a break to recover and let it sit for a while, I had to dive straight back in to revise and submit (FYI, that book is now releasing in less than a month!). It took me several weeks to really recover, and then I was hip deep in edits for other stuff. Exhausting doesn't quite cover it. Muse went completely silent. I started to seriously fret over her absence. (She's since returned full force - now I'm having trouble getting her to SHUT UP!).

So why do I keep putting myself through it? Well, although I know I'll need to take time out to recover, two of those 'failed' NaNoWriMo novels will be published this year - Restless In Peaceville in August, and When Dark Falls in November. So even though technically they are failures for not making 50K, I've got two new books coming out that might not have been written if not for NaNoWriMo. Thanks to Camp this July, I finished the two short stories I needed to get done, one that has a submission deadline of the 31st. The other will be submitted probably around September to an in-house submission call. That could give me two more titles releasing this year (madness!).

So to me, NaNoWriMo has the potential to boost productivity for writers, but shouldn't be seen as the be-all-and-end-all. Not hitting 50K doesn't mean you've failed. It can show you your limits, or perhaps the limits of the story. It can give you a kickstart and/or impetus to get on with a project. It provides an instant support group if you want one, but you don't have to socialize as part of it. And while I shall take tremendous pride in showing off my winner's badge this year, it doesn't invalidate the other books I've done, inside and out of NaNoWriMo. It doesn't matter if I never 'win' it again. The important thing is I got the words down, and now some of them are going out to readers, and that makes me happy.

BTW, I *will* be doing NaNoWriMo again come November, with the sequel to Restless. See, I just can't leave it alone.

Pippa's Journal

Tethered is out! It's been nearly three years since I started this novella one Christmas Day, with no more than the odd idea of succubi in space. And now it's out there. Of course, the first thing I fret over after release is - will anyone buy it?! Then the anxious wait for the first review. As it happens, Tethered received its first review on Goodreads Monday, and it was...five stars! Phew! Not that I expect five stars all the way, but it's nice to get it for the first one. Now I have to wait and hear exactly what other readers think of the story in detail. >.<

Last week I received the sad news that my beloved editor at Breathless Press is leaving. *sob* We've only been working together since March, but I'd got attached. However, I've been assigned a new editor already (nice not to be left in editor-less limbo, which has happened to me before and is no fun at ALL) and we've said our hellos. And guess what? My angel story from Camp NaNoWriMo just got a contract offer, and we'll be working on that together. Excited! This means a total of seven releases for this year, leaving me with a grand total of eleven titles up at Goodreads! It has also added futuristic UF to the genres I've written so far.

Discoveries

Two things I learned this week. Now, you might think I'm some kind of expert at this whole publishing thing by now. I'm not. I'm still learning. So I'm going to share two new things I discovered, which maybe a lot of people might know but I didn't.

1. When your new book goes up on Amazon, IT DOESN'T AUTOMATICALLY GO ON YOUR AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE! Seriously, I didn't know this. I had wondered why Tales from the SFR Brigade never showed up, but put that down to it being a multi-author anthology. Then I noticed my last release, Reboot, also hadn't gone on but never investigated. When Tethered went live on Sunday, I didn't even think about it until a friend and fellow author questioned it and asked if I was able to fix that. After looking into it, I discovered I could. *facepalm* To add your books, you need to sign into Author Central (if you haven't already, sign up! You can use your Amazon account details, and this allows you to claim your books and edit your Amazon Author Page details, add your Twitter and blog accounts - all useful stuff). Then click Books, and Add Books (you'll need the ASIN number). Amazon does say it takes up to five days, but all three of mine were up in about an hour.

2. There's a thing on your Amazon Author Page (upper right hand corner) that says Subscribe to receive notifications about new releases by this author. I didn't know about it! And now I'm going to be adding that into my newsletter as another way readers can get an instant update about my new books without relying on me to keep mentioning it. :P

Happenings

My tour for Tethered with Breathless Press finished yesterday. Go HERE to see the list of stops, find out some of the behind the scene stuff, inspirations, deleted scenes, and even a possible opening to a sequel, complete with a giveaway. The second stage tour begins on the 8th August with another giveaway.

My publisher - Breathless Press - is celebrating its fifth birthday with a month long sale on site HERE (so you can pick up Tethered half price!) and a Wonderland themed party. More details next week.

I turn 43 on Sunday! No time to celebrate as my next release - YA paranormal Restless In Peaceville - takes place on the 20th August, before my tour for Tethered finishes. Eeep!

Ping Pong

Laurie, my sympathy for not getting to RWA this year, and extreme envy for next year. There *are* disadvantages to being a UK author. Sigh. Love that a self pubbed title won a RITA though - I would say about time too!

Sharon, great post about your muse. I regard mine as an entity in its own right (and how I hate it sometimes), although I know there are authors who consider that ridiculous.

Donna, waiting on a full update for RWA!