Category Archives: Row80

#ROW80 update

July 29, 2012 5:13 pm ⋅ 6 Comments ⋅

I’ve been failing all around at my goals, which is a sure sign that I need to change them. Usually, not toward the more forgiving either.

Found is completely plotted, as is my pen name short story collection. If I write a chapter a week on Found, I can have it out Fallish like I planned.  So, new goal, write a chapter a week on Found.

I have two long weekend vacations coming up in August. I plan on bringing a laptop on both and trying to get some work done as I will be child-free.

I’m also changing my goal of no more stats checking except Sundays, to spend less time on the internet in general. Mine was out for a day and I got so much done!

Posted in: ROW80

#ROW80 update (composed during shaved ice sugar high)

July 11, 2012 5:32 pm ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

Update!

I’ve written every day since Sunday, except for today as I have barely been home. There’s still time! I’ve worked on a different project each day and have put in between 200-500 words. Not a lot, but it’s better than the zero I get when I stress about not having enough time to hit 1K a day.

I was good about not checking my stats until yesterday, when I was ordering a cookbook and saw in my history on Amazon that the Day of Sacrifice Omnibus had received its first review.

Which was 1 star…because the reader ”was disturbed” that it was targeted at young adults.

Ahem.

The second line of the book description is as follows: The Day of Sacrifice Omnibus is intended for adult readers due to language and sexual situations.

The Day of Sacrifice stories are by S.W. Benefiel. See over there on the right sidebar of this blog? Under the Books for Adults – that’s where all the Day of Sacrifice titles appear.

I’m not sure what else I can do to let people know that, yes I write YA, but I also write NA, stuff for adults and stuff for ADULTS.

Anyway, that set me off on a stats binge. I not only checked my sales on every platform, but I checked the reviews on all of my books. 

I’ll do better. Now that I’ve publicly vented (note that I did not engage the reviewer even though I really, really wanted to) I can let it go.

So, last round I started this tumblr called Be Awesome, Beautiful Dreamer and I was going to add essays to it for a new Toilet Business-esque book of essays. But, then I never had any time to actually write all the new essays because I was worrying about getting DoS done and I have all of these starts that I haven’t finished yet. Forcing essays doesn’t work the same way you can force yourself to sit down and write a scene. It takes me longer to think out my opinion and what I remember about certain events and what to cut…

I digress.

Instead, I changed the name of the blog to FAT WRITER. I’m putting my whole family on the Paleo Diet starting next Monday and I thought it would be useful/funny/entertaining/informational to blog about it. There are two posts up now and I’m about to add another after I make dinner. Check it out. There’s a huge picture of me riding a giant brass tortoise at the Oregon Coast Aquarium on it.

I know, how can you resist?

Happy writing, friends! I’m off to make brats.

 

Posted in: E-books, Fiction, indie authors, indie readers, Progress, ROW80, Self-publishing, Writers, Writing, Young Adult ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Midsummer Retelling Stand Alone #ROW80 Dream

July 8, 2012 2:16 pm ⋅ 8 Comments ⋅

Last night I had a dream that I was at an indie author convention and all of my writer friends were there. (I would die if this were ever really a thing. I have so many writer friends that I would love to meet in person!) After some hilarious antics involving a bee in my iced coffee cup and not being able to find the correct elevator that led me to my personal slot machine room, we all settled into a ballroom for the awards ceremony.

Lots of friends won awards and I was a little bummed. I knew I hadn’t won anything because I hadn’t put out a new novel since 2011 and no one was reading my short stories.

Then Vicki Keire suggested that I write a stand alone retelling of a Shakespearean play.

That’s when I woke up.

And realized that I have notes for a stand alone novel that’s a modern retelling of a classic.

Was the dream a sign? Is THIS what I should be working on?

Or, am I just freaking out?

I’m just freaking out, even in my sleep, apparently. I’ve got an overwhelming number of projects that I need to finish. Not that any of them have a deadline – apart from the one that I’ve made for myself that consists of GET MORE WORK OUT FASTER.

I’ve tried prioritizing works by projected release dates. I’ve tried daily and weekly word count, timing myself, writing for two hours a day, one hour a day, four thirty-minute intervals.

Blah, none of it works for me.

I need for writing to be fun again. That’s what works.

Therefore, my goals for this ROWnd are:

1. Write something every day. On any of the WIP’s, however much I get done, I get done. Eventually, one of them will be finished.

2. Stop reading reviews (I’m really close to doing this already.)

3. Check sales numbers once a week on Sunday morning. (The withdrawal is going to be a bitch. Ha!)

4. Always check-in on Sunday and try to check in on Wednesday.

That’s it!

Now I’m off to see what I can do with my new time travel short story, since I worked on Found several times this past week.

Happy writing!

 

Posted in: Blogs, Fiction, indie authors, indie readers, Progress, ROW80, Self-publishing, Writers, Writing ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

So, how did I do? A very special #ROW80 post

June 20, 2012 6:13 pm ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

Here were my goals for this round:

1. Write for two hours every day in 25 minute increments with 5 minute breaks in between. Use my Focus Booster timer to do this. Do more if I have more free time! (It happens once in a while.)

I did this for a few weeks. I suck. I suck at following any kind of schedule or program. No matter my best intentions, I skip days, I forget to time myself, I work on what I want to instead of what I need to.

I strive to improve this aspect of my writing, but I also don’t care that much when I end up meeting my goals. :)

2. Finish DoS #6 – which, let’s face it, is called Unfavorable because that’s the best title I’ve come up with. It has to be done by May. Then, publish it, publish it with stories #4 and #5, publish all six stories together, and create the paperback of the Day of Sacrifice Omnibus. DoS takes first priority.

I did all of this, except for putting stories 4,5, and 6 together. I decided that there were already too many ways to read the DoS stories and it was better to have the individuals and the Omnibus and to get rid of the Vol.1-3 and 4-6. No one’s complained, so yay. I also met this goal just a little bit late – during May instead of by May. That’s fine with me and akin to setting your alarm 10 minutes early so you have leeway with getting up in the morning.

3. Begin working on the first Society School novel. It has to be done by August.

I have begun work on Found. It will not be done by August. I was sooooo being overly ambitious with this one.

4. Work on the second Back in Time story when Society School makes me crazy.

Haven’t started this yet, but it will remain a goal next round.

5. Spend one weekend (after Unfavorable is done) finishing the pen name short story I started ages ago.

I wasn’t working on that story because I hated it. I scrapped it and have since started on a collection of stories instead. I’m enjoying writing them. I now have one free story and another, longer story that is doing well paid under my pen name belt, so a collection that I can price at $3.99 seems like a good next move.

6. Work on the book with Vicki when I get a chance.

We didn’t get a chance. Vicki is maybe the second busiest writer I know after Kait. Our book idea is fabulous, so we’ll get to it one of these days!

I feel like this has been a pretty decent round for me. No regrets. I hope you all don’t have any either. See ya on July 2nd!

Posted in: indie authors, Progress, ROW80, Writers, Writing ⋅ Tagged: , , ,

#ROW80 update from the trenches (a.k.a. my office before a garage sale)

June 13, 2012 9:18 am ⋅ 3 Comments ⋅

We’re having a garage sale, therefore my office/seasonal clothes storage room/playroom annex/place where my husband keeps old desks that I hate and family china/ room where everyone dumps everything they can’t find a place for in the rest of the house, looks like several other peoples’ garage sales barfed all over it.

The kids climbed on one of my bookshelves and broke the bottom shelf, causing books to spill all over the floor. I stacked up the books and left the shelf. The kids stood on top of the books to get to the art supplies I keep on another shelf and ripped some of the covers off of the books. RIGHT NOW as I’m writing this, my daughter has just upset a box containing old baby toys and a license plate I stole off of a car when I lived in England the summer of 1990.

When I say this place is a disastrous mess, I’m not bullshitting you.

And I write books in the middle of this hoarders refuge, which can’t be good for my productivity because I spend a lot of time wishing I could just back a Dumpster up to this room, toss the lot and start from scratch.

So, I’m cleaning. I going to clean until it’s organized and the playroom is organized and the garage is organized. I’ll be working my ass off until the linen closet isn’t full of old printers and fax machines and scanners, but the bed linens that are stacked up in a laundry basket in the laundry room.

I’ve worked a little bit more on Found and it’s easy. I love writing it. I just can’t do it in the middle of all this mess anymore!!

Writing resumes on Monday.

…if you’re anywhere near Beaverton, OR in two weeks time, I’ll be selling my possessions out on the lawn.  Awesome deals on broken bookshelves and vintage foreign license plates.

Posted in: indie authors, indie readers, ROW80, Writers, Writing ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Some thangs and #ROW80

June 6, 2012 10:54 am ⋅ 5 Comments ⋅

I have a list of things I keep meaning to tell you all!

If you have a blog: Sign up for the Indelibles INDIEpendence Day celebration!

If you like to read interesting posts and win stuff: Visit the Mid Summer Dream Fair! My post is called The Stage and it’s coming up at the end of the month.

If you want to win a paperback copy of the Day of Sacrifice Omnibus: Sign up on Goodreads or…sign up on that big sign up widget thingy over in the sidebar there.

If you want to get two monthly newsletters about new releases from the Indelibles and the Pacific Northwest YA Authors: Click the link for the Indelibles and for the PacNWYAAuthors to sign up.

Row80 update: I’m making decent progress on the pen name stories and I purchased an e-book cover, so that’s a done deal. I thought of yet another funny story for the BABD blog…and someday I might actually write it and the other 17 stories I have to put on there. I haven’t worked anymore on Found. 

With the kids out of school and my husband only working away from home three days a week, I just can’t get anyone to leave me alone. If I didn’t have to pay for a new roof in July, I’d seriously consider renting office space and putting the kids in day care for a few hours every day!

Whenever people interview me they always ask how I manage to write books and stay at home with the kids. It’s a friggin’ MIRACLE that’s how. I have no idea. It just gets done and never in as timely a manner as I want. ;)

Posted in: E-books, Fiction, Giveaway, Guest Post, Indelibles, indie authors, indie readers, Progress, ROW80, Self-publishing, Writers, Writing, YAY YA, Young Adult ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

#ROW80 update

June 3, 2012 5:29 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Short update today! I’ve been working on Found just a bit, getting used to writing in first person present. Meanwhile, I’ve been dealing with my house falling apart and needing to get a new roof. Whee!

I haven’t gotten around to working on any essays or the next Back in Time story. Although, I started a new trio of pen name stories last night and those are coming along well. I had another one that I was working on, but I hated the characters, so it’s binned for now. One of the pen name stories is doing well and I only have two out, so I thought I’d get a few more of those into the wild.

What else? I feel like I’m reaching my bi-yearly marketing flame out, so I’m going to spend more time writing and less time promoting my books for a few months. Even though I know that marketing doesn’t really do all that much, I have a hard time stopping. But then I get absolutely crazy and obsessed and that sucks all the fun out of life.

How uplifting is this update? :) I haven’t been getting anything done and I feel like all the fun is being sucked out of life. lol I’m being a bit dramatic to say the least.

Happy writing fellow ROW80ers!! Have fun!! :)

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Zellie trilogy e-card winners and #ROW80 update

May 27, 2012 8:46 am ⋅ 2 Comments ⋅

Happy Sunday!
First things first, I’d like to announce the winners of the five Zellie Wells trilogy e-cards from my Indelibles Beach Bash post.

They are:
Delphina, Artemis, Brandi, Susan, and Linda! Congratulations to you all and thank you to everyone that entered the drawing.

I’ll be sending the signed e-cards out on Tuesday.

ROW80 update – I haven’t updated in forever – apart from a couple of status updates on the Facebook page. Mostly, because every time I thought about writing one, I realized nothing much had changed from the Wednesday or Sunday before.

Now, I have lots saved up to report. :)

Unfavorable (Day of Sacrifice #6) and the Day of Sacrifice Omnibus are completed and have been released into the wild. (Amazon, BN, Smashwords)

Both are selling pretty well, I have no complaints, especially given that we are about to move into what I’ve found to be the slowest months for book sales.

Writing the Day of Sacrifice series was an interesting experiment and one I’m not likely to repeat EXACTLY any time soon. :) My advice would be that if you’re going to write a serial, put out an installment on a weekly basis and have most, if not all, of the installments written beforehand. The DoS stories were fun to write and I loved the characters, but it was an extremely stressful endeavor.

I plan on doing another novelette “series” with Back in Time serving as the jumping off story, but these will all have a shared Time Travel Romance theme and can be read out of order as standalones.

What am I working on NOW? I started writing the first book in my new upper YA….NA? Penny Black trilogy.  The prologue was great fun to write – it’s all characters from the Zellie books catching the reader up. 

However, when I went to write Penny’s first chapter, it all came out in first person present instead of first person past, like I’d planned.

Hmm. I’m going to roll with it. It just seems to fit her personality.  My only problem is that the prologue is third person past and I planned on writing alternating chapters in another character’s voice – first person past.  I have to make some decisions about tense, obviously.  All I know is that I’m not interested in doing the whole shebang in third person past or alternating between first person and third person past. I did that on the Zellie books and it was hard to switch back and forth. 

I think the prologue can be different from the rest of the novel…but I just won’t know until I’ve finished the book, I guess.

I would love some advice on this one!!!

Anyway, that’s what I’m working on now. I’ve also got a couple of half-written essays I need to finish for Be Awesome, Beautiful Dreamer, a pen name story that needs attention, and I want to get started on the next BiT story so that I’ll have something to publish at mid-summer. Otherwise, that’s probably too long of a break in between published works.

But, for now, I’m going to go put on some sweatpants (it’s still March in Oregon) and go see Dark Shadows.

Have a great rest of the holiday weekend!

Posted in: E-books, Fiction, Giveaway, Indelibles, indie authors, indie readers, Progress, ROW80, Self-publishing, Writers, Writing, YAY YA, Young Adult ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Giveaway winner, #ROW80, Free stories

May 9, 2012 4:51 pm ⋅ 4 Comments ⋅

Isn’t that the super snazziest blog title ever! :)  

1. Artemis Rising Blog Tour Giveaway Winner (Phew!) – Congrats to Naomi H. ! Artemis Rising by Cheri Lasota is on its way. I know you’ll enjoy it!

2. Unfavorable is done! Uh, sort of.  The story is finished, but it still needs an epilogue. I’m having my proofreader/BFF read through it tonight and after I get her notes I’ll figure out how the epilogue is going to go. I have a general idea, but if I end up changing the ending…I like the ending, but I need her opinion. I’m not sure I made the right choice and am too close to it.  Anyway, the epilogue hinges on what happens at the end, obviously, so once I know what it’s going to be I can go from there.  I’ve got beta readers set up for the beginning of next week and I hope to have Unfavorable published by the 18th.

And then the Day of Sacrifice series will be complete!!  It’s going to be sweet having two series under my belt, let me tell ya.

3. Speaking of…Day of Sacrifice is free on Amazon, BN, Smashwords, iTunes, etc. right now. Even if you’ve read it, it would be great if you could download a fresh copy so that it gets lower in the bestsellers ranks and gets more exposure.

Alas, this is how self-published authors get their name (or names in my case) out there! I would be most grateful.

I’ve also added a new short story to my Free Reads section on this site. Surprise, Surprise is from the Indelibles In His Eyes anthology that we put out around Valentine’s Day. The whole anthology is free, if you’re looking for some awesome YA short stories told from a male POV.

Happy reading and writing!

Posted in: Blogs, E-books, Fiction, good neighbors, Indelibles, indie authors, indie readers, Progress, ROW80, Self-publishing, Writers, Writing, YAY YA, Young Adult ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

#ROW80 update

May 6, 2012 3:37 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Hello all! Long time no update.

Well, Unfavorable isn’t done yet. It is the story that will not end. I think I’m having last book (story) syndrome. I just want everything wrapped up and for no one to be disappointed in the ending and all that CHATTER.

I keep thinking I have 1K to go and then I sit down and write 3K and still haven’t ended the bloody thing yet! My self-imposed deadline was May 1st, so that didn’t happen, but I DECLARE that mutha is going to be finished this week or…well, I don’t know what, it’s my birthday and Mother’s Day next Sunday and I kinda want to, y’know, get presents and eat cake and stuff and not be mean to myself and I already cheated and bought and read the latest BDB novel, so…I just better finish the damn story.

In other news, I went ahead and started plotting the Penny Black trilogy (previously known as the Society School books) and am RARIN’ to get started on those.

Lastly, there’s buzz that a group of bloggers are preparing some sort of interwebs raking over the coals of an author friend of mine. I have two things to say about that:

1. Why would anyone want their rep to be that they are a bully?

2. Get outside and enjoy some nature. Hanging out on the computer all the time getting whipped up into a frenzy is a lameass way to spend a day.

Peace!

Hope everyone has a great week writing and life-wise.

Posted in: Bad neighbors, Fiction, indie authors, indie readers, Progress, ROW80, Self-publishing, Writers, Writing ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,