Tag Archives: Indecisive Nature

Way to post, like, once a month dude.

August 13, 2012 9:24 am ⋅ 4 Comments ⋅

It’s still summer here for another month. My kids don’t start school until mid-late September and it’s actually hot here, so we’re wringing all we can out of the season while we have the chance.

Of course, other things have been going on – the hubs and I had our 10 year wedding anniversary and we took a little trip to the San Juan islands. While we were there, we met authors Keary Taylor and Nikki Jefford. So much fun! And I’ll be meeting Amanda Hocking in person for the first time next week. I’ve been friends with all of these lovely ladies online for a long time – it’s great to finally meet face-to-face!

The kids have been in swimming lessons and track camp and they start sports camp this week, followed by karate and dance at the end of the month. My mom taxi is in full effect!

I also started a camp of my own, sort of, Crossfit! It’s really hard, but rewarding in that way where you’re using muscles you didn’t know you had. Right now I’m working out four days a week and will be moving to five next week. Wish me luck!!

There are birthday celebrations coming up, more weekend trips, the Pac NW YA bbq, a Gotye concert and back-to-school shopping! My August calendar has so much stuff on it, I can barely make out what I’m supposed to do from one day to the next!

So, what have I been working on? Found is coming along nicely, if not at a snail’s pace. The covers for the entire Penny Black trilogy should be ready soon – I’ll post them everywhere ASAP! The Awesome Robin Ludwig has done it again!! I finished listening to the audiobook of Glimpse last night – look for that to be available by the end of the month.

And, honestly, I’ve been reading a lot. Seaweed, Tangled Tides, Crave, and Envy in the past two weeks. I get to a point a couple of times a year where I just want to do nothing besides read. I always give into it. :)

I hope everything is going well with you all and that your summer has been a blast! I’m sure I’ll be around more often when it starts to rain. :)

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#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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

#ROW80 update

April 25, 2012 9:45 pm ⋅ 4 Comments ⋅

I’m getting this in at the very last moment!

Plugging along word count-wise on Unfavorable. This puppy needs to be done this weekend so that Sarah can proofread it next week and then I can send it to a couple of betas.

I wrote 1500 words yesterday and then spent the day today rearranging the scenes and writing a new one. My chronology was all off and I had characters explaining why things hadn’t happened yet instead of just having them happen. Also, in some scenes, they have two days until an epic battle and in others, it’s one! Super annoying. So, I stopped what I was doing and made a timeline.

I’ve been writing these stories since October 2010 and when I started them, I didn’t know how many there were going to be, who all the characters were or what was going to happen from one story to the next. (I had a similar experience with the Zellie books.)

Let me tell you, I’m never doing it this way again. It is way too difficult to keep track of everything.  The Society School books are getting a fat stack of Post-its and some poster boarding, that’s for damn sure! The timeline is going to help me a lot with Unfavorable, but I’m not sure why I haven’t made it before!  While I was perusing the stories 1-5, I also made notes of other things I’d flubbed up.  More rewrites!!

Then I will have only three more scenes to write. Or two. Ugh, I can’t decide!

Obviously, none of this is really up to me. :)

After I made the timeline, I combed through stock photography for three hours looking for the perfect woman/man/couple to put on the Day of Sacrifice Omnibus cover. I finally found them! They are a little more naked than I’d envisioned, but they are the right combo of hair and eye color and hotness level to be Flora and Julian.

The awesome Keary Taylor is making it for me.

That’s it! I’ve been on the computer for 14 hours. I think I can stop now.

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

#ROW80 update and Green Acres

April 15, 2012 10:49 am ⋅ 6 Comments ⋅

Just a quickie update today because I have to clean my house. One of the things I said I’d do when I started making decent money as a writer was hire someone to clean my house a couple of times a month – well, the cleaning lady was supposed to start last week, but she got the flu, so my house is extra disastrous. I’m pretty sure the second I clean, she’ll call to reschedule. It’s the way of my world. :)

I’m not entirely sure of my word count this week – it’s around 2.5K. I tried doing my timer writing and writing without editing and…I sat down yesterday and didn’t time myself and started rewriting/cutting Unfavorable from the beginning…it’s not finished, but the first scene is a lot better and I got some enjoyment out of the process. Ha! My brain just really wants me to let it fix things in the moment. I keep working to retrain it, but she’s a stubborn bitch.

Another thing my brain is, is super obsessive. I had a dream that I bought a farm and then when I woke up I looked up farms for sale in my area and there is a huge one for a good price nearby. (And by good price I mean not a million dollars – it’s not something that I can actually afford.) Anyway, I drove by it. Then I drove up to the house and checked it out. Today I’m going to the open house and then taking the kids over to a friend’s farm down the road a bit so we can see how they manage it.

I have a hard time letting ideas go and I’ve learned to let myself just be a crazy person and dream about them until the last possible moment when my rational side kicks in and says, “hey, it ain’t gonna happen.”

It’s just thinking, right?

So, that took up some of my week too, but the farce ends today and I’ll be back to trying to figure out how to afford to put a new roof on the house I already own – which takes up way less creative brain space than dreaming about being a lavender farmer.

Every time I say quick post, I babble endlessly.

Enjoy your Sunday!

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

#ROW80 update and My Pretties

April 11, 2012 4:13 pm ⋅ 7 Comments ⋅

ROW 80 update: Writing has been a little scattered this week. I had a hard time getting into Unfavorable on Monday because I’m trying to write without editing as I go and as a result of that couldn’t read what I wrote over the weekend without cringing. I changed a couple of things and rewrote maybe 500 words and then had to put it away.

I did end up starting one of the essays for my new, uh, book of essays - Be Awesome, Beautiful Dreamer. It’s not up on the BABD blog yet as it’s still in draft form, but that was a nice relaxing bit of writing that no one is WAITING for, so no pressure.

Tuesday I just finished the scene that was killing me in Unfavorable and moved on to the next one that was much easier to write. I got 1K in on that.

As for today – Imma bout to get to it. :)

My Pretties:

 

That’s that! Talk at you all on Sunday.

 

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

Happy Easter, Paperback Action, and #ROW80

April 8, 2012 8:20 am ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

Good morning and Happy Easter!  I’ve got a crapton of eggs to devil, so I’ll get right to it. :)

The Zellie paperbacks have new inside and outside designs. (The story is the same – no matter how many people complain, the park bench scene stands. lol)

All of the books now have the blue sparkly e-book covers and I finally figured out how to make the page numbers start on the first page of the actual book instead of the literal first page. The covers are just starting to show up on Amazon and will probably take a while to show up everywhere else – they might, in fact, never show up on Barnes and Noble, as they still have the First Edition covers up.  We’re on the Third Edition here, people, catch up!

(I’m too lazy to make the files small enough to download here, but if you’d like to seem them they are up here. Robin Ludwig is AWESOME!!)

At any rate, if you’ve been waiting around for me to change the paperback covers to look like the e-book covers, I’ve done it. Please help spread the word.

ROW80: I’ve had a pretty good first week. After a bit of a timer malfunction on Monday – my Focus Booster timer disappeared from my screen, but kept going off randomly for a couple of hours and scaring the crap out of me – I downloaded a proper Pomodairo timer and that’s worked out better.

Monday – Wednesday I wrote each day, although I didn’t make it the full two hours. I averaged about an hour. I’m still keeping the goal at two hours, but not beating myself up if I don’t make it there.

Thursday and Friday I didn’t get any writing in at all because I was working on reformatting the paperback interiors. I didn’t expect that it would take me that long, but I format for paperback maybe twice a year, so I forget things from one instance to another.

Saturday I got four and a half hours of writing in. In addition to timing myself, I’m also trying to write without editing as I go. Ouch. It hurts. :) I wanted to attempt to finish the first draft of Unfavorable last night, but I was literally writing nonsense by the end of it and decided to go clean some Parenthood off the DVR instead. I’ve got nearly 5K for the week and that’s great for me. I’m hoping to do the same this week, or even 10 K and get Unfavorable done.

I am dying to work on Found.

Oh, Sexy New Ideas.

 

 

Posted in: Darn good television, Fiction, indie authors, indie readers, Progress, ROW80, Self-publishing, Writers, Writing, YAY YA, Young Adult ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,