Showing posts with label writing Amazon publishing short stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing Amazon publishing short stories. Show all posts

2014 in review

Well, we survived the holidays, where we ate too much and sat around enjoying days off and being together. I thought it might be time to do a wrap up of 2014, since I haven’t posted to Ye Olde Blogge in a while.

I’ve been busy writing stuff, when I haven’t been sick. Most of 2014 was spent lying around feeling like crap. It was horrible, and my biggest wish for this new year is to not be sick. Between whatever weird virus-thing I picked up last year — oddly enough, it was on January 4th — and the sinus infection in August, I spent the better part of the year under the weather. Bah, humbug!

Anyway, I’m sure you only really want to know about what’s going on in the chicken coop. I’ve heard you muttering about the lack of updates and cute pictures. Yes, I’m talking about you, don’t try to look innocent, it ain’t working. Sadly, there are no recent pictures, but the girls are doing fine, still laying pretty well. We’ve got a light in the coop that comes on just before dawn and twilight, staying on for about a half hour each time, to give them a little more light so they give us a few eggs, usually three a day.

George is still King of the Coop, and tells the world daily with his crowing. He talks to a couple of other roosters in the area, mostly bragging about his girls, I’m sure. He’s a handsome devil, and knows it.

The garden didn’t produce as much as I’d hoped, what with a late spring and very wet conditions throughout the season. Still, it was worth the trouble, and the basic structure is there for the coming planting season. My brother and I will be working to expand the garden, because we plan to grow some portion of the food for the chickens. The more I can grow/raise myself, the cheaper those eggs get.

I’m still writing. I publish most of my stuff lately into the new Kindle Unlimited program, which works really well for the short stories I have up. I’m trying out a new genre and a new pen name, but still working on the other stuff I had going on. I’m also getting to some more pure romance stories, though science fiction and horror are still my faves.

After reading a recent Dean Wesley Smith blog post, I'm going to work towards achieving what he called Pulp Speed One, which is one million words this year. It sounds like a lot -- well, it is, really -- but broken down into a daily word count it's reasonable and I'm sure I can get there, if I keep working. I picked my One Little Word for 2015: "consistent". My word for last year was "persistent", and I strove to persist in reaching my goals. All in all, I did pretty well.

I’m not sure how much I’ll do on this blog, though I’m hoping to post regularly. I have a blog about Gothic romances that I really want to do something with, and the publishing site I set up earlier. That will be getting the majority of my attention, because business.

The family is doing well, both parental units are maintaining their health, my siblings are doing pretty good, all things considered. And my boys are fine. Number One, Second-of-Three and Sk8monkey say Hi! See them behind me, waving and grinning? Yeah. They’re so cute. <3

And there you have it, folks. You’re all up-to-date on my exciting life, with a promise to write again soon, and I swear I will start taking pictures to post. It's no wonder I still have so much scrapbooking stuff, the way I take pictures.

Ta for now!

Well, at least the front matter looks good.

I have uploaded four of my short stories to Amazon through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) so far, only one to format now. It wasn't nearly as hard as I'd feared it would be. I even have that lovely Look Inside feature!

The only problem is, the preview -- and the sample -- only go to the end of the front matter. Yikes. So, I've been working on my template to rearrange some of the information so it goes at the end of the story.

It probably would be okay for novels, since you get more of a sample, percentage-wise, but I want people to see some of the actual story, instead of only having my blurb to go by. I don't know if I should republish the stories using the new template, but I probably will at some point.    

On that note, as of this morning I have two sales, bringing my total royalty to 70 cents. I'm so grateful to whoever bought the story (both sales for the same one), and I hope you enjoy reading it.

Well, must be off to cause more havoc in the world of words, Gentle Readers. Take care and have a good week.



I'm published on Amazon at last.

I've been working on getting my short stories up at Amazon this week. This is my author central page -- if all four books aren't listed, click on the "see all books" link and all four stories are there. That fifth book, though, I have no idea why that's there, but if you like it, I'm sure the authors will love for you to buy it!

I have four short stories up now, with one more to work on. I took the novellete/short story combo and split it up, rewriting the short piece to flesh it out and published them separately.

The formatting wasn't too bad, despite my fears -- and hey, anybody that can upload to Smashwords can do KDP. Seriously. I went over the Word doc, checking for typos and other stupid stuff, again, saved it as Web page, filtered and put it through MobiPocket Creator.

They look pretty good, and it's wonderful having them up. In fact, I've  sold one. Yup. For real money. I know! It's freaking awesome. I'm already planning on how to spend that .35. Of course, I'll have to sell another $9.65 before I see that royalty, but hey, can't a girl dream?

Well, off to work, Gentle Readers. Have a glorious day.