Author Events and Book Updates
November 26, 2019 at 5:01 am (Marketing)
Tags: Advanced Reader Copies, author readings, Earthbound, paranormal romance, poetry
This weekend, we had FIFTEEN authors at my library reading from their books, as well as swag, food, and door prizes. I woke up incredibly nervous that morning, but thanks to help from friends, it went off without a hitch.
I had a spot myself to sell signed copies of my poetry book, “A Sanctuary Built of Words.”
I also put up a sheet offering free Advanced Reader Copies of my upcoming paranormal romance in exchange for an honest review. Earthbound will be out in January and I need to get people talking about it.
Earthbound is on pre-order sale right now for just 99 cents and will be $3.99 when it releases in mid-January.
It is an ebook, available on most all platforms. You can check it out on Tirgearr Publishing at http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Johnson_Melora/earthbound.htm
(By the way, contrary to what the mug says, I don’t correct anyone’s grammar . . . unless they ask me to.)
A Book Party and Publishing News
November 19, 2019 at 5:00 am (Marketing)
We’re going to be having a fantastic Book Party with 15 authors at my library in Corning this coming Saturday. We’ll all be reading aloud, and have books to sign and sell. I can’t wait! There’ll be food and door prizes too!
In personal publishing news, I actually got an email on Saturday that I had a short story accepted into an online literary journal called The Paragon Journal. That makes four pieces, from poetry to a novel, coming out in the next year. It’s amazing to finally be making progress.
Writerly Update: NaNoWriMo in Progress
November 12, 2019 at 5:00 am (NaNoWriMo, Writing Inspiration)
I just love the moments of serendipity that come with working on a new story.
It helps me to visualize my characters if I pick someone to play them in my mind. I finally decided on Friday that a guardian angel character was most like Chris Pratt, at least visually. I was clicking through the television stations that night and landed on American Ninja. Strangely enough, Chris Pratt was guest hosting.
Sometimes it’s a matter of creating those moments out of the things that happen to me. The other night my daughter woke me from a sound sleep where I was dreaming about sleeping (very meta I know.) As she patted the blankets near my head to wake me, in my dream it turned into a ghost attacking me. I woke with my heart racing and adrenaline coursing through my body. First I thought, well it’s going to take a while to get back to sleep after THAT. Then I thought, what a great bit for the story I’m working on!
I also recently saw a picture from my local animal shelter of Rottweiler puppies that were up for adoption. A day or two later it occurred to me that I could use a guardian angel manifesting as a Rottweiler to keep a demon away from my main character’s house.
See how it all comes together? THIS is the most FUN part of writing.
I’m running a little behind, around 10,000 words as of Sunday night, but I’ve now written a couple scenes that I really LOVE.
Writing Update: NaNoWriMo Uprising
November 5, 2019 at 5:00 am (NaNoWriMo, Time Management)
I hosted a write-in at my library this past Saturday to kick-off NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month.) We had thirteen people in attendance and lots of writing got done. Prizes were given out for highest word count in a writing sprint, lowest word count, best line written, and worst line written.
Unfortunately, I had to spend my writing time editing, but I got it done! It’s back with the editor now and hopefully we’ll move forward from there.
With limited hours in the day, I’m a bit behind on NaNoWriMo but I made a start on Saturday, getting 600 words in. Another 1200 on Sunday. Though not as many as I had hoped, it is still progress.
I plan to catch up as time goes on. 2,000 words a day is not an unreasonable goal.
For me, NaNoWriMo is all about getting words on the page. I suppose I’m what they term a NaNo Rebel. I open a new document and EVRYTHING goes into it for the month. It could be a novel I’m working on, a digression into a short story, or even book reviews and blog posts. Every word counts.
Right now I’m filling in the missing bits of my Iwo Jima recon short story. Once that is drafted, I’ll move on to continuing the second novel in my paranormal series. I’m really looking forward to it.
There are quite a few quirky angels and demons in the books. Strangely enough, I just found out that an old family favorite, the Polish cookie Chrusciki, means “angel wings.” I may have to make some for the book release party.
Melora Johnson's Muse 