Update: Summer Sunday
Flat out like the proverbial
I don’t know how many cups of coffee I’ve had today - lots! - and it seems like I’ve done no productive work.
Let me guide you through my iPad reading app. There are three themes going on here.
First is my usual reading for pleasure. If I have a spare moment, I read. Might take me a few days to finish a novel, but I usually finish them. I’m currently working through the Jack Hawksworth series by Fiona McIntosh.*
Fiona was one of the guest speakers on the Literature Festival cruise I took last month and thoroughly enjoyed. I’ve been reading her series of British police thrillers. Some unlikely plots backed up by excellent research but she certainly knows how to tell a story. She has written a series of historical novels - again, superb research - which I’ve earmarked for my next reading once I finish her cops and serial killers shelf.
Second is my own research. I know how to write erotica to my own taste but writing erotica to sell like hotcakes on Amazon is a different kettle of worms and I’m learning the business. This naturally requires some single-handed research. There is a lot of detailed information around and you really need to pay attention to the details. Amazon does.
Third is the fruits of my own labour. I write in Scrivener and format on Vellum - both products highly recommended - and check the output before uploading to Kindle Direct. Naturally there are multiple versions of each book. Some include covers, some don’t. Covers evolve throughout the process.
My WiP - Hundred Mile High Club - is just over 4 000 words and as yet no serious sex has occurred. Just looks and glances and the briefest of caresses. I like building up the teasing; makes the ultimate result so much more satisfying.
Probably wind up being more like ten thousand words than five by the time I finish. Doing one of these a week is going to be a challenge. A slower pace than NaNoWriMo, for sure.
In this case, what I write now will impact the entire series and I need to get it right from the start. I can go back and change details, names, characters and so on in Kindle updates but that’s tacky and just makes even more work.
Nevertheless, I’m enjoying the writing and working out the problems. It’s going to have a chunky science underpinning to the erotica and every time I look something up there are ramifications I need to consider.
In other horrific news …
Melbourne has had a patchy day, weatherwise. Like that’s something new, I hear you say?
A week ago it was steaming hot. Today was a comfortable temperature with showers here and there. A day for hot coffee rather than cold with ice cubes, but just as much reason for staying inside and annoying the cat.
I’m now onto my third version of Good Travel, Bad Sex. A better cover was the big deal for the second version and a few minor formatting issues for the third. Amazing how you can read a story a hundred times and still not see some little detail that needs fixing. At least Kindle Direct allows me to upload as many versions as I want, subject to a short delay while the changes are checked and approved; a job undoubtedly performed by robot these days.
For one thing, the current version of my latest story has a title and author name that isn’t right. I write under several names and for this story I simply re-used a Scrivener template I’d used for another project a year or so ago, The cover image says one thing, the metadata another. I need to fix that!
I’ll also need to launch a new pen-name for Project 2025. I’ll discuss the technical reasons in Unclad Author but they are compelling. *SIGH* More work!
I’ve been watching the news and reading the stories about the bushfires in California. Horrific and heart-rending. We may not have the final fatality figures for a while but the evacuation orders undoubtedly saved many lives.
I’m not too sure I’d lay the blame at any of the many political issues being thrown around. The reasons will surface in due objective course. My own opinion is that building houses in forest areas invites destruction by forest fire, and building closely-packed rows of houses surrounded by forests adds to the danger.
When one house at the end of a row goes up, the weather conditions are hot and windy, there aren’t many people left to fight the fires, and the water pressure is low or zero, then fires skip from house to house unchecked, embers blow across gaps and everything burns.
Ironically, making evacuation orders increases the destruction but it seems that several of those killed were trying to save their properties.
What a choice. Leave and live but lose everything, or stay and lose both with a chance of avoiding ruin.
I wonder, America being America, how many home-owners will have their insurance claims refused or minimised and fat chance of significant federal assistance with the new administration. Could be a very difficult future for many of my American friends.
A bright note - for me, at any rate - is that the market for cheap escapist fiction will increase.
Must go. I have work to do!
Britni
*Affiliate link - like all boldface links on my pages - in this case, Amazon. The list is missing the latest title, Blood Pact released a few days ago.
Thank you for these great Sunday updates. I also felt awful about California wildfires, which reminded me of our bushfires. I wrote a short piece about my thoughts as well.