Imagine Sexy ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #MySexySaturday #MySexyAuthors #MSS119

Welcome to week 119^th week of My Sexy Saturday. This week’s theme is Imagine Sexy and frankly, this could be the theme for every week. Writers of sexy romance know what sexy is and can imagine it without even thinking about it. This week I’m returning to a novella that will be coming out soon. It was originally in an anthology, that's the cover you see, but the publisher decided it was time to release the books as individual novellas. It’s called A Tale of Opposites and it’s a paranormal book. Just the kind I like best to write. In this snippet, you’ll see exactly how the hero views the heroine.  

I apologize for not doing Monday’s Austria Scoop and Tuesday’s My So-Called Writing Life columns this week. I along with everyone else in the world was reeling from the recent events in Europe. Unfortunately, I felt I was too angry as well as close to the events to have a good perspective to write informatively about what I was feeling. I will do so this week and you can expect to see me both Monday and Tuesday.

This week I’ll be giving away a $5 Amazon Gift Certificate to one lucky commenter. I’ve decided to do this randomly throughout the month instead of just once a month. Don’t forget to comment and often! I’ll announce the winner on Thursday and please leave your email address as the AGC will be sent to you immediately.

Here’s the setup of my short story, A Tale of Opposites:

Two brothers torn apart by misunderstanding, two sisters bound to them by fate. One extraordinary story of how they find each other, love and a mission to keep all of humanity safe.

Here’s my seven paragraphs from A Tale of Opposites:

She hesitated just briefly before coming up the dark alley way. I could tell by her determination there would be nothing which would put her off. She had a mission and something told me I was her mission.

“What are you following me for?” I questioned quietly as I stepped out of the shadows. I knew exactly how I looked all in black with two black streaks in my otherwise white hair and my coat flaring around me. But my young follower cared naught for how I looked. It was evident on her face.

“You do not scare me,” she answered, even though her voice quavered in response.

“I do not?” I questioned yet again and slowly circled her like an animal with its prey. Some would call me an animal, but those who really know understand that I am the least of their worries. There is another more evil than I who walks these streets and this world.

“You do not.” She stood tall and did not move. She knew that I was assessing her and her strengths. Even mere humans have strengths.

I circled her more slowly this time, taking in every detail of her petite frame and the heavy pack she had set on the ground next to her. I towered over her, but still she did not back down and stood tall during my slow inspection of her. Breathing in her clean scent, I picked up her hair and felt its silkiness slide through my fingers. It was amazing that I still loved the feel and smell of a woman. And this one was extra special, I could tell.

“I need to know why you are following me.” I came to stand in front of her and raised her face to look into her eyes. They were violet. I dropped her like a hot coal. She was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen and one that could lead to my downfall. I could not let this one get to me as I had to accomplish one last thing before I let the blessed sleep claim me forever.

This story will hopefully be out very soon. While you’re there check  out the sale my traditional ePublisher, eXtasy Books, is still having on some of my books at their website. Today is the time to get them at a great discount and see if I write stories you might like. Don’t forget to pick up your copies!

The Thing About Elves ~ Book 2 in the Santa’s Elves series

The Haunting of Maggie Grey ~ Award-winning Scottish Historical about a woman doctor

Captive Illusions: Iain and Kelsey ~ Story about a woman’s darkest fantasy

Fluke ~ Book 1 of the Orchid series, sci-fi romance

An Elf’s Desire ~ Book 3 in the Santa’s Elves series

A Love for Eggther ~ Book 3.5 in the Santa’s Elves series

Shopping Spree ~ Story about a very special dress shop

Please visit all the great authors at the My Sexy Saturday weekly blog hop listed below. Their sexy snippets will keep you back for more. If you do, please share via Facebook or Twitter. It helps out a lot and every author appreciates it each and every time. If you’d like to do them all at once, search for the #hashtag #MySexySaturday or #MySexyAuthors to get all tweets of the day then retweet them to your heart’s content. You can even search by the #hashtags on Facebook and share the posts there as well. Remember, we love each and every one of you!

See you all next week!

Lynn 

My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amplanning

Yes, I’m late…again…but at least I totally didn’t forget or ignore or whatever it is I do sometimes. However, I am going to do a little bit of a cop out this week. See, I wrote a great article my group blog, Through Heart Shaped Glasses, that I should just move over to here and post it again.

But I don’t like doing that at all since I want every blog to be new and fresh. Well…sort of…that is. But then again, I don’t like reinventing the wheel and that’s more likely to be the reason than anything. Still, the information presented in this post End of Summer Funk is exactly what is happening in my writing life.

That blog is all about planning and how I need to do it to keep on track. I’ve been re-evaluating just how I’ve become successful at what I do. Since I’ve moved to Europe, I haven’t been that way at all. It seems like every word is a struggle, every book a major accomplishment. It didn’t used to be that way and I want to go back to where I was before I moved.

So I had to sit down and think about it. What had I done that was different? There were many days I wrote over 5000 words a day and now, I’m lucky if I can eek out 500 words a day. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do have moments of brilliance where I do more. I actually wrote a whole 80k book in a month late last year that really killed me on many fronts.

See, I had to trash most of it and start anew. And this was the second book in a series that is currently with my agent. I was spurred on by two great groups of writers that I work with: one is a critique group and the other my word challenge competition group where we are accountable for the number of words we write daily.

I love both those groups and they are the first people I feel I’m letting down when I’m not at my best. The heatwaves this summer didn’t help but they did get me thinking a lot as I was binging on Netflix. It started me reading writing books, thinking about taking classes and tons more stuff that I used to do when I was so prolific. Things by Rachel Aaron (2k to 10k), James Scott Bell (How to Make a Living as a Writer), Kristine Kathryn Rusch (The Write Attitude) and Steve Windsor (Authorphobia). All very diverse and interesting books on writing and an author’s journey.

A lot of what you’ll be seeing in the next few months will be me applying principles I’ve learned that will work for me. And planning, lots of planning, which I will be sharing with you all to see if any of it might be helpful to you.

See you all next week. Until then…

Lynn 

My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amreading

It’s been nearly a month since I did this column. Not that I didn’t write, I did but in my honest opinion, it was not worth talking about. If you look at yesterday’s column, and most of the ones I did in July, you’ll notice that I’ve been complaining about the heat and how devastating it is to my writing because I just can’t think.

Most of you probably think that shouldn’t be the case but for me it is. When the heat and humidity are high, I just want to retreat to my bed, read a good book or two and be blasted by the air conditioning. I understand that I am from the land of endless heat in the Southwest USA but there is nothing like heat and humidity combined. Anything over 10% humidity and I’m crying foul before I even think as I’m a dripping, limp noodle without a functioning brain cell in my head.

While this may be difficult to understand, I have always been affected by weather. Living in Nevada, I could tell by the pressure differences if we were going to have rain on any given day. When I first got here, my joints ached from the higher humidity and I felt like a general slug. After I’d lost a few pounds by walking everywhere, it became better but overall I didn’t feel as if my forward progression was as good as it needed to be. I had to figure out something to fill those non-writing gaps.

Fast forward a few years and most days, I’m not affected by what is happening outside my window unless the humidity is extremely high. If it is, and it’s combined with a high temperature, I’m in trouble. That is what has happened in July and August this year in Austria. Now, I’m not explaining this to get sympathy or anything but to share this: no matter what is going on outside your window, you need to try and write every day OR do something that is going to further your career in another way. First choice is always writing however.

Sure, like I said in the first paragraph. I wrote but IMHO it wasn’t worth talking about. It took me a few days to realize, this was going to be one of those times where my mind wasn’t into it. When I can’t think, I try to do something different for my career. Things like catching up on the online classes I occasionally do. Reading a craft book though I’ve read a hundred before the one in my hands. I can even outline or think of ideas that might pan out into a storyline later. Many times, I just flat out read genre fiction because my personal reading-for-enjoyment time is almost always limited to an hour or so when I get into bed.

The point is that writing just doesn’t stop. It might shift and morph into something else during a time of body or mind stress but the creative process is always going. There may be times where it isn’t going in the direction you think it should. When those times arise, you have to decide what you’re going to do instead of wasting the time when you should be writing.

Once you have that in place, there’s one more thing you need to do. Let it go. Let go of the fact that you couldn’t write this day or that day. Know you did something that will help over all. The number one fact a writer has to remember is that learning is a life long journey just like writing. When you can’t write for some reason, then learning something to enhance your writing is a good way to keep it all fresh. Learning is always there to provide inspiration, help with a writing-related issue or just to recharge your battery.

And realize, whenever the incident that’s holding you back, be it weather or something else, is over writing will be right where you left it.

See you all next week. Until then…

Lynn 

An Apology ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amreading #amwriting #amediting

Hi everyone!

I wanted to apologize for not having a Monday's Austria Scoop or My So-Called Writing Life columns this week. I started with a bang and had no internet all of Monday and most of Tuesday. Today comes along and we're having thunderstorms.

To top it off, I'm heading to a conference in Munich and was going to notify you that next week I was taking vacation. Unfortunately, that turned out to be two weeks.

But I can guarantee you that on Monday, July 20th, you'll be in for a special treat with Monday's Austria Scoop. You'll be going to an Austrian wedding with me, complete with pictures that I'm allowed to show and I'll even explain some of the traditions I learned about during the whole wedding process as we've, my DH and I, have been privy to a lot of the happenings.

Also, on Tuesday, July 21st, My So-Called Writing Life will have a run down on conferences and what an author can expect about them. There are so many out there and it all comes down to what you need or want. I'll go over some of the better ones and tell you all about my experience in Munich.

Talk to you then and hope each one of you have an awesome time until I return!

Lynn 

My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amwriting #amreading

I know that I promised yesterday that this one would be up on time but…I’ve been writing most of the day and I figure that is a good excuse to not be posting this. Never mind that the internet decided to be a PIA today and be flaking in and out. It happens a lot here with the older buildings and the rain. Matter-of-fact, I can’t buzz anyone into the building until all the electronics dry out. Oh, the joys of living in an older flat. Sigh.

This past week I have done quite a bit. I’ve written a few blogs and started on the second book in the MacKenzie Clan series with a vengeance this week. The book is titled Deceiving the Scotsman and it’s about the heroine’s assistant and the hero’s brother both from the first book. And it all begins at a wedding. I’ll be posting random bits and pieces on some of the My Sexy Saturday posts. It has a little bit of suspense and intrigue and once I get things more gelled in my mind, I’ll let you all in on it.

And I know that I promised last week to share information regarding specific marketing information regarding my last book but I’m still writing it. I don’t want it to be anything more than a piece about what worked and didn’t work for me. Opinion has no place, other than how it relates to the event, in an article of that nature. I want to be fair and non-judgmental on every level. That means, it needs to be looked over by the crit partners once it’s completed the way I like.

If luck holds out, I might be able to have it up for Thursday’s Tidbits. That’s the day that I actually plan to share information tidbits, which have helped me along the way. Now, other authors can do this too and if you have a tidbit you want to share, just send me an email at lynncrain@cox.net and let me know. I can schedule you in any time and let you know the requirements.

Another great thing that happened to me was that I finally read some of the books that are piling up on my tablet in the Kindle app. Yeah, there are hundreds there. Some I’ve purchased, others I’ve downloaded when an author had a free day and I wanted to help them with their counts. But I don’t think that works anymore and in the last six months, I’ve been more choosy about who I’ve been downloading. Meaning, if I don’t think I’ll ever read it, I don’t download it any more. The only ones that I will download automatically, are friends and authors I know. Yes, I really do believe in the back-scratch theory.

Anyway, the book that I think every writer should read came to me in a StoryBundle Package. That package was full of great writer’s books and I feel that I should be reading one fiction and one non-fiction book at all times. Of course, one is for pleasure and the other to help me hone my craft. I am one of those who feel learning is a life-long mission. I will never learn it all, especially in writing, so I must always be taking a class or reading a book in regards to getting better as a writer.

One of the books in the bundle was by a favorite author of mine, Kristine Kathryn Rusch. She is someone I learned about long ago and wanted her to be my editor if I ever got into the short story market. Today, she is a powerhouse as far as self-publishing goes and gives out damn good information that writers need. This book is called The Write Attitude and most of it is taken from her Thursday blog called The Business Rusch. She blogs about other things but Thursdays are special. The link goes to the pages and all of the articles available.

This book has a compilation of what she considers her best articles on certain topics. Things like being the best writer you can be and life. She calls those things that we can’t predict ‘life rolls’ and by gosh, she’s right. Kris explains it so much better than I can and I had to admit, there were places I was practically crying because she could have been talking to me. I swear, I have done all the bad, the good and the ugly things she mention in this book.

No…not really…but it seems like it. I mean, I’ve yet to follow an editor into the bathroom and shove a manuscript under a stall door. So, I guess I am better than some. LOL!

If you are in a place that you feel like you’ll never dig yourself out of then this is the writing book for you. It is flat out motivating and has tons of useful information. I am already reading parts of it again and definitely looking into taking some classes with her and her husband, Dean Wesley Smith. These two, without even knowing it, formulated much of how I think about writing science fiction. Maybe if I had studied with them years ago, I would have more confidence in myself and be a better writer overall.

Personally, I know my flaws and have some great ideas on how to go around or through them. Every writer has to find the path that is good for them and the one that will work. Still, I highly recommend going to look at the book and check out Kris’ website. You will not be sorry.

Next week, or possibly Thursday, I will be sharing the marketing information and where I feel you’ll get the most bang-for-your-buck on a limited budget of just $250. And don’t despair, you can go it too.

Until then…

Lynn 

My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amwriting #amreading

I’m in synopsis hell and have decided without a doubt that I hate writing them. Those little outline type pages that is supposed to divulge everything about your story within a couple thousand words. I suck at them. Sure, I can write something down about each chapter but I have never, ever done them successfully in my mind. They always seem lacking something.

Take today for example. I send my final synopsis to my critique group as I’m about to send the whole packet to my agent. This is the book of my heart and is something I’ve slaved over for years it seems like. In reality, I wrote it very fast and it just took years to edit to my satisfaction. It is the one story I have always felt is my breakout story if I ever had one. And when I did finally decide to start shopping it around, I have a couple of years of personal things that make me keep moving it to the back burner because I didn’t want to ruin it.

Frankly, I’m beginning to think that all those years of classes didn’t account for much because at this moment, I feel very, very stupid. And I shouldn’t. Synopses are hard for everyone. One of my problems is that this is part of a series. Book 1 and its synopsis is complete or so I thought. I just got back the crits and boy, I feel down yet somehow relieved. I knew it needed work and now I see just how much. Ugh. Yet all are simple fixes with a line here, a delete there.

Do all writers feel this way sometimes? Do they wonder why they write when they can’t get the story idea down in a synopsis correctly? I swear I have been studying this for years but looking at this…I am sure I missed the boat. More than one boat matter of fact.

So let’s look at the anatomy of a synopsis. Again, there are definitely some things that a synopsis needs and doesn’t need to do.

·        It needs to cover the big parts of a story and not the little details. Matter of fact, little details can bog it down to the point of it not being a great selling tool for your novel.

·        It needs to be written in third person, present tense.

·        It is the one time where telling the story is important but does not need to be a blow by blow detail oriented summary of every aspect of your book.

·        It needs to introduce all your characters, their main conflict as well as their emotional story arc.

·        There are no cliffhangers allowed as it tells of your plot twists and the ending. It’s point is to show that you have strategicly layered your story and that it sticks together the way it should.

           

            Sounds simple right? Ha! Do not fool yourself as this can be just as hard as it was to complete the book. When writing these things I had to have some zen moments and remind myself that I could do this. It isn’t rocket science though there was a moment I certainly thought it was.

            Now, I’m off to finish everything but I’d like to remind you that I am promoting my latest book Night of the Blue Moon…and it’s the last book in the Blue Moon Magic series. It has a few fans already and is slowly getting some sales. You can find a lot of information right here on the blog as well as the series blog at Our Blue Moon World.

And no, I haven’t forgotten that I was going to write an article about ebook pricing, synopses just took center stage. That topic will be covered next week!

Until then…

Lynn 

My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amwriting #amreading

Sorry for posting so late but this is week full of promotion, promotion and more promotion. It’s all part and parcel of being an author. I can’t go a week without doing something promotion wise and there are many days I want off this train.

I remember years ago, when I was first starting out, I had this vision of someone else doing all my promotion. I dreamed of the day where all I had to do was approve it and off it went. I suppose in some weird way, I saw my life sort of like the one seen in the 1989 movie, She-Devil, where the author just seems to float on air and everything gets done and she has scads of fans.

Not.

Today, I know that there are times when life doesn’t live up to the fantasy. I frequently say that it’s not all tiaras and limos. Matter of fact, I can’t remember ever when it was tiaras and limos at all. Sure, when going to some RWA conferences, I’ve ridden in a limo. Needless to say, that was really the only choice of vehicle available. In Hawaii, to get from the airport to the hotels, it was cheaper to reserve a limo than to take a taxi. Same for New York and New Orleans.

Here where I live in Vienna, most of the taxis are Mercedes or BMWs or some other luxury car. Does that mean I’m driven around in limos here? I suppose if you look at it in some weird way, yes. The fact is that those are the normal occurrences in those places and therefore, I go with the norm of where I’m at.

Did it make me feel special? Not really. Only one limo, and that was in New Orleans, was it a stretch with a bar and we laughed all the way there. We only got it because the driver’s fare didn’t show up and he had to go back to the airport anyway. He gave us a good deal and off we went. Most of the time in the States, the limos have been town cars and enough said there.

So, back to promo. In that other world where I dreamed that someone else did it for me, I suppose I just took it for granted. In this world, I take nothing for granted and work very hard to get the word out there about my books. I blog, I Facebook and I tweet. I also do newsletters, Pinterest and a few other things, like selected promo with places like eBookSoda and BKnights as examples.

All of this takes time and effort to coordinate it and while I do get help, it does take a big chunk out of my writing day. I write a lot of erotic content and this time, I had to find places that would boost sales while taking erotic content. And we’re not talking overtly erotic here. Most of my eroticism happens during love making sessions and I use all the big words. I’ve been told on a number of occasions that I write sweet erotic romance. Huh? How do I market that?

Even though I’m doing all this right now, I know as a writer that the best promotion of any book I write is word of mouth. That’s where a fan tells another fan and then another until it snowballs and suddenly you have good sales and if you’re lucky, a best seller on your hands.

Right now, I am lucky enough to have a few award winning books under my belt and I’m hope that eventually, they will translate into sales. Part of my problem is that I have been extremely slow in getting my next books out. It’s been nearly a year between them and I know that this is a problem. And it’s not a problem of me not writing fast. That I can do but being out of my normal environs sometimes takes it all out of me and all I want to do is retreat.

Yeah, like I’ve said, I should be living the dream because I’m in Europe and my time is my own and yada, yada, yada. Sometimes it isn’t that simple. Sometimes it’s just wrapping your head around your situation and learning to live with it. I’m a slow learner in that area and now it’s almost time for us to leave and return home.

What am I promoting, you may ask…the book is Night of the Blue Moon…and it’s the last book in the Blue Moon Magic series. It has a few fans already and is slowly getting some sales. You can find a lot of information right here on the blog as well as the series blog at Our Blue Moon World.

And speaking of books. I did buy the next Longmire book by Craig Johnson. It cost way too much and though it’s an enjoyable read, my topic next week will be regarding ebook pricing.

Until then…

Lynn 

My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amwriting #amreading

This was a week that I took a daily break from writing. I blamed it on bad internet connections, bad headache, bad allergies, you name it, I used it this week. Not to say those things weren’t true, they were but being a writer is like being a mother sometimes you have to put away how you’re feeling and get the job done.

Most of the time, I’m that way. I will plug along with the biggest pounding headache or allergy headache until I can’t see straight and then I’ll lay down. Not this week. This week is a big week as I’m celebrating the re-release of Night of the Blue Moon, one of my award winning books. It starts with a bang tomorrow.

First, there will be a post here. Then there will be a Thunderclap where I get tweeted or FB shared with over 800K worth of people. That is so exciting in itself and sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe it. Then between now and May 20^th, when I’m supposed to raise the price to $2.99, it’s going to be shared, tweeted and promoted by others. The price of the book is $0.99 right now and if the promotion goes well, I may just leave it on sale for a little bit longer. The link will be shared tomorrow.

Now back to why I took a break. I know I had a lot of things to do with the re-release of my book. I’ve done them today, yesterday, I’ll be doing them tomorrow. So why then am I taking a break?

One word…Longmire. Yup, I’m a die-hard Longmire fan and Netflix recently released season 3 on the world. Since they are the new network of the series, that means they are prepping us for something. I know it won’t be until fall but I like to be early. So I’ve been having a Longmire Fest since last Friday when I noticed the announcement.

Add to that, another Longmire novel was released today and you’ve got one happy reader. Yes, writers are readers and it’s important that we do. Most writers don’t read stories in their genre when they are writing because they don’t want any slippage from what they read to their page.

Sometimes I adhere to that and sometimes I don’t. I don’t read as much as I used to and it saddens me. Therefore, I won’t stop a story I’m reading just because I’ve suddenly decided to write something similar. And that’s all it would ever be is similar. The reasons are many but the biggest fact is my imagination isn’t like anyone else in any way. You can give two writers the same prompt and they will come up with totally different stories. In my honest opinion, the only time they would be close is if they ever worked together, graduated from the same writing school or something along those lines.

After all, there are no new ideas in the way of plots. All writers know that there are about twenty basic plotlines and everything we write is a deviation of one of those. Take that number and multiply it by the number of writers, you get an idea of just how many storylines can come up.

Sure, there may be some overlap. I can’t name the times that I’ve read a story and said to myself, ‘I had that idea…why didn’t I act upon it?’ Most ideas, in general, have been thought about by at least two different people in the world. The names or circumstances will be different, but the germ of an idea might be the same.

I’m off to read Longmire…heck I’ll probably stay up all night…next week, maybe I’ll let you know just why I love Craig Johnson’s writing so darn much!

Until then…

Lynn