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 #PCers

Surgery went well even though there were a few hiccoughs. Most of those again were mainly because of the language barrier and the differences in how the American medical system works versus the Austrian. Here they wanted to keep me a full three days for a surgery that was 20 minutes tops. At home, it would have been in 6 hours at the most for the whole thing. I felt lucky I got out in 36 hours and that was because I convinced my doctor it was for the best.

So finally, we’re back to my writing life but in case people don’t realize it, everything in my life is related to writing. When I take a walk, like I did this past week at Schönbrunn, I look at the people and scenery to see how I can use it. When I’m at a restaurant or the airport, people watching and listening in on loud conversations is the norm. I am discrete and don’t butt in at all unless of course I should.

You’re probably wondering about that last statement. I feel that most things are private but if you decide to bring your dirty laundry out into the open, don’t be surprised if I step on your parade or smack you up the side of your head. And there are only three things where I’d even do that: beating a woman, beating a child, or beating an animal. Those things I would be jumping on someone immediately. And there is a difference between beating a child and disciplining a child. I got spankings and today, some kids deserve a few just to get into line BUT this is just my opinion and I’m allowed to have it.

And opinion forms a lot of my or anyone’s writing. It’s all a matter of perspective and I only have mine. I can try to put myself in my character’s shoes but face it, most of it’s conjecture on what I think they are feeling. I can’t know because I’m not there but I can imagine it. We’ve always been told as writers ‘write what you know’ but I was gently corrected once by a well-known mystery writer who told me ‘write what you can imagine.’ Believe me my imagination is huge.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t be open to learning more. Since the beginning of the year, I have signed up for a host of classes. I’ve signed up for a Scrivener class, a Book Ninja class, how to write a series class and a how to develop my own language class. Each of those are designed to help me with some upcoming projects and because I feel that a writer is also a life-long learner. You can’t have one without the other.

So where’s the writing in all of this? Yes, life happens and writing sometimes gets shoved aside. However, the day before the surgery I wrote a short story of about 2300 words and some in a journal I’m developing for a series. Therefore, the day before I managed to eek out some 3800 words by hand. Since then, I’ve pumped out eight blog posts and a variety of things averaging about 2k a day. And that’s on a surgery week. Think what I could do if I really put my mind to it.

That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve decided that the only days I’ll be writing blog posts, playing on the net and research, which includes classes, will be on Sunday and Mondays. The rest of the week will be for writing my fiction and putting together my series on self-publishing and helping other writers.

Until next week…

Lynn 

Monday’s Austria Scoop ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #AWriterInVienna #PCers

           

Hi Everyone!

            First up, the picture above is one of the many wonderful clocks at the Vienna Clock Museum. It was only when I went looking for a rainy day picture that I realized I didn't have any. I'm will rectify that at a later time. 

            Yes, I’m going into the hospital today but that doesn’t mean I can’t give you the scoop on how it’s been in Austria this past week. Weather was weird yet again. It’s been cloudy and overcast for much of it and again, I understand why Eisenhower and other WWII generals hated the European weather.

            We’ve had a very mild winter this year with only two times when the snow actually stayed on the ground for longer than 24 hours. We even had a few flurries this week as we went from warm to cold in a flash. It’s really interesting when that happens. You go out in a spring coat and realize you’re going to freeze. And that happened on numerous occasions this week.

            Otherwise, Austria has been quite pleasant. It isn’t so beautiful yet as if it were I’d be gazing out my window at all the wonderful flowers instead of writing. But things are budding and we were thinking we’d have flowers this week. However, the weather did another dive and it became cold.

            Then there is the rain. It is interspersed with the cold and makes it even more interesting because sometimes this week like I mentioned, there was little white particles along with it. I kid you not. Rain and snow, the common thing this winter. And what’s even more amazing, one day it will be a warm rain the next freezing cold.  We can’t win here. LOL!

            We did manage to go out a few times this week as Sunday was our 29^th wedding anniversary. Cold weather won’t make us stay in for that one.

            See you all next week!

Lynn