Josie noticed that on the Kindle Touch there is a font problem.  On other Kindle readers (the original keyboard version, the Kindle 3, the Kindle app for iPad and other devices), there isn’t an issue (Josie was kind enough to look into this on her iPad and with her husband’s Kindle 3, and I checked on my keyboard reader).  But on the Touch and quite possibly the Kindle 4 (based on this information), the font (Josie likes to read on size 4) is teeny-tiny, and when you try to enlarge the size, funky things begin happening to the spacing, rendering the book almost impossible to read.

I was really surprised by this.  I’d taken great care to test my books prior to uploading on Amazon’s Kindle Previewer software, which allows you to see how your files will look on various readers and with various fonts and sizes.  I even shared with Josie the screen capture below to illustrate what the file looks like on the previewer (the example is at font size 3 on a Kindle Touch).  As you can see, it’s a very legible size.

Josie is a keen detective and she was able to point me to some discussions about this issue on a couple of online boards.  One is here; the other is here.  She also emailed Kindle Support to tell them about the problem.  They told her they were aware of the issue but “don’t have a timescale to fix it”.  Here is what Josie wrote to me later in the day, regarding all she’d learned:

From all I have read about this issue on both Kindle forums and elsewhere it’s definitely an issue with the AZW3 format (this is the new KF8) and both the Kindle 4 and the Kindle Touch only, but if Amazon releases more Kindles later this year then no doubt it will be an issue with those as well, and of course if Amazon provides a software update to the K3 to give them the AZW3 format (at present they can’t read it, so K3′s get an AZW format ebook) then the issue will affect the K3 as well.

For what it’s worth, Josie downloaded Redemption’s preview file off of Smashwords and had no problem with the mobi.  So Amazon is definitely at fault.

She informed me this afternoon that she’d decided she needed to return not one but both of my books (though she still has Redemption in print).  I told her I completely understood.

I’m unclear if this is an issue only with files uploaded by indie writers or if this is something publishers are facing as well (I’ve just gotten home from work and haven’t had time to read through the message threads yet). I’ll be frank, I’d seen a higher number of returns on Out of the Ashes than I’d like to see. I don’t know if that’s a reaction to my writing, to the fact that I mention in the frontispiece the novel began life as a fic, or because people are literally having trouble reading the file. But it’s frustrating in the extreme.

Not only does this font problem impact my profits, but it makes me look like I’m a careless indie writer, that I don’t do the quality checks I need to do before sharing my work.  Indie writers have enough trouble combating such biases.  I hate that this issue feeds into them.

I also hate that this is something I’m locked into for 90 days.  I signed up Out of the Ashes for KDP Select because of the high (100+/month) “borrow” numbers Redemption had enjoyed.  In fact, if you read many of my posts on the Goodreads Author Feedback Group, you’ll see I’ve been an outspoken advocate for Select.  But no more.  Approximately 98% of my sales come from Amazon and, as I’d mentioned, I’m a Kindle owner myself.  But if people are buying my ebooks only to find they can’t read them, how is that helping any of us?  Shame on you, Amazon, for making readers unhappy and for costing your authors sales.

If you read this post and feel similarly frustrated and/or annoyed, please retweet.  I wonder how many authors are unaware of this problem.  I wouldn’t have known about it if it hadn’t been for Josie.

Thanks, Josie.  I owe you one.

I think that’s really smart. I’ll bet she’s able to look at her writing with a fresh eye, almost like one of her readers would, coming at it as if she’s seeing it for the first time.

I could never do that. When I finish a story and polish it to the point where I feel as if I can stand behind the work and be proud of it, I need to get it out. Right away. Now.

I need to do this, at least in part, because if I don’t let the little bird fly free, I will continue to go back and tweak–in the most miniscule ways possible–from now until eternity. Redemption has been for sale for four months. There have been four different files uploaded onto Amazon.

Now I didn’t change the story in any substantial way. One of my reviewers pointed out a couple of spelling errors, so I fixed them. Then I noticed there was a layout issue I hadn’t seen originally. Then there were one or two punctuation mistakes I couldn’t live with…and so on.

When I finish a book I need to get the bloody novel out of my hands, because my true desire is to never let it go at all. It’s a good thing I’ve never had children. I’d be one of those horrible mothers who keep their children under their thumb their entire lives.

When I had Out of the Ashes all ready to go earlier in the week, I kept telling myself, “This is a very good thing. Now all you have to do is wait.” Amazon KDP says when you upload a book it can take 24 hours before it goes live. So my plan was to upload the book late in the day on July 31st.

But instead what did I do? I uploaded it first thing in the morning on the 31st. Because that whole waiting thing…I’m really, really bad at that. :-s

So after blog post after tweet after website banner proclaiming: Out of the Ashes, available in August; the fact of the matter is it was available in July.

The good news? It currently sits at #23 in Gay Romance and #32 in Gay/Lesbian Fiction.

Thank you for not minding that I’m a dork.

I was able to get much of the rest and relaxation I craved.  But drat it all, I didn’t get a whole lot done on Impressions.  I spent quite a bit of time in front of my computer (more time than I probably needed to, given the resort’s crazy slow internet connection).  But nearly all of that was focused on finishing up Out of the Ashes and getting it ready for publication.  If Amazon cooperates, it should be available August 1st.

I think I’m in good shape there.  The manuscript itself has been polished to within an inch of its life.  Per the editor’s suggestion, I added nearly 2,000 words to the book, fleshing out Matthew’s half of the story some and answering some questions she had about character motivation.

I sent out review requests to various sites and have gotten some nice responses.  The wondrous Wave has said he’ll/she’ll (I’m still not sure of gender here–can anyone clue me in?  I feel like a dolt because Wave has been nothing but a superstar to me in what limited correspondence I’ve had with him/her.) send the book’s blurb out to Reviews by Jessewave‘s reviewers this weekend (Pick me!  Pick me!).  Janna at Rarely Dusty Books wrote to say one of her reviewers is interested (Thank you!).  Gabbi at Top2Bottom Reviews has agreed to review not only Ashes, but Redemption too.  Better yet, she’s asked me to be one of her spotlighted authors for September.  How cool is that?

But perhaps best of all, Ashes has its first review–posted a week before its release!  Lucy at Hearts on Fire must have been in the mood for a modern fairy tale, because less than 24 hours after receiving a copy of the book, she posted her review.  She liked it!  It got four hearts, which on the Hearts on Fire scale means Be Still My Heart.  Some of the very nice things she had to say included:  “It’s very well written and Noah is a lovely character…a very nice take on a classic fairy tale.”

But why read only excerpts?  Here is the entire review.

I’m not.

I do tend to write what I like to read, but I’ll confess to checking sales figures and rankings and reviews more than I probably should.  Normally, this is no big deal.  While a part of me would love to have everyone give my books five stars and rave reviews, a bigger part knows that’s never going to happen.  I’ll admit I get a twinge when I get dinged, but I know I can’t please every single reader out there.  All I can do is the best I can do and leave it at that.  And honestly, Redemption has had a nice reception, so I have no room to complain.

But speculation…that’s another beast.

You see, I have a mystery on my hands.  Or at least, something interesting.

Redemption has been out for nearly four months.  Sales are still respectable, but interest in the book isn’t what it was a couple of months ago.  In July, on Goodreads, I’d been seeing maybe one or two people a day adding the book to their To Be Read shelf.  Some days, there was no shelving going on at all.  But as of July 17th, that trend has changed.  On the 17th, I saw 11 people add it–six of them labeling it as Currently Reading (one of them has already finished it).  On the 18th, six people added it–every single one of them Currently Reading it.  It’s only afternoon on the 19th.  But already three have added it, two of them Currently Reading it.

Now please, please know–I’m thrilled anytime anyone wants to read something I’ve written.  I’m not annoyed or upset.  I’m curious.

In my admittedly limited time on Good Reads, I find most frequently a book is added under the heading of To Be Read.  I know that’s what I do with my own purchases.  So the fact that out of 20 people who added the book in a three day period, 14 of them immediately started reading it is a little unusual.

The other thing that has me a little surprised is that the vast majority of these folks have no other m/m books on their shelves.  That makes me a little nervous as the one person out of this group who’s finished the book seemed surprised to find it had explicit m/m scenes in it, and really didn’t enjoy it.  I worry that maybe these people might be getting my little futuristic m/m romance with D/s undertones confused with some other book titled Redemption.  (I guess.  I don’t know.)

So anyway, color me intrigued.  If any of those readers stumble across this blog post, welcome!  Thank you for taking a chance on my book.  I really hope you like it.  Please know–it has gay sex in it!    If you want to take a second and leave me a comment about how you found Redemption…well, I certainly wouldn’t mind.  Happy Reading.

That’s where I stand right about now.

I shouldn’t complain.  My employer is one that works you hard, but is generous with time off.  I had a week’s staycation in January, a week in April where I went with family and a friend to Turkey, and four days tacked onto a business trip in May, where I was able to zip home to Chicago and visit my peeps.  Now, though, now…

I’m going to sit on the beach with a drink in my hand and chill.  I’m going to the Seychelles for six nights.  I arrive in the wee hours of the morning on Friday and won’t return home till the following Thursday.  I’m literally counting down the days.  Every day, when I get into the office, I open up the resort’s web page, flip through their photo gallery for a couple of minutes, sigh, and begin my day.

I have things I want to accomplish before I get on that plane–I need to wrap up the last bit of fine tuning on Out of the Ashes, send out my review requests for the book, and reach out to my poor beleaguered cover designer for one last tweak.

Why the tweak?  I can’t believe I didn’t put two and two together before.  Ashes’ marketing tagline reads (or had read), “For everyone who believes in happy endings.”

First of all, since Ashes is a modern fairy tale, so that should finish with “happily ever after.”  Secondly, it’s been pointed out to me that “happy ending” can be seen as referring to a certain…physical release.

Okay, yeah, I write m/m romance.  But I like to be a little more subtle than that!

So, a few things to do on book two, then all focus goes to book three, Impressions.  As you can see from my very sad word count meter, I’ve barely begun the work (despite having a fairly detailed outline, an artist who is already working on the cover design, and bunches and bunches of research).  So far, I’ve written 4,300 words.  I’d like to return from my week’s vacation with 20,000.  Can it be done?

Check back in a couple of weeks and see! 

Available in August

The problem with trying to regularly update a blog (which you need to do if you hope to continue having people visit your site to read it) is content.  I don’t know about you, but my life just isn’t all that interesting. I work a full-time job (with plenty of OT hours). Then I go home, play with my dog. have a bite to eat, and put in another three to four hours working on my writing (or the things I need to do to support that writing). I’ll go out with friends, of course, from time to time. And I travel as much as I’m able. But day-to-day? Not the stuff of riveting blog reading.

So as best I can I’ve tried to follow the examples of people like Joanna Penn, CJ Lyons, David Gaughran and Catherine Ryan Howard. I read all their blogs and have been impressed by how forthright they are and the level of detail they’re willing to share when it comes to numbers–sales, pricing, costs, downloads, etc. Their information has certainly been helpful to me  and oftentimes an inspiration. Maybe my experiences can/will help some other writer.

I’ve talked about my sales figures before. So it seems only fair to share what I’ve spent since launching this venture in March.  Mind you, much of this expense was only incurred after I saw that Redemption was selling well.  In the beginning, I was very frugal.

Before I got the idea to do this, I hadn’t done any kind of tally (even though my tax accountant had warned me such a reckoning was on the horizon). I could have guessed what I’d spent to date, but that’s what it would have been–a guess. When I started reviewing receipts and punching the numbers into my calculator, I was surprised by what I learned.

I divided my expenses into the following categories:

• Photos/Videos – $605.03
• Website – $130.97 (web hosting, theme, anti-spam plug-in)
• Marketing – $258.98 (website exposure, widgets, etc.)
• Cover Design – $649 (for Redemption [print], Ashes [ebook and print], Impressions [ebook])
• Print – $275 (expanded distribution on CreateSpace, and pack of ISBNs)
• Professional Development – $148 (training and memberships)
• Music – $34.95 (for book trailer)
• Editing – $528.29 (for Ashes)
• Tools – $32(Scrivener)

As way of explanation: photos were used on the website, in marketing, and for cover design. I broke them out as a separate category because of this overlap–oftentimes a single photograph was used in multiple locations.

I’ll be honest–I was surprised by the amount of money I’d spent on files from iStockphoto, Shutterstock and Masterfile. Yet, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I believe image counts for a lot when you’re trying to build a brand.

The rest the spending broke out much as I’d suspected. Cover design would have made up a larger piece of the pie if I hadn’t designed the original cover for Redemption on my own.

Is there anything I would have changed? Yes, the marketing monies spent. I didn’t see any noticeable impact from the websites where I had a presence. I won’t be doing that again moving forward.

What does the breakdown look like overall? I’ve got a nifty graphic below.

Out of the Ashes is Cinderella story set in Texas.  It’s the story of a boy, Noah, who loses everything, only to find the one person he is willing to risk even more for, Matthew.  Here is the moment when they meet…for the second time.

~*~*~*~

It wasn’t really a bad party.

Yet even so, Matthew couldn’t help but feel disappointed by it.

What else could he feel when everyone seemed to be hooking up but him?

Once he’d left Cal and the girls, Matthew had wandered around as they’d urged, visiting with old friends and neighbors, and meeting new ones. Everyone had assured him what a wonderful time they were having. Booze flowed freely. The music seemed to have magical properties that urged bodies, young and old, into motion. Inviting shadows were everywhere, perfect for sneaking away to steal a kiss or maybe more, and many couples looked to be taking advantage. All in all, the stage was set.

Only Matthew couldn’t find a costar.

And that was so unfair.

It might have been a Halloween party. But he was supposed to be the guest of honor.

Maybe it was the Coronas talking, but that old Leslie Gore song was beginning to echo inside his head.

By the time Dillon had cornered him in the library, dressed as a vampire and flirting as if he believed Matthew might actually be that desperate, Matthew was about to write off the evening entirely and go shoot a solitary game of pool in the billiards room.

Making the excuse of filial duty, he got away from Dillon, intent on making good his escape, when he saw someone he hadn’t noticed before standing in the living room doorway.

He was tall. Really tall. Matthew was six feet, and he’d bet this guy had a couple of inches on him. He was dressed as a member of the military. Matthew thought the uniform might be genuine, rather than a costume. It looked like something from one of the world wars, olive green in color with black trim, and hugged the person wearing it as if envious of his skin. Matthew could understand the impulse.

The guy was hot.

His mystery man had wide shoulders, legs that looked as if they might be part stilts, a trim waist and a high, rounded ass. His hair was long and dark, worn pushed away from his face and held back by a hat that went with the outfit. From where he stood, Matthew really couldn’t see much of the man’s features. In addition to his hat, which rested mid-brow, he wore a mask over his eyes. Only a small number of guests had opted to go that extra step. Matthew wondered why he seemed so determined to conceal his identity. From what Matthew could tell, there wasn’t any reason for the man to be shy.

Determined not to let this one get away—at least not until he’d learned if there might be a spark between them—Matthew worked his way towards him, winding through the throng of guests. The man didn’t seem to sense his approach. He stood framed in the archway, scanning the crowd as if searching for someone. When their eyes finally met, it appeared he’d found what he was looking for. He froze, his mouth falling open. It seemed to Matthew he might even be holding his breath.

Surprised, Matthew couldn’t figure out what might have caused such a reaction. It was almost as if the man were frightened of him.

“Hi,” Matthew said when he came to stand before him. He was younger than Matthew had thought he was at first, but maybe even better looking up close. The man smelled of the outdoors rather than of cologne, of crisp fall air and clean male sweat. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

The man gazed at him a moment longer, saying nothing, before dropping his eyes and clearing his throat. “I…um…no, I guess we haven’t.”

“I’m Matthew,” Matthew said, extending his hand. “I’m the, uh…well, my family actually—we’re the hosts.”

The man looked down at Matthew’s hand for a second before taking it in his. His palm was warm and a little damp, but his grip was strong. “Nice to meet you. I’m N…Noel—I’m Noel.”

“Hi, Noel,” Matthew said, giving his new acquaintance what he knew to be his most winning smile. “Glad you could make it. Can I offer you something to drink?”

Noel hesitated yet again before nodding. “Yeah, that would be great.”

“Well, come on then,” Matthew said, holding out his hand before him as if pointing the way. “Let me show you to the bar. It’s a little easy to get lost in this place, especially on a night like this.”

“I can imagine. You’ve got a great house.”

“Thanks,” Matthew said. “I haven’t really lived here the past few years. I’ve been down in Austin for school. But I like it. It’s still home.”

Together they made their way into the dining room, which was the location of the closest bar. Once there, Matthew turned to his companion and asked, “What’ll you have?”

Noel looked at the array of bottles lined up behind the bartender, squinting as if trying to read the writing on each. “Could I…um…could I get a glass of water?”

Matthew chuckled, thinking at first he had to be joking. “Water? I’m pretty sure we can do better than that.”

Noel turned his way and frowned, appearing flustered or maybe simply confused. “It’s just…I didn’t want to…”

Oh, God, Matthew thought. Maybe there was a reason the guy was drinking water. Like he was someone’s designated driver. Or he had an alcohol problem.

Great.

“Hey, man. I’m sorry,” Matthew said, wanting to as quickly and as painlessly as possible extract his foot from his mouth. “I’m not trying to pressure you or anything.”

“Oh, no,” Noel assured him. “You’re not pressuring me.”

“I just thought you might like—”

“It’s okay—”

“If you want water, we can get you water.”

“No. Actually… what are you having?”

“Me?” Matthew said, easing up on his concern. Noel didn’t seem to have taken any offense. Maybe Matthew hadn’t inadvertently coaxed him off the wagon after all. “I’ve been drinking Coronas.”

“Okay,” Noel said. “I’ll have one of those.”

Matthew smiled at him before turning to the bartender. “Make it two.”

After they had their beers in hand, Matthew tapped his against Noel’s. “Happy Halloween.”

“Happy Halloween,” Noel echoed and took a sip, as Matthew did. Almost immediately, he made a face, his nose wrinkling.

“Is it warm?” Matthew asked. His bottle was ice cold. But he knew it could be tricky keeping things chilled at big parties like this. Maybe the bar staff had just restocked.

Noel shook his head, then opened and closed his mouth a few times as if trying to identify a certain flavor on his tongue. “No, no.    Just…different.”

“Than what?” Matthew asked in surprise.

“Than…nothing,” Noel said, determinedly taking another sip. “It’s fine. Really. It’s good.”

“Good,” Matthew said, confused by their conversation, but willing to let it go. “Glad you like it.” Noel smiled. They each looked at each other for a moment saying nothing. Then Matthew asked, “Hey, do you want the fifty cent tour?”

Noel looked surprised yet pleased by the offer. “Sure.”

“Come on.”

Matthew put his hand on Noel’s back as he led him through the crowd. “You’ve already seen the living room and dining room. That door over there to the right is the library, and to the left there is a hallway that leads to one of the guest suites.”

They made their way around the edge of the dance floor, past the deejay’s booth and towards the back of the house.
“This is our kitchen and the breakfast room and beyond that, down the steps, is the family room.”

Together, they walked over to the wall of windows looking out over the expansive back courtyard, and peered through the panes into the darkness beyond. As it was chilly, not many people were outside, save for a few diehard smokers. Matthew could see through the patio doors the fiery ends of their cigarettes, glowing like lightening bugs in the night.

“My dad’s office is in the back here next to the gym and billiards room,” he said, resuming the tour by leading them through the family room and out the door on the opposite wall. “Upstairs is mostly bedrooms, along with the media room and my mom’s office.”

“This place is huge,” Noel said, seemingly not even trying to disguise his awe. “I can see what you mean about getting lost.”

“It kind of is,” Matthew admitted, feeling sheepish when faced with Noel’s reaction. Most people tried to play it cool when they came to his parents’ place, like all the Texas style size and glamour was expected. Noel didn’t seem to be wired that way; his response was too honest. “My dad helped design the layout when my mom and he had first gotten married. I know they’d planned to have a big family. So I guess he’d wanted to make sure they’d have enough room. But in the end, all they got was me.”

Walking down the hallway together, their shoulders glancing off each other, Noel looked over at Matthew from beneath his lashes and smiled, a pair of dimples carving dents in his cheeks. “That doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.”

Matthew smiled back at him, pleased.

Oh, yeah. Definite sparkage.

~*~*~*~

I hope you enjoyed this preview for Out of the Ashes.  The book will be released on Amazon in August.  If you’d like to be added to my mailing list, I’ll be happy to let you know when this title–and any future ones–is available.  Just leave a comment below with your email addy.

Thanks for stopping by.

]]> http://oliviaduncancraig.com/2012/07/05/out-of-the-ashes-preview/feed/ 0 http://oliviaduncancraig.com/2012/07/01/big-doings/ http://oliviaduncancraig.com/2012/07/01/big-doings/#comments Sun, 01 Jul 2012 20:44:57 +0000 OliviaDCraig http://oliviaduncancraig.com/?p=291 I have been a very busy bee.

Over the weekend, I completed my book trailer for Out of the Ashes and updated my What Does She Do? page to reflect Ashes’ upcoming release.  I’m pleased with the way the trailer turned out, even if I was annoyed by the process.

I’ve been working with  Adobe Premiere for nearly seven years.  Unfortunately, my copy of the software had been living on a computer that…blew up (long story).  So, because I hate Windows Movie Maker with the white hot passion of a thousand suns (I used it for Redemption’s trailer and nearly tore my hair out in frustration), I spent a fair amount of dough and replaced my old copy by buying the Adobe Master Collection CS6 (thank God for professional discounts!).  I’d splurged because I figured that way I could have access to not only to my favorite video editing program, but all the rest of Adobe’s nifty creative programs as well.

The only problem is I made a rookie mistake.

I forgot to check the tech specs.

I didn’t really think I needed to.  My computer is less than six months old and fairly well loaded.  Unfortunately, its graphics card isn’t compatible with Premiere.  So…

…back to Windows Movie Maker.  At least for this trailer.

Sigh.

On a more positive note–after approximately 12 hours and way more autovetter error notices than I care to count, I finally uploaded Redemption onto Smashwords.

Huzzah!!!

I actually only needed to resubmit three times.  The bulk of the 12 hours was spent reformatting the 101,000 word manuscript.  Along the way, I learned a lot about styles and all the various ways your ebook can go terribly wrong if you mess those styles up.  I think I’m in good shape, though.  I’ve downloaded multiple versions of the book and they all look pretty good.  Thank God for small favors.

Redemption is currently Pending Review on Smashwords.  As far as I understand (and please, those of you who actually know what you’re doing when it comes to Smashwords, feel free to chime in!), the Smashwords Powers That Be need to review uploads before they release the files to their retail partners.  This makes utter sense to me and I certainly don’t begrudge the site its quality control.  But I’ll admit I’m antsy.  I want to see the book live on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes and the like. I blame having come up through fanfic–when you write fic, you post and that’s it–you’re good to go.

Patience, Grasshopper.  That’s what I need to keep reminding myself.

In the meantime, please tell your friends–Redemption is now available on Smashwords in all kinds of formats (in addition to it continuing to be sold on Amazon).   No more need for a Kindle.

Even if that is my ereader of choice. 

I’m a voracious reader.  You wouldn’t know it from my GoodReads’ bookshelves, which are a little anemic (I hadn’t known the site existed until a few months ago!).  But I was the kind of kid whose mother once said (and this is a quote), “You know, there are such things as libraries” because I used to spend all my allowance money on books.

That continued through school and on into adulthood.  During grad school (and afterwards for a couple of years), I worked in a bookstore part-time.  My employee discount meant I got everything at cost, which meant I largely worked for books and in the end, needed seven bookcases (six of them, floor to ceiling) in which to store my purchases.  I haven’t read every single one of these books cover to cover (some of them are reference books after all).  But I’ve made a pretty good dent.

These days, I tend to buy ebooks more than anything.  I was an early adopter of Kindle, and love ereaders for their portability and ease (even as I miss actually touching paper and turning a page).

As I’m currently trying to finish final edits on one book, while making progress on another newer one, I’ve been attempting to curtail my reading habit some.  But my travels of the last few weeks, coupled with my lack of internet access (and privacy!), meant looking to my Kindle for escape.  I read nine books in a little over two weeks.  Not exactly record breaking, but if you knew what my work schedule looked like, I might be able to impress you.

I’m a big Josh Lanyon fan.  A big, big Josh Lanyon fan.  Four of the nine books read were by him.  I’d read 12 additional Lanyon books previously.  I love him for the characters he creates, the sophistication of his writing (and his interests, which inform the worlds in which these characters live) and the genuineness and kindness with which he interacts with his readers.  Josh doesn’t realize it, but he and I have corresponded in the past.  We have a shared interest in a certain vintage fandom and for a time were members of the same discussion group.  I was actually introduced to his novels because of this interaction.

What Josh does really well is come up with flawed, real individuals who struggle, usually with some kind of mystery and/or personal challenge, while at the same time pursuing (or sometimes dodging) a romantic relationship with an equally complex character.  His dialogue is witty and often moving (see the first quote below, which in context is devastating), and he gives a strong sense of place without ever allowing description to take over the book.  Just read some of these excerpts (if you haven’t already–I imagine most m/m romance fans are familiar with Josh’s work):

“Why can’t you say it?” I hardened my voice. “Because I’m telling you, you never have. I’d have remembered.”
He stared at me with disbelief. [...]
“Love you? Of course I love you. Baby, I fucking worship you.”
-The Dark Tide (Adrien English Mystery, #5)

A pause followed my greeting. Then “We’re watching you ” whispered the voice on the other end.
“Yeah? Did you see what I did with my keys? ”
Silence. Then dial tone.
These younger demons. So easily discouraged.
- The Hell You Say (Adrien English Mystery, #3)

“The problem with a life spent reading is you know too much.”
- The Dickens with Love

“Vintage books, old china, antiques; maybe I love old things so much because I feel impermanent myself.”
- Fatal Shadows (Adrien English Mystery, #1)

“He scooped up Victoria practically before she hit the ground, well within the five-second rule. If she’d been a potato chip, he could have still eaten her. Not something I particularly wanted to contemplate.”
- All She Wrote

Of course, Josh hasn’t cornered the market on beautiful writing–J.L. Merrow can turn a phrase with the best of them, Scott Sherman makes me laugh out loud with his one-liners, the heart behind Damon Suede’s sex scenes (at least in Hot Heads, which is the only book of his I’ve read so far) was enough to bring tears to my eyes, and Bonny Dee made me want to pull out all my favorite historical romances and reread them yet again.

What do I like to read?  Novels with characters I want to spend time with, root for and sympathize with.  Novels with emotion, wit, and momentum.  Page-turners.  Novels that take me places and make me care.

As an author, what do I hope to write?

Please see above. 

I love to travel.  I do.  But last night I walked in my front door after two weeks on the road for work (and I do mean “on the road”–planes, trains and automobiles style), and I don’t know that I’ve ever been happier to be back in my own space with my animals, who were very happy to see me, thank you very much.

While internet access was spotty–and often downright unavailable–during my travels, I was able to get some work done.  The amazing Derek of Creativindie Covers was able to not only nail down the final version of Ashes’ cover for me, he also laid out the print version of Redemption’s cover.

On June 30th (one week from today), Redemption’s exclusivity with KDP Select comes to an end.  I’m not going to renew with the program.  I have no complaints with Select.  As of this minute, I’ve had 328 people “rent” my book.  I’ve made decent money off of the program so far ($2.48 per rental in April and $2.26 in May), and I figure, as a new indie writer, it’s been a good way for readers to sample my work without committing to a purchase.  I know several reviewers on Amazon and Good Reads have noted they borrowed the book via Select.

As I’ve mentioned here before, I plan to release Redemption to other online retailers on July 1st.  I’d thought to make it available via Smashwords, but some people I’ve talked to say they prefer working directly with the retailers (i.e. Barnes & Noble, etc.).  Does anyone have any insight in that regard they’d like to share?  At that same time, I’m going to release the print edition via CreateSpace, thus the need for Derek’s services.  I think he did a great job and can’t recommend him more highly when it comes to skill, customer service and speed of delivery.  Check out his efforts below (because the Redemption file is a PDF–and kind of ginormous, you need to click on the link).  More on what Out of the Ashes is about in the weeks to come.  It will go on sale in August.

Redemption Print Cover