A Free Preview

This week I've been hard at work, finishing up a short story I started some time ago. 

The plan is to get my critique group to review it and provide feedback, get a cover finalized, then put it out on Amazon for their Kindle Select program.  I'd like to be able to offer it for free, but it appears the only way I can get it on here for free is to make it a part of Amazon's program for ninety days.  Out of that time, I'll get to post it for free a grand total of five days.  Then I'll have to charge a minimum price of ninety-nine cents.  After the ninety days, I'll place it on Smashwords as a freebie.

The goal in all of this is to find readers and introduce them to my writing.  Hopefully, they'll like what they read and decide to take a chance on purchasing my current (and future) works. 

So here for you, my dear readers, is the preview to my upcoming short story:

Katie is desperate.

A dead-end job disappears.  Unemployment payouts soon to cease, Katie is overcome by anger at life’s circumstances.  Nothing and no one to fall back on in tough times.

Until the offer.

They’ll pay her ten thousand.  It’ll be like a vacation for thirty days.  No complications.  No worries.

So Katie agrees.

But things are not as promised.  The vacation soon becomes a veritable imprisonment.  Too late she realizes they’ll only release her if she succumbs.

Katie’s life forever changes when she agrees to join…

…The Study

Interview at Heidi Ruby Miller's Blog

Dear readers!  If you've nothing else to do on this bright and beautiful Saturday afternoon, run on over to Heidi Ruby Miller's blog at http://heidirubymiller.blogspot.com/2012/01/heidis-pick-six-d-bale.html and check out the interview she did for Running into the Darkness.

And FINALLY, I also figured out how to add my book here onto my blog as a direct link with the book cover image.  The gadget only allowed one URL link, so I chose Amazon, but remember it is available at Smashwords and any eReader site as well.

Happy reading!

Setting the Mood

Music moves and inspires me.

Puttering along in my zippy little car this morning, I enjoyed the digital strains of the new Tron Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk that I bought my son for Christmas.

Yes, we have very similar music tastes and he always burns new soundtracks onto his computer and I-pod then gives me the CD.  It almost seems self-serving everytime I give him the gift of music.  But I digress.

So as I'm speeding along, trying my best to avoid policemen, track 10 hits the Bose speakers (yes, I'm a Bose junkie when it comes to that sweet bass).  Suddenly the whole world drifts away and I'm in my newest novel, Piercing the Darkness, and the inspiration goes gangbusters.  The scenes open up before my mind and I see it all performed as if watching on a stage. 

The lyrical strains of the cello lead me through dark, rank alleys, homeless crawling through dumpsters in their search for a morsel to stave starvation.  Then a hand reaches out with a fresh morsel and leads to the cardboard hovels and fires of a homeless encampment.  My protagonist, Samantha, works the streets to earn cash to feed the wretched of society, to offer scant medical attention to the least of these.  All the while she's being hunted by the dark hand of the Elite, who are rapidly closing in on her location.

So how's that for a preview?

Almost every time I sit to write, I search my CD library for just the right mood music from the not-nearly-big-enough stash of soundtracks from my favorite movie composers.  It helps me set the scene and enter deeply into the psyche of my characters.

Writers out there - do you ever use music to help set the mood and pace of your writing?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Techie Challenged

Welcome to the New Year!

Personally, I'm not much on those pesky New Year's Resolutions - who really keeps them anyway?  However, for 2012 I've made some personal (what I like to call) goals when it comes to my writing. 

Last night I stayed up until - well I guess you could say instead - this morning I stayed up until 1:30 trying to spend time getting more comfortable with the world of social media marketing.  Technology and I don't get along as well as we perhaps should - I call that being "Techie Challenged".  Part of my problem has been the fact that I normally just don't have the time to sit at a computer (unless I'm doing something I consider productive - namely writing) scrolling through websites, reading a ton of information, and just chatting with unknowns.

But last night I was invited to join an author's group on Goodreads, which is thus far my favorite social networking site.  For hours I read many of the threads of conversation, started a thread about critique groups and editing, and interacted with several fellow authors from across the country (heck, maybe even around the globe).  It was a blast!

Plus I learned alot about the importance of just making acquaintences without trying to push my story.  Perhaps that's a mistake I've made through other social sites.  However, I'm finding Goodreads to be my site of choice, mainly because it is comfortable corresponding with fellow authors in a relaxed setting, whereas on Facebook and Twitter it "feels" more like marketing and is missing that sense of connectedness.

So for the New Year, I'm making Goodreads my focus for interacting with and learning from my fellow authors about this mess called technology.

Then there's also that writing goal.