Writing Life

August 2023 Goals

Posted on by Theresa

Hey, it’s only August 5th, so I’m already five days ahead of last month. That’s good, right?

Speaking of last month, how did I do with July’s goals?

  • Two new stories/digital bonus things for my awesome Patreon supporters. YES!
  • Add another 10k to PS5. (Currently at 35k) Almost. I’m at 43k, but I think I’ve figured out the part I was stuck on.
  • Weekly space opera and dragon episodes. YES!
  • Load more of DAMAGED CONSTRUCT onto Kindle Vella. Everything is loaded!
  • Start planning the next Portal Storm book. Do vague daydreams count?
  • Play with the foster kittens! YES!

Considering I was already 33% through the month when I came up with those goals, I’ll give myself a B+. There is room for improvement, but isn’t there always?

August Goals

  • Two new stories/digital bonus things for my awesome Patreon supporters.
  • Finish first draft of PS5.
  • Weekly space opera and dragon episodes.
  • Start planning the next Portal Storm book.
  • Get prepared for audio recording trial.
  • Play with the foster kittens!

Seriously, I just need to finish this darn book! My outline really didn’t work for me, so there’s a bunch I need to go back and modify. But it’s going to be done this month!

Obligatory Pet Picture

This is handsome Damian, who has already been adopted into his permanent home.

Writing Life

July 2023 Goals

Posted on by Theresa

Um, yes, it is the 10th of July as I’m writing this post. Ha! So how did I do last month?

  • Two new stories/digital bonus things for my Patreon supporters (who are awesome!) Did this! And my Patreon supporters remain awesome!
  • Draft another 20k words on various projects, including PS5. I did this!
  • Weekly space opera episodes Yep!
  • Weekly Dragon Freehold sequel episodes (I definitely need a title for this…) I did, and it is called Dragon Fortune on Kindle Vella.
  • Load more of DAMAGED CONSTRUCT onto Kindle Vella Did this too! I think I have about 15 episodes to edit and load still.
  • Start planning the next Portal Storm book. Nope, didn’t do this.
  • Play with the foster kittens! Absolutely!

I’m giving myself an A because I deserve it.

July Goals

(And yes, the month is already 1/3rd over…)

  • Two new stories/digital bonus things for my awesome Patreon supporters.
  • Add another 10k to PS5. (Currently at 35k)
  • Weekly space opera and dragon episodes.
  • Load more of DAMAGED CONSTRUCT onto Kindle Vella.
  • Start planning the next Portal Storm book.
  • Play with the foster kittens!

Obligatory Pet Picture

Look how gorgeous foster kitten Pumpkin is! (She is back at the shelter waiting to be adopted and now I have five black kittens who have been dubbed the “chaos gremlins”.)

kittens/Writing Life

June 2023 Goals

Posted on by Theresa

Did May happen, or was I abducted by aliens for a couple weeks? Anything is possible.

  • Two new stories/digital bonus things for my Patreon supporters I did this!
  • Release All Basilisks on 5/31/2023! I did this!
  • Draft another 20k words on various projects, including PS5. Maybe? I didn’t keep track very well.
  • Weekly space opera episodes I did this!
  • Load more of DAMAGED CONSTRUCT onto Kindle Vella Hm. I’m not sure I loaded any, but I still have a week’s worth banked.
  • Start planning the next Portal Storm book. Not really, though I did have some vague daydreams.
  • Play with the foster kittens! I did this!

I’m giving myself a B+. It would have been an A, but I’ve taken most of this week off (and that’s okay).

June Goals

  • Two new stories/digital bonus things for my Patreon supporters (who are awesome!)
  • Draft another 20k words on various projects, including PS5.
  • Weekly space opera episodes
  • Weekly Dragon Freehold sequel episodes (I definitely need a title for this…)
  • Load more of DAMAGED CONSTRUCT onto Kindle Vella
  • Start planning the next Portal Storm book.
  • Play with the foster kittens!

This looks remarkably similar to last month, but at least this month I won’t have a short story that spins out of control and becomes a novelette. Can I finish PS5 this month? Probably not, though I should be able to get close.

Obligatory Pet Photo

Sir Cuddles and Whiskeridoo are ready to go!

kittens/Writing Life

Important News of the Day

Posted on by Theresa

Okay, so I have two incredible promos and also a picture that must be shared today (May 4th).

The Dog Lives!

Are you like me? Do you avoid books and movies where something bad happens to animals? (I don’t care how good John Wick is. I’ll never see it.) I have a promo for you! A whole host of mystery books that promise the dog doesn’t die. Check it out!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/thedoglives/38day2izf9

More Cozies!

Now’s the perfect time to stock up on these free cozy mysteries! https://books.bookfunnel.com/cozymysterymay/quy86j8dhf

And Now, the Moment You’ve Been Waiting For!

May the fourth be with you!

(This foster kitten belongs to friends of mine, but I did use my just barely adequate amazing photomanipulation skills to turn the fishing rod into a light saber. You’re welcome.)

kittens/Writing Life

May 2023 Goals

Posted on by Theresa

The best things about writing goals is that I completely forget about what I wrote (which is perhaps not the best way to handle goals, I realize) and then I have to go back to find out what I said I was going to do and I laugh. So how did I do in April?

  • Draft 30k words on PS5 as part of Camp NaNoWriMo I drafted 30k new words, though they weren’t all for PS5. I’m still counting it.
  • Two new stories/digital bonus things for my Patreon supporters I did this!
  • Get the ARC of All Basilisks out to my new SF/F ARC team! I did this, too!
  • Weekly space opera episodes Did this!
  • Load the rest of DAMAGED CONSTRUCT onto Kindle Vella I got more loaded, but not all of it.
  • Get a new batch of foster kittens! Oh, yeah, I totally did this!

I’m giving my performance the A+ it deserves (mostly because of the kittens).

May Goals

  • Two new stories/digital bonus things for my Patreon supporters
  • Release All Basilisks on 5/31/2023!
  • Draft another 20k words on various projects, including PS5.
  • Weekly space opera episodes
  • Load more of DAMAGED CONSTRUCT onto Kindle Vella
  • Start planning the next Portal Storm book.
  • Play with the foster kittens!

Obligatory Pet Picture

Look at these cuties!

Five kittens in a chaotic grouping

Writing Life

Why My Books Aren’t in Kindle Unlimited (KU)

Posted on by Theresa

Warning: this might get a little rant-y, but I promise there will be no swearing in this post.

(Photo of stainless steel kettle in neon light over red background. Steam from the kettle through the whistle.)

 

All of my ebooks are currently available in Kobo Plus (Kobo’s subscription library). So why aren’t they in Kindle Unlimited (Amazon’s subscription library)?

Here’s the short answer: Because, as an indie author, if I enroll my ebooks in KU, I cannot offer the ebook on any other retailer, including public libraries.

(Ebooks from the big publishers can be in KU and also available elsewhere. Is that fair? Not really, but that’s life.)

But it gets worse! When pirate sites steal my KU ebook and sell it (yes, that’s a thing), Amazon can then accuse me of violating my exclusivity contract and permanently shut down my entire publishing account. Let me repeat that: if someone steals my ebook from KU and copies it to a pirate site, Amazon can punish me, the author, by closing my account.

Amazon knows these pirate sites exist; they have bots that constantly go out and look at the contents. But instead of helping authors get their ebooks removed from the pirate sites, Amazon punishes the author.

And since Amazon pays 90 days after sales/page-reads, shutting down my account means they also won’t pay me for the last three months of sales and page-reads. Yes, you can fight account closures, but it takes a lot of time and energy. Amazon just laid off 18,000 people, including a large chunk of their customer service. And if you get them to reverse their decision, there’s no guarantee it won’t happen again next week.

So that’s why my books aren’t in Kindle Unlimited. It’s just not worth the aggravation. But Kobo Plus doesn’t have the same exclusivity clause — I can have my ebooks in Kobo Plus and still sell them on Amazon, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, etc.

I’d rather spend my time writing instead of fighting with Amazon bots!

Writing Life

The Chaos Job in real time

Posted on by Theresa

So I was at my favorite coffee shop with a writing buddy, Sierra, and she mentioned she’d been planning to read one of my books. I’d just made The Chaos Job free at all the retailers, and I sent her a quick email.

It should be free everywhere… https://books2read.com/JackpotDrift1

And then I went home to move more wood chips and forgot about it. The next time I checked my email, I had five replies to the original email (very lightly edited to keep things family friendly). WARNING! THERE ARE  SPOILERS AHEAD!

5:04 PM

I’ve read the first six chapters so far and I love Sil and absolutely loathe Glass!

5:16 PM

The AI chats are great! The gerbils sound ominous.

5:53 PM

Zombie sheep! Of course Mud made a sheep with the synthskin.
Crumble is accidentally moving in, isn’t he?

5:59 PM

Theresa did you put an enemies to partners-in-crime to fake-dating to lovers subplot in this sci-fi fantasy ram [stuff] heist?

6:13 PM

The descriptions of the pseudosheep are making me laugh so hard!

And it just kept going from there

7:13 PM

Your descriptions of Crumble’s Mud-assisted cooking is making me so hungry! Another mark for this being a partly fantasy book, all good fantasy has food descriptions that make you hungry.

8:03PM

Of course Pyr knows something’s up! The barman always knows.
And at least he’s using Crumble’s name easily now.

I love the progress of the construct horse and all the animal husbandry tidbits!

8:11 PM

“I’d rather be gerbil bombed” is a great line.

8:18 PM

Two squadmates and a weird zombie thing! The best covert mission team a lady could ask for.

Four squadmates if you count the two godlets, I suppose.

8:21 PM (I should probably mention here that Sierra also went to vet school.)

Does Glass’s one surviving horse have pinworms? It seems to be scratching its rear on the fence quite firmly.

My reply @8:22 PM

It does, but that is never said in the book.

8:24 PM

Secret vet plot point

8:34 PM

Why did he kidnap a sheep????

8:35 PM

BAAING HER SCORN FOR ALL THE WORLD TO HEAR

Aggressive sheep are delightful for me, who does not have to work with them.

8:48 PM

Wow, this section really is chaos, isn’t it!

8:51 PM

I am GREATLY enjoying Glass getting more and more aggravated as the car ride goes on.

9:02 PM

She told him to run and he stayed for her and now they’ve both been arrested and there’s a pregnant ewe strapped into the car! And what on or off earth is Mud trying to do? Does this have to do with the oddness of the equipment Glass has made a high priority for Sil to fix and the damage said equipment has sustained? Oh boy oh boy I can’t wait to find out.

9:22 PM

Yes! Yes!! Glass has been tranq’d and put in a stasis box! He deserves it.

9:41 PM

Yay! I like the ending. Good wrap-up of all the main plot threads, and I look forward to reading the sequels.

So there you have it! Thank you to Sierra for kindly allowing me to share her hilarious email chain!

Writing Life

April 2023 Goals

Posted on by Theresa

In glancing back over my March goals, I think I might have been a bit ambitious…

  • Release Death Crashes a Wedding (Penelope Standing Mysteries #4) on March 25th. I need to update my website, load the final version to all the vendors, and do a bunch of things like that. DONE!
  • Migrate my newsletter from MailChimp and set up an actual welcome sequence. (I’m probably going with EmailOctopus, but that’s not 100% certain yet.) DONE!
  • Set up an ARC team for my SF/F books and let my newsletter readers know about it. DONE!
  • Weekly space opera episodes DONE!
  • Draft 15k words on PS5 Not quite. I’m over 9k, but I’m behind
  • PS series bible Nope (though I have referenced what I have so far, so clearly it’s needed!)
  • Play with DAZ Studio with the aim of recovering the Jackpot Drift series (or at least not forgetting everything I learned until I have time to work on the cover). I’ve done a bit of this
  • Two new stories/digital bonus things for my Patreon supporters YES!

I did quite a lot of what I was supposed to, so I’m giving myself a B+ and a pep talk about writing more.

April Goals

  • Draft 30k words on PS5 as part of Camp NaNoWriMo
  • Two new stories/digital bonus things for my Patreon supporters
  • Get the ARC of All Basilisks out to my new SF/F ARC team!
  • Weekly space opera episodes
  • Load the rest of DAMAGED CONSTRUCT onto Kindle Vella
  • Get a new batch of foster kittens!

That’s more than enough to do in a month. I’ve also got a mountain of wood chips waiting to be moved.

Obligatory Wood Chip Mountain Picture

(You can’t complain about free wood chips!)

kittens/Writing Life

March 2023 Goals

Posted on by Theresa

How are we already in the third month of the year? Anyhow, let’s look at my performance in February…

  • PS4: Make any necessary changes brought up by my critique partners, do the read-aloud pass, GIVE IT A TITLE FFS, and hand it off for a final typo hunt and also send it out to the cozy mystery ARC team. (ARC team!) I DID THIS! And one of my amazing ARC readers has already posted a review for Death Crashes a Wedding! (Seriously, this is SO awesome!)
  • Weekly space opera episodes Yes. Maybe at the last possible second, but I did this!
  • Get ALL BASILISKS to my critique partners Yep!
  • Draft 15k words on PS5 Um… No, it is still sitting at 1300 words.
  • Play with DAZ Studio as part of Thingadailies I did this and learned A LOT! My webcomic was truly terrible, but honestly, it was so bad it was fun.
  • (Remember to get back to the PS series bible next month) This was a placeholder, but sure, let’s count it.

I was really busy and I got lots done. I’m giving myself a solid A for February.

March Goals

  • Release Death Crashes a Wedding (Penelope Standing Mysteries #4) on March 25th. I need to update my website, load the final version to all the vendors, and do a bunch of things like that.
  • Migrate my newsletter from MailChimp and set up an actual welcome sequence. (I’m probably going with EmailOctopus, but that’s not 100% certain yet.)
  • Set up an ARC team for my SF/F books and let my newsletter readers know about it.
  • Weekly space opera episodes
  • Draft 15k words on PS5
  • PS series bible
  • Play with DAZ Studio with the aim of recovering the Jackpot Drift series (or at least not forgetting everything I learned until I have time to work on the cover).
  • Two new stories/digital bonus things for my Patreon supporters

Anyhow, lots of things to do, but I’m excited about all of it!

Obligatory Pet Photo

Shortbread and her sisters are looking like real cats (not kittens) these days! They’re adorable, and I think their ringworm has been eradicated, so they should be available for adoption soon.