Merry Christmas

Here's my Christmas wish to everyone. May God bless you and your family this time of year. It may be difficult because of the loss of a loved one (I've lost several close family members), but remember the good times and the heartache will lessen.

I want to wish all our soldiers a Merry Christmas. I know their sacrifice is more than we can imagine. I also know their families are making sacrifices as well. Children not being with parent, spouses taking care of things at home alone, while soldiers are away.

I pray for safety of our soldiers fighting and working out of the U.S., and for your families here at home.

Thank you and your family for your sacrifices.

God bless you.

Military Poem,
by Marine Lance Corporal James M. Schmidt
(original and revised verses)

Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone,
in a one bedroom house made of plaster and stone.
I had come down the chimney with presents to give,
and to see just who in this home did live.
I looked all about, I strange sight I did see,
no tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.

No stocking by mantle, just boots filled with sand,
and on the wall pictures of far distant lands.
With medals and badges, awards of all kinds,
a sobering thought soon came to my mind.
For this house was different, unlike any I'd seen.
This was the home of a U.S. marine.

The soldier lay sleeping, silent, alone,
curled up on the floor in this one bedroom home.
He seemed so gentle, his face so serene,
Not how I pictured a U.S. Marine.
Was this the hero of whom I'd just read?
Curled up on a poncho, a floor for a bed?

I realized the families that I saw this night,
owed their lives to these soldiers who were willing to fight.
Soon round the world, the children would play,
and grownups would celebrate a bright Christmas day.
They all enjoyed freedom, each month of the year,
because of the soldiers, like this one lying here.

I couldn't help wonder how many lay alone,
on a cold Christmas eve in a land far from home.
The very thought brought a tear to my eye,
I dropped to my knees and started to cry.
The soldier awakened and I heard a rough voice,
"Santa don't cry, this life is my choice;

I fight for freedom, I don't ask for more,
my life is my God, my country, my Corps."
The soldier rolled over and soon drifted to sleep,
I couldn't control it, I continued to weep.
I kept watch for hours, so silent so still,
and we both shivered from the cold evening's chill.

I didn't want to leave on that cold dark night,
this guardian of honor, so willing to fight.
Then the soldier rolled over, with a voice soft and pure,
whispered, "Carry on Santa, it's Christmas day, all is secure."
One look at my watch, and I knew he was right.
"Merry Christmas my friend, and to all a Good night."


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'll see you in 2013. Look for my next novel early next year.

Being an Indie: Curse or Blessing?

Being and independent publisher as well as a writer has its ups and downs. I write my stories, edit them, publish them on places like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. using Smashwords or Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) then market myself. For instance I spend at least 2 days a week promoting my books on places like facebook; check out my facebook page Siera Stone and you'll see what I'm talking about. But don't stop there. If you'll view some of my friends pages you'll see how they also promote themselves.

By marketing myself that leaves me just 2 days writing. Sometimes I get 3 days, but that depends on the amount of time I've already spent on the earlier 2 days. It's hard to change hats. If I have a great idea and it is a day I've decided to work on marketing then I jot down those ideas in my notebook and work on them later that day or the next day.

As an aside, it doesn't help that my husband no longer works. So if you have distractions like that get an office. Oh I have an office, but it is full of research, books, printer, magazines, etc. that there is no place for me. So the office needs to be big or if you can get your husband a man cave. (Here I'm playing on your sympathy to purchase my books). If it's working then I won't apologize.

So is publishing my books as an independent writer the best way to go? For my first book it was. I'm sure that some erotic romance publisher like Ellora's Cave or Samhain might have looked at it, but the plot of Christmas in July didn't fit their categories.

Christmas in July was meant to be a witty fantasy and nothing more. Sure the main character Julie Monroe is in a long term relationship and that relationship is in jeopardy due to not getting her Christmas present from Santa. But all in all it was intended to give Julie a chance to be a naughty girl, and get Santa in the sack and back on his nice list. Yes we all have fantasies and one of Julie's was to boink the big guy. She has a thing for  long white beards and a hairy chest. Sorry I'm getting off my point.

But the story I'm working on now, working titles are The Merger or 3rd Times the Charm is intended to be sent to Decadent Publishing. I'm writing it to fit into one of their most popular series 1Night Stand. Go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble or other publishing companies and type in the words 1 Night Stand. You'll find titles from different authors all using that same premise. See a previous blog for some editing I did on my new book.

Yes, I'm using this series to get my foot into the door of a publishing house.While Decadent is a publishing house for erotic romance, it has some of the qualities of Indie's. Decadent's requirements would be that of my own if I was self-publishing this book. It must be tight and the copy clean. They don't have agents, Per Se that holds your hand, works with you to edit the story to the publisher's liking.

So again, is self-publishing a curse or a blessing? I believe a little of both.

Next week I'll expand on this introduction of being an Indie.

What could be better?

What could be better than a trip that includes imbibing? (You know the S word and chocolate come to mind, but traveling and drinking is 3rd on the list).

I just reconnected with a friend of mine and her lens on Squidoo about America's history on Whiskey making is fascinating.


Below is a peek. Check out the entire lens at www.squidoo.com/whiskeytrail

The American Whiskey Trail is steeped in our country's history. We owe our whiskey making today to the Scotch-Irish heritage that immigrated into the United States hundreds of years ago. American whiskies came from those immigrants
.

Whiskey's origins mainly came from Scotland. One can tell they are drinking American whiskey or Scottish whiskey just by the spelling. But just like bourbons and whiskies the Scottish whiskey has a distinct flavor all its own. This lens is dedicated to the American heritage of those immigrants that settled into the USA and brought their whiskey making skills with them.

While prohibition may have curbed the whiskey industry for a short time, it is up and running strong. It is a part of American history, the history of those who immigrated into this country at its birth and during its foundling years. Therefore this tribute is not just to the alcohol industry, but to a bit of Americana.

George Washington, our first president, has ties to the roots of making American whiskey. Others who held to developing us into a nation also were a part of this history, but not as prominent as the 1st president.

The Trail runs through 5 states and can be a an exciting road trip or several weekend getaways for the history and travel enthusiast.

Well?

This is day 7 on antibiotics and I swear it's killing my creative brain cells as well as the infection. Here's the problem. I've worked on MRU's this last week and got about 1400 words using that formula. (Below is an example). And all I can say I'm learning the process. (slowly)

But it isn't going well. With a stuffy nose, scratchy throat, coughing and some pressure, (I sound like a Nyquil commercial). I'm just not feeling the love of the new direction of the story.

Let me show you my progress/process and see if you notice MRU.

Original: 

Rebel Tyler was so far outside her comfort zone when she opened the door to her bungalow, all she could see was the king sized bed along the left wall sticking out like a giant clown trying to stuff his body into a kiddie car at the circus. Never taking her eyes off the bed, she teetered in the doorway unable to make her feet take the first step inside. She needed courage, something she knew she didn’t normally have, but then she purposefully dwelled on her parents and Mr. Michaels waiting for her at brunch tomorrow morning, and the thought of them getting angrier and angrier by the minute when she didn’t show up was all the momentum she needed to take that first step across the threshold.

Revised:

As the bungalow door swung open, all Rebel Tyler could see was a king sized bed consuming every inch of an already cramped space – like one of those fat clowns that try to stuff themselves into the tiny cars at the circus. Seeing the bed, her heart skipped, and she froze on the step. “Just breathe girl,” she muttered and began to fan with her palm. She closed her eyes, her thoughts dancing in a thousand directions, she tried to concentrate on what brought her to this place. She began to imagine her parents and Mr. Michaels waiting for her at brunch in the morning. She could picture them in her mind fidgeting impatiently in their seats, their expressions growing more and more angry as they realized she wasn’t coming. The image made her smile, if only slightly, but the thought of standing them up emboldened her to go forward. Filled once more with singular intent she took a deep breath, wet her lips, and stepped purposefully across the threshold. 

The paragraph above is great. But I can't take credit for it. My son, Computer genius and writer extraordinaire gave it the oomph it needed. But more importantly demonstrated MRU. I must qualify that my lack of creating a picture with my words is I am on antibiotics and I wrote my paragraph on day 4 while sinus pain the size of a boulder was pressing against my cheeks and forehead. And my son has been using MRU and the Snowflake Method for years. I'm a newbie.

I have revised to fit my story. You can see below. 

Staring, but not really seeing anything, Rebel Tyler wondered if she could call the whole thing off. She still had time. She was certain Madame Eve could find her date, and she used that term loosely someone else. But then she remembered she had no phone and other than room service there would be no contact with Cayo Espanto, as she’d requested, until Monday. So focusing on the here and now, she let go of those thoughts. Letting her eyes drift along the horizon where blue sky met blue green water she searched her surroundings. Palm trees and lush green forest were to her right. In front and to her left was the ocean. Waves gently lapped against the shore and rocks placed at the edge of the sandy pathway, signaling the end of the island.

. . . . . . . . . 

Taking a deep breath to calm her racing pulse, Rebel hesitated slightly before pushing the door wide. She stood there, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. Her accommodations were made up of just two rooms; the bedroom directly in front of her and bath to her right. Looking around the room, she immediately noticed the colors outside continued inside. There was pristine teak flooring, wood paneled walls and tongue and groove ceiling above exposed beams. Another glass door trimmed in turquoise, like the one she’d just opened stood opposite her; the windows were in the same style. Her eyes traveled to her right, taking in cream furniture, a matching plush rug and silk shears. The color broke up the variant shades of brown and turquoise, giving the room a soothing tropical feel.

Making to step into inside, Rebel froze and her heart skipped a beat upon seeing the monstrosity posing as a king sized bed along the left wall. Suddenly the spacious room felt cramped – like a fat clown stuffing himself into one of those tiny cars at the circus. Her wide eyes were riveted to the four poster metal bed, her breath caught in her throat, blood pumped through her veins roaring in her ears. When her chest constricted and ached, she realized she wasn’t breathing.

 . . . . . . . . . 

“Oh, God,” she moaned, squeezing her legs together. Her nipples pebbled and her sex became wet. Rebel closed her eyes, her thoughts dancing in a thousand directions. She tried to concentrate on what brought her to this place. Instead of dwelling on tonight. So she imagined her parents and Mr. Michaels waiting for her at brunch in the morning. She could picture them in her mind fidgeting impatiently in their seats, their expressions growing more and more angry as they realized she wasn’t coming. The image made her smile, if only slightly, but the thought of standing them up emboldened her to move. Filled once more with a singular intent she took a deep breath, wet her lips, and stepped purposefully across the threshold. 

I hope you see the MRU's. And take note of the editing process. Hopefully this story will be out by the New Year and you can read it in its entirety then. 

See ya next week. 

Another Day . . .

So I've had trouble with my leading man. What woman hasn't had problems with the man she loves, or the one she's creating. (Wait are these two things separate)? So when sinus pressure like stabbing sticks pricked my face all yesterday and my face felt like a swollen balloon I once again worked on my craft.

I'm sure you're asking what craft is that. Well I am a writer, and yes I'm in the middle of another short story. I hope to sell this one to Decadent Publishing for one of their popular story lines, but again I'm getting off track. So when no ideas came to me yesterday, I worked on developing my male character.

I thought of actors that had the same qualities I'm giving my leading man, but since I've pictured my guy looking like a slightly older Alex Pettyfer, (my character's name is Alex, and I swear it was a coincidence). I've had trouble putting the personality traits with the face.

So yesterday I went hunting. My son, a Technical Architect, (it's hard to explain what he does with computers, but he designs software, tells others how to build what he's designed, builds software as well, and implements what he's built). Anyway, he is also a writer. So over the weekend we discussed motivation reaction units (MRU) in connection with his latest novel. It's concept developed by Dwight Swain has been around for decades. We all strive to write using motivation reaction units, but many times we fall short. So my son and I went over the basics during the weekend, and I realized many times I'm not using MRU's properly.

I have dyslexia and my form has me rearranging sentences. Instead of giving the emotion before the action I put it after. I don't have problems with comprehension and reading, but as a child I wrote from right to left and and transposed the first letter in words when I spoke. For instance If I wanted a little bit of something then I would ask for a bittle lit. With this gift I can read upside down almost as well as I can right side up.

I know you're asking yourself when am I going to get to the point? I am a writer you know and we like to to hear ourselves talk, so stick with me. Well it seems Swain with his MRU concept hit upon the fact that if you follow this motivation reaction unit your writing would get to the point that you'd sell a lot of books. Bottom line, that's why I'm here. For readers to like my stories, want purchase my stories and hook them from the first sentence in chapter 1 so they can't put my book down until they've read it through.

I'm the kind of person that goes back and rereads books. I want my readers to want to do the same for my stories. Sorry, I'm getting off my topic again. While I was studying the model I came across the website, Writing the Perfect Scene by Randy Ingermanson. (If you want to read a website that is informative and the author is really full of himself then I suggest you look it up). He actually does know what he's talking about.

While there I checked out a few things and I must say he broke down MRU's quite thoroughly and if you're looking for good information on motivation reaction units then I suggest you check out his website. But MRU's isn't where I found information to help me with my leading man. I clicked on the link Architecting Your Novel. It describes the Snowflake Method.

I've used only part of the Snowflake Method in the past, but I took a long look at it yesterday. I really am coming to my point, so stick with me. I began using steps 2-5 on Ingermanson's website to develop my male character. And it worked. I know more about him today than I did in the last month of writing. Possibly more than I know about my own husband, ha ha, wink wink.

Here I must confess I'm a write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of person. It is the way I create. I write on the computer, I have notebooks lying around the house and I have printed pages of my stories scattered everywhere marked up to the hilt.

It is a lot of work to write the way I do. It is a lot of work editing the way I do. So for once I'm going to implement sound advice and plan better. Yesterday as I planned this upcoming story using both MRU and the Snowflake Method I found it didn't hamper my creativity, it enhanced it.

So I'm off to write and I hope soon you'll see my next short story being sold by Decadent Publishing.

It isn't always about me

Okay 99% of the time this blog is about me. Because I'm me, but let's face it there isn't always that much to write about, so today I'm reviewing a book by another author.

Let me bring you up to speed. Kallypso Masters has written a series called "Rescue Me". Right now there are four titles in the series. Each one is a stand alone book, but includes the main characters of the entire series.

I won't go into all the details because giving lots of plot summary and characterization may give it away for readers who haven't purchased the series. And let me tell you, when the ending is given away it sucks. I know. My husband tells me what's going to happen next and has given away more endings in movies we watch together than I can count. So, I'm not here to do that.

But let me give you an overview. The Rescue Series is set in Colorado. The main characters are ex-military. These men own a BDSM, or fetish club. A later book is a story about the lone female Marine in the bunch, but she doesn't own the club, so I won't get into logistics here about her. Their lives and relationships have so many flaws and junk to work out that none of them believe they are worthy of love.

Masters at Arms is the prequel to the Rescue Me series. It should be read first and readers are introduced to the characters that are in the Rescue Me series. We see their action during the military. We see their pain, both physical and mental fallout from war. Read this book with the understanding that it sets up the series and all the erotic scenes you're looking for are in the following books. (This book is a free download from Amazon).

In Nobody's Angel, Marc d'Alessio keeps women at bay afraid of intimacy (Note all the men feel this way, but Marc's stance is to refuse to become close to a woman again for fear of being hurt).

In Nobody's Hero the main character Adam Montague doesn't feel he deserves love because of his first marriage and his childhood.

Before I get into the latest book, I must say Kallypso Masters does a great job in the first three books. She delves into the BDSM lifestyle in different ways. If you're into the lifestyle or curious about BDSM then I believe you'll enjoy how it is depicted. The scenes are erotic and loving. Readers, however, don't get a lot of strict adherence to Dom/sub or Master/slave protocol. And none of the characters want a 24/7 Master/slave life.

Now for the latest book, Nobody's Perfect. This book is emotionally charged. You can read my short review on Amazon.com, but here I want to talk about the emotions evoked from the writing. While reading this book, I was on edged and by the time I put it down I was mentally and physically drained.

Kallypso did a great job and taking us into the broken lives of Savi and Damian and their struggles to repair their lives. We see them nine years later and they haven't done a good job actually living until they are thrown together again. Damian helps Savi heal from her own wounds and ends up being healed in the process.

The BDSM scenes in this story show the darker side. But I must say as a survivor of sex abuse, very short exposure to sex abuse, I can see the benefits of using scenes to heal. Kallypso used focus and communication as goals to work on. Once each scene was finished aftercare, something way overlooked in vanilla sex and at the very least kissing and cuddling should always be a part of what goes on after sex is over, no matter if it is vanilla or in the BDSM lifestyle. But I digress. Aftercare in the story was prominent and revolved around Savi talking about her abuse to lessen its power over her. Something every survivor of abuse, any type of abuse and those experiencing PTSD needs to do.

I won't give anymore away. I do recommend reading Rescue Me series. Oh, and 2 more books will be out later. So look for them.

Don't ya just hate it when . . .

Okay, so last week was a bust for writing. Truly last week was a bust for many things not just writing.

Think of the sinus infection from heck. You know the kind that makes you dizzy when standing. (Just because I'm a blonde doesn't mean I'm a ditsy blonde and that's the reason I couldn't put 2 sentences together last week). (Ha, ha) Going for a little humor here to lighten Monday up.

And when I wasn't suffering from sinus pressure that felt like ice picks stabbing me in the forehead, I was sympathetic to a sick husband passing kidney stones. (Ladies it's like giving birth, and men if you've had them you now know how a woman feels when having a baby). FYI he's still passing them. So this week isn't starting out any better.

But this week is a new week, and I'm eager to begin, but now all my ideas that I wrote down to work on this week, seem stale, weak in the oomph factor. I know fiction isn't truth, and really I should let some things go, but I still find myself wanting to stay as close to reality as possible in fiction. (Like for my next book, The Merger, the main characters are balking at an upcoming arranged marriage). I've got to make that as believable as possible.

Oh, well, what I guess I'm really saying is that we all have days and weeks like mine. So for now I'm getting out of the house. A nice walk in the sunshine will do me good. Today is sunny with a light breeze and about 68 degrees. And it'll warm up my thought processes.

See ya in my books.  

Struggles of a newly published author

I'm new to publishing. Not new to writing. I've been writing since I was twelve years old. I've begun and edited countless stories, but never finished them. Now as a self published author, I can say I've published my first, well second book. My first book was published my Alma Mater; a short piece of fiction for my Master's thesis.

I must say, I'm happy to have the book finished and out on Amazon. But my idea of writing had always included working with a publishing company who would market my work for me. Now I'm not only the writer and editor I'm also the publisher and marketing department.

I understand with Kindle and Amazon's self publishing tools that the market has been saturated, and as voracious reader I've taken advantage of many of the free books on Kindle, I must say I've read books that most likely would never have caught a publisher's attention.

There is good talent out there. Not all will go on to be best sellers, and I include myself in that category. I believe I'll do well as an author, but let's face it, I know I'm not John Grisham or Nora Roberts. But I am a good writer and can tell a good story. So check out my work.

But I digress. Marketing my book is one of the hardest things I've had to do. I write so I can hide behind characters and not have to sell myself. But here I am talking about me as a person, a writer. So far it isn't that bad, and I'm sure I'll get better as time goes on.

So bear with me. Take the time to find my book and look for more stories soon.

Oh, and I'll be back to confess my struggles in my blog.