It's the little things...

So, I've decided to go back to my roots with this blog (in other words, writing about writing and life in general) rather than talk too much about the graphic design.  After all, I have plenty of other places where I share the artwork.

Since quitting my "day job" to see if I could make it on my own as a freelancer, I've started writing again. I spent most of today editing some old work that I plan on re-releasing, as well as working on some new stuff. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed that. 

So, to get ready for what I hope will be at least 4 new releases this year, I wanted to put together a website for my books.  I already had a domain name that I purchased last year and never used, and it's still good for another year. However, as I looked into various options, I decided to just keep my old friend Blogger, and point the domain name here.

Well... that wasn't as easy as I thought it would be!  However, after much ado, I now have "katesterling.net" pointing right here. It was so exciting! Lol. Like I said, it's the little things in life that count. :)

In other news, I also starting working as an editor for Cobblestone Press again, in addition to creating cover artwork for them.

What's new with you?

Getting Organized and Free Book

Around this time last year, I was having major health issues and thought I would have to pack up everything and move back to Arizona with my brother. Well, I did pack up most of my stuff, but then ending up going back to work here, changing jobs, going through intensive training for the new job, and have spent the last 6 months incredibly busy with said new job.

So... what that meant was, I still haven't unpacked!  Sheesh.  I've taken a few days off work to finally get my home in order, and made huge strides yesterday in getting my art & writing areas set up so that I can actually write and create art in peace. What a difference that made in how I feel!  I can't wait to finish it all so I can relax and get back into a routine of doing things I love.

Do you have a favorite area that you create in?  Does how it's set up make a difference to your productivity?

Meanwhile, if you haven't read Mark Diehl's "Vida Nocturna" (I interviewed him a few blog posts back) now is your chance to get it for free on Kindle, or have a chance to get a free print version from Goodreads.  I believe this will be available for the next 4 days or so.

Some Flot and Some Jet...

Or, flotsam and jetsam... whatever...

So, I thought it was around 5:15am and got up to get ready for work. Decided to do a quick email check - discovered it was only 4:20.  Must have accidentally set my clock up an hour when I set the alarm last night. Darn it.

Anyhoodles, I decided I might as well write something while I was up. You see, I've been working 7 days a week, 12 - 22 hours a day for a LONG time now and finally had to give it up.  So, about 9 days ago, I officially took a break from doing cover art so that I could reclaim some night and weekend time, and spend more time with my daughter who was briefly hospitalized two weeks ago.  (She's just fine now, by the way - but it really made me examine my priorities.)

Having a tiny break in my schedule also gave me some time to start thinking about writing again, which I haven't done in at least 6 months. Since my purpose in not doing cover art now is to keep from killing myself with a crazy schedule and neglecting my family, it would be foolish to push myself into a writing frenzy. However, after doing the math, I realized I could probably finish about 50K words in three months even if I only wrote 15 minutes a day.  That's a decent size for an e-book, and stealing 15 minutes out of my day wouldn't hurt anything, would it?  So, that's my new goal.

Just 15 minutes a day. Let's see what happens.

Any new goals in your life?  Or read any great books lately?

Special Guest Mark Diehl

I have a special guest blogger today: Mark D. Diehl.  Please make him welcome. :)

Hello, Mark, and welcome! I understand your first novel, “Vida Nocturna,” was recently released. Tell us a little about the story, such as why did you want to tell this particular story? What was it that appealed most to you, and what was your inspiration?

It’s my answer to what the publishing industry has become. “Twilight” was a huge hit because it combined two huge sellers – vampires and romance. Then all the other publishers saw the numbers and suddenly everyone was putting out series – not just books, but series – about vampires in love. Some agents are now dictating what stories authors should write to gain representation. When corporations control the arts to that degree, with the market chasing whatever sold best before, we get the death spiral of creativity we’ve been seeing in publishing lately. In “Vida Nocturna,” the shy, innocent girl fantasizes her spooky new boyfriend is a vampire. By the time she realizes that he’s slender and pale, doesn’t eat, and stays up all night with lots of energy because he’s actually a cocaine addict, she has been “bitten” by the drug and become addicted, herself.

We worked together on the cover for this novel, and I'll admit that, at first, I found your vision a bit unusual for this type of story. Tell us the reason why you chose those images and colors, rather than other, more traditional, "horror" stock?

It’s not a traditional horror story but to me it’s still a vampire tale. She loses her soul and tries to fill up the space where it used to be. Was the “bite” really her reliance upon drugs and alcohol, or might it have been earlier, from her bullying, neglectful, personality-disordered parents? There’s nothing supernatural about the vampires in this story but they are still as soulless and desperate to fill themselves with what they need as any monsters in classic horror. I love how the cover turned out. You and I went back and forth on the colors a lot because I wanted it to indicate that there was something different about this book and link it partially to horror and partially to the ‘80s drug stories like “Bright Lights, Big City.” I think you captured the book’s feel perfectly: It is true horror, not supernatural horror, set amidst the decadent '80s club subculture.

I've been a fan of your Deadjournal blog for a while now.  Your life experiences have made for fascinating reading. For example, you've been homeless in Japan, taught English in Korea, from where you and your wife had to escape to save your lives, you've been an attorney in the US, and more. What made you decide to get into writing at this point in your life?

I grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, which is a mecca for writers from all over the world. Everywhere I went there were always people scribbling in notebooks or giving feedback to each other, and every crappy, dead-end job I worked in high school always had an aspiring writer or two. I ran around with the delinquents and hoods, hustling my way through life, and the only thing I was sure of was that I would never fall into the futureless trap of trying to be a writer.

Instead I ended up living overseas for a while, then found myself back in Iowa City, and broke. I applied to graduate school, not for writing, of course, but for real, grown-up sorts of things, telling myself I'd go to whatever department accepted me. I ended up getting into the University of Iowa's law school, dental school, and MBA program, and thought maybe it'd be cool to do all three. The dental school said no way, so I was gone. In orientation for the MBA program we had to work together in groups and learn to cooperate. I lasted two hours and escaped after having to build towers out of notecards. That left law school, and I spent the next three years with a bunch of cutthroat pricks, thinking law would be like it was in the movies where the lawyer with the most original and creative argument always won. Actually, creativity in law is limited to arguing how your case is most like one that won before, and though when I practiced in Chicago I won the majority of my trials the job felt incredibly suffocating. Eventually I dug a tunnel under my desk with a spoon and escaped to the University of Chicago's graduate program for creative writing.

Apart from the Deadjournal blog, where else can people find out more about you, your writing, upcoming books, appearances, etc.?

I'm afraid Deadjournal is, well, dead. I'm now blogging on my own website.  Lately I've been narrating about how my wife and I were chased out of South Korea by her powerful family and the cops and stranded in Hong Kong. I post just a little part of the story every week and ask people to share it on social media so more readers visit my site, and I’m happy to say it has been quite popular. I invite anyone interested to friend me on Facebook, but please do tell me you saw me here so I know you're not a spambot.

What can we expect next from Mark Diehl? Any books in the works?

I have a few complete drafts that need a good scrubbing before they're ready for public view. They're quite different from this book in that they're all sci-fi, based on my idea that the medical profession is eliminating creative and independent thinkers from our gene pool, causing humanity to evolve into a corporate species. It’s an exciting concept to work on and I hope your readers (and mine) will be watching for them!

Great stuff, Mark! Thanks for stopping by, and good luck with your writing! (Note: I’ve known Mark and his wife for a few years now. I highly recommend reading their story, which you can find on Facebook.)

Books by the Numbers

There is a persistent belief that if you go indie, you'll never sell much. They say people like Amanda Hocking, Zoe Winters, JA Konrath, Tina Folsom, etc. are just "lucky" and the fact that they are now making a living with their indie books is a fluke. Ok, yes, they've gotten lucky - the luck that comes with writing a great story, being enthusiastic, learning what you need to know, believing in yourself, and taking a chance. The luck that is defined as "preparation meets opportunity."

Someone else whose "luck" is increasing due to the same formula, is my blogosphere pal, Edie Ramer.  She just sold 1000 books on Kindle this past month and I couldn't be happier for her.  I fully expect that as more people read her books (which are fabulous, by the way - I LOVED "Dragon Blues") those figures will increase and she will soon be making a living wage at it herself.

My former critique partner, Amber Scott, is also doing amazingly well. Like Edie and Zoe, Amber's enthusiasm and passion for what she's doing is carrying her far. In fact, I recently told her she is my hero right now because I remember clearly the first time we met in Barnes & Noble. Neither of us had been published, both were very shy - she, exceedingly so - but were having fun trying to make something of what we had. Now that formerly shy young woman is burning up the internet with her podcasts, vblogs, interviews, presentations, panels, you name it, and her book "PlayFling" was in Smashwords top 20 for weeks.  And I fully expect her next book, Fierce Dawn, to do really well. Go, Amber!

Now, as for me, I didn't really have very high expectations venturing into the Indie Arena. I had seen how badly things turned out for my grandfather when he self-published (in the days before Kindle), and I've read all the caveats (even by successful indie authors) that say don't get your  hopes up too much in the beginning. And of course, there is still some stigma attached to it. But I was willing to try it, to see how it went.

Since "Unmasked" is a re-release of an older novella--as well as a bit niche in its audience*--I didn't do any promotion except to mention it a couple of times on my blog, Facebook and Twitter.  I put it out there to see what would happen, and to test the waters of this Kindle publishing thing.

To my surprise, I've already sold more copies in the past month than I did the whole time it was with its original publisher, and I'm within 15 copies of matching my first month's sales of "Managing Maggie" at Cobblestone Press - and MM was their bestseller for that month.  (At first, I thought I had surpassed the sales figure, but when I looked up my royalty statement from last year, saw that I'm almost there.) Fingers crossed that I can match it in the next three days, but even if I don't, I've still been pleasantly surprised.

"Unmasked" started out ranking at around #1 million something, then got to around #300,000 the first few days, peaking so far at around 20,000 in the US, but generally ranking between 25 and 40K.  I was a bit discouraged by that number until I bought the most recent book by a well-known, traditionally pub'd  author that I like a lot, and hers was ranked at #36,000+ that day.  But about an hour ago, I just found out to my surprise that "Unmasked" was #36 on the Amazon UK's list for bisexual erotica - I broke into a top 100!  Who knew?!

Now, in reality, the number of sales this month aren't going to pay my rent (especially with Unmasked now priced at 99cents), but even so - color me hooked!  Being able to control whether and when my story gets put for sale was so liberating and empowering. Now I'm asking myself, "If my first niche novella that I've hardly promoted at all can do this, what might happen if I promoted a book that has a wider audience range -- one that I'm also very enthusiastic about?"

That will my next experiment.  I'll let you know how it turns out. :)

Meanwhile, I know Charles Gramlich, Avery DeBow, Sidney Williams, Marcia Colette, and Steve Malley have all also tried the indie route recently - any of you want to share your experience so far? :)

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*When I first wrote Unmasked back in 2006, it was in response to a call from a publisher looking to fill slots for an erotic anthology about a masquerade ball held by the gods. In researching the editor, I discovered she really liked male/female/female menages, so I wrote a story with that in mind and sent it to her. Two morals to that story: One, if you want to have someone else publish your books, research the editor; and two, even if your book has a limited audience, that doesn't mean it has NO audience, so don't give up!

Digital Book World, 'PW' Present Self-Publishing Webcast

Digital Book World, 'PW' Present Self-Publishing Webcast

Got this from an email - thought I'd share, since there is such a boom in self e-publishing.  I want to see/listen, but I'll be in the office at that time. :(   If anybody can make it and is willing to tell all, I'd love to hear about it. :)