Beholder's Eye / Story of the Week 24-Feb-2018

Beholder's Eye is the first novel in my Central Division series of thriller novels--and soon to be shorter works, which will be titled Central Division Shorts, but more on that for another day.

Beholder's Eye came about as the premise of "What if an investigator's child is kidnapped by an illusive serial killer?  And what if the reason behind it was revenge?"

Now, the first what if is scary enough.  But the second one jacks up the tension to a whole new level.

Kolin Raynes, a new investigator for the Minneapolis PD's Violent Crime Unit, arrives home to find himself in the midst of a kidnapping spree.  Teenage girls are being abducted, in broad daylight, by what appears to be complete strangers.  When Kolin assists with the case, they are on their third abduction.

Here is a link to my website, which has links to several ebook retailers.

Regrets on what I've done AND not done / Happenings In The Outhouse 23-Feb-2018

I was listening to a preview of Jon Acuff's new podcast--actually it was episode zero--and he spoke on regrets.  Not necessarily regrets on what one hasn't done, but even regrets on things one has done.

I look back on my life and, my oh my, I have plenty that fit in either category.

I regret comments I made to someone or about someone.

I regret doing the stupid things I had done.

I regret the poor financial decisions I made.

I regret not pursuing indie publishing sooner.

I regret not writing more short stories and sending them to short story markets.

I regret not speaking with my future wife much sooner than what I did--yes, I was a big chicken.

I regret . . . I regret . . . I regret . . .

Now, of all these regrets, I cannot change them.  All I can do is learn from them, the mistakes (if they were), and move on.  Too many people hold themselves back by their regrets, emotionally, mentally, physically.

Learn.

Move on.

I am nearing the end of Training Grounds.  I am currently at 21,500 words.  How much more, I don't know.  For a sneak peak, here's the cover:

Starting tomorrow, I am also starting a new segment on this blog: the story of the week.  This will feature a story I have written, to provide links on where it's sold--I do have two free stories on my blog too, so I might link there as well--and maybe give a little story about it.  Should be fun.

So few stories, so much time / Happening In The Outhouse 16-Feb-2018

Nope.  Reverse that, as Willy Wonka (played by Gene Wilder in the 1971 classic movie) once said.

So little time . . . so many stories.

Everyone has the same 168 hours.  Seven days.  Twenty-four hours.

Yet so few accomplish their goals while others do nothing with it.  Oh, sure, they may work their forty-hour a week job, but what about when they come home?  They plop themselves in front of the TV and . . . do nothing.

How much time could you devote to your dream?

Take thirty minutes a day and dive head first into whatever it is you want to accomplish.  Three and a half hours in a week.

The funny thing is, we can all find a bit of time to do something.  Wake up a little early, stay up a bit later once everyone is in bed.  If you work at a job, how do you spend your breaks and lunches?

I am a Netflix fanatic.  I have so many movies, documentaries, shows, in my queue and currently watching list that, if nothing else new ever came in, I'd be set for years.  No kidding.  Years.

But I do limit my Netflix watching.  Because I have stories to write.  It's okay to watch movies and read books, to absorb stories.  But if it gets in the way of actually doing what you should be doing, that's when you'll wake up twenty, thirty, forty years down the road and wonder where your life went.

So get going.

Today.

The world depends on it.

Let's talk (again) about money / Happenings In The Outhouse 09-Feb-2018

We've talked about money before.  Please look at this blog post for a discussion in 2016 on it.

I recently read a blog post by an award-winning author who posted their earnings, split up into royalties, self-published earning, Patreon earnings, etc.

This author, who will remain nameless and I will not post a link to the post (not even going as far as to say if this author is male or female), but they made, from their writing, roughly $47,000 in 2017.  The author then lamented that they earned less than $200 from self-publishing and roughly $16,000 ranging from traditional royalties, from book to film--I'm not sure if this was before or after the standard agent fees, but I may stipulate for argument sake that it may be after.  Over $29,000 was earned from Patreon fans who give a monthly stipend for whatever reward this author had set up.

Not bad.

Although . . . this author bemoaned the earnings, even going as far as to say they may be moving to Canada where health insurance is free (umm, haven't heard of taxes, which is higher to be paid for said services, along with an extremely long wait for procedures - but I digress).

I just did our taxes for the past year, and I will tell you I did not earn even close to $47,000 from my writing, but I did earn more than this author's self-published works.  I will not disclose amounts--there are plenty of other authors who do, and I don't want to muddy the waters--but I will tell you that I have a full-time job (with fantastic health insurance) and writing for me is long-term.  It's an investment.  It may seem like peanuts now . . . but the dividends will pay off down the road.

Sifting through the muck / Happenings In The Outhouse 02-Feb-2018

For the past few years, I've had visions of the book Training Grounds swirling around in my head.  Sitting down to write it is like sifting through the muck, arranging it in a way that makes sense.

This is the fun part to writing--okay, I'll be honest, I love all aspects to writing.  From the idea and all the way to hitting the publish button, it's fun.  Even when I have to sift through the muck that's in my own head, I take it as a challenge.

Training Grounds has been a bit of a challenge in and of itself, for I have already written four novels in the Central Division Series, and this book occurs right after book 1.  Kind of a book 1.5 if you will.  I had to re-read Beholder's Eye to get a feel for what happened.  That was also enjoyable.

I am currently over 10,000 words into the story.  Not quite sure if I can see the end yet.  I know where and how it'll end, but the route is always interesting.

In a final note, yesterday was the release date for Strange Birth: Book One in the Repel Trilogy.  Here is a link for all of the e-retailers.