End of the Year? End of a Print Run!

I'm making some big changes!

Sorry if this is a wonky-looking post, but I've been trying to send it as a newsletter and it appears to have failed.So I'm posting this news here.

I've got some BIG NEWS that's actually kind of bittersweet.

I'm taking MOST of my books off sale at the end of this year.

I've come to the tough decision that I need to relaunch the books with new covers, and a new series name. While I love the existing covers, they don't quite capture what the books are about, and if I want to reach more awesome readers like you, I'm going to have to fine tune my brand. 

What does this mean to you?

Well, it means that any paperbacks with the current covers I have in stock are going to be on sale for a serious discount. Basically my cost, plus postage. And who knows? These might become collector's items someday. 

So check out my eStore and order your copies today. Once they're gone, they're gone - so don't miss out.

I've also discounted ALL eBooks to 99¢ from now until they go off sale. When they come back with the new covers, they won't be this cheap!

Shop the SALE Now!

Here's a partial peek at the new cover for Last Shot at Justice.
If you want a bigger sneak peek of what the new covers look like, head over to my website and see if you can find the "easter egg" - that's a graphic that seems a little out of place, and is really a link to a secret page that has TWO of the new covers on it.

Writer’s Conference = Productivity!

It’s a beautiful day outside the window of my writing cave. I wish I had gone for a bike ride instead of driving to the gym to work out, but let’s face it. It wasn’t this nice when my schedule dictated I head to the gym. 

What? you say. Kristi with a schedule? How bizarre. Tell me about it.

Last weekend I went to the 21^st Annual South Coast Writer’s Conference in Gold Beach. As usual. (I’ve only missed 5 of the 21, I think.) This year I got a lot of bang for my buck. Not that I don’t normally, but this year they had some great speakers on topics I really needed to hear about if I am going to take a proper crack at writing full time.

Managed to get SOME time on the beach!

I spent Friday in an all-day intensive workshop about the serious business of writing, facilitated by Jason Brick. One of many things he taught that really resonated with me is, “The more you don’t want to have a schedule, the more you need one.”

Sigh. So, here I am. Writing a blog post because it is on my newly developed schedule. But you know what, instead of resenting it and fighting it, I’m actually enjoying the process. This is coming off as more “stream of consciousness” writing, but that is part of the plan, too. 

Another presenter, Eric Witchey, taught that there are no wrong ideas. Or more precisely, the only wrong idea in writing is the one that never gets written down.

I came away with so many wonderful tools. Like how to use a Pomodoro timer to focus on my writing. To me it is comparable to what I learned in a 12 Step program: You can do for 30 minutes what you can’t imagine doing all day. Then you take a break and start the timer again. In this way you train yourself to focus and cut out the distractions.

Another tool is also courtesy of Mr. Witchey. Use a metronome to trigger ideas. Train yourself that with every tock of the metronome you come up with one idea – this is great for the brainstorming stage of writing. Each idea may be more wild and outrageous than the last, but something in that maelstrom of ideas will be the perfect torture to put my characters through. 

I anticipate not spending quite so long pondering plot points, but rather coming up with more gut wrenching plots for your entertainment. My goal for the future is to not just entertain you with my stories, but really affect you with them. It’s time to move beyond the fluff, the mind-candy, and make some seriously memorable fiction you’ll want to read again and again.

Part of my new schedule is a promise to myself, and to anyone who does me the honor of following me, to faithfully write a blog post every Wednesday, and to post a newsletter on the first Saturday of each month. I tend to worry about producing content that people will find interesting, but with these new tools, I’m confident I can entertain you. Yes. Confident. Really.

And what do you know—now it's raining! This is all I have for today, but I will surely expand on it for the Newsletter, so keep your eyes open for it. You can sign up on my website - or visit the page to see it posted. I will also post a link to it here in the Bounded in a Nutshell blog.

Until then... Thrive, my friends.

On the Question of Re-Releasing a Book with a New Title

When I wrote Blinding Justice, I wrote it as a standalone novel. It wasn't until after I had published that people began to ask me if there would be any more stories, particularly about Blue's family. 

That got my creative juices flowing, and here I am nearly two years later with a whole slew of ideas for books, and Book 2 just about ready to release. (Valentine's Day 2015!)

I started to consider a title for the series, and I couldn't let go of the idea of "The Boys of Syracuse, Kansas" as a nod to The Bard. (Not that my works are necessarily Shakespearean, more that I respect his work, and the moniker struck a chord.)  But what about each individual book? Should I link the titles in some clever way, à la Evanovich or Robb?

When I began to consider names for Book 2, the title "Last Second Chance" really resonated for me. Tim, the hero, is nearly at the end of his rope, and all he can hope for is one last 'second chance' to get his life right. My heart went out to this brooding ex-con with a newly minted heart of gold.

With no small measure of consideration, I decided that each book would feature the word "Last" in the title, and that meant I needed to change Blinding Justice—which I kind of had to stretch to make work in the first place. Eventually, with Dana's help, I landed on "Last Shot at Justice", and we redesigned the cover to fit the series concept.

I hope you find this glimpse into my decision-making process interesting. It is by no means a small thing to make such a change as the marketing ramifications are far reaching, but I hope the record will show that the new concept is a solid step in the right direction.

Thanks for reading!

On Welcoming My Hubby Home

My husband is a truck driver -- so am I in the summer -- but he runs solo in the winter so I can (theoretically) stay home and write. This winter I did more proofing for customers than I did writing.

Anyway, after 3 months away, he came home Friday morning, the day after our 9th anniversary, and I went from basically living a single woman's life to living married overnight. It's an adjustment to have him home again.

I love my husband, and I often say our current arrangement is the best of all worlds for a introvert like myself. For 8 months of the year, we are together 24/7, crossing the country, spending time and seeing the sights, and making money. The other 4 months he gets to run solo and be a free spirit, and I get to be a homebody and recharge so I'm ready to go again in the spring.

But the initial time spent when he comes home is always an adjustment. I go from staying up into the wee hours of the morning, working in silence in the front room, and getting up at my leisure, to having the TV on every waking moment, running errands with him, getting called upon to rub his neck, back or feet, and basically not having any time to get into work mode for proofing, much less writing.

I don't want to make it sound like I'm spending all of my time slaving for him -- he will often make dinner and serve me, and we do things together like shopping, etc. We went to the beach to celebrate our anniversary, and stopped in at the casino on the way. But it is an adjustment to now spend time doing things someone else wants to do.

My hubby doesn't understand about my writing process. He thinks I should be able to just sit down and type immediately, and set it down at any suggestion and pick it right back up. He doesn't understand that I have to work into it, get the words flowing, and that any interruption is a setback. Even now, he wants to put his foot in my lap so I can rub it. (He apparently got bit by something when we were doing yard work yesterday, and he thinks a massage will help.) Of course, I had just started getting into the groove of writing this post.

I didn't set out to moan about my hubby with this post. My intention was to speak to how much of an adjustment it is to have him home.

Another week and we'll be back on the road, and I will settle in to being a truck driver first, and author/proofreader second. And it will be fine. Really.

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