It took a little longer than I thought but hey, life called. I did in fact finish Tamed. It's not on Smashwords yet but will be before the end of the day, barring disaster or a downed internet connection. Duty calls and the job that pays the bills gets first priority for the moment. Yeah, I've got to go to work but I'll get Tamed uploaded before the day is over.
Firday Nights is the first story to be available at iTunes. It's my understanding that they manually check erotica titles to make sure they meet their standards - subject matter must be legal and must involve consenting adults. I know that Surrender and Unbound are both there but so far have not been made available for purchase.
Tamed is nearly finished. I know, I've said that at least once before but it really is. It just takes so damned long to edit. Have I mentioned that I'm have tendencies toward OCD? I obsess sometimes about errors I might have missed and I know it doesn't change anything. Truly, after you've read your own work a hundred times, you know the story and you tend to see what you meant for it to say and not what it actually says. In my real job, I write a great deal of correspondence and have to be extremely patient when proofing or I'll do the same thing there. So yes, Tamed will be done this weekend. One way or another. I cannot tell you for certain when it will be published. Not today I don't think but maybe tomorrow or at worst, Monday. I'll let you know. Casey I know I've mentioned that I read a lot. I probably have enough money invested in books that I could have bought at least one more home. I ran out of room for all of the physical editions so I now buy primarily ebooks. Since I just mentioned that I don't normally review books, I decided to start letting people know when I read something I like. I don't discriminate. I read different kinds of stories all the time. It makes no difference to me if it's an established author or a new author, whether the book cost $10 or if it was free. I read whatever catches my eye as long as it's not garbage or filled with some religious message detailing god's plan. I quickly delete those. So...what I read last night was Needing Nita by Norah Wilson. You can find it right now for free on Amazon. As much as Amazon frustrates me as an author, it's still where I pick up most of my books. Regardless, this is not a new book and you may have already read it. If you haven't, it's worth the time to read it. I enjoyed it. It's one that I would gladly pay for and it will eventually lead me to buy the author's other stories when I'm looking for something else to read. Since I can finish a novel in a day (even when I have ten other things to do), I'm always looking for something new to read. I'm the person who reads while walking down the street, fixing dinner, or half a dozen other tasks. Needing Nita is short but sometimes short is what I'm looking for. It made a great bedtime story.
If you have a recommendation, feel free to share. Yes, I'd much prefer people read my books but I'm not going to hold it against them if they don't. Not to mention that I don't want to read my own stuff. I know how it all ends and I haven't forgotten yet. So, I need new things to read too. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. Casey You know, I tried to let this go. I really did. It's just been sitting there, gnawing at me. At the risk of offending those who frequent those forums, I just feel compelled to share. First, let me say, I do not participate in their discussions. I find no reason to stick my two cents in so that someone can turn around and pounce on me. Frankly I have better things to do. I can assure you, the forums are not for the feint of heart. The discussions I've seen are controlled primarily by people who come across as pompous, arrogant, and frequently rude. They are extremely clickish and do in fact remind me of schoolyard bullies. They jump on people who are new to the posts and they encourage and applaud each other. Having said that, I can tell you that I occasionally see a thread that catches my eye and curious person that I am, I will take a minute to see if I can figure out the topic. There have been two of those lately. The first was one on authors who review their own books, get friends or family to review them or possibly pay people to review them. Since this is a subject that has been on my mind lately, I wanted to check it out. What I found were posts by many of the same names I've seen in the past and they were discussing how they can tell which authors had fake reviews. It appeared that they go to a great deal of trouble to make these determinations, basing them on things such as the reviewers, how many reviews they have, how many total reviews a book has, whether they're all five stars, etc. Huh? Who has time for this? Wouldn't it just be simpler to read the sample? What about the new author that has two great reviews? Would this author automatically be condemned for having two five star reviews? I personally, wouldn't want to be responsible for falsely accusing someone of writing their own reviews. Yes, I know it's done but I'd like to believe it's fairly rare. I personally don't usually leave reviews unless I've read something that no one else has reviewed and I really liked it. I don't base my own decisions on a book's reviews because what I like, others may hate. I've read books with fifty or sixty good reviews that I really didn't like. I always read the sample and make my own decision. But, for authors who are trying to get started, who have written a good story, I will tell whether or not I loved it or hated it. I won't critique the book because I don't want to unduly influence someone else. This is just my personal take on book reviews.
Now, a day or two after I abandoned the discussion about the reviews, I came across one where they were asking whether or not what they posted constituted cyber bullying. Well, duh? Truly, if you have not read any of these posts, check them out. You can debate the definition of cyber bullies all day long and it won't change the fact that if your posts are cruel, sarcastic, and hateful, and only serve to encourage people to tuck their tail and abandon a discussion, then yeah, you are a bully. I don't care what you call yourself. Now I doubt that those same people will lower themselves to the point where they will read my posts, but just in case, I will admit that I don't frequent the forums. I don't read the entire thread. I will read part of it and then abandon it. I'm sure that these same people cannot rule all of the forums. Good god, there are only so many hours in a day and they must devote a fair share of those to the forums but they can't spend all of their time there. Why do I care? I've spent the better part of my life studying human behavior and all I've ever determined for certain is that I still don't understand most of it. However, it does still fascinate me. And... I really don't like bullies. Casey I will readily admit that when it comes to managing the website I'm technologically disabled. I'm learning though. Thanks again V. You're a jewel. I spent my rainy day morning waiting to have my car looked at. Some weird noise and no, they didn't figure out what it was either. I know about as much about cars as I do websites. Ok, maybe less. But, I did manage to get to the three quarters mark on editing Tamed. Nearly there. Any more rain though and I'm gonna be ready to slit my wrists with a dull spoon. I've lost count of how many days in a row it's been gray and wet. I'm a sunshine kind of person who is much more pleasant when it's a hundred degrees. I don't like cold, wet, or gray so winter is not good for me. It tends to darken my mood. If I could just get on my bike for an hour, I'd be better. I tend to manage my writing projects better when I'm in a decent mood. So, even if it's freezing tomorrow and I'm sure it's going to be close, I'm riding my bike. Unless of course it rains again. If it does, I'm getting out the spoon.
Did I get it right? I was advised that I might need to add an email subscription to my blog. Thanks for the advice by the way! Since I spend very little time on the internet and first had to figure out exactly what an email subscription is.... yeah, I'm a little slow sometimes but I've learned to live with it. So... between answering elementary math questions and trying to read about email subscriptions, I think I might have been able to add one at the top of this page. I added something but don't know if I got it right. You know, it's like that damned Facebook Like button. I thought I had it but it resets constantly so if I can't figure it out, I'll be removing it soon. So, if I got this one right, would someone be so kind as to let me know?
Casey Everything is still there but I moved things around a little. Under Casey's ebooks, I've added a drop down menu that links to some of the better known retailers. By the way, as of last night, some of those still had Unbound for free. I made a few other changes but those are self-explanatory. Tamed is nearly finished and I have to say, I really like the main character (Jason) in this one. Hopefully, you will too.
So why do I write the stories that I do? Primarily because I like them. I enjoy a fun, romantic, sexy story. But, I prefer to read them without stopping to try and sort out what the author has said. I also don't want to read stories that sound like they were written by a fifteen year old. And, the whole story can't be sex. I mean really, how many times can a couple have sex in a full length novel? Now if there's a good plot with that novel and the sex happens along the way, great. But if the book is about their sex lives and nothing else, I'll quit reading. Even some of my favorite authors have fallen short on the plotting in their latest novels. And no, I won't mention names. The point is, I find it hard to find the kind of stories I like to read. I've shortened the hell out of my stories and I'm not kidding about that part. I probably cut out two thirds of my original story. It's one reason it takes so long for me to finish a novella. When the basis of the story is about a sexual adventure, I have to cut it short. I'm not going to beat those sex scenes to death. So, I've published the novellas and one "novelette". The third novella is currently being edited and should be done soon. There are two more but I don't know if I'll finish those or not. I guess it depends on whether or not people seem to like the first three. I also have a couple of short stories I'd like to put out there and I'm working on a longer novel. Will I publish it as a novel? I don't know. It depends on how much I cut out. Whatever's left is what I'll publish. So really, I write what I like to read. I want them to be fun and I want you to like them too. If I'm not writing what you like, what's the point? Yes, I'd love to sell a lot of books, quit my real job and do nothing but write for a living but I'm certainly not holding my breath. So, if I'm writing something that people don't enjoy, there really is no point since I've already read my stories.
Casey Well, interesting to me of course. I seem to get a lot more activity and response from Smashwords users than I do from Kindle owners who are relying solely on Amazon. So thank you to those of you who've downloaded through Smashwords. I mean that. And just so you know, Tamed is nearly finished. I'm working hard between that and helping kids with homework. The kids win the battle so I'll finish editing Tamed within the next few days I hope!
Casey I never realized there were so many distinctions. Apparently, the rules are not set in stone but did you know that a Short Story is 7,500 words or less?
I always thought a short story was just that. A story that was short. Apparently Friday nights is a novelette - a story that has between 7,500 and 17,499 words. I guess that would make Surrender at approximately 16,950 words a novelette, although I've classified it as a novella. Unbound fits well within the range for a novella - anything between 17,500 and 40,000 words. Three guesses about the word count for a novel. Yep, anything beyond 40,000. I learn something new nearly every day. Casey | A Word from CaseyLet me know what you think. I'm always open to comments and suggestions! ArchivesApril 2012
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