The Email

If you have received an email regarding this blog and how my website is a pain in the butt, then WELCOME!

What I forgot to add in the email was if you'd like me to update you on new book info and the sorts, just post a comment at the bottom of this entry and I'll add it to my contacts in my email. Apparently, there is also a subscribe by email at the end of the post. It's bright blue! And you have to be a blogger or Google member to do it. I won't add members from my other website without you adding a post. If you're not from my old website and you're concerned about putting your email down where others can see it, then go to the About Me on the sidebar and send me your email address. You can see my whole profile and interests there.

Also, if you'd like an email for every post I put up I can add that as well, but only if you'd like;) If you don't get a chance to really explore the sidebar there are some links to the other blogs I have (one for each book) and you can join those as well or just get info from this main page. Please see the links below if you're pressed for time or just too lazy to look:

The Vernore Gene

The Lyon's Key

Thanks for visiting and don't forget to post a comment!

It's Never Too Late

I realize that it's been over a month since Cancon, but I never got to write about my first book signing experience. It was held at the Inn on the Lake in Canandaigua, NY on Oct. 18th 2009. This event was the first EVER comic book convention held in Canandaigua (in case you couldn't tell that from the picture.) I'd never been to any comic conventions before so I didn't have a lot of expectations when going into this.

First of all, I was surprised at the turn out. So many people were there and the stream of people lasted from 11 to 4. The show ended at 5, but the last hour was basically a win-your-raffle-drawing-and-get-out hour. People looked like they had a lot of fun and got a lot of cool stuff.

Since I had no real expectations, I wasn't concerned about selling-out of The Vernore Gene or having too many. I did sell a few which was reassuring, but no where near the extent to which my neighboring table did. I got the word out which is the first step and that means a lot to me. Once I got home, I checked my website status and found that I had a sharp increase in hits. I attribute that to now many business cards were distributed.

I spoke to a lot of patrons about what The Vernore Gene was all about and everyone seemed generally interested. Part of my problem may have been that my neighbor's table was marketed toward small children and mine was for teens and up. Some parents asked if it would be good for a 7 year-old. I still advocate that every child's maturity is different, but I would not want a parent upset with me over something that their child reads. I attest that The Vernore Gene is still better than some kids TV shows.

Overall, I would love to do another book signing. I still stumble over my pitch to my potential readers and I think I'd have a better sell rate if I could offer The Vernore Gene in paperback. Which I will do once Book 2 is closer. So, Thank you, Mike for asking me to do this. I would definitely do it again!

WIP (And not the long leather Dominatrix kind, either)

WIP is shorthand for Work in Progress, in case you're wondering.


I feel like I'm constantly being asked how my progress is on the second book of Shadow Reign Chronicles. My answer is always the same:


"Not as far as I'd like to be."


I started writing the second book, which I'm calling TAR until I'm completely happy with the title, and I won't be until either my progress is further or until I've finished it (I'm not telling you what TAR stands for, so don't ask.) and I only completed the first three chapters the same day I finished The Vernore Gene (VG). On Sunday, 9/13/09 I had a sudden brainstorm so I wrote a chapter without a place to put it yet. I call it my prologue but we'll see if it actually goes there.


I was interrupted of my work by an idea sparked by Norse mythology which I stared an outline for and wrote almost half of it just in Feb. I was sure it would be finished in April, but it took a turn I didn't expect and then reread and felt it just wasn't working the way I wanted it to. I plan to rewrite it when I'm ready to look back on that idea. In that story, I love no character more than the one that would be me--if I were a boy. I asked some friends while writing it if it was strange that I wrote as a boy and how I felt about a certain girl. I think a lot of people just said "no" to keep me happy. I don't think they understood that even if they said it was weird, I couldn't care less.


Then I read my first Manga book and a new story sparked into my head. I have been working on The Lyon's Key (TLK) since Feb. (which is when TLK took over the Norse myth story) and now I'm done with the first draft. My goal was to finish the first draft by my birthday which come sooner than expected. Uhg! (oct 12)


I also played with the title for TLK in my head and think about changing it all the time. I did this also with VG when I was almost done. I wondered if it would be better as something else or if what I called it would be intriguing enough. Now I'm so happy I stuck with it. And though I love the cover it's causing me grief about what to do with the next books cover. I want to keep with the jungle theme but I keep telling myself I'll know better once I finish or at least make a bigger dent in the second book.


Working on a cover for TAR though has helped me to stay on track and to keep thinking about the characters and story line for book 2. I keep thinking about the issues that I need to resolve and the "Family" quirks from the first book. I'm juggling so much in my head I want the right character to stay in the right frame of mind and it scares me that I might mess up when jumping between two completely different books.


Having explained all this to my family thousands of times, I found that I had to use similes. This was fun.


"I wrote 24 (VG) and immediately started 24-2 (TAR) but got distracted by writing The Cosby Show (Norse myth) but The Cosby Show took a turn for the worse and the idea for Lost (TLK) jumped into my head and I've spent so much time and have had such a good time with Lost that I haven't had a lot of time until recently to put 24-2 back in my head. So once Lost is satisfactorily out of my head I won't fully return to 24-2 until then."


Wish me luck.

A New Way to Site My Work

My old website has been... well, to be polite about it, A JERK! I decided that I can get the word out about my books just as easily with a blog (seeing how this is the new trend.) Since I'm broke, I can't just easily throw money around on a webhost or sitebuilder so I figure I might as well talk about what's going on in this head of mine. If you're curious about the old stuff or want to see what I don't have set up here on this Blog then, by all means, please feel free to check out the link under the title of this first entry.

Now, on to my first book, The Vernore Gene. It's been getting some good reviews on Goodreads.com (one of my favorite sites) and with time I'll have more and who knows, perhaps a well known author will want to read it and I'll be thrilled! As for the pitfalls of self-publishing this book, I am still very unhappy about the price I've had to deal with. Again, another reason for going to my "old" website and buying from there which is cheaper than Amazon.com or Lulu.com. A plus is that the Ebook is a great price.

For those of you who have read it or follow my fansite on Facebook (third reason for checking out my "old" website), you will know that I am working on the sequel but I've finished another unrelated book called, The Lyon's Key. Working on that is harder than expected. Talk about a part-time which doesn't pay with more than fun-times and good intentions.

And lastly, I've written a children's book which I'm calling Friendship Cheese and my illustrator/husband is drawing the pictures. I don't want to give away too much, but it's cute and in my opinion teaches kids a valuable lesson about making friends.

Thanks for looking at my new attempt at information trafficking and hopefully a better investment of my time than my "old" website.