My first novel – historical military fiction – made it to the top 10 of 9 of Amazon's bestseller lists. Via my blog I share what I have learned while writing two more.
Just on one of my favorite biking videos. It has been an intense 9 months with family and job. Now trying to ramp up my miles again, not to mention get Lonely Hunter published.
I’m a long way from what these guys do, but a beautifully shot and produced short video about the personal battle that road biking always is (kind of like writing 😉 ).
Enjoy!
Think the success of the great novel you are working on is all about the writing? Think again if you want to have a successful book launch.
BookBaby has published the results of a survey which they describe as such: “The 2017 Self-Publishing Survey conducted by BookBaby was focused specifically on revealing the most successful book marketing and promotional strategies for self-publishers. The 56-questions survey targeted two subgroups: authors who have published at least one book (either self-published, traditionally published, or both), and aspiring authors who have not yet published a book. The online survey was conducted between October 24, 2016 – November 28, 2016, and was completed by 7,677 aspiring and published authors.”
Our home is full of great books. Though I’m the writer, my wife is far better read and has by far the bigger collection of great literature. One of her favorites has long been Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Her love of Little Women has been reinforced because we have four daughters.
One of our daughters found my wife’s battered, tattered and beloved copy the other day, and it happened when a camera was handy…
Like mother, like daughter(s).
After Little Women, she read Orwell’s 1984.
Like father, like daughter. 😉
Aliens has long been one of my favorite Sci Fi movies. It is not great movie making, and it is not great Science Fiction. But it is a great action flick with lots of worthy special effects and various thrills. There is more than that, though, and it comes to a head when Ripley shouts out at the alien: “Get away from her you bitch!”
One of my daughters was given a scholarship to help fund her education in Art (medical illustration) by the art community of Spicewood, Texas. Spicewood is a small town southwest of Austin’s southwestern suburbs, so definitely out in the country. They asked her to join in their 4th of July celebration, so our entire family went. We cheered for the parade and then went to the community grounds where ~300 of us enjoyed hot dogs and cokes and a local band performing old favorites intermixed with short speeches. Near the start, a young woman tried to sing the national anthem. It did not start well.
Six weeks ago I was on the verge of sending my manuscript to my editor, but I had a few interruptions: My older twin daughters (yes, we have two sets of twins) graduated from high school and we had to visit the colleges they are going to for orientations, we moved to a new house (which was a ton of physical work, and I aggravated an old collarbone injury), my boss (and friend) was fired and I’ve taken on a bigger role at work, and my wife and I have both had to travel for various other reasons.
I saw some of this coming, so I decided to take advantage of the pause to have two more beta readers go through the manuscript. Both are accomplished readers with keen and critical eyes, and both are preparing to publish their first novels. I finally had some time today to look at their feedback in detail…
One of my 18-year-olds was the captain of her varsity soccer team and is a regular at the local cross-fit gym. She convinced me to join her on her first Spartan Sprint. At times it felt like an Army obstacle course, which I have not done in more than a few years. My train-up was less than rigorous, but we got it done without any injuries and without too much soreness.
Continue reading “Some days it is not about writing: Our first Spartan Sprint!”
Just wanted to let everyone know I’m giving away a KindleFire. You will also get an ARC (Advanced Review Copy) in a few months of my forthcoming military science fiction novel, Lonely Hunter. I expect to publish it later this summer. When you enter to win the Kindle Fire, be sure to forward the link to your friends to increase your chances of winning.
Every blogger wants their site to move up in the rankings. So I was very excited to see that according to Alexa Rank (per their site) my writing blog has cracked the top 200,000 in the US and simultaneously broke into the top 1,000,000 worldwide. There are a lot of blog rank checkers, but Alexa rank checker is arguably the most authoritative. I’m still a long way from the front of the pack but doing far better than most websites, especially as an author platform. How did I do it?