Getting Ready For A New Book

At the end of a rather stressful summer, it was time to face some facts about my published ebooks. Frankly, for some reason, readership has been less than stellar. I'm really not sure if the reality is that I was taking too long between publications, or if it was something else.  Like marketing.

Argh.

Trying to break into an established novel genre, like romance, even in the indie market is difficult. There's a lot of people out there trying to do the same, and trying to break through all the barriers put up to be sure material that publishing houses would most likely reject actually reaches the readers. (Like clean romance that many readers prefer over books with soft porn scenes.)

And so, I'm investing time in learning how to get the word out. This is not as easy as it looks.

In the meantime, "Talk Dirty to Me" is the first book in the second half of the "Turn My Head" Series. Here's the blurb that will appear at the beginning of the book when it is published right after Labor Day.

Welcome to the second half of the “Turn My Head” series!

In the first six books, we meet a family of seven amazingly hot, and wealthy brothers – and their brides – the Pernouds. The boys all inherited the family trait of falling in love forever at first sight, a phenomenon known as “head turning” in their family.

Along the way in the first six installments of this series, we meet several friends and in-laws who have just as muxed up lives as every other human family out there. In the second half, we get to know Ryan Fallon, Josie Miller, Mickey Dolan, and his southern belle, Tara McKenzie. Sean Dolan capitulates on pursuing Marianne Drummond, and her big brother Linus and Sean and Mickey’s sister Maureen spend a lot of time dancing the night away.

Along the way, Gabriel Pernoud and Alicia Drummond FINALLY get married, but not without massive Drummond family drama better suited for the stage than a wedding. Picking up the rear, is a Pernoud cousin, Declan Collins, whose head turner slapped him across the face when he approached her. She was attached at the time, but is no longer.

Watch for the next installments of the Turn My Head series – the brainchild of this author and the product of her hard work, imagination, and observations of human behavior over the years – at this ebook retailer.

For updates, news, and the occasional snippet of upcoming installments, follow my facebook page at www.facebook.com/PatriciaHoldenAuthor.

The first six books of the Turn My Head series are:

1. Turn My Head – Adam Pernoud and Mae Jones
2. Break Through – Ben Pernoud and Darcy Platt
3. Third Time’s the Charm – Christian Pernoud and Sarah Jane Rappaport
4. Conflict of Interest - Damian Pernoud and Margot Dolan
5. Romeo Night – Ed Pernoud and Beth Hartke
6. Last Man Standing – Francis Pernoud and Rosemary Fallon

Permission to Relax

One of the hardest aspects of transitioning from office work, chasing after kids, staying up on current events so as to be an effective blogger, etc., to almost a pure artist in terms of writing, music, and crochet, is learning to relax. Well, not so much relax, but learning to shut down and do nothing as a means of recharging the creative batteries.

I'm lucky enough to live in a hidden gem of a city where we have world class cultural institutions and amenities accessible year round thanks to them being on a tax base. Truly, taking advantage of the proximity is something I enjoy. However, escaping the guilt of living in a society where work is often placed above family and God - let alone mental health and natural stress relief - is much harder. Just sitting at the pool and watching people I've known for decades sunning themselves is a challenge.

After a challenging summer, that is where I find myself. I need to finish up a book, and get it published, but am only good for editing for about an hour and half. Composing I can last longer, and frequently do, but an hour and a half of work in a day?  Huh? I'm an American. How is that possible? So many people here are fond of saying "if you don't work, you don't eat."

Well, in writing, some realities just have to be worked around, and is something I have to reconcile, just like only being able to sing for so long before the voice and the rest of the body needs rest. The brain and the creative juices need it too.

And I have to take it. It's a learned skill in a family of people who have a tendency not to stop.

That's where I am. Learning to make a schedule that includes rest and relaxation as part of the work cycle.

News:

I started sketching out Alicia and Gabriel's story today. Will begin composing when I have "Talk Dirty to Me" published, and Draft 2 of "High Maintenance" in the can.

Draft 3 of "Talk Dirty to Me" should be done within the next week. Looking at the second week of September or so to publish depending on Draft 4.

Sketching

Now that life is back to normal, whatever that is, and this writer is back home and working after over two months of chaos, work has taken a new path.

My sister and I were chatting about, of all people, Jo Rowling and how impressive it was that in her seven tomes - and those last four were tomes - of the Harry Potter series, there was not one plot inconsistency. Being a pop culture junkie, my sister said, that's because she had the whole series sketched out before she started with detailed character studies. (Sis actually read up on this.)

Well, of course it is, because that is the way we are supposed to write fiction, right?

Yeah, some of us started our fiction writing careers by flying by the seat of our pants and making it up as we went along. The problem with that is that at certain points of the writing process, I had to go back and fix plot points before publishing, especially in book 6. After a while, all the details start getting confused, and things like how someone died change.

Hence, writing it all down.

So, now that my task is editing book 7 (Talk Dirty to Me) so that I can publish it soon, what do I spend an hour doing? Sketching out the ideas for the next series which won't see publication until 2019. See, I've only got three more first drafts to write in the Turn My Head Series, and I was fretting about which way to go next.

A page and a half of notes later, I now know the answer. The second series will need some time to sketch out and incubate, and hopefully will have some different issues in American life and dating surface. Finding the right person really can be difficult, and sometimes, the right person falls in your lap.

Back to Talk Dirty to Me, and Ryan Fallon and Josie Miller. How long can they talk a good game before actually giving in? Everyone will find out soon!

Turn My Head Series

Book 1 - Turn My Head (Adam and Mae)
Book 2 - Break Through (Ben and Darcy)
Book 3 - Third Time's the Charm (Christian and Sarah Jane)
Book 4 - Conflict of Interest (Damian and Margot)
Book 5 - Romeo Night (Ed and Beth)
Book 6 - Last Man Standing (Francis and Rosemary)

In production

Book 7 - Talk Dirty to Me (Ryan and Josie)
Book 8 - High Maintenance (Mickey Dolan and Tara McKenzie, a new character)
Book 9 - No Way Out (Sean Dolan and Marianne Drummond)

3 more will follow.

Real Life May End Up In A Book

This writer is very fond of a saying: "Careful or you'll end up in my novel."

Funny thing that, when it comes to making sure that readers can relate to characters and what happens to them, everyday experiences and real life situations work well for demonstrative purposes.

Take the summer of 2017, for example. In this writer's family, a sibling had to have some pretty major heart surgery, so all the rest of us pitched in. Yours truly did probably more than her fair share, but being the one working from home, that was just the way it had to be.

And then, the favorite son arrived for his two weeks at the homestead.

Now, there are those who will say, oh, come on, there isn't a favorite son...you have to see the tail feather and peed on fire hydrants to understand.

So, anyway, this one walks in the front door and does something that is a massive pet peeve among the women in the family: he decided to do our laundry, and put stuff in the drier that doesn't go in the drier. Then, on a Friday, towels only used once went to the laundry area. Towels are washed on Tuesdays. This has been a schedule in the house since the old man retired and took on that job. Aluminum pans and wood handled knives were run through the dishwasher...not describing how things ended up in the kitchen cabinets.

And, of course, there was a problem with us not having a microwave.

Essentially, as usual, this brother walked in the door and started to rearrange the furniture. Again.

Ticks us off.

This is the sort of behavior that ends up in novels. It's not the crazy stuff so much, but what pushes buttons. And doing my laundry wrong pushes my buttons.