Progress is being made

I have officially completed the rough draft of Young Mutants i Love, and I'm excited to go back and see what I think of it. That's the scary part for me, worrying that I won't like it as much when I go back to it.

Cherry Wood is in good position, but I need to do more to promote it and get the word out. I really am terrible about that part of things, and I just need to do more about it.

A book is never truly done

No matter how much you work on your book, it is always going to have points and places that you could make better. I just finished another edit of my first book, Cherry Wood, and now it's a matter of waiting on Create Space to update the files.

It is hard to accept that you didn't get it perfect sometimes, but try to remember that everyone faces the need for revision. Don't take that as a negative, but as an opportunity to make your book even better.

Book Trailers are cool

Book trailers are one of the new ways to promote your book. They can be a great way to convey the mood and story of your book. I 've been wanting to put one together for Cherry Wood, but I haven't had time or the knowledge to make it work for me. Fortunately, I have a friend that is trying to start up a promotional business for writers. She made this trailer for Cherry Wood, and I think it works great to get the message of the story out there.


Check out http://www.puddingtane.com/ if you are interested in getting a trailer made for your book, or other promotional services.

Win a free copy of Cherry Wood

My news isn't as exciting as it was going to be because I got a better suggestion for later this month, but I do have something for everyone.

I'll be doing a give away of a free copy of Cherry Wood this week. How do you enter? It's very simple:

Sign up for my mailing list by sending a message to lockheed40book@gmail.com.
Wait and see who wins.

It's a simple as that. The winner will receive an email requesting mailing information.

Promotion is hard when you don't like to put yourself out there.

Having written a book feels great, I can't deny that. I'm glad that I decided to take the self publishing route because I don't want to deal with all the submissions and waiting. I'm more than happy to have Cherry Wood out there for people to see and read. (I'm also looking forward to getting Young Mutants in Love ready to go.)

The hardest part for me so far has been self promotion. I want people to read my book, and hopefully love it, but I don't want to tell people to read it. It's a complicated conundrum. I'm not sure if I have what it takes to make this work, but I'm going to work on it.

Read my book, it's awesome.

Hopefully that helps.

Cherry Wood is free on Kindle today!

You know you want to read it, and why not read it for free? Kindle Select allows it's authors to have 5 free days during the 90 days they are required to stick with Kindle. My first one is today. Go to Amazon to check it out.

Cherry Wood

Selling your first book feels great

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CJ4NPX4

You can't blame me for wanting to put a link to Cherry Wood at the top of this post. I want everyone to buy it after all. I put my book on Kindle on the 25th of April, and the print copy is also now available. I've had 3 confirmed sales so far. I know all of them personally, but that's OK.

It was a really great feeling to open up the sales tracker and see that little #1 sitting there looking at me. I think that was the moment that I truly felt like a writer. I don't know if I really needed anyone to give me confirmation, but it was nice even so.

I'm about to send an email to the Store Marketing Specialist for the Whole Foods store just down the road about arranging a book signing. Hopefully that works out.

The cover for Cherry Wood

I make business cards to promote my book.

Cherry Wood-Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Will took a deep breath and savored the scent of ripening cherries. This only added to the regret he was feeling over his upcoming departure. Will wouldn’t miss this orchard, there were plenty of others out there just like the one owned by Harold Wallace, but he enjoyed the men and women he’d had for companions over the last six months. 

He sat on the Wallace’s porch with his feet propped up on the railing. This wasn’t the job he wanted. Well, he wasn’t going to complain about getting the day off, but he knew that this change in plans meant it was time to leave again. Will picked up his laptop and started checking his emails. There were the usual assortment of junk mails and a few job offers in the mix, but he deleted all of them. He stopped for a moment to look over the message from his mother.

It was the usual message. “Where are you? When are you coming home? You could at least call, or write back. Do you know what you’re putting your Father through?”

There was more, but Will deleted it before he got upset. It might have been different if she would write something new, but it was the same email that he’d gotten a hundred times before. She didn’t understand the choices he’d made with his life, and as a result, she didn’t get a response from him.

This was the least active last day of work that Will had ever had. His boss didn’t even know that Will was going to leave at the end of the day, but it was time to get out. Will hadn’t come to California to sit on a porch drinking pink lemonade and playing on the computer. There was a little bit more to the job, but waiting for someone to drive down a dirt road looking to buy antique furniture was truly pointless.

It was even more pointless when you considered that there hadn’t been a single car that drove past the main house in the four hours that had passed since Will started. This wasn’t a public road.

Just as Will was thinking this, he noticed that there was a cloud of dust heading his way.

At first, he couldn’t make out what kind of car it was because of all the dust. Will thought about leaving a note for Wallace that the road could use some maintenance, but then Wallace wouldn’t bother to do anything about it. Besides, how many cars drove on this road?

Despite his expectations, the car started to slow down as it approached the house. Will set down his glass of lemonade and his laptop, then he stood up with his hands on the railing in order to get a better look at whoever was driving the bright red ’72 Oldsmobile Station Wagon that was pulling up to the house.

The driver-side window rolled down and a woman’s hand with bright red nails reached out of the window and opened the door. The driver stepped out of the car. She was quite tall for a girl which was something that Will appreciated. She had long blonde hair that had massive curl, and fell down below her shoulders. Her outfit was distracting because she was dressed like a colorblind gypsy. The long skirt and long-sleeved red top were fine, but it was the layers of clothes on top of them each with its own strange pattern and colors that were an issue. She was pretty, but Will just wasn’t sure what she was trying to accomplish with her outfit.

“Can you tell me where I am?” the girl asked breaking Will out of his train of thought.

“This is the Wallace farm,” Will replied.

“That doesn’t help me at all,” she answered back. “I’m trying to get back to the city.”

“I’m afraid you’re going the wrong way then.” Will said. “If you go back the way you just came, and just keep driving straight for about 15 miles, you’ll find the main road again.”

“I guess I got a little more lost than I thought,” she said with a big smile.

Will took a moment to enjoy her smile and the beautiful brown eyes that looked at him. “Can I offer you a drink before you take off?”

“I could use a drink, but I’m going to be driving so I guess I should say no.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Will said with a wink. “My boss doesn’t drink alcohol so the strongest thing I can offer you is some lemonade.”

“I guess I can handle that,” she laughed. “So what are you doing here on the porch in the middle of the day? Doesn’t your boss have something for you to do?”

Will walked up to the porch and poured the girl a glass of lemonade. “It’s a long story, but I guess he’s decided that I’m more valuable here on the porch than out working in the fields today. There is more than just sitting and drinking lemonade though.”

“Really?” she asked with mock surprise. “What more could he possibly ask you to do?”

Will pointed to two chairs by the side of the road. “My extremely important task is to sell this furniture. Impressive isn’t it?”

The girl walked over to look at the two chairs that were there by the road. Will sat down in one of them and invited her to take the seat next to him.

“These are some exquisite chairs,” she said taking a seat.

“Yes, the Queen Anne style is quite nice,” Will replied. “They have been made since the 18^th century. These chairs aren’t quite that old, but I would guess that they are least a hundred years old.”

“So, what are you looking to get for them?”

“I don’t care.” Will answered. “I’m pretty much done here, and I’ll be moving on tonight. I’ll take whatever you want to offer.”

“Do you like cherries?” she asked.

“Cherries?” he queried in return.

“Yes, cherries, I just happen to have a couple of baskets of cherries I was hoping to sell out of the back of my car until I got a little lost earlier today.”

“Two baskets of cherries exchanged for two chairs made out of cherry?” Will pondered. “I think we can make that work.”

“Are you serious?” the girl asked.

“Sure, I’ll even help you load them up in your car.”

“Any chance you’ll help me unload them too?” she asked with a playful grin.

Will thought for a minute. “I don’t even know your name. What’s in it for me?”

The girl smiled. “I don’t know your name either.”

“I’m Will, and you are?”

“Maybe I’ll tell you tonight when you stop by to help me with these chairs.”

Will laughed as he agreed. They unloaded the cherries and loaded up the chairs. Will took the address to her house and walked back to his room to pack. There wasn’t any point in staying and it was time to move on anyway.

Will loaded up his few possessions and made his way to her house to move some chairs.

Putting My Name Out There.

I've started down the path to self publishing. I didn't even bother with traditional publishers because I didn't want to waste all of that time and money when I could focus on writing my next book instead.

So would you like to hear about my current projects that are at the front of my mind? Awesome sauce.

Cherry Wood (Available May 1)

Let me just share what I have written for the back cover since I always trip over the explanation trying to avoid spoilers.

What happens when two strangers who are running away from their past meet? What if their pasts overlap in unexpected ways?

Will- went to an outstanding college and got an MBA and a high-paying job and one day left it all behind because his grandfather taught him to “never have a job you can’t walk away from.” He left his rich family, his girlfriend, and his job without a word or a second thought. After twelve years as a migrant farmer, perhaps he has found a reason to stick around.

Patri- an artist and a free spirit, Patri has been running and hiding for the past decade. She isn’t open with her secrets or her trust, but there is something about Will Staige that convinces her to take a chance.

There comes a time when you have to stop running away from your past, and move toward something. Have Will and Patri found that time together?

Young Mutants in Love (Hopefully ready by October 1)

What if a young man and a young woman saw something in the sky while they were holding hands during an Astronomy lab? What if what they saw changed them? (For example, they wake up the next morning looking like your typical superheroes.) What if they discovered that when they hold hands they can not only switch bodies, but also gain super powers?

That's the premise behind Young Mutants in Love.

To that mix, you can also insert an evil villain that can turn normally benign creatures into monsters, and a strange group of men in grey track suits, and you've got an exciting story on your hands.