New Book Ending

I'm working on this one book that I originally wrote way back in high school. The characters were bugging me a few months ago, so I took out the book. It was horrible. Really bad. But, the storyline was good, the characters were good. It just needed a lot of tweaking.

Basically, I grabbed the character's names and personalities and wrote a whole new story, keeping some of the same story. But, now I'm getting to a part where I could go a few different ways with it.

I could keep the original type of ending - happy, predictable.

I could make the ending sad and not so predictable.

I could make the ending not what I wanted, but probably more realistic. Happy, yet not happy.

I read so many people get tired of predictable, happy endings. But, how many readers are like that? Most? Some? Only a few?

And I LIKE the happy endings. So, should I just write what I would want to happen even if it's predictable and happy?

I'm sure I'll write whatever comes to me at the second I get to that crossroads. But, right now, I'm kind of conflicted about what to do.

Character Description

I recently read a blog about describing your character's appearance. It made me think about how I write.

When I introduce a character, I try to describe them.

But, then, I don't usually describe them anymore. Especially if they're not the main characters.

One of the things I dislike is when an author constantly reminds you of what the characters look like. Repeating what color eyes or hair a character has, no matter how many different ways you can say it gets boring! Yes, we know he has blue eyes because you've told us 100 times. And oh the cold skin, can't forget that. He had cold skin in the beginning of the series, he still has cold skin at the end. WOW, who would have thought?

How much do you notice you neighbor? Spouse? Someone you pass in the store? Best friend?

Other than my children and my husband, I couldn't tell you what color eyes anyone I know has. Unless maybe they were SO different, I couldn't help but notice. If a neighbor changes something about their hair, I'd notice that.

So, readers - how much do you like reading descriptions of the characters? Is there something specific you like to know? What their hair looks like in that scene? What they're wearing that day? Or does it not matter after the first major description?

How about you writers? How much description do you put in?

This Week in Talia News

It's the beginning of a new month! Hello May, please bring lots of sales. My BBoS (brown bar of shame) is gone on Amazon US. Yay!! I love when that bar disappears the first day of the month.

Lots of cover news this week. I have three covers finished now. I will be revealing a new one for an old book tonight. I am very happy with Streetlight Graphics!

I also went back and edited - AGAIN - the old books. I don't think I'm ever done editing. I walked away for six months, pulled the book back up and found things wrong. Even with people editing for me, I still found mistakes! Hopefully, I fixed all of them... doubt it, but maybe most of them :) Please do not hesitate to let me know if you see mistakes in my books. I will go fix them.

My fingers are itching to write an edgy book that I started in high school - which was a LONG time ago. I actually finished the story way back then, but it's not realistic now. So, I'm taking the character names and some of the story line and completely redoing it.

Guess that's about :) Cover reveal to follow.

Two New Tabs

Two new tabs have appeared at the top of this page. If I Die Young and The Ultimate Sacrifice. Those are the next two books I'll be releasing, so I figured I better get started on promoting them.

I'll focus on If I Die Young because that one will be first. If I Die Young is about a 16-year-old girl who needs a heart transplant. I hope to share my blurb this weekend and some information about where the story takes place. Streetlight Graphics is working on the cover for this book, so that will be revealed very soon.

Many of you know that my fourth book, The Ultimate Sacrifice, is my first YA paranormal. It's been a very exciting and scary time for me. I hope that my readers like it as much as my YA dramas. The book is almost ready to be sent to some people for review, here's hoping they enjoy it!

This Week in Talia News

Here is the second edition of my weekly update.

Sales were slow this past week, but the books are still selling, so I can't complain too much.

My two books were listed on Breakthrough Bookstore website.

Damaged: Natalie's Story was featured on Adventures in Writing.

I'm waiting to hear from one more person reviewing my 3rd book. I think I settled on a title. Well, it's in between 2. Problem is one is an old movie and one is a newer song. I also got the blurb written.

I finished my first edit on my 4th book. I also wrote the blurb and found a title! Then I submitted it all to the cover artist!! Very excited about this one. My oldest daughter read it and loved it. So, I'm hoping other people will too. I hope to get it sent out to my reviewers by the end of the weekend.

Book #4

Tonight, I feel on top of the world! I finished the first draft of my fourth book. I began writing it March 11, 2011. So, it took less than a month to complete. I'm very excited about this book - and a little worried. It's my first paranormal story making it new territory for me.

I'm not ready to go into details yet, other than to say it's not about vampires or werewolves. It's about teens with 'gifts'.

Right now, I'm setting it aside. I'm going to go back to my third book which needs some editing. I had a few people read it and tell me what they thought. Now, I'll be taking their opinions and going back through it. After the edit, I'll send it back out to these people to see how they like the new version. Then another edit and I hope to get it out for summer.

Once that it is done, I'll go back to this book and do my first edit on it. I'm very hopeful that I will have this one released by the end of the year.

And... I already have book five in my head - and a little on paper. I had to write down some things, the character kept yelling in my head : )

My First Interview

There's a new newsletter being published in my neighborhood. In going through my ridiculously neglected email inbox, I came across an email sent out to a neighborhood email list that I'm on asking for stories or interesting people to write about for a new publication. Why I didn't immediately jump at this is beyond me. Sometimes I guess I just flake on things.

I emailed her back thinking it was probably too late, but she responded and told me she would forward on my information. When I didn't hear anything for over three weeks, I figured I wasn't interesting enough to make it into the newsletter.

But, then the email came. I was like a kid at Christmas! I called my husband and told him they wanted to to do an article about me. She wanted me to call her, which freaked me out a little, I'm shy and I don't always say the right things when I'm put on the spot. I sucked it up and called her. We had a nice chat and hopefully I came across somewhat sane.

She told me she would have the photographer get a hold of me to come take a picture and the article would be in the next newsletter. The photographer came the next day. I scrubbed the house - and myself, because, well - I looked like a worn out mom. My oldest daughter picked out something a little cooler than Jockey lounge wear. She even did my make-up. I figure there was no way she was going to have me embarrassing her.

The photographer took a few pictures of me sitting at our breakfast bar in front of my laptop. In a couple shots, I held my Kindle.

I'm very excited and scared out of my mind. Once this goes out, people will know that I write and while this is a very good thing, it's kind of scary because my books are like my babies. I created them. I brought them to life. When someone doesn't like them, it makes me sad. The ones that I have published aren't edgy YA, but I do write edgy YA, and once I publish some of those, I wonder how some of these neighbors will react.

I believe this publication is online, so when it's out... y'all will know!

Questions for Writers

What do you do when you have a bunch of story ideas in your head?

Do you grab one and run with it?

Do you jot all your ideas down?

What happens if you're working on one story and another one is pestering you to be written? Do you stop and write it? Or do you continue on with the current one?

If you write a bunch of them, do you find it hard to keep in character?

I have at least 5 really good ideas in my head right now. But, I can't seem to concentrate on just one. I keep flipping between them, writing whatever is coming to me at the moment. It's exhilarating at times, confusing at other times. I'm excited by all of these new possible books, I find myself wishing I could write faster or that there was more time in the day. Maybe one day, one or the other will happen :)

Charli

Although I began Teagan's Story many years ago, when my friend found on me on Facebook recently, I found out her daughter had epilepsy. I immediately thought of my book and decided that I wanted to dedicate it to her.

So, Teagan's Story is dedicated to Charli. Please join her cause on Facebook and help us find a cure for epilepsy.

Charli's Cause

Book Covers

I'm naive in this area. For Natalie's Story I just uploaded a picture of the beach from when we went on vacation a few years ago. There is a beach scene in Natalie's Story so it's not a huge stretch, but still not the picture I'd like to use for the cover.

I've read about websites where you can buy a photo and use that for your book, but I have no idea how these things work. I need simple instructions in English, not lawyer talk, to follow.

Can anyone clue me in?

Times To Write

Finding time to write can be difficult sometimes. I'm not a morning person, so writing in the morning is pretty much OUT. Late morning and afternoon can work sometimes, other times, there's too much happening with the kids. Forget after school and dinner time, too chaotic. That leaves night. I like writing at night. I can put the kids to bed, put on a show or music and let the words flow.

But, there are nights when I'm tired, nights when I'm physically exhausted, nights where I get the kids to bed too late and I don't have the UMPH to write. That sucks. I need to be able to get my creative juices flowing and get these books done.

I'm currently working on book #3 and I'm trying to get the timeline down. I have most of the story written, but it needs some fluff in the middle. I can't write anything more until I pin down the times. So, that's my plan today. Get off the blog and do the timeline! On a piece of paper so I can see it laid out.

Book Sales

I think a lot of people got Kindles for Christmas. In the week after Christmas, my book sales went from just a couple to 16. Then someone returned a book. LOL! Guess they didn't like it? Or maybe they thought it was paperback and when they realized it was an eBook, they returned it? Whatever it was, not a big deal. That leaves 15 sales for December, not bad. I realize that it's not 1500, that's okay. Maybe someday I'll get there. And when I checked today, another 2 books sold. So, it may be one here and one there, but each sale is a possible fan and that fan might spread the word!

My New Year's resolution this year is to write more. I'd like to finish the book I'm working on and I'd like to get Teagan's Story uploaded to Amazon.

First Payment

I got an email last night - I almost missed it - my mailbox thought it might be spam. It was from Amazon and basically said my first payment is coming in. Took a few seconds to register, but soon I was elated! This means I've sold enough books to get a payment, even if the payment is small! Who would have thought? Even though this is very different than an agent picking the book and selling it to publishers and stores, it's still a wonderful feeling!!

I've sold 21 books so far. I can't wait to hit 25... and maybe 50... and I really, really hope someday 100!!

Writing on the Brain

I think of writing all the time. Ideas flow through my brain. Some I write down, some I don't. Some I kick myself later for forgetting. I wish I had some sort of program that took the ideas flowing through my brain, turn them into words, and type them out. Or maybe a voice program where I could just talk out ideas and the computer automatically types out everything I say.

So many of my ideas slip away and don't make it onto paper or computer. I need to work on that. Every idea is important. Even blogging - sometimes I think of something really awesome to blog about and then POOF! it's gone.

I think about the first story I ever wrote. It was about a couple of kids living on their own, I think it was shortly after reading The Boxcar Children. I was probably 10? I named one character Calliope, not sure what the other one was. As time went on, I wrote more and more edgy YA. Runaways, addicts, abuse, anything I could think of that would shock people. Why write this stuff? Why shock people? Because I thought there wasn't enough. I was a teenager with issues. If I wasn't going through some of this stuff, then I knew someone who was. And being a teen who liked to read, I wanted to read about it, but there wasn't much of anything about it.

No one dared.

Now it seems like lots of authors have dared. There are more and more stories out there considered edgy YA. Have I waited too long? I'm in my 30s now, can I still write YA? I think so. It might not be as crass as it once was, but some of it will still be edgy.

My first book, Natalie's Story, is about a 17 year old girl who falls in love with the wrong boy. He gets violent with her. She forgives and it happens again and again. Then to cope with things, she starts drinking and doesn't want to stop. It touches on abuse, pregnancy, and addiction.

My next book, Teagan's Story, is about a teenager with Epilepsy. I love Lurlene McDaniel. She's a wonderful author. She writes a lot about teens dealing with medical issues. I often read her books growing up and loved her stories. I wanted to branch out to other disorders or illnesses that aren't written about as often. Teagan, who has been home schooled because of her uncontrolled seizures, finds herself in public school when her parents unexpectedly die. This book is about how she deals with Epilepsy on a daily basis.

And coming up? Caelyn's Story. Another medical YA novel. She needs a heart transplant.

I have so many ideas... if I only knew people were interested.

Now is your chance! Leave a comment here. Join my Facebook fan page. Leave a review on Amazon. Help me get recognized! Be a part of it, I won't forget!

Writing Book #3

I've been working on my 3rd book and I've decided that I need to do something different with the beginning. Except I'm not sure what. I've already rewritten it twice now, but it's still not right. So, I've been sitting in front of a blank piece of lined paper for a couple days. The lines call to me. They want me to fill them up. They need words on them. I've even put my pen down on them a few times. I get ideas, but I just don't like the ideas. I feel like I can do better.

My husband has found me deep in thought a few times. He keeps thinking that something is wrong, but I'm just brainstorming.

Hopefully, I'll come up with the perfect beginning to my story soon.

It's Live!

I uploaded my book to Amazon and it didn't look right on their preview. So, I worked on the formatting again and again and again. I finally found a way to make the indents work right. Then there were 2 hypens I couldn't get deleted. Finally found that problem. So, I uploaded the book again - with a new cover picture I had taken at the beach a few years ago - and now it looks pretty good. The only problem I'm having now is the chapter headings are off centered. I guess I'll have to deal with that.

Anyway, I digress... MY BOOK IS LIVE!!!!!!!!!!! On Amazon!!!! It's unreal! I'm hoping that once the description gets put on there, that people will get interested and they'll buy it.

Natalie's Story

What are you waiting for??? GO! BUY! READ! :)

I Did It!

I uploaded my first book to Amazon. I had some trouble with the formatting, so I hope that once the good people over there look at it, they'll fix it. I'd hate to have my book up there with the margins all funny looking.

It's supposed to be up within 48 hours. Not sure if that'll happen on a weekend.

I'm so anxious! It's hard to be excited when there's no guarantees. But, there aren't any guarantees in life. Gotta take a chance sometimes. I hope there are people out there somewhere that will read it and like it!

So, book #2 is being looked at by some friends of mine. And I'm working on book #3.