Killing Monsters!

So, here's a draft of the blurb for KM2. I'm always looking for feedback so lay it on me and I'll consider everything! :)

DRAFT 1

When the choice was to either track down and bust a serial killer or have sex with her boyfriend, Estela would rather butt in to an FBI investigation than take a chance at another failed tryst in the sheets—or hay. Although she’s madly in love with Caleb and is having fun trying, she just can’t bring herself to seal the deal, and, quite frankly, feels a bit deformed.

Perhaps being stalked, terrorized, and assaulted by a man who proclaimed his undying love for her and then shot her uncle in the neck, has left her with a little PTSD. Or maybe she’s just not ready for sex. (At twenty-six, going on twenty-seven, she really should be ready!) Either way, Estela is sure that she can identify a serial killer just by looking at him. So, when the deaths of several women connected to Christian Waller, the fiancé of Estela’s friend Olive, begin, Estela is sure that he’s the culprit and that Olive may be next.

Teaming up with Moo for a little Moostela Investigation, Estela sets off to bring Christian down hoping to avoid an end where she’s staring down the barrel of gun held by another psychopath. 

UPDATE:

DRAFT 2

If you have black, demon-like eyes, you must be a serial killer, so says Estela Ramos who just survived the overwhelming experience of being stalked and terrorized by a man declaring his undying love. She knew Dr. Pervo was creepy from the start and is now positive that she can identify a murderer just by looking at him.

But perhaps being loved so devotedly by a crazy person has left Estela with a little PTSD. When given the choice to either have sex with her boyfriend or track down and bust a serial killer, Estela would rather butt in to an FBI investigation. Although she’s madly in love with Caleb and has fun trying, she just can’t bring herself to seal the deal, and, quite frankly, feels a bit deformed. Why take a chance at another failed tryst in the sheets—or hay—when there is a serial killer afoot?

When several young women connected to Christian Waller, the fiancé of her friend Olive, are murdered, Estela is certain that Christian’s the culprit and that Olive, pregnant with his triplets, may be the next victim. Estela just has to prove it, which is hard when no one takes her seriously.

Teaming up with Moo for a little Moostela Investigation, Estela sets off to bring Christian down while avoiding an ending that has her staring down the barrel of gun held by another psychopath.

*sigh*

I've spent all night messing around on the internet (hence my blog layout updates). I don't know why I'm stalling with this edit. Sometimes everything just seems so overwhelming. At least I get in a little editing during my breaks at work.

In other news... dang! people are sure taking advantage of a free ebook! :) Over 80 downloads in just over 24 hours. I hope people leave reviews.

Get KM1 for Free (until Aug 1)

Hi everyone!

I've put KM1 up on Smashwords for FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Of course, this is only for a limited time. I would have done the same with Amazon, but they won't let me.

Cheers and happy reading!

Oh Procrastination!

Man... I'm starting to feel lazy. Basically, I'm procrastinating big time. I come home and spent too much time trying to figure out Twitter, checking out facebook, and Perezhilton.com. This is a sad thing, especially since I'm basically in the last stages of my edit of KILLING MONSTERS. I've edited about 72 pages on my Nook, which is good progress, I suppose. I edit during my break at work and I try to do the same at the gym. This works when I'm on the stationary bike, but it's a little harder on the elliptical. Plus, if there's something more interesting on TV I'm going to watch it. Kinda like how I'm watching Chopped right now. I'm sure that I'll find my rhythm with it soon. There's always an awkward lag time in between stages of editing for me.

In other news, I just finished DESTINED, the final book in the WINGS series by Aprilynne Pike. That series was incredible. It really was. She's the kind of writer that I hope that I am (or could be). The series was really well plotted/conceived/executed. There was no awkward "second book" curse. At the very end of DESTINED, after an author's note, we were given "The Last Word" a letter from one character to another. It kinda blew my mind. It really evoked a lot of emotion. I didn't cry, but my chest felt warm. The letter was heart wrenching. It wasn't a part of the story in the sense that it comes to us in the afterward (basically), but it really is lovely. I would say that it was smart move for her not to end the book with the letter, and not because it paints anything but a "happily ever after" feeling, but because it just wouldn't have worked, in my opinion. Across the series I wasn't as drawn in to the character as I wanted to be, so maybe that's why, or maybe there just wasn't enough of a similar emotion (as the letter) throughout the series. But it's absolutely perfect in the way she introduces it to us. I'm so jealous. Can't wait to read more from her.

Next up on my reading list (after I finish editing KM2 on my Nook): SIZE 12 AND READY TO ROCK (by Meg Cabot) or SHADOW OF NIGHT (by Deborah Harkness). I'm equally excited about both. I need to read more books and watch less TV... but with the Olympics starting soon, that's definitely not going to happen!

Twitter: @tatiana_writes

Killing Monsters Update

I'm now 35 pages away from my initial edit of KILLING MONSTERS. Yay! I'm still not comfortable with the idea of stating when it will be available as I'm going to have a beta reader go through it, plus I'll be doing a "Nook edit" (which is basically when I put it on my nook and read it again), and I've asked a friend to help me out with the cover. So... still a lot of players involved, still a lot of work to do. My goal for this book is to be free of typos. Fingers crossed... it's very likely that something small will slip through, but I'm taking my time. I need to take my time because with KM1, I rushed it a little.

Sales are still somewhat slow, a few trickle in from day to day. I'm researching ways to maximize my sales. I probably should have offered KM1 as a free ebook, in retrospect. I do plan on offering it free for a few weeks before (and probably during the release) of KM2. I still don't know what price I'm going to put KILLING MONSTERS. Maybe I'll have a better idea after I finish reading the article that I linked above.

Wanna help me out with promotion? If you bought through Amazon, go back to my page and (1) leave a review!!! (please!!!) and (2) agree with the tags (found under Tags Customers Associate with this Product). Add tags if you want. The more people "agree with tags" the more likely the book will be placed in one of the tagged categories. Reviews are the most helpful though--thank you so much to the people who have left them on both amazon.com and amazon.co.uk!

All right... we're heading to the finish line!

As a side note: I just finished reading A STARTER BOYFRIEND. That one (as one of the final books I wrote while posting to FictrionPress) isn't in bad shape--a few typos here and there. I may end up working on it for a few weeks and then uploading it. So, get excited! :)

Now What?

The sales/sample downloads for KILLING MEMORIES have definitely slowed down this past week. Publishing it is pretty easy (for the most part, despite the multiple edits and reposts), but now that it's slowed down (stopped really), I need to figure out how to market it. Where do I go to find more readers? E-publishing doesn't really come with a handbook, you know, and I'm feeling a little lost. I've thought about posting something new on FictionPress (but then I don't have anything new besides my new supernatural YA novel (THE SPIRIT KEEPER) and I'm not sure if I want to post that, although getting more feedback would be nice). FictionPress was a great place to develop a readership. I think it hurt me when I stopped actively using the website. I didn't necessarily stop because of the plagiarism issues, it was mostly that I was going to school or working, etc, and didn't have time to write new stuff and post it.

I've been thinking about editing MY DARLING BUNNY and posting that as a free ebook. Maybe even CHEMICAL GAMES. I haven't re-read either in a while, so I'm not sure how much work they need. Probably a lot considering everything I ever posted on FictionPress was a first draft.

I feel so consumed by editing. Don't get me wrong, I actually love it, but it gets hard at times. Especially when I want to write something new but my brain is like "NO, FINISH THIS FIRST!" Well, with three more KM books and HOSTILE KISSES I feel like I'm never going to be done editing! And "editing" isn't just about cleaning up typos... it's revising sentences, taking things out, adding things in, putting more detail.... it's basically re-writing in a lot of ways.

It took me like a week to re-write the first chapter of KILLING MONSTERS (that was actually really hard). I really hope the books take less time to edit as I go along. I think they will as the writing got stronger as I progressed in the KM series (in my opinion). I'm reading KM4 now and Estela still makes me laugh out loud. I forget some of the things I have her do. Like in this novel, she get's caught eavesdropping on Vanessa Winwright (Moo's modeling agency) and to cover, she runs across the room, sticks her arm into a salt water fish tank and tries to grab at the fish because they're "so pretty, I had to touch one."

HAHAHAHAHA... honestly, what was I thinking!

Working... slowly

The edit for KILLING MONSTERS is going very slow. Not on purpose either... I'm not trying to take my time. It's just that the first chapter had to be redone, which took forever, and I've been super distracted. I have faith that my editing speed will pick up, but it's difficult sometimes. I have moments when I think the writing is good and other times when I'm like "holy crap this is bad." I'm not going to give a date for uploading it. When I do that, I feel rushed. I felt a little rushed book I, only because I realized kinda late that it was going to need another edit (which turned into two edits and some helpful feedback from a couple readers). I want to make sure that the novel is as clean as possible before posting it. No more typos like in KILLING MEMORIES (typos that people called "grammar mistakes," which was an incorrect term 90% of the time). Anyway, my goal is to not have any mistakes in book II, which will likely not happen. I wish I had something to post in between the novels, but I don't have anything that's "finished." Well, except for THE SPIRIT KEEPER and even that may not be finished.