Food for Thought, Really!

I haven’t had a good fiction book to read for a couple of weeks.  This is so odd for me because I love to read. You might be thinking, so what?  Well one of the truest things about writing is that in order to be creative and write you have to feed your brain.  I first read this in Stephen King’s On Writing.  Basically, one of the things I learned from reading that book is that in order to be a good writer you have to write a lot and read a lot.

I have found that to be so true.

Because I haven’t read any fiction, good, bad or otherwise for a while, I haven’t written much at all.  You really do have to feed your brain.  And the food for writing is reading.  It is as simple as that.

I finally bought a new book last night and look forward to feeding my brain.  I can almost guarantee the writing is going to go so much better once I am no longer so malnourished.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Random Thoughts

There is no rhyme or reason to this post.  It is just a bunch of random stuff that I happen to be thinking about today.

First up I am super excited about the Sons of Anarchy premiere tonight!  Sons of Anarchy is yet another awesome show that my husband got me hooked on.  If you haven’t watched it yet, it has a wonderful, gritty, crazy storyline that just sort of sucks you in and won’t let you look away.  I highly recommend it, but be warned it is definitely for mature audiences.

Second, I totally missed Dragon Con this year which is a total bummer.  To make up for it I watched all the episodes of The Guild marathon style thanks to Netflix and X-Box.  I have to say that is one really funny show!  Especially if you have ever played an RPG, be it online or Dungeons and Dragons.  I’ve never gotten into the online games (yet) but used to play a fair bit of D&D.   So I feel like I still met my geekiness quota for the weekend.

Thanks for reading…

Defeating the Evil Chapter of Death

Yesterday I finally conquered a chapter that was the very bane of my existence for the last two weeks.  I’m not sure why the chapter was so hard or why it took me so long to get it written, but it was one of those chapters where you sit down and type 200 words only to delete 300 and then question what the heck your doing.  You know, one of those chapters. 

I had to change a lot about what I had originally outlined to make it work, but after doing so I can see how the changes make for a much better story.  I think life is like that too.  You can make a five year plan; know what kind of job you want, the house you want to live in, the town you want to live in, and so on.  And then everything gets turned on its head and miraculously it works out better than you could have ever planned it.  Sometimes you just have to give in and let the story unfold even if it messes with your plans.

Thanks for reading…

Houses and Bottle Warmers

I saw a quote somewhere that said writing is 1% inspiration and 99% not getting distracted by the internet.  I’m not sure who said it, but it wasn’t me.  Still it is so true.  Getting distracted by the internet and other things in life can be the death of productivity.

Lately we have been going through a lot of life stuff.  It is all good stuff but distracting none the less.  We are having our first baby soon! And because we will be needing more room we are buying our first home!  See all very wonderful exciting stuff but still very distracting from writing. 

With my little obsessive streak I have logged more hours than I even want to think about looking at baby stuff online, reading reviews on everything from bouncers to bottle warmers, making my registry (BTW thanks Sis for throwing me a baby shower), looking up information on infant care and the list goes on.

 I have logged just as much time looking at houses, comparing neighborhoods, and all the things you do when preparing to purchase a home.  Consequently, I have not gotten nearly as much writing done as I would have like over the last month.  But I finally have my baby registry done and we have placed the house hunt on hold for a month and a half.

So really I have no excuses not to meet my daily writing goals and I look forward to not thinking about real estate or bottle warmers for a little while.  So I will be blogging on Fridays again and should be publishing another book in August or September. 

Also this is kind of unrelated but I want to give a big Thank You to everyone who has bought my first book Always Darkest!  Every single sale that I have seen has been a cause for celebration and I am truly grateful.  If you liked my book, or if you didn’t, feel free to review it or send me an email at kimwritesbooks@gmail.com.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

I hope you all have a great weekend and as always thanks for reading…

My Deadline

Okay so I am not going to blog again until after July 15^th.  The reason is I have set a deadline for myself to finish the first draft of my current book and that is July 15^th.

Putting that deadline up here on my blog has given me that extra dose of motivation kind of like knowing that you are going to be weighing in at a weight watcher meeting.  I better get to work now!

In my next blog I will be giving a release date for my next book!  I’ll see you then and in the mean time…

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Fourth of July weekend! 

Thanks for reading…

To Blog or Not to Blog?

So my blog today is about blogging.  I know it’s like reading a book about reading but it is what is on my mind today.  I started blogging shortly after my book Always Darkest, a dark but funny fantasy romance, was published and I have blogged every Friday since.  I have discovered something about myself.

I don’t like blogging.

I know, you may ask, “If you don’t like blogging, why are you doing it?”  Well, I’m new at this whole self-publishing, trying to sell my books and self promote business.  Being a self-published author and blogging seem to go hand in hand.  But you know maybe it’s not for me.  I don’t know.  So as readers, do you expect the authors that you read to have a blog?  Do you think it increases sales?  Let me know what you think.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE reading blogs.  I read all the blogs of my favorite authors and many of my twitter followers.  Blogs are cool.  I’m just not sure if they are the right thing for me right now.  Maybe the every Friday schedule is what is making it no fun, kind of like how being in a dart league and having to play every Sunday zapped all the fun out of it for me.  So maybe I’ll be switching things up in the coming weeks. 

Thank you for reading…

LML

Okay a couple of weeks ago I saw my nephew posting on Facebook saying something bad happened to him followed by FML. Now I think we all know what FML means (F#$% My Life). Well, I am a positive person so I decided to start a thing of my own.  I started posting LML (Love My Life).  What a positive, encouraging optimistic thing to do.  I thought I was going to start a thing.  Then I did a twitter search for #LML and it’s already a thing.  So I guess it wasn’t an original idea, but I still like it.

I think we get the things we focus on.  If we focus on the good things in our life that is what we get and the same thing goes for the bad things.  I learned that a few years ago when I watched The Secret, and really started putting it into practice this year.   By the way I recommend the movie to everyone.

 I have been focusing on the good things in life for a while now, and I have to say, LML.

Thank you for reading…

Publishing on the Kindle

I published my first book, Always Darkest, (a dark but funny fantasy romance,) on the Kindle a little over a month ago and I have to say it was and continues to be a great experience.

Here is a link to the book:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZMWN04

So, this has been a great month!  It is not a best seller (yet… J ) but it is selling which is awesome.  I am a brand spanking new author and I know this and for my book to sell as much as it has I am thrilled!  So if you are one of the people who bought my book, THANK YOU!  I sincerely hope that you enjoyed it.

I thought I would share what I learned about publishing on the Kindle so that if any of you are considering doing so I might be able to save you some hassle.

1. Do not use tab for paragraph indents when writing.  If you do it comes out looking really odd and you have to go back and change all you paragraph indents.  Instead use the top arrow on the slider bar on Word.  (You know the one.)
2. Just do it.  If you are thinking about publishing on the Kindle, go for it.  What have you got to lose?  I can tell you getting that first sale and knowing someone is reading what you wrote is an amazing feeling! 

That’s it those are my two biggest tips.  If you are a writer and decide to self-publish on the Kindle, I wish you the best of luck. I hope you have a great weekend!

Thank you for reading…

Building Blocks

I was just sitting here trying to think about what I wanted to blog about today and absolutely nothing was coming to mind.  Then I thought I just need to start writing and that got me thinking about how each little thing we do every day affects everything in our lives. 

Allow me to elaborate.  The finest novels ever written got started by the writing of a single word.  The largest buildings began with the laying of a single stone.  A one hundred pound weight loss starts with the first workout.  You know a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and so on.  You get the point. Everything in life is like that.  You just have to start with the first word, step, the first good decision and keep going from there and before you know it you have achieved your goal.

My goal is to be an excellent writer and I know I will get there one word at a time.

What are your goals and what are you doing to achieve them?

Thank you for reading…

Summer Movies

I plan to see every single movie that looks good this summer just for fun.

We started the summer of movies with Thor, and it was an awesome movie.  I had so much fun and it was a great way to kick off what should be a very entertaining summer.

Here are the rest of the movies I plan to see:

June 3                         X-Men: First Class

June 10                       Super 8

June 17                       Green Lantern

July 15                        Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

July 22                        Captain America: The First Avenger

Those are the movies I absolutely want to see in the theater this summer.  Did I miss any great ones?  What are you looking forward to watching this summer?

To everything there in a season…

Most of my favorite things are things I did not like when I was first introduced to them.  I’m not sure if that means that my tastes are maturing or what but it’s true.

My first example is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the TV show.  When it first came out I had just read Anne Rice’s Vampire chronicles and was still in love with her beautiful vampires. I thought vampires with crinkled up foreheads were stupid and never even tried to watch the show.  Later on in college, I ended up watching all the shows in order and I was hooked.

The next example is Farscape.  When I first saw it I was completely uninterested.  Then I started with the first episode and watched it all the way through to the end of the season and I was in love.  The same thing happened with Firefly, another absolutely amazing sci-fi show.

Most recently this had happened with The Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin.  I picked up A Game of Thrones years ago and I just could not get into it at all so it stayed on my bookshelf for a long time.  Then about a month ago I picked it up again and I was in love and I’m currently reading a Storm of Swords.  I’m hooked.  It is such an amazing story with such amazing story telling I really feel like I can’t say enough good things about the series. 

So I guess I’m like that and should always give things a second look because my tastes will surely change.  I wonder if everybody is like that…

Thanks for reading…

First Blog

I just published my first book Always Darkest on Amazon.com a few days ago and I am still on a major high!  Always Darkest is a dark but funny fantasy romance novella being sold for $0.99 and I really hope that everyone enjoys it.  I would like to say Thank You to the people who have already bought it.  I don’t know who you are but you really made my day!

A big thank you to my husband for all his support!  I truly couldn’t have done it without him.  Also, thanks to my sister, Kayla, for being my first test reader. 

I am plan to at least blog every Friday and maybe more often if I have something interesting to talk about.

Thanks for reading…

Here is the link for my book:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZMWN04