[[Welcome to my weekly writer’s diary where I’ll share my “Woot Woot!” moments and the not so “woot woot” moments of my writing world. And, yes, I might even share the occasional musing or two about reading and writing, two of my favorite things!]]

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Dear Diary,

            It’s Thursday ~ 10/18/12 ~ and…

Have I mentioned how much I love social networks — okay, today I love them 🙂 — and the friendships I’ve made across the country, hmmm, the world?  With a click-clack of my keyboard, I can keep in touch with new and old friends I would probably never have met any other way.  I’ve been riding Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads for a long time. Before that, I had a huge bunch of friends on MySpace.  This blog has been a staple of my day for several years now.

I’ve made thousands of friends.  Yes, they are friends. I talk to everyone daily.  I share jokes, writing triumphs, boohoos, wonders and “huh?”s.  I commisserate, encourage, and celebrate with my friends. And sometimes, when I’m really lucky, I get a chance to meet one or two in person.

And, you know what?  It’s not like I’m meeting strangers.

Right now (this posts tomorrow), I’m sitting in a hotel room almost 100 miles from home waiting for one of those friends to get out of her class. She’s flown to Colorado from Memphis to take these classes, and the first thing we did when we knew she was coming was start making plans to get together while she was here.  Oh, we have met once before…when I went to Memphis to conduct a workshop for her chapter.  But, that was almost two years ago and we talk daily on Facebook. Thanks to Facebook, we’ve become more than teacher/student in a one-time meet. We’ve become friends.  When she gets here, I will have this blog ready to post, we’ll grab some dinner and sit and chat…just like we are old friends who haven’t seen one another in a while.

And this morning (still writing this for tomorrow 🙂 ) after my Memphis friend runs off to her class, I’ll pack up my things and drive a few miles to the home of another really good friend I met online…on MySpace.  Hey! Told you I’d been on the social scene a while! She and I met on a reader’s group that focused on one of our favorite genres, paranormals, etc.  We talked there daily for several years before she mentioned she was moving to Colorado, less than 100 miles from my house in Denver.  The first time we met when she came to my house, it was like we’d been friends forever too. No awkwardness. Just plain fun.  I’ve been remiss in getting to her house for a return visit so we’ll grab some lunch and talk books and writing. She’s picking up her keyboard to pen a novel! How cool is that?

These are two very dear friends I wouldn’t have gotten to know if it hadn’t been for social media like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, even this blog  I wouldn’t have missed the opportunity for the world!

Whenever I find myself railing at the way a network is behaving or the amount of time it sometimes takes to wend my way through the timelines so I can find what I want, I remind myself of the reason I go to each digital playground.  Several times daily. These are my friends and the networks are the only way I’ll ever meet most of them.  And, if I’m really lucky, there comes a day when I can hug one of these friends up close and chat like we do each and every day.

Toddling off to play now. Have a wonderful day, my friends. Would love to meet you all someday!

See you next Thursday for another rousing entry in Karen’s Diary Drop-In….

[[Welcome to my weekly writer’s diary where I’ll share my “Woot Woot!” moments and the not so “woot woot” moments of my writing world. And, yes, I might even share the occasional musing or two about reading and writing, two of my favorite things!]]

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Dear Diary,

            It’s Thursday ~ 10/11/12 ~ and…

I’m musing today.  I can’t speak for other authors but I have to admit to a bit of confusion (dare I say frustration?) about the apparent disconnect in the book publishing industry between what we’ve all been trained to expect from our books in the past, both as writers and readers, and the market of today. Things are changing so fast that it’s almost impossible to keep up or make conscious decisions before something new happens to change the tide in another direction.

Case in point.  Something happened this week that reminded me that I’m still lagging, both as a reader and a writer, in a publishing mindset that’s been around, well, forever. I won’t get into the specific event because it’s not the event that’s important to the discussion, but the subsequent musings it prompted.

I can remember the first time I picked up my new Kindle. (Only last year!) I’d put off adding any more electronic “stuff” to my beleaguered life as long as I could.  When I started considering the possibility of publishing my own book through the wondrous “new” technology of digital publishing — yeah, I was one of the last bastions of a land line phone only two months ago, too — I decided I needed to get a Kindle of my own.

Hmmm, where was I? Oh, yeah….lagging mindsets.  I swear it’s senility but my kids do occasionally tell me I’m not that old.  Or maybe I’m imagining that, too. 🙂

Let’s talk about my reader mindset.  Although I loved so many things about my new Kindle, like the ability to make the font bigger so I could actually read the book — okay, no more snarky remarks about old ladies and dinosaurs, please — there were certain things I didn’t like about reading on a machine.  Of course, all comments aside about type size (print book fonts are getting smaller to help publishers save printing costs, that’s good economics), I like holding a book in my hand. I like knowing where I stop reading when I toddle off to make dinner for my family.  I love the smell and feel of a print book. I love sifting through my 24-foot long, 8-foot high wall of paperback novels.

I miss these things when I read on my Kindle.  I no longer know how many books I have waiting for me to open their pages. They’re tidily tucked into my Kindle bookshelves but they’re no longer lined up side-by-side for easy skimming. I read across the genres and sometimes I feel like reading a historical. Sometimes I like reading suspense. And sometimes, I just want to pick up a cute little contemporary or a paranormal or a…well, you get the picture.

With a leather cover wrapped around my Kindle, one that opens up like a book, I can recapture the feel of a print book…sort of.  But I love throwing my leather book thong between the pages of my print book when I stop on page 85. I love knowing I’m on page 85. I love knowing that, by eyeball estimation, I still have approximately two-thirds of the book to wallow in before I finish. Yes, I have a love affair with my books but that’s a whole ‘nother topic!

It bothers me I don’t know these things when I read the same book on my Kindle.  Why?  Because I don’t feel the same sense of completion when I read that invisible “The End” that tells me the book is finished. I’m still used to closing the binding on that physical book and I don’t know how to get that same closure when I finish an eBook. I know I’m 25%, 60%, 85% through the story on my Kindle. But I want page numbers. I want to know that I got my money’s worth.

As a reader, it frustrates me that I’m unsure whether I’ve just read a full length novel of 50,000 to 100,000 words, or a novella.  When I hold a skinny book or a fat book in my hand, I know exactly what I paid for.

Which brings me to the other side of my musings.

As a writer, it frustrates me that my readers don’t really know if they get what they paid for either.  I know I write full length novels as traditional publishing standards fly.  My contemporary romantic comedies are the same size as the Harlequin Temptations (Satin Pleasures anyway, that may be changing with my next book 🙂 ) because the story was aimed at that publisher.  My romantic suspense is longer but that’s to be expected because it’s single title…again as the traditional publisher flies.  But on the digital devices, you really can’t tell.  It’s all too easy to feel cheated without a physical book weighing in on your senses and my suspense might feel as “light” as my contemporaries to some readers.  I hope not!

I’m a realist and I know there’s not much I can do to  influence reader perceptions especially when the traditional publishing benchmarks are masked or no longer apply. The story is finished when it’s finished. The last thing I want to do is add “fluff” to a story to make it appear bigger. If the story is told in novella length, that’s how I’ll sell it.

I like to believe I’m moving around this digital world fairly well. But questions pop up and knock me sideways once in a while, reminding me that I’m still a baby in Indie publishing, as most of us are since the digital world is still evolving.  How many of the traditional publishing expectations should writers carry over into our digital publishing?  How much do I, as a reader, have a right to expect of the authors I’m buying? I think we’re still all kind of wandering in the dark on both sides of the question. There doesn’t seem to be any easy answers.

Maybe tomorrow, there will be.  🙂

See you next Thursday for another rousing entry in Karen’s Diary Drop-In….

[[Welcome to my weekly writer’s diary where I’ll share my “Woot Woot!” moments and the not so “woot woot” moments of my writing world. And, yes, I might even share the occasional musing or two about reading and writing, two of my favorite things!]]

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Dear Diary,

            It’s Thursday ~ 10/04/12 ~ and…

I’m going in a slightly different “muse-y” direction this week with my diary entry. It’s been a great week, got a lot of things done, but looking down at my desktop I’m almost overwhelmed by the number of different lists staring back yelling, “Me, next! Me, next!”

I’m a list-maker. With the number of pies my fingers are dipping into every day, if I didn’t have lists to check my lists I’d be running nekkid in the street and babbling nonsense. Well, maybe not nonsense. It’s more likely I’ll be making lists of the characters my killer is knocking off. Whatever is being muttered, you can guarantee the men in pristine white coats will be hauling me off to the room with squishy walls and then what would happen to my lists?  I do have a sense of responsibility…not to mention a rather persistent Type-A psyche.

Anyway, when I turned my attention to what I’d share this week, it just made sense to make yet another list.  Think David Letterman and his Ten Top Things…only a lot more fun(ny?)  Okay, maybe it’s just me that thinks I can make a fun(nier) list.

Top Ten Things This Writer Needs to Make the NY Times Bestselling List

In no particular order.
Except #1 tops the list.
And I can’t write without a laptop, and…
Hmmm, never mind.  No particular order!

 1.   Gallons of Exotic-Flavored Coffee, preferably delivered at the top of the hour by a barrista with six-pack abs & a sexy smile.

 2.   Laptop with 42-hour battery so I’m not tethered to the office wall and can write poolside. Oh! I need a pool, too!!

 3.   Hours of romantic and inspirational writing music to get me in the mood.

 4.   Story ideas, people who continue to the do the things they do to provide my murderous and romantic inspiration.

 5.   Empty email Inboxes, magically addressed by email elves.

 6.   Private chef to make meals to help me lose weight while giving me strength to create and gentler curves to fit into my slinky, NY Times Bestselling author celebration clothes.

 7.   Press Secretary to handle all of my promotion so I can write the Bestseller.

 8.   Housekeeper to control the dust bunny ranch and put Peppermint Patties (little mints just won’t do!) on my pillow when she turns down my covers.

 9.   36 hours in a day, not necessary as long as the email elves, secretaries, and housekeeper do their jobs.

10.  And, last but not least, readers who think everything I write is “golden”!

I said it’s what this writer needs.  Needless to say, I’m still working on my list.  🙂

See you next Thursday for another rousing entry in Karen’s Diary Drop-In….

[[Welcome to my weekly writer’s diary where I’ll share my “Woot Woot!” moments and the not so “woot woot” moments of my writing world. And, yes, I might even share the occasional musing or two about reading and writing, two of my favorite things!]]

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Dear Diary,

            It’s Thursday ~ 09/27/12 ~ and…

As you may know — if you’ve been following any of  my recent Facebook laments — I’ve had another wild and interesting week.   If I were a negative person, rather than the upbeat one than I usually am, I would be wondering when the cloud over my head would lob the next lightning bolt into my world.  But, I am that positive person so I don’t want to talk (much 🙂 ) about what went wrong this past week.  Let’s focus on the good stuff and what I’ve learned…about me and the book industry.

To catch up the tardy readers (Hey, it’s okay to be behind on your blog/email/loop viewing! With any luck, you’re behind because you’ve been having a life!), my novel, SATIN PLEASURES, was pirated.  You can read all the sordid details in the Announcement I ran on Monday. I essentially gave the pirate site notice to take my book down or face my wrath…well, my nicely pointed fingernails against a chalkboard.  No, I didn’t say that either but the sentiment is there, you’ll need to read between the lines.

I have to admit, when I decided to self-publish, it never even reached the realm of possibility in my brain that anyone would ever want to steal something I wrote.  I mean, that only happens to N.Y. Times best-selling authors, right?

Wrong!  Imagine my surprise when I opened up a Google Alert on Monday and discovered someone else was giving away my book.  Without my permisson!  The gall!

Okay, no, I didn’t quite react that way, in an all fire and brimstone, take them out and shoot ’em vein. Remember my “no one would ever want to steal my work” surety?  For a long time — hmmm, a relatively long time in dog years — all I could do was stare at the evidence with disbelief.  This couldn’t be right. I think the biggest shock to my system had more to do with the idea someone thought I was important enough to pirate than with the act itself.  I mean, I just gave away an enormous number of freebies to get my book into reader hands, didn’t I?  This person was giving them away.  (There wasn’t an overt monetary gain that I could see anyway.) What was a few more?  I wanted my book in reader hands, didn’t I?

Interestingly enough, I learned several things about myself trying to answer these questions.

1.  I’m a control freak.  This is not really news to anyone who knows me, or if you’ve been keeping me company on this blog any length of time. However, I now know the reason I am enjoying my Indie career can be traced right back to my need to control all aspects of my writing.  I also know, deep down, I would never have been happy writing for the traditional marketplace.  I would have done it, had any of the editors who liked my work offered me a contract. But I can see now that, sooner or later, I was going to rail at the lack of control I had over much of my career.  If I’m going to muck it up, it needs to be because I screwed up.  Not because I had no say in the process.

I might not have had any control over what happened in this instance. Much as it pains me to say this, this is only one of the Indie publishing bugaboos over which I have little control.  The point is that it felt good to address the problem myself…well, in principle. 🙂

Which brings me to the second thing I learned about myself….

2.  I haven’t distanced “Business Me” as far from “Writing Me” as I thought, as much as I need to at any rate.  I spent over 30 years in the business world, in management, no less. I knew how to handle myself at work. I didn’t allow my feelings to overcome what I knew had to be done to take care of a problem. I managed to keep a cool head most of the time.  “Writing Me”?  Panicsville!  That may be an overstatement but it would seem that my writing self is a bit too much in touch with her feelings.  Because they were hurt.  And she ran like a panicked jackrabbit to the Facebook rabbit hole in a tizzy.

There’s nothing wrong with asking for help.  I’ll admit that I’m learning Indie publishing as I go, and I’ve made a lot of wonderful friends in the book industry who are all too eager to teach me what I need to know.  Thankfully, all of those fabulous friends immediately came to my rescue, made suggestions, and gave me solutions to pursue.  I think what surprised me most about the whole affair was that “Business Me” didn’t take charge first, calm the writer inside and then go fix the problem.  I’ve always been both right and left brained. It would appear that I’ve swung a little more to my emotional side when it comes to my writing career. I’m not convinced this is a problem because I need those emotions to write well. But, I need to work on finding a better balance with my practical, problem-solving self. Practical me needs to take care of business. Period.

Which brings me to the third thing I’ve learned about myself….

3.  I’m as insecure about my own writing as I ever was over the <mumble> years I’ve been doing this shtick. I have confidence in my ability most of the time.  I’ve worked hard to hone my craft and revised my heart out. I know I can write, I’m learning the publishing ins-and-outs I never bothered to learn while I was aimed at traditional markets, and I’ve learned to toot my own horn when deep in my heart I’m an introvert who only wants to sit in a room by myself and create worlds.  Sound like most writers you know?

Did you happen to notice my earlier conviction that no one would ever want to steal something I wrote?  On the heels of my astonishment so many people downloaded my book when it was free, having someone think it worth the “trouble” of stealing it pointed at a basic insecurity about my work I thought I’d eradicated. After all, aren’t we supposed to be the first to know our own worth?  Not I, said the fox! 🙂 I have no delusions that everyone picked up my free book because of what was inside — although to give most readers credit many did download it because of the promise of what I said, in the blurb, was inside, as well as the sample chapter that was available — but the new cover is spectacular and catches the eye.  In any case, I find it interesting that these two instances brought my basic insecurities to light.

Now that I’m aware of it, maybe I won’t go in quite such a tizzy when something goes awry. Maybe not.  A little insecurity may be a good thing, right? Makes me work harder. Keeps me from getting a big head. Gives me something to talk about in my diary entry. 🙂  I’ll take the new knowledge and move forward.

Speaking of moving forward, before I turn this diary page, I need to remind everyone of two fun things that are coming up. One for readers. One for writers, and maybe readers who want to become writers.

My first bookstore signing is coming up in three days!  If you’re in the Denver Metro area come see me and just say hi.  Hugs and smiles are always welcome, even if you don’t buy my book.  Date: This Saturday, September 29th; Where: A Novel’s Story Bookstore & Fine Tea Emporium, 17 N. Main Street, Brighton, Colorado. Who: I’m signing alongside award-winning SciFi and Western author, Cynthia Woolf.  She’s highlighting her wonderful Centauri series while I’m signing romantic comedy.  Your bribe chocolates are already in the bag…well, most of them. Somehow, the bag got a hole this week and a few went missing in all of the trauma this week.  I need to check the dogs’ breath. I’m sure they’re the guilty parties!

The second event is my 4-week plotting workshop, The “W” Plot…Or The Other White Meat For Plotters. Class begins Monday, October 1st.  If you’re a writer and need a plotting technique even a pantser can use (my first book written with this technique is SATIN PLEASURES), check out the basic information below. This will be my last workshop of 2012 and is good for beginners and experienced writers.  Those who join me will get a real hands-on-your-own-book experience.

Dates: October 1 -31, 2012 Fee: OIRW Outreach International Romance Writers Member $20 Fee: Non-Member $25  Workshop is open to all. You do not have to be a RWA or Outreach member. To register, go to http://www.oirwa.com/forum/campus/. For more information, contact Maria Connor, 2012 OIRW Campus Coordinator. http://www.oirwa.com/officers-volunteers/contact-campus-coordinator/. To find out more about Outreach International Romance Writers, please visit http://www.oirwa.com/

That’s it for now. I’m off for another round of adventures. Hope yours are full of fun, and not the least bit rocky!  See you next Thursday for another rousing entry in Karen’s Diary Drop-In….