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Merry Christmas! (Free Elise & Lucent Christmas Story)
I didn’t know if I’d have time for this originally, but then I got hit with some inspiration after someone showed me a neat picture that was perfect for an Elise and Lucent Christmas story, so…
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
This is just a fun Christmas story I wanted to write with Elise and Lucent. It’s a little sweet, a little sexy, and a little something more, too. You can download a copy for your Kindle, Nook, iPad, Kobo Reader, or you can also just read it online. It’s about ~40 paperback pages long or so.
In addition to that, I kind of went overboard with the cover and made an animated version, haha. I thought it’d be fun. It’s nothing too crazy, but I think it ended up looking pretty neat. Also, please feel free to share this post with anyone you think might like it! It’s my Christmas gift to you, but you’re welcome to gift it to others, as well.
This story goes along with The Billionaire’s Paradigm, so it makes a bit more sense if you’ve read that. It’s kind of a throwback to what happened in the library that fateful weekend. I hope you enjoy it! ❤
All I Want for Christmas is Lucent (Download or Read Online) ~
Kindle Version
Nook, Kobo, and iPad Version
Online Version (Read Online)
~*~ Sneak Peek Preview ~*~
Snow fell in fluffy white flakes outside, covering the empty streets in a heavy winter frosting…
I stood inside, near the door, looking out and remembering the time I’d been in almost this exact same position nearly a year ago. I was in the library then, standing behind the counter, warm and watching the gentle flakes of snow drifting down into the street. It was Friday afternoon then, and the library had been almost entirely empty. No one had wanted to go out in the storm, and for good reason.
We were in a record-breaking blizzard at the time. Over seventy-eight inches of snow. I didn’t find out until after, but most of the city had been snowed in, trapped because of the weather. The power had gone out almost everywhere, though the library had fared much better because of the emergency electric grid it was on. It was lucky, I thought. I was lucky. Not just because of that, but because of what happened.
Lucent came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my stomach. Instinctively, I leaned back against him and nuzzled my head into his chest. He leaned forward somewhat, his cheek close to mine, his lips near my ear, soft, almost kissing me.
“Hello,” he said. “Am I interrupting anything?”
I laughed, and Lucent grinned. I felt the tug of his cheek near to my ear. He squeezed me even tighter, holding me close.
“That’s not what you said,” I told him.
“No,” he agreed. “You weren’t napping, though.”
“Should I?” I asked. “Can we do that?”
I twisted in his arms until we were face to face and I was looking up at him. He smiled down at me and nodded slightly. “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it, Miss Tanner?”
“I know, but… you don’t think it’s silly, do you? You don’t think I’m being too weird?”
He shook his head, no. “Those are fond memories for me, too,” he said. “Also, it’s almost Christmas. This is the time of year when we’re supposed to honor and cherish our true feelings.”
“My true feelings are that I love you,” I said with a small smile. “But I think it would be fun to do a sort of recreation of when we were in the library, that’s all. I think it might be nice.”
“We’re going to start at the beginning then?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Um, sort of? This isn’t exactly a library, you know.”
He shook his head, letting out a low chuckle. “No, not quite. It’s snowing, too, but not nearly as bad as it did back then.”
“Alright, well, um… wait! Wait, before we begin, did you order food yet or were we going to cook something here?”
“I ordered something,” Lucent said.
My ears perked up and I stared at him, rapt. “What did you get?”
“Curious little one, are you?” Lucent said with a grin.
“Lucent, you can’t start yet!” I said, laughing and pushing him lightly.
He’d said almost exactly that to me those many months ago in the library. Wrapped his arms around me again, he pulled me close to him.
“Is it good, though?” I asked. “Did you order something nice?”
“Of course I did,” he said, as if the idea of ordering something not nice had never occurred to him. I supposed that made sense, too, but I still kind of wanted to know what he got.
“We have about an hour,” he added. “The snow isn’t too bad, but it’s going to take them a little longer than usual to get here.”
“An hour,” I said. “Alright, that’s good. That will work. I’ll um… I’m going. Into that room. The one with the bookshelves.” I glanced towards the couch in the main room of the log cabin, a sudden idea coming to me. “I’m taking these!” I added, slipping out of his arms and towards the couch, excited. I grabbed the blanket and two overstuffed couch pillows, piling them in my arms.
Lucent smiled. “I’ll give you a few moments, Miss Tanner.”
“I only need about a minute,” I said. “Then come in, alright?”
“Hurry, then,” Lucent said, staring after me as I rushed away.
Before I ran into the adjacent room, I peeked at him out of the corner of my eye. He smiled after me, his eyes twinkling, interested and intent. This was going to be fun, I thought. It was what I wanted to do, and I thought it’d be a lot of fun.
***
I awoke, or I thought I did, and I saw a man…
Lucent stood in front of me. He wasn’t wearing the same dark, crisp suit with the black shoes and his grey tie that he’d been wearing that evening when he found me in the library nearly a year ago. No, he wore simpler clothes now. A plain, dark grey sweater, with a nice pair of dress pants. His shoes would have looked similar if he had them on, but neither of us wore any at the moment. He had on black socks, though.
Before he came in, I plopped the couch pillows next to each other, and then lay on top of them. I cuddled under the blankets, keeping one eye shut while I kept the other carefully trained on the doorway, waiting. When I saw Lucent come in, I snapped both my eyes closed and waited for him to step closer. As soon as he did, as soon as I no longer heard his quiet footsteps coming towards me, I yawned and blinked open my eyes, pretending to have just awoken from a nice nap.
Lucent cleared his throat. “Hello,” he said. “Am I interrupting your nap?”
I yawned and stretched my arms up over my head. I didn’t have a book this time, just a blanket. I pushed the blanket aside and stretched my arms even higher, arching my back and pushing out my breasts to give Lucent a show.
“Quiet little one, are you?” he asked, staring at my breasts. “What if I were looking for a book?”
“I…” I paused, trying to remember what I’d said back then when he’d asked me these very same questions. “Um… I hardly think it necessary…” Oh, and I’d yawned! I yawned quick, hoping to hide my hesitation and uncertainty.
“To deal,” Lucent said, finishing my sentence for me, “with figments of your imagination.”
I pouted at him, crossing my hands over my chest. “Lucent, you stole my line.”
“What if I am a figment of your imagination right now?” he asked me, grinning, coy. I didn’t like that look; or, I liked it a lot. He had a plan, and I thought it meant he was up to something.
“What if you are?” I asked. “What would you do?”
“Do you want to know what I was thinking that day, Miss Tanner?”
The way he said it, the way he kept looking at me so intently… I gulped hard, then swallowed even harder.
Lucent pulled the blanket away, sweeping it off to the side. He knelt down, joining me on the pillows. One of his knees pushed between my thighs, claiming space between my body. The rest of his body… well…
He leaned forward, closer to me. I started to lean back and away from him, curious and wanting to watch this sudden turn of events. I didn’t have far to go, though. There was nothing behind me to keep me from falling, and I inadvertently found myself doing exactly that. I fell backwards, my back and my head bouncing atop the overstuffed couch pillow beneath me.
Lucent loomed over me, staring at me, watching me.
“I refrained, because I didn’t want to frighten you at the time, Miss Tanner. Obviously it would have been more than untoward and inappropriate, as well, but the sight of your breasts propped up by that book nearly sent me into a frenzy,” Lucent said.
“It did?” I asked him. “I remember I was nervous, because I hadn’t realized it at first, but then… then you were real.”
“You were wearing a skirt, too. Do you remember what happened?” he asked.
I did. I wasn’t wearing this exact skirt, but I had a skirt on right now that was close enough to the one from before. I wore a dressy blouse, too. No shoes, and no pantyhose this time, though. I had stockings that went halfway up my thigh instead, and then panties further up.
I reached down and pulled my skirt up a little, reliving that time in the library. I’d fallen asleep on a bean bag chair and hadn’t fully realized my surroundings at the time, but Lucent must have.
My skirt hiked up, a book held close to my stomach, pushing up my breasts, and him standing over me, watching me, gazing at me with…
With what? I didn’t know before. I knew now. I wondered what I would have thought about it back then. Would we have… what? Nothing good, I thought. Things like that didn’t happen, not really. Or, they took a little more time. Lucent couldn’t very well have forced himself onto me right then and there, you know? And, I knew him now; he wouldn’t have done that, regardless. No matter what he said, and no matter how he acted, Lucent was always careful with me. He cared about me. He didn’t want to hurt me.
Or, he didn’t want to hurt me a lot. He’d gladly spank me, tie me up, make me beg, and do other wonderfully unspeakable things to me, but… well, I liked those things.
“You were watching me,” I told him as he stared at me with that intense and steady gaze of his. “You were always watching me, and so I know you must have been watching me then. You made me upset later, though. You said you didn’t want to look at me, and that was when I wanted you to look at me.”
“I was always looking at you, Miss Tanner,” Lucent said. “Always.”
“Where?” I asked. “Where were you looking then? What were you thinking when you found me in the library?”
“When I first found you, I immediately noticed your skirt,” he said. “It was up to about here, as you may have already realized.”
His fingers caressed up my stockings, towards the barest inkling of my upper thigh hidden beneath my skirt. He wrapped his fingers around my thigh, gripping me tight.
“I wanted to see more,” he said. “You really have no idea, Miss Tanner. You were wearing pantyhose, but I wanted to see the rest of you beneath that skirt of yours. It took all of my willpower to keep myself from staring between your legs.”
“If I remember correctly, you stared at my breasts instead,” I said, laughing. “I don’t think that’s much better, Lucent.”
“They were beautiful, too,” he said. “Propped up, plump, and luscious. I licked my lips when I saw you like that. It was over all too soon, though. Once you realized what position you were in, you jumped up and returned the state of your dress back to normal.”
“Yes,” I said, grinning at him, coy. “I think that’s what people usually do.”
“I know,” Lucent said. “In my mind, it went more like this, though.”
“Like–” I didn’t have a chance to ask him how it went; Lucent was already upon me…
(Read the rest by downloading your free copy or reading the online version)
All I Want for Christmas is Lucent ~
Kindle Version
Nook, Kobo, and iPad Version
Online Version (Read Online)
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Newsletter Delayed (Sorry!)
Sorry about the late notice on this one, for those who were looking forward to receiving my weekly newsletter today.
The website that I use to manage my newsletter stuff and have it sent out to everyone is going to be doing updates and maintenance on their servers shortly. This means that any scheduled newsletters may potentially have issues and be sent out late, or not sent out, or what have you. I’m not really sure, actually, as this is the first time they’ve done maintenance/updates while I’ve used them.
This isn’t cause for alarm or anything, just general everyday stuff. I have no idea what kind of everyday general stuff is involved, but I’m sure they have a handle on it. It’s just the mailing servers, I think (so like email related things, nothing crazy).
Anyways! The newsletter for this week is going to be a little delayed because of that. I’m hoping/planning to send it out on Thursday once all of this is finished.
Want a sneak peek ahead of time? These are a few of the things I’ll be including in this week’s newsletter!
-New cover art for Spark of Hope: The Monster Within (with Bolt of Trust, Breath of Bliss, Drop of Doubt, Ember of Ecstasy, and Rise of Spirit to follow!) Rise of Spirit will actually be done with the new cover art style for the series right from the get go.
-Rise of Spirit will be released soon after the unfortunate delays from me being sick, and I’ll be doing a promo price of $0.99 for the first few days of it being on sale.
-A bunch of stuff about Hunted, and me becoming an Amazon Top 100 Best Selling Fantasy and Fantasy Romance author. This is really exciting, since it’s not just Hunted that’s a best selling book (it is currently, which is also exciting), but me as an author getting on a special author list. This is neat because really, I owe it to everyone who has purchased one of my books and enjoyed it. I really try to write things that I think you’ll all like, so when something like this happens, it makes me excited to know that I’m heading in the right direction.
-Random reference, but, to date, I’ve been an Amazon Top 100 Best Selling Author in Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, and Romantic Suspense. Hunted and The Billionaire’s Ultimatum have been the two novels that you’ve all enjoyed the most and that helped me get on those lists, so if you haven’t checked them out yet, then why not give them a shot?
-The paperback version of The Billionaire’s Ultimatum will be going up in price soon in preparation for wider distribution to places like B&N, etc. If you want to get it at a decent discount, grab it before then. Once the price increases, you’ll be able to order it on BN.com and in your local B&N bookstore, though (they should be able to ship it right to the store for you, so you can go pick it up locally if you’d like). The price won’t be too much more, but I’ll put the specifics in the newsletter when it goes out.
-And some exciting pre-info about an event I’m going to be doing in November! (Hint: It has to do with NaNoWriMo, and it should be fun)
That’s it! Sorry again for the delay, but keep an eye out for the newsletter as it should be available within the new few days!
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A New Freebie!
Hello!
I mentioned in my newsletter this week that I was going to put up a new free story in the freebie section soon, and… well, hey! It’s there now. This is a sweeter one, and some of you may have read it already, but for those who haven’t, I hope you’ll check it out and see if you like it. I won’t spoil what it is, because it’s kind of like a present, I guess? You know, like… it’s fun to find out what it is after you open it (after you go to the freebie page), and then you can either get really excited or bemoan receiving a fruit cake for Christmas (or whatever holiday, I guess. I kind of like fruit cake, though, so maybe that’s not a great example).
Anyways! It’s there, so go check it out.
For those who can’t figure out how to get on the freebie page (because I haven’t figured out how to put good directions for it yet. Sorry!), you’ll need to sign up for my newsletter, which you can do on the side over there somewhere (—->). I send out newsletters on a weekly basis, and include the password to access my freebies from there. You also get fun information about stuff! What kind of stuff? Well, it varies a bit. I’ll mention my new releases and how I’m doing on specific stories, or what’s coming soon, all of that. I like to talk about other random things, too, like what I’m reading, or what I think of book things. And, I include fun little tips and tricks about sexy things (or things I think are sexy, at least. They aren’t always strictly tips, I suppose).
So… yes! Newsletters go out on Tuesdays, generally, and I’ve got two freebies available as of now, so… if you haven’t signed up yet, what are you waiting for?
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Something Different
I wanted to write this post yesterday, but I thought it best to wait. Sometimes I get really excited about things and don’t think much on the specifics. It’s gotten me in trouble before, somewhat, where I think I can just jump right into something, do something, and… nope! Sometimes you just can’t do that, you know? So I thought I should just think a bit first, figure everything out and the logistics behind it, then go from there.
Anyways! Saying that, I basically ended up with the same conclusion that I had before, so I guess I didn’t really need to wait all that much, haha.
I write erotic things. I like erotic things. I think sex is fun to write about and talk about from a logical point of view. I’m kind of a strange person in those regards. In my personal life, I don’t really feel very comfortable with “sexy” conversations, but I’d be more than happy to have a conversation about sex. I don’t know how that works exactly, but let’s just go with it.
While I like sex and writing it and all of that, it’s not the only thing I like, of course. That’d be kind of weird if it were, I’d say. I like a lot of other things, too. To be honest, in general, I like writing. I think that’s one of the only constants in my life, for a long while now. I get really into it, and whenever I stop doing it for a day or two, I get kind of nervous to get back to it. I don’t like to not write and if there’s ever a time where I can’t write, I get antsy to get back to it.
I started writing a long long time ago. I don’t remember exactly when, but I’ve always loved writing. I never realized it exactly until later, but I think deep down I just always did. I mistook it for other things, somewhat. I knew I wanted to tell stories, but I didn’t link that with writing for awhile.
I started writing more seriously (much more seriously) after reading On Writing by Stephen King. I don’t really know what it was about that book that did it for me, but everything just sort of clicked in place after I read it. There are a few things that I really enjoyed about that book and that I’ll always remember.
First and foremost was that he never thought of writing as a job or a chore or anything like that. I don’t remember the exact specifics, but Mr. King likened writing to taking a nap. It’s a nice, relaxing thing that he enjoys doing. That shifted something for me, and afterwards I thought of writing differently. I liked it. I knew I liked it. And then why was I treating it like an arduous task? I don’t know.
Another was the concept of just writing. Sounds dumb, but you need to write, right? Yes. He suggested just going at it, doing 2,000 words a day, which he considered a good pace of things. I don’t exactly know if I agree with that now, as I think in general 2,000 isn’t too much, but in the beginning it was my milestone. I wrote 2,000 words a day, almost every single day, for a long time after reading that book. I don’t write 2,000 words a day now sometimes, but I try to do more when I can. I have editing and other writing tasks to take care of, which puts a damper into that, but it works out for the best. I think on my best day I wrote something like 9,000, though, so maybe it makes up for it? I write more than 2,000 a day now, when I can get straight to writing without worrying about other stuff, so it evens out.
And finally was something that I think a lot of writers struggle with. Again, I don’t remember the exact wording, but in the book he mentions that if you wrote something, and then sold it, and with the money you paid your electric bill, he considers you a talented writer. That last one is difficult for a lot of writers sometimes. We get stressed a lot. I think it’s an occupational hazard. Is our writing good enough? Do people like it? I still feel a sort of sense of relief when people tell me they like my writing, and my heart clenches a little when someone says they didn’t think it was good enough. I want people to have their opinions, regardless, and I want people to be able to freely say if they like or dislike something, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt a little bit, you know? We put our hearts and souls into writing something, worrying that we’re just some talentless hack, and…
But, well, Stephen King considers me a talented writer, even though we’ve never met, and I appreciate that. I’ve paid multiple electric bills with my writing money, and I hope to pay all the rest of my future electric bills with it, too.
I mentioned up above that I wrote 2,000 words a day for a long while. That was something like 2 years worth of writing. I guess I consider it my “dues” in a way. I never published any of that. Unfortunately I didn’t edit much of any of that, either. It’s not bad writing, and in fact I think the stories I wrote are wonderful, but they need some work in the editing department.
The other “unfortunate” part is that nothing that I wrote was really erotic. There were some sex scenes, sure, but not a lot and not really often. Mostly flirting and stuff like that. It was more standard YA in a lot of ways, with a fantasy hint. Some of it was with older characters, but even that was closer to what New Adult is now, though without a lot of the elements that are popular in current New Adult things.
I’d really like to do something with that writing, and I guess I’ve planned to all along, but I never knew exactly what to do with it. I don’t even know what my initial plans were, but I just wanted to write it. I wrote over a million words, and it’s just sitting on my computer, collecting digital dust.
My plan is to work through that slowly and release it. Back then, I had this huge issue with editing. I don’t really know how to explain it, except to say that editing really is work, and it takes a long time to get used to it. I tried a lot of things to get better at editing, and the only thing that really worked was just to do it, and do more of it. I’ve been doing it a lot for the past few years, preparing myself, and I have a good handle on it now. It takes time, but not nearly as much as it used to for me (mainly because it seems difficult and boring at times, but it’s not really, you know? I don’t know how to explain that very well. It’s more of an acquired taste that you -need- to acquire as a writer, so you just do).
I’m going to be branching out a little because of that. None of that writing belongs grouped together with my current writing, so I’m going to be starting a new pen name to do that. This isn’t really anything new and writers have been doing it for awhile (Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb is a great example that I can think of off the top of my head). If it were anything but YA stuff, I’d probably just go with it, but I don’t think YA belongs in the same catalogue as erotic things. Once I have my book(s) up, I’ll gladly let everyone know, though. I think some people who like erotica and erotic romance and all of that will also enjoy YA things, I just don’t think the YA crowd would/should know about the erotic stuff, you know?
I’m really excited about this, though. Excited and a bit nervous. Those original stories are kind of like my hidden secret, I guess. You know the type, where you don’t tell anyone, because you’re afraid of getting hurt? I want to share, and I want to tell that story and let people read it, but like I mentioned above, I’m scared of being considered a “talentless hack” still. A lot of me and my time was put into these stories (two years, and more by the time I’m done with them), and… I don’t know, if you spent two years doing something because you enjoyed it, and then you showed someone the fruits of your labor, and they said something mean about it, how would you feel? I guess that’s it, but it’s just something writers need to deal with, too.
So that’s where I’m at! This shouldn’t affect my other writing in any way. I’ll just be slowly going through my older writing and editing a little here and there. I actually really enjoy editing sometimes, and some days I’m like, “Ugh… I need to finish writing this thing I’m working on, because I really just want to spend a day editing…” And now I can! A lot!
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What Romance means to me (Insatiable Reads Blog Hop)
Hello! This might be your first time to my website, and if so, I just wanted to say thanks for stopping by. I know you’re probably here for a chance to win some prizes, so I’ll put that info right at the top after this introduction. I hope you’ll consider checking out the rest of the post and some of my books, too, though.
Anyways!
Blog Hop Grand Prizes (2):
A Kindle Fire
A $50 Amazon.com Gift Certificate
My Blog’s Prize (1):
A $10 Gift Certificate to either Amazon, B&N, iTunes, or All Romance eBooks (Your choice).
To enter to win a prize, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. The more participating blogs that you leave comments at, the more chances you have to win (and each blog has their own special prizes, too, so that’s ~150+ chances to win something!). The giveaway will end on 7/21 at 11:59pm EST. For more info, check out http://www.insatiablereads.com/
Not sure what other blogs are participating? Go here:
Isn’t that blue monster guy face cute? I think he’s cute. He looks so happy.
Now that that’s all set and I think you have a good idea of what to do to enter, let’s get on to the post!
I’m going to go at this kind of like one of those school assignments. You know the ones, right? What does mean to you? Well, seeing as a write erotic romance and erotica with some romantic themes, I thought it’d be fun to do that.
Romance is a really interesting genre, because it can include so many different ideas and concepts. Even erotica is similar, where it’s a general theme, with so many various sub-genres that it’s a little scary sometimes. How do you know what you’re getting or what to look for? It’s hard! (Sometimes literally. Those heroic men, oh my. *fans self*)
One thing you should find in most romances is a happy ending. I know some people might disagree and think that you don’t necessarily need one, but I think you definitely do. It doesn’t have to be the happiest ending, but it’s got to be pretty happy. This one’s kind of a given, though.
And what else? Um… well, that’s about it, actually.
Some people say that you can’t have the main lovers partake in sexual relationships with anyone else, but I’m not entirely sure if I agree there. Why? Because sometimes it adds something necessary to the plot and it makes the story a lot more real. If the heroine(h) and the hero(H) are having some rocky times, adding a little sexual tension with some other characters can enhance that a lot.
It also hurts. What do I mean by that? It makes the fantasy a little more and less at the same time. We want to see the h and the H get together, but… now the h is sleeping with another man. Is this a permanent thing? Is the story over? We’re supposed to have a happy ending, right? We need that, and I just told you we’re going to get it, but…
Sometimes a story is happier when there’s some trouble involved. Sometimes it takes making mistakes to realize what your true feelings are. It’s difficult, and sometimes it hurts to see people make mistakes like that, especially in romance books where we desperately want the h and the H to get together and be happy. If they don’t make mistakes, then the happiness isn’t as great, though. That’s what I think.
That’s not to say that the h or the H need to make the same mistakes all the time, because that’d get boring, too, but the whole point of mistakes like this is to make the reward at the end so much better. Kind of like some mental BDSM sort of thing, maybe? A little bit of pain can increase sensitivity and sensation and make the pleasure so much better.
And, honestly? I think that’s what romance means to me in a lot of ways. It’s about experimenting, maybe stumbling, and then finding that one person who accepts you and your mistakes and loves you anyways. They’re there for you, and while it might have involved some hurt in order to get to where you are in the end, it’s worth it because it made the happiness a lot better.
Romance is about perfection, but it’s not about being perfect. It’s about the characters realizing their flaws and then realizing that they like each other, flaws and all, and they’ll help each other move past that to become a better person. Together. Separate, life can be really difficult, but when you’re together with someone, sometimes you can grasp at a little bit of perfection.
What do you think? Do you agree, or do you think there’s something else to it? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
If you’d like to check out some of my romance-themed books, here are some of my suggestions. I adore plot, but as a warning my sex scenes are explicit, some more so than others.
Princess Miri: An Erotic Coming of Age Monster Romance Novel (Medieval Fantasy Erotic Romance, involves taboo themes)
The Billionaire’s Ultimatum: His Absolute Need (Contemporary Erotic Romance, with BDSM and forbidden love themes)
His Absolute Obsession: The Billionaire’s Paradigm (Contemporary Erotic Romance, the first in a completed series of novellas/novels, with BDSM and obsession themes, the standalone sequel to The Billionaire’s Ultimatum)
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One Year Personal Review
I’ve been deliberating over actually writing this or not. I decided to go for it, because I don’t think it can hurt, and I think some of you would be interested in reading it.
Before embarking on my journey of self-publishing, I used to work in some not so fun places. Lots of customer service and all of that. Just plain, basic things, and nothing very entertaining, but I didn’t mind it. I didn’t really like it, though, and I’ve always wanted to write, so on July 10th, 2012, I published my first e-book. I think I did it on Smashwords first, then I put it up on the other places after, so those places didn’t have it until July 11th, but I like to think of my “official” indie author anniversary as July 10th. It’s a pretty nice day, generally speaking.
So, anyways! I’m sure everyone’s done them, but a lot of places I’ve worked at like to do those yearly reviews, you know? I never liked those, and I’m sort of argumentative about them. I once marked down that I thought I went above and beyond in regards to dress code, because I try to look nice, right? Except, no, I was told that it’s impossible to go above and beyond on dress code. If you come to work appropriately dressed, then that’s it. Why did they have little check marks for anything besides “acceptable” then? I have no idea, and I asked that, but no one gave me a good answer. Just because. That’s just kind of silly, but I digress…
Now, as an indie author, I’m going to evaluate myself. If you’ve been following me for awhile, feel free to chime in, too. Let me know if you agree or disagree. I’d be happy to hear it!
First off, I initially planned to just write erotica shorts. My very first stories were Princess Miri, Moonlight Secret, Burning Need, Princess Miri’s Wet Sticky Mess, all written within the span of a couple weeks. I kind of cheated there, because I’d written the Princess Miri and Moonlight Secret stories a long long time ago, but I fixed them up and changed some things, and *POOF*, published!
Out of all those, I honestly didn’t know what exactly I was doing besides with the Princess Miri stories. I love all my stories, don’t get me wrong, but Moonlight Secret and Burning Need were kind of difficult for me. I think they’re good stories, and lots of people have enjoyed them, but I probably won’t be writing much more in the same vein as those.
Mostly, what I noticed within a few weeks was that I liked to write longer things. Hunted by the Beast and Dominant Dreams came up soon after those first ones, and both of those are noticeably longer. They aren’t long by any means, but I got to delve into more of what I liked.
And, basically, what I really like is plot. I think plot is kind of sexy, you know? I don’t know if that makes a lot of sense. Some people like to just read stories with an idea, but I can’t do that very well. A decent, popular example is something like… let’s say, the barely legal babysitter and the single father (or maybe not single? Scandalous!). It’s just the idea that arouses people, which is perfectly fine, but I can’t really get into reading or writing that too much. Something like that is more writing towards kinks or fetishes.
I won’t lie, I do it sometimes. Generally I add some plot in there, too, though. To a lot of people, that’s weird, but it’s just how I like to write. I think I provide something different and entertaining for anyone who wants a little more with their story.
That’s basically when it began. After feeling things out and getting more accustomed to what I preferred and how I preferred to write it, I went on to continue the Princess Miri series, Hunted by the Beast, and I started The Billionaire’s Ultimatum. These were all great choices for me. I did write some standalones in there, and to be honest you can read most all of my stories as a standalone if you like, but the plot was what drove me onwards, and I think people like that, too. The characters can build upon themselves and their world and explore it more, you know?
Miri started out as a bratty princess who was targeted by the daughter of one of her father’s vassels, but she became something else entirely. I mean, sure, she’s still kind of bratty, but I like Miri. I think Miri’s a really fun character. Thump grew, too. Then Allysin came into the picture, and we got to learn a little more about the castle from her perspective. Fleur evolved into… well, we won’t talk about Fleur (she’s kind of a bitch). The King, the citizens, Roy, all of it.
I do that with all of my stories now, and I’m trending towards longer, which I think a lot of people prefer. I want you to know the characters and feel more intimately about them. When Miri clears out the dungeons and takes them over for her and Thump to use, and then she treats it like a very private place where they can hide together, be alone, talk and learn and explore their sexuality safely, I want you to kind of realize how Miri feels, you know? She’s a princess, and sort of a brat or a bitch, but she’s a human, too, and she’s not immune to weakness. She just doesn’t have anyone and she’s not sure how to relate to anyone, and so Thump being hers and exploring with her and letting her have her moments of being a spoiled princess while also being the dominant monster troll that he is, well…
I find that a lot sexier. Miri’s emotions and need and desires, and her shortcomings and fears and worries; it makes the entire scene more intense to me. It’s sexy and erotic, but it’s also something more, too. That’s how I feel about that, at least. You can’t get that in a quick barely legal babysitter story, you know? You can get the sexy and erotic part, but you can’t get the “more” that I personally want to go along with it.
I could give examples of this sort of thing throughout all of my stories, but if you’ve read them it’s probably easy to see, too.
In addition to all of that, I’ve started working more towards adding paperbacks, novelizing my serials, and working on audiobooks. The paperbacks and serials-to-novels are somewhat obvious, but one thing I’ve noticed is that I need to have a good schedule of this. I have a “Publishing Schedule” tab on my website, but I need to fix it up a bit. My general plan when I started, and what I want to do now, is to have a new novel for you all every ~2 months or so. The paperback first, then the e-book after. I have a lot of reasons for why I do it in that order, but they’re kind of boring marketing stuff, so I won’t go into that. What this generally will mean is that ~6 months after the start of a series, the novel version should come out soon after. That won’t always be exactly the case, but I should be able to stick pretty closely to that schedule for the foreseeable future.
Audiobooks are interesting and difficult, but in a good way. The thing with those is that I really want to find narrators that bring the characters to life, you know? Sometimes I go searching for the perfect narrator, and other times I’ll put a story up and let people send in their auditions. The audiobooks I have so far are good, but some of the auditions really miss the point. They aren’t bad by any means, and these are professional narrators, but I can tell when someone’s not really into the story and only wants to make money.
I want to provide you with an amazing experience, and so I will only produce audiobooks with narrators who can put the necessary emotion into the scenes. You’ll find a lot of audiobooks that lack this, and some of those audiobooks are alright. If you just want to “hear” the story, they’re perfectly great and I’ve got nothing against that. For what I do, because I want to provide you “more” in the e-book and paperback versions, I want to find narrators that will help you experience the story, too. Overall, I just want to give you more, because that’s what I would want.
And so! That’s about it. That’s where we’re at so far. I appreciate everyone coming on this journey with me, too. As an indie author, I think that the reader/writer relationship is a bit closer than with a big publishing house’s authors. I try to be a little closer, and like my stories I want to give a little “more” than what you’d get otherwise. I just want to let you know about what’s up and I like to provide you with as much as I can. I’m writing more, working on more, and will continue to try and discover ways where I can improve this in the future.
Also, my business attire is impeccable lately. Far above and beyond! (I like to write at night a lot while wearing pajamas. Shh, don’t tell anyone!)
What do you think? I’d love to hear your opinions. Whether as a new reader or someone who’s just started checking out my stuff, I think all opinions, feedback, questions, or comments are useful and valid, and I like to hear them!
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On Ghostwriting and Jordin Williams
I usually do my best to try and avoid drama. In fact, I basically just ignore people who try to cause drama, or I separate myself from any excessively dramatic situations. I’m perfectly content with having the only real drama in my life be in the stories that I write, because that’s a fun kind of drama, you know? It’s not tiresome and it doesn’t get old.
My one main exception to this rule is when someone says something that’s harmful to others. If someone wants to be involved in drama on their own, that’s their prerogative, but don’t drag in hundreds (thousands, millions?) of people into your issues by making mean, false statements about other people. It’s not only rude, but it’s damaging.
If you’re unsure exactly what I’m talking about, here is the quick version. There was a “new” author named Jordin Williams who released a New Adult Romance book titled Amazingly Broken. This book did very well and got some great reviews right off the bat from a marketing program they had where they contacted a bunch of book bloggers to promote their book. At one point it was close to #50 in the Amazon Kindle Store, which is A LOT of copies sold a day.
This went on for approximately 6 days before someone realized that whole paragraphs (many, many, much more than one or two or “accidental” mistakes) were plagiarized from Easy by Tammara Webber and Beautiful Disaster by Jamie Mcguire. Basically, what it seems like is that this Jordin Williams person cut/pasted segments from each book together, did some minor additions for cohesion, and “created” a new story that… was basically the same as those other two stories. Amazingly Broken wasn’t just similar, it was exactly the same as -at least- those two books. The cover is also the same as HM Ward’s The Arrangement 3 (with extremely minor changes), but that’s at least somewhat forgivable under regular circumstances, since many indie authors purchase the same photos from photographers. We pay for the rights to use these pictures, so it’s different. It doesn’t change the fact that the book was basically a copy/paste job of at least three different books.
So, that’s the story. Lots of people have talked about that, and you can find a ton of posts if you want to search around. I think the most prominent is at the Dear Author site where I first heard about it. This might actually be the first place to release this info, too, though I’m unsure of that.
Anyways!
The thing that bothers me the most about this are some of the Twitter comments that Jordin Williams tossed up in some attempt to mitigate her blame. One in particular essentially said, “Most/Lots of New Adult Romance authors don’t write their own books and hire ghostwriters.” Their defense towards extreme plagiarism before this was that they “hired a ghostwriter” to write their DEBUT NOVEL and didn’t realize the person they hired had done what they did.
First off, this makes no sense. A ghostwriter is basically someone who writes something for someone else for a price, and lets the other person take credit for their work. It’s kind of shady sometimes, but it’s useful in quite a few cases. The most common example is a celebrity’s book, since… honestly, most celebrities probably have an interesting story to tell, but they probably couldn’t write to save their lives. That’s fine, and we want to know their stories, so they chat with a ghostwriter, who takes their life story and writes it up into a book. That’s a perfectly great use of a ghostwriter.
Other places use a ghostwriter for big campaigns, which is also fine. I can’t give any good examples of this, but fantasy books for kids sometimes do this. Basically they want to have an entire “fantasy world” and keep it written by the same author name so that kids can find the books easier. So they have one or two (or more) authors who ghostwrite these books. That example is more like a pen name, but not quite, since some of those authors move on to do their own thing, or quits writing, or (hopefully not, but it happens) dies, and another takes their place. There’s nothing wrong with this, either.
This doesn’t happen for new authors (because why would it? There’s no audience, and there’s no point), and it’s almost guaranteed not to happen with indie authors, either. Indie authors, myself included, work so hard to tell a story, write it to the best of our abilities, edit it, get cover art done, formatting it for e-books, and so much more that people don’t even think about. To claim that a lot of us ignore all of that and have our books written by a ghostwriter is extremely disrespectful and rude. To me, it almost feels like Jordin Williams slapped all of my books out of my hands and told me that none of what I’ve been doing for almost a year now is real. All of the work I put in is a sham, and everyone should know it!
It’s not, though. The work is real. I do all of this myself. I don’t hire out a ghostwriter to write my newest novel. First off, I’m kind of bossy and I micromanage a lot, and I really don’t think a ghostwriter would want to work with me (haha). They’d probably get tired of it fast. Besides that, though, I love writing. I love making the stories my own. I don’t copy/paste people’s ideas. Some of my books might seem similar to other books, and I might have found inspiration in something I’ve read, or watched on TV, or listened to on the radio, but every single word I write is purely my own, and I would NEVER want it any other way.
I think a lot of indie authors are like this, too. It’s honestly a lot of hard work, and some of us have been rejected by big publishers in the past. I’ve never sent a book manuscript into any of the big publishing houses for this reason, too. Lots of people in the world want to make you feel inadequate and bad, just because it’s their job. I doubt that any of the editors at Random House or anywhere have anything against me, but if they don’t think my books will sell hundreds of thousands of copies, then they don’t want to see them and to them, that’s not good enough.
I have books that have sold less than a hundred copies, and I have some that have sold hundreds of copies. I even have some special books that have sold thousands of copies. But, you know what? I like all of them, and someone, somewhere, has also enjoyed each and every one. A big publishing house might not care about a book that’s only sold 83 copies (just making up a number there), but the 83 people who bought that book enjoyed it, and I love that. I love that I’m able to do that.
I admit that I want to write books that more people enjoy, and I’d love to write books that thousands upon thousands of people buy, but I just love to write. I love the time and effort put into it, and it’s extremely enjoyable to me. I love everything about being an indie author, even if some of it’s difficult or confusing or it upsets me sometimes. It’s a good kind of upset most of the time, you know? It means it might be hard now, but I’m doing something right, and in the end it’ll be more satisfying.
Basically, Jordin Williams ignored all of that. They plagiarized some books and published it as their own, and if that’s what they felt like doing, I don’t want to be a part of the drama involved. But the fact that she came out and BASHED other authors, taking away all of their hard work and effort, all of the time they spent perfecting a story, hoping that readers would like it… just throwing it out the window and claiming that lots of us hire ghostwriters?
It’s rude and disrespectful and mean. Most of us don’t do that. Most of us love our stories as much as you love our stories, and we wouldn’t disrespect other authors or readers by trying to place the blame on someone else.
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Product Reviews (and what I think about them)
Hello!
Someone asked me recently about book reviews and the impact they had and if authors thought they were worth it. I thought this was an interesting question, since I’ve kind of been on both sides of it and been able to see how exactly reviews work and affect things on a different level than a lot of readers have. Secretly, I also have an obsession with buying things off of Amazon, and I read a lot of reviews. My most recent purchase is this really neat can opener, for anyone interested.
Anyways! I’m not going to talk just about book reviews right now, though I’ll get to that. I just want to mention reviews in general for a moment, so bear with me.
Why did I buy this particular can opener? Oddly, I didn’t look at the number of stars it had until just now, so that wasn’t it. Mostly, it looks really fancy, especially from the thumb nail. Also, it’s eligible for Amazon Prime 2-day shipping, which is important to me because I have Amazon Prime(it’s really neat and I recommend it if you like to buy things online). I’m a huge sucker for free shipping and prefer to buy things with it, and this can opener had it.
After that, well, it’s a can opener, right? It is, but it isn’t. I needed to read some reviews for this, so I did. I don’t actually read product descriptions a lot when I buy things like this, because they don’t tend to tell you too much(weird, huh?). This can opener in particular is guilty of this. It’s got a bunch of fancy words, but they don’t say much, and that bothers me. This is important, and I’ll come back to it in a moment.
I always check the 1-star reviews first, because I need to see if there’s any legitimate complaints. Check them out if you want.
Mostly, these reviews aren’t saying anything either. Someone gave 1 star because the cord isn’t long enough? Someone else didn’t read the instructions and couldn’t figure out how to get it to cut. Another person admits that they think they got a faulty can opener but didn’t bother to contact the seller and return it. To me, these aren’t very legitimate. If the cord is too short, I can get an extension, or if I can’t figure out how to make it cut then I’ll read the instructions, you know? If it’s broken, I’ll contact the company to get a replacement.
Now, if the company screamed at me after I called or emailed them and told me I was stupid, I’d probably give them a 1-star, but it doesn’t look like anyone’s rated it 1-star for that reason. The only thing I can really gather from this is that these are the type of people who will complain about everything.
For some interesting insight, Tim Ferriss actually mentions this exact thing in one of his recent blog posts. That’s kind of a long article, but interesting. For ease of reference, here’s exactly what he mentions: “The 1- and 2-star are usually written by people who hate everything (look at their other reviews if you
doubt me).”
So, you might wonder, why did I choose this can opener? I definitely needed to make sure there were no legitimate complaints at first, but after that, I checked out some of the more positive reviews. This one sold me immediately. It’s simple and to the point. He made a video of him opening a can with a regular can opener, then shows how the can opener in question works differently. That’s all I wanted to know and see, and once I saw the video, I decided this was a can opener I’d like. Easy, right?
It really is, but that’s the problem with reviews, too. People get confused about what makes a good review, or why they should pay attention to reviews, and for books it can be even worse. If you see a book with a 1-star, you might suddenly assume it’s bad, right? Except what if that poor rating doesn’t say anything? Is it fake? Is it just someone being angry because they’re always angry? Let me find a random book(that isn’t mine) and I’ll cue you in on some good strategies to take in regards to reviews. I’m going to pick a book in the “erotica” category on Amazon because in my experience, those tend to get some of the weirdest reviews.
The first book that came up is Seduced in the Dark, by CJ Roberts. I’ve actually heard this is a pretty good book, so I think it’s an interesting subject for this. Let’s look at the 1-stars, shall we?
The first one, the first line, says she didn’t finish the book, so it’s hard to really understand why she gave it a 1-star rating(because maybe it got better, you know?), but she does go on to say a lot more, so it’s not too bad. The rest of the review is actually really useful, so I’d say this is actually a “good” 1-star. You know what you’re getting into, and she goes into good detail about why she didn’t like it. Now, maybe someone else would LOVE the book for these reasons, right? I don’t know. It’s possible. Overall, despite the “negative” rating, I like this review.
Further on, you have another review that’s sort of the same. She also didn’t finish the book. The problem is, we don’t know why. There is literally no useful information in this review. I completely believe that this reader didn’t like the book, but I don’t know why. And she’s telling us not to read it? I think people should be nice in their reviews, even if they don’t like it, because at the very least, the author deserves some respect for the time they put into the book, right? To be fair, she wasn’t really mean in her review, but the “Don’t read” and with no further information, is just weird to me. If she told me why I shouldn’t read it, then I might agree.
And, on that same note, for books, I really only take into consideration people talking about the plot. If you browse Amazon a lot, or any other book selling site, you’ll notice people tend to randomly mention “grammar” and “poor writing,” but in my experience these tend to be go-to responses for “I didn’t like the book but I don’t know why, so I’m going to say they wrote it badly.” No one needs to know these things, because every e-book has a sample available that you can read. You will be able to immediately tell if a book has bad grammar or poor writing by reading the sample, right? If someone says a book has poor writing, and that’s their only complaint, it’s a good idea to read some of the sample yourself to check if it’s true or not. Sometimes it really is true, but sometimes it’s just people complaining because they’re angry at something and like to complain(see above).
Be forewarned, though! This doesn’t just happen with bad reviews. It happens in good ones, too.
I am positive this person loved this book, but I have no idea why. It’s great to know that they liked it a lot, and as an author it’s still really nice to get feedback like this. It’s important and it makes us happy to know our readers love our stuff. As a reader, it doesn’t tell me much about the book, though.
This MIGHT be alright, because it’s the second book in the series, you know? If I read the first book in the series and I loved it, and I see someone else who also loved it, then that’s useful to me in a different sort of way. We both loved the first book, and they loved the second, so we share similarities in what we like to read, and that’s enough. As an outside reader who hasn’t read this book, I’d need to find a more descriptive review, though.
Or, alternatively, I don’t actually read the reviews for books very often. I like to read the descriptions and check out the samples to decide if I want to read things most times, so maybe I’m a little weird. I’ve loved books that everyone else hates, and hated books that everyone else loves.
And this is fine! It’s basically exactly what I’m talking about here.
I guess the takeaway is that reviews are important in as much as if they provide information. It doesn’t matter what star rating anything gets, or what anyone gives, it’s more about what they will tell me about what I’m looking at. If they don’t tell me anything, then I don’t know anything. If they tell me weird things that don’t really make sense, it’s kind of the same. If they tell me things that I can check, and already know from glancing at the product, that’s not really useful or exciting.
If I do look at a review, I don’t look at the star ratings, I look at what the person is actually telling me. I might love something for the same reason someone hated something, and that makes their review wonderful and very useful to me.
I kind of wish reviews didn’t have ratings at all, and it was just people talking about the product, because then there’d be a lot more useful ideas being tossed around. That’s what I think, anyways. Reviews can really hurt or help people because some people don’t bother to read them, too. There’s also fake reviews, or reviews that got confused, or any number of things. Some people don’t think before they review things, either, and they don’t realize that there’s a person behind the product, and that person relies on this product to make money to live. For me, this is actually why I don’t rate things badly very often(unless they are legitimately bad and I have many reasons for this). I don’t feel comfortable with it, because I don’t want anyone to starve or not be able to pay their rent or buy their children new clothes, you know? I’m not saying people shouldn’t give items, books, or whatever a low review, but if you do then at least be considerate with it. Tell people why you didn’t like it, and respect the fact that maybe someone else would love it. That’s just how life is =)
So, that’s what I think about reviews. It’s kind of a lot of words, but I hope it helps someone.
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New Direction
Hey!
I’ve recently made a decision. It’s honestly a difficult one to make, because it involves a certain amount of risk, but I’m willing to do it because I think it’s a good idea. I had this in my mind the entire time I started this, but I was never sure if I’d be moving along as well as I have.
My writing has been going well, though. I’ve landed on some Hot New Release lists, a few best sellers(I need to update that, but so far it’s Fantasy Series, Gay & Lesbian, Comic Fiction, Fairytales, Erotica[Brazil only], and Fantasy Romance[Germany]).
I want to push it farther, though, and I think you, as my readers, deserve that, too. My catalogue will still mainly consist of fantasy, paranormal, and contemporary romance, with some other fantasy and paranormal things added in for fun, but I’m moving into something more.
I’m not trying to be vague there. What I mean is paperback books and full-length novel e-books. I’m working on some audiobooks, too, but those are mostly beyond my control. One’s available, though! (I’ll show that at the end)
Anyways! What does this mean for you, as a reader? Well, the first paperback book slated for release is the full-length Princess Miri book, “Princess Miri: An Erotic Coming of Age Monster Romance.” The title’s maybe a bit of a mouthful, but I wanted to sum it up in as few words as possible, and there it is. The paperback will be released with an initial price of $7.99, and the e-book will be released soon, too. I’m hoping to have both of them out in a week or two, but I need to wait on some outside things first.
And, next? The Billionaire’s Ultimatum series will be packaged up into a print book and e-book version. That’ll be a little farther down the road, in a couple months or so. I do most of this myself(and I still have to write new stuff, so there’s that).
I didn’t know where to price them, though. It’s honestly difficult. I think I’ve come up with a solution, though.
I’ll be pricing paperback books as low as I can for as long as I can, but I do want to reach a wider audience, too. I know most people use a Kindle and Amazon, but I have a lot of people who buy my books from B&N and iTunes, too. iTunes isn’t too important for this, but B&N sells paperback books, so I don’t want to leave them out. This is technical junk, but in order to sell to B&N, I need to raise the price a little. I’m -hoping- that the end price for most books will be around $9.99, but I can’t 100% guarantee that.
E-books are different, though! I can price those at competitive prices everywhere, with everything being relatively low. Herein lies the issue, though. The original Princess Miri series, bought as parts, is pricier than what I’d like to price the full-length novel version as. What I -want- to do is price it at around $4.99, with occasional sales dropping it lower. I’m almost positive this is what I’m going to do, but if anyone wants to offer comments or opinions, I’m willing to listen.
Mainly, the full-length novel is coming out approximately 8 months after the first Princess Miri story was released. The people who bought it then got to read it far earlier than anyone else. It’s the same story, and fully edited, everything professional, but I’m thinking for those people who wanted to read it early, it’s worth it. Anyone who waits and ends up wanting to read the full-length version can get it cheaper, but they need to wait months before that.
I wasn’t up front with this in the beginning, and I’m really sorry about that, but I didn’t actually know this was anything I was going to do, either. Going forward, my new direction, this is what I’m going to do, though.
Basically, if you want to read everything first, then you can buy all of my writing in parts. These will be full parts, with a story in each, with an estimated length of 8,000-25,000 words each(approximately 32-100 paperback pages). Once the entire story is done, I’ll wait a few months(at least 6 months, maybe more, after the release of the first “part” of any story), and release a paperback version and a novel-length e-book version.
I’ll make everyone aware of this in the future as best I can. The easiest way to learn about any of this is to follow my site(there’s a button on the side!) and/or sign up for my newsletter(there’s a link on the side!). Almost everything with multiple “parts”(though I’m transitioning to putting (#number) instead, because these are still full stories in their own right) will end up like this.
Again, I’m -VERY- sorry that I wasn’t crystal clear about this in the beginning. I completely understand that it might make some people upset. I know it’s not the best thing ever, but I’m working on getting some bookmarks and stuff like that to do fun giveaways, and if you’re angry about this, I’d be happy to send some your way free of charge. Just email me at cerysdulys (at) gmail (dot) com and let me know(they aren’t ready yet, but I’m going to get them set in a few weeks). You can also send me angry fanmail, or ask me questions, or just talk, and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.
So! Again! Going forward, new direction. If you want to read something first, you can. It’ll cost a bit more, but it will be available to you FIRST. This, in my opinion, is pretty neat. If you like the idea of something but you’d rather wait and get it a little cheaper, or you prefer a paperback version? You can do that, too, but you’ll need to wait 6+ months or so.
I’ll also occasionally be holding book giveaways and things like that. I’ll do the book giveaways through Goodreads, so if you haven’t signed up there before, now is a great time to do it! I’m not very good at Goodreads(it’s misleading!) and I have no idea what I’m doing yet, but I’d love to make more friends there. Here’s my profile so you can add me: http://www.goodreads.com/CerysduLys
And, to end it, here’s a sample for the first audiobook in The Billionaire’s Ultimatum series! I think Lauren did a great job. Give it a listen and let me know what you think? =)
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It’s Normal to Doubt Yourself (Weekly Sale)
I think everyone goes through phases of doubting themselves. You never really know, right? Are you doing the right thing? Could you do something better? What if you’re wrong?
Maybe it’s a depressing topic, but I think it’s an interesting one, too. That’s also the mindset I used when I started writing the Monster Within series.
Drop of Doubt is the 4th story in the series, and it’s also the one I decided to put on sale this week. I know it might seem a little odd to have the 4th story of a series on sale, but I have a reason for that, too. The 1st is permanently set at $0.99, the 2nd and 3rd are $2.99, and the 4th is currently $0.99 until the end of the week. Overall, if you want to grab all 4, it’s only going to cost you around $8. All four parts are close to ~220 paperback book pages in length, which is longer than a lot of romance novels nowadays. You’re definitely getting your money’s worth.
Saying that, the Monster Within series isn’t finished yet. There’s more to come for Solace and Bastion and their story is one that’s really close to me in a personal sort of way. Yes, they’re just characters, but I’ve put a lot of my heart into them and some of the themes I wanted to explore are ones I’ve had to deal with on a personal level. There’s a very large amount of emotion put into these stories.
They are fantasy stories with demons, goblins, ogres, wisps, angels, elementals and all of that. I understand that’s not everyone’s thing, but I tried to make it nice and accessible. I didn’t go too overboard with the magic stuff. If I had to compare it to something, I’d say it’s similar in vein to Brent Weeks’ Night Angel Trilogy(though not quite, but they do explore some similar themes and ideas now that I think about it). Brent Weeks is a great author, too. I really respect him and I love his writing. He doesn’t really write romance, but if you enjoy interesting fantasy stories with a bit of spice sometimes(not often, but sometimes), then you should check him out, too.
The Monster Within series is about doubt and hope, learning to trust, finding a glimpse of happiness and holding onto it as tight as you can. It’s about finding that one person who accepts you for who you are, no matter what, and is willing to learn and explore the world with you. I really think it’s a wonderful story.
I’m tearing up a little here because of how emotional this story makes me. I have a lot of doubts sometimes(a drop or more), and sometimes I doubt what I write. I doubt if anyone will enjoy something and I doubt if I’ve written well enough. I want to do better, always, and maybe it seems like a silly thing to admit here on this blog post, because, who cares, but there’s a point to it.
Drop of Doubt(and the Monster Within series as a whole) is somewhat of an autobiography of sorts. Not –actually– since I’m nothing too similar to any of the characters, but the emotion behind them is real.
Which, I think, is interesting! Many writers are afraid to put too much into their writing. They don’t think they can, or they are scared, or whatever. I don’t know the reason. It’s hard, though, it really is. But if you want to read that kind of thing, which I think is interesting and I think a lot of others might find interesting, too, these stories are definitely for you.
The fantasy, monsters, and all of that are a part of them, but the real story is about emotions.
Drop of Doubt is a Fantasy Erotic Romance novella and will be available for $0.99 until February 22nd, 2013 at these select retailers!
Amazon | B&N | Kobo* | ARe | Smashwords (Use Coupon Code: QP65X )
*Kobo is lagging behind in price changes for some reason. I went ahead and requested they do it again, so hopefully it’ll be changed soon. If you prefer their shop, I apologize for the wait!
Cerys du Lys 