The next SPE project

So as we all know, my SPE project got derailed because of a contract, but today I'm here to announce that Mia and I have been working on another SPE project. The twist? It's co-written by the two of us. Let me tell you that this was an amazing adventure and though we still have a bit of finishing up to do and a lot of editing. I'm super excited to get this project out to our readers. So you may be asking yourself, Co-writing? Really? Why?

Well, other than the fact that Mia and I enjoy each other's company and work great as a team, cross promotion is the why. We both have something to gain from this. Mia already has her first book out (Waking up in Bedlam) and her second book (her first book published with Ellora's Cave: Twisted Revenge) will be out Feb 26. Releasing a third book will help her sales on all points. It's a number game, really. I stand to gain from it because it'll help get my Alexandra name started, since I'm waiting on my two books with EC to release.

Cross promotion is something that was spoken highly of at IRC and Mia and I have since been trying to use it to our advantage. Under my other personality, I have a sample of Waking up In Bedlam in In the Light of the Moon to help Mia, and she has one in Waking up In Bedlam for me. Has it worked? I don't know, I haven't sat down to crunch the numbers, but more exposure is good.

Okay, so you're co-writing a book. So which one of you actually wrote it?

We both did. We divided the work up in a way that worked for us and our writing schedules. There are scenes we wrote together that will be edited to smoothly fit into the flow, there are scenes we wrote on our own. We will both be editing so that everything flows and our writing styles mesh a bit more. We work as a team, there is communication, discussion, planning, plotting and fun.

So there you have it, the next step in the SPE project! Can't wait for you guys to read this book.

Mia's Year In Review

2013… Oh how you fickle and frustrating you've been. Now that we are facing 2014 I thought I'd do some reflections, because as stressful at 2013 was it was also equally exciting. So let's get down to the milestones of this past year for me:

-          The SPE blog has been a success as an outlet for me on my self-publishing journey.

-          The Twisted Tales blog turned out better than I had imagined.

-          I signed a publishing contract with Ellora's Cave (which was completely unexpected)

-          I self-published my first book: Waking Up In Bedlam

-          I have managed to keep my author page free of any drama, which keeps my brand professional.

-          NaNo wasn't a complete loss. It helped me get a good start on Waking Up In Chains.

-          I submitted a short story for an Anthology. The deadline was Dec. 31^st, I got it in Dec. 26^th. I feel very accomplished to have hit that before the deadline, not much before it, but still… It's progress.

-          I have my schedule laid out for the next six months with new releases coming near summer.

What have I learned:

-          I have learned that marketing is definitely my weak spot. Which is good to know, it will be an area I really work hard on in this next year.

-          Word of mouth can only get you so far, the rest is up to you.

-          Haters gonna hate, that doesn't mean you have to let them drag you down to their level.

-          Nothing beats the support of friends, family and fans.

-          Love what you do and do what you love.

So that is my year in a nut shell. Next year will be happy, exciting, and prosperous. <3

Pulling Through

So I went out and got a day job and let me tell you how much it's kicking my ass. Between my other personality and my edits for Black and White Desires I'm exhausted. Here's the deal though, no matter what I have to hit deadlines, self set or publisher set they are there. Yes some deadlines get moved because of shit that's uncontrollable. But that's not what's happening to me, nope, I have done this to myself. So what do I do when I'm so exhausted?

I do the unhealthy thing and down some energy drinks, work late into the night, and work whenever I can. I'm hoping some of it slows down after the first of the year, but I tell you what...next year looks like a wild ride too.

Mia and I will start our new adventure of cowriting a series together in hopes of getting our name more out there. Were most of our stuff leans towards Erotic, this will be paranormal romance and I can't wait to share it with you guys. No matter what life throws at us, we will pull through, together. I want to take a moment to thank those of you who have taken this journey with us. We are still learning and it continues as Mia's real work starts with marketing and I work through Black and White Desires. 

Hope you all enjoy the ride. :D

Review: Waking Up in Bedlam

Waking Up in Bedlam by Mia Bishop

Synopsis: Ryder is a fake- and he knows it. He spends his days pretending to be a paranormal investigator and his nights entertaining groups of believers with his claims of communicating with the dead. Life is good and business is booming until the night a beautiful woman storms out of his seminar and a mysterious man drops an unexplainable case in his lap. Ryder finds out the world he thought was fake is actually real and even worse, he has become the paranormal world's most wanted.

Jessa wants answers and the human, Ryder, is the only one who can give them to her. She has one goal, keep him alive long enough to figure our why he has been haunting her dreams. The only problem is the more time she spends with him the more she realizes the answers she seeks are ones she isn't ready to face.

Can either one of them accept what fate has laid out for them? Or will they fight their destiny at the cost of everyone they hold dear?

Review: I loved the plot of this book. It took me away and the characters were amazing. The one thing that I have to rave about though is Mia's ability to crave dialogue. It flows well, it keeps the story moving, and it's not cheesy. That's hard to find in a PNR book.  I was privileged enough to receive and ARC of this book and I'm glad I was on the list. 

The plot has twists and turns that aren't predictable and I love the Fae lore in it. It's clear that Bishop has her own image of the Fae as well as uses elements that we are all familiar with when it comes to their world. (Light and Dark Court, back stabbing, so on so forth.) The relationship between Ryder and Jessa is clear and though Ryder isn't an instant like (don't worry, you learn to like him, that's the point!) he is a great character. Imagine this, he isn't flawless! Neither is Jessa. The sex in this book is well written and hot!  

Overall Mia did a great job at crafting her debut novel and I urge you to check it out!

5 out of 5 Stars

Heat Rating: Spicy

(mild, medium, hot, spicy, scorching) 

Buy it:

Amazon (Paper back and Kindle)

Barnes and Noble (Nook)

Smashwords (all e-formats)

The Curious Case Of Blurb Writing

One of the plus sides of self-publishing is that you don't have to write a complete synopsis or a query letter. Yay for that, but you still have to write a blurb (or short synopsis) for your book. It either goes up on every digital site your sell or advertise your book listing or it goes on the back of your paperback, and in most cases it goes to both. It is vital to have one, otherwise no one will know what your book is about and you'd better make it a good one otherwise no one will want to read your hard work.

I really hate blurb writing. Hate it with a capital H. It's no fun, and I'm pretty sure I've gained some gray hair just from trying to come up with two coherent paragraphs about my book. And revision after revision and even seeing it on the back of my paperback proof I am still questioning whether it is good enough. Because let's be honest here, in self-publishing “good enough” is never, EVER, “good enough”. You can't just be good if you want to succeed, you have to be great, fantastic, amazing. And this isn't about making money, when I say “if you want to succeed” I'm talking about gaining fans, having people recommend your book, and people enjoying your vision. That is success. But you can't just be good, a lot of people are good. You have to stand out.

Years ago I wrote to one of my idols, Gary Gygax, if you don't know who the man is then Google him. He is known as the father of D&D. I had this idea, an RPG (you know, the paper and pencil kind, not a video game), it was a world I'd created from years of playing Dungeons & Dragons, Rifts, and Gamma World. Even better I'd written scores of stories based on the adventures that all of our characters had played. P.S. If you didn't know: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the first novel of the Dragonlance Chronicles series, was written based on D&D sessions played by the authors, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, along with other friends (some of them went on to be Dragonlance authors as well). So my idea wasn't completely loony. Anyway, I wrote to him asking him how in the world do I go about breaking into this business. Amazingly he responded. His advice was simple, be great. He said that the downside is that RPG fans are amazingly creative, the game is made for you to think and be as creative as possible. Which mean that they all have great ideas, great worlds, maps, and therefore there are a lot of them out there trying to do the same thing as me. So if I wanted my world to stand out it had to be better than good, it had to be great. It had to be something different, because a lot of people where doing the same thing as me. He also said to not give up, keep trying. Many years later, I am still trying and not giving up.

I think this same thing applies to authors, we are all creative, otherwise we wouldn't be writing about all of these fanciful worlds and characters. This is a competitive industry because of that level of creativity. That is not to say you can't give support to your fellow authors, you should. You should promote the hell out of them, and vice versa, because as indie authors if we don't have each others backs then we all suffer. But you can't just be good, you have to be great. And the first thing a reader sees is your cover, after that it's your blurb. If you get the formula right it will hook the reader, and that is what you want obviously. So the stress of writing a great blurb can be the cause for late nights, stress breakouts, and gray hair.

There are a couple of different formula's out there for writing the “perfect” blurb. Do they work? I'm sure that they do, but the thing about a formula is that you still have to put your words down on paper and all the equations in the world sometimes don't help.

I've found one that I really do like, it's simple and helps you flesh out what you need to say. I found this months ago on Twitter and I figure passing it on to whoever it might help will put some pebbles in my good karma jar, so whenever I see someone stressing over a blurb (or synopsis) I always pass along this link:

http://mikewellsblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/secret-formula-for-creating-short.html

As for my blurb for Waking Up In Bedlam, here it is (although I am still unsure if it is captivating enough, I suppose time will tell).

Waking Up In Bedlam



Ryder is a fake- and he knows it. He spends his days pretending to be a paranormal investigator and his nights entertaining groups of believers with his claims of communicating with the dead. Life is good and business is booming until the night a beautiful woman storms out of his seminar and a mysterious man drops an unexplainable case in his lap. Ryder finds out the world he thought was fake is actually real and even worse, he has become the paranormal world's most wanted.


Jessa wants answers and the human, Ryder, is the only one who can give them to her. She has one goal, keep him alive long enough to figure our why he has been haunting her dreams. The only problem is the more time she spends with him the more she realizes the answers she seeks are ones she isn't ready to face.


Can either one of them accept what fate has laid out for them? Or will they fight their destiny at the cost of everyone they hold dear?

 Available November 14, 2013

Release Date Jitters

Release day jitters. Plain and simple, my stomach is doing Olympic high-dives every time I think about it. Waking Up In Bedlam has an official release date: November 14, 2013 and to be honest I have no idea what I am doing.

Downfall of self-publishing is that it's all on you. And when you don't know what you are doing it is like swimming in fast drying cement carrying a bowling ball. But here is the game plan.

Alex offered to help me set up a Facebook Event before the launch. I need to start pimping myself out. Maybe posting some snippets, giving away some swag. I need to find some book reviews and hopefully get a couple of reviews before my release date.

All in all, it's a lot to do before the 14^th but hopefully it will help me share my story and my characters with lots of readers who will hopefully enjoy what I've crafted.

I am firmly planted in reality. I know not everyone is going to like what I put out, I know that this won't be easy, I certainly understand that (in most cases) you do not get rich going this route and I don't expect to. I want to share what I've created, I hope that I've done the characters in my head justice, and I hope people enjoy it.

So while I am experiencing some major jitters in regards to actually giving myself a release date I am keeping the date, facing it all head on, and going to do my best to get over my fears and actually promote myself.

In the next week or so I will figuring out my marketing plan, when I have that all sorted out I will share it and we will just have to wait and see how it goes.

The home stretch and the end of your rope.

I'm writing this for Mia, because she's in the home stretch *cheers*. She's ordered her ARCs from Createspace for the paper backs so she and a few others can go through and look for last grammar changes and typos. While all of you are cheering her on, this is what I want to explain to you. This process isn't easy. Trying to balance it with life, isn't easy, none of this shit is easy. There are hours of stress involved, working with Betas, working with covers, an editor and getting ready to release your baby into the world. Those who say that they have no anxiety over releasing a book or a short story are lying to you. In their head they are wondering about bad reviews, missed typos, and haters. There is sleep loss at night and long days of preparing.

So what does an author do when they get to the end of their rope? The home stretch is right there within their reach and it just seems that the world is piling more and more on top of them? The same thing anyone else does. They vent, they breath, they step back, once things ebb a little bit, they get back to it. By things I mean stress. There are deadlines to meet, even in the self-publishing world. Deadlines get things done, stress is a part of that. There are other stresses that aren't writing related, family, jobs (not all writers get to stay at home), health and so on. I can't tell you what Mia does, but I can tell you what I do.

I make a list, things get priorities, does it have to be done by that date? Okay, it gets moved to the top of the list, anything with a due date before that is moved above it. That helps me get a realistic look at what is going on. When it comes to family, obviously they take priority, but I know my situation isn't the same as everyone. I have great friends who help me when it comes to crunch time, they help watch my child for a day while I get work done.  When it comes to health...well to be honest I don't take the best care of myself, but I do know when it's time to say I have to nap with the baby instead of work. The newest thing I do when life tries to drag me down, I run. My thoughts go like this when I approach the treadmill. "This is going to be 30 minutes I could use for something else." I get on, throw on some angry music and go for it. I always feel better after and I always sleep better those nights. It's a win win....

Here's the thing, you have to find what works for you. This is a stressful career, you need to find a way to help curb that stress a little. Meditation, walking, just sitting for a little bit. You won't get anything done if you're too stressed out to think. All work and no play makes Jake a dull boy. Remember that. You don't want to go crazy or you'll burn yourself out. Take time for you, even if that just means switching to a project without a deadline for a little bit.

Let us all wish Mia good luck with Waking up in Bedlam! We all want to see it on the shelf and will be cheering her on as she runs that home stretch! <3

So Close

My SPE is a little late today and short because I've been trying to wrap my head around formatting. It's headache inducing, let me just say that right now.

The good thing about it is that it is one step, one giant step closer to getting Waking Up In Bedlam self-published and in print. I am in a mix of excited, scared, and still not quite sure if it is ready yet. Maybe I will never feel 100% ready. I mean, who is ever completely ready to pour your heart and soul onto paper and then distribute it to the masses not knowing if they are going to love it, hate it, or fall somewhere in between.

Regardless it's time to put it out there. I was hoping for another round of editing before ordering my proofs but time is running out on a couple of fronts, so after I hear back from one of my beta readers, make whatever changes need to be made, I will be ordering some proof copies to go over myself, and to send out as ARC's for whomever I can find to review.

When I finish sorting out the how-to's of formatting I will share what (if anything) I've learned, but so far all I've learned is that my hurts after hours of pouring over formatting guidelines for Createspace. And sadly, I haven't even touched the formatting guides for all the other formats out there.

But with that said:

I am one more step closer to my goal. One more step closer to touching the stars.