A Long Weekend

It’s Labor Day weekend, and I am already celebrating during my Friday coffee hours. My weekend is going to be full of book work. I realized I am going to have to do some heavy work to get Kringle on Fire put together. I need it published by a week from today so I have copies when I go to the Author Fair on September 30th.

I’ve already processed the text for publication using Atticus, which gives the work visual polish (Vellum does this as well, but is Mac-only.) The part I’m struggling with is the cover. It’s almost like I forgot how to make a cover. One royalty-free photo, a back cover, words (some sidewards) and — it doesn’t fit as an 5×8 cover according to the publishing site KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). So that’s what I’m going to do tomorrow. If I get far enough ahead this weekend, I will try to do the same for Apocalypse. I have a cover for that, but I think it will fail as well.

I registered the copyrights for both books today. At least I got that done. I don’t know if that’s absolutely necessary, but I copyright my published works with the US Copyright office. I’ve been hearing of people on Kindle plagiarizing others’ works. Having the copyright is going to be a big cease and desist there.

There’s a lot of work with publishing a book that has nothing to do with writing. Traditional publishing entails less work, as one only needs to approve the book cover instead of creating it. One doesn’t have to do the bulk of the publicity, although there are promo tours. The self-publisher does more work on their own, but this is not a bad thing by any means.

I’m going to have a busy weekend, with some of it spent at Starbucks for a change of scenery. It’s part of publishing, and it’s part of what keeps me going. Wish me luck.

Dead Bats and a Review

I’m going to find time to write today. I will not be a writer if I neglect the writing. First, I have to take the dead bat that my cats were all playing with to the Health Department to make sure it doesn’t have rabies. Good jolly morning we’re having here, especially if you’re the poor dead bat.

I’ve been thinking of Gaia’s Hands, and that one of my friends considered it “a fun read”. I never thought of it as a fun read, but I guess in some ways it is. A sentient monster vine, a rampant green thumb, an unlikely romance, a bad folksinger^*, a little snark.

It also has escalating acts of aggression within academia, scientific method^**, a breakup, a menacing presence, and computer espionage.

Ok, honestly, I can see how it would be a fun read. My favorite line in the book is when Josh, the male main character, says “Everyone has to start somewhere” at what might be an inconvenient time. Read it if you want to know how inconvenient a time.

* This is how we kill our exes as authors.

** We write what we know. I know academia.

Broadway Cafe, Kansas City MO

I’m here in KC for a change of scenery and some writing time at my favorite cafe in town. I’m hoping I feel motivated to write on the story, because I’ve been struggling with that lately. I’ve skipped ahead to the last chapter to write on that, and maybe that’s the problem. Not much happens in the last chapter of a book except the tie up the loose ends. And in this case, a baby is definitely front and center.

I don’t really understand babies. I’m childless by choice; I have never been graced with a maternal instinct. But enough of that; I am sitting in the best cafe in Kansas City.

Broadway Cafe is the real thing, with worn chairs and scuffed walls and young baristas. I don’t know if they do latte art because I’m drinking their coffee of the day, Guatemala. The coffee is roasted and brewed so well that it has notes. It doesn’t just taste like dark roast. If we hadn’t just had breakfast at AC Hotel, we would have some pastries

So from here, I write on the book. Damn babies. What do babies do at 3 months old? They eat, poop, cry, burp and squeeze your finger. How hard can that be? They smile, which is how they get away with eating, pooping, crying, and burping all the time.

And people make burbling noises at them.

Ok, back to grounding myself in my surroundings. I have coffee, and I’m about to write. I’m about to write the sappiest chapter in my life. All it needs is a cute dog. (It’s not going to get a cute dog).

Ok, time to write …

Publications List (Personal)

Poetry/Short Stories:

Leach-Steffens, L. (2020). Thirty Years. Sad Girls Pub Lit. Available: https://www.sadgirlsclublit.com/post/thirty-years-lauren-leach-steffens

Leach-Steffens, L. (2020). Come to Realize. The Daily Drunk. Available: https://thedailydrunk.com/f/come-to-realize?blogcategory=Short+Story

Leach-Steffens, L. (2020. )Wasn’t/Was/Is. Riza Press. Available: https://rizapress.com/2020/01/09/wasnt-was-is/

Leach-Steffens, L. (2019). Slush Pile. Submittable Content for Creatives. Available: http://discover.submittable.com/blog/2019-rejection-horror-stories-part-1/

Leach-Steffens, L. (2019). Flourish. Cook Publishing Short Story Contest. Available: https://lleach.me/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/0ad2a-flourish.pdf

Self-Published Novels:

Leach-Steffens, L. (2022). Gaia’s Hands. Available: https://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Hands-Lauren-Leach-Steffens-ebook/dp/B09DBRN7XW/ref=sr_1_5?crid=25TC9AGIGJWQY&keywords=Lauren+Leach-Steffens&qid=1641131151&sprefix=lauren+leach-steffens%2Caps%2C75&sr=8-5

Leach-Steffens, L. (2022). It Takes Two to Kringle. Available: https://www.amazon.com/Takes-Two-Kringle-Lauren-Leach-Steffens-ebook/dp/B0B7GQLG82/ref=sr_1_1?crid=15G6GO2WRH6ND&keywords=It+Takes+Two+to+Kringle&qid=1683897739&s=digital-text&sprefix=it+takes+two+to+kringle%2Cdigital-text%2C100&sr=1-1

Leach-Steffens (2021). Kringle in the Night. Available: https://www.amazon.com/Kringle-Night-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B09DBS4JX4?ref_=ast_author_dp

Leach-Steffens, L. (2020). The Kringle Conspiracy. Available: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KFBLCPC?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks&qid=1641217948&sr=8-1

Serial Novel:

Leach-Steffens, L. (2021). Kel and Brother Coyote Save the Universe. Kindle Vella. Available: https://www.amazon.com/Kel-Brother-Coyote-Save-Universe/dp/B09B1CKVL2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=24TPNCO0NGU4L&keywords=Kel+and+Brother+Coyote&qid=1641218295&sprefix=kel+and+brother+coyote%2Caps%2C82&sr=8-1

Overcaffeinated

My head feels floaty right now. I spent the morning writing at Starbucks, drinking coffee to keep the ideas coming. One thousand words later, I had met my writing goal and gotten enough caffeine for two days. Now I really want to do something and nothing at the same time.

It’s a rainy day. It would be nice to take a nap. But no, my brain is taking a trip across the universe. It wants to DO something, but it can’t keep still long enough to focus on something. It wants to FURTHER MY CAREER, with no notion of what that would take. My brain wants to make a BIG AUDACIOUS GOAL, but not complete it. It WANTS RESULTS, but is in no shape to plan.

Why do I do this to myself? Because it’s coffee, wonderful coffee. I have a sense of amnesia, not remembering how things went the last time I drank too much coffee. So I drink coffee, drink more coffee, and drink even more coffee until my teeth are humming.

The coffee is wearing off. I know this because I just fell asleep in the middle of writing this. Now I’m staring at my screen, wondering how much time I lost to the unauthorized nap, and I think it’s been about a half hour. The buzz has gone away, yielding to a glimpse of what it’s like to be a zombie: I’m awake, but with no volition.

Not good. I want to make something happen, create something. Spend this rainy evening more productively. Wait! Maybe more coffee?

The Pieces I Have Lost

Writing requires a certain amount of editing. I have done a lot of editing in my writing life. I have edited out characters, scenes, and subplots to make books more cohesive and, perhaps, coherent.

Some of my editing I don’t regret. One of my characters, Josh Young, was young and whiny when I first wrote him. He’s older now, somewhat more mature, and a far better and more complex character. You’ll find him in Gaia’s Hands.

Also, in one incarnation of Gaia’s Hands, there was a secondary love affair between two characters. Eric and Annie were interesting characters, but their arc was too much for Gaia’s Hands to handle. Eric remained; Annie did not.

Lilly and Adam’s relationship in what became Apocalypse (which will come out in the next year) was a lot darker, somewhat superficially. There was a lot of sexual obsession, which can be a good thing, just not for that novel. When two books got merged to make Apocalypse, I lost the goth feel but kept some of the edginess. There are some brilliant arguments in Apocalypse. I also lost the (also whiny) character James, and some subplot, but again I ended up with a better result.

As I got to writing more, I have edited out pieces less. Whole characters, subplots — heck, whole chapters — no longer get discarded by the wayside. Extensive editing taught me to write with less editing necessary.

There are pieces I miss, though. The chaste sexual obsession of Lilly and Adam was fun to write, but I don’t see room for that anymore. James dying and turning into a ghost cat (don’t ask) was fun for all the catlike manipulation he added to Apocalypse. Eric and Annie make a good couple, if only for a short story, but Annie’s place in the series has evaporated. Maybe the pieces will end up in a short story somewhere. Or another novel in another world.

Playing with Loomly

I have a couple of books out there. You can find all my books here. They’re all in the fantasy romance/romantic fantasy area, although I would recommend Gaia’s Hands to those who aren’t into fantasy as well. I’d recommend Kel and Brother Coyote Save the Universe (Kindle Vella book) to those people as well.

Most potential readers haven’t found this blog, so I can’t promote my novels through here and expect a lot of new readers. Therefore, I have to reach out to my social media accounts and talk about my books.

I know I can’t afford those promoters who keep sending me emails, so I have to promote myself until I’m rich enough¹ to afford one. The problem is that I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m a writer, not a promoter.

For a while, I used free Hootsuite to post little ads on multiple platforms — Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It was convenient, even though I didn’t know what I was doing. Then Hootsuite dropped their free plan, and the cheapest plan for users was the $1188/year² Professional tier.

I partook (is that the right word?) in free trials for two competitors of Hootsuite: Buffer and Loomly. I chose Loomly because it gave me one feature that the others, including Hootsuite, did not: coaching.

Loomly will give you advice as you are crafting your post to each of the social media outlets that you’re linked to for the post. Loomly tailors the advice to the specific outlet — for example, Facebook favors posts under 50 characters while Twitter readers want longer posts. They suggest better times for posts. They suggest when hashtags or exclamation points/question marks may increase engagement. Little things that are helpful in making a post stand out that amateur social promoters may not know.

In addition, Loomly features possible topics to post on daily, because posting about your project daily gets tiring for readers. Some of these are weekly items like #HappyFriday; others are one day only celebrations like #HappyGirlScoutDay.

I don’t pretend that Loomly is teaching me everything about social marketing, but I have more than I had before. It’s easy enough to use that I actually enjoy using it and my calendar is full through the first of July. It’s relatively painless to learn new strategies, unlike reading dull books on the topic. And it costs $312/year² for the Basic (about equal to the Professional Hootsuite) tier.

Not going to happen.
These are billed yearly prices. The billed monthly prices are higher.

Plowing through Writing

I’ve been — not exactly plowing through writing as much as shoveling through it with a teaspoon. Adding words to the too-short Kringle on Fire has been a task, but I am finally almost at the 50k point. The Kringle books run short, mostly because they have light plots and I am an economical writer. And because I can write them short as I self-publish. But shorter than 45k and they’re a novella, and I don’t want to write novellas. So I’m at the editing stage now, hoping to add 300 words to the mix.

The books that I have in my writing pile have been slow as well. I need to do some soul-searching about what I need as a writer. I don’t think it’s time to give up writing yet, but it’s time to understand why my drive to write has tanked.

One possibility is that writing is no longer a new and shiny thing. I’ve published, I’ve held a book of mine in my hands, I’ve commandeered time for writing retreats. The immediate reward is not as bright and awesome as it was. Another is that I haven’t reached as many people as I thought I would. I had a fantasy that I would have a small but devoted readership, and that hasn’t happened. A third possibility is that I have doubts about how good a writer I am because of item #2. My husband assures me I’m a talented writer, and I think I should take that to heart. Finally, I take more time promoting myself than writing. It’s necessary unless you get a lucky break, but it’s not what writers want to do.

So there are some things I have to contend with if I want to keep writing. It’s going to require more soul-searching than this. In the meantime, I write, even if I feel like I’m shoveling through a snowdrift with a teaspoon.

Almost Finished (with the first draft)

I can’t believe it! I should be finished with the first draft of Kringle on Fire today! I thought I’d never get here!

I’ve been suffering through the worst case of writer’s block since I started writing. It started with me trying to write a steamier romance, Walk Through Green Fire, and then stalling out in the first chapters because I was getting antsy about writing sex scenes. It continued through Avatar of the Maker, which stalled out because I couldn’t figure out whether the female main character was pregnant (yes, she is, I finally decided.) Then I failed NaNo for Kringle on Fire because of my dad’s dying.

I’ll be done with Kringle on Fire today — sort of. There’s going to be a lot of editing. There’s not enough description, there’s refinement of language that needs to happen, there’s seeing if everyone is in character (but that’s one of my strong points), there’s making sure continuing characters and places from the previous book are correct. I’m thinking another month of editing ahead of me.

I have plenty of time. This book will go live in October as part of the Kringle Chronicles series. Look for it on my Kindle bookshelf,

Hurray! The Writer’s Block is Gone!

I have been struggling with writer’s block so badly that I have to push myself to write 1000 words a day, which is about half of what I write when I’m not struggling.

But these past three days I have been writing! Up to 2000 words a day with the words flowing through my fingertips and two, maybe three, chapters gone through. Hallelujah, I might even complete this book!

The book I’m working on is the next Kringle Chronicles book, Kringle on Fire. The characters are a single mom and a firefighter, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t go the way most of those books go. I try not to write stereotyped, overly built firefighters and damsels in distress. Just like I like to include sardonic old ladies, gamers, a group of somewhat clueless frat boys, a sympathetic Karen, and the Kringle Society.

I better get back to writing.