What I've Been Up To

My last blog post was March 2nd (booo! hisss!) and since then I've been terribly neglectful of this blog and facebook. For that I apologize, but I kind of have a good excuse: I've been working! And even better than that, I've been writing. People ask me quite a bit what my writing process is. Do I come up with an idea start to finish, sit down, and pound away at the keys? Do I imagine stuff as I write? Do ideas simply float into my brain like little bits of fluff (see how I worked in a Pooh reference there? See? SEE?) and I write as a go, until magically the entire story links itself together (I wish, and for any authors out there who this works for -- I hate you)? The answer is... none of the above. 

Usually I think of a concept (like a married couple who no longer love each other but can't divorce because it would be very, very frowned upon AKA A Brooding Beauty), come up with two main characters and work from there. Sometimes a strong character pops in my head and refuses to shut up (AKA Charlotte from the upcoming The Runaway Duchess) and instead I build a story to fit them. And sometimes I come up with an awesome idea and awesome characters and I write, write, write and 200 pages in I sit back, wrinkle my nose, say THIS IS CRAP and I never open the file again. True story.

So it all depends. On some days I sit down in front of my computer, take a sip of coffee, only check my facebook once, and write an easy ten pages. Some days I write a paragraph. I often like to imagine that if writing was my full time job and I depended on the (small) income it brought, I would be more dedicated. Maybe that's true, but I'm pretty sure it's not. I simply cannot force my brain to write. I'm not wired that way. I mean, I can physically type and put sentences together, but they'll be crap sentences that no one would dream of reading. I guess everyone is different. But basically, I guess what I'm trying to tell you, is that I have been writing, which is why you haven't heard from me much. So that's a good thing. Sort of. Except I don't want to neglect my readers, because that's a BAD thing, especially since I don't have anything new coming out until April and I live in constant fear of all my sales being a fluke and no one ever reading anything else I publish again.

So to make up for that, look for some freebies floating around Amazon next week. I have to fiddle around with the books I have on KDP Select (which allows me to do the free promotions) and see what I can offer, but as soon as I figure it out and pick dates I'll post it here and on facebook (interesting note -- if I don't capitalize "Facebook" in this blogger writing program it comes up as a misspelled word, but when I do the spelling program is happy... It's official... Facebook is taking over the world!) for all of you to know. 

For those of you who take the time to share those posts on your own walls, THANK YOU! Every time I see that I get the biggest grin on my face and thank God I don't make it a habit to be on my computer in public places all that often or everyone else would probably think I was some kind of lunatic. And for the guy who told me he was telling all his lady friends at work about my books -- you, sir, are awesome. 

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND! 

And a very Happy Easter. 

But I'll post before then. 

Promise.