Furever Friends Anthology

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Proud to be part of this anthology, a large book of many different stories, all romance, intended to help shelters deal with an influx of pets. Here's the information:

Furever Friends A Collection of Stories

Coming from Wycked Minds Publishing

Releasing November 30th! Get yours now, and let's help our furry, feathered, and scaled friends affected by the hurricanes that tore through the Southeast!

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When disaster strikes, not only humans are affected. Our four-legged companions are as well. Sadly, many get left behind, and rescues and shelters scramble to save them before it's too late.

This anthology is packed full of stories about animals who have been rescued and given a second chance at life! Each story is uniquely different as is each author.

All proceeds for this anthology go to Best Friends, a non-profit animal rescue that has mobilized to help animal shelters in the Southeast that have been affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

https://books2read.com/ForeverFriendsAntho

🐶🐱🦎🦜

#comingsoon #preorder #bookpreorder #charityanthology #charityanthologies #hurricanesheleneandmilton #disasterrelief #recoveryeffort #fundraisers #romanceanthologies #romancecollections #fureverfriends #helpourfurryfeatheredscaledfriends #bestfriendsrescue #operationfureverfriends #helene #milton

Have a Magical Day

These are not feel-good, happily-ever-after stories like Disney movies, nor are they dark or violent. Each story is from a different perspective (tour guide, PR staffer, detective, fantasy author, housewife, state patrolman, and businessman among others) and gives insight into life in 2024 at a huge theme park and large entertainment corporation. It is not adoring of Disney, or scornful, but the stories include a variety of characters you might meet if you spent a little free time in the park, and they offer a variety of perspectives about the role of fantasy and of Disney in modern American culture. Stories included are Have a Magical Day, Space Mountain Getaway, Stealing his Heart, Slapping a Mickey, Afternoon Snake, Detective's Tale, Garbage Duty, Downpour, Attic Bride, Just Ashes, Cocktail Party, Small World Problems, If the Shoe Fits, and It is what it is. All were written in 2023 or 2024. It is the author's eleventh volume of short stories.

$4.79 + shipping, Amazon paperback
$1.99 on kindle
free on kindle unlimited

Dogs of Love

"Dogs of Love" was the name of one of my bands many years ago - we played bluegrass and really only had a gig or two at the American Legion. Its leader was a guy who painted houses for a living (I helped him) and told me, "there are really only three colors, farmhouse white, International Red and John Deere Green."

But with respect to writing, writer's block is really the dogs of love. We love writing yet here I am every day doing everything but. It's related to my schedule. I work nights, fall asleep immediately when done, and need to chill seriously in the morning when I wake up. It takes me several cups of coffee. I give people rides, make more coffee, waste some time, like I just got out of work. By late morning I'm ready to get started.

But then all these other responsibilities come into view. If I could clear the deck at seven or eight and say, "writing hour!" I could probably have some uninterrupted minutes at the keyboard. By eleven there's no such thing as uninterrupted, interrupted is the air I breathe. I end up, through the noon hour, eating and doing things that are "interruptable."

Another day goes by, maybe another week, nnothing written. I'm about done with a story, and with a book of stories, and even have a novel mostly written. No luck finishing any of them. It's not a lack of ideas - the ideas are still coming. It's lack of ability to pick up the big computer (the word one) and finish.

I'm dying for a win here. It's the dogs, the dogs of love.

Great review

for Prairie Leveretts
from a blog I love and trust!
https://booksthatmakeyouthink2.co.uk/2024/09/11/prairie-leveretts-thomas-leverett/

I rely heavily on pictures - I'm a pop artist - but I am presently unable to upload pictures onto blogger.

As I usually do, I go to google to find out what other people do when they are in the same situation. I get a blank pop-up when I try to upload a picture. There's nothing I can do with that pop-up. I have a computer full of pictures and no way to put them up there.

The first advice is to clear your cache and cookies. Well, I did that, that always feels good, but, no effect. Still get a blank. I also downloaded Chrome (needed to do that anyway) and tried to do it on Chrome. Still no luck.

One person said it went away after a few days. Is that what I have to do? Just wait and be patient?

On Facebook, I'm scattering my pop art all over the place. One site after another. I kind of enjoy it because, whether I sell books or not, at least I've spread art around a little. In this case I'm actually giving books away; they're free. I'm hoping to get a few takers. If you're reading this, try e pluribus haiku 2018, 2017, and 2016. They're free until Tuesday.

But I can't put any of the pictures here. Blogger has blocked me, for some reason. Words are ok. Pictures, no.

read marketing

In the past I've been an advocate of read marketing. Go out and read lots of indie work and get lots of random other indie writers to read yours, I would say. For one thing, as writers, they're fairly discriminating readers, and can give good advice when you ask. For another, any reader is a good reader who will ultimately, or may ultimately, tell other readers you're there and point people in your direction.

But here are the downsides of it, which have been weighing quite heavily on me. It's not that I'm ready to drop $50 or $100 on Amazon ads, though I might; I've just lost my enthusiasm for reading thoroughly through all these indie books. First, you don't get enough in terms of other readers to make it worthwhile. Your book sits in this site as a comment, and lots of people see it, like a free ad, but only one person reads it and that person may actually cheat or not care a whit about it. Readers who want to read your book are much better than readers who, like me, are just doing it to pick up a few readers themselves.

In general the world of authors is not a world of on-the-up honest dealers. I've found that I have a number of reviews that were written by people who most likely didn't read my book, because if they did they would have found something better to say than a conglomeration of everything else anyone said, or a rewriting of the blurb in their own words. I don't need either of those things, though of course I appreciate the 5. And if all of my reviews are like that that not only casts into doubt the 5 average, but simply makes it appear that nobody in the reading audience actually took the time to read it; that doesn't help me at all. The other side, I guess, is those who say, "it's ok but it's not my genre," which is a kind of pointless comment though most likely true, in most cases. Who needs to go out working for such reviews? LIfe is short, and I'd rather people just fall upon my books, read what they want, and review when and what they want. It's a little more random that way, but far more genuine.

Because time has become precious, I've backed off considerably on this system. We authors can and should support each other because we are careful, discriminating readers and we know the craft. If we say things right (and that is, after all, our jobs) we can be very helpful. What we need, I think, is to always consistently do it on our own terms. I'm not quite sure what I mean by that. But one should be able to develop a market in some better way than page by page. It's got to be possible.

Indiest of indie

I'm not the best of indie. If I was, my books would be selling off the shelves even as I've sat here, distracted by other life matters, and unable to keep up my relentless self-marketing, pounding my own drum. No, I get distracted, I have ten kids and three more kind of hanging on, and I have to do other stuff, and my ratings reach their little plateau, the one they hit when nothing has been happening, and I get a truer idea of my self-worth.

I do, however, have a lot to be proud of. I have thirty titles on the market (about to remove three), with more coming, albeit gradually. I have done everything myself: proofreading, covers, marketing, dealing with Amazon. That's why I call myself 100% indie. I literally pay nobody to do any of this crap for me. And it wears on me a little. Times like now, I'm a little tired. I haven't published anything since fall. The other work I've been doing has sapped my creativity and attention span to the point that I'm not sure I can sit and write a novel like I used to be able to. I'm determined not to do it until I have a solid plan anyway, and I have about five started without a solid plan, but that's what happens when you don't have a plan. You get into it, you have characters, they do stuff, it gets interesting, then it gets mired in lack of plan. Or at least that's what happens to me.

For a while I was chatting with marketers. They are absolutely relentless, wanting to be your friend and collaborate with you to make sure your books reach the worldwide market they are intended for. For all I know, some of these folks could be effective. One of them promised me a whole crew of at least twelve "GoFundMe" experts; from Nigeria, their whole focus is to use their internet skills to somehow siphon some real money off unsuspecting victims back here in the land of milk and honey. This is what I'm sure they'd do for me in the marketing realm too. I'm not biting. My computer keyboard broke and I had trouble making a, s, 1, ! and a few others. I used it as an excuse to stop talking to them. I just don't need it. They didn't really want to be 'friends' anyway.

Broken keyboard and all, I took a break. But now, I'm coming back, in some form or another. More soon!