Halloween Spooky Swap

I participated in the Halloween Spooky Swap this year, hosted by Travis over at Inked Books and Jessica at A Fanatic's Book Blog.  I got my package today and wanted to share!  ^_^  I got a movie, a book called Daemon Hall, a cute pumpkin cookie cutter, some candy and some adorable stickers!

Thanks my Secret Spooky for my stuff!  I appreciate you!!!  You rock.  :)

~ Vilate ~

Promoting is Hard Work

I've heard other authors talk about how writing is hard, but promoting is harder.  I think I believe them now.  I'm not a naturally extroverted person, and selling myself has never been easy.  I'm just not the kind of person to force my way into someone's attention.  Unfortunately, I kind of have to alter my thinking on that in order to get any attention for Undead Crimefighters.

Since I've been doing the podcast and the blog, it's been getting easier for me to step out of my comfort zone and talk to people I normally wouldn't, but it's still a work in progress.  I really don't want to impose on anyone, so I'd rather just step back and avoid those situations.  But when you're a self-published author, you really don't have that kind of choice.  No one's going do to the work for you, which is really a shame, lol.

So as much as I love my story and I believe in it, it's still not easy to thrust it in someone's face.  Maybe, with time, I'll be able to get over my fear of being annoying.

Revisions to #2

I'm finally in the final stages of getting the second episode of UC ready to send out.  I had to toss it out to some critiquers, though I didn't get as much feedback as I usually like on my drafts.  That means that all the final revisions will have to come directly from my own head instead of being inspired by someone else's suggestions.  I guess I can just hope it doesn't reflect too poorly on the final result, heh.

I've started the third episode, which I hope to finish within the next couple of weeks.  I'd like to start getting the stories done faster so I can get them edited and revised sooner.  The series is about to enter some tricky territory, though, with the major story arch becoming more prominent.  In the third episode, we'll see more of the biggest baddie the Leaguers have to tumble with, and that's not going to be easy to write.

I also have to keep all of that in mind as I continue to revise the second episode, because there are certain foreshadowing details that need to come out as the story progresses.  And the second episode is longer than the first.  It's not easy to add in all the required elements while still keeping the story under 5,000 words.  I'm working on it, though...

Character Outlines

I've decided it's high time that I actually outlined the characters in Undead Crimefighters.  They're all straight in my head, but I've already found one flaw since I put some stuff down on paper.  Sometimes the stuff in my head doesn't jive, logically, with all the rest of the stuff.  All I need is for some glaring error to appear in one of the episodes!

I'm working on Sophie tonight.  I've got some good details for her, but I'm not even halfway through yet.  Of course, she's the most important character, since she's the main voice I use for the series.  Her age is the flaw in my design that I've found and I'm trying to fix it before I completely mess it up, lol.  I marked it as something that needs adjusting, since I'm having a difficult time actually computing it right now.

Starschmucks is usually a good place for me to think, but my mind is kind of jumbled tonight.  Maybe I can fix that before I have to leave.  I definitely don't think as well at home.  There are too many distractions there!  Heh.

A new place to write

Although I probably don't need yet another blog, I'm going to rethink the original purpose of this blog.  I'd originally thought it'd be a good place to do some editor-type blogging, but now that I'm trying a full-scale launch of Undead Crimefighters, it makes more sense to use this as an author's blog.

I'm still working on the second episode of Undead, which I hope will be out by the end of September.  I've had a few setbacks getting it to gel the way I wanted, but it's flowing now, and it'll be in revisions soon.  It's not easy to write *and* try to get the first episode out at the same time.  But I'm plugging away at it.  Luckily, I really love these characters and I believe in the series. :)