It’s Monday! It’s April! It’s time for the Monday Blog! Why am I so excited? Because Spring is here (I mean, it’s been here since March 20th, but now it actually feels like Spring). As a New Yorker, and a woman of Caribbean descent, I’m tired of the cold weather.
This month’s theme will center around inspiration. I’m also going to include Small Businesses, since I have one, and Record Shop Day is coming up on April 21. But, mostly, I will focus on inspiration.
Inspiration comes in many forms. A book, a song, your favorite movie, perhaps. Whenever I find myself in a creative rut, I turn to the things that inspire me, to help me reclaim my creativity. For example, I got stuck while working on Righteous, and picked up a copy of AP Magazine, which happened to have a section filled with inspirational quotes from musicians. Reading that issue gave me the inspiration I needed to start writing again, and it also gave me an idea for this month’s theme (so it was a twofer!).
Sometimes, inspiration comes from an act instead of a physical object. When I need to clear my head and come up with fresh ideas, a walk can be very inspirational. When I need to channel my energy, lighting incense or a candle really helps me.
So, what inspires you? Feel free to share in the comments below!
Welcome back, everyone. I hope you had a great weekend. For those of you who found yourselves snowed in, I hope you found plenty to keep yourself occupied. This is the final Monday Blog for the month of March, and I wanted to share some of the things I’m working on for Righteous.
The band hits the road…
The hardest part about writing this particular book, is writing about the individual shows. I’ve never played a live show, so I can’t draw from my own personal experience. What I can do, is think back to every live show I’ve been to, and use the performances I’ve seen as a basis for my writing. So far, it’s really helping.
More than just shows…
Righteous is about more than Our Lady hitting the road and playing gigs in new cities. I want the story to focus on some of the other characters the band meets along the way (for example, Carla Caliece. You’re going to love her!). As I have done in the past, I will include a real event or two within the story, in keeping with the time frame (2013).
Things get a little more personal…
One of my favorite things about the Our Lady series, is the fact that each character has some degree of personal baggage. David’s issue is his divorce from Amy. Amy’s issue is, trying to live up to the expectations placed on her as a musician and a female role model. Nick’s issue is trying to write better music, and so on. Two bands who don’t get along are touring at the same time, playing the same cities. You know there’s going to be a fight or two…
I have to write new music…
Yep, this is a story about a band, so there have to be some song lyrics here and there, right? Right. Our Lady’s music, is my music. This book, and the idea of my fictional band going on tour, means it’s time for me to break out the old notepad and pen some new songs! But it’s cool, because I enjoy it.
Room for one more?
Will this be the grand finale of the series? No! I’ve already started making plans to write the next book! Yeas, I’m crazy like that. Not to give too much away, but the next book may revolve around some of the music Nick is going to write while he’s on the road…
I haven’t come up with a theme for April yet, but I’m always open to suggestions! Until next week…
Happy Monday, folks! Welcome back to the Monday Blog. This week’s topic: how well do you know Our Lady of Righteous Rage, the series? I have created a 20-question quiz for readers to test their knowledge! The questions are pretty easy, and it’s just for fun. The higher your score, the more knowledgeable you are! The highest possible score is 20 points, so if you want to test your knowledge, I wish you the best of luck!
Whether you’ve read the series or not, I believe you’ll still enjoy the quiz. If you’ve read the series, it’s a fun way to find out how much you may actually remember from it. If you haven’t read the series, this may pique your interest.
In other news, I have outlined the remaining chapters of Righteous (46-95, to be exact). Hopefully, I will have the first draft completed by mid-April or so.
Also, I’ve made a change to the Author’s Corner requirements, so please have a look!
If you’ve ever read any of the books from my Valentine series or Valentine Apart, or if you like Aidan from Our Lady of Righteous Rage, you may have noticed a slight trend: I like my Irish characters. Aidan is Irish, and so are Barbara O’Riley, Allan Avery, Mac Avery and Kelly McCormick from Valentine. So, what is my obsession with the Emerald Isle?
A few years ago, I was asked to go to City Hall to look up some information on behalf of my grandfather. He was preparing to sell our family’s property in Barbados, and needed some information regarding the property’s original owners, my great-grandparents. What I found, made me pause. I learned, my great great grandmother, Jane Thompson, was born in Ireland. Trippy, right? I had always assumed my Caribbean family members were born in the Caribbean! I had always had a fondness for Ireland, but this made me love the country even more. This admiration slowly worked its way into my writing. On top of that, I watched Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, which made me take an interest in the Irish Mob (hence my creation of Valentine’s Kelly McCormick). Then there’s my crush on Colin Farrell, but that’s a whole ‘nother story….
Happy Monday, everyone! This week, I’m thinking about all of the things that inspire me to write. I like to keep my mind active while I’m working on a book, and one way I do this is by reading material that relates to what I’m working on. I also engage in activities that relate to what I’m working on (if I can). I’m currently writing the first draft for Righteous, book four in the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series, so I’m doing a few things to keep me inspired.
Music: I’m a huge fan of Punk Rock, and that’s the basis of this series. I also listen to Indie Rock, a little Goth, and a few other genres. I always listen to music while I’m on the bus or the train, but lately I’ve been making more of an effort to listen to it while I’m writing. The bands I’m listening to at the moment are:
Green Day (of course)
Blink 182
The Killers (“The Man” is my new work-out song)
Led Zeppelin
Jack White
Fall Out Boy
Portugal. The Man
IAMX (I heard “Look Outside” on How To Get Away With Murder, and now I’m in love with it!)
Fleetwood Mac (“The Chain”; thank you Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
Bauhaus (“Bella Lugosi’s Dead”)
That’s just the short version of the list. I can’t even begin to tell you how much music is on my phone, or how many CD’s I own (yes, I still listen to CD’s).
Guitars: I still have two of my electrics, Billie Joe and Jack. I recently donated Dillinger, my Maestro by Gibson. I’ve been spending more time with them. My goal is to get better at playing power chords. In the meantime, playing is relaxing. I used to be lazy and sit down every time I played. One day I stood up without realizing it, so that’s an improvement. I recently taught myself to play “Smile Like You Mean It”, by The Killers.
Reading: I’ve said it before, and I’m going to say it again: READ THE GENRE YOU’RE WRITING FOR!!!! When I’m working on anything Our Lady related, I read a ton of material about Punk Rock, music, and thumb through issues of Alternative Press and Guitar Player. I recently finished New York Rock by Steven Blush. Being a New Yorker who loves rock, I really enjoyed reading this book. It contains a lot of history about New York bands, like Velvet Underground and New York Dolls. I’ve read books like Please Kill Me and Everybody Loves Our Town, but this book was focused on New York, which made it extra special.
I believe finding things to inspire your writing is essential. Listening to music, playing my guitars and reading books and magazines that are music-related, helps me keep my brain focused on my writing, and I manage to get more writing done. If you ever find yourself facing a case of Writer’s Block, you may want to give this a try.
I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all of my followers, and all of the people who read my posts and like them. I really appreciate your support, and I will do my best to continue to post interesting blogs. Thank you!
Greetings, salutations, and all that jazz! Welcome to the first Monday Blog for the month of March! Before I begin, I want to give a shout-out to my mother and fellow author, June Parris. Her birthday was on Friday. Plus, her second book, A Rose Left Behind, is currently available on Amazon!
This week, I have two topics for you, so let’s get started…
The Author’s Corner
I came up with a wonderful idea last week. I created a new page on the Woolaston Entertainment website, called “The Author’s Corner”. I’m going to post info about other authors here, for a small donation (seriously, you can donate as little as $1). I will post a picture of the author, the cover of their book, a bio, info about the book itself, along with links to the author’s website and social media pages. All donations will go towards keeping the website up, and covering the costs of shipping donations to libraries and other organizations. The info posted on this page will remain posted, until the author asks me to remove it. I hope this goes well. I have already received a donation from an author who didn’t want me to post anything, but wanted to donate anyway (thank you!). This isn’t just for authors: bloggers, writers, etc, can participate.
OLORR album cover
Our Lady Gets Righteous
I began working on the fourth installment of the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series last year. Then, I put it aside, to work on other projects. I resumed working on it last month, and I am determined to finish the first draft by the end of April. So, most of March will be devoted to Our Lady. Since my eBook giveaways were successful in February, I may have another giveaway this month. We’ll see how it goes.
Well, here we are: the last Monday Blog for February 2018. So far, I’d say this has been a good month for W.E. Several of you downloaded copies of my eBooks, so thank you very much for that. I hope you enjoy reading them. This week, I wanted to share a few tips I learned while using Amazon’s Create Space, and mention some upcoming books.
Create Space Tips
I’m not an expert on how to use Create Space, but I have used it often enough to learn a thing or two. So, I’m going to share a little info with you here:
Be Mindful of the Browser You’re Using: Yes, that probably sounds stupid, but it makes a different. On my computer, I have the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome. Whenever I upload a manuscript, as a DOC or a PDF, I have noticed, the margins may get reset or the text ends up looking “jumbled”, depending on which browser I’m using. My advice” the latest version of Internet Explorer. Don’t get me wrong: I love Google Chrome, but there’s something about it that doesn’t seem to work well with Create Space. Or, maybe it’s just me…
Use Catchy Titles: I know, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Malarkey. We judge. We judge all the time. Not only are we looking at the covers of the books we chose, we look at the titles. I’m not likely to read a book with the title, “Farting Can Save You!”, especially if the book is meant to be taken seriously. Titles should reflect what the book is about, and draw the reader in. Also, please note: once you have chosen a title and locked in an ISBN number, YOU CAN’T CHANGE IT!
If You Can Do It Yourself, Then Do It Yourself: I don’t know about you, but I’m not rich. I can’t afford to hire a dream team of editors, illustrators, and the like. I do everything on my own. It’s not fantastic, but my creations are my creations, and I’m proud of that. When it comes to my books, at least I’m the one calling the shots. But, if you’re not good at editing or drawing, or whatever else your book needs, and you need to hire someone (and can afford to), then kudos to you.
Yes, You Can Go Back and Make Corrections! Isn’t that great? You publish your book and spot a mistake after the fact, and think, “Well, I guess that word will just have to go on being misspelled”. Not true. Even after a book is published and available for sale, you can still upload a corrected version if you need to. I’ve worked with other Print-On-Demand publishers in the past, and they wanted to literally charge an arm and a leg to make corrections. With Create Space, it’s FREE.
Let The Interior Finish Processing before You Work on the Cover: When you upload the interior of your book, a little message pops up, that says it’s processing. It offers you the opportunity to begin working on your cover, while you wait. My advice: WAIT. I used to start working on the cover while the interior was processing, and then I ended up having to go back and do the cover all over again…and again…and again. My advice: just wait until the interior is exactly the way you want it, before moving on to the cover.
Set The Price of your Book as Low as You Can: These are PAPERBACKS and EBOOKS we’re talking about. Unless you’re publishing a text book, try to set a realistic price, especially if you want the book to sell. Create Space will tell you what your lowest selling price is, based on the number of pages in your book. Try to remain as close to that number as possible.
20 of the Woolaston Entertainment books, by June Parris and myself
Upcoming Books
I’m always writing. Even when I tell myself to take a break, an idea pops up, and I have to work on it to some degree. I have resumed working on Righteous, the fourth installment in the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series. I’m working on two more books in the Valentine Apart series: Jo Fuentes: Project Sleep and Young Kelly McCormick. Plus, I have an idea brewing for a sequel to The Witch of Fulton Lane, and another Valentine spin-off. See? Brain no sleep, no take break…
I’ll keep you posted. Next month, I’m focusing on music, and Our Lady. TTFN.
Welcome back to the Monday Blog, everyone. This week, I wanted to talk about SEO, and the Valentine 3 giveaway. Plus, other #FreeBookFebruary goodies.
Fun With SEO
In case you don’t know what SEO is, it stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is the practice of using certain key words and phrases on your website, which will guide people to your website.
The best place to start, is with your content. Creating engaging content for your site can be difficult and a bit time consuming, but it’s definitely worth it, once you begin to see results. I didn’t take this very seriously, until about a year ago. When I changed my site’s content, I noticed more and more people were looking at it. The first words that appear on your site, are the most important. On Woolaston Entertainment’s home page, beneath the WE logo, are the words “Author and Artist”. This tells you who I am, and what “m about. Next, is “Creator of Unique Amazon Books”, which is one of the things I do. Try to look at your site from your viewer’s point of view. If you wanted someone to search for your site, what would you expect them to type? If you sell men’s shoes, a key phrase to include on your homepage would be “men’s shoes”. However, if you sell a specific brand of shoes, such as Steve Madden, you would include “Steve Madden” on your homepage. The more specific you are, the more results you’ll receive, and more people will find your site.
You may also want to look into the company you use to maintain your website. For example, I use Go Daddy, which has a pretty decent SEO feature.
The Witch of Fulton Lane
Allan and Mac
Valentine Giveaway Results
I ran a promotion for Valentine 3 on Feb 12, and it ended on Feb 14 (Valentine’s Day!). Seven copies were downloaded, which is nice. So, I’m making progress!
From Feb 19 through Feb 21, you can download a copy of Allan and Mac: A Valentine Apart Story, for FREE!! This is the first book in the Valentine Apart series, and it introduces siblings Allan and Mac Avery, the hitmen from Valentine 3: Queen of Hearts. If you have a Kindle or the Kindle App, please take advantage of this opportunity. Until next week…
woolastonentertainment.com 