One of my favorite elements of storytelling, is conflict. In writing, there are five different types: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Self, and Man … Continue reading Monday Blog: Five Types of Conflict
Tag: publishing
Downtime
I have found myself in a familiar place, once again. I just completed another manuscript, finished all of the editing, and sent all the files to Create Space. Now, I’m … Continue reading Downtime
A Woman’s Place in “Young Kelly McCormick”
You’ve probably read stories about mob bosses or seen a few movies about underground networks of criminals. In the majority of those stories, the major players are men. In the … Continue reading A Woman’s Place in “Young Kelly McCormick”
SOLD OUT!!!!
Just wanted to share some fantastic news! All of my copies of 1st editions of Fortune’s Wing and Valentine are officially SOLD OUT! GONE! FINITO! I am so excited about this, because it means I can start fresh with the new editions I published via Amazon’s Create Space. SO, the Xlibris editions are finally gone. All orders will be fulfilled this week, so thanks again!!!
woolastonentertainment.com
Monday Blog: The First Step
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. A manuscript of a thousand words begins with a single word! Or image…or idea. It all depends on the … Continue reading Monday Blog: The First Step
Chapter Titles: Love Them or Hate Them
A few months ago, a couple of writers and I had a mini-debate over this topic. SO, here’s the question: do you give the chapters in your books titles, … Continue reading Chapter Titles: Love Them or Hate Them
Monday Blog: Guest Blogger Ebunnygirl!
Welcome to a special edition of the Monday Blog! This week, guest blogger Ebunnygirl will be posting one of her WordPress blogs. Please enjoy, and you can find more of her posts on her WordPress page, https://ebunnygirl.wordpress.com/
Nicole Woolaston’s Spin-offs Are Worth Reading
I’ve never been a huge fan of spin-offs. Sometimes you find a really good TV show or book, and then someone decides to take a character or idea from it and create a second show or write a second book. The spin-off usually stinks. For example, I love the show “Criminal Minds”, but “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior” kinda sucked.
As I have mentioned before, I’m a fan of indie authors, especially Nicole Woolaston. She’s the author of the Fortune’s Wing series, the Valentine series, and the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series. BTW: I am not being compensated in any way, to post any of this. Woolaston’s books are unique, and completely different from any other books I’ve read. Once you pick one up and start reading, you’re going to have a hard time putting it down. I’ve read Valentine, and it’s one of my favorite books. When I discovered Woolaston was publishing a series of companion books for the Valentine series, I became curious. Normally, when I give a spin-off a try, I end up being uninterested and disappointed. But that wasn’t the case with the Valentine Apart series.
The Valentine Apart series focuses on characters APART from Valentine (the lead character) herself. The first is Allan and Mac, which is about the brother and sister duo who work as hitmen. It is HYSTERICAL! The casual conversations that take place between Allan and Mac when they’re in the middle of doing their job, are brilliant. Next, is Her Name is Lola Vencent, which give details about Lola’s life before she started working for John Rafferty, the primary villain in the Valentine series. Jo Fuentes: The Black Queen talks about one of my favorite characters, Jo Fuentes. She’s the Marine turned hitwoman from the regular series.
What makes these books so good, is the way they’re written. You can read them as companion books to the Valentine series, or you can read them separate and apart. The end of each book, however, ties into the regular series with such ease. If you’ve read the regular series (as I have) you find yourself thinking, Oh, I know what this is! I remember that scene from one of the other books!
The companion books in the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series work the same way. You can read them along with the regular series, or read them alone. And, much like the Valentine Apart books, the stories and endings tie into the books from the regular series.
I think one of the reasons Woolaston’s spin-offs are so entertaining, is the way she chooses particular characters to focus on. Allan, Mac, Lola and Jo from Valentine were excellent choices for stand-alone books. Erin, Dee and Jon from Our Lady of Righteous Rage are characters we didn’t know a lot about, but their personal stories were interesting enough to make for good reading. The author is currently writing two more Valentine Apart books, and is planning to write another Our Lady book as well. I’m looking forward to reading all of them. If you’ve never read Woolaston’s books, you really should pick one up.
Nicole Woolaston can be found here on WordPress and on her website, www.woolastonentertainment.com
Thank you to Ebunnygirl for providing this week’s post!
Scheduling Facebook Posts Saves Me Time
When you’re an indie author, or a business owner (or both), you spend a lot of time promoting your product, website, service, or whatever. Promoting can be time consuming. The time I spend, posting on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc, is time I’d rather spend writing. However, its necessary, and it does work. Facebook posts and tweets help me drive traffic to my website, which creates awareness of me and my books, which leads to sales, via Amazon or my online store. But, like I said, creating all of those posts is time consuming. I recently stumbled upon a feature on Facebook which I have found to be extremely helpful.
I’m on Facebook Messenger, and Messenger frequently sends me info about tips to use for my business Facebook page. Normally, I ignore most of these tips, because I am bombarded by messages on Messenger, 24/7. There was one tip that caught my attention: Scheduling a post. It had never occurred to me, to SCHEDULE some of my posts. I decided to give it a try, and sat down and created five posts, and scheduled them to be posted at different times on a given day. I checked my page later on, to see if all of my posts had been posted, and they had, on time. I have to admit, this lifted a small weight off of my shoulders. I could create content for my page in one sitting, and choose when I wanted it to appear on the page. I didn’t have to worry about whether or not I had posted enough content on a particular day, throughout the day. This gave me time to focus on other things, such as writing and editing my next round of books.
this lifted a small weight off of my shoulders
Some of you are probably aware of this, but it was new to me. If you haven’t tried it, give it a shot. And it’s very simple: when you create a post, instead of clicking on POST, click the arrow next to the word “post”, and select “schedule” from the drop-down menu. Or, create a post, and select “post options” at the bottom of your post. Click on the arrow next to “now”, then click “schedule”. From there, you can choose a specific date and time for the post to appear. As a side note, I’d recommend scheduling your posts during the time of day your page sees the most traffic. You can determine this by clicking on the “insights” tab, on the top of the page. I’m in love with this feature, and I plan to use it more often!
woolastonentertainment.com
Monday Blog: Patagonia Library, New Valentine Apart Books, Biologicals
Greetings, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I have some wonderful news for you, so let’s jump right in: one of my books is available for check-out at a public library in Arizona, I’m further along in my drafts for the next two Valentine Apart books, and Biologicals is currently available in paperback form!
Patagonia Public Library
First, I need to say thank you to Shannon Wright of the Patagonia Public Library, for sharing info about the Street Lit Program on Facebook! This was created in order to give indie authors some exposure. I donated a copy of Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Extended and Uncensored , and it’s available for check-out! So, if you’re reading this in Arizona, check out the books in the Street Lit collection!
https://www.patagoniapubliclibrary.org/
This has inspired me to reach out to public libraries beyond my home in New York. If anyone reading this knows of a library seeking book donations, please let me know! You can reach me on the WE website contact page, or just email me: woolent@hotmail.com
New Books in Valentine Apart
As I have mentioned before, I’m working on the next two books for the Valentine Apart series. So far, the drafts are coming along nicely. In Project Sleep, Jo Fuentes is not sure if she’s being paranoid, or if she’s being followed. Her suspicions are confirmed when Kelly McCormick gives her her next assignment.
Speaking of Kelly, in Young Kelly McCormick, Kelly attends a meeting and makes it very clear to the rest of the Syndicate, where she stands. She’s not there to be anyone’s secretary, and she wants just as much respect as the men sitting in the room. Of course, if she’s going to get a seat at the table, she’ll have to earn it the hard way…
I’ll keep you posted as I continue to write.
Biologicals
The paperback is ready! You can find it now in the Create Space store! By tomorrow, it should also be available on Amazon’s site. I will release the Ebook in a few weeks. I really hope everyone enjoys the latest Our Lady story!
Until next week, folks!
woolastonentertainment.com
Monday Blog: New Fiction!
It’s July! It’s a new month! It’s time for a new theme! I’m thinking about having a dual theme, but for now, I’m going to focus on new fiction. I currently have three new books in the works (and I’m still doing research for a fourth). So, this week, I’m going to tell you about the three I’m working on. Warning: there may be some spoilers here!
Biologicals
Another side-story in the world of Our Lady of Righteous Rage is emerging. This one is all about Jon Sarconi, Amy’s adopted son. Written in the same style as Novocaine, Jon’s life is one it’s way up: his band is finally becoming serious about their music, he’s getting help from Nick and Mike, and he’s about to start his first year of college. Nothing can spoil any of that, right? Then he receives a visit from a pair of unexpected guests: his biological parents.
Jon’s parents haven’t participated in his life since he was seven. Amy and David adopted him, and after their divorce, Amy won custody of him. As far as Jon is concerned, Amy is his mother. But his birth parents (or biologicals, as he calls them) suddenly want to get back into his life. Jon can’t help but wonder why. Biologicals will be available later this month.
Jo Fuentes: Project Sleep
Valentine and family have moved out of New York and on with their lives. Kelly McCormick is running the Syndicate, and Jo is her left hand man (Hugo is still her right). Jo begins having strange dreams about classrooms and training sessions, which lead her to think about how she learned to become such a skillful killer. But Jo’s not the only one thinking about her skills, and the more she begins to dig, the more she finds herself in serious danger. In this fourth installment of the Valentine Apart series, Jo will finally learn who she really is…
Young Kelly McCormick
Everyone has to start somewhere, right? Before she was running the Syndicate, and before she became one of the most fearsome women in New York, young Kelly McCormick had to work to make a name for herself. And, being one of very few women in the business, she certainly wasn’t going to be the one to schedule meetings and make coffee for everyone else. Kelly makes bold moves to show everyone around her, why she deserves a place in the Syndicate…
I’m also doing research for the sequel to The Witch of Fulton Lane, which should be out by October (hopefully in time for Halloween!). I’ve been reading a ton of material on Witchcraft, Wicca, and Paganism, and I’ve come across some truly fascinating information I want to use in the sequel. The working title is The Age of the Daughter. I’ll tell you more about it, as I continue to work on it.
Until next week…
woolastonentertainment.com
woolastonentertainment.com 