S.M. Butler's Blog, page 10

I can’t believe it’s already June. It feels like this year is flying by without me these days. At least some days it feels like that. I can’t really complain about this year. So far, it’s been really good to me. I’m finally settling into a decent writing pace (even though I do have periods of a couple weeks that I won’t write at all) and starting to figure out a good routine that helps me get things done with my Sucky Day Job.

I’m really excited about this month. I’m going to be starting a new book and I have all these ideas running through my head. It’s one of my most favorite feelings when I’m walking or cooking or whatever and suddenly, I have this amazing idea for the book that I just have to get out right away.

Like this morning, I totally came up with the most awesome meet-cute for my couple in Reapers #3. Suddenly, it was right there in my head.

Like I squealed.

And I know I haven’t mentioned much about my thoughts and plans for this book, but only because everything is still up in the air. I’m still in the brainstorming stage, so it’s likely I could even change the couple at this point. I mean, that’s kind of what happened with book 2. I originally had another couple in mind and Bea & Axel just jumped to the front of my mind and demanded that they were next. Of course, if you know Bea and Axel, it kind of makes sense. Both of them are very demanding people.

But one of my goals this year was to do more interactive media where I’d get to talk to you guys more. And I haven’t quite gotten up the nerve to do Facebook Live streams, but I did record a Plan with Me for June. So, you get to take a sneak peek of my calendar for the month, and watch me try to organize me and my business so I don’t overwhelm myself with insane expectations. I did forget that I wanted to schedule July’s PWM and a video on quarterly planning (since Q3 starts in July) so that’s not actually reflected in the video. I ended up rearranging my posting schedule a little after I recorded to add those videos.

Without further ado, I’m gonna leave this video here, if you’d like to watch it. If you want to see more, don’t forget to Like the video on YouTube. It really helps with the algorithms for visibility.

It’s been about a month since I updated the blog. It hasn’t been a bad month. Or good, really. Just a regular month. I suppose the reason why I forget to blog is that I get lost in the not-online part of my life and I forget that there’s still this other part of my life (online) that needs attention too. The thing is I like blogging. I like talking to you guys. It’s fun for me. It’s just every once in a while, my attention gets diverted into other places. Like this month. I’ve been binge watching a bunch of stuff on Netflix and Funimation because I have an addiction to anime lately.

And it’s not like I hadn’t been online. I sneak onto Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and read up on what everyone’s up to, but most of the time, I’m not commenting or otherwise engaging. I suppose that’s the wrong thing for a person who generally markets by social media to do. But there are just some times when I’m good with seeing what people are doing, but I really don’t want to interact. I’m happy keeping up with folks. I don’t know if that makes sense or not. It made sense in my head.

So I’ve been working on this urban fantasy story for Patreon for a while, and I’m really loving this return to what I used to write a long time ago. I mean, romance has always been a thing in my stories, but writing in a contemporary setting was kind of a new thing when I started publishing. So, I’ve really been enjoying creating this whole new world that’s filled with magic and all these new characters where magic is a normal, everyday thing for them.

Also, I started brainstorming Reapers #3 this week. I still haven’t nailed down which couple I’m going to be focusing on for this book. There’s obviously some unfinished business from the first two books I need to work on. I think this will be the first book that I actually plot out on purpose. But there are some side stories going on, and other threads that need to converge in this book, so what I’ve been mainly trying to think about is which couple would further the story more. It’s gotten a little complicated. LOL.

I originally planned five books, so I suppose this book is considered the midpoint of the series, which means all the things are starting to come together, we’re figuring things out, but there’s still a lot that we don’t know. The funny thing is that I mostly pantsed the first book, so I really had no clue where that story was going to go after that book. The only real thing I knew was that Chris and Abigail’s story wasn’t over with book 1. We only saw a little bit of them in HER LAST KILL, but I needed to set the foundation first. Don’t worry, guys… There’s definitely going to be more of the two in book 3.

Now I’m trying to tie the series arc into the vision that I had for the series when I wrote that book, which means I kind of have to have some sort of map for the rest of the books. It’s kind of weird, having that map where I’d usually just sit down and bust out words until I figured out where I was headed. But my hope is that I have to rewrite and revise less than I had to for the first two books, thus saving time from idea to published book. I guess we shall see how that works out over the next few weeks as I start writing the thing. Ha.

So I guess that’s everything I’ve been up to, writing-wise. I’ve been working on revamping my Patreon page, to streamline it and make it more fun for folks. I haven’t been very good about things there but I want to change that. So over the next few weeks, I’m going to be focusing more there and probably starting to post the urban fantasy story up there. It’s going to be slow, probably once or twice a month at first but it’ll build as the membership builds. I’d really love some ideas for rewards that aren’t incredibly time intensive and don’t involve me going to the post office more than once a month, because I suck at going to the post office. In fact, I haven’t checked my PO Box in like, two months. Yeah.

So anyway, that’s what I got. This week, I have to talk to my school advisor to figure out what classes I need for the fall, register for said classes, and try to figure out how I’m going to balance it all. The good thing is that I managed to be able to cut back on my hours at work because I was making enough from recent book sales and Patreon, and that’s awesome. Y’all are everything to me right now so thank you so much for your support and the awesome. Because of y’all, I get to keep writing, and I get to work less than 50 hours a week at the Sucky Day Job, and I still get time to binge watch anime and relax.

I hope you guys have an amazing week. I promise it will not be another month before I update the blog again.

Every time I start writing a new book, I forget about all the other things I need to be doing for my publishing business. Like marketing a new release, doing final proofreads, blogging here, and a bunch of other little things. I just get so engrossed in the world I’m writing that everything else seems to take a back seat.

I’m not sure that this is a good thing, as I really need to be doing those little things to keep my business running day-to-day. Every author will tell you that not marketing you and your books is a little bit like death to the business.

That’s probably true, and it’s probably where I fail the most. I like to do the fun things, like writing and making covers, and doing the artwork for a book. Submitting books for ads, or setting up Facebook ads… I don’t like those tasks. But they’re hailed as necessary evils.

But are they? I know the market is so saturated by authors these days. Making a living writing stories alone is next to impossible. And I’ve learned from my previous runs that I’m not willing to sacrifice my quality of life or my quality of my work to release a book every month. It’s just not feasible and I think it’s a majorly short-sighted tactic to a growing problem. There’s just so many books out there. Why would I want to add just another book to the ocean?

So I decided when I started trying to publish again, that I would be me. I wouldn’t compare myself to other authors. I wouldn’t try to compete with them. I would write at my own pace. Release at my own pace. And while I’m not making six figures on writing, I’m actually happier and doing better than I thought I would.

The thing is, I tend to hermitize when I write. I forget about posting to social media, I forget about sending out newsletters, and while I could probably hire someone to do that for me, I like doing those things myself. Makes me feel more… authentic.

One of my author friends told me about China Lit, where they take published works from a couple of decades ago, change the names, the genders of the characters, ect… and pay a native English speaking author to go over those books, changing at least one word per sentence so that it doesn’t trip the plagiarism filters.

Seeing that happening made me glad that I am who I am. That I don’t pay anyone to post to social media as me. That even if I suck at the “social media game” and that’s why my accounts don’t grow like others… I’m still authentically me.

But I’m veering off from where I started this post. I’m writing a fantasy right now, which has been kind of a fun, get back to my roots sort of project. I love romantic suspense and military romance, and there’s no way I’m going to stop writing those. But I’m really enjoying being true to myself and allowing myself to play in a genre I forgot I loved before I discovered romance.

I’m thinking about sharing the entire process on my Patreon page every week, so the folks there can watch it happen and get to see things no one else gets to see. I don’t know if there are enough people who are interested in such things, but I’ve always loved diving into processes of my favorite authors and artists. So…. hopefully, it’ll be something fun to do and it’ll be a nice way to keep me accountable and keep me motivated. If that’s something you might be interested in seeing, let me know. I’ll see if I can figure out how to share it in some discernible form.

For now though, I’m going to go sit down and work on this fantasy for a bit and see how things go.

There’s something tangibly awesome about finishing a project. Maybe finishing isn’t quite the right word because I’m always going back and tweaking here and there, even on published works. But when the big stuff is done and all that’s left is to package it and get it ready for the world, I get to feel this certain sense of relief.

A lot of writers I talk to always say that this is the beginning of their anxiety, and maybe at some level, that’s probably true for me too. The baby project I worked so hard on is all grown up now. Time for the world to see it. Yeah, there’s a certain anxiety that comes with that. But I also feel this wonderful emotion of relief. It’s a big thing that isn’t on my plate anymore and I can sit down and chill, or work on a new project that’s been percolating in my brain for weeks, or maybe months.

I’m excited about being finished with Her Last Kill. It has another round of proofreading, but for the most part, it’s done. Which means… I can turn my attention to the next book. I don’t know if it’s going to be Reapers #3 I work on, or if it’s going to be something completely different. I’m kind of leaning toward something completely different if only to cleanse the palette. I’ve been living in the Reapers’ heads for months now. I kind of know what’s going to happen for book three, but it’s not really fully formed yet.

So here’s my options, and truly, I don’t know what I’m going to do yet.

Reapers #3A whole new idea that I’ve been hoarding for a whilethe next Lucky Thirteen book (which I admit, I’m not super excited about and it’s even less formed than the Reapers book).

Business-wise, Reapers #3 is the better option, in all honesty. My past sales show my series don’t really do well until I’m at least three books in. Creative-wise, it’s not ready to write. It needs more time to work itself out in my head. I’d gone into book 2 thinking I knew who book 3 was going to be. But after writing book 2, I’m not so sure anymore. Also, the main series plot is getting more complicated, so it’s going to take more time to write because I’m going to have to plot ahead, which typically, I don’t really do, so I need a little practice at it.

Anyway, I think I’m going to go ahead and chill for tonight. I’ve had a cold for the last few nights and I really haven’t let myself rest so I think that’s the plan for tonight. Decisions can wait for tomorrow.

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but when I really get into a book, or I’m on a major crunch to finish one, I tend to disappear from social media and this blog and pretty much everywhere. It’s kind of a thing I do. It’s never on purpose, but it does happen.

My entire world becomes this bubble, just me and these characters and this world I created for them.

I love it.

There’s something magical about immersing myself in the story. But then comes the end of the book and there’s this waiting period while the book is out to editors or beta readers or whatever else it’s out getting done. I try not to think about that book so I can see it with fresh eyes when it comes back to me.

But I miss that world and those characters. It’s only been a day, but I already miss Bea and Axel and the rest of the Reapers. But I don’t want to work on book 3 until book 2 is finalized. I might still change details that will affect the next story, so it’s better to wait so I don’t have to track changes like that.

So in the meantime, I’m plotting out this other series I want to write later this year. It’s a different genre, not even romance, so it’s a great palette cleanser for me.

I also got a new camera this week, so expect videos from me soon. Because of course, I need a New Shiny Thing to play with.

I’m also going to try to record some podcasts for Story Nerd this week as well and kind of just catch up on stuff I pushed to the side while I was working on Her Last Kill.

I think that’s all I got today. What have you guys been up to lately? Anything fun?

This has been kind of a busy week in Real Life Land. I’ve been saving for the better part of the year since I moved into this apartment for a new washer and dryer. I haven’t had one that works in years. I usually use the opportunity to visit my parents and be a Good Daughter. Not that I wouldn’t visit them anyway (Hi Mom!) but it’s a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone sort of thing (Not that I would kill birds… It’s not really my thing… Also? We really need a less violent cliché to use there…)

Not my washer and dryer but similar to what I ordered.

Anyway, so I bought a new washer and dryer. And some other big stuff I needed, like bookshelves for the creative cave and a new TV stand for the living room. Everything was great. I filled out all my information and submitted it, and somehow, the address reverted to my previous address during submission (it could possibly have been user error. Maybe. Who knows?) and now the enormously heavy washer and dryer (and also the TV stand, but I’ll deal with that later) were heading to my old address and the rest of the stuff was coming to the right address.

Queue my panic. Because now, I had to adult and call these people and say “WTH?” in my nicest tone. I hate adulting. But my desire for my washer and dryer was bigger than my desire to run and hide under my bed and hope it all just turned out well in the end.

So I talked to the customer service, minutes after I placed the order, and she fixed it. Or so I thought. When I got shipment notices, they were still going to the old address. So I went back to the customer service folks, and they told me I’d have to wait until their delivery service called to set up the delivery window and if they wouldn’t change the address, I’d have to refuse delivery.

Damn it. More adulting. I hate adulting. I particularly hate adulting when I have to be confrontational with people whose fault this isn’t. The delivery people didn’t cause this issue. Sigh. I sucked it up, though. I called them, talked to a very nice man on the phone and he submitted my change of address.

So far, so good.

Now I’m waiting for the change to go through so I can schedule the delivery. My heart can’t take this kind of stuff, yo. I just want my stuff. I want to be able to throw a load of clothes in the washer at 3 am when I can’t sleep because the FT Job has my sleep schedule out of whack. I don’t think that’s so much to ask.

I think I need cookies after this.

Definitely.

I’m so ready for this week to be over. I mean, it’s not been a bad week, but it has been a week, and I’m exhausted. To top it off, I really haven’t gotten to write much and I spent the last two days off from work, but I was so tired that I slept probably 90% of the time.

I honestly look at some writers out there that are writing huge amounts of words with a full-time job and I have no idea how they do it. Like where do they find the energy? It was easy when I was doing the writing thing full-time and didn’t have to worry about going to work, but now that I’m working a full-time gig, finding time to write isn’t the issue. It’s finding time to write when I’m not falling asleep on my keyboard.

The result of this exhaustion is that I feel really guilty. Like, I should be finding time to write NO MATTER WHAT and that if I don’t, it’s obviously some failing of mine and not that I’m putting too much on myself. I’ve always been extremely goal oriented, which is why I find myself so attracted to planners and creative journaling. Goals are meant to be achieved and it kind of drives me crazy when I miss one.

Two years ago, I deleted my old blog and moved over to Squarespace. I liked it. I still use Squarespace for my art website. So it’s not that it wasn’t a good experience. But I realized right a couple weeks after I moved, that I liked being able to change my author website on a whim, while my art website didn’t need that much maintenance. I suppose you can do that in Squarespace, too, but it’s not as easy as WordPress and I missed the familiar WordPress interface. So I moved my website back to my own hosting and installed WordPress again.

The reason I brought that up is that back then when I first started writing again after that two-year break, I was aware that I had burned out because I put too much on myself. Too many lofty goals, too little time. At one point, I exploded mentally and checked out. So I changed everything I’d done, from my focus to my website. But then I realized I liked my website the way it was and it wasn’t really necessary to completely change everything. I just had to put the broken pieces back together. That took some time too, and sometimes, I still find broken links in places. But really, I’m happy with where I’m at and where I’m going.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t tend to push myself a little too hard sometimes. My FT job is exhausting. It’s the nature of it. I’m constantly running all night long. Which means it’s okay that I’m tired a lot. I just need to learn to be kind to myself and allow myself some time to recuperate without guilt.

That’s a lot harder than it looks.

So it’s time for me to go work on Her Last Kill. Still in the homestretch on revisions… just a few more chapters to go, so hopefully I’ll be done before the end of the month. Thankfully, Editor Lady is awesome and works with my crazy-miss-all-the-deadlines stuff. She’s a keeper.

I’m probably in the last third of Her Last Kill revisions, and let me tell you, I’m so glad. I got stuck in the middle of the story for a while. And I think that happened when I wrote the zero draft for it as well. The middle of a story is always hard for me, no matter if it’s a novel or a short story.

But I’ve gotten over that rather massive hump, and things are moving faster than they were a week ago. It’s weird because this is the part of the story that is completely changing, and yet, it’s still easier than that one middle section I spent two weeks working on.

So if you’re stuck writing in that Swampy Middle section right now, don’t despair. Keep going, keep writing, and in the not so distant future, you’ll be free of the Swamp and into that nice Home Stretch right before The End.

In other news that has nothing to do with writing, I’ve decided to try the Curly Girl Method. It was sort of inspired by Ilona Andrews, because I was reading her blog about how she was doing with it when I decided to do it. But I’ve been hating my hair before that, and having a lot of trouble figuring out how to style it. I need to go get it trimmed, really, is the basic gist of it, but I’ve been putting it off for weeks. So all my layers have grown out, and my head looks like a giant fried triangle.

A lot of times what happens is that I try it for a week or so, my hair starts getting in my way or annoys me in some fashion and I decide that I need to go back to straightening. Or I cut it all off and then go back to straightening. I’m going to try to be strong, though. I’m thinking I’m going to go get it trimmed, cut away some of the heat damage and then try this curly thing for a few weeks and see how it goes.

So, yeah. That’s what’s new with me. Revisions. Hair. That’s pretty much my life right now. Riveting, I know.

Don’t forget, local folks! I’m going to be at the Haltom City Library this evening signing books and playing cheesy Valentine’s Day games. Come by, because I’d love to see you guys!

Okay, back to revisions for now. I have a few hours before I need to start signing prep and make sure I’ve got everything ready for this evening and they need to be productive hours. I’m so ready for this book to be done.

Hey y’all! So this is just a quick post to let you know I’m participating in this awesome giveaway for Valentine’s Day. I know, if your TBR pile is anything like mine, you probably don’t need help adding to it, buuuuut, there’s all these free books from my fellow authors and I just couldn’t help myself.

I picked up a couple myself that looked interesting, so I figured I’d share the love. I’d love it if you’d pass along the link to a friend or two and let’s see how some of these books turn out. I know I’m excited. There’s a bunch of new-to-me authors on this list to check out and some sound amazing!

Don’t worry, though. I’m actually not allowing myself to read any of the books I’m getting until after Her Last Kill revisions are done. I’m getting close to The End, which I’m super excited about. I’ll be able to relax a bunch after I get through the revisions for about a week or two until the book comes back from the editor. It’s shaping up really well, though, so here’s hoping the Editor Lady doesn’t find a bunch of stuff that needs fixing.

I hope you guys are having a fantastic weekend. I’ll remind you guys about this giveaway at least once more before it’s over. Just in case you forget to check it out.

But for now, I’m going to buckle down and get back to revisions. See you guys soon!

Yesterday was a super productive day for me. I’ve had a rash of unproductive days lately, so it was nice to have this time where I actually got shit done.

I did about 26 pages of revisions and added about 3700 words to the book, LOL. But I always seem to add a lot of words in the revision stage. I think I tend to write lean because the story just needs to get out of my head, so by the time I’m done with the book, it’s mostly action and dialogue. That’s why I usually refer to it as a zero draft or a glorified outline with dialogue. No one ever sees that version, not even my critique readers.

Anyway, I also recorded a Story Nerd podcast but I didn’t get it edited yet so that’s on today’s agenda. It’s the first time in a couple weeks I’ve had time to sit down and record, and I found that like blogging, I really miss it when I can’t do it.

I also did a month end review of where I am in my goals for the quarter and the year and did some preliminary work on February’s goals, which I’m going to finalize today. I’ll update my Kanban board, write down the updated goals in my work planner, set up February’s monthly page and set up next week’s overall plan. I thought I had planned everything out for January, but I kind of blew some things off. The thing is, I always seem to overplan. I schedule too much stuff I want to do and then I’m upset at the end of the month when I don’t get them done.

My goals for February are simple.

Finish the damn revisions.

Okay, there’s more than that, but it really does boil down to that being my ultimate priority. I extended my own deadline for one week. I think that’s enough time for me to get my butt in gear and get this book finished and off to the editor.

Once I get the revisions done, I think I want to go back to this sweet little novella I was writing in my free time. It’s probably going to be a new freebie for my newsletter peeps. I love the book that folks get now when they join, but it’s a six-year-old book at this point and my writing style has changed a lot in that time.

Also, I’d like to do more free stuff for my newsletter folks and vary it up a little so it’s not getting stale. I can’t promise a book a month or anything, but maybe something once a quarter? Not a novel-length, because I need to focus on the Reapers for now, but I could do a novella.

Anyway, that’s all I got for today. I’m going to go sit down with my work planner and my coffee, figure out my day, and then get to work. I have to work tonight, so ideally, I’d like to be done with all the writerly things with enough time to get some sleep in the afternoon. We shall see how it goes.