jana_denardo

What’s Up Wednesdays is a blog hop hosted weekly by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk to help authors network. You can find the rest of the WUW blog hop here


WHAT I'M READING I just finished Dogs: Bullets & Carnage #9 by Shirow Miwa, a SF dystopic manga with a lot of violence and fascinating characters. Also finished No.6 #5 by Atsuko Asano another SF dystopia with an even better story line. And I finished finished The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff. This was a wild story based on the idea of Ghost Brides in China. If they can’t find a recently dead grave to rob, Deshi is going to have to kill Lily to get a ghost bride for his brother. The story was interesting. The art was horrid. And lastly I finished As Chimney Sweeps Come to Dust by Alan Bradley. I love Flavia de Luce, a 12 year old girl into chemistry, poisons and mystery solving (but this is not written as a YA). This one wasn’t as good but I did enjoy it a lot.

Still working on Wheel of Stars by Andre Norton, an old urban fantasy I pulled off my 30+ year old TBR pile. It’s not up to Norton’s usual caliber. I just need to get this done!

WHAT I'M WRITING (+ ONE WRITING GOAL) *
I’m on Spring Break so writing has been sporadic. I’m still waiting on a couple first readers for Blood Red Roulette. I did get more worked on this. I found more problems but now that I see them I can work on them.

I also started another m/m/m story set locally with an eye on an anthology from Wayward Ink. And along with this yet another m/m/m story set in a 1800s tech fantasy world popped up. Apparently it’s a race to the finish in my brain.

But I did get a lot of writing done. I got 5135 words so that’s great.

My goal for next week is to work more on Blood Red Roulette and the two m/m/m stories. No word count goals, just to get something done.


WHAT WORKS FOR ME Talking things out. I do a lot of talking plot snags with my friends has really helped me. They see things from different angles. Often I get fixes that really work plus three or four new ideas as I go. I would be no where without being able to do that and I’m really missing it as friends move off to various parts of social media where we shout out into the void and hope some one sees and eschews the more private forms for communication.


WHAT ELSE IS NEW
My internet was out last week. I DID do a WUW post but couldn’t share it.
You can see it here For that matter, I’m not sure if my internet is back.

I sold a short story, A Wolf in the Fold about an incubus to Wayward Ink’s Of Heaven and Hell anthology. I’m glad to be working with a new publisher. Don’t get me wrong, I love working with Dreamspinner, but getting in with another group is a good thing.

What’s Up Wednesdays is a blog hop hosted weekly by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk to help authors network. You can find the rest of the WUW blog hop here


WHAT I'M READING I I just finished Geist by Phillippa Ballantine and I really enjoyed it. It’s a fantasy story with a hint of steampunk and featured a strong female character. I’m just starting Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Asa larsson, a Scandinavian msytery and Wheel of Stars by Andre Norton, an old urban fantasy I pulled off my 30+ year old TBR pile.
And I just got this one in exchange for a review so I might put it ahead of the Larsson one. Murder on the Lake by Bruce Beckham. I do love a mystery.

WHAT I'M WRITING (+ ONE WRITING GOAL) *
I met one goal and failed on the other. I’m waiting on a couple first readers for Blood Red Roulette where maybe going back to that original idea was NOT a great idea after all. Right now the decision is split but I’m not in the mood to work on it.

I finished a A Wolf in the Fold and I sent it out. I’m happy. I didn't keep track of word count this week because mostly I edited.

My goal for next week is to work more on Blood Red Roulette and well just plain anything. It’s been a bad terrible awful week. I don’t see a better one on the horizon. If I get anything done, I’ll be happy.


WHAT WORKS FOR ME I’m skipping this one this week because nothing is. We’re only 8 weeks into this year but I’ve seen a half dozen deaths (two in my family, others friends). Work is imploding as are most colleges out there. It’s a terrible time to be a professor. I’m too stressed out to really know what is working.


WHAT ELSE IS NEW
Tooth still broken. I’m supposed to have a root canal and temporary crown put on tomorrow. We’re supposed to get a foot of snow tonight. Gaah.
The Writer Recharge is over and you can click that link to see my month of progress.

As mentioned I sent out a short story and to a new publisher so that’s fun. My usual publisher is prepping me to get my first round of novel edits. HOLD ME. This is always so brutal. Necessary. Helpful. But brutal.

And what’s new is my honorary grandfather and childhood role model is gone. I’m still very upset over the death of Leonard Nimoy. I’ve mentioned on my blog how much he meant to me. When he offered over twitter to be an honorary grandfather to people, I felt that connection. I am as sad about him as I am about some of the deaths of people I actually was related to. He and my grandmother who passed on in January died of the same thing. COPD. I hope his passing was less…scary. My grandmother would have been 100 in a few months but that didn’t mean she was ready to go.

When we got the call to come in, I wanted to go. Mom was rather adamant I stay home. Since it was her mother, I did as she asked. I had seen Grandma the day before. One of the last things she said to me was ‘All my friends are dead.’ She was gone within 36 hours of that. And she was afraid. She couldn’t catch her breath because of that disease and she knew and was afraid. I’ve sat with many people and watched them die in my first career as a doctor. I often sat and held the hands of the dying if their family couldn’t get there. I’ve seen that fear. I’ve also seen that peace. I have a couple chronic illnesses. I’m not sure I will be afraid to go but who can say.

So that’s what’s new here. My life is a downer and okay, that’s not new but it’s been bad this week. However, if you made it this far let me leave you with this beautiful thought from Leonard Nimoy. It’s something I want to do even more of.

What’s Up Wednesdays is a blog hop hosted weekly by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk to help authors network. You can find the rest of the WUW blog hop here


WHAT I'M READING I’m reading Red Rising by Pierce Brown for review and if not for that I would have quit by now. I’m not tremendously impressed (putting me in the minority). I think I have to just admit it. I don’t like YA dystopias. At All.
Hexed by Kevin Hearne. Honestly I’m really enjoying it. Too bad so many reviewers are trying to make me feel like a bad woman for enjoying it.

WHAT I'M WRITING (+ ONE WRITING GOAL) *
I met my goal of working on chapter 5 of Blood Red Roulette. I thought I had fixed chapter one. Apparently it’s still deeply flawed and I have to agree with the critique. Now I have to figure out how to fix it again. I’m getting so very close to chucking this. It’s apparently much worse than I think it is and doesn’t take long to point out glaring flaws I’m blind to.
I did get back to A Wolf in the Fold. I’m still not happy with it but it’s progressing at least a little. I need to make the one partner more of a character and I wasn’t accomplishing it through his lover’s eyes so he’s getting a few scenes of his own. I think I’m going to cut one of the sex scenes as well. It feels tacked on.
My goal for next week is to work more on Blood Red Roulette and A Wolf in the Fold. I wrote @ 2,900 words this past week.


WHAT WORKS FOR ME Getting critiques. Even if they hurt. At the end of the day, even the painful ones help. Finding good betas is harder than it should be. Sometimes I luck into more anonymous critiques like at Terrible Minds’ blog. He occasionally runs a critique post like the one here . I got some great thoughts on my paragraph, made me feel less like I’m failing at this.


WHAT ELSE IS NEW
Nope the next week wasn’t better as I hoped last week. On Valentine’s Day where in I was alone as usual, I broke my tooth and swallowed it. :( I’ve swallowed the temp caps I’ve put on it three times now. And thanks to the sudden snow storm I might not be able to get to the dentist. Cross your fingers for today because it’s killing me (and I’m diabetic. Open wounds are bad news). However in better news I took part of some authors’ promos over the holiday and one two books, one electronic and the other audio which is a first for me. That’s exciting. The Writer Recharge through this and that link is my second week results.

What’s Up Wednesdays is a blog hop hosted weekly by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk to help authors network. You can find the rest of the WUW blog hop here


WHAT I'M READING I just finished reading The Sculptor by Scott McCloud. I got an ARC to preview. It’s a bittersweet graphic novel about a sculptor who makes a Faustian deal with death: the ability to shape stone/metal by hand and in return he dies in 200 days. And I’m reading Appointment the Edge of Forever by Perrin Pring. It’s SF and so far, it’s pretty good.


WHAT I'M WRITING (+ ONE WRITING GOAL) *
I met my goal of working on chapter 3 of Blood Red Roulette and to work on A Wolf in the Fold. I think I’m going to shelve the latter. I don’t have time to do it justice and honestly, it’s not really romance which is what the anthology is. I wish there were more indie LGBT opportunities that aren’t romance.
I also got my writers group critiques done so there’s that accomplished. It’s not much but I’m taking it.

My goal for next week is to work more on Blood Red Roulette. I’ve realized that needs me to rewrite the beginning so I plan to make a new chapter four and to put all the Nanowrimo scenes in order so I can eventually use them.

I also plan to work on one scene with the detectives for my steampunk/mystery.


WHAT WORKS FOR ME Social networking. Things like this blog hop, networking with authors on twitter and facebook, author lists etc. You get the idea. It’s nice to have contacts who know what you’re going for. It helps to have them when it comes to doing blog tours and things like that. They’re a huge help when it comes to figuring out how to market yourself and some are even willing to beta read.
There are some down sides to it. On facebook for example, it’s hard not to notice you post something and get zero comments and someone else posts almost the same thing and in spite of the fact you have mostly the same friends, they get fifty comments. I haven’t felt more like I was back in high school than I do on facebook. I hated high school. Sometimes I feel just as invisible now. So there is that pit of self doubt social media can open up under you.

What DOESN’T work for me are the people on twitter/facebook/etc who friend you and you friend back after maybe looking at their pages and they seem legit and the very first thing they do is send a PM going ‘READ MY BOOK!’ OMG, really? It’s rude. It’s pushy. Has this ever worked for anyone? It makes me want to just unfriend them immediately. I wouldn’t mind down the road once we know each other, you bringing up the book but the very first thing? No, thank you. This last time, I turned it around said, ‘sure if you buy MINE.’ I noticed I didn’t get any acknowledgement on that (except from one). Yeah, don’t do that. I don’t know anyone who likes it.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW
I have a rodent of some sort making huge fiberglass nests in the heating ducts. The landlord is unmoved by the fact that fiberglass is being shot all over the damn place in my apartment. Sigh. I got a steroid injection in my hip yesterday. I feel so much better. I have a lot of upcoming doctor’s appointments. I’m feeling old. I have to go back to the eye doctor for the third time in three weeks. Whee.

What’s Up Wednesdays is a blog hop hosted weekly by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk to help authors network. You can find the rest of the WUW blog hop here


WHAT I'M READING I just finished reading Torchwood: Trace Memories and it was a decent Torchwood tie-in. It could have been a bit better but I enjoyed it.

I’m currently reading Crazy Love You by Lisa Unger, a Goodreads win. It’s a full-on suspense novel which is a bit out of my usual reading materials. It’s pretty good so far and In Hot Water by J.J. Cook, another Goodreads win. It’s a cozy mystery and I’m enjoying it.


WHAT I'M WRITING (+ ONE WRITING GOAL) *
I’m still not writing much between the beginning of school and my grandmother’s death. I did however meet my goal of revamping chapter 3 of my vampires in Vegas novel Blood Red Roulette. I learned that I lost one of the nano bits I had for this chapter. It’s somewhere on the flash but I thought they were all named nano something or other and I can’t find it. Head desk. Oh well. It was a tiny piece. I’m waiting to see what the first readers think of this (I still desperately need another first reader for this one).

My goal is to work on chapter 4 of Blood Red Roulette and to work on a steampunk story that my non-erotica self is doing.

And an important goal is to finish all the preliminary stuff for my upcoming novel before my publishing house gets mad with me (well I did explain the delay was due to grandma’s death). I think I have to tackle the blurb writing part now. Ugh, hate that part with a passion.

WHAT WORKS FOR ME Challenges. Seriously, if you want to motivate me, find me a challenge. I’m doing this one right now. 12 day writing challenge via Writer’s Digest. And for that matter, being on Writer’s Digest mailing list is a help too. It brings a lot of useful things past my eyes. This challenge is pretty basic but it gets me noodling around with things.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW
As I said, I had to deal with Grandma’s funeral for most of the week. I had to drive to Pittsburgh and back again. I started some red maple seeds today with the idea that they can be bonsais (and maybe a memorial tree for Grandma).

I’m still trying to get used to the rather brutal new schedule at work. At least I get breaks this semester.
And I took part in the pay it forward weekend where I have offered up my blog for book promotion so if you’re interested talk to me.

Welcome to 2015. It’s about time I did something in the journal this year.


WHAT I'M READING I just finished reading Death Along the Spirit Road by C.M. Wendleboe a mystery taking place on Pine Ridge reservation. It was a good mystery but for me, a former resident doctor on Pine Ridge, it brought up so many memories.


Just finished No. 6 by Atsuko Asano. It’s a very interesting SF/dystopia manga with potentially gay overtones (to early to tell if it will go that way or not)


I'm reading Dark of the Moon the first Virgil Flowers spin off of John Sandford’s Prey series. He’s written better. It’s concentrating more on being ‘manly’ than anything else. The sort of sex scenes are badly written and kinda creepy (when the love interest gets turned on by watching her brother have sex…)


WHAT I'M WRITING (+ ONE WRITING GOAL) *
My short story, <http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3380"> Peace in the Valley, a werewolf Christmas story, has been sold for its foreign rights and will be translated into Korean..

My goal is to finish the revamp of chapter 3 of my vampires in Vegas novel Blood Red Roulette

WHAT WORKS FOR ME Right now absolutely nothing. Yeah, not what anyone wants to hear but it’s true. I’m still visiting relatives for the holidays and getting ready for the start of the semester on Monday. It is what it is. I’ll worry about it on the morrow.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW
I did several free stories for the holidays. You can find them here. Too Hot set in my 1930s demon hunter series Soldiers of the Sun and from my Kept Tears series, an urban fantasy about a disabled veteran and a Tylwyth Teg, there are two stories Mountain High and Holiday Lights.

And lastly there’s my Yearly writing round up. All my professional published works can be found there.


What’s Up Wednesdays is a blog hop hosted weekly by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk to help authors network. You can find the rest of the WUW blog hop here

It's been a few weeks but now that my nano write ins are over (they were wednesdays) I hope to get back to this more regularly.


WHAT I'M READING I just finished reading Veil of Life by Lyndie Swedersky and honestly it felt like they accidentally sent the first draft to the printer. All the possessives were written as plurals, all the plurals as possessives, you're for your and vice versa and the list goes on. I only finished it because I was given it in exchange for a review.

I'm reading High Maga, by Karin Rita Gastreich, another goodreads win. I'm enjoying this fantasy but hadn't realized it was a sequel so I feel like I'm missing huge chunks of it. I'm also reading Homeward Bounders by Dianne Wynn Jones for classic YA lit to finish a reading bingo. I've just started it so it's too soon to say much.

I'm also still reading Vinland Saga, Blue Exorcist and Attack on Titan. I'd recommend any of these manga. They're all very enjoyable.

WHAT I'M WRITING (+ ONE WRITING GOAL) *
Lots of big news here. I just found out that my next novel Soldiers of the Sun was purchased by Dreamspinner press and is tentatively slated for a late summer release. I'm so thrilled. It's in my 1930s demon hunter series set in Pittsburgh. I'm so happy that Caleb, Agni and Temple (and now Jo) get to ride again. You can see the novella in this series The Darkest Midnight in December here .

Kept Tears didn't win a Rainbow Award but it did make it to the finals which is amazing for a first novel if you ask me. I couldn't be more proud of it. It's also set in Pittsburgh and is an urban fantasy about a war vet suffering a traumatic amputation who's reentering the dating game and ends up with a fae prince.

I finished and 'won' Nanowrimo for my vampires in Vegas novel Blood Red Roulette. I am not finished by a long shot but I felt to continue on blindly would be a disservice to the story so I've stopped and I'm now reworking the beginning to make sure it's not off track. It started as a short story twenty years ago so it's in some sad shape in the beginning. I think that I know where it needs to go and once I edit through the beginning and firm it up I'll be able to finish this. I'm setting a goal of six months for this.

Also my Yule story is now out, The Light of Winter and you can find it here.

In the midst of nano, a new novel idea came to me. The characters are loosely based on early Renaissance Europe (but it's not earth) for climate and some cultural aspects so imagine settling down Vikings having to work with Romans to face a common enemy.

My goals for this week are to edit chapter two of the vampires’ story and finish another chapter in the new thing. I have so many things I need to be writing but let's try that for a weekly goal.

WHAT WORKS FOR ME Making time for my writing. Unfortunately it does have to be shoehorned in at times but I can't wait for 'the muse to strike' or some mystical convergence. It doesn't matter if I'm tired. Those are mere excuses and excuses are worthless in this case. Yes I'm tired. Yes I'm working on making final exams until midnight all this week but I can dedicate some time to write. I don't care if it's only a half hour. Those will be a few hundred words I wouldn't have otherwise.

Also writing while my students are taking the exams is working for me because that's 2 hours of free time in the middle of my work day. It's either write or stare at them for 2 hours. Writing makes us all happy. I get stuff done and they don't feel uncomfortable under my unwavering stare.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW
Nothing much. My life is nothing but making and grading exams. Oooo exciting. Well it does help the sadist in me but there is that masochistic side crying uncle when I see some of these tests. I'm pretty sure my cat could have scored higher.

Speaking of the cat, he's at his grandparents. I got to go home for Thanksgiving which is unusual and since I'll be back in less than 3 weeks I just left him there. He's having the time of his fuzzy life running on the staircases and pretty much doesn't seem to miss me much. Ungrateful furball.

While home I did get to see Newsies and I really enjoyed it. It's been eons since I've seen a Broadway touring production. Pittsburgh is at least good for that. I miss living there sometimes.

I’ve had other authors showcased on my blog in the last two weeks. You can find Charley Descoteaux and her holiday story, Toy Run, here and Anne Barwell and her historical novella, On the Wings of Song here. Check out their stuff.

What’s Up Wednesdays is a blog hop hosted weekly by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk to help authors network. You can find the rest of the WUW blog hop here

WHAT I'M READING I’m STILL reading (oh you long fantasy novels) I’m also reading The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson which is the third book in the Mistborn trilogy. I’ll finish tonight. It’s a fantastic trilogy.
And I’m still working on another fantasy novel, Dreams by James Erich which is YA LGBT fantasy. It’s very good so far and it’s really nice seeing a gay hero for the younger crowd who often don’t get to see gay characters in fiction.

And I’m still working my way through Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama now that the library has it. It’s a bizarre, dark dystopic humans-get-eaten kind of manga. I am enjoying it so much so I bought the spin off Attack on Titan: No Regret with my favorite character, Levi.

WHAT I'M WRITING Soldiers of the Sun has FINALLY been sent to the publisher for consideration. Crosses fingers. They’ve published other works in this series so I’m hopeful.

I finished my spook_me’s Halloween challenge. It’s set in the world of my novel Kept Tears. You can find it here It’s called Firebird’s Flight and it’s a free read so enjoy if you stop over to see it (Yes, it is LGBT, but it’s not erotica).
I’ve started my nano novel Blood Red Roulette about my vampires in Vegas. Arrigo is an ancient vampire and member of the Chiascuro, a group of supernaturals who police themselves to be sure humans are becoming prey. Luc is the attractive but troubled young bartender who has caught Arrigo’s eye. What Luc doesn’t know is that he’s about to be stalked and potentially killed by one of Arrigo’s fellow vampires out to destroy Arrigo’s friends. I’m not quite 8K in. Not tremendous but not bad either.

And the Advent Calendar that I have a Druid solstice story in, The Light of Winter is on sale. You can learn more about that here



What Works for Me Right now, deadlines. I have my Nano deadline and all the mini-deadlines built in. It keeps me on track. I love a deadline. If I don’t have one I just piss about (points to Soldiers of the Sun as a prime example. It’s simple but it’s effective.


WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO
I just got a grant to do some medical science research (nothing major, looking at the effects of pre-packaged vegetarian and gluten-free foods on the health of those with chronic illness). I’ve been doing a lot of the paperwork involved in that and getting my research students set up.

I’ve sent that novel in. That’s really biggest news. If you want to read more about that you’ll find it
here


I voted. I’m disappointed in the results but that’s life. Time to move past it.

You can find the rest of the WUW blog hop here

WHAT I'M READING I’m reading a couple things at once Dreams by James Erich which is YA LGBT fantasy. It’s very good so far and it’s really nice seeing a gay hero for the younger crowd who often don’t get to see gay characters in fiction.

I’m also reading The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson which is the third book in the Mistborn trilogy. So far it’s very good but man these puppies are long. Even though they’re good, you still feel that length.

And I’m working my way through Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama now that the library has it. It’s a bizarre, dark dystopic humans-get-eaten kind of manga. I am enjoying it.


WHAT I'M WRITING One day I will say something here that’s different. I’m STILL editing Soldiers of the Sun my 1930s demon hunter story. I’m now up to formatting it correctly and one last look over to insert a little more 1930s slang.

I wrote more on my spook_me’s Halloween challenge. It’s set in the world of my novel Kept Tears. I finally introduced the prompt character who refuses to be spooky and in fact wants to be the one in danger.

And I'm giving away a copy of my novel here It’s called Kept Tears and it’s m/m urban fantasy. So if you’d like to check it out please do.

What Works for Me Having other authors to commiserate with and to help boost me up. Readers too. Can’t forget them. They’re all important. This past weekend was GRL which is a huge con for LGBT authors and I couldn’t go. We had our own virtual party on Facebook and while it generated close to 500 posts in my inbox, it was very nice to see all the support. To have people to talk to who knows how the publishing game goes, to have readers talking all about their favorites and asking questions. It was just a good recharge for my batteries which have been pretty empty


WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO
I went to the Renn fest this weekend. It was a blast as always. And as always I overspent. On the plus side I have some beautiful pendant pieces that I can further work into some beaded glory. I picked up some art as well. I got a henna tattoo, a symbol of faith.

I had to attend a conference on veteran students (dealing with PTSD, respect etc) which was great and my honor to do so. I also hit the casino and did some shopping while in Columbus (Yes shopping for me is a big deal because where I live there is nothing but a Wal-Mart that’s closer than an hour away. Malls are about 75-85 miles out).

I’ve had two great guest authors on my blog. Kim Fielding is there with FIVE new releases and one of which is giving all royalties to Doctors without Borders so please check that out. And Brynn Stein brings her new book to us and talks about the issues with dealing with anti-homosexual prejudice.

I also got a piece of art from a friend in Poland (commissioned by another friend for my birthday) It's lovely. I wish she knew how good she was. Isn't that often the way? The ones with so much talent doubt themselves and conversely I've seen a few with little talent never once doubt how great they are.

And right now I have to go grade those tests I mentioned making and deal with the massive back spasm I’m having.

You can find the rest of the WUW blog hop here

WHAT I'M READING Just finished Nobody’s Secret by Michaela MacColl. It’s a mystery with Emily Dickinson as the protagonist. It’s YA and the chapter headers are all of her poems. It’s well researched and Emily is a likeable character in this (though I admit it, I do have a love/hate relationship with real historical characters being turned into sleuths). It wasn’t very mysterious to me but I’ve been reading mysteries for years. If I were the right age for this book’s target audience I’d probably have been surprised
I also finished The Misshapes, by Alex Flyn a superhero style fantasy YA that was also fairly enjoyable. I liked the superhero part but I’m not much of a romance reader so the whole OMG Freedom Boy is my boyfriend thing was getting on my nerves.

I’ve started reading Chuck Wendig’s (the author of the Terrible Minds blog) Blackbirds. It’s interesting, reminds me of Garth Ennis’s graphic novels.

WHAT I'M WRITING I’m STILL editing Soldiers of the Sun my 1930s demon hunter story. I swear to you I will get this done some day and you can stop hearing about it!

I wrote about 900 words for my spook_me’s Halloween challenge. It’s set in the world of my novel Kept Tears. It’s wanting to get longer than is reasonable. Shoots characters.

Also speaking of Kept Tears, it’s moved on to the final rounds at the Rainbow awards. See more here. That’s so exciting for me because it’s my first novel. I’m just glad some people are obviously really enjoying it.

What Works for Me This has to be said, it’s more of what’s working for me marketing wise vs writing wise. Blogs and all sorts of social media are very important to marketing in this day and age (self published or not, doesn’t matter. Publishing houses DO expect you to do your share now). It can be a confusing maze and knowing what not to do is just as important as knowing what does.

For example, do something more with twitter than constantly blast your book. That will annoy people probably faster than anything.

But the thing we don’t think about is our author blogs. Some people say put more on there then just your book. Okay yes, but there probably needs to be limits. For example, I don’t put much political stuff on mine. For one, I’m fairly apolitical. However, since I do write a lot of LGBT fiction, I might put things up about those issues. I have stopped buying from authors over political views. Maybe that’s wrong headed but there you have it. I do believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but when a YA author known for female characters starts calling all men Grandfather Penis and/or Talking Penis and castigating women for not being superior to men, I think it’s probably not the right message to send, especially to young readers.

Lately I’ve seen a couple people constantly whining about how no one understands their writing and they’re going to basically take their ball and go home. People respond, ‘there there, we like you,’ and they stay only to do it again a few weeks later. My thoughts are we all fail at this. Not every story I submit is bought (as if. I wish). What I don’t want is for my readers to think I’m a poor sport or emotionally blackmailing them. Honestly I have a separate blog (this is my author’s blog) where I whine if I absolutely must. I’m not saying we need a blog of Pollyanna crap. I’m just saying we need to be mindful that our audience might be reading and if we’re blasting them for liking ‘shit’ and not us, they probably aren’t going to appreciate it much.
Terrible Mind’s had a good point here. dearest writer nobody owes you shit

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO
I have author Andrew Q. Gordon on my blog today if you want to stop by and hear about his new book. A Closed Door
I’ve been cleaning so hard. I hate to clean. I have company coming. I was rooting for the natural disaster to strike this place but it didn’t so clean I must.

You can find the rest of the WUW blog hop here