New Book: Serial Me from Sonya Dickerson

Coming September 2013!

What would you do if there was a woman going around killing all the eligible and gorgeous men in your town? What would you do if you and that woman happened to look like twins?

Vanessa Johnson has it all as a Health and Fitness editor for a popular magazine; except a boyfriend and a body to die for.

Meanwhile a serial killer is on the loose in the city of Chicago causing mayhem and destruction everywhere she turns.

It isn't long before all fingers begin pointing at her. Vanessa must make a decision; watch her life go down the drain or help the police nab the killer before it's too late and she finds herself behind bars.

Amazon Authors! What's Up With All The Serials?

Yes Harry Potter was an exceptional example of a successful series, but if you're not a known name, then your series won't be worth the paper that it was written on.

Yeah, I'm kind of cynical about them, but hear me out first.

Within minutes, my cat can become an author on Amazon and publish whatever she wants to basically. I don't have a problem with that at all. It's just that publishing serials doesn't work for the average reader.

When you're new, you want to write an amazing story from beginning to end. When you write a serial, you don't want to leave out so much that the reader HAS to purchase the second book in order to find out what happens. If this is your first time, what if you suck? You're almost guaranteeing that they won't come back.

New writers need to find their audiences in different  ways than teasing their audiences with books that are sixty six pages long and that have titles that say this is "Book #1 out of 60 of the Dragon Knight Baby Specials"

Huh?

Have you even built an audience yet with the more  traditional route?
What makes you so sure that I'm going to stick with you long enough to read through the second book all the way to your sixtieth?

It's presumptious.

Stick with your first book and knock them dead with that one. Join book clubs that deal with the subject matter that you're writing in. Smooze book club owners. Talk with other writers. Utilize social media. Create a blog. Read other books in the same genre. Read books in other genres. Completely immerse yourself in the world of writing. Find out what the experts are doing. Find out what the idiots are doing and then, don't do that.

Then if you think you've got what it takes to write a trilogy (and God help you if you don't) go for it. It better be damn good and damn worth it.

A writer should never go into a project thinking that they want to create a series off the bat unless they are under a contract to do so. You, as the inexperienced writer with no base, have no clue that people will give a crap about what you write. You could very well be wasting your time.

Write that first novel but leave a little room at the end to possibly create a teaser. Then wait damnit. Wait. Check the reviews. Have other people professionally critique your work. Mull some ideas over in your head for a possible part two of the series.

Have you ever seen any of the Pirates of The Caribbean movies? The first one was genius but then the scripts became some overloaded with such nonsense that even Johnny Depp threw up his hands and said, "I don't even know what this means!"

You're in the business of writing and entertaining people. You want them sitting on the edge of their beds while their spouses are asleep waiting to jump up at any moment and scare the daylights out of them. You want them rooting for your characters! You don't want the main character in the middle of the scene that YOU wrote saying, "What the fuck is THIS shit?" It's not good.

 Concentrate on what makes a great story. Concentrate on how to tell a great story. Then go from there. If you're new in the game, the trilogy will come much further down the line. Captivate your readers and then you shall build a great and loyal audience. They will follow you wherever you go from there.

Black Girls Don't Cry

EXCERPT FROM THE TEACHER'S PET....

Black Girls Don't Cry

You don't get to show your tears.
And admit to the world all of your fears.
Girl are you still bitter after all these years?
Black girls don't cry.

Wipe those tears from your eyes.
And don't you dare forget your disguise.
Somewhere in between the truth does lie.
Haven't you learned that Black girls don't cry?

She must always remember her role.
For that Jezebel has traded in her soul.
She's the lowest being on the totem pole.
But Black girls don't cry.

Demonized by those who look like you,
Fighting stereotypes that aren't true.
You can't win no matter what you do.
But Black girls don't cry.

Seducing men to drink from her cup.
Hold your head high and just suck it up.
Do you think the world really gives a F*&^?
Black girls don't cry.

They don't know what she went through.
Her face deceives but only she holds the truth.
That her cold stony heart could break in two.
But Black girls don't cry.


(c) Sonya Dickerson 2012

Writing Historical Fiction: An Inside Look To Writing Hannah

Authenticity!!!!!! That's the number one thing that authors obsess about when writing historical fiction. If someone asked you to write a historical fiction piece about the year 2012, well, I'd doubt that you would have a problem with that....provided that you're reading this relatively recently.

Now try writing about Medieval France. Unless you have an obsession with that period of time and know everything about it (which would really work in your favor) you'd have to do research....and lots of it.

Research? What language did they use when they spoke? Murder will out is a phrase used in Shakespeare's time but your character stating Blessings in disguise will cause your readers to scratch their heads. Unless your book is centered around the American Revolution.

What type of clothing did they wear? Food? Children drinking small beer in Colonial America would be considered the norm but would be frowned on in 2012. The water wasn't all that great and only a fool would sit there and drink it. Great way to get sick, I might add.

All of that must be taken in consideration. I did a great deal of research for this time period and I only pray that Hannah feels authentic to the reader. What I would highly recommend is to read plenty of books from that time period to get a feel for the time period that you're writing for. There are also great websites out there that help you with clothing, speaking phrases, and daily activities in the time periods that you're writing about.

It also helps to use a great note taking application to keep track of all the websites and notes that you're going to take. My favorite application is EVERNOTE ! I use it to clip websites, links, pictures, etc. that I will need to work.

Hannah is coming soon to amazon.com!

EEEEEKKKK! NOWHERE WILL BE HITTING THE STANDS IN HOURS!

My third book and I'm so excited, I could burst. At this moment, I submitted Nowhere for publishing on Amazon. I am excited to hear what people think about it. I've been working on Nowhere longer than I worked on Sex Therapy. It was just a draft that lingered on my hard drive for months.

It is very rewarding to see it come to life and become a whole story. I am excited! So excited, I can barely sleep right now.  Hopefully the Amazon interface isn't having too many issues and it can be published soon.

Until then....I wait....patiently.

Tea of the Day: Blueberry Acai

Sex Therapy For Free Today!

It sure is fun to see your book being purchased or at least downloaded. I'm hoping that if the reviews come in, they are positive. This was taken June 18, 2012 2:37PM.

Almost Finished With Second Drafts

I am almost done with my third book, "Nowhere"and hopefully it will be available in September in this year.

One thing I would stress to new authors is this is the time to go over your book with a fine toothed comb. This is the time that you need to catch errors and grammatical issues. Don't be so in love with your words and the story that your mind will overlook the imperfections.

Your readers will take you to task over such issues. While you may not think that its a big thing, it is to your readers. There are lots of voracious readers out there and they feel cheated if you don't give it every thing you've got. They are out there spending their hard earned money on your books.

I ran across an Amazon forum one day where the authors were complaining about Amazon and how it was taking too long to update and publish their titles. It was taking 48 hours or more when normally it is 75 percent less of that time.

Many authors, including myself, would upload a manuscript, notice a mistake in it later, then try to upload a new one. Because of this glitch, people were buying the wrong book instead of the one with the errors fixed.

This led to horrible reviews of readers complaining that the book had many spelling errors and typos. My thing? GET IT FREAKING RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.

Read your book over and over again like a person looking at the book with fresh eyes. Put it down for a week and then read every single word again before you hit that PUBLISH button.

Get it right the first time and correct those errors before your readers string you up by the neck.






Tea of the day: Acai Berry and Blueberry Tea

Writing While In Pain

I love writing. I'm so stressed out with everything, especially my health, that I feel like I have nowhere else to turn. Writing is it.

But I've lost focus over these past few weeks. Dealing with my disability, home life, and worried about my future has started to take its toll.

I can't help but watch television, even  commercials, and see beautiful, laughing carefree adults just living their lives. Sometimes, I want so bad to be apart of that.

Just a week ago, laughing was something that I couldn't do. Singing was out of the question. Holding a conversation with someone was difficult because of  severe lung obstruction disease.

If you're reading this, don't ever take your health for granted. If you smoke, stop. If you eat unhealthy, stop. If you use drugs, stop. It's not worth it in the end. Don't be one of those idiots that say, "You gotta die from something, right?" You don't have to die on a ventilator. You don't have to die from overdose. You don't have to die from a heart attack.

I had the most scary experience in my life May 14, 2012. I was NO longer in control of my body. I no longer had the say so of whether I lived or died. If you continue to do some of the things you do, taking your health for granted then you need to start writing a will now. Start telling your loved ones how you really feel. Because you won't be around much longer if you abuse your health and take it for granted.

Writing is one of the few things that I can do without getting short of breath nowadays and I never smoked a cigarette or did an illegal drug in my life. I don't eat fried foods and eat plenty of vegetables, fish, chicken, etc. I don't have the healthiest diet, but it's not the worst.

Tread carefully.

What's Next?

Currently, I'm working on so many projects that I want to eventually publish, it's making my head spin. But I take it all in stride. Writing is what I love to do. Reading comes second to that. I try to write something every day but I get so distracted by things that don't matter. Sometimes I wonder if I didn't get so distracted by the television or my obsession with Googling.

I can google all day long before I realize that the day is now over. Hopefully I can finish these projects. Stay tuned, got some great stories coming up.


Tea of the Day: NONE..

Went Into Respiratory Failure A Few Days Ago

Haven't been doing much writing here because I went into respiratory failure on Tuesday of this week. I stopped breathing in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. It is now Thursday and I'm still here. I'm trying to write while I'm in here but the flare ups and fatigue makes it harder.

Looking for prayers and positive energy. Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Pulling Your Hair Out Is Part of The Writing Process

For some reason the picture won't show up larger than this. But if you zoom the screen out, you will see the numbers pouring in for my new debut, Sex Therapy. Just to show you how all this works with Amazon, it shows you to the right how many actual books you sold that you're going to get paid for. Or not get paid for if someone refunded your book. (Yikes)

The numbers to the left deal with your Free Promotions. Or other words, not going to get paid for. Amazon gives you the opportunity to give your book for free to garner reviews and get your name out there. Cool huh?

The numbers towards the middle (Borrows) tells you that you're going to get paid for books that others lend or read for free with the Prime program. That money is coming from Amazon itself. That's ONLY if you enroll in the KDP program. That just means you promise to exclusively publish with them. If you don't, well tough cookies...LOL!

Since this is my first fiction short story out there, I'm incredibly nervous. I have been trying to perfect the novel the best way I know how. Yeah...I guess you could say that I'm terrified of the horrible reviews. But it's the only way I'm going to know I'm good. Yes, it is true that not everyone is going to like you. You could give this book out with million dollar checks, and I would bet all the money in my bank account (you're welcome to $39.17 right now) that you will still get negative reviews. Probably because you wrote paper checks and you didn't overnight the cash you little, silly, naive author, you!!!!

Or it's just your book really sucks but they wanted to thank you for the million bucks anyway.

I just placed my book for a free promotion last night and the reviews will be coming in shortly. I'm very ill right now and can barely move without chest pain. In fact, I should be writing this in a hospital bed instead of my own bed but what are you going to do, huh? I would just ask reviewers to be fair, not name call such as garbage, or filth, rubbish for my British readers. If you didn't like the novel, just state the reasons why and move on, especially if you're just looking for the free million dollar check that comes along with the book.

Look out for that in the eight edition. ; )

Seriously Flawed

Ho hum Ho hum.

Reviewers that don't read your book?

Here they come.

Leaving mass destruction behind,

With a star or two.

You're a babbling idiot behind a keyboard, she said.

If they only knew.

You've worked hard on your book,

You've believed in it from the start.

Secured by their anonymity,

Like a dagger through your heart.

Other reviews come in,

Lavishing praises here and there.

But you'll never forget those harsh words,

There will be more, so beware.


Recently I read another forum post where all of these people, most who have never written or published anything, were taking many writers to task over simple mistakes. We all make them. Even books published by major publishing houses have major grammatical and spelling errors.

If there are one or two errors, MOST people move on, possibly even forgetting that they existed.

But TOO MANY errors become distracting. If your reader is so busy correcting your grammar, then they aren't getting lost into your story. You want your readers lost in your story. You want your reader to look up at the clock, amazed at the amount of time that has gone by while reading your words.

It is the ultimate compliment.

I read a book once about a young woman that was dealing with Lupus. Since I have lupus, I was very interested in hearing her story.

The problem? The first sentence lasted for an entire page without one punctuation mark. I desperately tried to get into the book, but I liken it to listening to someone's thoughts. Here is an example: (NOTE: These are not the actual words of the book)

Lupus is an autoimmune disease okay like your cells going haywire and instead of attacking diseases and bacteria that's not supposed to be there it attacks your organs like your kidneys, liver, brain, and other things and it does not discriminate because my friend has lupus and it attacked her heart when it attacked my lungs.....

I hope you get the picture. That was probably the worst I've seen so far. I try to give each writer the benefit of the doubt and ignore spelling and bad punctuation. Hell, I even cringe at a misplaced comma in my own work. Thankfully, you can edit the changes, and upload a corrected copy to Amazon. I took full advantage of that. So no one is perfect.

But if the reader can barely make out what you're trying to say, it's time to take it back to the drawing board and rewrite my friends.


But after reading the forum posts, I have concluded that SOME people LOOK for errors your book. I just made an error. Did you catch it? I didn't...not while I was typing it. I caught it on the third read and I'm going to leave it there as a great example. They are not interested at all in your story but will sit there and count the mistakes you make. Bored people? Maybe. Unemployed editors shaking their fists at society by taking it out on a few amatuer writers? That would be kind of funny but not really. Or are they consumers who feel like they are spending their money and time, wanting nothing more than a quality product? I could see that too.

But God help you if you misuse a comma or a homonym.

Okay...I have to agree with the homonym thing. Your and You're or there and their. Mixed up homonyms are my pet peeve. They seriously are. Many writers aren't the best grammaticians. Hell if we were, then we'd be editors...not writers. But using the wrong homonym? Not acceptable.

My advice? Read your book over and over again until you damn near have the words memorized. Join a writer's group and have them read it. It is very helpful to get feedback from different people. It will help you in the long run. Then read your damn copy again and again. There are things that I missed when I read my current book, Sex Therapy, when I began editing it the first time.

We will talk about formatting in another post.

Tea Of The Day: Ginger Peach, Tangy Tangerine

WRITE WHENEVER YOU CAN

It is 5am and I'm watching I Love Lucy, one of my favorite shows in the world. I'm sure I've seen each episode over twenty times each. What else do I find myself doing at this hour? Writing. I have been diagnosed with Lupus and it is a disease that keeps you in pain and battling fatigue constantly.

Since I'm not working at the time, I try to imagine a world where I can make all the money that I need to support myself and my daughter. Notice that I stated that I want to support myself. If my writing ever took me to a place where I can throw in a few Louis Vuitton bags, I could very well be the most happiest person in the world.

It has always been my dream that I write for a living. To use my creativity to entertain the world. Not every single one of you are going to like me. (I wish you would because I'm some kind of awesome, a loyal friend, and I make the best mac and cheese.) I'm putting the editors touch on one manuscript now but I'm so scared. I can best describe it as this: you write a book all the way to the end, loving your characters, the plot, you set the stage pretty much.

The first thing that comes to mind after the proverbial, The End, is how in the world did I manage to string along a bunch of crap for the past hundred or so pages? The story sounded great in my head as I wrote it down, so how didn't I translate that into words? In my opinion that is what makes a writer a great writer compared to a mediocre writer. Can you take a concept or a unique idea, and then breathe life into that idea or concept and carry it all the way to the end? Can you create convincing scenes that motivate your characters to spring into action without sounding contrived?

Ah...the joys of being a writer. Once you put your heart and soul into something, it's hard to see it get ripped to shreds by the anonymity of people hiding behind a computer screen. But in the end, it's the readers that get to decide whether or not you should quit your day job to make this a full time gig. That's what makes writing a wonderful profession.

Tea of The Day: Orange Spice