SitRep Saturday: Behind the Curtain

This week has mostly been more behind-the-scenes work. I finished One Good Cowboy and got it formatted and up at Smashwords and Amazon, I updated the bookcovers on Smashwords and one or two on Amazon (I need to do the rest still), I updated my website (but I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but there's always next week), and I made a list of the blog posts I'd like to work on. So. Progress.

More progress? I drafted one new short story and I started work on a second. The thing is, the second has kind of gotten away from me and it might actually turn into an erotic novella complete with multiple points of view. I'm not sure. I need to play around with it some more. If that's the case, then I'm going to have to put another story into my planned three-story anthology, and, man, I hate when I underestimate stories like that.

It's all good, though. I am back on track. So what if I lost four months? I'll make it up.

SitRep Saturday: Please, Sir

Please, Sir will be available on Smashwords today and it will be available on Amazon within the next few days. I'm putting the finishing touches on the formatting today. It has been edited, beta-read, ignored, and agonized over. It's ready.

I'm going to take a day or two off after this and maybe write up a few more blog posts (that's what I did while I ignored the story for the last half of the week), but I have already started work on the next project. It's another cowboy romance that looks to be longer than The Cowboy Next Door.

SitRep Saturday: Please, Sir & Other Projects

Yesterday, I posted the cover and the "back cover" summary for Please, Sir. The summary needs some work, I know. I've downloaded the file to my Kindle for reading/editing/note-making while I'm away from the computer. I'm pleased with the way the draft turned out and I'm very pleased with the cover (especially since I got it 20% off thanks to Dreamstime's Black Friday sale). The short story will be finished and available soon.

I have my next project planned. It will be another cowboy romance, this one about a dude ranch. I haven't worked out the specifics, but I've been doing some character work and some preliminary dude ranch research, and I'm confident that it can be good.

The project after that is hazy. I've been so inspired lately that I have pages and pages of outlines, character charts, plot points, summaries, and titles written down. Right now, I think I'll be alternating between romance and erotica. Alternating gives me a nice internal balance, I think.

SitRep Saturday: Title Changes, Pen Names

It looks like Better Together is getting a title change to Better With You.

I am having the damnedest time with everything about this story. I only managed to edit the first chapter, which is much slower than normal for me. I can't find the right cover image and the covers I'm working on just don't seem right. It's very frustrating. I know that a big part of why this isn't going as well as I'd hoped is because the next two projects I have lined up are much more "me." That isn't to say that there's not part of me in this story; there most definitely is. But this story is more a reaction to things happening around me and the next two projects are much more personal.

Which is why I'm looking at a third pen name. The next two projects are not in the same genre and wouldn't attract the same audience or type of audience as my previous two and current one, or even as my novel-in-waiting. I think I have the first name, but the surname is eluding me.

And that is this week's progress update. A whole lot of nothing. These weeks happen.