Author Dilemmas

As I said last week, I finally finished the first draft of my next Romantic Comedy. It's been a long time in the making due to lots of interruptions, but whew! I have distributed it for comments and corrections and am waiting for feedback before submitting it to the publisher.

This is my story and I write what I feel. Does it sell? I really don't know how well. I know my friends have bought my books and they are very honest about their feedback. A few of them have admitted that no. It's not their cup of tea and I understand completely. Then I have others who tell me how much they enjoy them and can't wait for the next one.

If they are not selling well, is it because I'm not advertising them enough? I have a professional Facebook page (Lois L Kasznia) and am on Twitter (LoisKasznia). I have this blog and am now creating a web page with the help of a professional. I have taken an ad out for the online Affaire de Couer July/August magazine to promote my work. I am also a member of Romance Writers of America.

My publisher, Blushing Books/Lazy Day promote all of their authors and do not single one out from the other. They advertise in the RWA magazine and are quite active in the writing community. They host seminars to attend but for me, it is a dilemma to attend them. I do not make enough money off of my books to pay for an airline ticket plus hotel costs, to attend them.

I have started a savings plan to remedy this problem but I wonder if other authors suffer from the same dilemma.

Another question I pose is my stories. They no longer fit into the direction of the company and I find myself in the middle. I do not write Erotica nor religious stories but I do write Happy Ever After stories about people who make mistakes and correct them. Maybe its because I always seem to see the good in people and believe that they can change for the better. Speaking of change; do I change my style?

Back to Writing!

These last two weeks have been very hectic! First off, I went on a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas for a destination wedding. It was only four days, but they were action packed. My mistake was trying to keep up with the younger generation, even though I don't think of myself as being old.

The week before the cruise, I spent time preparing for the trip; packing, cleaning, holding mail and the paper delivery. Oh, and what about my writing? I had to squeeze that in when I could.

When I got back, there were a deluge of appointments for repair and doctors but I did manage to finish the first draft of my upcoming book. I also made an appointment to meet with a webpage developer to help promote my books.

Back to the wedding. It was fantastic. The bride and groom saw to every detail and I have nothing but high praise for them. When we arrived at Orlando, I saw this gigantic cruise ship, with tons of kids running around and I said to myself...uh oh. Don't get me wrong, I love kids, but it's been a while since I've been around so many youngsters.

However, due to the wedding, every moment had been planned out and the ship did offer adult only areas. But I am always very aware of my surroundings and I now have lots of material for future books.

The flooding in our area of Texas has been of great magnitude but I feel blessed that our damage is minimal to what some others have experienced. It is true when they say, everything is bigger in Texas.

It feels good to be back to normal and will concentrate on the second draft of the book!

Entering the Home Stretch

I'm down to the last chapters of the book I'm working on. It is so frustrating because there is so much going on in my life, I really am struggling to find time to actually finish it.

We are going to be attending a wedding on a Disney Cruise which goes to the Bahamas. Very excited because we are so happy for the bride and groom in addition to going on a cruise again. It is a packed four day period and the preparation for it has so many details. I've tried to ignore it by burying my head in my work but I've been called out by my husband to get my act together. Argh!

What else has happened this week...our 28 year old patio glass table shattered into a zillion pieces. They no longer carry the model and to replace the glass costs more than what the table is worth. Way to start out the summer.

The booster pump to our pool burned out. You knew it was waiting just when the water turned warm enough for swimming.

Someone is pirating my books...

Not very considerate neighbors...

And it's summer...everything here is under construction. It takes three times as long to get anywhere! Great planning by the engineers!