SCL Project: 11,000 Words In...

Wow, what a day.

I just did another 4,000 words in my SCL Project, and I am feeling this project may not be suitable for a general audience anymore. I hit my first romantic scene, and now I am having doubts if this is going to be a mainstream project.

I may have to move this to another blog, or I may just keep it here and keep the new going. Or I may move my previous YA book into horror/action & adventure and leave everything here.

What happened is a romance scene that got a bit pulse-pounding for me, and my fans know how I like to write them so I'm sitting here in a post-spicy scene haze wondering what I am going to do. I don't want to edit it down because it is perfect for this life and this book. It is also very true to the tone I want to set for the lifestyle depicted in the book.

Oh, the pains of keeping it real I suppose.

I have some work to do and reorganization in my library. So changes are in order, this blog will be for works published under my name. My YA books? I won't tell you the name, since I want no crossover between these accounts. Amazon is very sensitive about this, so I need to make these changes.

So my self-help books may make their home here, which is good because they are great collections of Wednesday Workshop articles, edited and cleaned up to last the test of time. I have a couple more in the works, and that is a fun series that helps the writing community.

The SCL Project? Full steam ahead, and I made a lot of good progress today. No changes in content, and I am free now to write this how I want it to be and envision it.

Vampy Black? I shall have updates on this soon. I hit another issue and want to work through it before I share more. More soon and stay tuned.

On Black Wings: Final Two Days of FREE

Just a reminder if you haven't picked up my book, On Black Wings, on Amazon yet, please do so! This is the last two days of my free offer, and a freebie for this book won't happen again until August, so please check it out!

On Black Wings: Free from 4/24 to 4/28

Everybody, you can pick up my novel "On Black Wings" for free for the next couple days, if you ever wanted to check out my work, now is a great time to jump in!

Grab it by clicking on the link on the sidebar, and leave me a review if you like it!

Kindle Worlds

I've always wanted to publish for Kindle Worlds, sort of a commercialized fan-fiction portal that Amazon setup with a bunch of licensed property holders. There are some fun ones in there, but none that grab me right off. Some I'd love to see?

• Lost, The Walking Dead, Downtown Abbey, Game of Thrones and other fun TV shows
• Classic novels and movies from the 1940's to 1970's
• Some communities where fan-fic has been unofficially supported like Star Wars and Star Trek
• Even just famous figures, such as movie stars or personalities
• Cult classic shows like Buffy, 24, Charmed, or any other odd but recognizable choice

Yes, more, more, more. Part of the problem is that it probably takes time and money to secure rights, and they have to know that there is interest there before they choose what they would like to pursue. Without interest, they aren't going to chase it down. It's sort of a vicious cycle, I would love for this program to do well and expand, but if I can't find properties I am interested in, it is hard for me to dive in and start writing.

I would love for them to grab the rights to dead-properties, like old TV shows or any other abandoned but interesting license. You would think things long off the cultural radar, like The Lone Ranger, Three's Company, Dynasty, The Love Boat, or any other classic TV show would actually want new fan-fic books to come out for those properties - since any interest beyond them slowly fading away into obscurity.

There are limits to what you can write for all of these, and the rules do change between books. You can bet each is reviewed as well. You are definitely not going to write the next 50 Shades with any of these, so it is sanctioned fan-fiction to be sure, but an interesting opportunity to get your name associated with a brand.

So check it out, and support this if you find something you like. Who knows, maybe someday I will get my wish and rights holders will realize they need to play and let us writers in for their franchises to become part of the cultural language and common dialog again.

We can dream.

Kindle Singles

So I was looking across Amazon and I heard about the Kindle Singles program. This is a place where you can submit 5,000-30,000 word articles or short stories and sell in this program. It's different than Amazon's normal bookstore, and it seems they are trying to put some editorial control over this store and nurture it as a "best of" mini-bookstore within Amazon's ecosystem.

In a way, it feels like "Amazon: The Magazine" except you buy articles and short stories per book. Some are free via Kindle Unlimited, and some are not.

It feels like semi-random content here, with essays, interviews, articles, fiction, and other "journal" type content all in the same place. They bill it as "high quality" work, so I am feeling there is a measure of review and editorial control in this store.

I haven't heard of this program until recently, and it is strange to see how Amazon's sub-stores can get lost within the massive retailer, such as Kindle Worlds and other initiatives.

It doesn't seem like a place where new writers could make a regular place for themselves, unless you were really into something they wanted. I may check this out as an avenue of publishing.

It does seem like a prestige store, I don't know, I may try to submit something and see how it goes. Is this part of the normal store? Are there any other restrictions besides length, quality, and content? Is everyone free to submit? I'm trying to get a sense if this is more "exclusive club' or 'general store' or something in-between.