Sunday, March 3, 2013

Negative review and what's on the agenda

Today I started working on book six in the FBI/Romance series. Darkness of Truth.
So far I've gotten twenty thousand words down. I'm aiming for my customary 190.000 words.
We're taking the assignment back to Red River, and for those of you that read 'True Love Lost' you know what I'm talking about. We're going to run into some of the characters that we met there the first time.
There's conflict and there's drama a plenty.
In this book, Elizabeth is pregnant again, and I won't spill the details since book five 'Fire Burns Hot' isn't out yet (Hang in there. It's due out by the end of the month) I wasn't due to release it until fall, but because the project ran so smoothly, it's out with the woman that runs my ass over the coals (AKA Tammy my proofer.)  She starts working on it tomorrow, and then cover is done and designed. YAY!
Anyway, I'm releasing book four in my vampire series this week The Blood Redemption too, so my plate if full.

I had a bunch of emails from some readers. They posed quite a few questions. One of my favorite was regarding the negative review The Killing Times got on amazon. Here's the answer to that one.
Clearly, the reader was disappointed in the fact that it was heavy on the romance. Yeah, romance books are like that. If they had less romance, they wouldn't be a romance. Anyone that scrolls down to the details of the book can see its classified Then there was the comment about the depth of the characters. Well, you see... When you write a series of books, if you give it all away in the first book then why write sequels?
The whole point of this series is to watch Elizabeth, Ethan and Callen unfold before us. If I put their entire life story in one book, then that would be one hell of a BIG read. The Killing Times is the smallest in the series, at 389 pages. Every book after is at least 500 pages. Depth of character develops over the entire time frame. Not just in the first book.
While I appreciate everyone's opinion on my books, ultimately I know where they're heading from the beginning. Do I lose sleep over the negative?
Nope. If anything it helps me understand the perspective of the reader.
Writing is a craft and even the best have room for improvement.

Off to kill some people and hide the bodies for Elizabeth, Ethan and Callen!


Update on the proofing of Fire Burns Hot. I just had a call from Tammy, my wonder woman. She scared the bejezuz out of me. Apparently, the prologue was a tad bit gruesome.
Yay! (I apologize Tammy, but this isn't your first rodeo. Get back on the horse and get to reading!)
I do like riling up the readers at the beginning of the book, and then soothing it over with a sex and love band-aid!!!