Goodreads Changes Their Giveaways

If you are a published author who markets heavily online, you’ve probably at least heard about the changes to Goodreads’ Giveaway service.

If you haven’t, here’s the breakdown: Goodreads just took away the free platform for hosting giveaways of a book. It was a decent platform, but only worked for print books, not ebooks, so it still cost the author to get the print book and ship it.

Now, they allow ebooks, starting at the low low cost of only $200, give or take a five-spot. If you want all the bells and whistles, which weren’t that impressive to me, you can do it for $600.

I wish those were typos, but no. We are talking about paying to giveaway books at rates only previously seen on BookBub, and the BB has specific and dedicated mailing lists PLUS you can list a book that is not free.

Seriously, Goodreads? I’m not sure what idiot thought this would be a good idea, but I can’t think of many authors who are going to drop a couple Benjamins on giving away a book on a site that doesn’t really do specific listings.

I don’t know about you, but my days of doing Goodreads Giveaways are OVER.

Review of Fluffy Bunny... Again!

The reviews for Fluffy Bunny are coming in! I'm so glad so many of you like it!

Don't forget to grab Fluffy Bunny while it's still on pre-order. Use code: PREORDER2017 to get an extra 10% off!



Amazing book. Loved it. Well written. Great author. I do reccomed it. I arc tis book and I'm happy i did. It's amazing picked up right where book one left off. Amazing series. - Goodreads reviewer

Resume Weaknesses in Characters

As an author on social media, I encounter a lot of posts by other authors. Many of them I pass on by but some of them are quite interesting. Then there are those that are odd.

I recently came across a post that was asking about weaknesses and main characters. This is an interesting topic because it delves into characterization.

I noticed that one of the responses was what I can only describe as a resume weakness. It was the kind of weakness that you give in response to an interview question asking what your greatest weakness in the workplace is.

I have to call this a cheater cheater Pumpkin Eater. If the greatest weakness that your character has is that they "try too hard to save people" or they "work too hard" to support their family, that's not a weakness. That's a virtue.

A real character weakness is one that makes the character somehow flawed, not a better person. If your character's weakness is actually a virtue, that does not make them more real, and it doesn't make them more relatable.

Resume weaknesses do not improve characterization. They do not improve your character as a relatable person. They do not make your writing better.

They do turn your character into a Mary Sue. They turn your character into an idealized version of whoever you are trying to characterize. And they make your character into someone who isn't as relatable.

No matter how hard we try to turn our weaknesses into subtle virtues, weaknesses are weaknesses. Flaws are flaws. And characters are people that should have both weaknesses and flaws, as well as virtues and nobility. Otherwise they're just a cardboard cutout of a character.

Two Reviews of Too Wyrd - This is a good one!

From : AlteredInstinct.com

Too Wyrd, by Sarah Buhrman

Some books just get you. They just catch you right - and Sarah Buhrman's first book in her Runestones saga does that with me. 

It's the story of single mother Nicola - who discovers her sister is mixed up with a cult and sets out with her best friend Joseph to try to rescue her. The kicker? Nicola's also a heathen witch. And it turns out this cult actually could bring about the apocalypse. 

Plunging headlong into a world of urban fantasy, with Norse gods and the possible coming of Ragnarok, this is a great ride of a tale. It kinda slows up a little bit in the first third, but then rushes onward towards... maybe... the end of the world? 

Nicola is a great character, brittle with the authorities investigating the supernatural shenanigans but passionate in her friendships, and a reluctant heroine, drawing on her own strength even with the cost that using magic imposes upon her. 

If you're a fan of urban fantasy, this is squarely in the genre - with a great female lead character, and a swirl of magic and mythology. Honestly, I enjoyed this more than Jim Butcher's Dresden series - definitely a world worth discovering. 

AI Rating: 5/5

- Leo McBride

You can also find a video review by Diane Morrisson HERE!

Loss and Life

Loss is an inextricable part of life. When a loved one passes on, it can be emotionally difficult... and not just because of mourning losses. There is also pressure to be emotionally supportive to others. And to make major plans and decisions about how to care for your deceased and their assets and belongings.

My last grandparent died about a month ago. It marks a huge milestone in my life, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think. Sure, there's the idea that an entire generation of my ancestors has moved on, bringing me closer to being the eldest of elders. However, the biggest milestone is that the funeral and accompanying events are the last time I will intentionally interact with my extended family, save a single cousin on one side of the family.

This may seem like a harsh tactic, but it is actually about removing toxicity from my life. While I have never had to deal with it directly, a variety of abuses has gradually colored my interactions with the larger family to the point where I feel it is inappropriate to spend my time with these people just because fate gave us a random connection.

For my own health and for the health of my children, for my own family's safety and sanity, I say to my cousins, aunts and uncles... "Bye Felicia!"

Don't get me wrong, most of them are harmless. Maybe a bit too hung up on "normal" (which I am not), or on... Okay, I don't even know. They are all just way too mainstream and snotty about stuff, and my tolerance for such things is very low.

They gossip. They emphasize money. They are willing to look down on people for things that can't be helped. They are hypocrites about their morals.

There's just a lot of baggage there, and I don't feel that any benefit to dealing with that would be worth it. So, there ya go.

This means that my loss is about more than my grandparent. I am losing an entire branch of my family tree... or two. It may be my choice, but it is still valid to mourn the losses of what might have been.

So, this loss feeds the beast of creativity, and I will accept what comes of it. And I solemnly swear I am not writing my entire family into my next murder scene. Not the entire family... lol

Bathos and the Dramatic Scene

Recently I came across an article that was talking about a topic near and dear to me. It referred to something called bathos. This is a technique in which humor or sarcasm is used to undercut drama within a scene.

There are a lot of reasons that this is a topic that I enjoy. Primarily, it's because that is what I write. I love a little bit of sarcasm some snark a bit of humor right in the middle of the action.

The article stated that the use of bathos was undermining the true emotion of a scene. I have to disagree with that statement.

The example the article used was in the movie Doctor Strange. Apparently, the use of humor in the scene in which Doctor Strange accepts the cloak while looking in the mirror, undercuts the drama of his acceptance in his role.

I recently watched Doctor Strange for the first time. My husband was with me. When this scene occurred, we both laughed. It wasn't because the drama of the scene was undercut. It wasn't because there was somehow something less dramatic about accepting one's responsibilities. It was because both of us immediately thought: that's exactly what a magic cloak would do.

Magical items are usually a bit annoying and child-like...
Just sayin'

And that's the thing about bathos. It shows a certain reality. When you do something dramatic, usually it goes badly, or at least wrong.

You try to make a dramatic point and then trip over your own feet. You make a dramatic entrance and promptly fall off the stage. You make a dramatic speech and somebody starts snickering. That's how life works.

There's a boat there... must not have practiced with that...

Even though I never knew what the name of it was, I've used bathos in all of my writing. That's how life works. We try to do something seriously and it ends up being hilarious. We try to do something dramatic and it ends up being anti-climatic.

Perhaps the problem isn't that drama and emotion are being undercut by bathos. Maybe bathos shows us the reality of how life undercuts drama and emotion.

And in case you need examples of how this works in real life, just Google fail videos on YouTube.

Letting Go: Getting Help as an Author

Being an author is a lot of work. Never mind the word counts. The marketing can take well over 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. And there's no set goal, unless you set it yourself. The more marketing, the more potential sales.

As a mom of two, working at home over the summer, this can be a problem on multiple levels. I am constantly having my attention drawn away from my work to my kids and their ever increasing appetites for both food and entertainment. But I am running out of steam, quickly. It doesn't help that we threw a move, a funeral and hosting a party on top of all of this.

So what's a workaholic to do? Outsourcing.

I hired a VPA (virtual personal assistant) to help me with posting and such. She's salary, so I can just give her projects as I need them done. Good to go. She is also available to cover for me when I over-book my takeovers and such. A decent PA will run between $75-200/mo, which isn't too bad for the way she's boosted my reach, gotten me contacts, and covered my butt.

My next step is a nanny. Holy mackerel, I never thought I'd be considering a nanny! I'm not rich AT ALL, so this is really weird, but...

We don't need daycare. We just need someone to help out for a few hours a couple days a week. Someone who can take the kids to the library, or the swimming pool, or just to run through the sprinklers outside. I'm thinking $100 for 6-9 hrs each week.

Given that there's only a few weeks left before school starts, that's not a terribly huge expense, and I'd pay 2 or 3 times that to get them into a daycare or to a day camp. It's just unrealistic to go that route when a temporary, part-time solution is available.

So where's the problem? With outsourcing, the problem is always about letting go and trusting. You not only have to trust someone else to do the job for you. You also have to trust yourself - to be able to handle or deal with anything that isn't just how you would have done it, whether it's that the other person failed or not. It's a painfully psychological thing - we like things the way we like them.

But I like my time more, so I'm trusting.