Break Time is Over!

So, things have been a little quiet on my end.

Truth be told: I needed a vacation after my vacation. I took a mental holiday from writing for a while. For non-writers, it might be a little hard to imagine writing as stressful. What can be the big deal? Just sit at a keyboard and write. It's not rocket science. Unless, of course, you're writing about rocket science.

But when you're indy published like me, there's a constant battle between creativity and productivity/self-promoting. How do you find time for both? When do you know which is more important? I see fellow indy writers churning out book after book and rocketing to the top of the charts while I work at a comparative snail's pace. Book Bub ads get handed out like candy to others when I just get vaguely-worded rejection emails. Adding to this crisis were a few unpleasant encounters with troll-ish Amazon reviews and poor reception to Allies and Enemies: Rogues.

It made me question if I had what it takes to be a "real" writer and left me in a head space that wasn't a very nice place to be.

I had to take a step back and decide what kind of writer I wanted to be. Is my goal really to churn out a book a month like some of "book factory"? Where do I want to focus my time and energy... writing or promoting?

In the end, I know I'd be happier just writing. Maybe I'll sell a few less books, but the ones that I do sell will be better constructed, polished stories of which I can be proud.

Allies and Enemies will continue. I'm working on a revised plot for book 3, Allies and Enemies: Exiles. It might end up being uber-long... which I hope isn't a bad thing.

Allies and Enemies: Rogues - Now available in print!

What makes owning an ebook you love even more awesome?

Owning the print version, of course!

For those of the more "traditional" mindset, the printed paperback edition of Allies and Enemies: Rogues is now available on Amazon (via CreateSpace). The cost is a smidge higher than the print version of Fallen. You are getting more awesome (ie extra pages).

Click here to order the print edition.

My very own series page!

Check out the awesomeness. Allies and Enemies has it's own series page now. Cool.

Serious Reading Reviews Allies and Enemies: Fallen

Here's a lovely review of book one to celebrate the recent release of book two, Rogues:
http://seriousreading.com/book-reviews/science-fiction/4370-allies-and-enemies-fallen-book-review.html 

Decoder ring? Secret handshake?

So got an email this morning. You're looking at one of the newest members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America! Yay! Is there a decoder ring? A secret handshake? I dunno, but I'm dying to find out. (I'm pretty sure that I'd be the worst possible member of a secret society. I'd end up blabbing to someone.) But this is SO cool!

Allies and Enemies: Rogues - Up on Amazon

Allies and Enemies: Rogues is now available on Amazon. It features the beautiful work done by artist, Alex Winkler. He really knocked this out of the park! 

Cover art for Allies and Enemies: Rogues!

I'm so excited to share this! The cover art for book 2, Allies and Enemies: Rogues is done.
Here's a sneak peak at a little bit of it. Cool, right? Alex Winkler did such a great job. Can't wait to reveal the whole thing.

Dropzone!

So, you remember the very talented Alex Winkler, the guy that classed up Allies and Enemies: Fallen with his fantastic cover art? (He's working on the cover art for book 2 right now.)

Check out the link to this totally awesome game he's been working on over at Sparky Pants:
https://en.dropzone.gameforge.com/landing/?kid=4-a5l02-17502-1604-01238185 

Did you get your free download?

So, feeling generous here and a little guilty. Guilty because the release of the second book in the Allies and Enemies series, Rogues will be delayed a week or two. Nothing I can do about that. Blame the CDC folks and their lack of an effective flu vaccine.

To make up for it, I'm using one of those 5 free days I get on Amazon. Sweet, right? (To be honest, I was just curious to see what it would do.) But hey. Win-win, right?

Wow. If only that ranking were for paid sales!

Enjoy!

George McFly and my interview with E Books India

Check out my recent interview with E Books India.

Witness me! I was on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast!

Ever wonder... "Is this author really as spasctic in real life as I imagine her to be?"
*shrug/sigh* "I guess I'll never know."

Your wait is over, friend. Last night the very nice, patient, indulgent and understanding team over at Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast (say that three times fast) had me on as their guest. They attempted to pick my brain [ha! joke's on them] about the success I've had with the first book in the Allies and Enemies series, Fallen.

Here's the link:
http://www.marketingsff.com/blurbs-kindle-unlimited-and-military-sf/

Off to the editor

Allies and Enemies: Rogues is off to my impossibly nice editor. Fingers crossed for the next step. In the meanwhile I turn my attention back to the ignored FB endeavor of setting up a separate page for Allies and Enemies. If anyone out there can help me with that, there's a free ebook waiting for you.

Allies and Enemies: Rogues Update

So, big news! Today I just sent off my first draft of book 2 in the Allies and Enemies series to my beta readers (and other persons that aren't aware they're beta readers). My lovely, lovely editor stands ready to dive in to the big messy word doc I plan on sending her on February 29th. Artist Alex is sketching away furiously at the cover art. With a little luck and minimal interruption by household pets (I'm looking at you, Khaleesi), dare I say there might be an ebook available by end of March?

But, wait! There's more...

I've been approached by Sci Fi Publishing about producing an audio version of Allies and Enemies: Fallen. So that's a distinct possibility. Fingers crossed!

And the Winners are...

Three people I've never met before.

The Goodreads giveaway for signed copies for the paperback version of Allies and Enemies: Fallen finished yesterday. Three very nice folks that don't know what they're getting themselves into will be getting their books soon in the mail. My suggestion to them is that this book-like item can also be used as a coaster and is excellent at killing spiders and other appropriately sized forms of insect life. It's also hefty enough to throw at people that talk on cell phones in the movies.

Congrats to the winners and thanks to everyone who joined the giveaway!

This weekeend I'm at a con where Scalzi is an author GOH. I'll be attending his panels, making faces at him behind his back and muttering sarcastic comments under my breath in response to anything he says during panels.

Here's something else that makes me happy:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017ZEYBG2

Allies and Enemies: Fallen Paperback Giveaway

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Allies and Enemies

by Amy J. Murphy

Giveaway ends January 13, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

The road to hell is paved with adverbs

Yesterday, I saw a quote attributed to Stephen King.

It was one of those helpful-not-helpful “writer” memes on Pinterest. It goes like this:

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”

What the what?

How can you just deny the usefulness of an entire category of word? These are those colorful little word friends that hobble about with “-ly” at the end and are used to describe verbs or adjectives. They even have their own special little place on sentence diagrams. (Yes, I was/am a HUGE grammar nerd and LOVED diagramming sentences.)

It’s like that trick: Quick: Don’t think of an elephant!

The only thing you can think of is a bloody elephant.

All I could see were the adverbs buried in my manuscript like evil little ninjas. It’s discouraging. I’ve already got a really sinister “inner editor”. It’s not like that bitch needs any help.

There had to be more to it, so researched this a bit. And, like any corrupted quote, it is misrepresented. The full sentence goes like this:

“I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.” 

It’s part of a passage from Stephen King’s book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. He goes on to explain that adverbs start to spring up like dandelions on a yard. The first one or two may be a pass, but before you know it, you can have a yard full of them. The context was starting to make a bit more sense. And he introduced a more intriguing point: adverbs shouldn’t be attached to dialogue attribution. (You know the little things that are supposed to be seamless after quotes.)

I can get behind that thought. It is a lot more powerful to see something like:

“I won!” she shouted.

Instead of:

“I won!” she said loudly

One’s emotional and the other is well… lame.

So what I learn from this? There’s a context for all these “writing rules” out there. Have the brains to question them, especially the absolute ones. And I should really spend less time on Pinterest. The road to hell is paved with Pins.

Book Review Monday's

So, I'm off from my "day" job on Mondays. I like to read other people's books when I've done having one sided conversations with my laptop about the quality of the prose I'm turning out for the Allies and Enemies series. Also, I feel compelled to help out other members of the indie author community. (I'm getting better at keeping a straight face while referring to myself as an author.)

Anyway, what do these things have in common?

Reviews, I say. Book reviews. So, here's the deal: 

Every Monday I'll write a book review and post it here to my (*cough*) well-visited blog as well as Goodreads and Amazon. I'll have 1) done my good deed for the week and 2) continued to support the fantasy that people actually look at my blog. Yay!

Another Fine Idea: Print on Demand

Here's an exciting bit of news: I've decided to give print on demand a try for Allies and Enemies. Only a few days ago, I contracted a designer to finish up the cover art and I've pushed the "go" button to have the formatting done for the book interior for Amazon's Create Space. By the end of the month, I should be dangerously close to having an actual physical book of my book. (One of the actual instances in which the over-used term "literally" would be well... literal.) I'm very excited about this, considering that I'll have actual access to the sales info instead of the unfair and inexplicably frustrating situation with BookTango who has YET to deliver any sales data to me, even though its well past the 4 week mark.

Seeing stars: Amazon Reviews

I admit it. I was the kid in class that reminded teacher that he or she had forgotten we were supposed to have a quiz that day. This made me wildly unpopular. It was just part of who I was/am.

Besides, my main motivation was to get those wonderful little “A”s sketched across the top of my page of loose leaf. If I were to look at them now, I’d recognize them as the scrawl of an exhausted teacher and ultimately useless. But at the time, those precious “A”s looked like tiny Rembrandts, my personal masterpiece and evidence that someone approved of something I had done.

So I find myself reminded of those times when it comes to the reviews of my book on Amazon. There are even stars, just like 4^th grade. A means of arbitrary categorization. It’s very cool to get 5 stars, mind you. It means someone had a great time reading your story. A very flattering experience. For a while, I was getting a mess of those.

Then it happened, as it was bound to, a two star rating with a review that was a little on the vicious side. Contextually, I saw this two star review just as I was still internally snoopy-dancing about the fact that Allies and Enemies: Fallen had received the top 50 for military scifi onAmazon. (Totally cool seeing my book cover on the same screen as some of the “rock gods” of the same genre.) So, to see this was a bit of a let down.

My gut tells me this one bad review is exactly what it was: my book just wasn’t their cup of tea. It’s going to happen. Even Stephen King gets bad reviews and I have been his “number one fan” forever.

But it begs the question: Do I address it? Ignore it? How do other authors deal with negative reviews? I’ve become a big fan of Lindsay Buroker, having encountered her steampunk books. She’s got some nice advice about dealing with this:

http://www.lindsayburoker.com/tips-and-tricks/tips-for-dealing-with-bad-book-reviews/

Ultimately, I choose to have faith in the readers out there browsing for a new adventure. They’re intelligent folks that can make their own decisions, weighing the good against the bad. I accept the fact I can’t change everyone’s mind and it reminds me that with each word or agonized-over passage I grow as a writer.

What do you think? Leave a comment.

Lookie! I'm in the Top 50 for Kindle ebooks for Military scifi

A nice surprise to wake up to, Allies and Enemies is in the top 50 (barely) for ebooks in Military SciFi.