Author: Aya DeAniege

Spaces

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I bought a planner yesterday to keep track of my hours and life, etc. This morning I tried to fill in some stuff while the laptop loaded. 

My work space is my couch. It’s a small L shaped couch about four feet across the back and four feet deep. I have a small table to the right of it which is taken up entirely by a table lamp. It’s also a high back/sided couch so I can’t exactly access the top of it. 

I’ve got two cats, Trixie and Grover. Trixie has been with me since February, when I adopted her from Kijiji. She’s been abandoned three times in her two years of life. So she has abandonment issues and every once in a while just loses her freaking mind.

Grover was with the same owner for sixteen years, then abandoned at Dorian’s complex in May when his owner moved suddenly. Dorian just happened to be walking by when the owner of the complex was cleaning out all the other abandoned items and asked after the cat.

I had been looking for a second cat to keep Trixie company as I had suspected there’d be a full-time position opening up. Just working part-time she had become very needy and I didn’t feel right about leaving her completely alone.

Anyhow. Grover sleeps a lot, but isn’t comfortable anywhere but right beside me. I suppose he too might have abandonment issues now.

Hey, we could start our own support group!

So he takes up one side of the couch. I can move him, but he sort of oozes back into place, which would include somehow getting into my lap, or on top of the laptop if I move him to set it down. 

The other two feet by four feet goes to me, my laptop, Trixie, and cushions. I can’t set anything down. Which sucks, really and I don’t feel is fair to Trixie. She can be quite comfortable laying on my right, but if she does I have no space to work.

This morning when I pulled out the planner, Trixie was having an episode of “you don’t love me, you’re going to abandon me,” so I was trying to accommodate her as Grover climbed onto the couch beside me, and I had the planner out and the laptop loading.

And trying to drink my morning coffee.

It occurred to me that I need more space. 

My apartment isn’t huge, but it also isn’t small. And I don’t have a lot of furniture. In the “bedroom” (it’s an open concept type of apartment) over half the room is empty. There’s a mantle and a fire place in the wall on one side, and my bed on the other.

I’ve been meaning to put my TV in on the mantle for months. Up where Trixie can’t knock it down again. I was going to move the whole couch in there, but same problem, different room.

I need a desk. 

I could build one, there’s a hardware store nearby who has pallets stacked outside free to take. My problem there being that I’m not very good at building things. I can do it, but it takes several attempts to make it work.

That option is free. My main concern really is the legs. How do I get the legs on that sucker to be even if I’m building them? I don’t have access to a saw or anything. Just a drill. 

Or I could buy a desk. So I looked at ikea because they tend to be the least expensive. They definitely have desks in my price range (awesome) but I don’t like how any of them look (*Enter expletive of choice here*).

As this is my first true home, ever, (please don’t ask) I’ve been particular about what I bring into it. 

Even if I can get two storage drawers, solid ones, I could get Dorian to help me cart away a couple of pallets, build the desktop itself, design it to my choice and then almost free desk! With storage! 

But I get the feeling I’ll have to buy it. Then save up for an all-in-one computer. I have the keyboard of my laptop to thank for that. Being able to sit back and write, instead of sitting forward a little hunched as Trixie ventures behind me, trying to ‘hunt’ Grover is distracting.  

Sitting properly last night, I managed to write quite a bit. Instead of leaning forward when I had a thought (because this is a rewrite, so it requires contemplation) I simply immediately started typing. Nothing was lost because I had to lean forward and find my keys, then struggle with a failing keyboard. 

When I told Beth, she was jealous. She does have the space, but hasn’t committed to the idea. She and I have birthdays near each other, so if I could get the almost free desk to work, I could just have Dorian split the ‘legs’ with me and have him deliver it. If I delivered it she’d kill me, but he’s twice her size. 

And they’ve known each other longer… I might just see about that. Storage ‘legs’ sort of like file cabinets but not. Wonder where I could find them? 

With the desk and a swap of furniture I could up my productivity even more! 

Which means I can write more, which I may crave more than air sometimes…

Dear Sirs, Please Make the Magic Rock Write Again…

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

The tablet goes unfixed not because I didn’t try, but because I went to a big brand tech place and was ignored. I’ll have to spend more of my time googling it. 

And filling out the customer service survey I was given for buying a keyboard. 

I’ve had a week where everyone keeps ignoring me. Like they’re all in that community mind that keeps people from running into one another and I’m trying to avoid getting stepped on, but they are drawn to my being out of place.  

Look, either I don’t exist or I do. But if I don’t exist, you shouldn’t all be trying to step on me! 

All five-foot-three, hundred and fifteen pounds of me is frustrated to the point of being bitterly pissed and looking to pick a fight.

Thankfully Dorian loves it when I get like this. He’ll calm me right down, and who knows? I might just be inspired.

There’s a heatwave over my area. Most of the time in the summer I am a content woman, it’s either just the right temperature or just a little warm. Now it’s hot, even for me. I think my poor brain’s been boiled into mush.

The plus side is that once the heat subsides, I have a new wireless keyboard for the laptop. Hopefully fewer mistakes thanks to unresponsive keys, which means better productivity. I tried for wired, as wireless sometimes gets stupid, but the sales people were talking to other customers at that time so I figured I’d make do.

Then I went to the tablet area and they finished and still ignored me. 

I kind of want to stick my head in a freezer. They keep claiming the heat will break tomorrow, but it never does. I just need it like three degrees cooler, and I’d be able to think. 

Just three more chapters to go. I’d be able to do it if I could use the tablet. 

When Life Gets in the Way

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I didn’t get a second chapter done yesterday before bed. I did it this morning with just a little into the next chapter. Still several chapters to go and here I am, sitting and waiting for an appointment. 

I hate when life obligations get in the way of me getting stuff done. I’m motivated right now, but busy at the same time. Even with the tablet, I wouldn’t be able to do edits on Contract Renewed because the files have only ever been accessed on the laptop. Something about taking it in between computers makes the two processors fight over the file and corrupt it.

On the tablet I have Office, came with it, and cannot install other programs onto the tablet besides what’s in the store. 

On the laptop I have OpenOffice because I refuse to pay a subscription fee to Microsoft so that I can have access to something as basic as Word. I don’t use the other things, though I did dabble in Note for a bit when I first got my tablet. 

I just want to be able to write stories. 

Not even add pictures to them or graphs, just stories with fancy fonts for chapter headings and title page. The ability to add page numbers, and italic or bold items when I feel it’s necessary. 

Urgh, this is taking forever and I don’t want to have this appointment. 

Front and Back Matter

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I keep thinking about formatting. I haven’t even done the final edit on Contract Taken and I’m obsessing about formatting. 

I like pretty things, so sue me.

Beth showed me the various stages of her ebooks. From just basically tossed up, to no real back matter but still a bit of a layout, all the way to the print version.

Mainly I’m obsessing about my back matter. What do I want to do for excerpts? Or do I want to do the MC talking to the reader? Which ones would I include? Daughters of the Alphas for certain. Maybe the working title Blood Bound as well. I’d like to finish that book or duo, might have a trilogy in it. Then there’s Prototype.

Mm, Prototype. I’d love to explore that world. Sex and magic, what’s not to love? It also goes full on fantasy, which is something that I haven’t got really. 

D.o.t.A is more alternate world so I suppose it might count as urban scifi. I’m not even certain to tell you the truth. I’m writing it, it’s fun. That’s all that matters to me right now.

So, okay, what if I did D.o.t.a, then Blood Bound, and then Prototype? 

All I’d need then is to wrangle Blood Bound’s MC and come up with proper names for Blood Bound’s world and then the first books. Shouldn’t take too long considering each ‘excerpt’ should fit on one page. Nothing more than a snapshot, really. 

Then to figure out hyperlinks in ebooks, which I’m sure there are ten to a thousand tutorials on. Maybe tweak my author’s bio.

Notice I’m ignoring front matter? 

Every ebook I get on my Kindle takes me right to the first page of the story. I don’t know how they do it, but they do! This has been on multiple classics and an ebook. Which I traced back to look at two pages of chapters, the legalese we all need to include, a description of the book (in the front matter? Which no one is apparently seeing anymore unless they go out of their way?) And… no effort put into the title page. 

In school, I was one if those crazy girls who carefully measured a third (or half at teacher’s request) down the page and penciled in perfect lettering before…

Yeah, the title page matters to me. Even if I don’t think others will see it. It’s even already done up!  Usually it’s created in the rough draft. Everytime I open the file, there it is, the first thing I see.

We all have our quirks, that’s one of mine.

On Planning

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

My original plan was to set up preorders for the Contract trilogy three months apart. Of course, I’m being guided by Beth, who is a planner. She makes me research everything. Or… nearly everything. 

When it first came to the preorder she was completely on board with the idea. Three months would give me a ton of time to market and build a readership. 

But the other day she stumbled on a discussion between authors. One of them was in a situation similar to mine. A trilogy was at the ready and this person was debating between doing preorders or launching all three books at the same time.

The author was advised to launch the first immediately, then do a preorder for three weeks for the next, and three weeks for the one after. The idea is to drive readership. And this will help you start off strong. 

Except I’m not certain three weeks is enough. What if something comes up, what if I need to make an alteration to the second or third books? How is three weeks going to help me, as a new author, to build readership? 

I, of course, went to Beth with these questions. So she sat me down and we had a discussion of our own.

See, Beth views writing as a type of business. It is still a hobby for her, she is not making enough to live off of it, but she hopes to one day. 

The way you would treat a customer in retail is how you should treat your fans. Or, if you can, treat readers better than you would customers. Now, she works in retail so that imagery works very well for her, and I can see where she’s coming from.

Businesses who treat their customers well, do well. If you were going to buy a suit and the salesperson was rude, would you still buy the suit? Most cities have multiple fine clothing stores, you don’t have to be limited.

Most people would go to another store. The same is true for indie authors. You aren’t the only one writing stories like that.

Of course, I adore my readers so for me that part isn’t really a problem. 

The part that deflated my ego was the next bit: it takes five years to build a business and about a minute to destroy it.

Beth, when she first published, wasn’t even close to popular. After two years she’s finally seeing some traction, but has to take a break because she can’t afford editing costs at the moment. That means her… cloud? Is slowly going to get smaller unless she gets the next book written  and finds the money for editing. 

Being a new author, she told me, I need all the help I can get. That means that if three weeks will help me build my foundation, I need to swallow my pride and just do it.

It also would mean that I’d have two months or so before I was back where I am now. Growling about editing. In two months I could probably finish writing the Daughters of the Alphas trilogy. 

Or I could finish the first and finish its edits, putting it up for a three months and basically buying myself time to write and edit the second, then do the same to get to the third. If I really focus I could work another writing project in the background. 

Because I’m keeping up a free story somewhere, so it’s not entirely impossible. If I could get the freaking tablet cord, I could write at work and edit at home. Which is what I was doing before. 

On the Contract Renewed front, I discovered why I only had four chapters left when I swore I had five chapters worth of stuff. That was because in the first draft, I somehow created two Chapter Fourteens. 

Go me. I can’t believe I missed that in the first two reads. Checking that the chapters read appropriately is one of the first things I do before I start editing.

So now I have twenty-one chapters with the possibility of rewriting the introduction to be more of an introduction instead of just a short chapter. I can take the old introduction and probably mire it into Chapter One, I think.

Before I left the house today, I went through Chapter Seventeen (I think) and started Eighteen before I got listless. Had to get ready for work. It’s still possible that I’ll finish Eighteen tonight.

Who knows, with tomorrow off and only three chapters left, I could finish with Contract Renewed tomorrow.

*Enter Witty Title Here*

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Ah, the WordPress app. Beth suggested it while the tablet is having issues. You don’t even have to publish it, just put notes in a draft. I’ve tried all sorts of note programs and Office type programs but none of them really work. Or, if they do work, they don’t really make a file I can take to my laptop/tablet. 

Yesterday morning I edited a chapter. Then I did two blog posts first on the way to, then on the way from work. As soon as I got home I was on the phone with UPS because my package did turn up. 

Then I went back to editing and did another chapter, and another this morning.

UPS’S driver obviously entered the wrong city, which happens, I get that (and it turned up, so how could I complain?) And I was able to get answers and timely responses from them. 

I had, however, entered a ticket for my My Choice thing, because when I did the authorization apparently nothing took. I opened it under the tracking number for this package and was told to confirm I had entered it. I said yes and asked how I go about doing that again since obviously it didn’t work. And how would that work with Canada Post being weird? 

This morning the person responsible for the ticket responded with “I see your package was delivered to *wrong city* I hope you found our customer service helpful.” 

That wasn’t what this ticket was about.

With Canada Post being weird, I need to go through UPS to get hard copies of my books. The other service that runs starts with a ‘d’ and I can’t recall the name, but they suck. The drivers will not attempt delivery to apartment buildings. They drive up and idle for a bit, then leave claiming they were unable to make contact. As they did to me on four occasions for two different packages.

So my frustration at this dismal service does link into my writing. 

My local postman may mark something as delivered and then not deliver the notice for three days, but at least my package is safe at the local post office. It’s also about a third of the cost. 

I hope they resolve their issues soon. 

On the editing front, I’m now on chapter sixteen. I checked the word count today. I shouldn’t have.

Contract  Taken is about 87k words, Contract Broken is about 89k word. Currently Contract Renewed is sitting at 76k words. 

Going in, I knew it was shorter. When I started it was 66k words. I wrote its bare bones and knew that as I finished. The point was to get the skeleton out and to add the details later. Chapter fifteen was three pages of nothing but dialogue. It’s now five pages, but could probably be expanded on for physical reaction to emotion and stimulus. 

I definitely will need to do another go-through for editing and checking on that sort of thing. 

With four chapters left, I’m not even certain how I managed this because I swear there were two more chapters of sex and three more of other stuff. 

There’s definitely not enough sex. Of course I’m trying not to repeat too much, wouldn’t want to bore anyone. I think I’ve done well so far, but while I could easily add more, it’d probably be summed up by Izzy as, “a regular play session,” which kind of makes it sound boring. However, I’m concerned that if I go into details of a regular play session, the reader will find themselves bored because they’ve already had that.

I could add some suspension play, I know both of them are interested in that, but I have absolutely no experience with suspension. It’s something that Dorian isn’t interested in, let alone has the setup for, and I can’t play in public at all. 

I’d just start crying, like last time. 

It’s kind of funny how I’m very private about play (using an anonymous pen name to say I do play doesn’t count) yet I’m parading Izzy’s exploration of play before my readers. 

Once I go through the edit, I might ask Dorian for help. And I’ll be specific that I don’t mean seduce me for ‘inspiration’ purposes. He’s supposed to help me with Nathaniel’s trilogy as well. 

I know the male perspective of books can be well-received but Nathaniel isn’t like that. One book is about Izzy, I think. The other two are about before her. Everything that led up to his meeting her. 

I sound a little ramble-ly, I know. But doing a blog post helped me stay focused through the day yesterday, do I’m hoping it’ll help today as well.

When it Rains, it Pours.

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Remember how I said Canada Post was going on strike and I wasn’t going to get anything from anyone else for my birthday? Well, I had bought something for myself and was quite happy that it would be waiting for me when I got home today, as I had to pay for UPS. A pay service of that cost wouldn’t make a mistake,  would they?

… except they delivered it to the wrong city. 

I double checked all the addresses on all the statements. Yes, it was mine. The only one not showing my address was the actual delivery notification. 

The sound of the customer service representative’s voice when I told him where it had been delivered had that quality of genuine surprise. Even as he asked me to confirm my address and I stopped at the postal code and he read it out to me. 

“I’m just going to connect you to the investigation division…” two minutes pass and I can hear the frustration in his voice, “I can’t seem to get ahold of them, they’re probably very busy.” 

I’m already thrumming with frustration myself. Not by his actions, not even by the ‘theft’ of my only present this year (Dorian and I have a strict no gifts rule, we spend time together instead) but from a need to beat out a world a little more. 

The need to write always brings an ache to my chest and my hands tingle. Just need to get a few words down, then I’ll be able to focus again. 

…Maybe. 

It’s not even necessarily vampires who are aggrivating me. I haven’t written in weeks, I’ve been stopped up and now the itch is coming back. 

Yesterday I forced myself to write a new chapter for Contract Renewed, maybe that was what opened the flood gates. I’m on chapter fourteen of twenty, still need to add ten thousand more words. I can do that, I know I can. 

I just want to move on. I love the trilogy, I do, but this is more time than I’ve spent on any one thing. 

Maybe writing the whole trilogy and then editing the whole is a bad idea, like Beth said. Sure, I get the consistency errors fixed, but at a cost to my productivity. If I had done them one at a time…

Well, with Contracted I wouldn’t have been satisfied with the outcome. Or I may have been for a few months, but then I’d want to rip it to shreds for missing just that one little thing.

With Daughters of the Alphas I may edit as I go. Write one book and mull on it. Place it up on preorder and dive into another world. And then another… and another. I can circle back around to whatever keeps my fancy, just so long as I get the worlds written and available before they get mired in the fog that is my brain. 

We’ll see. Who knows, I might write the first book and immediately want to start the second. 

How many books can I write in a year? Oh, now there’s a challenge I’d like to take up.

Too Many Ideas, Not Enough Time

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

If I do no editing whatsoever, I could write all the ideas! But that won’t work… so what I’m thinking instead is finishing Contracted and getting it up and out of the way, then writing for about nine months straight.

Why nine months? 

Because I believe Amazon will let you do preordering three months out at the most. So once Taken goes live, I give it a week and start the preorder for Broken. 

And avoid all the reviews.

I’ve got a new idea kicking around for a world with vampires. I know, typical creature stories are overdone and after that, then what? Werewolf? 

I have a dislike of shifter stories, though.

While I’ve always sworn never to write a vampire story, my dislike of them boils down to the tropes. Like, if there be vampires, there must also be werewolves.

So I just play with the tropes I dislike. Such as having vampires argue the spelling of vampire, or upon being asked where the werewolves are, the MC is told this is the real world, not some romantic fantasy.

I’m also thinking about including excerpts at the end of the books. A sort of ‘coming soon’ but I’m not sure if I want proper excerpts or if I should have the MCs explaining their world to the reader. 

“In my world, genetically ‘superior’ humans are called Alphas. They spend their lives trying to outdo one another and accumulating wealth in the form of property, money, and companions. 

What’s a companion you ask? 

I am. 

We’re humans who carry what the Alphas call the G14 genetic marker. That specific sequence of genes means that under the right conditions we will break and form an everlasting bond with the one who breaks us, Alpha or human.

Women were once excluded from the selection and breaking process, but when the Alphas overthrew the government, everything changed. 

I’ve been caught, charged with a ridiculous crime, and they’ve decided it’s time to break me.

I won’t go down without a fight.” 

Seems to catch my attention more than trying to select am excerpt from the entire book. It also gives a look at the world, oh… it could be the description  of the book too! 

I may be spouting the stupidest idea ever. I need a sounding board. Being in a different genre and even writing in a different perspective, Beth isn’t much help for excerpt and description set up.

World creation, yes. Though she’s constantly asking me why my worlds are based around BDSM and domination. Guess that’s just my thing? 

Sweet romances don’t go over well. The last time I did something fluffy, everyone expected the characters to all be slaughtered at the end. Apparently I have a tell…

If I write something adorable, somebody’s going to get hurt.

So I’m trying to change that. It’s an amusing tell, though, so I’m still kind of debating whether I should just keep it. 

End a book in a trilogy with fluff and watch everyone cry…

The Tech Problem

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

My tablet is working on and off. What it really is, is the plug in. I’ve got a Surface 2 and Microsoft decided that a little magnetic latch on thing with four dibbles that push into the charger head itself. There’s a shelf type of thing that these dibbles push back behind and one of my dibbles is caught behind that shelf.

Why must you complicate things? The more moving parts, the more likely it is to be damaged.

I’ve never messed with this charger, I’ve been very gentle with it. Mainly because I saw those dibbles and knew it could be a problem.

So I can’t charge my tablet.

The next one is going to be simpler to charge. Preferably with a little plug like what my phone, kindle, and mp3 player all use. It has a name, but I can’t recall it off the top of my head.

Then there’s the laptop problem.

I can write upwards of million words a year. I kept track of it one year. Not including emails, blogs, chats, social media updates and all the rest.

I’m very prolific.

So my laptop is four years old. In January the backspace button popped off. Yeah. I have to hit the little knob that once was the backspace button. The ctrl buttons work on and off, and somehow the spacebar still works. For now.

The problem with tech, therefore, is that without it, we can’t really write in the modern age. I couldn’t write as quickly as I do because my hand can’t write as fast as it can type. Let’s face it, I’ve never seen someone who can write sixty words a minute legibly. My head also works faster than my typing or my writing so by the time I’m finished typing, I typically have the next thing lined up and ready to go.

This all leads into what I use these items for. The tablet is for writing on the go and at work. While at work is when I really want to write (on my breaks, of course) but without the table there, I don’t get anything done.

By the time I come home I’m stuck in the mud because I couldn’t write all day, so I don’t get editing done.

At any time both of these machines could fail and I’d be unable to access my stories until I bought new ones. Which aren’t exactly cheap, especially for someone who just started working full-time.

Cue Beth saying, “If you start the pre-order you’d have more money. Sure, not for six months but that could be the bit that chooses between a netbook second-hand, or a full laptop brand new.”

I have a birthday coming up, I’d ask for money and then pool whatever I got to put that towards a second-hand laptop, but Canada Post is on lock down or strike or something. No cards or gifts or anything for me this year. Unless they miraculously come to an agreement but given the length of the whole thing that’s probably not going to happen.

Beth thinks I’m making excuses. She thinks I’ve got cold feet about sending my baby out into the world because the bad reviews will kill my ego.

Not because Beth assumes my book is bad. It’s a borderline erotica and it kept her attention. She’s actually a pickier reader than I am.

Every book gets bad reviews, that’s the nature of the beast. If a book has nothing but five-star reviews, it’s… it’s suspicious.

Would I want nothing but good reviews?

Yes.

But Beth’s received a few ‘meh’ reviews, nothing really disastrously rage filled and nasty, and her ego took a blow.

I suppose at the end of it all, this sums up to: Need new tech to keep writing, afraid to start the pre-launch of Contract Taken.

An Author’s Bookclub

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

“Not what I want to read, not what I want to read, that’s another fucking shifter book. You know how uncomfortable shifter fiction makes me? It’s a step away from having sex with an animal.”

“I’m pretty certain they stay in man-form during sex.”

“It still makes me squeamish.”

“Okay, fine, don’t read it. What about that one?”

“The male MC mates the female MC by touching her? Wh… is that standard in their world? What the fuck?”

“My Gods, and I thought I was a picky reader. Look, if you’re going to be a jerk about your books—”

“I prefer the term specific reading requirements.”

“—and a whiney little bitch, then don’t read an indie book until you find the storyline you’re looking for. In the meantime, pick up some of the classics.”

“But they want fifteen to thirty dollars for those.”

“Not on Amazon, Gutenberg, and numerous other places. As long as it’s in the public domain you can get classic books for free in ebook or pdf form by knowing how to look for it.”

Beth has shown me how to find books to read. I grabbed about twenty of them while she helped, it was that easy, then I started doing the equivalent of running circles trying to figure out which to start with. So she suggested what she was reading, H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds.

It’s not that indie books aren’t good enough, but that I’m searching for something very specific in my romance area. Sci-fi on the other hand… Well, once I started looking at the classics I forgot all about sci-fi.

I feel a little better after finishing The War of the Worlds, but apparently not a hundred percent better. I’ve been picking away at the chapter all morning. Starting and stopping on and off. It’s a little frustrating, but at least it’s moving instead of just staying there, mocking me.

Beth refers to it as refueling, although she refuels by playing a simulation game while reading a book and watching television. I think she’s crazy, but at least she has something that works for her.

Then again, she’s also the one who babbles about book family trees, where every book can sort of be traced back to a ‘parent’ book that it’s very similar, if not outright based on (like 50 Shades and Twilight).

So I’ll keep reading as many books as I can while picking away at the chapter.

I haven’t had a chance to speak with my cover artist yet. She’s very busy, but when I see her, I’ll ask to proceed on the covers. Once the covers are done, I’ll begin the final stages of the pre-order for Contract Taken and move on from there.

I’m still not in a rush, I’d very much like to complete the whole trilogy before doing the first pre-order so that there’s no cliff or hang off point. Everything will link into one another and I won’t have to worry about the world again unless I decide to write another book for it.

Mm, books.

What are your favourite classic works?