If You Like "The Forbidden Game" You Might like My Novel (minor spoilers for both works...though nothing that gives the stories away)

This

The original Forbidden Game book cover I picked up over a decade ago found via google.

VS

This

Follow Me: Tattered Veils wide image art work created by Jake @ J Caleb Designs

The Forbidden Game: A series by L. J. Smith about a highschool girl Jenny who's gained the attention of an immortal being, Julian.  After many years of watching over and protecting Jenny, Julian lures her and her friends into his world through a board game.  The group needs to make it to a tower before dawn to escape his clutches, but to do so they will have to each face their own worst nightmares.  

What does this series and Follow Me: Tattered Veils share? 

Gerry, like Julian has an obsession for the protagonist, Roxi and Roxi, like Jenny, is unaware of Gerry’s obsession until he enacts his plan to capture her.  Both stories have a friend group whom the protagonist must save.  Both characters romp through a supernatural world that doesn’t seem to follow any hard and fast rules.

The better question might be why two separate books for what feels like very similar ideas?  It's hard to spell out the difference without spoiling each individual story, but I will try to hit some larger points.

Julian is portrayed in the first two books as an all powerful being.  He is far more powerful the the human protagonists.  However book three reveals Julian to be a young and far weaker member of his race.  Book three also shows that Julian, who is portrayed as lacking empathy or emotion actually has more than he revealed and is an emo kid compared to the elders of his race.  

Meanwhile, Gerry is the king of the fae.  He is the most powerful of his people and expects praise, worship, and deference as his due.  Gerry shows emotion often, it isn't alway in sync with how a human would react to a situation but he shows joy, amusement, boredom, anger, and frustration to mention a full range of emotions.  There is no emotional moment where are tearful Roxi says something like "you don't care at all do you?" and Gerry smiles and shrugs, though Julian and Jenny get this moment multiple times in their work.

Jenny and Roxi are very different characters.  Jenny's popular, has a long term boyfriend, and still in high school.  Roxi is isolated and resents the society she lives in.  Jenny is used to people and systems that work for her while Roxi is more used to fighting for things.  This creates a harder protagonists vs one who can fall weepy at times.  

Roxi is older than Jenny too.  At twenty-three she stands in the "adult" camp, though her actions indicate she has some emotionally stunted growth related to an unrevealed past.  Roxi sometimes acts with a younger character's immaturity but she never hesitates to take advantage of all the rights and privileges adulthood bestows.  She doesn't answer to parents or any other authority structure.

Jenny is attracted and repelled by Julian at the same time.  There is no romantic subplot between Roxi and Gerry.    Some of this may be a when it was written and who the works were written for situation.  There was a period in the 90s when a boy/ immortal being stalking you was considered very romantic, especially when written a certain way.  I never agreed, so I'm thankful that now we call this kind of story out for promoting unhealthy creepy behavior.

The Forbidden Game is a young adult series, a good one adults may also enjoy, but the story beats, the scares, and so on are geared for a fourteen to seventeen audience.  Follow Me: Tattered Veils is geared for a new adult audience.  The situations, scares, and story beats are all for a more mature audience.  I think if you like one series, you'll like the other too.  And I'd love to do a more detailed post comparing and contrasting all the little tidbits, but I don't want to spoil a novel I haven't released yet!  

Did you love The Forbidden Game?  Were any of these elements you loved?  If so consider picking up Follow Me: Tattered Veils when it releases in February.  Check out my website jessicadonegan.com for more details.

The $$ Cost of Self Publishing

image from pubaicdomainvectors.org

As a highschool and even college student, I thought self-publishing was free.  Sure, I’d have to pre-order books and there would be a cost to the physical copies (Amazon was not a thing), but it would be a tiny investment.  

And I wondered why people went the traditional publishing route where you’d need an agent and publisher.  It could take years of work shouting “notice me” before anyone picked up your novel… if anyone would pick up the novel.  Then,you’d have to share the money, and you’d share rights to your story.  These people, who don’t know it or love it like I do, might demand changes they don’t understand the implications of based on what they think readers want… do they know the readers or the trends… can they predict what will trend by the time my book prints?  

With self publishing superior in every way, I didn’t understand why traditional publishing even still existed.  But here’s part of the truth: self-publishing costs more time and money.  Believe it or not, those large publishing houses DO something, and today I wanted to talk about the dollar cost to self-publishing.  

1. Editing.  So some writers get around this cost by not editing.  I read a lot of Kindle Unlimited books and as a reader I CAN TELL when someone doesn’t edit, and it takes away from my enjoyment.  I DON’T want to diminish anyone’s story experience, so I edit.  

This was my first book, and I didn’t have a bottomless budget.  I skipped the substantial edit (justified this by saying my betas, my writers’ group, and my major in creative writing had enabled me to skip this step) and just did a copy edit.  This saved me $1,000-$1,500.  But it was a $1,000 investment right off the bat.  My editor, Kristy Gilbert was amazing.  After getting a copy edit from her, I could see the value for a substantial edit and I want to budget in the substantial edit for future books. 

A little insight into the editor’s pricing.  They charge by length of the work you want edited and how much work they believe it will be to bring your book up to par.  The more self editing you do (at least on the sample you send them) the lower your price point will be.  This is one of many reasons people suggest aggressive self editing BEFORE this point. 

2. Cover Art.  Again there’s debate on whether cover art is valuable.  Some writers make their own with stock images to varying degrees of success.  There is research that indicated a strong cover will help generate interest.  It’s like dating, you might learn someone is kind and funny through talking to them, but there’s something in their appearance that compels you to talk to them.  

Plus, a strong cover can make its money back in other ways.  T-shirts, book marks, mugs.  Slap that artwork on all over the place and sell it (assuming you own the rights to the art which most designers will arrange for you).

While I’m not selling any merch, my cover art is all over my social media and posts.  It’s quality and versatility has helped me edit Roxi into pics and otherwise promote my book.  

The art work can cost as little as $20 and as much as $2,000.  Check out Rocking Book Covers post on the price ranges for covers and what to expect to get for those price points. It helped me figure out where I wanted to go with pricing.   

For me, I chose a $500 “mid-range” option and I love the cover.  I think I will always want to work with J. Caleb Designs. He was amazing.

3. A copyright for your work.  Again, some people opt out but I recommend it because you can’t get your book in the Library of Congress (or any other library) without it and that was a major goal for me.  It’s $80 and a couple months of waiting.  

4. A website.  The overall cost varies I ended up with a $100-ish dollar option.  My team bought, set it up, and maintains it so I haven’t had to look at this.  

There was someone who offered to set up a website and take author photos for me and they priced it at about $700, so this element can be a big chunk of budget.

5. Author photos.  The professional picture that goes on your book jacket, website, or author profile.  While this can cost money to get professionally done. I have a Nikon D5600 (photography is a hobby of mine and fun fact: my Flickr account is the 3rd thing that comes up if you google my name) and a very cooperative husband.  For me this element was free, but it could run an author between $100-$500.

6. A social media management software.  I haven’t bought into a plan yet.  But it seems to be between $25-$120 a month depending on what you need and what you want to do.  I’m considering it, but I haven’t bought in yet.

7. Advertising the book. On Amazon, Facebook, or Twitter.  

8. A team to help promote your book.  I did some research on HOW to promote a self-published book and I’m blessed enough to have amazing friends and family who are helping me work through all the promotional stuff.  For me this has been free, but this could be a major budget consumer.  

9. Publishing the book.  I went the Amazon route, so I’ve only paid for proofs, but some people use an independent publisher where they have to pre-order the books and that can be $3,000 investment depending on how many books one orders and what the company charges.  

For me: I need to make $1,600 in sales before I break even.  At the current pricing model, it’s about 478 books to break even.  It’s more realistic for me to believe I published at a loss than to think I could sell 478 books.  Opening weekend I made about $40 and that felt like a lot of money to see back.  

Self-publishing is an uncertain investment into the future. I have decades to make back the original investment, but I needed to save up the original lump sum— which was enough to make a good down payment on car—so I could publish anything and start this journey.  So when you see that independently published book and think "man they went the easy route," remember there was a lot of effort and money that went to bringing their book to market and they must love what they do to take such a risk.

Talk to me.  Did you know about all these costs to publishing a book?  Are all these steps required?  Do you prefer traditional or self publishing?  Did I miss any steps?  What are the most important steps to publishing in your experience?

Check out my book Follow Me: Tattered Veils and if you're inclined please leave a review.  Every review really helps me.

Looking for more book goodness?  I launched a Youtube channel filled with recipes and excerpts from Follow Me: Tattered Veils.  Watching, liking and subscribing to this channel is a great free way to show support for my writing ^_^. 

I also have an ongoing podcast digging deeper into different elements of Follow Me: Tattered Veils.  Listening to and sharing these insights also helps me find an audience who's most interested in my book.

If You Like "Lost Girl" You Might like My Novel (spoilers for the show—not my novel)

This

Lost Girl, a promotional image found via google images. 

VS 

This

Follow Me: Tattered Veils wide image art work created by Jake @ J Caleb Designs

This is part of my Honest Comparison series.  Hopefully, it helps you decide if my novel might be something you'd enjoy reading.  Thanks for tuning in!.

Lost Girl: A supernatural drama tv show spanning five seasons from 2010 to 2015.  The show features a female protagonist, Bo, moving constantly to hide from her past.  First episode she discovers she’s a fae (specifically a succubus) and part of a secret magical society living alongside humanity.  Bo struggles to understand the rules of this new society and find her place in either a human or fae society.  Throughout the seasons Bo gains friendships and loyalties of many around her.  These relationships teach Bo more nuances in fae society but also set her on a path to seek a more just and fair system for all fae and humans. For more details check out the Wikipedia article.

What does this series and Follow Me: Tattered Veils share? 

A surprising amount.  I found this show in 2015 and was hooked.  There is so much in it I want in my media (and therefor was building into my novel).  If you're looking for an urban fantasy with attitude and heart, I can't recommend Lost Girl enough.

Both works feature a strong female protagonist who embraces both “feminine wiles” and more physical strength as needed.  Bo, as a succubus is far more sexual than Roxi, where Roxi relies more on brute force.  It’s unexpected for a petite woman in heels to punch first and ask questions later and Roxi takes full advantage of this surprise to spend less time with people she’s decided aren’t worth oxygen.  I love that both Bo and Roxi are honest in their relationships and don't hesitate to let others know when they've crossed a line.

Bo and Roxi both start their journey as outsiders.  They've decided various aspects of the society they live in are stupid or unjust, and neither have the patience to work "within the system" for change.  Instead both choose to live outside the prescribed social system.

Both characters struggle to connect with others around them.  The two tend to pick up "strays" or fellow disenfranchised people/fae, become protective of these people, and then strive to make changes in their respective worlds for these people they've begrudgingly come to care for.  

Both Follow Me: Tattered Veils and Lost Girl have dramas focused on many various kinds of fae.  Lost Girl fleshes out the fae using different categories and names to explain why some fae are sensitive iron and others song.  If Follow Me: Tattered Veils were a longer format, it would also categorize fae and explaining the contrary reactions some fae have to the same stimulus.  Since it’s a single novel, it leans in too many fae myths and hints at elements more explicit in Lost Girl.

Lost Girl takes place in a modern Canadian suburb and Follow Me: Tattered Veils takes place in Huntsville, AL.  Both the tv show and my novel incorporate today’s technology.  Our versions of fae embrace the new tech as human counterparts have.  Instead of magic “breaking” technology, the two work together to build on the character’s strengths and weaknesses.  Allowing technology and magic to blend is rarer in the urban fantasy genre, but can lead to unique and interesting results.

Did you love Lost Girl?  Were any of these elements you loved?  If so consider picking up Follow Me: Tattered Veils when it releases in February.  Check out my website jessicadonegan.com for more details.

Haven't seen Lost Girl yet but want to now?  Check it out at Amazon or Netflix

Haven't decided if "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" is right for you? Here's: American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

Need an introduction to Roxi Starr? Here's her performing an Imbolc ritual to help whet some appetites.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

And for updates please check out jessicadonegan.com and subscribe.

Honest Comparison: Pitching a Book When You Have Too

photo of koi at Big Spring Park taken by me 

I’ve long disdained elevator pitches.  “It’s like if  The Shining and Anne of Green Gables had a love child.” *eye roll*. 🙄

“Why can’t your story ever be new?  Why do you always have to copy something else?” I thought.  

It never occurred to me that writers create something new and then try to come up with comparisons.  But here I am, a little over a month from publishing Follow Me: Tattered Veils and I have a new perspective on comparing one work to another.  

First off, I’ve realized that many (perhaps most) people start with an idea, create said thing, and then go back to find something successful they can link it too (or at least that’s what I’ve done).    I’m not trying to ride something else’s coattails, I’m trying to draw in an audience who enjoys stuff like what I’ve made.  One way to help people know if they’ll like the book, is to compare it to stuff they are already familiar with.  

Right now I have 9 works—10 if I stretch that I could compare elements of Follow Me: Tattered Veils  to.  Over the next few months, I’ll going to drop these comparisons here on my blog to help readers know “do I want to read this?”  

This is my first time pitching my book to a general audience, and I’m apprehensive about it.  I feels pretentious to compare my debut novel to some of these amazing works, and I worry my book comes out lesser when I place it next to something else.   

I worry about spoiling my book and the thing I’m comparing.  How much information is too much?  

Last, I don’t want to be too commercial.  I want to scream “I’ve got a book and you should buy it“ from the rooftops all day every day.  I’m that proud.  However, I’m also really sensitive to this idea I might annoy people or over saturate a small group of supporters with what feels like adds.  

So I am posting these comparisons in between other content and I’ve written this small burb explaining what I’m doing and why.  I feel the thin line between too much advertising and pointing people to something they might like is being stretched more all the time.

Talk to me!  How do you/did you find the right audience for your work?  What do you think of elevator pitches?  How do you construct them (if you do)?

Want to jump right into the creative works that have some similarities to mine? Check out: Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

And for updates please check out jessicadonegan.com and subscribe.

My 2020 Writer's Goals

image from publicdomainvectors.org 

I have my own mental and physical calendar that is different from the traditional western yearly calendar.  My system allows me to reflect on the close of last year and to structure my plans.  If my goals appear more thought out than yours, know I’ve been meditating on them and planning what they are and how I’ll measure them for 50-ish days. 

1.   1.  Launch my debut novel Follow Me: Tattered Veils. While I often treat this as a fait accompli, it’s far from that.  I’m still creating blog posts and considering what kind of author media I need. Even after the book becomes available for purchase, there are some blog posts and little extras I want to include as a “read along” style content.

2.   2.   Complete the first draft of both Follow Me: Gods and Monsters and Cress Legacy (working title).  Both are novel length projects with some word count already invested.  I imagine I’ll need 130,000 more words to complete both.  Given my calendar structure I need to write about 3,000 fiction words a week.  I’m most concerned with achieving these draft goals.

3.    3.  Co-teach “Hello World and Introduction to Creative Writing” with Ashley once and finish all PowerPoints and course material for “Aggressive Self-Editing” with a possible course run in July/August?

4.   4.   Weekly blog posts going into the release of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” and bi-weekly posts after its release.  Remember I write for 2 blogs.  That means I will still have a new post up every week, but I will change which blog I’m posting in.  I am reducing production goals to improve consistency.

5.    5.  Social media circus has to come back up.  Each week I will dedicate 2 hours to Twitter, an hour to Facebook and an hour to Instagram.   I don’t have a consistent schedule, so I will have to change the days and times I provide for each.

6.    6.  Reading and reviewing books.  There are 44 weeks in my calendar year, I think it’s appropriate to read 44 books or a book a week.  And I’m committing to 1/3 of those books being in either my genre (fantasy/urban fantasy) or being independently published works. 

Talk to me!  What are your 2020 goals?  Do you have any advice on how I can achieve my own plans?

Want to see more?  Check out my 2019 writing goals and my 2019 wrap up. 

Curious as to how I plan to achieve these goals?  Check out my post on how to create realistic 1st draft goals here.  I also have a post on how Habitica, an online fantasy goal tracker can help and I have one more post reviewing my own personal planning system.

Want to see my year in books?  I have my 2019 year here and my top 5 for 2018 along with a full detail list of 2018.  For more what on what I'm reading, check out my GoodReads profile.  

Garden Gnomes and Other Evils

Emma, Jessica, and Kyle.  Photo taken by Elena Lewis.

It scared me to go to my great grandmother’s house.  Her home was clean and silent, which unnerved me, but the true terror awaited me in her gardens.  She had lush vibrant flowers I enjoyed exploring, but waiting in those flower beds was something old and malevolent.

Garden gnomes.

Before Travelosity, before Gnomeo and Juliet, and before R. L. Stine, I knew the true depth of depravity in these ceramic figurines.  I’ve always suspected figurines with humaniod forms, but unlike my dolls or horses, these gnomes were taller than me and had small squinty eyes, pointy ears and hats, and it was always pointing and laughing with its white teeth.  What was so funny and why did the thing need teeth?  It was alive and coming to get me.

When my great grandmother passed, my mother brought the gnomes home and put them in our gardens.

Seems simple as an adult, but as a child these gnomes materializing was a nightmare.  One morning my home was free and then our gardens were contaminated with the spectral evil I knew they held in their stone hearts.  All this time my great grandma had protected me from them, appeasing them and keeping them on her lawn, but with her gone, they were here and going to kill me!

I wasn’t going down without a fight, though.  I gathered my sister and brother and we launched a full war campaign against the ugly invaders.  We threw rocks at them.

When they didn’t retaliate, we got bolder.  My sister and brother would load up in the peddler car and I‘d ram them into the gnome, hoping to knock it down.  They would flail their arms and scream, stuck staring at the killer’s dead eyes. I fled from the scene screaming how it would get us.  They would remember how to use the peddle car doors and escape the staring contest.  We spent hours roping the car away from the gnome and start the process again.  Slowly, the thing crumbled. Sweet victory.

Except, my mother loved her great grandmother’s gnomes.  She did not understand why it deteriorated—could it be acid rain?—but she would preserve them.  While we napped, she would glue the gnomes back together.

Words can not express the doom we felt when we woke from nap time to find the garden gnome whole again.  Before, there’d been a chance the gnome wasn‘t a living creature— I was known to have a wild imagination—but after the gnome regenerated?  And if there’d been a chance for peace between gnomes and children, it was long gone.  How could it want anything but our demise after all the times we’d torn it down?  It was him or us and he seemed poised to win.

But how does this gnome saga end?  Eventually our nightmares built and my mother learned about our campaign against garden gnomes and our all amorphous childhood fears of stone golems coming to life in the night and “getting us.”  She laughed.  We all laugh about it now.

Except I also tear up when I tell this story, because terror that bone deep marks a person.

What does this have to do with “Follow Me: Tattered Veils”?  My battle with garden gnomes went on for months.  For a child this was a brutal war of attrition.  Seasons changed and our enemy remained laughing and menacing.  I had the stamina as a child to face this horror.  My capacity to stare down all that terrifies me grew as I’ve aged.  Unshaped consequences that made me quake as a youth still live in dark corners of my mind just outside my ability to grasp.  Linger with me and face the unnamed possibility.

And ask: if a sheltered innocent child could inspire months of imaginative nightmares, what might a more worldly adult produce?

Like this post and want more?  Check out here where I reminisce over that time in our lives where we still believe in Santa. Or look at the terror a closet monster can add to one's childhood here.

Like this, there's a whole series!  Check out  Remember the Magic of Santa? and Closet Monsters: Gone too Far? for more childhood stories. ^_^

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?   Check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy.  Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

Want more information?  Check out my website jessicadonegan.com and subscribe for updates.

Remember the Magic of Santa?

Kyle, Emma, and Jessica, smiling over a home made Christmas tree cake.  Photo taken by Elena Lewis.  I took a picture of a picture to add to this story.

I believed in Santa until I was 13.  Too long, I know.

So was I just a gullible kid?  Well yes, but it was more than naivety.  I kept believing in Santa because I liked how it felt to believe in him.  The child like wonder and sense of possibility made me feel special.

As a quiet, nervous child (and adult) I spend a lot of time trying not to be noticed.  Attention= …bad things.  But lack of attention has its own frustrations.  I spent a long time watching children get credit for deeds I did every day without a hint of recognition.  Other children and adults may never see me, but Santa did.  He is always watching, and I was on his good list, so someone somewhere knew about all my hard work and valued it.

And those bad kids that seemed to get away with every cruel thing.  You know the ones with ugly smiles, taunting words, and a thoughtless push.  Well, they’d get coal.  Something to say, “I know what you did and I know deep down, you aren’t good.”

As I aged, there were doubts, but I wanted Santa, so I created stories and games that helped preserve him for me and my siblings past the natural expiration date such belief holds.

We did normal things, like write letters to Santa or stay up late and try to catch him in the act.

One year we came home to plastic reindeer toys under our pillows and our parents said “It’s so late, Santa must have stopped by, realized you weren’t home, and left this to warn you you needed to be in bed by the time he stops by again if you want Christmas presents.”

I think my parents wanted us to go to sleep quick, but this visit had the opposite effect on me.  I was alive with possibility.  How does Santa map his trip?  Does he stop by the same time each year?  Why couldn’t he leave the toys for us if we were not home?  The stories!

That year I added to our childish Santa myth.  We stayed up late, but in our room with the lights off.  Each bump and shake of our old house was Santa and the reindeer on the roof.  Did he know we were home but not asleep yet?  Was he waiting for us to get in bed and close our eyes?

Next year I instigated the “Santa’s Helper” program.  All three of us became “elves in training” without own special sleigh bells.  The point of the program was to spread cheer and good will through selfless deeds like reaching out to charities, being considerate to each other, and looking for kids less fortunate to do something kind for them.  The secret part of the club involved a bunch of secret missions from Santa we had to fulfill, and different signs we were closer to our goal of “elf.”  I claimed a secret communication with Santa through “phone calls” and “notes.”

How did me faking a secret agent like program where Santa was the “Charlie” of our “Charlie’s Angels” like group keep my belief in Santa?  As the person who made it all up, I should know it’s fake right?  But that’s the beauty of a child’s brain.  I could be aware both that I was making it all up and also believe there is a Santa and I was doing his work.

My goal as an Urban Fantasy writer is to bring you back to that time when Santa could have been real.  An adult “Santa’s Helper” club.

How do I manage that?

In “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” ground the story with a strong sense of place.  You can visit all the locations mentioned in Huntsville, Alabama.  All lies need truth in them right?

But I’m dedicated to the experience.  I commit to a sense of seasonal time too.  “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” begins in January and ends on Halloween.  As seasons change and time passes, I reference temperature, weather, and even which flowers bloom. Where and when the characters remain constant so readers feel confident in their sense of place.

My characters are everyday humans filled with flaws Joe and Jane everyman has.  They struggle with money, job satisfaction, friendships, and addictions.  Not a major or minor character stands without a rounded soul, capable of being on Santa’s “naughty or nice list.”

I introduce more fantastic elements gradually.  It starts with religion, an element of magic many adults accept, but I build from there to less “real” experiences.

I hope by the end of the journey your sense of reality undergoes changes and you’re left wondering.  Is there more in this world than the mundane?  Could Santa or something like him be real and is he always lurking just beyond our perception?

Like this, there's a whole series!  Check out  Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?and Garden Gnomes and other Evils for more childhood stories. ^_^

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?   Check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy.  Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

Want more information?  Check out my website jessicadonegan.com and subscribe for updates.

#BeBold Behind Posting Metrics

from openclipart.org by liftarn

There are many “behind the scenes” style posts bloggers and content creators indulge in.  They include: posting their strategy for social media and creation, posting results of their efforts, publishing reviews in the genre they create in, publishing fiction and short stories to their blogs, and posting a creation process behind their creations.  This series seeks to explore the “pros” and “cons” of content.  Today‘s topic includes posting strategy and results.  In the interest of full disclosure, I’m in favor of all these style posts so these posts will take on a “just go for it” style tone.

The Concerns

-Someone might “steal” the technique and implement it better

-Someone might ridicule your performance or technique

-You may not achieve your goals and when you release a goal/schedule post, it allows others to see your failure/ accountability

-Some of these “metric disclosure” or “advice posts” are deceiving or skewed and creating your own might place you in a with a crowd less than honest or only trying to sell their online course/book on how to be awesome

-The “how to rock at x” post is very prevalent, if you don‘t have specific new information, it is hard to stand out or it may just feel you‘re looking for a massive following massive metrics bump while offering nothing substantial

-You might think you’re “too small," or “too new," to offer advice or to bother sharing your metrics.  In the beginning, it’s embarrassing to be excited blog X is getting 18 page views a week.  It becomes more embarrassing if you‘re trying all these things and don’t see more hits or more post interactions.  If you’re not a person with “massive success” in a sea of people offering their “huge results” sometimes you ask “what am I doing wrong?” or “How could I have anything worth sharing?”

-Your metrics may not be impressive.  While you might “trick” a viewer with a clean professionalism, strong writing, and spam comments that build up on blogs, showing them the hard numbers may tell the “true” story of how often folks visit a site.

-Your plan may change as you write and maybe continuing to either update an original post or create a post outlining these changes is draining.

-If you like linking to related content, and if you batch blog posts, going though and updating your posts with all the related links is VERY annoying

The Pros

-People love to see hard number results. Anyone can post “How to Have a Successful Blog” or “How to Gather a Social Media Presence” on their blog.  There‘s so much generic copy and paste style blogs we tire of hearing the same advice.  Show me the results!  Prove your technique works!

-People love to know their time is invested wisely.  So comparing the views I get off of Facebook vs Twitter is a wonderful way to show why investing in one site over another might be worthwhile.  Also noting side benefits attracts audiences.

-People like to “be there from the beginning” and they like updates that show their time is spent well.  The whole underdog story or starting with nothing to gain something is very appealing.  These metric posts and plans posts let people have insight and connection to that arc

-Creating these blogs means you are checking your results often and performing an analysis on your results.  This let‘s a person course correct as they go instead of giving up in frustration because they are “doing all the things” and seeing nothing from it. You can be more pro active in driving results

-Posting your intentions helps build personal accountability

-Posting and sticking to your schedule will help build discipline, consistency and a following

-Posting my metrics every week is a simple post that keeps my blog active.  The format and phrasing is the same week to week so I/readers can use easy side-by-side comparison of each week‘s results.  But this also means it takes precious little time to write.

The Outcome 

For me the pros outweigh the concerns.  I’ve never much cared what other people think of my progress.  If I cared, I would have stopped writing long ago and gone off to do something “successful”, whatever that is.  In Fairness, no one online has been mean or belittling over my progress or plans.  I think the fear of mocking/failure/disappointment is low.  When your numbers are low, there‘s no one to care and when they‘re high, they offer credibility and transparency.

  Personally, I love metric and “how to” posts.  Hard results give credibility and when I think “that sounds terrible” I can know what the overall “gain” would be.  And I’m wondering “when/how” do I monetize or “how does this get me published” or “how does this get more eyes on my story and/or blog?”  This metrics/plan style blog gives me new ideas to consider.

Talk to me!  Do you use metric or “how to" style posts in your blogging?  Do you like reading others’ blogs on this topic?  Do you have a good tip for me about writing, networking, or some other related topic?  Who is your favorite blogger and why?

Betting On Myself

image from openclipart.org by j4p4n

The Problem

Things are crazy in my professional life right now.  My “day job” is in shambles (from my perspective to them everything is the best it’s ever been or at least that’s the party line they are sticking too) and since that’s forty hours of my work week my emotional/mental life is shredded.  I feel like half a person, and that person is always on the attack, hunting for weaknesses in others to pounce on.  There’s no turning the snarky, angry, lashing aspect of myself off.  Something people don’t get: if you are a compassionate intuitive soul, you can take that knowledge and use it to be vicious.

In the middle of what for me is the worst three going on four months I’ve experienced in the last five years, I have to step back and ask myself “What can I do?”  I can’t change the policies happening at my work.  I can’t control how they are implemented.  I can’t force peers, superiors, or team members below me to be the right people to enact this cultural shift within the company.  But if you know me, there is no way in hell, I will sit back and let them wreck me without pushing back.

The Solution 

So first of the all, I’ve rejected the incompetent management and have turned around to challenge every move they make, using their own guide against them.  If I have to follow these rules, everyone will get on page now.  I will not struggle while everyone else tells me that “this is different”, and it’s “just this once”.


How I'm Choosing Me First

It’s time to come back to what I love.  What makes me passionate is writing.  I’m turning inward, back to words, and I’m turning all that frantic energy into creating space for my creative work to stand.

I’m unhappy, but part of me sees this work drama is the best thing that could have happened.  Nothing short of working at a huge corporate place that’s just shitting all over itself would have made me say: “If this is a thing, then I’m rejecting you and going back to my base.”

I’ve done a lot and continue to do a lot since I’ve turned back to reading and writing.  I’m reading more now than I ever have in my adult life, and I love that part of my life (check out my Goodreads reviews and stats here and see my "Best of Kindle Unlimited Series").  I’m writing (though mostly blogs and tweets) about 10,000 words a week.  My blog(s) pre-scheduled posts are insane.

I tried something new with the Writers’ Group where we each share a Halloween based flash fiction this month.  Chris Palmer finished and scheduled his story first.  Can I say, I appreciate how my fellow writers are stepping in and joining me on this new adventure?  I can’t express how grateful

I’ve noticed this conversation game trend on Twitter and I want in on that.  Right now I play with #theMerryWriter and #authorconfession but I’d like to play in some other Hashtag parties/conversations and I would LOVE to host a Hashtag game through NAWG.

I have more ideas and more planning than ever in my creative writing life.  I’m working in a class (the class itself isn’t going great, I’m waiting to give a full review), trying to get beta reading for the second draft of my novel “Follow Me: Tattered Veils”.  While discussing the book with my friend Ashley Sanders, I had a major break through.  Now I know what I need to do to pull the work together that I am beyond excited to dig in and execute.

Ashley and I are also experimenting with running our own writing class.  We’re talking structure and what value we could add to other writers along with all the inspiration they may bring us.  I can’t wait to work with her.  We have a very similar process and goals for our novels, and I’d love to help other people work through what their goals are.

I have an outline for a co-writing novel gig called “Familiar” with a friend in the North Alabama Writers’ Group and I’m thrilled to bits about working more with the wonderful Zach Standfield to create something cool together.

I have never chased so many avenues at once and it’s occurred to me that my job and my lack joy in my professional life brought me to a place where I had to roll the dice on my projects I'm passion about that I would normally keep as quiet background gigs.  My story telling, my ideas, my ability to network.  Stuff I’m “good” at that I figured would never amount to anything.  It feels powerful to see how things I love could bring me an ounce of professional success.  All my life, people have told me my writing would “never amount to anything” and that I “should focus on something that will make me financially stable.”  Here I am, at the worst point in my professional career, with nothing to draw on.  In desperation, I‘ve opened myself up to this blogging, social media, creative writing thing, and it seems like these “useless“ skill set has breathed new life in me.

The path to monetization is opening and new opportunities rise on the horizon.  They are taking time and persistence, but I’m seeing incremental steps towards my long-term goals. It feels like I’m proving all those people who told me my skills and me through association were “nothing special” and “not valuable” wrong.

Have you ever been in a terrible situation at your job or life where you needed to get out?  What did you do?  Are there other angles I’m not exploring?  Did you ever follow your passion regardless of the money or the risk?  What was the outcome?  Do you have advice/regrets/victory stories?  Talk to me.