Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Mapping

Not sure how many other authors do this but I've reached that point in my adventure that is Book Five:


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Obsessive much!? Yeah.

Sometimes we read something that sticks with us and worries at the backs of our brains and continues to poke at us with a sharp stick until we sit up, turn around and yell, "ALL RIGHT!!! I GET IT I'M DOING IT, CAN YOU PLEASE STOP NOW!?" It's like the toddler or young child that's kicking the back of your seat for the entire four hour flight and who's parent is zonked out and oblivious next to them for the entire duration.

You really want to open the emergency exit door and pitch the annoying little brat into the ether, but then you look at his or her mom and the dark circles under her eyes and you just don't have it in you to wake her ass up and complain. So you sit, grinding your teeth for the entire duration of the flight and maybe even after but you say nothing and unbeknownst to you, you just earned like a million gazillion karmic brownie points and end up winning the lottery down the line for it.

This, for me, is a lot like that.

So when I first put out Shattered & Scarred this review stuck out at me... Now bear with me because this is going to a real good place. I promise.

Here is the review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/974458186?book_show_action=true&page=1

Now the specific passage that stuck out at me and has been kicking the back of my seat through books 2, 3, 3.5 and most of 4 is this: Ethan's back story should have been fleshed out a lot more instead of just being touched upon.

That's it. Out of that whole review, that is the toddler that has been kicking the back of my seat through four books and I really, really have to thank you Bev, and all of you should too because after four books of straight up nagging Trigger to freaking talk to me and tell me what the hell happened over there, he caved and we got this little gem, so without further ado... here is a sneak peek at Tattered & Torn Book IV of the SHMC series and an elusive piece of Ethan "Trigger man" Howard's past...

“Shhhh, it’s just Trig. He wanted to talk to you.” I pulled back and frowned at him.

“What does he want to talk to me for?” I asked.

The Big Man rapped lightly at the kitchen door and Ghost opened it. Trigger’s massive frame filled the doorway and he edged into the house.

“Hey man.” Ghost said and they clasped hands and pulled each other in for a hug. Trigger looked me over and sighed. He opened his arms and cocked his head questioningly and I smiled. I appreciated that he asked and didn’t just go in for the hug. I looked at Ghost who seemed fine with it and I opened my arms and Trigger hugged me gently.

“Get gone D.” he said to my man and Ghost slipped out the kitchen door and shut it behind him. I blinked, stupefied by the exchange. Trigger pulled out a stool and sat facing me.

“What?” I asked.

“Derek knows what happened because he was there that day, but this is something I haven’t even told Reaver, or Ashton.” He said and he pulled his e-cigarette out of his cut and put it in his mouth. He sighed out and took a long thoughtful drag.

“We were in this fucking podunk village in one of Afghanistan’s eastern provinces doing surveillance, trying to catch this piece of shit lead of this terror cell. We’d been set up on this ridge for fucking hours. Sun beating down on us, hotter than Hades balls and we’re just about ready to call it a fucking day when this God damned Mercedes pulls up outside this mud hut.” He took a couple more drags off his e-cig and looked at me with haunted silver-blue eyes.

“There he is. Just comes popping up out of the car and we call for confirmation, right? Well it takes a minute and while we’re waiting for the green light to take this mother fucker out, here comes his kid running out of the hut and this dude he doesn’t know I’m looking down the scope at him, and he picks his boy up and his holding him up in the air and it’s this joyous fucking reunion going on down there.” He bowed his head and was silent for a long minute.

“And we get it. Confirmed. Green light. Take the motherfucker out, but he’s got his kid in his hands and he’s bouncing this boy who is six maybe seven and I got it buzzing in my ear to take the fucking shot and I’m telling them, negative that I ain’t got a clear shot and the order keeps coming in, take the shot, to take the fucking shot and D. he’s like ‘I know man but you gotta take the shot, it’s orders’ and so I sight and I pull the fucking trigger and…” he looks at me agonized and I stare back horrified and his next words drop into the silence of the house like a thousand pound boulder… “I missed.” My shoulder’s dropped in relief and Trigger, he shakes his head and looks like he’s about to puke and he tells me… “I hit the kid.”

I stared at him, several moments of silence stretching between us and all I can do is blink, stonily, sitting there and Trigger he takes my hands in his and he tells me. “You did what you had to do to survive Shelly. <spoiler>He was hurting you. He was gonna rape you and nobody, I mean nobody should have to live through that once let alone twice.</spoiler> You did what you had to do to save your life. Big difference from the stain I got on my soul, Sugar. So stop torturing yourself.” He got up and I stared at him openmouthed and horrified.

“What about the man?” I asked hollowly, “The one whose son you shot?” Trigger looked at me incredibly sadly.

“It was the only time I’ve ever missed Shelly and I haven’t ever since for a reason.” He intoned and then to make things crystal clear he said, “I got the son of a bitch with the second shot but I can still never take back the first.” I nodded and pressed the heels of my hands hard into the seat of the stool I sat on, straightening my arms between my legs to hide their shaking.

“Why did you tell me this?” I asked him and I wanted so badly to cry for him. <spoiler>The pain I was living with for ending the bastard who attacked me must be nothing in the face of what Trigger was living with, </spoiler> I mean it explained so much. Trigger looked me over a little sadly.

“Because I thought it might give you some perspective, Baby. <spoiler>That it might get you to stop torturing yourself over a piece of shit male I would have gladly killed with my bare hands for putting his hands on you like he did. That wasn’t a man Shelly. Real men don’t hurt women, or children.”</spoiler> And with that parting shot he disappeared out the kitchen door, shutting it firmly in its frame.

-End-

So thank you Bev, for writing such a thoughtful review and for telling me what you wanted. Here you go. I hope you've stuck with the series and that you continue to do so. Much love for being brave and telling us all what you wanted because I know you weren't the only one thinking it. You were an inspiration. All of my readers are inspirations.

Much love to you guys!

Later.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Welcome to my differing opinion... Reviews.

So this whole thing with The Guardian and Kathleen Hale blew the fuck up like overnight and most if not all of you reading this have already heard/read/talked about it.

For those of you that haven't here is the TL;DR version:

Crazy Reviewer reviewed, Author didn't like.

Author went even more crazy than the crazy reviewer, stalked reviewer, and I mean hardcore stalked the woman, up to and including phoning the reviewer at her place of work and pitching up on the lady's doorstep after renting a car to drive to where the woman lived.

A whole lot of premeditation and a whole lot of crazy.


This blog isn't about that.

What this post is about is the opinion of a different person who posted that authors have no business reading the reviews of their work.

Yeah.

I disagree. I disagree totally.

Crazy authors should probably refrain from reading the reviews of their work but sane ones, should be able to read their reviews especially sane independent authors and here's why:

As a self-published independent author there are certain luxuries I can't afford, such as a professional editor. Seriously. I'm a freaking security guard by day and I can barely afford to keep my car running let alone pay someone $700.00+ to run amok with a red pen leaving me to decipher on my own whatever it is they've scrawled in my margins.

I am well aware of something that seems to be glossed over by like a lot in all of these blogs and articles and what have you...

I don't write these books for me.

I write these books for you, and if you aren't happy then what's the freaking point?

How do I tell if you are happy or unhappy?

Oh. Right. You tell me when you leave a rating or review!

Also, as an independent self published author, how am I expected to improve upon my craft without a big publication company and editing team/guru backing me up?

Oh. Right. Some of those reviews I'm not supposed to be reading have helpful little Easter eggs of wisdom in them! Things like wishes about knowing more about this or that character, wishes that I would lay off of this or that phrase or even wishes that I would pay more attention to certain grammatical errors or errors in punctuation and some of you more enterprising reviewers actually take a lot of time and effort to spell out in very fine detail what my dumb ass is doing WRONG!!!

I APPRECIATE YOU. I LOVE YOU. BUT APPARENTLY ACCORDING TO SOME PEOPLE I'M SUPPOSED TO LET ALL OF YOUR EFFORTS LIE FALLOW AND NEVER READ WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN WHY!?

Because reviews aren't for the author they are solely for readers.

Well I call bullshit on that notion!

So I end this rant with this...

Authors. Read your reviews, get better in subsequent books, just for the love of god lay off the 'message' button. Don't touch it. Read and get what you can out of it but DO NOT ENGAGE. The only time it is acceptable, again, IN MY OPINION, is when a reviewer messages you directly first or in answer to a direct question that can't get you into any trouble.

The ONLY question I answer when I see it is "I wonder when the next book comes out, does anybody know?"

Of course I know! So I hit reply and keep it simple with "This is who the book is about and this is when it comes out, cheers and thanks for reading."

By some standards even that is considered too far and outrageous and unacceptable and guess what... IDGARA.

Anyone who wants to jump my shit for it, feel free! It's your opinion and the first amendment right is alive and well here in the United States of America. Not particularly thrilled about personal attacks but I'm not a crazy bitch. I won't call you, come to your house or perform any background checks... At most you will get this face -_- and a DILIGAF?

So as ever, thanks for reading, you're my favorite, I love you and good night!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

I should probably say something...

It's been around ten days since I've said anything on here. Oops. But not gonna lie, I've been super busy.

Book IV (Tattered & Torn) is at the editor's and like a nervous parent I'm waiting to hear back about this one. I had a lot going on inside these characters heads between the h finally finding the bravery and the will to both speak her truth and come into her own and the H trying to let go of some pretty deeply etched preconceived notions, there was a whole lot of inner dialogue and learning to deal with both things and each other in a healthier more adult way moving forward into a new relationship.

Yeah, that was a mouthful.

Still, everything in this book happened for a reason and I am half afraid that it's, well... boring. So far my editor assures me it's not and I really hope that's true! But I won't really know for sure until you guys get your hands on it in March.

Woah! Hey! Calm your shit! I can hear several of you exclaiming already, "MARCH!? ASDJKF!"

You guys still have Cracked & Crushed coming in December and unlike a solid three month wait between books, you have Masked & Miserable, Squick's novella, to tide you over in January/February.

Now, as to why I haven't been on here... As much as I needed a friggin' break, the characters in Book V (Tentatively titled Fractured & Formidable) missed it in kindergarten when the finer points of 'how to wait your turn' were gone over. Okay, well she was patient, but him not so much but that's sort of to be expected.

So as soon as the fourth book was finished the characters in Book V threw up their hands and were like "It's about time bitch!" and so I am a touch over 30,000 words into that one as we speak... er I write at you... yeah. Whatever.

Now being into Book V by 30k words is awesome! I know right where I'm going with this one and I'm moving right along and it's great... sort of... until I get to the part that's going to rip my guts out and yours, but it's fine! I promise! It'll be fine. Don't you worry.

(Please don't stalk me and go Misery on my ass! I like walking without benefit of a cane and would like to continue to do so.)

Books V and VI are heading into some dark territory for me. So you might encounter some whining and whimpering and even some out and out bitching from me in the near future either here or on Facebook. Just ignore me. Sometimes even I need to cope with the ugly things inside my head. So far I haven't dumber anything down and so far no one has written and screamed at me about what a horrible awful no good very bad person I am so that's at least something right?

Well.

I hope this has been a decent enough update about what's going on in The Sacred Hearts world.

Looks like six books and a couple of novellas aren't quite going to finish this thing after all, so you can expect a Book 7 and maybe some bonus short stories. Pretty sure there will be a bonus short story after Book V, depending how long it goes I may tack it on to the end of the novel if it goes over 30 - 40k words it'll be a .99 center between books V & VI.

I got a lot going on as you can tell with just getting these things on the page. Add to that the blogging and Facebooking and talking with cover artists and now, thanks to all you awesome folks, having to make appointments with tax people to get the income tax side of things straight so I don't get a spanking from Uncle Sam (Seriously, have you seen that guy? Can we say gross?) I'm a busy girl.

Still, if you message me or respond to something I've said, I will *always always always* answer.

Ask one of my Facebook peeps. She messaged me before five this morning my time and my cell phone woke me up and I answered! Sometimes if I am in a groove of things those answers might have a time delay of a day or a week but I ALWAYS answer.

Happy to field questions, love talking about this world, so don't ever feel like you aren't worth my time because if it weren't for you, this wouldn't exist! You have no idea how incredibly grateful I am for that!

Okay. I've rambled way too long on here and need to bounce!

You know where to find me!

Monday, October 6, 2014

Cleaning House

Took the time to clean some house over on good reads by combining the two editions of Broken & Burned into one and clarifying both Shattered & Scarred and Broken & Burned's titles to include what order the books appear in the series.

Additionally, added the as-yet-to-be-released title of Cracked & Crushed to my small but growing pile of titles because *gasp* I've been giving a few advanced copies of the work away through Facebook.

I'm not asking for reviews on those giveaways buuuut if someone wanted to leave one it was high time I provided them a place to leave it.

Cracked & Crushed will be available for pre-order in November so keep an eye out for that.
Also, keep an eye on my FB page at www.Facebook.com/authorajdowney The closer we get to release, a few more advanced copies will go out!

I will probably have a giveaway here through my blog as well, so keep an eye out here for an opportunity.

Well until later my lovelies! I just finished writing Book IV of The Sacred Hearts series and it is safely in the hands of my wonderful, beautiful, kind, smart and overworked and severely underpaid editor, Tracie Warren.

You can thank her for the massive improvements to spelling/grammar/punctuation between S&S and B&B and it's only getting better from here.

Again. Keep an eye out. You never know when I feel like popping off with some goodies!