Another Update

More fun. Husband cured some of Fio's remaining problems, then closed the help desk for the day so Fio had to take her laptop off to Click again. Travis worked on getting my documents back, but is still waiting for a call-back from Just Cloud to get my retrieval system back. Next come Vipre and Kindle. Hoping to get back in the writing saddle again by the weekend.

Fixin' Things

Fiorella's new laptop had been sequestered in the repair shop for a week to get stripped of its troublesome fellow-travelers, and now that it was home again, it refused to connect with her wireless printer.  Also, it wouldn't allow Kindle to be added to its complement of options.  To top it off, Fiorella was stuck in her current work-in-progress.  Stuck and scared.  Was she, for the first time in her life, experiencing the dreaded Writer's Block?

She prayed and agonized and considered, then realized the reason she was stuck was two-fold: she was totally frustrated by her computer, and she'd written herself into a corner.  The next day, Husband figured out how to make the computer communicate with the printer, and a little back-tracking lit a fire under Fio's recumbent muse.

Kindle, though, will have to wait for another day.

Modern Times

Being as that Fiorella's book will be coming out digital, she's been trying to acquaint herself with  Kindle and Amazon.  But she doesn't like the way light reflects off her screen when she's trying to read, and she isn't accustomed to this one-page-at-a-time business, and her hand still has problems "turning" pages.  But one thing she really does like is being able to check out a whole first chapter to see if she's interested in reading the rest of the book.

Beats the heck out of standing beside a bookshelf in Barnes and Noble and trying to judge the book by its back cover and first page.

Said the Spyder to the Fly

Although she writes romances, Fiorella turns to Precious Ramotswe and Dexter for literary relaxation and enjoyment.  Yeah, she screwed herself out of reading romances when they became business and her analytical tendencies came to the forefront.

That being said, Jan Hudson's award-winning STEP INTO MY PARLOR is a good read.  Spyder Webb is a great male lead, the points-of-view are exceptionally strong, and the shifts seamless, while the writing is rich, the plot moves fast, and the story is full of interesting characters.

For hot, funny, and exciting--try STEP INTO MY PARLOR on Kindle.

And On the Literary Front

Eureka!  Fiorella found her muse again--or rather, her muse found her.  Yes, Virginia, there will be a new Christmas sonnet this year.  In fact, Fio's already hammered out the first quatrain.

But while you're waiting, check out Jan Hudson's contemporary romance, STEP INTO MY PARLOR.  It won the Rita, the top award for published romance writers, a couple of years ago, but is just now available as a e-book. The heroine is feisty, beautiful, and in fear of her life, and the hero is strong, handsome, and sexy as hell.  The story progresses from there. WOWIE ZOWIE! 

Show Me the Money

Fiorella is tired of hearing that writing is fun but doesn't pay.  Au contraire, Fio knows people who make a lot of money at it.  The secret is that they write catchy stories and have figured out how to market themselves--the commodity won't sell unless it's interesting all the way through, and nobody will know about it unless someone spreads the word.

At least that's how it is in romance writing.

Thee first step to fame and fortune process is writing better, better, best.  Classes abound, but some are more helpful than others.  Fio recommends April Kihlstrom's Book-in-a-Week, which is not only on-line, but on Kindle and Nook.  You are not limited to one hard-scrabble week, and there's no pressure-drive for you to actually write a complete novel in one week.  Not only is Kihlstrom supportive, but she has a track record of thirty-some romances put out by top-flight publishers.  But if you're not the joiner type, you can do a pretty good job all by your lonesome by studying the techniques used by your favorite authors.  (Spoiler alert: you will never read a novel the same was again.  Is a writing career worth it to you?)

Fiorella can't give you much advice about the marketing side of the equation.  That's why she accepted the offer from Grand Central rather than publish independently.   But one thing she knows for sure--your best advertising is word of mouth, and the best way to get the good word out there is to write a crackerjack story.

It's a closed circle, but there very well may be a pot of gold somewhere along the way.