The Book OG Ghostbuster Fans Will Hate

I started re-reading one of my books recently and realized pretty quickly that I have mislabeled that poor lady and perhaps that’s why it don’t sell for shiz.

Also, am I too glib in my book descriptions? Is it so totally obvious that I do not take myself seriously as a writer? Is that why no one else does either?

Read all the cutesy and inspiring Pinterest quotes you want about #writinglife and #authorproblems to make yourself feel better about making your DREAMS come TRUE but when it comes down to it, you have to be dedicated enough to get things done if you want to be taken seriously as a writer.

And when I say “dedicated”, it’s not “to your craft”. It’s not “a writer WRITES” and “put on your black beret and tweet about coffee”.

If you want to make money and/or be taken seriously, apparently you have to be dedicated to all the boring crap no one wants to do: social media, self-promotion, paying for ads, writing promotional copy that doesn’t come across as self-deprecating.

 

A REAL writer doesn’t write glib promotional copy that comes across as self-deprecating.

 

Ugh, book descriptions. UGH, ad copy. UGHHH, self-promotion! Why can’t we just write the stuff we want to write and then people just find it and buy it for a nominal fee?

All this is to say that I will be re-writing some of my book descriptions in the near future and I’m not happy about it.

Lay Her Ghosts to Rest by Eda J Vor

This book isn’t a fun sci fi/occult adventure in ghost removal so much as a blatantly feminist critique of gender imbalances in the work place.

Sorry for the confusion, everyone! I was trying to make it fun when really, I’m just sick of not being taken seriously or paid fairly in any job I’ve ever had.

But also, there’s ghosts! (Some of those are feminist too!)

Keywords: Angry feminist ghost book, gay supporting characters, patriarchy in the workplace, corporate irresponsibility

Buy it on Amazon!

$.99 Book Sale Up In Here

Summer fades but teen love is eternal… ish: LIKE TWO OPPOSITE THINGS.

Post-apocalyptic chick-lit about a found family struggling to survive:
THE HOMECOMING EFFECT.

Institutionalized ghost therapy causes widespread workplace stress:
LAY HER GHOSTS TO REST.

Did you get an Amazon gift card for the holidays? Are you starting your 2019 Reading Challenge? Do you love me and want to support me in my hobby noveling?

GREAT! Buy a book or three on sale this week for $.99.

Visit the links above or my Amazon author page. Happy reading, friends!

Similar Homecomings

For the record, I started writing The Homecoming Effect in the summer of 2013 at my shitty desk job for a company that was crapping out and yet somehow paying me to answer their mostly silent phones and collect their mail. Also, unbeknownst to them, to write a book. It took me 3 years off and on to finish it, edit it, and self-publish it on Amazon.

So… now that that’s established (and yes, I have proof), let’s talk about this:

I haven’t seen this nor have I heard the podcast yet but… it has been suggested to me that this could be like, a prequel to my novel. Only, you know, better written and performed in two mediums with super famous people and resulting in money made for all of the people involved. Whereas, I sold a copy to my mom and a couple dozen strangers.

THUS it is yet again proven that there are no truly original ideas and if there are, I don’t got ’em.

But, you know, if you’re interested in a possible future scenario with a similar basic premise, you could be one of the dozens who’ve read my first novel.

The Homecoming Effect by Eda J Vor available in ebook and paperback format on Amazon.

Not at all affiliated with or plagiarized (I have proof) from the Amazon Prime show starring Julia Roberts, The Homecoming Effect is a post-apocalyptic chick-lit novel about a found family struggling to survive in a new town after their old world is blown apart.

What starts as a meaningless fling between Bunny, an emotionally-conflicted older woman who just left her battle-scarred husband and Daniel, a hopelessly infatuated younger man recently graduated from college, is curtailed by a series of explosions that destroys schools and hospitals sending the couple 200 miles from home with three children in tow. When the found family seeks safety in a strict religious community, they are forced to concoct a web of lies to appear legitimate and avoid being exiled, or worse. Can they maintain their ruse to avoid suspicion and keep their family together or will the secrets they keep from each other drive them apart? And how much of the trauma they discovered her husband and his father shared upon returning from war was ultimately responsible for the tragic events that lead to their new lives?

Cheaper than Amazon Prime and featuring several sexy scenes, my book is not at all a reasonable substitute for anything involving Julia Roberts.

 

 

Tracy Says Slow Down

Between finishing Camp NaNoWriMo and realizing that Wynonna Earp season 3 started a couple of weeks ago, I haven’t been writing much. Also, those children. Those children take ALL my time. And work, I guess. Not sleeping, so much. I don’t do much of that.

But I had an idea for a something new–which always happens before I actually finish most of the old–and since the process of writing is a lot more fun than the process of editing or self-publishing, I think I’d rather dive into that than finish anything else.

There was a guest post on Chuck Wendig’s blog recently about the thrill of a new idea and slowing down when you have no deadline. It’s good advice from someone who wrote/designed “Iron Edda” which, honestly I have no interest in other than it sounding like the me I imagine myself to be every time I do three push-ups. But it’s a good reminder to the self-published and the hobby novelist that if this writing thing is for myself then I should just do what works for me and to hell with all expectation.

So I’ll just let those other projects simmer, especially the two super personal ones I’ve written in the last year. Let’s start something new for funsies and see where it goes.

A long time ago, in a suburb far far away…

Now… time to research some weird shit like… who invented mowing lawns and why?

Black Sheep of the Family Friday

For a limited time (that being until I remember to revert it) the paperback version of my latest book (and my winning WIP for last year’s NaNoWriMo), Lay Her Ghosts to Rest, is “on sale” on Amazon.

Consider it a holiday special if you will but really, I want to buy a few copies for family members for Christmas and if I get to control the price, I choose to pay less.

That’s why it’s “on sale” rather than on sale. There’s no real promotion so much as I lowered the price for my own benefit.

Lay Her Ghosts to Rest is my most recent book, inspired by my dread and hatred of wakes and funerals and my desire to legitimize my fear and justify my absence from them. See, everyone? It’s bad for your spirit to attend these things! It’s bad for your soul to have one held for you! Devastation, organization, commercialization! These are all the consequences of your morbid fascination with grief theater and cadaver puppets!

It’s also about recognizing negative patterns and realizing how difficult it is to break them. Workplace drama, relationship drama, ghost stuff, a kickass apartment complex in a renovated industrial mill. That’s what’s what.

 

I imagine that’s why many small business owners open up shop: just to spend less on the stuff they love.

A Little Something on the Side

FREE THIS WEEK

(before the novel it’s based on becomes free NEXT week)

it’s A Flash of Effect!

 

Four short stories that take you inside the world of the post-apocalyptic chick-lit novel The Homecoming Effect and the character of Bunny, a fast-talking, bull-slinging, fiercely loyal adoptive mother with a powerful Mama Bear instinct and the hots for her young neighbor.

Why should you read it? You mean other than that it’s free, fast, and full of some Strong Female Protagonist love? Because it’s all about those universal themes. Sex, love, children, religion, and government.

Go ‘head now, give it a read!

 

 

 

Excerpt from Safe Sleeping:

“Tell me, though. How did you land yourself some a handsome young thing? You ain’t no spring chicken, girly, but if that man ain’t hardly just a man, then I’m a gov’ment agent myself, come to take your children away.”

Bunny bristled despite herself.

“Oh no, no, don’t go gettin’ upset. I’m so far from bein’ gov’ment, I can’t even spell it proper. But I am a curious bystander here. How is it you’re not hopping on that joy ride in a shelter right now?”

Kat continued to ignore Thea as long as she wasn’t talking about her. For a woman who prayed on the rosary every few minutes, it was odd that she wouldn’t protest such a conversation. But as the belief that Bunny and Junior were legitimately married and biological parents of all three of their children was paramount to their survival, in city or township, she played along with whatever Thea threw at her.

“Oh darlin’, ain’t nothing I wouldn’t like better than to be a good wife to my husband,” she winked. “But three little mouths are enough to feed and rationing don’t cover family planning, if you know what I mean.”

“Rationing don’t cover much of anything a woman needs, does it?” she agreed. “Shame.” She shook her head. “My husband wasn’t hardly the stud that one is but I would take any opportunity I got to get under him again. Crazy or no, he was my man.”

Bunny’s eyes glossed over for just a moment as the sentiment hit her hard in the chest. She wished she could say the same. She wished things had been different after the war. But if they had been, her life wouldn’t necessarily have been better and three of the four boys she spent all her energy protecting would be out on their own and probably separated by now. No, she thought, there was no use dwelling on what could have been when what was here now was what she needed to focus on. She had gotten all the information she needed from the women and felt secure enough in their sleeping arrangements for the night that she could relax and maybe rest a bit with her family.

A Flash of Effect is free on Amazon 7/20 – 7/24. Look for The Homecoming Effect on Amazon, free next week!

Heal the Ghosts and Let Them Go

KDP says 72 hours so I assumed I’d be making this announcement in a couple of days, but here we are, Monday morning, and guess what?

This lady is ready to (pre) party:

Lay Her Ghosts to Rest
Available to preorder right now on Amazon

The official description is available both on the Amazon page and my Work page so why don’t I just lay it out for you here.

What this story is really about is recognizing negative patterns and realizing how difficult it is to break them. It is told from the perspective of a woman who cares deeply for others but can’t seem to give herself the same kind of care. The context is a pseudo post-apocalyptic institutionalized solution to restless spirits. The real world connection is radical self-care being one of the steps in creating a better community; creating a better community is one of the steps of having a healthy society. 

Plus, ghosts!

I’m excited about this one, friends. I put a lot of thought and feeling and personal musing and life lessons into this one so I’m eager to see what others think. As always, the protagonist is extremely not me, but she has suffered some of the same quandaries, some similar setbacks to personal enlightenment, and she also thinks wakes are the most disgustingly unnatural perversions of grief performance.

Preorder now. Read August 11. Review without being a turd, please.

And if it really wasn’t what you were looking for (*cough bigot who reviewed my last book*), then you go start writing what you want to read, sir or ma’am, because that’s the only real way to get the story you’re looking for.

A Plea to Readers

Dear Readers of ebooks, specifically on Amazon but elsewhere as well,

Please take a moment and rate the books you read, especially by independent authors. It makes a world of difference!

I know from my sales stats that at least 100 people have downloaded my newest book and my KENP score (pages read) is up in the thousands so people are reading it. Two lovely people gave me favorable ratings on GoodReads, which I am grateful for, but my Amazon rating remains at a 1 star with a nasty review by a small-minded troll which makes it look like one jerk read my crap book and hated it rather than the lots of readers, some of whom thought it was at least OKish.

Just throw those indie writers a bone. Give a few stars. Make them feel like they aren’t total crap for trying.

Thanks,

An Indie Writer with an adorable book rated 1 star by some jackass who wants to see the world burn

My Stats So Low

Whoa! Check out the stats now!

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,182 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)

#15 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender eBooks > Romance > Lesbian Romance

#36 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender eBooks > Romance > Bisexual Romance

 

Apparently, all you have to do is give it away and those stats go way down. Neat! Thanks to everyone who downloaded it!

Now what do I have to do to get ya’ll to review it?

 

A Self-Published Gal Self-Promotin’

How about some quick, fun, and free entertainment this week?

 A Flash of Effect is free this week on Amazon!

From January 23 to January 27, I’m using my KDP promotion option to give my little nugget of a story away for free. Grab yours, give it a read and then, be a dear and leave a little review? I’ll take however many stars you’re willing to give, good folk. Because THAT is how Amazon works, ain’t it?

 

A Flash of Effect: Inside the world of The Homecoming Effect in four short-short stories

From the author’s notes and character studies, these four flash fiction stories take you inside the world of the novel The Homecoming Effect and the character of Bunny whose motivations and backstory aren’t always as they appear. Each short story expands on the character’s inner workings, from her fierce–albeit sometimes misguided–Mama Bear instinct to her complicated relationship with “the truth”.

 

 

 

P.S. The Homecoming Effect is on sale starting next week. You could have both books for less than a cup o’ joe.