Updates: Surprise Scarlet Promo, Scarlet’s Return & Blogging is hard.

Why is it that stories come so easily (relatively), but blog stuff does not?

It’s been a couple weeks since I posted on here, so I figure I gotta put something up. My last post was about taking the plunge into the more traditional publishing world by working with a small publisher. I have a couple updates as far as that goes.

First, Scarlet Angel has completely made the conversion over to being under Creativia’s banner. That goes for print and ebook versions. At first, I was not sure how that would change anything for Scarlet Angel. I was not expecting any promotion for a book that’s been out for two years. However, yesterday I was quite surprised to be tagged on Twitter by @BookSCREAM as they announced a promotion for my book. Even more to my surprise, Scarlet is currently on promotion on Amazon for FREE!

Of course, Free Promotion on Amazon brings with it a whole ‘nother bag of amazing. Currently, Scarlet Angel is #2 in free Technothrillers and #387 in free Kindle books overall. And, it’s not showing for me this morning, but it was #2 in free Cyberpunk last night, too! This is pretty exciting for me. With Scarlet about to return for book 2, getting book one in the hands of a bunch of new readers is pretty amazing.

As far as Scarlet’s comeback goes… I think it’s almost done. I do want to do a round of beta reading before I send it off to the publisher. With that said, I suppose I need some beta readers. I’ll be putting together a short list of people I know who’ve read book 1. If anyone is interested and has read Scarlet Angel, let me know.

The next big thing is that I’ve officially started book three. My goal will be to make the release time between books 2 and 3 as short as possible. To be honest, I get frustrated when I get caught up on a book series and I have to wait for the next part of the story. Especially when the one I just finished ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

That’s pretty much it for my writer-life updates. So, back to my initial question. Why is it that writing blog content is so hard? I mean, it’s not like I really ever have a hard time with words. And it’s not just that I can only write fiction. I’ve written plenty of other content, from social media to academic papers to corporate policy. And, I’ve been writing on my own site for several years (sometimes sporadically, I’ll admit).

No, my problem is usually not the writing itself. Rather, I have a hard time with the topics. I mean, I recently saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I could write a review, I suppose. But, it’s not like I got to see it opening weekend (which is something that almost never happens). So, by the time I get to see the movie, there are PLENTY of other reviews. Mine just becomes a lost voice in the din. Not to mention, I’m not very good at critiquing movies. I generally like the movie and have very little critique for it. Not that I think every movie is stellar, it’s just that I usually think even crappy movies are pretty good. And, to be honest, that’s kind of a boring read, as far as reviews go.

I know plenty of other authors write about themselves. This is definitely something I’m not good at. I’ve come to realize I may have a degree in business marketing, but I suck at marketing myself. Part of that, I think, is I’m not a good salesperson. I’m not even sure I could sell an electric blanket to an Inuit. Or an air conditioner to a Phoenician.

There’s flash fiction. I’ve done a few of those. I’ve had the thought of doing a Patreon page, where there’s flash fiction for subscribers. So I kind of thought maybe I should hold off on publishing a bunch of those, and maybe just do one once in awhile. Then again, getting off my tokhas to actually do it is the challenge there.

I used to write about science stuff and how it kind of relates to science fiction, but there are also plenty of sites that do that too. Whether it’s reviews or science, I end of thinking that there’s a ton of other people’s content. And writing about me is just a plain snoozefest, trust me.

So, what do I write about? Hell, I have no ideas. I was hoping putting these words down would help me come up with something. No dice.

Don’t worry, though. I’ll figure something out. I always do.

Well, mostly.