How Did the Giveaway Do?

Well, I’m not going to complain. I'll post my results hoping they will help others in their quests, and perhaps, a question or two of mine get answered.

Don’t laugh at the small numbers, please.

As a refresher:

August 8, Sandfall went free, 12 copies d/l;
August 11, Allure, 14 copies;
August 14, Freedom Does Matter, 36 copies;
August 17, Connections, 17 copies;
August 20, Coda?, 15 copies, and
August 23, Discoveries, 38 copies.

Total free books given away: 132.

The blog views are for the page posted that date, and mark when each book went on free. But I didn’t track the page views back to the day they occurred. The downloads, on the other hand, are by day as reported by Amazon.

I’m not surprised by the numbers; I only made one tweet for each of the posts with no other notice. That seems to be borne out by the correlation between the post dates and the higher downloads.

The numbers for Freedom Does Matter and Discoveries are surprising, both more than twice the average of the other four books. Really unsure just why that should be. I also was amused that even though the description for Discoveries recommends—pretty strongly, I thought—that Coda? be read first… Well, you can see the disparity.

Another interesting result is the mismatch between page views and downloads. The tweets pointed to the blog post, not to the Amazon page directly, so if they didn’t click via the blog post, how did they see it? While Amazon advertises Kindle Countdown deals, I didn’t think they did that for Free days. Anyone care to comment on that?

Finally, I’m not sure what pushed the page views of the Allure announcement so high. It’s all interesting; I hope a couple of the downloads actually get read, and that some choose to leave a review.

I apologize for my inability to entice Blogger to fit the chart across the available space.

Any thoughts or insights you'd like to share would be welcome.

Now, Coda? Is Free for Three Days

It’s time for the penultimate (so far) Mercenaries story to be free at Amazon.

The description:

Coda: noun (Music) The concluding passage of a piece or movement
[…]
• a concluding event […]

Two and a half years following Connections, death happens. Fighting back, Beckie chooses to go her own way, and it costs her her love. With little to live for, happily ever after now seems like an impossible dream, but she still has family and the team, and San Diego requires saving. Hidden information coupled with her own obstinacy make all her tasks more difficult, but friends help, some by staying, some by leaving. Hurt, confused and grieving, Beckie must push those emotions aside to grow into a role she’s only observed til now.

Coda?, the fourth book in the Mercenaries series, is a thriller set in an approximation to the real world. Real language is used. While it stands alone, readers unfamiliar with previous books may find the history preceding Coda? of interest. It is recommended for 15+.

Note: Due to licensing restrictions (New Directions does not hold British rights to Dylan Thomas' work.) Coda? is not available in Great Britain or other British aligned sales locales. Contact me through email if this applies to you and you're interested.

However, for the rest of us, please enjoy!

Advance Notice: Free Books on a Rolling Schedule

As promised: Your chance to get all of the Mercenaries books during August!

I’ll use the free book promotion Amazon Kindle Select allows to offer the whole series of books, six in total, in order for free on a rolling schedule.

Starting on August 8, Sandfall will be free for three days. Then, on the 11th, Allure, on the 14th, Freedom Does Matter, on the 17th, Connections, on the 20th, Coda? and finally on the 23rd, Discoveries.

If you ever thought you might like these, give them a try. Mark your calendar; follow me on the blog or on Twitter to be reminded. They won’t take up wallet space; they won't even take up shelf space!

Comments are always welcome.

Don't Forget

The Giveaway is on now!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Coda?

by Tony Lavely

Giveaway ends February 29, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Giveaway of Coda?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Coda?

by Tony Lavely

Giveaway ends February 29, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Advance Notice

Come back on the 15th for information on the Coda? Giveaway at Goodreads. And keep having a great new year!

Not as Productive as...

Well, it’s the beginning of the year. Some people try out new resolutions to help guide their behavior; some try out old ones for the same reason. Most fail.

For me, I don’t do resolutions; I know what I need to do, if it doesn’t get done, I have no one to blame… Or more correctly, I know who to blame: me.

In any event, the past couple three months have only produced a few thousand words for the current WIP. That’s disappointing, or would be if I hadn’t critted two and a half books for my beta reader (the half is one in process now), finished making changes to Sandfall and Allure, the revised versions of Mercenaries: A Love Story, and gotten them and Coda?, the fourth book in the series, done and up on Amazon and CreateSpace.

I also reworked my author page at Amazon, and the back matter for all my books. This clean-up isn’t finished; I want to create new paperback covers for Freedom Does Matter and Connections to match the others in the series, and finish the changes suggested for Discoveries so I’ll be able to release it in March.

I posted the descriptions of the five books at the end of last year. Here I’ll put the books in order again, with the links to Amazon and CreateSpace pages for each of the books. Feel free to peruse any and all of them at your leisure. If you’re moved to purchase one or more, that would be wonderful.

Enjoy your new year going forward; best of luck with your resolutions!

As always, comments are welcome.

The books of the Mercenaries series, in the recommended order. The Amazon links are for Kindle versions, the CreateSpace links for paperback versions. All these books are in the Kindle Match Books program, so if you purchase the paper version, the corresponding ebook is free.

Sandfall at Amazon,                         and at CreateSpace.
Allure at Amazon,                            and at CreateSpace.
Freedom Does Matter at Amazon,   and at CreateSpace.
Connections at Amazon,                  and at CreateSpace.
Coda? at Amazon,                            and at CreateSpace.

Update and Book Descriptions

Yesterday, the 26th of December, Boxing Day, the books I uploaded went live on Amazon. I decided to try Kindle Select for at least ninety days, to see if some of the tools they offer make any difference to me. The books are in the sidebar, along with links to them.
The descriptions for each of them follow.

Sandfall

Beckie Sverdupe, typical high-school student and accomplished equestrienne, has a best friend, an annoying younger brother, and no plans beyond homework and the upcoming pep rally. Then, she is kidnapped to be buried alive. Her strength and resourcefulness impresses the enigmatic young mercenary, Ian Jamse, but she was just a job.

Sandfall is a Young Adult thriller, and part of the Mercenaries series. It includes real language.

Bonus: An excerpt from Allure, the first book in the Mercenaries series, is included.

Publishing history: Sandfall was originally titled “Black Sky, Dry Rain,” and part of Mercenaries: A Love Story. This edition is retitled, and heavily edited from that version.

Allure

Beckie Sverdupe is ready for April vacation at her church’s Spring Week Camp until Ian Jamse, the only man who had ever depended on her, asks for her help. She still had nightmares about digging out of the sand, but she’d succeeded.

Should she listen to his plea? Of course. Or was it more of a pitch than plea? He had a job, so yes, probably it was. Could she help him? Maybe. Would she?
Yes!

Beckie’s answer launches her on a three-month journey to save children she’d never met. Along the way, she poses as an exotic dancer in London, a cowgirl in Arizona and an ingénue in Thailand. Each stop brings her closer to her family, her friends and to Ian Jamse, the man who’d believed in her. Each stop brings her closer also to a personal meeting with the man who could end it all, with death.

A romantic thriller set in an approximation to the real world, Allure is the lead book in the Mercenaries series. The events portrayed in Sandfall precede Allure by eighteen months, and introduce Beckie and Ian.

Allure is recommended for Adult, older Young Adult (16+) and New Adult readers for language and mature situations. Real language is used, as are fictional depictions of child abuse.

Bonus: An excerpt from Freedom Does Matter, the second book in the Mercenaries series, is included.

Publishing history: Allure was originally titled Mercenaries: A Love Story and included what is now Sandfall. This edition has a new cover, and is retitled and heavily edited from that version.

Freedom Does Matter

Mid-summer before her sophomore year at college, Beckie Sverdupe is grooming her horse when she receives horrifying news: her fiancé Ian Jamse has been shot.

Leader of a successful mercenary team, Ian’s not only Beckie’s fiancé; he’s her mentor, training her as a team member after she made it clear that, having fallen in love with him, she would make their group more than just soldiers for hire; they’d be more ‘socially conscious’ mercenaries, with concomitant longer life expectancies. The current job, an Egyptian land dispute negotiation, supposedly filled that requirement to a tee. Except it hadn’t: Ian was dying!

Instead of returning to campus for Engineering classes, Beckie kisses Ian’s insensate lips and heads to Cairo to complete the negotiations. It’s her first solo assignment, and she’s determined to finish despite her fears for Ian. Tracking the gunman will be an added challenge spurred by renewed assassination attempts targeting the new mediator: her!

Her quest to gain justice—or revenge—for Ian reveals a conspiracy to incite the final Mideast war by killing thousands at iconic Wembley Stadium in London. As she unravels the plot, she comes head-to-head with one man’s bitter, intransigent attempts to redefine freedom. Will Ian love her again? Can Beckie thwart the terrorist honcho before the attack and eliminate one hateful voice of irrationality?

Bonus: an excerpt from the next offering in the series, Connections, is included.

While Freedom Does Matter is set in the Mercenaries world, it may be enjoyed on its own.

Connections

Everyone has connections they take for granted, and others of which they are unaware.

Beckie’s ongoing training as a nineteen year-old apprentice in Ian Jamse’s mercenary group emphasizes teamwork above all else. Now, with the London episode behind her, it’s time to put her training on hold and begin her sophomore year at Miami.

Goldfarb impelled Piero to smuggle cocaine using sex and money. Their enterprise flourishing, Piero turns to the Peruvian Presidential election. Goldfarb controls the key to the election: videos documenting the conspiracy to pervert the course of justice both he and his chief opponent engaged in years ago. The videos would ensure Piero’s election.

To force delivery of the videos, Piero threatens to halt their smuggling partnership. When threatened, Goldfarb’s composure fails; he attacks Ian’s group, starting with Amy Rose, Beckie’s young friend.

To save Amy, to keep the team safe, Beckie must put her wants on hold. It’s a helluva one-semester course. Pass-fail means live-die.

Connections is the third Mercenaries story, a YA/NA thriller recommended for 15 and up. While Connections stands alone, readers may find that understanding the background and relationships, especially from Freedom Does Matter, enhances the story.

Bonus: an excerpt from the next offering in the series, Coda?, is included.

Coda?

Coda: noun (Music) The concluding passage of a piece or movement
[…]
• a concluding event […]

Two and a half years following Connections, death happens. Fighting back, Beckie chooses to go her own way, and it costs her her love. With little to live for, happily ever after now seems like an impossible dream, but she still has family and the team, and San Diego requires saving. Hidden information coupled with her own obstinacy make all her tasks more difficult, but friends help, some by staying, some by leaving. Hurt, confused and grieving, Beckie must push those emotions aside to grow into a role she’s only observed til now.

Coda?, the fourth book in the Mercenaries series, is a thriller set in an approximation to the real world. Real language is used. While it stands alone, readers unfamiliar with previous books may find the history preceding Coda? of interest. It is recommended for 15+.

Bonus: an excerpt from the next offering in the series, Discoveries, is included.

Of course, should any of you have an opinion about the covers in the sidebar, or about the descriptions, please, please feel free to make a comment below.

I will offer paperback copies of Coda? as a giveaway on Goodreads. Follow me over there if that might interest you, though I'll publish the link here in a few days.

Been Away Too Long

Since I began composing this post in August, it’s been even longer now! First things first: A happy Holiday season to you, no matter what holidays you celebrate. And may your New Year provide all the good things you desire along with the things that will happen anyway.

Also, congratulations to everyone who did NaNoWriMo this year. I didn’t due to vacation schedules and rewriting rather than, you know, writing, but I’ll see where I am next April.

Looked at the last time I was here, back in May, and less has happened than you might think. Could be good or bad, I suppose.

Anyway, of note: one of my beta readers resigned. His way of educating and mine of learning didn’t mesh, and like one of the characters in my book, he got tired of repeating himself. So, while we still communicate in a friendly fashion, we’ve parted ways. I regret that because I gained a lot from his insights, even if not enough.

So, Coda? and Discoveries (formerly Served Cold) took the biggest hit from that. I’m working through how to rework Coda?, but the failings in Discoveries felt clear, even to me, and I spent considerable time attempting to clarify the story. It’s been sitting for a couple of weeks—close to time to reread and see what else crawls out to demand attention. Then off to my beta reader for an outside opinion.

Since Discoveries has been fermenting, I went back to the first book in this series. I wanted to revisit it, change the covers and make editing changes based on my current understanding of how to write. The first step was to split the book into a novella to introduce people and things, and then a full-length book covering Beckie’s experiences with Ian and the team fighting Werner. New covers took a bit of work, but I’ll reveal them closer to when I republish the stories. The writing was more of an effort, cleaning up POV, deciding which scenes could be kept, which needed revision and which weren’t needed at all. The net-net: the longer piece, now titled Allure, is almost 10000 words shorter than the earlier versions, at 112K words.

So that was in August. Today, I uploaded five files to Amazon (CreateSpace will take a few more days, mostly for creating QR Codes for the links I want to survive). I owe a great deal to Carol for her efforts in cleaning up all of them, and to Phil, as well.

Being in the land of no internetz (save Panera and Micky D’s), it may take a while but I’ll get it. Covers are in the sidebar, along with links. Comments are welcome, especially if you’d like to say something about the covers.

At this writing, the Mercenaries stories include (and are best read in the following order):
Sandfall
Allure
Freedom Does Matter
Connections
Coda?

Coming early in 2016:
Discoveries

In process:
Princess (working title)
Ralf and Catrin (working title)

Congratulations - CampNaNos

Today is the last day of Camp NaNo, so everyone who participated deserves a round of applause and a tipple of their favorite libation. Drink up!

I chose not to participate this year, seeing a scheduling disaster of epic proportions if I did. In fact, even if I didn’t but…

I had three novellas to critique (by which I mean beta read and comment on), two of my WIPs to finish up, two more to work on and then, spring to enjoy. More than winter, anyway.
I published Connections last week, and Coda? has gone to a second beta reader for comments and suggestions.
The three novellas are critted and today or tomorrow, the latest set of comments and questions will be in the respective author’s hands. As always, I hope I was able to help them on their way to the story they want to tell.
With all that, I still was able to get four thousand words on (working title) Princess, the book to follow Served Cold. Since I’m following Dean Wesley Smith’s suggestions for Writing Into the Dark, I have very little idea where it will end up. (grin)*TM DWS. (Unfortunately, he has apparently removed those posts from his blog.)

The grandson’s baseball (or maybe T-ball) season begins next week, and my brother is helping out with a show at Don’t Tell Mama in New York the middle of the month, so I’ll pack my toothbrush and phone and watch him and the others. That should be fun; I’ll catch the Thursday and Saturday shows before returning, so I’ll have Friday to look around NYC for setting ideas.

Then of course, the yard will need attention, and the house, and the usual mundane things everyone has to embrace. Or if not embrace, at least do.

Comments welcome.

Here We Are Again

For the second day in a row, the temperature has remained above freezing long enough to be noticeable. Which isn’t all that far above freezing, to be sure, but it is what it is. Weather people state with greater or lesser certainty that the snow lying deep on our lawns and gardens will survive no longer than the beginning of April, four weeks or so. Unless…

Along with the moderation in temperature, the sky is azure, the sun is brightly shining, reflecting from the still-white snow—where we live, anyway—requiring the use of sunglasses for excursions out of the shade.

It’s beautiful.

To a review of writing projects.

To avoid working on the problems with book three, Connections, I did a few reviews and crits, and worked on books four and five. In spite of that lollygagging, I have now finished the trimming and rewrites for Connections. It comes in just under 90K words, down from 110K plus. To me, the problems my reader had have been addressed, but that could be entirely because I know the story in all its incarnations and backstory too well to recognize a problem, far less how to fix it.

In any event, it is with another reader; we’ll see how it sits this time. Depending on the feedback, I'll publish it soon.

Books four and five are both ‘complete.’ What that really means is the second or third draft of book four, Coda?, and the first draft of book five, Served Cold, have been done. Coda? is nearly ready for beta readers (any volunteers?) and Served Cold is ready to sit for a week or three before I reread and try to discover what I’ve left out or overstated and other fatal flaws.

Hopefully I’ll find the discipline to return and update you on whatever progress I make. Or don’t make; that’s important, too.

Thanks for reading. As always, comments are welcome.

Back and Working

We’re back from a fun-filled excursion to Florida visiting dear friends and then the Land of the Mouse. Taking over the world, is Disney. Some may view that with alarm, but hordes of others welcome the inevitable coming of our new overlords. At least, judging by the crowds in the theme parks. A veritable river of people, thick and fast-flowing. And of those over about 11 or 12, most were doggedly focused on getting to the next ride or attraction. Very few of those leaving Space Mountain or Buzz Lightyear’s ride or even Pirates of the Caribbean looked excited, or happy, or entertained; more, it seemed to be: Where to next? I might miss something I’ve planned to do. Not the reaction I’d hope for at “The Happiest Place on Earth!”

Back home, I finished the Ugly First Draft of Coda?. Well, except for closing it off; I still need to think about that, and I’m going to ask my long suffering partners to take a look and see if I’ve had any success in telling the story I hope to. Comments may drive the tenor of the ending.  So far, it’s just over 90K words, right where I hoped it would be. Strangling the characters when they want to run off may have a more beneficial effect than I’d thought.

The rewrite of Connections is about a third through. I’ve benefited from the blog posts I mentioned last time, at Ramblings of a Grumpy Old Man (not me, in this case!) and other input (thanks, reading partners!) and I hope the lessons learned lead to a better result. So far, four or five insignificant (read: extraneous, unrelated to the story) plot lines have been deleted, but I fear the word count goes up as often as it goes down; it’s still over 110K. Hopefully, they are better used than the earlier ones.

The next task will be the description and the covers. Suggestions will be welcome; if you’d like to offer one, say so, and I’ll try to give you information to point you.

Comments are always welcome.

It's December, so NaNoWriMo is Over

Yes, NaNoWriMo is history for another November. With 60K words validated, they declared me a Winner. So, good job, me. And Even Better Job to all the other NaNoWriMo’s who won, who came close, even those who wrote a word. Less of a better job to those who thought about it but didn’t actually get a word written. Better luck next time, which I think is in April, if enough people donate. Shameless plug: I gave to them, Not much, but what I could afford. If you can, throw something their way.

So what did that 60K words accomplish? Draft .7 of a front to back treatment of Coda?, the next story in the Mercenaries stories. There are rough spots—Hoo, boy, are there rough spots!— and the 60K will balloon to 85 or 90K by the time the pieces now marked with either an ^ or an … are added, and the roughness smoothed a little.

Description: Losses mount quickly as Beckie makes what she believes to be an unforgivable error, and has to live with the consequences. In that process, she meets an old friend, an acquaintance, and a new friend. Will her decisions lead to the life she’d hoping for?

 I’m having trouble putting any detail into the description, to avoid spoilers.

I will put Coda? aside for a while now, and work on (not necessarily in this order): Adapt the Past (the new title for Background Check), three different authors' stories I’m in various stages of critting, and trying to wrangle some reviews for Freedom Does Matter.

Another shameless plug: Edward L. Cote, one of the contributors to Twelve Worlds, has published his first book, a YA novella entitled Violet Skies. It’s available for Kindle and in paper at Amazon,  and at Smashwords in epub format. I liked it the first time I critiqued it, and it’s gotten better since. Disclaimer: I did the ebook formatting, so if you find a problem with the mobi or the epub versions, sing out to me. I’ve copied the description below for your enlightenment.

Taya Mindaerel and her mother, the Oracle of the Prairie Winds, must flee their home or face certain death at the hands of a dark hunter and his man-eating horse. Their journey takes them to Aurum, the City of Gold, where they seek the aid of the Great Magus Olbinaar.

On the way they meet three allies- Alex, a vagabond; Brand, a master swordsman, and Ogger, a wild creature. They will need all the help they can get to surmount all the obstacles in their path.

In the city, however, they learn that their journey has just begun.

Violet Skies is the first book in a YA series of the same name. Each book is a novella, short and easy to read. This is a fresh twist on classic fantasy, but it keeps its essential nature intact. The writing focuses on compelling characters first and appeals to fans and critics of the genre alike. Influences ranging from anime to Zelazny combine in a way familiar yet unique.

Comments are always welcome.