My oldest daughter is coming home for Christmas, so I am very busy. (In case you didn't know, she joined the Air Force. After Christmas she is going to her duty station, and I will miss her soooo much.)
I will check back in when 2024 is here! Be well my friends. And I hope you have a wonderful holiday full of spending time with your loved ones. Time just keeps slipping by, so we have to catch it and hug it. Cheers.
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We have been talking about what we want to do in 2024.
Right now, Monica wants to finish the four stories of the In The Mountains books. That means writing Huck's story. She is done with it, but I have to do edits. Yes. I read all her gay male-male love stories and I read all the tentacle sex too. I am a creator, and I don't like the put C.M. Moore's name on anything that I have not looked at. I really don't mind the weird things she puts on a page. And I do trust her, but she wants my feedback, and we are in this together. After that is done, we are going to get back into the Ice Era Chronicles. We have One Strong Gale, and then Sky's The Limit. I don't know when they will release, but those books are on the agenda for edits, and they need to see our beta readers. After we make sure they are all good, they will head to Troll River. Currently, we are before our white board looking at the outline for 4:05 a.m. That story will introduce some new elements of the world because we want to broaden the space from just the underground water bases and the war between the H.S.P.C. and the Originals. Some people have problems outside those two organizations. There are also places where the snow has not reached. The entire planet is not covered is ice yet! After 4:05, we have two stories that need names and heavy edits. I will keep you posted on that! And then... I don't know. If I think of something, I will tell you. Cheers, C.M. Moore If you have not noticed, my new Ice Era Chronicle is here. I have so many feeling about this I don't know where to begin.
At first when I wrote this book, I was so excited. I just loved Andi and Rourke and how this came together. Even though Rourke is of Fletcher's bloodline, and in his own way hooked to The Originals, I loved how he is the hero of this story. When I was working on this book, I was exploring the idea that we are not one thing. Humans can be the hero and the bad guy and sometimes it all works out and sometimes it doesn't. Anyway, I got this book done and I was on the edits when Covid happened. Then my publishing house moved from California to Texas and was getting settled. As they were doing that, I put his book to the side and started working on One Strong Gale. I think I lost my excitement for 3:05 because I was onto a new story. Then we moved from Minnesota to Georgia, and as some of you might know, the move was a lot to handle. At that time, I started writing Sky's The Limit. Writing has always been my therapy. After I finished Sky's book, I felt a little lost on where the Ice Era Chronicles should go next. I knew that Weber (The head of The Originals) was not doing well, and I would be looking for a new leader soon. So, I took a break to consider the kind of cult leader I wanted. I read a lot of books on starting a cult. And then I was restless. So, when I'm moody, I write for joy. I wrote the five books of the Alien Love Series for fun to pull me out of my funk. Then while I was in the Blue Ridge mountains, I began my In The Mountains books. I wrote four of those and then four more that I titled Back In The Mountains. (These are on Kindle Villa.) I know this maybe sounds like excuses, but it isn't, I swear. It's more like this all had to happen for a reason. Lastly, I've been trusting the universe more and believing that God will show me where I need to go with my story telling and my writing and how to find my joy. Anyway... After my oldest daughter graduated high school and Air Force Basic training, I knew it was time. It's time to get back to the Ice Era Chronicles and that starts with 3:05 a.m. I'm excited again. You've probably heard the old adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover." Well, I do it and you might do it too. In the end, the cover of a book ultimately matters. Yes, yes, the writing and the story are important. However, for readers to judge the merit of your book, you need to first convince them to put in the time to read it. And this is where covers come into play.
For me, this is a place that I struggle with. I like super sexy covers that let you know you are going to be reading the steamy things. At the same time I don't want someone to be holding a book with a half naked man on the cover. So back and forth I go. In today's world, readers are slammed with images, all vying for their attention. Physical bookstores and online ones alike display dozens of titles in any one genre or style, all of which will seem interchangeable to the customer they target. How do you increase the odds the book they pick is yours? This is a good question and I have not found the answer. As it is, right now I just choose what feels like the pictures and designs that capture what this book is about. Its the best I can do without a huge marketing team behind me. Honestly, I think the blurb is what gets the reader to take a book home, but I could be wrong. I have never chosen a book purely on the cover art alone. I have to read the back. Do people just choose a book by the cover? If they do, I have not met them. One of the most read tropes in writing is enemies to lovers. I'm sure that you have read a romance novel like that before. Most of the time you know that a lot of them start with the two protagonists fighting or at odds with each other only for them to fall in love by the end.
But sadly, as much as this sounds like a fun thing to write... I am so bad at it. I know why these stories appeal to readers to much. There are two clear points of appeal. One... There is this great tension around the two characters that bicker and fight. Even boring scenes about making a sandwich become interesting when the characters hate each other. Two... their love seems impossible and that adds intrigue and adds to the overall story. You find yourself asking how will they get together? But here's the thing, I cant do it. I love when my characters love each other. I am not much of a fighter myself so I think that comes out in my writing. I want them to get along just like I want to get along with the people in my life. So here I am missing out on such a great trope because I can't get my people to fight. Alas. I guess I should simply thank my luck stars that there are so many different readers out there in the world. I may not be able to write many love to hate novels, but there is a lot of other writing I do very well! (If you aren't sure, it's the steamy bits.) |
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