Author: P.J. MacLayne

Word Of the Year Insecure Writer’s Support Group #IWSG

  By IWSG

The awesome co-hosts for the January 4 posting of the IWSG are Jemima Pett, Debs Carey, Kim Lajevardi, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and T. Powell Coltrin!

January 4 question – Do you have a word of the year? Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year? For instance, in 2021 my word of the year was Finish. I was determined to finish my first draft by the end of the year. In 2022, my word of the year was Ease. I want to get my process, systems, finances, and routines where life flows with ease and less chaos. What is your word for 2023? 

I’ve seen this same idea in a couple of places this year, and I have to wonder if it’s a sneaky way to get people to commit to a New Year’s Resolution. Which I don’t do.

But I can commit to a word.

Breathe.

Last year was filled with endings and beginnings. In the turmoil, I often forgot to just breathe. I needed to let things happen and then let go, instead of holding on to them and forcing them down a path they didn’t want to go. That was last year.

This year, I’m going to go with the flow. Enjoy the moments life offers me. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe.

What’s your word?

Cover Reveals-Do They Work? #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

January 2, 2023

Does anyone do cover reveals as part of your publicity for a new book? Do they work anymore?

Once upon a time, cover reveals were all the rage to get your readers excited about a new release. It’s especially rewarding to work with my cover artist as she develops a concept and fine tunes it until we are both satisfied. (I’m a lot easier to please than she is!) I love seeing well-done covers as much as anyone else, but I don’t believe I’ve ever bought a book based solely on a cover reveal.

And I love being able to use social media to share those covers. Sadly, I don’t find that doing a huge blast with guest blog posts, FB entries, Twitter and other such media do anything to increase reader engagement. I’ve tried using several publicity companies with no luck.

It may be just me, but lately, I’ve not been seeing cover reveals by other authors. I’ve seen authors requesting help in fine-tuning potential new covers, but not big, splashy reveals. That leads me to believe they aren’t working for other authors, either. Or perhaps they’ve moved to platforms I don’t spend time on. If you have a different experience, tell me in the comments.

This would be the perfect time to announce the cover for by new book, The Rise of Jake Hennessey. (Yes, I’ve been calling it The Redemption of Jake Hennessey, but we decided the word redemption is too long to fit on a cover that is similar to the cover for the first book, The Fall of Jake Hennessey.) But the new cover isn’t ready yet. Soon!

Here’s the cover of the first book that we’ll try to match in style:

I am really proud of the covers my artist has created for me. If you haven’t seen all of them, check out the gallery below.

How do other authors feel about cover reveals? You can find out by checking out the links below,

As always, until next time, please stay safe. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

January 2, 2023

Does anyone do cover reveals as part of your publicity for a new book? Do they work anymore?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

 

Committed To Writing But Not To Deadlines #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

Dec 26, 2022

Do you set monthly/yearly goals for your writing? What are your goals for the coming year?

I understand the concept of goals, really I do. I’ve had to make them for years for various jobs. But my goals for my writing are much looser. I want to enjoy the process and not stress about meeting deadlines.

Obviously, this blog is different. It’s a once a week commitment. That shouldn’t imply I don’t enjoy it, but I don’t feel pressure about making it an award-winning post, either.

I also don’t stress about writing my books. Well, that’s not totally true. My characters have caused me misery when they don’t behave themselves. But my deadlines for finishing a book are usually flexible. I’d rather get the story right than meet an artificial deadline.

If you ask me to state my goals, I’ll tell you I want to finish my current WIP (The Rise of Jake Hennessey) in time to have it at an event in June. It’s far enough away to allow me to enjoy the process of revisions. Then, I’ll start another story. Which one of the several that have been rattling around in the back of my brain, I’m not sure. What I won’t say is that I want to complete three books by the end if the year and give you dates for preorder and publication. Not gonna do it. Nor am I going to strive to increase my newsletter subscribers by 25%, like the gurus of publicity demand. (But if you’d like to subscribe, there’s a link over there —> I’d appreciate it.)

There are authors who plot a whole series of books before they start writing, and know the anticipated release dates for all of them. More power to them, but I won’t be joining their ranks. are there any authors on this hop in this group? You can follow the links below to find out. 

Hope y’all are staying warm, and, until next time, please stay safe.

 

Dec 26, 2022

Do you set monthly/yearly goals for your writing? What are your goals for the coming year?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

Shopping by the Book #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Dec 19, 2022

What did you want for birthday/Christmas that you never got and might be bitter about? Have you bought it for yourself?

Back in the days of yore, companies like Sears and Montgomery Ward would send out “Christmas catalogs’ with toys, clothing, and gift items not available in their normal catalogs. Yes, those were the days before Amazon, when people shopped by flipping through massive paper catalogs to find clothes and other items they needed that couldn’t be found in the local stores. The Christmas books were smaller, but still held a world of dreams for us kids.

We’d spend hours flipping through the pages, picking out items for our lists for Santa. We knew he had a limited budget and many kids to take presents too, but we always put extra items on our lists in case he ran out of something.

One year, an item on my list was a Carrom board. This was a wooden toy that had a checkerboard, a backgammon board on the other side, and pockets in the corner for a miniature-type pool game. Well, Christmas came, and the board was under the tree – with my brother’s name on the gift tag. Turned out, he’d requested the same thing.

 

I was disappointed, of course, but he shared—sometimes. I won’t say I was bitter about it, but it hurt for a little while. When I became an adult and got married, our first Christmas together, my husband and I bought our own copy. We had it for many years.

By the way, I find it amusing that Amazon sends out paper catalogs. Yes, on-line ordering is convenient, but there’s a lot to be said for flipping through a small book you can hold in your hands.

Did any of our other authors not get a gift they really wanted? Find out by following the links below. 

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Dec 19, 2022

What did you want for birthday/Christmas that you never got and might be bitter about? Have you bought it for yourself?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

Adding Local Flavor #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Dec 12, 2022

Tell us about something local to where you live. Have you ever made it part of your stories?

I use local scenery in my stories all the time. While the world my characters live in may be a figment of my imagination, the geography that they interact with is often real-world. A great example of this is the library where my character Harmony Duprie spends much of her time.

I’ve mentioned it before. It’s one of the Carnegie libraries, and based on the library in the town where I grew up. They aren’t exact matches, but close enough to count. It’s featured in most of the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. Make sense, since Harmony was a librarian there.

 

That’s not the only building I’ve used. My aunt and uncle owned a large Victorian-era house, and they rented the third floor to a lady. And there’s my inspiration for Harmony’s apartment. The area has plenty of true Victorian homes, and it was logical to include them when ‘building’ Oak Grove, the fictional city in the books.

I’ve had to eliminate some local lingo from my writing. Words that are part of everyday speech but not well-known outside of the area. (Check out this link if you’re interested – Pittsburghese )

One or two words may sneak in, but I work hard to replace them with standard US words. (when I spot them!)

I guess I should mention the one book that doesn’t take place in Western Pennsylvania/Ohio. Wolves’ Gambit was meant to start in Wyoming and move back east, but the move never happened. So, I sprinkled the story with references to that state, where there are more cattle than people. (A great place for wolf shifters to hang out.) evil’s Tower, Yellowstone, Gillette, Casper. I tried to work in Meeteetse and Chugwater, but they didn’t work out. Neither did Buford, a dot on the map that had a population of 1 for awhile. But I did mention tumbleweed!

That’s how I get local references into my stories. It’ll be interesting to see how the other authors do it. I’ll be checking out their posts by following the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

Dec 12, 2022

Tell us about something local to where you live. Have you ever made it part of your stories?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

 

Catching Up on Goals #IWSG

  By IWSG

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

December 7 question – It’s holiday time! Are the holidays a time to catch up or fall behind on writer goals?

The awesome co-hosts for the December 7 posting of the IWSG are Joylene Nowell Butler, Chemist Ken, Natalie Aguirre, Nancy Gideon, and Cathrina Constantine!

I retired from my day job this past summer, and am slowly discovering the joys of not having deadlines—at least, not many of them. There are still bills to pay and doctors’ appointments to keep, but I can arrange my life so I don’t have to worry about three conflicting deadlines all on the same day. Shoot, sometimes my biggest concern is what day I’m going to the grocery store!

But I finished my first draft of my WIP last night, (The Redemption of Jake Hennessey) so now it’s time to consider some self-imposed goals. There’s a con I’ve been accepted to as a vender next June, and I’d like to have the book edited and ready to go by then. That’s six months away, but a lot of work has to happen between now and then.

Thankfully, I don’t have any catching up to do. Yes, I’ve been in the position where I used the holidays to catch up on my writing, but I no longer have to do that. If I can get a chapter a day edited, I’ll be ahead. It’s an amazing feeling. (and yes, I know I should let the story sit for a week or two before I start editing, but I won’t.)

I suspect most of the folks on this hop don’t enjoy the same benefit as I am enjoying. To find out if they write over the holidays, don’t forget to check out the posts below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

Going on a Binge #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By IWSG, Open Book

Dec 5, 2022

What TV show/or Movie, or book do you binge/return to/ re-watch the most?

If you’ve hung out here for any amount of time, you already know I don’t watch TV. Oh, I might stop and watch a few minutes of the news or whatever my husband is watching, but I rarely plan time to watch any show. Last time I did was over five years ago. 

Books are a different story. In the past few years, I’ve moved my go-to gift item from jewelry to books. (And since I retired, I rarely wear jewelry.) 

But I’m allowed to make exceptions, right? I stumbled across the now-ended series ‘Lucifer’. It seemed like fun. Best part was, I didn’t have to wait week after week for the next episode or the next season. It was all neatly wrapped up and waiting on Netflix. (I have to remember to close that account now!) So, I watched it. Sometimes three of four episodes in a day. It was my reward to me for making it through all the hard work and stress that came with moving halfway across the country. 

I haven’t picked up any new shows to watch. I got it out of my system.

I haven’t gotten binging on books out of my system. Hopefully, I never will. My latest binge was a dozen books in the Stephanie Plum series (and a few offshoots.) That put me up to book twenty-two of the series. Now, I’m taking a break, spending spare time on holiday preparations. (And binging on editing The Redemption of Jake Hennessey. I’ve never had the luxury of focusing on editing on of my books before because my day job required most of my attention.) 

What book/ series do I return to the most? At the moment, none. My taste in authors is changing. Or maybe it’s because so many authors have allowed their series to stretch out too long and the books come off as rehashing the same story. I’m more interested in discovering new (to me, at least) authors. (That goes for me, too. It’s time to start writing a new series of books.)

And I keep promising myself that I will read at least one book from each of the authors who contribute on regularly to this hop. I’m trying to develop new habits and make better use of my abundance of free time. The internet is a wonderful and terrible way to waste that time.

Do you have any suggestions that I should add to my to-be-read list? Leave them in the comments, please. 

Don’t forget to check out what the other authors on this hop are watching/reading by following the links below.

And, as always, until next time, please stay safe.

Dec 5, 2022

What TV show/or Movie, or book do you binge/return to/ re-watch the most?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

Mixing The True and False #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

Nov 28, 2022

Do you use real or fictional cities in your writing? How do you incorporate them into the story?

There is a town called Oak Grove in Indiana, but it’s not my Oak Grove. I’ve never been there, but I was close. We were taking a shortcut between here and there, stopped at a gas station, and came across the town’s little newspaper. I still have it somewhere.

My fictional Oak Grove sits near the border of Pennsylvania and Ohio, north of Pittsburgh. I’ve kept its location a secret so that I can play with the differing laws and law enforcement structure between the two states. I’m writing fiction—so I can get away with it.

But Oak Grove, the home of Harmony Duprie, is based on several real small towns. As I wrote the second book in the series, I realized it was as much of a character in the story as the people, and tried to show that by focusing on events and people that shape the city. The small towns I’ve lived in for much of my life were the base for how Oak Grove developed.

In building the world around Oak Grove, I mixed in larger, actual cities to give readers a geographic reference. Pittsburgh. Cleveland. Washington D.C. Places I’ve visited so I don’t feel I’m making them up. (and the internet is a marvelous source of maps and images.) My Oak Grove boasts a marvelous Carnegie Library, but as is true in many small towns, the residents may have to travel to a bigger city for shopping or specialized health visits. Of course, these days, some of those issues are resolved thanks to on-line shopping and telehealth.

My urban fantasies are different. Because my wolf-shifters don’t want people to know where they are living, I made their location purposefully vague. I have a general location, and that’s it. The only time I identify a city is when they travel far from their home. (Easter egg: There are some crossover references to the characters from the Free Wolves series in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. Yes, I realize they attract different types of readers, but I had fun doing it.)

I’m looking forward to seeing how the other authors on this hop answer this question. Can you use real cities in a story set in outer space? (I’m looking at you, Richard!) Just follow the links below to find out with me.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Nov 28, 2022

Do you use real or fictional cities in your writing? How do you incorporate them into the story?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

Team Dog Or Cat? Which Side Are You On? #Openbook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Nov 21, 2022

Big internet fight: Are you team cat or team dog? (or something else?)

Can I just be the person who referees this one? I refuse to take sides. Over the years, we’ve had dogs, cats, birds, and fish. None of them were my favorite. (I can eliminate birds as my favorite. I hated to see them caged, and hated worse constantly cleaning up after them.)

We don’t have any pets at the moment and I’m not in a hurry to get one. I still don’t feel totally moved into our new place. If I had to choose, I’d get a cat—probably several of them. They are more suited to my personality. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Sometimes playful, sometimes snuggly, sometimes just wanting to ignore the world and curl up and take a nap. All the long hair can be a pain to clean up, but it helps to keep it in a ponytail, and I don’t think a cat would mind. Gives them an extra toy to bat around.

So, I’ll just sit over here in my spot on the couch and watch the other authors on this hop figure it out. Or maybe I’ll take a nap instead.

As always, until next time, please stay safe. 

Big internet fight: Are you team cat or team dog? (or something else?)

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

 

Telling It Softly With Your Words #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Nov 14, 2022

How do you deal with negative feedback? Do you have tips for critiquing other writers’ work?

We all love those positive reviews. You know, those 5 stars that sing our praises. The words of encouragement from a beta reader or early critique that tells us how wonderful our draft is. We also know that sometimes the words aren’t so kind.

I’m lucky because the high school I attended pushed us to write essays and introduced us to the art of making revisions. As they were schoolwork, not personal writing, I didn’t feel a huge sense of ownership, and the changes the instructors requested were part of a grade, not a reflection on my writing.

So, when I first joined a critique group, the idea of revisions didn’t upset me. It was all part of the learning process—I was a novice and ready to learn from those with more experience. Luckily, it was a supportive group, with everyone helping everyone.

It’s not always like that. I’ve been in a group with a person who seemed to get a certain level of satisfaction at tearing down other authors, including me. It took me several meetings to figure out what they were doing.

How do I deal with that kind of person? Once I figure them out, I treat them with courtesy, but don’t take their criticisms to heart. However, I search for a kernel of truth in the critiques I receive. But I also try to remember that you can’t please all the people all the time. Still, it’s not all sunshine and roses—I have received feedback that stung deeply and took some self-reflection to get past.

I also try to avoid being one of those people. How do I do that? 

The most important thing I strive for in a critique is to point out the good as well as what needs improved. Does a particular phrase stand out? Does a plot point surprise me? A character seem to resonate? Let the author know. If I can’t find something good to say, I’d rather say nothing at all.

It’s the balance that’s important. When I’m critiquing, I make it my goal to encourage, and mentor, not criticize. Yes, I will note things that can be improved, but I try to do it in a way that it builds up the writer.

How do the other authors on this hop feel about negative feedback? find out by following the link below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Nov 14, 2022

How do you deal with negative feedback? Do you have tips for critiquing other writers’ work?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.