Yearly Archives: 2014

Don’t be part of the problem

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If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. We’ve all heard that mantra, but it’s true. Recently, I was caught at just the right moment (inopportune, maybe) by a post a “writer” made, asking for help with formatting, and lamenting how hard it was and wondering why she had to worry about it at all. Her posts throughout also revealed that she could not even handle a few sentences without making errors. And then there were all the commenters helping her like she was a child. So I posted an angry comment. I don’t like to … Continue reading →

Toward the Light:
Where my writing is going

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I was reworking the cover for In Absentia (Rain Falls series #2), which I released fairly quickly after Rain Falls, and it sort of fell through the cracks like an orphan. Someone mentioned that I had a bunch of new reviews on it. I didn’t know. Last I looked, I only had 2 on that book… Anyway, I was pleased to see that they were all really good: 4 and 5 stars, which is always a joy, and profoundly validating. But more than that, the readers/reviewers were saying things that reflected what I had talked about with this series. I … Continue reading →

Adventures in Indie Publishing, Incident #227:

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Amazon informed me that they pulled my book, Rain Falls, off sale, because they were getting too many complaints from readers about a chunk of missing text in the digital version. I realized immediately what was happening, and I rolled my eyes so hard, I could see my brain. My apparently way-too-clever brain. I made adjustments in the file to accommodate this, and added this note to readers in the front:   SPECIAL NOTE TO READERS Recently, Amazon pulled this book down, because too many readers were complaining about missing text. Apparently, those readers did not understand that the missing … Continue reading →

The Pitfall of Literary Segregation

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I believe it is a pitfall to think that fiction for lesbians is all that different from/than fiction for straight people. And I can say that as a person who reads largely mainstream fiction, and very little of what is termed “lesfic.” I grew up reading mainstream, and I continue to do so, and I am quite picky about what I read. It’s hard for an author to get and keep my attention, if there are any thin spots in his/her craft. I think I might be in the process of forming a new list of Favorite Authors. So far, … Continue reading →

A Bowl of Cherries Vs. Sucking Beetroot

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Greetings, Precious Readers. As most of you know, I’ve had a rather eventful few years. Yes, i found the love of my life, and we are now happily engaged to be married. But getting to this point was a path strewn with rocks and blocks and sharp pointy things, and quicksand and befanged beasts, attacking from all sides. Okay, that might have been a tad melodramatic. But it’s been really challenging. It’s harder than it seems to leave everything behind and start from scratch in another country when you don’t even like to leave the house, and you’re also an … Continue reading →

“well-written, quick, entertaining read with very engaging characters.”

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  A Review of Also Known as Rising and Falling, by Kelli Jae Baeli Posted on June 24, 2014 by wspice4815 under lesbian protagonist(s), Mystery READ JUNE 2014 ONLINE SUMMARY – Jobeth O’Brien discovers that even when she’s out of commission, due to a back injury, there’s no way she can stay out of the loop. Not when so much is going on in her household full of women. There’s a disturbing theme to things though, when time after time she and Phoebe, Izzy and Ginger are forced to help women out of violent situations, and go after the men intent on … Continue reading →

Pitfall and the Scoop

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Somehow I got tag-teamed. TT Thomas and Kathleen Wheeler both tagged me for this Blog Hop, My Writing Process. I suppose i could post this twice, but maybe just once will do. It’s not like the Blog Hop Nazis will chase me down and break my thumbs. So here goes….. 1)What am I working on? You mean besides this computer jigsaw puzzle? (Addicted to those). Oh, writing. My current project is Pitfall (A Jurassic Romantic Adventure Dramedy). Just as most stories begin, I had the what-if : What if two lesbians who are very different, found themselves tossed back 150 … Continue reading →

I Want to Break Amazon’s Thumbs

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Frustration If I had a shiny gun, I could have a world of fun Speeding bullets through the brains Of the folk who give me pains; Or had I some poison gas, I could make the moments pass Bumping off a number of People whom I do not love. But I have no lethal weapon — Thus does Fate our pleasure step on! So they still are quick and well Who should be, by rights, in hell. ~Dorothy Parker  “We are researching the issue.” It’s been a week, now, since my Amazon Royalties for US sales have been LATE. Today, … Continue reading →

Good Writers Aren’t Good Accidentally

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I received another message from a reader who wanted to know when the third book in the Rain Falls series would be available. And another reader who wanted to know when the 6th on the AKA Investigations series would be out. Though certain delays like my recent relocation to another country and health issues have slowed me down, I sometimes feel like readers think what we do is like making dinner. Granted, I wrote Rain Falls (my first bestseller!) and the sequel, In Absentia fairly quickly; and the last three in the AKA series were produced faster than usual. But … Continue reading →

Fiction Writes Me

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Reading, especially fiction, has always been at least sometimes described as a means of escape. People read fiction to immerse themselves in someone else’s story. Perhaps because their own is too painful to contemplate. Perhaps because their own is too mundane. Whatever the reason for the escapist tendency of fiction readers, I hope there will always be plenty of them, otherwise, my profession will become a hobby. And I really am rooted in the expression of self through language. Why do I write fiction? Other than the pat answers like it’s who I am. I have to, there’s a reason … Continue reading →

Rain Falls hits #1 on Amazon!

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After only a week of sales, my book, Rain Falls reached #1 on Amazon in its genre. {happy dance} https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HX82ZV4 BLURB:  India Bell is looking for a regular writing gig to supplement her royalties. She ends up with two assignments – one, to interview up-and-coming lesbian romance writer Tegan Lowry, and the other? To win a bet to write her own lesbian romance, thus securing for herself a job as an editor. There’s a bit of an issue with the second of those. India writes science fiction, not romance. There’s none of that confusing touchy-feely stuff in her science fiction … Continue reading →

Syzygy gets GLOWING review!

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WHILE BLINKING AWAY HAPPY TEARS::: If I never get another review in my life, this will suffice. I have never been so overjoyed by not only how well this reviewer understood what i was trying to accomplish–on EVERY LEVEL–with Also Known as Syzygy, but that the review was glowing like Christmas lights, while also being profoundly intelligent and insightful. All the hard work is now worth it. I could not be more pleased by what this reviewer had to say about one of my books (all of them, really). This book was, at times, very difficult to write, but I … Continue reading →

Careless Editors & Languishing in Romantical Writer-Myths

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What’s wrong with this sentence? “My only child was struck and killed by a car riding a bicycle home from the beach one afternoon in September.” (From Enon, by Paul Harding) So, there was this car riding a bicycle to the beach, see, and…. {Sigh}. And this book was published traditionally and by Random House, where I assume they have professional editors being paid the big bucks to catch things like that. I’m sure there are a million reasons why an editor could have missed that. Perhaps he had been up too late the night before, perhaps he sneezed and … Continue reading →