Buy this other book too

Yeah, I did it. I said I would, and I did it. Book 1, Chasing, and now book 2, Echoes, are published. IN JUNE. Dammit, I'm impressive. What's that you say? You haven't published two books in the last two weeks? You're wondering why not? It's not your fault. The thing is that I am better than you.* That's all. Nothing you can do about it, so relax.

Anyway! I've been meaning to write a post about the portrayal of sex in books/tv/movies etc, and that post will be amazing and much more interesting than all this self-congratulating I'm doing these days, but I can't stop myself from self-congratulating. I am an ego-maniac! Have I mentioned that I published two of my books in the past couple of weeks? Not to go on and on about my amazing abilities and then beat you over the head with my success, but I will tell you that I have made tens of cents off of Chasing, so the sky's the limit folks. Soon I'll be able to buy a gallon of gas! A WHOLE GALLON!

The sex post will be written one of these days, but while I can still force myself to edit, I'm going right on to book 3. I am an animal!

Oh, and before I forget, Todd Newton, author of The Ninth Avatar and Thomas Redpool Goes to Hell, interviewed me on his blog. If you want to learn more about me (of course you do!), check it out.

*This does not apply to Ms. Marshmallow who has likely written three new books during the 2-3 weeks I spent editing.

Buy the book

That's right, my little squirrels, it's alive! Alive! Go ahead and buy Chasing if you so desire. And if you don't desire, then fuck you and the horse you rode in on. And after I'm done with you, get the fuck out of here.

(I might still be feeling a little residual tension from the editing and publishing stuff this past week. Love you!)

Yes, the cover needs some work. I've got that on my list of things to do. As you can see, I re-worked it from the original version. And I want to be clear that I loved the original version. I loved all the little houses. I just had a hard time figuring out how they would translate across all four books. In addition to that, I've seen a bunch of covers that feature one small object/drawing with a big title and author name, and I could think of a small objects/drawings for each book, so I took the car from the original drawing I commissioned and used it. But I might go back to the original cover. Or I might not. So many choices, goddammit!

So now I must obey the all-knowing Ms. Marshmallow and do what she says to get me some reviews. And I also have to start editing book #2. (NOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!) But I did it. I got book #1 out there--just as an e-book for now, but it's something. Now I've got to get book #2 out there this month. Because I said June but I did not say when in June. I'm a sneaky motherfucker!

Must. Force. Self. To edit.

I know, usually I'm all, "Editing rocks! I can't wait! Writing is editing, folks!" But for some strange reason, I just can't seem to get excited about it this time around. It's a real stumper.

I've been told that book #1 doesn't need much. And I believe it. Mostly because I don't want to edit it. But I probably should still read through it, right? No? Just put it out there as-is? I like the way you think!

Then there's book #2: my favorite book of the series, if you must know. So it's probably all good too, right? Yeah? Wow, it's amazing how people will tell you exactly what you want to hear when you don't actually ask anyone any questions and/or make up their answers for them. I think I'm on to something here!

I was totally going to spend Memorial Day weekend writing a new story. Oh yes I was. Not a novel, mind you. More of a long-ish short story. It was going to be like my own little 3 Day Novel Contest weekend except I would have wimped out and not tortured myself like that. But no. Editing will be much better for my soul. Er, right? Right? Or did you mean "write," like I should write that story after all? Really? I should? OH MY GOSH I LOVE YOU.

June. I'm saying June.

I really have to get off my ass and do the work to put out my books. I will make myself accountable by putting it here on my blog. In June, I will have available for purchase at least the first two books of my detective series. The second half of May should be pretty open for me, so I have no excuse not to get this done. NO EXCUSE. June, people. June.

I'd actually like to get them all out at or around the same time. As much fun as it is to think that I could dole them out slowly in order to create anticipation for the next release, I think that is over-reaching for a first time, self-publishing author. I'll be lucky to get whatever sales I get, and hoping that someone will keep checking back to see if I've got out the next in the series is hoping for too much, I think. So I want to get them all out there, and then if anyone likes one, they can go on to the next (and maybe the next and then the next).

June.

Books #1 and #2.

June.

Opinions actually solicited

When I was writing book #1 of my series, I didn't have a title in mind. This isn't the first time that's happened, but it's somewhat rare. For me, stories often start with a vague idea of the major characters and what their conflict will be and, yes, a title name. But not this book. I named the document "Oz," which is the nickname of my main character, and I decided to wait for inspiration to strike.

It never did.

When I began the submission process, a title for the book was necessary, and I eventually settled for On the Chase, which I thought was okay, but if I'm being honest, I've never been that attached to it. The names for the other three books in the series arrived to me in the usual fashion--before I'd written a word of them.

Speaking of "a word," that's what those three titles are: one single word. Book #2 is titled Echoes; book #3 is titled Landslide; and book #4 is titled Caught. It just happened that way, and when it happened that way, the title for book #1, On the Chase, began to bother me. I felt that it should be a one word title too.

I also have a second reason for wanting to change the title: Bella Books has still not taken down their pre-release listings of my book, and I don't want to argue with them about it. By picking a new name, I can just ignore their listing.

Now! This is where you come in! One thing I do like about the titling so far is that the first book has "chase" in the title and the last book is called "caught." So I'd like to keep that alive. Some obvious possible titles include

Chase

Chasing

Chaser

In the same vein:

Pursuit

What say you? Do any of these seem noticeably better than any of the others? Or do you have another idea? Help a sister out!