Unexpected Inspirations

Welcome, and happy Wednesday! Just two more days until we hit the weekend. Yay! My son is getting married on Sunday, and two of my grand babies are having a birthday party on Saturday, so it should be a good time. :) BUT! That's not why we're here today, is it? Nooooo, sir. Today, we're talking about unexpected inspirations for stories. Man, have I got some doozies. I'm hoping this post will get you all looking around you and at the news to find something you can twist on its head and write.

Ready? Grab your cup, fill it up, and let's get right into it!

So, I'm the kind of writer who takes inspiration from weird shit. For example: I'm riding in the car with my husband one day, and I see an old house. I think, Wow. I bet that house has some serious stories to tell. Then my brain was flooded with all the things that house might have seen in its lifetime. An epiphany hit then, and my brain went full stop. Perhaps the house fits into my PPSK series somehow. It certainly looks creepy with all the windows busted out and the porch falling down...

That's when I wrote The House. It came after Intensification, but I knew it had to be linked somehow. If you read all about our dear Hank, you know he was in a mental hospital for a number of years. That house ended up being the reason. Boom. Story inspiration.

If we back up, we can look at Emancipation. That story idea came from an episode of 20/20 where they were talking about a lady lawyer trying to get a man out of prison. He didn't do it! We all know that story, right? I thought, What if he did do it, and he wasn't shy about admitting it? What if her story isn't what she's portraying it to be?

You gotta have the what if, right?

I spent months figuring out what her true motive was for the book, learning about prison life, and asking questions of people around me who know more than I do. My release date was timed so readers would get to the last page on or around the final date in the book. Boom. Story inspiration.

If we go even further back, we come to Yassa: Genghis Khan's Coming of Age Tale. Did you know that book came from a college essay I had to write? Yeah. I became enthralled with the story of Temujin and Jamuka, and I started to wonder what could've broken such a tightly woven friendship. Well, it had to be a woman...

Boom. Story inspiration.

Somewhere between those two lies M. I was having a casual chat with my kiddos about DNA and altering it, and one of my sons mentioned how cool it might be to have a pill that would do that. I dove into research on DNA myself, and I learned what else might be altered if you did what I wanted. That story is plausible because of the research, but it never would've been created if not for the conversation. Boom.

I tell you all this to get here: There are stories all around you that need telling. You just have to be paying attention. Perhaps there's a painting that you find intriguing. Why? What if it came to life? What if it's a long-lost relic belonging to the vampire race? What if it's the only object in the world that can awaken their princess?

THINK. Twist. Believe.

This is how stories are made.

You know you have one in you, so find it in one of those unexpected places. It's crazy what can be used for story fodder. 

What titles has the world around you sparked in your soul? Drop me a comment and let me know. I might just pick it up and read it. :D

Well, that's all for today, folks!

Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

My Favorite Ways to Connect with Readers

Happy Monday, y'all! What a weekend! I had a fantastic time at Authors Rock Roanoke in Virginia, and it got me thinking about readers and how I like to connect with them. Sit back, grab your coffee and a cozy blanket, and let's get right into it, shall we?

Let's start with my least favorite way to connect and go from there. I don't prefer to message with anyone. Ever. It takes too much of my time, and I always end up leaving people on read. Folks end up with hurt feelings or assume I'm not interested. My truth is: I'm just too damned busy to have my phone in my face all day. If you have my number and message me, it's a crapshoot to know if I'll answer. Usually, I do, but it takes a while sometimes. So, don't message me. hahaha

Second least favorite is via social media. I do like to connect with people this way, but it's so difficult to keep up with every single channel, and like I said above, I'm really bad at responding. Sometimes I don't get the notification, and sometimes I just space out and forget. Don't let this stop you from hitting me up with a comment, but remember it may take me time to respond. If I ever missed something from you, I'm sorry! I'm booked out for days with my day job.

Last on the leasts list is email, but I do prefer that over either of the other two. I'll respond from there for sure, and we can have long conversations!!

Second favorite is running into people in the wild. Not at an author conference, but when someone recognizes me out and about and stops me to say hello. This rarely happens, because I'm more well known in author circles than reader circles (because of this blog), but I really love it when it does. Makes me feel kinda famous. :)

My favorite way to connect with a reader has to be in person. I really enjoy sitting down with them and shooting the shit. We can reach a deeper level of connection when we talk about our hobbies outside the book world. 

For example: I love to paint and create art, and I adore riding horses (I used to be an instructor). 

One of those things, you probably know from following me here for so long, but the other one, you probably didn't know before today. I've also had a ton of different jobs in my lifetime, so if you ever see me out and about, ask me about them! I'd love to chat. Maybe we've done similar things and have war stories to share.

This is why I most prefer to meet people in person. I can't ask you to buy my book because my brain doesn't work that way, but I can talk about nearly everything else. :)

So, hit me up. I love it!

Question: How do YOU like to connect with readers?

Thanks for reading and being cool. Next week, I'm planning to dive into some other things I think you might find helpful.

Well, that's all for today, folks!

Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Tools for Marketing - Author Edition

Happy Friday, everyone! If you happen to be in the Roanoke, Virginia, area tomorrow, pop on down to the Holiday Inn Tanglewood and say HI. We'll be there from 9:30am-2pm. If you don't have a ticket, you can get one here. It's a short and sweet book signing you'll have a blast at. Okay, let's get our scoot on.

Today, we're talking about tools on the market that will help you with book promotion and give you ideas if you get stuck in your narrative. It's mostly about the promotional side though. :) Grab your coffee or tea and let's get right into it!

There are a number of social media aggregators on the market that will help you schedule posts on your socials way in advance. All of them are different and give you different socials and options. We'll start with these, and I'll go over FOUR of them. There are others, but many want you to get a demo before you get a price or a trial run, and others not listed are astronomically priced. :)

For the sake of apples to apples, we'll assume each user has 10 channels they'd like to connect and one user.

Buffer

This is the only one of the four listed here that has a free option. 3 social accounts at no charge, 10 scheduled posts, and 1 user. If you're not running a company, this isn't a terrible value. From here, though, the price increases dramatically. For $60 a year, you get ONE channel. Each channel after that costs you an extra $5 per month. At our base of 10 channels, that's $600 a year with only ONE user. This can add up fast.

It does have a visual calendar where you can drag and drop your posts around, making it easy to fix when you screw up and schedule the right thing on the wrong day.

SocialPilot

7 channels are included in the base plan with one user. You have a content library where you can put things you use often like hashtag collections, images, videos, etc. You can add custom fields once you get to the premium level. This base plan will cost you $30 a month or $306 per year. 

There are no analytics on the base plan. If you want 11 channels (the closest to Buffer with 10), it'll cost you $50 monthly or $510 per year. Still better than 10 channels for $600. This 11-channel plan also lets you have up to 3 users.

Again, you have a calendar with days where you can drag and drop.

Loomly

This one is kinda funky on the pricing. There's a basic plan that's free, and you get the same as Buffer (1 user and 3 channels), but you can't see the other plan unless you email them for a quote. I hate doing this. Just be upfront with your pricing, please. Sheesh. It does have some cool features I've been playing with like instant post creation when your blog feed pushes RSS. Then it asks if it can post it. You can also see everything in one place like the others, and you can set posting times ahead.

Updating: I found out. It's $384 for two users and 10 social accounts, but there are a lot of things you don't get like analytics.

Hootsuite

This is one we all know and love but can't afford. They aren't for the casual user. Their basic plan is pro and starts at $99 per month. I know. For that $99, you get 1 user, 10 socials, suggested times for posting, and "so much more." At $1200 a year, I better get a gold sink with that. It used to be free, and then it went to like $5 per month. Pretty sure I have a post about it around the blog somewhere.

Now on to tools that won't cost you an arm and a leg for images or other fodder.

Adobe Express

This sweet nugget is free for the basics, and it includes a LOT of stuff. Here's the link if you'd like to see for yourself. If you're in the market for a lot more included stuff, it's $100 a year for one person. Worth it. No more buying stock photos. YAY!

Chat GPT

Be pissed if you wanna be, but this program can save you a TON of time coming up with social media share texts--yes, even on the FREE version. You tell it what channels you're pushing to, and it'll get all happy with the emoji and verbiage. Then you just copy and paste. I feel like it's not taking a job from someone else in this case; it's helping save YOU time. Be specific, and tell it if there's a specific hashtag you want it to use. You'll be cranking out content in no time.

It can also help you get unstuck if you're stuck by giving you ideas about what's coming next in your book. This isn't using AI to write; it's more like chatting with a friend and brainstorming ideas. Try it out! It gave me a wonderful idea for a twist in my newest serial killer novel (coming soon), and I'm sure it'll have you thinking outside the box in no time.

So, there they are! These tools will save you time, and for an author, time is everything. Get back every second you can.

I hope you enjoyed this post! If there are any tools you'd like me to mention in posts like these, let me know in the comments below. Yes, you'll need a Google account, but that helps me control SPAM and trolls. :)

Well, that's all for today, folks!

Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo