Ever do something without even realizing it?

Someone asked me a simple question. How many books have you published? Well, that question turned out to be far more complicated than I could have ever imagined it'd be.

Because while at the time of the question I had 12 books published, over the seven years I'd been publishing I'd published more than 28. So what had happened?

My crazy. That's what.

In the past I probably told myself I was "streamlining my brand" or some other such nonsense because when looking a the books I still had published they were all over the place, so that wasn't really what I was doing. No, what I was doing was unpublishing anything anyone didn't like.

Three star review? Gone.

Not enough people bought it? Must be bad. Gotta go.

Even my bestselling book, which I love, somehow found its way into the abyss after one especially scathing review.

When KU went from paying by books to paying by pages I assumed that short stories were bad business and unpublished all my shorts.

And the strangest part is I've run my business under the demand of my writerly insecurities completely subconsciously. It wasn't until someone asked me a simple question did I even notice what I'd done.

Well, they are all back now. Some I know I was being too hard on, some probably really do suck. But they are all part of my journey, warts and all. And since I have absolutely no ability to guess at what market response will be to my books, perhaps I should stop pretending like I know what people want and instead just do my best to tell the best stories I can and let the universe decide.

​The idea of writing to market is a very contentious issue among writers. When it’s brought up you hear things like, “I want to write things I love” or “I don’t want to write crap just to make money” or “by the time I get anything out the trend will have changed.”
 
These responses make me think that I have a very different idea about what writing to market it means than a lot of other people.
 
To me, writing to market means writing a book with future marketing in mind.
 
Let me explain. Usually the process goes a writer puts down whatever their muse tells them to, then once the book is finished they look towards the market to sell it.
 
When writing to market, you look at the market first, then decide out of the many things that interest you, which to write about based on your research. And your muse is guided by your knowledge of what performs well and what doesn’t.
 
I don’t consider that selling out or writing poorly. I consider that caring about what the people giving me money want for that money. What if restaurants didn’t care how people liked their food and the chef salted the crap out of everything because he loved salt. We wouldn’t praise him for his individuality and refusal to bend to the will of the masses. We’d want out money back.
 
I think my desire to write to market has improved my writing as I’ve delved deeper and deeper into writing a satisfying story. Something I hope is proven true when Bearly Rivals re-releases on July 25th and proven true again when The Collaborator comes out.

I spend a lot of time online in the company of other writers, so I get so much flack for what I write. “Ewww, why waste your talent on pornography?” or “If you’re not trying to write something that will stand the test of time, why bother?” And it goes on and on and on.
 
But I never let it drag me down because I don’t write for the same reasons they do, so I never base my worth on those metrics. The reason I write is simple – joy. Pure, simple joy. That’s why I write romance. I love happy endings (of all kinds).
 
I know what some of you are thinking. “Um…Kayci…if your goal is joy then there sure is a lot of pain, suffering, slavery in your books.” True. True. I want the stories to be exciting and I want my characters to overcome a lot to reach their happy ever afters. (Plus I have some weird obsession with slavery, let’s not dwell on that too much).
 
So given my reason for writing, the best part of being a writer is when someone loves my story. When they send me a message or post a review about how much they enjoyed my story it puts me on cloud nine. Nothing makes me happier than knowing I’ve brought a little happiness to someone else.

​I often here people toss around the word “formulaic” as an insult when it comes to writing. But formulaic doesn’t have to be synonymous with bad. Everywhere I go in America I can get a bucket of KFC chicken that tastes basically the same. They not only admit to having a formula, they take pride in keeping it a secret. That suggests their formula is an important part of what’s bringing all the boys to the yard.
 
So why are formulas considered bad when it comes to writing? My number one guess is because people find predictability boring. But I don’t think something formulaic must be void of all surprise. After all, even if we’re headed from A to B then to C, there is no telling how we’ll get there.
 
And I also think people enjoy familiar patterns. I believe that’s why series are so popular. When people get a story they like in a way they like, they tend to want it again and again.
 
Which brings me to Kresley Cole. She is my goddess. I adore her Immortals After Dark series. I like some books more than others, but it’s definitely my favorite series overall and there have been eighteen books so far. As I was reading the last one, I noticed something. The story followed Kresley’s formula to a T.
 
Every plot point followed a pattern that can be found in most if not all of her books. And honestly, I loved it. It was a satisfying read that I thoroughly enjoyed. And not only that, 75% of her readers gave it a five star review. So she managed to please the vast majority of her audience with a formula that was tried and true, yet uniquely hers.

Having trouble getting the words out? Do you push and push to no avail? Here are some of the things I do to get the words flowing again.

1. Consider the quality of what I’m writing. The first thing I do when I can’t get words out is to make sure it’s not a subconscious defense mechanism against sucking. If I’m writing something stupid or boring I’ll have a much harder time writing it. So if I get suck, first I make sure I’m not writing a pointless scene that I need to spend more time brainstorming.
2. Switch it up. Once I’m sure that it’s me and not the scene, if I still can’t write, I try to produce words in a way other than typing at my keyboard. I’ll break out my mic and do some dictation or I’ll grab a notepad and write the scene by hand. I’ve found this gets me past most hurdles.
3. Fantasize about my characters. Sometimes I just need to get excited about what I’m doing, so I’ll close my eyes and think about my characters and their lives. I think about all the things that didn’t make it into the book that shaped who they are. Hopefully by the end of it I’m busting to bring them to life on the page.
4. Listen to music. Maybe my problem is my mood. If that’s the case, then I listen to music that sets me in the right mood to write the scene. Sometimes I’m alone in my apartment pit moshing to gangsta rap. Don’t know if it really qualifies if there is no one to mosh into, but I think my dresser counts.
5. Work on something else. Sometimes I can’t focus on one project because I can’t get another one out of my head. If that’s the case, I make sure to get the one I’m thinking about down while it’s good and fresh. Nothing is better than fresh words.
6. Take a break. If I’m just wiped out, especially after finishing a big project, sometimes I just need to unwind and relax. I’ll take a day off enjoying my favorite games, maybe order some take out and watch a good movie. I find that after I’m good and relaxed the ideas just start bubbling to the surface.

So those are the ways I combat writer’s block. How do you overcome your writer’s block?

​My work in progress is a scifi romance about a young man who infiltrates the police force of the alien race that has conquered Earth in hopes of finding his father who has been arrested for terrorism. While searching for his father, he meets an attractive guy he later discovers is a high ranking invader in a human’s body. He decides to use their obvious chemistry to get answers about his father, but at the same time he has to be careful to protect his heart because no matter how charming this alien may seem, he’s the enemy.

​So far people who’ve read the first couple of chapters immediately bring up Stephanie Meyer’s The Host and I understand the connection. The Host has aliens that take over people’s bodies, this story has aliens that take over people’s bodies. But that’s about as far as the similarities go.

But there is an inspiration behind this story, though almost no one has guessed it, which I don’t know is a good or bad thing. I started dreaming up my own alien occupied dystopia as I was watching Colony.

When I first started thinking of my story, there were very few similarities between it and the show, though I’ve been working on this story for over a year and another season of Colony has come out and I cringe as I see more overlap developing. Fortunately, there are also major aspects of the plot developing that have no similarities to my story at all.

I can’t wait to share the love story of Lex and Clark, but as they say, all good things take time.

I first heard of Eden Finley when Amazon recommended the first book in this series, Fake Out. I really enjoyed it. It was definitely a good read and I can see why this series is so popular.

But while I liked Fake Out, I loved Trick Play. It was one of those books I couldn't put down and got through in record time. I loved the characters, the heat level, the drama, the conflicts...I loved pretty much every aspect of this book. So if you haven't read it yet and you're a fan of M/M, then I definitely suggest picking this one up.

When it comes to sports, I don't know a baseball from a basketball, but I'm enjoying this series anyway. I look forward to the next release.

You can find Trick Play on Amazon.

​People write for all sorts of reasons. I write because there are these stories in my head, demanding to get out, to be shared with the world.
 
I write to be read.
 
I often say my stories are my children. I labored and suffered to bring them into being. They are my darkest dreams, my secret fantasies, my vulnerabilities, laid out for everyone to see. In other words…
 
I’m sensitive about my writing.
 
Given that, I should take the advice that I’ve often found myself giving to others in the past: DO NOT READ YOUR REVIEWS
 
Just don’t. No really. If you have the fortitude to just not look, I highly recommend it.
 
I, however, do not have that fortitude. I read every single one of them.
 
So how does a delicate flower like me cope with people kicking my baby?
 
Accept that it’s impossible to please everyone. 
When I get a bad review and the difference is a matter of taste, like they say the story had too much sex or too little sex or the wrong kind of sex, I can shrug it off. Maybe they think my MC is an asshole or my FMC is too whiny. Fair enough. Just because I love my characters doesn’t mean everyone else will. No story is loved by everyone. There are even people who dislike the works of Shakespeare. Shakespeare!

Fix the things I can. 
If I am getting bad reviews for something like typos, I look over the story again and try to find them. If I can’t, I might hire someone for another proofreading. The wonderful thing about e-publishing is mistakes like that can be fixed. And if the issue with your book is technical, you can and should do something about it.

Realize that some people are just crazy. 
Some of my negative reviews are like “ewwww, gay people” in a book called Boy’s Name & Other Boy’s Name: A Gay Romance. *headdesk* Others are personal attacks. Those I ignore because they aren’t about me, they are about the person writing them. Why should I stress over things that have nothing to do with me except that I was in the crosshairs of someone having a bad day?
 
So that’s how I keep my head up through the onslaught. I’m sure it also helps that the majority of readers like my stories which gives me the warm fuzzy feeling one gets when their mom puts their drawing on the fridge. (I’m clearly an approval junkie. Time to call the psych ward.)

As I read this book, I found myself trying to compare it to other books and I felt like maybe I don’t read enough contemporary M/M because it had story problems that I can’t recall seeing in other books.
​
I think for some readers that will be enjoyable because it’s rare to find something in books that hasn’t been overdone. Others might not like it because for some the enjoyment is reading the same story told in different ways. While others might not mind difference, but might take issue with exactly what the difference is.

As a writer, I spend a fair bit of my time taking books apart. One side effect of this is I almost always know what to expect from a book. By the time I can state the main conflict I can usually say how the book will resolve itself. But with Road of No Return, even in its last pages, I couldn’t predict the ending.

​I read a later book by these authors first and while I enjoyed it thoroughly, I had no problem predicting how the book would end even halfway through. So I think it’s specific to this book.