For the life of me, I will never understand taking a process and turning it into an identity. Yes, I plot before I write. But I also put the toilet paper on the roll hanging over and not under. I don't go around identifying myself as an Over the Topper.

I guess the reason it never quite made sense to me is because I don't believe it's significant. Each writer has their own methods but most of them aren't that unique and while they make a difference for the writer that chooses them, they probably wouldn't help writing as a whole if we all adapted the same methods. I mean unless you're writing with a bag of chicken bones hanging from your neck, your process probably isn't that special. Though if you are writing with a bag of chicken bones around your neck, feel free to declare yourself a proud and out Chicken Boner. I won't judge.

However, I do judge people that announce they are a Pantser or a Plotter in a way that implies we're receiving any significant information from that label at all. Guess what everyone! I tend to favor my left when I sleep at night. I'm a Left Sider.

The funniest part is most people fall somewhere in the middle. They plan a little, they wing it a little. So it's not even a true dichotomy. As writers we don't really need to draw lines over silly stuff like our process. Don't we have enough knock down drag outs over adverbs and passive voice?

In a kingdom faced with civil war, an idealistic prince must abandon the foreign princess he desires for an arranged marriage to an influential knight. Together, the prince and knight travel north to deal with an army marching on the kingdom’s borders, only to discover the biggest threat to the crown is the princess they left behind.

Prince Elliot had everything—wealth, power, the love of a beautiful woman. It wasn’t enough. More than anything he wanted to prove himself worthy of his crown. When negotiations for his sister's arranged marriage to Sir Blaine fell apart, he was asked to take her place and marry the knight.

Sir Blaine was adored throughout the kingdom for his strategic mind and feats of bravery. He was rewarded with the greatest gift a king could offer a knight—the princess’s hand in marriage.

But Blaine found the brazen Prince Elliot far more enticing.

Amazon

When pampered rich guy falls for his best friend, he's willing to do just about anything to prove his love.


Excerpt
“You’re not really in love with me. You’re just on the rebound.”
While Evan had been working up the nerve to confess his feelings to his best friend, he’d imagined a million different scenarios. He pictured Carlos falling into his arms, with an epic soundtrack playing in the background. He even considered Carlos throwing a drink in his face, storming out the front door and never returning. But never had he thought Carlos might not believe him. That he might treat him as if he was a confused child, and not an adult capable of understanding his own feelings.

Of all the arrogant, condescending…Evan took a deep, cleansing breath. Declarations of love shouldn’t end in punches to the face.

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Hi, I’m Mark, the leading man in Kayci’s upcoming story Frat House Rulez. Having that privileged position, I can tell you with all certainty, if it ever happens to you—run. Don’t look back. Don’t ask questions. Just run.

All I ever wanted was to go to college, but money wasn’t just tight, it was non-existent. So when Lambda Alpha Upsilon offered to cover all my expenses, I thought life was finally giving me a break. All I had to do was make it through pledge initiation.

What’s a little hazing, right?

Wrong. These guys put the P in Pervert, and now I’m at their mercy if I want to stay in school.

First, there is the frat president. He likes to go by Big Brother Pounder. Built like a truck. When he’s out of earshot, I say his name refers to his ape-like qualities. But only when he’s out of earshot. After all, as the frat president, he holds my future in his meaty paws, among other things.

Then there is Big Brother Psycho, a man determined to live up to his name. Quiet, reserved, but behind those horned rimmed glasses lies pure darkness, with a sprinkle of madness. I tremble at the thought of what he might have planned for me next.

And finally, there is Big Brother Don Juan. He’s the worst out of all of them. He tries to make it seem like he’s on your side, that he regrets everything that’s happening. The moment your guard is down? That’s when he strikes.

I’ll tell you all about them and all the shameful, dirty details of what happens to me in Frat House Rulez, coming out in late March. To get notified when it comes out along with any other new releases or promotional discounts sign up here.

The more I write, the more I learn about the business of selling books. I think what I enjoy most about self-publishing is experimenting. Figuring out what works and what doesn't. It's like piecing together a big puzzle. One of the things I attempted was to publish under a male pen name. I did this with the two books below and they took off. Record sales. Both books ended up in the top ten of Amazon's best sellers list for their genre.

I can't be sure if it was the name or the timing or some other factor. But I was worried what if the stories were just that good, then my real pen name would suffer from using the faux one. So I switched them over to this name and sales plummeted within days of the name change.

Like I said, nothing conclusive one way or the other because of other untested factors but I might try this experiment again in the future.  I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Justin Smith was small for his age and constantly bullied. But as difficult as life was, he was surviving it. Then one day a new guy comes to his school and flips his world upside down.

Francis Scott is trying to start over. New school. New house. New life. But when he sees a student being bullied, his past comes back to haunt him and for once, he gets to do what's right.


Amazon | Smashwords | All Romance

When a gay rights activist is assigned to the same dorm room as a devout Christian, he prepares for a year of hell, but much to his surprise, him and his new roommate have more in common than either of them could have imagined.


Amazon | Smashwords | All Romance

Conflict in stories seems to be different from what we think about when we consider conflict in real life. In real life we think of fights or wars or other inherently dramatic things.

But the string of a red balloon two inches out of reach is conflict.

Are you wondering why your reader would give a crap about a red balloon? Things matter to the reader because they matter to the character.

For example: Mike just discovered he has a four year old daughter. They go to the park on their first trip alone together. His little girl sees someone selling balloons and asks for the last red one.

He agrees to buy it and her face lights up. As he's handing it to her, it slips from his fingers and floats away. She starts to cry.

That's not just a balloon. That balloon represents the first promise he ever made to his daughter. That balloon represents his ability to protect and provide. That balloon is the difference between his daughter's first day with him being a dream or a nightmare. That is the most important balloon ever.

He offers to buy her another balloon, or several balloons. But she doesn't want a blue one or a green one, red is her favorite color. She wants a red one and that was the last one. So he takes her to a party store.

He buys her a BAG of red balloons. He blows one up and hands it to her. She thanks him but he can tell she's still disappointed. She's sad because this balloon doesn't float like the other one did. So he goes back in, spends another 50 bucks on a portable helium pump. Now she has a floating red balloon on a string. A hat made of hastily tied red balloons. And she is gleeful.

He now has fifty bucks worth of helium, which he's inhaling to make himself talk like a smurf, much to his daughter's amusement. He goes from a idiot who can't hold a string, to a magical figure that can do anything. That can make anything happen for her. He's the hero of red balloons.

Show of hands, who still thinks red balloons aren't worth writing about?