My Thanks

 Happy Thanksgiving!

A lot of people rebel against Thanksgiving.  I like to think of Thanksgiving as a time to give thanks and show gratitude for all that I've been given and experienced this year.  

For example, even though Covid has been a major pain in all our lives this year, I have been able to finally realize two dreams.  The first, I published my first story earlier this year.  With the release of Into the Den, I've now published three.  The second, I finally started that vegetable garden.  Had a lot of failures and disappointments but I've had some successes as well.  

I am so thankful for all those who have supported me and pushed me to do this.  I am thankful to the haters and the critics.  I am thankful for the readers and writers who have shared their thoughts, insights, and knowledge with me.  I am thankful just to be here and be able to share my stories with people out there.  

Happy Thanksgiving and happy reading!

New Book!

                           Book Release

Book two of the four part AniMates series called Into the Den will be available for pre-order in just a few short days.  I've put in a lot of hard work refining and tuning not only the cover style, but also the way the story is formatted on the inside.  I can't wait for you to read it.  It will be available in ebook and print book forms.

This is the continuation of Ursi's story from book one of the series called Apex which was released in September.

You can click on the book to go to the Amazon page to purchase Apex in ebook or print format.  The link for Into the Den will be posted the minute it goes live.

Thanks to everyone for their continued support and happy reading!

Where I Stand

There is nothing more to say.  You either get it or you don't.

Be safe and happy reading!

My Writing Tools

As an author I'm often asked the same question:  How do I write my stories?

This post contains affiliate links.  You are under no obligation to purchase.  If you do purchase anything, I get a few pennies.  

Writing the Manuscript

Many authors use fancy computers or programs that do everything but come up with the story.  I don't.

I use a Lenovo Ideapad laptop and Office 365 only because that's what came installed.  Before this laptop I had a Dell that was more than five years old and had Microsoft Word 10 or something like that.  I was totally content. 

Then it died.

Printing the Manuscript

To print my manuscripts, I use the Canon Pixma MG3220.  It's a good little scanner and printer.  I might swap it out one day for a top loading one that can handle more pages with less time.

Sometimes to get inspiration on what my characters should look like, I'll go to Google search or Pinterest.  There is so much to look at, you can find yourself losing whole chunks of time just surfing the net.

Notetaking

There are times I'm not with my laptop and inspiration strikes.  If my phone is on me, I'll use Samsung Notes.  It's just like a memo.  You can type what you want then save it for later retrieval.  You can also use the speech function to orally dictate what you want then save.

More often than not I will have notebooks, or notepads filled with scenes or notes for my story.  I used to have dozens of pieces of paper all over the place.  As you can imagine, they got lost or ruined.  This prompted me to create a notebook just for stories.  It contains everything I need for a story with space for notes.  You can find it on  Amazon.  You are in no way obligated to purchase (and that's not what this post is about anyway.)  This book, though, has made a difference in helping me keep my characters straight especially since I tend to write multiple stories at the same time.

Other Tools

Pens - Any pen.  As long as it is a fine point like the Pentel RSVP.

Correction Pens - Red Bic. I used to correct papers with red pen before they proclaimed it to be bad.

Pencils - to draw maps and such.  Pro Art or Daler-Rowney Simply sketching pencils, Ticonderoga, or .5mm Silver Zebra mechanical pencil or .7mm Sakura mechanical pencil.

Paper - Graph and college rule for notes and regular printer paper to print manuscript.

I've found my print books to be limited.  For vocabulary help I use powerthesaurus.org.  They have an amazing database with synonyms and antonyms.  It also offers some colorful phrases for some words as well.

Hope that answers any questions.  Have I left any out?  What are some tools you use in your writing?  Leave a comment below.  

Happy writing!   

Romance Vs Erotica Vs Smut

It's that time of year again.  The stores are packed to the gills with red and pink.  Chocolatiers and candy stores are upping their visibility game standing about with free samples.  The lingerie ads are pumping out more erotic lingerie than one can possibly wear.  Wine and champagne are on sale.

Valentines.  

As a writer of bdsm and lgtbq stories that do have sprinklings of romance and erotica, I don't detest the holiday.  I just feel that where love and passion exist, a holiday like this is redundant because such things occur more frequently and are more genuine.  There isn't need to put on an elaborate show of "love" and "romance."

I was on facebook and one of the writers was struggling with classifying their story.  Their story had romance and erotica and didn't fit either category.  That's because many stories don't fit one category and are a blend.  They were trying so hard to make it fit one category on the other and worked themselves into a frenzy and couldn't move beyond that one point.

This is a major barrier for so many writers.  I thought I'd take a moment to make a few distinctions below and use movie ratings and peppers to illustrate their spice level.

Photo by Holdosi on Pixabay

Romance

Romance stories are where one or more people meet and fall in love.  The story's focus is on the development of the relationship.  Plot happens but only so much in how it develops their love for each other.  There may or may not be a few sex scenes but they are mild and the language ranges from PG to R rating.  (I say that but I wouldn't want anyone under 16 reading spicier romance stories.)  The spicy factor is from Pepperoncini to Jalepeno.

Romantica

Whuuuut?

I rarely see romantica discussed.  It's either romance or erotica.  Romantica is a nice little blend of both.  There is a development of the love interests but the sex scenes and language are more graphic and is definitely NC-17.  There is a plot, but again, it serves to put them in situations that develop their relationship further.  On the pepper scale Thai Chili.

Erotica

Sex, sex, and more sex.  They may or may not have a relationship but sex is a heavy part of the story.  There is a plot in there... somewhere.  If you squint you'll see it.  However, the plot doesn't necessarily have to do with furthering their relationship.  They could just thrown into the mix and happen to have sparks fly.  NC-17 to X rating.  On the pepper scale Scotch Bonnet.

Smut/Porn

Do I even need to explain?  These stories are no holds barred, explicit, graphic, dirty sex.  Might be a relationship.  Might be strangers hooking up.  No storyline beyond the first meet then it's just sex.  The vocabulary would make most of us blush.  These are stories you have to go to the adult store to find as they are rated X.  On the pepper scale it's hotter than pepper spray.  


Now that I read this, I think I need to revise what I categorize my stories as.  I'm just going to go with 'plot with porn.'  That's simple enough.  Check out my story "He Chose Me."  Tell me what you think.

If you would like to read more on the subject, check out the links below

Erotica Readers - Erotica vs Porn: Is it the same thing?    

Hazel Mills - Erotica vs Porn: What is the difference?

Did I leave anything out?  What are your thoughts?  Leave me a comment.

Thanks for reading!

Getting Organized

So the first thing everyone does at the start of the new year is what?

They start cleaning and organizing.  Out with the old, in with the new.  They scour YouTube, Pinterest, the internet for ideas on how to organize all their stuff.

Me too.

I don't just write.  My hobbies are varied.  I draw, I sew, I have scrap books, and I make jewelry.  My office/craft room was more than a hot mess before the new year.  I was too ashamed to show the mess it had become but let me just say, it was pretty bad.  I had lost more than a few character sheets between fabric or scrapbook paper.  I plan to overhaul the ENTIRE space by April.

Why not now?

Like everyone else, I'm busy.  No, seriously.  I am busier than ever.  I'm writing four mini-novels, editing three full novels for publication, and I have a full time job on top of being a single mom.  It can wait.  In the meantime, I took all my writing stuff and a rolling cart and created a portable writing office.

Now when I sit down to write, everything is right there.  No more lost writing time searching for character sheets, miscellaneous notes written on napkins, or dictionaries to check my spelling.

How do you organize your writing space?

Thanks for reading!    

Welcome!

Welcome to my author page and blog.  I'm so glad that you've taken the time to learn a bit about me and my writing process.  This blog is mostly about my writing process, writer life, and tips and tricks for aspiring authors.  I'll also post book releases and updates as they occur.

Please subscribe, comment, vote, and share posts that you find informational and that resonate with you.

Happy reading!

KD