Turning a New Leaf: March in Review

March Posts

1. Physical Health/Mental Health: February in Review
2. Literary Romances and Reaching for the Stars: What I Read When I had the Flu
3. Red and Black is On Sale This Week!
4. Red and Black: Version Zero
5. My Indie Author Morning Routine
6. Quarterly Goals: Spring 2019
7. I’ll be Participating in the #8inTwo Readathon this weekend!

Speculative Chic Posts

1. Sound Off! Captain Marvel
2. Five Years Later: The Daevabad Trilogy Reaches New Heights with The Kingdom of Copper

As we approach the end of March, I can say one thing for sure. Thank God winter is almost over! Yes, my lawn is still mostly covered in snow, but temperatures have peaked above freezing pretty much every day over the past couple of weeks. The white stuff shouldn’t be around for much longer.

And let me tell you, I am all here for that. I’ve gotten into a bit of a rut this winter, which isn’t that unusual for people that live around here (that and a vitamin D deficiency). The combination of dark days, cold weather, and regularly scheduled snow fall isn’t all that bad in December. But the further you get into it, the tougher it gets. The fact that I got sick more than usual this winter didn’t really help. In retrospect, my rut was probably even obvious from my January and February Month in Review Posts. And that’s despite the fact that I always try and keep things positive when I’m blogging. But while March, in it’s classic lion-to-lamb-fashion wasn’t completely rut free, it felt like things started to make a change for the better.

First off, let’s check in with Black and Blue. As of right now, the second book in the Red and Black series is currently in the hands my my copy editor, meaning that I am anxious AF. But also excited at the same time. By the time this post goes up, I will have those edits back, bringing my second novel a step closer to publication.

But clearly, I didn’t just sit around and twiddle my thumbs all month. I actually spent the first half finishing up my second round of revisions for the third book in the Red and Black series. And let me tell you, by the end of it all, I was really sick of looking at that book, as often happens as this point in the writing process. So it’s probably a good thing that I’ll be getting some distance from it, as I just sent the revised draft to my beta readers.

The beta reading process for Black and Blue took about six months, and I foresee the same going for Red and Black 3. Fortunately, I’ve been more on the ball about getting my revisions done this time around so, with hope, there won’t be quite as long of a gap between the second and third book in the series as there will be between the first and second.

About halfway through the month I had my third kindle countdown sale for Red and Black, and I’m kind of on the fence about the results. With Red and Black finally surpassing ten reviews, I decided that it was time up the amount of money I spent on advertising. This was mainly through book promo sites like The Fussy Librarian and Book Barbarian (the later which is probably my favorite of these promotion services). As a result of these ads, I did end up selling more books than my previous sales by a wide margin, but I also ended up losing more money due to the money spent on the ads. As a result, I’m not sure if I will be doing another sale. So far, they’re the most reliable way to move books, but are they worth the money that I’m investing in them?

We’ll see.

During the later half of the month, I turned my attention to prepping for Camp NaNowriMo. As mentioned in my Quarterly Goals post, I will be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo, the more relaxed cousin to November’s NaNoWriMo. Camp NaNoWriMo allows you to set your own writing or revisions based goals, rather than give everyone a blanket goal of reaching 50,000 words. Because of this flexibility, I will be working on a piece of short fiction connected to Red and Black. I hope to offer it as a free reader magnet to anyone that signs up for my mailing list.

And let me tell you, preparing for this piece has actually been a lot of fun. Yes, I love writing from the perspective of Alex and Dawn, but there is more to the Red and Black universe then their story and Bailey City. That, and there’s just something so exciting on embarking on a new project, on creating something new, which I haven’t done since NaNoWrIMo.

Which brings us to the end of March, which I am kind of glad to see the back of. Let’s hope that with the coming of April/spring, things continue to move in a more positive direction. That is if the movie/television world doesn’t completely crush my heart with Avengers: End Game and the final season of Game of Thrones .