Last of the Free Books

Click the book cover for the Amazon link.

Free Books

Today's selection of books brings my to book three, For Whom the Bell Trolls:

And A Maze of Monster Mix-Ups is still free. It is a good companion title to TROLL. . . be sure to read it first.

Happy reading!

Time to Write

A couple of weeks ago, my daughter came to me and told me that she needs to know what happened next in my Goblin's Apprentice stories. At the time, I knew I had a lot of other stuff on my plate and I wouldn't get to it anytime soon.

So I told her that I would try to have it finished by the end of the year.

I have only two months.

Eeeeeekkkk!

Actually, I've been marking items off my to-do list quite nicely and I should be ready to start the process (again) tomorrow. Tuesday is errand day. So I'll be tweaking my candy fillings (Cranberry, Pomegranate, Cherries Jubilee, and making a new batch of Limoncello) in-between my jaunts into the world.

Though it's been a year since I've written TROLL, and almost a year since I started writing DRAGON, the characters still live in my head. It's just that the plot and story are evasive.

Thank goodness I managed to write a brief synopsis!

How many times have you heard a writer say those words?

Never.

Who knows, maybe I'll be ready to tackle NaNo this year, not officially of course since I have some of the story already written, but in the daily challenge of writing.

Anyone want to join me? Writing is such a lonely business that having someone challenging you is part of the fun!

Later, Peeps!

FREEBIES!

Too Late! Sorry!
FREEBIES!!

 

 

In celebration of my birth month -- and my inability to write a blog this month -- I'm offering my e-books for free!

 

If you've wanted to read them, but didn't have the money, now is the chance to download them.
 

Or if you live in another country and want to practice reading English, now is your chance to download them.
 

Or if you have a friend who wants to read them, but his/her mom won't let them spend the money, now is your chance to spread the word for the free download.

FEEL FREE TO SHARE THIS BLOG LINK AND THE INFORMATION WITH ANYONE AND EVERYONE!

 

FREE In chronological order:

 

To Gnome Me Is To Love Me -- August 5-7
 

The Fast and the FAERIEous -- August 8-10
 

A Maze of Monster Mix-Ups -- August 11-13
 

 For Whom the Bell Trolls-- August 14-16

Sugar Plum Disaster-- August 17-19 

Lost Leprechaun Loot  -- August 20-22

 

And if for some reason, you missed the free download time, I'm offering

ALL of my books for free on August 23-24!!

They are all here on my Amazon author page, M. A. Golla
 

Hints & Suggestions:

• The linked books above are for the US Amazon store. If you want the Amazon store in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, India, Canada, or Brazil, then click these links and it will take you to my Amazon author page for each country.
• Choose the free book and download to your Kindle or computer/phone with free Kindle app.
• Verify the free book prior to downloading! Amazon runs on Greenwich Mean Time . . . and I haven't a clue as to what that entails for other parts of the world! 
• Did you know that Amazon charges the author for every book returned? So please, make sure the book is free before you download it. I don't want to have to pay Amazon . . .

Enjoy my stories!

As always. feel free to post a review, good or not so good, on Amazon.

Thanks!

Later, Peeps!

 

 



Getting My Mojo Back

After I published TROLL last summer, I lost my mojo for writing. Totally. I stopped writing. Period. Shoot, I didn't even read much.

Oh, I might have dabbled here and there with writing, written a few pages, or just jotted ideas down, but I wasn't WRITING.

Yes, there's a difference.

My writing thoughts were scattered. Heck, they're still scattered, especially if you look at my 2013 WiPs (Works in Progress) page, but I am writing.

I didn't know what story to start writing on, until one of my 15-year old fans asked me when the next book was coming out. I responded, "Guess I'd better start writing it then."

So, I started writing DRAGON, book four of the Goblin's Apprentice series. The beginning of this story will be very emotionally draining for me as a writer, but I think I'm ready to write it. When it's finished, you'll see why.

So many writers give advice to tell you to 'write through the block', 'write every day', and 'writer's write'.

But writer's also think a lot. We tend to daydream as we plot our stories. I think about scenes when I walk. One hour of solitude, just me and my thoughts. Writers will work out the logistics of a scene prior to sitting down to write it.

And the biggie for me, I NEED to be emotionally ready to write a particularly difficult scene(s).

I also have the advantage of NOT having a contractual deadline, as I think this helped me to sort my thoughts on this particular story without the added pressure.

Writing has made me happy again. I just needed a little break.

Later, Peeps!

Happy Birthday to ME . . . and YOU!

FREEBIE EXTRAVAGANZA!

Here's the link to my Amazon profile. For some reason, FOR WHOM THE BELL TROLLS doesn't show up. You will have to type in the title. sorry.

 

My birthday is August 29th, and I'll be turning the ripe old age of 51.

I told you I would be honest on this blog. And no, I don't have any problem blabbing about how old I am. Besides, I dye my hair and I certainly don't ACT old.

The only giveaway is my skin. Yep, I have old lady skin, saggy, baggy and thinning.

And wrinkles. Lots and lots of wrinkles around my eyes, most of the time successfully hidden with Ironman wrap around sunglasses. I don't do the make-up thing. It's not that I can't do it, I simply don't. I'm lazy that way. But I can clean up nicely if needed.

Anyhoo, when I decided to self-publish The Goblin's Apprentice stories, I just wanted to get these stories into the hands of kids who wanted/needed to escape the realities of their lives. If I made a buck on it, then BONUS!

Well, I'm not making money on these stories. Shoot, I think I sold only a handful of them each month--literally. When you tally the amount earned against the amount I paid on cover art, the result is still negative. Giving them away hasn't resulted in much bigger numbers.

I stink at publicity. The freebies I gave away haven't been shared with others. No one is really bothering to give me reviews on the books, good or bad. Overall, the response to The Goblin's Apprentice has been "meh".

So as my final hurrah, I am giving away ALL SIX OF THE BOOKS from August 28-30. 

Three days of freebies for six stories.

Why?

Because of Greenwich Mean Time. I mean, really?

Trying to calculate when books will be free and off free around my birthday just made my head hurt. So I decided to take three days to do it.

All of these books should be available on Amazon's various incarnations: US, UK, DE, FR, IT and ES. I will link these books to the US Amazon store, but if you live in one of these other countries you might need to dig around a little for them.

The sequence of the books is:
TO GNOME ME IS TO LOVE ME, Book 1
THE FAST AND THE FAERIEOUS, Book 2
A MAZE OF MONSTER MIX-UPS, Halloween short story
FOR WHOM THE BELL TROLLS, Book 3
SUGAR PLUM DISASTER, Christmas short story
LOST LEPRECHAUN LOOT, St. Patrick's day short story

And the events of LEPRECHAUN will lead into the beginning events of book 4, tentatively titled DRAGON DAYS OF SUMMER.

Enjoy my birthday, Peeps! Because I'll be at the kidlet's back-to-school night. Rah!

 

For Whom the Bell Trolls is LIVE!

***for my blog readers only***

TROLL will beFREE on July 24 for one day only!!

When I finally set a release day for TROLL, I knew I had to kick it into high gear to edit the darn thing. I might have written this story in 19 days, but it took almost 26 months until I was truly finished with it!

And I have to say that it was worth it. Out of all the stories, I've written this is the best one . . . yet.

I stayed up late last night doing one last read-thru before I uploaded it. I think I cut over 200 'that' words, added 76 missing words, and tweaked numerous confusing sentences.

With luck, I managed to fix most of the piddly little typos. I spent hours formatting this story, bookmarking and hyperlinking the chapters, blah, blah, blah, and I thought it would take 24-48 hours to be approved or it would bounce back to me because of some mistake.

Well, I was wrong. It took less than 6 hours for Amazon to wave their magic wand.

Here's TROLL's Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008NZTA0A

If you are unsure about whether or not you want to buy the story, then click the picture on the Amazon page and read the first few chapters before you decide.

While you're on the page feel free to click the LIKE button or scroll down and add any 'tags' that you feel will help describe the book.

Oh, and FAERIE is still free today! Enjoy!

Thanks so much!

FREE Friday!

This week has been totally crazy!

I've been working uber hard to get TROLL edited, formatted and ready to publish by July 24.

In celebration of this event--because we both know how long it took me to get my rear-in-gear to get to this point!--

TO GNOME ME IS TO LOVE ME will be a free Amazon download Friday and Saturday, July 20-21.

 THE FAST AND THE FAERIEOUS will be a free Amazon download Sunday and Monday, July 22-23! 

I'm also featured on two blogs today:

Long and Short reviews has a post about Recycling--old manuscripts that is.

A Storybook World has an author interview, but as of this posting it isn't 'live' yet! I'll keep checking back.

On a whim, I filled out a job application to be a Weight Watcher leader, completed a survey, a phone interview, an in-person interview and was offered a job!

Feel free to share the FREEBIE links and share the love!

The Chapter that would NOT end . . .

IS NOW FINISHED!

I still have the second half of the book to deal with, but chapter 7, Double, Double, Toil and Trouble, was a doozie! It's around twenty typewritten pages which makes it almost double most of my regular chapters. This chapter included using ideas from my original draft of TROLL, written TWO years ago, but updated and merged with the new beginning of the story.

I'm slow when working this way. I'm so doing just plain old edits because I'm rearranging, rewriting and reading it aloud. So many other writers that I know finish editing their stories in two days, it takes me at least two weeks--AND my middle grade stories are half the length!

Anyway, I'll find out how much editing I'll have to do when I get it back from my CP.  But I think it will have to stay like it is with minimal cutting. Be gentle, my Meggie!

This next chapter will also include melding of old and new words, but I don't think it will be as intense. . . I hope.

Part of the problem is that when I wrote the first draft of TROLL, I had just finished writing FAERIE, but all I had was a logline.

That isn't bad, per se, but I think the fast writing lost my character's voice. AND to top it off, I didn't get around to even looking at it for almost two years. The biggest reason for that was my decision to self-publish my middle grade stories, and I had to get them edited, formated, find a cover artist, etc.

But I'm back!

Today, I'm working on Chapter 8: Just one little bite . . .

Later, Peeps!

TROLL Cover!

After my imprudent blog about the continual missed deadlines of TROLL, my cover artist worked on it.

I'm sorry, Laura. And thank you for another beautiful cover.

Here is the final version:

If it would have been possible I would have loved to make this a hologram image, with the other image as that of a 'real' troll. Tilt the book and it changes.

Later, Peeps!

TROLL Cover! . . . Delayed AGAIN!!

I've lost track of how many times my cover artist has flaked out on me. Fifth? Tenth? She has consistently missed deadlines for this book since August 2011. Yesterday was supposed to be a "firm" deadline.

Yeah, right.

I love the work she's done for me, but honestly, I'm tired of this. As of May, she's quiting the cover art biz. She's over-obligated herself for a variety of projects and she just can't fit anything else on her plate.

Not surprising. But all I want is this one last cover from her.

Up until two weeks ago, I seriously wasn't happy with the cover. It was weird-looking with the character's face all lopsided. I found a picture that I LOVED and emailed it to her to give her something to go on.

A couple days later she sends me a rough draft of the new character--LOVE IT.

Details are still needed. Layering is still needed. But she finally got the basic picture that I want.

And then she injures her thumb and can't work on it.

Really? Are you serious?

Am I mad? Heck, yeah! I want this over and freakin' done with. I'm tired of it.

And you know something scary? I'm thinking about book four in the Goblin's Apprentice series. No title yet, but I know it will have a dragon in it.

I can already envision the cover art . . . now all I need to do is to find a new cover artist and write the book.

New Beginning

Okay, so I rewrote the first two chapters of FOR WHOM THE BELL TROLLS, 6000 words so far. This next week, I'll rework chapter three, blending it into the remainder of the story, which just needs basic editing, not rewriting.

I had posted a short blurb of TROLL in the back of THE FAST AND THE FAERIEOUS, but now it's different.

Do y'all think I need to put the new beginning in as a teaser? Or should I not worry about it?

I think the new beginning is better, BUT it doesn't have the immediate action from the teaser. I can still use the teaser in another section of the story, but I'm waffling.

Any input would be welcome! Writers or Readers, Please!

For Whom the Bell Trolls--release delayed

The release of Book three of The Goblin's Apprentice series, FOR WHOM THE BELL TROLLS is delayed. The edits are substantial enough that I might be rewriting it from scratch . . . at least this time around I know the story!

I refuse to release a book that is not ready, and this one isn't ready. My readers deserve more than a sub par story and I'd rather delay the release than put something out that doesn't equal the quality of the other stories in the series.

I will be working hard on it over the next two months and hope to have it available on November 1, 2011.

Later, Peeps!