Tale of two Cities: Who will be the most supportive city?

To celebrate the kickoff for my free days this month (May 20-21; 24; 27-28) and to celebrate my book being out for two months I am running a fun little competition to see which city offers me the most support as an author; Austin or Detroit.

Detroit
I am a proud born and raised Detroiter. I grew up on the city's Eastside and stayed there for the first 22 years of my life. Seasons was conceived of in Detroit in 1997. I had a little bit of a fan following for me to complete the novel then, but that wasn't in the cards for me at the time. I have a few nods to my hometown in Seasons. I mention a coffee shop in Harper Woods by where my parents live now. I also have my main character Alex visit Detroit on business. Alex is also a HUGE Detroit Tigers fan, as am I.

Detroit fans and followers show your support by sharing, liking, following my posts and by clicking on this link to download Seasons for FREE. Detroit Fan

Austin
My husband and I moved to Austin 11 years ago for work. I have discovered a very supportive and encouraging community in Austin.This year, with the support of my close knit group of friends, I completed, Seasons at last!  I have an amazing team of people that helped to make this dream possible. I don't have any Austin nods in Seasons, but my character, Katherine, does make a trip to Aransas Pass, TX and another moves to San Antonio, TX.

Austin fans and followers show your support by sharing, liking, following my post and by clicking on this link to download Seasons for FREE. Austin Fan. 

May the best city win!

Character driven storytelling versus the outline

Dear progeny of my mind,

Yes, I hear what you are saying and yes your thoughts and opinions are important to me.
Love always,
Your Creator


There are days when the characters in my head are so loud that it is deafening. For my second novel I tried to work up an outline instead of pantsing it like I did with the first book of my series. While I have managed to stick with the main idea of my outline, one of my characters, Sally had other ideas. She was very clear that she was not thrilled with the outline and set out to make some major changes. I love Sally, she is a strong and vocal character. She was supposed to be dead body #1 and now is the driving force for the series.

I have a hard time keeping up with these characters but the ride has been amazing. I am not looking forward to the day when I will have to say goodbye to them. As hard as I tried to stick to an outline I think I have learned that I should just get a little better at reigning in the characters to slow them down. When I let them have full control I end up having to step back and clean up the mess, which I am attempting to do now.

To celebrate Seasons' two monthaversary I will be holding FREE sales through out the month. So please mark your calendars for these dates: Seasons is free May 20-21; 24; and 27-28th.

You Can't Beat Free

For the last couple of days I have been scouring promotional websites to list my novel, Seasons', free days for the month (May 20,21,24,27, and 28). I found a couple of really great sites that list really comprehensive promotion sites. Indies Unlimited is the best list that I have found thus far. If you are an author looking to promote a book you should definitely check it out.

I will let you know how the free days turn out. Wish me luck!

KM Hodge author of the Syndicate Suspense Series.

 Book #1 Seasons is available for free on Kindle Unlimited. 

Ready, set, go: The race to complete my novel before summer

I only have three more Monday and four Wednesday work days before summer lets out and I have both my kids at home with me full time. Any of you out there, who have children, know that it is near impossible to get anything done when your kids are home. Add to that the challenges associated with having a special needs child who requires strict supervision and a schedule that doesn't give room for meltdowns.

When I set out this year on my quest to make being an author work I knew it would be challenging but I was up for a new challenge. I wanted something for myself. Something that I have always wanted to do, write. So I wrote and published my first novel this March. It was challenging and I learned a LOT. I've poured over trade articles and books and met with and interviewed several successful Indy authors.

With this knowledge in hand I set out to make my book into book #1 of a series. I worked up a schedule that all the experts said was necessary to get and keep readers interested. This schedule included having my second novel in the series ready to be published by September.

It had all seemed doable at the time. I didn't take into account the time necessary to market the first book or the time I would have to inevitably take off to care for sick children. Now here I am with only four weeks left of the school year and still have approximately 29,000 more words to go. Can I do it? I don't know. I'll keep you updated on the process and any pitfalls that I might encounter.

I will tell you this: I love the characters, their interactions, and especially love the ending. I hope you readers out there will love it all too. I have enjoyed my time with my characters, maybe more this time than the first.

KM Hodge author of the Syndicate Suspense Series.

 Book #1 Seasons is available for free on Kindle Unlimited. 

On a mission to search and destroy: Deleting the sticky

I have hit the half way mark in my sequel and have stopped to take an edit break. I am hoping that this mid-book editing will make the major editing season at the end not be so overwhelming.

First step of editing process: DESTROY words that make a sentence sticky!

What words make a sentence sticky? Overuse of common glue words like that, it, just, and went. It is also the overuse of adverbs like very and really. Glue words generally link nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives.

For a list of the most common and overused words in the English language check out this awesome wiki article that list them all out. 

Example of one of my sentences that contains an unnecessary word: "JUST"

Unedited: "I’m doing just fine on my own," he said

Edited: "I'm doing fine on my own," he said.

How do you know if the glue word needs to be removed? Remove it and read it out loud. Does it sound better? Less wordy? For me this holds true for my overuse of "Just " and "That." Half the time the usage of those words adds nothing but length to the sentence.

Second step of editing process: Destroy the -ly adverbs!
This is hard for me since I "REALLY" love adverbs. According to Stephen King, "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." His argument is that the writer needs to trust the reader to understand the context of the situation without clogging up the sentences with adverbs.

Question of the day: What are your thoughts? How do you edit? Do you edit at the half way point or do you wait until the end?

Two cents needed: Reworked Book Blurb

I've been working today on my book, Seasons, blurb. 

This is the old blurb: 

Chain-smoking, sex addict Special Agent Alex Bailey is on the FBI fast track, but carnal cravings are overriding his career ambitions. Driven by his addiction he gets himself assigned to a new partner, Special Agent Katherine Mitchel, who is unaware of his sordid past or his true mission. Their lives become upended when she uncovers evidence against The Syndicate, a powerful group that controls the police, Congress, and even the FBI. They find themselves with their lives on the line, with no one to trust but each other. In what becomes the most dangerous investigation of their careers, things quickly become something more... something personal.

This is the new blurb:

Chain-smoking, recovering sex addict Special Agent Alex Bailey, a hot shot at the FBI, is trying to put his sordid and traumatic past behind him. In order to redeem himself he gets assigned to a new partner, Special Agent Katherine Mitchel, who is unaware of his true mission. On the eve of their new partnership, Katherine uncovers damning evidence against The Syndicate crime ring. The group, which controls the police, Congress, and even the FBI, will do anything to stop Katherine from bringing that evidence to light. Katherine soon finds herself with her life on the line and no one to trust but her new partner, Alex. In what becomes the most dangerous investigation of their careers, things quickly become something more... something personal.