Heart Trouble Redux

I was both elated and privileged to learn recently that my novel, Heart Trouble, would be featured in a newly released boxed set via Crimson Romance, Crazy for Cowboys.  The e-book boxed set is scheduled for release on September 8, 2014 via the Kindle Store, Barnes and Noble, and the iBookstore.  These types of boxed sets seem to be a hot trend in publishing—I even put one together for my Windswept Saga novels—and I look forward to seeing what kind of sales this one may achieve.

Kindle Store

Barnes and Noble Nook Store

iBooks

Taking Stock

It has been approximately two years since I published my first novel.  I’m too lazy to look for specific dates, but it was June 2012 when I was reading Windswept on my Kindle while I edited the rough draft of Kentucky Summer, which was published a month later.  In the following two years, I have published eight novels under my own name, another under a pen name, and two novellas under an additional pseudonym.  I also submitted Heart Trouble and had it published via Crimson Romance, which gave me the opportunity to have one of my works available through more than one sales channel; the paperback edition has also been added to the collection of at least one public library.  I am currently working on another novel that is taking much longer than my standard pace; at nearly three months and counting, I am still not sure when I will put this one to bed.  I have ideas for at least one further novel, but aside from that I am nearly tapped out in the ideas department.  So what have I learned from these many, many hours of hard work, multiple rejections, and many sleepless nights where the ideas wouldn’t be silenced?

1. Writing is never easy.  Even when it’s easy, it’s still not easy.  You’re always digging, searching, and forcing yourself to make everything the best it can be.  In the course of typing, you will put words where they shouldn’t be and in the process of editing will have to try to figure out what your intended message was.

2. Writing is not a quick trip to fame and fortune.  It has been my only income for the past two years, through no fault of my own—I’ve been in the job market for more than three years, and it has been almost as long since my last interview.  I have had decent months of income, but none of those occurred until I had published my sixth novel.  There have been other months where I made so little that I didn’t merit a payment at all.  My sales have really trickled down to nothing over the past several months, which doesn’t exactly provide a great incentive to continue with writing as a vocation.  If I ever built up a nest egg I would love to pay for professional covers if not professional editing for my novels.  Heart Trouble undoubtedly has my best cover.  If worse came to worse, I wouldn’t mind learning how to create my own covers via some type of graphics program. 

3. Writing does not necessarily lead to instant popularity.  Not everyone will care about your writing.  Some people will care about it only so long as it doesn’t cost them anything.  Ultimately you have to work to make sure your completed novel is something you enjoy, a piece of product that is the best it can be—and if not, spell check and edit the darn thing, massage it and streamline it until you can love it.  As conceited as this might sound, if you don’t love your own work, there’s very little point in putting it out into the world. 

Paperback Writer

At long last, Heart Trouble is available to order in paperback form.  To be honest, I cannot afford to buy a copy of my own novel, which should tell you something about the ups and downs of being a writer.  Heart Trouble was not one of my longer novels, and it is a quick read.  But it also marks the point where I changed my writing style and tried to branch out into some different territory.  I’m not sure when it will be available but it is up for ordering, and that is the important fact given my long wait time.  Then again, publishing tends to move at the speed of a glacier, and the only way to have a book available immediately is to print it yourself.

http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Trouble-Tommie-Conrad/dp/1440571457/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1395666617&sr=8-1&keywords=heart+trouble+tommie

Songs for Sale

I’m never quite sure how to frame a blog that’s little more than a sales pitch, but I wanted to put it out there for anyone who didn’t know, or hadn’t bought a copy, that Heart Trouble is available for 1.99 on Amazon for the entire month of February.  I’ve posted the links on Facebook and twitter several times, and I will now post it for anyone who might have missed it or is interested in the e-book.

http://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Crimson-Romance-Tommie-Conrad-ebook/dp/B00DV0XJ7M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392132948&sr=8-1&keywords=heart+trouble+Tommie

Cowboys Like Us

My love for the series “Castle” is well-known, and I’m not shy about promoting the show to other prospective viewers.  Over the years I have also seen Nathan Fillion in “Desperate Housewives,” “Pasadena,” and “Waitress”, so wasn’t it inevitable I’d eventually get around to watching “Firefly”?  Thanks to a friend who sent me the DVD set for my birthday, I was able to view it.  The foremost question, of course, was would I enjoy it?  I love “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” and “Lost in Space” and “The Twilight Zone”, and the fifteen or so episodes I was able to see of “The X-Files” were great, but I don’t, as a rule, seek out science fiction.  Call me a lazy viewer: sometimes I just can’t commit to something with that much mythology.  My impression after viewing “Firefly” is that you either get it or you don’t—thankfully, I got it.  I was fascinated by the idea of a space western:  cows and horses and taverns and spaceships and futuristic weapons.  Fillion’s Captain Malcolm Reynolds was a layered character who didn’t take crap from anyone, and the show was imbued with a lot of heart, humor, and even pathos.  There were plenty of unexpected twists and turns, and I find myself wondering, with every short-lived show, how a second season might have looked. I still need to see the follow-up movie, “Serenity.”

Back to my point about “getting it”.  It reminds me of a show that I loved as a kid, “Eerie, Indiana”, in which the lead character and his best friend seemed to exist in an alternate universe in which they were the only keen observers.  So much of life is subjective, including television shows, because we reflect our own set of feelings onto the characters and their plights.  If I didn’t already have a fascination with westerns and the cowboy lifestyle, or an appreciation of Nathan Fillion, my enjoyment of “Firefly” may have been much less.  Thanks for the laughs, Serenity gang—I needed them.

Yes, I know this capture is from "Desperate Housewives".  It's what was in my DVD player at the time.

 

Ace in the Hole

In the course of editing, revising, and prepping Heart Trouble for publication, I completed two additional novels.  I’m either an overachiever or a masochist, but any regular follower of mine knows that I have a lot of spare time on my hands.  My latest novel, at 70,000 words, is the longest thing I’ve written since I completed TheArt of Love.  Now the fun begins, sarcasm included at no additional cost.  Editing is always a fascinating process—some passages you read over and think, “That’s pretty good—I wrote that!” while other times you review a paragraph and scornfully question, “Was I lucid when I typed that?”  Typos are a fact of life, but I always find myself worried about the inevitable continuity errors.  I’ve been lucky in that regard, considering I write on-the-fly with the outline existing only in my head.  Little wonder I don’t sleep well, huh?  It’s hard to turn that neon sign of thought and creativity off.  This recent novel also branched into a genre I’d never touched on before, adding an element of danger and suspense to the proceedings.  I’d actually envisioned Kentucky Summer as a suspense thriller before the characters led me in a completely opposite direction.  I’m still not sure I did the genre justice, but it was nice to have my characters thrown together against their better judgment and working toward a common goal.  And now I work toward my next goal—getting published again.

Release Me

This blog is more or less a compilation of places to have featured PR and the like about my novel, Heart Trouble, thus far.  I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to share and peruse the varying press, not to mention reading the book! :)

http://www.crimsonromance.com/new-release-romance-ebook/heart-trouble/


A guest blog I wrote for the Crimson Romance website:  http://www.crimsonromance.com/featured/happy-endings/

A listing in the USA Today HEA blog: http://www.usatoday.com/story/happyeverafter/2013/07/29/contemporary-romance-romantic-suspense-new-releases/2594811/

A nice review from Satin Sheets Romance:  http://satinsheetsromance.blogspot.com/2013/07/review-of-heart-trouble-by-tommie-conrad.html

Heart Trouble AKA Get Lucky

As I write this blog, my friend Josie is celebrating the fact that she received a tweet from one of her favorite actresses after quite a bit of trying.  Today my first-ever professionally-published novel is made available for the masses—or at least anyone with an e-reader—to see.  I had only been writing novels for a year when I received that offer from Crimson Romance to publish my novel.  Indeed, many others have tried for years and failed to receive a publishing offer.  By that same token, I have also been trying to find a real, honest-to-goodness job for more than two-and-a-half years.  Writing has become my only income even if it was initially a foolhardy hobby.  Why do good things happen to us?  Are they a reward for our suffering or simply the byproduct of days, months, and even years of hard work?  Do we simply just get lucky?

Food for thought:  you increase your chances of being lucky by simply trying.  You may endure countless rejections, and be ignored or otherwise snubbed, but if you never take that first step, you will remain in exactly the same place.  You can self-publish, or you can solicit the help of an agent, or simply go straight through the publishing house.  If you hide your talents away and never allow anyone to see them, you won’t get rejected—you won’t get anything.

Why do good things happen to us?  Because we’ve tried?  Because we’ve earned it?  Or maybe, just maybe, for no reason at all, but because we needed a little magic in our lives.  Take your pick, choose your own adventure, but, first and foremost, do.

http://www.crimsonromance.com/new-release-romance-ebook/heart-trouble/

 

Heart Trouble Pre-Order Links

This blog is primarily concerned with the links to purchase my latest novel, meaning its more in line with commerce than deep thoughts.  I’ve done this before, though, so if you follow me you should be used to it.  Heart Trouble will be available for Nook, Kindle, and iTunes, as well as any devices that support the software utilized by the latter two. Links are below.  I hope that if you enjoy the novel you’ll leave me a good review on Amazon, Goodreads, or the Barnes and Noble website.  Thanks for reading, thanks for caring, and most of all thanks for your support in my career as an author.

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-trouble-tommie-conrad/1116059074?ean=9781440571466

iTunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/heart-trouble/id672327811?mt=11

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Trouble-ebook/dp/B00DV0XJ7M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373634941&sr=8-1&keywords=heart+trouble+tommie

Crimson Romance page: http://www.crimsonromance.com/upcoming-releases-romance-ebook/heart-trouble/

All I Can Do

I think as a writer that you develop certain characteristics, traits, and a comfort zone—but at the same time, you strive to avoid repeating yourself.  I know I have repeated myself—as the first person who edits my novels, I have a pretty good handle on what the content is.  At the same time, you hope that you’re saying something different and unique, that each book is forging its own path and means something to a reader.

Additionally, the pre-order links for my novel have finally come in! :)
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Trouble-ebook/dp/B00DV0XJ7M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373634941&sr=8-1&keywords=heart+trouble+tommie
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-trouble-tommie-conrad/1116059074?ean=9781440571466
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/heart-trouble/id672327811?mt=11

Easy

After a two-month hiatus from writing, where my primary task was editing Heart Trouble, I have ventured forth with another novel.  The idea for this one has been recorded on my computer dating back to last year, but I never had the confidence to tackle it.  Truth it, I’m still not sure I can do the idea justice, but plot and characters are mine alone.  If I don’t give them life, no one else will.  So far it’s going well; let’s hope I continue to feel that way tomorrow.  I’m shooting for the kind of book I put out easily when I first starting writing, something around the 75,000 word mark.

Not Again

Nothing lasts forever, except maybe love, and computers are no exception.  I have a dubious relationship with the most important invention of our time.  I have used up and worn out two desktops and two laptops, which isn’t something I’m proud of.  Flashback to Friday when a virus infiltrates my computer and renders it unusable.  I am in the process of the final edit on my novel, Heart Trouble, and unsure about what to do.  Luckily I finally had the sense to Google the problem on my phone browser.  After finding a solution, I had to draw on my graduate school learning (thanks, Prof. Miller—I should’ve paid more attention in your class) and somehow I was able to rescue this computer, yet again, from the fire.  There’s a lesson to be learned here—next time an invader comes to me via wi-fi, shut down the computer and go home.   By the way, I completed my edit.  T-minus four weeks until its release.

Pretty Place

I don’t consider this blog a travelogue, but I have written on several occasions about various sources I have utilized to inspire my fiction, and locations are chief among them.  Last weekend I was fortunate to attend a wedding at the Pretty Place Chapel near Cleveland, South Carolina.  I had not Google’d it beforehand and therefore was amazed, in the best way possible, when we arrived at the venue.  The wedding was incredibly beautiful as well, really a lovely ceremony, but I still can’t get over the chapel.  It was built literally on the edge of a cliff, high above a valley below.  One of those “On a clear day you can see forever” deals.  There is something undoubtedly spiritual and soul-stirring about an open-air house of worship placed within the clouds.  It is a memory I will carry with me for a long time.  Anyway, even before seeing the chapel I thought it might make a good setting for a novel, and I still feel that way.  I just have to synthesize some of my ideas into something cohesive.  Personal stress plus the inevitable worries that come with publishing have led to a prolonged writer’s block, although I haven’t started a new novel and thus the block only exists in the metaphorical sense.

Dorothy:  “You have to have written to have writer’s block.  Otherwise we all have it!”

 

Broken Connections

I live in an area with so-so internet service, and merely decent phone service.  Recently, however, my phone signal dropped out for weeks and would only work maybe every six hours.  It can be a little frustrating trying to promote yourself and your publishing ambitions when social networking is closed off to you.  The good news is that I’ve been promoting myself when I do have a stronger signal, blasting very blogs, tweets, and Facebook posts about myself.  I’m still in the formative stages even though I’ve been putting books and blogs out for over a year now.  I find myself wondering if there’s a right or wrong way to do blogging.  How much do you need to inspire your followers?  How much of it is simply catharsis, hoping that another person out there will read your words and find some meaning in them?  I ask too many questions, don’t I?

Heart Trouble

I wrote, edited, and self-publishing my first six novels without much consideration to submitting them to a publisher.  And I may never know if this was a sound idea, but it did allow me to create in a vacuum—deadlines were my own, additions and deletions were at my whim, and word count generally fell where it wanted. I would set goals and exceed them.  I always vow to take sabbaticals upon a book’s completion, but I rarely follow through.  Upon finishing my longest novel yet, I set out to create something a little more, well, manageable.  I strived to write something standard and commercial.  There was no switching of perspectives, and the supporting characters became just that—support.  In no more than four weeks I had completed Heart Trouble, edited it, and then set about offering it to a publisher.  Crimson Romance liked my query and asked for both a synopsis and manuscript, neither of which was hard to submit.  Thankfully they liked the novel, and I am now on the verge of my first release through a real-life publisher.  It’s been an adjustment, of course, but I am grateful to have had both an editor and a cover designer that wasn’t me. 

So here I am, putting the novel out there for the rest of the world to see.  I’ll be available for the first time in a place that isn’t Amazon, although I will be there as well.  This deal includes much more promotion than I could have ever accomplished alone, and will be distributed through Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and the Crimson Romance webpage as well.  If I’m lucky, maybe I’ll find myself on a library shelf here and there.  I will include the relevant links as they become available.  I am already excited to share the high-resolution cover image.

And now for some background on the novel itself, Heart Trouble.  My hero and heroine are only children, much like myself.  The hero, Brandt, lives at home with his parents; the heroine, Marissa, has never met her father and had to move away from her mother in order to find work.  I stuck with the time-tested and familiar cowboy theme in this novel, although I moved it closer to home—I invented a fictional region of Kentucky in order to play fast and loose with the settings.  The town wound up not being as large a character—we mainly stick to the ranch, a typical-enough rural setting.  Like I’ve said before, I’m far more comfortable with rural backdrops.  The novel is a shade under 62,000 words, shorter than all of my previous novels save for Windswept.  I think of it as an efficient story—I tried to focus on the two main characters and allow the story to take place strictly through their eyes.

I’ll keep you up-to-date as things progress—and thanks, once again, to everyone for their support.

 

Chapters

There are thousands upon thousands of books out there, and just as many authors, but one thing that’s always made me paranoid is chapter length.  Early on, based simply on what I’d seen in other books, I resolved that every chapter should be a minimum of ten pages.  I’ve done pretty well at sticking to that; in book format, some wind up being much longer.  Clearly every author has their own view on things; sometimes I run across books where the chapters are no longer than a page.  It doesn’t detract from the story, but I do find it confusing.  I suppose the point I am trying to make—if there is one—is that different things work for different authors.  If you can get your point across in a shorter chapter, then good on you.  I know for a fact that some of my chapters are way too long, but I’ve also been my own editor for much of the process.  I try to get a complete thought in, or at least lead into the next chapter before I end the current one.  Any thoughts on this?  I’ve also gotten to the point where I’m okay with writing an epilogue; those are usually short by definition. 

Cowboys and Angels

 

Oddly enough, I never bothered to watch this video/listen to this song in its entirety until I’d nearly completed my first novel, “Windswept”.  I’m no songwriter (obviously) but the storyline felt not unlike what I was writing—a man lost, and the woman who saved him.  It’s a simple message but a beautiful one.

The Power of the Song

I can freely admit to having never experienced some of the events that occur in my novels, and for that I am thankful.  Most of the time—and I know this method doesn’t work for those who need quiet—I utilize music as the background inspiration to my writing.  I’ve mentioned this before, but much of my first novel, Windswept, was soundtracked to Miranda Lambert, as this was in the months following “Four the Record” being released.  I listened to the song “Safe” in particular a fair number of times, and that seemed to be the running theme of the book—the power and the safety of lasting love.  The first half of “Kentucky Summer” is Celine Dion; the latter half is Rascal Flatts.  Go figure.  And George Strait has stuck by my side through pretty much every book; it helps that he has about a thousand songs to choose from, and that “Pure Country” is a romance at its core.  Chris Young’s “Neon” is also good for writing inspiration—every song on that album is like a novel itself.  “She’s Got This Thing About Her”?  Fantastic.

In fairness, all music does not work for all projects.  You have to get in a certain place, and some songs just won’t take you there.  Adele is amazing, but usually works better for the conflict portion of the book.  By that same token, I haven’t listened to George Strait much at all for my current book which is set within the confines of a city.  I guess my conclusion is that inspiration comes in many forms, but sometimes the best place to push it along is a three-and-a-half-minute song.

Nature’s Inspiration

Aside from two of my books—one of which I am currently writing—my novels stick to rural settings.  Cattle ranches and farms are familiar settings, including all of the Windswept Saga and my upcoming novel.  This should surprise no one—aside from the eight years (give or take a few months) I lived in Lexington, my entire life has been rural, pastoral, a quiet setting where nature drives most aspects of your life.  My ancestors were farmers; I grew up surrounded on three sides by a cattle-grazing pasture.  I haven’t always been a great helper, but I am increasingly trying to help my dad in the garden; when I plant the vegetables myself, I know exactly where they came from.  I guess with that background information, it should be little surprise that I’ve written several books where mountains feature prominently, where characters break out the fishing poles or ride across an entire ranch on horseback.  I live in Kentucky, so little wonder that horses feature in nearly every book in some shape or form; this is also a big state for farming of every kind, but it cattle, poultry, pork, or vegetables.  Sometimes I think that I will break from the mold and write about urban settings—and maybe I will—but there’s an ease that comes from describing the green grass of home, and the mountains that so lovingly envelope their residents.  After all, who doesn’t want to be able to look up into the night air and see a sky full of stars?