Somebody Has a Case of the Mondays

I've said this before, but writers should really be into this whole Monday thing. I mean, it's the one day a week where almost everyone on the planet feels as tortured as we always are on the inside. Instead there seems to be a lot of whine, moan, complain, coffee, rinse and repeat.

I mean, I get it. Once upon a time, I even liked Mondays. You would too, if Saturday and Sunday brought you two nine hour shifts of hell in local retail underworld. (GAP) But the thing is, editing is worse than Mondays. Editing is any day of the week and every day of the week. Can you guess what I'm doing right now?

I'm writing this blog! What did you think I was doing?

Seriously though, as I get Pigments of My Imagination ready for publication (by myself gasp, faint, sob!) I wonder what the statistics would look like for my life. It's something no writer wants to see. I am used to hearing shocking truths like the average person spends 40 years of their life sleeping, or the average adult spends twenty four months of their life in meetings. But editing? Well lets just say it's eating into my 40 years of hard earned sleep that is for sure.

By this weekend the first of the last of my beta readers will have their hands on Pigments and I am super excited about it. I just need to find one more, so if you dig finding and destroying commas send me a smoke signal!

Just to recap, Pigments of My Imagination is an eternal love story, (YA supernatural romance) and it's Monday.

Any questions?

Life Liberty & the Pursuit of Saturdays #1: Angela Kulig is Afraid of Her Own Horoscope

This is the first post in my new weekend blog series:

It amazes me how far away the new school year isn't. Granted, I've been quite busy creating new humans, finishing books, reading things--but still, I was actually surprised when the school supplies started cropping up at Target. Normally, I am a summer section STALKER. Inevitably, the pool chairs and water wings are replaced by glue sticks and enough boxes of crayons for everyone on the planet to have seven of 'em. It's 114 here in Las Vegas, and the summer can't be over soon enough, so I decided to start my Pursuit of Saturdays series early. Especially when I woke up and found something terrifying in my inbox!

I was still blurred eyed this morning at something like 4:45 AM. The three week old sleeps pretty well, so I didn't think it would be worth going back to sleep when I'd need to wake up around 6 anyway. I am perfectly aware that normal people don't check their email at that hour, but I don't know many of them, and that was when I discovered; my HOROSCOPE! There was definitely no going back to bed after that.

Here is what Rick Levin has to say:
Saturday, July 21st, 2012-- You better get to work if you have a deadline looming, whether it's imposed by outside circumstances or by your own desire for completion. Either way, it's crucial to stay on track today. These past weeks have been rather hectic, but now it's time to focus your intentions and apply your talents to what's right in front of you. Don't worry about next year; concentrate on the present moment and do your best.

So not only do I have a serious deadline, but the last few weeks have been INSANE (well duh I have a newborn) but even weirder is the bit where it says, "Don't worry about next year." BECAUSE I had planned to work on my post January 2013 schedule today. It is on dry erase board. I have my planner opened to that month.

It was so creepy, I had to start working right away. Of course, then I got distracted to the blog. In case you missed the scales, I am a Libra. Not only that but I am a very libra-ish Libra BUT I am a bit of an astrological anomaly. My horoscope usually reads like exactly what happened yesterday. Weird, now I am all anxiety ridden and blogging about it.

I Gave Birth (It's not a metaphor)

I had my baby June 29th!

 Her name is Thistle.

She is perfect, and so chill I was editing my manuscript and outlining new books in the hospital.

I am not kidding.

I was expecting her arrival to make my life too insane to enjoy my escapes into all things writing and social media--but that doesn't seem to be happening. I have instead resumed my normal pre-pregnancy writing routine (mostly). Which is crazy and awesome and SCARY because now that I am out there all alone in the writing universe I am the master of my own schedule. There will be no waiting for my designated spot in the schedule for my book to be published.

And what books there are! More on that later.

It's not you. Angela Kulig and Red Iris Books part ways.

Sadly, despite recently acquiring a new contract, I have to annouce that I have parted ways with my former publisher Red Iris Books. It's complicated, and we've both agreed to see other people. I'm not nearly as frustrated as I was even five minutes ago. The only thing I really regret is the timing. One, I am about to have a baby (anytime) and two, they were supposed to be releasing a book by me today and that's not happening. I knew it was delayed, I just didn't find out until this morning it was delayed indefinatly.

It seems that in the future RIB is going to a more adult oriented business model. Since I write almost exclusively middle grade and young adult it doesn't make sense for them to extended time and resources building my series when it's not really their thing. It's a lot of work publishing and marketing a book, I respect that. However, I now feel trapped. I hate the idea of having to make important decisions about my future right now, or in a few days from now when I am completely sleep deprived.

I have a lot of really crazy ideas that seem like fantastical things to do right now though, so I will probably just do that. Since I am <90 days away from being back in complete control of the Skeleton Lake series I guess I will do something big for that then--something insane. The first thing that is probably going to happen in that series is Skeleton Song, and Skeleton Lake will be combined into one book.

But before that... I hope to release Pigments of My Imagination on my own. Or better yet, with my friends. I have a lot of things to figure out, and never enough time. The only thing I know is, I plan to take over the world. As much as I still like the other party involved, I don't take lightly to being bet against and there are things I plan on doing souly so I can feel smug about them later. I think this may have been the best motivation for me to work harder and faster I could have hoped for. I am sure that is exactly how I will feel when I no longer drowning in hormones.

I Spend the Day Getting W.E.L.L. (Writing, Editing, Laundry, & Lying About)

Last week passed in a flurry deadlines, an other, less important stuffs. I wrote a new book, in four days. Which, isn't any type of record as I write a book in three days for The 3 Day Novel Contest every September--but in my current state still felt pretty freaking fantastic.

Granted, is a young adult paranormal romance--but it isn't dark and doesn't involve any of the usual suspects. It's the first book in a trilogy. That is pretty much all I can say about it at this point. It's almost ridiculous for me to bring it up, because it's unlikely it will be out before 2013, and I don't even have a path for it yet. Red Iris Books is booked solid for the rest of the year (I know, I take up a pretty large chunk of their time) and I actually have another series I have already started talking to them about that I haven't even mentioned on my blog yet. So I might have to put it out myself, or I might have to place it elsewhere. The best way you can make that happen is to buy my other books. There will be lots of opportunity to do that for the rest of the year.

The good news is, if it does come out in 2013 the whole series will have been written before the first book comes out--that means very minimal wait time for the next book!

Now you are saying, Oh Angela, you sly devil, you just mentioned a whole other series and didn't say anything about it! Why yes, yes I did. Don't worry about it, because I have already written a whole set of blogs detailing that new series for when I am on "maternity leave."


I also did the final edit on a book last week. I know, you aren't at all impressed but editing is a whole lot harder than writing. Which is why this weekend I am spending time getting W.E.L.L. (Writing, Editing, Laundry--and mostly Lying About.) The only reason it's W.E.L.L. and not well, W.E.L. is because if I don't do laundry today, then tomorrow I will be W.E.L.'N. (Writing, Editing, Lying About, in the NUDE) like a Felon on  those Magellan commercials.

And we can't have that.

Last weekend wasn't nearly so restful or productive, as it was spent getting W.E.L.P. (Writing, Editing, Laundry, and PRINCE) which is quite as painful as it sounds. Too much Raspberry Beret, not enough lying about.

So now, before I rush away let me update you on a few things. Red Iris Books has listed The Skeleton Song for a June 28th release date. Yay!

Remember the first book in the series Skeleton Lake, is currently being REMASTERED. Which is a nice way of saying being reedited. It's got multiple sets of eyeballs on it and will be coming out soonish as well, I just don't have the official date yet but I will let you know.

I am trying frantically to finish up all the lose ends if Pigments of My Imagination. I just can't let it go--but since I can have my baby as early as next week I need to just bite the bullet. So it can come out when I am "maternity leave" so it won't seem like I went anywhere at all.

Pay no attention to the wizard behind the curtain. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Angela Breaks Her Own Rules, Hides in Corner (Bad Writer, Go 2 Your Room)

The thing is, I have rules. Not that many either, but the ones I have exist for a reason.

So, then I broke one of my rules.


Now usually, I'd maybe throw a party for this. Rule breaking in Angela-Land means coming out of a shell, or, you know, whatever metaphor you would like to use that means some kind of personal growth.

Not this time. I feel sort of like I am moving backwards. So now I have to talk about it, so you know why it might seem I am changing directions.

A while ago I realized something that other writers know deep down in their tortured little souls but often refuse to admit. Writers aren't really my target market. For me, they represent a familiar layer of book sales. By familiar I mean family. We're friends, we support each other, we buy each others books. It's what we do.

The truth of the matter is, there are far more non writer book readers than writer book readers; and I am so tired of talking about writing. The thing is, blogging about writing, how to sell books, and everything else that goes with it represents something I am not that proud of. It represents instant gratification. I get more views and usually more comments. While I still enjoy helping other writers (It's what I do.) I really can't blog about it anymore.

Now don't get your big girl commemorative knickers in a bunch! I know you are thinking if I am not writing about WRITING then what on Earth is there to write about? When I say, no more writing about writing--I mean no more how to's. No more marketing advice, or warnings for the new kids in the twittersphere. ON MY BLOG. Feel free to ask me anything whenever you want. Especially if you need to know how to get to third base.

I also don't plan on blogging about what I'm writing constantly. That's boring too.

Any questions?

Oh yeah, and I am told this book is coming out next month.
#WIN

We will be doing something fun for it's release.

Why All Readers Should Get to 3rd Base (Part 1)

If the relationship between writers and readers was like a baseball game (or a bad metaphor for sex) then a reader finding your book equates getting to first base.

Even if you hit a home run, you have to get past this point before you can score--yeah this is def a metaphor for sex.

So how does one get the first base? Social media, word of mouth (talking--what people did in the dark ages BEFORE social media), book bloggers (which is a more specific type of social media)--are you guys noticing a trend here? AND you're real life, real network, of real friends and family members are the best way to spread awareness of your book.

So, now that you are on first base--what is second base, and how do you get there?

Well, if first base is finding your book, then second base is people PURCHASING your book. Or downloading your book if it's free.

So how do you get your people who have found your book--to seal the deal? The absolute best way to transom browsers to BUYERS is to have an awesome looking cover. I say it again and again. I don't care if you think the best way to sell books is to write books better than Harry Potter--cover it in garbage and you are never going to get to second base.

Then you will be forty, living in your parents basement, writing Lord of the Rings fan fiction that no one reads because you even need a good cover for those these days.

We will get to reviews in a second, but while they are very important. 9/10 paranormal romance readers wont scroll down far enough to see them if your cover is a joke.

Yes. I made that number up.

It's probably really a lot higher.

So now that you are on second base, your breathing is labored. You can see the finish line and you are ready to SCORE!! So you better come back Monday and see how to get to third base with your readers. Here is a hint, it's probably not what you think. Don't look away, because your readers have started flirting with the cute short stop.