Tria’s Tale is the first in the After the Fall scifi series, and was released in August, 2008. Its word count is 33,273 which puts it firmly into novella territory. It’s my oldest work of those currently available for purchase.

It’s sold a total of 133 copies (not knocking anyone’s socks off there), and I’ve given away 14 free copies. All sales from all 3^rd party distribution sites are included, that have been reported as of today.

This second table will show the price points with the most sales:

Things to note: 2008 was my first full year of being an independent writer. It was my first year to sell anything. I had no audience, little clue about what the hell I was doing, and I spent several hours researching ebook pricing on digital press sites.

Those first two items have obviously seen little change.

I released Tria’s Tale at $5.25, and I didn’t change the price until February, 2010 (to $4.99).

I left it at $4.99 for three months, and then lowered the price to $0.99 in May, 2010. Certainly moved loads at that price point, didn’t I?

July 2010, I raised the price back to $5.25. It promptly sold 6 copies – I mean, the second the price change took effect.

In mid-February 2011, I dropped the price to $3.99.

April 2011, I raised it to $4.75 (7 copies sold that month).

July, 2011, I dropped it to $2.99 and sold 5 copies that month.

August 2011, I raised it to $3.95 and sold 1 copy.

March 2012, I raised the price to $5.99 and sold 2 copies that month.

This month (May 2012), I dropped the price to $2.99 and sold 2 copies.

I’ve just raised the price back to $4.99 again, so nothing to report at the moment.

The ‘sweet spots’ for this particular book are $5.25, $3.95, and $4.75 in order. Note they all end in 5, not 0, 7 or 9.

Kind of interesting, huh?

I’m not a best-selling author, don’t have a large readership, and yet, this particular novella has sold more copies at a price higher than many indies have recommended pricing full-length novels ($3.99 and $4.99 are the two price points I’ve seen recommended the most).

Yet it basically doesn’t sell at the $5.99 price point some have recommended for full-length novels. Nor does it sell very well in the $2.99 to $0.99 range.

Let’s be honest: it was one of my earliest works, and it’s not all that and a bag of chips. I don’t think it’s awful (or I would’ve retired it, like I have with others), but it’s not up to my current abilities as a writer. I love Tria and Mrir, the main characters, and I still love their story, but hoo, boy! I could do a better job writing it now than I did back then.

It’s my personal ‘best seller’, the only work I have out that’s sold over 125 copies. A so-so early work, almost 4-year-old novella, and its sales have steadily grown each year.

• 2008 – 4 copies
• 2009 – 9 copies
• 2010 – 39 copies
• 2011 – 65 copies
• 2012 – 16 copies (so far)

I kind of wonder how it would fare if I did rewrite it now?

Now to decide which of those three prices I should choose as the ‘permanent’ price for it. Which would you go with?

HH brought in a strange puppy late Saturday, and the Chihuahulhu took an extreme, instant dislike to the skinny little stray. As a result, I spent a good portion of Saturday night and Sunday refereeing dog fights and kennel timeouts.

Stay 20 ft. away from Mom or I'll destroy you.

No one was injured, as neither seems to realize that you’re supposed to bite the other guy. It was just a lot of noise while trying to punch each other with their noses, or shouldering each other.

Did I say ‘a lot of noise’? It was the din of one thousand harpies, exploding each and every time I hit a good groove in writing.

Even better, the stray managed to get himself stuck under the house by squeezing into one of the AC vent-sized accesses to the crawlspace, and I had to fish him out while he screamed in panic. The entire time. Sigh.

There are spiders the size of my head under there, and the FSM knows what else. Ugh.

Our temporary guest wasn’t one of the pups my friend has adopted out from our local shelter, so I’m taking him to the vet today to see if they know who he belongs to, or if he’s micro-chipped so that we can find his owners.

If that fails, we’re putting signs up. If no one claims him, I’ll find him a home before the Chihuahulhu eats him.

We also had some guests drop in, which necessitated a quick run through the house dusting and such. That was less nerve-racking and time consuming than the dog fights.

Even so, I revised, added to, or wrote a total of eight chapters on Convicted Heart, bringing its total count up from 9,003 to 14,111 words. Not a bad day’s work!

I planned it to be a novella (20-40k in length), so it’s on track. It’s a contemporary romance with a mystery of sorts, involving a hunky cowboy Galahad, a heroine who trusts her gut instincts, and a flash flood.

Here’s a very short, not necessarily final yet, excerpt:

The old man was on the phone when he walked in, but hung up just as he reached the counter. “Hello, boy. Who’s the lady you dropped off at the café?”

“Gossiping this early?”

Harry grinned, displaying his prized dentures in all their pearly glory. “This case, it ain’t gonna be gossip, because you’re gonna tell me what’s what. Then I’ll know, and everyone else can do the gossiping.”

With a shake of his head and glance around the store to be certain they were alone, Reed complied to a certain point. Some of what had happened the night before wasn’t anyone’s business. As he finished, Harry banged his palm down on the wooden countertop with a crow of approval. “Hot damn, son, that there was pure heroic.”

“Anyone who came along would’ve helped her out.”

Harry guffawed, pointing a finger at his scrawny chest. “Maybe, but some of us would’ve needed rescuing too. She give you a kiss for savin’ her?”

Reed shook his head while studying the scratches adorning the countertop. “She ate my cooking without complaining. That was thanks enough.”

“Uh-huh. Load of hay coming in shortly and the grain’s already been delivered. Get to stackin’, son.” The older man’s gray eyes were twinkling. “You got a kiss.”

“Did not.”

“Did too. Got some roses blooming.” Harry cackled as Reed ducked his head and made for the door.

While I don’t really think anyone who is sane will pay $14.19 for a copy of Arcane Solutions (not when they can order one for $7.99 from Amazon or CreateSpace), $25 for a new or $318.48 for a used copy of *Season of Shadows, it really burns my bacon that some resellers are doing this.

Yes, I know they hike the price up in order to make a profit, but seriously?

It’s ridiculous, and frankly, ticks me off far more than finding one of my ebooks on a file-sharing site.

Not because they might actually sell a copy at such ridiculous prices, but because they are trying to take advantage of readers.

Stop that. Seriously.

* Season of Shadows is no longer available, so I suppose that could be considered a ‘rare’ book.

However, it appears that it’s going to be replaced by a more personal drought in regards to books sales.

After February and March’s sales increase of 2.1 a day, up from 2011’s (and January’s) average of one sale a day, April dropped down to 0.7 sales a day. This month, it’s fallen even further, to 0.33 sales per day.

Holy crap, that sucks.

A tiny comfort comes from the fact that I don’t seem to be the only indie experiencing this sales drought. Quite a few seem to be in the same boat, and many are attributing it to the free promo days of the Kindle Select program.

Readers who make remarks like “I haven’t had to buy a book in three months!” or “I’ve gotten thousands of free books and won’t ever have to buy one again!” are sort of bearing up that school of thought.

As an experiment, I decided to use another free promo day for Deadlands Hunt on May 5^th. I kept an eye on it, intending to only give away 100 copies. When the reports hit 77 copies downloaded, I stopped the promotion while knowing there’d be some stragglers reported throughout the day.

End result was 109 copies downloaded, with 4 sales showing up that evening/overnight. One of which was instantly refunded, probably due to someone thinking they were getting it for free, and not wanting it unless they were.

Basically, one sale per 36.3 copies given away. Considering Deadlands Hunt needs to sell another 214 copies to finish recovering its expenses, that’s not an awesome result.

Naturally, people like free stuff, and ‘free’ has always been an advertising draw. However, I don’t think it’s working as well now as it did once upon a time.

There are varied results to free:

1. Never read, and eventually tossed.
2. Eventually read, and may be added to someone’s share folder for a file sharing site as extra content.
3. Read and receives a 1 or 2 star rating/review (freebies are the only titles I’ve ever received less than 3 stars on).
4. Read and the reader enjoys it enough to maybe leave a nice review and might even mention it to a few friends, but doesn’t return for more (possibly because of the glut of other free titles).
5. It’s read, enjoyed, and hey presto! You’ve just gained a loyal reader who will buy a book here and there.

Obviously, the last two are preferable results to the first three. My freebie results seem to mainly fall into the 1, 3, and 4 range, though I probably have found a few loyal, silent readers thanks to freebies.

The thing is, I’ve sort of reached the point that giving stuff away isn’t viable, if my writing business is going to keep its nose above water. This sales drought is causing a serious setback, both mentally and financially.

I need sales – money coming in – in order to continue releasing new titles. I need sales, which are my main source of reader feedback, as motivation to put my nose to the grindstone and write until my fingers bleed.

Don’t get me wrong: I love my part-time job. However, I don’t want to use the paycheck from it to subsidize my writing biz forever.

In short, my writing business really needs to reach the point of breaking even, instead of continually sucking money from my pocket, or financially, its ability to continue will die a painful death.

I knew going in that it would take time, hard work, and a large portion of luck to make writing fiction any kind of successful pursuit. I’m not ready to give up; seriously, I’ll never be READY to give up.

Perhaps everyone is too nice to tell me that I suck at this gig. Maybe Lady Luck just never farts in my general direction.

If people aren’t being too nice, then maybe my books are just getting buried because thousands of new indie titles are being added every single month, and I truly suck at the promotion side. I’d rather walk over hot coals than spend hours screaming at people to buy my books.

Whatever it is, I wish a breakthrough would occur. My sales plus part-time job paycheck can’t stretch to cover expenses for more than one new release (which will be Discord Jones #2) this year. One or two releases a year isn’t going to cut it, not when I can (when motivated) write at least half million words per year.

It won’t cut it when I have dozens or more characters constantly screaming, fighting, and partying in my brain.

They need to get out, people. I need them to get out. They’re noisy ass neighbors.

Ah, well.

If you want to help evict my noisy, constantly partying hearty brain buddies, check out Arcane Solutions and Deadlands Hunt, or any of my other titles. A purchase, I would appreciate!

He’s been sending me link after link from Craigslist, for horses for sale.

A link would be sent, I’d look at it.

“No. That one isn’t even under saddle yet.”

“No, that one only has 60 days under saddle.”

“No stallions allowed, and he’s too old to geld now.”

“That one is as short as BeauDee.”

“It’s a baby, no guarantee it’ll get big enough.”

And so on, so forth. I’d find possibilities, but he wanted a ‘loud’ colored, younger horse – not a sorrel, chestnut, bay or black one.

HH was growing pretty frustrated about my shooting down every ‘possibility’ he found, but Monday night, he found a gray Appaloosa gelding, and was sort of shocked by my response: “That one might work! And he’s here in town. We can go look at him.”

Not very long story short, but as of Tuesday evening, we have a new family member, and HH now has a horse.

This loud colored dude is a 14 year old gelding that has been used for kids’ camps, barrels, had a little roping practice, been a pony ride horse for birthday parties, and was even up at Lubbock’s Science Spectrum for Critterfest. He’s about as bomb proof as a horse can get, which was a requirement I had, because HH and the girl are both beginning riders. Though not as young as HH wanted, he’s a good age.

Though he’s HH’s horse, the girl will be riding him some as well, and we’re hoping she’ll develop an interest in 4H activities.

HH is renaming him Solo, with his ‘racing name’ being Han Shot First. No, he’s not a race horse nor will we trying to race him. He’s a trail horse, maybe 4H horse, and a pet. Just like my horse.

It’s really funny that this horse has been not a couple of miles from our house the entire time HH was looking for a horse. That made everything so simple as far as having my friend take a look at him (we keep our horses at her place, so she has final approval) and moving him. The people who had him are really nice, and happy he’s gone to a good home.

Even funnier, we went from having all ‘red’ horses out there, to a couple of bays, to a colorful herd with 2 Appaloosas and a Paint now.

We’re pretty excited to welcome him to the family. He’s a good horse!

“Arcane Solutions is a quick and fun paranormal detective story recommended for fans of HP Mallory, Kait Nolan, and Charlaine Harris.”

“Drummond again masters the art of tightly knitting a Heinlein heroine with Whedonesque dialog in a world where paranormal seems normal.”

“If you liked the EARLY Anita Blakes, and loathed the latter, or at least yearned for some titles similar to LKH’s first four AB’s, then you should definitely give this book a spin.”

“Drummond’s characters had amazing depth.”

“One of the best books I have read recently, full of interesting and original characters.”

“It’s refreshing to read a story where everyone doesn’t just calmly accept the paranormal, and the tense relationship Discord has with her step-mother adds some depth to the story.”

“As I said: a welcome addition to the genre; like the early Anita Blakes, with a tip of the hat to Philip Pullman’s daemons, and just a tiny, tiny whiff of Janet Evanovich stirred in for good measure.”

Wanna give Arcane Solutions a try?

Ebook available at:

Amazon: US / UK / DE / ES / FR / IT

Apple (iTunes) / Barnes & Noble / Smashwords

While there have been a few who’ve seen some great results from enrolling and using the free promo days, overall sales seem to have taken a sharp down turn.

Most are pointing to comments posted by readers about how they’ve loaded their Kindles up with free books and may never buy another book again, with so many being offered for free every month.

I’d think that ‘freebie hoarders’ probably weren’t buying many books to begin with, but hey, that’s just my opinion.

April seems to be a horrible sales month for many, including me. My April sales have dropped 75% from February and March sales, and about 50% from January’s sales. Last year, April was my best sales month.

Free books are such a pain in the butt.

I’m serious. Many, many authors will tell you to give away freebies or price low to build your fan base. Let’s face it, a lot of people like free stuff, and will probably download your freebies.

Yet even if you are a good writer, that doesn’t mean they’re going to A) ever read that freebie, or B) find your work to their tastes, or C) even if they do like it, turn around and buy from you in the future.

I’m not even going into the whole ‘devaluing’ argument about free/99c, because there’s no need to. It’s a simple deduction that if there are a lot of freebies on tap, there will be a lot of people who will look for those instead of spending money on similar products.

Free hasn’t been a huge promotional success for me over the years. I’ve given away roughly 10k copies, either initially free or as limited time promos, and I’m just now closing in on 1k in money earning sales. I know that some did read my freebies, because they left reviews for them, so that’s cool. I suppose the majority either never read or didn’t like them.

That’s cool too, except for the fact that’s not conducive to either earning money on my other work or earning readers. It doesn’t mean I’ll never have freebies, ever again, but you can damn sure bet I’m going to be very careful about what I offer as free and it will probably only be short works.

The other thing I noticed today was a discussion thread about common complaints with indie books. It should surprise no one that ‘lack of editing’ was the number one complaint. One comment in particular caught my eye, about how that reader wasn’t going to waste her time separating the wheat from the chaff until indie writers got over their unwillingness to submit their work to any form of quality control.

I’ve seen many other readers wonder why we indies don’t ‘police’ ourselves.

A lot of us do often remark about how much crap is being produced. I looked at about two dozen samples just today, and frankly, there were maybe three who knew how to write and had had their work edited – I’m speaking as a reader who was looking for books to buy.

Personally, I don’t think my work is crap, but not because I think I’m a great writer or anything like that.

It’s because my work becomes a group effort at some point and so tends to become better than what I do all by myself.

I have beta readers and editors that don’t pat me on the head and say ‘you’re awesome’. They might say that at times, sure, but they also point out my mistakes, correct errors, and say ‘this isn’t working, do something else’ to me.

Some time back, I posted about not encouraging crap writing. Nothing happened, though some agreed with me, and I know why.

Criticism is considered as an attack by far too many people now.

Anyone who tells an indie writer, or an ‘aspiring’ author, that maybe their talents lie elsewhere, not in writing fiction, is going to get their ass handed to them as others rush to that poor widdle writer’s defense. There will be screams of ‘How dare you try and kill his/her dream?’ and ‘Why can’t you just be supportive?’

Seriously, look at how things boil over at the slightest provocation on just about any subject. I don’t know about other indie writers, but I’ve invested far too much time, effort, and money into my work to risk becoming an outspoken critic of others’ work, because it won’t end well for me. My work would come under fire, be scrutinized to the point of exhaustion, just so every tiny flaw can be brought to the light and used to prove I don’t know what I’m talking about and am a talentless hack. Authors associated with me, or who jumped to my defense, would come under the same fire.

Plus, it would just be wasted time. I can’t control other writers, can’t make them listen to me or any other person. I would be torpedoing my own business and changing absolutely nothing.

If they think they can write, they’re going to write. If their ego, family and friends tell them ‘you’re awesome’, then they’re going to publish what they write.

They aren’t going to take reader reviews that mention things like ‘lack of editing’ as valid criticism. No, they’re just going to think those reviewers hate indies, are being mean or too picky.

That would be why I think sites like Wattpad are bad for writers. They’re filled with people who don’t have the first clue about writing, and people who constantly tell them how awesome they are at writing – and by the way, come read my story!

Yes, I know everyone has to start somewhere, but honestly, starting out on a site full of people just like you who aren’t going to do anything but stroke your ego isn’t the right place.

I think April L. Hamilton’s recent blog post should be read by everyone who is considering publishing their work, or has published and may be wondering why it’s not selling.

That’s it for me today. Have a nice week!

• Release date: Jan. 25, 2012
• Review (free) copies: 10
• Sales (as of Mar. 11): 29
• Expenses: $1,157.11
• Earnings (as of Mar. 11): $58.14
• Reviews: 5 (4.5 star average)

Other info: First novel in a 9 book urban fantasy series.

The above is what I truly am coming to dislike about writing a series, especially one of novel length works. Novels are more expensive and time consuming than novelettes or novellas.

So of course, with their expenses higher, it takes longer to earn them back.

The Discord Jones series is about $1,100 in the red now, and each new title is going to add about $1,400 to that (yes, they’re probably each going to be a bit longer than the first one). Estimated total expenses for all nine titles is over $12k, not counting my time or the print copies I buy to give to my beta readers for helping me out.

Arcane Solutions’ ‘expense earn out’ time will be extended because I chose to price it at $2.99 instead of $6.99 or $7.99, since it’s the first one, and so sort of my loss leader for the series. Most of my sales are through Amazon, so it earns $2.05 per sale, which means it needs to sell about 537 more copies to recover expenses.

Go ahead, look back up at how many it has sold so far. I do, all the time.

At the moment, I have 5 titles that are earning a profit, and 8 that are still working on earning back their expenses. Currently, my writing business is running roughly $2,500 in the red and that, dear friends, is having an adverse effect on my writing output.

I love to write, need to write, but went into writing with an eye towards earning money to justify not only the huge amount of time I spend doing it, but to recover the money I spend out of pocket. I took a part-time job delivering our local paper to help subsidize my writing expenses, and have tried various other things to earn in order to help with them, so that I can continue releasing new titles.

The hope is that eventually, I’ll be selling enough that those other things won’t be necessary, and my writing will be at least breaking even, if not actually earning a profit of some sort. Except the paper job, because it gets me off my butt and out of the house regularly.

I’ve never thought I’d get rich, nor do I expect every reader who tries my work to love it and twist the arms of all their friends to get them to read it too. However, I do have a goal in all this, aside from entertaining people, and that’s to build it to the point that I’m earning a living doing it.

I mean, I’m working it as a full-time job, so it would be silly as hell NOT to have the goal of earning a living from it, right?

Back to the red ink: I’d have to be insane to add more right now. That’s more than I owe on my freakin’ truck loan.

I’d also have to be insane NOT to release any new titles until the red ink is replaced by pretty black ink. New releases usually cause a sales bump, among other beneficial things like building my backlist, keeping my few die-hard fans happy, and enticing new readers to try my work.

However, I need to earn expenses back in order to keep going, and frankly, that’s not happening right now.

Which puts me in this limbo area that drives me freakin’ nuts. I want to get more books out, and past experience tells me that if I get the next two Discord Jones titles out by the end of the year, sales will begin to build up for that series. But then there are the ‘off months’, like this month, where sales practically become mythic creatures. I hear about them from other people, but see damn few myself.

My sales so far this year:

• January – 30
• February – 62
• March – 61 (I think, still waiting on Amazon report)
• April – 7 (or so it appears at this time)

Heh, anyone who thought I was selling hundreds of copies a month just got a rude awakening, and now the title of this post is probably making some sense.

Now what I could do is write my ass off, get each completed story up to the ‘ready for final editing’ point, and just sit on them until the red ink has been halved, then release one. Rinse and repeat.

Which would mean I don’t release a new title until some time next year. Maybe. My sales probably wouldn’t double this year if I don’t put out a couple of new titles.

Or I could write my ass off, say ‘damn the red ink!’, and release 3-4 new ones. Then take a three year writing hiatus, hoping to eventually recover all those expenses.

Yeah, that would work. People would just be dying to read the last six Discord Jones novels after the first three hung out alone all that time, huh?

The other part of this equation is that sales are the main ‘keep going’ input I receive. I have maybe a dozen or so fans who chat with me on Twitter, Facebook, or via email, that will review my work, and keep after me to get more out, which helps fuel my writing fire.

But the vast majority of those who read my books, the only feedback I see is that they bought and didn’t want their money back.

Ergo: Sales are important writing fuel for me.

The less sales, the less encouraged I am to write more. The more sales, well duh, you can take it from there.

I would rather write than spend time promoting. Think I’ve mentioned before that I hate yelling ‘buy my books’ and doing the hard sell bit. Having sites and a Facebook page up, plus the odd mention on Twitter, is really about all I want to do when it comes to promoting.

Well, promoting beyond doing my best to write good, entertaining stories.

Basically, I need some minions. A hundred or so.

Anyway, I’m not sure what I’ll do at the moment. I’m working on the second Discord Jones title and my Shadow Connor series, in between staring blankly at Near Dark, Moon Children 2, and a few other projects. I would love to release at least 12 titles this year, but it’s probably not going to happen. I may only release two more for the year, because their expenses are going to really hike up the red ink I’m operating under.

I can tell you one thing: I won’t be releasing any Shadow Connor titles until I have the whole series written and to the ready-for-final-edits stage. That way I can release a new one every 3 months or so. That will be how I handle all my series from here on out.

Guess it’s a good thing I have several non-series projects too.

Become my minion. Pick up a copy of Arcane Solutions today!

Word Count: 70,589

Price: $ 2.99

Prefer paperback? CreateSpace or Amazon

Ebooks available at: Amazon: US / UK / DE / ES / FR / IT and Barnes & Noble / Smashwords

Consistently using possessive when you mean plural makes you look ignorant. Especially if you’re a writer.

Everyone makes mistakes. Personally, I keep my editors hopping.

However, if you consistently do the same thing over and over again, it’s not a mistake. It’s a habit, and in this case, it’s one that makes you look ignorant to other people.

Maybe not all other people, but who wants to come across as ignorant to anyone?

I can’t count how many times over just the past month I’ve seen people, mostly writers, use ‘author’s’ when they actually mean ‘authors’.

“The author’s all agreed.” BUZZ! Incorrect!

“The authors all agreed.” DING, DING! We have a winner!

“This author’s good.” CORRECT.

“This authors good.” INCORRECT.

“All of these authors are good.” CORRECT.

“All of these author’s are good.” INCORRECT.

“We author’s have to stick together.” INCORRECT.

“We authors have to stick together.” CORRECT.

I’ve seen far too many writers blow off their consistent mistakes when such are brought to their attention, especially on forums. “It’s just a forum. Quit being a grammar Nazi.”

Well, when you’re a writer, and you’re trying to attract readers and sell books, don’t you think it behooves you to do a good job of any public writing you do on forums or blogs as advertisement for how well you write fiction?

I seriously have to bite my tongue when I see a writer post in a forum, and they can’t spell or use punctuation to save their lives – and they’re wondering why their books aren’t selling or they’re receiving loads of returns. Why reviewers are mentioning such things as ‘an obvious lack of editing’, or mentioning specifics like incorrect punctuation.

Being able to use punctuation, spell, form coherent sentences, and use the correct words to convey your meaning are part and parcel of writing, people. Not just writing, but writing well.

If you’re one of those writers who receives negative reviews with mentions of lack of editing, do us a favor: remove your books until you either have them properly edited, or you know, you actually learn to write.

I’ve seen many, many readers remark that they won’t purchase Indie books because every Indie title they’ve looked at is such a mess, they can’t even read them.

This isn’t a matter of ‘style’, people. It is a matter of complete ignorance in the business and art you’ve decided to participate in. You have to learn the rules in order to choose which ones to break and form your ‘style’ of writing. Of course, some of the rules are stupid and/or outdated.

However, a complete lack of knowledge of them is inexcusable if you’re proclaiming to all and sundry that YOU ARE A WRITER.

I am AUTHOR, hear me roar, all of you other author’s! < Yes, I meant to do that. I’m pounding a point home here.

Writers who can’t figure out the difference between something as simple as possessive and plural don’t look like professionals.

Again, I’m not speaking of the occasional mistake – we ALL make those – but consistent incorrect usage, meaning you do it EVERY SINGLE FREAKIN’ TIME.

After seeing the ‘author’s/authors’ thing so much in the past month, I’m beginning to understand where grammar Nazis are coming from. Your friendly neighborhood grammar Nazi is trying to help you not appear to be a complete ignoramus.

How are unicorns involved in this?

Every time a ‘writer’ uses possessive when they mean plural, a unicorn loses its ability to fart rainbows. Not only that, but the inability to fart rainbows makes unicorns explode. This is fact, people.

How many unicorns have you killed?

1. Go to page 7 or 77 in your current manuscript
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next seven lines as they are – no cheating
4. Tag 7 other authors

Problem: The two WIP I’m busy with aren’t up to 7 pages, much less 77 pages. So I had to pick an older WIP, Enter the Weird.

Following it up with a swallow of coffee, I said, “Or I could try abracadabraing a pair up for you.”

“Magic is serious business, Cara, not for frivolous uses.” Thor sniffed and returned to his liver. Rolling my eyes, I left the table to rinse my cup and finish dressing for the day.

A short time later, we were outside under the awning and I was unlocking my bike while Thor waited in his little red harness. Double-checking that I’d put my wallet in the fanny pack I was wearing and dropping my keys in, I picked him up.

Not very exciting, except Thor’s a cat.

Now I have to tag more writers, and I have no clue who has already been tagged! Eek.

1.  Rebecca Clare Smith

2. Becka Sutton

3. JC Montgomery

4. Tonya Cannariato

5. Erica Lucke Dean

6. Benjamin Weller

7. Mark Fassett