Proof!

So this was in the mail for me today! It's the proof of Fairy Tale Fail from CreateSpace, the company that's helping me work out the print publishing side of this experiment.

The cover (photographed by Bianca Pascual and designed by Michael Co) came out as pretty as I imagined it to be. There's a slight color mismatch but that's my fault, and it's a consequence of using a gradient for the background but kebs, the gradient is cute.

The other quibble I have is that the book doesn't have printing on the spine (too thin according to the app -- but it's not really!). I can change it by adding pages to make the book thicker, but that just makes it more expensive.

That said, this edition also has two pages of notes, about the Filipino words and cultural context. (Because Laura suggested it.) Nothing else has changed, except for formatting.

Off to read and edit. :) And I hope this shows up on Amazon in paperback soon!

A hundred hugs

Recently, I mentioned on a Goodreads discussion thread what I discovered once I had something published: Pinoys read, but they don't talk or write about it as much.

I post nearly every review of my books I can find, and to this day there aren't a lot. There are a few new ones, like the reviews from Laura, Janine and Cienne of My Imaginary Ex on Goodreads. But it's always been a quiet thing, and I used to think that it meant no one bought or read the book. Then I got a royalty check (!) that told me how wrong I was.

I appreciate each and every review I find (no matter what they think of the book), but I have to admit -- even I'm not as quick with the feedback after I read someone else's work. Even if I loved it. I don't really go around emailing writers or producing full-length critiques of their novel. The best I can do is post about loving it, or share a link to it with a short recommendation.

So now, just a mention makes me happy. Like this tweet from xingkit. This message from janajana1210. This FB post by Janine. (Wish I could comment to thank you but it's not allowing me.) And, the thing which made my morning: the 100 people who "like" My Imaginary Ex on Facebook.

Someone once told me I should write about "important things" -- instead I write romances. :P Thanks for making me feel absolutely fine about the choice.

And that makes four

I just put the draft of Love Your Frenemies to bed. It's the one about Kimmy (from My Imaginary Ex) and the act of finalizing it gave me a bit of deja vu.

Eleven months ago, LYF was a complete draft ready for review -- until I asked my editor not to work on it. It's been a difficult story from the start (because Kimmy is hateful and I needed to keep her that way) but even when I finished it, something about the plot bothered me. I also gave myself the extra challenge of making certain things fit with the earlier story (like puzzle pieces).

A few months ago I found a way to make it work. Whether or not it works for other people is entirely up to them, but I tend to want to satisfy myself first. And now I'm satisfied. :)

So now that I'm done with LYF, I have no more "projects" in development. That makes four novellas completed in two years.

Going to take a break as I work on getting these published. In the meantime I'm on listening mode, because friends are telling me all sorts of story ideas. (It happens when they know you write romance. Drama!) I'm also considering a genre shift. (Zombie werewolf robots!?)