Birthday Writing Update

Day 18 of 365 of blogging, and today is my birthday, so let’s talk about writing updates.

January was a month of many plans and not so many successes. The next Leya Layne romance novel, You’ve Got Bookmail, was originally supposed to come out this month, but it had to be pushed back to February because it took longer to write than expected. In case you haven’t heard, ARCs go out on 2/1, so there is still time to sign up. The book officially releases on 2/29, and beta feedback is already coming in hot and positive!

Along with my writing besties, we had all agree to write the stories for all of our 2024 anthologies in January. Here is a list of what they are, what they’re for, and when they’re coming out.

  • Into the Darkness: Write a story of no more than 8k words about whatever I consider dark or darkness. I’m currently planning a snippet of a book I have in mind about Medusa as a modern-day madame and vigilante. I’ve not started it yet. This anthology is for Sinful Signings on September 20-21 in Roanoke, VA where I will be a signing author.
  • Medical Fiction: Write a story of no more than 15k words about anything that incorporates something medical. I am writing a short romance with a physical therapist as the male main character. This may become a full-length novel, or even a series, later. I have far too many converging ideas. I’m about 2k words into this one. This anthology is for Booked in Chaos on November 16 in Fountain Inn, SC where I will be a signing author.
  • Cozy Fall Romance: The four of us in my writing group decided that we would write four seasonal anthologies, the first one being Fall. All of our stories would take place in, or around, the same county, and our characters would somehow be in the same place at least once. It has been a lot of fun to have this level of collaboration on the project. Each of our stories must have fewer than 20k words, and I am writing a second-chance romance. I’m about 9k words into this story. We plan to release this one in time for Sinful Signings, and it may be a limited release anthology.

I have also received all the beta feedback and started getting pieces of the cover for The Maenad, Age of the Forgotten Ones Book 1, which is my debut fantasy coming out under Bobbie Isabel. I will begin the next round of edits for The Maenad in February and have the cover revealed in February. The goal is to release this YA Fantasy story by April 1.

For the past six months, I’ve been so focused on writing all of these stories and getting out two books late last year that I haven’t written any poetry. I’m please to say I’ve written three poems this month and am hoping to get out another collection this year.

Last but not least, these blogs. I initially started this process to get more consistent with writing and talking about my writing. Today is Day 19, and I’ve missed 5 days so far. Four of them I took off on purpose to focus on finishing You’ve Got Bookmail. This week, I missed one because I simply forgot to press publish here on the site, and I decided against writing a second on the same day. *shrug* I’ve still done more on this site this month than the entire year I’ve had it, so here’s to the rest of the 365!

Character Interview: Asher McNeil

Day 17 of 365 days of blogging. It’s Leya once again taking over. I finished my read through of You’ve Got Bookmail this afternoon and sent it to beta readers. Since I introduced you to the female main character, Kassandra, the other day, I thought I would introduce you to her love interest, Asher. He is an absolute cinnamon roll, and we love cinnamon rolls around here, as you can see with the cover photo of this blog post.

  • What is your name?
    My name is Asher McNeil, ma’am.
  • How old are you?
    I just turned 34.
  • What do you do for a living? Are you self-employed, or do you work for someone else?
    I work for the post office in my small town.
  • How long have you done this job?
    It’s been over five years now.
  • Is this what you always planned to do, or did you fall into it?
    Absolutely not!
  • How do you feel about it? 
    I do enjoy it, but it was not my plan. I will say, the job has gotten far more interesting the last couple weeks.
  • Would you rather be doing something else? If so, what would it be?
    I want to be building and renovating houses. My degree is in architectural engineering.
  • If you’d rather be doing something else, what stops you? Is it money? Is it pressure from your family? Is it your own lack of self-confidence? Or does some other thing prevent you from doing what you want to do?
    I wish I could say for sure. Something happened when I came back home after college, and I just never got that spark back.
  • What would you have to change in your life in order to do that thing you’d rather do?
    Nothing in my life really prevents me from pursuing that dream, or at least doing something that moves me closer.
  • Does this change depend on someone else, or does it depend on you?
    It’s all on me.
  • What is your life like at the moment?
    If others were to look at it, they might say it’s boring, but I’m content. I work and spend time at home watching home improvement shows.
  • Are you married, single, or in a relationship?
    I’m single. I occasionally date, but I haven’t had a relationship in a while.
  • Is there anyone you’re interested in at the moment?
    There might be, but I’m not going to say anything and mess it up.

You’ve Got Bookmail comes out on 2/29, and is currently available for ebook preorder on Amazon and paperback preorder here on our website. If you’re interested in being an ARC reader, the application is open until 1/29 here.

Shattered Windows

Day 16 of 365 days of blogging. This time I give you a poem since I haven’t done one in a while.

Who do you see
in the mosaic art
of crystalline tears
glued with experience?

What do you see
as you watch me
pick up the many
shattered pieces?

Where did you see
me empty and tattered
covered in cuts
from shards of glass?

When did you see
the potential opening
for love like drafts
in broken windows?

How do you see
what I cannot
amongst the rubble
around my heart?

Why do you see
past the facade
to find the remains
of a soul shattered?

Character Interview: Kassandra Gingham

Leya Layne here taking over the blog to ask my newest main character Kassandra some questions for Day 15 of 365 days of blogging.

This past week, I finished drafting You’ve Got Bookmail. ARC Copies will be going out on February 1, and the book will be live on February 29. As we’re all getting ready for the big launch, I thought it might be fun to let you get to know a little about the female main character, Kassandra AKA Kass.

  • What is your life like at the moment?
    My life is pretty quiet right now. I live alone and spend all of my time writing, reading, and swimming in my pool.
  • Are you married, single, or in a relationship?
    I’m currently single. My last relationship didn’t end well, really, it didn’t go well, but the ending was even more difficult.
  • Where do you live now? 
    I live on the outskirts of this small, rural town about 6 hours from my family.
  • What are your physical surroundings like? Are they comfortable, safe, or dangerous?
    My house is pretty isolated and on the edge of a forest. It is large and comfortable. I feel safe.
  • How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
    There are two things that I absolutely love about my house: 1) my writing nook has the best view overlooking the pool and back into the woods. 2) the swimming pool and patio is gorgeous, and because it’s heated, I can swim all year long.
  • Who lives with you? 
    I live alone.
  • Do you have children? 
    No, thank goodness. It would have been an even worse situation had I had children with my ex, Charles.
  • What about the rest of your family? Are you close to them now or distant?
    I have a very strong relationship with my baby sister, Malissa. We’ve always been close, and we talk just about every other day. The relationship with our parents is a little more strained. They took my ex’s side in the breakup, thinking that I made a bad decision, and they spent the better part of the year trying to talk me into giving him another chance.
  • What do you do for a living? Are you self-employed, or do you work for someone else?
    I’m an author. I have a publishing contract that is completed with the release of my next romantasy book, and I have a self-published series I’m still working through.
  • How long have you done this job?
    I used to be a journalist for a newspaper, but I started writing novels about ten years ago.
  • What do you consider your greatest personal failing?
    I am unable to take take the reins in my life and relationships, so I live vicariously through my characters who are strong, independent, and sexually free. This can cause me to isolate myself, which leaves me lonely and bereft.

Give Yourself Grace

Day 14 of 365, but really Day 10 of blogging.

I have not written a blog post since Tuesday, so I figured today was the perfect day to talk about it. As I said when I first started this 365 day challenge that my goal is to become more consistent with my blogging. Obviously, that is still a work in progress.

Why do I want to blog, you might ask? My answer would be, ‘I don’t’, but that’s too simplistic of an answer. I’ve never really cared about blogging because it is so similar to journaling. My ADHD finds little to no value in it, so I struggle to make it more than a week. The problem is that I would then feel guilty for not journaling and would usually go back and try to “catch up”. There was never any true value in playing catch up either because I was simply filling in those days to make myself feel better about having failed at a task. I got nothing out of the process, nothing people who claim to love journaling say they get.

Back when I was still in the classroom, I would blog about various teaching topics, or even when I was in school for my admin license, I would write about leadership topics. Though I never had a huge readership, some of those posts still get traction. It seems others have found value in them. Now that I am no longer full-time in a school, I feel like my thoughts on school-based and classroom-based topics are out of pocket. Hence, I don’t write in that blog anymore.

Instead, I have decided I wanted to blog about writing, since that’s where I spend most of my time and energy. Well, this past week, I was facing a really important deadline, and writing blog posts late at night after I’d written thousands of words in my manuscript was taking away from either my sleep or my creativity. So, I made the decision to not write blog posts until I could once again make time. Did I feel guilty about it? Every damn day. Am I glad I let myself forego writing them? Absolutely.

If a key benefit of journaling, and in turn blogging, though, is supposed to be reduced stress and anxiety, there is no benefit if the obligation to do it is causing stress and anxiety. So, I am celebrating the fact that I made blog posts for nine days in a row and took four days off to focus on other priorities. Now, I will attempt to blog daily until I have to shift my priorities again. I will write when I have something to say, and I will say either whatever brings me value at the time or what I think might eventually bring value to others. I will give myself grace.

If you’re curious, the priority this past week was finishing the draft of You’ve Got Bookmail, the next Leya Layne contemporary spicy romance. It is scheduled to go to ARC readers on 2/1, and I need time to edit it and get beta reader feedback. So the book had to get finished. This upcoming week, I need to do some work for my actual 9-5 job in preparation for my return to the office after 13 weeks off, so who knows if I will manage a blog daily on top of my regular writing schedule. Priorities are always shifting, and we have to learn to be ok shifting with them. At least that’s the lesson I’m still learning.

Check out the books in my shop. They’re all also available on most online retailers.

cover of poetry book When Can We Be Soft. Gray background with single red rose and green leaves in bottom right corner.
Poetry Collection Published April 2023
Spicy Contemporary Holiday Romance Published November 2023
Cover of the book. A mail truck is leaving the front yard of a large house. A woman is standing in front of the house surrounded by packages on the ground, and she is waving.
Spicy Contemporary Romance Publishing February 2024
copy of the covert art with a narwhal in the ocean
Adventure Picture Book Published December 2023
Subscribe to my Newsletter

Characters Acting Badly

Day 9 of 365 of blogging. Leya Layne here, so this one might not be safe for work, or children.

Let’s take a moment to talk about characters who don’t follow the plan. Oh, who am I kidding, most of the time there isn’t a plan. There’s a vibe. There’s an idea. There’s a little boy meets girl, and they’re supposed to get it on, but they refuse. OR, they’re supposed to wait until just the right moment in the plot for the big BANG (so to speak), and they jump the gun.

When I first started Carol’s Christmas Awakening, what I thought was the entire plot woke me from my sleep. I knew who that Carol had a flower shop in a small town and that Jackson was from the city. I knew that there would be struggles getting them together, and she would wonder whether or not they were meant to get together. I even knew that the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future would have to help her realize that Jackson was, in fact, the one for her. Then, it would be time for the big finale…

She would show up in his hotel room with nothing but a coat and a big ol’ bouquet of poinsettia. I hadn’t planned on any actual sex scenes until the end. Hell, it was my first romance novel, and I wanted to wean my way in, maybe find a larger audience, maybe behave myself a bit. I should have known better because the two of them couldn’t keep their hands off of each other as early as Chapter 5, and his hands were in her pants in Chapter 8. So much for my big ending. Instead, you get a heartfelt ending after lots of playtime.

Now, I’m on my second romance book. I go in blind except knowing that the main characters will be a reclusive author and the mailman. The idea was actually triggered by a TikTok/Instagram mutual who asked for a reader and a mailman. She wanted a male main character in uniform who wasn’t military or police. Anyway, I had no plot planned out. I was literally going to pants this one.

As expected, the two main characters (Kass and Asher) are instantly attracted to each other. He may be interrupting her writing regularly, but the fact she writes a sexually liberated character helps keep her in the mood. As their attraction develops, I’m expecting them to get it on like rabbits, far surpassing the exploits of her main character (who has some fun times too), but they refuse…until the ferris wheel. Hence my newest sticker that will soon be up for sale on our website.

Square image with a black and white ferris wheel in the background. there is a gray kitten in the front, and packages next to the kitten. The text reads, "All I want is Bookmail, and a cat named Ferris."

Needless to say, this book has taken longer to draft because the characters just keep fighting me, but the story is good, and I am enjoying it tremendously. If you’re interested in reading it early, ARC signups are open, and the official release date is 2/29. Sometimes even naughty characters get the story they deserve.

The Maenad: Skyemera Interview Part 2

Day 8 of 365 days of blogging.

Skyemera is the main character of my forthcoming fantasy novel, The Maenad, which will be Book 1 of the Age of the Forgotten Ones series. She is a Maenad, a mythical creature that hasn’t existed in over a millennium. In Part 1, we talked about her basic demographic information. As the interview progresses, we will delve further into what makes her and other characters tick.

Do you ever train with a master? If so, what for?

Absolutely. There’s this situation at home when my powers start to come in. They’re not like anything my people have ever seen before. They’re also tied pretty closely to my emotions, so I can’t exactly control them. Since there hasn’t been another maenad for a thousand years, it’s not like my family can just send a message and ask what to do. So they send me away to train with someone who knew the last maenad personally. Oh yeah, and the world thinks he’s dead. It’s a bit shocking to find out that the history we’re taught isn’t always accurate. Anyway, I travel to his training facility in the southern mountains far from my home, and I work on learning to control my powers. I also learn how to wield a staff. When I make it back home, everything is going to be so different from when I left.

How do you spend your spare time?

Along the eastern shore, outside of the Tribunal Forest, is a copse of gnarled oaks. My favorite thing to do is to go out there, climb in amongst their twisted branches until I am invisible, and listen to the sound of the waves as they hit the shore. It might seem strange when others my age are out frolicking through the forest and wanting to visit the human town, but I rather enjoy the quiet solitude. I feel like the trees understand me.

Anthologies

Day 7 of 365 of blogging. For the Record, Coming up with daily topics is hard.

Prior to becoming an author, my only experience with anthologies was purchasing them for college English classes. I assumed the only way anthologies were made was through careful curation from previously published successful authors. I didn’t realize they could be created by a small group of authors who want to help support each other.

Last year, I attended an author signing event as a reader and bought the anthology. The anthology was a great sampler of the participating author’s writing. This way, I could see whose books I wanted to purchase because, unfortunately, I could not afford them all. It was also very cool to see how different authors interpreted the shared theme. Additionally, I was able to collect far more signatures than I would have otherwise, as each author was glad to sign their story in the anthology. As a bonus, proceeds from the anthology were donated to charity.

After coming home from that event, I registered as a signing author at two author events this year. Each of them are putting together an anthology open to all of the authors. While I was excited to submit a story for each of them, these anthologies are still collections curated by others. We were given the themes, deadlines, and maximum word counts. Though great for exposure, I still struggled to see the process as something anyone could do.

Fast Forward to December 2023. The group of authors that I write with daily agreed to create our own anthology. We decided the theme, the word count each of us needs to stick to, the deadline, and release date. We have even procured our cover. We are the authors and the curators. We’re in charge of the whole thing. There is a completely different vibe to the process and a different sense of ownership. Though the goal for this anthology is still exposure, we are learning together through our collaboration.

I can’t wait until I can share more details and the cover. Just know that it will release in September in time for the shows that we are all attending together. Then we will begin working on the next one in our serious of four.

All this to say, anthologies are so much more than I initially thought. They are great collaborative tools where you can work together with other authors in an effort to help build all of you up.

Managing My Newsletter

Day 6 of 365 of blogging about my writing daily.

When I first started toying with the idea of actually writing and publishing books, all the authors I came across with a relative degree of success behind them strongly suggested creating a newsletter. Their primary rationale was that social media sites come and go, but email is fairly consistent, which makes sense. This was during the time of Twitter changing over to X and many people leaving, as well as congressional arguments against TikTok. For indie authors who use social media for marketing, it is imperative to have other options for remaining in contact with readers.

In January 2023, as soon as I decided to draft The Maenad as a full novel, I started a newsletter. I put out a post on my social media feeds starting in December asking for people to subscribe for my monthly newsletter. My January 1st edition went out to 6 people, two of them my children. I often forget to ask people to subscribe, and I rarely talk about the newsletter other than the day before it’s scheduled to release. Yet, I have gone from 6 subscribers to 64 subscribers that received the January 2024 edition.

As I said, I only send the newsletter out monthly, generally during the first week of the month unless something major is coming up that week. Then, I release it early, so my subscribers get a first peek at what I have happening. I also try to keep the format simple, so I can manage it. Early on, I was doing a little too much, and the task became daunting. It was important to focus on the goals I have for my newsletter.

  • I want to keep in touch with readers who are interested in what is happening in my writing journey.
  • I want to share things I’m excited about, especially art related to my books (cover/character)
  • I want to talk about books I’m reading.
  • I want to support other indie authors.

As such, here are the key components of my newsletter each month:

  1. I always have some kind of update or something important to share.
  2. I have updates for each of my works in progress that have had some significant change.
  3. I share books that I’ve read during the previous months. I will only share ones that I really enjoyed, and the majority will be from other indie authors.
  4. I highlight other indie authors. This might be me just giving a shout out to another author who helped me out with something that month. I will share their social media and their books. It might be a newsletter swap where we talk about each other in our newsletters. Or, it may be me shouting out the members of my writing groups who I sprint with regularly.

By keeping the same or similar components each month, I am better able to remain consistent. I am also able to adapt the newsletter to the updates I want to make.

So, if you are considering creating a monthly/weekly/or daily newsletter, I highly suggest you create a template to help you keep the format simple. I also suggest that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. I only send out a newsletter monthly because that’s all I can manage. Other authors only send one out when something big is happening (cover reveals and book releases, for example). Finally, don’t inundate your subscribers with frequent newsletters that provide little value for them. Be strategic.

I try to be conscientious of my readers, whether they follow me on social media, subscribe to my newsletter, or follow my blog. I try not to target the same people all the time. For example, though I am working to be consistent with my blog, I do not have the system email the few people who are following. Daily emails can turn subscribers off. I know it does for me, and I will sometimes unsubscribe when it gets to be too much.

As I close up, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask those of you who are still here to subscribe to my newsletter. I would also be remiss if I didn’t share that I archive each edition at the bottom of the subscription page. If you need ideas, or just want to see an example, feel free to check them out and see how thing have changed over the course of the year.

Swag Creation

Day 5 of 365 days of blogging. Considering it’s already after 11:30pm, and I nearly forgot about not having written a post yet today, I’m going to make this quick and share some of the sites I have used to create marketing goodies, or swag.

I would say a good 90% of the images I create, whether they are for ads, stickers, magnets, pins, or social media posts, are made in Canva. Canva is a great, user-friendly tool. They have graphics and photographs that have commercial licenses depending on the level of subscription you have for the website. I paid for pro access because it allowed me to find more images than the free account I’ve had for years. Not only does Canva allow you to create the images for swag, but you can print many of the items through the company. For example, I made my standing banner on the site and had them print it for me.

Depending on how many copies you order, there are also options to have them printed for 1-hr pickup from a local FedEx location. If you’d like a more in-depth look at some of the swag I’ve created and printed directly through Canva, let me know. I’ll be glad to show off some of my items. I’ll also be adding some of them to my shop here on my website soon.

Another site that I have used to create social media images and posts is Book Brush. One of the features I love about this site is that it can take your book cover, which is generally a flat image, and make it look like a 3D book or superimpose it on a 3D image of a kindle/ipad/phone. I have used these 3D images to create various social media posts, profile covers, etc. I’ve also imported the images into Canva and created other items with them. The first creation was free, but I paid for the 1-year subscription after that because I had more books coming out. There is a little more of a learning curve for this site than Canva, but I’m happy to have both because I use them differently.

Once I have the images I want in the shape/size that I want, I have used various websites for printing. For example, I have packing tape with each of my logos on it that I ordered from Sticker Mule. The beautiful thing about this site is they have great 48-hr sales, so I have also ordered magnets, stickers, and a tshirt with my main logo from them for significantly reduced cost. Even if you’re not ready to order, go ahead and sign up for their text message deals. I just received 50 magnets for like $18. They are well-made and 3in x 3in, so not tiny either.

Another site I recently ordered stickers from is The Sticky Brand. I’m often afraid to trust ads that come across my social media feeds, but one of my author friends tried them first and recommended them. They were having a sale for 100 2.5in x 2.5in vinyl stickers for around $18, and then they were having a new year celebration sale for an additional percentage off. I managed to order 600 stickers with 6 different designs for less than $100.

In terms of social media marketing with video, CapCut is a great app (mobile and desktop) that has many video templates that are user friendly. You choose a template, upload photos or videos to the template, including any you make on Canva or Book Brush, and then export it to TikTok or Instagram for free. If you export to either of these sites, a clean copy of the video is downloaded to your device, so it can be reused multiple times. If you download directly from CapCut, they add their own watermark to the video. Either way, you are able to create multiple marketing videos for free.

Being an indie author can be expensive, especially since we have to market ourselves and our books, but there are sites and tools out there for to make your life easier and save you some money. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but it does cover the ones I use regularly at this point in my author journey.