Two Outta Three

I'm an early adopter. This is both a good and a bad thing. Or it can be.

I was one of the first people to join Kindle Worlds. It's an Amazon property that allows you to sell licensed fan fiction. The royalty structure is based on the length of the work and their rules, but it's a decent way to earn some extra change.

And I do mean 'change'.

One of my novellas recently sold three copies. My royalties on those three copies combined is a cool $1.92. It's $1.99 to buy. So I get around $0.60 a sale. About a 32% royalty. Again, not bad, especially if you're selling lots of copies.

These little novellas are quick and fairly easy for me, plus I don't really talk about or market them ever. People seem to stumble upon them.

Also, these are eBooks only and won't accept a lot of fancy formatting. Even some of the formatting I normally do for Kindle freaks out Kindle Worlds. Downside? It's a Kindle Exclusive. You can't upload those works anywhere else for sale. It's all in the fine print agreement.

So, two outta three.

I'm working on polishing off a trilogy for The Vampire Diaries called Dead Ringer. The main premise behind it is what if Elena Gilbert had a sister? Twist... said sister looks very much like her but isn't a doppelganger. Also, said sister knows about Elena, but Elena knows nothing about her.

The first novella, Splintered Shadow, takes place at the beginning of Season Three, starting with Elena's 18th birthday party. The timing works since (spoiler) Elena's biological father died at the end of Season Two. This is the reason that her half-sister comes to town: to find out what happened to John Gilbert.

I just put the sequel through the beginning of the vetting process today. There's relief, excitement, and then panic ("Oh, shit, I need to finish the third one!"). 

So, trilogy is two-thirds complete with Blind Betrayal. Which means I have a few seconds to take a deep breath before I dive back in.

Lost Love will be book three. Hopefully out by early this summer. Book One made it to market in January and Book Two will be live any time now.

If you want to know more about Dead Ringer, look below!

2016 Releases

Last year didn't exactly go as planned for releases.

That's why this year, I'm airing on the side of conservative.

JCA  Novels:
There will be at least one full-length novel release this year. This will be a J. Carter & Associates novel. As for which one it will be, I'm not sure.

It could be Clear Line of Sight, which is focused on Marc Pearson and photographer Serena Bradley. I've been working on this story for a long time - it was originally a NaNoWriMo novel back in 2009, but Kat and Aidan kept interjecting themselves into the story. I pushed it to the back burner in order to concentrate more on Kat and Aidan.

Mock-up cover art.

The other strong possibility is Double Agent. I've been wanting to introduce Miranda Brennan, Kat's twin, for a long time. In fact, I pretty much know everything about her character and have since early on, similar to Elektra DeFlair.

Miranda is a fascinating character. She was the firstborn daughter, but given up in favor of Kat by their mother. She was adopted by a family that already had several kids. But they were different than the Winters family who later took in Kat. I won't say exactly how, but I will say Miranda has a lot more in common with Aidan than she does with Kat. Speculate about that as you will.

I made a decision to focus on Aidan's background before we delved into the relationship between the sisters, which is why Breaking Point preceded Double Agent. Miranda and Katherine's struggles continue throughout the series as evident by Blown Away.

The J. Carter & Associates series has always been about family at it's core. It is about relationships and the ties that bind people together - blood ties and otherwise. Aidan is running from his family. Kat is ignorant about her family. Lisa is bent on protecting her family. Jackson is discovering a family after having lost his own. The people who work there are a messed up and mixed up family, but they are a family. Marc is the big brother that Kat always wanted. He's the brother that Aidan never had. Jackson is the father Aidan always wanted. Kat had a family. She had parents and a sister who loved her once. But she also has her JCA family. Her real family.

Early on in the planning process, I tried to figure out how to keep Lisa in the series. Originally, she lived on and Kat became close to her. But the more I learned about Katherine, the less I could see her forgiving Lisa for giving her up. In time, yes. But they would never have been close because Kat had been betrayed before by Scott. To pretend that Lisa, Jackson, and Kat could be a perfect, happy family would have been disingenuous to the characters.

JCA Novellas:

Last year, I planned to release a 3-in-1 novella collection (in print for the first time!) and the third J. Carter & Associates novella. However, I've run into complications with the plot and I'm holding off work on Dead on Arrival at this time. Realistically, I can see it being released after Double Agent since the plots echo each other. It also might feature a character death or two.

Blood Ties Series:

I encountered lots of problems with Kindle Worlds this past year. Lots of problems. While these problems on the surface appear corrected, I am still hesitant to finish the series. I lost a lot of steam while handling various publishing issues. That being said, I dearly love this series and I do plan to continue it. It will not be as fast in releases as the Duality Trilogy was.

Mock-up cover art.

However, Stronger than Blood (the second book) is in progress and I hope to have a release date and cover copy to share soon. I have about six or more books planned. I think about a third of NaNo writing was related to this series.

Ideally, I would like to publish two more novellas from this series this year - one in the spring and another again in the fall. They have each run longer than the Duality ones in word count, far exceeding the planned length of approximately 15,000 words.

Releases In Review:

At least one full length novel from the J. Carter & Associates series will be released this year. Depending on the novel, I will publish the next novella, Dead on Arrival, either late this year or early next year.

The Blood Ties series hit a speed bump but is on track for one to two releases this year (Spring/Fall).

Other Plans:

I'm revamping the website and it will be moved to a paid address once I complete the updates. That's right, no more adding the ".webs.com"! I don't have a timeline for this yet.

I encountered some formatting issues with Steal You Away, at least on Smashwords. I'm in the process of updating and reformatting the entire file. Once it is uploaded, I will also update Amazon, Nook, and the print version as/if needed.

The new formatting is gorgeous, but time consuming since I had to completely strip the file of all formatting - including every chapter header, every italic, etc. My brain can only take so much at a time.

Happy New Year!

Edits and Upcoming Releases

Camp NaNo began on Wednesday. I set a moderate goal for 25,000 words after crashing and burning back in April. So far (as of this post, at least) I'm on track to finish.

While I'm jumping headlong into a sequel, I'm knee-deep in edits for Blood Ties #1. The Blood Ties series will likely be at least four 15,000 or so word novellas - maybe longer. They will be Kindle Worlds exclusives like the Duality Trilogy I wrote last year.

I'm hoping to release the first two in fairly quick succession. The fun part is that much of what I'm cutting from the first one fits better in the second. The difficult part is finding the balance between past and present scenes as well as the family parts and Liz's current relationship. 

While I work on that series, I'm also busy plotting the next three novels in the J. Carter & Associates series. 

The order is not yet set in stone, but here's the working theory:

#4 Clear Line of Sight
#5 Double Agent
#6 Life Support

Clear Line of Sight is Marc's chance to shine. When he saves Serena Bradley from a shooter, he uncovers a plot to kill the photographer. Now they have to go underground while Kat and Aidan try to figure out why she's a target. Kat and Aidan are meant to take the backseat after the events of Breaking Point to give them a chance to heal and decide what to do with the bombshells dropped on them.

In Double Agent, Kat finally comes face-to-face with her twin sister. But Miranda Brennan has an ulterior motive...she wants Kat's life. It's one seriously twisted sibling rivalry that I've been planning since Sole Survivor. 

Aidan is lying in a coma in Life Support after a car accident. His wife and infant daughter are missing from the crash site. Then Katherine wakes up in another state in the arms of another man. (Hooked yet?)

With any luck, there will be a new JCA book this spring (2016) with one a year after that. I have a working title and plot for the next novella (a possible fall 2015 release), but the early scenes aren't coming together as well as I had hoped. The working title is Dead on Arrival and it picks up where Blown Away left off.

However, I am working on the cover art for a three-in-one eBook and print edition of the three novellas. It will be the first time the novellas will be available in paper! Yay!

Now, it's back to work I go!

The Oft-Delayed BREAKING POINT

Let's face it - I'm not the most active blogger.

I could say that a resolution for 2015 would involve more blog posts. But I won't.

Why?

Well, the best reason would be for me to write more novels. The other reason would be that I forget to blog and then bam, it's been six months.

Fret not, dear readers. I will still occasionally blog - in the erratic style to which I'm sure you've all become accustom to.

Now, the topic of today's post is the third book in the J. Carter & Associates series. This book has been more of a headache than I anticipated. While writing Fatal Target, my head was chock-full of ideas for Breaking Point. Then I finished Fatal Target and the ideas dried up. Woops.

Honestly, I over-planned for 2014. I think I had six releases planned. Guess how many actually got done? (One. One whole novella.)

This novella, right here.

I was simply burned out and wanted nothing more than to sleep. Then when I wasn't sleeping, I stared at a blank page. Or, even better--worked on anything but Breaking Point. That's how Blood Ties came about (more on that later).

What's wrong with Breaking Point? My last major, complete 50K+ draft was written in 2008. There was no simple way to rework it, given that the previous two books were nearly complete rewrites of previous drafts. There were also two main characters in the draft we have yet to see in the series, who had to be written out. The tone was also lighter in some aspects.

Okay, cut the characters. Done. Well, next problem - how to make this a complete story then? Those characters contributed to some conflict in the third act. So I trashed the third act. You can see where this is going.

The villain remained. How Kat and Aidan met the villain and how Kat ended up taking a swim changed. Two scenes that stayed mostly the same were her abduction and her near-drowning. Even who rescues her changed.

One fun change was the introduction of Gwen DeFlair. We've seen Jesse DeFlair (a creepy cameo in Fatal Target) and we've heard about Patrick and Elektra DeFlair since book one. Gwen is one of my favorites because of her connection to Aidan. Like Kat, she's underestimated because of her gender. She's the child of a powerful figure, who happens to be a sadistic monster. Unlike Kat, she has siblings. She wasn't raised alone - she was protected by her brother. Gwen's the only girl in a sea of brothers and was born and raised in a man's world.

Final cover art!

Gwen plays a big role in Breaking Point. In order to put her in her role, there was another complication - how to get Aidan into trouble and keep him from saving the day.

All I can say is - he's gotta lotta mommy issues.

Thanks to the maze of drafts, health setbacks, and everyday life, I'm proud to finally announce the eBook release date of January 25th, 2015 for Breaking Point. I sincerely think it will be worth the wait. I scrapped a lot of words and reorganized, reedited, and read, then reedited again and rewrote some more in order to make it the exciting book I hope you'll all enjoy reading.

Kat's story takes a backseat as we learn more about Aidan and where he came from - and why he's so determined to protect Kat.

I can't wait for you guys to (finally) read it!

Switching Gears

Earlier I mentioned Blood Ties as one of my diversions. My last blog post mentioned the Duality Trilogy I wrote under the Kindle Worlds imprint. Blood Ties is a saga also set in The Vampire Diaries world. Blood Ties is about the bonds between family. It's the story of the Salvatore family from the 1860s to present day with one major addition - Elizabeth, Stefan's twin sister, and the only person to survive the Battle of Willow Creek and her brothers' bloodlust. Left alone in 1864, devastated by the death of her family, Elizabeth marries to save the family estate. In 2009, Lizzy Salvatore befriends a human historian writing a book on the Battle of Willow Creek while Damon terrorizes their home town and Stefan falls in love with a doppelganger named Elena.

Book One

Over the decades and into centuries, the Salvatore siblings fight and often separate but they're still drawn together by the blood they share.

I've been doing a lot of researching and planning for this series, plus some rough drafts on FanFiction.Net as preparation. It's part historical saga and part romance.

Thicker than Blood is the first part, tracing mainly the 1860s from Katherine's arrival to Elizabeth becoming a vampire, along with modern-day Lizzy's budding relationship with Sam and reuniting with both her brothers in Mystic Falls. I have an arc of three-to-four titles planned. I hope to announce a release date for the first novella soon.

Reviews and Readers

I love to connect with and hear from my readers. It's one of the great joys and privileges of being a writer. It's also a great responsibility.

I do read reviews of my work. It's an avenue of contact and I love feedback. I like to know what parts you, the readers, enjoyed and loved, the characters that you care about, and also what you didn't like. I listened when the early reviews complained about the confusion of the timeline in SOLE SURVIVOR. I went back and rearranged scenes as necessary and added a timeline to all editions to help clarify the flow of events.

What makes sense to me and to some readers is confusing to others. I respect that.

Before turning my focus to original thrillers, I was a fan fiction writer. I wrote dozens of stories over the years. Some are riddled with mistakes and typos, but I learned from them and readers enjoyed them and continue to enjoy them. I learned what readers liked and what worked and didn't work. I explored and played in established worlds and had support and encouragement from many readers. I also had criticism. It's part of being a writer. It helps us to learn and grow.

I miss the connection between myself and the readers. That's why I read my reviews and why I'm on Goodreads. It's why I try to maintain an active web presence. I am here. I want to hear from you.

Yes, bad reviews hurt. Yes, I have a thick skin. But if you are a reader invested in my writing, I want to know what falls flat to you. I want to know what bothers you or what didn't work. I want to know that you feel a story let you down.

I love Jo dearly. I thought by cutting out scenes already shown in the show, it would work better. Knowing that it fell flat tells me I was wrong. And that's okay. I will own up to my mistakes.

And because of that, I will be reviewing all three novellas to tighten up and add scenes and help the flow. I will pay particular attention to the third one, FINAL SACRIFICE, and I hope that with corrections it will meet the expectations of readers and perhaps, exceed them.

When corrections are completed, I will post information on my Facebook, Twitter, and other outlets so you, the readers, can take another look. I hope the changes will smooth over any inconsistencys that stuck in your throats before and will hopefully allow me a second chance at your loyalty.

Please, please, feel free to reach out to me. Email me. Message me on Twitter or Facebook. Review my works on Goodreads or Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I want to hear from you. I do. I write not just for myself, but for you, the readers. I want you to feel the same joy I do at following characters on a journey and seeing them overcome obstacles.

So, please, reach out. Find me on Twitter @tmcarper or on Facebook (www.facebook.com/TMCarper) or email me directly at tmcarper@gmail.com .

Mini-Blogs: Catch-up!

Since the last mini-blog, I took a full-time job and was later let go  (too many people, not enough work), FATAL TARGET hit eReaders, and I've been working on a limited series. Here's the latest!

FATAL TARGET Release

After numerous setbacks, FATAL TARGET, the second book in the J. Carter & Associates series, was released over the summer. The print edition is being formatted and should release later this month (original release was scheduled for September, but computers caught fire, files got eaten, and so on).

The very end is one big clue as to what's going to happen in the sequel, BREAKING POINT.

BREAKING Up is Hard to Do

Book three is all about Aidan. So far, we know pretty much everything about Katherine. But Aidan's a mystery. Anyone who's read FATAL TARGET has gotten a glimpse of his past. But in BREAKING POINT, we get to see why he's more than happy to forget the past.

Meet Elektra DeFlair. Not so affectionately known as the Black Widow, she's in charge of a ruthless group that's had a bunch of unpleasant run-ins with Jackson and J. Carter & Associates. She's also a mother of five kids--four sons and a daughter. She shows no compassion or mercy toward her enemies or her children.

Elektra isn't just a rival--she's Aidan's mother. And she has nothing but hatred for Katherine.

BREAKING POINT will be out in early 2014. Cover art will be released soon as well as a brief first look.

Limited Edition

I was very mum about Duality prior to the release of the first novella. I wasn't sure I could pull off another series, especially one in fan fiction universe with such a loyal fan base I'd never written for. I gathered my nerves and embarked on one hell of a journey.

Duality is the story of two sisters who share a face. They're not identical, but their similarities pull them both into a dangerous world filled with supernatural creatures. Elena is a doppelganger--a dead ringer for a woman named Katherine Pierce who lived five hundred years previous. Doppelganger blood is the only cure for a curse placed on an Original vampire.

Then comes Joanna. Raised by her mother with infrequent visits from her absentee father, she knows the truth about vampires. She also knows what her half-sister is. What she doesn't know is how much they look alike.

When John Gilbert disappears, Jo travels to his home town of Mystic Falls to track him down. Instead of finding her father, she finds her mirror image and catches the attention of the Original hybrid Klaus. And that all happens within the first few pages of BROKEN MIRROR.

Jo's story continues in SHATTERED TRUST, which just came out about two weeks ago, and concludes in FINAL SACRIFICE, which is due to come out early December 2013. All three books are part of the Kindle Worlds program and are Kindle-exclusive novellas.

I love Jo and I'm having a blast playing around in Mystic Falls, but I can't wait to get back to the gang of J. Carter & Associates with several new releases in 2014.

Extras

~ If you haven't already, take a peek at the new site dedicated to the JCA series over at http://www.jcarterassociates.webs.com

~ AGAINST THE CLOCK is getting a sequel! BLOWN AWAY will pick up Lara and Neil's story with an explosion at the office that threatens the lives of everyone and brings back an old enemy bent on destroying Aidan Murphy. The eBook novella will be $0.99 and details are to come. I'm aiming for a January 2014 release.

~ An updated paperback version of SOLE SURVIVOR is now available! It includes the timeline, excerpts, and the new cover. Plus, page numbers! It's on CreateSpace and will be available on Amazon and through other outlets in the coming weeks.

SOLE SURVIVOR Paperback Release & Other Works

Paperback cover

Just a reminder that SOLE SURVIVOR can also be ordered in paperback, not just e-book. However, the e-book edition is just $1.99 as is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, and through Smashwords in a variety of formats.


The sequel, FATAL TARGET, is in progress and should be available either in August or early fall at the latest.

For more adventures from the crew at J. Carter & Associates, check out the novella AGAINST THE CLOCK and the script version which is on my website for free. The novella is $0.99 and is available through all major e-book outlets including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. 


Hopefully, this will keep readers busy while I work on STEAL YOU AWAY (cover art coming soon!) and TRUST NO ONE.


And here's an exclusive excerpt from FATAL TARGET:

May 5^th, 2007

                “..Happy birthday to you!” sang the gathered group. There were a dozen people crowded into the small apartment’s living room. At the center of the commotion, her face flushed red from embarrassment, sat Katherine. Beside her, his crooked smile wide, sat her boyfriend and confidante.

                Candles glowed in the darkened room. She took a deep breath and blew. The flames flickered out, smoke trailing, as their friends clapped.

                “I’m gonna kill you for this,” she hissed through clenched teeth at Aidan.

                “You know you love it.”

                An ear-piercing whistle cut through the noise. “Stop making faces, Kat, and let’s cut that damn cake. I’m starving.”

                The overhead lights flipped on with a buzz. She rolled her ice blue eyes at the voice. Marc Pearson leaned against a wall, quite at home, with a beer in his hand. As usual, he wore all black, the shirt tight-fitted over well-defined muscles.

                “Just for that, you don’t get a piece.”

                He pouted. “That’s harsh.”

                “Suck it up, Pearson.”

                Katherine stood up, her legs draped in dark denim. Aidan followed her lead, a hand resting against her waist, as he guided her through the small crowd.

                In the kitchen, her cake waited, devoid of candles, with a knife. A stack of small paper plates and forks lay beside it on the countertop. Aidan took up the knife, cutting deftly through the sheet cake.

                “Which piece do you want, babe?” he asked.

                “Give me a flower.”

                He nodded, cutting out a large blue flower on a corner for her. With the birthday girl’s piece secured, he sliced a neat grid through the cake, methodically cutting pieces. Kat helped transfer the cake to plates, passing them and forks around their friends.

                Once the majority of the cake was gone, Kat took her piece. She devoured the frosted flower first, blue icing tinting her lips. She didn’t care as she munched on the moist yellow cake. Aidan leaned against the counter beside her, a narrow slice in his hands.

                “Good cake?”

                “Delicious,” she mumbled, her mouth full.

                Aidan grinned. “Happy Birthday, Katy. I love you.”

                “Love you too.”

A Hop, A Skip, and A Jump...

I love working with series characters. I do. It's great to know a lot of background, history, and information about your chracters. I enjoy it. I know their childhoods, their fears, their future plans, and even the names of their children.

Because of this, I like to bounce around on the timeline and write out of order. I've probably got about a dozen different stories I've started ranging from the immediate follow-up to SOLE SURVIVOR to ten or more years in the future.

My latest proejct, in addition to polishing and revising FATAL TARGET, is a novella. The interesting part about this novella is that it takes place about 20-some years past the events of SOLE SURVIVOR in the future, where characters are older, have children, and are more secondary to the main story.

The main premise is that a young woman wakes up to find herself buried alive. Her captor is playing a game of wits with her sort-of boyfriend/childhood best friend. She has to help herself survive while he tries to unravel the riddles left by her kidnapper. The main problem is that the bad guy doesn't play fair and has rigged his game in such a way that they are sure to lose.

The hero and heroine are the children of some series favorites. In particular, one is the daughter of Katherine and Aidan, and the other is Marc's son.

It's fun to dabble in the future and to have a basic trajectory for your characters. I love all of my characters and I enjoy knowing so much about their lives. It's a bit like coming home after a long trip when I get to work with most of the crew at J. Carter & Associates. Working with their families and so on is an added perk.

I look forward to sharing more adventures in the future. For now, I'm going back to writing.