Category: professional life

Death Scent is Launched, Audio Being Mastered, Book 2 Well Underway

Posted on by D. L. Keur

Death Scent, Jessica Anderson K-9 Mystery, Book 1

The eBook and the print versions of Death Scent are now out and getting wonderful reviews. I’m so thrilled. The audio is in the process of being mastered by my husband, but here are chapters 1 through 4 to get a taste of what it will sound like. (The zip file is available below for those who prefer to download and listen on their own devices.)

And in other news, yes, book 2 of the series is well underway and has been since January. It’s an exciting story to write, but, like Death Scent, there are places where I find it emotionally tough.

Chapter 1 – 9-1-1 Call

 

 

Chapter 2 – Trouble

 

Chapter 3 – Pertinents

 

Chapter 4 – Idaho Code

 

DOWNLOAD THE ZIP FILE

Why I Write.

Posted on by D. L. Keur

…Because I have to.  It’s a compulsion.  And, no, I’m not an obsessive-compulsive personality.  I am driven, yes.  I am passionate.  I am labelled a ‘high achiever’, though, when measured against the achievements others I know and what they accomplish in the same amount of time, I’m a slacker by comparison.

Someone asked me what genres I actually prefer to write.  I had to think about that, because, I love all the stories I write.  I love the characters, I love their stories.  But, when push comes to shove, when it comes to ‘genre’, I love writing science fiction.  As usual, though, I don’t write formula.  The aliens aren’t the bad guys.  Humans aren’t the heros.  There aren’t any bad guys and good guys, no good against evil.  Because that’s not really how reality works.  It’s all about perspectives.

A Gathering of Rebels, a story so big it took 2 books to tell it.

Changes at Amazon Important to Indie Authors

Posted on by D. L. Keur

I predicted it last year. (I shared those predictions with another author who’s a close pal …and with my webmasters’ group. Only.)

Click to see larger image Hit ESC on your keyboard to close the modal window.

It’s happened …when I predicted it would. (Yes, math still works.)

Click to see larger version. Hit ESC on your keyboard to close the modal window.

What does it mean?

It means that indie authors now really have to treat their vocations as a business or get out of the game. It means calculating in overhead, operating expenses, and COGS. It means pricing their books competitively, not giving them away, nor discounting them, except for planned promotional deals that run days, not weeks, months, or years. It means less ability for indie authors (or the trad published, either) to game the system with cooperative ventures. It means a lot more than that, but it’s not prudent for me to publicly share the rest of what I know, calculated, and project …except, of course, with my inner circle.

I Was Naughty Today …and Nice (I Guess) :D

Posted on by D. L. Keur

So I have this friend, and this friend’s website, which I threw together under emergency, “has-to-be-live-now” conditions, custom coding it in, quite literally, hours a few years back, NEEDS to be upgraded. …Because it’s going to fail soon. But this friend is very particular, so it’s very hard to get a semi-solid “this is what I envision” from them. I had a couple of “Dawn” ideas, but nothing I “knew” would gather any sort of approval. So I pulled a “sneaky” based on a mere passing mention that was made of another friend’s site, something I knew was built on bad coding, but that I knew I could hand-code myself if need be.

Now here comes the “sneaky/naughty” part:

First I displayed a site laid out much as the one already in place. After a couple of hours of working through this friend’s critique of it on the phone, I switched to a rough I’d coded on another design scheme, and, as I anticipated, this was definitive “no”. So then I pulled up a raw, stripped version of something I thought might be kinda sorta cool–good for cross compatibility (responsive-to-all-devices/mobile-first) yet allowed for a really professional presence that didn’t get ‘old’ to the eye or the brain. And it worked. This one is a go. …At least so far. We’ll see how this all works out after I get done custom coding it all out, then dressing it with content.  My fingers and toes are all crossed.  This is supposed to be a Christmas present for them to be launched with the advent of the new year. Wish me luck.