Blog Archives

Chapters 1 – 4 of Still Sucks to Be Me…Even in Paris have been sent out!!

Posted on February 8, 2013
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Whew! As promised, I have now sent out chapters 1 through 4 of Still Sucks to Be Me…Even in Paris to my newsletter subscribers. SO excited! I can’t wait to a) hear what everyone thinks and b) find out which direction they want the story to go in next!

By the way, if you haven’t signed up for the newsletter yet, it’s not too late! Sign up now and don’t miss another chapter (you can email me at kim@kimberlypauley.com for the previous ones).

And here’s a bonus for everyone…do you want to win the audio book version of Sucks to Be Me? Check out this giveaway on Facebook!

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New Year, New Stuff! Plus…Sucks to Be Me 3 News!

Posted on February 4, 2013
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Hello! (Hang on, this is gonna be a long post, but there’s lots of big stuff so read on…)

Well. It’s February. 2013. Where did last year go? Me, I’m just happy to be here and I don’t say that lightly. We had a crazy end of the year – or, actually, start of the new year. On New Year’s Day we had a fire in the house.

First off, let me assure you that we’re all okay and that there was no permanent damage done. My husband was able to put it out right after it started. But, it was a close call, one of those twisty twist of fate type of things.

IF it had happened at night, there’s a good chance I wouldn’t be here right now.  None of us would. The electrician who came after told us we ought to buy a lottery ticket because if the fire had gone on for 2 minutes more it would have hit the main circuit box (or whatever that thingy is called) and the whole house would have gone, likely taking us with it. Our smoke alarm hadn’t even gone off before my husband got the fire out. Yay, hero hubby!

IF it had happened on a normal non-holiday Monday, none of us would have been home and we would have come back to the charred remains of everything we own. I have no idea what we would have done. All our family is in the US.

But here I am. I don’t want to make too much of it as everything did turn out as well as it possibly could have, but I do feel like it was a reminder of how short and fragile life is. And a reminder to move on and get going and get moving and get…doing!

So, that said, lemme tell you what else is going on and what my plans are for this year. Last year was a bit of a wash, writing-wise (other than the release of Cat Girl’s Day Off). I had health issues (nausea! migraines! oh my!), we moved house, and…well, life. I won’t bore you with details. I did finish a book last year (Ask Me), happily.

And I also wrote quite a bit on Mina #3, which I know many of you are waiting for news on. So…I’ve got good news and bad news on that.

Bad news first. Brace yourselves. I’ve tossed the greater portion of what I wrote on book 3 last year. Before you scream at me, please know that I haven’t done that lightly. For various reasons, it was best to do so. It just wasn’t doing Mina justice. It wasn’t the story I needed to tell or how I needed to tell it. It just wasn’t right. Sometimes those things happen. Horrible and frustrating, I know — and not just for me, but for you.

Okay. Whew. Still here? Now for the good news.

Starting this week on Friday, February 8th, I will be releasing via my newsletter the first four chapters of the book (disclaimer: obviously, these haven’t been copy edited…). At the end, there will be two or three choices and instructions for subscribers to vote on the next course of action for Mina and/or other characters to take. Kind of a Choose Your Own Adventure kind of thing (remember those?).

I will then be taking your votes and writing the next chapter or chapters. In two weeks time, the additional chapter or chapters will be sent out to newsletter subscribers with another vote to make on story direction. And so on.

VERY IMPORTANT: I manage my newsletter through Vertical Response. After you sign up, they will auto-generate a verification email. YOU MUST RESPOND to this to get the newsletter. If you have issues with this, please send me an email at kim@kimberlypauley.com and I will forward it to them. Thanks!

Here are the answers to what I anticipate will be the frequently asked questions about this:

Why every two weeks? Why not tomorrow??

I have other writing commitments that I have to keep. And, besides, I have to allow some time for the votes to be made & tallied and then I have to write it in between those other commitments. I’m hoping I can keep the two-week schedule but I’ll be honest…if I hit a deadline, this will be the thing that, by necessity, slips.

You’re seriously going to write what we tell you to?

Um, yep. That said, I’m not allowing write-in votes so there aren’t going to be any “Mina meets an alien, falls in love, and moves to Mars” plot lines going on. I’ll give you two or three possible directions that you can vote on. I’ve already taken into consideration the feedback people have given to questions I previously posted.

Is this really free?

Yep. However, you have to be a newsletter subscriber to get the chapters sent to you. When the entire thing is done, I’ll get it all nicely formatted, have a cover image made, perhaps a spot of editing…and put it up as an eBook (Kindle, Nook, etc.) and possibly also as a “real” physical book as well (depending on interest) and everyone will have an opportunity to purchase it if they like in it’s final form.

Is there anything I can do to support this?

Absolutely! 1) Tell everyone you know about it and get them to sign up too, if they want to read the story. 2) Vote as early as you can, so I can get started writing as soon as I can. 3) I’d love it if you buy a copy of any of my current books out for sale (especially Cat Girl’s Day Off). Any sales do help. :)

What do I need to do now?

If you haven’t already, go sign up for the newsletter RIGHT NOW. If you’re coming into this late and you want to get the past chapters, e-mail me and I’ll send everything to date to you (if there wind up being a ton of requests for this, I’ll figure out a better system).

Are there any catches?

Potentially, yes. While I’m not expecting mass floods of people signing up for my newsletter to get the third Sucks to Be Me book, I’m also not going to keep writing it if there’s only like 10 people reading it (and yes, I can tell how many people open up newsletter emails…ah, the wonders of the Internet!). As much as I’d love those 10 people for following the story, I’ve got lots of other things I could be working on. So, please do spread the word. Share! Tweet! Shout it from the roof tops!

Oh, and by the way…frequent voters may see their names used in the story for characters…

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On dreams and a thoughtful article from @The_Millions

Posted on November 8, 2011
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Welcome to Autumn (our front window)

There are dreams and then there are Dreams. Of the former…I’ve been having really strange ones lately. Like mini-movies that may or may not actually include me in it (do other people have dreams they aren’t in or is it just me?). The kind where you wake up, heart racing, wondering what happens next. And then bummed because you’ve woken up and you’ll never know now.

I have stories that have started out that way (kinda like Stephenie Meyer, I know, but *not* at the same time…mine have never had sparkly vampires in them) and some of them might even turn into full-fledged novels one day. Though in the light of day, things that make sense in the dream-world, don’t always hold up well under scrutiny. Chimpanzee wearing a purple-striped bikini and eating an ice cream cone while standing on a rolling ball? Um, maybe not.

I often tend to dream really crazy dreams when I’m working on  a book. They don’t necessarily have anything to do with the book (Ask Me, for instance, definitely has no chimpanzees in it). Maybe they are just a by-product of your imagination working over time. After all, sometimes thorny plot issues have a way of solving themselves in those midnight hours.

As for Dreams with a big D…I’ve been wondering what mine really is now. Once upon a time, my Dream was to be a published author. And I am (since 2008! Whoo!). Was it a dream come true? Well, not totally (not that I’d trade it for the world! But no matter what you think it will be like, it’s not it). And while I’d love to have a Big Dream like hitting the NYT’s Bestseller list, I don’t really want that to be my Dream, you know? I’d like something, well, bigger. More meaningful and less commercial-y feeling.

What is it? I dunno yet.

What’s your dream? (don’t worry, I’m not going to co-opt it. Well, unless it’s really good…)

In writing-ish-ness, I’m still working on Ask Me. Need to finish it up in the next month before the holidays really kick in and The Max is off from school. Some days it is really flowing. Other days…pulling teeth, dude, pulling teeth. I like the story though. And the main character, Aria, even though I know I’m about to make her life really, really miserable.

On Cat Girl’s Day Off, the copy edit is all done and the galleys are about to come to me for a final review (maybe today or tomorrow! Ack!). The ARC cover has been settled on (love it). Only disappointing note is that I came up with a too-late-to-use title idea. But hey, if I get to write a sequel, I’ve got a great title for it now. So that’s something.

It was just so perfect. Sigh. My editor liked it too, but it was too late since the sales people have been out since September with sell sheets.

And in Sucks to Be Me third book-ish news…honestly, I really still don’t know what to do there. I do so love it that you guys email me and leave comments every week asking about the status. I am just so leery of self-publishing (though I don’t see that I have a choice in the matter if I want to get it out there). And the first two books are still selling (and have apparently reached far away places like Malaysia–thanks, Dylan, for the picture of my books in a store there!). I was reading this article on The Millions and it really rings true to me.

Though the idea of getting funding through Kickstarter is appealing to me and it looks like there are writers who have successfully done this (and then I could use that money to actually produce a physical copy of the book, not just an eBook, which is something I’d really like to do). Of course, if I did that I’d have to come up with some really cool things for backers…*thinks* Basically, the Kickstarter funding would replace the advance I would normally get from a publisher and cover some advertising and production costs. I have to look into that. It has definite possibilities. If anyone has any ideas related to that, I’m all ears. I don’t think (at least, not how things stand currently in publishing) that I want to normally self publish stuff…I like having a publisher to do the grunt work so I can concentrate more on the writing-y bit. But it may work for a third Sucks to Be Me book.

But first I have to finish Ask Me.

As a bonus for actually reading this long rambling blog post and getting this far, here’s a snippet that has not yet been worked into the book (but will be soon…though it may not survive exactly as written below…):

“Will?” I called again, louder this time. I stood by his car and switched my flashlight off to save the battery I had left. It wasn’t fair that I couldn’t ask myself questions and get answers. I tried it, even though I knew it wouldn’t work. It never had before. “Where is Will?” I said, feeling silly.

“Here.” He came up behind me, putting his hands on my shoulders and leaning forward. “Right here.” I could feel his breath on my right ear. I turned around and found myself nose to nose with him, literally. I backed up, but his car was in the way.

“Hi,” I said, suddenly wondering how my breath was. I hadn’t anticipated being quite this close to him. I swallowed and resisted the urge to lick my lips. Only girls in movies did that.

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On serializing (not serial killing)

Posted on September 13, 2011
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So. I’m still thinking about serializing the continuation of the Sucks to Be Me series (Sucks to Be Moi). Still waiting to see how the short story goes and what the reception is. So far, 142 people have downloaded it for free from Smashwords and the feedback has been good. Of course, since I have it up there for free, I can’t put it on Amazon (there’s a minimum of 99 cents), which cuts down on how many people see it. And from this weird message I got from Smashwords, I don’t think they approved it for wider distribution onto Barnes & Noble, etc. (apparently, they don’t like serialized fiction?), which is a pain.

As an aside, anyone know of any other places to post short stories that are reputable and also fairly widely used?

I did see an article yesterday about author Omar Tyree who is serializing a novel chapter by chapter. A new chapter will be offered every week for a $1 each or get them all for a $7.95 monthly subscription (with the story being posted over a 3 or 4 month period). I’m curious to see how that will go for him. Of course, he’s been around longer than I have :) and has 19 books under his belt whereas I only have three (counting Cat Girl’s Day Off coming next year! Woot!). He’s also planning on making tweaks to the story based on reader input, which is something I was planning as well. Heck, a character is based on a fan (Astrid, after she won the contest).

I guess my biggest wonder is whether serialized fiction can work for a teenage audience. I’m not planning on charging for each chapter (was instead thinking of splitting the book into three or four chunks and releasing it that way). So, total charge if you bought all the chunks would be $3 or $4 dollars versus however much Omar’s book winds up at (I’m guessing it’ll be around $30 for his by the end). I also wasn’t planning on posting weekly either, though. Since I’m thinking bigger chunks, it would be some time between each. I dunno. I just really dunno what is best or what will actually work and be worthwhile to do (for me and for readers). Sigh.

At any rate, on other things…the designer at my publisher is starting on the Cat Girl book, which I am super excited about. I can’t wait to see what they do. And The Max is at school and I’ve got some writing time. Which I should probably stop taking up by blogging…erm. So, ah, off to write!

(on the darker YA Not-So-Secret-Sekrit Project, if you were wondering)

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Congrats to @LoveReadingX ! & you wanna be in the story?

Posted on August 26, 2011
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Congrats to @lovereadingx, the winner of the random contest I had the other day. :)

In other news, I had a fun idea. Anyone who comments and/or rates the new Sucks to Be Moi short story on Smashwords has a chance at their name being used in the next installment (Part 1) of the story.

So far, nearly 50 people have downloaded the story. How about you?

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Sucks to Be Moi (Prelude)

Posted on August 24, 2011
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Sucks to Be MoiSo. I’m pleased to announce that I’ve (finally) posted the short story that’s the prelude to the third book in the Sucks to Be Me series. (Read it now! Read it now! … not so subliminal suggestion…)

Woot!

And here’s the cover. What do you think?

The short story features a new character, Astrid, who is based on the real-life Astrid Villareal who won the contest to appear in a short story with Mina.

Sucks to Be Moi: More All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton Smith, teen vampire (Prelude)

The short story actually turned into a prelude for the third book. And here’s the plan…as you might have read, the publisher of the first two books is no longer publishing the series because they’re going back to just D&D. I’m working on other books (like Cat Girl’s Day Off), but I would like to finish Mina’s story (and many of you write me every week asking about it). So…I’m planning on releasing the third book in installments in eBook format (kindle, smashwords, etc.) myself at reasonable prices (Yikes. Words I never thought I would say, but hey, the market is changing).

Of course, this only works if people actually buy it. This prelude story is absolutely free and gives you a taste of what the third book will hold. If you like it, please share it and please let me know. I don’t yet have a date for the first installment of the third book (I’m thinking I’ll probably release it in three or four chunks, each chunk having some type of resolution so you’re not left completely hanging). I’ll be completely transparent and honest here. If no one reads this story (and there’s no feedback or ratings for it indicating people actually like it), I have no reason to go on to write the rest of the book and I’ll just concentrate on writing the other books I have in progress.

So if you want to see more of Mina, it really and truly is up to you.

I hope you enjoy the story.

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And so the story begins…(literally)

Posted on August 4, 2011
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Today I got to work on the new Mina short story featuring the contest winner, Astrid. It’s really interesting trying to get back into Mina’s head since in between the time I finished up Still Sucks to Be Me and now I’ve been in Nat’s head (Cat Girl’s Day Off) and in Aria’s (my current work-in-progress). All three very different people. I had to pick up one of my shiny new paperback copies of Still Sucks to Be Me to refresh myself.

Of course, it’s actually harder to get back into first person, present tense than it is to get back into Mina’s head. It’s just such a different way of writing.

Anyway, I’m 1600 words into the new story which isn’t *just* a short story. I’d say it’s also the start of the third book (wherever or however that’s going to go in the long run I dunno, but we’ll see). And, just for you…here’s a tiny little sneak peek at the very first bit:

Myth: Vampires keep to themselves.
Truth: Hey, we’re as friendly as the next fanged bloodsucker.

I hate airports. Actually, I hate airport security. I especially hate that point where you have to empty your pockets of everything, step through some weird time-machine looking contraption, and smile politely or risk being frisked by total strangers. But mostly I hate the part where everyone takes off their shoes.

Having a vampire-ized supersniffer really, really, really sucks sometimes.

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Win a short story featuring YOU & Mina from Sucks to Be Me!

Posted on June 3, 2011
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So, the paperback release of Still Sucks to Be Me is coming up (according to Amazon & Barnes & Noble, it is July 12th) and that means I gotta celebrate, right? Which really means I gotta do something fun for my readers. I thought I’d do something a little different from the normal giveaways that I’ve done before.

Yep, that’s right…you can win a custom, completely new short story from me featuring YOU and Mina (and other characters from the books). We’re not talking some cookie cutter story where I just plug in a name. Nope, it’s not written yet and won’t be until a winner is picked. I’ve honestly got no idea what I’ll even write (it’ll depend on YOU and how you answer some questions…). I’ll stick the story up on Smashwords as well so the whole world can read it and YOU can help continue Mina’s story.

So, whaddaya gotta do to win?

To enter, buy a copy of Still Sucks to Be Me in ANY format (hardcover, paperback, audio book, ebook, etc.) and e-mail me proof of purchase (a picture of you with the book somewhere other than a bookstore :) or a receipt or whatever). If you already own a copy, that’s fine (and hey, thanks!). If you want an EXTRA entry, publicize this contest on Facebook or Twitter or your blog and e-mail me (kim at kimberlypauley dot com) the link so I know.

Grand Prize: YOU in a freshly written short story featuring Mina & other characters from the Sucks to Be Me novels plus a signed bookplate for your book(s) & an assortment of Sucks to Be Me and Still Sucks to Be Me temporary tattoos.

Second Prize: A Sucks to Be Me T-shirt of your choice

Consolation Prizes: (10 awarded) Signed bookplate & an assortment of Sucks to Be Me and Still Sucks to Be Me temporary tattoos and, hey, my undying gratitude for being a reader :)

Entries must be received by July 31, 2011. This contest is open worldwide.

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