Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

There are only 2-3 boxes left to open, mostly books. The apartment is taking shape. Hope the decorator comes soon to hang all the pictures. My writing space doesn't overlook Broadway and the Hudson River now, but it is quiet and roomy and has a full bath. I could sleep in here! 

My daughter still struggles with joint pain associated with Fifth Disease or Parvovirus infection. This is not a pleasant infection for adults. She feels like she’s been hit by a truck. In children, the infection begins with a distinctive bright red facial rash usually on the cheeks. I arrived in NYC on Monday. My grandson came home from day camp on Wednesday with signs of the rash. The person is contagious before the rash appears. Will I get the infection, too? Possibly. We’ll see how I feel in a couple of weeks.

I received a page of notes from a beta reader yesterday. Here are a few comments about The Last MacKlenna:

• First, let me say your opening chapter hooked me immediately. You are a tight writer who is easy to read, but also I felt like I knew Meredith intimately at the end of it. As an author, I found myself admiring that you got the gist of the story (or what I assumed to be the gist) all covered in that one chapter. I was late for an appointment because I only had time for one chapter, but ended up reading two :)
• At the end of Chapter 6 and I find I am enamored of your characters. I like Elliott as much as I like Meredith. They are both engaging and full of depth. Nice work on them here. Loving the story so far.
• I read from Chapter 7 through Chapter 30-something. I stopped keeping track. At 3AM I stopped with about 40 pages left. I just couldn't stay awake to finish.
• I cried at page 257 when he prayed for her. That was my first real jag that took me a bit to get over. I was teary a couple of times during the read, but holding up until then.
• Your writer expertise (well crafted wording, nice pacing, great chapters, good dialogue, etc) pulled me along even when emotionally I wanted to stop reading about so much pain. You tell a good story, Kathy. I was engaged with it the whole time I was reading. There was never a point at which I was remotely tempted to stop reading, even though I kept feeling rung out from the emotional roller coaster ride of their lives
• As a side note, I simply loved your command of the Scots-English dialect. It was just enough to charm me, yet not enough to need a translation book to read the story. Nice balance and nice touch.
• This is definitely a contemporary book, even though it's set in multiple global locations. Moving around was fine. Lots of those "billionaire" romances do the same. You handle the movement well and I appreciated the notation about it on a chapter by chapter basis
• The only other comment I have is that the sheer amount of emotional trauma in the book might edge it into "chick lit" or "women's fiction". Try not to be too concerned if you get reviews along those lines. This book is good and will likely be well received no matter what category readers end up thinking it is.

I’m adding all the comments into one master document. As soon as I receive notes from the last three readers, I’ll start making revisions that should’t take more than a day. I think this is a good way to make revisions from multiple readers. If more than one person comments on the same section then I really need to look closer at that particular section. It's also interesting that all the "fresh eyes" have found different punctuation and grammatical mistakes. 

I didn’t get out for a run yesterday. Today is a “must run” day even if I only do a short 3-miler.

Have a great day and happy writing & running, Kathy

~*~

If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again: 

1. Writability: 9 Distractions for Waiting Writers http://ow.ly/nBBy1
2. VIDEO: Audience Development for Writers http://ow.ly/
3. Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors: When Not to Give an Interesting Character a POV http://ow.ly/nBBGy
4. Watch for Visually Distracting Phrases http://ow.ly/nBBJp
5. Writer Unboxed » 5 Reasons to Turn to Traditional Publishers Rather than Self-Publishing http://ow.ly/nBBLz
6. The Super-Secret and Incredibly Complicated Master Key to Internet Marketing | Copyblogger http://ow.ly/nBBP3
7. 5 Lies Writers Tell Themselves | Lauren Sapala http://ow.ly/nBD64
8. How To Use Data To Create A Fool-Proof Tweet Calendar - AllTwitter http://ow.ly/nBDeY
9. The Readers Sound Off! How They Read, What They Like and Where They Find Us | The Passive Voice | http://ow.ly/nBDiq
10. New Klout Controls Let You Influence Your Own Influence - SocialTimes http://ow.ly/nBDoB
11. One Simple Secret for Success as a Writer - Rachelle Gardner http://ow.ly/nBDBw
12. Facebook Embedded Posts: This Week in Social Media | Social Media Examiner http://ow.ly/nBDE6
13. The 5-Step Mission Statement (An Author Essential) | The Creative Penn http://ow.ly/nBDGm
14. 10 OneNote Features that Will Rock Your Writing World | Writers In The Storm Blog http://ow.ly/nBDJN
15. Another Update on ACX and My Thoughts so Far | Mystery Writing is Murder http://ow.ly/nBDNz @elizabehscraig
16. Why Choose Hootsuite Pro Over Hootsuite Free? http://ow.ly/nBEup
17. Novel Rocket: Things You'll Never Hear a Writer Say http://ow.ly/nBEx4
18. How to Create a Week’s Worth of EPIC Content From One Blog Post! — socialmouths http://ow.ly/nBEyQ

TWEETABLE:

Check out these links to writing & marketing blog posts. Click to Tweet.