Scott Moon

Ch-ch-ch-changesLast week, after two months without caffeine, I broke down and had a large, black coffee at Starbucks. They call a large a Venti, I think. As you might guess, my sophistication, or lack thereof, concerning coffee is rather obvious. All previous intake has been via my ten dollar coffee maker or gas station brew. Once in a blue moon I drank the good stuff. An expert barista, I am most definitely not.Why the return to artificial stimulation? Well, I believe (insert laughter here) that I can drink coffee in moderation, that is to say not right before bed. (For the last thirty years it was not uncommon for me to slam down a 44 oz of diet coke on the drive home from work and then hit the sack. And I did sleep. You bet. Weird, huh?) I am currently studying for a promotional exam while simultaneously finishing the first draft of my work-in-progress, a science fiction /  steam punk masterpiece that I love dearly (Her Majesty the Queen).On go-juice induced berserker rage ended with 7,400 extremely raw words splashed across my narrative arc.

That first cup of coffee after so many weeks was markedly different than the previous lifetime of caffeine saturated experience. In the past, I just didn’t feel it. Consumed in moderation, or at least on a reasonable schedule, coffee is my new best friend. I will not be going back to diet soda, mostly for fear of the mysterious chemical cocktail that had me so addicted to the stuff–you know, making midnight runs for a two liter and drinking diet soda with every single bite of every single meal.Then I Realized I Had a ProblemThe coffee I made at home tasted bad and the stuff at my favorite gas station convenience store was not good. With nothing left to do but throw myself on the ground and curse fate, I turned to the internet to learn how to make good coffee. I started with Starbucks here. Taste TestAlong comes Monday morning. I don’t work until later. The wife just went to work and the kids are at school. It is time for some experimentation and a taste test. Since I am not a professional, or even skilled barista, please refer to the Starbucks link above for an explanation of how I made the two kinds of coffee by coffee maker and by coffee press.

ResultsDoes a coffee press really make significantly better coffee? Survey says, oh hell yes! The red cup, which you will see in the author profile picture guarding access to this top secret information at the top of the page contains freshly ground Starbucks coffee made in a press. I am fairly impressed with myself right now. And just to be clear, the red cup / blue cup comparison is merely because I like these two cups; it has nothing to do with the red pill / blue pill dilemma in the Matrix.

This is not only the secret to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and writing, but to life!

Writer’s ParadiseAround this time, I also started meeting with Josh Hayes (author of Second Star: Breaking Through and The Forgotten Prince) at Barnes and Noble or Mead’s Corner (a local coffee shop). We discuss writing, but mostly we set a timer and do writing sprints. This has helped my motivation immensely. I highly recommend the practice. Call me a complete writing geek, but I would rather do this than any other “social” activity.”Thanks for stopping by and reading this article. Please take a look at my author page and see if you or anyone you know might enjoy my science fiction or urban fantasy / horror novels.Have a great day!

​Do you have limited writing time but big goals? Are you a writer? If so, are you meeting your writing goals? Writing is a passion, one usually cobbled together from stolen moments and highs of inspiration. But if you get the writing bug and you get it bad, finding enough time is often a source of frustration. Why write more? Because fans like to read more. That is my number one answer. I’m a reader as well as a writer. I’ve fallen in love with a series that I’ve stayed with for 3 years and am now anxiously awaiting the last book – which should come out in two years. That is a whole lot of anxious waiting! And let’s not talk about another story I love that currently exists as short stories spread across several e-zines and books. I have meticulously copied all of them to one spot. I am her number one fan. She has plans to write a book … someday. I want to cry. So yeah, keeping fans from becoming the frustrated and then jaded reader I am today is definitely a goal. When I was a teenager, a new book a year was acceptable. It still is, even though THAT was quite a while ago and long before ebooks. Now, a new book every six months is considered a professional target. More often is great. Fans want to be filled with anticipation – not angst. And professional is the other reason to write and release more books, great books. Because let’s face it, if you have any hope of making a decent income from writing, one where you can potentially scale back that full time job to write, you either need to write and release more or have a really good retirement plan lined up. I’m not a teenager anymore, but I don’t want to wait that long to write full time! So I committed myself to writing more and writing better because I not only love it, but want to make it a career. With a lot of trial and error, I developed seven key techniques and five writing tools that worked. How well? I wrote 4 ½ books in a year and they are the best I’ve written so far.

To be clear, I’m not talking about typing faster. Who cares how fast you typed a page if you end up deleting it? Meeting a writing goal of producing more novels in a year means creating a great story faster. And there are tips, tricks, and tools to do that. It is a paradigm shift to believe writing more in a limited time is achievable. It is possible. I’m proof. But I want to be more than proof. I want to help other writers do the same thing. Seriously! Writing time is a limited resource. Use it well. I’m serious about teaching this to other authors. So serious that I’m launching a pilot class to not only teach the seven techniques and those five customizable tools, but also to work one-on-one with the students to make sure those same tactics work for them. Everyone is different and in a different situation. I want everyone to be successful. Since this is a trial course with lots of coaching, enrollment is very limited. If you are interested in learning more please get in touch with me at autumn.birt@gmail.com  I’d love to talk to you!(Webmaster’s note: try accessing Autumn’s course here.)
Autumn Birt – Author ​Short Bio Autumn is a bestselling author in fantasy, epic fantasy, and war – not all on the same series though! She is the author of the epic fantasy, adventure trilogy on elemental magic, the Rise of the Fifth Order. Her newest series is Friends of my Enemy, a military dystopian/ dark fantasy tale laced with romance. Friends of my Enemy will be released in full in 2015 and will be quite the story full of strong characters, tight plots, and lots of action. Meanwhile, she is working on a new epic fantasy trilogy, Games of Fire, set in the same world as the Rise of the Fifth Order. If she stops goofing off and enjoying hobbies such as hiking, motorcycling, and kayaking, she may even be able to release the first book in 2015 too. Stop by her website and blog to learn more about the worlds of her books at www.AutumnWriting.com. You can also find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Author.Autumn.Birt or more frequently on twitter @Weifarer.

Last week I did a soft launch of Blood Royal and experienced good results with this and other titles. Sadly, sales and shares have dropped off for the last few days. No worries, because I had already planned a KDP Free Day promotion for 8-7-15.Which brings us to the oft asked question; do free days still work?My experience is that they do, but not like before. There is simply too much competition. In a free market, that means the consumer wins. So to look at the bright side I reminded myself that I am more of a book consumer than producer. For every book I publish I must read between twenty to one hundred fiction and nonfiction titles, depending on the length and complexity of my work-in-progress.As usual, I am breaking some promotional rules. The best practice in the past has been to do at least two days free to build momentum. I think that works, but only if you have quality paid advertising on both days. Due to budget constraints, I am doing one day and using Bknights as my paid advertiser. With luck, I will combine Bknights with Freebooksy for my next promotion.Other writers do giveaways and actively pimp their newsletter. These are promotional methods I should use, and will, when I have more time. In the mean time I mostly write and play at designing book covers.In other news I am strongly considering putting up some of my titles for audiobook audition on ACX because my current narrator is between studios. He’s really good. Finding someone new has many dangers, but we’ll see, won’t we?If you haven’t scored a copy of Blood Royal, tomorrow (8-7-15) would be a good time to check the series out (keeping in mind that Blood Royal is episode 2).

Kin Roland and his companions move beyond the Battle of the Bleeding Ground to uncover the mystery of Earth Fleet versus the Mazz Empire. With the Crashdown wormhole closed, everything is changing. Aefel has friends in high places, in this case, the space station above Grendel. Are they willing to sacrifice everything to join him in a fight that can’t be won?
Today is going to be a busy but good day. I’ve committed to working on two projects. This seems like a bad idea, until I admit that I often have three to five stories going at once. And I am usually listening to an audiobook while driving and reading something on my Kindle phone app whenever I get a chance. So in the grand scheme of things, this is like focusing on the task(s) at hand with laser intensity.Last night I moved Weapons of Earth (Book Three in the Chronicles of Kin Roland) back into Scrivner. The complexity of the project requires a lot of notes. Scrivner, for all the headaches it causes me, is good for that kind of thing. I also have a really fun start on  episode three of the Grendel Uprising series, Heavy Weapons. I would like to have WOE ready for publication by my birthday month in October and HW ready in September. It’s doable, I think.The reason I started the Grendel Uprising series, was to stay fresh. The Chronicles of Kin Roland is a four book series with two currently in print. Each book is about 85k to 90k. About 51k of Weapons of Earth is done. About 20k of book four, King of Hellsbreach, is complete as well. I really enjoy writing in this universe. It is a big project and a lot of work.For variety, I started the Grendel Uprising series with Proof of Death. The goal is to produce and publish one professionally edited story of 15k to 20k words a month. The June and July editions came out on schedule. I am crossing my fingers for August.Anyway, I should be writing fiction right now. So thanks for stopping by and have a great day.Scott

How Not to Launch a Book (or in this case a 19,000 word short story)There are dozens of things a writer should do when releasing a new book or novella. I know this because, like many modern day authors, I have read all the books on how to self-publish and promote. I know that releasing a new title should be a huge deal with lots of bells and whistles, ARCs flung to all corners of the globe, and swag piled high. There should be pre-scheduled reviews and paid marketing on all the reputable sites for the genre.Should be, but isn’t. Not this time.I love the Grendel Uprising universe. Creating it has sparked some of the most fun I’ve had in years. I just can’t wait to share the story, so as soon as I satisfied my editor and did a final proofread, I started the upload process. Blood Royal, Episode 2 in the Grendel Uprising series, is now winging its way through cyberspace toward an Amazon outlet near you.So let’s review. Proof Death is the first installment. Blood Royal is the second. The third, Heavy Weapons is a work-in-progress. The entire series has been outlined and is under constant development.So without further adieu, please welcome Blood Royal to publication.Grendel Uprising: Episode 2: Blood Royal Loyal servants of the Earth System Commonwealth must pick a side. The assassination of Emperor Dan Uburt-Wesson has thrown civilization into chaos and no interim government will have the strength to hold the galactic empire together. Rumors of betrayal and rebellion spread from star system to star system as the real battle begins in the most unlikely place. Official news sources have (wrongly) confirmed that every member of the Imperial family is dead. The formation of a new galactic order is imminent. The Earth System Commonwealth has outlived its usefulness.Only a handful of powerful people know that Aefel 70391, a decorated veteran of the First Armored-infantry Lightning Division, has located four juveniles that will change history. Can Aefel and his unlikely allies protect the Blood Royal? Has he chosen the wrong side?Grendel Uprising: Blood Royal sets the stage for a war of rebellion, domination, and what it means to be human in the age of the Earth System Commonwealth.The Grendel Uprising series combines science fiction and historical fiction. The setting is at once a world similar to England and Scandinavia during the time of the Danelaw and a pan galactic empire of advanced technology and deadly political upheaval. During a more prosperous time, entrepreneurs developed entire worlds as historical reenactment societies and allowed nature to take its course. Financial disaster took the planet of Grendel completely offline. There are precious few men or women who remember how they came to the alien world. Now they will face the godlike destruction of modern warfare.