STATUS REPORT #132

EGADS !!!

I know I haven’t posted in the past month, but you know how the way plans and things can go awry at the worst possible moment. Well it did for me.

As I wrote last time I had just begun to get back to my old former self my dear OH reminded me, after I’d made my post that I had to go for jury that following Monday. It wasn’t regular jury duty, it was GRAND JURY; four days a week for four weeks hearing cases the DA [District Attorney] wants to prosecute and wants to know if the panel of jurors feel he’s got enough evidence to move forwards with his case, and between the cases we got to hear and we heard over 70 I had “free”, I got to do “whatever” I wanted to do.

Luckily, my dear OH had gifted me with a KINDLE reader; so, I did one of the things that I’m known to, which is the reading/reviewing of books. During the time I’d spent in the courthouse and time commuting I wound up reading about 30 books. As of the writing of this post I’m up to 862 reviews on Amazon.com with a Amazon Reviewer Ranking of 1,396 and if you’d like to read any of my reviews you’re invited to check out:

https://tinyurl.com/y83l8h4m
Naturally, once I got home I need to rest, check on my daily deluge of emails and to write my reviews; leaving little time for anything else. The weekends got spent relaxing, shopping and of course dining out with who else but you know who.

As for my writing, and that of my erotic self [Kathryn Heart], nothing really got accomplished aside from mapping out the rest of her erotic, BDSM debut novella entitled “The Transformation” which she now plans to completed within the next month and self-publication sometime in September.

Here’s hoping I’ll be able to get to posting everything I used to going forwards.

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STATUS REPORT # 131

I’m happy to say I’m finally get back to being my old self. I’ve picked up on the speed I’m reading/reviewing the books on my TBReviewed pile. I’ve now got 834 reviews on Amazon from a view variety of genres. Hopefully I’ll be able to obtain the goal I’ve set for myself for this year’s GoodReads Reading Challenge of 250 books. I’m going to post a somewhat new source from which I’ve been getting free books to read. It’s the summertime, so if you’re looking for the next book for you or your child to read, why not check out all of my reviews at:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A19QLCLVPLZH0B

While my own writing endeavors are still on the back burner, my erotic side has finally added about 1,300 words to one of her current endeavors, which now hopefully can be completed by the end of July. Once it’s ready to be published I’ll need to check out the publishing process from KINDLE/KDP is like, create a simplified cover design on my own.

I would love for you to check out both of my two books which are FREE with KINDLE UNLIMITED, so download and peruse them as I can use the funds to help me self-publish my endeavors.

https://www.amazon.com/Robin-Leigh-Morgan/e/B00BWXT4VU

Love

Robin Leigh

STATUS REPORT # 130

I seem to sleeping less during the day than I’d stated in my last update; at the same time I’m feel I’m still sleeping more than I believe I should be. On the other hand, I lost some weight and it’s staying off; but I’m still overweight and I want to lose about 15 lbs. by the end of July, with an additional 15 lbs. by the end of September; and definitely want to back to what I’d weighed 25 years ago by the middle of November when I said my I do to my dear OH.

While I’m still not reading/reviewing as many books as I did from January to April of this year; I’m still about 23 books ahead of schedule according to GoodReads in meeting my target of 250 books read/reviewed by the end of the year. You’re invited to check out my 280+ book reviews on Amazon here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A19QLCLVPLZH0B

All of my writing endeavors, including that of my erotic pen name {Kathryn Heart] have screeched to a halt since the end of April. Hopefully, still dry spell will come to an end as I’m attempting to get back to writing one of my erotic pen name’s endeavors; and that I’ll be able to self-publish my first erotic novella by the end of July. This unfortunately kills my dream of receiving my first RWA milestone pin for having published 5 books in the romance genre by the end of this year.

Both of my two books are FREE with KINDLE UNLIMITED, so download and peruse them as I can use the funds to help me self-publish my endeavors.

https://www.amazon.com/Robin-Leigh-Morgan/e/B00BWXT4VU

My best wishes to you and yours, and THANKS for your kind support.

Love

Robin Leigh

STATUS REPORT # 129

I’ve got no idea wrong with me.

Ever since my last update for some reason I can’t seem to stay awake. I might be up and doing things for about two to two-and-a-half hours but then I need to take a nap, with each nap lasting up three hours. Perhaps this can be partially explained because I’ve been getting up several times during the night to go to the bathroom to urinate. And while I haven’t been able to lose any weight for almost the past three months, lately I’ve seen a pleasant small decrease each night.

Recently, I’ve also slowed down in how fast I’ve been able to go through and read a book, so I can review it. And for the past 10 ten days I can’t seem to concentrate enough so I can even write a review.

This has also impacted on my being about to do any writing for any of my own writing endeavors for both me or my erotic side. My status for an erotic novella now stands at about 82.5 % completion and I had so wanted to have completed by the end of this month and release by the of June. However, given the current state of affairs; if things don’t change soon, I doubt if this endeavor would see the light of day even by July. I had so wanted to reach a total of 5 published works for the romance genre by October, so would be able to claim my first milestone RWA pin.

I’m also still dreaming of one day being a PAN member of the RWA, which requires to have a book which has produced $1,000.00 in royalties.

So, here’s to me getting back to a normal daily routine and existence.

STATUS REPORT # 128

While my erotic side is having a slight case of writer’s block and is debating whether of not to include a certain chapter consisting of a scene of BDSM before moving on with the rest of the storyline she’s got in mind. I’ve completed doing a total grammar check on my adult contemporary romance novel, “His Darkest Secret,” by running it three times. At the present time this manuscript has 36 Chapters, about 240 pages with approximately 61,250 words; and I see myself needing about 6/7 more chapters, 42 more pages or 10,500 more words.

I know I’ve been neglecting to post some more marketing/promotional ideas, but it’s essentially because I’ve been concentrating on my book reviewing efforts. As of the date I’m writing this update [04/18/2018] I had posted my 800th review on Amazon-US. So, if anyone is interested suggestions in finding their next book to read, you invited to check them out at:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A19QLCLVPLZH0B

If you’d like to see at least some of the reviews I’m writing posted here on my blog, please leave a response to this post.

STATUS REPORT # 127

My erotic side now completed the re-read/re-editing of the GLBT/BDSM manuscript she’s been working on and will need about 6/7 more chapters before the elusive last period gets to be typed. Meanwhile, in order for me to starting working on my own two WIP manuscripts I’d started researching the issue which had been confronting me. After checking out a few KINDLE books I’ve got on my reader, I see that I don’t need to worry about page numbers or the headers [my name and the book’s title], which means I can resume working on them. This doesn’t include my erotic side’s other endeavors.

Working on these four endeavors at the same will require a great deal of scheduling when I combine them with all the other things I’m involved with so I won’t negate working on them as I’m doing now. One major component of the three WIP manuscripts is the re-reading and re-editing of them. I’m just going to need to make adjustments to the spreadsheet I’ve been using for each book, and designing one or two more.

I believe I’ve also resolved the cover design issue I’d been facing regarding how to have all the cover components [picture/illustration, book title, and author’s name] present when the cover is completed; more on this when I’ve completed each book.

So starting tomorrow, April 7, 2018, I’m going to play catch up with the entries I’ve failed to post anything for during the past few weeks. Since I haven’t done any real work on my various manuscripts so far this year, I’ve been able to post quite book reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. However, I haven’t posted any here on this blog; so I’m going to start posting what I consider my better reviews, before moving on to posting more on a regular on-going basis.

STATUS REPORT # 126

After some long thought-processing of what I should do regarding my current WIP endeavors since CreateSpace has ceased all of its support services for authors, I’ve decided to forge ahead with one of manuscripts that my erotic side [Kathryn Heart] has going for her. One of the reasons I’ve chosen this particular manuscript from the total of four we’ve got between us is that going forwards we won’t be producing any paperback versions of our books.

Going forwards with a KINDLE version only, we [my erotic side and I] know the covers [front and back] will have to be part of the file being converted to the KINDLE format. The biggest problem with designing the cover on our own would be to have the title/author’s name overlaid onto the artwork for the front cover, and for this particular manuscript an overlay won’t be required, given what my thoughts for the cover design are. The only issue we’ve basically got is for the formatting of the text pages, specifically to get the page numbers to start a few pages in. But, I’m going to check a dozen or so KINDLE only books I’ve got on my computer to see if physical page numbers are actually necessary for a KINDLE book.

Right now, since I haven’t looked at this particular manuscript or any of my other ones since the middle of November of last year, I’ve got to begin by looking at each one before starting to write anew. So, in regards to this manuscript which is an erotic GLBT/BDSM novella entitled “The Transformation”, I’ve already re-read and edited about 65% of the existing manuscript, and still need to write about 15% more to reach my projected total of 32,500 words. As it stands now, I’ve got 115 pages with approximately 27,600 words.

With the writing of my manuscripts resuming the velocity at which I’ve been reading/writing reviews will now be tapered back.

Lastly, I’d love to start interviewing my fellow romance authors here. So, if you’re interested please send me a DM to my Twitter account [@mypennameonly] and we can start the process [first come, first served basis]. Be advised I’m only taking the first 15 individuals who respond.

STATUS REPORT # 125

With CreateSpace having ceased all of their support services, most important of which had been editing and cover design, in my opinion; I’d been left with four WIPs that I’ve been working on, and no non-vanity place to go to self-publish them. And since then, almost a month ago now, I haven’t written a single word in any of them. [Two of which are being written under this name, and two being written under my erotic pen name, Kathryn Heart.]

This has left me with plenty of time to think about my next move regarding my second career as a romance author, as well as time for me to engage my passion in being a Book Reviewer, my 2nd second career since I retired just over eight years ago; and here I’d thought I’d be bored silly without a single thing to do. BTW – since my last entry I’ve posted around 30 new reviews for a variety of genres on Amazon and my other usual review sites. So, if anyone is looking for their book to read, you’re invited to check them and the rest of my 773 reviews on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A19QLCLVPLZH0B

I know I’ve been amiss in not posting some entries on a regular basis; however, once I posted the ones I’m posting soon, it will be on a more regular basis.

Lastly, getting back to my current WIPs, I’ve decided to move ahead with writing the least problematical one; one which I believe can be done using a very simplistic cover design, which I can do on my own. This endeavor is for one of my erotic GLBT/BDSM novellas entitled, “The Transformation” by Kathryn Heart; which I’ve last worked on back on November 22, 2017. At that time the manuscript has: 22 Chapters, 107 pages and approximately 27,000 words, leaving me with it being about 90% completed according to my estimates. So starting today, I’m going to start off by re-reading what I’ve already written, and making any necessary edits along the way.

STATUS REPORT # 124

Soon after I’d written my previous status on January 25th, which I’d forgotten to post until today I started to hear rumors about CreateSpace shutting down ALL of its support services: Editing, Cover Design, Interior Design, etc. This caused me to slow down my writing endeavors even more than I’ve already had, as well as causing me to become somewhat depressed. Now that the news about CreateSpace is official, I’ve become TOTALLY DEPRESSED.

This depression only involves my being a romance author with several endeavors in various stages of being worked on. I’m not going to stop working on these four endeavors, but my writing might only be about 3-4 pages at most on each of them. Being a General Member of RWA [Romance Writers of America] I can self-publish my books; however, I can’t use any of the multiple vanity presses which can easily be found to have a romance genre book I’ve written to be accepted by them. In the hopes remedying this situation I’d sent RWA a message, asking them to tell me which other self-publishing entities to they accept books from.

This depression has caused me to miss my Haiku prompts, posting my marketing/promotional ideas, etc. In order to feel as if I’m doing something I went into HIGH GEAR regarding writing my book reviews. Since January 25th I’ve posted 23 reviews on Amazon US/UK, GoodReads, and LibraryThing. I’ve now got 744 reviews posted on Amazon.com and 487 posted on Amazon.co.uk. As far as this year’s GoodReads Reading Challenge, I’ve already posted 49 reviews [24.5%] out of my original goal of 200 reviews, which according to their site puts me at 26 books ahead of schedule.

Being an Amazon-US TOP CONTRIBUTOR for True Crime Books I’ve just reviewed Jack Smith’s “The Most Devious Killers of All Time,” and the next book on my TBReviewed pile is “Sex Criminals” by Hannah Clarkson. I hope those of you who love to read romances have gotten to check my reading suggestion list for Valentine’s Day which I’d posted yesterday.

STATUS REPORT # 123

I can’t believe I’d forgotten to post this update on January 25th, I probably had gotten distracted by my dear OH asking me to do something at that time which definitely could have waited a while.

With an apparent lack of sales despite some marketing activities I’ve decided to revamp my writing endeavors. Instead of attempting to write one page per day in one of my four current WIPs., I’ll be concentrating my attention on completing one endeavor at a time. The first endeavor will be one which I’m writing under my erotic pen name, as I want to give this side of me some much-needed exposure since I don’t review any books under this name. The only thing now is to decide which one of my two erotic endeavors it will be.

My book reviewing endeavor is moving along quite nicely as I’ve already written and posted over 25 reviews so far, this year on Amazon, etc. This is creating my being several books ahead of schedule in meeting my goal of 200 books for this year’s GoodReads Reading Challenge. And on Amazon my ranking is now below 1,900 and hopefully before the end of this year I’ll be one of the 1,000 TOP REVIEWERS on Amazon.

Later, some of my reviews have had problems in actually getting posted, instead of having them appearing for a book almost immediately, they’ve take up to almost three days; a book might appear on Amazon-US one day and almost a day later on Amazon-UK, which has caused me to increase the monitoring I need to do for these books. Amazon’s increased screening process for reviews might be the reason for this happening.