Eeny Meeny Miney Moe...

Sorry, there was no official end of ROW80 posting last week.  Because my family celebrates holidays on days other than holidays.  So last weekend we did Easter Egg hunts with the kidlets and had a generally fabulous time with the family.  Little C. was a sight to behold.  He may be 18mths old, but that kid totally gets the idea of stashing loot in a basket. hahaha

So, how was my last ROW80 round?  Not great, honestly.  It could have been much worse, so for that I am thankful.  But MAN ALIVE did I get railroaded by the sick.  And just when Little C. started sleeping, too.  I'm much more hopeful that I'll get some major words out next round.  It will be warmer out and the cold and flu season will be nearing its end.

In case you were wondering about ME, I'm going to be just fine.  Got to the doctors just in time to figure out that I'd completely recovered from my own malady.  Isn't that just the way of it?  Like trying to take a twitchy car into the mechanic but your car won't reproduce the symptoms.

I probably got around 10,000 words written, total.  This is not a personal best for me, but it's better than nothing.  I'm not going to set a word goal for next round, but my goal is to be finished with part one of Terris.  That's about 30,000 words.  That means I'd have to do 10,000 words a MONTH, not per 3 months.

Instead, my goal this time around will be to write one hour a day.  In an hour I can write anywhere from 1,000-1,600 words, depending on my writing flow.

Will I make it?  I don't know.  Stay tuned to find out!  :)

Onward towards today's topic.  A week or so back I got a lovely fan letter from a reader of my Angelic Agents stories who wanted to know if there would be any new stories out soon.  Oh boy.

That really got me thinking about how my writing has gone thus far.  How do I decide what comes next?  How do I decide to do YA fantasy, or Western Fantasy Romance or Contemporary Romance or...

I'm a woman of eclectic tastes—in both my reading and writing.  So how do I choose what gets written first?

Well, I could go by what's popular.  I could say to myself... you know, those vampire books seem to be what everyone wants.  I should write a vampire book.  More likely, I should write a vampire, dystopian, New Adult book, if I really want to appeal to the majority of what's out there.  I should write more fan fiction about vampires and humans sexing it up.  I should write sci-fi about missile silos doubling as mass habitation(Hugh Howey's Wool, if you didn't catch the reference).

But I don't write what's popular.  I probably should, but it's hard to write well when you're just following a trend and not your heart or the spirit of your creativity.  Now if you have a brilliant story idea that also happens to be a popular trend (Angelfall comes to mind), then you've got it made.

I could also write what gets the most reviews.  Thus far that's my Five Tribes series.  But I don't write what I get the most ratings or reviews for.

I could go by downloads.  The Angel & Her Gun (permanently free) gets the most downloads hands down.  But downloads aren't an indication of READERSHIP.  Unless someone decides to READ that short story and tell someone else, or review it or email me... I have no idea if they actually read it or not.  I know that I don't read a significant portion of my freebies.  Some I'll start and discard, others I just forget about.  Sad, but true.

I honestly go by reader feedback.  What do my readers want more of?  So far, they seem to want more of The Five Tribes.  At least, if I go by the emails.  So, when the readers ask, I listen.

If you like something else, like The Angel & Her Gun then tell everyone you know to read it and email me.  It is free, after all.  It's not like it costs them anything.  If I get enough feedback saying that is what my readers want, then I'll break out my magic Wonder Woman notebook and get cracking!

And now, I'm off!  Happy Reading!