Tax Season Is Here!

Even though the deadline for W-2s and 1099s to be sent isn't until next Monday, ours have been streaming in since the second week of January. Computers make calculations and delivery SOOO much easier.

Of course, you've been keeping track of your writing income and expenses. Yes, if you sell your stories or license them to someone else for a fee, you need to report this stuff to the IRS.

How you keep track is up to you. I don't have any employees so that makes things a lot easier. I use Quicken for both household and business expenses. However, you can use a calculator and a notebook, a spreadsheet, or whatever your heart desires.

I do a much better job of tracking business numbers than I do medical expenses. The medical crap is the stuff I always have to cross check fifty times. The rest? I have standard reports I run once I get those last, pesky December receipts entered.

Keeping better track of your expenses and income through the year will make your life so much easier at tax time. Have a dedicated file cabinet or drawer and clearly marked folders to keep your paperwork in case you need to double check your documentation.

Whatever you do, don't leave everything until April. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches and get your refund back from the government a lot sooner!

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 398 - The Plagiarism Files

31,397,113 known cases of COVID-19 in the United States. 567,591 known deaths because of this blasted disease.

I've been encouraging my friends and family to get their vaccines. COVID-19 is spiking in our part of the  country. It's obvious from testing both in Ohio and across the border in Michigan, the British variant is racing through the counties. It's a little scary because only a third of the country has received their vaccines so far.

I'm really considering to keep the mask-wearing in public a permanent thing. I haven't been sick since this damn pandemic started. I'm immuno-compromised thanks to chronic conditions. It's been a lovely year in that regard.

The writing and publishing world has been rather quiet since the combined #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements unleashed chaos and retrospection. I'm still waiting to see how that all falls out. I don't have much hope with the increased attacks on Asian-Americans.

There hasn't been much scandal lately except plagarism in Romancelandia. I swear to Cthulu that's ALWAYS happening. This time it was S.M. Soto who was caught. (Google it. I'm not linking to give her more publicity.)

Here's why plagiarism is stupid in Romancelandia. These readers are voracious. And they have memories. If you need to find a book you read decades ago, but you can't remember the title, ask romance readers. Usually, someone can give you the answer in twenty-four hours. So if you plagiarize, or worse you plagiarize La Nora, YOU WILL GET CAUGHT.

Oh, maybe not on the first book. Or the second. But it will happen. If you're lucky, you'll only be embarrassed. If you cross La Nora, you will find yourself on the wrong end of a lawsuit.

There's easier ways to make money, folks.

Wild, WIcked & Wacky Rewind from 2012

Here's another timeless look at writing as art. I'm not a big Stephen King fan. His fiction gives me nightmares. But this is an interesting peek into his process.

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I know this is a little different than my usual Saturday videos. I smurched the link from The Passive Voice. This is an appearance by Stephen King at UMass Lowell earlier this year. It's worth watching the whole thing for a brand new short story that Mr. King reads.

40 Books and Counting...

Last week, Angry Sheep Publishing got the okay to sell books on Google Play. As part of the application process, I had to let them know how many books I'd be uploading. And so I counted them up because I couldn't remember.

Then this week, the question came up again when we were going over family income with a bank mortgage officer. (Yeah, we've decided to look for a house in West Bumfuck, Ohio. My condition for staying here is that I get an actual office that's a separate room in the new house.)

Long-term writers have said again and again that after so many years they forgot how many stories they had written. Part of me didn't believe them. I couldn't imagine forgetting any of the worlds I'd created.

But it's starting to happen.

Part of it can be attributed to age. Part of it is due to stress. Part of it is just my head getting full of new ideas, so the old ones that have been completed get tossed into a long-term storage unit. Literally. LOL

But you know something? It's all okay. Because it means I have the career I wanted. And that's a pretty damn good thing.

Oh, and the number? A Modicum of Truth and Sacrificed will be my thirty-ninth and fortieth releases respectively. And that's only what Angry Sheep has released. It doesn't count the stories I've licensed to a third party for publishing.

I love this job!

Cycling While Writing

No, not the kind on a bicycle.

Cycling is the term Dean Wesley Smith uses for reviewing previous words in a wip for typos, consistency, etc. before continuing to work on the story in today's writing session. I know a lot of long-term professional writers who cycle through their story.

Heck, I did it for years without knowing what it was, mainly because when I'm in the zone, my fingers are flying so fast words are left out, switched, or a homonym is accidentally used.

Cycling doesn't catch everything, or it may not catch everything right away. I took a break from writing for a few days two weeks ago to work on taxes. When I opened the file for Ravaged again, I discovered that I'd stopped writing on a major subplot that started in Blood Magick and has a lot to do with the climax in Resurrected.

Let's just say I could've put both Sam and Tiffany's potty mouths to shame when I was cycling through and realized what I'd done.

So, I'm going back to the beginning and layering in the subplot. Want to know why it's important? I'll give you a couple of hints. It has to do with the witch whose soul Bebe witnessed being eaten back way back in Blood Magick. And it's related to how chicks  breath while they are still inside their egg shells. 😁

Raiders of the Unread ARC

For those of you who may be new to the world of publishing, an ARC is an Advance Reader Copy. Some publishers send them out prior to a book's official release date. I still have the romance ones I got eons ago when I worked at Waldenbooks. It's especially fun to see a preview of a new writer, the thrill of discovering an author before anyone else has.

Some indie writers can rock the ARC. I'm not one of them. I tried giving out ARCs for my first novel release.

And no one wanted one. *le sigh*

Now, I volunteer to read ARCs from my favorite writers in return for an honest review. So far, I've been lucky. I haven't gotten any ARC that was truly crappy.

However, I did receive one that hit one of my hot buttons, Stirred by Blake Crouch and J.A. Konrath, The sad part is I didn't realize the issue was a hot button for me until I started their book. I'm ashamed to say I set the story aside for a couple of years before I was ready to tackle it again. And no, the issue was NOT the violence or gore. So a little warning, t's not your typical Jack Daniels tale. I gave it five stars because it is a damn good horror novel.

As time's gone on though, I'm having other folks ask me to read their work. Which normally I don't have a problem with if I have the time. But a little piece of advice--if you want someone to post a decent review, don't send them offensive messages through any media. For example, sending me quotes by a sexist comedian I absolutely despise does not make me want to do favors for you.

Next week, I should be receiving a signed ARC from a historical fiction writer I absolutely adore about Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. If you've heard the name "Palmyra" lately, it's because some idiots in modern-day Syria are trashing the ancient city. News flash, folks--Zenobia led a rebellion against those Roman capitalists and nearly succeeded. You should be holding her up as an example, instead of toppling the surviving architecture of her reign.

I know how the story ends, but I can't wait to read it!

When Is the Perfect Time to Write

- Get up an hour early and write before the kids get up.
- Write while the kids nap
- Write during your lunch hour
- Write after the kids are in bed
- Write on the bus/subway
- Write only on the weekends
- Write every day

Each of the above statements are from prominent, well-known, best-selling authors. But which one is the perfect method?

I'm seeing a lot of newbie writers still searching for that Magic Bullet. The thing is every single method is right. Right for that writer, that is.

If you haven't figured out your own method yet, you may have to do a little experimenting. And there's not a damn thing wrong with that.

I admit I've tried them all. And they've all worked at various points of my life. But if you have a day job and a family, you're going to have to work around those responsibilities. Which is also okay. GK needed me a lot more as small child than he does as a teenager.

Last year when I was still in Houston and guys had moved up to Ohio already, I could set my own schedule. My best productivity was between 2a.m. and dawn. But that's not doable with all of us back together plus Niece, who recently moved in with us. So, it's back to writing whenever I can squeezed it in between chauffeuring kids, checking on in-laws, and other chores.

The only real advice you can take out of this is be flexible and remember--there really isn't a Magic Bullet.

Addendum on Social Networking and Posting Your Work Online

If you haven't seen Jessica Faust's blog this morning, I strongly suggest you pop over to BookEnds LLC and check out the interesting discussion on watching what you post/comment on blogs, Facebook, etc.

Also, the NWHRWA chapter PRO Liasion, Judythe Hixson sent us this interesting essay by Chuck Sambuchino on why a writer shouldn't post fiction online. Fascinating viewpoint.