This week has been busy, and I have been terribly unmotivated. Sadly, I never got around to writing a blog post. So today I decided to do something different. Here is a list of new indie authors, all published their first book this year 2021.
Please take a look at them, share them maybe, buy them, read them, review them. Whether you are a new author yourself or someone who has been published for decades. You must remember what it was like to start out. How a helping hand would have been nice. How happy each and every sale brought you, and likely still does.
​Let us help these new authors feel that!

Welcome back on this fine Sunday morning. Yes, I decided we would do this outside in the botanical gardens this week. Look at all the beautiful plant life. If you stop and block everything else out, you can almost hear them—they speak to me—and do as I say—erm sorry, long night. I think I might have been drugged. And don't ask about this tight green skin suit—cause I don't know—all I remember was being with Marc LeGrand and something about going to the museum to look at some Egyptian artifacts…
Anyway, we are getting off course. You don't care about my weird night and why all the plants seem to follow me. You are here for whatever weird random information I am going to spew out today.
And that is Stereotypes.
Yup, even in the author's world, you can't escape them and their negative bullshit. I suspect a good handful of you will agree with what I am about to say, and then there will be a handful that don't. That's fine; we are all entitled to our own opinions. But keep this in mind, stereotypes aren't opinions; they're hurtful slander against their chosen targets. Don't be like that, be better.
Now, this week I was going to write a blog post about the sure-fire way to sell 100 books every single day with these three easy, simple tricks. But that seems boring and less important than this. So let's talk about this instead, and I'll get back to that selling thing in a few months, maybe…
So, we've all seen those "Men writing women" posts,

​They are funny; I laugh often, but not because it's a man writing something clearly foolish about a woman. I laugh because it is just bad writing from an author. Being able to write good women or men in stories has absolutely nothing to do with what gender you are and is all about what talent as a writer you possess. I have read just as many books by women who suck at depicting other women.
To say men can't write women well is, 1- simply wrong and, 2- a stereotype and harmful to authors and, 3- very, very ignorant.
Now I get it; it can be a bit fun to poke some fun at each other with the "battle of the sexes" kind of thing. Men can't write women, women can't write men and all that jazz, but really it has nothing to do with our genders.
This one generally comes about because it is believed that the romance genre is heavily overrun by female authors. It is true, there are more female authors in this genre now, but it wasn't always so, AND a lot of these female authors like Jessica Blair, who is widely known, are actually Bill Spence using a female pen name.
There are hundreds of top name-selling romance authors who are men using female pen names to sell their books. They do so, not to hide themselves, but because this stereotype that they can't write good romance exists.
How many of you remember Harlequin Romance novels? Those old school cheesy covered books likely your mom, aunt, or grandma was reading?

You'd be surprised to know near 30% of these were written by men using pen names.
Trust me when I say this, men can write women. Authors with a lack of talent are where the fingers need to be pointed, not genres here.
Now, this is a sore spot a bit for me because this is a stereotype I get nailed with sometimes since I do, in fact, write erotica from time to time. And once again, it is believed to be a primarily female-dominated genre. (which again is only kind of true.)
"Men can't write good erotica!"
This one drives me mad. Once again, it has nothing, and I mean NOTHING, to do with gender and all about talent. Just as many women write horrible erotica as men *cough cough…50 Shades of Grey…cough cough* (insert quotes)
It all comes down to talent. Some people can write good erotica; some cannot. It also comes down to who your target audience is. Are you going for more romance/emotional erotica? Or just the straight dirty fucking erotica? Or maybe a full-on paranormal ride with erotica elements? There are readers for all of them (and more)
The thing I love most about this one is that several of the top indie erotica authors are men using female pen names. (for the same reason as the romance authors) I know this for a fact because I have been talking to many of them for years about this very problem. They have all told me to switch my erotica to a female pen name, and I would sell 100 times more of them than I do. But I refuse to do so. Because I refuse to let, a stereotype force me to hide who I am just so I can convince people to read some of my work.
Let's flip it now the other way.
Another HUGE one I see all the time is that women can't write good fantasy, sci-fi, or horror.
This comes about because, once again, the fantasy/sci-fi/horror genres are male-heavy and always have been. Then the crap of "females can't visualize these genres as well as men, because men are more action, world-building dominate."
Read that again and tell me your eyes didn't just roll into the back of your head.
I mean, if that were true, we wouldn't have Anne Rice, Melanie Rawn, Kathrine Addison, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Robin Hobb, Diana Wynne Jones, and SOOOOO many others.
Women can just as well write compelling and action-packed fantasy/sci-fi as any man can if said author has the talent. And believe me, there are many male fantasy/sci-fi authors who can't do it very well. Which as we all know, that clearly means their genitals didn't give them the magical power to be able to write one genre better than another gender.
And it goes without saying; there is a decent portion of female fantasy/sci-fi authors hiding behind male pen names to help sell their books here too. Pat Murphy, James Tiptree, Robin Hobb, Magus Flyte, to name a few. All female authors in the fantasy world with male names.
Now a lot of these stereotypes come about and are enforced by the readership of these genres. Yes, it is true there is a larger readership of women who read romance and erotica. And yes, there is a larger population of men who read fantasy/sci-fi. It is true; there is no denying that.
But I wonder how much of that would be true today if we weren't affected by the stereotypes around us growing up? How many more women would read/write fantasy/sci-fi if most of their lives weren't depicted as damsels in distress? Or playing a romantic lead instead of the hero? They need to be beautiful and caring and not wear plate mail and carry around a bloodied axe with a cape made from the scalps of their enemies!
Or that men don't always have to be the hero, or tough, rough, violent, and needing a woman to complete them.
Things are changing in these areas, slowly but surely. But until we come to understand that these stereotypes are not only foolish and 100% wrong, they are very harmful and discrediting to authors everywhere.
United we stand. Divided, we fall.
So maybe this week, if you want to help make a small difference, promote someone you know and respect who falls into these stereotypes. Support your male erotica/romance authors, post your favorite female fantasy/sci-fi authors.
Want to take it a step further? Go and explore new ones!
Well, sadly, this is all the time I have for this today. I need to meet up with my friend Harley and discuss a bat problem…



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Come in and sit down; papa James is about to drop some serious truth. No games, no gimmicks today, just truths. Please be careful of the ramp; I just had it installed; yes, I have a wheelchair now and am bald, no it's not cancer. But check out these sweet X rims I got!
Okay, so I have noticed a lot of talk in the writing community about authors/writers stressing out and feeling like they aren't good enough or throwing a term around that I detest, "Impostor Author or Imposter Syndrome." (Notice the change in the word—both are correct, by the way.)

We all stress out; we all wonder if we should be wasting our time writing a book, scripts, stories, articles, etc. It is part of the game. A horrible, horrible part of the process. It's okay; it's natural and normal. It also helps keep us humble. But "Imposter Author" is a ridiculous term and should never be used, ever!
Okay, there is one time it can be used. Have you not written a book but claim you have? That is the only time.
Here's the thing. If you wrote a book, or have short stories published in a book, guess what? I got good news. You are an Author. There is no maybe about it. The definition of author is: "A writer of a book, article or report."
Further diving into the definition: "An author is the creator or originator of any written work such as a book or play and is also considered a writer. More broadly defined, an author is, "the person who originated or gave existence to anything," and whose authorship determines responsibility for what was created."
So break down. It doesn't matter if you published said work yourself, or small press, or even hit the big times. You are an author.
Now there are several opinions on what defines an author over a writer. I, too, have opinions on this, but that doesn't make them right and certainly doesn't mean they are the only way to think about it.
In my mind, an author is someone who is published. Someone who had created something and is published. Be that a book, newspaper, magazine, or website. Here's the catch, paid. If you are paid or make money off of your published writing, no matter what amount, in my mind, that makes you a god damn author.
A writer to me is someone who is writing in hopes of becoming an author. Or someone who writes blogs, articles, or stories that they post for free. Now that doesn't make you less of an "author" of said content, but the definition for me is if you are or have made money for it.
Calm down; I said at the beginning that was my take on the two terms. I think no less of either. Writing is amazing, and I support it no matter how you wanna do it.
Now, I get a lot of people have this "Imposter Syndrome" about being an author due to not feeling like they are good enough. That normally comes after a bad review or several. Or someone says something to you that is negative towards your writing or your writing ambitions. In short, fuck them.
If you have the passion inside of you to write, then write.
I am not saying you will ever make it big; hell, 65% of indies and small press authors struggle to sell a hundred books a year (many big ones don't fare a lot better.) But you never know unless you do it, right? Well, you sit there stewing with self-doubt. You may very well have the next big thing inside of you. You won't know unless you write it.
It's not easy; I'll not lie to you and say that it is. Writing a book, more so the first one, is hard. It taxes the mind, body, and soul sometimes to levels that you'd be surprised could happen from something as casual as writing, but it can happen. But let me tell you, the feeling of accomplishment is phenomenal when you finish and sit back and look at it and know you did that. You created that. And when you hold that first paperback in your hand with your name on it—breath-taking.
I fully 100% understand the level of disappointment and heart-crushing, though, when you put a book out there, and it seems to fall flat. It hurts. At first, you tell yourself, "it's okay, people are busy, it is this time of year or that, it'll pick up," or, "people are reading other books right now, mines on their list, they'll get to it."
Months go by, and still, you see no sales or very few. No reviews to validate your hard work and effort. It sucks, and even the toughest of us feel the cut when this happens.
I have no magic remedy to this (yet); I wish I did. I wish I could tell you, if you do this and that with a side order of this other weird thing, you will sell (arbitrary number here)
It is hard to sell books, damn hard sometimes. It takes work, sometimes more work than even writing the damn thing did. It takes time and effort, and commitment. Worst off, what works for some doesn't always work for others. Some people get lucky; they know people that can help in big ways. Other people have strong marketing game on social media. Others have a solid budget for running ads. There are a million variables to it.
What you need to do is find out what YOU have. What tricks do you possess for this? Who do you know that might be able to help? What local resources are within your grasp? Newspapers? Radio? Farmers markets? Local art shows? All of these things can add up and push you in the right direction.
There are plenty of online resources that you can use and find on your very own. Social media, there are dozens of outlets to explore and make work for you. Facebook, Twitter, Tic Toc, Instagram, Linkedin, etc. Find them, see what others are doing and what seems to work, then put your own personal twist on it and put it out there.
There are bloggers, book clubs, vloggers, and a dozen other entities out there that you can track down thousands of people doing these things and see if they would be interested in having you on their site, do an interview, etc.
These are all things you can do, and if you want to get your book out there and see those sales, then it is a must. More so if you don't have a budget for running ads.
Another stress I have been seeing is feeling like you don't compare to other authors. I get this a lot. I tweet a lot about my process and word counts and all that jazz. It's not meant to make anyone feel bad; it's to show what I am doing and inspire others. Though I do understand how sometimes it can feel when someone posts, "I wrote 4000 words today!" and you're sitting there thinking, "shit, I haven't written 4000 words all month."
Don't let that get to you. Some days I can write 5000 words; other times, I'll struggle to write 500 words in a week. It's all a wash at the end of the day. The book will get written when it gets written, don't force it.
You'll also see authors who can put up 2 or 3 sometimes more books a year and think, why can't I do that? Why have I been working on this book for a year, two, three, or even longer?
It's not a race. We all have different things in life that affect how we write or how much we can write. I myself normally put out 2 or 3 books a year. I have been doing this for 14 years. I have a solid system in place. Yes, I work full time, I am a father and husband and help run a household, but I make time to write, and thankfully I am set up in a way that I can do so often enough.
My first book took me three years to write. So do not fret.
One of the things that come into play is the length of these books. You see authors dropping four books a year; sometimes, those books are only 20 to 50k each. That makes a big difference from 80k or 150k book you might be working on.
Regardless, it is not a race. We can't look at each other as competition. You can't think, "I am not a real writer/author cause I can't do what these other people do."
Let that stuff go and work on YOUR story.
If you want to be an author, then be an author. No, you may never be a huge success. You may never hit the best sellers list; hell, you may not even sell a hundred books. But if being an author is something you want to be able to put on your trophy mantle, then do it. Worry about the after parts once it's done.
Once you've written a book, no one can take that away from you.
Sorry, I know; things got a little emotional there. But I hope this helps and inspires you to keep going and that some of that stress and worry can slide off your shoulders now.
Alas, our time is at an end, and I have to go check on my mutants—erm students.



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​Well, hello there neighbor—creepy, right?
It is another Sunday in the neighborhood of being an author. I hope this week was kind to you, that you hit your writing goals, and hopefully sold a few books along the way. If not, don't beat yourself up too much; it happens to all of us.
Come on in, but we got to make this quick, I need to go pick up my Aunt May soon, or else my Uncle Ben will be all disappointed in me again.
You might have heard some talk from time to time around the author water tower about prologues and epilogues and how readers hate them, and you should never use them. Here's the honest truth from every poll I have done and seen. It's not really true. In the last poll I did about it, I got over 1200 votes, and only 9% of people said they didn't like them.
9% is a tiny number to worry about. But it always feels like it's a more significant number because those who dislike prologues and epilogues are just the loudest about it.
But I didn't stop there.
I wanted to know more. Wanted to know why the weird hate for a great writing device at our fingertips.
This is what I found out from the dozens of readers and authors I talked to that dislike them.
The number one reason seemed to be they assumed them always to be info dumps that the author couldn't figure out how to incorporate into the rest of the story.
Again, overall, this isn't true, but there is some merit to it. A small percentage of authors do use the prologue for a quick info dump to create the bounds of the world you are about to dive into, more so it seems in fantasy. But with this said, I usually find 95% of authors do it very well. Creating a scene that can one start to create the world, and two give the reader enough information to make the first chapter more enjoyable, and three give an intriguing piece to the bigger puzzle.
The second biggest reason seems to be that the prologue has nothing to do with the story. That it was just added for the sake of having one.
Once more, this is generally not true, but a small level of merit is needed once more. By the end of some books, I have run across a few prologues that didn't seem to hold any real need or connection to the actual story. But with that said, neither did the prologue hurt the story in any way, so kind of a wash in my mind. Also kind of a dumb reason to hate on something, just sayin.
And the third reason some people hate on prologues—and this one really chaps my ass—like a lot. Is "they just want to get on with the story." Like what the actual fuck? You buy a book to read. Then you skip over the first part of the story; just to get to "the story," it makes literally no sense whatsoever. If you are one of these people—you need more hugs in your life.
Okay, so some of my little hints and tricks, since I am a HUGE fan of prologues and do use them when I deem them essential. But I will say this first; you do you, you write a prologue if you want to. I'm not here to tell YOU how to write YOUR story. Only you can do that. But I am here to put out some hints and info about them that might help you better create them or know whether you need it or not.
My first step to prologuing and this is the most critical step. Do I want a prologue? If the answer is yes, then write one. If the answer is no, ask yourself why it is no and then realize yes is likely the correct answer. But if it is still no, that is okay too.
Step two, what is the point of this prologue? What is the reason for creating it? Is it to world build? Info dump? Set the scene? Add foreshadowing on a specific event from the past or future? Creates a suspenseful event that sets the plot in motion later on while giving the reader a small inside track to that knowledge to horde over the MC? (Bonus points for those of us who can do all of this in one prologue)
If it is for info-dumping and world-building, try to avoid the plain Jane info dump, where you just have paragraph after paragraph of flowery scenes or world governing or of character description and cultural style. Small clips of this are more than fair, but if there is a lot of info you feel you need to portray within the prologue, try to blend it throughout, a little here, a little there. So, you slowly give the info without making it feel like a history lesson in school.
Step three. Have a hook. Something within the prologue that is somehow vital information to the story/plot/MC, something that if someone doesn't read the prologue, they miss out on something important later on. That way, those silly gooses that skip the prologue miss out, and when they talk about the book, the people who read the prologue can laugh at them for being dumb. (I'm only a little petty and evil)
Step four. Make it bloody count. This is, after all the first few pages of your story, and there are many readers out there who only read the first 5 to 10 pages before either diving in or dropping the book. So you need to make it count, whatever it is; however you are going to put it together, you need to make it POP in your own unique way.
Okay, so I think that covers prologues. *Takes a deep breath,* now onto epilogues.
Epilogues are more forgiving typically and not as vital since if someone is reading it, chances are they read the whole book already. But that doesn't mean you want to totally shit the bed with them. You want to leave on a high note, right?
I seldom use epilogues unless it is part of a series and I am hinting/teasing at something in the next book, or I feel the story/characters need a final moment to say their goodbyes to the reader.
If you aren't using it to set the tone for the next book in the series, and it is a stand-alone book or the final book, you want to make sure it leaves a final thought in the reader's head. You want it to click in them when they think about the book later; those last few pages remain in their memory.
Now that doesn't mean it has to be a happy or good memory if you want to make it bitter and cruel power to you. If it's not a happy ending, that's 100% okay in my books, but you need to make it impactful, good or bad. That way, they never forget you.
Remember, an epilogue is a farewell kiss to the reader. Leave them breathless and lightheaded.
*looks at time*
Crap, you guys have made me late to pick up my Aunt May! I need to get down there before she calls Ben, and he has to go pick her up! It can be dangerous down there. I would hate for something terrible to happen…


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