Tag: Fiction

Posted in Social

Cross-Promotion Techniques Every Seller Should Know

Posted on by L. M. Montes

When there is something we as individuals are trying like mad to sell, it is easy to get caught up in advertising and marketing by doing what everybody else is doing. As a result, nothing sells. Why not? The strategies used worked for others but not for you. What did you do wrong? Sound familiar? Yep. Sounds familiar to me, too. That’s when its time to take a step back. Relax. Take a deep breath and look at what you have. Look at ‘what’ you are doing. Do you ‘sound’ like everybody else who was able to make sales? You don’t want to sound like someone else. You want to sound like you. You can do what others do, but do it your way. You could even add something only you can.

The key is to stand out. So, how do you do that? Well, it depends on ‘who’ you are. What are your likes? What are your hobbies? How can you incorporate them into your marketing strategies? Here’s an example. Sally Seller makes jewelry, and she writes books. In her books she features certain gemstones, such as sapphires, emeralds, jade, and lapis lazuli. The typical marketing strategies she had been using for her books were not working, so she ‘took a step back’ and thought about what she had been implementing in way of marketing. When she did this, an idea hit. She could cross promote her jewelry with her books. Here is her idea.

  1. Make beaded bracelets using Preciosa crystals in the colors of the high end gemstones featured in her books and give a free bracelet to anyone who purchases a book in her book series.
  2. Purchase some actual sapphires, emeralds, lapis lazuli, and jade beads in the colors of the gemstones featured in her books, make bracelets out of them and sell them at her book signing table.
  3. By implementing both strategies 1 and 2, readers will be drawn not only to the books but also to Sally’s handmade jewelry and vice versa.

What happened when ‘Sally’ implemented these strategies in real life (on two occasions now)? Her book and her jewelry sales went way up and more than tripled.

Posted in Prompts

Hardest Personal Goal

Posted on by L. M. Montes

The hardest personal goal I set for myself was back in the early 2000’s when I was in the beginning stages of writing my first novel. I set a goal for myself to finish it in 2004. I had started writing it in 1999. Well, twenty years afterwards in 2019 I finished and published it. Writing your first book is not an easy feat. Maybe for some beginning writers it is but for many it is not.

So what makes publishing that first book so difficult? It’s everything we don’t know that we need to know and have yet to learn. Add to that a full time job and raising a family. We do our best. I did take my time with that book because there were times I didn’t feel like writing. There were times I needed time to think about how I wanted the story to get to where I wanted it to go. Then, a large chunk of my manuscript got deleted when the hard drive on my computer went bad. Essentially, I started over. I am so glad I did because the story was better as a result.

Learning the ins and outs of writing a book along the way took time as well, which included learning how I write. Am I a planner or a pantser? Getting to know myself is what I call this. I did figure all of this out by the way. Now that doesn’t mean I know everything there is to know about writing a book. No one ever knows everything there is to know. It’s a ongoing process, so we are continuous learners.

I should never have made the goal of finishing my first book to be in 2004. That wasn’t realistic. Not for a first time novelist. Hence the most difficult goal I ever set for myself.

Posted in Books

The Letter That Started It All

Posted on by L. M. Montes
From The Veil of Time
Posted in Books

Kyle Against the Borga

Posted on by L. M. Montes
From The Cross’s Key
Posted in Books

Fantasy Adventure

Posted on by L. M. Montes
Posted in Fiction, Writing

My Favorite Writing Tools

Posted on by L. M. Montes

I use Scrivener for when I am writing. Some authors prefer Microsoft Word, and that’s ok. I have used Word in the past, but Scrivener fits my purposes best. When I finish writing a book, I export my manuscript to Microsoft Word and edit there. After I am finished with my own edits, I send it to my editor. When they are finished, they send it back. It’s still in Word. Then comes the book formatting. For this I then export it from Word to Atticus. There are other book formatting programs out there, like Vellum, but Vellum is for Mac computers only. I don’t use a Mac.

Here are some links to the above programs so you can check them out if you are ever in need of them.

Scrivener
https://www.literatureandlatte.com/

Atticus
https://www.atticus.io/

Vellum
https://vellum.pub/


Posted in Characterization

Character Moments

Posted on by L. M. Montes

Creating book characters can be a lot of fun, but there is a process. How you wield that process is really up to you as the author. Many authors create a character bible consisting of everything from physical attributes to personality analysis. Some do this before writing that first chapter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always a good idea to know who your character is before you place them in your story. But you will not know everything about them when you start writing that first chapter.

There will be moments while you’re writing your story when ideas about your character will begin to germinate in your mind, thereby giving him/her more depth. That’s great! Go with that! Those are unplanned parts of the character’s personality. Now, that type of situation typically works out great. But there are times when that happens, and it can throw a monkey wrench into the situation. For example, years ago when I was in the middle of writing my first novel, I had one of my male characters do something out of character. And I’m talking WAY out of character. I sat there, stared at the screen, and said, “What do I do now? I like what I had him do?”

The easy way to fix this situation would have been to change his action and move on. The complex way to fix it was to go back to the beginning and change his whole character, moving forward to that point. So that is what I did. In the end I was happier with him, and the story was better off as a result.

Can you plan everything about your characters from the start? You can try, but be ready when that runaway moment comes that makes your story that much better.

Posted in Prompts

A Fear I Overcame

Posted on by L. M. Montes

When I was in the Navy Reserves, I took a course called Firefighting and Damage Control at the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, Long Island. If any of you have been there, you know where I am talking about. The course was two weeks long with the first week covering firefighting and the second week covering damage control. The first week consisted of a lot of classroom instruction (Monday – Thursday), then Friday was hands on. Now keep in mind I was a novice at this. I had seen firefighting on TV shows, but I was never part of the act in real life. Until that course. Yes, I was nervous, fearful, and Oh My Gosh all wrapped into one emotion. The key is not letting that show.

The hands on consisted of various scenarios. In each scenario we had to put out a fire in a different type of environment as it pertained to Naval situations. For some scenarios we worked with a partner, and for others we were put into teams of six. My fear at that time was claustrophobia. Let’s just say it isn’t my fear anymore.

Let me explain. This school had a small Navy ship built into the pavement for training purposes. The galley (kitchen) was below the surface. The stairwell to get to it was painted black. The fire (Yes, there really was one, albite it being controlled) was in the kitchen. My team of six headed down the stairs (keep in mind that if we didn’t do any of these scenarios, we didn’t pass the course). I was in the middle of the line of sailors heading down the stairs. We got halfway down. It grew darker. The walls closed in. I froze, slapped my hands on the walls on either side of the stairwell, turned and ran back up the steps. When I reached the top, my instructor asked, “What’s the problem?” To which I replied, “Claustrophobia.” He told me to relax and breath. He didn’t force me to go down. After all, I did have a choice. But I needed to pass that course. That fact kept slapping me in my head more than anything. So I said, “I have to do this. I’m going down.” And I did. I trotted down the stairs, met my team mates who where fighting the kitchen fire, took hold of the hose and did what I was supposed to do.

I know I made this sound like the decision was easy at the end when I decided to finish the scenario. But, trust me, it wasn’t. The fear of failing won out in the end. We put the fire out and passed.

Posted in Prompts

Broken Bones

Posted on by L. M. Montes

Yes, three. When I was four, I decided it would be fun to hang on the arm of one of the flower pots on the side of the house. It was approximately 2 feet by 6 inches and about 6 or 7 inches deep. It was filled with dirt at the time. I wrapped my foot in the angular arm protruding out from the house, grabbed hold of it with my hands, and started swinging. It took one swing and the flower pot came down on my left ankle. I remember that pain like it was yesterday. I am thankful to God for not letting it come down on my head, or I probably would not be here today reliving that experience. Then…..

Last year, July 29 2024, I was on a walk. I had my cellphone in my left hand playing music (no headphones) and going at a pretty good clip. I was on the sidewalk (usually I walk on the street). As I approached the next street, I tripped over a piece of cement sticking up from crack. My knees went out from under me, I couldn’t right myself, and I flew over the curb into the street. I landed on my left side. My phone went flying, my left arm twisted, and the left side of my face smacked against the pavement. My right arm was trying to do its job, and in so doing, twisted as well but not as much as the left. The result? My left arm was dislocated at the elbow (radius), and the ulna was broken in three places. I have a plate and screws keeping it all together. The right arm had a tiny hairline fracture in a small round bone inside the elbow. No cast for the right arm, but it still hurt to the point I needed my husband to do tiny favors for me like opening the tube of toothpaste, LOL. The left had a splint for the first two weeks (after the ER doctor put the radius back in its socket). Two weeks later I had surgery on the three breaks on the ulna to put the hardware in, then it was wrapped for a month.

Now, ten months later, my arms are as good as new.