When Life Keeps You Busy!!

Hey Guys,
   
     Today is finally Saturday and I have spent this last week wholly engulfed in work and in life.
The book has only managed about 3k in words since last weekend, and last weekend did not allow for much book attention.
     At the beginning of the week, when I had finally tied my two parts together I thought for sure it was going to be the end of book one, and boy was I wrong. I realized that there was way to much to tell in my story and that I needed to be able to continue, at least at this point. So with that being said, I am back, hot on the writing trail, at least until Tuesday when I will be consumed by two long awaited book releases.

     Speaking of book releases, I now have a new GoodReads profile and you can find and follow me here. My GoodReads profile is a work in progress but you can see many of the wonderful books that I have read, want to read and that I am currently reading. Many of which will come with wonderful book recommendations because I truly only believe in reviewing the books that I truly enjoy.

     I tend to be a bit of an optimist and try not to dwell to much on the things that I don't like or don't enjoy. I have read an enormous pile of books over the last few months and many of which are not entirely worth my time to have read them, let alone to review them, so I don't. Reviews that are both good and bad are definitely needed and feedback is always warranted on books, but books that I personally feel are bad, or not of good standing in my mind do not always need yet another bad review.

     One of the biggest things that will get me to stop reading a book, especially a self published book is the authors lack of enthusiasm for their own work that they conveniently forget to edit their works before hitting the publish button on Amazon. I personally am the type of reader that enjoys a book that flows flawlessly and does not require me to concentrate hard on what it is that was written.
     Now on the defense of self published authors, most of them do not have someone that will edit their works on their behalf and sometimes the desire to see their work succeed is so overwhelming that they don't think to review all of what they have done and make the necessary corrections.Editing a painstaking process and it is sometimes hard to get into your own writing, you wrote the story so you know how it ends.
     Now, please do not confuse or assume that I am pretentious and that I will immediately disregard books with spelling and grammatical errors for this reason. It simply means that the more difficult it is for me to follow the book, the harder it is for me to truly enjoy the story because that is far from the case, it just makes them harder to read and the more errors, than the less likely I am to finish it.
     I must also add that originality is KEY! Nothing bothers me more than a book that has potential to be great but it is overwhelmed by the corniness of character and location names. I once read a book that was filled by such a great story and the writing was good and kept me engrossed but I laughed at the character and location names as they were named after various names of the buttons on a computer keyboard. Bottom line is, if you are creative enough to come up with a story as good as that, than simply use a baby names website and pick some realistic names to remove the corniness and make a better story for your readers. Then again, I have read this short story more than a few times, so I got over the corniness of it.

     Okay, sure as I write this blog lets hope that I take my own advice with my own book. Currently I have one editor lined up, who is a friend of mine and who can be brutally honest at time. I have another tentative editor or at least a reader/reviewer and I am currently in the market for at least one more person to review the book and provide me with a detailed honest opinion of how they think my story stacks up. When the books primary edits are complete is when I will be looking for that person. So stick around and stay tuned for more on your chance to become my Beta's Beta!

     As always you can find me hanging out on my Facebook page and i am always on my Twitter pages. Like the Facebook and follow me on Twitter for more updates on my own book progress, my reading progress as well as everyday life adventures!

Until we meet again, my warmest regards,
Zoey

Who is Zoey Derrick?....

Hi Guys and Gals,
I was asked for little more information on me, who I am, why I am, where I am, so on and so forth, you get the idea, so a little bit about yours truly...

I am a 30 year old, full-time employee, full-time student, and full-time single mom.

I am currently, thanks to the recently discovered world of self-publishing, writing my first book entitled "Love is Burning" (title is subject to change at any given time and without notice). I started this book years ago, before marriage, divorce, a kiddo, Twilight, Fifty Shades, and all my other favorite books and well eBooks. Like many self-published Authors, I shelved my book and my dreams for my life and the scary idea of championing my book to all the great publishing companies in North America.
I'm not gonna lie, one of my biggest influences in this process is E. L. James. One of the reasons she has influenced so much of what i am trying to do is because she did it, fought for it, and brought it to life for her readers and for many Authors out there. She took "the ordinary to extraordinary" with her Fifty Shades Trilogy and because of that, I am  inspired to put a dream to print and see what happens.

A dream remains a dream, unless you do something about it.

Until we meet again,
Zoey

Some Midday Thoughts....

The following article has inspired this post, as well as a Twitter post.

Sylvain Reynard article seen here.

My apologies if the link does not work. This is my first time using the mobile version of Blogger.

I commend Sylvain on his/her choice of anonymity. He or She, as it is unclear which, has a choice on how they want to be presented to the world. All that really matters is the finished product and what that product represents.

Sylvain can be James Patterson for all I care personally. Pen names are nothing new in the world of Authors and will forever be how many authors continue to write and many Authors remain in name only because most Authors tend to be shy or unwilling to be involved in the public spotlight and they are entitled to that.

As far as the six figure book deal is concerned, what is wrong with an Author earning 6 figures on a book that has already proven its worth by maintaining ebook sales and best seller status? 6 Figures is a lot of money, whether it is $100,000 or $999,999. When you consider Sylvain's books are $15.00 each, with a million copies on the market, that's $15 million dollars in one release provided all 1 million books sell, 6 figures is pennies in comparison.

Who knows, maybe Sylvain is just a good negotiator...

Ok, I think I have managed to say my peace on this subject.

Thank you Sylvain for such wonderful books and I look forward to more from you.

Until we meet again,
Zoey

Why I love....

One of my best friends asked me today why I wanted to write a book?
          My response was shorter than I wanted it to be, but ultimately it has been motivation from some of the Indie Authors I have been reading lately. Seeing many of my favorite books become novels via the self-publishing world of the ebook. Seeing the books that I love turn into New York Times Bestsellers, watching many of them realize a dream because of people like me buying, reading and reviewing their books.
          She proceeded to ask me, what happens if your book does not have the same success?
          Well, my answer to that was simple. I expect my book to fail, but it wont stop me from trying, it wont stop me from putting a story that I believe in to print. I also believe and know even, that many of the writers that I enjoy on a regular basis have had the same struggles with their own works. In fact, Tina Reber is stated on her Facebook page as saying that she struggled with allowing her dream to become reality. Because she took the plunge and took a chance she is realizing her dreams and is being published by Atria. Tina is the Author of one of my favorite self published books, "Love Unscripted".

         On that note... Why do I love "Love Unscripted"?
Well, that is a question that cannot be easily answered because there are way to many elements to this story that keep me going back to it again and again. The first thing that keeps me going is that the story is an amazing love story between Tarin and Ryan. Taryn is the owner of a local pub where she meets Ryan, an actor, that is in town filming his latest movie. The first impression of Ryan that I received was that of someone such as Robert Pattinson in the world of Hollywood. Whether or not that was Tina's inspiration for her story is one of the many questions that I would love to ask Tina if I were ever given the chance to do so. Regardless of that, I enjoyed the fact that throughout the entire book you managed to forget the little things, like Ryan's fame. Tarin being a just a woman trying to make a living. The book says to me that it does not matter who you love, loving someone means you love them for who they are, not in their bank account, their fame, or even their lack there of. Most of all, I love the challenges that Taryn and Ryan face with his fame. The paparazzi and bad headlines. People purposefully out to destroy their relationship and no matter what they seem to find a way through it all.
I do not want to give away spoilers, I want people to read it for themselves.
         If you are looking for a wonderful story that will keep you entertained for hours of great entertainment "Love Unscripted" is a great book to read. Oh and guess what... "Love Unrehearsed" (book two) will be released on Sept. 14th via Amazon and other ebook formats. LU2 is available for pre-order here.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and this is mine.

On that note, I end my musings for tonight. I hope you enjoy. Don't forget to leave a comment, or find me on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned.. I have some more interesting book reviews...In the mean time.. Need some more books to read?

"The Marriage Bargain" By Jennifer Probst

"The Druid Breeders" By Marata Eros (The link will take you to Marata's Author page on Amazon)

"The Billionaire's Beck and Call Series" By Delilah Fawkes 

"Anything He Wants" Series by Sara Fawkes I also really enjoyed "Back in the Grove" By Sara and look forward to reading more from this story, should she continue the story.

"For His Pleasure" Series by Kelly Favor

Those should keep you busy for a while. I will be adding more books, series and Authors in the blog posts that follow. Including Coleen Hoover, Sylvain Reynard, Shoshanna Evers, Jamie McGuire, Cherrie Lynn, and of course the self-published author that has inspired them all...E.L. James!

Until we meet again!

Zoey

I should be writing...

But instead I thought you all deserved a hello from me. So Hello All!

The book is coming along fabulous. I am working hard at writing and my partner in crime is working hard at the editing.
Speaking of the partner in crime, I am excited to be writing her alter-ego into my book. Without here, my sanity would be completely lost. As it stands now, there is not much on the sanity level remaining. Over the last week my strength, will and determination has been tested and the writing has unexpectedly slowed do to some family issues that have decided to take over a lot of my free time.

I am excited to let you know that sometime over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing with you some bits and pieces of my story with you all.

Stay tuned here and follow me on Twitter. @ZoeyDerrick or on Facebook Zoey Derrick

Until we meet again,

Zoey