It’s that time again! The Smashwords Summer Sale!

I know I’ll be perusing the offerings and loading up my ereader with books I’ll stress about not reading in a timely fashion — why don’t you join me? We’ve got all month for this ebook goodness, so c’mon! Let’s get some deals!

If you haven’t caught up on the Trevolution, all my books are FREE this month. Go pick ’em up.

Of course, you know by now I’m a HUGE champion of the value of reviews, so be sure to say thanks for the freebie by leaving a review. At Smashwords, at GoodReads, at that big behemoth of a bookseller that sells more than just books these days and now runs the national economy. You know who I mean; the point is that it doesn’t matter — leave a review!

Yes, even a negative review helps, so be kind if you need to, and be as constructive as possible. Some of us only read 1- and 2-star reviews!

That, of course, extends to my own books. But really. You’re not going to find 1- or 2-star reads on my page. Nope.

Some Monday Things to start your week off…

It’s Rocktober at The Rock of Pages, so head on over and check out the fun. Today kicks off our first author guest blog, with my buddy Jessica Topper stopping in to talk about how she named Digger and Riff.

Sharon Cathcart and I are both offering our Rock Fiction on sale this month. I’ve set The Demo Tapes: Year 1 to free (everywhere but Amazon, of course, since they don’t like to make my books free) and Trevor’s Song to 99c. Grab ’em both at your favorite retailers (Sharon’s sale is a Smashwords-only sale, but if you’re not buying your books at Smashwords, you should be. Best royalties for authors in the business).

If you’ve been following me at the West of Mars Fans Facebook page, you know I’ve been writing again. My first goal was 100 words, which it had been since the end of the Pennwriters conference last May. That lasted… a day, I think, when my first day’s word count was something like 2200. Then the goal became 1000 words a day, and I settled in around 1500 words. There were two days between the start of my drafting blitz in September and last night when I didn’t make the wordcount. My fiction writing has to happen once my editing is done, which generally means after school and into the evening. So the first day I missed the word count, I was busy with the kids from after school until late. I think I wrote 700 words that day.

The other day I missed was just last week. An honest mistake that, I was told, wasn’t a problem until someone else made it a problem, sent me into a PTSD flashback and a migraine that levelled me for the day and into the next. I got a painful 330 words down. I also had a pretty fascinating bit of self-reflection.

In terms of editing, since that’s what you really all come here to hear about, November dates (and beyond) are still open. Grab ’em while the grabbing’s good. And yes, if you have a friend who’d like to break into editing, rather than shorting your regular editor’s income, send your friend to me. I’m always looking to expand the West of Mars subcontractor list and help more authors enjoy the .001% accuracy percentage we’ve established. And yes, I did the math. Me. I did math. We pay baseball players millions for a 33% return. Why are you dumping your editor over .001?