Sunny April...

I hope everything is well with y’all … with me? Oh, I’m still here, still chugging along,

living the dream … enjoying the last toasty (sometimes rainy) days of the pretty month of
April. Wow! Can you believe it? It’s almost May and yet 2016 just started it feels like.
Just goes to show that you literally have no time in life to waste when following your
dreams … so do follow them time is short.


Speaking of which, I can’t tell you the ultimate thrill it has been to view book one of my

YA series on bookshelves at several libraries both in Arkansas and Michigan (about fifty

libraries or so to date), and even on the shelves of the very high school portrayed in my

story in Grand Blanc (that’s totally awesome!)


By the way, Bentonville, Rogers, Elkins, Lincoln and Farmington Arkansas were the first

in the state to show me major love in that retrospect so shouts out!! (I’ll be hand

delivering book two to you five when I drop it this summer).


Many dedicated Librarians have given their valuable time, vetted my written work and

deemed it noteworthy enough to be placed on their bookshelves next to some of my

favorite authors for public consumption. I’ve even had a few book reviewers and readers

drop me a kind note and follow me on Twitter (@ScarletDvore) so that’s been real fun to

see too. I’m very stoked about it.


I don’t invest a huge amount of time tweeting as of late, but I am very appreciative just

the same and I do check in on a regular basis. I’ll drop a short note or a cute pic here and
there, but I’m not really sure if what I have to say daily warrants an abundance of tweets
… I can be real ditzy without even trying to be honest, and who really wants that?

So my talented editor (Hi, Calee!) has received my third installment to the Perfect Series

and I have read book two a few times to make sure its my very best work. I even gave it

to a couple of trusted college girlfriends (University of Arkansas) because … well,

they’re pretty smart, most of the time, even though they make being ‘pre-med &

pretentious’ a glorified art form far beyond the comprehension of us ‘normal’ folks with

regular I.Q’s and far less Greek letters on our back car windows.


Now, some of you might say, ‘damn, did Scarlet just put her own people on blast with a

burn?’ Naa. Not really, they all know they’re pretentious and are pretty damn proud of it

in fact, and they have no ulterior motives and absolutely no qualms keeping it 100, so

why shouldn’t I benefit from their ‘BIG FAT… BRAINS?!’ I win. You win. Everyone

wins 


And the verdict…


Think I got it straight. The consensus is that book two (Perfect: The Revolt) is both much

faster than book one (as it should be) and more engaging for the reader. I totally concur

with their assessment and once I begged them all for forgiveness for my crude

‘pretentious’ remark and my ‘lapse in judgment’ (regrettably), and cleaned a bathroom or

two (yuk!) at their sorority house I was good to go.


FYI. If you plan to use Chilis restaurant as some form of restitution, please remember to

make everyone order meals from the 2 for $20 menu. If you don’t, then I suggest you

either learn to wash dishes, or wear a damn good pushup bra. You’ll thank me later.

ANYHOO…
 

The story gets darker in tone in both book 2 and book 3, but that’s just where the story

took itself as I wrote it down on my typewriter (yes, I do actually write a draft with the

one on my twitter profile picture).


I’m still selling a few units on Amazon.com and that’s pretty damn cool, as well as I’m

still reworking the screenplays, so if and when the ‘Hollywood thing’ finally pans out

someday, I’ll be ready. With a published book anything is possible. Hey, it took ten

years to bring Forrest Gump to the screen, and that’s with Tom Hanks’ name on board.


Oh, yeah! I got fantastic news! I’m giving away free ebook copies of Perfect: The

Call (that’s right, free!!) On Amazon from April 26th until April 29th and I

encourage anyone within earshot to grab a copy if you happen to be on the site

buying a new pair of extra long tube socks or that plump bag of genuine dirt from

the Roswell UFO crash site of 1947 (only $9.75 for authentic soil??? That’s a steal.)


So far, the biggest obstacle on this literary journey is promotion. Good promotion … in a

world where everyone and sometimes their mother, is promoting something to the public:

their name, clothing, makeup, food, a new hot book series, their own body, or what have

you, all for a taste of fame and fortune. It can be difficult to stand out in a world of

gorgeous Kardashians (not throwing shade to Mrs. K, do your thing girl). Anyhow, I just

take a deep breath and keep plugging. I want to be like Eminem: give me the success of

having a cool following, who dig my works - you can keep all the fame and craziness.

Still, promotion can be a bitch to figure out, like trying to match all the right colors on a

twisted Rubik’s Cube on day one (say what now?)


I decided to price my book at .99 cents (Amazon.com) because it’s so much stuff out

there already and I just want people to be able to read it … and like it too, but as you

know, that part are the equation is always a toss up, with so many different opinions and

elevated creative taste to be had. You can’t please everyone all the time, don’t be hurt if

you don’t, just do your damn best to be you (as I try), and like a little birdie leaving the

bird’s nest for the very first time – let her fly (take flight little birdie).


The upside to all of this is I never stop learning from the good and the bad, and I NEVER

stop writing from my heart, often incorporating what I’ve learned that makes me more

open to life. I think we all should be so lucky. There’s so much to learn from …

“forgive you must,” my Yoda moment. A friend of mine and I blu ray binged on Star

Wars: The Force Awakens with shots of Tequila recently and I’m still buzzing—slightly.


SO…


When I’m finally done polishing the rest of my Perfect Series I will be devoting much

more of my time rewriting my next passion fruit: Unpregnant.


Unpregnant is a court drama that takes place in… well, a courtroom arena. I spent some

time with a successful attorney in Detroit who allowed me to pick her brain so that helped

out a lot. My story is about a hot civil attorney named Meredith Cain, ‘The Tiger’ who is

talented at her job of winning big cases for monetary gain for her male-run law firm. In a

competitive world where name is everything, and most of those names belong to men,

Meredith has found away to outshine the club … without being one of the boys.


Then…


Meredith’s loving husband (an author) knocks her up at the pinnacle of her law career (I

know, writers right? Huh. We are fertile.)


Although her husband (Ryan) has always wanted to be a father, she has always wanted to

be the king … at the office, even at the large expense of becoming a child barrier. Some

tragic things happen and both emotions and wills are tested to the brink. Will Meredith

being able to survive? Let’s just say the Boys Club will never be the same.


Anyway, this story is about discovery … I know I discovered some important things

about myself when I wrote it. I plan to drop it once I’ve completed this series and to be

honest with you I can’t wait until that time. I still got a lot of work to do on it before it’s

finished to my liking, but I’m excited still. I’ll keep you posted if you’d care to know.

I actually wrote this novel and screenplay before I started my Perfect Series, but I was so

emotionally spent by the time I typed ‘The End’ (and ‘Fade Out’) I needed to take some

time away from the heaviness of it all just to clear my head and gain some perspective on

my story, but enough about that for now.


So…


Like I said earlier I gained a follower or two on Twitter after they read Perfect: The Call,

and one of the questions I got messaged to me from a teenager who lives in Michigan

was…


Why was my story in Grand Blanc when I reside in NW Arkansas?


Well, my young eager inquirer,


I actually used to live in Michigan for a spell, a long spell. In fact, the series was

conceived and a lot of book one was written at the McDonalds across from Grand Blanc

High School, where most of the students overcrowd the lobby at lunchtime and after

school. I tell you, I’ve never been so enlightened by the way teenager nowadays communicate

with one another. At times I wasn’t sure if some sayings were offensive, distasteful or

just commonplace. Guess I should be thanking God my editor knows how to tone down

‘some’ of my words to keep my trilogy Rated-PG, but I had fun writing it as is anyway.

Not to mention the fries at that particular McDonald’s are freakin’ superb!


Keep those questions coming, Twitter, Goodreads, or email ([email protected])

I will always be honest and answer them truthfully, so long as they aren’t request for

nude pics with nothing but an Xbox controller in my hand … you know who you are …

pervert ;)


I got some book readings coming up soon at a couple of public libraries that carry my

book, and I’ve even been asked to do a book signing at an indie bookstore. It’s amazing

the difference a library presence can make in an author’s life. Again, shouts out! I’ll

definitely let you know how it goes in a later post. I’m really looking forward to it.

So my next blog will be a little different than the first ones. I decided to offer up a free
chapter of book two for anyone who liked book one and was curious about the next

installment, which I will be dropping here in a few months.


I also decided to drop this letter BEFORE my Goodreads book contest ends today, to say

thank you to all who requested a free copy of the book (634 request so far??? You gals

and guys really rock!!) To the ones who won a free copy I hope you enjoy it once you

get your book in the mail. I had fun writing it. I will definitely do it again with book 2

and book 3. As always, thank you for giving me a venue to speak from. Until next time,

hug an author today … the written word is beautiful and hopefully inspiring to many.