Remembering The Importance of the Fairy Tales

Today I was reading a thread on Facebook in which the originator is not in a safe place. The immediate and permanent solution to this problem is jumping on a plane. But the person says they are afraid to fly. Naturally this has cause some strong words, disbelief and a roar of push back. And I too was pissed off when I read that. But before I responded I wanted to 1^st try and figure out why that made me so mad.

So I reread what they wrote it again. Fear. Ok. Fear. I make a living ensuring people don’t sleep well at night so I thought about it for a sec.

Fear. If this person was a character of mine what would I do to them to make the reader turn on the lights? What would I have to do to make the reader think about them long after the story ended? What if it were me?

A few months ago there was this meme floating around that showed a bug infested bathroom and asked ‘Would you spend the night here for 10 million dollars?’ My answer was not only no, it was fuck you, kiss every inch of my ass, no! Now that I am thinking about it, would I be able to do this wearing a bee suit? No. What if I wore a self-contained Hazmat suit, with the lights turned off and wearing headphones and listening to music? That would only make it worse because I would where I was and what was with me, and anyone who has read any of my books knows the very last place one should be left in the dark with is with my imagination.  

Ok. Let’s ask me this way. If it meant not only saving my life but also the life of someone I loved would I be able to do it then? If we’re going to be brutally honest here, the answer is still most likely no. At this point if the person who was with me knew me, which they would because they love me, would be frantically trying to come up with an alternative route to survival. Because if that bathroom was the only option Sean would be right, we would both be fucked and that’s just the honest to God’s truth.

 

Click here for the Sean reference.

Sean was right

And it was at this point when I realized why I was so pissed off about this post. The people who know this person immediately took the bee line to the alternative route. Now just to back up a bit, this person is outside of the United States and what’s putting them in danger is not considered a crime where they are.

However…

This person is an American, and the person who is causing the unsafe living conditions has dual citizenship. What’s being done is a crime on American soil, and there is an American Embassy in the country that they are in. Though in a foreign country, on the other side of those gates is American soil.  It’s not a permanent solution but it is an immediate one. And it’s not like a “Not without my daughter” scenario either because the people who know where this person is have posted Google images and MapQuest directions … it’s on the bus line!

This person has a HUGE pool from which to pull resources, the last I checked there were more than 700 comments, and a few hundred sub conversations. A lot of people have offered to pay or chip in to pay for an international flight, one person booked a hotel room.

Does this person jump on the bus? No. You read that right. No. Did they check into the hotel? No.

Instead they are making excuse after excuse why these aren’t viable options while with the next breath stating how terrified they are.

And I am left to wonder if this is a cry for help or the cry of the wolf, and I am not the only one. According to what’s being said by the people who care about this person what’s being said, at least part of it is true. Which means things are only going to get worse. This person is a critical point here because people are starting to shake their heads and express their frustration.

This person needs to desperately remember ‘The boy who cried wolf” because when things get worse, the help that’s being offered now may not be extended.

No, we are not children anymore and we realize that leaving breadcrumbs is not the best navigation method when trekking through the back country. But still, it would be behoove of us to remember that Grandma did not have such big teeth...   

I can totally explain...

Oh my gosh, its been so long since I updated my blog I forgot my password … lol, but see what had had happened was.

 

I know, I totally fail at keeping my blog updated but hopefully most of you are following me on my Facebook fan page, Twitter, and or Instagram. For those of you who aren’t the two biggest reasons I haven’t been on top of my blog game are:

The 1^st is that I had to break my lease and have the VA help me with an emergency move. The guy next door started using and then selling meth from his apartment, and towards the end it got really bad like Breaking Bad with a side of Sons of Anarchy bad. I was beyond stressed out, wasn’t getting any sleep let alone getting any writing done and updating my social media was the furthest thing from my mind =(  But I moved into an amazing safe place that’s close to my mom’s. I am not totally settled in yet, but I am sleeping way, way better and I’ve started writing again and let me tell you its about damn time!

The 2^nd reason is actually kinda cool. I have been on the road promoting and marketing basically since March and it has been A-fucking-mazing! I have met so many kick ass people that its just unreal. Here are the links for the albums posted on my fan page =D
LA Book Signing 2015

World Horror Con & Coca Cola World ATL

Seattle Crypticon 2015

Rose City Comic Con

 

Let me tell you one thing about self-promoting. It is a beast! It is absolutely sink or swim, there’s no middle ground where you can just float or dog paddle, it is absolutely sink or swim. For me I always just jump in to things head 1^st in the deep end. These last few months has taught me a lot. Five years and 11 publications later all of my visual branding is uniform. My convention theme color is grey (because I’m from Seattle) because my brand is my name and not the logo I swapped the T from Crystal with an ax and the last O from Connor with a skull. w/the tag line A Trusted Name in Terror. From now on this is how I will display it on promotional material. Bad ass uh?

 

This year I offered two tour shirts (one was red, the other grey) that I sold at my booths and book signings, but as far as the sales went one did not out sell the other so I’m not sure which one was the favorite.

 

However, I updated my logo and this is the 1^st time that I’ve debuted it. Ta-Da!

I am so in love with this logo so moving forward this logo will be on a dark grey tee at every convention and book signing and since people liked both of the tees above I will continue to sell those but not both at the same event. That way not everyone is walking around in the same tee and it will help stretch out my inventory.

I’ve also have been working really hard on the branding for In the Foothills of Mt. Empyreal The End is Now, one of the books I wrote with Lori Titus. Even though I am the one who designed these images I really can’t dominate the visual message, so to keep all of my visual branding uniform I included a skull to anchor it to my brand. These books were published in 2014 but I have been working on these logos all this time to get them just right, and I am going to say that it seems like all of my hard work has paid off because they are just as gorgeous as the ones I did for the Crystal Connor logos

 

Tee #1

Tee #2

 

 

 

 

 

 



The Back of Both



Oh my Gosh! I forgot to tell you! On Oct 31^st 2015 which is only 38 days away I will be a vendor and a guest panelist at my very 1^st international convention!!! Dudes! Its in Canada and all the proceeds goes to charity! How awesome is that!
 IFcon Victoria

I am so super excited plus I thought that would be the last con of the year but its not because the weekend of the 13^th I am heading back to Portland for The Living Dead Con! Dudes, this has been one hell of a year.

Living Dead Con

 

I am currently working on two new books and securing dates for my 2016 convention and film festival and I have something big simmering on the back burner but I don’t want to mention it yet because I don’t want to jinx it

Well I don’t wanna take up too much of your time, just wanted to touch base and let you all know what I’ve been up to <3 o:p="" ttyl="">

 

 

 

Things to big to see

You know how sometimes things are so big it takes a few weeks, sometimes months to see or understand the enormity of it. Take for example Hurricane Katrina. We all knew it was going to be bad because it was being called a super-storm but most of us didn't ‘get it’ until we saw pix of the Superdome and heard reports about people being shot and killed over water. Yet still, we didn't get it, get it until we watched Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke.

Running in the science fiction and horror circles that I run in, I cannot count the number of times I've heard black women talk about how seeing Uhura (played by Nichelle Nichols) on Star Trek changed their lives. That didn't happen with me. For one I didn't see myself in Uhura because in my young logic, you had to be smart to work on a spaceship and I always struggled in school. And two I was a Battleship Galactica & Buck Rogers kid.

But I did have an ‘Uhura moment.’

I was 20 and watching Tales from the Darkside: The Movie … the segment was Lover’s Vow. When Carola (played by Rea Dawn Chong) appear in the alley I literary sat up. I saw me in her, she was black, well-spoken … and beautiful. I know that sounds vain but you know what I mean. A black woman in a horror movie who looked like me. And she was the star, it was her story and I was so mad at how it ended I turned the movie off. But then I turned it back on after my popcorn was done … lol

When Lucy Cruell first contacted me about being a part of this project back in April I immediately said yes. I knew it was going to be a big deal, I mean 7 black female horror author’s having their stories adapted for film and those short movies being directed by 7 black female directors …come on, that’s a no-brainer. But I didn't ‘get it’ I want to say it was because I was focused on gearing up for World Horror Con in Atlanta followed by Crypticon here in Seattle. But the truth of the matter is, I just didn’t get it.

But like my elders say, You gon learn today!

Rea Dawn Chong, the woman I saw on the big screen in a horror movie who gave me my Uhura moment is one of the directors for 7 Magpies. My name is mentioned in the same sentence as Rea Dawn Chong. 

Rea. Dawn. Chong.

And not only that, last night, though it was announced on May 16^th, I found out that the Executive Producer is Stacy Pippi Hammon. And as amazing as this is, this is just my seeing the Superdome moment.

Now that I've had some time to let this settle itself around me, I realize that if not for bestselling author Sumiko Saulson, Lucy Cruell wouldn’t have even heard of me.

Sumiko and I spent the most hectic, stressful, amazing weekend together in Los Angeles on a book signing tour and the next thing you know I am being contacted by Lucy Cruell.

I have illusions of grandeur and an ego you can see from space. (yes I meant to use the word illusions) Sumiko has both of her feet firmly planted in the soils of reality, yet after spending an entire weekend with me she doesn't think of me as some garden-variety self-centered, overconfidant megalomaniac who wants to control the world. Bear in mind I want to dethrone Stephen King so that I can reign supreme in the horror genre … and I said that out loud. More than once.

And like my mom and those in my closest, tightest circle she believes in me. She didn't tell me that. She didn't tell me how brave I was for quitting my job to write full time. She passed my name along. That’s all she did. And it feels exactly the same as when my sister secretly paid my light bill, the exactly the way it felt when my BFF bought me $200.00 worth of groceries and then hung out with me at the laundry matt, supplying the quarters that would ensure clean, dry clothes.

Exactly the same.   

Rae Dawn Chong Headlines ‘7 Magpies’ - All-Black Female Director Horror Anthology Film    

Sumiko Saulson

No, exposure doesn't pay the rent, but...

This is a hot button topic, and often a point of contention among writers, but I have seen some authors lose their shit on various social media sites over the audacity of some publications and small press publications who have calls for submissions but do not pay for the stories accepted, the argument being that being a writer is a job and those of us who work in this industry deserved to get paid for our work. After all you wouldn't ask a plumber, a doctor, or an IT Tech to work for free…

Now before we get started, I am NOT telling you what to do but simply sharing where I stand on this issue and why.

As someone who walked away from a > $50K a year job, I get it. Trust me I do, I need all the money coming in that I can get. As someone who has to budget to the dime I can no longer afford to buy a brand new book several times a month and when I do buy books I buy them from the 2^nd hand bookstore but last year things got so tight that I started contacting other author’s to request bartering and book trades. Luckily almost everyone I asked agreed (even the authors who have careers I dream of having one day and probably never even heard of me before reading my unsolicited email.)

From the very beginning I've always said I wanted legions of fan, but I also understood that having an enormous fanbase wouldn't necessarily equal mountains of sales. Now this might come as a surprise to you but I am a huge Stephen King fan…lol The 1^st Stephen King book I read was IT, I was in the 7^th grade and I borrowed it from my BFF. The 1st Stephen King book I bought was nine years later when I was in the Navy.  

I really do want people to read my work even if I don’t get paid, which is why all of my eBooks can be shared and everything in print can be checked out at the library. I am featured in four other anthologies that are not my own and submitted to those for the sole purpose of getting exposure. The reason I made that decision was based on my own budget buying, when I cannot afford to buy a book from an author I’m a fan of I buy anthologies, it’s a lot of bang for your buck and I've ‘met’ some incredible authors from reading anthologies.

I also have a forever free audiobook version of my own collection …And They All Lived Happily Ever After!  

One of the questions I am often asked in interviews is what advice would I give other emerging authors. My answer, if you stay true to your, art your art will stay true to you.

As of 8:30 this morning on April 17^th 2015 for this quarter I have earned $71.68 from my free audiobook. $5.83 more than from the sales from the premium version available on Audible, Amazon & iTunes.

There’s no way for me to track how much exposure I've received by allowing anthologies and websites to publish my stories without being financially compensated and the books available on Podiobooks are free but there is a ‘tip jar.’ The default tip amount is $4.99 but you can tip as little or as much as you want. And leaving a tip is not required.

As an author only you can decide how much your work is worth, and whether or not you’ll work for free. Lord knows I know that ‘exposure’ doesn't pay the rent...but it did, however, just pay the light bill. 

Mid-week Mini Movie: Chatter

A rare non horror movie review

I usually do not review films outside of the horror or its subgenres but Emeriah Rich of Horror Addicts dot net supports writer/director Omar Haro and asked me to review this film.

Hearts&Kisses is a really good example of how a director can use the setting make the most out of a small budget and a limited time frame. Clocking in at just 14 minutes and 45 seconds the setting does all the heavy lifting, just sixty seconds in and you already know that this is a Christian household and this sets the tone for the strange little story that follows perfectly.

Hearts&Kisses tells the love story of Richie and Liz. They are a fairly young couple and their feelings for each other and the way interact with each other is genuine, tender, goofy, and awkward.

Surrounded by the icons of their faith, with her parents, and brothers, away Liz decides that tonight should be their big night, despite that they are still probably a year or two away from their wedding night. Of course Richie is delighted! But God is watching and Richie has a secret.

The pacing and storytelling of this micro-mini-movie is really good. The ending, if it could be called that, will leave you questioning what the hell it was you just watched but I am not going to fault it for that. I am going to give this one 3 out of 5 stars. Enjoy!

This is what I wanted...

One of the things I quickly got used to when I made the transition from being a ‘signed’ author to a self-published author was, is, that I have complete control over everything I do. Everything. I would be lying if I told you that it wasn't downright terrifying AND stressful but for me it’s worth it because when it works, it really works, and when something I do doesn't it’s a hard learned lesson.

One of the things that I did that hasn't been done before is the way I layout the interior of my anthology. The table of contents is hand written, it’s laden with graphic elements but it’s not a graphic novel. I knocked that shit out of the park! I’m really happy with the way it turned out because having an anthology of my own short stories is basically the gateway drug to the nightmares I create. I know I am not going to be your only horror dealer but I have every intention of becoming a reliable one.

The problem with the layout though is that the format does not translate well into a eBook, which left me reeling because not everyone is willing to spend $14.99 on an up-and-coming-author and at that time most of my royalties’ were coming from digital sales. So even though I had a kick ass print version I felt like I fucked myself because in order to convert it into a digital format the graphics would have to be removed and that wasn't an option because that would completely change the tone of the stories.

So just as I was coming to terms with the fact that I had cut myself off from all the ‘gadget guys’ I met a woman named Kay Richards. And over the next two years this amazing woman that God had sent my way produced two audiobooks for me. A forever free version that is available on Podiobooks and a premium version that can be purchased on Audible/Amazon/iTunes

The free version went live in Dec ’14 and as of this posting has been downloaded more than 33K x, dudes, really? So mind-blowing I’m still kind of pinching myself, and top of that two people have donated despite the fact that it’s absolutely free. I was so moved by that I actually cried…both times.

So fast forward to right now and my control issues. Ok so Createspace is the self-publishing platform for Amazon, and the only thing you can not do is set the price of your paperback below the price it cost to print it. Fair enough. The platform for self-publishing audio books for Amazon is ACX (Audiobook creation exchange) I have no control, none whatsoever, no say at all, over how Audible sets the prices for the audiobooks. So when the premium went live on Feb. 19^th with a sale price of $19.95 Audible members I panicked.

Quitting your job in order to make your dreams come true is insane, hard, and oftentimes ill-advised. There a months were I have to budget to the dime and I mean to the dime. I know how important book sales are but even still I buy my books from a 2^nd hand store and at the end of last year I started bartering books with other authors, some who are far well off than I am. Buying a brand new book is something I have to save up for. As of right now I cannot afford to spend $19.95 on a paperback, let alone on an audiobook.

So, just as I was coming to terms that at least I have a free version of the audiobook, I check my sales report. I sold 12 premium audiobooks in 9 days. I’m paid 40% royalties’ and even after taxes I earned $103.57. Me, more than 100 dollars in just nine days. Selling stories.

Me.

I am an emotional wreck right now. This is what I wanted, but now that it’s happening I can’t believe it. I’m afraid that at any moment now I’m going to wake up. I've cried, did my happy dance, checked the sales report more than a dozen times to make sure I’m looking at it right…this is the most amazing thing ever! Like I am drowning in a sea of love and support, not really drowning more like bobbing gently in the warm tide.

I just can’t thank everyone enough, I just can’t. I’m going to take a nap now because I really can’t think but the only thing I want to do is to continue to be worthy of your time and support, this is really the most amazing day and it’s all because of you.

Thank you, you guys. I really mean it, thank you…

Here is the link for the forever free version of
Free Version of And They All Lived Happily Ever After!

And here is the link to the premium version with bonus material not heard on Podibooks

Premium Version of And They All Lived Happily Ever After!