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Tag: six sentence sunday

Six Sentence Sunday 9/23 #sixsunday

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Today’s six are from the novel I’m currently querying, The Lone Wolf.  The MC, Kasey, arrives home and finds a hand-delivered letter stuck in her front door.

I set the letter aside and studied the photos. Their low-quality fuzziness indicated they’d been taken with a webcam, but I could still clearly discern two people intimately engaged. As I focused on the images, my smile faded. One figure was my husband David.  Although his face wasn’t visible in the photos, after almost ten years together I’d have recognized his stocky frame anywhere.

The other figure, the female, was not me.

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Six Sentence Sunday 9/16 #sixsunday

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This week’s six are from “Soulless,” a paranormal horror story I wrote last winter and forgot about.  With some polishing, it should be submittable soon.  Louise, the MC, wakes up to a demon telling her he has her soul, and she has three days to get it back.  She starts talking to herself and hearing voices inside her head.

Okay, so maybe you’re crazy, but maybe you’re not though. Maybe the demon is monitoring you. 

“Putting those thoughts in my head.”

Clues, hints, guidelines.

“If it’s giving me clues, then what am I supposed to do next?”

The gods demand a sacrifice.

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Six Sentence Sunday 9/9 #sixsunday

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Today’s six are from a piece I’m working on for the September StoryADay Challenge.  I’m cheating on this one, though; it’s told in seven interconnected chunks, and I’m counting each one as a story.

In this one, a little girl named Evie has been whipped by her grandmother for breaking a vase, then sent to bed without dinner.  Her brother Peter has snuck food up to her, but she fell asleep before eating it.

The weight on the bed was back.

“Peter, you shouldn’t be in here,”she hissed into the darkness. “It’s not safe if Grandmother finds you.”

A hand took hers and squeezed it. She blinked and the night was gone, replaced by a hazy brightness and a boy about her age, wearing too-big, hole-filled clothes.

“Who are you?” she asked, watching him closely.

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Six Sentence Sunday 9/2 #sixsunday

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Only a couple months until NaNoWriMo, so I thought I’d revisit the novel I’ll be working on (for the third consecutive year), A Handful of Wishes.  This scene takes place in 1963, when Zeke is 18.  He’s just had a fight with his girlfriend, Julia Weslewski, the younger sister of the guy who bullied Zeke when they were kids.

“Uncle Walter,” Zeke called as he let himself inside the front door, “is everything alright?”

Walter came down the front staircase into the hall, wearing an ornate silk smoking jacket, and said, “Your girlfriend just called.”

Zeke’s heart skipped a beat; her family didn’t have a phone. “Is she okay? What happened?”

 “She’s fine,” said Walter, “but her brother’s just been arrested for murder.”

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Six Sentence Sunday 8/26 #sixsunday

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Today’s six are from a story I wrote in May as part of the StoryADay Challenge, and have slowly been working on for the past few months.  It’s about a guy, Daniel, reflecting back on his relationship with a woman named Mira.

Daniel releases the tight hold he had on his bag, wipes the thin line of drool from his face. His head whips around as he checks to see if anyone has noticed his wet face, but no one meets his eye so he considers himself safe.

Mira was good about that too; whenever he did something embarrassing, like drool in his sleep or spill wine on his shirt, she never pointed it out. He could always tell she noticed by the way she stared straight at the spot, but she never said anything.

Of all the things he misses about her, he thinks that might be one of the biggest: the little things that she let slide. And of all the things he regrets most about her, about what happened, he thinks the biggest is not letting those little things slide too. 

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Breakdown of my free story promotion

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This past weekend I decided to offer my short story ebook, “Tim and Sara,” free on Amazon (it’s normally $.99).

Since I listed it two-and-a-half months ago, I’d sold less than a handful of copies, and those were in the first couple days.  Granted, I hadn’t promoted it much (okay, at all).  And now the problem was that it didn’t have any reviews.  Why would someone spend a dollar, the equivalent of a cheeseburger, on an unreviewed story by someone they’d never heard of?  Personally, I’d go for the unhealthy goodness of a McDonald’s McDouble instead too.

What I needed, more than earning 1/3 of that cheeseburger, was exposure.  So I took advantage of one of the features of Amazon’s Kindle Select program: 5 free days within a 90-day period.  I picked the weekend, as it coincided with Six Sentence Sunday, as well as the following Monday so that people who do all their online stuff at work would see it too.

I tried hard to get the word out:

  • Scribophile, the writing community website I use.  I started a thread about the free ebook, plus sent out a bulletin to all the people who’d added me as a favorite. Estimated reach: 50-2000 people?
  • Facebook, both my personal account and my writer account.  For my personal account, so as not to bug people who don’t care, I only mentioned it twice – late Friday night/early Saturday morning, and Sunday morning.  My Facebook account is hooked up to Twitter, so whatever I post on one automatically goes to the other.  While there’s some overlap between who follows them, they reach slightly different groups.
  • Twitter.  This was where the big push happened.  I tried to tweet something every 2-3 hours.  I noticed that after every tweet, I’d immediately get a few more downloads.
  • Appeal for the community to spread the word.  I asked people to retweet, and I’m grateful to so many who helped out – @scribophile, @MelissaSasser, @KellyMatsuura, @JessicaMLoftus, and @anthro78, among others.
  • Goodreads.  On Sunday afternoon I remembered this site and I created an event announcing the free book.  I invited all my friends to attend, but I’m not sure of the effect of this, as it was so late.  Next time I’ll do it a few days or maybe a week ahead of time.
  • LinkedIn.  I use LinkedIn for professional networking, so I’m very careful not to post anything that’ll appear to be spam.  I include fiction on my list of publications, but I don’t really advertise them.  I put an announcement up on Saturday morning; it was probably quickly buried. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but here’s what I got:

  • 151 downloads.  The majority were from the US site, with about 10% from the UK site and 1 from Germany
  • At its peak (Saturday night), the story reached #1990 on Amazon’s Free in Kindle Store list.
  • 5 reviews on Amazon (4 5-star and 1 4-star).  I’m guessing that most people downloaded it and haven’t read it yet; I’m expecting more reviews in the next week or so.

 Lessons learned:

  • Twitter is the best way to reach people you don’t know.
  • Perseverance is key.
  • My fellow writers are awesome.

I’m not sure how a free weekend will translate into sales, but it at least gained me some exposure.  I’d like to put another short story/novella on Amazon, to see what happens to sales of your other stuff when you’re giving one book away.  And now that I know how easy and exposure-getting the Kindle Select program is, I hope my next story is free in the near future.

Thanks again, everyone!

#Free book + Six Sentence Sunday 8/19 #sixsunday

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Today’s six are from “Tim and Sara,” the story I recently listed on Amazon.

Sara puts her hands on my shoulders, stares me in the eyes. “This is real important, what I have to do. My soul is on the line, Tim. My soul. They told me this is my last chance for redemption. And I know you have issues too, but I can’t let you mess this up for me, comprende?”

Like what you just read?  You’re in luck! “Tim and Sara” is available free on Amazon through Monday!  Get it, read it, review it, and tell your friends!

And as always, post a link to your six sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Six Sentence Sunday website.

Six Sentence Sunday 7/15 #sixsunday

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Today’s six are again from “Tim and Sara,” the story I recently listed on Amazon.

Tim has spent most of his life in a state hospital.  His friend and fellow resident Sara hatches a plan to escape in a desperate attempt to save her soul.

“Tim.” A voice, calling to me through the air that suffocates me like water. “Tim, it’s okay. You don’t need to hide, okay?” A hand brushes my leg and I shudder, lash out at it with my leg (pulls me from the water tells me it’s okay but Paul’s lifeless eyes say otherwise Ellen’s eyes were closed she’s just sleeping so much blood Ellen get up get away from him don’t let him touch you don’t let him touch me). Something stings my thigh, and then all goes black.

Get the rest of the story here to read on your Kindle or ereader.

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Six Sentence Sunday 7/8 #sixsunday

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Today’s six are from “Tim and Sara,” the story I stuck up on Amazon this week. 

Tim has spent most of his life in a state hospital.  His friend and fellow resident Sara hatches a plan to escape in a desperate attempt to save her soul.

“I gotta do what I gotta do, Tim, because I’m running out of time.” Her eyes widen slightly, and she takes several deep breaths. “So I need to know, right now, are you in or are you out?”

I sit up from the floor, reach over, squeeze her hand. She smiles at me but it doesn’t reach her eyes. I realize that she’s terrified.

Get the rest of the story here to read on your Kindle or ereader.

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Six Sentence Sunday 7/1 #sixsunday

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Today’s six are again from a story found in the bottom of a folder.  I think with just a bit of editing, it should be submission-ready.

A mercenary is hanging out in his favorite tavern with his buddies when a disfigured woman from his past approaches him.

“You did this to me,” Caleigh hissed. “I was beautiful, but now I’m a monster, because of you!”

“You’re mistaken, wench. My Caleigh is dead; I saw her die with my own eyes.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head,  “no, I didn’t die that night, and now I spend every waking moment wishing I had, every night dying in my dreams. Because of you!” 

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