S.D. McKoy's Blog

Last weekend I was able to type The End on the last page of For Love or Money. I've shared a few chapters with my beta readers and they seem to like it! Now, it's time for a ton of editing, cutting, adjusting and rewriting to make sure that the book is the best it can be before I turn it over to them for their input shortly after July 4th. You can pre-order For Love or Money now, and it will be processed when the book publishes on 7/31!
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June 4-June 7 you can get a free Kindle copy of 'Out of the Box'.
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Read it!
Fall in Love and Hate with the Characters!
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This introduction to the Underbridge County series explores an abusive marriage, insanity, and a neverending love story. Then it shows what happens when all of that collides. 'Out of the Box' is not a book for the fainthearted or easily triggered. There is a lot of violence and violent sexual situations.

The Underbridge County series Book 2 For Love or Money was set to be released on June 30. Because I don't want to rush this and I want to give readers the best story possible, I'm changing the release date to July 30, 2019. 
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For Love or Money is available for pre-order now- orders will be fulfilled on July 30. 

In the meantime be sure to check out Out of the Box, the first novel in this series. Available in Kindle or Print format and you can read fro FREE on Kindle Unlimited!
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Usually when I sit down to write a story I let my imagination run wild and write as much as I can think of related to what inspired me. Then I start building the additional story line, filling it in with details, characters and situations. Out of the Box is a simple story of a long lasting love triangle and the main character Adara. For Love or Money has a wide cast of characters whose lives are intertwined in different ways. I actually have a notebook to help me remember who is who and what they've done.

This is the first time I've had nearly the whole story in my head before I started writing. Sure, there's plenty to add in and tie together but the words are flowing. I can definitely say that to tell this story, For Love or Money is likely to be about 3x as long as Out of the Box . 

Here's a preview of the main characters in For Love or Money

Devin Langston- sheriff's daughter, called Dev, townie, best friend of Vinnie and Chance.
Chance Morrison- prince of Underbridge county, he'll inherit a fortune when his granparents pass away.
Devin Greene- niece of Danny Greene from Out of the Box, bestie of Dev and Chance, trailer park upbringing, goes by Vinnie.
Rev. Morrison- abusive, alcoholic, drug dealing gambler when he's not raining hellfire and brimstone on his parishioners. 
Ray Langston- Sheriff of Underbridge, adores his daughter and her friends, determined to clean up his county even if it means gong after the not-so-good Reverend. 
Granny Sarah and Grampa Morrison- reigning family in the county, embarrassed by their son, dote on their grandson and his friends.

There are several other people who are part of this story, but these seven are the main people you learn about in For Love or Money. I can't wait to share this story with y'all. I'm having a great time writing it and letting these people tell me who they are! 

You might think that once a book is published that's all I would have to worry about and I could devote all my time to writing the next one. But as I mentioned in the last post the writing is the easy part.

I have re-read "Out of the Box" since it published and I found errors! I can't believe that I missed them in the many many times I went over the book, I also had several other people noting all the errors they spotted. So, for the next few weeks I'll be going in randomly and reading and making corrections then I'll upload a final revised copy of the book. Nothing that I'm fixing changes the storyline it is just typo errors like using the wrong name or leaving out a word here and there. 

I'm also writing articles for clients, maintaining my household, keeping up with my grown kids while I wait on the newest grandbaby in October and every once in a while doing some reading for my own pleasure.
Marketing, promotion, creating a presence on Goodreads and learning about being an indie author step by step.  Oh, and checking my stats too! Haha, I may be kinda obsessed with checking for reviews, I've gotten one so far, a 5 star on Amazon. If you'd like to check out 'Out of the Box', and leave me a review Click Here.

I spent a few hours tonight on the new book and I'm really liking the characters. In some ways I feel as if I rushed through "Out of the Box", but it was such a focused book, that dealt with only the main characters there wasn't a whole lot to write about Underbridge County and the various people there. This book really explores things. You'll see the town from the point of view of several townspeople and how each thing that happens ends up affecting others.

​I don't want to cheat readers out of getting to know these folks as well as I feel like I do. There are literally people in my stories that I love and some that I hate, but for balance I need to show both the good and the bad, even if I tend to focus on the dark stuff. 

I never thought I would say that the actual writing of a book is the easy part. But when it comes to just getting your thoughts out and typed in a readable format it just kind of flows. Then comes the hard stuff. 
First you have to go back and fill in things that you left blank because you didn't want to stop writing to look something up. (the distance between horseshoe pegs).

Then you have to go over and over and over the entire book with spelling and grammar checkers. That's frustrating in itself because when you use words like y'all and ain't in your book, the checkers flag each one of them. 

The next step is spacing and alignment configuration, for both print and ebooks. And yes, they are different. 

I collected several beta reader's edits and notes then went through the book line by line for each one of those. Seriously, y'all I can probably recite the whole damn book at this point. I'm so tired of looking at it.
But then, after all of that, I had to do one last read through of the book, and I gotta tell ya, I love it more now than when I first finished it. The input from my betas really helped fill in any holes in the storyline and clean up my punctuation. 

So, I just submitted the absolute, final, not looking at it again version of the ebook for Out of the Box. I have a few more things to adjust for the print version and it will be ready to go by tonight. 

 Publishing companies have people to handle various tasks. But as an indie author I am responsible for everything from the cover to the missing comma, and it's a lot to take on.
 
I'll be so happy tonight when I can go back to just writing Book 2, knowing that Out of the Box is finished!

I have found a great group of beta readers. At this moment Out of the Box is in their hands. While they read and return their notes to me I am pushig forward with getting the book and all the things that go along with it ready to go. 

The cover has been designed for both the Kindle format and the paper back. My Amazon author page is set up. (see it here) and the kindle format of the book is set up for pre-order. This means you can order now and the book will automatically be sent to your Kindle on April 21. (Click Here to Pre-Order)

While I am building a whole series set in Underbridge County I realize the first book, Out of the Box is a bit shorter and focused on a smaller group of people than the next book in the series. I have book 2 outlined and the first four chapters written already. I think that book 1 is exciting, and a good introduction to Underbridge and book 2 will expand on that foundation and make readers really feel as if they are a part of this town and become invested in the people in it. 

Beta readers are an invaluable resource for indie authors. Because we are doing all the work ourselves we tend to get basically blind to what our story actually says.
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See, we write the book. This is usually a rather messy and unedited version, which you couldn't pay us to let someone read. I won't say this is the easy part, but as an author it is actually the fun part. 

Then we go back and check the spelling and grammar, re-reading each line and correcting errors as we go.Next we go through and make sure we have the conversational aspect right. Gotta have the quotation marks, and make it clear who is speaking.After that we go through and put in chapter headings, which also requires another read through to know where the best place to separate the text is going to be.The next step is to go through and make sure all the spacing is right and the pages line up correctly. For example the Table of Contents page, created using the chapter headings shouldn't necessarily have a page number and the end of the table of contents shouldn't be at the top of the prologue page. There is a lot of formatting and spacing to go over.Finally when we think it's perfect we do another read through to make sure that we didn't miss anything. Guess what? We did and we will miss it again because we no longer see the actual words on the pages. We've breathed these words for weeks or months, we've been over them time and time again to make sure the story line lines up, to make sure all the ends are tied up neatly and we will so easily miss a typo such as tish. (this) Yep, it happens. Our fingers move faster than they should sometimes, we think ahead while we type and no matter how many times we may read over it, we see the word this as it should be because we know that is what is supposed to be in that space. 

This is why we need fresh eyes and interested readers. If an author asks you to beta read a book they are asking you to read their story and let them know what you think. But, they also want you to note any typos, any timeline errors, or stuff that just doesn't make sense. 

I am currently seeking beta- readers for my first Underbridge County book, Out of the Box. You don't have to be and English major to be a beta reader, you just have to be able to read and make notes of things that are so wrong they catch your attention and pull you out of the story or leave you with questions that aren't answered by the end of the book. If you are interested please shoot me an email mckoysd@gmail.com  the beta read for Out of the Box will be delivered to betas on April 2, and I need them back by midnight on April 10. The book goes live on Amazon on April 21. 
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It's always a challenge to keep my mind on one task. Along with being a wife and mother I am also juggling content writing as a job, dealing with the pain and issues related to fibromyalgia and working on the Underbridge County series. Although I should be working on Out of the Box today I am instead jotting down notes for the 2nd book in the series and trying to figure out how quickly I'll be able to get it written after Out of the Box publishes in April. 

One thing I've learned is that when your brain is telling you something over and over you need to at least get the ideas down to follow up on later. So I'll take an hour or two to flesh out my ideas for book #2 then get back to writing Dare's story this evening. 
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I am having so much fun writing this book. I've never really allowed my "country" dialect to come out and play in my writing. I get to describe places I have been and people I have known, although they are cleverly disguised and therefore fictional. No one in these books is entirely comprised of any one person. I've been able to essentially build people, and it's been so much fun! 

I get to combine romance, loss, murder, mystery and the dark side of humanity all in one book. While I have had the basic concept of the story in my mind and on various documents on the computer for a while as I write I'm finding all the little threads that tie it all together and turn 3-4 short stories into a full length novel that covers about 25 years in the lives of the characters. 

It's like a jigsaw puzzle deciding at which point certain activities would have the most impact and I feel like I've won a prize when I read how it is all coming together and find myself enjoying the characters as a reader not just as an author. My goal is to write books that I would want to read.