TaQuanda Taylor's Blog

How many times can I disappear?

That is a good question and while I would like to say that I am here and I am not going anywhere, mental health is a real thing and I struggle with it. So, if I disappear for a bit, just know that I am taking care of myself.

This is my hello to all of you who have been following me and my way of saying I am here (at least for the time being).

I have something planned. Now is not the right time to make the announcement, but soon. Right now I just need to decide if I am going to blog daily or weekly.

I’ll talk to you soon.

Warning:

This book features ManxMan love scenes. Continue at your own discretion.

Brief Description:

*In “Trick Shot,” a spicy MMF Christmas novella, Leo, Riley, and Jace embark on a passionate and unconventional romance that challenges societal norms. As they navigate their desires and explore the boundaries of their connection, they discover that love knows no bounds, especially during the enchanting holiday season.*

Rating System:

5 Stars: I will likely read this again.

4 Stars: I enjoyed it.

3 Stars: It was okay.

2 Stars: It just didn’t do it for me.

1 Star: It missed all of the marks.

What I liked:

I have read a lot of smut and several books that feature MxM. Not everyone gets it right. Kayla Grosse falls into the character of someone who got it right. During the intimate scenes between all three of the characters at no point did it feel as if one was paying attention to one more than the other. They were all equally written so that you were drawn into all three of them.

While everything takes place over three days (Christmas Eve, Christmas, & the day after), at no point did anything feel rushed. I typically like my love stories to take place over an extended period, because I am not a fan of love at first sight. Although there is a point where love is mentioned, I didn’t feel like that was the case. It was clearly lust at first sight when Riley and Leo meet at the airport and again when Riley meets Jace. There was a strong attraction that I was excited to see grow. We got a glimpse of that at the end of the book.

I like my smut, but I love my drama more. After a while sexy scenes tend to be too much and I find myself skipping them so that I can get to the good parts. The drama. I didn’t find myself doing that with this book. Every intimate scene was written so well that you can’t help but keep reading.

What I didn’t like:

It wasn’t long enough. My only fault with this book is the fact that it had to end.

My Rating:

I couldn’t put this book down and I can definitely see myself reading it again when the mood strikes.

When I published my first book I had all of these high expectations. I figured I would write the book, put it out, and then become a full-time writer. Well that didn’t happen. Now my book sales weren’t horrible, but they were a long, long way from allowing me to quit my day job.

Since then sales have only declined and I didn’t understand why. The truth is. I suck at marketing. Present tense. Even after almost eight years of doing this, I have gotten no better. It is just a skill that I have yet to master and unfortunately for me and my little writing career it has been a hindrance.

I’m not going to lie and say that the little green monster widely known as jealously didn’t rear its ugly head every time I saw another indie author talking about the success they were having. I would always ask myself, “Why not me?”

Now, this post is not to proclaim that I have cracked the code. Far from it. I am still very much struggling to figure out the answer to that question.

This post is however to take you guys along on my journey to try and grow my book sales. Especially since I’ve decided to sit down and write book four of The Five Sisters series.

So far my efforts seem to be showing positive results. About a week ago I started posting small videos (reels, shorts, tik tok’s) of my first book Power [It’s important to push the first book in a series because that is what will make people want to read the rest] and I’ve sold 5 books.

Now, that may seem like it’s not a big deal, but I haven’t sold any before that. So that 5 is a big deal for me and I can only see that number growing. I can’t wait to come on here and give you guys bigger stats.

It was a struggle for a little bit, but I managed to spend the day writing and finally finished drafting chapters 18 – 20. I still have a bit of a way to go, but I feel accomplished.

I really wish I could share more about each chapter, but if I did that this post would be riddled with spoilers and we can’t have that.

Chapter 21 is already complete. That’s what happens when you can’t focus and write out of order. I only hope that when it is time to sit and do my read-through that the chapter doesn’t feel out of place. Fingers crossed.

Maybe the next day I sit down to have a full writing day I can finish chapters 22-24

I’m not sure why the lyrics to a Princess & The Frog song popped into my head, at least I think those are the lyrics, but here we are. It actually felt fitting because The Hood Diaries book 2 is almost finished. If I continue at the rate I am going which is to complete two chapters a night this book should be complete by February 7, 2023.

I feel like this is a long time coming. Actually, it is considering this book along with two others were supposed to be released last year 2022.

But life happens to the best of us and I had to push it back. Then a whole lot of internal things happened and well, I just wasn’t feeling it. In fact, as much as I love storytelling, I couldn’t find the motivation to sit down and tell stories. I would go strong for a few days and then nothing.

The desire to write would just die down.

Then the other day I saw a wall plaque with the words “Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes”.

This hit me because for years I have wanted things in my life to change and yet they haven’t. That falls on me. Nothing is going to change if I don’t make it change.

So, I’m writing. I’m also working on other things but for now the important thing is that I am writing. The Hood Diaries book 2 will be finished February 2nd and after getting it tip top it will be released early August 2023.

“Everything Changes.” (That’s another line from a musical.)

I have been trying to sit down and actively write since the first day of the year and I don’t know why I can’t seem to bring myself to complete such a simple task.

It’s writing. I love writing.

It’s storytelling. I love storytelling.

Yet, for some reason every time I try to sit and focus on writing, I just want to do everything but. I feel like there is something holding me back and I can’t figure out what it is. This has been a passion of mine for years. To do what I love. So, why am I not doing it. I have no excuse. Nothing is holding me back. Yes, I wrote my first book when I didn’t have a job, but I wrote the next three all while holding down a full-time job. Plus, I’m not even working a regular job. I make my own schedule, so it can’t be work holding me back.

I hope I can solve this mystery soon, because I don’t want to lose the feeling of writing and that feeling when a book is actually published.

How do you start a book that is supposed to be a book of secrets?

If I haven’t already mentioned, The Hood Diaries is a series that follows a group of friends. It is told from the perspective of an unknown character who has filled the pages of their “diary” before deciding to release it as a book.

The opening of the book is a letter from our mystery author. It gives a bit of background into the story.

This post is not about writing.

This is just me taking a moment to say goodbye to such a talented man who will be deeply missed.

I didn’t know Twitch personally. Never got the chance to meet him, but I felt like I knew him after watching him for so many years and following along on social media. I am gutted to the core to learn that Twitch has left this earth and I urge us all to be there for our loved ones. As they say, you never know what someone is truly going through.

This makes no sense to me. I try to look back and try to check for signs but I don’t see it. This one will take some time to process and I send light and prayer to his family, friends, and everyone who has had the chance to meet him.

Please talk to someone if you are going through anything and find yourself in a dark place. You never know the hole you might leave behind.

When I lived in Brooklyn, NY I worked with a lot of guys. Nothing weird here people, they were my friends. Anyway, my friends and co-workers discovered my love of writing. Fun fact: I never really dreamt of being a novel writer. I actually wanted to be a screenwriter. We were all just talking about my love of writing when like most people do, they wanted to be written in.

Why do people always want a place in writers stories?

So, I laughed with them and told them I would not write a story about them. not unless they pissed me off and it was to kill them of course.

I digress. One of my friends gave me a character name and a possible storyline, Darius Jacobs, and suddenly I was building an entire world around him and a group of friends. Thus The Hood Diaries was born.

Since I’ve always dreamt of being a screenwriter, most of my stories tend to be series and this one is no different.

The Hood Diaries is a series that follows a group of young adults. We meet them first when they are in high school and if I have it my way we will follow them into adulthood. This story is written from the perspective of a mystery character in diary form. No one knows who the person is (well except for me) and yet these diaries that should have been kept private get released to the world, at times spilling secrets.

I think the easiest part about self-publishing is writing the book.

Hear me out. I am in no way saying that writing a book is easy. It is hard. Especially if you’re a perfectionist like myself. Then you will never think your book is good enough and that makes getting through the writing process quite difficult because you always want to scrap whatever you wrote.

With that said, I still don’t think it’s the hardest part. I think many of us, myself included, believe that once the book is written, edited, and out there in the world it will be smooth sailing. I know that’s what I thought when I wrote my first book. The hard part was over. The book was done. It was out there for people to buy and read and love.

Enter the actual hard part; getting people to actually buy your book. Marketing is hard you guys. Especially if you have no background or knowledge of marketing. I have read countless blogs and watched millions of videos on marketing for self-publishers and it is still something I struggle with; even after eight years.

Yes. It has been eight years since I pushed publish on my first book and since then I have published three additional books and it has not gotten any easier. I don’t have a sellers brain and I hate feeling like I’m “selling” my books to people. I put selling in quotes because that is the technical term. I guess. Honestly, I just feel like I’m begging people to read my stuff and that is not a feeling I like.

I think I excel at writing the book. That is when I actually sit down to do it and stop letting doubt creep in. The marketing part however will forever be an unattainable goal.

It’s hard and I don’t like it and if you’re imagining me sitting with my arms crossed and wearing a pout you would not be far off.

Until the next time we talk I am going to go and do some writing and “try” to come up with ways to market my books. Wish me luck?