Books Archives - Martha L. Thurston

My Next Book Hero

mthurston — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 10:57:00 +0000

While I’m still currently in the outline mode for my next book, I have been playing around trying to find the perfect eye candy for my book cover. My hero is going to be a little bit scruffy, athletic, and of course, he has to be handsome.

When I put my descriptions into an AI generator, this is what it came up with. What do you think?

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What I’m reading: Taming the CEO

mthurston — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 14:15:10 +0000

**Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links where I may receive a small commission from you clicking or purchasing. This commission comes at no cost from you.

When I’m not writing (like this week due to being super busy), I indulge in reading. This week’s reading is Layla Hagen’s Taming the CEO. It is a fantastic Enemies-to-Lovers romance.

I’ve read a few of Hagen’s books and Taming the CEO just happens to be the latest read of hers. It started just a little slower than I’m used to, but honestly, I think I needed that. I had been reading so many fast paced novels that having one that was slower and let the story unravel was a nice change of pace to slow my brain down. Usually I would read a book within 2 days and this one was more like a week. I’m not going to complain because like I said, I needed that change of pace.

This is a typical enemies to lovers, much like the Whitley brother’s books seem to be. I mean, all of those bachelors are wanting to stay bachelors, but Gran has different ideas when it comes to her grandsons. She enjoys playing matchmaker, and this book is no exception, although she didn’t need to push too hard for this match. It was over the moment they met. It was just everything in between that seemed to be the issue.

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WIP Wednesday: A new romance?

mthurston — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 02:38:00 +0000

I have been working on an outline lately that will be the latest book of mine. Things are going slowly, only because I’m currently writing (and it’s taking longer than usual) a book for my alter ego in adult spicy romance. I had planned to use the outline as a spicy book, but then I thought about how responsive everyone was to my last romance.

This romance is going to take place across several years and will be a heroine falling for her brother’s best friend kind of romance. I’m still finalizing my outline and working out the kinks. Hopefully in a few weeks, I’ll be able to provide you with a Tuesday Teaser.

So, what should my next project be after this one? Take the poll and let me know your thoughts.

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What I’m Reading

mthurston — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 11:34:09 +0000

**Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links where I may receive a small commission from you clicking or purchasing. This commission comes at no cost from you.

I’ve been on a huge romance kick lately. Usually when I’m writing a certain genre, I like to read similar books. It tends to keep me focused on my writing.

My book selection this week is Kiera Cass’s The Selection. This romance tends to also fall into a dystopian type of genre which I hope to soon write.

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Available now

mthurston — Sat, 11 May 2024 12:42:04 +0000

My newest book, Romancing Mr. All-Star, is available for purchase on Amazon. You can also read it for free with Kindle Unlimited. This is my first full venture into romance. It is a clean romance for ages as young as 12 to 90. No worries of anything not being age appropriate.

Don’t fret the fact that this romance is shorter. I was learning to construct the outline, and this was the result. I’ve never been the type of writer to follow a beat pattern (where certain plot events occur at specific points in the outline) as I’ve usually been a seat of my pants type of writer. I actually prefer writing with nothing more than an ending in mind, but I realize I end up having to go back and do more revising that way.

About seven years ago, I took a Master Class in writing, and started using a chapter outline that generally detailed what would take place in that chapter, but was still vague enough to allow me to write freely without being weighed down to a direct script of what should take place. Since learning this new style for Romance writing, I think I may venture into more writing to improve.

Either way, check out my latest book.

Synopsis:

Jeremy, Mr. All-Star himself, is the town’s high school hero. Super jock, team captain, and unfortunately, super hot. While he seems to sparkle and shine in the limelight, I prefer to hide my head in books and stay away from everyone.
Leave it to my father to help out the football team by providing my tutoring services without my consent.
Now, I’m stuck tutoring Mr. All-Star while trying to maintain my dignity and avoiding the bullies who forced me into private school years ago.

Grace is nothing like the girls I hang out with on a daily basis. For one, she wants nothing to do with me. I find that attractive. The more she ignores my flirting, the more I want her. Can I convince her that maybe this football player has more than just the game on his mind?

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WIP: When continuity issues arise

mthurston — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 19:49:45 +0000

Nothing sends up a larger red flag than when you are editing your work and you see something that doesn’t feel right. Not to mention, this red flag has appeared when you are editing chapter 13 and can’t remember if this is the first time you’ve noticed.

In order to get the feel for a book that I haven’t worked on in ages, I decided to edit what I had written. This would give the chance to add anything that I felt needed to be added, plus I could fix any misspelled words or grammar issues all while getting back into the story. Needless to say I was on Chapter 13 when I realized that I called a character (in the same chapter) two different names. I then had to scramble back to my character notes to determine which was the correct name. Of course, this made me doubt the rest of the book. Did I do that prior to this point? Is this the only slip up I made?

I wrote a post on character development this past week, and this made me think about how much I need to have my character sheet pulled up at the same time as I am writing. Especially with my character names. Sometimes it is just too easy to confuse a character’s name with something that sounds familiar, even more so when you are working on multiple things at the same time.

So now I’m off to work on my story some more, and run a few searches to see if I’ve used the correct name throughout the story.

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What I’m Reading

mthurston — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 01:33:00 +0000

**Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links where I may receive a small commission from you clicking or purchasing. This commission comes at no cost from you.

Our literacy specialist came to my classroom to teach a lesson to my 6th graders, and she brought with her articles about cloning. We were about to enter into argumentative writing, and this was the perfect way to have them read and write about an informational text. She then suggested that if they were interested in cloning that they may like Margaret Peterson Haddix’s book, Double Identity.

I purchased the book for my classroom because we only have one copy in our school library and some students will not venture to the library to check out a book. They just won’t. It’s not cool!

As soon as it arrived, I made the mistake of opening the book and beginning to read. Right away, I was hooked. My goal is to have it finished by Monday so that I can take it to school with me. It’s written in first person point of view, and we see the world through the eyes of a twelve year old who has been sheltered most of her life, but doesn’t quite understand why. It’s very intriguing.

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What a difference a year makes

mthurston — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 13:06:00 +0000

One year ago today, I did the one thing that I never thought that I would do: publish my work. My first book was published on August the 15th, 2012, and I know the person who purchased the first book. I’ve come a long way in a year. It has been a learning process and I have learned what makes up that process.

11. That is the number of books/works that I have published/completed as of today. I started out with two books in August that were already completed and sitting on my computer’s hard drive. I learned how to format, design, and structure a book. But the other books were not written over the course of twelve months. No. I wrote 9 books in 4 months.
You see, when I started, I sold that one book in August, but I sold no more. At the time, I was struggling through a very rough time in my life, so I cast aside my dreams of writing and had planned to let the dream die right there. In April of this year, I decided to check the status of the books and I learned that I had actually sold 2 books last year. The first one in August, and the second book in November.
That second book sale breathed new life and hope into my dream. From that moment on, I decided to term myself a writer. I called myself a writer, an author, whatever it took to hammer the notion within my brain, and I began to do what writer’s do… I wrote. I churned out book after book after book. In May, after the release of my 5th book, my sales began to increase.
I had a few more sales in June, and one in July. But, OH MY GOODNESS at August!
30. The number of books as of this morning that I have sold. The majority of those sales occurred this month across 2 sales channels. Those numbers do not take into account the 7 international sales that I have.
You would probably say, “But there are people out there who sell on average, 500 or more books per day.”
That’s okay. Let them sell their 500/day. They are also the same ones complaining when their flash in the pan marketing techniques have evaporated and sales have dwindled to nothing because they have reached their intended peak. So they churn out another book, feed more money and effort into marketing, and go at it again.
That’s great. But I have done nothing more than write a few posts on a blog. I have not spent one dime on marketing. I’m choosing the steady road upward. The constant climb without the rollercoaster hills and plateaus. I want to soar and not sink.
My goal has been to write what I love and ignore the status quo of choosing a niche and only 1 genre. Who can write for only one genre? Even Rowling finished out her YA and went to mystery and adult novelty. Why? Because once she had completed her contractual agreement, she was finally freed to try her hand at something else.
That is what I have been doing. Trying my hand at something until it feels right, but writing the stories that I want to write.
I am bound by no contract, because I chose the self-publication route. It’s not the traditional publishing route, but at this point, my share of the sales are much greater than if I were under contract. I am also free to explore other genres. For right now, until I settle into something I love, I am enjoying this freedom. Right now, writing is fun and cathartic.
When I finally broke the news to my father last month as to what I have been up to this past year, he seemed disappointed in me. It was almost as though I had chosen this as a career over teaching. I still love to teach, but while I am waiting, I am writing, because I need something to occupy my mind and I need something that will at some point provide extra income.
Most of the channels through which I publish have a minimum threshold for royalty payment. Over all channels but two, the amount is $10. Kobo requires $100, and Google Play is but $1. Once you have accumulated enough for the minimum, payment is issued 60 days after the end of the month in which that minimum was met. As of last week, I had finally earned my $10 on two different channels, meaning I will be receiving my first royalty payments in October. I’m so excited. I feel as though this will be a huge boost to motivate me even more in the upcoming year.
So, how did I celebrate my one year anniversary?
Pancakes at 4:30 a.m. with my son and finishing the 11th book.
Just for the record, my highest selling book has been Operation Homecoming Queen. It was written in response to a student telling me in 2007 that there were no books to read. She had read all of the good books. The excerpt that I began with, which was a piece of the ending, I wrote in class to show students how to set mood and tone in a piece of work. From there, the story created itself. It’s a simple inspirational story about true beauty and true friendship.
As for the next year? Who knows? But I am looking forward to taking each step along the way and learning as much as I can, from as many as I can.

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Launch day for The Winter Witch, but….

mthurston — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 17:53:00 +0000

I am fully aware that today is the official launch day for Book 2 in the Deirfiur series, The Winter Witch, but I couldn’t wait to share with you the fact that in the midst of working on another book and gathering research for Book 3, I finally got it.

Yes. In the middle of everything that was going on, I woke up this morning and knew exactly what my next adventure for Ashlyn Conner was going to be. I love it when it starts to come together like that.

Yesterday I sat down and tried to create a plot synopsis for the notes that I already had written down and I realized that the story was going to be humdrum and boring. Where was the excitement? Sure I could have added in the blooming romance, but where is the excitement in that? I needed something more formidable. I needed dragons and fighting and great epic battles….

So this morning, it all came to me. I know exactly what is going to happen in Book 3 and I know what it is going to lead up to for Book 4, and perhaps Book 5. You never know! Maybe I should end it at Book 4. Then it would be complete! Book 4 will be much longer if I do that.

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Results of The Winter Witch cover switch

mthurston — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 13:47:00 +0000

First results are in on the new cover and it seems to have been the right decision to make. By changing up the cover of the book, I actually managed to increase the books popularity. On a site where people are allowed to download samples, I had 6 downloads in a matter of minutes. I really wish that I could track that sort of thing across all markets, but it isn’t available. I mean, I am a numbers, data, and statistics kind of girl. I like to see the data. You know, like I had 100 people view my book, they ranged in age from?, and out of that number ? amount of people purchased it and of those who did not, they purchased ?. I think that with the data, I could improve my product. (i.e. change up the cover, change the description, change the first few chapters to increase the action or build the tension more, or maybe even change the price.) You never know what or how you could improve something unless you look at the data.

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