Wolf's Dragon Pre-Order and Puzzle

Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Puzzles

Wolf's Dragon is on Pre-order!

I finished Wolf's Dragon! It's been through a couple of edits and is off for another round. It will be back and ready to purchase by the time the pre-order is live on June 11.

To celebrate, I created the online jigsaw puzzle from the book cover, pictured above.

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Blurb:

Can a wolf protect a dragon?

Dragon shifter Ulia smuggles her tiny pet unicorn to Texas when she flees Dragomir to escape an unwanted dragon shifter mate.

Cross-cultural differences keep wolf shifter Reese off balance when his true mate, a dragon shifter from another realm, arrives in Texas.

Then her spurned suitor follows her to Earth.

If her brother doesn't kill Reese for insulting his sister, the dragon she fled may.

In a world where dragons, unicorns, and werewolves are mythical creatures, what could go wrong? 

A fast-paced and wild fun stand-alone story set in the same world as the Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series!

If you enjoy reading about werewolves hiding in plain sight, dragons flaming enemies, and exotic unicorns, try this book.

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Other News

I'm back to working on Tala Ridge Alpha.

Ulia wants me to write a new series, titled Shifter Heirs of Dragomir, but Terrell told me Ulia has to wait until his book is finished. (Rolling my eyes, here.) I just love it when my characters take over the keyboard.

Take care,

Authors Love Reviews

It's True! Authors Love Reviews!

Most authors love to get reviews. Especially good reviews.

But even bad reviews are helpful.

Besides the opportunity to learn from mistakes and errors, Amazon counts bad reviews as well as good reviews in the number of reviews for a book.

A higher number of reviews is factored into the book's Amazon rank, though no one outside Amazon's development team knows exactly how that works.

I've seen authors ask for good reviews only, but in my opinion, that is short-sighted.

What Authors Learn from Bad Reviews

Bad reviews occur for a number of reasons, including the reader simply didn't like the book, the book didn't meet expectations, the book was riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, or the author made a mistake.

There are as many reasons for bad reviews as there are reviewers.

Since I began my author's journey in 2017, there are a number of things I have learned from bad reviews:

• I inadvertently changed a character's name (sometimes in the same paragraph. EEEKK!)
• While moving chapters, instead of moving them, I duplicated them
• I changed the spelling on a character's name
• When I purposely changed a character's name, I did a global search and replace, without realizing the character's name was also the name of a month that was used in a scheduling scene. Thus my book had a month called Violet.

Some of these were quite funny. There are more. I am grateful to the reviewers who pointed out these issues, since it gave me the opportunity to correct them and upload the new files to Amazon.

At present, I have corrections to make that will be completed and uploaded over the next two weeks. Keep an eye on the Your Content and Devices section of your Amazon account to update the books you have.

What Authors Learn from Good Reviews

First and foremost, reviews help authors learn that their writing isn't crap. Even many-times published authors fall prey to doubt at times. Good reviews help bolster them through bad times, which include working with recalcitrant characters who insist on going a different direction than you thought they would, cruel comments from readers or fellow authors (not to be confused with constructive reviews or comments), and even the fear that the next book will never be as well-received as the last.

Reviews such as this one on Wolf's Duty start my day right and make me want to write more!

To Read this on Amazon, click the image of the review, then click Top Reviews and select Most Recent.

I was always told to never make a decision on a blue day. I try to live by that. The times I didn't I most often regretted the decisions I made. On blue days, I reread my four- and five-star reviews. They help cheer me up when nothing seems to be going right.

Among the things I learn from good reviews are which characters readers most identify with and which storylines they want to continue. Magnus (Wolf's Quest, Wolf's Guard, Wolf's Duty, Wolf's Dragon) came about because someone wondered what would happen with Bess.  Stacy (Wolf's Heart, and hinted at in Wolf's Duty) became Jonathan's mate when a reader worried about the faithful beta in my series.

So, the most important things I get from reviews are ideas for new stories and books.

Take care,

Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series

Dictation and Writing

Dictation and Writing

The most talked-about dictation software for authors is Dragon Naturally Speaking.  

After reading the reviews, it’s probably the best available. 

I would love to have it, but it’s not quite in the budget. Yet. 

With arthritis in my hands and fingers, typing isn’t always easy. 

I write in Microsoft Word which I subscribe to as part of Office 365.

Dictation Software You May Already Have

Imagine how thrilled I was to discover the newest version of Word now has a Dictate command. 

Does it work? Yes, but you have to be patient with it until it learns your voice. As with Dragon, you have to speak your punctuation. So you have to be patient with yourself, too, while you learn how to ‘write’ verbally.

In the newest versions of Word, the Dictate command is available on the Home ribbon. Click the down arrow below the Dictate command and select the language you wish to use. 

The first time you use the Dictate command, you’ll be prompted to enable permissions for your microphone.

To use the Dictate command, click it. The icon changes and displays a red dot. Speak into the microphone, remembering to speak your punctuation. When you’re through, click the Dictate button again to stop recording. 

Want to Learn More?

For more information, check out Microsoft’s Dictate your documents in Word

If you don't use Word, but use a Windows 10 PC, you can also dictate using the Dictation Toolbar in Windows. For more information on using Windows 10 Dictation, check Use dictation to talk instead of type on your PC.

Microphone Needed

You will need a good microphone for dictation. My personal choice is the Blue Snowball USB Mic. I purchased mine after I saw my daughter’s. I really like that the mic doesn’t have to sit right in front of your mouth. 

You can set it to be cardioid, omnidirectional, or cardioid with a -10 dB pad. I haven’t used the omnidirectional setting, yet, but with the cardioid setting, the recording is clear, and the mic doesn’t pick up background noise.

Do I use it? Not as much as I would like to. I’m still learning, and at this point, if a scene is flowing, I can type it faster than I can remember to stop and speak the punctuation as I go. However, I am practicing with it so that I can eventually do most of my ‘writing’ by ‘speaking’ my story out loud.

Do you use dictation in your writing? If so, do you use Dragon, Word, or some other method of dictation recording?

Later,

Need Some Binge Reading? Check out the Texas Ranch Wolf Pack Series!

Available in Kindle Unlimited!