lawsonwrites

[lawsonwrites]

Who’s loving Riverdale? This Archie fangirl, that’s who.

My addiction with Archie comics started as a kid, probably around the 5th grade. My BFF was a new girl from Japan and her family kept a long row of Archie Comics on their basement bookshelves. I would spend hours at her house eating heaping bowls of sticky white rice and Ramen noodles while reading Laugh Digest and Betty and Veronica Double Issues up on her bed.

I was hooked for life.

Now I have my own long bookshelf of comics, many years old. My children read them and knowing my love for all things Archie bought me a hardback coffee table book for presentation. My oldest painted and decorated a chair with hundreds of cut out images (yes, I panicked for a moment thinking she had ruined my own comics. She promises she didn’t instead getting them used. *whew*) because again, in case you weren’t convinced; I love Archie.

Let’s get something straight: Even though I love these comics they aren’t without their flaws. In the modern world they’re certainly sexist. Chauvinistic. The girls can be petty and shallow. Greedy and gossipy. Veronica Lodge was a Mean Girl before Regina George was a blip on the screen of life. And Betty was a doormat who would drop everything for a boy who didn’t appreciate her.

The boys are horny little bastards with nothing but food, PG-Sex and sports on their minds. Reggie had the potential to be the football playing, star-quarterback date rapist we all fear and loathe. Moose was mocked publicly for his learning problem and used for nothing more than a win on the field. Jughead, in real life, would have been under the careful eye of school counselors, his lack of interest in anything but food and self-preservation a signal of narcissism.

And then there’s Archie.

Good old Archie.

You know what? I can’t bash him. I can’t because Archie is the bland popular kid no one can quite figure out why he’s popular. He’s nice. He’s clean. He doesn’t treat girls like dirt (although if he can get away with the two girls he can’t choose from, he’ll try it. He is after all, a boy.) He listens to his mother. He has a job. He’s well rounded in sports and activities. You do get the feeling though that conversation with him would be a downer unless you’re truly interested in hearing him talk about his music and the community college he’ll be attending after senior year.

Ouch.

Archie is simply average and we love him anyway because he’s the glue that binds the town and citizens of Riverdale together.

So what about this new show? Well, I admit it. I wasn’t that interested. I follow @archiecomics I’ve read their new stuff. I like it. I wanted to be hopeful but then again, I’ve been burned by book/comic adaptations before (*cough*twilight/shadowhunters/thefifthwaveblahblahblahblahblah) and I didn’t want them messing with my people in a way I couldn’t get past. But then, like all FanGirls it was important for me to at least give it a try. I mean, it’s basically my duty.

So what do I think?

I think I looooooove it. I mean, OHMYGOD I LOVE IT.

As a lover of good derivative fiction it’s perfection. Just perfection. It takes the newspaper thin characters we all love and digs a little deeper while placing them in an interesting, modern environment. All the good stuff is there: Pop’s. The Pussy Cats. The football team and Coach Clayton. But there’s enough of a twist to keep things interesting. Archie and Jughead are tense—their friendship having gone through some stress. Betty has an oppressive mother as well as a mentally unstable sister. Her love for Archie runs true but she doesn’t drop everything for him. In fact, she does the opposite, challenging him to be a better person. Veronic is the new girl and although she has a bit of bite, she doesn’t (so far) have the dark edge of mean girl they so easily could have given her. No, she’s a good friend to Betty, a champion of female empowerment and she’s not afraid to fight back against that sexist narrative that Archie writers know they need to destroy. They leave the backstabbing to Cheryl, with a complicated murder story making her power limited by a secret we all know she holds.

The women rule Riverdale…from the Mayor, to the illicit affair Ms. Grundy has with Archie, to Hermione Lodge furthering Lodge Industries while wearing a waitress uniform. Betty, Veronica and Cheryl dictate what is popular, trending and on the front page of the newspaper.  The Pussy Cats have no time for Archie and his “music.”

And Archie?

Well he’s been given an upgrade (CW Style. I approve) and he’s no longer the bland redhead trying to earn enough money to impress Veronica or using Betty to fix his car so he can date another girl. He’s had a growth spurt (hella abs), a complicated romance (Taboo-Student/Teacher style), tension with his best friend and father, while proving early on he’s a liar, and a pretty good one at that.

For those of you who think it’s too different?

Good news! There’s seven million Archie Comics out there with flaws and all. Head to your local grocery store and pick one up! The rest of us will be over here gleefully watching this world get turned upside down.

 Angel

[lawsonwrites]

From Fail to Success or Something Like That #selfpublishing #author

Most of my followers know that I’ve always been transparent with my book journey. I’ve blogged about it in the past (wah, my old blog is gone. I don’t want to talk about it) and I plan to keep doing it.

I’ve been vocal about my success with Kindle Unlimited (although controversial it’s still a net positive for me—majorly so.) But I wanted to write up a little history of my last year. The good news is that 2016 was by far my best selling year yet. In fact, I made a goal with myself and I hit it. It was a BIG jump from anything I’d done in the past but I’ll tell you the truth; it was hard work.

A couple of things helped me jump tiers in the book world. Now understand me, I’m not making full time money. I’m not even sure if I’m making consistent money (we’ll see.) Not yet, anyway,  but I hope I’m headed in the right direction. Here’s a little breakdown of what I did and my process.

July of 2015:  I was part of a book collection release called Secret Worlds. I was able to put a backlist book in this collection (Vigilant) which was great for me because it had been out for several years and not selling much. Now, I had been part of several book collections prior to this, each with varying success. This one I stumbled on by chance when a friend suggested I submit. I didn’t even remember applying for it when I got the notice a few months later that I had been accepted.

The good news is that Secret Worlds published RIGHT when Kindle Unlimited 2.0 started. This was perfect for our book collection because there were not many other sets on KU at the time and people were looking for things in the program to read. Amazon had also not set page caps either which meant we were paid for every page whereas now there’s a limit to the number of pages in a book. To be honest, we did very well financially but it also trickled down into other book sales as well.

September 2015: Release Creature of Habit Book 1

I didn’t realize it at the time (Because I live in a cave and only recently started picking up on the realities of book selling) but between Secret World and COH 1, I did a good thing. I released two books within 90 days. Amazon apparently likes this. Then I did something else…

October 2015: Release Zocopalypse

I released a second book a little over 30 days later. Not in the same series and it wasn’t a big hit (because again, I didn’t know what I know now) but still Amazon smiles on frequent releases and my author rank in particular boosted much higher than it had in the past. And stayed there. Around this point I listed all my books in the KU program and started seeing good returns. Particularly on COH and my Wraith Series.

December 2015: Release Creature of Habit Book 2

Now this was planned. I knew to a degree that releasing a series close together would be helpful. I made sure in COH 1 and COH2 that my preorder links were in the back. All three books had pretty good pre-orders and that helped kick off the books well too.

January 2016: Release Box Set collection Happy Ever Alpha (make USA Today Best Seller List) Now, at this point I wasn’t making much money but things were rolling. It was better than before and I was still getting royalties on that first box set. The big kick came when I released the final book in the COH series.

March 2016: Release Creature of Habit Book 3

April 2016: Release Box Set Collection (Novella Collection-Seriously, I can’t remember the name)

This one in particular worked well for me. It was for novellas and I put the first novella in a book series I had released a year before. Those books had good reviews but not a lot of readers. It allowed me to breathe a little life in these books, particularly in KU.

July 2016: Release For the Win

This was a passion project. It actually sold well and I’m very glad I wrote it (with co-author Rochelle Allison) The only problem is that it’s not in my preferred genre and didn’t really help boost my Amazon profile.

August 2016: Release Box Set Collection 21 Shades of Night

November 2016: Release Box Set Collection Fall into Magic (make USA Today Best Seller List)

(*The release dates on the box sets are the live release—NOT the preorder date)

I haven’t had a new personal new release since August of 2016. It’s not ideal but I was exhausted from the release schedule the year before. And although I made more money than ever before, when I look back on that list I know I didn’t do everything right and definitely could have done better.

I did work (SLOWLY) on the second novel in my Zocopalypse series during the fall of 2016. I finished up the first draft at the end of the year, knowing I needed to turn what I had planned to be a 2 book series into at least three. I knew it was the best thing for the story and the best thing for me as a publishing author.

But I was tired. I was aimless. For months I had been lamenting that I just didn’t know what direction to go in. Keep with the zombies? Move forward with this other passion project I wanted to do some day? Work on a WIP I had in a drawer? I had zero focus and it was going to catch up to me. I knew it.

I needed a plan. Desperately.

Then the best thing happened to me. A friend from the box sets suggested a Facebook group. It’s called 20 Books to 50K. For some reason I clicked on the link (I’m notorious for not wanting *more* notifications and *more* information.) It was like a lightning bolt. It was the first of January, I was pumped for a New Year change and within days of immersing in the ideas, success stories and concepts behind Michael Anderle’s publishing theory I had a plan.

I had a big plan.

It took me 4 months to write the second Z book. Within weeks I had a third written. A week later I am halfway through my fourth and have two more planned. I already had new covers commissioned and was thinking of a reboot. Something didn’t fit and the group helped me realize I was in the wrong genre—selling to the wrong people. I got my head on straight, my design idea refined, my marketing and release strategy together and now I’m in the final technical stages (covers/edits) of rebooting that book and releasing the second.  

Plans. I have plans and I feel so much better.

Here’s to making 2017 the next step in a better, more focused career.

A

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[lawsonwrites]

Grab this huge contemporary romance box set for only .99 while it's on preorder! Available on Amazon & all retailers http://thndr.me/cPvVye

[lawsonwrites]

2016-Not The Worst Year Ever (at least for me)

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks avoiding the never ending lists about how clearly the end of the world is coming. This says a lot from someone obsessed with zombies. That kind of end of the world I can handle. The distress floating around the internets? Not so much.

As a result I’ve decided to go over why this year wasn’t terrible for me. Maybe I’m delusional? Maybe my head is in the sand? Maybe I have a cold, black heart that should be affected more by the death of pop culture icons. I mean, everyone else is circling the drain, shouldn’t I be too?

Anyway, here’s the highlights of some of the ways this has not been the worst year for me.

Work:

I have two businesses (if not three) and all of them are going better than they were a year ago. I’ve had a definite upswing with my books, with both KU reads and sales. I had a huge number of releases last year (and have slowed my pace because of it) and every day I’m learning more about how to make this into a business and not just a hobby. As part of collections I was able to secure a spot on the USA Today Best Seller list twice and get to know a great group of authors I find very knowledgeable and supportive. I hope this trend continues!

As for my other job, my private work continues to grow and provide so many opportunities, allowing breathing room for my family financially and for general growth. My commercial work is a little more stagnant but I’m trying. Always trying. The one thing I did at the end of the year was make a major change and am now outsourcing some tasks that had really become a drain on me and had started to leave a negative impact on my business. Already I feel a huge sense of relief. Fingers crossed that works out!

Goals: I have one book draft complete and a second in progress. Those should release this spring. I have been struggling on what to write next. I have one project that is close to my heart that I think I’m intimidated to write. I know I need to dig in and do it. We’ll see.

I also want to streamline my non-book work and figure out where I want to be in the future. I’ve wanted to find some like-minded creative types locally to talk about business, marketing and growth. Trying to make that happen in 2017.

 Family: This was a year of changes for my family. Both girls graduating and moving from elementary to middle and middle to high school. Both were ready for the change, probably more than I suspected. My anxious child “graduated” from her therapy and is kicking butt with life. Every day I’m amazed and thankful I had the clarity of mind to handle this early. If any of you have a child with anxiety feel free to reach out to me. I’m happy to discuss. It’s hard work but it can be overcome!

The summer of 2016 marked my husband’s (CA) return to home improvement. Many years ago we renovated an entire house. Like, the ENTIRE house. It exhausted us and we moved and hadn’t done much at all. But the time came when our falling apart bathroom HAD to be addressed. So he ripped out the old one and started working on the new one. It took a bit longer than we hoped for (when does it not?) but now I have the most amazing bathroom. It’s the fanciest room in my house. The added upside is that CA dug into a really complicated project and created something awesome. It was really good for his brain, I think.

Goals: I had to micro-manage my anxious child for a long time. I think she’s ready to fly. The other kid wanted me to micro-manage her because it took away a lot of risk. I think she, too, is ready to fly. Old habits die hard but I’m hoping to watch from the ground as they soar.

Politics: Yeah, I’ll go there, but it’s hard to put into words. The simple side is: I was very confident Trump would end up not only winning the nomination but also the whole election. Did I want him to win? That was never the point. I knew he would win. Nearly 99% of the people I spoke to, read about or listened to said it would never happen. I knew they were wrong. It was a feeling in my gut. A slow motion train wreck no one knew they needed to stop. Ultimately, I knew both parties would tumble like a stack of blocks. I knew people would be shocked (although I think I gave people too much credit and thought maybe they would have seen it coming a little more than they did.)

In late summer of 2015 I stepped back from my normal perspective on politics and started absorbing and learning about the methods of persuasion and looking at the world through different colored glasses. I don’t always like what I see but that doesn’t make it not true. That is an important lesson out of many important lessons this year. The 2016 elections were not the dumpster-fire for me that they were for so many other people but that’s because I saw it coming a long way off (it may also be my white privilege showing.) Instead of running in terror I used it as a learning experience. Ultimately that’s the only thing I have control over. Goals: Continued learning about our country, its citizens and our origins is very important for the future.

 The biggest thing for me this year cutting things out. Things that seemed trivial but had a major impact. Things that too me weeks or months to pull the trigger on. Some of these things are new so I can’t wait to see how it turns out.  Here’s my list:

·        Sugar: I went low-carb/sugar in July. I’m not perfect about it but the change has been a good one and I will do my best to keep it up. I feel so much better.

·        The Walking Dead. After several years of hate-watching the show I gave it up. I just couldn’t do it anymore. It brought me a bizarre sense of stress. I don’t miss anything about it.

·        Cable: We finally got rid of cable. I do have an assortment of streaming stuff now (Sling, Netflix) and am still trying to learn it but I feel really awesome getting rid of the albatross of cable and the ridiculous bill.

·        Work calls: For 12 years my cell phone was my work phone. It made things difficult and increasingly stressful. Right before Christmas I changed numbers, hired someone to answer calls and I have literally not had one phone call in over a week. It’s amazing.

·        People: I won’t go into much detail but sometimes you gotta move on.

·        Facebook: ugh, this one is a work in progress. I have two Facebook pages and at times it gets overwhelming, annoying, infuriating and depressing. I’m trying to cut back my time. Hopefully I will have more success this year than in the past.

P.S. Just a note: I put goals down but I don’t really believe in goals as much as building systems. That’s another thing I learned this year. 

P.P.S. Although I’m sad about the passing of all our icons it’s amazing to think of what they contributed during their short time on earth. As an artist and creative type I can’t even imagine having that impact. To have whole countries shaken over the loss. It’s epic. They were epic. Enough so that they will be remembered long after their passing. 

[lawsonwrites]

The Best/Worst Show on TV Episode 7.3: Cell

 Due to my blog being broken I’m posting this on here instead.  I don’t really recap the show as much as discuss why I think The Walking Dead is equal parts genius and horrible. Most of my crit revolves around the writing and pacing. This week is no different. I did not review the first two episodes of this season but here they are my thoughts, briefly:

7.1=Dumpsterfire

7.2=One of the best of the series

Now, on to 7.3

This episode fell somewhere in the middle of loving it and being meh. I like Daryl as much as anyone else but he’s already the strong, silent type so solo episodes with him are usually quiet affairs. Obviously this one was no different. Watching the systematic breakdown of Daryl Dixon was interesting. And sad. And fairly well done.

Watching the internal struggle of Dwight was also pretty interesting. He’s not the awful guy we thought he was. He’s conflicted. He’s a victim of Negan’s worst ways. But he’s a follower and if he’s as much of a follower of Negan’s perverse society as he allowed us to see then Daryl, Rick and crew are in for a lot more pain before it’s over.

To be honest I’m never a fan of the Big Bad guys on this show. Too much talking. Just…too.much.talking. The Governor and now Negan go on and on about their amazing bad-assery to the point that I forget they are badass and I start checking my phone out of boredom. I’m reminded of the classic scene in The Avengers when Loki starts in on his spiel about being The Best and the Hulk smashes him into the ground. That’s what I wanted to do in the first episode of this season. JUST SHUT UP, OKAY. WE GET IT. YOU’RE TERRIFYING.

Now, to be fair, I thought we were headed back down that road in this episode with a lot of scenery chewing from Jeffery Dean Morgan. Luckily he pulled it back a little bit. A little. Not a lot, but by the end I was maybe more interested than bored. That’s probably due to Dwight’s conflict though.

Here are my writing perspectives on this:

Negan, in episode 7.1 showed us how terrifying he is. We know he’s awful. Like for real awful. He follows through on his threats and then adds a little pain for extra measure. In 7.3 we see that yes, he’s a definitely a little bat-shit (CWIDT?) crazy. And he’s mean. And he’s gross. And horribly vindictive.

He hits all of my You’re in a Cult rules. (I tell this to my kids all the time so they know it when they see it. It could happen) Here is the list of ways you may be in a cult: 1. You can’t leave the group when you want to. 2. If you leave the other members will track you down.

3. If you do leave you are excommunicated from the entire group. Forever. (Or here, you are shot and hung on a walker wall.)

4. At some point the leader, no matter how cool he was at one point, will end up doing weird sex stuff. ALWAYS. And with younger women/girls. ALL THE TIME.

5. The leader has a “Religion of One” mentality. They are the best. All the time. You know, like needing people to kneel in their presence or repeat their names.

Anyway, I digress. I will be interested to see if Negan is worse than we already know. At this point, after 7.1 I expect him to be THE WORST. I like a little mystery in my bad guys so this concerns me from a story perspective. When the bad guy lays all his cards out on the table at the very beginning it takes away my interest. Maybe that’s just me though. Maybe it means I should be more scared. Continuity:

Increasingly I think TWD would be a really great show to binge watch. With 9 or so episodes per half season and the group being split into at least 3 separate stories I have a hard time remembering who people are and I definitely forget the motivations behind people and their actions.

I totally forgot Dwight was with Daryl in the woods with the two girls. In my head I swapped him with another guy. Sure this is my fault but that episode was probably 9 months ago and lasted 45 minutes. I couldn’t remember if I was supposed to know how Dwight got the scar on his face. (Negan cleared that up) I didn’t really remember the girl. I knew there WAS a girl. I guessed it was her but the actress herself? Thank god Negan repeated the whole story about the insulin or I never would have connected those dots either.

With three groups and 9 episodes that means we, at max, get 3 episodes, spaced over 9 weeks on each person. I would venture it’s less than that though because like this one, it was as much about Dwight as it was about Daryl.  It will be at least 2 more weeks before we see him again. Maybe. I think if I watched this all in one go, like Daredevil it would make way more sense and keep me more invested. Unfortunately for TWD, it is a weekly show. They owe us better than this. There is not another show on TV that I watch that is this disjointed emotionally and with plot.

In the end I didn’t hate the show, but I still do not really enjoy my viewing. I’m going to think about the idea of binge watching—maybe starting in the spring. It could turn the whole thing around for me.

__angel If you like watching people do more than sit around eating dog food sandwiches in the apocalypse you may want to give my book Zocopalypse a shot. https://www.amazon.com/Zocopalypse-Angel-Lawson-ebook/dp/B01FDZJX4K/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

[lawsonwrites]

WIP-Z2

“Back in the day, my mom used to drive me to school and every morning we’d listen to NPR—you know the news station.”

“Yeah, I know. My mom did the same thing.”

“One day we heard this thing about a storage facility in Norway. It was filled with seeds. Hundreds of thousands of seeds.”

“Seeds?” I ask, trying to listen to him and also keep watch for sounds outside the fence.

“Yeah, all these varieties. Some were no longer in use, others were pretty common.”

“What were they for?”

“Now. The end of everything. When the common varieties no longer produced because of weather changes or some other extreme event.”

“And it’s in Norway?” Norway is a long way from here. I’ve started to understand I’ll probably never even go back home to North Carolina, much less travel overseas.

“Frozen under the ground. They found it the safest way to make sure they weren’t contaminated or ruined.”

I slow even more, so we’re walking at the same pace—totally against protocol. “Are you telling me you want to go to Norway, Judson?”

He snorts and covers his laughter with his hand. “God no. I’m just thinking about whoever had the bright idea to store the seeds in Norway probably never really thought about the world being taken over by rabid monsters making it totally impossible for anyone to get to or use those seeds.”

“I suspect the guy who had that bright idea is probably now a rabid monster.”

[lawsonwrites]

I am so worried about 10k.

Mel’s endless list of favorite characters  ✴

10K ⇢ Z Nation

[lawsonwrites]

Who’s gonna die. Part 1 #TWD

Everyone knows I hate-watch TWD at this point. I have blog after blog where I recap the show and how much it makes me crazy. The.Writing.Makes.Me.Crazy.  It makes me crazy because I want to love it so much. Instead it makes me want to stab myself with a fork. But anyway, the show is returning soon and I thought I’d share my thoughts on who I think Negan kills. I have more than one theory. Here is theory #1 and frankly the one I WANT to happen. Michonne. Yep. I said it. I want Scott Gimple to have the balls to kill off Michonne. Now, reminder. I don’t read the comics but I’m aware that Glenn is who Negan kills in the books. I’m going to *pretend* this is a series with amazing writing and guts and push for my favorite kill. So, yeah.

Reasons for it being Michonne:

1.  Michonne and Rick are lovers now. They have a bond. They trust one another. They sleep together, naked with one hand on their gun/sword. For anyone that watched TV in the 90s we all knew one truth: the minute you get naked with a guy bad shit will happen. Dylan and Brenda. Buffy and Angel. Cross the line in a horror movie and nope. Dead.  

This means that Rick, who already lost so much and is the catalyst of the show will go balls-deep rage monster if she is taken from him. 

2. Foreshadowing: Carl and Michonne have a talk on the porch about how if Michonne gets bit Carl has to do her a solid and take her out. She does not want to be a zombie. He agrees, which would make the second mother figure Carl has to kill when the time comes. Why? Because Carl is the bad ass on the show and we all know it. Plus father/son grief fuels half the plot in the show so it makes sense.

3. The show NEEDS to kill someone important. Someone you think is off limits.  4. Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne, has a vibrant career in plays. It may be her time to go, because FYI, as someone who lives in GA the heat here sucks and walking around the woods all the time would get old. If you have an automatic out you may want to just take it.

Reasons for it NOT being Michonne: 1. I’ve vaguely heard Negan doesn’t kill women. If this is true and they hold to it, then it could be totally off the table. 2. Scott Gimple does not have the guts to really kill a main character.

3. TWD is constantly a curse of doing exactly as expected and never the unexpected. Michonne makes all the sense in the world but is totally unexpected. So it’s a total long shot and probably will never happen. If it doesn’t I won’t cry because I love Michonne and don’t actually want her to leave.

[lawsonwrites]

[lawsonwrites]

Z Nation returns September 16 with its third season.

[lawsonwrites]

Everyone loves The Walking Dead and I’m not saying it’s bad or anything, but I wish people would show love for Z Nation on Syfy channel. I’m not much for zombies, but it’s a great show full of comedy, cheesy action, and a pretty good storyline.

[lawsonwrites]

#archerfx won an emmy. I’m so proud.

[lawsonwrites]

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[lawsonwrites]

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[lawsonwrites]

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[lawsonwrites]

Perfect Beach Read! Ink: A Mermaid Romance by MelanieKarsak available for #99cents #mermaid #Summerreading http://thndr.it/1FjdBDJ

[lawsonwrites]

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