Once in a while, I come across a movie I have to share. Today, that movie is The Stoning of Soraya M. So what’s it about?

Set in 1986 Iran at the start of Khomeini’s reign, director Cyrus Nowrasteh’s drama tells the true story of Soraya (Mozhan Marnò), whose husband plots to have her falsely accused of adultery so he can divorce her and marry a young girl. French journalist Freidoune (Jim Caviezel) is pulled into Soraya’s tragic story when he meets a desperate woman named Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo).

Let’s just get to it. This was the most awful movie I’ve ever seen. When I say awful, I’m not talking about the script, directing, or acting. I’m talking about the fact it left me a sobbing mess. I’ve never watched a movie so traumatically touching in my entire life. Just reflecting on it brings tears to my eyes. Even worse, it’s based on a true story.

I tried to tell my daughter about this movie when she came home, and I lost it. Completely lost it. Wrenching sobs, snot flying, tear-drenched tissues. I was so pathetic, my daughter ended up excusing herself from the room.

The Verdict

I give this movie  5 out of 5 stars, but here’s the thing. If I could do it over again, I would honestly skip this movie. It was just so absolutely awful. My eyes are so achy right now, I just want this whole day to be over.

On Friday, a package came for me in the mail. It took me by surprise since I didn’t remember ordering anything. After some investigation I found the name of my oldest daughter in the place of the sender.

On my gosh! A Mother’s day present. I opened the package and found an adorable figurine of a woman holding flowers in front of her face.

My Emotional Journey

I placed my gift on the end table next to me so I can gaze upon it throughout the day. Suddenly, a wealth of emotions hit me. This wasn’t my first Mother’s Day. After all, my oldest is nineteen. It wasn’t even my first Mother’s Day without my oldest child. She’d lived the last couple of years with my mother. So what was it?

My daughter’s first Mother’s Day away from parental supervision — my first Mother’s Day with a child living as an adult.

The situation put new meaning on her gift.

Every year, I receive Mother’s Day gifts from my husband, children, and sometimes even my mom and dad. But this present was different. This wasn’t a gift my husband purchased and slapped everyone’s name on it. This wasn’t a gift my child purchased with money they’d received from other family members for whatever reason. This was a gift my daughter purchased with money she earned while living outside our home and as an adult. Away from home, where no one was watching or telling her what to do, she’d thought of me as Mother’s Day approached.

I wondered if this was how my mother felt the first Mother’s Day I left home. Because this was the most special gift I’d received from my daughter.

Her Mother

I guess the adjective which best described my daughter growing up was unpredictable, which made our relationship a bit unbalanced at times. In so many ways, raising my daughter was easy. She caused me little stress. She listened well, and was respectful most of the time. But then there was school.

Her education was a huge concern. In my mind, her entire future rested on finishing high school. It was touch and go for a while. I’d even looked into alternative options — adult high school, GED — anything for her to obtain that piece of paper to open the world to her.

With the guidance of my mother, my daughter made it through high school, and on time. I watched her walk across the graduation stage with a hope of a future. Later, I was with my daughter — camouflaged in Army fatigues — on the family day before she graduated from basic training.
Earlier today, I found this video on Yahoo. I watched the women raise their children, saw the emotions on their faces.

I know how these women feel. I watched my daughter stumble and fall then get back up and try again. She found the motivation, and she succeed. In my eyes, she is a gold medalist. She is an olympic champion. I am beyond proud to tell the world my daughter is a high school graduate, a solider in the US Army.

If you haven’t taken advantage of the Mother’s Day sale I’m having with my book, don’t miss out. Sale ends on Tuesday.

I’m a mother. You’re a mother. Okay… maybe you’re not a mother, but you have/had a mother. Well, unless you were a science experience grown in a vat, then maybe you’ve never had a mother. Then again, science experiments could have mothers. I’ve seen quite a few movies on the subject: Species, Mimic, Deep Evil… uhm

Moving on! Mother’s Day is just around the corner. Are you ready? I certainly am not.

I LOVE YOU, MOM!

My mail boxes are bloated with Mother Day flyers. Woot for me, cause I’m all about the sales! As long as we’re doing Mother’s Day sales, I’ve got one for my readers and the friends and family of my readers and the friends and family of the friends and families of my readers… I could go on, but you get the drift. Share this offer with anyone and everyone.

Today thru Tuesday, May 15 (cause we’ve got to give mothers time after you’ve purchased them Kindles and Nooks), my works will be available at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and Smashwords for $0.99. You’ll have to use coupon codes at Smashwords, but that site will offer you the most formats and flexibility if you ever switch eReaders.

So let’s see… what do we have to offer?

Barnes & Nobles || Smashwords || Amazon Smashwords coupon code Promotional price: $0.99 Coupon Code: YZ36N Expires: May 15, 2012	Barnes & Nobles || Smashwords || Amazon Smashwords coupon code Promotional price: $0.99 Coupon Code: FZ34U Expires: May 15, 2012
Barnes & Nobles || Smashwords || Amazon Smashwords coupon code Promotional price: $0.99 Coupon Code: SK65N Expires: May 15, 2012	Barnes & Nobles || Smashwords || Amazon Smashwords coupon code Promotional price: $0.99 Coupon Code: GJ22B Expires: May 15, 2012

Barnes & Nobles || Smashwords || Amazon Smashwords coupon code Promotional price: $0.99 Coupon Code: TV89E Expires: May 15, 2012

Barnes & Nobles || Smashwords || Amazon Smashwords coupon code Promotional price: $0.99 Coupon Code: NP48A Expires: May 15, 2012

Barnes & Nobles || Smashwords || Amazon Smashwords coupon code Promotional price: $0.99 Coupon Code: NG86S Expires: May 15, 2012

Smashwords coupons are live now. Amazon and Barnes & Nobles may take a few hours.

Wishing you a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Reena

I swear my plans never seem to align with my motivation. I meant to accomplish so much last month. Well, that was my plan at the start of the New Year. Then an abundance of happenings sucked my motivation… mostly school. It seems I’m one of those people who can only concentrate seriously on one thing at a time.

When I started school in January, I was totally involved. I had my assignments done ahead of time. I was putting in a bit of study time, doing well on quizzes. I was rocking. But my writing life suffered.

From January through March, I hardly did anything on the writing front. Four weeks left of class, and my motivation toward school is winding down, while my motivation to get some writing done is increasing.

Already I’m behind in one of my physical classes, and a couple of weeks behind on my online continuing education courses. Good grief, I totally need to catch up.

So what’s been happening on the writing front?

Well, originally I’d planned to release Chasing Shadows last month. That didn’t happen. My motivation for that book waxes and wanes. Slowly I chip away at the polishing.

I think I had planned to release Control Freak: She’s Mine last month also… if nothing else, then this month. Well, I’m happy to announce I’ve been working away at She’s Mine. It’s almost done. If I can find the imagination, I’ll be able to whip out the last bit within the next day or two.  I’m hoping to find a beta reader for the VERY rough draft before I begin polishing it. I’ve stepped outside my comfort zone with this one, and I’m curious to know if the plot works.

I completely revamped Injustice is Served. A review called the cover weird. I asked a writing buddy about it, and he said the title and cover didn’t exactly match. So perhaps that threw off some readers. So I’m trying a new cover. Simple, to the point… I’m hoping it’s not too plain. I’m looking at it, and an idea is formulating. This cover might go through a few more changes before all is said and done.

I’ve also decided to offer each of the stories in Injustice is Served separately. I’m not going to post all the covers in this post, but I will leave you a link.

So that’s about it for now. I’m really looking forward to releasing the next story in the Control Freak series. I really hope the cover isn’t too racy for the distributors. I also did gave the Control Freak books a new look. Mostly just changed the font a little. A little less plain.

My goal was to finish the 3rd story of Control Freak this month. There’s still time. If I get busy, that is. Actually, I just have a couple of pieces to finish with it before edits. Oddly enough, this short story continues to expand. Brandon’s Story is about 3500 words, and Regina’s Story is about 4500 words. The latest edition of Control Freak (She’s Mine) is already pushing 6k. I’m wondering if it’ll hit 10k. Brandon has quite a bit to talk about this round, I guess.

Lately, this story has been on my mind… a lot. I just need to squeeze in time between the full load of classes I’m taking this semester.

Here’s to finding the time and energy to wrap She’s Mine up quickly.

I’ve Abandoned Social Media

Lately, I’ve been really out of the social media arena. I hardly ever log onto Twitter these days. Ever since Twitter ruined TweetDeck, I haven’t wanted to play. I don’t see that changing. Twitter is just too much effort to keep up with when it lacks an application to handle it well.

Sorry if you feel abandoned out there, Twitterverse. You survived before me; you’ll continue to go on without me.

The Striped Ones in Jeopardy

The other issue I want to talk about is the Striped Ones series. My original plan was to release the sequel March 2012. There’s a good chance that may not happen. In fact, I’m not sure when the next books of the Striped Ones series will be release.

I’ve entered a winter slump (at least I hope it’s just the season), and I need to take care of me first. I need to step away from some of the situations which stress me out and focus on finding motivation in my life again.

I’ve never liked polishing or editing. Putting in the weeks, months needed to prepare Chasing Shadows for publication isn’t what I need right now on a mental level. I wish I could say I’m self-motivated to edit just to release the next work, but I’m not.

Business Decisions

If I look at the Striped Ones series from the business perspective, the months I’ve put into writing the final two books and the months I need to put into polishing and publishing the final two books really isn’t worth the effort. The prior months I’ve already invested are gone. However, the future months I can use toward more viable business ventures.

Think of it like this. If a traditional publisher buys the rights to a book and after release finds the work bombs, the publisher isn’t going to waste effort on publishing the next in the series. It doesn’t matter if the other books are written. It’s bad business to throw good money after bad. That’s where I am with the Striped Ones series. The next two books are written, but I’m not going to finish polishing them… at least not for now. If sales pick up on that line, I can see myself changing my mind in the future. For now… no. I’ll work on other projects.

Other Projects

I’ve really been into short stories lately. I’m going to focus my efforts on them for now. They take little time to write (a few hours to a week) and little time to edit (a week or two). I want to build up my publication portfolio and see this as a way to do it with a lot less time investment.

Is the Striped Ones Dead?

It doesn’t have to be, but it could end up that way. If you enjoyed Shadow Cat, spread the word to your friends. Encourage folks to try the book. If you haven’t written a review, do so. If sales pick up, then I’ll reconsider it as a a part of my business future. If not, I’ll get to the Striped Ones when I’m good and ready (if I become good and ready).

Keep an eye out for my future works, and I wish you all a wonderful year in reads!

First up, bragging rights!

Krystal at Live to Read wrote a wonderful review for I Loved You First. Head over to her blog, check out her review, and need I say, pick up a copy? haha

A quick reminder. Krystal will also be giving away a print copy of I Loved You First during the Toast of 2012 Blog Hop, which will begin at 12:01 AM EST on January 10th and end at 11:59 PM on January 17th.

Injustice Is Served: Free to a good home

Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell strangers near and far!

Injustice Is Served is Free for 24 hours!

Like on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend No lawyers. No judges. No trials. At last, Injustice Is Served Seven psychological thrillers to keep you awake at night. Not meant for bedtime reading, children, or the guilty. Rated M for intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, strong language, and enough offensive content to make a man clench his knees tightly together. Published December 2011 Injustice Is Served My Latest Release is having a heck of a time getting noticed. But that’s okay. I’ve been wanting to try out Amazon’s Kindle Select program, and now I have the perfect guinea pig. For 24 hours only, Injustice is Served will be available for free at Amazon. Keep an eye out. The promotion is scheduled to start Monday at 12:01 am Pacific. HOWEVER, one never knows if Amazon will be on time. So check throughout the day, if it’s not available at 12:01 on the dot. Remember, the promotion only lasts for 24 hours, so don’t get caught snoozing. My non-Kinder users, you are not forgotten. Though Amazon requires me to do an exclusive deal with them for the next 90 days, Injustice Is Served is DRM-Free. This means if you download the Kindle edition, you’re free to convert it to whatever format you’d like. Please refer to You’ve won a digital book! Now what? if Kindle files aren’t your thing. Grab your copy at: Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon FR Amazon DE Amazon ES Amazon IT Add Injustice Is Served to your Goodreads list. If you grab a copy and enjoy the read, I’d love for you to leave reviews like… EVERYWHERE. Thanks for your support, Reena

It’s time for another progress report.

Yesterday I published Injustice Is Served. My original goal was too see it out the door this past Wednesday. A few items happened to prevent that. 1) I got lazy and found myself one day behind schedule. Then I was too lazy to catch up. haha. Then Wednesday my laptop power supply died. <sigh> I didn’t gain access to my work again until Friday.

I tell you what, that put a fire under me. I did two days of work and managed to put Injustice Is Served on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. They finally finished processing this morning. I swear today has felt like 2 days, cause it seems like the short story collection has been live for at least 48 hours.

Well that’s out of the way. It’s time for something new.

Originally, I’d plan to get A Tiger Leaves His Stripes onto the shelves by January 7, 2012. I have to tell you, I’ve been stressing over doing the edits in 2-3 weeks. It’s not that it needs editing so much (it was really supposed to be an sex-free version of Shadow Cat). I was more worried about cutting it enough and keeping the flow, not creating plot holes.

I cut the first three chapters, which I’ve known needed to go since before I published Shadow Cat. I just had a hard time chopping up my baby. Well, that attitude burned me a bit, because the readers pointed out the slow start. : ) Then I got to chapter four, when Eric and Berani meet and LOVED the sexual tension. OMG, I DO NOT want to cut out the sexual tension. It’s such an intricate part of the story. And this isn’t holding onto my precious like the first four chapters. Cutting out the sexual tension would changing the entire dynamics of the story. Shadow Cat will never be a sweet romance.

What I’m thinking instead is after I get the other two Striped Ones books out, I might revisit A Tiger Leaves His Stripes and publish it as a special version — “This is the way Shadow Cat should have been written if I had an agent/editor to tell me.”

For now, I’m moving on to Chasing Shadows.  I know I keep coming back to this work then moving on, but I’m really feeling the pressure here. I look at other authors and wonder why they’re doing so well, and I’m only doing so-so. I have enough works out, and the reviews are decent. The biggest difference I can see is others who are doing well tend to stick with one genre. I can see evidence of this in my Control Freak series.

The sales for the Control Freak series are okay, nothing to brag home about, but decent enough I don’t get depressed about low sales. I imagine readers will take a greater interest in Control Freak once I release the next short story. I need to do for the Striped Ones series what I’m doing for the Control Freak series — publish more in the line.

So my goal for Chasing Shadows is to get it out by March 2012.

I’m pretty happy with the cover art but am thinking about giving the guy a bit more hair. I’m thinking he’ll look better if I don’t fade his head out at all… same with the girl. Just let the edge of the cover determine where they start and stop.

At last, Injustice Is Served

Like on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Injustice Is Served No lawyers. No judges. No trials. At last, Injustice Is Served Seven psychological thrillers to keep you awake at night. Not meant for bedtime reading, children, or the guilty. Rated M for intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, strong language, and enough offensive content to make a man clench his knees tightly together. Injustice Is Served Released Today! It almost didn’t happen: Despite major computer failure this week, I managed to send Injustice Is Served into the world. Woot! Not the Wednesday release date that I’d hoped to achieve, but today works for me too. As promised, I’ve sent Smashwords coupons to all who’ve submitted their proofs of purchases for Unprotected. I hope I didn’t miss anyone. If you submitted a proof of purchase by December 18 and didn’t receive your Smashwords coupon, please send me an email at reenajacobs@reenajacobs.com so I can remedy the situation. Thank you greatly for your support. Grab this short story collection of psychological thrillers at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and Smashwords. Don’t forget to add Injustice Is Served to your Goodreads list! I’m so excited! Best of 2011 Giveaway Hop Ramblings of an Amateur Writer‘s last giveaway of the year: The year is quickly coming to an end. It’s time to spotlight my favorite reads of 2011. The giveaway should be for one of the blogger’s favorite reads of 2011. It can be a book that was released in 2011 or a book read in 2011. Alternately bloggers may include a list of favorite 2011 reads for the winner to choose from. Prizes may be provided as a gift card. No erotica (a reminder for me). This blog hop is sponsored by I’m a Reader Not a Writer. I checked through my goodreads lists and found seven 5-star reads this year. I know… I was picky this year. Good news though. I’m in the middle of Tempest by Julie Cross (not yet released). It’s pretty good, so if I finish by December 31 and it’s a 5-star read, I’ll be adding that to the list also. I’m giving a lucky winner a chance to win one of the title. Giveaway starts December 27, 2011. I hope to see you all there. Stop by to read my reviews of the books up for grab. Subscriber-Only Giveaway! As a small token of my appreciation, I’m starting a monthly giveaway for subscribers-only. Winners will have a choice between a $10 eGift card from Barnes & Nobles, a book valued at $10 or less from *The Book Depository, or up to $10 worth of eBooks from Smashwords. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support. XXXX Husband doesn’t like me giving out his kisses, but I’ve got plenty of hugs. If you’re not a subscriber, you and sign up below. The giveaways are international. Look for the winning email the first week of each month. Winners will have 72 hours to respond. *International winners for the Book Depository must be listed here: over 100 countries

Well, not really. I just finished reading The New World of Publishing: E-Book Pricing by Dean Wesley Smith, and I liked what he had to say. It made sense.

Something he didn’t mention in the article, but has been going through my mind is overhead costs for indie publishers. For me, I’ve been thinking like an author. “Buy my books! I’ll give them away cheap, CHEAP, I say.” The overhead costs have been in my head, but I’ve quietly suppressed the thoughts in lieu of attracting readers.

The truth of the matter, I do have overhead costs.

• Website hosting
• Domain registrations
• Software purchases (for writing)
• Subscriptions (for writing)
• Advertising
• Giveaways (print copies, mailings, S.W.A.G.)
• Review copies
• Extended Distribution Channels (CreateSpace)
• Stockphotos (for cover art)
• Whatever else I’ve forgotten

Then there are items I’d like to have but can’t justify the expenses

• ISBNs
• The option to work with LSI (even if I eventually opt out)
• Paying an editor
• Paying a cover artist
• Ordering a bulk number of copies to place on consignment and sell through my websites

These are expenses before I even manage to pay myself a check. To be completely honest, I don’t break even at this stage in the game.

Math according to Mr. Smith

Mr. Smith does some fancy calculations… okay, not fancy. His calculations are simple enough for most folks to understand. He mentions publishing one book every six months. Though Control Freak: Brandon’s Story was my first publication (September 2010), it was only a short story. My first lengthy work was Shadow Cat (published January 2011). This year, I also published I Loved You First (July 2011).

I’m totally on track with the 2 books a year. One problem — they’re in separate genres. So really, I’m at one fantasy, one contemporary, and a small collection of short stories in various genres (5 original works in all, soon to be 6). Okay, I’m rambling… time to get on track.

Mr. Smith mentions there’s a reason traditional publishers charge a certain amount for their works; they have to make a profit to remain viable. That’s business. So I’m looking at my expenses compared to my profits and know it’s not happening for me. Like I said, I’ve been thinking like an author. “Please, just read my book.” When I need to think like a publisher. “I have X expenses and need to make X per book to cover those expenses.”

Like traditional publishers, I can only speculate what sales will be for the future months.

My works follow a trend

Let me share with you a trend I’ve noticed. I’ve priced Shadow Cat anywhere from $0.99 to $7.99. Sales slowed to a standstill above $4.99. However, my sales numbers didn’t change if I priced between $0.99-3.99. Odd, don’t you think? I can say the same for I Loved You First. I receive the same amount of sales regardless of pricing the book at $0.99 or $2.99. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this and pricing for those two books.

The only time price seemed to make a difference was Control Freak sales. If I price any of the Control Freak works at $2.99, the sales seem to slow. The sales don’t stop completely, but they do slow noticeably.

Anyway, Dean Wesley Smith has a pricing recommendation, and I rather like it. $0.99 for short stories, $2.99 for novellas and short story collections, and $4.99 for novels. I’m not at the $4.99 level for novels yet. As I mentioned, my sales slow to a standstill at that rate.

However, I’m thinking a modified pricing model would work well for me.

• $0.99 for short stories
• $2.99 for novellas
• $3.99 for novels

I do see myself playing around with short story collections. For example, this week I repackaged Brandon’s and Regina’s Stories in a single eBook for $1.49. You didn’t know that? Yeah… I published that in secret this week. It’s available at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and Smashwords. One note, it’s priced at $2.99 on Amazon for now. So if you’re a Kindle user like me, I encourage you to pick up a copy at Smashwords instead of Amazon.

Commercial break over.

Pricing models and overhead costs

So what does the pricing models above have to do with overhead costs. According to Mr. Smith’s calculations, an author might see $105 in six months after publishing one (the first) novel. As disappointing as those sales numbers are, they’re pretty much what I experienced my first 6 months with Shadow Cat. From there, my experience is a little different from Mr. Smith’s examples since I didn’t stick with the same genre. I went on to publisher Regina’s Story, I Loved You First, Unprotected, and next up Injustice Is Served. I don’t see the sequel to Shadow Cat happening until February of 2012.

Even so, my sales of Shadow Cat have increased during the latter half of the year. Still not a lot, but still easily hitting the $210 target Mr. Smith mentioned for the 2nd six months. I’m thinking promoting Shadow Cat in my other works has kept the sales from stagnating. If I include my other works, I even hit the $420 target for combined sales with one royalty payment to go.

As you can see, I’m not making a lot of money publishing. And if you do some mental calculations with my overhead costs above, you can see how easy it is not to not break even. That’s okay. Mr. Smith’s article focuses on long-term writing… not a single book then giving up. He offers a three year plan (2 novels per year). I plan on doing exactly just that, along with a few short stories in between.

But that’s then, this is now. Overhead costs. I’d have to sell 300 books to make $105 in 6 months at a rate of $0.99 each. That’s 50 books a month for ONE book, bringing in $0.35/book. $0.99 for a novel, people. A work which takes a couple months to write, even longer to polish and edit. That’s in comparison to 38 books at $3.99 ($2.75/book in royalties) or about 6 books per month. 50 books a month for Shadow Cat isn’t happening, and it’s not happening with I Loved You First, even when priced at $0.99. 6-10 books a month is. In fact, I hit those numbers with Shadow Cat now.

Self-publishing is a business

This isn’t about greediness. How can I be greedy when looking at $105 for 6 months? Or $210? or $525 for a 6 month period? $525 isn’t even a reasonable profit for a month, much less a six month time period.

This is about business. I have overhead costs. I need to make a profit to meet those overhead costs. I need to make a larger profit to grow my business. I’m not just an author; I’m a publisher and have to think like a publisher.

I want more than anything for readers to go crazy for my works at $0.99. Unfortunately that’s not the case. Like I said, for my larger works $0.99 versus $2.99/3.99 doesn’t seem to matter. If I’m going to stay on track for the next six months (according to Mr. Dean’s calculations) and try to meet some of those overhead costs, I need to look at consistent prices which make sense. $0.99 – short, $2.99 – novellas, $3.99+ novels.

I’ll wait until the holiday season, but come January 1st, you should see the prices repopulating at the rates listed above. Hopefully by the end of January, my book prices will be consistent everywhere.

So that’s what to expect for the new year. If you’re looking to get my works for a discount, now’s the time. Otherwise, you’re free to wait. I certainly could use the extra royalties to cover my overhead costs.

By the way, keep an eye out for my next release (hopefully coming out in the next couple of days).

No lawyers.
No judges.
No trials.
At last,
Injustice
Is Served

Seven psychological thrillers to keep you awake at night.
Not meant for bedtime reading, children, or the guilty.

Rated M for intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, strong language, and enough offensive content to make a man clench his knees tightly together.

You can read the first story of Injustice Is Served here.

A special  note to my readers

Though my fan base is small, I thank every one of you for supporting me. I know there are a lot of other books out there, many of them are free. Come January 1, even more will be less expensive than some of my works.

At the same time, I know my readers aren’t oblivious to costs associated with publishing books. My readers work hard for their paychecks, and so do I. They have bills to pay, and so do I. We all have our cutoff points… we each have a line when we tell our employer, “I just can’t work for that wage and make ends meet.”

Readers are my employers. You’ve hired me to produce stories for you to enjoy. I’m doing my best, but I’ve got to make enough to meet my expenses, or my business will go under. I’m counting on you to agree that my works are worth a fair wage. I trust that you will understand.