Draoithe: Midnight Magic the complete miniseries Volume 17 is now available as an ebook and is coming soon in paperback. This is a monster 12 part miniseries that encompassed nearly 110,000 words. I write long, but I edit short. Compiling the parts to create the novel is arduous, tedious and requires the use of two computers to get it published. It's a crazy affair, but I got it done. I hope you enjoy Julian's Story. It's a bit entwined with a couple of dragons, a wizard and his wisdom, and as always there are cameo appearances from other characters in the saga.

Julian Gypsun used to be a young man on his way to becoming a contractor. Everything changed when he died and was resurrected as a wizard’s familiar. He was immortal and far better off physically than he had been as a human. Still, he was trapped with his life chained to a giant of a wizard who had no problem abusing him in every way imaginable.  Julian was powerless to stop it without ending his own existence. That is until he was yanked bodily through his own portal, transported to Draoithe, and assigned to babysit the visiting dignitary, Amazon Warrior Princess Zephyra, and try to convince her that her people should ally themselves with Luke and Draoithe.  That sounded easy, but it wasn’t. He liked her. He had no clue how to act on that. Best to avoid that altogether. Keeping her safe just might equal his death. (Please see her warrior princess title.) She was old and so far out of his league.  Worse, she liked him and was determined to have him. He can’t even consider that. She has no idea how broken he really is. 

This story is heartrending, funny, steamy, and just lovely at the end. It has become one of my favorites. If you side with the underdog, then this is the paranormal love story you need to read from the saga. This was also just the perfect image for this excerpt. Drake is midnight green. Lorelai is midnight blue. I am Super in love with Pixabay free images.  Now that it's finished and all published, I'm kind of sad that this story is done. I had a lot of fun writing this one. As you all know, I never pay for reviews so I will humbly ask that if you read any of my works or any other indie author stories that you please be kind and leave your review. It's okay if you read and don't like it. Just be kind and state why. What turns one reader away from a story is often the exact reason that someone else will choose to read it. All reviews are good reviews if they are honest  and kind. 

I want to try something. I make money from Kindle and the Amazon platform. It is not more than gas money and sometimes not even that much. (Full disclosure, I have never earned more than $75 in a single month. At this point, I am a hobby indie author who would love to be a full time author, but the day job is a must. At my age, it will likely be that way until I retire if I ever can. LOL) But I have never enrolled The Thread in the exclusive program. I mean I give that title away as a pdf from my website so... I think I am going to publish it wide and see what happens over the holidays. It is only $.99 to buy as a short read e-book. It's the prologue to A Pack Forms. I am just curious about the level of response I might get on say Google Play as they have recently made quite a few changes to their platform. I am still not willing to run Google ads nor do I run Amazon ads. Facebook at a dollar a day is all I can afford to risk. If I am going to publish it there, I might as well post it to Kobo and Barnes and Noble. Let's see what happens. 
I am still working on video books and podcasts. I will definitely make some noise if I ever get it released. If I ever get merch figured out, I still want to do that too. If I only had more time, money and less day job. LOL.

Gotta run. The housework still must be done on the weekends! If you read, please be kind and leave your reviews. I catch up with you next weekend. 
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
​Ophelia Kee

Draoithe: Midnight Magic Part 12 is posted to Amazon! It will release this weekend! I am super stoked to be publishing the end of this 12 part miniseries. Julian gets the girl, and she's a hell of a warrior with a mission. The saga isn't over but you have Julian and Zephyra's love story. I shall endeavor to get the complete miniseries compiled into one volume up next weekend for everyone, who like myself, can't stand to start a series and then wait for the next part. Let me know what you think if when you read. I love to hear from you so ask the questions, offer the suggestion, and make the comment.

Draoithe: Weaver's Tale is FREE! This weekend.  Araack Kniid the spider shifter king of the longest purple bought a lie in his youth. It tainted his life and bled out into his kingdom causing a wasting effect that could see the destruction of his realm. Will he slide irrevocably into the fade as he faces the obstacles of a long life, or can he discover the truth and save both his realm and himself before it's too late? Pick up your copy of the first part of this novella short read set in the dream. It goes back to regular Price after Midnight Oct. 19th so don't wait.

The duet short read Draoithe: Still Waters has been revised and the new improved cleaner version is now available from Amazon. Meet the Fin knight Leevi Tykander. He journeys far from home seeking his lost betrothed only to find her deceased and his true lifemate in a crazy medical torture facility run by Peter Elliot. Can he overcome his grief and confusion and claim the beautiful coastal wolf shifter Sophia? She was turned by injection and needs his help to navigate immortality. But crossing the friendship line could push the sexy Fin man away as he struggles to discover his own place after her rescue. 

The short read trilogy, Draoithe: Smoke of the Fire has been revised and updated for a cleaner read. The red dragon, Fuego, has drifted through the centuries feeling nothing. He even swears fealty with no hope of having emotion return to color his life. Meeting the fire mage Scarlett changes everything, but the passion that sparks between them might literally burn down the house. Can he learn how to love her and claim his Valkyrie or will their love affair rain fiery destruction onto Draoithe?

The latest and greatest Storyboard previews and book trailers can be found at the OpheliaKee channel. Head over to YouTube and subscribe to watch new story material. Video Books are in the works and podcasting is still being toyed with. I would love to go faster, but I do have the day job I must slave away in. So bear with me and my crazy indie author journey. I think I might have it this time. It has been a long year trying to learn how, but I might have gotten it. I hope y'all will check it out and let me know what you think.
​

I wish I was successful enough to be able to live in the dream. Sadly, that is not yet my reality. Who knows? It may never be my reality, but it is the ultimate writer's goal for me. Considering that, I want to speak on the subject of hard work.
I am a tiger with the soul of a mule. I have worked hard my whole life. Even if I'm not working for someone else, I'm always working for myself. I spent almost 10 months fully immersed in the dream and still have not learned all I need to know. What I can say is this: Self-Publishing as an entirely indie author has been an enormous challenge and a hell of a lot more work than any day job I have ever had. Even now that I am technically only a part time indie author, I still likely work harder at that than I do my professional career. (Part of that is due to the fact that I have been in my profession for over a decade and I have only been a published indie author for a couple of years now.)
Self-publishing is easy. It is so easy that I wonder why I didn't do it sooner. There are quite a few step by step tutorials out there to explain how to upload a book to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, ibooks, and Kobo, so I will leave that to others to explain. Suffice it to say that when I first began publishing it was not quick. (It actually took me three days to upload one ebook, LOL)

What I have spent the most time on learning is marketing and promotion. This is an enormous field with tons of information and avenues of approach. I don't profess to understand it all. I might actually need to get a specialty degree to even begin feeling as if I had any expertise. Here's where I am at the moment:
*Everything I do for free I label as promotion.
*If it costs me money, I consider it marketing. 
I don't have a lot of money so I do far more promotion that marketing. I do have a $1 a day ad on Facebook that runs all the time. I also spend money on marketing through Awesome Gang on occasion and take advantage of their email list. That's about it in the spend category. (I have learned that I can drive traffic to my website via Pinterest, but I have left off doing that as it did not result in increased book sales as my books are all on Kindle. It seems that there are too many clicks to make in that.)
I craft my own storyboards, create my own story excerpts, build my own book trailers, and post my links on social media all myself. I did recently purchase a tool called KDROI to help me with posting my FREE books to Free promotional sites. All the Pinterest pins, Tumblr and Instagram images and Facebook and Twitter posts are pretty much me. (I have tried using some help posting to social media from Writers Pay it Forward and All Authors with varying degrees of success. I have left off that in favor of the ads on Facebook purely due to lack of funds.)

My current belief is that paid advertising is an absolute necessity if you want to get your books out to a wide audience to grow your brand and increase sales. I am no heavy hitter like Ms. Force who can run Google ads with confidence, but I do know that advertising plays a very serious part in the success of self-published authors. I also believe that until I finish my first series, that sinking money I don't have into marketing is not something I am willing to do.
The Draoithe Series Saga is nearing completion. When I begin to write and publish the next works is when I will begin investing in more marketing. I want a lot of titles available on my website before I try spending money. That way readers will know there is a lot to choose from when they consider my stories. If they like them, there is more as well as different stories. 
I also want a wider variety of free promotional materials available for readers to review on social media sites and my website. If there is a total dream experience in place including podcasts, video books, book trailers, storyboard previews and excerpt/quote cards available in multiple venues, I truly believe that will aid me in making my dollars go further. So to that end, I continue to write the blog and offer insight into the behind the scenes of Draoithe and my experiences as an Indie Author. 
Enough of my crazy life. As always if you read, please be kind and leave reviews. I will write again next weekend. Don't forget to grab that FREE short read Draoithe: Weaver's Tale.
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
 Ophelia Kee 
​​

The publishing of Midnight Magic is coming to a close. I am waiting on Amazon to review part 11. This miniseries has twelve parts. The end is near. Part 12 will release next weekend. So that means that the full volume will come out in two weeks. If you have been waiting until all parts were published or you wanted only to read it as a novel, the wait is nearly over. If you pick up any part of the saga to read, let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you.

Draoithe: Dragons Come volume four has finally launched the 2nd edition as a 6x9 paperback. For those who don't know, I am pure indie and do all of my writing, publishing, and marketing on my own. When I first dove into the deep end of self-publishing, I had no idea what I was doing, but I could do it. I did it all wrong and made a ton of mistakes. When I could not figure out how to publish the books as 6x9 standard paperback book size, I decided to simply publish them as 8.5 x11. It was fine like that. I was learning. (They are kind of cool that way.)
Only being a non-standard size meant that they were ineligible for expanded distribution and the wrong size for the book shelf. So I decided something needed to give and I had to break down and publish the stories as a second edition in the size they should have been. So as I go through the early stories and let Grammarly aid my editing for a cleaner story, I am also reformatting to release the stories in the proper book size. Volumes 1-4 and the Prequel are now complete. Just a few more to go. LOL. #don'tfearmistakes

LINKEDIN.COM
SELF PUBLISHING vs Publishing House - Look At The Numbers.
This post is a follow up to a recent discussion I was involved in. IT IS

I read this article on Linked-in the other day explaining the breakdown in earnings between traditionally published and indie published authors. Needless to say, indie authors earn way less than traditionally published authors. That's okay. Because it is offset by the fact that there is no need to suffer through query letters and rejections. As an indie author, I can publish as often as I like, as many titles as I want and best of all readers can simply read to their heart's content. There is no waiting until the publishing house is ready, or giving up any of my rights as the author to sell or promote my work however and whenever I see fit.
So what if I don't get a big payout up front? I'm happy with waiting for my royalties. Advertising is entirely up to me and I don't have the added stress of needing to meet artificial deadlines or the potential hassle of losing the contract due to low sales or something else outside my control. It might not be the way to go for every writer, but so far, my authorwalk is still indie all the way. (Also I secretly enjoy publishing and the creative side of marketing even if I am not good at it and have limited marketing funds. LOL)

Weaver’s Tale Part 1 will be FREE October 15-19. Just in time for Halloween. Grab the first part of the 4 part miniseries, meet Araack Kniid, the warlock spider shifter, and Calvin Birchard, the wizard. Both men spend years learning and improving themselves in their desire to be worthy of a mate. Old lies and impossible fantasies must be overcome in order for them to finally have a life worth living. Step into the dream and meet the rulers of the Longest Purple. 
Author's note on Weaver's Tale: My mother said, "Just don't go adding spiders to the saga." Vampires and angels were okay, but spider shifters were just too creepy. Sadly, the scenes began to play out in my head immediately. I knew Araack Kniid and Calvin Birchard right away and sat down to write exactly what she said I should not. No disrespect, Mom. I had to write this novella length miniseries because until I write a scene that I see, I can't get it out of my head. Almost Noir, but not quite. This one is a fast paced read set in the Netherworld. Adult content and themes. Happy Halloween!

Working on the video book for The Thread! Still no fixed release date, but I am super excited! The project is rolling along. I am hoping to have it up by Christmas. If you are not subscribe to OpheliaKee on YouTube, you might want to take a moment and hop over and set yourself up to get notified when the video books come out. Book trailers and ads are posted there already. Check it out and please give feedback. I love to hear from readers.
Merch is still a big fat no go. GRRR.... I am not giving up, but the tech does sometimes seriously stress me out. Patience. My authorwalk has taken me in strange directions many times before. That's okay. I will prevail or die trying. Lol. So overdramatic. Debating a wikipedia page next too. So long as we are being extra...

Enough of the silly business. I gotta get back to writing, editing, publishing, and marketing. If you have questions or comments hit me up. As always if you read, please be kind and leave your review. Indie authors especially will love you for it. 
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
​Ophelia Kee

I had to take a short trip to El Paso to visit family for an important event. I was only there for two whole days, but I remembered exactly why I do not wish to live there again and will only visit for short trips. The dryness of the place is simply too much. There are a few people there for whom I will still walk through fire. I would prefer if that was not necessary, but you do what you have to do for the ones you love and who love you. While I was there, I was able to publish Part 10 of Draoithe: Midnight Magic. As nice as my Note 8 is, getting the proper embed codes to link through and publish a book is still pretty difficult compared to what my laptop is capable of so I finished the link through in Part 9  after I got back.
Being Back in Florida, I realized that writing short is better for publishing due to editing and revising, but it's also better for producing video books as well as for podcasting. It takes a while to record just one chapter. Recording in parts makes it easier to correct mistakes as well. I don't like to fly, but it did allow me to get to my destination quickly. I prefer long stories, but short stories aid my ability to get a novel length idea ready to publish.

I won't lie and say the flight was perfect. I never feel that way after flying. It always makes me extremely tired. Jet lag is real and debilitating.
Like jet lag in my real life, I don't want my enthusiasm for writing and self-publishing to become stale like old air plane air nor do I want to stress over the money they aren't bringing in. So I am continuing in my hunt to find reliable methods of promotion to the masses. Lack of funds for that endeavor are always shocking. I am looking forward to more paid advertising and adding merch to the website. I am still on track to craft the video book and begin production on a podcast. Add in my real life professional career that still pays my bills and you can see how easy it is to blow off the books and never finish the saga. 
I can't allow jet lag to stop me, so I decided to write the blog even though it might need serious revising edits. LOL. I am too sleepy and must get other things accomplished today despite the awful jet lag. 
If you read, remember to be kind and leave your reviews. Until next weekend,
Be Careful! 
Happy reading, 
Ophelia Kee

Part 9 of Draoithe: Midnight Magic is currently publishing! I write adult paranormal fantasy, so be warned. Adult content, themes, and language. If you've been looking to start a new series, Draoithe might be the next one. This series saga is a bit of a long one. That just means that you can stay immersed in the dream longer. Volume 17 will finish publishing in parts and the complete miniseries volume will be available by the end of October.
There are over 20 novel length miniseries along with several short read stories available in the saga. Check out what is available on my Amazon author page. All of my stories are currently exclusive to Kindle so that means that they are all FREE with Kindle Unlimited! Read to your heart's content!

Julian Gypsun used to be a young man on his way to becoming a contractor. Everything changed when he died and was resurrected as a wizard’s familiar. He was immortal and far better off physically than he had been as a human. Still, he was trapped with his life chained to a giant of a wizard who had no problem abusing him in every way imaginable. Julian was powerless to stop it without ending his own existence. That is until he was yanked bodily through his own portal, transported to Draoithe, and assigned to babysit the visiting dignitary, Amazon Warrior Princess Zephyra, and try to convince her that her people should ally themselves with Luke and Draoithe. That sounded easy, but it wasn’t. He liked her. He had no clue how to act on that. Best to avoid that altogether. Keeping her safe just might equal his death. (Please see her warrior princess title.) She was old and so far out of his league.  Worse, she liked him and was determined to have him. He can’t even consider that. She has no idea how broken he really is.

I think it's late and time for me to try to get some sleep. I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow! 
If you read, please be kind and leave your review.  As an Indie Author, I can't tell you how much it means when someone lets me know they liked a story I wrote. Thanks people. It matters.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
Ophelia Kee

#paranormal #fantasy #stories #indieauthor #romance #adult

Draoithe: Midnight Magic is in the process of publishing, and it's really getting good with Part 8. Adult situations might be disturbing, but this paranormal fantasy literally has it all. (Including Midnight Magic Dragons) The entire series saga is available to read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited! The Midnight Magic miniseries only has 4 parts left to completion. Sorry it takes me so long, but the day job gets in the way of the final edit. It takes me about a week to get it all ready. If you haven't started it yet, what are you waiting for?

It is the struggle to write that makes authors crazy. Unless you are lucky enough to be able to write full-time, finding time to write can be difficult. Something I have found that helps me is the fact that I am pure indie. I have total control over all aspects of my publishing business. Many times when I can't immerse myself deep enough in the dream to be able to see the scene and write it, I can still step into the dream and work on already published stories and polish them.
​For all who purchased and read the stories in the early days, relax. I haven't made any serious changes. I have cleaned up some of the grammar and a few spelling mistakes here and there. The first three miniseries have been revised. All parts and the complete volumes have been thoroughly reviewed and edited using Grammarly. The little details have been added such as page numbers and footers for the paperbacks. They have a far more professional look.
They are also now all set up to become audio stories. For all who like the idea of listening to the stories, I hope to have them all posted to YouTube in the future. Look for The Thread to be the first book that I turn into an audio text. I want to have it published by the end of the year. As I get better at recording them, I might get faster. Cross your fingers.

When will the series be finished? Maybe that was not what you were thinking the big question was. It is the big question for me. There are five miniseries books left to finish writing. I say finish because they are all in some stage of unfinished writing. ( I write in disorganized scenes that I then have to determine how they fit the larger story. Probably not terribly efficient, but it is working so far.)
The stories have yet to be competed. So that means that they are nowhere near ready to be edited, much less published. Sigh... The good news here is that I think I know how many stories are left needing to be told in the saga. Also that number means that it is possible for me to complete the writing within the next year even with the day job. It won't be easy, but that is the goal.
​So I began writing the Draoithe Series saga in September of 2016 and I would like to wrap it up by the end of 2021. Five years of writing with over 30 novel length complete volumes is serious work. Hey, my one book I was writing is almost done though... LMAO! 

My crazy author walk journey is continuing. Midnight Magic will be completely published by the end of October. What's next? Draoithe: No Negotiations. Do you remember Gaspard? He got his ass handed to him by Marchand in Fire and a Gryphon for disparaging Leilah. Well, he's back. He's been shot and the one who pulled the trigger has been turned as dragonsworn to nurse him back to health. He wants to correct the rift between himself and Marchand. Luke thinks there's more to Gaspard than just an old Gryphon. Read the fast paced head spinning tale of forbidden love in this portion of the saga.

So let's be honest. I mess things up. Sometimes I take steps forward only to fall off in potholes. The thing that has been hard was figuring out the way to create the audio books in a format that was more meaningful and that I could manage myself. I think I got that finally. So that is moving out of the realm of the impossible over to just a slow and difficult work in progress.
​The bigger stumbling block is now merchandising the brand. Here is where I sigh big time again. No progress has been made on this front, and this alas seems to remain an impossible work in progress. I might have to call in the big guns and get help for this area. Send good vibes, pray, meditate, practice some voodoo, or witchcraft for me. I am not that tech savvy. Lol. Back to the drawing board. 

I have to run away. It's getting late where I am. Sleep calls me to the dream. If you read, please be kind and leave your reviews.
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
​Ophelia Kee

#indieauthors #writerslife #amwritingromance #RomanceReaders #paranormalromance

The Council has been updated! It is now available as an e-book. The updated paperback version will be available at the end of the weekend. As I began updated the older stories in the saga with the help of Grammarly, I realized some things about my writing. First, I love to write and tell the story. I want to get it done and make it available as soon as possible which is why so many titles have been published this year. Second, I am really petty about the things that make a story a good book.
I am not talking about content here. I'm speaking to the little things that are easy to ignore, but must really be included in paperback texts. I tried to get away without including the footers and headers in the short reads. I even went so far as to decide that if the stories were truly complete volumes of short reads then the headers and footers were not necessary in the complete volumes. The thing is that I hate the look of it.
With the E-book, none of that matters. There is an air of elegance to a physical book which I simply can't ignore. So I'm correcting that. The stories will remain essentially the same with perhaps a tiny bit of grammatical clean up, and the paperback versions will get the love and care they deserve with the addition of the headers and footers that I thought I could leave out, but simply can't. 
My author walk has been crazy and I have no doubt that it will always be a bit crazy so long as I am the one in charge. LOL. I have been enjoying the ride. 

I am always updating and adding crazy stuff to the website as well as the social media sites. If you haven't wandered around the site before, or if it's been a while, check it out. If you have only recently discovered the dream, I love visitors. I am real and I enjoy comments, questions, and suggestions. (Don't get angry if your suggestion doesn't fit the story. I am not in charge here. I just write the story that flows in the dream. But sometimes reader comments do mean I have to write more books. It has happened several times before with Dread Allies, Eyrie Iolair, and Draoithe's Synner and Sainte. There are a few that are about to be published due to reader commentary as well in the Lyons Gate series.) If you need a link to reach me, check out the ones below: 
Email Ophelia Kee 
Follow Draoithe on Facebook 
Follow Ophelia Kee on Instagram 
Follow Ophelia Kee on Twitter 
Follow Ophelia Kee on Pinterest 
Follow Ophelia Kee on Tumblr
Subscribe to the Ophelia Kee channel on YouTube                        
Follow Ophelia Kee on Author Central at Amazon
Check out the Author site at Goodreads 
​Pick up a FREE short read, get updates on the characters, information on release dates, and behind the scenes of the dream. Visit OpheliaKee.com

I do give away the Prologue to A Pack Forms  Draoithe: The Thread as a FREE story for anyone to check out my story style and meet the main characters of the overall fantasy. No one wants to spend money on something they would not enjoy. The Thread is about an hour short read, so check it out. It's PG13, so no worries. The saga itself is definitely super hot and steamy with adult content. Forewarned is Forearmed. 
This story is currently in the works to be released in an audio format for YouTube soon! I never realized how much fun it would be to record the stories. Like everything else in my author walk, this too is entirely independent and that means it depends on my day job, but I think it might finally be available before Christmas. I finally got it! On to Merch again next. I will figure it out. Thanks for having faith and patience with my tech-challenged self.

I have some homework to do for that day job so I better run away. As always if you read, please be kind and leave your reviews. As an independent author, I will appreciate it immensely. 
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
​Ophelia Kee

#indieauthors #writerslife #amwritingromance #RomanceReaders #paranormalromance

I have over 75% of the saga published. Over 90% of the story is complete at this point. (It really does have an ending, I swear it. Lol) The day job is serious and as much as I love to be in the dream writing, I am getting paid for the work I do. As a professional, I feel it is important to devote my full attention to that during working hours. Sometimes it is really draining and I don't feel much like writing. So I began revising and polishing my stories. I have been rereading the earl stories and letting Grammarly have a go at them. They are very much improved even if the story is the same. I finished the revision of all parts of the miniseries A Pack Forms. It is all live on Amazon now! Also, This weekend Part 1 is FREE. So grab your copy and begin your journey into the dream. 

Midnight Magic is still publishing. If you are reading on Kindle Unlimited, Part 6 is now available! Julian meets Zephyra. Things take a seriously wrong turn right away and Julian is not so sure that he has not gotten in way over his head. Warning on this miniseries. It is adult themed with some graphic abuse scenes. I know I write some steamy scenes, but I don't always write detailed negative scenes so maybe a bit of a warning is more necessary than it was in previous books. Just as I felt that you needed all of the back story of Frank Grimes in Filth and Death to truly get a feel for how nasty and low Frank really was, I felt it was important to see Julian's whole story and have knowledge of his life at the Wizard's Circle for his story to work well.
I always note on Amazon that the books are intended for a mature audience, and like the graphic abuse scenes in The Dark Gift, I felt the ones in Midnight Magic also need a stronger note. Never fear, the HEA is totally present, and you will be seeing more of Zephyra, Julian, Drake, Lorelai, Dross, and Emily in future works.
Let me know what you think when you finish reading. Reviews are great. I am real and I do try to reply when you drop me a line. So please feel free to reach out with questions, comments, and suggestions. I love hearing from you. 

 My Author Walk continues even if it is part time once again. I was not quite able to take a year off and write, but I did get a good ten months. I learned a lot and still have a long way to go in the journey. Now that I am no longer in the dream full time. I hope I have not disappointed anyone. I am still publishing one new short read each week. I am still active most days on Instagram and Facebook if only briefly, but my ability to spend much time on Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter, or YouTube has been severely limited and reduced to weekends only. So bear with me in response times. Once the job settles in, I hope to be able to be more available and gain more time to actively write. My goal to be able to finish the saga and have it all completely published within the next two years is still on track. Y'all cross your fingers, meditate, or pray. I will get there. I will never complain if you want to share the dream. Please feel free. The more the merrier!

I am currently revising the miniseries The Council. It's almost finished and wow, I forgot how good that story really was. So here is a snippet to share. Javier MacGuire was an asshole bad boy who got a second chance at a different life and he might just get his chance at everything. HEA and seriously hot steam in this story, plus you get to see a bit of Fox and Artie's love affair too. When you step into the dream in The Council miniseries, I am sure you will fall in love with the phoenix and her keeper of the flame. This fairy tale got seriously wicked-twisted.

I have to run. The laundry must be hung to dry. If you read, please remember to be kind and leave your reviews. 
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
​Ophelia Kee

#indieauthors #writerslife #amwritingromance #RomanceReaders #paranormalromance

Part 5 of Midnight Magic is in review with Amazon.  The miniseries is going well. I just had a give you a teaser of the poet scene with Droskyn Rothstein and Emily Erskine. The wizard and his wisdom heat things up in part 5. Some of the loose ends from Past in the Present are finally explained. It's getting good. I can't wait to write the next part. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think when you finish it.

Most of you know that I don't have money. I don't earn much past what I must have to pay my bills. Sadly, I am not an everyday millionaire. Nor am I likely to ever become one. I don't make more than gas money from my stories each month.
I write because I love it, for my dedicated long time readers, and with the hope of meeting more people who need to escape into the dream from time to time. Sure, I would love to be able to write full time all the time, but unless or until that becomes my reality, I will remain content with just being able to write.
Having said all of that, I must admit that I am always seeking knowledge about the field of self publishing. I stumbled over the Self-Publishing Show on YouTube. (I am not a paid spokesperson nor have I ever purchased anything from Mark Dawsen and company.) 
I have watched a few episodes, but the one with author Force, made me rethink a few things about what I am doing to market my books. I honestly believe that this is where I fail. I am not a carnival barker or a natural born salesman so I have to seriously work at all of that. I believe I might be making a couple of mistakes not giving away more free stories. Also, I really must pay for ads.
I have dabbled in them a bit, but am just not comfortable with them. It is the expense that bothers me the most. I have only recouped the money one month, but I just broke even. I think I need to let the ad run longer and add more money to it. Where will the money come from? Even though I know something I can try, I once again lack funds to implement it. Sigh. I will get there. I am sure that I am getting closer.

I have tried doing this a bit before. It's not easy turning a book into an audio format. Especially a paranormal romance with a serious amount of heat involved. The sizzle between the pages can get pretty serious and reading it aloud is not so easy for me. I have committed and crafted one audio scene from A Pack Forms. If you would like to check it out, it's on YouTube. Hit the like and subscribe button. I am going to attempt to get a bit more stuff like that out in the future. I am still debating the format for that kind of stuff. If anyone has an idea, let me know. I will check it out.

Okay, so Eli doesn't actually say that line until Midnight Magic, but it is still cool. I just think this would make the coolest cell phone cover. I would so put my tiger on clothes and bookmarks. I have never been able to get Printful to work on my site and there is no one to call to get help. It is all automated but the videos are all out of date so I need to investigate another vendor. Sigh. That aspect of the dream is standing still at the moment. How I wish for more time. Bear with me, and I will figure it out. I use Weebly for my website and blog. If anyone out there has an idea that would allow for print on demand items or knows how to fix my Printful and would share, I would gladly hear you. Drop me a line somewhere and I promise I will check it out as soon as I can. 

I am currently writing Strange Visions and still working on a story in the Lyons Gate miniseries as well as Dragon Wedding. Dragon Wedding is a book like The Library. It seems to be stuck in limbo land. I think I have to write more of Strange Visions to be able to 'see' what happens next in Dragon Wedding. I really am a total pantser and I swear I don't know what is about to happen yet. When the characters find out, I will write it down. LOL.  

I have work to do. Thanks for taking a moment to step into the behind the scenes of the dream. If you read, please be kind and leave your review. All authors will love you more for it. Have an awesome weekend. I will catch up again next week. 
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
​Ophelia Kee

#indieauthors #writerslife #amwritingromance #RomanceReaders #paranormalromance

I have updated the upcoming titles list to reflect a few changes I felt needed to be made. As always I reserve the right to alter titles as I see fit. I do love that about Indie Writing. I am the publisher, so I have the right to use working titles and alter them as necessary until the publish date.
Why change the title? Sometimes the one I begin with no longer fits the story once it is finished. Other times it feels too wordy. I want the title to reflect the main story arc. I also want it to be short so when people are searching for titles, they don't have to waste time typing it forever or get confused remembering it. One or two word titles really feel better to me although I will use up to four words if necessary. (Example: Tolkien's There and Back Again is not nearly as widely known as The Hobbit. They are the same story.)
The thing that writers need to know is that once a title is published by an author, in a paperback tangible form with an ISBN number, it stays that title. The only way that it can change is if it is published again with a new ISBN and then it is not technically the same book. Until the book is actually published, the title can be changed at the author or publisher's discretion even if advanced teaser quotes or excerpts are shared digitally. So long as the story has no ISBN, the title is easily changeable.
The truth is that although a good title matters, it is not that important in the grand scheme of things unless you are writing stand alone works. You do want it to grab attention, but you don't have to overthink it. It simply needs to fit the story.
The really important words on the cover of a book are the author's name. The author name is technically the brand name. It is the one thing that readers use to find your body of work. So if Ophelia Kee is typed into Google, different online links to social media, my website, my author page, and my books on multiple platforms will show up. Ophelia Kee takes up the first 8 pages of a search and have pages of images as well. The series name, the book titles? They are not nearly as powerful a search tool. 
I know a lot of authors suffer from imposter syndrome (they feel that their story is not that good and maybe they are not a real author), but the truth is that a well written story is always good. If you want to be recognized and read, you do have to note that simple detail. Be sure that your author name appears prominently on the book cover. Do things to enhance the reader's memory of you by always using the same font style or letter coloring for your name, choose where your name belongs on the cover so that when readers see it they immediately recognize your book and want to read it, and make it stand out from the other words on the book. (It goes without saying that the books contents need to be well written, proofread and edited or the branding will not matter.)
Don't get the big head and make it bigger than the book title. That's as bad as making it so small that you are not memorable. People don't believe that you are as big as Stephen King or JK Rowling just because your name takes up half of the book cover (LOL). The contents of the story are why the title should be bigger. You are not the story. If you write more than one book, you are many stories. You are the brand and it is your name that people will search for more often than they will search for one of your titles.
​

Draoithe: Midnight Magic ​is currently publishing. The tale begins with the excerpt tale of Drake and Lorelai
and the first four parts of the miniseries are now available to read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited or each part is only $.99 from Amazon. I do write adult themed contemporary fantasy and paranormal romance so be warned in advance if you are new to the dream. It takes only a moment to be kind, and I would prefer to allow readers the grace of truth about my writing. No one likes to be misled and waste their money purchasing a story that they can't read or already know that they would not appreciate. For those of you who have been in the dream awhile, thank you sincerely for supporting my author walk. For those who have only recently stumbled into the dream, welcome to my chronicle of what I have discovered along the journey. 

​If you read, remember ​that your kind review makes a world of difference to the author and other readers. Enjoy the #booklife.
Be Careful,
Happy Reading,
Ophelia Kee