First – It's Memorial Day here in the US. The holiday commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. Please take a moment to give thanks to those willing to put their lives on the line for our freedom.
Next: a quick Wildlife Report. Yesterday, we drove up to Florissant for breakfast. On the way down our street, we saw two foxes in the road. One was kind enough to pose for a picture.
Then, after breakfast, we took the scenic route back to the highway, and saw a bear lumbering through the trees. He stopped to check us out, but it was tough to get a decent shot with my little camera.
And back to writing stuff:
On Friday, I posted part 1 of this discussion of another aspect of writing—the part that doesn't end up between the covers of the book, but rather, lives on the outside. For someone who enjoys the storytelling, dealing with the requisite marketing side of the business, especially when you're with a smaller publishing house, can be daunting. Part 1 dealt with the excerpts—the story teasers that will (one hopes!) make a reader want to read the book.
Wildlife report: raccoon got onto the deck while we slept. Broke the seed bird feeder and spilled a bunch of the hummingbird nectar – he left sticky paw prints all over the deck. Then a woodpecker pecked a nice chunk out of the door jamb. But the bear and the mountain lion passed us by.
I got an email from my editor for WHERE DANGER HIDES about the excerpts I'd submitted to her.
She's got a better handle on what the publisher wants than I do. I'm still dealing with the fact that although they publish romance, and they include sex-on-the-page scenes, they don't want you to use the word penis. It's a reader thing—and they ought to know their readers. It's also a reviewer thing--more on that Monday. Since that's their job, not mine, I follow the rules.
So, although the voting was overwhelmingly in favor of excerpt #1, my editor felt selection #2 would be more appropriate for the target audience. And since I know none of you remembers the excerpts, much less which was which, here it is:
Thanks to Robie for her excellent post. As someone who's in transition, I can appreciate it. And thanks to all who took the time to express their votes and opinions about the possible excerpts to use in conjunction with my next Five Star release, Where Danger Hides. And please read to the end of this post -- there's a contest and a free book as the prize. Now for the survey results:
In first place, with 47.5% of the votes, Excerpt #1
In second place, with 18% of the votes, Excerpt #3
In third place, with 16.4% of the votes, Excerpt #4
In fourth place, with 14.8% of the votes, Excerpt #2
And, "none" had a 3.3% share.
I also very much appreciate that more than half of the people who selected an excerpt also gave reasons for their choices, or ranked the excerpts in order of their personal preference.
And, as expected, I suppose, there were lots of reasons given for the individual choices. Some liked a hint of mystery, others liked voice, others mentioned piquing their curiosity. Some said they liked the image the excerpt created, some said they got a good picture of the characters.
First – It's Memorial Day here in the US. The holiday commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. Please take a moment to give thanks to those willing to put their lives on the line for our freedom. 
