WHAT READERS WANT

I'm still learning who I am, and what I want from my life. I suspect I'll never stop. As a writer I seek mostly love. I don't give a damn about money or fame. I just want people to love my work. I daydream about logging onto the computer in the morning and seeing thousands of 5 star reviews on my books, or having thousands of 'likes' on my facebook page. Why? Fuck if I know, isn't love what everyone wants? I write because I love creating; the characters, their lives, the flow of the story, the imagery of their world. It's exhilarating to say the least. It's like giving birth.

But, it also seems utterly pointless...Why spend years writing a book that no one likes? All the love, all the creativity, the attention to every detail, symbolism and humor and drama and joy wasted, completely wasted...It's sad.

Often I spend hours searching for ways to draw readers to my books, and when I say books, I really mean something so much more profound than a simple b, o, o, k could possible express...I want to say soul, my heart on paper. Drama bomb! LOL I know it sounds stupid, but that's how I feel. It takes a very strong resolve to put what amounts to your soul out there for the masses to judge and ridicule.

Why do some books  have many reviews, while others have only a handful of reviews or none at all?
-Marketing? Can't afford that business...
-Online Social Presence? I'm socially awkward, in person and online.
-Better Product? Have you tired to read Twilight of 50 Shades or Grey? LOL No, definitely not it.
-Famous Author? 100% yes on that one, but I can't help that...

Tonight I Googled, "What are Readings Looking For?" to better find out what readers want, in the hopes that it's something I can give them, that they would find my work more appealing. I just read this article from Salon that was very intriguing. Click here to open link

In this article a reader tells us 5 things readers really want from a book:
1. A main character who has goals, something to strive for. A character who observes only is flat and boring. That's what really killed Twilight for me. Bella was too much in her own head. I kept saying, shut the fuck up and do something!
2. A main character who acts, who makes things happen rather than reacts when something happens to them. I too find it annoying when I'm reading a book in which the character is passive. This happens to them, and then that happens to them. Never taking the initiative, blah.
3. Readers care about things in a certain order of importance: Story, Characters, Theme & then Setting. I 100% agree! I cannot stand it at all when a writer spends an entire page describing a room, or what someone is wearing, or where everyone is standing and how they are posed, the looks on each and every face. You know what, bud, get to the fucking story already. Don't paint me a 600 mega pixel picture. I have a brain, I can fill the blanks...Gosh.
4. "Good Writing" is less important than Good Story Telling. Again, I fully agree. Nobody buys a book for it's perfect sentence structure, or comma placement. I mean, terrible comma placement can change the meaning of a sentence and too many errors can distract from a story. But if a story is good enough, the errors can be forgiven. The story and the way it sounds and flows is more important than proper grammar.
5. The book MUST have a sense of humor. It is true. I can't think of a single book I've read cover to cover that wasn't silly at times. Books without lightness seem damp with heavy emotions, and a tad draining...

Well...I'm still searching for how to draw people into my little world, but that article made me think about myself and my books in a new light, so I thought I'd share it. I think my babies don't break any of those rules, but still, how do you get readers to love you enough to let you know it? IDK. I'm doing something wrong, obviously. Sometimes I think what I'm doing wrong is caring at all. But how do I stop that?

TOXIC'S PROLOGUE

A Taste of Toxic:

“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear.” Gandhi

 

Prologue:

Tonight, with Steve Marshall and Danny Albright

     DANNY WAS A petite woman with long black hair and a smile bright enough to distract from her dim minded comments. Her red dress and trendy scarf were as at home on her perfect boyish body as they were on the store manikin. Steve was handsom, loud and always enthusiastic about something, even on slow news days he could find something to argue about; pie, sports forecasts, funny cat videos. Of which he was “DAMN SICK OF!” His broad shoulders and angry face looked out of place in his powder grey suit. The two of them were mutely talking to each other while their program’s theme song was coming to an end. The cameras moved in closer and they greeted their audience with perfect toothy smiles.

     Steve sat up a tad straighter. “Good Evening America. Tonight we’ll find out what’s the best starter gun for your child, we’ll be asking experts if electric toothbrushes are really safe or a deadly infection waiting to happen. The answer may surprise you.”

     Danny leaned forward, the cameras changed view. “But first we’ll be talking with two brilliant men on the ongoing situation in the Pacific Northwest.”

     A camera pulled back to show two men sitting on either side of Danny and Steve. The one sitting beside Steve was introduced as Doctor Ricco, an expert on vampire lore. Ricco was dressed in a brown suit just a few shades lighter than his skin color. The man sitting beside Danny wasn’t a doctor, but a retired secretary of state, the old and fragile Benjamin Seeley, known for his shoot first, avoid questions after foreign policy.

     “Last night a Washington man made theses controversial tweets.” The screen was divided between Danny and the tweets themselves with a small picture of a handsome blond man attached to each tweet, his profile name @LukeKing. Danny read the tweets aloud.

     “A man died of hunger just outside the Washington-Idaho boarder this morning. I felt his pain as he passed. #disgraceful #endworldhunger #WashingtonRising”

     “Long live the queen. #MuseumMeeting #Tacoma #WashingtonRising”

     “Are you on the right side of history? #WashingtonRising.”

     “These tweets are a call to arms. It’s a warning of their attack?” Steve said. “We need to send more troops to monitor Washington’s boarders, and we need a taller fence around the former state. We can’t let even one of those freaks of nature escape. I know the liberals won’t like me using the word ‘freak’ but that’s what they are, freaks. I won’t apologize.”

     Doctor Ricco tried to speak, but Seeley spoke over him, repeating “Napalm, napalm, napalm.”

     “What’s that you’re saying?” Steve asked.

     “I’m saying we should drop napalm over the entire region, eradicate these freaks. Be done with them. We have two wars in the Middle East, and our relationship with Russia is on shaky ground. The last thing we need is this drain on our military’s resources. They’re on American soil. I say we take back our land!”

     Steve clapped in approval but Danny spoke up. “I hate to play the devil’s advocate, I really do, because I frankly agree with you, but let’s say the napalm doesn’t kill them, what then? We have a bunch of angry freaks, as you call them. Who knows what they’re capable of?”

     Again Ricco tried to speak but was over shouted by Steve. “I’ve seen videos on YouTube of a Washington woman calling lightning to her hand. Her hand! Not a scratch on her. How is that possible? We have to kill them. End of story.”

     “If I may?” Ricco began.

     “End of story!” Steve yelled in the man’s face. “They’re too dangerous. I wouldn’t want one of their kids playing with my kid. Kids fight all the time. Let’s say Bobby pushes Suzy, but Suzy’s a kid of a Washington freak. She’s a freak offspring. She pushes Bobby back with the force of a mac truck and kills him, BOOM!”

     Ricco nodded. “Yes normal kids fight, mine, yours, normal human and nonhuman children fight all the time, but not the kids in Washington,” Ricco said loud and fast before anyone could shout him into silence. “They are nonviolent by their very nature.”

     “Of course they don’t fight each other,” Seeley said. “They’re all freaks. Why would they fight their own kind?”

     “The residents of Washington State—.”

     “Former state,” Danny corrected him. “Washington is not a part of America anymore.”

     “But, it’s still OUR LAND!” Seeley shouted.

     Ricco smiled. “Yes, yes, nonetheless, the residents of Washington call themselves the gifted, not freaks. They are still biologically human after all.”

     “Human? Interesting. What would you propose we do with them?” Danny asked him.

     “Nothing.”

     “Nothing!” shouted Steve in disbelief.

     “A little more than three years ago, Washington was hit by a plague that some have referred to as a zombie apocalypse. I’m not saying that is true, but I remember the panic, the militarization of the state and the last resort we all accepted. A nuclear assault.”

     “You think these people deserve our mercy because we tried to kill them?” Seeley said with spittle flying from his lips, a shower of his outrage. “That plague would have spread!”

     “We launched a nuclear missile at them. It should have killed them, but instead a miracle happened. The bomb cured the plague and gifted these people with awesome abilities. We should be studying them, taking advantage of their gifts—instead, we’ve caged them in like animals.”

     “They deserve worse!”

     “They are a peaceful people.”

     “I don’t mean to be rude, but why are you even here? Washington doesn’t have vampires anymore,” Seeley asked with every intention of being rude.

     Ricco gave him a sour face. “I am here because there are no more vampires in Washington. Because somehow that bomb healed every man woman and child of every hurt; the plague, genetic disorders, and even vampirism. But more than that, it gave them greater access to their minds, which in turn has given them the powers you fear, powers like healing the sick by touch and making polluted water drinkable—.”

     “And controlling storms!” shouted Steve.

     Ricco nodded vigorously. “Can’t you see the positive applications? Tornados moved clear of towns, rain where it is desperately needed!”

     “Can’t you see the abuse? Their leader, Kirkland, she can control fire, combine that with a man who can control a tornado and you have a devastating weapon of mass destruction, no special equipment needed!”

     “And you want us to leave them alone?” Danny asked Ricco.

     “Open the boarders and accept them as human, yes.”

     “That’s outrageous!” Steve bellowed.

     “That is our only hope to avert a world war.”

     “See! Even you think there is a war coming. We need to attack them.” Seeley was standing now, angry. “More than that, we need to round up every last nonhuman and be done with all of this. Vampires, witches, elves. It’s all nonsense. Kill them, kill them all! Humanity won’t survive otherwise!”

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