Pernell Rogers – Writer

Author Archive

Hello all! I’ve been absent from my website for a while because I needed some rest. Although I have a third mystery to start, I had to step away from writing to focus on releasing my collection. However, yesterday, I did a lot of walking envisioning the opening scene of my new mystery story. I can envision most of it in my head, but the vision remains fuzzy. It’s the dialogue within the opening circumstance that needs clarifying. More walking will be needed.

My latest collection didn’t take off as expected. The website I used to create my ebook complained about the formatting of my manuscript, and I had to make multiple adjustments. After each adjustment, the website still needed to validate my format, and that took some time. It was the first ebook I’ve published since 2019, and I’d forgotten how picky the website was, but I still love them for their distribution model.

Speaking of distribution models, I’ve been going back in forth if I should stay with Smashwords or go to Amazon KDP. With Smashwords, my books are sold at many different markets, unlike KDP where Amazon is the only place my books will reside. I have a feeling Amazon is much more familiar than Smashwords, although Smashwords makes my books available at Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, Kobo, etc.

I think for my ‘An Unexpected Evil’ series, I’ll publish it at KDP. The first ebook is already free, and so far has many downloads. The other three books will be sold at KDP. Somehow, I’ll have to bundle the first free book with the other three books that will not be free. Not sure how to work around it though.

Take care!

Hi all! My latest book is currently available at smashwords.com, but I submitted it to the site on Nov. 14th. It has yet to be accepted into their Premium Catalog where the book with be distributed to other websites such as Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, Kobo, Scribd, etc. I’ve already received 3 very positive reviews, but I’m afraid those reviews won’t be posted on the other sites because my book hasn’t been accepted into their Smashwords Premium Catalog. I’m not sure why it’s taking so long, but it has hampered this publishing cycle.

I’ll be sure to include much more time getting both reviews and submitting my stories to Smashwords for distribution. I actually lost sleep Monday morning because this delay hung in my mind. However, I accept it and will still carry forward with my publishing. I still have two more days, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Take Care!

Hi all! Reviews for my latest collection ‘Starting Over’ are coming in. Planned publishing date is still November 30th. This is the longest break from writing I’ve taken in a very long time, but I found a way to keep myself busy.

I finally completed the first draft of the second mystery story, and now I’m working on a third mystery story. As I mentioned before, creating mystery stories is difficult for me. There are so many twists I have to keep in mind. During the last half of September and all of October, I was able to create a mystery story from a single line: “Stephen lives in Bisbee, AZ.” From that, I added characters, events, and situations. From those 5 words, I was able to develop a complete synopsis of almost 4000 words. I still think I can add more twists, so I’m letting it simmer. Besides, I have a lot more work to do.

Marketing my collection has also occupied my time. I also decided that I needed to expand my story’s reach by placing select books at Wattpad and Inkitt. I’ll use these two alternative marketing strategies along with the others.

After watching ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ on Netflix, I’m starting to miss my supernatural stories. Periodically, I’ve been trying to develop my own lore for my stories. Stories handed down over the decades, or centuries, that wreak havoc on people today seem to be the key to developing scary stories. I’ve developed my own lore in many of my stories without realizing it. Without context, developing lore is very difficult, e.g., a speaker emits a voice from an old recording. Just thought that up while looking at one of my speakers. The story behind the voice and the speaker, their lore, needs to be explained. That’s where I run into trouble. Why is the voice present in the recording? Is the speaker the only object affected? Questions like these allow me to develop the lore around the event. BTW, I think I just gave myself an idea for another story! Take care!

Hello all! I just realized I have posted nothing in almost two months! I’ve been focusing on getting reviews for my latest collection. I’ve also started posting my free stories on Inkitt and Wattpad to get more exposure. I stumbled onto Inkitt while looking for a story to read in my downtime. I found a good one, and can’t wait until the author completes it.

The reason I have downtime is because I’m having a lot of trouble with the last chapter of my second mystery. I’ve been stuck for over a month but was able to complete 500 words yesterday. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I have troubles with endings, and this one is a doozy! Although the story wraps up the crime, a dangerous situation still exists. That’s the quandary I’m dealing with.

At the moment, I have no more stories to start. Unusual for me. However, I still have a backlog of current stories. The next story I’ll send to my editor will be the second story of my ‘An Unexpected Evil’ series. I’m excited about this series, and I don’t think the second story will disappoint. Take care!

Hello, all! It’s taken over three years, but I have finally completely finished my collection STARTING OVER. Right now, reviewers are reading, and I have my fingers crossed that they’ll like it. Now, the waiting game is on. I plan on publishing it sometime in November, but that may change. The cover I’ve chosen is below.

I used the latest version of Calibre to create my own epub and mobi files, and I must admit, it was quite a learning curve. Modifying the MS Word document to work with Calibre took multiple attempts and a lot of hours. However, now that I was successful, it doesn’t seem so hard now. Maybe when I start to create my series of files, I’ll forget again. Creating a printed PDF document was just as challenging, but I gained practical experience.

Marketing will be the next task after the reviews.

I’ve been performing final edits on my 4-book series ‘An Unexpected Evil’. Last night, I began cursory searches for different covers for the series, and came up with a delightful idea of what I want on each cover. I’m jumping ahead because the stories haven’t been edited professionally yet.

Something surprised me today. I logged into writing.com and saw that someone left a review of one of my flash fiction stories from 2018 I forgot I wrote. When I read it, I know it can become something much, much bigger, and it also places me back inside the horror genre. I still need to finish the second mystery I’m working on before I start any new endeavors, but it’s nice to have a story in the chamber. Take care!

Hello all! Everything’s coming to a head now. I’m on the final editing step of my collection: listening to it. I’ve already found a cover and done some preliminary formatting. If you run the short movie on my main page, you’ll see that the last image is the cover I’ve chosen for the collection!

I’ve also modified my website. The current changes are only temporary. Once I publish my collection, I’ll design a new main page. All of this is taking up a lot of time. Before publishing, I’m going to send out ARCs to see if I can get a few reviews to help with marketing. I’ve never done it before, so it will me a fresh experience.

I’m still in the throes of my second mystery. It’s moving along at a much slower pace because I keep discovering ways to twist the story, but I like where it’s heading. I’m finding writing mysteries is as much fun as watching them. Take Care!

Hello, all! I use ProwritingAid whenever I self-edit, and I really find it extremely helpful. Recently, they’ve added a rephrasing function that’s being beta tested. Many times, when I write a sentence, the words I’d like to use never come to mind in the right order. I’ve used the rephrasing function a few times, including in my last post.

The beginning of the second paragraph was originally:

Inventing the crime, developing the cast of characters, and finding a protagonist are the hardest parts for me, but it forced me to use a point of view I’ve never used in the past: Omniscient POV.

After using the rephrasing function, I selected the following change:

Creating the crime, constructing the characters, and selecting a protagonist are the most challenging for me. It also pushed me to use an unfamiliar point of view: Omniscient POV.

I do prefer the rephrasing. If you use ProwritingAid, give it a try. Take care!!!

Hello, all. My collection is still with my editor. In the meantime, I came up with an idea for a second mystery. I’m not supposed to be writing any more, but I enjoy it too much. Again, writing a mystery is so different from a supernatural story.

Creating the crime, constructing the characters, and selecting a protagonist are the most challenging for me. It also pushed me to use an unfamiliar point of view: Omniscient POV. As I developed the crime, I knew each character’s motivation and attitudes. It’s as if I was watching a television show or a movie. I knew everything that was going to happen. Then, once I found my protagonist and gave them some flaws, I could start writing the actual story.

The beginning of the actual story came together nicely, but lately, it takes time to develop more scenes. I’m basically writing a scene a day. But, as I contemplated my character’s actions, I realized I could change my original antagonist to someone else. It would be a nice twist. So, I wrote out an alternate ending, something like the movie version of ‘Clue’. I’m leaning toward the second ending, but I may have a third ending. Not sure yet. With me having troubles with my ending, mysteries offer me a chance to pick and choose.

Take Care!!!

Hello all! Finally, my collection of six stories is with my editor for copy-editing, YAY! I’ve been adding and subtracting stories from the collection for almost 2 years, and I think it’s ready for publishing.

When I started writing back in 2011, I had no idea what I was doing, but over time, I learned. I had to find my voice, delve deeper inside my character’s heads to discover their strengths and faults, do massive research for each setting I chose, then come up with some type of plot where everything comes together. I was able to succeed, then I hit a wall.

I’ve mentioned this in past posts. My endings suck! That’s my oen opinion with many of my stories, and because I realized this, I had to pause writing. I’ve gone back over my unpublished stories, and added appropriate endings which I feel better about. All of this was due to a single speech.

While watching a rerun of a South Park episode, (Imaginationland Part 3), Kyle give a small speech on how imaginary characters changed his life (Luke Skywalker, Frodo, Harry Potter, Michael Corleone, etc.). I feel Kyle’s short speech opened up the real reason I should be writing.

In my stories, I try to practice escapism. I want my readers to leave their problems behind and enter the realm I created for them. However, I’ve never considered lessoned learned from reading my stories, and that’s become my focus now. I’m examining my themes and premises more. Why am I writing this story? What lesson should the reader’s take away?

In supernatural horror, the easiest lessons are to either get away from the supernatural occurrence or confront it. Whatever the decision, there’s a reason behind it.

Why did the character decide to skidadle? To save his/her life, and that of their significant others.

Why did they decide to stay? The had the courage to confront their fear and protect any significant others.

What can the character learn from either decision? That’s the key question I’ll continue to ask myself as I continue writing.

I’m so glad I started this journey. Take care!

It took less than 30 days for me to complete my first mystery! The hardest part was coming up with the crime. In my last post, I mentioned the setting, and it’s both perfect and relevant. I always walk around the house while I’m developing a story, or get stuck on a specific passage. During the week I developed JUST the crime for my first mystery story, I logged over 35 miles! The funny part was when I finished, I just needed the detectives to solve the crime. It was so much fun. The words and dialogue came so freely.

So that makes 15 stories. I’m going to stop writing fresh stories for a while.

I will spend most of my time editing these stories. I plan on sending my collection of six stories back to my editor for copy-editing in May. so that project continues to move forward. Take care!