How to gain traction with readers on Amazon KDP: Passive Marketing, book covers, keywords, and the seven categories

How to gain traction with readers on Amazon KDP: Passive Marketing, book covers, keywords, and the seven categories

How to gain traction with readers on Amazon KDP: Passive Marketing, book covers, keywords, and the seven categories

How to gain traction with readers on Amazon KDP: Passive Marketing, book covers, keywords, and the seven categories

How to get traction?
I guess it's a question that gets asked all the time, and there's no guaranteed, one-size-fits-all answer, but does anyone have any ideas about how I can get more people to at least take a look at my stuff?

I've been posting handy bite-sized episodes from my current project on ProduceMyScript and ReadMyScript for some weeks now, and with two exceptions (thanks guys!) it's just crickets. I mean, sure, those aren't super-active subreddits, but even so.

The material isn't mainstream, it's 'slipstream' (which in this case means a blend of scifi, horror and offbeat comedy, with a generous scoop of magical realism). So is it too opaque? Is there too much weirdness? What am I doing or getting wrong?

If anyone would be good enough to take a look at it and take the trouble to throw some suggestions, comments, questions or well constructed insults my way, I'd really appreciate it.

Title: Big Milk

Premise: Reality crumbles like a Cheshire cheese when a slacker and an eco-terrorist take on the biggest corporate conspiracy of all time.

There are six 5~10 page episodes so far:

Milk From The Future link https://www.docdroid.net/h5iKSVq/milk-from-the-future-v104-pdf

Grandma Spoon and the Space-Time Continuum link https://www.docdroid.net/xhODILR/grandma-spoon-and-the-space-time-continuum-v102-pdf

Skygrab link https://www.docdroid.net/sRZWCp9/skygrab-v101-pdf

Broken Home link https://www.docdroid.net/sRZWCp9/skygrab-v101-pdf

Man vs Machine link https://www.docdroid.net/5zoKujF/man-vs-machine-v102-pdf

The Cradle link https://www.docdroid.net/B0aWIGX/the-cradle-v100-pdf

Thanks!!

Agreeing with this:

>Once you have written your book and plan to publish it on KDP for instance, the number one thing to take care of is the book cover. It must catch the eye of your genre readers. You'll have a 1 to 3 second window to catch your reader. The number two thing is the summary that must hook your reader. If you have succeeded that, they will have a look at the first few paragraphs to check the style and such as the given example.
>>
>We live in the age of tiktok. You have 15s in total.


I will add too, that blurbs (descriptions) can and often are too long.

If you can't describe your entire story in a single sentence that is between 7 to 15 words long, then you'll never gain traction.

This is WHY if you ever run across my Amazon penname, you will notice my blurbs are always just one sentence. Not a paragraph. Not lots of paragraphs. No. Just one sentence. That's it.

For example the one I just published this week reads:

*"[MC name removed for Reddit post], takes shelter from a hurricane, only to be interrupted by [character name removed for Reddit post] also seeking shelter from the storm. Can the law enforcement officer survive spending the night with the world's most powerful mage and most wanted serial killer?"*

Longer then most of my blurbs, this one spans two sentences and tells the reader everything they need to know about the story. The MC is the world's most powerful mage, he's also a serial killer, and he's trapped in a storm, and the officer hunting him, seeking to arrest him, is trapped with him. The readers needs to know nothing more then this to decide if they want to buy the book or not. They don't need to know any lore or backstory or worldbuilding. These 2 sentences sum up the entire plot, and that is ALL the reader needs to know. No back story, no worldbuilding, no info dumping. The entire plot of the story is boiled down and reduced to just two sentences spanning thirty-seven words.

And the one posted before that reads:


*"[MC name removed for Reddit post] carrying only gold coins, finds himself unable to pay for his meal, at a tavern that has a ban on gold."*

That's it. That's the entire description/blurb on Amazon. Nothing else. Nothing to tell you who this guy is, why he's carrying gold coins, why the tavern has a ban on gold coins, what the setting is. Nothing. Again, there is no lore, no back story, no worldbuilding, no info dumping. The entire plot of the story is boiled down and reduced to just one twenty-two word long sentence.

The one I'm publishing this weekend, has already got it's Amazon KDP page built and just waiting for me to tell it to go live. The blurb/description on that one reads:

*"[MC name removed for Reddit post] stops at an abandoned shack to rest and finds it full of ghosts."*

Again: no lore, no backstory, no worldbuilding, no info dumping, nothing to tell you who this guy is. Just one 14 word long sentence telling the entire plot.

These are called "plot hooks" and they are often the thing that can make or break book sales.

Look at the biggest best sellers of any genre on Amazon, and what do you see? Blurbs and descriptions are always short, quick, snappy, one to three sentences, often only one sentence that is under ten words long.

Now look at the gutter sweepers at the bottom of Amazon. The books that can't move 5 copies a year. Read their blurbs and descriptions. The descriptions go on and on and on and on and on yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, describing the character's back story, what he looks like, his whole family tree, all the lore of all the gods and how they created the magic system, even though none of those gods will ever appear in the story and the magic system isn't a part of the plot, then there is the lore dump world building about the cultures and governments and factions and... several dozen paragraphs of several thousand words later... IF the reader even got to the end... the reader is left wondering what in the heck the plot of the story is, what in the heck is the story about... and because they were not hooked by a quick, snappy, one sentence plot hook, they close the page and do not buy the book.

The thing is, that's bad writing. And readers know it.

And readers know, that if the writer is so clueless, that the writer doesn't know not to info dump in their blurb, well, the reader also knows that writer is just as clueless when it comes to info dumping and lore dumping in the book as well.

No one wants to read a lore dump.

Readers want to read a story.

And so readers want to know what the story is.

And this is why the tiktok 15 second rule, should be applied to book blurbs.

Tell your reader in 15 seconds or less what the story is about.

Change that to:

Tell the reader in 15 words or less what the story is about.

1-Well researched long-tail keywords get your book in the reader's search results.

2-On point for your genre cover art grabs the reader attention inviting them to click.

3-A quick, snappy one sentence plot hook, entices them to click the "Look Inside"

4-The 10% free sample look inside, Amazon provides the reader, closes the deal when they see that the story starts in the heat of the action, isn't lore dumping, is well formatted, and has no errors in spelling or grammar.

5-With all these points met the reader buys the book.

6-If the character is well written, and the reader falls in love with him, they'll be back in a day or two to mass one lump buy every single book in your backlog... and if you have 422 books in your backlog like I do, and you list your books at $2.99 like I do (yes, for Literary Fantasy of 15k words/40 pages each) that means you earn $844 in one day, from just one reader, and gained an additional 422 sales, from just one reader....do you realize it only took a teeny, tiny, small number of 27k-twenty seven thousand-readers to equal ten million copies sold. Think about that. There is the power of a big backlog and providing readers with good quality.

Keywords, cover art, blurbs, characters readers love to love, clean copy (no spelling or grammar errors), and a big backlog, are the keys to success on Amazon KDP.

>Once you have written your book and plan to publish it on KDP for instance, the number one thing to take care of is the book cover.

I wrote a huge, mega long 7k word answer to this on another thread earlier this week. It's here if you want to read it: https://www.reddit.com/r/eroticauthors/comments/xlbix5/short_erotica_writers/

Basically it's a step by step, how I sold 300k copies of one book (in 2014), over a million copies of it's sequel (in 2016), and over ten million total copies across all titles in the series (crossed 10 million February 2021... that's combined all sales of all 422 title since 2010-not 10million of one title).

The TL;DR is this: I researched my niche, made sure my cover art was on point for what readers in my niche expect to see on covers, did mega ton keyword research and got into a lot of cats on Amazon, I make sure my text is clean (well edited, well formatted, no errors in spelling/grammar, etc) created a character that ticked all of his niche's checkboxes that readers want in a character, and then made sure to release 15k volumes near-weekly from 2010 to currently in 2022 and have four hundred and twenty two titles in the series.

Info on how I created the character of the series can be found in the comments on this thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/writers/comments/xkid89/tips_on_writing_male_characters/

Do be warned, that one is a 7k word answer and the others is an 11k word answer, and each answer spans more then a dozen comments on each of those 2 threads. It'll take you 4 or 5 hours to read the entire thing, but it is the entire step-by-step details of just exactly what it is I do to gain readers, my full marketing step-by-step, and the other is how I created a character that readers fell in love with and couldn't get enough of.

Note: this is all assuming you are looking for readers on Amazon KDP and are using Amazon's keyword and cover art algorithm system to gain those readers without any outside help. I do no marketing outside of Amazon, I don't post my work on Reddit, I don't use social media, I don't have a newsletter, it's all 100% cover art and keyword SEO on Amazon's website alone, that I used to become one of Amazon's top sellers of all time.

One assumes this method could be applied outside of Amazon, but I don't know as I've not tried it outside of Amazon. I know it works on Amazon because I did it, but, I don't know if the same method could be applied to say posting stories on Reddit or your own website to get the same results.

Anyways, hopefully you will be able to take something I did and apply it to your own work and gain better traction with readers.

Good luck!

Okay, I'm back. It's been a couple hours since my other comments. I've read a couple of your links now and have a better idea of what your target audience is.

I would definitely call your stuff Literary Fiction Genre, possibly call it Literary Speculative Sci-Fi?

I'm unfamiliar with the term "SlipStream" Genre which you are using, but a quick Google search, that does seem to be the term others use for similar work, so you are likely using the correct genre term here, I'm just not familiar with it, is all.

What I read seems to have a 1950s/1960s Isaac Asimov/Ray Bradbury style vibe going on. Have you looked into Literary Sci-Fi magazines? I'm thinking that may be a good road to look into for this kind of work.

I used to write short stories for print mags back from 1978 to 1994, but I moved into writing for online website content in 1996, and then switched to short story serials on Amazon KDP in 2010, so it's been a few decades since I moved in print magazine circles and I'm not sure which mags are still going or which would be best to recommend.

But, I used to be a heavy duty subscriber to several dozen print mags back in the 1970s/1980s and your work, is the type of thing I used to see in a lot of those back then. I'm thinking you may want to research what print mags are currently still around, and start querying them.

I will say your outputting very professional quality. *(Which is VERY uncommon for stuff found on Reddit. Reddit tends to be mostly nearly illegible gibberish, riddled with phonetic misspellings and grammar so bad that it's impossible to make heads or tales of what the writer intended to say; so you are leaps and bounds ahead of what I usually find on Reddit and that's a good thing.)*

Your formatting is up to industry standard, and I didn't notice any spelling or grammar issue. Your work feels like you could try sending out to literary mags, college mags, and indie chapbook publishers and try to get it traditionally published.

I think, your work is good. Like I said, it's not the type of genre I read, so I'm not sure how it compares to others in your niche. I'm not your target reader/audience for this sort of thing.

I feel like, your issue is not your work itself, but rather just getting it in front of the type of reader who wants to read this particular genre.

I do write Literary genre, so I know it's a damned difficult genre to get readers for. Especially on Amazon KDP, which is where I focus the bulk of my work these days.

I'm writing Literary Fantasy. It's very much the Literary Slice of Life Vignette genre, but the main character is an Elf Wizard, and a lot of the focus is on his relationship with his 2 primary lovers (a Lich Unicorn and a Sheep Demon), and their survival in a post-post-apocalyptic world that is over run by 21billion zombies, which he accidently created one day when casting a spell while drunk. While there are 7million survivors on the planet, they are scattered in small groups of 100 or fewer, so, the main trio go weeks/months/years between encountering other people/characters and it comes off as very much a "last man or Earth" kind of vibe, of just watching the mundane every day life of these 3 characters as they survive in a world that is essentially dead. The series has no action, no battles, no fights, no governments, no factions, no wars, no sex scenes, NOTHING, absolutely not one single, solitary thing that the average Fantasy reader is looking for when they look to read Fantasy.

A LOT of reviews say: "It's boring and nothing every happens! All he ever does is sit there and talk to himself!" Yep. I know. I wrote it. So, I am well aware that nothing every happens and it's 422 volumes of 15k to 115k words each, of him siting there and talking to himself about the end of the world which happened decades before the series starts.

It IS LITERARY Fantasy after all, not Fantasy. I think some readers, forget that the LITERARY part of Literary Fantasy Genre does mean, it's not your typical high action fight, fight, sex, sex, fight, fight Fantasy that most readers think of when they think Fantasy.

So, yeah, I know what it is like to be dealing with the struggle of writing Literary Fiction, in a world where most readers want instant action, and mega fast pacing, and just don't want to mosey alone with an old man who spends more time smelling roses the and talking about sunsets then fighting the zombies in his world.

There is a long, hard, not well paved road to finding readers within the Literary Fiction Genre no matter what type of Literary Genre you are writing.

But there is a readership for Literary Fiction on Amazon, so I do think you should put some focus on your Amazon passive marketing, so that you get in front of the readers looking for your type of Literary.

It is not easy to do.

If you just slap your wok on Amazon and do nothing else, you'll be lucky to get in the search results.

You MUST get in the search results of readers searching for your type of genre in order for them to find you.

Sure, they will love your work once they find it, but, they have to find it before they can read it and that's the tricky part. That's where passive marketing comes in, and you really need to know your genre and the types of people who are looking for it really well, or order to make it work.

Amazon recently said that they currently average a new book published on KDP every 5 minutes. That's an average of 288 books a day. @k+ books a week. 105k books a year. JUST ONE PUBLISHER!

That's what you have to compete with.

There was a time, when just publishing one book a month, you could sit on Amazon's Top 100 newest releases list for weeks, before enough new releases came out to knock you out of the top 100. And because you were sitting in the top 100 for weeks on end, you could get thousands of sales the first 30 days of your release, without doing a damned thing. You could have shitty cover art, crappy keywords, be ANY genre even Literary, and it didn't matter, because there you were in the top 100 new releases for weeks on end, so people just bought your book because they were bored and looking to buy something so bought whatever happened to be in the top 100 new release list on Amazon's home page.

In 2010 to 2017, I ALWAYS had no fewer them 5, sometimes as many as 12, titles in the top 100 New Release list on Amazon's front page, because I was releasing a book weekly, and that had a lot to do with why in 2014 I had a book get 300k sales and in 2016 I had a book get 1million sales.

In that era of Kindle, just having a weekly new release was enough to guarantee sales, because your book was going to sit on the front page of Amazon for days, weeks even.

Those days of Kindle are gone!


Today, there are so many books published so fast, that you will be in the top 100 new release list for only 6 to 12 hours MAX before enough other new releases come out to knock you off the list.

Now, if you want sales on Amazon, you have to fight again a vast deluge of tidal wave influx of books being published. It's sink or swim now. And so you MUST be on par with your keywords and cover art now. You have at best a 6 hour window of being on Amazon's home page now, and you are now fighting against people who are way better at keywords and cover art, so you have to be super-damned-good now. Pro level covers. And SEO master at keywords, or you won't get any sales at all on Amazon.

The pandemic changed Amazon KDP a lot. Millions of people lost their jobs and were stuck at home with nothing to do, so wrote books and put them on Amazon, and now it's VERY difficult to even master keyword enough to get in search results.

But even still, Amazon is the king of income for self publishing, it's just a lot harder now because you have to be a lot better now in order to stay on top.

Back when I was traditionally publishing, I stuck narrow focused to genre, because that's what you have to do if you want to get published. I don't do that today, with self publishing though. Instead, I let my stories wander where they may, following the characters along with whatever they are doing. Which results in my self-published work being vastly different from my traditionally published work, and dipping in and out of every genre possible, sticking with no one genre 100%.

So, my genre that I write for Amazon, looks something, sort of like this: "Dark Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery > Bizarro > Literary> Absurdist > Yaoi > Gay Romance > Slice of Life > Dystopian > Post-Post-Zombie Apocalypse > Time Travel > Portal Fantasy > Character Study > Vignette".

But you can't put all that as your genre on Amazon, LOL!

Amazon let's you pick 2 genres. Each of those genres is an option Amazon let's you pick. So, what I do is, I put "Dark Fantasy" as my primary genre, and then, put whichever of the others best fits the story in question, for my second genre. Resulting in my entire series ends up showing up on ALL of those genre categories.

But then, by tweaking the keywords, using that list of genres (and other more specific niche related keywords), I've been able to get almost ever volume (400+) of the series to have 7 genre cats each volume. Which ends up resulting in the series as a whole, showing up in over 30 different genre cats total on Amazon. Which I think has had a lot to do with why I get so many sales (most volumes sell 27k -twenty-seven thousand- copies within the 1st week or so of release-and I think this is because the series show up on so many different lists on Amazon-note, that I do ZERO marketing/advertising and I don't have social media or newsletters or mailing lists-nothing, I don't even tell people on Reddit what my penname is-100% of my marketing is just keyword tweaking and cover art, and relying on Amazon's algorithm to do the rest).

I'm a huge supporter of tweaking keywords and using that as your number 1 primary marketing focus, because I've seen how big of an impact this has on sales, and how much it boosts your sales just to get on as many of Amazon's cat lists as possible.

I know, I see so many newbies around here, saying they don't have time to waste of keyword research, so they say they will skip it and, damn, I just shake my head and roll my eyes, because they really have no cue how much they are shooting themselves in the foot by skipping that one step.

I think after good cover art, good keyword research is the second best thing you can do for your books on Amazon. Keywords may not be such a big deal on other sites, but on Amazon, keywords are the think that will make or break your book sales. Good keywords will get you to the top 10 lists and bad keywords will sink you to the bottom of the sea.

I think after good cover art, good keyword research is the second best thing you can do for your books on Amazon. Keywords may not be such a big deal on other sites, but on Amazon, keywords are the think that will make or break your book sales. Good keywords will get you to the top 10 lists and bad keywords will sink you to the bottom of the sea.

I'm always thinking: "If I was the reader looking to read this, what search term phrase would I type into Google/Bing/Amazon in hopes of getting book results?" Then I type that keyword phrase (usually a sentence-ish of 4 to 7 words) into Google to see what sites/images/shopping items/books Google gives me in the search results. Then I search the same phrase on Bing to see what Bing gives me. Then I search again on Amazon-the full store search-to see what that gives me. Then a 2nd time on Amazon in books. Then a 3rd time on Amazon in Kindle ebooks.

And as I am writing Literary Fantasy that learns heavy into Dungeons and Dragons style territory, I also search that phrase on Noble Knight's website (a book store that sells used DnD/RPG/etc game books), BullMoose Music's website (another DnD/RPG/game book store, and on DriveThruRPG's website (a place like Amazon Kindle, for self-publishing RPG game books and LitRPG novels and short stories-it's similar to SmashWords but mostly LitRPG books).

So, now I have 9 tabs open on my computer, and I can grid them side by side and compare, what kinds of books/items/images/etc did this keyword phrase give me. Was there an overlap of the same few items showing up in the top ten results on each? If so, was it books? If so, how do those books compare to mine? Same genre? Different genre? Do I want my book to show up alongside these books when someone searches this phrase?

Then I go to the bottom of Google and Bing, where it recommends similar search terms, and I open each of those in new tabs and compare if those phrases give better results. Then I test those search terms in Amazon and the other bookstore sites mentioned above.

I'll go through a few dozen search term keyword phrases this way, until I have 7 of them, that I think will both be likely terms/phrases my readers will type in search, and that are bringing up competitor books most similar to mine that I think, readers of those books would probably like my books so I hope my books will come up as recommended under those books.

This is a major part of my publishing process and I devote a day or two, to doing this, every week. Spend 8 to 12 hours of the day, doing nothing else by big time looking for keywords to match my book. And as I publish a 15k to 20k book for the series every week, and I use different keywords for each book, I end up doing this full day of keyword researching every single week.

When you publish on Amazon, there is a section with 7 slots for adding keywords.

In Erotica, those 7 keywords don't add additional cats, because Erotica can only have 2. In everything else (Romance, Horror, Fantasy, etc) those 7 keywords, sorts your book into additional cats - 7 total (not 8). However on the book's public page only the top 3 are shown, not all 7. Top 3 ranked. Meaning, if your book is listed as:

* 1 in Occult Suspense

* 12 in Cozy Culinary Mysteries

* 14 in Small Town & Rural Fiction

* 574 in Paranormal & Urban Fantasy

* 691 in Humorous American Literature

* 1,179 in Single Authors Short Stories

* 12,663 in Literary Fiction

...those are your sales ranks in the 7 categories, that your keywords sorted you into.

However, on your public sales page it'll only say:

* 1 in Occult Suspense

* 12 in Cozy Culinary Mysteries

* 14 in Small Town & Rural Fiction

...listing just the top 3 ranking categories, and not mentioning the other 4 at all.

Obviously this example is for a Cozy Murder Mystery Short Story (yes, those are the actual rankings of a real book on Amazon right now -one of my books.) You can see the full 7 cats using one of several various tools which track ranks. Like I said, it doesn't show up with more then 3 of the public sales page.

This I know from personal experience. Most of mine, get into the categories they are in based off the 7 tags I use. I go to the categories to search and see what categories Amazon has that my story would fall into, and I use the specific category name as on of my 7 keyword tags, and within the next day or two my book shows up in the specific category, whose name I used as one of my 7 tags.

Like for example, a lot of mine are listed in the "Small Town & Rural Fiction" category as well as the "Dark Fantasy" category. And, the REASON they are listed there is quite simply because I selected "Dark Fantasy" as one of my 2 genres in the drop down menu, and then, I directly typed the phrase "Small Town & Rural Fiction" as one of my 7 keywords.

I WANTED my book to show up in the Amazon category: "Small Town & Rural Fiction", so I just typed the words "Small Town & Rural Fiction" as one of my 7 keywords and BOOM! Within 24 my book showed up in the "Small Town & Rural Fiction" section, when I click the "Small Town & Rural Fiction" link on the Kindle store front.

And the REASON I use this keyword is because all of my stuff is set in the same small rural town, and the town's community/town hall dynamics are very important to the series' plot, the town has only 3k residents, most of them horse, sheep, or poultry farmers, with several fishermen due to it being in a coastal cove. So, even though the category "Small Town & Rural Fiction" seemingly isn't a go-to category for an Erotica-type Dark Fantasy series, it is in fact one of the top three most relevant categories I could put my series in, and therefore I made certain that it got listed there.

It says somewhere in Amazon's KDP Help section, about doing that to put your book into 7 sub categories, -Amazon themselves, tell you, to search the categories and use the names of any category you want your book in, as your keywords, in order to ensure the book lands in that category, in addition to the 2 primary categories you pick from the genre drop-down box. That's why I started doing it, because I went through and read all of Amazon's Help pages, and that was what Amazon said you were supposed to do with the 7 keyword tags. The Help page had a list of a few hundred keyword tags and what categories your book would show up in from using them. I can't remember now what page it is, but it's one of the pages in the KDP Help section about how to use the 7 keyword tags.

However, I write BL/Yaoi/M-M-M-Harem Fantasy/Gay Dark Fantasy Romance that has erotic content woven within the story/plot. Basically I write M/M Romance that features freaky-taboo fetishes, stuff like consensual strangling/asphyxiations, biting, blood letting, stabbing with needles, burning skin with boiling hot melted chocolate, etc - things that border into the abuse/torture porn side of things, that don't include sexual intercourse during the fetish act, (there are no actual sex scenes in my work) but both parties are getting off on the act, one because he likes sadisticly torturing people, the other because he's a mascichist who likes being tortured.

So my stuff is in Dark Romance, Dark Fantasy, or outright Horror and it's sub cats. Even though, it is Literary, I can put it in places outside of Literary, because of themes in it. Some people call my stuff "Sexless Erotica" because it contains no sexual intercourse scenes, but focuses on fetish content that readers get off on. So, there is that to consider as well.

Like I said, I'm in a different genre/niche of Literary then you are, so, I'm aiming at a completely different audience, BUT, I know that audience well. I know what they want to read. I know what they look for in cover art. I know what search terms they type to find new books to read and I use those search terms as my keywords on Amazon.

And that's what you need to do.

You need to be heavily reading the genre you write. See what the bestsellers in your genre are going for cover art. Type lots of searches, until you get the big sellers coming up in search results, so that you can figure out what keywords they are using and use them too so you come up alongside the bestsellers in your niche.

There is no magic spell, magic wand, magic pill that is going to go POOF and give you instant readers. It's a lot of hard work researching SEO side of writing, but if you want readers, researching the SEO side of your niche is what you have to do. You really can not skip this step and expect to gain traction.

And even with the SEO it's not instant success.

I started uploading weekly shorts on Amazon in 2010, and continued to work 3 retail jobs that whole time. It was 6 years before I was able to quit my retail jobs and write full time. It didn't happen over night. It was me dedicating 40+ hours a week to writing and keyword research, every week. Something I still do weekly even now.

The new release every week thing is key too. You can't expect to slap up one book a year, 4 books a year, or even 1 short story a month, and expect to gain traction. Without weekly releases, gaining traction is NOT going to happen, not since the pandemic. That's just the reality of how many people are uploading things now.



reddit-template


How to gain traction with readers on Amazon KDP: Passive Marketing, book covers, keywords, and the seven categories

So, I was over on Reddit, you like I often am, and found this question. And answered it, like I do. However, the answer I initially gave was a simple generic answer. If you want to read my original answer unaltered, simply click on Reddit's embed feature links which Reddit provides for webmasters to be able to post their answers on their websites, while linking back to the original thread on Reddit (if you didn't know Reddit offered and encouraged the use of this feature, look for it in the "share" features underneath every post, comment, and reply on Reddit).

I am answering random questions today about writing, self-publishing, character creation, and world building, over on Reddit and decided to take my answers from there and expand upon them even further over here. So that's what this page is. Me rambling on about various aspects of world building techniques I use when writing the Quaraun series. The questions I am answering are embedded here. Clicking the link in the embedded question will take you to the original Reddit page where you can see the original answer along with other people's answers. If you wish to comment, you can do so on the Reddit page where a place to do so is provided.

In any case, as with all of my Reddit answers found on my site here, my original post on Reddit is much shorter then the article here.


Where to find more info on my methods to writing Elf culture, Elf society, Elf ethics, and the Elven way of life (aka other writing related articles that started out in life as Reddit answers):

  1. What makes an Elf an Elf?
  2. Moon Elves - Albinism in The Quaraun Series.
  3. How To Write Hot Sex - Video Interview On Elf Sex Lives
  4. On Writing A Clinically Insane Character Accurately, While Avoiding The Psychopath Stereotype
  5. Wizards vs Witches vs Sorcerers: How are they different?
  6. FAQs About Quaraun
  7. Psychedelics In A 'High' High Fantasy World (High Elves Getting High)
  8. High, High Elves: Elves on Opium | Drug Use 
  9. Writing Horror That Features Violence Against Children 
  10. Spell-casting Side Effects of Magic
  11. Child Sacrifice in Fantasy Novels
  12. Meet the Characters - Who is GhoulSpawn
  13. Marriage in Moon Elf Culture 

The Complete Index To Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Moon Elf Society, But Was Afraid To Ask;

or

The Zaharam-Chapelle-Parunas  Ethnographical World Building Questionnaire

This page was written by Wendy Christine Allen of 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

All Rights Reserved.

Note: there are likely spelling errors on this site, and I am unlikely to see the ... I fix them when I find them, but, there are many issues here...

Note: English is not my first language, Shetlean Scottish is my native language, there are likly spelling and grammar errors, as I do not know American English and am attempting to write it by sounding words out.

Many times that Americans think a word on my site is misspelled, often it is not misspelled, it is just I mixed up languages and wrote it in Scottish without realizing I mixed the Scottish in with the English. Also our grammar is somewhat reversed from English grammar so words that are seeming in the wrong order for American English, is usually because they are in the correct order for Scottish and I either put English words in Scottish order by mistake or was unaware English put them in a different order then Scottish does.

For those unaware, Scottish Shetlean looks like this:

American English to Scottish:

a bit (piece) = a party --- EXAMPLE: "And some know a bit of Latin " > "And somme kan of latyn a party "

a long distance from = A piece fae

a piece of = the bit --- EXAMPLE: "The duck ate a piece of bread " > "The deuk ett the bit breid "

about the banks (on the shore/at the beach) = aboot da banks

accomplishments = kunnandi

After = Back o --- EXAMPLE: " After Halloween" > "Back o Hallomas "

alive (living) = kvikr

Always on the move = Never aff o da go

am I not = amn't I --- EXAMPLE: "Am I not invited? " > "I amn't invited? or Amn't I invited?"

are = is --- EXAMPLE: "Are you going soon?" > "Is ya to be going soon?"

autumn = dah haihst

belong to = fylgja

best = bettah moost

betray (verb) = svíkja

bewildered = villhyggjandi

building = biggin up --- EXAMPLE: "building confidence in everyday use " > " biggin up confidence in ivvryday øs "

built = builded --- EXAMPLE: "He built a new porch." > "Hims builded a new porch."

cast a spell = hoodooed

cat = kat (sounds like "caught") --- EXAMPLE: "Is it an orange cat?" > "Be he a o'jinn kat?"

child = bairn

church = kirk

color = colour

danger = hœttr

daren't = darena

daring = djarfr

dark = dökk

dark elf = Dökkálfr

dark-elves = Døkkálfar

darker = dökká

do you agree = ,eh? --- EXAMPLE: "That's a fine looking woman, do you agree?" > "Dair's ah right bonnie lass, eh?"

do you want to come too = ,eh? --- EXAMPLE: "I'm going to the store, do you want to come with me?" > "Me go to shope, eh?"

each = eche --- EXAMPLE: "Which each person can understand " > "That kan eche man understonde "

educated = lered --- EXAMPLE: "Both among the educated and the uneducated " > "As wel among lered as lewed "

elf = Alfr

Elf = Álfr

Elf Home = Álfheimr

Elf World = Álfheimr

elf-advice = Ælfred

elf-beautiful = ælfscyne

elf-friend = Ælfwine

elf-guardian (female) = Ælfwaru

elf-guardian (male) = Ælfweard

elf-powerful = Ælfric

everyday = ivvryday

eyelids = eye ledes --- EXAMPLE: "He closed his eyelids." > "Hims did shut hims eye ledes"

fair = faire --- EXAMPLE: "Going to the fair." > "Done gone went to the faire."

feild = felde --- EXAMPLE: "Standing in the feild." > "Stoodt in thems felde."

further = ferther --- EXAMPLE: "I looked further." > "I dids lokid ferther."

green = grene --- EXAMPLE: "Look at the green hedges and woods." > "Look see at thems heigges and holtz so grene."

handsome = braw --- EXAMPLE: "He is very handsome " > "Him wicked braw "

have faith = trúa

Have no doubts about our doing it = Nae faer o wis

Have no liking for this. = Hae nae brou o this.

have not = ain't

He knows how many beans make five. = He kens the laid frae the croun o the causey.

He knows which side his bread is buttered on. = He kens whilk side his bannock's buttert on.

Head for = Mak wye for

head rope in fishing nets and lines = baak

head to head = Be at the knag and the widdie

horse fly = klegsie

I = Me

I Think = Me thinks --- EXAMPLE: "I think we're late. " > "Me thinks that we is late. "

I wish you well for the future = Lang may yer lum reek (translation: Long may your chimney smoke)

idiot = eejit --- EXAMPLE: "You idiot." > "Ya eejit."

idiot = numpty

if = iffy or yif--- EXAMPLE: "If you don't mind..." > "Iffy yas does no care mind...."; "If you'll stay with me long enough = "Yif ye so longe with me wil dwelle". "

I'll be even with you = A'll see day aboot wi ye

know = ken

looked = lokid

looked = lokid --- EXAMPLE: "I looked up." > "I lifte up me eye ledes and lokid ferther."

magic = hoodoo

naked = nøkkviðr

needle = bodkin

neither = nouther --- EXAMPLE: "Who know neither Latin nor French " > "That kan nouther latyn ne frensch "

No = Nay --- EXAMPLE: "No, I don't think so. " > "Nay, me thinks not. "

Nobody knew = not-knew nobody

Noontide = Da heicht o da day

NOTE: Extra words are often added. --- EXAMPLE: "Did you meet the new family next door?" > "Dids ya gets a chance to stop by and meets with thems new folk that move-ed in down yawn there next doors to ya, eh?"

NOTE: Extra words are often added. --- EXAMPLE: "He went to Rite-Aid to pick up his prescription" > "Hims did go to that yawn there new fangled store the new folks call that Rite Aid place, to gets himself some of thems there pills what the doctor gone and tells him to take each morning, a-yep, hims did."

old = olde --- EXAMPLE: "But educated and uneducated, old and young " > "Bot lered and lewed olde and yonge "

orange = o'jinn

out = oot --- EXAMPLE: "The cat wants to go out." > "The kat he do wants oot."

outside = oot dair

people = fokk --- EXAMPLE: "the people of Shetland " > "Shetland fokk "

people = folke --- EXAMPLE: "Look at all those people." > "Lookie at all thems folke."

poorly = febelly --- EXAMPLE: "Who know French very poorly " > "That kan frensch ful febelly "

Recognising = Recognisin --- EXAMPLE: "Recognising the bilingual nature of Shaetlan speakers " > "Recognisin da wye at Shaetlan spaekers is bilingual "

shield = skjoldr

Since = For --- EXAMPLE: "Since that is your native language " > "For that is youre kynde langage "

tell = telle --- EXAMPLE: "I'll tell you in English " > "In englysch tonge I schal you telle "

the = da, de, or is not used at all --- EXAMPLE: "I went to the store" > "Me goes to da shoppe" or "Me goes to da shoppe" or "Me goes to shoppe"

them = dem, dem dair --- EXAMPLE: "I went with them" > "Me goes wit dem dair"

there = dair --- EXAMPLE: "I want those potatoes" > "Me be wanting dem dair tatetas."

they = dey

To where = whither --- EXAMPLE: ""Where you go, I will go." " > ""Whither thou goest, I'll go."

understand = understonde

understand = understonden --- EXAMPLE: "Some understand English " > "And somme understonden englysch "

very = wicked --- EXAMPLE: "very good" > "wicked good"; "very bad" > "wicked bad"; "very cold" > "wicked cold"

Where = Whither --- EXAMPLE: "Where is the restroom? " > "Whither is the privy?"

Yes = Yea or Aye --- EXAMPLE: "Yes, I think so. " > "Yea, me thinks so. " or "Aye, me thinks so. "

For anyone actually interested in learning my native language, the Scottish government has THIS listed as the official dictionary of our people:  https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61d7352954b7fd1c9dbdfef4/t/65ddb2749d5e0541a01009c0/1709027964496/Spaektionary_2024feb.pdf  

The Scottish government provides this document to show our language in use: https://www.shetland.uhi.ac.uk/t4-media/one-web/uhi-shetland-images-and-documents/documents-/shaetlan/Shaetlan-Language-Plan-2022-Shaetlan.pdf 

More information about our language can be found on this website:  https://www.iheardee.com  which is written in my native language.


However, there is also other reasons why words might be misspelled, or why I might not understand someone when they speak to me.

My grandmother Helen Ricker Allen, was from Unst, Shetland, Scotland, and she the one who raised me. She taught me to read and write, but it was Shetlain that she taught me. She died when I was 8 years old, and I was locked in a woodshed after her furneral, I escaped the woodshed 27 years later at age 31, and have been trying to learn how to speak and write English since then.

It is a very great struggle.

At age 37 I took remidial reading and speaking classes at Southern Maine Community College, but we are Gypsies and Gypsy men do not allow us Gypsy women to have education, and so, while at college, on November 14, 2013, I was beaten with a golf club, while I was 8 months pregnet, breaking my spine, hips, and knees, killing my baby and leaving me quardepaleic since.

Now my primary focus these past 13 years has been on relearning to use my hand so I could type... as of 2023, I have regained the use of my right thumb, and first two right fingers, and after 10 years offline, I am back online due to I can use three finguers.

I never went to school, so I do not know maths and numbers and sciences, and I do not know what else would have been taught to me in school. We are Scottish Gypsies and Gypsy culture does not allow females to go to school. Being born female was already a great sin, but my grandmother took great risk in teaching me reading and writing. At 4 years old I was punished by my Uncle Bruce for knowing how to read, by being beaten in the face with a cinder block brick, that broke my right jaw and left me with garbaled near-mute spoken words ever since.

Because no one ever spoke words to be face to face from he time I was 8 years old until I was 37 years old (I escaped the room at age 27, but did not start college until 37), I have no training in how to vocally sound out or speak the words I write or read. I can read words, but I do not know how to sound out or say those words. I can write words, but I do not know how to match the written word against the spoken word. I struggle to associate spoken words at all, or make them match up with writen words.

Esentially, written words and spoken words are two completly seperate languages in my brain, and I have difficulty understanding spoken words.

If you say a sentance to me with your mouth, chances are very high I will have ZERO understanding of what you said and I will not be able to ander you.

However, if you WRITE down that exact same sentabnce, I can understand you and can type a written responce to you.

My doctors tell me this is a side effect of extreme isolation and neglect and lack of human contact during my toddler, childhood, teen, and young adult years, and that my brain never deveoloped to comprehend spoken vocal words due to no one ever speaking to me in over three decades of the first half of my life.

While I can read and write, American English (somewhat) I do no know how words are sounded out, what they are supposed to sound like. I readand write by shape recognition, not by sound/vocal recognition, so when reading and writing I do no "hear the words in my head" as I am told most people do when they read and write. In other words... I see "c a t" and think "c-a-t" I do not think "cat" nor do I "see" an image of a cat, no do I "hear" the word cat spoken. I'm told that this is very rare and that most people read and write by sounding out the words and linking them to visual mind images, while hearing the sound of the word in their head. I neiher hear words in my head no see images of things in my head. I'm told this is what makes me both a speed reader and speed writer, because I'm not tripped up by hear sounds or seeing images in my head like nomal people would be doing... however, I'm also told this is why my spelling and grammar are very poor, because my brain is not hear the sounds of the words or seeing visual images of the objects the words represent, so my mind also does not register spelling and grammer errors at all.

As I was only let out of the woodshed on Sundays to go to the Cape Elezabeth Ward Church of the August Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I was never allowed to go to school or hospital either. No adults ever talked to me because I was evil for comitted the sin of being born female, so I never learned how to speak properly and do not know how to sound out words to say them.

I was 42 years old, in 2016 when, while having an MRI for my spine, the doctors found out my speak issue was caused by a broken jaw as a toddler that was healed wrong because not being allowed to go to doctors. I had surgury to fix that, and since 2016 have been trying to learn how to use my jaw and touge so I can speak vocal words now.

Since 2023 my primary focus shifted to relearning to walk. I can now, in 2026, sit up for 2 or 3 hours a day, and can sand with a cane for a few minutes, and can walk for around five thousand feet in 2 to 3 segments a day, with the help of pushing my wheelchair like a walker.

As of 2026, with a slight return to using my fingers and legs, I am once again focused on trying to learn the American English, but I live in mortal fear of my uncles and male cousins, as they are so hateful of allowing me to have education.

have no one to help me to know if I am doing words correctly, and as such, I have no way of knowing if there are spelling and grammar errors, but I asume there are, and I fix them when I learn them, but I do not know what I do not know and spelling American words is a thing I do bnot know.

I have Low Fucntioning Kanner's Syndrom, also known as "RainMan Type of Autism" aka REAL and ACTUAL Autism, not to be confused with Aspergers, High Functioning Autism, or and of thr 861 illnesses on the Autism Spectrum. An Autism Spectrum Disorder is an illness that has symptoms similar to Autism but IS NOT Autism. If you have an Autism Spectrum Disorder, it LITERALLY MEANS you do NOT have Autism.

I am medically diagnosed as "kanner's syndrome, actual autism, the rainman type, profoundly retarded autistic savant, with a general IQ of 73, and an writing IQ of 221" but they added that they did not know how to properly diagnose me as I am "technically a feral child" and they don't know "how much is the autism, and how much is simple horrific levels of abuse and neglect induced post traumatic stress disorder that will go away with proper socilization".

It means I know how to write, I can write a lot, and it is next to impossible for you to teach me how to do literally anythig else because my brain only knows how to write and doesn;t know how to do anything else..
There's a reason, when I do book signings, people are quick to say: "Okay, what's the joke? why is this stupid retard here? where's the real author? I know this retard isn't the author. where are you hiding the author, why is this fucking retard here"

The end result is, I have near zero social interaction... my 3 years in college was the ONLY face to face interaction I have ever had with humans in my entire life, and I struggle deeply to understand MOST words used by MOST people when they ask me question. And so I suffer from a huge lack of understanding many words people say to me, how to translate those words into spelling, and how to translate what it is that has been said.

The fact remains hat until there exists a human on this planet who is willing to sit down and teach me what words spoken line up with and match what words written, this deficent is unlily to improve. But the fact also remains, that I am simply far too profoundly retarded for anyone to even try to make any attempt at all even to speak a friendly "hgelloe" or "good morning" when passing me on the street, so I have lost all hope of anyone ever either being my friend, being willing to teach me how to match spoken words to written words, or how to speak to other humans.





While there are around 20k pages on this website, most of them are blocked from search engines, with only around 800 of them available for appearing in Google/Bing/etc search results. The remainder can only be accessed via the various links found throughout this site. This was done deliberately on my part, and I did it because the bulk of the pages on this website are chapters from 138 novels and 423 novellas, so only the first page of each novel and novella indexed by search engines, and the remainder are linked in order, one page at a time, via clicking "next page" at the end of each. So if you are looking for a specific page from a specific novel, Google can't help you.



Thank you for stopping by and have a nice day! ꧁✨🌸🔮🦄🔮🌸✨꧂

And if it’s your birthday today: ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ🐇་༘࿐꧁ᴴᵃᵖᵖʸ☆ᵇⁱʳᵗʰᵈᵃʸ꧂🤍🎀🧸🌷🍭

Wendy Christine Allen 🌸💖🦄 aka EelKat 🧿💛🔮👻
eelkat_red_scarf.jpg

Wheelchair Fundraiser

@eelkat

i just found out there is yet another bizarre rumour going around. where are these wild rumours coming from? who is starting them? and why?

♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author
@eelkat

since I've been flooded with hundreds of messages the past two weeks asking if I still own "the world's most haunted car", yes, and here it is, filmed today May 18, 2026… but my son Xavier is dead, i am crippled and given that people are AGAIN showing up calling my Dodge "haunted", calling my friend "an alien", calling me "transgender", and spreading wild defamation slander connecting me to Stephen King, I think I need to start taking down the contact information of every blogger, podcaster, youtuber, and social media account spreading these rumors, and sue every single one of them for CAUSING my car to be cut in half May 10, 2010, for CAUSING the backhoe that drove over my house August 8, 2013, for CAUSING my son's murder November 14, 2013, for CAUSING me to be crippled and in a wheelchair November 14, 2013, and for CONTINUING to CAUSE harassers to show up in person to harass me near daily, STILL now in 2026. EVERYONE telling you my car is haunted, telling you my friend is an alien, calling my car "the goldeneagle", calling my friend "Etiole", or trying to connect me or my car to Stephen King, is lying to you. They crippled me when I was 8 months pregnant, and a woman with a golf club, severed my spine and bashed my baby's head in, I spent 9 years relearning to walk, and the FBI is 13 years into the murder investigation and not yet identified the attacker who crippled me and killed my baby, both violently with a golf club and the FBI believes that it is friends and family of the woman who did it, are the ones who started and spread the rumors saying my car is haunted, saying I'm an alien abductee, saying all kinds of similar bs about aliens, ufos, ghosts, witchcraft, demons, and Stephen King connections, even though I don't believe in ghosts, aliens, ufos, demons, and had never heard of Stephen King before 30k of his fans showed up in my yard trying to find my car! FBI believes the backhoe driver and the murderer are the same person and it is a developer who wanted my land and so started the Stephen King, ghost, and alien rumors all in an attempt to drive me off my land, and when it didn't work they drove a backhoe over my house, and when that didn't work they crippled me and killed my son. Why are they doing this? How do I get them to stop?

♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author






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Get an email whenever Wendy Christine Allen 🌸💖🦄 aka EelKat 🧿💛🔮👻 publishes on Medium.

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Do you know who drove this backhoe over my house at 146 Portland Avenue, Old Orchard Beach, Maine on August 8, 2013? If you have any information, please give it to FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322 of the Portland, Maine FBI office.

My house at 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, July 4, 2013, photo taken because we had just finished building a baby room on the back. vs My house August 8, 2013, when the same group of people (yes group, the golf club woman was not alone when she attacked November 14, 2013, nor was she alone with her second attack July 2016.) who murdered my son on November 14, 2013 at Southern Maine Community College and crippled me July 26, 2016 at scarborough WalMart,... they arrived the first time with a backhoe on August 8, 2013, that they used to drive over my house, during a time of day that I normally was home asleep... I had to work a different shift at the Waffle Cone Pizza Food Truck at George's Parking Lot by Bill's Pizza at the OBB Peir, that day, otherwise, I too would be at the bottom of a landfill, along with my house and everything I owned that was also in the house. I was 5 months pregnant at the time and have been homeless for just under 14 years, homeless ever since....

... which means it is now only a few weeks from the 14th anniversary of my son's murder. I was 8 month pregnant November 14, 2013, and a student ay SMCC, and coming out of the Buglight Lighthouse art studio after art class, when a still unidentifiedwoman wielding a golf club attacked me, severed my spine, while I was 8 months pregnant, triggered early labour, then killed my son minutes after he was born.

While accusing me of being transgender, screaming "transvestite freak" and "look at that thing, that's Ken's son in a dress"... while I was 8 months pregnant.

eelkats_house_before_after.jpgMy house at 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, July 4, 2013, photo taken because we had just finished building a baby room on the back. vs My house August 8, 2013, when the same group of people (yes group, the golf club woman was not alone when she attacked November 14, 2013, nor was she alone with her second attack July 2016.) who murdered my son and crippled me, arrived the first time with a backhoe that they used to drive over my house, during a time of day that I normally was home asleep... I had to work a different shift at the Waffle Cone Pizza Food Truck at George's Parking Lot by Bill's Pizza at the OBB Peir, that day, otherwise, I too would be at the bottom of a landfill, along with my house and everything I owned that was also in the house. I was 5 months pregnant at the time and have been homeless for just under 14 years, homeless ever since.

The backhoe driver returned November 14, 2013, armed with a golf club, used it to break my spine and smash my baby's brains out on the ground

On November 14, 2013, my son was murdered. I was 8 months pregnant, leaving my college classroom, and just getting into my car, when 3 strangers, a man and two women, armed with golf clubs leapt out from behind my car screaming "kill or be killed, kill the transvestite freaks, kill them all before they kill us! look at that thing! That is Ken's son, look at how it's dressed! kill the transvestite freaks! kill or be killed"... while the bald man and the red haired woman chanted this over and over, the blonde woman, lunged with the golf club.

She severed my spine, I am now a quadriplegic, and been paralyzed arms and legs, and in a wheelchair for 13 years now. She broke my hips, my knees, my legs, ruptured most of my discs, and shattered three of my vertebrae so bad that the shards of bone acted like glass and embedded themselves into my spinal column nerve bundle.

The attack also triggered labour.

My son was born in that parking lot, and he lived only a couple of minutes, before the deranged blonde woman, beat his head in and smashed his brains out, with the same golfclub she had just used to sever my spine and leave me crippled for the rest of my life.

Realizing that I was not transgender, and they'd just murdered a baby, the man grabbed the 2 women and forcibly dragged them away to a 4 door white pickup truck, and they left me there to die.

The FBI told me later, that a few weeks before this attack, and transwoman, had murdered a cis woman, in a parking lot, abou 20 miles away from where I was attacked. The FBI, believes that my attackers, had somehow found out I wrote transgender fiction, connecting my real name to my penname, (my father's name is in fact "Ken", and I do have a brother) and believed that I wrote transgender fiction, because I was myself transgender, even though I'm not transgender. The FBI, believes the attackers, thought I was my brother, pretending to be a woman.

The FBI investigation, into my son's murder, has dragged on for 13 years, and still now in 2026, continues on, with the FBI, still not having yet identified my attackers, and only guessing at what their motive was.

Thus we come to 2014, and the full swing change of the series I write. WHY my series, went from just a transman main character living life, to the full blown Mpreg genre series that it now is today.

Before the attack, I had a chance of having a baby. I don't know. And because I'm in America, I'm too old to adopt. You have to be under 45 years old to adopt a baby. That is the law in America. I was informed this, when we tried to adopt, now that my injuries leave me unable to get pregnant a 9th time.

Thus began my obsessively writing, my transman main character, pregnant. Always pregnant now. Every time. Every story. Stories that now fully focus on pregnancy, labour, miscarriages, babies dying, babies living, raising babies... the whole series, since 2014 has devolved into an outright baby obsession.

Meanwhile, reborn baby dolls were suggested to me by my therapist, and have also become a deeply obsessive part of my life. Because 13 years ago my son was murdered minutes after he was born, because a transphobic bigot mistook me for being transgender, I'm STILL in a wheelchair, struggling to relearn to use my arms and legs, now 13 years later, and I'm still DAILY dealing with police officers and FBI agents who while they are trying to find my son's killer, they are also daily reminding me... oh, yeah, my son was murdered, literally ripped out of my belly, by a transphobe. Who still has not been located and walks free to kill again.

The golfclub woman as she looked during the golf club attack at Southern Maine community college November 14, 2013. She is about 20 to 30 years older then me and would be around 75 to 85 years old now in 2026.

Clairescreenshot.pngIf you have any information about the identity of this child murderer, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

The golfclub woman as she looked during the shopping cart attack at Scarborough WalMart July 26, 2016. She is about 20 to 30 years older then me and would be around 75 to 85 years old now in 2026.

zzzz999ClaireRed2016-screenshotIf you have any information about the identity of this child murderer, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

The 2nd woman as she looked at both attacks, her hair goes all the way down to her knees. She is about 20 to 30 years older then me and would be around 75 to 85 years old now in 2026.

Kendrascreenshot.pngIf you have any information about the identity of this child murderer's accomplice, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

Do you know who these two woman who crippled me and murdered my baby, at Southern Maine Community College at 10PM on November 14, 2013, are, and what their connection to the backhoe that drove over my house is? If you have any information, please give it to FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322 of the Portland, Maine FBI office.

I am a legally blind quadriplegic, and low verbal, I have also published 138 novels in the last 48 years. It's not as impossible as people think. The problem being blind and quadriplegic, medically have different meanings then how those two words are used medically.

Fewer than 3% of all blind people see nothing. While 97% people who are classified as fully blind are able to see up to two feet in front of them. Legally blind means I can see more then two feet in front of me but not far enough to see twenty feet in front of me. In my case I can see about eight feet.

Quadriplegic, has varying levels, it means having a damaged nerve bundle in the spinal column causing limited mobility of all 4 limbs, (in my case this was done by a women wielding a golf club, who also beat my 8 month infant's head to pulp on the parking lot tarmak, at the same time she severed my spine with the same golf club; both on November 14, 2013; the FBI investigation into my son's murder and my being crippled has gone on now for 13 years, a few weeks away from 14 years now, and the FBI has still not identified the killer or her motive). Contrary to popular misconception, quadriplegic does NOT mean ZERO movement, it means means limited movement, specifically in means unable to lift arms over head, unable to grip fingers around objects to pick them up, and unable to stand for more then 5 minutes to a time. Because there are so many thousands of nerves in each limb it is actually very rare for there to be 100% no movement, but how much, and to what extent varies by patent depending upon the specific point of injury to the spinal column.

Meaning typing is still possible for over 60% of all quadriplegics.

In my case, it was the lower spine that was severed, cutting off completly my ability to move my right leg, leaving limited feeling in my left leg, and an ability to stand but not walk, with crutches, for the first 9 years. I regained enough nerve growth in my legs by the 9th year to be able to take ten or twelve steps allowing me to get out of bed for the first time since the golf club attack; This in turn lead to me being able to start using a wheelchair, as I was able to sit upright for the first time as well.

Because the shattered vertebrae bone fragments are broken off completly and embedded into the nerve bundle just above my tailbone, doctors were saying I would never walk again, but now at 13 years, I am able to push mu wheelchair like a walker, a distance of almost a thousand steps a day. Though doctors are still doubtful I will ever walk "normally" again, I have proven them wrong, when their said 13 years ago, that I would never walk again at all.

But because of the placement of the damage to my spine, regaining hand use, was always thought possible, it was just a matter of waiting long enough for nerve regrowth, along side daily finger exercises. I was able to continue writing, after becoming quadriplegic, because I still have use of my right thumb, and 2 fore figures of my right hand. And can type 90 words per minute with those 3 fingers.

I however have no wrist strength, elbow strength, or shoulder strength, so I am not able to form a fist, or lift objects, or brush my hair, or my teeth, all thing I have to have my caretaker do. But, those things are not needed for typing. Unfortunately, my pinky and ring fingers are "nerve dead" and drag over the keyboard, and cause horrific spelling errors and typos, which are incredibly frustrating to deal with.

Unfortunately trying to edit errors myself, just makes the errors worse, because those same two fingers drag over the keyboard yet again. Prior to the golf club attack, I rarely had spelling errors; now I got more spelling errors then someone is learning English as second language. Editing is a challenge, that I've had to accept, I simply can not do myself, and I have to hire several editors to help with that.

Low verbal means sounds can still be made, sounds that software programs like Dragon can be trained to recognize and translate, and type into full words. More then half my novels were typed with this method.

I still have a long ways to go before I am anything close to being able to do the things I could do before the golf club woman beat my baby's brains out and shattered my spine. And you know what's more frustrating then how slow mu medical progression has been? The fact that it's been 13 years and the police and FBI are still coming up at dead ends as to who the woman who murdered my baby was, or why she even did it.

My son's 14th birthday is only a few weeks away, but he didn't even get to live long enough to celebrate his 1st birthday, I don't even know why. And I can't wait to regain my ability to walk again, because regaining my ability to walk, means gaining the ability to go outside and start looking for my son's murderer myself instead of sitting at home trapped in a wheelchair waiting for the police and FBI to to find her. So, writing isn't a big priority for me anymore. I only write now, as a way to exercise my hands, in between relearning to walk.

Never let a disability stop you. Plenty of writers, artists, athletes, do not let either blindness, speech impediments, or limited mobility hold then back from perusing their careers.

Do you know who these two woman who crippled me and murdered my baby, at Southern Maine Community College at 10PM on November 14, 2013, are, and what their connection to the backhoe that drove over my house is? If you have any information, please give it to FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322 of the Portland, Maine FBI office.

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