Philippa Ballantine's Blog, page 21

Diversity is king

If I haven't said it explicitly I'll say it here: I have officially handed in my notice at the corporate library. I will be a freewheeling writer and podcaster for the next 8 months or so at least. If things go well this may be a permanent lifestyle change, if not… well I will go back to the library world- which has always been a happy and comfortable environment for me.

A lot of things have led to this choice, but chief among them is how many opportunities and challenges I've had flying at...

Citizen writer

Every now and then I like to do a roundup of where I've been on the net.

View from Valhalla- keep an eye on this blog- Odin is doing a series of these 'How I Do It' from all kinds of podcast authors. I look forward to reading answers from others.

Great Hites – the prompt 'Nature's Wrath'. Jeffrey Hite has a great writing podcast- where prompts are presented, stories are written and votes are taken. It was my pleasure to be a guest host.

Don't forget I will be at Balticon at the end of May

A dream made real

Writing is hard- make not bones about that. There's the long hours, the editing, the rejections.. it's not something that is for the faint of heart. Yet it can also be tremendously rewarding. Then those are those moments which shine.

Today I had one of those moments. It came when I opened an email from my editor at Ace. It is the cover for Geist coming out with Ace in October/November this year.

To say I was happy was an understatement. Not only has the artist Jason Chan done a wonderful job...

Feeding the baby birds

Sometimes there is a moment when a little bird has to find out if she really can fly – and this year is that moment for me.

I'm considering a number of options on how to put some wind beneath my wings so to speak. And yes, shock horror! Some of these involve earning money from what I create. I haven't come to any decisions on what to do, but some of options would give me a revenue stream that I could rely on and do more of what I love do, create worlds.

One of these is sponsorship for...

Bard on your internet radio dial

Erotica a la carte has been lots of fun on Radio Dentata- and so it was lovely to be approached by Sean Owens of IRFT Celtic Radio about bringing Chasing the Bard to their station.

My celtic roots run deep with ancestors both Scottish and Irish. My two trips to Scotland were some of the most wonderful experiences- I felt a deep sense of home that left me in tears when I had to go.

Chasing the Bard fits nicely into their schedule and hopefully will bring some new listeners to the podcast.

So...

Ready for the Boom

Most of my readers will know by now that this year began very badly for Tee Morris. He is now facing raising his daughter, affecitonately known as SonicBoom by himself after the death of her mother.

Many donated to the ChipIn fund which helped with the immediate expenses surrounding Natalie's death, and even left a portion over to begin a trust fund. However, as those of you with kids know, raising them is not cheap – let alone sending them to college!

So I thought 'hey maybe I'll auction off a...

Dealing with slings and arrows

A recent Twitter conversation started by Scott Roche about public critique, specifically for podcast novels got me thinking about critiques, flames and feedback.

I replied to Scott that as an author you have to expect to get all three. So here's my take on dealing with them as an author.

The middle one Flames are characterised by negativity upon negativity- nothing positive, no encouragement, no suggestions for improvement and are usually full of bitterness and axe-grinding. You can spot them a...

Tropes and bards

The wonderful DDog has just added  Chasing the Bard to TV Tropes website and it was a very interesting thing for me as the writer to read.

A trope is a common pattern or theme and they have been around since humanity first decided that telling stories was a great idea. Some of the ones DDog picked up on are powerful tropes that get repeated again and again in literature and film. Such as;

The Chosen One; a person with a destiny to forfill- in CTB's case William Shakespeare. (actually I think...

Litopia and the nemesis

Last week I had the honour of being one of the panel on Litopia After Dark. Hanging with the wonderful folks and talking writing was a lot of fun. I was a little nervous, but the panel made me feel at home very quickly.

Peter and Litopia do a great deal for the writing community- and their After Dark show is one I look forward to every week. I was so glad to be asked.  The best thing was I got the panel to give me their evil nemesis laugh- all except Peter. So there is something to go back...

Visionaries

Podioracket has been doing great work to promote and help podiobook authors. How Heather, Rhonda and the gang do it all I don't know.

So when I was invited to be part of their first Anthology series I was very flattered. This series aims to expose listeners to a range of authors work, but rather than making people listen to a whole novel, these are short stories that will hopefully wet the appetite- sort of an amuse bouche for podcast novelists.

The series starts dropping on February 12th and w...