Cindy Lynn Speer's Blog, page 87

Good Review…and fandom post.

First, I wanted to share this review…

Good reviews are great…but good reviews where you feel like the person really loved what you wrote…priceless. It’s made my day.

And that sort of leads into a post I wrote, then let sit.

You know what I’ve been a fan of lately?

Fandom.

I used to be a huge fan girl. Maybe I still am, but just in a quieter way. I fall in love with boys with stories and I want to know more. I didn’t fall in love with Tom Pullings because James D’Arcy is beautiful, I fell in love with him because of his expressions, how he held himself…and the scar on his face. He promised, as the TARDIS will tell you, to be bigger on the inside and full of stories.

I’m a fan of stories, too.

But right now, I want to talk about fandom. I’ve been wandering around tumblr, and my list is full of people in love with stories, and it’s interesting to see what they love…how the love of stories unites them and gives them joy. I’ve not seen The Avengers yet (I can’t wait, I am sorry I missed it in theaters…one of my friends keeps asking if I’ve bought it yet, which makes me smile.) but I know that Loki/Tom Hiddleston is beloved, I know that Supernatural is going to break my heart when I finally catch up with it. I know what makes fans squee.

It’s wonderful. It’s a sort of magic, to see what touches their hearts, and how they express their happiness. What images get passed around and what works for them, (but I should say for us, because I see things that touch my heart, too.)

A lot of actors don’t go on fandom sites because they find it uncomfortable, but…they should. Yes, I imagine it would be quite embarrassing, for both sides…but…it’s something pretty awesome too. I can’t think of a better thing to do for this world, than to create something that gives people dreams. The world can be cruel. We need to give each other beautiful things to think about, to wish for, to look forward to.

You can’t be there for all the people who need you.

You can’t look them in the eyes and say, “It’s going to be OK, honey.”

But you can write them stories. You can act and make the stories real. You can sing and give them stories that way, too.

That’s why I love fandom. Because you can give the world dreams.

Log Lines…and more

I’m being very author like this week: I’m the featured “Log line” today: http://theloglineblog.blogspot.co.at/2012/09/the-chocolatiers-wife.html

It’s really neat…if you are an author you give them one line for your book, and your cover. The site is really attractive, too.

This weekend I’ll be at the Bridgewater Bookfest: http://www.bridgewaterbookfest.com/

Last year I went and I did really well, book sales wise. And there were cute boys to look at. Really, what more can I possibly want from life? This year I’m bringing my mini cooler and some Cokes, tho. I love, love meeting people and talking about writing and things that make us happy, but I’m not good at selling myself so some of this is not in my comfort zone.

Other things. Labor day weekend we started on a house project…i.e. turning the front porch (really, front porch is just what we call it…it’s an enclosed/secure room that used to be a front porch and now holds everything we don’t really want into the house) into a viable work room. I’ve been going through tools and sorting things and it’s just so tiring. But we will live. I tarred the spot where the porch roof (does not quite) meets the house so it’s less of a insect on ramp. I was going to do a DYI blog on that project, but it became a complete mess…it works, but it’s nothing that anyone would want to replicate.

Scavenger Hunt!

There’s nothing more fun than a scavenger hunt (OK, maybe there are a lot of things more fun…like time travel, or kissing handsome Irish men instead of the Blarney stone…but I can’t offer you those things.  I can, however, offer you this kickin’ Scavenger Hunt with tons of awesome prizes) and Zumaya has one going on!

There will be a chat tonight, that I will be at if my internet allows:  http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/ctr_chat2.html

There will be prizes!  Here is all you need to know:

Welcome to the 2012 Zumaya Trivia Scavenger Hunt. We had so much fun last year with a smaller version in conjunction with a chat we decided to expand it, gather some terrific prizes and give lots of people a chance to win them by running the event through the month of September.

A number of our authors have donated those prizes, and they are all related somehow to their books. How they’re related, we aren’t going to tell, beyond maybe a hint or two. We don’t want to give away all our secrets.

Now, a contest wouldn’t be any fun if it was too easy, so we’ve added some book and author-related trivia questions just to challenge you. Take your time—the Zumaya Trivia Scavenger Hunt will run through the entire month of September. You can see photos of some of the great prizes we’re giving away at http://pinterest.com/ekburton/what-do-these-have-in-common/ and http://on.fb.me/RAZ0e9. Who knows—there might even be a few books and ebooks tossed into the mix before we’re done. We’ll definitely be giving away at least one ereader, but we’re waiting for all the new models to come out before we pick those.

There are prizes to be won, and the way to win them is easy. At the bottom of this post is a list of Zumaya authors. On each of their websites you’ll find the answer to a question. Collect the answers to those questions, then go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M7C7DFG and fill in the answers. There are some regular, book-related trivia questions, too—we wouldn’t want it to be too easy.

There will also be daily and weekly trivia contests, so keep an eye on Twitter and the Zumaya page on Facebook, or visit our company blog Zumaya Tales at http://zumayatales.wordpress.com/.  If you haven’t liked the Zumaya page on Facebook, now would be a good time. We’ll also have a chat at Coffee Time Romance and more on 4 September to launch, and a couple of hangouts on Google+ over the next four weeks.

There is, of course, no purchase required, and your private information will remain between you and Zumaya. Unless we’re authorized to do otherwise, it will all be deleted when the contest ends. While we’d love it if you sampled our wares, our goal with this contest is to get to know as many people as we can, and to let them get to know us. So, welcome and have fun!

 

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My trivia question:   What was my first book with Zumaya?  Hint:  August 31st was a rare one of these.

The answer is here:  http://apenandfire.com/?page_id=9  If you right click and open a different tab, you can see the answer *and* still keep this page so you can surf the other cool links, below.

What am I offering?  This cute Wolf Hat!  Don’t you want a wolf hat?  I had to tell myself that there was no way I would ever wear it, and that I must give it up.  If you’ve read Unbalanced then you will enjoy the irony of this prize.  If it’s irony.  My idea of what was ironic and what was not got messed up in college.

 

 

 

 

Cindy Lynn Speer







Rachel Green







Kim Baccellia









Rie Sheridan Rose







Mike DiCerto







Linda Andrews









Gloria Oliver







Alana Lorens







Wendy Dager









Mark Roberts







Christine Marciniak








InLinkz.com

 

Views on Reviews

Yes, I recognize the tackiness of the blog title. But I thought “Review my books, please?” would be pathetic, and anything else was just boring.

I used to do a lot of book reviews…I was a freelance editor, which meant little money to fulfill my addiction to books, so reviews were the best way to get books to read.

I always followed certain guidelines…I guess I treated each review like a mini-essay, for grading, which meant that I tried never to say “I liked this” I tried to substantiate why. Guess that’s the English Major in me. Also, I never went over the half way mark…or tried not to. I hate spoiling people.

So I guess, now that I’m on the other side of the fence, what I look forward to is related to that. If you didn’t like something, why? Everyone hates negativity…we all want people to think our children are perfect, I fear…but I also want to know what didn’t work so I can, after wincing a bit, learn from the comment. And why did you like it? What worked for you? I’m in this business to make people happy — yes, I make jokes about wanting to become a hermit, but you and I know how unlikely that will be, but I *can* now, this moment, give people an escape and give them something that brings them joy and interest — so, did I do that job, and how?

Though if you just want to say my book is really awesome, I’ll take that. I’ve read some reviews that did that, and they made my heart smile.

Fairy Land

The covers, recently, have all been done by David Howard Johnson.  So, I decided to look up this gentleman…and found a whole ton of jaw dropping art.  He’s really quite amazing.

He has some of his work made into wallpapers…my favorite is “Fairy Land.”  you can find them here:   http://www.howarddavidjohnson.com/free.htm

If you like Pre-Raphealite art, he’s someone to check out.  Go, look at the pretty.  Tell me what you think?  Life is too short to not enjoy beautiful things.

And there are so many beautiful things in the world, aren’t there?

Right now I am on the back end of a cold, and it’s so hard to concentrate.  I went to physical therapy today and fell asleep on the table — I was leaned back with a huge rubber band running from my shoulders to my foot, and my foot was wrapped in a heat-thing, and it’s supposed to warm up the muscles and stretch them, and I was all, warm.  Sleepy.  Flat surface.  Zonk.

So, writing anything is like swimming through warm pudding.  And work…well, let’s say I double check everything I send out to make sure that it probably makes sense…

But, I should be all better by Pennsic, so that’s good.

Historical Chocolate Making

I get asked, from time to time, about historical chocolate making.  This video pretty much describes the process William would go through to process cocoa and make it into lovely, lovely chocolate.

 

Chocolate Making

Thursday Thirteen: Pennsic Panic

Thirteen things about preparing for Pennsic

 

Pennsic is a two week long medieval encampment where people can take classes, fight in battles, just have all sorts of fun.  It’s hard to describe because there is so much to do that every Pennsic is different…you have the people who relax and read or nap all day and party all night, the people who get up early to spend the day shooting archery…everything.  http://www.pennsicwar.org/penn41/

 

And, since I fight rapier and chatelaine for a local group, I’ve been distracted from what I should be doing by what we call Pennsic Panic.

 

1.  Make a list of everything that you will need to sew (since, well, you have to wear “period” garb) early in the year.

2.  Lose list and make it up again, much larger, in May.

3.  Procrastinate by printing out a Pennsic themed day runner and writing down all the classes you would like to take but never will remember to.  Extra points for coordinating activities by color.

4.  Remember that you were going to make a silk banner, dig out stuff, realize you do not have the right size silk.  Order.

5.  In a flurry of productivity, wash fabric and cut out things you want to sew, and put each project in a different bag so you don’t lose the pieces.

6.  Several days later, you will make yourself a pair of pants and yes, you will have lost the leg cuffs.  Put back in bag and promise to re-cut them later, then run out of time, sew the pants, and decide that since your boots are really tall you can skip the cuffs until after Pennsic.  Know the cuffs will never get added.

7.  Clean living room thoroughly.  Then ruin your hard work by piling stuff you will need to take to Pennsic in it.

8.  Dump fabric out of the plastic tub(s) you use for garb, put in the living room so you can pack your garb in them as you finish (ha, ha) sewing them.  Also go through the closet and check your regular garb for repairs, and try on your yearly Pennsic-standards-only stuff to see if it still fits.

9.  Use Pennsic as an excuse to buy more books, since you will need things to read during your downtime.  Ignore the fact that even though you are an avid reader you will be lucky to get through one book, let alone five.

10.  Realize that Etsy is starting to look really good as an option for garb getting.  Wonder if you have time to get a new bodice for Pennsic.  Decide that there are about three things you absolutely have to have two weeks before Pennsic…and they are things you cannot make or buy locally.  Wonder how much the merchants will hate you if you order now.  Worry constantly until the items arrive.

11.  Go shopping several times.  Buy more food, Tiki fuel and propane than you will need, ever.  Remember when you get home that you had left over Tiki fuel from last year, but keep it all because “It will last and you may need it.”

12.  Print packing lists.  Compare and contrast.  Walk obsessively through your house and randomly add things to the packing stack…pack like the Zombie Apocalypse might hit while you are gone and you may never return home.

13.  Get to point where you realize that you didn’t have it last year, and you survived without it then.  Kick back and drink and ignore the mess you’ve made.

Where I confess to being terrible at some things and good at others

So, I’ve been telling people about the fact that my book is a) out and b) being given away. You can find out more,  here . (Yay! Look! A free book! So much easier to advertise than a book for sale.)

This whole thing has been a different experience. I’ve written three books now…and God help me, hopefully I’ll have another one done…(It’s not that I don’t have ideas, it’s just…time.) and each one has been its own experience.  Blue Moon I wrote second, but it got published first, and it was a lovely book that said some things I wanted to say.  Unbalanced was my first book, and like every first child it’s the one where you try hard to learn to be a good parent and maybe you succeed and maybe you don’t, but at the end of the day it’s partly your inexperience that forms it. Every once in awhile I see reviews and I’m surprised by how much people like the book. I know it’s not my best, so I have a hard time with it, but when I step away from it, I see that it is a solid book that has a lot to offer. (Or, otherwise, my long suffering editor at Zumaya…Hiya, Liz! would not have bothered with it.)

But my favorite has always been The Chocolatier’s Wife.  I still remember working hard on it, I remember how everything just came together. And the reviews have all been positive. In some cases seriously positive…and I felt like I could brag about it. I didn’t feel apologetic…and because of who I am, it is easy for me to feel guilty, to feel badly. I’m getting over it, though.

So, it was a blow to me when the press closed and the book was no longer on the shelves, so to speak. But now, we have it back. I feel better again, more like an author.

I received copies of the book in the mail yesterday, and I sat on the porch swing and opened the bag. The cover is not glossy this time, it’s a matte finish that feels like silk. When you flip it over, there are reviews from various places praising my book. when you open it, in the back, there’s an excerpt from the short story that’s coming out. There are covers…for other people’s books, for my short story collection (Wishes and Sorrows…more on that later) and for the anthology that will be coming out soon.

The cover of the anthology is beautiful (Howard David Johnson is amazing) and it lists…Nancy Kress, Peter S. Beagle, Patricia C. Wrede. And then it lists me. Authors whose books I’ve owned, read, loved. And my name next to theirs. (Along with several others…not saying anything against my other co-authors, who are spectacular in their own right.)

So, it’s sort of like…wow. It’s one of those moments where you feel a little bit closer to being able to say you are making it. That feeling that maybe people will read my books and stories and fall in love a little. It was a good moment.

Tumbling Around

Today (first things first) I am featured on the Epic Blog today, and it’s a pretty fun interview.  Lots of good questions…I tried to be clever.

You know what the bane of my writing is?  Getting fascinated with characters in a movie, book, TV show, whatever…that are nothing like the characters that I’m actually trying to write about.  My mind is all “I want to spend time with THIS ONE!  You know what we could do?  We could day dream about…”  I fight being a fan girl (between being a fan girl and trying to write out personal things in my life so they make sense, that makes this blog pretty bare….) because…I don’t know.   I guess there’s a perception that I’m trying to avoid.

And then, I discovered tumblr.  Well, my friend Kala made a fencing club tumblr, and then I gave into temptation and became fan girly over some character and went looking and saw that, instead of like in the days of yore, when all the pictures were in galleries attached to message boards, most fan stuff seems to happen on tumblr.  Even for obscure TV shows you thought you were the only one interested in watching.

SO.  I now have a tumblr.  Which, like my Pinterest page, will probably be more about things and people that I think are pretty than, well, my books and stuff.  But I suppose we will live.

 

The Good, the Good, and the…well, good enough.

I have been trying to stay positive over what really is best described as utility roulette…since December I’ve noticed outlets not working in my house. Had a friend check to see if there was a fire hazard, found out not, decided to leave it alone. (I think I mentioned it earlier.) My Internet is lousy. Etc, etc.

This weekend, the power went out. (I confess, after last week’s water annoyance, I was a bit grousy, then when the power came back on late afternoon on Saturday, I found how how bad it was for others and apologized to God and behaved myself.)

Friday, we used my Laptop to watch one of the Poirot movies. That was a ton of fun…there was no power, and I don’t really love reading by LED. Of course, my laptop died just when the case was about to be solved most cleverly, but you’ll have that.

We took the opportunity to turn off the box, and I changed three outlets.  While it didn’t save me any effort, really, having the power out already (after all I still had to go turn off the box in case my power was magically restored while I was unscrewing the outlet from the wires…) I felt like it saved me trouble in the long run.

We also have a friend coming over and putting in a new box and breakers this Friday, or, rather, the nephew of a friend, (don’t worry, he’s a legit electrician) so my power will be back to perfect. I wish I new a way to prevent the damp from ruining another box…they want to install a switch up stairs, and have me aim a cheap fan at the box and run it every day, but I am less impressed with this solution that I could be. The joys of a dirt cellar. (there are none, actually. It’s the thing I really hate about my house…all dirt cellar, and you can’t really fix it because there are huge boulders of lime stone that jut under the house.)

Sunday Das Internets man called at 7:30 AM. YES. AM. I wanted to kill…and he took apart some things and finally, hopefully for good, fixed my Internet. (At least, I thought so until MONDAY, when it went away again, and I called and told them that I didn’t think they were even connected to me, but they did not believe me…later, I get a call telling me that there was, indeed, an outage. Then it went out AGAIN when I was streaming the first episode of Sherlock (love Sherlock) and I just sat there, reminding myself that no one likes Verizon or Comcast, either.)

Sunday we went and spent the day feeding monkeys and swimming in a mountain lake. We happened to be driving back through Uniontown and wondered why everyone was setting out lawn chairs…and realized that there would be fireworks soon. We happened to have chairs in the car, so we drove to a good place, set up, and sat outside and watched the fireworks.  That was rather lovely.