S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 189
July 10, 2011
Liven It Up Ten
Ten Things to Revitalize Your Blog
Ask for Opinions: Get feedback from your visitors on what they'd like to see at your weblog. If you're not getting a lot of traffic, talk to your blogging friends, or cruise around and check out what they're doing at their places.
Change Your Template: If it's not a huge hassle putting up a new template, you may find switching to a different theme, page arrangement or color scheme will ignite your enthusiasm for new content.
Have a Mini-Workshop: Are you an amazing outliner? Do you have the ultimate character worksheet? Have you found the perfect deadline week diet? These are all great topics to discuss on your blog.
Hold a Challenge: Set a goal for yourself and challenge your visitors to join in. This can be anything from timed wordcount goals (aka write 500 words every day for a week) to reading a certain portion of your TBR (one fun variation is to see how many books you can read in a month.) With challenges you can do update posts, too.
Interview a Character: Sitting down with your favorite character and doing a Q&A is not only fun, it's also a good way to exercise your characterization skills. Angle your interview by taking on the role of a fan, a news reporter, a police detective or your character's nemesis.
Rename Your Blog: Sometimes a simple trick like renaming your blog can be the one thing that makes all the difference. If you're not sure what to rename it, see the next idea.
Run a Contest: Holding contests are fun, especially if your visitors are competing for a prize (doesn't have to be an expensive one.)
Show Off an Accomplishment: Sharing something you've done often inspires others to get going on their projects. It's also fun to talk about the ups and downs of any project you've tackled and finished.
Start a Weekly Feature: Designate one day for a particular feature: Biz News, Writing Wisdom, What I'm Reading, etc. If you can't think of a feature you'd like to do every week, join an ongoing weekly blog feature group.
Tell a Story: Your blog can be a window to your days, your life, your worlds. What would we see if we looked in there yesterday, last week or tomorrow? Tell us.
Ask for Opinions: Get feedback from your visitors on what they'd like to see at your weblog. If you're not getting a lot of traffic, talk to your blogging friends, or cruise around and check out what they're doing at their places.
Change Your Template: If it's not a huge hassle putting up a new template, you may find switching to a different theme, page arrangement or color scheme will ignite your enthusiasm for new content.
Have a Mini-Workshop: Are you an amazing outliner? Do you have the ultimate character worksheet? Have you found the perfect deadline week diet? These are all great topics to discuss on your blog.
Hold a Challenge: Set a goal for yourself and challenge your visitors to join in. This can be anything from timed wordcount goals (aka write 500 words every day for a week) to reading a certain portion of your TBR (one fun variation is to see how many books you can read in a month.) With challenges you can do update posts, too.
Interview a Character: Sitting down with your favorite character and doing a Q&A is not only fun, it's also a good way to exercise your characterization skills. Angle your interview by taking on the role of a fan, a news reporter, a police detective or your character's nemesis.
Rename Your Blog: Sometimes a simple trick like renaming your blog can be the one thing that makes all the difference. If you're not sure what to rename it, see the next idea.
Run a Contest: Holding contests are fun, especially if your visitors are competing for a prize (doesn't have to be an expensive one.)
Show Off an Accomplishment: Sharing something you've done often inspires others to get going on their projects. It's also fun to talk about the ups and downs of any project you've tackled and finished.
Start a Weekly Feature: Designate one day for a particular feature: Biz News, Writing Wisdom, What I'm Reading, etc. If you can't think of a feature you'd like to do every week, join an ongoing weekly blog feature group.
Tell a Story: Your blog can be a window to your days, your life, your worlds. What would we see if we looked in there yesterday, last week or tomorrow? Tell us.
July 9, 2011
Reinventing the Bookmark Idea #3
I have a small collection of string-and-bead type bookmarks that are lovely . . . and pretty much useless, because they all tend to fall out of my books. This is because I am not especially careful when I pick up, put down or carry books, and a single length of string with pretty beads on either end offers no way to anchor it in place (unless you tie the ends in a knot, which you would then have to pick out every time you want to move the bookmark.)
I wanted to address this problem with my third and final design while keeping the same simple components: a length of string and beads. I also thought I could use a variation of the cinch-type looped knot I often use for things I want to secure, as that sort of knot is easy to release. Fiddling with a few of the corded pendants I sometimes wear resulted in the BookLoop.
For demonstration purposes, here's my BookLoop alongside Marjorie M. Liu's novel A Wild Light:
To make one you'll need a piece of cord, ribbon or string that is four times the height of your book plus two inches (for a standard paperback, that's thirty-two inches.) Don't use anything that is too puffy or dimensional; a simple length of narrow flat ribbon or satin cord will do fine. You'll also need a large bead, button or pendant to serve as the anchor.
Put your anchor on the string, and tie the ends together to make a loop, just as you would a necklace. Once you have your loop tied securely, place it in your book like so:
Bring the top part of the loop down along the spine of the book, and pull the pendant through the end of the loop:
When you pull on the anchor to tighten it, it should look like this:
The great thing about this is you can customize it however you like (and maybe finally do something with all those focal beads or orphaned pendants sitting in your jewelry box.) It doesn't require a lot of expensive bits, it's easy enough for any writer or reader to make and use, plus when you're reading and not using the BookLoop, you can hang it around your neck and no one will ever guess that it's a bookmark.
I really had fun with this challenge, and now that I have three design ideas to play with I'm going to work on variations on the themes and see how I can improve on the original concepts. How do you guys think I did? Let me know in comments.
I wanted to address this problem with my third and final design while keeping the same simple components: a length of string and beads. I also thought I could use a variation of the cinch-type looped knot I often use for things I want to secure, as that sort of knot is easy to release. Fiddling with a few of the corded pendants I sometimes wear resulted in the BookLoop.
For demonstration purposes, here's my BookLoop alongside Marjorie M. Liu's novel A Wild Light:
To make one you'll need a piece of cord, ribbon or string that is four times the height of your book plus two inches (for a standard paperback, that's thirty-two inches.) Don't use anything that is too puffy or dimensional; a simple length of narrow flat ribbon or satin cord will do fine. You'll also need a large bead, button or pendant to serve as the anchor.
Put your anchor on the string, and tie the ends together to make a loop, just as you would a necklace. Once you have your loop tied securely, place it in your book like so:
Bring the top part of the loop down along the spine of the book, and pull the pendant through the end of the loop:
When you pull on the anchor to tighten it, it should look like this:
The great thing about this is you can customize it however you like (and maybe finally do something with all those focal beads or orphaned pendants sitting in your jewelry box.) It doesn't require a lot of expensive bits, it's easy enough for any writer or reader to make and use, plus when you're reading and not using the BookLoop, you can hang it around your neck and no one will ever guess that it's a bookmark.
I really had fun with this challenge, and now that I have three design ideas to play with I'm going to work on variations on the themes and see how I can improve on the original concepts. How do you guys think I did? Let me know in comments.
July 8, 2011
Winners
You guys provided a lot of great recs for the Seven Reasons giveaway, and I do want to add one more -- this week my daughter asked me to read Jeanne DuPrau's The City of Ember, which I did. Although dystopian YA lit isn't really my thing I liked the worldbuilding a lot.
We revved up the magic hat tonight, and the winners are:
B.E. Sanderson, who got a kick out of Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby
Shawna, whose most recent excellent reads are Steinbeck's Ghost and The Haunting of Charles Dickens
bluebamboo, who is in a fiction-reading slump (not anymore!)
knotdamomma, whose latest best read was Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
Marian Halcombe, who broke cardinal zombie rules and enjoyed Feed by Mira Grant
Signy, who was impressed with Heidi Cullinan's The Seventh Veil
DeeCee, who liked Vicki Pettersson's The Taste of Night
Winners, when you have a chance please send your full name and ship-to address to LynnViehl@aol.com so I can get your books out to you. My thanks to everyone for joining in.
We revved up the magic hat tonight, and the winners are:
B.E. Sanderson, who got a kick out of Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby
Shawna, whose most recent excellent reads are Steinbeck's Ghost and The Haunting of Charles Dickens
bluebamboo, who is in a fiction-reading slump (not anymore!)
knotdamomma, whose latest best read was Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
Marian Halcombe, who broke cardinal zombie rules and enjoyed Feed by Mira Grant
Signy, who was impressed with Heidi Cullinan's The Seventh Veil
DeeCee, who liked Vicki Pettersson's The Taste of Night
Winners, when you have a chance please send your full name and ship-to address to LynnViehl@aol.com so I can get your books out to you. My thanks to everyone for joining in.
July 7, 2011
Reinventing the Bookmark Idea #2
While playing with bookmark ideas I did want to come up with a design made with recycled materials. Being a quilter I save all sorts of fabric and quilt scraps, yarns, threads, old buttons and other sewing stuff for repurposing projects, so I raided my stash boxes and put together a pile of materials.In my latest batch of art mags I noticed a number of cuff-type mixed media bracelets that I thought were interesting, especially the designs that incorporated old textiles. That got me to wondering if I could make a cuff that turned into a bookmark instead of a bracelet, which lead to my second design, the BookCuff.
For this project I used an old cutter quilt piece I picked up at a garage sale, two glass buttons and a scrap of tapestry yarn. First I cut a strip out of the quilt with pinking shears (this prevents fraying) in a length that was a little over 15". To provide the means to close the cuff, I thought of the old interoffice envelopes we used in the old days with the two circular fasteners and a bit of string. I duplicated that fastener with the two buttons and the tapestry yarn, sewing one button to each end of the quilt piece. I also added a third button to the end of the yarn to have something to hold onto when winding the yarn.Here you can see the finished product holding my place in Marjorie M. Liu's The Fire King. It's a bit too wide because I was trying to preserve the quilt block design, and while it held my place in the book perfectly the look of it didn't make me happy; I felt it covered up the cover art too much. As a bookmark the piece is really too floppy, too.
What doesn't work for one thing sometimes serves nicely for another purpose. I often give away sets of series books as gifts for friends, and I also like to shelve series books together and sometimes take a set with me when I travel. Usually I just put them in a tote bag, but I discovered that my BookCuff makes an excellent strap for more than one book:
This is very customizable, since you can cut the material you use for your bookcuff to whatever length you need for however many books you want to strap together. You can also use whatever materials appeal to you or relate to the books; leather, lace, tapestry, fun fur (wouldn't that be great for were novels?) along with whatever little bits you want to use for the fasteners (and if you write steampunk I'd definitely check out some art mags for inspiration.)
July 6, 2011
July 5, 2011
Seven Reasons
I'm catching up on my reading for pleasure this summer, and I just finished Shadow Walkers by Brent Hartinger, an excellent YA paranormal romance that was not at all the usual thing. I originally purchased it due to the author's promotional video (which you can view here) and to riff of his theme, I thought I'd share the seven reasons I truly enjoyed this book:
1. Being gay is normal. Which it is, except in romance fiction. In romance fiction gay characters are treated as perky protagonist sidekicks, perky protagonist shopping partners, perky gossipy co-workers and perky next door neighbor gourmet chefs who do nothing but cook more food than they can eat and so must deliver the overage to the protagonist while nattering on about their current crush (who is, alas, inevitably, tragically straight; this so the gay character will not have any real chance of having sex during the course of the story.)
2. It is indeed a page turner. The author kept me turning them until I finished it at 1:43 am. Which makes him the primary reason I reached for the evil caffeinated tea the next morning, and why I had to take a nap that afternoon.
3. The cat scene was cute. I tried to convince my cat Jeri to play fetch with me this morning. He yawned in my face and went back to dozing in the sun while he considered a new plan to get rid of the dogs.
4. The villain was way cool. I haven't had one make me cringe like that since my daughter made me watch Alien, which I did up until the face lobster thing, at which point I decided I could get the rest of the story from the TV guide synopsis.
5. Not romance-typical at all. On this I speak from experience, having written almost fifty romance and romance-friendly novels, and having read several thousand of the typical variety. I'm also physically handicapped, and I can assure you that despite our myriad attractions we're usually not considered by the general public as romantic material.
6. It does have something to say about these other-than-real-world realms where our teens spend so much time.
7. The promotional video was not cheesy. It actually got me to buy the book -- only the second book video to accomplish that -- and it inspired this list.
My only complaint is that the novel was too short, but any novel I enjoy this much usually is.
As always, you don't have to take my word for it. In comments to this post, list the title of the last book you read that you enjoyed, and why (or if you're in a reading slump, just toss your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Friday, July 8, 2011. I will draw seven names at random from everyone who participates and send the winners an unsigned copy of Shadow Walkers by Brent Hartinger as well as a signed copy of After Midnight by Yours Truly. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
1. Being gay is normal. Which it is, except in romance fiction. In romance fiction gay characters are treated as perky protagonist sidekicks, perky protagonist shopping partners, perky gossipy co-workers and perky next door neighbor gourmet chefs who do nothing but cook more food than they can eat and so must deliver the overage to the protagonist while nattering on about their current crush (who is, alas, inevitably, tragically straight; this so the gay character will not have any real chance of having sex during the course of the story.)
2. It is indeed a page turner. The author kept me turning them until I finished it at 1:43 am. Which makes him the primary reason I reached for the evil caffeinated tea the next morning, and why I had to take a nap that afternoon.
3. The cat scene was cute. I tried to convince my cat Jeri to play fetch with me this morning. He yawned in my face and went back to dozing in the sun while he considered a new plan to get rid of the dogs.
4. The villain was way cool. I haven't had one make me cringe like that since my daughter made me watch Alien, which I did up until the face lobster thing, at which point I decided I could get the rest of the story from the TV guide synopsis.
5. Not romance-typical at all. On this I speak from experience, having written almost fifty romance and romance-friendly novels, and having read several thousand of the typical variety. I'm also physically handicapped, and I can assure you that despite our myriad attractions we're usually not considered by the general public as romantic material.
6. It does have something to say about these other-than-real-world realms where our teens spend so much time.
7. The promotional video was not cheesy. It actually got me to buy the book -- only the second book video to accomplish that -- and it inspired this list.
My only complaint is that the novel was too short, but any novel I enjoy this much usually is.
As always, you don't have to take my word for it. In comments to this post, list the title of the last book you read that you enjoyed, and why (or if you're in a reading slump, just toss your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Friday, July 8, 2011. I will draw seven names at random from everyone who participates and send the winners an unsigned copy of Shadow Walkers by Brent Hartinger as well as a signed copy of After Midnight by Yours Truly. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
July 4, 2011
Reinventing the Bookmark Idea #1
As you may recall, back in May I set a challenge for myself to come up with a new design for the standard bookmark. My objectives were to cook up an eye-catching design that would be easy to use and fun as well as functional. I also wanted a bookmark that wouldn't slip or fall out of place when the book was moved.
My first idea came along as I was sitting on the porch one morning watching Cole chase his tail. He likes to bite onto it and turn in a circle while holding his tail in his mouth; at the time I was thinking I really should have named him Ouroboros. That's when inspiration hit: what if I could design a bookmark that held its place by biting some part of the book -- or itself?
I sketched a bit, and initially came up with this design(click on any of the following images to see larger versions.) As for naming it, I thought of the Tale Holder or the TaleMark, but decided to go with The BiteMark as it was funnier.
The body of the BiteMark (here shown in the same dimensions as any standard bookmark) goes in the book. The head of the BiteMark sits above the top edge of the book, taking the place of the traditional tassel, which I moved to the bottom to serve as a "tail." By using a simple clip mechanism on which the head is mounted, the reader can secure the BiteMark in place by having the head bite the tail. Since the tail is long this makes it easily adjustable.
This is a paper mockup of what one would look like:
Here's what it looks like marking my place in Marjorie M. Liu's The Fire King:
Once I had put it all together I didn't much care for the clipboard look it has, so I think the body of the bookmark needs to be shaped differently. Also, one technical difficulty: the yarn I used for the tail was actually hard to put into the clip mechanism; there needs to be something more you can hold onto at the base of the tail to easily tuck it into the clip. I don't think beads are the answer, but a small trinket or shaped tab attached to the tail would work. I'm going to work on a couple versions of the design and fabricate them in cloth, pics of which I'll post here when I've got them finished.
This idea has instant novelty appeal for the children's market, but I think it also can be customized for books with a particular theme or icon. A book about pirates could feature a pirate's head and a tail with a little sword or blade tab he could hold between his teeth. The BiteMark doesn't even have to go with a head as the top component; you could use anything that holds whatever is attached to the bottom tassel (for example, if you wanted a Harry Potter-themed bookmark, you could do his owl and a message; for Star Wars you could do Darth Vader's gauntlet and his light saber.)
So what do you guys think of my first attempt to reinvent the bookmark?
My first idea came along as I was sitting on the porch one morning watching Cole chase his tail. He likes to bite onto it and turn in a circle while holding his tail in his mouth; at the time I was thinking I really should have named him Ouroboros. That's when inspiration hit: what if I could design a bookmark that held its place by biting some part of the book -- or itself?
I sketched a bit, and initially came up with this design(click on any of the following images to see larger versions.) As for naming it, I thought of the Tale Holder or the TaleMark, but decided to go with The BiteMark as it was funnier.
The body of the BiteMark (here shown in the same dimensions as any standard bookmark) goes in the book. The head of the BiteMark sits above the top edge of the book, taking the place of the traditional tassel, which I moved to the bottom to serve as a "tail." By using a simple clip mechanism on which the head is mounted, the reader can secure the BiteMark in place by having the head bite the tail. Since the tail is long this makes it easily adjustable.
This is a paper mockup of what one would look like:
Here's what it looks like marking my place in Marjorie M. Liu's The Fire King:
Once I had put it all together I didn't much care for the clipboard look it has, so I think the body of the bookmark needs to be shaped differently. Also, one technical difficulty: the yarn I used for the tail was actually hard to put into the clip mechanism; there needs to be something more you can hold onto at the base of the tail to easily tuck it into the clip. I don't think beads are the answer, but a small trinket or shaped tab attached to the tail would work. I'm going to work on a couple versions of the design and fabricate them in cloth, pics of which I'll post here when I've got them finished.
This idea has instant novelty appeal for the children's market, but I think it also can be customized for books with a particular theme or icon. A book about pirates could feature a pirate's head and a tail with a little sword or blade tab he could hold between his teeth. The BiteMark doesn't even have to go with a head as the top component; you could use anything that holds whatever is attached to the bottom tassel (for example, if you wanted a Harry Potter-themed bookmark, you could do his owl and a message; for Star Wars you could do Darth Vader's gauntlet and his light saber.)
So what do you guys think of my first attempt to reinvent the bookmark?
July 3, 2011
July 2, 2011
2 Romance Anthos
Samhain Publishing has open calls for two anthologies, each with interesting themes: Superhero Romance and 2012 Summer Olympics.
Some details from the editor for the as-yet-untitled Superhero Romance Anthology:
"I'm open to M/F, M/M, F/F, or multiples thereof, any sexual heat level, and the romance must end happily ever after or happy for now. The novellas must range between 25,000 to 30,000 words in length, no more, no less—please note, only manuscripts that fall in this word count will be considered for this anthology—and will be released individually as ebooks in spring 2012 and in print approximately one year later."
Deadline for this one is September 1, 2011.
As for the Summer Olympics 2012 Romance Anthology, the editor notes:
"I'm looking for stories that revolve around events happening during the Summer Olympics, being held in London in 2012 from July 27 to August 12. Stories focusing on the 2012 Summer Olympics in London are preferred, though a great story is a great story no matter the year and location, so I will be willing to look at stories taking place at/during previous Summer Olympic years and cities. Also, please be aware that, as a primarily romance publisher, we require all stories for this anthology to fit into the romance genre, complete with "happy ever after" or "happy for now" ending. Any heat level is admissible, as well as m/f, m/m, f/f and any ménage combination."
Same length (25,000 to 30,000 words) for this one, and the deadline is also September 1, 2011.
For more info on these anthos, check out the guidelines as well as Samhain's submissions FAQs page.
Some details from the editor for the as-yet-untitled Superhero Romance Anthology:
"I'm open to M/F, M/M, F/F, or multiples thereof, any sexual heat level, and the romance must end happily ever after or happy for now. The novellas must range between 25,000 to 30,000 words in length, no more, no less—please note, only manuscripts that fall in this word count will be considered for this anthology—and will be released individually as ebooks in spring 2012 and in print approximately one year later."
Deadline for this one is September 1, 2011.
As for the Summer Olympics 2012 Romance Anthology, the editor notes:
"I'm looking for stories that revolve around events happening during the Summer Olympics, being held in London in 2012 from July 27 to August 12. Stories focusing on the 2012 Summer Olympics in London are preferred, though a great story is a great story no matter the year and location, so I will be willing to look at stories taking place at/during previous Summer Olympic years and cities. Also, please be aware that, as a primarily romance publisher, we require all stories for this anthology to fit into the romance genre, complete with "happy ever after" or "happy for now" ending. Any heat level is admissible, as well as m/f, m/m, f/f and any ménage combination."
Same length (25,000 to 30,000 words) for this one, and the deadline is also September 1, 2011.
For more info on these anthos, check out the guidelines as well as Samhain's submissions FAQs page.
Potter & More
I finally had a chance to look at J.K. Rowling's Pottermore, which has been sending shockwaves as well as lots of speculation through the industry since it materialized. Not much to see at this point, although the news folks claim that the author is cutting off publishers and booksellers from taking a slice of the profits while using it to release e-book versions of her phenomenal series and offer some sort of interactive experience for readers. However it turns out, I think it's an interesting experiment, potentially an enormous cash machine, and certainly a great way to hang onto the worldwide online readership and their love for all things Harry.
Amazon.com finally brings the questionable ethics of compensated blurbing out into the open by offering to authors promotion in exchange for cover quotes. It's basically the one hand washing the other approach; you review their book, and they'll promote yours. Which is no different than the reciprocal and buddy blurbing that has been going on behind the scenes in the industry practically forever; they're just being upfront about it.
The bootleggers are now making book videos in order to promote pirated copies via YouTube (and no, I'm not going to link to the jerk I found doing it.) An image of the cover art is shown along with a brief message about downloading the book for free and what kind of formats are offered, and the actual link to the bootleg is listed in the video description area. To find out if your copyright is being violated by one of these pinheads, do a You Tube search with your psuedonym and/or your book title.
Amazon.com finally brings the questionable ethics of compensated blurbing out into the open by offering to authors promotion in exchange for cover quotes. It's basically the one hand washing the other approach; you review their book, and they'll promote yours. Which is no different than the reciprocal and buddy blurbing that has been going on behind the scenes in the industry practically forever; they're just being upfront about it.
The bootleggers are now making book videos in order to promote pirated copies via YouTube (and no, I'm not going to link to the jerk I found doing it.) An image of the cover art is shown along with a brief message about downloading the book for free and what kind of formats are offered, and the actual link to the bootleg is listed in the video description area. To find out if your copyright is being violated by one of these pinheads, do a You Tube search with your psuedonym and/or your book title.
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