S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 223

Uncrackable

The NY Times mass market bestseller list is tough to get on any month, but when I saw this past week's list I knew my name wouldn't be showing up on it at all. Sure, I've had some luck in the past, but let's be realistic. There are just too many big names who have huge print runs and massive marketing campaigns, and usually stay on the list for multiple weeks listed there. Far too popular for my new release to battle; I knew the minute I read it that it was an uncrackable list.

I couldn't get ...

Free for All

1000+ novels for free: Online Novels has indexed links to "titles of more than 1000 online books written by both published and unpublished authors who have made their work freely available on the internet. The novels listed here are organized by category, with brief descriptions taken from the websites on which they can be found."

Crime Fic for Free: Charlie Huston has put Caught Stealing , the first book in his Hank Thompson series, up on Scribd.com for free reading and download.

Dragon...

Fiction Becomes Fact (Maybe)

Weird writer moment #9999 #100000: sometimes real life imitates your fiction.

I wrote a short story back in 2002 that, I admit, was definitely one of my stranger ideas. At the time I had returned to world-building K-2 from my SF series with plans to write Bio Rescue, and had thought about aquatic life forms that develop in hostile environments, like jellyfish. The deep sea varieties can grow to incredible sizes (one captured in the Antarctic was reportedly twelve yards long and weighed 90 l...

Match Game

Let's play a game. See if you can match the writer to the fact:

1. Officially recognized as history's most prolific novelist for writing 904 books under six pen names.

2. More than once wrote a 35,000 word novel overnight.

3. Currently holds the world's record for longest novel title at a whopping 290 words.

4. Penned a 1.5-million-word opus that is widely considered to be the longest novel in English.

5. Used 70 different pen names to write 850+ books.

6. Composed one of the earliest novel...

Know Thy Character Ten

Ten Things to Help with Developing Characterizations

Colorizing: Decide your character's favorite color(s) and consider using it/them in some part of your setting where the character spends a great deal of time (like their home, their office, or their vehicle.) Avoid the usual paint/wallpaper/carpeting and go for more unusual expressions of color such as art, upholstery, ordinary objects and plants. If you need ideas, pick up paint chips and decorating pamphlets (usually free at your local hom...

The Morphology of Desire

She recognized the pounding in her ears as the beating of her heart . . . or perhaps it was coming from her computer speakers as she watched with incredulous eyes the cover art on her romance novel begin to move . . .

The Morphology of Desire, 1998 from Robert Arnold on Vimeo.

Video filched from Gerard over at The Presurfer.

Launch #2

I know I've been a bit wonky with posting lately, but it's because I had two launches this week -- a new novel and a new graduate. My senior got his diploma last night, and is heading off to university in the fall to study meteorology in hopes of someday working for the National Hurricane Center.

I thought I'd share this moment with my readers because all of you are partly responsible for this one promising future. Most of the profits from my book sales go directly into college funds so the ...

Setting Porn

I have been diligently working on my intense dislike of writing setting by purposely studying how other genre writers do it, trying writing exercises to develop my focus on it, and otherwise forcing myself to deal with it like an adult instead of a whiny toddler. So far I've done okay. I'll probably always think characters are way more interesting to write, but I'm slowly getting away from wishing every novel took place in a featureless void.

During this process I've noticed a couple of thing...

Stats

According to Scribd.com, over the last twelve hours 818 people have taken a look at Rain Lashed , my free Kyndred novella e-book that I posted yesterday:



At the time I checked 124 people had also downloaded the e-book, also a very good number for the first day -- probably the best I've had so far for a freebie.

Along with the complete, original novella in Rain Lashed there are two excerpts in the back -- one for Shadowlight and the other for Dreamveil, my Kyndred novels in print -- and a complet...

Winner

You've all been very patient while I've been offline getting my surprise ready, so let me first announce the winner of the Dream Retreats giveaway:

Eugenia Tibbs

Eugenia, when you have a chance please send your ship-to info to me at LynnViehl@aol.com, and I'll get this box out to you. Be careful picking it up when it lands there, too; it's a heavy one.

Now something for everyone else out there -- yes, I still have a surprise for every single one of you, even those of you who didn't enter the gi...