S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 251

Stunning

The only word I can use to describe the e-mail response to yesterday's post. You guys are just the best. Thank you.

e-Shadowlight

Thank you all for sharing your opinions yesterday on my idea to make e-ARCs of Shadowlight available. After much thought, I've decided to give it a go, although I will be imposing a time limit for e-ARC requests mainly to prevent this from going viral in the bad way.

So: readers and bloggers who are willing to commit to writing up a blog post or review of Shadowlight, the first novel in my new Kyndred series, can e-mail me at LynnViehl@aol.com to request a .pdf or Microsoft Word 2007 copy of

Opinions?

I'd like to ask for some opinions on my latest problem. Shadowlight, the first novel in my new Kyndred series, is due to be released in a few weeks. As far as my planned promo for the book goes, I have in the works a parallel e-book, Rain Lashed, which I'll be posting for free on Scribd next month. Sasha was also nice enough to let me post an excerpt from Shadowlight over on the group blog, and I'll probably do the usual release day announcement here.

Still, I feel I should personally do somet

Journaling Hardware

I've been keeping some form of personal journal almost daily since 1974, when my parents' marriage melted down. There were so many things I wanted to say that under the circumstances I couldn't, so having a journal gave me a place to let them out safely, without hurting anyone's feelings. After that my journal became the place where I could retreat and work things out on the page, which in turn helped me with my writing.

Now when I give my workshops on writing as a career at the local schools, I

Journaling for Friends

Occasionally I'll carry a journal around with me for a few months, tape photos and pictures in it while I jot down spontaneous thoughts, observations and such for a specific friend. Here's an entry from one I wrote two years ago for another writer:

May 9, 2007

The 50-acre fire in [nearby town:] has burned another 850 acres and is now only ½ mile from my house. I have our grab-and-go bags packed. It would be the week I have a shot at the Times that God would decide to burn my house down.

The smoke h

Rejuvy Ten

Sorry I'm running late today, guys. Tom and his family are basking on a white-sanded beach somewhere right now, and they wouldn't take me with them, no matter how much I whined . . .

Ten Things You Can Do to Revive Your Blog

A to Z: make an alphabetical list of things you love, hate, want, avoid, or otherwise feel strongly about.

All the things I'll miss from summer: amusement parks, barbecues, corn on the cob, dog walks, every day home with the kids, flip-flops, gardening, halter tops, icees,

Keepers

I think the books we love say something about who we are as well as what we like to read. I play a game with student groups called "Keepers" where the kids write down the titles of three of their keepers on a piece of paper and then drop them in a hat. I draw the slips and try to guess which keepers belong to which kid (which is harder than it sounds.) If I guess correctly, the hat goes to the kid whose keepers I guessed, and they start guessing until they match someone with their keepers. This

Sub Ops

Robert Swartwood put out an open call for a "hint fiction" anthology to be published by W.W. Norton. Submit up to two stories of twenty-five words or less in the same e-mail; payment is $25.00 per story for World and Audio rights. See guidelines for more details. Deadline is midnight EST on August 31st.*

Pill Hill Press is open for submissions for their Shadows & Light: Tales of Lost Kingdoms anthology, edited by Alva J. Roberts. "We are looking for fantasy stories with clearly defined forces

Twitting Scribd

A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from the folks at Scribd telling me about their latest new venture; a real time notification thing like Twitter. They're calling their version "social publishing pages" that have "fun features that make it easy for you to share what you're reading and publishing with Scribd's community."

For the launch, they put together a list of prominent Scribd users that they encouraged people to start following. I've yet to see this list, but the e-mail claimed it includ

Why No ARCs

A couple of people have written to me to ask for ARCs for Shadowlight, my October release, and I have some unhappy news. My publisher informed me this week that they did not print any for the novel.

As it was explained to me, moving the release date up four weeks on the schedule evidently made it impossible for them to produce any ARCs for the book. They have agreed to make up and send out some bound galleys, but they have not yet done that and I've not been given a date as to when that will