Avon Van Hassel's Blog, page 6

Scrivener: App or Computer Programme

Ok, so, you want to take the plunge and get Scrivener. Good choice, I approve. It’s a gamechanger.

But the programme for your Mac or PC is $50 for Mac, $45 for Windows, and $80 for both (unless you won NaNo and got the discount code) and the app for iOS is $20. Ouch, I hear you. I have the Windows version on my laptop and the app on my iPad, so here’s my breakdown of what’s great and not so great about each.

Just to get it out of the way early: yes, I am an affiliate for Scrivener. No, I am not raking in dough every month because of it. In fact, I don’t think I’ve made anything at all from it. But I do love it, so it’s not gross to promote it. I see it as my responsibility to inform people like me of a product that will help them, and help out a company that has helped me.

Onward.

Scrivener is basically a souped up word processor/binder/so much more. So, if you have Microsoft Word and Evernote and many many copies of different drafts if your stories, do you even need Scrivener? Maybe not, but wouldn’t it be nice to have it all in one place?

But the purpose of this article isn’t to pitch Scrivener as a whole, but to help you decide which version is right for you. I do wish there was a way for people who had bought the desktop version to get a discount on the app, but I don’t know what bureaucratic hoops would be involved in that, so for the time being, let’s assume it’s one or the other. I also wish there was a version for Android, and we are promised one sometime in 2018 (that’s not a typo, I checked. We are late by nearly 2 years), but until then, we’ll have to make some choices.

Firstly, the device you have. I was never much for typing on my phone, and still only do it as a last resort. So, if you don’t have an iPad, I’d say right off, stick with the desktop. If you’re cool with your phone or have an iPad, read on.

Secondly, what kind of physical space do you have? I travel a lot, which means I’m on planes a lot, and the seatback tables make typing on my laptop a real inconvenience, to the point of being nearly impossible. That was my primary motivation for buying an iPad in the first place: I need something more portable, and iPad won out over Galaxy Note because it could run Scrivener. I was lucky enough to snag it when Prime was having a big sale.

So, if space isn’t an issue, then the desktop is grand, and if you need something more portable, go with the app.

Thirdly, features. Scrivener has A Lot of features. An overwhelming amount of features. It’s great if you’re a control freak like me and like to make sure everything is absolutely perfect, but if that sounds scary, there’s a solution. The desktop version has everything, it is full service. It even has a tutorial to get you started and every fresh document also has tutorials. The app is much more streamlined. The trouble with that is that it takes a fair bit of random tapping sometimes to see if it can do what you want it to do. That being said, the bells and whistles that are missing from the app won’t improve or impede your story or process, they’re really very surface level mods that would probably slow it down or make it too big and clumsy a file. I don’t really miss them.

So, there you have it. If you’re landlocked and you like full power at your fingertips, it’s the desktop for you. If you travel and only need the basics (and already have the iPad), go with the app. Obviously, the best choice is both (and they sync through Dropbox, so you never lose your work), but if you’re between checks, are a casual writer, or just resent buying the same programme twice, I hope this has helped.

The Reading Nook: The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale

Wow, February went a lot faster than January, didn’t it? I’m surprised I actually managed to get this book read on time! I’ve had it on my list for a long time, and bumped it up after I wrote my own retelling of the Goose Girl, Golden.

Setting

I found Hale’s setting descriptions vivid and vibrant (especially the food, you knows know me). The geography feels suitably grand, with months of travel between Kildenree and Bayern, and believable differences between the cultures. It’s comfortably familiar (easily Britain or Germany), while also delightfully exotic (like a piece of well-researched historical fiction or fantasy).

Characters

I really liked her characters. Even the ‘baddies’ felt believable. Ani had a very convincing arc from sheltered and insecure princess to brassy and self-assured goose girl, to brave an confident princess again. She learned her magic, she learned people skills, she learned perspective. I felt like she had satisfying growth, and I liked her more than a lot of female protagonists.

The aunt was my favourite character. She was only around for a little while, but she was super cool. The other kids looking after the castle livestock, Gilsa, and even the queen were all really well rounded.

Plot

The only real criticisms I have are that sometimes Hale gets from Point A to Point C without much B to speak of. Sometimes I’m not sure how we get from one situation to the next, a lot of things come out of nowhere.

One example being the romance with Geric. Hale is a talented and skilled writer throughout the book, but I found the flirting with Geric to be agonisingly awkward, shoe-horned, and unrealistic. He didn’t realise she was a peasant. He allowed her to take over the training of his horse. He assumed she, a peasant, could read. He flirted openly and hard and awkwardly as a ten-year-old, and then broke it off with the weirdest break-up. It just didn’t feel organic or believable at all.

It’s annoying because the rest of the story was watertight. I found myself wracked with dread, even though I had to keep reminding myself that I know how this story ends, I wrote this story, myself, for goodness’ sake. She had me on the edge of my seat over a story I know backwards and forwards, like it was the first time I’d heard it.

Ani learns slowly by fumbling and trial-and-error, she changes plans, she adjusts to the circumstances. Sometimes, she has serendipitious luck, but not in a way that feels like railroading.

Themes

Just as in the original, the main themes are betrayal, the dichotomy of rich and poor, the idea of deceptive appearances, and poetic justice. The plot more-or-less follows closely along the one laid out by the Brothers Grimm, but more. So, it’s not so much a retelling as an embellished telling, adding layers of detail on top of a sturdy frame. So, you don’t have to worry about this book and Golden being too samey.

So, that’s it for me, this month. How did your reading go? Did you read Goose Girl or Cinder? What did you think?

Join us in the Facebook group for next month’s books!

The Reading Nook: The Night Country, by Melissa Albert

There are so many books out there, Misfits. So many books. Usually, in my efforts to sample as many as I can, I will read the first book of a series, and if it’s good, but doesn’t grab hold of my core, I thank it for its story and move on. Very rarely do I move on to book two. Almost never do I preorder the thing.

I preordered this one- from a different state, no less (I live in California, I preordered this from a Barnes & Noble store in Tennessee). I squeed at the shipping notification and bounced in excitement with my other friends that had preordered it. I pressed through the book I was already reading so I could dive into this one, knowing that I was way behind my friends. Then, I got to read it. I’m a slow reader, y’all, I have a busy life.

I devoured it in 4 days. That’s unheard of for me.

So, what makes this book so special? Well, I’m gonna address the series so far as a whole, because The Night Country is a sequel, and a third book is coming out, though…well, I’ll talk about that later.

There’s an expression that I use a lot when talking to new writers: if you can’t find the book you want to read, write it yourself. And another: there are no new stories, only new ways to tell old ones. Also, that meme about the two cakes.

[image error]A real mood, as the kids say.

I’ve had this idea for a while, it’s not new, at all. Many people have baked this cake, but there just wasn’t enough cake out there to satisfy me. So I wrestled with this kernel, this spark of an idea: what if fairy tales were real…just from a different world? What if you could literally walk into the pages of a book and be actually physically there? And if I could get in, can they get out?

Yes, I know, Jasper Fford, Lewis Carroll, even JK Rowling. I said it’s been done. I said there wasn’t enough cake.

I struggled with how I would write this story, how I’d wrestle with the darkness and light of fairytales, breathe new life into obscure ones (there are quite a few in my books, if you’ve got a keen eye), and how I could use the appropriate language to really make them come alive.

[image error]I mean…look at it.

Then, I stumbled across The Hazel Wood at Target during the ‘choose a book by its cover’ theme of that year’s book challenge. I’ve rarely ripped through a book so fast. She told my story the way I wanted it told, more beautifully than I ever could.

I’m going to talk about style right here because my feelings are at once too big, but also too easy to sum up to save for a whole section. Essentially, her writing style is half the unfiltered honesty of a naked interrogation-room lightbulb- the kind that swings, so that the shadows shift and you can’t get comfortable; and half raw sensory detail. She doesn’t walk you into a room and tell you that there’s a table and a chair- she shows you the coffee stains and butt-warped cushion. She focuses in on the feelings surrounding details that all together paint a vivid picture in emotions and sensations, rather than a laundry list of things. The funny thing about her style is that it’s counterintuitive to what you would expect in the real world: the plainer the language, the more is being hidden; the more poetic the prose, the more you can trust. But that’s fairytales, isn’t it? Trust your heart, not your eyes. Trickery is everywhere, but a true heart can’t be deceived.

It kind of hurts my feelings, a little bit, lol. I’ve been writing since first grade, it’s pretty much the only thing I have the passion to bend my life around. Reading her style sometimes makes me look askance at my own work.

But hey, two kinds of cake, right? Maybe mine’s a little drier. But it’s ok because dry cake goes better with tea

The Storybook: Crossing Ceremonies

Travel is fun. You get to see interesting things, meet interesting people. And some places are special because of their relative location on the map, the fact of being place markers, or because of just how hard it is to get to them. Many of these places have traditions surrounding them, but the ones we’ll be discussing today are line crossing ceremonies.

A line crossing ceremony refers to a sort of ritual performed among the crew when a ship crosses a significant ocean line, usually the Equator, though there are specifics for other lines or landmarks as well. These ceremonies are usually performed by navies, merchant navies, and sometimes passenger cruises or sail training ships, as well. The important point is that by crossing a significant line in the ocean, you join a community of other people who also are considered well traveled sailors, called Shellbacks. Those who have not are called Pollywogs.

[image error]‘frolicsome’



History

The tradition seems to date back to the 17th century, during the Age of Exploration, when the sea was teeming with ships and sailors, crisscrossing the globe in search of gold, exotic goods, land, and less respectable trade, such as slaves.

What happened

The ceremonies themselves had a wide variety of events, ranging from silly to bizarre to dangerous to outright brutal assault. The captain would sometimes dress as a priestess of Poseidon, or as the god himself, and direct the crew in various feats and tasks to prove themselves worthy of the sea. They may be forced to strip naked and crawl through disgusting substances like garbage and tar, they might have soap and paint put in their mouths, they could be made to endure a ducking stool (a notorious torture device used during witch trials), and there would often be beatings with such things as firehoses, wet rope, or rods. Some sailors were seriously injured and even killed.

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Why?

So, why go through all of this? Well, the main reason is the same as the rationale behind hazing- shared trauma is great for bonding. It’s also thought to toughen up the crew because the sea can be harsh, and also it breaks down a person’s ability to protest an order, no matter how onerous the task. In a storm or during a battle, you have to obey commands quickly, and can’t stand around arguing with your commanding officer.

Today, though, it’s mostly for morale, entertainment, and for the honour of being able to call yourself a Shellback. Rules are strictly laid out, now, and are adhered to carefully. When the rules are broken, the consequences are severe.

Martinette

In my short story, Martinette, Sulat joins a ship called Martinette, which is a merchant vessel. The route takes the crew through a rough and unpredictable patch of sea called The Squalls, but before they get there, they perform a crossing ceremony to bond the crew and prepare them for the ordeal they’re about to face. Sulat doesn’t see much of the storm, but she still has to go through the ceremony to earn the title of Lobster (the opposite being a ‘heifer’).

I won’t tell you what happens, though. You have to read it for yourself.

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The Reading Nook: Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

Happy new year, Misfits! I hope 2020 is treating you well, so far.

I started a new thing, over in the Merry Misfits Book Club on Facebook. This year, instead of picking one book to read, like traditional book clubs, or letting you choose your own books according to a theme, which I tried last year snd it didn’t work, this year, I’m picking a theme, giving you a choice between two that fit the theme, with the option to read neither and instead try one of my books.

It’s hard to say so early in the year if it’s working out any better yet. It’s certainly quieter, though I can’t tell if it’s the structure of the choices or just the madness of January. Who knows? All I know is I finished my book well ahead of when I’d planned to, and now I’m gonna get into it.

I have a confession to make- I didn’t realise that Diana Wynne Jones had written Howl’s. Like most people my age, I’m mostly familiar with the Miyazaki film based on it. I have seen it, but I know of it and that it’s well loved. What’s embarrassing about this is that I was a huge fan of Diana Wynne Jones as a kid, particularly the Chrestomanci series.

Didn’t know she’d written it, haven’t seen the film- what did I even do with my childhood?

Oh well, I’m on board now. Let’s dive into it.

Characters

Of utmost importance to me is always characters. Without compelling characters, it’s hard to care about what happens to them.

First, we have Sophie, the oldest of three sisters, and therefore cursed. Early on in the book, she is cursed to be an old woman, and that’s how she spends most of the story. Credit to Wynne Jones, she does a good job of making an elderly woman a believable and likeable protagonist. We know, of course, that Sophie is a young woman cursed with old age, but she does live and feel like an old woman, and while she hopes to be turned back, one day, it doesn’t stop her carrying on in the meantime.

Next is Howl himself. He’s kind if a slippery one to pin down, but cleverly, that’s part of his design. He’s a ‘slither-outer’ according to Sophie, always slipping away in time to avoid commitment. He’s temperamental and dramatic, a compulsive flirt, a dandy, and actually quite a decent wizard.

Michael and Calcifer are Howl’s housemates, his apprentice and indentured fire demon, respectively. They both provide a sort of bridge between Sophie and Howl, at times friends, helpers, and translators; sometimes the opposition to Sophie’s schemes.

The Witch of the Waste is perhaps the most difficult character for me. As the main antagonist, she’s spoken of in whispers and a huge amount of dread follows her, yet when we actually meet her, it’s hard to see what the fuss is about. There are a few points, I’m sorry to say, where I feel Wynne Jones could have given a little more, and the Witch of the Waste is one of them. She’s a formidable adversary, but more by reputation than by what we actually see played out before us.

Plot

The plot is pretty fun, quirky, and definitely fantastical. I have a hard time gauging the pacing and timeline because my Kindle counted every page in the book, including the 4 short stories that followed, so in my head, the story stopped at 75%!

In my recollection, though, it’s kind of hard to pin down the actual plot and what the story is ABOUT. On the one hand, we have Sophie, the young-hatmaker-turned-old-woman who wants the curse lifted, and on the other hand, we have Howl who also has a curse on him.

In my opinion, the pacing feels very strange and uneven, with a lot up front with the shop and Sophie’s sister, a lot in the middle about Howl’s ‘gadding’ (dating), a little bit about the missing prince and other wizard, Howl’s family in Wales, and the Witch of the Waste, and then a small chunk at the end where everything is tied up and everyone lives happily ever after.

There were, to me, a number of questions left unanswered, primarily how Howl came to the magical world where the story takes place, and…yeah, that whole thing. I need A Lot more info about his family and life in Wales, how he got to Ingary, how he became a wizard, etc etc. That’s just like…a huge chunk of backstory that’s completely unnecessary without explanation and honestly, to me, the most interesting part of the whole thing.

Setting

Ingary is a fun little fantasy world where magic is super commonplace and no one really fears wizards, which is pretty cool. Witch seems to be a perfectly legitimate career option, and I dig it.

The most important setting, obviously, is the moving castle. It’s a fun little piece of trickery, mostly an illusion of portals all powered by demon magic.

This is another place where I feel like my questions weren’t answered, though. The castle literally moves, like it hovers and flies. It moves so that the Witch of the Waste can’t catch Howl. But then like, it’s also static in like 4 places, so he can just open the front door onto the same sequence on locations. What’s the point of moving if you have a shopfront? Why can’t the Witch just find him there?

And again- and I can’t stress this enough- WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH WALES?

Themes

Boy, this book is really bloody Welsh, let’s start there.

The curse of three sisters, witches and wizards who aren’t scary, curses where you can’t say you’re cursed, friggin no one is who they say they are, trickstery bargains, shapeshifters, and then Howl himself, or Wizard Jankin, as he’s sometimes known, is actually Howell Jenkins from literal Wales.

My heart.

An author named Jones, I really should have seem it coming, but I didn’t, and it was a lovely surprise.

I know all of this sounds like I didn’t enjoy it. In truth, I did. I found it a charming little story with interesting ideas and characters. But I have to admit, I did find myself wondering, ‘where is this all going?’ and by the end, didn’t have much of an answer.

Anyway, gotta go find the movie, now. Maybe it’ll make more sense visually. Until next time, Misfits! Join me in the Facebook group for next month’s selection!

One Word and an Update

One word: STREAMLINE

Two years ago, I found out about the One Word trend, where you choose a word to be your focus for the coming year. I did not achieve my goal last year, for a variety of reasons, so this year, I’m hoping that I can accomplish a new one, and perhaps the previous one, as a result.

So, my One Word this year is STREAMLINE.

[image error]Thanks, NASA

To me, streamlining refers to removing blockages and complications to allow the free flowing of of a project- removing everything that detracts from maximum efficiency.

This applies to my personal life, as well as my work. I have been severely reducing, decluttering, and organising my life, and I’ve found it a wonderfully freeing feeling, allowing me to focus my attention and efforts on things I love, rather than acquiring heaps and heaps of things I hope will make me happy, and only ending up weighed down by a mound of crap.

For my professional life, streamlining means detailed planning of my social media strategy, writing blog posts and newsletters in advance, and automating Facebook and Instagram posts. The theory is that with social media posts (note: NOT engagement) done way ahead of time, I can focus on writing, editing, working with my team, reading for pleasure, and responding to interactions on my social media posts. I won’t be playing catch-up with myself, I won’t leave months and months of silence, I won’t need to be prodded by Breanna a week into the new month about what the Book Club theme is. I can be active, engaged, and relaxed in the moment.

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Yes, it meant a HELL of a lot of work in December 2019, but I’ll be so much happier January-November of 2020, enough that I may be inspired to devote December 2020 to doing the same thing again.

Fingers crossed.

So what am I actually working on?

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you’ll have seen my love of mermaids and my flood of posts relating to Siren Song. I have finished my first round of major edits and it is in the hands of my betas. I’ll need to make their edits, polish again, send it to my editor, implement her edits, compile the illustrations, format, and publish.

I’m aiming for a publication date sometime in May, during MerMay.

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Watch this space for information regarding preorder and publication updates.

In addition, I have a number of inter-novel novellas and short stories set to be released here on my website to tide you over until the novel comes out.

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What about you? What is your One Word?

The Writing Desk: eBooks Versus Paperbacks,

If you have been around here on my blog for a while, you’ll know that I published my two fairy tale retelling novels almost a year ago, exclusively for Kindle. I had a bunch of -I think- rational reasons for not wanting to publish in hardcopy, but the people kept asking. So here’s the breakdown of the pros and cons for digital versus paper books.

Digital

It’s digital, duh

This is the biggie for me, I’m not going to lie. The freedom from paper is very attractive. It’s 2019, folks, the Amazon is on fire, we have 11 years until the planet is past the point of no return, the ice caps are melting, the Great Coral Reef is dying. Do you really need That Smell so badly? Do you need it from every book you buy, or can you not have one paper book on hand to sniff while you’re reading on your e-reader? At the risk of being unfriendly, I have very little patience for people who use the argument that ‘It’S nOt tHe SaMe!’ for insisting on paper copies of everything. Also the argument that they look better on a shelf. How shallow can you be?

THE AMAZON IS ON FIRE.

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Y’all

Saves space

Sorry about your bookshelf, but imagine not having a bookshelf, and freeing up all that space in your home for a wall garden or a nice couch from which you can enjoy your digital bookshelf. Same number of books, but available from all of your devices simultaneously, which means you can have infinite copies without taking up any additional space.

And I feel like I need to remind people for what feels like the millionth time, the Kindle and Nooks apps are, have always been, and likely will always be completely and totally free, and sync across all platforms. So, whether you have an iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Mac, PC, Note, iPad, iPod, Kindle Fire, Nook, or anything else that connects to the internet and has apps, you can have as much of your library as your memory card can hold. You can read on planes, at home, probably in space by now, I don’t know. I have a dry bag for my phone, so though I haven’t actually tried it, I’m sure I could read even underwater. Can you read a paper book underwater?

Plus, that massive stack of books you want to read but know you probably won’t is a lot easier to hide from yourself and visitors when it’s quietly tucked away in your e-reader.

Often cheap, though sometimes not

Because ebooks don’t need to be printed and shipped, it’s a lot cheaper to produce them. On the other hand, digital copies don’t get marked down for being previously owned.

Variable text size and Text-to-Speech

Some people have trouble reading font in physical books. Ereaders usually come with a function to adjust the size of text, and sometimes the font itself, to be easier to read.

Plus, for people who can’t read well, are busy with their eyes, really struggle with Jane Austen (I don’t judge your literature tastes, don’t judge mine) and can’t afford $15/month for Audible, that creepy computer voice helps out a lot.

SEARCH

I don’t know how many reference books you read, but I really benefit from a search function. No more incorrect or missing index entries!

User friendly for maker

Now, maybe this is more for me than you, but it’s A Lot easier to format an ebook than a physical book. A lot of people build entire freelance businesses on the backs of formatting paperbacks for authors, it’s that tedious. I do my own, of course, because it’s nothing but the best for you guys.

Paper

Aesthetic

I know, I know, it will look super cool to have copies of my babies all lined up on a shelf, nice and neat and shiny.

BUT THE AMAZON IS ON FIRE.

That Smell

Librochor, the faintly vanilla scent of the volatile organic compounds produced by the slow decay of wood pulp. It’s lovely, I agree, but sniff books that already exist, mmkay?

THE AMAZON IS ON FRIGGIN FIRE.

Low tech/offline

So, some people like to go offline for short periods and unplug. I get that. But a, if you download books to the e-reader, you don’t need the internet. B, most e-readers have a function where you can adjust the backlight, paper colour, and font style and colour to reduce eye strain.

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Look how peaceful she is

Can be gifted

So can e-readers, and they’re getting cheaper.

Often cheaper, though sometimes not

They can be sold at a discount for being previously owned. That said, the cost to produce and ship them often makes them more expensive up front, especially if you buy them from brick-and-mortar bookstores.

More difficult to format

God, they’re a pain, lol. But again, that’s my problem, not yours.

~

So, in conclusion, it’s nice to hold that fragrant, hefty tome with the pretty binding and the text that sits up juuuuust a little off the page, but is it really worth it at the expense of the environment, so it can sit around, collecting dust, or else be gifted to someone and take up space in their house?

That being said, despite my vehement protestations, the people want paperbacks and I live to serve, so on September 21, I’m yielding to pressure and rereleasing my books for paper publication.

HOWEVER, they will be a little more expensive. Here’s a breakdown of why (it’s not just spite, I promise):

Even on a per-order basis, Amazon charges $4.45 to print paper books, which is still the cheapest I’ve found anywhere. (Yes, I know bulk printers cost less, per book, overall, but the bulk price is still an upfront cost I flat out can’t afford, and I don’t have anywhere to put that many books that, as an unknown indie author, won’t sell quickly. Trust me, I’ve agonised over the math since before I published, last year)
Therefore, a paperback roughly the size of mine has a mandatory minimum list price of $7.42 (otherwise, they can’t give my me 60% royalties)
In order to turn any kind of profit, I have to list them at at least $8 (which is the original list price of the eBooks, anyway)
Plus, since I’ll be donating to the One Tree Planted charity, I’ve chosen to round up to $10, so that I can donate at least 1 tree per book sold

One Tree Planted is a USA-based charity which plants a tree for every single dollar planted, and since 2014, have planted 25 million trees in North America, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

[image error] Guatemala, very dear to my heart, 2018. Photo property of One Tree Planted

So, maybe you’re not used to paying $10 for a self-published paperback fantasy, but hey, it’s a good story (if I do say so myself), you’re supporting me in doing what I love, you get to have that nice shiny good-smelling book on your shelf, and rather than casting your money at some vaguely-worded Amazon relief charity that despite their good intentions can’t make Bolsanaro any less of a shitbag, you’re actually making up for that paper book by contributing to reforestation in a tangible way.

You know, BECAUSE THE AMAZON IS ON FIRE.

The Writing Desk: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

Hey there, Misfits! It has been some time since I penned a blog post. Mostly, I’ve been super busy, I’ve been travelling, I’ve been celebrating my birthday, and also trying to overcome some challenges in my personal life. And also because secretly, I really hate blogging.

But anyway, enough moaning. I’m here this morning to talk about an increasingly controversial cause near and dear to my heart: National Novel Writing Month, or as we call it, NaNoWriMo.

I’ve written about Camp NaNo before, so now I’m going to talk about the original. It started back in 2006, I believe, but I only started doing it in 2010. I’ve been a Municipal Liaison (kind of like a regional team captain), I run a Facebook group, and I used to pride myself on never having lost an event, but some I slipped in the summer of last year and failed to get my word count validated, so though I did complete that event, it doesn’t show up on the site, which…rankles.

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The objective on NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel, start to finish, all by yours, in 30 days, or one November. November is a busy month for most of us in the States, so the idea is that if you can do it in November, there’s no excuse for not writing the rest of the year. Obviously, you’re not expected to keep up the 1667-word-a-day momentum all year, but something should be doable, for those of you who lament having no time.

My first year, I completed it, while also writing two essays, going to class, and cooking my first ever Thanksgiving in a foreign country (trickier than it sounds) for 22 people. So, it sounds scary, but it can be done. However, we don’t talk about that novel. I made it to 50,000 words, and that’s about all I can say about it.

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For others of us, NaNo represents Crunch Time. I honestly do my best writing in NaNo months. I’m focused, I’m creative, I’m surrounded by other people doing the same thing, and I love a deadline and a personal challenge. All of my best books, including Magic Beans and Golden, were NaNo babies (I wrote the first draft of Magic Beans in two weeks in November 2014, in a friend’s flat in Bristol, England). I like to use NaNo to draft my books, so that I have the rest of the year, or two, to make them readable.

That’s not bad, right? Crunch for a month, but by the end, you have a decently workable novel.

The criticism, of course, is that 1667 words a day isn’t a sustainable habit, and that the pressure to complete the challenge forces you to take some desperate literary measures, usually encouraged by the event runners.

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To that, I say, that’s not the point. The point isn’t to form a habit (though I myself can easily crank out 2k words a day, if I want to), the point is to show people that you can find time to write, you just need the right motivation. The point isn’t to produce a technicality perfect work of fiction. The point is to write a story, any story, in a month.

The vast majority of books written during NaNo are just for fun, written by people who want to prove something to themselves or participate in a fun challenge but don’t like marathons or just want to have fun writing and NaNo is a good excuse to drive themselves crazy because, hey, it’s part of the culture, now. All of those are valid reasons. The vast majority of people who participate aren’t going to become full-time novelists, and don’t want to. They don’t need to build up the sustainable discipline to slog through every single day, they don’t need to know beat sheets and plot structure, and the literary devices that are appropriate for getting yourself out of the corner you plotted yourself into. They’re just having fun, playing Jack Kerouac for a month. Leave them alone.

Also, for those of us, who do use this time to professional advantage, leave us alone. We know what we’re doing.

So, should you do it? Yes, and no.

If you’ve ever fancied yourself a novelist and you want to give it a go, this is a world in microcosm. The community is ridiculously fun, the culture is a hugely supportive, creative, caffeine-fuelled carnival of crazy for a whole month, and I love it. There’s nothing like it.

However, don’t think for a second that it’s easy. You will get tired, you will get burned out, you will run out of ideas, hate your writing, and want to start over or quit. Your personal life will get more complicated because you will have to withdraw to get anything done, you will have to make sacrifices, there will be late nights and early mornings, road blocks, caffeine abuse, etc etc. But hey, that’s also being a real writer, the ugly and the beautiful.

And at the end of it, you might have a novel. And some of that may actually be workable. And if you keep at it -not at the same rate, of course, if you want to keep your job, loved ones, health, and sanity- you might be able to create something publishable. But if not, if none of it works, at least you had a hell of a ride, and might even have made some friends or learned something about yourself along the way.

That sounds corny, I know. But I did. I made a couple of friends, actually, who I met through NaNo, and I learned that I can crank out decent quality in a short space of time. I learned that a strict, insane goal and deadline actually work well for me. I discovered tricks like the pomodoro method that I still use every day, and word sprints that I use every week. I learned that if I go off caffeine during the quiet times, it lowers my tolerance so that when I start using it again, it’s more effective. Maybe that’s not a healthy trick, but it works in the run up to deadlines.

I’m not going to go into all the cool things NaNo has like write-ins or Word Count Dragons or how to know if you’re a Plotter or a Pantser, because I want you guys to discover it for yourself. I want you to give NaNo a try and see if it’s for you. Maybe, if this post gets enough engagement, I’ll write a complete guide, but until then, set up your project, and give it a go. I think you’ll be glad you did.

The Writing Desk: eBooks Versus Paperbacks

If you have been around here on my blog for a while, you’ll know that I published my two fairy tale retelling novels almost a year ago, exclusively for Kindle. I had a bunch of -I think- rational reasons for not wanting to publish in hardcopy, but the people kept asking. So here’s the breakdown of the pros and cons for digital versus paper books.

Digital

It’s digital, duh

This is the biggie for me, I’m not going to lie. The freedom from paper is very attractive. It’s 2019, folks, the Amazon is on fire, we have 11 years until the planet is past the point of no return, the ice caps are melting, the Great Coral Reef is dying. Do you really need That Smell so badly? Do you need it from every book you buy, or can you not have one paper book on hand to sniff while you’re reading on your e-reader? At the risk of being unfriendly, I have very little patience for people who use the argument that ‘It’S nOt tHe SaMe!’ for insisting on paper copies of everything. Also the argument that they look better on a shelf. How shallow can you be?

THE AMAZON IS ON FIRE.

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Y’all

Saves space

Sorry about your bookshelf, but imagine not having a bookshelf, and freeing up all that space in your home for a wall garden or a nice couch from which you can enjoy your digital bookshelf. Same number of books, but available from all of your devices simultaneously, which means you can have infinite copies without taking up any additional space.

And I feel like I need to remind people for what feels like the millionth time, the Kindle and Nooks apps are, have always been, and likely will always be completely and totally free, and sync across all platforms. So, whether you have an iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Mac, PC, Note, iPad, iPod, Kindle Fire, Nook, or anything else that connects to the internet and has apps, you can have as much of your library as your memory card can hold. You can read on planes, at home, probably in space by now, I don’t know. I have a dry bag for my phone, so though I haven’t actually tried it, I’m sure I could read even underwater. Can you read a paper book underwater?

Plus, that massive stack of books you want to read but know you probably won’t is a lot easier to hide from yourself and visitors when it’s quietly tucked away in your e-reader.

Often cheap, though sometimes not

Because ebooks don’t need to be printed and shipped, it’s a lot cheaper to produce them. On the other hand, digital copies don’t get marked down for being previously owned.

Variable text size and Text-to-Speech

Some people have trouble reading font in physical books. Ereaders usually come with a function to adjust the size of text, and sometimes the font itself, to be easier to read.

Plus, for people who can’t read well, are busy with their eyes, really struggle with Jane Austen (I don’t judge your literature tastes, don’t judge mine) and can’t afford $15/month for Audible, that creepy computer voice helps out a lot.

SEARCH

I don’t know how many reference books you read, but I really benefit from a search function. No more incorrect or missing index entries!

User friendly for maker

Now, maybe this is more for me than you, but it’s A Lot easier to format an ebook than a physical book. A lot of people build entire freelance businesses on the backs of formatting paperbacks for authors, it’s that tedious. I do my own, of course, because it’s nothing but the best for you guys.

Paper

Aesthetic

I know, I know, it will look super cool to have copies of my babies all lined up on a shelf, nice and neat and shiny.

BUT THE AMAZON IS ON FIRE.

That Smell

Librochor, the faintly vanilla scent of the volatile organic compounds produced by the slow decay of wood pulp. It’s lovely, I agree, but sniff books that already exist, mmkay?

THE AMAZON IS ON FRIGGIN FIRE.

Low tech/offline

So, some people like to go offline for short periods and unplug. I get that. But a, if you download books to the e-reader, you don’t need the internet. B, most e-readers have a function where you can adjust the backlight, paper colour, and font style and colour to reduce eye strain.

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Look how peaceful she is

Can be gifted

So can e-readers, and they’re getting cheaper.

Often cheaper, though sometimes not

They can be sold at a discount for being previously owned. That said, the cost to produce and ship them often makes them more expensive up front, especially if you buy them from brick-and-mortar bookstores.

More difficult to format

God, they’re a pain, lol. But again, that’s my problem, not yours.

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So, in conclusion, it’s nice to hold that fragrant, hefty tome with the pretty binding and the text that sits up juuuuust a little off the page, but is it really worth it at the expense of the environment, so it can sit around, collecting dust, or else be gifted to someone and take up space in their house?

That being said, despite my vehement protestations, the people want paperbacks and I live to serve, so on September 21, I’m yielding to pressure and rereleasing my books for paper publication.

HOWEVER, they will be a little more expensive. Here’s a breakdown of why (it’s not just spite, I promise):

Even on a per-order basis, Amazon charges almost $4 to print paper books, which is still the cheapest I’ve found anywhere. (Yes, I know bulk printers cost less, per book, overall, but the bulk price is still an upfront cost I flat out can’t afford, and I don’t have anywhere to put that many books that, as an unknown indie author, won’t sell quickly. Trust me, I’ve agonised over the math since before I published, last year)
Therefore, a paperback roughly the size of mine has a mandatory minimum list price of almost $7 (otherwise, they can’t give my me 60% royalties, and that’s if I only sell on Amazon.com. In order to expand my readership, the minimum list price is $9.99.)
In order to turn any kind of profit, I have to list them at at least $10 (which is the original list price of the eBooks, anyway; and again, that’s IF I sacrifice expanded distribution), but
Plus, since I’ll be donating to the One Tree Planted charity, I’ve chosen to go up to $12, so that I can donate at least 1 tree per book sold. (Accordingly to some admittedly conflicting equations I found online, one tree can produce enough wood for a few hundred books the size of mine, so one dollar goes a long way to undoing the damage of printing paperbacks.)
Even at $12 per book, I’m only going to make $3.21 per item sold, which is less than half what I was selling the eBooks for.
(FYI, I’ve also repriced the Kindle versions from $8 down to $4.99, you know, because I love you )

One Tree Planted is a USA-based charity which plants a tree for every single dollar planted, and since 2014, have planted 25 million trees in North America, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

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Guatemala, very dear to my heart, 2018. Photo property of One Tree Planted

So, maybe you’re not used to paying $10 for a self-published paperback fantasy, but hey, it’s a good story (if I do say so myself), you’re supporting me in doing what I love, you get to have that nice shiny good-smelling book on your shelf, and rather than casting your money at some vaguely-worded Amazon relief charity that despite their good intentions can’t make Bolsanaro any less of a shitbag, you’re actually making up for that paper book by contributing to reforestation in a tangible way.

You know, BECAUSE THE AMAZON IS ON FIRE.

The Reading Nook: Zahrah the Windseeker, by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

The theme for May’s book in the Merry Misfits Book Club was ‘A book from a niche genre, or a genre you don’t normally read’. I chose Afrofuturism, and the internet as a whole seemed to recommend this book.

So, to start out, let’s talk about Afrofuturism. When Black Panther came out, it seemed like it was the topic on everyone’s lips. Afrofuturism, essentially, is a genre within science fiction where the society and technology is influences by African culture, rather than European or Asian culture. Think, basically, the opposite of Firefly. A lot of Afrofuturism, like the fictional country of Wakanda, divorce their worldbuilding from the influence of the slave trade and white colonialism that so devastated the continent in the real world. They try to envision what a technologically advanced African nation would look like today, had that ugly period of history not happened. We know today what American High Tech looks like, we know what Japanese High Tech looks like, but what would Ugandan High Tech look like?

Obviously, I could go into the distasteful details of why we don’t have much of that, but this blog post is about this book and looking forward to a future with more Afrocentric sci-fi. There have been many examples of things seen in popular culture eventually making their way into real life, so let’s hope that one day, African high tech cities are also a reality.

Characters

All right, let’s start off with Zahrah, herself. She is born dada, which means that she was born with little vines growing out of her head. As she gets older, these vines thicken and weave into her hair, and it’s thought in the culture that dada children are just born different. She’s got a bit of bullying at school about it, but otherwise doesn’t suffer much in the way of discrimination, and she is largely shielded from that bullying by her friend, Dari. Zahrah is a little shy at first, curious about the forbidden Dark Market and about herself and what being dad will mean as she grows older.

Dari, on the other hand, is a baby revolutionary. He’s a crusader for exploration, science, and knowledge. He’s the first one to venture into the Dark Market, and he’s a voracious reader, eventually finding and devouring a guide book about the Forbidden Greeny Jungle that borders their homeland. He’s charming and charismatic, but a little bit of a troublemaker.

Nsibidi is a woman Zachary and Dari meet in the Dark Market, with her pack of fortune-telling baboon-like creatures. She’s a mysterious and reluctant mentor figure in a lot of ways. Her hesitation to tell Zaharia everything she wants to know, in part, fuels the adventure.

Worldbuilding

Oh my god, the worldbuilding, y’all. You guys know by now that I consider worldbuilding a pillar of writing, you gotta set the scene right.

The planet is called Ginen, and Zahrah lives in the northern Ooni kingdom, in a town called Kirki. Ginen is a densely vegetated planet, and the advanced technology is derived from specially bred plants. Lightbulbs are literally planted in the wall of the house, a child is given a computer sprout that grows and develops with them. Even the library is an actual living plant, with sturdy enough structure to hold several stories of bookshelves, staircases, and of course, loads of people.

Kirki is bordered by a dense jungle called the Forbidden Greeny Jungle, that is, you know, forbidden. Weird stuff happens in there, it’s a whole different world. Time moves weird, people go crazy. It’s unnatural.

Now, I don’t want to spoil too much of the plot, but you don’t put a girl with exceptional powers and a boy who can’t not prod on the border of a forbidden jungle and not expect them to go in.

Inside the Forbidden Greeny Jungle is where, in my opinion, Okorafor-Mbachu really shines. The plants, the creatures, the character building! That’s all I’ll say because I don’t want to spoil it.

Plot

Zahrah grows up in a loving family, the victim of fairly predictable bullying at school. But she has one ally, Dari, who is funny and smart, and always stands up for her. Early on, Zahrah gets her first period, which sparks some changes in her. The actual symptoms of her first menses are pretty mild overshadowed by the discovery that she can levitate.

A lot of stuff gets weird, fast. She ventures into the Dark Market, where she meets Nsibidi, Dari finds a travel guide for the Forbidden Greeny Jungle and suggests they go there so she can practice flying away from the gossip mill, and then something terrible happens that lands Dari in the hospital. Because the people of Ooni don’t venture into the jungle, the doctors are ill equipped to treat Dari. The only possible cure comes from the most feared creature, deep in the jungle. So Zahrah takes Dari’s travel guide, a sassy compass, and heads into the jungle. What happens inside is absolutely wild, and I won’t spoil it for you.

Themes

The first theme I want to discuss is Zahrah’s coming of age. I love the way Okorafor-Mbachu deals with it. Periods are always a bit tricky to deal with in fiction, because people are still so damn squeamish about it. But Zahrah’s mother explains, her father is sympathetic and caring, even Dari shrugs it off like it’s just something that happened to Zahrah, as normal as losing a tooth, it less shocking than cutting her dada locks, which could become a possibility after they meet Nsibidi. She has some mild cramping, but otherwise, the most notable thing about it is the coming of the power that comes with her dada identity.

I like how it’s handled. It’s not an obstacle to overcome, a gross thing to hide from other people, an inconvenience to deal with while she’s trying to get along with her life; but the end of childhood and anonymity, the blossoming of her power, and the beginning of her taking her place in society in more ways than she could have known at the beginning.

Friendship is also a big theme. At no point, no matter what happens, Zahrah never loses sight of the fact that she is Dari’s only hope. Her love for him fuels her through a dangerous and confusing landscape. He had been her loyal supporter, even though he was quite popular on his own. They take each other, their opinions, feelings, and personalities seriously.

Understanding over fear (both in terms of superstition about the Forbidden Greeny Wood, but also in herself–it is better to understand than to be fearful)

The last of the major themes, in my opinion, is the importance of understanding over fear. The Forbidden Greeny Jungle is almost an analog for Zahrah herself, her power, and womanhood. The people of Ooni avoid the jungle because of its strange and mysterious properties, but during her time inside, Zahrah discovers that while it is different that Kirki, it has its own rules and can be understood. It has to be respected in order to get through, but she found that after she left, she did miss it. Study, compassion, and patience are all that’s needed to make sense of a confusing landscape.

This book got a lot of mixed reviews on Goodreads, a lot of people criticised it for having a relatively simplistic plot for such dense worldbuilding, but I don’t think you need a complicated plot, if you have a solid story. The setting is practically a character in itself, it’s so rich. But a simple, solid story can be just as satisfying as a more complex one. As it is, this story is definitely an odyssey. There’s drama, high tension, mentors, a descent to the underworld, characters from African mythology, and so much that is worth talking about. Yeah, maybe the wording is a little tell-y, but it’s clearly Young Adult.

Not everything has to be Game of Thrones. Personally, I don’t think Game of Thrones needed to be as ‘Game of Thrones’ as it was, but that’s me.

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So that’s what I think of Zahrah the Windseeker. Next month, I’ll be reading The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale. What are you reading?