Lorina Stephens's Blog, page 85

Indigo's Green Initiative -- Is It Enough?

On Monday, November 30 Indigo announced their ambitious commitment to reaching 50% recycled paper in the books they retail within the next five years. While I very much applaud that corporate initiative, I might suggest it doesn't go far enough, or encompass a growing alternative to paper waste, and that is print on demand technologies.

No longer the poor second-cousin to offset printing, print on demand often produces a superior product, with less impact to the environment, and is now used...

Great Signing November 28, Another to Come December 5

I had a great book signing at Coles, Orangeville Mall this past Saturday. We sold half the stock on hand of From Mountains of Ice, all but one of Shadow Song, and even a copy of And the Angels Sang.

It was great to have a fan, Anne, stop by to say how much she had enjoyed reading Shadow Song, and to sign a copy for her of From Mountains of Ice. Always love it when I receive that kind of feedback.

And, as always, Pam, Hayley and the crew at Coles get huge kudos for running a tight ship and...

Common Writing Faux Pas

Since sitting the other side of the desk again, I've been struck by the common traps in which so many writers are caught. In the interest of keeping my promise to the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, I thought I'd list some of those traps here.

Active versus Passive Verbs
Passive voice slows action, sometimes arresting it altogether. Not good.

Take a look at this sentence in the passive voice:
In the interest of brevity, little say expedience, he began to pack the boxes.

Now look at this in the...

Five Rivers Signs Debut Author

In a quiet, energetic series of emails, Five Rivers reached an agreement with new Canadian author, Alicia Hendley, to publish her debut novel, A Subtle Thing.

Slated for release in the fall of 2010 in both print and digital formats, A Subtle Thing is a raw, honest and relentless novel, written with authority, that follows Beth's heart-breaking and uplifting battle with clinical depression. You will cheer for her. You will want to shake her. But most of all you find yourself irresistibly...

Book Signing in Orangeville

Lorina Stephens will be appearing in Orangeville, Ontario this coming Saturday, November 28, at Coles Books, located at 150 First Street, Orangeville Mall, Orangeville, Ontario, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

This is one of many stops on Lorina's busy virtual and actual book tour this fall, promoting her new fantasy novel, From Mountains of Ice.

The novel, Lorina's second, is now a Sunburst and World Fantasy Award nominee.

More about Smashwords and Digital Rights Management

It's been about a week since we uploaded our book list to Smashwords. It's a decision I don't regret.

Sure there's still raging debate in the publishing community regarding digital rights management. After reading a great deal about it I've come to the following conclusion: It doesn't matter.

What?

Yep. It's doesn't matter. Digital rights management doesn't matter.

The reason I've come to that conclusion follows this path of logic. In print media, after a book is sold, can we control how many...

Mark Rayner Interviews Lorina Stephens

Mark Rayner, author of the absurdist fantasy novel, Marvellous Hairy, has posted an interview with me on his blog today. In it we discuss my latest novel, From Mountains of Ice, as well as the rapidly changing face of publishing.

Drop by, have a read, leave a comment, and check out both our novels.

http://markarayner.com/archives/516

Environmental Detail in Writing

Of late I've been often asked how it is I work environmental detail into my writing. Up until now I've never really thought about that much, partly because of the way I write (very tightly-focused character-driven stories) and partly because of major influences on my writing, which, if closely analyzed, will reveal that one is in fact a result of the other.Because of such weighted character import in my work, all environmental descriptions must be written from the perspective of that...

Five Rivers Books on Smashwords

After hearing news yesterday that Indigo's Shortcovers had reached an agreement with Smashwords to receive feeds of the latter's digital books, I went back and re-examined the whole digital rights management issue. It would seem the code-breakers win once again, in that despite all the encryption you can put on digital content, if someone really wants to pirate your work they can. And faced with the fact that you're never going to stop this sort of illicit behaviour, and that the people who...

Do Your Research

If you're going to be a writer of any kind, you have to research. No escaping it. Fail to and a reader somewhere in the world will catch that one inconsistency and call you on it, and for them, because of that oversight, the story will most likely lose credibility. You may even lose them as a follower, not something to dismiss with a pshaw in this new age of immediate entertainment gratification.

Recently I had one writer tell me that she knew all this historical information because of her...