T.K. Kenyon's Blog, page 3
March 30, 2012
Selling Handcuffs: Prologue
Okay, so I talked to people about whether or not I should post my first draft up on my blog, just to start conversations with people about writing and stories, and there were a lot of opinions out there about whether or not it was a good idea.
Many of the negative comments were based in fear: mostly fear of pirates finding it, copying it, and publishing (mostly e-publishing) it as their own.
So, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to post each chapter for a while, then take it down.
So, this is the Prologue, or perhaps it will be inserted somewhere in the middle. Haven't decided yet. As I mentioned above, this is a rough draft. It's a little bit of back story, but mostly characterization.
It's really rough.
Before it is published, I'll fine-comb it for spelling and grammar and all that. Don't worry about that.
Beyond nit-picks, I'd love to know what y'all think. Feel free to leave your comments or email me.
This is the first time I've tried throwing rough drafts out there, and so the caveat is: this is a ROUGH DRAFT. It's pretty close to a FIRST DRAFT.
And here it is:
Prologue: Swan Dive
The wind was supposed to frighten me. The rusting iron step under my feet was supposed to frighten me. Forty feet of silent air between me and the glistening water was supposed to frighten me.
I was supposed to work through the fear and take a leap of faith off the side of the ship into the deep water far below, and thus become a badder badass than the bad guys.
That was how it was supposed to work on this day, late in training for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team. I was exhausted. I had lost thirty pounds, down to muscle and bone and willpower.
Theoretically, you had to climb up here in the late afternoon's slanting sun and ring the rust-flaking bell, and then you could climb down.
No one climbed down. Not if you wanted to be on the team.
The Hostage Rescue Team are the guys who zip line from black helicopters at midnight and blow open doors to rescue hostages or execute terrorists. They're less spiritual than ninjas, more moral than assassins, but they're the guys who you want to see if some maniac has a gun to your head.
This leap from the side of a derelict ship was supposed to weed out the few remaining men who wouldn't make the team.
I am the only woman who has ever made it this far.
The light wind blew my hair, short but not cropped, around my cheeks. I held onto the side of the ship, balancing on my toes on the flaking rung.
The other candidates jeer in bass and baritone voices below. Mostly bass. The men who go through FBI training and then elect to try for the HRT are the high testosterone-type of alpha male. I admit I wanted to screw every one of them, in the beginning, before the extended training day that was thirty-six hours of grueling running punctuated by sprinting, climbing, crawling, and swimming. Exhaustion finally eroded even my sex drive. Theirs, too.
So the alpha males jeered in their low voices. They thought I was frozen up there. They thought they had finally found the one thing that would frighten me: heights.
All of them were tall, robust men, and most of them played sports in high school and college: football, basketball, rugby, soccer, boxing, something manly like that. Those sports gave them advantages in the running, climbing, and jumping parts of the course.
They had been polite to me, considering. We talked. We'd traded stories.
They never asked what sport I went out for.
They barked and howled again.
I smiled.
One at a time, carefully, I kicked off my water shoes, let them dangle on my toes before they fell. The shoes fell for just over one and a half seconds before they splashed in the cool water, far below.
The jeering quieted.
Forty feet above the water is just about the height of the ten meter diving platform, which was my specialty.
My toes gripped the rung. I breathed cool air.
I love diving. It's like flying, but with acrobatics.
My breathing slowed as I picked a dive and held it in my mind.
Backward double and a half, pike position, one twist.
My arms spread out from my sides like muscular wings, and I breathed. The air stilled around me.
Launch.
I swan dived up to the apex of the flight, then flippity-flip-flip-twist and I laced my fingers and looked and reached for the dark water, which was right where it should be, rushing up and into my hands.
I ripped the entry. The water closed over my toes.
I floated in the murky water for a moment, balancing, buoyant. Light shafts slanted though the dark. The divers would have come for me if I didn't get back up to the surface quickly, but that was a nice dive. It felt good to fly after so many weeks of being broken down.
I wondered what was waiting for me up there, after the jeering, after they'd been tricked.
So I swam up.
When I broke the surface and took a breath, the guys over on the bank, the dry ones yet to make the climb and the wet and shivering ones, cheered.
The instructors were laughing their asses off. One was lying on the ground, stomping his boots on the grass, he was laughing so hard.
I blushed.
Well, I had been showing off, I guess. I mean, it was kind of showing off, to dive a fancy dive when everyone else had been screwing their courage to the sticking place just to step off the rung and jump.
I swam over and climbed on the bank. One of the guys threw me a towel.
And then it was high-fives all around.
I laughed and hoped they didn't notice my embarrassed, red cheeks.
Yes, I was young then, but it was a pretty good dive.
~~~~~
If you liked this excerpt from Selling Handcuffs, consider going to Amazon or B&N or Apple - iTunes or Smashwords (all readers, apps, and computers) to read some more of my fiction. Several of the short stories are free.
TK
Many of the negative comments were based in fear: mostly fear of pirates finding it, copying it, and publishing (mostly e-publishing) it as their own.
So, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to post each chapter for a while, then take it down.
So, this is the Prologue, or perhaps it will be inserted somewhere in the middle. Haven't decided yet. As I mentioned above, this is a rough draft. It's a little bit of back story, but mostly characterization.
It's really rough.
Before it is published, I'll fine-comb it for spelling and grammar and all that. Don't worry about that.
Beyond nit-picks, I'd love to know what y'all think. Feel free to leave your comments or email me.
This is the first time I've tried throwing rough drafts out there, and so the caveat is: this is a ROUGH DRAFT. It's pretty close to a FIRST DRAFT.
And here it is:
Prologue: Swan Dive
The wind was supposed to frighten me. The rusting iron step under my feet was supposed to frighten me. Forty feet of silent air between me and the glistening water was supposed to frighten me.
I was supposed to work through the fear and take a leap of faith off the side of the ship into the deep water far below, and thus become a badder badass than the bad guys.
That was how it was supposed to work on this day, late in training for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team. I was exhausted. I had lost thirty pounds, down to muscle and bone and willpower.
Theoretically, you had to climb up here in the late afternoon's slanting sun and ring the rust-flaking bell, and then you could climb down.
No one climbed down. Not if you wanted to be on the team.
The Hostage Rescue Team are the guys who zip line from black helicopters at midnight and blow open doors to rescue hostages or execute terrorists. They're less spiritual than ninjas, more moral than assassins, but they're the guys who you want to see if some maniac has a gun to your head.
This leap from the side of a derelict ship was supposed to weed out the few remaining men who wouldn't make the team.
I am the only woman who has ever made it this far.
The light wind blew my hair, short but not cropped, around my cheeks. I held onto the side of the ship, balancing on my toes on the flaking rung.
The other candidates jeer in bass and baritone voices below. Mostly bass. The men who go through FBI training and then elect to try for the HRT are the high testosterone-type of alpha male. I admit I wanted to screw every one of them, in the beginning, before the extended training day that was thirty-six hours of grueling running punctuated by sprinting, climbing, crawling, and swimming. Exhaustion finally eroded even my sex drive. Theirs, too.
So the alpha males jeered in their low voices. They thought I was frozen up there. They thought they had finally found the one thing that would frighten me: heights.
All of them were tall, robust men, and most of them played sports in high school and college: football, basketball, rugby, soccer, boxing, something manly like that. Those sports gave them advantages in the running, climbing, and jumping parts of the course.
They had been polite to me, considering. We talked. We'd traded stories.
They never asked what sport I went out for.
They barked and howled again.
I smiled.
One at a time, carefully, I kicked off my water shoes, let them dangle on my toes before they fell. The shoes fell for just over one and a half seconds before they splashed in the cool water, far below.
The jeering quieted.
Forty feet above the water is just about the height of the ten meter diving platform, which was my specialty.
My toes gripped the rung. I breathed cool air.
I love diving. It's like flying, but with acrobatics.
My breathing slowed as I picked a dive and held it in my mind.
Backward double and a half, pike position, one twist.
My arms spread out from my sides like muscular wings, and I breathed. The air stilled around me.
Launch.
I swan dived up to the apex of the flight, then flippity-flip-flip-twist and I laced my fingers and looked and reached for the dark water, which was right where it should be, rushing up and into my hands.
I ripped the entry. The water closed over my toes.
I floated in the murky water for a moment, balancing, buoyant. Light shafts slanted though the dark. The divers would have come for me if I didn't get back up to the surface quickly, but that was a nice dive. It felt good to fly after so many weeks of being broken down.
I wondered what was waiting for me up there, after the jeering, after they'd been tricked.
So I swam up.
When I broke the surface and took a breath, the guys over on the bank, the dry ones yet to make the climb and the wet and shivering ones, cheered.
The instructors were laughing their asses off. One was lying on the ground, stomping his boots on the grass, he was laughing so hard.
I blushed.
Well, I had been showing off, I guess. I mean, it was kind of showing off, to dive a fancy dive when everyone else had been screwing their courage to the sticking place just to step off the rung and jump.
I swam over and climbed on the bank. One of the guys threw me a towel.
And then it was high-fives all around.
I laughed and hoped they didn't notice my embarrassed, red cheeks.
Yes, I was young then, but it was a pretty good dive.
~~~~~
If you liked this excerpt from Selling Handcuffs, consider going to Amazon or B&N or Apple - iTunes or Smashwords (all readers, apps, and computers) to read some more of my fiction. Several of the short stories are free.
TK
March 22, 2012
Quality: A Response to Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Post
As for the question of quality, I read about 50/50 indie books vs. trad books nowadays, and it seems like the bell curve of quality is about the same for both types of books.
However, I can say for sure that the two worst books that I've read in the past year, which were so bad that they stayed with me and I must restrain myself from ranting at the crappiness of them, were both traditionally published. My book club ranted at both these books last night, so it's not just me. These were actually outliers on the quality curve, a two-book blip on the left end of the long tail, they were so bad.
I have not read any indie book that approaches the sheer badness of those two major NY-pubbed books.
It seems like when an indie writer is bad, they're amateurish in safe, predictable ways, and sometimes you can actually see them improve during the book.
When a NY-pubbed book is bad, the writer is arrogant and blind to how terribly the book has gone wrong, because they are a Professional NY-Published Writer, Dammit, and then the book gets worse as they go farther astray and defend their terrible, terrible choices. The badness becomes exponential.
Yes, quality is not the exclusive domain of the large publishers, and shlock is certainly not limited to indies.
TK Kenyon
However, I can say for sure that the two worst books that I've read in the past year, which were so bad that they stayed with me and I must restrain myself from ranting at the crappiness of them, were both traditionally published. My book club ranted at both these books last night, so it's not just me. These were actually outliers on the quality curve, a two-book blip on the left end of the long tail, they were so bad.
I have not read any indie book that approaches the sheer badness of those two major NY-pubbed books.
It seems like when an indie writer is bad, they're amateurish in safe, predictable ways, and sometimes you can actually see them improve during the book.
When a NY-pubbed book is bad, the writer is arrogant and blind to how terribly the book has gone wrong, because they are a Professional NY-Published Writer, Dammit, and then the book gets worse as they go farther astray and defend their terrible, terrible choices. The badness becomes exponential.
Yes, quality is not the exclusive domain of the large publishers, and shlock is certainly not limited to indies.
TK Kenyon
Friends -- Do you really want to read my horrible first draft?
Friends,
Some writers post their first drafts of their novels on their blogs. Seems like I've seen a couple lately.
Should I do this? It might be fun. It might be interesting. I'd be interested in what y'all have to say about it, either that you hate some things or want to see more or something.
I'm working on the first draft of the first novel in a series. It's about a woman (Angel Day) who is a sniper for the Phoenix PD. She used to be on the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team as a sniper. She likes to kill people a little too much, but the people she kills desperately deserve it. (In the first chapter, she snipes a big guy who had a shotgun duct-taped to a small woman's neck, and he was counting down to zero.)
What do you guys think?
TK Kenyon
Some writers post their first drafts of their novels on their blogs. Seems like I've seen a couple lately.
Should I do this? It might be fun. It might be interesting. I'd be interested in what y'all have to say about it, either that you hate some things or want to see more or something.
I'm working on the first draft of the first novel in a series. It's about a woman (Angel Day) who is a sniper for the Phoenix PD. She used to be on the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team as a sniper. She likes to kill people a little too much, but the people she kills desperately deserve it. (In the first chapter, she snipes a big guy who had a shotgun duct-taped to a small woman's neck, and he was counting down to zero.)
What do you guys think?
TK Kenyon
March 9, 2012
Great Article about Picking A Title (For A TV Show)
There's a great article up at Yahoo TV about picking a title for a TV show.
Everything in there can and should be applied to novel and short story titles. It's a great article.
Some highlights:
Read the rest at: The Strange Art of Picking a TV Show Title
Everything in there can and should be applied to novel and short story titles. It's a great article.
Some highlights:
THE DO'S AND DON'TS: Nine vital title tips from execs and producers who know you don't get a second chance to make a first impressionDON'T Be Too WittyA title that gets executives excited may just be too cute for viewers. "We loved Better Off Ted internally," 20th Century Fox Television's Dana Walden says of Victor Fresco's critical darling that was dropped by ABC after two seasons. "We thought it was so smart and funny. We went with the witty, pithy title, and it just didn't work."DON'T Be Too GenericIf a title feels like it could be slapped on any one of a dozen shows, it's probably the wrong title. "Every year, there are 10 shows that all sound the same," says one studio exec. "You can't distinguish them. You want to avoid those generic titles." If Desperate Housewives had been called, say Housewives, would it have become a zeitgeisty hit? DON'T Be too LongTitles that are too long will get reflexively shortened -- by your onscreen guide and viewers. So save everyone the trouble and stick to a half-dozen words or less. People referred to The New Adventures of Old Christine as Old Christine. Beverly Hills 90210 became 90210. When people write, blog or tweet about How I Met Your Mother, it's HIMYM. For the latter two series‚ one a reboot with high title familiarity and the other an established hit that came into its own in a pre-Twitter era -- it's not a problem. But for a new series finding its footing and in need of constant brand reinforcement, a long title can hurt.
Read the rest at: The Strange Art of Picking a TV Show Title
March 1, 2012
Ebook Pricing: Yet Another Voice Chimes In
Hi folks,
Before we begin, let me say that personally, I have short stories for sale at 99c, compilations for $1.99, and plan novels for $2.99, $3.99, and $4.99 price points.
Really, perfectly honestly, I understand frustration that a lot of authors have with the "race to the bottom" mentality, but the reality of the situation is that ebooks have a great drawback: you can neither lend nor borrow the great majority of them. And it's kind of difficult to do even if you can.
I remember reading a statistic many years ago that the average mass market paperback book was read 6 times before it went to the dump. (This stat was before recycling was common.) Hardbacks had more reads before dumping.
Ten years ago, I purchased a fraction of dead tree books that I read. My friends and I, when at each others' houses, perused each other's stacks and took home books. There was usually a perfunctory, "You mind if I borrow these?" involved.
Sometimes the books were returned.
Usually, they were passed on.
That number, "6", is interesting.
Many mass market paper backs (mmpbs) are priced around $5.99. $6/6 reads = $1 per read.
The most acceptable price for a non-lendable ebook for a lot of people is 99c.
I think that books that are available as mmpbs should be 99c, and I plan to price that way.
Trade paperbacks, usually priced around $12-15, should be $12/6 reads = $2, or $1.99.
New issues, like hardbacks, should be $23.99/6 reads = $4, or $3.99.
Really excellent, large novels should be $29.99/6 reads = $5, or $4.99.
I think people are subconsciously doing that math, and I think that's why the price points have settled out at those numbers.
For short stories, the math is fuzzier, but possible to discuss.
In The New Yorker, there are usually about 20 pieces, plus or minus a few, and counting "Goings On About Town" as 1 piece, etc. If you have a subscription, that's about $1.50 per issue ($70/47 issues per year = 1.489). So that equals that I pay about 7.5 cents (= $.075) per short story that I read in The New Yorker. And I usually pass my NYer on to one other person.
On the other hand, The New Yorker usually pays a new writer around $10,000 to publish a short story, 1st NA serial rights, plus some other electronic rights. On their advertising page, they say that their average print audience is 3.9 million people. So a writer gets 0.26 cents per print audience member, (that's not a quarter per person, that's zero point twenty-six 100ths of a penny, or 26/100 of a cent, or about 1 penny per 4 reads.)
So that's even less.
Short stories should, really, be 10c, or 25c, or 49c, at most. I wish Amazon, Smashwords, and the other outlets would let us do that.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents,
TK Kenyon
Before we begin, let me say that personally, I have short stories for sale at 99c, compilations for $1.99, and plan novels for $2.99, $3.99, and $4.99 price points.
Really, perfectly honestly, I understand frustration that a lot of authors have with the "race to the bottom" mentality, but the reality of the situation is that ebooks have a great drawback: you can neither lend nor borrow the great majority of them. And it's kind of difficult to do even if you can.
I remember reading a statistic many years ago that the average mass market paperback book was read 6 times before it went to the dump. (This stat was before recycling was common.) Hardbacks had more reads before dumping.
Ten years ago, I purchased a fraction of dead tree books that I read. My friends and I, when at each others' houses, perused each other's stacks and took home books. There was usually a perfunctory, "You mind if I borrow these?" involved.
Sometimes the books were returned.
Usually, they were passed on.
That number, "6", is interesting.
Many mass market paper backs (mmpbs) are priced around $5.99. $6/6 reads = $1 per read.
The most acceptable price for a non-lendable ebook for a lot of people is 99c.
I think that books that are available as mmpbs should be 99c, and I plan to price that way.
Trade paperbacks, usually priced around $12-15, should be $12/6 reads = $2, or $1.99.
New issues, like hardbacks, should be $23.99/6 reads = $4, or $3.99.
Really excellent, large novels should be $29.99/6 reads = $5, or $4.99.
I think people are subconsciously doing that math, and I think that's why the price points have settled out at those numbers.
For short stories, the math is fuzzier, but possible to discuss.
In The New Yorker, there are usually about 20 pieces, plus or minus a few, and counting "Goings On About Town" as 1 piece, etc. If you have a subscription, that's about $1.50 per issue ($70/47 issues per year = 1.489). So that equals that I pay about 7.5 cents (= $.075) per short story that I read in The New Yorker. And I usually pass my NYer on to one other person.
On the other hand, The New Yorker usually pays a new writer around $10,000 to publish a short story, 1st NA serial rights, plus some other electronic rights. On their advertising page, they say that their average print audience is 3.9 million people. So a writer gets 0.26 cents per print audience member, (that's not a quarter per person, that's zero point twenty-six 100ths of a penny, or 26/100 of a cent, or about 1 penny per 4 reads.)
So that's even less.
Short stories should, really, be 10c, or 25c, or 49c, at most. I wish Amazon, Smashwords, and the other outlets would let us do that.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents,
TK Kenyon
December 9, 2011
Want to Review a #Free #Ebook about #glutenfree Places to Eat?
Howdy fellow GF-ers,
I'm finishing writing an ebook with information about being GF and eating in US chain restaurants called "What To Eat When You Eat Out, Gluten Free."
I have researched 60 medium and large restaurant chains, plus some smaller joints.
For each restaurant chain, I have listed:
- Name
- Quick notes, esp whether a GF menu is available and where.
- A list of all the safe GF items on their menu you can eat
- Link to their GF information
- Link to their find-a-location page
- More extensive notes including my own experience and reports from the web.
At the front, I have 3 hyperlinked indices: Index of Good GF Restaurants, Index of All Restaurants, and Index of Local GF Restaurants by State.
If you'd like a free advance reading copy and (if you like it) will post a review of it on Amazon or your other favorite ebook retailer, either leave a comment in reply to this post or go to my web page tkkenyon.com and click the "EMAIL TK" button on the left.
For both, make sure to include:
1) the email address to send it to
2) preferred format (epub for Sony, Apple, or Nook; or mobi for Kindle, or something else.)
I'll send you a link when it's published. If you liked it, please review it!
I plan to give away 25 copies, so contact me soon if you'd like a free copy!
Thank you!
TK, the Celiac Maniac
I'm finishing writing an ebook with information about being GF and eating in US chain restaurants called "What To Eat When You Eat Out, Gluten Free."
I have researched 60 medium and large restaurant chains, plus some smaller joints.
For each restaurant chain, I have listed:
- Name
- Quick notes, esp whether a GF menu is available and where.
- A list of all the safe GF items on their menu you can eat
- Link to their GF information
- Link to their find-a-location page
- More extensive notes including my own experience and reports from the web.
At the front, I have 3 hyperlinked indices: Index of Good GF Restaurants, Index of All Restaurants, and Index of Local GF Restaurants by State.
If you'd like a free advance reading copy and (if you like it) will post a review of it on Amazon or your other favorite ebook retailer, either leave a comment in reply to this post or go to my web page tkkenyon.com and click the "EMAIL TK" button on the left.
For both, make sure to include:
1) the email address to send it to
2) preferred format (epub for Sony, Apple, or Nook; or mobi for Kindle, or something else.)
I'll send you a link when it's published. If you liked it, please review it!
I plan to give away 25 copies, so contact me soon if you'd like a free copy!
Thank you!
TK, the Celiac Maniac
December 6, 2011
TK Kenyon Reviews Wickedly Charming by Kristine Grayson at SF Signal -- 5/5 Sparkly Hearts!
I gave Wickedly Charming by Kristine Grayson (Kris Rusch) 5 Sparkly Hearts (out of 5) because it's a fun, fluffy, well-written paranormal romance novel. It's a light, fun read!
Review at SF Signal here.
TK Kenyon
Review at SF Signal here.
TK Kenyon
October 28, 2011
New WWII Ebook Released!
Short stories from WWII! All meticulously researched. All surprising as heck.
Jitterbugging with The Bomb: At Los Alamos, fear can make you do crazy things.
Heart Mountain: At a Japanese internment camp in Wyoming, a teenage boy makes his stand.
Kings: At a German POW camp, a prisoner plays liar's poker for lives.
Hooligan Navy: A rich socialite teenage girl discovers that she can serve her country and finds her own strength.
Amazon/Kindle: http://amzn.to/rVcOtx
All Ereaders: http://bit.ly/ts5uSE
Hope you like them!
TK Kenyon
Jitterbugging with The Bomb: At Los Alamos, fear can make you do crazy things.
Heart Mountain: At a Japanese internment camp in Wyoming, a teenage boy makes his stand.
Kings: At a German POW camp, a prisoner plays liar's poker for lives.
Hooligan Navy: A rich socialite teenage girl discovers that she can serve her country and finds her own strength.
Amazon/Kindle: http://amzn.to/rVcOtx
All Ereaders: http://bit.ly/ts5uSE
Hope you like them!
TK Kenyon
October 3, 2011
TK's Amazon Profile: Lots of Reviews of Novels and Gluten-Free Cookbooks! http://www.amazon.com/T.-K.-Kenyon/e/...
All my musing on Amazon, including lots of book reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/T.-K.-Kenyon/e/B001JP4HK4
Hope to see you there!
TK
http://www.amazon.com/T.-K.-Kenyon/e/B001JP4HK4
Hope to see you there!
TK
September 27, 2011
Aithne Posts TK Kenyon's Links!
http://aithne-jarretta.blogspot.com/p/t-k-kenyons-reader-writer-links.html
What a nice person she is! Go read and buy her stuff!
TK Kenyon
What a nice person she is! Go read and buy her stuff!
TK Kenyon
