Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 2

True Facts About the Art and Craft of Writing: adagio for two voices in dissonant agreement

by Ruth Nestvold and Jay Lake

Originally published on IROSF, December 2005

Foreshadowing:

Jay recently said the following on his LiveJournal page:

“Span of control” is the story size (and shape) that I can hold in my head and manage organically, to produce a competent (or better than competent) first draft with a strong, consistent voice. As opposed to work outside my span of control, which tends to be far more laborious, requiring multiple restarts and editing sessions and considera...

Lazarus Rising: Bringing my Blog back to Life (Hopefully)

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this blog. I know blogs are a bit old-fashioned, but I’m not exactly young anymore, and I’ve always liked blogging more than other forms of social media. So then why did I quit? I’m not quite sure. At least in part it was general frustration with the way my writing career was going, and the feeling that blogging is useless. But I don’t do any other social media either. So anyway, I’m back!

I’ll be starting with a project I promised quite a few years...

“With Fear for our Democracy, I Dissent”

Chuck Wendig wrote a great blog post about the Supreme Court decision making criminal actions by US presidents legal.

Go. Read it.

“With Fear for our Democracy, I Dissent”

Ygerna made it into the top 100 free on Amazon!

It’s getting late here in Central Europe, so I may end up missing the best slot Ygerna manages to take, but right now it’s ranking #93 in free books on Amazon!

We will have to wait and see whether the expense to get it there was worth it, but it’s still really cool to get this kind of slot again, after a long marketing hiatus.

The best science fiction stories with thought-provoking twists on Shepherd.com

I was recently asked by a new book recommendation site, Shepherd.com, to create a list of recommended books to go with my SF novella, Looking Through Lace.

I decided to create my list around my favorite “holy crap!” SF novels and short stories, and names it “The best science fiction stories with thought-provoking twists.” You can check out my list here.

If was tough trying to choose only five, but still two books by Ursula K. LeGuin are on it.

Two new books written with Jay Lake finally published!

Shortly before the recent theatrics with the Amazon Content Review Team (see my blog posts here and here) I finally got around to publishing two works I wrote with Jay Lake before he died. There are a number of reasons why it took me so long — Jay died in 2014, after all, shortly before what would have been his 50th birthday. Not only was I working on Second Contact at the time of his death, there were all the complications of a publication with shared revenue to take into consideration. Since h...

All’s well that ends well?

Looks like calling Amazon’s customer service atrocious and sending them a link to yesterday’s blog post did the trick. Last night I got an email — that seemed to be from an actual person! — that Oregon, Elsewise had been approved, and my documentation for my publishing rights was sufficient. I even got an apology for the “inconveniences.”

It’s interesting, though, that I had to start getting nasty before anyone with more than two peas for brains (or possibly anyone at all?) took a look at my...

Looks Like “Oregon, Elsewise” Will Soon No Longer Be Available on Amazon

For a surprisingly long time, Amazon has been surprisingly nice to me. When I request changes and / or additions to my categories, the changes are made much faster than they used to be, and when a category is turned down, the reason makes sense. When I write to price match a book to make it free in order to promote other books in a series, the response has been prompt, and on occasion I have even been wished good luck with my sales.

Now, unfortunately, I find myself in another skirmish with A...

New Historical Fantasy: In the Shadow of Helios

Happy new year, everyone! A little late, I realize, but I’ve been busy. This week, I published a new book, In the Shadow of Helios. The really good news? It’s free until Jan. 26!

Mage Kalandra believes she is leading an ideal life — until she learns her husband died trying to run away with another man’s wife. And now she’s plotting revenge on a dead man, with no thought to the consequences for her people or her home …

In a world where Rome never ruled, the Christian religion remained ...

Announcing the 3rd and final book in The Glassmakers trilogy

I’m pleased to announce that Shards of Glass, Book 3 in The Glassmakers series, is now available as both ebook and paperback.

Forced to flee Venice once again, Chiara and Pasquale hope to find a place for themselves among the witches and glassmakers of London. But when Chiara learns that Dowager Princess Zilia is throwing so-called hidden purveyors of magic into prison – including their friends and relatives – she knows she can no longer run. She and her loved ones will never be safe ...