Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 26

Writing for (a) Cthulhu

My writing progress this past week has been better than usual, and this is the reason:

At the last Villa Diodati workshop in France, VD13 (for which I still have to write a report, mea culpa), Sylvia was crocheting these lovely little monsters, and she promised to make one for me and Nancy if we finished our WIPs by the end of January.

Well, when I got back from France, I got a bit distracted by Life complications that cropped up while I was gone. My writing suffered for a while as a result....

Fantasy Maps on Fiverr

Ruth Nestvold:

What an excellent idea! If I ever get around to publishing the Rose Knight stories I wrote with Jay Lake, I think I will try this too. :)

Originally posted on The Indie Colophon:

Having a map of your invented world is pretty much a staple in fantasy fiction. When your story covers foreign terrain existing��only in your head, it helps to give your reader a guide. I knew I wanted a map for my fantasy novel, I just had to figure out how to take it from my imagination to reality.

My...

“More precious than gold” : an update and an excerpt

We may already be two weeks into the New Year, but this “Invocation for Beginnings” just showed up on a list I’m on, and I had to share it:

Since I’ve gotten over the head cold, the year has been pretty productive for me. Here’s hoping I can keep up the momentum! Some of the things I’ve gotten done since my last update:

– made the cover, formatted the text, and published the final installment of Yseult, Part IV

- published a new installment of my “Starting out as an indie author” series, “Wh...

Why “write the next book” isn’t enough; Or: What to do if your books aren’t selling.

In this installment of my series, I am going to take it as a given that you’ve written a good book and either had it professionally edited, or critiqued by several colleagues in a workshop or through critique exchanges, or sent the manuscript out to multiple beta readers — or all of the above.

It the story is lame, the writing bad, or the manuscript riddled with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, changing the cover or blurb won’t help increase sales. If your book hasn’t already been th...

25 of the most majestic libraries in the world

I had to share this, especially once I saw that the city where I live is represented:

I’ve been to five of the lovely sites listed, which isn’t bad at 20%. :) View the rest of the amazing book paradises here:

http://www.boredpanda.com/extraordinary-libraries/

These are my favorites, even if they aren’t Stuttgart:

I’ve been to both Prague and Den Haag but not the libraries. Hopefully someday I will be able to remedy that situation. :)

Beware of gifts from the dowager princess …

Slowly getting back into the blogosphere, me. With family matters no longer as pressing, and the head cold winding down, I can get more done that needs to get done. Yesterday I didn’t make any progress on the big stuff on the to-do list, but I did manage to get 1200 words written. That’s a good writing day for me!

After that mini-update, on to WIPpet Wednesday! As a result of craziness of the Christmas holidays, and then that stupid cold, I haven’t played for several weeks. In honor of 2015,...

First quarter goals for 2015

Happy New Year! I hope everyone has started it off better than me — I’ve been sick with a very irritating head cold. It seems to be slowly letting up now, though. I certainly hope so. I find it very hard to concentrate when my head is full of gunk.

Anyway, on to the first order of the year — stating my goals for this round! A number I will have to carry over from last year, but I did make a big dent in my publishing goals in the last days of 2014: I got Mars: A Traveler’s Guide, and Yseult, P...

A Christmas gift for my readers: Looking Through Lace

Merry Christmas, everyone! We had a wonderful family Christmas Eve last night, and much turkey and many presents were had by all. Christmas is so much more fun with children, their enthusiasm is catching. :)

In honor of the occasion, I’m offering my award-winning SF novella, Looking Through Lace, free through Dec. 29.

As the only woman on the first contact team, xenolinguist Toni Donato expected her assignment on Christmas would be to analyze the secret women’s language — but then the chief l...

Starting out as an indie author: Where to promote a 99c eBook sale

In my ongoing attempts to bump my sales again, I tested a 99c sale with Shadow of Stone last week, from Dec. 15-19. In this post, I’d like to share my results, along with the resources I’ve put together, a list of sites where you can have you sale book listed, both free and paid.

First of all, some info on what I did and the results. About ten days before my sale started, I wrote to all the sites below that offer free listings (except the Naughty List, since the book is not romance or erotica...

Stories on the Go: 101 Very Short Stories by 101 Authors – FREE!

I have another Christmas present for my readers: Stories on the Go: 101 Very Short Stories by 101 Authors. For this one, my contribution was very small, as you can gather from the title — less than one percent. :) This is a mutual project from a whole bunch of indie authors who hang out on Kboards, including Hugh Howey, Toni Dwiggens, Lisa Grace and many, many more. All of the stories are flash fiction pieces, under 1000 words. We have Andrew Ashling to thank for doing most of the editing, wi...