Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 28

Bowing out for the time being

The Villa Diodati writing workshop in France was wonderful, but it was overshadowed by news of a medical emergency in the family that occurred while I was away. I will still try to get a report on Villa Diodati 13 up when brain cells allow, but after that, I make no guarantees for anything happening on this blog for a while. We’re in a state of limbo at the moment. As I have already learned this year, grief eats creativity, and fear doesn’t seem to be any better.

As a result, my writing progr...

FREE though Friday – story collection with Jay Lake, Almost All the Way Home From the Stars

From now through Friday, you can get Almost all the Way Home From the Stars, a collection of seven science fiction stories that I wrote with my friend Jay Lake, who passed away in June after years battling cancer.

The description:

Near future dystopia, colonies in space, galactic empires: this collection has it all! “Almost All the Way Home From the Stars” is a collection of seven science fiction short stories by award winning writers Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold. The settings range from galact...

Many words, a story sale, and then off to France!

The word production has been going quite well since I decided to do Nano again. Last week, I got 13,000 words written, and so far this week it’s another 5400. Doing word sprints has been helping a LOT (thank you, sprint pals!) No writing so far today, though — I’ve been packing and setting up my little netbook for the trip. Tomorrow I fly to Paris for the next Villa Diodati workshop. We won’t actually be in Paris, though. This is where we’ll be:

Three days and four night of writing talk and g...

An update, a new Nano project, and a change of mind

The writing continues to be slow but steady. Last week I got 4600 new words written, despite lots of other stuff going on. We finally pulled the tomato plants in the garden — all but two, that is. Let’s see if we can still get fresh tomatoes in December. *g*

I also decided to participate in Nano again, even though none of my projects is long enough. I’m going to cheat and conflate them, my goal being to get the 50,000 words and at least two new novellas done. :) First, I want to finish Facets...

Using Keywords to Show up in Searches: Review of Supercharge Your Kindle Sales

Last month, before Chameleon in a Mirror had its free run and Island of Glass was available for pre-release, I did an experiment. At the beginning of October, I got a review copy from Nick Stephenson of his book Supercharge Your Kindle Sales. While he made a great case for using keywords to help make your book more visible, I didn’t want to write a review until I had some actual results on which to base my judgment.

I’ve already pointed out in another post in the series “Starting out as an In...

Guest post with Ruth Nestvold! #authorcorner

Ruth Nestvold:

Guest post I wrote for Adrian J. Smith’s blog on “The Vagaries of Inspiration” — another installment in the background of my new YA novella “Island of Glass.” Enjoy!

Originally posted on Adrian J Smith:

Today I’m excited to welcome Ruth Nestvold, a fellow WIPpeteer, to my blog. Ruth released a new book, and I’m so excited to share it and her inspirations with you all.

***

The vagaries of inspiration

I love to travel, and more than once, a cool place I’ve visited has made its way int...

Happy Halloween — and a free Halloween story for the occasion!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

When I first came to Germany, many decades ago, there was no such thing as Halloween. All Hallows, the first of November, is a religious holiday here, and those with regular jobs get the day off. But the evening before All Hallows, the night when the door between the worlds of the living and the dead is open a bit wider than usual — that seems to have it’s roots in the Irish Celtic festival of Samhain. Immigrants brought Halloween to the US, where it eventually beca...

Glassmaking & Magic ~ Guest Post with Ruth Nestvold

Ruth Nestvold:

A guest post I wrote for K.L. Schwengel’s blog about the historical background of “Island of Glass”:

Originally posted on :

**Editor’s note: Since I am currently out of town, and since the lovely and talented Ruth Nestvold has recently released Island of Glass, today, I turn my blog over to her. Take it away, Ruth!**

I have a penchant for creating fantasy worlds based on history, and Island of Glass is no exception. The novella is set in a 17th Century Venetian Empire that never e...

Arguing with a magic mirror for #WIPpet Wednesday

Last week, I got a surprising amount of wordage written, despite all the preparations for the launch of Island of Glass. (Thank you all very much for your help!) Anyway, the book is now published, I’ve gotten back into the swing of things regarding marketing my fiction, and last week I added a total of 6,000 words to various projects.

I’m still undecided whether I will try to do Nano this year. I have so many projects going right now, I don’t really want to abandon any of them. Well, I still...

Starting out as an indie author: Guest post on A.M. Leibowitz’s blog on the advantages of self-publishing

Today, for the publication of Island of Glass, my fellow WIPpeteer A.M. Leibowitz hosted me for a guest blog post on the advantages of self-publishing. Here an excerpt:

Speed

A traditionally published novel can easily take up to two years from the time it is accepted to the time it actually comes out. And that isn’t even counting the years of sending the manuscript out to agents and editors.

By comparison, self-publishing is almost instant. E-publishing may take up to a day from the time you hi...