Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 40

A brief update, and Celemon among the horses for #WIPpet Wednesday

Sunday, I didn’t get around to posting on my progress, so I will just give a brief update here before I get on with the real business of the day, WIPpet Wednesday!

The translation is coming along well again, now that I’ve that I’ve transferred the German into the correct file.

Given the time I need to devote to the translation, it seems to have been a wise decision to only shoot for a page a day of original work for the time being. Because I can proudly announce that I am exceeding my goal on...

Back by popular demand: An excerpt from A Wasted Land for #WIPpet Wednesday

Since you guys were largely agreed that you wanted to see more of A Wasted Land on my snippet days, I returned to the manuscript yesterday and wrote a new scene, part of which I’m sharing with you below. I actually have quite a bit of material after this scene, but it’s much later in the story. My first draft process is very messy. I tend to write a bunch of big, pivotal scenes that really interest me first. (If you’re curious, I’ve written more about my process here.) In between those, I hav...

Some modest writing goals for the first quarter of 2014

The email reminding us to post our first round goals went right under my radar somehow, so I’m coming a bit late to the party this time. I’m going to start out this round with very modest goals. Seeing as I’m behind on the translation, I really have to get caught up with that, and until I do, I’m going to have to allow my writing goals to take back seat for a while. Not only that, there’s been a bit of a setback. I found out today that I was sent the wrong version of the file to translate, an...

E-book promotions: Countdown – meh. Permafree – yay! (kinda)

Way back in the beginning of November, I wrote about the new Kindle Countdown Deals that Amazon had come up with to try to make KDP Select more attractive to writers again. I signed up for a promotion with my collection of short stories, Dragon Time, and promised to write about the results after it was over.

Well, Nanowrimo happened, and then Christmas happened, and now we have 2014, and I still haven’t posted about my results.

There’s one good thing as a result of that, however, and that is...

If You Don't Enjoy Marketing, You're Doing It Wrong

Reblogged from David Gaughran:

I can already feel the heat from approaching pitchforks!

But if you hear me out, I think I can convert at least some of you to the idea that if you don’t enjoy marketing, you’re doing it wrong. Let me explain.

Sometimes marketing can seem like a Sisyphean task. There’s always something you could do to promote your work, and there’s never enough hours in the day.

Read more… 1,609 more words

I *mostly* agree with this, but in my experience, group promos are a lot of...

Happy New Year! And Happy new #WIPpet Wednesday!

We had a wonderful New Year’s Eve. We had the granddaughters again, like we have the last couple of years, and at midnight, we went outside to enjoy the fireworks on our street corner and shoot a couple of our own:

Fireworks are such a wonderful way to bring in the New Year, a celebration of what is to come.

During the quiet days between Christmas and New Year, I’ve been concentrating on catching up on the Big Translation Project. So I fear I haven’t managed to get back to the latest installm...

Another creative outlet, and my quarterly accounting post

Yesterday, I dragged the sewing machine out for the first time in months (at least!) Not only do I have tons of mending to do, I wanted to do something creative other than writing for a change. So I made this medievaly fairy / elf outfit:

I realize Barbies are politically incorrect and lead to inferiority complexes, but they are also ubiquitous. I played with them as a girl, as did my daughter, and we both turned out to be fairly reasonable adults, with fairly healthy egos. And the dolls are...

Happy holidays to all!

I have come to the conclusion that Christmas is a full time job. Here’s what I’ve been up to in the last couple of days:

And that doesn’t include all the shopping for dinner, marinating the lamb, etc.

We put up the tree with family on Saturday, which involved getting it, decorating it, and eating cake (cherry cheesecake, which I made before the festivities). Then we had the girls overnight. But before their parents left for a blessed night alone, we discovered that Mira still fits in an Amazo...

Getting back to Amber: An excerpt for #WIPpet Wednesday

The holiday season continues to take its toll on my writing progress, that and the fact that I’ve been spending more time on the big translation project again, now that Nanowrimo is over. But today I had to go into town to do some more Christmas shopping, and yesterday I had grandma duties. (I am constantly amazed at the folks who can write while having small children around! I don’t seem to have the concentration necessary. My own writing ambitions went on hold when my kids were young.)

Anyw...

Reconsidering the Anglo-Saxon “Conquest” — and an update

Last week, I mentioned a couple of interesting books I’ve been reading in researching the era of The Pendragon Chronicles, and I had a request for more info. So I will try to provide a brief summary before I continue on to my writing update.

Both books treat the era of the so-called “Dark Ages” in Britain, dark because we have so few written records from the period. One of the few is “The Ruin and Conquest of Britain” by Gildas, a jeremiad written in Latin, which truly does paint a very bleak...