Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 41

Shadow of Stone now available in paperback

I got the paperback version of Shadow of Stone the other day, and did a hard copy check of the formatting. All looks good, so now I can announce it here! Here’s a photo:

There really is something quite wonderful about physical books. They’re a lot of work, and I don’t sell very many, but they’re a joy to hold in your hands. I really need to make more of my works available in hard copy. Maybe with practice, the formatting wouldn’t take me as long.

Changing horses in the middle of the stream – or, changing projects in the middle of Nano

So, I’m doing something which is probably very stupid, but I’m also hoping to learn more about myself as a writer in the process. I mentioned a couple of posts back that A Wasted Land has been coming along more slowly than I had hoped. Mostly this has to do with me needing to do more research and related brainstorming. I thought I had the plot pretty much mapped out, I had a synopsis and the first chapter with me at the last Villa Diodati workshop and I got some good feedback on it — but I al...

Excuses department: getting rid of tomatoes

I continue to be behind on just about everything, and this time the big excuse was the final harvest in the garden. On the weekend, we finally pulled out the tomato plants and brought whatever fruit was still on them home with us. And it was way more than I would have thought possible:

And this, mind you, in the middle of November in Germany! The temperatures have dropped quite a bit since, so it’s a good thing we pulled them when we did.

That means, however, that I have been spending more ti...

Back to Shadow of Stone again for #WIPpet Wednesday, and a Nano update – kinda

Yesterday and today, I had to take a break from Nano-ing in order to finish the final editing pass of Shadow of Stone. On my personal list of priorities, it’s more important to me that I make the paperback version of SoS available before Christmas than it is that I “win” Nano. So now I am going through the interior reviewer app provided by CreateSpace to make sure that the formatting really is as good as it looked in my DOC and PDF files. When I made the book of my dad’s memoirs this summer,...

“Dragon Time” live as Countdown Deal, and “Gawain and Ragnell” finally free!

I posted yesterday about the new KDP Select “Countdown Deals” and my decision to give it a whirl with my YA short story collection, Dragon Time. It took a while, but the sale is now live:

Also, I am very happy to announce that today Amazon finally price-matched Gawain and Ragnell, and it is now permafree. Download! Tell your friends! Send links to everyone who enjoys Arthurian fiction! *g*

I want to thank everyone who tattled on me and helped to make this novelette free. Cross your fingers fo...

Amazon trying to re-Kindle interest in KDP Select: The new “Countdown Deals”

I published my first ebook, Yseult, in January 2012, pretty much simultaneous with the introduction of KDP Select. I opted in and set my first promotion for a mere week after publication — and I didn’t have a clue how lucky I was. I got a couple of quick reviews as a result of review copies I’d given away, and my brand new little baby (or rather big fat hunking baby — the hard copy book comes in at over 600 pages) got picked up by no less than Pixel of Ink, which at the time was *the* way to...

Formatting Shadow of Stone for CreateSpace, & and an excerpt for #WIPpet Wedneday

The last couple of days, I’ve been spending most of my “writing” time putting together the PDF file of Shadow of Stone for the paperback version. I’ve been meaning to do this for much too long, but now with Christmas coming up, I really need to get it done. And the last couple of days before the craziness of Nano sets in seem to be a perfect opportunity.

The reason I keep putting off getting my books ready for paperback is all the work involved. Although I have to admit, Shadow of Stone ended...

A day off — and other things that cut into writing time

Yesterday, we had over 20 C weather in southern Germany, that’s about 70 F. I have translating and writing to do, formatting and editing, and I really need to finish a novel I’m beta reading for a fellow writer. So what did I do?

Had a spontaneous barbeque party in the garden!

We harvested tomatoes, potatoes and pumpkins, and I cut back the tomato plants that were starting to develop blight. But there are still an amazing number that are continuing to produce, even if they don’t taste quite a...

Announcing Gawain and Ragnell — and a request

I have a “new” short story in the Pendragon Chronicles series now available as ebook, Gawain and Ragnell.

To be honest, it’s been up on Amazon for almost a month, but I’ve put off announcing it for a couple of reasons.

1) It isn’t actually all that new, since it’s an expanded version of an episode from Shadow of Stone.

2) It took a while for it to get expanded distribution on Smashwords, so that it would be free on iTunes and B&N. Then, when I finally noticed that it was available, it was lik...

Villa Diodati 11, Or: Why didn’t we get this organized earler???

The past (long) weekend, I was off in the Black Forest for another Villa Diodati workshop — the first one in over a year. The last workshop was in April 2012 in southern England. But with one thing and another (most of the anothers having to do with the fact that I’ve been too caught up in my indie career and haven’t been taking responsibility like a dictator should), we’ve missed two workshop dates. Until last year, the workshop met twice a year since its inception in 2007, at various places...