Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 51

Latest free run for Yseult and some thoughts on KDP Select

My sales this month have been pretty pathetic, and that after awesome months in August, September and October. Partly it might be due to the fact that I was gone for over two weeks, plus frazzled before and jetlagged after. My online presence diminished to near-invisibility, and I can’t help but think that played a role in my diminishing sales.

Another thing that’s hurting me (and others) is that free runs are becoming increasingly ineffective for boosting sales. There have been a number of d...

Getting back into the swing of things

I’ve been back from the States for just over a week now, and I’m slowly recovering from jetlag while I try to get back into my normal routines again. My attempt to jump into Nano a few days late has been pretty pathetic until now — Ygerna (my prequel to Yseult and Shadow of Stone) is presently coming in at a little over 6500 words. But I’m not going to beat myself up over it too much. The last couple of days, my word counts have been increasing to near-Nano requirements, and if this keeps up,...

A little writing progress and lots of free Halloween fiction

As I predicted last week, I haven’t exactly gotten a lot of writing done while I’ve been visiting family. I have been doing some brainstorming for Ygerna, though — and I’m loving it. Brainstorming is one of my favorite parts of the writing process. When you’re playing with ideas, it’s like being on a journey of discovery, for me at least. Every time a new twist or (supposedly) perfect detail pops into my mind, I’m like all “ooh, cool, that will be so great!” Because at this wonderfully innoce...

The Next Big Thing: Musing on my time travel with Aphra Behn

I was tagged by Renata Barcelos to explain why my novel is going to be the Next Big Thing. *g* But seriously, the blog hop is more about stopping by different blogs to discover new writers, or maybe a great read down the road somewhere. A lot of us are talking about books that have yet to be finished, but maybe our WIPs will make people curious about the books we’ve already published!

On to the questions:

What is the working title of your latest book?

Chameleon in a Mirror

Where did the idea...

“The Next Big Thing,” upcoming freebies, and hiatus announcement

I was tagged today in a blog hop, “The Next Big Thing”:

This particular blog hop was started as an opportunity to learn about the work of independent authors, one blog at a time. If you would like the chance to promote your book in this way, please let me know in the comments! I need to tag five other writers next week when it’s my turn (assuming I even get around to posting, but more on that later.) You can see the questions on Renata Barcelos’s blog, the writing buddy who tagged me. Thanks,...

New draft of Chameleon in a Mirror finished! (And various other writing news)

Chameleon in a Mirror, my literary time travel fantasy to the era of Aphra Behn, is now done in the new version, coming in at 110,000 words. This is not DONE done, just a completed draft. I still need to do a revision pass, taking notes on motives, plot threads, and characters in Scrivener as I go. I’m hoping that will help me make the plot more cohesive before I send it to my critique partner.

I continue to track hours and activities, but I don’t know yet if it’s making me more productive, a...

New Facebook author page, time-tracking, and another freebie (Shadow of Stone)

I’ve been putting this off for a while, but now I’ve finally gone ahead and set up a Facebook page specifically for the author me. If anyone is inclined to like it, that would help me a lot for promo opportunities through Facebook. Thanks!

Also, please note that Shadow of Stone is free today and tomorrow. So if you missed it during the last free run, please be my guest and grab yourself a copy!

In writing news: I was inspired by a blog post from the lovely and talented Gene Lempp a couple of d...

Author spotlight with me on OWW, the usefulness of writing workshops, and another ebook up

In the last post, I forgot to mention (because I forgot about it in the first place *g*), that the October newsletter of the Online Writing Workshop did their spotlight with yours truly. You can read it here.

I was a member of OWW for many years, and I’m sure I learned at least as much in that workshop as I did at Clarion West. My most successful short stories (in terms of award nominations), Looking Through Lace and Mars: A Traveler’s Guide, both went though OWW. Although I have to admit, th...

An interview, some words, and more goal sorting

Yesterday, Randomize Me posted an interview with me, revolving around my (at the time of the interview) most recent publication, Beyond the Waters of the World. Check it out!

Since my last post, I’ve gotten about 2,000 more words done on Chameleon in the Mirror. That’s not quite where I would have wanted to be, but on the other hand, I spent most of my writing time today reading up on pre-Arthurian legends, taking notes, and deciding on the project I’ll tackle for NaNoWriMo this year. I’m sh...

Sorting out my goals

Like usual, I have lists and lists of things to do scattered all over my desk; now is my quarterly opportunity to compile all those lists and figure out what I really have to do.

1) Since I am still not done with Chameleon in a Mirror, getting that in shape to send to my critique partner is a top priority. Part of the problem is that it’s longer than expected. I now have over 100,000 words of Time Travel, with three chapters left to go. I’m hoping I can finish that before flying to the States...