Ryan Field's Blog, page 453

Hurricane Sandy...

I went to look for photos about Hurricanes on google, and one that I'd posted last year came up and I thought that was interesting. I've been planning to do a long blog post about personal blogging in terms of personal legacy and this experience just reinforced my opinions about blogging. For many, what you put on your blog and what you put on the Internet will one day, indeed, become your personal legacy. So it's important now to think about how your blog posts will look in the future when y...

Hurricane Sandy: Direct Hit on New York, New Jersey, Delmarva October 29...

Posts may be sporadic for the next couple of days, depending on where Sandy makes landfall and how bad it actually is. So far, the latest reports say it's heading toward New Jersey/New York, and since New Hope is only an hour from NY, on the NJ border, we're planning for the worst.


Hope that wherever it does hit, everyone is safe and there's not much damage. So far I think it's still too early to tell, but it doesn't hurt to take precautions either.
 

Kindle Lending Library Now in France, UK, and Germany

The following is from an e-mail I received from Amazon. From my experience, I would recommend participating in the lending library for at least the first 90 days the book is released. I've found it helpful with the four .99 e-books I've self-pubbed on Amazon, and it offers readers a chance too not only see what you've done but it also gives them a break. The odds are if you are publishing for the first time you are not going to sell thousands of copies the minute the...

Why I had to Revise This Book Cover; Kergan Ewards-Stout Wants to be Defriended; Frankenstorm

(Update: The moment I posted this cover on facebook, author Janet Post, told me this cover model has been used on her book, so this cover won't be used either and it's back to coming up with a new cover. So this will now be an ongoing post about the difficulties of coming up with decent book covers. Of course I'm not using it. And I'm sure the cover artist will agree. I'm just glad Janet caught this in time before it went to print.)

Earlier this week I posted a preview cover for a new .99 e-book...

Big Thanks to A.J. Llewellyn and Gay Rom Lit 2012

For those who don't know, every year there's an event held for authors and readers and publishers called Gay Rom Lit...GRL. This year it was held in Albuquerque, NM, and though I would have liked to have attended it was just too far and there were too many things happening. I've had four weddings this fall so far, and one more to go. And Tony and I don't travel often these days because we have two dogs and we take them with us when we travel because I don't trust pet sitte...

Janet Reid's Interesting Post about Self-Publishing

I found a link on twitter today that led me to an interesting post on literary agent Janet Reid's blog about self-publishing. I used to follow her blog but stopped for a variety of reasons. And those who follow this blog know that I'm not a vigilante when it comes to self-publishing as opposed to legacy publishing. I think there is good and bad in both and I've remained on the fence about it. But I think writers, especially new writers, need to know facts from all angles.

In the post Reid...

Bayonets in the Military; Election Day Shift in Same Sex Marriage

As a coincidence, I'm working on a story for a European print magazine right now that has a military theme and bayonets are mentioned in one escape scene. Although this story will never see the light of day in digital book form, or even in the US, I want it to be accurate. I've been freelancing for small private publishers in Europe for years, mostly Germany and Russia, and they usually tell me what they want and I deliver it to them. In this case it was a military story, set in the...

Straight Boy Sexy Underwear Crisis!

Here's another Davey Wavey Youtube I think is funny. But I don't totally agree with Davey on this one. I know some gay men who love designer underwear, to the point of overdosing on it. You know the kind. The ones in the Undergear catalogue. They often remind me of panties, not real underwear for men.

But I also found the straight guy's regular boxer shorts in this video far sexier than the dainty blue panties Davey Wavey put him in. That's just my opinion. I don't like men to...

Bad Writing Tips That Make Me Crazy...

When I see profoundly bad writing tips that make me crazy, I get this feeling deep down that won't go away unless I post something about it. This could be a joke, but you never know these days. I hate to see new writers get bad advice from those who think they know it all. At least the bad writing tips have to be profound to make me crazy, not just small things. And, this is why I rarely offer writing advice, not even in jest. With over 100 published works on Goodreads.com, I have yet to find...

Cover Preview: A Sign From Heaven Above

"A Sign From Heaven Above" is a new release I'm indie publishing with Amazon. This time it's not a full length novel. It's a 9,000 word short story that's erotic gay romance, and it's never been published before anywhere. It will be offered as a .99 e-book indefinitely.

I actually wrote this a long time ago...years...and kept it in my files because I wasn't sure what to do with it. I didn't think it was right for Loveyoudivine.com, I didn't see any calls for submission for anthologies wh...