Heidi R. Kling's Blog: Witch's Brew (Spellspinners 1) Launched!, page 3

February 28, 2014

Dickens and Me: Pros and Cons of Writing a Serial

Dear Readers,

I don’t usually comment on reviews, but lately I’ve had a few where the primary complaint is something inherent of, and I feel pretty transparent to, my Spellspinners series: this is a serial. I understand that the format is extremely new in the world of young adult fantasy, which is both the challenge of and the delight of writing it. I love trying new things so I accepted the offer to write for this new brand of fiction. But it’s a little hard to explain to readers raised on traditional young adult novels…what exactly it is I’m doing.

I’ll do my best now.

Not unlike the Dickens serials that published biweekly in the local newspaper, my romantic adventure saga of feuding witches and warlocks is meant to be read in chunks.

Dickens sprang to fame with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered theserial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication.[4][5] The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience’s reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback.

Like Dickens, I listen to reader feedback. If you love a certain character—bad boy warlock Jude is a fan favorite, for instance—I try to expand their character for you. I’ve heard television writers do this, too, based on fan “shipping” or “ships” as long as it works within the overall plot arc of the series. In fact, my publisher, Coliloquy, coins these “active fiction” novellas “episodes.” Akin to a serial drama like the CW’s The Vampire Diaries or Star-Crossed, Witch’s Brew is the “pilot” (and is the longest of the first three—the length of an average young adult novel) while subsequent “episodes” or novellas, are shorter, ending on cliffhangers—much like an episode of your favorite (and frustrating!) television drama.

My 9-book series is meant to be stretched out over the course of 9-books, so you will not receive all the answers to the questions right out the gate. I understand your frustration. I’m a fan of TV series and longer book series and it IS frustrating not to end satisfied, but I’m hoping it’s also what keeps you enthralled.

 If you’re new to the series, I recommend reading curling up by the fire with your drink of choice and binging on the 3-book bundle. I promise Devil’s Frost ends on a satisfying note in regards to Lily and Logan—this was very important to me— although it does open up a whole new can of magic beans in regards to our Daisy* and Iris. :) 

Spellspinners 4 is as absolute delight to write (and I hope to read!) and you don’t want to miss this very special  ”road trip” episode, which doesn’t take place on the road at all. Bwahahaha!

I appreciate all your feedback. 



With magic,

Heidi

(Daisy, Lily’s hilarious younger sister, was such a hit with readers, she gets her own spin-off!)




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Published on February 28, 2014 08:16

February 25, 2014

Devaluing writers? Thoughts on e-book pricing.

Jill Corcoran smart and hard-to-read article ON THE DEVALUATION OF WRITERS, BY WRITERS is already something I think about, especially in regards to my e-book series, The Spellspinners of Melas County. These books are cheap. Ridiculously so. $3.99 per book, or for the low, low price of $7.99 you can buy a “bundle” of the first three books. I’ve spent hours and days, weeks and months working on this series, yet a book costs less than my daily latte. In fact, my doctor friend commented he felt like he was “stealing something” after his purchase. 

Why is this? Well, Kindle customers are used to shopping cheap because many bestselling indie writers set their price at $0.99. Is ANYTHING ninety-nine cents these days other than e-books? I think a package of M&M’s costs more. 

Interestingly, over at Kobo, my contemporary novel SEA is selling like hotcakes and has been for a long time at a much higher price point of $14.99. The first novel of my fantasy series, WITCH’S BREW, is also selling really well on Kobo.

Why the discrepancy? First, it’s the sliding scale of free to ninety-nine cents thing over at Amazon that makes it hard to sell ebooks at a higher price, but also, if you’re used to getting something for free (perhaps your publisher lists your ebook for free quarterly) why bother paying for it?

The problem is, and I agree with Jill here, is that writers need to live. We need to eat, pay our bills, feed our kids, buy our coffee. Like many writers, if I didn’t have my spouse’s monetary support and supplement my writing career with teaching, I couldn’t write at all. At least not the kind of strict, professional, all-consuming writing that publishing a great book requires. We also need to feel like our work has value. This isn’t volunteer work, this is a job. We volunteer plenty. Selling our books is how we make our money.

Food for thought as you shop, dear readers. This opens up a lot of questions for me as well. Maybe if we work together, as Jill wisely suggests, we can fix this problem before it’s too late. 

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Published on February 25, 2014 15:58

February 24, 2014

"Girls are trained to say, ‘I wrote this, but it’s probably really stupid.’ Well, no, you wouldn’t..."

“Girls are trained to say, ‘I wrote this, but it’s probably really stupid.’ Well, no, you wouldn’t write a novel if you thought it was really stupid. Men are much more comfortable going, ‘I wrote this book because I have a unique perspective that the world needs to hear.’ Girls are taught from the age of seven that if you get a compliment, you don’t go, ‘Thank you’, you go, ‘No, you’re insane.’”

- Lena Dunham, in an interview with The Guardian   (via yahighway)
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Published on February 24, 2014 10:05

Is it Thursday yet??













Is it Thursday yet??

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Published on February 24, 2014 10:00

February 22, 2014

brandi-graham:


HAPPENING NOW [VERY IMPORTANT]: Venezuela’s...













brandi-graham:




HAPPENING NOW [VERY IMPORTANT]: Venezuela’s soldiers are killing their people. The Government is sending their armed gangs to kill them and they have censored all the media in their country, even blocking photos posted on social media sites. They shut down all the cable channels that broadcast news, so they can’t know what’s going on. The people have no source of protection at all. Students are protesting to save their country and their lives at this very moment. All they have are their social networks to get the word out so, PLEASE RE-BLOG THIS AND SPREAD THE WORD. VENEZUELA IS ON THE BRINK OF A CIVIL WAR  AND CLOSE TO BECOMING A FULL COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP. THEIR PEOPLE NEED YOUR HELP. —— Please, this is very important to me, one of my closest friends went to visit family in Venezuela over winter break and they won’t let him come back to Florida. We’re graduating in a few months and it hurts me to know that his baseball career and all of his hard work and dedication to his grades here in the U.S. was all for nothing. Please.




OTHER INFORMATION AND LINKS:


USAToday Article
CNN Article
Wallstreet Journal Article
Updated News
Washington Post Article
BBC Article
→ Pictures [1] [2]
Investigation



use the hashtags pictured at the top of this post on your social networking sites to connect and help spread the word, thank you so much! x



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Published on February 22, 2014 21:05

February 18, 2014

Beautiful Things!


I know I’m late to the party, but I just saw this. How magical is this? Speaking of all-things-lovely, did you catch CW’s new show STAR-CROSSED last night? What did you think? I loved it! It’s so refreshing to find a sweet love story on the CW,  especially one set in the not-so-distant future with ink-laden leads and Aimee Teegarden (FNL’s Julie Taylor)  playing a relatable brunette with a sympathetic backstory. Anna, dead vamp/sometimes ghost from Vampire Diaries plays her ill best friend. Smart storytelling included an E.T. esque intro setting up backstory alien bonding with little girl from We Bought a Farm. The male lead alien couldn’t be any hotter—then again, all of you who’ve read Spellspinners, know I have a thing for star-crossed romance and well-placed ink. ;) 


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Published on February 18, 2014 10:22

February 15, 2014

godawful message for female teens from 17 mag

She also told the magazine that her greatest regret in life is not going to college. “The biggest struggle I’ve ever had has been about not going to school and working instead,” said Stewart. “I was worried about turning down specific individual experiences.” Though we’re sure K-Stew would have made a great English major, making out with R-Patz/Taylor Lautner/Emile Hirsch was probably a far more important life experience than whatever she might have learned in “Intro to Romantic Poetry.”

Read more: Kristen Stewart Has No Regrets - Seventeen 
Follow us: @seventeenmag on Twitter | seventeenmagazine on Facebook 
Visit us at Seventeen.com


Way to discredit “K-Stew” while ridiculing girls’ decisions to go to college. Making out with boys is never a more “important life experience” than expanding your mind through the literary arts, and obviously the actress agrees or she wouldn’t have named skipping college as her “greatest regret”. (No wonder celebrities hate doing interviews.)

Read the whole article here

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Published on February 15, 2014 12:40

February 10, 2014

Exactly this.

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Published on February 10, 2014 09:23

February 7, 2014

AU in which 5x11 never happened and Elena has a nightmare.

ALL...


















AU in which 5x11 never happened and Elena has a nightmare.



ALL THE PAINFUL TRUTH! Kat is so funny, I don’t even mind. 

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Published on February 07, 2014 08:33

February 6, 2014

TODAY IS THURSDAY.
(See you at 8 PM PST.)













TODAY IS THURSDAY.


(See you at 8 PM PST.)

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Published on February 06, 2014 10:19

Witch's Brew (Spellspinners 1) Launched!

Heidi R. Kling
So excited to announce the launch of my innovative fantasy series with exciting new publisher, Coliloquy!

WITCH'S BREW is book 1 in a multi-book series about estranged witches and warlocks, as they fig
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