Sarah Scheele's Blog, page 30

Let's Talk "Alyce"

Everybody has situations in their lives that require clarification. For me, one is Alyce/Millhaven Castle. There were 3 variations on this same story, appearing in different publications over the course of 7 years. The first two appeared in the original Birthday Present volume and the first edition of Facets of Fantasy. The third, titled Alyce, appeared as a stand-alone in 2014, followed by two other stories. (I later moved these stories and detached them from Alyce. They are not relevant to this conversation.) 

From the beginning, readers got some sort of complex about Alyce. When last I checked, I was still listed as the "author of Alyce" on various sites. Since Millhaven Castle was in my first publications, whatever idea people had about the Alyce world was there from the first. Sooner or later they'd mention something about "Millhaven Castle," and when I noticed that my social interactions and friendships invariably, subtly deteriorated afterwards, I started to become skeptical of what readers were really getting out of the Alyce world. Sometimes verbally, always implied, readers started and justified behavior to me--indeed a whole approach to my writing--based on the Alyce world. This made the connection far too personal for my taste. It was just a story, whereas people seemed to think it was close to me in some way it was not. 

I'd like to clarify what really happened. Since I was making a story series at the time, and feeling pressure to publish rapidly, I took a few of a pre-existing novel's elements and turned them into a shorter novella. That's ALL. I wasn't trying to say something about myself, my beliefs, how I expected to be treated, or my views on a particular group of people. I just made it shorter from motives of practicality. However, when I got back to the root of the Alyce problem, I realized some sort of bad message had seeped into the stories. Removing the other characters and the full structure of the world had accidentally--and I do mean accidentally--turned it into a slightly different story. At least, in people's minds.

Readers are acutely triggered by tiny, tiny details. Really minuscule things can activate their imaginations and lead them to create things based off of a word, a reference, a dress color, a type of family situation--anything. The longer novel for Alyce, which I am now going to publish as a replacement for these stories, places many of these details in perspective. So if you are still here because you got Whatever-That-Was out of Alyce, you should go away. That only entered the story, if it was there at all, by an honest, freaking accident. I don't have the direction and interests that you thought if you were one of the Alyce people, nor do I want to get out of life what you felt was implied. This story was never about me in any case, and now I'm removing even the story itself, this is a misunderstanding that has come to an end. 

And there will be more updates. 

 

5 Signs of A Spammer

To continue my conversation about SPAMMERS--and I have enough experience with this topic to go on and on and on about it for literally dozens of blog posts--there are 5 qualities that this kind of person always has. They are repetitive, like everyone else, I imagine. I certainly return to my MO, my typical behavior and reactions time and time again. It's my comfort zone and my natural state of being. This is true of us all, and certainly of the Spammer. Spammers try the exact same things repeatedly, like throwing the same old shoe at a different person's head each time. So here's 5 things I've found SPAMMERS always do. 1: Believe in an imaginary relationship you don't recall agreeing to. I knew a guy who added me online and after an extremely slight acquaintance, he began to yell at me and call me a bitch. I barely knew this guy. When I asked him about doing this, he basically said over and over that he knew my sister, he knew my sister, he knew my sister. I didn't care where or how my sister picked him up. That didn't give him a right to be offensive to me. Where did he get the idea we had such a relationship, you ask? From Spammer-Land. 2: Be unbelievably boring. Spam people think about their goals, not your needs. So they rarely bother to be interesting. If I had a minute back for every time I've been droned at for HOURS about the weather or the buildings on the cover of one of my books or random pictures of weedy wildflowers or a wharf they happened to walk near a week ago, I'd be a much younger person. Probably too young to operate a website on my own. This selfishness should make you suspicious instantly. Lack of consideration for what YOU'D like to talk about is lack of consideration for you and that's a no-no.3: Show poor, poor, poor manners. A person who isn't polite is utter SPAM and should be deleted like ads for Viagra. If people blow off every stupid, unkind, or rude remark/feedback that comes into their little heads, it means they have no self-control. Lack of civility means lack of respect for others. And where DID they get such an idea they were above rules? From a constant, daily disrespect for people that's gone on so long they don't notice it. The rude are never legit. 4: Act superior because of money. Spammers, like scammers, are awfully interested in money, but much more in getting it than spending it on others. If people had given me a penny each time they heckled me about "writers can't make money, how do you make money, you should try something you can get, really, are your books even available (how cute, insert condescending chuckle)" instead of buying my books, I'd be rather wealthy. How much money I make is honestly not their business. If they're interested enough to talk, they should pay for the books and shut up. Don't let anyone treat your job with disrespect. 5: And not least--movies. I've never met a spammer who didn't eventually boil the conversation down to something about their entertainment. I grew incredulous. Were there seriously people out there who would waste whole years of my life trying to get me to watch something I don't like? HOW SELFISH and POINTLESS!!! But after the conversations listed above, or before them, or somewhere in the middle, they always start mentioning a movie or TV show I've never heard of/don't particularly like. They seem to be a sort of unpaid, volunteer advertising service for the lesser side of Hollywood. And once they're revealed to have nothing in common with me, why are we still talking?!​​
But SPAM is a lifestyle, a state of mind. It's not based on relevance to its audience. It's about something undefined that drains money, wastes time, and drowns out voices that need to be heard. The Spam you buy in a can in the store has been framed. These people are the real SPAM, walking among you. 

And there will be more updates. 

Let's Talk City of the Invaders

This book originally started as a simple children's story in a collection called Facets of Fantasy. (The new, currently published version of Facets does not include this story and has a product page on this website.) This old little story, called The Trouble with Taranui, was just a germ of an idea for these 2 siblings living in a futuristic world that had a more realistic approach than most dystopian. Yes, there's a collapse of sorts, now far in the past, but the society's a lot more complex than most "lights-go-out" books make it out to be. Exploration has even continued, with colonies on Mars and the moon, and on earth there's a small minority called the EC who continue old traditions. The world is disruptive and poorly organized, but not as angsty and violent as you might expect. 

The original story was about these siblings, Frank and Katia running into trouble while putting on theatricals required by their EC community. But the story grew and grew and grew. I wrote a longer expansion about 4 years later and then kept adding bits after that. Frank and Katia got cousins who lived among the invaders, and the plot grew a little less immature and more dangerous. This book became an ebook, but was abandoned and never made it to print.

​While sorting my books, I picked it back up and found the world had a reality and resonance to it that I couldn't explain. So I revived it, added a paperback, and the next thing I knew, I was making a sequel. (Another story I'd written, called Consuela, more on that in another post.) The world of Palladia--what I call informally the "Frank and Katia" world--just slowly wove itself into more and more certainty over years. It's been almost a decade since that original little short story and today there's a sequel. I'm almost amused to realize a third book might not be too far in the future. It always feels strange when a world grows organically like that, in the telling, whether you want it or not. I'm excited about the Chronicles of Palladia series and I know readers will share that excitement because this story is pulling towards someone. I can feel it. 

And there will be more updates.

To Review or Not to Review

Reviews are an important part of a capitalist world. People need to know if something is a lemon, didn't arrive on time, or was just plain junk. Did the book have sensual or violent content that was never mentioned by the author or publisher? Did this seller not send items and then refuse a refund? Was this movie genuinely interesting, with people flooding to state their opinion? 

But unfortunately, attention hogs and Spammy insiders have swarmed product reviews. And not just reviews--blogs, blog commenting, fan pages, social media, pretty much any place where an opinion could be shared. Authors have to have many reviews (supposedly) and that means begging for them from people who are honestly rude and unfair. Yes, I'm an author and I'll feel personal about this. But it is really true, as I see when it's done to people other than me. It's honestly rude and unfair. (Or fake-friendly. Beware the fake-friendly little avatar-heads who flood your book or blog with SPAMMY comments that will keep people from taking you seriously. Those people do not really like you! 

Why do some books or movies have spectacularly high numbers of gushing reviews and others, though established with a cult fan base for decades, have far fewer? Don't tell me The Force Awakens was more liked than the complete original Star Wars saga which has been around for decades! But the complete saga has only a little over 6,000 reviews on Amazon, the individual movies far fewer. And over 10,000 for The Force Awakens. Why does Frozen have almost 20,000 and movies like Tangled or Snow White have 4,000 and 2,000 respectively? Snow White is still one of the most popular and most loved princesses, after all these years, based on a merchandising poll I saw in a magazine a few years ago. Why isn't this movie soaring to 20,000 reviews? 

I've come to suspect spammers. SPAMMERS, spammers, spammers. They show up trying to push something and bury something else. By now I'm secretly sure every book review ever written is about Twilight, and how this book is or is not similar to Twilight or some other young-woman's-cup-of-tea book. It is NOT helpful to me to know whether some screaming little person online thinks this book is the same sort of fat, popular book as Twilight and that's how it should be rated. I don't care if it's like Twilight or not. I want to know what's in it. And this nagging worry about a review's legitimacy does nothing to raise the value of reviews. (Not to mention those USELESS reviews on things like necklaces and DVDs that say the following bites of brilliances: "came on time," "Amazon sold this," "broke" (no details or explanations); "good." Whatever that means.)

So reviews are precious and as a writer I want them. As a consumer I use them. But the spammers are driving me to my limit and I suspect I'm not alone. 

To be continued later. There will be more updates. 

Books I've Read Recently

Recommended books I read last year. I don't read as much as some people, but I did poke around a little bit. I felt it was sad so many great authors were people I hadn't run into before because I honestly didn't know about them. There's a lot of talented people writing these days. 

The Gathering 
Cecile and the Kingdom of Belamor (Mystic Heroine Adventures 1, 2, and 3)
Fads, Fashions, and Fantasies: Three Decades of Outrageous Fashion
Esme's Wish 
The Elixir: A Bud Hutchins Thriller 
Perception (Vintage Jane Austen)
Ounces of Oneness
Soothing Rain: Living Water to Refresh Your Soul
Daniel and the Triune Quest (Sons and Daughters Book 2)
Astrid's Dragon

Enjoy poking around!

Getting Down With The Facts

In the play "Lover's Vows," which appears in Mansfield Park (the book I just redid as Bellevere), the character Count Cassel has a ridiculous speech about all the bad habits he's picked up everywhere he's been around the world. "In my travels I have learnt . . . delicacy in Italy, hauteur in Spain, in England sincerity, Scotland frugality, etc." Similarly, in my travels as author, with over ten years under my belt, I have well learnt the meaning of the word SPAM. There are people out there who are so spammy in all their behaviors they seem to be the incarnation of Spam with no other identity. Relationships, projects, conversations, reviews, friendships, romances--sadly, everything on earth--can become flooded with spammers. These are not real people in your life or in your professional interests. (In fact, it's a question of some concern whether they're still real people at all, to anyone, because they never do anything useful.)

So if you're reading this and just starting out as an author--or as anything else, like a human being--here's a list of things I've learnt in my travels around the internet. Avoid these things and anyone who does them. They are SPAM and attention to them is hours spent wasting your life; years you'll never get back; dead-end friendships; no financial return; and focus away from something much more deserving. There are people out there who deserve your time and there are other people who are trying to take your time away. So here's a list of things I've learned to tune out:

The review culture. Reviews, period, except for independent editorial reviews. I'm far more likely to read or watch something with fewer reviews. What I think of the product is more important than what someone else thinks and I never ask for reviews and rarely read them.
Vague negative feedback. Phrases like "confusing," "didn't connect to the characters," "insufficient story arcs," "sloppy writing/editing," and "not in the target audience" are just Spam trying to drown the product. I truly just tune this out, whether it's said about me or about someone else.
"Signed copies." Books certainly aren't more valuable to me because someone's handwriting is scribbled rather badly in one corner. I'm suspicious of the whole wish to set up a kind of relationship based on these exchanges, since my experience is the person is much more interested in some unspecified friendship than in my writing--so wasted marketing there.
Efforts to assign marketing brackets not appropriate for your book. You must have a glamorous woman posing full-length on your cover; you must include more or less romance; you must do something historical, especially in the Christian market I was at during a phase of my career. This is nonsense. Those books are not more read, and they flood book resales en masse in such piles no one could ever hope to buy or reuse them. These things are flatly a waste of time trying to supersede stories with content.
"Social networking." After 10 years, I've found this just doesn't work. People's insincerity is rampant and rife. They do nothing but Spam me with snotty questions about my work (I couldn't possibly be real, I couldn't possibly be serious, I couldn't possibly be making money.) People assume I'm there for relationships, especially mildly disrespectful ones, or to listen to THEM for hours instead of promoting my work. Time is money and time spent on social media is money lost.

To be continued in a later post. There will be more updates.

Just Ticking Away

Now the little details of redoing 5 books at once, a website, a newsletter with a lot of new subscribers, and a lot of other little writing-related things are finished, I'm preparing to plunge into Consuela, The Prince's Ball, and a contemporary family story called All About Lamia. Even tricky things like learning to embed code and create welcome emails are behind me. I'm incredibly proud of the books I've put out and I'm detached as well. I know some are weaker than others, and I applied an extensive amount of critical thinking to all my stories to narrow it down to these 5, and to make the changes to them I did. 

On a fun note, I stumbled on a wonderful artist who did creative envisioning of the Disney princesses in the world of Star Wars, as Jedi. It was eye-opening because some translated so much better than others. Most of the Disney princess movies are appealing only to "Disney princess" people, but a surprising few have an additional audience beyond the original fan base. You can tell by the costumes, especially if you're familiar with Star Wars. Here's a gallery of some of them. (Be sure to remember the artist as well, she's got watermarks on the images)

Check out Cinderella! She looks so authentic it's easy to believe she was somewhere in the Prequels, in the back of the Jedi Council. And what about Minnie Mouse?! She reminds me so much of Princess Leia. But Aurora looks--weird. Just weird, like 1960s sarcastic comedy about men who are heralds. Guess this movie was really dated. And Rapunzel's long hair and bare feet are honestly impractical for fighting as a Jedi.  Looked great: Pocahontas; Snow White; Anna; Jasmine; Cinderella; Minnie Mouse

Kind of meh: Aurora; Tiana; Rapunzel; Eilonwy

Didn't make the crossover, IMO: Ariel; Belle; Elsa; Mulan; Esmeralda; Merida

​And there will be more updates. 

The Rewrites Continue

The overhaul remains in full swing. In addition to a lovely, more professional website (but I won't drone about that), I have 5 books now complete with new covers, content, and organization. I've also discarded a number of stories and unearthed others from my archives. With at least 3 books scheduled for this year, I should have 9 or more soon, which is not bad for the 10 years I've been publishing.

Ryan and Essie has had the cover tweaked to a lovely burgundyish-purple (see above), and I've given it a grammar edit and attached a bonus short story to the back. The Old Man and His Grandsons was a really cute little story about a man in a nursing home who goes on an adventure when his grandsons get involved with a semi-ridiculous planet full of unicorns. It went great with Ryan and Essie. 
Victoria got cut by about 40% and is now a shorter novella slipped into Facets of Fantasy. So much of the story was honestly bloated and overdramatic and the character arcs surrounding Mrs. Corkum and her nieces weren't necessary in large part. Bella was also minimized a little as the story is really about Victoria. The new story is hugely improved and  has much more of a focus.
I also pruned Bellevere House by at least a third and updated it to a contemporary setting. It still has the same cover and the setting actually went well with the other VJA books because I had some of the characters be fans of vintage. Dressing them up in vintage clothes brought the play area back to something closer to the original Mansfield Park, and cutting long areas of Faye's musings and thoughts gave a lot of clarity about her motivations--which was great.
Consuela is still under construction. So far it's a neat story that I'm surprised I'd forgotten about for so long, because it has a lot of great situations. If it's as fun to read as it is to work on, it'll be a winner.
Halogen Crossing has been removed from Facets of Fantasy, as it's a boring, heavy story that offers nothing to readers and whatever appeal it had is past. The Test of Devotion would need to be reworked totally as I'm not interested in publishing a western again, but I'll look into it and see if it's worth anything. As mentioned before, earlier, short Alyce stories have also been discontinued in preparation for The Prince's Ball, which will have little of the material that appeared in the shorts.

I'll be instituting a regular review program on my website in future, with forms to fill out if you want to give more detailed feedback besides an Amazon review. I really want to know where these books are headed and every reader loves to chime in with their 2 cents, so this should be a fun experience. If you review enough you'll eventually win a $5 Amazon gift card.

And there will be more updates.

Let's Talk The Birthday Present

​It's time to dig deeper into this book. It's one a lot of you might not know anything about and it has two parts. The first story, The Birthday Present, was a futuristic idea that I actually wrote pages and pages and pages about. But it resulted in this shorter story instead. Originally I wanted to create a themed series, but I went on to other projects and this book became a stand-alone, so--no series. (But that might explain the "Homeschooler Fantasy Series Volume One" you'll see burned into the print edition.) I'll enlarge on it in an upcoming blog post.

Millhaven Castle, the second story in the book, was a bit of a problem because I went through 3 different-yet-very-similar versions of this story. Each one equally boring, I might add. After sorting all my stories, I've repackaged, rearranged, or rewritten almost all of them. But only the Millhaven/Alyce stories got actually trashed as just plain boring and useless. They had none of the strengths of the original story idea and were padded with unproductive areas that make me wince now.  Which is funny because people I knew always seemed to praise them. But then, I've often found people praise the weakest thing, so I should have known. But I must go back to explaining what I did next.

One of these boring little Alyce stories was published with The Birthday Present and I can't get it out of the volume because it's burned into the title. So I've rearranged the content and substituted 3 chapters from the full-length The Prince's Ball. It's now a trailer for the book, as well as 3 almost stand-alone funny chapters you can read in addition to The Birthday Present. Why is this important? Because I'll be publishing The Prince's Ball next year (if all goes well) and it's nothing like the 3 previous versions: Millhaven Castle 2008; Millhaven Castle 2009; and Alyce 2013. It is the original, going back over 15 years, and has a load of characters and situations that put Alyce and her friends in perspective. And--of course--it's a lot funnier. And longer. As you'll see immediately if you pick up The Birthday Present and read the trailer.
​
And there will be more updates.

New Horizons

The renovation is still in progress and 4 of the books have been redone. I did a lot of examination of book covers over the summer, and realized I had been choosing colors and fonts based simply on whether I thought they were pretty, NOT based on the emotive impression they give to others. So a complete overhaul was of course in order.

I've got 2 fantastic new covers for Facets of Fantasy and The Birthday Present/Millhaven Castle. (See above.) Facets turned out a little blue, but that's better than green, and the black letters and silvery-gray back cover add up to the effect I wanted.City of the Invaders is now in paperback as well as Kindle. It isn’t yet linked to the ebook on Amazon, but it will be soon. I’ve added chapter titles since the story felt bare without them. It has a lovely cover that's not new, but some of you may not have seen it, so I've put it here.There's a new description of Ryan and Essie, since “his life will never be the same and neither will the lives of a whole lot of other people” is okay, but too vague.I’m still working on Consuela—going to be a bit of effort there—and thinking about some cosmetic work to Victoria. A new cover and maybe that’s not all. It already has a new description, but I’m not sure that’s all I want to do.To see any of the book details, go to the pages for each book at the top of this blog post. Ryan and Essie is in the “More Books” page.
​I also paid a little more attention to genre marketing, although I feel surprisingly that’s not as important. (People really do judge books mostly by their covers as first. Probably because they like to do, at once, things they’re told never to do.) When looking at search keywords and classifications, I discovered that Amazon seems to have dropped the “YA” category. At least, I couldn’t find it although it can still be put in search keywords and is widely used online. But that wasn’t a problem.

And there will be more updates.