Sarah Ettritch's Blog, page 15

Rymellan News and Deiform Fellowship Covers

Deiform Fellowship

I mentioned last week that I’d decided to go with a new look for the Deiform Two cover, which led to a new cover for Deiform One. Here are the new covers:

I’ve finished Deiform Two (for now). It will go to my editor at the end of the month. If there aren’t any major problems to fix, I expect to release it in October.

If you haven’t read Deiform One, now would be a great time to pick it up at Smashwords, where you can get it for 75% off. Use coupon code SSW75 at checkout.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/271625

Rymellan Series

I’m doing the final edit of Identity Crisis, which will also go to my editor at the end of this month. She’ll edit Deiform Two first, so I won’t get the Rymellan story back until September. At this point, I plan to release it in December.

If you’ve been thinking about trying the Rymellan Series, now is the time, for two reasons. First, Rymellan 1  is also available for 75% off at Smashwords. Use coupon code SSW75 at checkout.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/8355

Second, I’m raising the Rymellan book prices. I’ve already done so at Smashwords and kobo, and I’ll do the same at Amazon early next week.

I always considered $4.99 to be a bargain price for the Rymellan books, given their lengths, but I initially priced them that way because the stories were also available on the Rymellan Stories website. I’d planned to raise the prices around a year after the stories were no longer there. I’m a little late, but I’ve finally gotten around to it.

For the curious among you, I haven’t raised the prices at Amazon yet because Amazon’s Terms of Service state that you can’t offer your book for a higher price at Amazon than you do anywhere else. Amazon has bots that crawl the web looking for lower prices. So…if you want to raise the price of a book, you have to do it everywhere else first.

I like to give the Amazon bots about a week to find the new prices at the other venues. Sometimes the bots crawl cached pages, which has caused headaches for some authors.

Later.

Rymellan News and Deiform Fellowship Covers is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Deiform Two Excerpts #3

I’ve been posting short excerpts from Deiform Two and Identity Crisis, the upcoming Rymellan story. Deiform Two will be out first, so I’ll focus on that over the summer. Today I have two more excerpts and a bonus video!

Before I get to that, I wanted to tell you about a new book discoverability site with a twist. At , you can read sample chapters and scenes posted by authors. The catch: no book covers, no author names, just the writing. You might find something you enjoy that you would have passed up because the cover turned you off, or maybe you’ve been hesitant about trying a particular author. I’ve posted a scene from one of my books. The site’s worth checking out.

Speaking of book covers, when I was thinking ahead to the Deiform Two cover, I decided that I wanted a different look for the cover from what exists for Deiform One. To maintain a consistent look across the series, that led to changing the Deiform One cover. I have the new cover, but I haven’t uploaded it to any stores yet. I plan to do that next week. I’m hoping to show you both Deiform covers next Friday. It’ll depend on whether the Deiform Two cover is ready.

All right, let’s get to the really short excerpts.  And do watch the video. It just might change your life!

She’d never believed in visualization. Sit around in your dinky apartment imagining yourself driving a Porsche with money bags in the back seat, and voila! You’re soon rolling in dough and have three Porsches sitting in your mansion’s 8-car garage. Yeah, right. – Jillian
“I believe that people can create their own prisons and hold themselves back. But change takes work. It’s not easy.” – Sam, in response to Jillian asking, “Do you believe any of this bullshit?”

Have a great weekend! (long weekend for Canadians )

Deiform Two Excerpts #3 is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Who Said That? (#1)

I like quotes because they’re short and sweet. Pearls of wisdom, delicious irony, or clever humour, all captured with a handful of words. The memorable ones make us think, chuckle, or nod.

I keep a file of the quotes I come across that resonate with me in some way. Here are a few for today:

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else. - Gloria Steinem

I can relate to this, except that writing isn’t the only activity that gives me that feeling. I’m fortunate to have several passions that make time and everything else fade away.

I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done. – Steven Wright

I have a story that relates to this one. My partner is the first reader for most of my work, and she prefers to read a hard copy. I print out the Word file and give it to her. Sounds good, right? Well, one day she was carrying a story around the house, and she dropped it. No problem, right? She just had to gather up the pages and put them back in order. Well, that was sort of hard to do, because they didn’t have page numbers. I had to go through the pages and reorder them for her, and I’m being diplomatic when I say that she wasn’t impressed. I had a stern talking to about how (censored) it was to not have page numbers! Since that day, the first thing I do when I open a new Word file to start a story is add a footer with page numbers.

He who strikes the first blow admits he’s lost the argument. – Chinese Proverb

Hey, we’re on the Net, here. No further explanation required. We’ve all seen it, and we all know what it means.

My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.- Anais Nin

For me, it depends on what sort of ideas she’s referring to. Story ideas do come to me when I’m “in the midst of living,” sometimes when I’m out and about; other times when I’m doing zombie tasks (showering, washing dishes, etc.). My subconscious mind takes advantage of those latter times to surface some damn good ideas to my conscious mind. But because I’m a “write by the seat of my pants” writer, most of a story, including plot elements, character details, and other cool stuff that significantly affects where the story will go, comes to me while I’m writing. That’s when I fill in most of the blanks, because that’s when I get ideas related to that particular story. So, for me, lightning often strikes when I’m at my keyboard.

Do you have any favourite quotes?

Who Said That? (#1) is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

How do You Pronounce Argamon?

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was recording The Dance, the first story in the Rymellan Series. The audio story is now available at Gumroad for $0.99. It’s almost an hour long and includes brief introductory and closing remarks. I enjoyed reading the story, so I’m going to record more.

Partial view from my window

When I’m reading, I sit at my desk and read into a snowball microphone.  There’s a window right next to me and a vent underneath it. I can’t record when the window is open or the furnace or A/C is on, because the mic picks up the background noise. Since we’re moving into our hot weather season here, the window will be open or the A/C running on most days. So…I won’t be able to record much over the summer. I might get The Military Academy done, but a safer bet will be that I’ll pick up the readings full speed in the fall.

The Dance contains the word Argamon, so you can hear how I pronounce it. Because I read science fiction and fantasy, I often come across made-up words and pronounce them in a way that makes sense to me. Usually it doesn’t matter, since I’ll never actually say the words, and nobody is going to rap my knuckles for getting it wrong.

Having said that, I can remember getting to the third book in a fantasy series and finding a pronunciation guide in the back. There were a couple of words that I was pronouncing completely wrong; mangled didn’t begin to cover it. I altered my pronunciation for one frequently-used phrase, but stuck with my version for the rest. I figured I’d never have to take a test. It would have been nice if the first book had included the guide—at the front of the book.

I know some people pronounce Rymellan differently than I do, which is fine. The same goes for all my made up words, such as tziva. I’m not attached to the way I pronounce any of them. In fact, when I was writing The Dance, I pronounced Argamon differently than I do now. As part of my editing process, the computer reads the story to me. Its pronunciation of Argamon didn’t match mine. Being the lazy person that I am, I decided to change the way I say it, rather than fiddle with the text-to-speech program’s settings. So yeah, not particularly attached to any one pronunciation.

Anyway, if you’re in the mood to listen to The Dance, grab it from Gumroad.

Summer Hours

Back in January, I said that I was going to post to the blog every Friday. So far, so good, but I’m going to relax that self-imposed requirement over the summer months (June, July, August). I might end up posting every Friday, or I might not. We’ll see. Either way, in September I’ll return to my regular posting schedule.

Have a great weekend!

How do You Pronounce Argamon? is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Audiobook Snag. Games to the Rescue!

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I’d be recording The Dance, the first story in the Rymellan Series, and making the audiobook available on Ganxy. Well, it turns out that Ganxy treats audiobooks like music, which means that the sales page only contains a product image (normally an album or track cover). No description. Obviously, that’s not ideal. Most people want to know what an audiobook is about before they buy it. Go figure. ;)

I only found out about the problem today, when I uploaded the file. I had a blog post ready about the audio story and how to get it, but now I want to check out another possible venue and see how it treats audiobooks. I might still use Ganxy. Stay tuned.

So, what to write about today? Well, given that I’m winging it, I figured I’d do a gaming post, since I know that some of you are gamers. Here’s what I’ve played lately:

Tomb Raider – Believe it or not, Lara Croft has been around since 1996. Over time, the Tomb Raider series kind of lost its way, so Crystal Dynamics decided to reboot it, and Tomb Raider (2013) is the result. It’s a prequel that explains why Lara became an acrobatic, globetrotting relic seeker, who knows how to handle a variety of weapons.

I enjoyed the game very much. Lara has received both a personality and physical makeover. Her physique is more realistic (and more attractive, IMO). No more humongous boobs. You won’t watch her launch into the air and wonder how the gravitational pull on her breasts is allowing her to get more than two inches off the ground. She wears pants! Big improvement.

She’s also more vulnerable and likeable. Now, the main story writers were women (!), and that might have had something to do with it. I’m not saying that men can’t write decent female videogame characters, but let’s face it. Female characters in games are usually 2-dimensional caricatures.

Anyway, it’s a decent story with a pleasant character and lots of action. If you enjoy action games, check this one out.

Bioshock Infinite – I actually played this one late last month. It was fun, but it didn’t grab me by the throat as it has many other gamers (judging by the universally glowing reviews).  If you played Bioshock 1 and 2, the game will feel somewhat familiar to you, but no Big Daddies and little sisters this time around. It’s quite long, and the story is convoluted and a bit clichéd, but the time/space tears were creative.

I’ll play it again at some point, and I enjoyed it enough that I bought the DLC season pass. The game’s art design is superb. You’ll find yourself stopping to look around. Partway through the game, you’ll gain a companion named Elizabeth. Again, I wasn’t as enamored with her as many seem to be, but the voice acting is fantastic and she’ll help you out in a pinch. I liked Bioshock 1 and 2 better, but Infinite is definitely worth a look.

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes – I’m not a huge adventure game fan, but I snagged this one for 75% off during a Steam sale. I’d played a couple of other Sherlock Holmes games, so I thought, why not? Playing it was a pleasant way to spend some time. This isn’t one of those “hunt the pixel” adventure games of old.

The puzzles made sense for the most part. I skipped a few of them, mainly because I didn’t understand what I was supposed to be doing. The puzzle instructions sometimes left a lot to be desired. But I don’t play adventure games for the puzzles. I play them for the story, and this one didn’t disappoint. It’s a typical Sherlock Holmes mystery, with the usual twists and turns, and Professor Moriarty (elementary!). If you like Sherlock (or Dr. Watson), you’ll probably enjoy this game.

What am I Playing Now?

I’m currently playing an oldie (well, 2009) but goodie, Dragon Age: Origins. For some reason, I kept thinking about doing another playthrough, and I finally started one earlier this week. I’m playing a female Dalish Elf rogue (my favourite Dragon Age class). Unlike most gamers, I prefer Dragon Age 2, but Origins is also a lot of fun. I haven’t played it in a while, so it feels fresh. If you’ve never played Dragon Age, you can pick up both games at a decent price. Highly Recommended. (And yes, that’s Kate Mulgrew voicing one of the characters in the trailer.)

I’m always interested in hearing about good games. Any recommendations? What are you playing right now?

Audiobook Snag. Games to the Rescue! is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Deiform Two and Rymellan Excerpts #2

Around a month ago, I posted short excerpts from Deiform Two and the next Rymellan story (Identity Crisis). I said I’d post more over the coming months. I’ve finished the first draft of Identity Crisis (yay!), so I figured now would be a good time for the next set.

I mentioned that Deiform Two is the second longest story I’ll release. Well, it turns out that Identity Crisis is the second longest Rymellan story. It’s approximately 37,000 words in length, longer than The Accident (~25,500 words), but shorter than Shattered Lives (~45,500 words). Over the course of editing the story, the word count will change, but not enough to knock it out of second place.

Identity Crisis is a cracking story. At this point, I expect to release it in December.

Okay, excerpts. Usual reminder – the following excerpts might be absent or rephrased in the published versions of the stories:

If Adelaide could have scuttled the triad, she would have. But she hadn’t had a choice. This time, Les was handing her the choice, and the answer would be no. Right now, Mo didn’t know whether she’d support or oppose Adelaide, so she’d stay here and figure out where she stood. Let Jayne go stick her neck out. – Mo Thompson
 “I believe you were about to torture me, but you know what? I think I’ll just disappear.” –  Jillian
 “We’re all choosing between an unpalatable option and an uncomfortable one.” – Laura Finney
 The spidery script and older English were challenging, but she understood enough to make her jaw clench. Only the tempering effect of her dismay prevented her from throwing the precious book across the room. Why are You doing this to me? - Sam

Have a great weekend!

Deiform Two and Rymellan Excerpts #2 is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Diving into the Audiobook Pool

I’m pleased to announce that The Missing Comatose Woman is now available as an audiobook at Audible and Amazon. It’s also supposed to be on iTunes, but I haven’t checked for it there.

This is the first time I’ve released an audiobook. I chose The Missing Comatose Woman because it’s the shortest book from Norn Publishing to date. Audiobook production can be quite expensive; the cost is usually directly proportional to the length of the book (the longer the book, the more expensive it is). Since I’m Canadian, I couldn’t use Amazon’s audiobook production company ACX, so I shopped around, did my research, and decided to use eBookIt, the same company I use for eBook distribution to some venues.

Depending on how well the audiobook does, I’ll consider bringing other books to audio. Having said that, something like the Rymellan Series would be too expensive to produce in audio. It would cost me at least $10,000, probably more. Given that, I decided to read The Dance, the first story in the series, myself, and I might read more Rymellan stories over time.

The Dance is the shortest story in the series, but it still resulted in almost an hour of audio. In addition to the story, I recorded a short commentary (we’re talking less than a minute, here) about why, out of all the events in Lesley and Mo’s younger lives I could have written about, I chose to write about that one.

When it’s ready, the audio story will be available at Ganxy.com for $0.99. I’ll let you know when it’s there.

It was a bit strange to go back and read The Dance. I wrote it five years ago (yikes!). Lesley and Mo sound so young.   Also, I hate reading my own stuff, because there are always things I’d like to change. The Dance was no exception.

Here’s a short video of Maggie Smith admitting that she’s never watched Downton Abbey. I can completely relate to why she hasn’t (and if I change “acting” to “writing” in her last sentence, I agree with that, too):

Have a great weekend (and Happy Victoria Day weekend to Canadians)!

Diving into the Audiobook Pool is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Lesbian Fiction Books/Deiform Two

Two quick items today:

Lesbian Fiction Books Site

A month ago (time flies!), I posted about possibly working on a site that would help people find lesbian fiction books. The lesbian category at the bookstores is too broad, and often there isn’t one; lesbian fiction is lumped in with LGBT or put under Gay. Also, some lesbian fiction isn’t categorized as such at all.

To create and maintain the proposed site would take an investment of my time, so I wanted to test the waters before going ahead. I asked that people express interest in the site by filling out a short survey. I had a certain number of responses in mind that would make me think, “Okay, creating the site will be a wise investment of my time.” I haven’t received that number of responses, so I’ve decided to put the project on the back burner for now.

Thanks to everyone who took the survey.

Deiform Two

I finished the first draft earlier in the week. Phew! What a rocky road! I started Deiform Two shortly before Deiform One became available, then fell ill for six weeks. When I was well enough to write again, I had to scramble to make an editing date, which forced me to put Deiform Two aside in favour of The Missing Comatose Woman. So it’s been a while coming, but the first draft is finally done.

The story is 20,000 words longer than Deiform One. The word count will change, but when all is said and done, Deiform Two will be the second longest story I’ve written so far (behind The Salbine Sisters). At this point, I expect to release it in October.

I’ll talk more about the story over the coming months. A tidbit for today is that Deiform Two introduces Ruth, a kickass Deiform in her seventies.

Enjoy your weekend!

Lesbian Fiction Books/Deiform Two is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Books I Read in April and Other Stuff

A more accurate title would be, “Books I’ve Been Reading Since April.”   Last month, I started The Story of Christianity, Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. It’s slow going. At first I thought I’d abandon it, but then it picked up, to the point that I’ll buy Volume 2. I only manage around 10 pages a night, and it’s 500+ pages long. I’m learning a lot, though, which is always a plus. In the meantime, my to-read pile continues to grow, and I already have a bursting Amazon cart waiting for me to press “Checkout.”

It didn’t help that my partner and I became hooked on Downton Abbey. When friends offered to lend us the first three seasons on DVD, we weren’t sure whether we’d like it. Once we started watching it, we couldn’t stop, so we spent a fair amount of our spare time following the Crawley saga and drinking tea.

I also wrote quite a bit last month. I should finish the first draft of Deiform Two next week. It’s turned out to be the second longest story I’ve written (after The Salbine Sisters). When I edit, I usually cut, not add. Despite that, I expect it to remain in second place for length. It will go to my editor at the end of July, and I plan to release it in October.

If you’re a gamer, I can recommend Bioshock:Infinite and The Walking Dead, both of which I recently finished. I started the latest Tomb Raider last night. So far, so good.

I’ll leave you with a fabulous performance by Nora, the piano cat. Lithuanian conductor, composer, and artist Mindaugas Piečaitis wrote a concerto just for Nora, and she performs it along with a live orchestra (of course, she isn’t performing it live!). For more information about Nora’s music, visit CATcerto.

Have a good weekend!

Books I Read in April and Other Stuff is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Email from Readers: Frightful or Delightful?

Science fiction writer Robert Heinlein received so many letters from readers that his wife created a form reply (this was before email). She’d check off the applicable responses and stick the reply in the mail. Reading the responses is like playing Jeopardy; it’s fun to guess at what a letter would have to say to receive the, “Please do not write to me again,” response. You can see Heinlein’s form reply here.

I’ll never receive the amount of mail Heinlein received, but readers do write to me. The majority of emails are thoughtful, polite, and constructive, but there are those that make me wonder, and I could see myself checking off a response on Heinlein’s form letter.

I am not my characters

Heinlein form response: A novelist writes from many viewpoints; opinions expressed even by a first-person character are not necessarily those of the author.

I’m sure you already know what Heinlein stated, but I can attest to the fact that some readers draw conclusions about who an author is and what she believes based on the stories and characters she’s written. I’ve had people make assumptions about my age, my personality, and my viewpoints.

One person told me I must be a “wonderful partner.” I’m not sure who was more amused by that—me or my partner! Another one went on and on about how much I pour myself into my stories, like all artists do. I don’t pour myself into my stories, and I don’t see myself as an artist. Someone else insisted that I must be lying when I said that I wasn’t in my twenties.

I’m a fiction writer. I make stuff up, including people, places, worlds, worldviews, everything. I can’t think of a single character I’ve written who reflects me 100% of the time.

Take The Atheist. Jillian (the main character) doesn’t believe in God. On the other hand, Sam (a strong secondary character who transitions to a main character in Deiform Two) does believe in God. They can’t both reflect my position on the God question.

On a less personal issue, for which I don’t mind saying where I actually stand: every single character in the Rymellan Series supports capital punishment. I don’t, which puts me at odds with every one of them. Whenever a Rymellan says anything positive about executing someone (which isn’t unusual in the Rymellan Series! ), they’re saying something I would never say. Anyone who reads the Rymellan Series and figures I must be rah-rah capital punishment couldn’t be more wrong.

About the only genre that might convey a good sense of the author is memoir/autobiography. Even then, I’d bet there’s usually fiction mixed with fact.

I enjoy hearing from readers

Heinlein form response: Thanks for your kind words. You have made my day brighter.

I’ve sent many replies that express the same sentiment (sometimes using almost the same words). I honestly don’t mind constructive criticism, either, as long as it is polite and constructive.

Thanks for your feedback

One response that would be on my form letter but isn’t on Heinlein’s: Thanks for your feedback.

An example of when I would tick this one: The Rymellan story Shattered Lives provoked more emails than usual when it was released. For those familiar with the series, that was the story in which Lesley and Mo have their notification meetings. The plot twist upset some readers.

Everyone who wrote to me about the plot twist was polite, but several emails were passive-aggressive and boiled down to the following: “If you don’t get rid of [the plot twist], I’ll stop reading your stories.” I replied with a polite, “Thanks for your feedback.”

I’ve read thousands of books. I didn’t like or finish all of them. I’ve run into the situation where I’ve stopped reading a series partway through because I grew disappointed with the story or characters. I once put down a book by one of my favourite authors because it contained a passage about animal cruelty, and I have no interest in reading about the torture of an animal, even when it’s not actually happening (fiction). I just couldn’t keep reading the book after that. For one reason or another, I’ve stopped reading stories many, many times.

When I’ve put down a book in disgust, not once has it ever crossed my mind to write to the author and say, “You must change what you’re writing to suit me, or I won’t read your stories.” Why would the author care? What type of response would I expect to receive? “Dear reader: Oh my gosh, thank you for letting me know. I’ll change what I intended to write so it suits your taste. Cheers.” Seriously. Authors can’t please everyone, and it would be folly to try.

I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. Bill Cosby

For every person who likes something, there will be someone else who doesn’t like it. It’s not unusual for me to receive an email that says, “I liked how X happened/reacted,” and another email that says, “I didn’t like how X happened/reacted,” when X refers to the same event or character. All I can do is write the story I want to write. Some readers will like the story, and some won’t.

When I’m reading and come across something that turns me off the story, I do what most readers do: I stop reading the book and move on to something else. I might read more by that author, or I might not. In the animal cruelty case, I was first in line to buy her next book.

As an aside, in the Rymellan plot twist case, I’m not sure what the disgruntled readers expected me to do, since the only way of getting rid of you-know-what and remaining true to Rymellan society would have been to kill off a main character. I suspect that would have pissed off many more readers than the plot twist did.

Overall

I’m fortunate. By far, most emails I receive are intelligent, polite, and interesting. Occasionally one makes me shake my head and wonder about the sender, but receiving an email from a reader is usually a pleasure. Maybe I’ll hear from you someday (if I haven’t already).

Have a great weekend!

Email from Readers: Frightful or Delightful? is a post from: Sarah Ettritch