Leah R. Cutter's Blog, page 3

Clarity, tweaks, and changes

I spent last week in Lincoln City, OR, at the Master Publishing Workshop held there. (www.DeanWesleySmith.com/workshops)

I attended the first version of this workshop back in 2013. It was what convinced me I could quit the day job and start writing full time.

While a lot of the information presented this year was not new to me, there were still at least half a dozen sessions that did contain completely new information. (Three sessions/day, for seven days…)

That is not to say that the workshop wasn’t worth it. OMG no. It totally was worth it.

One of the things that the workshop brought was a clarity for Blaze and I. For example, last night we were talking about licensing a derivative right for a particular work. That we both understood exactly what we were talking about was awesome and exciting. That kind of clarity is stupendous, and one of the high points from the workshop.

Due to the workshop, I’m making other tweaks and changes as well. I don’t know if any of them will turn out to be as drastic as quitting the day job, but it’s early days yet. One (or more) of the changes may turn out to be that dramatic. We’ll see.

One of the tweaks/changes that I’m making is on my personal website.

I’ve had the tagline “writer/traveler” for decades. It’s been on my business cards since 1997.

However, I’m changing the tagline on my website from “writer/traveler” to “coffee-fueled fiction.”

Why the change?

I’m still a writer/traveler. I always will be. I love writing. I love traveling.

However, I don’t like writing about my travels. I have more than half a dozen blog posts saved as drafts because I can’t bring myself to hit “publish” when it comes to blogging about my traveling.

I will always be a traveler.

I’m quite possibly never going to be comfortable, however, when it comes to writing about my traveling.

However, I also love coffee. I roast my own coffee beans. And I like to blog about coffee.

I plan to actually activate my Patreon account come January and have custom roasted coffee beans as one of the rewards for a limited few.

So tweaks. Changes. New opportunities on the horizon.

It was a great workshop. I look forward to applying what I’ve learned.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Testing…

Since I just changed themes on my WordPress site, I want to see if the sharing to Facebook will actually work.

Also, have a coffee dragon!

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Spoiled Harvest! Now available! YAY!

YAY! YAY! YAY!

I have a new novel out! It’s the third in the Kickass Cassie stories.

Here’s the blurb:

Cassie cannot turn away her most recent client. She needs the money. Though honestly, trying to find the woman’s damned cat turns her stomach.

But the client also carries a rose with her. It represents…something. Something destructive. Something apocalyptic.

Something Cassie can’t defend herself from. Not even with sarcasm.

Spoiled Harvest—the third novel in this fast-paced urban fantasy series—pits Cassie against an order of monks who follow Zarathustra, more gods, and even more corporate machinations.

Available at your favorite retailers.

Be sure to read the first two kickass Cassie novels: Poisoned Pearls and Tainted Waters.

Get the sample as an epub or as a mobi.

YAY! YAY! YAY!

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Happy National Coffee Day!

Starbucks informed me this morning that it was National Coffee Day today!

While I suspect this might be a made-up holiday, I’m still celebrating this morning with a lovely, light, Tanzanian peaberry coffee that I roasted myself.

What exactly is a peaberry, you might ask.

Each coffee berry generally grows two seeds or beans in the middle. When a coffee berry is ripe, the outer fruit portion is removed and the beans are harvested and dried. The beans are what we make coffee from.

When a coffee berry only grows a single seed or bean, that’s called a peaberry.

Generally, peaberries are smaller and more round in shape than a regular coffee bean. That’s because it matures without a second bean to push against.

IMO, peaberries make lovely light roasts, almost a green coffee. There are other beans, like a Sumatran, that I wouldn’t recommend for a light roast–the bean itself is so earthy and heavy, even if I try for a light roast it always comes out tasting like a darker roast. (More experienced roasters may have the skill to draw out a lighter roast from those beans–I’m still very much an amateur and have only been doing this for a year and a half or so.)

Roasting coffee is alchemy. Particularly with the small, home roasting setup that I have.I have a grimoire where I track all the variables for every batch I roast.  The ambient temperature and humidity play a big roll in the roasting. For example, this summer when it was so stupid hot, roasting times were half of what I normally use. Now that it’s cooler, if I tried to roast outside, I’d have to add a lot more time to achieve the same roast.

Anyway – go and celebrate National Coffee Day in the manner of your choosing! Ignore it, go have a celebratory cup of coffee, hug a barista, what have you.

As part of my celebration, I’m offering a light fantasy short story that I wrote about roasting coffee free for today! It’s called  The Alchemy of Coffee.

You can download it for free from Bookfunnel:

http://dl.bookfunnel.com/ayccz1xcgs

Enjoy!

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Getting back to work…

So this last month has kind of sucked in terms of my health, which has in turn, led to quite a low level of productivity (for me. I understand that even sick I’m more productive than some, while looking like a slacker even when I’m well compared to others. I can only do what I can do.)

I feel as though I’m exactly where I was a month ago, wanting to focus on the writing and increase my word count from now until the end of the year, doing 3000 words/day instead of merely 2000. (Mind you, this last month my average was much closer to merely 800 words/day.)

A part of me is concerned about making this announcement again, considering what happened the last time I did. Tempting fate, as it were.

Fuck that.

There’s always a part of my consciousness that’s tuned into every time I say “I’m afraid/scared/concerned with X.” Because the only way I let my fears drive me is give me a list of what’s next. If I hear myself say, “I’m scared to do X” then that becomes the next thing on my list to do.

So while I’m concerned that I won’t be healthy enough to focus on my writing how I want to, I’m still stating the declaration that I’m willing to try again. To give fate the finger, as it were.

Wish me luck!

Remember, if you’re interested in learning how to make beautiful interiors for print books, I’m teaching a workshop about it starting October 12.

Go to http://www.krpworkshops.com for more details.

ION, I have a new novel coming out next week. (Horrific lack of pre-release advertising can be blamed on being sick for most of the last month.)

I have a magnificent cover for this novel, and am in the process of rebranding the previous three novels in the series as well.

So here’s the cover, as well as the blurb. It will be generally available as of October 4th.

Enjoy!

Cassie cannot turn away her most recent client. She needs the money. Though honestly, trying to find the woman’s damned cat turns her stomach.

But the client also carries a rose with her. It represents…something. Something destructive. Something apocalyptic.

Something Cassie can’t defend herself from. Not even with sarcasm.

“Spoiled Harvest”—the third novel in this fast-paced urban fantasy series—pits Cassie against an order of monks who follow Zarathustra, more gods, and even more corporate machinations.

Be sure to read the first two kickass Cassie novels: “Poisoned Pearls” and “Tainted Waters”.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

FINISHED – The Desert Heart

I’m kind of in shock. I finished the current novel today! I had thought I had a few more chapters to write, but no, this was the last chapter. I’m really, really pleased with how this novel turned out, though.

This is the second novel of a dark fantasy trilogy. I finished the first novel, “The Glass Magician” last year. The second novel, the one I finished today, is called “The Desert Heart.” I’ll write the last novel sometime next year—”The Ghost Dog.”

After I finish writing the third novel, I’ll publish all three, one after another, probably one a month over the course of three months.

It’s all one big long story. That’s not what I usually write. It’s part of why I’m publishing them together. There’s an end to each novel, but the story continues.

But there is no rest for this writer.

By October first, I must finish three stories. Minimum lengths: 3000 words, 6000 words, and 10,000 words. All of them can be longer, of course. And knowing my brain, they probably will be. Luckily, I have ideas for all of them.

So, Yay! Finished a novel! Yay! Go write more!

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Unfair

As some of you may or may not know, I’ve had some issues with chronic migraines that FINALLY seem to be resolving. (The short version: have had migraines since I was 18. Went from 0-3 migraines a month to 12-15, suddenly and without warning. After 13 months, have managed to get my migraines back down to 3-4/month. Now am working on having fewer headaches as well.)

As you can imagine, this threw my writing schedule for a loop.

When I’d had a day job, I’d still managed to write 3000 words a day. When I first went “full time” with writing, I was doing 4-5000 words a day.

This last year, I’ve been struggling to get 2000 words a day done. Or rather, my goal has been 10,000 words a week, so only 2000 words 5 days a week.

I’ve frequently missed this goal (see migraines, above.) But I’m more stubborn than most, and I’ve kept writing regardless.

As of the end of August, it will have been two months with many fewer migraines. And I’m having fewer headaches as well.

I’d made the decision that starting this morning, and going until the end of the year, I was going to up that goal to 15,000 words a week, or 3000 words a day, 5 days a week.

I felt good about this. I was doing so much better physically. I figured this would be a breeze.

Then Sunday morning—I came down with a cold.

It hit me really hard emotionally. Here I was, all set to make a serious run at the writing again, only to get derailed.

I know it’s only for a few days. Maybe I’ll be able to start September 1st. I’m just disappointed.

In the meanwhile, I have the best husband in the world. He made my bacon, got me orange juice and Prosecco. I have coffee, tea, kleenex, and lots of meds.

There’s client work that I must do today. Before and after that, I’ll be napping.

And plotting to write fiction later. When I can.

PS. Though the migraines could be considered a chronic illness, and this cold sucks, I also realized that the last time I was actually sick with something like a cold was March 2015. I used to get sick ALL THE TIME. I’m still kind of amazed that it’s been so long since I was last sick.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Trust Writer Brain

One of the pieces of advice that I’ve heard over the years is “Trust the Process.”

For me, that also means, “Trust writer brain. She knows what she’s doing.”

I still fight with her occasionally when I’m creating and putting a lot of new words down on a page. I don’t know why. She’s always right, and she always wins. (She’s kind of a bitch that way.) However, instead of fighting her for a week or a month, now it’s more like an hour, or sometimes if I’m really being stubborn, half a day.

I can’t write when I’m fighting her, when I’m trying to do something other than what she wants. Can’t create. Can’t do anything. It’s pretty obvious to me, now, when I’m fighting her. Plus, as soon as I admit defeat, the words just flow again.

Currently, I’m going through first reader comments for the latest novel. A couple of really interesting things have come up.

I had two first readers. One of the fascinating things for me is how often they agree on awkward sentences or paragraphs. Possibly as much as 90% of the time, if one marks a paragraph as awkward, the other will have touched on it as well, offering suggested rewrites or just marking it as awkward.

It’s taught me that when this book flows, it flows. It’s really obvious when it doesn’t. Or at least to both of my first readers.

The other thing has been my conscious choice to trust writer brain.

When one or the other of my first readers makes a comment, such as, “This needs more foreshadowing”, I listen to writer brain’s response.

Sometimes she says, “Oh! Right! You need to add more here, and here, and here, and here!”

It was really easy and obvious. That comment spoke to inner writer. It didn’t matter the amount of work that single comment caused. Writer brain was happy to do it.

Or when one of the first readers wanted a scene rewritten to be more visceral. Writer brain happily wrote an extended scene. Boom.

It has worked the other way as well. One of the first readers wanted a different large change. However, writer brain merely shrugged and said, “Meh.”

I’ve gone back to that other comment more than once. Writer brain continues not to be enthusiastic about it.

Though I trust that reader, and I’ve taken almost all of that reader’s comments, I choose to trust writer brain on this one.

Again, it isn’t about the amount of work that comment would cause. I’m happy to do the work. However, writer brain doesn’t feel as though that comment needs to be addressed.

I really like this novel. I think that it will be a much stronger novel once I finish incorporating all the first reader comments.

But it will still be my novel. My choices. My words.

For better or worse, I’ve learned to trust my inner writer.

How about you? Do you trust your process, your inner writer? Or do you fight?

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

No reserves

Spent the weekend at WorldCon in Kansas City, MO. Saw lots of old friends, made some new ones. Networked a little, possibly picked up a little business.

(BUSINESS PLUG: Next cover workshop starts September 7th: http://www.KRPWorkshops.com)

Though my doctor tells me that according to my blood work, I’ve been getting younger every year for the last three years, I still take more time than I used to in order to recover from something like flying and attending a huge con with OMG so many people. (Was smart this con and took serious downtime every day. Think that’s the only way I survived, and why though I’m tired, I’m not exhausted or sick.)

There’s just no juice in the battery today. I can do what I need to do, like cleaning the vacation rental, then I need to sit down and rest. Plus, not many words.

It’s another sign that I’m getting older.

One of the other signs that I’m getting older is that I’m pretty much out of fucks to give. WorldCon isn’t what it used to be. It’s declining. The fans are older, aging out, dying off. It can’t keep up with any of the comic cons, or the other cons that have diversified and are more inclusive.

I wish WorldCon well.

I may or may not attend another one. I’m much more likely to attend Convergence or ECCC. Places where the audience is younger. Where I’m more likely to connect with my readers. If money were suddenly no longer an issue, I probably would go–but it would be for connecting with friends, not readers.

In addition, I’m really not the intended audience of WorldCon. I’m an indie writer. I’m not looking for an agent or a publisher. And WorldCon is very much still focused on trad pub. (One of the main reasons we went to WorldCon was to visit my sweetie’s family, who live near KC.)

So as I said, I wish WorldCon well. I realize that it’s me, not them.

And though I have other thoughts about agents, people practicing law and advising on legal matters  (like contracts) without being licensed and such, it’s time for another cup of coffee and possibly some words.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

New novel available!

YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!

It’s new novel day!

I’m actually kinda thrilled about this book coming out.

You see, I had some issues with “The Changeling Troll” – the first in this series. Couldn’t really wrap my head around just how different the voice seemed. The fact that it’s more new adult/young adult than most of what I write.

But then I gave it some time. Let the story rest. Wrote some other things.

Came back, and OMG did I love the first novel! I had to write the second one. NOW.

So, I did. And I kinda love the second novel just as much. Possibly just a wee bit more (because, you know, new!shiny!novel!).

And I’m looking forward to finishing off the trilogy sometime in 2017 with “The Fairy Bridge Troll”.

But that’s a post for another time.

For now – here’s the blurb for “The Princess Troll”.

Most trolls have no natural magical ability. However, Christine does. Enchanted powders swirl up when she walks by. Charms glow.

What happens when Christine tries to direct her magical powers?

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

Something blocks Christine from reaching her full magical potential.

But what?

“The Princess Troll”—the second novel in The Seattle Trolls trilogy and the delightful continuation “The Changeling Troll“—follows Christine on her journeys through a skewed Seattle and her encounters with outrageous and whimsical characters. A coming of age tale for all ages!

Available at your favorite retailers: http://www.knottedroadpress.com/book/...

So seriously – go and pick up your copy today. Or buy one and give it to your favorite niece or nephew. It is very much a new adult/young adult piece (as you can probably tell from the cover).

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.