Leah R. Cutter's Blog, page 30

2012 Publishing Numbers

It’s time for those retrospective things. I figured I’d start with some publishing numbers. Numbers of books sold and monies won’t be available for quite some time.

This was a good year for Knotted Road Press, my publishing company. Here are my year end numbers:

11 POD

12 short stories

3 collections

3 novels

Total titles: 18

Total published: 29

I count POD in addition to titles, though strictly speaking it’s the same title, published twice. However, the POD version always takes more work.

I wrote a total of 16 short stories in 2012. Some of these won’t be published until next year. Some may come out as part of “The Guardian Hound” first — I don’t know yet.

I don’t know what my total word count for the year is either. As I plan on writing a lot this week, I’m optimistic about pushing the average daily word count up for the year. Currently it’s at 514 words per day. If I do 10,000 words this week of the novel, that will push it up to 542 words per day for the year. Wish me luck!

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

That writing thang…

Remember that whole plan I had about writing a short story a week until the end of the year?

Then life happened.

I got really sick for 2+ weeks. The third week, I was recovering, but I couldn’t find any enthusiasm for any of the short stories I’d kind of been thinking about. I figured the lack of immediate ideas must have been illness related (seriously, I haven’t been that sick for a long, long time. Probably not since I had pneumonia three years ago.)

I finally started feeling better. And I thought I should at least want to start writing.

But the words, they weren’t a-flowin’.

Eventually, I asked myself whether it was time for me to start writing the next novel.

And the words came rushing back.

I was traveling this last week. I have probably the first third of the novel plotted out. After that — who knows?

I am so excited about this new book. It feels different, and the process for planning it has been very different.

Generally, when I get a novel idea, I also get a sense of how to write it.

This novel appears to be coming to me as a series of scenes, with a series of characters. The structure isn’t clear. Even the order of some of the scenes isn’t clear. That’s fine, I’m not bothered by it — it’s just interesting and different. Usually a story comes at me linearly. This novel feels non-linear in the extreme.

I don’t have to go back to the day job until January 2nd. I plan on making lots of good progress on the novel before then.

As for the short stories, uhm, well, life happens sometimes. I wrote 16 short stories this year. I am pleased with that. I’ll do a post later on total word count for the year, how I did re: 2012 and what I plan on doing in 2013.

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

Paperbacks now available!

I realized that I had been planning on posting about these, but due to illness, didn’t.

The Raven and the Dancing Tiger is available as a paperback.

Postcards From Hell is available as a paperback.

Walking Gods is available as a paperback.

The first one is a novel. The last two are individual short stories that I thought I’d try as POD. They’re both between 11-12K words, so they’re longer than a regular short story. I’ve had so much fun doing these. I will probably do more in the future.

Also, before Thanksgiving I did record a short story, and was planning on putting that up on ACX. However, since I didn’t have a voice for so long, I couldn’t finish it. But I do plan on getting up some short stories on ACX before the end of the year.

In other news, my voice did return about 7:30 last night. It’s a little rough around the edges at this point, but I still feel as though I’m mostly well, instead of being mostly sick. One of the ways I can tell — I actually got hungry today. It’s the first time that’s happened in almost three weeks.

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

Free Fiction! The Tortoise and the Maiden

My brand new, historic fantasy story, “The Tortoise and the Maiden” is available for free for the next week. It’s also available at all the usual locations.

The blurb:

Bing Yu meets a magical tortoise at the village well. He gives her good advice and helps her mother. But her father needs help too. As a respectful daughter, of course Bing Yu wants to do everything she can. But what price is Bing Yu willing to pay?

This is a historic fantasy, set in Tang dynasty China.

In other news, I’m still not well, and it’s starting to worry me. I still don’t have a voice. I’m hoping going to bed early tonight and getting lots of rest will help. Otherwise, it’s back to the doctor.

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

Beyond the Garden available in paperback!

The short story collection, “Beyond the Garden” is now available as a paperback!

I put this collection together and did the majority of the work during Thanksgiving. Today the final proof arrived. It’s such a pretty book. And I’m thrilled with this new age of publishing, when I can produce such a thing.

As for me, I’m finally better. Not well, but much better. My voice came back sometime after noon today, after I’d finished my coffee, so I no longer sound as if I’ve been smoking a couple of packs of cigarettes a day for the last 30 years. I got a few things done today, in between taking long breaks. I don’t have any strength right now.

I don’t have to write a story this week, though I have started one, the next of the stories about the clans. The character is arrogant, and I asked myself whether he’d be sympathetic. My instant response was that he was competent–his arrogance has a reason. Which, in my mind, is good enough. We’ll see how this one goes.

Tomorrow I go get some Christmas lights, then decorate the tree and the house. And go to the Seattle Men’s Chorus, a holiday tradition for a friend and I.

And maybe tomorrow I spend a little bit of time writing, seriously writing, as well.

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

Holding steady

So — it’s a sinus infection, and pretty nasty. I haven’t had a voice since Monday. I’m really hoping that come Sunday I will have turned the corner, and will be on the road to recovery. I am better today than I was, say, Monday or Tuesday, but it’s a minor improvement. I’m still mostly sick.

There were a lot of things I was planning on doing this weekend, like getting a tree and decorating for Christmas, as well as volunteering, going to a party, and to the Seattle Men’s Chorus Christmas concert. I don’t know what I’ll be able to do — I really do want to get the tree, though, so I may just go ahead and do that. Don’t really need a voice for buying a tree, right?

I haven’t written anything in almost two weeks. I found myself writing a story in my head, or at least the start of one, last night (another reason why I think I’m getting better.) It’s one of the characters from “The Guardian Hound” who started talking to me, in her very distinct voice. Ariel, one of the boar warriors. I don’t think she has a separate story, outside the novel, I think she’s just part of the narrative, but she’s talking really loudly to me, through all the illness, so what do I know?

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

Lack of progress…

I’m still so very sick, more sick now than I was last week in SF. Went to the doctor today–she wants to play the waiting game to see if this is a sinus infection or not, see how I’m feeling Thursday. I’m willing to wait, but I suspect waiting will just end up with me being sick longer.

I didn’t write a short story last week. I may miss this week as well. I have a short story ready to be published, however, I don’t have the blurb for it, I don’t have the brain to do the final look through or the conversion, so I may have to push that out a week as well. (It’s taken me over 30 minutes to do this much of a blog post. Yeah. I’m not well.)

At least I’m not worried about my final word count for the year.

I added up everything I’ve written for the year, then divided that by 365 to get the average. Without writing another word between now and the end of the year, I’ve already hit 513 words per day.

I will write more short stories this year. I may even try to “make up” the 1-2 weeks I’ve missed. But I don’t think I’ll push that average much higher, and I’m okay with that.

Averaging 500+ words per day, for every day of the year, feels like enough of an accomplishment.

So while there’s a lack of recent progress, at least I made progress earlier this year.

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

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today’s my birthday. It’s been a good day so far. I’m still sick, which kind of sucks, but I’ve taken lots of OTC medication, so I’m feeling okay, and my symptoms are mostly under control.

This morning I woke up with a purring kitty curled up by my side. That’s always a good way to start the day. I went grocery shopping this morning (I’ve been traveling for two weeks, so there’s no food in the house.) Then I made myself what I consider to be a great breakfast: eggs with spinach and cheese, double-smoked bacon from Rainshadow meats, with raspberries, raw yellow pepper and raw cauliflower on the side to snack on.

One of my co-workers roasts his own coffee. He gave me a bit for my birthday — specialty, single-source beans from Yemen, a light roast. OMG is it good. When I try a new coffee, I always take at least a few sips without adding any cream, just to taste it. This is smooth enough that I could drink it without cream, but I added cream anyway because that’s how I prefer my coffee.

Later tonight I’m going out to dinner with friends. For the rest of the day, though, I’m planning on being pretty lazy. One of my holiday traditions is to re-watch the LotR trilogy. I might start on that today. I have some other shows to catch up on as well, the ridiculousness that is “Arrow,” the last of “Ru Paul’s Drag Race — All Stars,” the most recent “Haven” and “Grimm.”

But for now, I’m curled up on my gorgeous golden fainting couch in my writing nook upstairs, watching the rain and wind, listening to the birds, with great coffee and a good book (“I am not a serial killer.”) (I’m about 1/3rd into it, and I’m enjoying the hell out of it.)

I hope everyone else is having a lovely, stress-free day!

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

Urgh

I'm traveling, in SF, and sick. It's not as awful as it could be, but it's close. Luckily, I get to go home tomorrow.

The day job gave me an iPhone 5, replacing my Blackberry. It's new and shiny.

New story! Of Heaven And Hell. Also, Free Fiction!

Of Heaven And Hell

December 21st, 2012 hadn’t been the end of the world, only the Great Unraveling. The veils between the Seen and Unseen worlds shredded and the living learned they weren’t alone.

My Andrew, he is not the only one who faces such things as Heaven and Hell. For me though, it’s more personal, helping a friend who has lost so much of her soul.



This story is part of the Shredded Veil Mysteries, told from the point of view of the beautiful Antonia Hermino.

–

It was fun to write a story from Toni’s POV. In many ways, she was as I knew her alread, but in a few ways she surprised me. I like this story. This story is available for free for on my site for the next week.

It’s also available at all the usual locations:

Available on Amazon (Kindle)

Available on Barnes & Noble (Nook)

Available on Smashwords

Available on Kobo

I don’t know if I’ll write a short story this week. I told myself I didn’t have to. I’m not sure I can stop myself, though. We’ll see. I have a short story all ready to publish next week if I decide I don’t have to. Then I really will have to write a new story.

I’ll make these as separate announcements later this week as well, but I also wanted to announce them now:

“The Raven and the Dancing Tiger” is available as a paperback! It’ll take a few days to make its way through the system and show up on Amazon. But I’m so excited! The book is so pretty.

“Postcards From Hell” is available as a separate printed book — more like a chapbook than a paperback. Dean has been doing his short stories as printed books, and I thought I would try one as an experiment. I really like how it came out.

I will do Walking Gods as a paperback next.

I really love this new world of publishing that we live in.

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