Krista D. Ball's Blog, page 16

NaNo Project #3 begins today!

Technically, it's scheduled to start tomorrow, but I just finished #2 so I might as well jump in. I've been shameless re-playing Dragon Age, so the word count dropped to 0 over the weekend. Bouncing back for the work week, though!

Project #3 is an untitled (I know, I know!) YA story about a young Mi'kMaq girl in pre-European Newfoundland. After a fight with her parents, she is tempted to shapeshift by another shifter. As she changes animal forms, she begins forgetting what it means to be human. Only contact with others will help bring her back.

It's another of the "identity" stories that I've been wanting to work on for a while now. "Harvest Moon" is about the identity of gender. So, this one is about humanity itself. Project #5 is identity of culture, just FYI [image error] Hopefully, I get there this month!

Anyone else out there writing? How's it going?

Project #1 done, moving to #2

My NaNoWriMo Project #1 came in at 11,099 words this morning and complete. With edits and flushing out, it'll hit closer to 17-22K words, a nice sized novella. It ended up becoming a story about a woman learning to move on with her life after the death of her wife. Add in a hate crime, intolerant extended family, nice Friars, and a rural Alberta setting, and you have boring ol' mainstream novella with, once again, the traditional trope turned around.

Project #2 is a short story about a princess whose betrothed is turned into a cat by an angry wizard's guild who are protesting a rise in taxes. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

A reading from "Harvest Moon"

I'm visiting JoJo's site today, and did a reading for her. It's my first so, please, come and visit! http://jojosbookcorner.blogspot.com/

NaNoWriMo is away!

For those who don't know what this is, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Now an international movement, it is a writing challenge to get people motivated to write the first drafts of novels that they have never gotten around to writing. The idea is for people to prove to themselves that they can indeed write a novel and that time is now. It's to force people to figure out how to write about 1700 words a day, for 30 days, regardless of work, children, life, and personal hygiene.

I'm doing NaNo this year. However, I'm not doing a novel. I already have one partially finished and another in the final stages of editing (I just figured out the plot hole that was driving me nuts). Instead, I'm working on 6 shorter projects (3 short stories and 3 novellas) that I haven't had the time to focus on.

The next six days are dedicated to project #1: Untitled F/F romance, or maybe erotica, or maybe mainstream, or maybe literary. I'm still figuring out if it's going to be a romance or not. It is about a widowed Albertan farmer who takes on a summer helper in the form of a young feminist and gay rights activist who is working on her masters degree in women's studies.  The unlikely pair form a bound working on the farm and learn a bit about life from each other.

I struggle with the entire happy ending concept, so I figure it will be a depressing literary story by the end…We'll see, though!

Who else is doing NaNo?

Economics of doing a book signing

Last weekend, I attended Pure Speculation 2010 in Edmonton. I was a panelist at one of the discussions. I also had a table in the vendor's room, where I sold copies of "Bardic Tales and Sage Advice 2″ (print) and "Harvest Moon" (ebook).

Even during the event, I had a number of new writers and newly published/about to be published authors if the table was worth it. "Worth it" is a relative thing. If they are talking about money, then strictly speaking, no. However, if they are talking about connections and networking that I did, then the answer is a hell yes.

So, first, the economics of my author table. Here are the costs:

$45 for the table (Friday – Sunday)

$140 to have 12 copies of Bardic Tales and Sage Advice 2 shipped to me. (What was to cost around $8 a copy ended up costing me a lot more than I had planned because Amazon shipped via UPS  - all couriers, but especially UPS, overcharge Canadians for handling fees parcels that cross the border. So, it arrived with a nasty $40 surcharge slapped on it.)

$13.45 for Harvest Moon downloads (folks paid me cash, and I downloaded/emailed them the book). I charged the CAD price, even though the book is in USD.

$10 for homemade business cards to print off "free download of Wicca Dog" cards, along with the coupon code.

$30 in chocolate to bribe people to come and talk to me.

$15 for bookmarks (I bought 500 high quality ones for $90. I used about 75 or so).

$5 for a tablecloth

$2 for a book stand

TOTAL COST: $250.45

Now, you're all wondering how much I made, aren't you? I sold 4 copies of Bardic Tales and 5 copies of Harvest Moon, for a total of $75.95.

That means a loss of $174.50.

So, it must confuse everyone in that I've been proclaiming the event a smashing success. It was a smashing success for me.

Here's the thing. The average number of books sold at an afternoon book signing is rumoured to be around 2 copies. I sold a lot more than that over the course of a weekend, and at an event that I would have gone to anyway (I love Pure Spec). I was a part of a panel, where I discussed short stories and where to sell them. I was able to answer questions about my choice to go with royalty-based epublishing for some of mine, as opposed to a flat rate in a magazine or anthology.

The local speculative fiction community had no idea that I even existed. Now, they do. They spent a weekend where they were greeted by me shaking their hand, asking how their day was going, letting folks play with my Sony eReader, telling them about Harvest Moon, and talking publishing.

I had aspiring authors, Aurora winners, Aurora committee members, coordinators for other events, and fans speak to me. I got to talk about Harvest Moon to Robert J Sawyer and Tanya Huff. I also got to talk to it to a 17 year old girl who wanted to grow up and become Tanya Huff. How cool is that?

For me, the event wasn't about selling books. Because, let's face it, you don't sell a lot of books. I did the Konrath form of selling for the event. I stood the entire event, spoke to every single person who walked by me, introduced to myself to everyone I possibly could, and poured my entire energy into the event. I still did not sell a lot. Why? Folks don't like short stories (I was told this by several) and/or they don't want to read ebooks. I was selling an ebook and a short story collection. There was no hope for me [image error]

Some of these things can carry to the next event, saving me money the next time around.

But, even without money, I'm very pleased. I gained new followers to my blog, facebook, and twitter. Some folks took the download information for Harvest Moon. One person told me he was downloading it to his cell phone as we spoke.

So, why am I telling this? A lot of new authors have the wrong impression of book signings. They think that there will be line ups of folks waiting to buy your books. Very few authors will actually talk about how many books they sell at signings and events. If it wasn't for people who have told me what to expect, I'd go in blind. I'd hate for others to do that, too.

There you have it. My first event. I sold a few things, had an amazing time, and made lots of contacts with the spec fiction community in Alberta as a whole. What more can I ask for?

Decompression…and bully update

I'm just getting settled away after 2 weekends of 'Cons. Don't get me wrong – it's been a blast. This weekend, in particular, at Pure Spec was amazing. However, my brain is a little fired.

Over the course of the weekend, I was asked a number of questions about epublishing, being a new author, balancing the money, etc. I've always said that this stuff isn't talked about enough from the author's perspective. Over the next week or so, I'm going to address some of the most common questions that came up, including:

Did it pay to have a vendor's table?
Why did you epublish Harvest Moon?
What kind of money is in epublishing?
How do people treat me as an epublished author?

I've always said that I'll try to be as honest as possible. So, I'll be addressing these questions from my own experience. Mileage may vary.

Also, I want to give an update about the bully situation. The bully apologized in writing and gave a promise to not do it again. So far, so good.  I'm very pleased with how the school handled things. The previous school only pretended to have a zero tolerance policy. This school actually has one.

Bullies are zombies

Those of you following me on Twitter in the last 24 hours know I'm pissed about some school bullies. Yesterday, I got the news while at my main client's. I relayed the bully news and they told me stories about how they overcame bullies in school. Some of the ways would get you in trouble these days (i.e. one fended off the school bully by crushing a stainless steel serving tray into the kid's head), while others were sad (i.e. it never ended), and while others still had others bail them out (i.e. once, a boy hit me and before I had the chance to beat him to a bloody pulp, three girls jumped him and hit him so bad that I felt sorry for him by the end).

I expect a bit of teasing throughout life, including in school. But it should always been friendly and fun-spirited. It should never, ever make someone feel bad or effect their ability to do their work. They should never be sullenly pulling themselves home, feeling like they've been kicked (or, in yesterday's case, physically kicked as well as mentally kicked).

So, while I am trying to quell my anger, I'd like everyone to share their "It gets better" stories. Did you get bullied? When it did stop? Did it ever? Did you stand up to the bully? How about bullies in the workplace? Did you learn how to defend yourself against bullies? Share your stories.

Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Last weekend, fellow author Tina Hunter and I did a panel at Calgary's Con-Version regarding female characters in science fiction and fantasy. The event was well attended and was an even split between males and females. We did a discussion style, where I'd ask Tina a question, she'd give her thoughts, and then we're open it up to the group to discuss off her answer. It worked well and the answers rekindled my hope in humanity as a whole. Yes, it was that good!

Here is a quick summary of what folks talked about.

They don't want men with boobs. Yet, they didn't see Ripley as a man with boobs. She was more of a mama bear, which they loved. This is really interesting and something I had not considered. Women can be ferocious and sometimes more scary than men. It often comes from the part of our personalities that want to protect. They found a man with boobs unbelievable, but a mama bear wanting to rip the heads off anyone who threatened her territory as acceptable.
We still need to talk about women in science fiction and fantasy. I found this interesting. Lately, I've been reading backlash comments and blogs from men who want a men's SF&F section in the bookstore. They don't want this touchy feeling crap. They don't want women on front covers. They don't want people talking about their feelings. However, after bringing up those comments and hearing the collective laughs and groans from the crowd, my faith in the SF&F community has been rekindled.
They want to see more personalities and archetypes in fiction. Both sides wanted to see more characters like them. They wanted men who cried when their children died, they wanted women who could do quantum mechanics calculations in their head. And, mostly, no one wanted simpering women unless there was a damned good reason for it.

I also got a great series recommendation from "Jim". 1632 by Eric Flint. I love a good time travel story and I was tickled to discover that the first book in the series is a free ebook download!

It was my very first speaking event, so I was happy that it went so well. Twenty people attended, which completely shocked me. Our panel was up against Marina Sirtis and John de Lancie of Star Trek: TNG. With a small convention, I figured no one would come. Boy, was I wrong and delightfully so!

This upcoming weekend, I'll be at Pure Spec in Edmonton. On Sunday, I'll be a part of a panel discussing the future of short stories, including anthologies, magazines, and ebooks. Also, we'll talk about the importance of supporting local authors and literary publications.

Authors get burned out, too

It seems strange to say that I'm burned out, considering that I love my job. I love being a freelance and fiction author. I love that this is my career. And, yet, it's like pulling teeth for me to write anything these days.

I have several projects that require a significant amount of editing. For me to edit, I need uninterrupted quiet. This isn't the case when I am writing first drafts; I could write next to a screaming baby and not notice.

But, that's the problem. I have several projects that need me to edit them. Normally, I don't mind, but it's been a stressful several months for me and, frankly, the idea of sitting down to the computer to do anything but play video games seems like hell.

I'm tired. I often get like this in the fall. My body takes a couple of months to adjust to the lack of light and the chilly weather (though, it has been a nice autumn this year, helps make up for the crappy weather all summer).

I'm trying to soldier on, but for the next while, I'm cutting things back a little. After a crazy summer, I need to ease myself back into a routine. Or, rather, find my routine again.

I promise to take a vacation soon and send it completely doing brain dead things [image error]

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a busy Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. We're celebrating in the usual fashion, with a lentil loaf and roasted veggies (don't knock it until you try it!), followed by turkey dinner with the Engineer's family.

The cats will be spoiled with raw chicken gizzards, the dogs with raw llama bones, and even the wildlife gets special treats! For the blue jays, an extra helping of corn. The chickadees get black sunflower seeds. And, for our red squirrel, he just discovered a fruit and nut peanut butter cake on his feeder just a few minutes ago…

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