Krista D. Ball's Blog, page 21

Writers – Let's Support Each Other

In a critique group a couple months ago, a few new writers lamented the close of AlienSkin Magazine and how there are less and less approachable markets for them.

My response? Did you ever read AlienSkin? And, more importantly, did you ever donate to them?

(I recognize that their official reasoning for ending was because they were unable to work on their own projects. My point is that enough donations would have allowed them to hire people and spread the work around).

I know that a lot of...

The Financials of Short Stories

Last weekend, I participated in a Twitter author chat. One of the participants seemed genuinely confused by the notion of making royalties off short stories in the form of eBooks. So, I'd like to explain the different ways that I could sell a short story so that people are aware of their options.

First, short stories are short works that are too small to published as their own print novel. Harvest Moon is called a "novelette", meaning it's a long short story. It's 11,000 words or about 30...

What's with the romance hate-on?

One of the most disturbing things that I've encountered on writing sites or in writing circles is the new trend of unpublished authors to trash published romance and erotica (R&E) authors. It baffles my mind as to how an unpublished (or barely published) writer can come down on romance authors who are successful in their own field.  To me, it reeks of a combination of sour grapes and close mindedness.

I'm not much of a romance reader. I rarely read them and even rarer still purchase them...

Death by Corgi

Now that I have your attention. Here is a home video of my corgi, Star, the sometimes ours corgi, Fox (the little one), and one of my step sons. The kid in question is now thirteen, so enough time has passed that we can all point and laugh.

Guest Blogging today!

I'm features on 2 blogs today!

My high school friend, Myrna, hosted me on her blog. Sadly, what she says about me is true to the letter; I really was that unbalanced as a kid. I'm much better now. Kinda. http://myrnaweblog. blogspot. com/2010/ 07/author- krista-d- ball.html

MuseItUp's very own Chrystalla, who I know outside of the Muse world, invited me to be her guest http://chrystallath oma.wordpress. com/

Enjoy!

Flying Kite, Crashing Ship

Flying Kite, Crashing Ship I sold my short story, "Flying Kite, Crashing Ship," to MuseItUp Publishing. I don't have a publication date but I'll let you know as soon as I do! Flying Kite, Crashing Ship is about an unplanned atmospheric entry into Regency England and the havoc of cross-time encounters. This is sale is my forth fiction sale of the year and my second to MIU.

In honour of my time-travel piece, here are the top 5 reasons why time travel is bad…told using the wisdom of Star Trek.

1...

Huh? You're interested in me?

Anyone who's following me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/kristadb1) knows that I'm at a Star Trek convention in Vancouver, BC right now. I was sitting in the hotel lobby last night, waiting for the doors to open to the evening event. I was chatting with three other people, we were talking about being busy, and I had said how busy October will be for me with the book launch and two other conventions, plus a LARP.

Now, I thought that the LARP was the exciting part. And, yes, they asked about what t...

Skills to survive the Zombie End Times

As your humble leader who will lead you through the Zombie End Times, I would be amiss if I did not offer you a checklist of skills for you to hone.

· Own a shotgun or chainsaw – Ideally, both. A shotgun is for when you are inside a fortified house. A chainsaw is for when your troops need to overtake the enemy's position. Now, our funds are limited here so you are on your own for these. If you need to justify your purchases to your spouse, just say that you are helping stimulate the economy.

· ...

Beam me up!

I'm leaving you folks again on Thursday for Vancouver, BC for Creation Entertainment's Star Trek convention. I was at their 40th anniversary of Star Trek convention in Vegas a few years ago. I'm excited to go to another without needing to take my shoes off and be harassed by border security. (FYI, carrying sealed hummus and saying you're going to a convention risks getting you profiled as a terrorist. You have been warned).

I'll post photos over on my Facebook fan site next week when I'm back!

Should you break up with your critique group?

One thing I recommend all new writers is to find themselves a critique group. I think they are invaluable. A critique group can be in person or online. It is a group of writers who review and comment on each other's work. They point out plot holes and character flaws that you missed. They can spot timeline issues that seem to fly over your head. And they catch that pesky Word mix-up, where "inconsistent" was changed to "incontinent." Ouch.

With a group offering such helpful, well, help, why...