Luna (Lindsey) Corbden's Blog, page 13
August 10, 2010
Defcon, Writer's Group, and Publishing
Three topics that have nothing to do with one another!
Two weekends ago, I attended Defcon with Roland. Last year, I live-blogged the event, but that was a different year, a different blog. 
This year, I learned interesting things about facial recognition software, cyberwarfare, psychosonics, and how to flirt. The first three I learned via talks, and the latter I learned via practice at parties.
As Defcons go, this one was very uneventful. There were only two things of note: GSM...
July 27, 2010
Cover Design for Newbies – Make the Kids Do It
I settled on a title for my new novella yesterday.
Today I spent many frustrating hours designing the cover for: "Make Willing the Prey". I already had a concept in mind, and figured I could easily use public domain clip art and The Gimp. I quickly learned just how wrong I was.
Two of my teenagers were within hearing distance of my various rants, and each time I complained, they offered to design it for me. Finally, I offered them a dollar figure, and pit them against one another to see who c...
July 23, 2010
You Can't Catch Me!
Childrens' memes don't die.
A playground borders our backyard, and in the cool Seattle summers we keep the windows open most of the time. As I got dressed this morning, a very familiar tune swept into the room:
Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah,You can't catch me!
Identical, unchanged since I first learned it circa 1979. Every note in the tune was the same, every word chanted a copy of my own voice 20 years ago.
No adult teaches this song to children. No Sunday School teacher, no math book, no parents ...
July 21, 2010
Finished!
Yesterday I finished the second-to-last-draft on "you know what", aka the Untitled Horror Novella.
Although now it's actually more of a Dark Urban Fantasy novella.
I will work on giving it a title today. My plan is to do a controlled free-write describing the story. A free-write is where you set a timer and start writing. You can't stop for anything. No censorship is allowed. If you can't think of anything to say, then you must type "I can't think of anything to say". A "controlled"...
July 17, 2010
Writer's Insomnia
It's 5:49am.
Yesterday I started the final piece of revision for the as-yet-untitled-novella at around 2pm. I finished around 7 or 8, and spent a couple of hours marketing and researching. At around 10:30, I found myself staring at the computer screen, unable to leave my post, but also unable to do anymore work.
I still have more work to do. I need to go back through and drop a few important pieces of information in earlier text. Then I want to read the whole thing in one sitting and do...
July 16, 2010
Too busy to blog?
The life of a full time writer is apparently a very busy one. I've been so busy with editing and marketing that I haven't had time to blog.
I've been studying all the methods for self-publishing ebooks. I really want to avoid spamming, but also somehow need to build momentum. This is the quandary all indie authors face.
Today I'm going to a writer's group for self-publishers. I've also found a few possible workshop-style writer's groups, so I can critique and be critiqued. This will be e...
July 5, 2010
Work On A New Old Story
I love my new life as a writer. Every day I'm hyper and happy. Especially when I get a lot done.
It's not always easy, and it does require discipline. The routine is starting to form, which helps.
I finished reading and marking up the ghost/vampire novella and it's a piece of crap. That's not to say it can't be salvaged, but it's going to be a lot more work than it's worth right now. Ghost/Vampire will avoid the trash bin, but it will also avoid the light of day.
Instead, I've picked up a...
June 29, 2010
First Story Published
Last week I riffled through my old stories and selected some for editing. My ideal target length for a work will be novella — 15000-40000 words. In the meantime, I selected a novelette (9500 words) and edited it. I threw together a cover using a public domain photo, Gimp (an open source graphics editor), and Amazon CreateSpace's cover art generator.
Working with CreateSpace gave me a view into the world of on-demand print, which I may venture into. For now, their cover art generator is...
June 27, 2010
The Launch of a New Career
I've finally decided to do it. After all these years.
Two weeks ago Thursday, I was fired from my job in the high tech world of systems administration. My technical career spanned 13 years, while my time at that job was 5 years. It is the first time I have ever been fired. It came after a long run of being a "rockstar", beloved by employees and customers alike. The event disoriented me.
I had actually already been looking for work. The day after being fired, I completed my final...
