Neve Maslakovic's Blog, page 8
December 27, 2012
Five Writing Truths That Should Be Obvious but Aren't...And a Happy New Year!
Hope everyone had (or is having) a good holiday break. The new year is just a few days away and, as I look ahead, I realize I’ll soon cease to be a debut novelist—the publication of The Far Time Incident is just around the corner (early April, more than three months from now, isconsidered just around the corner in the world of publishing.) I’ve learned many practical things since Regarding Ducks and Universes came out, like where to order business cards (I like Moo) and how to make a p...
November 16, 2012
Bezüglich Enten und Universen: Roman
I am pleased to announce that the German edition of "Regarding Ducks and Universes" from Amazon Crossing, as translated by Peter Friedrich, just went up for sale on Amazon, Amazon.de, and the other Amazon stores. The book will be released in trade paperback and Kindle on December 11, 2012. What a fun cover!
October 8, 2012
A Publication Date and New Editions
A couple of weeks ago, I learned a bit about how an audio book gets made—the audio version of Regarding Ducks and Universes is being recorded by the lovely people at BrillianceAudio, with the talented Alexander Cendese narrating. Mainly I learned that there wasn’t much for me as the author to do, as my contribution consisted of supplying preferred pronunciations of names (Mrs. Noor, to rhyme with “sure”) and of words unique to the novel (macar tree, ma-CAR; yabput, YAAB-poot), all of which to...
June 16, 2012
Pics from Pompeii
Just returned from a local-color and fact-gathering weeklong trip to Pompeii for the book I’ve been working on. I've been wanting to go for a while now and the stars finally aligned. It was extraordinary to walk on the ancient paving stones and to see the places I’ve spent the past year, on and off, reading and writing about. Travel time from Minneapolis was about 20 hours and the jet lag weighed me down a bit, but I returned having met some great people -- Italians and co-travelers from Brit...
April 21, 2012
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
So I went to my son’s school* last week and talked to the second graders about being a writer. The kids were great, engaged and interested and full of all sorts of practical questions. They squeezed into a classroom, all one hundred of them, and sat on the floor all around me. It didn’t bother them one bit that I wasn’t a writer of children’s books (which I had been somewhat concerned about). I had a book and that was all that mattered. The duck on the cover probably helped, too.
The questions ranged from Are you going to write a sequel? (not in the cards for now) to What are you working on? (a time-travel story) to What are section breaks? (which was actually a bit hard to explain.)
There were so many questions that the whole thing was more of a conversation than a talk on my part, which was a good thing.
None of the kids asked the classic Where do you get your ideas?, but one of the teachers did. The real answer is that I don’t know — ideas just seem to be there, swirling. The tricky part isn’t getting an idea, but plucking the right one from the vortex and then giving it life and shape and turning it into a story. A book isn’t a single idea, either — it’s a slew of them, small ones, medium ones, big ones, woven together into (one hopes) something new and interesting. The trickiest part for me is figuring out which ideas will work and which ones are duds or unrealistically grand or too small, and on occasion the only way to know is to try to get them onto the page and either fail or not.
So we talked about how they probably have lots of ideas when they daydream and such, and also about how long it takes to write a book (a year, I said, and they were duly impressed.)
The half an hour went by quickly and it was time to leave. On the way out I asked my son, “How was it?” He said, Fineseeyoulater, just like that, very fast. I think he was worried I’d embarrass him by giving him a hug in front of the other kids or something.
So where do I get my ideas?
I think they find me.
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*Name withheld for privacy reasons. Because how embarrassing would it be if one of your parents blogged about you publicly and even mentioned you and your school by NAME.
The questions ranged from Are you going to write a sequel? (not in the cards for now) to What are you working on? (a time-travel story) to What are section breaks? (which was actually a bit hard to explain.)
There were so many questions that the whole thing was more of a conversation than a talk on my part, which was a good thing.
None of the kids asked the classic Where do you get your ideas?, but one of the teachers did. The real answer is that I don’t know — ideas just seem to be there, swirling. The tricky part isn’t getting an idea, but plucking the right one from the vortex and then giving it life and shape and turning it into a story. A book isn’t a single idea, either — it’s a slew of them, small ones, medium ones, big ones, woven together into (one hopes) something new and interesting. The trickiest part for me is figuring out which ideas will work and which ones are duds or unrealistically grand or too small, and on occasion the only way to know is to try to get them onto the page and either fail or not.
So we talked about how they probably have lots of ideas when they daydream and such, and also about how long it takes to write a book (a year, I said, and they were duly impressed.)
The half an hour went by quickly and it was time to leave. On the way out I asked my son, “How was it?” He said, Fineseeyoulater, just like that, very fast. I think he was worried I’d embarrass him by giving him a hug in front of the other kids or something.
So where do I get my ideas?
I think they find me.
--------
*Name withheld for privacy reasons. Because how embarrassing would it be if one of your parents blogged about you publicly and even mentioned you and your school by NAME.
April 5, 2012
I Wait.
I’m not good at waiting. As it happens, a large part of the business side of the writing life seems to involve waiting. This is merely an observation, not a complaint.
At first, depending on your circumstances, you probably have to wait to chisel out the free time to write at all.
Then there’s the writing itself, which takes a while, but that part is fun.
Next you’re querying agents and waiting to hear back. This involves a LOT of waiting. More likely than not, you may not hear back at all (again, merely an observation, not a criticism), and after a month or a few, you cross that agent off your list. (It used to be that this part of the process might stretch out to the point where you simply give up and stash your manuscript in a drawer forever, but these days you can put your book directly on the Kindle, Nook, etc., and bypass the agent-publisher route. Options are a nice thing to have.)
If you find an agent and a publisher, things suddenly enter a strange zone where time moves both slow AND fast. Slow, because the publication date seems so far away, but fast because there is a lot going on—the editorial process to get through, the choosing of the cover, the proof-reading of the Advance Reader copies (these get sent out to old media and new media reviewers), the wait for the reviews themselves, publicity interviews and appearances to be arranged, book giveaways organized, your website updated, bookmarks or postcards to be designed and ordered, and so on.
Still, before you know it, that publication date that seemed so far in the future is here and your book is out—and now you’re waiting for readers to find it, doing your best to help spread the word. Your Facebook page is slowly acquiring followers, your Klout score is rising, reviews are starting to trickle in to your Amazon product page. Life is good.
Then you write the next one—and perhaps, as it happens, it might just have 92,000 words and be called THE FAR-TIME INCIDENT. One day last week, you send it to your editor… and now you wait, biting your nails, to hear back.
At first, depending on your circumstances, you probably have to wait to chisel out the free time to write at all.
Then there’s the writing itself, which takes a while, but that part is fun.
Next you’re querying agents and waiting to hear back. This involves a LOT of waiting. More likely than not, you may not hear back at all (again, merely an observation, not a criticism), and after a month or a few, you cross that agent off your list. (It used to be that this part of the process might stretch out to the point where you simply give up and stash your manuscript in a drawer forever, but these days you can put your book directly on the Kindle, Nook, etc., and bypass the agent-publisher route. Options are a nice thing to have.)
If you find an agent and a publisher, things suddenly enter a strange zone where time moves both slow AND fast. Slow, because the publication date seems so far away, but fast because there is a lot going on—the editorial process to get through, the choosing of the cover, the proof-reading of the Advance Reader copies (these get sent out to old media and new media reviewers), the wait for the reviews themselves, publicity interviews and appearances to be arranged, book giveaways organized, your website updated, bookmarks or postcards to be designed and ordered, and so on.
Still, before you know it, that publication date that seemed so far in the future is here and your book is out—and now you’re waiting for readers to find it, doing your best to help spread the word. Your Facebook page is slowly acquiring followers, your Klout score is rising, reviews are starting to trickle in to your Amazon product page. Life is good.
Then you write the next one—and perhaps, as it happens, it might just have 92,000 words and be called THE FAR-TIME INCIDENT. One day last week, you send it to your editor… and now you wait, biting your nails, to hear back.
I wait.
I’m not good at waiting. As it happens, a large part of the business side of the writing life seems to involve waiting. This is merely an observation, not a complaint.
At first, depending on your circumstances, you probably have to wait to chisel out the free time to write at all.
Then there’s the writing itself, which takes a while, but that part is fun.
Next you’re querying agents and waiting to hear back. This involves a LOT of waiting. More likely than not, you may not hear back at all (again, merely an observation, not a criticism), and after a month or a few, you cross that agent off your list. (It used to be that this part of the process might stretch out to the point where you simply give up and stash your manuscript in a drawer forever, but these days you can put your book directly on the Kindle, Nook, etc., and bypass the agent-publisher route. Options are a nice thing to have.)
If you find an agent and a publisher, things suddenly enter a strange zone where time moves both slow AND fast. Slow, because the publication date seems so far away, but fast because there is a lot going on—the editorial process to get through, the choosing of the cover, the proof-reading of the Advance Reader copies (these get sent out to old media and new media reviewers), the wait for the reviews themselves, publicity interviews and appearances to be arranged, book giveaways organized, your website updated, bookmarks or postcards to be designed and ordered, and so on.
Still, before you know it, that publication date that seemed so far in the future is here and your book is out—and now you’re waiting for readers to find it, doing your best to help spread the word. Your Facebook page is slowly acquiring followers, your Klout score is rising, reviews are starting to trickle in to your Amazon product page. Life is good.
Then you write the next one—and perhaps, as it happens, it might just have 92,000 words and be called THE FAR-TIME INCIDENT. One day last week, you send it to your editor… and now you wait, biting your nails, to hear back.
At first, depending on your circumstances, you probably have to wait to chisel out the free time to write at all.
Then there’s the writing itself, which takes a while, but that part is fun.
Next you’re querying agents and waiting to hear back. This involves a LOT of waiting. More likely than not, you may not hear back at all (again, merely an observation, not a criticism), and after a month or a few, you cross that agent off your list. (It used to be that this part of the process might stretch out to the point where you simply give up and stash your manuscript in a drawer forever, but these days you can put your book directly on the Kindle, Nook, etc., and bypass the agent-publisher route. Options are a nice thing to have.)
If you find an agent and a publisher, things suddenly enter a strange zone where time moves both slow AND fast. Slow, because the publication date seems so far away, but fast because there is a lot going on—the editorial process to get through, the choosing of the cover, the proof-reading of the Advance Reader copies (these get sent out to old media and new media reviewers), the wait for the reviews themselves, publicity interviews and appearances to be arranged, book giveaways organized, your website updated, bookmarks or postcards to be designed and ordered, and so on.
Still, before you know it, that publication date that seemed so far in the future is here and your book is out—and now you’re waiting for readers to find it, doing your best to help spread the word. Your Facebook page is slowly acquiring followers, your Klout score is rising, reviews are starting to trickle in to your Amazon product page. Life is good.
Then you write the next one—and perhaps, as it happens, it might just have 92,000 words and be called THE FAR-TIME INCIDENT. One day last week, you send it to your editor… and now you wait, biting your nails, to hear back.
February 22, 2012
A duck. And a birthday hat.
Yes, it's a duck with a birthday hat. (And also definitive proof of why I'd make a really lousy graphic designer. For one, I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the outer square that delineates photo edge -- I thought, being white on white, everything would blend nicely. Second, I cut-and-pasted the duck from my ARC cover. Need I say more?)
Anyway, the duck with the birthday hat is here because it's been a year since my debut novel came out. Thank you to everyone who bought the print or Kindle version of Regarding Ducks and Universes in the past year, or borrowed it from a library, or left a review, or sent me a kind note, or left a comment saying you enjoyed reading it. You guys are great!
I've been getting a lot of questions about the next book -- for now all I can say is that there are things in the works. That's all I can say mostly because that's all I know for now. Stay tuned. More to come.
Cheers,
Neve
January 19, 2012
Signing a Kindle book - Kindlegraph!
Well, I can now electronically sign copies of Regarding Ducks and Universes and future books on the Kindle, thanks to a new site called Kindlegraph (tagline: Making e-books a little more personal.)
The old way of signing books was pretty simple:
The Kindlegraph way of signing books:
From the reader point of view, there's a bit of work involved (though no more than getting yourself to a bookstore, book in hand, I guess). The directions can be found here, but essentially involve joining the site via your Twitter account (it's free), then entering your Kindle's email address (yes, you do have one). This is important: you have to add the site's email address to the list of approved senders on your Amazon's Manage Your Kindle page. Do this before you request the autograph; it will not be delivered otherwise.
Also, make sure the wireless on your Kindle is turned on, or you might get charged a fee by Amazon for receiving the signature document.
Here is my author page on Kindlegraph. Click on Request Kindlegraph -- what arrives will be a page with the book's cover, the personalized message I write, and my electronic signature.
Hopefully the signing process will improve down the line, but for now, it will do. Below is a screenshot of the test Kindlegraph I signed for the site's creator, Evan Jacobs:
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See what I mean about the signature being wobbly and childlike??? I need more practice.
The old way of signing books was pretty simple:
1. Ready acid-free pen and open book.(While we're on paper books, Uncle Hugo's is the place online to get a signed copy of Regarding Ducks & Universes.)
2. Ask reader for name, then ask again to make sure you have the correct spelling (yes, even if it's something like Jane or Tom.)
3. Think of something pithy and witty to write (pithier and wittier than Best Regards if possible), then write it on the first page of your book.
4. Sign name with flourish.
5. Close book and thank the reader for buying it, etc.
The Kindlegraph way of signing books:
1. Set up an author account on Kindlegraph.com. It doesn't take long, but you do have to have a Twitter account, which I do, having joined the Twitterverse last month (I can be found there as @NeveMaslakovic).
2. Set up your signature. The site is still relatively new, so the only two options available are (a) type signature in a handwriting font, which looked nothing like my actual author signature; or (b) sign using the mouse.
I opted for the second. It's hard to sign with a mouse. My signature kept coming out wobbly and shaky, like I had a seriously high fever or had downed way too many glasses of wine or was under the age of five. After a few tries, I settled on a signature. It still doesn't look much like my normal author signature—it's wobbly and majorly shortens my last name as it tapers upward into a sweeping line—but I reasoned that a shaky one was better than the fake-handwriting one.
3. Wait for a signature request from reader, which arrives in the form of an email via Kindlegraph, type in something personalized and pithy and witty (see above), then click Send Kindlegraph.
4. That's it.
From the reader point of view, there's a bit of work involved (though no more than getting yourself to a bookstore, book in hand, I guess). The directions can be found here, but essentially involve joining the site via your Twitter account (it's free), then entering your Kindle's email address (yes, you do have one). This is important: you have to add the site's email address to the list of approved senders on your Amazon's Manage Your Kindle page. Do this before you request the autograph; it will not be delivered otherwise.
Also, make sure the wireless on your Kindle is turned on, or you might get charged a fee by Amazon for receiving the signature document.
Here is my author page on Kindlegraph. Click on Request Kindlegraph -- what arrives will be a page with the book's cover, the personalized message I write, and my electronic signature.
Hopefully the signing process will improve down the line, but for now, it will do. Below is a screenshot of the test Kindlegraph I signed for the site's creator, Evan Jacobs:
[image error]
See what I mean about the signature being wobbly and childlike??? I need more practice.
January 12, 2012
Dakota County Author Fair, first ever!
On Saturday, January 21, I'll be at Dakota County's first-ever Local Author Fair from 1-4 p.m. with copies of Regarding Ducks and Universes. Come to meet local authors, listen to David Housewright give the keynote address, experience a writing workshop offered by The Loft, enjoy light refreshments, and enter your name in a drawing for free books!
The Galaxie Library is at 14955 Galaxie Avenue in Apple Valley. You can find out more about the fair here.
The Galaxie Library is at 14955 Galaxie Avenue in Apple Valley. You can find out more about the fair here.
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