Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 145
July 11, 2014
Friday Fantasy ~ Number Thirty-Two
The Befuddled Blogger
~I didn’t think fantasy could exist in this world of digital money and vanished dreams…
Image Courtesy of http://www.freeimages.com/profile/2happy
I couldn’t believe that an unfinished story could just disappear, like a puff of mystical smoke…
I’d been on a roll—about a quarter of the way through the first draft of a story about a mysterious man, “…dark on the outside yet full of light.”…
He was looking for a Monster that gored the young ones and ate their flesh.
He was just a...
July 10, 2014
Get Some Free E-Books on Digital Book Day !
There used to be a World Book Night but they lost their funding…
However, I found out, through Jane Friedman, that bestselling author CJ Lyons has created the firstDigital Book Day–
July 14th.
You can visit the site but the free downloads won’t begin until this coming Monday—though, you might want to head over early to check out some of the books and make room for a new stack in the to-be-read corner of your mind—there’s already asuper-long list of authors participating.
Here are just a few excer...
July 8, 2014
No Work Today . . .
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Tagged: Baha'i, Haifa Israel, Martyrdom of the Bab, Shiraz, Tabriz
Writers Who Self-Edit
If you’re not a writer, you may not be familiar with the process of internally editing what you’re about to say.
Image Courtesy of Leo Cinezi ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/cinezi
Some writers aren’t aware they do this—some are plagued by it…
Then, there’s the dreaded internal editorial critic who’s getting in the way of the creative flow of the first draft—judging little things and keeping the important partspenned-up.
Of course, there comes the time of reckoning—after the Muse has done the...
July 7, 2014
Author Earnings
Speculations about how to have a bestseller are running rampant on the ‘Net.
Image Courtesy of Krzysztof Szkurlatowski; 12frames.eu ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/hisks
I’ve written before about what authors can earn and how most writers sell very few books.
Some folks feel that it’s fate or blowing just the right way on the promotion dice that reaps monetary rewards.
One thing that might favor large book sales seems to be writing within popular genres, though even that’s no guarantee.
Certai...
July 4, 2014
Friday Fantasy ~ Number Thirty-One
What Is This Mystery?
~There is a creature—seemingly ageless—capable of compelling…
Image Courtesy of http://www.freeimages.com/profile/kasiakay
It roams all places—through plains and forests, over mountains, and across the seas.
No one knows its name but it visits all peoples.
Its form becomes what is necessary for each individual; though, many folk see it as the same creature.
There are few reliable records of its nature and accounts from individual people can vary upon retelling.
Here are the few...
July 2, 2014
All Time Top 20 Blog Posts
Image courtesy of Ulrik De Wachter ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/ulrik
I’ve published 950 blog posts in the last 3.5 years.
I like to periodically list the top posts.
Because I’m careful when I tag my posts, most of my traffic comes from web searches.
Speaking of tags, if you scroll down a bit in the left side-bar, you can find loads of posts on many topics of interest to Readers, Writers, and Publishers.
The Top Posts widget down there is only for the last week or so of blogging.
What follow...
Open Up To Indie Authors
I’ve read so much trash in the news about how self-published authors are ruining humanity’s “Literary Heritage” that I’m convincedcertain people are quite jealous of Indie writers.
“How dare they decide to publish without the blessing of the Gatekeepers?!”
Well, simply put, they’re quite fed up with what traditional publishers represent.
If you really have no clue about what’s been happening with the Indie author movement, check out my over-100 posts about self-publishing.
And, if you want a more...
July 1, 2014
Facebook’s Deceptions
I haven’t viewed my newsfeed on Facebook for years.
I do still push my blog posts out to them, plus Twitter, LinkedIn, and G+; but, I long ago lost faith in the personal value of these social media tools.
However, I know these social networks can have value for many folks.
Still, I blog, five days a week; and, blogging is social media.
The one big difference in blogging-as-social-media is that there are no faceless sets of algorithms orunaccountable groups of people manipulating what I post.
In ca...
June 30, 2014
Author Interview ~ Max E. Stone
We have well over 40 author interviews now.
Young and old writers—aspiring and experienced.
Today, we’ll share some time withMax E. Stone, author of The Bleeding.
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Max, tell usa bit about yourself and your novel series.
Well,I’ve been writing since I was nine years old. That was when I started writing my “New England” series, which includes The Bleeding and its predecessor and prelude August to Life, which was published in 2012. At the start of the series, August to Life wasn’t even called that...
