Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 146
June 27, 2014
Friday Fantasy ~ Number Thirty
White Wizard ~ Black Wizard
~As he traced the last line of the sigil on the cave wall, it began to glow…
Image Courtesy of Afonso Lima ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/zeafonso
He meant no harm—had never meant harm—was only taking these actions to protect the people.
They called him the white wizard and his forced retirement was about to end…
~~
At the edge of the forest, another wizard invoked the spirits and cast his enchantment, feeling a thrill of triumph.
The elephant would fly to the forest...
June 26, 2014
We’re Gone Reading, Yet Again :-)
GoneReading Founder with Some Friends
There are at least a billion people on our planet who can’t read…
In fact, let me quote myself from a past post:
“There are apparently about a billion people on our planet whodon’t choose to not read—they are, for various reasons, unable to obtain books…”
And, there are too few organizations doing something about that.
The one I’ll tell you about today is extremely unique—you buy something cool for yourself and doing so lets you help someone else have books to...
June 25, 2014
Is “Literary Fiction” Just Another Genre?
I ran into a thorny patch of articles that speculate on why literary fiction authors don’t self-publish.
Image Courtesy of Mikhail Lavrenov ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/miklav
My first question was: Where are your statistics?
It’s so common for folks who write about books to draw their arguments from the straw pile of narrowly-focused opinions.
I’ll list 5 links to an intertwined set of articles discussing the supposed fear of “literary fiction” authors—they won’t ever be published because...
June 24, 2014
Writing for Change . . .
Writers are strange creatures, especially the ones who do fiction.
Floating somewhere between Reality and Possibility, they do things that make some of them go crazy,yetcause others of their clan to live in complete tranquility in this frenzied world…
Because of the potential power of the written word, some writers can unwittingly evoke grievousrebellion to established norms, or increase acceptance of social illnesses.
Yet, because of that same power, a work of fiction can inspire readers to mak...
June 23, 2014
Blogging Behind The 8-Ball . . .
Blogging 5 days a week for over 3 years is something I wouldn’t have guessed I’d do—4 years ago :-)
Image Courtesy of Penny Mathews ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/zoofytheji
Finding material is critical to my job—though, I do cheat a bit lately by writing my own original Fantasy stories every Friday.
Some days, like today, I sit here for quite awhile, paging through my voluminous bookmarks, trying to determine myangle of attack…
Reading… Writing… Publishing… Fantasy…
Well, drop Fantasy from t...
June 20, 2014
Friday Fantasy ~ Number Twenty-Nine
The People’s Dilemma
~The Healer prayed to the Mighty Spirit.
Image Courtesy of Carlos J. de Pedro Jim�nez ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/bizilagun
The people wandered the lanes of the town, confounded in their souls.
There were the Mountain-folk and the Forest-folk; and, the Healer between…
Both Folk had founded the town—miracle of cooperation—yet, they now knew not how to communicate…
The Healer called a gathering of the wisest of each Folk, began with an invocation:
“Oh, Most Mighty Spirit,...
June 19, 2014
Is Amazon Becoming A “Traditional” Publisher?
Image Courtesy of Emiliano Hernandez ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/josterix
Lots of folks know that authors can self-publish through Amazon with Kindle Direct, CreateSpace, and ACX.
I wonder how many know that Amazon is also acting just like the traditional publishers.
An article from The New York Times, back in 2011, entitled,Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal, had this to say:
“’Everyone’s afraid of Amazon’, said Richard Curtis, a longtime agent who is also an e-book...
June 18, 2014
The Successful Writer
Becoming a successful writer depends, completely, on yourdefinition of “success”.
Success As Money is the most uncontrollable goal you can set.
Sure, there are things that can be done to enhance a writer’s chance of making money; but, none of them is a sure bet.
Success As Readership is a goal that’s easier to reach if you’re willing to give away lots of copies of your work.
Combining success goals is probably the most reliable way to find “success” but, if you never define the word, you may neve...
June 17, 2014
News In Review ~ Publishing World In Turmoil
The books keep getting stocked on the shelves—physical or digital—but, the people who claim they are the gatekeepers, protecting the Dear Reader from poor writing, are in a heated frenzy.
Image Courtesy of Julia Freeman-Woolpert ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/juliaf
Amazon is being cast as the avariciousvillian, the Big Five traditional publishers are the harrowedmaiden, and the self-publishing authors are, for the moment, behind the scenes…
I regularly scan the Book and Publishing News for...
June 15, 2014
Asking Authors (and Readers) Questions . . .
Not long ago, I wrote a post about GoodReads new Ask The Author program.
Image courtesy of Chris Baker ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/immrchris
Well, not only can you ask over 50 well-known authors questions, now you can ask any authors (there are over 100,000) who sign-up for the program.
Here’s just a bit from GoodReads article about the program:
“If you could askMargaret Atwood,Khaled Hosseini, orJames Pattersonanything, what would it be? Maybe you want to know their writing inspiration,...
