Jason Córdova's Blog, page 50
September 23, 2013
Oops… Forgot the Title
It’s a little chilly this morning, so there is some writing about to commence.First, however, I must share something.
I have designed my very first book cover. No, not the art (I can’t draw worth a damn), but designed the title, author name, spine design, etc. It’s my first effort, but I think if I can get the hang of photo shop then I might be able to become decent at this sort of thing. It’s not “bad”, but I know I can do better. But for now, this is the temporary cover.
Temporary Cover
This c...
September 19, 2013
They Knew What They Were Doing
It took me convincing an engineer that yes, this is a house and no, it doesn’t have an address but it’s still a residence before I finally — finally! — got internet hooked up today.
…aaaaaand my router promptly died. Motherf***er!
At least the install was free. Considering the amount of swearing that was going on when the two engineers were installing it, I’m pretty sure I was glad it was free. What was supposed to be a 20 minute job (their opinion) took over a hour and a half. I warned them th...
September 10, 2013
Help Natural Order — Buy My Books!
All right! That big news I’ve been absolutelydyingto tell you guys?
I can talk! Woot!
So a few months ago, a guy I friended randomly on Facebook (he wrote a cool book I enjoyed) put out this call for a coauthor. I didn’t think I had a shot in hell (really, I’ve had bad luck with coauthors and was almost to the point of swearing them off) but I figured “Hey, worst thing that could happen is being told ‘No’, right?”
Well, I mentioned I’d done some editing, my publishing chops (admittedly thin, but...
September 4, 2013
Survival, Bronies and Hugos, Oh My!
No, I haven’t forgotten about my website. I just got the bill for my webhosting service. I always forget when those things roll around.
No, I just moved back to Virginia and am… acclimating. I don’t have internet at my house yet (I’m totally on someone else’s internet… go me) so updating as regularly as I like it a bit of a challenge. On the plus side, writing secret Project X-1 has been going smoothly. I wrote 21,200 words last week on it and I hope to crack 35,000 words by next Wednesday.
No...
August 21, 2013
Publisher cancels book contract because the writer is gay
Reblogged from Monster Hunter Nation:
So Cedar Fort really likes a book submitted to them and says that they think it will sell well. Cedar Fort gives a contract to these two authors. They write their author bios. One mentions his "partner" instead of his wife. Cedar Fort flips out and drops them.
A couple of thoughts.
1. Just from a business/marketing perpsective, what a stupid, stupid, stupid, bone headed maneuver that was by Cedar Fort.
As always...
August 19, 2013
More Good News
Hill 142has been picked up for theHero’s Best Friendanthology fromSeventh Star Press. This is thrilling news, since I really stretched on the alt-history/fantasy angle of the story and was worried that it might not be well received by the editor. There was a huge element of risk involved that I wasn’t used to dealing with. So, yay!
That brings the yearly total up to four stories sold so far. Not bad, but if I actually hope to one day make a little bit of money at this “writing” thing, I’m goin...
August 9, 2013
The Working Man
Part of the writing process often involves sitting back, looking over what you’ve done, feeling pleased and accomplished with yourself, and then ruthlessly cutting most of it during the edits.
My writer–brain screams in pain every time I do this. My editor–brain chuckles evilly.
One of the things I’ve seen over the years is that many people are afraid of cutting things. They have no problem going back and editing stuff but, when it comes to absolutely deleting entire paragraphs (or, oftentimes,...
August 5, 2013
Respect the Sphere
CIVIL WAR
No, I’m not talking about the one in everyone keeps thinking will happen here in the United States. I doubt a civil war could happen (primarily because we have no infrastructure anymore capable of one side or the other ever achieving “victory”, as it were) and, if it did, it’d probably be Texas versus everyone else. And Tom Kratman already wrote that book.
No, what I’m focused on more is the rapid escalation of hostilities in fandom. As you may have surmised, I had a cursory interest...
August 2, 2013
#amwriting
#amwriting is, apparently, my most popular Twitter hashtag.
For some reason, it’s about a million other peoples as well. Seriously, I am the least original person in the world sometimes.
I’m still waiting to hear back about Hill 142.Patience is not my strong point, especially when I’m more than ready to crank out more stuff in that universe (you know, the one where WWI was won with magic, giant beasts and machine guns?) and I need to get my head intoCollectibles. Of course, the dark and somber...
July 25, 2013
A Whisper in the Night
When I was in college I saw a very disturbing thing.
You see, my minor was in Journalism and part of my job was filling in when some people in the school’s paper weren’t able to cover an event (it’s how I got a one-on-one interview with a Senator after he announced he was running for Governor). I was the assistant sports editor at the paper (I think it was because nobody wanted to work for the sports editor, who (surprisingly) knew little about sports) so it wasn’t a big deal for me to drop ev...
