Kate Copeseeley's Blog, page 9
September 11, 2012
Attraction vs. Instalove
I met my husband 10 years ago (TEN, wow! That went be quickly!) in a study session for my college chemistry class. (I know, chemistry. hahahahahaha Heard that joke a million times, moving on.) I met him and it was like, BAM! It was like those cartoons where the character gets hit over the head with a mallet and sees the stars twirling around their head in circles over and over again. That is how strong my attraction for him was.
After that, even though we were in two different majors and only shared one core class the entire rest of our college careers, I saw him everywhere. At the library, at the Student Union, walking to and fro from our different classes—I'd never seen the guy before IN MY LIFE and suddenly, I couldn't go a day without spotting him. Sometimes, not even an hour. It was WEIRD.
I don't believe in soulmates. Never have, never will. I don't believe in love at first sight. But do I think there's a possibility that you can meet someone and feel over-the-top, can't-think-about-anything-else attracted to them? Heck yes, I do. It happened to me.
My husband and I saw each other every day that summer, we said,"I love you," at six months and FOUR YEARS LATER, we got married. Everyone's journey to love is different, but my love story is what I based Nikka and Zyander's love story on.
If you've read the series, you'll notice that neither of them have(thus far) said, "I love you." In the first book, they are together for all of a week before they spend the rest of the book separated. (Sorry if that's a spoiler!) It would be odd for them to say they loved each other in a book where they only spend a week together.
In Aeris, they have more of an opportunity to get to know one another, but I still don't see them as being intimate enough for a love confession. They are getting there, but these things take time.
My point, and I do have one, I've thought carefully about how I want the relationship between my two characters to proceed, and in the end, I decided to write what I know. What I know, is that it takes time to fall in love and to say the words. Attraction happens in an instant, but true love takes development.
It's sad that we live in a world where characters come together for A DAY, and tell each other, "I love you." I just can't picture that, myself. It's sad that we live in a culture that judges every other story based on another one they've read. Either love happens too fast to be believable, or not fast enough. I'm sorry to admit that I've been pretty judgmental about that myself.
Think carefully, when you write, about how quickly your characters become intimate. Fast or slow, make sure that you have a good reason for it, in your mind. When you read, and make sure that you have the whole story before forming your opinion of it.
Happy Reading!
After that, even though we were in two different majors and only shared one core class the entire rest of our college careers, I saw him everywhere. At the library, at the Student Union, walking to and fro from our different classes—I'd never seen the guy before IN MY LIFE and suddenly, I couldn't go a day without spotting him. Sometimes, not even an hour. It was WEIRD.
I don't believe in soulmates. Never have, never will. I don't believe in love at first sight. But do I think there's a possibility that you can meet someone and feel over-the-top, can't-think-about-anything-else attracted to them? Heck yes, I do. It happened to me.
My husband and I saw each other every day that summer, we said,"I love you," at six months and FOUR YEARS LATER, we got married. Everyone's journey to love is different, but my love story is what I based Nikka and Zyander's love story on.
If you've read the series, you'll notice that neither of them have(thus far) said, "I love you." In the first book, they are together for all of a week before they spend the rest of the book separated. (Sorry if that's a spoiler!) It would be odd for them to say they loved each other in a book where they only spend a week together.
In Aeris, they have more of an opportunity to get to know one another, but I still don't see them as being intimate enough for a love confession. They are getting there, but these things take time.
My point, and I do have one, I've thought carefully about how I want the relationship between my two characters to proceed, and in the end, I decided to write what I know. What I know, is that it takes time to fall in love and to say the words. Attraction happens in an instant, but true love takes development.
It's sad that we live in a world where characters come together for A DAY, and tell each other, "I love you." I just can't picture that, myself. It's sad that we live in a culture that judges every other story based on another one they've read. Either love happens too fast to be believable, or not fast enough. I'm sorry to admit that I've been pretty judgmental about that myself.
Think carefully, when you write, about how quickly your characters become intimate. Fast or slow, make sure that you have a good reason for it, in your mind. When you read, and make sure that you have the whole story before forming your opinion of it.
Happy Reading!
September 9, 2012
Beauty School Dropout...
This song (one of my faves from that great musical Grease) has been running through my head as I contemplate the various things I've dropped out of, lately. Camp Nanowrimo, for one. I've considered even dropping ROW80, since I'm woefully behind on any goals I set for myself, but then I remember my Word of the Year: DETERMINATION.
Firm or fixed intention to achieve a desired end...
My desired end is to finish Terris and the Angel book. I need to just focus on writing whenever I can. Even if it's only a couple of hundred words a day, if I can write that much, so be it. I hate feeling like I am back where I was last year: tired, exhausted, stumbling over myself to get any little bit of writing done.
New Baby isn't a baby anymore, he just turned 1 and he's got 7 of the 8 teeth he was working on, so I'm hoping there is an end in sight—a lull in the storm of GETTING ALL THE TEETH. The 5 am wake up time that worked so well before he was born is obviously not working when I'm getting an average of 4 hours of sleep a night. I've been using up my valuable naptime writing space to sleep, so really, it's here and there that I can eke out a few words.
It's not all bad, however. I finished part one of Luka's story and I've started in on Nikka's. The buildup for this go around is going to be a little bit like Compis, so the pacing is slower for her story. Some of the readers liked that and some didn't, but I can't help it. The story must be told as it should be. Luka's story is action-packed enough to make up for her slower first part. Luckily, her second part will pack some punch. Zyander is kind of a mix of both. He's got a LOT going on in Terris, so I hope I do his storyline justice.
Aeris is still selling like hotcakes, which is fun to watch. Amazon sales prices confuse me. First Compis was full price, then $.99, then full price, then $1.03 (of all things) and now it's back to $.99 again. Who knows where it will be tomorrow. Odd. I would just like to say, I have nothing to do with that.
Here's hoping I get more written next week and will actually FEEL like posting my word counts. :)
Happy Reading!
Firm or fixed intention to achieve a desired end...
My desired end is to finish Terris and the Angel book. I need to just focus on writing whenever I can. Even if it's only a couple of hundred words a day, if I can write that much, so be it. I hate feeling like I am back where I was last year: tired, exhausted, stumbling over myself to get any little bit of writing done.
New Baby isn't a baby anymore, he just turned 1 and he's got 7 of the 8 teeth he was working on, so I'm hoping there is an end in sight—a lull in the storm of GETTING ALL THE TEETH. The 5 am wake up time that worked so well before he was born is obviously not working when I'm getting an average of 4 hours of sleep a night. I've been using up my valuable naptime writing space to sleep, so really, it's here and there that I can eke out a few words.
It's not all bad, however. I finished part one of Luka's story and I've started in on Nikka's. The buildup for this go around is going to be a little bit like Compis, so the pacing is slower for her story. Some of the readers liked that and some didn't, but I can't help it. The story must be told as it should be. Luka's story is action-packed enough to make up for her slower first part. Luckily, her second part will pack some punch. Zyander is kind of a mix of both. He's got a LOT going on in Terris, so I hope I do his storyline justice.
Aeris is still selling like hotcakes, which is fun to watch. Amazon sales prices confuse me. First Compis was full price, then $.99, then full price, then $1.03 (of all things) and now it's back to $.99 again. Who knows where it will be tomorrow. Odd. I would just like to say, I have nothing to do with that.
Here's hoping I get more written next week and will actually FEEL like posting my word counts. :)
Happy Reading!
August 27, 2012
The Choice to Keep Writing
It's hard enough to write these days when I'm exhausted all the time. New Baby and his teeth have crippled my Terris comeback, but my word of the year is DETERMINATION, so never fear readers! I will triumph and make my way past this hiccup.
When I hear about stories like this, however: Authors Buying Book Reviews , I'm both stunned and disheartened. It's not the first time I've heard of such things. No, indeed, the kindleboards bandy about such rumors of these sites with derision. Today, however, I learned that author John Locke, arguably one of the best selling indie authors in the business, was one who purchased 300 reviews for his books.
Laughably, his bestselling book "How I sold 1 million ebooks" is supposedly a testament to his insane business prowess. Indies everywhere touted his skill, his marketing, and his knowledge. Low and behold, I could have had the same knowledge myself, for the price of $6,000. Who knows? Maybe MY novels would have been in the top 100.
Here is why this makes me bitter. Locke (and many many others) are smart enough to realize how the Amazon system works. It's a delicate balance of number of reviews, and novelrank. The more reviews you have (good or bad) the more attention you get on amazon. The more attention you get, the more books you sell, the higher your ranking is. And of course, the higher your ranking, again, the more books you sell.
So essentially, what he did was gaming the system. He bought a bunch of reviews, which got him noticed. His books sold more and consequently got him more notice. Could his writing be good? Certainly. But the way he chose to start his career sucks.
What sucks even more is that any attention he gets now will only benefit him. People will read his book out of curiosity or downright anger and even if he gets THOUSANDS of one star reviews, it will only benefit his sales and make him more famous. It just purely PISSES ME OFF that he and others like him will not only get away with this, but that they will benefit from it forever.
Sometimes, as an author, I want to go away to the world I create, where justice is stronger than any form of evil cunning that exists. I want to be where someone gains success on the merits of their hard work, determination, and ethics. I hate, purely HATE living in a world where I have to tell my children... "Yeah, you can work hard and enjoy some modest success. But in the end, the people that pay or scheme or practice dishonesty to get ahead will do better than you."
As a reader, I want that list. I want to know who has been paying for reviews so I can never give them money. I want to tell my friends about them and warn them away. I want to publish that list as a public shaming for every author in the world who would even think of paying for a review.
I want to cry because as an indie author I feel nothing but shame from this. I feel so disheartened right now. After this, no one is going to take us seriously any more. Thanks to authors who can't keep their mouths shut over a bad review we are already a laughingstock. After this, we may as well just hang up our hats and go legitimate. Locke, in my opinion, has done traditional publishing a favor today.
In fact, I'm almost kicking myself for not taking the traditional publishing route when it was offered to me. "No," I said. "Thanks, but I really like doing this for myself. Thank you for your offer." I don't know how I feel anymore.
Be careful, readers, in what you read today. That's all I can say.
When I hear about stories like this, however: Authors Buying Book Reviews , I'm both stunned and disheartened. It's not the first time I've heard of such things. No, indeed, the kindleboards bandy about such rumors of these sites with derision. Today, however, I learned that author John Locke, arguably one of the best selling indie authors in the business, was one who purchased 300 reviews for his books.
Laughably, his bestselling book "How I sold 1 million ebooks" is supposedly a testament to his insane business prowess. Indies everywhere touted his skill, his marketing, and his knowledge. Low and behold, I could have had the same knowledge myself, for the price of $6,000. Who knows? Maybe MY novels would have been in the top 100.
Here is why this makes me bitter. Locke (and many many others) are smart enough to realize how the Amazon system works. It's a delicate balance of number of reviews, and novelrank. The more reviews you have (good or bad) the more attention you get on amazon. The more attention you get, the more books you sell, the higher your ranking is. And of course, the higher your ranking, again, the more books you sell.
So essentially, what he did was gaming the system. He bought a bunch of reviews, which got him noticed. His books sold more and consequently got him more notice. Could his writing be good? Certainly. But the way he chose to start his career sucks.
What sucks even more is that any attention he gets now will only benefit him. People will read his book out of curiosity or downright anger and even if he gets THOUSANDS of one star reviews, it will only benefit his sales and make him more famous. It just purely PISSES ME OFF that he and others like him will not only get away with this, but that they will benefit from it forever.
Sometimes, as an author, I want to go away to the world I create, where justice is stronger than any form of evil cunning that exists. I want to be where someone gains success on the merits of their hard work, determination, and ethics. I hate, purely HATE living in a world where I have to tell my children... "Yeah, you can work hard and enjoy some modest success. But in the end, the people that pay or scheme or practice dishonesty to get ahead will do better than you."
As a reader, I want that list. I want to know who has been paying for reviews so I can never give them money. I want to tell my friends about them and warn them away. I want to publish that list as a public shaming for every author in the world who would even think of paying for a review.
I want to cry because as an indie author I feel nothing but shame from this. I feel so disheartened right now. After this, no one is going to take us seriously any more. Thanks to authors who can't keep their mouths shut over a bad review we are already a laughingstock. After this, we may as well just hang up our hats and go legitimate. Locke, in my opinion, has done traditional publishing a favor today.
In fact, I'm almost kicking myself for not taking the traditional publishing route when it was offered to me. "No," I said. "Thanks, but I really like doing this for myself. Thank you for your offer." I don't know how I feel anymore.
Be careful, readers, in what you read today. That's all I can say.
August 19, 2012
Same Old, With a Bit of the New
Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I wrote a blog post. Oops. :) In my defense, my inlaws have been up visiting for the past TWO weeks, and with that, and a sick AND teething baby... it's been busy over here.
New baby... man this has been tough. Because no offense to him, but he basically ruined my chances of finishing Camp Nano. It is really, really tough to write at 5 AM when you've been up all night. It is also really really tough to stay awake during nap time and write, when you know it is the only time you'll get to sleep. So for like 5 days I wrote nothing. And I'm still massively struggling in that dept. Terris: 17,639. Angel Book: 2903.
Still planning to keep on with Camp Nano because it is a good motivator, but I'm pretty certain at this point that I won't be able to catch up in time to finish. And that's okay, because whatever words I get out of it are words that wouldn't be written otherwise. I'll take that any day! :)
So many things to write about! So, I don't know if you remember, readers, but this time around I decided to write one story line at a time in the hopes that I wouldn't hit as many plot/pacing roadblocks as I did with Aeris. So far it's working out great. I'm doing Luka's story line right now and I've written some stuff that I'm actually proud of. I plan to stop his story at part 1 and then start in on another story line—probably Zyander—until they're all caught up to each other. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to be writing Luka's story line this time around. I was excited last book, but this book will get into the real meat of some of his character changes. I'm doing some serious setup work for the next book, you see.
Aeris continues to surprise me in the sales dept. Double the sales of Compis thus far. Amazon, in a move that surprised me, put Compis up for sale at 99 cents. Not sure why, but I will of course still get my $2.99 royalty, so I'm not complaining.
The best part of releasing the second in my series has been the reader feedback. I've gotten more emails in the past week and a half than I have in the past 4 months. :) It's so fun to talk to people who are enjoying where the story is going and who are downright curious about where it's going to end up. I even got my first international fan email from a nice woman in France. Hi Rut! :)
This is the part of writing that I was always hoping for—finding an audience for the stories in my head. Obviously not everyone loves my books and that's a-okay. But the people that do are making writing so enjoyable for me.
One more thing: I made my books free for any library that uses Smashwords to purchase ebooks, so there may be some point in the future when you can get my ebooks from a library loan. How cool would that be? I've always dreamed of having my books available for library users. I'm a huge library advocate and still go there when I can't find an ebook for a good price. (Also, for my son! :))
That's all for now. Happy Reading!
New baby... man this has been tough. Because no offense to him, but he basically ruined my chances of finishing Camp Nano. It is really, really tough to write at 5 AM when you've been up all night. It is also really really tough to stay awake during nap time and write, when you know it is the only time you'll get to sleep. So for like 5 days I wrote nothing. And I'm still massively struggling in that dept. Terris: 17,639. Angel Book: 2903.
Still planning to keep on with Camp Nano because it is a good motivator, but I'm pretty certain at this point that I won't be able to catch up in time to finish. And that's okay, because whatever words I get out of it are words that wouldn't be written otherwise. I'll take that any day! :)
So many things to write about! So, I don't know if you remember, readers, but this time around I decided to write one story line at a time in the hopes that I wouldn't hit as many plot/pacing roadblocks as I did with Aeris. So far it's working out great. I'm doing Luka's story line right now and I've written some stuff that I'm actually proud of. I plan to stop his story at part 1 and then start in on another story line—probably Zyander—until they're all caught up to each other. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to be writing Luka's story line this time around. I was excited last book, but this book will get into the real meat of some of his character changes. I'm doing some serious setup work for the next book, you see.
Aeris continues to surprise me in the sales dept. Double the sales of Compis thus far. Amazon, in a move that surprised me, put Compis up for sale at 99 cents. Not sure why, but I will of course still get my $2.99 royalty, so I'm not complaining.
The best part of releasing the second in my series has been the reader feedback. I've gotten more emails in the past week and a half than I have in the past 4 months. :) It's so fun to talk to people who are enjoying where the story is going and who are downright curious about where it's going to end up. I even got my first international fan email from a nice woman in France. Hi Rut! :)
This is the part of writing that I was always hoping for—finding an audience for the stories in my head. Obviously not everyone loves my books and that's a-okay. But the people that do are making writing so enjoyable for me.
One more thing: I made my books free for any library that uses Smashwords to purchase ebooks, so there may be some point in the future when you can get my ebooks from a library loan. How cool would that be? I've always dreamed of having my books available for library users. I'm a huge library advocate and still go there when I can't find an ebook for a good price. (Also, for my son! :))
That's all for now. Happy Reading!
August 8, 2012
Success! (or Something Like It)
So, happy to report that Aeris has finally been published. Holy Hannah, that took FOREVER, didn't it? Here's hoping the next one can be just a wee bit quicker. I mean, isn't that the whole point of self-publishing, that you can get books out faster? Apparently not, in my case. :)
I'm pretty pleased with the publishing experience this time around. Practice makes perfect I guess, because I was able to get everything together in the file and formatted in a matter of hours. No weird TOC problems this time. And the book is already available on Amazon, B&N and Smashwords. Kobo is dragging its heels. It's been about 3 days for them, so if it doesn't get up tomorrow, I'm supposed to email them or something. Not that my sales on Kobo are anything to celebrate in general. I think I've sold about 3 books total there. Smashwords and Amazon are my best venues.
It's interesting, publishing a sequel. It's a really great indication of how much people liked your book the first time around. (I learned this from the Angel & Her Gun.) So far this month I've sold more copies of Aeris than I have of Compis, which is pretty cool considering it's only been available for 2.5 days. We'll see how the month ends up, but that is a lot of people who read and enjoyed Compis.
On the other hand, I'm so nervous because first of all, I put hours and hours into this book and second of all, I hope all the fans (especially those who took the time and effort to email me) aren't disappointed. I hope that the story is progressing in a pleasing way. I hope they are as excited as I am for the next book.
Speaking of which, I'm still making some headway in that department, though today will probably be a wash, because I'll be gone all day. Terris: 7,892 Angel Book: 2,789 The angel one not having a title is bothering me, so maybe on my drive today I will find time to think of one. I'm really enjoying writing it once a week. I think it will be good for me. And writing in only one perspective at a time in Terris(currently writing Luka's story line) is definitely better for continuity and flow. Not sure about the inspiration part though. Usually when I get stuck on something it helps to be able to go on to a different viewpoint. I may be doing a lot of switching when I write. We'll see.
That's all for now.
Happy Reading!
I'm pretty pleased with the publishing experience this time around. Practice makes perfect I guess, because I was able to get everything together in the file and formatted in a matter of hours. No weird TOC problems this time. And the book is already available on Amazon, B&N and Smashwords. Kobo is dragging its heels. It's been about 3 days for them, so if it doesn't get up tomorrow, I'm supposed to email them or something. Not that my sales on Kobo are anything to celebrate in general. I think I've sold about 3 books total there. Smashwords and Amazon are my best venues.
It's interesting, publishing a sequel. It's a really great indication of how much people liked your book the first time around. (I learned this from the Angel & Her Gun.) So far this month I've sold more copies of Aeris than I have of Compis, which is pretty cool considering it's only been available for 2.5 days. We'll see how the month ends up, but that is a lot of people who read and enjoyed Compis.
On the other hand, I'm so nervous because first of all, I put hours and hours into this book and second of all, I hope all the fans (especially those who took the time and effort to email me) aren't disappointed. I hope that the story is progressing in a pleasing way. I hope they are as excited as I am for the next book.
Speaking of which, I'm still making some headway in that department, though today will probably be a wash, because I'll be gone all day. Terris: 7,892 Angel Book: 2,789 The angel one not having a title is bothering me, so maybe on my drive today I will find time to think of one. I'm really enjoying writing it once a week. I think it will be good for me. And writing in only one perspective at a time in Terris(currently writing Luka's story line) is definitely better for continuity and flow. Not sure about the inspiration part though. Usually when I get stuck on something it helps to be able to go on to a different viewpoint. I may be doing a lot of switching when I write. We'll see.
That's all for now.
Happy Reading!
August 5, 2012
Nothing Doing
I've been full of fail this week. Curse you, evil teeth, hurting my sweet baby. Still, even though I'm behind on my word count, I'm still making progress. For one thing, I've written every day this week. The Fire Angel book: 1,575 words. Terris: 5,776. For another, I got Aeris back from the proofreader's! Yay!!!!
So my goal for this week, is to address the corrections that have been marked up, add in all the elements I already worked on, format and upload. Most of the work has already been done, except for the formatting part, so hopefully it won't take too long to get up.
Meanwhile, the internet is full is of interesting things.
Authors, have you uploaded your books to Kobo yet? If so, did you know that you can connect your goodreads reviews to your Kobo? Forget waiting around for people to rate it, you can have all the reviews you've already earned for yourself! Awesome! Find out how to do that HERE.
Do you like cheap books? I know I do!! HERE is a great website that finds all the cheap ebooks on the web and puts them right at your mouseclick.
A timely warning on the use of copyrighted material on the web. This one scared the bejesus out of me. Read about this author's account, HERE .
I've pretty much always been on the indie side of things with my writing, so I guess I'm biased. This is an interesting article, but Mark Coker is biased too. Still, worth considering. Read it HERE .
This one had me riveted—one author's experience with Apple iBookstore bias and content policing. Chilling. Read it HERE . And the followup, HERE .
And above all, Happy Reading!
So my goal for this week, is to address the corrections that have been marked up, add in all the elements I already worked on, format and upload. Most of the work has already been done, except for the formatting part, so hopefully it won't take too long to get up.
Meanwhile, the internet is full is of interesting things.
Authors, have you uploaded your books to Kobo yet? If so, did you know that you can connect your goodreads reviews to your Kobo? Forget waiting around for people to rate it, you can have all the reviews you've already earned for yourself! Awesome! Find out how to do that HERE.
Do you like cheap books? I know I do!! HERE is a great website that finds all the cheap ebooks on the web and puts them right at your mouseclick.
A timely warning on the use of copyrighted material on the web. This one scared the bejesus out of me. Read about this author's account, HERE .
I've pretty much always been on the indie side of things with my writing, so I guess I'm biased. This is an interesting article, but Mark Coker is biased too. Still, worth considering. Read it HERE .
This one had me riveted—one author's experience with Apple iBookstore bias and content policing. Chilling. Read it HERE . And the followup, HERE .
And above all, Happy Reading!
August 1, 2012
The New Me!
I've been thinking that it's a new year and I have a new baby, and I should revamp my bio. Pretty soon I'll have a new book to add (Iam willing, hahaha), and a new book I'm working on, so I should get my act together and update that sucker.
But I'm having a little problem...
No, it's not a freak windstorm! (Sorry, had to reference my new favorite k-pop video)
I have no idea what to write, besides the obvious. Hi, my name is Kate and I write books. Will you read my books? I wrote these books. Oh, and also, I like to garden. And read. And I have two kids. And a husband, too. The End.
There, what do you think? Yeah, that's about how I felt too. So I'm clearly still dwelling on that.
But I did get some things accomplished. Dedication and Acknowledgments, CHECK. Intro to Kait Nolan's excerpt, CHECK. Almost 3,000 words written in Terris, too, thankyouverymuch. All in all, I'm feeling pretty good right now. Although, I wish New Baby would sleep. Gosh that would be nice. It would.
Happy Reading!
July 29, 2012
A Drop of Bitter
Hello, all you who dwell in the land of the internets. I come bearing gifts today. My outline for Terris is finished and so is my outline for the next Angelic Agents short story/novella/book. Not sure what that one's going to be yet. Terris will of course feature each of the main characters in The Five Tribes series: Nikka, Zyander, and Luka. And each of those characters has a full chapter outline now. I had some trouble with Zyander at the last and I'm still undecided about his final chapter, because there are a couple of different ways it can go at this point. But his storyline will intertwine with the others in some interesting ways. It seems obvious, now that I've plotted it out, but sometimes I just can't see the forest for the trees.Everyone is always talking about plotters and pantsers in the world of writing. Can I just say how much I DETEST the word pantsing? As in "I'm pantsing the next book." You're WHAT? Pulling its pants down to make a fool of it in front of the other books? What did that poor sad book ever do to you, you meany?! I personally like to think of myself as a person who carefully plans out each chapter of the next book, but in reality, my heart is a rebel. Look at what happened with Luka's story in Aeris. I will tell you a secret, readers. He was meant to transform by the end of that second book. IT DID NOT HAPPEN THAT WAY AT ALL! I don't know what happens to me when I start writing a story. I had all three characters completely planned before I started writing, but they just do what they want with no regard for my plans. Characters died, ran away, got captured, fell in love... and I had no say in it. Whose book is this, anyway? So I guess I can't call myself a plotter, even though my heart is in the right place. Or, my mind, anyway. There is that rebellious, indie writer part of me that simply can't be tied down. Goals for August: Well, now that I've finished the outline for Terris, I've joined up with Camp Nanowrimo and I'll be trying to write the first 50,000 words by the end of the month. Of course, I still have the Angel book (untitled at this point) and I'll work on that one day a week, either Tuesday or Thursday. It'll probably be Thursday this week, because Camp starts on Tuesday.As for Aeris, I've had some bad news. My proof reader got sick (of all the luck!) last week, so we've had to push the deadline back by a few days. In anticipation of this, however, I'll be doing some of the formatting work ahead of time: the pronunciation guide will get updated, I'll add in Kait's excerpt of Red with an intro. I'll write my acknowledgments. I'll start putting up the skeletons for the book on Kobo, B&N, Smashwords, and Amazon. I'm also going to send out a small e-gift to the fans that have been emailing me since Compis came out, simply because Aeris wouldn't exist without their cheerleading. It's been a LONG year.
And that is all I've got today. A drop of bitter in the pot, but a hope of sweetness to come.Happy Reading!
And that is all I've got today. A drop of bitter in the pot, but a hope of sweetness to come.Happy Reading!
July 18, 2012
I Hate to be Debbie Downer...
All the dramz on the internetz are making me tired, people. I'm in a fortunate place where I can say that. I'm not having my safety threatened by crazypants authors who want to freak me out so badly that I can't even sleep in my own house at night.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you are one of the few remaining that don't. I will only provide one link, and that is to reviewer Lucy's post on STALKING .
Long story short. Some authors, traditional and indie alike, don't like it when people give them bad reviews or snark about them. Some of these authors have taken it upon themselves to make a hate site for all the authors they don't like. Sure, this is a free country, and if haters want to hate, we can't stop you. But when you post personal info that makes it easier for an angry mob to go after these reviewers, we have a problem. When reviewers are afraid to sleep in their own houses at night, we have a problem. When someone starts to fear for their life OVER A FREAKING BOOK REVIEW, we have a problem.
I wish... I wish I could go back to the old days of goodreads. Back in 2008, when I first joined it, I had such a fun time posting what I was reading and connecting with other readers. Sure, there would be the occasional troll or snarkfest, but overall, it was a community based on a love for reading.
When I see authors who can't get a clue, who over and over again INSIST that they have a right to tell other people how to feel about their books, I feel sick inside. Trust me, I sympathize when people call your book "gay-bashing" or "hate filled" especially when that wasn't your intent. But that's life. And you need to trust GOOD word of mouth to spread on behalf of your book. You need to trust that the readers out there who GET your work will find you and tell others how great it is. You need to trust that everything WILL be okay if someone hates your book. It does suck when someone spends 5 pages telling everyone how much everything about your book—characters, world, plot, etc—aren't worth the paper they're printed on. When someone says that it's hours of their life they will never get back. I've been there. But who gives a crap, anyway? Your book will still sell. Mine does. People will still email you to tell you how much they enjoyed your books. People do for me. The world will keep turning, I promise. Instead of focusing on the negative, how 'bout you keep writing instead. Do your best work, always. Keep your chin up. And stop lashing out at the people whose opinions ARE ONLY OPINIONS.
On to other things. No word from the proofreader. :( She has the deadline of July 27th, which she has assured me she can meet. I've finished Luka and Nikka's chapter outlines for Terris, but I'm majorly struggling with Zyander. I feel like I really need to pin him down, too, because his story is going to intersect Nikka's in the beginning and Luka's in the end. My goal is to finish both the Terris outline and the Angel outline by August 1st, so I can go to NanoWrimo Camp. Hopefully I'll finish. :) In August, my goal will be the 50,000 words for the end of the month. We'll see how that pans out, but that would help me get a chunk of Terris done in a major way.
I'm really excited to start up on the next book in a major way. Terris is going to have so many interesting elements in it that continue from Aeris. I don't want to spoil the story, though, so I will keep quiet about them for now.
Off to switch the laundry. Happy Reading!
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you are one of the few remaining that don't. I will only provide one link, and that is to reviewer Lucy's post on STALKING .
Long story short. Some authors, traditional and indie alike, don't like it when people give them bad reviews or snark about them. Some of these authors have taken it upon themselves to make a hate site for all the authors they don't like. Sure, this is a free country, and if haters want to hate, we can't stop you. But when you post personal info that makes it easier for an angry mob to go after these reviewers, we have a problem. When reviewers are afraid to sleep in their own houses at night, we have a problem. When someone starts to fear for their life OVER A FREAKING BOOK REVIEW, we have a problem.
I wish... I wish I could go back to the old days of goodreads. Back in 2008, when I first joined it, I had such a fun time posting what I was reading and connecting with other readers. Sure, there would be the occasional troll or snarkfest, but overall, it was a community based on a love for reading.
When I see authors who can't get a clue, who over and over again INSIST that they have a right to tell other people how to feel about their books, I feel sick inside. Trust me, I sympathize when people call your book "gay-bashing" or "hate filled" especially when that wasn't your intent. But that's life. And you need to trust GOOD word of mouth to spread on behalf of your book. You need to trust that the readers out there who GET your work will find you and tell others how great it is. You need to trust that everything WILL be okay if someone hates your book. It does suck when someone spends 5 pages telling everyone how much everything about your book—characters, world, plot, etc—aren't worth the paper they're printed on. When someone says that it's hours of their life they will never get back. I've been there. But who gives a crap, anyway? Your book will still sell. Mine does. People will still email you to tell you how much they enjoyed your books. People do for me. The world will keep turning, I promise. Instead of focusing on the negative, how 'bout you keep writing instead. Do your best work, always. Keep your chin up. And stop lashing out at the people whose opinions ARE ONLY OPINIONS.
On to other things. No word from the proofreader. :( She has the deadline of July 27th, which she has assured me she can meet. I've finished Luka and Nikka's chapter outlines for Terris, but I'm majorly struggling with Zyander. I feel like I really need to pin him down, too, because his story is going to intersect Nikka's in the beginning and Luka's in the end. My goal is to finish both the Terris outline and the Angel outline by August 1st, so I can go to NanoWrimo Camp. Hopefully I'll finish. :) In August, my goal will be the 50,000 words for the end of the month. We'll see how that pans out, but that would help me get a chunk of Terris done in a major way.
I'm really excited to start up on the next book in a major way. Terris is going to have so many interesting elements in it that continue from Aeris. I don't want to spoil the story, though, so I will keep quiet about them for now.
Off to switch the laundry. Happy Reading!
July 8, 2012
Vacation... All I ever Wanted!
Hello from the other side, my friends!
I have been traveling like a maniac across the country: Nevada, Utah, Yosemite and the Sierra Nevadas of California. I have spent more hours in the car than I have in the past year and my children are now seasoned travelers.
In my three weeks, I've seen: mountains majesty, 3 dead cows on the side of the road on Hwy 6, trees you can stand inside, little boys fishing in pond, lake, and stream, Oded Fehr (heck yes, and it was thrilling for a Resident Evil fan like me), and a thrashed trailer thanks to a mama bear and her three (YES THREE) cubs that adopted my parents' property.
I have missed my internet and my goodreads addiction reached an all time HIGH, but there is good news (besides happy boys and husband who have FOR ONCE received my entire attention): I'm 9 books ahead in my books of the year goal and I've officially begun to start on the next book in the Five Tribes series.
So what is the scoop, my ROWs' compadres? Sorry to join in late! Aeris is halfway finished with its proofing, or so I have assurance from my proof reader. I've also been told I have a serious problem with ending sentences with prepositions. Yay, something else to work on in my writing! Hopefully, very soon it will be making its way to me for final additions (copyrights, acknowledgments, etc.) and formatting.
And on the Terris front: I'm 2/3rds finished with Nikka's chapter outline, and 2/3rds finished with Luka's. Zyander's storyline will be a bit more complicated this time around, simply because he's got so much going on. So far, I have about 4 chapters of his story outlined.
This time around, in Terris, I will be writing each story line on its own. Hopefully, that will keep my writing at a faster pace. I'm also going to try being a bit more detailed with my chapter outline. Last time around I did summaries for each story, but that didn't have enough detail to carry me through the rough spots. There were a lot of pleasant surprises that resulted, but I don't think I would have had the same issues with Zyander's story line, if I'd had a better outline.
It's hard for me, because I'm a creative person and I want wiggle room. But I need to constantly remind myself to be more organized. To that effect, I've started a Scrivener file on the Five Tribes Series.
My other goal, besides finally getting some of my concept art posted, is to dedicate one day a week to writing the next Angelic Agents story. It may turn out to be a Novella. Not sure yet. But I'm having fun planning it.
That's all for now. The book is still at a reduced price. For now. Will decide what to do after I've emailed Smashwords.
I have been traveling like a maniac across the country: Nevada, Utah, Yosemite and the Sierra Nevadas of California. I have spent more hours in the car than I have in the past year and my children are now seasoned travelers.
In my three weeks, I've seen: mountains majesty, 3 dead cows on the side of the road on Hwy 6, trees you can stand inside, little boys fishing in pond, lake, and stream, Oded Fehr (heck yes, and it was thrilling for a Resident Evil fan like me), and a thrashed trailer thanks to a mama bear and her three (YES THREE) cubs that adopted my parents' property.
I have missed my internet and my goodreads addiction reached an all time HIGH, but there is good news (besides happy boys and husband who have FOR ONCE received my entire attention): I'm 9 books ahead in my books of the year goal and I've officially begun to start on the next book in the Five Tribes series.
So what is the scoop, my ROWs' compadres? Sorry to join in late! Aeris is halfway finished with its proofing, or so I have assurance from my proof reader. I've also been told I have a serious problem with ending sentences with prepositions. Yay, something else to work on in my writing! Hopefully, very soon it will be making its way to me for final additions (copyrights, acknowledgments, etc.) and formatting.
And on the Terris front: I'm 2/3rds finished with Nikka's chapter outline, and 2/3rds finished with Luka's. Zyander's storyline will be a bit more complicated this time around, simply because he's got so much going on. So far, I have about 4 chapters of his story outlined.
This time around, in Terris, I will be writing each story line on its own. Hopefully, that will keep my writing at a faster pace. I'm also going to try being a bit more detailed with my chapter outline. Last time around I did summaries for each story, but that didn't have enough detail to carry me through the rough spots. There were a lot of pleasant surprises that resulted, but I don't think I would have had the same issues with Zyander's story line, if I'd had a better outline.
It's hard for me, because I'm a creative person and I want wiggle room. But I need to constantly remind myself to be more organized. To that effect, I've started a Scrivener file on the Five Tribes Series.
My other goal, besides finally getting some of my concept art posted, is to dedicate one day a week to writing the next Angelic Agents story. It may turn out to be a Novella. Not sure yet. But I'm having fun planning it.
That's all for now. The book is still at a reduced price. For now. Will decide what to do after I've emailed Smashwords.
