Elizabeth Inglee-Richards's Blog, page 9
August 7, 2011
It’s all about balance
I have two short e-books published by Books To Go Now and two upcoming short stories, one in a hold it in your hand anthology and another one with B2GN. I know that when you are with a small publisher your number of sales is dependent on how much you can market yourself.
The thing is I’m not good at marketing myself.
I mean I try. I got a blog under my real name, I have a twitter and a facebook and my live journal. The thing is I never seem to be able to update them; or at least not with the regularity that I would like. I feel like I should be saying something interesting or funny. I often feel like I should be exceptional before I even try to have anyone even look at it.
I guess that’s not how I should be looking at it., If I don’t put myself out there I’ll never get anywhere.
The other problem I have is time. I work three jobs (admittedly one job I only do once a month or so) so time is an issue. And I do like to spend time with people and write from time to time. I am not near a computer from 8am to 8pm most nights.
Anyway this is the long way of saying that for the next month I am going to start working on getting my stuff together. I’m going to start working on blogging and really pushing my stories. Not to the exclusion of everything else, of course, but hopefully enough for me to get on a roll with it. I am hoping to find a balance of life, writing and social media.
The thing is I’m not good at marketing myself.
I mean I try. I got a blog under my real name, I have a twitter and a facebook and my live journal. The thing is I never seem to be able to update them; or at least not with the regularity that I would like. I feel like I should be saying something interesting or funny. I often feel like I should be exceptional before I even try to have anyone even look at it.
I guess that’s not how I should be looking at it., If I don’t put myself out there I’ll never get anywhere.
The other problem I have is time. I work three jobs (admittedly one job I only do once a month or so) so time is an issue. And I do like to spend time with people and write from time to time. I am not near a computer from 8am to 8pm most nights.
Anyway this is the long way of saying that for the next month I am going to start working on getting my stuff together. I’m going to start working on blogging and really pushing my stories. Not to the exclusion of everything else, of course, but hopefully enough for me to get on a roll with it. I am hoping to find a balance of life, writing and social media.
It's all about balance
I have two short e-books published by Books To Go Now and two upcoming short stories, one in a hold it in your hand anthology and another one with B2GN. I know that when you are with a small publisher your number of sales is dependent on how much you can market yourself.
The thing is I'm not good at marketing myself.
I mean I try. I got a blog under my real name, I have a twitter and a facebook and my live journal. The thing is I never seem to be able to update them; or at least not with the regularity that I would like. I feel like I should be saying something interesting or funny. I often feel like I should be exceptional before I even try to have anyone even look at it.
I guess that's not how I should be looking at it., If I don't put myself out there I'll never get anywhere.
The other problem I have is time. I work three jobs (admittedly one job I only do once a month or so) so time is an issue. And I do like to spend time with people and write from time to time. I am not near a computer from 8am to 8pm most nights.
Anyway this is the long way of saying that for the next month I am going to start working on getting my stuff together. I'm going to start working on blogging and really pushing my stories. Not to the exclusion of everything else, of course, but hopefully enough for me to get on a roll with it. I am hoping to find a balance of life, writing and social media.
The thing is I'm not good at marketing myself.
I mean I try. I got a blog under my real name, I have a twitter and a facebook and my live journal. The thing is I never seem to be able to update them; or at least not with the regularity that I would like. I feel like I should be saying something interesting or funny. I often feel like I should be exceptional before I even try to have anyone even look at it.
I guess that's not how I should be looking at it., If I don't put myself out there I'll never get anywhere.
The other problem I have is time. I work three jobs (admittedly one job I only do once a month or so) so time is an issue. And I do like to spend time with people and write from time to time. I am not near a computer from 8am to 8pm most nights.
Anyway this is the long way of saying that for the next month I am going to start working on getting my stuff together. I'm going to start working on blogging and really pushing my stories. Not to the exclusion of everything else, of course, but hopefully enough for me to get on a roll with it. I am hoping to find a balance of life, writing and social media.
June 26, 2011
long time no post
Wow, my last post was April second.
Since then my second story has been publish with Books to Go Now. The story is called 'Rebuilding Year' and it follows a group of Hyena shape shifters as they add to their team. It may become a series or it may not. I enjoy working with the characters in that story because everything is light. Nothing is earth shattering.
I can be funny.
Actually, I've discovered I can't help but be funny. Even when I don't intend to. I start off writing a serious erotic romance and then one of the characters says that a love potion was produced by Baba Yaga, the conversation ends with someone saying "How does one get out of the eating children business and into the love potion business"
I just can't help it. I can't be totally serious, even when I want to be. Maybe that's why I like shape shifters so much. In myth Tricksters are normally shape shifters. And when things get bad the Trickster is normally the guy who can tell a bad joke and lighten the mood.
On our way to Boston the other week I regaled my husband with bad jokes about the various provinces of Canada. We were both tired and irritated and were driving 14 hours, up and back, to go to a parade. I work hard at being the responsible one, but I don't always succeed, and I know it goes against my basic nature.
In my writing I can let that changeable, irresponsible nature take over. Then I can re-enter the world the stable, supportive person I always am.
If my humor makes my stories hard to place in the market? Well, I guess that's alright.
By the way the parade was totally worth it. And you might be from Newfoundland if you've ever lost your snow blower on your roof.
Since then my second story has been publish with Books to Go Now. The story is called 'Rebuilding Year' and it follows a group of Hyena shape shifters as they add to their team. It may become a series or it may not. I enjoy working with the characters in that story because everything is light. Nothing is earth shattering.
I can be funny.
Actually, I've discovered I can't help but be funny. Even when I don't intend to. I start off writing a serious erotic romance and then one of the characters says that a love potion was produced by Baba Yaga, the conversation ends with someone saying "How does one get out of the eating children business and into the love potion business"
I just can't help it. I can't be totally serious, even when I want to be. Maybe that's why I like shape shifters so much. In myth Tricksters are normally shape shifters. And when things get bad the Trickster is normally the guy who can tell a bad joke and lighten the mood.
On our way to Boston the other week I regaled my husband with bad jokes about the various provinces of Canada. We were both tired and irritated and were driving 14 hours, up and back, to go to a parade. I work hard at being the responsible one, but I don't always succeed, and I know it goes against my basic nature.
In my writing I can let that changeable, irresponsible nature take over. Then I can re-enter the world the stable, supportive person I always am.
If my humor makes my stories hard to place in the market? Well, I guess that's alright.
By the way the parade was totally worth it. And you might be from Newfoundland if you've ever lost your snow blower on your roof.
April 2, 2011
And the poor old dog was drowned
What inspires you? I think everyone who writes gets asked this at one time or another and I never know what to say. I'm betting that most people don't. I also get asked if I would rather be deaf or blind often enough and one day a few weeks ago I got asked both question on the same day. And it lead me to an answer. Sound inspires me. I was going to say music, but that isn't entirely true. I do love music and it does inspire me, but other sounds work just as well. Anything from the cat pacing around the room reminding me I haven't fed her or the traffic out side or the background noise of the TV turned down low and tuned to a reality show. For the past year I have been writing pieces that have ice hockey players as heroes, so the sound of skates on ice and the roar of the crowd have inspired me. And right now it's the combination of the two. The title of this post is from a the song 'the Irish rover' the song that was on my MP3 player before the hockey game I watched this afternoon. I hope it brings me inspiration. So what about you? What gives you inspiration? 
March 23, 2011
So my normal word output a week, while writing fiction is...
So my normal word output a week, while writing fiction is between one thousand and two thousand words.
Yeah I'm pretty slow. I figure it is alright for me to be slow between the amount of time I have to put into writing (between three jobs and wanting to read and sleep) it can be hard for me to set aside any real writing time.
Sometime around March 4th I started a new story. It was something that has been haunting me for a bit. I had planned on the story taking about 5K to tell. I am now almost 13K into it in the past 20 days.
That's about twice the amount of words as I do in good times.
The story isn't going to be done in 6K. It's looking like it may be a novel.
But we will see. This story has really taken me over though, so I may be able to finish it.
Yeah I'm pretty slow. I figure it is alright for me to be slow between the amount of time I have to put into writing (between three jobs and wanting to read and sleep) it can be hard for me to set aside any real writing time.
Sometime around March 4th I started a new story. It was something that has been haunting me for a bit. I had planned on the story taking about 5K to tell. I am now almost 13K into it in the past 20 days.
That's about twice the amount of words as I do in good times.
The story isn't going to be done in 6K. It's looking like it may be a novel.
But we will see. This story has really taken me over though, so I may be able to finish it.
January 30, 2011
A Bit About Me
My name is Elizabeth Inglee-Richards and I write urban and sub-urban fantasy. My works mostly have legendary beings or creatures interacting with the real world. I have loved the tension caused by the magical world rubbing shoulders with the day to day world since I was small and my parents read me the "Fairy Books" collected by Andrew Lang. I would also trace my love of horror back to that early exposure to traditional folk tales, because let's be honest, Freddy Kruger has nothing on Mr. Fox and his house of horrors. My tastes in reading mostly fall in the Mythic Fiction category anything from light and romantic to dark and horror filled but they all include at least one magical element. That said I'm not a huge fan of Vampires as romantic leads (I make an exception for the House of Night series by PC and Kristin Cast) and I believe two things about fantasy very strongly. 1) If you have rules in your Universe, you need to stick to them.2) Magic always has a cost. I have recently made my first 'big' sale of short fiction (by big I mean more than a contributors copy and enough money to get it to me) and I am super excited about it. There is something really strange about seeing yourself on Amazon. Most of what I write is either set in Delaware or in and around the city of Boston. I've spent most of my life between those two places and I feel like you need to know the places you write about. Most of my writing that is set in Boston involves a fictitious Ice Hockey team; the Nahant Nor'easters. Or, from time to time, the Hampton County Hyena. Sometimes both. The funny thing is I've been warned away from writing about sports. You see, stories that deal with sports almost never sell, and stories about Ice Hockey only sell in Canada. But you have to write what you love and this is one thing that I love enough to work on exclusively for any length of time. 
