Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 104
September 11, 2015
Random Friday
Let’s call it “movie Friday”. Kind of, as usual. I have bought two DVDs (while I wait for the ones I got during the summer that should reach me on the 23rd at my offline Writers Group meeting), and managed to watch one. The other I’ll keep for next week, since for one of the online workshops I had to watch a lecture and it’s over 2hours long.
So this is the “kind of” movie I’m going to talk about. I had to stop watching Wednesday night because America woke up and the site was overwhelmed – the videos got stuck and wouldn’t play. Had to finish yesterday after my lunch time which was night on the other side of the pond! ;)
Anyhow, if you’re a writer, wannabe or beginner, you don’t want to miss the lecture on Heilein’s Rules (that’s #1 on the list and it’s well worth it). I’ve been following the first 3 rules long before the internet and learning who Heinlein is – I used to be a one-draft-writer when I didn’t have any readers besides myself – and now I’m trying to follow all of them. Really, if you’re just starting off, go watch that “episodic movie”. You can do it! :)
The “real” movie is Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella. In spite of the director’s obsession with 19th century clothes (applied even to Shakespeare plays, sigh!), it’s not a bad movie. More faithful to the original tale than the cartoon (except for the glass slipper, of course) and I loved the fact that CGI animals didn’t talk. I hate talking animals in cartoons, imagine in live action movies!
So, nice costumes, nice special effects and I’ve found (Kaylyn’s husband for whenever the Ink Slingers Halloween Anthology comes out). It helps giving a face to my characters, now I can proceed with Kaylyn’s story since I know what her husband looks like! :) My virtual casts don’t comprise only Da Muses for obvious reasons… ;)
By the way, this weekend I’ll upload the final version for Rajveer the Vampire. Mighty editor sent it back earlier because she couldn’t put it down. Made my day. I hope betas will get their copy and read it before release – and tell me if they like the new ending and then spread the word.
And then I hope other readers will find it and read it! I’ll start sending out queries to reviewers next week… Have a great weekend!
September 10, 2015
September 9, 2015
Writer Wednesday
In case you missed the publisher’s post (since it has no followers at the moment) – new release (as hinted in last Thursday’s post):
Two “Star Minds Interregnum” stories
Runaway
Yash runs away from his home planet to escape abuse. A short-lived rush through the Milky Way.
Psychometrist
A Galaxy Police’s officer to psychometry tries to nail serial killers and find missing persons.
ebook available on Amazon US, Apple US, Barnes&Noble, Kobo US and Smashwords. Cover art by Shafali Anand.
And then I have a poll that I hope you won’t ignore. I really want a title for my series of vampires historicals, so here are a few suggestions to pick from, or you can suggest your own in the comments…
Now, for the rest of the writing! September I won’t be writing anything new except the assignments for the online workshops, but I’ll be busy formatting and publishing stuff. I need to finish a couple of translations and want to republish a few stories with the discarded pen-name. Not to mention a couple more science fantasy thingies, so you won’t even notice that I’m not writing much! ;)
I’m working on the POD versions of the Star Minds collections that have come out so far (and the one that will come out soon) along with others… so I guess I can call September the Createspace month, LOL!
And last Friday there was a thunderstorm that left me without phone or internet for 24 hours, which means I’ve finally started on the last chapter of S.K.Y.B.A.N.D. – so when I’m not formatting or translating, I’ll be drawing. Hence not much room left for writing this month. Sigh.
Writerly links! Be patient – dream big and work to make those dreams come true. Like I’m trying to do. There’s KU on Amazon India now, and I’m following a discussion about it. Some authors still swear by KDP Select, but I won’t try it yet. I do want to experiment with that, but so far I don’t have standalone novels or novellas that might work on KDP Select/KU.
Good stuff from Dean Wesley Smith (besides his online workshops):
Secondly, PayPal now has a nifty new thing. You can send money directly to someone without going through all the PayPal issues. It’s called Paypal.me
If you have a PayPal account and are getting money from anyone, this looks very promising. I would most certainly go claim your name with your PayPal account now.
I only receive payments from Smashwords and Draft2Digital on Paypal, but since I went there to pay an artist, I claimed mine. And if you’re an artist, editor, proofreader, etc, go claim yours now! :)
More Zombie Meme at Joe Konrath’s blog about the tsunami of crap… And a wonderful parallel between running and writing by Kris Rusch. I’m married to Mr Writing, so I guess I’m obsessed! :)
That’s all for now! Stay tuned and have a great week!
September 6, 2015
Sunday Surprise
I’m out all day, so I’ll leave you with words of wisdom, writers on writing, whatever you want to call them. Enjoy and have a great Sunday!
Every successful author I’ve ever known still has to treat it as a job. You have to get your butt in the chair and do the work. If you go into it thinking that the muse is going to come whisper in your ear every morning, that’s the kind of nonsense that drives me batty, and it’s just not true. And that’s true for the most commercial writer and the most critically acclaimed writer.
– Harlan Coben
Because being creative is about flying in the face of accepted wisdom. It’s about writing what you want to write, in the way that only you can write it. It’s about taking risks and facing down the critics. It’s about using forbidden words and writing about topics that, judging by your appearance, you should know nothing about. It’s about facing down the bigots who say you’ve only attracted readers because your last name implies a certain ethnicity.
– Kris Rusch
As kids on a long road trip, we would bounce impatiently in the back seat and ask, “Are we there yet?” The reason we asked was because WE were not in control of the journey. Those who were — the adults who had the maps and the wheel — knew how long it would take to get “there,” so they didn’t have to keep asking. In the journey of writing, WE have the maps and the wheel, but sometimes we forget that WE are the ones in control. And sometimes we forget that, in every journey, we need to stop from time to time and take a look around at where we are. Because on a continuum, there is no “there” — the journey never actually ends. If we’re not enjoying the ride — if we’re not able to be happy where we ARE – chances are, we won’t manage to stay on the road long enough to find out where it can take us.
– Moira Allen
Writing: shitty first drafts. Butt in chair. Just do it. You own everything that happened to you. You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves in your heart — your stories, visions, memories, songs: your truth, your version of things, in your voice. That is really all you have to offer us, and it’s why you were born.
– Anne Lamott
So if you find yourself fearing what will happen if you put a book out and it won’t sell, ask yourself what makes you so special to think your first or second or third novel would sell? Were you sprinkled with fairy dust that tells you that you don’t need to learn how to be a professional storyteller? You think you can just write bestselling books like magic?
That fear of a book not selling is just flat silly, folks. And yet that fear stops so many writers from finishing novels. And thus, the fear guarantees the novel will never sell. An unfinished novel seldom does.
So when you discover that is your fear, that the fear is slowing you down or making you rewrite and polish like your poor manuscript is a car that needs a wax job, realize one major thing: You have nothing to lose by finishing and getting the book out there.
But if you let the fear stop you from finishing, you have lost everything.
– Dean Wesley Smith
Without magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism. Without idealism, there is no integrity. Without integrity, there is nothing but production.
― Raymond Chandler
September 3, 2015
Creativity Carnival
I couldn’t let this art-cue pass and tomorrow the new one will be out, so… extra post (but usual visitors shouldn’t expect anything else until Sunday!) on a usually post-less day… This is run by very creative Shafali, who also did the cover of my latest ebook.
The Two Faces of Jane
Plain Jane likes simple things, Vain Jane wants beauty, wealth and fame.
Plain Jane is a modest corporate employee, Vain Jane is a sexy bitch who likes to play with men’s hearts.
Plain Jane is like Cinderella, Vain Jane is Snowhite’s stepmother, the beautiful but evil queen.
Plain and Vain wage war in Jane’s head.
Plain Jane has the most exposure in life.
But if Prince Charming walks by, it’s Vain Jane who is going to get him!
September 2, 2015
Writer Wednesday
Welcome to September! No, it didn’t sneak up on me, since this summer was waaaaay too long and hot for my tastes. And it’s not completely over yet. Sigh.
Anyhow, if it’s hot outside, I stay in and write, so it’s good for productivity! ;) (as if I go out much anyway… I’m an indoor person and I don’t care, LOL!) So I finished another short novel and I’m working on some origin story that I might never publish if I’m not happy with it, but I thought I’d jot it down, since I need to know the background of that particular character.
It has to do with the past of Silvery Earth – before the Books of the Immortals, and in the northern part of Varia. Mentions of a Moren Empire have already been made. That was my original fantasy empire, too much based on roleplaying games with elves and dwarves and goblins (I assume could be called a LOTR rip off, except I haven’t read the LOTR, so…).
I want to save some of those stories and rewrite them in the current Silvery Earth. Some might just be for me, since, like I said earlier this year, sometimes there isn’t much to save in those old stories, but they give me some kind of background for newer stories.
Like that short novel has “guest stars” from those old stories, so I’ll probably rewrite those next. They were in graphic novel form, so writing them in prose should be like writing something new! ;) Or using an old summary/outline and rewriting almost from scratch… I’ve started with those origins and will go from there.
Got my umpteenth rejection on shorter works, so I better write something else short than I can submit! Thing is, now that I don’t feel any constraint in length, I just write the stories at their natural length… which is mostly in the 20-50K for me. So too long for short story markets, and fairly short for novels in my preferred genre. Sigh.
Finally uploaded Rajveer to Amazon, so you can pre-order it from there too. There’s a placeholder manuscript, since I want to have another pass at it with my proofreader, but you can read the excerpt already… For links and e-ARC, go to the publisher’s site…
On Writing by Stephen King is one of my favorite non-fiction books. And now I discovered we have in common also a favorite Keats poem “When I have fears…”! :) That’s why I’ve always been so productive, for fear of not writing everything that came to mind (and I didn’t, but moved on and ideas kept coming, so… I really don’t know what writer’s block is!)! Read the whole article on productivity by Stephen King.
Ten stupid writer business practises by Dean Wesley Smith and the second Zombie Publishing Meme by Joe Konrath about low prices of ebook… I still use wordcount to decide price, but the new books are mostly more expensive than the old ones. I should take down the price, but then… maybe next year! :)
Next week I start two online workshops, a b-day present to myself to further my education and comprehension of business practises (althought then I have to adapt it to my home country, sigh). For which, by the way, if you need help, you can read Business for Breakfast vol.1. If you’re not American, you’ll probably enjoy more the second part, on how to get into a routine and motivate yourself! :)
As long as you remember to have fun! Ending on a non-writerly note, I wish Muse K a wonderful birthday. I might easily spend the afternoon drawing him instead of writing. My procrastination techniques are wonderful (but when I draw I can brainstorm new stories, so maybe it’s not really procrastination. Denial much? ;) Nah!).
Have a great week! :D
August 30, 2015
Sunday Surprise
Should have been artworks, but there’s only one new upload on DeviantART (although it’s two drawings, done last weekend). Been watching old movies and writing and reading, so… no more pencil portraits for now. So Thus I’m posting the “summary” of 2013 and how I got to doing a strip. These strips are done copy-pasting from Superdeformed Threesome Millennium, included in 15 years of Creative Barbwire – all from 2013! Enjoy.
August 28, 2015
Random Friday
so totally random, we’re going to tackle wigs and hair extensions (the totally fakes one, LOL!)! :D That’s because my sister gave me wig-with-extension for my b-day, so here we go.
The first was a 6$ witch-wig bought in Grand Rapids, Michigan for Halloween 1998… I put next to it the hair at the time – waaaay to short, but I had to cut it because it had been burned by a bad perm. To dress as Lady Unicorn I needed long hair, though, so I went to buy a wig with Renee.
Fast forward new millenniums and comicons. I wanted to see what I looked like platinum blond, and bought a cosplayer wig at some Torino Comics for 30 or 35euro… hadn’t tried it on until my sister gave me her present! So you have the wig+extension my sis gave me and then that cosplayer wig (my real – now colored – hair in the center)… Maybe my hairdresser is right not to decolor my hair, LOL!
And then there are the extensions… usually bought at open-air markets and used both for parties or for medieval dinners…
That’s all for today! Have a great weekend! :)
