Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 138
January 26, 2014
Sunday Surprise
no guests, no artworks, so some more writers wisdom… Have a wonderful Sunday! 
I started writing a new book last week. I’d been between projects with other writing-related activities taking up my time. What I didn’t realize until I immersed myself in Chapter 1 was that I need to write. It’s a stress-release for me. If you’re a writer, you write because writing is like breathing. You simply have to do it.
But will it make you rich? If you’re looking at the success stories of the few rich and famous authors, you’re going to feel like a failure from Day One. There are no overnight success stories. No shortcuts. A writing career is a marathon, not a sprint. And nowadays, when the odds of a new author breaking into the Big Six are getting slimmer and slimmer, and the mid-list authors are going the way of the dodo, I decided to investigate alternate publishing methods.
- Terry Odell
I spent too many years neglecting my muse. I believed creativity was finite, that when I gave my creativity to my employer, there was none left for my art. But creativity is not a fossil fuel of finite supply that must be transported in pipelines and on ships and driven around in automobile tanks. Creative thinking, I’ve learned, begets more creative thinking.
- Patrick Ross
Focus on learning how to tell a better story while at the same time learning the business. If you keep writing and learning, eventually you will be a big name writer with a lot of books out and will have to give this same advice to the next generation of writers.So my suggestion is to stop whining about how big names have all the advantages, and start focusing on learning how to write better stories. Stop spending time on promotion and spend the time on the next short story or the next novel. Your best promotion is always your next book.
- Dean Wesley Smith
It turns out that I was entirely wrong. I was missing what I really wanted. One of the major reasons that I write is to connect with readers, not publishers. The truth is that I couldn’t care less whether New York editors and publishers like me. I don’t want to write for them. I want to write for you. The other undeniable truth is that readers could care less that my books aren’t put out by a big publisher. They read for the content, not the publishing house emblem.
- Jessica Park @ Indiereader.com
Here is what most writers forget. You are the boss of your own story. Not the other writers in your critique group. Not the famous author whose workshop you were lucky enough to get into at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Not even your mother-in-law who comes into your house while you are at work and vacuums the mattresses because somebody has to protect her grandchildren from dust mites. When it comes to applying feedback, you — and only you — are the one who gets to determine what stays and what goes in your story. And that is a good thing.
- Joni B. Cole
January 24, 2014
Random Friday
Okay, total randomness. I couldn’t watch many movies because one day I had an aching eye (again!) and another day I had to prepare for Dear Nephew’s b-day – which is tomorrow. So here’s how I spent one afternoon (hence after dinner I went back to writing instead of watching a movie):
The movies I did watch are Singh is Kinng – courtesy of the shopkeeper in Southall who was obviously a Sikh, so I assume this comedy has the seal of approval of the Sikh. It’s not a religious movie and it’s very funny indeed (a tad too slapstick sometimes, but well… that’s why I don’t like when Jim Carrey does comedies! 
So, Akshay, quit the goofing!).
On Saturday I watched Man of Tai Chi. Luke Skywalker, anyone? That poor Tai Chi master looked very much like Yoda when he stared at his student… The angry young man had some real anger issues! I’m not a fan of martial art movies, but I do watch them, and I think it was okay. I’m not an expert, though! I read a review that said that it’s on par with House of Flying Daggers – uhm, no, sorry, you can’t compare. But I like it as much as I liked than Danny The Dog (just to stick to a contemporary world story and clandestine fights), no, wait, I prefer it, since Keanu is such a great villain!
Then I watched Lezioni di Cioccolato 2, but unlike the first, it doesn’t have English subtitles. Anyway, just another Italian comedy, although the romance is now between latin lover Mattia and Kamal’s daughter (a modern egyptian gal). I must say I like
It was total randomness even in movies, since so far I have 1 Bollywood, 1 Hollywood/China and 1 Italian… and last night I watched a non-Bollywood Indian movie – as usual suggested by Shafali – Paan Singh Tomar. An interesting movie – not sports, not war, but a little bit of all, dedicated to the unsung Indian sportsmen. Nice, thanks for the suggestion, Shafali!
Artworks: next subject didn’t come out as well as the previous one, but here they are, both on my wall…
Took me only two hours and a half instead of three and a half, and it shows. Meh. Will have to find another picture and try again. I did this on Sunday – after watching the movie! Oh, and please ignore the stuffed unicorns… it’s only the two small ones (of the five in the family of Lady Unicorn, here!)!
That’s all for today! Have a wonderful weekend!
January 22, 2014
Writer Wednesday
I wanted to announce a POD, but looks like CreateSpace didn’t send out the book at all, and now they’re sending me a replacement copy. I sure hope someone at the POD place is enjoying my book. Sigh. Working with them is really a pain, glad I’ll use them only for the English titles (so just this one in the first 6 months). They work fine for Americans, but the rest of the world… Lulu is better, sorry. If you don’t use any of the overpriced service both sell, that is.
I’ve published an Italian ebook, and tried to do like Kris Rusch suggests in her discoverability post, but since Amazon has taxes over the price of the book, it just won’t work. Even when I’m not logged in (or check through Author Central) I don’t see my e-books on the Kindle Store with the price assigned, but always a few cents more. So… pricing in US$ all over the world.
The only place where I put two pricing is Kobo, since my account is in euros. I make sure the $price matches Amazon and Smashwords, though, or I think they’d price-match like Amazon does. DriveThru, D2D & Smashwords have only $ (for the two who distribute to Apple, Sony and B&N for us non-Americans), therefore the Apple stores will have prices translated from $. And XinXii is priced in euro (so slightly more expensive – but I’m not selling anything there, not even through their expanded distribution).
Monday afternoon after a last check at Japanese Fighting Monks by Stephen Thurnbull (who was a consultant on 47 Ronin, I have a pic of him & Keanu, haha!) I started writing the new story. Enough procrastinating by redoing the cover 4 times, there are things that will come up only when I write. Like David Farland says in his Daily Kick
Ideas and characters and plot twist and cool word choices seem almost to get poured into your brain (…)
and inspiration comes from writing, not musing about a story! Read his whole piece – I’ve known a lot of tortoise writers who never finished a story because they couldn’t write that perfect sentence and move on…
And if you still think “I want to write but I don’t have time!”, here’s Moira Allen’s advice (which goes well with the previous article by David Farland – see how he found the time to write?). IMHO, if you love doing something, you’ll always find the time. I don’t have such a busy schedule, since DayJob is part time (but still takes half of the day with commuting and eating), but sometimes I have problem deciding what I want to do – write or draw?
I seem to find time for both, though. Currently I am typing at DayJob (slow week) in the mornings, writing longhand in the afternoon and to have breaks between sessions, I’m coloring the comic I did in December. And still find the time to watch a movie after dinner to give my poor hand a rest. Okay, I’m single – well, I’m married to Mr Writing, but this doesn’t mean I don’t cheat on him with Mr Drawing and Mr Movies!
Fake bestseller controversy and how Amazon actually works explained by David Gaughran. Now if only some media picked any of my titles and made it a bestseller that way, LOL! One last story – a publisher from hell by Colleen Doran. That’s another quite stupid writer, but well… there’s plenty of those, or scammer would have vanished! Have a great week!
January 19, 2014
Sunday Surprise
… or birth of a portrait with colored pencils. I thought I’d do some kind of visual WiP of this one, since I did a couple of variations on the original picture. Namely, shaved the subject and added a tear. So here’s after one hour what it was like – note the two pics, one needed for the tear (sorry, not going to draw John Abraham anytime soon! But I loved the teary pic, so I downloaded and it turned out to be useful).
I started working on this around 5.30pm on Hrithik’s b-day. Here’s after two hours, still working with both pictures. Why the variations? First, I don’t like facial hair, I’ve drawn enough of it on Keanu who never shaves off the set. I have done almost 300 drawings of him in 13 years, but I’ve done only 25 of Hrithik so far, so it was a little trickier to do.
Why the tear? Because the upper face with its striped forehead looks sad, but then the mouth slightly smiles, so… It’s a tear of relief, OK? I took a break to have dinner, then went back to work. Three hours – done, albeit without background. That’s all I could do on his b-day. It was a Friday of a lousy DayJob week, after all!
On Saturday, I went back to work on it. Digital background (five minutes). I decided to make it red instead of my usual blue that looks like a starry sky.
Pencil background and final touches (half an hour).
The final drawing is also available on DeviantART. If you enjoyed this, I might do another with a digital painting, although I’m still very bad at using levels in Photoshop. Have a wonderful Sunday! 
January 17, 2014
Random Friday
While waiting for my two DVDs, I thought I’d get on with that DVD pile that’s been sitting on my table since November. I’m kinda tired of not watching movies, so I’m doing a movie week marathon, or better, I’ll start watching movies after dinner every other day again. I also bought some Italian DVDs last Sunday, but since they don’t have English subtitles, I probably won’t “review” them.
Now, to the Bollywood pile! WAQT… meh. Too many songs even for me. If I say “enough is enough”, there were probably one too many! BUT if you like melodrama or dramedy, check it out. Also if you like Priyanka, Akshay or Big B, of course. And if you’re a man – I was the wrong target for this movie, LOL! Now, if some female director shot the mother/daughter version… hear me Zoya Akhtar or Gauri Sindhe?
Then Zoya’s twin Fahran’s version of Don with King Khan. Highly recommended for lovers of action and heist movies – Bollywood style, of course. You never know who’s really who in this movie, and they need flashbacks to show you what actually happened. Nice. Some weird-looking transitions, but they weren’t too bad for an action movie!
Don 2 is a sequel, and not better than the first (like Dhoom 2 compared to the first – ahem, no, I’m not biased, it’s just that Aryan is too good looking, LOL), in spite of the special appearance. I don’t know why they decided to bring back a negative hero. The original Don with Big B. has no sequels. Anyhow, still action/heist, if that’s your favorite genre… But even the songs were less catchy! 
I tried to watch Ishkq in Paris, but it was a pirated DVD and there were no English subtitles, so I used the FF button a lot. Preity is always very pretty and Isabelle Adjani is perfect as her mother, but I don’t think I’ll end up buying a copy with subtitles (maybe I’ll learn Hindi first – NOT! If I can find a cheap version with subtitles, I’ll get it, since there’s Paris… but it’s probably not my cup of tea!). So that’s all for this week… more next time!
My order is half here. I got one yesterday but want to watch it during the weekend. The second is on its way, we’ll see if it arrives today or I have to go to the post office tomorrow to claim it, LOL! Have a wonderful weekend!
January 15, 2014
Writer Wednesday
Still mulling about the latest story, and looking forward to writing it – I’m sick of translating in Italian. I’m not even sure the Italian version will sell more than the English one, so… Since I’m translating Star Minds Snippets at the moment, maybe between each Snippet I could write a short story for More Tales of the Southern Kingdoms!
While I brainstorm this latest story, I’m also experimenting with Photoshop and its levels, but I’m not ready to show the results yet. Although maybe by the end of the year I’ll do another artbook. Maybe. Not much else going on, so here’s my weekly list of writerly links.
Fast-paced best seller – here’s to the hope I’ll be a best seller too one day, writing what I like to read and not trying to please the market!
Copyright law class sing-along – a must follow for the next few weeks. It’s even on Thursdays, like Kris Rusch’s business posts… so just tune in to Writer-in-law AND Kris Rusch – see her discoverability part 6!
Zombie memes in publishing, courtesy of David Gaughran who did a great job at gathering them. Anything you’d like to add?
Have a great week! Oh, and a very happy birthday to my (much younger) Jedi Twin, Fulvio!
January 12, 2014
Sunday Surprise
And it’s a guest! Like I mentioned, I started the reading year with a new author and read both her books in a little over a week. She was kind enough to answer to my writerly questions… Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Vidya Samson!
Where do you live and write from?
Pit of Hell. Also known as India.
Not as bad as Italy, trust me. When did you start writing?
I honestly don’t remember because I was so young. I think it was when I was 8 or 9, but I might have been even younger. My brother and I invented a set of characters and wrote stories about them for each other.
Cool! I had a shared world with my siblings too – but didn’t write anything down until my teens! What genre(s) do you write?
As a child, I wrote children’s stories. Then I got hooked on Agatha Christie and started writing mysteries and whodunits. Now I write mainly humor and romance.
And you’re great at that! Where do you find your inspiration? Do you put yourself in your stories?
I think all writers put something of themselves in their stories. For my stories set in India, Indian culture and the people around me are the biggest inspiration.
Do you have a specific writing routine?
No, I write whenever I have the time.
Outliner or improviser? Fast or slow writer?
I’m a slow writer who works for a long time on every scene to make it as good as possible.
Tell us about your latest book
My latest book is a clash-of-cultures comedy about a traditional family in India whose lives are turned upside down when their American relatives come to visit. It can be found here (Amazon.com link)
And it’s a great read. If I still did reviews, I’d give it 5stars. Indie publishing or traditional publishing – and why?
Indie publishing, mainly because I have control over my books and can get a much higher royalty rate for them. I am currently writing a YA paranormal romance titled MY DEADLY PRINCE CHARMING. I am going to self e-publish it on Amazon because I want control over the e-book rights. But if it does well as an e-book, I will try to get a traditional publisher for the print version. While I would prefer to query publishers directly, I read a thread on the Kindleboards detailing the things agents can do for us, including pushing for bigger advances from publishers, and getting a much better deal when selling film and foreign rights.
Agents are gong the way of the Dodo, and will snatch 15% of your earnings forever. I wouldn’t do it, if I were you. Any other projects in the pipeline?
I have a couple of romance series planned other than my YA paranormal romance one. One is an adult paranormal romance series while the other is a romantic thriller series.
What is your goal as a writer and what are you doing to achieve it?
My goal: world domination. I want to be one of the best known writers of both romance and humor, with the name recognition of romance writers such as Stephenie Meyers and Nora Roberts and humor writers such as David Sedaris. To achieve that goal, for now I’m just writing the best books I can write.
And you’re doing a great job, so keep writing!
