Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 151

Happiness is…

the comment is dated, since Lua blogs no more and this blog has now a lot of followers, but it’s still happiness (especially since the comments are still quite few, haha)!

Sunday Surprise

Another guest – my offline beta-reader. She’s also a writer and I sure hope some day you will all be able to read her witty and funny tales. So, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mystery woman Abby B. Palmer!

1. Where do you live and write from?  
Rome, Italy
2. When did you start writing?
As a teenager
3. What genre(s) do you write?
Mystery, fiction, magical realism, romance, poetry, human interest when I wrote for magazines
4. Where do you find your inspiration? Do you put yourself in your stories?
From my own very varied experiences, studies and the people I’ve known or encountered. Also from images in my dreams and daydreams. Yes I do put a bit of myself in each story
5. Do you have a specific writing routine?
No
6. Outliner or improviser? Fast or slow writer?
I like to improvise. I zip along fast at times, move turtle slow at times
7. Tell us about your latest book
Lately been working on cozy mysteries (working on 3 with same main character) Most finished one is set in New England and Rome, it has humor, friendship and an art related plot.
8. Indie publishing or traditional publishing – and why?
We’ll see, whatever is easiest for my skills and situation
9. Any other projects in the pipeline?
Always. I have small sections of many potential books both in computer and in an actual hard file from my pre-computer days
10. What is your goal as a writer and what are you doing to achieve it?
I’ve always written for my own enjoyment, to create characters who have interesting adventures and situations and see how they react. My goal is to finish a book.
I know she’s been stuck in rewriting hell for years, but hopefully we will soon manage to unblock her. Last year I gifted her of a printed copy of her manuscript, which hopefully made her wish to actually see it in print.
Whenever I manage to steal her final draft of that novel, I’ll let ya all know!
Have a wonderful Sunday!

Random Friday

First, if you wish to be a writer… and if you want to be indie, who do you…? Damn, I knew there was a reason to stick with traditional publishing!

It’s Random Friday, I’m going on vacation from DayJob for 2 weeks (staying at home working as a writer/publisher), so I decided to open with something funny. And it’s not over! Something funny came up this week, and I still haven’t made up my mind about it – mostly for an uncooperative Techie Bro who is too lazy to humor me, haha!

See this Kickstart Project? I did paint miniatures in the 1990s – I still have some dioramas to prove it, and a box full of unpainted miniatures with a few colors that are drying unused in my drawers. My eyes don’t work so well anymore, so I had to stop playing with beads and I certainly won’t be able to paint anymore miniatures. So I asked Dear Techie Bro if he’d paint them for me – if I ordered me and him as warriors and Dear Nephew as squire. So far he refused. We’ll see if I can convince him, by giving him my colors or buying him a new set and sending that picture of us “without glasses” (or maybe even snap a new one) since we’re both shortsighted…

Maybe  I’ll also dump that box of unpainted miniatures on him. Actually, there’s a bunch that are painted – I took down one or 2 dioramas because I wanted to do the assault on the castle, which I never did in the end… I even have 2 dragons, so wouldn’t it look cool having me and Techie Bro fighting the blue dragon to protect Dear Nephew? If I ever do that diorama, you’ll be the first to know!

And before you ask, no, I never played role-playing games. When I discovered the Dragonlance Saga and RPGs, I thought I’d never be able to write down all the adventures that came out of the games, so I decided not to play. But I liked the miniatures and in the late 1990s that was my hobby. Then came the jewelry and beads. And now it’s drawing those pencil portraits that don’t come out very well scanned or printed. “Work” should be writing, drawing the covers and the graphic novel (colored with Photoshop), formatting and publishing – so that’s what I’ll be doing for the next 2 weeks, yay!

I’ll leave you with a slideshow of miniatures – the first ones are actual non-digital photos of the dioramas, including the 2 I “destroyed”. Printed pics scanned for your eyes only – sometimes not so good, but I left out the worst. So the scene with the giants and the “castle” (done with a piece of stereo or VCR wrapping) are no more, and all those painted miniatures wait to be used with the brand new castle I bought just before I stopped buying them. I remember the best (and most expensive) were from Mithril (The Saul Zaentz Company has used the mark Mithril for many years in connection with a variety of things, including for example, collectible figurines, online role-playing video games and entertainment services.), but most of mine are Warhammer or other “cheap” miniatures… And the “monsters” (still to be painted) were from the ex-boyfriend of a friend of mine, he painted the few that are painted, not me. I’m not really into monsters, I’m surprised I did the goblin vs.elves (the goblins were probably from his collection anyway)!

Click to view slideshow.

On a final note – I have a Silver Rodent, yay! Have a great weekend!

Writer Wednesday

Can you tell I’m not at my best? I procrastinated on writing the whole weekend (although I posted only one of the 2 drawings I did – wasn’t happy with the second…) and forgot it’s June and I needed to schedule the Happiness is… posts. And Monday I even worked on the future e-book version, but forgot to check the blog – although I was surprised I didn’t get any WordPress e-mails. I even thought “I should start writing Writer Wednesday”, but then decided to wait for Tuesday. And then at 10pm it hit me – no Monday happiness! ARGH! So I sent it live immediately and started writing this post… *shame* I want my memory back, please!

Anyway, I’m back on Silvery Earth, writing about kick-ass Amazons (Selene is a Huntress – Huntresses hunt rebel men, not animals! ) from that old story of mine. Dear beta-readers will soon have more to read, hopefully. It’s kinda long, so I’ll probably use all of June to write it. Next week I’m off DayJob, so I’ll also work on formatting for a couple of titles, so stay tuned.

I even had time to re-read a couple of my novellas and found 4 wandering commas in Death of Amazonia, so Mr Rodent, please download the new version from Smashwords or I’ll never get that Gold Rat for my books (and thank you for not mentioning those typos in your review!). Yep, I removed those 4 commas from inside the word and put them behind it as they were expected to be. Those are usually commas I add later, at the editor’s suggestions, and since I’m in a rush, I tend to position them inside the word they’re supposed to accompany. Ahem, sorry… funny how blog serendipity had someone else talking about commas! And what happened to my most abused “comma splice”?

After the summer there will be an anthology of Smashwords authors of SF/F that will be published for free. I plan on sending them two Star Minds Snippets (thank you, Roomie, for helping me choosing which) and hopefully drive readers to the series. I already had in mind to do a loss leader for the series, I guess I’ll join these other indies instead! Shortly after the anthology comes out, I should release all the Snippets (one might come out in August, these 2 in September, the rest in October)… By the way, World of Diversity has reviewed Technological Angel – thank you, Sean!

I’ve also managed to commission an artist on DeviantART: a portrait of Ker-ris – I won’t be able to use it as book cover, but I’ll be very happy to drool over it on my own. And if I eventually set up the Star Minds page  (Facebook or whatever), I’ll have more than just Kol-ian to show off – yes, the technological angel is the protagonist, but only of the first half of the story, since the mind link makes him one with Ker-ris!

More interesting links: the changing playing field by Kris Rusch. Davig Gaughran on 15 ways Amazon can improve KDP – they have added EFT for all markets and I was able to select Euro on all Kindle Stores (see, I should have framed that check! ), but there still are problems here and there. Kindle Singles: I did submit to them.

Hello Barbara,

Thank you for submitting your work for consideration in Kindle Singles.

Your proposal will be reviewed within the next 4 weeks, and you will be notified by e-mail about our decision.

Thanks for your interest in Kindle Singles.

Never heard back. Not even with a rejection. David is probably right, they don’t want fiction in their Kindle Singles (it was B.G. Hope’s Six Months, in case you were wondering). Ah, well, I’ll write a narrative non-fiction about being an indie author in this brand new world of publishing, LOL! And you can laugh at how slow and luddite traditional publishing (and I’m a technophobe…) is with this piece by Kevin J. Anderson – raise your hand if you know what a carbon copy or a floppy diskette are!

Now for more on traditional publishing Stockolm syndrome, hear Judith Tarr – took me some time to find the whole 3 parts together, LOL! And closing with Joe Konrath‘s words of wisdom:

Remember: Selling isn’t making someone buy something they don’t want to buy. It’s about making people aware of something they like and are looking for.

Have a wonderful week and happy writing!

Happiness is…

Sunday Surprise

And it’s another guest! Yes, I’m finding excuses not to write on the blog – I better write my stories instead! Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Rory Mackay who kindly submitted to my writerly questions!

Where do you live and write from?
I live in a small town in the North East of Scotland called Cullen. It’s right at the sea and is one of the most scenic and picturesque places along the Moray coast. It’s a great place for an artist-hermit. Quiet, beautiful and inspiring.
(ahem… do you have a guest room? Just kidding! Or maybe not…) When did you start writing?
I started young. I first came up with the idea for a big fantasy adventure when I was only about six or seven, precocious child I was! It wasn’t until I was about 16 that I got back to developing my stories. At that time I was kind of imagining it as a movie or series of movies, or maybe even a TV mini-series or something. Who knows, maybe some day it still will be. But, realising it would be far easier to get a book published than a film or TV series commissioned (and when I say ‘easier’, I use the term in the most relative sense — there’s nothing easy about getting a book published!). It was around the time I was 22 that I had developed the story for my first novel to the extent that I felt ready to force myself to sit down and write, write, write.
Funny, I also saw my stories as TV series in the 1980s (when I watched a lot of TV). I even tried to conquer Hollywood, but gave up after 5 years and went back to my first love – prose… What genre(s) do you write?
My books are fantasy, with a touch of science-fiction and elements of philosophy, mythology and mysticism woven into them.
Wow. Where do you find your inspiration? Do you put yourself in your stories?
I think there are two types of inspiration. There’s the inspiration we get from external things — other books, stories, films, real life events, people, psychology, sociology and spirituality. Life is full of inspiration in every conceivable way. Then there’s the inspiration that comes from within, from an inner muse I guess you might call it. I think this is the primary source of inspiration. You just ‘feel’ stories, ideas and characters coming to life within you, and your job as a writer is to excavate them.
Yes, I put myself into every story, every scene, every character. Both my novels (“Eladria”, which has just been published, and “The Key of Alanar” which is due next year) feature a strong central protagonist which I poured a lot of myself into, even though both characters are quite different to me. I think writing helps you sharpen your empathy and ability to understand how the human mind works through the filter of different psychologies.
I had a part for myself in every story until the new millennium… now I put a little bit of me in every character, male or female! Do you have a specific writing routine?
I generally have to write earlier in the day if possible, when my brain is sharper. Sometimes I do a 5 minute writing warm-up exercise to help me get into the creative flow, so the words start flowing. It’s all about the flow, I think. Some days it’s effortless to achieve, other days for whatever reason it’s harder to get into it. While writing “Eladria” I set myself the goal of writing three pages a day. It didn’t matter if they were three awesome pages or three pages of total rubbish, I just had to write, write, write and worry about the quality later.
Excellent method – keep going. Outliner or improviser? Fast or slow writer?
I find I need a full outline before I start writing. Particularly due to the nature of the books I write. Although quite character-driven, my books nevertheless require tight plotting. With “Eladria” I was juggling multiple elements, different mysteries and threads and I had to be quite clear where and when to place certain twists and revelations in order to give the overall plot and structure of the book the right balance. Once I was happy with the outline, I could just let myself relax and write, without having to worry too much about ending up writing myself into a corner, or coming to the end of the book and realising that the whole plot structure just didn’t work. Of course, there were a number of improvisations happened along the way, including the death of a major character at a key point in the narrative.
I am a slow writer. Like I said, three pages a day! I tried to write as many days a week as I could. It still ended up taking me almost a full year to complete the first draft of “Eladria”. And then another full year to do several successive drafts, and then another year in which I was still going back and changing and refining bits. So it was almost three years of work.
Phew! At least it’s done. I know many writers who never reach The End… Tell us about your latest book
“Eladria” tells the tale of a young princess who becomes a fugitive in her own land following the brutal invasion and occupation of her homeland by a group of religious terrorists. Lost in a hostile and unfamiliar land ravaged by generations of war, Elaria finds herself embroiled in a sinister experiment that threatens to destroy her world and countless others. “Eladria” is a fantasy/sci-fi novel combining action and adventure with elements of mysticism and metaphysics. It’s essentially a story about life, love and redemption; about challenging our prejudices and assumptions, about learning compassion and integrating the darker aspects of our nature in order to reach a place of wholeness and unity.
It’s been published by Cosmic Egg Books and is now available from multiple stores online in paperback and ebook format (links can be found on my website — and I’m also offering signed copies with a free soundtrack CD and bookmark: http://www.dreamlight-fugitive.co.uk/Dreamlight_Fugitive/Eladria.html).
Indie publishing or traditional publishing – and why?
I spent 9 years trying to find a traditional publisher. This was prior to the explosion of ebooks and print on demand publishing that have made indie publishing a viable alternative. I eventually found a small to medium publisher to take on my book and I was delighted. While I would have been open to indie publishing (and may be for future releases), I wanted a traditional publisher for my first release to help get my foot in the door. I haven’t had to worry about design, editing, typesetting, distribution, printing and basic marketing, which has been amazing. Of course, I won’t make nearly as much per book sale than if I’d self-published, but obviously for every up-side there’s a down-side. This is life, after all!
Any other projects in the pipeline?
Absolutely! My next novel, “The Key of Alanar” will be published in the next year. It’s already complete, and was written prior to “Eladria”. I also have an idea for another series of books called “The Dreamlight Fugitives”, a quirky fantasy series with a strong sociological and political undertone. I also intend to release a couple of non-fiction books too.
Good, you’re all set, then! What is your goal as a writer and what are you doing to achieve it?
My goal is to share not just stories and fantastical adventures, but ideas and questions relating to the nature of consciousness, human existence and our purpose in life. According to Joseph Campbell that’s the whole purpose behind myth and storytelling; to help us figure out who we are and find our place in life. To inspire, heal and elevate consciousness. That might sound pretentious to some, but to me it’s the whole purpose of writing. I believe that sharing stories is a great gift, one that benefits both the writer and the reader. Storytelling had huge importance in premodern cultures all across the world and in our dysfunctional, disconnected modern world I believe it’s something we need more than ever.
Best of luck with everything!

__________________________________________________________________
Eladria was released 31 May 2013 by Cosmic Egg Books. Available in paperback and ebook format.

Buy from author’s website
Order from Amazon.com
Order from Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eladria-Rory-B-Mackay/dp/1780997906/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369657650&sr=8-1&keywords=eladria
Apple iBooks Store
Barnes & Noble

Rory’s Links:
Blog: http://beyondthedream.co.uk/
Website: http://www.dreamlight-fugitive.co.uk/Dreamlight_Fugitive/Home.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eladriabook
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aaremo
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/amoyaan0

Random Friday

… is actually a continuation of Sunday’s conversation! That’s because otherwise where’s the surprise next Sunday? So you get a writerly week all over – if you’re not a writer, I’ll see you next week. We were discussing writing and publishing with the Rodent… and here’s the best part!

Indie publishing or traditional publishing – and why?

After completing my very first novel, way back in the day, I sent it to a couple of places and ended up being accepted by a small publisher, Spectrum Press in Chicago. SP was publishing on 3.5 inch floppy disks at the time. SP also published two of my other books. (And just so you know, rejected one, which I later released on my own; it now has a fabulous cover by Lane Brown, and it’s wonderfully bannable, which was why it was rejected.) SP were also peddling their books around to “trad” publishers, and in 1996, “A Harlot of Venus” — first in what has become the MW series — was published by Masquerade Books in New York. I still have half a dozen copies of that paperback edition.

So, yes, I’ve been “traditionally published”, but I didn’t make a zillion dollars on the book. One of my stories was also published in an on-line journal one time, but I hated the editorial process the story went through. I vowed never again to subject myself to the poisonous fangs of an “editor”. I’ve never submitted another manuscript for publication, and probably never will. I would rather sit quietly under my rock and do my own thing.

From what I gathered, nobody made a zillion dollars with trad publishing except the notorious bestsellers… Any other projects in the pipeline?

There are always projects, but I’m also between major projects, a little. The last MW novel was about 550 pages with a large cast of characters so it took a lot of inspirational energy, and it was followed by a couple of shorter novellas. So I’m now having a period of rest and gathering new inspiration from all those dreams and visions.

Cool! What is your goal as a writer and what are you doing to achieve it?

I don’t really have goals, because I’m not really a “writer”, per se. I’m not trying to sell a lot of books and make money. The kind of work I do is not conducive to that. It’s more intimate and personal. I don’t write books for an audience, really — except for the nice artists who have done cover art for me over the last 5 years or so. I write books for my own amusement. And I like the end-to-end process of writing, editing, formatting and typesetting, book design — and finally making a web site to show off the catalog of works. Then buying a copy and putting it on my shelf. They look so nice there together.

Recently I also joined Goodreads because I discovered that someone posted bibliographic info on a couple of my earlier books there, probably from some wacky ISBN data; and I didn’t like those editions. They also mixed me up with another author, so I wanted to fix all the bibliographic entries. They are now straight.

Anyway… I’m not an editor, and I can’t afford to hire an editor (even a copy-editor), so I’m sure my books are full of “problems” that Real Editors would love to fix. But the books are also, in my opinion, not too bad as they stand. When I finish a book and look even at a first draft, I can usually say: “I’ve read worse books in print”. Not exactly a seal of approval, but there you go. Of course no proof-reader is perfect, and in any ordered list of 100,000 words — that’s what a book is, you know, an ordered list of words — there is always at least one more spelling error lurking. Not to mention grammatical problems and so forth. That’s why I continually revise my work. As I find these errors and problems, I just fix them and upload new files.

And then there’s sales. For example: Amazon, Smashwords, etc. I don’t use those outlets.

And then there’s Goodreads. I find the whole concept of people reviewing my work and grading me to be a little scary, and a bit like grammar school. Why? Because I didn’t write these books for them — I mean members of the public at large. (You might have guessed that grading and tests were the only things I didn’t like about school; I loved doing assignments, reading text-books, and learning things.) When I edit a draft and create a subsequent draft, I don’t look at the book in terms of how many I can sell if I do X and Y, or how well-liked the book will be within some target audience. That isn’t the point of writing. My books only have to satisfy my own egotistical involvement with their production process. And if someone stumbles over one and can’t avoid reading it, well… At least I can say I’m not over-charging my readers. For a physical book, readers can expect to pay exactly what I pay: the cost of printing and shipping. For e-books, I’ve been experimenting with charging exactly one or two dollars over “production cost” with the hope that I can someday use the funds to buy a cappuccino for one of my cover artists. LOL.

Well, I also tend to write for myself… although I’m sure I can find another thousand or so souls who like what I write! As for editors, even if I’m aware my English is better than many natives, I’d rather have someone go through my final drafts – I tend to do stupid mistakes after all these years! Luckily DayJob is still paying those bills, but eventually Mr Writing will support himself. One can always hope, right?

Sorry, I’m rambling! On Goodreads I heard you mention a certain list – to which I’m honored to have been added (especially since I’m not a native English speaker). Would you like to talk about that? And what do you think about this self-pub revolution?

I’m in favor of it. It allows control over the entire process and the end product — I can get the “lurid covers” I want, for example. In my one trad-publishing foray mentioned above, I didn’t get the kind of cover I wanted, and the publisher didn’t include my maps. (Oh, did I mention that I like maps? I do.) So from that standpoint, self-pub is great.

Nowadays the means of production for books are so widely available that anyone can publish their book quite easily — whether it’s ready or not. Lack of filters creates a severe quality problem. In a traditional publishing house, editors provided thorough preening and cleaning, rounds of galleys and proofs; even before that, they rejected most of the submitted manuscripts because — even if everyone has a story to tell — not every book is worth stocking in a bookstore.

When writers become publishers they need to assume the responsibilities of the publisher: the tasks of deep editing, copy-editing, cover design and formatting; and perhaps finding advance readers to assist with some tasks. Individuals often can’t afford professional editing and cover art. The trade-off that’s made in this market often sacrifices quality, in many aspects of production. Now we have huge catalogs of self-published books, including the 90% of stuff that traditional publishers would have rejected. (The flip side is that we also sometimes get fabulous, quirky, truly unique work which never would have passed muster with any publisher; but it’s still rare.) The good stuff (for any given reader) may be difficult to find.

In a recent conversation on Goodreads people were talking about starting a seal of approval program with a website. It’s not clear to me that would be effective at curbing the quality problems, or making it easier for readers to find a book that’s right for them, or worth reading. But it could help. (And of course, it might quickly turn into elitism.) Some readers don’t care about typographical errors and poor grammar, or even poor story-telling (for example in fan-fiction the fans are most interested in the characters). There are so many attributes of books that are matters of taste: subject matter, prose style, character development, plot… As the conversation went on, I realized we can separate matters of taste from mechanics. Readers should be able to depend on a published book meeting really basic mechanical criteria: proper spelling, reasonable grammar, coherent sentence structure, and the like. The author is supposed to provide some of those, and the publisher is supposed to catch other problems. This doesn’t always work in the Indie world.

So I decided to stir things up with a little satire. I made my own award, a logo program which I call the “Rat of Approval™”. Ah, yes, it’s that list you mentioned above. I introduced this award in my blog over on Goodreads; you can find it here: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/4191412-srop-announces-rat-of-approval-logo-program

Can I display my Rat of Approval on this post?

Absolutely! You’ve earned that rodent, and you’re welcome to display it anywhere you like. You can link back to the list, too, if you want. Oh, the little rat logo was designed for SROP by Christine Larsen, who also designed beautiful covers for five of my books, and my site layout as well.

So, there you have it! I’m putting it also in the Find My Stuff page, so whoever comes when this post is long archived, they’ll know I’m okay!

Want to earn your Rat of Approval? Go and apply! Thank you for playing along!

Writer Wednesday

The blog hop is over, the winners have their coupon for free download. I ended up giving one to each commenter (who wanted one), since comments came in either very early or very late, so even if I moved from 120 to 113, I felt that those people who eventually made it down that long list deserved a prize, if only for reaching my blog! So, happy reading and if you can, leave a review on the usual places – if you forget, I won’t hold it against you. Like Kris Rusch says, it’s word of mouth that sells, not reviews, tweets, constant announcements, etc. So, if you enjoy the read, spread the word, thank you.

Not sure if it’s the blog hop or else, but another record month for visits. We’ll see if it keeps up and if I start finding my readers. For sales, this month has been very slow – only Kobo/inMondadori (yeah, Italian short stories, can you believe it). Just sayin’, not complaining. My sales go like my blog and my mood – up, down, like a yo-yo, life is just a giddyap a gogo (okay, showing my age again)!

I have finished the first draft of Choices, so if there’s some male volunteer, I’d really love to hear your input on that story. Just because it has a male protagonist, although it’s probably aimed to women readers!   In the meantime,  since May is almost over, I’ll move on to the next project – back to Silvery Earth and the Amazons. I’m rewriting my original Amazon story (that had sequels through the years, part 1 was written in 1985, part 2 in 1990, part 3 in 1991 and part 4 in 2004 + I’ve added the sister’s story recycling old Amazon stories from the end of last century, so the draft I’m going to translate/rewrite is from 2010), so I’m very excited.

Speaking of the other Amazon – a.k.a. Mighty Zon – the internet is ablaze with their announcement of Kindle Worlds. See the reactions of Passive Guy (especially in the comments), Chuck Wendig, John Scalzi and Laxmi Hariharan. What do you think of legal fan fiction? Personally, I’ve never written fan fiction (but I’ve read some slash, even with celebrities in it) and I don’t have fans writing stories set on Silvery Earth or in the Star Minds universe, so I’m not really bothered yet. But the comment #7 (Saruby) on John Scalzi’s post kinda made me think:

I am not a writer, but I do have some legal training and I would strongly advise anyone not to sign any contract that does not include specific reversion rights within a limited term. Also, no one should be able to use your ideas in other media without paying you. In the long run, any contract that takes rights (and therefore money) away from the writer is bad news. Far from helping publishing, Amazon is pushing a scheme that will deter writers who want to be self-supporting. Who can afford to write when future income from your work goes to someone else? These schemes will kill publishing.

I don’t know about that, but I’ll just keep my eyes open. We’ll have to wait and see… This new world of publishing is shifting so quickly, sometimes I think I’ll never be able to keep up! My new sloth-ness isn’t helping either, but I’ll keep trudging ahead. There’s no stopping now! Want a study on readers’ habits (albeit based on romance readers)? Check the RWA stats. And they’re just for the US. Don’t forget, my American friends, you’re not the only living and reading beings on the planet! What about the rest of the world?

Again, about the quick shifts, read Dean Wesley Smith’s take on the dismission of Ella distribution and the changes in the field of printed books. Yes, things are that fast in shifting – needed 2012, not needed 2013. He also suggests to follow Passive Guy, but I’ve given up because he posts too often, and it’s mostly reblogs with some comments (took me to go back 6 pages on the blog to find the post mentioned by Dean…). Still this post about trad and indie has interesting comments from the IP lawyer married to a major writer (Mr.PG himself, in case you didn’t get the joke) about how rules don’t really apply to both.

Now, on writing, take your pick. Outliner or improviser? You can see how others do. I’m in the middle – I write a very brief outline and mostly improvise while writing, but unlike Ruth Ann Nordin, I don’t have problems adding scenes where needed. I write backwards, bones first, meat after! That’s why I never know my final wordcount when I start. I have tried more specific outlines or character bios, but they felt like waste of time and went mostly unused anyway. But if you like outlining, please check how Rami Ungar does it! Whatever you choose, remember: we’re all different. You have to find your own way. What works for you. There are no rules, as long as you finish your story!

See also why 90% of the advice about writing is bullshit right now. While I was reading I thought “Hey, sounds exactly like those creative writing books written by editors who dissect novels of (often dead) authors and want to teach you how to write without asking the author” – summarized in the post’s P.S.! A real writer won’t really know how he or she writes. I could never “teach” you how I write. I could teach you how to format or upload your stuff to the different retailers, but that’s it. That’s the technical part. For the “artistic” part, we’re all on our own. We must experiment and try different things and don’t let other’s (or our own) expectations take us down.

I want to tell stories. I have written down a lot (some good, some bad) and have more to tell. I have a very niche readership and I haven’t find them all yet. Actually, I can still count my readers on my hands – but I don’t care. I’ll keep writing and publishing and writing more stories – for the fun of it. I do write for myself first… so I won’t stop until I get enough (which hopefully is… never!)! Happy writing!

Happiness is…

Sunday Surprise

… and it’s a guest! Missed this, didn’t you? Well, I got this Rodent who made the first comment on the blog hop post and since he seems to be a nice person – behind the Rodent  (I hate rodents. Blame it on Lady and the Tramp. In case you’re still wondering why I hate Disney’s talking animals. It’s because of the darn rat at the beginning of Lady and the Tramp. Childhood traumas never go away. Rodents give me nightmares. End tangent) – I thought I’d invite him over to talk. He’s not a Disney talking animal, so why not!

So, here I am with Mr Rodent! Welcome!

Hello, Barbara. Thank you for this opportunity to address you and your readers. My name is Kajolium Broadwick. My first name rhymes with “linoleum”. I also write under various pseudonyms.

Glad I’m not the one! Where do you live and write from?

I live in the small town of Santa Banana, California. It’s a lovely place in the zone of perfection that experiences eternally spring-like weather.

My books are “published” (and I use the term loosely) on my own site, Smashed-Rat-on-Press . Publishing in this under-the-radar way is partly a matter of philosophy. I don’t like ISBNs and I won’t use them; and I like doing everything myself. (I try not to be a rabid control-freak, however.)

I hate ISBNs too, in fact I use only the free ones. I pay enough to editors and some cover artists to waste money on useless ISBNs! And yeah, I’m another control freak, so you’re very welcome! When did you start writing?

Aside from childhood, I began writing fiction in earnest during the original dot-com rise in the early 1990s. That’s been a while. I wrote some short stories and so forth, for practice, and then a few novels. Obviously, I had written things before that, mainly for school. Around 1997, after writing some books, I took a ten-year hiatus, then returned to novel writing with a book called “Slave Girls of Noachis”. That was followed by some more things.

Cool. What genre(s) do you write?

Pinning books down to one genre can be difficult, unless one is talking about particular formulas that amorphously define some genre in the first place. I ended up coining my own genre word for much of my work, and I discuss a lot of that in a secret web page down in my dungeon. (If you are really super curious, you can ask and I’ll give you a key to the dungeon.)

I’m interested in culture, language, the arts, exotica; and intimate relationships between people, especially females. So I invented a fantasy place which I call “Mars” — sort of a joke you might say, which comes from a youth mis-spent with too many ERB novels. I’ve filled this fantasy world with green and blue people living in various low-tech civilizations. Many place-names of this world are derived from old maps of Mars. At this point, I have a small set of books I call the “Martian Women” series, because I tend to focus on female protagonists.

I’ve written elsewhere that I’m not interested in major “guy” topics — sports, war, big machines — nor in typical fantasy elements like vampires and magic. I do not write harrowing, macho adventure stories with lots of killing and mayhem, space ships, and weapons. The books are more intimate and quiet; in general, too cerebral for people who want a hot romance or pornography, but probably too sexually explicit and shocking for those who don’t. This is material definitely not suitable for children, and probably not suitable for most adults either. (In fact, I don’t recommend them for general consumption.)

It’s because you said elsewhere you weren’t interested in major “guy” topics that I “friended” you and asked you to come over! And I have difficulties labeling my own stories (all those categories and tags are so confusing!), so… I know exactly what you mean! Where do you find your inspiration? Do you put yourself in your stories?

Inspiration most often comes, as I’ve written elsewhere, from dreams and visions. I started writing this whole “Martian Women” series originally because someone told me that another story I was writing at the time was not sexy enough. Well, I thought about that and looked at my bookshelf full of Sci-Fi and so forth. Then I said to myself, what could be sexier than a gorgeous green prostitute with four breasts? Not really, but that’s what I ended up with.

Now, I have written books and stories in which I appear. For example, “The Santa Banana Double Love Suicides” is a factual account of my years in Berkeley, when I shared an apartment with a rather eccentric Japanese detective. I’ve also written first-person narratives that are not necessarily “me” — such as “Yvette’s Gift”.

(I hate I-stories. Hush. You didn’t hear me say that! ). Do you have a specific writing routine?

Not really. It depends on what things are distracting me in my life at any given phase. Usually I write at night, in a darkened room, because I don’t like distractions when I’m working on a book. Some people listen to music or whatever while writing, but I tend to work best in total silence. I also like to maintain what I call “ritual purity” while writing a first draft, so I severely limit or curtail my extracurricular reading during the period of working on a major novel.

I might have some music on, but if I’m writing, I don’t hear it, so… I switch it on only when I draw! Outliner or improviser? Fast or slow writer?

Oh, I always do an outline. Absolutely. I can’t write very well by the seat of my pants, especially a long work with any kind of complex plot. My outline, or synopsis, is usually about 5 to 10 thousand words, depending on the plot and its complexity. And then I generally write specific scenes in order, from the beginning to the end, often at a steady pace.

Sometimes I also keep notes for years and then they pop up and beg to be written. That happened with my so-called Nanowrimo novel of 2012, “An Uncommon Surfeit of Lipstick”, which is a nice story about a college girl in Berkeley. The original concept came from a dream, and I have notes on the exact date in 2007. The “Santa Banana” novel likewise had a long gestation period. Then I visited a beach in Santa Cruz a couple of years ago, where I snapped a picture of two bicycles tossed down on the edge of a cliff. I went home and started writing the title story of the collection.

Ah , NaNoWriMo. Heard of it, never done it. I don’t need that to get in the habit of writing, LOL! I mean, I write all year round, but I understand that some people need to focus for a month to manage to finish something. But I’m stealing time from you! Tell us about your latest book.

(Sorry, a quick aside: I don’t formally enter NaNoWriMo, but I’ve often ended up writing something longish during November.)

Anyway, if you followed the previous answer, you might wonder about the “Martian Women” series. The latest volume, number 10 in that series, can be found here: Empress of the Night .

Most of my books have a central theme or question they explore, or from which they originated. This particular volume explores freedom of the press and prostitution. Previous volumes touched on things like mythology, polygamy, search for unknown parents, slavery and freedom, exploration of the world, endless war, “primitive” society, the cultural relativity of physical beauty… and so forth.

*scuttles to check and eventually add to WantToRead list* Mmm, this conversation is too long-winded… I fear we might lose someone! How about we continue next week? Have a wonderful weekend, and don’t forget to come back – part 2 will be even more interesting, especially for indie authors!