Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 154

Random Friday

It’s Reading Friday, considering I’ve added a few books to my Goodreads list (which was good to boost my count to reach the goal of 65 books, haha)!

First, I’d like to talk about last Sunday’s guests, Alex&Rohan Healy and their Gyaros book 1. I really liked the fast pacing, but it could be tightened a little – sometimes there are repetitions that slow down the action. Yes, there’s a good old omniscient narrator (something that I used a lot in the 20th century) and it’s still a little rough, but I can see the potential. Another pass and a good editor will make this book shine. I liked this story of a common man in an uncommon situation with Murphy’s law going at him every time he thinks he’s safe! Looking forward to the sequel…

The rest is not really prose, so it was quick reading. Dead Moon and Dead Moon Epilogue I bought mostly for Luis Royo’s art. The text wasn’t particularly interesting, but I loved the Asian feeling of the illustrations. Same for the mermaid story illustrated by Victoria Frances – I bought it for the art, not for the text!

A flight of angels was an interesting take on angels and faeries, beautifully illustrated in different styles by Rebecca Guay. I didn’t know her, so I’m glad I discovered her. The rest were comics, strips by Silvia Ziche (one of my favorite Italian comic book artists) and parodies by Enrique V.Vegas (Star Wars, Spiderman, Wolverine, but also Pirates of the Caribbean and Captain America and Thor). Both have a very humoristic style and are very funny.

Anyway, you can check the list here… Now I’m reading an Italian dead-trees book, so I won’t review it here, then I’m going through Star Minds again, otherwise I write the Snippets and then have to rewrite because I don’t remember what I wrote, haha. So before I keep going (I’ll finish Lost Son before the weekend, though) I need to go through the 3 books, taking notes for what I want to expand. I’m quite happy about the story of Ker-ris’s wedding… until someone destroys it!

Now spring is here and I’m already slowing down… so I won’t do anything new on D2D until the weekend. And I just sold another SKYBAND 12 on DTC. I’ll put more naked men on my covers from now on, LOL! Seriously, is this cover so much better than the others (see full list)?!

Anyhow, I’ll try to start on SKYBAND 13… if I don’t get distracted by the Star Minds drawings. I know I need to redo Lin-sun (first attempts), and then I have Gaurishankar, Maela, Mya and I don’t like the way I did M’aera S’iva, so I’ll have to look for another picture. With the adult filter off I discovered lots of naked long-haired men on DeviantART… you never stop learning!

I guess that’s all for now. Guess I’m still tired from the length of these posts… will catch up, eventually! Have a wonderful weekend!

Writer Wednesday

Phew, 4 days without checking the spam folder and I found 26. Meh.

Back from Torino Comics, where I spent a couple of afternoons next to C.B. Cebuski, listening to him commenting on portfolios (and helping with translation when the artist didn’t speak any English). Interesting insight on Marvel Comics – pity I stopped reading Fantastic Four in the early 1990s (read when John Byrne came onboard). Not that I planned on submitting anything, but it was great seeing all those young artists (mostly from Torino and Reggio Emilia comic schools) submitting their works hoping to be hired by Marvel. Some were really good and I sure hope they manage to get to work with Marvel eventually!

Bought comics (Enrique V. Vegas – link in Spanish, but his parodies are published in Italian- and Silvia Ziche – funny, they were born the same year, LOL) and illustrated books (by illustrators Victoria Francés and Luis Royo) and came back with my backpack heavy with dead-tree-books. But comics or illustration books don’t look good on Kindle…

On the train back I also started writing another Star Minds snippet, hoping to finish it soon. But there’s still plenty to write (I think it’s 7 or 8, but I don’t want to check right now! ), although I hope to finish a first draft for all of them soon. And hopefully to post some here – unedited, so feel free to point out typos and grammar errors. Stay tuned!

Scott Turow did it again and Kris Rusch wrote an excellent post – not really against him, as, like she says, others have done so, but starting from his whiny New York Times article on the death of the American author, which a member of my offline writers group sent to the list, wondering if she should worry about royalties (hint: if you’re trad published, yes!). I like Kris’s take on the matter, as usual, but then – I’m proud of being indie, even if I don’t have the numbers of many romance writers – most of the people who reported here are romance writers and have much higher numbers than me. But I’m proud of my achievements, so I won’t complain!

I must say that being away and not having all the retailers bookmarked, I didn’t check my numbers while I was away. Which is good, because they didn’t move from the flatline! Now I’ll have to add more titles on D2D and then I’ll write something for SPAL – although no sales there yet, but I can compare the two dashboards (SW/D2D)… stay tuned for that too, I’m still – can’t say jet-lagged, going from south to north, but well, let’s say I’m not young anymore and traveling upsets my routine!

David Farland on taking criticism, and don’t forget to donate for Ben Wolverton’s health if you haven’t already. I didn’t have time to check other blogs (these links came into my inbox), so the rest next week… Now I better go back to writing those Star Minds Snippets!

Happiness is…

Sunday Surprise

And it’s a guest! Well two! I must say I’m impressed by these kids (sorry, guys, but I could be your mum…) and I believe they’re headed for succes – we’re have very similar minds and creative processes. That’s the spirit! Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Rohan & Alex Healy, who graciously submitted to my writerly questions!

1. Where do you live and write from?

Rohan: Currently we live in Dublin, Ireland. Not a bad place to be writing from considering the literary history.

Alex: Dublin is a good place for writing since it’s usually raining outside.

Planning on getting somewhere warmer in the near future though, being cold isn’t as exciting as it used to be.

2. When did you start writing?

Rohan: I wrote my first book “The Dull” when I was 8 years old. It’s pretty awful, a hacky Goosbumps rip off really, but it was fun to write and I was pretty proud of it at the time!

Alex: Whenever we started writing Gyaros: The Mice Eat Iron, which was a few months ago, pretty sure it was late January this year.

3. What genre(s) do you write?

Rohan: I write non-fiction, books on health, wellbeing and practical philosophy. With the release of Gyaros Book One though I’ve moved into writing fiction as well, Sci Fi in this case, but I’m interesting it writing other genres like crime and straight up horror.

Alex: Is awesome a genre? If not, sci-fi/horror I guess, that’s pretty much what Gyaros is.

4. Where do you find your inspiration? Do you put yourself in your stories?

Rohan: For Gyaros I got a lot of inspiration from Japanese Anime and classic sci fi and horror movies, comics and books. We really just wanted to make a fun, escapist work of pulp fiction. Light on philosophy and social issues, heavy on action, melodrama and, we hope, fun!

I definitely drew upon my own difficulties and experiences when describing some of the more harrowing scenes. I haven’t been through anything nearly as bad as what Miles (our protagonist) experiences in the book but I’ve felt terror and nauseating fear, anxiety and melancholia, and so I tried to channel my own memories and sensations to make Miles’ plight all the more real and relatable.

Alex: I don’t read a whole lot of books so most of my inspiration comes from movies and video games, I’m a big fan of B horror movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original).

Usually how I write is I imagine a scene, like how it would play out in a movie and then just describe it in words.

And I try to slip in some random stuff that I like wherever it fits, video games, skateboarding, punk music etc.

5. Do you have a specific writing routine?

Rohan: During the 2 and a bit months it took us to write Gyaros Book One, we wrote pretty much every day. Spending a few hour in the afternoon typing away, we aimed for 2 to 3 thousand words per day combined. In the evenings we took walks and developed the plot and characters this way so that when we got back to writing the next day the path was clear. The plotting is done and it’s then just a matter of coloring in and adding the details.

Do this just about every day for a couple of months and you’ll have a book. We like our formula so much we’ll be employing it for Book Two which will be released in summer 2013.

Alex: Sit down, push buttons, eat Wagon Wheels, that’s pretty much how it goes. We (Rohan and I) are usually in the same room when we write.

6. Outliner or improviser? Fast or slow writer?

Rohan: It’s a bit of both concerning the first question. We definitely do a lot of plotting beforehand, but then we also tend to make changes and improvements on the fly as well. For us it’s important to have a clear understanding of the overall story line, and the important plot points, but also to have the flexibility to improve and adapt as we go along.

I’d say we are fast writers. A 120,000 word novel in under three months is pretty fast. In the end though it’s not a race, everyone has a different approach to their writing, and they are all equally valid.

Alex: Most of the story of The Mice Eat Iron was made up in about 45 minutes one night in late January. So we pretty much know how we want a story to go, then we just fill it in and add whatever cool stuff we think of along the way. Sometimes we’ll put things in there that we never planned originally.

There’s a basic outline and we improvise as we go, so…both I guess? As for fast or slow I guess we’re pretty fast, some people take years to write a book, we plan to write a trilogy in a year. We just sit down every day and write until it’s done.

7. Tell us about your latest book

Rohan: Gyaros Book One – The Mice Eat Iron is a New Adult Sci Fi Action/Adventure story. Miles Stanton’s stable life in the futuristic, authoritarian city of Elissa is turned upside down through a series of life changing events early in the book. Ultimately these events result in him being sent to the chaotic prison colony on the moon, Gyaros. It’s a fish out of water tale of a mild mannered, shy man trying to survive among the harshest conditions imaginable.

Without giving too much away I can say he stumbles on a few secrets that are much bigger than him, and although it is said that there is no way back to his home planet of Carthage, he hears rumors that they just might be.

This is the first book in a planned trilogy, the second and third parts of which will be released before the end of 2013!

Alex: Gyaros Book One: The Mice Eat Iron is the first of a whole lot of books to be set in the Carthage/Gyaros universe, it’s basically about an office worker who is sent to the desert moon, Gyaros which serves as a kind of prison for anyone from dangerous criminals to unemployed non-earners, where social status and respectable job titles mean nothing and the only thing keeping you alive is your weapon and how well you know how to use it.

8. Indie publishing or traditional publishing – and why?

Alex: I think I’ll let Rohan handle this one since he does all the publishing stuff. So instead, I’ll tell you a story. I once ran into a barbed wire fence as fast as I could because I had no idea that it was there. (It’s true, the guy can’t see barbed wire for some reason…*Rohan)

Rohan: Indie publishing all the way! While it’s a lot of work and responsibility, doing all the marketing, writing, editing, cover design and publishing yourself I still think it’s better than waiting around for an established publisher to give you a chance, that could take years! Or never happen at all!

The way I figure it I’d rather have my books out there gaining readers instead of holding it back in hopes that it gets picked up by a publisher. I have nothing against traditional publishers, it may be something I look into later on, but for now I’m happy publishing independently.

9. Any other projects in the pipeline?

Rohan: We will start work on Gyaros Book Two shortly for release in summer 2013. Before that though I have two books coming out. The first is a collection of 40 of the most popular blog posts from the Rohan’s 7 Things blog. This will be released for free across all digital eBook platforms. After that I’ll be writing a non-fiction book on sexuality and sexual health for release in May/June 2013.

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

Alex: The short answer is to write a bunch of books and I’m writing a bunch of books to achieve it. Like I mentioned before, getting to a warmer country is kind of a goal at the moment and writing books could also be a part of making that happen.

Rohan: My goal has three parts. Firstly through my non-fiction work I hope to share and spread the fantastic positive and healing practices and philosophies I’ve discovered in my own quest to overcome issues like OCD, depression, anxiety, bullying and panic attacks. Through my fiction I want to have fun entertaining myself with fantastical stories and share them with those who also enjoy that kind of thing! And thirdly I hope, quite honestly, to make some money. I do my best through my writing to provide value either through education or entertainment and I’d love live my dream of making a living as an author and blogger, playing some music on the side.

What am I doing to achieve it? Just continue writing and blogging, building a readership as I go.

Who are they:

Rohan Healy, born in Murwillumbah, Australia in 1986 is an author, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, blogger and professional music producer.

As of 2013 Rohan has written, recorded, performed, produced and released 10 solo albums as well as performing and recording with artists including David Virgin, Dan Rumour, Cat Power, Billy Bragg, Jimmy Willing, Quiffs N Coffins and Christa Hughes (Machine Gun Fellatio).

Rohan has written and published a number of books including “Greeks to Geeks: Practical Stoicism in the 21st Century”  and “The 7 Things That Made Me Genuinely & Irreversibly Happy: And How They Can Do The Same For You”.

Rohan also writes the popular and regularly updated Rohan 7 Things blog.

Rohan currently lives in his ancestral home of Dublin, Ireland where he continues to write and record, as well as enjoying his hobby of photography.

***

Alex Healy is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and author. Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1995, he spent his childhood in sunny, sub-tropical Northern New South Wales where he began playing the drums at the age of six. Since then he has mastered the upright bass, forming his own original psychobilly band “Quiffs ‘N’ Coffins” and playing classic old timey American blues with David Virgin & The Stanley Knife Brothers.

In 2013 Alex wrote and published his first book, Gyaros: The Mice Eat Iron, at the age of seventeen.

***

Where to find their book – or them for that matter:

Buy the Book on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C69RU4M

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rohan-Healy-Author-Musician/198079576926823

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rohanforsale

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6895895.Rohan_Healy

Blog: http://rohan7things.wordpress.com/

Random Friday

Not sure if I’ll be able to post from somebody else’s computer, so I’m scheduling this ahead of time. I was planning on discussing my readings anyway, so here goes. Last week I finished Gisborne, Book of Pawns and almost at the same time got the Writing World newsletter that had two articles on historical fiction – one from Moira Allen and the other by Victoria Grossak. Both discuss about accuracy in historical fiction.

What I had from my own experience is: never read a book (or watch a movie) set in a time period I have thoroughly researched and of which I have a fairly clear idea. My vision is probably different from the view of the author, and it would spoil the fun. So no more fiction set at the end of the 12th century for me!

But if you haven’t studied the Middle Ages and are up for a romantic story with an adventurous trip through 12th century Europe, please do try Gisborne, Book of Pawns. I liked it, but not enough to check the sequel. My problem – I’m not too fond of first person stories and I’ve studied that particular historical time, so I have a different vision of it. And I’m not particularly romantic either, so in spite of the many events, it felt like a slow read for me.

When I started researching that particular time, I thought I should read more fiction set then, but my reading time was (and still is) limited, so I stuck to old ballads (available on Project Guttenberg) and medieval chronicles. I read some 19th century depictions of it (including one that was so historically incorrect I laughed all the way through it – and Sir Walter Scott is a novelist, not an historian, so I’m baffled as why he’s considered an expert of the Middle Ages. He wasn’t. He wrote fiction), but wasn’t too happy with them.

Kindgom of Heaven was so historically incorrect that it turned me off Ridley Scott doing historical movies. So yeah, this goes for movies as well. The only historically correct (because it had a Medievist behind it, Franco Cardini) is The Kinghts Who Made The Quest – but there are no women there. So when I wrote my own historical novel (still in the drawer, for those who’ve been following me from the beginning), I had to make up stuff for my maiden. And she still has less room that the two knights – wasn’t sure what she could do with herself in a male-dominated world!

Now I can go back to writing historical fiction and watch historical movies – as long as they’re not set between 1180 and 1215 (Magna Carta, in case you were wondering). I haven’t studied the other centuries as thoroughly as the end of the 12th, so I can be pleasantly surprised again – and won’t notice if the author takes a poetic license!

Coming back to the 21st century and Steve Job’s Mighty Mac, D2D has made Star Minds available on the i-bookstore in a couple of days. I’ll be adding the links to the US store, so if you’re anywhere else in the world, you’ll have to look them up. I assume that if you buy on i-tunes, you have tamed Mighty Mac (unlike me) and can find your way around it!

Technological Angel i-bookstore US

Mind Link i-bookstore US

Slave Traders i-bookstore US

I’m hearing there are problems with B&N PubIt!/Nook Press, but as I can’t go direct, I’ll let my American friends to worry about that…

I took the train for Torino having finished the first Snippet – Ker-ris’s wedding. And I’m doing some drawings of the other characters – I did a first attempt at drawin Lin-sun, but I wasn’t too happy with it, so I redid her. But I will color them all when I come back, so next week I might send you to my DeviantART gallery for some new art!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Writer Wednesday

So… it’s out! Star Minds book 3 is finally live on all e-book platforms I know of – Kobo being the slowest to let a title go live. Anyway, April will be Star Minds month for me, and in fact I changed my Facebook cover to match. In May I shall put back the one that says “Fantasy Author”. I’ll be hopping around blogs this month, but I’ll let you know where and when as time approaches. I also made a banner for the series, I’ll add it at the end of the post.

And then I’ll be writing those snippets. Can’t let them go, LOL! Not sure if I should write in chronological order or simply what fancies me at the moment. I know that a couple of short stories are very clear in my mind, others are just an idea I need to brew. So maybe I’ll start with the ones I already “know” (because I’ve seen them unfold in my head) and in the meantime think about the others.

As tomorrow I’ll be off to Torino Comics, I have plenty of time to program and brainstorm with myself. I won’t bring any writing and I hope to catch up on some reading on the train rides. Although I really look forward to reading… Star Minds in as few sittings as I can, LOL! Yeah, I write what I want to read, so sometimes I need to go back to my favorite author – me!

Coupons have gone out to people who commented on Sunday. I expected at least 7 comments, as 7 people requested the giveaway, but well… that’s why I don’t do many giveaways in the first place. I even tried the Facebook Offer – but it doesn’t really work for a giveaway, I didn’t know what to put on the “budget” field. Anyone has done it and succeeded? I’m assuming it’s paid advertising on Facebook, and I’m not shelling any $ for that – I’d rather pay my beloved editors instead!

Oh, and blame it on Rohan if I went back to Windows Movie Maker and did another book trailer – it’s just another procrastination technique for a lazy Sunday night! Love these guys so much, I did the Star Minds book trailer – after a whole year of not doing any! All the other are from 2011, I did none last year… well, there you have it, a new book trailer… enjoy!

Last Thursday I arrived home and found my first Amazon check waiting for me. I haven’t cashed it yet, as I want to parade it a little longer – won’t buy my way out of DayJob, but at least I can show everybody that I am earning something and this is not a hobby, but my real work! The hundred bucks or so add up to the similar amount I made on Smashwords last year… took me slightly longer to get them from Amazon!

Speaking of Smashwords, my best seller (by B.G.Hope) wasn’t shipped to Apple since August. It was in the premium catalog, but never went to them (to the other distributors yes). So I wrote to ask them what was up, and after 4 days someone told me it might be because there’s a stupid error at some point. And of course at that point I had to redo the cover because it was too small… Grr.

Not to mention how late SW is in paying whatever sells on the other retailers (not much, but still…), so I am trying a brand new distributor. Draft2Digital is explained here and so far I’ve heard only good things about them. I had noticed Amazon taking away the tags to our books, and I feel Smashwords can’t hold the momentum – except for those great coupon thingies. So I decided to experiment with… well, Star Minds, what else?  D2D doesn’t have a shop, but in less than 24hours I got an e-mail saying all 3 titles are live on B&N (withouth the wait for the premium distribution – yes, even Slave Traders!). We’ll see if the e-pub passes Apple’s test and get there almost as fast, and then I shall slowly upload also the other titles (next week), hoping they’ll show up in the Apple i-bookstore faster and better…

Anyhow, with all these things going on, I didn’t have much time to check blogs, so no links this week. Except to this:

Ben Wolverton, age 16, was in a tragic long-boarding accident on Wednesday the 4th, 2013. He suffers from severe brain trauma, a cracked skull, broken pelvis and tail bone, burnt knees, bruised lungs, broken ear drums, road rash, pneumonia, and is currently in a coma. His family has no insurance. Ben is the son of author David Farland, whose books have won multiple awards, and who is widely known as a mentor to many prominent authors, such as Brandon Sanderson, Stephenie Meyer, and Brandon Mull. Costs for… Ben’s treatment are expected to rise above $1,000,0000. To help raise money for Ben, we are having a book bomb (focused on Nightingale and Million Dollar Outlines) on behalf of Ben.

Go to the Facebook event and join in or donate for Ben’s recovery. He might become as goog a writer as his father, so here’s to his recovery and a healthy long life. And if you’re a beginning writer, you might want to attend a few of David Farland’s classes – although who knows when the next will be. Dave is a great teacher and a great writer, so subscribe to his daily kicks if you haven’t already!

Where to find the books:

Book 1 – Technological Angel out now on Smashwords, Kindle, B&N, Kobo, DriveThruFiction and XinXii.

Book 2 – Mind Link out now on Smashwords, Kindle, B&N, Kobo, DriveThruFiction and XinXii.

Book 3 – Slave Traders out now on Smashwords, Kindle, B&N, Kobo, DriveThruFiction and XinXii.

Happiness is…

Sunday Surprise

So, poll results (13 votes out of 200 followers… neat! Not) say 7 votes for giveaway and 5 for free fiction. Not counting the 13th vote, I’ll give you both. Free fiction is the prologue of Technological Angel, that was taken out of the final draft of the novel. It might be “recycled” or it might be completely changed when I’ll write about Kol-ian’s stay on Earth, but here’s how it started. Short and sweet.

Technological Angel

by Barbara G.Tarn

PROLOGUE

When Kol-ian saw the blue planet, he thought he was safe. His computer readings told him it was a Humanoid planet where he could easily disappear, as it wasn’t part of the Galactic Empire yet.

The impact with the planet’s atmosphere was harder than expected, but Kol-ian ignored the warning signals. Maybe the part of him that had pushed him to run away also wished for death. Crashing on an underdeveloped planet could be a nice ending to his stupid story. And maybe it was the only way for him to be free.

He drove the starship towards the night side of the planet as he glided closer to the surface. At the same time he got the identification request.

“Saurians,” he muttered. “Don’t even think about it!”

He was gliding over a peninsula roughly shaped like a boot when he received the radio ultimatum.

“Go to hell.” Kol-ian got out of his pilot seat, mildly irritated by the interference. He grabbed his backpack.

Outside the sky was clouded with sparkles of rain. Perfect for my mood! Just the warm welcome I expected, Kol-ian thought, getting off the flying starship.

 ***

Lombardia, June 12, 1933: a mysterious flash of light lit up the night on the road between Magenta and Novara. No noise could be heard, but at dawn of June 13, the Blackshirts recovered a flying saucer. First news spoke of “landing”, immediately turned to “crash” to hide the fact that the starship was damaged but whole.

The Fascists hid the flying saucer in the buildings of Siai Marchetti of Vergiate, covering up the fact that remained secret for at least half a century.

 ***

The Blackshirt shivered before entering the room. His superior sat at a desk wrapped in darkness, as if he didn’t want his face to be seen.

“Sso?”

“Nothing, Sir, the flying vehicle is empty,” he answered, saluting and staring into space so he wouldn’t have to focus on the intimidating shadowy figure.

“It’s imposssible!” The hissing sent shivers down his spine. “There was a pilot or a passsenger!”

“We found nobody, Sir.”

The man muttered something, then threw a picture on the desk. “Find this man. He must be around.”

“Yes, Sir.” The Blackshirt grabbed the photo and left the dark office as fast as he could. Why was that man so slimy? His hissing was most unnerving, almost like talking to a snake – if snakes could talk, that is.

He took a closer look at the picture and stared at it, puzzled. The young man on it looked normal enough – dark hair and eyes, pale skin, flawless features – but it was a color photograph with a different resolution of the normally very expensive color prints of the time. And in spite of showing a close-up of the model, the background looked strange and the collar of his shirt very unusual.

German technology? he wondered. Whatever. It was bigger and better than usual, it must be easy to find someone with such a perfect picture.

He called his team and showed everybody the strange color picture, then they split to start searching for the mysterious youth.

 ***

Kol-ian made the first contact as he came down on foot from the top of the Appennini. He was following a track in the forest of chestnuts when his long legs made him catch up with a petite woman who was carrying a wheel-shaped basket full of grass that was almost as big as her.

“Do you need help?” he offered, as his own backpack was much smaller than the weight the woman was carrying on her head. She looked in her thirties and dressed like a local peasant – human peasants, what an interesting notion.

She stared at him, surprised. “No, no, thank you!” she said, quickly.

“Really, I can help carry that,” he insisted. “What is it for?”

“Rabbits food,” she answered. “We have some. And hens.”

He managed to unburden her. She smiled, relieved, and thanked him. “My name is Caterina, yours?”

Kol-ian hesitated and searched for a name that could sound familiar to her. “Pietro,” he said as they emerged from the trees and reached a small village on the side of the mountain. “What is this place called?”

“Fosciandora,” she answered. “Is it your first time in Garfagnana?”

“Yes… but it looks beautiful.” He looked around, quite pleased. The little houses looked old and there was no trace of technology, but the place seemed peaceful, almost out of time. A great change from the galactic frenzy he came from.

He followed her to a stone house where he put down the wheel-shaped basket next to an external wall. He saw the cages with rabbits inside and hens wandered around them. Cows mooed from a part of the building that must be the stable.

“Thank you,” Caterina said. “Would you like a glass of milk?” she offered.

He accepted and entered the house. The windows were small, so it was quite dark inside. Three children sat in the small kitchen and stared goggle-eyed at the guest, too intimidated to speak. He smiled at them, but they didn’t react.

Caterina shooed them off while she offered Kol-ian a glass of foamy milk. She mentioned her butter – the best – and her cheese as well, but he wasn’t hungry, so he accepted only the drink. It tasted strange – very rich compared to the diluted beverages he was used to. He licked off the foamy white mustache over his upper lip with a sigh of satisfaction, putting down the empty glass.

“You’re so tall!” Caterina looked awed even now that he was sitting down. “Where are you from?”

“Roma.” Again, he fished for an answer in her unprotected mind. He hadn’t really studied where he was yet, but it was obviously impossible to avoid all contacts with locals. He needed to rethink his strategies for his stay.

He thanked the woman for the milk and headed out again. He’d stop on the way to the bottom of the valley to check his laptop, so when he’d reach the closest town (Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, from what he could tell), he’d be ready.

That was it! Caterina is a real person and I had to ask my dad how old she would be at the time and if she already had kids and whatnot (my dad himself was barely 1 then). She died in the 20th century (can’t remember if it was the 1980s or 1990s), but I still remember her handmade butter, cheese and fresh milk. Her daughter has sold the cows and was never as good as she used to be…

Now, to the giveaway! I shall celebrate also the 1000likes you gave to posts on this blog (with special thanks to WordPress for keeping count)! Leave a comment to have a chance to win a Smashwords coupon for a free download of one of the Star Minds books – Technological Angel if you’re new to the series, Mind Link if you have already started on it, or Slave Traders, the brand new third book that completes this (short) saga of science fantasy (and even if you’ve beta-read it, you might want to check the modified ending…).

Official announcement of Book 3 will be repeated next week when it will be live on all platforms like the previous books. At the moment it’s only on Smashwords – which allows me to get those coupons for free downloads. Thank you for stopping by!

Random Friday

So, it’s official, even WordPress says so: I won’t repost the poll for the late-comers, if you want, just scroll down and vote. Sunday I will reveal what you’ll get. And because it’s a Surprise, I’m not saying more at this time – I already spoiled half of it! But maybe you were wondering when I’d post something about that poll, so now you know, tune back on Sunday.

By the way, thanks to the old and new visitors, March had as many visits as January (February had slightly less, due to the shorter month). Thank you for stopping by. Or subscribing to this blog. For whatever reason brings you.

If you’re on Goodreads, you might be panicking right now, because of the Amazon/Goodreads deal. I know at least 3 of my GR groups are fretting about the changes this would bring to GR and whatnot. I think it’s early to panic. Like David Gaughran said, Amazon bought Shelfari and IMDB and didn’t really change them. Even Hugh Howey thinks it’s a good thing for both readers and writers.

Personally, I use Goodreads more as a reader (even if I’m a GR Author and Librarian), and sometimes I do reviews on GR and not anywhere else, because GR allows you to edit your review, while Smashwords (for example) doesn’t. So especially if it’s an indie author (again, if I can give him/her at least 3 stars, otherwise I won’t add it to my books) I might review it only on GR, so I can revise my review if the author uploads a new version of his e-book.

As for Amazon, it has 9 different sites that don’t seem to talk to each other, so unless I’m sure the author is American and would love a review on Amazon.com, I won’t bother. I try to review everything I buy on Smashwords because there’s that friendly reminder to leave a review – but again, if I feel I want to be able to change my review, I won’t do it and ignore the prompt.

And for whoever wonders what’s Apple doing while Amazon buys Goodreads… well, it’s teaming with DeviantART. First the musicians, now the artists… Apple is gobbling another kind of creative people. The Zon wants books, Apple gets everything else! We’ll see if that feature really works. At the moment I have uploaded Fleur de Lys 1, but only on DriveThruComics as usual, as I didn’t like the preview on KDP, so I gave up trying to put it on other sites. But I do want to expand my comics distribution, so I’ll keep an eye on DA/Madfire Motion Books (whatever that means).

Some fun with vintage social networking, which incidentally goes very well with Joe Konrath’s post about Obsolete Anonymous! I must admit I still have lots of those vintage social networking and obsolete anonymous (namely, LPs, 45s, CDs and even VHS I can’t watch because the VCR is broken, LOL!)… but then, I’m a known technophobe and luddite for many things! Handwriting anyone? Why do schools still bother to teach children handwriting when they’ll move to keyboards and touch screens as soon as they can?

Oh, and if you’re a lonely artist looking for your soul mate (I’m not, I like being lonely – but then, I’m mostly a writer and a lone wolf, haha), you can now join DeviantHeart… I wish they did a matching site for writers/artists, not soulmates. Although I’m tired to fight with artists who first say they want to work with me and then change their minds. I’m only a half-artist, so how can I understand them? Sigh…

Writer Wednesday

So, how was the (long) weekend? My highlight was Monday, when I got to work on the body switch! And finished struggling with formatting Fleur de Lys – final verdict is: a PDF for all sites, at least the lettering is big enough to be readable. Couldn’t create a decent mobi file neither with Calibre nor with Mobypocket Creator. On my Kindle it looked bad – either too small or one blank page between panels. I also have the word.doc version for Smashwords and I managed to keep it under 5MB. Meh.

So, this week’s writing will include more body switch and hopefully Star Minds 3 as soon as I get it back from Mighty Editor. It’s April, so this month’s writing goal is to jot down those Star Minds Snippets – some “recycled” from flashbacks I’ve taken out of Technological Angel, other totally new. I’m very excited to go back to the Milky Way and it’s varied Star Nations. I’m afraid out planet won’t be featured much (except in Kol-ian’s story), but I don’t think anyone will miss a short story that tells what happens to Mark – the Londonner who meets Maela in 1982, not the shortened version of Gaurishankar’s brother’s name (Markandeya). But if any of my 3 readers wants it, just ask – it won’t be a priority, though!

I want to tell Ker-ris’s wedding, and M’aera S’iva’s story and Gaurishankar and Noelia, and Mya Lylestar joining the galaxy police. And Maela’s story before Dadina’s birth. And then Kol-ian’s stay on Earth, of course! Star Minds 3 should be out next week, so you can prepare for these new stories that will come out later in the year. They’re prequels to the series and if they’re short enough, I might post the first draft on this blog.

Now, to other writerly stuff. If you really really really think you need an agent in 2013, check Dean Wesley Smith’s post first – he does it every six months, and this time he tells you if and when you need one. And if you find yourself in Hugh Howey‘s position, make sure to ask him his agent’s name – and don’t forget the IP attorney!

I wish I could do like Joe Konrath – except I don’t have his numbers. And in spite of the date (March 31) I think this is Joe’s April’s Fool. Still, words of wisdom hidden there. If you’re smart enough to read between the lines! Or maybe we should all flood the Big 6′s mailboxes with our queries… especially Simon&Schuster! Check Kris Rusch’s post on the logic behind self publishing for more on the S&S vs. B&N war…

David Farland on writing for fun and profit. And Matt Haig’s 30 things that every writer should know – from a UK perspective. That’s all folks! Have a great week!