Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 157

Happiness is…

Surprise Sunday

I had actually written a rant, but I decided to go back to my original idea – the internet has no privacy and it was useless to make it public. So I’ll spare you my grumpiness and offer you a few writers quotes instead. Have a great Sunday!

The value of structural understanding is in story optimisation and problem resolution, not as a creative starting point. Ideally, your ideas will pour out and there will be no problems with the story you have written; in which case who cares what the structure is? Creativity first, always and forever. Structure secondarily, and only as a tool for analysis and repair.

- David Baboulene

I don’t understand it when writers talk about having to be disciplined and asking about how to “find the time” to write, and wanting a method for getting going. I can’t help with advice there because if you need help in these areas you are probably not motivated correctly to ever be a writer. Writers must be desperate to write – driven – hungry – forcing themselves to leave their writing to go and do other things, not the other way around.

- Lee Child

The old method was to just write and submit and when your craft started climbing some of you stories started breaking through the editorial roadblocks and got to readers. That system was pretty clear for most, but wow did it fail writers with very unusual voices or stories that did not fit into certain genres.Those writers never did get through the system for the most part. Like I haven’t got through the system yet at Asimov’s.

- Dean Wesley Smith

This “indy” publishing revolution is not, contrary to the belief of many, abo0ut money. It’s actually about independence. With independence comes responsibility; and it’s this need to accept responsibility that scares a lot of people. And I’m not just talking about writers. It scares publishers, too, because, up to this point, they’ve thrust all the responsibility for whether or not books sell on the authors. If the books don’t sell – despite a lack of publicity or merchandising, crappy covers, unrealistic ebook price points and a nihilistic pricing and returns policy – the fault lies with the author. We all know this is true. As John F.Kennedt said, “Victory has a thousand fathers, defeat is an orphan.” If a book does well, everyone within the publishing company knows it was their brilliance that made it do well.

If it fails, it was the author’s fault . (Or the fault of tasteless readers in the fly-over states who can’t recognize brilliance.)

- Michael Stackpole

You’ve worked your butt off for years to get this right, and now you’re there. You’ve built up instinct, talent, and experience. Those things aren’t anything you can buy or have someone teach you.

- Michelle Davidson Argyle

Random Friday

Written in bits and pieces as soon as I have something to say. Halla Bol: can’t tell if it’s a good movie or not, because the so-called English subtitles were either very bad and ridden with typos or non-existent and un-synchronized to the dialog. So I have not a very clear idea of what they were saying at any time. I guess this movie wasn’t meant to be seen outside of India… Like others I’ve stumbled upon (I already mentioned missing or badly written English subtitles, didn’t I). Alas my Hindi is still non-existent, so maybe one day I’ll watch it again. Maybe.

Same DVD had also Welcome. Slapstick comedy, one of those where people don’t brake and keep going with their car after losing the wheel (an action scene in a supposed rom-com) and other silly visual tricks. Except there were probably lots of funny thinks said, but I could only guess them because – yes, once again, the English subtitles were clunky or non existent. I got the idea of what it’s about more than the prefious one, but I probably missed half the spoken jokes.

I guess Bollywood doesn’t care about actually exporting its movies, or they’d do a better job with English subtitles – they might be good for Hindustani readers, but not for everybody else in the world. Either this or those are “minor” productions not meant to go abroad. I mean, Jodhaa Akbar had perfect subtitles (even signed) and the first movies I saw on British Airways (KANK, Dostana) also had good subtitles…

Oh, gosh, just discovered how Dostana is called in Italian (IMDB gives me the Italian title when available only because I’m in Italy, I hate it, but I don’t know how to get rid of it. And I tried to watch Dostana on the Italian TV one Saturday night, but switched it off after 20 minutes – hated the dubbing): “Appointment (as in “date”, but I kept the word similar to the Italian one) for… 3″ – now, if they really wanted to keep the 3-thingy, is should have been “Apartment for… 3″, because that’s what the movie is about! I hate dubbing and I also hate re-titling of foreign movies in this country. More often than not they make no sense at all. They don’t do this with books that much, luckily…

Anyway. back to subtitles: the award for Worst English Subtitles goes to the first DVD. I thought it was because it was one of those “2 movies on one disk”, but then I tried a “3 movies on 1 disk” and Krrish (which I already own as single movie on DVD) had the same subtitles than my copy! I might steal that one as my copy of Krrish is a little faulty and blocks itself at the beginning – but then, I mentioned that the first half of the movie isn’t as good as the second, so who cares! Looking forward to the sequel… Come on, Hrithik, get done with it!!

Along with it there was Anthony Kaun Hai? which also had decent subtitles and is also a very decent story with Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi (seen in Kabul Express next to John Abraham). Sanjay Dutt is always overpowering and very good as a hitman although not as scary as he was in Agneepath. Songs were so-and-so for my tastes, but it’s a good story, so you should check it.

Also on that DVD was Gangster with Emraan Hashmi (seen in The Dirty Picture). But I’ll watch it during the weekend, as I started writing, therefore I’d rather not stop until I’m done with draft 0, LOL!I also want to rewatch a couple of movies and buy Magic Mike ASAP for inspiration on the body switch, so stay tuned… Have a wonderful weekend!

Writer Wednesday

News from the publishing world! Great Moments in Contemporary Publishing vs. Horrible Histories Author Terry Deary on Libraries. Methink it’s time to drop those useless traditional publishers! And give up on those traditionally published authors as well…

Now we have… Joe Konrath on KDP Select. I still don’t think I want to try it, but maybe one day I will. I’m not in the “1million e-book sales club” yet – not even close. Not even in the 1000-ebook-sales-club, actually, although I might be over 100 sales. Okay, maybe 200. In 2 years.

Oh, and by the way, Smashwords got the reports from Apple. My December sales on the i-bookstores worldwide amount to… hold your breath… Mark Coker said it was a wonderful Holiday Season for Smashwords author on Apple… so can you guess? Yes? No? Warning – it’s a staggering number. Not.

And the sales on the i-bookstores for December for this humble author here are… 2! One on Apple Italia (and it’s one of my colleagues who bought one of my Italian titles) and one on Apple Brazil (waves at unknown Brazilian who can obviously speak English or he/she wouldn’t have bought a Barbara G.Tarn title – which is perfect as I don’t speak Portugues! ) Yep, I’m just like Joe Konrath! And Barnes&Noble still hasn’t reported its Xmas sales to Smashwords, so I have no idea how I did over there. But then, it’s mostly freebies that “sell” at B&N, so I don’t care much.

I’m also wondering if the sale of Johnny&Marian and Six Months was generated because someone followed the links on Sunday, downloaded a sample and a couple of days later decided he/she liked it and bought the books on the Kindle store… I know someone clicked on the links from the WP dashboard, but there was no sale until yesterday… so I’m assuming that’s how it went. But I’ve been wrong before. Not really trying how sales work, just wondering! And, whoever you are, hope you enjoy!

Now, should I revise my e-book process, following Joe Konrath’s advice? True that I hadn’t thought about putting things in the order he mentions, and that 90% of authors don’t either, or I’d know what those books I downloaded on my Kindle months ago are about. But I don’t. Unless it’s an author friend or an ongoing series. Not going to change all the 40+ titles already out there, but I’ll keep it in mind for the new ones!

Also, if you’re looking for someone to do the formatting for you, again you can follow Joe Konrath’s advice on ebook parts. Which reminds me I need to format a title for Barbara Sangiorgio, even if she’s not really selling much, but well… maybe my colleague will buy another title on the Italian i-bookstore so in a couple of months I can see another sale there!

As for writing itself… last week was spent mostly on the translation and the revisions of The Death of Queen Amazonia. And as I had to help Mom with a project and she can’t handle Windows Movie Maker, I found  very good excuses to postpone the writing of the new body switch. I should get started now, so I can have a first draft ready in a couple of weeks – then I’ll need a beta-reader again to put more flesh on the bare bones. I can already imagine it will be another novella. But then, even Johnny&Marian started as a short story, so…

When I’ll have completed the 3 body switches, I’ll do the print version with all of them bundled together. Now I better copy this on B.G.Hope’s page, LOL!

By the way, if your native tongue is not English, Mark Coker is looking for translators… That’s the Feb 17 news. I already mentioned I’d rather not do it, didn’t I? If you scroll down, on Feb.4, item #2 there’s a discount thingy for Nooks, so if you don’t have it and want one (and, I assume, live in the US or UK), go get it! Have a great week!

Happiness is…

Sunday Surprise

… and it’s a guest! Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mighty Editor Tricia Kristufek!

I started writing when I was young, mostly bad poetry. By the time I made it to college, I enjoyed reading so much that I was rarely without a book or two. After completing my English (Creative Writing) degree (with a Biology minor, since I was originally going for Chemistry and still liked the sciences), I new I didn’t want to do what most people expected me to do: teach. After spending some time in retail, I fell into editing.

It started off small. The first to take a chance was C.S. Splitter. Then, Georgina Taylor. I was lucky to find Barb and she let me work on some of her novellas/novels. Most recently, I’ve worked with Bill Talcott, Hannah Kollef, and H. Brian Rawson. And then it spread outwards from there. I was also fortunate enough to start proofreading for Dreamspinner Press, where I’m now a Senior Editor.

There are a lot of very talented people out there that I get to help polish their work and get it into the hands of the masses. I get to see that first draft, to help shape it. For someone that loves to read as much as I do, this is my own paradise.

In addition to my editing/reading, I also have a wonderful daughter that shares my love of books (she asked to read The Hobbit at two!), a loving husband who puts up with my hours spend staring at a screen, and a puppy that reminds me to go outside every once in a while.

If you’re interested in my work, you can check out my website (http://triciakristufek.com) where I list the books I’ve worked on. If you’re looking for an editor, feel free to contact me!

I will add here the works she edited for me, as a form of recommendation. I also read C.S.Splitter’s first two books, so I can tell you she’s good! In order of publication:

Allan de Sayek by Barbara G.Tarn on Smashwords, Amazon & Kobo

Johnny & Marian by B.G. Hope (the Bestseller, remember?) on Smashwords, Amazon & Kobo

Chronicles of the Varian Empire – The Enlightened Emperor by Barbara G.Tarn on Smashwords, Amazon & Kobo + printed version on Lulu

Best of Friends by B.G. Hope (expanded version) on Smashwords, Amazon & Kobo

Six Months by B.G. Hope on Smashwords, Amazon & Kobo

Star Minds #2 – Mind Link by Barbara G.Tarn on Smashwords, Amazon & Kobo

Variations on a Theme by B.G. Hope on Smashwords, Amazon & Kobo

next (will be out in March): The Death of Queen Amazonia by Barbara G.Tarn.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Random Friday

I finally finished Treasure Island and decided I better stop reading children’s classics as a “rediscovery” of the unabridged, untranslated version. It was OK. I couldn’t care less. Took me 3 weeks because I couldn’t bother keep reading. And it wasn’t because of the “oldish English”, but really a question of pacing, I think. Back to reading more modern stuff, hopefully I’ll be faster, LOL!

Movies week (sort of – it was actually 3 nights out of 7)! Jab We Met (suggested by Nafees) is indeed funny and I loved the songs as well. Thanks for the recommendation, I’m recommending it too if you want a rom-com Bollywood style! And because the Don DVD is faulty, I gave up after 5 minutes and ended up watching another – which wasn’t bad at all, LOL!

So Sunday was Jab We Met and Monday was Shikhar and because now it’s Friday, and the hero had always the same face, now I can’t tell which is which anymore, LOL! Just kidding, Shikhar isn’t a rom-com, but something else. So bad guy GG (Ajay Devgn) corrupts naive Jai (Shahid Kapoor) with the help of model girlfriend Natasha (Bipasha Basu) to get Jai’s father’s land where there’s an Ashram. Please note I made this summary on the spot, not based on IMDB – just my fleeting memory. Good drama and good songs again.

A very special thanks to Vijay for lending me the DVDs – I better buy them next time I go to England! Not planning any intercontinental trips this year anymore, as I seem to have health problems. So until I figure that out, I won’t go too far. I’ll save the money for my 2015 world tour – well, half-world tour as I plan on touching Australia and some Asia (India & Japan on the way in and out), hoping I can get a couple of months off and have recovered, of course. But it’s always good to plan.

Last movie is from Hollywood. I got me The 24th day because I found pics of James Marsden tied up (also on the poster, you may notice, LOL). And I like And he’s also gay, apparently – I mean in the movie, of course. It’s a good drama, but I’d have loved some English subtitles – can’t speak Spanish, and they tended to whisper a lot, which made it hard to understand what they were saying. It could be done in theaters, as it’s basically two guys in a room (with flashbacks added for cinematic reasons, but really, if they wanted to do in on a stage, it’s a single location). Good story, though, and no spoilers. I liked it very much – especially the ending!

Hope you had a good Valentine Day. Personally, I never celebrated it, and I don’t care. Hope the love will go on all year, not just one day! It’s like Women’s Day or Children’s Year… come on! Let’s be good to each other… sorry “be excellent to each other” so I can end with a movie quote. Dunno where that’s from? Tut-tut… (and it’s not even one of my faves… but I guess I had to mention him after drooling over much younger men! Don’t worry, Muse, you still rule! )

Have a wonderful weekend!

Writer Wednesday

Hello, there. Hope you’re having a great week. Me – so and so. Translating and percolating the body switch – I know the names, I know who they are, but I’m not sure how things are going to play out yet. Not even sure they switch back or not (after all it’s two male bodies, so as long as their spouses get used to the new looks… ). I hope to start on it at the end of the week, after I finish a short story for the off-line writers group.

This week links – Kris Rusch “What writers need to know“. Lots to learn, whether you want to be traditionally published or go indie. I’m still struggling with the business part, mostly because her very good advice cannot always be applied in Italy. Still thinking I should write that non-fiction book about how I did what I did, and I even found a place where I could publish it as WiP – Leanpub. Readers comments would really help to make it better!

Except at the moment I’d rather write fiction. Especially after the translation (well, it is fiction, but it’s somebody else’s story, LOL), I really need to go back to making up stuff. I don’t believe in the “write what you know” rule much, can you tell? That’s why I’m mostly a genre writer… but sometimes I like to make up stuff even in the real world – and then you have B.G. Hope’s stuff!

David Gaughran about getting your own mailing list – I haven’t set that up yet, because I believe it should come with Unicorn Productions webpage, where you could subscribe to a newsletter telling you of all the releases. Except Unicorn Productions webpage is still not ready, because I still haven’t figured out how I should start a business in the country-of-complications. I should look for a foreign partner and open the business somewhere else, LOL!

Dean Wesley Smith  about some odd stuff – it’s a big bad world with plenty of strange things going around! Also, he has announced a new lecture series, so sign up if you’re interested. I’m not sure I can take any more learning at this time, and I hate watching stuff on YouTube or anywhere online…

David Farland on how to become prolific. Glad he still remembers how he got there. I don’t! And I’m younger. But then, I’m not a teacher, of anything. I don’t think I can teach anyone – and I’ve been asked for lessons, either languages or art. I’m unable to communicate how I do the stuff I do, sorry. I have other talents, but teaching is not my thing.

You can tell I’m tired by the shortness of this post… I can’t even find tags to apply! I’m sure the spammers will find me anyway, though. Back to work now… have a great week!

Happiness is…

Sunday Surprise

… another unscheduled post! I thought I’d post a drawing but… I didn’t do any! Lots of things going on this weekend in Rome – Carnevale, Chinese new year celebrations – and I had a friend visiting from northern Italy, so I went to the center to meet her. Carnevale in Rome is not as famous as it is in Venice or Viareggio  (and since I finished school I’m usually not even aware it’s Carnevale anyway…), but apparently they’ve been organizing stuff for kids for some five years.

Hadn’t been in the center of the town in ages (I’ve become lazy, LOL), so besides watching some of those Carnevale celebrations and kids in fancy dresses all over (starting from the bus to get there) I managed to go the the French BD bookshop. I left over  100euro there as I hadn’t been there in a couple of years or more, and there were plenty of those beautiful-but-expensive albums I couldn’t miss. That’s something I’ll never read on any screen – comics, BD, graphic novels or any other drawn story.

So today instead of drawing I’ll be reading those BDs – my favorite series ever, Thorgal, which I have already mentioned here, and that now has spin off with other artists besides my alltime favorite Rosinski, but they look as good as him, so… I’m hooked (please note I haven’t started reading any of them yet, LOL). I’ve got five books and one art-book with the making of the spin offs.

I also bought some sketchbooks, so I know I won’t touch a pencil for a few days. When I see what these people can do, I just hide in a cave until my good envy is buried again and I can pick up my pencils or technical pens again, LOL. My talent is not in drawing, unfortunately, but I like it, so I keep it as a side job. That’s why I signed up on DeviantART as Hobbyist in the first place! And even if I’ll never be a professional illustrator, and I probably won’t start another graphic novel when I finish SKYBAND (when will I finish it, though? Haven’t started on #13 yet…), I’ll keep doodling anyway, if only to brainstorm the next story with myself!

Yesterday I watched Hollywood, je t’aime (starting to get those things I ordered on Amazon&Lulu at the beginning of January – did I mention “third world country for snail mail” yet? ) which had an interesting mix of French and English (and I noticed with the bookshop keeper, who is French, that I’m forgetting my French – I understand it, but the words don’t come naturally to me anymore. But then, I’m having trouble with Italian as well, lately, LOL!) and I couldn’t disagree more about the premise: who in their right mind would prefer Los Angeles to Paris? But then, it’s just a matter of taste, I guess. I’d go to Paris anytime, and think L.A. is the ugliest town in the US, but then… I’m not a dumped gay man either, LOL! Also, I’d have appreciated subtitles for the English parts as well – didn’t need them for the French, but when the Frenchie spoke English it was really hard to understand what he was saying… Languages languages!

Then I’ll try to finish the translation, help Mom to do something with Windows Movie Maker (and experiment, if she likes it, she might use it for a panel she’s doing) and the Sunday will be quickly over. Have a wonderful Sunday wherever you are in this Babel of a world!

P.S. Thanks to WordPress for adding this quote when I hit “publish”:

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. Elmore Leonard

I couldn’t agree more – in fact I have a very dry prose for that reason!