Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 163
November 11, 2012
Sunday Guest – Michelle Davidson Argyle and her latest release
I read Cinders when it was self-published (I have the signed dead tree copy, yay!), I interviewed the author on this very blog at that time (can’t believe it was 2 years ago! Where did time go?) and now I’m proud to have read her latest release, Bonded. It has three novellas, the aforementioned Cinders (which was as much a pleasure to read as it was the first time), Thirds and Scales.
SHORT DESCRIPTION OF BONDED
What happened after Cinderella married her prince? How did the evil sorceress in Sleeping Beauty turn evil in the first place? Discover these stories and a world filled with magic, forbidden love, elves, sprites, dragons, and the most powerful creatures of all—the fairies —in Bonded, a collection of three fairy tale inspired novellas. Based on three fairy tales, Bonded contains a fairy tale continuation (Cinderella), a fairy tale retelling (One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes), and a fairy tale prequel (Sleeping Beauty).
My review: It’s been two years since I read Cinders, so it was like reading it for the first time. I still enjoy this dark version of the happily ever after, and what happens after the fairy tale ends. I’m not familiar with the original fairy tale on which Thirds is based, so I can’t compare, but I liked this version, although there was a little too much whimpering at the end. I think Scales was my favorite because it’s based mostly in the faery realm – and then it has a dragon. I found it very touching as well, exploring all the aspects of love (for family or other). I recommend this book to all fairy tales lovers, as long as you’re not enamored with the Disney versions (which are not the best versions, IMHO – personally, I hate all those talking animals)!
Now, Michelle was kind enough to stop by for a guest post at the end of her blog tour. Ladies and gents, please welcome the “fairy tale lady!”, Michelle Davidson Argyle!
WHEN YOUR WRITING CAREER THROWS A CURVE BALL
by Michelle Davidson Argyle
I think one of the easiest things for a writer to do is let the publishing world overwhelm them. Whether or not a writer is published, selling your work for money is a daunting concept. Most novelists pour their heart and soul into their books. Attaching a price to that seems insane, at best. But we do it! We want to share our work more than anything, so we work at it until we reach publication status. Then, I think the hardest part begins … dealing with the publishing world. It’s no land of happy cupcakes, that’s for sure. It’s unfair, for the most part, and busy and slow at the same time. It’s filled with easy traps like comparing yourself and your books to other authors and books. And it’s a whole heck of a lot more work than I think most writers anticipate.
So what happens if you find yourself where you thought you always wanted to be, but unhappy because everything is just too much to handle? Do you just snap your fingers and change your way of thinking? Realize how good you have it and just move on? Some people can do that, but when I found myself in this situation (and sometimes I still do), I’ve had to make some major life changes (usually small, but major in that they do require time and energy) in order to cope and keep writing and publishing. Here are a few things I try to do periodically:
1. Write down what I’m grateful for. This is best done on a 21-day cycle. For 21 days, I write down three things I am grateful every single day. It gets to be challenging after awhile, but it sure opens my eyes! I think I will do this at least once a year.
2. Tell my publisher, my friends, my family, EVERYONE, that I need a break. You’d be surprised how many people will be understanding and step back to let you breathe.
3. Write down everything horribly wrong in my life in one big, long ranting journal entry, and then replace all that negative emotion by doing something I love with people I love. Usually, whatever I choose to do to replace the negative emotions has nothing to do with writing at all.
4. Take time to organize my thoughts and get to the root of why I’m feeling overwhelmed. I can do this by talking to a trusted friend, or making lists. If I can pull up that root of negativity and deal with it by itself, instead of clouding it with a million other things, I have a good chance of healing whatever wounds have inflicted me.
Putting yourself out there is scary. I’ve noticed it doesn’t get any easier. Things tend to shift. What was a problem for me a year ago isn’t a problem anymore, but other issues have cropped up. I think it’s important to assess where we’re at in our lives and make proper adjustments before things get too out of control. Don’t let curveballs catch you off guard!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michelle lives and writes in Utah, surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. She loves the seasons, but late summer and early fall are her favorites. She adores chocolate, sushi, and lots of ethnic food, and loves to read and write books in whatever time she can grab between her sword–‐wielding husband and energetic daughter. She believes a simple life is the best life. You can find Michelle on her blog, http://theinnocentflower.blogspot.com .
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Bonded is available now! You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online book retailers, both as an e-book and in print. Find it for a discounted price on the publisher’s website.
Thank you, Michelle, for stopping by my blog and best wishes for your latest release!
November 9, 2012
Random Friday
Okay, busy writing, so no movies watched. But I’ve read a couple of books. One will be reviewed in the next post, so stay tuned. I’ll simply point you to the release announcement here – just know it’s a 5 stars. Come back on Sunday for more! 
The other book I’ve read is A Thousand Glass Flowers. It’s been 2 years since my trip to Eirie. The first two books were dead-tree books. For this I had the Kindle version – and hated the messed formatting. I couldn’t tell if there was a change of scene or simply a paragraph break. Hopefully the dead-tree book is better. The story! Yes, I liked it. I sort of missed this world. Probably because I remember a wonderful masked ball on the author’s blog… Anyway, got more Faerans and some new magical beings. Two damaged characters falling in love. And of course the great evil to battle. The similarities and differences with our world are still striking. I might go back to Eirie when the next book comes out… if my TBR pile goes down a little in the meantime! 
If you’d rather have a quick read instead, check the collection of shorts by Alice Charles as well. That’s contemporary romance, so if fantasy is not your thing, get that instead. Quick and sweet reads for romantic moods… Hoping to see longer works from this author soon! Now if I could take take down those numbers… I have 40 books on my Smashwords library (a.k.a. the wishlist) and 20+ to read already on my Kindle, sigh!
Anyway, just wanted to point you all to a deviantART initiative – the Holiday Card Project. You don’t need to be a member of deviantART to participate. I’m going to send them a selection of my Happiness is… Zazzle cards, hoping they can use at least 2. I guess I should put this as a widget in the sidebar as well, but it looks kinda crowded by now… Maybe after I’ve mailed the cards, LOL!
I’ll probably do a side-bar cleaning in January anyway – and change theme in December when it starts snowing on WordPress blogs, picking one with a darker background. Then January back to Comet and clean sidebar – or maybe 2 sidebars, one for the writer and one for the blogger? Will have to ponder… decisions, decisions! 
OK, last thing – pseudo-art-Friday: got my calendars from Lulu:
Note to self: yesterday I noticed the missing “h”… but then, I’m not the only one as my dashboard tells me other people google “Hritik”, as well as seeing both spellings on Indiaforums.com… I can tell why I always misplace H in all languages except my mother tongue – in Italian it’s a silent letter, and is rarely used, except between C and E or I (to give the sound K) and G and E or I (again to change the sound of the consonant). Most words starting with H are foreign words. Anyway, I won’t correct this year’s calendar (and I’ll correct the deviantART gallery whenever I do a new drawing), next year I’ll spell it “Hrithik”, OK?
I think next year I’ll go back doing them with Word like I did for the past 10 years… see? (missing 2012 calendar still on the wall – and you can see the box of Zazzle cards from which I took the ones to send to deviantART)! 
Anyway… should I post the new ones for sale in my Lulu shop? Have a great weekend!
November 7, 2012
Writer Wednesday
The POD issue or something! I know I mentioned I planned on trying CreateSpace, but the time is flying by so fast, that I postponed to next year. I’m already struggling with Kobo, I don’t want to learn another formatting for a POD – althought they’re probably very similar.
So this year’s novels with come out with Lulu – much like last year. I spent the weekend formatting, and trying to make them more professional than the BoI. I mean the chapter or story starts always on the odd(right) page, even if I have to leave blank pages every now and then.
Having redone also the two volumes of TSK, I put illustrations in the 3 or 4 blank pages between stories. I have also reformatted Soul Stealers for Digest size, so all three titles are currently unavailable for print until I get the new proofs and check them. I modified the covers to fit the Digest format, which is also cheaper on Lulu, as I can choose a cheaper paper.
As for the novels (all CVE novels and novellas), I put a small version of the cover under the title – I’m printing them bundled by two. I probably already mentioned it, but CVE1 will be printed with Allan de Sayek, CVE2 with Records of the Varian Empire and CVE3 with The Warrior Woman.
Still pondering if doing the bundled e-books as well. Or maybe Omnibus e-books of the BoI and the CVE, including all titles of each “series”. E-books don’t have page numbers and it might make for “beefier” e-book titles!
I also tried the DriveThru print program, as I’m not totally happy with the S.K.Y.B.A.N.D. printed versions I have on Lulu. Lulu handles A5, the format I draw on. I can’t use the “comic book” template, because that’s not the format I use. That’s why I chose Lulu instead of CreateSpace back in 2009 – for my comics and graphic novels. By the way, A5 fits perfectly on tablet/e-readers screens, so I don’t have to add the columns as explained in this excellent book on formatting for Nook and Kindle!
But this is the POD post, so back to the topic! Of Omnibus 1 I had done both the color and the b&w versions, but the color version is very expensive. DriveThru/Lightning Source offers a “standard color” version that is as cheap as the b&w, so I ordered them – paying with my royalties.
I struggled with the first upload as I hadn’t understood how the cover template worked, but once I got it right, it was almost as easy as Lulu (nobody beats the Lulu Cover Wizard, LOL). It will also help when I’ll have to use a “spine calculator” somewhere else (CreateSpace? This one was from Lighning Source). I had to add 3 pages as well, compared to the Lulu version, as they want the last page to be blank – so I filled the spots with illustrations of the characters. It was quite slow as it took 10 days (and an e-mail asking DriveThru what was going on) to have the two books printed and sent to me. I received them last week, and here’s the comparison.
Covers: looking pretty much the same. The Lulu version has the yellow band to differentiate the color and the b&w edition. But the outside is very much alike.
Inside: tried to take a pic, ended up scanning the books, sorry they came out like this. DriveThru copy is in the center: same paper as Lulu b&w, but in color. The color are duller, but I like it better – they’re more comic-book-like! I actually thought that the color were too bright in the previous version… so from now on, I’ll print S.K.Y.B.A.N.D. with DriveThru – and they’re the only ones who have the PDF of the single issues as well. That’s because I couldn’t figure out how to get into ComiXology yet, LOL!
Anyway, here are the brand new printed books – also with the PDF available for 2 extra $:
As I have to order proofs from Lulu, the print versions announced above will probably go live in December. Hopefully sometimes this week I’ll have Records of the Varian Empire out in e-book format on Smashwords, Amazon and Kobo. Oh, and Smashwords finally tipped me on how to find my books on the i-Bookstore, so now I have the neat little widget (to Apple US, so if you’re in another country, ignore it…) on my sidebar and FindMyStuff page!
Here’s how to do it (from Smashwords page):
September 27, 2012 – Apple iBookstore marketing resources. Apple has an affiliate program that allows you to point your fans to your book at Apple and receive a 5% commission on all purchases within 72 hours. Click here to learn about the Apple Affiliate program. Apple has created a cool “Linkmaker” that makes it easy to find the hyperlink to your book at Apple. Visit LinkMaker here: http://itunes.apple.com/linkmaker/ Once you’ve got your affiliate code and your hyperlink, add the Apple logo to your website or blog. Click here for instructions on how to access Apple badges. Finally, how about a widget for your website or blog featuring a few of your titles? Click here for WidgetBuilder: http://widgets.itunes.apple.com/builder I tried it myself for my three free ebooks over at my image repository blog and found it works quite well for listing one to three books. View it here: Free Ebook Publishing Guides at Apple.
November 4, 2012
Writer Wisdom Sunday
Every Sunday until November and unless I have a guest, I will share words of wisdom from writers on writing. Enjoy!
When I was first starting out, I used to produce stories all the time. They would just appear, one right after the other. Now that I’ve gone to school and learned the craft, these things take much more time because every decision is a much more conscious decision
- Robin Black
Newsflash: no writer is superior to any other writer. Some may have more talent. Some have had more luck. But if you toil away at your computer, day after day, month after month, and finally reach that magic “the end”, you’re a writer
- Joe Konrath
Robert Heilein’s business rules:
1) you must write
2) you must finish what you write
3)you must not rewrite unless to editorial demand
4) you must mail your work to someone who can buy it
5) you must keep the work in the mail until someone buys it
If you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer.
- Ray Bradbury
That’s another reason why I have a certain scepticism about things like writing classes, MAs in Creative writing and writing groups; there’s a lot of effort focussed on homonegising the process, of reducing it to a formula that can be reproduced. Success in writing(by which I mean both the process of writing and of publishing success etc) is akin to the various versions of Chaos Theory; there are too many variables to be able to learn it like a paint by numbers flow chart kind of thing. Best to let the wind take you where it will; you may not learn how to fly but you will learn how to land!
- Vivienne Tuffnell (author/blogger)
November 2, 2012
Random Friday
Okay, today I’ll have a mix of movies and graphic novel – all related to Bollywood, LOL. So, SKYBAND has a virtual cast, and I’m introducing secondary characters taken from Bollywood. was in chapter 2, Hritik is in chapter 12 – my own version, that is. If you can recognize them or not, is another matter altogether! Anyway, I’m posting two pages – one from chapter 2, the other from chapter 12, sorry it’s still unlettered, but Desktop keeps crashing. I guess I’ll have to leave it with Techie Bro for a couple of months before I start chapter 13. Sigh.
The Governor of Gladius and Killius
Agharek’s ambassador and Nadira
Recognizable? Not really, I know. By the way, the second character knows both Killius and Nadira (he is related to Gladius Governor, who is the king’s brother, while the ambassador to the former Black Empire is probably his cousin… small world, I know!). Our heroes had to run away from Gladius and the kingdom of Agharek in chapter 2. But they’re going back soon – as long as they stay away from Gladius, LOL!
Anyway, because there was a national holiday and a weekend, I managed to watch some of my DVDs (2 more movies to go, yay!). KHKN (I’ll go with acronyms when I don’t want to get lost in Hindi spelling, LOL) has nice songs. And yeah, decent story as well. Rom-com, if that’s your thing. And a much younger SRK, haha! By the way, Happy Birthday, Shah Rukh! Still, it’s 20th century Bollywood – and I prefer 21st century Bollywood, hehe!
But they apparently miss their 20th century industry, as shown in Om Shanti Om and Dirty Picture! I already mentioned the latter, so, about the first: starts in the 1970s and ends supposedly 30 years later in 2007 – but the poster of the
Anyway, great songs here too, and a love-story with ghosts and reincarnation. Lots of people playing themselves (I love how Abishek loses the Filmfare Award to Om/SRK! ) and fun to watch. 21st century Bollywood in spite of the revival, LOL! I only hated Arjun’s fake aging, but that’s something I hate in all movies – sorry make-up artists, you’re not good at making a 30something look 60, neither in Hollywood or Bollywood or Cinecittà or wherever!
Then I watched Zanjeer – very ruined film so I’m not sure if some blurry effects were because it’s 30-year-old or because they were like this even back in 1973. Anyway, now I know who Abishek took from. Big B’s Vijay Khanna looks a lot like Dhoom’s Jay Dixit – without the stubble. So please, younger Bollywood, cut that stubble (I know, it’s all Hritik’s fault! From now on I’ll draw him clean-shaven even if he has facial hair on the original pic, ha!)!
I have Sholay and Swades left, plus one that I had sent to London by mistake, so I’ll recover it around the 20th of this month. But the DVD wishlist is very long again, so especially if I find a specialized shop in London, I might keep myself busy until Christmas! I’ll try to make a post of suggestions before the Holidays like I did last year – with this year’s discoveries. Sorry I’m kinda late, but they don’t come out in theaters in Italy, so I’m stuck with DVDs. Which is fine, as they’re available worldwide, LOL!
Have a great weekend!
October 31, 2012
Writer Wednesday
Because there are so many new subscribers to this blog this year (thanks, y’all!), I thought I’d re-post the link to Happiness is… in print. It’s a collection of the first year of Happiness is… vignettes, “subtitled” in Italian and French – so if you want to learn two more languages, you can do it having fun. And making me happy, LOL!
I’m currently re-posting those vignettes, and yes, you can always see them for free on this blog, but if you’d like to give a present to someone or learn another language having fun, well, you can always buy the print version for your bookshelves. I know it looks outrageously expensive, but that’s unfortunately the cost of printing. And as I’ve sold a grand total of one copy so far (yay!), I haven’t done year 2, nor a book that includes all 130+ Happiness done so far. If you think I should do it, leave a comment and for Christmas I’ll make sure there is an updated booklet to buy!
I’m still struggling with Kobo. No matter how many times I select “no DRM”, some titles keep having Adobe DRM on them. If it continues like this, I’ll go through Smashwords again – at least for the titles with ISBN – at least they’ll be DRM free! Tried one last time to update all titles with no DRM, changing the publishing date to later (I had uploaded them with the original publishing dates, but the support said they noticed some titles were “published” before Writing Life went live, so I made sure all publishing dates were after that day. Maybe they want me to put a date of when I opened the account? Why do they allow to put an older date if it doesn’t work, mmm? Ah, well… joys of technology, I guess).
I’m adding the links here again, so I can check one last time when this goes live if the DRM is off on all titles.
all on Kobo. Soon I’ll have a new title to upload, we’ll see if it will be as hard as it has been for the “backlist”, sigh!
Spent the weekend between writing the B.G. Hope’s title, final pass on Records of the Varian Empire (now with the Editor and New Beta) and drawing SKYBAND. And yes, I got to draw the infamous page – I’m still wondering if I should censor that part with a balloon or do two versions, page 15 censored and page 15 uncensored! Monday Desktop was on strike (it sometimes crashes with no reason, sigh), but I managed to color a page. Yesterday I was kinda late, so again I did only a couple of pages… alternating with B.G. Hope’s title – that used to be a screenplay, by the way, so I’m having fun adding stuff that couldn’t go in the screenplay.
And because winter is suddenly here, my dear car Julia a.k.a. JJ needed repairs, the fridge was empty and all of the above, I didn’t have time to check any blog… so I don’t have any links to share, sorry. OK, I got this Kickstarter link for Roger Zelazny, so if you’d like to help him, there are only a few days left… I wish you all a wonderful week!
October 28, 2012
Writer Wisdom Sunday
Every Sunday until November and unless I have a guest, I will share words of wisdom from writers on writing. Enjoy!
Some books are like fireworks. They blaze quickly, splendidly, and everyone cries “oooh!” and “aaaah!” But then they vanish, forgotten — at least until the next flurry of fireworks from the next bestseller.
Other books are like a warm fire. They aren’t dramatic; they don’t make one jump and shout. But they are the sort of books one can come back to again and again, and enjoy 10, 20, 30, or 50 years after you first read them. They are the sort of books that a reader can enjoy for the FIRST time, decades after they were first written.
(…)
Books that endure are, I suspect, most often books of the heart. They are the books that the author WANTED to write — without caring whether they became bestsellers or not.
- Moira Allen
“If you’re writing a spec and you’re not having fun, something’s wrong. I used to have lots of fun. Now, I’m always thinking, will it sell, will it sell?” — Shane Black
I found this quote online and it got me thinking. There was no date attributed, but I can’t imagine it’s recent. Does Shane Black still play the spec game? Does he still really give a crudbucket if his spec sells? Well, maybe he does.
After all, when you’ve racked up historic sales like he has, there’s probably a certain amount of pressure to keep it going. Me? Eh. I couldn’t give a rodent’s derriere.
What I mean is, I’m a bit more realistic nowadays. When you’re in your 40s, and you’ve been at this a while, you start to gain what some people might call “a cynical freaking attitude,” but I call it “perspective.”
– Jim Cirile of Coverage Ink
If you want an agent to read the middle chapters of the book because “that’s where things get exciting,” you should probably consider editing the entire book to make it all exciting.
- Agent Jessica Faust of BookEnds
Every writer is different. Every writer’s method is different.
There is no correct, mandated way to write a book. Juts your way.
The myth of writing slow to write better actually hurts writers.
- Dean Wesley Smith
Every author knows the secret to writing books. It’s not closely guarded, probably because it is so dang hard to do sometimes—okay, often. Ready? Here it is: Sit down and work until you have some word count, aka Butt in the Chair. The craft and story will come over time, but not if you don’t do the first step. Sit and stay and write.
- Erin Kellison
