Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 168

Random Friday

Reading: here’s a list of the Kindle reads of these two weeks. My review is available if you follow the link (Goodreads).

The Djinn’s dilemma (discovered through Six Sentence Sunday last year).

The taking of Dove (same as above).

Destined (discovered on Goodreads because I loved the cover).

It’s always spring break somewhere in the galaxy (because Dear Beta Kelly suggested it – still, I DO NOT want recommendations, she managed to slip this through months ago!! ).

I finally watched the DVD “Scenes from the small press: Colleen Doran” that came in with the goodies I bought from Colleen Doran last year (so it’s not only with books that I have a TBR pile, I also have a ToWatch pile of DVDs, mostly old TV series because they’re not as fast as movies to watch, LOL) and I think it’s a MustWatch for all artists (writers, artists, anyone who wants to be creative) because it’s really a cautionary tale.

I think I already mentioned how much I admire Colleen – and now I admire her even more. Her posts on very bad publishers were eye-opening, and hearing of her struggles as teenage artist was… wow.  Being women in this male-oriented world (and I’m not talking only comics, although I do have my own stories about the Italian Comicbookdom…) sometimes really sucks. I sure hope to meet her one day, like I met Terry Moore. Might not be San Diego Comicon (too huge), but a smaller con… *fingers crossed!*

Wednesday I did a drawing, but I’m not very happy with it, so I will not post it – I had a headache from the heat. I spent the day also editing the latest B.G.Hope title, that I hope to upload today or during the weekend. Stay tuned. And I’ve added more portraits (of Da Muse, LOL) on my DeviantART gallery, so feel free to have another look!

Short rant – I hate Facebook Timeline, and the fact they shoved it down my throat, first on my author page and now (active from Aug.23) on my personal page. Which made me delete a few more things and the Goodreads app from my personal profile. No, Mr Zuckeberg, I will NOT give you more info about myself. Sorry. I’m not that addicted to Facebook, and if you keep changing it, I’ll just make my personal profile private and keep using only the author page.

Have a great weekend!

Writer Wednesday

My story this week is as follow: I discovered Destined on Goodreads because I so loved the cover. Now, a review of the book will be done on Friday, but I had to find out more about the cover artist.

Enter DeviantArt – a site I have checked many times and never joined because I thought it was only for artists. And my failing eyes who didn’t notice on the artist’s page she had given her e-mail in plain English (her website is in Chinese…). So I thought to contact her I could send her a note, but I had to open an account…

There you have it, now I have a DeviantArt account! I started uploading drawings and book covers (so from now on, everything art-related will go there, unless I need help to choose a book cover) and found out you can also upload text! Short story or sample chapters, but if you’re looking for a place to showcase your talent with a loss-leader, DeviantArt works also for writers. So you can scout for your next cover artist and publicize your own work!

Here’s my experiment – Starblazer on DeviantArt! It’s also free on this blog and on Smashwords. So I discovered another “social network” although I haven’t joined any group yet. By the way, Goodreads has reached Ten Million users – since 2007! You gotta love these guys! Although I don’t like very big groups – I get lost in the interaction – I like making friends on Goodreads. But please NO RECOMMENDATIONS, my TBR pile and wishlist are long enough already!

I’ve been handwriting this week(end), so no new drawings. Today is a holiday in Italy, so I’m home, reading and writing and trying not to spend too much time watching movies for the umpteenth time! I might have a couple of reviews for Friday. And I still have to catch up on blogs – why am I always behind? Well, because I’m reading more fiction, LOL!

Right, back to writing now. Have a great week!

Happiness is…

Writer Wisdom Sunday

Every Sunday until December and unless I have a guest, I will share words of wisdom from writers on writing. Enjoy!

Writing is not a genteel profession; it’s quite nasty and tough and kind of dirty.

~ Rosemary Mahoney

 

“No matter how successful you become, you have to live with yourself, the story you created, and the fact that it follows you the rest of your life”. ~ Jeff Emmerson

 

“Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer.”

- Ray Bradbury

 

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.”

- Jane Yolen

 

It takes a huge amount of courage for a new writer to put their work out into the real world. It takes one hundred times more courage to put out first drafts that you are convinced can be “fixed” and “polished.” But for seven years my fixing and polishing had gotten few stories written and finished and no sales. Mailing first drafts got me a career. “Daring to be Bad” got me a career, such as it is. “Daring to be Bad” has paid the bills for over two decades.

- Dean Wesley Smith

 

Random Friday

My good friend Shafali the Caricaturist made a case for lefties and as I have one in the family and today is his Onomastico (Saint Day?), I’ll wish my dear brother Lorenzo a Buon Onomastico! He’s the Paris-born misunderstood genius of the family – like most lefties, that is. They’re usually underestimated by their contemporaries (see Leonardo Da Vinci), so don’t worry, Shafali, I’ll always be rooting for you guys! Hey, even my hairdresser is a lefty, and I’m seeing her today, so I better be good to you guys, or she’ll ruin my looks, LOL!

As for my brother, he even had a double nationality at birth, just because he was born in France. The French didn’t care he had Italian parents, it made good numbers on their birth rate, LOL! I guess the French part was dropped almost immediately and when he went back to France nobody guessed on his birth certificate there was a ”Franco-Italian” nationality…

Anyway, that was almost 41 years ago! As the Lefty’s day is on Monday, where I already have a Happiness is, I’ll wish all the lefties of the world a happy World Left-Hander Day today – including to my evergreen Muse. And look, I even managed to find a picture I hadn’t already drawn!

But then I ran out again (I have 270+ files in my Keanu-drawings folder… that’s 11 years of drawings! ), so I procrastinated with more drawings of his “rival”… It’s not that I need to draw a new face, it’s that I can’t find new pictures of Da Muse to draw! While the other folder is brand new… and next drawing is of another face anyway – I might end up with a Bollymales calendar next year, LOL!

Hritik – black pencils on yellow sheet

Well if I keep going at this rate, I can have a Hritik Calendar and a Keanu Calendar… we’ll see! I have only 8 programmed, but then I can reach 13 drawings – includes the calendar’s cover – by the end of the year… No drawings this weekend, though, I got a story to write, tsk! Not much time left before I leave, so… stop procrastinating, Barb!

Ahem… I actually finished that story, so I’m free to procrastinate and draw some more – although my dear reader of SKYBAND would probably prefer me to start working on the next chapter… where I’m also using one of these new faces, so I might consider it, LOL! Next pencil drawing on the list is Arjun Rampal, though. And now that I think about it, chapter 12 of SKYBAND is very interesting to draw – especially the cover, so I might do that as well!

See, I’m might not be a lefty, but I’m not normal either (like I mentioned in the comments to Shafali’s post). I stopped trying to be normal in my thirties, when I realized it was futile and hurt me more than anything else. So there you have me, the outsider who watches you with mild curiosity and some puzzlement and doesn’t care if she’s outcast – I’ve found my place outside of normality!

What is normal anyway? Being like everybody else? Sorry, I’m too creative to fit in a mold. And I’m everchanging, like a chameleon. Hence the pseudonyms, the different creative endeavors, etc. And to preserve the uniqueness, I’d rather not join the breeding factory! VHEMT, remember?

Have a great weekend, and if you’re a lefty, a World Left-hander Day on Monday 13!

Writer Wednesday

OK, I’m going to start with links and then update you on my writing progress (hint: slow – too sleepy and sweaty to produce with winter rhythm).

A discussion on film-making that sounds a lot like the discussion on publishing – print vs. pixel. Sounds familiar, right? Because publishing is following the music AND film industry, LOL! I wish they were ahead, but no, they’re just following… maybe I should go back to writing screenplays, LOL!

Kris Rusch on the deal breakers series – please check the comments as well, as there’s a bunch more infos. And then there’s Joe Konrath on Harlequin’s mistakes part 2. And Smashwords on the future of e-book publishing at RWA 2012. Indie romance authors are going on the New York Times bestseller’s list – but this won’t push me to write more mushy romance! Hey, I gotta write what I wanna read, right? Or I’ll just quit writing because I’m bored!

And don’t forget to check Dean Wesley Smith’s post on killing your sales one shot at the time. I know I still write my name too small on covers, but it’s because on the graphic novels, the author’s name isn’t too big (usually because there’s more than one, LOL) and I want the covers to look all the same – the Silvery Earth ones, at least. I write my name bigger on other titles or for other pseudonyms… that’s probably why B.G.Hope is selling “more” than Barbara G.Tarn? (shorter name too, easier to fit on a cover, LOL).

Now, I’m falling behind with the next story, so I better get back to work. I tried to work on the laptop, but in the middle of a chapter it switched from Italian keyboard to American keyboard and suddenly I couldn’t find the symbols for punctuation anymore – I have no idea what I touched, and I hope it will get back to normal, or I’ll have to attach my external wireless keyboard to it to keep working, sigh. I don’t know why it does this, but one day I was trying to post on Facebook and couldn’t find the

I got my Chicon7 “itinerary” and I’m on 3 panels, so if you’re attending the worldcon, check your program for Barbara G.Tarn. I’m not a moderator anywhere and hope not to make a fool of myself! See, I’m even in the list of participants! So if you happen to be there, stop by and say hello, don’t be a stranger, OK?

Looking forward to head back to New York and Chicago (two of my favorite cities, the third being San Francisco)… but still two weeks and a half to go! So, back to writing… and I better stop drawing and watching DVDs as an excuse to procrastinate, LOL! Have a great week!

Happiness is…

… and “my” version of it

Writer Wisdom Sunday

Every Sunday until December and unless I have a guest, I will share words of wisdom from writers on writing. Enjoy!

 

For children, if I want to send a decrepit starship full of witches to a quasi-monastery in another adjacent universe, no one turns a hair. But adults are handicapped by terminal assumptions about what goes with which genre. If they think I am writing fantasy, then my belligerent witches must go on a Quest armed only with swords and spells and either on foot or horseback; and if what I am doing is to be science fiction, no one aboard my starship is allowed magic, but only scientific principles not altogether yet proven, such as an ability to travel faster than light.

- Diana Wynne Jones

 

With so many people writing books these days, it may seem we’re competing against each other. I’ve learned that we are not. It’s nothing of the sort. I’ve also learned how important it is to support each other and pay it forward when you can. Karma does exist in this writing world!

- Michelle Davidson Argyle (author and blogger)

 

I’ve always been very entrepreneurially-minded (if that’s even a word.) I was raised by entrepreneurs and never flourished working for other people. I like to be in charge of what I’m doing. Not only is it nice to work the hours I want to work, in the location I want to work, but when it comes to writing, it’s MY stuff. I want creative control. If I’m going to work for months to create something, I’m not having someone’s marketing department swoop in and ask me to make changes they think (without demographics studies), will ‘sell better’. I’m also not willing to let them give me a stupid cover that has nothing to do with the book, a lame, gimmicky title, and then not really market it.

- Zoe Winters

 

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

- Herman Melville

 

Every novel is an original, every story is imbued with an atmosphere, and every genre has a distinctive tone. The worst possible case occurs when a novel has none of these qualities.

- Elizabeth Lyon, Manuscript Makeover

Random Friday

OK, managed to finish the dead-tree book! I got it last year (before buying my Kindle) and it’s signed from the author – the only reason to keep buying paper books, IMHO!

I read her first book back in 2010, interviewed her way back when, and now I made it to her second book – a sequel. It’s historical faction, inspired by the author’s grandmother’s story, a cowgirl in Montana. What can I say… I enjoyed the ride, following Nettie’s moving around the country on my US map (got lost sometimes, LOL) and because I’ve seen Montana in the meantime, it also kind of helped. Nettie follows her dream through the transition – something we’re going through right now, so it’s a very inspiring story about being able to change your dreams if you see they’re impossible. Don’t stop dreaming, just shift to another dream, see? I liked the parallel with today’s changes – back then it was automobiles instead of horses, not it’s smartphones and netbooks taking the place of snail mail and whatnot.

Now back to Kindle-reading before the next dead tree book, LOL! Well, I must re-read one of my manuscripts first, so I might not be able to post a review next week – and need to catch up with blogs as well. If only I didn’t fall asleep with afternoon naps in this heat, sigh. Anyway, after dinner I try to watch DVDs again, and as during the day I listen to Bollywood soundtracks on the way to the office – therefore I’m not distracted by what happens on screen, LOL – I managed to catch a line in a song that made me go “a-ha” (much like when I was learning English through songs back in the 1980s, LOL)!

Rock On – the song – has a line that goes “Rock on/zindagi da milegi dobara“. So what? you say? Well, both movies (yet, that’s two movies) are with I know, I know, it’s not even Bollywood gossip, but I thought it was fun to point it out.

And because they never actually say the line in the movie, but there were subtitles on the song, I know what “zindagi da milegi dobara” means now – if the subtitles are correct, of course. Subtitles said “You only live once” (which is actually an excellent title for the movie, dunno why they call it “The Trip” in English) – Hindi-speaking friends feel free to correct! And of course I rewatched all three movies while I was at it, LOL! Love them all, for different reasons…

Wishing you a happy weekend… back to writing! And reading! Yippee!

Writer Wednesday

OK, new month, summary of the past one! Smashwords sale results: 40+ free downloads, 6 with 50% discount and 8 with 75% discount. Let’s hope people read them and post a review. There was also a sale on DriveThru, and I sold the BoI over there as well. Plus on Amazon I’ve sold 4 copies (full price) of Johnny&Marian – in spite of having it discounted elsewhere. Obviously Kindle owners don’t go outside of Amazon (except myself, LOL).

Great posts (not many as I was too busy revising manuscripts to check all the blogs I normally read): Stephanie Laurens weathering the transition – great speech for the lucky people who could attend the RWA event. That’s one more reason to try to get there next year!

An older essay A Writer Without A Publisher Is Like A Fish Without a Bicycle: Writer’s Liberation and You. Great comparison between marriage and publishing. The Old Maid here appreciated it very much!

Go help kickstart a wonderful project – the Fiction River Anthology! The video is just great, I already miss those workshops on the Oregon coast! Besides, if you’re a writer, you really want these anthologies to come out. Imagine they picked your story for one volume… yeah, I can dream, can’t I? I know they already reached the first goal, but we do want them to get those anthologies out, don’t we?

Last year I had the WoW Saturdays from June to September… This year it’s already August and still nothing. Well, it’s changing now! From August to December I will have Writer Wisdom Sundays – five quotes from writers on writing sharing their wisdom! Unless I have a guest or interview – which is still writers on writing sharing their wisdom, except in a slightly longer form, LOL!

Now to this week’s writerly announcement: CVE3 is OUT on Smashwords and Kindle and DriveThru! And then I’ll upload it also to XinXii. In the meantime, here’s the cover: from chapter  2 of the book, Lost and Oliver!

Now back to writing as B.G.Hope (she’s selling so well, 4 copies in a month, LOL) and reading some more… have a great week!