Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 179

Happiness is…

in case you have never heard of the Popcorn Kittens, here's the link to the original video. Except for me it's ideas, and not kittens!

Sunday fiction

Read part one of this story.

Luckbringer

by Barbara G.Tarn

They went as a family through the cobbled streets of Agharek, their long blond hair shining in the sun. The local Humans covered themselves from head to toe, so the only uncovered heads in the marketplace were those of pointed-eared Genn in various shades of blond.

Luckbringer and Goldstar bought flat-breads, candies, oranges and dates, and were headed for the herbalist when a commotion stopped them in their tracks. The Governor's guard was making way for the Governor's son and his family, who were leaving the palace in an open carriage.

Luckbringer's smile slowly vanished as she stared at Damir's haughty looks and Mathilda's triumphant expression. Her eyes rested on six-year-old Giordano who looked nothing like his parents. His sweet face was lit by innocent sea-blue eyes neither Damir nor Mathilda possessed.

Mathilda spotted her and stopped the carriage in front of the Genn family to stare at Joyspring with a puzzled expression. Luckbringer held her baby tighter, feeling Goldstar's protection spell surrounding the three of them.

"Luckbringer, you had a baby?" Mathilda squealed in fake delight. "May I see it?"

"Her," Luckbringer corrected. "Her name is Joyspring."

"Well, may I see Joyspring?" Mathilda insisted impatiently.

Luckbringer offered the baby who had stopped smiling at the sound of Human voice.

Mathilda leaned to look at her, but didn't try to touch her.

"I see, what a miracle!" she said cheerfully, leaning back and holding Giordano to her generous bosom.

Luckbringer glared at her. She knew Mathilda wasn't her friend, and she better not upset me or I'll expose the truth about her son's birth.

Mathilda giggled nervously, aware of the threat. "Really, Luckbringer, I hope you have found happiness with your Genn mate."

"I have, thank you, Mathilda," Luckbringer answered, glancing at Damir's gloomy expression. He was staring at her with a mix of anger, envy and other not so clean thoughts again. "May the Immortals protect you and little Giordano."

"Let's go," Damir snapped, averting his eyes.

Mathilda suavely waved good-bye to the Genn family as the carriage moved on.

Giordano got up to look at the Genn baby and smiled a genuine smile as the carriage took him away.

"What a sweet boy," Goldstar said, squeezing Luckbringer's shoulder to prompt her to move on. "So glad he has none of his parent's haughtiness."

"His father isn't haughty," she grumbled as they walked towards the herbal shop. Poor Giordano, stuck with the wrong side of his family. Would they ruin him, or would he keep his natural innocence?

"What do you mean?" Goldstar asked, puzzled.

She remembered he didn't know what had happened at the Governor's palace before her divorce, as Damir had unbelievably managed to keep it under wraps.

"Giordano is not Damir's son," she explained. "Damir is sterile. Mathilda toyed with Conall the half-blood."

"Marina Isabel's son who had been secretly kept prisoner at the palace?" Goldstar asked, incredulous. "So who knew he was there, besides the Waiora that rescued him?"

"Damir, his personal valet who fed Conall, Mathilda and I," Luckbringer sighed. "I think even Desiderio knew at some point, but he decided to ignore his son's misdeeds. I tried to heal Conall before Mathilda used him but he was so hurt, I guess only the Waiora could actually help. But that opened my eyes on Damir,  he's a monster and his hatred for Conall made him do things to the poor half-blood, I still shiver at the memory."

"So Giordano has his father's eye-color," Goldstar mused. "I was wondering how that was possible. I mean, Lady Fairuza has blue eyes, but not really that shade of blue. And I don't know what Mathilda's ancestors look like, but they probably don't have a Waiora eye-color."

"And Damir is so happy, he can't see it," she said scornfully. She looked at Joyspring's emerald eyes and smiled. "Humans are tricky, honey," she told the baby who smiled. "Stay away from them when you grow up."

Goldstar chuckled. "Yes, don't be as silly as your mother!"

"Goldstar!"

He quickly hugged her and they entered the herbalist's shop. Luckbringer was very glad to be rid of her crush on Damir. Life with Goldstar was the best thing she could dream of.

She prayed Ether to give Joyspring a Human-free life, so she wouldn't have to struggle with the feelings and passions Humans liked to impose on Genn.

Books of the Immortals – Ether is set 15 years later and deals mostly with Luckbringer's daughter Joyspring.

In between you can also read Conall's sons about Giordano, who also appears at the beginning of Ether.

Random Friday

I received an email from someone offering his book for review, unsolicited. I'm not a book reviewer, I'm a writer, and if I find something I like, I'll review and contact the author for an interview. And my TBR/discovery list is long enough without unsolicited submissions. I even wrote on Goodreads that I DON'T want recommendations, and luckily they stopped coming from there. I try to read as much as I can, but my priority is still writing, so don't ask me to check your book, thank you.

I've seen Goodreads Authors delete all their shelves or decide NOT to review other indie authors as it might backfire, and I understand their backing out. I won't do it, because I still want to spread some love for books I enjoy – but I'm not a book reviewer and this is not a book review blog. It's read mostly by writers, and you don't want to pitch your book to other writers. I doubt anyone has bought a book because I recommended it (but please feel free to tell me if I'm wrong).

At the moment I'm reading an old book my mum wanted to throw away, something I probably asked for when I was 10 because it's about a ballet dancer. "Irène à l'Opéra" by Lorna Hill is even illustrated, but I remember nothing of it – I probably read it only once. Of course reading it at 46 means I'm not taken by surprise by anything (I've become a cynical reader, haha!), but I get nostalgic at the setting: telegrams, anyone? And when phone calls were hard to do especially out of your hometown? I might not have been alive when you needed an operator to get through, but in the 1980s in Italy it was still very expensive to call outside of town (I still remember the ad for the "teleselezione") and my parents balked every time a long-distance phone call lasted more than two minutes.

Can you believe a YA book can be so dated by such tiny things that are no longer in use in the 21st century? And that originally it wasn't labeled YA, and was probably in the children's Bibliobus that came to our village every week (there were two, one for adults and one for children)? Oh, I can't believe the Bibliobus still exists, by the way… here's the 21st version of what we had in the mid-1970s! Those Swiss…

Another thing that makes me love my Kindle while I'm reading this and another book from mum's shelves (same collection – Hachette pocket book with hard cover): the smell. My nose hates all strong scents, be them perfume, food or stinky things. The strong smell of dusty paper of these 40+ pocket hardcovers forces me to keep them away from my face to avoid sneezing or coughing my way through them. I never really liked the smell of paper books, especially old ones. I hated the smell of some glossy magazines as well. So I really welcome the odorless Kindle for my future readings. I look forward to get through those 20+ dead-tree-books I have left, and from now on I'll look for the electronic version, if available at a decent price!

AND I will still do the print version of mine, so this weekend I'll hop to Lulu for S.K.Y.B.A.N.D. 10 & Omnibus 2. I'm also studying how to format it for Kindle and Nook/iPad, but I still think comics and graphic novels are better read on paper. And then with whatever is left on my prepaid card I'll go to Amazon for a DVD shopping spree, whoot!

Hiroyuki Sanada tribute "then and now" on S.K.Y.B.A.N.D.10

I have my Bollywood list, of course, but I also want to watch more of ) and now I want to have a closer look at his evolution. I'll probably skip The Last Samurai (can't stand Tom Cruise), but I enjoyed The Twilight Samurai (and mostly his interview in the DVD extras) and I still have to watch Sunshine on a decent screen (I saw it in flight…) And of course I look forward to 47 ronin!

Off to reading and writing again… I think I'm falling behind with blog reading, but I'll get there, eventually. Especially next week when I go back to Day Job!

Writer Wednesday and a blog award

I will start this post by thanking the wonderful Aussie author Georgina Anne Taylor for awarding me the Liebster Blog Award. Georgina is a fellow Creative Reviewer, and I'm keeping an eye on her: as soon as she releases a novel, she goes on my TBR list! If you like shorts, though, you can already check her writing on Smashwords.

The Liebster Blog Award originated in Germany. Liebster means dearest or beloved, and Liebe is love.

In accepting the Liebster Blog Award, the recipient agrees to:

*Thank the person who gave them the award and link back to that person's blog

*Copy and paste the award to their blog

*Reveal the 5 blogs they have chosen to award, commenting on their blog to break the news!

*Hope those people in turn pay it forward by accepting and awarding "The Liebster Blog Award" to bloggers they would like to honor.

My blog winners are:

Sarah R. Yoffa

Bill Talcott

C.S.Splitter

Chrystalla Thoma

J.C. Martin

All are fellow authors, some you've met on this blog, some not yet, but you will, eventually.

***

Now, to the real Writer Wednesday! I'm going to use a few quotes today. I've found some that mirror exactly how I feel, both as a writer and as a person.

The worst enemy to creativity is self doubt – Sylvia Plath

I've been struggling with self doubt most of my life and not only referring to my creative endeavors. Sometime it comes from inside me, sometimes from outside – my spiritual teacher says we hear from others what we don't want to hear from ourselves, so if someone tells me "Why are you doing this, it's useless", it's my own self-doubt that called for it. So, this human yo-yo goes from creative euphoria to depression caused by self doubt. What if I'm not good enough? What if nobody likes it? What if…? I really should stop thinking as much and having all those expectations!

Last week on an impulse I uploaded a short by BG Hope. I posted the cover in the "e-book covers" photo album on Facebook, but that's it. 48 hours later I had the Smashwords purchase notification. For a story that didn't receive any comments from any reader and was uploaded after a final pass for typos an other mistakes, from a pen-name that has to site, no blog, no marketing, no nothing. Maybe I'm writing in the wrong genre. I know, I'll soon be jealous of the pen-name that sells more if it's not the one I cherish more!

But then, here we go to quote #2

My books aren't trying to fathom the mysteries of human existence, I'm an entertainer – Bernard Cornwall

Which goes well with #3

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity – G.K. Chesterton

Both ring very true to me. I like to tell stories. I'm not a wordsmith, though, I'm a storyteller. Again, I write what I like to read, therefore I don't indulge in long descriptions because, as a reader, they bore me AND cloud my vision. I have a vivid imagination, I don't need many words to form an image. I'm sure I'm not the only reader like this, so hopefully my target audience will find me, eventually.

The more a man writes, the more he can write – William Hazlitt

That's another great quote. I'll keep writing, and get better with time. I'll expand my vocabulary, but will keep my voice, and there's no stopping me. I plan on uploading 30 titles this year – does that mean 30 new stories? Yes and no, because the few Italian ones only need to be formatted and many of the English ones are shorts. And even the novels (shorter than the ones that came out last year) are already written, albeit in Italian, except the last CVE, which I never got down to write when I wrote the others. But I do have an outline, and it shouldn't be too hard to spit out a first draft in a month or less. At least not for someone married to Writing!

I'm also exploring other outlets, so I might add some links in the Find my stuff page soon. I even found a very useful booklet on how to format comic books for Kindle and Nook. I don't have direct access to PubIt, but it was still interesting, also for the other resources it lists at the end for "artists" like me. So, if you have an image-heavy book or comic book or graphic novel and are struggling with the meatgrinder and other formatting, go check this little guide. Now I better go finish that SKYBAND chapter, shouldn't I?

Amazon and Goodreads are not getting along very well anymore, so I'll have to find other ways to get there. GR already broke up with B&N (it was there when I signed up, now I only get to import titles from Amazon – until Jan 30, that is!), maybe they should strike a deal with Smashwords or Lulu! I already "rescued" some books by friends I have reviewed in the past – but if you're an author and only have books only on Amazon/KDP, you'll soon be kicked out of Goodreads. I sure hope you're not keeping all your eggs in one basket, though. Amazon is huge, but they're not the only ones.

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's my nephew and godchild's seventh birthday, I gotta party!

Happiness is…

Sunday fiction

H ere's the very short story of Joyspring's birth, split in two parts and ending next Sunday. It's freshly out of the oven, so feel free to comment and spot typos or other mistakes!

Luckbringer

Luckbringer stared at her baby girl sleeping, thinking how much her life had changed in a few years. She was Genn, she knew she'd live longer than any Human, and she couldn't believe how fast things had moved since she had come out of childhood.

Her first love had been Human. She was young and naive and was dazzled by Damir's charming manners and fiery passion. The Governor's son had enjoyed her dancing skills so much, he had thoroughly seduced her, which had made her incredibly happy for a couple of years.

Those years had vanished in the blink of an eye. Damir had met the Waiora, got obsessed with one of them, and even picked up a second wife, a Human. Luckbringer had found herself locked in a triangle, tricked into a war against the Waiora and betrayed by her beloved who was finally showing his true nature.

She blamed her youth for that dreadful mistake, but still it took her five years to get over Damir. Sometimes she thought that a part of her had always known that Damir was an evil young man, as she had never carried his seed. He was unable to reproduce, but she was Genn and could have had his babies if she really had wanted them.

Thank Ether, she hadn't. She was probably too young to think about maternity anyway. When Damir had divorced her, she had felt lost. Who would want her again? But mostly, why should she allow anyone to break her heart again?

Then Goldstar had come along, reminding her they were Genn, that she shouldn't attach herself to Humans and should try the Magical Races' love instead. Even if some Genn had been happy in marriages with Humans, their long lives meant they'd eventually end up with their own kind sooner or later – "why wait?" had been Goldstar's winning argument.

Luckbringer was almost thirty by now – mid-life for a Human, still very young for a Genn – and she had accepted Goldstar's deep love. They could be animkunulo, or soul mates, for the rest of their long lives. They could have two batches of children, one now, one later in life – still together.

Former Varian Queen Rainspot (Luckbringer's great-aunt) had had half-blood children with her first husband Fabio Varian, but her youngest children were two pure-blooded twins who has seen the birth of the Varian Empire aged fifteen – at the time of Fabio's grandsons.

Being Genn in a Human-ruled world wasn't easy, but having a Genn mate had helped Luckbringer to blossom. Her healing powers had reached full maturity and now she was a proud mother. Gone were the years of trying to keep up with the Humans' frenetic life. In the very small Genn community of Agharek, she was finally enjoying life at a slower pace, with like-minded people and no competition for her man's love.

Goldstar came into the room and she smiled at him, grateful.

"Is Joyspring asleep?" he asked, walking towards her.

"Yes," she answered. "Isn't she the most perfect being?"

"Of course," he grinned, stopping by her side. "Like her mother."

"Goldstar!" she chided, rising from her stool.

He took her in his arms. "What? Are you still blaming yourself for Damir's misdeeds? Forget them, Luckbringer. Humans have long forgotten them."

"But the Waiora still remember," she sighed, lowering her eyes.

"I don't think they blame you for the invasion of their underwater city," he replied. "Us Magical Races tend to forgive each other's mistakes, especially when youth is involved."

She giggled. "Well, nobody would ever challenge Starblazer for what she did to Arquon!" she said, relieved. She put her arms around his neck. "Thank you, beloved. Thank you for loving me."

The baby seemed to feel both her parents by her side because she opened her emerald-green eyes and gurgled with happiness. Luckbringer picked her up with a grin.

"It's time to go out, Joyspring!" Goldstar announced, caressing the baby's head.

end of part 1 – part 2 next Sunday

Random Friday

I didn't swear I wouldn't mention writing on Fridays, did I? This is a writer's update, but also about life and my evolution in a wider sense… OK, maybe I'm cheating, but with less posts available, I need to cram stuff in the longer-but-less-frequent  ones!

Anyway, here's the thing. I scanned the original illustrated story I mentioned on Wednesday and was so appalled by how awful my drawing skills were back in 1980-81, I decided NOT to make them public. Ever. I may eventually redraw it as one-shot (like Lady Ice, but that was an experimental new story  – see the color or Italian version on my FB profile), but I don't think I'll waste any  more time with that particular story. As it will come out in a collection, the new version won't even need a cover, so it's shelved. The original Italian "comic book" version, I mean. And the English text verion being slightly less than 3k will come out in February during a Fiction Week (I'll decide which week next month).

I probably mentioned it before (but then, there are so many new subscribers to this humble blog *waves at them* they might not be aware of it): I'm glad I was unpublished for the 20th century part of my writing life. Yes, some friends were kind enough to showcase my short stories in their photocopied zines (that was the 1990s, folks!), but most of my production is still unknown, even to my friends. Some stories were really written only for myself, others went only to certain friends because they might be in their preferred genre, at first I didn't have anyone reading them, etc.

So now I feel I have a huge backlist (that needs some editing AND some trashing a.k.a. "forget about this, shelve forever and keep it only as a reminder of your personal growth") and wonder if I will ever be able to show it all off. Except not all my babies are for public consumption, so I'll be all right. I've got writing material for the rest of my life, considering that I keep having new ideas.

January being off DayJob with a nervous breakdown, I remembered I'm my own favorite author (I write what I want to read), so I picked up shelved ideas as well and started pondering on if and how to bring them to life. I watched Casshern again to remind myself of the "body suit" and how I wanted to integrate my version of it in one of my sci-fi universes, discovering that the specific universe still has a very messed up history. So I need to write that history down like I did with Silvery Earth, and then I can write more stories in that setting.

I also need to keep reading, fiction and non-fiction, books, ebooks, blogs and magazines, for research or for entertainment. And watch movies to inspire me, as now my virtual cast is mostly actors and not musicians anymore – although in graphic novels I might still use them, but then I have a very limited number of faces I can actually draw, LOL.

So I'm being a little selfish at this time of my life, but I really want my husband (Mr Writing, for those who don't know) to start paying the bills, because I'm tired of DayJob stress. And our babies are ready to go out in the world and help the family as well, so – Go, Kids! By the way, Latest Long Baby, BoI – Earth, has finally a free excerpt live on Indiebooklist, one month  and a half after release. Anyway, if you wanted to know more about it, go check the above link.

Now, a little help from my blog readers, please? *insert puppy eyes here* I went to the offline writers group meeting and asked which cover they preferred – there were only four people, and votes were split in two. So I need somebody else to jump in and help me choose the best cover. Here are the two options:

cover A (left) or cover B (right)?

Please vote in the comments, thank you so much!

Poll results and new blog schedule

The poll totaled 21 votes, 6 for posts on writing, 5 for excerpts of my writing, 4 for random facts of life and 3 for reading and indie publishing. So, here's the schedule for 2012!

Monday: Happiness is... to wish you all a happy week

Writer Wednesday – about my writing, but also other writers, so I might have guest posts or author interviews on special occasions

Random Friday (I think Fiction Friday is taken, LOL) where I ramble about life, books, movies or whatever fancies me

Sunday Excerpt – might be six sentences or might be longer.

I'm thinking of posting an illustrated short story – based on very old drawings of mine. It will come out in a free collection as well, but I doubt I can put the drawings in the e-book and get through the Meatgrinder. So the illustrated version could be here, and the text-only on Smashwords & Kindle. It will be serialized in 2 or 3 parts, and then I could do Six Sentence Sunday with my next release in February, and improvise after that.

Anyhoo, this should be Writer Wednesday, so here are some updates. I finished the handwritten draft of CVE2 – The Left-handed Warrior. I know I need to add some ships descriptions because it's set one century after BoI – Water (where I thoroughly described the long-ships) and the Varian navy has changed a little. When I wrote the original some ten years ago, I wasn't doing any kind of research, so I probably imagined your usual pirate galleon – now I know there are more kinds of sailing ships and will rewrite accordingly. Hopefully at the end of the month it will be ready for new Editor Katy, who is so busy I had to book her last September or something! I'm glad I have a publishing schedule so I know what to send and when to very busy editors…

I'm also preparing a collection of short stories introducing the Books of the Immortals which will be free to download and will include Starblazer, Doreen (available on this blog), The Sect (same link) and two more (including the illustrated one) that will also appear on this very blog sooner or later.

I'm also working on titles for my other pen-names, making covers and asking for feedback from betas. I've found another beta-reader for the historical novel  and I'm waiting for feedback on that one as well. That's the part I hate the most about writing – waiting for feedback from beta-readers! It's even worse than reading reviews of published works!

Anyway, back to publishing and covers, here's a link to 4 incredible free sources for photos (and there are a few more in the comments). I tend to use my own photos or drawings for my covers, but sometimes I need to "borrow", so Fragolino's cover pic comes from MorgueFile (no attribution required) as will another cover for a BG Hope story. And of course you all know Cristina Fabris who did the BoI covers and will do more in 2013 – I let her free to pursue her own projects this year, so the CVE covers will all be drawn by yours truly. Three are already done, and the titles in the "coming soon" section of Silvery Earth Chronology (where I also added a brief explanation of acronyms).

I hope to have 50 books out by the end of the year (including the 20 that are already out, so it's only 30 new releases of various length under the Unicorn Productions umbrella), although on my publishing schedule I don't have 30 titles yet, but I want to leave room for improvisation. You know, that little story that begs to be written, like, right now, because it's been churning in my little brain for months and is now ready to come out.

I will also continue along the road of my unique vision (see the posts at the Literary Lab by Davin, Scott and Michelle on the topic), with my unique punctuation (sorry, Dear Editors, I need to be consistent here! ) and my unique way of telling stories. I will stick to my "natural" length for each story, without trying to pump up the wordcount (which for me means adding subplots and characters, because descriptions bore me and I hate purple prose) unless something really needs more. I don't want to go back to the pain I had with Air's rewrites that took me one year – by the way, the final and published version is the enhancement of the very first (which didn't have Keiko and Hayato) and I dropped most of the variations I had done in between. Now betas and editor(s) all get the same version, then I compare comments and make a final pass. I have sworn never to get stuck in Rewriting Hell ever again!

I still have problems in tagging my work because fantasy is such a broad genre that I'm at loss on which tags fit. Readers expect 100k epics of good vs.evil with great conflicts and baddest villains. That's not my aim. Most of my main characters are outsiders or outcasts, and none is either The Hero or The Villain of fantasy tradition. I'm not really following those fantasy tropes. I write what I want to read, and like I mentioned before, I'm tired of stories that need hundred and hundreds of thousands of words to be told – I love the acronym TLDF (too long, didn't finish) for those! I also haven't found anyone writing in my same vein yet, so if you happen to be a writer of adult, unconventional, character-oriented fantasy set in a world of your creation, please please please contact me and, like Michelle says, we'll see if we're a match.

As for Kenra's excellent post on writers' blogs, she's right – most are followed by other writers. I must say I stopped following those writers who are too much craft-oriented, especially those that are so much younger than me. If they want to be successful bloggers, good for them. I'm a fiction writer, I'm trying to reach my fiction readers with my online presence. You'll never see craft posts here. I'm a natural, self-taught, prolific, non-native storyteller, I will never be able to explain how I do it. I just keep writing and get better at my craft. So I usually follow other writers blogs only if I like the person and they not only talk about their writing (it's always fascinating to hear how other people do it), but also about themselves – without trying to teach me anything. I have no use for tips or tricks, especially from unpublished writers! But that's just me, and I know hundreds of wannabes look for that kind of information, hoping to get rich quick. There's no such thing, honey, see the Amanda Hocking story if you don't believe me.

As for readers, here's what I found they want from an author's web page (it doesn't say blog and I don't remember the source, but here are my notes on the topic): no flash player, background music or other flashy things. A basic page with backlist, head shot of author and frontlist/coming soon. Blurbs of everything, especially in print, with excerpts and links to Amazon and B&N (that is if you're aiming at an American audience only. If you go international, add Lulu, Smashwords, whatever!). If it's a series, show the chronology somewhere.

Any reader wants to jump in and add something? Any writer has comments on what I've said? Feel free to express yourselves in the comment section!

Happiness is…

Six sentence Sunday

Six sentences standalone scene from my WiP "The Left-handed Warrior".

Silverstar stared at the dark-haired girl, pondering. She was definitely Kurt's sister, but she had a humility and sweetness he totally lacked. In spite of the almost ten years gap between the Genn and the Human girl, their minds were at the same age level. But she was already pregnant, marked by adulthood like he wasn't yet.

Silverstar felt pity for her. Kurt's pale shadow quietly entered his heart.

This WiP is the second book of the Chronicles of the Varian Empire and should come out in April.

Now hop back to the official blog for more six sentence goodies and have a great Sunday!