Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 185

Six Sentence Sunday – TSK1

Because the two lovely ladies that stopped by last week wanted more, here's another six from The Slave. Bekah mentioned they have a Goddess and Kushan objected about the Sect hiding in his own kingdom and adoring a bloodthirsty Goddess.

***

"That's not us," she assured. "Ours is our mother, literally. Our first queen, Amazonia, was her daughter."

"A ruling queen?" he couldn't believe his ears.

"That's why we call it queen-dom instead of king-dom," she said, looking at him as if he were dumb. It seemed very obvious to her, but he had never heard that concept before.

***

There you have it, that's why I love English so much! It didn't work in Italian, but now the Amazons Country is also known as the Queendom of Maadre! The Slave is part of Tales of the Southern Kingdoms – volume 1 available on Kindle and Smashwords.

Now hop back to the official blog for more six sentence goodies… and thanks for stopping by. Have a great Sunday!

Linky Saturday

OK, a few links for your weekend.

David Gaughran on incorporating historical figures into a narrative with a very good example from his own book. He's also a guest at Joe Konrath's blog with his own experience.

Dean Wesley Smith links to Penguin's decision to moving to POD and Joe Konrath acts as Writers Beware on the BookCountry/Penguin deal. Joe is right, no need to pay Penguin and let them grab 30% of your royalties when you can upload your stuff for free and keep earning. Really, how hard can it be to format for those e-retailers? Come on, if technophobe me can do it, so can you! And I have Open Office, not Word, which means I had to adjust to the instructions in the Smashwords formatting guide… I guess the Bix 6 are panicking…

Clarion on promoting without selling – a guest post by Chris Evans. And a very detailed review of free press release sites.

Last but not least, Self-published Author's Lounge Mari Miniatt on Google+ – you can have your brand page now. But I don't think I'll join yet. I have enough with Facebook, Goodreads and this blog!

A couple of contests: for you NaNoWriMoers, there's a contest for your first chapter – and you must send it out now, unedited! Yep, they want it raw. Small cash prizes. Also, Lulu has launched a short story competition which might make you win a Nook or something. If you can write 600 words (I know I can't! ) go check the contest page.

Also, Creative Reviews is hosting the 1000members giveaway, so if you're on Goodreads, join the group and enter the giveaway – and don't worry, if you don't like ebooks (Soul Stealers is one of the prizes), the other two prices are dead-tree books, signed!

That's all from me for this week! Back to writing – although I have a "busy" weekend (meaning I have to socialize, so not much writing can be done, sniff! The Hermit Writer), but hopefully on Monday I'll be able to print out that first draft and start the revisions. Still have to give it to the alpha-reader at the end of the month, and I need time to do the revisions and re-read it…

Have a great weekend!

Book review & author interview – C.S.Splitter

OK, truth is… I was a beta-reader on this one, so I haven't read the final, upcoming version. Still – I liked his humor and his characters. I haven't read the first book, but it seemed to me that I almost had. It was a fun ride, fast paced and all, and he neatly tied up all the plots. Uhm, OK, my review skills still kinda suck. Sorry about that.

I recommend Cassie's review – she's much better than me at that! Oh, and she's also an excellent editor, in case you're looking for one…

Anyhow, this marvel will come out on Nov.21st and you better check it. The author was also kind enough to answer my usual nosy questions… ladies and gents, please welcome fellow Creative Reviewer C.S.Splitter!

Where do you live and write from?

Like my main character, Tom Crayder, I now live about 35 miles north of Washington DC in the state of Maryland.  When my books get turned into a TV series or movies, I will move some place warm!

All of the places I talk about in my books are real, thus far, even if I do not name them.  All of the houses, restaurants, and towns are real (though I take liberties with details).  All of the missions Tom flies are missions I have been along on our flown in a simulator.  I even know the hotels in Houston where Tom and Lorena begin book two.  I may put in some fictitious locations in the future, I just thought it would be a hoot to "keep it real." 

When did you start writing?

I always enjoyed writing and even in the years before I got the idea for "The Reluctant," I wrote.  I threw a lot of it away or abandoned in on long dead hard drives—or floppy discs.  Yes, I am old enough to remember having to choose between 3.5" and 5.25" floppies.

What genre(s) do you write?

I read fantasy, mostly, but I write Action/Adventure with touches of humor, suspense, thrills, and mystery.  If I ever have a good and original idea for a fantasy novel, I will write one.  I spent more than ten years starting and stopping fantasy novels when I realized that someone had written something too similar beforehand.  At one point, I pretty much gave up on writing.

I never intended to write the stories that I do.  The idea hit me one night when I was out at dinner.  A police acquaintance mentioned that criminals get caught because they do stupid things, leave clues, and brag.  I started wondering what would happen if someone that had to do "bad" things for very "good reasons" had a little means, a bit of MacGyver, and could keep their mouth shut.

Tom Crayder was born by the time we got home from that dinner party. 

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

People think Tom Crayder must be me, but he is not.  Trust me.  I am not that interesting!

Tom is a conglomeration of "guys."  That is why all of us with a Y chromosome understand him.  It is also why those of the XX variety like him.  Everyone knows Tom.  He is their husband, father, friend, or co-worker.  His rough edges and good heart are familiar even if he is not based on one person.

I am a firm believer that there are every day heroes out there that we see and do not notice.  Sometimes, they have conflicts in their own lives and in their minds simply because they are real.  That is what I wanted for Tom.  The only difference is that he encounters unique situations while meandering through life doing the best he can.

As for story ideas, they come from everywhere.  The "leading two lives" and multiple identity themes came from a Billy Joel song (free eBook to the first person who names it!).  The idea for book two, "The Willing," came from an old movie called "It's a Wonderful Life."  I know readers might not see how a guy like Tom could have anything in common with George Bailey, but he does!  Tom just has to deal with more bad guys, bullets, and bodies.

I am working on the third book and the working title is "The Unmasked."  That idea came from multiple trips to Las Vegas and my love of gangster movies.  Just imagine all of the interesting characters one could interact with in a town like that…

Do you have a specific writing routine?

I think a lot and write a little.  I drive a ton of miles and spend most of that time thinking about stories and dialogue.  I AM that guy who you see talking to himself at the stop light!

When I am doing a book, I limit myself to less than two thousand words per day with a minimum of one thousand.  Any more and I find my writing getting stale.  Unlike other authors, I have to avoid setting word-count goals, which is terribly difficult for me.  So, I set weekly minimum goals and anything above that is just icing on the cake.

Outliner or improviser? Fast or slow writer?

Doing an outline is vital for me, but it gets trashed about half way through the books.  The writing process gives me ideas as the story unfolds.  So, while the ending may stay the same, the way I get there changes.

I guess I am a fast writer when compared to George R.R. Martin!  Lightning speed as a matter of fact.  But I am slower than someone like Stephen King who is bloody prolific.

And that, my friends, is the only time you will see me compared to either of those writers lol.

The key for me is that when I sit down to write a story, I write every day.  Even with the one to two thousand words per day pace, it adds up quickly because I do not take many days off.  When the story is done, the editing and proofing process begins.  By the time the story is ready for other people to read, I have played with it so much that I hate my own book!

Tell us about your latest book (add link if published)

Planes, guns, drug lords, beautiful women, dangerous men, and the resulting humor are there for the taking.  If I did my job right, that is.  You can find links on my website:"The Willing" is the second book in "The Crayder Chronicles" and it comes out on November 21st of 2011.  This volume moves at near breakneck speed but I was still able to flesh out some important characters that my readers were really curious about from the first book.

If "The Reluctant" was about introducing Tom and his moral dilemmas, "The Willing" is about the relationships he has formed.  The reader gets some insight into Lorena and other characters in Tom's little world and people seem to enjoy them.  Lorena is more than the pretty face from the first book and more than the sociopath from the beginning of   the second book.  Even Jenny has a surprise or two up her sleeve that begins to crack the "too good to be true wife" image.  Of course, everyone loves Tiny because, well, he's loveable.

"The Willing" asks the question: How far would you go to protect your friends and family?  There may be other important questions in there, but the readers will come up with those.  I just write the stories.

Indie publishing or traditional publishing – and why?

I went the indie route because I did not know any better.  Seriously.  I had no idea whether or not the first book would be any good.  I figured the best way to know was to put it out there for the public to judge.  So far, it has all been positive so I am not complaining about my initial ignorance.

I write a lot on my blog about the trials and tribulations of indie publishing because I, like most, am learning as I go.  It is both frustrating and exciting.  Publishing these days is like the old Wild West where there are few rules and fewer answers to questions we do not even know to ask.

Will I stay indie?  I don't know—make me an offer lol.  Really, I think at this point I would love to find a small publisher with good terms who believed in my work.  But I am not beating the bushes at all for that publisher because I do not want to put everything else on hold to do so.

If my work is good enough and if I get "discovered" I will be happy.  If I just continue with the indie route, I will be happy.  I love writing the stories and the feedback I get makes the whole effort worth it.

As Tony Montana (Scarface!) might say if he were a writer:  First you write the books, then you get the fans, then you get the power of a book deal.

Any other projects in the pipeline?

Book three is in the outlining process right now.  "The Unmasked" will be out by June of 2012…which seems like a long way off, but it's not when you have to write and polish a whole book!  I already feel the pressure.

Like the first two books, characters come first and I am writing up their life stories for myself as we speak.  I am a passable writer, maybe, but I think I can write good characters and stories.  For me, coming up with the characters is the part that is the most fun.

I am also going to do a "How To" book on coaching baseball but I will probably do that under a different name.  I know, I know, no one reading your blog cares about that but you did ask lol.

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

Hah!  There is the million dollar question.  I am not sure I have an ultimate goal, but I dream big.  Sometimes in those dreams, I am signing the contract to make Tom Crayder a movie star.  Sometimes, I am kissing my wife "good morning" and walking out to my little office in the back yard to spend another day getting my ideas onto virtual paper.

Then I have the nightmare where I am like that Jack Nicholson character from "As Good As It Gets."  When I have that nightmare, I snap back to reality and start tapping keys on the laptop furiously so as to avoid it.

I would love to sell enough books to write for a living but, really, I am just along for the ride and curious to see where this journey ends.  Goals are great things as long as you don't limit yourself with them.  Dreams, on the other hand, have no limits.

There you have it, then! I've put The Reluctant on my Wishlist and as I enjoyed The Willing (because it's so character-oriented), I'll probably keep reading the  series… very slowly (if I think I have 20 books on my Kindle wishlish, 20 on my Smashwords library and 20 paper book… when on earth will I have the time to read them all? Sigh!).

Thank you, Splitter for playing along! Happy writing!

Questions every writer…

…asks? So they hope at Blood Red Pencil. Let's see if I ask them!

10. Why is it so much easier to write about writing than to actually write? Uh, no, I don't ask that question. For me it's easier to write than talk about writing. But then, for me it's easier to write than to talk. OK, I'm the one with a problem!
9. Why is my writing in my head so much better than the writing on the page? Not really. I mean, in my head it's a movie. And putting a movie in screenplay form loses a lot. Besides, I can cry on other people works, but don't manage to cry on my own writing. Not when I write it down. Because I do cry when I tell it to myself in my head. Sigh.

8. How does time seem to fly by when I'm writing well, but yet crawl when I'm struggling to write one decent sentence? Ain't no grammar buff nor purple prose lover, therefore as long as the sentence relays what I need to say, I don't care. Time always fly when I write – or when I brainstorm, get that shiny new idea, find a way out of a dead-end, etc.

7. Do I have too many characters? Too few? I usually have too many. I don't mix them up because I have my virtual cast very clear in my head, but yeah, sometimes the reader might get lost… So I'm working on cutting down the main characters!

6. How did I manage to forget that subplot that I began on page 20 and appears to have vanished without a trace? This might happen during draft zero, but when I re-read the printed version of draft one I usually find all those plot holes and inconsistencies. Usually. But then, that's what first readers/wise readers/alpha or beta-readers AND editors are for, right?


5. Good grief. How many more editing passes is this manuscript going to need? I will not get stuck in rewriting hell. Ever. Again. Forget it.


4. When will I ever consider myself a success? When I reach those other 4995 readers to make my 5000readers goal!

3. Will anyone really want to buy this book? Absolutely. S/he will find it, eventually, with web serendipity.
2. Will I ever have another good idea?  I don't seem to be lacking of new, better ideas… What's writers block?

1. What happens next? Really. What happens? The joy of improvising on a loose outline! Yay!

What would you answer to all this?
I would like to add that BoI – Ether excerpt is now available on Indie Book List… go check it, it's free!

Put your eggs…

At the workshop "Think like a publisher" I've jotted down a few interesting points that I will put here for your consideration (feel free to totally ignore me, I'm not your teacher, I'm only sharing my experience, OK?).

We're close to meritocracy in publishing. Good writing will slowly but steadily come up.

The more titles you have out, the easier it is that luck strikes.

There's 1trillion websites – still you find the stuff that interest you. Same will be with good books – they will find their audience. Search engines help people to find what they're looking for. Don't worry about the volume of stuff out there, you'll find your audience. You have 10-20 years to find them, just keep writing. It's a great time for prolific writers!

The most important thing now is freedom. You can write what you want, whatever length you want, whatever mash-up of genres you want. Trust your readers, let them be the judges.

Start building your true fans one at the time. And then feed them.

You're the writer and the publisher, it's your career, you can make your own decisions knowingly. Readers' validation is the best reward.

Now, to the eggs (books) and the basket(s) – a.k.a. distribution.

Publishers and distributors fail continuously – caution and differentiate distribution.

You can set up your own bookstore on Kobo or Sony, or set up your bookstore on your website and link to them.

Sell direct from the website with paypal – after you have some books out and your true fans start looking for you. Build the inventory first, though.

Which goes very well with Stephen's new comment on Amazon and KDP flaws (to which you can add Kris Rusch's take on the matter and self-publishing and other really interesting stuff as usual) AND David Gaughran's article on Kobo and the Japanese. Not saying Amazon is going down next year, or Smashwords, but they might not be big players forever. So try to get into as many outlets as you can.

I still have to do the publisher's web page with its own ebookstore (probably next year, when the catalog is bigger, LOL), but I'm trying to get into as many e-distributors as I can. Although I haven't figured out how to upload to Apple – even if I wanted to go through Apple Italia, for example. Or if I'm allowed to open my own web-store on Kobo or Sony (if they're like B&N, then it's no, as I'm not American).

It's all brand new and changing fast – because, hey, that's the nature of the beast, or the World Wide Web! What's good today might be old news tomorrow, what's big today might be obsolete next year etc. Technology… love it or hate it, but we have to deal with it, right?

Now, on a totally unrelated (well, not really…) topic – I'm being interviewed! Check my answers on ChickLitGurrl and find out some previously untold (because nobody asked, LOL) stuff about me and Silvery Earth!

Creative Reviews news

OK, I have only one active group left on Goodreads, because I found so many new friends that I can't quit now. So that's where you can find me mostly (even if I belong to a couple more).

So, fellow Creative Reviewers keep exchanging tips in the open (no secret groups, thank you), and someone pointed at a site that links bloggers with businesses and said it was a good exposure. I'll give you the link to this new site, but I haven't tried it and I haven't figured out how it works for authors either, but you can email this guy and ask him: Jesse Cohen at jcohen7523 (at) me (dot) com.

Plus Splitter interviewed Amy Eye about the Christmas Anthology. Go and check it – and see all those authors? OK, I'm not in it, but I'm not a Christmas person. Still I think I'll have to try the anthology when it comes out because I like the cover and I'm curious to read the stories of my new friends! And yes, I'll pay for my copy like everybody else!

I'm not a horror reader, but I'll show my support to fellow Creative Reviewer Brett… go vote for his book "That which should not be"! While I was at it I checked the other categories, but I haven't read any of those titles (who chose them anyway?!) so that's almost the only vote I gave.

As for me, yesterday I skipped after-dinner movie because Sunday I saved the wrong file on my PC, meaning I had to retype one chapter and a half… Something that hadn't happened in years, but well… I got confused by the fact I was  saving also on a portable memory (to use at work – ahem, don't tell my boss, haha!) which meant yesterday morning I opened the file and it was still the version I had saved on Friday (i.e. the first 2 chapters). I found some of it on my back-up hard drive (I did a back-up on Sunday because my "old" PC sometimes goes on strike, it didn't turn itself on on Sunday morning, so as soon as it started in the afternoon I did a full back-up – but didn't repeat it before switching it off, meh ), but still had to retype some of it.

But then, I watched 4 movies on Sunday, so I can skip one after-dinner movie to just write, right? OK, of the 4, two were old, and two were new and I still have that pile of new to watch, but still… I better complete that manuscript by the end of the month, as our next writers group meeting is on the 30th and I need to drop it into my alpha-reader's lap (no, I'm not NaNoWriMoing, but I need to get it to her so she can give it back in December). Phew. Hard life of a technophobe writer (who lost a novel to a floppy disk in the 90s)…

Happiness is…

Six Sentence Sunday – TSK1

Hello Sunday visitors and regular readers. Hope the weekend is treating you well.

Last May I posted a snippet of "The Slave", which has now come out again as part of Tales of the Southern Kingdoms volume 1. This continues from those old six.

***

"Where do you come from?" he demanded. He had never heard of a place where women were so outspoken.

"The Queendom of Maadre," she answered.

"Oh." He was too puzzled to comment. What was that strange word supposed to mean?

***

You can find the whole story and five more on Smashwords and Kindle.

Now hop back to the official blog for more six sentence goodies!

Stop the bashing!

I have heard of a secret Goodreads group for authors where the current hot topic is reviewers. I didn't join because the premise sounded ludicrous: How to deal with broken promises of reviews/interviews with no explanation after sending free reads for that purpose. Should we post these reviewers/blogs/bloggers or not to alert our fellow authors?

Excuse me? OK, it's only a discussion, but if everybody votes for "yes", that's bashing. That's a group for whining authors who complain about something that didn't work over which they have no control. It's like bashing a reviewer who gave a bad review.

Here's my experience with BoI – Air on Smashwords (which is the easiest place where I can give away freebies to chosen people) where I published it on March 31: Downloads (free sample&paid) 66 – Sold 9  – Paid (half-price) 1. Which means the other 8 were given with coupons 100% off to reviewers. Reviews? 4 (and 1 is from the "paid" copy). What happened to the 5 other people who got a free read and never posted a review? Who knows. Maybe they haven't read it yet (we all know how many ebooks we download to our preferred ereaders, I don't think anyone can read that fast). Maybe they hated it and would rather not say. I don't care. I'm not going to say who they are, I'm not even going to ask them "What happened to that review you owe?".

This is a marathon, not a sprint. Eventually those reviewers will post something or spread the word otherwise. It's like whining about piracy. I don't think we need a sort of Writers Beware for Goodreads Authors. Or, if you really want to be an Indie Author Beware place, make it a public group. Stand up and take responsibility, like the ladies at WB do. Or the Self-published Author's Lounge. Don't hide behind a secret clique of wannabes.

A last reminder: writers write. They write a book, publish it and start writing the next one. They shouldn't waste their time whining and bashing online or pretend to be Indie Author Police. Everybody makes mistakes. Get over it and move on. You won't give free copies to that person again, and that's it – maybe s/he was mean to you and perfect for someone else… maybe life got in his/her way when s/he was about to read your book. No need to blacklist someone. Move on. We're all grown-ups here, aren't we?

What kind of author I want to be

Based on David Farland's Daily Kick about what authors are trying to accomplish with their writing, I'm going to state my mission. David's words:

I'm often surprised by how few authors have really thought about what it is that they're trying to accomplish. Do you want to be considered an entertainer? A prophet who forewarns of political doom? A writer whose work electrifies and binds people together?

I love it when an author figures that out early. Personally, I didn't have much of a vision for what I wanted to become. I figured it out over a few years.

I was probably the same. I started writing to entertain myself. For years nobody read my stuff – that's how the one-draft-writer was born! No readers, no comments, the story worked fine for me, why bother with rewrites?

Then, of course,  I found readers, and some adjustments began. Or years went by, I grew up and smiled at my past attempts, finding all the flaws I couldn't see at the time of writing that particular story. At some point I was even happy to be still unpublished, because I could rewrite my old stories and take them to the next level!

Now, I'm not Dean Wesley Smith yet – he never re-reads his stories after publishing them – I'm still my own favorite author and like to re-read old stories (mostly to check if they're salvageable, LOL), but probably now that I'm putting them out there, I'll probably learn to let them go like he does. I haven't checked anything after BoI – Fire, if there are typos or other problems, well, I don't care anymore. I'm not tweaking the plot either, I'd rather tweak the plot of the stories I'm about to write if they need to fit with what's already out. So I do check bits and pieces sometimes when I'm writing related stories (like the first Chronicle of the Varian Empire -  a prequel to BoI – Water), but don't re-read the whole thing anymore – I'm running out of reading time, so why waste it on that?

I still write to entertain, though, myself first, if someone else enjoys it too, wonderful. I know I have a niche readership and they will find me eventually – as long as I keep writing. And as I tackle different genres, until I'm the next Kris Rusch with her open pen-names, I might eventually be jealous of myself if I sell more in other genres than this one!

That's my only aim as an author. I don't want to teach or preach anything, nor garner a great following (my 5000 would be enough, but as I'm around 5 still, where are the other 4995? ), but I'm sure that my morals and dreams and ideals come out in my writing – from the stories I choose to tell. But I'm only a humble storyteller, I don't plan to change the world with my writing!

What kind of author do you want to be? Closing with Mr Farland's wise words again:

If you hope to entertain and teach and garner a great following, that's the highest aim for an author. But take care what you're teaching. If your work doesn't have a positive impact on the world, then you're not really the greatest of storytellers, are you? You now become the basest of them all.

There are those critics who contend that to be a truly "great writer," you must first become a great person. That's the highest that any storyteller can hope to achieve—to entertain, to teach, to garner an audience, and to have a powerful and positive influence on your culture.