Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 189

more happiness?

Yesterday was #104 of Happiness is… or the end of year 2. Should I do another printed booklet with "subtitles" in Italian and French? Or do you have enough with it online?

Also, I'm running out of happiness… not because I'm unhappy, but because I've covered whatever happened so far! I don't need Richard Lanyard wisdom to know money doesn't make me happy or other material stuff – like I said, happiness is in the small things. But I'm running out of small things, so maybe I should start counting every time one particular small thing makes me happy (like watching the clouds or smelling the rain or whatever)…

Anyway, whenever I run out of new vignettes, I'll start "recycling" random old happiness, even if the drawing represents my "old" look. I hope eventually to have 365 vignettes, so it could be a daily happiness instead of weekly! And at that point yeah, I'll do a print version. One can keep the book on the bed table for daily prompts!

At the moment I have another 4 new, but hopefully I'll gather more during my weeks off. So for the next two weeks I'll have guests all over the place, and probably won't be able to visit your blogs, but don't worry, I'll get back to all of you as soon as I can. In the meantime be kind to my guests!

I hope to have some reviews when I get back, I put some titles on my Kindle (better than carrying physical books, especially when one tries to have only cabin luggage, LOL) and hope to read them, but then I'll have to finish those PDFs pre-Kindle and some physical books that still pile up on my desk.

So, more reviews to come, and probably more author interviews whenever I'm done with more reading. I know I'm supposed to review also The Doll, that I read before it was actually released, but I should read it again, and I'm not sure I'll have time to do it before I go. Also, I can't review it on Smashwords because I haven't purchased it… But please do check it out – I remember it was a spooky good tale, so if you like spooky, go check this work by the fighter-writer JC Martin. Be good, spread the word!

Have a great week, everybody!

[image error]

Happiness is…

Six Sentence Sunday – Ether 1

Hello Sunday visitors and regular readers! Last week I did the first SSS graphic novel, but now I'm back to prose… if you'd like more graphic novels on Sundays, let me know and I'll do another in November.

October is the month of my latest release Books of the Immortals – Ether. As I'll have to skip one Sunday, I decided to post three snippets showing the meetings between the Genn (elf-like) Joyspring and the Human Kamar.

Here is their first meeting, Joyspring is 15, Kamar less than a year old:

Joyspring stepped hesitantly forward and picked up the Human baby. He had big brown eyes and flashed a sudden, toothless smile at her.

"Hello, there," she said, amazed. "What's his name?" she asked the mother.

"Kamar," the woman answered.

"Hello, Kamar," Joyspring uncovered the tiny head to reveal a lock of black hair.

Books of the Immortals – Ether is now out on Smashwords and Kindle. Thank you for your visit. Don't forget to check the other great entries at Six Sentence Sunday! Have a great Sunday!

on reviews again

Not my reviews, this time, as I already stated that I won't review a book (especially if it's an indie author) if I want to give it less than three stars. You'll never know I read it in that case.

No, I'm going to talk about reviews of my books, as apparently (thanks also to the wonderful people at Creative Reviews) they are starting to come in.

The lowest I had is 2stars for Jessamine (it was on Goodreads and it's not there anymore… the guy deleted it? I certainly didn't touch it, I swear). I don't care, because, like I said, it was a man – not my target reader – and Jessamine does need editing. It was my first title, and I will rewrite it, eventually. It's still free on Kindle (and everywhere else except in print), so it's probably not the best publicity, but I'll leave it for now.

Then I felt very much like Michelle with her friend who couldn't read her book, because a friend gave me 3stars. I thanked her for the review, because she posted both the good and the bad, and she was damn right! She felt a little guilty about it, but I was very happy with her review. All 5stars reviews are suspicious and she didn't bash me, but gave a balanced review of what she liked and what she didn't. Can you ask more of a friend? *hugs her*

Besides, the editor also said I was going too fast, but I couldn't beef it up… so blame it all on my dry prose!

Now, in case you didn't notice, KDP has added Amazon.fr… although I didn't get an email like when they opened Amazon.de. Ah, well… I doubt the French will ever buy ebooks in English, but whatever! And I have no idea why my novel have different prices on the other Amazon – they're all at 4.99$ on the .com – but who knows… I mean, the exchange rate should be always the same, right? Can't check the UK shop, but there are differences even between France and Germany (a few eurocents, but still)! Ah, well…

Oh, just going to add BoI – Ether Kindle link… just in case you want to check it!

Have a great weekend!

Book review: Coming home (Dicky's story) by Sarah R.Yoffa

I "met" Sarah on Creative Reviews, the most excellent Goodreads group. I was intrigued by her post on Jewish holidays so when she offered her book for free, I thought I'd give it a try… and was very happily surprised! It's still free until the 21st, by the way…

So, what do you get? A very funny and inspirational story. You should know by now I don't like first person narration, but this was another exception – the witty (male) protagonist captured me from the very beginning and I couldn't let the book down (well, I had to because I had mine to edit, otherwise I'd have read it much faster!).

Having Jewish friends and in spite of being very bad at maths, I figured out it's set in the 23rd century – but it's a very different century from Star Trek! A post-apocalyptic Earth and those Black Coats that reminded me of A stranger among us – underground. And I liked Sarah's voice so much (although I missed all the "foreign" dialog she didn't translate), I'm going to try some other title from her as soon as the TBR pile goes down – even if she usually writes in other genres and this book is not her normal story.

I recommend it to anyone who wants an uplifting love-story, regardless of his/her religion. Oh, but it's a sci-fi romance, so no hardcore sci-fi fans!

EDITED TO ADD: I spoke to the author and she doesn't consider her story sci-fi. I agree, I labeled it sci-fi only because it's set in the future. But it's a love-story, inspirational if you wish, or simply that. Rom-com, she says. It's funny and witty and everything indeed.

I hoped to correct the post before it went live, but Day Job was… Friday! No line on phones or PCs until mid-morning, so here I go, editing after a few hours… Still recommended reading if you like love-stories!

New book out!

I'm a little late, but I finally made it. Books of the Immortals – Ether is available on Smashwords! Should take maybe another day to be on Kindle – yesterday afternoon  (morning for the US)  KDP was unaccessible, then very slow. But then so was Facebook (to upload the cover on the author page took me many tries) and YouTube (to share the trailer I had to do it manually). What was everybody doing on those sites during those hours I'll never know.

But I was so exhausted by waiting out those pages, I postponed the print version upload on Lulu. But then, I haven't made public the print version of Water yet, so I'm not in a hurry. I don't see people lined up to buy my books in print!

So, here's the full blurb for Ether:

Joyspring the Genn meets her first Human friend and then her betrothed, Edwyn Blackmore. Joyspring's youth doesn't prevent her from seeing beyond the mask: Edwyn is not as good as he pretends to be. Thus the struggle with darkness starts, forcing Kyler Darklight back into action after a century of peace. Can the Varian Empire defeat the Blackmore threat?

Joyspring the Genn moves to the Capital with her family, meeting the Human Imperial family and starting a lifelong friendship with Princess Claudia, who has just been betrothed to Edwyn Blackmore. The northern nobleman is lured by a Pond of Dark Magic, starting a struggle for power that requires the intervention of half-blood Kyler Darklight.

In this epic tale that span years, the struggle between Humans and Genn is only at the beginning. "Fire" saw an alternative Blackmore Empire, but reality is the Varian Empire. Joyspring, Claudia and Kyler Darklight have a different struggle with Edwyn Blackmore, but the outcome is almost the same. Then Joyspring is free to find love with a Human who looks a lot like long dead Falcon… Reading the other version is not necessary to understand this standalone novel of Silvery Earth.

And the book trailer:

Please check it out and spread the word, thank you!

*goes back to work on lettering SKYBAND 9*

Daily prompts

OK, 5 books/movies/albums/travels that influenced me the most (#264) – I'll pick one of each and throw in a comic book/graphic novel as well so that's 5 things (did I mention it's my favorite number? ).

Book: it's actually in 2 parts (2 books) but it's one story I picked up from all the works of this author who is also the main reason why I write. Sorry for the Italian titles, but I don't think there's an English translation: Le ragazze della villa accanto & Ero io quella by Brunella Gasperini. Mostly because the protagonist of book 2, the younger of the two sisters, sounded a lot like me back then. I read them for the first time when I was about 15, and keep rereading them and crying over them every time I pick them up again. Going way back to the beginning of this blog, here's a post about what I love about them. If the author hadn't died in 1979, I'd have been one of the many writing her letters – and might have ended up in one of her books!

Movie: Labyrinth (1986) Even if I was older than Sarah/Jennifer Connelly I absolutely loved it. I could really appreciate David Bowie at is best as Jareth with those oh-so-tight pants, yummy! And I love the soundtrack too – I have it on AUDIO TAPE!! Yes, I know, I'm old. Not to mention the best masked ball scene ever… It's still one of my all-time favorites, if I had a daughter I'd treat her with it as soon as she entered her teens!

Album: well, Making Movies by Dire Straits was one of the first I had along with the lyrics, which helped me a lot with my learning English. At the time (1980) I couldn't sing Solid Rock because it was too fast, but all the others were slow, so I managed to memorize them. It's still my favorite Dire Straits album and I was very happy to find the CD for 3 or 5£ during one of my trips to London (as previously I had only a pirated copy on tape, ahem!).

Travel: I'd say Iceland 2005, the first time I went there, totally ignorant of what I would find. I picked it as destination because it was north and cold, but wasn't expecting the fairyland it turned out to be. In 2007 it was already spoiled and I can't imagine what it has become after last year's volcanic eruption and the banks crash. It's very beautiful, though, and if it weren't for the dark winters, I'd move there anytime!

the extra: a BD (French comic), Thorgal, which I discovered in the 1990s – when I also discovered comics could be for adults as well. Not only manga are aimed at different age groups, and the French do lots of different things, not all aimed to children or teens (like in Italy). When I wrote the first book set in the Varian Empire (not it's the third of the Chronicles…), I imagined it turned into something like Thorgal, drawn by wonderful Rosinski – except he's unreachable even at comicons, but I drooled over his paintings both in Angoulème and Lucca. Ah, well… one day, maybe… Anyway, that was my first foray into comics&graphic novels for grown-ups, a passion that never went away!

Closing with topic#261: what does "home" mean to you? I'll let Gari Tarn sing it for ya (and yes, that's where I picked my pen-name oh so long ago, didn't manage to marry him, stole his family name, haha!)!

[image error]

(sorry I couldn't find the original video… I have it on some VHS, but my VCR is broken…)

Maiden name, married name

I had a quick email discussion with a friend who will soon be interviewed on this very blog, because I met her in the 1990s, when we were pen-pals and she was single – if you don't know what a pen-pal is, I'm old, just consider that there was something before email!

She was a writer with her own zine back then, so when I sent her my questions I asked her "How should I introduce you?". Since I met, her she sort of stopped writing and got married and started her own family – but I'm still poking her to get back to writing. Which, hopefully she will do one day. Except she hadn't considered the name question.

Fellow Creative Reviewer also wondered if using her maiden name, her married name or both as a writer, and my first editor used both names – but she had to drop her husband's name this year when her marriage ended. That's a little like actresses, who add their husband's name (Jada Pinkett Smith, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Robin Wright Penn, Joanna Walley Kilmer – the last two having dropped their husband's name after divorce). Or you can pick up a pen-name from the start, like I did.

But I did it because the law in this country is that women never really lose their maiden name. In Italy, if you're a woman you'll always be known as Maiden Name on official documents, unless you add "married Married Name" (or, at the time of my mum, it was Maiden Name in Married Name). So, as I don't like my maiden name (unlike Patricia! ), I immediately picked up a pen name. Even if I manage to find a foreign husband, change nationality and lose the maiden name, I guess I can stick to my pen name now!

I had a funny exchange with a female colleague because she opened an account for a foreigner and she said "it's him and his sister" and I told her "no, it's his wife" and she objected "but they have the same family name!" and I said "Exactly. In the UK you lose your maiden name when you get married." It's obviously not only in the UK, but in all English speaking countries and some more (I think it's the same in France), but it's a totally foreign concept in Italy.

Which baffles us when we travel: US tour with my mum in 1994. In one hotel we had that huge king bed because we had the same family name (OK, she dropped her maiden name in that case, haha!) while newlyweds always had two beds because they had given both names at the time of reservation, so the people at the hotel thought they were not a couple… Travel agencies who book honeymoons should tell their customers they better book under one name only, if they don't want to sleep in separate beds for the whole vacation…

So this is a question for women writers: if you're young and unmarried, what will happen when you get married? Will you add your husband's name? If you're already married, which name are you using? Just curious…

Happiness is…

Six Sentence Sunday

Hello Sunday visitors.

I'm a little behind with my latest novel, and as you seem to enjoy my muse, here's the drawn version of him as Killius in SKYBAND chapter 9 (WiP). I put only six sentences on the page, but there are balloons on all the frames. There you have it, the first six sentence graphic novel!

SKYBAND chapters 1 to 5 (omnibus 1) is out in print on Lulu (with the option to download a PDF)  and Amazon.

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