Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 206

Holiday or working day?

So, how did you spend your Easter weekend? I worked of course (except for a short meditation/prayer in a cathedral of leaves with birds playing the organ). I had a manuscript to read, an historical novel to type (draft zero, I'm not near completing it yet – it's on the May to-do list) and a graphic novel to color (and do the lettering, but I'm not there yet). Oh, and I watched Shrek 4, in case some of you recognized lines from the first two in the previous paragraph.

I also did the prints to go with the signed copy of Air – but I cheated and did only 3 new drawings and recycled the other 3 with a new frame. So 3 were done in 2006, for the very first version of Air in Italian, which had no Keiko. Having to draw her anyway, I attempted to redo a couple of others (Indira remains in pencils only), so I did Kumar (of course) and Winged Jesminder.

Anyway, here are the prints you can choose from if you order a signed copy of Air from yours truly. The cards haven't arrived from Zazzle yet, so I don't know when I'll be able to start shipping, you you can reserve your copy now. And there are only a few days left for free shipping on the US version (unsigned!), enter code APRILMAIL305 at check out. This great offer ends on April 30, 2011 at 11:59 PM so try not to procrastinate!

Click to view slideshow.

Happiness is…

Six Sentence Sunday

Happy Easter, everybody!

Welcome back to our Six Sunday! Until the end of May, you'll be stuck with Books of the Immortals – Air, then I'll switch to the next one, Fire, that should come out in June.

So here's more of what you had so far – my wonderful characters from Air. Here happy-go-lucky Takeshi sees his future bride for the first time.

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He noticed a girl, seated in a corner: dark complexion, full lips, long wild black hair, untied. An unusual beauty, maybe because of her knowing smile while she followed the dancer's steps with her eyes, as if she knew things that others didn't.

He elbowed Kumar, seated by his side, and pointed at her with his chin.

"Do you know her?"

"No, but she sleeps here," Kumar answered, uninterested. Takeshi noticed that he didn't look spellbound like the others, but rather uneasy in the presence of the dancer.

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Air is out on Kindle, Smashwords and Lulu. For US residents who like to read on dead trees, take the special "free shipping" offer of the "US edition" by April 30. Happy reading!

Now hop back to the Official Blog and have a great Easter!

Saturday happiness and links

Happiness 1:  I finally got my envelope from Colleen Doran. Ordered back in January, mailed in March, it finally reached me like the perfect Easter Egg (I had no idea of what the package would include but "random issues"), with a little note from Colleen herself. Awe! Will have to send her a thank you note as soon as post offices reopen for business! Looky look! Ain't it all wonderful?

I've been a fan of ADS since the 90s (the "new, revised, expanded INDIE edition"), so it was very interesting to get one of the original WaRP issues… I learned something I'm not sure I liked, but I'll discuss it with Colleen only! I still have to watch the DVD (my to-be-watched is not going down much, but I have some reading to do, sigh! Hopefully in May, before I get to London… I digress). I even dislodged my muse's portraits to make room for some pros.

Bedroom: Larry Elmore, Maurizio Manzieri, Scott Mc Cloud & Colleen Doran on the left, Terry Moore's SiP on the right of the door

Living room: Larry Elmore, Terry Moore and Donald Duck - eventually I'll have a drawing of D'mer to put in the place of my beloved nephew!

Happiness 2: Yesterday I was a guest on the Mighty Caricaturist blog, sharing my artistic self with her readers and giving sneak previews of graphic novels to come… The Mighty Caricaturist herself might show up on this blog in the near future, so stay tuned…

Now, to the links!

Blood-Red Pencil on writing what matters! I write to entertain (myself first, but I'm sure I'm not so unique that I can't find like-minded readers), so let's have fun together!

Agent Jessica Faust thinks Twitter needs interesting people! I'm sorry, Jessica, I don't think Twitter is fun, so I'm not joining, so you'll have to live without my wonderful humor! I also put back my self-portrait on my Facebook author page under her suggestion, so Air cover has been my profile picture for less than a month.

Clarion issued the Write-a-thon call. I'm not sure what this is, but I'm going to check it out. Just in case…

Go indie! Check the problems traditionally published authors have on Kristine Kathryn Rush's excellent post. Do I need to mention she's the wife of excellent Dean Wesley Smith who has wonderful series Killing the sacred cows of publishing and Think like a publisher? And that even Colleen Doran mentioned KK Rush's articles? Wake up, writers! It's not only J.A.Konrath saying it!

If you need help check the review of this book on indie publishing and follow the Self-published Author's lounge for tips and advice and whatnot!

I'll be going back to London soon, and I'm dreading it. Joshua Bilmes came back from the London Book Fair announcing others of my favorite shops will be closing soon (on England retailing – gives you another perspective of how things are going in Europe). I'll have only Forbidden Planet to visit soon! Borders, where are you?

OK, if you want to give online presence to your characters (I can't, I write fantasy, and they have never seen a computer in their life, so they wouldn't know what that is! ), check Mari Miniatt's suggestions on how to do it.

Phew, I'm waaaay behind with this post (a couple of hours later than usual! ), so I'll just put it online. I wish you a Happy Easter!

Love-story with… God

Because it's Good Friday and I have been raised as Roman Catholic (I'm Italian, after all), I thought this could be a good day to tell my story with religion at large.

Growing up in Switzerland where Catholics weren't the absolute majority, and having attended mixed masses of Catholics and Protestants, when I did my First Communion (1975) I was indeed very Catholic. Mr le Curé was a great old man who brought bread from Palestine and handed me an ivory cross for my First Communion that came straight from Jerusalem. He could keep children still for one-hour-and-a-half-long masses!

the ivory cross from Jerusalem

I loved Christmas and our Nativity scene with Santons de Provence. I loved Jesus. I loved the world.

Then I came back to The Roman Catholic Country, where the Pope lives, and was so disappointed with masses that a couple of years after Confirmation (1979), I stopped going to church altogether.

Since then I go only for weddings, funerals and baptisms. I don't think the Church today is following Jesus's teachings.

I now have my own form of spirituality. I believe in God and Jesus and my poor Guardian Angel with a nervous breakdown, but I don't believe the Church has any right to dictate anything to anyone. I add some Asian beliefs such as karma, chakra and reincarnation, and I'm following my own path to enlightment, whatever that means!

I picked up my copy of the New Testament, given to me for my Confirmation over thirty years ago, and am slowly wading into it – I don't think I ever read it all, so curiosity it taking me through it. As for the Bible, it's not on my TBR list yet (sorry, Janna! ).

So now I pray, try to be a radiant center of divine love, accept my humanity and wait for what's to come. Times are quickly shifting and I do believe the Age of the Aquarius is the age of truth: see how those false myths and castles of lies are crumbling down these days?

Hopefully soon I won't be requested to add subtext because people say one thing, think another and do a third! I've been told my characters are too straightforward – sorry, I have been writing what I know!

God bless you all and have a wonderful Easter (or a great weekend if you're not Christian)!

Book review: Dioscuri by Christalla Thoma

Greek myths remind me of childhood. Greek myths revisited by a Greek author sounded good, especially from the Six Sentence Sunday snippets. Hence I got the e-book and read it in two sittings.

The alternance of Kast and Pol with their different voices is well done, and the humor great. I'm not a fan of urban fantasy, but this story was funny and gripping enough to keep me glued to the page. It was a great ride.

Five stars! Highly recommended.

I had sent my questions to the author, but she didn't get back to me with her answers… so no interview today!

Happy reading!

P.S. I've made my "top post of all times" private (10 things to do before you turn 40): I'm sick of having visits every day on that stupid thingy. I didn't delete it because I want to keep the comments which, at the time, were by Mesmered, Hema and our lost pal Lua… if any of those three would like to access it again, I'll make it password-protected just for you!

I know, I know, bad blogger… but I hate getting the wrong readers here!

Daily prompt

I'm going to mix a few prompts today! First I wanna rant about how disappointed I am with Scott for his lame choices of topics… just kidding, Scott, you're doing great!

Except of course your suggestion #99 is totally lame for this specific blogger here, because I'm a writer! And a very prolific one, for that matter. And I lost count of the books I've written, and the genres explored, and I'd need to check my little neat notebook to answer that question! I have prepared a list of books to rewrite for indie publishing (about 5 novels + 1 short stories collection a year, and I'm "booked" up to 2016), and that's only stories of Silvery Earth.

I want to finish that historical novel and maybe write another. I want to publish also some (very selected) sci-fi (one book per year). And maybe, eventually, I'll even write that silly memoir I started and never went past the 1970s. I guess I'm pretty busy for the years to come!

OK, let's try with topic #100, Scott (today I'm really talking to you, as you're the one who must come up with a topic every day – which isn't something I could do, so I really admire you): I hate my phone (and it never rings anyway, haha! ), I don't have a laptop nor an i-Pad (yet), and my desktop, with special thanks to Open Office and Telecom Italia, tends to die on its own (like, the whole of last weekend without access to my e-mail on Telecom Italia for overloaded servers… no comment!). BUT if power went off for a day, in spite of still doing lots of things by hand, I'd miss my desktop. I'd keep thinking that I should be typing that manuscript or coloring SKYBAND, not to mention research the silliest things on the internet and checking my 6 e-mail addies 5 times per afternoon (when I switch it on and before switching it off). But then, I miss my desktop even on vacation… it's addictive, sigh!

I'll end this post by pointing you all to Noobcare's Story Bounce (thanks, Scott, for bringing it to our attention): contribute to a fun story in progress, where even WordPress guys contribute! Going to check it and see if I can add my sentence (which you'll find out by the time this post goes live, as I'm writing two days in advance…)!

Happy writing and blogging!

Air in print part 2

I wanted to rant on those spam comments, but then decided not to waste time on any of them. I have a blog powered by WordPress, with a free WordPress theme, the only thing I customized is the header, so don't bother asking me how to blog, you spam commenters! WordPress has an excellent free guide if you really want to learn and are untechnological like yours truly (who learned to blog before that guide came out, BTW)!

Ahem, hello dear regular reader of this crazy blog! News from the indie publishing front: I have now made available a US version of Air for those who like reading on dead trees and live in the US. It's cheaper when shipped to a US address and is made on "publisher" paper with digest size – the inside is exactly the same, albeit adjusted to the new size. And Lulu even gives you this coupon for a FREE mail shipping ending April 30, so hurry!

Use coupon code APRILMAIL305 at checkout, select Mail Shipping and receive the single book shipping cost free. Maximum savings with this promotion is $4.99. Print and tax amounts are excluded. You can only use the code once per account, and you can't use this coupon in combination with other coupon codes. This great offer ends on April 30, 2011 at 11:59 PM so try not to procrastinate! While very unlikely we do reserve the right to change or revoke this offer at anytime, and of course we cannot offer this coupon where it is against the law to do so. Transaction must be in US dollars.

For the rest of the world, I have some copies (of the "European version", or the first one that came out) I can sign and add some goodies to for the outrageous price of 20euros which includes: signed book, a couple of cards and a print out of the character of your choice + mailing expenses anywhere in the world. Simply check back on May 1st to choose the print you want with the book.

So, either grab your cheap US print before April 30 if you live in the US, or get the European version for 11euros+mailing expenses for the rest of the world, or, from May 1st, buy a signed copy as above from the author.

If you'd rather save money and trees, please go to the Kindle store or Smashwords, thank you!

Happiness is…

Six Sentence Sunday – Books of the Immortals, Air

The few lovely commenters last week wanted "more of this scene", "more of these two", but that would give away the end of the book. So I'll give you Keiko again, but continue my introduction of my main characters through somebody else's eyes. Here's how she sees (through a magic device) her younger brother Takeshi, whom she hasn't seen for 16 years.

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He had grown up into a handsome young man, better-looking than Hayato in some ways. He had something in him of his mother that gave Keiko a strange feeling.

She didn't think she could have feelings anymore. The Sect had taken away her humanity long before she gave herself to the Bloodthirsty Goddess. Now, fifteen years later, she knew her rival had been right: Kumar was alive, and Takeshi was back in the southern kingdoms. She could use her younger brother as well.

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Books of the Immortals – Air is available on Smashwords, Kindle and Lulu.

Now hop off to the official site for more Sunday goodies!