Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 90

Sunday Surprise

Words of wisdom, writers on writing, take your pic. Here’s May batch. Have a great Sunday!

A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.

— Madeleine L’Engle

2016

This year, I’m boiling my resolutions down to the essence:

WRITE.

It’s so easy to get caught up in different aspects of a writing career. I’ve had phases where I tried to help other writers, started my own company, blogged, collaborated, fought the publishing world, evangelized, experimented, promoted, tried to figure things out, and spent a whole lot of time doing stuff other than writing.

I’m happy I did all that. But it has taken me away from the thing I like most.

I might be a blogger, and a teacher, and an innovator, and a pundit. But first and foremost, I’m a writer.

And writers write.

So for 2016, I’m going to write more than I’ve ever written before. I’m going to finish those stories I’ve put aside, I’m going to break new ground, and I’m going to get back to my roots. I’ve spent a lot of time tending to my career. And for good reason. A backlist is a garden that needs attention to grow and prosper.

But now I’m going to spend the lion’s share of my time planting more seeds.

I’m looking for 2016 to be my most productive year ever.

– Joe Konrath

There’s no wrong way to do it, as long as you’re doing it.

There’s no timetable, as long as you’re taking the time.

Nobody can tell you how you do it. They can only tell you how they do it or what illusions they hold about the process — illusions that often wither under actual implementation.

They can offer suggestions. And you are free to take them, hold them up in the light, and see if there is anything there of value. And if there isn’t? Then you can fling it into the trash compactor on the detention level where it will be ogled and eaten by the one-eyed Dianoga.

That’s not to say there aren’t people you should listen to — a good editor or agent, a trusted friend, a beloved author. But even there, you want to find people who will clarify and improve your process and your work — not substitute it with something that isn’t really yours.

So, in 2016, I advise you to give your middle fingers a proper workout and elevate them accordingly to any who would diminish who you are, what you make, or how you make it. You don’t need to wall yourself off from it, but you also don’t need to be a sweater hanging on the clothesline, either. Get some tooth around that nerve.

Know who you are. Learn your process. Find your way. And don’t let anyone else define who you are as a creator, as an artist, as a writing writer who motherfucking writes.

– Chuck Wendig

Repeat after me:

I can do this. So I do.

That confidence has to exist long before the first sale. That confidence, that willingness to say I can do this needs to exist when the writer first turns on their computer or first puts a pen to paper.

The confidence, the belief in one’s self and one’s work, has to be the core of every writer.

Yes, yes, I know, we’re all insecure. As I’ve told my writing students, we’re all a combination of extreme confidence and horrid insecurity. After all, the impulse to write—the belief that we have something to say that others will listen to—takes confidence. Extreme confidence.

– Kris Rusch

To survive, you must tell stories.

— Umberto Eco From The Island of the Day Before

Random Friday

Totally random. Someone on Facebook posted a picture of Rome EUR in 1953. I thought I’d compare it to how it is now, since I go there everyday to work (I’m a on the outskirts of that somewhere in the right hand top corner).

And let’s make it another Art Friday with another pencil portrait – WiP and finished. Not much reading, but lots of watching to do![image error]

And since it’s a Watch This post, here’s Da Muse’s latest (you can tell I miss his ass-shaking in movies and item songs… since 2014, gaaaah!)

Have a great Sunday!

Writer Wednesday

So, wordcount was back up in April so I have 171K words in the first quarter, which multiplied by 3 means I’ll reach my yearly goal of writing 500K – if I keep this pacing, that is!

Happiness is…

As you can see, my walls have changed since 2010… sort of![image error] The stuffed unicorns are still there, though! Actually there’s two more… And taking naps in April or May is still bliss!

Sunday Surprise

And it’s a bundle! Science Fiction May Day is on for two weeks only, so get it now! 10 novels, including one from yours truly! Buyers get the chance to get up to $52 worth of great science fiction for only $9! Go get it now!

It’s the first bundle I’m part of and I’m awed at the company… I have read Blaze Ward’s Siren from the previous bundle and it’s awesome if you like military sci-fi! Haven’t read the others yet, but will… eventually… So, even if you already have Technological Angel, grab Da Bundle and try the other authors as well!

Now I really feel like the May Queen, LOL![image error] Have a great Sunday!

Random Friday

And, as promised, Art Friday! Because I toyed with covers that I may never use, I thought I’d share some. I have also done Kingmakers, but since I have no idea of how long that story will be, I’ll keep it under wraps a little longer…

First here’s Cinder Boy, cut to add the water effect available at watereffect.net.

The final cover is framed like the other Tales of the Northern Kingdoms and it will come out next month.

Then we have the painter, a composite of three drawings – my Amazons frame, a quick digital portrait of Da Muse and the painter herself…

I will probably give this short story away with the newsletter #3… or if I manage to set up the welcome email, it might be a gift for newsletter subscribers!

Writer Wednesday

So, Kaylyn is done and going out to betas… They should get back to me by June, so in July I have time to revise and in August I can go to the London public libraries if I need to fact-check something! I already booked the editor for September, when I’ll set up the pre-order button on Amazon with a temporary manuscript. The other pre-order button will be set up as soon as I have the cover.

As for Charioteer of Buddha, I’m giving it away for free with the next newsletter, so if you haven’t subscribed yet, do it now. I will put the coupon for a free download from Smashwords in the newsletter. The newsletter will go out May 2, so you’ll be immediately able to claim the e-book. If you’d like to support me instead, pre-order it now for 2.99$. The price will go up to 4.99$ by Friday 5.

I keep thinking the online workshop is going badly, and then it’s not. If you’d like another point of view on WMG Publishing workshops watch this testimonial. I bow to an author who is not camera-shy like me. And I may be biased with these workshops, since when I grow up I want to be like Dean and Kris!

Happiness is…

Sunday Surprise

Either this or nothing… so words of wisdom, writers on writing, take your pick! Have a great Sunday![image error]

And my plan looks a little something like this:

I try to figure out what my next year looks like.

And the year after that.

Then, five years.

Then, ten years.

This isn’t just about what books I want to write. It’s about where I want to be in my career. It’s about what kind of money I hope to be making, how I might evolve myself as an author, what sassy dance moves I might perform if I am ever mistakenly given an award. Really, you can have nearly any goal you’d like, reasonable or not — “I want to be published by Rangdom Panguinhaus. I want a short story published in Corklin’s Literary Salon. I would like to write a comic book or a video game or the marketing copy for a sex toy company. I would also like to quit my full-time job, be a bestseller, and have a trained marmoset to fetch me my feather and quill every morning!”

(Note: it’s better to have goals you can control rather than goals you can’t.)

(Note: it’s still fun to mentally identify goals about things you can’t control anyway.)

– Chuck Wendig

Tust me, folks, I am not immune from this in the slightest. When I realize that one of my books or series is selling better than others, and yet I am firing up a book that is in the poor-selling series, I hear myself ask that question.

How I get around it is tell that tiny part of my critical voice that is trying to stop me that maybe this book in this lower-selling series will be the one that explodes. That answers the question, “What’s the point.”

And makes the critical voice crawl away whimpering.

But realize, I’ve been doing this a very long time, I never read reviews of my work, and I do not follow any sales numbers or bestseller lists. Yet this still creeps in at times because one of the wonderful things we have about this new world is immediate information on sales.

A real double-edged sword if I have ever seen one.

– Dean Wesley Smith

On one site, an anonymous commenter took me to task for the use of the word “artist.” He hated it in the context of writing. (I have no idea why.)

I admit: that stunned me. I’m a writer. That’s who I am. As a writer, I am both a craftsperson and an artist. I constantly strive to get better. I produce the best work I possibly can, and I always feel like I’m dancing on the head of a pin, trying to get something right.

Not the “right” of the marketplace. But the kind of right that Stephen King refers to in his introduction to Bazaar of Bad Dreams [Scribner, 2015, p. 2]:

I have struggled with feelings of inadequacy, a soul-deep fear that I will be unable to bridge the gap between a great idea and the realization of that idea’s potential. What that comes down to, in plain English, is that the finished product never seems quite as good as the splendid idea that rose from the subconscious one day, along with the excited thought, Ah, man! I gotta write this right away!

Honestly, the “right” that King defines here—getting it right as in realizing its potential—is the kind of thing an artist and a craftsperson cares about. The best way to write an idea is personal. Only King knows what that splendid idea actually was, and what he was trying to capture. Just like I’m the only one who knows what I’m trying to capture when I write some of my splendid ideas.

– Kris Rusch

To everyone who is new to publishing and living the indie writing lifestyle: It’s not possible to do it all. I will say it again for myself so that I can remember this and not get myself in the mess I was in. I cannot do everything. I need to rest, eat, relax and connect with those around me. I can’t be plugged in all the time writing and then working at my day job. I learned a hard lesson this year. Yes, I love writing and want to write more books, but they can’t happen as fast as I would like and that’s okay. In fact, that’s better than okay. It’s normal and I’m perfectly fine with that.

– Ron Vitale

The greatest writers have persistence.

– Gina Nahai

Random Friday

Awesome Editor sent back the manuscript on Wednesday, so I had time to go through it and set up the pre-order buttons. Find it at Amazon, Kobo and Smashwords for now. Price is 2.99 but it will go up to 4.99 during the week of release. Newsletter subscribers will get a 50% discount coupon.

Kaylyn is on its final pass before heading out for betas and awesome cover artist, who will be provided with reference for this one!