Gigi Pandian's Blog, page 12

A Book Cover and a Launch Party

It's an exciting week. I have both a book cover and a book launch party date! Here's the cover for Artifact, the first book in the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery series, which comes out August 28, 2012.


When historian Jaya Jones receives a mysterious package containing a jewel-encrusted artifact from India, sent by her ex-lover the same day he died in a supposed accident in the Highlands of Scotland, she discovers the secrets of a lost Indian treasure may be hidden in a Scottish legend...

Five Tips from Boot Camp for Self-Publishers

[image error] On this week's President's Day holiday, I attended Self-Publishing Boot Camp in San Francisco. I've already done a significant amount of research into the best ways to publish my books myself, but aside from attending an ebook panel put on my my local Sisters in Crime chapter, my research has primarily been online. Since I'm publishing Artifact: A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery in both ebook and print formats, I wanted to hear and speak with people in person to fill in the gaps in my...

A Website for Gargoyle Girl Productions

I love it when I have weekends this fun and productive. After an inspiring lunch with several writer friends who kicked my butt into gear to be productive, I finished designing a website for Gargoyle Girl Productions.


I've still got some kinks to work out, but I'm happy that I finally got it up! It makes this whole venture seem much more real.

—Gigi

10 Things I Wish I'd Known About Wigs Before Starting Chemotherapy

I'm one of those people who's good at staying positive. But when I learned that in addition to having cancer I had to go through chemotherapy and lose my hair, I wasn't happy. It turned out I was needn't have worried. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. There was even some fun to be had.

Since I've been going through this experience, a lot of people have asked me all sorts of questions about wigs. Six months ago, I knew nothing about wigs. Now I've learned so much that I thought ...

Of Schedules and Short Stories

A few days ago I was feeling frustrated that I was falling behind on my list of tasks to set up Gargoyle Girl Productions (for example, it still has no website). Having radiation EVERY DAY this month has put a crimp into my days. But I reminded myself that one of the reasons I wanted to publish my books myself was for this very reason: so I could be on my own schedule regardless of what health issues I might be facing. But… it still felt frustrating!

Trying to follow my own advice, I threw my ...

12 Resolutions for 2012

Last week I wrote about 11 lessons from 2011, so now it's time for 12 resolutions for 2012.

Actually, there's really just one big resolution I have for 2012, but it can be broken down into 12 smaller pieces. Last year wasn't such a fun year. This year, I resolve to have fun. 

1. Make sure writing stays fun. As I move from writing mode to publishing mode, I can see how easy it would be to get caught up in the stress of relentless promotion. But you know what? I'm not going to do it. Yes, I'm...

11 Lessons from 2011

2011 was a crazy year for me. In spite of everything, 2011 is finishing up even better than it began. Here are 11 things I learned in 2011:

Gigi with her dad in India.1. Writing a novel always takes longer than you think it will. After a late 2010 trip to India, I thought it would be easy to finish up the second book in my Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery series, much of which takes place in India. Ha! It was June before I gave it to my agent. 

2. Conventions and conferences are worth the...

One Writing Frenzy for Chemo & One for Radiation

I'm convinced that one the main reasons I felt so healthy during chemotherapy was because I stayed busy.

I took a bit of time off work at the beginning of my cancer treatments, but I quickly realized I was feeling well enough to work from home. During my four months of chemo, I did my day job, formed my new Gargoyle Girl Productions business, and wrote over 50,000 words during November for National Novel Writing Month. (Um, yes, I also watched a whole lot of bad television on the days I was f...

Post-Chemo and Post-NaNoWriMo Updates

Now that the chemo drugs are out of my system and my immune system is back up, I've gone from working from home to being able to be back in the office part time! I love my office. Yes, I love my beautiful brick wall (shown below), but I'm mainly talking about my coworkers and the projects I get to work on as a graphic designer. While I drew a short straw on the health front, I lucked out with a dream job. That makes it much easier to count my blessings instead of feeling sorry for myself.

Milestones of the Month: Finishing Chemo & NaNoWriMo

Two milestones to report today: I completed my last chemotherapy treatment last week and finished NaNoWriMo last night!

Of course, things aren't all rainbows and ponies around here. I've still got eight more months of additional cancer treatments, and I whole heck of a lot of editing to do to turn my NaNoWriMo words into anything you'd want to read. But these two big steps forward are still making me smile today.

Instead of writing a book in my Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mystery series, for this ...