Meg Wolfe's Blog, page 9
March 12, 2014
The Chain Reaction from Leaving Comments
Which bit is doing what?
In the whirlwind approaching a novel launch, there are so many things to keep track of at once. For An Uncollected Death, there was the final edit, formatting for Kindle, and formatting for Create Space, then creating a Facebook page and an author profile on Goodreads, announcing the publication on Google+ and Twitter, writing posts on the blogs, emailing people that might find the book and/or fact I published a novel interesting, and, possibly the most difficult of al...
March 6, 2014
More Free Books
Love the new cover!
Today and tomorrow (March 6-7) you can get my tiny collection of very short stories, Spirits of Place, free on Amazon. It’s a quick read, seven flash fiction pieces that form one longer story about the relationship between consciousness and place, seasons in both nature and life. First published in 2012, it’s been updated with a new cover and forward.
Also, for today only (March 6), you can get The Minimalist Woman’s Guide to Having it All free on Amazon, as well. I wrote it...
March 1, 2014
Free Book this Weekend
Just a quick note:
An Uncollected Deathis now live on Amazon, and it’s free today and tomorrow (March 1-2) for its inaugural weekend. The print version will be available in a week or two. If you enjoy it, leave a review!
February 26, 2014
An Uncollected Death
My first Charlotte Anthony mystery, An Uncollected Death, will be for sale on Amazon on Friday, February 28th. I’m taking requests for a free Review Copy until 9 pm CST on Thursday, February 27th, which will be available in epub and PDF formats. The book will first be published digitally on KDP and priced at $4.99. Print and audio versions will follow. (And I just love the cover that Steve created!)
Is this book for you? It’s a traditional/literary/cozy mystery. Minimalism, downsizing, and un...
February 25, 2014
On Reading a Series: Louise Penny’s “Still Life”
Time to snuggle up with a good mystery
Reading a novel series slows down time, I think, and that is a good thing the older one gets. When I follow a series about the same protagonist(s), whether in books or on television/video, something happens to catch me up out of my own life and place me amid another life with just the pertinent highlights. Perhaps that is why binge-watching entire 90-episode series via Netflix or another service is such fun, because it increases that sense of immersion in...
February 24, 2014
Learning to be a Novelist
Focus on the Large Red Ball
Learning to be a novelist is learning to focus, and to focus in a particular way. Since I had no track record of finishing the second draft of a novel-length work (several NaNoWriMo “winners” don’t count), I had to overcome the dilettante factor and actually devote myself to the task of learning the craft as I wrote.
Inspiration wasn’t a problem, but plot outlines were, among many other things. As different problems in the craft of novel-writing crept up, I dealt wit...
December 20, 2013
Finishing the Whole Darn Thing
In Time for the Holidays
On Tuesday, December 17, I typed the final words of the last quarter of my novel–and broke down and cried. After holding the scene (more or less) intact in my head for the better part of a year, seeing it manifest, knowing it was the place to end the book, was almost overwhelming.
This does not mean that the book itself is finished–that will happen in the next few days after editing and tweaking what I call Act III, and then going back through the first two Acts to comb...
November 4, 2013
Finding My Own Way to Work
My Own Stamp on It
Periodically, I stop writing the novel itself and make notes about what I’m doing, in hopes that when I write the next one I can remember what I did that worked, and what was a waste of time. It is also useful to write down the order in which I did things, and when I realized something had to be done or undone. It’s not a diary, exactly, it’s just a numbered list. I’m 3/4 of the way through the next-to-the-last draft, and there are nineteen items on the list. No doubt there...
January 1, 2013
Learning the Craft
Stop, Go, Turn
It seems like I’ve stopped and restarted this blog again, but in truth it never really stopped. I’ve been writing my brains out and keeping up with my more well-known blog, and that’s all I’ve been able to handle. During the past six months I’ve written around 130,000 words, some published in The Minimalist Woman blog, and the rest in various chunks throughout Scrivener.
80,000 of those words are raw material for flash fiction collections, the kind of writing where I dug deep in...
July 18, 2012
Flourishing Indoors
Last Flower in the Drought
Weather is a huge determinant of human action. This summer started out so brilliantly, with a long warm spring that made working and playing outdoors so wonderful and it seemed like everyone had the same idea. Bicyclists, walkers, runners, children on scooters and skateboards, people diningal fresco–this was going to be a rare year, indeed, for those who lived in this part of the world.
Of course, being this part of the world, it didn’t last. The summery spring grew i...
