R.K. MacPherson's Blog, page 13

Writing the Naughty

I've been fretting over this issue. There's a sex scene in my NaNoWriMo novel, Eldritch Blood, and I can't avoid it. I also don't want to write it like a Dear Penthouse letter, nor do I really want to shy away from it (i.e. the train goes into the tunnel) because EB isn't about flinching. On the other hand, I know exactly ONE author who writes good sex scenes (or at least he used to) and that's Eric Van Lustbader (see The Miko for the blood-pressure raising details).

The topic's come up a few ...

Write What You…No!

Day 7 of National Novel Writing Month is awesome. I'm having a great time and the words are just leaping onto the laptop. Some have made messes, but let us not dwell on that. That's what wipes are for.

I've seen several discussion threads on Google+ (which is easily where the most writerly chats on the Interwebz occur) about the subject matter and why people are writing about their particular subject. That old saw 'write what you know' comes up a lot and I think people take it too literally...

Well, Nook at That

Er…look. Sorry. Fever talking.

I had this vision that Antigone's Fall was now out for the Nook. ~*pinches self*~ Nope. It's real. Sweet!

I apologize for the delay. My computer decided to take a short break on me. Lost a week's data, including the conversion of Antigone's Fall. I notice that my clean little 600K EPUB file is now over 3MB. I have no idea what Barnes & Noble did to the file (Don't have a Nook, myself) but at least we know they did something in the three days since I uploaded it...

Blue Moon

It's Halloween, the night highly recommended by 9 out of 10 dentists who need to pay for their vacations. It's the night before NaNaWriMo, when a zillion writers sit in puddles of flop sweat either waiting to dig into their book or without anything to write about at all.

If you work at a cool place, it's the day to dress up all zany, sexy, or scary. If you work at an uncool place, it's just Monday.

For me, it's just Monday. I work at an insanely cool place. I will likely be one of the few...

MOAR Lessons: Playing the Game

I've gotten several similar questions recently, so I thought I'd write up what I've learned. This is in no way meant to establish myself as the ultimate authority (except those things I'm the ultimate authority on; see Appendix Rho), so take these words with several grains of salt, some lemon, and pepper vodka. Unless you're under 21–then just drink some root beer…just like every other writer.

1. How are you reaching out to people?

While I tried desperate lunging and clinging, that mostly...

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. That blessed time of year when writers lay out their humble plans and aspirations, such as:

I'm going to write 100,000 words!I'm going to write every day.I'm not going to listen to the voices in my head!I'm going to write something completely original…like a sexy waif-heroine, tampered with by the government to become a psychic, runaway, ninja gunslinger, who can kill you with her brain AND bites her lip and broods…for four books–which I will write in...

Why I Write

My mother felt strongly that I should write a personal blog post rather than talking about books. After enduring several encounters with The Eye, I decided to give in. Nobody beats The Eye. Happily, it's National Day on Writing today (and just a few short weeks before National Novel Writing Month), so the timing's perfect.

Short answer–because I have to. The stories are in my brain, struggling for my attention and depriving me of (you'll all agree) much-needed beauty sleep.

Longer...

D+2: Lessons Learned

I take it as a given that the moment your work is available for the public, 937 glaring errors will explode across the text. I deal with that by weeping and calling upon eldritch spirits of darkness. And caffeine. LOTS of caffeine.

So, Antigone's Fall is live on Amazon. I've been a marketing fool, trying to get the word out, trying to keep up with the digital Joneses, and so on. I have no standard to measure sales success by, but I know it's proportional to consumer awareness. Lots of...

The First Novel is Away

"I repeat, the first novel is away." -Super excited Rebel communications officer in The Empire Strikes Back.

I woke up this morning to see several tweets with my name in them, and rather recent tweets at that. Seems that while I slept, Amazon busily pushed Antigone's Fall out to their website. My friends were already talking about it! How incredible is that?

The publication of Antigone's Fall is the next step in my professional development. I started writing it 3 years ago, mostly as an...

Putting Points into Diplomacy…

My dear friend Bridget McKenna put up a great blog post that I wanted to emphasize. I owe Bridget huge. She's gone out of her way more than once to help me learn this profession. So, please, take a gander at this–and drop her a comment!

Dichotomy, n. Division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups







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