Marta Szemik's Blog, page 16
December 22, 2011
December 19, 2011
What a great year it has been...
WORD FOR THIS POST:
Christmas (n) :the annual festival of the Christian church commemorating the birth of Jesus: celebrated on December 25 and now generally observed as a legal holiday and an occasion for exchanging gifts
This will be my last post for this year as I take a break to prepare for Christmas and enjoy the time with family and friends.
As Christmas nears, all the ooey, gooey feelings inside me return. No matter how you celebrate it, or if you celebrate it I do hope that everyone is safe and not alone. For some it is time to simply get together with family and friends, sing carols, enjoy a break from work, help those less fortunate or celebrate the birth of Jesus.
This time of the year I get a lump in my throat thinking about how fortunate I am to be where I am and who I am. So much has happened and changed. I finally published my first novel, met wonderful people and made new life lasting friends. I had a rough December with my sick kids and feel so blessed they're all right and back to their bouncy selves.
This month for me brings thoughts about those who cannot be with us anymore. Like my grandfather, or my husband's mom whom he lost when he was four.
During the season I also think about what it would be like if I had no one (I know, that's just me). Even if I don't want to think about it, I know there are those who will never know the smell of hot chocolate on Christmas morning, and will never feel a mother's comforting smooch on their cheek when she kisses them goodnight. A whisper in your ear that everything will be ok, even when it won't. A comforting hug, for no reason... ...just because.
And I will always have those people in my thoughts and in my prayers, building hope that these little gifts I take for granted will somehow find their way into their life.
Although sometimes sad, I need to think about these things to make my Christmas special. This is the way I realize what I have is much more than many do and the people in my life are special. I am fortunate to have you all in my life, share my thoughts, tears, laughs and joys.
Please take the time this season to ... ... to take time. We rush so much every day. As cliche as it sounds, I will stop and smell the roses, keep my fingers away from the computer, hug my kids as much as I can and tell them I love them. I plan to smile more often, laugh much more and take deeper breaths.
For those traveling have a safe journey and those drinking, hand your keys over to a designated driver.
Christmas (n) :the annual festival of the Christian church commemorating the birth of Jesus: celebrated on December 25 and now generally observed as a legal holiday and an occasion for exchanging gifts
This will be my last post for this year as I take a break to prepare for Christmas and enjoy the time with family and friends.
As Christmas nears, all the ooey, gooey feelings inside me return. No matter how you celebrate it, or if you celebrate it I do hope that everyone is safe and not alone. For some it is time to simply get together with family and friends, sing carols, enjoy a break from work, help those less fortunate or celebrate the birth of Jesus.
This time of the year I get a lump in my throat thinking about how fortunate I am to be where I am and who I am. So much has happened and changed. I finally published my first novel, met wonderful people and made new life lasting friends. I had a rough December with my sick kids and feel so blessed they're all right and back to their bouncy selves.
This month for me brings thoughts about those who cannot be with us anymore. Like my grandfather, or my husband's mom whom he lost when he was four.
During the season I also think about what it would be like if I had no one (I know, that's just me). Even if I don't want to think about it, I know there are those who will never know the smell of hot chocolate on Christmas morning, and will never feel a mother's comforting smooch on their cheek when she kisses them goodnight. A whisper in your ear that everything will be ok, even when it won't. A comforting hug, for no reason... ...just because.
And I will always have those people in my thoughts and in my prayers, building hope that these little gifts I take for granted will somehow find their way into their life.
Although sometimes sad, I need to think about these things to make my Christmas special. This is the way I realize what I have is much more than many do and the people in my life are special. I am fortunate to have you all in my life, share my thoughts, tears, laughs and joys.
Please take the time this season to ... ... to take time. We rush so much every day. As cliche as it sounds, I will stop and smell the roses, keep my fingers away from the computer, hug my kids as much as I can and tell them I love them. I plan to smile more often, laugh much more and take deeper breaths.
For those traveling have a safe journey and those drinking, hand your keys over to a designated driver.
December 16, 2011
2011 Resolution and my son's joke...
WORD FOR THIS POST:
Cataclysm (n): 1. any violent upheaval, especially one of a social or political nature. 2. Physical Geography . a sudden and violent physical action producing changes in the earth's surface. 3. an extensive flood; deluge.
The featured blog/site for today is The Indie Book Collective. Whether you're published traditionally or you've gone the self-publishing route, this is a great site to explore with plenty of material (including marketing).
Next Friday I will be driving to Florida with my family so my last post before Christmas will be on Monday. The next one after that (unless I feel creative) will be in the New Year.
Now, for my 2011 resolution, yes 2011 I've been thinking a lot about this blog and about my posts the past week. I want to give my followers something useful, something that will be meaningful and they will enjoy. I don't want to post stuff for the sake of 'posting' or filling in the week. I have a few ideas that will start in the New Year.
Bottom line, my resolution is that I will try posting on Monday's and Friday' only. I will reserve Wednesday's for the occasional guest posts. That's right! If you would like to do a guest post, an interview or have another idea, let me know. I will put a new page together this weekend with some guidelines. This will begin first week of 2012.
Now, for my son's joke:
"Mommy, why did the boy climb up the maple tree?"
"Why?"
"To play with the Maple Leafs."
For those who don't know, Maple Leafs are Toronto's Hockey Team. I thought it was a cute joke for an eight year old.
Cataclysm (n): 1. any violent upheaval, especially one of a social or political nature. 2. Physical Geography . a sudden and violent physical action producing changes in the earth's surface. 3. an extensive flood; deluge.
The featured blog/site for today is The Indie Book Collective. Whether you're published traditionally or you've gone the self-publishing route, this is a great site to explore with plenty of material (including marketing).
Next Friday I will be driving to Florida with my family so my last post before Christmas will be on Monday. The next one after that (unless I feel creative) will be in the New Year.
Now, for my 2011 resolution, yes 2011 I've been thinking a lot about this blog and about my posts the past week. I want to give my followers something useful, something that will be meaningful and they will enjoy. I don't want to post stuff for the sake of 'posting' or filling in the week. I have a few ideas that will start in the New Year.
Bottom line, my resolution is that I will try posting on Monday's and Friday' only. I will reserve Wednesday's for the occasional guest posts. That's right! If you would like to do a guest post, an interview or have another idea, let me know. I will put a new page together this weekend with some guidelines. This will begin first week of 2012.
Now, for my son's joke:
"Mommy, why did the boy climb up the maple tree?"
"Why?"
"To play with the Maple Leafs."
For those who don't know, Maple Leafs are Toronto's Hockey Team. I thought it was a cute joke for an eight year old.
December 14, 2011
It's my idea!
WORD FOR THIS POST:
Forge (v): 1. to form by heating and hammering; beat into shape. 2. to form or make, especially by concentrated effort: to forge a friendship through mutual trust. 3. to imitate (handwriting, a signature, etc.) fraudulently; fabricate a forgery.
I was talking to my neighbour about my next novel in progress. I bet she could see my eyes glistening with pride as I went into the story and how excited I was about the idea. I already had over 30K of the work and it was action from the first page.
(note: I'm paraphrasing the conversation)
Suddenly she says: "You know, it really sounds like (she named a book)."
Me: "What? I never heard of such book."
She said: "I read it in high school. It was part of our reading."
Me: "Well, it has to be different, because (this and this happens in my book)."
She said: "OMG! That's exactly what happens in that book!"
(At this point I can hear all my feelings of being unique and extraordinary of this brand new, wonderful idea flush down the toilet.)
Me: "Are you playing with me?"
She said: "No! I'm serious!"
(The glow fades from my face.)
Me: "Crap! I have to read that book!"
(That's when I fell of my cloud nine.)
I have not yet read the book she suggested. We went further into the conversation and I decided that even though the concept is similar, my novel and the direction I want to take are different. It was scary though how close some of my descriptions were to what she told me about the book. So yes, I will be reading it over Christmas to decide if I'm "stealing" someone's idea. But my question is: "Is it stealing?"
I know for a fact there are writers who have never met each other, never read each others work, live probably on the opposite coasts, yet their writing style, concepts, genre, character traits etc are eerily similar.
When I wrote Two Halves I was afraid to use the "sound of cicadas" in one of my descriptions because the book that inspired me to write had it (I wrote my description before reading the book - the movie inspired me to write, I wrote, then read the book later). I'm not afraid of things like that anymore, because how many different ways can you write "a gust of wind", "the breeze was light". There are plenty of novels using them.
My point is, that THIS one is MY idea! It came from a real life inspiration that happened in 2010, so I cannot imagine how an author (whose name I don't know yet) who wrote the book probably 20 years ago could steal my idea.
If you like the craze around the Hunger Games Trilogy, you'll like this piece of work. The MC lives in an oppressed society like Katniss did (no there are no games in my novel) and I can't yet say more than that - but it's cool. I'm beginning to think what the title should be and what the cover should look like. There are few ideas floating in my head, but until I write more I won't know for sure.
I guess at this point all I can do is read the novel my neighbour mentioned and see how eerily similar we are.
Do you find yourself writing in the same style as other authors? Readers, do you find some authors have similar styles? Did you ever have an idea stolen? (I know I thought about roller blades way before they were invented.)
Forge (v): 1. to form by heating and hammering; beat into shape. 2. to form or make, especially by concentrated effort: to forge a friendship through mutual trust. 3. to imitate (handwriting, a signature, etc.) fraudulently; fabricate a forgery.
I was talking to my neighbour about my next novel in progress. I bet she could see my eyes glistening with pride as I went into the story and how excited I was about the idea. I already had over 30K of the work and it was action from the first page.
(note: I'm paraphrasing the conversation)
Suddenly she says: "You know, it really sounds like (she named a book)."
Me: "What? I never heard of such book."
She said: "I read it in high school. It was part of our reading."
Me: "Well, it has to be different, because (this and this happens in my book)."
She said: "OMG! That's exactly what happens in that book!"
(At this point I can hear all my feelings of being unique and extraordinary of this brand new, wonderful idea flush down the toilet.)
Me: "Are you playing with me?"
She said: "No! I'm serious!"
(The glow fades from my face.)
Me: "Crap! I have to read that book!"
(That's when I fell of my cloud nine.)
I have not yet read the book she suggested. We went further into the conversation and I decided that even though the concept is similar, my novel and the direction I want to take are different. It was scary though how close some of my descriptions were to what she told me about the book. So yes, I will be reading it over Christmas to decide if I'm "stealing" someone's idea. But my question is: "Is it stealing?"
I know for a fact there are writers who have never met each other, never read each others work, live probably on the opposite coasts, yet their writing style, concepts, genre, character traits etc are eerily similar.
When I wrote Two Halves I was afraid to use the "sound of cicadas" in one of my descriptions because the book that inspired me to write had it (I wrote my description before reading the book - the movie inspired me to write, I wrote, then read the book later). I'm not afraid of things like that anymore, because how many different ways can you write "a gust of wind", "the breeze was light". There are plenty of novels using them.
My point is, that THIS one is MY idea! It came from a real life inspiration that happened in 2010, so I cannot imagine how an author (whose name I don't know yet) who wrote the book probably 20 years ago could steal my idea.
If you like the craze around the Hunger Games Trilogy, you'll like this piece of work. The MC lives in an oppressed society like Katniss did (no there are no games in my novel) and I can't yet say more than that - but it's cool. I'm beginning to think what the title should be and what the cover should look like. There are few ideas floating in my head, but until I write more I won't know for sure.
I guess at this point all I can do is read the novel my neighbour mentioned and see how eerily similar we are.
Do you find yourself writing in the same style as other authors? Readers, do you find some authors have similar styles? Did you ever have an idea stolen? (I know I thought about roller blades way before they were invented.)
December 12, 2011
My publisher is investigating this. I didn't r...
My publisher is investigating this. I didn't realize you were giving Amazon exclusive rights. Hmm...
There's just something about the way Amazon ar...
There's just something about the way Amazon are going about things that makes me uneasy. They seem to want to do it all by themselves, missing out publishers, bookshops, libraries. The writers are just one of the losers.
Someone else posted about this today and also stat...
Someone else posted about this today and also stated that giving Amazon exclusive rights wasn't a good thing.
KDP Select
WORD FOR THIS POST:
Serendipity (n): 1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
First let me share the fact that I saw the movie "In Time" this weekend and it was awesome. Predictable ending, yes, it usually is for me, but I still loved it. Pretty good pace, great acting and best of all: wonderful concept that can be relegated to today's society. Justin Timberlake is one of the tripple threats of Hollywood (he can dance, sing, act). I have to say I didn't like him and the curly blond hair when he was with NSYNC, but now truly enjoy him as an artist.
I've also added a new ' About Me page to my blog, so feel free to check it out. I also 'tried to change the background to look like this, but failed. It's one of the images that was used when making the cover for Two Halves. That's how high tech I get. The photo I have is to big in size and I can't seem to compress it without compromising the pixels. I'll keep working on it later.
Now, KDP Select. Last week Amazon launched its new lending program. There's been a lot of buzz and discussion about it on the internet including the Kindleboards, Twitter and here. If you would like to find out more, click here to link directly to Amazon.
I must say I enjoy all the discussions, pros and cons, but here's my take on it and why I didn't enroll:
1. There is no guarantee you will make any of the $500,000 pool available. If no one borrows your book, you get 0% of the pool which equals 0.
2. 90 days, opt in period is a long period of time for me. I have booked too many promotional items for the next three months to take advantage of KDP Select.
3. You have to pull your titles from other distributors such as Smashwords and B&N. I can imagine someone saying they 'pulled' the title out, changed it a little, then put it back in to those distributors and continue selling. I've already seen threads on this on the Kindleboards.
4. I have a problem when competition is thrown out of the equation. Having a bit of a background in Economics, I know that competition is a good thing. Once it's out, things can change for the worse very fast for both readers, authors and publishers. We need competition and allowing my title to be exclusively with Amazon is not for me.
This program may be good for some and not for others, only time and testing will decide. There is a lot of factors that come into play as well: the genre you write in, how well known you are, how many other titles you have (perhaps boosting reader awareness through the program can lead them to your other titles) and many more.
What are your thoughts? Have you opted in? Why or why not?
Serendipity (n): 1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
First let me share the fact that I saw the movie "In Time" this weekend and it was awesome. Predictable ending, yes, it usually is for me, but I still loved it. Pretty good pace, great acting and best of all: wonderful concept that can be relegated to today's society. Justin Timberlake is one of the tripple threats of Hollywood (he can dance, sing, act). I have to say I didn't like him and the curly blond hair when he was with NSYNC, but now truly enjoy him as an artist.
I've also added a new ' About Me page to my blog, so feel free to check it out. I also 'tried to change the background to look like this, but failed. It's one of the images that was used when making the cover for Two Halves. That's how high tech I get. The photo I have is to big in size and I can't seem to compress it without compromising the pixels. I'll keep working on it later.
Now, KDP Select. Last week Amazon launched its new lending program. There's been a lot of buzz and discussion about it on the internet including the Kindleboards, Twitter and here. If you would like to find out more, click here to link directly to Amazon.
I must say I enjoy all the discussions, pros and cons, but here's my take on it and why I didn't enroll:
1. There is no guarantee you will make any of the $500,000 pool available. If no one borrows your book, you get 0% of the pool which equals 0.
2. 90 days, opt in period is a long period of time for me. I have booked too many promotional items for the next three months to take advantage of KDP Select.
3. You have to pull your titles from other distributors such as Smashwords and B&N. I can imagine someone saying they 'pulled' the title out, changed it a little, then put it back in to those distributors and continue selling. I've already seen threads on this on the Kindleboards.
4. I have a problem when competition is thrown out of the equation. Having a bit of a background in Economics, I know that competition is a good thing. Once it's out, things can change for the worse very fast for both readers, authors and publishers. We need competition and allowing my title to be exclusively with Amazon is not for me.
This program may be good for some and not for others, only time and testing will decide. There is a lot of factors that come into play as well: the genre you write in, how well known you are, how many other titles you have (perhaps boosting reader awareness through the program can lead them to your other titles) and many more.
What are your thoughts? Have you opted in? Why or why not?
You're welcome Suze!
You're welcome Suze!
Thanks for the honor Marta! I'd better get to ...
Thanks for the honor Marta! I'd better get to blogging!
