C.M. Simpson's Blog, page 221

Blogs that made me stop: 1 December 2012

I spent most of the week not looking at my computer. It was good to catch up on blogs and authors and bits and pieces. Here are the ones that I read through to the end. I’ve divided them up into areas of interest, but ‘Other Stuff’ contains a fun airline advertisement revolving around characters from ‘The Hobbit’. Enjoy.Craft:http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/11/27/how-chuck-wendig-writes-a-novel/http://fantasyhandbook.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/how-not-to-open-a-short-story/Publishing:http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/11/claire-ryan/http://www.thepassivevoice.com/11/2012/selling-my-book-on-amazon-vs-selling-on-my-own-site/http://www.thepassivevoice.com/11/2012/indie-authors-need-to-become-great-publishers/http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/smashwords-ceo-mark-coker-indie-authors-need-to-become-great-publishers/http://accrispin.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/guest-blog-post-mustering-courage-to.htmlhttp://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/11/25/ebook-publishing-kobo-mark-lefebvre/Life:http://www.jlake.com/2012/11/26/personalcancer-why-i-write-about-cancer-so-much/http://wahoocorner.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/daddy-wars-episode-i.htmlFodder:http://www.geekosystem.com/guineafowl-may-be-spreading-ticks/http://www.geekosystem.com/child-tracking-quadcopter/http://www.geekosystem.com/fox-steals-cell-phone/http://www.geekosystem.com/how-to-throw-a-riot/http://www.geekosystem.com/finnish-girl-gets-new-laptop/http://www.geekosystem.com/virtual-girlfriend-real-wedding/http://www.geekosystem.com/social-media-epidemic/http://www.geekosystem.com/cambridge-professors-team-up-against-robots/http://www.geekosystem.com/hotel-lock-burglars/http://www.geekosystem.com/jurassic-fly-imitated-plants/http://www.geekosystem.com/saturn-polar-vortex/http://www.geekosystem.com/prehistoric-150-pound-wombat/http://www.geekosystem.com/parrot-stabbing/http://www.geekosystem.com/candle-powered-electric-candle/Other Stuff:http://www.thepassivevoice.com/11/2012/air-new-zealand-the-worlds-coolest-airline/

Progress Report Week 4 November 2012

Here we go again, another week gone, but progress has been made.Current Projects
Novella1A for PenName1:Revised Prologue through Chapter4, and added 2,000 words.DarkFantasyNovel1A: Completed revised outline spanning three chapters of work, changing perspective, correcting timeline and tightening the focus. It’s taken me a week to work out how to approach this section of the rewrite. Added 2,500 words.
Publishing Tasks
Created 2 blog entries for my blog and 0 for my publishing blogDid a brief analysis on the last six-and-a-half months of sales and found a huge, but predictable, genre difference.
Craft
Completed ShortStory51—A Partnership for flash fiction challenge due Monday 19 November 2012. This story will also feature in Anthology19, which, I’m planning for early-mid next year.
New Arrivals
ShortStory51—A Partnership, in response to this week’s terriblemindsflash fiction challenge.

Flash Fiction Challenge: 100-Word Stories Result - A Partnership

So, this week's flash fiction challenge was to write a 100-word story in any genre on any topic, within three days, due by noon Monday 19 November.

I am so glad I looked at this one on Friday!

Word counts do not include the title.

Here's Result 1 at 99 words due to the condition of 'and under 100 words':

A Partnership

The dragon waited, ready to strike. I entered. More scales shook loose and she shivered, enraged. She was a small dragon, ferocious and fast. If she forced a fight, I’d die. I unslung the cow haunch and watched her nostrils flare. The haunch hit the floor with a fleshy thump. “Yours,” I told her, and she clawed the haunch close to her chest. Again she growled. “You’re hurt,” I said. “Let me tend your wound.” She glared, eyes narrow. “You would ride me,” she snarled accusingly. “Only with your permission,” I replied. She considered it, before letting me close.
And here's Result 2 at 100 words 
A Partnership

The dragon waited, coiled, ready to strike. I entered. More scales shook loose and she shivered, enraged. She was a small dragon, ferocious and fast. If she forced a fight, I’d die. I unslung the cow haunch and watched her nostrils flare. The haunch hit the floor with a fleshy thump. “Yours,” I told her, and she clawed the haunch close to her chest. Again she growled. “You’re hurt,” I said. “Let me tend your wound.” She glared, eyes narrow. “You would ride me,” she snarled accusingly. “Only with your permission,” I replied. She considered it, before letting me close.
Enjoy!

Progress Report Week 3 November 2012

What a crazy week! In spite of it all, progress was still made.Current ProjectsI made the following progress on my current projects:DarkFantasy1A: Edited and revised chapters 16-18, and added 7,000 words.Project1: Edited and revised chapters 1-5, and added 3,000 wordsProject2: Edited and revised, added 300 words.Publishing TasksWrote 5 blog entries for my blog and 1 for my publishing blog.Corrected formatting for Novellas6A-7A for CreateSpace and rereleased.Updated free fiction page. Craft-building TasksDeveloped a response to this week’sterribleminds flash fiction challenge, but did not complete the challenge.New ArrivalsThe following stories arrived out of the blue this week:Anthology34: to contain stories of war, battle and those involved in them.ShortStory50—title to be arranged; in response to the incomplte terribleminds challenge.TeachersNotes2A—based on something not my own, but a writer’s work that I love, so I will probably offer it as a free download via Amazon and Smashwords.The following stories were remembered, dug up, and added to the list:ShortStory47—Lest we Forget: posted to blog for Remembrance Day.RomanceNovel11A – a fantasy romance using Egyptian myth for PenName3.

Flash Fiction Challenge: Sub-Genre Mash-up Thought Process

This week’s flash fiction challenge consisted of writing a story of 1,000 words or less that combined the theme ‘Love demands Sacrifice’ with two sub-genres randomly chosen from the list provided.Initial Thoughts:Out came the d10. First roll was a ‘9’, second roll a ‘4’.‘9’ – Wuxia… What the…? I had never heard of wuxia. So, on top of a tight writing schedule, I now had to do some research, which will slow everything down. On the upside, I’m going to learn about a new genre, and that was always fun!‘4’ – Urban Fantasy. Hah! I know what that one is… at least, I think I know what that one is. Maybe I should do a little bit of research on it as well, just to make sure. I mean, I used to think I knew what ‘sword-and-sorcery’ was, and when I checked that, I discovered I was only ‘almost’ right. I’d rather not be ‘almost right’.Theme – ‘Love demands sacrifice’. Well, this could turn out to be very depressing. I don’t like depressing; there’s so much that’s depressing in the world already that I really don’t want to add to it. How can I make it not depressing? Since sacrifice is about loss, how can I make it sad but ultimately uplifting? I mean, does anyone really have to die?Research:
Wuxia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxia: an overview of wuxia. I could probably have stopped here, but where would the fun have been in that? While reading this site, I had the idea for how I wanted to end the story.http://www.heroic-cinema.com/eric/xia.html: an interesting overview of the genre, but related mostly to film. Served as a good way to verify the information from the Wikipedia site.http://wuxiapedia.com/About/The-Wuxia-genre/What-is-Wuxia: Looks like a one-stop site. Very good for verification and expanding my list of wuxia titles to go searching for.http://wuxiapedia.com/About/The-Wuxia-genre: also to be found on the site above.http://www.shanghai-steam.com/: SO EXCITED TO FIND THIS SITE! You have no idea!
Urban Fantasy:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fantasy: but, of course.http://www.romanceaustralia.com/articles/urban.htmhttp://allthingsuf.com/http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UrbanFantasyhttp://bestfantasybooks.com/fantasy-genre.php
Nope, I’m okay—I *do* have an understanding of what paranormal fantasy is.
Love Demands Sacrifice
No research required, but how to make it interesting and not so tragic.
Guess I’d better get to writing this thing.

Flash Fiction Challenge Fail

So, this week's challenge didn't go well. Excuses?

1. I got sick;
2. I got distracted by my current work-in-progress, DarkFantasyNovel1A;
3. I got sick...

What did I get done? Well, since you insist... here's what an unfinished flash fiction story looks like:

Unfinished Result:


The man was hanging on the window outside her office. There was no ledge or sill, just a two millimetre strip of rubber, holding in the glass. The window itself was six floors up. Rachel had watched him scale the building, a feat he had achieved by bouncing between her office block and the one opposite, light as a feather, but too solid to be shifted by the breeze.
When he’d seen her sitting at her desk, he’d come to a complete stop and his face had lit with beatific smile. He started to speak, realized she couldn’t hear him through the glass, and vanished upwards, like a human spider clothed in a loose-fitting tunic and baggy cotton pants. Rachel didn’t expect to seesomething like this in Australia—New York, maybe, but not downtown Canberra, even if they did have that weird-ass wire sculpture of a man climbing up the side of a building near the bus mall.
Rachel hated that sculpture. She was sure one day it would come alive, flesh itself out in wiry hoops or armored scales and wreak havoc on anyone in reach. One day… In the meantime, she was determined to enjoy the quiet life.
Looked like her quiet life was about to be shattered, because the other thing she’d noticed was that the stranger was armed. Two swords had been held firmly to his waist by a dark blue sash, their dragon-hide scabbards angled so as not to hinder his ability to climb. Dragon-hide meant trouble. Last she knew, dragons of that particular skin had aligned themselves with demons. Neither would take to those skins being worn in such public display.
Rachel sighed and concentrated on typing the rest of the email.
…
Rachel smiled, wiping blood from the edge of her mouth and dabbing it from the corner of her eye.
...
"You don't need to make all the sacrifices."/"You're not the only one who knows what sacrifice means."/"There are some things you should never give up."/"You're not the only one who knows what sacrifice means."
Notes:
The story starts at the beginning.The last couple of lines belong towards the end of the story, probably in the last paragraph.The three dots means I'm thinking something more needs to be said between the paragraphs. In the case of the first set of three dots above, a lot more needs to be said ... the main bulk of the story, in fact. In the case of the second set of dots, I'm not so sure.I couldn't get the last sentence 'right'. The forward slashes indicate the options I was considering and hadn't settled on. Just goes to show you should write down that sentence when it pops into your head while you're researching.

Blogs that Made me Stop—10-12 November 2012

I’ve gotten behind in my reading again, folks, so there were almost 2,000 entries backed up, and 50-100 coming in every day. These are the ones that made me top:Industry
David Gaughran and guest author on the publishing industry view of indie books: http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/self-publishers-arent-killing-the-industry-theyre-saving-it/Kristin Kathryn Rusch on the return of rights: http://kriswrites.com/2012/10/24/the-... Kathryn Rusch on the necessity of writers to have a will so their heirs can benefit from their copyright: http://kriswrites.com/2012/11/08/the-... Kathryn Rusch on reaching every reader possible and why it’s important: http://kriswrites.com/2012/10/31/the-business-rusch-no-reader-left-behind/Publishing Perspectives on an interview with Maurice Sendak before he died: http://publishingperspectives.com/2012/11/maurice-sendak-publishing-is-such-an-outrageously-stupid-profession/Dave Lordan on why writers should get paid for what they do: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/1110/1224326390990.html 
To Read
David Gaughran recommends a well-researched cookbook, history, anecdotal book: http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/20...
Fun
The Passive Voice shows us perspective… okay, he shows us how to take a break and have fun… but it could be used for an example of perspective:
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/11/2012/snow/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ThePassiveVoice+%28The+Passive+Voice%29
Craft
Emily Casey on excuses not to write: http://emilycaseysmusings.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/writers-write-good-excuses-are-still.htmlPhilip Athans on using humor to move a story forward and showing rather than telling: http://fantasyhandbook.wordpress.com/...

Lest we Forget - 11 November

Today is Remembrance Day. It is the day on which World War I officially ended, and has become a day in which Commonwealth countries remember members of their armed forces who died while serving on the battlefront.

While it serves as the inspiration for this piece of flash fiction, today should also be a day when we remember all who have given their lives to serve their countries. Sacrifice comes in many forms, and death is only one of them.


Lest We Forget
Blue eyes, remarkably clear, observe us, gauging our reactions as the old man tells us about the wars in which he has fought, of friends who have fallen and comrades left behind long ago. The crags and wrinkles lining his skin come from age, exposure, happiness and grief. His hands tremble as he pours us tea and absent-mindedly adds milk and sugar, forgetting we preferred none.He is not of this time, and no longer of this world, but he tells us where his citizenship lies and makes us swear to keep his secret a little longer. It is a secret he has hidden for over sixty years and one he will hide to the grave.We know his tale. It is not a long one. He served this country in a world war and in the conflicts that followed, and then he served in forces from a world other than our own, returning when their task was done.His story is one of conscription into battles he would rather not have seen, but refused to ignore, since ignorance would have meant disobeying his country and his queen, or consigning his beliefs, his worlds and all he held dear to something he considered unholy, unjust and diseased.He fought his battles, obeyed his commanders and lived to command. Now he rests, living quietly, hiding from the status of hero he has earned and watching the world pass him by.Once he tried to play a guiding role in the world that followed the wars, but this world did not have a place for him so he answered the call of another. When he returned, he realized his home was still not ready to meet the worlds beyond, and allowed himself to sink into restful waiting, watching as mankind grew to maturity and using what contacts he could to ensure no one disturbed us.He is old now and will soon sink into eternal sleep. We will not remember him or the part he played in our past,  nor will we know of the battles he fought for our future. Most of us will never even know his name. In that, he is not so different to the warriors who do belong to this time and to this world.The battles they fight on our behalf, or for their country, cost them and those who dare to love them more than most would care to pay. The peace and progress they pay for is paid in blood and sacrifice: death for some, lost limbs for others, hearing or sight taken, births they don’t see, first steps they can’t admire, first words they never hear, children who treat them like strangers, partners who cannot live with separation or who are preyed on while they are gone, and scorn from those who don’t want to understand.Of those who do not fight, some remember the conflicts and some what caused them. Some recall outstanding individuals or actions, while some judge what they do not know. Not every soldier who gives their lives, whole or in fragments, is remembered.This old warrior tells us his story and the stories of all those he remembers, but as we finish our tea, he says he will speak no more of it. He swears us to silence until he has passed, having paved the way for our future by being part of our history and watching over our present.He is the only one we could find. We looked for the others, but they had already gone, having lived their lives as quietly as their comrade. As we rose from his table, he bade us look to our own unsung heroes, the soldiers from a myriad of wars.“Lest we forget,” he said as he showed us to the door.“Lest thee forget,” he whispered as he closed the door behind us.I could feel him watching us as we walked from his garden into the street.

Progress Report: Week 2 November 2012

I’ve been quite slack and distracted this week; time I dug up some of that discipline I thought I had… or reminded myself of why I want to get done what I want to get done in the time-frame I have set. No time for carrots; time for whip and spur. Carrots can come when all is achieved.Current ProjectsThe following work was completed on my current projects this week:

Revised first 15 chapters of DarkFantasy1A and added 3,000 words.
Publishing TasksThe following publishing tasks were completed this week:
 

Created Cover for Novella6A;Released Novella6A to Smashwords and Kindle;Released Novella6A to CreateSpace and Amazon print;Released Novella7A to CreateSpace and Amazon print; andUpdated blog once.
New ArrivalsThe following ideas arrived this week:
Novella6B: for PenName3.

Progress Report: Weeks 4 October and 1 November 2012

This week I returned to work after a four-week break. The break was wonderful, and, even though I probably spent more time on games than I should have, I got a bit of an idea of what an independent publisher could achieve full time. Granted, the last four weeks have been a lot more about the independent-publishing process, than about the actual writing, but I have still gained an inkling of what I could be doing if I wasn’t working full-time. Still, we play the hand we’re dealt, and some of us happen to like our day jobs. It all depends on where we’re at for now. So, what exactly have I achieved this week? Let’s see:Current ProjectsIn the last two weeks I completed the following on my current projects:
Edited RomanceNovel1A—Secondhand Sweetheart for PenName2;Edited Novella7Afor PenName3.Completed 250 words on my NaNoWriMo novel, which shall henceforth be called Steampunk7A.Began outline for RomanceNovel1C.Submitted proposal and outline for RPGAdventure9A.
Publishing TasksThe following publishing tasks were completed this last fortnight:
Formatted and uploaded RomanceNovel1A—Secondhand Sweetheart to CreateSpace in both large and small print formats;Formatted and uploaded RomanceNovel1A—Secondhand Sweetheart to Amazon and SmashwordsFormed C.M. Simpson Publishing;Added Madeleine Torr page to this blog;Created author pages for C.M. Simpson Publishing blog, then turned them into genre pages;Created 8 blog posts for this blog and 2 blog posts for C.M. Simpson Publishing;Created author page for C.M. Simpson Publishing;Created first black and white line drawing for Chapbook2 for PenName4; there are currently 10 chapbooks written and awaiting b&w internal art so I probably won’t start releasing those until around April or May 2013. Watch this space.
Craft-building TasksCraft-building tasks this fortnight consisted of:
Completing one terribleminds flash fiction challenge.
Backburner ProjectsI did not advance any backburner projects this fortnight.New ArrivalsThe following ideas arrived for development this fortnight:
Steampunk7A: Australia, steampunk, land barons, dinosaurs, bushrangers and really big wombats.Novella8A: for PenName1, about unseelie fae.