Lisa Shea's Blog, page 269
November 15, 2014
Writing Status
I finally feel like I can start to breathe again. My servers still have hiccups but are generally running smoothly. I just finished all the Mused Literary Review voting. I still have pending finishing reading all the BellaOnline Ebook Award entries, but I can now tackle that with focus and attention, which was important to me. I was just too frazzled up until now.
It is NaNoWriMo but I’ve hit reservations about my Oxendine story. I find I’m hesitant to cast Naomi Oxendine’s first lover in an “abusive” light as he is part of many peoples’ genealogies. I don’t want to upset them. What if they think of him as a treasured great-great-great-great grandfather for some reason? He was known as the “Devil” Bill Williams but maybe they think that was a term of endearment. Or playful wildness. So I’ve stalled. I also had her cheating on Bill – the timing is that she had two kids with him (unmarried) then her next child with the next guy is the very next year. So the kids come rapid fire. But I’m not sure if a cheating heroine is going to sit well with people. And I find I resist it as well. So I think I want to redo that. I don’t think I’ll finish my 50k words by the 30th, in any case.
I did some work on medieval novel #14, but find myself discouraged that it’s only 20k words or so and already at chapter 15. I wrote lots of short chapters. I like my novels to end up about 70k words as a minimum. The longest is 117k words. The story is already at its halfway point so I feel like I’m going to have to drag it out. That’s what happened to Looking Back, where I had to keep having stuff happen to her after where I thought the story “should end”. So I want to avoid that feeling.
I have 12 medieval novels out, and the reason I skipped working on #13 is that the characters there sleep together within a day. I’ve gotten grief from some readers about my characters in Sworn Loyalty (#11) sleeping together after only a week, and those characters had some history. My readership likes the more gentle, slow approach to things. Which I do appreciate. So I have to ponder what to do. Maybe I will rearrange things so they are just lusting at the beginning. It’s one of those face-death-and-fall-hard situations. And she’s a widow, so she’s not a blushing virgin. Still, though.
I haven’t done my compiling of my black cat series yet. I need to do that. It feels “tedious” to do so I’m putting it off, but it would bring in easy income. So I should just do it.
I’m really liking doing the watercolors to go with my poetry book. It’s incredibly relaxing and soothing. And I can do them while watching TV with Bob, so a win-win. I’m also liking working with my friend Debi on a children’s book about a black cat. Again, relaxing and soothing.
The biggest issue that’s hit recently is that Amazon spotted one of my books which was set as Kindle Exclusive and which accidentally went live in Lulu. Amazon then stripped ALL of my Kindle Exclusive books out of KU which was bringing me in great traffic. I wrote them promptly to apologize, I fixed Lulu, and I asked what I can do to fix this. I haven’t heard back and it’s been several days. That’s unusual for them. So I think they’re not going to relent. This means I have to quickly get all those books live in all other systems to try to make up that lost income. I was making a fair amount from the KU borrows. Can I make that much with those books in other systems as “sales”? A lot of these are 99 cent books that I was getting $1.51 paid to me per borrow, rather than the 30 cent royalty one normally makes. So I’d have to sell 5 times as many books to make it up, on systems like iTunes and Nook which traditionally get far lower traffic than Amazon does. So part of me sees this as fairly challenging. But on the other hand I hear from writer after writer that they make as much if not more on these other platforms than they do on Amazon, so it’s about finding that audience. If this is just the way things are for me now (being blocked from KU) then I need to give it a whole-hearted try. Wishing for a change or grousing about life changing does little good. I need to see what the new reality is and tackle it as best I can.
I want to do a yoga book, maybe because it’d be quick, easy, and relaxing. But I do have so many other pending projects that I should put it off. Still, I find in life if I do something I crave that it gets done quickly, easily, and then I move on to other things with energy. If instead I force myself to do less-in-tune projects they go slowly and everything takes longer. So at least for me the key to cranking through projects is to energize myself with ones I love. That then gives me the energy to get through the other ones quickly as well.
How are you guys doing this week
The post Writing Status appeared first on Lisa Shea Blog.
David Armstrong
Insight into David Armstrong, Massachusetts-born photographer known for his black-and-white portraits –
The post David Armstrong appeared first on Lisa Shea Blog.
Do Not Complain
Once again I’m renewing attentiveness to my Do-Not-Complain project, we’ll call this Reboot C1. I’ve been through so much this past month, with the server crash, data loss, and server move. I strove through it all to stay calm and focused. Getting riled up and angry would have made my tasks more difficult. It’s not that I was a doormat. I spoke up strongly and repeatedly to the hosting company in order to get things fixed. But I strove not to “whine” – I strove to lay out the issues, lay out our needs, and work hard to achieve them.
I find that positive energy works wonders. As part of this crash and data loss we lost nearly all of our Mused submissions for the upcoming issue. And with the server issues I couldn’t email the Mused community to let them know. When I finally got things working I emailed everyone with the state we were in and made a plea for them to resubmit. They all rallied, raced, and we got a normal full blast of submissions to work with! It was awe-inspiring and amazing. Everyone wanted to help.
In amongst all of this, Lulu (who I use to have some books on iTunes and Barnes & Noble) had a glitch and put live two books that were supposed to be Kindle Exclusive. Amazon immediately spotted that and they stripped ALL of my books out of the Kindle Exclusive program. I have 133 books in Kindle, and a fair portion of them were Kindle Exclusive. They had been seeing substantial sales. Rather than get angry, I took a deep breath and looked at that situation. I wrote Amazon to see if they’d undo the change. But I’m also looking at putting all my books out on all platforms. If this is to be my new situation, this could be a very good one – and thank goodness it happened with some lead time before the holidays. I have time to get everything up, live, and set (with Bob’s help) to take advantage of all those holiday purchasers. So this could be a great opportunity. If Amazon does indeed put them back into Kindle Unlimited that would be fine too. So I’m just waiting to hear which way they’re going to go.
I have so much to be grateful for. A warm house to live in. I’m making progress on the decluttering. We brought in all our potted plants and we have marigolds, peppers, lavender, saffron crocus, and all sorts of cool things growing for me. I have my artwork up in five different galleries. I’m working on an illustrated haiku chapbook that I’m really enjoying. Debi and I are working on an illustrated children’s book which I’m loving. I have wonderful friends and a darling boyfriend. To complain that life has its normal ups and downs seems silly. Half the world lives in pennies a day and barely has clothes or food. I am grateful.
The post Do Not Complain appeared first on Lisa Shea Blog.
Yoga
Just did a full yoga routine, the first time in a long time. Just been so busy and couldn’t spare the time. But my body needed it! #yoga
The post Yoga appeared first on Lisa Shea Blog.
November 13, 2014
Chapbook – what is it?
Chapbook – what is it? Is it longer than a novel? Shorter than a short story?
The post Chapbook – what is it? appeared first on Lisa Shea Blog.
Droste Effect photography
Here’s my first attempt at Droste Effect photography – have you done this? Share your images!
I’m Ukrainian and grew up with matryoshka nesting dolls. This image reminds me of a compassionate version of nesting dolls – a reminder to care for yourself.
Here’s one I did with a marigold
a dartboard
Here’s a droste effect spiral done from a Sitges, Spain medallion celebrating community
This was an image of the ceiling of the Pantheon in Rome Italy, now Droste Effect spiraled. Normally there’s a large skylight hole in the center. You can see the glow from that in the final image.
Here’s my how-to so you can make your own droste effect images!
How to make Droste Effect Photos
ask if you have any questions :).
The post Droste Effect photography appeared first on Lisa Shea Blog.
Radical nude paintings
Radical nude paintings from a century ago by Egon Shiele – brought a new mindset – warning has nudes 
–
The post Radical nude paintings appeared first on Lisa Shea Blog.
November 11, 2014
Iran’s mosques
Beautiful images of Iran’s mosques from a variety of angles –
#photography
The post Iran’s mosques appeared first on Lisa Shea Blog.
Living Paintings
Cool – an artist exhibits films of his painting being made. You don’t see the brush or hand. Just the paint flowing as if it’s coming to life before you.
The post Living Paintings appeared first on Lisa Shea Blog.
November 10, 2014
Radio Free Albemuth
Radio Free Albemuth – one of Philip K Dick’s most personal stories is made into a movie –
have you seen it?
The post Radio Free Albemuth appeared first on Lisa Shea Blog.
