C. Gockel's Blog, page 100

hedendom:Thor crosses the Bifrost as a lightning bolt...

hedendom:

Thor crosses the Bifrost as a lightning bolt perfectly follows the path of a rainbow.

Photograph by Birk Möbius

Your story is pretty good. Amazingly, it has several points similar to a story I am working on. But Loki is not the good guy. Where did you get your background information on the mythology? It was very believable.

Hi Anonymous,

First and foremost, I can’t say enough good things about Trickster Makes This World by Lewis Hyde. I pored through it. Besides information on Loki, he has included delightful myths regarding Raven, Coyote, Hermes, Anansi, and Iktomi and other tricksters.

Other than that, it’s hard to pin point all of my sources. Wikipedia was a biggie, but I went a lot of times directly to the sources, not the interpretations … i.e., actually reading translations of the Lokasenna. I also went to pagan blogs, and found a few that were dedicated to Loki. (I did not keep track of the URLs. It’s fiction! I left non-fiction behind in grad school).

I also tried to understand Hindu mythology better by reading Wikipedia, and various Hindu sights. That has been more difficult. Hinduism is older than Norse Mythology, and has more contradictions. Shiva is an interesting guy. He seems to be at once the man who is full of “masculine energy” (I think that means he likes sex a lot), a loving husband and ideal father (who creates one Hell of a female protagonist in Durga — but then also cuts off his own sons head at one point!), and then he is also the ascetic who lives on a mountain apart from the world. I would like to study the history of India to learn more about how those phases of Shiva’s cycles corresponded with events on the Indian subcontinent.

I looked to Christianity as well. The idea that there is a time for all things is not an idea solely expressed in Hinduism. My guess is it is a concept that appears in many religions. 

On the subject of Loki … he became “the devil” and the God of Lies only in the 1300s. I don’t think Snorri was the one who gave him that monicker … but maybe I’m wrong. I can’t remember now! But when Snorri wrote Prose Edda Europe was still straightening itself out after the fall of the Roman Empire. (Yes, I know, he was in Iceland). At the time, I’m sure order, no matter how cruel, might have seen less cruel than the chaos of the day?

Anyway, that may not be very helpful to you.  But one of the themes of the story is that all myths contain kernels of truth, even ones encountered on the internets.

Beware of Thieves on the Warrior's Forum!

Beware of Thieves on the Warrior's Forum!:

eelkat:

iie! iiie! iiie! Watch out for any product on the Warrior’s Forum advertising telling you how to write lots of short stories fast (weekly, 8 hours, 4 hours, etc) hot, damn, those scrapers they are scraping the content off of my 52 Stories in 52 Weeks blog post, which is available for you guys to…

Thanks Eelkat

"There are only two important elements to a great novel. The first is an interesting character. A..."

“There are only two important elements to a great novel. The first is an interesting character. A character that you thoroughly know and feel will go a long way toward attracting a readership.


The second element is an interesting problem.”

- Walter Dean Myers, with advice for a young writer. (via lettersandlight)

The 5 Most Common Writing Mistakes That Break Reader Immersion

The 5 Most Common Writing Mistakes That Break Reader Immersion:

Today marks the publication of the 50th review in my ImmerseOrDie indie book review series. For those who don’t regularly follow it, the premise is simple: every morning I step onto my treadmill, open a new indie ebook, and begin my daily walk, reading the book for as long as I can maintain my immersion. When that immersion has broken three times, I stop, and write up a short report of what caused my attention to wander. This article today is a reflection on the first 50 such reviews, and a synthesis of A) whether or not I’ve been consistent in my evaluations, and B) trends I’m seeing in the causes of those immersion breaks. Read the rest >

A couple of points I think he missed:

I need an emotional connection to the character, and I need it fast. I try to give a book until the end of the first chapter … I often fail to get that far.
Nowhere did I see it explicitly stated how import it be for the stakes to be high. I find that very important. In a recent story I tried to read the stakes were the hero/heroine loosing their job, or being reprimanded by their boss. I couldn’t really care. If the stakes were maybe losing their marriage, the world ending, maybe I could have cared? 

Key Takeaways:

The point about too much exposition at the beginning is good. I’ve been nailed for this in  I Bring the Fire in two reviews, but other people feel like I gave just enough detail. You probably can’t please everyone. I do think dog lovers liked the opening scene because they identified with it immediately. Whose dog hasn’t taken a roll-bath in something disgusting? 
Also, I like what he says about characters behaving out of character. That WILL drive me out of a story no matter how far along I am.
He counts grammar problems as being one of the top things that drives him away, but there is no where in the article that I can determine how picky a grammarian he is. I’ve read some indies with atrocious grammar and marvelous story lines/characters, so I stuck with them. The book I’m thinking of is currently a best seller.
He hates present tense! (not in this article, but I saw a link at the bottom to an article on that topic. So perhaps he has not read my books!)

"Subplots bring realism to your main plot simply by existing – by interrupting the flow. Why is this?..."

“Subplots bring realism to your main plot simply by existing – by interrupting the flow. Why is this? Because life doesn’t move forward all at once. Interruptions happen, change rushes in, we juggle three or ten balls at once. Readers don’t expect continuous narratives.”

-

Elizabeth Sims (via writingquotes)

I must not let the subplots runaway with the story!

ETA on ragnarok? Also, isn't it fun to say "Ragnar rock"?

Hello Anon,

ETA on Ragnarok is probably around about Christmas Time. I’ve been told that releasing right BEFORE Christmas is a bad idea because people are too busy to buy for themselves. So maybe right after Christmas, or the beginning of the new year when everyone has their Amazon gift cards and brand new Kindles?

(Of course, I thought that Warriors would be out at Christmas time and I finished it before September!)

Thank you so much for contacting me!

P.S. I’m having fun with the name Ragnarok already!

99 CENT SALE ON 2nd IN SERIES UPDATE

So, back in June I did a 99 cent promo of Monsters, my second in series. I’ve seen more and more authors set their 2nd in series to 99 cents permanently, and I wanted to see if it would be a beneficial strategy for me. I did earn more money in June compared to July, but I dug a little deeper into the numbers:

When I compared $ earned per free downloads of my first in series, I made more in July compared to June. I just happened to have more downloads in June than in July due to my promo schedule.
The 99 cent sale had the most impact the first week, and then the effectiveness really plummeted, and I had to advertise the 99 cent book as well as the permafree first in series.

So, would I do it again?

Yes, IF I get a BookBub promo. And I’d blast all the cheap and free advertisers of 99 cent books at the same time. FYI: Here are all of the free and cheap 99 cent advertisers that I know of:

Booksontheknob
BooklyBooks
Daily CheapReads 
Digital Book Today
ReadCheaply
Fussy Librarian
Ereadercafe.com
Ebooklister.net
Indie Book Bargains UK
Ereaderutopia
New Adult Addiction
GreatBooksGreatDeals 
I Read Fantasy https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Read-Fantasy/593776737335196
The Midlist
Pixel of Ink 
EreaderNewsToday
Paranormal Addicts (FREE to $2.99 with Paranormal) https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paranormal-Addicts/202187749824986
Chelsea’s Cheap Paranormal Reads (FREE to $2.99 with Paranormal) https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chelseas-Cheap-Paranormal-Reads/459504207432223
Ereaders Dream (FREE to $2.99 Any Genre)https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ereaders-Dream/228999653974968
Manybooks.net 
Reading Deals
Choosy Book Worm
Discount Books Daily
The Kindle Venue
Bestebookreaderlovers

Because I would expect the BB promo of my 2nd to lift my first in series on the free rankings a bit I’d ALSO hit up a couple of the heavy hitters for permafree first in series the same day: Freebooksy, ILoveVampireNovels, Pixel of Ink, and BKknights.

It doesn’t look like a permanent 99 cent price for Monsters is a good idea for me, but it is possible if the price was launched by BookBub sales of my third in series on up would remain high longer. I’ll have to apply to BookBub and see.

Photo

fuckyeahsouthasia:Two 15-year-old school boys have developed a...

fuckyeahsouthasia:

Two 15-year-old school boys have developed a device that will enable a shoe to charge a mobile phone while walking. Anand Gangadharan and Mohak Bhalla, both students of south Delhi’s Mount Carmel school, have invented a compact attachment, which, when attached to the heel of the shoe, will automatically act as a portable mobile charger.
Named ‘Walkie Mobi Charger’, this gadget generates electricity up to six volts, as against five volts released through a plug point and ensures that the phone battery is charged at a faster pace. So if a plug-in charger takes half-an-hour to charge a phones up to 25%, the walking device will charge 40% of the battery in the same time………..
The device functions on the principle of electromagnetic induction. The compression and relaxation caused by walking creates pressure on the sponge attached in the middle which produces electricity.Two LEDs, blue and red, indicate the supply of electricity and battery charging, respectively.The device is equipped to charge several models of phones. All one needs to do is connect the charger to the shoe while the phone rests in your pocket. “This is an effective way to utilise an alternate source of energy and is also a healthy way to decrease your electricity bills,” they said.

Hmmmm … I already have the guys and gals in Ragnarok using a gravity based charger for lights. I wonder if cold temperatures would cause problems for these? Meh. It’s sci-fi fantasy. I can do what I want!