Konn Lavery's Blog: Posts from konnlavery.com, page 44

The Author Mindset

Everyone has a story to tell, whether it is about a faraway land with monsters and elves or exploring their past. The point is, there is a story waiting to be told through each and every one of us. There are many different types of mediums that a story can be expressed in. It might be best told through film or through music, or perhaps it is best told through the written word. As authors, we choose the literary medium as our tool to welcome an audience into our minds and their own. Think you have a story to tell? Do you have an enjoyment for the written word and believe it is the best way to transcribe the story? Then you have the author mindset.

Thinking about Plots

Some of us are born with a fascination of writing, others it doesn’t become an interest until much later in their lives. At some point though, if you want to write, you will have that insane idea to type out your first draft. The task will not be easy and you will go through a lot of struggles. Some of these will be your own internal struggles and others will be spirit-breaking feedback will be received from friends or colleagues. But you are willing to endure the hardships to share your story with the world.

Stories are Everywhere

Being an author, you think about plots, all the time, even in your dreams. Everything you witness in life has a story. Your own life experiences are series of stories in their own. Watching the news or Netflix offers stories or listening to someone’s own tale at a party is a story. These are all things you can draw upon for your own writing. Stopping and listening to what is around you can be beneficial to uncover what stories are hiding to the untrained mind.

We all know fact is always stranger than fiction, so explore the world. Now, real life events might not make the most amount of sense. When listening to a story, think about how the story keeps the audience engaged. A good plot makes them and uncertain of what will happen next. Think about it next time you read a book or hear a story from a friend, why were you so intrigued?

Inner Desire

If you truly want to write, it will happen. You have to make it a reality and every writer has a need that is unlike any other. A type of fixation that can only be fulfilled through their own investment. We feel it calling to us in the back of our minds which is why we are so persistent to hammer out thousands of words to create a compelling story.

The Fuel

Does your need to write come from a dark place? Does your best writing happen when you feel driven by worldly affairs? We all have something that fuels us, something that makes us want to share what is conjuring in our minds. This may even evolve over time but when you feel it, you can’t resist to write.

We’re a Little Crazy

To go through the countless hours that span across months and years to produce one story means you have to be a little crazy, or a sucker for hardships. Every creative type has to be a little irregular if they want to persist their craft. Art is not the quickest way to make cash or the easiest lifestyle but we choose to do it because of our deep interests in the craft.

Naysayers

Be proud of what you do. It is abnormal and so what? Yes you will find cash isn’t as easily obtained and you will deal with harsh criticism from others. This will make you stronger, you will learn to stretch a dollar and to manage your finances. You’ll develop thick skin and learn to decode criticism to really see if it is constructive or if it derives from skewed opinions.

Be the Author

If you want to write, you must act like one. Don’t talk about how you want to write or feel insecure about it. Take ownership and pride of what you do and stay resilient. Life has a way of presenting challenges to knock us down but with the right mindset, you can overcome it.

What Makes You Want to Write?

Why do you write? I’d be interested to know why. Share in the comments!

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PULP Literature, Good Books for the price of a beer

This month’s guest we have something a little different. We are accompanied by PULP Literature. It was the brainchild of Jennifer Landels, Mel Anastasiou and Susan Pieters, a trio of writer-editors who took the advice “write what you want to read” one step further, to “publish what you want to read”.

We will be chatting with Jennifer Landels who is the Managing Editor. She holds a BA in Mediaeval English Literature from UBC and may some day return to her doctorate in Arthurian Romance at University College London.

Let’s welcome Jennifer to the blog!

Hi Jennifer Landels, thank you for joining us. Can you give us an introduction to you and PULP Literature Press?

Hi Konn, thanks for inviting me! You’ve already introduced me pretty well, but I guess I can add that I also teach swordplay, riding, and mounted combat with Academie Duello, and am a writer and artist as well as an editor.

Pulp Literature Press is a registered Canadian non-profit organization. Our quarterly magazine has been going for four years and sixteen issues now. We publish short fiction, some novellas and novel excerpts, poetry, and comics in each book-sized issue. This year we also branched into novel publishing, and used our own novels, Mel Anastasiou’s Stella Ryman and the Fairmount Manor Mysteries and my Allaigna’s Song: Overture as our proving ground.

What made you want to get into the publishing industry?

I blame the beer. Mel, Sue, and I were sitting on Mel’s balcony on Bowen island enjoying the sunshine and bemoaning the lack of short story markets in Canada. Then we realized that between us we had the skills to put together a fiction digest and the industry contacts to get some great names on the covers of our first few issues. After that, it was a matter of putting together a Kickstarter to fund it, and the rest is history.

How do you three manage to juggle running a magazine and working on your own writing?

Not particularly well, I have to admit. Often my own writing takes back seat to the magazine. I’m trying to change that and carve out a few more dedicated revising hours per week. Luckily Mel, Sue, and I write together every Friday, and we each get about 1000 words of first draft done. That at least keeps my new material flowing, even if I’m behind on revisions.

Starting a business, what has been the biggest challenge?

Funding. We do get a small Canada Council grant, which pays the printing costs, but all the pay for writers, artists, and designers comes from subscriptions or our own pockets. If every writer who submitted a short story also subscribed we would have no funding issues at all – unfortunately writers aren’t flush with cash either! We’ve run Kickstarters every autumn to keep the magazine alive, but they take a huge amount of work. This year we’re taking the risky step of skipping the Kickstarter and directing supporters to our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/pulplit) to generate more stable, monthly funding for the magazine.

PULP Literature publishes a range of work, is there anything that you won’t publish?

In the magazine we don’t publish erotica or young adult / children’s fiction, and we will reject works that we deem sexist, racist, homophobic, ablist, or derogatory. Beyond that, we are open to all genres and we like a wide variety of tone, style, and subject matter. Although we do publish novellas, we prefer shorter works as they are easier to find space for. We are considering Young Adult novels, but in the upper age range of the bracket.

With submissions, you have a guidelines page , what are some of the most common mistakes you see?

Ignoring the guidelines! I’m serious – we have the guidelines there for a reason, and its surprising how many people don’t seem to read them.

That aside, the most common reasons we reject stories are:

The protagonist isn’t appealing or doesn’t engage our sympathies. We want an admirable yet flawed main character. A character with no admirable traits doesn’t appeal, and one with no flaws doesn’t engender sympathy.
The central conflict isn’t apparent in the first page. If it’s not, we don’t know why we should care about the character or the story.
The story needs tightening. Sometimes a story has a great start but the middle sags. Or the dialogue drags on too long. Or the ending is unsatisfying. These are all aspects that can be fine-tuned, and if we love parts of the story we may end up working with the author to polish it. But it’s even better if you send us a story that already shines and purrs like a well-loved Aston Martin.

We never reject a story due to bad formatting, but we sure would like it if all manuscripts came in double spaced in a nice 11 or 12 point font for the sake of our tired first readers’ eyes.

Any final thoughts you’d like to share with the readers and aspiring writers?

For writers: we print only two or three stories from every thousand submissions. That means perfectly good stories will be rejected for reasons that have nothing to do with the story quality. We try to balance genre, tone, story length, and style in every issue. So if we’ve just published an urban werewolf story recently, we’re not going to do another one for at least a year or two. Don’t give up! Keep submitting, and above all, keep reading to get a feel for what we like.

For readers: we want to hear from you. We publish what we want to read, and we hope its what you want to read too. The biggest gift you can give any author, short of buying their books, is an honest review on Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, or by old fashioned letter. Don’t be shy – let us know what you think!

Thank you Jennifer and PULP Literature for joining us!

You can find PULP Literature through the following links below.

Website: pulpliterature.com

Facebook: facebook.com/pulpliteraturepress/

Twitter: twitter.com/pulpliterature

Featured on GoIndieNow

Jennifer and I were also part of a panel discussion on GoIndieNow discussing how we market books, give it a watch below:

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Balancing Stubbornness and Humility

In any creative field, there are going to be people in life that tell you not to pursue your dreams and there will be those that encourage you. It ultimately becomes a fine line of balancing stubbornness and humility in our minds. Sometimes we do steer too far one way or the other, because we are human. There will be times in your life where you feel down about your work. There will also be times where you think nothing can ever pull you down from the clouds. It’s like a roller coaster. That is okay. Most of the time, creative work is fueled by emotions and you will experience these highs and lows. If anything, embrace them for what they are. Be aware of how they influence your craft and don’t let them get the best of you, because it can be harmful.

Being Stubborn

Stubbornness has many good characteristics about it. It gives you the ability to ignore negative talk. It can help fake confidence and push aside your own insecurities. Stubbornness will help you deal with the naysayers who will warn you about the high risks and low rewards that come with a creative line of work. In this case, building a writing career. It will also help you thicken your skin when people criticize your work – especially online.

Being stubborn will also help you deal with rejection when submitting to publishers or agents. There are close to 2 million books published a year and that is not counting all of the unpublished manuscripts during this period. So no wonder why so many books get rejected or why it is a challenge to have your book stand out among the noise. Great authors have dealt with rejections and poor sales countless times before their books become a success.

Being stubborn doesn’t mean you are super human. Negativity can weigh us down and we buy into “I can’t do it”. So if you need to, sulk around for a little bit but don’t ever quit. Learn from the criticism and grow thicker skin. In the long run it will help your writing and help you become a stronger person.

Being Humble

On the flip side, we can get the best of compliments and praise from an audience or from reviews. This can inflate the ego and you might think you’re the next Stephen King. Being overly confident in your abilities makes you arrogant and unable to see the flaws in your own work. People will also find it more difficult to deal with you because you become too stubborn and do not know how to be flexible and listen.

Humility grants you the freedom from being egotistical of your work. You’ll listen to people better and actually respect what people have to say. You won’t let their words effect your psyche. This helps you take in feedback from reviewers, colleagues and friends about your writing and apply it accordingly. You’re no longer worried about your feelings being hurt because your interest lies in making your work the best it can possibly be.

Now, being too humble does have its downsides, you might become overly passive in the way you receive complements and your surroundings. You may miss opportunities that the stubborn, goal-driven mind can see. You might pass off a chance to talk about your work at a panel or give a presentation about it because you don’t want to boast about your writing. It’s not bragging though, if you’re a writer you have to talk about your work, people want to know the author.

Balancing Stubbornness and Humility

Being overly invested in one or the other can cause some struggles. Too stubborn makes you arrogant and if you are too humble, you might not pursue opportunities. So you have to ride this fine line that is somewhere in the grey. Being stubborn and believe your work is good will help you battle through the negativity and give you the strength to toot your own horn. Being humble will allow you to self-reflect and keep you likable.

Photo by PICSELI on Unsplash

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GoIndieNow Live Panel Discussion The Creative Art of Promoting with an Edge

This great GoIndieNow panel discussion took place LIVE on Friday Nov 10th, 2017.

We were joined on the panel by:

MIRANDA OH http://ohmirandaoh.com

A.G. KIRKHAM http://romancebyagkirkham.com/

JENNIFER LANDELS http://pulpliterature.com/

KONN LAVERY http://konnlavery.com/

MARNIE CATE http://marniecate.com

Many thanks to Mickey Mikkelson and Creative Edge Publicity for making this panel happen http://creativeedgepublicity.com/

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Teaser Tuesday- Malpherities from Konn Lavery’s Mental Damnation

Author Heidi Angell had a delightful Halloween treat for you! She got a chance to sit down and chat with the ghoul, Malpherities, from the Mental Damnation series. The two of them discuss:

Malpherities, thanks for taking the time to talk with us, care to tell us a bit about yourself?
Death’s Vortex? That sounds dangerous, what is it?
That’s rather vague… can you tell us more?
Alright, moving on, you mentioned you have explored many worlds and realms in your life, how have you been able to do this?
That is amazing feat to accomplish, did it take you a long time to be able to do this?
On the note of realm crossing, why have you taken such an interest in Krista?
Don’t you think that realm-crossing be rather frightening to a girl?
Self-Aware? She doesn’t know she can cross realms?
So you care about Krista’s wellbeing, why? Do you to have a past together?
Gods’ ill foresight, the Weaver’s damage, wait what?

Read Malpherities’s interview!

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It’s Time to Go Indie Now Episode 20

Check out the Goindienow episode on YouTube.

I am interviewed at 13:25 about Dream: Part 2 of Mental Damnation.

Welcome to Episode 20 of It’s Time to Go Indie Now with your host Joe Compton.

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Trick or Treat?

Trick… usually. Trick or Treat rarely ends in a treat. At least a good horror story should end in a trick. Although if you enjoy horror stories isn’t that a treat on its own? Either way, it is the season of pumpkin-flavoured everything. Ghouls, ghosts, witches and every other haunted thing under the moon is in fashion. I quite enjoy the season, the aesthetics, decorations, plus a lot of horror movies come out at this time of year. There are also a lot of end-of-the-year planning and prep work to be done for the new year. It’s already October, only two more months and 2017 is done. Where did the time go?

Welcome to another edition of Unprocessed Thoughts.

The time went to a lot of hard work. Truthfully this has been one of the most aggressive years in my career as an author and as a graphic designer. Both aspects of my life have come a long ways in the past 10 months and I am very pleased with where all of it has gone. It does leave you a bit worn out – a good vacation will be needed at the end of the year. For now, like with every year, I got to hang on tight and ride the roller coaster of the last quarter of the year.

I don’t talk a lot about my graphic design work.

I really should talk more about my graphic design and web development work. It is a large part of my life that I keep pretty quiet online. I have a twitter and a website, that is all. Most of my marketing for it has been through the business cards and networking. It is a major passion of mine along with writing. If you hadn’t seen my portfolio (that is outdated) it is revealdesign.ca. A brand refresh is in the works, probably won’t be around for another year or so. I’ll be sure to talk about that once it is out.

I do talk a lot about my writing though.

That is kind of the purpose of this website isn’t it? With that in mind, if you don’t follow me on instagram, I gave a sneak peek at some new artwork for the upcoming thriller novel:

Suspects. #demo #experiment #photoIllustration #art #yegArt #yegWrites #thriller #gouache #charcoal #charcaoalDrawing #mixedmediaart #YEGman

A post shared by Konn Lavery (@_konnartist) on Oct 18, 2017 at 3:55pm PDT

This is a new art form for me. It is known as photo illustration. I’ll be sure to elaborate on the process in the coming months. First thing I have to do is finish the revisions before making any solid announcements.

Overall I am very excited to release this novel. It is faster, more violent and more action focused than my previous works. It has been a challenge to write because its also the most earth-bound work I have done. It could very much happen in the real world. That means there are no demons, reptilian people or flesh eating plants.

Does that make it a Trick or Treat?

Well, early beta readers have said it is a nod to the Punisher comic book hero. Currently I have beta readers going through the novel before it enters the editing phase. The novel complimenting The Punisher wasn’t my intent, but I am going to consider that a win.

Beer Note: Boneshaker Unfiltered IPA by Amsterdam Brewery

I’ve had Boneshaker Unfiltered IPA a lot. It is quite hoppy and has a high alcohol level (78.1% to be exact). It has been a little difficult to find lately. Not sure if it is just my local area or if it is on a larger level. Either way I found it earlier this month and snagged the last six pack. It is a strong beer and you have to enjoy the taste of hops to like this. One bottle is pretty potent so do enjoy every sip thoroughly.

For my hoppy taste buds, I’d give this beer a 4/5.

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Texting or Email for Work?

Should you be texting or email for work? Which one is the right method to send information to someone? It is a grey area for many people. If you start asking your colleagues, you will find there is a wide a range of opinions on the proper etiquette.

So why not search online? Surely there is some insight into the do’s and do not’s or the right scenarios where texting can be applied vs. email. Not quite, you will find the same results as you would asking colleagues – there are a lot of varying opinions. That’s where I thought: why not throw another opinion out there for people to read? Let’s first review the two types of information:

Email is an old technology.

In terms of computer technological advancements, it is pretty old. Throughout human history, it is pretty new, as is with all technology. Email was invented in 1972 by VA Shiva Ayyaduria and was initially used by the military to send information. Learn more about the history of email here. In the past several decades, it has become the primary form of communication and around 205 billion emails are sent per day.

Texting is a new technology.

Thanks to the rise of smart phones, texting has become easier than ever before, with the first text being sent in 1992. People use it in their daily activities for their personal lives and professional lives, sending an average of 23 billion messages per day.

Some of these stats are a few years old, so the numbers may have changed slightly, but you get the idea.

So… texting or email for work?

From my experience working professionally, email is far more efficient and reliable than texting when sending important information regarding projects, scheduling a meeting or sending contracts.

Here is why email is more effective:

Email allows you to store information for years on end.
It allows you to organize messages into folders (tags, archiving, etc.).
You can easily send the message to multiple people through CC or secretly through BCC.
It can be accessed on various devices and you can attach media files.

Why Texting is not:

Information can be lost for good if your phone is turned off or you have to replace the device.
Information can be delayed based on cellular connectivity.
Not all providers and devices share information the same way (such as images, video, contact cards, multi-person messages, etc.) which can distort your message’s intent.
People change their number. In a working setting, an email is unlikely to change unless the person quits their job. If they do, it will more likely forward to another person or you are notified that the email has bounced.

Texting has its place.

Don’t get me wrong, texting is valuable. It simply was never intended to be used as a primary source of sending primary information about business. Texting should be used to send short spurts of info such as confirming a location or informing people you are running a bit behind or a urgent matter that needs an instant response. And no, not everything is urgent, you become “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” if you play that card every time.

Treat email as writing a letter and texting as an immediate message for the scenario.

Do you agree with the thoughts above or do you have your own preferences regarding when texting and email should be used within a professional environment? Share in the comments!

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Bianca Rowena, YA author of The Gifted Series

This month’s guest is Bianca Rowena who was born in Romania, Transylvania. She has been writing from a young age and has written the novels The Gift of Stone and The Virgin Diaries. She now lives in Canada which is the setting and inspiration for her novels. Let’s invite her to the blog to chat about her writing!

Hi Bianca Rowena, thank you for joining us. Can you give us a brief introduction to yourself?

I think you already did a pretty good job with the introduction haha. I’d say one of the things people find the most interesting about me is that I was born in Transylvania. It made for a different kind of upbringing which I like to think makes me writing have a slightly different perspective. Sometimes I get frustrated with how much editing goes into a final draft since my first language is Hungarian and my sentences are sometimes a combination of language style. The English language is spoken a bit backwards after all

Distractions and Time Management for Writing

Everyone is busy, let’s face it. We all have things to do, places to go and people to see. We have difficulties dealing with distractions and time management for writing. Especially in the western civilization, we are overstimulated with tasks on a day to day basis at work and at home. Our constant buzzing of phones for email, text, calls and social media don’t help either. We are far too easily pulled in numerous directions and more often than not, what we dream about doing gets thrown to the sideline. This raises the question:

How does one manage to write in a hustle and bustle of life?

Everyone who writes manages to make it work, they have time during the day to put aside all other tasks and interruptions to sit down and write. This may be for twenty minutes at the bus stop or for a couple of hours while their family goes to bed. Morning writers get up extra early to get typing away while everyone else is still sleeping. Regardless of how, writers will write.

Time

Every day we have 24 hours to fit everything important in. This includes, sleep, work, eating, socializing relaxation, etc. I mention relaxation because it is important to spend time to unwind and watch TV, read or meet with friends now and then. However, don’t forget about your writing.

Make time to write, don’t wait to have time

Something I hear people say all the time is “how do you have time to write?” There is a mystery that sitting down to write is an impossible feat that most people cannot reach. The truth is you have to move it up the priority list. Procrastinating, finding excuses and filling your day with other tasks is super easy to do and you push writing aside for weeks if not forever. The onus is on your to shift your schedule around and make writing of greater importance, that is the difference between making time and waiting to have time to write.

Single vs. Married with Kids

Now, this is far easier for me to preach when not having kids or being married. I also run my own graphic design / web development company which allows for more flexible hours. Yet when you look into many other author bios, there are plenty of authors who juggle full time 9-5 jobs and have families. This is where writing in the early mornings or evenings come into play.

Limit your Time

This may seem odd, but even limiting your time to small increments every day can help you reinforce the habit of writing. Try for 30 minutes to an hour each day and see how much you can get done. A little bit at a time is far more rewarding and productive than doing none at all.

Distractions

The second half of this post will be about dealing with interruptions. Even if you have made time to write, your attention can easily be taken away and you lose your precious moments to write.

Put down the phone!

This should be a no brainer. However a lot of us have a twitch reflex when it comes to our smart phones. We feel a need to be connected with our social circles all the time. Yet if you seriously want to write, avoid the phone while you are working. Turn it off if you have to.

Avoid the Internet

You may need it for research, but when you don’t, close the browser. It is far too easy to go down some weird exploration session on Wikipedia or YouTube. The internet is a vast and mysterious place, so don’t get lost in your browsing. Remind yourself of your goal of writing and don’t be so easily persuaded by the web’s charms.

Designate time, religiously

Another type of interruption is not taking it seriously enough. Make writing a ritual in your life like you would dedicate to exercise or even taking a shower. Do it on a regular basis so you build up a habit and you will find it is far easier to upkeep after the initial investment.

Passion and Discipline

You may have read online about passion or discipline being better than the other. I’ve always leaned towards discipline. There’s always times when you are not going to want to write and feel no desire to even lay down a word, but you have to keep at it.

Often passion and discipline go hand in hand, as we are writers and there is an underlining desire to keep writing no matter the challenges we face in our lives.

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