Jamie Sheffield's Blog, page 21

"Here Be Monsters" Contest (Twinkie Prizes!)

 
Sales of "Here Be Monsters" are going pretty well, and I'm happy with the reviews (although to tell the truth I'd love for a couple more to go up on Amazon), and I've been hearing from friends and strangers about how they feel as though they know Tyler(and/or know someone like Tyler).  Two things that people mention are Tyler's numbered smiles, and his appreciation for junk food, so I thought I'd run a book-related contest that brought those two together.
Contest Guidelines: Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to catalog all of Tyler's number fake (and actual smiles), into a list (including the undiscussed ones).  Prizes will be awarded in the two categories: most accurate/detailed, and most imaginative.  Most accurate/detailed will be decided based on attention to detail in the story.  Most imaginative will be decided based on how creatively the entrant guesses at the unexplained gaps in Tyler's numbered smiles.  In the case of multiple entries of similar quality, SmartPig minons will select a winner for each category by cage-wrestling match.
Contest Dates: Submissions will be accepted from January 14 through February 14.
Contest Prizes: The winner of each category will receive a vintage package of (still edible) Twinkies. 
Good Luck!
Jamie

Signed Copies for Sale

Signed copies of "Here Be Monsters" are now available for sale through my website, through the cleverly named "Buy Stuff!" page.


If you already got a copy and want it signed, just come and find me, and I'll happily sign it and then talk your ear off about the writing process, and my favorite parts of the book.

Jamie

Sunrise at my "day job"

{click on the picture to see it full-sized}
When I'm not writing, I work at the Lake Placid Middle/High School, in Lake Placid, NY.  This is the view outside of my classroom window this morning, at a few minutes after 7am.  My school is just behind/above the outside speed-skating oval that Eric Heiden won 5 gold medals on in the 1980 Olympics.

It was a gorgeous morning!

I woke up this morning with a nest of ideas for a short story prequel to "Here Be Monsters" that I want to try and dig around in, and write this week and/or next.

Jamie

Bits and Bobs About the Book

I've been a published author for a week, and some of the fear and awe has rubbed off, only to be replaced by a mix of fun and little oddities of the process.



It took Amazon most of the week to view/list the Kindle and paperback version as the same book.  They have assigned parenthetical subtitles to the book that are still different, but neither bother me, and in talking with CreateSpace, it sounds as though it would be a hassle, and might even take the book offline to merge or dump the subtitles.

I've had some fun talks and email exchanges and discussion in various online forums about the book and the writing process, and am looking forward to more in the future.  I understand that a bookclub up here in the Adirondacks is going to read my book for their next month's selection, which is both an honor and a bit scary.  Goodreads has my book showing up on peoples' "to read" lists...people that I don't know (lots of the early adapters have been friends and family, but now the book seems to be spreading beyond that circle).  I'm ecstatic that the book seems to be establishing its own momentum, and a life of its own.

One "clever" thing that I threw into the book during the design process appears (when taken from outside of the slightly myopic view of myself and my editorial team) to not work out as well as I had hoped in the final cost/benefit analysis.  I assume that I'll be hearing about errata and perhaps some minor details in the months to come (75k words, there are likely to be a few issues, even with multiple read-throughs and readers).  At some point in the process, I'll likely dive in and make some changes and then re-upload the files for the paperback and Kindle copies of the book. 

Reader's Challenge:
If you can find/identify the thing that I'm referring to in the paragraph above in the text of my book, and email (or comment here) what it is, I'll send you a Twinkie from Tyler's secret stash of the heavenly pastry treats!

Thanks,

Jamie

Where do you write?

I wrote the majority of "Here Be Monsters" at our kitchen table.  It has a nice view of some clutter and a tiny saltwater tank and pictures of dogs and other family/friends and the woods outside of our house and provides plenty of space for me to spread out.  I like drinking some form of liquid caffeine (Coke or coffee) while writing, and often cover the table with notebooks and maps and miscellaneous scraps of paper.

Writing at the table means that the dogs (currently two, Miles and Puck) are at my feet or waiting on one side of the door leading to the woods behind our home.  They don't bug me nearly as much as Kiwi, the mantis shrimp living in the saltwater tank on the table, does...she comes out to watch me type (which is creepy), whacks on the snails cleaning her tank to let m know that she's hungry (which is noisy and annoying), and redecorates her tank constantly (throwing stuff around, which is visually distracting). 

I sometimes listen to music, but nothing too busy or with words...it generally comes down to Mozart or JSB's Goldberg Variations or Segovia.  I don't turn off the phone, but I do screen callers, and almost nobody makes the cut.  I keep a browser open in the background, because I find that I look stuff up all the time, but stick pretty much to google and wikipedia (avoiding gmail and FB during writing time helps it work).

Most of my writing sessions during the writing of HBM resulted in the production of "chunks" of book between 1500-2500 words in length.  I tried not to focus on the wordcount as much as completing a segment of the story before stopping for the day; so some days I ran long and some days were shorter (my NaNoWriMo day wordcounts varied from 800 to 4500).

I don't know that this is the best way to write, it's just how I wrote while working on HBM.  I'd love to hear about where and how you write...thanks for sharing!

Jamie

A New Year, with New Opportunities!

My book is now available in both paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon.com, and I'm floating on a cloud of pride and contentedness and closure and joy.  The work isn't done, I have marketing and the like to deal with, but a process that had been consuming lots of brainspace for the last 6 months has shifted off to one side...somewhat.

While I'm interested and excited about connecting with potential readers through a brilliant local and distributed marketing campaign, I'm also looking ahead to what it next for me.

The most important part of this whole process has been taking a handful of related ideas from floating around in my head through a drafting and writing and editing process, to produce a story that both expresses my original thoughts and grips a reader by the throat until they've finished the last page.

I have some ideas about what's next for Tyler Cunningham, the protagonist in my novel, "Here Be Monsters", and am debating which way to go in the short term: begin planning the next novel while the excitement is there, or explore some short format projects (both short stories and a novella) that have suggested themselves to me. 

I already know the direction in which the next novel will be going, and have some of the story worked out already, but need to do some research to strengthen characters and the environment in which they'll exist.  I've been collecting random thoughts, doing some reading, talking to subject matter experts, and making lists...and so on.

I have some fun ideas for less lengthy pieces of work as well.  A few short stories and maybe a longer piece (in the 30k word range), designed around the further exploration of Tyler and the people in his life, set against the backdrop of the Adirondack Park and smaller-scale investigations, have surfaced at various points over the last few months (when finishing "Here Be Monsters" started seeming like a reality rather than a dream); I've been holding these off with promises to let them out to play once the book was done, and they're ready.

I'd love to hear what you've got planned for the New Year, in terms of writing projects (or other creative outlets, as my sister has just begun some brilliant work with watercolors).  Please share your thoughts about your work, my work, or somebody else's work, and the direction that you think it should go in 2013.

Thanks,

Jamie

Amazon Author Page!

I have an Amazon Author page!

LINK

From this page, you can get to the kindle or print version of "Here Be Monsters", which can be borrowed and/or shipped for FREE is you are an Amazon Prime member.

Jamie

"Here Be Monsters" in Kindle format!

My novel, "Here Be Monsters" has now become available on Amazon for Kindle readers.

LINK

There is an extended free sample to give you more of a feeling for the book before buying it, but the title is also FREE for all Amazon Prime members!

Thanks, and Happy New Year to everyone!

Jamie

"Here Be Monsters" is now available!

A link to the CreateSpace store where my novel is available for sale!!!

It will be available for sale on Amazon.com in both print and Kindle format in the next few days, and I will also be setting up a sales page on this website for people interested in signed books (once I get a few copies in hand).


WOW!!!

Thanks to everyone for all of their support and encouragement through the writing and editing process.

Jamie

A bit about CreateSpace Customer Service...

CreateSpace is the company, a subsidiary of Amazon, that is publishing my book.  I have been generally impressed with their site and the user-interface and their level of service...but...

They were supposed to get my printed proofs to me on Wednesday, and they have not yet arrived.  They likely would have arrived yesterday, if not for the massive storm that killed all of the roads in rural CT.  I'll post later today, when (if) they do arrive.

The thing that I liked was their response to my whining and complaints about not being able to get my hands on my precious!  They have all manner of CS software for email and chat, but I wanted to talk to an actual person, and have been able to do that more easily than with any other business that I've dealt with in memory.

I entered the number of the phone that I wanted them to reach me at, in this case my parents' place in CT, and hit the button.  Literally within a second, the phone rang, and it was CreateSpace.  The phone-bot informed me that a person would be on the line shortly, and in both cases was within 30 seconds. 

They reassured me about the process and shipment, fully refunded my shipping, and both polite young women personally sent me an email within a few minutes of getting off of the phone with me, to follow-up about the service call.

I'd like to have gotten my printed proofs on time better, but this level and efficiency of customer service is pretty nice to have in the company that will be help me to produce my books.

Jamie