D.C. Williams's Blog, page 13
January 28, 2014
More, More, and Maybe More
I have a new title out on Amazon for Kindle, and it will be free from 1/29 to 2/2 http://www.amazon.com/Foxgrove-Weddin... Also don’t forget my novel, just out this month from MLR Press.and available from them and other fine retailers, including All Romance, where it has a five star rating https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thepriceofeverything-1395394-149.html
http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?...
I swear this is the last time I blog this particular title, but I really am beside myself with delight that it’s out.
And I have a new novella under contract, and it’s much, much lighter than anything else I have out. I swear it makes “When Nick Met Michael” look like sturm und drang. Kind of anyway. There’s a little bitter with the sweet, I swear. And I am working on a bunch of new stuff, including at least theoretically, a new Nick and Leon, and Paul and Quinn do make an appearance. So it’s not a totally gratuitous “Price of Everything” plug.
January 11, 2014
It’s finally here!
My book is out. It’s released and I’m delighted. Hopefully it does well. Check out where you can buy it. http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=DCWPRICE
December 28, 2013
The Price of Everything
Here it is, here it is! The cover reveal for “The Price of Everything.” Isn’t it gorgeous? I’m so pleased, and everyone at MLR has been great!
November 16, 2013
November 13, 2013
Okay, I’m still a bad blogger
And still mired in personal things. I am working on stuff, and have a novella in submission. I have no idea if the publisher actually wants it or not, but that’s okay. I’m sure they’ll tell me eventually.
And I just got back and went over the proofs for “The Price of Everything.” I’m so excited. Every step brings me closer to actually having it out and published. By a real publisher. Who obviously thinks I can write. Wow.
And my baby has a job, in addition to being in college this year. Very scary. And he’s taller than his father, and clearly not stopped growing. Where he’ll stop, nobody knows, although none of my relatives are tall, and the tallest of my husband’s brothers was 6’3″ or so. Now, the kid is only a little over six feet, and at eighteen he should be close to done, but he’s been shaving less than a year and he just doesn’t look like he’s in the home stretch. And if it’s not moving, he’s eating it. It’s probably a good thing he got a job in a grocery store.
October 17, 2013
Okay, I a bad, bad blogger
But I’ve been kind of busy. I have some personal stuff going on, and I mostly haven’t been at home. I finished the edits and the publisher is now doing various magic with my MS. I finished a novella and submitted it, and I just finished a Christmas story and sent it off to the wonderful people who patiently beta read for me. It’s probably too late for most anthologies for this year, but I’ll think of something to do with it.
I have some stuff in progress, but it’s on my home computer so I can’t really mess with it. I think I’m waiting for my next short story to hit me over the head. I’ll come, but I often need a day or two to digest between projects, and I know I’ll need a revision on the Xmas story. I don’t really do roughs, but I’ve sent more polished things off to my betas.
September 23, 2013
The importance of being edited.
It’s a process most writers don’t enjoy. It’s a lot of work, and it’s not fun to have a stranger rip your work up into small pieces and demand that you put it back together. Even when the end result is better. And it is. I thought I had something pretty good, and so must the publisher have, or else we wouldn’t be doing this, but I can see my novel getting tighter, falling together and getting neater.
And I write clean copy. I don’t put out a mess full of typos, I usually use a beta, and I revise carefully. The editing process makes a big difference.
I have noticed this with other writers, too. They vary, but most writers have a free short or two on their sites (I don’t-but I have some free samples on my goodreads page http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7044804.D_C_Williams) and I can often notice the difference from their published work.
One of the many (and often specious) complaints self-pubbed authors have is that they may not agree with the editor and they don’t want their work ripped up. Get over it. It’s like turning yourself over to the drill sergeant. They will break you down, but it’s only to build you up and make you stronger. If you don’t have a publisher and don’t want one and your serious, hire a free-lance editor if you can afford one, or at least recruit a couple of highly literate betas who like to proof.
Rant over, but I’m kind of tired of downloading on things that are oozing with potential that’s wasted because it a sloppy mess full of loose plot threads, awkward sentences, and stupid typos.
September 19, 2013
Just got done with the first round of edits.
And I talked to my editor to see if it was appropriate to divulge any details, because I’m now feeling a little less superstitious about the whole thing. So the contract I signed was with MLR press, which has been fabulously awesome and very patient with me and the title is “The Price of Everything.” I’m still keeping mum about the subject matter, but it’s a full-length novel and I’m extremely excited.
I want to hop up and down and sing “I’m a real writer, I’m a real writer” all the time even if that does kind of lack dignity. Not that I am extremely dignified. Anyone who knows me personally is snickering now, because they probably think dignity and myself do not belong in the same sentence.
I am extremely happy about all of this though, and I keep tapping away at my computer, so gentle readers, there is more in the offing, both the weird stuff I self-publish, and the less weird that I hope a publisher will want to publish for me.
August 21, 2013
More progress and some feeling of incompetence
One of the realities of real writerhood is that I’m in edits and I don’t really have anything to report. And I feel a little silly because I’m not really familiar with the process because it is my first time. And really my first time. The MS that got accepted was the second one I ever sent out, which I know makes me incredibly fortunate but also…
Means that I really don’t know what I’m doing. I have not been acquiring piles of rejection letters and a working knowledge of how publishers operate, or getting short stories into anthologies. My editor has been very patient, but I know some of my questions are strange.
I know some writers prefer self-publishing, but I know I’m not one of them. It has it’s place, since I know most of what I have out there is not likely to interest a publishing house, and that gets it in front of the public and allows people who may enjoy it the opportunity to purchase it. It also lets me experiment with what readers do and don’t like, and lets me put out some of the weird stuff I write mostly for my own amusement, like Companions on the Road.
