Meri Benson's Blog, page 25
July 8, 2013
An Almost New Start
My weekend was… well interesting. We got out to the trailer and I was able to do a massive amount less than I wanted to. Usually the schedule is we get out, mow the grass so there are less mosquitoes, dust and clean the trailer a little, put beds together, and just… rest. Which usually involves a movie after dinner and then me retiring to my section of the trailer to read/write/play Animal Crossing/etc.
That’s not exactly how it went down when we got there. For starters our canopy ended up bulging and stretching because it caught water and just kept it instead of letting the water slide right off. But most importantly, there was a tree down over our back fence. Thankfully it missed both the storage shed and our canopy. The owner mentioned it to us when we stopped in before heading back to our spot, and had mentioned that she’d have guys out there to get it done that weekend sometime. Well, needless to say my parents couldn’t just let it sit. We spent most of Friday afternoon/night trimming all the smaller branches off of it and settling them into a pile that the owner could haul away and then thanks to our neighbor loaning a small electric chain saw, we ended up cutting a good chunk of it back, almost to the fence. Which, while we did end up doing the work the owner was supposed to do, we got some good firewood out of it. Not that it’ll be useable until next year, but firewood.
And once that was done, and we sweet talked our neighbors into mowing for us later that weekend so we could leave, we went home. And then spent that afternoon sprawled and lounging at the house because zomg tired from being up since 6am Sat morning. And Sunday wasn’t any better. Though I did figure out approximately how far I’m behind on my word count. And the numbers ain’t pretty.
My original goal was about 667 a day. Averaging that up to 700 words a day, I should have had 18900 by today done. I have 2000. See what I mean about not pretty? My goal, starting today, is to average between 700 and 2000 words a day so that come July 31 I’ll be caught up.
And that offer to accept prompts to get more juices flowing in the original work direction still stands.
July 5, 2013
Weekend Plans
So about a mouth back to date I decided to restart, and for the most part reboot, my novel. And since then it got to about two thousand words before my life and the world kept me busy. And I’m well aware that these are excuses and not reasons. I should be able to find a couple hours in the day to sit down and crank out a thousand words. And I plan to do that starting roughly Sunday.
I’m back into the swing of going to my job and chiropractic visits, and I’ve dropped from three times a week to two times a week now, which will open up a little more of my afternoon until I get hired as full time at work. And the massive project that was getting a Newsletter is now finished and over, and I wanna say about 60% of the five page Newsletter was written by me. Never again. NEVER AGAIN. I will have help next time if I need to crack out a whip. But it’s done. It’s been emailed out. So now I can take a deep breath and focus on my novel.
To make up for the month behind-ness of everything, I’m planning to set my daily word count goal at two thousand words a day so that hopefully by August I can drop back down to one thousand a day, or keep up the two thousand pace and get the rough draft finished that much quicker. Goals, but I don’t want to burn myself out with them either.
There’s also the question of whether I should try to participate in NaNoWriMo this November, but I think part of that will depend on where I am in my WIP. Whether I’m far enough along that I can share headspace with a new WIP or whether I’m still far enough from the end that 50K in 30 days would do me some good. It’s all a matter of how hard I crack the whip on myself.
Later today and into tomorrow I’ll be heading off to the wilderness of Indiana. Camping. Partially to see how the campground is doing so we have an update for the fest I coordinate in August, and partially to see how my, and my parents, trailer has faired the flooding and storms out in the area. I’ll be printing out what I have of my WIP to get back into the headspace and see about writing a little more of it by hand while I’m out there. Means I’ll have to type it up later, but if it gets words on a page, I’m good with it.
Though I’m thinking of figuring out some prompts to get me back into writing original work and not fandom stuff too. Just to get the juices flowing better. Any suggestions? They’ll be posted when I answer them, if you give me some.
June 24, 2013
Feeling very…
I’m not completely sure why, but I’ve been feeling very… wanting to write a dystopian set book. My small but currently growing library of novels and anthologies where this is the setting may be having a bad influence on my brain. I picked up Shards & Ashes from my shelf to start reading it the other day, which is a large contrast from Casting Spells that I’m currently reading.
And i should probably warn you now that this post might ramble. It’s Monday, and I should be running errands but the office I need to visit doesn’t open for another fifteen minutes.
Anywho, so I am in the mood to write/read dystopian settings and I’m not completely sure where the want to do either came from. It also leaves me wanting to crack the whip at a friend of mine that’s got a dystopian story in the works and I’m eager to read it as soon as possible.
My conflict with writing one is that I currently have a WIP and I really, really have goals to get it done and I don’t want to deviate from that to plot a new story, short or novel length. If I were in a slightly better place with my time, I might try to balance them but I don’t really have much time to bounce between two.
Brains. Why do they do this to us? Because seriously. I don’t need any more distractions or I’m gonna see the painful side of a whip as it’s cracked at me to keep working on my WIP.
I do know I’ll be jotting down the thoughts on this idea, so hopefully I can go back to it when either I have more time or after Christmas.
June 20, 2013
Pricing on the Kindle Store
I have to say that sometimes it amazes me how the pricing ends up on Amazon’s Kindle store. With Kindle Direct allowing authors to self publish instead of finding a publisher, it’s flooded the ebook stores with more material than ever. (Which is both good and bad.)
On the one hand, it means that authors don’t have to jump and compete with that very small market that is the big publishers line up, and they don’t have to deal with the hassles that can come from trying a small, specifically genre-d press, or bend their genre and style to fit that small press. However it also means that anyone can publish anything, and editors aren’t always used before publishing. (Though I’m starting to get a little off topic here since I wanted to discuss the pricing, aren’t I.)
A lot of the books on the store are $0.99 – especially when it’s a book one of a series, which I personally think is great. It gives you the ability to try a new author without really committing a lot of money at first, and if you like them and want to continue the series it’s usually $2.99. To me? That seems more than fair and more than a little awesome. It’s affordable as the reader, the author gets their stories out there, and while it’s not much they’re also getting at least a little money for the effort they’re putting into it.
What baffles me though, while I was cruising the Kindle store I came across an author who is publishing 4K stories and asking for $2.99 for them. In a see of chapter ebooks and lengthy novellas that are being sold for $0.99, this person wanted more. And I will admit, I haven’t gotten into self publishing my stuff yet, though I do have plans to in the near future, I don’t see how the author thought that would be a good business plan. Especially since said author states the word count in the description on the info of the book so you know you’re getting a massive short.
I won’t say that the author is wrong for charging that much as it’s her work and she has every right to charge as she pleases. What I’m wondering is, do people actually spend that much for such a small short? Am I just a little too wallet tight to spend almost a dollar for every thousand words?
June 18, 2013
Old Projects, New Eyes
It’s hard sometimes to look back and go ‘well hell. I was supposed to be done with that by now.’ And yet that’s what I ended up doing this last week while I was on vacation visiting my best friend. I’ve been trying to write a novel for the last four years, and every year I always let life or other things get in the way of finishing. I don’t set it as a priority, and that’s my main problem. Though the major secondary problem is that I haven’t been setting time aside to write.
I got a new job a couple months ago and that had completely side tracked me as well, but that’s an excuse. And not a very good one. Though that’s also neither here nor there.
After talking to my friend, and realizing that I had written 30,000 words and the story didn’t go anywhere, or do anything. And staring at this large piece of work that’s been sitting for what feels like forever, it felt like a chore to try and work on it. Like I was tied down and chained to keep it because it’s what I have to show for the last four years. But it made me want to work on it even less for that too, because I wasn’t sure how to salvage it with how backed into a corner the main character was now.
So, with the encouragement of my friend, I scrapped all of it but the treatment and outline. We reworked some of story so it will hopefully flow a little better too as I write it. And we’ve set up goals for me to meet, the main being a minimum of 667 words a day, but 1,000 if I can get it there. My goal as a whole is to have the rough draft done by Christmas. That starting in 2014 I can do revisions and edits and have it finished before this time next year.
It might not seem like a lot, or a strict deadline, but I have issues trying to follow most deadlines, and I will be doing my best to keep up with all of my goals. And hopefully I will update with better progress as the year gets closer to closing.
June 10, 2013
Book Review: Dark Summer by Lizzy Ford
Author: Lizzy Ford
Publisher: Guerrilla Wordfare
Genre: YA – Fantasy Romance
Rating: 4 Stars
In a world where magick is kept quiet and most people don’t know it exists, growing up with it flowing in your body can be hard. This is especially true for ward of the state, Summer. Orphaned at a young age, she never had anyone to show her the ways of her lineage and help her with her magick. That hasn’t stopped her magick from lashing out though, causing school after school to expel her. Now though, she’s sent to Priest Lake. A boarding school where the wind and trees sing to her, and where magick isn’t a curse but a gift meant to be fostered. But will her fate be any different at this new school where she’ll make enemies as well as friends?
The world that Lizzy created in this book is definitely an imaginative and creative one. Summer is a girl that has been down on her luck since her parents died and an orphanage took her in. Her story is a sad one, and yet she hasn’t given up the ability to hope that maybe this time it’ll be better. Maybe this new school where she isn’t an outcast because of her magick might be the one she can stay at.
Over the course of the book she faces both troubles and happiness, as well as some heartbreak. Nothing is ever simple in the life of a teenager, but throw in magick and the balance of light and dark that could cost one your soul and you have a very addictive read.
June 3, 2013
Book Review: Fraternal Devotion edited by K. Piet & Kristen Pavka
Fraternal Devotion is an anthology published by Storm Moon Press and can be found here. The book contains five stories about brothers loving brothers. And while I know a lot of people tend to automatically frown or push away that concept, but I think that people should always give everything a try. You never know what will inspire you, or make you smile unless you try it. And by try it I mean give this book a try and read it. Especially since this book holds a lot of good stories in it.
Over all rating: 3.5 Stars
The first tantalizing tale, War and Peace and Brotherhood by D.K. Jernigan (4.5 stars) unfolds the tale of brothers Keith and Riley. In this world, a mutation has started turning some of the population and it has split sides. Riley had left a number of years ago and Keith had no idea where he’d gone until he shows up on the wrong side of the line that Keith’s been walking. This book is set in a world where an infection has started to change people, to those changed a lot of them see it as a gift but to those unchanged they see them as abominations that must be eradicated at any cost. The infection that changes you is spread by having sex with someone that’s already been changed, and personally I have to say it’s an interesting way to explain people gaining the ability to change into wolves or make themselves invisible, though that’s only a small example of what people have gained in this world. The world building in the story is imaginative and interesting, and the interaction and relationship between the two brothers in engaging and makes you want to keep reading.
The second story is Analgeisa by Alisha Steele (4 stars) and tells the tale of Brandon and Ethan. After a rather bitter divorce, their mother is trying to fix up their childhood home so she can sell it and move into something smaller and more affordable. There’s no hiding the fact that Brandon wants his brother, from the get go we know that the feelings are there. And watching the interaction between the two, the story of why Ethan ran to England with his band nineteen months before the story started, is extremely interesting and hot. This story, with it’s teasing, flirting, and jealousy is a very steamy read.
Third in the tales of brotherly love comes Depression, Love, and Swimming Pools by Leigh Wilder (3 stars). The story starts with Cale coming home on Spring Break to see his mother and his brother Derrick. His mother is quick to tell him that something is wrong with his older brother, and without actually saying it she thinks that Cale should fix whatever is going on as Derrick seems to have taken to just floating in the family pool nearly naked. The story overall is a relatively sad one, as you come to find that the brothers have gone through a good deal of loss between them, and that both are trying to cope as they can though Derrick is having a tougher time of it through everything. And while I didn’t gel all that well with this story, it is well written and the characters are engaging. Well worth the read.
Coming in fourth is On Clouds of Obsession by Azalea Moone (2 stars) where we meet Jeremy and Matt. It’s a week before Matt’s wedding to Candy, and Jeremy is not all that enthusiastic about the wedding. Matt invites Jeremy to the Bachelor party and despite his reservations agrees and goes. Things escalate from steamy to depressing and then around to sweet. If you follow Jeremy’s emotions, this story is a roller coaster of emotions, though I feel that it’s written extremely well. Neither the story nor the emotions lose you but instead make you want to continue with Jeremy to see how the shoe will fall when all is said and done.
And finally, but certainly not least is On the Edge by S.L. Armstrong & K. Piet (4 stars). Ben and Andrew are two brothers that have moved out on their own, sharing an apartment to support each other in the city away from their parents. Though there’s more than just trying to make it as a musician on Andrew’s mind, namely struggling through the guilt and shame that come from loving and sleeping with his brother. Ben doesn’t have any of the guilt or shame, but rather embraces that they’ve always gone against the grain and this was no different, and so long as it made them happy it was alright. The tug back and forth between the emotions is definitely a powerful one, and the story has a darker edge to it because of Andrew’s drug use.
May 31, 2013
Reviewing – A Question For The Masses
So, I’m fairly new to the whole aspect of reviewing books. It’s no lie. I’ve only got a couple under my belt as a whole and only on on this blog right as it stands. Though looking at other reviewers I’ve noticed that most people give stars for how much they liked a book, or in the case of an anthology each story gets a star and they average them out for the book as a whole.
So I guess my main reason for posting this is to ask, do you find it more helpful when reading (or receiving for those that have work out there) a review if it has stars attached to the over all comments on each story/book?
This is me. Considering revamping the way I do reviews before I do too many of them and it looks weird to change the style I do them in.
April 23, 2013
Pups and Picnics & Changes on the Wind
April 8, 2013
Poor Balancing of Time
So it seems, or really it more than seems, that I’ve been neglecting this poor blog. I’ve never been a great manager of time, and maybe I need to set up in my schedule a better structured outline of when to make sure if I haven’t gotten back to here I should. I always have these passing thoughts through the day of what might make a great entry, and then by the time I still in everything I’m doing enough to actually do something, the idea is gone and I’m left scratching my head. Or worse, I forget everything all together because I never really stop. It’s poor of me as an author to not keep this blog up, at least in my personal opinion of myself.
Though that brings me to the topic I figured I’d write my thoughts on today. Balancing time.
Most people see huge authors like J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyers and think that authors have it easy. And really, what could be easier? A life where you get to explore the bounds and wonders of your imagination for a living. To create characters and make them do what you want to do, or to create worlds based on an idea or how you think a world should be run. And don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly fun. Though the difficulties that can come with that will better serve for a different post.
What I don’t think most realize is that as fun as it is, it doesn’t pay the bills as well as you’d expect. A good chunk of the authors out there have a mundane (or not so mundane pending what they do outside of write) job to help them get through the month as well, or in some cases extremely supportive significant others that work hard to pay the bills while the muses burn fuel. And in a lot of cases it ends up being a hard balancing act.
Outside of being an author, I work a regular 9-5 job which eats up a lot of my energy as well as most of my week. And sadly, a lot of the time after work I tend to crash. And on weekends I have family I live with and near so there’s usually something always going on there, or the occasionally in town friend. Some might think it’d be easy to just hang a little sign on the door that reads “Muses at work – All non-fiction people stay out” but it’s no that simple. Housework and laundry need to get done whether I’ve gotten two hundred words or two thousand words on my new WIP. Meals need to be cooked and eaten, and at some point whether I am ready for it or not, sleep will claim me some time between eleven at night and one in the morning. On top of all that I have other commitments too, as I Coordinate a week long outdoor Spiritual Get-Back-To-Nature Pagan Festival in Aug. (which if anyone has ever run an annual event, they know it’s a year long process), I’m getting a Newsletter up and running for the organization that hosts the Festival (which I will quote an acquaintance of mine, getting articles from people really is like herding cats), and I’m the Vice-President of said organization.
Needless to say, I’ve got a lot on my plate. And while I love it, for as Virgo as I am, I may possibly be one of the most scatter brained Virgos on the planet. Or at least in my state. Because honestly, I know I don’t always get to the things I should.
Work, as you’d expect, comes first. And my responsibilities to the organization I’m part of come in a high tied second with my family and friends. As an author, my writing itself comes third or I’d never have anything coming out in print. Which also means that some of my loves, and some of my other responsibilities get set on the wayside until I can get to them be it because of time or because of energy.
It’s a balancing act though. Because too much time without things I love, like reading or video games, makes me go a little stir crazy for the lack of. And yet too much time without an online presence and I’m not doing the greatest job I can as an author to push myself and my work — in the works as it is as yet.
So I ask you, dear reader, how do you manage to make sure you balance your time well? Any tips for this humble author looking to do better in all aspects of her life?
