Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 35

Investigating my past

Illustration by Christian Bienefeld

"So, mom, remember when dad took me to that 5-day daycare in Tula?"

"Tula? Are you out of your mind? It was much closer."

"Well—"

"He didn't take you to no Tula, he took you to that daycare from his work, APN [Agentstvo Pechati Novosti,aka Novosti Press Agency]. Look it up. Look up their daycares. And why are you asking me?"

"Oh, I was just—"

"I told you not to ask me. I told you that everything that traumatized me in the past I have erased from my memory. ER...

Crowdsourcing your editor

Illustration by Victor Cavazzoni

"Hi Ksenia. We tweeted briefly about the matter of not being able to afford an editor. You mentioned the term 'crowdsourcing'. Although I do understand what the word means, am I a little unsure of its meaning in relation to Twitter. Are you saying I should simply ask editors on Twitter if they are willing to help me out?That’s the real trick isn’t it? How does one justify to any person that they will benefit if they offer their services for free?Please expl...

ROSEHEAD audiobook is here!

BIG NEWS! BIG NEWS! BIG NEWS!

THE LONG-AWAITED ROSEHEAD AUDIOBOOK IS HERE!

When I published Rosehead, I didn't even know about the existence of ACX and the possibility of making an audiobook, and it was one of you who told me about it. See what you did? It is done.Thank you.

And! A big huge gigantic THANK YOU to Lugene Ganley! Lugene's marvelous voice won me over the moment I heard the audition.I thought, "Gee, this sounds so great. Did I write this? It sounds like someone else wrote it, like...

Converting your manuscript to an ebook

Illustration by Martina Paukova

"Ksenia, [I]have a .doc file that was set up for print [that I] want to convert to an ebook. Saw some stuff about converting it into a PDF but [is] that really the way to go? Should it be a different file type? Want it to be read on most devices."

Jim, it's funny how converting text to an ebook is such a non-brainer to me now that I don't even think it could be a hassle when you're self-publishing. It certainly was when I started, and I was lucky enough to fi...

A year in reading: best books I read in 2015

Illustration by Esra Røise

Can you believe 2015 is almost over? I can't believe it. Where did it go? All this writing and reading and BAM!another year gone. Curiously, since I started writing full-time, I also started reading full-time. Goodreads gave me this statistic. The number of books I read per year.

2012: 16 books2013: 33 books2014: 58 books2015: 102 books

Staggering, eh?As you can see, it escalated quickly. I don't know if I'll be able to top 100+ books per year in 2016 and read, say...

Transitioning between scene description and live action

Illustration by Magoz Nomad

"How do you transition between scene description and live action? I seem to get hung up on that most.Example: I can describe a group of people, the farm that they're on, the entire world this farm exists in, the thoughts that these people are having, and the texture of the air itself with ease; but then I remember that they have something to do in that scene. Even when I know what they're doing, the transition always feels awkward. My brain wants to jump to act...

Why editing is so damn hard

Art by Winnie Truong

This post is dedicated to all editors out there, the magnificent people who have the talent to shape the fragile mess of words they receive from writers into something beautiful and yet still FUCKING FRAGILE AND MESSY the way it originally was. And when you look at it, at what they do, you scratch your head and wonder how the hell they do it. Or maybe you don't. Maybe you take it for granted. I know I did. Until last week. I thought, "Hey, that's what they're good at....

My grandma's secret borscht recipe

Photo by Alex Lau

This is a family secret, this recipe, and I have secretly adjusted it so it would become even more of a secret recipe, my ownsecret recipe, so I trust you won't share it with anyone. IT'S FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. I know I can rely on you. I do. You have asked me too many times to share it, and then last week Bob Hathawaytweeted that he completed 50K words in 19 days for NaNoWriMo and I said, "Holy shit! What shall I send you? 50K pots of borscht?" and he asked for a copy of TU...

How do you ship your books?

Image by Issuu from a packaging dielines book

I thought I had it all figured out until a book I shipped was returned to me in such a sorry state that I started wondering if any of you guys who bought my books ever got them bent or misshapen or disfigured or warbled and wet and my face got red with horror. That's not good customer service. I use these Sealed Air Padded Mailers because they're recyclable and cheap and not ugly looking, but the thin orange paper was torn and the shoddy brown...

Artist statement

Photo by David Peterman

I have learned through the wonderful The Seattle Review of Books about the wonderful Seattle organization Artist Trustand they are offering wonderful grants for artists, writers too (Jesus, that's "wonderful" used three times in a sentence, kill me), from $1,000 to $7,500 to $15,000. "Hey," I thought, "I should apply." I went to their office and read the winning entires' writer biographies and resumes and artist statements and got a bit spooked by the quality of wri...