Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 45
March 13, 2015
RIP, Terry Pratchett
I only started reading you, Terry, when I have learned enough English to be able to crack up at your jokes. Which was, oh, I don't know, about 5 years ago. So why on earth would I sob and mop and smear snot all over my face while typing this? Why would it hit me so hard that you, silly scoundrel, have finally left us all, strolling off with Death, chatting about having a drink, no doubt?
I guess it's your heart. You gave it to me, and I took it, and it tickled my funny bone, every time. Somet...
March 11, 2015
How to keep writing when money is scarce
Savannah Graceasked: "Would you mind me asking a personal Q? I just see how well you are doing with social media and how much influence you have. You are doing an amazing job and are a writing machine. I'm just running into a huge financial problem right now which puts me in a very bad situation for my writing career and may have to give it up. I'm at the point where I feel I really am on verge of making the whole thing work financially.... but... but... How do you do...
March 10, 2015
For YOU, my Patreon patrons
I have reached my $100 monthly goal on Patreon!
It's actually $139 now. As a perkI promised you, my patrons,to write a blog post about anything you wanted. The next perk, by the way, will be at the $500 goal's completion—a short story about anything you want.(Won't that be fun?)
So here we go. Below are your questions and my answers. If you havemore questions, go ahead and ask in the comments here or on Patreon.I will answer them with all the truth I can muster.
Cassandra Rainn asked: "I want...
March 6, 2015
I have reached $100 per month on Patreon!!!
Okay, by now I have screamed about this on every Internet corner, but I have to expand my scream here, naturally. I have setup my Patreon page pretty quickly, made a video and everything and sort of forgot about it, burying my head in writing. I mean, I didn't forget about it completely, I post my daily writing there as I complete it, for patrons only to see. I don't even know how many of you are reading those, but I will keep faithfully posting them there as that is the perk you get for sup...
March 5, 2015
Grandpa will be buried in a couple hours
Photo byИлья Емельнов
It's impossible to find a free burial spot in any Moscowcemetery(thecost is $1,500and up), so my mom and my aunt, being crafty, found one in Rodniki, a small village on the outskirts of Moscow. She said they sat in the cemeteryoffice until the clerks gave them a free spot just to get rid of them.
I have found the picture online you see above, taken byИлья Емельнов.I have found a whole blog post about Rodnikovskoecemeteryand looked at the trees on Google maps street view,...
On motivation and self-discipline of writing at home
Briana Morgan asked: "Do you think you could write a post about motivation and self-discipline while working from home? Some days I find it hard to even get dressed, let alone write."
Sure thing. Let's see here.
WHY DO YOU WRITE?
If you answer this question with "I want to get famous" or "I thought writing books would be sexy" or "If E. L. James can rake inmillions, why can't I?" or "I really don't know what else to do with myself," then you better quit writing and do so...
The more intense the emotions, the better the writing
The amount of stuff I feel saturates me sometimes to the point of puking. I want to vomit it all out to be rid of it, or else it will suffocate me. Physically. A hand of anxiety willplantits meaty fingers on my chest and pushdown until I choke.
I used to ignore this and channel it inward and get sick, in the body and in the mind. I didn't understand where it was coming from. That's what everyone did, especially everyone in Russia. Our lovely cultural upbringing canbe su...
March 4, 2015
Grandpa will be buried in 2 days. The adventure continues.
It's 6 a.m. My mom calls from Moscow. I have to call her back because she can't afford the international phone charges. She's happy. She borrowed money from people, and got some from me, and grandpa won't be cremated but buried, like a proper Christian. She has been religious lately. It helps her. I understand. The funeral will cost $1,000. She's also happy because of all the running around she has lost fivepounds.
Now there is a new problem.
There is no place for him in the cemetery where th...
Worry less, write more
I worry too much. I worry about everything and everyone. I obsessively check on people to make sure they're okay, I feel like it's my responsibility to make them feel better if they're upset or disappointed or in pain. I do everything conceivable in my power to spend my energy on them and as a result Ihave nothing left for myself.
My writing suffers because of it. I spread myself so thin you can't taste the butter on your toast that is me. You can't even tell it's butt...
March 2, 2015
Rosehead can be an audiobook soon!
Okay, I'm just very excited and have no other way to share the audio file with you unless I upload it here. Which I did.
What do you think?
This is the fist audition I got for Rosehead on ACX (launched by Audible.com after it was bought byAmazon, naturally). It's been sitting there for months, and I forgot all about it. I love the voice and the tone and everything. Just made a royalty share offer and now am sitting here, waiting for a response. I know many of you have hounded me to...
