Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 50
November 30, 2014
THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATIONS TO HELP MY DAUGHTER
I feel so much right now, my heart is bursting. You lovely loving human beings, you have donated a total of$1183.45 to help my daughter recover the things she had lost to a burglary. She told me that all those shoes that were taken, she won't be replacing, but instead will buy a new laptop, since her old one is dying, to she can make more art and more beautiful covers for me. She asked me to give you this message (and she drew the picture you're seeing above):
"I cannot...
November 29, 2014
My daughter's apartment got broken into, ART SUPPLIES GONE
You, my amazing readers, asked me to throw this post together, so we can help my daughter, who makes all my book covers and is a graphic design student in California, recover what was stolen while she was in Seattle, visiting me and her dad. She just called me, curiously very composed, and informed me that their apartment (she shares it with several roommates) had been broken into, turned upside down, and many things are gone. Whoever did this, took my daughter's art supplies, ALL OF HER SHO...
Writing is all about detail, and isn't
We all hear this on every corner, "Be specific in your writing. Describe everydetail." And at the same time we also hear this,"Don't over-describe. Give thereader room to breathe, to imagine." When you're just starting out as a writer, when you begin working on your first short story or novella or novel,this can be confusing.What does it mean, to describe everydetailand yet not to over-describe? How exactly is this possible?
Simple.
Describe selected details, only those detail...
November 26, 2014
CORNERS excerpt, Draft 2
And...I have started. On Draft 2. I took a 1.5 month break between drafts this time, a bit too long. Maybe it's a good thing? We shall see. So far I'm having so much fun writing this, I find myself feeling guilty sometimes. I think this book will be glorious. I'm laughing almost on every page, writing it. I hope you will laugh too. Here is the excerpt for you, THE WHOLE FIRST CHAPTER.
CORNERSA novel by Ksenia Anske, Draft 2
Chapter 1. The First Corner
It was a dangerous b...
November 23, 2014
On stage with Amanda Palmer
Ron Vitale asked: "I'd love to look into your mind and see how being on stage went, your fears and how you pushed through."
As you all know, last week darling Amanda Palmer stayed at my house and allowed me to feed her borscht and vodka, and then the next day we went for a walk in the morning, played chess, had lunch, and in the evening got onstage at Seattle's Town Hall.Amanda sang her beautiful songs, and talked about her beautiful book THE ART OF ASKING, and sang...
November 18, 2014
Writing is loving
This is a random post. On love. And writing. And all the things happening in my life right now. Beautiful things. Not so beautiful things.
Tonight I will be on a stage. On a big stage. The stage in Town Hall in Seattle. The stage where I saw writers like Tom Robbins read.A while ago I couldn't imagine it happening. And now it will. I'm Amanda Palmer's guest on her book tour. For her beautiful book THE ART OF ASKING. "How did that happen?" Many people ask. I think it happen...
November 15, 2014
Writers will save the world
Okay, okay, not only writers. Artists of all kinds. Musicians, painters, sculptors, dancers... Still. It's such a grand statement. WRITERS WILL SAVE THE WORLD. Where did it come from? From this place where love is born. Or, more mundane, from my necessity to answer the same interview question over and over and over again. "Why do you write?" Another variation of this I get asked is, "What do you hope to tell your readers?" Or, in case of ROSEHEAD, simply because i...
November 12, 2014
Write more with fewer words
I'm thrilled to read Isaac Asimov for the first time (yes, I know, you're allowed to spank me), and this nagging thought that's been badgering me lately surfaced again. The economy of words. The ability to say a lot with next to nothing. The poetry of imagining that which the writer omitted, omitted for the reader to fill in. Wouldn't we all like to do that? Don't we all get chills when we read something so profound, so crisp, something said so succinctly with just a few...
November 8, 2014
IRKADURA is published!!!
It happened! It did! It did! So many months of pain, so many rewrites, so much fretting over the cover, and finally it's here! It's been how long? I started writing it on January 2nd of this year, so it's been 10 months from start to finish, a little faster than ROSEHEAD. Boy, am I glad I'm done with this. It made me go back to my Soviet past and stir it up, and it was not a pleasant experience, but those of you who have already read it tell me that you love it. I'm so glad! You can find fre...
November 5, 2014
Where to upload your self-published book
Jeremy Gratton, a fellow writer, asked me to make a list of all places where I upload my self-published books once they're ready. Ready for reading, that is. Reading, buying, being used as a doorstopper. Well, I suppose not a doorstopper, because we're talking mostly about digital books here, unless you want to crush your Kindle. Anyway, last year I've written a blog post about navigating self-publishing platforms, but it's a bit outdated, so I suppose a new post is du...
