Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 57

What I would've done differently if I was publishing my 1st novel again

Photo by Joel Robison

I got asked this fabulous question on Twitter and scratched my head, because yes, there would be a gazillion (okay, not exactly gazillion, but many) things I would've done differently if I could publish my 1st novel NOW, with all this knowledge I gained from self-publishing over the last 2 years. Almost 2 years. I will be 2 years in May since I quit my job and started writing full time, and since I self-published my very first book, a little book of tweets on writing...

Irkadura excerpt, Draft 2

Wow. I don't know how I forgot to post an excerpt to the 2nd draft of IRKADURA. Like, drown me in a tub of vodka? I started writing it in February and should've done it then. Anyway. A bunch of you asked how I'm planning on adding magical realism and horror to this book, so here you go. You'll see what I'm doing in the first sentence. Also, a bunch of you asked if you can beta read it when it's done. Yes! I'm about 82K words in (the total is about 148K words), so it should take me another 5 w...

Rosehead is published!!! An excerpt.

Photo by Ksenia Anske

Yes! Yes, yes, yes!!! Finally! I have started writing Rosehead in May of 2013. So it's been almost a year! And here it is. I mean, it's here on my site, and it's on Amazon, and on Barnes & Noble, and on Kobo Books, and on Wattpad, and on Scribd, and on Goodreads.And it should be on Google books, but it doesn't show up for some reason. I'm still getting it on iBooks, so it will be there soon too. Also, you can download FREE files of it here (PDF, ePub, Mobi). Oy. Wow. 2n...

On fear and writing

Photo by Phillip Schumacher

I'm afraid. I write every day and I'm scared shitless. I'm scared about everything. Will I be able to write a good book, a book good enough, good enough in my eyes to share it with the world? Will my readers like it? Will strangers who never heard about me like it? I'm afraid every day and I write every day, and I'm still afraid. It never goes away. My 10 year old son has started reading ROSEHEAD, my 2nd novel, and I have yet to publish it on other sites besides A...

Turn everything into a noun

Photo by Rosie Hardy

I'm dying to write a post about my 2nd novel that I just published, ROSEHEAD, but it's not available everywhere yet, and I have yet to post the free ebook files of it on my site, so I have to wait! Grr!!! Soon, soon! Meanwhile, I had this revelation while reading (of course, always). A tiny little thing, really, that adds to the post I wrote about how to write the perfect description. And how it didn't occur to me before, I don't know. I guess there is truth to the whole...

How to start and finish writing a novel

Photo by Rachel Baran

I've been asked a lot lately by various folks in various online places for advice on how to start writing a novel, how to write a novel, how to finish the beast once you started. Some people told me that they referred beginning writers to my blog, so this post is for you, for those of you who always wanted to write a novel but never got around to it, or maybe were afraid, or maybe didn't have time, or for some other reason couldn't. I will attempt to summarize my writin...

I give my books away for free. Here are my sales numbers.

Photo by Oleg Oprisco

People have been asking me for a while to share my numbers, and I did, in the past, in this post on how donations make me more money than sales, but just last week a fellow writer finally helped me install the Google Analytics code on my site (I'm a techie idiot, unfortunately) and so now I'm actually able to see for the first time how many of my free ebooks people download, and which ones, and all that great stuff. That prompted me to go check out my Amazon downloads,...

Why breaks from writing slow down your writing

Photo by Kyle Thompson

I have whined on Twitter yesterday that I don't want Friday to be Friday, I want it to be Monday because I hate breaking from writing because I hate getting myself back into writing mode on Monday and I'd rather write without breaks. Somebody wisely pointed out that I HAVE to break to recharge, somebody else wisely pointed out that surely I am a strange weirdo who doesn't enjoy weekends? I mean, what normal person doesn't? Well, I don't. I mean, I do, and I don't at th...

Emotions and writing, or, there is no writing without emotions

Photo by Phillip Schumacher

I'm a writer, and in the course of the day I may experience the multitude of emotions that other people experience in a month or even a year. Everything from depression, to exaggerated glee, to self-scorn, to an outright wish to die, to bursting joy again, then back to self-deprecation, to sparkling glory and pride, to fatal indifference and bleak ideas of peril, to sudden feeling of worldly wisdom and truth. It never ends, and it drives me nuts. I am nuts, by som...

Reading books that inspire you to write

Photo by Noukka Signe

I keep writing posts about writing, but reading is a huge part of writing, and something hit me yesterday as I started reading THE STAND by Stephen King. There are books that inspire you to write, period. This is not to say that there are books that don't inspire you to write for some reason. Every single book you read, whether you like it or not, is a learning experience. You can always pick up things, like how to write, or how not to write, and both are valuable. But...