K.M. Alexander's Blog, page 91

The Stars Were Signed

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‘Tis a good Sunday night. Both the Packers and the Seahawks won today, I have a delicious wintery drink in hand, I am listening to Chet Baker, and I am working on signing a stack of these tonight. (Admission: the typography nerd in me loves the ligature in the “The”.) Get your signed version here or unsigned on Amazon.

Friday Link Pack 12/13/13

The First Track of Footprints,1960 — Chao Mei (晁楣)

It’s time to share a few interesting links I have found throughout the week. Some of these I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Have any suggestions, let me know.

Writing:

SIGNED copies of The Stars Were Right are now available!

Check it out at my new store: store.kmalexander.com – also there is still have time to enter the Goodread’s Book Giveaway and win a copy! It’s also available on Amazon as well… while it will arrive faster (and be slightly cheaper) it won’t be signed.

Dr. Seuss’ lesser know The Seven Lady Godivas

This look at an early Seuss book follows the story of seven nudist sisters who swore to postpone their marriage when their father died from being thrown off a horse.

Ten More Gifts for Writers (2013 Edition)

Chuck Wendig suggests ten items to get for the writer on your gift list. There is some good stuff on here. I have more than half the stuff on this list and I use ‘em all daily.

Art:

Kari-Lise Alexander featured on Google’s Open Gallery

This week Google launched their Open Gallery, and my wife Kari-Lise was one of the artists featured for the launch. The site is cool allowing you to flip around and zoom up really really close. It’s the next best thing to actually being in front of an original.

The Revolving Moon: 25 Prints from China

50 Watts posts a collection of 25 prints collected between 1950 and 2006. Quite beautiful work. What’s your favorite?

E21 Washington Topo

Designer Erik Hedberg‘s abstract take on the topography of the state of Washington. It’s a limited run and only 30 are available. Make sure you check out the making of video.

Random:

Do “Digital Natives” Exist?

PBS Idea Channel explores the concept of “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants“.

There is a tunnel-boring machine currently stuck below Seattle

Just sayin’.

Puddles—the sad clown with the golden voice—covers “Another Tear Falls”

…and, like his cover of Lorde’s “Royals“, it’s fantastic.

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

The Terrible Old Man

“He is, in truth, a very strange person, believed to have been a captain of East India clipper ships in his day; so old that no one can remember when he was young, and so taciturn that few know his real name.”

Farewell Gif(s) of the Week:

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SIGNED Paperbacks Are Here!

The wait is over! If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you probably saw my post showing a shipment of books that arrived at my doorstep yesterday. That means the signed paperbacks of The Stars Were Right are finally here and are now available!

Buy ‘em at: store.kmalexander.com

You can get a signed individual copy for $14.00 + shipping or you can get it in what I am calling the “Roader Pack” which includes a signed book for yourself and another unsigned copy to give away to a friend at a discount (also plus shipping). “Caravan Packs” will be coming soon as well and will be tailored specifically for book clubs.

Really excited to finally have these available. If you don’t like paying shipping you can still buy a paperback copy of The Stars Were Right directly from Amazon (at Amazon’s slightly discounted price and with their incredibly fast shipping.) You can also try your luck and enter The Stars Were Right Book Giveaway happening over at Goodreads and enter and win one of 5 signed copies I’m giving away for free on January 5th. Winners will be notified directly and announced in The Telegram, my whenever-something-cool-happens newsletter.

Everybody drinks water.

My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.

—Mark Twain

Friday Link Pack 12/06/13

Syd Mead Blade Runner Concept Art

It’s time to share a few interesting links I have found throughout the week. Some of these I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Have any suggestions, let me know.

Writing:

12 Real Life Inventions That Science Fiction is Neglecting at its Peril

One of my favorite bloggers, Charlie Jane Anders, compiles a list of real life inventions that has been neglected by modern science fiction. If you’re looking for some inspiration for your own project look no further. There’s a lot here.

The Stars Were Right trade paperbacks are available!

As of yesterday my book The Stars Were Right is now available as a trade paperback from Amazon! Nab it today! It makes a great gift! To celebrate I also discounted the Kindle edition to $0.99 for the rest of the week. You can’t even buy a decent cup of coffee for a buck these days.

The Stars Were Right Giveaway!

Now through January 5th you can enter to win a copy of The Stars Were Right on Goodreads. It’s as simple as following the link and clicking “Enter to Win!” Tell your friends (or don’t and give yourself a better chance at winning.)

Learning to Write

Hugh Howey offers some frank and simple advice on what it takes to write.

Art:

Syd Mead’s Bladerunner Concept Art

Some of the coolest concept art you’ll see. Ever. Really. I promise.

Wars on Kinkade

One part painter of light, one part dark side. DeviantArt artist Jeff Bennett merges Star Wars and Tomas Kinkade paintings into fantastic (and amusing) pieces.

Random:

The National x Bob’s Burgers – Sailors in Your Mouth

Two of my favorite things combine to create an amazing Thanksgiving song for the 2nd year in a row. If you missed “Thanksgiving Song” from last year make sure you listen to it as well.

Getting Lost on North Brother Island

Situated between the Bronx and Riker’s Island, New York lies a small bird sanctuary that was once the site of a hospital. After 40+ years of abandonment the result are some amazing (and creepy) pictures.

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

The Beast in the Cave

A lost man. A dark cave. A potential threat.

Farewell Gif(s) of the Week:

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Want more content like this? Sign up for my newsletter: The Telegram. It’s packed full of writing tips, reading recommendations, news on my books, interesting links, and even a few guest posts. Sign up today!

It’s Giveaway Time!

Now that The Stars Were Right is available in paperback let’s do something fun! How about a giveaway? For the next month if you’re in the US, UK, Canada, or Australia you can enter to win one of FIVE signed paperback copies of The Stars Were Right on Goodreads! Start a new book for the new year and do it for FREE!

Click Here to Enter!

Paperbacks are here!

That’s right! They’re here! Finally! The Stars Were Right trade paperbacks have landed and are currently available on Amazon. Have at ‘em! Tell your friends!

370 pages of action, adventure, chases, cults, murder, mysteries, and monsters in your hands for only $13.99! (Actually a bit under right now.) Buy it for yourself today or give it as a gift to family and friends!

That’s not all there is more exciting stuff coming. Stay tuned!

My New Whiteboard: Scapple

Dr. Robert Goddard at Clark University – via Flickr

I mentioned in my previous post that over the last month I have been exploring Scapple, software from Literature and Latte, creator of my favorite word processing software Scrivener. (I wrote a post about Scrivener as well, you should check it out. tl;dr – it’s awesome.)

I am foremost a visual thinker, I work with whiteboards all the time for my day job. Be it for wireframes, or just to start hashing out ideas, the temporary nature of a whiteboard allows me to be really loose with my thoughts and really explore avenues with little to no expense. Sadly, I don’t have room in my house for a whiteboard. So I have been looking for alternative means to organize my work without sacrificing space. Paper is too small to write this sort of stuff out and ultimately a waste. I have tried spreadsheets with Google Docs and Apple’s Numbers, but those are too cumbersome for this type of work. I have tried just lists in a document for but it’s hard to step back and really get the big picture. I’ve even tried Adobe Illustrator, which has a lot of similar features, but in the long run is too bulky and cumbersome for this type of work.

Using Scapple:

Scapple has been on my radar for a while but it wasn’t until recently that I decided to step in and give it a shot. It really was the product I was looking for: it’s both part mind-mapping and part free-form text editor. Everything is drag and droppable allowing for me to work quickly. I can get my ideas onto the screen, make connections between those ideas, and then step back and see the big picture. Here’s the first five chapters of my new unnamed project:

(No, I won’t make it larger. Spoilers!) Only a portion of that is the actual story (highlighted in blue) but I wanted to make sure I paid attention to what else was going on. There’s a lot of plot points to juggle in this one so making sure I have everything organized was key for me and Scapple helped me quickly get my thoughts down so I could progress.

The Downside:

Scapple is still a bit clunky. It’s not as forgiving as some programs, and often times I find myself scrambling to lay things out the way I want them to be laid out. I feel that a lot of this could be solved with some sort of snap-to-grid system. (Which I bet is coming.)

Also, while not a reflection on Scapple, I should mention that this very much one of those programs that can get in the way of actual work. You can spend a lot of time stylizing, tweaking, and laying things out. Time that could be better spent writing. That’s not Scapple’s fault, as I mentioned in my post “Shut Up and Write!“, if we’re looking for distraction we’ll find it.

My final verdict:

Powerful. Quick. Effective at mapping and laying out snippets of text visually. Scapple is the best mind-mapping program to fill that niche in the market. It’s $14 bucks, which cheap in the grand scheme of productivity software and if you’re a visual thinker like I am it’s very handy at getting your plot laid out. It’s worth it, just don’t let yourself get too distracted. The only person who needs to see your Scapples is yourself. Save the perfectionism for the final product, not your notes.

My #NaNoWriMo Debrief

487th Bomb Group Debreifing – via 487thbg.org

It’s now December 2nd, which is weird because we just had Thanksgiving in America and usually it’s a week or so before December hits. So my mind is struggling to come to grips with the fact that it’s the last month and the end of the year is fast approaching. We’re now two days past the NaNoWriMo deadline, so I figured I’d give a report on my own outcome:

Like every year, I failed at achieving the NaNoWriMo. That’s okay! It’s not like the project I was working on is dead. Far from it! Every month for me is novel writing month, but NaNoWriMo holds a special place in my heart for jumpstarting me towards finishing a manuscript. It’s good practice. It’s why I participate. I went into NaNo with under 5k words and emerged with 22k words in the new project. Not a bad step in the right direction. It’s not (obviously) where I wanted to be (always moar!) but that’s nearly a quarter of the way towards my projected 100k words. A solid start.

The Stars Were Right also got a lot of attention this month. Sales have been trending pretty steadily and the reviews keep coming in strong. I re-learned how to lay stuff out in InDesign and the trade paperback is getting really close to release. Hoping to have an announcement for that VERY soon.

Old Broken Road is getting close to the point where I’ll hand it over to my editor for editin’ — I was hoping to do this at the beginning of November; however being a part time writer means my time is limited and it’s resulted in delays. I still think I am on target for an early 2014 release. Really like the place it’s in.

I finally finished a beta-read of a friends novel. Other books, personal projects, work, basically everything had delayed me, but it’s done. It’s also one of the best books I have read all year. I’d be very surprised if a publisher doesn’t jump at it.

Oh! I also have started messing with Scrapple. I’m really liking it, but I am going to save my thoughts for a later post.

So that’s where I am at! I went into NaNoWriMo with almost nothing and emerged having learned some new software, finished a beta-read, came out with a edited manuscript, almost have a nearly released trade paperback, and I’m 22k words into a new project! All-in-all: not a bad November.

Fritz Eichenberg’s illustrations to Poe

If you have seen the cover of The Stars Were Right, you probably realize I am a big fan of engravings and etchings. The other day I stumbled across these wood engravings from 1944 by Fritz Eichenberg illustrating the work of Edgar Allen Poe. Obviously Poe’s work is amazing, and if you combine the themes of his stories with Eichenberg’s dark and moody woodcuts you get a fantastic super team of creepiness! I mean just look at this illustration for The Fall of the House of Usher:

The Fall of the House of Usher – Fritz Eichenberg, 1944

See what I mean? There’s sooooo much more! Instead of me posting a bunch of low resolution images you should really just go look at the whole set in glorious high resolution. I found it incredibly inspiring, I promise you it’s worth your time.

Few bits of housekeeping:

In case you missed it over the weekend, I posted a preview of the physical copies of The Stars Were Right. It’s looking really good and I’m getting really close. They’ll be worth the wait!

Also, I’m not sure how much posting I’ll be doing over the next week. So I want to wish everyone in the U.S. a happy Thanksgiving holiday! If you live outside the States, I hope you have a great week as well. Great weeks all around! For everyone! Huzzah!