Rani Divine's Blog, page 17

Courage

I have one question for all of you. One very simple question, to which I simply cannot fathom the answer:
How on earth are we already this far through August?! 
*sigh*
We’ve been talking about the best ways you can support your author friends and help them thrive in this chaotic world that has too many voices spiraling all around it, and somehow, we only have three points left. I really don’t know how that happened.
At this point in our series, we’ve bought and read the book, we’ve reviewed it without nitpicking about any typographical errors we may have found, and we’ve even told all our other friends that they should read the book too… but you know what, there’s something we haven’t even touched on, in ways to support your author friends.
#6: Encourage Them
And I don’t just mean that you should be encouraging about the book they’ve already released. I mean that you should encourage them in everything they do. Encourage them to keep writing, remind them how much you liked their first book and tell them that they can (and should) do it again. Tell them that you want to see them succeed with their passion.
I’ll tell you right now, this is one of the best ways to be a friend to anyone. It’s not just about the monetary things, or spending time together, or being supportive when things are good or bad. It’s about being the kind of person who’s a constant reminder that dreams can be achieved.
You could do that, for your author friend.
Really, you could do it for all your friends.
Be an encouragement. Even if you don’t like the book, find something good to say about it. Talk about how many other people have read and loved the book, if nothing else.
Honestly, it’s okay if you didn’t like the book. I have lots of friends who haven’t enjoyed my books. But I know that they read my books, and that they tried to like them. They supported me. They even encourage me to keep writing them. And that’s the part that really matters. They’re being my friends, by being encouraging and supportive.
In return, I get to do the same for them. I get to support them in what they’re doing, and I get to encourage them when they have rough days.
I love doing it for them—but I love it even more, knowing it’s my turn to return the favor.
[love]
{Rani D.}

Nitty

Hi guys! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m glad you stopped by.
All month long, we’ve been talking about ways you can be supportive of the authors in your life. And honestly, I think this extends to authors you don’t know all that well, too. Maybe just your favorite authors. Because, when I think about it, authors aren’t always treated well, even by the people who claim to be their biggest fans.
At this point, we’ve bought and read the book, we’ve reviewed it, and we’ve even started telling everyone we know that they should read the book too. But, there’s something too many of us do, which we shouldn’t do at all. #5: Don’t Nitpick
I’m looking at you, grammar nazi. I don’t care if you find an error in the book. I really don’t. I don’t need to know that you found errors and inconsistencies, and I don’t know why you think that’s helpful to tell me, especially after the book is already on the shelf.
It would be like you learning to dance and having a recital, and me, having never really danced before in my life, then picking out all the things I think you need to work on and giving you a short presentation about it.
Please, whatever you do, don’t point out all the errors in the book.
I know you think you’re being helpful, I know you’re trying to be a good friend by pointing out the errors so we can get them fixed, but for many of us, getting them fixed isn’t possible. If we’ve traditionally published, or we’ve gone through the process of getting books actually printed (not just eBooks), then it’s not always feasible for us to fix those typos.
Your pointing them out to us only shows us that our work wasn’t as perfect as we’d hoped. And in fact, it’s nearly a slap in the face. It’s like telling us that our work was good, that you liked it, but that it wasn’t as good as it should’ve been, and then telling us why. It's a form of arrogance, in writer's eyes, that someone who isn't a writer would come up to us and tell us what we did wrong. And I think you'd see it the same way if you were in our shoes. I really do. 
We already know there are errors in the book. We do. Trust me. They're in every single published book on the face of the planet. I've even found them in the Bible. We don’t need to hear about those errors from someone else, especially someone who is our friend. We need you to support us, tell us we did a good job.
You don’t read Stephen King’s books and email him all the errors you’ve found, do you? (and trust me, there are errors in his book). No, you don’t. That would be ridiculous. And when I found a typo in the Bible? I laughed it off and kept reading.
So why do you do it to us, the people you know and love?
Just a little food for thought.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

View Again

Happy Thursday! Thanks for checking back in—I’m happy you stopped by. :)
This month, we’ve been talking about ways to be a better friend to the author in your life, to show them you support them in what they’re doing, and really, to be a better friend in general. It’s something I think we could all stand to learn from (me included), which is why I really wanted to take August to talk about it.
At this point, we’ve bought the book, read the book, and told our other friends about the book… but there’s something we’re missing. #4 Review the Book
You read the book, didn’t you? So why haven’t you reviewed it? Sure, Amazon takes issue to friends posting reviews of their friend’s books, but that doesn’t mean you can't post a review on Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, or somewhere else online. There are plenty of places where you could be posting reviews, and reviews honestly help authors get more readers.
Why?
Well, how often do you check the reviews before you buy something?
All the time?
Thought so.
That’s also how readers decide what book they’re going to read next. A lot of readers go to Amazon, BN, or Goodreads before they’ll so much as pick up a book and look at it. Your positive review could mean the world to your reader friend—and in more ways than one.
See, for one thing, it proves to your author friend that you did indeed read the book. I don’t know why, but many of us think our friends are lying when they say they’ve read our books. Maybe it’s experience, or maybe it’s just this general fear that our friends won’t actually like what we’ve written, but without evidence via reviews, we all tend to think you didn’t actually read the book. We’re really sorry about that too, but if we’ve published more than one book, we’ve learned that not everyone who says they’re going to read it actually will. It's life.
But, more than that, posting a review is just another way you can support your author friend. It’s another way you can tell them they’re doing a good job, that they’re really in the right field by pursuing their writing—all this, by you reviewing the book.
Three stars and up, we’re thrilled. Stoked. We’ll probably even do a little happy dance.
You could do that for us. You could be the one to plant a massive smile on our faces. All you have to do is go online and submit a review.
How hard is that?
I’ll tell you: it isn’t. ;-)
Have a great weekend, everyone!
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Share

Hey guys! Welcome back!
This month, we’ve been talking about ways to support the authors in your life. Statistically, it’s pretty likely that you know at least one author, so I thought it’d be good to share with you a little bit of what we need from our friends—and how you can be a better friend to us.
Because, really, we could all stand to be better friends to one another. If we’re being honest. I could too.
At this point, we’ve both purchased and read the book our wonderful author friend has released, but what can we do now? What else is there that might encourage our little indie author to keep doing what they’re doing?
Well, we could...
#3: Get Others to Buy the Book
I know, I know, that’s not your job. It’s a full time job, and a hard one. One that most of us don’t even want to think about. But it’s also one of the nicest things you can do for your author friends.
And! There are some really simple ways you can go about doing this without expending much effort at all.
When you’re with a group of people and you know one of those people reads, tell them about your friend’s book. You’ve read it by now, so you know a little bit (at least) of what it’s about. Tell them you know the author, that you can probably get them a signed copy if they want one. Maybe even carry your friend’s card, so people you come across will be able to look the book up online.
Or, even easier, click “share” on Facebook! And don’t just do it once. Every time you see a link by your friend, talking about their book, share it. Like it. Comment on it. That’s how social media works. Things get seen by more people by being seen by a few people. Your like or share could mean the world to your author friend, even if only because you’re sharing with your other friends how cool it is to know an author and to have read their book. Plus, you never know, you might be introducing one of your friends to their new favorite author. That, I know, would make any author's year.
It’s all about support, really. It’s all about showing your friend that you care, that you want to do what you can to support their work, and that you will always be an encouragement to them.
After all, isn’t that what you’d want, if you were in their shoes?
It’s really not that hard. Tell people about the book. Get excited about it. I guarantee your author friend will be elated to see how much you care. I would be. 
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Celebrate

Hi guys! I hope your weeks are going well! Me, I’ve been busy as ever, but having a lot of fun along the way. And for today, we’re taking a logical progression path through the eight best ways to support your author friends. Tuesday, we talked about buying the book, about saving your money and getting a copy of that book as soon as you possibly can, just so your author friend knows you care… but, you know, there’s more you could be doing.
#2: Read the Book
No, I really don’t care if you like to read. I don’t really care if you think it’s cool that you know an author, but you never read so you’ll never pick the book up (that’s not an excuse to not buy it either, by the way). I honestly don’t care. (and yes, I'm aware how that might bother some of you)
Why don't I care?
Because if you did something cool, if you made a CD or were in a dance recital or got a new job and wanted to celebrate, I bet your author friend will be right there cheering you on. Why do I think this? Because authors love seeing people in the arts, we love celebrating the arts. And what we do is part of the arts as well.
Our celebration of you doesn’t change just because we don’t like the thing you’re doing. Maybe you’re a rapper and you have a gig this weekend. Well, I honestly can't stand rap. But I’d probably still go if I knew you, because I’d want to support you.
It’s the same concept, it just might take you a little longer to do.
Read the dang book.
Your friend put a lot of time and effort into creating this book, into writing this beautiful story that they finally came up with the courage to share with the world around them—and you can’t even bring yourself to read it? *sigh*
There’s your problem.
To support your author friends, you need to get out of your head and into the book. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to understand it. But you should read it, if only to tell your author friend that you love and support them in their new endeavor.
Be a friend. That’s basically what this boils down to. Be a friend, buy the book, and read it.
Like we talked about on Tuesday, you never know—you might actually find that you love the book, and find yourself with a whole new hobby you never knew you could enjoy.
Story is all around us. Story is a part of life. Reading is just another way of experiencing story, and your author friend would love if you’d take the plunge with them, even if it’s just this once.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Twenty

Hey guys! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I have a really fun topic for us this month, and I hope you’ll stick around through the whole thing. It's something that's near and dear to my heart, and not just because I'm also an indie author. Mostly, it's because of the indie authors I work with, who come to me with questions about their freshly minted novels.
This month, let’s talk about something I think all of you have dealt with at least once, judging by how often it is these days, how common it is for authors to emerge. And most of us, as you should know by now, are (obviously) indie authors.
8 of the Best Ways to Help Your Indie Author Friends
I know, just rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it? I’ll see if I can come up with a better name over the month, but for now, we’re going with that.
See, indie authors are everywhere. I know very many of them. I meet a lot of authors in my everyday life. And I know a lot of people who are friends with those indie authors, and who are breaking their little author hearts over and over again.
So I’m going to take the month of August to tell you how not to break their hearts, and how to be a better friend to your budding indie author.
#1: Buy the Book
I know, it sounds like it should be the simplest thing in the world, but for some reason, it’s not. I don’t care if the book interests you, if you don’t really read, or if you think the book will be bad. By buying the book, you’re at least doing something to support your friend.
Trust me, I get it. Not all of us have the money to afford buying books all the time. I know how it is. My books aren’t cheap. I understand. But you know what? You’ve probably had a few months building up to this release, where you’ve known the book was coming out. And honestly, twenty bucks isn’t hard to save if you have a couple months to do it.
So why don’t you?
Even if you never want to read the book, even if all you’re wanting to do is support your friend in their new endeavor, save some pesos and buy their book. Even better, put it out on a shelf in your house, so they’ll see it whenever they come over. Make it clear that you want to support them, that you do support them.
Why?
Because for most of us, we barely believe in ourselves. We write because we love to write, but we’d love to get something out of it, too. And if our friends would even be so kind as to buy our books, it leaves us with a warm fuzzy feeling and lets us know that you care, that you think it’s cool that we got published, too.
Really, it’s the simplest thing in the world. The easiest thing you can do. And also the very least that you should be doing for your author friends.
Buy the book. Even if you don’t think you’ll like it.
Besides, you never know. Your friend might be a pretty great writer, and you might find yourself loving it.
[love]
{Rani D.}

I must confess that I feel like a

Welcome to the finale in our series on inspiration! I hope that you’ve all enjoyed reading this month’s series as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. It really was a challenge picking out my top ten inspirations to discuss for this series, but I think we came up with a pretty comprehensive list. Please let me know if you start reading or watching any of the things I recommended this past month—I’d love to know if you get inspiration out of the same things as me.
For today, I want to talk about a book I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about a lot over the years. I’ve read it five times, I think, and I still have it nearby all the time just in case I decide I’d like to read it again. It’s one of those books that never takes me long to read, and that I know I’ll have to read again every two or three years.
MonsterFrank Peretti
If you’ve been reading Too Many Books to Count for a while, then you’ll have heard this name before. But today, we’re talking about it as a form of inspiration.
See, Monster is about sasquatch, but it’s not written in the way you’d think.
Peretti is one of the masters of writing horror fiction that maintains a clean standpoint, so if you’re like me and you need your books clean, then Peretti’s work is definitely inspiring. But Monster, for me, is one of the most inspiring books I’ve ever read.
Why?
Because it took a legend we’re all familiar with, a species we all know the name of and all know doesn’t exist, and made a story about it in modern day Earth—a story that could actually be plausible, and makes you really want to believe there’s more out there than we know.
This is the kind of story I love writing. I love exploring the unknown in the legend, and I love turning those legends on their head.
Trouble is, I’m nowhere near as good at it as Peretti—but that’s why I keep reading this book.
The story isn’t complicated. There’s nothing incredibly groundbreaking about this novel. But it’s written so profoundly well that I have never once been pulled from the story, never for even a second started to wonder if this was just a story, never got pulled out of the world Peretti created.
There’s something to be said for an author who can do that.
Ted Dekker calls it the fictive bubble. Don’t let your readers escape that bubble. Most of the time, we pop it ourselves.
Peretti has never popped it in anything he’s written, but Monster is the one that resonates with me, the book I read over and over, and the story I want to be real.
What about you? What’s your number 1 inspirational book?
Don’t forget to check back in next Tuesday to find out what we’ll be chatting about through August!
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Artificial Intelligence

Happy Tuesday!
I almost wrote happy Monday… and then I realized it is in fact not Monday, but Tuesday. At least I figured it out, eh?
All month long, we’ve been talking about books, television shows, and the occasional movie which have inspired me across my extensive writing career. We’ve talking about books that I do recommend and which I think most people won’t actually want to read, shows I think everyone can find something in to enjoy and shows I really think you need to find a niche for—and now, at long last, we’re coming to the end. Which means that I have two more inspirations to talk to you about.
Today, let’s go TV.

Humans
AMC
If you haven’t seen Humans, you really should. Unless you’re not great with high stress. Then maybe you shouldn’t. But it’s a seriously interesting show, which poses some great questions which I think are highly relevant in today’s society (through a roundabout kind of way).
Basically, Humans is a show about the use of androids, or synthetics, in everyday life. Everybody has a synth, a humanoid robot, who essentially acts as their housekeeper. Synths have no real consciousness. But then one small family in England gets one, and she turns out to have a mind of her own.
But what does it mean, for synthetics to have consciousness? They’re not alive, right? Or, are they alive, since they can think like a person? These are some of the questions Humans asks, as the status quo gets challenged over and over by one very small group of synths who want to free their kind from the bonds humanity have set them under.
As you all know, I write a lot of scifi. In fact, that’s what I’ve been primarily working on as of late. I like my scifi. I even have a book series which contains an android, who may or may not be fully conscious. Artificially intelligent. Which poses a lot of questions, as I’m sure you well know.
Humans was greatly inspirational to me, when writing my Earth-Space series. There were many questions I hadn’t even thought to ask, which we posed in Humans and made me think about my characters in a completely new way. I love things that can do that! We all know how much I love to think. ;-)
Essentially, Humans boils down to the politics of artificial intelligence, which, yes, is a topic highly explored in science fiction, but the way it’s handled in Humans takes it to a different level, in my opinion. It asks the hard questions, which a lot of television shows, movies, and even books struggled to ask in the first place.
For instance, can synths be tried for murder?
Definitely worth a watch, especially if you’re a fan of the artificial intelligence subgenre. Last I checked, there was at least one season on Netflix—but I haven’t checked in a while, so don’t quote me on that.
[love]
{Rani D.}

Dragon Chases Shadow

Happy Thursday, everyone! I sincerely hope that your weeks haven’t been stressful in the slightest, because stress is annoying and I know we’d rather not deal with it at all. ;-)
All month long, we’ve been talking about television shows, books, and the occasional movie which have inspired me along the way in my writing career. We’ve discussed things like my personal favorites and the things that really inspired me to start writing to begin with, and today, we’re discussing something new. Something that’s only recently started to inspire me, because it hasn’t been around all that long.

Into The Badlands
AMC
There aren’t many shows I watch on AMC, but this is one I simply couldn’t do without. I’ve been watching it from the very beginning, and it’s been a really fun addition to my viewing repertoire.
Honestly, I can’t even tell you what it’s about. Because it honestly doesn’t always make any sense at all. But that’s part of what I love about it, since I’m not really watching it for love of any particular characters.
Yep, that’s right.
I watch it for the ridiculous samurai-style fight scenes. And there are plenty of them in every episode.
But you know what? People like those fight scenes. I like those fight scenes. I enjoy them, I get a miniature thrill out of them, and I love it. I love trying to translate those fight scenes into words on a page (though I’d say I haven’t quite mastered it at the level of Into the Badlands).
That’s what’s inspiring, to me.
I know, it sounds a little strange, but I’m inspired by things that challenge me, by things I know I’m not quite ready to do on my own. I’m inspired by watching a crazy television show that doesn’t always make sense, and by watching the characters in that show knock each other senseless every now and again.
See, there’s a reason why so many people gravitate more toward television than they do toward written stories. Television is easy. We can simply watch it and see a story play out before our eyes, rather than putting in the effort of having our imagination make the story appear within our minds. But that’s what I want to replicate in story. I want my readers to be able to see every single thing my characters are doing, and I want them to see it as vividly as they see the fights in the badlands.
That’s inspiring to me. That’s something I can strive for.
Also, if you haven’t watched the show, I do highly recommend it. It is a lot of fun, it’s crazy, and the story just keeps getting weirder—which is just how I like a story of this sort. Let me know if you start watching! I think the first two seasons are on Netflix. :)
Have a great weekend, everyone!
[love]
{Rani Divine}

A + M

Hey guys! I hope you’ve all had wonderful weekends and survived your way through Monday. Me, I enjoy Mondays. I usually don’t have as much on my workload, so I can take some extra time out for writing. Woo! I honestly don’t know how I got my week set up that way, but it’s pretty darn great.
Anyhoo, all month long, we’ve been talking about the things that have inspired me in my writing career. Things like television shows, books, and the occasional movie have frequently brought inspiration to my little writer mind, and I’ve loved sharing some of those inspiring things with you.
Today’s inspiring book series, for the first time in this series, is one that I won’t always recommend you to read. In fact, I’d only have you read it if you have trouble describing things which will be important through the whole of your book, or if you really like historical fiction.
Aubrey Maturin Patrick O’Brian
Never heard of it? That’s fine, I wouldn’t expect you to. But if you’ve ever seen the movie Master & Commander, starring Russel Crowe, then you’ve seen a visual representation of a part of this series.
O’Brian wrote a series of historical fiction books, primarily taking place on the sea, and dealing with the characters of Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend, Doctor Stephen Maturin. And it’s one of the hardest book series’ I’ve ever started reading. I’m only two books in, and though I intend to read the next one, I’m also dreading it.
Why?
Because though O’Brian is great with descriptions, he needs a little more story.
But this post is supposed to be about something inspiring! So, let’s focus on the former.
See, O’Brian is amazing about descriptions, about teaching you something through his descriptions, and then never going back to those descriptions again, because he assumes you read it the first time and understood everything he was saying—and he’s actually right.
I’ll put it like this:
I did a ton of research on sailing ships when I was writing Dwr.I had to. Practically the whole story takes place on a ship, so if I didn’t as least know the basics, it wasn’t going to work.
But if I had simply read Master & Commander, I could’ve skipped doing all that research, because I would’ve known it.
That’s where O’Brian excels, and I find that highly inspiring. I would love to write something that teaches my readers, something that sticks with them long after they’ve finished reading my book. And that right there is why I’ll keep reading his books, even though they can be a little hard to read in other regards.
As we all know, I dearly love to learn.
[love]
{Rani D.}