Chris Howard's Blog, page 104
May 25, 2011
May 12, 2011
Ebook numbers—preliminary
I will post about this with a bit more depth after another month or two passes.
So far here's what I have:
I put up Saltwater Witch, Seaborn, and Sea Throne on Amazon.com, B&N (Nook), Apple iBooks, and Smashwords around the middle of March. Here we are twelve days into May—so roughly 7-8 weeks of sales, and I've sold just under 600 books.
Saltwater Witch has been hovering in and out of the Top 100 of "Bestsellers in Books > Fantasy > Magic & Wizards" at Amazon.com, which is pretty cool. All three books have been in the Top 100 in "Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Fantasy > Contemporary" on Amazon.co.uk, getting down to around the 40's. So not too bad.
Details when I get the time!
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May 5, 2011
New on Kindle: The Complete Seaborn
Okay, all three books--Saltwater Witch, Seaborn, and Sea Throne--are now available under one "cover"--along with some all new transitional material from Michael Henderson, an extra story, and dramatis personae. $7.99 on the Kindle.
Get The Complete Seaborn on the Kindle
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April 30, 2011
"Rough Seas"
Painted this afternoon, about two hours, really had fun playing with waves and rough water. Crafty Odysseus will get through this. Click the pic for the full view.
April 17, 2011
Character collage for my current book
I'm 40k words into this one, another 80k to go, planning to wrap up in June. In the meantime, here's a character study I drew in five separate pieces in the Brushes app on the iPad, and then assembled into this collage in Photoshop. You can probably guess that this is a little different from the books I normally write.
What do you think of my main character's shirt design?
More on this new story when I can tell you more!
April 5, 2011
Cover for Seaborn Omnibus
I designed and painted the new cover and art for all three books, Saltwater Witch, Seaborn, and Sea Throne, all under one cover. (See links down left side of page). See the full cover--front, back, and spine--at the bottom.
Click for the full view!
CLICK FOR THE FULL VIEW:
March 31, 2011
Writers: what music do you listen to when you write or plot?
Do you listen to one kind of music when you write and another when you're plotting, building characters or worlds? I do, but I'm interested in hearing if others do.
For plotting a book, just sitting back (or when exercising) and thinking about the story, characters, the world, I usually set up a book specific playlist on my iPhone. My taste is all over the place, but when I'm plotting it's mostly alt, rock, prog, electronic:
Portugal the Man, Of Montreal, God Lives Underwater, Broken Bells, Birthday Massacre, Sneaker Pimps, ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Tori Amos, Gentle Giant, Cocteau Twins, Gary Numan, Flower Travellin' Band, VAST, Kelli Ali, Team Sleep, The Cars, Eels, The Shins, Santogold, Deerhoof
(Flower Travellin' Band is one of my all time favorite prog bands—second to Gentle Giant. I started listening to them in high school when I lived in Japan, had Satori on cassette, vinyl, and now CD. http://www.flowertravellingband.com. FTB will always have a special place in my music collection).
I think the key is the playlist, the ability to put together large groups of songs from any number of artists. I'm not even sure if this would work for me with whole albums. Although I do have complete albums inside a single playlist, I don't listen to any of them in their original order.
The other key, again for me, is to build up a song list while I'm plotting, letting it grow with music that feels like it fits with the story, the characters, the world I'm creating. Some of the music moves from playlist to playlist. More than half the music in my COMIX playlist (CO = Captive Ocean, the original title for Seaborn) moved with me through Sea Throne and Saltwater Witch. The three books I've written since Sea Throne have their own playlists. And I'm currently in the process of building one for my current book.
It's funny, and says something about the power of music, but when I hear a song from a particular playlist, it almost always makes me think of a place in a story, a character, a particular bit of action. When I hear "Happy Birthday" from the Birthday Massacre—awesome band—it immediately takes me a mile underwater in the middle of the battle toward the end of Seaborn. In fact, I "choreographed" a significant piece of that chapter to Happy Birthday. Yeah, I'm using the term loosely, but at a dozen points in an almost four minute song, I can tell you exactly where Kassandra is in that chapter.
That was plotting.
When I write, I usually don't listen to the same playlist. Not that I abandon the plotting playlist, because I will listen to it over and over all the way through the writing process, even after the last page is written, using the music to go back and rethink scenes, motives, whole chapters. I just don't listen to the plotting playlist when my fingers are on the keyboard and dialogue is going through my head.
When writing, I usually listen to electronic, two favorites: Amon Tobin and Plaid.
Right now, seventeen thousand words into a near future tech thriller, I'm listening to Plaid's soundtrack for Tekkonkinkreet, which is unfortunately not available (Hoping that's not really the case, but I just looked for it and couldn't find it for sale anywhere, not iTunes, out of stock at Amazon, etc). Watch the movie. It's on iTunes. Hell, just watch the trailer all the way through to get a feel for the power of the music in Tekkonkinkreet. (http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/tekkonkinkreet) I'll just say, when someone makes a Seaborn movie, I want Plaid doing the music. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaid_(band)).
Electronic works for me while I write because it's less intrusive, or maybe a better way to put it is that electronic is not adversely intrusive. It's almost as if, when plotting the story, I want the music to intrude and become part of what I'm thinking, but when I'm actually writing it, I prefer something to help me slip into the POV's head and see the world through his or her eyes.
So, do you listen to music while writing, plotting, or just thinking about the story? Who are your favorite artists? Do you listen to different kinds of music during different phases of writing? Where is music in your writing, editing, revising process?
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March 22, 2011
Saltwater Witch Launch Contest
Saltwater Witch, Seaborn, and Sea Throne book covers:
I'm giving away 20 signed and numbered limited edition accordion folded prints (signed series of 100). See the images of the contest art at the bottom of this post. Each comes with a signed info document (see the single green-shaded image below).
Here's how to play—it's easy, there are only two steps:
1. Do one of these:
Buy a copy of Saltwater Witch, Seaborn or Sea Throne through any of the stores, services, or platforms linked below.
Post a review of Saltwater Witch, Seaborn or Sea Throne on any of the stores, services, or platforms linked below.
Spread the word about any or all the books through your blog, Facebook, or site.
2. Let me know:
Send me an email or comment here, telling me which of the three things above you did. Just say, "I got Saltwater Witch for the Kindle", or "I reviewed Seaborn here..." (My email is chrishoward.author@gmail.com)
I will draw five names a week for the next four weeks.
A few more rules: you can enter multiple times. For instance, you can enter once for each book, once for each review, once for each spread-the-news post. Unless you win one of the prints, you remain in the pool for the next drawing.
Happy reading!
Saltwater Witch | Seaborn | Sea Throne
Saltwater Witch | Seaborn | Sea Throne
Saltwater Witch | Seaborn | Sea Throne
Saltwater Witch | Seaborn | Sea Throne
Seaborn (Juno Books Print Edition)
Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble
Mysterious Galaxy | Google Books
Alibris | BookFinder | WorldCat
Onward and downward!
Click the pics for the full view:
