Diana Pharaoh Francis's Blog, page 20

Upright and breathing

I’m better. Insomuch as I am upright and breathing, although mostly without the use of my nose. I wish my model of body had come with a removable head that I could take off, scrub out, and put back on. That would make things much easier for me.

I finished proofing Whisper of Shadows, which means, if you don’t know, that I went through and looked hard for mistakes and found some, though certainly I missed some and now I can worry about that in the middle of the night when I can’t breathe because my nose is not working properly. Although it’s still there, and I know this because I have to blow it all the time and it’s chapped.

I’m now reading the Incryptid novels by Seanan Mcguire. I had some on my shelves, but couldn’t find them, so in my cold-induced stupidity, I bought more copies. Then promptly found the old copies. But the fifth one just came out, so I only have one of those. I do love these books with great big love.

Heard from a good friend at my old job and the powers at be there continue to be shitty employers, and my old department continues to be sub-par humans. Why can’t people treat others professionally and kindly? I’m just saying. Sigh. Wish I could help her.

I have avoided watching the news today and have only heard a tiny bit about the bombings. I’m trying not to hear more at the moment. It’s just too much right now. My heart weeps for us.

 

Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.

Sicko snippet

Ever been so sick that you can’t remember what happened five minutes before? Like emailing something important to someone? Or not. Right now, I’m there. Also the dogs thing that since I’m sitting here in 3/4 of a coma, that I should be petting them. Nonstop. If I do stop, I get poked with a cold, wet nose. And they throw hair onto my keyboard.

Sigh.

Just a reminder. The Incubus Job is available! And Whisper of Shadows will be out in under a month! (that’s the third in the Diamond City Magic series). And this is me also reminding you to put up reviews. That would be awesome.

And a teensy tiny snippet from Whisper:

When had my life turned into a soap opera? Pretty soon I’d find out

that an international billionaire-spy-sheikh uncle I never knew about had

fathered Price and that Taylor was pregnant with Touray’s illegitimate

baby, and Dalton was the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper.

Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.

Reading

I started out the year reading a whole bunch and then this month I’ve not been reading that much. In fact, only one book in the last couple of weeks. Finished it today. I didn’t really like it–it wasn’t particularly well-written and there was a lot of info-dumping, the villains were cardboard and rather silly, and the romance was, for lack of a better word, stupid. And by that, I mean that there’s an epidemic that’s killing millions of people, and the doctors from the CDC who are desperately trying to figure out what’s going on, two of the them are making happy cheerful flirties and then perky sex while being hunted down and you can see why this is stupid. I mean, people can fall in love in desperate situations and they do–I mean, they might die–but they aren’t going to be all happy and flirty and smiley and winky. Oh, and one of the doctors kept making muffins and cookies at the drop of a hat. In the jungle. With MILLIONS of people dying.

You might wonder why I kept reading. Basically I wanted to see how the story finally pulled together or if it fell flat. Some of the elements were done decently well. Others . . . yeah, no. But here’s the thing I discovered–even though I could have just not finished it, I felt compelled to. And yet I didn’t want to read it, so I didn’t read at all. Then I decided I should try something else, so I’m reading Stealing the Elf King’s Roses, which is fun, but I misplaced the book and sigh.

And now I’m having constant acid reflux. Which is not typical for me. I do not know if this if because I’m sick (and I have had some symptoms in that direction), or if I’ve suddenly developed it. As it is, Tums isn’t doing the trick so I need to pick up something else. I cannot stand this feeling of having something stuck in my throat. Blech.

Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.

Bread baking

I did some bread baking this weekend. Made a beer batter bread. Quick bread. It turned out pretty well. Made it whole wheat with Black Butte Porter. I then made a whole wheat bread dough. I grind the flour myself. I made it really liquidy to let the wheat absorb really well and stuck it in the fridge overnight. I baked it tonight and it seemed to come out well, but I’ve still got to cut into it. I also made cinnamon rolls and they finally turned out right. Which is to say, they cooked through. I baked them much longer than it called for. I also made a very sticky dough. It was hard to roll them up, but that’s okay.

Otherwise it was very wet and blowy this weekend. I did get some housework done, much as I tried not to.

I also spent an inordinate amount of time scratching dogs. They’ve both decided that only I can pet them properly and therefore they will smother me and force me to use my hands for good. And good for them is feeding them or petting them. They are gluttons. And to force me to cooperate, one of them will lick me and the other will rub his cold, wet, slimy nose all over whatever exposed skin he can find. Blech. And no amount of me telling him not to will prevent it. They both just give me the big eyes. I’m such a sucker.

 

 

 

Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.

Win The Incubus Job

Click this link to my Amazon giveaway and you could win a copy of The Incubus Job.

Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.

It isn’t avoidance if it’s important to do

Who am I kidding? Of course it is. But anyhow, I was supposed to be working on a story today, which I did a little, but I needed to put together an image to advertise The Incubus Job. It needed to be of a certain proportion and I wanted something to catch attention, as it will be in amongst many others.

I haven’t used Photoshop in forever, and when I did use it, I wasn’t particularly good at it (as in, almost lacking all skills). It is not an intuitive sort of program, either. It does, however, let me play at being an artist and also lets me manipulate images and text, so I decided to dig in. Here’s the image I ended up with:

The first thing I did was create the background. I did that using an interesting brush that kind of randomly splotted, and then used a bunch of colors. Specifically, I used purple, red, yellow, and pink. You’ll notice that none of those colors appear in the background. I’ll explain. After dabbing all the colors in, though not entirely covering the background, I took the smudge tool and started smudging. I tried to go at a diagonal, from bottom left to upper right on a slant. I moved the colors both down and up so that the pattern distributed in a way that I liked. Once I was done, I moved on (it still wasn’t blue yet).

I then put in a layer with the cover and managed to figure out how to tilt it, and then I figured out how to make a bevel on it and a glow around it. I arranged those in a way that I liked (lots of options for doing both), and then moved on to the text. I tried out a bunch of fonts and didn’t like most of them. I finally opted for this one, which is a little like the cover font. I managed to make it have a gradient from white to yellow, but I really don’t know how. I was trying to do some different things. I also had to figure out the text, which I finally came up with, though now I wish there were fewer ‘expecteds’ in there.

I figured I was pretty happy, but then managed to look at another one that was much better. More polished looking. I decided that I would at least try to put a lighter color box around the text. It’s at this point that I clicked a button and turned the background blue. I don’t know what I did exactly. But I liked the blue, so I kept it. I managed to insert a layer with the box underneath the text. I colored the box a light blue, and overlayed on the background, it looks like the above.

I then saved and closed out and in doing so, managed to flatten the images instead of keeping a .png which would still have the layers. So I can’t modify this. I’d have to recreate it. What I wish I could do is go back in and make a border around the text box, I’d also like to round the edges of the whole thing.

I think I need to play more with photoshop in general, but also to try to create some advertising materials. Maybe even play a little with some digital art. That could be fun.

I use an older version of photoshop, and can’t afford to upgrade to the monthly fee. I hope I can figure this one out in more depth.

 

 

Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.

It’s a book birthday!

The Incubus Job is now available for download! I didn’t know I’d be this nervous. I’m literally in knots. I kind of feel the need to throw up. I don’t remember the last time I felt this nervous about a book release. I don’t even know quite why. Except this book means a lot to me and it’s my first indie publication. I swear, though, my head is going to pop off soon. *breathe, Di, breathe*

A lot of people ask how they can help an author, so I’m posting the following, which I stole from Seanan McGuire, who also has a book birthday today. It’s one of her Incryptid books, which are amazeballs good and if you haven’t read them, go do it. If only for the mice. So here’s the how to help an author recommendations:

DO buy the book as soon as you can. Sales during the first week are very important—think of it as “opening weekend” for a movie—but they’re not the end-all be-all. If you can get the book in the next few days, get the book. Remember, books make great gifts!

DO post reviews on your blog or on Amazon.com or Goodreads. Reviews are fantastic! Reviews make everything better! Please, write and post a review, even if it’s just “I liked it.” Honestly, even if it’s just “this wasn’t really my thing.” As long as you’re being fair and reasoned in your commentary, anything you say is perfect. (I like to believe you won’t all race right out to post one-star reviews, but if that’s what you really think, I promise that I won’t be mad.) Reviews help authors get better standing and advertising at the online stores and hopefully helps generate sales.

DO tell your friends if you happen to like the book. Word of mouth is so helpful. I mean, how many times have you picked up a book because a friend told you it was good?

That’s about all I have. I will now go back to pacing and chewing my nails.

 

Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.

Book Review Roundup

I’m way behind on my Netgalley reviewing. So I’m going to jump in with some long and some shorts. All these books came off Netgalley.

I’ll start with the book I finished most recently, called A Jury of One by Charlie Cochrane.  This is a British police procedural combined with romantic elements as it follows the developing relationship between the dective, Robin and his lover, Adam. They met and in the previous book in this series and at this point, they are newly living together.

I really enjoyed this book. It feels very realistic and the mystery and love story elements were both well written. The mystery wasn’t easy to see through, which I like, and there were a lot of possible ways for the investigations to go. There are several crimes that overlap and end of weaving together nicely. The romance between the two men suffers from the problems of new relationships, the uncertainties of each man, a certain amount of jealousy. I thought it was well done.

The only drawback for me, and it wasn’t entirely a drawback, was the extensive use of British slang. Police are known as rozzers, bad guys are scrotes, voicemail is answerphone. A lot of these were easy to figure out in context. Where I stumbled was when I couldn’t sort out the meaning. I thought these words gave a lot of reality and to the world, I just wish there weren’t quite so many. Or a glossary. I like a good glossary. So I’d recommend this one. It comes out March 21st.

 

Another book I finished recently was a romance called Catching Summer by L.P. Dover. It’s contemporary about a woman, Summer, who two years ago witnessed her husband’s murder. She’s now come out of her grief with the help of counseling. A former nurse, she helps run a restaurant with her sister and former brother-in-law. A lot of football players from the local NFL team frequent the restaurant and one, Evan Townsend, has fallen for Summer. He’s not made any moves on her because of her past trauma. So that’s the set up.

I didn’t find this book that successful. I liked Evan and Summer and most of the time I liked their interactions, particularly because they didn’t get stupid for ridiculous reasons. That was a huge plus. What did bother me was the constant use of ‘fuck’ to describe their sexual activities. Not romantic, at least to me. Then there was the schtick where Summer goes back for ‘certification’ to keep her nursing license. She works two weeks with the team doing medical things including relearning CPR and it just seemed completely ridiculous that this would keep her nursing license current. Another thing that bothered me was the beginning which started 2 years previously and then leaped forward. I didn’t find it all that useful and it was really more a distraction.

In the end, while I did want to finish, I kept getting put off and out of the story and it didn’t work as well as I hoped it would for me.

The next book is Love the Witch, Hate the Craft by Nora Lee. This is the first of a series. It’s got a little bit of the feel of a cozy mystery, with magic. The heart of the story is really about a Rowan who’s come home to her town that she swore never to return to, in order to help save the Elder Tree, which is dying. Should it die, so will the town. Stir in the fact that she’s just broken up with her boyfriend and a local warlock has decided he wants to marry her in order to become the head of the coven, and also the fact that her friend’s kid has uncontrollable magic. Rowan is going to be busy.

In general, I liked the story. Rowan is supposed to be taking over the coven at some point because of her family, and she has to want to come back. She gets to see the town and her friends and family with new eyes and of course, everything turns out all right. This is a fairly fluffy book, as you can tell from the cover. It’s a quick read and pretty fun.

 

This next one is Winter’s Fairytale by Maxine Morrey. This one was fluffy like the last book, and also a romance. Not a great deal of depth, though I enjoyed the interactions between Izzy and Rob. She was jilted by his best friend, and Rob’s been in love with her for long before that. They were friends also, but she’s been unwilling to see him since the wedding, since he got to deliver the bad news and she punched him. She’s embarrassed.

The story begins with a snowstorm that keeps her from getting home to her shady sort of flat where a guy lives who is portrayed as a potential rapist, and at one point he does grab her. She runs into Rob and he takes her home where she stays through the storm and they connect.

Things roll forward and they figure out they’re in love. This is a Christmas story, so the holidays are the backdrop, and the other cast of characters are delightful. Izzy is a wedding dress designer and ends up helping Rob’s sister with her dress last minute.

This book is light reading and fun and a good Christmas story.

 

 

I have more to review, so there will be another roundup soon.

 

Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.

Today ran by fast

I spent the morning doing a lot of outlining work for a short story I’m working on. It’s set in Faith Hunter’s Rogue Mage world (awesome books, btw, if you’ve not read them), and so this requires me to do a lot of research in the world and making sure that I can write the story I want and that I stay within the already designed confines of the world. I figured out a lot of great stuff today and I have a strong idea of most of the story. I hope to write many words tomorrow.

Have you ever gone shopping and bought clothing that you had to take back because it smelled? I bought these jeans that I really liked. But they had a chemical smell to them. I washed them twice, and the smell didn’t even abate a little. That meant I had to take them back today. I suppose it’s good shorts weather is almost here.

Tomorrow I also plan to start some seeds. I haven’t prepared the garden yet, so I’ll get the seeds started now and plant in the ground in a couple weeks.

I’ve been doing a series of posts on Magical Words about self-publishing. Today I talked about choosing covers.

 

Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.

Back in the saddle again

I came back from the writing retreat having written 32, 281 words in basically 3.5 days. I am completely stunned. I have never written that much in that little time, ever. I worked on the sequel to The Incubus Job (comes out in just six days!!). It’s what you might call a zero draft. That means that I tried to just write story and not worry about the research elements, or making up names for particular people or things, and so on. I just put and asterisk and described what should go there. I’ll be able to search asterisks and fix those, though I’ll probably just end up combing through the whole thing when it’s done and revise and catch them that way.

I never write like that. Devon Monk encouraged me to try and it was kind of freeing. I’m going to use that technique in the next couple days to write an anthology story I have due soon. I doubt I can do 10,000 words a day since I’ve got obligations here that I didn’t have in the rainforest, but I think I could get at least 4 or 5K. If I don’t get bogged down in doing stuff on the net. I’m thinking of getting the Antisocial app, but I’m wondering if there’s a free sort of thing out there that works the same way.

The writers retreat is at The Rainforest Resort Village which sounds a lot less rustic than it actually is. We got to stay in a cabin with a back sliding glass window and deck overlooking a very babbley creek and beyond that, the lake. Geese flew in and out and it was absolutely lovely, even raining most of the time. We had a fire going in the cabin and a little kitchenette, and we hunkered down and wrote like fiends. It was fabulous. I love doing this retreat and plan to go next year, crossing my fingers I register before they sell out.

Once I got back, I had to finish the copy edits on Whisper of Shadows, the next Diamond City Magic book, which will be out April 15. Got that done, then worked on the tax receipts. I always have the best intentions of inputting those receipts into my spreadsheet throughout the year, and I always have to do it right at the end. They were all in one place. I keep a file bin hanging on my wall in my office to stuff them into.

I also went out and bought some manure and worm castings for the garden, along with three plants for the rock garden we hope to put in shortly (we need to create better drainage in that location before we can.)  My peonies are all in bloom and so are some other flowers. Plus the crocuses are up and so many. The former owners had planted them and this year some came up where they hadn’t before. I guess the wet this year really helped them.

I’m just about on schedule with my reading for this year. Trying to read at least six books a month, not including my own. Need to finish the one I’m reading–a British police procedural–to get my 12 for the year. I tend to let reading slip when I’m tired or really busy and just veg in front of the TV. I’m trying hard to avoid that and read, which most of the time I enjoy a lot more. A lot of them I get from Netgalley, which lets me discover a wider range of authors than I might ordinarily encounter, and a wider range of topics. So that’s been very nice.

And now, to go do some of that reading . . .

 

Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.