Last day of snow…

on the blog, where else! It never snows in Roma (sigh)! :-D So next post I'll go back to Comet theme with personalized header…

Happy New Year, everyone!

The poll is still ongoing, so I'll do a random post. Although I'm very much set for Writer Wednesday where I'll ramble on writing (mine and of others, so if I interview someone, it will be posted on a Wednesday) and Freedom Friday – with the freedom to tackle books, movies, life, the universe and whatnot. Not sure yet about Sundays, so I'll keep going with Six Sentence Sunday until the poll is over. Don't forget to cast your votes! :-)

WordPress provided nice yearly reports this year, but I made public only the Serial Central Report, so my fellow authors can see how we did – in a year we went on permanent hiatus in February, LOL! Last year I didn't receive any report for this blog, this year I got 3 identical. Meh. I won't make it public, though, as most of the "most visited" posts are now private anyway, and I have no intention to write about those topics again. But as some of the posts are older than 2010, my writing has "staying power" – I guess they tell that to most! ;-)

This year I'll be posting less and writing&reading more, so expect longer posts but less frequent. As I'm reading the last 2 printed PDFs (downloaded Before Kindle – see, we even have a new way of saying things, a new era has started, welcome 2012 and the new world *singing R.E.M.'s "It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)" again*) I'm having some writerly musings. It's two epic fantasy stories, both with some of the clichés highlighted in Limyaeel's fantasy rants and both with mostly omniscient narrator. And both trad published.

Now, when I was still looking at small publishers' guidelines (two years ago), I remember the "NO HEAD-HOPPING" warning. Not to mention when I had my pieces critiqued at David Farland's Writers Forum, they always pointed out when I slipped back into omniscient. So I had assumed that the new fashion in fantasy was "no head-hopping, omniscient narrator is 20th century".

And now that I'm reading again in my genre, apparently it's not so out of fashion after all. So I can confidently stick mostly to my many POVs, but if a scene or two require omniscient narrator, I'll go with it. I guess the only rule is there are no rules as long as your story comes accross clearly. But you are responsible to find the best way to tell your story, whether first person, third person limited or third person omniscient. Hey, I might try First Person Omniscient , a.k.a. God Speaks, one day! :-D

I also found another use for my Kindle – having downloaded the mobi files of my books from Smashwords. As Silvery Earth is a puzzle, a tapestry of stories, I often need to check facts in already published books (that's because I'm rewriting and twisting plots from the original Italian stories, so I must remember what I changed and what I didn't…). Until last year, I had to flip through the printed version or switch on the PC to check the document if what I needed was not in my notes. Now I switch on my Kindle and check the facts without moving from wherever I'm writing! Please note, dear writers of sagas or series, that you can do this even if you're unpublished and want to save one copy of your manuscript on your Kindle – simply follow Michelle's instructions if you don't want to bother with Calibre in creating a mobi file for yourself.

This week I'm off DayJob thanks to the stress it gave me in December which blocked my stomach (again) and made me all teary every morning at the thought of going in. So my doctor gave me four days off to cure my bellyache, then Friday is a Holiday and the weekend I don't work. So I'll get back to the dreaded place next Monday, hopefully refreshed and with some decision made. Although when you're used to a steady job with steady work hours and steady wages (and mine is 20+ years old), you can't just ask for an unpaid leave and explore freelance life without considering all the pros and cons.

Now back to writing the next novel while editors and betas work on the first Chronicle of the Varian Empire. I'll be reading and writing and, if my mind doesn't wander too much, coloring SKYBAND 10. Happy and productive and healthy new year, everyone!