Wolfen’s Comments (group member since May 01, 2017)

Wolfen’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Barbara wrote: "So thrilled to be named Chapter See's December author of the month. You can read the interview here https://chaptersee.com/author-of-the-......"

Congrats!! (You should start your own thread, though -- this thread is Topically specific to me. That is to day, if you start your own thread, you can use the topic setting to your author page, to direct people to your profile! :))

Thanks! :)

Thanks! :)

Thankee!

Thanks! <3

Just a little excitement for me -- an interview about my book and my process! :)

https://forwardscribes.blogspot.com/2...

(Check out their reviews page to look into being interviewed yourself!)

Thanks, everyone. :) I've calmed down.

I will definitely look into that after Dragon Con! :D

Carole wrote: "Maybe you should look at Radish- where you can put the book up for free or the first three chapters for free and then people buy the following chapters. I haven't gotten a review yet for my book on..."

I had not heard of that -- thanks for the tip! :)

Carole wrote: "I work on getting reviews, everyday. Look for blogs in your genre and write them. Do a giveaway on both Amazon and Goodreads. I've gotten reviews that way. See if there is a blog tour you can afford- Julie and I list a bunch of them in our book- this is not a plug for you to buy it- but if you look backwards in these discussion threads- you'll find many of them. There are also volunteers in the early threads who love to review books."

I admit, after two months of working on review-hunting every day with only the 4 interested-responses in all that time, I ran out of steam. My depression got really bad, and I had to step away for my mental health. I explored other potential monetary outlets (while dealing with other responsibilities).

I *have* hit up review-offer threads on Goodreads, with only nibble. And I did a giveaway on another forum here, with only two bites. And my books are basically available for free online at all times, something I do point out now and then on my social media platforms, but the hit counters rarely go up when I do. :/ The most frustrating thing is, in my line of work, I am acquaintanced with quite a few content-creators whom I have reviewed the works of, but no one seems willing to return the favour. :/ And I'm leary of doing review exchanges on Goodreads because I can barely keep up with my review workload for Sequential Tart as it is (and I'd feel hella awkward if I didn't like the other person's book -- which I've worried might be the reason the aforementioned have not reviewed my book). XD

If it weren't for all the positive reviews people have left on my fanfic, I'd assume I must be a terrible writer and stick to art. Weirdly, even though the books are free on the same platform as my fanfic, my fanfic readers don't seem willing to make the leap to my original fiction. :/

It's just, I worry because there are no really POSITIVE reviews yet, so add in the two suggestions by him that I basically copied the originals ... well, I hope you're right that people will look for themselves! XD And he gave the book 2 stars here on Goodreads, so odds seem high to me that it will get that on Amazon, leaving me with a 2.5 :/ But you're right -- thanks, all, for talking me down. (I should note I was going to reply via email, not on the review itself -- I was hoping to get him to reevaluate before posting -- but yeah, he'd probably just add to the review that I complained instead.)

A friend said basically the same, that it would just make me look bad -- but added that SHE has no problem pointing out in the comments how unfair *she* thinks the review is (she was a fan before becoming a friend, and I keep my author and personal accounts on Facebook separate). Do you think she should, or no?

As for getting more reviews, I'm trying -- I combed through over 300 reviewers pages and put out requests to over 40 (as in, the ones I even remotely met the terms of what they wanted), and heard initially back from only 4 that were interested in either book (it's been four months since I last sent a request out, so I assume the rest weren't interested -- I kniw I need to do another round, I've just had a hella busy summer). This was the first of those 4 to actually post.

Another said she loved my other book and would post a review, but hasn't -- despite posting reviews of other books that, according to her blog, she finished after mine. I already emailed her thanking her and asking if she would like to read the other book as well and ask if she was still interested in an author interview (something she asked me in the beginning) -- I don't want to be a pest ....

And Alex, sorry to hear about your negative reviews -- abandoning after just one page is pretty ridiculous!

I've gotten the "you use too many big words" complaint now and then, and it's always left me scratching my head. The two reviews on the other book made that complaint -- I assume because I used a few Gaelic words, but I put a glossary in the back, and fantasy works use new terms created for their world all the time, so using Gaelic shouldn't be a stretch ....

I'm in a quandary. I only have one other review for one of my books on Amazon, and a reviewer will be posting a review that could really hurt the book -- and unfairly so, as I feel it significantly misrepresents both the work and myself as a writer. I wouldn't normally contest a review -- opinion is opinion -- but .... Well, here's the review on his own page:

https://jaffalogue.wordpress.com/2017...

And here's what I'm considering replying with:

Can I ask why you feel the book offers almost nothing new? Considering how the following are dialogue are all my own embellishments: my version of Nussknacker being a brownie-squirrel to start with; my Drosselmeier being Thot / Huginn and a necromancer who raises Mouserink's children from the dead; my Marie being a reincarnation of Clara and descendant of magic-bearing people; the inclusion of the Clara-doll; my cats being werecats; the "land of the dolls" being the Otherworld rather than a candyland; and the inclusion of a dryad who grants them all the power of shapeshifting, with that being the reason the nut cursed Pirlipat; and all the dialogue? And I omitted the astrologer, and did not have Pirlipat betray Nussknacker .... I mean, your review makes it sound like I practically plagiarized Hoffman's story, which is demonstrably untrue -- I'd say I put my own spin on every element. At the same time, it's a *retelling*, not simply "inspired by" -- such should have similar beats to the source material.

And the whole point of the second story is to explain why Jacob did what he did for Scrooge, and free him of the constraints of his era, allowing his soul to find happiness just as Scrooge did. Their was entirely new content in Marley's backstory, for one, and as for the rest, the point was to show Marley's view, and what the ghosts were thinking throughout the evening, how they decided what to do -- if I didn't tread the same ground, that would have been impossible. Should I have omitted Scrooge and the ghosts' dialogue? Made up a completely different series of events that were unrecognisable from the original? This wasn't about telling a new Scrooge-like story; it was about exploring an unknown side of the original. How is finding out that Marley loved Scrooge *not* a new slant?

But again, you (rather harmfully, really) practically present me as a plagiarist -- and unduly so, especially when, besides putting every scene in new context, I state in the Foreword and on the copyright page that I used some of Dickens' own words (so saying that the original writer's name isn't on the work isn't exactly true).

/end reply

Maybe I'm just being overly sensitive because my birthday was Monday and I'm feeling my age, and my previous two reviews (for another book), weren't exactly enthusiastic. :/ I probably shouldn't reply like that -- I probably won't -- but this is galling!

Anyway, if you want to judge for yourself and decide if his claims really do have merit, the book (two novellas, really) is here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1070...

It says only moderators can add books ....

I like it! It's eye-catching and well-balanced. My only suggestion would be to maybe put a thin black outline around "Nate" and around "and", to help them pop a bit better (especially as the DNA strand is the same colour as "Nate"). Oh, and maybe every so slightly lighten the streaks by the face on the left -- I mean, I reaise the streaks ON his face are part of the same image, but note how the other guy's face pops still? The guy on the right is kind of faded into the background, especially his forehead.

Just wanna say, thanks for the tips and links, Jes! :)

But my character is telling the story retrospectively in past tense? i.e. it has already happened.

If something is *still* true / happening, use present. If it's *not* still true/happening, use past. For example, "I love wolves, so when I had the chance, I patted one on the head. " I still love wolves, so that's present tense, but I'm not still patting one on the head, so that part of the sentence is past tense. Or, if there is not a specific instance but it's something I *would* do, there's, "Whenever I get the chance, I pat them on the head."

Re your examples:
"He loved it when I said things like that" and "I had always had problems with anger management"
or
"He loves it when I say things like that" and "I have always had problems with anger management"?

If he still loves it when the Point of View character says things like that, then use present tense. If the PoV character doesn't *know* if he still loves it, or he definitely doesn't, use past.

If the narrator STILL has problems with anger management, used "have always had". If the character used to but no longer does, use past.

And when talking about character traits, should it be "He was always so calm" or "He is always so calm".

It is entirely dependent upon whether he STILL has the trait. If he is no longer always calm, use past; if he IS still always calm, use present.

CL. wrote: "That's pretty much my problem. Some stuff will remain stable throughout the series and some stuff will change. Should I use past tense for all of it, or mix and match according to the future end result?"

Unless your character is psychic, do it by what the *current* status of a situation is when the character talks about it. Don't take the *future* into account -- if it's true in that moment, the fact that it won't be true at some point *after* the character says it doesn't matter. But yes, mix as necessary.

Roughseasinthemed wrote: "I think you have the right idea. Generally if the relationship is ongoing then it's reasonable to use present. If it's over, then clearly, it is past tense. "

That's pretty much what I was going to say. I'll add the caveat that, for the stuff the speaker is saying about *themselves*, if it's something they *still* do, then use present tense for that part, even while using past for things said about the person they are no longer with.

A while back, I realised I just could not afford having website space anymore (especially on top of domain fees) -- and then it occurred to me that I could make a free tumblr for my series instead! I was already using Tumblr to promote myself -- this would combine the efforts of posting to the site and posting to Tumblr! :D (I do miss doing fancy / fun stuff with the site, though, I admit -- I'm not so savvy with the programming Tumblr uses.) So here it is:

gaiankind.com

Feedback is welcome, with the understanding that I might not go through with the suggestions. ;)

Very clean, uncluttered, and to the point! I can't tell you how many author sites I've visited lately that have a) had the content too wide, so it's hard to take everything in at once, and b) has so much on the sidebars -- stuff that's not integrated, even -- it's almost painful to look at, as well as making it hard to actually find stuff. I appreciate that the buttons are clear and easy to understand, and there aren't, say, three buttons in different places leading to the same thing, with half the other buttons not actually working. It loaded quickly, without unnecessary bells and whistles slowing it down. As for criticisms / suggestions, I think everyone else has them pretty well covered. :) All I would add is, maybe as a point of interest, you could have a page of links to resources on speech development -- maybe there's even a group you could become an affiliate with?