Some Updates

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So a few things have happened this week.

I published “Potion Shop”. It’s available for 99 cents at the moment, but will be raised to $2.99 on Monday. You can find it on Amazon or Kobo.

I also published a few more books on Kobo. Two of them are stuck in publishing. Kobo’s tech team is working to figure out why that is, and hopefully all of my currently available titles will be available on Kobo and Amazon very soon.

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Also, I have three chapters left to edit and finish writing for “Forgotten Ones”.

I am hoping it will be out this weekend as well. I’ve been sick for the last few days so it’s slowed down my writing quite a bit, but now I’m starting to feel better so I have high hopes.

Also…. Tonight is the Self Publish Round Table Podcast. If you haven’t seen it yet, then you need to! We all have a roaring good time, and the comments get pretty awesome. If you hang around after the podcast we usually have an after party and chat with all our wonderful fans.

See you tonight!

Distractions and Productivity

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There comes a point in every project, be it a corporate portfolio, a painting, song or book, that your mind starts wandering. Everything seems to be distracting you. The rhythm from the song playing, the TV in the next room, the anticipation of a show on TV. The cat rubbing up against your leg.

How do you get through that? For me, I take a break.

When you are getting that many distractions it’s sometimes just your brain saying “Hey, I’m working hard here, I need a break.”

I understand deadlines, and work ethics. You have to work with those, as well as your brains natural tendencies to overload with too much work. I find taking a ten to fifteen minute break is usually enough to get me back on track. (Unless the distraction is something living that is demanding attention, those are harder to ignore, especially children.)

There has actually been research that taking a break is good for productivity. It gives your mind a chance to wander, and then when you get back on task it is more at ease.

My favorite mini breaks are a quick level of one of my puzzle games. I have a lot to choose from. A quick walk around the house, or taking a break to wash some dishes, grab a cup of coffee, and other similar tasks are also on my list.

I have found that after prolonged time in my chair I NEED to get up and walk around. I’m not as young as I use to be, and the fact that sitting a lot causes premature death, I want to get up and walk around more anyway. Or, like today, write at my standing desk.

All of this has gotten me to here… with “Forgotten Ones” just three chapters of editing away from being finished. It feels so good to accomplish something!

Okay, done with the break, time to get back to the grind.

Writing Backwards

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I had an unusual solution to an old problem today. I’m probably not the first person to come up with this, but I thought I’d share it anyway.

I was working on a chapter for “Forgotten Ones” in which the two fates, Maylin and Jadina, are walking down a tunnel in search of a particular creature that will hopefully lead them to the big bad guy. I knew how it began, and how I wanted it to end, but the middle… not so much.

So, I started writing it backwards. I read the last paragraph and thought “how do they get to this spot”, and add a paragraph describing that. Then write the paragraph, or mini scene right before that.

For example….

June is walking down a path, and knows that the monster under the bed is at the end of the path. She’s going to walk down the path, see some interesting things on the sidelines, and eventually end up at the monsters den. She goes in the den, there is a little fight, and June ends up sitting on top of the monster with the monsters feet tied up.

So, that is my beat. I write the first section with June walking through the woods, and entering the den, no problem. I am really good at that part. I write the ending with June sitting on the monster, and a little quip about the monster having too many hands and not enough brains. But in the center I just have “battle”.

Battle scenes are the hardest scenes for me to write, which is annoying since a lot of my books have them. But what are you going to do… unless I try and find myself a co-author I’m stuck for it.

So, with this particular story that I am just making up on the spur of the moment, if I try writing it backwards as I just did with “Forgotten Ones” I would think… How did she get on top of the monster? Well clearly she had to have all his hand already captured so the paragraph before would be her locking up the last hand, then swinging her leg over the beast and having a seat.

Then what happened just before that? Well, it has a lot of hands, so she is going to have to dodge them as she is tangling them up in a long ribbon. (This is where I just realize she has a ribbon to tie up the hands.)

Before that, there needs to be some tension. Maybe the monster grabs her ankle and drags her down, and she manages to get herself loose by tickling him.

And just keep going backwards until I have a full story. (On a side note, this sounds like a fun story to write as a children’s book with pictures. Maybe some day.)

In other news…..

I now have nine books available on Kobo. I have two more in queue to be on Kobo, but they are coming.

“Forgotten One” is now 25,000 words long, and I am a little half way through the final edits. Plus the two chapters with battle scenes that I have to finish… sigh.

“Potion Shop” is almost done, also. I really need to just get that out there. Perhaps this weekend.

Validation!

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I got my first payment from Amazon the other day. It wasn’t much, but it was nice to actually get something for all the work I’ve put into writing.

It made me feel validated that the thing I started is actually panning out. People actually like my writing, and want to read what I have to say. Not just read it, but pay for it.

Maybe it’s because I grew up without much money. Maybe it’s because I have gone without, and worked hard to get what I have. Who knows. Maybe it’s just my own ideals about money that make me feel this way. The idea that other people not only think my writing is good, but worth paying with their own hard earned money to read it… that gives me a big boost in confidence.

I know I don’t want to pay money for things I don’t like. Or even if something is just “eh” to me. But if I really like it, or the people behind it and want to support them because I know it’s a worthwhile cause, then I’ll part with some cash.

So, I’ve been extra productive this week. I will have all of my books out on Kobo by the end of the month, and hopefully three more stories (two shorts for Halloween, and then “Forgotten Ones”). One short is complete, just doing a final revision. “Forgotten Ones” is close. And the third, a YA Halloween short story, is half done.

The best news… I figured out how they beat the bad guy in “Forgotten Ones”. I was having a bit of trouble with that, but once I figured it out everything started flowing together.

So, to recap:
Paying for books is good.
It makes authors feel appreciated, and liked.
It encourages them to be more productive.
And reviews also help LOTS!

So go review or buy a book from your favorite author. They will really appreciate it. (Especially if it’s an indie where every sale/review counts.)

Around the Web

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I stopped doing “Around the Web” segments on my blog because I started doing the “Self-Publishing Round Table”. Once we started focusing on writer related news it no longer made sense to also do a blog post.

But, I then stopped linking the show to my blog. I shouldn’t have stopped.

On that note… if you’d like to see the video you can get it here, on youtube. The video is also available to watch, along with the community commentary, on our podcast website.

If you’re only interested in the news, here are the links we talked about this week. 

 Tom Clancy died on Tuesday…

New global online bookseller that has ships worldwide, and has free shipping.

 Random Penguin says it’s still about the books…

Jeff Bezos shows shows off a new video tech support. (Kindle Fire)

The Alliance of Independent Authors warns about publishers using unscrupulous practices. (again!)

 Author pleads for readers to buy his books direct from publisher, not Amazon.

How KDP select might still work in some circumstances.

Why char-langs are so interesting, and fans LOVE them. (video)

Kobo on track to be a billion dollar company. I believe that is news.

 Scribd, Harper Collins team up to be an ACTUAL Netflix of books.

A blog that tracks indie book sales/placements.

 

And one we missed from the actual show:

What if writing was a competition?

Sleep!

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It’s 2am, do you know where your pillow is?

Mine has been under my head, on the floor, under my knees, beside me, and… well… everywhere. Still, I can’t sleep.

Allergies, how I hate them. I can’t get comfortable, and breath. My throat feels constricted, and my eyes blurry. Thus the pillow dance, trying to find a way to get comfortable and fall asleep.

I have five pillows on my bed. You’d think I’d be able to figure something out… no dice.

Maybe I should tell myself a story… one about jelly fish creatures on another world trying to figure out how those bipedal humanoids actually made it to another planet….

TL;DR this post is me rambling to myself, trying to fall asleep.

The Internet is Weird

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Over the last year I have made some new, wonderful friends. People who have helped, and encouraged me. People I have laughed with, made fun of, and in general caused mayhem.

People I have never actually met in real life.

I don’t know a great deal about these men and women on the internet. But I like them. They tell great stories. We have similar senses of humor, and love writing, and reading, and share a lot of similar goals.

I count them as friends.

I suppose this isn’t quite as unusual as it would have been just ten years ago. Many of us now have friends that we’ve never actually seen face to face. Never had a cup of coffee with. Never hugged, or shook hands. But the people on the other side of that google hang out are just as wonderful, and I would miss them just as much, as any other of my friends. (Especially Cyndi 😉 )

I am unsure if this development in our culture is good, or bad. It has allowed me, a person who is uncomfortable in crowds and often socially inept, the safety of a computer screen to feel completely at peace with chatting with more then two people at once. And has even bled over into my physical life.

On the other hand, there is still a distance. If something were to happen to one of my friends that live down the street I would know within a matter of days, if not hours. If something were to happen to one of my internet friends… would I ever know?

I suppose it is no different then if I had a pen pal back in ye old Victorian days, and the letters simply stopped coming. This is probably also why living wills and wills now sometimes include passwords, or other information to inform those who might be interested.

In a world that is increasingly becoming connected, and at the same time disconnecting from one another, we are adjusting to technology, and the idea that boarders, and distance rarely matter.

Perhaps there is a story in this idea… one in which a boy, smitten by a girl in a city far away, suddenly loses contact, and travels across the country, or the world, to find her.

Perhaps it’s just a reminder that life is fragile, and precious, and we should all take the time to appreciate our friends weather they live down the block, or on the other side of the world.

Forgotten Ones

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forgottenonesminiI am down to the final edit of “Forgotten Ones”, and adding in the last few scenes.

So I finished the cover.

Thank’s to David Wright for pointing me in the direction of Font Squirrel, and the twenty-eight fonts I downloaded last night. The one I used for the title and this cover is “Griffin”. An unusual font, to be sure, but I found it eye catching.

The cover depicts “the all seeing eye”, which is appropriate since “Forgotten Ones” is about the goddesses of Fate who share an eye. (Not literally, but we’ll get to that in the story.)

I will be so happy when this one is finished. It is 22,000 words long at the moment, and I still have a few thousand to go before it’s done. That puts it at short book status, and I will be putting out an ebook and a paperback, on the new Kindle Matchbook program. So if you buy the paperback you’ll get the ebook for free. It will just take a couple weeks longer for the print book to be available as I go through for a third edit, then format, and finally set up the printing. (And the Matchbook won’t be available till October, but if you buy print copies before October you still get them once Matchbook takes affect.)

I know, I know… so much of this must be fascinating.

Know this… This time all three fates are in the fight, and they learn something about themselves they had forgotten in their attempt to survive the rise of humanity. Something that allows them to defeat a god who has regained a lot of his former power.

Writer FAQ: Where Do You Get Ideas?

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One of the most commonly asked questions out there, “Where do you get ideas?”

The simple answer: Live…

It sounds simple, but really, that’s it. Sometimes I will think all my ideas have dried up, then my boyfriend will say his mechanic has some sort of black magic touch, and I’m off and running on a new idea.

Live. Read. Watch documentaries. Read some more. Take a class. Watch people. Play games. Read even more. Experience life. Draw on those experiences.

And the next step is learning to recognize those bits and pieces, and having some form of notebook with you always so that you can jot them down. (I use a notepad on my cell).

The only real difference between a writer with lots of ideas, and everyone else, is that the author knows when a great idea will make a good story, and he takes the time to write it down.

So many people around us, with so many fantastic ideas. They tweet them, make funny gifs, talk about them. But a writer takes the time to develop it into something more. Then the writer seeks out new information, so that he can boldly incorporate it into his writing like no other author has done before.

Now THAT is where ideas come from.