Tag Archives: Writing

Small Bites 1

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Three flash fiction stories. “Beware the Werewolf”, “Chimera” and “Griffins Flight”

Three flash fiction stories. “Beware the Werewolf”, “Chimera” and “Griffins Flight”

Small Bites 1 is now up and available for 99 cents.

The first Small Bites is three short stories about creatures. A werewolf, chimera, and griffins.

I had a little bit of an unexpected set back with “Osiren’s Tears”. I had an extra crit that actually will make it so much better in the end. Since “OT” is more then just short stories, and something I’ve been working on for years, I want to get it right before I push that publish button.

I hope you enjoy “Small Bites”, and I can’t wait to put the others up.

The Blank White Page

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I asked the question “How do you attack the blank white page” on The Story Telling Podcast and someone took that question and used it as his own podcast.

So share with us… How do you attack the dreaded white page?

I think I should make a video for this too…. hmmm…

Around the Web

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The big news right now, or course, is the bombing in Boston. But I can’t add to the conversation on that except to say that I am glad the news is acknowledging that this is not just about us here in the states. It was an international marathon, one of several in the world. And while it was a sad tragedy, I hope that it is used to bring us closer together, not push us farther apart.

Now… some things from the writing side of life.

Amazon and Publishing Royalties (I love that Amazon is listening tot heir writers! Let’s hope they keep listening.)

27 Wacky Ways to Cure Writers Block (some interesting, and unusual ideas I’ve never come across before.)

Writers Club ultimate resource list…. Just.. ya, go look.

Interview with R.A. Salvatore at Comic Con

Perspectives…. Author vs Director

Simple advice from Neil Gaiman

Authors Problems

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I have been so busy going over edits for “Osiren’s Tears” that I haven’t been actually writing much. I feel like I am slacking, it’s horrible.

It isn’t like I haven’t been doing anything. I have to reread every line of “OT” to be sure the editors edit agree with my style (most are grammar/spelling/punctuation, so it’s a gimmie, but a few are just a matter of style, and choice.)
I’ve also been redoing the cover to get it “perfect”, trying to get a good description blurb, and working on some formatting issues.

I’ve been spending hours on all the little things, but not actually writing.

So I am looking at my word count chart and there is this huge dip after I finished “OT”. Nearly a week with very little, and sometimes no writing. And I feel so guilty!

But this is a good thing… so I said to heck with it all and sat down and wrote a couple scenes for a “super secret surprise”.

It felt good to actually write again, and hopefully I can get it done in the next week.

The blurb

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I like parts of the first blurb, but it was pointed out that the real meat of the blurb was the last two sentences, and fewer people would get to those sentences. Also, Ashini is the main character of the story, not Grom.

So, a new blurb. What do you think?~

Ashini, prince of the menaids, is trapped between his love of the beautiful goddess, Sekra, and duty to his people. The goddess pleads for peace between the menaids and trolls, while his people demand that they stand their ground.

How can you stop tensions between two races that began upon creation? Water and earth. Fire and ice. Always at odds with one another. And now Grom, leader of the trolls, is charging towards Iklestal, his army of rock-skinned trolls at his back.

Ashini has one last option, but will the goddess survive the aftermath?

Sunshine and Roses

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Now that “Osiren’s Tears” is at the editors I realized that “Small Bites 1” is also ready to go up. SO! I will have two new books out by the end of the month.

I also have two fellow writers helping me iron out some kinks before I put out my next couple books. And my boyfriend who has been helping me when he can, mostly with encouragement, sometimes with editing and advice.

I went through everything I have ready, or near ready, and I actually have 15 books that I should have out by June! (Including the two already out.)

After such a slow start, and months between books, the fact that I will soon have 15 of them is amazing.

Couple things that helped me get this far:
1. Getting organized.
I literally had hundreds of story ideas, so many it was overwhelming. So I started by pairing it down to “What is a solid, complete, story idea”, then “what is almost finished” and was able to narrow it down to just a couple dozen stories. Much of easier to deal with.

So however your creative side isthe finding expression, narrow it down to what is most important now, finish those, then come back for more.

2. Track Yourself
I loved NaNoWriMo. Watching the little graphs go up as I wrote each day. Having a goal. Competing against friends to see who could finish first.

It took me a month in June of trial and error to finally find a system that worked best for me, but now I have it. It tracks all the important things. Words written, chapters finished, blog posts… everything at a glance with a running tally for each month. And because of it my word count is going up every day.

3. Annoying Friends
I have the guys over at SPP and STP, especially Garrett, that keep writing and publishing thousands of words every month. And I keep thinking… I’m going to catch up to you dang it! And by golly I am going to catch up eventually!

It’s the whole idea behind the competition part of NaNoWriMo. Comparing yourself to other people isn’t always a good thing… but for this I’m making an exception.

4. Don’t be Satisfied with the Status Quo
I want to do better. I want to write more, write better, edit more, and have TONS of books out there. That drive to push myself… in the end it’s really what keeps me at this.

So… GO CREATE SOMETHING! No more excuses.

Update

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A week ago I wrote about Garrett, Zack and Cristal calling me out to be the first to send a voicemail into their show. So… here it is: (the voicemail)

You should definitely watch the whole show. It was very interesting, and had a lot less spoilers then last weeks show.

“Happy little accidents” is from Bob Ross, a man who use to paint on PBS from who I learned a lot of my landscape painting skills, and mainly just to get out and enjoy the act of making art. (Bob Ross Remix)

I was never actually able to paint along with Bob Ross, but I did learn that sometimes the simplest things were enough to make art beautiful. It only takes a little bit of paint to get the point across.

Another concept cover for Osiren's Tears

Another concept cover for Osiren’s Tears

On that note, I have been really toying with the new cover of Osiren’s Tears, and I haven’t really liked anything yet. I am trying to convey a lot of information with it (fantasy, series, war, etc) and I decided to try something a little simpler.

I am not sure this is the final version, but I like this one a lot more then other versions.

The book was suppose to be at the editors right now, however… I got sick. She was nice enough to postpone it for a week while I catch up on my edits. I still have four chapters that I need to finish up before I can send it to her. A chapter a night and I should be able to have an actual publication in just a couple more weeks.

I really hate postponing yet again, but I honestly couldn’t move or stay awake while I was sick. So I am just going to have to put my nose to the grindstone again and get this thing finished.

I think you know you’re starting to get serious about something when your excuses start annoying you, even if they are valid excuses.

Around the Web

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I’m sick today, so I’m only posting a small post while my brain is active enough to handle it. I’ve actually been sleeping on and off all day today.

Alright, the big news, right off the top:
Amazon buys Goodreads! Here is an article from Daily News and another from Amazon Press Release. What does it mean? Will they integrate reviews? Will they muck up social networks and ruin things like facebook? Time will tell.

Second, Bioshock Infinite is out, and I love this review done by Adam Sessler. Basically… video games are pushing the boundaries of story telling. I can’t wait to play this game and be a full part of the story.

Felicia Day did a great AMA on Reddit this week, and talks a bit about the future of Geek and Sundry, and her creative drive in general.

The Writers Knowledge Base offers a searchable index of articles about writing, creating, and what have you. I haven’t had much time to search around in it, but so far it looks interesting.

The Nerdist interviews Macklemore. They talk about the weirdness of fame, writers block, creativity, and doing what you love.

The Future of Storytelling, interviews with people at Comic Con.

On the home front, I’ve been putting together a playlist on YouTube of video’s about Overcoming Fear, from the likes of Charlie is so Cool Like, Hank Green, and Vi Hart. There are some wonderful videos and I hope they inspire you, too.

Stats

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year graph
Half way through March, and I thought I would share my progress.

Now that I am tracking my daily word count I am having a lot fewer days with zero word count. I have had a few days, this month, of less than 200 words, but a lot more of them have been over 500, and I see it growing.

Last night I sat down to write and kept checking my word count after ten minutes or so watching the numbers go up hundreds, not just tens and twenties. I was thrilled! The words are tripping off my fingers with ease now. It isn’t a struggle to sit down and write. It’s more of a demand.

I bought a new game. Tropico 4. Instead of playing it I dangled it as a reward to get myself to write. Now that I’m in the habit of this it is completely natural for me to deny myself something until I write.

I do not yet have a set word count that I need to reach each day, or else. That is my next goal. At the moment I have a monthly goal of 9000 words for March. That’s about 300 words a day. I am just about half way there, so I think I need to increase my expectations.

What I’m learning is that just putting that expectation that I will write, no matter what, each day has been the most effective way of getting the words down on paper. And the more I exerciser the muscle that is my brain, my fingers on the keyboard, my imagination, and my story telling skills… the easier it all comes.

I’d been fretting and lamenting my writers block for all these years. And I am going to give myself a small… I guess it’s an excuse, but I really did have a reason to fall into the trap of writers block. I did not, however, have a reason to STAY in that trap, especially for as long as I did.

I think I’m going to talk about the trap of writers block, and the exercising of the brain like a muscle next blog post. It’s been on my mind a lot lately.

Small Bites 1 cover

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Three flash fiction stories. “Beware the Werewolf”, “Chimera” and “Griffins Flight”

Three flash fiction stories. “Beware the Werewolf”, “Chimera” and “Griffins Flight”

I just finished “Chimera”, the third story in Small Bites.

Now it’s off to be edited so that I can put the first of the books up.

There will be four of them, each for .99 cents, each with three really short stories. Then I will do the full “Small Bites” with all twelves stories as one $3.99 offering, and raise the singles to $2.99.

In other news, “Osiren’s Tears” is well on it’s way to completion. I am in the process of finding an editor. It is almost 30,000 words long and definitely needs an edit before I put it out.

This will be my first full length book out. It will be at $3.99 I think. But once I have it up I will also start offering some KDP select free books, so look for that soon as well.