In honor of my Facebook author page reaching yet another 100-like mark, I'm hosting a giveaway of my first novel, The Wicked Heroine.
To sign up for a free signed copy, comment on this post with your email address -- you can write your e-mail like this: [awesomereader (at) gmail (dot) com] to avoid spam bots. The givaway ends December 20th, 2011, when I'll randomly select a winner and email you for your mailing address. If you're quick and in the mix, you can get your copy before Christmas! Just one more treat from Santa under your tree!
12.11.2011
12.01.2011
My Christmas Wish: Duotrope for Review Sites
As I was falling asleep last night (my usual good idea
time), I realized what sort of service could rock the worlds of book reviewers and independent/small press authors alike: a Duotrope for review sites.
If you've ever used Duotrope, you know the awesomeness of its color-coordinated search function, the glory of its detailed information and statistics. What if such a site existed to help books get reviews? Think of the myriad ways you could streamline your search for review sites.
Let's see, I'll look for:
Registered users would have a monthly per-book request limit to prevent spamming; abuse of the feature would get you banned. Review markets would have their responses catalogued by authors when (or if) the reviews were posted, and review times would be compared with posted wait times for authors' perusal (satisfaction with the review is so subjective that it's not necessary to record--the reviewer isn't talking to the author, anyway, but to readers). The stats lists for fastest responses, least likely to post a review, number of markets for any given genre, most likely to accept a book, etc., would be very useful, and would encourage reviewers to do their best in order to draw more traffic and better books to their sites.
Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? If you've ever had to search, and search, and search, for active review sites, you know the pain of realizing that the one site that sounds perfectly matched to your novel's style has been inactive for three months. That's one of the reasons I chose the Duotrope model: Duotrope actively checks with its 3600+ listed markets at least once per month to make sure they are still active. They add new sites and retire old ones regularly, keeping the listing as current as possible for the thousands of people who use the resource they provide. A function like this would do the same for the always-fluctuating review-site markets as well, giving assurance to review-seekers that the listed markets will actually respond to their requests.
If you were an author, how much would this service be worth to you, saving you all that time searching? Currently, Duotrope is free, running on donations for maintaining its publishing-market listings. If they or someone else expanded into the review market, I would hope that authors would donate gratefully. I know I would.
Dear Santa, if I wish really hard and be a very good girl, can I get this for Christmas? I'll leave you all the cookies you want.
If you've ever used Duotrope, you know the awesomeness of its color-coordinated search function, the glory of its detailed information and statistics. What if such a site existed to help books get reviews? Think of the myriad ways you could streamline your search for review sites.
Let's see, I'll look for:
- genre: romance
- subgenre: paranormal
- length: novel
- theme: YA
- price: free
- wait time: 4 months or less
- type: pre-publication (hoping to bump that first week of sales, right?)
- and definitely simultaneous submission! I can't see any reviewer objecting to that, anyway.
Registered users would have a monthly per-book request limit to prevent spamming; abuse of the feature would get you banned. Review markets would have their responses catalogued by authors when (or if) the reviews were posted, and review times would be compared with posted wait times for authors' perusal (satisfaction with the review is so subjective that it's not necessary to record--the reviewer isn't talking to the author, anyway, but to readers). The stats lists for fastest responses, least likely to post a review, number of markets for any given genre, most likely to accept a book, etc., would be very useful, and would encourage reviewers to do their best in order to draw more traffic and better books to their sites.
Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? If you've ever had to search, and search, and search, for active review sites, you know the pain of realizing that the one site that sounds perfectly matched to your novel's style has been inactive for three months. That's one of the reasons I chose the Duotrope model: Duotrope actively checks with its 3600+ listed markets at least once per month to make sure they are still active. They add new sites and retire old ones regularly, keeping the listing as current as possible for the thousands of people who use the resource they provide. A function like this would do the same for the always-fluctuating review-site markets as well, giving assurance to review-seekers that the listed markets will actually respond to their requests.
If you were an author, how much would this service be worth to you, saving you all that time searching? Currently, Duotrope is free, running on donations for maintaining its publishing-market listings. If they or someone else expanded into the review market, I would hope that authors would donate gratefully. I know I would.
Dear Santa, if I wish really hard and be a very good girl, can I get this for Christmas? I'll leave you all the cookies you want.
10.20.2011
My NaNoWriMo Do's and Don'ts
DO make a Snowflake outline ahead of time.
DO stick to its scene list like it's the gospel truth so you don't wander off and write another 100k that isn't relevant...again.
DO add notes to yourself in [brackets] as you're writing so you can keep track of changes you want to make later.
DON'T worry what that will do to your word count. Your goal is a finished novel manuscript, not a mere 50k.
DO turn off the Internet. Except to post word count updates.
DO take Saturdays off, or your tendinitis will overwhelm you. Unless you didn't type much on Friday and an idea strikes you Saturday night while you're watching Doctor Who reruns.
DO use liniment during the day and wear your wrist brace at night even if it doesn't feel like it needs it. It does.
DON'T try to set a new personal record for most words written in one day. You couldn't type for 4 days after that.
DO write entire scenes at once whenever possible. Homogeneity is a good thing in scene tone.
DO eat regularly, and with relatively healthy food, so your hypoglycemia doesn't flare up mid-scene.
DO get up between scenes and stretch, exercise a bit, or do a quick chore. The house always looks cleanest during the first week of NaNo!
DO upload your word count every hour or so like the obsessive nutjob you are.
DO check your writing buddies' word counts every morning to see if anyone has passed you.
DO try to stay in the top 5 among your writing buddies' word counts.
DO boot everyone from your writing buddies list who hasn't actually written anything the first week. They're not helping your momentum.
DO remember you have a family, and spend time with them when you're not writing.
DO stick to its scene list like it's the gospel truth so you don't wander off and write another 100k that isn't relevant...again.
DO add notes to yourself in [brackets] as you're writing so you can keep track of changes you want to make later.
DON'T worry what that will do to your word count. Your goal is a finished novel manuscript, not a mere 50k.
DO turn off the Internet. Except to post word count updates.
DO take Saturdays off, or your tendinitis will overwhelm you. Unless you didn't type much on Friday and an idea strikes you Saturday night while you're watching Doctor Who reruns.
DO use liniment during the day and wear your wrist brace at night even if it doesn't feel like it needs it. It does.
DON'T try to set a new personal record for most words written in one day. You couldn't type for 4 days after that.
DO write entire scenes at once whenever possible. Homogeneity is a good thing in scene tone.
DO eat regularly, and with relatively healthy food, so your hypoglycemia doesn't flare up mid-scene.
DO get up between scenes and stretch, exercise a bit, or do a quick chore. The house always looks cleanest during the first week of NaNo!
DO upload your word count every hour or so like the obsessive nutjob you are.
DO check your writing buddies' word counts every morning to see if anyone has passed you.
DO try to stay in the top 5 among your writing buddies' word counts.
DO boot everyone from your writing buddies list who hasn't actually written anything the first week. They're not helping your momentum.
DO remember you have a family, and spend time with them when you're not writing.
Happy National Day on Writing!
There's an animal joy that rises in my soul at the thought of creating
new universes. I make new places. I make new people. I carve the
mountain ranges; I arrange the women's hair. I release the people into
the worlds, and I guide them on their journeys. I get to create
encounters and adventures I'll never see on Earth.
At the same time, I am the filter for these places, these events. They are the distilled awesomesauce of planet Earth, through my eyes. Through my soul. My creations are the pure, unadulterated moonshine of my brain, the ambrosia that is freedom of expression...the crack cocaine that is my imagination.
Have some.
#whyiwrite
At the same time, I am the filter for these places, these events. They are the distilled awesomesauce of planet Earth, through my eyes. Through my soul. My creations are the pure, unadulterated moonshine of my brain, the ambrosia that is freedom of expression...the crack cocaine that is my imagination.
Have some.
#whyiwrite
10.11.2011
My Hero
Anger can come in more than one form. Unfocused anger is the unhealthy sort, where anyone and everyone can be a target, and usually nothing is resolved. But focused anger, the sort that has a pattern and a path and a targeted goal, can work wonders. Studies have shown that arguments given in anger (read: rants) are more coherent and organized than those assembled in a neutral state of mind before any editing is done. You know the type: you get fed up with a series of related issues, and you spell them out, one by one, with accompanying examples. Look, angernization!
My own current anger is in retaliation against my own passivity and laziness, as well as events beyond my control. I had a hard summer: I pulled a tendon in my leg, which resulted in no exercise and little movement for four weeks, followed immediately by two weeks' vacation, consisting mostly of car rides and unhealthy food. I gained weight. As a former 116-pound black belt, my pudge well and truly disgusted me. But not as much as my fatalism. Two weeks ago, I organized workout music and planned an easy exercise program that my leg, still recovering, can handle. And I ranted at myself, out loud, in wickedly organized fashion. It felt good.
I'm happy to report that my body still likes to be in shape. After two weeks, I've dropped a nice seven pounds and an inch here and there, and I feel stronger and healthier. Fitting back into clothes I had to put away is a serious joy.
My goal is to drop twenty pounds. I don't know, or care, how long it will take. I WANT this. I DEMAND this.
And this is where I whip out the "art" portion of this post, because I can't help wondering whether one of the characters in my current fantasy trilogy project is inspiring this change in me. Here's how I wrote him in book one of the Seals of the Duelists, titled Elements of Allegiance:
Bayan is a young man, just 15, when his magic powers appear. He doesn't want them; he wants to marry his girlfriend. His worst-case scenario is being sent to live on a mountain ridge nearby, causing his girlfriend to leave him, but things go from bad to worse immediately, and he learns he has to travel over a thousand miles away, leaving family, culture, language and climate behind, and go deep into the heart of the empire that has taken control of his homeland, in order to be trained by the imperial duelists to do a lifelong job he despises.
Yeah, he's pissed. He's so pissed that it affects his magic while he bides his time, looking for a way to escape and return home. At a critical point in the story, he has to deal with his anger, because in its unfocused state, its disruption of his magic could be deadly. After all, he doesn't want to die, he wants to go home. So he finds a way to focus his anger. It never goes away (spoiler?), but only one of them can be in control, and Bayan DEMANDS that it be him. Because it must be so, and so it is.
Did my character inspire me? Is he saving me? (My hero!) I've experienced a lot of anger during my life, and I thought that's where Bayan's issues came from when I created him. But maybe I've held the keys to my own freedom all along, too. It just took some fiction writing and the summer from hell to help me see it.
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