Tag Archives: thoughts

Gone are the days…

29 Tuesday Oct 2013

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First and foremost?  I want to know where October went. Because hell, it’s way too late for me. I feel like I should have done a LOT more with this month than I did, though honestly that’s because I had wanted to do a lot more than I did.

I never kept up with the drabbles I had wanted to do this month, though I do fully intend to continue with my plan to write for NaNo. I’m just going to have to be more careful about staying on task and not letting the month slip away from me. Because in all honesty, I’d really like to win this year. And about two weeks in I always taper out because of Holidays and family stuff, and finals and school which I no longer have to distract me.

Secondly, I had a small issue with something today while I was browsing the Nano Forums this morning. Someone in one of the regions I’m part of posted that they wanted to talk to “Properly Published“authors, and by that she meant not self-published and not ebook. And I have a more than slight issue with not considering self-publishing or ebooks ‘properly published’.

I know that a good chunk of self-publishers do need better (or any) editors. I’ve run across more than a few that the ideas were solid, but damned if they could just have had someone run through it with the editor’s comb it would have been a hell of a lot better. And I’ve run across more than a few that you sit there wondering where the good reviews on amazon came from because it’s really, really not good. But that isn’t to say that a self-publisher is bad or not properly done.

I guess my issue stems from the use of ‘properly’. I wouldn’t have bristled at the term as much if she had used say… ‘traditionally published’. Because I feel like saying that self-publishing and ebooks aren’t proper is discounting a lot of good work and a lot of good people. Especially since there are a fair few of traditionally published authors that are making their way into ebooks, making shorts available to their fans for a cheaper than paperback/hardback price that might fill in the gaps between some of their books. And I think that’s a wonderfully awesome use of the media, by the way, but does that make the short they’re selling for a couple bucks any less proper than the edition that you can pick up in the store?

My two cents anyway.

Inching along

03 Thursday Oct 2013

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I really don’t know why it’s so hard to get me to sit down and write out blog posts, or update my twitter for that matter. I always have great plans to, and then they fall short of my wants because something or another gets pushed in front of me.

Though, in my defense with blogging, I’ve been vying for a full time desk job that will pay the bills. Something I deeply need in order to survive and all. It’s going well too, and I’m hoping to have the job secured by the start of the new year. So here’s hoping.

In other news, I am in the process of writing up a review, though a couple days ago, as I was finishing up the book I was directed by Kindle that since I was reading A, I might like B. And B turned out to be book two of a series named after the book I was currently reading. But by a different author. Color me confused at that point.

Apparently two different authors used “Easy Bake Coven” as their title, only five months apart. So while the newer of the two’s review will be posted hopefully tomorrow if today pans out as I want it too, the older of the two “Easy Bake Coven” books will be jumping my reading list to top so I can read and review that one too.

Which leads me to a poll of sorts, dear readers. Have you come across this before? And I’m not just talking about similar titles, because I have stumbled across similar or same titled books but what was inside, and the genres tended to be different. Both of these books are about witches, and from the description of the second one, they’re both slipping into some mystery as well.

And for those that write and publish, do you search to see if anything on amazon, B&N, smashword, etc. has the same title as what you are hoping to name your book? Or do you just publish it without looking?

Feeling very…

24 Monday Jun 2013

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I’m not completely sure why, but I’ve been feeling very… wanting to write a dystopian set book. My small but currently growing library of novels and anthologies where this is the setting may be having a bad influence on my brain. I picked up Shards & Ashes from my shelf to start reading it the other day, which is a large contrast from Casting Spells that I’m currently reading.

And i should probably warn you now that this post might ramble. It’s Monday, and I should be running errands but the office I need to visit doesn’t open for another fifteen minutes.

Anywho, so I am in the mood to write/read dystopian settings and I’m not completely sure where the want to do either came from. It also leaves me wanting to crack the whip at a friend of mine that’s got a dystopian story in the works and I’m eager to read it as soon as possible.

My conflict with writing one is that I currently have a WIP and I really, really have goals to get it done and I don’t want to deviate from that to plot a new story, short or novel length. If I were in a slightly better place with my time, I might try to balance them but I don’t really have much time to bounce between two.

Brains. Why do they do this to us? Because seriously. I don’t need any more distractions or I’m gonna see the painful side of a whip as it’s cracked at me to keep working on my WIP.

I do know I’ll be jotting down the thoughts on this idea, so hopefully I can go back to it when either I have more time or after Christmas.

Pricing on the Kindle Store

20 Thursday Jun 2013

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I have to say that sometimes it amazes me how the pricing ends up on Amazon’s Kindle store. With Kindle Direct allowing authors to self publish instead of finding a publisher, it’s flooded the ebook stores with more material than ever. (Which is both good and bad.)

On the one hand, it means that authors don’t have to jump and compete with that very small market that is the big publishers line up, and they don’t have to deal with the hassles that can come from trying a small, specifically genre-d press, or bend their genre and style to fit that small press. However it also means that anyone can publish anything, and editors aren’t always used before publishing. (Though I’m starting to get a little off topic here since I wanted to discuss the pricing, aren’t I.)

A lot of the books on the store are $0.99 – especially when it’s a book one of a series, which I personally think is great. It gives you the ability to try a new author without really committing a lot of money at first, and if you like them and want to continue the series it’s usually $2.99. To me? That seems more than fair and more than a little awesome. It’s affordable as the reader, the author gets their stories out there, and while it’s not much they’re also getting at least a little money for the effort they’re putting into it.

What baffles me though, while I was cruising the Kindle store I came across an author who is publishing 4K stories and asking for $2.99 for them. In a see of chapter ebooks and lengthy novellas that are being sold for $0.99, this person wanted more. And I will admit, I haven’t gotten into self publishing my stuff yet, though I do have plans to in the near future, I don’t see how the author thought that would be a good business plan. Especially since said author states the word count in the description on the info of the book so you know you’re getting a massive short.

I won’t say that the author is wrong for charging that much as it’s her work and she has every right to charge as she pleases. What I’m wondering is, do people actually spend that much for such a small short? Am I just a little too wallet tight to spend almost a dollar for every thousand words?

Old Projects, New Eyes

18 Tuesday Jun 2013

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It’s hard sometimes to look back and go ‘well hell. I was supposed to be done with that by now.’ And yet that’s what I ended up doing this last week while I was on vacation visiting my best friend. I’ve been trying to write a novel for the last four years, and every year I always let life or other things get in the way of finishing. I don’t set it as a priority, and that’s my main problem. Though the major secondary problem is that I haven’t been setting time aside to write.

I got a new job a couple months ago and that had completely side tracked me as well, but that’s an excuse. And not a very good one. Though that’s also neither here nor there.

After talking to my friend, and realizing that I had written 30,000 words and the story didn’t go anywhere, or do anything. And staring at this large piece of work that’s been sitting for what feels like forever, it felt like a chore to try and work on it. Like I was tied down and chained to keep it because it’s what I have to show for the last four years. But it made me want to work on it even less for that too, because I wasn’t sure how to salvage it with how backed into a corner the main character was now.

So, with the encouragement of my friend, I scrapped all of it but the treatment and outline. We reworked some of story so it will hopefully flow a little better too as I write it. And we’ve set up goals for me to meet, the  main being a minimum of 667 words a day, but 1,000 if I can get it there. My goal as a whole is to have the rough draft done by Christmas. That starting in 2014 I can do revisions and edits and have it finished before this time next year.

It might not seem like a lot, or a strict deadline, but I have issues trying to follow most deadlines, and I will be doing my best to keep up with all of my goals. And hopefully I will update with better progress as the year gets closer to closing.

Poor Balancing of Time

08 Monday Apr 2013

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So it seems, or really it more than seems, that I’ve been neglecting this poor blog. I’ve never been a great manager of time, and maybe I need to set up in my schedule a better structured outline of when to make sure if I haven’t gotten back to here I should. I always have these passing thoughts through the day of what might make a great entry, and then by the time I still in everything I’m doing enough to actually do something, the idea is gone and I’m left scratching my head. Or worse, I forget everything all together because I never really stop. It’s poor of me as an author to not keep this blog up, at least in my personal opinion of myself.

Though that brings me to the topic I figured I’d write my thoughts on today. Balancing time.

Most people see huge authors like J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyers and think that authors have it easy. And really, what could be easier? A life where you get to explore the bounds and wonders of your imagination for a living. To create characters and make them do what you want to do, or to create worlds based on an idea or how you think a world should be run. And don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly fun. Though the difficulties that can come with that will better serve for a different post.

What I don’t think most realize is that as fun as it is, it doesn’t pay the bills as well as you’d expect. A good chunk of the authors out there have a mundane (or not so mundane pending what they do outside of write) job to help them get through the month as well, or in some cases extremely supportive significant others that work hard to pay the bills while the muses burn fuel. And in a lot of cases it ends up being a hard balancing act.

Outside of being an author, I work a regular 9-5 job which eats up a lot of my energy as well as most of my week. And sadly, a lot of the time after work I tend to crash. And on weekends I have family I live with and near so there’s usually something always going on there, or the occasionally in town friend. Some might think it’d be easy to just hang a little sign on the door that reads “Muses at work – All non-fiction people stay out” but it’s no that simple. Housework and laundry need to get done whether I’ve gotten two hundred words or two thousand words on my new WIP. Meals need to be cooked and eaten, and at some point whether I am ready for it or not, sleep will claim me some time between eleven at night and one in the morning. On top of all that I have other commitments too, as I Coordinate a week long outdoor Spiritual Get-Back-To-Nature Pagan Festival in Aug. (which if anyone has ever run an annual event, they know it’s a year long process), I’m getting a Newsletter up and running for the organization that hosts the Festival (which I will quote an acquaintance of mine, getting articles from people really is like herding cats), and I’m the Vice-President of said organization.

Needless to say, I’ve got a lot on my plate. And while I love it, for as Virgo as I am, I may possibly be one of the most scatter brained Virgos on the planet. Or at least in my state. Because honestly, I know I don’t always get to the things I should.

Work, as you’d expect, comes first. And my responsibilities to the organization I’m part of come in a high tied second with my family and friends. As an author, my writing itself comes third or I’d never have anything coming out in print. Which also means that some of my loves, and some of my other responsibilities get set on the wayside until I can get to them be it because of time or because of energy.

It’s a balancing act though. Because too much time without things I love, like reading or video games, makes me go a little stir crazy for the lack of. And yet too much time without an online presence and I’m not doing the greatest job I can as an author to push myself and my work — in the works as it is as yet.

So I ask you, dear reader, how do you manage to make sure you balance your time well? Any tips for this humble author looking to do better in all aspects of her life?

Music – Imaginative Inspiration or Destructive Distraction?

31 Thursday Jan 2013

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Music. It’s an expression of how we feel, it’s a way to tell someone something (if they’re listening) when we don’t really know the words, and sometimes it can change how we feel – for better or for worse. I think almost everyone has those playlists that when they’re sad they listen to them, or if they’re in a mood to bounce around an be happy there’s a playlist for that too. And Goddess knows that iTunes and Windows Media player have only made it easier. I still remember the days when you had cassette tapes. And if you wanted mixed artists, you had to create your own mix tapes (and if you’re wondering, yes I still have some cassettes. Specifically my Muppet’s tape. Mahna Mahna is too good a song to ever let go and there’s something special about listening to it on tape.)

Needless to say, being able to store all your music on a harddrive and mix in match in as many playlists has become an amazing asset. I even have a sleep playlist because I can’t sleep in complete silence but I can’t just sleep to anything either. And with Pandora, and similar websites, you don’t even need the music on your harddrive anymore. It’s just that easy to have music at your fingertips, for whatever you need. Which brings me to the point of this post. Writing playlists. I’ve seen a lot of authors talk about how this song or that song inspired them while they wrote, or that they have a playlist or a specific kind of music that they listen to while they write.  Or sometimes it’s not just to write but to inspire specific characters.

Kim Harrison has lists of music that she feels, or fans have suggested, bring to mind specific characters. Carrie Vaughn actually lists the playlist that she listened to while she wrote each specific book in her Kitty Norville novels. And these are just a couple of the authors I read and love who do this and make it well known. I’m sure there are a lot more out there who do.

But it makes me wonder a little.

Am I one of the few that can’t do music when I write?

While it seems to help a lot of authors get in the mood or find that missing piece to be able to get the words to flow more like a moving river than a babbling creek, it does none of that for me. It’s actually the exact opposite for me when it comes to most music. Instead of being a beautiful help to my work, it actually takes away, distracts me, and makes sure that almost nothing will get done on my writing. If it’s lyrical, I end up singing to it and forgetting to type or losing my thought because my brain is concentrating more on getting the right words out. If it’s non-lyrical, my brain tends to pick apart the music on a level that only a musician can. It’s not to say I don’t enjoy the music, far from it. I have a large collection from J-Pop/anime to country to metal to classical to jazz. My newest obsession that I found because I adore Apocalyptica has been 2Cellos, specifically this song they play – and the electric cellos are so cool too. I absolutely love music. Just… not when I’m writing.

And yet oddly enough, through old episodes of Reba on the tv and I can write up a storm. Go figure.

Part of me is curious if anyone else out there is like me, not necessarily in the why but specifically in the fact that they can’t do music while they write either. Feel free to share your thoughts, comments, or experiences.