Ok, so if you’ve read my book, Sorrowfish, you may have gleaned some of this already. But I wanted to have one place where I define my magic system and clarify questions about it. I get asked about it a lot. First off, where it came from. Cosmic DJ. I started to realize the music […]
So. There’s a virus spreading and people are, in general, upset about it. There’s been a run on stores for toilet paper and they’re trying to close the churches. I heard today in Illinois that restaurants have been ordered closed. Not sure if that is constitutional. I suspect it isn’t. But in general, there is […]
So. One more piece of the getting-my-indie-book-into-the-Library puzzle put together. I need a PCIP Block. I think I do anyhow. According to this guy, who seems very knowledgable, I don’t. A PCIP block is a publishers cataloguing in publication and they cost around $100 if I pay someone for it. BUT. I have already had […]
So. I’m now on my fourth DAW. A DAW for those of you who aren’t audiobook narrators, is a Digital Audio Workstation …the software you use to record yourself. And I feel foolish. And stubborn. And a lot of other things. But I’ve tried Audition and Reaper and then I just loved Audacity before it […]
I think my story is very much a milieu story. From Writers Digest: The milieu is the world—the planet, the society, the weather, the family, all the elements that come up during your world-creation phase. Every story has a milieu, but when a story is structured around one, the milieu is the thing the storyteller […]
So. I got contacted on Reddit about my book by a publisher who actually looks legit and wants to publish my book in English, in China, as a serial. I’ve checked out the company. It’s legit. And as tempted as I am? I’m pretty sure I’m gonna pass. Still have to discuss with Rod. I […]
“That’s so cliché” “Your story is full of tropes” “It’s been done.” When I see these mindless rants masquerading as serious reviews, I promptly consider the review itself to be utterly invalid and the reviewer herself to be lazy, unoriginal and vapid. Likely in need of a breath mint. Let me explain. A “trope” has […]
So yesterday, my little book had a very big day. I was Reddit’s Writer of the Day. I set my book to free for the occasion. It’s free until midnight tonight Saturday, actually. So if you haven’t read it, go download it. Reddit Fantasy, for those of you who don’t know, is huge. There’s usually […]
On my mystical writing journey, I’m doing ok. Not fantastic. I don’t have a ton of money to throw into book promo. But respectable. I’m a prawn for all you 20booksto50k’ers out there. Hopefully I will only go further from here. One really nice surprise I got today, I’m on the front page of Lorehaven. […]
I had an author interview published today. It was with Thisiswriting.com, a writing site in Australia. I won a marketing package with them and this was part of it. I think it turned out pretty well, but you guys can go here and look. Tell me what you think!
So I’ve entered Sorrowfish into the Wishing Shelf awards. I don’t really want to enter a lot of contests, but this one seems to be well run and gives feedback, which I would like to get. The contest is author-run. To me that is important. There are reading groups who evaluate the books. While I’d […]
I spent all day reading about chivalry. I do this. When I’m writing I need to explore until I find the PERFECT THING. So today I spent all day searching for Gawain and and the Green knight and chivalry and courtly love and Trystan and Iseult. I needed to find the right test of honor. […]
I’ve been writing, but not like I wanted to. Now I’m writing full force again. My marketing is in place for the first book, I’ll let it run and keep going. If I can get book 2 finished and out, I’ll be much better off. So where am I? Good question. I have an outline […]
UPDATE! It’s live! You can order Sorrowfish here! (ebook) Order the paperback here! Ok, so yesterday I logged in and uploaded my paperback MS and hit publish. I was going to do the same with my ebook. However, after I hit publish on the paperback book, I could not get to the ebook details. It […]
I’ve taken Mark Dawson’s class and I’m in the 20booksto50k® group on Facebook. There’s an ethos within these groups that says to rapidly release a series. Make the first book free (or possibly the first three books) Advertise. Hook your readers into reading the series. I don’t mean to grouse. But if I do that, […]
Dinosaurs are dragons. I don’t understand why this isn’t accepted fact, but it’s true. Look at them. I’m sure they even breathed fire. Until some scientist proves otherwise, I’m going with it. My husband thinks dinosaurs don’t have enough legs and wings. Fine. So wyvern. They’re still dragons. The word dinosaur wasn’t invented until 1841. […]
So, I spent all last week working on my book trailer and I think it turned out pretty well. It’s been well received so far. I did it with Adobe After Effects and a lot of work. You may view it here. Let me know what you think in the comments!
I just sent my manuscript off to LSE® for the final proof. It’s only been two years of editing. LOL. Woot. I’m done.
We’ve all heard that, as writers, we need to read outside of our genre. This helps us learn and expand–adopt and adapt devices that we may never have considered otherwise. Toss elements of a thriller into high fantasy, for instance. Stir scraps of mystery into a romance. Freshen up dusty old tropes with a dash […]
I’m going to St Louis this week, to Realm Makers. It’s a Christian sci-fi/fantasy writer’s conference. I’m stoked! Brent Weeks and Terry Brooks are both going to be there. Very exciting. I have no idea what to wear as a costume. They dress up for the awards banquet, apparently. Probably River Song, it’s what I […]
I was talking to Ben Lo at church this morning and he mentioned I needed to tell this story. Ok. I’ll tell it. I started thinking about writing in 1998. I was on the rocks with my husband. At that point, my life was in complete turmoil and I was trying to get it back. […]
Some of you know I’m a dev and designer. My little company is known for gamification, but today I wanted to talk about using it in my writing. Because I did. SO FUN!!!!! I have been accused of writing this whole series to create an acceptable backstory for Ingress. Sigh. Not true. But funny. Anyhow, […]
This week, Sorrowfish went on preorder finally. As an avid audiobook consumer, one of my first priorities is creating a fantastic audiobook version. Rod and I listen to books literally every night together. It’s a family tradition that began when our kids were growing up. We did the Harry Potter series. In high school, the […]
I have a date for my book to launch! September 3, 2019. A mere 2 years and 2 months after I finished the first draft. I am consoled about my slowness by two thoughts. We are still waiting for Kingkiller 3 so I’m faster than Mr. Rothfuss. And hopefully the book two will be quicker […]
I have a small but loyal following here and wanted to give you guys an update. My web development company decided to try to launch 3 websites (in one week) at about the same time I’d planned to launch my book. Since we have to eat, we chose to be zen about the book launch. […]
So I’ve been working on writing ten minutes a day. I’m writing book 2 and it’s really slow going. By the time my head gets into the space I need it to be in and I see the movie unroll in my mind, the ten minutes has turned into 30 minutes. And I need to […]
So I have a marketing plan. It’s basically going to revolve around getting reviews with some advertising. But first I gotta make some freebies and some lead magnets. Which is fun. I want to give people things they will really like. Mostly my freebies will be deleted scenes or outtakes or stories or what have […]
I think I mentioned the Resistance that comes when you try to create something. It’s hit me hard as I’m editing this book. Everything that could go wrong has. I talked about it in The Avalanche of Battles and Stab it with a Fork. So today I wanna talk about another thing that can come […]
So I’m in a Facebook group for indie authors. I posted the cover I’ve been working on to get feedback. I was actually on version 10 but posted version 9 by mistake. It had a couple issues but I left it, because after 18 years of design, I know you have to give groups obvious […]
We have looked at colors and their symbolism in the stages of alchemy, how these relate to story. We’ve looked at ring structure. The next thing to look at in our study of literary alchemy is duality. Duality pops up in ring structure. If you have a plot that looks like this: ABCBA or AABBBCCCCBBBAA […]
One Ring to rule them all…. No. Not that kind of ring. Though Tolkien did use this structure in his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. Ring structure or chiastic structure is a device to tell a story. An ancient device. It’s also one commonly used when applying literary alchemy, which I started to discuss […]
Yes, literary alchemy is something I have spent some time studying. The goal? To profoundly affect your readers by allowing them to transform vicarously along with your main characters. The model has been used for centuries. Shakespeare used it. CS Lewis used it. JK Rowling used it. Suzanne Collins used it. The writer of Breaking Bad used it. […]
I walked into an actual bookstore. An independent bookstore, yesterday. It’s one of my favorites. Carmichael’s Books in the Crescent Hill neighborhood of Louisville. And I bought a hardback volume of How to Stop Time. I haven’t bought a hardback at full price in a while. Not from a bookstore, where I’m standing at the […]
Ok so first off. My daughter did these drawings for me and she is amazing. Thank you Emily. If you need an illustrator I highly recommend her. Just comment below and I’m happy to get you in touch. The gryphon is N’khum and the gnome is Jax. The tomb is in the Angels chapter. I […]
My daughter read several chapters of my book and complained loud and long. She knows I’m an advocate for lightjoy. I don’t like grimdark. But she said my book is dark, so dark. I think she’s right. It is dark in many places, many of them very unpleasant. But it made me think about what I mean by lightjoy. I’m […]
I’ve been reading The Flame Imperishable as I work out a lot of things in my world. It’s analysis of Thomas Aquinas’ impact on Tolkien, and it’s been helpful to understand why he made his choices, and how. I also dug up the essay On Fairy Stories, by Tolkien –a 27 page footnoted pdf. He […]
Some of you know I’m working with Long-Suffering Editrix® twice a week. Cheryl is a mentor, a coach, a cheerleader, sometimes a mommy and a kick-ass editor. I’m very thankful to have her in my corner. Even when she makes me think too much. Which is often. For instance, my homework this week is to outline […]
One of the wonderful things about writing is the ability to create worlds, a fact Tolkien noted when he wrote his mythology. He referenced this obliquely when speaking of his Valar and their role in creation. But the idea was that this creation was a “concreation” or a “creating with.” And it allows us as […]
A goodie for my Wattpad fans and beta readers. If you remember the scene with Sara and Scott in a cemetery? Well. These are photos of the actual place, St Louis Cemetery. I’ll add more in a bit but I need to edit them. There are many mausoleums like ones pictured, but my favorites are […]
UPDATE: Stephen Pressfield has a new War of Art mini course and a new site for the War of Art. Check it out here. It’s kind of funny that I started to write this post when I did. I was going to describe how Resistance, when unable to distract you, derail you or discourage you, […]
