This is a soundtrack / playlist that I’ve been listening to while I work on A Long Forgotten Song, my new Christian urban fantasy supernatural thriller series. Unfortunately I can’t figure out how to reorder the songs, so it’s not exactly the order I want, but oh well.
independent
22 posts
I just read this fantastic article by Kristine Kathryn Rusch on A Career vs. Publication. If you’re an author, a wanna be author, a just-for-fun writer, or have ever thought about writing, go read it. You might have noticed that the publishing world is changing pretty quickly these days. Among other upheavals, indie publishing has become not just an option, but a good option. As writing blogs, conventions, and advice proliferate, both online and in the real world, there is a lot of advice out there. Have you ever tried to parse through that advice to find what will work […]
So I attended (and was a vendor) at my very first convention this weekend. It was fun! Although I didn’t sell as much as I’d hoped, I think sales were pretty decent considering that I only had two books available (in one series) and that I’m a mostly-unknown author. Aside from sales though, I had a great time! Some highlights: My table was next to Rebecca of lossingfeathers.deviantart.com and papertulipstudio.tumbler.com. She had mostly cat and kitten art displayed, but she showed me her portfolio, with some fantastic pen and ink drawings. I may have to commission her for some future […]
This guest post is part of the 2013 Blogger Book Fair and was written by Kyra Dune. Her most recent publication is Firebrand. . Do What Works for You I’ve read a lot of articles about writing fantasy. I’ve heard it said over and over that every writer in this genre must spend copious amounts of time creating their fantasy world, its rules and laws and histories, its races and religions and magic, before ever sitting down to actually write out a story. I’m here to tell you it isn’t true. Okay, maybe in some instances it is true, if for […]
This guest post is part of the 2013 Blogger Book Fair and was written by Sophie Duncan. Her most recent publication is Sacrifice of An Angel. Magical Forensics Thanks very much to C.J. for hosting me today as part of the Blogger Book Fair. C. J. asked me to write about the magical forensics my sister and I developed for our book, Sacrifice of An Angel. It is the first book in a new-adult contemporary fantasy series called The Haward Mysteries that mixes the modern British crime drama with magic, demons and all manner of dark arts. I write this series with my twin […]
I’m participating in the 2013 Blogger Book Fair! I’m excited about the great group of authors and bloggers participating, and I hope everyone will have a great time. I wrote the following guest posts for other authors and bloggers as part of the fair (links will be added as the posts go live): Beyond the Magic – for Sophie Duncan Interview with Daniel Sherrier Writing as a Man for Wendy Russo, with an extra spotlight here Writing Fight Scenes for D. H. Aire Managing Reader Expectations Through Cover Art for Sharon Bayliss Excerpt from The King’s Sword and Interview for Yolanda Renee […]
Some of you know that I’m a martial artist. I’ve been training in martial arts for over 19 years as of this writing. I started in taekwondo when I was 12 and earned my first black belt in the now-defunct International Taekwondo Council (ITC). I trained for about two years in a Japanese Karate Association (JKA) Shotokan karate school before heading to college at 17, where I trained for a year in judo. When I transferred colleges, I ended up in a Chidokwan karate (basically Shotokan + escrima sticks + street-style self-defense) university club, where I trained for two years […]
There’s been some ongoing kerfuffle across the internet about spec work, with one website mentioned that I’m actually familiar with, 99designs.com. A lot of good arguments have been made on both sides of the issue. Spec work definitely has its dangers and downsides. But having used 99designs, I wanted to let you know some of the arguments on both sides, and why I don’t think spec work is always a bad or immoral thing. What is spec work or “work on spec”? Spec work or work on spec is when a designer or artist of any type submits finished or […]
But wait, you say. Isn’t self-publishing just vanity publishing? Not exactly. Self-Publishing is not Vanity Publishing Self-publishing is when an author pays for the expenses of having their work published – editing, cover art, formatting, etc. That’s a pretty broad category, and it includes a number of classic works. You see, publishing has always been subject to the whims of a number of gatekeepers – agents, editors, publishers, and bookstore owners, to name a few. Sometimes those gatekeepers hit a homerun – they identify and back a truly worthwhile book by a magnificent author. That’s great! But sometimes, for whatever […]
Joe Konrath hosted Barry Eisler on his blog recently for this article: A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Eisler on Digital Denial. Joe’s comments are at the bottom of the article, and they’re worth reading too. It’s reassuring to me that formerly traditionally published authors are now choosing to publish their own work. Yes, the barriers to entry are lower, and yes, that means less-than-impressive works reach readers. But it also means that authors have many more choices, and many more opportunities to shape their own careers. Generally, I believe choice and options are beneficial, and for far too long, authors have […]