Victoria A. Jeffrey's authorly doings. . .

Friday, September 30, 2011

Price points and things are tripping along. . .

So my latest story is coming along. I've already even bought the photo for the cover. I've got three more revisions and a book cover design before it's ready but I'm shooting for a release in two weeks.

This book is definitely a novella, not a novelette. I've even got the sample chapter written for the third book in the series! I won't reveal the title though. You'll just have to wait and find out once the second book is released. The Pumpkin Princess will be free for two weeks and then I will set the price at $0.99. Now, I will upload it to Scribd and Feedbooks if you want it for free for those two weeks. All other places I will upload it to, the price will be $0.99.

So that's the plan at this point. Look for the third book in the series some time in December!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

My first Author Interview

I've been doing a few interviews last week and here is one that I did for the tumblr page of an indie E-Zine. The interviewer is an editor at the collaborative indie e-zine The Open End, or T.O.E. for short. They also publish books through tiny toe press, their imprint. You can subscribe online to their magazine. The interviewer was Michael Davidson. You can read my interview here!

It was a lot of fun to do and I have another one from a different blogger coming up in the future. Read and enjoy!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Moscato and other things. . .

In between spending time with my mom this morning, lunching and drinking some Moscato (delicious) and writing and reading the Kindleboards I was thinking that we really need to have an association of authors and readers that support ereaders. In the past there have been small noises made about creating an annual convention for Kindle owners, Kindle authors and such but not much more than that. The discussions peter out.

I would love to organize an event like that but I have no idea how to do that. I suppose I could try but how to do that remains a problem. I think it would be a wonderful thing, though.

Or maybe not. I think perhaps I'll just go to the next world fantasy convention and forget about it.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Life in flux

I have so many thing going on right now. Life is in flux when it comes to the writing projects. Still plugging away at my book. It will probably be finished in a couple of weeks. It's definitely longer than the first one, but it's coming along nicely, if more slowly.

I've had some family illness that I had to attend to last weekend and this week and I was sick myself yesterday so it's cut into my writing time but sometimes life is like that. It interjects and what can you do but just deal with it? In any case, things so far have turned out for the better. Times like this remind me that even when things become hectic you should always find time to write and when I have plenty of time I shouldn't be lazy about getting as much writing done as possible.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Getting stuff done with all day cooking

Cooking? Yeah, well, that's another one of my passions. I love to cook and eat.

How I cook is becoming more and more important. I used to hold big dinner parties which took up incredible amounts of time and even though I loved doing it, it became too time consuming and tiresome. Now that I am doing an incredible amount of writing I have very little time for dinner parties and even regular daily cooking can be difficult. So, to avoid falling into the trap of fast food eating, I've decided to incorporate "all day" cooking - basically cooking a meals on one day that will last for the next 3-4 days at a time. I first heard about this from Stephanie Ravenscraft on GSPN a few years ago. Brilliant idea!

I've already done it for this week. I've been eating on lima bean soup with ham and oxtails all week. It's delicious and leaves plenty of time for me to get other things done like writing, cleaning the house and laundry. Especially after I come home from my regular job. It's nice to not have to cook something from scratch!

This doesn't mean that I'll stop giving dinner parties or cooking lavish meals but I can make time for them on special occasions now and perhaps not feel so tuckered out! It's nice to get a lot of work done. It feels good!

Monday, September 19, 2011

New micro fiction!


Inspired by my old writings as a teenager, Grimm's Fairy Tales and JK Rowling's The Tale of the Three Brothers, I wrote my own fables, three of them. It's my latest story. It's now available on Smashwords, Scribd, Amazon and Feedbooks. I also have other titles available on Obooko and getfreebooks.com


Acceptance of the changes in publishing

There's a lot of talk about the self publishing revolution that is radically changing the publishing worl. In case yoiua re wondering where I stand, I am firmly on the side of mavericks like Konrath and Stackpole.

For years I tried to get a traditional deal. I went the same route all writers go. I have the rejection slips to prove it. There were times when I became so depressed over it that I stopped writing for a few years. But I woud always get up, dust myself off and get back on the merry-go- round.

Except this time, last May I was surfing the internet looking for information on rewriting and I came across by accident that writers no longer had to get a trad deal to publish their work, nor did they have to go through a vanity press. They could self publish straight to Amazon and other venues, big and small. I was estatic over this! You mean to tell me that I don't have to sit and beg and wait for years and years for the minute chance that I may get a publishing deal? Seriously? I accepted the change in a snap. I didn't wait, I didn't feel the need for a trad deal for validation and I didn't feel invested in the old way of doing things and I've been writing for many years now. I accepted the change instantly and the first thing I did was get out old manuscripts, rework and proofread them, figured out how I could publish my work and where I needed to get started!

Some writers need someone else's approval to publish their own work. They require validation. I won't knock them. It's too easy. I have confidence in my work. It ain't perfect but I like it. I just don't need other people's approval.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Micro book of fables

Well, I've nearly finished a micro book of fables I've been working on for a few days. One I wrote when I was in high school. It was such a delight to find. It's called The Cowboy and the Pebbles. I dug it out of an old chest. The other two I wrote this week, inspired by that first one, Grimm's fairy tales, which I've been thinking on quite a bit because of my book series and by J.K.Rowling's fable The Tale of the Three Brothers.

All I need to do now is finish the book cover.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

A small goldmine of ideas

Well I went rummaging around for some of my old stories and not only did I find my old short story but I found a whole bunch of poems and short fiction pieces that I wrote. I was over the moon! I wrote these things back in high school and some of them were graded works.

I used to take creative writing classes all throughout my primary school years. Some of them are what you'd expect from a young person but a few pieces were truly inspired. I know that in the near future I will be re-dusting and revise the best pieces for publication.

I think that I should also state that I just finished The Pumpkin Princess first draft! I'll be posting updates over the course of the month but the first major step is done. Expect The Pumpkin Princess to come out in October.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Rehabilitating old stories

I was reading one of my favorite writer's forums today and ran across a thread about old stories.

It got me thinking about some of the stories I wrote back in high school. There are two stories I still remember vivdly, short stories. One was called 1929 and the protaganist's name was Orl. Odd name, but anyway, you can pretty much guess what it was about. This wasn't a science fiction or fantasy story, if I remember it correctly.

Then there was a story about a man who was a wine connoisseur - an arrogant one who is invited to a dinner which turns out to be a frightening affair for him. I had kept those stories around for many years but it's been so long now that I wonder if I still have the copies. When I have some time I plan to go digging around for those stories.

Why? I want to rehabilitate them. I think that I can make them better. Much better. People seemed to like them back then, especially my T.A.G. teachers. I wonder if people will like them now?

It will be a long time before I make a decision about exactly how to rewrite them because I'm in the middle of so many other writing projects. We'll see. . .

Friday, September 9, 2011

Cannibalizing previous work

When you've been writing for a long time you come to the realization that some of the stuff you wrote when you were young was just awful. Pure crap!

I've written two novels in the past. The first one is something that I was proud of way back in the day that I now would not allow to see the light of day. The second one is ok, but isn't on par with the kind of work I'm doing now - not to say the stories I write now are perfect but they are certainly better than my first two novels.

Another thing that many writers do is cannibalize their work, which is exactly what I've been doing with both of these works. The novels themselves are not something I want to publish, but many turns of phrase and the ideas presented in them are wonderful. I plan to use them in future works. In fact, I have already begun cannibalizing them for my current stories. Stories like that, while not publishable, are a goldmine of ideas and well written sentences and interesting turns of phrase. It's like getting ready to cook a meal and turning to the cupboards and the refrigerator and finding them full of good things to use. It's a wonderful feeling and they enhance the stories that use them.

It also let's you know that all that hard work you put into a novel that isn't publishable after all counted for something useful.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Dust and Bones (short story) is published!

I just published my newest short story Dust and Bones tonight. I'll be putting the links up tomorrow but I will put the Smashwords link up in this post. I thought that I wouldn't be able to get this done until the weekend, but as it is, I'm finished editing the story - now - and saw no reason to wait. After all, I have a lot of stories to write. I'm proud of it, I love the story and I hope people enjoy it. It's free, as well as all of my work at this point. You can download it here.

Now it's time to work on my second book in my Secret Doorway Tales series - The Pumpkin Princess.

I'm so excited!

PS. To find my work for free click on the "Published work at Smashwords" link or the My Scribd Page link in the side column.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Calling Card



I've been doing some work on a business card/calling card today (and listening to the Cover to Cover podcast). I had a really wonderful one I created over a decade ago when I was studying graphic design, but I like this one even more. The only thing missing is a pair of glasses.

Unfortunately, this is the second go 'round with this design. I created one almost just like it this morning and when I tried to open it back up this evening to continue my work, it wouldn't open properly. Illustrator trashed everything but the brown face and the eyes! I'm not sure what on earth happened there, but this time I made a copy for the web. I hope that helps. Anyway, I wanted to post this screen shot of my calling card. I like it and I plan to hand them out at conventions. I just need to figure out when the next science fiction/fantasy or general writer's convention will be held.

It will be my first time at a convention like this.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Draft of Dust and Bones up on Scribd!

Well, once again I have something new to put up on Scribd. It's always so exciting to post a new story. I just love it. Dust and Bones is almost ready for publication. So I'll be putting up a draft on Scribd in a few minutes. Please be aware that when I post on Scribd first, the draft you see is not the final draft. It's very close but not the final one. I have three more edits to do before i will consider it finished and ready for true publication but when something is almost ready I like to give people a taste. After all, If you are anything like me, you are very impatient. When you've decided you wanted something, you wanted it yesterday!

That's how I am anyway. I don't like to wait. I finished the book cover and I'm rather proud of it, if I do say so myself. I'll also put a link in the sidebar to it. Here's the link to it. Enjoy!

And once I'm done uploading it I'm going to go on a night snack run and get a burger and a slurpee

Writers need to learn the business

One blog that I take time to read on a regular basis is Katheryn Kristine Rusch's blog - her Business Rusch posts in particular. These posts center on inside news and changes happening within the publishing industry. If you are a writer beginning, midlist or even well established, it is a must read and must subscribe to blog, IMO.

The latest post deals with the inability of many writers to see themselves as deserving respect and to be treated like adults with something important to add to publishing process. Writers, like many women, are afraid to speak up for themselves, she says, afraid to ask for what they need or want. This head-in-the-sand approach to a writing career worked when traditional publishing houses were able to take care of the business end of things from beginning to end. This is no longer true. A writer/author has to also be a business person if they expect to make a living from their work. We have no choice. Unless we're talking about Nora Roberts, Jean Auel or Stephen King (and I'm sure as rich and established as these authors are they probably already know quite a bit about the business side of things) it is imperative that we wear the art hat and the business hat or we may lose our way in this business.

Some authors have already done this. Take a look at guys like Michael Stackpole or Rusch or romance authors in general. They understand business. Authors who don't make this transition and refuse to try will be taken advantage of which can lead to despair. I'm very glad I stumbled on to blogs like Rusch, Wesley Dean Smith's blog and Stormwolf. The information about how to think like a business person is invaluable!