Victoria A. Jeffrey's authorly doings. . .

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

New Poetry Coming Soon!

I'll be getting started on the fourth book in my series this coming weekend. Right now I've been working on my third poetry collection, titled City Life. So far I have seven poems finished and in rough form. I plant to shape them up and throw a few of them up on Scribd next week. You can go there and download.read them and comment on them if you like. Lots of things are coming  and I'm really excited!

It's a great time to be a writer. Truly a great time!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Poetry Contest

Even though I've been relaxing, getting other things done and reading for pleasure now that my latest book is out, every now and then I've been working on some poetry. I've also worked on an outline for at least two fables - I've got another idea for another short book of fables and one day I'll combine them into a bigger book of fables, but more on that some other time.

So far, I've written five poems. The theme of this next poetry book will be about living in the city. So far the working title is City Life. That title may or may not change. I've been thinking about submitting it to Omnidawn Publishing poetry contest. I've submitted work to them before. The only thing is that I no longer have the patience to wait so long on other publishers but I may decide to submit it anyway. It's tempting.

Since I was a youngun' I've entered into poetry contests, some worthwhile, some not, and here I go again. Once the manuscript is finished, we'll see. . .

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Hobbit Trailer/Poster

No, I certainly didn't write this book (although I wish I had) but here is a long awaited poster for this phenomenal looking film for the excellent book! You'll have to excuse me but I'm a fan of Tolkien, if you haven't already guessed.




You can see the first trailer for The Hobbit here.


The Hobbit will be in theaters December 2012.


Good night.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

More books to check out!

I've been reading a lot of good books and found some authors I will read again in the future. Here's the current list:

Desert of Souls

As always, happy reading!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Face Book Author Page

I have a new Facebook author page! Check it out and feel free to post there as well. I'll be posting news updates about my books, other books I'm reading and news and brief thoughts about books and fantasy and sci-fi related films and TV shows that I want to recommend. Join me on Facebook!

See you there!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

More books and outline update

I've got some new books that I'll be posting about that I've read recently and want to share with you, indie books of course!

On the writing front, I have finished half of the outline for The Lady Moons. I think I'll begin writing the actual story after next weekend.

Update: I have a sample chapter up over at Short Story Symposium. Over there you can check out The Pumpkin Princess and many other great novellas and short short stories by other indie authors! Check it out!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Step it up!

The new Lending Library from Amazon has everyone up in arms (authors and publishers anyway). Many indie authors are jumping ship! Even Mark Coker has weighed in on the subject and he isn't happy. I like his site; he's done a lot for indie authors. Smashwords is a good place for indies and all my books are there and I plan to keep them there but he and other distributor/retailers need to step up their game. iBooks and Barnes and Noble have done little to help promote indie authors but many whine about Amazon who has done a lot for indie authors. The most egregious whiners are certain local bookstore owners, all who have snubbed indies, and by that I mean self-published authors. There was a big blow up on Facebook about this last week!

Instead of getting upset, Amazon's competitors really need to bring their A- game. There are a lot of things that need to be improved on iBooks and B&N, Kobo and Smashwords. Seriously. I plan to promote my books on the other retailers in the near future because I do not like putting all eggs in one basket nor do I like monopolies and Amazon could very well become one in the future. But this would be the fault of its competitors who won't step up to the plate and improve their own services.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Amazon's Lending Library

Amazon, early this morning, has just unveiled (or, rather opened up) their exclusive Lending Library for indie authors. Of course the message boards I belong to are all abuzz with the news! It's the only thing we authors are really talking about today. Many are discussing the pros and cons of this service as Amazon will require an author to leave the book that they choose to opt in to the program on the Amazon site, exclusively. You won't be able to sell it elsewhere for 3 months. Some of the things that come with the lending library is free promotion from Amazon-something many of us indie authors who are brand new to publishing are always on the lookout for.

Many people are weighing in and have some good things to say as to why it is or why it is not a good thing for indie authors.

For me, I've decided to take a wait and see approach. Currently I'm writing a series and I do not think opting in the program will help my series. After all, I get sales from both Amazon and B&N. I'm not interested in alienating readers at other venues.

I am seriously thinking about submitting my stand alone novel I'll be writing and publishing next year to see what happens. After all, you can't be so cautious that you never take chances. How do you know what will work unless you try? I suppose each author has to make decisions that will benefit him/her in the end and that's going to look different depending on each author's needs and desires.

Interesting times in publishing!

PS: I've noticed the guys over on TWiT are talking about it - and they don't seem too eager about the LL idea. Hmmm.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Jung

I've bought and read quite a few books the past few months and I plan to list them in an upcoming post. I must say, those that say that indie books are bad aren't looking hard enough. These horrible books some complain about I haven't encountered. The books I've read a really good. That will be in an upcoming post!

Reading folk tales and legends is fun research. I even decided to dig out my copy of The Portable Jung paperback for more inspiration. I've found that Carl Jung has written fascinating work that is insightful into unconscious motivations for what people do and respectful of ancient stories and folktales and the importance they play in human life. Interesting stuff!

Friday, December 2, 2011

What makes me stop reading a book

I was on one of my favorite forums, again, reading info and gleaning what I could and I ran across a thread asking authors a question: what's a turn off in another author's book? I didn't answer the thread but I read through it and after seeing the various answers, I suppose that I'm more lenient than some people are when it comes to what is acceptable and what isn't. I can put up with typos and errors as long as they aren't on every single page of the book and if the story is good I can overlook such things unless they are absolutely outrageous mistakes.

However, there are two things that I find unforgivable - terrible covers and despicable characters. The covers for my own books with the exception of The Winter Wolves (a beautiful cover done by Claudia McKinney) aren't what you would call top notch work, but I think they are decently designed. I can and will overlook covers done in PowerPoint if they are designed decently and the writing looks good. The story is ultimately what is important.

Once I get to the story, there is one unforgivable sin that an author can commit and earn my undying disdain - loathsome characters. I cannot stand a story full of unpleasant, despicable unsympathetic characters who never redeem themselves. If I'm going to read a book and spend time in that "world" then I need to be able to sympathise with a character in the story. I need to understand and identify in some way with his POV or relate to him in some way. Don't get it twisted! I don't need a book full of big, fluffy bunnies but you've got to give me something to work with! A protagonist who is vicious or brutish, awful in every way, and a cast of characters who are hateful or bad with no redeemable qualities whatsoever is a book that I will set aside and I will NEVER pick up any other book from that author again.

To be honest, it's been many years since I've read a book like this and I've seen far more films with this issue than books. Luckily, the vast majority of authors out there don't write stories completely devoid of sympathetic characters. There is always at least one character that has some human qualities that I can latch on to so there's a good chance that I will go through life and rarely have to deal with a book full of characters that make me want to strangle them and the author who wrote it!