Writing and reading blogs

I've been keeping up with The Business Rusch blog, reading and writing everyday. My short story I'm currently working on is turning into a novella which years ago I had always thought it would be. I'm thinking I'll pair it down quite a bit before I come up with the finished product. I fully expect to be finished with this short story/novella (I don't know which just yet) by next weekend.

I've had to reformat some of the work I've already published and one of my books finally made it through to Smashwords premium catalog (yay me!) Also I've been listening to the Adventures in Scifi Publishing podcast, specifically Michael Stackpole and Kristine Katherine Rusch episodes - good stuff and very important for authors who are serious about starting or maintaining a viable writing career in these rough changing times in publishing.

Publishing is a lot of work and besides writng I can understand why some writers only want to write. I only want to write but i know that I don;'t have that luxury and never will. If I want to get anywhere I have to do things myself and I've known this and applied it to other areas of my life. So why not writing?

In any case, I'm getting more and more excited as i get to the finish line with this current story. I'm thinking that it might be a short series. It's original title was called The Pumpkin Princess and I might still use that title for the next on in the series - if I make it a series. See how crazy it is when stories morph and change over time? I have a number of projects that have done this. I have two nevels I've written that are unpublishable that are going to be gutted and reused in other upcoming stories. Fun, fun, fun!!

Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing

I came across this great and informative website for science fiction and fantasy writers and readers. It's Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing. I came across it last week and I've been listening to their podcast show all weekend long. it's a treasure trove of the ins and outs of the publishing industry especially as it relates to the genre of fantasy and science fiction - my two favorite genres. I've been learning a lot from this show about the changing face of the publishing industry and what it takes to get published. Great stuff! Any one interested in getting their work published this show is a must!

I feel like I've been missing out on so much! I've just started getting into e-publishing my own work. I wish I hadn't taken so long to put out creative work in the past. I'd have a stack of books to offer readers by now! I wish I had been writing everyday since high school, I wish, I wish, I wish. . . .

Oh well. Back to writing.

Repurposed

So far my second short story is coming along. I've been a little more disciplined in my writing this year. I'm still thinking of buying a book about fairy lore for this particular story as I'm going to need it now. I could do my research from my computer but it's nice to have a book. I'm planning to buy one next week on payday.

Then there's the third one that I intend to write which is a shortened version of a failed novel I was writing. This is actually my second novel (unfinished). My first novel I intend to raid as well and use it as fodder for future work, poetry and prose. writing is like gardening in my opinion. Whatever you write, even if it can't be used in the way you originally intended, it can be re-purposed to fertilize future writing projects.

Second Person Point of View

I have so many things coming in the future as far as writing projects. I'm still busy working on a second short story, I've finished the first paragraph of my second novel (the first one that will actually be published because my first one isn't publishable) and another poetry collection.

But I've always wanted to write a short story using the second person narrative. Back when I was in school I often took TAG creative writing classes and attended summer writing camps at local colleges and this became a fascination of mine. I actually did write a short short many years ago using SPPV but I lost it.

My mind is boiling and foaming with ideas about another short story using this viewpoint. It's so exciting when you first come up with an interesting idea. Not that this is something new, it's certainly been done before but have I tried it in any way that readers would be interested in reading yet? Not yet. If there are any readers to this blog have you written any stories using this point of view and if so was it difficult or easy? What was the plot about? Character? Did you find it enjoyable?

I gotta Kindle!

Bought a kindle this morning! I'm ready for some downloadin' fun this weekend! I bought the graphite colored one. I was tempted to get a Kobo which was a little cheaper but I already did the research for the Kindle and decided on that before I got to the store.

Apple lost out for me because they require too much! I have an ipod touch and there is no normal hard drive on it. it's a flash drive. I have no love for flash drives. I like to drag and drop things from one place to another. no special software, no requirements for this or that, just drag and drop. The Kindle allows me that freedom. Can't wait to use it!

IndieAuthorRockstar.com

A website I came across on a forum looks very promising as a vibrant and supportive community for authors and readers. That site is called Indie Author Rockstar. how it works is this, quoted directly from the site:

"Every month, our community selects one indie author to highlight and promote. During an author’s ‘rockstar’ month, we all try to do something to support that author and help turn him or her into a star. It goes a little something like this …

Any author can choose just one of his or her self-published fictional works to participate with (no erotica, please). There’s no limit on the number of authors who can participate, but each author can only submit one book at a time. Books can and will be rejected at the discretion of the admins for the site, especially books with covers that aren’t up to a relatively professional standard.

On the first of each month, five books are chosen at random. Those five books join the runner-up from the previous month, and those six books ‘audition’ to become the next month’s rock star. Everyone in the community will have one month to read or sample those six books. At the end of the month, only the authors who have submitted a book to the site will vote privately (one vote per author) to select the featured author–the rockstar–for the following month."

Remember though, you have to do your part by reading these books as well. Independent publishing is this weird, buzzing chaotic thing that is finding its place in the world and it's a great thing to be part of in any way you can as an artists or creative today. Great ideas like this one can help independent and young authors get in on the ground floor of getting their work out there, marketing and publishing and networking. it's a wonderful opportunity and one of many valuable ones out there for indie authors and it's a valuable resource in helping readers to source out the kind of stories they want to read. Like with trad publishing, there's good stuff and not so good stuff in indie publishing. Sites like these can help readers find the good stuff - and as you well know, it's all subjective. What's bad to someone else may be good to another. Indie Author Rockstar can help readers find what they want.

Any Comments?

Looks like the comments section has come back. For now. HTML is so tricky for me now. it used to be pretty easy to code in HTML years ago. Now they make everything so simple that when you need to take a look under the hood you don't recognize things anymore!

Anyway, I uploaded a couple more things to HitReCord.org. Still working on The Green Door, and a nice stock photo as well for the cover. Both of my books that are currently available are free to read. If you have any comments or questions about them, plot, characters, form, themes, whatever leave me a comment or an email!

Contact/comment info

Currently comments on this blog are disabled. I did it long ago when I first threw up this blog and now I'm trying to figure out how to enable them. You see this blog has the old html template not the new easy build-a-bear templates blogger gives us these days so if you've ever wondered where the comment box is please be patient as I get things slowly up and running properly. In the meantime, I've put my email over in the right column if you want to contact me.

First new poem

Well, here I am again thinking about a new poetry collection. It makes me laugh to think how long it takes me to write poetry that I think is halfway decent. My first collection was about 15 years in the making. I'll surely be an old woman when the next collection, edited and culled appropriately, comes out! lol!

Anyway, I've been busy pooping out new poetry for a couple of weeks. I'm a primitive (no literary training, I just write what I feel, so yeah, my stuff is rather rough.) You've seen it here first, folks (all two of you that visit this blog.) Keep in mind it's still a work in progress. It was inspired by many things, the most important being one of my favorite poets and one of my favorite poems by him - Walter De La Mare's I Met At Eve.

A Forest Deep

I wandered through a forest deep

of many muted shades of green

in misty mountains under webs of trees

silent as forgotten dream.

In a foggy clearing a port lay

twinkling lights rest near river's edge

old barges drift in from the bay

under the morning's gray ledge

Beyond the river the geese soar

webs of firs climb the hilly steep

fog rolls across the forest floor

shadows of shadows cover the mountain keep

I wandered through a forest deep

of many muted shades of green

in misty mountains under webs of trees

silent as forgotten dream.

New short story just published

I just published my first short story on Smashwords. It's called Night Terrors.

Now any who have read this blog for any length of time may have remembered that I once posted it here for free to read a few years back. But it's been edited and revamped, improved upon since then and definitely since I first wrote it back in 2000. I definitely think it's a much better story now. Now normally on this blog I will promote my work on Amazon.com and soon the link under the Featured Work to the right on this blog, will change, but Amazon.com takes a while to publish so for the time being, here it is at Smashwords.

I hope $0.99 won't break your budget. I plan to publish another short story in a few months and that one will be free. I'll give you a little hint now; It's called The Green Door. It's a working title.

Also my poetry book, When The Sky Is Gray which you can find on Smashwords and Amazon.com is also free.

What to read this summer. . .

I'm listening to a new podcast I've picked up from iTunes (Beyond The Wall) and I'm thinking of buying George R.R. Marin's books and reading them over the summer. It's 11:30 at night right before the 4th of July.

I really am addicted to the internet. it's sad. :)

But seriously, I might break with tradition and read Martin's books this summer (and I need to catch up on my Jim Butcher as well). You see I usually read Dune every summer. I might skip Dune this year though. We'll see. The real reason I'm still up right now is because I've just uploaded a short story to Smashwords and It's about #700 in the queue so I've got a couple of hours before it's completely uploaded. So I might take a gander to the roof of my apartment and watch fireworks - or something.

Bad Form(mat)!

I want to apologize to any readers out there that uploaded the crappily (is that a word?) formatted version of my poetry book. I'm new at Smashwords and had no idea how badly formatted it was!

Anyway. it looks like I've finally gotten the hang of things when it comes to formatting. In any case I hope that you find some happiness in reading the work even if it looks like a 5 year old formatted it!