Before our New Orleans trip last weekend, I was way ahead. Like finish by next week ahead. Now, I'm sitting here thinking I hate the whole thing--the names, the scenes I have outlined, the scenes I wrote already, the premise. But I know that's just part of the muddy middle.
0 Comments
This Writer's Relief infographic is great! I'm gearing up like never before for NanoWriMo this year. And, a lot of things have changed about my whole process, including the types of things I'm consuming when I'm not writing or planning a WIP.
Meet Chester. His name is really Tex Chester Codgers, as he was named Tex after one of the folks that works with the pound. Around here, he goes by his middle name, when he remembers he has a name at all. He's been with us a week and a day or so, and plenty of people have had lots of advice and criticism to offer. What follows is my rambling about that general trend in our culture to offer unsolicited advice. Feel free to ignore the post--most people who might read probably already are tired of me bitching about it.
It's that time of year again--NanoWriMo is just around the corner. Here's why I'm attempting it once again, even though every month should be a heavy writing month for me. Also, need some reasons why you should try, too? Read on.
Back in September, there was a huge MyLesFic sale, and I snagged the second book in Markinson's TMG series. I already had the first, and with the release of book 2, it was the perfect time to read both. Interested in your own copies? The images above are linked to the Amazon purchase pages.
Read on for my review, and know I do not do spoilers, so you're safe to continue. According to my Kindle downloads page, I purchased Book 1, Maladaptation, back in October 2015. I read about 50% back then, and for some reason the book got buried under a pile of other reading. I suspect my constant library binge reading had something to do with it, as I was determined to get as much play out of the Kansas City Library as I could. When my library card finally expired, I came back to find that Ramie completed two more books in the series and given them all cohesive covers. I jumped back in!
This is the start of monthly Indie book reviews. I may do them more frequently, but I figure an indie a month is a good goal I can hopefully meet. To view Adan Ramie's Amazon Author page, click the image above.
We're a week away from the eBook release! I went over the most recent print proofs today and made a couple of last minute adjustments for the paperback. Because I want to ensure the paperback looks as I want it to, I am pushing that release date back to October 1, 2018. That gives me time to get the new proof copy in the mail and time to approve those changes.
Here are a couple of things to note:
I'm in that spot where I finished a big project, Elegant Freefall, and I'm wondering what to work on now. How did I know I was done with the book? When I turned my laptop off yesterday and pulled up the 50000th Kindle version on my tablet and saw a random period. I ran to my laptop, booted it up, and went to open the file in Scrivener.
Before the laptop was fully booted, I picked up my Fire and wiped the screen. My errant period was a fleck of something.
So, we opted to go on a CME cruise to Alaska, rather than our original plan to escape to Sitges. While I don't know when I'll do another cruise, I will say I understand how a certain population of people would love it. It's not suited to the way we Codgers travel, though. And, even though I didn't try "The Isaac" drink, I did do plenty of day drinking the day that our boat couldn't make our longest port day and we were on the boat at sea for the second day in a row.
If you've seen my Twitter or Facebook background you already know--I committed to a release date for Elegant Freefall and the book is on pre-order. As always, letting the book out into the world (or at least into the hands of waiting pre-release readers) is terrifying. But I'm not asking permission, remember?
I go through phases on social media, Facebook in particular, where I join groups and then it's great for awhile, but then it gets to be too much. Right now, I just want to tell everyone in the groups I'm in to stop asking for permission.
I didn't plan on writing about the ALA controversy, but it was mentioned in this week's Sell More Books Show episode, even becoming the focus of the Question of the Week.
I set out late last week to fashion a DIY Writing Retreat that would span five days. Here's what happened along with some tips about how you can set up your own period of focus and why you should.
What happens when you decide to create your own writing retreat to power through the revision of the last 1/3 of your novel? That's what I'm finding out this weekend.
Because I'm in the midst of revising and editing the last third of Elegant Freefall, I've been considering options lately. And, it still seems to me that there are a lot of ways to spend a ton of money for little to no exposure.
NOTE: Unless you just like reading about my own quandary about exclusivity, this post is likely going to be very boring to everyone but me. The Yellville Chamber of Commerce announced Friday that it will no longer sponsor Turkey Trot after 72 years of Miss Drumsticks beauty pageant and years of the National Wild Turkey Calling Contest.
I'm six months out of my old life. Why do I keep setting up situations that could lead me to slide back into it?
Recently, I stopped listening to a podcast that used to be on my weekly listen list. In last week's episode the hosts encourage people to use the Author Earnings Report to find out what genres are "hot" and to then go research those best-sellers among indies and copy what they do. Make your covers look like theirs. Write similar book descriptions and write in the same genre--even if you don't read that genre or don't write in it usually. Write what sells, they say.
I'm still sniffing marshmallows over here.
In the 1960s, Stanford began the Marshmallow Experiment. In that experiment, they put four-year olds in a room with a marshmallow. The children were told they could eat the marshmallow, but if they waited 15 minutes they would be given a second marshmallow. Two out of three kids ate the marshmallow before the 15 minutes were up.
The 1/3rd of participants who held out for the second marshmallow were more successful later in life. In today's culture, we need more marshmallow sniffers.
As most of you probably know already, I am working for myself these days. I used to work for other folks, and I was a darned good remote employee for almost 14 years. When I worked for other people, I had clearly defined tasks and deadlines. While grading papers was not fun, it was a clearly defined task with deadlines. Now, those deadlines and tasks are all loose and I don't have the cheerleading squad to validate me on a daily basis.
I loved this movie and anticipate watching it again. The whole idea of Doris finally embracing her own weirdness and living the life she wants probably resonates with everyone.
Over the last few years, there have been plenty of stories of adjunct and other contingent faculty dying in poverty. Sometimes, it's just the persona that dies, though, thankfully.
I thought that I needed some community to get things going; the problem is that as with most things that involve more than one or two people, massive groups of aspiring writers wind up in sniping wars or discussing everything but the actual writing.
So, one of the things I'm doing today is putting all of my writing related social media groups on silent.
Last weekend, we finally watched West of Memphis I'd put it off for a long time, having seen the first two Paradise Lost films and having read Echols' Life After Death and both of Mara Leveritt's books on the case. It was the current season of The Truth & Justice Podcast that led to me watching the film. I noticed a clip of Geraldo in which Pam and Terry Hobbs appeared. Of course, I had to go watch the episode on YouTube.
November is National Novel Writing Month, AKA NanoWriMo. I finally hit on a project that I wanted to work on and that had potential to be a longer work. In the days between leaving my job and November 1st, I even managed to get an outline together, as well as a character list and some specific scenes down. When November 1 got here, I was off and writing.
|
Archives
January 2025
Categories
All
|