Congratulations! Also, After a Missed Update, Here We Are

First, congratulations to all who participated in National Novel Writing Month, AKA NaNo. Even bigger congrats if you made your goal, no matter how big or small. You Rock!

The election is over, and had good and bad outcomes, as well as Republican sore losers who won’t give up no matter how the vote goes.



So the writing didn’t do as badly as I feared. Conversely, much time I could have been writing was filled with things like editing and you know, the other things that are needed to make a book come into being.

Over the past two months, True Princess questions have been satisfactorily resolved, as have similar questions with The Journeys Home, the third book, which is pretty much ready for the final read-through and collecting of the front and back matter.

Also, Father Maman, the novella that fits between Journeys and the next book, is off to my reader, for her opinions and assistance.

And the book which follows Journeys and Father Maman has had The End typed where it belongs. Those of you who follow this may recall The Lovers and First Indications. As I read them through, it became obvious that, unlike Father Maman, those two were in fact a single story, dealing with the Queen’s life during the trip home and in the palace. So Queen Immured (which may not end up being the title) came to be, now at not quite ninety-one thousand words.




Latest updates on top. Older ones are below.

Updated  December 3, data from 30 November.



As of (10/1), the WIPs, along with my plans for them, are:


•  The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 111 109 words. No major change.
 
•  The True Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 99 278 words. A few additional changes.
 
•  The Journeys Home (Dragons Run My Life, Book Three): 128 479 words. The back and forth with my reader is done. I don’t expect more than minor changes.
 
•   Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 107 506 words. Unchanged.
 
•   Queen Immured (Dragons Run My Life, Book Four): 90 767 words.
 
•   Father Maman (Dragons Run My Life, Book Four addendum) 19 757 words. Finished except for things.
 
•   Forbidden Islands (Dragons Run My Life, Book Five) zero words. The file is named.


From two months ago, here’s September’s update:



As of (10/1), the WIPs, along with my plans for them, are:


•  The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 111 114 words. No major change.
 
•  The True Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 99 286 words. My reader returned it the 10th of September, and I made most of the changes she pointed out.

•  The Journeys Home (Dragons Run My Life, Book Three): 127 860 words. It went to my reader on September 23rd.

•  Blood Moon (A Beckie and Ian story) formerly Princess: 59 686 words. No changes. Obviously not complete.

•  Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 107 506 words. Unchanged.

•  First Indications (Dragons Run My Life, Book Four): 10 709 words.

•  The Lovers (Dragons Run My Life, Book Three addendum): 44 281 words. Following Miri and Rhion, and Sanne and Gareth as they travel from Rendekebing  to Traenthe. Both this and Father Maman are complete except for things I or my reader find wrong.
  (First Indications and The Lovers have been combined in Queen Immured.)
 
•  Father Maman (Dragons Run My Life, Book Four addendum) 20 539 words. A trip to seek out Tanial’s maman in Slot Minear.
 


Here’s October’s work. Added 11 537 words, bringing the Y-T-D total to 177 515 words.  



























Here’s November’s work. Added 30 667 words, bringing the Y-T-D total to 207 849 words. 






















What happened, then?



Overall, I wrote 42 100 words, about 700 words per day. For days I did write, about 1000 words each of those days.



In addition to the editing and other tasks, I opted to put Faux Princess into a giveaway, mentioned here earlier in November. I was pleased with the response, but now I have to follow through. I thought to use MailChimp for my bright shiny new mailing list, and did something that they feel violated their TOS. It’s been five days now, and they still haven’t responded to my request asking what I did wrong and can I be reinstated. If they don’t answer in the next day or two, I’ll find another provider.



I’ve received comments and suggestions on True Princess and Voyages Home.  Father Maman is with my reader now. Recall (if you can) I had one big question last time: would the three stories, Father Maman, The Lovers and First Indications, work better as a single book? I put them together into a single volume, and then read it through to the end (as far as it was then) and decided while Father Maman didn’t fit, the other two did, and make a better story than the two individually did. In my opinion at least. We’ll see what others think as time goes on.

I made the time to move my books to Kindle Direct Publishing (It didn't take long!), but I have to do other things, like new covers and so forth. 

I decided to drop Blood Moon and publish Low Places in December.



 In addition to the routine complaints (trying to figure out where images will appear in the blog, and the annoying having the point of view skip to the bottom of the file whenever a new line is added), now Blogger has forgotten how to import bullet lists, making it necessary to find each one of them, clean up the bullets and spaces that the original had, and then put them all on individual lines (see above about adding new line frustrations) and then use Blogger's bulleted list command. I have too many to spend my life doing that. For now, I've dropped the history section, and I'm looking for a new platform.

As always, comments and opinions welcome.



The spreadsheet: Created by Svenja. See svenjaliv.com for more info and resources, including a free online word meter. All images are © 2011-2016 SvenjaLiv (http://svenjaliv.com).



But First, Two Critical Words

Go Vote.

Unless you have already. While I care how you vote, this isn't that rant. I ask you to voice your opinion in the only way we have to set the direction of this country.

It's important. Let me repeat:

Go Vote!

Thank you. The routine monthly update will be along soon. If you're doing NaNo, keep those words flowing! If you're not doing NaNo, keep those words and other things flowing, too!

Wrap-up After NaNo

Congratulations to everyone who entered NaNo! I hope you met your expectations, and that, like me, you’ve donated what you can afford to help keep them going.

For me: Not bad. 62K words at the time RL stepped in, which is the best I’ve done to date. I was (kinda-sorta) fortunate in that I threw my back out, so for more than a week, I could only sit. That corresponded with our Verizon FIOS interface box dying, and being without TV (no loss for me), Internet (got rid of that time-sink at the expense of current news) and ‘landline’ phone (none of those ‘city-state’ calls that mean so much to us).

Therefore, I sat and mostly wrote when I didn’t gobble the OTC meds the Urgent Care recommended. Those had the usual effect⁠—none⁠—but since noticing the opioid epidemic, I guess they’re loathe to prescribe anything that might work, for fear all us mindless dolts become addicted. Oh, well.

Most of the NaNo words went to Dragons Run My Life, which I may make the series title, rather than the book. The Muddy Redhead might work for the book. I’ll see. As for the story, it’s nearly done, at about 82K words. More than I thought it would need. I played with some fonts for the paperback, and printed a copy to review in a week or so.

The balance of my NaNo words, some five or six thousand, went to Low Places, leaving me where I had to do some research to continue writing. I’m doing that now.

In addition, I wrote and posted a review for Emily Martha Sorensen’s Dragon’s Hope (see next earlier post). I still recommend it! Bene nota: her dragons and mine aren't the same!

Also, I edited and formatted Shackled for JE Medrick that I hope will be available soon. I’ll post when I get that word.

Happy Halloween and Ready for NaNo?

I hope your trick and treating was successful, however you define that. On TV, some cable channel is cutting the hell out of The Rocky Horror Picture Show...

This quick note is to say, no, I’m not ready but I’ll do it anyway, best I can. However, if you’re having second thoughts, here’s a few reasons why that may not be a bad thing, thanks to Janice Hardy’s Fiction University:

With the mad dash to 50,000 words starting tomorrow, many writers are spending today’s writing session doing last-minute prep work for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWiNo).

But some of you might still be deciding if you want to do NaNo at all. With so many “Planning for NaNo” articles out there (some written by me), I thought it might be nice to play Devil’s Advocate and share some reasons why it might not be a good idea to do NaNo.

Read more at Fiction University. You should be following Janice anyway, but in case…

Best Luck to you, whether you dive into the crystal clear waters of NaNo, or some other lagoon of your choice.

A Brief Update, Then Ready for NaNoWriMo

I’ve pulled Nursing Girls from the earlier posts and stuffed them back in the crooks and nannies of my hard drive. If somehow you missed it and want to read it still, a brief email with your return email will suffice.

Obviously, my free books in August were not contingent on anything, but if you took advantage, a review would be appreciated. Thanks.


Since Nursing Girls was posted, I've been to Naples, Italy, for ten days (plus recovery time!), edited and formatted a monthly web serial for a dear friend (five issues so far), done some reading and tried to keep up with the news and events, and of course, the upcoming elections, which can't come too soon! Beyond that, I'll say I plan to vote, I hope you do likewise if you're in the US, and we'll say no more about that.

Because of my lack of focus recently, I have three WIPs under way. Four if you count the photo essay I’m doing of our trip to Naples. (Oh yeah, we had a great time!) I hope to use my 50 000 NaNo words to make a significant advance on the stories. The three are Mark My Dance Card; Low Places, and Dragons Run My Life. The first two are Mercenaries Stories, staring Beckie, Ian and their crew; the last is a fantasy that I hope will be fun to read. So far, it’s been fun to write.

Info I added to the NaNo website for them:
Mark My Dance Card is a rewritten Princess, which went by the wayside when Brexit happened. The plot I'd envisioned for Princess didn't work very well in the new non-EU England, so Beckie and crew are investigating two disappearances, three friends, and an oil tanker.

Low Places is planned to be shorter, following Beckie as she attempts to protect the family of a Mexican prosecutor about to try a drug trafficker. For his part, the drug lord intends never to come to trial.

Dragons Run My Life is a step into fantasy, not yet well fleshed out. The concept is simple: The princess is killed. Tanial is a ringer for the princess: red hair, freckles and all. The soldier responsible for the princess seeks Tanial as a replacement. Their goal becomes wrangling Tanial out of the prearranged marriage waiting for her.

Between the three, today I have a total of about 40 000 words. I’m planning for a total of 200 000 words, so NaNo should leave me in good shape, assuming the muse doesn’t go on vacation!

If you also plan to do NaNo, good luck and sprint! As always, comments are welcome.

Camp NaNo 2016

Those who are doing Camp NaNo this April are half way through.

I hope all participants are writing and writing and writing, and getting their 50000 words done and, following DWS, ready for publication (See his articles on Killing Myths and Writing into the Dark).

I chose not to sign up this year, thinking I'd have to plead too much other work. Then, as it always does, life comes along, and since the first, I've gotten a 16000 word side story written, and a couple thousand words of rewriting on Discoveries, and then another 4000 words into Princess. So, nearly 25000 words and I would have no time for it! It's not DWS pace of 4000 words per day, but it's more than I expected.

Time will tell if the rest of the month is as productive. I'm waiting for feedback on the "last" version of Discoveries, after those edits it'll be available.

By word count, Princess should be about half done. We'll see when I get closer to the end how accurate that is.

I do not plan to develop a line of adult coloring books (grin).

Best wishes for those doing Camp NaNo! May the experience be the first step to your writing life.

Congratulations - CampNaNos

Today is the last day of Camp NaNo, so everyone who participated deserves a round of applause and a tipple of their favorite libation. Drink up!

I chose not to participate this year, seeing a scheduling disaster of epic proportions if I did. In fact, even if I didn’t but…

I had three novellas to critique (by which I mean beta read and comment on), two of my WIPs to finish up, two more to work on and then, spring to enjoy. More than winter, anyway.
I published Connections last week, and Coda? has gone to a second beta reader for comments and suggestions.
The three novellas are critted and today or tomorrow, the latest set of comments and questions will be in the respective author’s hands. As always, I hope I was able to help them on their way to the story they want to tell.
With all that, I still was able to get four thousand words on (working title) Princess, the book to follow Served Cold. Since I’m following Dean Wesley Smith’s suggestions for Writing Into the Dark, I have very little idea where it will end up. (grin)*TM DWS. (Unfortunately, he has apparently removed those posts from his blog.)

The grandson’s baseball (or maybe T-ball) season begins next week, and my brother is helping out with a show at Don’t Tell Mama in New York the middle of the month, so I’ll pack my toothbrush and phone and watch him and the others. That should be fun; I’ll catch the Thursday and Saturday shows before returning, so I’ll have Friday to look around NYC for setting ideas.

Then of course, the yard will need attention, and the house, and the usual mundane things everyone has to embrace. Or if not embrace, at least do.

Comments welcome.

It's December, so NaNoWriMo is Over

Yes, NaNoWriMo is history for another November. With 60K words validated, they declared me a Winner. So, good job, me. And Even Better Job to all the other NaNoWriMo’s who won, who came close, even those who wrote a word. Less of a better job to those who thought about it but didn’t actually get a word written. Better luck next time, which I think is in April, if enough people donate. Shameless plug: I gave to them, Not much, but what I could afford. If you can, throw something their way.

So what did that 60K words accomplish? Draft .7 of a front to back treatment of Coda?, the next story in the Mercenaries stories. There are rough spots—Hoo, boy, are there rough spots!— and the 60K will balloon to 85 or 90K by the time the pieces now marked with either an ^ or an … are added, and the roughness smoothed a little.

Description: Losses mount quickly as Beckie makes what she believes to be an unforgivable error, and has to live with the consequences. In that process, she meets an old friend, an acquaintance, and a new friend. Will her decisions lead to the life she’d hoping for?

 I’m having trouble putting any detail into the description, to avoid spoilers.

I will put Coda? aside for a while now, and work on (not necessarily in this order): Adapt the Past (the new title for Background Check), three different authors' stories I’m in various stages of critting, and trying to wrangle some reviews for Freedom Does Matter.

Another shameless plug: Edward L. Cote, one of the contributors to Twelve Worlds, has published his first book, a YA novella entitled Violet Skies. It’s available for Kindle and in paper at Amazon,  and at Smashwords in epub format. I liked it the first time I critiqued it, and it’s gotten better since. Disclaimer: I did the ebook formatting, so if you find a problem with the mobi or the epub versions, sing out to me. I’ve copied the description below for your enlightenment.

Taya Mindaerel and her mother, the Oracle of the Prairie Winds, must flee their home or face certain death at the hands of a dark hunter and his man-eating horse. Their journey takes them to Aurum, the City of Gold, where they seek the aid of the Great Magus Olbinaar.

On the way they meet three allies- Alex, a vagabond; Brand, a master swordsman, and Ogger, a wild creature. They will need all the help they can get to surmount all the obstacles in their path.

In the city, however, they learn that their journey has just begun.

Violet Skies is the first book in a YA series of the same name. Each book is a novella, short and easy to read. This is a fresh twist on classic fantasy, but it keeps its essential nature intact. The writing focuses on compelling characters first and appeals to fans and critics of the genre alike. Influences ranging from anime to Zelazny combine in a way familiar yet unique.

Comments are always welcome.

Hello, Saturday

If you follow my twitter, you'll know that I started NaNaWriMo really well, 5400 words in three days. Unfortunately, the next three days were pretty sucky; not even 1000 words combined. Can you say catch-up?

Fortunately, the tile laying is finally complete (pictures later) and yesterday and today--so far--I've put over 7500 words in the file; I'm at just over 14000 words total, which is only a thousand behind!

However, as I tweeted last night (or early today, I guess, to be accurate), I've come to the end of what my pre-planning covered; my characters are now staring into a very dark place, and they haven't figured out how to use their headlamps (figuratively), so I'm not sure exactly what they'll see once they recover from not one, but two important... That might be too much of a spoiler. No matter, they seem important to me; have to see what readers think.

Coda (working title) is an action story, and so far, I have too much exposition, I'm sure. But that's okay for the first draft, if I can bring out the garden shears and hedge trimmer when needed.

Monday, we crawl up the stairs (Kona is allegedly the only international airport that still uses portable stairways to debark/embark passengers) for the trip back home. Via LAX. Hopefully we won't encounter a tragedy similar to the one last week. Lots of work to do back home, too, so this has been fun, if tiring.

Time to add more words to today's total. Comments always welcome.

I Pulled the Trigger Today.

No, this isn’t a gun control rant.

Freedom Does Matter should be live at Amazon, Smashwords and Kobo as you read this. I have the paper version in process at CreateSpace, but due to proofing and shipping, that will be longer.

Now, on to complete the third Mercenaries book, Background Check, which I’m thinking of renaming Love, Consequences, Love, or Unintended Consequences, or something I’ve not yet considered.

Finally, to prepare for NaNoWriMo, I’ve been researching the story after BC; named Coda. I feel pretty confident in that name sticking, and hope to get more than half of it done in November.

Update October 5: Added the link for Kobo. I expect the paperback version to be available next month, due to my schedule.

It's not ignoring you if I'm working... Right?

It's been a while since I posted anything here. If you've been waiting with bated breath, I apologize. I've been busy, not only with householdy kinds of tasks--as all us househusbands, and virtually all women, are aware--but some writing related ones as well.

I'm doing a couple of dedicated reader critiques for Critters, and another review for one of my beta readers, whose story is moving along with only a couple of minor adjustments needed... in my opinion! It's all my opinion!

In the past week, I've been working on formatting Becka Sutton's The Storm Child for e-book delivery. It's the second book in her series, The Dragon Wars, and like Land of Myth, the premier one, it reads well. I'll be able to recommend it... once I've delivered the files back to her and it's available. Watch her web site for news. Note, Land of Myth is available other places; check Becka's Books page for details.

I set a pretty low goal for the year, word count wise, 15Kwords per month, except 30K for April (Camp NaNo) and 50K for November (NaNoWriMo). That adds to 230K words. Even with that low target, I missed February and March. However, April went over enough to cover March's shortage.

The target for April was set to finish the first 'vomit' draft of Background Check. While I got just over 30k words into it, it's not quite finished, but the draft is at 108K words now, and I really thought I should be done at 100K. Oh well. Start at the beginning and write to the end. It will be what it will be. Or possibly, there's room to cut!

However, I set BC aside because one of my beta readers finally gave me the complaint that's bothered all the critters who've read Freedom No More--and that just before I built the ebook to send it to Amazon! Importantly, he used the words I needed to hear to recognize what the issue was. Since then, I've been rewriting the first arc of the story. It's certainly different; I hope people think it better.

He also thought it could do with more cutting. At 116K, I'm inclined to agree, but I'd taken 4 or 5Kwords out of it to get to 116. I've not checked it with the new first arc, but it doesn't feel any shorter.

The last thing--that I'm going to talk about, anyway--is that I finally got off my duff and used the CreateSpace account I'd set up almost a year ago to publish Mercnearies: A Love Story in paper. My 12Worlds friend Brian Drake blogged about his experience, and mine mirrored it. It is unbelievably easy! I'll do a separate post on the process, but this is the result:

Front and back. This version's available at both CreateSpace and Amazon.

Comments and questions are welcome.

New Pricing, in Anticipation

I'm planning to publish Freedom Does Matter by February 20, so I've dropped the price of Mercenaries: A Love Story to $2.99.

The new price is active at Amazon (click the cover in the sidebar), Smashwords and Kobo. Through Smashwords, it's available at Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. A warning: B&N hasn't caught up to the price reduction as of January 22, '13.

I dropped the price of Book One, also. It's only available at Amazon (sidebar). If you purchase it and email me, I'll get you a discounted price on the whole book so you won't get stiffed on it if (as I hope!) you want to read it all.

I'm planning to have the third Beckie and Ian story, Background Check (unless I change the name) out before NaNo. We'll see how that goes. NaNo will be for the fourth and perhaps last volume in that series.

Comments welcome.

Quelle surprise!

-->

Well, the end of the world has been delayed. Moving along.

Freedom Does Matter is being read by critters from Critters.org. I enjoy the feedback.

However, I’m not sure how to interpret some of the comments. For example, in one scene, Beckie’s been captured by a sheikh who’s not sure what to do with her. She’s on the beach with a Bedouin girl, talking. The beach is on the Mediterranean Sea, and it’s July, in the mid-morning. They have a guard, but in the sun, he’s fallen asleep. This point is made three times over the course of the scene. Beckie and the girl run away, and the reader questioned why the guard didn’t stop them.

So, I didn’t make it clear the guard was sleeping? Or, more likely, it didn’t register as important. But I don’t really want to beat the reader over the head with things like this: Hey, look here, this guy is sleeping so he won’t notice when the girls leave. I was afraid that three times was too many, so I’m just not sure how to fix this.

A different reader had a different problem in a different scene, but it boiled down to the same thing: missing a point that had been made earlier, so the current action doesn’t make sense.

How to strike the balance? Any thoughts on that?

I hasten to add that these same readers have made many useful suggestions, and I appreciate their help more than I can say. I guess it goes to show that while readers are intelligent, they are no more perfect than the writer.

Feedback on the part of Background Check I finished during NaNo was highly positive (if I took it as intended!), so far. Results are not all in. Now I have to figure out where the rest of the story goes, make it all neat and then do the minimal outlining that makes even the first draft a lot easier to both write, and I am reliably informed, read. Maybe I can get that done in less than a year!

Comments are welcome.

More Discipline Needed

I was going to title this The Downside of NaNoWriMo, but on further reflection, I realized that the problem wasn't NaNo, it's the way I reacted to it.

I finished NaNo with just over 50k words; about half what I think Background Check will need. Then, I went back to editing Freedom Does Matter and discovered it was hard to work on the characters' situations, having spent a month wrangling with their future selves. I knew where they were going and how the next months would play out for them... it was hard to focus on the present of the earlier story.

But this is my issue, not my characters', not my story's. Discipline, I think. I need to work on the current state of the novel, and leave the future for when I finish the present.

Has anyone else found this to be true, working on two stories with the same main characters at once? Comments welcome!

NaNo is done for this year!

I've not forgotten those of you who read my musings, but between everything else that had to be done by now and trying to get NaNoWriMo done successfully, I put all my energy there.

However, I finished NaNo today: three different word counts, depending on the software, but they were all over 50K: Scrivener reported 51051, OpenOffice thought 51211 and NaNo came in at 51005 with a certificate.

However, Background Check's not done. I think now it will run close to 85 or 90K words, so it's over halfway. Then of course, comes rewriting, editing, rewriting,... You get the picture. The big difference between Background Check and Freedom Does Matter, which I worked on last NaNo, is that I have completed over half the ms, instead of taking six months to do it. The end should come easier, once I finish up editing Freedom, and getting it up for sale.

Of course, there are other things, too. Covers. Critting for Critters.org. Editing for my beta readers. Ordinary things around the house, like digging out from the snow, which may be a more frequent occurrence this year. If we believe the weatherman. Writing more frequently for this blog. Spending time on twitter. Trying to guess what else might help.

Thanks for following. Comments welcome!

Give: This one's not for me

Update: I thought I'd mention that since I'm asking you to consider donating, I have also made a donation. I hope that those affected are able to recover, and quickly get their lives back.

I'm taking a little time off from NaNoWriMo to plug the Red Cross and their continuing efforts on the behalf of the victims of Sandy. Just like they did for Katrina's victims, or the Joplin tornado's, and on and on.

They never stop.

If you have given, thanks, though my thoughts don't mean a lot. If you haven't and you can afford to, visit The Red Cross site and send them some funds. They'll be able to apply them where the need is.

Thanks for reading. Thanks more for giving.

A Little Help

The muse didn't completely disappear; I have enough of an outline to start and perhaps finish NaNoWriMo writing Background Check, the third of the Mercenaries stories. Waiting for Halloween to be over.

I can start that because the second book is out for critting at Critters.org. It's been through my two beta readers. Thanks so much to them for their willingness to be abused, and point out when it happens. I made many of the changes they suggested; now we wait for additional suggestions.

I made a slight change to the title of the second book. It is now Freedom Does Matter.

If you've gotten to here, maybe you're wondering what help I'm looking for. This is pretty easy. Below, there are five thumbnails of possible covers for Freedom Does Matter. They should come out about the same as the one Amazon uses, so, do any attract interest? Do you like any of them? Is there one that seems better than the others? Let your opinions flow. Below the thumbnails is one full size image. Opinions welcome on it as well. The two with no text beyond the title would have that added.

Have at it!

The not quite full size image of the third one:

Thanks for any opinions you are willing to share. I'll be back in a day or so asking about the blurb.

I Miss Her

The Muse.

I've gone through the two beta readers' comments on Freedom No Matter, and made a long ton of changes based on their suggestions. I also gave them more work (that I hope they'll be able to fit into their schedules) asking if changes fit, and what did you mean by... and well, of course you're right, that was just [fill in your own inappropriate adjective].

I want to point out once again how much help these people give. In addition to taking the time just to read the work, they also mark errors, make suggestions, and tell me where they think the plot went astray. It's a lot of work, and I can't say how much I appreciate it. I'm sure every person writing is just as beholden to her or his beta readers; I just hope everyone remembers to say thanks, loud and clear! Even better: do an equally good job when asked to return the favor.

My readers have pointed out significant problems with my work. That's good. What's not so good is that it now falls to me to figure out how to correct them. In a day or two, I'll begin hitting Delete until I've found the focus that I slipped by earlier.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was waiting for my reader to finish before thinking I understood at least some of the issues at work (Focus, focus, focus!). The verdict is in: the second half is better than the first. The inflection point, Chapter 17, corresponds to my beginning to use a new tool. I hasten to add that the tool isn't as important as the provider wants us to think, but for me, it made it a lot easier to do what I haven't really ever done before: create an outline of the story before writing it.

I can hear the heads butting the desks and tables now. Of course the focus will be better when you know what you're writing. And on and on. Or perhaps the cry is: pantsers will rise again. Maybe.

The tool that made it easier for me to adapt is Aeon Timeline. I found that being able to outline in a chronological context made that part of the job both easier and more useful. I think, with my limited experience, it works better for more complicated story lines, or rather, it has more utility for those scenarios. It also links with Scrivener, back and forth, although I haven't figured our how to use that feature to its fullest. It's a Mac only tool right now; read the developer's blog about progress on the Windows platform.

Check out their websites, linked above. Trial versions are available if you think either of them might help you, too.

As for the Muse, she's been flitting in and out. We're working on the timeline for Background Check so I'll have a little structure when NaNoWriMo comes along. She also got me to start a short story completely unrelated to anything, but snuck out before saying how she thinks it should end. Working on that one, too.

Off She Goes: The Muse is Helping Others

Temporarily. She'll be back in November, anyway, and maybe earlier. We've been working on setting up the next story in the Mercenaries universe, now I've got the ugly first draft (and second, and in a few places third and fourth drafts) of Freedom No More complete.

It came out 110Kwords, and knowing someone besides me needs to see it to tell me what I've done wrong, I've sent it off to my beta readers. The feedback has already been swift and through!

It's to be expected. Still, I wish I wasn't putting at least the first one through so much pain. We have been discussing it, and I think I've finally realized what he means by "find your story!" Focus. Make sure I'm telling the story instead of wandering about in the weeds.

Easier said than done ( I love the weeds), but the second half (which he has yet to get to) may point to the root cause. I'll wait to see if the second half (after I changed horses in mid stream, in a manner of speaking) has the same level of problem as the part he's completed so far.

My other reader has been awesome busy, and just got started; I can't wait to see how that goes!

Do you plan to do  NaNoWriMo? I think the muse and I will try to get the first half of that next book through the keyboard. Tentative working title: Background Check.

More later.

Interview with Becka Sutton!

 Becka Sutton is the author and publisher of two web-serials, The Dragon Wars Saga and The Haventon Chronicles, and she's also converting Dragon Wars to ebook format. The first of these, Land of Myth, is now available in several convenient formats. I've been reading Dragon Wars since early in its on-line life, and find it thoroughly enjoyable. Since Land of Myth went live last month, Becka's on a tour to raise awareness and I'm very happy to provide a stop for her, in the form of an interview with questions that range from the sublime to the... not so sublime. 

The format of this interview:

First, I have some writing and author related questions.
The center section deals with more project specific topics. Since Becka publishes two web-serials, I asked some related questions.
Lastly, a selection of random questions, so we can get to know her a little better.

me: Why did you get into writing/become a writer?

Becka: When I was eight we used to do little creative writing projects in English. On parents' night my teacher told my mother that I had a talent for the English language that verged on the astounding for my age. I asked what would be astounding and was told writing a novel at that age. So I set to work writing a novel. I seem to remember it was some Mary-Sueish thing about a girl who had to go on a quest to win the hand of a fairy prince which would end a curse that had been placed on her homeland after they burnt someone as a witch generations ago. As the chapters were only a paragraph long, it was really just a short story, and the plot was totally incoherent. I misplaced it when we moved a while later. But I kind of caught the bug then and haven't stopped writing since.

As a teen, I wrote my first proper novel length story in a stack of exercise books my mother bought me for the purpose. It was a tad less incoherent but still awful. I burned it ages ago. The second one as well.

me: Why did you decide to go into Indie Publishing?

Becka: That's a difficult question. I think it was the realization that most writers, whether Indie or Traditionally Published, didn't make a living at it, so in the end this was mostly about fun that might, with hard work and a following wind, bring in a little dough. Keeping control of my work seemed like more fun than hawking it around and having all the creative decisions taken away from me if I managed to sell it to a publisher.

me: Can you give a synopsis of your current WIP (Work In Progress)?

Becka: Which one? Apart from The Dragon Wars Saga and The Haventon Chronicles, I'm currently working on the outline for a traditional fantasy about an asexual female navigator in an island culture – I think that might be this year's NaNoWriMo Project - and a set of Science Fiction flash fiction pieces about the first contact between humans and an alien species from a planet where the thalassogen is sulphuric acid and who want to buy Venus.

Note: For readers like me: "Isaac Asimov has coined the term 'thalassogen,' by which he refers to any substance capable of forming a planetary ocean."

"Isaac Asimov; 'The Thalassogens'; Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 39 (December, 1970):94-104."

Quoted from Robert A. Freitas Jr.,in Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm

me: What is your biggest inspiration as a writer?

Becka: I find inspiration everywhere. I'll come across a fact somewhere – documentaries, books, Wikipedia, random conversation – and my brain runs away with it. Music is another big one. I'm not a writer who has soundtracks for my stuff but having the radio playing when I'm writing or outlining helps me focus.

me: What is your writing process? (ie: outline, notecards, etc)

Becka: I tend to worldbuild like crazy. My head is full of worlds. Then I notecard my outline. Then I lose the notecards and write by the seat of my pants, XD.

More seriously, I worldbuild a lot and I sometimes notecard but I usually have an outline in my head even when I don't have it on paper.
 

me: What was your motivation in publishing web serials?

Becka: It sounds weird but I sort of fell into the web fiction scene on Twitter and next thing I know I'm thinking that seems like a fun idea and trawling through my WIPs to see what I want to post.

me: What advice would you give a writer thinking of beginning a web serial?

Becka: Have a buffer and a regular posting schedule. Be prepared for a hard slog to build up your number of readers.

me: I think Dragon Wars is a success, but that’s from the reader’s perspective. What would you do differently, if you had the chance?

Becka: Success is always relative. I'm not Amanda Hocking (though I can dream) but I have awesome fans like you who were willing to fork up the dough to make the book happen. That's a big success in my book. 
 

What would I do differently? I'd probably look into the promotion side more. Making the world aware of web serials and books is not easy. Then again I'm still not sure what I'm doing on the marketing side of things – so if I had done that I'd probably still be waiting.

me: What’s your feeling about an author producing multiple web serials?

Becka: Well speaking as an author currently publishing two at the same time I don't have a problem with that. It is a lot more work than just doing one. On the plus side, updates draw people.

me: Why did you decide to publish Dragon Wars in the more traditional format of ebook and paperback? Any advice to offer from that experience?

Becka: A lot of people don't like reading huge chunks of text on a website so I suspect that some people are put off by the huge archive they'd have to read through. It's also easier to read an ebook or paperback anywhere once you have it. Websites require not just a computer but an internet connection to browse the page. On top of that I wanted to give my fans the chance to own a copy of the story they've supported so long. Plus there's just something immensely satisfying about holding your own book in your hands.

Advice? Work out how you're going to fund it. Self-publishing is more affordable now than it has been historically but it's still not free to do it properly. Every penny you spend is one you have to make back. I was fortunate in that while my IndieGoGo campaign didn't reach target it did make enough to cover everything so the first book has broken even before going on sale. Not losing money equals a big success. :-)

And some fun questions to see what Ms Sutton likes:
me: What three toppings would you mix into/put on top of your ice cream?

Becka: I tend to eat my ice cream plain. Also usually chocolate ice cream rather than anything else.

me: What is the coolest animal in the world?

Becka: The wolf or possibly the cheetah.

me: Who do you think would take the fight - Captain Kirk, Captain Jack Sparrow, or Captain Crunch?

Becka: Undoubtedly Captain Jack Sparrow – he's such a trickster archetype.

me: What is your favorite type of food? (IE: Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Italian)

Becka: A toss up between Chinese and Italian. I'm also rather fond of curry.

me: What is one thing on your bucket list? (Bucket list = things to do before you kick the bucket.)

Becka: I'd love to visit Japan.

me: Any closing statements? :)

Becka: Thanks for hosting me. :-)

Art for Land of Myth

 

Becka also shared her bio:

Becka Sutton is a self-described crazy cat lady, but she’s not very good at it: while she is crazy she only has one cat. She was born in Britain in 1972 and has lived there her entire life. In her early teens she started scrawling fantasy stories in exercise books her mother bought her to stop her scribbling in her school books. She hasn’t stopped writing since, and she credits writing as the outlet that allowed her to recover from the nervous breakdown she had after her parents died.

Her other interests include reading, listening to music, attempting to draw, growing her own vegetables and looking after the aforementioned Pumpkin cat.

No, you can’t read the novel she scrawled as a teen – she burned it long ago because it was awful.

Follow Becka on Twitter: twitter.com/shutsumon
Her website: http://firebird-fiction.com/

For information about purchasing her book: http://firebird-fiction.com/books (this is the hub page on the site that links to the various places it can be found)

So, thanks Becka, for helping to fill the blogging void this Friday with humor and advice. I appreciate the responses and the information. Along with following The Dragon Wars Saga, I'll be looking for more on your flash fiction series, and your navigatrix sounds fascinating as well.

This interview format based on one used by JE Medrick.