Why is it...?
Why is it that when your muse decides to work, she works on other projects, not the WIP?
Read more...
My Wacky Blog
When I designed this blog, I used a template I found on the Internet and simply worked with the parameters to get a design as close to my website as possible.
Well, the template I was using was hosted on another site, by someone else. So, either they yanked the template or their site is down.
Alas...my blog has gone wonky. Guess it's back to the drawing board and that time sucker of blog design again.
Like I need one more thing to do. But, hey, maybe I'll come out with something even better this time around. Anyone have any time-saving suggestions?
Until then, hang in there with this bizarre layout...something new is on the horizon.
Conferences
Just finished a mini-conference here locally -- California Central Coast, midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
These are the classes I took:
The Art of Rewriting by Earlene Fowler
Clues to Writing Your Mystery Novel by Penny Warner
Unleash Your Creativity by Eric Maisel
Mining Your Muse by Mary Hershey
They were all wonderful--I couldn't choose one that was more informative or enlightening than another, although at this point in my writing, the Creativity and Muse information will be most immediately beneficial. Eric Maisel is a renowned creativity coach and teaches others how to coach as well.
He's got several books out with wonderful tips on breaking through the axiety and tension and distractions that keep us from our creative pursuits. If you get a chance, look up his books on Amazon and pick up a couple. He's going to be doing a Virtual Book Tour via various blogs and I've asked him to stop over at Romance Worth Killing For on his journey. If that happens, I'll be doing a big shout out so others can benefit from his teachings and wisdom.
A few of the gals from my RWA group went to the conference as well. One said she was disappointed, didn't feel she got her money's worth. Another, who didn't go, said she typically doesn't go to conferences because she finds the information from one conference conflicts with information she's received at another conference.
For me, any learning opportunity is a good opportunity. I felt the four courses I took were well worth the $110 bucks I paid for the conference, but then I didn't have to rent a hotel room or spend $ in gas getting there (well, not a lot in gas, anyway).
As far as conflicting information--I've never experienced that. In fact, typically, the information is very similar to what I've already heard, yet I can always find a new morsel reflected differently in the light of someone else's mind and use it.
How do you feel about conferences? What makes them worth the money and time? Do you feel they give conflicting information? Read more...
Ever look back?
I did today, and ... **cringe**
A fellow writer posted a request for someone who spoke Portugese -- Brazilian Portugese, which is different than regular Portugese. My first novel was based in the Amazon Rain Forest, so long ago, I'd elicited the help of another writer's cousin to translate a few things for me.
In offering those translations to this other writer now, I went through that manuscript and found myself reading a passage here and there.
**double cringe**
It wasn't pretty. While I like the premise and the setting and the characters, it will have to be completely torn apart and created anew. I'll have to just take the kernels worth keeping and rebuild something completely different around them to make it work.
Do you ever look back? When/if you do, how do you feel about what you've written in the past?
Read more...
Websites for Authors
This is a duplicate post -- same as I posted earlier over at RWKF...
I’m creating a presentation for my local RWA on website design for authors, and I could use your input.
My life has been steeped in design from art in high school to a design major in college and a career as a designer after college before changing careers to the medical field. Then when I needed to indulge my artsy side once again, I trained in website design.
I worked as a web developer for four years with large corporations and many years, before and after, independently creating more freestyle sites for various companies and individuals.
So, while designing and implementing website style and content comes naturally to me, when I sit down to define the steps of the process so that someone without a technical background can grasp the big picture, I feel like I've slipped on a straight jacket.
Creating an author website is multi-faced, far more complex than creating a business website because while you're selling a product--your book--you're also communicating your personality, your genre, your brand. And I'm struggling to get that big picture and all there is to consider into a helpful snapshot for a 90 minute workshop.
Since those of you who visit here are web-savvy and so many of your either have your own website or blog, I'd love to get your input. If you can answer any of the questions I've listed, I'd appreciate it and will weave your information into my presentation. Once completed, I'll also post the presentation on my website for all to access.
What are some big DOs for an author website?
What are some big DON'Ts for an author website?
How did you create your website (yourself or hired help)?
If yourself, what program did you use and how did you learn it?
If you hired out, what service/company did you use?
If you hired out, what DOs and DON'Ts can you offer regarding the process?
Do you think agents/editors look at author's websites? Can you give examples?
Which author websites do you love? What do you love about them?
Please feel free to offer whatever other information, thoughts, opinions, examples you'd like on the subject.
I'll be adding links to some of my favorite sites (over at RWKF) and explaining why I feel they are effective in the comments section as well -- so check back for more info.
Thanks for your help!
Another AWESOME Deal
Women's/RomanceNYT bestselling author Kat Martin's next two trilogies, contemporary romance and historical romance, to Margaret Marbury and Susan Pezzack at Mira, in a major deal, for seven figures, by Robert Gottlieb and Kimberly Whalen at Trident Media Group.
That's over 150,000 per book!
**Sigh**
(P.S. I LOVE Kat Martin's writing.)
I Did It Again
I volunteered...
It's a real problem for me, this overachiever personality disorder I've got. I can't seem to sit on my hands. I've been like this since I was young--I participated in several sports, held multiple jobs and a full course load in school.
Just yesterday I was telling Elisabeth how overwhelmed I've been, and I silently promise myself I'm going to back off all these things I've offered to do (whether they pay or not...mostly not). Then I went to a meeting for my rowing club...
I sat in the very back and kept my mouth SHUT. I was so good. I breezed through officer elections. *Phew* I could have done the Treasurer or Secretary job...but kept my hands under my butt. Then came the design committee for remodeling the boathouse meeting room. Oh, man, that one was hard. I do have a degree in interior design after all. It was like setting a pound of Sees in front of a woman with PMS. But I managed to keep my mouth closed until they'd found their three for the committee.
I was almost home free. I was jingling the keys in my pocket, picturing my car in the lot, thinking about all the things I still had to do that day...and they mentioned a club website.
Oh, shit.
I waited. I didn't throw my hand up and say, "I'll do it, I'll do it." A couple of people looked at a few others and they said, "Don't look at me, I'm technically challenged." Then another guy said, "Why don't we do a Yahoo message board? We can post pictures...yadda, yadda."
I couldn't take it. My hand was only halfway up when they acknowledged me and I resigned myself as I said, "I could build one if you're interested."
**Heavy sigh**
What's wrong with me? Why do I feel the need to get my fingers into everything? I'm not a big control freak, I'm happy to let others do it their way, but I always seem to have to initiate it, get the ball rolling.
Does anyone else have this problem? How do I fix it?
Read more...
Porno & Word Count
Bet that porno reference dragged you in, huh?
If so, check out my blog (posted a tad early) on RWKF -- Pornography vs. Romance.
As for me, my word count for the day is 1258 -- which, I have to admit, does include my blog write-up.
I know--whimpy. But some days you just gotta take it where you can get it.
H-O-L-Y S-H-I-T...what a deal!
I was browing the most recent Lunch delux from Publishers Weekly. I always like to see what things are selling, to whom, by whom and of course, how much they're going for.
For those of you who don't subscribe to PW or get their free Lunch every Tuesday, they break down the reported sales figures by $ amount. Here's the scale:
"nice deal" $1 - $49,000
"very nice deal" - $50,000 - $99,000
"good deal" - $100,000 - $250,000
"significant deal" - $251,000 - $499,000
"major deal" - $500,000 and up
I, personally, think its a little screwed up. I think the "good" and "nice" should be switched -- to me, a "nice" deal sounds better (like bigger bucks) than a "good" deal.
But...that's beside the point.
As I'm scanning through romance and then general fiction, I see a lot of "nice deal"s. A "very nice deal" or two.
Then BAM--I hit this:
Sarah Rees Brennan's debut urban fantasy trilogy starting with THE DEMON'S LEXICON, about two brothers hunted throughout England by a powerful magician's circle after their mother steals a charm and when the eldest is marked by a demon, the younger uses swords and dark arts in an effort to save him but unwittingly uncovers the darkest of secrets, to Karen Wojtyla at Margaret K. McElderry Books, in a major deal, at auction, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency (world English).
The key words in here are DEBUT and MAJOR DEAL.
Translated that is her FIRST BOOK sold for over HALF A MILLION DOLLARS.
Okay...excuse me, but H-O-L-Y S-H-I-T.
Wow. That kind of thing just leaves me gapping. All kinds of things flip through my mind--God, she's lucky. Man, that had to be one frigging amazing book. What--they think they found the next Harry Potter series? She's got to be excited out of her skin. Oh, but, man, how do you top that? How do you earn out that advance?
I can't even begin to imagine the whirlwind of emotions involved.
All I can manage is a deer-in-the-headlights H-O-L-Y S-H-I-T.
For those of you who don't subscribe to PW or get their free Lunch every Tuesday, they break down the reported sales figures by $ amount. Here's the scale:
"nice deal" $1 - $49,000
"very nice deal" - $50,000 - $99,000
"good deal" - $100,000 - $250,000
"significant deal" - $251,000 - $499,000
"major deal" - $500,000 and up
I, personally, think its a little screwed up. I think the "good" and "nice" should be switched -- to me, a "nice" deal sounds better (like bigger bucks) than a "good" deal.
But...that's beside the point.
As I'm scanning through romance and then general fiction, I see a lot of "nice deal"s. A "very nice deal" or two.
Then BAM--I hit this:
Sarah Rees Brennan's debut urban fantasy trilogy starting with THE DEMON'S LEXICON, about two brothers hunted throughout England by a powerful magician's circle after their mother steals a charm and when the eldest is marked by a demon, the younger uses swords and dark arts in an effort to save him but unwittingly uncovers the darkest of secrets, to Karen Wojtyla at Margaret K. McElderry Books, in a major deal, at auction, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency (world English).
The key words in here are DEBUT and MAJOR DEAL.
Translated that is her FIRST BOOK sold for over HALF A MILLION DOLLARS.
Okay...excuse me, but H-O-L-Y S-H-I-T.
Wow. That kind of thing just leaves me gapping. All kinds of things flip through my mind--God, she's lucky. Man, that had to be one frigging amazing book. What--they think they found the next Harry Potter series? She's got to be excited out of her skin. Oh, but, man, how do you top that? How do you earn out that advance?
I can't even begin to imagine the whirlwind of emotions involved.
All I can manage is a deer-in-the-headlights H-O-L-Y S-H-I-T.
And here I am trying to knock out those words everyday, which leads me to today's word count: 1216.
Read more...
Word Count Update
Sounds like there are a lot of writers out there making great progress: Natasha, Elisabeth, Linda, Paty... who else? I know you're out there.
Today I pushed out 1295.
How about you?
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