…is adding a kickass prologue that brings the fantasy novel up past 85,000 words, which is the minimum that several great Big Five publishers want to see. Once I finish minor tweaking to answer comments from four beta readers, I should see a book around 87K. More to the point, it’s a good book. I’m…
Read More More happinessThe glass micro-mosaic medallion that will be on the wooden box for Dryland Codex – if all goes well. If not, it will be an interesting pendant with beadwork someday. Medallion dimensions: 2″ diameter x .25″ high.
Read More Dryland Codex (in progress, post 2)I have now seen it ALL. Gentle beings, please follow the link below to actual, hilarious, heartwarming insurance commercial fanfiction. Author Gini Koch introduced me to it, so you can blame her.
http://kyraneko.tumblr.com/post/112294447196/whatnursejack-thewinterotter-kyraneko ∞
Especially in America, there is immense corporate pressure to have a college degree – as a meal-ticket to a better job and future, not necessarily as a proof of one’s intellectual skills. When the fact of having the degree is more important than the process of earning the degree, the stage is set for fraud…
Read More Thesis millsIf all you write are erotic ‘romance’ books where the plot is a flimsy excuse for more (and more graphic) contractually obligated sex scenes…then yeah, you might burn out on writing sex scenes altogether.
In my typical ADD fashion I was reorganizing fabric yesterday, in preparation for some housecleaning. Found snippets of printed map fabric left over from one of the award ribbons projects. Remembered a possible book project I’d sketched, using digitized fabric prints of some old Southwestern mini-landscape paintings I’d sold to galleries years before. Why yes,…
Read More Dryland Codex (in progress, post 1)There’s a writers group on LinkedIn I was considering joining. I’m not, now, because they require a headshot photo of all prospective members. (I did end up joining, after all; see update in Comments below.) I don’t have many pictures of myself not costumed or otherwise masked. They’re around. I’m just not happy about adding…
Read More Selfie or not?While browsing for out-of-copyright quotes about maps, journeys, and wanderlust (for an upcoming book art project), I stumbled across some incredible wooden bathymetric charts. ‘Below The Boat’ creates unique, breathtaking maps of laser-cut, stained, and layered birch plywood, each following a coastal area’s underwater terrain. It’s a deceptively simple concept, brought to reality by skilled…
Read More Below The Boat(Borrowing from Stephen Colbert): A Tip Of The Hat to commercially published authors who are self-publishing their backlists. That’s good for them and their readers. We don’t want a return to the days of the midlist mass-market paperback that had a print run of 2000 copies, and about two weeks on the bookstore shelf to prove itself.
A Wag Of The Finger to those same authors who imply or state their current self-publishing experience and results are 100% applicable to the masses of unpublished, unagented, likely unpolished, and possibly under-informed writers who follow them.
A reasonably successful commercial author can springboard their self-publishing efforts off already existing readerships, and whatever work their old publisher’s marketing department did on their behalf.
Unknown self-published authors have a far rougher road. ∞
So…over the weekend, the Hugo Awards nominee lists were released to the public. And the Internet blew up. For anyone not an SFF geek, the Hugos are the SFF publishing industry awards voted on by the members of Worldcon. They’re a coveted prize, but by no means an all-encompassing or even reader-relevant accomplishment. To be…
Read More Sad Puppies, the Hugo Awards, and WTF…is typing ‘the end’ on the last page of an 83,000-word revision of the fantasy novel that has been kicking my ass for fifteen years or more. It’s going to beta readers tomorrow, then the agent and I will hash out what we want to do with it. Tired. But happy.
Read More HappinessInspired by the tiny books, I’m re-energized to attack a mini-book that’s been in progress for over a year. Here are the components laid out in an old teak tray I like for beading: Whisper, 1″ x 1.75″ x 1″ when complete. The tiny fabric pages are layers of linen and commercially printed cotton, hand-inked,…
Read More pieces of ‘Whisper’