If 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.
2015
Dryland Codex (in progress, post 1)
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)Selfie or not?
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?Below The Boat
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authors who imply or state their current self-publishing experience and results are 100% applicable to the masses of unpublished, unagented, likely unpolished, and possibly under-informed writers who follow them.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. ∞
Sad Puppies, the Hugo Awards, and WTF
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 WTFHappiness
…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 Happinesspieces of ‘Whisper’
Inspired 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’Tiny books
Just…tiny books. They’re awesome. They’re like…Night Vale meets a dollhouse. Go see them here. The first pieces of ‘real’ art (the ones I remember) I did at age 5 were miniatures, and the concept has stayed with me through many different crafts (jewelry, alabaster sculpture, felt sculpture, weaving, painting, mosaic, etc). But the smallest book…
Read More Tiny booksMoss agate pillow
…or, experiments in home decor. For a decade or so, I’ve been seeing Chinese jade, agate, and tourmaline-beaded pillows on the import market. Some are panels of beads sewn onto a pillow-top. Others are elaborate hollow cage structures shaped to fit the head and neck, and supported by jade or wooden end-caps. Metaphysically-inclined folks will…
Read More Moss agate pillowIs Etsy bad for honest artisans?
For anyone who has been in a cave for the last nine years, Etsy.com is a sales site meant to showcase original handmade objects. It is poised to offer a major IPO. It is also coming under increasing pressure by detractors who: 1) Claim Etsy is often a haven for cheaply-produced overseas goods marketed online…
Read More Is Etsy bad for honest artisans?More fiber art award ribbons
It’s spring. Next weekend is the Tempe Festival of the Arts, where 40,000 people will somehow find places to park around the core of Tempe’s Mill Avenue Downtown district. Hundreds of artist booths will line Mill and its side streets. There will be decadent food and more decadent booze. Several million dollars will change hands,…
Read More More fiber art award ribbonsAnne R. Allen’s ‘How Not To Sell Books’
The sun rises. The living move in the waking world. Sadness remains, as well as selfish fury at a universe that would take Terry Pratchett before he could give us another Tiffany Aching book…* Sigh. I’m short-tempered this week, partly because of that. I’ve put several people on ‘ignore’ in various social media forums, because…
Read More Anne R. Allen’s ‘How Not To Sell Books’In Memoriam: Sir Terry Pratchett
(I keep coming back to this post and fiddling with it. A threnody-in-progress, as I consider what this man meant to me.) Well, we knew this day was coming, but we are no less sad. The world is without one of its finest satirists and humanists today, with the passing of British comic writer/fantasist Sir…
Read More In Memoriam: Sir Terry Pratchettour version of March Madness
Throughout the month, the authors over at Marketing For Romance Writers (MFRW) will be having Tweet Days, blog hops, interviews, and contests showcasing some of the best romance writers around. I like this group because it connects commercial and self-publishers, writers across all subgenres of romance, and some amazing promotional opportunities. Today is one of the…
Read More our version of March MadnessMargo Bond Collins, Legally Undead
A reluctant vampire hunter, stalking New York City as only a scorned bride can. From Bathory Gate Press principal Margo Bond Collins comes another fast-paced, grimly funny paranormal romance/mystery/horror/comedy. And this week only, it’s $.99! (Buy links after excerpt) _______________________________________________________ Elle Dupree has her life all figured out: first a wedding, then her Ph.D., then…
Read More Margo Bond Collins, Legally Undeadrich people’s hobbies
Dear Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee, I love you to bits. I’ve had several pieces entered in your Bead Dreams competition over the years. I adore seeing the amazing ‘statement’ pieces that your other entrants show off every year. I get so much inspiration from you. I’ve never been able to attend; my days…
Read More rich people’s hobbiesYet another literary writer epicfails at genre…
…then revels condescendingly at her own faceplant, and then manages to sell a smug little literary essay about it while touting her ‘purer’ work. To round out the trifecta of writing-related articles this week, here is the National Post’s unintentionally funny ‘confession of a failed romance writer’. Jowita Bydlowska’s essay touches on every single stereotype…
Read More Yet another literary writer epicfails at genre…An agent talks about publishing
Another article of note, this time a Guernica Magazine interview of superstar agent Chris Parris-Lamb. He’s mostly into literary fiction, not genre, but he has some very interesting and incendiary things to say about writing, publishing, Amazon, big books, and big advances. Selected quotes: On Amazon’s huge efforts to police its relatively tiny returns from publishing:…
Read More An agent talks about publishingVulnerability and victimhood
Paraphrased quote from the following essay: ‘One problem with treating (post teen) students as children, is that they become more childlike.’ http://chronicle.com/article/Sexual-Paranoia-Strikes/190351/ This essay may enrage some people, and be used by others as an excuse for terrible behavior. I take it as another data point, on a cultural metamorphosis I’ve been watching unfold for…
Read More Vulnerability and victimhood