Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Author, Red Tash

Red Tash, a fellow author and friend has a new short story The Wizard Takes a Fitness Class.  She's also about to take a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a Universal Studios tour.


So here in my first attempt at an author-to-author interview, Red has been willing to be subjected to my evil mind and strange mind, and to celebrate the moment our theme will be wizards.


Red, thank you for taking the time to talk with me today and doing this interview.
Let start easy… ASL?
Are you saying you want to do the interview in American Sign Language?  No problem.


Did you get that?


Ok that was a pick up line, sorry, it’s the Internet after all.  Lets start a little more professional; how long have you wanted to be an Author before went out took the typewriter by the horns?

I wrote all my life, except for when I didn't.  ;)  I wrote horoscopes for the camp newspaper.  I wrote my own newspaper, complete with comics, for my fourth grade class.  I published my first poem that year.  I was the journalism queen.  And then, because I was one of those kids brow-beaten into studying something “practical,” I didn't write for a very long time, because I was too busy preparing taxes and performing in-depth financial audits.  Fun, huh?

About nine years ago due to what was going on in my life, personally, I started blogging anonymously.  Crazy people were driving me to extremes of stress, anger, and frustration.  At the same time, I had all these personal joys in my life, from becoming a mother.  There was just so much going on “upstairs” that it had to erupt onto the page, because I could no longer contain it all.

From that point, it was a matter of time before I started making blogging friends online.  Several of them did NaNoWriMo, and I had several false starts before I successfully pulled that off.  At the same time, I launched a freelance career.  I wasn't sure which one would “stick.”  Writing fiction has become so fulfilling to me that even though I eventually quit accounting to be a full-time journalist, I doubt I will ever go back to journalism!


What is the largest manuscript you have ever written?
My dark fantasy debut novel This Brilliant Darkness was originally in the neighbhood of 150,000 words.  When I got serious about making it the best book it could be, I ruthlessly edited it.  It's now just under 50k.  A lot of times writers are shocked when I say I cut a hundred grand of verbiage from that book.  I argue that you won't miss it.  The book moves quickly, and it's a wild ride now, instead of a slow meander.  I'm very proud of what I did with This Brilliant Darkness, even if I overwrote and overwrote in the first place.  It taught me a lot about honing my vision.  That Crackling Silence, the sequel, is coming along a lot tighter.


What is your current work? Tell us a little about it? (Elevator pitch) and when we will get our grubby little hands on it?
Well, The Wizard Takes a Fitness Class was just released a mere couple of weeks ago.  It's about a Wizard who finds out the only way he can exorcise his demons is to get out on the dance floor and exercise with them.  It's also the reader-requested follow-up to The Wizard Takes a Holiday, a surprise hit if ever there was one.

Right now both those titles are available on Amazon and Smashwords.  The first Wizard Tale is available everywhere, and the newest Wizard should be on Nook and iTunes, Sony, and the like in a matter of days or weeks.

And, the night you sent me these interview questions, I emailed my editor a YA fantasy about a girl who discovers she's a fairy, only to find she must choose between an allegiance to her troll friend or playing roller derby with the girl she loves.  It's called Troll Or Derby, and I'm super proud of it because I set out to write something that's pure fun, and I feel like I've achieved that.  I hope it will be available before the end of June 2012, but we'll see. 


Ha! Richard Simmons, or should we say Milton Simmons? Your nod to the fitness icon in “The Wizard Takes a Fitness Class” makes me giddy.
It’s getting to that point where I too think I need to take a fitness class myself.
What was the motivation for the story, that moment where you said  “AH-HA! That is a story that must be told.”
Oh, gosh.  Well, I met this very cool artist named Nicholas Caesar during the Coffin Hop blog tour last fall.  Nik has done all kinds of amazing work—I mean, his resume is very impressive, including working on the movie Scream 4.  We just connected, and he said he would like to work together sometime.  In the meantime, he allowed me to use one of his paintings as the cover for the first Wizard story.

At some point, during one of those Facebook thread conversations that you know will come back to haunt you, I was joking with him and some of his buddies that the next wizard story was going to include Richard Simmons.  I wish I could remember the convo word-for-word, but it was one of those little jokes you make that doesn't translate later!

Well, a couple of months ago, a friend of mine demanded that I write a full-length wizard novel.  Mind you, the first Wizard story is only 1500 words long, and I'm presently in the middle of writing about a half-dozen full-length novels.  I just kind of laughed, but once I got to a certain point in editing Troll Or Derby, I realized I was stuck.  I had hit that point in editing when it all sounds like “Mush mush blah, and then she turned to him and said blah blah mush, mush blah.”  Rather than remain in that zone, I wrote something new. 
I sat down and let the Wizard do the talking.  It worked for me last time, and it worked out this time, as well.  Took quite a bit longer to edit, I won't kid you!  But this time, I had great writer/editor friends interested in having a peak and the draft product, so it was just a joy to complete.

Surprised me more than anyone else that the latest Wizard ended up being about regret, pride, and personal demons.  In the past six months, I lost two people who meant a lot to me, and the requisite family implosion that followed played a hand in that, as well, I'm sure.

I really thought I'd just poke a little fun at the wonderfully effervescent, good-natured Simmons, and move on.  But the Wizard had more to say than that.


Your top 5 Wizard books(or series)? I want to see how close your list is to mine.
So tough.  Wow.  I don't know if these rankings are exact, because on any given day...I mean, I was just watching the 70s cartoon version of LOTR this morning!

Okay:
  1. Harry Potter – “You're a Wizard, Harry!”  Absolutely crammed full of likeable & despicable wizards, each with the potential of greatness within them.  Very meaningful on many levels, and never loses its sense of fun.  My favorite book series of all time.
  2. Lord of the Rings – I went through such a LOTR geek phase.  I really can't say more than that.  It's so embarrassing.  It's like showing someone my naked baby pictures.  But I do adore Gandalf.  I think that on the inside, I'm still dealing with the fact that I thought I'd grow up to be an elf, and I'm really just a hobbit.
  3. The Amulent of Sarakand, and the rest of the Bartimaeus series.  These had a huge  influence on both my Wizard Tales, and my upcoming book, Troll Or Derby.  Although I went back and edited out the 85 footnotes throughout Troll Or Derby that were an homage to Stroud's Bartimaeus asides, I still feel like he's the spiritual godfather to the work I've done since I read his addictive series.  When he twittered me last fall I actually turned to my husband Tim and said “I can die happy now.”  I know Stroud has no idea who I am, but that just made my life.
  4. The Apprentice Adept series by Piers Anthony was huge to me as a kid.  Who can resist a little guy crossing over from a techno-futuristic planet to sword fight with a unicorn?  Matter of fact, I just realized while looking at the cover of Split Infinity, that Neysa was a black unicorn.  And...I unwittingly put a black unicorn in the climax of Troll Or Derby.  Wow.  Funny how the seeds from one world find root in another like that.  (Mr. Anthony was kind enough to answer of mine a few weeks ago, as well.  I love the internet, don't you?)
  5. Mists of Avalon – really more about Morgan Le Fay than about Merlin, but an amazing book about Camelot and Arthurian wizardry, nonetheless.  If you haven't read it, a delightful paradigm shift awaits!

There are so many wizard books I still want to read.  I need more TIME to read.  I feel like it will take me forever get through my “to be read” list.


Your heading out to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I’m super stoked! I expect pictures! So I’m going to twist the interview to get your mind working on your trip…sqeee! :)

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore VS Gandalf the Grey
Who wins? Keep in mind, death couldn’t really kill these men.
Oh, man.  What a question.  Well, Dumbledore was mortal, indeed, which I think was one of his more endearing qualities!  Discovering that Gandalf was actually maia, not human, was really cool, but it only served to push him away from us, as readers, in my opinion.  He's dead, no, he's alive, and he's not one of us anymore, he's this horse-riding guy who didn't understand his own nature.  I wish JRRT had given us more to connect with in the reborn Gandalf.

But, I've dodged your question.

I think Santa Claus would whup both their asses, honestly.


If you could take any one character from the Harry Potter Series and put them into your own book, who would you take and why?
Well, if I'm totally honest, I guess I leaned heavily on Dumbledore for the first Wizard story.  His fondness for children, the way he dealt with the troll so benignly—pure Albus.  But when people started asking me who he was, I didn't know how to answer.  It wasn't really Albus.  Who was this guy?  It's been fun finding out, and I look forward to the next story, when we find out even more.

I suppose if I were going to put any of Rowling's characters into one of my books for real, it would probably be Fred Weasley.  I just don't want to live in a world without the gregarious Weasley twins.  I really feel like we need to save Fred.  He represented the joy of living, you know?  He insisted on having fun, on pushing limits, and just following his heart.  I still tear up over that one.

Yeah, definitely Fred.


My follow up to that of course, if there was anyone one character you have created and you could place them lovingly into J. K. Rowling's world of wizard awesomeness who would it be? Can you give a little background on the character for our readers who may not have read your books and why they were lucky enough to get picked? 
Well, when I wrote This Brilliant Darkness, I wanted to create a world that was as escapist as the Wizarding world is, but I wanted it to be for adults.  I wanted an adult protagonist.  So I created a very escapist version of my favorite Indiana town, and put all my characters there. 

Of all my characters, I think perhaps Richard Welletter from This Brilliant Darkness could use with a little legitimate wizarding.  He is the opposite of the Wizard trope as “wise, old man” and he needs a good dosing of courage to face life.  I feel like a trip to Hogwarts would do that for him.  And he's a famous scientist, so he could definitely teach  young wizards and witches a thing or two.

I started to answer this question “Roller Deb,” but I already gave her the fairy realm to discover, so really, that's just as good an alternative to Hogwarts as there ever was.



Second follow up; what house would they be in?
I think Richard would just be a visiting teacher, but if he had to choose a house?  Ravenclaw.


There are a lot of people that have written fan-fiction, and with that a lot of them have written Harry Potter novels. It’s a touchy subject and I’ve heard both sides of it. What is your take on fan-fiction and should there be a place for it?
I think it's cute.  I don't think it's very professional.  I got as close to it with my first Wizard story as I feel comfortable doing.  I don't have a legitimate desire to write characters from some other artist's mind, at all.  As much as I know I will enjoy seeing Hogwarts in person (w00t!), I really need for my own work to be original and uniquely mine.   

There have been many licensed book series, for generations, that have tied into well-known story universes.  Star Wars books.  Star Trek books.  I recall JK Rowling saying in an interview that if someone wanted to write about American wizards, then someone should (it wasn't going to be her).  There's obviously a place for this work, as it sells quite well (or in the case of fan fiction, is read frequently), but that is not where my heart is, as a writer.  Not at this juncture.

Never say never, though.  I have more than one writer friend who writes licensed fiction, and I've known many writers who cut their teeth writing fan fiction.  It's just not for me.


Do you think that Harry Potter really opened the door for the works of YA (Young Adult) that we are seeing now? Do you think it would be as awesome if we didn’t have Harry Potter? I’ve watched a lot of authors that were writing in other genres come to YA and become even more successful than they were before. Kelley Armstrong comes to mind. 
I really am not familiar with Ms. Armstrong, so I can't speak to her success since she started writing YA.  I do see she's working on something with one of my favorites, though: Melissa Marr. 

Honestly, the YA that is so hot right now really seems to have less to do with Harry Potter than it does Twilight, but even Twilight was on the scene later than Melissa Marr's books, or Holly Black's YA series Tithe.

The books that are probably most like Harry Potter, in my opinion, are the Percy Jackson books, the Bartimaeus books, Artemis Fowl...and have you heard of these?  Maybe.  They're best-sellers.  But they're not teen romances.  They're books about young boys having adventures in magical world.  The Golden Compass, as dire a book as that was, on an emotional level, had more in common with Harry Potter than anything that's hot-selling in the YA charts right now.

So, really...I'm not sure there is a correlation at all.  I think the Potter series barely touches on romance, with its heavy-handed themes of right and wrong, whereas these teen books are all about longing, sometime barely touching on morality!


I’m right now working on a YA manuscript, have you thought about writing the field?
Troll Or Derby is a YA fantasy.


Are you in the “pottermore” beta? What do you think of the idea and what it can do for a story?
Pottermore is lovely.  I can't wait until they open the Chamber of Secrets so I'll have something new to try.  I ripped through the first book online in no time.  I don't think it does anything to enhance the story, but it does reward the fans who want to know more about that world.  For instance, all about Minerva McGonagle's marriage.  It's all there.  Good stuff for the ridiculously avid fan like myself.


A few last silly questions:
If the sorting hat was placed on your head, what would it see and what house would you be placed in because of it?
I am a Ravenclaw.  Bigtime.  I don't think the hat would make it onto my head.  It would shout it at me from across the room.


What would your wand be made of?
According to Pottermore it's made of Elm and Phoenix Feather:



Favorite wizard subject and professor?
Making Magical Sweets ala Honeyduke's by Professor I.M. Phat!  ;)  Either that, or Charms.






Thanks for doing this, Rob!  Such fun!

Thank you, and have a safe trip Red! 


Below are Red Tash's books, I've collected the set myself!

http://tinyurl.com/wizardfitness (Amazon Wizard Takes a Fitness Class - $.99)

http://tinyurl.com/wizardholiday (Amazon Wizard Takes a Holiday – free)

http://tinyurl.com/tbdredtash (Amazon This Brilliant Darkness - $2.99)

Non-Amazon links are all here: http://RedTash.com/Stories

Red Tash can be followed at: 





Monday, April 23, 2012

Coffee, Word, and Love of Writing.


Another Sunday morning at my coffee shop Anthem, I have come to love this place. I brought my wife by last weekend and I could tell she was a little taken back by the fact everyone knew me by name. We were standing in line and one of the baristas walked up to my wife and I and asked what we wanted, I started to tell her and she said "Oh no, Rob, we have your order in already, what does she want?"  
Ok! The place has grown on me. It's my new hangout, Del can start her gloating now. I denied it long enough. 


Next topic!  
You know, even I don’t really use Word for my authoring anymore, I do for my editing. Here is an interesting article about how maybe it’s time for Word to die: 
I did think about using Word’s ability to make a web page when I was working with Del on “From Beer to Apocalypse” but in the end I didn’t like how code heavy the website looked for just simple text. I wanted something that was cleaner, or at least not so script heavy. In the end I turned to Word Press and I’ve been rather happy with how it’s worked. It’s given me the features I wanted and it’s been easy to use.   
For my writing I have turned to Scrivener because it’s tools are better tailored to writing and I’ve now been successful in making one full manuscript and the re-write of another.  
Del texted me just the other day saying she was starting to use the PC version of Scrivener, she seems rather pleased.  

Topic 3:  
Today I started to think, maybe I'm trying too hard to be a recognized author? Am I missing the point to what this is all about? Is it really that I need to sell a million books or is it that I should be writing a million stories? Trying to cater to the published market and make a story that is selling because that's all that they will buy, or is it....That I need to just make the stories that I know I can make, more to the point, am I making the stories that are FUN for me to write?  
There is also this other nagging thing that I'm not sure about. How we should write our stories, how we should format, AND how we publish. The rules and expectations are ridiculous and the feedback I always get is "One toe out of line and I don't want to talk with you." Is this really how it should be? Is this really how we fuel creativity? No, it’s not, and the heart of writing and story telling has taken a back seat to the game of trying to make money.  
I'd love for someone to pay me to do this all day every day, but there is the reality that only a few get that privilege and the rest of us keep our day jobs, in fact, after Norwescon I found the reality is most authors do have a day job that pays for their wordy obsession.  
Independent publishing has help to bring back some of the creativity, but there is a difference between people that are taking their craft seriously and those that are just tossing out crap. You can't cut corners, you have to put in the time to release a real product. There is a difference between creativity and lazy. 

Ok down off my soapbox.  
I'm going to be going to Westercon, another chance at some awesome workshops in and get more feedback on Corporate Policy I've submitted the first 8000 words and a 1000 word synopsis to the Fairwood writers group. 
I'm really looking forward to it, I'm hoping this one can live up to the last con, I really did learn some things and I want to expand on that. Once this summer of cons is over I'm going to look at some classes, I found some that I liked but they were online classes and not what I'm after. I want face time with other writers.  

That's all for this week, I'm still trying to work on the idea of shorter posts more often. Feedback please!? :)  

Robert

Monday, April 16, 2012

A Taste of Accomplishment.


I’ve been out networking with writers and getting my beta readers up and moving because…
THE REWRITE OF COPRATE POLICY IS OUT!
I wish that I could make the text flash.
I’ve just sent it out to beta readers on Sunday and I’m looking at a release date of October 1st. I originally wanted to publish it before then, but I think that it would be a mistake to publish before I’ve got promotional stuff ready. Also I’m going to need the time to get the type setting right for both the paperback and the e-book versions.
I’ve had some feedback that I should publish to the Nook and I think I’ll be looking to do that as well time, along with Eclectic Disease. It’s time to do a checklist o' stuff to do again.




April 12th was Teen Lit Day and I wanted to focus on young adult writing.
I'd like to take this time to introduce you to a YA author Kate Evangelista. She's been hard at work on her new novel, Taste, and the cover alone is worth the price of you ask me.


Taste:

At Barinkoff Academy, there's only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans.
When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn’t realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.




And for the visual at heart




Author Website: www.kateevangelista.com

Twitter: @KateEvangelista



Crescent Moon Press page for Taste: http://crescentmoonpress.com/books/Taste.html








Monday, April 9, 2012

Norwescon 35


In the words of William Shatner
CON!!!!

Easter Weekend was Norwescon and I put an ad out in the handout magazine and so I thought it would be fun to go as well!  I found there was like a million panels on writing craft, so well worth my time.

For those that don’t know what Norwescon is, it’s one of the largest regional science fiction and fantasy conventions in the US. 

What an interesting 3 days for my writing education!!!
I met many different kinds of authors and even had the opening page to Corporate Policy critiqued!  

Below you can find my review on each panel I took, if you'd like to read about it. I have to say, it was cool to be able to hear from and talk with authors that are well sold, to those that are about at the same level I am right now, just getting started. Every author I saw at the convention was, friendly, willing to take a moment to talk after a panel or in the halls, and everyone of them truly pleased help a starting author.

I’m already got some ideas for a panel or two I’d like to added next year and I’ve got the goal of becoming a panelist if I can. It’s something that I need to look into. If you can’t already tell, I’ll be back there next year no matter what.
After talking with Del, the last few years they hadn’t had many writing panels/workshops and so this year was a great step back in the right direction for them. Bravo.



The list of panels I took:
First Pages (where I was critiqued)  - Cat Rambo and Caren Gussoff

This may have been one of the few panels based on the actual art of writing and less about the business side of it.
It was geared directly at our work and it was kind of neat to hear them read our work aloud. It gave me chills! They picked about 9 first pages. Mine was the first read and it was cool to be the first, I think because I was talked about the most. The overall feedback I was given most:  I need to tell less and show more.  Something I have been working on.

But when the class started and then Cat stat down and her first word were “Dan Hollis….” I was like OH $H!T”

There was one opener that really took the cake if you ask me, it started out talking about Facebook poles and I loved it. Del agreed that it was the best one of the ones they picked to read.  I hope it get published, it could be epic.


Escaping the White room – Julie McGalliard, S.A Bolich, Jak Koke, Jack Skillingstead

This was a little on the slow side, but the message was good. It was about making sure you are giving good descriptions to paint a world about your reader. Not tossing them into a white room that has no details.
As I said, slow, but I’m glad I went!  It’s something that I need to work on as well.


Freelancing 101 – James L Sutter, Jennifer Brozek, Stan!, Scott Gable

This was one Del wanted to check out, it was more on the making stories and writing for RPG companies.  But I did get a few details about the biz that I didn’t know before. I have to say, listening to Pathfinder’s James Sutter talk about the business was very enlightening and it was fun to talk with him a few minutes after the panel.


Creating a Novel Outline – Mary Robinette Kowal, Irene Radford, Benjamin Tate


This was a good one, with well-spoken people. It showed me about the world of making a synopsis for a novel. This is something that I have been able to avoid with independent publishing and really didn’t know much about it.  That will all change later this year when I start looking at the larger publishing world.
5 page synopsis, 30 page synopsis, making character arcs, and query letters. They gave you the 50, 000 foot view of it.
Need to look at getting the book “Brewing Up Fine Fiction” by Irene Radford.

Another thing they talked about was, building up your chops from short stories to novels takes time. Same with shorter novels to longer novels, it not something you can just jump into.  I’ve been working with novellas, 50k to 58k range for the Dinatech series, I’ll made one manuscript at 99k, I’ll be interested to see how my next 100k attempt looks, because my last full novel attempt was by accident, it was only supposed to be 50k! 


Writing for the Young and Young at Heart – Lisa Mantchev, Dennis R. Upkins, Diedre Phoenix

There was one other person on this panel and I didn’t get their name I really should have gotten that.
This was the first really funny writing panel I’d had and Lisa was a great moderator! Dennis and Lisa play off one another very well and I think the two of them should write a book together.  It was a good look at some things I’d already knew about the YA (Young Adult) writing field.  Like Sarah Dessen, most of the authors on the panel didn’t really know that they were making a YA book till they had made it.
It was very interesting to hear them talk about how adult the YA field really is and that many adult situations do get put into this genre of book. The major factor is the age of your protagonist will label you YA from what I understand.


How I Sold My Novel – Rhiannon Held, Dennis R. Upkins, Christopher Paul Carey

This was not a good panel and the worst one that I attended at the con.
All the authors that had gotten lucky or found the right break in their first book,  so there was no real suffering for years and multiple books to get one sold.
I really didn’t take much away from this panel. It would have been a great panel for Mike Shepherd Moscoe to be on!


What I Wish Someone Had Told Me – Eileen Gunn, James L. Sutter, Mike Shepherd Moscoe, Nancy Kress, A.M. Dellamonica

I’ll start out by saying, this was another very fun panel and that Nancy Kress made this panel amazing.
NANCY KRESS IS MY HERO!
Really she had some great advice and even went so far as to say “Be careful whom you sleep with in this business! Because they are going to be there for life. Really!  They will be across the table from you at one these conventions and you’ll just be shaking your head, what was I thinking!”
I was talking with her the next day and she confessed she’d had a drink before the panel felt she might have made a fool of herself.  But not in my eyes, the stories that she told about her critique groups and getting published were really great.
Eileen Gunn also passed on a great quote she’d been told: 
The key to becoming a great writer is: One’s ability to overcome your natural and very real revolution to your own writing.
That one got around of well deserved applause. 
Mike also talk about having to cut out the first 20 chapters of his first novel before he could get it to sell. This would have been great in the “How I Sold My Novel” panel as I was saying.


Should You Publish an E-Book First – Leah Cutter, Mike Shephard Moscoe, Matt Youngmark, Ken McConnell

This was a very informative look at how authors are using the e-publishing world to release books that they can’t or won’t traditionally publish. Some of the information they passed on I knew and was doing. It was good to see that I wasn’t off base with my work so far and that when I was talking with the panelists, it sounded like I was on the right track! Ken told me in the next panel that he felt I was doing the right things.
I will say I could have spent a little more time with formatting for Electric Disease and so that will be a priority for Corporate Policy.

New Media DIY: Self Publishing – Julie Hoverson, Ken McConnell

This was a good panel and I glean a little more information out of it. It was interesting to talk with others on how they are promoting themselves and find a few new ways to push myself out there.
I need to find me a podcast buddy! I’ll have to look around for that.
Also, I might look at expanding my beta readers group to some people that I don’t know at all!

Independent & Small Press Publishing - Sandra Damiana Buskirk, Jennifer Brozek, Patrick Swenson, Scott Gable

This one had panelist that were independent publishing owners, but they were doing it in the traditional format of larger publushers.
Things you’ll  need for a good publishing house of any kind:
Story Editors, Copy Editors, Graphic Designers, Art Directors, Type Setters, PR Directors

AOA Publishing is not here yet, but maybe soon? J  

Ones for fun:
Victorian Sex -
OMG! This was a great panel with standing room only by the time we got there! We thought it could be fun after all work panels we sat through that day. With a few drinks in us, we headed up to see what it was all about.
Some of the stuff they did back in the Victorian times was just simply crazy! If you get the time and really want to know, you should brows your favorite search engine for Victorian Prostitution! There are a lot of pictures of the time and might not make you feel so bad about what you see today on the web. ;)

Monster Mash -
This was our mid Saturday cool down workshop and it was a BLAST! You cut up stuffed animals and you sew them back together into something…horrible!

Please meet Victor!


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Click here for steamy ads!

Normally I don't do a blog this soon, but I wanted to help push the love with the whole cross blogging thing!
I've been given the honor of being on Red Tash's Wednesday blog and if you haven't read it here is a link:

Everyone say hai to Red!
I'm reading her book This Brilliant Darkness , pick it up if you get the chance.

And on to a few other things that are KILLING ME:

Ads, I’ve had just about enough of ads. Sweet Baby Jesus, I can’t even go to my favorite sports page without having to fight through a sea of ads just to READ what they have to say! Okay, it was annoying enough when it was ads at the top and along the right side, but now they are coming up in the middle over what you want to read and you have to click very carefully at a close link, in the hopes that it really does close the ad and not just click you through to a spyware laden page of doom.
I work very hard to make sure anyone that wants to read my stuff has an ad free experience as I can give them and most of the people that I really like to follow are the same. Such as Sara Dessen's page, I have to give that girl props for how clean her site is. I think that, as much as it's going to hurt me, I'm going to avoid places that use aggressive ads even if it means missing articles by my favorite writers. I'm just done with it, totally done. If I want ads all over my page it better be awesome porn!

Another thing I'm finished with....
I am FINISHED with the re-write of Corporate Policy!!!
It's been a long few months but it's ready for my beta reading team, then once I'm done going through the feedback it's off to my copy editor. There is still a long few months of work. I still have a lot of graphics to get done as well. I want this one to come together a little nicer than the last book. I said that I wanted to get the book out about mid October, but I think that I might try and push for September. Also as promised, I'm going to be doing a dual release of the first book and second book in paperback. 

I have to make some choices, do I write a new book idea that bubbled up in my disturbed head or go back and do the re-write for Devil N' Jack. 

I could really use some feed back from you all. Do I walk into another rewrite or do I go off and play with my new idea. Jack is a book that I wanted to agent shop with, but Oil and Water could be a good shopper product for a Young Adult audience. 

I was talking with my wife and she did raise another great point about what is hot on the market right now, it's not just YA books, it's Sci-Fi YA.
I told her that would be easy I would just add a laser to my book and then it could be Sci-Fi as well. You see, as the end of every chapter I could write about the laser gun!

Chapter 1
Blaw blaw blaw...
Some where in Kentucky, a man thinks up a laser gun.
Chapter 2
Blaw blaw blaw...
A man in Kentucky patents his laser gun.
Chapter 8
Blaw I love you blaw...
A man makes a laser gun.

You see, Sci-Fi! That wasn't so hard was it?
I'll call the book: "A love story and a laser gun"
There are just so many ways that I could go right now. GAH!
I'll be at NorWesCon Friday and Saturday and I'm bringing a crap ton of post cards to give out to go along with my add in there flyer book thing of goodness.
Last order of business, can you tell me if twice a month for a blog post is enough? I could try and push them up to once a week but they would be shorter.
SO: Longer and twice a month OR shorter and once a week