Where to Find Me: Book release edition

Photo of me with one of my fellow readers, Donald Maass at Brooklyn Booze and Books

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Two weeks from today, LITANY FOR A BROKEN WORLD will be released. (!!!!!) It's been a long road from original idea to finished novel and it doesn't quite feel real to me yet. 

The work of being an author isn't only in writing the book. It also includes doing what you can to help it find its readership. But authors are notoriously shy creatures (many of us, anyway) and self-promotion is a terrifying process. 

So we do what we can, hoping that the readings, the interviews, the cover art reveal, the convention panel appearances all conspire to pique a reader's curiosity. 

To that end, I was a guest participant at Arisia in Boston last weekend, then took a train to NYC Tuesday morning to participate in a group reading at Barrow's Intense tasting room in Industry City in Brooklyn. The reading was to celebrate an anthology series (Of Gods and Globes) that the readers had contributed to. I had the opportunity to show off the ARC of Litany (yay!) and read a short story from volume 1 of the anthology series that I hadn't ever read aloud to an audience before. ("Perpetual Silence"). 

It's a story I wrote B-C (Before Covid) and one that I haven't really looked at in quite some time. I was happy to see that it held up and for 20 minutes, I was able to capture the attention of everyone in the room. (It's a powerful story. I'm so glad Past-LJ wrote it.)

I was recently a guest on Max Bowen's CityWide Bytes YouTube interviews. You can watch the short video here, where we talk about Litany and its influences. 

An early review of Litany is up here, as well. 

If you're going to be at Boskone this February, I'll be reading from Litany during the Broad Universe Rapid-fire Reading and participating in the Boskone Book Release party, where you can snag a copy/get your copy signed. 

As a reminder, ebook pre-orders are live and print orders will be open on release day (Feb 10). If you are considering buying the book, pre-orders are really helpful for a book's visibility. If buying the book isn't in your budget, spreading the word about it and marking it as 'want to read' on Goodreads can be the boost a book needs to get noticed.

 Many thanks!

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You Must Read This: Madcap Superhero Edition

I don't write official reviews. That's a choice I made after I published my first novel as it feels like a kind of conflict of interest, especially when reading books in the spec fic world where I hang my own writing hat. (Other authors feel differently, and I respect that.)

What I will do is evangelize about books I've read and loved. Today I want to talk about The Brothers Jetstream and its author, Zig Zag Claybourne.

I met Clarence Young (Claybourne's cover identity) at Boskone 2019. What caught my eye was this incredible purple greatcoat he was wearing.

Readers, I coveted it. Hard.

But I didn't have the over 6' tall frame or the gravitas to have pulled it off. So I struck up a conversation with the man instead and ended up buying his book, The Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan.

Why, you ask?

The purple coat may have reeled me in, but when Young described his novel as his homage to one of my hands-down favorite movies ever -- Buckaroo Banzai -- it was a no brainer.

This delightful, chaotic, romp of a novel engaged me from start to finish.  I normally race through books, but I forced myself to savor this one slowly and was rewarded by my patience because I got to spend more time with Milo and Ramses Jetstream and their brilliant rag tag crew.

Telling you what this book is about is almost besides the point. Yes, there are the eponymous superhero brothers. There are also sentient whales, vampires, Alanteans, mysterious cabals, an arch enemy (The False Prophet Buford), the leviathan who was there at the start of the universe, mystics, psychics, angels, clones, Djinn  and so much more.

The ten-thousand foot view of the plot is simple: the world is in peril. The brothers and their crew need to save it "one last damned time." The execution of this wondrous novel is anything but simple. Don't expect a paint-by-numbers plot: the cast of characters is large (and all delightfully named!), the pace is fast and furious. Young, AKA Claybourne, drops us into his fertile imagination and leaves us there to sink or swim. But if you're up for an adventure, dive in. You won't be disappointed.

I could absolutely see Buckaroo Banzai wanting to hang out with the Brothers Jetstream. I know I do.

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On giving myself permission not to finish books

A quick snapshot of one of our many bookshelves

Long before I was a writer, I was a reader. A voracious reader. At the age of 10, I had read through my local library's collection of children's books and had to have my mother talk to the librarian and grant me permission to take out books from the rest of the library.

I once tried to count all the books I had read - it was my version of 'counting sheep' when I had a hard time falling asleep - and always lost track, but even then, it was in the hundreds.

So when I say I've read a lot, you'll have to take it on faith that it means many thousands of books over a lifetime.

I never abandoned books before I began to write them. It felt disrespectful, somehow, to the sacred act of writing. So even if I didn't enjoy something, I finished it. That changed in my 40s and 50s. Maybe because now that I am a writer, I don't want to internalize poor writing or work that may be good, but I don't enjoy. Maybe because I realized at some point that there would be far more books published than I could ever read, even if I had several lifetimes to do so.

So now I stop reading and put the book away if I get to the 10% mark and am not in the least engaged. In the past 6 months, I've abandoned more books than I've finished. For the majority of them, it wasn't that they were 'bad' (however that is measured), but just not engaging. If I don't care about the characters or the story, then reading becomes work, not pleasure.

There is a common thread in many of the books I set aside: they tell me about the story instead of telling me a story.

The book I closed last night was a prime example. I felt like the author was relating the events of the plot, as if they were giving me a synopsis, rather than letting the story unfold.

Many times, this is a result of mediocre writing, but more crucial, of the author maintaining a kind of uninterested distance from the work. After pages and pages of 'this happens and that happens and then that happens next', I grew bored. There were exciting things happening - a mutiny aboard a space ship, a captain dying from some unrevealed disease or disorder, his need to protect a young woman under his care - but it was a color-by-numbers kind of presentation.

If the author passionately cares about the story and transmits that care THROUGH the characters, then I will happily read even a poorly crafted story. But even if the words are well crafted, I don't have patience to stay with a story that has no passion.

And lest you think that this is a dig at self-published work, understand that I am an equal opportunity critic. Several of the books I set aside in the past 6 months were Nebula and Hugo nominees. Several were self-published books.

What this tells me is craft and packaging is not, on their own, enough and sometimes craft and packaging are not the essential elements of a great story. What I have discovered is when passionate writing, craft, and packaging happen in one place, that's going to be an amazing book. 


#SFWApro

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You Must Read This

I rarely write formal reviews, and even more rarely on purchasing platforms like Amazon because as a writer, it can often feel like a conflict of interest. (Even as I appreciate any reader leaving reviews for my novels - yes, I feel conflicted.)

What I do instead is rave about the books I have loved. Bug friends, readers, social media followers, random strangers on the street to READ THIS BOOK.

Maybe I come across a handful of such books in a year. GROWER'S OMEN is one such book. While it is book 2 in the Karmacorp "Fixers" series, I believe it can be read as a standalone. But I recommend you read them both. I really liked book 1. And I loved book 2.

Audrey Faye has tangled the best elements of fantasy and science fiction in this series about the Fixers of Karmacorp - individuals who have psychic talents working in an organization dedicated to helping to keep the universe in one piece. The Fixers have vastly different talents and personalities. Tyra Lightbody, the main character and POV voice of this novel is a Grower. She has a special gift with plants and manipulating subtle energies around her and she's sent, as a lone agent, to a biodome reporting strange behavioural problems affecting some of the station personnel.

What she finds there is no ordinary problem, but a moral dilemma that forces her to make a choice that might alienate her from everything and everyone she cares about. 

It's been several books since I found a character who I connected so strongly with. I raced through this book, fearful of what Tyra had to do and hoping she would emerge unscathed. I was emotionally fully invested in her story and that happens rarely in my reading life now.

Skillful writing, fascinating worldbuilding, fully realized characters, emotional stakes: Grower's Omen has it all and then some. It moved me and I needed to read it. Maybe you do, too.

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On the gift of re-reading

Baen Books cover for Shards of Honor
by Alan Gutierrez, June 1986

Long before I even dreamed of being a writer, I was a reader. One of my earliest memories of reading was from the 1st or 2nd grade, when the elementary school librarian began to read to us, aloud, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis. After the first chapter, I couldn't stand it. I took out the entire series from the little library and read them all.

I remember discovering Madeline L'Engle's work and devouring everything of hers I could lay my hands on. Then, later, Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, and a host of other SF&F writers that the adult library card my mother bullied the public library into letting me have gave me assess to.

Along with being a voracious reader, I became a re-reader.

There is something about returning to a beloved book that is comfort food to a reader. There are books I have re-read dozens of times, others I have only returned to once. Though I don't re-read everything - not even books I loved.

These past ten days, I have gone on a binge of re-reading the volumes of one of my favorite space opera series: Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books. I have read them at least three or four times, all told. The stories offer no surprises to me, and yet I turned to them for solace in the aftermath of my father's death and funeral.

My emotions are a confused and intense muddle. Working through grief is a difficult and intensely personal process and one that is all encompassing. I needed something that would be diverting and engrossing, not to cut myself fully off from the work of mourning, but to give me brief respite from it. I needed something with intensity and emotional stakes, but also with humor and the assurance that the heroes will triumph in the end.

In the weeks before my father's death, during his final hospitalization and rehab stay, I stayed up late at night mainlining the first few seasons of the TV show Eureka. Again, it was a mix of familiarity and comfort, humor and adventure I needed.

I continue to be raw - the slightest kindness will make me well up with tears. I feel everything more intensely now and dare not reach for something new to read, lest it erode my very tenuous control. And so, at least for some moments each day, I need to retreat into a world I fully understood, where what is on the page or on the screen has not changed its shape in the bewildering way reality has.

And when I say the work has not changed, that is not precisely true. As someone reminded me earlier today, creativity is a collaboration between the creator and the audience. It is my belief that a writer writes one work; the reader reads another. The true collaboration happens by what the reader brings to the experience. So the stories may be unchanged, but I am changed each time I read them. On this reading, I made a very personal connection to Miles Vorkosigan and his relationship to his father in the hopes that I have done my own father proud. I am not ashamed to say that I have cried in places, re-reading these books.

It is no surprise that I turn to genre fiction for refuge: I have been doing so all my reading life. I refuse to apologize for what I love, nor see it as less than. SF&F is what I read; what I write. It is certainly my hope that something I have created will bring comfort to a reader in the way that Bujold, the creators of Eureka, and a whole host of other writers have brought to me.

#SFWApro

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Small, Medium, and Large: where should content creators share their content?

I maintain a presence across a bunch of social media sites, including FB, where I have both a personal profile and an author page, twitter, where I try (and usually fail) to be pithy and succinct, tumblr, where I go to find stuff about my fandom loves, and Google Plus, my 'home base' on the 'net as well as my water cooler conversation stop.

One of the communities I participate in on G+ is the Saturday Scenes initiative, where writers across genres and geographies, post scenes of their work each Saturday. 

In an effort to give the scenes higher visibility, I also cross post them to my FB author page and I've also started to do so on Medium.

Medium has a lovely reading interface and is primarily a place for non-fiction, but I liked the idea of having a repository of my work in one easy to find site, so I gave Medium a try.

There is a risk involved in all of these 'silos' in which we post content. The down side is any of them could fold up shop and disappear, taking our content with them. Or they could be a victim of the next-big-thing syndrome, where participants and readers abandon it to true ghost town status. 

Of course, I could simply post my scenes to my own small home on the net via my website - the only space I truly own and control - but the limitation of that is the lack of discoverability and serendipity. 

There is a chance that someone on Medium or G+, for example, might stumble upon my scenes via a hashtag, a recommendation, or random browse, since they're already there. In order for someone to find my work via my website, they need to know I exist. 

This is one of the reasons I love browsing in bookstores and libraries: In the search for something I think I'm looking for, I find something I didn't know I wanted. It's one of the limitations of digital content, IMO. And while Amazon isn't the only market to display this problem, it's the largest, so yes, Amazon, I'm looking at you.

They say the digital bookshelf is forever, that there's infinite room for infinite books to be placed on it. And that is very true. But how useful is that bookshelf if browsing it is virtually (pun intended) impossible? 

For now, I post my #SaturdayScenes offerings in three places: G+, Medium, and FB. I am considering also hosting them on my own website, though that is a task for another day when I'm not staring at a writing deadline.

I'm also considering creating a storefront there where my books can be purchased directly from me. Again, I don't expect to be competing with the big gorilla in the room, but I am concerned about how much power we give over to the digital retailers in return for the chance to sell our work.

We don't own any of our download or purchasing data on Amazon, et al. And, when you think about it, that's likely the more valuable property for them then our individual books. The retailers use the purchase information as a way to sell more goods to more people via targeted advertisement. I don't begrudge them that. However, it's more than a little frustrating to see one's own intellectual property and livelihood being used as a tiny data point.

This is one of the reasons I have an email newsletter. If someone subscribes - and they must opt-in to do so - that person is a fan of my work and is asking me to let them know about future work. 

 Serendipity seems to be a casualty of our digital marketplace. This is a blow to new and unestablished writers. The #SaturdayScenes project is one attempt to bring back a little serendipity to creative work. If you are a creator, what other ways do you combat the silo effect? If you are a reader, what ways to you stumble upon new work to read?

 #SFWApro
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Message in a Bottle

 

(Acoustic version of "Message in a Bottle" by Sting)

I have another manuscript my agent wasn't able to sell. Another young adult story that is out of step with what the publishers are currently buying. That makes three books in five years.

(Digression number one: I have nothing but respect and admiration for the work my agent has done on  my behalf. Please, no agent-bashing in comments.)

Anyone less stubborn than I am might have given up on writing books that don't sell after one or two. Maybe that writer would have written different kinds of books, books that had more of what the market was looking for. Certainly, I think there have been times when I must have driven my agent mad. We had lunch when I was in LA a little over a year ago and spent some time walking through the local B&N, looking at the YA shelves together. It was sad and frustrating to acknowledge that my stories didn't seem to have a place next to what was published. What is even more frustrating is that she believes in me and in my writing. The editors who have read and then reluctantly turned down my work, praise it, but don't know how to sell it. 

(Digression number two: this isn't a 'traditional publishing stinks' tirade. I have gone on record in the past, and still believe, that the flexible author is the author who will thrive. I will publish in whatever way gets my books into the hands of its ideal readers. That means a mix of traditional, small press, and indie.)

I seem to write small stories. By small, I mean stories of choices and change, stories of friendship and danger in a world not quite our mundane one, but not too far from it, either. My worlds are not populated by flashy monsters or mythical creatures. My stories are not propelled by a primary romantic plot that depends on the heroine making a choice between two suitors.  That's just not my style or my preference in writing.

(Digression number three: I'm not anti-romance. I just think the love triangle plot device is horribly overused in YA work and has become a parody of itself.)

All my stories, both those written for a young adult audience and those written for a general adult audience, have at their center a quiet character who must make quiet choices that turn out to be crucial, brave, and ultimately heroic.

It seems like my stories are neither here nor there. Neither magical enough, nor realistic enough to fit into neat genres.

But they are the stories that resonate with me.

(Digression number four: this is not a plea for reassurance or a self-pity party. I am comfortable with the choices I have made in my writing and have no regrets.)

I don't believe in writing 'message' fiction. (I bet you were wondering how I'd relate this to the title. . . ) It smacks of parental lectures and after-school TV specials. Yet all story has a message. I understand that. This is mine:

• authenticity matters
• integrity matters
• trusting oneself matters
• honor and friendship matter

Several years ago, I spent weeks and weeks struggling to find something to put on  my business cards that captured my style, my 'brand' if you will, though I dislike that word. Let's call it part of my manifesto. What I came up with after filling pages with ideas was this:

Where the mundane and the strange collide.
Where the familiar twists slightly out of shape.
Where ordinary choices lead to extraordinary journeys.

Looking at these words, I realize they fit me now, more than ever. The stories I write may not be the blockbusters you see on bookshelves, but I believe they are good stories, stories that resonate with young people and not-so-young people. Perhaps the market will turn toward the kind of quiet, small story I write. Perhaps it won't. That's not up to me. What is up to me is that I continue to write. Perhaps some day soon, I, too, will be amazed at the hundred million bottles, washed up on the shore.

Guest Post: Happy Release Day to Lynn Viehl!

ETA:  The random number generator did its work and chose EMILY to win the giveaway! Emily's winning comment:

Emily5/07/2013 10:47 PM

This post was hilarious! I used to celebrate a lot with food, but as part of getting healthy and stuff now I buy books. Or yarn. Or books about yarn. Or fabric. Or books about....well you get the idea! For really big stuff like our 10th anniversary my husband and I love to travel. Hawaii is our favorite so far.

Emily--please email me with your contact info, so I can pass it along to the lovely and generous Lynn.

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Lynn Viehl, AKA Paperback Writer is one of the most hard working, gracious, and generous writers I know. Not only does she write entertaining and engaging fiction (Her Stardoc books remain favorites of mine), but she is open about sharing her process, encouraging other writers, offering dialogue with her readers, and just being an all around wonderful human.

I am proud to be her 'net friend and was thrilled to have her talk about the debut of NIGHTBOUND, her latest Darkyn novel. I hope you will help her celebrated her book birthday.

(Oh, and there's a giveaway, too!!)

Welcome Lynn!

Today is the official release date for Nightbound, my latest Darkyn novel, and that means I have a lot to do. You might think that once a book goes on sale the author's work is done, but in reality a release day is one of the busiest in a writer's life. To give you a behind-the-scenes look at what I'll be doing today, here's my morning schedule:

6:00 am: Wake up, walk the dogs, make a pot of tea, turn on the computer and look for my good-luck green socks with the little leprechauns on them.

6:30 am: Find only one lucky sock. Decide the washer has eaten the other one and kick it a few times.

7:00 am: Log on to the Internet in anticipation of answering dozens of congratulatory e-mails from the agent, the editor, colleagues, friends and family.

7:30 am: Delete dozens of e-mails from online pharmacies, Amazon.com, porn site traffickers and desperate widows of deposed African royalty wishing to exchange nine million dollars for my bank account information. Answer one e-mail from Mom asking for ten copies of the signed book for her friends at church, as long as the guy on the cover isn't naked again and there isn't too much sex in the story.

7:45 am: Take aspirin.

8:00 am: Greet the family as they wake up. Go back to bed and wait for breakfast to be served on tray with rose.

8:30 am: Get out of bed and make breakfast for everyone else. Drop a few a hints about what day it is. Wash dishes, feed dogs, and start the laundry while waiting for the celebrations to begin.

8:45 am: Say good-bye to family as they leave for the day without saying a word about the new release. Remember I forgot to tell them today is release day. Kick washing machine a few more times.

9:00 am: Take second aspirin for stubbed toe.

9:30 am: Dress in artful disguise of old T-shirt, ripped jeans, faded baseball cap and cheap sunglasses. Put on second-best pair of lucky socks with little frogs on them. Drive to the only book store in town to see the new release on the shelves.

10:00 am: After not finding new release anywhere, look for book store clerk to ask why. Get into brief conversation with another customer, who mentions books are much cheaper at Goodwill, there's a job fair down the street and her church feeds the homeless every Saturday in the park. Realize artful disguise might be a little too good.

10:30 am: Find book store clerk on the phone with customer who wants a book but doesn't know the title or the name of the author.

11:00 am: Help the clerk with the title and author of the book the customer on the phone wants. Ask about the new release, which clerk can't find on the computer but thinks she saw back in stock room last week. Ask for clerk to retrieve one copy from stock room (to buy for good luck.) Clerk promises to look after answering phone call from second customer who doesn't know the title or author of the book they want.

11:30 am: Go home without book.

12:00 pm: Make supersize hot fudge sundae with extra sprinkles and have private release day celebration with dogs, one of whom brings over the missing and now-shredded lucky leprechaun sock to play tug-of-war.

On second thought maybe I'll hang out here for the day. I brought with me a giveaway for one of you, which includes this handmade quilted tote, a signed set of all three Lords of the Darkyn novels, Levenger's Scheherazade Storytelling Game, a Treetops blank journal from Chronicle books, a cool combination pen and touchpad stylus and a pretty bookmark.

If you'd like to win all of it, in comments to this post name a fun way you like to celebrate special days in your life by Friday, May 10th, midnight EST.  Lisa will draw one name at random from everyone who participates and I'll send the winner the tote and books with all the goodies. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, so please join in.
 

Coincidences and On Getting to Hang with Chuck Wendig

Chuck Wendig & me, Stranahan House, Fort Lauderdale, FL

I follow Chuck Wendig's Terrible Minds blog and have read a bunch of his books, so when I saw that he was going to be doing a meet up in Fort Lauderdale Florida, I thought, how cool is that, but since I live in Boston, it's a bit of a far trip.

Then I looked at the date and realized I would be about a half hour away, since we came down to S Fl. for my father's birthday. This was definitely edging into the totally-doable-and-really-cool-coincidence territory.

So I braved the pouring rain (natch--I'm in Fl. It rains.) and made my way to the historic Stranahan house, where the meet up was scheduled, having zero idea what it was going to be like.

Turns out, about fifteen or so of us folks came out to hang with/hear read/talk to Chuck Wendig and had a delightful afternoon.

In the it's a small world department--he lives in the same part of the world as my sister in law. She used to run a restaurant there and turns out he remembered the place and had eaten there.

If you're not familiar with his writing, he runs a very popular writing blog where he dispenses tough love for writers and is the author of scads of dark, moody, atmospheric books of gritty urban magical realism. Really great stuff with a singular voice. 

Fun stuff!

Serial Woes

When I serialized my first draft of DERELICT on Wattpad and on its own blog, I had no idea what to expect. My first draft process is generally a very private one. If I show it to anyone, I may share a scene or three or use my husband as a plot sounding board, but beyond that, it's between me, my strange subconscious, and my laptop.

But I'm never one for complacency in my process and I saw this experiment in public accountability as a way to shake up my writing a bit. Plus, DERELICT was something different than I'd been writing and I saw the serialization process as sending up a trial balloon.

All in all, I really enjoyed seeing readers get engaged and really enjoy the story.

(Aside and an update: It's been revised and is currently with my agent, in preparation for submission. An editor at one of the big SF&F publishers I met at a recent conference asked for it--not saying more than that, lest I jinx things!)

Which brings me to my problem.

I have a 'trunk' novel (e.g., the early novel you stuff into a trunk under your bed because it should never, ever see the light of readership) that I'm now completely renovating. (No, that's not a typo or wrong word. Have you ever done a gut renovation of an old house? That's what this process is like. Tear down to the studs. Rebuild.)

I have an entirely new first 25% and a solid plan for integrating what worked of the original storyline. And I'd love to serialize the story as I rework it.

BUT, I don't have a title.

Well, I had a title, but I never liked the title. It didn't fit when I first drafted the novel and it doesn't work now. I can't serialize an unnamed story. The 411 on the fantasy-story-with-the-unsatisfying-name:

Lilliane Tor, a renowned empathic healer from Rimland, learns the cost of keeping her oath when she saves the life of Jahnissim Hal Zev, a member of the nomadic and insular Tisreen and becomes entangled in a diplomatic nightmare. A fugitive from her own land, and in search of her missing sister, she escapes to Tisreen with Zev and enters a bewildering world of a rigid religion and culture, where women's roles are tightly controlled and political disputes are settled on the edge of a blade. And where hudessh, or The Divine Obligation, is as binding as any healer's oath.

That Zev owes his life to a woman, and one who doesn't follow his beliefs challenges the foundations of his identity. When he finds evidence of an illegal slave trade poisoning the heart of both their countries, Zev must learn to trust Lilliane, working with her against a common evil. Their quest to unravel the truth, rescue Lilliane's sister, and expose the trade threatens their lives, the stability of two governments, and the core of their own beliefs about one another.

A few questions:
1--would you be interested in reading it?
2--what do I call this blasted thing???

The Uncomfortable Reality of Paradigm Shifts

Everything you wanted to know about Paradigms,but were afraid to ask. . .

When I was an undergraduate, I studied the history of medicine and medical ethics. One of the core courses I took was a history/philosophy course that studied Kuhn's text for an entire semester. So when I tell you I know all about paradigms and paradigm shifts, it's based on academic experience.

If you're unfamiliar with the use of the term in a social or scientific context, a paradigm shift includes the whole 'oh, the earth is flat and we'll fall off the edge' construct in contrast with 'oh, no, the earth is round, dudes, and has no edges.' A more modern example: In the 1970's it was known that stress caused ulcers. Then scientists discovered H. Pylori bacteria and a whole knew avenue of treating/preventing ulcers was born.

The tricky thing about paradigms is that it's easy from a perspective further along in the time line to say, 'hey, those silly simpletons. How could they have believed that ___________, when we know it's really _________' (fill in the blanks.)

In the ulcer example, guess what scientists have figured out? That chronic stress changes the gastric environment, making it more hospitable to H. Pylori. Not so simple, then, as 'new-truth-trumps-old-falsehood.

Another uncomfortable reality is that holders of the old belief don't magically 'see the light' when confronted by the new shiny. No, the reason our beliefs shift is because the old guard die out and the new believers are the ones who control the message.

What does any of this have to do with writing and publishing?

Lots.

The rise of the eBook along with distribution channels for eBook sales plus the ability for authors to sell books directly to their readership via those channels is nothing if not a profound paradigm shift in the world of publishing.

Paradigm shifts are messy, painful, and difficult. Just ask Galileo.

So many of the conversations around the 'net about self-publishing feels to me like a room full of scientists arguing about the mechanism of ulcers, or ancient astronomers about the shape of the earth. In the end, neither the ulcer nor the planet really cares what we believe. The words on the page won't either.

So what does matter?

For me, it's about one thing only: providing the best quality story to the right audience, regardless of the delivery mechanism. For some books, that will be via self-publishing, some via small press, some via the agent/editor/publishing house method.

The arguments that try to vilify one side or another are pointless and small.

The arguments that try to vilify one side or another seem driven by fear and a need to control the eventual outcome of an evolving, shifting process.

None of that will make any bit of difference to the process of storymaking and creation.

Ultimately, we live in the world and try to understand it as best as we are able. We treat our ulcers with the best treatment available at the moment. The only thing we can be sure of is that our understanding of things will change.

No one knows what publishing will look like in 3 years, in 5 years, in a dozen years. So holding fast to one and only one way of getting creative work into the world (whichever way you favor) will only make the shift an impossible chasm to cross.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Are you a reader? A Writer? A publishing professional? Usual guidelines apply--no personal attacks, please.

The Daunting Challenge of Books Not Yet Read

It was bad enough when my book shelves got filled to capacity and I started having to pile them horizontally in the small spaces between the top of the books and the bottom of the shelf above. It was bad enough when my nightstand could be classified as a hazard, with a teetering stack of books crowding out the telephone and clock. It was bad enough when the boys started to exercise their own taste in books and brought home towering piles of their own from the library and our local bookstore.

Now we have eBooks.

Oh, the revolution!

All the books you want in a small device you can slip in your pocket.

Unread books make me feel guilty.  Guilty in the same way that I feel if I make the mistake and visit the petfinder's website and can't take all the dogs home. Unfortunately, I can take books home. Far more books than I can manage to read in a reasonable time frame.

It's one thing to have that pile of books in your face. There is no room in my house I can go where there's not at least one book I haven't yet read, waiting. But now, even my iPod is filled with eBooks I haven't read.  So now my guilty conscience hounds me even when I can't physically see my bookshelves.

Too many books.

Not that I'm complaining.

It's an embarassment of riches. I honestly can't remember a time in my life when I wan't reading multiple books at one time. I figure there are worse problems to have in this world.

How do you deal with your TBR pile? What's next on your list?

Today’s post was inspired by this month's prompt:  “what’s on your to-read list” via  the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour, an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. The list of all participants are on the main blog tour site. Have a look.

An experiment in public storytelling

Something new, something a little scary, something even possibly a little crazy.


My usual writing process is very private. I rarely even share my idea with someone. We writers are often superstitious (probably the only similarity I can claim with major league baseball players, LOL) and I know I have this sense that sharing the 'new shiny' will somehow tarnish it.

But from the very genesis of DERELICT--all of 2 weeks ago--I've been sharing the idea and some snippets of the story with my online community and have been enjoying the feedback and reactions of fellow writers and readers.

So I've decided to do something very different for this work: share the first draft process with interested readers, not as a way to get formal critique (though comments will be welcome) but more as a way to bring together a community of passionate readers and to have a conversation. Writing is often such a lonely process, with only the voices in my head for company. :)

I've created a blog for my current WIP (work in progress), DERELICT, a science fiction novel. If you want to follow along on the first draft journey with me, feel free to stop by. There are options to subscribe via email or via RSS.

Chapter 1 is posted.

My plan is to post a chapter a week, as I move through the novel.

Release week, redux

Today, a mini-interview with me is live on one of my favorite writing blogs: Writer Unboxed.  I've been lucky enough to have been invited to write several guest posts for their highly regarded site over the past few years and they are a must read when new posts come over my RSS reader.

Head over to find out where in the world my wonderful cover artist is from and how Aeon crashed his way into THE BETWEEN.

And the book blogger, Becky Raymond of Inquisitive Hippo is hosting a giveaway of a print and an ebook copy of THE BETWEEN.  Check out her blog for details.    Thank you, Becky!

There's still (a little!) time to enter to win free copies, either at Paperback Writer (AKA Lynn Viehl), or my Goodreads Giveaway!

Release Week, part 2

Thanks to Jackie At My Tower of Books for her review of THE BETWEEN.

It is always a risk, sending your work out to the world for review.  When I was searching for book bloggers to pitch, I sought out thoughtful readers who were critical and honest.  I am not so much a glutton for punishment as someone who values straightforward commentary.  If all I ever wanted was approval, I would never submit anything further than my dear husband who is my unapologetic fan.

Which is lovely, but doesn't push me to work harder and make each story the best it can be.  That's the job of a crit group, beta readers, and reviewers and I am grateful for them, every step of the way toward publication.

My Ideal Reader: Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour

This month's topic for the FM Writers Merry-Go-Round blog tour is to explore your ideal reader.  It pretty much a perfect topic with perfect timing for me this month.  I've been participating in a lot of guest blog Q&A posts and 'who is your perfect reader?' is a question that has come up more than once.

I have struggled to answer it in a pithy, snappy way and I think the question does deserve serious consideration.

The bottom line is not everyone is going to love every book.  Not everyone is even going to want to read every book, no matter how well written it is.  If you don't like westerns, no amount of praise or recommendations are going to have you delve into the books of Larry McMurtry, books my husband adored.  He is also a big fan of techno-thrillers. While we often share books, these books usually make my eyes glaze over by about page 7. I am not the ideal reader for a techno thriller or a western.

With my debut coming out this week, I am prepared for a mixed bag of folks enjoying it and folks just not feeling the love.  It is nearly impossible to write the One Book to Rule them All. What I have written is a book aimed for teen and young adult readers, ideally with appeal to all genders.  I don't have a specific reader in mind when I sit down to write.  Rather, I write the books I wanted to read as a teen/young woman--books that speak to ordinary heroes finding and trusting their own power, set in a world with just a bit more magic than this one contains.

What are the characteristics of my ideal reader?

Perhaps the most important quality is the desire and the ability to be swept away into another world--that suspension of disbelief that is at the heart of any immersive experience. That is what I have always craved in my reading and what I look for in a book today.

It is the partnership between the reader and the writer that makes that experience come alive.  As a writer, I promise to do everything in my power to create a story where you can bring the power of your imagination.

If I succeed, then you are my ideal reader.


Want to see what a whole group of writers think about their ideal readers?  Take a look at the Merry-Go-Round blog tour hub.

THE BETWEEN Book Launch & Signing!

If you're local to the Boston, MA area, please join me for a book launch, reading, and signing at my favorite bookstore, Newtonville Books.

When: Thursday, January 26th, 7 PM
Where: 296 Walnut St. - Newtonville, MA - 02460

I'm thrilled that our own indi bookstore is supporting this indi author and even if you can't make the event, please do consider supporting your local bookstore.

Call for action!

Photo by Daehyun Park, used by CC license

Ahem.

Tap, tap, tap. 

Is this thing on?

I'm dipping my toes into the self-promotion stream and let me tell you, the water is freezing cold!  I'm an intensely private person and while I would like to think that I'm fairly self-confident, the truth is I'm often a bundle of insecurities.

But, like it or not, if I'm going to have any success as an author, I need to put myself and my work out there.  I've certainly embraced social media with this blog, FB, twitter, and Google+.  I've worked hard to keep the emphasis on the *social* part of the social media, making connections and contributing to conversations.  I'm certainly not a 'me, me, look at me' kind of person and I hope I will never use the internet as a platform for annoying anyone. 

I do, however, want to make a successful living at this writing business.  And that takes reaching out to a tribe of interested readers.  So here's my thinking:

I've written a dozen or so short stories over the past few years.  I've made some half-hearted attempts at submitting them to paying venues, but have never really made the full commitment to getting them published that some of my crit buddies have done.  My focus is on my novels.  I write short stories and poetry because some ideas and images are best suited to more compact forms.

I'd love to have my short stories find homes in the hearts of readers.  Along the way, I'd like to build a community of supporters who want to read what I want to write. 

If you are a reader, if you are passionate about the power of stories, then I want you in my tribe.  If you sign up for my mailing list (also conveniently first on the sidebar right over there --->), I will send you a short story.  If you hate it, you can unsubscribe.  No harm, no foul.  If you like what you read, let me know.  At semi-regular intervals, I'll send out other stories.  No charge, no obligation, no DRM.  You will be free to share the stories with others, though I would ask that you don't change them or omit my contact information.

Sound reasonable?

I look forward to sending you a story.

Reading and the Investment of Time

I've been thinking about writing a post like this for some time now, but this blog post about a reader's investment in time vs money, by Jim Breslin got me nodding my head. 

You see, I've been reading recently.  I know--that's a shocker, right?  Well, in the past 2 weeks, I've read several old favorites again, and cracked open 3 new ones.  2 fantasy books and a cozy mystery.  I'm not going to name them for a slew of reasons.  First, because so much is a matter of taste, that just because I had one particular experience with a novel, doesn't mean that another reader won't have a different one.  Second, because I don't want to take on the role of reviewer while I have a writer's hat on.  Third, because that's not the point of the post, really.

Of the three new books I started, I only finished one.

The two that I did not finish were both self-published books.  Both highly touted in their genre, both sold at a very low price.  It was not a matter of investment of money, but of time, a la Breslin's post.  While the writing in both these stories was serviceable, there were clear pacing and craft issues that made them both clunky reads.  In fact, I felt like I was reading for critique.  It felt like work.

The stories were interesting enough, but the writing got in the way. 

If either of these authors had been my crit group buddies, I would have finished the stories and made structural recommendations, primarily in pacing, characterization, and emotional stakes. But because I picked up these novels for my recreational enjoyment, I gave up on them.  My reading time is too limited to spend on books that don't fully transport me.

The third novel I read, the cozy mystery, is the one I did finish.  I bought it at our local indi bookstore.  It was signed by the author, who is (I believe) local.  It was an interesting idea, with a nice 1st person character's voice, but could have been so much more.  I read it to the end to find out the 'who/why dunnit' and ultimately didn't feel like I had gotten my time's worth out of it. 

I find that quite sad.  Three potentially excellent tales, all hamstrung by craft issues that could/should have been addressed in revisions and with a strong editor.  Were these books professionally edited?  Once I might have assumed that the mystery was, as it had been published traditionally.  Now, with the changes and panic in publishing, I don't know what the press provided.  The self-published books?  No way to know.

This is not any kind of dig at self-publishing. 

This is only a reflection of one reader, one voracious reader of books across many genres and her realization that there are many more books to read than hours in a life to read them.  So, writers (looks to self as well), do what you need to do in order to make your stories more than worth the investment in time for your readers.

Short story conundrums

While I write primarily novels and poetry, I have also written some half dozen short stories that I am pleased with.  I've submitted them through the round robin of pro markets in the SF&F world, and none have been picked up.  (Some personal notes from editors, though)

I know that some advice would be to continue to submit the older work to other venues and continue to write and submit the new work to the editors with whom you've had near misses.

But the reality is, I am not fully comfortable with the short story form.  And while I appreciate a well crafted short story, I don't go out of my way to read a lot of them.  I gravitate toward diving into longer work. 

It looks like my options are to continue to write/submit, working my way through appropriate publications from pro to semi pro to amateur journals, both in print and on the web, or release the stories I feel are good enough as free reads on an appropriate venue as a way to build readership and share what I've written.

I think if I were more drawn to short fiction as an art form, I would probably choose journals and contests.  I'm just not sure that's where I should be spending my time, rather than focusing on novel writing.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the matter from both readers and writers.