Look at What We Found!

I've seen one of these once before, crawling on the ground.  They go on milkweed.  They also don't tend to cling to milkweed well and are fast crawlers.  We collected a couple to raise into moths.  They don't look very pretty as moths, but the babies are interesting.  They always remind me of cutoff yarn bits.

Reviving The Great Writing Experiment: Self-Publishing an Ebook

Awhile back I mentioned I wanted to start an experiment on self-publishing ebooks.  Then life happened, and I didn't really work on it.  Anyway, starting a few weeks ago, I unofficially resurrected it.  Now, I want to officially do so. 

Why?  To keep me on track, focused.  To share information.  And because recently I came across someone else doing the same thing, but this person comes across as a Doubting Thomas, negative about the process, expecting the worst.  And, to be frank, that is the worst way to go about this.  After all, you don't expect the worst when you seek the commercial publishing route, so why should you with this route?  And if you do, then you shouldn't do it.  Because, as they say, you tend to get what you expect out of life.  Positive outlook is by far a greater motivator than a negative one will ever be, and I rather my work be sabotaged by positivity and hope than negativity and doubt.  So, my blogged experiment will be a positive counterpoint. 

In a later post, I'll talk about my goals, what novel I am working on for it, expected finish date, preliminary self-publishing work, practice, studies, research--whatever I think will be of help to others, and I will do my best to be positive at the same time (not easy when I am a struggling, born-again optimist).  That doesn't mean there won't be learning curves, disappointments, and hard work ahead, it just means that overall I'm going to look upon it all as a positive experience.  A positive experiment.  I hope you will do so too.

Update on Anthology Story: Knock

Awhile back I mentioned I had a story accepted for the Mother Goose is Dead: Modern Stories of Myths, Fables and Fairy Tales‏ anthology.  "Knock" is a story inspired by Franz Kafka's tale "The Knock at the Manor Gate."  It's about a world where something so simple as a rap on the wrong door could have lasting consequences.  It's an original fable, I guess you could day.

Well, there has been some recent news on the anthology.  We have a cover, as you can see.  Also, we have a new publisher, Damnation Books, which will release both print and ebook versions.  And I have signed and sent in my contracts and W9.  

Anyway, everything seems to be moving along nicely, and it all seems to be going well.  I'm looking forward to working with this publisher, and I can't wait to have a copy in my hands.  This is a great bunch, editors included, to work with.

Good Ol' Fashioned Fun: Civil War Re-Enactment

Just a quick update. Spent several hours at the civil war re-enactment. This is the third year I have went to seen it, and I hope to go back tomorrow for the infantry drill. Also, I hope to spend some time at the county fair. Sad to say, but I do believe I rather visit the civil war re-enactment than the Jour De Fete (the main fair of our town). Oh, and I bought some goodies; I'll post a pic of them later. But I hope to one day dress like the ladies in the fashion show for these events. Just for the heck of it.
 

Fanfiction Fix

On the AW forums, there is an interesting thread about writers who started out writing fanfiction first.  I'm one of them.  In fact, I still read fanfiction.  More, one of the reasons why I decided to work on my duet of novels (Letters of the Dead and Eyes of the Gods) is the fact that I'm in Surpernatural withdrawals. 

My duet is an older series that I let languish because I didn't think I could revise it to look like commercially published books.  Also, it tended to be shorter than what they published. The duet series was written during a nano session.  I'm thinking 2007, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, the first novel was written and the second half written. 

As I started re-reading and outlining and planning fixes on my duet, I realized the first novel especially reminded me of Cass and Dean interactions.  I thought cool:  motivation!  Something to help not only with my drive to publish something this year, but with my SPN fixation as well.

Nonfiction Recommendation: How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months

Yesterday, I read John Locke's writing book How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months.  I don't want to give away his information, but his book has some good advice.  Refreshingly new.  But basically, I love it when people try something new and it works out well, because I don't do standard well.   Some of his advice will work out right great for me; others I need to twist a little for my benefit.  But there should be oodles of usefulness from this book.  

So, what is the difference between this book and others?  Well, it has a lot of business sense in it, some things I slowly started picking up while reading actual books on business.  Good to know I was heading in the right direction.  Also, some of it made me wonder if John Locke ever took a Dale Carnegie class?  Some of his ideas or his approach reminds me a little of the famous book I'm reading by Dale Carnegie, whom I really like.

However, I must add a caveat.  It would work better for the self-publisher than the traditional publisher's author.  Mostly because I think the marketing approach would be harder for those authors to carry out since other people are involved with their work, agents and publishers (editors).  There are a few other things too that make me say that.

Anyway, it made a lot of sense, and now I'm inspired that much more to get something out there.  If you haven't, pick it up.  If like me and you don't have a Kindle, you can pick it up at Smashwords for an epub format.  I did that so I could read it on my nook.

Morning Coke, Morning Pages

I am going to replace my morning Coke with morning pages . . . soon.  In a few weeks.  I'm working on decaffing myself over the next few weeks.  Why?  Multiple reasons.  For one, some medicines don't go well with you consuming large quantities of caffeine while on them (I learned that recently).  Two, if the symptoms of gradual detoxing from caffeine are any indication to go by, caffeine is some serious crap that affects your body.  Dislike that.  Three, a can of Coke has 140 calories, and multiply that by how many I used to consume daily, that's about damn close to a 1000 calories that I drank in.  Daily.  And my body is showing it lately.

To help wean myself off after, oh, 20+ years of Coca-Cola-addiction, I'm drinking fake soda--that is, decaf, diet Coke.  And I am doing this with Julia Cameron's morning pages.  According to her Artist's Way book, you write three longhand pages of whatever comes to mind.  You write them first thing in the morning.  They helped me long ago when I was getting past some writer's block.  I figured I better start practicing at them now, making the morning pages an ingrained habit, before I take that final step and drop my last can of Coke.  In the end, both practices--being caff-free and doing daily morning pages--will prove beneficial in the long run.

(This post took me 18 minutes to create, from conception to posting.)