04/15/2013 Magnificent Monday!

Hi everyone! I hope the rest of last week was nice to all of you. I appreciate your patience with me not being around on Friday, if I had done that post I wouldn't have had enough time to run out the door for the show. The fair went very well, a lot better than I anticipated and I appreciate everyone who stopped by and those who purchased anything I made. My plan now is to make high quality scans of the cards and put them up on Deviant Art with prints available for those who are interested. Hopefully that will go well too!

It was really exciting and scary to do the fair. It was really different from what I'm used to, since normally I talked to people on the internet and I don't have to worry about whether or not they are feigning interest or anything like that. I'm glad I did it though, not just for having made a little bit of money, but because I have been working on getting better bit by bit socially and while I'm nowhere near a social butterfly I have seen the benefits of going somewhere I don't know someone to cling onto. Still scary though.

Now it'll be back to editing, which while it's not my favorite part of the process, I also played up the series so I need to get back in gear. The strangest part is that I had forgotten to put page numbers on it before I got the story printed out and now every time I look at that corner I just get frustrated over having overlooked something so simple. I really hope that doesn't last the whole time because it's going to get old really quick.

Also, as a thank-you for everyone who dealt with me and all my coloring, here is the coupon code that was used at the fair. It's good until May 12th and with it you can get 'The Light Rises' for $1! Please pass it along and/or use it yourself. I would really appreciate it! Just go to Smashwords and type YZ64V as the code to get the 75% off.

Again, I hope the weekend treated all of you well. I look forward to getting back into more of a normal routine. For now though I must be off, so I hope the start of the week is nice for all of you and I'll be back on Wednesday!

04/10/2013 Writing Wednesday!

Hi everyone and welcome back! My prediction was correct, and I will be finished coloring my cards today. I'm really excited to be able to say that, this was all a long time coming and to see the fruit of my efforts is really neat. Plus I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the copy of the Moon I'm going to keep for myself. It'll likely end up somewhere at work, but we'll see!

Today I was going to talk about all sorts of things, but Robert Brockway at Cracked summed it up pretty nicely. Please go read that, it's all wonderful advise for all writers, not just new ones. So I decided instead to let him have his well-deserved spotlight and talk about what it means to give writing advice as a whole.

Now anyone can give advice, and people do it all the time. Sometimes it's welcomed, other times not so much, and sometimes people will ask your advice regarding something you have absolutely no idea about. You'd be surprised how many times I've been asked legal advice, and also how much 'I have no idea what you're talking about or how to guide you' doesn't actually make that go away. Let's just say it's super awkward and it never gets better.

The point I'm trying to make is that it's not just experts that will try to help you out. I have never said I was an expert, and if I ever said or made it seem like I was, I'm sorry. However, the people who are giving the advice tend to be ones with some kind of experience in that field. Whether it be an instructor who's been teaching for 35 years to the person who has written one book and has seen the other side of the coin when it comes to writing. The important part is that when you pay attention to what they are telling you it resonates with you in a way that you can use it for your benefit.

You can take advice from anyone, though sometimes you want to make sure there's some level of knowing what they're talking about before actually implementing it. For instance, you likely wouldn't take a fiction writer's advice on the best way to go skydiving unless they write a ton of action/adventure/science fiction pieces that involved a lot of sky diving or something very similar to it. If that's the case, they likely have done it themselves and obviously really liked it. Just like how you wouldn't take my advice when it comes to handling stuff legally (seriously, just go to your lawyer, that is what they are there for), but I would like to think I am fairly knowledgeable when it comes to certain types pf mythology and supernatural elements.

The point I'm trying to make is that just because someone is giving you advice about writing doesn't mean they're instantly an expert, but it also doesn't mean that they need to be ignored. The things we are doing are hard, and sometimes looking at how someone else handled something is the only way to get through it. New writers who run into writer's block for the first time know that it feel like a wall in front of them that not even dynamite can break through, but it also happens to experienced writers. Others may need to do some research and need advice on where to turn, it can happen with anything. The important thing you take from it is to do what works for you, because not all pieces of advice are going to, but that doesn't mean that none will.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. Remember I won't be around on Friday due to getting things ready for the fair at a time that no one should be awake. Yes it's only a little bit earlier than my normal time, but it's EARLIER and that's terrible. I'll be back on Monday though with a full report, so I hope you all have a great rest of your week and weekend until then!

04/08/2013 Magnificent Monday!

Greetings everyone and welcome back. I hope your weekends were all super awesome. Mine was too short, but it will all be made up by the fact I technically I have Friday off. I say technically because I have to go into work earlier than I normally do, but I don't have to do the job they pay me for, I just have to try and get people to buy my stuff. Almost done with the 'coloring forever' portion of my life, which is really exciting. Then it will be a matter of making everything look even and doing some fancy writing on the backs, then ta-da! Done for real!

I am really surprised that my hand hasn't fallen off during this experience. The most problem I've had (which now will change to agonizing pain because that's how fate likes to be a jerk to me) is my fingers get cramped up from holding the pen too long. I have 16 total cards left to go, and I'm fairly certain I can get that done by no later than Wednesday. I really appreciate everyone's patience with me while I do this; it's a way to continually motivate myself while facing the crippling idea of everyone walking by my table and/or ignoring me.

A part of me is wondering what I'll do after I'm done with the cards, since they have taken up a ridiculous amount of time in my life. Aside from jumping back into editing full-force, I'm also considering doing some jewelry making, so that the next time around I have a bit more of a variety to sell. If I do it again, but I'm trying to stay optimistic, so that's what I'm going to tell myself is going to happen.

Remember, this line of work is all about perseverance; no matter how hard it gets we need to keep going forward. I'm not to the point where I can do writing/whatever you call the rest of this as my full-time job, and I really doubt I ever will be (unless something magical happens and things seriously take off) but that isn't going to stop me. Just like this blog; it's tough sometimes, but if I stop now that means I've given up. For now I'll just enjoy the ride and see what happens next.

I'll see everyone back here on Wednesday. Hopefully I will have word of being completely victorious in my estimated completion of stuff, or at least be able to say I will finish while at work that day with a fairly large amount of confidence. I'll see you all then though, so I hope you all have a great start to your week!

04/05/2013 Fantastic Friday!

Hello everyone! It's Friday, which means we successfully made it through another week. I am still busy, which by now I'm sure you're all sick of hearing about, but am still making good progress. For now though I'll get to work on the reason why you're actually here.

Today I bring you 'An Apocryphal Ghost' by Mario Carassco Teja. It was originally written in Spanish and has been translated by Ingred Ebergenyi Salinas. It tells the story of four ghosts, all in different ages of afterlife, having a conversation in the living room of an older man's house. Some of the conversation is rather entertaining, though I do suspect some of the humor may have been lost in translation. That doesn't mean the story isn't meaningful or enjoyable by any means though.

The characters are unnamed, and part of that I believe may be intentional, since it shows the loss of self once you have passed on. The ghosts all range in the appearance of age with the one who looks the youngest actually being the oldest. The conversation they have is about why some of them, and other ghosts insist on behaving in such a way, and things seem to be going quite well until two of them get a little rough and it is discovered the man living in the house can interact with them. After that point things get a bit more serious when the ghosts learn his young granddaughter is ill and there are questions about how she got that way.

'An Apocryphal Ghost' is available for free at Smashwords, and I do think everyone should give it a read. The translation is very good, and some of the stylistic choices I believe are in part due to the translation. I would appreciate it if you would all give it a chance and a read.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I am expecting a rather tiring weekend, but I will do whatever I can do live through it! I hope you all have a fun couple days though and I'll see you all back here on Monday. Have a great weekend!

04/03/2013 Writing Wednesday!

Greetings everyone! I hope the week has seen you well so far. As I'm sure you're all aware, I am still coloring almost non-stop. I have decided that is who I am now, for better or worse. It's nice knowing that I have breached the 'half-way' point though, so now everything is going to be going down that home stretch to finishing. I'm nervous and excited about this whole thing and look forward to seeing what happens with it.

Now that I'm a colorer (yes, I know that isn't a word, but insanity makes everything better) I have not forgotten my roots are a writer. As I've mentioned before the whole point of this is to get people introduced/interested in my series. I am still working on everything else as much as I can, I am just sad there aren't nearly enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. This break is not one that I have taken on purpose, though if I were somehow managing to color constantly and write I would be in the process of removing my hands and trying to figure out how to work with little wrist-stubs instead. This is all part of a bigger picture, which is something that writers need to take a step back and look at once in a while, and yes it can potentially be massive and overwhelming, but it doesn't necessarily have to be.

Let's say you decide you want to write a book, and you have the drive/motivation to actually make that happen. Something that you need to ask yourself is; what are you writing for? Are you writing to give yourself a sense of accomplishment? To get your name out there for bigger/better things? To make people happy? All of the above? That is something that is going to determine what your next steps are going to be. If you're writing to feel like you completed something, then once your story is done, congrats! You did it! If you are looking at trying to get your name out there, then also congrats you have a truck-load of work waiting for you. When it comes down to getting everything else figured out, it seems like a daunting task, but some think that because of the internet that it will all be made a bit easier. It is easier in the sense that there are hundreds of options at your fingertips, it's more difficult in that you need to figure out which of those options are going to best suit your needs. Now if you're going through a professional firm such as an agent or a publishing company they will do most of that work for you, and what will be left to you is the social media aspect. If you're doing things yourself, this is where advertising is going to come into play and once again you are going to be crippled by choice.

Once you are decided on how you're going to work your voice out, there are a couple other steps you need to come to terms with. One that is so very important and somewhat sneaks up on you is that not everyone is going to care/like you. For all the 'Likes' or '+1's you get for whatever you do that is great, but also understand that doesn't account for everyone you're trying to reach. In most cases the people that are liking your posts are friends and family (which are wonderful people!) however it's going to be the point where you need to reach beyond them you are potentially going to hit a wall. Now if you are great at PR and a natural socialite with all of the charisma to back you up, first I suspect you are either a robot or a superhero, and second STOP MAKING IT LOOK SO EASY. Reaching out to people you don't know is ridiculously hard because, well, you don't know them or know where they're at to reach them. The other thing is they might not notice or even care about what you're doing, or sometimes they will outright hate it. These are the points where self-esteem is going to get gut-punched, and it sucks so much. Yes it will be hard, and yes you will look to those that have supported you in the past to help pick you up, but the important thing to remember is that you don't know the people that are being negative. You will never know them, because obviously they don't care, which means you are not trying to please them. Chances are they aren't in your target demographic anyway, and there's even a chance they are the dreaded Troll. Don't focus on them, focus on the people that you don't know that have given you support because they will be the ones to spread the word.

The other thing I mentioned was looking beyond your writing. For me it's the ridiculous notion that my series will be made into movies and that Allison Brie will be Amelia Helstrom-Petri in them (seriously, she's played both a gunslinger and had a tiny role as someone with a British accent in Community, also looks pretty much like I pictured her. COME ON!). My realistic one is actually just being able to finish the series and seeing what happens at that point. Now once that happens I will be focused on selling the whole thing, and will likely do some super big pushes to get it all noticed. After that if there's some kind of movie deal or a big publishing company wants to give me roses every day for 10 years, that will make me stupidly happy, however that is so far from today that it's hard to think in those terms. That's the point I'm trying to make; writing takes a stupid amount of time just for one book, to decide that you are going to write a 10-book series, get a movie deal and make all of the world's money is a little ridiculous. Think big, but don't think crazy. Some things are important that you need to take them in stride, and I'm not saying don't make those long-term plans, but focus on the bigger ones when they are a little more in reach. Sometimes it's really scary for someone to put all the pieces together and see where the future leads them, and writing shouldn't be like that. It should be something you enjoy no matter what and if it scares you or causes you to be mentally/emotionally crippled in some sense it's not doing that at all. Remember why you're doing it in the first place and hold onto that feeling, or the feeling you had when you hit 'Publish' for the first time and saw the cover of a book (digital or not) with your name on it. That is what will drive you.

Thanks everyone for stopping by again. I'm sorry it was so long, but apparently the more awake I am the more I can collect my thoughts. I really hope all of this made sense too. For now I will leave you to it, and as always I encourage discussions and such as well. I'll be back on Friday for my normal review, hopefully I won't be too far crazy by then. Have a good rest of the week!

04/01/2013 Magnificent Monday!

Hi everyone. Don't worry, while today may be April 1st, I am not one to pull pranks and such, so I'm not going to do some big announcement to string you along. Unless being super tired is an announcement...if that's the case then it's the truth and I just want to crawl back into bed and sleep forever.

I keep telling people that coloring is who I am now, and it certainly feels like it. It's really nice to see that I'm almost to the half way point, but that doesn't mean that it's here yet. More it's on the horizon. Which for being at the week and 2 days mark, is actually pretty good, and makes me feel like I can actually finish this before the deadline. Though I am really happy that I switched to 4 copies in stead of 5.

April is upon us, which means that Spring is official. I'm excited to not have to freeze to death everywhere I go due to the weather, but wait until late April/early May and I will be wanting it back. That's how it normally goes, and I'm not exactly looking forward to that part of it. I am however, looking forward to my Anniversary, so just as a heads up, Monday the 22nd will not have a post that day because I will be giving myself a holiday. I will try to have a post on the morning of the 12th, but we'll have to see how much I need to get done since that is the day of the craft fair and I might be 100% crazy by then.

We've also gotten a couple more followers here, both of are authors that have been recently reviewed. Thank you all so much for keeping an eye on this blog. With each comment, new follower, and new threshold we reach on the views it reminds me why I keep doing this. I know from experience how hard it is to get people to notice you're work, and all I want to do is help as much as I can. I'm happy that so many have recognized this place and hopefully are telling others too.

For now, once again, I appreciate everyone stopping by today. I hope you all have a fun day and a good start to your week. I will be back on Wednesday unless the pencils have killed/turned me into one of them. Right now my plan, after getting the post done that day, is to color while going back to season 1 of 30 Rock and see how far I get. Anyway, have a great day!

03/29/2013 Fantastic Friday!

Hello everyone and welcome back. First I'd like to point out that March is almost over, which in my opinion is absolutely ridiculous. Frankly I'm sorry, it can't almost be April, mostly because I have way too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it in. For now though, let's get to work.

I have 'Lady of Deep Waters' by Jodi Ralston today. A traveler, desperate for shelter finds an old mansion and while thinking it is a wonderful place to sleep for the night, he soon learns that there is more in that place than meets the eye. His only option is to live, and even that might be more difficult than he understands.

Niccla Vega came to that place after seeing all of the things the pegan world still left behind. His job is to convert those to the true path, however in his moment of desperation the welcoming waters of a morning godesss are tempting. He meets the kindly servant and is thankful for the place to stay and be warm. However, it's at night when he sleeps when things start to turn and he has to wonder if his faith is being tested and also whether or not it can stand up to the temptation placed before him.



I decided on this story for the suspense in the morning. It helped me wake up a bit more. 'Lady of Deep Waters' is available for free on Smashwords, so please do check it out and tell everyone about it. I would have written more about how it's a nice complete story for being so short, and the bonus material the author has provided, however I am also working on time constraints so I am really sorry about that.

I appreciate everyone stopping by today. I hope your week has gone well and that everything in your weekend is fun and entertaining. I will be coloring, because that is what I am now; a person that colors. Knowing that April is literally right around the corner is putting me into a panic mode and I must go full-on-coloring crazy if I'm going to get everything completed by the 12th. For now though, have a great weekend!