Archive for the ‘ Self Publishing ’ Category

A Writer’s Bootcamp and Other Exercises

JaCol Publishing‘s Bootcamp for Writers

My publisher, Randall Andrews, and his company JaCol Publishing hold boot camps for writers. I’ve taken done this before, twice. I wrote my first novel, Shift, during a boot camp, and the wrote the bulk of my WIP Shadow Walkers in another. Having the means, and recognizing that I spend more in coffee in a month that than the cost per month of his course I chose to go through this again.

Of course, I will write the sequel to Shift (Title will be a single wort, but I haven’t a clue yet.). Apart from the novel, the boot camp puts me in contact with a group of talented writers and provides an excellent workout to remove those unsightly flabby adjectives from my prose.

An Author’s Platform

This morning, Toni Crowe’s excellent ‘“When Does This Get Easy?” — The Myth Of Author Platform‘ documented the frustrations of building an Author’s Platform, provided a primer to follow her successes and left me envious as hell of her drive.
When I published Shift, I had no idea what an Author’s Platform might be. I dreamed of writing and publishing a book and waiting for the accolades to roll in. I should have realized that books, being oblong with edges did not roll all that well. I am playing catch up without a guide.
Her article comes with a series of steps that I intend to follow. I will report on those efforts as they occur.

Elon Musk’s Stainless Steel Starship (ExtremeTech)

If you ever read or enjoyed images of ships from the Golden and Silver Age of Science Fiction, you would have seen silver rockets sitting on their fins.
Elon Musk’s BFR/Starship resembles those designs, but not our of engineering nostalgia. Stainless steel is their go-to material for good reasons, as Ryan Whitwam of Extreme Tech Explains.

“SpaceX is working on the initial prototype of the Starship rocket (formerly BFR) that could eventually carry people to the moon and Mars. However, CEO Elon Musk recently announced a significant design revision that seems counterintuitive at first. Instead of aluminum and carbon fiber, the company has decided to build the Starship out of stainless steel. Now, he’s explaining why. “

“Elon Musk Explains Why the Starship Will Be Stainless Steel” By Ryan Whitwam on January 24, 2019 at 8:17 am (https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/284346-elon-musk-explains-why-the-starship-will-be-stainless-steel

Do I Need to Redesign My Website?

Went looking for writers on WordPress, the agenda being to follow them, and when it is appropriate, quote them on the site to get exposure for my website. I found “26 Best Minimalist WordPress Themes for Writers,” which indicates websites that are better for reading and easy to manage.
I suspect that I need to research writers’ websites and make mine more like theirs.

What am I Waiting For?

I have four complete novels, along with my writing, I am going to edit them and get them ready for Beta Readers and publishing.

2019
02/04
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Hard-Earned Writing Wisdom

Does this owl make me look wise?
Photo by Jessy Paston on Unsplash

“Good things happen to those who work at it, but never in a hurry. “
Frank Darbe expressing his sense of frustration by paraphrasing an old proverb.

“Hurry up and Wait is a thing.”
Old Navy saying Frank Darbe relearns every freaking day of his life.

“If at first you don’t learn something, bash your head against the wall a few more times. Wisdom penetrates thick skulls only with encouragement.”
Coined by me, Frank Darbe, while taking three Ibuprofen after a learning experience. 

“Avoiding work is the quickest route to failure, but it proves I, too, can be spectacular at something.”
Anonymous, but really, we all know anonymous is Frank Darbe.

“Coining fake hard-earned wisdom proverbs is avoiding work, by pretending to work and takes more time and effort than work. “
Refer to Frank Darbe’s previous Hard-Earned Wisdom Snippet concerning the avoidance of work.

“A writer pours out both heart and soul for his audience. Though it may only be an audience of one, the writer himself, one can be a damned appreciative audience.
By (applause, applause) the Writer himself. Frank Darbe.

“A 100-word logline is a thesis, not a logline and proves that the writer requires remedial courses in grammar and salesmanship.”
Paraphrased from words spoken by an agent to Frank Darbe at his first Writers and Editors Convention. To which, Frank answered, “What’s a logline?”

“If you never failed at something, you never learned anything. Do you think coming up with good pithy phrases is easy?”
Said by Frank Darbe to his wife when he failed to carry out the trash while coining pithy sayings. Trust Frank, leaning that was painful. He doesn’t sleep well on couches.

“Do not wait for success as a writer. Throw words at your keyboard until the screen vomits, and then self-publish.”
Frank Darbe says, rescue me, I am trapped by a deadline set by monkeys forcing me to write words at random until they become wise.

“That’s it. That’s it. You’re perfect, said no writer ever after penning the first sentence of a fantasy epic for the thousandth time.”
Frank Darbe didn’t say that, and it wasn’t a thousand times really.

“Lists of Hard-Earned wisdom are like goodbyes spoken to visiting relatives, they go on too long but are sincere.”

2019
02/02
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Writer’s Log 01.27.2019 – 1055

Yesterday I faced the beast embodied in a big photo of the seat of my pants. Non-obligatory pantser joke. Realizing my novel went in the wrong direction, I backed up and figured out where I went wrong. I asked questions about motivation, conflict, how scenes contribute to the end.
I’m losing some words, but it will be a better book.

STOP THE PRESSES!!! I DID NOT TAKE MY MED!!!

I know that may seem hyperbolic, but anti-depressants put my mind together, and without it, I will be mired in self-doubt and playing Wizard 101 for hours between starting a new novel every other day before flushing it down the crapper. There but for the grace of Doctor Sitapati go I.
Some may be taken aback by my confession. Some may label me weak, or crazy, or DEPRESSED, which society often considers worse than the others.
If they break an arm, they see a doctor. No harm no foul.
If they have cancer, they see a much more expensive doctor. It’s their health, and there is no shame in taking care of themselves.
People who are depressed, or suicidal, or schizophrenic, or labeled as having some emotional problem, should tough it out. THAT IS WRONG! If you are sick, you are sick. Don’t be shamed or feel ashamed. GET HELLP!

Now to get to work.

2019
01/27
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Sometimes Things Break Down

Lady Ven Aleyo
Creative Commons PIxabay

Monday’s post was late because I forgot to publish. Yesterday, I wrote most of a new chapter 1 of Starjackers, and set up a series in Medium (You need to do another) and now I am trying to catch up.

I lost count of how much I wrote today, though I appear to be around 1500+ words on StarJackers. I also added the Romance subplot. Ven Aleyo has changed from my original idea and is now a Subspecies living on the colony of Venice, a mostly water world with cites built around the few pieces of ground that rise above the waves of floating cities. As I see the planet, It is an old world where plate tectonics has ceased.

In Medium, I have created to Series that are used to showcase the articles and stories. I am happy with those.

Wow. I made a snap decision to finish Spell Thief as another Novella, eventually reaching about 35 thousand words. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I started, I think it came along very well. Spell Thief was going to be the first of a fantasy series, anyway, and it is a perfect match to Starjackers. I am setting my goal with Spell Thief to 500 words a day.

Today, I wrote well in excess of 2000 words. I admit that I am very happy where things are heading. I really want to reach a point where I have several books in Amazon, and hopefully start bringing in a bit of money.

2019
01/23
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Self-Publishing and Twitter Advertisements

I have not self-published but am moving in that direction. This article about Allphageek, aka Joshua Smith, by  is a great source for using Twitter to advertise.

How To Set Up Twitter Ads For Your Books: A Complete Guide By Alfageek

I intend to buy it.

2017
03/17
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