Spice Ralphie
Just wanted to say it’s done(ish). Still a lot of editing to do, lots of mistakes and inconsistencies to fix. I mean, I have people’s hair color changing from one chapter to the next, and they’re not even teenagers. But I did it, I finished the sequel to Kick, and I’m happy with the result.
I thought I’d spice-up my word count Ralphie this weekend.
Filed under Writing Experience
I think I’m going to invest in one of those word count tracker things for the blog. My problem is I have a wordpress.com site, and they limit the plugins available. I need to do more research. Meanwhile, this last week was touch and go for a while. By Friday, I’d only written 4,000 words. I’d hit a transitional point in the story (the middle), and had to go slow while I sorted it out. That’s right, I’m writing the middle 🙂 I actually wrote the ending first, the beginning second, and…yes, complicated and obtuse, but that’s how it happened. Anyway, sitting at 69k of fun for the whole family. I’d like to end it at around 80k, but if not, so be it. Who wants to read long strings of “very very very very” in front of everything? Anyway, it looks like the first draft of the sequel to Kick will be done in a week or two. During the editing phase, I may drop a few comments on how I’m doing with it, but that’s it.
Filed under Writing Experience
If you dare…
Filed under Awesome Indies, Grammar/Punctuation, Writing Experience
Ok, this message is to the 12.5 people out there who actually come to my sad little blog and read about my dumb word counts every week. First of all, thank you, you rock. Second of all, allow me to return the favor by telling you a rather astonishing piece of news: Dell Zero is now available on Amazon.
Dell Zero, by Carol Ervin, author of Girl on the Mountain, is hands-down one of the best dystopian sci-fi novels I’ve ever read (I beta’d it). The story was so incredible, and the writing so good, that I recently offered to buy it for a friend of mine. And seriously, me buying stuff for people? I don’t do that, I’m way too cheap. I mean look at the masthead on my blog — it’s my book cover, stretched wide. Who does that, really?
For centuries, Vita-meds have kept the Chapter’s populace at peace and on task, constantly restored to youth and vigor. How wonderful it should be! But on meds, everyone forgets, and John doesn’t feel wonderful. Now his colleague is missing, and though no one in the Chapter ever disappears, John fears he may be next. And what is he to make of his colleague’s replacement, Dell? Is she an aberration, a worker who has survived for centuries without transformation, or an outlaw, one of the species who breed in the wild?
Even Dell doesn’t know where she came from. She’s grown up in the system without being part of it. If she’s not careful she’ll be branded an outlaw. She’s desperate to belong somewhere, maybe to someone, but in the Chapter, no one loves, and no one breeds.
The Chapter of the immortals is crumbling, threatened by sloppy work, sabotage and power struggles. While old-timers languish, newborns like Dell–-the ones who haven’t been transformed–-will save or destroy their world.
Filed under Awesome Indies
Why Lindy Moone writes (the shocking untold story)…
I’ve been asked by Christina L. Rozelle, author of The Truth About Mud (the second-longest story in my troll anthology), to post “Why I Write.” If you have blog-hopped here from there, thank you for coming. If you have hopped here from elsewhere, please hop on over to the link above. (Not now! Sheesh!)
Of course, there are lots of answers to Christina’s question — a different one for every day. A month ago I might have answered glibly, “Because it’s fun to wantonly use adverbs,” and run away — figuratively, of course, since my ass was firmly planted in this chair and it was hot, so my elbows were hopelessly stuck to the desk. (They still are.)
Here’s me, showing my panties to a cabbage
I started writing (actually printing) as a four-year-old, when I made up stories about the family that lived in my closet — the closet I…
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Filed under Uncategorized
I just posted something about “jungle-search.com”. Sorry for the back-to-back posts, but I just got permission to post Tammy K’s wonderful breakdown on how she chooses her ebooks. It’s sort of fascinating:
[link to the original discussion]
Tammy K, of Pro-Active Destruction says…
Yesterday, while on Facebook, I came across an author asking about her book’s blurb and cover. She was looking for ways to increase her downloads/sales.
I offered her some advice on her cover. Today I seen that she had ideas to improve her books blur (description).
The more that I thought about this conversation the more I pondered the ‘reasons’ that I download one book over another.
When I browse titles at any website, a couple of things are running through my mind before I even click on the books.
• I have X amount of time to shop.
• I have x amount of room on my kindle/cloud
• I have an interesting in reading w, x, y and z genres
• I have X amount of money left on my monthly eBook allowance.
Filed under Writing Market
A mighty reviewer over on Goodreads uses this search engine to find kindle books. I had no idea there was a tool like this out there. I post it here for your happiness:
Filed under Writing Market
I was lucky enough to beta read it. Absolutely incredible story, had me tearing through the pages when I was supposed to be looking for problems. Worst beta self-control ever 🙂
Dell Zero, my first science-fiction novel, is almost ready to go. And whew!
I’m sure I hold the record for the number of uploads to Kindle Direct Publishing, attempting to get my desired ebook layout. My effort feels like the greatest, worst, and most exhausting. The final arrangement is not exactly what I wanted, but if ever I need to correct a typo, I can do it myself. Being able to do it yourself is worth a lot.
There are many ways to achieve good ebook formatting, and the best is to have a professional do it! Some of my friends achieve the results they want with techniques I don’t know. “It’s easy,” they say. Not for me.
Of all the advice I found in forums and blog posts, Amazon’s “Building Your Book For Kindle” (a free Kindle book) was easiest and most helpful. I wish its writer would write…
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Filed under Awesome Indies
The wife and I saw Guardians of the Galaxy over the weekend and we absolutely loved it. When it comes out on Amazon, totally buying it. One of those movies you can play on infinite loop. Great music too.
Filed under Just Cool
In addition to the ebook free for download on Amazon, Mark Capell has also produced an audiobook, which you can listen now for free. It will also be available soon on iTunes as a podcast, and also Podiobooks.
Filed under Awesome Indies
John L. Monk 