Back and tired

My daughter and me, giving the "daddy eyebrows" that
we are both known for doing when we are irritated.

In case anyone couldn’t guess, driving from Wisconsin to Las Vegas and back is tiring. When it’s done in a mid-size sedan with four occupants on the way there, and five on the way back, it’s downright exhausting. And when one of those occupants is a 10-year old girl…well, you might be able to imagine how glad we all were to get home.

So, after several days of driving, hotels, bad nights of sleep, and a constant level of tension, followed by four days of absolutely lethargic recovery, I am back at work. And I am welcoming the break.

The whole purpose of the trip was to see my daughter graduate high school, and then to bring her and a good portion of her belongings back home with us. This mission was a success, and really, having her home with us makes it all worthwhile. I was pleasantly surprised that her mother didn’t make any trouble, and was even quite civil. More on that in August, when I am not legally forbidden from speaking ill of certain parties openly.

This trip kicked off a rather busy summer for us. As I may have mentioned, we are buying a house. My wife and I have been married for six years. When we first got married, we lived in a condo. When the economy tanked a couple of years later, and I lost my job, we ended up filing a BK, and losing the condo. We are finally getting back up and dusting ourselves off.

The only saving grace is that the condo was in her name alone (she bought it before we even met), so the foreclosure is not on my credit. So, with a VA loan, we are going to be able to buy a nice, old house with a lot of modern upgrades. Our closing date is July 12th. Which means the next few weeks will involve a lot of packing and planning.

Fortunately for me, my wife is very organized and a bit of a control freak (but not so much as to be heinous about it), which means that the majority of my contribution to the packing and moving will involve heavy lifting and not much else. I can handle that. We also have the advantage of starting earlier than we did last time, so it should go relatively smoothly.

As you can imagine, this past week has not been very productive. I managed the minimum of work for my latest class, and that was about it. No writing, no reading to speak of (though I did manage almost an entire John Carter novel on audio during the drive). I’m hoping to make some progress on a few things this week. But, until we get moved, and settled in, it probably won’t be a whole lot. The good thing is, I will have a little “personal space” where I can retreat from the family, and write unhindered and uninterrupted.

Until then, I will do what I always do; open a file, and chip away during my down-time at work mainly, with an occasional bout at home, if I can.

Vegas, baby!

We're off to Vegas this weekend!  But, it's not what you're thinking.  My daughter graduates High School on Monday, and due to financial constraints, we will be driving rather than flying (four of us on the way there, and five coming back).  It'll be a packed car, but the drive promises to be beautiful.

So, as you can imagine, I won't be around until next week.  I know, I know, how will you survive, right?  Easy, just read my older posts and imagine a different date.  I usually blather on about the same crap anyways.

As a little bit of an update, I started my new class yesterday.  History and Pop Culture; it's not what it sounds like.  At least not according to this professor.  Rather than studying actual pop culture, we are studying the idea of the "city" through the lens of pop culture.  I have some reading to do this weekend that promises to help me get some sleep.

Speaking of reading, been having a hard time finding fiction to read lately.  As you may recall, I set aside a shelf of books that I was determined to get through within the next year.  I finished my first one, and then grabbed the next on my list.  But, despite it being a great story with wonderful writing, my brain couldn't get into the genre (space opera).  So, I set it aside and grabbed a different one.  Again, still can't get into the genre (it's also well-written and promises to be a great book).

Maybe it's all the D&D stuff lately, but I find I want to read some old-school gaming fiction.  I recently picked up a trilogy of books based on the old Spelljammer setting for D&D, so I might start that.  I dunno.

Anyways, ta-ta for now!  See you all next week (though I may sneak in a quick post from Vegas).

Reviews

So, I seem to recall reading in some article about how to succeed at self-publishing in the eMarket that reviews are crucial. There was a possible direct correlation between the number (and of course, ranking) of reviews to the number of units sold. Now, I might be misremembering, and it may not work that way. However, there has to be some truth to this, even if I simply made it up in my mind.

So, on Friday I made an announcement on my Facebook page that I would send anyone who asked in a PM a free copy of whatever story they wanted to review, if they agreed to review it on both Amazon and Smashwords. I gave them until last night to request it.

No one asked. Of course, that may be because I ended the offer with an ultimatum: "If you don't review the story within 14 days, I will publicly out you as a liar and a thief on Facebook." But, I made sure I ended it with a smiley! :) (Although still I would have done it)

So, this idea tanked. I know there are things I should be doing. Advice I get is to ask bloggers to review my stories. Really? That's how it works? I guess so, since a couple of my followers are bloggers who review, and thus get asked to review stories and books.

Still, and this may be a stigma or some such, but the thought of doing that brings up images of panhandling for reviews. Like I'm standing at a blogger's door, my hat nervously in my hands, saying "Please sir, might you review my paltry story for me? I can offer no recompense, but for the feeling of good will you shall receive."

Am I being overly dramatic? Probably. Still, if anyone wants a free copy of a story to review, let me know. I will email you one. This week. After Friday the 7th, no more will be available. :)

Oh, and for those who are thinking I should just offer the story for free for a limited time on Amazon, I can't. My stories are not registered with KDP Select (so I can publish them at other places, like Smashwords), so I can't run promotions. Quite a little scam they got going on over there, I think.

Morning Java



Agesilaus II of Sparta.

 Here I sit at my desk at work.  My boss is on the road today.  I have a few tasks to complete, but nothing all that time-consuming or immediate.  So, of course I open Word, and choose one of my many ongoing writing projects.  This morning it is my Sword & Sorcery novella/novel (I'm aiming for 40-50k, but it could end up being shorter).  I set my old iPhone 3G, which serves as an iPod right now, to playing epic soundtracks (currently Troy).  I place my fingers on the keyboard, stare at the screen like a sprinter waiting for the shot, and then...nothing.

So, when the words have a hard time getting started, what do I do?  I blog!

From my last post, you know that things have been hectic lately.  But, this week things have managed to slow down a bit.  With school being done for a week, and my next class promising to be pretty low-stress (I don't even have to buy any books, as all of the reading will be from the online library and in "handouts"), I have put academia out of my mind a bit.  Not completely, though.

As some of you may know, one of my long-standing projects is a biographical novel about Agesilaus II of Sparta.  He was an interesting character in that, despite being born with a deformity (usually a death-sentence for a Spartan infant), he was spared, and eventually sent to the agoge, even though he was the son of the king.  He excelled in his training and is regarded by the ancient historians Xenophon and Plutarch (among others) as being an extremely just and competent ruler, once he assumed the throne from his brother, Agis.  And yet, his rulership coincided with the downfall of Sparta, from which it would never rise to power again.  Thus history often lays the blame for this at Agesilaus' feet.  Whether that is justified or not, is irrelevant, as that is how history has been recorded for millennia, and is only now starting to change.

Anyways, my initial idea was to write about Agesliaus' youth, of which there is virtually no record.  It seems such a natural fit for historical fiction, as I can make most of it up, as long as the results coincide with recorded history.  However, for a previous class, I did a research paper on this very subject, extrapolating a probable outline of his youth based on what we are told about him, what we know happened during his early life (as in, the Peloponnesian War), and what life for a Spartan was like during that period in history.

I got full marks for the paper, and have even self-published it as a Kindle for $.99 (it's listed on my author page linked above, if you're interested).  This got me to thinking about possibly doing his story not as historical fiction, but as a work of academically researched nonfiction.  I already have a decent start.  I could basically expand on the various points I bring up in my paper until I have about 80,000 words.  Seems simple enough, right?

It's just an idea right now, but I am going to seriously consider it.

In the meantime, I will continue to dabble in my fantasy and science fiction stories, and see where it all leads me.

After I finish my coffee, of course.

Exhausted!

Normally people use three-day, holiday weekends as a time to relax, set aside the stresses and worries of everyday life, and just take things easy.  But not us!  Nope.

On Saturday, we went house shopping.  We looked at five properties, located all over the area.  Interestingly, each one was more appealing than the previous one.  In fact the last two were each damn-near perfect for us.  So, we are submitting an offer this week on #5, with #4 as a back-up.  The house we are trying to get is a pretty big one, with three bedrooms, a pretty modern kitchen, a brand new deck, and two porch rooms that have been converted into living spaces.  And it has a basement that is in really good shape, but I like it because the walls are sealed rock, and with the proper decoration, it could be easily made into a medieval dungeon!

Aside from all of that excitement, I spent a large amount of time on my term paper.  The final product was less-than-perfect, and if I had it to do over, I would have spent more time on the details.  Yet, despite finding a bunch of citation flaws, my professor gave me 24/25 points.  Which gave me a 95.4% in my class!  Yay!  Now it's a week off before I start History of Pop Culture on June 3rd.

In other news, my daughter graduates high school on June 10th, and we will be driving out to Las Vegas to see her graduate, and then bring her back here.  I think there's something cool about the fact that she graduates on the 25th anniversary (to the day) of my own high school graduation.  We're all very excited for her to come back here and help her get started on her adult life.  Her high school experience has been pretty rough (thanks largely to her mom), so we are looking forward to helping her put all of that behind her and starting fresh.

Then there was the normal Memorial Day weekend things like eating too much, and enjoying some good beer.

All in all, a busy weekend.  I'm exhausted, but feeling pretty good now.

Feelings on Self-Publishing

Yesterday, news hit Facebook that Amazon has purchased the rights to certain characters from various TV series (mostly female-oriented ones, from what I read), and will soon be allowing writers to self-publish fan-fiction based on those characters, for profit.  Reactions were all over the place, but among the writers I know, it was a universal grunt of disgust. 

However, a few people were downright enraged by the idea, and expressed their well-thought out grievances accordingly.  What it boiled down to was that this move on Amazon's part was a money-grab based on stroking the egos of wannabe writers who have not "paid their dues" in the publishing industry.  Admittedly, I was a bit hurt by this sentiment at first.  Until I got to thinking about it.

For me, self-publishing has been a journey.  A way to get my works out to potential readers, and get some feedback that will help me become a better writer.  If I can make a bit of change on the side, cool deal.  And although I would love to write a runaway success with millions of copies sold, that's really not the point.  To understand my view, you have to look at the publishing industry as a whole.

Right now, it's tough to get published.  I mean, I think it always has been, and if you get published by an established publisher, or even in a respectable magazine or anthology, that has always been generally viewed as you paying your dues.  You suffer numerous rejections, you work hard to please an editor who shows interest, you cater to their desires for your story, occasionally changing things you would rather not change; all for the sake of being published.  This is the way it has always been, and the way it still is, as far as I can tell.  In fact, I would wager that things are actually tougher today.

The heyday of print fiction magazines are long-gone.  And even their electronic successor, the e-zine, has seen better days.  There just aren't enough paying markets to support the growing number of people who wish to be published authors and writers.  Self-publishing in the pre-eReader age was minor, and relegated to "vanity presses" who didn't do much more than grant your technical wish of seeing your name in print, but for a steep price.  And even though those presses are still working, the eReader boom has probably curtailed some of their influence.

With places like Amazon and Smashwords, all you need is a story, a bit of knowledge about formatting, and a method for making a cover image, and BOOM!  You're a published author.  The problem is, these stories have no oversight.  no editor making changes, or pointing out mistakes and plot-holes, or shoring up crappy writing.  In essence, most self-published eFiction is nothing more than a rough first draft with a cover image slapped on it.

But, those of us who are smart recognize this, and take action accordingly.  Personally, I make sure I act as an editor as well as a writer.  My fiction is short, and it's not hard to see the plot holes, the bad writing passages, and the rough mistakes so common in writing fiction.  With short formats, I can go back and correct those easily, and publish a more-or-less polished product.  So far, it's worked, as my stuff has been generally well-received (I have yet to get less than 4 stars on any one of my stories at Amazon).

To me, this is just another way of "paying my dues."  I am learning how to write better stories, how to use different voices, how to work outside my previously-narrow comfort zones (such as dialogue and gender).  In short, I am learning my craft.  And one ideal I intend to stick to is that I will only self-publish short works.  Longer works will need a dedicated editor.  Someone with no personal investment in the story beyond making sure the best product is presented to the public.

So, to my writer friends who were outraged, be it known that I agree with you 100%.  Fan-fiction for profit has no place in the self-publishing industry.  But, that being said, let's hope that more people than we think will use this opportunity to grow in their craft, and not just use it as a place to find false-validation.

Publication Day!

I am proud to make two announcements today.  First, my collection of short stories, With a Silken Fist, hits Amazon and Smashwords this morning.  This volume collects three stories of fantasy female action (no, not that kind of fantasy action); Pekra, Severance and Blood from Sand.  It should be noted that, even though the former two are still available separately, their versions in this volume have been edited and expanded.  Additionally, I have added an introduction to each story talking about how it came about.

My second announcement is that I have finally figured out Smashwords, and three of my best works are now available there; With a Silken Fist, Blackskull's Captive! and The Orc Way.  So, for those of you who have been chomping at the bit to take part in my literary genius on an eReader other than Kindle, now is your chance!

Links to both of my author pages are above.  Thank you and happy reading!