Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Headshot: Part of this Business of Writing


Here's the headshot I had taken by a photographer offering a Groupon coupon.  I'm not that happy with it, but then again I'll probably never be happy with any picture of me.  At least I don't look like an idiot-savant like I do in some pictures.  :-)  I'm sure the photographer thought I was terrible, mostly because I'm not good in front of a camera unless I'm joking around.  I don't know if I'll use this or not.  We'll see.

I think I need a haircut ...

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Sundays, Business of Writing, and New Story Percolates

It appears that Sundays are quickly becoming my day to blog. What with my real job (because, sadly, I still need a paycheck) and trying to write and have at least a small social life and a clean house, Sundays are the days I finally get to sit down and think about what happened the preceeding week.

So in keeping with it being Sunday, the preceeding week has been spent, by and large, promoting Couillon on FaceBook.  I created a FB Ad that will run for a month, and I joined several writer/reader FB groups, groups where you post your latest e-book and hopefully get some interest, although I'll be surprised if I get any hits from these groups, as it appears that most of the people in the group are of the writer kind and not the reader kind.  Most of the posts are links to an e-book somewhere on the web.  There is little to no interaction between the group members, which is kind of sad. 

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Lost

This past week, with no editing or writing or revisioning to do, I felt completely lost.  I haven't been at the beginning of the writing process in so long that I have forgotten what it was like to just be able to muse about what ifs, and in some ways it's put a lot of stress on me because I don't have the comfortable characters, the ones I've had in my head for the past few years, surrounding me in my schizophrenic state of writing. 

Now, I have to create new characters and get to know them intimately.  I have to learn what types of food they enjoy eating and if they drink or smoke dope... or worse.  I have to learn their most hidden secrets, and then like a bad friend, reveal those secrets to the world.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Other Reviews - Thanks Everyone

My friends have been very generous with their reviews on Amazon.  So far none have been posted on B&N or Smashwords, but then again most of my friends have Kindles.  My two hardest critics, and hardest working critics (they both helped edit and re-work along the way), each gave me a 4 out of 5.  But that's because they know, and I know, that I can do better. And will do better. Plus they turned around an praised my work in a way that was over the top. So in reality, they gave me a 5.  :-)

What's interesting is that Amazon is already pulling quotes from these reviews.


And then there's the entertaining aspect to all of this. The following was posted on facebook, by my friend Ann Piraino:

"Finished the review for Sara's book Coullion. It got a 4 from a guy who matched her (Nellie!!) against Stephen King - OMG what a kudo! I have read it twice in print version and Mike is buying me the Kindle version so I can carry it around!"





Stern-Rake Studio: Book Review: Couillon

My friend Ted did a brilliant (and I'm not just saying that because it's favorable) review of Couillon. Ted is a writer and wargamer.  He writes about wargaming too.  You can read all about his work on his blog at   http://sternrakestudio.blogspot.com/ 

But I really think he should be writing book and movie reviews for the newspapers around here.  He was able to sum up my story so much better than I have been able to.

You'll find the review at http://sternrakestudio.blogspot.com/2012/08/book-review-couillon.html

Wow, was I Wrong!

You know how last Sunday I said that I won't have anything to do now that Couillon has been pushed to the e-publishers and the novel was in the hands of three agents, well I was wrong.  So, so wrong.

Last weekend, I rushed to get everything done so I could have a bit of a breather, a vacation of sorts, but I screwed myself, because I was busy all week, this week, with work and personal commitments. And fretting about being a failure because I put out a flawed piece of work.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Nothing to do...

Friday, the third and final submission to agents went out, which means there's no need to edit my novel, until I get feedback.  And Couillon went to epub this weekend.  So now I have nothing to do.  I've been working so long on the novel and then the past six months on Couillon, that it feels strange to have nothing to work on, no editing, no formatting, no creating cover images.

Now I have to come up with a new story.  Count Crows (working title) started with me hearing Ode to Billy Joe -- you know, "Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge".  It didn't actually go in that direction, but it started me thinking about what would happen...

Pinocchio...

Today, I feel like Pinocchio when he became a real boy.  I've been wishing for so long to be published, and now it's happened. I'm real too.

I worked most of yesterday and part of today getting Couillon, my short story, out there, and I have a  new respect for all the work a publisher does.  After sorting out copyrights and ISBNs and formats for each individual seller, Couillon is now available for sale via Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. 

I'm having a glass of champagne right now to celebrate, but trust me, it's a ruse.  Until today, until I opened myself up to the world, not just to people who are my friends, I had a safe cocoon built where I didn't have to face whether or not I'm a good writer.  I know, whiny, but still insecurity is one of my biggest problems.  Yes, I've learned to put up a facade that makes me look confident -- thank you, IBM consulting job -- but that's all it is, a facade.  I almost had a panic attack last night just thinking about all the people who are going to hate my story.

Being real is scary.