So, I made a decision re. books. It's a biggie, and as with all of my Best Laid Plans there is a good possibility I won't achieve this one. But here it is: I am going to endeavour to clear some of the books from my shelves before buying any more. I'm aiming to read at least 12 books that I already own or have borrowed before I buy anything new. Even if there's a book coming out that I really, really want. Or if it's something by one of my few auto-buy authors. Even then, I have to wait. Due to various life & writing things I'm reading pretty slowly at the moment, so we're talking about a minimum of 12 weeks without making any new book purchases. *bites nails*
But I need to save money and I have so much to read already. So much AMAZING stuff. :)
Currently, I'm reading this:
Really, really enoying it. So far I've only read Ms. Hoffman's short fiction, but after this book I know I'll be picking up a lot more of her novels.
Next up is this:
I have to read it because Ana tells me I must. She said, "Do it for me, please?" And how can I deny her that? *g*
And then I shall finally read a book that has sat on my shelves unloved and unread for over a year:
I think it's cool that my latest three books will be a lyrical, offbeat fantasy; a children's fantasy with, I hear, a massive twist (PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL IT FOR ME!); and then a military science fiction novel, but one that brings Aboriginal mythology into the science - I've heard wonderful things about this and can't wait to try it. I'd forgotten how much I used to love space opera!
And then nine more from the many, many books I have lined up. I wonder what will be next?
- Mood:
tired
Copy edits for Hulk Hercules are in my inbox. That means that I have two writing tasks for tomorrow, but HH: PW takes priority.
Catherine
Mirrored from Writer Tamago.
Ninety degrees even in the shade. The kind of weather that makes even breathing a chore for a pale mushroom PNW girl like me. If not for the air-conditioning unit I bought–was it last summer? Or so?–I would so be laying under a sprinkler right now and cursing the weather gods.
The blogging has been falling off my radar lately, mostly because of Personal Stuff. My method of coping is to work like hell. Unfortunately, when I get the decks clear and I’ve worked my way through the pile of OMG DEAL NOW I have on my virtual desk…then my body says, “Remember you told us as soon as you were done with X we’d get some time? OK, you’re done with X. HERE I AM.” Mmmh, fun.
Before I go any further, I should issue a few disclaimers. I am not a mental health professional, nor do I play one on TV. I offer the following out of my experience, YMMV, and I am not diagnosing or pointing fingers. I just want to say this and get it out there.
I’m seeing a couple of my acquaintances, online and otherwise, deal with malignant narcissists. I’m hearing a lot of, “I thought I was prepared, but I feel stupid now because they insinuated themselves into my life…”
I want to say this right now. Malignant narcissists etc., or even borderline malignant narcissists, have made a study of getting what they want from people. They work on that like the rest of us work on our social skills, careers, and hobbies put together. Of course they’re good at it–they practice their whole lives. Falling prey to someone like that isn’t something to be ashamed of or to feel unreasonably stupid over. They practice until they get good, and are constantly refining their crafts the way cheetahs have constantly refined short-burst running.
I am betting, my friend, that neither of us could outrun a cheetah (without some help from an internal combustion engine or something.) That doesn’t make us stupid. It means we’ve spent our energy on other things.
I don’t think a lot of people who have this sort of thing enter their lives realize that they’ve been conned by masters. Lots of victims or people whose lives intersect briefly with malignant narcissists feel like they should have seen it, known how to react, done something else. What they don’t realize is that they were up against someone who had practiced and practiced and practiced, in one way or another, every single day FOR YEARS. When you’re a normal person, you don’t feel so bad about being beaten by an Olympic athlete, do you? Of course not. They’ve practiced for years to get where they are.
Malignant narcissists have practiced every single ever-loving day. I’ve seen them hone their skills to get what they want, up close. I’ve witnessed it. If all that energy was put toward another activity, like curing cancer or picking up litter, the world would be a much better place.
But that doesn’t happen. We’re stuck with what we’ve got here. Don’t make that other person’s victory complete by bemoaning how stupid you think you were and letting them win a battle going on inside your own skull. Don’t give them that real estate. They don’t deserve it. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, learn from it, and go on.
It is the best revenge.
That is all.
Posted from A Fire of Reason. You can also comment there.
I've seen this question asked and answered for "between acceptance and publication" but what about after publication? I've done some contests, guest blogs, set up more of that to come. I've been to cons, scheduled more cons, signed books for folks, seen it on the shelves and I'm just soooo hyped. LOVE IT!! It's all amazing. I'm sooo not complaining, but would any of you established authors share your experience of the months just after publication? What did you do after your first book came out and how has that changed to the current? Do you have a process or schedule? What mistakes did you make? What worked better than you'd expected to gain exposure? What questions should I be asking here that haven't occurred to me yet??? :-)
- Mood:
ecstatic
When I'm not watching 48 Hours you might find me at SDCC, in the following places:
Thursday, July 23
Escapist Fantasy Room 10, 10-11 am
Panelists: Juliet Blackwell (SECOND HAND SPIRITS); Marjorie Liu (DARKNESS CALLS); Jackie Kessler & Caitlin Kittredge (BLACK & WHITE); Diana Rowland (MARK OF THE DEMON); Sina Grace (CEDRIC HOLLOWS IN DIAL M for MAGIC); Seanan McGuire (ROSEMARY AND RUE); and Harry Connolly (CHILD OF FIRE).
Moderator: Maryelizabeth Hart, Mysterious Galaxy
Saturday, July 25
Random House booth, #1128 3:30-4:30 pm
Signing FREE COPIES of Black and White with Jackie Kessler (and anything else of mine you bring along, too, though it's not there for free...I'm not enforcing a superheroes-only rule.)
Sadly everything else I'm up to is meetings or private offsite events...but if you see me, talk to me. It's what I'm there for.
---
I hit a snag on "Rusty Cage" and I need to take a step back and rethink. Here's the rub--I've been quietly working on a historical fantasy proposal for a couple of months, and I've been using shorts to introduce various core aspects of the world. "Perdition", which is in Mammoth Book of Sparklepires Vampire Romance 2 is, quite obviously, vampires. I want "Rusty Cage" to be for shapeshifters, but I'm having a hard time reconciling all of the bits and bobs into a whole story. Also, the time period jumps ahead about fifty years, from Arizona Territory to Depression-era Tennessee.
My hope is that if and when the proposal is complete and sold, I can reprint "Perdition", "Rusty Cage" and a third story which introduces the sort-of-but-not-really demonic forces of the world into a sort of primer for the first novel, which I've been calling Haunted. Haunted takes place in postwar Japan, but the bones of the plot start much, much earlier.
Anyway, I'm having a think and in the meantime I'm having a fine old time playing with a project that is in no way speculative fiction. Yup, you heard me...I have crossed over into a world with absolutely no fairies, werewolves or vampires (sparkling or otherwise). Idle hands and idle minds and all that.
I should do some laundry and start packing for San Diego, so I'm off.
| Originally published at Caitlin Kittredge. |
- Music:48 Hours MYSTERY!!
The Summer Reading Trail is a project designed to promote author name awareness with readers and industry professionals by providing a free read. Each author's read page will be connected to another's, creating a trail of links.
Reads can be an original story, deleted scene or a promotional excerpt from a published book (as per publisher guidelines) and can be sweet, sexy or erotic/adult. These should be published on the author's blog or website so visitors can have an opportunity to explore.
Writers interested in being included should visit http://www.voireylinger.com/index.p
*** Permission to Forward ***
(I've signed up for this. David)
I've talked about this before, but something new has been brought to my attention and I want to talk about it again. I may or not make this public - depends on how many people I want to find it. I really don't need a bunch of chuch people from around the web coming and yelling at me about this, but it needs to be said.
So, the private Baptist school I went to had this pastor (a former Kansas City, MO detective). He wasn't our principal, although for a while, he did teach our Bible class. Sometime during my senior year, our pastor starts teaching sunday school services about demonology, possession and oppression by demons and spiritual warfare in general. These classes continue, even after I've graduated and moved on. Then, about a year after I left the school, (while my siblings were still at the school) our pastor's wife shot and killed her daughter (for wanting to move out of the house at 24 and live her own life - she wanted to move to the local seminary for college, and have her own place) and then herself. This happened about 8:30am on a school day, and the shots were loud enough to be heard across the parking lot which is all that separated their house, and the school. The gun used was the pastor's service pistol from his time with the police in KC.
For the following month, the teachers, preachers and parents at the school were in a state of shock. However, at one point, the faculty though it was a good idea (and not being there, I'm not sure which teachers were involved) to bring the kids together to tell them what happened. Their explanation, we later heard from my junior high aged brother was that the daughter was possessed by a demon, and that's why she wasn't listening to her parents wishes for her to remain at home. Her mother had figured this out, and was trying to help her daughter, when she realized what she'd done, she took her own life. For any sane and logical parents, this was about the time they started pulling their children out of the school. Sadly, the loss of students wasn't enough for them to have to shut down. However, the pastor left the church and a new one (a guy that was pretty new to the school and church in general) was instated in his place.
Shortly thereafter (I'm guessing about the time the police decided he didn't have anything to do with either shooting), the pastor decides to leave town. Within a year, he's living in Iowa and has remarried (to a woman he'd had no prior - that we know of - contact with). His first wife and he had been high school sweethearts, and had married soon out of high school. The daughter he lost was the youngest of two girls. The eldest had recently moved back to KC with her husband and first child, where of course, her husband was immediately hired as a teacher at the school - despite having no prior experience teaching and having to first fire the teacher that was already employed in that position. (I'm still a little bitter about that.)
Anyhow, it's now nearly 9 years later (almost 10) and today, my mom shared with me that she'd found some mentions of this pastor online. He tried, unsuccessfully, to run for State Senate in Iowa, two years ago. Now, he's gotten a doctorate (I'm guessing from the bible college he and his wife have taught out and attend church at), and is an evangelist. He travels around the country preaching on spiritual warfare. The pages that list him as a Senate canidate only mention that his previous wife has 'passed away', and no mention of his time at my school - despite the fact that he preached there for close to 20 years, after his time in the police service. Of course, no mention of this black mark on his history is mentioned anywhere.
Instead, he's applauded as a great preacher, one with extensive knowledge about counseling and healing broken families. And of course, best of all his knowledge of spiritual warfare. Although I doubt that he mentions the death of his daughter or wife much in those sermons. I'd have to listen to them to know for certain, but that's not something I really plan on doing. I've heard most of them before, and it makes me physically ill to think that he's still teaching this disgusting crap to people. Believe what you will about the forces of the universe for good or ill. But I've had some pretty first hand knowledge with how this crap works (some of it with this man), and it is just that. Crap.
If you want to listen - but I warn you not to listen for long, lest it make you angry. Here's the page my mom found with the whole set of his sermons on spiritual warfare. I'm making this an anonymous link, so it doesn't link back here when you click on it.
Feel free to ask me questions - I'm still upset about finding this, so I'm not sure how well I've explained everything here. But I'll share my experiences if people want to know and don't already.
Some other related articles I don't mind linking to: About Jenny About the shooting The last time I wrote about this
- Location:edwardsville, ks
- Music:Flyleaf - All Around Me | Powered by Last.fm
Lately, I find myself a little more motivated to write in the journal than write on the novel. In an attempt to nip that habit in the bud, the journal becomes the carrot that I get to do after the day's writing.
And, you know, I feel pretty good after the writing, so I don't get the reluctance on my part. Right now, I feel great. I guess it's like working out, how sometimes you don't want to do it, but you're glad you did after.
In spite of reflux, I have know finished chapter five (neener, neener, heartburn!). I also added a new godmother scene into chapter four. I've been from fairly lighthearted to very dark today.
Here's where things get a little complicated. I've got chapter six outlined and rough drafted. Highlights of Chapter Six: undercover frost elves, an alliance of two flavors of godmother, and Manuel goes to see the hulder in the woods.
Chapter Seven gets complicated as it begins a good chunk of the expansion that has to go into this thing to make it bigger. I'm currently thinking of it as the young troll angst chapter. I hope the subconscious makes good gumbo. Overall, though, the percentage of story rewritten will go down, because of all the added scenes.
Well, statisticians, for you. First, scenes.
Now, word count.
Off to book group.
Catherine
Mirrored from Writer Tamago.
So this is the first post in this summer’s series, which is a bit late, I know, thanks to moving and deadlines and one thing and another.
Anyway. I anticipate it will last through mid-August or so, and I’m hoping to get a few guest posts in.
Oh, and. The series isn’t really going to be about finding a critique partner per se, although we will touch on it several times throughout. In fact, if you’re looking for a CP, why not go ahead and mention it in comments? What you write, what you’re looking for? Who knows, maybe someone will match up.
But I’m going to do a little bit of an unorthodox start to this, one, I think, and we’ll try to have fun along the way (as I always do.) First, I’d love it if someone would send me something to crit. BUT. Hold on. Wait until you hear what I want to do first, okay? (And if nobody sends me anything I’ll pull something out of my files.)
( Read the rest of this entry » )Originally posted at Stacia Kane. You can comment here or there.- Mood:
sore
If you're still sad about that, this should cheer my down under friends up. Penguin Australia, who brings you Vampire Academy, has some pretty amazing things going on for you guys. While the exact itinerary of my September tour is still being planned, here's one thing I can announce. On September 18, 6-9pm, there will be a "Vampire Academy Tour After Party." It'll be at St. Andrew's in Sydney and feature everything you expect from a party, like a DJ and food. Guests will also get bags of books and other goodies and have the chance for photos, signings, etc. Oh, and I'll read a (small) excerpt of Spirit Bound, in all its rough draft glory. This is a ticketed event ($20 AUS) and tickets go on sale July 24 (your time) at this website, which also gives more details about the event.Next up is a contest, which is good news for those who don't live in the cities I'm visiting. Penguin Aus is having a contest with Dolly magazine (which I hear is pretty awesome down there), in which you, a friend, and your parent/guardian (if you're under 18) will be flown to Sydney to interview me and attend the After Party. What do you have to do for this? You have to film an audition video for YouTube that shows why you should be my reporter for the day. Entries will be accepted starting August 1, so get filming! The official rules and how to submit the video are here.
Pretty sweet? If my American readers now feel neglected, remember that Penguin US (the publisher who brings you Vampire Academy in the states) is offering you a contest here for money and signed books. Thank my publishers, everyone. For they are good to you. And to me.
- Location:Lair
- Mood:
happy
There’s a meme doing the rounds (one day I’ll figure out what a meme is), prompting people to post their WIP first lines.
A couple of weeks ago, I put up some of mine. Since then, I’ve kept my eyes peeled, looking for other people to do the same, but haven’t seen too many.
I've only started one more WIP this month, a 100-word drabble called Canary in a Coalmine. Here's the first line:
Twelve hours after the tunnel collapsed, the last oil lamp went out.
How about you guys?
What’s the first line from your current WIP?
If you’ve already posted yours, feel free to link to the relevant entry in the comments section, if you haven’t, why not take a couple minutes to post an entry with them and link here?
Who knows, your first line could inspire a completely different story for someone else. 
- Mood:
creative
Chatper 4 of Bone Shop is live! As this week's author notes (best read after the chapter itself) reveal, I almost failed to get this update ready in time because life intervened. Strenuously. But, it's here, and I'm quite happy with it. Hope you all like it too!
And if you have complaints for the management or enthusiastic praises or cockeyed conspiracy theories, feel free to air them on the new Bone Shop forum.
( Read more... )
frustrated
atest release in her Zodiac series.- Location:home
- Mood:
bouncy
Newsweek is discussing why ladies love vampires this week:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/207128
Tomes have been written about the symbolic appeal of the vamp. What do you think? Why do you love the bloodsuckers? Is it the old-fashioned manners? The possibility of convincing him to give you eternal life? The sparklies?
I'll start: There's something nice about a guy who only has twelve hours a day to leave his dirty socks around the house. There's somthing to be said for the comatose dirt nap.
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gregvaneekhout : I'm sure if I'd understand if I knew more about surfing. [+5] - kazdreamer : It's been a while... [+6]
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fangs_fur_fey :: linda_robertson : What to expect? [+0] - blackaire : Another 48 Hours [+1]
- david_bridger : The Summer Reading Trail [+0]
- cherith : I have lots of words. [+5]
- cathschaffstump : The Carrot [+2]
- stacia_kane : Summer Series: On Critiques [+4]
- marumae : Broken Things [+0]
- blue_succubus : The latest for Australian fans [+15]
- jongibbs : WIP first lines – part deux [+24]
- urbanfantasyfan :: jo_scrawls : Review: Embrace the Night by Karen Chance [+0]
- tapratt : Bone Shop: Chapter Four [+0]
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- pubd2b : (no subject) [+0]
- wtfbrain : I hate waiting [+0]
- jocelynndrake : Contest Round 2: Vicki Pettersson [+9]
- lbickle : The Lady and the Vamp [+1]
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