Ramble on!

I should make an update, I suppose. So I’ll cover the positives first. I picked up a copy of Alice: Madness Returns, and I’ve played about 2% of it according to my stats. What I’ve seen so far is really different from the first game. It’s evolved, and the use of cinematic cut scenes with paper puppets sets is really intense, at times even gory. Yet the game is also very pretty. The first game feels very boxy and dated after spending just a few minutes exploring the new locations. The first shots of London and its characters show off the game engine nicely, but then you get to Wonderland, and…my gosh, it’s breathtaking.

In Teen Wolf, the alpha was revealed, and my wild guess was totally wrong. (No, I’m not going to spoil this for people coming to the show late. You deserve a chance to enjoy the mystery too.) But I’m not disappointed by who it is, and I am in fact antsy to get the next episode. Really cannot gush strongly enough about this show, peoples.

My diet and exercise are working to trim me down. When I started, I looked skinny in photos, but if I smacked my tummy, the fat rippled around to my butt and all the way down to my knees. People often can’t grasp that a skinny person can become too fat and no one notices. But as I gain fat, I lose muscle. So for a while, even I have trouble telling when I’m starting to pig out.

But when I smack my belly now, only my belly jiggles. My thighs are all mucle again, and my butt looks fantastic. (^_^) This progress is in spite of all the bad days where I laid on the couch in agony from weather shifts. So I have to say, the Kinect was a great purchase for me, and it’s really helping me to get back in shape.

Begging for adoptions…

Today, I’d like to plead the case for The Life and Death of a Sex Doll and remind you that it is still 25% off at Smashwords with the code SSW25 until the end of July. It’s also available on Kindle, and in a print edition, limited to 100 copies.

I realize some of you might be shying away from it because you think you know what this story is about the moment you see the words Sex Doll in the title. Let me assure you, despite the fact that multiple characters in these two novellas are sex dolls, this story is not about sex. And if you’re still worried that I’m going to lead you into a porn shoot, I’d like to allay those concerns. This is not a book about sex.

Instead, these novellas are about family, and about the elastic qualities that label can have in our modern world. The story draws inspiration from The Electric Grandmother, the film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s short story I Sing the Body Electric and from an article I’d read on talking electronic companion dolls in Japan. I wondered what it would be like if someone adopted a doll not to use as a companion, but as a prop in a game of house. That reminded me of Bradbury’s story, which I’d not thought of in ages. But I wondered if in a future where companions could be as expressive and real as that electric grandmother was, what would happen if someone took a machine made for pleasure and taught it to be something more?

I don’t want to give too much away and take away from the journey, but I think a lot of you are avoiding this book because you’re expecting something else. Let me assure you, this is one of my lighter stories, and in this world, even my zombies are polite. (Yes, there really are zombies in the story. No, they do not eat anyone. Promise.)

So, you get two novellas for the price of one, and both are guaranteed to be unique, unlike anything else you’re reading. If you’re still not convinced, you can try a preview through Amazon’s Kindle store or on Smashwords, or use the Search Inside feature to checkout out the preview for the print edition.

So please, please, check out the preview and consider picking up a copy. I need to find more good homes willing to adopt this book.

So, about last night…

I posted up the book on Amazon, got all my stuff lined up and promoted, and then went and looked at the “final proof.” No. No nononono, dear lord, no. I found a major timing error that would have led to massive amounts of confusion during the early chapters. I also found several instances where the narration shifts from present tense to past tense. I could not let these files go out like this, but they were already live.

I had two options. I could break down and sulk in a heaping depression about once again being a loser, or I could fix the files and upload them again. I chose option C, doing both. So last night I dropped on the couch for a sulk, and then I got up early this morning and started going through the book again.

Along the way, I found yet another doozy of a timing mistake, and I fixed it. Then I looked over at Amazon and learned that some folks had already bought a copy of the bad file. Now, I don’t know which ones of you did it, but whether you bought a copy of the book from Amazon or Smashwords, I owe you a replacement book. So if you contact me by forwarding you Amazon invoice of Smashwords confirmation email, I will email you a replacement in your preferred format. And I apologize for the inconvenience. I really thought I whacked all of these problems back in draft 4.

Tomorrow I have to send polite queries to the reviewers and ask if they’re willing to take a replacement file for the one I’d sent them. They don’t have to, and if I get bad reviews, it is TOTALLY a fair cop because the arcs had timing errors. The kind that a reviewer would find irking, I’m sure. But if they don’t take the replacements files and I get picked apart in a bad review, please keep in mind, they had an ARC, and I fixed those problems, honest.

It really does bug me turning out a buggy book. I want to give you the best story I can, and now that I’ve uploaded a new file, I feel more confident that this is a better book. Is it 100% error free? No, not likely. But the dates given by Peter during the introduction shouldn’t case confusion, and in the arcs, there’s a problem where almost two months pass, and yet it’s always October. OOOPS.

Timing issues are always my biggest snag, While updating a rough draft to a second revision, I fdound an airline flight from Vegas to Austin that took four…days. (y_y) And you people wonder why I don’t even make a beta call until I’m up to the third draft. Cause my early writing is rife with mistakes.

But, I fix my mistakes, and I own up to them like a big girl. I’m owning up to this, and if you bought one of the bad copies. Let me extend my apologies once again and an offer for a free replacement. And hopefully next month’s release, I won’t screw up so badly. (*._.)

Peter the Wolf on Kindle

Yep, I now have Peter the Wolf on the Kindle store along with the files on Smashwords and the print edition on Lulu. Smashwords has blown the file distribution to other vendors again, so I have no clue when the book will be on Sony or Apple.

Still likely to be a few weeks before there’s any reviews, and I admit, I’m really nervous about this one bombing with reviewers. But the book is on the main markets, so we’ll see what happens…

The jig is up…

So, Peter the Wolf has been live on Smashwords for roughly a week or so, but I’m letting the secret out because someone already bought a copy today. I’ve uploaded the file with Amazon’s KDP app, and the ebook should be live there tomorrow.

It’s also live on Lulu, in case you wanted to get a print copy. Not sure how long it will take for the print edition to show up on Amazon, but it should be soon-ish.

Two tragedies…

You already know by now that this week has brought two terror attacks to Norway, resulting in the death of 92-96 people, many of them children. You may also know that Amy Winehouse is dead at 27. Some of you have decided that if people express mourning or concern for the one person dying, they are automatically incapable of appreciating the tragedy in Oslo. And so, in your infinite wisdom, some of you are belittling Amy’s death and anyone expressing emotions about her.

But look, I can feel bad about Amy’s death and still be concerned for the people of Norway affected by this tragedy. I feel bad about Amy because she was only 27 years old. She’s almost a decade younger than me, but she had great talent and great potential. And now she’s gone. It doesn’t matter how she died. She died young, and that’s always a tragedy. Period. If you feel the need to belittle this death because it isn’t as important, you aren’t empathizing with the people of Norway better. You’re comparing tragedies and deciding that one is more worthy of global attention.

Over on Twitter, I saw over and over, “Hey, let’s not forget about Oslo. Amy was just a pop singer who overdosed.” Nice. No autopsy yet, but the court of public opinion is already in place to judge another celebrity for the same habits you folks keep. But let’s set that aside. The real problem here is, you Twits were all worried that Oslo not being a trending topic would somehow lessen the tragedy’s importance, like people tweeting about Amy’s death were stealing thunder from Norway. But both events are tragic, and you can feel bad for more than one thing.

All life is important. When you die, you wouldn’t want people telling your family “Hey, there was a fire on the other side of the planet, and you need to focus your grief on more important people.” But you have no problems doing it to downplay the death of a celebrity because “they aren’t that important.” That’s a lack of empathy, and it’s really not helping anyone. In fact, it’s hurting people who felt something genuine for Amy by telling them, “Your pain isn’t real enough.” It’s douchebag behavior, and it shouldn’t happen to anyone, vapid celebrity or not.

If you want to help Oslo, donate to a local charity taking funds for them, or get online and find an Oslo charity to donate to directly. Keeping Oslo on the trending topics is a useless sentiment. It does not send funds to help fix the damage, nor provide comfort to the families of the victims. Oslo being in the TT only soothes your vanities. It shows you “care,” even though you haven’t done anything except express concern. It’s yet more slacktivism in the place of real activism, which is all social networks can seem to squeeze out of the online masses. “We won’t send money to Oslo, but we’ll like your Facebook page and keep you in the trending topics for a full week. That’s almost as good as cash.”

Except it isn’t. Your concern is worthless to the victims’ families, and putting down the death of a single person over the deaths of these people helps no one. It’s just a mean-spirited attempt to shame anyone who expressed concern or sadness at Amy’s passing. And you people attempting this shaming, I hope the shame comes right back to you. Because you didn’t do anything to help Oslo with this shame campaign. You just belittled the death of one woman, and the emotional reaction of everyone across the planet who chose to send online sentiments to Amy and her family. In short, you’re being just as tacky as Fred Phelps booing at a soldier’s funeral.

Even if you lack empathy, other people can feel bad about more than one thing at a time. On any given day, I read a dozen stories that break my heart. War, tortured animals, raped women, abused children, missing relatives, natural disasters, famines; the social streams bring me a daily ration of disasters, and I can feel bad about all of them.

BUT, my feeling bad isn’t fixing shit. Your belittling and attempts to direct where people should feel bad won’t accomplish shit either. So if you really want to help Oslo, zip lip and open wallet. And for the love of God, leave Amy Winehouse and her friends and family alone.

An interview and book giveaway

It completely slipped my mind that I had an interview about Peter the Wolf go up on Werewolves.com. Along with my interview, the site is also hosting a giveaway for one copy of Peter the Wolf (Book 1). The drawing will end July 30, giving you a chance to win a free copy right after release day. Sounds good? Then go check out the interview. Please.

Expanded poll: long megatomes, or short novellas?

Okay, I’m coming to y’all with a different kind of post. I’m sharing a little bit of my writing process, a little of my thoughts about writing a series, and then a little speculation on what I’d like to accomplish with my future writing goals. (Not to be confused with future sales goals. That’s totally different.)

So, you probably don’t know it, but I’m winding down production on “season one” of the Mystical World Wars series. It’s taken me four years to get this far, but in that time, I’ve covered the introductions of the halflings, the vampires, the werekin, the daemons, the wyrm, and the wraiths. I’ve also done some cameos with the elves and other fantasy races. On Earth, I’ve shown how vampires aren’t the only blood drinking race, and I’ve explained the state of the three dimensions before the war on the Earth plane exploded into a free-for-all. Granted, some of what I’ve written, you haven’t seen yet. But I’m wrapping up productions on those stories and will have them out soon.

During season one, I’ve worked on novels for the most part, gathering large groups of characters into books of 80K-100K words in length. But when I worked with the side characters in spinoff stories, I often wrote much shorter lengths. The spinoffs were more about one character and their view of the world, while the novels have a more broad scope covering the perspectives of many characters. (Which is why Blood Relations turned into a novel, because instead of just being about Vicky or Amber, it turned into an introduction for the whole vampire coven.)

For larger events, these crossover novels are unavoidable, and in season one, I believe there are more novels than novellas and short stories. I’m not so sure I want season two to follow the same ratio. For one thing, lots of groups in season two will be splitting up for chaotic reasons, and if I have to write a big novel, I’m going to lose track of someone for sure. As it was, in season one, I almost lost Joel’s sister Leslie, and probably would have if I hadn’t reread Shattered Prophesies for another typo hunt. I also almost lost track of Tamika, Schaefer’s daughter. (also from Shattered Prophesies) I’d totally forgot that she’d run off with Elizabeth Collins and Chris Strauss. So when I started writing a book about Chris, I suddenly went, wait….someone is missing. And sure enough, I’d left Tamika behind. Oy.

TV review: Teen Wolf

Last night I watched episode 8 of Teen Wolf, and I now feel ready to deliver my objective critique of the season so far. To sum up my whole experience in a word, I would use SQUEEEEEEEEE!

Ahem. Vampire fans get a new show to love every other season, and currently many are enjoying True Blood. (For reasons that escape me.) Zombie fans have something to be joyful with the Walking Dead series too, but it’s been a long, long time since the last attempt at a werewolf TV series. So when I heard a new show was coming out with a reboot of the Teen Wolf movie, I was interested right away. Then one of my friends complained that Scott wouldn’t be born with his curse, he would be bitten by another wolf. For my friend, not having the werewolf family angle in the story was the deal-killing reason for them not to watch. But for me, it added another layer of intrigue.

I was a fan of the original Teen Wolf movie, and of the cartoon series. I also watched An American Werewolf in London when I was 9, and I may be one of the few people I know who loved An American Werewolf in Paris. I’ve seen every Howling movie at least twice, even the shitty ones, and in an amazinging co-inky-dink, I just happen to be releasing a book about a teen wolf athlete too.

I R Professional

So, today, I’d like to talk about professional standards. Yes, really. And stop snickering. You see, while I’m just a lowly amateur alternative indie writer, I’d like to point out a few things about my work ethic. If you go to my little archive calendar, you might notice how there are very few gaps in my posts. Where you find those bigger gaps, I’m either on vacations and away from the Internet, or I’m in a mood swing or depressive phase and have withdrawn to avoid causing offense. At all other times, I write consistently. I do my “job,” even now that it’s just back to being a hobby.

I put out work consistently too, and usually with just a few mistakes. So few that no one mentions them in reviews. I know the mistakes are still there, but I’ve finally whacked enough out that people tend not to mention the survivors. Yet, when I run across them again, (I reread books to keep my facts straight for the sequels) those little bastards are going down. I’ll never have a 100% error free book, but no publisher has ever scored that feat. But I get close enough to the professional standard that people don’t pick on the mistakes. They’re able to focus more on the story itself, and if they do have complaints, it’s for non-mechanical stuff like, “Too much introspection,” (fair cop) or, “perhaps a bit too preachy,” (ditto, and I swore to God I wasn’t gonna be a preachy writer, but sometimes, yes, I am. y_- )

I take bad reviews well, even posting them for other people to look at. I don’t dwell on them, or stalk the reviewer. Later on, I may offer the same reviewer another story, but they get the same polite query as everyone else. I don’t stalk reviewers who accepted a book and then didn’t read it. I’d like to. Really. But I don’t because it isn’t professional to stalk. Not even a little bit.

I don’t accuse my distributors of stealing sales. I’m really not sure I understand why so many writers attribute poor sales with someone ripping them off. People, you’ve seen me react to poor sales with depressions and mood swings, but I never wondered if Smashwords was hiding sales from me. They send me an email right after I get a sale. I have a positive balance with them. And truthfully, I trust the Smashwords accounting department because they extended me a loan for ISBN numbers, and they didn’t even charge interest though I was in the red for many, many months. So no, I don’t think Mark Coker is ripping me off for some of my sales. I sometimes think he should do a better job of running his site, but that is a whole other ball of wax.