Entries tagged with writing

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PicoWriMo final report

There's a comm on LJ for people who like the idea of NaNoWriMo, but know that for whatever reason it's not practical to do 50 kwords in a month. Hence Pico instead of NaNo, where you get the benefit of the daily goal and company on the way, but on a writing project that targets what you can or want to do. Several times I've done the the "300 words a day" target from Sir Pterry's advice on how to write a novel without being intimidated by the idea of writing 100,000 words. I did 100 words a day at a point where that really was all I could do, but at least it helped me get it done. I've done "get x pages of my website updated". It's useful for all sorts of things. For this November, here's my comment from the wrap-up post at the comm:

So my month of Pico:
— Started getting back into using Scrivener, which may make life a lot easier with a couple of projects that were on the go just before I got too ill to write and hold down a day job at the same time.
— Got a novel draft into Scrivener.
— Went through most of it checking the timeline, and checked and tweaked inconsistencies in the setting that were the result of the thing turning into a novel.
— Got a good idea of what bits I still need to fill in from scenes that are currently only sketches (and found there were fewer of those than I thought).
— Failed to check in every day because I was so busy with the above. Sorry I didn't get around to commenting on other people's progress. I had a good excuse, honest.

Pretty successful for me, because it's really helped me start writing again after several years of finding it too difficult. Thank you, Wiseheart, for steering the comm.

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writing

The website's back, and writing thoughts

My professional (for certain values of professional) website is back up. I've even updated it with the somewhat belated news that all five in the original batch of reprints are now up, and also available in paperback, no less!

Amazon's recently started offering a hardback option in KDP, and I am very tempted to play with it, but it would need quite a bit of work, given the price I'd be unlikely to actually sell any, and I don't have the time and spoons at the moment for just messing about with it for fun. Given the setup cost v per page cost, I'm considering whether it would be nice to do omnibus volumes of the Lord and Master and Spindrift duologies, or alternatively put the two short stories in with Lord and Master 2, as Alex did me some covers for the shorts that could be used as dividers within the book.

I think for now the priority should be getting covers and then creating the reprint editions of some of my other Loose Id titles. I don't intend to do all of them; not least because I think Nice Tie could do with some heavy editing before being put back on sale. But I'd like to get the Buildup books and Promises to Keep back out there.

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website,
writing

I'd like to have my website back, please

My official website is currently returning a database error. Apparently my webhost bought a new server and is having fun bug-hunting. Oh joy. I suppose I could ask him to return it to the old handcoded and handloaded by FTP front page rather than the SQL version, as that still exists behind the Shiny, and indeed still has many pages not yet transferred to the SQL version, which task is how I discovered yesterday that the database version is down. I'm not sure I can be bothered, because it's not as if it gets many hits these days and with any luck it will be fixed sooner than I can remember how to use an FTP client, or indeed where I put my ftp client. One would never think that I used to do this stuff for fun, but that was another country, and besides the wench is dead; or at least not actively writing at the moment.

It's not as if I'm even writing much on my DreamWidth these days. I was going through past entries yesterday, and it's extremely obvious when my brain got fried and I couldn't look at a full size screen anymore. I'm doing a lot better now, but I've got out of the habit of sharing my thoughts in longer form than Twitter, and I don't have any writing related thoughts to share because I'm not currently writing myself and I'm also not keeping up with industry gossip, see "big screens make my brain hurt". But I do have at least one book review written but not yet posted, so I'd better do that next.

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I need to tidy my profiles

So now that I have accumulated some spoons and help re: self-publishing my out of print titles, I should do something about tidying up my website and social media profiles. Not least because so many of them have references to a now-defunct publisher...

I was somewhat embarrassed to find that I've still done essentially zero of that on my primary website. I really should have edited the bibliography pages on the original hand-coded website. All I've done is with put up a couple of brief "he's dead, Jim" posts on the shiny new WordPress edition that currently consists primarily of announcement posts and a link back to the old site. This is why I asked for link-checking on the new editions, and am very grateful for the responses here and on Twitter. I'm going to impose on you lovely people again as I work my way through updating the website.

One of the things I need to do is take down the old cover art, because technically I don't have the right to use that any more, not even as thumbnails for reference so people can see if something looks familiar. I'd really rather not; I don't like finding myself buying a reprint of something I've already got because it has a new and unfamiliar cover, and I'd rather not annoy potential customers by doing the same to them. However, I suspect long term I may better off without them on the site even as thumbnails, lest they confuse people who go looking for something with the old cover art when they intended to buy the new edition. And then there are the ones on my DreamWidth/LiveJournal profile, which I have just looked at for the first time in months. Oops.

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writing

Hello, I appear to be a writer

Only a month since my last post. Things are improving.

Anyway, in between my various medical appointments I have been working on getting some of my old Loose Id books back up as self-published ebooks. I could not have done this without the generous help of

alex_beecroft, in the form of advice and some spiffing new covers. I should be hitting the publish button before the end of the month, and with any luck a good bit sooner than that should the medical problems push off for a bit. More later.

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writing

Well, there's a blast from the past

Logged into my pro website for the first time in months, and lo and behold there in the most recent "visitor came from" stats was my entry in the Miss Snark Crapometer. I loved that site, I did; and it's been 12 years since she shuttered the site and left so many of us sad and forlorn.

I've had a couple of other "how long?" experiences today with looking up various things related to both fan and pro writing careers. It's been 16 years since I was first published by Loose Id. It's 21 years since I published my first fanzine. I feel old now...

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2018 - a brief summary

2018 wasn't a lot of fun, for reasons given at length in a locked post, but which can be summarised as I spent it being not well. I'm still not well, but things are slowly getting better.

On the writing front, Loose Id closed its doors after 14 years, leaving many of my titles without a home. My titles at NineStar Press are fine and I'm not having any problems writing new material, but I have to stay off the computer as much as possible for now, which means self-publishing the out of print works won't be practical for a while.

In summary: 2018 sucked, and I am grateful to my immediate management at my day job who did their best to make it suck a little less.

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A new short story

Occasionally a silly idea seizes my brain and won't go away. If you aren't familiar with the #cockygate nonsense, this may not make a lot of sense.

Kevin the Knap: Volume 1 of the TrollBane Chronicles

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Loose Id has closed

My primary publisher, Loose Id, has alas closed as of 7 May. My books published through them are now out of print, although you may see them on third party distributors for a short period while the out of print notices work through the system.

I do intend to make the books available again, but that takes a lot of time, which is a resource I'm rather short of at the moment. I'm also waiting on Loose Id to finish working on the rights releases for the cover art I'd like to re-use. I'm focusing on writing new material for now.

If you're still looking for something of mine to read, I do have books at NineStar Press under the name Storm Duffy, which are still available and will be for the foreseeable future.

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Stationery review - Schneider refills

In the never ending quest to tidy my room, I decided to have a cull of the pen herd. I have many, many pens of various types accumulated over the years, some dating back to when I was at university [mumble] years ago. I can tell, because they're in the biscuit tin I used as a pen case.

I was going to be ruthless about throwing out the ones that didn't work anymore, but some of the ancient and venerable have sentimental value, or are promo pens in a barrel style that I find very comfortable to use, so I set about investigating the availability of refills.

First port of call was the Cult Pens website, a wondrous cavern of everything pen. It turned out they were having a three for two special deal on Schneider products, and Schneider make All the Refills, or pretty close to it. I already had a Schneider disposable courtesy of a sample in a previous order, so I knew they made decent cheap pens. Cue buying binge…

I needed a selection of refills, and I haven't had a chance to do much with most of them yet, but so far -- nice refills. They write smoothly and don't need much pressure to get them started. I really like the Slider 755, which is a Parker style G2 filled with Schneider's ViscoGlide hybrid ink. It writes very smoothly with no skipping and almost no pressure once it gets going, but can write on gloss paper without smearing even if it gets wet. It's described as combining the best features of ballpoint and gel pens. It's moderately expensive but I think well worth it if it continues to perform like this. I do love my fountain pens for not needing any pressure to write, but this refill comes close and is waterproof to boot.

The refills are all clearly labelled with brand, model number, colour and tip size, even the tiny D1 format multipen refills. This might not sound important, but when you've just opened an envelope full of miscellaneous loose refills, it's very useful for matching refill to pen. Definitely for my "buy again" list.

You can find the Schneider range in lots of pen shops, and as of the time of writing there is still a three for two offer at Cult Pens for the entire range.

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Stationery Wibble - Prologue

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of fountain pens and sealing wax
of binding combs and rings."

I've been on a bit of a binge on stationery and office supplies of late for a number of reasons. Chief amongst these is the latest medical reason for staying away from a computer, but it doesn't help that the WIP features a hero with a passion for pens beyond even that seen in racsf's collective obsession with writing paraphernalia. I can't type, but I can put ink on paper and dictate the results into Dragon, and only look at the screen to set the transcription running and then error-correct the result. I have a genuine justification for having acquired a breeding herd of fountain pens over the last few months, inasmuch as a good fountain pen needs no pressure at all to glide over the page, and this is an important consideration for those with RSI. All of this is to explain why there may be stationery-related wibble in lieu of anything else I can focus on for long enough to write a blog post. You have been warned.

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Loose Id closing

My primary publisher Loose Id has announced they're closing, with the current timescale being final closure in early May 2018.

That means all of my books still with them will be out of print by then at the latest, as will all the other titles in their catalogue. The LI contract is a periodic one generally renewed every year or two years, and any contracts which expire before May will not be renewed and the title will go out of print at that point. I can't remember off-hand which of my contracts might expire before then, so no guarantees that all of my books will still be available after the end of the year. Skimming last year's contract renewal emails suggests that they'll start to fall out of print around February/March.

I gather the usual Boxing Day sale will be going ahead.

I'd like to say that I'll self-publish to get them back in print, but realistically that's not likely to happen for quite a while, given my current health issues. OTOH, if I do self-publish I'll do so at a significantly lower cover price. In the unlikely event you'd like to buy any of my Loose Id titles and haven't got around to it yet, you'll need to weigh up those options.

I know some of the other authors aren't planning to do new editions of some of their titles, or have put it at the back of a very long "when I have time and energy" queue, so you might want to check out what any favourite authors are planning to do if there are any books you hadn't got to yet and would be sorry to miss out on.

Make sure you have copies of all your purchases downloaded, and that you have cashed in any Id Points, gift certificates etc and claimed any prizes before shutdown.

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NanoWrimo update

I ended up with a new and exciting medical excuse for staying away from the computer and thus not posting anything online during NaNoWriMo. However, I have several fountain pens, a stack of paper, and an edition of Dragon Naturally Speaking that will do transcription from a digital recording. Last time I dumped a batch of text into the computer it was up to 20 kwords, and I've probably added another couple of thousand since then. I have also experimented with Scrivener, which was one of my goals, and decided that it is not the gift from the gods many of my peers believe it to be, but it does do most of the things I found I missed on moving from Lotus Word Pro to Microsoft Word. I have *also* done something else on my to-do list, which is to track down a free speech recording utility for Windows 10 (it's part of Windows and is called Sound Recorder for those who may want to know this) and try it with Dragon's transcription module, as it would be useful the next time I mangled my wrist tendons. I hadn't really anticipated finding myself *needing* to use it for PicoWriMo, but at least I now know this system works.

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NanoWrimo update

Been keeping off the computer because of a new and exciting medical reason not to look at backlit screens, but I've been working on the fountain pen story anyway. Just dumped the last few days' worth of manuscript into Windows Sound Recorder and thence to Dragon's transcription function, and imported the resulting text files into Scrivener. I hit the 20 kword point in the manuscript today. :-) Still less than half the official Nano target, but so far I have achieved my personal target of writing something every day in November.

Er... This was supposed to be a short story. I had a bright idea while talking to

jacey and

carl_allery at Worldcon 75 in early August, and scribbled down the first 100 or so words then and there. I was writing on and off over the rest of Worldcon. I thought I'd get a draft finished and give it to Carl if I saw him over the August bank holiday. That... has not happened. :-)

It also provided a certain amount of amusement to the Lyst silver anniversary meet in London at the beginning of this month, because I was busy scribbling my daily word count at one point...

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one week to publication day

So the countdown begins to the release of my short story collection. :-) Stormy Nights is now available for pre-order direct from the publisher's website and from all the usual suspects including SmashWords, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and the many and varied Amazons - UK, US, AU or search on your local 'Zon for the ASIN B073RRNKBD.

Official list price is US$3.99. Looks like local prices are currently £3.09-£3.49 and AU$5.25 for the UK and Oz.

Sex and love, lies and truth, shades in between. Happy endings and might-have-beens. Nine tales of these things between men.

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writing

early news of the new collection

I have a collection of short stories wending its way through the production process at NineStar Press at the moment. I don't have a release date yet, but I do have a fully edited/proofed manuscript and cover art that went off to final production at the weekend. It includes stories from both pen names, covering a variety of genres - which made for fun times on the cover art and design, let me tell you... More news as soon as I have any to share.

Crossposts: http://julesjones.livejournal.com/637656.html

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New release: In Like Flynn 1

Some news on the writing front - I've sold a short story series to NineStar Press, and the opening story is now available for pre-order before release day on 2 January 2017. :-) Details below, along with selected links (I haven't had a chance to chase them all down yet, but am assured by my Shadowy Mistresses that it will be available in all the usual places).

Yes, that is a new pen name on the cover. This is because I decided a while back to have a separate pen name for material that's erotica rather than erotic romance. The primary reason is simply so that readers who were expecting a HEA or HFN aren't disappointed. It so happens that my long term plan for this series will involve a HFN, but this specific bit of it is basically two guys in an office thinking "I would not kick that out of bed on a cold night".

A Collision with Reality

by Storm Duffy

Flynn’s new boss is so hot he can’t wait to get home to tell the chatroom how much he wants Dom’s cock down his throat. By Friday, he’s shared quite a few thoughts on what he’d like his boss to do to him. But he’s not as anonymous as he thinks, and Dom’s intent on disciplining him for breaching company policy on social networking. Dom gives him a choice of put up or shut up: he can play out the fantasy in real life, or he can walk out of the office without a word to HR as long as he never talks that way about Dom again. Flynn chooses “put up”—but he’s forgotten about one of the things he said he wouldn’t mind doing.

NineStar Press (where you can find an excerpt)

All Romance eBooks (where you can find an excerpt)

Amazon US

Amazon UK

SmashWords

Crossposts: http://julesjones.livejournal.com/631873.html

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Samhain Publishing is closing

Woke up this morning to the news that Samhain Publishing is closing its doors. Neatly and tidily, and will be open for some time to come - but anything not ready to go will be released back to the author, and as contracts expire they will not be renewed. If you would like to buy any of their books, it would be a good idea to make it sooner rather than later. But not today, because I've seen something on Twitter this morning about a 40% off sale on Monday for purchases direct from their website.

I never submitted to them, in large part because I was reluctant to submit to a start-up with a 7 year contract term until they'd demonstrated they could stick around long enough to justify that contract length, and by the time they'd done that I wasn't writing because my health had dropped off a cliff. They've had a couple of wobbles over the years (the metadata copyright thing comes to mind), but in general have treated their authors and staff well, and I had some material in the pipeline I wanted to submit to them. I'm not surprised they're doing the classy thing, and planning to wind down the company in a way that maximises everyone's income, and the chances of the authors getting their rights back intact.

I've already seen some comments from the "self-pub rules, trad-pub sucks" corner of the internet about how evil Samhain is for not just letting the authors go immediately and going into bankruptcy, so that the authors can self-pub. That's not the way US bankruptcy law works, kids. The bankruptcy court can go after any assets deemed to have been transferred prior to the bankruptcy to avoid being seized as part of the assets, and that includes the book contracts - they are, after all, the primary asset of a publisher. It doesn't matter if you have a parachute clause stating all the rights revert back to you on bankruptcy - those aren't worth the electrons they're written on. The court can and does quash asset transfers going back months before the actual bankruptcy.

Oh, and as KJ Charles noted in Twitter this morning, any publisher gloating over Samhain's demise is a publisher you do not want to touch with a bargepole. They're demonstrating how they'll treat *you*.

Crossposts: http://julesjones.livejournal.com/625681.html

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Guest post: Jacey Bedford - The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Jacey is a long time friend from the Usenet writing group rec.arts.sf.composition - the sf is for science fiction, not San Francisco, as the group had to regularly explain to bemused newbies. :-) Jacey's published by Daw; her second book was released a few months ago, and her third will be published early next year. If you want to know what it's like to be picked up by a major name in SF&F publishing, read on. If you want to read what caught the acquiring editor's eye, there's a giveaway in the post...

My first book, Empire of Dust, launched on 4th November 2014 from DAW. I was so excited. I'd waited a long time for novel publication.

Empire of Dust cover art I got the first review (http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7564-1016-2), from Publishers' Weekly, no less, and read it with trepidation. (Hey, it was the first review of my first book, I was allowed to trepidate!) I read it and I read it again. Gradually it began to sink in. It was a good review. Then I looked back at the email that it had arrived in - a congratulatory email from my editor, enclosing the review. (I should have read that bit first and saved myself a giant case of the trepids.) It ends with: "Bedford builds a taut story around the dangers of a new world.... Readers who crave high adventure and tense plots will enjoy this voyage into the future."

And it struck me, as I read it for the fourth or fifth time how author worries morph as you move along the path towards and beyond your publication. I was talking to Alastair Reynolds on Twitter not long ago (Al and I did our first ever Milford (http://www.milfordSF.co.uk) together back in 1998 before he got his first publishing deal and became mega-famous), and he reminded me that: 'Worry is the gift that keeps on giving.'

First, you worry that your writing just isn't good enough to make the grade. Despite all, you stay focused, finish your book, polish it, and think that, just possibly, it doesn't suck too badly, but then you worry about selling it. Your first step is to find an agent. It may take months, it may take years, but eventually (if you jeep trying) you snag an agent and all of a sudden it feels as though you've leaped an insurmountable obstacle with one huge bound. Are your worries over? Of course not. The next big question is whether your precious manuscript will ever sell. (Truth? It might, it might not, but while you're waiting keep on writing more.)

Craossways cover art If you are very lucky (and luck does play a big part), all of a sudden, a sale, and your life changes in an instant. Are your worries over? Far from it, but they turn into different worries. Will the reviews be good? Will readers like it? Will sales be good enough to cover the advance your publisher has paid you? Will you get a follow-on publishing deal after this? I think most authors will recognise this cycle of self-doubt and worry (and hard work), but the thrill of seeing the finish line racing towards you makes you forget the speedbumps along the road to publication.

My first completed book didn't sell, and neither did my second (unsurprising because it was a sequel to the first - duh!), but my third, Empire of Dust, sold (though not until I'd written seven altogether!). I not only sold Empire, but in the same deal I sold my fifth completed manuscript (a historical fantasy called Winterwood) and got a commission for a sequel to Empire. Yeah, a three book deal with DAW, my dream publisher of science fiction and fantasy! Pretty cool, huh?

Winterwood cover art I was offered the first sale in July 2013. After a year of edits, rewrites, additions, inventions, reinventions, and just about the craziest most creative spurt of my life to date, my debut book, Empire of Dust, hit the shelves in November 2014 and the sequel, Crossways in August 2015.

Word of mouth and social media are hugely important, especially in these days of diminishing browsing opportunities as high street bookstores disappear from our towns and cities. If you like a book, SHOUT about it to your friends, on Facebook, Twitter, your blog and all the many possible outlets. Your shouts are the oxygen the publishing industry needs.

Thank you to Jules for hosting this. Thank you to you for reading.

I have a mailing list on mailchimp. If you'd like to sign up to receive occasional emails (and I do mean occasional) I'd be very pleased if you would go to my website and sign up here: http://www.jaceybedford.co.uk/contact.htm I will be giving ARC copies to random subscribers. The twenty third person to sign up will get a copy, as will the fifty-first

My Books, Present and Future

Empire of Dust, DAW, November 2014 - Psi-Tech #1

Space opera. Is there anywhere in the galaxy that's safe for a Telepath who knows too much? Evil megacorporations, planetary settlements, Psi-techs implanted with psionic technology, a star-spanning manhunt, treachery… and love. Cara and Ben battle huge odds to save a settlement, but can they save themselves?

Crossways, DAW, August 2015 - Psi-Tech #2

A hunt for survivors turns into a battle for survival. This follows on where Empire of Dust leaves off. An illegal freeport space-station, a lost ship full of settlers, renegade Psi-Techs… and the megacorporations want revenge on Cara and Ben. They'll go to any lengths to get it. But something is stirring in the depths of foldspace.

Winterwood, DAW, February 2016 - Rowankind #1

The start of a new historical fantasy series, set in 1800, in a Britain with magic, featuring Ross, a cross-dressing privateer captain who likes her life in the high seas accompanied by a boat-load of barely-reformed pirates and the jealous ghost of her late husband. On a deathbed visit to her estranged mother, Ross gets an inheritance she doesn't want. Enter Corwen, handsome wolf shapechanger…

Silverwolf, DAW, Late 2016/early 2017 - Rowankind #2

The further adventures of Ross and Corwen as they struggle with the changes in Britain after the events in the first Rowankind book.

Nimbus, DAW, 2017 - Psi-Tech #3

Something is stirring in the depths of Foldspace and unless Ben and Cara can convince the megacorporations that dealing with it is more important than profit the human race is doomed.

Jacey Bedford

Jacey at Novacon 2012 Jacey Bedford is a British author of science fiction and fantasy, agented by Amy Boggs of the Donald Maass Literary Agency and published by DAW in the USA, with (currently) five books under contract. She's also sold short stories on both sides of the Atlantic and has been translated into Estonian, Polish and Galician. She's secretary of the Milford SF Writers' Conference in the UK [Link: http://www.milfordSF.co.uk]

Writer Links

Twitter: @jaceybedford

Website: http://www.jaceybedford.co.uk

Blog: http://jaceybedford.wordpress.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacey.bedford.writer

Crossposts: http://julesjones.livejournal.com/620932.html

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book log: LA Witt & Lauren Gallagher - Writing faster for the win

Have some book log completely out of order, because otherwise book log won't be happening...

Short book (20,000 words according to the author), but packed full of useful advice presented in an entertaining manner. The most important piece of advice is right up front: not all techniques work for every writer, so take and use what works for you personally.

This isn't about how to type faster. It's about how to be more productive with your writing time, and that includes protecting yourself from burnout. A lot of it is stuff that should be obvious, but isn't until somebody points it out to you; other techniques are ones that all too often writers have been told they shouldn't do, by a writer/editor/agent who thinks that if it doesn't work for them, it's bad for everyone. Some are things that are much less obvious, and which you could go for years without working it out by yourself.

Even if you already know everything in this book, it can help to have the positive reinforcement from another writer who learnt it the hard way. And besides, I know everything in this book already, and I still found it an entertaining read, well worth the £1.26 I paid. This matters - you're more likely to remember and follow advice if it was fun to read.

Very much recommended for writers, and even non-writers who are interested in the nuts and bolts of writing.

Amazon UK
Amazon US