Posts Tagged ‘crazytimes’

  • 29 Apr

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    A writerly grab bag of SFR news

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    Haven’t had one of these in a while!

    The Seeing Stars anthology will be coming out on 9 May. There will be a giveaway at The Galaxy Express on the 9th so please direct your browsers there if you wish to win a digital copy of the anthology. There are five other very talented authors in the antho so, if you like SFR, I’m sure you’ll like the book. If you’d like to read a few more details about each of the stories, please go here.

    If you miss out on the giveaway, a group of four of us are also having a Seeing Stars Scavenger Hunt from the 9th to 15th of May. Up for grabs is a digital package of the following:

    • the full Seeing Stars anthology, thanks to Sophie Angerming
    • the full Master Me anthology, thanks to Justine Elyot
    • a copy of “Truce of Trust” from Lisabet Sarai
    • a copy of “A Pirate’s Passion” from me

    I’ll be posting more details of this Scavenger Hunt next week.

    In keeping with my regular practice of putting it all out there (ahem), the first full chapter of Europa Europa is now available at my main website for your reading pleasure. The product page contains the background of the novella as well.

    I am restarting my bi-monthly newsletter in June. If you’d like to climb aboard, please head along to the sign-up page. (It’s a two-step process powered by MailChimp, just to make sure you really truly ruly want to read my rantings.)

    And I’m self-publishing! A novel! Space opera with romantic elements might be the best way to put it. Sign up for the newsletter to get first news of it. (Sneaky, aren’t I?)

    Also, in a break with tradition, there will be lots of posts next week in advance of Seeing Stars’ release:

    • Lisabet Sarai will be here on Tuesday
    • I’ll be at Lisabet’s blog on Wednesday
    • I’ll be at Justine Elyot‘s blog on Thursday
    • Justine will be here on Friday

    And I’ll be posting something short and completely off tangent on Monday.

    Think that’s it. Have a good weekend.

  • 18 Apr

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    It’s true, I’ve been a slacker

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    Here’s the conundrum for your pedestrian author. On the one hand, we’re told to keep up with all our social media duties…blog, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, the list goes on and on. And, on the other hand, we’re told to keep writing.

    It’s all very well to say, well devote an hour a day to your social media duties and write your next book the rest of the time, but that’s not how it works. When I’m waist-deep in writing a story, the last thing I think of is social media.

    Moreover, the change from creative writing to marketing writing is a significant wrench and, when I’m on a roll, I just don’t do it. In fact, when I’m on a creative writing kick, I hardly think of eating, much less broadcasting some pithy and witty tweet.

    So I’ll be honest and tell you that, given a choice, I’ll punt for creative writing every time because, in the long run, I believe that will pay off for me more than the marketing writing. That’s not to say that marketing writing isn’t important, but it’s no use marketing if you haven’t got anything to market, right?

    But all of this doesn’t answer the basic question of why I’ve been a slacker. Well, I’ve been working on a new paranormal series under a different pen-name. (More on that later.) I’m also editing a story for an upcoming Halloween anthology. And I’m editing an old novel to publish. And if you think all that, plus homeschooling the kids and doing my other wifely and motherly duties, means I haven’t got enough hours in a day, you’d be entirely correct.

    I’m hoping I’ll have something new to share with you this week but I’m really on a roll here and I don’t want to have to switch to another track when this one is going so well. Hope you understand.