Did it again...

Here it is, over a week into November and I have hardly written a thing.

Putting Catburglar up on Smashwords seems to have swallowed me whole. I've spent my spare time reading articles on marketing and self-publishing. When I should be working on the SF novel.

I knew this was going to happen. I wrote out a schedule of writing and marketing and taped it to the wall. Then promptly stacked  a bunch of things in front of it. Looks like I'd better go back and take a look at it.

It's so easy to get caught up in the kerfuffle. There are the authors that want you to know self-pub isn't a vanity press, and the ones who have made it and want to share their plan (for a fee) and the ones who think it's all crap and the ones that respond with statistics and forecasts. Sheesh. My head is so full I can't think. So let me go sit in the corner with a nice cup of tea and just breathe for a bit.

Catburglar is still pending approval for the Premium Catalog. It has been available for less than a week. I don't think I need to spend ALL my free time learning about marketing right now. Whew. I needed to say that.

Right. So now on to the fun bits - writing.

Is the formula not working?

I just finished reading the third book of a trilogy and it really didn't work for me. It was standard epic fantasy with the reluctant messiah and the quest sort of thing. But the character that was the reluctant messiah was so full of self doubt - pages and pages of it - that I just wanted to give him a slap.

And the whole back end of the book was a long and boring journey that didn't do anything. But that's the formula, right? Reluctant messiah has to go on a quest with a few chosen travelers to find the magical whatsit to save the world. This story didn't have the mentor/gods/benevolent teacher in it. So the RM just had to figure it out as he went. That didn't bother me. The pages and pages of whining about how unprepared he was to take on such a burden of responsibility was really annoying. I actually skimmed some pages. I felt like the author needed some filler and just repeated what he'd already said.

Some of the peripheral characters were more interesting.

And I could see every twist a mile away. Am I too jaded? I don't mind seeing the twist coming if it develops into something good. But I guessed the betrayers and then doubted it because it was too easy. So that confused me. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and them to be cleared. Nope.

Oh well. There is an new Brandon Sanderson book out this month that I have been waiting for - The Alloy of Law. That's bound to be good.

In other news - I sold 2 copies of Catburglar to friends. Thanks Bob and Michael! And it is still pending the Premium Catalog.

Done!

I did it!

Catburglar is up for sale at Smashwords. I fixed all my errors and it worked. Very exciting. I am still waiting to see if I will be accepted for the Premium catalog. I saw on one blog that it could take up to 2 weeks for that to happen. OK.

Now I guess I need to think about how to get people interested in my little story. I posted it on Facebook. But that's mostly just the cousins. So I can't expect any sales there. Maybe just a congratulatory post or two.

Now comes the other hard part...marketing.

Catburglar on Smashwords

OK, toe in the water.

I tried my first self-pub on Smashwords. It's an illustrated flash. I created the cover in Gimp. And it would not load. Funny, but if you read the directions, it works better.

The cover was too large. So I compressed the file and darned if it didn't load right away.

And I assigned it an ISBN. Wow. I have an official ISBN. Makes it feel more real somehow.

Then I got the message that I had failed the epub format conversion. That means the Apple Store won't carry it. So I followed the directions and plunked it into the Threepress epub validating site to find out what was wrong. I think it's because one of the illustrations was scanned as a PNG instead of a JPG. So I re-scanned, reinserted and reloaded.

I am presently 407 in the queue! I was 473 when it first loaded. Amazing. So many people producing work. Now I just need to be patient. Updates tomorrow.

What makes a comfortable read?

And I don't mean a sappy, saccharin sort of thing.

I just finished reading The Inheritance by Robin Hobb. It's a collection of short stories. Usually, I don't like short stories because they are too short. I like a tome. A book so large it makes my hands hurt to hold it. (Looking forward to upgrading to an e-reader soon.) But these stories were wonderful. I slipped into each world easily and walked along with each character.

Maybe it's her worldbuilding.

Or her well rounded characters.

Or the fact that I've already been in some of her worlds and know what they're about.

But her books are so comfortable to read. I don't notice the individual words on the page or the time passing or noises in the room...huh? What did you ask me?

How does that happen? I want to do that, too.

Blood Music by Greg Bear

Greg Bear stresses the science in science fiction. To the detriment of his characters, I think.

I have to admit to skimming over the very technical bits, which I'm sure made the book for some people. But the characters were flat. They're just there to be acted upon. I had no feeling for them when they were in danger. And the technical stuff was so far over my head that I really didn't understand where the author was going with the ending.

Definitely outside my entertainment zone.
(This review was originally posted in Goodreads)

Speculative Fiction

There was an old rule of thumb that you could tell science fiction from fantsy by the book cover. One had a rocket ship and one had a tree.

Then someone put forth the definition that science fiction made the improbable possible and fantasy made the impossible probable.

Lately it seems that that line is even fuzzier than before.

Look at Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series. It happens on another planet and deals with telepaths. There's a spaceport, so it could have a rocket ship on the cover. But it is a primitive planet with people who have pretty magical skills, so the tree applies, also.

I am reading Terry Brooks' Armageddon's Children series. It's post apocalyptical and the survivors meet elves. So that might be science fiction/fantasy/horror. The second book has a dragon on the cover. But that might be so that his fantasy fans didn't get scared away.

I think Ursula LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness would fall into the same murky category.

I'm seeing the category Speculative Fiction as a genre in a few places. But we need to better identify our subgenres. I read a lot of fantasy and yet I rarely read any Sword and Sorcery stuff. Nor do I read anything that requires massive battles and lots of blood and gore. There are so many types of fantasy and science fiction out there, that I think we need to create new categories for the new breed of ebook buyers.