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Temptress of Fate (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/aso6OJTHuM "We women hold secrets on our tongues like delicious little chocolates needing to be tasted rather than heard or seen." Beware a woman's scorn. This is a very first draft. I'm testing the waters, so to speak. Please comment and let me know if this is interesting/ something you would consider reading more of.

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Temptress of Fate (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/gBJrDQvGuM "We women hold secrets on our tongues like delicious little chocolates needing to be tasted rather than heard or seen." Beware a woman's scorn. This is a very first draft. I'm testing the waters, so to speak. Please comment and let me know if this is interesting/ something you would consider reading more of.

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Brilliant

This is the best thing I’ve ever made, enjoy

Audio is from John Mulaney’s “New In Town”

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I want to fill my fiction with powerful, compassionate, and fierce woman. Then, I want to make my fiction reality.

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stunning.

“Our Ends Are Beginnings” - Limited Print by ParadisiacPicture

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Ha!

70% of editing is just looking at ur work for a few hours with this face

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Something to keep in mind not only for the sake of writers, but for many artists.

I’ve decided to tell you guys a story about piracy.

I didn’t think I had much to add to the piracy commentary I made yesterday, but after seeing some of the replies to it, I decided it’s time for this story.

Here are a few things we should get clear before I go on:

1) This is a U.S. centered discussion. Not because I value my non U.S. readers any less, but because I am published with a U.S. publisher first, who then sells my rights elsewhere. This means that the fate of my books, good or bad, is largely decided on U.S. turf, through U.S. sales to readers and libraries.

2) This is not a conversation about whether or not artists deserve to get money for art, or whether or not you think I in particular, as a flawed human, deserve money. It is only about how piracy affects a book’s fate at the publishing house. 

3) It is also not a conversation about book prices, or publishing costs, or what is a fair price for art, though it is worthwhile to remember that every copy of a blockbuster sold means that the publishing house can publish new and niche voices. Publishing can’t afford to publish the new and midlist voices without the James Pattersons selling well. 

It is only about two statements that I saw go by: 

1) piracy doesn’t hurt publishing. 

2) someone who pirates the book was never going to buy it anyway, so it’s not a lost sale.

Now, with those statements in mind, here’s the story.

It’s the story of a novel called The Raven King, the fourth installment in a planned four book series. All three of its predecessors hit the bestseller list. Book three, however, faltered in strange ways. The print copies sold just as well as before, landing it on the list, but the e-copies dropped precipitously. 

Now, series are a strange and dangerous thing in publishing. They’re usually games of diminishing returns, for logical reasons: folks buy the first book, like it, maybe buy the second, lose interest. The number of folks who try the first will always be more than the number of folks who make it to the third or fourth. Sometimes this change in numbers is so extreme that publishers cancel the rest of the series, which you may have experienced as a reader — beginning a series only to have the release date of the next book get pushed off and pushed off again before it merely dies quietly in a corner somewhere by the flies.

So I expected to see a sales drop in book three, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, but as my readers are historically evenly split across the formats, I expected it to see the cut balanced across both formats. This was absolutely not true. Where were all the e-readers going? Articles online had headlines like PEOPLE NO LONGER ENJOY READING EBOOKS IT SEEMS.

Really?

There was another new phenomenon with Blue Lily, Lily Blue, too — one that started before it was published. Like many novels, it was available to early reviewers and booksellers in advanced form (ARCs: advanced reader copies). Traditionally these have been cheaply printed paperback versions of the book. Recently, e-ARCs have become common, available on locked sites from publishers. 

BLLB’s e-arc escaped the site, made it to the internet, and began circulating busily among fans long before the book had even hit shelves. Piracy is a thing authors have been told to live with, it’s not hurting you, it’s like the mites in your pillow, and so I didn’t think too hard about it until I got that royalty statement with BLLB’s e-sales cut in half. 

Strange, I thought. Particularly as it seemed on the internet and at my booming real-life book tours that interest in the Raven Cycle in general was growing, not shrinking. Meanwhile, floating about in the forums and on Tumblr as a creator, it was not difficult to see fans sharing the pdfs of the books back and forth. For awhile, I paid for a service that went through piracy sites and took down illegal pdfs, but it was pointless. There were too many. And as long as even one was left up, that was all that was needed for sharing. 

I asked my publisher to make sure there were no e-ARCs available of book four, the Raven King, explaining that I felt piracy was a real issue with this series in a way it hadn’t been for any of my others. They replied with the old adage that piracy didn’t really do anything, but yes, they’d make sure there was no e-ARCs if that made me happy. 

Then they told me that they were cutting the print run of The Raven King to less than half of the print run for Blue Lily, Lily Blue. No hard feelings, understand, they told me, it’s just that the sales for Blue Lily didn’t justify printing any more copies. The series was in decline, they were so proud of me, it had 19 starred reviews from pro journals and was the most starred YA series ever written, but that just didn’t equal sales. They still loved me.

This, my friends, is a real world consequence.

This is also where people usually step in and say, but that’s not piracy’s fault. You just said series naturally declined, and you just were a victim of bad marketing or bad covers or readers just actually don’t like you that much.

Hold that thought. 

I was intent on proving that piracy had affected the Raven Cycle, and so I began to work with one of my brothers on a plan. It was impossible to take down every illegal pdf; I’d already seen that. So we were going to do the opposite. We created a pdf of the Raven King. It was the same length as the real book, but it was just the first four chapters over and over again. At the end, my brother wrote a small note about the ways piracy hurt your favorite books. I knew we wouldn’t be able to hold the fort for long — real versions would slowly get passed around by hand through forum messaging — but I told my brother: I want to hold the fort for one week. Enough to prove that a point. Enough to show everyone that this is no longer 2004. This is the smart phone generation, and a pirated book sometimes is a lost sale.

Then, on midnight of my book release, my brother put it up everywhere on every pirate site. He uploaded dozens and dozens and dozens of these pdfs of The Raven King. You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting one of his pdfs. We sailed those epub seas with our own flag shredding the sky.

The effects were instant. The forums and sites exploded with bewildered activity. Fans asked if anyone had managed to find a link to a legit pdf. Dozens of posts appeared saying that since they hadn’t been able to find a pdf, they’d been forced to hit up Amazon and buy the book.

And we sold out of the first printing in two days.

Two days.

I was on tour for it, and the bookstores I went to didn’t have enough copies to sell to people coming, because online orders had emptied the warehouse. My publisher scrambled to print more, and then print more again. Print sales and e-sales became once more evenly matched.

Then the pdfs hit the forums and e-sales sagged and it was business as usual, but it didn’t matter: I’d proven the point. Piracy has consequences.

That’s the end of the story, but there’s an epilogue. I’m now writing three more books set in that world, books that I’m absolutely delighted to be able to write. They’re an absolute blast. My publisher bought this trilogy because the numbers on the previous series supported them buying more books in that world. But the numbers almost didn’t. Because even as I knew I had more readers than ever, on paper, the Raven Cycle was petering out. 

The Ronan trilogy nearly didn’t exist because of piracy. And already I can see in the tags how Tumblr users are talking about how they intend to pirate book one of the new trilogy for any number of reasons, because I am terrible or because they would ‘rather die than pay for a book’. As an author, I can’t stop that. But pirating book one means that publishing cancels book two. This ain’t 2004 anymore. A pirated copy isn’t ‘good advertising’ or ‘great word of mouth’ or ‘not really a lost sale.’

That’s my long piracy story. 

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: O

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That moment where you figure out how to twist your plot in a way that will rip hearts out.

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Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. … It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus.

Enid Bagnold

(via

alistair-little

)

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How Atmosphere, Suspense, and Foreshadowing can put the chill in chilling prose

I’m a sucker for a scary book. Or a scary scene. Or a particularly chilling snippet of dialogue. Something about it gives me chills of pure delight. When reading we pick up on these notes in a very unconscious way. There are where they’re supposed to be. That is – in the background not unlike the stage props on a Broadway stage. I know I know, when it comes to writing a lot of us learn unconsciously through reading but when you know the mechanics behind what you’re doing it means you get to twist things in new ways instead of relying on all that intuitive learning that lead us to mimic the greats.

So, in honor of the season of horror, I want to talk about atmosphere, suspense, and foreshadowing, and how they can make your prose spine-chilling but just too delicious to put down.

Let’s look at atmosphere first. This comes across mostly in setting the scene at the beginning of chapters and it’s all about word choice, and consistency. I think it tends to be the most intuitive of the bunch. Chances are if you read, you’ll end up having some idea of how to set the atmosphere for the book.

The easiest way to do this is through description. Let’s take a look at this passage from V. E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic.

“- every inch of the city, day or night, summer or winter, bore the same pall, as though a fine coat of snow – or ash – had settled over everything. And everyone. The magic here was bitter and mean, and it bled the world’s life and warmth and color, leaching it out of everything and leaving only pale and bloated corpses behind.”

In this book, there are three London’s and this is our first introduction to what the main character refers to as, White London.

Bitter. Mean. Bled. Leaching. These words have a sinister edge to them, right? One that paints the harsh unforgiving nature of both the place and the people. It sets you up to be on guard and a little unnerved. Can you imagine if she said, and it milked the world’s life and warmth and color?

Paying attention to powerful and descriptive words will get the reader amped up. Kind of like foreplay. Or taking a bath vs taking a bath with candlelight, rose petals, and a glass of red wine.  

Suspense can be a little more tricky, but I think this has a lot to do with what we see in horror movies that rely – most of the time – on build-up music and jump scares. In that way, I think a lot of writers (myself included, unfortunate I know) believe suspense is in hiding information to later jump out and startle the readers. Suspense is actually created when you give information to the readers. One of the best ways I had it explained was in the book, Troubleshooting Your Novel, by Steven James.

“Mystery concerns the past; suspense concerns the future. In a mystery, the characters try to solve a crime, piece together a riddle or resolve a conflict. In suspense, they try to stop a crime or tragedy. Mystery appeals to readers’ curiosity, suspense to their concern.”

In other words, if the reader knows the scary thing is in the closet, but the protagonist doesn’t, we’re going to be worried as hell about them every time they get close to that closet door.

On the other hand, if we don’t know what’s in that closet, there’s no build up to when the protagonist finally opens the door and confusion over whatever jumps out. A lot of suspense is actually triggered by giving a damn about the characters of the story, but I leave that little diversion behind for another day.

Last but not least is foreshadowing. It’s kind of like a thief isn’t it? Only, instead of taking things it goes back and leaves little treasures behind. The best thing about it? It saves you from a little pitfall (one I constantly fall into) called coincidence.

Coincidence is when someone passes out during a climactic scene and one of the characters declares, “Let me through I’m a doctor!” Convenient, right? And it takes away all the suspense.

Foreshadowing is when, in an earlier and inconspicuous scene, that same character had a reason or need to show or mention that he was a doctor.

The trick to this is making sure those scenes are, as I said, inconspicuous. One of my favorite examples of this is in N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season. (Takes a deep breath)

There are people referred to as Roggas and they can shake the earth (literally) and, also, stop shakes from happening. They also exist in a time and place where the earth shaking, is a very bad thing. At least they have these Roggas at places called node maintainers to stop those shakes from happening, right?

I won’t get too into it, but let’s say the kids (yes kids) who are relocated there, are fully aware and completely incapable of so much as blinking let alone changing their heart-rending situation.

How does she set up the moment where our main character stumbles into this atrocity? No more than an earlier conversation in which someone (who knew the truth) casually asked, “You’ve never been to a node, I take it.”

So, what are some ways to foreshadow effectively?

               If a character has a skill that’s going to be needed for those big moments, make sure it’s oh so subtly addressed beforehand. Kind of like that doctor I mentioned up there.

               If there’s an item or relic, introduce it in a discreet manner beforehand. It could be something like a pen a character is always holding until that moment it’s revealed to contain a deadly poison that saves their lives. Or, you know, something along those lines.

               Foreshadow who will be present. Instead of having a rightwing hero swinging to the rescue out of thin air to make everything all better again –cough-convenient-cough –make sure to build up somewhere along the line that said hero is on the way to the scene of conflict

               Thanks for reading. I hope you found this to be a helpful little snippet of information to help make those horror stories all the more Horrifying this Halloween.

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Be a voice, not an echo.

Anonymous (via stevenpartridgequill)

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The Lament  of the Weary Writer

The truth is I’m not okay with rejection letters.

The truth is I hate getting up in the morning.

The truth is I love rainy days until they get boring.

The truth is sleeping is exhausting, and staying awake is impossible.

The truth is I hate writing

The truth is I love it.

The truth is, going on feels like my heart is going to stop

But, the truth is, I keep going anyway.

The truth is I feel crazy most days

And a little hopeless.

The truth is this dream is maddening and impossible.

But, for ungodly reasons, I keep going.

The truth is we’re all a little mad.

And, secretly, we believe that walking through mirrors is possible.

The truth is we write

Because a mirror is a mirror

Until the pen meets the page.

Then…

The truth is I want to give up.

The truth is I can’t.

Because to stop would be to believe that a mirror is a mirror

And a pen is only a pen.

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The way of the world isn't the strong devouring the weak, but the weak deceiving and poisoning and whispering in the ears of the strong until they become weak, too.

N. K. Jemisin, The Obelisk Gate

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You know when you write. 

And you write that line. 

And that line is just so good. 

And you just…

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A great read, written by septembercfawkes

Why Some People Don't Support Your Writing Goals

One of the weird things about writing is that to many outsiders, you look like you are doing nothing. Often, people don’t see the results until months after the work has been completed. That, coupled with the fact that most of the population doesn’t actually understand how complex and difficult it is to write fiction, let alone be successful at it, can lead to some negative encounters. Most people don’t know how to value storytelling. So much of their experience of it is based on feeling and subconscious thoughts.

And of course, there is the tendency to measure things by income, and to some people, skills and work only have value if they can bring in the money. There is a realm for this kind of thinking, but it’s not for everyone and every skill at every level. D. Todd Christofferson once taught, “All true work is sacred.” Even those who have made a beautiful income off their writing were writing without it for a long time.

I remember back when I graduated high school, people were, of course, interested in knowing where I wanted to go from there. When I told them I wanted to be a writer, I was surprised how people felt about it. No one said it straight out, but I could tell from their tone, body language, and what they did say that they thought it was stupid. I clearly remember one person (a graduate from a different high school) sticking her nose up at me and then going off about all the super, amazing, world-changing things she was going to do–all before the age of 19, apparently. She emanated arrogance.

By the time I graduated college with an English degree, I got less flack from people, but I still clearly remember the day of commencement, standing outside a college building in my gown, and one person’s disbelief in me when I said I wanted pursue a career in fiction writing.

Look, I understand where this disbelief comes from. And for you, it might be helpful to know where it might be coming from too:

Statistics–the actual stats of how many people want to work in the writing industry vs. how many people actually do. The stats of how many people want to write a book vs. how many people actually do. The stats of how many people want to get published vs. those that do.

Money–our world often measures worth based on income. I’ve met people who make all their decisions based on income. I’m not going to say they are wrong. If their dream is to have a great income, good for them for pursuing it. Hats off! But sometimes people forget that not everyone measures life that way. Another point of problem may be that they think you are spending too much money pursuing your writing goals, in one form or another.

Time–some people won’t support your writing because of the time it requires you to work on it. They do not view it as a good use of time or that the rewards will be worth the time. I’ve met some people who think choosing to do anything that requires real effort outside of work and other high-priority areas is dumb and wasted energy. If the person is close to you, they may not like how time is taking you away from them or how it affects other areas of your life.

Ignorance–As I mentioned, the majority of the world’s population doesn’t understand storytelling or its worth in society. Most people are clueless that there is more to writing than punctuation and grammar, and most people have no idea that you can actually learn how to write better stories. They don’t know it’s a skill that people can actually develop. They think it’s something someone is simply born with, regardless of effort, or something someone just sits down and does in a night.

Self-projection–When people hear what others want and are doing, one of the first things they are wired to do is to project themselves into it. I’m pretty sure this is human nature, and if we want to move beyond it, we have to recognize it and retrain ourselves. But it makes sense, because we are trying to relate to whatever people are saying. Because people can’t personally see themselves doing a writing career, they can’t see you doing one. They’ve projected themselves into it, instead of you. This one goes deeper though, beyond career. It also goes into lifestyle.

People don’t think you have the self-discipline to write a book because they don’t have it.

People think you don’t have the self-discipline to work from home because they don’t.

People think you can’t make it as a writer because they can’t.

and it goes on …

Jealousy–Some people won’t support you in your writing because they are jealous.  

Jealousy (real)–Remember how I brought up stats at the beginning of this list? All those people who wanted to work in the writing industry but didn’t, all those people who want to write a book, but haven’t, all those people who want to be published but aren’t, are out there. Now, many of these people aren’t jerks, and frankly it’s okay they haven’t done these things, or haven’t done them yet. But if they aren’t okay with it, then that might be manifested in jealousy–that you are pursuing what they want to pursue. This might result in them being jerks or unsupportive of you.

Jealousy (perceived)–Other people who care less about fiction writing can get jealous, but it’s a perceived jealousy. Remember how I said most of the population doesn’t have a clue about how fiction writing works? Some of these people have misconceptions about it. They may be jealous because they think you are sitting at home all day, and you have it so easy. They think fiction writing is easy. They don’t appreciate or understand the process. They’re jealous you don’t have to slave away all day. Or they’re jealous you are following your dreams, when maybe they aren’t. They’re jealous you have a job you enjoy (even if it’s a love/hate relationship).

All of these are reasons people may not want to support your writing endeavors. Often when people start writing, they don’t have a lot of people rooting for them.

But guess what? If you want to get real, the only support you absolutely need to write is your own.

You need to give yourself permission to love writing and to write.

Now, this doesn’t mean you need to give everything else up and that you should quit your job. But if you want to write. Write. Write on your lunch break. Wake up early and write before anyone is up. Write in secret. Who has to know? If you don’t have time to write, consider how you can make time now or eventually down the road.

This is your life. Life is short but it is also long. Do you want to miss out on doing what you love? Do you really want to spend all these decades not doing it?

As I often like to acknowledge though, there are things that happen in life that might hamper your ability to do this or might keep you from being able to do it at all. Life hits, and sometimes there are bigger priorities. That’s okay. Life is also long. And it’s unlikely it will be how it is right now for all of it.

But even when you give yourself permission to write, you’re still going to have to deal with unsupportive people. I’m very lucky in that my family has always supported me, my boss supports me, most all my friends support me. But not everyone has that.

In some cases, if you really want to pursue writing, and you keep having to deal with people tearing you down about it day after day, it might be best to cut that person out of your day-to-day or even month-to-month life. Maybe “cut” is too harsh, but maybe you can sort of fade-out.

But again, not everyone has this option. What about when you are married to that person? What about when that person works next to you at your job? Since I don’t have personal experience with these, I asked another writer to talk about how to deal and interact with people who don’t support your writing goals. That post will be up next week.

Did I miss any other reasons people don’t support writing? Feel free to add them.