I especially like the sidebar layout, with the featured item on top and the double sidebars below. I think I’m going to put all my promotional stuff (books, social networks) on the right sidebar, with all the blog stuff (tags, archives, recent comments, blogroll, etc) on the left.
I’m not so sure about the Current Projects bar, though. Does it look good on the left, or should I put it on the right, above my books? I don’t want the sidebar to look too busy, but at the same time I don’t want to push my books too far down from the top.
I made a few tweaks to the color scheme, though there will probably be a few more kinks to work out in that area. The black text on white is a radical departure from the previous template, which is going to take a while for me to get used to. However, now that my blogging goals have shifted from personal to more professional, I think it’s a move in the right direction.
Things I’d like to change but don’t know how:
The blog header font. I’d like to go back to Courier New small caps, like the old one. Every time I try to tweak the CSS stylesheet, though, nothing I do seems to work.
Font size for pages and categories (pages are above the blog header, categories are below). Jerle pointed out that they could be larger, and I agree with him.
Background color for the child category pages. They blend in too much with the current shade of gray.
The favicon. I don’t want the generic WordPress logo, I want to make something unique to this site (like the eye).
That’s about all I can think of right now, but I’m definitely open to any of your suggestions. My goal is to turn this blog into a home site for my writing career, where readers can connect with me and easily find my stuff.
First off, let me get some business out of the way. I did another post for the Genesis Earth blog tour, this time on my friend Cavan’s blog. The subject: how and why I decided to become an indie published writer.
Also, if you live in Europe, it may interest you to know that Genesis Earth is now available on XinXii, a European ebook retailer website. The price is 2.99 USD and I believe that is VAT inclusive, which should make it much less expensive than Amazon and other American sites.
Finally, an update on my upcoming novel Bringing Stella Home. I’ve commissioned the cover art from Līva Šmaukstele, an artist from Latvia. We just got the sketches finalized this week, and I am very excited to see the final copy! My copy editor, Josh Leavitt, is finishing up with the edits in a couple of weeks, so if all goes well with the art Bringing Stella Home should be up before the end of the month.
And now, the teaser: I spent a couple of hours this afternoon putting together the starmap for Bringing Stella Home. This will appear in the front, just before chapter one. Check it out:
Pretty cool, eh? I might touch it up a little before publication, perhaps lighten the background a tad. I did it in B&W so that it would work better for the Kindle. Many thanks to Logan Kearsley for help with the stellar classes; it really pays to have geeky friends who know so much.
And yes, the Good Hope Nebula will be in the cover art. Yes, it’s going to be awesome. Expect another teaser to come out soon.
The Genesis Earth blog tour rolls on; just recently, I did an interview with Cindy Borgne of Dreamer’s Perch. She’s been showcasing a number of other indie writers on her site, and the interviews are quite interesting, so check it out!
Also, Moses Siregar is up to an interesting new project called Indie Author Rockstar. I’m not sure exactly how it will work, but it’s basically a community book blog / monthly book contest. Genesis Earth will be participating in that, so be sure to check it out once it goes live (and also check out the site’s twitter feed)!
Finally, I got embroiled in a somewhat heated discussion with Howard Tayler on the comment thread of the latest Writing Excuses podcast. The question we circled around was: “is traditional publishing still safe?” I’m not totally sure what ‘safe’ means in this context, since writing has never been truly ‘safe,’ but it was an interesting if somewhat exasperating discussion.
Fortunately, it ended well, meaning that I didn’t get banned (though I think Howard was contemplating it). I don’t think either of us ‘won,’ but several onlookers came away feeling enlightened–and most of them agreed that the discussion was generally polite. So if I’m a troll, at least I’m a civilized one. If that’s even possible.
So that’s what’s going on here. Genesis Earth is still selling at a slow but steady pace, and the revision of Desert Stars is going very, very well. This is going to be such an AWESOME book–I can’t wait until I’ve got it up for you guys to check it out!
In parting, let me leave you with this amazing trance song I discovered while working data entry. That’s one of the advantages of doing boring computer work all day–it frees you in some ways to do other things. Enjoy!
Yeah…today wasn’t that great. I revised through about 2k words in Desert Stars, but none of it was new material, and I only worked on it for maybe 3 cumulative hours. I’m working full time now, but even so, I can do better than this.
My self-imposed deadline for Desert Stars is July 9th. That needs I need to do three chapters per week, and last week, I only did two. Some of the later chapters are going to require tossing out everything and starting from scratch, but for the next four or five, I probably just need to shuffle scenes around without changing too much. Hopefully, I can get through three this week, perhaps even four.
Genesis Earth continues to do well, though. I checked it at work, and saw that 69% of the people who view the Amazon page end up buying the book. That’s huge. Some glitches over the weekend have made sales updates sporadic, but it’s still selling a good 1.5 copies per day. So to all of you who have bought a copy: thanks so much!
There’s still a lot I need to do for Genesis Earth on the epublishing front, however. Here’s my to do list for this week:
Send GE to +5 review sites.
Publish GE to the nook.
Get GE listed on Goodreads.
Do 3 guest posts / interviews for the blog tour.
Create an index for the blog tour.
Should be pretty straightforward…if I can balance writing time with non-writing publishing/promotion time (along with full time job time). It’s going to be tricky, but I think I can do it.
Here’s my plan: I’ll get up at 6:30 each morning and write for at least half an hour, exercise, get ready for work, etc. When I get home at 5:30, I’ll eat a quick dinner and then devote myself to writing until about 7:30 (I have events going on every weekday evening that start at 7:30). In the late night, I’ll maybe write a little, but that won’t be my primary writing time (since I never get much done when it is).
So anyways, that’s my tentative plan for this week. Hopefully, that productivity boost will kick in soon, and I’ll be writing 3.5k words a day again.
In unrelated news, Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing posted an awesome interview of Kristine Katherine Rusch up on their podcast yesterday. To all my writing friends: you really should check it out and listen to it. Kris is an amazing veteran professional in the sf&f field, and has loads of good advice. I read her blog religiously and recommend that all other aspiring writers do the same.
Which reminds me: Robin Sullivan was interviewed last week on another podcast, and this one is also very much worth checking out. Robin runs a small press called Ridan, which is embracing unorthodox business practices and doing surprisingly well in today’s publishing climate. I’ve said that I’m on hiatus from seeking a publishing house for the next three years…but if I could get into Ridan, I would in a heartbeat.
Finally, let me end this post with a cool trance song I discovered the other day. Way mellow, with sweet vocals that fit surprisingly well with my current WIP.
After much deliberation, I decided to go with Desert Stars as a title. Thanks, Megan, for suggesting it. It’s a little short, and doesn’t exactly wow me, but I’ll try it out and see if I grow into it. The most important thing anyway is what the readers think.
The last couple of days have been going slow, mostly because of stupid writerly avoidance things. It’s a lot easier for me to revise than it is to write new material, and the last couple of chapters have required a lot of new material. But I think I’m through most of it, and will hopefully make some good progress tomorrow.
Genesis Earth has been selling a lot better than I thought it would…which doesn’t say much, but at least it says something. For promotion, all I’ve done is the blog tour, a couple links on facebook, and general participation on the Kindle Boards. In any case, I’m betting that writing is more important than promotion, so that’s where I’m focusing my energy.
The temp job I’m working is pretty good. I listen to stories, writing podcasts, and lectures all day while doing data entry. One of the most interesting ones is this presentation from Gencon, all about story structure and the hero’s journey. Good stuff; it’s helped me figure out a lot of things with my current WIP (Desert Stars).
I’ve also been listening to a lot of trance music, especially Armin Van Buuren. I know my Dad will think it’s crap, but hey I like it! I think I’ll leave you with this track, where Armin teams up with the guy behind Owl City. I’d tell you how many times I’ve listened to it, but that would be embarrassing. So anyways…good night!
Mass = Massachusetts = “back east,” for all you unwashed Utahans!
My sister’s wedding is this weekend, so I’m back at my parents’ place helping them get everything set up. It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow, but I’ve got my netbook and will probably get a couple good hours of writing in.
I managed to write a bit on the plane today, but not as much as I was hoping. My goal is still to finish Into the Nebulous Deep 1.1 by May 14th; I’ve got about 15k-20k left to go, and since I’m taking the next few weeks off to work on writing projects, I shouldn’t have any problems meeting that deadline.
Yesterday, I took the unedited manuscript of Genesis Earth and formatted it nice and pretty so my friend Laura could read it on her Kindle, and…man, it looks like a real book! There’s something about seeing your work in the actual form that people are going to read it in that is just…well, for lack of a better word, magical. It’s definitely motivated me to get GE up quickly, as well as Journey to Jordan. More on that in the next few days and weeks to come.
It’s getting late out here and I’d better get some sleep, but before I do, I want to put a plug in for my new favorite webcomic, The Zombie Hunters. Ross Wolfe, Quark’s renowned zombie expert, introduced me to the comic a couple months ago, and I have been totally hooked ever since.
The comic is set in our world after the zombie apocalypse, where a band of five thousand survivors struggles to rebuild civilization on an island that was previously the site of a major research campus. The zombie plague has a dormant phase, where the infected can live normal lives, but turn into zombies when they die.
The infected live in segregated barracks as second class citizens, but teams of them regularly venture out into the wastelands to salvage supplies from the zombie-infested ruins. The comic basically centers around one of these teams of zombie hunters; their struggles and challenges, their relationships with each other, and their hopes and dreams for the future.
The storytelling is fantastic, the characters are engaging and real, the post-apocalyptic setting dark, gritty, and yet totally immersive and frighteningly believable–man, it’s just awesome. And the longer it runs, the better it gets! I can’t wait to find out how Charlie the half-life fits in with his ability to communicate with the zombies, or to get the full backstory with Jenny and Milo. And I love the banter between Jenny and Sammie, her alcoholic sociopath best friend.
Right now, though, the main storyline is on hold while the author works through some business problems, but the short story is absolutely fantastic. I love her fantastic use of point of view–how she gets into the little boy’s head and shows the apocalypse unfold from his perspective. And the kid’s grisly end…man, zombies are even freakier when you never see their faces! I wouldn’t be surprised if I have nightmares tonight about it–I have in the past. Crazy awesome zombie nightmares, heh.
As a side note, may I point out what may quite possibly be the perfect weapon for the zombie apocalypse, the AA-12 shotgun. All it needs is a bayonet and like a bajillion clips of ammo. A must-have for any zombie contingency plan.
But yeah, let me just say I am in awe of The Zombie Hunters. Awesome, awesome story–every time it updates, I get immersed again in the post-apocalyptic world, and it is amazing. If I ever end up writing a zombie apocalypse story (which will probably involve starships and space travel in some fashion), I would be tickled if it’s even half as good as this excellent webcomic.
I was having dinner at the McQueens today, and after chatting with my brother in law’s cousins about numerous interesting subjects (zombie contingency plans, preferred food substances to swim in, and the amount of sugar it would take to launch you into space), we got onto the subject of math as a language.
Side note: I am on a quest (well, more of a subquest) to prove that math is not a language–at least, not in the same way that English is. The question I always pose to throw people off is “how do you say ‘I love you’ in math?”
Well, I posed the question, and Sarah came up with the best answer I’ve heard yet:
7i + 3u < 24u
Har. Har. Har.
In unrelated news, I’m going to find out on Tuesday (read: tomorrow night) if I made the semi-finals for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. I’m starting to freak out a little bit about it, but at least it’s come this far…okay, who am I kidding? GAAAAAHHHH!
In related news, I am totally going to base a character in one of my novels off of Sarah…but only tangentially, of course.
Sorry for the lack of blog posts; I’ve been working 40 hours a week at this temp job, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for other things outside of writing. I’m still plugging along at about 1k to 2k words per day, but a lot of other stuff is falling behind. Fortunately, the job only lasts another two weeks, and that should earn me enough to take the next month off and focus on writing. I’m really looking forward to that.
This job isn’t too bad; it’s tedious, but I can read blogs and listen to podcasts and music while I do it, so I’ve been catching up on a lot of business research. Last week, I read all of Kris Rusch’s The Business Rusch Publishing blog series, and right now I’m working my way through Dean Wesley Smith’s Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing.
Let me just say, this stuff is pure gold. Every post (and a surprising number of the comments, especially those by Laura Resnick) have been extremely eye opening. At the outset, almost everything Dean or Laura say about the industry seems absolutely blasphemous…but it all makes so much sense.
Like the post about how agents shouldn’t be giving authors any career advice… because they’ll usually advise you to write to the market, not to what you’re passionate about (and can therefore write well). Or how if you’re a midlister, it’s usually in the agent’s best interest to side with the editor, since they may have ten or more clients at stake in this house and you only represent a $3k annual revenue stream to them (or less).
The best piece of advice across the whole series so far comes from Dean:
Don’t listen to rules (myths) and do what works for you and if it doesn’t work, try something else, and when that stops working, try something else. Don’t do it my way or Larry Brooks way or Laura’s way or Harlan’s way. Steal parts from all of us and do it your way.
The thing I find most gratifying, however, is the fact that I figured out on my own that submitting to agents first probably isn’t the best way to break in. But man, there is so much awesome, paradigm-shifting stuff in these posts, it is amazing. Pure gold.
In the meantime, Into the Nebulous Deep is going surprisingly well. I should have it finished by mid-May, and though it will probably need some serious revision (unlike Dean, my creative mind gets more fired up in the revision process than the drafting process), the major story arc is coming along very nicely.
I wonder if that has to do with the fact that ITND will be my fifth completed novel. My first one, Ashes of the Starry Sea, was mostly smooth to write, but it was also a practice novel and as such royally sucks. Genesis Earth went through an EXTREMELY convoluted writing process, but it was good enough to get to the quarter-finalist stage of the 2011 ABNA contest (and in two days, I’ll find out if it made the semi finals…<fingers crossed>). Bringing Stella Home was also pretty tough to write, as was Worlds Away from Home, though the revisions have been more straightforward so far.
So does this mean I’m starting to come into my stride as a novelist? I hope so, because I want to start pushing myself. After ITND, I want to revise WAFH in six weeks or less–and I’ll probably throw out 1/3 to 1/2 of the material and completely rewrite it. After that, I want to do Sholpan in two or three weeks–but that shouldn’t be hard, because the material is mostly there already. Whether Genesis Earth wins or loses the ABNA contest, I’ll want to write Edenfall–before August, if I can manage it. And then, there’s always that post-apocalyptic blight project…
Anyhow, sorry for the rambling. The point is, I want to take my writing to a new level this summer, and after this temp job is finished, I’ll be in a great position to do it. In the meantime, I’ll merrily watch Dean kill the sacred cows while I fill out UPS shipping data for the next two weeks.
A few updates, in case you’re interested in what’s going on with me:
I’m getting ready to post a new story to Amazon. This is going to be the one that won first place in the 2009 Mayhew short story contest at BYU. It’s also an excerpt for Genesis Earth, which is currently in the quarter finals for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. More news on that as it comes out.
Into the Nebulous Deep is coming along. Surprisingly, the rough draft follows a very tight, coherent plot structure. At this stage, every other novel I’ve written is usually all over the place. This one looks like it’s going to be twenty chapters, with four parts of five chapters each.
Right now, I’m in the middle of chapter 13. I was hoping to finish it this week, but my sister was in town this weekend, so I spent most of my time with her instead. Not that that’s a problem; I can probably catch up tomorrow. I’m hoping to finish part III before the end of next week.
It’s going to be tough, though, because I’m starting a new temp job on Monday. It’s 40 hours per week at $9, which is pretty sweet, especially since my tax return is basically going to cover all my expenses this month. Hooray for cheap Utah summers! The full time work is going to be tough on the writing, though.
Which brings me to my last update: the guys at Pioneer Book called me back today and set up a job interview on Tuesday! Hooray! I’m totally stoked–this bookstore job would be awesome. I might even postpone my TEFL plans for a while if I get the job. It probably won’t be full time or pay much more than minimum wage, but dude, it’s a bookstore. Plus, part time work is perfect for writing. As long as I have enough to get by, I’ll be happy.
And to close, let me leave you with this awesome trailer my brother in law shared with me. I haven’t seen this movie, but it looks absolutely freaking awesome–like the kind of film my old roommate Steve Dethloff would make.
Man, Steve and I would make an awesome duo in a post-apocalyptic world. I should move to Dallas just so we can be ready to team up when it happens. If they made a movie of our exploits together, it would totally be just like this. Lost Vegas…
Steve, if you’re reading this, I want you to know that there’s no one I’d rather be killing zombies with than you.
Dude…seriously, this is awesome–like, 9.2 on the awesomeness Richter scale. I can’t stop listening to it.
Part of me is just a teeny tiny bit bummed, though…I was thinking of doing an 8-bit Celtic music album myself, but it looks like Octoroc beat me to it. Well, I can still give it a shot–and hopefully it will sound as good as this one!
