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Writing blog: just a bunch of assorted thoughts and a reminder about free stories
ETA: I picked the wrong day to be gloomy and self-pitying on my blog. Since originally posting this, I've been made aware of two new and glowing reviews of my work, one from Liz Bourke mentioning "The Mazarinette and the Musketeer", and one at Romance Novels for Feminists that's very glowing about Daughter of Mystery. So, there's a lesson for you!
As an author, you aren't supposed to be jealous of other people's books. You're supposed to be supremely detached and philosophical. You're supposed to understand that every book is different, and that therefore no two books really have the same target audience, so how could they be competing? Yeah. As an author, you're also a professional teller of lies.
I'm jealous when other people's books get described as "mind-blowing". Even though I didn't particularly set out to explode people's minds…only, perhaps, their ingrained assumptions about what sorts of stories can be told. I'm jealous when other people's books are described as giving someone "all the feels". Which "feels" did I leave out, I wonder. But I'm happy when someone says they were going through a rough patch and so they went back and re-read one of my books, because it was comfort food. I'm happy when someone describes one of my stories as a "fun read". I want to write "fun reads". I just wish fun reads generated the same sort of infectious excitement as "mind-blowing".
I'm just about done with the initial quick pass through Mother of Souls to get ready for revisions. I hadn't quite intended to spend all of January "getting ready" for revisions, but I think it was necessary. (And, just like a year ago, I was in a head-space where I needed to produce something tangible to put out into the world, so the brief novelette break was a good thing.) I've already started putting revision notes into the Scrivener file. "Move this information to chapter 3" and "make sure I mention this minor character more consistently" and "make it more clear what the motivation was behind this event" and "make this emotional arc better motivated".
Doing the read-through has also convinced me that the first draft isn't anywhere near as chaotic and dire as I thought it would be. Yes, it needs a lot of work, but it isn't dire.
In the spirit of getting things out into the world, take note of the Valentine's Sale price for Through the Hourglass, the lesbian historic romance anthology which includes my story about Duchess Margaret of Parma and Laudomia Forteguerri. (Who knows, maybe some day I'll have enough real-people short fiction that I can put together an entire collection of them.) I also thought I'd remind people that I have a number of stories available for free online.
"Three Nights at the Opera" is a short story prequel to Daughter of Mystery, telling how Barbara and the Vicomtesse de Cherdillac first met.
My most recent release is the novelette "The Mazarinette and the Musketeer" -- a swashbuckling romp through 17th century France, full of bisexual women and a character you may either interpret as a trans man or a passing woman.
It's been almost a year since my Mabinogi-inspired story "Hoywverch" came out on Podcastle.org in both audio and text formats. The second story in that series, "Hyddwen" is still out on submission. (I think it's at the fourth or fifth place I've tried at this point.) Just as a reminder for award nomination season, "Hoywverch" is my only SFF short fiction for 2015. (Not that I expect any nominations for it. It's not "mind-blowing" after all.)
I haven't formatted "The White Falcon" up as a proper e-book, which is why I don't list it on my Alpennia website, but it's available if you don't mind working through either a pdf or html version. It's a vaguely Arthurian flavored secondary-world fantasy about the consequences of becoming an iconic symbol.
And if you don't mind working your way through the entire pdf of my "25th Laurel Anniversary Commemorative Volume", my feminist Arthurian story "The Treasures of Britain" is included there. (Some day I may have enough Arthurian or at least medieval romance inspired material to do a collection of those too. Which reminds me, I need to find the next market to try "All is Silence" on.)
Which of my short fiction have you enjoyed the most, and why?
I'm jealous when other people's books get described as "mind-blowing". Even though I didn't particularly set out to explode people's minds…only, perhaps, their ingrained assumptions about what sorts of stories can be told. I'm jealous when other people's books are described as giving someone "all the feels". Which "feels" did I leave out, I wonder. But I'm happy when someone says they were going through a rough patch and so they went back and re-read one of my books, because it was comfort food. I'm happy when someone describes one of my stories as a "fun read". I want to write "fun reads". I just wish fun reads generated the same sort of infectious excitement as "mind-blowing".
I'm just about done with the initial quick pass through Mother of Souls to get ready for revisions. I hadn't quite intended to spend all of January "getting ready" for revisions, but I think it was necessary. (And, just like a year ago, I was in a head-space where I needed to produce something tangible to put out into the world, so the brief novelette break was a good thing.) I've already started putting revision notes into the Scrivener file. "Move this information to chapter 3" and "make sure I mention this minor character more consistently" and "make it more clear what the motivation was behind this event" and "make this emotional arc better motivated".
Doing the read-through has also convinced me that the first draft isn't anywhere near as chaotic and dire as I thought it would be. Yes, it needs a lot of work, but it isn't dire.
In the spirit of getting things out into the world, take note of the Valentine's Sale price for Through the Hourglass, the lesbian historic romance anthology which includes my story about Duchess Margaret of Parma and Laudomia Forteguerri. (Who knows, maybe some day I'll have enough real-people short fiction that I can put together an entire collection of them.) I also thought I'd remind people that I have a number of stories available for free online.
"Three Nights at the Opera" is a short story prequel to Daughter of Mystery, telling how Barbara and the Vicomtesse de Cherdillac first met.
My most recent release is the novelette "The Mazarinette and the Musketeer" -- a swashbuckling romp through 17th century France, full of bisexual women and a character you may either interpret as a trans man or a passing woman.
It's been almost a year since my Mabinogi-inspired story "Hoywverch" came out on Podcastle.org in both audio and text formats. The second story in that series, "Hyddwen" is still out on submission. (I think it's at the fourth or fifth place I've tried at this point.) Just as a reminder for award nomination season, "Hoywverch" is my only SFF short fiction for 2015. (Not that I expect any nominations for it. It's not "mind-blowing" after all.)
I haven't formatted "The White Falcon" up as a proper e-book, which is why I don't list it on my Alpennia website, but it's available if you don't mind working through either a pdf or html version. It's a vaguely Arthurian flavored secondary-world fantasy about the consequences of becoming an iconic symbol.
And if you don't mind working your way through the entire pdf of my "25th Laurel Anniversary Commemorative Volume", my feminist Arthurian story "The Treasures of Britain" is included there. (Some day I may have enough Arthurian or at least medieval romance inspired material to do a collection of those too. Which reminds me, I need to find the next market to try "All is Silence" on.)
Which of my short fiction have you enjoyed the most, and why?
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