It is the first question, and the last question. Though it may take many different forms, it remains essentially the same question. It is a question that dogs the heels of every writer. You may fend it off for a while, but eventually, if you intend to take up the mantle of writer, you will have to face this question and find your own answer to it: What do I write now? [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Philosophy,
Writing
The Alpha Read for The Perils of Prague continues. The pace is a bit slow so far, but I have two readers who have given me good, consistent feedback. Once they’ve gotten about half-way through the book, I’ll begin working on the third draft and shortly after that the Beta Read should begin. I have to admit that I have been tickled with some of the comments I’ve got from the Alpha Readers… [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Novels,
Steampunk,
The Perils of Prauge,
Voice Work,
WIP,
Writing
It seems a very strange thing to talk about money in a #WriterWednesday post. It seems even stranger to think that I’m talking about me receiving money. Let’s be realistic for a moment here: for all the talk about improving one’s craft and telling stories, and expressing the ideas in your head, the real reason that we write and keep writing is to make money. Ben Bova said that the only reason for writing was the expectation of being paid for it. To a lessor or a greater extent, this is true. Writing is work. Hard work. Even when we give it away, we expect to be paid for it eventually. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Contracts,
publishing,
Royalties,
Short Stories,
Voice Work
This is going to be a short, and somewhat late, #WriterWednesday post. Work has kicked my ass of late, and while I was Posty McPosterson last week, a few things have happened that are going to take up a bit of my time. So it may be a little tough to keep the posts coming on time. Part of this is because I am dealing with edits, again. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Short Stories,
Steampunk,
The Way of the Gun,
WIP,
Writing
On Wednesday I hinted that there was likely to be another update on my writing this week, and I was right! Last Sunday I was looking at milestones for my progress, and realized that based on the rate of progress I had made on the second draft of The Perils of Prague, I was right on track to complete the draft this week. Then I had several days in a row when I had to spend my daily writing time working on other projects. I got my daily writing in, I just didn’t make any progress on editing Perils. At the time I published Wednesday’s update, I figured I should still be able to finish by the end of the day on Sunday, provided I could edit at least 3000 words a day… [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Crackle & Bang,
Novels,
The Perils of Prauge,
WIP,
Writing
[Today, we have something special for you. And by “we” I don’t mean just my wife, the cats, and myself. Today we have a guest post from Author Starla Huchton, as part of her Blog Tour to promote her newly released book Maven. Starla has been all over the place with this blog tour, doing interviews, giving character interviews, sharing pre-release blurbs and talking a lot about the book. Well, I had to be different. I didn’t want to bring my readers the same kind of material that you could find at other blogs. So I asked Starla to write a guest post about what it took to bring Maven to print. All too often in the writing world, people focus on that first draft. Well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg As you’ll see below, Starla put a lot of work in just to get her story ready to publish, and then she had to do all the publishing parts, too. It’s a little longer than your typical blog post, but I think Starla paints a fascinating picture of the process of self-publishing. Enjoy! – Doc] [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Books,
Novels,
Pimp Your Friends,
publishing,
Starla Huchton,
Writing
After only a week, I’d like to thank everyone who has offered their help towards getting The Perils of Prague ready for publication, especially considering the contact form I used last week didn’t work as expected. I’ve been contacted by eight different people so far who have voiced their willingness lend my project a hand. Some are fellow authors, who are willing to Beta read for me in exchange for having me Beta read their work. A couple are editors who are willing to offer their services if we can come to a compensation agreement that fits their available time and needs. This is exciting for me, but I still have to realize that things can fall through, and I still need a lot of help. I’ve been trying to organize the responses I’ve gotten, and get in contact with each of them. If you’d like to help out, it still isn’t too late! Just drop me an e-mail, and let me know how you’re willing to help, and what kind of compensation you’d like to have for your services. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Books,
Novels,
Reading,
Steampunk,
The Perils of Prauge,
WIP,
Writing
When I started Swimming Cat Studios, I named it because I was having to do a lot on my own, teaching myself as I went. I had some resources to steer me in the right direction, and a few friends who could give me suggestions, but I pretty much had to do it on my own. It is the only way to learn new skills. Over the years I’ve tried a lot of new things, had some success, and some failures, and learned a few things.
One of the things I’ve learned is that there are some things you can’t do for yourself.
And that is why I’m asking you if you’d be willing to help me out. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Crackle & Bang,
Novels,
Steampunk,
The Perils of Prauge,
Voice Work,
WIP,
Writing
No one can tell you what the Magic Spreadsheet is. You have to experience it for yourself. But darned if I’m not going to try.
Since coming back from this year’s Balticon, I’ve had a number of people ask me “What is the Magic Spreadsheet?”. So I looked back over my past posts to point them to an answer, and found that I don’t really have a post that addresses that question well. So, it is time to give that a try. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Magic Spreadsheet,
Writing