Hey, I'm on Fantastica Daily!!
Wednesday, April 30, 2003I am now a book reviewer at www.fantasticadaily.com . The gent there read some of my reviews at the SfSite, loved them, and invioted me...me!...to be a new reviewer. My first review was Light Stealer, by James Barclay. I'm very honored and happy to be a part of their staff...it's a neat website.
It's also where I learned that David Boreanez will be the bad guy in the next Crow film. Huh. I used to have a friends tape Angel for me,(SPOILER) but ever since Cordy...did...and Connor...um...I lost interest. (Isn't that called statutory rape?)
Am looking forward to seeing this season's Buffy and see how they do all the ends stuff....I kind of miss the show already, even though I've not watched it on Tuesday for the past three (?) years. I get to watch Buffy in groups, like a really, really long movie. And I so can't wait to see the two hour Alias Season finale.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 9:49 PM
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Sigh. I hate web page building sometimes. See....I can code html. I coded a lot of this template...the actual blogger template was inspired by someone else, but I played around, learned how they did it, coded all the special stuff, made it my own. I don't really love it much, but it'll do until I make my major site change. So, for everything else, I use What You See Is What You Get editors. Web Dwarf is free...and it's really nice, except it has little bugs...it doesn't seem to like my hyper long list of hyper links. I get sick of working around the quirks. (I still recomend trying them...if you're not doing huge link lists, you'll probably love em.) So I decided to try Microsoft Publisher. And it made my SfSite page funky...one of the lists o'links is now a picture. Please explain how one list o links became a piccy, and the other didn't? Plus I forgot to hotspot all the links. :( Sorry. It's cut and paste...if you want to cut and paste the stuff that's on the right side, anyway.
So I said, ok. I'll wander over to Amazon, maybe plunk down a 20 and get a simple, nice program. I don't ask for the moon. I ask to be able to type in a whole bunch of links, have the links work, and to be able to cut and past in code. I'd like it if all of my pages didn't say Page 1 on top of them (Web Dwarf) and I'd like to still have Web Dwarf's nifty graphics editor...I can make transparent graphics, which can be really lovely. I'm not asking for the moon and the strs. I don't want huge clipart libraries. Still, all the ones I found were over a hundred bucks. No, thank you, really, no.
So, I'll try and fixthe SfSite page soon.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 9:43 PM
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Come as your own Character Chat
Thursday, April 24, 2003Hello! Tomorrow it'll finally be here, the chat I've been looking forward to. If you've written anything...it doesn't have to be published, or even finished, then why not choose a character and come? If you've never written anything, no worries...pick someone else's you like, and see the world through their eyes. This will be a fantastic exercise, I think, and a lot of fun. :) Yes, I'll be there. :D I'm not telling as who, tho. :D
It would be great news, if I would share it...
I don't want to tell you exactly what this news is...partly because if it comes to nothing I don't want any of us to be disappointed (I'll be disappointed enough, for sure!) and I don't want to brag and loose it. I mean...I made a joke to my-favorite-author once, basically said, "I think I'm cursed"...perhaps it was because I was nervous, and the dead pan humor didn't come through on my voice, but he took me quite seriously...but, I don't think I'm cursed so much as I feel that there are rules we must play by. So, I won't tell you my wonderful news until it comes to fruition, but I will tell you, I've made a major step further in my writing career, and I'm so excited. I'm praying like mad. If you feel like it, please send some good thoughts my way!
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 5:56 PM
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I've been a book reviewer for over a year....
Wednesday, April 23, 2003Yep, it's my book reviewing anniversary. I've reviewed over 250 books for a huge range of publishers...and I've learned some things you may find handy.
Never send an ms unsolicited. Especially if it's a .pdf and you're sending it to a hotmail account. I've had people max out my email account by doing this to me...and it makes my sunny good nature slightly sour.
Never send a bulk mailing. I know, it takes forever to cut and paste individual emails...it's so much more fun just to cc to a bunch of people and save time. The technology's there, right? But think of it this way. If the reviewer is someone you really want...someone with good quality well known sites that he or she posts to, then she must get a lot of books. Why should I read your book, when it's obvious twenty or thirty other people are being offered it? Now, I know...and you know...that you're not going to just send the arc or file to me alone. Of course. But take the time to make me feel like you picked me. Then I'll be in a better state of mind when I read your query. I know the query should be enough to hook me, but I'm human. I need to feel slightly flattered...and all that takes is my name, spelled correctly and my email being the only one listed.
If you're only sending electronic files, send them to the reviewer, don't ask the reviewer to download them. I'm not complaining about this...I hate being all unreasonable sounding. It's actually a decent idea...in thought...but, an author queried me the other day. I said, sure, I'd read it (even though I actually hate ebooks...it takes forever for me to read them, because I spend *hours* in front of this machine already, and when I want to read, darn it, I want to read away from it.) and she told me to go to this link and dl a copy. Ok, I said. It's been a week. I haven't gotten around to it yet. I've been very, very busy....and I keep meaning to do it...but it just doesn't quite get done. So, what does that say? Make life as easier for these people as possible. Most of us don't get paid...I'm certainly one of those who don't, so in a small way, while we do have the honor of reading (and usually keeping a copy of) your book, it never hurts to act a little as if the reviewer is doing you a favor. I'm not saying kiss up...just try and make things smooth.
Don't email the reviewer too often. I review for five places...each place has its own books that they send me (save for the Midwest) and I try and take turns to make sure that each one gets a couple of reviews from me in a month. If it's been a couple months...then yeah, there's no harm in asking if things are going ok, but weekly is a little much.
Don't send attachments...except when the reviewer is expecting the book. Press releases, bio info should be in the email.
So there you go. There are a lot of things I learned...like, I found out that sending an SASE with a book isn't really a good thing...things that I would have done that seem fine from a writer's perspective, but are not a nifty thing from the perspective of the reviewer. I'm grateful because the experience has taught me a lot. And it's made me read a lot of different books and people. I would never have picked up Amanda Eyre Ward's Sleep Toward Heaven on my own, but was intrigued by the idea enough to review it for Mostly Fiction...an amazing book I would have been the poorer for not having read.
As Red Green says, I'm pulling for you...we're all in this together. :D
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 2:26 PM
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GWN Min-Convention
Monday, April 21, 2003Hello! I'm helping to co-organize an online convention, so I thought I would psot the details for you writers..the first part is for participating in the con, the second is for becoming a member....
1) Which of the following topics would you attend a session on? Mark
as many as you like so we get a clear idea of what interests all of
you. Authors/Editors interested in leading sessions may email me.
___ Romantic Suspense
___ How to Write Historical Fiction
___ Paranormal Mystery
___ Writing Sensual Scenes
___ Promoting Your Novel
___ Culinary Mysteries
___ Creating Alternative Worlds
___ Private Eyes/Amateur Detectives
___ Cats in Mysteries
___ On Character Development
___ Writing for Young Adults
___ How to Break Into The Small Press
___ Fandom
___ Conducting Interviews
___ Using the Internet as a Resource
___ Solving Mysteries
___ Trends in Romance Novels
___ Selecting a Genre
___ How to Develop a Plot
___ Getting Down to Business -- Writing (how to prepare a manuscript,
write a query and submit it and what to expect)
___ Writing Battle Scenes
___ Greeting Card Writing
2) Would you be interested in being a special guest at the convention?
3) Can you donate an autographed copy of your book/s as prizes?
4) Can you help promote the convention on your website or egroup?
5) Would you like to participate in a panel discussion on Writing and
the Publishing Industry?
6) When would you like to see the convention held (Month, days,
hours)?
7) Can you suggest authors/editors/publishers you'd like to make
guest appearances?
8) Are you interested in being the guest speaker for any of the above
topics or know any other qualified individuals?
Please contact Netera@aol.com for more information!
_______________________________________________
Before you fill out the Reservation form below, make sure you can
access the chatroom where the convention will be held. Log on to:
gottawritenetwork.com, click on "Chat Info," then on the blue "Chat
Now" button directly across from GWN Classroom.
Fill out the following form and snail mail with a check for $20 to:
Gotta Write Network Online, Denise Fleischer, 515 E. Thacker, Hoffman
Estates, IL 60194.
The convention is open to 60 participants. Updates will be given
frequently on this list to keep you informed of new features. I will
post a complete schedule once all arrangements are made. You are
responsible for coming to the sessions. I won't be sending
out "you're missing out" reminders. All paid participants' forms will
be eligible for book and special gift drawings. Winners will be
posted on this list.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Gotta Write Network's First Annual Mini-Con Reservation Form
Name:
Address:
City, State, Zip:
E-mail address:
Genres I would like to receive if I won a book in the drawing:
______________________________________________________________.
I am an author/future author/avid reader. If you are an author, would
your publisher like to participate as a guest speaker?
__________________________________________________________________.
I have logged onto GWN: once/weekly/a few times a month.
Will you be attending all the sessions or just those that interest
you? ________________________.
I would like a friend of mine to attend. Can you please email him/her.
email address ________________.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 6:02 PM
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being a writer is...
Wednesday, April 16, 2003having a feel for words,
like when you close your eyes and
dip your hand into a dish, and know,
this is glass, and
this is glass, and
this is stone and
this is the gravel my mother brough for me from the beach in Erie,and
this is the pebble I found in my shoe, that I kept because it has a green stripe and
This is the color, and this is the shape
and this is the taste of the word in your mouth but
you'll speak it though your fingers because
that is the setting, that is the place that is the way it will fit right
and glow.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 8:25 PM
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Diners
Tuesday, April 15, 2003Yesterday, we were driving along, and we found a diner, called the Yakety Yak, on route 66. It's near Apollo in Pennsylvania, which is on the Pittsburgh side of the state.
I think that sometimes ambiance does influence appetite. There was something about this place...worn looking on the outside, but clean on the inside, with it's brushed aluminum, the pink piping of pink neon behind the counter and the coffee maker area. The booth seats each shared an ornate wood post with a pair of coat hooks on it. The seats were in good condition, the floor with it's patterned linoleum looked hardly worn. It was almost like eating in a train car, the ceiling had that curve to it with the lights that ran along the ceiling hidden in the folds of it, reflecting off the white paint and down on us. The corner windows were curved glass, the venetian blinds were half way down to block out the afternoon glare. The waitress wasn't, as you would expect, a gum chewing aging cheerleader who said Hon alot, but a cappuccino colored woman whose smiled actually reached her eyes. Briskly efficient, she moved quickly around the small space of the diner, handing out specials and pouring coffee. I could not place her accent, it was a little more clipped than the India accents I heard at university, and I was too shy to ask her where she was once from. I do not suppose it matters...in the end, we're all from where our house is, and the past becomes muddied.
Blogger Secret of the day for AOLer's...use your write mail command to spell check your blog entries. It's faster than using the Blog spell check (if you're on pro) and you can mail the entry to yourself if something happens and things don't seem to post right.
Of course, I'm not overly thrilled with the AOL spellcheck...but it does in a pinch.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 9:00 PM
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About not getting paid...
Monday, April 14, 2003I posted this to a discussion on the Write List about whther or not to submit to places that don't pay. Now, usually I don't cross-post, but I thought, foir once in my life, I might have sort of made sense. So here's what I said.
Not getting paid for your work is terrible. I could say worse, but I want to keep my email pg. BUT as a person who has recived tons of rejections with hand written messages saying things like, "I really loved your story", or, "Excellent work, but we can't use it right now." I can tell you that getting published for money without credits is very, very, very hard. Now someof you may be thinking, as I did, "Well, I *really* beleive in my work...maybe I'll luck out." And yeah, you might. But I was getting *nowhere*...so I did some "volunteer" work...which I still do...and it's given me payment of another kind. exposure. Recognition. Clips to show to people. A combination of luck and clips scored me a couple article writing jobs at Harper Collins. It's also scored me editing jobs, oddly enough. If someone sees that someone else is willing to take a chance on you, they might, too. At least it's more likely.
So, what do I think you should do? Well, try what ever. Try everything. I'm now re-starting to submit my short stories to magazines that pay like, two bucks and a contributer's copy, because I've discovered that SF&F isn't going to take me uinless I can prove I'm known enough. I say this because I won't admit that it may because I'm not specail enough. But that's wandering away from the point. Accept that you may have to send your things to places that don't give you money. It's better to get it read and build up wards in your career than to have nothing.
Just make sure, when you choose, that the place you send to will give you *something*...even if it's only a clip from a place that more than five people have heard of.
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 4:07 PM
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Ann Lawrence on writer to Writer!
Friday, April 11, 2003Tonight's Writer to Writer guest will be
Ann Lawrence
author of Lord of the Keep
we'll meet from 9-10 PM ET in
http://chat.iuniverse.com/default/default.asp?channel=Writer_to_Writer
In Ann's own words----
A little about me . . .
I was born in England and raised in the Philadelphia area where I still live with my husband and two children. When I'm not dreaming up romance plots, I teach. I've also done many workshops for writing groups on characterization and the joys (!) of revision.
A little about my books . . .
I love history and enjoy the research part of writing as much as telling the tale. My medieval titles include LORD OF THE KEEP (which is scheduled for re-release this month), LORD OF THE MIST (winner of Best Medieval of 2001), and LORD OF THE HUNT (released just this past January).
My heroines are not the usual ladies of the manor, however. Instead, they are humble craftswomen who find themselves drawn into the turbulent lives of the noble men they love.
LORD OF THE KEEP features a weaver . . . and she weaves her way right into the heart of the hero. He's a man who finds himself on the threshold of forty and rival to a man half his age! This book is particularly close to my heart as it is the first historical romance I wrote. I learned about weaving while visiting York, England. Up until that time, I had planned a noble woman as the heroine of my story. But once I spent some time talking to spinners and weavers, I just knew my heroine had to be a weaver. I hope Emma will weaver her way into your heart as well. Let me know how you enjoy the story. I've created a reading guide for this book, and if you lead a reading group, I have promotional items available for your members.
LORD OF THE MIST and LORD OF THE HUNT are set near my father's birthplace of Portsmouth, England.
LORD OF THE HUNT (January 2003) will take you into the world of the medieval hunt . Joan is another skilled woman who the hero likens to the goddess Diana. And he's enchanted from the moment Joan and he meet.
LORD OF THE MIST features a woman who works with herbs. She's not a healer, though. Instead, she makes soap, potpourri, and love potions for the ladies of Durand de Marle's keep. Durand finds her as irresistible as her potions! I had great fun making soap and potpourri with my daughter while researching this book.
My first two paranormal romances, VIRTUAL HEAVEN and VIRTUAL DESIRE, are fantasy time-travels into a virtual-reality game called Tolemac Wars. These romances feature strong contemporary women who "travel" into the game and meet extraordinary heroes of mythic proportions. VIRTUAL WARRIOR takes another path. In this story, a man enters the game, but the woman he meets is just as heroic as the warriors from my other tales.
Your hosts Netera & Curatus
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 11:56 AM
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Monday, April 07, 2003Well, I realized why I havn't published Balancing Act yet.
Because it's not done. Not quite. I'd been playing with a major charcater from the prequel, The Pilgrims of Night and realized the reason why the story is stuck is that one of the main charcaters, Andromeda, isn't in it yet. See, originally, this book was going to take place while 'Meda is still a little kid. So, I have to do some fancy footwork, figure out how to update the story so that Andromeda can still be in this prequel (I already know, I think) and then, get enough of it written/outlines so at least I can fix Balancing Act so that the whole course of story flows right. I'd rather finish Pilgrims first, really, then fix the other book.
Thank God Blue Moon is a self contained book. Plus, since it's the second book, it is, quality wise, a better product. So I get to go back and apply all the lessons I learned writing Balancing Act and Blue Moon to, well, Balancing Act. :D Also, I break a cardinal rule, doing this...one you've finsihed the book, you don't go back except by editorial request.
And, while I'm at it....
I am one of billions of people who have a common grammatical problem...the misuse of it's. I want to share a secret with you that I've used since high school, and it never lets me down. Picture this.
it's = it is
Now, when you go over a document, whenever you encounter it's or its, say it is. Say it out loud. If it sounds right, leave in or add the ' (It is raining...ok, it's raining.) If it is doesn't sound right in the sentence, shed the apostrophe. (it is face...nope...its face.) It throws me because everywhere else, the apostrophe s is a possessive.
See? I'm ever so useful. ::rolls eyes::
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 7:24 PM
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What should I read?
Saturday, April 05, 2003Here is a myth that trips me up from time to time...fantasy writers only read fantasy, mystery writers only read mysteries...it's something that a lot of people claim as a truth. It's also something that I don't understand. Yes, if you're going to write SF, then you need to read SF...and a lot of it. Start with Asimov and Zelazney, Hugo and Wells. These people are your ancestors. Twice in the past couple of weeks, I made an allusion to Nero Wolfe...one of these times was to a writer of mysteries, who had no idea who I was talking about. Mentioning Nero Wolfe's creator, Rex Stout, didn't clear things up. I was a bit surprised, and didn't cover it up very well...but I feel strongly that even if you decide never to read a Rex Stout book, you should have studied enough that you know who he is. If you don't know the roots of your genre, how will you grow?
But, you need to read outside the genre. I stand up and announce this to people sometims, and they look at me like I have two heads. You need to learn the conventions, the stylistics of all the genres, so that you can understand better what you're writing, what kind of writer you are (Do you write paranormal mysteries rather than just straight detective novels? Do you want to inject some romance in your SF?) but so that you can borrow form the other genres. I liken reading only in your own genre to inbreeding.
In the past week, I read an espionage, a romance, a book on railways, a fantasy and now I'm reading a sort of literary thriller. I think reading in a lot of areas broadens my mind, and helps me keep from getting jaded. Or justy plain sick of a particular genre.
I have a feeling I may just be preaching to the choir, but please, for your self, if you only read one kind of thing hit the library sales that should be happening soon, grab a bag and load up on some nifty things. If you don't now how...if you don't have a handle on what you might like, just take what attracts you. If you go to the right sale, or at the right time, the prices mught be really fabulous (a buck a bag, for instance). It might sound silly, but picking up something just because it feels right in your hands is not an evil thing.
Or you could always ask me. :) If you've seen my review page, you know I'm pretty liberal in my tastes. :)
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 2:17 PM
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