I should read more…

One of the most important parts of being a writer, in my opinion, is reading.  Not necessarily to “size up the competition” as much as to explore different styles and voices.  I tend to read a lot more non-fiction for research and the sort (I’m a geek, okay?).  I try to check out the popular books, a writer would be silly not to.  I’m not trying to write a boy wizard or teen vampires anytime soon, but trends are important.  Because I am publisher as well, I have to watch the trends.  As an artist, I want to write whatever comes; but, as a businesswoman, I have to consider trends.  By the way, I admit that I have not read any of the Harry Potter books – I started watching the first movie and it didn’t really appeal to me.  I did read Twilight and I’m not happy with what the author did to vampires…sparkly in the sun??  Seriously??  Come on!  These are the sexy monsters, folks…you can’t make them sparkly in the sun.  On the plus side, I did like that they were hard to kill – when I write a vampire novel, mine will be quite plucky and hard to kill (the characters exist and a few scenes are set, just need a good plot).  Aside from keeping up with the trends, I read a book to absorb the information.  While it’s true that some authors take poetic license and fudge a little on the facts (guilty as charged), there’s usually a hint of fact present.  Personally, I do a lot of research and try to be accurate when it’s necessary.  It’s fiction, kids, the fudge makes it fun!

Lately, I have been writing a lot more than reading (and watching television a lot more than writing – Nip/Tuck is on Netflix Streaming, how could I resist?).  About a year ago, I had this plan to read one book every week…it started out well, but I got side-tracked with writing and other stuff.  That lasted about three weeks.    I’ve been trying to read for research, so I picked up a book about the beginnings of the internet (which, by the way, did you know they were afraid of the Terminator scenario back in the 50′s? Yep!).  The book talks about the Whole Earth Catalog – which is, pretty much, what the internet is now…it’s kind of neat.  Check out “From Counterculture to Cyberculture” by Fred Turner…it’s a good read.  The last book I read was “Good Enough” by Paula Yoo (she’s my Twitter buddy).  It’s a young adult novel, which is not my usual fare.  I sat down and read it in one sitting – I loved it.  It was funny (okay, hysterical in parts) and I could identify with the main character a little (distractions, distractions).  This is the kind of book that I like to read because it feels very natural and flows very well – the girl’s got chops.  Some books are a little choppy.

Enter the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo…yes, I read it.  In fact, I picked up all three books because I had heard that they were awesome.  First, let me say that it was less girl with a dragon tattoo and more sleazy (at least I thought he was) journalist dude.  I think that it would have been better to read the original Swedish version because I feel that a lot of things might have been lost in translation – though I don’t speak or read Swedish, so I’ll never know.  The girl with the dragon tattoo was disappointing as a character.  As someone who is heavily tattooed, I find it annoying that this community is given such a bad stereotype.  The girl was a slob and her life was a mess…come on, really?  Overall, good story…didn’t like the characters.  There was a lot of irrelevant information – I have to say, I am guilty of throwing in irrelevant information for character development, but this is a bit much.  I started to read the second one, but got lost in a bunch of math crap – I hate math…HATE math.  Love accounting, hate math.

Sorry, didn’t mean to get bitchy there, guys.  I was talking about the importance of reading to a writer.  On top of what I’ve already mentioned, I think it makes us better writers.  I pick up something new every time I read something.  Because when you write the same way, you tend to write the same thing!  Must cut it short now, the cat has a hairball – it’s going to be gross.

The Last Exorcism…

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go and see this because I’m always very disappointed with possession movies…The Exorcist set the bar pretty high.  The reviews didn’t do much for me, but I rarely depend on those anyway.  I really liked it, though nobody was really possessed.

Oops, I suppose I just spoiled it for you, didn’t I?  If it makes you feel any better, there’s a touch of Rosemary’s Baby, but not enough story-telling to support that.  Since it’s shot documentary style, there is a lot about the story that you will never find out.  I would’ve liked to have known a little more about all of the characters – some flashbacks would’ve been great at the end.

So, this preacher who admits to being a fraud take a documentary crew with him for one last hurrah.  He does a few parlor tricks to make the girl’s family think she’s possessed then does a flashy possession and they leave.  The girl shows up at the preacher’s apartment and the fun begins.  The girl does some crazy shit to make you think she’s possessed and there are some really creepy scenes, but then you find out that the girl is pregnant.  Turns out she’s just a bit crazy and she’s dealing with the aftermath of the abuse at the hands of the town preacher, who happens to be a Satanic cult leader (you find this out at the end).

Oh, should I have said spoiler alert before that last paragraph?

E-Publishing

As an indie publisher, I try to keep an eye on industry trends.  It seems that e-books have been gaining momentum lately and I’m quite interested in getting more involved in the trend.  I’ve read numerous articles that sway both ways….from, it’s killing the industry to it’s the future of the industry.  The way I see it, it’s a much-need addition.  In no way do I see e-books edging print out of the game.  It’s like roller derby – there’s banked track and flat track, two different nuances of the same sport…both awesome in their own way.

A lot of people I meet don’t like to read or would rather just watch the movie (yes, I am sometimes guilty of this myself).  Some people just don’t like to read, some people are intimidated by a thick book and some people just don’t have time.  There are tons of reasons that people don’t read.  I’ve even heard that books seem antiquated in our technologically advanced society…enter the e-reader.  It’s a new gadget and according to what I’ve read, Amazon’s Kindle flies off the shelf….not to mention that oh-so-popular iPad.  I think that the push to e-publishing might put books in a few more hands than the traditional paperback or hardcover.  Of course, e-books are not out-selling their printed counterparts….on the contrary, some reports say that e-books are only responsible for a small fraction of  book sales (though, the same reports do admit that the gap is closing – albeit, at a snail’s pace).

If the e-books are just a small fraction, why is Barnes & Noble going Tango Uniform?  I think there are many nuances to this, but I would venture to say that the economy plays a hand in it – they are not the only retailer to suffer recession woes to the point of extinction.  From what I’ve read, it seems that Amazon is the one who handed their ass to them.  Personally, I’ve never bought anything from the website and I rarely go into the store because I can never find anything and the staff is not always helpful.  I actually prefer to go across town to Bookwoman or Book People.  It’s not because I’m anti-big box….I’m just really big on customer service and convenience – isn’t it awesome when someone can answer your question without having to ask three other people and/or call a supervisor?  I think so.

Whatever the reason for the spike in e-book sales, I’m a big fan of the e-book trend.  Bottom line, it’s cheaper for an indie publisher like me – with Kindle, there is no overhead.  It’s also about distribution, that’s a whole other animal all in itself.  As a publisher, I am in love with the business side of things, but I liken dealing with distribution to cleaning the toilets…I hate it that much.  But, because e-publishing is so quick and easy, I can go ahead and put out the other four books that I’ve been sitting on because print is so expensive.  The plan is to get them out by the end of the year so that I can put all of my focus on the science fiction series that I’ve been working on…it’s got zombies and my personal favorite, the DRAGO (dual-ration accelerated growth organisms).  It’s a three-book series and I’m quite excited about it.

Another advantage?  It’s better for the environment, which is another reason I’m such a big fan.  I write green, why shouldn’t I publish that way?  Years ago, I had to hand write all of my manuscripts, convinced that it was the truly artistic way to do it…now, I save the paper and work on my MacBook – it’s still art and I don’t let anyone tell me otherwise (plus, I can hardly read some of my writing when I go on a three day writing binge w/o sleep).  Going green is catching on in so many other industries, but it’s difficult in publishing because you have to PRINT those physical copies.  Look, I live in a green friendly city, but even the yippies in Austin still like a book with real pages.  I’ll admit, so do I.  My happy medium is to publish them as an e-book and follow them up with the print, which I plan to do on recycled paper.  That is, if it’s economical – because Kermit’s right, it ain’t easy being green.

**Tango Uniform is my dad’s polite way of saying “Tits Up”**

Editing…a necessary evil

I hate editing, but it must be done.  Since I’m broke and can’t pay a professional (which I probably wouldn’t do if I had the cash), I do my own editing.  Having OCD is helpful in the editing process, but I try to keep it fun.  Through several edits, I make big changes and sometimes end up changing what a whole book is about.  As I go through the edits, it seems that I would be whittling the work down to perfection, but that is rarely case.  It doesn’t matter how many times I read a book and how many other people have said that it’s good, I always have changes that I want to make.  I can continue editing one book until the end of time and still not be completely happy with it.  As each day passes, the story starts to mean something different and I want to make it come across that way.  At some point, which is the point we’ve reached with Second Skin, I pretty much have to make the decision that this is how the story goes and let it be.  So, the edit that I’m doing now is just a clean up edit to check spelling, punctuation, and to make sure that I haven’t left any rogue words hanging out (rogue words are the ones that you forget to delete when you’re redoing a sentence).

I’m probably half way through the clean up edit for Second Skin at this point and hope to finish it up this week so I can give it a nice read this weekend and do all of the layout.  I have set the release date for Monday, so no more excuses….this editing is getting done.

Second Skin is finally here…

About five years ago, I started working on Second Skin.  It was intended to be released around 2006-ish, but I wasn’t quite happy with it, so I didn’t publish.  I ended up getting distracted by a new book (Blood on the Tracks – formerly Blood & Thunder) and pretty much forgot all about it.  Then, I started working on the now-defunct Derby Gal Magazine and the rest is history.

Over the last five years, though, I have gone back with intentions of re-visiting Second Skin and finally getting it out.  Unfortunately, I was still unhappy with it and kept putting it aside for other books.  Finally, a few months ago, I decided to dive in and get it done.  The first edit was simple enough, just adding a few words here and there and changing a handful of things.  I still wasn’t happy with the read-through, though, and ended up cutting half the book in the next edit – this is no exaggeration, I literally deleted half the book.  I went through and made some big changes (including changing who the killer was!) until I was happy with it.  Sadly, I lost the entire thing when my computer crashed, but my awesome brother made it magically re-appear and I backed it up in four different places, just in case.

I completed the last big edit last night and I have to say, I’m quite pleased with the way it turned out.  I am in love with the characters (another thing that was re-vamped in the editing process) and I think the story came together really well.  All I have to do now is a thorough read-through to make sure that everything is spelled correctly and check my grammar.  After that, I have to do the layout for Kindle and we’re home free.

Some people have been wondering why I chose to publish exclusively on Kindle.  It’s actually quite simple…Amazon provides the service for free, which is awesome.  Also, I’m just not keen on publishing through Apple because they have censored some material in the past and given what they’ve censored, I cannot support that platform at this time.  I have nothing against Apple, in fact I write on a MacBook, but censorship is just not cool.  Barnes & Noble has the Nook, which I am interested in publishing through, but they haven’t sent me the info to do this yet.  So, Kindle it is.  The great thing is that Kindle offers free apps for everything (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android, Mac & PC) so you don’t even have to buy one.