Wow, I checked and I haven’t done one of these random updates for a long time–like eighteen months. I didn’t realize it had been quite that long.
Well, whatever. I’ve been slacking, actually. I took about a month off from writing or doing much related to writing, so I am back now feeling recharged and ready to rock and roll.
— In my last entry, I noted that I entered a contest for self-published novels, organized and hosted by author Mark Lawrence. Mine was assigned to the readers at Booknest.eu . I was unaware of the site before the contest but I paged around and it appears to be a pretty robust review site. They have started filling results for their allotment of books. As of this writing, they have eliminated 4 of their 30 books from competition but mine is still in there.
Muse: That just means they haven’t read it yet.
Probably, but I shall remain hopeful.
— Speaking of Pilgrimage to Skara, I checked my sales numbers and they have tapered off a bit–and by “a bit,” I mean completely. As if I (or you) didn’t know already, this is illustrative of why a self-published writer needs to endlessly self-promote. An old online friend with the handle of Bowfinder would be shaking her finger at me and telling me I know better than this. She would know better, as she has sold tens of thousands of self-published books. I had plans to make a few edits to Pilgrimage and get a paperback version available. I need to get off my ass and make that happen.
— As soon as I finish this blog entry, I am putting the first words to page of the second in the Princess of the North series, which is tentatively titled Empress in Waiting. I’m alternating between getting the first draft of Empress written and editing Scion of Andoya, which is the first book.
— One of my writer’s groups appears to have ended; not with a bang, but with a whisper. We lost a key member some months back and tried to replace said member. It never really coalesced and the one guy we brought in was pretty raw and he eventually left town for job reasons. So leaving just three of us, the momentum died off. We coasted for a few meetings, then one person had to go out of town and missed a meeting, and we haven’t had one since. We might be fusing that group with the other one but there has already been some drama about doing so. We shall see what happens.
— On a happy note, a story I wrote in June managed to win the monthly online writing contest over at Fantasy-Writers.org . I thought the tale had a lot of flaws but other readers seemed to like it. An aside: this story is my first steampunk-ish story and was set in an alternate future where the British Empire never completely fell but just degenerated into several allied super states. The main character was a government minister in Singapore for one of those states (“Protectorates,” I called them). When I wrote the story, I envisioned the woman as Malaysian. It wasn’t explicit about it and no one seemed to pick it up. I am aware there is a dearth of women and people of color in leading roles in spec fiction. Does it need to be stated outright? That would seem to scuttle the point of doing so in the first place, like I was simply calling attention to it.
Anyway, that’s today’s rambling and rants. Off to start the next book. Cheers, everyone!
The Flint Hatchet 