Do the Monster Smash: Yet Another Cool Marketing Tool for Authors!

My publishers, Variance, who have published my book, The Chronicles of Anaedor:  The Prophecies, through their imprint, BLiP, have put my book on Smashwords.  Smashwords, I have found, is a great place to go for all your e-book needs.  Why?  Because they make your book available via a crazy number of formats.  Take a look:

That's hard to beat when you want your book to be accessible to as many people in as many ways as possible.  It's also hard to beat the name:  Smashwords.  I just like saying it.

So do the Monster Smash and get your book out there!

Spread the Wordle: Another Cool Marketing Tool for Authors!

I'm back with another really awesome marketing tool for authors. It's called a wordle and can be found at Wordle.com. You can create your own wordle, using your own words, colors, and configurations. It's very simple. Here's the one I did for The Chronicles of Anaedor: The Prophecies.



The process takes very little time - all you have to do is type in the words, pick a font, pick a color and play around with the configurations (all horizontal, all vertical, some of both, etc). Once you are finished, you can save the product to the wordle site. This makes your wordle public, so anyone can view it. You can also take a screen shot (the FAQ provides a link that will guide you on how to do this) and save it for display on your website. You can use your creation to make t-shirts or posters or bookmarks. Whatever you want!

Wordle is fun and it's free! So get out there and spread the wordle. Your wordle!

The New Year - 2010 and the Art of Zen

All right...the party is over. I've taken several months off from writing my blog to recover my energy, sanity and joy of life (the short story version: I was recently diagnosed with hypothyroidism - completely treatable, but not very nice if left untreated). Anyway, I am feeling much better thanks to modern medicine and ready to begin the new year. I even rearranged my workspace.

Woohoo!

Okay, I admit it. I am one of those people who comes up with new year's resolutions. I am also one of those rare, and annoying, people who actually do what they resolve to do (more or less). That is why I am called an overachiever. Being an overachiever can be great, but it comes with a price (just ask my stomach).

This year I am feeling quite energetic and hope to get a lot accomplished. So, without further ado, here are my resolutions:

1. Finish writing two books (both have about 70 pages chock full of goodness).
2. Find an agent (the author kind, not the secret kind).
3. Send out a new kind of book (my favorite kind to read) that I wrote last year to help find that agent.
4. Find a publisher for a fantasy book I wrote last year (although there might be a possibility already for that one). I'm keeping my fingers (and my toes, eyes and ears) crossed!
5. Help put together a great NH AuthorFest (and hope for rain this year).
6. Market the new and improved, The Chronicles of Anaedor: The Prophecies.
7. Save the world.
8. Buy more books from local bookstores.
9. Do a real, live book signing at a real, live bookstore.
10. Have fun being an author (and there's no fun like author fun)!

As you can see, this post has nothing to do with the art of Zen. Overachievers have a hard time meditating (while doing so, I compose lists - it's very sad). But Zen rhymes with ten and that's the best I could do and that's what it's all about (apparently I don't overachieve when it comes to poetry).

So what are your resolutions for 2010? Do you even make them? If not, why are you such a wimp? Whatever your poor, sniveling excuses are, I'd like to hear from you, so comment away!

Editing 101: Too Many Words!

Note: I'm reposting the following because 1) I am lazy, and 2) because I thought you might benefit from my many, many mistakes. So really, I'm doing this for you.

As I am currently editing book two of the Anaedor series, I thought I’d try to capture some of the problems I’ve found and pass them along to you to fix. I mean, learn from. Of course, I was nearly at the end of the book when I discovered something I wished I had figured out 400 pages earlier.

I use too many words!

The following are real world examples of changes I have made that I think will make my book flow better. First, I’ll present the original sentence/phrase, then show how I made it better (I hope). The changes are subtle, but important, I think. Obviously, you’ll have to generalize to your work, but I believe it is quite doable.

1a. I have just recently taken in a group of Lost Ones who are in desperate need of a new home.

1b. I have recently taken in a group of Lost Ones in desperate need of a new home.

*See how those 3 words (just, who are) are unnecessary? Plus, I just have to get away from using the word ‘just’ too often.

2a. They’ve been traveling for ages and hiding out for too long. They must settle soon. They need a home.

2b. They’ve been traveling for ages. They must settle soon.

*Could I be any more repetitive? Could I be? Well, yes, I could, but I don’t need to be. I don’t. It’s annoying.

3a. Her beady eyes narrowed doubtfully. “’But I thought Blendars supported Humans.”

3b. Her beady eyes narrowed doubtfully. “’I thought Blendars supported Humans.”

*Excessive use of the but word. Stop immediately. Same idea can be applied to the and word.

4a. “I have more to tell you!” she shouted excitedly, her voice booming. “You and your clan would benefit greatly from hearing my words of wisdom.”

4b. “I have more to tell you! Your clan would benefit greatly from hearing my words of wisdom.”

*I have been working on eliminating extra wording in between bits of dialogue based on a workshop I attended on dialogue by playwright, Tom Dunn. He likes to use only dialogue and nothing else. I’m not that talented, but I can apply his thinking to a lot of what I do.

5a. Ian broke in, making it clear that he didn’t find it to be that way in the least.

5b. Ian broke in, making it clear that he didn’t find it that way in the least.

*This change sounds better in context. I eliminated the phrase ‘to be’ because it made the sentence clunky.

6a. Realizing what was going on, all three Pirahnies gave an ear-piercing roar and lunged at the newcomer who was taking their meal away.

6b. All three Pirahnies gave an ear-piercing roar and lunged at the newcomer taking their meal away.

*I have learned that using the phrase who was or who is, is often not needed. More unnecessary words to clutter your work.

7a. I began to mumble the words to myself.

7b. I mumbled the words to myself.

*began to, started to…don’t overuse these phrases. They take away from the action of the sentence.

8a. the wiles of a Mermaid

8b. A Mermaid’s wiles.

*Use of the possessive, where practical, eliminates extra words and awkward phrasing.

9a. The helmet was covering his eyes

9b. The helmet covered his eyes

*Make your verb as active as you can.

10a. Even worse was that Loria believed the arrogant charlatan

10b. Loria believed the arrogant charlatan

*More unnecessary words.

These are only ten examples from the hundreds that I make in a day of editing. It’s a learning process that can be both frustrating and rewarding. I hope these concrete examples make some sense to you and are applicable to what you’re doing. I will pass along more tips as I continue this process…I’m sure there will be plenty more.

And remember: Writing is like life. Plan on making lots of mistakes.

Like this: a large door was a large door

NaNoWriMo Is Dead to Me

Did I say that? What I meant is that NaNoWriMo is finally over. Whew! I’m elated. I did not finish my novel, nor did I finish editing Anaedor, the Second. But I did manage to cut down four trees with my husband this last weekend.

That counts for something, doesn’t it?

I did make really good progress on my book, however. I now have about 155 pages (started at about 73) and have made it all the way through Anaedor and am now just cleaning a few things up. So, despite the added stress, I have to say that NaNoWriMo wasn’t all bad. I’m glad it’s over, though.

Now maybe I can do some leisure reading at night, catch up on my Ghost Hunters episodes, take a shower. You know, the essentials. Speaking of Ghost Hunters, the season finale takes place in Portsmouth, NH, one of my favorite little cities. And…my niece actually met Jason and some of the TAPS crew (or possibly the camera crew). Here’s the kicker…she had no idea who they were. She doesn’t watch Ghost Hunters. I’m not sure I can find that at all amusing. I watch Ghost Hunters, I would have recognized them. But did I meet them? Did I even know they were in town?

Nooooo!

Life goes on (not for her, though) and I am looking forward to seeing this last episode and getting my life back on track. Of course, with the holidays fast approaching and my four-year-old continually asking me how many days until Christmas (I tell him the number and the next day, he says, is it 49?), I might not make it to the New Year. Or my children won’t. We’ll see. We might be seeing survival of the fittest at its finest these next few weeks.

One final note for this stunningly uninformative and bland blog: I will be doing a book signing Saturday, December 6th, from 9-3, at the Strafford School in Strafford, NH. Come by and say hi!

Blog, Blog, Blog

Hello and welcome to my blog. I was going to call this, Writer’s Blog, but thought someone must have come up with that clever play on words by now (Writer’s blog, writer’s block, get it?). Okay, okay. I know what you’re thinking… Keep your day job, Kristina.

So why am I blogging? Well, I am about to become a published author. Woohoo! I am a wee bit excited about the big event, which you might have picked up on when you read the ‘woohoo’ part.

But I really am psyched! Though maybe that’s because I’ve been plugging away at this writing stuff for over 10 years now (writing books, that is. I’ve done plenty of bad poetry and soulful journaling). Prior to the book that I’m publishing in November, I wrote 4 other books. Maybe someday I’ll go back and fix them, but for now I must consider these mere scribblings as practice (yes, I know, that sounds like a lot to just ‘write off,’ ha, ha, but it was necessary, believe me). I wrote these books for an adult audience, but when people read them, one of the major criticisms they made was that my heroine seemed rather young (a nice way of saying she was immature, obnoxiously so).

So I had to rethink my focus…

That’s when I came up with the idea of writing for young adults. I love fantasy fiction so I decided to focus on that genre (being, of course, inspired by the Harry Potter books, like the rest of the writing world–or so it seems now). But I also read this kind of genre as a kid (The Chronicles of Narnia come to mind) and into adulthood, as well. I guess I never grew up, which might explain why all my heroines aren’t very adult-like.

My very first book is called (speak the following part in a loud thundering voice)… The Chronicles of Anaedor: The Prophecies. It’s due out November, 2007. Be sure to check my website for updates on the release date, since I’m not sure of the exact date yet–it’s in editing right now (I love saying that). You can find the book on Breakneckbooks.com (that’s my publishing company) and amazon.com. But I’ll be doing some more shameless plugs in the future, when my book is actually available, so don’t worry if you forget. I’ll be there to remind you.

I will be blogging several times a week, talking about the process of writing and publishing, all while trying to have a life. Ha! My goal is to relate the grueling process of trying to publish my book, market it, and not want to jump off a cliff at the end of the day. Because I’m going through a small press, I face a larger challenge of getting my book out there in the public eye. So wish me luck!