Recently in fishing for readers Category

I was supposed to spend the week at my brother's, but both he and I have come down sick and I think I will be curled up in bed with an audio book instead of driving over (which would have also occurred with the company of an audio book, heh).

On the other hand, the Midnight Moon Café is graciously spotlighting Demon's Fall.

Also, All Romance eBooks has released the anthologies containing the Just One Bite contest finalists. My story, "Lilith," is in Just One Bite, Volume Two. You do have to register in order to "buy" it, but it's absolutely free.

Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans out there!

Yes, they're Harlequin employees, but they work there because they love books, and you can hear it in every word of a new monthly podcast, Book Chat. I was, of course, especially thrilled to learn that they talked about Demon's Fall, but I actually enjoyed hearing about the other books as well. It's a great format — I loved getting perspectives from several people who were all so enthusiastic and thoughtful about the stories they get to work with in their day jobs.

To keep this blog from descending into echoes of other people's mentions of my book, I would also like to add that I finally got my Tom Gauld print, Characters for an Epic Tale, properly framed and hung above my computer desk. It's the perfect inspiration (creativity begets creativity, methinks) that also makes me smile whenever I restlessly glance away from the monitor.

Something I'd like to figure out how to do better is to let people know when one of my works offers a significantly different reading experience than another. Some stories are dark and angsty, while others strive for a lighter tone (and hopefully a smile or two on the reader's part). Genre's not quite what I'm talking about; if I had to pair up my most recent two sf and two fantasy stories, I'd actually guess that someone who liked sf story #1 would be more likely to enjoy fantasy story #1 rather than sf story #2.

Some folks use multiple pen names, but I'd rather keep all of my works accessible under a single name. After all, they do have a common factor in their author, and it could be that there's some integral aspect of my writing style that would appeal no matter what the attitude of the story.

I've defaulted to sending my publishers works of consistent tone, so one gets the more stylistic writing and less romantic focus, and another has the more straight-up adventure-like plots with down-to-earth characters. This may not be all that wise, actually, since readers who stick to a single e-publisher won't get to encounter the rest of my range.

It makes me wonder how to label my free reads, though. How much forewarning does a reader want about the flavor of a story? Is the author the best person to identify the tone?

I'm heading out of the country for vacation, but I've set up some scheduled posts for the blog. I was considering getting on Twitter, but it was rightly pointed out to me that it would suck up a lot of the time that should be spent actually writing. I know this isn't the case for many writers, who find the 140-character bites of socialization a refreshing break or glean industry information that's helpful for their careers, but given how abysmally I keep up with personal emails and this blog, I should focus on those before adopting another social medium.

And trust me, there's plenty of bird sound where I live.

I'm being a bit more active with this novella than the last one; not because I was clueless of what I could do back then — I made some conscious decisions about that, given my available attention — but because I was ignorant of how little time some efforts would take. I've requested a couple of reviews from high-profile sites, am submitting to a contest for potential exposure there, and have prepared requested marketing soundbites for my publisher. Sadly, there's no good way to run a controlled experiment where book releases are concerned, but I'll be curious to see if there's any effect.

See you in a couple of weeks!

When your story admits to the possibility of a afterlife, "happily ever after" means "happily ever after." Given that there are only so permutations of angel/demon/human romances that come with complimentary built-in conflict, and that they'll all have to deal with the inevitable question of souls — a question that's hard to answer satisfactorily in multiple ways — I knew that Demon's Fall would never have a sequel.

But these days "happily for now" seems to be an acceptable ending, and I was rather fond of one of my minor characters in Demon's Fall. So I wrote "Lilith" partly for myself and partly because it's getting closer to the publication date of Demon's Fall, and it'd be nice to have something to accompany that.

I'm going through it to make sure it's sufficiently standalone, while at the same time keeping enough linking elements between it and Demon's Fall to make it clear they share a world. Lots of the little flourishes that I thought made Demon's Fall interesting are actually irrelevant in a shorter work that's much more heavily romance-focused.

I did still sneak in a hint of fairytale, which is only appropriate, given that that's where we get "happily ever after."

A lesson in what not to do.

So I went and got professional photographs taken, not without a great deal of trepidation, because apparently being able to see an author's face makes her writing more approachable or appealing. I spied the photographer's bookshelf while I was at her home studio, and noticed some fantasy books. "You read fantasy?" I asked, and when she admitted that she did, told her that so did I. We got into a nice chat about our favorite authors, and then she pulled out a paranormal romance. Why, I read those too! General readerly happiness ensued.

A little later, she asked if I wouldn't mind giving specifics about what I intended to use the photos for, so that she could aim to get the right kind of look for me. This was my cue! I could have triumphantly said, "Why, I write romantic fantasy, which you happen to read! One of your photos shall reside upon my site; I'll send you the URL, and you can browse among the free stories I have posted there! Or you could even <cough> follow the links to buy my book!"

Instead I muttered something about wanting to add a human face to a business. I beat myself up in the car after the shoot.

Apparently I'm so deeply in the habit of hiding that I write romance that I don't even bring it up in situations where it's already been sanctioned. I need to do something about this reflex...

I write this as the fish, not the fisherman.

I enjoy the works of some of the authors who write at the Book View Cafe Blog, so I subscribe to its feed. I confess I often skip over the posts of unknown writers, but this one by Steven Harper Piziks caught my eye because he mentioned Nathan Bransford, a literary agent with a wonderful sense of humor. Nathan's in the habit of offering public critiques of novel openings, and Steven one-upped him by analyzing a common problematic habit in several of them.

I thought it was a rather insightful post (although naturally I believe this to be a bad habit of others that I've seen often, and not one of my own), so I mosied along and checked out his website. Took a look at one of his books, and was intrigued by the blurb. Read the excerpt, and was engaged by the writing. Bought the book.

Well played, Mr. Piziks.

I can't help but point out Susanna Fraser's website, which her husband created for her. First, read the story here. Then go visit, and enjoy.

Personally, I'm hoping she won't change it.