Heartfelt Thanks & A Progress Report (& I Haz Planz – wc 06/03)

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Raven ShadowHawk

What a wonderful week. Not anything specific, but more in the fact that lots of things are coming together in a way that is satisfying and encouraging. I like that.

Thank you note! openlcipartI’ll start by saying ‘thank you.’

First, a wide, sweeping thank you to all the new blog subscribers, mail list sign ups, Twitter followers and Facebook likes. It means a lot that you would take the time to do any and all of these things and the fact that you choose to stay close to the crap I spout means a great deal. No one likes talking to themselves; this proves that I’m not doing that.

The next is to all of my beta readers. You guys have been wonderful; so helpful, so attentive to details that I miss or just don’t think about. These books I release are as much yours as they are mine, as a result of your hard work and I don’t, for a second, want you to forget that I appreciate the time you spend. I know it ain’t easy.

The last thank you to my Funk Master. He’s my boyfriend, if you’re unfamiliar with the nickname, and has been so supportive, understanding and just damn awesome through all of this. In fact, you lot should thank him too; he’s the reason that Slippers & Chains is getting such a hard push right now. He’s the one who believes in the story enough to keep nagging me to polish it up. Thanks, lover!

progress barAnd that, funnily enough, brings me neatly onto the progress report.
I drafted Slippers & Chains months ago. Probably this time last year. But it has been put aside again and again in favour of other projects. Following the encouraging response from Breathless Press when I entered their critique session, and double eager comments from you guys across various platforms, I’ve been busting my backside getting the deep edits done so I can send the story out to beta readers.

The current word count is 32k, meaning this novella (or novelette?) will be the longest story I’ve written to date.

As of now, I’m 60% through the deep edits, meaning I’ll be ready to transfer back to digital by this time next week. If I follow the method that Ileandra has tried and tested, I should have a file ready to be read by the middle of the month. With this in mind, and the launch date of Bill looming on the horizon, I have a lot I want to get done in the next seven days.

Those those of you who aren’t interested in my weekly goals, you can sod off now. This part will only bore you. 😉 I’ll catch you on Saturday for my next indie ebook review.

For the rest of you, it’s the first post of the month, so it’s assessment time!

Last Month’s Goals

~Get ‘Bill’ edited and sent to betas
Done. Just waiting for one more to come back, but I have enough to get started on making a few tweaks here and there. Good stuff.

~Start initial editing notes on ‘Eric & Morgan’
Quick pass: done. I’ll start deep edits when Slippers & Chains is out with betas. Since I just haven’t really paid enough attention to it. *shrugs* It happens.

~Read and review one erotic indie book
Yep. Done. And the review for that will be up on Saturday.

~On completion of the poll make a start on recording Slippers & Chains (pt1)
Not quite. I know that I’ll be doing voice recordings now, but I haven’t started yet. I need to be happy with the deep edits I’ve made to avoid repetition. It makes far more sense to do these recordings when I’ve made tweaks after the betas have returned it to me. I know… that was poor planning on my part. My bad.

Last Week

~Chase up beta reads for thoughts on Bill so I can do my-pre-external-editor-edits
Yep. Just waiting for one person now. Nearly there.

~More deep edits on ‘Eric & Morgan’
I won’t lie, I’ve not touched it since hearing back from Breathless. See above.

~Close poll for Bill cover art (this is something only mailing list subscribers are privy to. There is still a little bit of time if you want to be involved (you have until Feb 28) to sign up to that list and get your chance to work with me behind the scenes).
Done! That was very exciting and I’m thrilled so many of you took part. You’ll all see the results of your hard work and voting when I do the cover reveal later in the month.

March 2014 Goals

  1. Finish deep edits on Clippers & Chains and send to betas

  2. Upon completion of Slippers & Chains start (for real this time) proper deep edits on Eric & Morgan

  3. Read and review one indie book in the erotica genre

  4. Set solo site to live (at last!)

  5. Organise promotional materials for now and later (conferences and visits)

This Week

  1. Continue deep edits on Slippers & Chains

  2. Chase up Bill cover art from Angie

  3. Finalise details to go in press kit for solo website

There. Done. I think that should keep me busy for the rest of the week. How are you all doing? My week might start on a Thursday, but I’m sure lots of you have been at it for ages. How are you getting on?

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A Monday Gift (& Mah Goals – wc 03/03)

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Ileandra Young

An issue of Writing Magazine back in 2013 has proven one of the most valuable reads of the year. I might have mentioned this before, but I want to spend more time talking to you, today about Fiverr.

Fiverr is a freelancing market place. It operates quite simply; join up and browse the jobs available across a range of broad categories. Within each category the freelancers list specific jobs or gigs they’re willing to do. And, as you may have guessed from the site name, all of these gigs cost a fiver or $5.

Of course you can add on extras and these will bump up the price, but the core service or job is $5.

Think about that for a second.

Anything you need, created for you, for the price of a coffee.
cup of coffee

Magic, right? And, it’s even better for me, since the exchange rate at the moment means that a gig is costing me about £3.09. That’s nothing. That’s two coffees.

And these freelancers are incredibly talented. Don’t believe me? Look at some of the things freelancers from Fiverr have designed for me recently. My signature is one of them; check out the bottom of this post. That custom signature with it’s funky angles and clear lines was designed for me by a fabulous designer who has now moved on, otherwise I would fish out his details.

This logo:
logo for Little Vamp Press publisher
Designed by obus88 who did it for $15 in the space of 24 hours. And he gave me a bunch of different colour combinations to play about with.

For other talented designers, just take a look at Raven’s book covers. All designed by Angie at pro_ebookcovers. None of them more than $15 (though of course any photography involved had its own cost, separate to cover design).

I’m telling you this because I know that Raven and I aren’t the only ones struggling to do all the things we want to do. There are hundreds, if not thousands of authors, just like us, who want to do this self publishing thing as professionally as possible. But we just don’t have the funds to pay top of the range designers and graphic artists. Until we start raking in the £££s from our words, we have to do the best we can.

Fiverr is a gem and it’s my Monday gift to you. If you haven’t checked it out, please, please do. You can sign up with Facebook or Twitter or from your email address and it costs you nothing. You can talk to every designer before you commit and the refund policy is pretty good too. And you can get almost anything you want from this place.
cute cartoon hedgehogYou want a… I don’t know… cute and fuzzy hedgehog to spell out the name of your book with the bodies of furry green caterpillars? There’s probably someone who can do that.
Want a cheerful rendition of ‘happy birthday’ sung in the style of Marilyn Munroe? I know for a fact there are several people who do that as a gig.

Seriously, take a look. You’re unlikely to be disappointed. And, even if you can’t find something you want, you’ll have a laugh looking at the crazy things people try to sell.

Right,that’s that.
Today is Monday. Goal day.
It’s also the first Monday of the month, so it’s time to look back at what I did in February.

Last Month’s Goals

Complete ‘deep edits’ on SORB and transfer back to digital. Have ready to send to betas by February 28
Yes and no. Deep edits are done, but they revealed a structural issue that had to be fixed. I’ve transferred the file back to digital, but with the total scrapping of nine chapters, I need to go through again to make sure I’ve not left any plot holes. Pity, I was doing very well, but I know that removing those chapters is better for the novel. That is worth far more than speed any day. If I’m finally going to publish this thing, I’m going to do it right, damn it!

Obtain secure commitment of at least four betas
I’ve got *tots up* four. Yes! Didn’t even realise I had that many. And in light of some other conversations I’ve had recently, I may well have another two to add to that list. The more the better, I say. Having different eyes and opinions and thoughts on this novel can only help me. Yes, if too many people say too many different things it could be an issue, but the story needs to be read by several eyes before I let it go. So… I’d better just suck it up.

Read one indie novel, review it and post it to the blog
Eyup. In fact I think I’m running ahead at the moment. I’ve managed to do a lot of reading over the last few days and that’s good. Through reading these books I’ve learned a lot plotting, structure and pace. Better than that, I’ve learned a hell of a lot about what not to do. All valuable experience.

Last Week

Wonderful. Despite ‘taking it easy’ I finished transferring SORB back into its digital form and, as I’ve already mentioned, made the incredibly important decision to axe those chapters. Just that, if I did nothing else all week, would have been worth it. In short, I’m very pleased and eager to start working forwards.

March 2014 Goals

  1. Finish the last round of edits on SORB
  2. Send file to betas by the end of the month
  3. Flesh out the outline of Walking The Razor’s Edge (WTRE) in preparation for writing the first draft
  4. Read and review one indie book in the fantasy genre

That should be more than enough to get on with for the month which will also have conferences and open days to attend. More about those in later posts. ^_^

After my lovely week ‘off’ I’m ready to get back to a real schedule. Obviously, with the past fortnight in mind, I shan’t be going nuts, but there are some things I want to be are done by this time next week.

This week

  1. Continue reading my review book (The Unsuspecting Mage) – at least three chapters
  2. Write two letters to writing magazines
  3. Read (and make notes on) at least chapters of SORB, post reverse edits
  4. Finalise details to go in press kit for solo website

Phew!

Apologies, this has been a much longer post than I was anticipating. But I hope you’ve enjoyed it and that my sharing Fiverr with you is useful.
Have a wonderful, productive, enjoyable week and I’ll catch you next time.
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Ileandra’s February Indie eBook Review: Fat Vampire

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Ileandra Young

Fat Vampire cover art

Credit: Johnny B Truant

Author: Johnny B Truant
Title: Fat Vampire
Genre: Parody & satire (hint of horror… y’know, it’s vampires)
ASIN: B009KP93F4
‘When overweight treadmill salesman Reginald Baskin finally meets a co-worker who doesn’t make fun of him, it’s just his own bad luck that tech guy Maurice turns out to be a two thousand-year-old vampire.
And when Maurice turns Reginald to save his life, it’s just Reginald’s own further bad luck that he wakes up to discover he’s become the slowest, weakest, most out-of-shape vampire ever born, doomed to “heal” to his corpulent self for all of eternity.’

Well. I like me my vampires. I like me some stories that aren’t all about gorgeous, skinny, super fit and super beautiful people. This book gives me all of those things and more. Nice.

Cover:

three starsIt’s an odd one. I have a strange bias against mixed graphics in a cover and the super-real piece of chicken against the cartoony dripping blood doesn’t do it for me. I do, however, very much like the till receipt which gives Jonny’s name. I thought that was a pretty slick touch. Beyond that, however, it was missing something for me; like the cover was trying to be more serious than the book actually is. Because… you know… the book is funny.

Story:

four starsWhile I had an issue with the last book I reviewed, this I certainly haven’t read before. There are ideas like it (at its core, Fat Vampire is an underdog-comes-out-on-top story) but it felt different. So that was good.

Reginald (fantastic name choice!) works in an office where he is singled out constantly because of his size. The men (and women) around him are beautiful and slim and fit and he just… isn’t. Then he gets friendly with another outcast in the office; a 19 year old goth-kid called Maurice who walks around with a sword on his hip (for his hedges).

Unfortunately for him, Maurice is also a vampire and, when Reginald gets caught up in the politics between him and the Vampire Nation, he is turned. Well before he is ready.

There are so many ‘awww’ moments in this story as well as a healthy sprinkling of ‘WTHF’ and ‘oh, dear god, that was funny!’ Poor Reginald can’t even catch a meal he’s so fat and slow. Since the vampire market is saturated by dark, broody, perfect, glittery teenager types (YUK!) this was a refreshing twist. Reginald has an ace up his sleeve. And it saves his big fat arse!

My only complaint is that it was over too fast. For a novel that came about as a joke during a podcast, Jonny did really well, but I feel (and wish) that he’d taken more time to expand it a bit. Some aspects felt rushed and while the ending was satisfying, it was over too soon. Not in a ‘oh no, I need more,’ kind of way, but in a ‘oh, is that it? But I wanted to hear what happened to such-and-such.’ Does that make sense? The end could have been just as clean and slick with an additional two chapters to round things off without resorting to a one line; ‘this is what happened’ which is what we got.

Characters:

four starsReginald is quite sassy for a put upon fat guy. Which is good. Without his wit and sense of humour he ran the risk of being somewhat pathetic and annoying. So thumbs up there!

Maurice had potential to be a hell of a lot more. I feel that he wasn’t explored as well as he could have been, especially with all that history behind him. He’s 2,000 years old! I realise that this is a six-book series, but it would have been nice to know a bit more about him as the story went on.

I like Nikki without liking her. I know that doesn’t make sense, but she seems really generic. Especially since the other characters are so bright and vibrant. For me, she was missing something and I’m hoping that we’ll see more of the missing sparkle (not that kind of sparkle!) in later books.

Claire is fab. I know kids like this girl and that was lovely to see in a book. Every now and then I thought her situation was slightly over done (she’s likeable enough without having to hammer home that her mother is such a waster) but again, there was something missing. Not enough of her.

Overall experience:

five starsBrilliant. This book was well formatted. Clean. Extremely well edited. The chapters were short (which, on a purely personal level) is fantastic. The language was clear and unpretentious with dialogue that rang true to the ear.

Final score:

four starsAverage across all four points comes up as a nice and easy 4 stars. Wonderful. Pretty much what my knee-jerk reaction was when I finished reading. ^_^ Heh, this points and average system is working pretty well!

To close, this was definitely an experience. I picked this book because I enjoyed ‘Write. Publish. Repeat.’ so much and I’m impressed with the level of dedication and perseverance Johnny and the rest of his team puts into working. It impressed, motivated and inspired me to kick my own work into gear so, for that, I thank them. I enjoyed this book A LOT and will, eventually, be looking towards finding the rest of the series. It’s started well enough that I need to see how it plays out.
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Slippers & Chains Poll Closed! (& I Haz Planz – wc 27/02)

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Raven ShadowHawk

The poll closed on Sunday 23 and I’d like to thank all of you who took the time to vote. The numbers are in and it seems that you guys would much prefer to hear my voice in a file you can take away, than watch a video that might tie you to a particular sort of media player.

Fair enough.

That means that I can now start recording sections of Slippers & Chains to post to the blog in future entries.

At this time I can’t give you an ETA. Sorry about that; I need to finish up some other projects firsts and they will take me slightly longer as I’ve slowed down for my health’s sake. But know that the files WILL come. I promise you that.

In the meantime, I suppose I should tell you what’s kicking off for the rest of this week.

Last week

~Start reading my indie review book for March.
Yep. I’ve started and I’m suitably amused and horrified. I can tell you right now that I like this book and that I’m concerned about what that means about me as a person. o.O Want to know more? You’ll have to wait for my review. Yes… I’m a tease, I know.

~Start deep edits on ‘Eric & Morgan’
That should have been ‘continue.’ I didn’t do that this week. Instead I let my brain decompress and relax a smidge which, isn’t a bad thing. I have to keep reminding myself that to slow down is not to fail, it’s to pace myself so failure isn’t forced on me by a nervous break down. Tricky to remember, but so far, so good.

~Write up review for February’s indie review book.
Done. That review will be live and available to view on March 8, so if you’re curious, stay tuned.

~Close the Slippers & Chains poll.
Done. I’m not sure if the poll is actually shut to the point that it won’t take any more clicks, but I’ll no longer be checking it for more votes, put it that way. The poll is closed and the decision made. Thanks, folks, very much for your help in that regard.

This Week

  • Chase up beta reads for thoughts on Bill so I can do my-pre-external-editor-edits

  • More deep edits on ‘Eric & Morgan’

  • Close poll for Bill cover art (this is something only mailing list subscribers are privy to. There is still a little bit of time if you want to be involved (you have until Feb 28) to sign up to that list and get your chance to work with me behind the scenes).

And that’s that. Hope you all have a good week and I’ll catch you next time around.

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Five #IllyTips To Avoid Writer’s Burnout

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Ileandra Young

Burnout. Last week I had a moment of shame when I realised that I let my fatigue and irritation influence a blog post. Not to say that I shouldn’t have felt these things. I have every right to; I’m a busy mum who also happens to be ill.
But I should – and here’s where I let myself down – be able to manage my time, personal expectations and writing in a manner that doesn’t make me poorly (or enhance existing problems) and therefore adversely affect what I do here.

I know I’m not alone in that.

Many people I’ve talked to in various places have had days of burnout, the results of which can last hours, days, weeks, months, even years. The last time I treated myself so badly I had to take a month off blogging to recover. I don’t want to have to go that again, nor do I want you to suffer the same what I have/am currently. So… here are my five steps all based on my experience over the last few weeks.

Be realistic about your goals

goal shooting goals from open clip artGoals are important. They structure your work, guide you and make sure that you don’t waste valuable time in things that are of no help to you. But they’re a double edged sword. They can make you fearful and/or stressed. They can make you look only at what you haven’t achieved instead of the wonderful things you have.
You have a busy life. Fine, we all do. That’s all the more reason to really look at your life and be honest with yourself about what you can and can’t do.

Transfer half a novel’s worth of edits back to digital in a week? Yes… some folk could do that. I did manage to do that, but only at a detriment to my health, with too many late nights and early (more so than usual) mornings. In additional, none of my background admin work as a writer got done.

Be honest. Be brutal. It’s the best way to be kind and, as a result, a hell of a lot more productive.

Ask for help

help message in a bottle

Credit: Tomk32

I suck at this one. My friends and family will agree.
Need to pop to the shops, but can’t because I’m at home alone with the boys sleeping in their beds? Don’t fret about it, Illy, ask Dave to bring something on his way back.
Need an extra hour one day to work on a time sensitive article? You have friends and extended family quite literally one street away; ask them to watch the boys for an hour. The worse they can say is no.

Ask. For. Help.
I can’t stress this enough. None of us are immortal or super human. We can’t do everything alone, no matter how much we might want to.

Take time for you

Meditating woman, lotus pose, yoga, buddhist

Credit: qubodup

All work and no play makes Illy a sick, whiny and anti productive girl.

Hell yes it does.

Last week I took a ‘week off.’ I still worked, but only here and there. The days I did do some editing, or tweaking or writing, were amazing because I came to them with a fresh head that wasn’t still leaking panicked thoughts from the day before.
And around those things I watched films, cooked recreationally, played with my boys in the park. All activities that reminded me of why I’m doing this in the first place.
And that’s also important to remember.
I’m doing this for my family. Not just because I love writing, but because if I can eventually get to a stage where I can comfortably pay a bill or two with my writing, then I can spend more time with my family. Watch my boys grow. Enjoy time with Dave. But I won’t be able to do any of that if I have a nervous break down first.

Puts it in perspective, right?

Don’t sweat the impossible stuff

a bunch of impossible objects (kinda cool)

Credit: Craftsmanspace

There is a hell of a lot we can control. Doesn’t feel like it, but it’s true. However there is waaaaaaaaay more stuff that we can’t. Unfortunately for me, that’s the stuff I worry about most, which is dumb because, really, what can I do about it? Nothing. So what use is there in me worrying about it? Crap all.
Apply this to yourself; pick out the things that stress you out and see if they are actually things you can change.  If so, great! Do so… you’ll feel better for it. If not? Put them to one side, draw a line under them and let the Universe worry about them because you sure as hell can’t make any difference. Apply your time and energy to things that will benefit from it.

Yes… I know it’s easier said than done, but you owe it to yourself to try.

Rest

a person sleeping in bed

Credit: liftarn

Last week I promised myself I’d be in bed by 10pm every night. It didn’t work every night, but those in which I managed to slip between the covers at that sort of time were heavenly. I thought I’d toss and turn until midnight, but I didn’t. I passed right the hell out and woke up maybe one or twice to turn over. And in the mornings which followed I didn’t beg the Universe to give me an extra hour in bed. I wanted it – I’m lazy, remember? – but I didn’t need it.That made an incredible difference to the rest of my week.

So there you are. My five tips.

Now, I know it’s Monday today and that’s usually a goal day. It still is, but I realised some time in the week that just reading through what I want to do with my week might well be boring for you guys. VERY useful for me, not you.

So the new format of my Monday posts will be

  1. Something for you; Illy Tips, links, competition notices or reviews
  2. Round up of the last week’s goals
  3. Thoughts on the upcoming week’s goals

That way, if you’re not interested in my working week; you can read to the end of section one and then skip off and enjoy your day. :p Hope that works for you.

So…!

Last Week

Recover. I did it to myself, but I need to spend some time being calm and taking care of myself. Reading. Catching up on my writing magazines.
Done. And it really was worth it. I still got work done, but I also managed to spend time on me. Wonderful!

I’m still ill, mind you. I spend chunks of yesterday at A&E, sobbing at the out of hours doctor, but that’s more about the silly stuff my body is doing with certain foods, rather than over fatigue and burn out. So thumbs up!

This week

  • Continue to rest. I’m nowhere near 100%, not even 60%, so concentrate, if I must, on easy activities like:
    1. Reading through left over magazines
    2. Actually reading some of the blogs I follow
    3. Chatting on Twitter
    4. Chatting on Facebook
    5. Planning future blog posts

All things that don’t feel like ‘work’ but are essential in understanding the changing market, building my brand and marketing.

If I have time for it, yes, I can do some more transferring of my notes. But, as I mentioned in the comment stream of last week’s post; I’ve found a major structural issue which needs to be addressed before I can send the story to betas. And that certainly means that the initial estimate of March 1 is way off.

*shrug*

Can’t be helped. Don’t sweat the impossible stuff.
Move on.
I can fix it, just need to spend the time doing it.

Peace out, guys. Hope you have a good week and, my tips are of some use to you.
x
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