Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

OLB Award

20 Sep 2012 by KRAG

The One Lovely Blog Award has come my way. It’s another way for bloggers to show appreciation and bring notice to blogs that we find intriguing.

Sarah over at Musings of a Steampunk—one of my favorite blogs to follow—has nominated this blog for the award! Thanks, Sarah! It’s truly a pleasure to know that this blog reaches and touches other writers and readers.

The Rules for nominees are simple:

Copy and paste the award logo onto a post.
Thank and link back to the person who nominated you.
List seven things about yourself.
Nominate five other blogs.

See? Easy peasy.

My nominees (in no particular order) are:

Mike and Robert vs. the Movies (irreverent, insightful movie guys)
Untitled*United (movies, books, writing, everything)
The Wildflower Scout (I love this blog! Beautiful photos, great hiking)
Paige Nolley (enthusiastic writer/blogger)
Jumping from Cliffs (passionate novelist)

My 7 things:

I worked as a pressman in a small newspaper, did everything from paste-up to delivery, and nearly earned the nickname “Lefty”.
Every year I try brie cheese to see if it still tastes awful to me (20 yrs so far, still “ick”)
I’ve been reading Proust for five years; I can only handle the prose for 2 weeks at a time, but when I pick it back up, it’s like I never put it down.
I’m related to Eleanor of Aquitaine.
I can only write humorous non-fiction. Humorous fiction (to date) is beyond my capabilities.
I can’t draw worth spit.
I have a thing for old British cars.

Posted in Culture | Tagged blogging, creative writing, One Lovely Blog Award | 7 Comments »

The Devil’s Typesetter

20 Sep 2012 by KRAG

When I decided to publish the new FC books myself, I rather knew what I was getting into. Publishers, for all their flaws, do provide a lot for the writer. I’ve seen it, experienced it, and though I bitched about a lot of it at the time, I surely do miss it now.

Some of the services a publisher provides that are now on my plate: editing, copy-editing, fact-checking, cover art, and typesetting. (And this doesn’t even get into the marketing/distribution side of things.)

It’s that last one, though…typesetting. It’s a bloody mare’s nest of minutia and details. But its importance cannot be understated. I’ve done this before, but it’s always a surprise. Continue Reading »

Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing | Tagged creative writing, e-readers, ebooks, editing, Fallen Cloud Saga, Kindle, novel writing, publishing, self-publishing, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips | 1 Comment »

Summer Ends

19 Sep 2012 by KRAG

It fades, Summer does. It does not leave in a rush or slip away overnight. It fades, its brilliance seeping into the ground, the sky, the air.

At first, it cedes the night, relenting in the early hours, allowing the world at last to breathe and with a cooling sigh to sleep, finally, sleep.

Then the evenings fade. The sun, now tired from its summer’s work, runs low across the sky and gently slides toward twilight, returning hours it once commanded back to moon and stars.

Today, the morning faded, too, as gentle fog hid the buildingtops and seagulls mewed above, unseen. The streets were mist, the sky a blanket, and every streetlamp was a halo-shrouded gem.

The afternoon now is Summer’s only realm, but not for long; its threats are all worn out, its bark now has no bite. Flanked on either side by dewy morning and the star-shot dusk, it has no time to muster strength and soon will leave the field. The gold of summer grass will green, the green of summer leaves will rust and blaze, and Autumn, soon, will come into her own.

Summer’s nearly done. It’s fading as we speak.

Posted in Culture, Seattle | Tagged autumn, autumnal equinox, changing seasons, dewy morning, fog, last days of summer, nature, seasons, Seattle, summer, summer grass, weather | 2 Comments »

Let Me Count the Words

18 Sep 2012 by KRAG

Counting words used to be important. It also used to be arcane.

As the physically printed word goes slowly out of style, the importance of word count diminishes. When I worked as a head pressman at a small newspaper, word count was king because word count translated to column inches, and you only had so many of those in each issue. Reporters typed up their story, handed it to the typesetter who typed it into a machine the size of a van. Long strips of paper came out the far side which we then painstakingly—and absolutely literally—cut and pasted onto the page mock-up. Word count gave us an idea of how much space each article would use. But it was not a literal count of the words.

Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing | Tagged Beneath a Wounded Sky, creative writing, ebooks, Fallen Cloud Saga, Kindle, novel writing, publishing, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips | 1 Comment »

Are We Reaching?

17 Sep 2012 by KRAG

Fifty followers. Fifty.

That may not sound like a lot to you, but it does to me. I’m not even 100 days into this experiment, and already there are 50 of you who found it interesting enough to click the “follow” button. Not bad, in my estimation, especially since most of you 50 (if not all of you) are new to (the thing that is) KRAG. That’s a pretty good reach, in my book.

Mostly, though, it proves a point: Blogging is powerful.

Posted in Culture, Hi Tech, Writing | Tagged blogging, collective culture, long distance phone call, long distance telephone, Writing | 2 Comments »

FC Covers

16 Sep 2012 by KRAG

Cover art is here! I’ve also decided that I won’t be going with a hardback version of these books; production costs are too high and the demand is too low. We’ll be putting these out in trade paper and in e-book formats.

Onward!

Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing | Tagged amazon, Beneath a Wounded Sky, books, creative writing, e-readers, ebooks, editing, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, Kindle, novel writing, novels, publishing, self-publishing, Writing | Leave a Comment »

Got Milk?

14 Sep 2012 by KRAG

“I did not, in the course of my response to the matter in April, 1861, consider within the limits of credibility that these heretofore stalwart men—many of whom were well-known to me—could be anything but misguided or deceived by the machinations of others. I did not and could not conceive of the authors of such actions as reasoning, civilized members of an otherwise flourishing country.”

Abraham Lincoln, A War Remembered, 1875

See what I did there?

Posted in Writing | Tagged creative writing, Fallen Cloud Saga, Harlan Ellison, Lincoln, milk in the icebox, novel writing, Stephen King, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips | Leave a Comment »

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Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

Words and Works from a Seattle Author

OLB Award

The Devil’s Typesetter

Summer Ends

Let Me Count the Words

Are We Reaching?

FC Covers

Got Milk?

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