Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing, tagged books, creative writing, editing, Fallen Cloud Saga, novel writing, self-publishing, The Ploughman Chronicles, Unraveling Time, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips on 24 Sep 2012| 4 Comments »
This past weekend, I gave myself some time off to enjoy “Borderlands 2” on Xbox, but that doesn’t mean I did nothing, writing-wise. I did a lot, actually…
Friday I finished typesetting the interior of FC:I and started working with the printer. There were two printers in contention for the job: Lulu and CreateSpace. I chose the latter. Here’s why.
Posted in Culture, tagged blogging, creative writing, One Lovely Blog Award on 20 Sep 2012| 7 Comments »
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:
See? Easy peasy.
My nominees (in no particular order) are:
My 7 things:
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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 on 20 Sep 2012| 1 Comment »
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. (more…)
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 on 18 Sep 2012| 1 Comment »
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 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 on 16 Sep 2012| Leave a Comment »
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 Writing, tagged creative writing, Fallen Cloud Saga, Harlan Ellison, Lincoln, milk in the icebox, novel writing, Stephen King, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips on 14 Sep 2012| Leave a Comment »
“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 Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing, tagged blogging, books, creative writing, editing, Fallen Cloud Saga, Libya, novel writing, publishing, quiet living, Writing on 13 Sep 2012| Leave a Comment »
There were several topics in my head this morning, all vying for attention.
Yesterday was a bad day—personally, nationally, internationally—and the opinions, the frustrations, the anger built until, about 9PM, the dreaded pall of futility and depression began to creep upon me. How to battle not only the news of terrible events, but the rash and unwise reactions that predominated the blogosphere? After so many years, after so many trials, have we learned nothing?
I tried to shake it and turned back to my work prepping The Year the Cloud Fell for re-release. Editing—even a quick review edit like I’m giving these books—may seem like an odd method for lifting one’s mood, but it paid off, for out of the blackness of my mood, there came a warm and friendly light. (more…)
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 