Steampunk Sunday: Flash of Copper

My latest collection of short stories came out just in time for a Steampunk Sunday post! Awesome!

This collection has 4 stories that have previously appeared on my blog and 4 more that have never been seen before.

The stories are:

God of the Waves
Copper Explorations 
Adam the Automaton
The Luckiest Man in the Jungle
Harnessing Lightning
The Mad Professor 
Children of Obsession
Before the End

Of course, all of these are part of the Copper Visions universe, which will be continued in 2014.

Flash of Copper is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble right now and I’m working on making a print version available in 2014, as well.

Goals For The New Year

I don't believe in making New Year's Resolutions. They're too easy to make and then forget about.

Rather, I use the first of the year and the first of July to take stock of where I am, where I want to be and what I need to do to get there. Yep, I do this twice a year. I usually wish all of Facebook Happy New Year on July first. Most of my friends who know what I'm doing laugh and wish it back. I understand I've convinced a few other people to do the same thing. Score!

My goals are always doable, if a bit of a stretch sometimes, and they always follow these 3 rules: Personal, Positive and Present-Tense.

I will explain.

Personal: This means something that I can control. "I will be published by a big 6 publisher" is not something I can control. "I will submit my first finished book to 10 publishers" is something I can control.

Positive: I am working towards something, not running away from something. "I will quit smoking" is not positive. "I will develop positive personal habits to replace unhealthy behaviors" is better. "I will take a walk or do push ups every time I crave a cigarette" is even better because it names a specific alternative to smoking rather than a vague "positive personal habits".

Present-Tense: This one is a bit harder to do at first, but much fun once you get into it. "I will submit to 6 publishers" becomes "I am submitting to 6 publisher this year."

Easy enough to understand, yes?

So, what are my goals for 2012?

Professional goals:

I am writing and finishing 3 novels this year. Amaria, Urban Fae and Cthulhu Penguin are the titles I am finishing and submitting to publishers.

I am writing, finishing and publishing a short-story every month of 2012. I am continuing in the worlds of the first two stories that are published and will be collected into an omnibus edition for each of the worlds at the end of the year.

Personal goals:

I am visiting Jillybean in New York.

I am going to continue working with my doctors to find out what the heck is wrong with me and I will seek professional help if my phobias block my ability to do this.

I am walking for 30 minutes 5 days a week.

I am adjusting my cooking and snacking to make what I eat healthier.

These changes will contribute to the loss of about 1 pound a week, with an over-all goal of losing 50 pounds in 2012.


So, these are my goals for 2012. What are yours? Will you be stretching yourself or staying within your comfort zone?

Thoughts on Publishing

As I'm still on the outskirts of the publishing world, making my way from reader to successful writer, I've been learning more about how publishing works. Rather, how publishing works now. Ten years ago, I knew how publishing worked then. I've been trying to keep up with changes in the industry and these last couple of years have been amazing. I'll be sharing what I learn as I go along but I am not an authority and I'm not trying to set myself up as one, I'm just someone passing on what I've learned recently.

With all that in mind, I had to share this post from John Barnes that I was sent to late last night from Dean Wesley Smith's blog.

The publishing perplex as found in the secret diary of Aunt Edna

Aunt Edna, of course, is the writer. Somehow or other she got hold of the basic source of the family’s wealth, and this is manifestly hard on everyone except Edna (and doesn’t always do her very much good either). She is flighty, irresponsible, impossible, cranky, and has far too many opinions on far too many subjects. She rotates between several dysfunctional states of being: charming in a very manipulative, sucking-up kind of way; inexcusably rude and arrogant; desperately frightened and begging to be saved from dangers real and imaginary; pathetically needy; and a host of other crazed states, a few of them all right and even pleasant, most of them shudder-worthy. The only way the whole family works is if Edna behaves long enough to give them access to the family fortune every month, so that the bills get paid, and everyone lives with the uncomfortable fact that Edna is there, must be kept happy, and mustn’t get her way. If Edna really understands what is going on in the rest of the household, her behavior becomes impossible, but if she is kept in ignorance, then her demands become impossible.

Busy . . .

Well, this is kinda funny.

I had to drop in to write a blog post just to say I was too busy to drop in and write a blog post.

This is one of those problems I like to have.

What am I up to?

Yeah, this doesn't have much to do with today's post, I just
like the picture. 

Well, first, I'm getting December's ebook edited, expanded and covered to go up on Amazon. I have a deadline of December 15th. Let's see if I can make it.

I'm a little more than half-way finished with the book I started for NaNoWriMo. I've been going over notes and I have to make a decision how I want this book to go. I'd originally planned to have it be a stand alone book in the center of three stand alone books that all propelled the largest plot forward. As I've been writing and plotting, I saw the potential to for it to be the first book in a trilogy that might border on the epic.

Also, we went from having two cars to having one. This means, if I need to go anywhere during the day, I have to take my hubby to work first thing in the morning. He's a teacher. I'm a night owl. This does not do good things for my sleep.

So, if so inclined, drop a couple bucks in the tip jar to help with repairs or stocking up on coffee.


Also, go like my author page on facebook. I'll be posting all publishing updates on that page first.

Mercury Retrograde Press

In clearing off my desk (yes, just moved, already a mess), I realized that I have a bunch of book reviews in various stages of completion. And wow, is this a horrible time to try and complete them. December, I promise, they will all be done and uploaded in December (yes, I've been saying that a lot, lately, especially to the dishes that continue to pile up during NaNoWriMo).

The reason I bring this up is because I realized that all of the books I enjoyed the most, the ones I'm having difficulty writing because it's so hard to get across how much I really, truly love these books, all came from the same publisher.

Mercury Retrograde Press has such a cool vision, I was intrigued. When founder Barbara Friend Ish gave me the chance to review some of their books, I had to jump at the chance to read "unconventional authors and works that might undeservedly slip through the cracks". I am so glad I did. Most of the books that come out of some of the bigger houses lack substance. In the effort to be commercial, they become a bit too light and airy. Every book I've read from Mercury Retrograde Press has been enjoyable to read and heavy enough to make me feel like it was time well spent.

The website is so much fun to browse through, too. So many fun little goodies.

I promise, I will share the best bits with you in the coming weeks, maybe sooner.

NaNoWriMo: Day Twelve

With day twelve, I can't help but be grateful for Write or Die. So much of my life is online currently that, when trying to get any amount of writing done today, I kept getting distracted by the big shiny thing that is the internet.

Now, I'd read a few weeks back that, if you were to write only 250 words a day, you could have a book written in a year. If you were to double that to 500 words, it would only take 6 months.

"500 words?" I thought? "I can do that." I then made the commitment to write at least 500 words a day on the Urban Fantasy book I was writing.

I got talked into doing NaNoWriMo at Milehicon in October and, while the 50,000 words in a month goal was a bit daunting, I figured I could give it a try. It breaks down to 1,667 words a day.

When I sat down with Write or Die, I discovered that I could write 250 words in about 10 minutes. So far this month, I've managed to meet or exceed my writing goal almost every day. With the support of some friends, along with NaNoing with Jilly, this month of writing has been going very well.

I'm also using this time to learn as much as I can about the wonderful world of self-publishing. Hopefully this information will prove helpful in the near future.

Musing About Publishing and a Challenge Update

I hope every body has been enjoying the “classic” essays I've put up. I've got a few more coming and I'm enjoying reading through them again.

How's the 500 words a day going, you ask?

Well, that's a fantastic question and, as I have an answer, one I'm more than willing to entertain.

I'm 2 more chapters in to my book and I've finished a short-story. Um, who buys short stories, anyway? I think I may need to make a trip to my local library because I have no idea.

I'm considering going the indie publishing route but I'm not sure how well that will take with short stories. I'm fairly certain I can do it with the book without too many problems, that is, if none of the small press publishers I know are willing to take it. I wouldn't blame them, either. I'm not sure how well it would fit with their chosen markets.

Ah, well, no need to make that decision yet; just something that's been banging around in my brain for a couple of weeks.