Writing Process Blog Hop/2014 C4 Lit Fest

Made it to the latter half of the C4 Lit fest – let’s just say that I’m getting tired and I’ll talk about it tomorrow. It didn’t seem as busy as last year, but we had Junos to compete, so my guess is that they won.

I got tagged by Rita Bay, and I tag Audra Middleton ,Jenn Nixon, and I’ll tag the third person when they respond to my email.

 

 The Writing Process

What am I working on?

Finishing up a sword and sorcery tale; sort-of started on this steampunk/horror short. And by short I mean I want it to be novella length.iI kind of have this thing where I’m trying to write shorter novels so I’m more focused.  I’ve already written a steampunk story (my first true middle-grade) but for this one I read Dangerous Liaisons for inspirations. t’s going to be more messed up then usual.

How is my work diferent from everyone else’s?

I write “quirky” characters who are intrinsically flawed because I find them more interesting. I also very seldom give into trends.  I like to ignore the unwritten rule that you have to find your protagonist likeable. I also have an inappropriate sense of humor.

Why do I write what I do?

I find writing can be a one-sided argument, but if I’m completely honest, I find that it’s sometimes the only way I can get a word in without having what I just said be misconstrued.

Read that into a debut novel about interpretation of story, I dares ya.

Book Tours/Still hate this new computer

First world problems aside, I’ll stop whining when I can post this without a page being hijacked, and my keyboard actually responds. Until then, CAPSLOCK RAGE. Seriously though, if I wanted the cutesie mac stuff, I would have bought a mac. Windows 8 blows.

 

And me and a few other of the Burst Authors are doing a group Book Tour – I’ll hotlink later, here’s the banner:

 

 

I’ll let you know when I have more details – methinks I need to get more stuff under contract because I look like a total slacker with one title from last year.

C4 is in a week – check it out if you’ll be in Winnipeg next weekend. I went last year and for a chick who was mostly behind a table, I had fun. I’m doing someone a favor for work, so I’ll only be there on Sunday. My books will still be there, if anyone is interested.

And I did finally see Frozen a few days ago – Ill have to wait to see The Wind Rises because I’ve been too busy to see it in theatres while it was still showing (dangit) but I should rewatch Frozen before comparing them. I might have stuff to talk about/rant in the meantime, though…

Pants on Fire

I was very wrong about the short story contest being over for the C4 Lit fest – apparently I was looking at last year’s stuff (I didn’t know about C4 until the week before, and only because Ron told me) so if you’re from Manitoba, you have until March 17 to get your short story in.

And while we’re talking Canadians – I don’t think the new site is up (I haven’t gotten my usual email yet) but consider the Prix Aurora Awards. If you’re thinking you’d like to support more small science-fiction and fantasy Canadian Publishers, I usually lo0k at Edge and Bundoran, but it’s about the authors, not the publishers. You have over a month to get your nominations in.

So my book’s been out for a year now / What I’ve learned

Before I get too far – C4’s gearing up for the end of the month. It’ll be at the Norwood Hotel in Winnipeg – in the meantime, you can check out the lineup/authors and do some fun voting ahead of time here. Congratulation to the winners and runners up of the short story contest.

So my first book’s been out for a year as of February (blah blah blah no laptop, see last post). The eBook, anyway – I didn’t get my paws on to a hard copy of Tower of Obsidian until the last week of October, but given that I started the book for Nano 2010 (and I had been writing for years before that) I’ll admit the entire process is different being on one side of the gate compared to the other.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m with a small publisher and I think I’ve a ways to go before I consider myself an expert – but it’s different then how I thought it was going to be. I didn’t expect anything fancy or for much conversation, but I find myself really strongly believing that review space is sacred, and that while it is my job to promote my work, I’d rather have solid conversations then sales and I’ve been given a ton of support, which is pretty nice considering while I’ve been writing novel-length fiction since junior high, this whole promotion thing is new to me and I’m probably a sucky salesperson.

So I guess I’m odd, but that’s okay. I’m finally getting decent on this keyboard, so between that, working on promotional material for the end of the month and internal job applications, I can hope that I can focus again on the projects I’ve finished and am finishing and find a home for them.

Change is Good, which is why I drag my feet

I don’t know about the rest of you, but my February was a blur – I started the new job in January but I’ve been working both. That’s not why I haven’t been updating – my beloved Poochy-Poo spilled tea on my old laptop back in December. Now, I drink it black and the dog just got caught in the charger cord, so I was able to save just about everything important on my laptop before it went and died, which is mostly my books, short stories and pictures from a few weddings, but I lost my contact sheet for who I queried for book reviews.

And I needed to buy a new laptop.

This wouldn’t be such a huge deal if I didn’t type quickly – my mom made me take a typing course in High School, and we got out of class when we finished our assignments, so I probably comfortably type well over 100 WPM. This isn’t a deal, but it’s getting used to this new keyboard that is really throwing me. I bought it about a month ago and I can’t write because I’ll hit the wrong button, so I’ve mostly been scratching stuff pen and paperwise.

Beyond that – kinda got hurt in a car accident but nothing too serious. I’m set to be in a group book tour – and I think I need to send more stuff to the publisher, but it’ll be nice when I can calm down on the job front, but it took me a year to get to this point so it’s hard to keep my focus split.

Didn’t watch the Oscars yesterday – haven’t seen either film yet, but I’m kind of disappointed that the award went to Frozen over The Wind Rises. Everyone is all like, “Oh, it’s so good and Disney’s come along way with feminist role models” and I’m all,

 

“Remember it from my dad’s Beta-Max.”

 

But I guess I should actually watch them both before I judge.