The Realms of a Fantastical Mind

We need our computer, some paper and pens, or some nifty software so that we can organize the craziness of our books. With all these things, our greatest tools may be overlooked. What are they you ask... go ahead ask. I'll tell you what they are (IMHO) Critique partners, Beta readers, and Editors. Yes, your greatest tools as a writer are those people who take time out of their lives to hack and slash your baby into little red filled pages of suffering.  They are the reason we writers need to have thicker skin than a killer whale. They are also the reason why the successful author's books get read, and read and read over again. It's common knowledge that as a writer we get so involved with our babies, so much care taken to make every word choice perfect, that we don't see the blaring black holes in our plot, or the grossly overused metaphor that needs to go. We need those extra set of eyes to point out the flaws. So what is the difference between ...

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Publishing by Terri Bruce Part 5  Here's the final installment of the 5 part series.  I hope you enjoyed our look into indie publishing and Eternal Press.  If you haven't already, make sure to stop by Dean C Rich's page The Write Time for the first half of the interview.  If you just started here, looking for the Blog Ring of Power  interviews  check back to the beginning of the week for more .  To find each link and read the entire two pronged 5 part series start with Dean C. Rich's blog The Write Time Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Then head over to my blog and start with  Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 and lastly stop by here.  Thanks so much for reading this information packed series on Publishing. We will start on a recap of what Terri had to say on Part 1.  I am thrilled to be here today to talk about navigating the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of publishing. Many, man...

We've been talking about Eternal Press and the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Publishing with Terri Bruce. Eternal Press had a questionable P&E rating, and Terri had answered as to why she still went with them. To read that first click here . Join us on Dean C. Rich's blog The Write Time for more on Terri's thoughts.   Okay, but what about predatory practices such as charging "kill fees," not paying advances, and paying royalties on "net sales"? Publishing is a funny business. A small press that doesn’t pay an advance is labeled as predatory while an entity like Random House, which is currently involved in litigation centered on its claims that older publishing contracts, written before the advent of e-books, include the right to publish e-books of those works (without additional compensation to the authors), is not. Some things that have been labeled as “predatory” practices simply are things that vary from the large press way of doing t...

This is part 3 of the 5 part series with Terri Bruce: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly of Publishing Be sure to check out Dean C. Rich's blog The Write Time for more on this by Terri Bruce Why did you choose to work with Eternal Press despite their P&E rating? Several things stood out to me when I researched Eternal Press—the first was that anything negative said about them on various sites was said more than two years ago (they have since changed ownership), there was an equal number of people defending them, and all of their authors that I spoke to (and I spoke to quite a few) had only good things to say about EP—the publication process (including the dreaded cover art process) had been smooth/trouble free, they were happy with the quality of their final product, they got their royalty checks on time, and were thrilled with the amount of ongoing marketing and distribution support they got. When I received the offer, I had the opportunity to speak with the CEO an...

The tension is building up.  I find that I try to distract myself from what I should be doing.  If I should be writing or editing, I'm reading.  If I should be critiquing, I'm editing my own work.  If I should be looking up vow ideas, I'm playing on FB or checking my e-mail.  If I should be working on wedding things, I'm doing anything but. Yes, I've been putting off everything by doing everything else.  I guess when I really need to do something, my lazybones says no.  Sigh... and so I need to find a way to force myself to get focused.  I know there is much to be done in many aspects of my life.  I want to keep editing my book, so as to be ready to start really writing next month on the sequel.  I want to keep up with the crits, some of my critique partners have addictive stories and I hate leaving a good story left unfinished, either in reading or writing one.  I need to work on my vows, I bare...

I've been trying to get my crap together. Organize what I'm doing when and trying to get things running smoothly. And what happens but I find myself snuggled up to my kobo reading series after series of my favorite authors. Nothing I wanted to get done, gets done and my poor book is again neglected like the house plant that hasn't been watered for weeks. It sits with it's pages drooping over the edge of the table, practically begging to get picked up and revised fully into the 5th draft. 'Please' it whispers in the dark of night as I lay sleeping, 'please remember I'm here.' so after 2 weeks of my horrible behavior of reading, in which I've been poking and prodding at other writers work, only because I've done so much to my own book that I can't help but see what the holes are, I opened my critiquing folder and had a crack at a 1st chap of a MS that I should have opened the day I got it. I'm not even saying that out of duty, oh ...

So how busy can one person get that doesn't have a full time job, other then raising kids?  I can tell you, very busy!  I have to take care of the kids, like making sure my 12 yo has everything for school, first and foremost! Then there is the cleaning of the never-ending dishes, the floors need to be swept and mopped. The  bathroom... yeah that stuff that needs to be done, the kids, making sure they are doing their chores and keeping their space clean.  Cooking and then cleaning that never-ending dish pile again.  Sending my son off to kindergarten. Then 2 hours of me time, my youngest having nap-time.  Pick up my son, make sure my eldest has her homework done and making sure my son puts his school things away.  Then there is wedding planning and making sure I have everything done that I wanted to do that day, usually done when its my me time.  So my poor writing plans get pushed off to ...