And Then Ed Took Out His Ball Of String

Unintended foraging for personal documents may have exploded me out of the writing rut.

I'm plotting something out, which is oodles more productivity than I've been capable of late (i.e., the last 12 months or so).  At one point, early in my creative life, I was tilted more towards cartooning than prosing.  A random riffle of an old notebook freed characters and a concept now stuck on my nodes (sharp, jagged little extensors that they are).

The current idea birthed as doodles.  Transplant from one artistic form to another usually proves catastrophic. Talking at length spooks the horse. The horse runs off.  And the kicked up dust settles.

But having said that...

Good Grief

This blog is now being treated like a red-headed stepchild.  Not surprising given a flurry of non-writing distractions.  Life, I think, is what you call it.

Until I either throw down $700 to have some British dude enlighten me on the in-and-out of Facebook advertising, or I close down the shop everywhere else and let Amazon flag my wares exclusively, I'll make do with a download of the books every now and then.

About the only excitement of late was Self-E accepting Lucid into their program.   Yet another venue through which the book can be read.  I'd love to have the time to read other indie writer's work, but I'm in one of those 'wish in one hand, crap in the other, see which fills up first' situations.   Life, I think, is what you call it.

Incentives

Not much to update other than it feels like I'm rocking writer's block like no one else ever has. 

Trying to advertise either book while they remain more or less free - except on Amazon - smacks of insanity.  There are a plethora of options for advertising your work...though the difference between pay services like Awesomegang and any Facebook 'I've-Got-An-Ebook-If-You've-Got-The-Time' group seem imperceptible. 

Selling oneself.  Self-promotion.  Yep.  Not to bitch about it, but introversion is sometimes not an incentives laden enterprise. 

 

Lucid - now available at Smashwords. 

The Lipless Gods.  Still officially turned down by 100+ literary agents (and counting).  Free at Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo.  And available through both the Seattle Public Library and King County Library System!    

SELF-e

The Lipless Gods is now available at the Seattle Public Library!!!

Kinda. Sorta. Like if you had all day to click and click links, you might find the actual rabbit hole. But enough harrumphing.

The cool bit for any indie/self-published type is the potential distribution of their effort through Library Journal and any U.S. library system on the ball enough to participate in SELF-e.

 

Lucid - now available at Smashwords. 

And don't forget the aforementioned The Lipless Gods.  Still officially turned down by 100+ literary agents (and counting). Free at Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo.  And the Seattle Public Library! 

It's v. Its v. Me

The first message sent to me from the website is a nice enough missive from a copyeditor pointing out mistakes from the first Chapter or so of Lucid. 

And so the stumbling continues unabated.

After paying for the website and the cover art, tasking a copyeditor/proofreader didn't enter the equation.  Maybe it should, but I only have 'x'-amount to conceivably hand over to folks, qualified though they may be.

The last time I hired a copyeditor/proofreader (on Lucid even) she waffled and ultimately flaked out on me.  Given that experience, I just kind of rolled up the sleeves and looked at the MS over and over and trusted my brain and Word to tell me good from bad.

Sigh.  Grammar.  Words.  Usage and all.  Its...It is perhaps indicative of my likely prospects at this indie/self-published endeavor.    

Lucid now available at Smashwords. I'm running a special...Find the mistakes and I'll give you something nice.  Maybe two things nice. 

And don't forget The Lipless Gods.  Still officially turned down by 100+ literary agents (and counting). Free at Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo.

LUCID

Lucid's out today -- at least on Smashwords and all affiliated channels therein (Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc). 

Through my sheer business ineptitude, Amazon has it out 5/11.

When I plotted and schemed a release date, I didn't know today was Mother's Day.  Neither Lucid or The Lipless Gods really lean towards being Mother's Day gifts since in fact, both novels starkly tilt towards those Disney animated films where the mom is out of the picture.  

This is a troubling pattern, purely unintended.  I don't think I'm trying to get back at my mom -- she is of course the best mom ever, likely just like yours.  

But whatever I write next, I will do my best to have a mom feature in the spotlight.  That's not to swear off absolutely horrible and unfortunate things befalling her.  I just won't kick things off with her already dead or packed off to an asylum somewhere.  

Happy Mother's Day, all you moms out there.    

Lucid now available at Smashwords. 

And don't forget:

The Lipless Gods.  Now officially turned down by 100+ literary agents (and counting).  Free at Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo.

Cisco Buddies

The internet took my money. Now I've got an official domain and a hosting site. Bells and whistles, all of that good stuff...

I had to throw a 'books' at the end of it because 'brianstillman.com' got scooped up.  Investigation shows this at the official 'brianstillman.com':

"I am still deciding what to do with my website. For now, it is a place holder so my Cisco buddies (Dan, Dave, and Ed) didn't jack my domain name and do sordid things with it."

Inspired by my doppelganger's woefully hesitant stance, I'm going to do all sorts of sordid things with my website. And maybe it's me, but 'jacking a domain' sounds like little less than an alcohol-fueled step up from 'cow-tipping'.