A+ Students

Posted on July 10, 2011 by AmyBeth Inverness

I used to obsess over grades. I actually dropped a college course or two when it looked like I was only going to get a C, instead of an A. I’ve seen other students actually drop out of college altogether over the lack of perfection.

A guest speaker for senior seminar once gave a lecture about how an A+ grade is not always the best goal. In fact, some employers might look at a straight-A record and wonder about whether the graduate is able to balance their life.

It was a difficult lesson for me.

I’ve struggled with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder all my adult life. There were even a few signs in childhood. I can’t stand to have my fingernails brushed up towards the cuticles. I count when I’m anxious. I need patterns.

These are the small things. I could make an extensive list, but that’s not the point.

I composed my last #ROW80 post in a certain format, with a breakdown of word count etc.

It bothers me that I don’t have that ready for today. My OCD desperately wants to have a similar post, formatted the same way, with updated statistics for everything.

But I have learned to deal with my OCD. I still feel the urge to have things a certain way, but I am also able to choose to move ahead even when I am not able to have everything lined up perfectly.

It has been a busy few days. I did some writing in a notebook, and haven’t transcribed it. There have been blog posts and a little fiction, but I need to find a better way to keep track of it all. I think if I counted it all up, I might be close to my goal of 1k/day, but I’m not sure.

How’s everybody else doing with their Round of Words?

The shortlink for this post is http://wp.me/p1qnT4-eO

Posted in Commentary & Musing | 4 Comments

Interview With J.K. LeBlanc

Posted on July 8, 2011 by AmyBeth Inverness

Jenn LeBlanc has several constants in life that define her:

Colorado, Canon, CJ, kids and curls.

Born and raised in a household of other people’s children in Colorado —very nearly with a camera in hand— She never left. She started her own family, got used to the curls, went to college, built a CJ, and started a business.

Storytelling has always been a passion for her, and after finishing her first novel she realized she was born a photographer and somehow that had to come into play.

Jenn lives and thrives off chaos and the constant flow of the creative process. She wears shorts and flip-flops year-round —much to the chagrin of her friends and family— and is currently working on the illustrations for her second novel.

Jenn’s first novel, The Rake and the Recluse, is available now from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, All Romance and iBooks through your iThingy

1.       How can you wear flip flops year round in Denver? Don’t you know it snows there?

Very carefully…Oh yes, it does snow here, quite a bit depending on the year. But…

[FlipFlops.jpg]

2.       I also grew up in Colorado, and Casa Bonita was the ultimate goal for any day-trip to Denver. Do you like the restaurant, or is it just for kids and tourists?

I think Casa Bonita is the BEST kitschy ridiculous restaurant on the planet and a must see for anyone in the neighborhood. You have to get food to get in, but be careful what you eat it is truly terrible. Also a well known fact. But seriously! High dives off a three story indoor waterfall and being chased by a giant gorilla? We don’t go often, but we do go.

3.       You name several constants that define you. What do you love about Colorado?

I love the mountains, I love that the sunshines every single day. I love the sheer vastness of the plains and that the city sprawls and still feels homey. I love that Denver is such a big city but thirty minutes in any direction puts you in farm country or high country. I love that my family homesteaded here, on the Purgatoire, and that my great aunt and uncle still work the land. But mostly it’s the sunshine. I can’t live without it.

4.       Who are the “other people’s children” you were raised with?

My parents opened their home to foster kids when we were younger. So I grew up with about 25 brothers and sisters who came and went at different intervals. It made for a chaotic and interesting childhood.

5.       The word Canon has several meanings. What does it mean to you?

Canon was my first camera. An AE-1 that I still own and use. I ‘stole’ it from my dad on a trip to NYC when I was 11, and I never gave it back. I can shoot that camera in the dark, it is like an extension of me I know it so well. All of my digital gear now is also Canon, though I do have a few other cameras I work with in other formats including a medium format Mamiya RZ, and a Polaroid land camera that belonged to my mother.

6.       Most adult novels have no illustrations except for the cover art. What is different about yours?

My novel is illustrated throughout. You could think of it like a cover on steroids. They’re everywhere. It’s been called an adult picture book, though that makes it sound a bit more randy than it is. Every image included is meant to carry the story, convey a feeling or describe a moment. The images are not overly descriptive but there are some incredibly sexy images included, because it is a romance novel.

This is Derek Hutchins. He is my Roxleigh, and has become a very dear friend of mine. You can see more of his portfolio here and of course Derek as my Gideon, throughout The Rake and the Recluse.

[20101002-Roxleigh6-JKL-123.jpg]

This is me getting Cora (who is also a photographer by trade—long story—and often works as my studio assistant on shoots, as well as me assisting her.) into her corset for another scene. We all do what we can to help. This image was taken BY Derek, as he is also a talented photographer.

[20101002-OUTS-JKL-92.jpg]

7.       What are photo shoots like? How do you find your models?

Photo shoots are the best kind of chaos and I live for them. I usually have a crew of about 5 people, art director, grip, makeup artist, hair, in-studio assistant— sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the shoot, and then there’s the talent. I set my studio and lights and we get busy shooting. My producer organizes the shoot so it is the most efficient, and we design the set, shoot the images and turn around and do it over and over until every image is done. There are, quite often, some hijinks involved as well, because nothing is worth doing, that isn’t fun. But what happens in studio, stays in studio… well almost. I believe my AD for this shoot Melinda Piñon, right, lost a pin in the models pants and had to retrieve it. 9Photo courtesy my in-studio assistant Cora Kemp)

I find my models on modeling sites and through agencies. I recently started working with a producer, Annette Schowers, for my bigger shoots, and she is working on casting with me for the Perry book. If you would like to follow my casting work, which, for you, really just amounts to a bunch of hot sexy male model pics on twitter follow the hashtag #castingPerry.

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8.       How did you become involved with the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation?

A friend of mine did a story on the foundation for the Rocky Mountain News and I contacted them. I felt it was a way I could give back to people with my photography. It is an incredibly difficult thing to do, and I don’t volunteer very often because it is truly heartrending. My last session was an end of life session, where the baby had to be taken off life support, and I was a witness. The family was beautiful, strong and amazing to me in their grief. I wish I was able to help more than I do.

9.       What possessed you to build a jeep?

Insanity. Final answer.

[Jeep04.jpg]

This is a composite I made in high school of my first Jeep. Her name was Freebird.

[Jeep01.jpg]

This is Frogger, before the rebuild. My husband bought her for me in 2002.

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This is about halfway through the rebuild, installing the engine.

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This is frogger now.

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And this is what Frogger does to my legs in the summer. Because I drive with one leg hanging out the door.

10.   How do kids and curls define you?

I have four daughters: 18, 15, 14, and 10. I have had children now for nearly half my life, which seems incredibly odd to me. But I don’t remember a time before them anymore. Their lives have defined who I am as a person, and the fact they are all girls has defined me further, as well as my writing.

[CrankandSugar.jpg]

This is my oldest, known as Crank and my second, known as Sugar. We like to go to the studio to play.

As for my unruly head of hair, it has defined me because I have always been known as that blonde with the Jeep. I have finally gotten used to having what amounts to a mane atop my head, and given up on trying to tame it. It is what it is. But don’t ask for pictures of what it looked like in the Gulf. Oh em Gee. It was ginormous.

11.   I love that you put your bucket list on your blog! What would it take to check off Nathan Fillion? Would a brief encounter in the autograph line count?

Lordy, a brief encounter wouldn’t do it for me I don’t think. I want to shoot him. I mean, you know, take his picture. I just love his persona and I think he would be SO MUCH FUN in front of the camera. Seriously who doesn’t love Capt’n Tightpants?

12.   What was your path to publication?

I did the usual querying and rejection, but the problem was that my rejections in general were all along the lines of; we love your voice, but we don’t know what to do with the illustrated stuff, it just isn’t done. So I decided to self publish. It’s not as easy as it might sound, I had to learn how to build an illustrated book for export to ePub. It has to be done in a specific way so the images appear in the book where they are supposed to. The images also have to be edited for the eInk so they look right. It took a lot of testing.

Recently though, like Marilyn Monroe in an Ice Cream Parlor, The Rake and the Recluse was discovered on Goodreads by a large publisher (I’m not ready to say who just yet.) They want it, and I am revising it to it’s original concept which is a six-part serial novel. I am also speaking with a wonderful agent who will hopefully want to represent me with this little project. We’ll see where it goes from there. Until then, I am happy with what I’ve done, and I’m looking forward to the next big shoot for the second book, in September.

13.   Do you have a blog? How do you use it?

I actually have two blogs, one for photography and one for writing. It’s sometimes hard having a dual persona, but it is necessary. My photo blog details all of my photography related shoots and projects, including my award winning work in the Gulf of Mexico last year documenting the BP oil spill and all of the studio shoots for my first, and future novels. Those shoots do end up, to a certain degree, on my writing blog as well. Because I am split between the two, I probably don’t blog as often as others, but that makes me a good one to follow, and if you like my studio work, you’ll love my blog. My writer blog I post more ramblings, and don’t feel as pressured to include images every time I blog. I like to post little snippets and if I love a book I’ll blab about it. I won’t necessarily call it a review, there are professional reviewers for that. But if I have a strong opinion I will speak.

14.   What social media do you use? Do you combine your personal and professional or keep them separate?

I use twitter for photography and writing and I keep them separate. I am myself on both of those, I don’t use any kind of persona, I just talk about different types of things there. Not every photographer wants to hear about the hot romance novel I just read, and not many romance followers are interested in the technical aspects of the new Canon 70-200L IS zoom lens. 🙂

I also use facebook. I keep my personal life personal but do have various pages, Jenn LeBlanc is my writing page, Lady Jane’s Salon is for the romance readers salon I help organize, Iris Photo Agency is my agency that I founded and run, Gulf Oil Coverage is dedicated to my work in the gulf. Feel free to find me on any of these pages. I still update the Gulf Oil pages with information from the animal rescue centers I visited while on assignment.

15.   What is your favorite electronic or digital writing tool?

Can I say my MacBook Pro? Maybe I should say my iPad, because I read everything on it, look at images, play on twitter, and even write with iaWriter. Hmmm…

16.   What is your favorite non-electronic writing tool?

I love Papermate markers. I am a color junkie and love to write with them. I need paper of course, but give me a set of those markers and watch out.

17.   What is the most persistent distraction from writing?

Currently? Promotion. UGH. Necessary but UGH. I love to hang out on twitter and talk to everyone, but it does get in the way sometimes, I’m currently trying to find a balance.

18.   What is your ideal writing environment? Have you ever been able to create it?

No. I have no idea what that looks like either. I am a bit of a chameleon, so I try to write wherever is available.

19.   When the day comes that you are on stage, accepting some prestigious award, who are you most likely to forget to thank?

Everyone, I had to thank people at my book release party and I had notes, but if they weren’t right there in the crowd, I probably forgot them. I’m not sure because I have already forgotten what I did say.

20.   Who shot first, Han or Greedo?

Han did. He isn’t a sit around and wait to die type of scoundrel, and he is a scoundrel of the highest order. I love Han Solo.

—

The Rake and the Recluse

a brand new illustrated ebook

by Jenn LeBlanc

learn more at Illustrated Romance.com 

The Shortlink for this post is http://wp.me/p1qnT4-et

Posted in Interviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Keeping Up With the Joneses

Posted on July 7, 2011 by AmyBeth Inverness

Yup. Who'd you think we were keeping up with?

I came across a blog post today about a researcher who found a man who had never before used a computer.  User Testing in the Wild: Joe’s First Computer Encounter described how Boriss, the researcher, prompted and observed Joe as the inexperienced user tried to find a local restaurant for dinner.

What moved me most was not how frustrated Joe became, but how self-deprecating he was. He kept apologizing and insisting that he probably “should have learned this by now.”

I always thought that the phrase “Keeping up with the Joneses” meant that we were trying to have the same luxuries our neighbors have. But with the speed of technology today, sometimes “Keeping up with the Joneses” just means not being left behind in the dust for the everyday things.

One may argue that any person can easily forego all the internet, computerized and electronic gadgetry that has been offered to us. I would agree I don’t need the latest Iphone (although I was drooling over pads with keyboards yesterday) but I would find it difficult to exist without a cell phone. As a Mom, when I explained to the school that, although I have a cell phone, I rarely use it, I received that quasi-polite glare of “But how can we possibly reach you if you aren’t sitting at home by the phone?” I still don’t turn it on unless I need it. When my cell phone has been dead or missing, trying to find a working pay phone has been a huge challenge. Not having the techno-gadget was a huge inconvenience then; since so many people have them, companies no longer feel they need to put payphones in convenient locations. Pick one up sometime; I’d be interested to know if it still works.

In the article, they don’t explain how Joe could live in a major US city having never used a computer. Maybe he never had the chance; maybe he never took the chance. But although he was apparently living his life quite normally without a computer, there was at least one advantage (discounts at a local bakery) that he needed e-mail in order to use.

I often hear someone remark “Everybody has e-mail…” or some other generalization. But according to the 2009 census 31.3% of households do not have internet access. It also says that 76.7% of all households have a member who accesses the internet outside the home, but that’s still only three quarters of the population.

Technology may be bringing us together with social media and lightning speed communications, but it is also creating a wider gap between the haves and the have-nots. There are more and more services that assume a person has a computer and internet access. Slowly, some of the services we take for granted are being replaced by more advanced, more convenient processes. If you don’t keep up, soon you won’t be able to interact in society at all. You’ll be left outside the castle walls with the other third of our population who doesn’t have the technology.

American businesses aren’t marketing to people outside the walls. Most of those people don’t have much money, therefore businesses have no incentive to appeal to them.

The writing world is heading that way too. Some agents will not consider a paper manuscript at all. And for pre-published authors like me, the resounding advice is to have as large an internet presence as possible. Not just a page on facebook and a twitter account, but a blog is a definite must. And an abandoned blog is worse than no blog at all.

I take pride in being able to say no to many of the delights that technology dangles before me. But I want to stay current, to participate fully in society and the writing world. And to do that, well, I’ll just have to keep up.

The shortlink for this post is http://wp.me/p1qnT4-el

I spun this idea into a short Steampunk story on the fiction side of the blog, Under Loch & Key.

Posted in Commentary & Musing | Leave a comment

AB’s Check-In for #ROW80 July 6, 2011

Posted on July 6, 2011 by AmyBeth Inverness

I think I need to separate my word counts into different categories so I can get a good idea of how I’m dividing my time these days. If I could count comments on other people’s blogs towards my word count goal, I’d probably make it in no time! Perhaps I should? I’ve decided not to count interview questions in the tally. Partly because some are pre-written and I just choose which to copy and paste, and partly because the ones I don’t cut and paste from previous interviews require a lot of time researching and thinking just for a ten word question. I will count blog posts, even though some (like SyFy Q of the Day) are mostly cut and paste from earlier works.

Then there’s my WIP. This should mean About Damn Time, the novel that is intended to be first in the Kingdom Come series. I have two jobs for this: finish writing the thing, and edit/revise the first 30 pages. I have a reason for doing these things at the same time. You see, I won not just one, but three critiques! I have the first back already, and the second critter offered to wait till I revised the pages and she’d do her crit of the revised pages. This is like winning the lottery for a pre-published writer! On top of that, I had bid in a charity auction on a 30 page crit by another author, and won. She’s waiting patiently while I do my other two crit/revision cycles. I’m in another contest (random drawing) for yet another crit, so this could go on!

So… what have I done this week? Thinking back to Monday, I wrote my initial post for #ROW80. It was 747 words. I also began a random blog post to be used at a later date, which was 346 words.

On Tuesday I did 254 words in #5MinuteFiction on Leah Petersen’s blog. Technically, my 254 words were a blog comment, but I’m counting them because that’s how we submit our flash fiction. I also wrote a memoir for The Red Dress Club that is 739 words. Or did I write it on Monday? I think I started Monday and finished Tuesday, but it doesn’t matter. I also posted a SyFy Q of the Day, which was 619 words. I decided to go ahead and count the SyFy Q of the Day posts, even though they are mostly copied and pasted from earlier work. It does take time and effort to put it together, so it’s more like revising than writing, but for my #ROW80 goals, that counts. Late night Tuesday, Liz Silver offered up #1k1hr for anyone interested, and I added 1,309 words to my actual WIP. I skipped ahead to a new scene, but that made it easier. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve touched it, I’m sorry to say. Sometimes, when I’m stuck, or I haven’t had time to write and I’m out of the story, it helps to just skip ahead. I can fix it in edits later if I don’t get back to the gap.

And then there’s all the writing-related stuff I’m not counting towards my goal. I finished the interview questions for JK LeBlanc, but I did not finish the questions for Liz Silver. I have proofreading due on Friday, but although I started it on Sunday, I haven’t touched it for a few days. I need to get on that. I haven’t done any revising, but I messaged my next critter and she said I can send it this weekend and she’ll get to it next week, so I need to work on that too.

Here’s the breakdown:

Blog posts: 747 + 346 + 619 = 1,712 words

Fiction & Memoir: 245 + 739 + 1,309 = 2293

Revision: 0

Total: 4,005

Goal: 2,000

Success Rate =  200%

Total since start of Round Three: 4,005

Goal since start of Round Three: 2,000

Success Rate = 200%

∞

Wow! All day yesterday I felt like I wasn’t making much progress at all, but I guess when I go back and count it all up, I did quite well! I’m happy. That late night #1k1hr really makes a difference too. I hope everyone else had a really good start to #ROW80 Round Three as well.

And for future reference, this post is 719 words 🙂 The shortlink for this post is http://wp.me/p1qnT4-eg

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

SyFy Q of the Day: Warp Signature and SyFy vs SciFi

Posted on July 5, 2011 by AmyBeth Inverness

Love the image, but it was in a blog comment elsewhere un-labeled... anyone know what it's from?Update: Thanks to google's image search, I was able to find that this is from Star Trek: TMP

 

Before I even started this blog, I would occasionally pose a SyFy Question of the Day to my facebook friends. Sometimes, it was directly related to what I was writing, and I really did want some input to help me decide what direction to take with the story. Other times, it was purely fun. Here’s one of my favorites, from March 2011:

◊

SyFy question of the day, specific to Trek TOS: Is it plausible to detect a warp signature someplace unexpected, and upon checking it out, discovering a civilization that had just gained warp technology? Or would Starfleet have noticed the civilization was “almost there”?

Rick                        Certainly there could be and are many civilizations, in all states of technological advancement, that the federation had never come into contact with. Both the original series and star trek: enterprises mission was to do exactly that. They had never heard of The Borg before they met them, as an example.

Joseph                  Science Fiction is abreviated “SciFi” NOT “SyFy” 😉

In “First Contact” the only reason the Vulcans detected the Phoenix’s warp signature was that they were nearby. Starfleet would have to be in the area or already known that a civilization was experimenting with Warp tech to know they had succeded. More likely a first contact with a civilization that was unknown to have warp would be in space.

AB                          Thanks!

And I know that lots of people detest the abbreviation “SyFy”, as did I at first. I liked the SciFi channel when they played on the “IF” in the middle. But they changed to “SyFy” because it was a new, trendy term, using one fewer letter. If I’m copying this to Twitter, I’ll need that ONE letter 🙂

Al                            I would guess that Starfleet has automated probes looking for signs of civilization like radio signals and the like so they can send a First Contact team to observe the society, as in Insurrection. But, it’s plausible that they can miss the signs and only detect a new warp capable civilization when they detect a warp signature for the first time.

Like anything, the event has to be in range of something to detect it.

The Federation was totally ignorant to the presence of any warp faring races in the Delta Quadrant due to the distances involved.

And also ignorant to Quantum Slipstream drive cultures as well as those that have Transwarp technology.

It would be like someone in Paris knowing when the first car started up in the U.S. — It might not happen unless the person in Paris were looking specifically for that, and had someone standing by on a telegraph to tell him.

Joseph                  A Definition: ‘SyFy’ (n) Collection of crappy, mostly non SciFi programing on a increasingly harder to watch cable channel.

🙂

Nessie                  ‎@Joe…. lol!

@AB… are you writing this one or am I?

Joseph                  ‎:D

AB                          ‎@Nessie: If I can figure out a way for you to chase the kids around and do laundry while I write, I’m all for it! Otherwise, I suppose it’s yours.

Dan                        Actually, the channel became SyFy because they couldn’t get a trademark on “SciFi”. It was an already established term, whereas “SyFy” was something they could claim ownership of.

I would love to hear what you think! Even if you are reading this post a year or more after publishing, I hope you will leave a comment with your own ideas on this topic.

The previous SyFy Q of the Day is at http://wp.me/p1qnT4-dh

The shortlink for this post is http://wp.me/p1qnT4-e7

The next SyFy Q of the Day is at http://wp.me/p1qnT4-f0

Posted in SyFy Question of the Day | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Frustration

Posted on July 4, 2011 by AmyBeth Inverness

Φ

You know what frustrates me? Black buttons on black electronics. The kind that imitate secret doors in that you can neither see nor feel where it should be. You have to know where it is in order to make your device work.

Enough said about that.

I need to find a new way to write. I don’t want to change my actual style; I need to find a better way to get it done.

I’ve been very frustrated lately at my lack of progress. I can’t write when there are constant interruptions, and as a mom, I have lots of those. Not to mention that my hubby just spent the last couple of weeks out of town, meaning I’ve been even busier than usual.

The worst frustration comes when I have been expecting and anticipating something that relieves my exertions, and then that time is unexpectedly postponed. Biking up a large hill, seeing the crest, reaching the crest, then realizing that it is not the crest, it is merely a slightly less steep hill for a short distance, and then it starts climbing again. Being sick, thinking that it will run its course in a few days just like it did for the person who gave you the plague in the first place, but after a week you’re still feeling miserable. Having a hard day and looking forward to the hubby coming home, and he calls to say he’s running late.

My daughter finished 5th grade back on June 15. The first three weeks of summer were spent with my parents visiting and my hubby spending most of his time at the Star Trek Phase II shoot. It’s been a good three weeks, but the days have been full and busy. For three weeks, our regular schedule was planned to be disrupted in a good way.

Then it was supposed to be over.

Hubby was supposed to have a few days to spend with the girls and wind down before returning to work.

I was supposed to have a few days to dedicate to writing.

And then the car died. I mentioned in an earlier post that I might have to sell my pseudonym. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, although the mechanic’s estimate was far more than we can afford. Hubby bought the part, and he’s spent his few days of rest flat on his back in the driveway (when it hasn’t been thundering and raining out) taking apart all the mechanical bits so he can reach and replace the broken one. His carpal tunnel doesn’t help the process.

It’s hard to muster up self-pity about not getting time to write when hubby is already exhausted from his days on the shoot and now he’s breaking his back and hands to make sure we don’t go without transportation. Writing still feels selfish. It feels like something this housewife is doing for fun; a hobby that really isn’t all that important in the long run.

I need to find a new way to write. A few months ago, I would have said I didn’t have the brainpower to shut the door to distractions and say “I am going to write for an hour.” A few months ago, I would have said an hour wasn’t enough.

But since starting this blog, I’ve become a stronger writer. On twitter, friends sometimes say “Who wants  to go #1k1hr?” meaning we all try to write a thousand words in just an hour. This is a very reachable goal, when you set your mind to it. Heck, last time, the ice cream truck interrupted that hour and I still made it! At the end of the month, I could have thirty thousand words, which is far more than I’ve written in the last three months.

Twitter friends have recently been touting something called A Round of Words in 80 Days, or #ROW80. The idea is that each writer sets their own goal for the eighty days. Round three begins today. I had thought that life was too chaotic during the summer to set any specific goal, but if I’m going to transition from being a housewife with a hobby to a writer with serious work to do, I have to change something. Sitting in the back of the roller coaster is only taking me in circles. It’s time to design a new track.

∞

The shortlink for this post is http://wp.me/p1qnT4-dZ

Goal: the equivalent of #1k1hr every day. Either write or revise 80,000 words by September 22.

Posted in Commentary & Musing, Writing | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

Why Buy?

Posted on July 3, 2011 by AmyBeth Inverness

I get quite angry with my husband when he turns to someone we’ve recently met and says “My wife should interview you!” or when he tweets to one of my friends “I’m sure my wife will buy your book as soon as it comes out.” In the first case, once he’s mentioned an interview to someone, if I don’t immediately chime in with “Yes! I’d love to interview you!” it leaves me looking stuck up and makes the person feel awkward. In the second case, I’d be broke if I bought every book released by everyone I follow on twitter and facebook.

Yesterday, we were traipsing through the mall with Grandma and the girls and , of course, we spent some time in the bookstore. After perusing the shelves for familiar names, and drooling over all the books I not only can’t afford but would never find the time to read, I picked out a couple of books to add to the “To Read” stack.

Which reminds me, I really should update my profile at Goodreads. There are two books I’m currently reading. In print, so I can curl up in bed, I have Myth-Chief by the late great Robert Asprin. Apparently I’m not as caught-up with his books as I thought I was; Borders has several listed that I haven’t read yet. I’m also in the middle of Jane Kindred’s The Devil’s Garden, which I’d been looking forward to ever since I interviewed her months ago. I really want to buy an e-reader so I can curl up in bed with some of these stories that I can only get in electronic format. Itwould also make proofreading for Dreamspinner Press much easier.

 

So what did I buy in this recent excursion to the bookstore? I’m always a bit disenchanted when I think that many published authors I follow may never have their book on this store’s shelves. There is a corporate buyer who determines what actually makes it into the store and for how long. In the end, I chose two books.

Trial by Desire by Courtney Milan I bought because I know she will never let me down. I’ve loved everything I’ve read from her, including the occasional blog post or tweet.

The second book I bought was When Harry Met Molly by Kieran Kramer. Now, before this, her name was unfamiliar to me. I wasn’t friends with her on facebook, I wasn’t following her on twitter.

The first thing I noticed was the title. With so many forgettable romance titles out there, this one caught my eye right away. Secondly, looking at the cover art, I absolutely love the smile on her face. I dearly hope that if I am published someday, my cover artist will be this good. The third thing I did was to read the back cover blurbs, which confirmed the idea that I would like to read this book. Glancing at the author blurb inside the back cover, seeing that she once worked for the CIA, also piqued my interest. 8)

Several things occurred to me after I bought this new book. How does marketing work? Or rather, how does it not work? She has three books currently available, and another will be available soon. All of these books are exactly the kind of book I love to read and would buy either on line or at an actual bookstore.

I’m not a hermit. I buy books regularly. So how did I, a member of the exact target audience, not know about them till I just happened to come across it on the bookstore shelf months after its release? If the bookstore had decided to only give them shelf space for a few short weeks, I would never have known about them.

I’m sure that the author and publisher did all the things that authors and publishers do when a new book is released. Probably more. When Harry Met Molly was also a 2011 RITA® finalist for Regency Historical Romance. The publicity was out there.

I think the problem is that there are many great books out there, and the only way to find exactly the one book (especially if it’s a new author) I like is to spend hours pouring over covers and blurbs either on-line or in the store. But I don’t have time for that. These books were probably on the shelf the last several times I went to the book store, but I didn’t notice them with nothing but the spine showing. They might not have even been anywhere near eye level.

Computers and internet are revolutionizing the way books are bought and sold. I hope that this revolution will soon find a better way for readers to find the books they’ll love, and for authors to find the readers that will appreciate them most.

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What We’ve Got

Posted on July 2, 2011 by AmyBeth Inverness

People frequently tell hubby and me “I want what you’ve got.”

No, we’re not wealthy. We have to juggle bills. We may live in a big house, but it belongs to my parents and it has a lot of things that need to be updated and fixed.  We’re not supermodels; in fact we’re both more than a little overweight. We didn’t get our college degrees till we were in our thirties, and those were Associate’s Degrees. He’s working on his Bachelor’s. I might someday…

So what do they want? What the heck is so enviable about my life?

It’s my marriage. Our relationship. No matter how many times I feel like killing him, or I shake my head and mutter “I can’t believe I’m married to a man who does that.”; no matter how many times he heaves a heavy sigh and quietly puts up with my ridiculous mood swings, we love each other. We’re affectionate with each other, and yes, sometimes in public. We have a tweenager to embarrass after all. We’re in it for the long haul, for better or for worse et cetera. And yes, sometimes there really is “for worse”. You know those “Hard Times” you were told would happen? They do. And sometimes it’s your fault. Sometimes it’s his. Sometimes it’s just unfortunate circumstances. Either way, you’re both the ones who have to fix it or live with the consequences. You can’t make two neat and separate households that both have their individual ups and downs. You’ll probably have to share a bathroom too.

Andrew Shaffer tweeted throughout the RWA’s 2011 Rita and Golden Heart Awards Ceremony. He mentioned how it seemed every single winner was thanking their husband. After thinking about that, I tweeted back something like “I’m sure it gets old, but, can you imaging accepting such a prestigious award and not thanking your spouse?” to which he retweeted and replied “Probably not. :P”

 

I just spent the last two weeks playing single mom while hubby worked on the Mindsifter set with Star Trek Phase II. I did get to visit him a few times, but it wasn’t enough. All the little things he does to drive me crazy paled in comparison to how much I miss him when he’s gone.

So, yeah, I think I get it. They want what we’ve got. 

I kinda like what we’ve got too.

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Interview with Christopher Blanchard

Posted on July 1, 2011 by AmyBeth Inverness

Christopher Blanchard is a 37 year old husband and father who has decided to really get serious about becoming a published author. He is currently querying The Windsmith, a Young Adult Fantasy novel.

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1) The Windsmith features a male main character with magical powers previously only held by women.  Did the story begin in your head as a reversal of the stereotype that “girls can’t do everything boys can do?”

Actually, the idea was a collision of two other ideas. One was a blantent rip off of a story I read long ago, about the daughter of a witch (women) that discovered she had wizard powers (men). The other was an old idea for doing a fantasy story set in a world that consisted of only pacific type islands. I liked the idea of all the magic users in this world being women, and once I had that, my main character was decided.

2) What process did you go through to produce the final version of The Windsmith?

Lots of revisions. Each round of editing took something away or added something to it. My second draft, for example, completely eliminated the first chapter, as it didn’t add anything to the story, and I realized it started in chapter 2. After that, it was just a matter of removing everything that wasn’t the story, and adding the stuff that was missing from it, until I eventually got to the point where I felt like it was as good as I could make it. And that’s where I am now.

 3) How many rounds of editing and how many different people were involved in the revision process before you felt it was ready to query?

The exact number is tough to answer. I refer to the different drafts of the document, but a single draft might have had one to three rounds of editing. This final draft is the fourth draft. As for other people involved, there were lots. My wife helped me, mostly with some grammar stuff. I’ve had alpha readers that gave me some feed back, and a friend that did a through editing of my first draft, both in terms of copy and story. I’ve even got some help from professionals.

 4) Were any suggestions made to you that you were reluctant to incorporate?

None immediately come to mind. I was pretty open to suggestions and changes, I wanted to make this story as good as I could get it. This isn’t to say that I made every change suggested to me, it’s just that none of them stand out as particularly objectionable. It usually boils down to this: I know what this story is about, and if a suggestion helps me reach that, good. If not, then I don’t use it. But I am open to listening to a suggestion and seriously consider it before rejecting it.

 5) What criteria did you look for when deciding which agents or publishers to query?

Mostly, I look for agents that represent books similar to the Windsmith. YA agents, sure, but I prefer ones that do fantasy as well. I want someone that knows the genre, because, really, YA is a market, not a genre. That’s probably my biggest criteria.

 6) What influenced the decision between traditional versus self-publishing?

Honestly? I want to see my name on a paperback when I walk into my favorite Barns & Noble. That doesn’t happen with self-publishing. That said, I’m not adverse to self-publishing, and am currently looking into it. It doesn’t hold the stigma it once did to the commercial publishing world, and many publishers look at the Amazon charts to see what’s doing well. Plus, self-publishing is now a viable way of selling your books. I’m seriously considering it. But, I still want to see my book on that shelf in the book store.

 7) Are you working on something new now?

Several things, actually. I have one other complete novel finished, a sci-fi about the first man born on mars, and two more in the works, both twists on the classic epic fantasy. Plus an incomplete novel that I would like to go back to and finish one day. I’m also working on polishing some of my short stories and submitting them for publishing in a magazine. I am also working on an anthology book with some friends featuring several short stories set in a shared world. It’s a classic pulp fantasy, with a Middle Eastern flavor. I’m really enjoying it.

 8) How many times have you done NaNoWriMo? What was the experience like for you?

I have done NaNoWriMo five times now, and won four of them. I love it. It’s a brilliant way to get down a first draft of a story, because you don’t have time to think about what you’re writing. A bad story can always be made better through revisions, but even a bad story has to be written down first. And NaNo has enabled me to do that four times now. Plus, it’s a great feeling belonging to the community, knowing I’m not writing alone. Writing is a lonely craft, it’s said, but with the NaNo forums, it doesn’t have to be.

9)In your 1storyaweek blog, you attribute the endeavor to Ray Bradbury, who said “Write 1 Short Story a Week for 52 Weeks, and Get Out the Junk.”  So, does this mean that we, as writers, have junk stories inside us that are getting in the way of the good stuff?

Absolutely, although ‘getting in the way’ might not be the way to put it. It’s more a matter of the junk stories are junk because we as writers don’t know what we’re doing yet. So, you get this junk out by writing. The more you write, the better you get. It’s like any other skill, the more you do it, the better you get, and the less junk you produce. So, yeah, in that sense, the junk is blocking the good stuff from getting out.

10) Do you have stories stuffed in the back of the virtual drawer that will never see the light of day?

Yes. 😉

11) What do you like about #5MinuteFiction?

The creativity. Having only five minutes to write a story on a given prompt really gets the brain juices going. I’ve written some really good stuff in this contest. Of course, I’ve written some real crap, too, but overall, it’s a great experience.

12) Have you always considered yourself to be a writer, or was there a time in your life when you decided that is what you were?

I decided to be a writer when I was in my mid twenties and married to my first wife. I realize now, however, that I’ve always been a writer, I just didn’t know it. I channeled my writing talent into other things. Comic books that I wrote and drew and stapled myself. I played Dungeons and Dragons, and wrote epic campaigns for my players. Finally, I realized that I should be focusing all this creativity on stories. And when I did, sparks flew. I re-discovered writing, and fell in love, and haven’t looked back since.

13) Do you have a blog? How do you use it?

I do, it’s http://christopher-blanchard.blogspot.com (/shameless plug). I use it mostly to let people learn who I am, maybe offer some advice on writing that I’ve learned. I’m planning on using it to preview the Windsmith soon with some sample chapters.

14) What social media do you use? Do you combine your personal and professional or keep them separate?

I use Twitter, Facebook and Blogger. For twitter and blogger, I do keep them separate. On Facebook, I have a personal account that I also talk about writing on, and then a fan page for Christopher Blanchard the author. Blogger we mentioned above. I’m not any kind of expert in any of these though, so I’m always trying to learn more and better ways to use them in my writing career.

15) What is your favorite electronic or digital writing tool?

Scriviner for Windows. It’s in beta right now, but I love this program. I can have notes, internet links, outlines and the first, second and third drafts of a story all kept in a single place and all available through a single program. It’s quite powerful, and really good at helping me keep my stories organized.

16) What is your favorite non-electronic writing tool?

Notebooks. Spiral ringed notebooks with lined paper. I love writing in those things, I really do. I don’t do it often, because I type far faster then I write, but I just love writing in those notebooks.

17) What is the most persistent distraction from writing?

Twitter and Facebook. I like to constantly check to see if people have responded to something I posted, or check on conversations I’m having with people. I waste more time just checking up on those two sites.

18) What is your ideal writing environment? Have you ever been able to create it?

An office with a corner writing desk in it. It will have a window in it that looks outside at a tree, or maybe trees. It has a couple of comfy chairs and several book shelves filled with books, so I can sit and read as well as write. And most importantly of all, it has a door, so I can shut it for privacy. Have I created that? Nope, never. Right now, my computer sits on a little desk in the corner of my living room. But, I won’t complain, because I still get to write.

19) When the day comes that you are on stage, accepting some prestigious award, who are you most likely to forget to thank?

You know, that’s a good question. I think it would likely be my mother, sad to say. I’d be focusing on the editors, my wife, my son, my agent, and I would just forget her.

20) Who shot first, Han or Greedo?

Han shot first. I strongly believe that this was a defining moment in Han’s character. He lives in a dark world, one that is kill or be killed. And showing that he was willing to kill first, even in a situation where he might not have been killed himself, really showed how far Han had to go to become the hero he finally does become at the end of the movie. I think that having Greedo shoot first (or at all, really) lessens the darkness in Han’s life. It doesn’t eliminate, true, but it does lessen it. So, I prefer the darker Han who had a real up-hill climb to become a hero, rather than Han the hero that was hidden in the dark smuggler world.

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Smooth Operator (or not)

Posted on June 30, 2011 by AmyBeth Inverness

For the past two weeks I have been playing single Mom while my hubby goes to work on the Star Trek, Phase II production of Mind Sifter. He goes almost every June to hang out with our fellow Trekkies and make the magic that is Star Trek. For his first shoot, Blood and Fire, I was pregnant and I hung out in the green room for a few hours. Hubby read The Belly Button Book to my expanding tummy while Denise Crosby looked on and smiled. For his second shoot, Kitumba, the baby was running around getting into everything and I only visited briefly. Rob, however, did get to dress up like a Klingon and sit in the background for a scene. Primarily, he works on electrical stuff and lights.

For this shoot, Mind Sifter, he’s a regular member of the electrical crew. We used to dress up in costume to go to Science Fiction conventions… now he dresses up in clothespins. I even brought a bag full of tiny craft-size clothespins that we lovingly nicknamed 0.47’s. (If you check out the Wikipedia link, scroll down to see “Clothespins in film making.” It’s relevant.)

The best thing about this shoot is that I got to spend some time there, not just bringing brownies and hanging out in the green room (for which I am slowly making curtains, BTW) but I actually got to be helpful… on the set while they were filming!

See the picture? That’s me holding the slate. Yup, I was an official “slate operator” for a few scenes! Looking for spoilers? It says “Corridor Stock” as in generic footage of people in hallways to use in this or any other episode. I have a note over my badge; it says “Ask Me to Help” because I hate just sitting around while there’s stuff that needs to be done.

I loved the slate operator job. I have to write the correct numbers and information on the slate as well as the log that summarizes everything. After that all I have to do is stand in front of the camera holding the slate, then step out of the way (avoiding any actors who might be entering the scene) and I get to watch. All the scenes I did were soundless, meant to have other things dubbed over them later, so I didn’t have to worry about noise.

Hubby always feels guilty about going to the shoots. It’s a healthy kind of guilt. It is a strain for us financially, and it does leave me trying to take care of all my stuff and his and the kids for two whole weeks. He uses his vacation days from work. This time, he arranged for my parents to come up and stay with me while he’s gone. They’ve been a terrific help, especially for all those little times I just need to run out really quick and get or do something, and don’t want to make a production of taking the kids along. But having them here is sometimes more difficult when the kids decide they absolutely must have their grandparents’ undivided attention and Grandma & Grumpa are tired. That’s when I have to carry a screaming three year old or send a pouty 12 year old out of the room and away so their grandparents can have a break.

Today, I finally get my husband back. Or, at least I will after I can find out how many arms and legs it will cost me to have the Mom Van fixed. Of course, everything has to break or come due when he’s out of town, and last night the power brakes and power steering both went out rather suddenly. We were at my daughter’s track meet, and some inconsiderate person decided to designate their own parking spot directly behind me so I had to crank the steering wheel extra hard to try and get out. It took twenty minutes of back and forth to get the van out of that awkward position without power steering.

It’s been more than a couple hours and the service station still hasn’t called. Great. I have no idea whether it’s fixed or forgotten, affordable or eating our grocery money for the next two weeks. If you don’t hear from me on this blog again, it’ll be because I had to pawn my pseudonym.

Sorry ’bout that.

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