I have been writing and editing the cookbook and resting a lot. My toe is still PINKY, which is the new swear word I use for almost everything. I have a PINKY backache today.
Language evolves from people using words that may not be the current 'right' word. An example is floundering. I still cringe to see that used in place of foundering.
A flounder is a fish. Or at least it was. Seems that the new meaning is now in the dictionary, although foundering is still preferred. So when people are overwhelmed and someone says they are floundering, I first translate that there is no fishing involved and that someone is buried in problems.
I looked up overwhelmed the other day ( my curiosity about word origins is insatiable). Turns out it come from a Scandinavian origin. Whelm means buried or covered. Thus, overwhelmed would be over-covered or over buried. Hmm, seems a little redundant but that's the usage we now have.
Happy tales to all
kathi
Monday, October 10, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Ponderings
People ask how I keep busy when I have to stay in bed or at least lying back with my foot up. I am so busy it really doesn't occur to be to think about what I can do to not be bored. I am seldom if ever bored. Living in my brain is a Cirque d'Soleil all by itself.
The hardest thing for me this summer is not being able to get outside to garden. My husband and brother have been my minions to keep things growing well. I actually had them help me out to a chair last Sunday so I could sit and pull weeds! I am hoping it helped a little to get rid of my indoor pallor.
My days are filled to the brim with writing, editing, reading, thinking, and breaks for playing with writer friends on facebook. I also signed up for an online course to learn Photoshop. That keeps me pretty busy.
One thing I have learned is to keep notes right away on the weird quick thoughts I have. Many of my story ideas come from these.
My Toes are getting better. The left one remains painful and I can't wear a shoe on it. But the books are flowing and I am getting much done. If you haven't seen it yet, check out my web site at kathiHwriter.com.
Happy tales to all
kathi h
The hardest thing for me this summer is not being able to get outside to garden. My husband and brother have been my minions to keep things growing well. I actually had them help me out to a chair last Sunday so I could sit and pull weeds! I am hoping it helped a little to get rid of my indoor pallor.
My days are filled to the brim with writing, editing, reading, thinking, and breaks for playing with writer friends on facebook. I also signed up for an online course to learn Photoshop. That keeps me pretty busy.
One thing I have learned is to keep notes right away on the weird quick thoughts I have. Many of my story ideas come from these.
My Toes are getting better. The left one remains painful and I can't wear a shoe on it. But the books are flowing and I am getting much done. If you haven't seen it yet, check out my web site at kathiHwriter.com.
Happy tales to all
kathi h
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Keep Moving Forward
When life throws a curve and I want to crawl under the covers... I remember that life moves forward whether I do or not. I have been laid up (there is an interesting phrase) with broken toes and have seen the bright side and used the time to write. It has been for the most part great. No one expects anything from me and I have found my rhythm. An ebook will be available for purchase very soon, and I designed the cover about which I am very excited.
New stories and titles have flowed...yes flowed... into my brain and I made notes and stayed on track for the one I am line-editing for the ebook distributor. In these times as an author we have many choices to make when
considering how and where to publish.
We can go the traditional route and send either a hard copy or ecopy of the proposal to a print publisher and wait while several people look at it and decide if it fits their needs; if it is well written (luckily I do not have that problem); if it is similar to something they have recently published; how it might fit in their future line up; and many other considerations. Then you either get a yea or nay, and you either make the changes they want or you send it out to someone else. Each of these steps can take weeks if not months.
The next option is to submit to a publisher who does ebooks then after six months to print and go through much the same process except is is done via email and doesn't require trips to the post office and wrappings and postage.
The next option if you truly believe in your book, and why would you have spents months writing it if you didn't? YOu look for a place to publish it yourself. Usually you have to pay these places up front, but you get to keep most of the income from sales.
There are many options within this option and because of ebooks now there are even more. Sometimes print house will actually have a subsidiary epublisher who again evaluates your work and takes it on. Keep in mind that all of these are cutting into any money that is made on the book, print or ebook.
Some facts have come out recently showing that ebooks last year had more sales than all the print books combined. Many "brick and mortar' stores are going out of business as a result. The ereaders have come down in price and the books themselves are coming down to a reasonable level.
Enter a company called Smashwords. They call themselves an ebook distributor. They take your manuscript and run it through what they lovingly call the meatgrinder to turn it from print format to ALL the major e-reader formats. You are the publisher in the sense that you not only have written it, but you do the job of the publisher and editor, provide the cover art, include the copyright page (they do get you your ISBN), and make it completely ready. They grind it out into multiple formats for Barnes and Nobel's Nook, Amazon's Kindle, iReader, Deisel, Moby, and more also turning it to PDF files for reading on the computer and other devices and ePub for older style readers. They are the only company I have discovered that does this. For free! They then distribute to their own site and when your manuscript has been vetted, it is included in their premium catalogue and goes to Amazon, B&N, etc!!!! And you don't do a thing... Except to promote the heck out of it. They do no marketing. They are the distributor. Because it is available ( usually within two weeks of giving it to them) by the big e-stores, you are where people can find you. Think of it as being on their shelves.
Now, you do the work of pointing it out to your readers. For this the internet is your friend. Social networks like facebook and my space, blogs, your own website, anything you can think of to let people know it is there. To further promote it, Smashwords has author's pages and books are shown as they come out on the new books page.
You are encouraged to offer free pages and a lower price at least for awhile until you build a reader base. This is entirely up to the author and you do set your own price.
Famous authors are also using smashwords to re-publish thier books that may have come out only in print, whose rights have reverted to the author, or for work that doesn't fit length or genre requirements. Or for projects that were scrapped by their publishers.
As an example of this difference, many novellas (short novels) are offered, For authors these are usually included in an anthology with other authors or a collection of several of their own stories. You see many collections of mysteries done this way. Now these stories can be offered on their own for a low price or for free and used to get new readers!
I plan to offer a variety of stories that were too short for a novel or just didn't fit a slot. One of the first will be Open Wide; a vampire dentist story about 3000 words. (the average book is 60,000 to 100,000 words).
My first full length novel; Heat Waves will be out soon. You can watch for it at Smashwords.com or go to my website; kathihwriter.com to see where you can download it. It should be on Amazon and the other big stores by September!
Happy Tales
kathi h
New stories and titles have flowed...yes flowed... into my brain and I made notes and stayed on track for the one I am line-editing for the ebook distributor. In these times as an author we have many choices to make when
considering how and where to publish.
We can go the traditional route and send either a hard copy or ecopy of the proposal to a print publisher and wait while several people look at it and decide if it fits their needs; if it is well written (luckily I do not have that problem); if it is similar to something they have recently published; how it might fit in their future line up; and many other considerations. Then you either get a yea or nay, and you either make the changes they want or you send it out to someone else. Each of these steps can take weeks if not months.
The next option is to submit to a publisher who does ebooks then after six months to print and go through much the same process except is is done via email and doesn't require trips to the post office and wrappings and postage.
The next option if you truly believe in your book, and why would you have spents months writing it if you didn't? YOu look for a place to publish it yourself. Usually you have to pay these places up front, but you get to keep most of the income from sales.
There are many options within this option and because of ebooks now there are even more. Sometimes print house will actually have a subsidiary epublisher who again evaluates your work and takes it on. Keep in mind that all of these are cutting into any money that is made on the book, print or ebook.
Some facts have come out recently showing that ebooks last year had more sales than all the print books combined. Many "brick and mortar' stores are going out of business as a result. The ereaders have come down in price and the books themselves are coming down to a reasonable level.
Enter a company called Smashwords. They call themselves an ebook distributor. They take your manuscript and run it through what they lovingly call the meatgrinder to turn it from print format to ALL the major e-reader formats. You are the publisher in the sense that you not only have written it, but you do the job of the publisher and editor, provide the cover art, include the copyright page (they do get you your ISBN), and make it completely ready. They grind it out into multiple formats for Barnes and Nobel's Nook, Amazon's Kindle, iReader, Deisel, Moby, and more also turning it to PDF files for reading on the computer and other devices and ePub for older style readers. They are the only company I have discovered that does this. For free! They then distribute to their own site and when your manuscript has been vetted, it is included in their premium catalogue and goes to Amazon, B&N, etc!!!! And you don't do a thing... Except to promote the heck out of it. They do no marketing. They are the distributor. Because it is available ( usually within two weeks of giving it to them) by the big e-stores, you are where people can find you. Think of it as being on their shelves.
Now, you do the work of pointing it out to your readers. For this the internet is your friend. Social networks like facebook and my space, blogs, your own website, anything you can think of to let people know it is there. To further promote it, Smashwords has author's pages and books are shown as they come out on the new books page.
You are encouraged to offer free pages and a lower price at least for awhile until you build a reader base. This is entirely up to the author and you do set your own price.
Famous authors are also using smashwords to re-publish thier books that may have come out only in print, whose rights have reverted to the author, or for work that doesn't fit length or genre requirements. Or for projects that were scrapped by their publishers.
As an example of this difference, many novellas (short novels) are offered, For authors these are usually included in an anthology with other authors or a collection of several of their own stories. You see many collections of mysteries done this way. Now these stories can be offered on their own for a low price or for free and used to get new readers!
I plan to offer a variety of stories that were too short for a novel or just didn't fit a slot. One of the first will be Open Wide; a vampire dentist story about 3000 words. (the average book is 60,000 to 100,000 words).
My first full length novel; Heat Waves will be out soon. You can watch for it at Smashwords.com or go to my website; kathihwriter.com to see where you can download it. It should be on Amazon and the other big stores by September!
Happy Tales
kathi h
Thursday, July 21, 2011
One Giant Step
Today is the annivesary of the first man walking on the moon. I can never forget how excited I was. I wanted to be there or on olater misssions so very much but had physical considerations that negated that. My heart was there. "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." I had a tape recorder going ( the old reel type) and took a picture of my black and white TV screen.
I had ties to future moon missions and our town was the only one during those days that had two moon mission astronauts. As such we were awarded the first Space and science center where you could sit in an Apollo module and later ride in a simulator. There was a moon rock... something I coveted for my own rock collection. And to me the coolest thing, my family knew both of those astronauts. James McDevitt and Al Worden. Al had been my baby sitter back in the days when our parents played pinochle together.
Later 21 astronauts were to come from Michigan, but those first two from the Apollo missions to the moon were the ones that truly inspired me.
Now, we have recently seen the launch of the last (at least for now) Shuttle mission and for see future moon travel leading up to a Mars walk. Wow! Wish I could go. And today July 21st the shuttle returned safely for the last time.
One giant leap indeed!
krh
I had ties to future moon missions and our town was the only one during those days that had two moon mission astronauts. As such we were awarded the first Space and science center where you could sit in an Apollo module and later ride in a simulator. There was a moon rock... something I coveted for my own rock collection. And to me the coolest thing, my family knew both of those astronauts. James McDevitt and Al Worden. Al had been my baby sitter back in the days when our parents played pinochle together.
Later 21 astronauts were to come from Michigan, but those first two from the Apollo missions to the moon were the ones that truly inspired me.
Now, we have recently seen the launch of the last (at least for now) Shuttle mission and for see future moon travel leading up to a Mars walk. Wow! Wish I could go. And today July 21st the shuttle returned safely for the last time.
One giant leap indeed!
krh
Friday, December 17, 2010
Back in the Groove
I deleted most of 2009 because I had become immersed in the daily grind and it was boring. Then early this year, 2010, the wireless card in my computer stopped connecting. I got a device that works around that and had wireless again, but the computer just wasn't working like it should... To make a very long and frustrating story short; On memorial Day I decided to get a new computer. The salesman asked what I was currently using and why I was replacing it and I explained. He thought all the problems were minor and could be fixed so I began investing in my old computer including updating to windows 7 which necessitated installing more memory.
The computer was in and out of the shop as one thing after another failed, and it was on the shop more than on my desk. I fought it all summer.
In September it died. Each time I closed down and restarted it was slower and more things were wrong. It died. I took it to the shop. I HAD A VIRUS THAT KILLED IT. Only I didn't just have a virus. In extracting my files to put on a new computer they encountered and fixed 57 viruses!!!
So I had a new computer. Within a few days it started doing the same things as the old one. Sure enough their were viruses in the new one. While waiting for the tedious process of having them work though each and every file... some 50,000 or more... they found another 30 plus viruses. Now, I am a sceptic about the security and safety of my files so I had bought an external hard drive ( 640 MB) and had continuously kept my entire computer backed up. They also had to scan these files as well as several flash drives because the problems had to be coming from the files that were transferred. Computer shops use a special server that holds your files and scans them before transferring them but this one got around the system.
While they were working I was loaned a display model of A MUCH nicer computer than the one I bought. I fell in love with it and even after they had mine clean loaded and ready to go, I was nervous about the safety of using it. In the end these wonderful people worked some magic and I was able to keep the loaner instead. I took the files off my flash drives myself running them through my new topline security and then...
I plugged in the hard drive to load my books. My precious edited complete copies of my novels. Only the hard drive wouldn't work. I took it in. It began to work then stopped.
I still am waiting for the maker of the hard drive to recover the files they can and replace the drive. The store that sold it has been getting a run-around and now so am I.
I have bits and pieces of all my books but will have to restructure and compbine and edit them. I have decided to wait until after the first of the year to worry about this.
This is not the end of my computer woes. During the summer I was supposed to be a judge in 3 different major writing contests as I am a trained judge. I could not fulfill my promise to do that.
Now, my email has been hacked and spam went out to ALL my contacts including my business ones ( I am so embarrassed) such as editors and agents. I am sending each a personal apology but am distressed.
So that is the story of 2010 and why there have been no blogs until now. NO COMPUTER= NO BLOGS .
The computer was in and out of the shop as one thing after another failed, and it was on the shop more than on my desk. I fought it all summer.
In September it died. Each time I closed down and restarted it was slower and more things were wrong. It died. I took it to the shop. I HAD A VIRUS THAT KILLED IT. Only I didn't just have a virus. In extracting my files to put on a new computer they encountered and fixed 57 viruses!!!
So I had a new computer. Within a few days it started doing the same things as the old one. Sure enough their were viruses in the new one. While waiting for the tedious process of having them work though each and every file... some 50,000 or more... they found another 30 plus viruses. Now, I am a sceptic about the security and safety of my files so I had bought an external hard drive ( 640 MB) and had continuously kept my entire computer backed up. They also had to scan these files as well as several flash drives because the problems had to be coming from the files that were transferred. Computer shops use a special server that holds your files and scans them before transferring them but this one got around the system.
While they were working I was loaned a display model of A MUCH nicer computer than the one I bought. I fell in love with it and even after they had mine clean loaded and ready to go, I was nervous about the safety of using it. In the end these wonderful people worked some magic and I was able to keep the loaner instead. I took the files off my flash drives myself running them through my new topline security and then...
I plugged in the hard drive to load my books. My precious edited complete copies of my novels. Only the hard drive wouldn't work. I took it in. It began to work then stopped.
I still am waiting for the maker of the hard drive to recover the files they can and replace the drive. The store that sold it has been getting a run-around and now so am I.
I have bits and pieces of all my books but will have to restructure and compbine and edit them. I have decided to wait until after the first of the year to worry about this.
This is not the end of my computer woes. During the summer I was supposed to be a judge in 3 different major writing contests as I am a trained judge. I could not fulfill my promise to do that.
Now, my email has been hacked and spam went out to ALL my contacts including my business ones ( I am so embarrassed) such as editors and agents. I am sending each a personal apology but am distressed.
So that is the story of 2010 and why there have been no blogs until now. NO COMPUTER= NO BLOGS .
Sunday, October 5, 2008
A Quiet Place
Is there a quiet place in your life?I am having work done on the kitchen wall. It involved removing an old odd wall and studding and putting up dry wall, plastering and sanding. Four days and counting. Okay, so they were partial days except for the first one, but were the four days I had cleared the calendar to write and finish projects.When I got the call that the carpenter had a cancellation and could begin work several weeks early, I was at once happy and disturbed.
I have lung problems and there would be dust. Lots of dust. I would have to be the person here, because my husband would be at work.And, darn it, I wanted to write.I decided that this might be a test from the universe ( bear with me here) about my commitment to writing. Whether it is or not, I found out this;I am committed. I got a lot more done than I expected.
I was so excited that the work was going on on the level below me that I focused more on my writing.I found that I felt like someone was looking over my shoulder, of course it was me, and I wanted to please myself for a change by doing what I love, writing.I wasn't answering to anyone for these few days, because I had to be at the house; no quick trips to help friends or long chats on the phone. I was in a room that had no phone and I kept the cordless downstairs and turned off. Plus it was too noisy to talk on teh phone, but not too noisy to write!
Another discovery is that I don't have to run to a cabin in the moountains to find solitude, at least not if I am willing to put up with the sounds of construction. Once I started story-telling, the writing flowed and my brain shut out all of the extraneous sounds. I had scheduled this time to write knowing my honey would interrupt me and that life would pull me out of my zone from time to time.Instead, my honey went bowling or riding or what ever, because he couldn't help with the kitchen, and there was no room for him to sit in my little nook.
I was in a comfortable chair being stored in an unused bedroom and had a window for good light and a sense of hiding out in a tree house! The room is in the upper level of our home. It is cluttered and looks like my attic would look if I had one.The most powerful discovery was that I could pull away from family and friends without them being angry and with me feeling relief instead of guilt for not doing the important things first.
I couldn't work in the kitchen so we ate take out. I might not have done that if the work wasn't being done.I didn't have to do dishes, grocery shopping, laundry or cleaning, because, well, I couldn't.WHAT AN AWESOME FEELING!
I think I have learned from this experience to give myself the gift of several days vacation at home. It is okay to have take out four days in a row. It is okay to be the guest in my own home and let others do what they think is important. It is okay to be out of reach of friends and family, and it is oaky if they don't understand. Who ever said you have to be understood all the time.I have freed my inner woman of mystery. I don't have to explain to anyone when I need time away from the ordinary. It is okay to feed my soul and let someone else feed my body.And it is not just okay but necessary to find solitude where ever you are.
hugs, kathi h
I have lung problems and there would be dust. Lots of dust. I would have to be the person here, because my husband would be at work.And, darn it, I wanted to write.I decided that this might be a test from the universe ( bear with me here) about my commitment to writing. Whether it is or not, I found out this;I am committed. I got a lot more done than I expected.
I was so excited that the work was going on on the level below me that I focused more on my writing.I found that I felt like someone was looking over my shoulder, of course it was me, and I wanted to please myself for a change by doing what I love, writing.I wasn't answering to anyone for these few days, because I had to be at the house; no quick trips to help friends or long chats on the phone. I was in a room that had no phone and I kept the cordless downstairs and turned off. Plus it was too noisy to talk on teh phone, but not too noisy to write!
Another discovery is that I don't have to run to a cabin in the moountains to find solitude, at least not if I am willing to put up with the sounds of construction. Once I started story-telling, the writing flowed and my brain shut out all of the extraneous sounds. I had scheduled this time to write knowing my honey would interrupt me and that life would pull me out of my zone from time to time.Instead, my honey went bowling or riding or what ever, because he couldn't help with the kitchen, and there was no room for him to sit in my little nook.
I was in a comfortable chair being stored in an unused bedroom and had a window for good light and a sense of hiding out in a tree house! The room is in the upper level of our home. It is cluttered and looks like my attic would look if I had one.The most powerful discovery was that I could pull away from family and friends without them being angry and with me feeling relief instead of guilt for not doing the important things first.
I couldn't work in the kitchen so we ate take out. I might not have done that if the work wasn't being done.I didn't have to do dishes, grocery shopping, laundry or cleaning, because, well, I couldn't.WHAT AN AWESOME FEELING!
I think I have learned from this experience to give myself the gift of several days vacation at home. It is okay to have take out four days in a row. It is okay to be the guest in my own home and let others do what they think is important. It is okay to be out of reach of friends and family, and it is oaky if they don't understand. Who ever said you have to be understood all the time.I have freed my inner woman of mystery. I don't have to explain to anyone when I need time away from the ordinary. It is okay to feed my soul and let someone else feed my body.And it is not just okay but necessary to find solitude where ever you are.
hugs, kathi h
Thursday, October 2, 2008
this and that
I have been immersed in one of the stories I am writng and thought I would blog about my odd process for this one.
The working title of this is named for the famous song. Sexual Healing. Great song.
It is a contemporary gothic erotic romance set in the mountains of Colorado.
I first had the idea as a result of a nightmare. I dreamed I was in a house that was part of a mountain, and I couldn't get out. It was one of those dreams where you are sure you have been there before and think you know where you are going but never get there, and stairways and elevators and all kinds of strange pathways are endless.
So, I awakened from this dream and got a glass of water to ground me in reality and thought that it would make an interesting movie of only there was a plot and a very rich mysterious guy in it.
I was reading a book and my thoughts kept drifting away from the story in front of me and suddenly I knew this entire story and all of its twists and turns.
Just like that. No outline, no plotting nothing. There it was.
I wanted to start writing it immediately but I had a couple requested stories I was working on and tried to push it to the back of my mind. I didn't even do computer notes on it as I usually do when an idea grabs me.
I knew it was going to be very hot and I didn't have a clue who might want to publish it.
Time passes. A lot of time. Several years.
I was at a mini conference near me last fall, and low and behold there was an editor there taking pitches for erotic romance. I told her I had no business pitching because it might be a year or two before I had time to write it, but she wanted it. the whole thing, not just a few chapters and outline and I could take my time and do it right.
Of course I returned to working on the very good stories already in the works, but kept thinking about S.H.
One day a few weeks ago I decided I had to let myself jot down some impressions or something so I could let go of it until its turn came. Instead I wrote the first 9000 words in one evening. Good words.
Now it is about 20% or more finished. I find I am editing as I go; another thing I seldom do.
So if you are a reader, what do you think? and if you are a writer, does this happen to you?
regards
kathi
The working title of this is named for the famous song. Sexual Healing. Great song.
It is a contemporary gothic erotic romance set in the mountains of Colorado.
I first had the idea as a result of a nightmare. I dreamed I was in a house that was part of a mountain, and I couldn't get out. It was one of those dreams where you are sure you have been there before and think you know where you are going but never get there, and stairways and elevators and all kinds of strange pathways are endless.
So, I awakened from this dream and got a glass of water to ground me in reality and thought that it would make an interesting movie of only there was a plot and a very rich mysterious guy in it.
I was reading a book and my thoughts kept drifting away from the story in front of me and suddenly I knew this entire story and all of its twists and turns.
Just like that. No outline, no plotting nothing. There it was.
I wanted to start writing it immediately but I had a couple requested stories I was working on and tried to push it to the back of my mind. I didn't even do computer notes on it as I usually do when an idea grabs me.
I knew it was going to be very hot and I didn't have a clue who might want to publish it.
Time passes. A lot of time. Several years.
I was at a mini conference near me last fall, and low and behold there was an editor there taking pitches for erotic romance. I told her I had no business pitching because it might be a year or two before I had time to write it, but she wanted it. the whole thing, not just a few chapters and outline and I could take my time and do it right.
Of course I returned to working on the very good stories already in the works, but kept thinking about S.H.
One day a few weeks ago I decided I had to let myself jot down some impressions or something so I could let go of it until its turn came. Instead I wrote the first 9000 words in one evening. Good words.
Now it is about 20% or more finished. I find I am editing as I go; another thing I seldom do.
So if you are a reader, what do you think? and if you are a writer, does this happen to you?
regards
kathi
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