Adventures in Self-Publishing, episode 1?

I am pretty sure I have discussed in the past the issue of self-publishing. It is no longer the realm of the vanity publishers, and there are legitimate sites that have really taken off in the last few years. Of course, the very idea of being solely responsible for absolutely everything relating to your precious book is daunting, but it does have its appeal, namely the ability to cling to it as simply YOURS, not some faceless agent, editor, or publisher who is going to take it and do god only knows what to it, and the fear is that it becomes something completely unrecognizable, right?

Well, I was poking around the NaNo site, and there are some really excellent sponsor offers available to Wrimos, both participants and winners themselves. No, really, take a look: NaNo sponsors

Obviously, once I complete my long-suffering work in progress, I would love to publish it somehow. Ideally, yes, get it on bookshelves around the world, getting a fat contract and check, and becoming fabulously wealthy! Ok, but seriously, getting it out there is the important thing to me, to feel like I have actually DONE something. So I'm looking over these offers... and I find LeanPub. Really interesting concept, it allows authors to publish their WIP's... for whoa, actual money? Hold the presses here... I have to look further.

Yes, indeed, for a 90% royalty, minus a .50 fee (did I really read that right? Yep, you did) an author can gain readership, feedback, and a check, all at the same time. It's like getting an advance on a finished novel, with the readers themselves giving you their opinions as you go along. Similar to blogging, I suppose. The author sets the price, can even donate to a cause, and can update their novel as often as they want. Of course, this comes with a limitation as to how much space can get hosted through the file sharing service utilized by LeanPub, called Dropbox, though you can earn or purchase upgrades beyond what is initially offered.

So what does the reader get out of this? Well, by purchasing a work through LeanPub, they get interaction with the author, and free updates whenever the author changes something. I think that's pretty darn neat, so what the hell, I am giving it a try with my NaNo project this year.

So the unveiling of what that project will be? Haha, surprise, it's going to be to finish my novel about Salome, which I am tentatively titling The Marchmont Falcon. (Potential to be a series, here, btw.) Since I already have a significant amount completed, I will publish what I have thus far, and update throughout November, hopefully ending with a finished book. Conclude with some SERIOUS editing, and I can take that to places like CreateSpace and Smashwords to generate a physical copy and ISBN, and provide it to as wide an audience as possible!!!! OMG, too exciting for words, but baby steps, baby steps...

So, PLEASE, if you read this, go check out my book at LeanPub, pony up the 1.99 list price (10% will go back to NaNo) and help me along on my journey to become a published author at last!!!

The Marchmont Falcon

Chapter One Available Now

So I just updated my companion blog to include the first full chapter of Salome's story: Chapter One
I have also concluded that I will no longer post stories past Chapter Ten, which is where I had stopped posting my Empress story. This is for a couple of reasons:
1. These are still works in progress, and in much need of revision, so they are by no means complete.
2. The ever present fear of plagiarism. Take my story and I find out about it, my postings are proof of your theft, but why push the envelope?
3. Back to the case of plagiarism. Steal the first bits of my story, fine, but go ahead and make up the rest of the story on your own, I dare you. You have no idea where I was going with it, so best of luck to you. If you had to steal my stuff, then that just proves I'm a better writer than you are, so HA!
4. Let's say you read my stuff and love it. That's awesome, but of course, the ultimate goal is to be a published author, which implies that someday it's going to cost people money. Why buy the cow when the milk is free, right? I love you all for bothering to find me here and appreciating my own form of crazysauce (love that term, courtesy Smart Bitches, Trashy Books) but yeah, if you want to read the rest, it'll cost you. Unless you're like totally my best friend or a bitching editor and I need your help. :)
Anywho, hop on over to my other site to read more of Salome's story and give me some feedback. I am mightily aware I am guilty of what is known as Info Dumping, and could really use some advice on how to fix that issue for a more riveting, cleaner read in final revisions.

Writing For Charity

Hello my fellow bloggers, writers and readers alike!

Pardon the blog silence of the last few days, busy holiday weekend and all that!

I am going to ask you all to do something for me now... See that little link off to the side to "Unleash Your Story"? Well, click on that for me and help raise some money to help the Cystic Fybrosis Foundation.

I have started a team called "Kestrel's Bloggers" so you can help participate by joining my team and become a fundraiser yourself, or you can offer a donation to help me reach my goal.

The way I am understanding this is: I set a goal to write however many words during the month of September (I am going to aim for 10,000), and you can contribute a set dollar amount to help reach my fundraising goal of $150.

If you would like to join my team, send me an email, and I will add you, and then you can set your own writing goal for yourself and add a button to your page to get donations of your own! Add a button to track your progress.

I have no idea if I'll be able to raise my goal, but I thought it was such a wonderful idea, I had to sign up!

Names again...

I hate coming up with names. It is so important to a story, both for characterization, as well as flow.

This trouble I have even extends into my personal life, as I agonized over the names I gave my children. My youngest's name was even left so much to the last minute that we had to poll the nurses to see which name they liked the best.

So I have agonized over my main character's names for Empress, as well as the name of her country, city, etc. I think I am happy with her name as Syndra-Kai, but if you have suggestions, please feel free! Right now, I have my hero's name as Malik-Tobar (after much consulting of the baby name book mind you). Once upon a time it was Vin-Malik (the Malik part seems to be sticking with him), but I already have a character in another book named Vincent, and he's stuck with that. So maybe a little help here too? Any ideas? Well, maybe you need to get to know him more... I think I want to stick with hyphenated names for people, but of course those can always be shortened to nicknames...

As for place names, I think I have settled on the country, as well as the head state, being called Lunatia, and the capital Lunatium. Very Latinesque, so not so far removed from reality that a person can't identify with this place. Here are the rest of the "states" and their capitals...

Cathantias, Cathannum
Peranthias, Peranthium
Engana, Engannum
Arcuatia, Arcuatium

(credit here to the place name generator found at: http://nine.frenchboys.net/country.php for inspiration)

Of course, I still need a name for the mountains, any rivers, the oceans, and the other main continent that surrounds Lunatia (see previous post), but its a start

Do you have an artistic side?

Allrighty, so EMPRESS it is... I have lots of ideas for this story that I am ready to get crackin on, but first I wanted to ask if you all might want to help out!?

Do you have any skill at drawing, or perhaps computer design, something like that? In every just about every fantasy novel (like Empress) set in a land you are unfamiliar with, and where the main characters go on a journey around that land, there is usually a map to reference, somewhere on the inside cover or in the first few pages. I would like to incorporate that sort of thing with this story, but my art skills are rather lacking.

If you would like to help, just email me @ cmcarr12@gmail.com, and we can commiserate about details, and you can get an opportunity to be part of my project! Rest assured you would receive credit! If you would like to make a preliminary drawing or would just like some more information about the land in question, here are some basic details, things that HAVE to be incorporated into the map to correspond to the story.

The Empire of the Silver Crescent is a large continent/island sandwiched between a larger landmass on this particular "planet". Long ago, fissures around this continent separated it from the rest of the land (think Pangaea), resulting in a crescent shaped country. Silver in this world is the most precious metal, and aside from small deposits in the rest of the land, all of the silver is concentrated in the mountains that bisect the country. Hence the name of the empire, and the reason it is so rich!
The main city where the empress resides lies in the center of the inner curve of the crescent, and the large gulf is protected by barrier islands at its opening. There are cities at either tip of the crescent as well. The mountains lie to the west of the city, about 3 days ride. There is only one mountain pass, accessible only for about 2 months in summer, and there is a large desert immediately on the other side that runs to the coast. A number of oases dot the desert. To the north, there is a large chain of lakes, to the south there is a thick and very nearly impenetrable forest. Caravans traverse the countryside, traveling from town to town, trading goods and providing entertainment. (These are the gypsies of this land, of course.)
The land is divided into 5 "states", each with a capital, and there are roads that lead from each of these cities to the main capital. The rest of the land is mainly rural countryside, filled with farms, streams, small ponds and such.