And so it begins…ABNA 2012
January 24th, 2012 § 2 Comments
Late last night, between rampant coughing and inability to sleep because of said coughing, I entered the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards.
The beautiful thing about self-publishing is that you have the freedom to enter those sorts of competitions. Per the rules, your manuscript cannot be shopped around to publishers while it’s tied up in ABNA, and I will admit that while I’m lukewarm towards the idea of trad pub in general, the thought of a $15,000 advance and a contract is a very, very good thought to entertain. It won’t make me quit my day job, but the post-tax amount of that 15K is a very, very welcome thing for my finances.
I’m also thinking about entering the Beach Book Festival, which is run by the same individual who had once hosted the Nashville Book Festival, wherein I had once received an honorable mention with Book 1. I would love to see how Books 2 and 3 do in that mix.
Now, a comment in a prior post had brought up that, if I have little chance at winning ABNA (which is true), and that I am not a big fan of Penguin (also true), then why bother entering? Myself personally, I enter because 1. it’s fun to try your hand at a contest now and again, 2. whether it’s Penguin or any other of the Big Six, it’s an advance.
The thing is, knowing what I have been learning about book copyright, I’m starting to wonder if the contract that will be offered by Penguin can be amended. I am very glad that I had taken business law in college, and I want to be sure that if – and it’s a pretty major if - such a contract is offered to me, I know what to look for and how to phrase certain things to safeguard my ability to reclaim the rights to my work in the event that this goes south. Because so many authors who have gone trad-pub and want to go self find themselves caught up in a contractual mess because of a fine-print clause or two. Or ten.
Apart from the contract, I have a few thoughts on the review process. As I learned the hard way in 2010, the reviewers pick the books at random. While I see the benefit in it – if someone who’s not typically into a genre is grabbed by the excerpt well enough, then that does give a point to the overall quality of the book – some great work goes by the wayside only because the reviewer doesn’t like the genre, and rejects the book for that reason. Case in point, both of my reviews of Book 1 in 2010, where neither reviewer was a fantasy/sci-fi fan. Okay, I understand – not everyone’s cup of tea. First reviewer admitted it, and I’m happy with that. Second review still makes me laugh. I get it, you don’t dig the genre, but if that’s the case, why not make like the first reviewer and just admit it as opposed to comparing me to things who had zero influence on my writing? (Still don’t watch BSG…lol)
But hey, them’s the breaks. Not my first barbecue.
At this point, though, it’s just fun for me to enter. I’ve had readers come back to me and bug me about the storyline because I’ve got quite a soft spot for writing cliffhangers, and that makes me happy. I have a dedicated audience. If I get a contract and an advance, that’s icing on a cake that I’ve been baking since 2009.
So. I will find out on February 23rd if I’m in or not. Until then, I will relax and keep plugging at the prelim edit/rewrite of Book 4. Soon to receive some more cover art too. :)
K.G.
PS: the first story of the soon-to-be-anthology is out on Smashwords.
I’d rather be “mean”.
January 22nd, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Very recently, I had a small explosion of drama, which I have so far done without for the better part of a fair few years. I won’t name names. Said individual was promptly told off and blocked. Phone number was deleted as well.
What he did was insult someone while trying to “be supportive” – his words, not mine – and then take severe umbrage with me for pointing out that I really didn’t find his insult of a complete stranger funny. You see, I’ve never been a fan of the “bring me up by putting someone else down” approach.
I’m honestly not sure what infuriated me more about that exchange: the fact that this was someone whom I had considered a friend right up until that point, the fact that said person thinks that it’s perfectly okay to pull the supportive card while insulting someone else in the same breath, or the fact that said person, who had known me for years, thinks that I was “overreacting” if I point out that his own behavior is very much 1. not funny, silly, joking, or any synonym of above, and 2. does nothing to actually support me if it insults someone else.
Let me say this, without mincing words: there is no one on this green earth – not my blood family, not my clients, not my friends, not the Queen of England – who has the right to tell me how I should perceive something. Insulting someone to “support” someone else is not funny. It is not supportive, either. But telling me not to get offended when someone is clearly being offensive? It won’t make me less offended, but it will, in fact, make whoever’s telling me that look like a presumptuous asshole who thinks that he/she has the right to tell me how to think and how to feel. You can have the right to say what you want, but I have an equal right not to like what you say, and call you out on your words.
If you think that makes me “mean”, then you know what, then I’m mean, I’m a bitch, and kindly get over it. I’d rather be mean and stand up for what I feel and believe in, as opposed to just sit there and keep my mouth shut to not “rock the boat” and “keep the peace”. I was raised with that mentality, and doing the whole keep-the-peace thing had done me a lot more harm than good. I’m no doormat, and refuse to keep silent when I have something to say.
I’ve also been told, in more than one unrelated instance, that I will “miss out on a lot of opportunities” if I don’t “tone it down”. And what, precisely, are those “opportunities” that I will be missing out on? Give me some specifics. Because as far I can tell you, I didn’t get to where I am as a person by being all sweet, nice, demure, and cooperative. I got to where I am by being myself, and myself happens to be a cast-iron, outspoken bitch. And honestly, if someone with an opportunity for me isn’t willing to accept the person that I am, bitchitude and all, then there’s a pretty good chance that 1. I don’t want that opportunity in the first place, and 2. I don’t want to have much to do with that person.
This is a fair warning, and one that I don’t want to have to repeat: if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. If you want to stir up trouble, I will not tolerate it. If you have a problem with what I say, delete me. Because, at the end of the day, you’re probably not the person I want reading my work anyway. In other words, either you respect me, and respect the people of which you might speak on my page, and I will respect you in return. Otherwise, I have no problem in 86ing you out of my life, digital or in-person.
And go ahead, tell me about all those “missed opportunities”, because I would still much rather be myself than have to put on a mask for a bone to be thrown. I tend to prefer quality in my opportunities, rather than taking whatever I can get. I’m not desperate. I would much rather wait and take my opportunities with the people who will accept me the way I am, as opposed to taking the “don’t rock the boat” tack to take whatever comes along.
K.G.
In Memoriam: Etta James
January 21st, 2012 § Leave a Comment
The blues legend, born Jamesetta Hawkins, had passed away yesterday at the age of 73. You may remember her cover of At Last, which was originally written in 1941.
A lot of Etta’s music speaks to the heart. Hers is a voice that you can sink into and let it soothe away whatever’s on your mind. It’s not a voice we hear often nowadays.
I wrote a short story as a tribute. I am posting it for free here. Eventually, if I write enough of them, I will compile an anthology.
Requiescat in pace, Ms. James. Say hi to the Rat Pack for us at the grand jam session in the sky.
The MegaUpload Shutdown
January 20th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Now, while some people may view it as a mass overreach by the government, especially in light of the ongoing battle against SOPA (another post on that later on), but…there’s something to be said about copyright infringement.
First of all, what you may not know is that Swizz Beats is involved with that site. There are some articles to contrary, but I have my reservations. This guy had multiple musicians endorse that site, most of whom are now in very hot water with their labels. But one thing is for sure: if a musician has been running a shareware site, this effectively shoots his own industry in the foot.
But this just got me nice and pissed. Not because of the government shutting down a website, but because people are very quick to forget what’s what with copyright of creative product.
In the early days of shareware, I’m sure you have ventured to Kazaa for a quick download of that song you heard on the radio. You’d borrow a CD and rip it to your computer. You probably thought nothing of it.
Sorry, but that’s theft. Copyright infringement, if you have to be exact, which breaks down to theft if you look at how money plays into this.
You may say, “Hey, I bought this, and this means I do whatever I want with it!” – No. Let me get one little thing straight per the US Copyright Act: you bought your right to use it, but not the actual master copyright. So think about how you distributing something that you “own” affect other people. You own the right to use it, but if you give it away, you’re devaluing it. That CD that you have no problem passing on to a friend is now half its value because two people have the product. The artist never sees a whit of income from your friend ripping the CD. If your friend is using his/her computer as an upload source with that CD, that CD loses in value with more and more people downloading its contents via shareware. What does the artist get for these extra people listening to his material? ZILCH.
Let’s do some cashflow analysis here. Suppose that you buy a CD for $20.
Of that $20, the distribution medium takes its cut. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, it’s $5.
$15 remains. Money goes to the label next for overhead costs, which include publicity, representation, etc. $10 will be their sample cut. You now have $5.
And of that, guess who also needs to take a cut: the press. You know, the guys who actually make the physical CD.
Using this example, the artist sees $2.50 from the sale of that one CD, if and only if they hadn’t made enough to offset the label’s advance, which was given to them to compose the music for said CD to begin with.
In other words, there’s a solid chance that the artist won’t be seeing money from this CD for quite a long time.
Think about that for a second. And you think, “So what if someone borrows my CD and makes a copy of it?” Less money to the artist. Less money for future production. Less money for the label, which will drop the artist because of said lack of revenue but still continue to make its profits off the existing sales until the advance is recouped, which will take much more time, and until then, the artist will not see a drop of royalty money.
It’s pretty similar to traditional publishing, wherein you won’t see a penny of royalties until you recoup the advance.
And if you’re bootlegging an indie artist who doesn’t have label backing, that artist may see more money faster, but again, it’s all going against the out-of-pocket costs incurred in creating the CD.
Still think that CD or venture to Kazaa is no big deal?
If you like the artist, great. Want to keep listening to the artist’s future music? Awesome. Now, let me ask you this: if the artist doesn’t make enough money off that CD, do you think that artist will put out another one? If you say yes, or, “They will if they love music”, then you need a wake-up call. The love of the music only goes so far, it doesn’t pay the bills, and doesn’t put food on the table. Money does. If you want to get a quick song, then please, iTunes or Amazon mp3 has the right to distribute, and the cost to you is a whopping dollar. Of that dollar, the artist will be lucky to see 30c, by the by, but there’s benefit to quick access and volume. There are other distributors who will let you download songs for a fee. Know where that fee goes? To pay the artist.
An argument that I heard is that the government had interfered with the way people share their things. Okay, fabulous, but make sure it’s actually yours first! Because guess what: when you buy that CD, or that mp3, you are buying your right to consume the product, and nothing more! You’re listening to the music, that is your consumption. But you are not the master copyright owner. That’s either the artist or the label, and they dictate their product’s distribution and how it’s heard. Therefore, that music you’re enjoying? You bought your right to enjoy it. You never actually bought the ownership of it. The masters are owned by either the artist or the label.
And please don’t start about MegaUpload being used to share family pictures, etc. That usage is in the very, very tiny minority for shareware site usage. The majority use is to disseminate copyrighted material, first and foremost. I mean, come on: Kazaa was NOT used for family pictures. It was, however, the go-to one-stop shop for media.
Oh, and also, for family pictures, make a private album on Photobucket or Flickr. They’re legit sites that protect your photo copyright. You can also use Dropbox, which is free up to 2gb (expanded with heavy use; mine is 4gb I think) and ad-free, and works with literally every operating system.
I won’t deny that the current distribution system for music leaves much to be desired, but until people actually recognize what copyright infringement does for the industry overall, then the industry will stay as it is for a while. I don’t like it, and my musicians don’t like it either.
Oh, and as far as Swizz Beats? What utterly annoys me is that a musician is involved with a shareware site. The disputes on who to best distribute music aside, of all the people in the world who would be involved with a shareware site, I did not expect a musician. That is the one person who would have a major problem with copyright infringement as opposed to facilitating it.
Look: the majority of musicians are not wealthy. Those who are and who are of the current generation – mid-twenties – are probably so because of clever marketing, performances, and endorsements. Not because of sales. If it’s not a popular genre, then the artist is just plain screwed, because they’re never going to know exactly where their music had ended up.
Also, there are better ways to share. You see artists on YouTube putting up segments of their songs as promo – but again, segments. Promotional material; enough of the song to pique an interest, not enough to where someone can attempt to de-embed the music from the video and then share the rest. And YouTube, just FYI, links to where this song can be bought in full – iTunes or Amazon. There are ways to harness the digital sharing realm without said sharing infringing on copyright, but few people see that and instead focus on their right to do something that is, for all statutory intents and purposes, illegal. You may have that right to share things, but the people whose material you’re sharing without their consent or permission have the right to not like it and do something about it.
And look…I’m an independent author. I have my book uploaded in e-form to several mediums. And yes, it’s probably being bootlegged here and there. On one hand, it’s flattering that I’m being bootlegged, but I would much rather have my potential readers respect the work that had gone into the book and pay the whopping three bucks to have it legitimately.
K.G.
Woohoo!
January 20th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Juliet Kachyk had thrown my blog into the mix for The Versatile Blogger Award!
Wow. I think this is the first award for this blog! Okay, so now I…
1. Thank those who nominated me.
2. Nominate 15 other bloggers who I think deserve it.
3. Share 7 random facts about myself.
4. Add a picture of the award to this post (see above)
Thank you, Juliet!!! And happy editing to you too!
—
So…seven random facts about myself.
1. I have a weakness for pomegranates. I love them, adore them, and can’t resist them every winter. They’re in season around mid-December, and a properly ripened one tastes like something between a cranberry and a black cherry, just a little more tart.
2. I am nearsighted and wear glasses/contacts to correct it. But, even though I am myopic, I have excellent perception for color and contrast, and excellent night vision on top of that.
3. I research random things when I’m bored, and spend enough time researching to write a paper on it.
4. I have an actual, hard-copy list of places that I want to visit. I’ve been steadily crossing them off.
5. I play the lottery, but nowhere near on a regular basis…and nearly always end up getting the small prizes. Most I’ve won was $20.
6. I assemble my own furniture, and had done so since I was 12. It’s a workout, and there’s something very satisfying about building.
7. I’ve been awake for 24 hours straight only twice in my life. I slept for 24 hours straight only once.
—
Now, for the blogs! I do have to limit to ten, though. A lot of the blogs I read are incredibly political, and/or concerning VERY specific issues that are of value to me. An award is not something that I want to get political on. This one will be for my fellow writers.
1. Gayle F. Moffet – My editor, in all her versatile, sarcastic glory.
2. Wide Awake but Dreaming - run by Raymond Frazee. Discovered this via Facebook, promptly subscribed. Beautiful writing style.
3. Lisa Marie Basile – One of my oldest friends, whose field of choice is surreal travel-inspired poetry. Owner and proud operator of Patasola Press
4. Sheldon Nylander – CA-based, strong, concise, and to the point.
5. Kate Policiani - Concise, well-written reviews and more.
6. J.W. Manus – an author who doesn’t mince words one bit.
7. Let’s Get Digital – by David Gaughran.
8. A Newbie’s Guide to Self-Publishing – by J.A. Konrath. If you’re a self-pub and you need resources, he and David Gaughran win the best go-to blog.
9. S. R. Torris - A fellow author with a flair.
10. The Geeky Chic – Book reviews, promo, and then some! Run by Olivia Melancon
K.G.
Cheikh Ndoye, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and Life on the Road
January 15th, 2012 § 2 Comments
But of course, it’s music season. :) Yes, early.
Cheikh Ndoye & Friends, Blues Alley, Washington, DC
If you’ve not heard of this guy, I strongly recommend checking him out. Doubly so if you like Gerald Veasley’s brand of music: kicky, funky, with a strong bass lead. Unlike Gerald, however, Cheikh is less groove and more snap. His brand of music is a different deviation of bass-heavy jazz; a bit more serious, almost as though his bass, in and of itself, is a bit more thoughtful than its counterparts.
So this show, with Chieli Minucci, Lao Tizer, and Karen Briggs as special guests, was an impulse trip. I thought about it, then thought against it, and about two weeks prior to the show, I asked myself, “What do I have to lose? It’s DC, a new city, and someone new to see.”
Well, it’s not like my travel bug is that difficult to convince. But you already knew that.
The thing about Blues Alley – and my regulars will confirm this – is that it’s located, quite literally, in an alley off North Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown. In my meanderings around Georgetown, I had ended up walking past it twice, before I glanced down the alley next to the sushi place where I just had dinner. Yep, there it was, and immediately, I thought of the old speakeasies, and the way they were hiding in plain sight. One glance inside, and the comparison is all the more apropos: the entire club is exposed brickwork and mahogany. The house lights, even when on, are dimmed, and the atmosphere is a modern look at an old-school concept. For an old-school soul like myself, yep – that’s what home looks like.
Cheikh definitely impressed me from the get-go, and that is because having a show with the electric bass as a lead instrument, balance is key, and he more than had it. If you’ve heard Chieli Minucci on stage, then you know that when he starts up on the electric guitar, he has no trouble overpowering the backing musicians. Karen Briggs on the violin – same. Cheikh clearly had lead on the stage, even though Chieli did indeed let it rip on the electric. The bass was front and center, right on par with the guitar and violin; snappy, a little introspective, and definitely front-and-center.
The others were also showcased on that stage. Scheherazade by Karen Briggs, a lovely deviation on a classic, and Special EFX’s Daybreak, that same bass that had led the game just a few minutes ago would blend into the rhythm on both songs.
One thing to note: Daybreak was pleasantly different last night too, and that is thanks to Lao Tizer. It’s usually a vocal-led song, and I’ve heard it in that variation effectively ever since I had started attending Special EFX shows. But this time, it was piano-led where the vocals would ordinarily be, and I found myself feeling the same warm little tingle down my spine that I felt the very first time I heard this live. Lao gave this song a whole new flavor, and it’s a flavor I should very much like to sample again.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, BB King’s
If you are among my fellow jazzers and you’re not familiar with the band offhand, I recommend that you look up Mr. Pinstripe Suit. You’ll recognize some of the riffs from the Olympics and Carly Patterson’s gold-winning floor routine. You’ll also recognize this band as one of the players of the 90s Swing Revival.
Or, if you’re like me, you’ll see it as a trip right back to the 1940s.
I will say this outright: before I fell ass-over-teakettle in love with contemporary jazz, I had a love of an entirely different music: big-band and swing. I was maybe 10 when I started listening to it, and it was also the time of the Swing Revival, and I caught a rendition of Glenn Miller’s In the Mood. Hooked? Oh, come on, like you have to ask.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was on that radar here and there, but with time, and with a love affair with contemporary jazz, swing receded to the back burner…right up until I saw the BB King’s schedule and saw that they were playing.
This was last week.
You know, BB King’s has a very under-utilized dance floor. It’s a dance floor that I usually see set with tables as part of its usual audience seating plan, but this time, in an anticipation of some people knowing the proper steps to the swing (who were, in fact, hotdoggin’ it on the floor later on), the floor was free.
Out comes Scotty Morris and the band, and I will say this without hesitation: that has to be one of the best horn sections I’ve ever heard. Trombone, two trumpets, a tenor sax and the very seldom heard bari sax – and you’ll find yourself saying only three words: let ‘er rip! But easily, the guys who stole the show were Dirk Shumaker on the upright double bass and backing vocals, who actually went on and spun that bass on its peg like no one’s watching, and Joshua Levy on the keys, who looks like and plays like a very young Dave Brubeck. Scotty may’ve brought Mr. Pinstripe Suit front and center, but between Dirk being Mr. Heatmiser and Andy Rowley on the bari sax, photographing this show fell by the wayside somewhere around Cab Calloway’s Reefer Man. That was somewhere in the first 25 minutes. The rest of the time…well, what else can you do when the music is just begging you to hit the dance floor?
My feet have stopped complaining at me since that show, by the by, but the day after was a lulu.
Life on the Road
Technically, I’m not on the road that much, if you consider the number of days out of the year that I actually pack up and get out of town to catch a show. The thing is, I’ve noticed lately that whenever I see something on the music radar that requires traveling, I immediately think of the tote bag in my closet, and how quickly I can assemble what I need to crash for two nights max. The rest is getting there, exploring, meeting up with people, and whatever else I need.
You’d think it’s ordinary, but not on short notice. I know a lot of people who would be thrown into a panic at the prospect of jumping and getting on a bus, train, or plane within any timeframe less than a month. Me…nope. In fact, the shorter the time, the more I like it.
I’ve been thinking, more and more, of why I keep doing it. What is it about even this moment, where I’m sitting in the back of a Bolt bus, on the free wi-fi network, nursing a soup that I grabbed right before I left Union Station, that holds the appeal? I’ve always known myself to chase adventure and chase jazz, and far as I can tell you, I do it out of love for both. At the same time, I’d love to take a couple of days and stay home and keep putting the apartment to rights.
And yet, if someone told me, “Great show at Warmdaddy’s; grab your camera!”, you and I both know that I will be on the next Philly-bound Bolt bus and booking a room at the cheapest hotel possible as I go.
Still, even in this frenetic chase of music, moments, and memories, there are certain things that give me cause to lean back and simply enjoy it. For instance, right now, the bus is about halfway to NY. The mushroom bisque from Au bon Pain is delicious. Free wi-fi. A fantastic musical high. Pause to reflect on the first two shows of the new year, and the first out-of-state trip of the year that, all in all, didn’t put a massive dent into my budget. And it’s a fabulous way to start off the year.
May the jazz season officially begin.
K.G.
When You Just Have To (Re)Write
January 13th, 2012 Comments Off
My editor and I have a very cool arrangement for how we overhaul my books. She gets a PDF of a chapter, opens it up, rips it into shreds via the markup and highlight tools, then tosses it back to me. Then I pull that PDF side-by-side with its Word-document twin and work it over per her instructions. Some instructions I follow, others I discuss with her. Sometimes, I overhaul it so completely that I have to re-send the entire chapter back to her.
It’s incredibly effective. It’s also the style of editing that I had adopted for my own business clients as well.
The thing is, though, is that I fillet my work before it ever goes to Gayle, and thus, am several chapters ahead. As it so happens, this way I get to see where my book had gone into, and what I have to do to make it an effective story. Gayle gets the refined draft, hardly ever the rough one. This way, I can also correct storyline inconsistencies before the story ever gets to the editor’s desk.
Usually, it’s a pretty smooth process, albeit time-consuming and eye-crossing, like most editing tends to be.
And then you have moments like I had recently, wherein you continue to edit, and then come to the realization that pretty much the entire second half of the book needs a full-scale consistency overhaul, a.k.a. a massive content edit. Or, better put, a rewrite.
…egad.
Rewrites are a funny thing. They’re definitely a step above a conventional copyedit, and are a very necessary thing in most cases. I have said it before and I will reiterate myself: a first draft is a first draft only. Few times, if ever at all, does an author get the novel right on the first go. Chances are, the first go is not the best book in the world, and it is often full of plot holes, bad grammar, and underdeveloped storylines.
Surprise rewrites of the breed that mine had happened to be are a completely different animal, though. They just happen after you had edited through a good portion of your first draft, and are feeling that you can clock through the rest of the manuscript without a major overhaul. It kind of creeps up and bops you over the head, and then you’re surprised and wondering how you can possibly overhaul this much.
You know what the answer to that is? Slowly, and without discarding what you have already.
Granted, I’ve done it before when, upon the initial re-read, the first half of Book 1 had struck me as so cliche that I couldn’t keep it in the book. I’m talking a full-scale I cannot believe I wrote that sort of moment. Thus, I spent the better part of three years rewriting it. It was an interesting deal; I had to work mostly from scratch on that first half, but the scenes that were already there had given root to what it had ended up becoming. For the most part, though, I was writing the entire beginning half all over again.
With Book 4, though, the content is all there, and even in the current state, the action ramps up and cools off at just the right pace. The thing is…it’s a series. And considering that, 1) this would wrap up the first arc, and 2) the second arc is already mostly written, the main purpose of this overhaul is to make it all cohesive. My task is to both wrap up all the loose ends from Books 1-3, and springboard the plot properly into the next arc. Book 5 is its own little set of adventures, and the beautiful thing about Book 5 is, when laid out in Scrivener, all those plot holes hidden in the wall of text that’s usually the end result of novel-writing in Word are suddenly as obvious as spotlights.
This is the approach that I would recommend for attempting the Surprise Rewrite:
- Read the remainder of your story. By this time, it had already sat around for a while, and after you’ve already started the edit, you have a pretty clear idea of where this story is going to go. If you have a look at the rest of your story with your editing framework in mind, you suddenly end up viewing your writing in a much more critical frame of mind.
- Take notes, and lots of ‘em. Whether Post-Its are your poison, the Notes feature on Scrivener had struck your fancy, or you like OneNote from MS Office, you have to take notes. Make them as detailed as you like, but make sure that you will be able to understand them two months after you take them.
- Go slowly. Scene-by-scene, paragraph-by-paragraph, it matters little how you do it, but make sure that you take as much time as possible. As I’ve said before, editing a mass amount of text at the same time can and will make your eyes cross. You can and will get lost in your own story. If you have to rewrite or insert a scene, make sure that that’s all you do for a given block of time. It will, without fail, take you a lot of time to get done this way, but your story quality will be glad for it.
- If you’re straight-out rewriting chunks of your story from scratch, don’t discard the original portions. Don’t. They won’t come in useful just for nostalgia moments, but for future inspiration as well. As I learned the old-fashioned way, you literally have no idea where your next story idea will be coming from. Copy-paste your discarded segments into a separate file, and store it somewhere in your archives. When you have writer’s block some months – if not years – from today, have a read. You never know.
As it is, I have inadvertently started the overhaul earlier today. I touched back onto a couple of points in Book 3 and realized that if I wanted to have a turning point for one of my characters, then that was the perfect way to engineer it. It may cost me half of a dialogue to do it, but it’ll be pretty great.
As far as deadlines, I’ve had a small chat with Ragan Whiteside, a hell of a talent on the flute and a great fan of my books, and realized that, realistically, there was no way to get this done early. So, with that said, the deadline for the release of Book 4 is…my 27th birthday, May 13th, 2012.
I think it’ll be a hell of a way to celebrate.
K.G.
This is a rare political post.
January 11th, 2012 § 4 Comments
(edited for tiny wording correction)
It had to happen. Seriously, with some of the things I’m seeing in the news – and why I resumed watching the news, my blood pressure and I have no idea – if I don’t say something about it, I risk losing my mind completely.
Now look: Obama had caved on several issues important issues, and that was disappointing. But on quite a good lot of them, he had stood firm. He started the Iraq pullout. He got Osama bin Laden. As soon as he had taken office, he had made it clear that he was a pro-choice president and reversed some abortion restrictions that Bush had enacted. He started the progress of, and right now, under that healthcare law, people can actually at least start to get medical care. Hell, even the job market is starting to show signs of life again.
We all know that the Republicans are not okay with what Obama is doing. Actually, no: that’s the biggest understatement of this year, and the year’s only 10 days in. To say that they’re virulently opposed everything that he’s doing – and I mean everything – would be approaching a decent description, but some of the behaviors I’m seeing aren’t even classified as infantile. There’s such a disconnect from reality with those people that I started to question their sanity. They literally have no idea what life is like outside their comfortable bubbles of McMansions, private flights, campaigns, expensive restaurants, etc.
As a preliminary note. I’m glad that Michelle Bachmann is no longer in the race. That woman heeds to return to high school to repeat US History, and maybe then I’ll believe that she has two brain cells to rub together.
And yeah, the Republican party had departed from any sense of conservative and went right into stark raving bat-guano insane. Let me break this down candidate-by-candidate, at least the ones who have even a fighting chance at the nomination.
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Newt Gingrich.
Let’s say it bluntly: he is a complete fucking bastard. I mean, truly. I cannot believe some of the things that had come out of his mouth before, and I’m confident that no one forgot when he had served his wife while she was dying from cancer. What sort of a sociopath does that, I’ll never know, and I have studied sociopaths for years.
This idiot said that he would go to the NAACP convention to discuss the importance of paychecks vs. food stamps and pulls out the “I have black friends, so I’m not racist!” defense. Look, it’s the same effect as someone who’s homophobic touting that they “have gay friends” – sorry, not buying it, and if those people knew your views, they would lose you as a friend, double-time. I’m pretty sure that if Colin Powell had been on hand when those things were said, then he would punch Newt so hard that the jaw would have to be replaced. If there is anything that anyone on public assistance had ever fought against, it was the infamous welfare-queen stereotype perpetuated by Ronald Reagan, a stereotype that is blatantly false, and the absolute last thing anyone wants is to be patronizingly explained why one should want one and not the other. Here’s a hint: no one who is on food stamps wants to be in the situation that requires them to be on food stamps.
Also, I have to ask…why does he assume that welfare recipients are necessarily black? Racial bias, hello there, long time no see. /spit. And recent stats actually turn that little bias on its head.
I’ve also not forgotten his attempt to blame the recession on the unemployed, which I’ve filleted on this blog last year. Again and with feeling: no one who is unemployed wants to be.
Also, his verbalizations on gay marriage make my blood boil. So, per him, gay married couples are only friends. So that thing that they do in the bedroom that the government is mandated to stay out of under Lawrence & Garner v. Texas (2003) is..? Yeah. Last time I checked, the Supreme Court had made it abundantly clear that the government doesn’t belong in people’s bedrooms. Considering Newt’s divorce, I severely doubt that this man has room to open his mouth about marriages, period.
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Ron Paul
Corporatist lackey, but this one doesn’t even make any effort to hide it. One of his popular stances is to eliminate the minimum wage. I’m sorry, what the fuck? Seriously. Are we looking for a comeback of the conditions of the Industrial Revolution era? Just because the people who had survived that time aren’t alive anymore doesn’t mean that it never happened.
He would also absolutely love to eliminate the EPA. Uh, okay…but let’s not forget that fracking is behind the recent spike in Ohio earthquakes. Funny how that never made the news.
Oh, and he wanted to eliminate OSHA. Required reading: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. That book inspired the actual formation of FDA and OSHA, and had also put Teddy Roosevelt, an avid hunter, off meat for some time. I think someone had skipped that in high school English.
Don’t click here if you don’t want your blood to boil with his take on the Civil Rights act. Fair warning.
Also, he went on to say that Social Security is unconstitutional. So to pay into my own safety net is unconstitutional? But it wasn’t unconstitutional when the little money that I paid into Social Security goes out as a government loan/bailout. Gee, funny how that works.
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Mitt Romney
Ah, Mittens. The guy who freely admits that he enjoys firing people, and we all know that he was so gung-ho for blocking the extension of unemployment benefits that he wouldn’t have given a damn for a government shutdown.
Also: Bain Capital had bankrupted one-quarter of the companies that it had invested in. Bain would leverage them with debt, then walk away with profits, while the company would crash and burn. In the world of business, this is known as a parasite. This isn’t free enterprise. This is leeching. I loathe leeches. Moreover, Bain Capital had received a bailout. So in other words, not only did he leech off other people’s money, but he leeched off the taxpayers’ money as well.
I also have zero tolerance for bullshit artists who can’t even keep up their own lies. European society and safety nets create more poverty? How? By actually taking care of their citizens? And how many people die in France because they couldn’t get to the doctor in time to catch that lethal cancer? Zero. Shock, horror, people there are taken care of! And oh, the Netherlands are closing their prisons because there’s not enough criminals. Of course, European society is soooo awful.
And I just found out about the dog incident. Intro to Criminal Justice class: the first identifier of a sociopath is harming animals. No person who will do harm to an animal should ever come to the White House, point blank. Do you want to know what animal abusers grow into? No? Good, you don’t want to know.
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Rick Santorum
First of all, Google what “Santorum” means. Let the jokes write themselves.
Now consider that this guy is a full-scale hypocrite.
He’s so anti-abortion that he is keen on criminalizing the process altogether. But never mind the fact that his own wife had to have a procedure done to save her life that classifies as “partial birth abortion” (a total fallacy of a term, just FYI; either it’s a birth or it’s an abortion). So the only moral abortion is the one in his family? So that mother of three kids who can’t afford to become a mother of four, or a teenage girl who doesn’t want to birth her uncle’s baby is an amoral harlot who should be in prison, but his wife is scot-free? Sorry. Can’t have it both ways.
The fact that he and his wife had brought the deceased fetus home to dress it up, sleep with it, and to have the kids say goodbye to it is, I’m sorry, sick. While I know that people grieve differently, and that it’s definitely normal to want to, say, photograph in the event of a child death, there is no reason to traumatize the children with it. If this was any other family, social services would be called immediately. No exception here, but oh wait, he’s a politician.
A complete racist, to boot, and spouting about Obama’s “elitism” for wanting all kids to go to college. While I’m not a fan of forced attendance, I find Obama’s sentiment admirable, because a lot of the high-school grads who want to go to a good school are unable to because they can’t afford it. And about cutting welfare as a Christian value? Now look, I’m an evil, amoral atheist and all, but I’m damn sure that the Bible made it abundantly clear to give to the poor, not the other way around. Just this thing called reading comprehension talking.
—
Oh, there’s more.
First of all, last time I checked, death threats are illegal. I don’t give a damn if you’re using the Bible to do it, it’s still a death threat. I would love for some men in suits with stern faces to knock on this guy’s door.
Secondly, about Michelle, and making the slur an immediate follow-up to the fauxpology. WHAT. You can’t even apologize for the fact that you acted like an asshole without making yourself look like an even bigger asshole?
Thirdly, Bush had spent more time on vacation in his first two years than Obama in his entire term, and you don’t see people bitching about that, do you? What about all the Republicans who had used the taxpayers’ dollars to send to their mistresses? Gay escorts? Oh, I have a long memory, believe you me, and it seems like every scandal involving a prostitute or a closet has to do with a Republican. Jim McGreevey seems to be the only normal person in politics who had come out of the closet in the past two decades.
I will make no bones of it: the Republican Party candidates are insane. Stark-raving, bat-guano, no functioning firing synapses in cranium insane. They will do absolutely anything to make sure that their financial gain will remain secured and that their equally rich friends will continue to have money to hand over to them, never mind where that money comes from. The environment, poor people’s backs, safety net money – doesn’t matter who gets hurt by their greed, they will keep pushing until they’re making like Scrooge McDuck and taking a swim in the treasury, while everyone and everything else be damned. Doesn’t matter that the climate is changing, doesn’t matter that there is an increase in natural disasters, as long as the treasury is full, right?
I have no idea when this sort of callous, sociopathic disregard for the outside world became the norm, but I am sickened to the core that those people are 1. on a national platform, and 2. broadcasting their virulent misogyny, racism, homophobia, and greed for the world to see with little to no repercussion. It wasn’t too long ago when expressing that sort of rhetoric would be warrant enough to get you torn to shreds in every medium, and quoting a Bible verse that Kansas Republican had quoted in regards to Pres. Obama would be cause for a visit from gentlemen with stern faces and crisp suits.
Really. Is the racism of the GOP so pervasive and virulent that, when the first black President had taken office, that it suddenly became par for the course for all the middle-aged white men who never got over the Civil Rights Act to spew out their verbal diarrhea?
Because really, that’s all I’m seeing here in the GOP primaries. A bunch of middle-aged white men who never got over the 1950s, who got rich and want to stay that way at the cost of anyone and anything. Bankrupt Social Security so that the elderly will have nowhere to go? Cut the minimum wage for a return into the sweatshops of the Industrial Revolution? Whatever works, right?
I find it disgusting. And I find it even more disgusting that they’re calling themselves Christian. I’m sorry, no. I’ve read the New Testament, and you can’t convince me one whit that Jesus had thought even anything remotely like those people. I can only wonder what he would say/do if he were around to see this sort of mess. Bloody hell, I’m not a Christian, and I have more compassion in my toe than those people have collectively.
–
For the record? I’m a progressive liberal and unashamed of it, and absolutely refuse to vote for any candidate less educated and intelligent than myself. I am not party-affiliated, nor will I ever be. I am pro-choice, pro-regulation, pro-union, pro-Net Neutrality, pro-social safety nets, and pro-universal healthcare. And I will not hide that for a split second.
I also don’t post about politics very often, but this had gotten to me to the degree that my blood pressure had been spiking whenever I would turn on the news, and that means that it has to come out somewhere.
I don’t post political stuff often, and I hope that it’s the last time I will for a while. But really, enough is too much.
K.G.
January 10th, 2012 Comments Off
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