Improvisations on Reality

…you forget everything else.

Now, you may have had your own experience with it, or you may have had friends who talk about it. But one way or the next, sometimes you get caught up in the phenomenon of being excited about your work, so excited that you forget everything else. Sleep included.

Like right now. You can say I am very much In The Zone.

I got out of work at almost 9pm, pulling through a grueling day; tax season is in very full swing at the moment and it’s taking the wind out of me. But through lunch, and as soon as I got out of work, I had beelined right to Revival, because the part that I have been steadily plugging away at and had lost sleep over is easily the most exciting part of the book. I can’t tell you which one, because it would spoil a good lot. But let me just put it this way: if only there would be a director brave enough to take it to the silver screen. I cannot believe that I wrote this. And I’m saying that in a good way.

I cannot even begin to tell you just how much sleep I had lost so far. The other night, I had been so caught up that I had edited straight into 2am, and I still don’t know just how I was so perky and alert at work. Last night, I went to bed kind of early, but today I was wrecked. My sleep patterns are dead in the water.

But all I can think of is that scene, that book, that story.

Releasing a book is always exciting. Even if it isn’t your first, there’s still that little thrill of satisfaction that says, I wrote this. I did this. But when you’re wrapping up an arc in a series, this excitement takes a whole different connotation. Excited doesn’t come close to covering just how I feel about releasing the 4th book in The Index. It’s just…overwhelming. I’m wrapping up all the open points in Book 1 that had left readers confused. I am touching back on parts of Book 2 that people thought were slowing down, and putting that volume into an entirely new light of relevance. And what Book 3 had started to expose, Book 4 takes and blows into the open. And it is exciting. It’s also feeling as though you have created an entirely new something. This drives it home for me: I wrote a series, and I’m about to wrap up a portion of it.

It’s something that I have wanted to do since I was a kid, and this is the most excited I’ve been since the first proof had arrived onto my desk in 2009. I still remember that proof, and had kept it: 600+ pages of something that desperately needed a layout change, a red pen taken to it, but it was my book, and the sense of accomplishment knew no comparison. It’s kind of similar with this book, but the accomplishment is on a grander scale. Instead of just one book, I have four. Instead of the start to a series, I have a complete arc, a package of books.

Someone asked me if I plan on being the next JK Rowling. The answer is no, for the simple reason that there’s only one JK Rowling. But I plan on continuing my series, and continuing it well into the next decade or two. Even if it doesn’t do as well as I would like it to do, I would love for it to achieve a level of success similar to Rowling, but above all, I want to keep writing it.

It’s moments like these, when I’m at home, after a grueling day of work, and happy as a clam only because I have my book in front of me, and editing it is no longer a chore but instead one of the best delights of my day, I cannot even tell you how glad I am that I had never listened to anyone who had ever told me not to bother writing.

Moments like these remind me that I was born to write.

And release is soon…in two months!

In the meanwhile, show some love – grab a copy on Amazon! Kindle or paperback. Book 1 is free if you’re a Prime member.

K.G.

John Gorman of the Paper Cut blog had decided to catch up with me. Last time I interviewed for that blog (link in the sidebar), I had just released Book 1. Now, I’m working on Book 4. How time has flown!

Read here.

In between working and sleeping with my eyes open (if those aren’t the same thing by now), I’ve caught a glimpse of a blog topic by Ileandra: write about your greatest fear.

This is a pretty interesting thing to think about, because what we fear changes with time. When I was a kid, I was scared of the stray German Shepherd who decided to make our building doorway her home. That dog did not like people very much, even though she responded to commands, and the only memory I have of her was when she was trying to bite my arm when I was maybe 4. I’ve grown out of that fear, largely because I’ve met all sorts of dogs who did not act the way that she had.

Later on, especially after my blood family had decided to pack bags and leave to NYC, I’ve developed a fear of having my home yanked out from under me; a natural consequence of a major move. It’s also something that I had grown out of in time, although I am pretty hard-pressed to leave NYC unless I absolutely have to, apart from traveling. Traveling is something that I love passionately.

But now, especially now that I’ve had an established job for a while, and after I’ve jumped over the hurdle of book-writing and book-publishing, I have to delve a little deeper to find what my fear is now, because I’ve either grown out of or dealt with my previous fears. I’m an animal lover, including temperamental German Shepherds, and have handled a boa constrictor (yes, I’m serious; my friend’s red-tailed boas are quite beautiful). I’ve survived a major move and hadn’t had my home uprooted since, excepting the times I had to move of my own choice. I’ve gotten on a plane by myself. I’ve driven by myself. I’ve tried unfamiliar foods, and rather liked them. I’ve done a great many things alone. All of those were things that I was scared of on some level, but all of them feasible once I had actually stepped forward and done them.

However, the one thing that stands out as something I’m genuinely scared of has to be losing the sense of who I am. My greatest fear is to not be able to be myself, especially considering my accomplishments in the past five years.

I have my own business despite the day job, I’ve published three books, self-publishing before it had caught on in the public eye, and I have been teaching myself photography very steadily. I traveled, often at risk to myself. Most importantly, I’ve done it despite people telling me that it couldn’t be done, and the biggest reason I kept at doing all these things was because of a dogged, stubborn determination to prove everyone around me wrong.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m stubborn. Few people can deal with that little personality trait of mine. I have locked horns with one of my clients on an edit – and ended up overriding him not just because the edit was the proper thing to do, but in equal parts because he knew very well that I was not going to give up until he had done as I said. I’ve locked horns with several people in the course of my writing, and crucially, I have gone out of my way to lock horns with people who said the little words of, “It isn’t possible and can’t be done.”

Oh yeah? Watch me.

That’s my motto, and that is one of my defining traits. My greatest fear is that I will lose the bits that make me, well…me. The stubbornness, the artistic inclinations, the almost nonstop writing itch, the Photo Eye, and the computer nerdiness. I can’t lose any of that, because for quite a good, long time, I have been trying to get comfortable in the skin that all of these things comprise. After getting to the point where I did get comfortable in my creative skin, the last thing I ever want is to be shoehorned into anything other than who I am.

Besides, I got more books to write. The Index Series is plotted out through Book 14, at least. Can’t do it if I’m not me. :)

K.G.

So apparently someone found me by Googling “kg creative writing my best toy”. Wha-huh? Okay.

Now. It’s March in New York City, it’s pushing at the corporate tax deadline, so this is coming to you on a very quick tea break, because lunch has become something I work through. Phone just doesn’t stop ringing, and paper just doesn’t stop flying at this time of year in my world.

So! Onwards to the news du jour in writing, my series, the world…you get the idea.

I’m not keeping an eye too closely on sales right now, and I have realized that Goodreads also has e-book uploads available. I have messaged them and asked them to take down Book 1′s e-book upload.

Now. Considering that I’m effectively ceasing distribution of Book 1 through any medium other than Kindle and print, if you have a Nook and would like to read the first book in the series, per KDP Select terms of service, I can’t distribute it through electronic means other than Amazon for 90 days. Kindle has computer-ready reading apps for every operating system, so please download. Google “Kindle for PC” or “Kindle for Mac” and enjoy. Kindle comes in app form for your mobile device of choice too. After the 90 days, please contact me directly; I’ll be able to take a look at the TOS and tell you for sure when/if I can re-release Book 1 for Nook. I will not go back to Smashwords, and I will explore iBook uploads at a later point as well.

I won’t be able to keep an eye on the numbers in KDP Select much either, damned tax season… But I’ll keep everyone who’s reading posted on how it goes. Part of me is debating pulling the entire series off Nook and enrolling it, but first let’s see how March pans out.

The first prototype for the cover. Image copyright (c) Marion Meadows, used with permission.

Now! I’ve been noodling around with the prototypes for the cover of Book 4. Jenna is working on the character art that will comprise part of the wraparound, but I have yet to see what’ll unfold. I do know one thing: Marion Meadows’s scenery artwork knows no comparison. Case in point, have a glimpse at the first prototype…and I will likely keep it as the main cover, and work around it with the character art.

The fonts may change, and I definitely want some characters in there. Jenna, however, rocks that bit, and I got a glimpse, via email, of what to expect for one of the characters of whom it can be said that she is much-maligned.

The other thing is, I’m trying a new style with the font. Considering that The Index is so named because it’s a collection of the characters’ stories, I had always delineated them with Book 1, Book 2, etc. This time, I’m showing the number in the series by background Roman numerals, and I think I will carry this style forward to the second arc. It’s a little more…I won’t quite say grown up, but it’s definitely a step up from the previous version.

This brings me to the marketing angle of all of this. The postcards that had done a great job with Book 3? I will recreate them with this cover image, and harness the QR codes for sales purposes. If I can, somehow, miraculously, turn this around before Newport Beach, I will be good for maybe, hopefully, turning a good sales number for the launch.

Now, far as the launch…

Ladies and gentlemen, this one is for you: if you would like to beta read/review Book 4, please let me know privately. You may do so via Facebook, Twitter Direct Messaging, email, or a comment to this blog. I won’t be able to give you an e-book as a pre-release, but I will happily give you a PDF. Please keep in mind that the rewrite/edit is ongoing, and it may be a while until you receive the file. But if I can at least know who’s interested, that would be great. And remember: post your review, whether on your blog, the Amazon page for the book, or Goodreads.

Also! If there will be opportunity, I am thinking of engineering a blog tour for the launch. Again, if you’d like to have me, just message me.

I will have some copies for giveaway, and if financial opportunity allows (because the promo copies from CreateSpace, though cheap, still cost money), I am thinking of holding giveaways for the entire first arc set. Four books, ladies and gents, and it is a story that has been my heart and soul for the past six years. Additionally, Jenna has told me that she wants to re-do the covers for Books 1 and 2, so there’s a pretty good chance that the covers that you will see on those two books will be wholly different from the covers that you see in Amazon right now.

Man, this is…happening. Holy crap, I have a book series, and I’m about to launch another one, aren’t I…

Major, major, major thanks to Marion Meadows (yes, the same guy who plays the sax, in case anyone wonders) for letting me use his artwork for my books. It’s truly stellar. He also dabbles pretty heavily in photography, and you can buy his 2012 calendar, featuring various shots taken in Hawaii, right here. Warning: will not be held responsible for anyone’s urge to drop money on a flight to Maui. (and yes, I almost did that, until I balked at the price. Dammit!!!)

Also, I should perhaps mention that the bulk of this has been written in November of 2009, when I boarded a plane and ended up in Montego Bay, Jamaica, with Warren Hill and the rest of the Jammin’ in Jamaica attendees. This festival/music retreat had not repeated since, which I am quite sad about, because…the Ritz-Carlton resort in Montego Bay defies the definition of beautiful. And I have to thank Warren for organizing that one event, because I was able to win NaNoWriMo 2009 while gazing at a beautiful beach.

As far as the anthology – I’m now wondering. If I submit any of the short stories to magazines and online publications, would I still be able to publish them in the antho? Maybe?

I’m also starting to wonder if the Haunted Nightclub series I have been thinking about is even feasible. I do not want it to come off as fanfiction (because really, I’m WAY past that age), but I definitely see it happening in a surreal, dream-sequence-type of story. I just really don’t want to cross certain lines in a story like this, because it will obviously feature and concern some real individuals (though deceased). So…yes, time for me to do some thinking, and some planning.

Oh, and… Gayle is writing a small side-story to Book 3. :) Its start is hilarious, and I cannot wait to see what she had cooked up after Jason and Kai have their initial repartee.

Until next time…

K.G.

You know, it was bound to happen.

Thinking on my post about Amazon, and the new “developments” by Barnes and Noble, I can’t help but think twice about the distributions for my books.

Quite obviously, Amazon is coming up with better, bolder innovations for the self-pubs, regardless of their level of success. They’re coming up with better ways to work all. the. time. Barnes and Noble, conversely, seems to be grasping at the old norm of a Big 6 publisher and a brick-and-mortar store as The Best Distribution, which completely doesn’t reconcile with reality or current trends.

As it were, I enrolled Mages in KDP Select. I have three months to see how it will do, and then I will decide if the others will follow suit. The thing is, though, by now I’m pretty confident that it will end up working out for the best.

So you know what? I’m putting my eggs into the Amazon basket. B&N is shooting itself in the foot with a devastating effect, and if they roll out something else that puts a cramp into the self-publishing and e-book style, then they will find themselves going the way of Borders.

So, if you feel like getting your hands on a copy of my first book, which I will admit has its own foibles, then it’s right here: http://amzn.to/A6gMhw

Secrets and Lineage will follow suit if Mages pans out well enough.

Enjoy!

K.G.

Before I begin: I cannot wait until the election is over. The news in politics are starting to give me a headache. (I know, starting? gah)

All political brouhaha aside, I have to sound off about Barnes and Noble.

What are they doing?

No, really. Far be it from me to speak ill of one of my distributors, but right now I’m wondering if B&N wants to go bankrupt.

First things first, they had stopped carrying Amazon-imprinted books in their brick-and-mortar stores (google it, please, on account that my link to this seems to be in the ether) and I’m written a post on the subject of that already. But now, I found out that they’re cutting the amount of money that affiliates get with e-book sales.

B&N, seriously, are you trying to go out of business?

This is the thing. As I’ve stated previously, eliminating Amazon-imprint books from the brick-and-mortar stores, B&N is sending a message to self-pubs with hard copies that they’re not going to be welcome. The Nook has an excellent number of affiliated e-stores, and this is a nice little message that discourages affiliates from listing Nook versions of their material. The affiliates make their money by taking a percentage of the sale due to their role in supplying the material and driving traffic to the storefront. So if there’s less of a cut to affiliates, there’s less of an incentive for an affiliate to drive traffic, and consequently, less of an incentive for the affiliates to host or link to e-material for Nook.

Now, affiliate cut is something that is worked into the trad-pub contract before the book goes to print. PubIt contracts would have a clause. Amazon has the same clause exactly, because it thrives on affiliates.

But to reduce the cut, and therefore reduce the incentive to host Nook content, is the exactly wrong thing for B&N to do.

Look, no one wants a monopoly, and Amazon is quickly leading the way in the e-book market. B&N is dragging its heels, clearly, and has made more than one bad decision in a row. So far, they’ve shown their back to indies by nixing Amazon-imprint hard copies (CreateSpace is a very popular print-on-demand press, and it’s an Amazon-owned company), and now they’re shooting their digital platform in the foot. The Nook is pretty damn popular, just as popular as Kindle, and if material becomes less available, then what do you have? Reduced exposure. As a result of which, the author loses out, whether indie or trad pub. Because seriously, if a publisher sees that there’s less money to be made in a market, would they go into that market? HELL NO.

B&N, you did something very, very stupid. Considering that the e-book sales are on the rise – although 85% of the book market is still dominated by print – the last thing you want to do is limit those sales.

As I said before, Amazon had done nothing but embrace indie authors and e-books with open arms, and it paid off but good. E-books alone have paid off for Amazon to last them for a damn long time, and they have already established themselves in the marketplace as a storefront and a distribution engine. B&N, which also has a long-established reputation in the book world, should know better than to alienate its affiliates, who happen to be its customers as well. What’s the best way to lose business? Piss off the customers. And B&N is doing exactly that.

And, in light of this, and after a chat with my editor, I have removed Book 1 from Nook and Smashwords for the next 90 days, and have enrolled it in KDP Select. For 90 days, I will get to see how it does in the KDP Select world, and if it works out, then the other books will follow suit. I feel a lot more secure in doing this now, after B&N had been pulling this crap, because I know for a given that Amazon will continue rolling out innovations for e-publishing for a long time to come. Amazon is the dominant market, and will remain that way. I go where the best opportunities are.

Book 1 sold here: http://amzn.to/yBvVgl

K.G.

There has been a lot of brouhaha on the Web about Amazon.com lately, and the entire Amazon vs. B&N thing. I’ll likely elaborate more on this later on, but now’s a good time for a quick sound-off.

Best post on the subject so far is from J.A. Konrath, who is a self-published powerhouse, and whose posts I find particularly insightful.

Amazon isn’t eliminating the competition. Just the opposite, it’s encouraging it. The only problem is, the competition is a little bit more stalwart about changing with the times. Amazon had rolled out one innovation after another, and so far, they had a smashing success with it. Go ahead, call it a monopoly, but let me ask you this: how quickly did the Kindle go from a Netbook-sized monochrome e-ink screen to the Fire version? Within three years. So effectively, just as soon as it came out, Amazon was already on the case of how to improve it.

Look: self-publishing and e-publishing is the new future of books. One way or another, that is the case. Take it or leave it. You can have the paper copies, they won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, but this is the new revolution in the readership medium. The Big 6 publishing companies are either slow to acknowledge this fact, or are playing ostrich by sticking their heads into a mountain of manuscripts in their slush piles, and their business practices and accounting alike are stuck in the same phase that they in were thirty years ago. Since advertising for books had gone online and social media-oriented, the publishing house sees no incentive to advertise the books, because they figure that hey, the author is already on the Internet and socializing, so they can do the work. There is a growing lack of follow-through with advertising and marketing on the trad-pub end, which both the author and publisher rely on for sales.

Also, let me just say that if a publisher can afford to get an office on 6th avenue and 49th Street (Simon & Schuster, I’m looking at you here) across from Radio City Music Hall, then believe me, they can afford to give their authors an advance that is above the $15K threshold. Why are the advances so pitiful for authors? Is it because the publisher already knows that the book they’re issuing an advance for is probably never going to sell past their expectations unless it might get a movie adaptation? Or is it because the publisher thinks that the author’s cut is less important?

Also, why is it so damn long to release a book in traditional publication? Up to a year, year and a half? Two years? Come the hell on. Formatting to template, sending the files to the printers, getting the cover art on – all of those are one-time jobs. Altogether, from start to finish, it took me maybe three hours to get the entire book formatting to the way I wanted it to appear, upload it to CreateSpace, and let them print it. Three hours. I know that the bulk of the publication process is editing, but I cannot think of any reason that it would take this long, unless the publisher’s idea of what the book should be greatly differs from the author’s vision, which is a whole other post altogether. My editor is a pro, and despite other obligations, she and I bang out a full-scale book edit in six months at the longest.

So. Lackluster advances. Delays on publication. Lack of marketing. And some won’t even offer an e-book version until there have been some sales of the paperbacks. What, exactly, in this day and age, is the benefit of traditional publication?

The thing is, Amazon had offered a very real, very viable alternative with Kindle and publishing through KDP. B&N followed suit with Nook and PubIt. Borders followed through with Kobo. Smashwords offered a one-stop self-pub shop for all other e-book versions. Moreover, though, Amazon has CreateSpace, which is a print-on-demand service. Then there’s Lulu, also a POD. Then there’s iUniverse, which is an expensive but worth-its-money vanity press. Why do I say it’s worth the money? Because it spends a lot of time on developing the author as a brand and as a businessperson, as opposed to just taking the money, printing the books, grabbing the distribution rights, and having done. In other words? Amazon embraced self-publishers with open arms, and gave them a much-needed medium for book distribution.

Borders didn’t do the same. Their e-reader popularity was lackluster compared to that of the Kindle and Nook. Borders went bankrupt.

B&N introduced PubIt!, which opens up the door to a self-publishing medium, but would not carry paperbacks from self-pubs. Then it dug in the heels and said that if there is an Amazon impression on the cover, it wouldn’t be stocked in stores, which is a nice way of saying that CreateSpace-printed POD books aren’t welcome.

That decision was a massive screw-up on B&N’s part. Why? Because they have just alienated a source of revenue.

Self-published authors want one thing above all: distribution. Small bookstores are that much more likely to stock self-pubs, especially local self-pubs, but B&N had driven a lot of those small bookstores out of business. In other words, they shrunk the distrib options for self-pubs, from whom they could’ve otherwise gotten a very healthy cut of revenue. Self-pub authors are only continuing to grow in numbers, and more trad-pub authors are finding it more profitable to either self-publish or change to a small, independent press, which does not follow the same model of operations as a Big 6. Why in the world would B&N not work with the very people who are, effectively, responsible for the revenue of both the publisher and the distributor? From a purely business standpoint, what they’re doing makes no sense. Amazon, however, is only opening their doors to the self-pubs and saying, “Thank you very much.”

What else is Amazon doing? Rolling out an e-book library. Its sister company, CreateSpace, killed the Pro plan and only charges for expanded distribution, while giving all the authors working with them the perks of the Pro plan. Improving the Kindle further, to where the Fire may be an alternative to Apple’s iPad. Hell, there are Kindle apps for pretty much every mobile device that you have. In other words, Amazon is taking their distribution platform and improving it, and most of all, they do not alienate the people who may bring them more revenue, that is to say, self-pubs. In fact, Amazon is the first stop for self-pubs.

Whose fault is it, really, that B&N is more concerned with staying within the same comfort zone of trad-pub-first? Definitely not Amazon’s. They’re thinking like innovators, and they’re reaping those results first.

Frankly, I’m sticking with them. Not quite sure about KDP Select, still, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

K.G.

In taking a very small break from the gamut of politics – and unfortunately, there will be plenty more strongly-worded posts from me about it; it’s an election year and I will not think myself a good citizen if this country goes Republican in 2012 – I have to remind myself that yes, there are Things To Do.

I have been noodling at an article for Wine and Jazz, which is way overdue, and touches on the new experience of a wine festival that I had. There’s another one in the making, actually, at the Hilton Short Hills in NJ, and I’m thinking of making the trip. The only problem…time.

The anthology, which has been poking at my mind for a long time, is still slated for a Christmas release. I need to start gathering content, and maybe write the first of the Haunted Club shorts. Zanzibar Blue in Philly’s about to make a small comeback (yes, I’m aware it’s closed…bear with me here).

Book 4 of The Index is still in heavy progress, and though I’ve been seriously behind (for good reason, dammit), I’ve made some progress in finishing out Chapter 10. The rewrite isn’t much of one, really, but it’s adding certain elements that I’ve been able to spot in retrospect, and it’s doing my work a load of good.

Now, for the reason that I’ve been this delayed in everything.

Tax season.

In case you’re new to this blog, or you simply hadn’t heard me mention it, I have a day job. I kind of have to, because while my book royalties are enough to get me a decent steak dinner once in a blue moon, I am not making a living off the book sales. I’m hoping to make a living off of them one day, but for now, I work a day job. On the resume and from 9am until the cows come home, I’m an administrat0r at an accounting firm, and I do everything from billing and accounts-payable to actual tax-prep and bookkeeping. Basically, if you send your stuff to a CPA firm, chances are that the return starts and finishes in the hands of someone like me.

During tax season, I barely have the time to breathe, and I’m sure that if  I have your cell number, then you probably already got a phone call where I sound like death warmed over from exhaustion. The only way I have the chance to type up an entry is either over breakfast on a coffee break, or during lunch (and there’s no guarantee that said lunch will take place during actual lunchtime).

Yes, it’s a difficult job. I work in a small office, part of a staff of 7 people, and we have a hell of a lot of accounts to wade through and prep. Thankfully, we can file extensions in March and April, else…well, yeah.

So do pardon if there’s a lack of cohesive, informative, writing-related posts from me for a bit, because for the love of world’s finest Brie, I’m starting to forget what a good night’s sleep feels like. But the muse has been biting, and it’s been biting all the more because of the stress. By the time that tax season comes to a close, I will have a good amount of stories and plotlines to flesh out, and not just as a part of The Index.

Also, since when does WordPress auto-correct? Seriously; when I italic-underline something, I expect it to stay that way.

Yeah, the next couple of months will be a little crazy for me, more so because I have to actually start putting some serious planning behind Book 4. As a wrap-up of the first arc of the series, it finishes up the plotline with a bang, ties up the loose ends, and leaves enough to springboard right into Arc 2. I have a cover design in mind, and have to chase down my artists – yes, plural – and have to put some consideration into reworking a lot of what I previously had in mind for the second arc as well. This will be a very madcap year for me as a writer, to be sure, and once these two months, March and April, are hurdled over, then I will be OK and will work on the other things through May and June. July and August are Spirit months, and I will have my hands full on the boat. :)

Two things, though:

1. Have to renew my passport. It ain’t cheap. I mean…it REALLY ain’t cheap.

and

2. My trip to CA is likely not going to happen.

Last year, I went out to the Newport Beach Jazz Festival, which was a fabulous event, and I got to meet my beloved friends across the country. It was a great time, but I just honestly cannot afford it this year. Hell, if I really think about it? I’m still paying back last year’s travel expenses. I am looking at the costs of the trip to CA this year, and thinking that, fiscally, it is just not prudent. Unless someone is willing to Paypal me enough money to cover the expenses of the trip, or my boss pays out the first segment of my overtime (of which I already accrued more than enough), it is just not a good idea for me to overdo it in traveling. It’s $1,200 that I really can’t spare at this moment, even in credit cards. I have more than enough credit card debt now.

On the good bit about it, the money I will save by not going to CA will go right into renewing my passport. Which, honestly, I have to do one way or the other, because CapJazz in October REQUIRES it as travel documentation. So guess who really wants to ensure she goes on at least one vacation? This girl!

K.G.

Happy February 14th!

Note I’m using the date, not the fact of what “holiday” it marks. I don’t acknowledge Valentine’s Day as a real holiday, because frankly, it’s just a farce perpetuated by Hallmark and anyone else who benefits from the social pressure to buy, buy, buy for your Valentine. For one day, you buy or receive a card, chocolates, go out to dinner…and none of this is something that you can’t do on any other day. What, precisely, stops people from showing their loves ones how much they’re loved on any of the other 364 days in the year?

Two words: absolutely nothing.

“But it’s special!” you may say.

Okay, tell me how. Tell me exactly how or why one day on the calendar is different than any other day for showing someone that they’re loved.

The way I see it – and again, that’s just me – but if you want to celebrate something, make sure that it actually means something to the person you’re celebrating it with. Valentine’s Day is a day on the calendar and while to some people it does mean something, to others, it’s a lot less significant than, say, the day you actually met the person. And what would mean more to you: a day on the calendar or the day you actually realized you were in love? Because that day doesn’t necessary coincide with the calendar-marked excuse to spend exorbitant amounts of money on candy, flowers, and trinkets.

Quite personally, if I were not single, I would rather celebrate the day that I met that person. Or go to the place where I felt the best with that person. A particular day that stands out in my memory is March 24th; it has a special significance to me, not romantic, but it’s the anniversary of a very personal Good Thing – and to me, that carries a lot more meaning than if someone were to come to my workplace with a dozen roses.

Not that I don’t love roses, but I would rather get them on any other day but today.

Seriously, let’s have a little perspective. If you do love someone, show them – but show them in a way that’s other than doing what’s socially prescribed on a day in mid-February. Believe you me, it’ll carry a hell of a lot more meaning to your loved one than if you just did what’s expected of you.

K.G.

Inspired by a similar post by J.W. Manus, found here. 

Okay. By a show of hands, how many people reading this blog write genre fiction? Or, basically, anything that doesn’t fall into the umbrella of contemporary literary fiction? Very good. Now how many of you have heard the phrase, “Why don’t you write a real book? No one wants to read [the genre you write].”

You know, your sales figures beg to differ by the simple fact that they exist, but we all know that saying about opinions and body orifices.

Let me be the first to admit that I don’t normally read romance novels or “chick lit”. I’ve yet to find a single chick-lit novel that I don’t put down within the first ten minutes because the writing doesn’t grab me or the plot is so formulaic that Hollywood had made a killing off it. I like historic fiction with romance elements – I very much enjoy Philippa Gregory’s writing style – but modern romance fiction? Honestly, no. My mother reads it, and I tried to, but I found it, again, formulaic and somewhat flat. I do not like it.

Does it mean I don’t consider romance a real genre? No. Absolutely not. It is a genre every bit as real as anything else, but it’s just not something I like to read on a regular basis. If someone recommends me a book, I”ll give it a shot, but if I don’t like it, I’ll let the person recommending it know.

Now, you know I write sci-fi. Now, I also read it on a fairly regular basis, because some of the authors who had asked me to read their NaNoWriMo novels are brilliant. Kevin O. McLaughlin’s books are beyond good. I found a great vampire fiction novelist in S.R. Torris, whose book is both gripping in its suspense and very thorough in its research. And, of course, I write mine. And I heard it all. “Why don’t you go write a real book?” “Who wants to read about that?” “Why didn’t you do X, Y, and Z in the first book? Now no one will want to read 2 or 3.” “Why are you self-published? It’s not a ‘real’ book.”

Ladies and gents, let me drop a little truth on you. It may be a little unexpected, but I think that it’s something that you have to hear. Ready?

There’s no such thing as a “real book” because all books, regardless of their quality or genre, are real by the simple virtue of having been written. 

I mean, let’s face it. We don’t have zombie books on the shelf, right?

Going back to my old post, Stigmas in Self-Publishing, I will reiterate that most qualifications for a real book are bunk. The distinction of whether or not a book is actually good – that is so subjective that one person’s, “Don’t waste your time writing this trash and write some real books” is about as relevant as the buzzing of a mosquito, and just like a mosquito, it can get squashed pretty damn fast. I find books interesting based on the plot and the quality of writing, and sometimes, one outbalances the other. Caroline B. Cooney, the YA author, had written a few books that I thought were brilliant because of their plot. But there was one book, the title of which I don’t remember, where I found the plot to be very lacking, and unusual for Cooney. But I read it, and enjoyed it. Why? Because Cooney’s style is addictive. I can re-read her brand of YA at 26 and be just as engrossed as I was when I was 15. However, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings? I tried reading it. Believe me, I did.  But the books were not well-written at all, at least in my opinion, and I put them down – never to pick them back up again.

The distinction of one genre being somehow “better” than another is, in my personal opinion, imaginary. I know it’s in human nature for people to judge, but there’s a massive difference between judging on merit (Is the book written well? Can I conceivably read more by the same author?) and judging on something that’s simply the person’s opinion about genre, which is so very often based on complete inexperience with the genre. If you hadn’t read urban fantasy, or steampunk, or romance, or horror – how do you know that you don’t like it? And most people believe, rather erroneously, that the lack of exposure gives them the right to dictate the superiority of one genre above the other, as though the authors of said genre genuinely give half a whit about their opinion or their imagined superiority complex.

Fact is, every genre has its following, and for as long as there’s a following, there will be authors willing to provide material. It doesn’t devalue the genre one way or the other or make it less than any other genre out there.

But what about all those chestnuts that we authors hear? Well, I do have a couple of comebacks, and yes, I use them often.

“Why don’t you write about X or Y?” – Why can’t you write it, if you think you know how?

“Science fiction (or some other genre) isn’t real!” – Please inform Barnes & Noble, then, then because they have a whole mess of that genre in stock…and it’s selling.

“Self-published authors don’t write real books!” – So those things on my bookshelf are zombies?  (yes, I used that, more than once. Goes over like a lead balloon, but…)

And most importantly? Keep writing. You know your story, and you know how to tell that story.

K.G.