A long slow return to blogging

I went blog-silent in December.

No particular reason, I just didn't have anything interesting, or note worthy to post about. Toward the end of the month, I did get my Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN), which means that Nora is now up on Amazon. There are other spots on the Internet that provide a detailed explanation as to how to obtain an ITIN, but I might add my own two cents if nothing better to write about pops up.

I worked on a new story in December, a pure romance about the circus. It's mostly done, just half of the last chapter left to go, but now I'm a bit stumped as to what to do with it. Correction, last night I decided that my heroine, Beth, needed a better resolve, so it'll be another chapter or two before I'm done. I'd like to send it to Entangled Publishing (they expressed interest in Cimwai's Bay, but ultimately turned it down), but I'm not sure what line my story would best suit. It's about the aerialists and acrobats in a travelling circus. My character's a little too old for one category, I'm not sure if there are enough romance tropes in it for another, and there's no sex. There will probably be sex (Eep, I've never written more than a kiss before, so this shall be...interesting).

What's coming up for me in the new year? Not a whole lot. Andrew and I are still in something of a transitional stage, living in Somerville. Even if he get's a job offer (there are interviews coming up), we may opt to stay in the States until his postdoc funding is complete (it's good for two years). I'm still working remotely, which is fine for the most part, although it can get a bit lonely at times, especially right now while the days are short. I've started to volunteer with a food pantry organization nearby, which helps get me out once a week.

I'm also going back to NECCA in February for their Introduction to Teaching Aerials workshop and I hope to start helping at Esh Circus Arts as an assistant instructor for the next session. I'd once thought of becoming a figure skating coach (for kids), but since I stopped skating when I started aerials I gave that idea up. I'm still interested in coaching/teaching in some form, and since my focus has changed, I feel like being an aerial instructor might be a nice alternative. I'll report back after the Teaching workshop.

Currently we don't have any major travel plans beyond my driving to Vermont. We might go home to Ontario over Easter, but that will probably depend on how busy Andrew is with research stuff.

I hope everyone is warm and safe wherever they're reading this from. Somerville's been a real treat weather-wise. We were +10 Celsius yesterday when much of Canada was disgustingly cold, and even though today was on the negative half of the thermometer, at least it was sunny.

Ciao,

Andrea

The Cure, Q & A: Imaginary fan questions

I have written three fan letters in my time. One to Ann M. Martin, author of the Baby Sitter's Club books, J.K. Rowling, of well, you know who fame, and Stuart Mclean, the author/creator of the Vinyl Cafe stories. I think I know where the return letter from Stuart is stashed, unfortunately I don't think I have the others.

Of course, I'm not even remotely famous, and the last time I checked my sales, I'd made a whopping $14.00, so I don't expect to get my own fan mail anytime soon. However, I thought since not much has been happening around the Milne household over the last few weeks, I might answer some questions that I imagine might be asked in a letter or email.

Q: How long have your been writing stories?
Years. At least since I was ten, when I wrote my first one act Christmas play. I've always written short stories, and during my first year of university, I emailed a serial to my friends, about an alternate universe where everyone had peg-legs. I moved onto novels after I graduated from nursing.

Q: Did you take any special classes or courses to learn how to write?
Yes. After I finished with nursing, I spend three semesters at Seton Hill in their Writing Popular Fiction program. Unfortunately, I didn't graduate after loosing my focus in my fourth and final semester. Even though I didn't graduate from the program, it improved my writing skills considerably. Although I still feel that the ability to create a good story is largely innate, courses and classes in writing can definitely strength your skills.

Q: How many stories involving Nora do you have planned?
It will take three stories to complete Nora's tale and I don't have plans to do any more after that. I often lose interest in a series that goes on for longer, especially if the characters suffer what I think of as "the most unlucky person in the world" syndrome. Three stories will take Nora to the end of her journey, with most of her goals met, and a great deal of personal growth accomplished.

Q: Do you have any other stories you're working on, or have published?
Yes. I have an upper YA novel, title Cimwai's Bay, which I'm currently querying to agents. If, by the time I've released all of Nora's stories, I haven't managed to find someone to pick up the series, I'll also release it via self publishing. After all, the key to success with self-publishing is to have as many novels on the market as possible.

Q: What do you like best about writing?
I like to entertain people with stories. When I was younger, I told lots of jokes, and I've always liked to act and sing. Since I'm not an especially good actor or singer, writing is another avenue for entertaining. Plus, I tend to have no shortage of ideas to write about, although they don't always make it into a novel.

Q: What do you like the least about writing?
The amount of time you have to spend sitting at a desk with just a computer. I'm naturally an introvert, so it's not as huge a sacrifice as it might be for those of a more social nature. Also, I often feel guilty when I opt to watch a movie, or go out for an evening rather than write. It's one of those hard facts about being (or trying to be a writer), it takes a lot of time to craft a novel.

If you have any questions for me about writing, knitting, baking, or being an aerialist, feel free to post them (Note: I do moderate my comments, so it make take a while for them to appear).

Ciao,

Andrea

The Cure, Q&A: Meet Tomas Classen

Now it's time to meet Tomas Classen.

I can't recall if I've written this here before, but I'm an enormous figure skating fan (since the early 1990's, when Kurt Browning was competing) and I frequently have dreams involving figure skaters. Of course, these dreams rarely involve figure skating, the skaters who make appearances are usually just hanging out with me. At any rate, when I had my dream about living in the airplane hanger, it also involved a Canadian figure skater, one Jeffrey Buttle. He was one of the 'cool' kids, and I definitely was not, and he's the body model for Tomas.

Jeffrey Buttle, 2008 World Champion. I linked to this picture through Wikipedia, but I don't know where they scammed it from (hey, I'm a librarian, if I can't source something accurately, I can at least be honest about it).

Of course, I have no idea what Jeffrey is really like (I can only surmise from the interviews I've seen of him, that he's generally a friendly, charismatic type of person) so technically, Tomas is only based on him physically speaking. Therefore, Tomas isn't terribly tall, only five foot eight (the ideal height for most male figure skaters is in the five foot six to five foot eight range, it's a centre of gravity thing required for jumps and spins) and he's physically fit, very trim, but not beefy. His hair is multi-hued, but is predominantly a golden-blond colour, and his eyes are described as crystal blue. I definitely made Tomas something of a pretty-boy.

My brother, Matthew Thorne's, rendition of Tomas.

Personality wise, Tomas is meant to be very charming, open, and friendly towards everyone. He's the daydream of every girl in the compound, and he tries not to encourage anyone's hopes, but since he's a genuinely nice person, he has trouble discouraging the attention he doesn't want (hence why Ursula and Rose thinks he actually considers them as his close personal friends). He's also much better at keeping his temper under wraps than Nora, but that doesn't mean he never gets angry. Rather, when he gets mad, he gets really mad, and that most often happens when he feels he needs to defend Nora.

My own sketch of Tomas, working in the greenhouse.

Finally, we don't get to learn much of Tomas's aspiration in The Cure, (you don't even get to learn much about them in The Cause, either), but since it's really not a spoiler, I'll tell you. He'd like to go into records management (did I mention I'm a librarian?), which has a limited job field, especially in a small compound like Nu. That's about all I can say about that.

Again, let me know if you have questions! Feel free to post them to this blog, or to post them on Facebook if that's where your reading this from. I'd be happy to answer them.

Ciao,

Andrea

The Cure, Q&A: Meet Nora Watson

I don't have a consistent practice for how I develop characters. It all depends on what arises first, the idea for the story, or the idea for the character. Sometimes I'll have a particular person in mind as a body double, often I don't. What I intentionally do, is avoid giving a great deal of description to my main character so that my readers might reasonably imagine themselves as the protagonist. Although, since most of my lead characters are female, that might not work so well for any male readers, but maybe it doesn't matter so much. I don't know.

For Nora, I didn't have particular description in mind. I thought she was probably of average appearance, so pretty, but of course she wouldn't have acknowledged such a compliment if it was passed her way. She has long brown hair (it's way easier to just let your hair grow, then ever cut it or style it) that she generally ties back into a ponytail or messy bun, and she had brown eyes. She looks a lot like her mother. She's about five foot six, or 168 centimeters tall (or my height) and slender.

My brother, Matthew Thorne's rendition of Nora, created for when I posted the chapters here on this blog (sorry, no longer available).

Of course, there's a lot more to Nora than her appearance. As I was developing the story for The Cure I decided that there needed to be something unique about her. She couldn't just be some smart, average of appearance, teenage girl who was awkward with people. There had to be something else. There had to be a reason for why she had so few friends, why she was an outcast for more than just the purposes of my story. That's why I made her deaf.

I've been fascinated with the deaf culture since I was young...since I first saw The Miracle Worker, which is a movie (starring Anne Bancroft) about the early childhood of Helen Keller. I've always admired that she achieved so much considering she was both blind and deaf. I know some sign language (although not nearly enough to successfully communicate with a deaf person, I'm sure), and I volunteered at the Bob Rumbell Centre for the Deaf in Toronto for a short period during my undergrad. I also took several opportunities in my Masters to work on projects related to the Deaf culture.

I have one small regret around making Nora deaf, and that's that I made her deaf and not Deaf. That means she's physiologically deaf, but not culturally. The reason for this is that, she's the only deaf person in her compound. She had no one to learn from. This is why she speaks and reads lips, rather than uses ASL. I try to point out in a couple of places that lip reading isn't perfect, that she can't understand what people are saying when they don't look at her, and even then, she has to fill in bits as best she can. I also have people occasionally remark on her unusual 'accent,' to note that her speaking voice is differentl because she can't hear it herself.

 Small piece of back story that never comes out--Nora's mother was sick when she was pregnant (Rubella), which is why Nora is deaf.

My own depiction of Nora, created early this fall, because sometimes it's fun to draw.

Finally, I made Nora a huge science nerd. That's because I wanted to demonstrate that girls can be smart at science, too. I was kind of an all around student in elementary and high school. I was good at music and art, but I also achieved good grades in math and science. I did, after all, start out my university career in biology.

So, there's the background on Nora Watson, my heroine.

Feel free post questions if you want to know more about her, or my other characters (although there will be additional Q&A's on them to come).

Ciao,

Andrea

My continuing exploits into self-publishing

I haven't looked at my sales figure yet. That's mostly because I don't want to disappoint myself. I know that I'm not going to suddenly be able to 'quit my day job' with this venture, most authors can't, but discovering that I've only made two or three sales would be really disappointing. There's a blog post written by an author named Tobias Buckell, in which he talks about some of the realities about self-publishing. Basically, he points out that most books, whether they are self-published or released by a traditional publisher, don't sell well. In other words, there's a very small number of J.K. Rowlings in the world, and a whole lot more S. Andrea Milne's.

To put it another way, I've released The Cure in the hopes of entertaining a few, spreading Nora's story as far as I can, and if I'm lucky, eventually making back the money I put into it (which thankfully, hasn't been a great deal). I'm not in it for fame or glory; I'm more likely to remain obscure and experience heartbreak.

The spreading the word about Nora is tricky. I don't have a large social network to help me get the word out about my book out, but there's been a few surprises in the past few weeks. A couple of people, who I wouldn't have expected it from, have re-shared my posts about The Cure. This is always a nice surprise. I mean, I've got some re-posts from people I would have expected it (Hi Andrew, Michelle, Emma, and Greg!), and I'm extremely grateful for that. It's the people I don't expect it from that make me feel extra special (and consequently like I'm bad friend).

Plus, The Cure is still only available on Kobo, which also limits the number of sales I might be able to make, since it's not as big a retailer of ebooks as say, Amazon (I'm hoping to get The Cure out there before Christmas, but I hit a slight snag on getting my US tax identification number).

As a further note about Kobo, I'm rather disappointed with the 'Related Titles' that appear when you search for my book on the website. Frankly, most of the titles are porn. I contacted Kobo about this matter, but it wasn't resolved with any success. They say the 'Related Titles' list is developed by a title search, and not by genre, but that doesn't explain why I'm seeing what I'm seeing. From the conversation I had, I think this might not be the case if you log in with a Kobo account, but I'm not sure. Ultimately, I have no leverage in the situation, so I just have to deal with it.

That's all for now. I hope to post some more insights into the self-publishing process, and into the characters and plot of The Cure, in the weeks to come.

Ciao,

Andrea

The Cure, Q&A: Find the Map

As explained in Diana Wynne Jones's, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, the first thing you should do whenever you begin a fantasy novel is, find the map. Usually it's within the first few pages, just inside the front cover. It tells you everything you need to know about the geography of the fantasy world you're about to submerge yourself in.

The Cure, isn't actually a fantasy novel. I'd term it more a work of speculative fiction, or a dystopian novel. However, there is a map. A map I sketched during a class, no less (the class was definitely during my Masters, possibly a class on digital reference services). Okay, so it may not exactly a map, so much as a blue print, but it will definitely give the reader a better idea of what I imagined the compounds of my world to look like.

The blue print sketch on its own. If I get around to it, I'll try to put together a more technical-looking, computerized blue print with straight lines and what not.

The full page including my calculations for the number of people living in Nu Compound, and therefore how many cubes there needed to be.

Ciao,

Andrea

The Cure, Q&A: The Idea

I always have ideas flittering around in my head. (I have a back log of them right now, but I hope that since I'm now focused on finishing up Nora, that I will get to something new soon.) Sometimes the ideas are just a 'theme' (I want to do something steampunk-ish), or I have a character in mind (I want to write about a girl with green hair, or I want to write about a girl who can fly). From there I ponder about the idea and I just keep going over it until I've come up with something I can work with.

I hate to admit it, but the basic idea for The Cure came from a dream. I hate to say it because famously that's how Stephenie Meyer came up with the premise for the Twilight series. It feels a little passe to say 'My story came to me in a dream', but I suppose that's how many people come up with their ideas (or they hit their heads on toilets, so I guess I'd prefer a non-violent form of inspiration). Then again, I have to credit Stephenie Meyer for getting me writing again after more than a year long hiatus, so maybe I shouldn't be so hard on her.

So, yes. I had this dream where I and a whole bunch of other people were living in a giant airplane hanger. I don't know why we were all living in the airplane hanger, we just were (hey, it was a dream, things don't have to make sense). Everyone had a little space to themselves blocked off by curtains and I was living on the end cube where I could watch people pass by as they went about their business. When I woke up, I thought a lot about the scene in The Muppets Take Manhattan, were they're living in the lockers at the bus terminal. I liked how everyone's locker was representative of their character and how they were all crammed in their together.

And that's how it started. I didn't have characters, I didn't have much of a plot, just the setting. Then I thought and I thought (often at the Edmonton Symphony), and eventually I'd woven myself a web that became the story.

Ciao,

Andrea

(p.s., if you still haven't purchased yourself a copy of The Cure, you can find it here, on Kobo)

The Cure: Available on Kobo

You can purchase a digital copy here: The Cure, on Kobo. Check it out, buy it now, and if you enjoyed my writing, please tell your friends and family.

Ciao,

Andrea

My venture into self-publishing: obtaining an ISBN

When I first decided to release The Cure, I hadn't considered the possibility of obtaining an ISBN (International Standard Book Number). It's not required by most online retailers (some provide an in-house ISBN or other identification number) and I'd thought it was one of those things that would be too difficult for a self-publisher to get. Not so! It's especially easy if you're Canadian, but first, what is an ISBN and why get it?

As per the Wikipedia page on ISBNs:

 "The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W. H. Smith and others in 1965.
 The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO 2108.
 Since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with "Bookland" EAN-13s."

My understanding is that ISBNs are mostly important for brick and mortar bookstores so they can keep an accurate account of their stock (i.e. taking orders, making sales, etc). This is probably why ISBNs aren't required for digital books. There isn't really a stock, or at least, there's no physical product changing hands. Why it can be useful for independent publishers is that it can help boost visibility in the vast market of online books. You can also search a book by it's ISBN (although who's going to search for an ISBN over a title or author I don't know).

So, if you're a Canadian resident, ISBNs are free of charge, which is awesome, since if you're an American resident you have to pay for it.

Canadian residents go to Collections Canada, which is a part of Library and Archives of Canada. Once there, you click on the 'Join CISS' link on the left hand side. Next, click on the 'Acceptance of Terms', link and then you're taken to the electronic form you're required to fill out to obtain an account. It's a pretty straightforward form, requesting standard information. The one funny thing is, if you're planning to publish a digital book like I am, you select the Electronic Book Text option under 'Type of Product' (It sounds like a very archaic way of describing a digital book).

I waited around 10 days (I can't remember exactly what day I hit submit on) before I received an email to state my application had been accepted. From here, you have to go back to the CISS website, log in, and go to the 'Request an ISBN' link. At this point you just need to fill out one more form (again, very basic) and click submit. You'll have your ISBN almost immediately.

The ISBN for The Cure is: 978-0-9921294-0-8. It should be on sale very soon.

Ciao,

Andrea

My venture into self-publishing: picking retailers

I had hoped to have The Cure out for sale by now, but things will be postponed for a couple more days at least. I'm taking an online course on self-publishing offered by Author E.M.S., which runs from September 8th to October 4th. I'd been wondering before I started the course as to whether or not I should delay publishing until after I'd completed the session (I have so much to learn!). After the first day of reading, I was feeling overwhelmed with all there was to cover and was pretty sure that I ought to read through at least a few lessons before I plunged in.

**The moderator of the online course I'm taking just popped up on the discussion board to make an important distinction between publisher v. retailer. Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Nobles, etc., are all retailers. They aren't publishers, they just distribute my work. That's the thing about self-publishing, YOU'RE THE PUBLISHER! I have to promote and protect my own novel.**

Part of my concern was what to do in regards to tax claims on Amazon. The way I understand it is, that although I don't have to pay American taxes, I need an International Taxpayer's Identification Number (ITIN) in order to get paid. Additionally, I'm subject to a withholding tax on any royalties I make, unless I show that I'm from a country that has a tax treaty with the US. I'm actually lucky here, since I'm currently residing in the US and have a visa, my route to an ITIN may be easier than if I was living in Canada. I'm still being paid by a Canadian company, by the way, which is why I currently don't have any other reasons to interact with the IRS.

If you're looking for information on how to get an ITIN, you can check out this blog post by Joan Leacott.

So, that was one of my big concerns about rushing ahead into publishing on Amazon. The other was, how on earth to price my novel, but that's more easily overcome with a little market research.

Something that came to my attention during my first course reading was, why hadn't I thought of publishing on Kobo Writing Life, a Canadian company? I'd been focused on Amazon's Kindle Direct, assuming that since Amazon was so huge, it was the best way to go, but considering the difficulties surrounding the payment and tax issues, why not go with Kobo, at least to start?

To be clear, I don't want to publish with only one company, and there's no need for me to publish with only one (although depending on which program I sign up with on Amazon, I may have to agree to an exclusivity period). In order to gain exposure and make sales, I need to get on as many different platforms as possible. My current intention is to get onto Kobo as soon as I get my ISBN (maybe I'll post about that another day...), meanwhile I'll begin the steps towards obtaining my ITIN. Once that comes through, I'll publish on Amazon. After that, we'll see. There are lots of other companies to self-publish on. It's just a matter of how diverse do I want to get/have the time for.

Ciao,

Andrea

My venture into self-publishing: the editing

Although I felt that The Cure was fairly well edited, I wanted to get someone with a more professional eye (than my friends and husband) to look over my novel before I put it up for sale on Amazon. As always, I was concerned about the grammar aspect, but I wanted to make sure the story and characters made sense as well. I figured, even through I couldn't get a proper publisher to release it, I still wanted it to be as polished as possible.

So, I hired an editor. I was given a name or someone, whom I contacted, was given a quote, and a time frame. Unfortunately that experience didn't work out as well as I had hoped. I had to nag to get chapters back and although the responses were generally quick (after I nagged), the excuses almost became comical after a while. The comments in the manuscript felt sarcastic at times (it's not cool to use ALL CAPS, or smiley faces like you're joking) and almost like the editor was lecturing me for having not corrected errors from the last time I made them (never mind that I sent my manuscript to them all at once). Eventually, I ended up in tears one night somewhere in the middle of chapter 12 and decided that enough was enough.

I either had to battle massive self-doubt for the remaining chapters as I worked through edits, or I had to find someone else to look through the end of the manuscript.

Then it occurred to me that my sister-in-law might be able to help. I recalled that she'd done some freelance editing, and that she'd trying to organize a story-share one time which I participated. So, I sent an email, explained my situations, and thankfully, she agreed. I'll do another post of about her editing later. It's a part of our deal. She provided me with an important service and I'm going to write her a testimonial on my blog.

For now, I'll just say that I'm extremely grateful. I'm back up to where I left off with the other editor (yeah, she went through the whole manuscript from the start for me) and I hope to have it wrapped up by the end of the week. Yeah. I hope to have the whole thing wrapped up in just a few days. It seems a little crazy now that I'm writing this. Wrapped up, and out there for people to buy. I just hope a few people buy it, and at least some of them enjoy it and look forward to seeing the second story.

For now, I need to get on with the editing, so I can indeed have it on the cyber shelves within a week or two.

Ciao

My venture into self-publishing: my cover

One of the steps involved in self-publishing is getting/developing/creating cover art. You need something to catch the eye of a browser, right? Because people really do judge books by their covers.

When it came to thinking about my art, I knew I didn't possess the skills to create something cool, so I contacted a friend of mine, Anna Krider, who has tons of skillz in graphic design. To see her work, you can check out her website: Peach Pants Press.

I didn't have any particular ideas of what I wanted my cover to look like, I just wanted it to look "professional." After a little back and forth, Anna created something funky and abstract. I like the sparkly bits throughout the body, plus she used some nifty layering techniques (that I can't tell you about because it's actually spoiler related!). Anywho, here's my cover:

Now I have a super awesome cover, and I got to employ the skills of a friend. Two birds down with one stone, I'd say.

Cheers,

My venture into self-publishing: the why

I haven't looked back over my blog posts to see how many times I've said I wasn't going to self-publish. It's probably been more than once, or twice, or...enough times, anyways. Sometimes I feel like I have no constancy. I tend to run with an idea for a while, while it's exciting and new, but once things aren't going so smoothly, or they're taking too long and the excitement wanes, I change my mind, or perhaps more accurately, I just give up.

So, what's changed this time around?

Back in April, around my birthday, I was exchanging messages with a friend. A friend who I contact whenever I need publishing advice, usually when I get a hint of success (I've had 2 different publishing companies interested in my work, one for Nora, one for Ava, but they've both fallen through). When we were talking this time, she mentioned that she had released some work through the Amazon Kindle Select program. I'd already released Nora here on my blog, but it hadn't gotten a large readership, and so I got to thinking.

It still might not get a large readership on Amazon, but would it hurt? It couldn't hurt. Right?

E, self-publishing is popular. Occasionally authors see a great deal of success--not that I'm expecting big numbers and big money--but authors are also seeing decent success. With the Amazon Kindle Select program anyone can publish with it (although there are some rules about what type of material can be published) and editing isn't required (although I hired an editor to go through the manuscript). The royalties are also much better with an e-book than a print book, which is a plus--assuming I can get people to buy mine.

And so I hope to have The Cure available early to mid September. This isn't exactly how I'd always dreamed of making my publishing debut, I've clung to the idea of being traditionally published for a long time, but at least for Nora, it's the only way she's going to see a wide release. I feel that I've racked up enough rejections with her to have to take the hint that no one's interested. I'm still going to query agents and editors with my other series Cimwai's Bay, but who knows, maybe if Nora does well, I might try the same thing with Ava.

So does has this post answered the why?

If not, feel free to ask a question, although as I note, I moderate the comments, so it won't show up immediately.

Ciao,

Andrea

Goodnight, sweet Nora, it's time to go

So I fell off the blogging wagon. I just having felt much like keeping things up-to-date this year. I've been feeling busy and frazzled, and frankly not much like regular writing either. That's the problem with having a job that requires brain-power all day, it frequently leaves me spent by the time I get home. Despite my best efforts, I've been pretty unproductive all around. Hrm. I'm not sure I can honestly say I've put my best efforts into things either, there's been plenty of nights where I've blown off writing or barely made an effort. Where did all my focus go? When I was still just an RA I could pretty easily put an entire night into writing, at least 3 hours, get a minimum of 2,000 words written. Now I'm lucky if I get 1,300. Yesh.

On a related note, I recently received another rejection letter for Nora. She's been to at least a dozen agents and five or six publishers who actually accept unsolicited manuscripts. I fear it's time to put her to bed; that she is unpublishable; that I write too sweetly for YA lit these days. I've had a few people suggest that I should try self-publishing. I'm pretty sure I've written about my reservations regarding self-publishing here before. On top of my concerns that it's not a truly accepted form of publishing (i.e. I think most people still look down on self-publishing as a way for untalented writers to get their books out), I also completely lack a sufficient social network to turn a profit. My circle of acquaintances are small, and I don't feel comfortable talking about my work to about 95% of them, let alone try to market/advertise my book to them.

I don't know what to do. I've considered just posting the manuscript here, a few pages at a time every week or maybe twice a week. Of course, posting Nora here, freely, with little-to-no exposure doesn't really seem like a great plan either, but I don't have to pay anything to do this (self-publishing isn't free from what I've seen). She's reasonably well edited, and complete. Maybe a few people with stumble upon her. It would at the very least be better than letting her waste away unread and unloved on my computer hard drive. I could cross my fingers and hope some editor somewhere will stumble upon her, but I doubt that's likely to happen either.

I should probably make a few changes to the title and description of my blog, but expect to see chapters of Nora appear here soon--unless somebody out there has a great alternative suggestion for what I can do.

Ciao,

Andrea

What I'll be doing instead of NaNoWriMo

I'd like to think that I'll be spending the month of November in the exact opposite spirit of NaNoWriMo, but editing isn't really the opposite of writing. What would the opposite of writing be? Not writing? That's hardly any fun. At any rate, I made a firm decision last year that I wouldn't be doing NaNoWriMo again. This might be a strange declaration considering I am a writer, or a wannabe writer at least. I won't re-hash my reasons, but they can be found here, in my post after last year's writing marathon.

So, editing. I'm going to spend the month of November (and probably several more to come, really) editing manuscripts. I want to call this the opposite of NaNoWriMo, because the organizers encourage participants to write as much as possible and edit later (if ever...). I'm also going to send out a couple of manuscript submissions, both to the same publishing house. Putting my eggs into one basket? I don't think so. This is just the first step. I've decided to query Tor since they're one of the few large publishers I've seen that will accept unsolicited manuscripts. I'm sending both Nora (YA speculative fiction), and Ava (YA/adult cross-over fantasy) off.

Nora should be ready within a week (once my American stamps arrive--kindly supplied by a friend living in the US). I've tweaked a few more things in the opening chapter, but otherwise I'm to the point where every time I re-read it I just change a word here or there, but I'm no longer making substantial edits. Ava (who's story is entitled Cimwai's Bay) needs more TLC. I worked on her (which was also pretty much the last time I looked at it) three years ago. I submitted her to Luna, but well you can probably guess it wasn't accepted. After opening up the manuscript this week I'm actually pretty please with the writing. It needs cleaning up to be sure, but it's not the hot wreck I feared it might be. I should have the submission package for this manuscript ready by mid/late November.

Of course, my manuscripts are going to the Tor editors' slush piles and getting a response could take months. In the meantime I'll go through the rest of the Ava's story and then probably start taking a look at the second and third manuscripts of Nora's tale. They were both NaNoWriMo projects and need A LOT of work. I looked at The Cause (book 2) back in September, and in a matter of days hacked out almost 3,000 words from the first 3 chapters (want to ask me again why I dislike NaNoWriMo?).

And then? Well that will all depend on the response I get from Tor. Rejection will mean a return to querying. I've got a couple of Canadian YA Publishers I'd like to try with Nora. Ava, I'm not quite sure what I'll do. If I get a request for more? Well after the happy dance, I'll send more, then continue to wait. I probably shouldn't make any plans beyond that. One thing's for sure, even with an offer of publication I'll have to keep working. The average author doesn't get rich off their craft and I'd probably need to be checked into a mental health facility if I though I'd be any different. If I got two offers (now I'm really dreaming of heavenly pie)...I might be able/have to to keep my sanity reconsider the day-job thing.

That's all for now, I'll give an update of the writing situation at a later date.

Ciao,

Andrea

Ringer

I feel like I've been through the ringer, which is perhaps an over-reaction, but that's how I feel.

In June I received a request to edit and resubmit my young adult manuscript to a independent publisher. I spent three months working on the edits, trying to address the comments made and, in general, improve my manuscript. I resubmitted my work just before Andrew and I hit the Juan de Fuca trail in August. I spent much of my vacation checking my email in anticipation of the response. Then it came: still not quite right, keep trying, if you wish, resubmit when you're done.

Okay. Fine. I've spent the last month trying to 'trim the fat' as it were, from my manuscript. Meanwhile, Andrew kept suggesting I talk to the U of A writer in residence. Okay. Fine. I caved. I made an appointment. I need to make sure I have it right this time before resubmitting.

The advice from the writer in residence was not what I'd been hoping for. Actually, it was somewhat opposite to what I'd been told by the independent publisher. The writer in residence doesn't think Nora herself is 'unique' enough (NOTE: not that the story/writing isn't good enough). Not only is that heartbreaking (or at least heart-cracking), it doesn't really help me. To me Nora IS unique. I wrote her. I think with all her flaws she's great and interesting. How am I suppose to make her more special?

I don't know what to do. I'm being told that what I've written is pretty good, just not good enough and I don't know how to fix it. Sure, I could try to send it off to another publisher or agent in the hopes that they'll see things differently, but I feel like that method is akin to a patient diagnosed with terminal cancer, who doesn't want to face the facts so just keeps seeing different doctors in the hopes that someone will tell them differently. I have to do something, except I don't know what or how, and I generally just feel small, weak, and lost.

I'm not asking for help or suggestions, or pity, I'm just stating how I feel. I'll figure something out at some point.

Ciao,

Andrea

Crossing my fingers, holding my breath, saying a prayer and all that other stuff

Today I am mailing out a query letter to the young adult editor at Harlequin regarding my manuscript The Cure. I purchased some fancy resume paper and printed the letter and synopsis out on high (I used the draft setting on my printer even for school assignments). Who knows what sort of response I'll get. I enjoyed writing this manuscript, and I'm happy with the way the story turned out, but it all depends on whether or not I can pique the editor's interest enough to have her request a full manuscript (ideally I'd like a publishing contract, but I've got to take it one step at a time).

Initially I had intended to search for an agent (and that's the next step if Harlequin's uninterested) but some weeks ago I discovered that Harlequin's started up a young adult line. Now, before I go too far, I think many people have a very bad image of Harlequin. Most people think of the bodice-ripper style cover and terribly cheese titles, but they publish a wide range of books. Yes, there's Blaze (lots of sex), but they also have Intrigue (spy/action) and LUNA (fantasy) to name a few. They are the biggest publisher of women's fiction. So why not aim big?

When I first discovered their young adult line I was very excited then disappointed. Most of Harlequin's lines accept unsolicited submissions (part of the reason why I sent them my Cimawi's Bay manuscript); however as I read further on the Website, I discovered that this was not the case for the young adult line. Only agented submissions would be accepted. After some trepidation, I did the best thing I possibly could and emailed Maria Synder, a fellow alumnae of Seton Hill and a successful author with Harlequin.

First of all, I wasn't sure if Maria would remember me. We only talked briefly once, and she never read any of my work (although I got to read a really interesting short story by her about a weather magician). Second, I wasn't sure if she would help me. As it turns out Maria is fantastic. In response to my first email she gave me the names of several agents who accepted young adult material and who worked with Harlequin. A few weeks later she emailed me about a new young adult publisher called Leap Books (which will be another avenue to try sometime in the future) and last week she emailed me about Harlequin. They would look at manuscript proposals from unagented authors. She gave me the name and address of the young adult editor and suggested I mention her name in the letter. See, Maria IS fantastic (her books a pretty good too!).

So today I'm putting my query into the mail. All I need to do is purchase the postage required to mail to the United States. What are my chances? Slim, probably. About a gazillion people want to be writers and only a small proportion of them actually get a break; however my chances are better than if I didn't submit at all. If anyone has a spare set of fingers to cross, cross them for me. Say a prayer or do anything else that might sent a little luck my way. And now the waiting begins.

Ciao,

Andrea

It's that time of year again. No, not Christmas, but NaNoWriMo

For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. The always reliable Wikipedia tells me that NaNoWriMo began in San Fransisco in November of 1999 with 21 participants. This number has increased to over 119,000 participants in 2008. The goal is to write a novel of 50,000 words in length during the 30 days of November. I have mixed feelings over this event. First, 50,000 words does not a full-length novel make, unless you are writing a young adult story, and even then it's a bit on the short side. Second, and more importantly, I feel that NaNoWriMo encourages mediocrity.

I agree that NaNoWriMo motivates people to write that novel they've always wanted to; however, the whole focus is on getting those 50,000 words done in 30 days. If you work or have other commitments that limit the amount of time you have to spend on writing, it means you have to write fast, almost without thinking. On average you have to write 1,666 words a day to complete the challenge. That takes a while. When I'm on a roll I can pound out a little over 1000 words in an hour, but that's when my fingers and my brain are really humming. If not, it can be a struggle to get 500 or 600 words out, which means I could spend two or three hours or more after dinner sitting at my computer not talking to, or interacting with Andrew.

I attended a NaNoWriMo session in Edmonton a couple of years ago and honestly I found it scary. They held "races" where a timer was run for 10 minutes and whoever wrote the most in that time frame won, they might have even received a prize. When the time was up people claimed to have written 100s, if not over 1000 words. I thought, how can anyone write something worth reading in that time frame? Quantity does not equal quality. The other thing I don't like about NaNoWriMo is that is encourages people to just write, don't bother with the editing until later. True, I tend to write a first draft completely and then go back to edit, but I often will fix or tweak passages as I go along. This isn't even encouraged with NaNoWriMo. It's just full steam ahead until you get your 50,000.

I'm also worried that writers may, upon completion of NaNoWriMo believe that they now possess a publishable manuscript. That's simply not the case. I don't think every completer necessarily feels that way, but many people want to be (published) writers, and few people actually are. One month of frantic writing does not make a person a writer, much less a published one. It takes years of dedication and a little bit of luck.

Issues aside, I have participated in NaNoWriMo, although only once officially. My first time was accidental. In 2005 I spent the month of November in Dresden, Germany. Andrew was there to conduct research and I had nothing to do between 9 and 5 when he was at work. Since I don't speak German I didn't go out much on my own except to the grocery story, so I filled my mornings by writing 3,000 words every day. Later when I told someone about the amount I'd been writing they asked me if I was NaNoWriMo-ing and I said, what? I think I wrote over 60,000 words that month. There's something about being in a foreign country, with nothing else to do that really gets your creative juices going.

I actually signed up for NaNoWriMo in 2007. I went onto the Website and created a user profile and even set up the app in Facebook. I worked on Cimwai's Bay that year and even toted around my little AlphaSmart 3000 to choir a couple of times. I had stayed on track pretty well, but around November 22nd I decided I'd had enough, I'd written over 30,000 words. It's tiring to write every day after a full day of work. I did of course go on to finish (complete word count: 103,000) Cimwai's Bay and submit it to Harlequin. For now it sits collecting metaphorical dust on my hard drive until I run out of new ideas and decide to rework it. Last year I knew I wouldn't have the time. With 4 courses, plus working 14 hours a week I knew I couldn't make the target. I did, however, make an effort to write whenever possible and managed around 14,000 words.

This year, I'm "feeling lucky, punk." I don't have any school work due until the end of the month, so my thinking goes something along the lines of this: if I time manage carefully, if I get in a couple of really good days on the weekends, if I don't burn out, I might just manage it. Since Sunday, I've written 11,292 words for my second Nora MS, The Cause (technically you're suppose to start with new material for NaNoWriMo, but I'd rather complete the MS I'm working on rather than starting something fresh). In some ways I'm glad for NaNoWriMo. Nora's story had gotten stalled by school. Now that I'm gunning for that November 30th, goal I'm writing her everyday--something that makes me happy. I guess that's the most important thing for me, writing, it makes me feel more-or-less whole.

For those of you participating in NaNoWriMo, charge on, but edit carefully afterward.

Ciao,

Andrea

Nora 1.0 and beyond

I am happy to report that I completed the final draft of my manuscript on September 2nd, 2009. This draft stands at 64,457 words and spans 208 pages. The actual story word count is a little lower, since the TOC and the chapter headings take up some of that total (I would guess around 100 words). This is more than 3,000 words longer than the first draft, which I completed on June 2nd (61,107 words, 194 pages). I began writing my manuscript on April 9th, 2009.

I noted in an early post that I struggled to come up with a proper title for my story. I wanted something simple. Despite my mixed feelings about the series, I liked the one or two word titles of Twilight, New Moon, etc. I essentially played a bit of word association to find something that I thought symbolized my story. Since the presence of a mysterious disease plays a major part in my world, and the major conflict centres around a con man who claims to have a cure, I thought: The Cure, was a logical choice. Also, it lends itself to an easy second book title: The Cause and possibly The Prevention for the third.

I am relatively happy with my manuscript. I think I've kept my writing tight and I tried to keep my character's reactions as realistic as possible. I also really like my characters and I hope Nora would be a good influence on young girls who might one day read about her adventures. Andrew enjoyed reading the story as well--granted he has a somewhat biased opinion--but he also thought this is the best writing I've done to date. I hope the other readers I've sent it to feel the same. And most importantly, I hope one of the eventual agents I send it, think so too.

Of course, like many amateur writers, I have publishing aspirations. I've submitted other works before (also previously blogged about), although I've always attempted to submit directly to the publisher. This time I plan to solicit literary agents. My reasoning is twofold. One, I've written a young adult manuscript, which is a harder sell, and two, many of the publishing houses I checked explicitly stated on their websites that they do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Of course, finding a good agent may be as tricky as finding a publishing house, but right now I feel it's the best way to go.

While I wait for my readers to get back to me I plan to work on Nora's second story, The Cause. Actually, I've already begun writing it. With the fall term underway, my free time is of the essence and will soon be of the past. Things are going well for the writing, but not so well for Nora. Poor girl, not only is she deaf, but she never gets a break.

Ciao,

Andrea

No good titles come to mind...

That's actually how I'm feeling about my poor Nora MS. I can't just call it Nora. True, that is my protagonist's name, and the story is told entirely from her perspective, but what am I suppose to call the second story? Nora 2, More Nora, The continuing life of Nora? I think not. I'll have to keep pondering this conundrum.

Let me recount my weekend, which although not terribly exciting, was the purpose of this post.

Friday:

I got up at the un-earthly time of 5:30 a.m. to take Mandy to the Edmonton International Airport. The only good thing about driving that early in the morning is the minimal traffic. When I returned home, around 7:15 a.m., I finished off the RA hours I chose to neglect on Thursday, which took an hour. I practiced my French, took a shower and attempted to grocery shop. I say, attempted to grocery shop because when I reached the till I discovered I'd forgotten my wallet. Ugh. I returned home sans-groceries and popped on good ole' Pride and Prejudice (BBC 1995) while I sat for a few minute to rest my legs then got to work on the kitchen. I wish I was a more proficient housekeeper, but I'm not. I try to clean the bathroom and vacuum the floors at least once a week. Sometimes that doesn't work out and things get a little gross for my taste. On Friday I washed down all the counters, the cupboard doors, the oven and the floor, plus rearranged some of our storage paces. This took approximately 2 hours. Then I tidied and cleaned the computer desk, and the over-filled and unorganized drawers from the desk in the bedroom. Whew.

Friday night, was more interesting. Andrew and I attended the ESO's final concert for the 2008-2009 season. As mentioned previously, the concert featured the solo violinist James Ehnes and his 1715 Stradivarius violin (well not actually his, it's borrowed from the Fulton Collection). His performance (perhaps not surprising since he has the honour of playing a Strad) was stellar. You might be wondering, could we tell the difference between the sound of the Strad and other violins? Well, no, not really. Probably if we heard a short piece played on the Strad, followed by the same piece played on a second, non-Strad violin the difference would be obvious, but not so much when compared to the entire orchestra. However, the crazy high notes (played well over the finger board) were crystal-clear and gorgeous sounding--not screechy or unpleasant. On the program was: Mendelssohn (A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Overture, Op.21), Chausson (Poème in E-flat Major for Violin, Op.25), Wieniawski (Fantasie on Themes from Gounod’s “Faust”) and one of my favourites, Prokofiev (selections from Romeo and Juliet).

Saturday:

Andrew and I dragged out butts out of bed shortly after 7:30 to go for our Saturday morning long run. We felt since we've run our half marathon and have no current plans to run another this summer we would cut down the distance from about 21 km to about 17 km (our run length is based on time and our run distance is based on the estimation of our km/hr). We returned home shortly before 10:00, scrubbed the grim off our skins (I sweat like the proverbial pig) then headed down to the City Centre mall. Normally we go to the farmers market after our run, but since we're not going to be around much this weekend we skipped it (except for lunch--smokies, on the way home). Andrew needed to purchase some conference appropriate clothing. We wound up at Le Chateau, which used to be my favourite store until I discovered the divine (and expensive) beauty of BCBG. He managed to pick up two nice button down shirts (one white, one green), a tie, a pull over sweater and a blazer.

In the evening Andrew and I finally caught the new Star Trek movie. I balled during the first 10 minutes. It was heart wrenching. Really, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved at least a little. If you've seen the movie, you know what I mean. Otherwise, it was pretty fantastic. Many of the new cast members bare a passing resemblance to the classic actors and it was fun to see how each character popped up and joined the crew of the Enterprise. The plot was interesting too, delving into the motivations behind Spock and Kirk. And it involved time travel. Oh, and Leonard Nemoy reprised his role as Spock (old Spock that is, not young Spock).

Sunday:

Another day that started at 5:30 a.m. This time to take Andrew to the airport so he could head off to New York. Most of the rest of the day was pretty unremarkable (as one might guess from my previous post). I'm looking forward to joining Andrew in New York on Wednesday. It will be really nice to get away for a bit.

Hmmm...I think that's all.

Ciao,

Andrea