Fan groups, wikis and eligibility

So, a while back, I was chatting with an old friend who is far more business/marketing minded than I am capable of being, and he was talking about giving readers the opportunities tone more than fans, to "live" in Maradaine-- in the sense that there is more for them to engage in beyond the books. Partly that's encouraging things like fan art and fanfic (which: yes, especially fan art.) Partly that's merchandise. But largely it's about engagement and community.

I'm not entirely sure how to go about that, but I do know that some fans have been working on a Maradaine wiki, which is AMAZING. If you are interested in helping out with that project, I highly encourage it: https://the-maradaine-sequence.fandom.com/wiki/The_Maradaine_Sequence_Wiki

ALSO, since I've been asked, here's are my eligible works for this year's Hugo nominations, which are due on the 15th:

• Best Novel: LADY HENTERMAN'S WARDROBE
• Best Novel: WAY OF THE SHIELD 
• Best Series: MARADAINE (the whole saga, not any of the individual series)
• Best Related Work: #BelgariadLive Read

All right, back into the word mines for me. No use having fans if I'm not putting out the work, right? Right.

Come play in my vortex (reader group)

Following the accumulated wisdom of How to Be a Writer in Public, I have developed all the things a writer is supposed to have: web site, at least two social media presences, newsletter, public Facebook page, and so on. But the common thread on all those is pushiness: I'm pushing info at folks. Even worse, sometimes I'm just pushing info out into the void, like "buy my book" pollution that nobody's ever going to pick up.

It's hard for authors to get a handle on the value of some of these one-way communication paths. We can count our followers or likes or whatever, but it still feels, to me, very bleak.

My goal in writing has never been to make money or get awards. It has always been to connect with other people, via a story. I can't even tell you how exciting it is to write a thing -- any thing -- when I know for certain that someone is going to read it. Even better when I know someone is looking forward to reading it. Those people make this sometimes dismal job worthwhile.

And I will never meet them by shoving out news items into email inboxes and swiftly flowing Twitter feeds. So I made a place where they could hang out, and I could hang out, and we can talk. People who might have an interest in my stories or worlds can tell me what they like, what they don't, what they would be interested in reading in the future. We exchange recipes and pet pics and memes and fandom and science info.

That place is Viv's Vortex of Readers and Space Vodka. It's not a fan group per se. It's more of a gathering of friends. I think we all know each other, and we welcome new members rarely enough that anybody joining is going to get a lot of attention.

The coolest part of the group so far is that I've noticed friends from one area of my life (for instance, my fandom friends from way back) meeting folks from another area (like my writing friends), and interacting and forming relationships that detach from me completely and grow into awesome things on their own.

I don't run contests in the group. I don't have rules about posting or reviewing or any of that. I make no demands on your time. We're small enough that we don't even have rules about members promoting their own work (though I wouldn't be against that... we should discuss). It's as close to a safe place on the internet as I've found.

You are cordially invited to join.

Author Groups vs Genre Groups: Love To All

Author Fan Clubs. Fans of Specific Author Groups. Multi-Author Reader Groups. Genre Reviewer Groups. Whatever they're called, the most awesome thing to see is readers enthusiastically sharing their love of books.

Author-Run Fan Clubs/Groups are neat to observe. Maintaining that connection is a significant time investment, and I hat-tip to all the authors who thrive in the setting. The romance community--especially the PNR readers--IMHO, win the prize for most author-to-reader engagement. Nalini Singh's and Sherilyn Kenyon's are two of the author-run groups that spring to mind. UF comes charging into second place, probably due to the huge crossover from PNR (the LKH fan club was strong for a long, long time). Yes, I know personal assistants and fan club moderators help the authors balance writing their books and engaging with their fans. Mad props to the whole engine making fan clubs happen.

Now, that's not to throw shade on the fantasy readers, no, no. Fantasy fans seem to congregate around the genre more so than specific authors. Sure, they champion the hell out of their favorite series within the genre groups. You can make a drinking game out of frequency with which Malazon, LOTR, Farseer, and WoT are mentioned.

Personally, I participate in genre reader groups (okay, I lurk a lot and post when I have an answer to a question that doesn't already have dozens of responses). I don't have a fan group of my own beyond my Facebook Author Page, mostly because I suck at small talk IRL and online.

Fan groups?Do those really exist?

I'm joking of course. Yes, I know they exist. No, I don't have any.
I have followers on Twif=tter and facebook. That's about all I've managed. If I ever figure out how to do more, I will.
"Jim, why don't you hire a publicist?"
Money. Unless they can do it for the love, (You know, like a lot of publishers ask the writers to do) that just isn't happening.

So here: Instead let me remind you I have a new book coming out in a few weeks.


YOU can order it HERE

Screaming Love and More for You

At the SFF Seven this week, we're discussing author fan groups – whether we have them, like them, how they work, and we're interested in what the readers think about them. Do you belong to any fan groups and what do you like about them, which are your favorites and why?

I confess I didn't have a fan group for a really long time. I don't really love the word "fan" to begin with, and given the opportunity, I'll say "my readers" instead. With I think of "fan" I immediately picture Simon Zealotes from Jesus Christ, Superstar, singing and dancing with his crew about their fanatical zealotry.


What can I say? Early impressions and all that.

But I did finally form a fan group on Facebook because one of my readers asked me to. I did it back in November of 2016 and it's called "Jeffe's Closet." That's a bit of an inside joke. I used to have a Tumblr called Jeffe's Closet. Actually, it's still there - but because Tumblr freaked out about erotic images, and my closet was full of naughty pictures, it's been gutted. Or it's there, but behind a firewall? I don't even know anymore. I haven't added to it in forever, mostly because in the era of Trump, images of girls in chains began to feel too literal and not at all sexy anymore.

Alas.

Anyway, I like my private group! I post extra things there occasionally, and ask people to weigh in on stuff. Probably I should post there more often. So that leads me to ask - what should I be posting? What author fan groups do you belong to, what's the platform and what are your favorite things to see there?

Oh, and in case you haven't seen it, there's the final cover for LONEN'S REIGN! Out March 20 and available for preorder now :-)

Amazon
Smashwords
Kobo

Silence Is the Sound For Me

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Do I have a soundtrack or playlist for my novels?

I don’t write to music. I used to, many years ago, but there came a point where I found the music too distracting in the background, so I now write surrounded by silence, other than the ambient noises and Jake the Cat’s occasional demand for attention.

I find music immensely inspiring and I love to go for long drives on the Southern California freeways with the music turned up loud and contemplate plot challenges. At various times in the old day job I had long commutes to make and I got used to doing some of my most complex plot problem solving during those otherwise boring drives. (I find driving on the freeways is mostly routine but every now and then there’s a CRISIS and you’d better be able to respond fast. There was also the time I got trapped on the freeway by a brushfire, surrounding several other cars and mine, and I was right next to a gasoline tanker…CHP thankfully got us out of there…and we won’t discuss the wreck I had in 1982 where I rolled the car three times…thank goodness for seat belts! I wasn’t worrying over plots when that happened – I’d just decided to find another job, came around a curve and oh my, all the traffic was stopped while here I was going ummm perhaps a bit north of the posted speed…)

I also enjoy listening to music on my old ipod. I’ve got hundreds of my favorite songs on endless replay and I just let the melodies flow. Pretty soon I’m not really hearing the songs because I’m in the zone and the ideas are swarming.

My playlist ranges from golden oldies to rock to show tunes to bagpipes to country, with a lot of stuff in between. Sometimes a certain song will inspire a plot point or will remind me of a character or a situation. The connections probably wouldn’t be obvious to anyone but me and my Muse though! I tried to come up with a good example for this post and the explanation got very convoluted. Which is the way my creative mind works!

One of my favorite novellas from my backlist is STAR CRUISE: SONGBIRD, which was my scifi rock star romance and even for that one I didn't have a soundtrack. Here's an excerpt from the first concert in the story:

The show was already going on at full volume. Karissa’s was the final set of the evening and when she ran onstage, her dancers bouncing and doing acrobatics around her, the roar was astounding. Grant stood in the wings, as close to the stage as he could, and watched the performance. Karissa strutted, she danced, she teased, she brought a child on stage for a brief chat, she sang full throated. The crowd loved it all. He had a hard time keeping his eye on the audience, watching for problems, because she was so riveting.

“First time at a show?” asked an older woman standing next to him. “This is nothing compared to what she’ll do at the big concert on Calillia next week. There’ll be multiple costume changes and aerial components. And maybe some new songs, although she’s been quiet about her songwriting lately. She doesn’t want Ted getting the rights to any more of her stuff if she can help it. Things are unfixably sour between them now.” She laughed self-consciously and held out her hand. “I’m  Desdusan, by the way, her chief makeup artist. Chief busybody too. I try to look out for her as much as I can. Been with Karissa for nine years, ever since she hit the bigtime with ‘Twisted Comets’. She’ll probably sing that for the encore.”

“I hate to admit it but I’ve never heard her music before—it’s all new to me,” he said as they shook.

The woman did a double take. “You’re kidding, right? You’re probably the only person in the Sectors who hasn’t heard at least one Karissa song.”

“I have now,” he pointed out, annoyed to feel so defensive.

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The Writer's Playlist

Even though I've managed to save so much music to Spotify that it won't let me save any more - what's up with THAT? 10k songs is nothing! My music tastes are wide ranging and horrify pretty much everyone I've ever lived with. So I do most of my listening (and singing) for when no one else is around. But I have come to the conclusion that music is for when I'm not writing. My writing playlists used to be game sound tracks.

Myst. ALL OF THEM. The Diablo soundtracks. Halo soundtracks. Anything moody and/or without lyrics. I dipped into Brain.fm and some of the other binaural sound tracks available. Anything to shift my brainwaves and help me concentrate and shut out the world. For along while I listened to Nox Arcana to get my fill of atmospheric, we're all gonna die music. Frontline Assembly and, oddly enough, Nine Inch Nails worked for that, too. (I know I said no lyrics. I guess I lied.)

But then science happened and now there's data pretty much proving my high school science teacher's most unpopular assertion. Music impairs creativity. Granted. One study does not a landslide make. But if you're trying to listen to the still, small voices inside, maybe consider turning down the interference?

So I'm writing silent. This is a luxury and I freely admit that. When my folks move in and I'm having to block out conversations, TV, and the sounds of other humans breathing, earphones and sound may be my only solace. Until then, I'm writing a deaf heroine. Silence is exactly what's needed.

Creative Focus, and the Playlists Behind Them

I've been a little radio silent the past few weeks, at least in terms of posting, because I've been chin-deep on a few things, both in terms of creative projects and other personal responsibilities. Nothing bad, mind you, just busy.

Two things have been my creative focus of late. One is finishing the draft of THE FENMERE JOB, the third Streets of Maradaine novel, and like all third novels in the Maradaine saga, there is a crossover element, which I'm sure you can suss out just from title alone. 

The other is more in the developmental stage, but let's just call it a Secret Project for now. But it will probably be a standalone thing to palate cleanse myself between Phase I and Phase II of the Maradaine Saga.

Both of these, I've got some inspirational music for, though I don't tend to go full-on curated playlists. Rather, I tend to find thematic material and throw it together and then, in process, figure out which stuff really works for me.

In the case of The Fenmere Job, I'm leaning toward film scores from films that evoke the same feeling I'm going for. Here's the spotify link for that one.

For The Secret Project, it's got a very different feel from the other stuff, and the playlist matches it. As you can see, it's largely focused on a specific artist. That might morph over time, though.

All right, back to the grind. Plenty to do over the next few days.