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.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Author Groups vs Genre Groups: Love To All
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.
Labels:
Community,
Fan Groups,
KAK
Fantasy Author.
The Immortal Spy Series & LARCOUT now available in eBook and Paperback.
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The Immortal Spy Series & LARCOUT now available in eBook and Paperback.
Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when I release a new book.
Monday, March 11, 2019
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
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
I write fiction, a little of everything and a lot of horror. I've written novels, comic books, roleplaying game supplements, short stories, novellas and oodles of essays on whatever strikes my fancy. That might change depending on my mood and the publishing industry. Things are getting stranger and stranger in the wonderful world of publishing and that means I get to have fun sorting through the chaos (with all the other writer-types). I have a website. This isn't it. This is where you can likely expect me to talk about upcoming projects and occasionally expect a rant or two. Not too many rants. Those take a lot of energy. In addition to writing I work as a barista, because I still haven't decided to quit my day job. Opinions are always welcome.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
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
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
Labels:
author fan groups. Lonen's Reign,
fans,
Jeffe Kennedy,
Jeffe's Closet,
Jesus Christ Superstar,
Simon Zealotes,
Sorcerous Moons
Jeffe Kennedy is a multi-award-winning and best-selling author of romantic fantasy. She is the current President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and is a member of Novelists, Inc. (NINC). She is best known for her RITA® Award-winning novel, The Pages of the Mind, the recent trilogy, The Forgotten Empires, and the wildly popular, Dark Wizard. Jeffe lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is represented by Sarah Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency.
Saturday, March 9, 2019
Silence Is the Sound For Me
DepositPhoto |
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.
DepositPhoto |
Best Selling Science Fiction & Paranormal Romance author and “SciFi Encounters” columnist for the USA Today Happily Ever After blog, Veronica Scott grew up in a house with a library as its heart. Dad loved science fiction, Mom loved ancient history and Veronica thought there needed to be more romance in everything.
Friday, March 8, 2019
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.
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.
Thursday, March 7, 2019
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.
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Drawing Inspiration from Music and Brains
It’s not really a secret that listening to music can get you into a mood. Writers draw on that mood, and on the related emotions, to make our stories more memorable and effective. I think most writers have a playlist of some sort.
I do a lot of my writing by walking and thinking. Yes, this is work time. It’s just how my brain operates. When I’m walking and thinking and writing, I pipe music into my ear holes. Playlists match particular characters and scenes and feelings. Angela was AC/DC’s Back in Black album. Kellen was “Desperado” by The Eagles. Mari and Heron each had a playlist, but when they were fighting together against the world, they were “Read My Mind” by The Killers. Chloe is a lot of Def Leppard and Dollyrots, and intimate scenes almost always lean heavily on the music of Prince (well I mean, duh).
But when I sit down to actually put words on a screen, music no longer works for me. I need to get out of the song’s story and into my story, deep in my own brain. For that particular sorcery, I use a phone app called Brainwave Binaural.
The app works by starting a wave in one ear and finishing it in the other, sort of forcing the brain in the middle to match its mood. I use the Concentration setting for editing and Euphoria for drafting, but if you use this app, you’ll need to find your own personal sweet spot, the setting combo that drops you right into go mode.
Which is what I really love about this app: I sit down, plug in, and am instantly in the writing zone. If I don’t have Brainwave on, it takes me maybe 15 minutes to get into a writing groove.
So that’s my playlist advice: a lot of classic rock n’ roll and a brain-control app. (Brain control, not mind control. No matter what kind of speculation you’re writing.)
I do a lot of my writing by walking and thinking. Yes, this is work time. It’s just how my brain operates. When I’m walking and thinking and writing, I pipe music into my ear holes. Playlists match particular characters and scenes and feelings. Angela was AC/DC’s Back in Black album. Kellen was “Desperado” by The Eagles. Mari and Heron each had a playlist, but when they were fighting together against the world, they were “Read My Mind” by The Killers. Chloe is a lot of Def Leppard and Dollyrots, and intimate scenes almost always lean heavily on the music of Prince (well I mean, duh).
But when I sit down to actually put words on a screen, music no longer works for me. I need to get out of the song’s story and into my story, deep in my own brain. For that particular sorcery, I use a phone app called Brainwave Binaural.
The app works by starting a wave in one ear and finishing it in the other, sort of forcing the brain in the middle to match its mood. I use the Concentration setting for editing and Euphoria for drafting, but if you use this app, you’ll need to find your own personal sweet spot, the setting combo that drops you right into go mode.
Which is what I really love about this app: I sit down, plug in, and am instantly in the writing zone. If I don’t have Brainwave on, it takes me maybe 15 minutes to get into a writing groove.
So that’s my playlist advice: a lot of classic rock n’ roll and a brain-control app. (Brain control, not mind control. No matter what kind of speculation you’re writing.)
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