A post about reading.
I had to go to the store last night and pick up some food for this weekend. It’s when I have my kid with me, so it needs to be food that’s easy to prepare, can alternate between a meal and a snack, and is relatively cheap. There are some standards that I can rely on, but my son tends to get burnt out pretty fast on them. He doesn’t have the most discerning taste, though, so I’m usually pretty safe with getting lower quality stuff.
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I’ve chosen to go with the label of ‘speculative fiction’ when it comes to explaining the stories I write. Almost all of my stories are different from each other, and almost none of them can be socketed neatly or cleanly into one of the main genres used to describe books these days.
“But why?” you ask. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples:
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How long should a book be? Hundreds of thousands of guidelines have been posted on the internet. Publishers each have their own requirements based on genre and topic. Well-meaning people from all walks of life have chimed in with what they believe to be the magic range to keep a book at. It’s mind-numbing at times.
I guess the first question is: Who are you asking? I would guess that if you ask an author, you’ll either get pointed to one of the myriads of guidelines I was talking about up there or even a shrug. Personally, I write my stories to be as long as they need to be.
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I’ve been following more authors on Twitter lately, and I’ve noticed something that has me a bit concerned. The constant deluge of advertisement and self-promotion to the point of annoyance.
I’m not going to point fingers and name names, but there are a few people that I’ve recently followed who seem to have a series of targeted tweets set to auto-post every single day. I’ll load up Twitter, reading tweets and catching up on my echo-chamber of news that has been deemed important enough to mention, when out of the blue, I’ll see a familiar post… one with a picture chosen specifically to capture an emotion that said poster hopes to evoke from the viewer/reader. Then, invariably, there will be the exact same selection of tweets to follow… each one with a book cover or image, that are very indelibly inked upon my brain… in the exact same order that I’ve seen them tweeted every day since the day I followed that person.
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Since I’m giving away 3 copies of Mal-adaptive, I figured I’d talk a little about it.
What is Mal-adaptive? Mal-adaptive is a story about Malaika, a barista working in a big city just trying to make a living. She lives in an apartment with her roommate, Aaya, an ultra conservative girl who just so happens to work at a shop that sells BDSM supplies. Her best friend (and coworker), Ven, is a free spirit… likes to drink, likes to party, likes to have sex (and isn’t too particular who with). On the same day, an angel (Ephra) and a demon (Corson) show up at the Cruel Beans coffee shop in order to find Mal. They both have orders to follow her around. There’s also something about Armageddon, an evil corporation, and a Weapon that’s supposed to win the war for the side that has it. Add in a pinch of humor, and you’ve got Mal-adaptive in a nutshell.
Where did I come up with the idea? My girlfriend has fibromyalgia, which affects her muscles… especially in her neck and shoulders. Hearing her describe the pain as someone shoving knives into her shoulder blades is a bit… disconcerting to say the least. My brain seemed to jump on the idea of, ‘what if that’s NOT what’s causing her pain?’. instantly responding to the question, ‘she’s an angel who’s had her wings removed, and this is the residual pain she’s feeling’. Thus, the idea of Mal came to mind.
Today’s topic is about reviews. The picture I’ve used is a review for one of my books. That single review is worth more to me than I can express. THAT is how I really get paid as an independent author. I’m not saying that the reviews have to be that good, either. An honest, one-star review, that takes the time to tell me ‘why’ I only deserve one star… can be just as valuable as the one over there.
They say that if a street performer makes you stop and watch them for any amount of time, you owe them a buck (who are THEY?). While I would be okay with this ‘rule’, I rarely get a chance to see anyone performing on the street here in rural north Idaho. A street performer is putting on a show, displaying what they’ve got to entertain you with. They don’t get to pop out a sign with a cool picture and a few words describing their routine and a promise to entertain… they just do what they do to entertain and get paid based on how entertaining they were.
I came across something strange today, and wanted to talk about it. While making sure my genre changes took affect on Mal-adaptive (it somehow found its way into the Horror category), I found that a copy of Unlimited was being offered used from another Amazon seller.
Needless to say, my first reaction was definitely a knee-jerk reaction. I’m not making any kind of commission from that sale! A bit affronted, I stopped to ask myself (and my girlfriend) what that meant.
When life gets you down, you tend to drop everything… and I mean ‘everything’… that doesn’t pertain to just surviving. I’ve not been a very good human being the last almost year or so. I’ve neglected friends, family, and myself. So this is a giant “I’m sorry.” to all of those. I’ll try to do better.
On a different note, I have been slowly editing my next book, Praising Kane. I’m not sure why editing gets harder and harder with every book and story, but it does (maybe because I’m learning more each time).
Wednesday, I turned 45. My son told me, “You’re officially old now, dad.” He’s not known for his tact. In the vein of giving, I decided to share Mal-adaptive with everyone as my birthday gift.
Head on over to: http://mybook.to/MBMal , and it should take you to the correct version of Amazon, where you can download my book for free from August 4-6.
I hope you enjoy, and I also hope to share another book with you next year.
Not sure I’ve done one of these yet… and if I have, I think I’m gonna try to give it a little twist by saying that these are some of my favorite book… series. Most authors have at least a favorite book or hundred (and I’m no different), but having a series of books that stand out seems to be harder to find these days.
Without further ado *brain wanders off, wondering when ado became the replacement for a fuss or just a bit of trouble… and why it became so popular as a word… has it ever been popular?… why ado?… where was I?… oh, yeah*, my favorite book series:
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