Writing Wednesday: Dealing

So, there's been a certain amount of crap going on in my life lately. Things mostly beyond my control, but things I still have to deal with. Eventually, maybe, I'll write about what those things are, but for now I'll just say they're making it really hard for me to focus or get much more done beyond the absolute basics I need to do for my various jobs.

But not all is doom and gloom. Even though I'm worn out with the crap-dealing-with, and my brain is a little scattered, I've actually written a little. Not a lot, and I still have a ways to go to get back on track. But I did manage to start a new story -- maybe a long short story, maybe a novella. It's probably not a novel, but I'm not really far enough into it yet to know.

It's a story, or one of a series of stories, that I've been thinking about for a while. It'll most likely appear under my "Nic Silver" pen name, not because it has lots of sex like my other Nic Silver books, but because it feels more like a Nic Silver story. Which is to say, dark and weird. Probably.

I also managed, finally, to get started on the next "Others" novel (also written as Nic Silver). It's only half a chapter, but it's a start and it gives me a vague direction to head in. I think I have less of an idea where this book is going than I did for the previous books, which might be why it's taken so long to get to it.

And, not writing, but related, because it's for a book I'm working on (which I will also write the text for), I've managed to finish some more dragon illustrations and get started on a couple others, which is why there are dragon pictures decorating this post. I'll make the finished ones (well, mostly finished -- they will eventually have hand-written text on them) available as prints in a few places online soon.

So yeah. Dealing with crap, but still dragging one foot after the other. I'm too damn stubborn to ever give up.

Goals and Such

I don't really like New Year's resolutions. I always figure if you want to do something, resolve to do it right there and then. Don't save up all your promises-of-things-you'll-do for one big day. That seems like a recipe for failure to me (though there can be success in failure, too). However, this arbitrary counting of time we call a year (OK, not entirely arbitrary, but how many people really think about what it is we base the length of a year on?) can be useful for stopping to take stock.

Last year, I didn't do as well as I hoped with my goals. I had planned to have a lot more writing done and available for people to read, but I got derailed pretty early on, and I'm not even sure why. I did manage to write (or finish) three novels (two shortish YAs and one somewhat longer adult novel), so really that's not so bad. And I drew some dragons, made some books, got a die-cutter and expanded my card-making repertoire.

But this year, I'm not going to focus on what I didn't get done last year. Well, I am, sort of, but not really. Actually, I'm going to work on some much older things in addition to trying to write more new things.

Old Things to Work On

(Note that I didn't say "Old Things to Finish." I hope to finish them, but if I don't, that's OK. At least I will have more done than I did before).

This Blog. I'm going to aim for a regular weekly post again this year. This is the first one. I won't give myself any soft of word count goal. Just one post a week, even if it's just a picture or a favourite quote.

My Comic. A million years ago, I started an urban fantasy comic -- a webcomic in the sense that I intended to first make it available on the web, though except for lettering, it's all drawn the old-fashioned way and ultimately I want it in print. I worked on it off and on over the years, a little here, a little there. It takes me a really really long time to draw.

Then, in 2004, just before I moved to Nova Scotia, I decided to re-draw everything I had already done to fix it. And I did. Every week a new page, and I even kept going after I finished re-drawing. I made it to the middle of issue 3 (around 50-something pages) and then, for reasons I no longer recall, I stopped. I even still had a few more pages planned out.

So now, ten years later, I'm going to have another go at it. I still love my characters, and it's still a story I want to get to the end of. But I'm not going to re-draw it again, even though it's old art and I might be able to draw it better (and looking back, I really shouldn't have bothered re-drawing it last time; I should have put the energy into making new pages). If I still have all my old files, and I can figure out WordPress well enough to make it do what I need, I might even have the first page up today. I'm going to start from the very beginning, one page a week to start, and while old pages are going up, I'll work on new ones. We'll see how far I get this time. I'd like to at least get to the end of the current storyline.

My Serials. I've have two serial novels on JukePop Serials, both of which have been neglected, due to the mysterious derailment of 2013. One of them -- the one I write as Calliope Strange -- is actually finished. I just haven't posted it all. For that one, I'll put up at least one chapter a week until it's done. The other one, Reindeer Girl, is not finished, but it will be. It was meant to be a way of finishing a book I started a while back, and a way to get me writing regularly. It can still be those things. Maybe I'll manage once a week, but if I can at least get going on it again, however slowly, I'll be pleased.

Other. I'm sure there are other old things I'll revisit through the year, but for now, these will do.

New Things Ahead

Dragons. This isn't entirely new, of course, as it's something I started working on on 2013, but this year I want to make it a major focus. A couple of days ago, I made a Scrivener file for it so I can start working on the text, and yesterday I had another stab at a dragon illustration that's been kicking my butt. I still didn't get it, but I got closer. This is my fun thing, the thing I'm making entirely for myself, but I'll share it, and maybe others will like it, too.

Fiction. There are always too many novels in my head, but this year I'd like to see if I can write one or two more Others novels (as Nic Silver). There are two more I know I need to write for sure. One is what happens to Evgeny while Su is in Germany, and the other is the continuation of Su's quest to find out what happened to her little sister. Also, I'd like to get working on the next Kentaurs novel, which I had intended to write over the summer. And eventually, though perhaps not this year, we'll have to find out what the heck is going to happen to Dubhghall and Maddy after the events of Dark Stranger.

Publishing. I need to get White Raven Press back on track, starting with a new website. I have a handful of novels and collections to get into print, and one to put up digital. Maybe two, but Deer Mouse is an experiment in submitting to a traditional publisher, so I'll have to wait till I hear back.

Painting. Last year I bought some exciting new art supplies, and promptly had no time to play with them. So this year, that's what I'll do. Play. Learn some things. I have a selection of casein paints, and I've already prepped a whole pile of boards to paint on. Maybe something will come of it, or maybe I'll just have fun. Either is good.

Craft. My goals here are just to keep on making stuff, and make more of an effort to market and get work into stores. I hope to do more hand-papermaking, so likely I'll have more cards printed on my own paper, and probably more linocuts rather than polymer letterpress. But again, we'll see how it goes. Also, I plan to play around with more 3D sculptures using die-cut elements. My first batch of dragons came out well, and were well-received. Also, they were great fun to design.

Photography. Some of you may know I studied photography (as well as printmaking, design, and book arts) in art school. I haven't done a lot of photo recently, asked from snaps to sort of visually journal things I see. I have some ideas for projects tumbling around in my head, but I just upgraded my iPhone, and I got a set of Olloclip macro lenses for Christmas (I had their 3-in-1 macro/wide angle/fish eye for my old phone, and will probably pick up the one for my current phone eventually), so I think I'm going to focus on shooting iPhone pictures. No pressure on myself to make great pictures, just something fun. And if they start turning out well, maybe I'll get more serious.

More…

I'm sure there were more things I was going to say, but I've gone on way longer than I meant to, so I'll stop. Basically, I plan to have fun this year, and finish more things -- some old, some new. The only way I can fail is if I stop writing/drawing/crafting completely, and that's pretty unlikely.

One More Cover Post

I decided that while I liked the covers with just the art, there really needed to be some indication of genre, so I added silhouettes. I've only done the first three, since I haven't written the rest yet. (I'm also adding links to Amazon and Smashwords, just in case... you know, you might want to buy one -- they're also available from Kobo, the iBookstore, Sony, Barnes & Noble, the other Amazons, and a few smaller places.)

Vixen (The Others #1)

buy from: Amazon | Smashwords | Paperback

Hexen (The Others #2)

buy from: Amazon | Smashwords

Familiar (The Others #3)

buy from: Smashwords (pre-order)

Future Others Series Covers

Familiar: Cover and Blurb

She's rescued her lover twice, once from imprisonment and once from a demon.

Can she save herself from her own nature?

To save Evgeny, Su had to allow herself to be bound to her hexen best friend Alex as a witch's familiar. They meant to reverse the spell as soon as Ev was safe, but it turns out a familiar binding is for life -- or even beyond if the familiar is a hexenfuchs like Su.

As the binding draws tighter, like a leash around Su's throat, she and Alex travel to Germany to search for a solution in Alex's hexen ancestry.

But half of Su's ancestry is German, too, and their destination is right in the heart of hexenfuchs territory. Su and Alex are joined by much more than a familiar binding, it seems -- they're bound by a destiny that keeps repeating, trapping witch and familiar in the same tragic events.

Good thing Su doesn't believe in destiny.

Hexen: New Cover, New Blurb

If the only way to save your beloved is to sacrifice yourself, would you do it?

With the vampire council defeated -- for now -- Su and Evgeny deserve their Happily Ever After. Unfortunately, something unknown and horrifying is gradually taking over Evgeny's mind. It seems to be connected to his developing powers as a witch -- powers he shouldn't even have -- but it also seems to have a mind of its own.

And it's angry, cruel, and set on hurting Su.

But this time, Su isn't alone. With the help of her werewolf neighbour Magne, her witch ex-girlfriend Alex, and her own developing powers as a fox-woman, she just might be able to save Evgeny.

The trouble is, she could lose herself in the process.

***

And the (rather embarrassing) current cover:

Now that she's rescued Evgeny from his captors, Su figures they ought to get their Happily Ever After. But life just doesn't seem to work out that way. Because not only does Su now have a fox's tail -- which makes getting dressed awkward, to say the least -- but there's someone still after Evgeny.

This time, the enemy isn't so obvious, and instead of trying to take Ev prisoner, whoever it is is trying to control him from the inside. Something nasty keeps taking over Evgeny's mind and if Su can't find out who it is fast, and stop them, the man she loves may disappear forever, replaced by a violent, woman-hating demon.

Vixen: New Cover, New Blurb

What has glowing eyes and fangs, but isn't a vampire?

She doesn't know, either.

A year ago, Su woke up on a park bench with no memories, but it didn't take her long to figure out she isn't exactly human. The problem is, she doesn't know what she is, and neither does anyone else.

Now, cut off from her past, she gets by as a pickpocket, keeps to herself, and tries to stay as far away as possible from the vampires who find her scent irresistible.

Until Evgeny stumbles into her life, awkward and newly-born as a vamp, with as few memories as Su. The other vamps are even more interested in him than they are in her, so together Su and Ev take a stand to save both their lives.

And they uncover a plot that endangers all others -- vamp, were, witch, and whatever Su is.

***

For comparison, here are the current cover and blurbs (the first is the original, the second is the back cover text from the paperback edition).

Su just wants to sit in a dark corner for a quiet drink when she spots a newborn vampire across the bar. He's confused, and he's starting to draw attention to himself. And he's hot.

So Su decides to give him a few pointers. Then she realizes that the reason this baby vamp is wandering around without a protective escort is that she killed his parent vamp earlier that night.

Now Su feels responsible. A newborn vampire is helpless until he regains his memories and learns how to act like a vampire. Su knows enough about vamps to be able to teach him that. But Su has her own problems. She doesn't have much of a memory, either, and while she's not a vampire, she's not exactly human.

Su doesn't know what she is, and she doesn't have a kindly stranger in a bar to tell her.

***

Su knows it's a bad idea to take home strangers you meet in the bar. It's an even worse idea when the young man is a newly-made vampire. Except it's her fault he's alone and unprotected.

But Evgeny isn't an ordinary vampire. He's something other vamps very much want to get their hands--or their fangs--on. When he's kidnapped, Su can't just let him go. Because she's not about to let her new friend be cannibalized by his own people. And besides, Su isn't an ordinary woman.

 The trouble is, she doesn't actually know what she is.

 *** 

If anyone has any suggestions for improvement, I'd love to hear them.

Blurbs for Nic Silver

Apparently, it's a long weekend, which is always a little disappointing for me, since as a freelancer the whole concept of "weekend" or even "days off" is a sort of mythical thing that other people have.

But sometimes I pretend weekends are real and use them to take time off from the work I have to do to get a paycheque, and switch to the work I want to do, the work that brings in dribbles of money now and might (I hope) get me more in the future.

So this labour day weekend, I have some things -- some non-freelance paid work things -- that I aim to get done. Or at least worked on thoroughly. And most of those things relate to the books I write under the pen name Nic Silver.

I started today working on book covers. Though I kind of like the cover I did for Vixen, I've never been entirely happy with it, because my main character is half Asian (and looks mostly Chinese) but my cover model is very white (and is me, actually). And the cover for Hexen was meant to be a placeholder until I could get something better done (also see comments on Vixen cover). Now that I'm getting ready to put Familiar up as a pre-order (it's written but needs final editing), I need another cover, and I figured why not re-do them all at once?

So I used the same layout and images I already had, except I took the person off the cover. Originally, I intended to find or paint new images of Su to add on there, but now I'm thinking that might not work so well with the lovely classic paintings and prints of foxes I'm using (except book 2, and some future volume, which use my own prints). I may do versions with characters on the front, too, just to see how they look. After all, these covers don't really scream "urban fantasy" and I do rather want people to know at a glance what they're getting.

On the other hand, I find a lot of urban fantasy covers annoying and implausible. So.

Anyway, I now have five covers on my computer, more or less done (e-book versions only -- I'll have to re-tool them a little for print). Well, on one I used the wrong image, so I'll need to swap that out, but otherwise... New covers for Vixen and Hexen, and a cover for Familiar, plus covers for the next two books that I haven't even written yet, with the working titles Koldun and Sister.

The other thing I'm working on this weekend is blurbs. Again, re-writing the ones for Vixen and Hexen (again), and doing one for Familiar. I'll leave the ones for the unwritten books till they're written, since I won't know what actually happens until I write them.

I suck at blurbs, but I'm trying to improve. I'm very seriously considering taking Dean Wesley Smith's "Blurbs and Pitches" online class, but I have many things to pay for in the next few months I'm not sure I can swing it (damn house insurance!). But maybe. It would probably pay for itself eventually. Maybe even quickly.

Anyway. My next few posts will be new covers and new blurbs. And hopefully that will get me into writing on the blog more often again.

And now, here is a picture of some tomatoes from my garden, just because.