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Contemplating the Supreme Manuscript of All Reading

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So here we are, back at Monday again. Funny how that happens. It’s like Joni Mitchell’s “Circle Game,” only smaller.

Last week was a fun one. For anyone who missed it, I revealed The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management’s new cover:

Paradox Ralf Kraft

and I announced that Aunty Ida, of Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only) infamy has forced her way back out into the world for a sequel, title to be revealed later.

Her Cousin, Much Removed tried out life as a bargain book, and suddenly it was Friday.

So what’s on for this week? Stuff. Lots and lots of stuff, she said cryptically. On that I’ll have to keep you posted.

What hasn’t been on, with all these other things happening, is writing. Remember that manuscript I was working on? As far as I know, it’s not going to write itself. Or maybe it is. Maybe I have created some kind of super-intelligent manuscript which somehow knows how to keep going all on its own.

Of course things that convenient and useful always turn evil in the end, so there would probably be a downside when it started attacking other manuscripts in order to be the Supreme Manuscript of All Reading, or kept going until it was millions of words long, making itself uneditable  in a highly sophisticated and evolved show of self-defense, but I think I’d be willing to live with that.

If it would let me live, that is. You know what they say about pens and swords.

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Very Special Announcement, Now Plus GIF!

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Well, I promised an announcement about that book I kept talking about cryptically, and here it is! What better way to express myself than through GIF form? Actually, there are a lot of better ways, I found this more challenging than I probably should have, given that there are likely thousands of 5-year-olds making GIFs at this very moment. Anyway, enough about that:

 

f8klrThe GIF doesn’t lie! Aunty Ida is returning for a sequel. I’ll be doing a cover reveal, and before you know it, it will be available for pre-order. I told you this was going to be a very exciting week!

For anyone who doesn’t know, Aunty Ida is the overly-intelligent troublemaker behind Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only) and she flatly refused to stay confined to a single book. So she’s getting another one.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to share this news, I’ve been holding it in way, way too long. You could say I feel like dancing. Brain dancing, perhaps.

Here’s hoping you’ll stay with me through the fun of the sequel launch! Hold onto your brains, everyone, you’re going to need them.

Check out  Her Cousin Much Removed (only $0.99 for a limited time),  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only).

 Sign up for my spamless newsletter. And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

It’s Read Tuesday!

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Today is Read Tuesday, and that’s a great thing for readers, because you can get a bunch of discounted books. And in honor of Read Tuesday, my cozy mystery, Her Cousin, Much Removed is only 99 cents. That’s 67% off!

But my book isn’t the only book on sale. There are other Kindle books, paperbacks, and books from Smashwords. There are even some free-Kindle-book-with-paperback-purchase Matchbooks.

Pick up something to read, give books to friends, and support indie authors all at the same time. You really can do three things at once.

Check out   The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only).

 Sign up for my spamless newsletter. And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Guess Where I Am Today?

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More editingGo on, guess! That’s right, you got it. While I’m pushing through this next editing pass, don’t fear. You can always get one of my books, Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management, Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only) to pass the time. You can even borrow them with Amazon Prime or read them for free with Kindle Unlimited. And Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities is just plain free. Enjoy, and see you back here soon.

 

 

Editing Beckons

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Gone EditingThere’s a magic spot that happens with every manuscript, where you summit the seemingly insurmountable peak of editing, and it starts to snowball.

I am finally there.

So I may not be the best blogger in the world for the next little bit, or the best tweeter, or the best, well, anything. I’ll be off and away with my manuscript, my metaphorical red pen, and this mass of a thing that is starting to pull itself together. And in the not-too-distant future, perhaps, perhaps, I will have a new book.

And how exciting is that.

In the meanwhile, if you miss me and my random thoughts, feel free to check out one of my books below. Happy writing and reading to all.

Now where’s my helmet and my eye protection? This could get messy.

Have a minute? Watch this video.

Rather read? Check out  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only) .

 Sign up for my spamless newsletter. And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

 

Five Stages of Editing Grief

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Going through the editing process with my current novel, I’ve noticed that, like grief, editing has its own five stages. And, like grief, most of them aren’t that pleasant to go through, but it has to be done if you want a finished product. So here they are, the Five Stages of Editing Grief.

Stage One: Denial

Hey, this isn’t so bad! First time reading it, it’s got some real merit. I spent all that time writing, and look at this, I wrote, and, ahem, it’s pretty good. Well, it is that bad, it’s simply covered in the warm, fuzzy haze of denial, which lasts just until you get to the parts that you glued together with chewing gum and peanut butter. When you find them, the sharp sound of cracking denial echoes across the land.

Stage Two: Anger

Stupid manuscript. It would be be great if it wasn’t so stupid. This stage usually hits sometime around the chewing-gum-peanut-butter-sticky bits. Remember that part that you said you’d figure out later? Well, later is now, my friend. And the reality that the Plot Fairy didn’t come along while you were sleeping and wave her magic pencil to fix it can be a tad enraging.

Stage Three: Bargaining

OK, Plot Fairy. You don’t have to wave your magic pencil. Maybe just a small sprinkle of magic pencil shavings? Just the little crumby bits that get wedged into the corners of the magic pencil sharpener? When you get to this stage, you may be willing to trade just about anything–your car; your significant other; chocolate (well probably not chocolate, let’s not get carried away here)–to make that twisty sentence come straight. Oh well, that’s what the next time through is for, right?

Stage Four: Depression

Except the next time through the sentence before it and the sentence after it now seem wrong. And how did that character get there? And why is this person saying that? That makes no sense. IT MAKES NO SENSE! None of it. Why even bother to write a book? What’s the point of it all? And now I have to go through the whole manuscript again?  What good will it do? This is hard. Where’s the remote, I want to watch women with too much money, too much makeup and too much silicone say catty things to one another.

Stage Five: Acceptance

Hey, that was funny. Wait, that plot wiggle works! Yes, she would say that! That character, what a character. This feels complete and solid. No, none of the sentences catch like eye-Velcro as I’m reading them anymore. If you hang in, and you are one of the Diligent Editors, one day you will get up, and you will look at your manuscript and you will say “Hey, this isn’t so bad!” and this time, it won’t be.

Have a minute? Watch this video.

Rather read? Check out  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only) .

 Sign up for my spamless newsletter. And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

 

Since You Asked…

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Have you joined Kindle Unlimited? If you have, my books are free to read. What’s that, you say? You are so subtle with your self-promotion that I had no idea that you had books available for reading? Yes, hypothetical reader, and thank you for that remarkably, spontaneously perfect question. I have two offbeat humorous sci-fi books, a less-offbeat, humorous cozy mystery, and a collection of, hmm, unusual flash fiction short stories (which is free free on Amazon.com).

Sorry, hypothetical reader, I couldn’t quite hear you over the hammering/drilling combo I have going on today, you’ll have to speak up. What was that? Oh, you’d like to know more about these books? Oh, stop, hypothetical reader, you’re embarrassing me!

But if you insist…

Humorous Science Fiction:

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)

The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management

Cozy Mystery:


Her Cousin, Much Removed

Short Story Collection:

Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities

 

Aunty Ida Contest Winner Revealed!

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Congratulations to Dave, the winner of the Aunty Ida Book Trailer Blog Contest! Dave is the lucky recipient of the Amazon gift card, which I hope he is greatly enjoying. Check out his blog, Espresso Coco, in celebration or in slight resentment, whichever.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest, and thanks for watching and sharing the Aunty Ida Book Trailer. And for the heck of it, in case you missed it the first or eighth time, here’s the trailer.

Congrats again, Dave, I hope you have fun with your spoils!

Want something to read? Check out  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only) .

 Sign up for my spamless newsletter. And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Why Enthusiasm for Your Own Work Matters

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I have some exciting almost news today. There will be an announcement about our favorite slightly unbalanced scientist, Aunty Ida, a little later on in the week. What’s Monday without a little mystery? So stay tuned, or come back, or whatever it is you can say with blogs, to find out what’s coming.

With that bit of business out of the way, I was reading a book I’d borrowed from the library, by an author I’d always relied on for a quick, funny read. Only this book wasn’t quick–I felt as though I was wading my way through it–and it wasn’t very funny. There was a distinct lack of life in it, for someone who, generally, is a very lively writer.

I couldn’t help but wonder if he had tired of his usual genre, tired of its usual format, and was continuing to write them anyway, for reasons we can’t know on this side of the word processing program. It felt rote and cardboard. Even the characters seemed less than engaged in their own story.

So what do you do when you reach that point? He’s extremely successful, and he’s successful for precisely this kind of book. It’s a problem that we see across the arts; something as intangible as creativity forced into perfectly stacking cubes. Those books of his are the ones that sell, and so the business side of things wants him to keep selling them, I’d imagine.

But what about the writer side? Where is the room for creativity when the business is nearly all that’s there?

It’s a tough equation no matter where you fall on the writing map, and something we all need to keep in mind. Sure, the point is selling books, but when you stop connecting to your work in a way that’s so overt, maybe it’s time to try something new. Yes, sales may decline, but on the other hand, if you turn out work that shows such a lack of enthusiasm for itself, you’ll lose them anyway.

Need something to read? Check out  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only) .

 Sign up for my spamless newsletter. And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

 

The Paperwhite Made Me Buy It

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I’ve tamed the noisy beast. With a pair of noise-cancelling headphones and an hours-long playlist of classical music, I should be good to go today. Why didn’t I do this yesterday? Who knows, but this is much better.

By the way, if you are dealing with problems getting your own work done for one reason or another, you might want to go check out my friend Jon’s blog today, he’s got a great post on the topic.

So I broke down and bought a Kindle Paperwhite this week, Amazon had a $20 off discount. It is glorious. I mean, I don’t want to insult my prior Kindle, the bulky one with the keyboard, but it was, well, bulky. This one is sleek and small, the text so crisp I’d swear I was looking at a printed page if it didn’t do this morphy thing when I turned the page.

It also has a fun toy in the form of a vocabulary builder, which I wish I had sooner, because I tend to look up words (generally keeping Scrabble in mind) and then not hold on to them. Now I can learn them. Although it thought I was highlighting the word “to,” which I think is one I’ve got down. I don’t think I need a flashcard for “to,” but then who could be sure?

Anyway, I was too excited not to share. In fact I wish I was reading it right now, but now that I have shielding methods to recombobulate my head, I should probably get back to what I should be doing. Unless what I should be doing is reading. Hmm, maybe that’s an angle I can work.

Need something to read? Check out  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only) .

 Sign up for my spamless newsletter. And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!