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Posts by TXRed

Jul 8

24 Comments

World Building – Research Phase

So you decide you want to create a new world for your characters to play in, or you get the wild idea—after one too many children’s dinosaur books read at bedtime—to write a story where the dinosaurs didn’t get offed by [insert disaster here]. Or a world where reptiles rule. Or whatever.

You can just start writing whatever pops into mind and hope for the best. Or you can do some research. Me being me, I research. But where do you start? Read more

Jul 5

14 Comments

New Hand on the Tiller?

As the ongoing saga of Barnes and Noble continues, there was a bit of a shake-up earlier this week: CEO Demos Parneros was fired on (apparently) no notice and got no severance. Read more

Jun 24

15 Comments

Thoughts from the Road and a Sales Follow-up

So, I dragged my tired and relaxed self home recently from an extended road and air trip. This is a bit of a ramble, so please bear with me. I’m still brain tired from functioning in multiple languages and time periods for three weeks or so.

How did having four books launch within four weeks work out? Better than anticipated, in fact, April and May were the two best months I’ve had since before the Great Splat of 2015, and June sales are still doing well. Three of the books (In Sheltering Talons, Strangely Familiar, Staré) had the usual sales pattern of a slow first day or so, then a rapid spike and a rapid tail, although the tails have not dropped as low as I usually expect. Read more

Jun 21

33 Comments

A Survey in my Inbox

I opened my e-mail in-box this morning and found a survey from Barnes and Noble and the Authors’ Guild. Would I like to participate? I considered it, started, and then began to get a little unhappy. I bailed out at the half-way point and will not continue. Read more

Jun 10

43 Comments

The Villain’s Journey

Hi. This was pre-written. I’m off the ‘Net at the moment, so please be patient if it takes a while for comments to be released from moderation. One of the other Mad Geneii has to do it for me. Thanks!

So, everyone and their literature teacher talks about the hero’s journey, and Joseph Campbell, and nods to Karl Jung in passing and then reaches for the checklist.

What about the villain? Why does he or she do that? And how did she end up like that, anyway? She was such a sweet kid. Read more

May 27

43 Comments

What Do You Need to Write?

No, not “What works will bring you instant fortune, more money than your CPA knows what to do with, and undying fame?” but “What conditions and tools do you need in order to produce words?

I was hunting around in growing concern (OK, quasi panic) because I couldn’t find the box with my extra note pads in it! I absolutely have to have the nice notepads with the special margins and headers on them, in white, lined, 8.5 X 11 inches, two-sided. Where was the box? Did I have any more half-used pads with a few pages left? What about my nice pens?!? Read more

May 13

18 Comments

Some Semi-Random Observations

The observation-lemur observes.

I had not planned on releasing three very different books in the space of three weeks. In fact, one of them wasn’t supposed to be written at all! But the Evil Muse, and the success of what was supposed to be a set of stand-alone stories was such that I released a short urban-fantasy novel, the tenth Cat Among Dragons book, and the second Shikari book in three weeks.

So, what were the results? 1) A frazzled author. Read more

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