• Re-reading Shell has made me think I'm going in the wrong direction with the packaging. I might do something far more understated. From the distance of a few years, it's easy to think of it as Dlane's book... but it's Thenet's, and the eperu aesthetic is austere. I'll have to do more new work for it, but a lot less than I was planning, which will mean the book will come out faster.

• Still trying to figure out a good way to scan oversized art. Kinko's has an oversize scanner, but the last scans I got back from them had digital artifacts. I ended up stitching "Hadara and the Sun King" together by hand, which was... not... fun. *sigh* Getting a scan of "Willow" I can actually print has so far been a non-starter.

• Right now "Just Because (I Love You)" is on the painting board because the paper I want to put the baby+dragon piece is in the mail. Hopefully it'll come soon because I'm utterly intimidated by "Just Because." That order also contains replacement brushes for the three that I've destroyed finishing these last two paintings... yes, I'm still trying to get a good scan for the postcards to send the people who sponsored those brushes, and they're already being replaced! *shaking head*

• I'm just now going through sketchbooks 11-20 for the Retrospective... if you want me to scan more pictures from this set, you can do that here. Remember to tell me your LJ Name so I can list you as a sponsor!

• Also, I've figured out the third illustration for the Admonishments and am trying to put that together now. I can tell it's going to be late, though. It's complicated.

• Related to all this scanning/archiving of artwork... I found somehow that I got water into one of the portfolios I use to store old originals, which ruined my original of "Ragna." I need to get more of these things out of my house before I destroy them. :P

• Finally, arielstarshadow has cracked the top five commenter list, and in doing so has asked so many questions or made so many leading statements that I'm just vibrating with the need to write or draw things. Comments are love!



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Tags: art, books, writing
Current Mood: sigh

On the bright side, I started skipping around The Worth of a Shell and found myself reading it to the end. Aside from some minor copy-edits, I don't think I'll end up changing anything. I still believe this book. I can't wait to make it available.

      "I think we're safe," I said quietly.
      "Good!"
      "For now," I finished.
      We stood in silence, enveloped in the cool hand of the forest. Dlane gulped at the air, sounding alarmingly like she trying not to sob.
      "Ke anadi?"
      "Will it ever end?" she asked, the intonation that might have made it a question failing. "You've killed fourteen beasts and saved me from two searchers. How much longer can we be so lucky?"
      "This isn't luck, ke anadi," I said, pulling her into my arms and resuming our course down the stream. She did not resist.
      "And now without food or clothing or even your spear! How will we survive?"
      "As Jokka always have. Through skill and intelligence, and perhaps the will of the Trinity."
      "The Trinity," she said bitterly. "What Trinity? What gods?"
      "Hush, ke anadi, you're talking nonsense," I said. She could take many things from me, my anadi, but my faith in the Brightness, World and Void… that she would not have.
      Perhaps she sensed my rejection… whatever the case she rested against my chest without speaking. Her body was damp, and the soft hairs cloaking her feet had curled from the run. I found a rhythm and strode down the ravine, trying not to disturb the water.
      "Intelligence," Dlane murmured. "Always intelligence. If it is intelligence through which we survive, why do we destroy it in a third of our population?"
      I opened my mouth, then frowned. "We do not destroy intelligence, ke anadi."
      "Yes we do," Dlane said. "Breeding the anadi. It kills their minds."
      Exasperated, I asked, "And the alternative? Shall we get children on animals?"
      "In the end, that is exactly what we do," Dlane said. "And I would end up as intelligent and malleable as a ñedsu. Point me in a direction and give me a simple command, and wailing and moaning I follow."
      The image so revolted me I stumbled.
      "You see?"
      "What can I say?" I said. "What would you have us do? If we did not breed, we would grow old. There would be no laughter of the young to sustain us. The last of us would finally die and there would be no Jokka. The wind would chase clean the fields we tended, the towns we built, scour them from the earth, and it would be as if we never lived. What would the world be then?"
      "I don't know," Dlane said. "Would it matter? We would not be there to see it."
      "A world without Jokka!" I didn't stop because the motions had become mechanical, beyond my control. I walked because stopping, I would fall. "I cannot fathom it! Dlane… we are our race."
      "Why does it matter so much to you?" she asked, golden eyes rising to mine. I did not spare a glance for her; to do so would be to drown in the gold, to acknowledge her utter earnestness. To acknowledge that she could hold the death of our race in her mind with enough detachment to measure whether it was good or bad. "You will die, Thenet… and after that, you will know no more, or at least have no more concern with the Jokka."
      "How do you know?" I asked. "My death will not make me any less a Jokkad."
      "You'll be dead, Thenet. The only Jokku thing about you then will be your corpse, and even that will rot away and return to the earth," Dlane said.
      I almost dropped her.
      "When I die," I said, staring down at her, "I will be embraced by the World. It will help me to my feet and anoint me with the paint and long-cloth of the Earth and Wind. It will give me eyes of the Sky, so that I may hold the Brightness without blinking, and scales of stars that I may be held by the Void without shivering. With a spear I will hunt the unmaking spirits with all my comrades at my side, and make safe the World for the Jokka still living."
      Dlane said, "For all eternity."
      "For all eternity," I agreed.
      "How wearisome," Dlane said.

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Tags: books, excerpts, jokka, the worth of a shell

Meanwhile, The Fix has an excellent review of the Aphorisms discussing why the book didn't work for the reviewer. If you didn't like the shorts and couldn't articulate why, I think this reviewer did an excellent job of discussing it.

I should point out that the reviewer carefully examined the book and analyzed it, and I think he did a good job of deconstructing why it failed for him. So don't take this as upset. I could only wish all people who disliked a piece of art were so thoughtful about their reasons why. :)



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Tags: books, reviews
Current Mood: flu-ish

I really enjoyed the Draw yesterday... I hope to go back to doing that monthly. Even though it's time-consuming and tiring, it leaves me happier after than before I started. Let's hope, then! Right now I'm back to being up every 2-3 hours all night (and all day), so I'm a bit frazzled. I need more sleep to do this more often!

Meanwhile, I am overwhelmed. I don't know how, but more books have sold and I am now at 56 ("60!" dracosphynx promises smugly), and ten customer reviews, all of which made me sniffle. I... well. Like I said, I'm overwhelmed...!

I'm putting together the flier at the same time I'm doing the bookplates, and had some discussion with the voices in my head:

haikujaguar: Some of these reviews are so much! It's typical to put quotes from reviews on marketing hand-outs, but... it feels like I'm being excessively proud of myself.

The Calligrapher: Excessive pride would be pretending not to value the opinions of these others, or believing that you alone will sell this work, when in fact it is the kind words of others that will truly make the difference. Bow to that truth, and ask permission.

I hope that made sense, since I haven't been sleeping much. But... um, I would be greatly honored if those of you who have written reviews, on and off Amazon, would be willing to let me put them on the flier, and whether I can attribute a name to your words. I understand if you'd rather not! But like I said... I would be honored.

Well, I already am. But... you understand, probably.

I wish I could go back to sleep. -_-


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Tags: books, marketing
Current Mood: zzzzzzzzz

Dlane at Dusk

Today I printed out the manuscript for Shell to edit, something I'm hoping won't take very long (how many times have I edited this book by now?). While I'm not planning on releasing this one until autumn, at the rate I'm working I realize I have to start on it now. Some thoughts, then:

• I worked out the price; looks like I can do a color cover, B&W interior on cream paper for about $7-8, the same you'd pay for a normal paperback. I am pleased!

• The cover is going to have to be "Dlane at Dusk" (above)... that's the iconic picture of Dlane, whether or not the book is told by someone else. I think, to make it work, I might do an Art Nouveau style frame for the title/author/back cover blurb.

• I'm not sure whether to use some of the old B&W imagery I've already done as interior illustrations or do new pencil pieces... I know I want to add some calligraphy and maps and other inserts, I'm just not sure about the drawings. If I do new ones, I have to start now, given how slow I'm working.

• I'm not sure yet whether I want to serialize this online or just have the first three chapters or so available. If I serialize every novel I've written (even discounting the ones I think are no longer viable), we'll be here years before we get to anything new.

• I do, however, want to drum up donations for this one so I have an "advance" to cover the time I'm going to spend working on putting together the interior. Not sure how I'm going to do that if I don't serialize it.

Anyway, just the things I'm mulling over now while I still have plenty of time to decide. But I keep realizing that the trade-off for giving away all the control for these things to other people is... that I'm giving it away. Being able to choose whether to include illustrations and which, whether I want alien calligraphy in the book or not, whether to include maps, glossaries... to be able to give you the whole story, not just the writing part... really, I'm happier doing it this way and I think the product is better for it too. Hopefully those of you who bought the hard copy of The Aphorisms agree. :)


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Tags: books, jokka, marketing, the worth of a shell, writing
Current Mood: very tired

Detaching from the need to be "successful" in some measurable way as a writer has taken me the better part of a decade, and to get to that place the universe basically had to shatter all my illusions.

So, with only a few pangs, like memories of who I was, I find myself trying to explain to all of you why I don't feel any urgency about selling my book...


...and then a day later, I hit 50 copies sold.

I'm not sure whether to laugh or shake my head... so instead I'll do the one thing I know I feel: say thank you, thank you, most deeply. Of all the blessings my writing and art have brought me, the most durable and the most astounding has been the opportunity to interact with so many wonderful people: all of you.

And I will go buy the chocolate, for sooth, and photograph it for both our enjoyments. :)


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Tags: books, life, writing
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: some Celtic guitar thingy

I was riding my bicycle a week ago or so, in the late late afternoon when sunset is threatening but it's still light out... enjoying the quality of the light, so luminous without heat. There's a long slope alongside a pond where you don't have to pedal and I sat back as I sailed past, listening to the click-click-click of the bicycle chain and the distant piercing whistle of a heron... watching the breeze ruffle the surface of the water into shining folds, smelling star jasmine and cut grass.

dracosphynx and I have been having a discussion about whether I'll sell 50 books (at the time, I was at 44 sold and no movement for weeks). But out there in the quiet, some part of me detached from the idea that it was important to sell as many books as possible. It had been gnawing at me that I haven't had time to put together the marketing for The Aphorisms, and that beyond sending out the review copies I haven't really pushed it.

And I wondered: why do I have to push? Why is it important? Five books or fifty, it is what it is. When I have the time to put together fliers and letters and send out newsbits to websites, I'll do it. But I don't right now, and it's not a big deal. There's so much temptation to mistake your successes for your identity... to look at what you do and say "That is who I am." But it's not, not really. Nothing external truly is.

People will find the work... or not. And I'll still be here, and so will the books. In the mean-time, I have living to do... or else what will I write when I finally sit down?


( Of course, the moment I stopped fretting about it, I sold three more... figures. I think the universe just wants me to have another cup of chocolate. :) )


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Tags: books, philosophy, writing
Current Mood: easy-tired

Several people have asked me what I think of the Amazon POD thing. For those of you who missed the brouhaha, or who had it explained to them by Very. Excitable. People! here's my understanding of the matter, in a nutshell: Amazon owns a print-on-demand company. From that company alone, they are willing to issue orders without having any inventory. Every other print-on-demand company has to set up an Amazon Advantage account with them, becoming a bookseller, and supply them with inventory.

So for the people who wonder what I feel about this, my first answer is: Who's surprised? Amazon wants to push the overhead for order tracking, shipping and sales for print-on-demand companies they can't control back onto them. That's a reasonable business decision.

My second answer: I don't appreciate all the flailing and screaming being done about this. Amazon isn't refusing to work with other POD companies. They're just insisting they go through a lot of fuss and bother to do so. Is that good for those other POD companies? Of course not. But it's not censorship, and it's not going to form a monopoly overnight, unless those POD companies refuse to work with Amazon as a result. Which in itself is not a smart business decision, these days. Say what you will about Amazon: they give a lot of value. There's a reason so many people order from them. They're good.

My third answer? If I went to a random person on the street and asked, they would neither know nor care if Amazon was "boycotting" other POD companies. They would care if they could get my book from Amazon with free shipping and search inside, though. Particularly if the alternative was some company's website store they'd never heard of and would have to make Yet Another Login to buy from.


Now, having said all that, I am... let's say... mindful that the choices from here on out get odd or sticky. I've been watching Amazon slowly position itself to become an end-to-end supplier of content, buying Mobipocket, Booksurge, Createspace and issuing the Kindle. I'm not opposed to that, but it is a peculiarity: a publishing company, of sorts, without any editorial restraints. What will that mean to the changing publishing landscape?

I've also noted that Amazon's POD house isn't signed up with any of the retail distributors, like Ingram or Baker & Taylor. This might just be a corporate bottom line thing (they don't want to deal with the overhead of responding to those requests), a book-cultural thing (the distributors don't want to deal with the same inventory management issues Amazon is trying to shake off), even a technological thing (the channels don't exist yet, or it's too hard to manage sales information in this venue, or there's no way to do so). But I don't discount the possibility that Amazon doesn't want the books it puts out by its POD house in brick and mortar stores, because it would drive sales away from Amazon.com.

I don't know; I'm not in that driver's seat. But I'm curious to see what happens from here. The question for me is whether the physical presence of the books would make a huge difference to my sales figures. The authors doing the traditional route are going to think that's a ridiculous question, of course... but that's because they have 2000-10,000 books to distribute. With that many books wandering around, being in bookstores is naturally a plus, because you're going to see more customer passing your product. But I have no inventory, and my books would have to be ordered by a bookstore to be bought there, so there's no immediate gain. I pay no money; I take no risks... I also get no benefit.

Things I think about. Sometimes I regret not publishing the old-fashioned way... but what publishing company with traditional distribution methods would have put out something like the Aphorisms?


You know the answer to that already.


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Tags: books, marketing, technology, writing
Current Mood: watching

First of all... there's a books.google.com (news to me!).

Of course, I did an ego-search. Which had unsurprising results except...

The Aphorisms is a sponsored link?? How did that happen? I didn't sign up for that...! O_O

Mysterious!



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Tags: books, marketing
Current Mood: ???

Talking to myself mostly. I'd like to do a language post, maybe tomorrow. I'll have to keep that in mind.

The Aphorisms of Kherishdar — Has already sold more copies than I planned... it won't be long before I'll be needing to buy two cups of celebratory drinking chocolate, and I haven't even had a chance to go buy the first...! o_O And there are three reviews!! (Thank you for those!) My plan was to wait for the Search Inside data to populate and for my review copies to arrive so I could send them out, and then do the big "It's available" marketing push. I'm still planning on doing that, but... wow, you all are getting the word out for me already! I'm grateful!

The Admonishments of Kherishdar — I'm thinking of pushing this up to twice a week, mostly because I want to get this one out the door so I can work on the novel that I started before I embarked on the Aphorisms and the Admonishments. I don't want to linger on this project too much because... well, it's depressing. Black Blossom is about Shame and the Calligrapher meeting because they needed to, for their own health. Which means by the end of both these collections, they're not in great shape. I want to deliver them to their appointed place of "Everything works out." :)

The Worth of a Shell — I want this to be my "novel of the year," which shouldn't be hard since it's already written; I just have to revise it and add some B&W illustrations/back- and front-matter. With that and the two Ai-Naidari collections, I think I'll call it a year in terms of making books available for you all to buy. I have to be careful not to just publish everything at once because that would be counter-productive. For everyone!

The Website — Going pretty well, given that I'm starting the design from scratch.

Art — My only hope for art this year is to finish four paintings. That's it. They're already chosen. If I get through those four, then I'll keep going. Um, this is four paintings in addition to the Admonishments illustrations. I guess I should count those. :P


So: The Admonishments in the first half of 2008. Shell in the second half. Two paintings in the first half of the year and two in the last. With Black Blossom planned for the first half of 2009. That should be do-able for a new mom without being too much of a stretch.


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Tags: books, marketing, news
Current Mood: sleepy but coffeenated
Current Music: Baby Beethoven