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Post by unclegarf on Apr 10, 2021 8:47:34 GMT -8
Hi. Remember me? I just thought I'd pop in to say hi. Hope everyone is ok.
Just finished Drifta's Quest 2 which is being head hitted and due out soon.
I'm still dodging covid and living in a cave on a remote island with dodgy wifi.
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Post by djmills on Apr 11, 2021 9:34:43 GMT -8
Glad to hear you are well and still working on your Drifta series.
Now we are in autumn heading for winter, I plan on staying inside with my wood fire going, and get more writing done. I am working on one short story a month this year (3 done so far), and a novel once the SS is done. Have 2 covers to do at the moment, but still splitting wood, preparing garden beds, etc.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 12, 2021 12:10:14 GMT -8
So you're able to create threads again, Gary? It's good to hear from you. No writing for me this year, not much at least. Nor much painting either for that matter. I think I reached a creative burnout maybe. I'm not pushing it, but do have 2 novels I wish to write to expand two series on which I plan to focus. I'm slowly painting a fantasy map for another author bud, but have been working on it for a couple months now; it's moving rather slowly. What makes it difficult is the miniscule nature of the castles and keeps which I decided to paint, versus doing digitally after the map is painted. I feel it will give a much more mappy 'feel' to the painting to have them on (even tho the verbiage won't be present) when i send it to my buddy. Here's a castle "color study" I did for practice. This castle is about 2" wide by 3" tall, and is probably 3x to 4x larger than what I have to paint, which are tiny little devils.
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Post by unclegarf on Apr 13, 2021 11:21:48 GMT -8
ah, the Devil's in the detail. The fiddly bits drive me nuts sometime. I'm working on this strange purple nude female painting in a surreal setting. I'm a bit like you at the moment. That elated deflated feeling when the book is done. I'm a bit projectless at the moment, so my brain is trying to come up with a new challenge, at the same time making sure it is a journey worthwhile. I've a little maggot gnawing away with the germ of an idea which I'll ignore for now until it ferments out. Tip from me for what it's worth, never force it. In fact, push it back. If it's a good idea it will push back harder. You are a creative. That never goes away.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 13, 2021 12:16:54 GMT -8
Yes, just a little burned out on all of it. Sometimes it feels easier to just slip into the Matrix, don't fight it, quit straining the membrane, watch TV, find a stupor . . . and stay there. I think this fantasy map has me bummed because I tend to set a high bar on projects I do for others; and then they cause stress and become a pain in my azz. I find that when I'm doing something for me, painting a happy craggy scene, I can enjoy it much more, because I don't have to struggle to please anyone but me. As to the writing, I have to say my sales have definitely picked up of late. Nothing to stagger Wall St. mind you, but something is there. More tick than usual. Enough to finally notice when the stork drops those precious bundles in my account. And actually, the thing is my next novel is going to be rather difficult to write, being mixed up in all sorts of Norse mythology which, if you have ever studied it, is beyond bizarre to grasp. Maybe I should work on the next Prehistoric which I mentioned, about the old man of Atlantis going on a trek across a barbarian-crawling landscape with a young savage girl he's helping to find her mother's tribe? It will probably be the less difficult of the two to write that I had as my goal for the year. Hang loose, Gary.
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Post by unclegarf on Apr 26, 2021 13:16:04 GMT -8
My writer friend Julie has waved her magic marker over my little story and I'll be getting my thinking head on to sort it all out. Cover is ready and I'll be pressing the green button soon to release Drifta's Quest 2 in a week or so. I told Julie I'm not doing another book, so of course I started a new book. Six chapters already in the bag. As usual, only a vague idea what it's about. Having spent a ridiculous amount of time stuck inside due to covid, at least I can explore strange new planets in my mind. I always suspected it was a vast empty space!
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 27, 2021 5:59:33 GMT -8
My writer friend Julie has waved her magic marker over my little story and I'll be getting my thinking head on to sort it all out. Cover is ready and I'll be pressing the green button soon to release Drifta's Quest 2 in a week or so. I told Julie I'm not doing another book, so of course I started a new book. Six chapters already in the bag. As usual, only a vague idea what it's about. Having spent a ridiculous amount of time stuck inside due to covid, at least I can explore strange new planets in my mind. I always suspected it was a vast empty space! Off to to a good start there, Gary! I've written a couple shorts, an article or two, nothing major. Trying to focus on finishing this fantasy map for Will Hahn, then I may have to start another Tarzan painting. I was asked to consider doing a new one for a new novel to be published in September. I've done a couple of others which I believe I've shared here. Is your new story a new series, or another Drifta or Craggy, then?
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Post by unclegarf on Apr 27, 2021 7:19:16 GMT -8
Hi Chris. I never start a book thinking series. No more Craggy or Drifta but Drifta may depend on readers if there is more. Drifta 2 weighed in at about 98 k words without any padding. I think Julie is still self medicating after the head spinning space romp there was so much stuff in the last third. New Story as a work in progress title with a young man from some planet far, far away, dealing with a most corrupt, evil leadership. Not entirely original a concept but with all new adventures, I'll make it swing.
I meant to ask how Ted is? Hope all is well with mister seduko.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 27, 2021 10:55:28 GMT -8
Hi Chris. I never start a book thinking series. No more Craggy or Drifta but Drifta may depend on readers if there is more. Drifta 2 weighed in at about 98 k words without any padding. I think Julie is still self medicating after the head spinning space romp there was so much stuff in the last third. New Story as a work in progress title with a young man from some planet far, far away, dealing with a most corrupt, evil leadership. Not entirely original a concept but with all new adventures, I'll make it swing. I meant to ask how Ted is? Hope all is well with mister seduko. Haven't heard from Ted in quite some time. I hop on here a few times a week; not many others do, or if they do, they aren't posting. I haven't been doing much writing of late, but rather more painting. I published two novels last year, and was hoping to do the same this year but just haven't been motivated. Actually, I'm still researching one of them, but paused my research for a bit to read an old collection of van Vogt I recently picked up. Nice collection of short stories called Destination: Universe! A friend sent me an online version of The Monster, which galvanized me to read some more of van Vogt's short stories. One of my author pen pals recently suggested the three of us turn out either a short story, an outline, or 10k words of a novel every three weeks, and share what we write. I'll probably attempt it. I have an old sword and planet I need to finish (I started writing it like 25+ years ago and only have 3 chapters written) which I may tackle, or I may just assign myself the goal of a chapter every three weeks, as a minimum. It won't quite meet the 10k word goal, but I have some painting to do. I was asked for some more Tarzan art to be due in September. I may take up that goal, depending on the fantasy map progress. Just everything I tackle right now is moving at a snail's pace due to lack of motivation. Lot's of issues at home regarding everything from aging infrastructure needing replaced or repaired to vehicles breaking down leaving little time for hobbies like writing and painting. Hoping some of this will resolve itself soon, but much of it depends on availability of funds. We'll see. If I do end up finishing this sword and planet tale, it'll be breaking with my goal of fleshing out the two series I wished to expand upon. I can't expand a series if I keep writing one-off stories. Oh well. At least I'll be writing, right?
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Post by djmills on Apr 28, 2021 1:18:14 GMT -8
Glad you are both still creating.
I finished my April short story, using what I learnt in Holly Lisle's how to write Villains course. I will let the story sit for a few weeks, and make the villain more villainous at the end if I can. :-)
Hope to get May's short story written in a week, then spend the rest of the month working on 3 covers, and a new novel or novella.
I also hope Ted is doing OK.
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Post by unclegarf on Apr 28, 2021 9:33:36 GMT -8
Like Chris, I'm up to my armpits in creating stuff but I don't have the family / job stuff to get in my way. Two books I'm working on, a painting, raised beds in the garden and don't even think about the 50 kg of clay in the kitchen I keep tripping over. I hardly find time for beer drinking these days.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on May 3, 2021 6:12:22 GMT -8
I'm considering making the switch to Amazon KU. On all "channels" but Amazon I only see free stuff getting any traction. I might have sold a copy or two of Hunter or Banshee but not nearly enough to worry about.
Mostly, all Smashwords, Overdrive, B&N, Apple, etc are the free Conan tales I have. Not even the free Arabian Nights yarn gets any traction (it's free on Smash but not on Amazon where it's harder to make something free and have it remain so). What few downloads of Blonde Goddess, Winter's Eve, etc occurred during sales promotions where I made them free for a couple of weeks or a month.
The bulk of my sales occurs on Amazon, while the bulk of the activity on Smash and affiliates are the free Conan tales. So I'm thinking, take everything off of Smash except these 2 Conans and set everything on Amazon to KU, and see what happens.
Also, my experiment on Google Play has resulted in not a single download, free, paid or otherwise. Failed experiment, but I felt the need to give it a try. Google boasted something like 70 countries and 3 billion potential customers. Well, where are they? I built it and they didn't come, so pulling all titles from Google is the right thing to do IMO.
It'll be sad in a way to pull most of my titles from Smashwords but no sadder than the Daily Sales reports where I go days with no activity only to see 1-2 Conan downloads. It's like the people who haunt Smashwords etc are either looking for porn (which they'll pay for) or freebies. I see tons of naughty stories, but I don't write those. Maybe if I did I'd get more 'action', eh? I'm afraid there is just little interest there for the type of stuff I write, and I think it's time to say fare thee well to Smash, bless its heart.
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Post by unclegarf on May 4, 2021 13:34:56 GMT -8
I switched to D2D a few years ago. They refined self publishing, leaving smash as a clunky site to navigate. I don't know if smash got their a into g and made it more user friendly, but D2D is my go to site. I still keep a few on smash, including Drifta's Quest 1 as a freebie for old times sake. To distribute it though, I put it through D2D. Drifta 2 is days away from release (escape?) and general release will be by d2d. Dunno about you guys, but a gazzilion sites to distribute my ebooks to means nothing much to me. D2D does the same sites I never heard of. Even though I have covered every genre going, and bucket loads of good ratings for several books, only about three get me readers. Amazon, Apple, B and N, and that's about it. Zon KU has been a disaster as far as I am concerned and was glad to drop it. As I said to Julie, Drifta 2 is my last book. I then started another book before the ink was dry. And has anyone noticed reviews, good bad and indifferent have dried up completely, at least for me. I used to reckon on one review per 300 hundred reads, freebie or otherwise. Some writers say ignore reviews but I see them as a useful barometer to if I'm writing well. I don't mind a one / two star review as long as the reader tells me why they didn't like it, so I can grow as a writer. But I have paintings to paint, clay sculptures to do and my garden to sort out. Writing? Yeah, probably.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on May 5, 2021 4:43:37 GMT -8
I switched to D2D a few years ago. They refined self publishing, leaving smash as a clunky site to navigate. I don't know if smash got their a into g and made it more user friendly, but D2D is my go to site. I still keep a few on smash, including Drifta's Quest 1 as a freebie for old times sake. To distribute it though, I put it through D2D. Drifta 2 is days away from release (escape?) and general release will be by d2d. Dunno about you guys, but a gazzilion sites to distribute my ebooks to means nothing much to me. D2D does the same sites I never heard of. Even though I have covered every genre going, and bucket loads of good ratings for several books, only about three get me readers. Amazon, Apple, B and N, and that's about it. Zon KU has been a disaster as far as I am concerned and was glad to drop it. As I said to Julie, Drifta 2 is my last book. I then started another book before the ink was dry. And has anyone noticed reviews, good bad and indifferent have dried up completely, at least for me. I used to reckon on one review per 300 hundred reads, freebie or otherwise. Some writers say ignore reviews but I see them as a useful barometer to if I'm writing well. I don't mind a one / two star review as long as the reader tells me why they didn't like it, so I can grow as a writer. But I have paintings to paint, clay sculptures to do and my garden to sort out. Writing? Yeah, probably. I have noticed a falling off of reviews. Seems like 1 or 2 a year is doing good now. I'm still pondering the whole Smash vs Amz thing. Maybe I won't go KU but I'm still considering pulling my priced books off Smash as I just don't get sales there. I did have everything on D2D but only had like 9 downloads of free books over a 2-3 year period. I thought, that's just not worth having to have an extra place to maintain so I pulled them all. Good luck with the new one, Gary! I'm currently fiddling with another oldie of mine that lay unfinished--a sword and planet bit. We'll see how it goes. I had a plot outline which I feel is dated, so I'm reworking that and what text I had written (about 3 chapters, plus miscellaneous scenes I wrote out which I may or may not include).
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Post by unclegarf on May 5, 2021 9:09:11 GMT -8
I don't get the zon v smash thing, Chris. Zon wants world domination. Going only with zon will reduce the circulation possibilities. I was on a nice steady path to be earning a living albeit a modest one, until zon pushed KU. Brick-wall time. Kudos to Mike and smash, but D2D just made it an easier experience to publish. Surely the number of downloads is irrelevant smash or D2D as they have much the same affiliates. I think regardless of our choices, a book will find it's level. I'm just giving Drifta's Quest 2 its final, final polish and I've about ten pages to go. About 98k words so its a mission. Even managed to confuse myself with the time bending sequence. Tomorrow I press the 'go' button. Had my second covid vaccine jab today so feeling positive about the world at the moment.
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